she, but she did not require their strength to lean upon. Their strength was

she, but she did not require their strength to lean upon. Their strength was

What was Babylon, or Assyria, or Egypt, to Israel? An enemy, or it might be a tempter,—certainly not an ally or a friend. A distant peace might be between them; but as for fellowship, or brotherhood, or sympathy, that could not be. What is the world to the Church, or to any single saint? Just what Babylon or Egypt was to Israel. No more. She dwells alone. We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lieth in wickedness. Israel was 'separate' and dwelt alone. This was her position, her portion, such as was appointed her by the purpose of God. The Church is to dwell alone, like Israel. Let us set both these together, illustrating the one by the other. 1. Israel did not need the world's help.—The nations were stronger than she, but she did not require their strength to lean upon. Their strength was their weakness; her weakness was her strength. They would have helped her, but she would not be helped; and when at last she did accept their aid, it was her ruin. Her help was in Jehovah. Her security was in His favor. With Him upon her side, what was the array of the whole world against her? Her pious kings, such as Asa and Hezekiah, felt this: they prayed and acted accordingly. Neither does the Church need the help of the world. The less of the world there is in her schemes, her enterprises, her hopes, the better. Never has she prospered when she betook herself to an arm of flesh, or to the strength of human greatness, or to the influence of the world's smile. For the world cannot really help one who is not of this world, who has nothing in common with her joys, or cares, or ambitions. And never has the world helped the Church without exacting a favor in return; insisting on or tacitly giving it to be understood that she expects some compromise, some relaxation of her testimony, less of strictness and spirituality,—more of genial fellowship and participation in her pleasures, if not her lusts and sins.

The Church's help is neither in the world nor in the god of this world. Her help is in the Lord who made heaven and earth. With this divine help she is able to undertake any enterprise, to encounter any foe. Let her lean on this arm alone. It is on this arm that faith leans; it is this arm that unbelief flings from it, to take hold of one more visible, more sensible, more congenial to flesh and blood. II. Israel did not need the world's riches.—The world was rich,—rich in its own way, and according to its own standard. Israel might have had a share in that wealth. But God had said, It is not for you. You need it not. I have given you a land flowing with milk and honey, abundance of corn and wine. What more do you need? Be content. Be strangers with me and sojourners, as all your fathers were. When you need the gold of earth, you shall have it. You needed it once when you were leaving Egypt, and you got it with toil. You needed it when you were building a temple for me in my city, and you got it. But seek it not. When required, it will come to you. Israel, the world's gold is not for you! Church of the living God, your richest are not of earth; your treasure is in heaven. Labour not to be rich. Covet not luxury, and ease, and splendour. Grudge not to be poor. The cross of poverty, which your Master bore, be satisfied to bear also. In the early Church it was so. 'Not many rich, not many noble,' were called. God chose the poor to confound the riches and greatness of earth. 'Wooden chalices and golden bishops' was the primitive boast. Poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing all things. Your riches are God's; they are the unsearchable riches of Christ; they are divine and everlasting. They take not to themselves wings and flee away. You shall have enough ere long, when the Lord comes. Meanwhile, be rich in faith, rich in love, rich in all good works.

III. Israel did not need the world's wisdom.—Egypt had learning, Babylon had wisdom, Greece had philosophy. Israel might covet these; for these have always been, even more than gold, objects of highest ambition of man. But with these Israel was not to intermeddle. When she tried to do

so, she failed. Earth's wisdom would not suit her. The cup of Chaldean magic was not for her. The cloak of Anthenian philosophy did not suit a Jew. Beside, she had wisdom of her own; wisdom of heavenly origin; not the wisdom of conjecture or speculation, but of certainty, of absolute truth; wisdom which could fill and satisfy; wisdom which could gladden and illuminate. In a small volume, no doubt, was that wisdom contained; to the secrets of science it did not extend; of man's goodness or greatness it spoke little; to earthly glory or fame it did not point the way. But it was full of God and the things of God; full of infinite and perfect truth; full of all that could fill, and purify, and ennoble the human soul. One page of it was worth all that Gentile sages could boast of. Israel surely did not need to go to Chaldea or Egypt for wisdom and learning. She had all she needed within herself. She might dwell alone and enjoy it all. Happy Israel! Saved from a thousand doubts, and uncertainties, and vain reasonings, which vex, and fret, and shrivel up the soul! Happy Israel! Led at once God into the green pastures of eternal wisdom, and made to like down beside its quiet waters. Church of God, all Israel's wisdom, more than all Israel's wisdom is yours! You have now the fullness of Him in whom it pleased the Father that all fullness should dwell; Him in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Rest there. If other wisdom crosses your path, take it, if you are sure that it is truth. But let it be subordinate to your own. Place nothing side by side with the wisdom of Christ. Above all, beware of entangling yourself in the perplexities and sophistries of the day, thus rushing into the very thickets from which God, by giving you such a certain revelation, has sought to keep you back. What! Do you covet doubt, when faith is before you? Do you coven speculation, when revealed certainty is presented to you? Do you prefer the vexed and boiling whirlpool to the quiet haven or more quiet lake? Be on your guard against the wiles of the devil in these last days. Should not a people seek unto their God? Is His wisdom not the surest, safest, best? Oh, dwell alone! Enter your chamber; shut your doors about you. Learn of God. Fear not the taunt of the world, that you are not abreast of the age, nor imbued with its spirit. Retire to God. Let the world's Babel-sounds of boasted wisdom pass round you or over you unheeded. In

patience possess your souls. Get your wisdom in communion with God and in the study of His book. IV. Israel did not need the world's pleasures.—And why? Was it Stoicism or Cynicism? No. She was happy without them. She had her God to make her happy. Her Sabbaths were happiness. Her feasts were happiness. Her ways were ways of pleasantness, and all her paths were peace. Happy wert thou, O Israel! Who was like unto thee,—a people saved of the Lord? How goodly were thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel! She was the specimen of a happy nation, a prosperous nation,—yet dwelling alone; indebted to no nation round for her gladness; indebted to God alone. All joy was poor and transient when compared to hers. What could Phoenicia, or Philistia, or Syria, or Egypt, give her of true happiness? So and even more with the Church. The joy unspeakable is hers; the peace that passeth all understanding is hers. She does not need to borrow from the world. She is not so poor as to be indebted to any man. She has all and abounds. O child of God, is not the joy of God enough for thee? Doest thou require the pleasures of sin, the gaieties of the ballroom, the excitement of the theatre, the music of the opera, the frivolities of the world's card-table, the stolen pleasures of the private dance, to make up for deficiencies in what God has given thee?[19] If He has not given enough, go tell Him, and He will give thee more. But go not to His enemies to borrow. Go not to Endor, or Ekron, or Egypt,—to the world's haunts of vanity, where the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eye, and the pride of life are cherished. Dwell alone with God, and His Christ, and His Israel. Let their joys suffice. They have proved enough for prophets and apostles; enough for angel and archangel: they may well be enough for thee. V. Israel did not need the world's society.—Israel knew what that meant,—'It is not solitude to be alone.' The society of Gentile idolaters she was commanded not to seek. It would profit her nothing. It would bring neither joy nor strength. It would only weaken and corrupt. 'Evil communications corrupt good manners.' The tribes were society to

themselves; and, within the circle of Palestine, Israel found all that was congenial, and elevated, and blessed. For society she did not need to go beyond her own narrow bounds. Within these her fellowships lay. Christian, dwell alone! Seek not the society of the world. Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? If you have any sympathies with that world,—if it contains attractions for you,—if God and the things of God are not enough for you,—there is something wrong. Love not the world! Seek not its society. Seek the things above. Beware of the fascinations of company, the spells which gaiety throws over the young. Stand your ground. Be not whirled away into the tossing current of gay society on any pretext whatever. Church of the living god, be separate,—dwell alone! That is your security, your strength, your influence. Let the world see that you are not of it; that you do not need it. It needs you,— but you do not need it. And you will serve it best by dwelling alone. Not by coldness, sourness, distance; but by love, geniality, gentleness, patience, by all acts of benevolence and words of peace. These are things which are only to be found by 'dwelling alone.'

