The Book of Revelation I like to think (wrote Bishop King of Lincoln) that the glorious visions of the Apocalypse were given in a time of suffering, at the end of a life. We may expect 'good wine' at the last. How unlike the way of the world! Spiritual Letters, p. 110. Reference. I. 1-3. C. Anderson Scott, The Book of Revelation, p. 1. * Revelation 1:3 * It is a great mistake to think that because you have read a masterpiece once or twice, or ten times, therefore you have done with it. Because it is a masterpiece, you ought to live with it, and make it part of your daily life. John Morley. References. I. 3. T. C. Fry, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvi. p. 45. I. 3-20. Expositor (6th Series), vol. ii. p. 347. I. 4. H. S. Holland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliii. p. 360. I. 4, 5. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Revelation, p. 114. I. 4-6. C. Anderson Scott, The Book of Revelation, p. 20. The Great Enfranchisement Revelation 1:5 I. 'Unto Him that loveth us.' That is the background in which we find the base and the warrant for all our confidence and faith. God loves! The beginning is not to be found in us, in our inclinations and gropings and resolvings and prayers. The primary element is the inclination of God. When did He begin to love? 'I have loved thee with an everlasting love.' Up from the everlasting. This is the Biblical account of our origin, of the primary movement that gave our being its birth: 'He first loveth'. Nobody comes into the world God-hated. Loveth! The affection is continuous: not spasmodic, but unbroken; there is no abatement of its volume. 'God so loved that He gave '! Love is an importation, a giving, sacrifice unconscious of itself. Love is tremendous energy, hungrily keen for the detection of need, that it might fill the gaping gap out of its own resources. II. What next does He discover, from Whom there is nothing concealed? He beholds His children in the bondage of corruption and night. They are the captives of sin and of death. One of the clearest and calmest thinkers of our time, a man who sees far into the secret springs of human life, has given his judgment that the most real terrors that afflict men are the guilt of sin and the fear of death. III. How can we obtain deliverance? The primary need of man is not accomplishment but character, and for this we require not the washing of culture but the washing of regeneration. When education and culture have reached their utmost limits, and the mental powers are refined into exquisite discernment, the two black, gruesome birds of the night remain guilt and death, and only the Eternal Son can disturb them, and cause them to flee away. Here comes in the energetic, sleepless ministry of the Eternal Love. IV. 'And He made us to be a Kingdom, to be priests unto His God and Father.' He 'loosed' and then He ennobled. Now we are made a Kingdom, we become citizens, endowed with a sublime franchise the possessors of unspeakable privileges and rights. We are made a 'kingdom of priests'. Every child has the right to share the sovereignty of Jesus, and to enjoy free access into the most secret place of the Father's presence. This is the issue of the primal loving. J. H. Jowett, Apostolic Optimism, p. 237. Revelation 1:5 'The Faithful Witness' demands faith; 'the First Begotten of the dead' incites hope; 'the Prince of the kings of the earth' challenges obedience. Now faith may be dead, hope presumptuous, obedience slavish. But 'He that loved us' thereby wins our love; and forthwith by virtue of love faith lives, hope is justified, obedience is enfranchised. C. G. Rossetti. Revelation 1:5 'I am in the habit,' wrote Charles Simeon to a friend in 1827, 'of accounting religion as the simplest of all concerns: "To Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto our God, to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever," expresses the very frame of mind in which I wish both to live and die.' References. I. 5. R. Flint, Sermons and Addresses, p. 39. Expositor (4th Series), vol. v. p. 124; ibid. (5th Series), vol. ii. p. 24; ibid. (7th Series), vol. v. p. 148. I. 5, 6. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxix. No. 1737, and vol. xxxvii. No. 2230. G. Littlemore, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvi. p. 38. H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 1707, p. 695. Bishop Gore, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lx. p. 49. J. Stuart Holden, The Pre-eminent Lord, p. 163. Revelation 1:6 * (cf. 20:6) * The whole function of Priesthood was, on Christmas morning, at once and for ever gathered into His person who was born at Bethlehem; and thenceforward, all who are united with Him, and who with Him make sacrifice of themselves; that is to say, all members of the Invisible Church become, at the instant of their conversion, Priests; and are so called in 1 Peter 2:5 and Revelation 1:6 ; Revelation 20:6 , where, observe, there is no possibility of limiting the expression to the Clergy; the conditions of Priesthood being simply having been loved by Christ, and washed in His blood. Ruskin, On the Old Road , II. sec. 196. References. I. 6. E. E. Genner, A Book of Lay Sermons, p. 91. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Revelation, p. 136. Back to Christ (for Advent) Revelation 1:7 I need hardly remind you that these words give us our Advent message. 'Back to Christ,' that is the motto of today. We commemorate in this season that the Lord has come, that the Lord will come, that the Lord is here. Many have been His comings since He came a child to Nazareth, many they will be before He comes in that last wonderful way of which we know not how to speak, except in such parables as He Himself has given. And we proclaim by our Eucharist this morning to those who have faith and heart to understand, 'The Lord is here today, the same as ever'. I. Imparting Gifts. The message of advent links itself with the message of St. Andrew's Day, 'We have found the Messiah'. So spoke St. Andrew to his brother Peter; and that, again, is linked with that other saying that follows it so closely of Philip, 'Come and see' (the Christ). For why do we wish that Christian missions should go out? Is it not because we have something so precious that it must be given away? It is the nature of all the precious things upon earth that they must not be kept, but given away. Nothing is too precious too give away. That which you want to have for yourself, that which you cannot enjoy with another is not precious. Think what are the most valuable things. Take two only. (a) The gift of knowledge. What do you want to do when you know? To impart. And why? Because in teaching you know that you know much better than you thought, and because you have the sympathy of another who knows; but best of all because knowledge is too good a thing to keep to yourself. (b) The gift of love. What does love consist of but giving love? And love grows by being given away. These two things, knowledge and love, they are what we have of Jesus Christ, and so the divine call 'Back to Christ' is linked with the call of St. Andrew's Day, 'Come and see'. So it is that we want to teach, or to cause other people to teach, because we have something so precious that we must give it away. II. Back to Christ. Are there any hearts here which are not stirred, are there any hearts here which do hot know that Christ is so precious, that the knowledge and love of Christ are such precious things that they must needs publish them, that they must needs give them to others? Let me be a missionary to these hearts for one or two moments. Let me ask them humbly to go back to Christ. Back to Christ as He was, as you may read of Him, as you may almost follow His steps up and down the country of Galilee, as you may hear Him speak, as you may see Him die. Go back to Him and see what kind of Friend He was. Understand, again, what it was in Him that saved men and women, how He would never despair of anyone who had despaired of themselves, of anyone who would come and not place the confidence of their heart where they had so often placed it and misplaced it before, upon their own hopeless frailty, but upon His strength. 'Believe in Me,' He said throughout His life, 'and thou shalt be saved.' What is the message for men and women who despair, what is the message for men and women who are tired of their perpetual shortcomings? Not in yourself, but in the power which is outside you and yet which is so near, so near that from the outside It can come into the inside and there reanimate you. That is the message which He brought when He came to give life, namely, His own life, that men might live by it as He lived. And then again, as you come back to Christ, you see how, partly in condescension to our frailty, partly because of our Lord's prevision of the dulness of human nature to understand mere words, partly because He knew that no language could convey what was meant as a simple symbol might, He enshrined that very truth, that very promise, that very essence of His healing power, in the simplest of symbols, the symbol, namely, of our eating and drinking, by which our bodily life is sustained. He handed down for all those who followed Him to hand on, this great truth, enshrined in the Sacrament, so much more expressive than any words, that by Him we live. Go back to Christ and learn at the altar that by Him you may live and live His life. And why? Because last of all He claimed and He has substantiated His claim in all these thousands of years and millions of believers He claimed that in Him dwelt the Godhead, and He was one with the Father. Revelation 1:7 Earth must fade away from our eyes, and we must anticipate that great and solemn truth, which we shall not fully understand till we stand before God in judgment, that to us there are but two beings in the whole world, God and ourselves. The sympathy of others, the pleasant voice, the glad eye, the smiling countenance, the thrilling heart, which at present are our very life, all will be away from us, when Christ comes in judgment. Every one will have to think of himself. Every eye shall see Him ; every heart will be full of Him. He will speak to every one; and every one will be rendering to Him his own account. Newman. References. I. 7. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxiii. No. 1989. Expositor (4th Series), vol. x. pp. 292, 344. I. 8. A. G. Mortimer, The Church's Lessons for the Christian Year, pt. iii. p. 43. E. A. Bray, Sermons, vol. ii. p. 280. Revelation 1:9 'Sir,' said Dr. Johnson to Boswell in Skye, 'when a man retires into an island, he is to turn his thoughts entirely to another world.' Revelation 1:9 There is a prolonged conflict to be maintained with temptation to sin, with weariness, with the persistent pressure upon the mind and heart of those transient excitements and interests which make us forget the invisible and eternal kingdom. R. W. Dale. References. 1. 9. R. W. Hiley, A Year's Sermons, vol. iii. p. 244. Expositor (6th Series), vol. viii. p. 394. 'Which Is Called Patmos' Revelation 1:9-10 'I John... was in the isle that is called Patmos for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in the Spirit.' He does not say, 'I was in Patmos,' he says, 'In the isle which is called Patmos' by those who care to give it a name. The scenery of daily life in which the Apostle was moving had passed from his sight. He was in the Spirit. Whatever the earthly name might be, the reality was the gate of heaven, for when the Spirit was there the loneliness was no loneliness and the desolation was no desolation. Even so, though in a lesser way, did Egypt cease to be Egypt when Joseph was there. The poet has written, 'Never the place and the time and the loved one altogether'. But if the loved one be there the place and the time are hardly thought of. The place may be transfigured, perhaps, in some strange fashion, and the hour grow golden, but more likely both vanish quite from the thought. To the Apostle the thought of earthly love and human companionship was exchanged for something higher, for a name and a place better than of sons and daughters. He was in the Spirit, the Spirit of Christ was with him, and because the Spirit was there Christ was there. It was through the revelation of the Holy Spirit that he heard the great voice of a trumpet saying, 'I am Alpha and Omega,' and saw one like unto the Son of Man in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. What was Patmos then, the little island in the Ægean Sea? What was anything? St. John's eyes were engaged with another vision. He recalled perhaps the place where He saw the Lamb of God dying on a far-off stormy even. He may have thought of the new grave in the spring garden where the Lord had lain, or of the morning when He stood upon the shore, risen from the last abysses. Thoughts of the ecstasy of life and the passion of death would meet and mingle in the Apostle's mind as he saw the glory and triumph of the First and the Last. Then he felt that he was not in the world of poetry and dream, but amidst the everlasting realities. Then he knew the glorious fulfilment of the promise he had written when Christ spoke of the coming Comforter Whom the world could not receive because it saw Him not He was in the Spirit. I. It is no mere influence that creates and sustains such feelings. It is only the presence of a person of a dear companion. In proportion as love and sympathy are perfected, circumstances sink into insignificance, and we rise into the timeless life. So it was here. And this is the first truth concerning the Holy Ghost that needs to be grasped, that the Holy Ghost is a Person, and that He is a Divine Person. The unveiling of the Adorable Life of the Holy Trinity is, and must be, gradual. We are subjects in the Kingdom of the Holy Ghost, of Whom it may be said that in a manner He rules the world through this dispensation of His power. The final revelation of the Divine life was given when the Holy Ghost came. Christ, and Christ alone, is the subject of the Holy Spirit's teaching; but Christ has returned to the Father, and has sent the Paraclete in virtue of His ascended Manhood, that He may overcome the world. II. How wonderful, then, that the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity is the least known, the least loved, the least worshipped. Yet it is not so wonderful. It is hard to realise a merely spiritual presence. The Son of God became man, and we have the story of His Incarnation. More than that, we have the Holy Spirit to interpret the story, so that Christ is not merely the Lord of the ancient tale, but the Lord Who holds word with us now. The Holy Spirit does not speak of Himself, and therefore we do not think or speak as we should of Him. And yet He is the Source of every gracious thought and memory and hope and trust that come to our mind. By bringing before us the life and death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, He arms us with the same mind, so that as we think of how the feet of Christ took the hard journey, in which they trampled down the enemies of our salvation, till the iron broke through them and nailed them to the cross, we at last deliver our comings and goings to the same Crucifixion. III. Yes, though He does not speak of Himself, though He glorifies Christ, yet He makes His claim upon us, His absolute and eternal claim. It is made in a manner to which there is no human parallel. We do know, blessed be God, how the high soul of a brother or a sister in Christ may keep us from falling, may help us to ascend, may mould us somewhat after the pattern of its own spiritual beauty. But the Holy Ghost is not satisfied until He takes possession of the house and fills it with His Presence and His Glory. W. Robertson Nicoll, Sunday Evening, p. 189. References. I. 9-20. C. Anderson Scott, The Book of Revelation, p. 34. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Revelation, p. 144. ** On the Observance of Days ( for the New Year ) Revelation 1:10 ** The wonderful book of the Revelation introduces us suddenly to a most picturesque and most pathetic situation. It is Sunday in Patmos, where John is an exile condemned to work in the mines. Sunday was a great day with those early Christians the Lord's Day, the Christian festival of the Resurrection. For that brilliant fact shone behind them but a little distance off, and once a week they laid aside all other thoughts, and lived over again in loving imagination the events that had changed the world for them. Sunday was not a holiday in the mines, but the spirit of this redeemed man is free, and he has access to the spiritual world. While his feet and hands toil at their dreary tasks, he passes into an ecstatic state, suspending his connection with this material world, and leading him into the other land, unseen of any eyes but his. In this exalted state the boundaries both of time and space are thrown down, and he moves free in a larger world. He is back again in the morning light of the day of Christ's rising. Again he runs to the empty tomb with Peter; again the woman whom they have left solitary by that empty tomb comes and tells them what she has seen; and again amid the evening shadows he himself hears the words, 'Peace be unto you'. Similarly he escapes from the narrow confines of the island, and shares the life of the infant Church scattered along the coast-lines of the Great Sea. He is their brother and companion, both in the tribulation and in the kingdom of Jesus Christ; with them both in darkness and in glory. He is with them, too, in that patience of the saints which both the tribulation and the kingdom has taught them that wonderful patience of the early Church, which had learned to be patient with life, both in its present trial and its deferred hope. Such was the spirit of the day for John partly commemoration of the past, partly fellowship with the far distant, in the brotherhood of the patient Church. It was a day of mingled sorrow and exultation, in every sense a very special day. I. We still keep certain days apart, and break the monotony of the year with their recurring calls to remember and to love. There is sometimes heard a grudge against making much of one day above another, but surely that is but a frowsy way of thinking. There are others who in a different spirit ask: 'Why select one day above another? Are not all days equally days of the Lord? Rather let us raise the tone of every day till it reaches festival height.' This looks indeed like religion, but it is not human nature. Those who are always at high pressure grow inevitably strained and unnatural. It is quite true that every day is a day of the Lord, for every day is 'full of things offering themselves for our wonder, and understanding, and love, and every person we meet is a traveller between life and death'. So all the interests of life are religious; but we are human, and none of us is capable of bearing more than a certain strain. Such attempts overstrain life to a tension that is neither desirable nor wholesome. II. In a word, the spirit is tidal, and 'the soul wins its victories as the sea wins hers'. The occasional and fluctuating element in life is not only justifiable but essential to healthy human nature. The tides of the spirit are known to us all the great reactions, the swinging tides of feeling, interest, and energy. These are from above, coming down upon us, unlike the pedestrian guides of common sense and principle which direct us evenly on our way. This does not apply merely to the ebb and flow of sweet or tender feeling, though it includes that also. Rather one thinks of the occasional heightening of life all round, the intensification of its powers in moments when it 'means intensely, and means good'. We have here a principle which gives its true meaning to the observance of Sunday. Unfortunately the whole question has come to be associated either with laws and forcible restraints, or with the men idea of rest, and the cessation of the daily routine. Both of these are negative conceptions of the day, relating to what we must not do on it. Really such restrictions exist not for their own sake, but in order to make room for the positive Sunday life. That life consists of much that is keenest and most worthy in human nature the fellowship of friends, thoughts of the absent, memories of the dead, aspirations after better life, communion with God. For the sake of these things of the Spirit it is worth while to resist the encroachment of weekday interests. And the resistance must be firm, for much is ever waiting to be completed, and overlapping fragments of workaday life will make it impossible without watchfulness to be in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. John Kelman, Ephemera Eternitatis, p. 1. The Lord's Day Revelation 1:10 If you have ever stood and watched the sea raging and foaming immediately after a great storm, lashing itself with fury, as it were; and then, after the storm has subsided and passed away, you have stood again, perhaps, and watched the sea as it lies out far away at low tide, in that lull and peace which so often succeeds upon a violent storm, you cannot but, I think, be conscious of a peculiar sense of peace; peace without which does not minister to that peace within. Or, if we transfer our metaphor from nature to humanity you may, perhaps, have traversed one of those busy streets of London on a Saturday night, when the barrows are there line upon line, and the salesmen are at their busiest trying to part with their wares; all noise and hubbub, strain, excitement, and activity. And then, on the next morning, Sunday, you see nothing left of all the activity of the previous evening but the wreckage, and the scavengers cleaning it up. What a sense of peace this produces upon the soul. The barrows gone, the men gone, the wares gone, the noise gone and in place of it a wonderful stillness and peace a peace which speaks to the soul of the things of God, which reminds us of His immediate presence, and which causes us to remember that it is the day of God God's own special day dedicated to Him. And as we watch the change I have tried to describe, we see, as it were, a resurrection going on a resurrection reminding us of the first resurrection which was really but a foretaste of the general resurrection to come. I. Our Sunday is the Foretaste of our General Welfare. But the peace which I have described is not one, or should not be one of inaction. It should mean that whilst parting with much which we are accustomed to encounter in our day by day life, we thereby make room for an activity of another kind, a spiritual activity. And the state in which we find ourselves is not a solitary state. Peace, we know, comes to us as individuals and as a purely subjective message; but we must remember that that is not all. There is a community of hosts in all worship, a community of spirit. 'God is a Spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.' That is the highest to which man can attain: to answer to the will of the Father, to be His, to worship Him, and to love Him. And whilst this is the case, or should be, in our everyday life, and whilst every day should be consecrated and dedicated to God, whether in our work, our recreation, our time of physical refreshment or what not; yet there is one day which comes to us with special force as being set apart, reserved, and kept holy for the very special service and worship of Almighty God. II. There are many Difficult Questions Concerning this Point of Sunday Observance. There is a great deal that may be said, but let us try and pare it down as much as we can. (a) Hard and fast rules are impossible. What is good or best for one may not be good or best for everybody else. (b) What we do with our Sundays is more important than what we refrain from doing. If we think Sunday is to be a day, in the first place, when we can put away this and that, and refrain from doing this and the other simply because we rather like it, then we are mistaken; if we think this, we are reducing it to a far lower level than we should. We refrain from doing things merely in order that we may do other things. Life is so full we cannot be doing nothing; we must be thinking of something even if we are not engaged in any special form of activity; and, this being so, if we refrain from doing this or that it should be in order that we may find room and space and time for doing better and higher things. III. Two General Principles Stand Out yet more Prominently. Each individual may shape his own life; but all will agree, I think, on one point * (a) That man does need at least one day's rest in seven. (b) Sunday should be a day properly proportioned.* If we once give way to enjoyment, pure and simple, in the afternoon, there is danger that we may encroach upon the morning, that time which should be specially set apart for the worship of Almighty God. It is in the morning that we have our great and central act of worship and thanksgiving. In the early days the Christian was known by his attendance at the Lord's own service. The Lord's Day Revelation 1:10 This expression, 'The Lord's Day,' bears distinctly the stamp of Christ. Its occurrence here reminds us of the great change that Christianity has accomplished. The day of the week devoted to rest has been changed, and is associated with Christ Himself. On that day He appeared in heavenly majesty to His exiled seer, and gave him the messages to the Churches. John says, 'I was in the Spirit,' literally, 'I became in the Spirit'. But surely we are not to understand that John's spiritual condition was miraculous. If it was exceptional it was only so in degree, and not in kind. The fact of being 'in the Spirit' will issue in the largest blessings. I. This is an ideal to be aimed at, for the Lord's Day will not necessarily bring the Lord's Day Spirit. Thank God it brings much and it comes surely. It brings rest, and opportunity for rest. But to be 'in the Spirit on the Lord's Day' is another matter. 'The process of the suns' cannot give you that; social customs and religious institutions, much as they may help, cannot guarantee it. It depends not on the day, but on you. It cannot be put on like a Sunday garment, it springs from the heart. Therefore it must be cultivated; it must be trained and nourished, like all the spiritual possibilities of man. II. Being 'in the Spirit on the Lord's Day' is an experience to be enjoyed. Think of some of its advantages. (1) Whatever blessing and inspiration there may be in the services of the sanctuary you will receive. (2) Then think how much more independent you will be in regard to the kind and quality of what we call the means of grace. Your favourite preacher may be absent from the pulpit, or you may have to worship in some plain, rural sanctuary, with nothing to charm the sense, but you may see wondrous visions of God, and your soul be thrilled with the touch of Christ. (3) Being 'in the Spirit on the Lord's Day' will make the Sabbath a delight to you. III. If you are 'in the Spirit on the Lord's Day' you are sure to do good. You will help to make an atmosphere in the Church. One question only remains. How is this Sabbatic spirit to be attained? Of course, the answer is, we must live the spiritual life, we must enter into God's rest. Ours must be that Divine fellowship that sanctifies all days. R. Baldwin Brindley, The Darkness Where God Is, p. 151. References. I. 10. C. H. Grundy, Luncheon Lectures at St. Paul's Cathedral, p. 57. A. M. Fairbairn, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lii. p. 56. A. P. Stanley, Sermons on Special Occasions, p. 77. A. Rowland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lx. p. 44. Expositor (5th Series), vol. v. p. 51; ibid. (6th Series), vol. iii. p. 275; ibid. (7th Series), vol. vi. p. 105. The Golden Candlestick Revelation 1:12-13 In this vision two things are very prominent the golden candlesticks and the Son of Man walking in the midst. There can be no question as to the meaning of the symbolism of the golden candlesticks. Our Lord settles that in the 20th verse: 'The seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven Churches'. There is an allusion undoubtedly to the candlestick in the Holy Plate in the tabernacle of Moses, which was made at God's command after a Divine pattern. We now propose to trace the analogy between the golden candlestick, the lamp-stand of the Mosaic tabernacle, and the Church of the living God. Let us consider: I. The position occupied by the golden candlestick. It was not in the Holiest Place, but in the first tabernacle, called the Sanctuary, or the Holy Place. (1) One characteristic of the place was darkness. This fitly represents the condition of the world where God has placed His Church. But darkness is a figure of speech signifying ignorance. (a) The world is ignorant of God. (6) Man is ignorant of himself. (c) Man is ignorant of the way of recovery. (2) The Sanctuary of old, although dark, was nevertheless holy. Dark as may be the world, it is the sacred property of Him who redeemed it with His precious blood. II. The purpose for which Christ placed His Church in this dark world. The Church is here compared not to anything merely ornamental, but to the homely candlestick or lamp-stand. The Church is not simply a thing of beauty, a mere ornament set up for admiration, but something to render service, a power to lift the world out of darkness into the marvellous light of God. III. The candlestick had its pipes to convey the oil to the extremities of the branches. The pipes symbolise the means of grace, the ordinances of the Church; these are the appointed channels through which God communicates blessings to humble waiting souls. IV. Through the golden pipes flowed the Holy Oil, yielding at the top of each branch a pure flame. There can be no doubt whatsoever that the oil symbolises the Holy Spirit. V. Who supplies the Holy Oil for the golden candlestick? 'The Son of Man' as the High Priest is the minister of the sanctuary, and evermore supplies the Church with the Holy Spirit. VI. But with all these one thing more is wanting, without which the holy lamp yields no light; we must have Fire to retouch and rekindle the seven lamps. As the lamps were rekindled by contact with altar fire, so the Holy Spirit works through the means of the truth of the Gospel. VII. There is, however, one point in which the analogy fails. In the tabernacle of Moses there was only one golden candlestick, whereas John in his vision saw seven. This is not without its significance. Under Moses religion was Jewish, limited, local; Christianity, on the other hand, has the stamp of universality. Richard Roberts, My Closing Ministry, p. 34. References. I. 12. A. H. Bradford, Christian World Pulpit, vol. 1. p. 120. H. S. Holland, ibid. vol. li. p. 345. Expositor (6th Series), vol. x. p. 154. I. 12-14. J. Bannerman, Sermons, p. 365. I. 12-17. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii. No. 357. The Note of the Heroic Revelation 1:14 It is notable that in this vision of the ascended Saviour the eyes should have been, as it were, a flame of fire. That is hardly the characteristic we should have expected after hearing of hair that was as white as snow. The snow-white hair suggests to us venerable age; it hints at the passing of unnumbered years, with the inevitable quenching of the fire of youth; but when we should look for eyes that were very gentle, or that were filled with the wise tenderness of age, we find that His eyes were as a flame of fire. Now that contrast at once suggests to me this thought In Christ there is not only a beauty as of silvered age; there is also a fire and a heroism as of youth. I. Now we cannot turn to the earthly life of Jesus without being struck with one marvellous union there. I refer to the union of what was beautiful and gracious, with all that was in the truest sense heroic. He was gentle, charitable, courteous, kind, a perfect pattern of moral beauty. But the wonder of that beauty is magnified a hundredfold when we remember the heroism with which it went hand in hand. If to be true to one's mission and to stand alone; if to be faithful, and joyful, and quiet, and undaunted; if to challenge all the powers of hell to combat; if to march forward without a falter to a cross if that be heroism in its noblest meaning, then Jesus of Nazareth must have been heroic. II. In some degree, then, as we grow like to Christ, that union of qualities will be found in us. It is one distinctive mark of that new character that has been built up through the powers of the Gospel, that there is ample room in it for all that is gracious, and at the same time for all that is heroic. We should be poor disciples of a compassionate Lord unless we have eyes that can soften into pity. But we shall be poor soldiers in the warfare mystical unless these eyes are as a flame of fire. III. It is notable, too, that as the spiritual life of Christendom has deepened, as it has grown richer with the passing of the ages, it has brought with it a deeper and truer conception of what spiritual heroism really is. I close with two remarks. The first is that there is always danger for a Church when the note of the heroic passes from its life. And the second is, I appeal to the young men on the ground of the heroism of Christ Jesus. Mr. Fitzgerald, the translator of Omar Khayyam, in an exquisite little piece he calls 'Euphranor,' has some suggestive words on chivalry. He says that the charm of chivalry was just its note of heroism; and if it appealed as it certainly did appeal to the bravest and noblest and most gallant man, it was just because it put the accent there. May I not do the same with Jesus Christ? I think it is a true appeal to opening manhood. G. H. Morrison, Sunrise: Addresses from a City Pulpit, p. 300. References. I. 16. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxiii. No. 1976, and vol. xliii. No. 2498. Expositor (6th Series), vol. ix. p. 316. At His Feet As Dead Revelation 1:17 'Now that He ascended,' said the Apostle, 'what is it but that He first descended to the lowest parts of the earth?' There was first the humiliation, then the exaltation; first the descent, then the ascent. Yet it is equally true that while He was descending, He was all the time ascending, and that at the very lowest point of His descent He was already upon His throne. There are strange glimpses of His own consciousness at the supreme moment of crisis. Now, He said, is the Son of Man glorified. This when He was almost forsaken and on the very verge of His last Passion. He taught it to His disciples; He showed them how, and how only, their ambition to be greatest could be reached. The greatest had to be the servant of all, and while serving all was in possession of his greatness. Christ went lower, and yet lower, in quest of His crown, and it waited Him in the lowest parts of the earth. And when it seemed that there was for Him no more of earthly honour and earthly love, He suddenly found all things transfigured in the light of the eternal world. When He yielded His life in the infinite willinghood with which He went to His sacrifice, He knew that from His cross He would draw all men unto Him. As He sank lower and lower still, all things ministered strangely to His ascension. While He lay in the new tomb, with closed eyes, amidst the sweet fragrance of the myrrh and aloes which He left behind Him, He was the very heart of the world. When He rose radiant in the dark and returned to the old surroundings for forty days days full, to the brim, of peace He was conscious all the time that His kingship had been attained. There was indeed the visible enthronement. He led His disciples as far as Bethany. He lifted up His hands and blessed them, and they watched Him for a little as He bore His way upward. Then the cloud stretched itself beneath Him a pure floor on which His feet might rest. And at last He took His seat above all principalities and powers on the right hand of God the Father Almighty. What was visible was only the outward manifestation of what had already come to Him as His reward, of what had been coming nearer and nearer as He descended deeper and deeper into the ocean of suffering. And so it is with all the great spiritual careers. Take Wesley, take St. Francis, and mark how they were ascending while they were descending, and how, the farther they went in their abandonment of the world, they came closer and closer to the Divine Lord and Lordship. What is true externally is eminently true of the internal life. To the world this inner experience may seem only a silver thread, scarce discoverable but by the eye of God. To those who know it the outer life is little by comparison even when the stream both of the outer and the inner seems full and broad. They scarce gaze upon the passing scene, scarce hear the din of the endless battle. The inner life transfigures the outer life, and gives its own hue to all the external universe. Those who are ignorant of this have never advanced one step in the life of the soul. For them no deep fountain of intellect and feeling has been unsealed. But ere the secret is fully known sharp arrows must pierce the soul, hard teachings must make it wise, life's best blood must seal the sacrifice. The believer must learn to live earnestly and without despair through all, seeking no home till 'home is everywhere'. Let us trace the process of the soul's schooling for the Divine degree. I. The beginning is to sit at the feet of Jesus and learn of Him, and many go no farther. Yet even that is a great step in the life of the soul. It has hitherto groped in darkness, and has been exiled from the truth. Now it seizes it with the most earnest grasp, and lives in it with the deepest joy. It suddenly awakens to the true aims of existence. II. The soul makes great advance when it lies at the feet of Christ, worn, sick, wounded, and proves His healing power. When the carelessness of youth passes, when the great trials of life come, we fall at His feet in our trouble and He gives us rest. Working, fainting, striving, finding that there is always something to be done, although no heart is left for us to do it, we come to Him for strength. From the first hopeless sorrow, after the long month where each day wears the night's dull face, when we have 'to clasp to the heart resigned the fatal must,' we seek Christ in our despair and He helps us to hope once more. III. The life not wholly surrendered may be lived grandly, but it is with a higher beauty that it perishes before God. When we are crushed, emptied, dead at His feet, it is then we begin to live. Then our weakness becomes our strength and our death our life. For it is in that hour that He enters in to live our life for us, He lays His right hand upon us saying, 'Fear not,' and there passes into us all His fulness, so that we are able to say with His servant of old, 'I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me'. Christ is within us not merely as a second conscience, but as another and as the subduing life. Then we know what the Word means when it says that He is made of God unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. The password is found that admits to full and free initiation. W. Robertson Nicoll, Sunday Evening, p. 331. Fear Not Revelation 1:17 My purpose is to ask your attention to the seven 'Fear nots' of the New Testament. (1) We take our first 'Fear not!' from St. Luke 8:15 : 'But when Jesus heard it, He answered him, saying, Fear not! believe only, and she shall be made whole'. This is a 'Fear not!' teaching us that we are never to give up hope. If there were ever a seemingly hopeless case, it was this of Jairus's daughter; but when Christ is concerned, or concerns Himself about us, we need never despair. 'Fear not!' (2) Then the second 'Fear not!' is in St. Matthew 10:28 : 'Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul'. This is the 'Fear not!' which defies persecution. There is not much opening for violent persecution in this our day, but the enemies of Christ know well enough how to inflict pain upon Christians, upon those who refuse to stay with them. But how little our enemies can do to us. They cannot touch you. Suppose they even mangled and murdered your body, that is not touching you, and after they have done that, there is no more they can do. Therefore, I say, 'Fear not! be bold for Christ, stand up for Jesus in all times, in all situations, and in every place. Fear not! confess Christ and He will bless thee.' (3) The third 'Fear not!' you will find in St Luke 12:32 : 'Fear not! little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom'. Here we have the 'Fear not!' that drives away anxiety with regard to our earthly supplies. No man, by worrying, can add a cubit to his stature. No man, by worrying or by growing anxious, can help lift a single burden of this life. Let us, therefore, henceforth learn to trust God, not only for the supply of our spiritual needs, but also for the supply of our temporal need. (4) The next 'Fear not!' is in the Acts of the Apostles (XXVII. 24): 'Fear not, Paul,... lo! God hath given thee all them that sail with thee'. Now this 'Fear not!' is a most important one. It is a 'Fear not!' even when almost certain failure seems to be staring us in the face. God is always better than our fears. Our worst troubles are those troubles that never come at all, those things which we are always afraid are coming, and which do not come. Let us therefore look up and 'Fear not!' (5) Then we will pass back again to St. Luke 5:10 : 'And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not! from henceforth thou shalt catch men'. Now this is a 'Fear not!' for all weary Christian workers. The disciples said in a desponding tone, 'We have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing' words that are often on the lips of weary Christian workers. The Master said to His disciples, 'Work away!' they did so, and were rewarded with a tremendous haul; and so the Master will come to every weary, discouraged Christian worker, and say, 'My brother, My sister, fear not, work away. Fear not, faint not, henceforth thou shalt catch men.' (6) The sixth 'Fear not!' is also in St Luke's Gospel (II. 10): 'And the angel said unto them, Fear not! for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people'. This is a 'Fear not!' for each penitent sinner. In a few days we shall look once again upon the Star of Bethlehem, and as we see that Babe there, we realise that God is not against us. We realise that God is for us: nay, more, God is with us our 'Emmanuel'. (7) And then we come to the 'Fear not!' of our text (Revelation 1:17 ). In this text our Master gives us three reasons, three solid facts why we should at once cease to fear. The first reason why Christ may well bid us 'Fear not!' is on account of His eternal existence: 'I am the first and the last'. He is the living Saviour. The second reason is on account of His victory. He says, 'Behold! I am alive for evermore'. Note that word 'Behold!' It means that, in spite of all that death and hell and the devil can do, Christ, nevertheless, is alive for evermore. They tried to destroy our Master, but He conquered them all, and so His message is to each one of us, 'Fear not!' The third reason is this: He has the right to do so, because He has the power and authority, all power and authority over the unseen universe. He says, 'I have the keys of hell and of death'. Keys there mean authority, power, possession. Christ declares that He has the power, therefore death and the grave can only open as He pleases. One day Christ will shut the door of death, because He came to destroy the work of the devil. One day He will shut the door, and when Christ hath shut it, no man openeth it. Reverence Revelation 1:17 John was a prisoner in the isle of Patmos when he had this revelation of Jesus Christ There are some things we cannot learn in Babylon that become plain to us in sea-girt Patmos. There are some sights we are blind to in the markets; our eyes are only opened in the mines. 'It is adversity,' says Bacon in his priceless essays, 'which carrieth the greater benediction, and the clearer revelation of God's favour.' I want to take this falling-down of John as a true instance of a truly reverent spirit. John saw, John worshipped, John adored. I. I do not think that the most cheerful optimist would dare to assert this was a reverent age. We are all busy; few of us are reverent. Yet without reverence life is a shallow thing, and true nobility of character is impossible; and without reverence we shall be strangers to the end to all that is best and worthiest in religion. Can we explain the comparative absence of this grace? I think we can. It springs from certain features of our modern life. (1) And the first of these is the wear and hurry of it. It is not easy for an overdriven man to keep a reverent heart. (2) The lack of reverence, too, I cannot doubt, is partly due to the spirit of inquiry of today. We are never afraid to criticise, but we have almost forgotten to adore. (3) But this present lack of reverence has another source; it is the dying-out from heart and conscience of the fear of God. 'Ah, Rogers,' said Dr. Dale of Birmingham to his old friend 'ah, Rogers, no one fears God now'. II. Now what is reverence? It is the practical recognition of true greatness. It is my attitude of heart and mind when I am confronted by the truly worthy and the truly great. Where does individual irreverence begin? I think that generally it begins at home. When I have ceased to reverence myself it is the hardest thing in the whole world to reverence my brother man, to reverence God. Now there are two things in the life of Jesus that arrest me. (1) And the first of these is His reverence for God. (2) But still more arresting than the reverence of Jesus for His God is the reverence that Jesus had for men. III. So as I think on reverence, and link it with the supreme reverence of Jesus, I learn three lessons that may guide us to a more reverent life. (1) If we are ever to grow reverent again, we must know more. Jesus was reverent because His knowledge was perfect; we are irreverent because our knowledge is shallow.' (2) We must trust more. I cannot reverence a man whom I distrust. I cannot reverence a God. It wants deep faith to make me reverent. (3) We must love more. Love reveals, love sees, love breaks the bars, love reads the secrets both of man and God. And when I have seen my brother's secret story, and when I have seen into the deep things of God, I never can be irreverent again. G. H. Morrison, Flood-tide, p. 103. Revelation 1:17 Mr. Bagehot, after describing the religious opinions of the First Edinburgh Reviewers, sums up his essay in these words: 'A certain class of Liberal divines have endeavoured to petrify into a theory a pure and placid disposition.... With misdirected energy, these divines have laboured after a plain religion; they have forgotten that religion has its essence in awe, its charm in infinity, its sanction in dread; that its dominion is an inexplicable dominion; that mystery is its power. There is a reluctance in all such writers; they creep away from the unintelligible parts of the subject; they always seem to have something behind; not to like to bring out what they know to be at hand. They are in their nature apologists; and as George III. said, "I did not know the Bible needed an apology". As well might the thunder be ashamed to roll, as religion hesitate to be too awful for mankind. The invective of Lucretius is truer than the placid patronage of the divine.' References. I. 17. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvi. No. 1633. Expositor (5th Series), vol. i. p. 193. The Ground of Fearlessness Revelation 1:17-18 The 'Fear nots' of Scripture are part of the inheritance of the Christian. For the Word of God stands, and a promise once made is made for ever. It is to be observed that when He says to John 'Fear not,' He directs the feeling and thought not to anything in John himself, or to anything in his circumstances: on the contrary, He directs the mind of John to Himself. The ground of confidence is altogether in the Lord Himself. This is one of the commonplaces of Christian experience. The meaning of the text grows on us as we dwell on it. As we hear the striking words, and let their meaning and their particulars sink into our minds, a wonderful vista of great meanings opens to our view. 'Fear not, for I am the Living One; fear not, for I became dead: fear not, for I have the keys of death and of Hades. As we think the matter out into detail, we find ourselves thinking of life, of death, and of what comes after death. I. 'Fear not to live; I am the Living One.' It might be possible for us to say thoughtlessly, Is it necessary to dwell on this, for who fears to live? It is not life which any one fears; it is the difficulties, perplexities, the hindrances of life which one fears and dreads. To every thoughtful man life has its responsibilities, its cares, and its possibilities. As we reflect on this, as we think out the situations and possibilities that open out to us as life proceeds and new horizons are disclosed, we feel the gracious power of this word. 'Fear not to live; for I am the Living One.' It is as if the Lord said, 'Fear not to live; I share your life. Through me you will be able to grasp the opportunities of life, you will rise to the height of your calling, and when duty calls you will be able to answer all its demands. You will be able to say, 'I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me'. II. 'Fear not to die; for I was dead.' He knew all the secrets of death: every step in the valley of the shadow of death had been trodden by Him. In virtue of that experience and of that victory over death, the risen Lord can say to His people, 'Fear not to die; for I was dead'. III. 'Fear not what comes after death; for I have the keys of death and Hades.' We may take home the consolation of the Master's words, and gather together the wealth of our inheritance. We may live, we may die, we may appear before the judgment-seat with confidence; for Christ liveth who was dead, and is alive for evermore. Apart from Christ there is no power and no right in any one to expect deliverance from the fear of life, the fear of death, or the fear of what comes after death. J. Iverach, The Other Side of Greatness, p. 136. References. I. 17, 18. Bishop Boyd-Carpenter, Christian World Pulpit, vol. 1. p. 81. C. A. Berry, Vision and Duty, p. 191. