Psalm 73:25-26 Whom have I in heaven but you? and there is none on earth that I desire beside you. I. BECAUSE OF THE SUPERLATIVE BEAUTY OF HIS CHARACTER. Jesus Christ is the purest, truest, highest, most gracious human character which this world has seen. Every lofty virtue had in His life its natural home; every rich grace flowered in faultless perfectness, in coherence, and congruity, and symmetry. In the great worlds of character and conduct, in the realms of thought and feeling, speech and act, He has a sovereign pre-eminence. Without the thought of His character and the power of His influence, the moral wealth of the world would suffer an irreparable impoverishment, and the strength of the world's ethical energy would be seriously diminished. II. BECAUSE OF THE DEPTH OF HIS APPEAL TO US. He never appeals to us for small things, but asks for those higher consecrations which tax to the very limit every power of life. III. BECAUSE OF THE ELEVATION TO WHICH HE RAISES LIFE. We have no need, and no desire, to disparage the delicate beauty of the lives of some splendid Pagans, nor are we unmindful of the nobility of some characters which have even neglected the Gospel of our Lord — unconsciously to them, Christ is the root of every bit of their goodness. In every walk of life, and in every realm, Jesus has lifted some noble spirit into an excellent grandeur; He has fertilized his thought, inspired his genius, deepened every noble enthusiasm, strengthened every holy purpose, lifted every power to its best energy, created and sustained the highest tastes and sweetest dispositions, and given to the whole life symmetry and influence. (G. B. Austin.) Parallel Verses KJV: Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.WEB: Who do I have in heaven? There is no one on earth who I desire besides you. |
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