XXXIX. The Model Of A Holy Life

"These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth." —

Revelation 14:4.

"Follow thou me."— John 11:22.

"Leaving us an example, that we should follow His steps."— 2 Peter 2:21.

"I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ." —

2 Corinthians 10:1.

These four passages point more or less to our responsibility for a holy life, and to Christ as the true model of that life. We are redeemed, that we may be holy; we are freely pardoned, that we may be holy; we look to Jesus, that we may be holy; we are filled with the Spirit, that we may be holy. The true religious life rises out of redemption, and is a copy of Christ's walk on earth. Beholding Him, we are changed into the same image, from glory to glory. The first of these passages refers specially to the future honour of the saints. Their peculiar privilege is to be attendance on the Lamb; 'for ever with the Lord;' for ever beholding His face; for ever waiting on Him, sharing His fellowship, doing His will, enjoying His blessedness, when day has broken and the shadows fled away. They are to be to the Lamb in His exaltation, what the twelve disciples were in His humiliation,— 'followers,'—though in a far higher sense than was known in the days of His flesh. Yet we may use this verse to indicated Christ as our present leader and example. We follow Him here in suffering and service, as we shall follow Him hereafter in glory and in joy.

Christ was our substitute when He was here on earth; we are His representatives now that He is absent. We are to be 'lights in the world,' as He was. For this end we are to 'follow His steps,' live as He lived, love as He loved, speak as He spoke. He is our pattern and model. Shine as He shone! He was the 'Israelite indeed,' the true Nathanael, in whom was no guile. He was the true Nazarite. Let us be Nazarites as He was, consecrated to God, and separate from the world. Look up, Christian, look up! Not Babylon; but Jerusalem, is your hope and your home. Thus Peter points to Christ as our 'example,' remembering perhaps His last words to himself, 'Follow me.'

The third of these passages connects together the suffering and the example. In it Peter places both before us at once, that we may have our eye on both, not separating the blood from the holiness, yet keeping both distinct, the former as the fountainhead of the latter. Jesus by His blood 'washes,' 'sanctifies', 'justified' (Romans 5:9; 1 Corinthians 6:11); and while doing so, presents Himself as our model, the true doer of the Father's will. Let us note Peter's words more at length. Christ for us, or Christ our substitute,—that is the first thing. Christ in us, or Christ our life,—that is the next. Christ before us, or Christ our model,—that is the next. These three great truths make up a large portion of Christianity. We look to Christ for salvation, and we obtain it as surely and simply as Israel obtained healing by looking at the brazen serpent. We look to Christ for conformity to His likeness, and we are changed into His likeness as we gaze. The model or pattern is a complete one. Others are onesided, imperfect: this is perfect. Every feature is there; every line is there. We are to grow like it; to be imitators of Christ. We are to copy Him. In copying a man, there is danger of producing a stiff, second-hand, second-rate resemblance. Not so in copying Christ. He is the divine model. It is God's purpose and desire that we copy Him. He is gone to heaven, but has left this pattern as a legacy.

A Christian, then, is a copy of Christ. His inner and outer man are to be copies of Christ. It is Christ's footsteps he is to walk in. It is Christ's image that he is to reflect. It is not Paul, nor Peter, no Luther, nor Calvin, nor Rutherford that he is to copy, but Christ Himself. Other models may illustrate this, and so help in the imitation of Christ; but only as doing this are they useful; otherwise they are dangerous. What then is a Christian man?

I. He is a man of faith.—It was by giving credit to God's word that he became a Christian man; for it is by faith that we become sons of God. And his whole life is to be a life of faith. As Christ lived by faith on the Father, so does he. Christ is his model as a believing man. The more that he understands of Christ's life, the more will he see the faith that marks it, and will learn to copy it, to live, act, speak, and walk by faith. II. He is a man of prayer.—In this too he follows Christ. Christ's life was a life of prayer. In the morning we find Him praying, a great while before day. All night we find Him praying more. No one, we would say, less needed prayer; yet no one prayed more. And the disciple herein imitates the Master. He prays without ceasing. He is instant in supplication. His life is a life of prayer,—constant intercourse with God. III. He is a man of hope.—Christ looked to the joy set before Him, and so endured the cross. He anticipated the glory, and so was a man of hope. There is the hope, the same glory, the same joy for us. The things hoped for are the things we live upon and rejoice in. Our prospects are bright, and we keep them ever in view. The kingdom, the crown, the city, the inheritance, these are before our eyes. They cheer, and sustain, and purify us. Were it not for the hope, what would become of us? What would this world be to us? Learn to hope as well as to believe. IV. He is man of holiness.—He is the follower of a holy Master. He hears the voice, Be ye holy, for I am holy. He knows that he is redeemed to

be holy, to do good works, to follow righteousness, to be one of a peculiar people. He is not content with being saved; he seeks to put off sin, lust, evil, vanity, and to put on righteousness, holiness, and every heavenly characteristic. He seeks to rise higher and higher; to grow more unlike this world,—more like the world to come. He marks Christ's footsteps, and walks in them. He studies the Master's mind, and seeks to possess it; mortifying his members and crucifying the flesh. He aims at shining as He shone, testifying as He testified. V. He is a man of love.—He has known Christ's love, and drunk it in, and found his joy in it. So he seeks to be like Him in love; to love the Father, to love the brethren, to love sinners, to show love at all times, in word and deed. His life is to be a life of love, his words the words of love, his daily doings the outflow of a heart of love. He is to be a living witness of the gospel of love. Love,—not hatred, nor coldness, nor malice, nor revenge, nor selfishness, nor indifference,— love such as was in Christ,— that he endeavors to embody and exhibit. VI. He is to be a man of zeal.—'The zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up,' said Christ. His life was one of zeal for God,— zeal for His Father's honour and His Father's business. So is the disciple to be 'zealous of good works.' Zeal steady and fervent,—not by fits and starts; not according to convenience, but in season and out of season; prudent, yet warm and loving; willing to suffer and to sacrifice; no sparing self or the flesh, but ever burning; zeal for Jehovah's glory, for Christ's name, for the Church's edification, for the salvation of lost men;—this is to give complexion and character to his life. These things are to mark a Christian man. He is not to be content with less. He is to grow in all these things; not to be barren, not to stagnate, not to be lukewarm, but to increase in resemblance to his Lord; to be transformed daily into His likeness, that there may be no mistake about him as to who or what he is.

The last of the passages set down at the head of this mediation takes up something special in Christ which we are to imitate,—His 'meekness and gentleness.' In the book of the Revelation He is chiefly known by the name of 'the Lamb.' That is His chief name in heaven. He has other titles, but this is given as peculiarly His in the place of His glory. As Peter thus points to Christ as our model, so also does Paul in the above passage. One feature in His character he specially notes, which shone out very brightly in this coarse, rude world,—a world where, all along, man has trodden down man, the stronger the weaker; where strong deeds, as well as strong language, have been accounted heroism and manliness,—the proper expression of dignity and superiority;—this feature is the Lord's submissive and nonresistance, even with the full consciousness of superior power,—His 'meekness and gentleness.' This meekness of Christ Paul takes up and points to. On this he bases his entreaties to the Corinthians. This is one of the strongest and most earnest of Paul's 'beseechings.' He has many of these; for he 'entreats' when he might 'command;' he uses love when he might wield the rod. 'I beseech you by the mercies of God' (Romans 12:1). 'I beseech you by the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit' (Romans 15:30). 'We beseech you by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ' (2 Thessalonians 2:1). Here it is by the meekness and gentleness of Christ that he beseeches. And why does he beseech them by this? For two reasons: (1) He reminds them of this meekness and gentleness, as if to say, 'Imitate Him who you call Lord and Master and do not proudly withstand the authority of me His servant;' (2) he reminds them of it, as if to say, 'Do not constrain me, the servant, to make use of anything but the meekness and gentleness of the Master.' It is the apostle's last argument in dealing with the rebellious members of the Church. Is it not weighty? Is it not irresistible? But it is chiefly the character of Christ itself that we would dwell upon here, yet noticing also the bearing of that character upon the obedience of saints and the submission of sinners to His rule.