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xviii. No. 1028. The Living Lord Revelation 1:18 * ; Matthew 28:6 * Each of these two texts tells us of the truth of the Resurrection in the testimony of Jesus Christ Himself. I want you to ask yourselves, on what grounds do you believe in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ? There is a great deal of collateral evidence. For instance, there is the evidence of His enemies. There is the testimony of his friends. There is the testimony of what St Paul witnesses: 'He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep... and last of all He was seen of me also.' I. Sure Testimony. But that is not the testimony I want to impress upon you this morning. The best testimony that Christ is risen from the dead is that of Jesus Christ Himself. St John had it from His own lips in that wonderful vision, and the angel beside the empty grave announced it to the frightened women, 'He is risen, as He said'. You will remember that He told His Disciples, quietly taking them apart to tell them a truth, that He should be delivered to the Gentiles, scourged, spitted upon, put to death, and the third day He should rise again. So the testimony He gave His Disciples is the testimony I want you to receive as His disciples this Easter morning, 'He is risen, as He said'. Christ has spoken and the matter is settled. We accept it by faith faith in the Word of God Himself, 'He is risen, as He said,' and that is enough. I know that poets have sung of the Elysian fields beyond the grave. I know that philosophers have speculated on the immortality of the soul, and I know that what the poets have sung, and what the philosophers have speculated upon is worthy of consideration, and may amount to a probability. But do not rest the doctrine of Christ's Resurrection on a probability. We must be absolutely certain. We must know in Whom we have believed, and be persuaded that He is able to keep those committed to Him unto the last day. There must be no 'perhaps' no 'inference,' no 'it may be'. It must not be a matter of opinion but a matter of certainty the certainty of faith in the Word of God; 'He is risen, as He said'. To doubt the Resurrection of Christ is to make Christ a liar. II. Dead, Buried, Risen. The force of the Resurrection all depends, of course, upon the great fact of Calvary. He was born in order that He might be able to die, and He died; and because He died, He rose again, the circumstances of His death being detailed to us that we might be quite certain. And whenever we say the Creed we enter into the detail; we say, 'Was crucified, dead '. Are you quite certain He was dead? Yes, 'buried' that makes quite sure that He was dead. Yes, He was dead, and the third day He rose again, 'as He said'. I could take you to the cemetery, and say to you, Look at these graves; beneath these graves is the dust of those we love. You know that? Yes. You are certain that they are there? Yes, they are buried there; their dust, just their dust is there, and one day they shall all rise again, and we shall be united again in Christ. Those who sleep in Christ shall rise again from the dead, and Christ will bring them with Him. That is our religion. III. A Gospel worth Receiving. This is a Gospel worth preaching, is it not? And this is a Gospel worth receiving, is it not? We do not preach it on the faith of the word of man, but it is on the faith of the Word of God. 'He is risen, as He said,' and opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers. Believest thou this? And this morning you will ratify here in church your faith in the Resurrection of Christ, and of all who sleep in Him. And wherefore these words to you? Because to men and women, wounded but not weak, the Cross is something more than a refuge; it has changed bereavement into joy. The Resurrection Change (for Easter Day) Revelation 1:18 The glories of Easter! The Queen of Festivals! Our worship is full of the blessed truth that 'Jesus Christ is risen today'. What shall be our theme as we stand beside the empty tomb? There are many aspects of the Resurrection which might well engage our attention. We will think of the great changes effected by it. I. A Change in Our Blessed Lord Himself. (a) The resurrection of the body means the rising again in some way of that which died and was buried. We carry our dead to the sepulchre, and a lonely and a desolate thing does it appear to leave them in the dull hole which we have dug in the earth, while we go back to the light, and the warmth, and the cheery voices of life. Yet is this but a heathen view. The dust, which was human, hath in it something which involves the development out of itself of a further life. (b) But, while the teaching of the New Testament establishes a real organic connection between that which died and that which rises again, it intimates also a mighty change. Does not the text (also 1 Corinthians 15:37-44 ) indicate this? (c) Hence, we may learn to take another and a more blessed aspect of death itself. True, death entered into the world by sin; humanity, that is, was subjected to it as the penalty of transgression. But it has become in Christ the instrument also by which these bodies are changed so as to bear the splendour of the everlasting morning. II. A Change in our Lord's Relations with His Followers. (a) If He forbids Mary's touch because He has not yet ascended, He thereby manifestly implies that when He had, ascended, then should she touch Him without rebuke. His ascension would not separate Him from but bring Him nearer to His faithful ones. (b) Thus Christ draws on the believer from a lower to a higher love; from a carnal to a spiritual touch; from a clinging to Him with the limbs of the body, to an embracing Him with the arms of the soul. (c) Do you ask, 'How can I touch my ascended Lord? ' The reply is ready. 1. He touches Christ, who, when crushed with the felt burden of sin, conscious of a force of evil continually mastering him, after vain attempts to get rid of his slavery by mere strength of will, or the maxims of worldly prudence, casts himself into the whole system of Christ's religion, clasping unto him alike Christ's commandments and Christ's promises, and looking and calling on Him for health and salvation. 2. Yea, there is a more palpable touching of the Divine Lord still. What is the Blessed Sacrament but the ordinance in which He offers Himself at a given moment, by a definite act, to the spiritual touch, to draw healing virtue out of Him? References. I. 18. A. G. Mortimer, The Church's Lessons for the Christian Year, pt. ii. p. 343. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xv. No. 894; vol. xlvi. No. 2689. J. Stalker, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvii. p. 280. W. H. Hutchings, Sermon Sketches, p. 111. A. Ainger, Sermons Preached in the Temple Church, p. 310. W. P. Balfern, Glimpses of Jesus, p. 272. F. J. A. Hort, Village Sermons (2nd Series), p. 139. J. Farquhar, The Schools and Schoolmasters of Christ, p. 12. Expositor (4th Series), vol. iii. p. 246; ibid. (7th Series), vol. vi. p. 427. Revelation 2:1 Compare Milton's magnificent apostrophe, in The Remonstrant's Defence: 'Who is there that cannot trace Thee now in Thy beamy walk through the midst of Thy sanctuary, amidst those golden candlesticks, which have long suffered a dimness amongst us through the violence of those that had seized them, and were more taken with the mention of their gold than of their starry light; teaching the doctrine of Balaam, to cast a stumbling-block before Thy servants, commanding them to eat things sacrificed to idols, and forcing them to fornication? Come, therefore, O Thou that hast the seven stars in Thy right hand, appoint Thy chosen priests according to their orders and causes of old, to minister before Thee, and duly to press and pour out the consecrated oil into Thy holy and ever-burning lamps. Thou hast sent out the spirit of prayer upon Thy servant all over the land to this effect, and stirred up their vows as the sound of many waters about Thy throne.' References. II. 1. R. E. Hutton, The Crown of Christ, p. 341. Expositor (6th Series), vol. xi. p. 65. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Revelation, p. 170. II. 1-7. C. Anderson Scott, The Book of Revelation, p. 49. Things Jesus Knows About Us Revelation 2:2 Have you noted how often the Risen Saviour says 'I know' in the letters to the seven churches? Seven times the avowal sounds out Tremendous in their suggestiveness are those 'I knows'. What are the things Jesus knows about us? I. Jesus knows the activities of His people In five out of the seven letters this formula is found: 'I know thy works'. He cites at least two features of those energies and so reveals His intimate knowledge of them. He knows their quantity. 'I know thy works and thy toil' (ver. 2, R.V.). He knows the quality of our activities, 'I know... thy patience'. Patient activities, 'That thou canst not bear evil men'. Detestation of wickedness. 'And didst try them which call themselves Apostles, and they are not, and didst find them false,' moral and spiritual discrimination. Do these qualities grace our service? (1) Christ knows any deterioration which may mark our activities. (2) But if He knows deterioration He is also aware of all development. II. Jesus knows the Christian characteristics of His people. (1) In ch. 2:19 the Risen One says, 'I know... thy love' (R.V.). (2) 'I know... thy love, and faith.' (3) 'I know... thy ministry.' If there be faith and love there is sure to be 'ministry'. (4) He recalls their 'patience'. What Miss Rossetti calls 'endurance outliving impulse' is a pearl of great price in the Lord's most precious sight. (5) Jesus knows the faultiness of His people, as well as their excellent features. 'But I have this against thee' (ver. 20, R.V.). III. Jesus knows the trials of His people. That is a sweet word in ch. 2:9, 'I know thy... tribulation'. What balm that assurance brings! Perhaps scarcely any one else knows it, but if He knows what matters that? IV. Jesus knows the abode of His people. In ch. 2:13, we read, 'I know... where thou dwellest'. He visits our abode, floods it with sunshine in summer, and lights the household fire in winter. Jesus guards our homes. Dinsdale T. Young, The Enthusiasm of God, p. 93. Revelation 2:2 In his introduction to Plato's Republic, Jowett notes how 'the want of energy is one of the main reasons why so few persons continue to improve in later years. They have not the will, and do not know the way. They 'never try an experiment,' or take up a point of interest for themselves; they make no sacrifices for the sake of knowledge; their minds, like their lives, at a certain age become fixed. Genius has been defined as 'the power of taking pains'; but hardly any one keeps up his interest in knowledge throughout a whole life. The greatest part of the good work of the world is done either in pure and unvexed instinct of duty, 'I have stubbed Thornaby waste,' or else, and better, it is cheerful and helpful doing of what the hand finds to do, in surety that at evening time, whatsoever is right the Master will give. Ruskin. Revelation 2:2 This fierceness against sin, which we are so proud of being well quit of, is the very life of a church; the toleration of sin is the dying of its lamp. Ruskin, Fors Clavigera , LXXXIV. Revelation 2:2 In the following address to each church, its 'work' is spoken of as the state of its heart. Of which the interpretation is nevertheless quite simple, that the thing looked at by God first, in every Christian man, is his work; without that, there is no more talk or thought of him.' Ruskin, Fors Clavigera , LXXXIV. References. II. 2. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vi. p. 146; ibid. (6th Series), vol. vi. p. 400. II. 2-4 J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Apocalypse, p. 1. II. 2, 3, 6. Expositor (5th Series), vol. v. p. 242. II. 3. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xviii. No. 1069. Revelation 2:4 All the dear graces are first reckoned up to the honour of the Church of Ephesus: endurance and patience and for His Name's sake, labouring and not fainting. 'Nevertheless,' our dear Lord goes on, 'I have this against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.' And now see how much we learn by comparing Ephesus with Thyatira. Ephesus clung to the faith, hating apostates and heretics; the Lord says, 'How thou hast tried them which say they are Apostles and are not, and hast found them liars'. But then, this great, this overpowering accusation. 'Thou hast left thy first love.' Thyatira had the opposite sin. She suffered the woman Jezebel which calleth herself a prophetess, but she loved, and she showed her love by her works; and the last, He that knoweth all things, knew to be more than the first. On the one side faith, with decreasing love; on the other, increasing love, with more cowardly faith.' J. M. Neale. Decaying Love Revelation 2:4 The Church at Ephesus was favoured with apostolic letters from two different Apostles, the one from Paul, the other from John. We know of no other Church that was so favoured. We propose to direct our thoughts to St. John's letter to the Ephesians. I. The letter, although written by John, was dictated by the Lord Jesus Himself. The words are not the words of John, but of the Divine Master, the Conqueror of death and hell: who was dead, but who hath ascended on high, and is alive for evermore. When writing our letters we reserve our signature for the close; Jesus Christ begins His letters by first announcing His name. To Ephesus He announces Himself as 'He that holdeth the seven stars in His right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks'. II. Having introduced Himself by these Divine names and titles, Jesus Christ now commends the excellences of the Ephesian Church. 'I know thy works.' We have here three commendable qualities specified. (1) The life was right. 'Thou hast borne, and hast patience, and for My name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted' (ver. 3). (2) The doctrine was right. (3) The discipline was right. 'Thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars' (ver. 2). III. Christ now reveals, and reproves her fault. 'I have against thee, that thou didst let go thy first love.' Our Lord estimates the Ephesian Church, not by her external toil or patience, but by her inward motive, the state of her heart towards Himself. The solemn admonitory lesson taught by the Ephesian Church, is that with incessant activities in the service of Christ and of humanity, there may be at the same time a daily decline of personal piety. IV. Our Lord now instructs the Church what to do to avoid final apostasy (II. 5). The advice is threefold. Remember, repent, reform. (1) Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen. (2) 'Repent.' Having by a faithful scrutiny ascertained the heights which you once occupied, and the depths into which you have now fallen; and contrasting your present coldness with your former ardour, repent, mourn with bitterness of soul over the change. (3) Reformation. 'Do thy first works.' Richard Roberts, My Jewels, p. 147. References. II. 4. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iv. No. 217. II. 4, 5. Ibid. vol. xxxii. No. 1926. Revelation 2:5 Compare a fragment of Euripides' last drama, 'Archelaus,' thus Englished by Prof. Gilbert Murray: Sweetness of days and rest and dallying Have never lifted any fallen thing, City nor house. Monday, 5th April. I was surprised, when I came to Chester, to find that there also morning preaching was quite left off, for this worthy reason: 'Because the people will not come, or, at least, not in the winter'. If so, the Methodists are a fallen people. Here is proof. They have 'lost their first love'; and they never will or can recover it till they 'do the first works'. Wesley's * Journal. Revelation 2:5 * We imagine that when souls have had a fall, they immediately look up and contrast their present with their preceding position. This does not occur. The lower their fall, the less generally their despair, for despair is a business of the will, and when they come heavily down upon their humanity, they get something of the practical seriousness of nature. If they fall very low, the shock and the sense that they are still on their feet make them singularly earnest to set about the plain plan of existence getting air for their lungs and elbow-room. Contrast, that mother of melancholy, comes when they are some way advanced upon the upward scale. George Meredith, in Sandra Belloni , XXXIV. Revelation 2:5 To terrify a man at the possibilities of his neglected nature, is to do something towards the redemption of that nature. George Macdonald. Revelation 2:6 Men will never Jove where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate. Burke. Revelation 2:7 'I had also great openings concerning the things written in the Revelation,' says George Fox, 'and when I spoke of them, the priests and professors would say that was a sealed book, and would have kept me out of it: but I told them, Christ could open the seals, and that they were the nearest things to us; for the Epistles were written to the saints that lived in former ages, but the Revelations were written of things to come.' I am not of the opinion of those gentlemen who are against disturbing the public repose; I like a clamour whenever there is an abuse. The fire-bell at midnight disturbs your sleep, but it keeps you from being burned in your bed. Burke. Revelation 2:7 Only evil grows of itself; for goodness we want effort and courage. Amiel. In Malcolm, George Macdonald makes Alexander Graham, the dominie, speak as follows to a pupil: 'That's the battle of Armageddon, Sheltie, my man. It's aye ragin', ohn gun roared and bayonet clashed. Ye maun up an' do yer best in't, my man. Gi'en ye dee fechtin' like a man, ye'll flee up wi' a quaiet face an' wide open een; an' there's a great Ane 'at'll say to ye, "Weel dune, laddie". But gi'en ye gie in to the enemy, he'll turn ye intill a creepin' thing 'at eats dirt; an' there'll no be a hole in a' the crystall wa' o' the New Jerusalem near eneuch to the grun' to lat ye creep throu'.' The battle is, of course, that between good and evil. References. II. 7. G. E. Biber, The Seven Voices of the Spirit, Phi 1:15 . Expositor (5th Series), vol. v. p. 96. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Revelation, p. 187. II. 8. R. E. Hutton, The Crown of Christ, p. 357. Expositor (4th Series), vol. iii. p. 251. II. 8-11. C. Anderson Scott, The Book of Revelation, p. 66. Faithful Unto Death Revelation 2:10 That does not mean merely, 'Be faithful until death calls you away'. It means far more than that; it means, 'Be faithful, even though it costs you your life'. There are a few thoughts I would present to you. I. The first is the view we have here of the Christian life apparently defeated. That is the underlying idea that underlies it all. The apparent and the real are often different from one another. Here is a people receiving highest commendation from the Lord Jesus Christ, and yet their whole career seems to be an utter failure. Have you not seen the life of the true man a comparative failure? Is there not something wrong somewhere? Or are we to take it that the Christian life can be defeated, that it can be a failure, that it may make its progress in clouds, and end in darkness? II. That is just what I wish to show you it cannot do, because the next thought here for our consideration is the real success of this apparently defeated life. 'Be thou faithful.' Faithfulness is victory. When the world kills off the faithful man because it cannot bend his will and take him away from his loyalty, it is not the man that is defeated, it is the world. The truly strong life is the life that can defy circumstances, that can make every failure a stepping-stone to a nobler resolve, that can maintain its integrity when all the world is against it. III. The next thought here is the spring, the sustaining spring of the Christian life which we once more find in the suggestive words, 'Be thou faithful'. 'Be thou faithful,' or loyal ; that means, of course, loyal to Jesus Christ. He asks for your loyalty, your personal loyalty to Him, and in that loyalty you shall conquer; because the Christian life is sustained by faith in a personal life, a personal power, and a personal love. We are not supported by abstractions. IV. Then lastly we come to the reward of faithfulness, 'And I will give thee a crown of life'. (1) Notice the contrast! Notice the compensation! 'Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.' The life that is won through the sacrifice of this life is a life eternal, profound, joyous, infinitely great and glorious a life in some wonderful way like the life of God Himself. (2) Notice the giver, 'I will give thee'. Jesus Christ is to be the rewarder of man. It is from Him the gift must come, because after all, it is a * gift. * John Thomas, Myrtle Street Pulpit, vol. III. p. 1. Revelation 2:10 'At that time,' says Dumas in Les Trois Mousquet-aires, 'it was vital to have men like De Tréville round one. Many might take for their device the epithet of "strong," which formed the second part of his motto, " Fidelis et fortis ," but very few gentlemen could lay claim to the "faithful," which constituted the first. Tréville was one of these latter. His was one of those unique organisations which are endowed with an obedient intelligence like a dog, with a blind valour, with a quick eye and a prompt hand.' Revelation 2:10 The history of persecution is a history of endeavours to cheat nature, to make water run uphill, to twist a rope of sand. Emerson. 'All of us are weak in the period of growth, and are of small worth before the hour of trial. This fellow,' says George Meredith of a young Englishman, 'had been fattening all his life on prosperity; the very best dish in the world; but it does not prove us. It fattens and strengthens us, just as the sun does. Adversity is the inspector of our constitutions; she simply tries our muscle and powers of endurance, and should be a periodical visitor. But, until she come, no man is known. It is laid in the unalterable constitution of things: none can aspire to act greatly, but those who are of force greatly to suffer. Burke. References. II. 10. T. Puddicome, Preacher's Magazine, vol. v. p. 223. R. G. Soans, Sermons for the Young, p. 120. R. Brewin, Preacher's Magazine, vol. x. p. 515. H. Moore, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvii. p. 230. J. W. Veevers, Preacher's Magazine, vol. xix. p. 464. D. Macleod, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lix. p. 75. F. B. Cowl, Preacher's Magazine, vol. xviii. p. 190. J. Learmount, British Congregationalist, 20th June, 1907, p. 622. A. Rowland, The Exchanged Crowns, p. 1. H. Windross, The Life Victorious, p. 125. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ix. p. 4. II. 11. G. E. Biber, The Seven Voices of the Spirit, p. 35. J. M. Neale, Sermons Preached in Sackville College Chapel, vol. iv. p. 143. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Revelation, p. 196. II. 12. R. E. Hutton, The Grown of Christ, p. 369. II. 12, 13. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxiv. No. 2007. II. 12-17. C. Anderson Scott, The Book of Revelation, p. 81. I Know Where Thou Dwellest Revelation 2:13 I. Notice, in the first place, that it is possible to be a Christian anywhere. Pergamos was the place where Satan's seat was; and yet even in that city there was a Christian Church, concerning many of whose members the Lord could say that 'they had held fast His name, and had not denied His faith'. Christianity is not a thing of locality, but of character. As Jonathan Edwards said: "The grace of God can live where neither you nor I could'; and they who work in the streets and lanes of the cities are often cheered by coming in unexpected places on humble Christians who are walking with God as truly as Enoch did. And what is true of places is equally so of occupations. Now, if this be so, if it be true that a man may be a Christian anywhere, what follows: (1) This, that we must not be prejudiced against a man because of the locality in which we find him, or the work in which he is engaged. (2) It follows that we ought never to excuse ourselves for our lack of Christianity by pleading the force of circumstances, or the nature of our business, or the character of the place in which we reside. II. The words of my text suggest the truth that it is harder to be a Christian in some places than in others. There are households in which it seems to be the most natural thing in the world for a child to grow up into the beauty of holiness; and there are others in which everything like loyalty to Christ would meet with the bitterest opposition, and could be maintained only by strenuous exertions. If that be true, what follows: (1) This, the Lord knows that it is true, and He will estimate our work by our opportunity. (2) We ought to learn to be charitable in our judgments of others. III. The harder the place in which we are, we should be the more earnest by prayer and watchfulness to maintain our Christian character. Where the danger is greatest, the vigilance should be most wary. What is really the hardest place in the Christian life? It is not always that in which there is the greatest external resistance to Christianity. All history shows that the greatest danger to the Christian is not in that which openly assails him. An avowed antagonist he meets as an antagonist. But when the ungodly meet him as friends, then he is in real peril. IV. The greater the difficulty which we overcome in the maintenance of our Christian characters, the nobler will be our reward. W. M. Taylor, The Silence of Jesus and other Sermons, p. 90. Having Done All, to Stand Revelation 2:13 I. Antipas was 'My faithful martyr'. Now, is it not remarkable that this glorious title, My martyr, My faithful martyr, given to no other Saint, should not for ever have kept alive the memory of Antipas, what he did, how he suffered? And yet absolutely nothing is known of him. In the later martyrologies, indeed, we have a long history of his passion, but clearly only as a legend, written by one who knew no more of the facts than ourselves. I do not believe that Antipas was the name of any individual martyr. The word πᾶς in Greek means every one. As Antichrist, being interpreted, is he that resists Christ, so Antipas means he that resists every one; that is who simply, by himself, stands up against a world of evildoers. Antipas in this sense, every martyr of every age has been or must be; and singularly enough, one such martyr of Pergamum history tells us of. You have heard of the letter written by the Church of Lyons in France to the Churches in Asia, seventy years later than the Epistles of St. John, concerning the glorious martyrs there in a local persecution; when the slave St. Blandina, being bound in a chair of red-hot iron, thence encouraged her fellow-worshippers to hold out; when the aged Bishop St Pothinus died under the buffeting of the mob; then one of the foremost soldiers in this brave fight, then one of the first athletes in this brave race, was Attalus, a Pergamene. I have seen the dungeon in which they were confined; a dungeon to which you can only obtain access by crawling in like a worm. II. How did this Church of Pergamum stand firm where Satan dwelt? Look at those two clauses, 'And thou holdest fast My name, and hast not denied My faith'. That is one of the texts that at first sight seem so disappointing in their conclusion. Having done all, to stand. To hold your own, and that all; the whole result, simply not to yield. And take another example. 'Therefore seeing we have received this ministry, this ministry of binding and loosing this ministry according to the voice of which the Incarnate Word is given to us under the similitude of bread and wine this ministry of which He Himself is the great High Priest, seeing we have received this ministry and as further, as we have obtained mercy, now, surely it must be, we shall carry the whole world before us! And, alas! it is only, we faint not! Not to faint, the highest results of the great gifts that God can bestow upon man! J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Apocalypse, p. 6. I Know Where Thou Dwellest Revelation 2:13 So is it rendered in the Revised Version. The words thy works are omitted, and the passage stands thus I know where thou dwellest. Now what say you to this? It is very sweet to know that the Master knows where we live. Sweeter still is it, a great deal, that He comes to see us. And yet, what think you? that the Lord should know us at home. But the words mean a great deal more than that. It is much more than the watchfulness of an eager love. The context shows that it is a backward glance at the life which He Himself had lived on earth. The preface to the address indicates the thought that runs through it. 'I am alive, and was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore.' It is as if He bade us not to think that He is far away from us and out of our reach, but that as He is one with us in closest relationship, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, so He is one with us in closest intimacy; that in all the round of the daily life, and in all that we have to do and to be, He knows by His own life as well as by His love. It is of this tenderest sympathy that we are to avail ourselves. I. 'I know where thou dwellest.' It is spoken to those who are in the home of poverty. With what tenderness and sympathy are the words spoken as the memory of His own life I know. From what depth of experience does He speak! Why there should be such poverty in the world is a mystery; whether such poverty should be at all is a matter that Church and State ought to ask very earnestly. But so long as poverty shall last, so long shall the Master send this message of His love to His poor followers: 'I know where thou dwellest'. II. The word is for those who are beset with hindrance and temptation. Alas! how many are ready to say that nobody knows the struggle they have, the temptations that beset them. One knows, Who hath all power in heaven and in earth 'I know, I know where thou dwellest'. But it may be that in some hearts these words bring no comfort, stirring rather a sigh. What of the fallen? What can the glorious Lord of heaven know of the slave of lust and the victim of intemperance? For such these words can be spoken: 'I know where thou dwellest'. The blessed Master declares that He knows our address. But then this knowledge leads to the only climax that can satisfy Him. 'Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear My voice and open the door, I will come in and sup with him, and he with Me.' That and that only is His satisfaction and ours. M. G. Pearse, Naaman the Syrian and other Sermons, p. 154. Obscure Servants of God Revelation 2:3 Antipas is a name only almost as impersonal as an echo. And yet he floats down the stream of centuries, as some memorial of southern climes might be carried down a great river. Unknown but not unnecessary is the epitaph that might be written on the tombstones of some mentioned in the Bible; of many more who have walked in the way of duty, and got their names written in the Book of Life. With our own experience and observation of 'the heart of man and human life,' what can we make certain about this man with nothing but a name? This, at any rate, this, if nothing else: I. The truth was a real thing to him because he realised it. A truth is not true until it is realised. A man is not saved by what he holds, but by what he is held. (1) I believe in God. So did Antipas. We are all theists. And yet any man who realised the awfully solemn and truly blessed meaning of this would live as in a temple. (2) I believe in the Word of God. So did Antipas. So do you. Your father believed in the Word of God and what a life he lived, what a man he was! An army of such men would sweep across a continent, and leave light and hope, like the trail of an outgoing vessel, behind them. (3) I believe in the sacred presence the divinity that lies behind all life: the godlike that redeems it from insignificance. So did Antipas. Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, Spenser, Young, Browning, Tennyson, believed in it; and the glow is seen on every third page they wrote. We may recall these names when told that brain is not on the side of supernaturalism. Nor are the painters one whit behind the chiefest of the Apostles of world-remembered song. And as to the musicians, it is the commonest of commonplaces that living music is Biblical music. II. He realised the truth, because he lived it. He found it true by experiment. There are certainties in our holy religion. I trust, I hope, I desire, must sometimes give place to I know. We cannot live on dreams. We starve on ideas only. We cannot all think alike. Some are reached through the intellect, others through the emotions. But whether through the intellect or the emotions it must reach the life. We must be changed into its image. III. He did not fail of his reward. 'Antipas, my faithful martyr.' Here is the Divine recognition of unknown services. Unknown to earth, known to heaven. Our faithful duty is recognised. Kindness done receives grateful acknowledgment. In the world beyond the bounds of time and sense every Antipas shall hear his name read; and know that the Divine purposer has not forgotten the work he did, the pain he suffered, in accomplishing the Divine purpose. J. H. Goodman, The Lordship of Christ, p. 235. Revelation 2:13 Many of the best intellectual lives known to us have been hampered by vexatious impediments of the most various and complicated kinds; and when we come to have accurate and intimate knowledge of the lives led by our intellectual contemporaries, we are always quite sure to find that each of them has some great thwarting difficulty to contend against.... However circumstances may help us or hinder us, the intellectual life is always a contest or a discipline. P. G. Hamerton. References. II. 13. S. Horton, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liv. p. 12. J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Apocalypse, p. 6. B. J. Snell, Christian World Pulpit, vol. li. p. 153. Revelation 2:14 We become Balaams when our influence lowers the tone of any who are about us. C. G. Rossetti. References. II. 14. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vi. p. 203; ibid. (6th Series), vol. iii. p. 108. The Overcoming Man Revelation 2:17 Let us look at this thought the Overcoming Man and his crown, or Christian character the reflection of Christian struggle. Let us look at it in connection with three great battles of the soul the battle with doubt, the battle with sin, the battle with * sorrow. * I. First of all, there is the man who has a hard battle to find God. What a difference there is between some men and others in this respect! Some have no 'ordeal of faith': they drift into the kingdom like a ship on a full tide and an even keel. Others again have years of agony ere their souls find rest. In older days this struggle usually took the form of a search after pardon. The question of questions was this 'Can God pardon me, a chief of sinners like me?' If you wrestle through your doubts to God, you will fight your way to a grander faith. Out of that experience God will give you a name such as no one but you could have. It is, I believe, the case, that no man has ever nobly defended a truth who was not at first its doubter or denier. 'Out of the eater comes forth meat: out of the strong sweetness.' There are two ways by which the traveller can reach Land's End from Penzance: one the highroad on the stage-coach, the other struggling up and down the mighty cliffs that flank the last of England's shores. Who shall doubt which is the easier? But who shall say that he is the richer in experience who comes by the easier? The way to God's highest revelations is always hard. It is only the soul that has greatly overcome that learns the greatness of God's 'new name'. II. The same is true of the struggle with sin; of the man who has a hard time * in his conflict with evil. * III. Last, and perhaps most beautiful of all, we see here an illustration of the man who has a hard time in the school of suffering. 'Experience,' said a great preacher, 'teaches fools, but she graduates saints.' Her graduation ceremony, it must be admitted, is often the close of a long and hard curriculum. If you read the record of our great writers, both secular and sacred, you will be surprised to find of how many of them it was true that they were great sufferers. Of more than poets it is true that 'they learnt in suffering what they taught in song'. The fragrant name they possess in literature was won out of 'great tribulation'. The hymns we sing with such comfort to others were bora out of bitter hours of pain and disappointment. Our hymnology is largely a martyrology. The men whose words will never die, often died themselves prematurely, or if they lived, lived in what was a living death. Nor is it different with character, of which indeed literature is but the expression and flower. It is the man who has had a weary struggle with pain and disappointment who wins the new and tender name of 'a son of consolation'. It is the man who has been chastened by sore affliction, and he alone, who can enter into the holy of holies of perfect trust 'What are these which are arrayed in white robes?' 'These are they that came out of great tribulation.' Of them it is specially true that they receive 'a white stone and a new name which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it'. W. Mackintosh Mackay, Bible Types of Modern Men, p. 299. The White Stone Revelation 2:17 I. Many mediaeval writers have said, that the white stone refers to the Greek custom of marking happy days by throwing a white stone into a box: unhappy days by throwing in a black stone; and according as, at the end of the year, the black or the white were most numerous, so was the year considered happy or unhappy. So, they say, a white stone means the one, long, endless glad day of eternity. But there is this fatal objection. St. John nowhere in the whole of his writings draws a metaphor from heathen games or customs. It was not so with St. Paul; he is constantly alluding to them. II. What other meaning for this white stone? All the promises to the seven Churches have reference to some special period of the history of the Church of Israel. This then has too; and as we read in the same verse about the hidden manna, so it must have something to do with the time when they were in the wilderness. Next, the word here translated stone may just as well mean gem; and white is more than merely white; it is glistering or sparkling; but a white glistering gem is surely a diamond. Now think of the Tabernacle service and of the High Priest's vestments. The most famous of these was the breastplate. The breastplate was a piece of linen, exactly twice as long as it was broad. Folded in the middle, then, it became square; the sides were sewn together, and it became a square bag. Now the Jews are agreed that, in this bag, the Urim and Thummim was kept. Was kept ; for they were one and the same thing; and hence sometimes called Urim only. The two words by interpretation mean Light and Illumination. Whatever it was, it was something at which the High Priest, and he only, looked when consulting the oracle. And what was it? There is a very old tradition that it was a stone on which the incommunicable Name of God Jehovah was engraved. But what kind of stone? On the outside of the breastplate were fastened twelve precious stones, the names of which you may read in Exodus. It is to be supposed that whatever was kept in the purse was more valuable than anything that formed the outside of the purse. Now most remarkably among the twelve stones, the diamond is not mentioned; although the Jews were very well acquainted with it. Urim and Thummim, then, was probably a peerless diamond, engraved with Jehovah's name. III. It is the great promise to him that overcometh that he shall be made, in the highest and most glorious sense, a Priest in the heavenly temple where is the beatific vision. If any, under the old law, should be privileged to eat of the hidden manna, the manna laid up in the golden pot within the ark, who but the High Priest, that alone knew where it was concealed? If any should be able to read what was written on the Urim, who but the same High Priest, that alone knew what it was, and by his very office was bound to consult it? J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Apocalypse, p. 18. A New Name Revelation 2:17 I. What is meant by the bestowment of a new name? A glance at some of the historical records of the Old Testament will make it clear to us. When Abram was ninety years old, the Lord appeared to Him, and said: 'Thy name shall not any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for the father of a multitude of nations have I made thee'. Next, you will remember the occasion of Jacob's wrestling with the angel at the brook Jabbok. And when Jacob had struggled and prevailed, the angel said: 'Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel; for thou hast striven with God and with men, and hast prevailed'. Again, you will remember that when Daniel and his three friends at Babylon were chosen to enter into the royal service, they received new names from the prince of the eunuchs. We may usefully bring these three kinds of application to bear upon the passage before us. (1) The conquering life, as in the case of Abraham, will receive a new revelation of itself. We do not at present know our own true name, and even still less does the world know it. (2) The receipt of the new name, as in the case of Jacob, involves an accession of life and power. (3) Further, as we saw in the case of Daniel and his friends, the conferring of a new name involves the designation to new power and office. Higher life means higher service. II. So far we have dealt with the promise in its general application, but are now directed by our Lord's word to the important question of individual distinctions: 'which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it'. These words remind us of the proverb: 'Every heart knoweth its own bitterness, and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy'. The meaning is clear. Just as life is divided from life here, and each heart has its own world of possession, so it shall be in the higher life to come. The victors are not crowned in the mass, but singly. There is indeed one general life of holiness and god likeness which all possess in common. This is what the Lord means in 3:12: 'I will write upon him My new name'. But this common possession is linked with profound differences. The pure heaven that shines above all is precisely the same, but not so the image of it reflected in each that stands in the glory. Each shall receive the fulness of his own life, no less and no more. The nobler and larger our service here, the grander will be our new name, and the deeper the wells of joy that are to be peculiarly our own. John Thomas, Myrtle Street Pulpit, vol. III. p. 268. The White Stone Revelation 2:17 We are told that all the ground about Pergamos is even to this day covered with white stones and therefore the Christians of that city could not stir out without being reminded of the promise 'to him that overcometh'. And what is this white stone? The Church has generally believed that it means the body which Christ's true servants will receive at the resurrection day. For just as nothing is more lasting than a stone, as it cannot be destroyed, as it cannot be worn away, so our bodies will be raised incorruptible, and never more subject to sickness or decay. And a white stone, because they will be glorious and shining; just as the face of our Lord in His transfiguration became white and shining, so as no fuller on earth can whiten. 'I will give him a white stone,' then, is the same thing as saying, 'I will give him a new and glorious body, when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality.' J. M. Neale, Sermons in Sackville College Chapel, vol. IV. p. 17. Revelation 2:17 Some glances of real beauty may be seen in their faces who dwell in true meekness. There is a harmony in the sound of that voice to which Divine love gives utterance, and some appearance of right order in their temper and conduct whose passions are regulated; yet those do not fully show forth that inward life to those who have not felt it; this white stone and new name is only known rightly by such as receive it. Woolman's * Journal. * References. II. 17. M. G. Glazebrook, Prospice, p. 149. W. P. Workman, A Book of Lay Sermons, p. 145. W. T. Davison, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liii. p. 117. F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. iv. p. 163. C. Perren, Sermon Outlines, pp. 179, 339. G. E. Biber, The Seven Voices of the Spirit, p. 63. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Revelation, p. 205. II. 18. R. E. Hutton, The Grown of Christ, p. 381. F. W. Farrar, Christian World Pulpit, vol. 1. p. 45. Expositor (6th Series), vol. ix. p. 372. II. 18-29. C. Anderson Scott, The Book of Revelation, p. 97. Revelation 2:19 Principal Shairp, speaking of Wordsworth's well-rounded life, lays stress on 'the moral fortitude' which 'appears in the firmness with which he kept his purpose, and the industry with which he wrought it out. Undiscouraged by neglect, undeterred by obloquy and ridicule, in the face of obstacles that would have daunted almost any other man, he held on his way unmoved, and wrought out the gift that was in him till the work was complete. Few poets have ever so fully uttered the thing that was given them to speak.' In his monograph on Voltaire, Mr. John Morley has occasion to speak of the thirty-third year of life, 'that earlier climacteric when the men with vision first feel conscious of a past, and reflectively mark its shadow. It is then that they either press forward eagerly with new impulse in the way of their high calling, knowing the limitations of circumstance and the hour, or else, fainting, draw back their hand from the plough, and ignobly leave to another or to none the accomplishment of the work. The narrowness of the cribbed deck that we are doomed to tread, amid the vast space of an eternal sea with fair shores dimly seen and never neared, oppresses the soul with a burden that sorely tries its strength, when the fixed limits first define themselves before it. Those are the strongest who do not tremble beneath this grey ghostly light, but make it the precursor of an industrious day.' 'If there is anything of interest in my story,' writes Mark Pattison in his Memoirs, 'it is as a story of mental development.... I have never ceased to grow, to develop, to discover, up to the very last. While my contemporaries, who started so far ahead of me, fixed their mental horizon before they were thirty-five, mine has been ever enlarging and expanding.... Slow as the steps were, they have been all forward.' 'There are lives,' says Mr. P. G. Hamerton, 'such as that of Major Pendennis, which only diminish in value as they advance when the man of fashion is no longer fashionable, and the sportsman can no longer stride over the ploughed fields. The old age of the Major Pendennises is assuredly not to be envied; but how rich is the age of the Humboldts! I compare the life of the intellectual to a long wedge of gold the thin end of it begins at birth, and the depth and value of it go on indefinitely increasing.' Contrast Bagehot's verdict on Macaulay. 'His mind shows no trace of change. What he is he was; and what he was, he is. He early attained a high development, but he has not increased it since; years have come, but they have whispered little; as was said of the second Pitt, "He never grew, he was cast". His first speeches are as good as his last; his last scarcely richer than his first.... The events of twenty years have been full of rich instruction on the events of twenty years ago, but they have not instructed him.' References. II. 19. F. W. Farrar, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlix. p. 385. J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons (9th Series), p. 39. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Revelation, p. 215. Revelation 2:20 Immoral life in one leader of the people is more pernicious than a whole streetful of impurities in the lower quarters of the community, seeing that streams, foul or fair, cannot flow upward. Landor. Revelation 2:20 There is a mercy which is weakness, and even treason against the common good. George Eliot. I think the world is like Captain Esmond's company I spoke of anon; and could you see every man's career in life, you would find a woman clogging him; or clinging round his march and stopping him; or cheering him and goading him; or beckoning him out of her chariot, so that he goes up to her, and leaves the race to be run without him; or bringing him the apple, and saying 'Eat,' or fetching the daggers and whispering 'Kill'. Yonder lies Duncan, and a crown, and an opportunity.' Thackeray. References. II. 20-22. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vi. p. 203. Revelation 2:21 For my part, I believe that remorse is the least active of all a man's moral senses the very easiest to be deadened when wakened; and in some never wakened at all. We grieve at being found out, and at the idea of shame or punishment, but the mere sense of wrong makes very few people unhappy in Vanity Fair. Thackeray. Reference. II. 23. C. Perren, Revival Sermons in Outline, p. 314. The Depths of Satan Revelation 2:24 It is clear that the 'depths of Satan' stand in some sort of contrast with the 'depths of God' (1 Corinthians 2:10 ). There are in God great deeps, vast abysses in which the strongest intellect may search without coming on any limits. There are also in Satan 'deeps'; and they are of such a kind that the deeps of God are the only reality with which they can be put into comparison. But we should be losing all sense of proportion if we were to imagine that the depths of Satan in any way balanced the depths of God, if we were to admit for a moment that there was any equality or even colourable pretence to claim an equality. Let us look into the four depths of Satan, Pride, Despair, Lust and Unbelief. I. Pride. Milton, as became his Titanic spirit, devoted all his strength to representing the depth of Pride. 