God the believer's Glory.
"My Glory." When Joseph said to his brothers, "Ye shall tell my father of all my glory," he meant the dignity and power to which God's wonder-working providence had raised him from the dungeon. In an hour it had suddenly become his; and any hour death might as suddenly bereave him of it. When God says, "My glory will I not give to another," he speaks of that which is eternally, essentially, unchangeably his own. But in the text, faith boldly blends these two in one. It claims as portion no perishable glory, but the everlasting Creator himself. He permits his creature, servant, child, to say, "Thou, O Lord, art my Glory!" How may we Christians make these words our own? How may we make God our "Glory"?
I. BY THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. Knowledge is the key of power over nature. Man's pre-eminence over all lower creatures is in his intellect. The world pays homage to great thinkers and discoverers, who widen the sphere of human knowledge. But "thus saith the Lord" (Jeremiah 9:23, Jeremiah 9:24; John 17:3; 2 Corinthians 4:6).
II. BY OUR BELONGING TO GOD. What honour attends even the infant children of a king! But the humblest Christian is a child of God (1 John 3:1). What reverence is paid to relics, even of little value, that belonged to some great poet, statesman, warrior, etc.! But the poorest Christian is among God's jewels (Malachi 3:17, where the Authorized Version is more nearly literal than the Revised Version).
III. BY CLAIMING HIS PROMISE. His pledged word is ours. Men glory in wealth that lays the world at their disposal; in a fortress no foe can seize; a victorious army; a matchless navy. What are these compared with the wealth, security, triumph, of trust in God (Psalms 27:1; Proverbs 18:10; 1 Corinthians 3:22, 1 Corinthians 3:23)?
IV. BY LIKENESS TO GOD. (2 Corinthians 3:18; 1 John 3:2.) This will be the glory of the Church for ever (Isaiah 60:19).
HOMILIES BY C. CLEMANCE