I. The person.—It is 'the Christ of God.' He has many names, each revealing His person: the Word; the Son; the Onlybegotten of the Father; the Light; Immanuel. These express the marvelous constitution of His person as the Christ; Son of God, and Son of man; very God and very man; the Word made flesh; having all divine and all human perfections, all created and all uncreated excellencies exhibited in Him, all fullness deposited in Him; full of grace and truth; the glory of Godhead; the glory of the King of kings. II. The character.—It is that of meekness and gentleness: meekness in bearing and forbearing; gentleness in His tender loving treatment of us, both in word and deed. He is 'meek and lowly;' He did not strive nor cry, neither did any man hear His voice in the street; the bruised reed He broke not, the smoking flax He quenched not; He entered Jerusalem on an ass's colt, as the prophet had written, 'Behold, thy King cometh' (Zechariah 9:9). No doubt there are other declarations which speak of wrath, and judgment, and vengeance; but these are His 'strange acts' as the great Judge. His character, as exhibited on earth in all His words and works, was that of lowliness and love. Fury was not in Him. He bore the contradiction of sinners against Himself; when He was reviled, He reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not. He loved, He pitied, He wept, He invited, He entreated, He blessed. He frowned on none save the Pharisee. He spoke no harsh words; He displayed no repulsive looks or tones; He was ever courteous, polite, and affable. All in Him was grace,—grace to the uttermost. He was the embodiment of that charity or love which the Apostle Paul has described. He was long-suffering, kind, not easily provoked, thinking no evil, rejoicing not in iniquity, bearing all things, believing all things, enduring all things, never failing! Meeker than Moses, gentler than John, more patient than Job, tenderer by far than His own tender earthly mother, He is in the embodiment of all that is winning and attractive. All this He was on earth; all this He is still; unchanged and unchangeable; with nothing in Him or about Him to repel, but everything to attract; everything to win our confidence. At once the highest of the high, and the lowliest of the lowly. His is the almightiness of divine royalty,

for all power is given here; yet the disposition to use that almightiness only to save, and comfort, and bless. Almighty meekness, and meek almightiness! Almighty gentleness, and gentle almightiness! How admirable! How glorious! How blessed! So holy, yet so meek and gentle to the unholy! So abhorrent of sin, yet so pitiful and long-suffering toward the sinner! So capable of executing vengeance and utterly destroying His enemies, yet so patient, so gracious; not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance! So terrible as the Judge, yet so tender as the Saviour! His is the iron rod, and the sword of vengeance, and the purging fan, and the devouring fire; yet He says, Come unto me. He weeps over Jerusalem. He prays for His murderers. Ah, what meekness and gentleness are His! Nothing like it on earth, or in heaven,— the meekness and gentleness of the God-man. 'Even Christ pleased not Himself.' III. The bearing of all this on us.—It is not in vain that He is thus presented to us. This meekness and gentleness ought to tell both on the believer and the unbeliever. (1.) On the believer.—It is the strongest motive to obedience and submission. It is the most impressive rebuke to all pride, or murmuring, or self-will. Having daily to do with one so meek and gentle, shall we not become like Him? Shall we not love Him, and shall we not honour His laws? Shall we not fear to offend Him, and shrink from wounding Him? O believer! Look at this meekness and gentleness, and put away all stubbornness, and self-will, and self-pleasing. And having to do with one so meek and gentle, shall we not put away from us all doubting, all despondency? Shall we allow one hard, one suspicious thought to linger within us? Shall we not put ourselves implicitly into His hands and trust Him for ever? (2.) On the unbeliever.—'Come unto me' are the His first words to you. And His second are like unto them, 'Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.' Yes, He bids you come; He asks you to learn. He is the most accessible of all beings. His door is ever open; His heart is ever open; His arms are ever open. There is nothing in Him or about Him to repel you,

though the chief of sinners, the worst of men. His words to the sinner are pre-eminently the words of meekness and gentleness. They are infinitely attractive and encouraging. 'Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.' Look at Him; listen to Him; draw near to Him; speak to Him; doubt not, despair not, depart not. Go up to Him; He will receive you. Tell Him your case; He will bid you welcome. He will not cast you away. He has patience to bear with all your foolishness, and ignorance, and stupidity, and unteachableness. He will not get angry with you, as proud men lose their temper with the unteachable or obstinate. He will bear with you. The greatness of your sins shall be no hindrance. The desperateness of your diseases will not make Him repel you. He will receive you graciously, and love you freely. Yea, He comes to you. 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock.'

XL. The Everlasting Gospel

"Hearing the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth."—

Revelation 14:6.

This worldwide proclamation of the glad message has been going on for ages. It is to be wider, and louder, and more urgent as the end draws near. The gospel is to be preached to all nations for a witness ere the end come. The proclamation is made by an angel,—an angel flying in mid-heaven, the position of the sun at noon,—that all may see and hear. Angels in this book are representatives of the invisible agencies at work on earth. They are living and personal agencies though invisible; not dead, mute laws, but superhuman powers, setting in motion the whole machinery of the world; and in the case of the present angel, the special machinery for the promulgation of the everlasting gospel. This book of the Revelation (like Daniel and Zechariah) takes us within the veil that hides the material from the spiritual, the human from the superhuman. It gives us the inner or supernatural side of Church history; the secret springs and invisible agencies which produce events and facts,—changes for good or evil; it gives us a glimpse of the true laws of nature, or at least of those living powers and processes by which these laws are regulated and made to subserve the Creator's purpose; it shows us that angels have far more to do with our world and its history than we suppose; it keeps before us, what is so much needed in our day, the supernatural world of intelligence, and life, and strength, outside of ours, yet quite as real and true,—closely though invisibly connected with us, and operating at all points, animate and inanimate, spiritual and physical, upon the course of things in this lower sphere of ours. These 'ministering spirits' (Hebrews 1:14) have far more numerous and various ministries in connection with earth and its history than we usually ascribe to them.

This angel is seen 'preaching' (he has the 'evangel to evangelize,' as the words are literally), making the good news known. Not that he actually preaches as men do; both by stirring up human agencies and in other more secret ways communicating it to men. Satan and his angels work for evil, in the dissemination of error, the sowing of tares, the inventing of strong delusions; and why should it be thought incredible that good angels might, in their sphere of good, do the like service for truth and righteousness? How Satan tempted Christ,—how he made Ananias lie to God,—how he sowed the tares,—how he leavens the world with error,—how he beguiles us with his subtlety,—we know not; but he does so. Just as the law was given by angels, as the 'word was spoken by angels' (Hebrews 2:2), as 'the angel testified these things in the Churches' (Revelation 22:16), so this angel in mid-heaven may be understood as proclaiming the everlasting gospel. Angelic lips may not be heard; but human lips, set in motion by agencies which eye hath not seen, may proclaim it. There is here a new proclamation of an old thing; a repromulgation on a wider circle of the everlasting gospel in the last days, just before the great act of judgment is consummated. I. The gospel.—It is a 'glad message' from God to man; good news from heaven to earth. In it we have not man speaking to God, but God to man; not earth crying to heaven, but heaven to earth; it is love descending, not love ascending. It is the gladdest of all glad tidings that ever came to earth. It is the true good news. (1) Of God's free love.—To be good news they must be the news of love. And for that love to be available or accessible to the sinner, it must be absolutely and unconditionally free. God's free love is the very essence and marrow of the gospel. And it is as large as it is free. (2) Of God's great gift.—God gave His Son; and the Son gave Himself. Here is a gift beyond all measure and price—an 'unspeakable gift.' Of this the gospel is the glad message.