'Better to rule in hell than serve in heaven,' is Satan's fixed idea. Satan is the spirit that sets himself up, as against God. Into that depth of moral and spiritual absurdity he sweeps men. II. The depth of Despair. Man, under Satan's rule, is always passing in a violent transition from self-confidence, defiance and pride, to a servile despondency which admits of no comfort. III. But of all the depths of Satan none is more mysterious or horrible than the one which is referred to in the text under the image of Jezebel (II. 20). The enemy of souls seizes the natural functions of the body, the very functions on which the life and continuance of the race depend, and manages to pervert them into instruments of lust. IV. The most seductive depth of Satan, however, in our day is Unbelief. Great is the glamour of Unbelief! It flatters itself with a superiority of knowledge and of intellect. It laughs at the dreams of the earth's raw youth. And yet it is all illusion. God is not less necessary or certain: Christ is not less plainly the Way, the Truth, and the Life, because Mephistopheles, the 'spirit that denies,' has led away many deluded minds into this denial. Christ came to destroy the works of the Devil (1 John 3:8 ). The destruction has begun and proceeds. R. F. Horton, The Trinity, p. 171. Reference. II. 24. R. J. Horton, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lix. p. 153. Revelation 2:25 How respectable the life that clings to its objects! Youthful aspirations are fine things, your theories and plans of life are fair and commendable: but will you stick? Not one, I fear, in that Common full of people, or in a thousand but one: and when you tax them with treachery, and remind them of their high resolutions, they have forgotten that they made a vow. The individuals are fugitive, and in the act of becoming something else, and irresponsible The race is great, the ideal fair, but the men whiffling and unsure. The hero is he who is immovably centred. Emerson. Ik the battle of life are we all going to try for the honours of championship? If we can do our duty, if we can keep our place pretty honourably through the combat, let us say Laus Deo ! at the end of it, as the firing ceases, and the night falls over the field.... We may not win the baton or epaulettes, but God give us strength to guard the honour of the flag. Thackeray. Revelation 2:26 'I was both surprised and grieved,' writes Wesley in his Journal, 'at a genuine instance of enthusiasm. J. B. of Tunfield Leigh, who had received a sense of the love of God, a few days before, came riding through the town, hallooing and shouting and driving the people before him; telling them God had told him he should be a king, and should tread all his enemies under his feet. I sent him home immediately to his work, and advised him to cry day and night to God that he might be lowly in heart, lest Satan should again get an advantage over him.' References. II. 26-28. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Revelation, p. 223. II. 26-29. G. E. Biker, The Seven Voices of the Spirit, p. 83. II. 27. Expositor (4th Series), vol. iii. p. 118. The Gift of the Morning Star Revelation 2:28 Over the grave of a dead captain of freedom it was said: 'Above the changing fortunes of the cause of which he was the leader, he moved as untroubled as the stars in their orbits. Ha whs never elated by success; never disheartened by temporary disasters and failures. * Of ultimate success he was always certain.' * Thus was fulfilled the promise made 'to him that overcometh and keepeth My works unto the end,' I will give him the morning star. Those who refuse to do treason to conviction and principle, who will not weakly comply with the fashions about them receive the morning star. That star is much more than the promise; it is the earnest of the future light of victory. For those who receive it, the battle in a true sense is past. They are conquerors all the time they fight. I. It is this realisation of victory which has distinguished all great leaders and made them what they are. What is it that makes men spiteful, irritated, ungenerous? Nothing but the fear of defeat. Victors are magnanimous; they can afford to be so, and so can he who knows already the triumph of his cause. It may be laid down with certainty that all great leaders have been magnanimous. Sneering, sarcasm, sharp retort, slander such things have brought men into temporary prominence, but they have never made a name, won a battle, or even permanently advanced a cause. It is the lot of leaders to provoke fierce hatred; to live often under the cloud of almost universal distrust. Their names are at times as 'lightning rods for storms to strike on'. Being human, they may be betrayed into occasional bitterness by injustice, or more likely by their clear perception of the awful contrast between the real and the ideal. And they may lawfully know how to puncture wind bags. But one of their sure marks is reverence for man. They never forget that the mass live in a world of mist and shadow. They do not lose their faith in human nature. They believe to the end that when the human soul can be parted from the 'discouraging clouds of confusion,' from the tumults and passions of the hour, it is ready to give heed to the voice of eternal truth and justice. II. There is unity in the lives where this light has been kindled the unity of a regal purpose. If all the lives that start on a high level of faith and hope maintained the promise of their beginning, redemption would indeed be nigh. But with most it is far otherwise. They may have seen visions and dreamed dreams in their time, but visions and dreams have faded, and the lofty ardour of youth has gone with them. Now they have given over the fight, perchance have deserted to the other camp; at best they remain timid, irresolute, full of hesitations and misgivings. But those with the earnest of the light are undismayed. They are heroically constant. What wonder if men gather round them and follow them! Nothing is more strange and affecting, and yet nothing is more true, than that those who take the most vehement part in the conflicts of this world and the keenest interest in its affairs are nevertheless detached from it. They are all the while sons of the high mother city which is free. It is this which makes them magnanimous, patient, resolute; it is this which makes them willing to leave the struggle before victory is proclaimed, and even when it seems as if the infantry of trust were being repulsed. They have achieved a great liberty. While they live they dwell with God; when they die they depart in peace, because their eyes have seen His salvation. W. Robertson Nicoll, Ten-Minute Sermons, p. 139. The Morning Star Revelation 2:28 I love the stillness of the text; receive that text as an assurance that the Lord is the distributor of the prizes and the rewards, and He has promised in these wondrous letters to the Seven Churches of Asia that one day He will have a grand prize distribution: I will give, I will give, I will give, as if He would distribute His universe amongst those who have turned it into an altar. It is wondrous music. 'To him that overcometh I will give to eat of the tree of life.' Observe, it is to him that overcometh. Expect war, expect strenuous contest; the Lord is watching the contestants, and He is breathing down the hot thunderous air this Gospel message: To him that overcometh.... Cheer thee, strike again, contest once more, now again! hearts up! to him that overcometh will I give a great festival; I will pluck the fruit from the tree of life, and he shall have abundance. Nothing for the coward, nothing for the runaway, nothing for him who would magnify his weakness into a kind of piety; but everything to him that overcometh; he that endureth unto the end shall be saved. I. What I like best, because my heart needs it most, is the promise made unto the faithful in Thyatira: 'I will give him the morning star'. The Lord would seem not to keep any of the universe to Himself; He divides His creation with His children. What have you done? By Thy grace I have fought strong temptations, and I have won. Come thou, sit down under the shadow of the tree of life, and I will pluck fruit for thee. What hast thou done? I have had a strenuous time, every nerve has been strained, temptations were poured upon me like fiery darts. Sit down; thou shalt be recruited with the manna of God. And what hast thou done? I have endeavoured to keep Thy Word in difficult positions and situations; I have been sore pressed to disobey Thee, but by Thy grace, and by Thy grace alone, I have overcome. Stand! I will give thee the morning star, sign of royalty, signet of the King, pledge of more. Morning is the poetry of the day. Who can count its jewels of dew? Morning means more than it seems to mean, for it means vanished night Where is the night? Gone! Where that darksome, fearsome, midnight? Fled away! Where is it? None can tell. The morning star has nothing to do with nightly gloom. The nightmare is past, the sorrowful travelling alone is ended, solitude is a conquered enemy, and the man who has overcome by the grace of Jesus Christ shall have the morning star. Is it a living star? Yes. Have I not heard of it in another relation? Is the morning star but some flash of perishing radiance? Oh no! it is clothed with personality. Tell me how. 'I am the bright and the morning star.' It is a star within the star, a Redeemer, a personality. The stars are embodiments of God. I will pluck for the faithful and true, the valiant and the conquering, heaven's chief jewel, and he shall wear it on his glowing heart. I will give him the morning star. II. 'Morning. Jesus Christ never associates Himself with night. Do not let the pessimists overcome you; have in you a light that will bum out their darkness. Jesus Christ is the light of life, the light of the world; you are so constituted it may be I speak to the few, not to the many as to be soon nervously depressed, and those grim pessimists would soon persuade you to give up your faith in God. Pessimists never did anything for the world. We cannot judge them by their fruits, for fruits they have none; they are men who darken the soul, their very shadow is descending night; in their voices there is no music, on their face there is no illuminating smile. Jesus Christ always associates Himself with the morning: 'When the morning was come.' And God has always associated Himself with the morning: 'Come up early in the morning,' said He to Moses; and He has always been talking about the morning. Christianity is associated with morning fulness, morning impulses, morning ideas and conceptions and brightness; and not with night-reflections and pessimistic meditations and the killing of the heart by self-impeachment. Always Jesus Christ is associated with the morning light, the white gleam on the eastern hills, the opening portal, the rising of the sun. III. He who has the morning star has the noon. I wish that idea could penetrate our minds, and hold them; then should we be strong men, and no longer panic-driven and dumb because of fear. He who has the morning star has in that star the pledge that he shall have the noon, the midday, the zenith gleam. He who has Christ has heaven. If we really believed the promises of the Cross, we should now be in the upper sanctuary, there should be no separation, no distance, no sensible disseverance of soul from soul. IV. 'I will give him the morning star.' Everything else goes out but the Christian faith which, in other words, is, everyone goes down but Jesus Christ, and the man to whom Jesus Christ has given Himself Himself who is the bright and morning star. O soul of man, put away from thee the idea of old age! It does not belong to the new temple, the new sanctuary, the final revelation in Christ Jesus. Bid it begone; old age is not among the jewels of God. But the morning star is chief of those jewels. If thou wouldst always be young, be good; if thou wouldst not know when old age cometh, be stooping to serve some little child, and thou wilt not know that old age has come, and gone, and left thee a child! Joseph Parker, City Temple Pulpit, vol. II. p. 119. Seven Revelation 3:1 I think, of all fearful passages in Holy Scripture, the Epistles to the Churches of Sardis and Laodicea are the most fearful. Sardis was looked on as a model Church, no doubt prided herself and was envied by others, for her spiritual endowments, gift of tongues and the like. Imagine then, how like a thunderbolt it must have fallen upon them, when they came together on the Sunday that followed the receipt of this epistle, and the Bishop read the words of Him that cannot be deceived and cannot err, for his own most terrible condemnation and theirs: 'Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead'. I. The Lord's Title. The number seven recurs and recurs in the Apocalypse. The seven candlesticks, the seven lamps of fire, the seven seals; seven horns and eyes of the Lamb; seven angels and seven trumpets; seven seals; seven thunders; seven heads of the dragon; seven crowns on those heads; seven heads of the wild beast; seven mountains; seven kings; sevenfold ascription of praise; seven invitations to come; and the division of the whole book into seven visions. What especially does seven mean: it means and it is, the sign of God's covenant relation to man, and especially to His Church, Jewish or Gentile. II. Have three and four any Mystical Meaning of their Own? Most surely yes. Three sets forth God; four, the world. These numbers, brought into contact and relation, express, in seven, the token of the covenant betwixt the two. I need not show you that three is the number of God. But now about four. Not to speak of the four elements and the four seasons, which are not mentioned in Holy Scripture, we have the four winds. In Ezekiel, 'Come from the four winds'. In St. Matthew: 'They shall gather together His elect from the four winds of heaven'. In the Apocalypse 'Four angels standing on the four corners of the earth,' holding the four winds of the earth. See in Revelation, the four living creatures, emblems of all created life, and in Ezekiel, with four feet and four wings; the four beasts in Daniel, lion, bear, leopard and monster, representing the four great world-powers successively to arise; the four metals in the great world-image; gold, silver, brass, iron; the same metals again when the offerings of regenerated earth are catalogued in Isaiah. 'For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass and for stones iron.' The four Gospels, type of the preceding through the whole world; the sheet St. Peter saw knit at the four corners, full of all manner of beasts; the four horns in Zechariah, the sum-total of all the world powers as arrayed against the Eternal; sword, famine, evil beasts, pestilence; and compare that with St John's vision, when power was given to the rider on the ghastly horse to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death (that is disease), and with the beasts of the earth. The enumeration of diseases by St John, 'impotent, blind, halt, withered'; and finally, the repeated enumeration of the inhabitants of the world, by 'kindreds and tongues, and people and nations'. Thus you see how the world is reconciled to God in this most mysterious number; and what the God of Grace orders, the God of nature typifies. What is the sign of the covenant between God and man but the rainbow with its seven colours. J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Apocalypse, p. 28. Listlessness Revelation 3:1 I. What strikes me first of all as the great characteristic in common of these two unhappy churches [Sardis and Laodicea] is the absence of all mention of external trouble or inward temptation. Ephesus is vexed by Nicolaitanes; Smyrna shall have tribulation ten days; Pergamum is twice said to dwell 'where Satan's throne is'; 'where Satan dwelleth'. Thyatira is tempted by 'that woman Jezebel' to the lusts of the flesh; Philadelphia is harassed 'by them of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but do lie'. But dead Sardis and miserable Laodicea have no fears, no trouble, no enemy. Satan knew too well to harass them. They were, as the Prophet says, settled upon their lees. What is true of Churches is true of individuals. Therefore there may be comfort or there may be warning here. Who would not rather be tempted with Philadelphia than have the peace of Sardis? And notice this Next to Smyrna and Philadelphia, to whom not one word of blame is said, perhaps Thyatira comes highest; she whose last works of love were more than the first; that is a glorious advance. She it is who is attacked by the most loathsome temptation; that of 'that woman Jezebel'. Now, whether this were really the founder of a sect, or merely a personification of the Gnostics, still the trial to the Church was the same. They taught that it was a small thing for a man to despise the temptations of the flesh, if he fled from them and avoided them. No, they said; the true, the glorious victory was to remain superior to such pleasures while tasting them to the full; to give up the senses to all they could desire, while the spirit remained in a calm, pure region above them. This, they said, was defying Satan in his own kingdom and stronghold. And a masterpiece of Satan's that was; and thousands it drew away to hell. And singularly enough, the very name, Jezebel, has an analogy with the teaching. We know, from the Old Testament, the kind of life she led; we know from other history that she, before her marriage to Ahab, was the priestess of Astarte, the Venus of the Sidonians, and yet her name is said in the Old Phoenician, to mean pure; just as Agnes in Greek. II. Temptations, let them be what they may, if only they are resisted, are the mark of growth; it is that terrible stagnation, when nothing has to be resisted, that all true servants of our dear Lord ought earnestly and His dearest servants most earnestly, to pray against. III. Sardis, at this time, was not only one of the most luxurious, but one of the most populous of the cities of Asia Minor. Notice then: our Lord will not allow the few names, insignificant in the eyes of the world though they might be, to think that they are overlooked by Him. And only a few names, rather than a few? Surely with reference to that Book of Life in which the names of all who have fought the fight well who have run the race well, are even 'now enrolled'. But see how our dear Lord takes care that, even in the general condemnation, even when He so speaks of the Church as dead, He is careful that His own dear servants, few though they be, should feel that they are not overlooked by Him. It is the old story over again, 'Wilt thou destroy the city for lack of five?' And the five, though they were not to be found, yet had they been found, would have been precious in the Lord's sight. J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Apocalypse, p. 38. Revelation 3:1 'There was no such thing as a dead particle in his faith,' said Dr. Martineau once of a friend; 'it was instinct with life in every fibre.' In the correspondence of Zachary Macaulay, when he was governor of Sierra Leone, the following entry occurs: 'To Lady Huntingdon's Methodists, as a body, may with great justice be addressed the first verse of the third chapter of the Revelation. The lives of many of them are very disorderly, and rank antinomianism prevails among them.' References. III. 1. R. E. Hutton, The Crown of Christ, p. 401. A. Maclaren, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlix. p. 305; ibid., Expositions of Holy Scripture Revelation, p. 232. III. 1-3. H. S. Holland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lix. p. 33. III. 1-6. C. Anderson Scott, The Book of Revelation, p. 113. Revelation 3:2 Youth has an access of sensibility, before which every object glitters and attracts. We leave one pursuit for another, and the young man's year is a heap of beginnings. At the end of a twelvemonth he has nothing to show for it not one completed work. Emerson. References. III. 3. F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. ii. p. 35. J. Keble, Sermons for the Sundays after Trinity, p. 441. J. Keble, Sermons for Christmas and Epiphany, p. 248. Expositor (5th Series), vol. x. p. 152. True Heroism Revelation 3:4 The words that introduce the message to the Church in Sardis prepare us to see that the central thought of the message itself is the operation of spiritual power. 'These things saith He that hath the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.' The 'seven spirits of God' symbolise the fulness of Divine power, and the seven stars the earthly subject through which this power is prepared to operate. It is with the victorious life we now deal, that we may learn the lesson how to live, and learn it in the most inspiring way, namely, by the vision of those that have lived and gloriously triumphed. We shall consider: I. The character of earth's best manhood. 'Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments.' We do not mean to say that these commended few in Sardis were the élite of the whole earth, that they were paragons of perfection, and had reached the highest summit of human virtue. The important matter is that they were the élite of the society in which they lived. The true test of a man's power is the way in which he does battle with his environment, and rises above the common level of his surroundings. There is no heroism in the world like that of the man who lives in the world and grandly reveals that he is not of the world. II. In considering the character of earth's best manhood, we could not possibly fail to think of the 'Perfect Man,' and, therefore, the 'Perfect Man,' Jesus Christ. And it needs no long consideration to realise that 'the relation of earth's best manhood in general to that of Jesus Christ' is a question of transcendent importance. There are two tendencies of thought that go far to rob us of our best inheritance in Jesus Christ. One tendency is that which makes Jesus Christ only another name for God. The other tendency is that which reduces Jesus Christ to the earth-born level of poor imperfect men like ourselves, only knowing life's secret a little better than most other men and threading its ways with greater skill. III. By union with Christ a character of sterling worth is developed. The statement in our text is very clear and emphatic. 'For they are worthy.' We must take care in this connection not to confound things that are distinct. It is not by merit that we obtain salvation; it is in salvation that we find our merit. God's kingdom comes to us, though we are utterly unworthy of the glorious gift; but, when we have received the kingdom, it invests us with high worth and dignity. John Thomas, Myrtle Street Pulpit, vol. II. p. 13. References. III. 4. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ii. No. 68. J. W. Veevers, Preacher's Magazine, vol. xix. p. 274. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Revelation, p. 243. White Raiment (A Whitsunday Address) Revelation 3:5 Throughout the greater part of Christendom, today is celebrated under the name of Whitsunday. It is the Sunday commemorative of the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost descended on the Church. From the earliest times that Pentecostal Sunday was a favourite one for the sacrament of baptism. Its memories of the outpouring of the Spirit made it peculiarly appropriate for that. And it was thus it got its name of Whitsunday, from the white garments of the little children, who, on that day so hallowed by its unction, were brought to the font to be baptised. It is white-sunday; the day of the white robes; the day when the church was beautiful in white. It is the only Sunday in the year which enshrines a particular colour in its name. And so I venture to speak to you this evening on some of the suggestions of that colour, which is so often mentioned in the Bible, and always with an element of symbolism. I. First, then, I ask you to observe that white is emblematical of purity. It is the symbol of purity in every language; the outward sign of it in every ritual. Now I dare say there are some who feel a sense of shame when they hear that. If white be the sign and sacrament of purity God help them, they shall never wear it Is there no young man who has been Jiving foolishly since he awoke to the liberty of manhood? Is there no young woman who is very different from what she was a dozen years ago? 'Character,' said Mr. Moody once, 'character is what a man is in the dark,' and if we knew what you were in the dark, would there be any hope of white apparel? I answer most emphatically, yes. That is the gospel I am here to preach. It is not to the heart of childlike innocence that the white raiment of our text is promised. It is to every one who overcomes; who rises from his past, and is ashamed; who cries, from the very margin of despair, 'Create within me a clean heart, O God'. II. Then once again, I want you to observe that white was the colour which indicated victory. It was so, not only in the Bible, but also in the literature of Greece and Rome. Today, we do not so regard it. It is not significant of triumph now. The white flag is the symbol of submission, and the white feather is the badge of cowardice. But in the ancient world of Jew and Pagan there was no such sinister suggestion in it: it was not the colour of the coward then; white was the colour of the conquerer. Do you see then another facet of our text he that overcometh shall be clothed in white? It means that the battles which are won in secret, shall some day be the vesture which we wear. Our hardest conflicts are not fought in public; our hardest conflicts are on a hidden field. Out of our hidden triumphs God is weaving the robe that is to deck us by and by. III. Once again, I ask you to observe that white is the colour which expresses joy. It does so because it is the colour of light, and there is something gladsome in the light. We do not speak about the day of sorrow; we speak and sing about the night of sorrow. 'The night is dark, and I am far from home,' is the utterance of one in heaviness. But light is gladsome, and it heartens us, and it summons forth the music of the birds, and so there has always been the thought of joy in the radiance which is the badge of day. And so our text hints at this other truth a truth which we can never lay to heart too much. It tells us, in the symbol of apocalypse, that overcoming is the road to joy. IV. Once again I want you to remember that white is the livery of heavenly service. It is the garb which all the angels wear, and the angels are the ministers of God. Has not our Master taught us thus to pray, 'Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven'? The type and pattern of perfect service is the unceasing ministry of angels. Flying abroad upon the wings of help, the angels were always habited in white. And so the colour came to speak of service; of instant and questioning obedience; of readiness to do the will of God, though the path of ministry was to a grave. G. H. Morrison, The Return of the Angels, p. 119. White and Scarlet Revelation 3:5 This, it is true, was not the way in which the martyrs overcame; but if God grant us to come within a thousand degrees of them in glory, it will be enough. They have a more glorious portion. 'The shield of the mighty men,' says Nahum, 'is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet.' The mighty men are the martyrs; the scarlet is the glorious colours of their own blood. And so again, Solomon, speaking of the Church, says: 'She shall not be afraid when the cold cometh, for her house hold are clothed in scarlet'. That is, she shall have no cause to fear when others are falling away from God; seeing that she has so many who have given their lives to prove the strength of their love to Him. J. M. Neale, Sermons in Sackville College Chapel, vol. iv. p. 22. Reference. III. 5. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Revelation, p. 250. Revelation 3:7 Our knowledge of the moral part of the divine character, of His veracity as well as of His justice comes from our own moral nature. We feel that God is holy, just as we feel that holiness is holiness; just as we know by internal consciousness that goodness is good in itself, and by itself; just as we know that God in Himself is pure and holy. We feel that God is true, for veracity is a part of holiness and a condition of purity. But if we did not think holiness to be excellent in itself, if we did not feel it to be a motive unaffected by consequences and independent of calculation, our belief in the divine holiness would fade away, and with it would fade our belief in the divine veracity also.' From Bagehot's essay on * The Ignorance of Man. * Reference. III. 7. R. E. Hutton, The Crown of Christ, p. 417. The Open Door Revelation 3:7-8 I. Notice, first that when it is translated 'Thou hast a little strength,' which would rather be an acknowledgment of power than weakness, it ought to be 'Thou hast little strength'. 'My strength is made perfect in weakness.' You must join the two verses together, 'I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it,' with His title who has thus opened it, 'He that hath the key of David upon his shoulder'. And you may take the door in two senses. The power of spreading the gospel among the surrounding heathen, as St. Paul speaks, 'A great door and effectual is opened unto me'. Or, it may be, that more blessed door, the entrance to be abundantly ministered unto the kingdom of heaven. Either way, the reason that follows is one of those divine arguments so infinitely above the reasonings of man. 'I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it, for thou hast little strength.' What, impossible to be conquered, because we are weak? Even so; because that very weakness enlists omnipotence on our side. It was, no doubt, from reasoning after the manner of men, that our translators put in contrary to the Greek, that word a. Not so the Holy Ghost. It is something after the same method of argument as that sublime passage of Tertullian: 'The Son of God went about healing disease and infirmity; it is possible because it is unlikely, and died on the cross for us; it is probable because it is incredible; and rose again the third day; it is certain because it is impossible'. And take the opposite side of the picture, and see how St. Paul speaks of that, with the bitterest irony he ever allows himself to use: 'Now ye are full, now ye are rich; ye have reigned as Kings without us; and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you'. II. 'I have set before thee an open door.' That is, in the other sense, that gate which is of one solid pearl and which leads into the King's city, that city whose light is like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; that gate through which nothing shall in any wise enter that defileth. III. The key which opens the kingdom of heaven, and government which is exalted above all powers, both in heaven and earth, is none else than the Cross. That is the key, and the only key, which unlocks this door; and a singular thing it is, how the old type has kept its place physically, when the metaphorical meaning has long been forgotten. Did you ever see an elaborate key in which the wards were not made crosswise? And notice this, on account of that special promise to Eliakim [The key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder] the Jews connected the idea of a key with that of the coming of the Messiah. Further, mediaeval saints tell us why it should have pleased our Lord to submit to the necessity of bearing His cross on one shoulder; namely, that is, that we, bearing it after Him, must bear whatever our special cross is, for ourselves. J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Apocalypse, p. 53. References. III. 7-13. C. Anderson Scott, The Book of Revelation, p. 126. A. B. Davidson, Waiting upon God, p. 331. III. 7-22. G. Campbell Morgan, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lviii. p. 358. III. 8. J. Keble, Sermons for Easter to Ascension Day, p. 25. J. Duckworth, A Book of Lay Sermons, p. 171. J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Apocalypse, p. 46. III. 8, 10. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxx. No. 1814. III. 8-11. R. Glover, Christian World Pulpit, vol. 1. p. 68. III. 10. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Revelation, p. 259. Faint Yet Pursuing Revelation 3:11 I. Notice that the same command is given to two of the seven Churches, and in both cases is joined to the same declaration. To Thyatira it is written, 'That which ye have already hold fast till I come. To Philadelphia, 'Behold, I come quickly; hold that fast what thou hast,' till I come. I wish we had these words constantly in our hearts; a hard struggle to carry on, a hard race to run, but then it is only 'Till I come'. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might because the night is at hand when no man can work because it is only 'Till I come'. There is but a short time to do deeds of love; there is but a short time to fight the good fight of faith; there is but a short time to exercise hope. 'Behold, I come quickly.... So much the more as ye see the day approaching.' II. 'That no man take thy crown.' St. Bernard says: 'It is well said; thy crown. For to all that have contended here, although in different fights, to all that have run well here, although in different races, a special crown is appropriated; as the martyrs shall wear a diadem of ruby, the confessor of gold, so also for chastity is there a crown of snow-white brilliancy.' And not so only, but as the cunning artificer decks the crown which he has in hand with many and various jewels, according to the riches and the pleasure of him for whom it is made, so each good work done by the elect in this world forms as it were a separate gem in the diadem of their blessedness on high. Each therefore has his crown; as each has his own sorrows and trials in this valley of misery, so each has his own reward and coronation in the kingdom of glory; according to the saying, 'The heart knoweth his own bitterness, and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy'. J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Apocalypse, p. 62. Revelation 3:11 There is less sand in your glass now than there was yesternight. This span-length of ever-posting time will soon be ended. But the greater is the mercy of God the more years ye get to advise upon what terms, and upon what conditions, ye cast your soul in the huge gulf of never-ending eternity. The Lord hath told you what ye should be doing till He come.... All is night that is here, in respect of ignorance and daily ensuing troubles, one always making way to another, as the ninth wave of the sea to the tenth; therefore sigh and long for the dawning of that morning, and the breaking of that day of the coming of the Son of Man, when the shadows shall flee away. Persuade yourself the King is coming: read the letter sent before Him, 'Behold, I come quickly'. Wait with the wearied nightwatch for the breaking of the eastern sky, and think that ye have not a morrow. From one of Samuel Rutherford's Letters to Lady Kenmure. The Alienated Crown Revelation 3:11 Each Church and each separate disciple has a distinctive vocation, and in the counsels of God, a specific and unmistakable prize associates itself with the faithful fulfilment of that vocation. The fact that the crown lost by one passes to another, brings to mind the good faith of God and the largeness of His plans. So imperatively benign are the Divine purposes, that there can be no diminution in their scope. The Lord will never take back what He has once resolved to give for the blessing and enrichment of His people. This exhortation implies that the partial and temporary failure of the individual does not imply the final failure of the race. I. We need to concern ourselves first of all with the personal significance of these words, although they were addressed to the representative of a Church, and have a collective application. Many incidents of the Scriptures illustrate and enforce them. Great in character as was Moses, and invested with enduring honour, he failed to attain all the glory it was God's will to put upon him. The lesson comes home to us again as we read the history of David. And in the New Testament we find yet more striking and tragic illustrations. Judas was one whose crown was taken by a worthier disciple. The promise of great things hides itself in lives which, to the outward eye, are unpromising, meagre, poverty-stricken. God could not create men to put before them from the beginning the prospect of a crownless immortality. Did not some of us in the days of our youth give the promise of an eminent usefulness we have since failed to realise? Others then promised less, but they more than surpass us now. The crown meant for us is passing to more royal souls. II. This solemn warning reminds us of our national perils, as well as of the losses which sometimes threaten us in our life of individual piety and service. (1) Many signs seem to show that the crown of honour England has worn as a Christian nation may pass to less luxurious peoples of simple creed and strenuous life. It is impossible to contemplate, without a sad shrinking of heart, the idea that our free citizens are governed to a greater extent than they know by the representatives of demoralising trades. (2) Whilst the Christian communities in our midst have grown in intelligence and self-respect, they are in danger of losing some of the high distinctions they once possessed as Christ's representatives to the people He seeks to befriend and save. References. III. 11. J. Keble, Sermons for Easter to Ascension Day, pp. 262, 272. W. E. Beet, Preacher's Magazine, vol. xix. p. 248. III. 11-13. Bishop Wilberforce, Sermons, p. 91. A Pillar in the House of God Revelation 3:12 As we hear these words let us do as did the seer of this vision, let us turn to see Him Who speaks to us. To you and me it is spoken by the high King of heaven. To you and me is offered the blessedness that shall never end. I. See to whom this great word is spoken. 'Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the house of My God.' Does there rise before us a hero like David, fearless, splendid in his courage, hurling with unerring aim the pebble from the sling? Nay, listen again, 'I know thee, that thou hast a little strength'. The word is spoken for the lowest and the least. Is it then for some sublime achievement, some unearthly endurance that this high reward is given? No, the achievement was a very simple one of which the world heard nothing and no record was kept upon earth. 'Thou hast kept My word and hast not denied My name.' So, then, every one of us may come and hear this glorious promise from the lips of our great Captain and Saviour: 'Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the house of My God'. II. And more than this. He who speaks is not only the great and glorious Captain of the Lord's host; not only the tender and pitiful brother who for us men and for our salvation came into this world to live and to die and to rise again He Himself is the force by which we are to overcome. Look then at the overcoming love which is ours in Christ. All the holy influences that come to us, the gracious promptings and whispers of His Almighty love, are the prophecies and pledges of His might in which we may overcome. III. The little strength becomes a pillar by overcoming. He who becomes a pillar, in the temple of God must first be rooted and grounded in Jesus Christ. Christ is our life. 'If a man abide not in Me he is cast forth and withered.' 'Him will I make a pillar. Not by and by, but now and here.' M. G. Pearse, The Preacher's Magazine, vol. IX. p. 337. Pillars Or Caterpillars! Revelation 3:12 What the Church of God requireth is 'pillars' pillars strong and steadfast. What, alas! the Church possesseth to her damage is 'caterpillars' innumerable. It is obvious to all who will but see that havoc is being made of the Church of the Living God by this great army of 'caterpillars' the crawling, creeping Christians who are of the earth, earthy. These fill too frequently positions of power in the organisations of the visible Church, and hence the cry on all sides of failure, damage, and defeat. We turn with grateful hearts to the 'pillars,' to the true workers, the real supporters of the Church of God. 'Him that overcometh,' the conquering man, the victorious saint, 'will I make a "pillar" in the temple of My God'. I. We want granite pillars, strong and durable, in those days of ecclesiastical and social quakings, if the Church is not 'to be moved away from the hope of the Gospel'. The most popular theology is the theology of indefiniteness. The symbolism of this theology is, 'I know not anything'. In Ephesians IV., where St. Paul is speaking of the 'perfecting of the saints,' he lays it down as a condition that, without definite, dogmatic teaching, the Church cannot be edified, and he warns them against being 'tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine'. We are pleading for firmness in holding fast the * essentials. * II. We want marble pillars shafts of beauty in the corridors of His House of Prayer, beautiful with the beauty of holiness. We are persuaded that the greatest, the most telling power in the world is the power of a blameless life. What men think over is not words nor works, but the man's life his character; not what he says, nor what he does, but what he is, is the criterion. These, then, are the two pillars: granite and marble strength and beauty, the Jachin and the Boaz of this glorious temple. The Church requireth both. Firmness, strength, stability: for the times demand these. Purity, truth in the inward parts, and the beauty of holiness: for this generation lacketh these. T. J. Madden, Addresses to All Sorts and Conditions of Men, p. 126. References. III. 12. Bishop Kennion, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvii. p. 104. J. Keble, Village Sermons on the Baptismal Service, p. 227. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Revelation, p. 275. III. 12, 13. G. E. Biber, The Seven Voices of the Spirit, p. 137. The Laodicean Church Revelation 3:14 No thoughtful person can read the letters of our ascended Lord to the seven Churches in Asia without observing that there is a great diversity in the condition and character of these Churches. Four of the Churches had a mixture of good and evil; something to commend and something to condemn. Two of the Churches have nothing in them but good. There is one Church, however, of which nothing good is said, all evil, not a single virtue left; not one at least is named in the letter to Laodicea. To this, the worst, the most degraded, the only Christless Church of the seven, would we now direct attention. Let us consider: I. The condition of the Church of the Laodiceans. (1) The Church's estimate of herself: 'I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing'. Self-sufficiency, and that self-sufficiency based on her material wealth. (2) Christ's estimate of the Laodicean Church: 'Thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked'. 'Thou art neither cold nor hot; I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of My mouth.' Why does He prefer a state of utter coldness to lukewarmness? absolute indifference to hypocrisy? (a) May it not be because there is more honesty in the man who is utterly indifferent to religion, and avows it, than in the hypocrite. (b) A second reason may be, that there is more likelihood of the conversion of the cold than of the lukewarm. The humiliating, damning feature in the condition of this Church is that she is without Christ, without a Saviour. II. The appeal of Christ. (1) The appeal is based on Christ's character. To arrest the attention of the lukewarm Laodiceans, He announces the authority and truthfulness of Him who speaks to them. (2) The appeal is based on the All-sufficiency of Christ. (3) The appeal suggests conditions. 'Buy.' (4) The appeal is based upon promises. Richard Roberts, My Closing Ministry, p. 56. References. III. 14. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xii. No. 679. R. E. Hutton, The Crown of Christ, p. 427. F. W. Farrar, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliii. p. 353. Expositor (6th Series), vol. iii. p. 125. III. 14-21. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xx. No. 1185. E. J. Boyce, Parochial Sermons, p. 107. III. 14-22. C. Anderson Scott, The Book of Revelation, p. 141. Revelation 3:15 Unhappily in matters political the curse of a flabby amorphous eclecticism is upon too many of us; watching the conflict of principles or policies in a dazed and bewildered frame of mind, we persuade ourselves that we are philosophically impartial when we are only indolently indifferent. 'Which train are you going by, sir up or down?' 'I'll wait and see!' and both engines rush out and leave the unhappy vacillator to his reveries, till by and by the platform is cleared, and the station is shut up for the night, and the gas lamps are turned down; and there is no moon, and no stars, and no shelter, and the wind is rising. Dr. Jessopp, in the * Trials of a Country Parson. * Mr. Bagehot somewhere speaks of those unabsorbed, purposeless, divided characters which seem to puzzle us. They complicate human life, and they do so the more effectually that they typify and represent so much of what every man feels and must feel within himself. In each man there is so much which is unmoral, so much which has nothing to do with hell or heaven; which occupies a middle place not recognised in any theology; which is hateful both to the impetuous "friends of God" and His most eager enemies.' References. III. 15. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Sunday Sermonettes for a Year, p. 88. H. R. Gamble, Church Family Newspaper, vol. xv. p. 72. Expositor (5th Series), vol. ix. p. 47. III. 15, 16. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlviii. No. 2802. III. 15-19. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Revelation, p. 283. Revelation 3:16 Lukewarmness implies that a great deal has gone before, that a height has been climbed, and that from cowardice, human respect, or weariness, we have come down from it. Like certain phenomena in geology, it is at once our evidence of a former state of things, and of the catastrophe which overthrew it. He who was never fervent can never be lukewarm.... It is a great grace, a prophecy of a miraculous cure, to find out that we are lukewarm; but we are lost if we do not act with vigour the moment we make this frightful discovery. It is like going to sleep in the snow, almost a pleasant tingling feeling at the first, and then lost for ever. F. W. Faber. Then hath the Tempter come upon me, also with such discouragements as these: 'You are very hot for mercy, but I will cool you; this frame shall not last always: Many have been as hot as you are for a spurt, but I have quenched their zeal'. And with this, such and such who were fallen off would be set before mine eyes. Then I should be afraid that I should do so too. But, thought I, I am glad this comes into my Mind. 'Well, I will watch, and take what heed I can. Though you do,' said Satan, 'I shall be too hard for you; I will cool you insensibly, by degrees, by little and little. What care I,' saith he, 'though I be seven years in chilling your heart if I can do it at last? Continual rocking will lull a crying child asleep. I will ply it close, but I will have my end accomplished.' Bunyan, Grace Abounding, sec. 110. Revelation 3:17 What if it has pleased God that I should have been born and bred and have lived ever since in the tents of Esau? What if by no choice of my own my relations and friends should have been the hunters and the fighters? What if, during a weakly youth, I was forced to watch for it was always before my eyes Esau rejoicing in his strength, and casting away his birthright for a mess of pottage?... And what if, when I tried, I found that Esau would listen to me; that he had a heart as well as Jacob? What if he told me at the same time that he could not listen to Jacob's private chaplains; that he did not understand them, nor they him; that he looked on them with alternate fear and contempt? If I said to myself more and more clearly as the years rolled on, I will live for Esau and with Esau; if I be called a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber, the friend of publicans and sinners, there is One above us who was called the same, and to Him I commit myself and my work; it is enough for me that He knows my purpose, that on Crimean battle-fields and Indian marches, poor Esau has died with a clearer conscience and a lighter heart for the words which I have spoken to him. If I have said this, whom have 1 wronged? I have no grudge against Jacob and his preachers; only when I read the seventeenth verse of the third chapter of Revelation, I tremble for him, and for England, knowing well that on Jacob depends the well-being of England, whether physical, intellectual, or spiritual, and that my poor Esau is at best food for powder. From a letter written by Charles Kingsley in defence of his methods and life. 'The accession of George I.,' says Sir Leslie Stephen, 'marked the beginning of a period of political stagnation which lasted for nearly half a century. The country prospered and waxed rich. Harvests were abundant; towns began to grow; and the seeds of much that was good and much that was evil in our later history were sowed.... The governing classes enjoyed the power which they had acquired by the Revolution, and were content to keep what they had gained. They would oppress nobody actively; on the other hand they would introduce no reforms. Their highest virtue was in leaving things' alone.... The church retained obnoxious privileges on the condition of making very little use of them; and the nation indolently drifted towards the unknown future, carelessly contented for the most part.' References. III. 17. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vi. pp. 259, 332. III. 17, 18. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxviii. p. 1677. III. 17-19. Bishop Pereira, The Record, vol. xxvii. p. 444. III. 17-20. Bishop Percival, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlix. p. 142. III. 18. F. J. Madden, Tombs or Temples, p. 38. III. 19. