him be holy still," that is, let him be holy for ever (Rev. 22:11). For
delight to hear of. It is with mercy that all our hopes, and joys, and consolations here, are associated; and the thought that, in the ages to come, this mercy would alter or be superseded by something else, would infuse suspicion into our expectations, and call up uncomfortable conjectures as to the future that lies before us. "Everlasting mercy" settles every doubt, and lays every fear to rest. It is with the God of mercy that we shall have to do eternally, as truly as now. The God who took pity upon us in our sins, and freely forgave them all, is the God under the shadow of whose wing we shall rest for ever. It was to him, as the God of mercy, that our hearts first went up; and all our dearest thoughts of him during our pilgrimage are connected with his wondrous manifestations of mercy: so, over all coming ages shall that same mercy stretch itself, and we shall continue to recognise, in the King of the eternal ages, the God who drew us out of the horrible pit and out of the miry clay.
12. It thinks of the EVERLASTING holiness.—"He that is holy, let him be holy still," that is, let him be holy for ever (Rev. 22:11). For ever holy! This is the word of Him who is faithful and true. From the moment that the blood was sprinkled on us, by our receiving God's testimony concerning it, we were set apart for God,—we became his "saints" or holy ones. It was to this blood alone, and not to any fitness in us, that God had respect in setting us apart; and it was this blood that removed every objection that could be raised against us on the score of unworthiness. God looked at us, and then at the blood, and forthwith proceeded to set us apart according to his eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. We fixed our eye on that blood on which God was looking, and the whole transaction was done. That which God saw in the blood removed all his objections; and that which we saw dispelled all our difficulties and fears. These objections can never rise up again: these fears can never revisit us. That which banished these at first has banished them for ever. Our consecration is for eternity. In correspondence with this outward setting apart, the internal purifying began and proceeded; for we were "chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in
love" (Eph. 1:4). The "inward man was renewed day by day." Everything helped on the process. "All things wrought together for good" to us. Sorrow smote us only to "perfect that which concerned us," and to make us "partakers of Jehovah's holiness" (Heb. 12:10). And when we awake in the resurrection dawn, we arise to holiness, in all its completeness without and within. Our name even here was "Elect of God, holy and beloved" (Col. 3:12), "holy brethren" (Heb. 3:1); and such shall be our name for ever, for "blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection" (Rev. 20:6). We have been "called with an holy calling," even "as he who hath called us is holy" (2 Tim. 1:9; 1 Pet. 1:15). Nor shall that calling ever be reversed. We have a share in the "holy covenant" (Luke 1:72), nor shall that covenant alter or be broken; for "the Lord forsaketh not his holy ones; they are preserved for ever" (Ps. 37:28); their very death is precious to him (Ps. 116:15); and when the Lord returns, he comes "to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe" (2 Thess. 1:10). It is as his holy ones that they possess the inheritance; for it is an undefiled "inheritance" (1 Pet. 1:4); nay, the apostle's name for it is, "The inheritance of the saints in light" (Col. 1:12). It is as his saints that they are called to be "joyful in glory" (Ps. 149:5); and it is as his saints that they shall "take the kingdom and possess it for ever, even for ever and ever" (Dan. 7:18). It is as saints that they are the "habitation," the "temple of the Holy Ghost" (1 Cor. 6:10), and "holiness becometh that house for ever" (Ps. 93:5); nor will he who has once taken up his abode in them, desert the dwelling which he has chosen for himself.
Thus on all sides faith sees itself surrounded with eternity. Each promise in the divine Word speaks of eternity. Each hope points to eternity. Each pardon that we receive has eternity inscribed on it. Each token of love tells of eternity. Each day's fellowship with the Lord is inseparably linked with an eternal fellowship. The great God with whom we have to do is the everlasting one. The Son whose righteousness covers us, is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. The Holy Spirit is the "eternal Spirit." There is not one word, one
thought, one promise, one hope, one joy, that speaks of less than ETERNITY!
Feeling itself thus compassed about with eternity, how the spirit rises upward! How it gets ashamed of littleness in itself, and in others who are partakers of the same hope! How it expands its affections on every side,—passing beyond self and the things of self, and entering on other regions where it gets full play to its expanding powers! The realised glimpse of eternity takes it at once out of its contracted "beat;" and, instead of pacing round and round within a poor circle of its own, it learns that there are other interests precious, as dear to God, and as closely liked with the marvels of the ages to come, as its own could be. Getting beyond the narrowness of its own joys and sorrows, it learns somewhat to forget itself in the thought of others.
And thus occupied, not merely with one eternity, but with thousands of eternities like its own—the eternities of redeemed ones like itself— it gets above depression, and ceases to brood over its own fears and griefs. The screen has been thrown back that hemmed in its vision; it looks into the vista of immeasurable ages; it loses sight of things corruptible in the vision of the incorruptible; it learns to measure the things that are seen and temporal, by the things that are unseen and eternal.
CHAPTER IV
THE LIFE OF THE AGES TO COME
THE life that is not life is the portion of the many. The life that is life is the heritage of the few. True life, with its strange, rich secrets, both of joy and sadness, is but little known—nay, hardly so much as conceived of in this region of the dead.
Men do not think of living, but only of enjoying existence. To have life unfolded from within them by a heavenly agency, as the leaf and blossom are drawn in beauty out of the tree by the sun and air, is beyond their very widest ideas of life. Yet what is a man's true life but the developing of his powers and affections—the bringing forth of his whole being into fullest exercise by the energy of the Holy Ghost? It is not the external circumstances in which he moves, nor the points in which he comes into contact with men and things around him, that make up life, so that, in summing up his days of business, or his nights of pleasure, he might say, "I have lived," or "I live:" it is the springing, budding, blossoming of the MAN—the very man himself as God made him—that alone can be counted LIFE.
How few live, or even think of living!
Life to most is an unexplored continent. They do not know, nor do they care to know, what its features or its treasures are. They only cruise along its rocky sea-board, and think that narrow strip of sand and shells which their eye takes in to be all of life that can be known. To penetrate the vast interior, with its streams, and lakes, and woods, and groves, and vales, and fields, and happy dwellings, where the sun does not smite by day, nor the moon by night, is what they have never yet proposed to themselves, and have only shrunk from when proposed to them by others.
But though life is an undiscovered region to most, it is not so to all. Some, though few, have found and known it. They have found that, without the conscious friendship of the God that made them, there is no life. "In his favour is life." The possession of this favour is the one thing that distinguishes existence from life. The former they always had; the latter they "only began to have when they became acquainted with God."
This life came down to them freely, like the manna which Israel partook of in the desert. They did not buy nor earn it. It cost them only what the manna cost Israel—the gathering it up as it lay around.