(3) Of God's propitiation for sin.—It was not a mere gift, but a gift which was to be a propitiation, an atonement,—a sacrificial gift,—the gift of a substitute and surety. One special part of the value and suitableness of this gift,—that which made it so pre-eminently a gift of sinners,—was its sacrificial character. It was an offering for sin. It contained cleansing and reconciling blood. Yes, Christ is the propitiation for our sins! God hath set Him forth as a propitiation. This is the very gladness of the glad message. (4) Of God's righteousness.—He is the righteousness of God; and He was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. We bring glad tidings of a divine righteousness in preaching the gospel of the grace of God,— righteousness for the unrighteous, yea, for the most unrighteous of the sons of men! (5) Of God's kingdom.—The 'gospel of the kingdom' is its special designation. It is good news of a kingdom, and of the new and living way, and of the open gate into that kingdom for sinners. There is a glorious kingdom; there is free access to it; its gates are open; God bids us welcome. This is our gospel. Enter in, O man, O sinner, into the kingdom of God! II. The everlasting gospel.—We read of eternal or everlasting salvation, eternal or everlasting redemption; and here is the same word applied to the good news concerning these. (1) Its past is everlasting.—It came forth from the bosom of Him from who the only-begotten Son came; it is the embodiment of His eternal purpose. It was hidden in the eternal ages; and from these it has come out to us. It is no new thing to God; no unexpected thing devised to meet a sudden emergency. It is from everlasting, like the love and grace out of which it sprang. (2) Its future is everlasting.—It is for ever and ever. Its gladness is forever; its provisions last forever; and what it does for those who believe it, it does forever. The eternal future is filled with the trophies and bright with the splendors of this glorious gospel.

(3) It is illimitable.—It extends on all sides, through all space as well as through all time. Its center is the cross; its circumference is nowhere, or rather everywhere, round the whole universe of God. (4) It is unchangeable.—Like Him of whom it brings good news, it is the same yesterday, today, and for ever. It is without variableness or shadow of turning. One gospel, only one; yet that one sufficient for worlds of sinners,—the same for ever. It does not know progress or progressive development, for it is perfect. (5) It is the gospel of every age and nation.—It is not for one century more than another, but for all; not for one nation more than another, but for all. It suits the nineteenth century as truly as the first; civilized Europe as truly as barbarian Madagascar. It is the gospel of the ages,— in every age the same, supplying the same wants, addressing itself to the same kinds of sinners pardoning the same sins, removing the same fears and sorrows. It is the everlasting gospel; more truly such than the everlasting hills or the everlasting stars. It is a gospel for the sons of men; human, and yet divine; of earth, and yet of heaven. And this gospel is to be enforced in the last days by a special argument, —'Fear God, and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment is come.' The gospel changes not, yet each age furnishes its own potent reasons for receiving it,—the last age the most potent and irresistible of all. Now or never! For the last trumpet is about to sound. Now or never! For the son of man is just at hand.

XLI. The Swift And Sudden Advent

"Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they (men) see his shame." —

Revelation 16:15.

These are words specially for the last days. They suite all times, no doubt; —for Christ is ever coming; the last trump is ever about to sound; the fire is ever ready to be kindled; the Judge is ever at the door. But they suit the last days best, and are meant for these. With eighteen hundred years behind us now, we may take them home most solemnly to ourselves. (1) They warn; (2) they quicken; (3) they rouse; (4) they comfort. I. The coming.—It is the long-promised advent. Christ comes! He comes,—(1) as Avenger, (2) as Judge, (3) as King, (4) as Bridegroom. The same Jesus that left the earth is about to return to it. 'Behold,' says He to a blind, heedless world; 'behold,' says He to a cold and slumbering Church. 'I come:' He is herald to Himself. 'As a thief;'—at midnight; when men are asleep; when darkness lies on earth; when men are least expecting Him; when they have lain down, saying, "Peace and safety.' 'Behold, I come as a thief.' Without warning, though with vengeance for the world in His hand; when all past warnings of judgment have been unheeded. Without further message; for all past messages have been vain. Like lightening; like a thief; like a snare. Like lightning to the world, but the Sun of morning to His Church; like a thief to the world, but like a bridegroom to the Church; like a snare to the world, but like the cloud of glory to His own. II. The watching.—Not believing, nor hoping, nor waiting merely; but watching,—as men do against some event, whether terrible or joyful, of which they know not the time. Waiting was the posture of the Jewish Church for the first advent; watching is ours for the second. Watch, said the Master. Watch, said the servants in primitive times. Watch, we say still, for

ye know neither the day nor the hour of His arrival. Watch, for that day is great and glorious. Watch, for ye are naturally disposed to sit down and take your ease. Watch, for Satan tries to lull you asleep. Watch, for the world, with it riches, and vanities, and pleasures, is trying to throw you off your guard. Watch upon your knees. Watch with your Bibles before you. Watch with wide-open eye. Watch for Him whom not having seen you love. III. The keeping of the garments.—Be like Nehemiah, who, when watching against the Ammonites, did not put off his clothes night nor day. Keep your garments all about you, that when the Lord comes He may find you not naked, but robed and ready. Do not cast off your raiment either for sleep or for work. Do not let the world strip you of it. Keep it and hold it fast. It is heavenly raiment, and without it you cannot go in with your Lord when He comes. The blessedness.—Blessed is the watcher; blessed is the keeper of his garments. Many are the blessed ones; here is one class specially for the last days. How much we lose by not watching and not keeping our garments! (1) It is blessed, for it cherishes our love. (2) It is blessed, for it is one of the ways of maintaining our intercourse. (3) It is blessed, for it is the posture through which He has appointed blessing to come, in His absence, to His waiting Church. The warning.—Lest ye walk naked, and men see your shame. 'Shame' has three meanings: (1) the shameful thing or object; (2) the feeling of shame produced by the consciousness of the shameful thing; and (3) the exposure to shame and scorn from others. The first of these is specially referred to here. But all the three are connected. Adam was ashamed at being found naked when the Lord came down to meet him; how much more of shame and terror shall be to unready souls at meeting with a returning Lord! It will be the beginning of shame and everlasting contempt. They shall be put to shame before men and angels; they shall be overwhelmed with confusion before the great white throne.

The universe shall see their shame. O false disciple, come out of your delusion and hypocrisy, lest you be exposed in that day of revelation! O sinner, make ready, for the day of vengeance is at hand!

XLII. The One Witness And The One Testimony

"The testimony of Jesus."— Revelation 19:10

"He who testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly." —

Revelation 22:20.

John was overpowered with glory. It was but the glory of an angel, and the words were the words of an angel; but the glory and the words were those of one who had come from the presence of God. Perhaps he was like Peter on the mount, who was not what he did and said. He forgets for a moment that it is written, 'Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God,' and he falls down at his feet to worship him. 'Stop,' cries the angel, 'don't worship me!' And if the holy men and women, to whom the idolatry of the Church of Rome is paid, could speak, they would say the same, shrinking back horrified at the robbery of being made equal with God. But it is to the answer of the angel, and his declaration concerning himself, that I ask your attention. Who am I, that you should worship me? Am I God? No, I am thy fellow servant; and shall the servants worship each other, and forget the Master? Nay, I am the fellow servant of thy brethren that keep the sayings of this book (ch. 22:9). Nay, I am the fellow servant of the prophets of old (i.e. the same angel who ministered to them). Nay, I am the fellow servant of the prophets of old (i.e. the same angel who ministered to them). Nay, I am the fellow servant of all who 'hold the testimony of Jesus;' for 'the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.' Thus then we have a proclamation made to us as to the oneness of the whole Bible.

I. The oneness of the testifier.—He is the one God. The sender of the testimony is the one Jehovah; the subject of the testimony is the one Jesus; the inspirer is the one Spirit. Through many lips He has spoken, by many pens he has written; but it is the mind, the will, the purpose, the revelation of the one God that is here. II. The oneness of the messenger.—It is intimated here that it was the one angel alone that was employed to communicate the testimony. He was sent to patriarchs and prophets of old, to apostles and brethren in later times. The instrument or medium of communication was a created being, an angel; but it was the same throughout. III. The oneness of the testimony.—It is not many testimonies, but one; it is the word (not words) of God. It was given at sundry times and divers manners; in fragments and portions, great and small; by many lips and pens; spread out over more than four thousand years, for it began in paradise and ended in Patmos; yet there is unity throughout, not discord or contradiction,—marvelous unity, which can only be accounted for on the fact that there was in reality but one writer,—He to whom one day is as a thousand years; and that therefore the truths enunciated are the offspring of one mind, the thoughts of one heart. This testimony bore all upon one point, one person, one work, one kingdom. It was the "testimony of Jesus;" that is, it testified of Him from first to last; for Christ is the all and in all of prophecy, the all and in all of the Bible. But let us consider the oneness of this testimony more in detail. (1) Its oneness as to the character of God.—His is one name throughout, Jehovah. He is the Holy One; righteous, good, true; hating the sin, loving the sinner. He is King eternal, immortal, and invisible; infinite in all things; without variableness or shadow of turning. It is the same good and gracious God that you meet with at man's creation, that you meet at the close of time; it is the same holy God that you find driving Adam out of Paradise, and bringing His deluge over the world, that you find pouring out His vials upon earth, and preparing His judgments for the sons of men.