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iii. No. 164. Revelation 3:20 At Kelso, some will long remember his remarks in visiting a little girl, to whom he said, 'Christ gives last knocks. When your heart becomes hard and careless, then fear lest Christ may have given a * last knock.' * Bonar's Life of M'Cheyne, p. 143. The Closed Door Revelation 3:20 Let us look at these words with reference to the Person Who speaks them, and consider, in its various aspects, the striking picture which they represent. I. The Closed Door. It was closed in the case of the Laodiceans by lukewarmness. But there are other things which are effectual in closing the doors of our hearts. (a) Sin in its numberless forms. The sin that is practised openly in defiance of God; the sin that hides itself from the light, and which none but God can see; that ' easily besetting sin, ' so nurtured and encouraged as at last to become a part of our nature, that sin of unfaithfulness that finds a refuge in broken vows and careless indifference to all God's Ordinances. (b) The love of the world. The craving after the goods of this life, which tends to spread itself over the whole entrance, so as to shut out all influences that aim at the life beyond. (c) Pride. The pride of intellect, for instance, that does not scruple to assert that true knowledge lies in Sight and not in Faith; because, forsooth, the laws of finite man have no power to grasp the Infinity of God! (d) Self-righteousness, which depends upon its own powers for the attainment of the spiritual life. All these tend to close the door of a man's heart Which of us has the door closed against Christ? II. There is One Standing at the Door. Who is He? He is a King; the same King that St. John describes in the former part of this book as 'Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty'. Is not this a matter for wonder that such as He should stand and knock for entrance at the door of our sinful hearts? Wonderful indeed! And yet not so wonderful, if we consider that this is He Who left His Father's Throne and came down from Heaven to take our nature upon Him, that we might have boldness through Him to come near to the Throne of Grace. Surely, then, He has the right of all others to demand admittance. (a) Mark his wondrous condescension. He has bidden us come to Him; to ask, and we shall have; to seek, and we shall find; to knock, and it shall be opened unto us. And yet, so great is His love, He comes to us that He may bring us to Himself, lest in our blindness we neglect our own salvation, and the Day of Redemption pass by, and leave us unredeemed. (b) Mark His wondrous patience. He comes to His own; but His own receive Him not He comes to those whom He has redeemed, by manifold sufferings, by agony and Bloody Sweat, by a bitter death upon the Cross; but He finds no hand stretched out to welcome Him. His 'Israel' will not hear, His people will not consider. He comes as a Friend; but lo! the door is shut; there is no one to watch for His coming, there is no one ready to receive Him. Nay, even when He has knocked, He has been refused admittance; and yet He waits there still! He has stood by while others have been admitted the world with all its empty vanities; the flesh with all its selfish desires; sin with its fair outside and deceptive promises; Satan himself with his legions of evil angels. He has looked through the open door, and seen the house within filled with destroyers and enemies, and He has not turned away, although these have been preferred before Him. He stands there still. III. As He Stands He Knocks. And each of us has heard these knockings, although in different ways, sometimes without asking who it is that knocks, sometimes without hearing the answer; sometimes without fully understanding what the sound has meant. And why? Probably through indifference; or, perhaps, because we have not wished to be disturbed; or, perhaps, because the weeds and brambles of the world have overgrown the door so thickly that the sound or the knock cannot penetrate. And all this time we have fancied ourselves * secure, because we have heard no sound! * IV. How has He knocked? In many various ways. (a) By the joys and sorrows that have been our lot all through life, whereby He would remind us that He is the Author of all joy, and the Comforter of every sorrow. (b) By changes in the world around us, and among those best known to us, whereby He would point us to Himself when our unsatisfied souls cry out for something strong to rest upon. (c) By the Ordinances of His Church whereby He calls us into communion with Himself, and feeds us with the spiritual Food which alone can strengthen the spiritual life. (d) By the Seasons of the Church's Year which point to His all-holy Life as the pattern and example of our life, and by the Seasons of the natural year which teach the lessons of life and death, bidding us look beyond to the Cause of all things, and recognise in Him the source both of Resurrection and Life. All these are so many ways in which He has knocked for entrance; and in whatever particular we have neglected our duty toward any or each of these, it has been to shut the door of our hearts against Him, and to refuse to hear His Voice, however plainly He has spoken. V. He Calls as well as Knocks. He lifts up His voice and speaks to us, lest we should not know Who it is that seeks admission, and says, 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock.' And this He does in. two ways. (a) By His Holy Word, by which He proves the truth of His Mission and appeals to man's conscience, bidding him weigh his own soul in one scale and the world in the other, and then consider with himself what advantage he shall gain if he barter the one for the other. (6) By means of that living Voice within, bidding us seek the sweet influence of God's Good Spirit to nourish the new-born life, lest the tares of the world choke it, and the heat of temptation wither it, and it bring no fruit to perfection. So does the patient loving Jesus stand and wait at the door of our hearts, seeking an entrance that He may fill us with 'all joy and peace in believing'; so does He call week after week, and month after month, by all the means His Love has furnished for our souls' good; and so does he still wait and watch, if peradventure the careless soul inside will at last hearken and open the door, and admit Him. VI. He is Ready also to Depart. He will not tarry for ever. He stands patiently now; He has waited and watched long and anxiously, and He will wait still, as long as there is hope; but He will not compel an entrance. All gifts of grace are His, and may be yours for the asking: He will grant you preventing grace, that may awaken and predispose you in all your words and thoughts and deeds; and assisting grace, that may help you forward in your heavenward path, and give you power to bend your will to His. But His Spirit will not always strive with man. References. III. 20. H. S. Holland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lix. p. 21. F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. iv. p. 185. H. R. Heywood, Sermons and Addresses, p. 12. J. Bunting, Sermons, vol. i. p. 110. A. Maclaren, The Wearied Christ, p. 91. Expositor (6th Series), vol. iii. p. 341. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Revelation, p. 302. III. 21 Ibid. p. 312. R. J. Campbell, City Temple Sermons, p. 134. Ibid. The Examiner, 28th June, 1906, p. 625. Expositor (5th Series), vol. v. p. 184. III. 21, 22. G. E. Biber, The Seven Voices of the Spirit, p. 157. III. 22. A. G. Brown, Preacher's Magazine, vol. i. p. 37. Elevation and Vision Revelation 4:1 It is a serious error to suppose that we can rightly apprehend the highest truths whilst we live on a low plane of thought and conduct, and yet it is a very common error. Those who grovel in the dust, nay, who wallow in the sensual mire, yet believe themselves competent to discuss the most solemn problems of existence and destiny: they conclude that the truths concerning God His existence, laws, government, revelation and purpose are apprehended and understood mentally like theories of mechanics and mathematics. It is a profound mistake. I. To see eternal realities with open vision we must preserve a pure and sensitive soul. Recently in some experiments in colour photography it was attempted to reproduce the colours of the spectrum. The experiment succeeded so far as the bars of colour in the interval between the violet and the red were concerned: but the camera failed to represent the ultra hues, the film was not sufficiently sensitive to seize the hidden mystery of colour, and a couple of blotches alone witnessed to the existence of the unseen rays. Thus a coarsened soul in its dark misgivings bears witness to unseen things, yet it lacks the subtlety to discern and realise the glorious realities of the transcending universe. Our spirit must be uplifted by fellowship with God, made sensitive by purity, refined by love, kept steady by a great hope and confidence, or it cannot reflect and realise eternal verities. It is not so much by intellectual acuteness as by truth and purity in the inward parts that we lay hold of the things of God. II. To apprehend justly and influentially eternal truths our life must be lofty in its spirit and aim. The real explanation of our dubiety and despair is not to be sought in our intellectual defects and limitations, but rather in the narrowness, egotism, and debasement of our thoughts, ideals, and strivings. We need to get on a higher plane of thinking, sympathy, and purpose. 'Come up higher and I will show thee.' Is not that the call of God to us? We are told that from the bottom of a pit the stars are visible at noonday, but to those who are content to dwell in the murky depths of low thinking, feeling, and action, the lights of the upper universe are lost in impenetrable obscuration. Character is the chief source of illumination; noble conduct best augments the inner light; life aspiring to high standards rather than logic divines the secrets of eternity. W. L. Watkinson, The Ashes of Roses, p. 104. References. IV. 1. H. S. Holland, Vital Values, p. 58. W. Morison, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliv. p. 379. J. Keble, Sermons for Ascension Day to Trinity Sunday, p. 354. W. H. Simcox, The Cessation of Prophecy, p. 82. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xv. No. 887. IV. 1, 2. H. J. Bevis, Sermons, p. 155. IV. 2. Expositor (4th Series), vol. v. p. 124. The Rainbow and the Throne Revelation 4:2-3 I want to dwell on the rainbow round the throne like to an emerald. Do you see any mystical meanings in that rainbow? I shall tell you what it suggests to me. I. In the first place it speaks to me of this, that the permanent is encircled by the fleeting. Whenever a Jew thought of the throne of God, he pictured one that was unchangeable. 'Thy throne, O God, is an everlasting throne,' was the common cry of psalmist and of prophet. Other thrones might pass into oblivion; other kingdoms flourish and decay. There was not a monarchy on any hand of Israel, but had risen and had fallen, like a star. But the throne of God, set in the high heaven, where a thousand years are as a day, that throne from all eternity had been, and to all eternity it would remain. Such was the throne which the Apostle saw, and round about it he descried a rainbow. It was engirdled with a thing of beauty, which shines for a moment, and in shining vanishes. The permanent was encircled by the transient. The eternal was set within the momentary. The sign and symbol of unchanging power was rooted in the heart of what was fleeting. II. Another truth which is suggested here is that power is perfected in mercy. The rainbow has been symbolical of mercy, ever since the days of Noah and the flood. God made a covenant with Noah, you remember, that there should never be such a flood again. Never again, so long as earth endured, was there to fall such desolating judgment. And in token of that, God pointed to the bow, painted in all its beauty on the storm-cloud that rainbow was to be for ever the sign and sacrament that He was merciful. III. The heavenly setting of mystery is hope. As the Apostle gazed upon the throne, there was one thing that struck him to the heart. 'Out of the throne came voices, thunderings and lightnings.' Whose these voices were, he could not tell. What they were uttering, he did not know. Terrible messages pealed upon his ear, couched in some language he had never learned. And with these voices was the roll of thunder; and through it all, the flashing of the lightning; and John was awed, for in the throne of God he was face to face with unutterable mystery. Then he lifted his eyes, and lo, a rainbow, and yet it was different from earthly rainbows. It was not radiant with the seven colours that John had counted on the shore of Patmos. It was like an emerald what colour is an emerald? It was like an emerald; it was green. Around the throne, with its red flame of judgment, there was a rainbow, and the bow was green. Does that colour suggest anything to you? To me it brings the message of the Spring. You never hear a poet talk of dead green; but you often hear one talk of living green. It is the colour of the tender grass, and of the opening buds upon the trees. It is the colour of rest for weary eyes. It is the colour of hope for weary hearts. G. H. Morrison, The Return of the Angels, p. 317. References. IV. 3. D. M. Pratt, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liii. p. 186. H. S. Seekings, Preacher's Magazine, vol. xvii. p. 605. G. R. Fetherston, A Garden Eastward, p. 15. Revelation 4:4 'In Brescia,' says Prof. Villari, during the Lent of 1486, 'Savonarola, with the Book of Revelation for his theme, found it easier to stir the sympathies of his hearers. His words were fervent, his tone commanding, and he spoke with a voice of thunder; reproving the people for their sins, denouncing the whole of Italy, and threatening all with the terrors of God's wrath. He described the forms of the twenty-four elders, and represented one of them as rising to announce the future calamities of the Brescians. Their city, he declared, would fall a prey to raging foes; they would see rivers of blood in the streets; wives would be torn from their husbands, virgins ravished, children murdered before their mothers' eyes; all would be terror and fire and bloodshed. His sermon ended with a general exhortation to repentance, inasmuch as the Lord would have mercy on the just. The mystic image of the elder made a deep impression on the people. The preacher's voice seemed really to resound from the other world; and his threatening predictions awakened much alarm. During the sack of Brescia, in 1572, by the ferocious soldiery of Gaston de Foix, when, it is said, that about six thousand persons were put to the sword, the inhabitants remembered the elder of the Apocalypse and the Ferrarese preacher's words'. The whole state of man is a state of culture; and its flowering and completion may be described as Religion or Worship. There is always some religion, some hope and fear extended into the invisible from the blind boding which nails a horseshoe to the mast or the threshold, up to the song of the elders in the Apocalypse. Emerson. References. IV. 4, 10, 11. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. viii. p. 441. C. Anderson Scott, The Book of Revelation, p. 155. IV. 6, 7. A. P. Stanley, Sermons on Special Occasions, p. 291. The Emblems of the Evangelists Revelation 4:6-8 These four beasts what are they? The devout fancy of the Christian Fathers regarded them as emblems of the four Evangelists St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. Luke, and St. John those supreme benefactors of the Christian Church who have bequeathed to all generations that priceless legacy, the story, from their several standpoints, of that Life of matchless love which was the revelation of the unseen God and Father. There is some variation in the application of the imagery, but I shall follow what seems to me the aptest and truest interpretation that of St. Augustine. I. St. Matthew the Lion. Of course the key to this emblem is the old fancy that the lion is the King of the Beasts. And you see the appropriateness of the emblem? St. Matthew wrote his Gospel as an appeal to unbelieving Israel in the dark days when that terrible, crushing disaster had befallen the nation the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman general Titus and the dispersion of the people over the face of the earth. When they were broken, scattered, and despairing, St. Matthew, the Jewish Evangelist, wrote his Gospel, not to upbraid them with their unbelief, but to make a last gracious appeal to them, and to prove to them, after the manner of demonstration which the Jewish mind appreciated, that the Lord Jesus, whom their fathers in their blindness had rejected, was none other than the King of Israel the Promised Saviour, the Holy Messiah, the Son of David's royal house, whom the prophets had foretold, and whom, generation after generation, believing men had been dreaming of and praying for and longing after. St. Matthew gathers up all the promises of God and all the hopes of His people, and shows how they are fulfilled and realised in the King and Saviour. II. St. Mark the Man. And how apt this emblem is! St. Mark has no theological thesis, no apologetic purpose. He simply tells the story of our Lord's ministry, and he never stops to point a moral or deduce a consequence. If St Matthew depicts Jesus as the Son of David, the King of Israel, St. Mark depicts Him as the Son of Man, the prophetic Servant of the Lord: 'Behold, My servant, whom I uphold, 'Mine elect, in whom My soul delighteth; I have put My Spirit upon Him: He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles'. III. St. Luke the Calf. And here is something puzzling. The calf is the sacrificial victim, and if there be any book in the New Testament which has nothing to say of sacrifices of victims and priests and altars and shedding of blood, it is the Gospel according to St. Luke. St Luke was a Greek, a physician of Antioch, and he knew nothing about Jewish typology and symbolism, and there is nothing about sacrifices in his Gospel. And yet those ancient mystics found his emblem in the calf. It is certainly puzzling; but just consider it, and you will perceive the appropriateness of it. What is sacrifice? It is not a priest. It is not a victim. It is not a reeking altar. Oh, no! it is the giving of oneself for others. It is Love, and Love is the keynote of St. Luke's Gospel. His Gospel reveals him as a Christian gentleman with a chivalrous compassion for every feeble and defenceless thing. And that is sacrifice that, and not the priest or the bleeding victim or the crimson altar. And what makes the Sacrifice on Calvary is not the Cross, the nails, the spear; it is the Love which brought Jesus to that awful doom and moved Him to bear it all for our sinful sakes. And St. Luke's is the sacrificial Gospel because it is the Gospel of the Love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. IV. St. John the Eagle. And this hardly needs explanation. There is a radical difference between St. John and the other Evangelists. The latter tell us about Jesus as He appeared among the children of men, and you discover by and by, as the story proceeds, that this Man was something more than a man, and you reach at last the conviction that He was God. But St John begins at the other end. Remember his immortal Prologue. He starts by saying: 'Now here is what I am going to tell you about not the story of a human life but the story of a divine manifestation. The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us; and we beheld His glory.' That is St. John's starting-point; and the starting-point makes such a difference. He lifts us at once above Bethlehem. He never says a word about the inn or the manger: he carries us away up to the Throne of God and brings us down thence in company with the Incarnate Saviour. It is like an eagle's flight. I saw an eagle once in the Western Highlands. It had alighted in the neighbourhood of a shepherd's flock, and he scared it away lest it should plunder his lambs, and it took wing and soared up into the blue sky, growing less and less until it seemed but a dim speck, scarce as big as a skylark. The old fable says that the eagle is the only creature whose eye can look undazzled on the blazing sun; and there could be no fitter emblem of St. John. He lifts us above the noise and strife of earth, and sets us amid the blaze of the heavenly glory. David Smith, Man's Need of God, p. 149. References. IV. 6-8. H. S. Holland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. 1. p. 40. A. P. Stanley, Sermons on Special Occasions, p. 57. Revelation 4:7 'In times of opposition,' says Milton at the close of the Apology for Smectymnus, 'when either against new heresies arising, or old corruptions to be reformed, this cool unpassionate mildness of positive wisdom is not enough to damp and astonish the proud resistance of carnal and false doctors, then (that I may have leave to soar awhile, as the poets use) Zeal, whose substance is ethereal arming in complete diamond, ascends his fiery chariot, drawn with two blazing meteors, figured like beasts, but of a higher breed than any the zodiac yields, resembling two of those four which Ezekiel and St. John saw; the one visaged like a lion, to express power, high authority, and indignation; the other, of countenance like a man, to cast derision and scorn upon perverse and fraudulent seducers; with these the invisible warrior, Zeal, shaking loosely the slack reins, drives over the heads of scarlet prelates, and such as are insolent to maintain traditions, bruising, their stiff necks under his flaming wheels.' Revelation 4:8 I assert for myself that I do not behold the outward creation, and that to me it is hindrance and not action. 'What,' it will be questioned, 'when the sun rises, do you not see a disc of fire, somewhat like a guinea?' 'Oh, no, no! I see an innumerable company of the heavenly host crying, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty. I question not my corporeal eye, any more than I would question a window, concerning a sight. I look through it, and not with it.' William Blake. References. IV. 8. F. St. John Corbett, The Preacher's Year, p. 106. H. J. Bevis, Sermons, p. 165. R. W. Hiley, A Year's Sermons, vol. i. p. 283. J. J. Blunt, Plain Sermons (3rd Series), p. 204. J. Keble, Sermons for Ascension Day to Trinity Sunday, p. 374. Bishop Wilberforce, Sermons, p. 231. H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. i. p. 1. J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons (9th Series), p. 112. IV. 9-11. C. Kingsley, The Good News of God, p. 325. For an Exposition of chapter v. see A. B. Davidson's Waiting Upon God, p. 351. V. 2. Bishop Gore, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liii. p. 384. Three Views of Man's Destiny 1. * Pessimism Revelation 5:4 * This is a mysterious passage in a mysterious book, but the fact that interpretation may easily become ridiculous should not debar us from the beauty and the power of one of the greatest and most picturesque of Scriptural poetic images. God is on His throne, but He is left undescribed, and we see only His hand holding a sealed book. What concerns us especially is the group of three figures which represent three of the main attitudes of man to destiny. There is the weeping man, the pessimist, who sees only the sadness of the mystery, and tends towards despair and cynicism. Then there is the elder of Judah with the lion of his tribe, the optimist whose one resource is that of energy. Finally there is the true key to destiny; the lamb as it has been slain, emblem of love and sacrifice. We may consider these in three successive studies. The pessimist comes first, represented by the weeping man of the text. This man may stand for many thousands who have stood in bitterness before the unsolved riddle of human life. The apparent waste the heartless and unreasonable waste of the wealth of human hearts and lives, force upon him the questions, What does God mean by making a world like this? and, What is He going to do with it? These questions find no answer. No man is strong enough to break the seals and open the book. No nation is strong enough. All these pathetic 'efforts to understand things' fill the writers mind with an overwhelming sense of futility. He can make nothing of it, and he abandons the attempt with tears. There were other elements in this grief besides baffled curiosity. We all learn sooner or later that many things in this strange world are beyond our understanding, and we come to terms with the mystery of things with as good a grace as we can. But there are special elements here, which in some degree enter into the experience of all such seekers, and which give to pessimism its keenest point. I. First of all, the dreamer had been promised a knowledge of the future, and in this refusal there was something like a claim dishonoured. And in us all there is the feeling that in some sense we have a right to know. We are not asking for complete explanations, but surely we may expect light enough to live by. We are here not of our own choice, and we are willing to accept the situation and make the best of it. But, so tangled is the skein of life, it often happens that with 'the best intentions men make the most serious mistakes. We want some sure guidance, and above all we want some assurance that it is not all in vain, and that our destinies are not, as they sometimes seem to be, the sport of chance. We are willing to work cheerfully or to suffer patiently if we can only understand. But this looks like the demand for day labour while light is denied us, and it is no wonder though we weep. II. Second, a discovery is here given of how much is required for such knowledge as we crave. 'No man is worthy to open the book.' The hindrance to understanding, the veil between our souls and truth is our own sin, and conscience further embitters the great unanswered question. The mystery of life often seems to press most sorely on the good, but it does not break their hearts. They find some meaning in things that consoles them and gives them rest. But the unworthy have no such consolation. It is they who weep most bitterly before the face of destiny, and rebel against the way in which the unintelligible world is made. When we are caught in the mills of God, the nether millstone on which any soul is ground is ever its own unworthiness. III. The lessons of all this are plain. When we are confronted with the blank and bitter mystery of things it is not well to brood sullenly on the sense of a dishonoured claim. The book is unreadable, and we have no real right to understand. Neither science nor religion professes to answer all our questions. Our theories give no full explanation, our visions are but glimpses at the best, but 'led blindfold through the glimmering camp of God'. And, further, when we are tempted to despair and to rebel and to malign the world, it is well to ask ourselves, Am I worthy to open the book? What grossness, what pride, what folly enter even into our desire to understand? What use have we made of the light vouchsafed to us? For doubt is surprising only when the life is pure, and they who know most are those who are 'holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience'. John Kelman, Ephemera Eternitatis, p. 230. Reference. V. 4. E. A. Askew, The Service of Perfect Freedom, p. 8. Three Views of Man's Destiny 2. * The Gospel of Healthy-mindedness Revelation 5:5 * The elder's view of the Messiah is 'the Lion of the tribe of Judah,' and his boast is that Christ, in that capacity, has been able to unseal and open the book of human destiny. At least one of the older commentators has recognised in this elder the figure of the patriarch Jacob, and has referred the text back to the splendid words of Gen 49:9 'Judah is a lion's whelp; from the prey, my son, thou are gone up: he stooped down, he crouched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?' I. It would seem that from early times the lion had been a sort of insignia of Judah, a national emblem like the Scottish and the Persian lion. Dr. Dods has said in this connexion, 'There is enough in the history of Judah himself, and in the subsequent history of the tribe, to justify the ascription to him of all lion-like qualities a kingly fearlessness, confidence, power, and success; in action a rapidity of movement, and a might that make Him irresistible, and in repose a majestic dignity of bearing'. The same writer goes on to contrast the 'rushing onset of the lion with the craft of the serpent, the predatory instinct of the wolf and the swiftness of the hind'. This, especially in times of oppression and adversity, gives a very fair idea of the conception of Messiah cherished by the elders of Israel. To their passionate patriotism He was the mirror and emblem of national strength and triumph. History has borne out the lordly boast. Judea has been not merely a personal but a national force in the arena of the world's destinies. All nations have taken their part in the grand sum-total of history, but it is Judea that has led the way, both in the understanding and in the shaping of the destinies of the world. Disraeli has boasted that 'the most popular poet in England is the sweet singer of Israel,' and that 'the divine image of the most illustrious of the Hebrews' has been again raised amid the homage of kneeling millions in the most civilised of the kingdoms of Europe. When we think of what Jesus Christ has meant already in human history, we are constrained to confess that that gallant little nation, perched on its high ridge of rock, has indeed unsealed the book. By the earliest Christian missions, by the Crusades, and by the unceasing play of Christianity upon the West, she gave its future to savage Europe. Later, when the New World opened its gates to the Old, it was Puritan Christianity that gave its noblest qualities to the American race. Today, when for Africa and Asia the seals are being opened in so swift and dramatic succession, the issues of the future again depend wholly on the Judean it will be Christ or a godless civilisation more ominous than their past heathenism. II. But the Lion of the tribe of Judah may also be taken as the representative type of a clearly defined ideal of character. It is the oriflamme of the Gospel of healthy-mindedness, and the doctrine of the strenuous life. This lion-like attack on destiny is indeed a magnificent imagination. It tells of direct attack that scorns diplomatic cunning, of will and main force whose self-reliance waits neither for the backing of friends nor of circumstances. It tells us of a certain band of warriors against fate who by sheer force and rush of onset have carried destiny by storm. These are the men of sturm und drang , who master and enlist the great forces of the world. For the most part they are plain men, not assuming virtues of greater delicacy than they can understand. Always they are strong men, who are not wearied but braced by labour and endurance. They are simple men, unembarrassed by the subtle questionings which distract others. They cut through the knots which others strive in vain to disentangle, and their only refuge from discouragements and fears is the refuge of action. Men of this spirit may do superhuman things, taking the citadels of destiny by assault. Destiny goes down before Will, and the Weird itself (so runs the ancient Saxon song) will help 'an undoomed man if he be brave'. Not even the sense of sin and failure, nor the disheartening memory of the irrevocable past, is able wholly to daunt such spirits. There is in strong and courageous vitality, a strange power of healing and of purifying, which baffles the powers of darkness. III. Jesus Christ rides at the head of that company of heroes. He is not the opponent, but the truest of all exponents of the Gospel of the healthy mind. He matched His strength against the religious hierarchy of Jerusalem, against the vast Empire of Rome, against the world, and He has won His battle all along the line. In the progress of the Christian conscience we see Him pitted against the slaveries, oppressions, injustices of two thousand years. In the progress of Christian civilisation we see Him combating the forces of sorrow, poverty, disease, and death. In the progress of religious thought we see Him conquering prejudice, hypocrisy, and errors of the mind and heart and will. John Kelman, Ephemera Eternitatis, p. 236. The Breaking of the Seals Revelation 5:5-6 I. The impotency of unaided humanity to enter into the secret of God. This fact is proclaimed in this dramatic scene with marked emphasis. 'And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.' Translating the dramatic picture, it is the grave truth that the Scriptures so constantly emphasise, that lies at the very base of the Christian doctrine of salvation, that fallen man had no power in himself to regain the heights from which he had fallen. Fallen man cannot with his own hands open the roll of the eternal secret of life; he cannot even look at it. II. The Lion-power that accomplishes the task for humanity. 'Behold the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof.' The description here given is very suggestive. On the one hand there is a strong savour of human nature in the terms employed. The Deliverer partakes of the nature of Juda, and of David, and the types of national and individual human life. This mighty love is in some sense human, and yet He is immeasurably more than man. He is the 'Lion' of the tribe of Juda, that is, He is the actual world-conqueror, of whom that tribe was only a type or shadow. The 'Root of David' expresses the same relation of this hero to earth's typical individual, that is the type of its noblest life. So the nature of this Deliverer belongs essentially to the world invisible and eternal. He towers immeasurably above all that is best in human life, both national and individual. III. The Lamb-sacrifice in the heart of the Lion-power. The transcendently glorious nature of the Hero presented to us, and his entering into closest union with human life, are not sufficient to account for His power of leading mankind into the Divine secret, of restoring man to God. The heart of the Lion-power is Lamb-sacrifice. In more ordinary language, the incarnation of Christ apart from His atonement is not sufficient to account for the redemption of the world. The Lamb that was slain emphatically points out the death of Christ, as in a special sense the sacrificial act that bore away the sin of the world. Note the measureless power and infinitely exalted position here ascribed to the Lamb. 'A Lamb having seven horns and seven eyes.' This is, of course, a symbolic way of ascribing to Him perfection of power and universal dominion, and of asserting that out of His life all spiritual power goes forth into all the world. In full harmony with this description the Lamb is represented as sharing with Him that sitteth upon the throne the worship of the whole creation. John Thomas, Myrtle Street Pulpit, vol. II. p. 181. Three Views of Man's Destiny 3. * Love and Sacrifice Revelation 5:6 * The lion of the elder is a true aspect of Christ, and yet there is a more excellent way. It is the way of the saint, the divine seer and evangelist, who comes to rest upon the vision of 'the Lamb standing as it had been slain,' as the innermost secret of life and the true key of human destiny. For there is a limit to the power of will and courage, and sooner or later even the boldest attack teaches us by its imperfect success that we mortals must 'approach destiny respectfully'. So now we have the lamb substituted for the lion. And it is ἀρνιον 'the little lamb' quoted from Isaiah 53:7 , but purposely changed to the diminutive. This is the favourite thought of that tender and farseeing spirit who took up the beautiful imagery of the twenty-third Psalm, and understood so well the meaning of the words 'thy gentleness hath made me great,' when he told how the Baptist had spoken of Jesus as the Lamb of God. I. A great principle is embodied here. There is a Syrian mountain whose black basalt breaks the lofty table-land above the sea of Galilee. At that mountain the Crusaders lost Palestine after one of the fiercest of their battles. On the same spot, according to tradition at least, Jesus won the world by His Sermon on the Mount. It is the merest commonplace, alike of science and of human nature, that the humblest approach gains the richest results. Nature resists man's violence, but yields inevitably in the end to his loving patience. In character, self-assertion and the endeavour to make an impression have accomplished much; persecution, punishment and coercion have done much; but love has done far more than these. Love is the key to destiny. Force may succeed outwardly, and yet be but a magnificent failure. Love never fails: it does its appointed work. II. It was this which was the lifelong task and achievement of Jesus. In Him the world has seen love at once revealing and making destiny. For what was it in Him that led men to understand themselves and to change into better manhood? What was it that made that nobler life seem no longer an impossible ideal, but their own rightful heritage? It was not His courage nor His strength, not His absoluteness nor His denunciation. It was simply His love that same love which cured the sickness of the land and burst open the tombs of its dead. That aspect of the life of Christ gives us a great counsel to which we shall take heed if we be wise. When we have tried to force success by sheer daring and strenuousness and have failed, nothing is more natural than to become embittered. But this reminds us that we have not yet exhausted our resources. One power remains in reserve, the power of love. Those are wise who, in the dark hour of defeat, guard the springs of the heart and refuse to be embittered. III. But in that master-picture of Isaiah's which is here presented, there is a further meaning. It is not only the lamb, but the lamb slain that we see; not only love but sacrifice. The lamb has death-wounds on its body, as it stands in the first pathos of death, slain though not yet fallen. This is indeed the kind of love that conquers destiny. There are many kinds of love placidly selfish love, good-humoured and easy-going affection, that knows nothing of sacrifice. But this is by far too great a task for such love. The book of destiny remains for ever closed to selfishness. So we come in sight of the ancient truth, old indeed as the world though but slowly apprehended, that man must sacrifice to destiny. Behind all such sacrifices, interpreting them and inspiring them, stands the great self-sacrifice of Jesus Christ. As we see Him moving on towards Calvary we tremble as we realise how the fate of the world turned on that cross. By accepting it He revealed the meaning of man's destiny, and he conquered it for man. The lamb slain prevailed to open the book. The revealing power of the cross has showed how through suffering man is made perfect, and changed the mystery of pain to the hope of glory, the bitter cry to the shout of victory, and the victims of life to the sons of God. John Kelman, Ephemera Eternitatis, p. 242. Revelation 5:6 Once I was troubled to know whether the Lord Jesus was Man as well as God, and God as well as Man; and truly, in those days, let men say what they would, unless I had it with evidence from Heaven, all was nothing to me, I counted not myself set down in any truth of God. Well, I was much troubled about this point, and could not tell how to be resolved; at last, that in Revelation v. came into my mind, And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb. In the midst of the Throne, thought I, there is His Godhead; in the midst of the Elders, there is His Manhood; but, oh! methought this did glisten! it was a goodly touch, and gave me sweet satisfaction. Bunyan, Grace Abounding, sec. 122. References. V. 6. Charles Brown, God and Man, p. 115. C. J. Clark-Hunt, The Refuge of the Sacred Wounds, p. 61. Expositor (6th Series), vol. viii. p. 344; ibid. vol. xii. p. 44. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Revelation, p. 322. V. 6, 7. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxv. No. 2095. V. 8. V. S. S. Coles, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvii. p. 234. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xviii. No. 1051. V. 8-10. Spurgeon, Ibid. vol. xxxix. No. 2321. The Lamb and the Book Revelation 5:9 The meaning of that scene is unmistakable and instantly clear. It sets forth this truth, that Jesus, the Lamb of God who was slain at Calvary, alone has the power to disclose and to interpret the mind and purpose and ways of God. It was when the Lamb had taken the book and was about to break the first seal that they sung the new song, saying, 'Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood'. Let me illustrate this great truth that the crucified Christ unseals the book of God. God has more than one book, and yet all His books give us the one revelation. Let us see how Christ breaks the seals, and what He gives us to read on pages which otherwise had been dark to men. I. Look, to begin with, at the sealed book of Scripture. It should be a commonplace to us that we cannot read the Old Testament except in Christ's light. Only by an effort of the imagination can we realise how closely sealed and how dark with mystery the Old Testament would have been if Christ had not died and risen again. The truth is as clearly illustrated by the New Testament scriptures. There are some today to whom the New Testament is still a sealed book. One has only to take up such a book as Martineau's Seat of Authority in Religion to find that so clear, so penetrating, so spiritual a mind cannot read the plainest pages of the book. The depth of its moral wisdom, the divineness of its message, and the power of its appeal to the conscience bear in upon his mind and move him to impassioned praise. But the meaning and purpose of the book are hidden from him. The simplest peasant could be his teacher, and would stand amazed that learning and genius should so miss what lies so plainly revealed. Had Martineau looked up at the Cross and seen the Lamb who was slain to redeem, all would have been clear. Read the Gospels and the Epistles in the light of that death for sin, and every word and deed is translated. The cradle of Bethlehem, the carpenter's shop at Nazareth, the Jordan water at baptism, the wilderness of temptation, the garden of Gethsemane, and &\ the riches of grace in sermon and parable and miracle, stand out as the life-story that leads to the Cross. It is the Lamb that was slain that unfolds, interprets, and expounds the New Testament. II. Look, in the second place, at the sealed book of nature. In the light of Christ's Cross we see that life in nature is sacrificial and redeeming. In the light of Christ's Cross we see that the pain and agony and death, which so abound, are only the inevitable condition that life may continue, the species be perpetuated, and the high and beneficent ends of nature gained. Modern science is reading the purpose and the meaning of nature in the light of the truth taught by the death of Christ. III. Look, in the third place, at * the sealed book of history. * In every century since our historians stand before the sealed book. In every generation the hearts of Christian people fail them for fear. This twentieth century has only begun. We are scarcely across its threshold, and yet east and west, the red horse of war, the black horse of famine, and the pale horse of death have gone forth. The cries of terror and of pain are ascending to God. A great part of the struggle between the nations, and the consequent waste of precious life and pain of tender hearts, is actually due to the advance of the Cross. It is the civilisation of Christendom coming into conflict with the ideals of heathendom. It is the leaven of the thoughts of the gospel fermenting in Eastern minds. Within the Church itself there is also bewilderment and pain. There are questions which find no answer, problems which reach no solution, doctrines that seem to be shaken. Who shall unfold this page of mystery? Who shall break the seal of this secret? The Lamb that was slain. IV. Look, in the fourth place, at * the sealed book of our own lives. * Stand below the Cross, and look up at the Lamb that was slain, and mark the course and issue of His passion and His death, and you will realize why the pages of your book are dark with sorrow and wet with tears. Out of life's battle comes conquest over self. Out of life's dark hours come light and strength and peace. Out of life's meek acceptance of death, there comes life for ourselves and others. W. M. Clow, The Cross and Christian Experience, p. 139. References. V. 9. W. H. Simcox, The Cessation of Prophecy, p. 158. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vii. p. 374; ibid. (6th Series), vol. ix. p. 44. Revelation 5:9-10 It is a delight to a soldier or traveller to look back on his escapes when they are over; and for a saint in heaven to look back on his sins and sorrows upon earth, his fears and tears, his enemies and dangers, his wants and calamities, must make his joy more joyful. Therefore the blessed, in praising the Lamb, mention His redeeming them out of every nation and kindred and tongue; and so, out of their misery and wants and sins, and making them kings and priests unto God. But if they had nothing but content and rest on earth, what room would there have been for these rejoicings hereafter? Richard Baxter. References. V. 9, 10. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxi. No. 1225. Bishop Gore, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lx. p. 49. Expositor (4th Series), vol. iv. p. 426. V. 9-13. T. Jones, Christian World Pulpit, vol. li. p. 394. V. 10. C. Perren, Revival Sermons in Outline, p. 194. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. i. No. 10. V. 11. Expositor (4th Series), vol. iii. p. 256. Revelation 5:12 In one of his letters, Dr. John Ker describes the effect produced on him by reading Carlyle's Reminiscences. 'We may be thankful,' he writes, 'that we have a better standard in the Infinite Strength that stooped to weakness, to pity and to raise it. I should be far from saying that Carlyle had not the Christian in him, but he wanted one part of it, and it is proof of an entirely original and Divine being, that the Reminiscences of the fishermen of Galilee give us One who had the most perfect purity, with the most tender pity an unbending strength that never despised weakness. 'One of the false things of the day is to exalt power (including intellect in a form of power) at the expense of the moral and spiritual. It belongs to materialism, and in a degree to pantheism, and it is the direct opposite of Christianity, which makes Christ lay power aside, in order to make the centre of the universe self-sacrifice and love; and that their power should gravitate to this centre, because it is the only safe one. "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power." When we begin to see this, we feel in our deepest nature that it is Divine that this must be true if the universe has any meaning, and the soul a worthy end. It gets obscured sometimes, but it will come out again. Reference. VI. 1-8. Expositor (4th Series), vol. x. p. 292. Revelation 6:2 The motto of the Moravian Church is ' Vicit Agnus noster, eum sequamur '. ('Our Lamb has conquered, let us follow Him.') Revelation 6:8 Death appears mounted on a horse, not on a throne; he arrives, he passes by. C. G. Rossetti. Dr. John Brown, in the second series of Horae Subsecivae, describes a sermon by Dr. Chalmers on the reign of death, and on death as a tremendous necessity. Towards the end, 'in a few plain sentences, he stated the truth as to sin entering, and death by sin, and death passing upon all. Then he took fire once more, and enforced, with redoubled energy and richness, the freeness, the simplicity, the security, the sufficiency of the great method of justification. How astonished and impressed we all were! He was at the full thunder of his power; the whole man was in an agony of earnestness.... And when he sat down, after warning each one of us to remember who it was, and what it was, that followed death on his pale horse, and how alone we could escape we all sunk back into our seats.' Revelation 6:8 Compare Shelley's vivid description in the tenth canto of The Revolt of Islam, XVIII. f. References. VI. 8. E. A. Askew, The Service of Perfect Freedom, p. 109. Expositor (5th Series), vol. x. p. 121. Revelation 6:9 * f * After quoting Lacretelle's description of a bloody riot in May, 1750 'Some of the rioters were hanged on the following days' Carlyle proceeds: 'O ye poor naked wretches! and this then is your inarticulate cry to heaven, as of a dumb tortured animal, crying from uttermost depths of pain and debasement? Do these azure skies, like a dead crystalline vault, only reverberate the echo of it on you? Respond to it only by "hanging on the following days"? not so: not for ever! Ye are heard in Heaven. Also the answer will come in a horror of great darkness, and shakings of the world, and a cup of trembling which all the nations shall drink.' French Revolution, bk. I. II. That general opinion, that the world grows near its end, hath possessed all ages past as nearly as ours. I am afraid that the souls that now depart cannot escape that lingering expostulation of the saints under the altar, Quousque Domini (How long, O Lord)? and groan in the expectation of the great jubilee. Sir Thomas Browne, * Religio Medici. * References. VI. 9. Expositor (4th Series), vol. iii. p. 251. VI. 9-11. C. Gotch, Sermons, p. 265. Revelation 6:10-11 Here it is plain that the departed have the power of prayer. The souls under the altar 'cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord?' It appears, further, that they retain a consciousness of their former life on earth, for they say, 'How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?' It appears, too, from this passage that the souls of the departed are capable of receiving knowledge, for 'it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season'. It appears, too, from this passage that they are, while in Paradise, capable of receiving additional comfort and glory, for it says, 'white robes were given to every one of them'. I. The thought of the life of the souls in Paradise may help to reconcile us to bear the loss which their departure must in many ways bring upon us. For when we think even of the little that we know of their perfect and increasing happiness we would not wish them back again. Their life above is, as the Apostle tells us, 'far, far better' than our life here below. It is true 'we know in part' only, as the Apostle says, what the joys of that blessed life in Paradise must be; but we know enough to make us thankful for those 'who depart hence in the Lord'. At present when we read the book of nature, or even the book of Revelation, we are but as persons reading in a book with crumpled, or missing, leaves; there is much which we desire to fill in, 'we only know in part'; but hereafter, there above, we shall 'know even as we have been known'; there we shall see, as it were, all the disordered leaves of our present knowledge arranged in perfect order, in the one volume of God's most perfect will, bound with the bond of His eternal love: * Nel suo profondo vidi che s'interna, Legato con amore in un volume, Cio che per l'universo si squaderna. * Dante, Paradiso, C. XXXIII. 