(2) Its oneness as to the character of man.—He was made upright, but he sought out many inventions. And since sin came in, we see him uniform in evil; a dark understanding, a rebellious will, a heart full of sin; thinking evil, speaking evil, acting evil. His "progress" is always downward, not upward. God's testimony to man throughout the Bible is the same. Patriarch, and prophet, and apostle tell us the same thing about the evil of man, and the exceeding sinfulness of sin. It nowhere hides the sins of the good; nor does it exaggerate the crimes of the evil. It bears one unvarying and undeviating testimony to man and man's heart, 'deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.' (3) Its oneness as to the way of salvation.—That salvation is described in many aspects, under many figures and types; yet it is but one salvation, —one way to life for the sinner, through a death and a righteousness not his own. God's free love; the great sacrifice; the sinner's faith. 'The just shall live by faith.' Salvation free, complete, present, everlasting; this is the announcement of Scripture from first to last. (4) Its oneness as to the Saviour.—He is the Seed of the woman; the Son of Abraham; the seed of David; the Child of Mary. He is the Man with the bruised heel; finite, yet infinite; created, yet uncreated; dead, yet living forever. Through His death life comes to us; through His blood cleansing comes. He is Jesus the Saviour; able to save to the uttermost; Messiah, the Sin-bearer, the Lamb of God. Every book of the bible bears on this with marvelous concord. (5) Its oneness as to the Church's hope.—It is resurrection; glory; a kingdom; and all connected with Messiah. 'Behold was Enoch's utterance at the beginning; and, 'Behold He cometh with clouds,' is John's at the close. One unvarying testimony to our eternal future. (6) Its oneness as to the sinner's doom.—Death, wrath, woe;—a fearful judgment, and an endless darkness!— Throughout it is the same. It began with 'Thou shalt die;' it ends with 'They were cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death.' They shall have

death without hope who have refused the death of the Substituted.

XLIII. The Great Prophetic Burden

"The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."— Revelation 19:10.

The meaning of this passage may be given in the two following propositions: (1) The theme or burden of prophecy is Jesus; (2) The Holy Spirit who inspired the prophets bears testimony in them throughout to Jesus; His great object in the prophecies is to bear testimony to the Christ of God. Perhaps there may be special reference to the Apocalypse, 'the spirit of this prophecy;' as we read in the early chapters: 'Let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches.' But the words cannot be confined to this, as their connection with the previous clause carries their reference back to the Old Testament prophets. 'For' connects the two clauses thus: 'I am the angel that ministered to the Old Testament prophets; I now minister to you, communicating the same testimony to you as to them,— the one testimony of Scripture concerning Jesus. I am nothing but a creature, a fellow servant with thyself in the same work and mission, testifying to Jesus: worship not me, but that God from whom I come, to testify of His Son.' Let us take these words in their widest sense,—thus: I. The theme or burden of the Bible is Jesus.—Not philosophy, nor science, nor theology, nor metaphysics, nor morality, but Jesus. He is the alpha and omega, the first and the last. We acknowledge Him as the theme of the Gospels; let us no less acknowledge Him as the theme of all Scripture, all inspiration. II. The theme of Bible-annals is Jesus.—Not mere history, but history as containing Jesus. Not the mere rise and fall of nations and kingdoms, but these as connected with the promised seed of the woman.

III. The theme of the Psalms is Jesus.—It is not mere poetry, Hebrew poetry, that we find in them, but Jesus. It is poetry embodying Jesus; it is praise, of which every note is Immanuel. IV. The theme of prophecy is Jesus.—It is not certain future events, dark or bright, presented to the view of the curious and speculative; it is Jesus; earthly events and hopes and fears only as linked with Him. What man needs, then, is Jesus; not mere knowledge or wisdom. What humanity,—unconsciously and ignorantly, it may be,—sights for, is Jesus. What earth, ruined and accursed because of sin, groans for, is Jesus,— nothing less than this. No other prophet or priest or king can meet the exigencies of the race and its dwelling, the earth, but Jesus only. Yes, 'the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.' I might take up these words and show how they are fulfilled in the things written concerning His first and second comings. But I prefer taking them up under the two great heads—(1) Himself; (2) His work. This will embrace the whole Christology of the Bible.

I. Himself.—It is He, His own self, that shines out to us in the prophetic sword. There we have His Person announced to us;—the Godman; Son of God, and Son of man; the Wisdom of God; the Word made flesh; the Seed of the woman; the Bruiser of the serpent's head; the man with the bruised heel; Seed of Abraham; Seed of Judah; Seed of David; Star of Jacob; Root of Jesse; the Lamb slain; the Lion of the tribe of Judah; Prophet, Priest, and King, Judge and Lawgiver. As the Creator of all things, He has relationship to the universe; as Redeemer of His chosen, He has special relationship to earth. As the Light of the world, he is connected with the present state of the world's darkness; as the Morning Star, He is connected with dawn; as the Sun of Righteousness, He is connected with the promised day,—the day of the Son of man.

II. His work.—This, of course, is in correspondence with His character and person. It is prophetical work; it is priestly (or sacrificial) work; it is royal work. He is both teacher and lesson, the prophet and the prophecy; He is both priest and sacrifice, the altar and the victim; He is King,—King of kings; and all things are His, though not yet put under Him. This work is (1) past (2) present, (3) future. But let us mark the bearings of this work upon—

(1) Heaven, and the things of heaven.—It has revealed God, in His love, wisdom, power, and righteousness; the three-one God, father, Son and Spirit. It has formed the great lesson for angels; for from it, and the Church redeemed by it, principalities and powers learn the wisdom of God. 'Angels desire to look into it;' and angels in Him have received their head; for He is the head of principalities and powers, and shall yet be manifested as such. He is King of heaven, seated on the throne of the universe. (2) Earth, and the things of earth.—Here it is that His cross once stood, and His blood was shed, and His grave was made. Truly He is connected with earth; for He was of the substance of the Virgin, and therefore linked with the dust of earth. Here it is that He has been saving sinners; redeeming to Himself a Church, a bride; preparing His kings and priests for the universe, as well as for this earth itself. It is from this earth (by virtue of His blood) that He removes the curse; it is of this earth that He says, 'Behold, I make all things new;' it is here that He is to reign as King. (3) The grave, and its inmates.—He did not enter the tomb merely to show that He could come out again. He entered that He might acquire power over it, in virtue of His death. He is now Lord of the grave, and Conqueror of death. 'O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction.' He is 'the resurrection' as well as the risen One; from Him comes the first resurrection, with all its glory' the better resurrection; the resurrection unto life.

(4) Hell, and its possessors.—He came to pluck brands from the burning; to deliver from the wrath to come; to take the prey from the mighty; to spoil the spoiler; to destroy the works of the devil,—him who has the power of death, the prince of darkness. He comes to bind Satan, and shut him up; to smite Antichrist, 'prince of the blood-royal of hell.' He comes to fight the last battle with Satan, when the cup of his iniquity is full; for Satan's enmity to Christ and His Church during these six thousand years is filling that cup; and though Satan has not the guilt of rejecting Him as the Saviour, he has the guilt of deliberately warring with Him and His saints. Thus, then, Jesus is the great Bible-theme. For Him let us search the Scriptures,—for Jesus; nothing less than Him. What think ye of prophecy? What think ye of Jesus? What think ye of the testimony to Him given by the Father and the Spirit? Shall earth be ashamed of her coming King? Shall His Church be ashamed to bear testimony to His royal prerogatives in this dark day of His absence?

XLIV. Messiah's Many Crowns

"On His head were many crowns."— Revelation 19:12.

God's great eternal purpose was to rule this world by a man;—not directly by Himself, but mediately by a man, such as he whose creation is recorded in Genesis; not by an angel or mere spiritual creature, but by a being of flesh and blood. Earth's government was to be in and by humanity. 'To the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come' (Hebrews 2:5). The first intimation of this is in Genesis, in the history of man's creation, —'God blessed him and said, Have dominion.' This is a man's investiture with regal power; this is earth's magna carta; this is God's constitution for our world; a monarchy, not a republic, nor an oligarchy; the crown is put upon man's head and the scepter into his hand by God Himself.

Man sinned away his dominion; the crown fell from his head, the scepter from his hand. Yet still, ages after, God speaks of dominion as his, and etches us to ask the question, 'What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?' nay, puts into our lips a new acknowledgement of the original title, 'thou has put all things under his feet' (Psalm 8:6). Therefore it is that the redeemed sing, 'We shall reign on the earth' (Revelation 5:10). But the scepter was not to pass from the hands of humanity. God's purpose must stand. In its first unfolding it seemed to break down; but it cannot fail. One in our very flesh, a true son of Adam, has the crown secured to Him. Messiah, the Word made flesh, is earth's King,—the last Adam, the Lord from heaven. Man and man's earth are not to be disjoined.

But before Messiah reigns, there are to be ages of misrule and evil, rebellion and treason against the righteous King; for now 'we see not yet all things put under Him.' God puts man on trial to see if he can rule the earth; —to see if he will rule it according to the holy principles of its original constitution. In every region of earth this has been tried; and man's total incapacity for righteous government has been proved, as well as earth' persistent refusal to submit to righteous rule. Earth is at this day no nearer order, and peace, and holiness, than at first. Yet God has enunciated the true principles of government to man. He did it briefly at first; He did it more fully afterwards, when He chose a land for the special scene of His dominion, and a people in whom the divine principles of government might be exhibited. He has done it most fully of all in His revelations of the future of man and man's earth. All prophecy, more or less directly, points to this. Isaiah's predictions of latter-day glory contain in them not only the germs of such principles of government, but their full and frequent exposition. God has told us how He wishes His world to be ruled. 'He that ruleth over men must be just;' judges and rulers should be fearers of God, seeking to do His will and glorify His name. The crown and scepter are to represent holiness and righteousness, as well as power. The throne is to be established in judgment and justice. The legislation is to be religious; interwoven in all its acts with God and His laws. The king rules for God, and in the name of God; all that he says and does, are to remind his subjects of Him by whom kings reign. Thus all God's history of the past, and His revelation of the future, declare the principles on which He desires His earth to be governed; the true theory of earthly rule and legislation. He who dissevers God from government, or would exercise dominion without religion, is setting aside what God has taken such pains to affirm. Divine politics are heavenly in their nature; and it is by these politics that our world is to be swayed. All that is good, and holy, and just, is concentrated in the person of Messiah. He is the Just One. His scepter is a scepter of righteousness; the center of His dominion is the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

Messiah then is the representative of Adam, yet also of God. To Messiah, when all else have failed, is committed the government of earth. He, the true Adam, with His true Eve, the Church is set by God on the throne, when the four great monarchies that have tyrannized over earth and trodden down the saints shall have been broken in pieces, and made like the chaff of the summer thrashing-floor. God casts down the thrones of earth; sets up the true throne, and places His Son upon it, King of kings and Lord of Lords. 'On His head are many crowns.' I. The crown of heaven is on His hand.—'We see Jesus crowned with glory and honour' at the Father's right hand. Heaven is His dominion. He sits upon its throne. II. The crown of earth is on His head.—Not yet, not yet; but soon. All the present crowns of earth shall pass away, He shall take to Himself His great power and reign. He shall yet wear the crown, and exercise dominion here, when all things are made new; 'come forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold King Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him'. III. The crown of principalities and powers is on His head.—He is the Head of these. I do not mean merely that the powers of hell are put under His feet; but the powers of heaven. He is the King of angels. IV. The crown of the Church is on His head.—He is King of saints. He is at once the Husband and the King of the Church. 'He is thy Lord, worship thou Him.' The saints sit with Him on His throne; yet they fall down before Him. Thus Christ is all and in all. Earth was made for Him as well as heaven. Men were made for Him as well as angels. Might and dominion are His here below; and he shall yet take the scepter and show what holy government is; what holy legislation is; what holy judgment is; what holy politics are; what a holy king is. Earth waits for His arrival. Men rebel against His government. They would cast out the heir. They would not have

Him to rule over them. Yet God shall set His Son upon His holy hill of Zion.

XLV. The First Resurrection

"Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power; but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years."—

Revelation 20:6.

Resurrection is our hope, not death. It has always been the Church's hope, —the hope of patriarchs and kings and prophets. Martha only uttered the confession of the Church universal when she said, 'I know that he shall rise again.' Israel knew resurrection well; and the Old Testament assumes the truth of it. It is not the putting off this vile body (or this 'body of our humiliation'), but the putting on of the immortal and incorruptible that is our hope; not our going to Christ, but His coming to us; not merely our victory over sin and its spiritual consequences, but victory over death and the grave. This hope grew brighter as the ages went on, till it was fully revealed in Him who is the resurrection and the life. But still more was needed; and it was reserved for Paul and John fully to unfold the hope. This twentieth chapter of the Revelation is a very wonderful one, and specially valuable as giving us details of the resurrection hope. An angel is seen descending out of heaven; he has the key of the bottomless pit,[20] or abyss, and a great chain in his hand. He seizes the dragon, the old serpent (the murdered and liar from the beginning, John 8:44), who is the Devil, and Satan; binds him a thousand years; casts him into the abyss;[21] shuts him up; sets a seal above or upon him, to hinder his escaping and deceiving the nations for a thousand years. Then thrones are set up (Daniel 7:9); and there are sitters upon them, to whom judgment is given (1 Corinthians 6:2); the souls (Acts 2:41, 7:41) of the martyrs and

the nonworshippers of the beast are made to live again; and being thus raised, they reign with Christ (ch. 5:10). But the rest of the dead are not raised till the end of the thousand years. This is the first resurrection.[22] It gets the designation of 'first,' not because of its preeminence and glory, but because it is before another. Properly speaking, the great resurrection fact is but one,—'all that re in their grave shall arise;' but it divides itself into two parts or acts, separated from each other by a considerable interval, — an interval (like that between the Lord's two comings) not at first revealed. But here the interval is explicitly announced,—a thousand years. The righteous rise to glory at the beginning of that period, and during it they live and reign with Christ. At its close, the wicked rise, and are judged. This resurrection of the wicked at the close of the thousand years, sets aside the doctrine of annihilation entirely. They do not rise in order to be annihilated. They do not get new bodies merely in order to have these new bodies destroyed. I. When is it to be?—When the Lord comes the second time. In the preceding chapter he is described as coming with the hosts of heaven for the destruction of His enemies. (See 1 Corinthians 15:23; 1 Thessalonians 4:16; 2 Thessalonians 2:1). He comes as the resurrection and the life; the abolisher of death, the spoiler of the grave, the raiser of His saints. II. Who it is to consist of.—This passage speaks only of the martyrs and the non-worshippers of the beast; but other passages show that all His saints are to be partakers of this reward. 'This honour have all His saints;' all who have followed Christ, or suffered for Him, from Abel downwards. They have suffered with Him here, and they shall reign with Him here. They have fought the good fight; they have overcome the world, and the god of this world. The conflict and the tribulation have been sore, but the recompense is glorious. Oneness with Christ now secures for us the glory of that day. III. What it does for those who share it.—It brings to them such things as the following:

(1) Blessedness.—Peculiar blessedness is to be theirs. God only knoweth how much that word implies, as spoken by Him who cannot lie, who exaggerates nothing, and whose simplest words are His greatest. (2) Holiness.—They are pre-eminently 'the saints of God;' set apart for Him; consecrated and purified, both outwardly and inwardly; dwelt in by him whose name is the 'Holy Ghost;' and called to special service in virtue of their consecration. Priestly-royal service is to be theirs throughout the eternal ages. (3) Preservation from the second death.—They rise to an immortality which shall never be recalled. No dying again, in any sense of the word; not a fragment of mortality about them, nothing of this vile body, and nothing of that corruption or darkness or anguish which shall be the portion of those who rise at the close of the thousand years. 'Neither shall they die any more' (Luke 20:36). They 'shall not be hurt of the second death' (Revelation 2:2), but shall feed upon the tree of life. Their connection with death, in every sense, is done forever. (4) The possession of a heavenly priesthood.—They are made priests unto God and Christ—both to the Father and the Son. Priestly nearness and access; priestly power and honour and service; priestly glory and dignity; —this is their recompense. They, with their glorified and reigning Head, form the link between creation above and creation below, between the Creator and the creature, carrying up the incenses of prayer and praise and service from all parts of a holy universe, now linked to Godhead for ever, beyond the possibility of fall. They maintain the communication between God and His world, between Paradise regained and the Paradise that was never lost; nay, between God and His innumerable worlds throughout all space. For priesthood is not for sacrifice alone, but for carrying on the endless intercourse between heaven and earth. (5) The possession of the kingdom.—They shall reign for a thousand years over a renewed earth, where there are traces still of the fall, and on

which Satan is for a brief season to be let loose; and they shall reign for ever and ever over a world thoroughly restored and purified, into which Satan shall never again find entrance. They are kings as well as priests, both in one; God's Melchizedek's, wearing the priestly miter, and wielding the royal scepter. Having their home and place and throne in the new Jerusalem, they rule over a delivered creation, over the converted nations, over a world now filled with the Holy Spirit in all its nations. Such are our prospects; let us live accordingly. Let our coming honours influence us now; making us self-denied, consistent, heavenly; quickening us to zeal and love. Sinner, walking on in unbelief, and worldliness, and pleasure, what are your prospects? Have you considered them? Are they satisfactory? What is your hope? What is judgment to do for you? What is resurrection to bring? Look at the following alternatives, and ask which is to be yours: Everlasting gladness, or everlasting sorrow? Everlasting glory; or everlasting shame? Everlasting songs, or everlasting wailing? The marriage supper of the Lamb, or the perpetual banishment from all that is good and holy? The new heavens and earth, or the eternal wilderness, with its parched and burning wastes? The heavenly Jerusalem, with the Lamb as its light, or the blackness of darkness? The fruit of the tree of life and the waters of the celestial river, or the eternal hunger and the unquenchable thirst? (Luke 16:24). The first resurrection, or the second death? These are the alternatives before you; and there is no middle doom. O that second death, and that resurrection unto condemnation! (John 5:29; Revelation 20:13.)[23] Thou shalt arise, O man; but what will that rising do for thee? When thou wert carried out at the first death, there were tears shed upon thy bier; but shall it be so when thou art carried out at the second death? Thy funeral procession moves on; but there are not friends, no mourners. What means that dark procession? It is a legion of fallen angels come to escort thee to that place where the worm dieth not. They lament not, but rejoice that they have got thee, both soul and body, into their keeping for ever. O man! Man, made in the image of God, and made for fellowship with God, is this to be thine end? Man, with a soul susceptible of such

gladness and such sorrow, and with a body capable of such pleasure and such pain, is this to be thy doom? Is this the end of all time's hopes, and fears, and dreams; its songs, and smiles, and laughter? Is this the end of sermons, and Sabbaths, and sacraments? Is this the end of warnings, and judgments, and providences, and entreaties, and messages of love? Well may hell from beneath be moved at thy coming, and say, Art thou too become like one of us? Oh, ere the last trumpet sound, ere thou liest down upon thy earthly deathbed, lift up thine eyes to the saving cross! There is healing in a look. Look and live! Though it were thy last look here, ere the eye closed for ever, it would suffice. The uplifted Saviour saves even at the last,— saves even the chief of sinners.

XLVI. The Great White Throne

"And I saw great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God: and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." —

Revelation 20:11-15.

This ought to have begun a new chapter, or formed a separate section. It is a new scene,—following, no doubt, close on the judgment terrors of the preceding verses, but still separate from them. It is a scene of infinite grandeur and solemnity; a scene from which the world shrinks back, but which shall one day be realized on this very globe. John 'saw' it,—in vision, no doubt; but in a vision presented by God Himself,—a true picture of coming realities to man and man's world. All this scene shall one day come true. It is the 'vision,' and it shall be one day the reality of:

(1) A throne.—Yes, a royal seat, a seat of judgment, the seat of the great King and Judge of all. There have been many thrones on earth, but none like this; one throne in place of the many. (2) A great throne.—All earth's thrones have been little, even the greatest,—Nebuchadnezzar, or Alexander, or Caesar, or Napoleon; but this is 'great;' greater than the greatest; none like it in magnificence.

(3) A white throne.—White is purity, truth, justice calmness. Such is the throne to be,—unsoiled, untainted, incorruptible; no one-sidedness nor imperfection; no bribery nor favor there. All is 'white,'—transparent and spotless perfection. (4) One seated on it.—It was not empty or unoccupied, nor filled by a usurper, or by one who could not wield the power required for executed its decrees. God was seated there; that very God before whose face heaven and earth flee away; that God whose presence melts the mountains, and made Sinai to shake (See Psalm 102:26; Isaiah 34:4, 51:6; Jeremiah 4:23, 26; Revelation 6:14, 16:20). In the last two passages we find men upon the earth, and hail falling from heaven upon them, after it had been said that all had fled away; which shows that it is not annihilation that is meant in any of them. Nothing is annihilated. Our bodies return to dust, but return out of dust into themselves again; so earth will undergo changes, but will come out of these the same earth, only purified. For our bodies there is resurrection, for earth restitution, but for neither annihilation. If annihilation is the portion of the wicked, what does their resurrection mean? He who sits on this throne is the mighty God, able to judge and to carry out His decrees in spite of all human or hellish resistance. How terrible to stand unready before such a Judge and such a throne! All justice, all perfection, all holiness! Who can abide His appearing? But besides the Judge and the throne, there are the millions to be judged. They are—(1) The dead; they who did not rise in the first resurrection, called 'the rest of the dead' (20:5). They remained behind the dead in Christ, but they must rise at last. (2) Small and great; from the youth to the old man, from the feeblest to the strongest, all are there. 'They shall not escape.' They have to do with unerring eyes. These 'stand before God.' There are others who 'stand before God,' or 'before the throne of God,' but for very different purpose. 'The angels stood before God' (8:2); the two witnesses 'stood before God of the whole earth' (11:4); the great whiterobed multitude 'stood before the throne' (8:9-15); the elders 'sat before the throne of God' (11:16). But all these are very different from the 'small and

great' who stand before 'the great white throne.' The former stand for honour and glory and gladness, the latter for judgment. The process of judgment is also seen. (1) Books are opened,—books probably containing God's history of the sinner's life. His record of the sinner's deeds. How different from man's! How different God's story of our great men, our literary men, our poets, our philosophers, our captains, our kings, from man's! The divine version of human history, how strange it will be! How unlike all earthly annals! Most of the leading facts the same, yet how differently told! Most of the scenes and events and actions the same, yet how differently put the interpreted! What a strange thing will be a biography, a human life, seen by divine eyes and recorded by a divine pen! What 'books' these will be! Alongside of these is another book, called the book of life,—the register of those whose portion is life eternal, whose home is to be the land and city of life, whose heritage is to be that God in whose favor is life. (See Philippians 4:3; Revelation 3:5, 13:8, 17:8, 21:27). The books first mentioned contain the materials for the Judge's decision. Out of them the individuals are judged, 'every man according to his works.' The 'things written in these books' being thus connected with the 'works' mentioned, lead us to conclude that they are the record or annals of the works of each. All things are written down. God keeps His diary of every soul's doings and sayings and thinkings. Nothing forgotten! Every deed awakes from its slumbers and speaks on that day. What a resurrection of each buried thought and word at that judgment seat!