85. II. At present, it is true, we only see 'in part,' but if we look with the eye of faith on the wonders with which God has surrounded us in this world, and remember that they are His handiwork, then we shall be able to read the book of nature in the spirit of Christ's parables, and learn something of the ways of God. Every springtime shows us a resurrection after the apparent death of winter the trees and flowers were 'not dead, but sleeping'. It is a constant miracle of wonder and delight to me to watch through the early days of spring the still, dark, and dead-like stems of the trees in our orchards. It seems so unlikely that the dark, dull stem should ever be the channel for a life of beauty and of self-production. Inch after inch, as the eye rises from the ground, there seems no hope of any future glory, and yet, when the appointed time has come, we see the miracle of its organic life performed, and blossom after blossom is unfolded, and then the full fruit is formed. To all the life-power is conveyed, undisturbed by the separate perfection of each. Each bud, and blossom, and fruit receives its due allotment through the living organism; there is no forgetfulness and no confusion. Millions, and millions of millions, at last receive the beauty and the fruitfulness of which in the days of its early growth there was no sign or hope. So, if we could see above the myriad stars, we might behold the souls in Paradise clothed with a beauty and a glory of which the life on earth could give us no true conception, but which is theirs, quite naturally, according to the supernatural laws by which God will perfect the beauty and the fruitfulness of the branches of the True Vine. Bishop Edward King, The Love and Wisdom of God, pp. 332-334. References. VI. 16. Bishop Lightfoot, Cambridge Sermons, p. 193. T. F. Crosse, Sermons (2nd Series), p. 238. J. Keble, Sermons for Advent to Christmas Eve, p. 175. H. Bushnell, Christ and His Salvation, p. 314. Expositor (5th Series), vol. v. p. 339; ibid. (6th Series), vol. vi. p. 404. VII. 4. H. H. Henson, Godly Union and Concord, p. 144. The Saints of God (for All Saints' Day) Revelation 7:9 These are the saints of God. They have been men and women like ourselves. They were diverse in character, they had come from all nations, they were equally diverse in experience, they had had helps, but they had had trials and difficulties. Many of them had their faults, but they are the saints of God. They are one in this, that their testimony is to the triumph of the Lamb. I. All Saints' Festival. All of us have an interest in All Saints' festival, for most of us have known some saints, and all of us hope to be saints. Though, of course, the festivals more directly and closely connected with the great events in the life of our Blessed Lord Christmas, Easter, Ascension must always hold the first place in our minds, and though they claim over all mankind the sovereignty and power of Jesus Christ, because He claimed mankind through them, yet do we not know that all that is good and true in us comes from Him, and we are honouring Him in the celebration of the festival of All Saints? If we see light as we look up and think of all that it means, we do not forget that He is the Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world, He is the true King of Saints, He, glory be to His name, is the Elder Brother of every good man and woman, every good boy and girl. It is good for us sometimes is it not? to turn away from the thoughts of the sins of men, and to behold them in the white robes. It helps us, does it not, and it inspires hope among us, for all of us may have an inheritance among them. I know that to some it is almost a hindrance to think about the mediaeval saints because they cannot well enter into the meaning of their surroundings and the general character of their lives, and one could well wish that the roll of saints on our Church calendar were extended to much later times, that we might include in it those who seem in our own day to have stood up so strongly for Christ and have lived as the saints of old. We certainly cannot forget Living-stone and General Gordon, we cannot forget Lord Shaftesbury or Lord Lawrence, we cannot forget Bishop Patteson and his noble martyrdom, or Bishop Hannington in his manly march to death, or the tender ministrations of the devoted Sister Dora or the self-abnegation of Father Damien. All these fill our minds with ennobling ideals. They have stood so near to our own time that we seem to be in touch with them, and if we think of them we are reminded of the saints of God. There are two marks especially which are characteristic of the saints of God. II. The Purity of the Saints. The first is their purity. Their victory may be over the passions of their own nature, it may involve struggle itself, but it is clear enough that purity is the mark of God's saints. Yet we do wrong if we fail to recognise that in the Holy Scriptures that great word means something more than we generally associate with it It does mean singleness of aim, it does mean sincerity of purpose: 'If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light'. It was said of Sir Isaac Newton by one who knew him well, 'His was the whitest soul I have ever known,' and it was said of Dean Stanley by Dr. Vaughan in the sermon that he preached after his funeral, 'I who have known him longest have never known him other than pure'. But, I say, that word goes further than we commonly mean, and it is plain enough that such men as these were free from all double-mindedness. They were single-hearted, and such are the pure in heart who see God. Yes, purity is one of the marks of the saints of God. We may be conscious of our need of it, but it is stated of those who are standing round the throne of God, that they have washed their robes in the Blood of the Lamb. I take that to mean that in the self-sacrifice of the Blessed Lord they have so learned to love Him, to become one with Him, and to be imbued with His spirit that their own selfish and sinful aims have lost all power over them, they have been cleansed from them, they have been washed from them, and realising the love of Christ Who loved them and gave Himself for them, they have found their home, their forgiveness, and their peace with God. And to this may we not each of us attain? We need not despair. The roll of God's saints includes many that have washed their robes and made them white after they had been stained with sin. Our hope, our redemption, our sanctification are just the same as were the hope of all those saints of God. Christ, Who indeed said, 'No man cometh to the Father except by Me,' said also, 'Whosoever cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out'. It is in Him that the saints have found their power of purity. III. The Purposefulness of the Saints. The second mark of these saints of God is their purposefulness. No man can ever drift into sanctity. No man can go to sleep a sinner and wake up a saint. He may forget what is past, but he needs cleansing from it. No man can serve God without an effort. No man can do his duty without really meaning to. In all respects the best work in the world is done by men of purpose. Of course it involves self-discipline, it involves the restraint of foolish imaginations, it often means the curbing of many natural impulses; but is it not the case that too often we fritter away our best ideals and we never seem in any way to realise them? Our very energies fail us because we have not sufficiently concentrated our minds on any true end. But God's saints have felt the constraining love of Christ. This has made each one of them pull himself together and set his face steadfastly towards the goal. The Saints in Past Time a Comfort in Present Weakness Revelation 7:9 It is a frequent trouble or trial with almost every thoughtful Christian to feel disappointed with the measure of success that the Gospel has had in the world. And the simplest, and, in a measure, the truest answer to this feeling of disappointment is, that we are to estimate its success, not by the extent, but by the degree and intensity of its influence. I. In the first place, ought not the Christian to be disappointed? Shall he complain, if the world has not realised the desires of his charity. How can he, when he knows that they have even more cruelly disappointed the love of his Lord Himself? II. But though the Christian's rightful lot and proper feeling is one of disappointment, he is not without comfort under it. And next to that great comfort, of knowing that the sorrows of Christian love are a share of the sorrows of Christ, the greatest comfort is faith in the Communion of Saints. Though the elect in any one age and country and society are few, the elect of all time are a great multitude; the elect in all past time are many enough to encourage us; the elect in the time to come will be many enough to be worth our while to work for. Each single soul that is saved, at death or at the final coming of the Lord, belongs thenceforth not to the crooked and perverse generation in which its lot was cast, but to the general assembly and Church of the firstborn; it is not a single isolated member of a feeble minority, but a soldier in a mighty army, a citizen of a kingdom able to conquer the world. This is one difference between a servant of God and another man, that one belongs to a society and the other does not. Think what a truly innumerable company it is! Clearly then we have no need to faint, when we are compassed with so great a cloud of witnesses. W. H. Simcox, The Cessation of Prophecy, p. 215. References. VII. 9. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Holy-Tide Teaching, p. 195. T. F. Crosse, Sermons, p. 220. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i. p. 48. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Revelation, p. 331. VII. 9, 10. Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliv. p. 174. D. W. Simon, Twice Born and other Sermons, p. 194. H. P. Liddon, University Sermons (2nd Series), p. 55. E. T. J. Marriner, Sermons Preached at Lyme Regis, p. 85. F. O. Maurice, Sermons, vol. ii. p. 306. T. Arnold, Interpretation of Scripture, p. 302. H. M. Butler, Harrow School Sermons, p. 188. R. C. Trench, Sermons New and Old, p. 232. F. J. A. Hort, Village Sermons (2nd Series), p. 224. VII. 13. S. Baring-Gould, Village Preaching for Saints' Days, p. 209. J. S. Bartlett, Sermons, p. 272. J. M. Neale, Sermons Preached in Sackville College Chapel, vol. iv. p.l. Heaven Through Tribulation Revelation 7:13-14 Reading men and women know that this word 'tribulation' has a wonderful history. There is always a vision at the root of every word; and until you see the hidden picture you do not know the meaning of the word. Tribulation. We see a threshing machine, an instrument for cleansing corn and wheat, for separating straw and dust from wheat, called Tri-bulum. God borrowed the word from the husbandmen of the East, and put it into this Book. I. Tribulation is God's way of separating earthliness from the heaven of His people. Tribulation means trouble, but it means trouble sanctified, trouble that has done us good, that sends us to our knees, to our Bibles. It takes great tribulation to sanctify a sinner; but God will not let one item of tribulation come upon him that is not needed. He has His eye day and night upon His saints. II. These are they which came out of great tribulation, but that is not all tribulation alone will not do it. They washed their robes. The blood of Christ alone can atone. Sin is such a tremendous evil that it will take nothing less than a tremendous lotion to wash it away nothing less than the blood of God Himself. They serve Him day and night in His Temple. The whole of heaven is one temple, for God is the Temple of it, and the Lamb is the Light thereof. Oh, if it is so good to be here, what must it be to be there? A. Whyte, The Sunday School Chronicle, vol. XXXIV. p. 315. Reference. VII. 13, 14. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xviii. No. 1040. Saved to Serve Revelation 7:13-15 I. The gorgeous visions and somewhat clouded vistas of the Apocalypse are sometimes difficult of interpretation. The passage before us, however, is on the whole simple and clear; men with a spiritual understanding have little or no difficulty with it. It is the vision of the redeemed, victorious Church, numbered in it the men and women whom we knew, who dealt with us here and strengthened and comforted our lives, but who have now gone from our mortal sight. What blessed work they do who can say? Milton in one of his majestic moments, which was also one of his humblest moods, speaking of the heavenly host said: 'Thousands at His bidding speed and post o'er land and ocean without rest. They also serve who only stand and wait.' Whatever their work, it is work without weariness, it is service without labour, it is toil without tears, it is the glad service of those who are at Home, and see and know as they are known. II. Now surely here is a great truth which the Church on earth needs to learn. This vision of the Church redeemed proclaims the great truth that God saves men to serve. Those garments of the saints mean honour, victory; yes, but also service. In the Kingdom of God all are enrolled and equipped for active service, and no man can lazily loiter in pride or selfishness or ease, and be counted worthy. III. Crowned to serve? Yes. But that is a thought that the world has great difficulty in understanding. Is it easy for the Church? It is the kind of truth that ennobles life, and opens up visions, and shows us how worth living life is, and that following Christ even as He was as a servant and minister, giving His life a ransom for many is the one thing that makes life heroic and worthy of a man's toil and struggle And the Church must learn it. IV. How do we think of it personally in relation to Christ's Church on earth? It is a great honour for us to have been called of God to see the face of Christ; it is also a great responsibility. Our cleansing in Christ clothes us with the uniform of active service. There are a great many people who have not got any joy in their religion, because they have missed this truth. There is much faith that is very feeble, and it brings little or no joy to the heart, or to the home, or to the Church, because it is not sweetened and strengthened by work. D. L. Ritchie, Peace the Umpire and other Sermons, p. 157. From Stress to Triumph Revelation 7:13-17 I. Two features in the past history of the victorious hosts are briefly indicated. (1) The elder who draws near to interpret the vision speaks of the discipline through which the multitude has passed a lesson not without its significance to this saint in exile. 'These are they which came out of the great tribulation.' The weird imagery of this book seems to suggest that the stages of the tribulation are so ordered that it achieves the ends of a great spiritual discipline. The convulsions which rend the earth are one and all determined by movements before the throne of God in heaven. The saints are sealed ere the restless forces of destruction rush forth upon their errands, and the trials which are to prove high qualities take place under the eye of a watching God and amidst the ministries of His messengers. (2) The interpreting elder sketches the past history of the redeemed multitude in its ethical inwardness. The life once lived upon earth was a life of purifying faith in the Divine sacrifice. 'They washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.' Admitted to the holiest sanctuary of all worlds, they minister before God as priests and kings. But it is through the blood of propitiation that they have won access to this high standing-ground. II. This vision brings into view the higher destiny upon which God's redeemed servants have entered. Four elements combine in the gladness of this beatific life. (1) The life of the glorified first presents itself to the mind of John as a grand victory in which uncounted hosts participate. The sense of a well-won victory, the victory of the highest of all causes, pulsates in the life of the glorified. 'Salvation to our God which sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb.' (2) The elder goes on to describe the redeemed as raised to a priesthood of worship and service. This is the central absorbing employment of the new state upon which they have entered. 'Therefore are they before the throne of God, and they serve Him day and night in His temple.' (3) These triumphant saints are still in fellowship with the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep. This thought is brought out in the Revised Version: 'The Lamb in the midst of the throne shall be their shepherd'. Between Himself and those who have been made white by His sacrificial blood there is a bond no change can weaken or destroy. (4) The last touch in this picture sets forth the Eternal God as the Comforter of His saved people. 'And God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes.' Not only is He the object of worship upon the throne, He comes nearer still to the redeemed multitude, healing all the smarts of earth, and dispersing the last memory of pain. When God puts His hand upon the fountain of mortal tears, the fountain is sealed up for ever. Revelation 7:14 Did you ever observe the force of double symbols? Sometimes they increase the light they cast, like twin stars. There is that fine one in the Apocalypse, 'Who have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb'. Isn't that wonderfully expressive? Ah yes, and they'll be prouder of their redness than of their whiteness. Dr. John Duncan, in * Colloquia Peripatetica. * 'Think, Madam,' wrote Samuel Rutherford to Lady Ken mure, after a great sorrow in her family, 'it is a part of your glory to be enrolled among those whom one of the elders pointed out to John, "These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Behold your Forerunner going out of the world all in a lake of blood, and it is not ill to die as He did.' References. VII. 14. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxii. No. 1316. J. Laidlaw, Studies in the Parables, p. 269. A. Smellie, The Scottish Review, vol. vi. p. 443. Expositor (4th Series), vol. v. p. 125; ibid. vol. vi. p. 251; ibid. (5th Series), vol. vi. p. 218. Revelation 7:14-16 The summer of 1826 was, I believe, the hottest and driest in the nineteenth century. Almost no rain fell from May till August. I recollect the long continued sultry haze over the mountains of Lorne, Loch Etive daily a sea of glass, the smoke of kelp-burning ascending from its rocky shores, and the sunsets reflecting the hills of Mull and Morven in purple and crimson and gold. I can picture a sultry Sunday in that year in the quaint, rudely furnished, crowded parish church, then beside the manse, and the welcome given to the sublime imagery of the Apocalypse in the words which formed the text: 'These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat' Prof. Campbell Fraser, Biographia Philosophica, p. 17. Compare the use of these verses also in Mrs. Gaskell's North and South, XI. XIII. and XVII. Reference. VII. 15. A. Smellie, The Scottish Review, vol. vi. p. 163. The Dignity of Service Revelation 7:15 * ; Revelation 7:17 * This is one of the glimpses of the better life which John gives us in this book of celestial visions. Heaven is a place of sweet activities. The redeemed are serving God day and night before His throne. The Lamb in the midst of the throne is still occupied as when on earth He said: 'I am among you as He that saveth'. All these, from the highest to the lowest, are busy in the ministry of love. And we take it that that is the pattern in the mount after which God would have us fashion all things in the earthly life, and so in the text we get a sermon not so much about heaven as about the work and interests of the present day. We learn: I. That the highest life is a life of perpetual service. In God's view rank is determined by the measure of service. It is strange how the world has set aside and reversed this principle in its conceptions of rank and dignity. We speak of service with a sort of disdain, and of servants as ignoble and inferior persons. We are nearest heaven in proportion as we serve. II. The highest life is a life of service in the temple, or rather of temple service. The highest life on earth is a life made up entirely of temple service a life in which we do all things from the least to the greatest in the same spirit in which we sing hymns and offer prayers, honestly, reverently, and purely, as in the sight of God and our Master Jesus Christ. What we need more and more to feel is that we are always in the temple; that though we do not see God's face, we are for ever in His sight; that we serve before His throne, and that He takes careful and loving knowledge of everything. It is possible even on earth to be like those who serve Him day and night in His temple. III. The highest life is a life of work inspired by love, by love and not by necessity. In all that we do there may be the willing, thankful, rejoicing spirit, a feeling of infinite indebtedness to God for His great gifts and His great love, which gives, as it were, wings to the feet that are engaged in common labour. According to the measure of your love will you be near to those who serve as they behold His face. J. G. Greenhough, The Cross in Modern Life, p. 209. Revelation 7:16 'No one who has never wanted food knows what life is,' said Wilderspin.... 'No one knows the real primal meaning of that pathetic word Man no one knows the true meaning of Man's position here among the other living creatures of this world, if he has never wanted food. Hunger gives a new seeing to the eyes.' Theodore Watts-Dunton, * Aylwin. * References. VII. 16, 17. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxx. No. 1800, and vol. xxxvi. No. 2128. Paradise Revelation 7:17 When evening came, the Oriental shepherd gathered his flock around him, and, in imagery borrowed from the flocks feeding on Olivet, we are told that he puts himself at the head of his sheep and slowly mounts the hill, tenderly carrying the weakest in his arms, and leading them gently on until they reach the permanent Fold which stood on the high ground of the Mount of Olives. It is a true picture of the way in which Jesus deals with us when the evening of life comes to us. Then the Good Shepherd comes and calls us home. Do we ask in trembling anxiety when will death come to us? Where will it be? In what shape will it present itself? There is no answer to these questions. I remember once, at the unveiling of a memorial to some colliers who had perished in an explosion, a pitman spoke with much pathos of the way a collier would say goodbye to his wife and children each morning when he started for his daily toil, not knowing if he would ever return home alive again. Surely we might each say the same thing of ourselves. However short the absence from home may be, who can tell if he will be permitted to return again? Such thoughts should not be put away as alarming; it is our wisdom to realise the possible nearness of death much more then we usually do. But what is Death? We ask the question in trembling anxiety, and Jesus does tell us something in answer. Death is certainly not destruction, it is no cessation of being; it is not even a suspension of being; it is a changed condition of life: 'Absent from the body, present with the Lord'; 'Whether we live or die, we are the Lord's'. Death is a birth into new conditions of life. We are told of our Blessed Lord, that 'He was put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the Spirit'; that which seemed like falling into a deep unconscious sleep was, in Jesus, the passing into quickened energy of life, As with our Forerunner, so will it be with us death is our birth into the life of Paradise. He is the Comforter, Nourisher, Guide and Teacher of the Saints at rest, for this is the best definition of life in Paradise it is a life of rest. This is its characteristic feature as it is brought before us in the Bible. 'The souls of the righteous are in the Hand of God, and there shall no evil touch them; in the sight of the unwise they seem to die, but they are at peace.' And again, 'I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord... that they may rest from their labours'. Let us consider some of the elements of that rest. I. The waiting souls in Paradise enjoy the rest of those who have escaped for ever from weariness. Here on earth the sun smites upon us with its burning heat, and we become very weary. How tired one gets of life sometimes! The strain of even an ordinary existence is so great, not only from its outward circumstances, but from its continual inward conditions. But the souls in Paradise are at rest. No longer does the corruptible body weigh down the incorruptible soul; no longer have they to bear the heavy burden of this mortal flesh; no longer does 'the sun light upon them, nor any heat'; they enjoy the deep, abiding, and refreshing rest of Paradise. II. They have the rest of freedom from life's anxieties. There is no care there; 'they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more'; they are freed from anxiety as to their own perseverance, from the terrible anxiety of living under conditions of known spiritual peril. Theirs is the rest of temptation escaped; the rest that comes after the battle has been fought out to its extremest limits; it is the rest of attained security. III. They enjoy the rest of spiritual satisfaction. Here, it is our very beatitude to know unsatisfied desire: 'Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness;' and well we know by experience the truth of this beatitude, for our progress is marked by increasing desire, and every Eucharist adds to the intensity of the longing of the soul after God. IV. There is also the rest of Service. We carry with us into Paradise consciousness, memory, and the power of communion with the Lord. It must therefore surely follow that if we are present with the Lord, sharing His Love, blending our will with His high purpose, the rest of Paradise must be the rest of activity; and one undoubted sphere of that activity is the Ministry of Intercession. The saints within the veil are ever bearing us upon their hearts, as they think of us as being on the perilous journey of earthly life; and their supplications blend with the Mighty Sacrifice offered by the Great High Priest at the Golden Altar, as He intercedes for His Church on earth. V. Yet, once again, and sweetest thought of all, the waiting souls are living in the rest of Hope. There is a restlessness even in their rest, and through it they know the crowning joy of Paradise, as they cry from beneath the Altar, 'How long, O Lord, how long?' In this life of hope they have foretastes of the greater joys that await them in heaven; they look for the joy of Resurrection when they shall live once more an embodied life, but in a resurrection body, conformed to the glory of the risen Lord; they look for the joy of 'His appearing,' for that fulness of bliss which they shall know when they shall wake up after His likeness and be satisfied with it. They have the anticipation of all that awaits them in the glorious Resurrection life of the Saints, and ever, under the power of the grace of Jesus, does this joyful hope grow clearer as the entranced spirits enter deeper into the secrets of their future life in heaven. George Body, The Good Shepherd, p. 99. The Feeding of the Lamb Revelation 7:17 The first words which John ever heard of Jesus were words that described Him as a Lamb. When John was a disciple of the Baptist's, drinking in inspiration from that stern teacher, he had heard these words fall from the Baptist's lips, 'Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world'. What experiences John had had and what a vast deal he had suffered when he came to write this book of Revelation! Yet in Revelation some seven and twenty times John repeats the sweet expression Lamb of God the first words he had ever heard of Christ. How blessed is a life when from its first stage to its last there runs through it one regulating thought! I. Christ in heaven today is the very Christ who walked by the banks of Jordan. I think we all need to be assured of that, for we are very prone to disbelieve it. We know that He is no longer rejected and despised, and we know that the body of His humiliation has been glorified, until insensibly we transfer these changes from His outward nature to His heart, as though death and resurrection had altered that. So do we conceive Christ as far away from us, separated from the beating of the human heart; glorious, yet not so full of tender brotherhood as in the days of Capernaum and Bethany. That error is combated by the vision of the Lamb in heaven. Purity, gentleness, and sacrifice are there. II. Another thought which our text suggests is this, that we shall need Christ in heaven as much as we do here. The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them even in heaven there shall be no feeding without Christ. We all know in some measure how great and how constant is our need of Christ on earth. Are we not prone to imagine that in the world beyond the need of being nourished by Christ Jesus will be less? However such an idea may arise within us, remember that it is not the conception of the Bible. All that we owe to Him on earth is but a tithe of what we shall owe to Him when we awake. It is suggested, too, by the words of the original that this feeding shall be a perpetual process. The love of God will expand and deepen endlessly so that every fresh hour will have its sweet surprise. III. Lastly, and most significant of all, will you note the position in which the Lamb is standing. In the very centre and seat of power He has His place: He is the Lamb in the midst of the throne. That means that the redeemed shall be fed not only gently, but by one who stands in the place of sovereign power. G. H. Morrison, The Unlighted Lustre, p. 259. Revelation 7:17 'How can we conceive,' James Smetham once wrote, 'of a complete joy, if those we love are not there with us? I dare hardly turn my eyes this way. It is like the beginning of our agony to think of eternal separation; it seems as if it would fill eternity with tears. What is that view of Truth that will wipe all tears away? What that consent to the Divine Rectitude which cannot permit a diminished joy even when the wicked are silent in darkness? I need help for such thoughts as these God bring all we love safe within that circle of glory. God grant we may have no loves on earth that will not be everlasting.' Her sympathy for man is not the 'child of golden hope,' but of deep and tender pity. The grave will right many wrongs, the future will bring in a peaceful, better time what more can science or its religion promise? Not that God will wipe away the teal's from every eye; for its heaven is only the vision of the ideal, and never can be a fact. Dr. William Barry, on George Eliot. In a letter to his father, written out of a fit of youth-full melancholy, Burns alludes to this passage thus: 'I am more pleased with the 15th, 16th, and 17th verses of the seventh chapter of Revelation, than with any ten times as many verses in the whole Bible, and would not exchange the noble enthusiasm with which they inspire me for all that this world has to offer. As for this world, I despair of ever making a figure in it Indeed I am altogether unconcerned at the thoughts of this life.' References. VII. 17. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xi. No. 643. J. Morlais Jones, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvi. p. 356. J. Keble, Sermons for the Sundays After Trinity, p. 229. Ibid. Miscellaneous Sermons, p. 340. Revelation 8:1 Mr. A. C. Benson writes: 'I think that there are few verses of the Bible that give one a more sudden and startling thrill than the verse at the beginning of the eighth chapter of the Revelation. "And when he had opened the seventh seal there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour." The very simplicity of the words, the homely note of specified time, is in itself deeply impressive. But further, it gives the dim sense of some awful and unseen preparation going forward, a period allowed in which those that stood by, august and majestic as they were, should collect their courage, should make themselves ready with bated breath for some dire pageant.' References. VIII. 1. W. F. Shaw, Sermon Sketches for the Christian Year, p. 66. VIII. 11. J. Keble, Sermons for the Saints' Days, p. 362. Revelation 8:13 Compare Mrs. Oliphant's analysis of Botticelli's special trait, in her Makers of Florence (p. 853). 'It is,' she observes, 'to be seen in his pictures of all subjects, even in his "Venus" a cloud somewhere shadowing the sun, a perception dim and terrible of griefs that must come, howsoever they may be disguised, or how distant soever they may be for the moment. This is the very soul and sentiment of his work, his highest inspiration in art.' Revelation 9:2 Milton alludes to this passage in the great apostrophe towards the close of his Reformation in England, where he invites the Triune God on behalf of England's peace and purity. 'Look upon this, Thy poor and almost spent and expiring Church, leave her not thus a prey to these importunate wolves, that wait and think long till they devour Thy tender flock; these wild boars that have broke into Thy vineyard, and left the print of their polluting hoofs upon the souls of Thy servants. O let them not bring about their damned designs, that stand now at the entrance of the bottomless pit, expecting the watchword to open, and let out those dreadful locusts and scorpions, to reinvolve us in that pitchy cloud of infernal darkness, where we shall never more see the sun of Thy truth again, never hope for the cheerful dawn, never more hear the bird of morning sing. Be moved with pity at the afflicted state of this our shaken monarchy, that now lies labouring under her throes, and struggling against the grudges of more dreaded enemies.' If God permit the lid of evil to be lifted as a test or as a punishment, the key remains in His hand to secure that lid again when He will. But if I lift any lid of evil, I have no power to shut off the dire escape from myself or from others: death and defilement I may let loose, but I cannot recapture. C. G. ROSSETTI. Revelation 9:3 * f * Coleridge, in his second Lay Sermon, sees political empirics, demagogues, and 'noisy and calumnious zealots' in the figures which 'St. John beheld in the apocalyptic vision as a compound of locust and scorpion. They are not,' he continues, 'of one place or of one season. They are the perennials of history; and though they may disappear for a time, they exist always in the egg, and need only a distempered atmosphere and an accidental ferment to start up into life and activity.' In a subsequent note he toys with the fancy that no other images 'could form more appropriate and significant exponents of a seditious and riotous multitude, with the mob-orators, their heads or leaders, than the thousands of pack-horses with heads resembling those of a roaring wild beast, with smoke, fire, and brimstone (that is, empty, unintelligible, incendiary, calumnious, and offensively foul language) issuing from their mouth'. The Fictions of Sin Revelation 9:7 These mystical locusts have been very differently construed by various scholars, but it will be better and safer for us to agree that they personify the lusts and passions which destroy the soul, and which therefore destroy all things. The text suggests that sin effects great things, that it promises great things, and yet fails to give what it promises. The crown it boasts is not real, solid, golden, but a mere figure of speech 'as it were'. There is a terrible irony in sin. I. There is no reality in the greatness that men seek in the spirit of selfishness and lust. Take a selfish conqueror, of whom Napoleon is the type. Take a selfish poet, and let Byron be our typical instance. Whatever is built on egotism, violence, covetousness, or any other form and quality of unrighteousness, inherits only an apparitional crown. II. There is no reality in the wealth that is obtained unrighteously or used selfishly. (1) Look at illegitimate wealth wealth gotten by immoral means. (2) And there is much the same deception and disappointment in all unspiritual wealth. Balzac built himself a splendid mansion, but when it was finished he had no money left wherewith to furnish it, and so he proceeded to furnish it in imagination: here, according to a ticket, hung a great picture, there stood a rich cabinet, yonder a superb table the place fluttered with labels, but the realities were missing. It is much the same with the selfish, unspiritual rich. They have certificates, title deeds, receipts, parchments, bank books declaring the soundness of their investments, the reality of their estate, but their wealth is no fact in their deepest life, there is no corresponding sentiment in their brain and heart. Have no unrighteous wealth; it will only deceive and curse you. III. There is no reality in the pleasure that sin promises. Seek genuine, solid satisfactions. During his last days Verlaine, the brilliant French poet, was occupied in covering the squalid furniture of his squalid rooms with gold paint. The reason of the poor fellow was gone, and it pleased his wild eye and disordered fancy to reckon the worthless furniture of his miserable lodging as the golden furniture of palaces. So the distempered soul drugged with the opium of vanity and passion looks upon base, vulgar, ugly, and ruinous things and habits as altogether beautiful and precious. But Verlaine's yellow furniture did not sell for gold, and the day inevitably comes when those who have lived a worldly and godless life awake to the vanity of the things and pursuits for which they gave and suffered so much. It is in the truth and grace and power of God in Christ that we realise all the rich and enduring satisfactions of the heart. There is no 'as it were' in Him. No mimic crown, no ghostly garland, no mocking prize. W. L. Watkinson, The Blind Spot, p. 267. The Craft and Cruelty of Sin Revelation 9:8 Conspicuous in the Apocalypse are many strange creatures locusts like horses, great dragons having seven heads and ten horns, a beast rising out of the sea having seven heads and ten horns, 'and the beast was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion'. The grotesque imagery of the Apocalypse has a moral significance which, above all things, must be fully understood and applied. These mixed, bizarre, inconceivable creatures exaggerated scorpions, red dragons, huge locusts, and serpents represent the various forms and powers of evil, and they must be so interpreted. Let us therefore expound the text In this special light, and broadly consider its teachings on the craft and cruelty of sin. I. The Craft of Sin. 'They had hair as the hair of women.' The soft, silken, shiny hair stands for the speciousness and persuasiveness of temptation. Evil circumvents us with deep and delicate snares, until even those who walk warily hardly walk surely. (1) Sometimes it affects the guise of love. (2) Sin often identifies itself with beauty. (3) Evil often assumes the festal aspect. (4) Sin often glides in as fashion. (5) Sin is sometimes incarnated as glory. (6) Finally, sin appeals to us in the guise of virtue and religion. The master-stroke of evil is to play itself off as holiness and devotion. Yet let us not forget that the secret of sin's fascination is in the distempered soul itself. II. The Cruelty of Sin. 'Their teeth were as the teeth of lions.' How sharp and startling is the contrast presented in the text woman's hair, lion's teeth! Yes; and how sharp and startling is the contrast between the beginnings and the endings of transgression! There is no cruelty like the cruelty of sin, and no suffering like that which it occasions. (1) Let us believe in the reality and seriousness of spiritual peril. We need to get the sobering thought into our heart, and we shall get it into our heart if we live much with Christ. (2) Let us seek salvation in the Spirit and grace of God, made manifest in Jesus Christ. Such is the power of evil in" the world, and such the guile of our own heart, that we can never successfully deal with temptation by mere knowledge and natural firmness. We must be illuminated, inspired, and fortified by the spirit of God freely acting through our whole being. W. L. Watkinson, The Bane and the Antidote, p. 149. References. IX. 12. Expositor (6th Series), vol. ix. p. 462. IX. 14. Ibid. p. 316. IX. 20. Ibid. (7th Series), vol. vi. p. 276. X. 5, 6. J. C. M. Bellew, Sermons, vol. i. p. 283. Expositor (5th Series), vol. iv. p. 156. Revelation 10:7 Compare Savonarola's outburst, with a similar oxymoron, in his Advent addresses to the Florentines in 1494. After a scathing exposure of Rome's iniquities, he cries: 'Hasten the chastisement and the scourge, that we may quickly return to Thee.... The only hope that now remains to us, is that the sword of God may soon smite the earth.' Reference. X. 8. A. Whyte, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliii. p. 403. Revelation 10:10 Although Divine inspiration must certainly have been sweet to those ancient prophets, yet the irksomeness of that truth which they brought was so unpleasant unto them, that everywhere they call it a burden. Yea, that mysterious book of revelation, which the great evangelist was bid to eat, as it had been some eye-brightening electuary of knowledge and foresight, though it were sweet in his mouth, and in the learning, it was bitter in his belly, bitter in the denouncing. Nor was this hid from the wise poet Sophocles, who in that place of his tragedy where Teiresias is called to resolve King Œdipus in a matter which he knew would be grievous, brings him in bemoaning his lot, that he knew more than other men.... But when God commands to take the trumpet, and blow a dolorous or a jarring blast, it lies not in man's will what he shall say, or what he shall conceal. Milton. References. X. 10. R. F. Horton, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxi. p. 273. Expositor (6th Series), vol. x. p. 356. XI. 2. S. Baring-Gould, Village Preaching for a Year, vol. ii. p. 290. XI. 3-13. Expositor (6th Series), vol. x. p. 12. XI. 5. R. J. Drummond, Faith's Certainties, p. 383. Revelation 11:7 Lord, I read of the two witnesses, 'and when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them and shall overcome them and kill them'. They could not be killed whilst they were doing, but when they had done their work; during their employment they were invincible. No better armour against the darts of death than to be busied in Thy service. Thomas Fuller. The City: Its Sin and Saviour Revelation 11:8 The fact that our Lord was crucified nigh unto the sacred city is a suggestive fact we shall do well to ponder. I. The Sinfulness of the City. Which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt. Not that the obscenity and visible horror of Sodom were features of Jerusalem, but the sacred city resembled Sodom in its internal and vicious condition. Egypt was the land of slavery and persecution, and Israel had spiritually taken the place of Egypt, reproduced the characteristics of Egypt The point specially to be observed is, that Jerusalem had become thus infamous through the abuse of religious privilege. It was a religious city that was spiritually called Sodom and Egypt; perverted religious opportunity made it pre-eminent in iniquity and retribution. All evils come to their worst in great cities; the evils exist in petty forms and inconspicuous colours in rustic scenes, but the wealth, liberty, numbers, and rivalry of a great city bring them out broadly and luridly. It is a forcing-bed where every vice attains abnormal growth. And when the benign influences of religion are rejected, the wickedness is in the same proportion aggravated. II. The Saviour of the City. 'Where also our Lord was crucified.' Christ crucified is the one antidote for the city's wickedness and woe, even when that city is Jerusalem. We are not going to cleanse, enlighten, uplift, and idolise our cities without God; and then it will only be through God as He has been pleased to reveal Himself in His redeeming Son. Every sin that blasts the city is condemned in the cross; every inspiration that saves it flows from the cross. Calvary testifies to the everlasting righteousness of God, to His mercy to the penitent, to His sympathy and grace with up-struggling humanity. Only in the cross do we get at the root of the mischief; only there do we find the essential blessing. God is in Christ crucified, reconciling the world unto Himself; and only as sinners find their way to the foot of the cross are Babylon, Sodom, and Egypt transformed into the City of God. 'And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.' W. L. Watkinson, The Ashes of Roses, p. 68. References. XI. 12. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ix. No. 488. XI. 15. C. J. Ridgeway, The King and His Kingdom, p. 29. W. Watson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvi. p. 389. Bishop Dowden, Religion in Relation to the Social and Political Life of England, No. 6. T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. iv. p. 310. F. T. Bassett, Things that Must Be, p. 72. Expositor (5th Series), vol. ii. p. 349. XI. 16, 17. W. H. Hutchings, Sermon Sketches, p. 18. XI. 18. Expositor (6th Series), vol. x. p. 362. The Ark and Its New Sanctuary Revelation 11:19 I. This vision of the ark in heaven suggests that the worship of God is henceforth to direct itself towards a new centre. Under the old dispensation the ark was a witness to the root-principles of true worship. It contained within itself the mementoes of those facts and truths from which the Covenant tie between God and His people was woven, and which must ever be kept in mind by those who would enjoy fellowship with God. (1) This vision implies that the worship of a humanity regenerated by the discipline of judgment will find its centre and resting-place in the selfsame principles which were foreshadowed by the ordinances of the first tabernacle. The proclamation by great voices in heaven. 'The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ,' herald a new and better theocracy; and as the ark of the Covenant was the keystone of the old, so are the truths illustrated by its emblems essentials of the new. (2) This glimpse of an ark in the celestial temple suggests that the new centre of worship is catholic and not national. (3) The vision seems to indicate the growing religious capacity of the race. John implies in this vision that all worship will at last pour itself forth where God has fixed the true mercy-seat, and the places on earth accounted holy will be left behind by the soaring faith of the believer. II. The Covenant ark in heaven is the pledge of victory and external salvation to the chosen people. Napoleon Bonaparte once said: 'A man must feel himself a child of fortune if he is to brace his soul to fortitude'. That cynical and godless man had probably ceased to feel himself a pet of the Fates when he began to blunder, and brought about, in due time, his own irretrievable overthrow. In presence of the ark of God's Covenant in the ever-open temple, the servant of Jesus Christ may always realise that a resistless providence is on his side, and that he can suffer no final defeat. The Covenant ark in heaven is a landmark of the inheritance which God has promised to them that love Him. The ark of the Covenant seen by John precedes the pilgrim saints into the new land of promise, and asserts their birthright in 'the city whose builder and maker is God'. It puts the patriarchs in possession of that better country which they never found on earth. If we are servants of the Covenant, and in accord with its demands, it is already claiming our inheritance for us. The symbolic ark has been carried amidst exulting songs into its last resting-place. It has passed into the realms of light, and, in view of the one Church in heaven and on earth, waits there till the last weary fainting warrior, the last pale footsore woman, the last halting child, has crossed the flood, and every jot and tittle of the Covenant promise has been fulfilled. References. XI. 19. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvii. No. 1621; vol. xli. No. 2427. XII. 1-5. Bishop Gore, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliv. p. 33. XII. 2. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ii. p. 290. St. Michael and All Angels Revelation 12:7 Tradition says that the Feast of St. Michael and all Angels was first celebrated in the fourth century; but history states that its general observance did not occur until the eighth century, when it became an annual festival. Since then the Eastern Church has observed it on 8th November; the Anglican Church on 29th September. The belief in angelic creatures has been a favourite article in the universal creed, but the most unequivocal and direct evidence of their existence and ministry is to be found in the Bible. Fifteen, at least, of the inspired writers have described them. I. Of the vast number of the holy angels there is very little doubt. The Jewish Rabbis state that 'nothing exists without an attendant angel, not even a blade of grass'. The great Aquinas asserts that 'there are more angels than all substances together, celestial and terrestrial, animate and inanimate'. St Gregory calculates that 'there are so many angels as there are elect'. Charles Kingsley maintains that 'in every breeze there are living spirits, and God's angels guide the thunder-clouds'. But what saith the Scripture? On its pages their number is variously stated. As Jacob was on his way back to his native land 'the angels of God met him'. In his last benediction Moses speaks of 'ten thousand'. When Elisha prayed that his servant's eyes might be opened, he saw, and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about'. In his vision of the Ancient of Days, Daniel beheld 'thousand thousands ministering unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand standing before Him'. St. John did but echo this language in one of his gorgeous descriptions of Heaven when he described the angels as a vast assembly 'which no man could number'. At the advent of Jesus there appeared 'a multitude of the heavenly host,' and one dark eventide, near Gethsemane, He declared to Peter that if He prayed to His Father He would give Him 'more than twelve legions of angels'. II. But all the angels are not of the same rank. Michael, for example, is represented in Scripture as being the next in rank to the Angel-Jehovah. In the Book of Daniel he is spoken of as 'one of the chief princes' in the celestial hierarchy, and in the Book of St. John as 'the archangel'. III. A word may now be added about the ministry of angels. They were ever the servants of Jesus during His incarnate life, as they are now in His glorified life; and sometimes God has employed them to punish the wicked. The Collect for this Festival speaks of the succour and defence which they may render to us, and it is well to remember that they are God's ministers, and 'do His pleasure'. 'Babes,' says Manton, 'have their guardian angels'; and Bengel asserts that 'the angels take care of the little ones; and so much the more the less they are able to protect themselves'; while Keble ascribes the 'first soft smile' of sleeping infancy to their presence, and, in his own poetic and beautiful manner, represents their smile as 'a gleam from heaven's deep sea of love'. And a Greater than these has said that the angels of the little ones do always behold the Face of their Father in Heaven. It may be true that holy angels render service to unholy men; but, according to the Bible, they are specially 'sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation'. Nor do they forget the body which enshrined the soul. They guard its sleeping-place, as they did the sepulchre of Jesus, until the early dawn of the resurrection, when they will give up their trust. References. XII. 7. R. E. Hutton, The Crown of Christ, p. 281. H. S. Holland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlviii. p. 209. XII. 8. W. H. Barlow, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlix. p. 372. Revelation 12:10 The character in which he [Blake] abhors and renounces Satan is that of 'the accuser of sins'. The monarch of hell might be the antagonist of many things accounted sacred, and might exercise wild volcanic forces in many inconvenient directions, and yet incur small blame from Blake; but it is a different matter when the same personage accuses others of sins.... There lies the fatal flaw in Satan. 'Every religion that preaches vengeance for sin is the religion of the enemy and avenger, and not of the forgiver of sin; and their God is Satan named by the Divine name.' W. M. Rossetti, upon Blake. References. XII. 10. Expositor (4th Series), vol. v. p. 291; ibid. (6th Series), vol. viii. p. 327. Revelation 12:11 Bishop Daniel Wilson preached from this text at St Bride's Church in 1846, on behalf of the Church Missionary Society. He only paid one visit to England during his quarter of a century's episcopate in India and his sermon was the chief event of his furlough. His heads were (1) the mighty foe, (2) the means of resisting him, (3) the issue of the conflict. At the close he used this expression: 'Then may we humbly hope that being washed, covered, plunged, hidden in the blood of the Lamb, we shall pass as one of our commentators [Dr. Gill] sublimely speaks, "under the purple covering triumphantly to glory".' References. XII. 11. Spurgeon, vol. xxi. No. 1237; vol. xxxiv. No. 2043. XII. 12. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxv. No. 1502. Revelation 12:16 I like to see the earth helping the woman. I do not plead very earnestly for any particular church, but I would have a well-formed machinery fixed in every country ducts of irrigation through which the predominant religion, whatever it is, may diffuse its streams of Christian instruction. Chalmers, in 1830. Reference. XII. 16. Bishop Boyd-Carpenter, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lv. p. 337. Revelation 12:17 In his Holy War, Bunyan describes the various Captains of the Devil's army against Mansoul, one of whom is 'Captain Pope; his standard-bearer bare the red colours, and his scutcheon was the stake, the flame, and the good man in it'. Revelation 13:1-3 Louis Napoleon was a symbol and creature of his time, which divided with him the crime of the coup d'éat. He had his day, and paid his debt at the end of it to the retributory powers. But while his day lasted, and he seemed to thrive, he was an ugly object in the eyes of those who believed in some sort of providence. Froude. 'The same day,' writes Carlyle in his account of the French orgies in 1793, 'while this brave Carmagnoledance has hardly jigged itself out, there arrive Procureur Chaumette and Municipals and Departmentals, and with them the strangest freightage: a New Religion! Demoiselle Candeille of the opera, a woman fair to look upon, when well rouged; she, borne on palanquin shoulder-high, with red woollen nightcap, in azure mantle, garlanded with oak, holding in her hand the Pike of the Jupiter- Peuple , sails in, heralded by white young women girt in tricolor. Let the world consider it! This, O National Convention, wonder of the Universe, is our New Divinity; Goddess of Reason, worthy, and alone worthy, of revering. Her henceforth we adore. Nay, were it too much to ask of our august National Representation that it also went with us to the ci-devant Cathedral called of Notre-Dame, and executed a few strophes in worship of her?... Other mysteries, seemingly of a Cabiric or Paphian character, we leave under the Veil, which appropriately stretches itself "along the pillars of the aisles" not to be lifted aside by the hand of History.' References. XIII. 1, 2. F. T. Bassett, Things that Must Be, p. 1. XIII. 2, 5, 6. H. Edwards, Penny Pulpit, No. 1499, p. 129. Revelation 13:3 Malmesbury gives us the beginning of the marriage story; how the prince reeled into chapel to be married; how he hiccuped out his vows of fidelity you know how he kept them; how he pursued the woman whom he had married; to what a state he brought her; with what blows he struck her; with what malignity he pursued her; what his treatment of his daughter was; and what his own life. He the first gentleman in Europe! There is no stronger satire on the proud English society of that day, than that they admired George. Thackeray, on 'George the Fourth'. Revelation 13:4 There is as great vice in praising, and as frequent, as in detracting. Ben Jonson. There never was a mean and abject mind that did not admire an intrepid and dexterous villain. Burke. Reference. XIII. 6-8. Expositor (6th Series), vol. xii. p. 103. Revelation 13:8 On a certain time, as I was walking in the fields, the Lord said unto me: Thy name is written in the Lamb's book of life, which was before the foundation of the world. And as the Lord spake it, I believed, and saw it in the new birth. Fox's * Journal. * References. XIII. 8. Expositor (5th Series), vol. iv. p. 277; ibid. vol. v. p. 416. Revelation 13:10 He was an absolute sepulchre in the swallowing of oppression and ill-usage. It vanished in him. There was no echo of complaint, no murmur of resentment from the hollows of that soul. The blows that fell upon him resounded not, and no one but God remembered them. George Macdonald, in * Robert Falconer. * Compare, for the idea of impatience and irritation as fatal to character, the description of the French put by Lord Lytton, in My Novel, into the mouth of Mr. Caxton. 'Sir, their whole political history, since the great meeting of the Tiers Etat, has been the history of men who would rather go to the devil than be bitten by a flea. It is the record of human impatience, that seeks to force time, and expects to grow forests from the spawn of a mushroom.' As Dr. Birkbeck Hill rightly observes of Gibbon: 'After the long war that he had waged against the stifling of truth by the Church of Rome, his fall was deep indeed, when, under the terror inspired by the French Revolution, he urged some Portuguese gentlemen not to give up, at such a crisis, the Inquisition'. Contrast Dr. Johnson's theory, in his well-known note to the first scene of 'Henry the Fourth' (first part): 'The lawfulness and justice of the holy ware have been much disputed, but perhaps here is a principle on which the question may be easily determined. If it be part of the religion of the Mahommedans to extirpate by the sword all other religions, it is, by the law of self-defence, lawful for men of every other religion, and for Christians among others, to make war upon Mahommedans, simply as Mahommedans, as men obliged by their own principles to make war upon Christians, and only lying in wait till opportunity shall promise them success.' The Beast with Lamb's Horns Revelation 13:11 I am not at present concerned with the precise recognition of this beast. I only want to lay hold of this predominant fact: the beast wore some characteristics that are suggestive of Him that sitteth on the Throne. But here I am told that the deceiver has some of the Redeemer's characteristics! He is a beast, but with 'horns like a lamb'. The beast mimics the Lamb. Let us consider this nefarious ministry of mimicry. I. The Devil makes us trifle with moral destiny. 'The serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die'. Sin does not spell death! Is the deceptiveness effective? Let us consult our hearts. We are deluded by the horns, and we become the victims of the beast. II. And the Devil assumes the colour of the general surroundings. He hides himself in the common standards. III. And the Devil allures us by aesthetic appeals. The Devil can besiege the senses and captivate by the pleasurable sensations. IV. And the Devil deludes us by the mirage of material satisfaction. He disguises the dry desert, and it bewitches us as an apparent land of springs. He makes us thirst and haste, and, lo! we discover sand! 'He showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them.' How fascinating, and yet how delusive! J. H. Jowett, The British Congregationalist, p. 118. References. XIII. 11. Expositor (4th Series), vol. iv. p. 326. XIII. 12. Ibid. (6th Series), vol. i. p. 361. XIII. 13. Ibid. vol. viii. p. 183. XIII. 14. Ibid. (4th Series), vol. vii. p. 412. XIII. 16. Ibid. vol. ii. p. 286. XIII. 18. Ibid. (6th Series), vol. i. p. 394. XIV. 1-3. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iii. No. 110. XIV. 2, 4, 6__J. C. M. Bellew, Sermons, vol. iii. p. 64. A New Song (for Holy Innocents' Day) Revelation 14:3 Why, when heaven is yet ringing with the bright message of peace, does the wailing of Ramah, of Bethlehem, shriek in upon it with discordant jar? Perhaps the words of today's Epistle may suggest our attitude while feeling after the teaching of the Holy Spirit on this festival. The Apostle in his vision is contemplating a great company standing with the Lamb on Mount Zion, worshipping before the throne, and from that throne proceeds a voice as of many waters, and the voice of a great thunder. I. It may be that the Teaching of Holy Innocents' Day is part of the New Song of the Church which comes forth from the throne of God. For it is the song of infant wailing, an inarticulate cry, the song of those 'whose only language is a cry,' a cry of pain, of anguish, and of misery. All who came near Christ more or less suffered by approaching Him, just as if earthly trouble and pain went out of Him, as some precious virtue, for the good of their soul. Surely this is part of the new song of Holy Innocents' Day, the true meaning of suffering in the economy of the world. II. The Song that Mounts up before the Throne Today is also a Song without Words. It tells of no great achievements, no mighty actions. It tells of nameless fame, of passionless renown, of the glorious blessing of innocency as one of the choicest treasures of heaven. There is no other strain like it. Imperfection mingles with the song and the glory of the greatest martyrs. But they are without fault before the throne of God. The honour bestowed on little children the honour which belongs to innocency is another distinguishing mark of Christianity, the new song which the Church has tried to learn. Is the Holy Innocents' Day put there simply to daunt us, and to kindle remorse, and aggravate our loss? No, we can in a sense make ourselves young again. We can go straight to our Father's home, and ask Him to teach us even in this weary world, 'Lord, what wouldst Thou have me to do?' Revelation 14:3 What a blessing it is that there are things so good and delightful that no repetition of them can convert them into bores! Were there not some such things, eternity would be but a melancholy prospect for us. The song of heaven is called a new song, although I suppose its elements must always be the same, to express its unwearying nature. The affections are always new. Erskine of Linlathen, in a letter to his sister. References. XIV. 3. H. Woodcock, Sermon Outlines (1st Series), p. 45. Bishop Wilberforce, Sermons, p. 169. Expositor (5th Series), vol. viii. p. 463; ibid. vol. x. p. 153. Revelation 14:4 Christmas Day is followed by three other holy days: St. Stephen, St. John, and the Innocents. Now, why is this? Why are these three holy days put thus close together, and made to follow immediately after Christmas? And why, of all the New Testament Saints, should these three be chosen to be, as it were, the train of followers appointed to wait on the Saviour at His Birth? I. They are examples of the fruits of the Incarnation; instances of the work of restoration, and cleansing, and refining, by Christ of that nature which in Adam had been ruined; instances of what His Coming in the Flesh could do to make men like Himself, and fit for His Glory. Thus the Festival of St. Stephen, a man like ourselves, yet raised so high as to shed his blood for the truth, and pray for his murderers; of St. John, also like one of us, yet so sanctified that he spake of the love of God as only the Lord Himself spoke of it; of the Innocents, like other children, yet whose deaths as speechless infants, the saddest of all fates here, turned the curse and penalty of Adam's sin into a crown of glory these were joined on to Christmas Day as the marks and trophies of His Christmas victory. II. They show us that Christ's blessing is not confined to one way of serving Him, to one sort of people, but is meant for all sorts and conditions and ages; that He has a place in His kingdom for young and old, for small and great. His saints will include men cut off in their prime, yet who have in a few days fulfilled the work of many; men like St. John, who have filled a long life with the glory and love of God; and also those whom the world despises, as weak and poor, children in age and in understanding, but gentle and sanctified enough to be His witnesses, and to suffer in quietness and silence. III. They remind us that there are many different ways of serving Christ; many different gifts; many different ways of glorifying Him; yet all are of God, all belong to His one great purpose of saving and sanctifying man, all help on towards His kingdom. St. Stephen's death (premature, from a worldly point of view) does not make St. John's long life and peaceful end less acceptable, less becoming to the beloved disciple of a crucified Master. Early to die, or long to live, are both ways which lead to glory. IV. They exemplify those special graces (in human type) of which He came down on earth to show the perfect pattern, and which were all united in His person. They show us reflections faint, indeed, but real in human souls like our own, of the glories of the Sun of Righteousness. They show us that man can, like Christ, gladly lay down his life for the sake of God, and his brethren; that man can love, after the example, and in the way, in which Christ loved; they show us the type among men of that perfect innocence and humility which was in Him. If we want to be like Christ, we must be like St. Stephen, St John, and the Holy Innocents, in those special graces for which we commemorate them. R. W. Church, * Village Sermons. * Holy Innocents' Day Revelation 14:4 Today we commemorate the deaths of the little children slaughtered at Bethlehem to allay the unworthy fear of Herod. The blood-shedding of these little ones, martyrs in deed if not in will, strikes almost a discordant note amid our Christmas festivities. Our hearts are still full of the gladness of the coming of the Child-King. In our ears we still hear the ring of childish laughter, we can still see the brightness of the children's eyes, as they feel that so much of all the Christmas merry-making has been organised in love, that they may have their part in the rejoicing at the birthday of the King In the midst of it all we are pointed to this tragedy of old, the slain little ones, victims to the cruel hatred and fear of an unworthy king. We realise that it is all part of the great strife for our salvation which our Lord waged. These little victims were but the first sacrificed by the powers of evil to retard the progress of the kingdom of light. Cruelty and hatred compassed the death of the King Himself, and since then saints have suffered, blood has been shed, tears have flowed, and martyrs have witnessed by their deaths. I. The Tragedy of Child-Suffering. It reminds us, too, of the ever-present tragedy of child-suffering the suffering which results from the misdoing, cruelty, or neglect of adult people. How sad it all is, and we realise that, like the tragedy of Holy Innocents' Day, it is all the fruit of sin! How many victims are sacrificed, year by year, by the neglect or positive ill-treatment of vicious and cruel parents! Parents so sodden by drink and other demoralising indulgence that natural affection has died within them, or only shines fitfully, making the periods of neglect, violence, and cruelty all the more horrible by contrast. Thank God, much is now being done to alleviate the suffering of little children. We may do much to alleviate this suffering, to stop this continual moral and actual slaying of little innocents, by supporting by every means in our power the carrying of the Gospel, the work of our Church, in the dark places in our cities. This is the true remedy: to lift up Jesus, the Friend for little children; to reach parents by our Temperance Societies and other reforming parish agencies; and so sweeten and make wholesome the home influences. And this is work which we can do much to aid, both by personal service and by giving of our means. II. A Message of Comfort. We find a message of comfort as we turn again to the Epistle for today, showing us the state of happiness of little ones gathered by the Good Shepherd into His fold. 'These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth; these were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.' In some of the colonial churches this Epistle is used in place of the usual lesson in the Burial Service at the funerals of little children, and it certainly contains a message of hope and consolation for stricken hearts, bereaved of little loved ones. 'They follow the Lamb.' We, too, seek to follow Him, but, alas! cumbered by our earthly nature, how unworthy is our following! How many are our failures and mistakes! They dwell in His very presence. 'In their mouth is found no guile; for they are without fault before the throne of God.' Could there be happier conditions of existence or of service? The thought of their perfect bliss may well set ringing again in our hearts the Christmas bells of rejoicing and gladness. Surely every Christian heart must in time learn that the little one, taken in the freshness of its innocency and purity, uncontaminated by the world, is not to be mourned as one lost, but rather to be rejoiced over as a little lamb safely carried to the fold by the kind Shepherd. 'Of such is the kingdom of heaven.' Thus we see that the message of Holy Innocents' Day need not be a sad one to us at all. To the bereaved it may be a joyous and glad one, as they regard these little ones as the 'firstfruits unto the Lamb'. The first of the many little 'children of God' since brought safely to the joy of the presence of their Lord. And it will be a glad one to us all if we learn to follow the Lamb through all the dark paths of life, as they in their happier condition follow Him, bearing the marks of purity, guilelessness and obedience. Revelation 14:4 I am obliged to mention, though I do it with great reluctance, another deep imagination which at this time, the autumn of 1816, takes possession of me there can be no mistake about the fact; viz., that it would be the will of God that I should lead a single life. This anticipation, which has held its ground almost continuously ever since with the break of a month now and a month then, up to 1829, and after that date without any break at all was more or less connected in my mind with the notion that my calling in life would require such a sacrifice as celibacy involved: as, for instance, missionary work among the heathen, to which I had a great drawing for some years. It also strengthened my feeling of separation from the visible world. Newman's * Apologia pro Vita Sua. * This was also a text over which Milton says he 'did not slumber,' taking it as an incentive to purity, which struck 'doubtless at fornication; for marriage must not be called a defilement'. Revelation 14:4 When Joseph John Gurney was adopting more and more strictly the principles of Quakerism, he wrote in defence of his conduct: 'It will be difficult to the outward man to become more of a Friend, but it is the path of the cross; and of those who had the Father's name written on their foreheads, St. John heard a voice from heaven saying, "These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He leadeth them".' In the last chapter of Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte applies the same text to the resolute character of St John Rivers in his missionary career. 'A more resolute, indefatigable pioneer never wrought amidst rocks and dangers. Firm, faithful, and devoted; full of energy and zeal and truth, he labours for his race.... His is the ambition of the high master-spirit, which aims to fill a place in the first rank of those who are redeemed from the earth who stand without fault before the throne of God; who share the last mighty victories of the Lamb; who are called and chosen and faithful.' Keble makes this verse the text of his lines on 'The Holy Innocents' Day'. Revelation 14:4 John Evelyn, in his Diary, quotes this verse in describing the last hours of his dear son: 'Such a child I never saw; for such a child I bless God, in whose bosom he is! May I and mine become as this little child, who now follows the child Jesus, that Lamb of God, in a white robe, whithersoever He goes; even so, Lord Jesus, fiat voluntas tua . Thou gavest him to us, Thou hast taken him from us, blessed be the name of the Lord! That he had anything acceptable to Thee was from Thy grace alone, seeing from me he had nothing but sin, but that Thou hast pardoned! Blessed be my God for ever! Amen.' References. XIV. 4. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlii. No. 2456. Expositor (7th Series), vol. vi. p. 177. The Ideal Christian Life Revelation 14:4-5 This is a picture, furnished by revelation, of a redeemed society. Its fulness is realised in the life which is to come; its beginnings are here and now. Although, therefore, the vision of life which is painted for us here belongs in its fulness to the future, we may see its outlines in the present, see now the characteristics of the life here sketched for us; and we ought to be striving after this ideal every day. I. In the first place, it is a complete following of Christ Following Christ is the alpha and omega of the Christian life, and without it there can be no Christian life. To follow Him in the general sense is to live in His spirit, the spirit of trust and obedience towards God, and of loving interest and service towards men, which He manifested. And to follow Him in the particular sense is to say every day with honest and earnest purpose, 'Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?' not, 'What are others doing,' but, 'What is the will of My Master for me?' Nothing is clearer to a student of the ways of Christ with men than that His will differs for different people. II. We come upon the secret of this absolute following: 'These were purchased'. The atonement of Christ is not a cold legal transaction, by virtue of which a certain number of souls are passed over from the power of evil to the power of good; it is not thus that men are bought; but by goodness, by love, by the infinite grace of Christ the will is won over, the love of man for God is created, the devotion of the heart is purchased. III. We see the result of following Christ manifested in the character of these elect souls. 'In their mouth was found no lie: they are without blemish.' Christ imparts this purity to those who follow Him. A more perfect following of Christ, a more perfect union with Him, will mean a more perfect purity. There is nothing that the Bible more strongly insists upon than that we shall be true. And they are without spot, they are pure and clean. Nothing pains a man who is truly seeking to follow Christ, nothing gives him such agony of soul, as the spots and stains that are in his thoughts and desires, on his inner life, spots which he sometimes thinks are gone, which break out again and again, visible it may be to no eye but his own and God's. But it is not impossible, and we are not to lose the desire. It may take a lifetime to achieve it, but it will certainly be achieved by the man who earnestly seeks it, and seeks it in the right way. Charles Brown, Light and Life, p. 23. References. XIV. 4, 5. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxix. No. 2324. XIV. 6. W. Landels, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlv. p. 363. R. F. Horton, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvi. p. 216. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i. p. 34. Revelation 14:6-7 From this passage Edward Bickersteth preached his great sermon at the Jubilee of the Church Missionary Society in 1848, in St. Anne's Church, Blackfriars. He dwelt on the Gospel as everlasting (1) in contrast with perishing empires; (2) in contrast to the pretensions of vain philosophy; (3) in its suitableness to the most urgent wants of mankind; (4) in the eternal blessings it conveys; (6) in the obligation of every Christian to diffuse it. Reference. XIV. 7. N. D. Hillis, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvii. p. 328. Revelation 14:9-10 I believe it to be quite one of the crowning wickednesses of this age that we have starved and chilled our faculty of indignation, and neither desire nor dare to punish crimes justly. We have taken up the benevolent idea, forsooth, that justice is to be preventive instead of vindictive; and we imagine that we are to punish, not in anger, but in expediency; not that we may give deserved pain to the person in fault, but that we may frighten other people from committing the same fault.... But all true justice is vindictive to vice, as it is rewarding to virtue. Only and herein it is distinguished from personal re-venge it is vindictive of the wrong done, not of the wrong done to us. It is the rational expression of deliberate anger, as of deliberate gratitude; it is not exemplary or even corrective, but essentially retributive; it is the absolute art of measured recompense, giving honour where honour is due, and shame where shame is due, and joy where joy is due, and pain where pain is due. Ruskin, Lectures on Art, III. References. XIV. 9-11. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ii. p. 290; ibid. (6th Series), vol. iii. p. 457. XIV. 12. J. A. Alexander, The Gospel of Jesus Christ, p. 487. Expositor (6th Series), vol. i. p. 143. XIV. 12, 13. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxi. No. 1219. H. M. Butler, Harrow School Sermons (2nd Series), p. 71. Revelation 14:13 After describing the scene at Cromwell's deathbed, Carlyle quotes this verse to round off his hero's career: 'Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord; blessed are the valiant that have lived in the Lord. Amen, saith the Spirit Amen. * They do rest from their labours and their works follow them. 'Their works follow them.* As, I think, this Oliver Cromwell's have done and are still doing! We have had our "Revolutions of Eighty-eight," officially called "glorious," and other Revolutions not yet called glorious; and somewhat has been gained for poor Mankind. Men's ears are not now slit-off by rash Officiality; Officiality will, for long henceforth, be more cautious about men's ears. The tyrannous star-chambers, branding-irons, chimerical kings and surplices at All-hallowtide, they are gone, or with immense velocity going. Oliver's works do follow him! The works of a man, bury them under what guano-mountains and obscene out-droppings you will, do not perish, cannot perish. What of Heroism, what of Eternal Light was in a Man and his Life, is with very great exactness added to the Eternities.' If the blessedness of the dead that die in the Lord were only in resting in the grave, then a beast or a stone were as blessed; nay, it were evidently a curse and not a blessing. For was not life a great mercy? Was it not a greater mercy to serve God and do good to enjoy all the comforts of life, the fellowship of the saints, the comfort of ordinances, and much of Christ in all than to be rotting in the grave? Therefore some further blessedness is there promised. Richard Baxter. In The Friend (essay XIV.) Coleridge pronounces the following eulogy upon Dr. Andrew Bell, founder of the 'Madras' or monitorial system of education, 'Would I frame to myself the most inspiriting representation of future bliss which my mind is capable of comprehending, it would be embodied to me in the idea of Bell receiving, at some distant period, the appropriate reward of his earthly labours, when thousands and ten thousands of glorified spirits, whose reason and conscience had through his efforts been unfolded, shall sing the song of their own redemption, and pouring forth praises to God and to their Saviour, shall repeat his "new name" in Heaven, give thanks for his earthly virtues, as the chosen instrument of Divine mercy to themselves, and not seldom, perhaps, turn their eyes towards him, as from the sun to its image in the fountain, with secondary gratitude and the permitted utterance of a human love.' I have certainly seen sometimes engraved over your family vaults, and especially on the more modern tablets, those comfortful words, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. But I observe that you are usually content, with the help of the village stonemason, to say only this concerning your dead; and that you but rarely venture to add the yea of the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, and their works do follow them. Nay, I am not even sure that many of you clearly apprehend the meaning of such followers and following, nor, in the most pathetic funeral sermons, have I heard the matter made strictly intelligible to your hope.... And yet it is a text which, seeing how often we would fain take the comfort of it, surely invites explanation. The implied difference between those who die in the Lord, and die otherwise; the essential distinction between the labour from which those blessed ones rest, and the work which in some mysterious way follows them... ought, it seems to me, to cause the verse to glow on your (lately, I observe, more artistic) tombstones, like the letters on Belshazzar's wall; and with the more lurid and alarming light, that this following of the works is distinctly connected, in the parallel passage of Timothy, with judgment upon the works. Ruskin, Fors Clavigera, XLV. References. XIV. 13. Archbishop Temple, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lix. p. 65. J. Baines, Twenty Sermons, p. 75. C. Gutch, Sermons, p. 290. J. Keble, Sermons for the Holy Week, p. 241. Expositor (6th Series), vol. vi. p. 14. Ibid. (6th Series), vol. x. p. 369. XIV. 13, 14. J. G. Greenhough, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lix. p. 86. XIV. 14-20. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. 1. No. 2910. Revelation 14:15 I must, in passing, mark for you that the form of the sword or sickle of Perseus, with which he kills Medusa, is another image of the whirling happy vortex, and belongs especially to the sword of destruction and annihilation; whence it is given to the two angels (Revelation 14:16 ), who gather for destruction, the evil harvest and evil vintage of the earth. Ruskin, The Queen of the Air, sec. 30. References. XIV. 18. Expositor (6th Series), vol. ix. p. 139. XV. 1. Ibid. (6th Series), vol. x. p. 200. XV. 2, 3. S. H. Fleming, Fifteen-Minute Sermons for the People, p. 62. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Revelation, p. 341. XV. 2-4. J. H. Holford, Memorial Sermons, p. 166. The Song of Triumph Revelation 15:3 I. The life of the redeemed is here represented as a 'Service of Song'. This will afford matter neither for merriment nor surprise, if we reflect for a moment or two on the function of song. Music is a language, and frequently the only language that can give expression to the highest thoughts of the mind, or the deepest feelings of the heart. For words cannot utter what is greatest in us. Looks may dp it, glances, gestures, smiles and tears may do it, but it is never so well or so effectually done as when the gifted sons and daughters of song come to our aid. (1) It is further to be noticed that all life, as it approaches perfection, becomes melodious. (2) There is no music like the music of triumph, and no songs like those which celebrate deliverance. II. I take it as beautifully significant, that the burden of this song should be what it is, and that it should be called 'The Song of Moses and of the Lamb'. Moses, the much tried servant of God, the heroic leader of a stiff-necked people; and the Lamb, the eternal symbol of sacrificial suffering and sorrow. For it is a mistake to suppose that noble sorrow, nobly borne, silences the voice of song. Shelley says, 'Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought'. It is partly true, it is mainly sentimental. But this is wholly true, that sorrow when, as I say, it is nobly borne, when the pathetic 'How long?' passes into no form of rebellion and self-will is important to hang or keep the harp upon the willows. Song breaks from it as the phoenix from the flame. III. It is further suggested by this vision of the redeemed, that the conquerors of all ages take part in this song. The radiant hope here 'set before us' is, that all who have overcome will unite in the eternal song. They shall come from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south, with the marks of conflict still upon them, and there, standing upon the 'Sea of glass,' with the golden fires as of a grand sunset flashing across its smooth surface, they shall roll to highest heaven 'the song of Moses and of the Lamb'. Think of that, my heavily-laden friend! The very thing that weighs upon thee most, thou shalt set it to music some day. IV. Let us expect conflict There is something more than a happy alliteration in the well-worn phrase. 'No cross, no crown.' V. Only let us look for victory from the right source. 'Looking unto Jesus' is the only safe attitude for the best and bravest of us. J. Thew, Broken Ideals, p. 61. Revelation 15:3 Compare a sentence written by Mrs. H. B. Stowe during the dark hours of the war between the South and North: 'If this struggle is to be prolonged till there be not a home in the land where there is not one dead, till all the treasure amassed by the unpaid labour of the slave shall be wasted, till every drop of blood drawn by the lash shall be atoned by blood drawn by the sword, we can only bow and say, "Just and true are thy ways, thou King of Saints".' References. XV. 3. H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 1656, p. 289. H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. ii. p. 295. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iii. No. 136. Expositor (6th Series), vol. v. p. 137. Revelation 15:3-4 Dr. John Brown, in his letter to Dr. Cairns, tells of his uncle 'astonishing us all with a sudden burst. It was a sermon upon the apparent plus of evil in this world, and he had driven himself and us all to despair so much sin, so much misery when, taking advantage of the chapter he had read, the account of the uproar at Ephesus in the Theatre, he said, "Ah, sirs! what if some of the men who, for about the space of two hours cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians, have for the space of eighteen hundred years and more been crying day and night, Great and marvellous are Thy works, O Lord God Almighty; just and true are all Thy ways, Thou king of saints; who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy Name; for Thou only art holy ".' The Glory That Shall Be Revealed Revelation 15:3-6 I. In the text we hear of those songs and of that music, of those victors, those happy palm bearers, who are keeping the true Feast of Tabernacles; who with joy and gladness have been brought and have entered into the King's palace. And we hear too of the mighty tribulation through which they passed; how they got the victory over the fourfold enemy, over the wild beast and over his image and over his mark, and over the number of his name. That Anti-Christ, who, conquered, the warfare of the Church will be accomplished, her iniquity pardoned; that image, no doubt some devilish caricature of the miracle of the Resurrection; and his mark and his name the impressing of which, whatever it may be, will bring on the final persecution. It is worth while to notice how, from the very beginning, Satan has seemed to exult in imitating God's miracles; as when Jannes and Jambres cast down their rods and they were turned into serpents; or changed water into blood, or brought forth frogs upon the land. So, as the greater number of holy writers piously believe, that deadly wound of the wild beast which was healed, will be a diabolical parody of the Resurrection. For it goes on directly, 'All the world wondered after the wild beast' as if it were the crowning, the stupendous miracle which clinched his authority. And notice as we are marked in our foreheads with the Lord's sign, so will his unhappy servants be with the mark of the wild beast; and as the promise to him that overcometh was the white stone and the new name, the Lord's new and everlasting name, written on it, so must the others have the wild beast's name; or (and time only will show what is the difference) the mark of his name. II. And about the sea of glass. Notice; there was but One, who, in this world, walked even on the sea; His one follower, who so desired to walk we know how his attempt ended. But, put the whole mystery together the boundlessness of the sea, the transparency of the glass, the brilliance of the fire, I remember once when in one of the narrow sea-straits that divide the little islands of Denmark, I was voyaging this way and that way a whole summer day, with nothing to do but to lean over the boatside, and to watch how the glorious rays of the sun shot in through the pure green sea, working out those ripples of gold and emerald which no earthly words can describe; how the sight brought to my mind the true sea, that sea, glorious in its boundlessness and in its depth, but which yet has the element of fire added to it, and perhaps some little thing more of the future kingdom was then made known to me. III. Then, they shall not pass over it; then they shall not say, 'Lord, if it be Thou, bid me that I come to Thee upon the water'. No, then they shall stand on the infinite abysses of God's judgments; shall see how all things have worked together for good to them that love God; shall perceive how all the waves of this troublesome world were bearing them onwards to the calm of the Everlasting Port; and that, with the clearness of the glass; that, with the love of the fire, they stand on the sea of glass. J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Apocalypse, p. 71. Revelation 15:4 * ; Revelation 18:7 * These are the only two passages in which the word glorify is used in the book of Revelation; once, to describe the Christian, once, to describe the pagan, attitude. For the latter see R. W. Church's Cathedral and University Sermons, pp. 25 f. ('Can we believe that He whose words were so terrible against the pride of Egypt and Babylon, against that haughty insolence in men, on which not only Hebrew prophet, but the heathen poets of Greece looked with such peculiar and profound alarm that He will not visit it on those who, in their measure, are responsible for its words and temper, when it takes possession of a Christian nation?') Revelation 16:1 In the thirty-seventh chapter of Shirley, Charlotte Bronte applies this passage to Napoleon's final campaign in Russia, in 1812: 'This summer, Bonaparte is in the saddle: he and his host scour Russian deserts.... He marches on old Moscow: under old Moscow's walls, the rude Cossack waits him. Barbarian stoic! he waits without fear of the boundless ruin rolling on. He puts his trust in a Snow-cloud; the Wilderness, the Wind, and the Hail-storm are his refuge; his allies are the elements Air, Fire, Water. And what are these? Three terrible archangels ever stationed before the throne of Jehovah. They stand clothed in white, girdled with golden girdles; they uplift vials, brimming with the wrath of God. Their time is the day of vengeance; their signal the word of the Lord of hosts.' Revelation 16:3 Hugh Miller, in the second chapter of My Schools and Schoolmasters, describes the tales told by his uncle Alexander, who had served in the navy under Nelson, Duncan, and Sir Ralph Abercromby. Late in life, when the old warrior had been reading Keith's Signs of the Times, and when 'he came to the chapter in which that excellent writer describes the time of hot naval warfare which immediately followed the breaking out of war, as the period in which the second vial was poured out on the sea, and in which the waters became as the blood of a dead man, so that every living soul died in the sea, I saw him bend his head in reverence as he remarked, "Prophecy, I find, gives to all our glories but a single verse, and it is a verse of judgment!"' Revelation 16:6 The blood of man should never be shed but to redeem the blood of man. It is well shed for our family, for our friends, for our God, for our country, for our kind. The rest is vanity; the rest is crime. Burke. Reference. XVI. 6. E. M. Geldart, Echoes of Truth, p. 283. Revelation 16:7 Whiting to Sir Charles Bunbury in 1870 upon the Franco-Prussian war, Charles Kingsley declared: 'There can be no doubt that the French programme of this war was to disunite Germany once more, and to make her weak and at the mercy of France.... The emperor fancied that after deceiving the French people after governing them by men who were chosen because they could and dared deceive, that these minions of his, chosen for their untruthfulness, would be true, forsooth, to him alone; that they would exhibit, unknown, in a secret government, virtues of honesty, economy, fidelity, patriotism, which they were forbidden to exercise in public, where their only function was to nail up the hand of the weather-glass, in order to ensure fine weather, as they are doing to this day in every telegram. So he is justly punished, and God's judgments are, as always, righteous and true.' Reference. XVI. 9. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxiv. No. 2064. Revelation 16:12 What was it that filled the ears of the prophets of old but the distant tread of foreign armies, coming to do the work of justice. George Eliot, in * Romola. * Armageddon Revelation 16:16 It would be foreign to our purpose to enter into the controversy as to the precise location of Armageddon. Place is neither here nor there. The important point is, that there is to be ultimately somewhere a great decisive conflict between the powers of good and evil; the outcome of which will be the complete overthrow of the Prince of Darkness, and the undisputed reign of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It will be profitable to mark the manifestations of evil in these last days, and then on the other hand to observe some of the sure tokens of the triumph of Christ. I. The Manifestations of Evil. (1) Let us note at the outset the aggravated forms of Avarice which prevail in these days. The scramble for wealth is universal with all its attending selfishness and brutality. (2) Observe also the defiant front of Intemperance in our time. It is the enemy of our home life, our social life, our political life. (3) As to sensuality. (4) Another of the current forms of malignant evil is Bibliophobia, or hatred of the Scriptures as the Word of God. This is the fashionable form of infidelity. (5) Sabbath desecration. (6) As to persecution. (7) War. II. Observe Some of the Sure Tokens of the Triumph of Christ. (1) The Scriptures as Divine truth have a deeper hold than ever on the hearts of Christian people. The old Book is cherished as it never was cherished before; is studied more earnestly; is believed in more cordially. 'The Word of the Lord is tried.' It has been vindicated, triumphantly vindicated, as a true volume from beginning to end. (2) Christ is served in His Church more loyally and effectively than ever. We are approaching a realisation of the dream of Wesley. 'All at it, always at it, altogether at it' (3) The personality and power of the Holy Ghost are recognised in the Church as never before. D. J. Burrell, The Gospel of Certainty, p. 217. Revelation 17:6 Mercy and love are sins in Rome and hell. Beaumont and Fletcher, 'Bonduca,' Act iv. Scene 4. The Lamb's War with the Beast Revelation 17:14 It is strange that the most mysterious book of the Bible should be especially singled out as the Revelation. Yet though no book is less patient of a detailed and pedantic exposition, none is more full of the triumph and the tears of God's Word, none is richer in lessons to guide us in the stern and fluctuating conflict of our Lord with Satan. There is a roll of martyrs in the Christian Church, and over against it a roll of apostates. There are stories of great stones rolled to the door of sepulchres and removed by angel hands, of life and victory, but also of failure and disappointment and every form of death. The battle is often pictured here as a war between the Lamb and the beast The beast may be taken to denote the rebellion of the animal, the untamed, the sensual, the violent element, blatant and blasphemous. I. A powerful and painful little book, lately published, under the title, From the Abyss, sketches a typical working man, John Smith by name. The writer foresees a not distant day when by the help of the policeman and the Peabody buildings the ape and tiger instincts will be eliminated in man. He thinks that lives now insurgent and unconfined will become confined and acquiescent, that the block-dweller of the future will pass from the great deep to the great deep, vacant, cheerful, undisturbed by envy, aspiration, or desire. John Smith represents half a million people. He lives in a four-roomed cottage at Camberwell, with a wife and five children, and a lodger. Six days of the week he goes early to his work at bricklaying; he returns at night to his pipe and supper, and, perhaps, goes round to the public-house to hear the news. On Sunday he sleeps late, but he has Sunday dinner, a stroll in Peckham Rye, and he closes his day with his companions at the 'Blue Dragon'. So long as work is good, and pay regular, he does not lift his voice in complaint. Intellectual interests he has none. He will not listen to lectures. He will read a newspaper, but the news does not stir him. He cannot be galvanised into utterance. He drifts to his work daily, dumbly contented if work is easy and lucrative, dumbly resentful if it is not, but dumb always. To the Churches he is practically invulnerable. He has no quarrel with religion, but what faith he has is merely in a Deity of universal tolerance. He is commonplace, respectable, and fairly virtuous. Yet he is an immortal spirit journeying between two eternities through a world of tragical meaning, to the significance of which he seems destined to be blind. There are, we are told, in this vast city hundreds of thousands of such, and the trouble about them is not that they are unhappy, but that being what they are they should be so happy. Against this apparent death of the spiritual needs and cravings, against this life under the low sky, against this apparent numbness of heart and conscience, the Lamb wages His war. II. 'These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them.' This is our task the awakening of the soul. How shall we do it? How shall we stir that heavy sleeper? How shall we rouse it into the tumult of yearnings and aspirings? How shall we break the force of the opiates that have drugged it till it seems dead, till the sole object in life seems to be to eat well, to drink well, to sleep well, to work as little as possible, and to keep out of the way of trouble? This is a harder task than to meet the soul awake and aware, clamorous, craving, exacting, rebellious, wild for home. Well, we will labour with all our might to destroy the social conditions that make a decent life impossible. Is it true that in many cases here in London there is a strength of circumstance that even the Gospel cannot quell and dominate, cesspools in which they who live must sin and perish? Is it true that there are thousands of children defrauded of their childhood, born to an inheritance of vice and wretchedness, damned from the beginning? We must change that at any cost, and that Church has strayed from the Master which is not in earnest sympathy and in mutual sacrifice with those inspired by a passion of pity to take away what Emerson calls this accursed mountain of sorrow. But as Christians we go very much further. Our problem is not solved when every dweller in London has four rooms. The problem of John Smith would still remain to us. It would not be solved even if we could transfer the East End to the West End, or even if we could mingle and equalise the privileges and opportunities of the two. The deliverance from materialism is not to be achieved in this manner, and it is the deliverance from materialism that we supremely care for. I come back to the point that we must awaken the soul. The Lamb sees the soul, and because He sees we should see also. There is an old legend which perhaps you remember. The Saviour and His disciples were walking along the way when they came upon a dead dog. The disciples did not conceal their disgust; the Saviour said, 'How white its teeth are!' And He always finds in the most degraded that touch of hallowing beauty, that germ of spirit and life, through which His redemption may come. III. 'The Lamb shall overcome them.' What ideas are associated with the Lamb? How does He awaken, how does He cast out devils, how does He raise the dead? For answer, we read of His knowledge, His love, His power, His sacrifice. In the soldiers of the Lamb these in measure must be reproduced. Mark Rutherford tells us of a friend who longed to try for himself a mission in one of the slums about Drury Lane. 'I sympathised with him, but I asked him what he had to say. I remember telling him that I had been into St Paul's Cathedral, and that I pictured the Cathedral full and myself in the pulpit, and I was excited when imagining the opportunity offered me to deliver some message to three thousand or four thousand persons in such a building. But in a minute or two I discovered that my sermon would be very nearly as follows: 'Dear friends, I know no more than you. I think we had better go home."' But because the Lamb has prevailed to open the book and to loose the seals thereof, we may speak without faltering, without fear, with the ring of certainty. The Lamb is another name for love. In that Lamb love was shown stripped of the veils that hide. The love of the Lamb is the spring of our love, the love of Christ which no sin can weary, and no lapse of time can change, all-redeeming, all-glorifying, changing even death and despair to the gates of heaven. That love may win fresh triumphs in the wilderness through our love. W. Robertson Nicoll, The Lamp of Sacrifice, p. 134. Reference. XVII. 14. C. Bradley, The Christian Life, p. 347. Revelation 18:2 Here we are at Treves. I need not tell you all I have felt here and at Fleissen. At first the feeling that one is standing over the skeleton of the giant iniquity old Rome is overpowering. And as I stood last night in that amphitheatre, amid the wild beasts' dens, and thought of the Christian martyrdoms and the Frank prisoners, and all the hellish scenes of agony and cruelty that place had witnessed, I seemed to hear the very voice of the Archangel whom St. John heard in Patmos, crying, Babylon the Great is fallen; no more like the sound of a trumpet, but only in the still whisper of the night breeze, and through the sleeping vineyards, and the great still smile of God out of the broad, blue heaven. Kingsley. Revelation 18:4 Fly from Rome, for Babylon signifieth confusion, and Rome has confused all the Scriptures, confused all vices together, and confused everything. Fly, then, from Rome, and come to repentance. Savonarola, to the Florentines, in 1496. Compare also Carlyle's use of the text in his diatribe against the landed aristocracy, in Past and Present. After accusing them of indolence and oppression, he pauses for a moment to reflect: 'Exceptions! ah yes, thank Heaven, we know there are exceptions. Our case were too hard, were there not exceptions, and partial exceptions not a few, whom we know, and whom we do not know. Honour to the name of Ashley, honour to this and the other valiant Abdiel, found faithful still, who would fain, by work and by word, admonish their Order not to rush upon destruction! These are they who will, if not save their Order, postpone the wreck of it. All honour and success to these. The noble man can still strive nobly to save and serve his Order; at lowest, he can remember the precept of the Prophet: 'Come out of her, my people, come out of her'. References. XVIII. 7, 8. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ii. p. 292. XVIII. 8 . Ibid. (6th Series), vol. v. p. 114. The Manhood Traffic Revelation 18:11-13 This passage is built up after the analogy of Ezekiel's prophecies concerning Tyre, in conjunction with which they should be read (see Ezek. XXVII., XXVIII.); and the merchandise of the city of Rome in the Apostle's time has undoubtedly formed the groundwork of this enumeration. I. The text declares that one of the causes of the ruin of this Babylon was her extravagant luxury. The history of the world is full of solemn lessons concerning the enervating influence of luxury. It is scarcely too much to say that luxury was the chief destroyer of all the great empires of antiquity. We are constantly discovering a proneness to fall away into the ease-taking and self-pampering which ruined the great empires of ancient Babylon, of Media and Persia, of Greece and Rome. Christlike self-renunciation is a virtue which cannot grow in the soil of luxurious living. II. But it is to the two last items in this extraordinary inventory that I wish to call your attention, viz., slaves and souls of men. As the margin informs us the literal translation is bodies and souls of men. There are ways of making merchandise of manhood beside the coarse and palpable one of selling men for slaves. (1) I very much fear, thanks to the cruel, heartless, atheistic political economy which this country learnt from Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, and company, that very much of our commerce is practically a traffic in the blood, and bones, and nerves, and souls of men. No commerce is healthy, except that whose fundamental law is, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. (2) The drink traffic, the opium traffic, and whoremongering are other manifestations of this awful trade in the bodies and souls of men. If the Church would do her Master's work she must arise and be the champion of the poor, the enemy of all sweating, the inexorable foe of all manhood traffic. G. A. Bennetts, The Preacher's Magazine, vol. IV. p. 509. Reference. XVIII. 14. Expositor (6th Series), vol. xii. p. 283. Revelation 18:21 Compare the use of this verse in Tennyson's poem, 'Sea Dreams'. References. XIX. Expositor (5th Series), vol. x. p. 292. XIX. 1. H. S. Holland, God's City, p. 59. Revelation 19:2 The real force of demonstration for Girolamo Savonarola lay in his own burning indignation at the sight of wrong; in his fervent belief in an Unseen Justice that would put an end to the wrong, and in an Unseen Purity to which lying and uncleanness were an abomination. To his ardent, power-loving soul, believing in great ends, and longing to achieve those ends by the exertion of its own strong will, the faith in a supreme and righteous Ruler became one with the faith in a speedy Divine interposition that would punish and reclaim. George Eliot, in * Romola. * References. XIX. 3. F. E. Paget, Helps and Hindrances to the Christian Life, p. 177. XIX. 4. F. S. Bartlett, Sermons, p. 296. Revelation 19:5 A very dear and saintly person, years ago called home, once in my hearing exulted at this appearance of the small number that fear God: viewing it as a vast encouragement. Even they will be there, not on sufferance, but taken account of, brought forward, called upon to enhance the acceptable rapture. C. G. Rossetti References. XIX. 5. J. Keble, Sermons for the Saints' Days, p. 453. XIX. 6. E. H. Eland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liii. p. 294. XIX. 7-8. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxv. No. 2096. XIX. 8. H. Howard, The Raiment of the Soul, p. 1. XIX. 9. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xli. No. 2428. Expositor (6th Series), vol. x. p. 179. XIX. 10. J. Smith, The Integrity of Scripture, p. 193. XIX. 11. H. M. Butler, Harrow School Sermons (2nd Series), p. 266. C. A. Scott, The Book of Revelation, p. 287. XIX. 11-16. H. S. Holland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvii. p. 49. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxv. No. 1452. Revelation 19:11-14 A battle is constantly going on, in which the humblest human creature is not incapable of taking some part, between the powers of good and those of evil, and in which every, even the smallest, help to the right side has its value in promoting the very slow and often almost insensible progress by which good is gradually gaining ground from evil, yet gaining it so visibly at considerable intervals as to promise the very distant, but not uncertain final victory of God. To do something during life, on even the humblest scale, if nothing more is within reach, towards bringing this consummation ever so little nearer, is the most animating and invigorating thought which can inspire a human creature. J. S. Mill, at the close of his * Three Essays on Religion. * References. XIX. 12. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. v. No. 281. XIX. 13. F. T. Bassett, Christ in Eternity and Time, p. 98. Expositor (4th Series), vol. vi. p. 67; ibid. vol. vii. p. 99. Revelation 19:14 Compare the use made of this verse by Mr. Shorthouse at the close of * Sir Percival. * References. XIX. 16. W. Gladden, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvi. p. 27. XIX. 20. F. T. Bassett, Things That Must Be, p. 51. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ii. p. 292. XX. 1-9. E. T. J. Marriner, Sermons Preached at Lyme Regis, p. 39. XX. 4-6. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii. No. 391. The Thousand Years' Reign of Christ Revelation 20:4 I. First we shall show that the literal interpretation of the passage before us is altogether wrong and untenable. (1) The first proof of this is a very obvious one. We are dealing with a symbolic book. From the glorious description of the Saviour in the first chapter to the last picture of the Holy Jerusalem the book is one great series of panoramic displays of symbolic pictures. It is not intended to narrate literal events, whether belonging to the past, the present, or the future. (2) The next proof of my contention that you cannot possibly take this passage literally is that the literal interpretation of the passage is not only not supported by the other parts of Holy Scripture, but even flatly contradicted by them. (3) Then, again, the moral results expected by some from a visible appearing of Christ are altogether at variance with the statements of the other Scriptures, and with everything we know of the laws of the kingdom of God. II. Now we proceed to seek the true interpretation of the passage In order to get at the true interpretation we have to observe two rules. One is: We must try to discover from the book itself how it uses its symbols. The other is: We must see to it that our own interpretation agrees with the clear utterances of the New Testament. (1) The one fact of interpretation we have to note is that numbers are always used in this book to represent principles or ideas, and not in their arithmetical character. To give one example: the number seven signifies completeness; the number three symbolises Divinity or Deity. Ten is the symbol for 'kingship'. What then is the meaning of 'a thousand'? A thousand is ten raised to the third power, and therefore signifies, the book being its own interpreter, the kingdom of God. It symbolises the Divine kingdom in its perfect and absolute completeness. III. Let us in the last place sum up the lessons of this symbolic picture. (1) The first lesson is that the kingdom of God is absolutely guaranteed once and for ever in Jesus Christ. (2) The next lesson we are here taught is, that believers even now in their true and inner life are the real kings and judges of the world. 'I saw thrones and they sat on them and judgment was given unto them.' (3) The last lesson is that our present life in the kingdom is an earnest and guarantee of our complete future glory. 'Blessed are they that have part in the first resurrection; over them the second death hath no power.' John Thomas, Myrtle Street Pulpit, vol. II. p. 231. References. XX. 4. Expositor (4th Series), vol. iii. pp. 251, 363; ibid. vol. x. p. 297. Revelation 20:9 There is nothing real or useful that is not a seat of war. Emerson. 'On the western slope of the Guadarrama mountains,' writes Froude in his essay on Saint Teresa, 'midway between Medina del Campo and the Escurial, stands the ancient town of Avila. From the windows of the railway carriage can be seen the massive walls and flanking towers, raised in the eleventh century in the first heat of the Spanish crusade. The fortifications themselves tell the story of their origin. The garrison of Avila were soldiers of Christ, and the cathedral was built into the bastions, in the front line of defence, as an emblem of the genius of the age.' Reference. XX. 9. Expositor (4th Series), vol. x. p. 347. Revelation 20:11 At Hinely Hill, writes Wesley in his Journal for 1749, 'a large congregation met in the evening. I expounded part of the twentieth chapter of the Revelation. But O what a time was this! It was as though we were already standing before the "great white throne". God was no less present with us in prayer; when one just by me cried with a loud and bitter cry, I besought God to give us a token that all things work together for good. He did so; He wrote pardon upon her heart, and we all rejoiced unto Him with reverence.' Dr. Bonar, in his Life of M'Cheyne, describes the latter's final preaching at Newcastle in 1842. 'He preached in the open air, in a space of ground between the Cloth Market and St. Nicholas Church. Above a thousand souls were present, and the service continued until ten, without one person moving from the ground. The moon shone brightly, and the sky was spangled with stars. His subject was, "The Great White Throne". In concluding his address, he told them that "they would never meet again till they all met at the judgment-seat of Christ; but the glorious heavens over their heads, and the bright moon that shone upon them, and the old venerable church behind them, were his witnesses that he had set before them life and death". Some will have cause to remember that night through eternity.' References. XX. 11. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xii. No. 701, and vol. xlii. No. 2473. Expositor (6th Series), vol. v. p. 326. XX. 11, 12. Bishop Gore, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lviii. p. 353. Revelation 20:12 Stand before God past kneeling, past praying; not to be converted, but sentenced. Now, not then, is the day of salvation: not then except for the already saved. C. G. Rossetti 'When I see kings lying by those who deposed them,' writes Addison in his reflections upon Westminster Abbey ( Spectator, No. XXXVI.), 'when I consider rival wits placed side by side, or the holy men that divided the world with their contests and disputes, I reflect with sorrow and astonishment on the little competitions, factions, and debates of mankind. When I read the several dates of the tombs, of some that dy'd yesterday, and some six hundred years ago, I consider that great day when we shall all of us be contemporaries and make an appearance together.' Revelation 20:12 Who are we to measure the chances and opportunities, the means of doing, or even judging, right and wrong awarded to men; and to establish the rule for meting out these punishments and rewards? We are as insolent and unthinking in judging of men's morals as of their intellects.... Our measure of rewards and punishments is most partial and incomplete, absurdly inadequate, utterly worldly, and we wish to continue it into the next world. Into that next and awful world we strive to pursue men, and to send after them our impotent party verdicts of condemnation or acquittal. We set up our paltry little rods to measure heaven immeasurable. Thackeray, in Pendennis (LXI.). Judgment By the Twofold Record Revelation 20:12 At the time he received and wrote his visions, the writer of the Apocalypse had steeped himself in the phraseology and similitudes of the Prophet Daniel. This metaphor of the open books which enters into the vision of judgment is to be found in the writings of the captive noble. The metaphor may have been suggested to Daniel by his acquaintance with the work and procedure of the official historiographers in Eastern courts. The metaphor is intended to teach that God has His own secret processes for verifying those facts of life and conduct which will be crucial to His final judgment upon each member of the human race. I. Saints and sinners alike are forgetful of their own acts, and more or less blind to the character which is the sum of those acts, although for very different reasons. (1) Genuine goodness is at the very antipodes to all self-consciousness. A true saint has not only a very short memory for his own holy acts, he never thinks of them as his own acts at all. (2) The good deeds of a truly virtuous and holy mind will be so normal and spontaneous that they will pass unnoticed and unrecorded. True goodness forgets its own achievements. (3) And then how prone is the bad man to forget his evil deeds! His habits not infrequently blunt and narcotise memory, together with all the other intellectual powers. And the more evil there is in his life, the less likely he is to recall it. (4) And then the Book of Remembrance is necessary to check and counterpoise those distorting freaks of the imagination which are apt to arise whenever we seek to judge ourselves. II. This reference to the books that were opened seems to carry with it an important doctrinal signification. (1) The Book of Remembrance is kept to vindicate the grace and wisdom and forgiving favour of the Lamb in inserting the names of His chosen ones in the Book of Life (2) The central place given in the judgment to the Book of Life teaches that one of the stern conditions of salvation is that the name shall be written there through the grace and atoning favour of the Lamb. A man cannot be saved by the things recorded in the Book of Remembrance alone. It is because our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life that the holy and acceptable works we may come to do acquire their title to reward. (3) On the other hand, let us not overlook the solemn fact that our destiny will be just as profoundly affected by the plain chronicle of the daily life as by the fact that we were once pardoned through the grace of the Redeemer, and enrolled as subjects of His kingdom. References. XX. 12. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii. No. 391. C. Perren, Revival Sermons in Outline, p. 192. H. J. Bevis, Sermons, p. 290. W. H. Hutchings, Sermon Sketches, p. 31. J. Keble, Sermons for Advent to Christmas Eve, pp. 36, 47. Bishop Alexander, The Great Question, p. 95. XX. 12, 13. J. Keble, Sermons for Advent to Christmas Eve, p. 99. J. M. Neale, Sermons Preached in Sackville College Chapel, vol. iv. p. 234. XX. 14. N. D. Hillis, Christum World Pulpit, vol. lvii. p. 328. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ii p. 424. XXI. Expositor (5th Series), vol. ii. p. 94; ibid. vol. x. p. 455. Revelation 21:1 While I think of it, why is the sea (in that apologue of Attar once quoted by Falconer) supposed to have lost God? Did the Persians agree with something I remember in Plato about the sea and all in it being of an inferior nature, in spite of Homer's 'Divine ocean,' etc. Fitzgerald's Letters, I. p. 320. Revelation 21:1 Will not one of the properties of the spiritual body be, that it will be able to express that which the natural body only tries to express? Is this a sensual view of heaven? then are the two last chapters of the Revelations most sensual. They tell not only of the perfection of humanity, with all its joys and wishes and properties, but of matter! They tell of trees and fruit and rivers of gold and gems and all beautiful and glorious material things.... Why is heaven to be one vast lazy retrospect? Why is not eternity to have action and change, yet both, like God's, compatible with rest and immutability? This earth is but one minor planet of a minor system: are there no more worlds? Will there not be incident and action springing from these when the fate of the world is decided? Kingsley. References. XXI. 1. C. Anderson Scott, The Book of Revelation, p. 287. R. J. Campbell, City Temple Sermons, p. 234. C. D. Bell, The Power of God, p. 168. W. L. Watkinson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liii. p. 393. T. J. Madden, Tombs or Temples? p. 85. J. H. Burkitt, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lii. p. 374. A. G. Mortimer, The Church's Lessons for the Christian Year, pt. i. p. 187. A. H. Bradford, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliv. p. 401. R. C. Cowell, Preacher's Magazine, vol. xvii. p. 372. R. W. Hiley, A Year's Sermons, vol. i. p. 85. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ii. p. 381. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Revelation, p. 355. XXI. 1-3. H. S. Holland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliii. p. 293. XXI. 1-5. T. Barker, Plain Sermons, p. 149. XXI. 1-7. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ii. p. 293. ** The New Jerusalem ( for Septuagesima ) Revelation 21:2 ** On this Sunday, Septuagesima, we have the beginning and the end of the Bible brought before us in the Lessons both of the Morning and of the Evening Services; the First Lessons being taken from the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis, the Second from the concluding chapters of the book of the Revelation. And whilst the beginning of the Bible speaks of the world being prepared for man and of man making his appearance on its stage, the close of it sets before us visions of a future awaiting man and the world which he has subdued to be his dwelling-place. I. The book of the Revelation is professedly a collection of visions; it is full of imagery. And imagery sets us seeking interpretations of it. But it is not always easy to interpret; and the Revelation, or the Apocalypse the two names mean the same thing, unveiling or drawing a curtain aside has been subjected to a great variety of more or less ingenious interpretation. Some of the visions were no doubt intended to indicate definite historical events of the age in which the book was issued; but others set forth spiritual realities belonging to the nature and purposes of God and the development of the kingdom of Christ, in forms which were intended to fasten on the imagination and so to feed the spiritual life. Thus a curtain is drawn aside, and we have a vision of the Court of heaven. We see a throne, and there is One sitting on the throne, but He is hidden in splendour; worshipping Him are four living creatures, which are symbols of the animated Creation, and twenty-four Elders, twelve representing the old dispensation and twelve the new as it were the twelve Patriarchs and the Twelve Apostles in a celestial form. These and all other existing things are shown to us paying homage after their kind to their Eternal Maker. Then the Lamb is introduced a lamb as though it had been slain and this figure remains throughout the book the symbol of Him Who had offered Himself up in sacrifice to the Father, and had been exalted to the right hand of God. II. It is to this class of imagery that the visions of the concluding chapters belong. They exhibit scenes which represent the triumph of the kingdom of Christ. They are intended, as I said, to interest the imagination and so to supply nourishing food to Christian faith and hope. They set forth spiritual realities and relations which have a bearing on our present life; and it is in this character, and not as enigmatic predictions of historical events, that they are to be valued and studied. III. Here, where the Church is described under the figure of a golden city, we have a sort of final vision of what we are to look forward to as a completion of the Divine work, a fulfilment of the Divine purpose. It is a vision of mankind ordered according to God's will. This form of mankind is God's creation; it comes down out of heaven from God, and it has the glory of God. It has a civic character, is of the nature of a commonwealth, having diverse offices and functions and classes in it It is in a supreme degree orderly, like a city built after a definite plan. It is the outcome of the Old and New Covenants: it preserves the memory of the Twelve Tribes, the Twelve Apostles are the foundation on which its wall is built. It has all manner of splendour and preciousness. It lives in the light of God. The nations walk in that light; the kings of the earth bring their glory into the presence of God. National life is not superseded; but all the actions of men are just and harmonious, and therefore there is nothing but happiness in the world. Nearly everything in the imagery of these chapters represents perfection; all is of the absolute best, under the light of God, in joyful devotion to God. But there is a hint of what is not yet as it should be, where the seer beholds the river of water of life proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb, and the tree of life growing on the river's banks; for the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. So the nations want healing. We may take this as implying that the ideal form of mankind, divinely ordered, divinely enlightened and quickened, divinely blessed, has to work itself out by degrees into actual and victorious existence. IV. In endeavouring to draw from these shining chapters at the close of the Bible what we can receive as their instructive significance, we are led to observe that here, as elsewhere in the New Testament, there is a mysterious slurring over of the line which divides this mortal life from the other life beyond the grave. To Christians of a great number of the later generations nothing was very important but the passing of that terrible line. Christian hope looked entirely away from this earth to the region of the departed; all glory was associated with that unseen world. But a change, with far-reaching effects, has passed over the theology of our English race. Since the publication of a memorable book on The Kingdom of Christ, by F. D. Maurice, just seventy years ago, the sermons and writings of our accepted teachers have drawn away, at first very slowly but of late quite rapidly and completely, from dwelling on the contrasted miseries and felicities of individuals in the life beyond the grave, and have directed attention to that kingdom of God which Christ came to establish, and which He has opened to all believers. And the rediscovery of this heavenly kingdom which is to subdue the kingdoms of the earth to itself has coincided with the springing up of a generous longing, independent of professed Christian belief, and bent on building from the earth upwards, for a world from which all the pains and disadvantages of poverty are to be banished. That clarion-song of Blake's I will not cease from mental fight, Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand, Till we have built Jerusalem In England's green and pleasant land has never been the cry of so many hearts and minds as at the present time. Those who have been made disciples to the kingdom of heaven cannot exclude the abolition of the miseries of poverty from their hopes. But the commandment which they have received bids them look for a city which shall come down from heaven. They are to seek first the kingdom of the heavenly Father and His righteousness. They are to pray and labour that this kingdom may come; they are to be remembrancers of the Lord, giving Him no silence till He establish and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Which if they do, it is promised that the things which the Gentiles seek shall be added to them. And the seer of the Revelation is true to the teaching of Him Who through sacrifice was exalted to be King of kings and Lord of lords. He pictures a world blessed by the coming down of a city from heaven. The scene is not that of a remote Paradise on high, to which the favoured few have gone up, but that of a city on its way from heaven to earth; it is beheld from a mountain-top; the nations walk in the light of it: the leaves of its tree of life are for the healing of the nations. J. Llewelyn Davies, The Guardian, 10th February, 1909. Revelation 21:2 The New Jerusalem, as we witness it, is no more exempt from corruption than was the Old. That early Christian poet who saw it descending in incorruptible purity 'out of heaven from God,' saw, as poets use, an ideal. He saw that which perhaps for a point of time was almost realised, that which may be realised again. But what we see in history behind us and in the world about us is, it must be confessed, not like 'a bride adorned for her husband'. We see something that is admirable, and much that is great and wonderful, but not this splendour of maiden purity. The bridal dress is worn out, and the orange-flower is faded. First the rottenness of dying superstitions, then barbaric manners, then intellectualism preferring system and debate to brotherhood, strangling Christianity with theories and framing out of it a charlatan's philosophy which madly strives to stop the progress of science all these corruptions have in the successive ages of its long life infected the Church, and many new and monstrous perversions of individual character have disgraced it.... But the triumph of the Christian Church is that it is there that the most daring of all speculative dreams, instead of being found impracticable, has been carried into effect, and, when carried into effect, instead of being confined to a few select spirits, has spread itself over a vast space of the earth's surface, and, when thus diffused, instead of giving place after an age or two to something more adapted to a later time, has endured for two thousand years, and, at the end of two thousand years, instead of lingering as a mere wreck spared by the tolerance of the lovers of the past, still displays vigour and a capacity of adjusting itself to new conditions, and lastly, in all the transformations it undergoes, remains visibly the same thing and inspired by its Founder's universal and unquenchable spirit. It is in this and not in any freedom from abuses that the Divine power of Christianity appears. Sir John Seeley, in * Ecce Homo. Revelation 21:2 * What will it be at last to see a 'holy' city! for Londoners, for Parisians, for citizens of all cities upon earth, to see a holy city! C. G. Rossetti. References. XXI. 2. J. Adderley, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvi. p. 22. R. J. Wardell, Preacher's Magazine, vol. xviii. p. 411. J. Watson, The Inspiration of our Faith, p. 262. T. Phillips, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxviii. p. 1. Bishop Welldon, The Gospel in a Great City, p. 168. R. J. Drummond, Faith's Certainties, p. 323. XXI. 2-7. Expositor (6th Series), vol. v. p. 323. XXI. 3. H. S. Holland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxi. p. 393. The Elimination of the Law of Antagonism Revelation 21:3-4 I. The law of antagonism is unnatural. II. It is the purpose of God in Jesus Christ to abolish the law of antagonism. The Spirit of Christ shall never cease to work in the race until there is no more useless antagonism, misdirected antagonism, destructive antagonism, but there shall act instead the affinities, the attractions, the forces of a higher law, and the reign of blood and iron shall be over for ever. But the question may be urged, What shall guarantee our safety and growth when the fiery law is abolished? The prevalence of the spirit of Jesus Christ. III. We mark the signs that the law of antagonism is being eliminated. (1) We see signs of change to a happier state of things in our relation to nature. (2) We see signs of change to a happier state of things within society itself. (3) Signs of change to a happier state of things are visible also in international life. Salvator Rosa long ago painted his picture, 'Peace burning the Instruments of War'. This generation, may not witness that glorious bonfire, but many signs signify that ere long it shall be kindled, lighting the footsteps of the race into the vaster glory that is to be. Let us first ourselves get the spirit of Christ. Let us profoundly believe in the golden year. It will come. This vision of the Revelation is no mockery. W. L. Watkinson, The Transfigured Sackcloth, p. 223. References. XXI. 4. D. Brown, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lviii. p. 341. Bishop Wilberforce, Sermons, p. 165. F. de W. Lushington, Sermons to Young Boys, p. 39. Dinsdale T. Young, The Gospel of the Left Hand, p. 139. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vi. p. 102. A New Year's Sermon Revelation 21:5 The first Sunday of the New Year is a day of hope, of promise, of anticipation. It is true indeed that the stream of time flows onwards uninterruptedly; the periods which mark its course are in a sense the mere creations of human convenience. But who does not feel moved to take stock, so to say, of his life; who does not imagine that it is somehow possible to make a fresh start upon the anniversary of his birth, or of his marriage, or upon Christmas Day, or Easter Day, or at the beginning of a New Year? For Christianity is the religion of hope; it touches the hard rock of human nature, as it were, with a magic wand, and immediately there breaks forth the fresh bubbling water of a regenerate life. The one word wholly incompatible with the Christian faith and the Christian spirit is 'despair'. I. There is hope for the individual. Read the story of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospels, and see how His presence breathed a new life, wherever He moved, into sad, downcast, penitent, abandoned souls. The publican or tax-gatherer, the alien Samaritan woman, the leper, the Magdalene, the thief upon the cross He gave them all hope. II. There is hope, too, for society. Do we hear any faithless voices today protesting that this England of ours is going to the dogs because of Free Trade, or unemployment, or the physical degeneration of the people, or the decadence of patriotic spirit and virtue? Such despondency is un-Christian, it is rebellious against the Providence of God. It denies the possibility of His 'fulfilling Himself in many ways'. But the future is, as the past was, in His keeping. His name is not 'I was,' but 'I am'. It may be impossible to fight against the spirit of the age, but is not that spirit the breath of His Almighty Will? In human history the great tendencies, the great achievements, are all the direct and visible results of God's working; it is only small results which are even apparently wrought by man. Not less true is it of the present than of the future life that God 'is not the God of the dead, but of the living'. III. 'He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.' The promise stands as part of the vision which St. John in his Apocalypse enjoyed and revealed. But it is a promise of heaven, not of earth. The Holy City, the new Jerusalem which the Apostle beheld, does not rise from the earth heavenwards; it 'comes down from God out of heaven'. Vain is it therefore to suppose that any change of social or political environment will effect the regeneration of society. In all the actual or possible circumstances of the State human nature remains and will remain the same, the same in its greatness and its littleness, the same in its aspirations and temptations, the same in its essential and inalienable needs. The millennium, if it comes at all, will not begin in any Hall of Science or Socialism; it will begin and can only begin in regenerate human hearts. 'The Kingdom of God,' says the Saviour, 'is within you'. Men need reform, but the most needed of all reforms is self-reform. The new heaven and the new earth will be realised, so far as they are possible upon earth, only when Jesus Christ has become Lord over the hearts and consciences of men. It is He who sits upon the throne; it is He who says, 'Behold, I make all things new'. Bishop Welldon, The Gospel in a Great City, p. 18. The Incarnation (For Christmas) Revelation 21:5 Each festival of the Church declares a special truth and offers a peculiar grace. I. The Festival of Christmas Declares the Incarnation of the Eternal Word and offers the grace of renewal. The Incarnation is the starting-point of a new order of things, and the whole of human life is affected by it. As a help to the better understanding of the great truth, it is well that we should distinguish between Personality and Human Nature. Personality is that which we share with no one else; human nature is that which we share with every other member of the human race; human nature is that which unites; personality is that which separates; human nature is communicative; but no one can part with his personality or share it with another. II. What, then, took place when the Eternal Word took Flesh and became Man? This: He took the nature of Adam in all its fulness; but instead of His human nature being centred round a new Personality, it was taken up into the Personality of the Eternal Word. The Son of God took to Himself that which would unite Him to the human race; He took human nature, but not a human personality. We do not see in the Lord Jesus Christ the prominence of any one characteristic, such as we are accustomed to find in the saints. He belonged to no one human race or nation. Pilate was right when he said, 'Behold the Man'; and the Apostle reminds us that there is neither Jew nor Gentile, but that all are one in Christ Jesus. III. If any ask 'Why Perplex us with these Subtleties of Dogma? ' it is enough to say that the very life of the Church and of every individual Christian is bound up in a right faith in Jesus Christ. Again and again we find that those who came to Him when He was on earth had to face the question 'What think ye of Christ?' More than half the heresies of the past have arisen because men will not, or do not, know Jesus Christ It is such a help to us when we see that the Incarnation starts a new era for mankind. 'In Christ,' wrote St. Paul, 'man is a new creature;' and as the Incarnation is appropriated by the individual soul, the communicated nature comes not as a dole, but it is ours by way of personal endowment. Therein is our hope, our power of renewal, certain. IV. If we Know the Gift of God we shall listen to the voice of Christ as He stands in our midst 'Come unto Me' such is His invitation 'and I will give you rest.' We are looking into this New Year; with the past forgiven undone it cannot be our hearts will be set at liberty and we can run in the way of God's Commandments. Then we shall become indeed new creatures, and our inner life may be renewed day by day by the power of the Holy Ghost. The Divine Poet Revelation 21:5 I. This chapter is already full of the word and the wine and the music new: 'A new heaven and a new earth'; the 'new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven'; 'behold, I make all things new'. And not before the time. The world is weary of its wickedness and groaning and restlessness; we have had tears enough and death enough and sorrow and crying and pain ineffable: great God, awake and make all things new! This is the promise of these opening verses: 'And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And He that sat upon the throne said' and said by right 'Behold, I make all things new,' and the past shall be forgotten like a dream without memory. Enough! These are grand words; they thrill us by their power, we are caught up into somewhat of their stature and majesty. The New Testament is bound to bring us new things by its very name; it is a new testament: there was a Testament before it. This is the real newness the continuation and the completion of something which has gone before. This is not a first writing, it is a second writing, and new, not in its God, not in its redeeming purpose, but new in many an application, new in many a realisation by the soul of the higher life and the grander possibility. II. Note the personality of the text. The Speaker is alive; the Speaker is individualised from all other speakers; the Speaker is appalling in His awesome solitude. He would seem to have no companion now; yea, rather, it would seem as if the threefold Personality had become united in one name. No more we hear of 'Let us make,' we are now confronted by an intenser term, 'Behold, I make all things new'. It would seem as if each Person in the Divine Trinity had times of special expression and times of special relation to nature and to man and to providence and to destiny: now it is the Father; and the other Persons of the Trinity are concealed, as it were, behind His glory: now it is the Son, the only begotten Son, the Saviour of the world: and, finally, it is the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, who rules the whole mystery of human development. And what if now the Three should in a peculiar and definite sense be One as if the Three-One should all be speaking in, 'Behold, I make all things new'. III. Has the word 'make' any special significance in this passage? Certainly; it is the keyword. God represents Himself as the maker, the poet; for in the deepest classical sense the poet is the maker, not the statistician, not the geometer, not the man who deals in magnitudes and quantities and numbers and ever-changing relations of an arithmetical or superficial kind: these men are not makers; the poets 'make' God is the Poet. He makes, He makes all things, He makes all things new. God is the fountain of wealth, God is the author of precious stones, God is the maker of harvest-fields and vineyards; God pours out the sea, God causes the stars to spill their glory on the meaner worlds. Associate the idea of the poet with the term worker or maker. God is the beginner of all things: all things are in God; there is not a pebble on all the seashore that He did not let fall there a diamond in His eyes, mere sand in ours, for vulgarity debases whatever it looks on. God is the unceasing poet, the unceasing maker. He never makes a June that lasts longer than a month, but He makes millions of Junes, millions of springs, millions of autumn days, with their brown and gold and play and flash of exquisite beauty. He makes them as a lapidary might make the stone shapely; He makes them as the poet might startle the common wind into music. See the Poet Divine in every summer day, in every sparklet of dew, in every dawn, in every babe, in every morning promise. IV. Note that the proclamation by the very necessity of its terms is full of hope. 'Behold, I make all things new.' In the Divine economy things seem linked together in festoons and masses and unities. When one thing is made new all things seem to be made new. Christianity is the religion of hope, the religion of renewal, the religion of development. It has never uttered its final word; it begins its eloquence, it never finishes it in any sense that means finality or the exhaustion of God. 'Behold, I make all things new.' Joseph Parker, City Temple Pulpit, vol. I. p. 2. Revelation 21:5 Jacques Lefèvee, the father of French Protestantism, used to say to his pupil, William Farel, 'William, the world is going to be renewed, and you will behold it'. Farel frequently recalls in letters this impressive prophecy. In his Commentary on St. Paul's Epistles, Lefèvre wrote: 'The signs of the times announce that a renewal is near, and while God is opening new ways for the preaching of the Gospel, by the discoveries and conquests of the Portuguese and Spaniards in all pails of the world, we must hope that He will visit His Church and raise it from the degradation into which it has fallen'. References. XXI. 5. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxi. No. 1816. A. Coote, Twelve Sermons, p. 27. Bishop Alexander, The Great Question, p. 284. H. P. Chapman, Church Family Newspaper, vol. xvi. p. 28. C. S. Home, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxvii. p. 4. Expositor (7th Series), vol. vi. p. 371. 'I Am Alpha and Omega' Revelation 21:6 There is no great mystery about the title. The smallest Sunday school child knows that it is simply the first and the last letter of the Greek alphabet. It is as if He said, 'I am the A and the Z'. I. He is the Alpha and the Omega in the great alphabet of time. Look back as far as you can; go back as far as ever thought can pierce, and yet you can hear the echo from some far-off distance, 'I am', Then look forward to the future. Think of the time when the little rill of time will lose itself in the great ocean of Eternity; imagine the universe blotted out, the lamps of heaven quenched, the firmament rolled together as a scroll but Jesus Christ will ever be still the same, 'yesterday, today, and for ever'. He is the Omega, the last. He Who was the Architect, will also be the Builder, and will bring it to a perfect end. 'I am confident that He which hath begun the good work in you will finish it.' He Who began will complete in spite of all opposition, and in spite of all sin. II. He is not only the Alpha and the Omega in point of time, but He is the Alpha and the Omega in point of rank. He is the Alpha. He was made higher than the angels. In whatever character you regard Jesus Christ, we claim the Alpha for Him. And yet He became the Omega. He, Who was the equal with God, becomes obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross; and died for our sins upon the Tree. III. So once more He is the Alpha and the Omega in the great scheme of salvation. The origination of salvation must be with Him. So He must also be the Omega; He will be the Omega for the salvation of the world. We do not believe in some gradual evolution towards a day of glory; we believe sin will never be really cast out until He comes we believe that evil will never be really extirpated until He comes. IV. He must be the Alpha and the Omega of your salvation. (1) First let Him be the Alpha and the Omega of your trust. (2) We would urge you that He may be the Alpha and the Omega of your love. (3) He must be our Alpha and our Omega in all our teaching and in all our work. My Christ is first, my Christ is last, my Christ is all in all! E. A. Stuart, His Dear Son and other Sermons, vol. v. p. 113. References. XXI. 6. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvi. No. 1649. Man, the Conqueror Revelation 21:7 I. Life, a warfare, is the first reflection forced on you by the words 'He that overcometh,' that is, there is something to overcome. In every Church, in every city in Asia Minor, there must be a contest. For the man who will not contend there is no promise in this book. One of the most familiar phrases on the lips of teachers and moralists, whether they teach through fiction or dry philosophy, is 'the battle of life'. Whatever of mystery there be about it, it is a fact that the highest life is not reached without severest conflict Whatever truth there may be in the theories of the quietists concerning rest and peace in the Christian life, this is always true it is never lived without conflict. It is fighting all the way. If Christ calls you to anything by example and word He calls you to battle with the world, the flesh, and the devil. The man who will not fight can never live the Christian life. II. The second thing is, that life may be a great victory. The word is not 'To him that fighteth,' as though the fighter might be defeated and get a kind of solatium for his reward, but 'To him that overcometh,' seeming to say that overcoming is certain to him who will fight. And it is. There is no hopelessness for the moral warrior. Victory is the great possibility. The circumstances and conditions of the seven Churches in Asia differed widely. Some, like Sardis, seem to have been mastered. But the same great door of hope is opened to all, and the one word to all is 'overcometh'. Jesus Christ never led anybody to defeat yet If you have been defeated it is because you have lost touch with Him. III. Life is designed to be a great inheritance. He that overcometh shall inherit what? All things. All that you can cram into the word 'life': joy, peace, pleasure, satisfaction. Not hereafter but here. Who is the man that enjoys nature, for whom every spring brings a new world, who finds the relationships of life teeming with interest? The man with the pure heart. Who is the man who enjoys the world? Not the man who is mastered by it and made its slave, but the man who conquers it. IV. Lastly, life was intended to be a high and holy fellowship. I was intended not merely to know and feel that there was a God, but to say, 'My God' and to know that God says to me 'My Son'. To live the life of a son of God is the highest part of my inheritance. Charles Brown, God and Man, p. 43. References. XXI. 7. J. Keble, Sermons for the Saints' Days, p. 68. C. Brown, God and Man, p. 43. Revelation 21:8 Mr. Yorke, the impetuous manufacturer in Shirley, 'believed fully that there was a judgment to com If it were otherwise, it would be difficult to imagine how all the scoundrels who seemed triumphant in this world, who broke innocent hearts with impunity, abused unmerited privileges, were a scandal to honourable callings, took the bread out of the mouths of the poor, browbeat the humble, and truckled meanly to the rich and proud were to be properly paid off, in such coin as they had earned. But,' he added, 'whenever he got low-spirited about such like ongoings, and their seeming success in this mucky lump of a planet, he just reached dawn t'owd book' (pointing to a great Bible in the bookcase), 'opened it like at a chance, and he was sure to light of a verse blazing with a blue brimstone low that set all straight. He knew,' he said, 'where some folk was bound for, just as weel as if an angel wi' great white wings had come in ower t' door-stone and told him.' Revelation 21:8 Courage, says John Stuart Mill in his essay upon Nature, 'is from first to last a victory achieved over one of the most powerful emotions of human nature.... It may fairly be questioned if any human being is naturally courageous. Many are naturally pugnacious, or irascible, or enthusiastic, and these passions when strongly excited may render them insensible to fear. But take away the conflicting emotions, and fear reasserts its dominion: consistent courage is always the effect of cultivation.' Revelation 21:8 In private we read Paley's Evidences or Leslie on Deism. These two stuck by me, and did my head good. I took in the whole argument, and I thank God that nothing has ever shaken it. If history is a foundation of certainty, Christianity, even by human evidence, is certain. This has been with me through life, in every state and age and intellectual condition. The book of Rev 1 read at Tretteridge and the 'lake that burneth with fire and brimstone' never even faded in my memory. They were vivid and powerful truths and motives which forwarded and governed me; I owe to them more than will ever be known till the last day. Cardinal Manning's * Journal. * I had always a fear of judgment and of the pool burning with fire. The verse in Revelation 21:8 was fixed in my whole mind from the time I was eight or nine years old, confixit carnem meam timore , and kept me as boy and youth and man in the midst of all evil, and in all occasions remote and proximate; and in great temptations; and in a perilous and unchecked liberty. Cardinal Manning. The Work of the Bride of Christ Revelation 21:9 The Church, the Bride of Christ, is not called into existence simply for itself, but it is called into existence for the sake of the Bridegroom. The work of the Bride of Christ: 'Ye shall be witnesses unto Me'. 'Ye shall make disciples of all the nations.' In other words, a husband and wife ought to be one in thought, in character, in work. And that is the idea, that the Church of Christ should be one in thought, in character, and in work with Him. Now what is Jesus Christ's character? That should be the character of His Bride, and the different parts of the Bride. The different members of the Church should have the character of Jesus Christ. What is the thought of Jesus Christ? That should be the thought of the Church, the different parts of the Church. What is the work of Jesus Christ? That should be the work of the Church, the different parts of the Church. One in thought, character, work, one in Him. I. The Work of the Bride. Just think of the love of Jesus Christ for the world! Can we estimate it? Can we picture it? Can we even imagine it? And yet if we are one with Him and His Bride, there ought to be in us that same spirit of love and devotion, that keenness for the work, that characterised Him. He came down on earth to seek and to save that which was lost. It is said that Michael Angelo one day went to call on Raphael, before Raphael had made his great name, in his earlier days, and Raphael was not at home. And Michael Angelo went into his house and saw there a picture Raphael had commenced, and it was like nearly all the work of Raphael in that day, very cramped, very small, apparently insignificant. And Angelo looked at it and then he wrote underneath on the canvas, 'Larger, larger, larger,' and signed it. And Raphael came home, saw Angelo had been to visit him, and he looked at the canvas and saw the words, 'Larger, larger, larger'. And that was the turning-point in the artistic career of the great artist Raphael. And it seems to me that Jesus Christ will come and write on our churches, aye, and in different Christians' hearts and lives, 'Larger, larger, larger'. We have such puny, small conceptions of things, instead of the great conception that Jesus Christ would have us have, the great conception of character He would have us have, the great idea of work and usefulness and sphere of labour which Jesus Christ would have us possess. Be larger in prayer. We want do we not? showers of blessing to come down upon our Church. As one preacher said recently in a sermon, showers of blessing depend equally upon us along with God. You look at the shower coming down. Where is that rain coming from? The clouds. How did it get to the clouds? The sun drew it up from the earth. The sun drew the water up from the earth and it got into the clouds, and it descends in fertilising showers. The more our prayers are gathered up in the heavens, the more they descend in showers. If there is a famine, if there is no rain, depend upon it it is because the Sun has not gathered from the earth the prayers of God's people. Therefore, if we want showers of blessing, we want as a Church to be engaged in prayer. How wonderful it is, that we can influence God, and influence others by prayer! St. Augustine says, in one of his works, that the Church owes the mighty and wonderful example of St. Paul to the prayer of dying Stephen. It is the prayer of the Bride of Christ going up to God, which gives showers of blessing. God cannot deny the Bride of His Son anything. The Church of the living God has power with God. Let us be a praying people, praying for the blessing of God to come down upon our heads. II. The Position of the Bride. Let us just remember this, the position of the Bride of Christ, the privilege of the Bride of Christ. When you are united to Jesus Christ in the closest of all ties as His Bride, think what a claim you have upon Him, think what a claim He has upon you. If you are His Bride, what has He a right to expect from you? Loyalty to Himself, nothing coming between. What have you a right to expect from Him? Everything. Think of the Queen, because she is the wife of the King, think of her privileges, her prerogatives! She occupies a different position from that of any other lady in the land. The wife of the King! You are the Bride of Christ. III. The Ambition of the Bride. Just as a wife looks up to the husband, so the Church must look up to Jesus Christ Jesus only! that is the cry of the Church, that is the cry of the Christian. Jesus only! If that could only appeal to our heart, what a difference it would make to our life! Then other things would not move us. We should simply have Jesus the Bridegroom, Jesus the Husband, Jesus the Master, Jesus the Lord. Think of the great love wherewith He hath loved us. Can you tell me what the love of Christ is? and yet it is this love that will come into our hearts. Think on all we might be if one with Jesus Christ, one in Jesus Christ? The glory of it, the possibility of it! Let us never rest till we have the realisation of it! Revelation 21:9 Hugh Miller, in My Schools and Schoolmasters, tells of an old Highlander, Donald Roy, who, as each of his three grand-daughters married, 'added to his other kindnesses the gift of a gold ring. They had been brought up under his eye sound in the faith; and Donald's ring had, in each case, a mystic meaning; they were to regard it, he told them, as the wedding-ring of their other Husband, the Head of the Church, and to be faithful spouses to Him in their several households.' The action of a future world as a control upon our deeds and a stimulus to our desires, depends upon its being such, upon our believing it such at least, as we can conceive of and aspire to. If it is to operate upon us it must be picturable by us. Only through our idea of it can it influence our lives. Why then quarrel with our conceptions because necessarily imperfect, and probably much more as all finite ideas of the Infinite, all material description of the Spiritual, must be? Heaven will be, if not what we desire now, at least what we desire then. If it be not contracted to our human dreams, those dreams will be expanded to its vast reality. If it be not fitted for us, we shall be prepared for it. In the true sense, if not in our sense, it will be a scene of serene felicity, the end of toil, the end of strife, the end of grief, the end of doubt; a Temple, a Haven, and a Home! W. Rathbone Greg. Reference. XXI. 9-27. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlv. No. 2648. Revelation 21:10 No architect's designs were furnished for the New Jerusalem, no committee drew up rules for the Universal Commonwealth. If in the works of Nature we can trace the indications of calculation, of a struggle with difficulties, of precaution, of ingenuity, then in Christ's work it may be that the same indications occur. But these inferior and secondary powers were not consciously exercised; they were implicitly present in the manifold yet single creative act. The inconceivable work was done in calmness; before the eyes of men it was noiselessly accomplished, attracting little attention. Who can describe that which unites man? Who has entered into the formation of speech which is the symbol of their union? Who can describe exhaustively the origin of civil society? He who can do these things can explain the origin of the Christian Church. For others it must be enough to say, 'the Holy Ghost fell on those that believed'. No man saw the building of the New Jerusalem, the workmen crowded together, the unfinished walls and unpaved streets; no man heard the clink of trowel and pickaxe; it descended out of heaven from God . Sir John Seeley. References. XXI. 10. Archbishop Benson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlv. p. 264. XXI. 10-12. Bishop Wordsworth, Church Family Newspaper, vol. xv. p. 172. Revelation 21:11 * ; Revelation 21:19-21 * How beautiful these gems are! It is strange how deeply colours seem to penetrate one, like scent. I suppose that is the reason why gems are used as spiritual emblems in the Revelation of St. John. They look like fragments of heaven. George Eliot, in * Middlemarch. * That elegant Apostle, which seemed to have a glimpse of heaven, hath left but a negative description thereof: which neither eye hath seen, nor ear hath heard, nor can enter into the heart of man: he was translated out of himself to behold it; but, being returned unto himself, could not express it. St. John's description of emeralds, chrysolites, and precious stones, is too weak to express the material heaven we behold. Briefly, therefore, where the soul hath the full measure and complement of happiness; where the boundless appetite of that spirit remains completely satisfied that it can neither desire addition nor alteration; that, I think, is truly heaven; and this can only be in the enjoyment of that essence, whose infinite goodness is able to terminate the desires of itself, and the unsatiable wishes of ours. Wherever God will thus manifest Himself, there is heaven. Sir Thomas Browne, * Religio Medici. * It is not to be denied that the favourite delineations of heaven are almost wholly suggested or coloured by the book of Revelation, in which the descriptions, magnificently splendid and sometimes sublime, are yet, if we except seven verses of the twenty-first chapter, almost wholly material. And not only so, but the material elements are by no means the noblest that might have been chosen. The New Jerusalem is painted as something between a gorgeous Palace, and a dazzling Conventicle.... The writer's conception of what befitted the Temple of the Lord and the dwelling of the redeemed embraced rather the rare curiosities than the common loveliness of nature; palaces and jewels and precious stones not gentle streams, and shady groves, and woodland glades, and sunny valleys, and eternal mountains, and the far-off murmur of a peaceful ocean. His heaven was a scene of magnificent ornamentation rather than of solemn beauty; of glory, not of love and bliss. It might kindle his fancy; it chills ours. W. Rathbone Greg. Yas, they's life an' happiness a-plenty in cheerful labour in the open fields, an' a mighty slim chance for the doctor. Why, they's even wealth in it ef it's lived right: not riches, maybe, but wealth.... Why, the way I read Scripture, it seems to me we're given to understand that heaven is a home of wealth. 'Many mansions' sounds that a-way, I'm shore; an' golden streets shows thet they won't anything be considered too good for use. An' sometimes I've thought that maybe it meant to give us to understand that simple riches like gold was to be trod under foot. An' all the Revelational jewels, why, they seem to be set either in the walls, or doors, or somewhere, not let loose in piles, to be swapped or squabbled over. No riches to possess, but they's wealth to enjoy. Ruth M'enery Stuart, in Century Magazine, April, 1903. References. XXI. 11. J. Waddington, Penny Pulpit, No. 1680, p. 479. Gates on Every Side Revelation 21:13 When St. John saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, it is clear that the entrance-gates made a deep impression on his mind. Over and over again he comes back to the theme, speaking of their number, their substance, their beauty, and the names written upon them. He tells us, for example, that the city had twelve gates and at the gates twelve angels. Next he relates that the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl. And once more, in this text, we learn that there were three on every side, looking away to the four quarters of the compass, on the east and the north and the south and the west. It is all a picture, of course; a picture, not in colours but in poetry; a picture of the great love of God the Father. God will have all men to be saved; and the twelve gates, facing each possible approach to the city, are an emblem of that. The doors of the Father's house look out to all the winds of heaven, and they are shut neither night nor day; for the love of God is open and the heart of God is waiting. Like the entrance to a great city hospital, they are never closed. However late a wanderer may arrive, however long after the rest he may stumble in, broken and weary, he will find that he has been expected, and that kind hands are ready to receive him. The penitent never takes God unawares. The prodigal is always seen a great way off. God's care is not pre-occupied, or His mind too full to think of us. Come when or how we may, there are gates of pearl open on every side. It is a great and moving thought that men find their way to Christ from every quarter. Yet the gates on every side call up still another suggestion; they recall the variety of motives by which men are led to faith. Men come from every direction, but they also come for every kind of reason. I. Men come from a sense of duty. For there is a large class of persons who, though totally unaffected by emotional appeals, are yet filled with a powerful desire to do right. These people before long are confronted with the personality of Jesus; His words stick in their conscience. Soon they feel that to refuse to submit their will to Christ's is to evade responsibility and evade obligation. So the pressure on conscience grows. The necessity arises of choosing between the higher life and the lower, of seizing the one real opportunity of life, or making the great refusal. This may not be the commonest impulse, or the easiest path; yet without question it is an impulse and a path which God Himself has appointed, and if it be followed sincerely it leads to Him. Only, if it is to do anything for us, we must be in deadly earnest, refusing to be content with a desire, and pressing with resolution on to the reality. We must make up our mind to be thorough, taking to ourselves Prof. Drummond's advice to University students: 'Don't be amphibian, trying to lead two lives; be out and out'. If conscience is urging us to Christ, then we must go all the way with conscience. II. Others come from vague discontent with an empty life. They long for some purpose or ideal worth battling for; they covet an experience adequate to the enthusiasm they know they are ready to give. III. Still others come to God for shelter. What these people a great unnumbered multitude seek in God is refuge. Christianity, it has been said, is not a sorrowful religion, but it is a religion for the sorrowful. The Gospel would be no Gospel, and Christ would not be Christ, were there in Him no glad tidings for the friendless and the sad. IV. Still further, others come from fear of moral ruin. They have learnt that they are no match for their own nature; they have discovered how little the anchors of prudence can be trusted when the storms of passion rise. Take the gate you are nearest to; they all lead into the city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. V. Finally, many come to God to be forgiven. All come to this ere long; all must so come; but also many set out from it. A writer has lately said that the feeling of guilt is dead today; if that be true, it will pass. There is a soul of honesty in men and women that may be trusted to keep alive the feeling of accountability, so long as there is a God in heaven and failing, wandering mortals on the earth. Let my concluding word be this, that no one entrance among them all has an exclusive claim against the others. They all lead in; and it is the redeeming love of God that has opened every one. H. R. Mackintosh, Life on God's Plan, p. 29. XXI. 13. J. H. Jowett, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlix. p. 387. F. L. Goodspeed, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lx. p. 10. The Proportions of Life Revelation 21:16 At first glance this figure seems absurd. We could understand a city being equal in its length and breadth. Many fine cities of the world have been built in an almost perfect square. But this city that John saw was equal, not only in its length and breadth, but in its height as well. And it is almost impossible to picture that. I think that the truth that John 'is struggling here to utter is just the perfect symmetries of glory. John may be speaking of the city here, but he is really thinking of the citizens. There will be nothing ill-developed or un-symmetrical. But you will mark, that if the perfect life is to be quite symmetrical, that does not mean it is to be all the same. In the endless life there is no sameness, there is no dull and cheerless and wearisome monotony, but a carrying out of individual character on its own lines to its own completeness until the length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. I. Now one of the first things that impresses us in human life is the want of proportion in men's actual characters. All character has got a threefold aspect. There are the duties of a man towards himself. There are the outgoings of his life towards his brother. There are the upgoings of his heart towards his God. And we only need to look within a little, or to think of the men we know, the men we love best, to feel that here, whatever it may be yonder, the length and the breadth and the height are never equal. And there can be little question that just that want of symmetry is often essential to what men call success. II. Now over against our ill-proportioned characters, there stands the perfect symmetry of the character of Jesus. All that is best in the thousand hearts of men, and all that is noblest in the separate types, meets and is crowned in the Redeemer. In the midst of the blinding specialism of the age, and all the contracting and narrowing tendencies abroad, there is no such help to a fully-rounded character as a constant friendship with Jesus Christ G. H. Morrison, Flood-Tide, p. 12. References. XXI. 16. G. Matheson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. li. p. 325. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vi. p. 341. XXI. 17. F. W. Farrar, Everyday Christian Life, p. 82. XXI. 18. T. E. Ruth, Baptist Times and Freeman, vol. lv. p. 39. XXI. 21. J. Dodd Jackson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liv. p. 198. J. Waddington, Penny Pulpit, No. 1680, p. 479. Deus Meus Et Omnia Revelation 21:22 I. Let us confess that if we now for the first time heard these words heard them, too, after the ravishing description of our true home which precedes them, they would fall rather blank on the ear. What! we, whose highest and best times have been in the Temple of God on earth, we, who believe that the most glorious services below are but the poorest shadows, the most wretched photographic negatives of the perpetual Liturgy there; to be told at last, 'I saw no Temple therein'. What is the use of all the art, all the skill, all the labour, all the cost, to make our Churches less unworthy of the indwelling of Him whom Heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain? What is the use of those great speeches which glow like a warm coal at one's very heart. 'The house which I am about to build shall be wonderful great,' and the resolution of the Spanish Chapter, 'Let us build such a Cathedral that they who come after us may take us to have been mad when we imagined it,' if, after all, when these things are passed away, 'I saw no Temple therein'. II. But then, O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! This is not the only instance in which, as regards that our future home, what must in one point of view be taken so differently, is, if looked at aright, so glorious. 'They rest not day nor night.' That we know is said of the glorious city; said of it too, as concerning one of its chief glories and blessings. But is it not also true of the city of misery? They rest not day nor night. So, over and over again, we find that the 'very excellent things' spoken, or to be spoken, of the City of God, are things which, except for the perfect happiness of the place, must be anything but blessings; they must be curses. 'The gates of it shall not be shut at all.' Would that be any happiness, here on earth, to us in our warfare? 'For there shall be no night there.' Would that be any blessing to us, here on earth, wearied as we often are; as our dear Lord, according to His manhood, was before us? But the most remarkable lesson we have is in the most glorious self-contradiction, to say it with all reverence, in Isaiah, when that fifth Evangelist, setting forth to us those things which eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive, says: 'The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee; but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light and thy God thy glory.' And then: 'Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself, for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended'. III. So we come back to that 'I saw no Temple therein'. And, lest any man should say, 'This is a hard saying; who can bear it?' St. John gives us the reason, 'For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it'. That is, the one Temple and the all Temple, that which cannot be seen, even then, with the bodies of our resurrection, is this and this only, the Beatific Vision. What the Beatific Vision is, we can only fancy by knowing what it is not. And keeping all this in view, small regret shall we have in 'I saw no temple therein,' when the Beatific Vision itself will be our Temple. It is that God who is love, filling His happy servants with the outpouring of that love, it is the God who is light, satisfying them with the perfect brilliancy of that light. And always remember, that unto that height of glory our Human Nature has entered; that there, in its fullest blaze, a Man is seated at the right hand of the Father; that eyes, in every point fashioned as our eyes, behold Him there, whose face, however far off, we could not see and live. J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Apocalypse, etc., p. 102. References. XXI. 22. J. Bannerman, Sermons, p. 310. R. M. Benson, Redemption, p. 388. XXI. 23. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. x. No. 583. Archbishop Magee, Christ the Light of all Scripture, p. 3. Revelation 21:24 'The soul that lives,' says Richard Baxter, 'ascends frequently and runs familiarly through the streets of the Heavenly Jerusalem, visiting the patriarchs and prophets, saluting the Apostles, and admiring the army of the martyrs; so do thou lead on thy heart and bring it to the palace of the great King.' References. XXI. 24. Bishop Westcott, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lv. p. 360. Bishop Festing, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvii. p. 407. H. S. Holland, ibid. vol. lxi. p. 393. XXI. 25. W. P. S. Bingham, Sermons on Easter Subjects, p. 149. W. H. Savile, Church Family Newspaper, vol. xv. p. 196. Revelation 21:27 'Veracity,' observes John Stuart Mill, in his essay upon Nature, 'might seem, of all virtues, to have the most plausible claim to being natural, since, in the absence of motives to the contrary, speech usually conforms to, or at least, does not intentionally deviate from, fact. Accordingly, this is the virtue with which writers like Rousseau delight in decorating savage life, and setting it in advantageous contrast with the treachery and trickery of civilisation. Unfortunately this is a mere fancy picture, contradicted by all the realities of savage life. Savages are always liars. They have not the faintest notion of truth as a virtue. They have a notion of not betraying to their hurt, as of not hurting in any other way, persons to whom they are bound by some special tie of obligation; their chief, their guest, perhaps, or their friend; these feelings of obligation being the taught morality of the savage state, growing out of its characteristic circumstances. But of any point of honour respecting truth for truth's sake, they have not the remotest idea; no more than the whole East, and the greater part of Europe, and in the few countries which are sufficiently improved to have such a point of honour, it is confined to a small minority, who alone, under any circumstances of real temptation, practise it.' 'A truthful man,' said Tennyson, 'usually has all the virtues.' Revelation 21:27 In the Life of Dean Stanley (vol. II. p. 314), there is an anecdote of two soldiers who, on their way home from gunnery practice at Shoeburyness, spent a day in London and found themselves at Westminster Abbey, just as the gates were locked. A gentleman noticed them turning away in disappointment and invited them to accompany him. Taking the keys from the beadle, he showed them the sights of the abbey, and as they paused opposite one monument to a soldier he took occasion to remark, 'You wear the uniform of her Majesty, and would like, I daresay, to do some heroic deed worthy of a monument like this'. They both said, Yes, they should when, laying his hand on each of them, he continued, 'My friends, you may both have a more enduring monument than this, for this will moulder into dust and be forgotten; but you, if your names are written in the Lamb's book of life, will abide for ever'. 'We neither of us,' said the soldiers, 'understood what he meant. But we looked into his grave, earnest, loving face, with queer feelings in our hearts, and moved on.... And as we travelled home, we talked about our visit to the abbey and puzzled much as to the meaning of the Lamb's book of life.' Eventually, those words of the Dean proved the turning-point in the lives of the two men and of their wives. References. XXI. 27. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvii. No. 1590. F. de W. Lushington, Sermons to Young Boys, p. 39. XXII. Expositor (5th Series), vol. x. p. 464. Revelation 22:1 You are seeking your own will, my daughter. You are seeking some other good than the law you are bound to obey. But how will you find good? It is not a thing of choice: it is a river that flows from the foot of the Invisible Throne, and flows by the path of obedience. Savonarola to Romola, in George Eliot's * Romola. Revelation 22:1 * 'Clear as crystal' not concealing, but revealing. For in the day of eternity all faithful children shall be as that Father of the faithful of whom the Lord once said: 'Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?' C. G. Rossetti Through the care of my parents I was taught to read nearly as soon as I was capable of it; and as I went from school one day, I remember that while my companions were playing by the way, I went forward out of sight, and sitting down I read the twenty-second chapter of Revelations: 'He showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb,' etc. In reading it my mind was drawn to seek after that pure habitation which I then believed God had prepared for His servants. The place where I sat, and the sweetness that attended my mind, remain fresh in my memory. John Woolman's * Journal. * References. XXII. 1. H. A. Paul, Penny Pulpit, No. 1612, p. 295. XXII. 1, 2. W. L. Watkinson, The Fatal Barter, p. 20. XXII. 1-5. J. Bowstead, Practical Sermons, vol. ii. p. 282. XXII. 1-11. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Revelation, p. 366. In the Midst of the Street Revelation 22:2 Was there ever half so beautiful a street as that seen by the aged eyes of the seer of Patmos? In a loving description of the new Jerusalem, the city that descended from God out of heaven, he noticed that in the midst of the street there was a river, and on either side of the river there were trees trees of life. A tree in the street! And what a tree! Ever young and fair, bearing fruit all the year round, and dressed in leaves which were able to heal the sick and torn nations of the world as soon as they entered this street of the city of God and plucked thereof. Beautiful street of a beautiful city! If only our unbelieving eyes could catch a sight of such a street with the magic, beneficent tree in the midst of it, how eagerly we too would run to pluck its leaves and heal our distracted hearts! I. But what is it that keeps us back? Why do we not see the city? And why do we not eat of the fruit of this tree of life? Is it because they are so far away? Perhaps they are not so far as we think. For this city, remember, is not in the heavens; it is a city that came down out of heaven upon the earth. Call it, if you like, a dream city; but it is a dream of this world, and not of the skies. For, note, there are nations to be healed. The work of the world is not yet done. Its nations are sick; the mind and the heart are not sound; they need healing. And they find it on the leaves of the tree in the street of the city of God. So it would seem as if the vision that sustained the aged heart of this true seer was that of some heavenly city in this world. True, there lies upon this city a wondrous light, such as never was on sea or land; and no city that has ever been built by human hands can compare with it for the nobility of its inhabitants. But it seems, after all, to be a city set up upon the earth, inhabited not by spirits but by living men, with the living God among them. II. Wherever men are gathered together, there is some not altogether ignoble life. For the existence of cities, when you come to think of it, is a recognition, however unconscious, of the brotherhood of men and of their need of one another. Every one who is honestly working is doing something for that great organism which we call society; each, in doing his own work, is serving the others it may be unwittingly and blessing the whole. Where two or three are gathered together in the name of Jesus, there He is in the midst of them, to bless them; and where hundreds and thousands are gathered together in the interests of a common civilisation, we may well believe that Jesus is not far away, though there is not a little on which He could only look with eyes of sorrow. And we may well believe that there is a tree of life somewhere in the midst. III. The obligations of religion to the street and to all that ramified social life which the street implies, are very great. Jesus loved the street There were indeed times when He had to bid His disciples go apart into a desert place and rest awhile; but it was that they might enter on their work again with strength renewed. He left the wilderness in which He sojourned for a while after the call to His ministry, to work among the busy haunts of men in the cities on the shore of the lake of Galilee. The city, its needs and its redemption, were ever in His thoughts. He would fain have gathered her people together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings. He did not shirk the responsibilities of the unlovely street. To Him it was not unlovely; it was the field on which He believed that, in the far-off day, there would be a golden harvest. The tree of life was in the midst of the street, and its leaves were for the healing of the nations. J. E. Macfadyen, The City With Foundations, p. 237. References. XXII. 2. G. A. Gordon, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvi. p. 72. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxi. No. 1233. Bishop Chadwick, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liii. p. 356; vol. lx. p. 283. Expositor (5th Series), vol. ii. p. 60; ibid. vol. vi. p. 277. XXII. 3. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvii. No. 1576. J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Apocalypse, p. 79. XXII. 3, 4. R. Higinbotham, Sermons, p. 16. The Heavenly Service Revelation 22:3-5 In the first Paradise there was service in the dressing and keeping of the garden. One might say that there was more than service, in that the garden had to be kept as against some hostile influence; that there was working and watching, if not working and warfare, for man in Eden. We have now a harder work, a more earnest watching, a sorer conflict for we are weaker as fallen, and the enemy is bolder. Every one of God's children has to work and watch and fight until his rest be won. In the second Paradise there is no watching or warfare, because there is no enemy, no curse. Service alone is the task of heaven; not toilsome, for the taint of the curse no longer vitiates it; not mechanical, but spiritual; cheerful also, and perfect, because there is nothing to depress or mar it in the presence of the healing leaves of the tree of life. Four things make the service perfect in matter and spirit: I. His Servants shall see His Face. There is no hiding or darkening or overclouding of God's face; nothing to intercept the brightness of His countenance, and the full, clear tokens of His favour; no painful mysteries, no dark dispensations, no forsakings. The vision of God's face will make the service full of joy and strength and spirit, and banish all feeling of toil and drudgery and discontent II. His Name shall be in their Foreheads. They are His servants here and now doing His work. But their service, like themselves and Him whom they, serve, is not always recognised where it is rendered. God's name is on their foreheads now: He reads it there; angels read it there in their ministry. But the world does not see it; and it is often illegible or invisible to the servants themselves. They have not all or always that full assurance of faith which is so mighty a stimulus and so great a strength for God's service. It is not easy to maintain integrity and do work as God's servants amid the promiscuous company of the visible Church, which disturbs and deadens holy feeling and certitude, embarrasses activity, throws hesitancy and suspicion upon Christian life and work here; but there, where no forehead shall bear any other name than God's; where His name shall be visible and legible wherever it is written; where each shall know himself and know his brother as marked by the common and only name; where each shall have the full assurance that he is God's servant and is surrounded only by God's servants there, there will be nothing to paralyse, disconcert, or hinder that service with which God's servants shall serve Him. III. There shall be no Night there. No night for rest or refreshment to interrupt the service and renew flagging energy; no night of ignorance as to God's will, or of sin to obscure their perception of duty, or of sorrow to distract their attention. No natural, artificial, borrowed, or secondary light needed, for pushing on delayed, or overtaking neglected, work; no light that can go out or fail, to the hindering of the service. What a service that must be which is carried on for ever in the unfading and unsetting light of God Himself by men who know Him and their duty, no longer through means and ordinances and providences circuitously, but directly and immediately, as they see light in His light! IV. They shall Reign for Ever and Ever. They serve, but they also reign. They contemplate their service and execute it as from Christ's throne on which they reign with Him. They have reached their kingdom through overcoming by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony, through faithfulness over a few things. They will welcome their kingly state, their rule over many things, not as giving them exemption from all service, but as inspiring and fitting them for a nobler service and a more perfect fidelity to duty. They will feel that the dignity to which they have been promoted, the higher capacities with which they have been invested, and the unbounded confidence which has been placed in them, bind them to a loftier and more extensive and more successful service; to a service in which there is nothing petty, or mean, or sordid; to a service where no trace can be found of paltry motives, and jealousies, and resentments, such as touch the loyalty of mere subjects or servants; to a service which, in its largeness and frankness, and fearlessness and loyalty, is worthy of those who are, not only servants, but kings reigning for ever and ever. References. XXII. 4. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiv. No. 824. A. R. Ashwell, God in His Work and Nature, p. 46. Revelation 22:5 J. M. Neale wrote of the death of Charles Simeon: 'I cannot tell you how much I am grieved for his loss. I should think there was a great deal of sorrow to-night in Cambridge. I was going to say, What a glorious night for him! but there is no night there.' References. XXII. 6. W. H. Evans, Short Sermons for the Seasons, p. 170. S. Bentley, Parish Sermons, p. 127. C. Bradley, Faithful Teaching, p. 178. Revelation 22:7 * f * When you have read, you carry away with you a memory of the man himself; it is as though you had touched a loyal hand, looked into brave eyes, and made a noble friend; there is another bond on you thenceforward; binding you to life and to the love of virtue. R. L. Stevenson. References. XXII. 8-21. C. Anderson Scott, The Book of Revelation, p. 322. XXII. 9. Reuen Thomas, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlviii. p. 139. Expositor (6th Series), vol. v. p. 12a XXII. 10-12. T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. ii. p. 118. Revelation 22:11 From this text George Gilfillan heard Dr. Chalmers preach in Edinburgh on 9th October, 1831. 'Being near-sighted, and the morning rather dim, we could not catch a distinct glimpse of his features, we saw only a dark mass of man bustling up the pulpit stairs, as if in some dread and desperate haste. We heard next a hoarse voice, first giving out the psalm in a tone of rapid familiar energy, and after it was sung and prayer was over, announcing the text, "He that is unjust let him be unjust still ( stull, he pronounced it), he that is filthy ( fulthy, he called it), let him be filthy still, and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still, and he that is holy let him be holy stull". And then, like an eagle leaving a mountain cliff, he launched out at once on his subject, and soared on without any diminution of energy or flutter of wing for an hour and more. The discourse... had two or three magnificent passages, which made the audience for a season one soul a burst, especially, we remember, in reference to the materialism of heaven "There may be palms of triumph, I do not know there may be floods of melody," etc., and then he proceeded to show that heaven was more a state than a place.' Reference. XXII. 11. Archbishop Magee, Christ the Light of all Scripture, p. 147. Revelation 22:12 Piety cannot maintain itself if God makes no difference between the godly and the wicked, and has nothing more to say to the one than to the other; for piety is not content to stretch out its hands to the empty air, it must meet an arm descending from heaven. It must have a reward, not for the sake of the reward, but in order to be sure of its own reality, in order to know that there is a communion of God with men, and a road which leads to it. Wellhausen. References. XXII. 12. Bishop Alexander, The Great Question, p. 187. E. A. Bray, Sermons, vol. i. p. 320. XXII. 13. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ix. No. 646. A. J. Mason, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lix. p. 28. J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Apocalypse, p. 92. Phillips Brooks, The Mystery of Iniquity, p. 810. Revelation 22:14 Under the head of spiritual self-seeking ought to be included every impulse towards psychic progress, whether intellectual, moral, or spiritual in the narrow sense of the term. It must be admitted, however, that much that commonly passes for spiritual self-seeking in this narrow sense is only material and social self-seeking beyond the grave. In the Mohammedan desire for paradise and the Christian aspiration not to be damned in hell, the materiality of the goods sought is undisguised. In the more positive and refined view of Heaven, many of its goods, the fellowship of the saints and of our dead ones, and the presence of God, are but social goods of the most exalted kind. It is only the search of the redeemed inward nature, the spotlessness from sin, whether here or hereafter, that can count as spiritual self-seeking pure and undefiled.' Prof. James, Textbook of Psychology, p. 185. References. XXII. 14. J. Keble, Miscellaneous Sermons, p. 267. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Revelation, p. 380. XXII. 14, 15. G. W. Brameld, Practical Sermons (2nd Series), p. 63. Expositor (6th Series), vol. viii. p. 338. Revelation 22:16 In Dr. Andrew Bonar's diary for 18th September, 1849, there is this entry: 'This morning early I had awakened and looked out. It was about four o'clock. The morning star was shining directly before our window in a bright sky. One part of the window was misty with frost, the other clear, and through the clear part the star shone most beautifully. I thought of Christ's words, ὁ ἀστὴρ ὁ λαμπρὸς ὁ πρωϊνός (Revelation 22:16 ). Christ is all this in this world to me till the day break. I fell asleep, and when I next awoke the sun was shining through my room. Shall it not be thus at the Resurrection? Our shadowy views of Christ are passed, and now He is the Son of Righteousness'. Does not every fresh morning that succeeds a day of gloom and east wind, seem to remind us that for a living spirit, capable, because living, of renovation, there can be no such thing as 'failure,' whatever a few past years may seem to say? F. W. Robertson, * Letters. * References. XXII. 16. Expositor (7th Series), vol. v. p. 14. Revelation 22:17 Yet some Christians traverse the world like walking funerals rather than like wedding-guests! (Know thyself.) C. G. Rossetti. References. XXII. 16. J. Johnston, Penny Pulpit, No. 1609, p. 209. J. C. M. Bellow, Sermons, vol. i. p. 15. Expositor (5th Series), vol. iii. p. 450. The Holy Spirit and Christian Missions Revelation 22:17 I. It either is or is not true that the Spirit of God works in the heart of every man on the face of the earth. It is or is not true that God leaves not Himself without witness in every heart, that there is a light which lighteth every man, that the nations which have not 'the law,' or 'revelation,' as generally understood, have the law or revelation written on their hearts. It either is or is not true that when truth, as truth is in Jesus, is faithfully preached, the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. And if these tilings are true, according to New Testament conceptions, the scattering of the seed of the kingdom throughout the whole is sowing in a prepared field. But a belief in the Holy Spirit implies more than this. It implies a living link between all human spirits, because the same Divine Spirit speaks to all Carlyle's Irish widow in Edinburgh, when charitable relief for herself and her children had been refused, proved her sisterhood to those who disowned her, when the typhus fever, of which she died, spread and killed seventeen others in the neighbourhood. There are many ways of proving the solidarity of the race, but one of the soundest and most abiding is the fact that under the strangest disguises the human heart has the same needs, the same kinship to the Divine, and is more or less effectively taught by the same Divine Spirit. All the efforts man can put forth for the extension of the kingdom are needed, but it is the touch of the Divine which inspires, transforms, vivifies. Any overpowering force which would compel all Christians always to put first things first in spiritual work would revive the Church today and regenerate the world tomorrow. This may be seen if we think out the direct operation of the Spirit in relation to (1) religious convictions, (2) Christian motives, and (3) the spirit and temper of Christian enterprise. So many of the religious ideas that are current today are not deep convictions, and they need to be made such. So many genuine convictions are held in reserve in the background of the mind, and they need to be made living, active, fiery, penetrative. Christian motives operate, but languidly and imperfectly. Only the Divine Spirit Himself can so stir and shake the Church to its very depths that truisms may be translated into truths that will prove mighty to the pulling down of strongholds and the bringing of every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. II. The Holy Spirit alone furnishes the secret of true unity. Unity in the ranks of the Christian army as it goes forth to bloodless victory; unity amongst the kingdoms of this world when at last they become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. Christians at least profess always to be seeking for unity, but a large proportion steadfastly refuse to adopt the only promised means for obtaining it. The New Testament Churches were at one because they enjoyed 'the unity of the Spirit'; they were bidden not to make it, but to keep it (Ephesians 4:3 ). St. Paul obviously meant a oneness which the Holy Spirit Himself effected by His indwelling, the 'one Spirit' mentioned in the next verse It is true he mentions 'one body,' and the mystical body of Christ cannot be multiplied or divided. But it is the living Head who makes it one, and the indwelling Breath of God that keeps it one. St Paul would never have separated the two halves of Irenaeus' sentence, 'Where the Spirit is, there the Church is; and where the Church is, there the Spirit is and all true liberty'. But if he had been compelled to take either alone, he would have chosen the former half the root which would bring the fruits, not the fruit which is unable to exist without the roots. If the Church was truly one at first, it was not in virtue of a uniformly defined creed, or a universally accepted code, or an exactly identical mode of government in all the Churches, but because all acknowledged one Father, one Lord and one Spirit who was the very bond of fellowship with the Father and the Son and the bond of union in the members one with another. W. T. Davison, The Indwelling Spirit, p. 195. The Bride of Christ Revelation 22:17 There are some very curious ideas in men's minds as to what the Church is. The Scriptural idea of the Christian Church is something more than a building. It is nothing less than a body, which is styled the Bride of Christ. Christ the Bridegroom, the Church the Bride. And if people would only realise the Scriptural conception of the Christian Church, then I think that the Christian Church would begin to do its work, to realise its place, and to become what Jesus Christ would have it be. It is because the Christian Church has never yet, as a whole, risen to its high ideal as the Bride of Christ that it is so weak, so poor, so feeble. Now let us look at it The Church the Bride of Jesus Christ What is the character of the Bride of Jesus Christ? I. United in its Parts. It must be a Bride united to Christ by the very closest possible ties. It is a Bride which must be united to the Father, God. It is a Bride in which there is no division, in which there is unity of character, of purpose, and of aim. Our Lord prayed earnestly for those who composed His Church, the Bride of Himself, 'that they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee'. No less an ideal than the unity of the Father and the Son must be the ideal which Christians must aim at developing in their midst, every Church member united to other members of the Church even as God the Father and Son are united as one. II. Holy in its Entirety. We are told, in the Epistle to the Ephesians, the Church must be without 'spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing'. We are told in that very same chapter of the Lord Jesus Christ, the wonderful Bridegroom, that He will sanctify and cleanse His Church, His Bride. The Lord Jesus Christ will come and take His Church, sanctify it, set it apart, comfort, consecrate it, make it holy, pure, spotless, fit to be the Bride even of Himself. Oh, the marvellous character that the Christian Church ought to possess! If every one of us could sometimes sit down and turn to 1 Corinthians XIII. and read through that marvellous description of love 'love thinketh no evil,' and so on, right through from the beginning to end that is just the picture of what the Bride of Christ should be, the character of the Church of the living God. III. It should be Alive. The Church which is the Bride of Jesus Christ can only be manned by living men live men in the pulpit, live men in the pew, live men as officers. The Bride of Christ must thrill with life, with power. IV. Animated by Loyalty. The Church of Christ united, holy, alive, will be animated with loyalty to the common Head, aye, and loyalty to the different parts. If there is anything the matter with one's eye, the hand immediately goes up to it, to see whether it can put it right. You see the analogy St. Paul uses the analogy of the body to show how every part is depending on every other part, and so the Christian Church is animated with loyalty, not only to Jesus Christ, but that very loyalty to Jesus Christ implies loyalty to each other, loyalty to each other's character and life. Never detract, then, from the merits of another, but rather add to them, 'in love preferring one another'. You may always tell how close the Church is to Jesus Christ by how close it is to its different parts. References. XXII. 17. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. v. No. 279; vol. viii. No. 442; vol. xxiii. No. 1331; vol. xxvii. No. 1608, and vol. xlvi. No. 2685. Lyman Abbott, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliv. p. 88. E. M. Geldart, Faith and Freedom, p. 94. Basil Wilberforce, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlv. p. 38. F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. v. p. 221. J. Keble, Miscellaneous Sermons, p. 209. T. H. Ball, Persuasions, p. 23. J. Bannerman, Sermons, p. 382. G. W. Brameld, Practical Sermons, p. 168. J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons (9th Series), p. 212. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Revelation, p. 391. XXII. 18, 19. Expositor (6th Series), vol. v. p. 208; ibid. vol. vi. p. 124. XXII. 20, 21. H. Bonar, Short Sermons for Family Beading, p. 456. The Grace of Christ Revelation 22:21 What is Grace? In ordinary parlance, grace is beauty; and, etymologically, grace means that which gives joy, that which is delightful. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ was the quality of His life. I would note the salient characteristics of this grace, the beautiful grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. I. And the first note is, holiness. The beauty of holiness was on Christ, and indeed He was the only man to Whom the word 'holy' can be applied without any reservation at all. II. Great was His lovingkindness. He was utterly disinterested. And the charm of His character is enduring. III. He was so humble meek and lowly of spirit. Servant of servants, washing the disciples' feet. Holy, loving, humble, forgiving that is the grace of our Lord Jesus, and that grace is the best thing in life, is the loveliest quality in our human nature. B. J. Snell, The Examiner, 12th July, 1906, p. 673. Revelation 22:21 Grace is needed to make a man into a saint. Whoever doubts this knows neither what a saint is nor a man. Pascal. The last words of Mr. Honest were: Grace Reigns. So he left the world. Bunyan.