The judgment will be just and fair; nothing overrated, nothing underrated. Every fact will speak exactly for itself. Each word will be weighed in perfect balances. No one shall be able to complain. God will be justified in all. What a scrutiny! What impartiality and calmness, yet what exactness and minuteness! It shall be universal judgment then. Sea and land shall give up their dead. Death and the grave shall part with their victims. Each region of earth shall

furnish its thousands or millions of the dead for judgment. And again it is said, 'according to their works.' On these each man's judgment is to turn. Then death and the grave are utterly destroyed. They exist no more, but are consumed. The lake of fire is their portion; and in this lake there is the second death. The first death passes away only to give place to a second far more terrible; a death that never dies, that has no grave, and no end. The second death! The lake of fire! What words of horror are these! Yet they are not exaggerations, but God's own calm and solemn language. It indicates real punishment, not annihilation. And all who are not found in the book of life are cast into this fiery lake,— handed over to this second death, this eternal mortality, this never-ending dying,—this death that is always both present and to come,—the worm that never dies, the fire that is never quenched. Such is the eternity of the lost, according to God's account of it. Man may dilute or disbelieve or allegorize the statement, but there it stands. Eternal sorrow or eternal joy! (1) Is it all true? Do we believe it?—all this about the great white throne, and the Judge, and the books, and the lake, and the second death? Are all these things true? (2) Does it bear upon us?—Have these scenes of judgment any bearing upon us? Are their terrors for us? Has humanity anything to do with that lake of fire? Or is it for lost angels? (3) Is it rousing to us?—If anything could awake us, it would be a futurity like this. That Judge, that judgment, that woe!

XLVII. Death And The Grave

"And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death."—

Revelation 20:14.

It is of His two chief enemies that God here speaks,—'death and the grave,' or 'place of the dead' (Hades); for such, and not hell, ought to be the rendering of the latter of the two words. This is not the first time, nor the only place, in which they are thus classed together. There is a striking series of passages, running through all Scripture, in which they are names as allies,—fellow-workers in the perpetration of one great deed of darkness from the beginning. Often are death and the grave in the lips of Job. David thus speaks of them: 'In death there is no remembrance of Thee; in the grave who shall give Thee thanks?' (Psalm 6:5.) Solomon thus uses them in figure: 'Love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave' (Song 8:6). Hezekiah thus refers to them: 'The grave cannot praise Thee; death cannot celebrate Thee' (Isaiah 38:18). Isaiah thus mentions them in their connection with Messiah: 'He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death' (53:9). Hosea thus proclaims their awful fellowship in evil: 'I will ransom them (His people) from the owner of the grave; I will redeem them from death; O death, I will be the plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes' (13:14). Paul thus takes up the language of the old prophets: 'O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is the victory?' (1 Corinthians 15:55.) And then, as the summing up of the whole, we have these strange words of the Apocalypse: 'Death and the grave delivered up the dead which were in them; and death and the grave were cast into the lake of fire.'

These last words accord strikingly with those in Hosea; yet they are not meant as a mere quotation or reference, but as an intimation of fulfillment; an announcement as to the way in which God is to execute His threat. 'O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction,' is the old prediction; and of this John records the awful fulfillment, 'Death and the grave were cast into the lake of fire.' This is the end of that death-power which was let loose in Paradise, and which has continued to exercise dominion upon earth through these two channels. The reign has been long and sad; it has been one of dissolution, and blight, and terror; but it ends at last; this dynasty of darkness, this double vicegerency of hell, is broken in pieces; death and the grave are cast into the lake of fire,—which is the second death, the death that absorbs all other deaths, the death of deaths, the deepest death of all, the death after which there is no life, and no resurrection, and no deliverance for ever. These two enemies of God and man are here personified as two powers of evil, the one the handmaid of the other; twin demons, coming forth from the blackness of darkness, and returning to the darkness from which they sprang; servants of, or rather co-operators with, the prince of darkness, with him who has the power of death, even the devil, in carrying out the inexorable sentence, 'Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.' They are treated as two hideous criminals; who, though for a time permitted to go forth, like the Assyrian and Babylonian ravager, to execute the divine commission, are at last called to reckoning for the havoc they have wrought, and dragged forth, as pre-eminent in crime, to receive their sentence of doom, and to be cast into the lake of fire. Death has been the sword of law for ages; but when it has done its work on earth, God takes this sword, red with the blood of millions, snaps it in pieces before the universe, and casts its fragments into the flame, in the day of the great winding-up, in token that never again shall it be needed, either on earth or throughout the universe. The grave has been the chain and the prison-house of justice; but when its purpose is served, and justice has got all its own in the heaven of the saved and the hell of the lost, God gathers up each link of the chain and flings them into the lake of fire upon the head of the great potentate of evil; He razes the dungeon to its foundation, and

buries its ruins in a grave like that of Sodom, the lake of the everlasting burnings. Death and the grave were cast into the lake of fire. The great truth taught us here is God's abhorrence of death, and His determination not merely to end it, but to take vengeance on it. Let us then inquire into this, and into the reasons for it. I. God abhors death.—The fact of its existence on earth by His permission is of no proof of His non-abhorrence; else would the prevalence of sin, side by side with death, be demonstration that He does not hate it. Not familiarized with death, as we sometimes are by its frequency, He abhors death more truly than even we do who are the subjects of his ravages. We cannot but hate death, even when we have ceased to fear it, and know that for us its sting has been extracted. We hate it, and thrust it from us; loathing its advances, and waging daily war with it,—seeking by every appliance of skill to overcome it and ward off its stroke. We hate it because of its shadow, and its coldness, and its silence. We hate it as the great robber of our loves and joys, who gives nothing but takes everything. It cuts so many ties; it rends so many hearts; it silences so many voices; it thins so many firesides; it comes with its dark veil, its screen of ice, between friend and friend, between soul and soul, between parent and child, between husband and wife, between sister and brother. Of human sympathies it has none; it concerns not itself about our joys or sorrows; it spares no dear one, and restores no lost one; it is pitiless and dumb; it is as powerful as it is inexorable, striking down the weak, and wrestling with the strong till they succumb and fall. No wonder, then, that death is so unlovable to us,—nay, of all objects the most unlovable in itself, though occasionally acquiring some faint attractiveness, or at least losing some little of its hatefulness by its being made the termination of pain, and conflict, and weariness, and the gate into the presence of Him who is our life and joy. After all, however, our estimate either of its attractiveness or repulsiveness would be of little moment were it not that on this point God takes our side.

His estimate of death coincides with ours. It is to Him even more unlovable than it is to us. He has set limits to its power; He has made it to His saints the very gate of heaven,—for blessed are the dead that die in the Lord; He has proclaimed resurrection and incorruption. But still, with all these abatements, He loves it not, nor is reconciled to it in one act or aspect. It is, in His eyes, even more than in ours, an enemy, a destroyer, a demon, a criminal, a robber. So thoroughly does He loathe it, that in order to make His displeasure known, He reserves it to the last for doom; He sets it apart for a great outstanding condemnation, and then casts it into the lake of fire. But besides this final condemnation, he has given us others equally explicit. He calls it 'the king of terror;' 'the last enemy;' and thus addresses it: 'O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes,'—i.e., never will I revoke my sentence against thee (Hosea 13:14). Hardly could words be found to express more strongly God's estimate of death, and His determination to abolish it utterly and forever. For six thousand years it has been the fulfiller of His purposes, His rod for the chastisement of His saints, His scourge for clearing earth of His enemies,—yet He loves it not; and as soon as His ends with it are accomplished, He will show His displeasure against it by casting it into the lake of fire. There is then abundant consolation for us in this dying world, from the thought that God sides with us in our abhorrence of death and the grave. He is the enemy of our enemies; and specially of this the chief. When He raised His Son from the dead, He showed us that life and not death was in His purpose, both for Him and for us. Resurrection is at once our faith and our hope. In His great love He has revealed to us the coming victory over death, when He who is our life shall appear to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them who believe. Because He rose, we shall arise. He has taught us to say, 'I know that my Redeemer liveth;' and to add, 'God shall redeem my soul from the power of the grave.' He has made us to hear the sure words: 'Thy brother shall rise again;' 'I will raise him up at the last day;' 'He shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His own glorious body.' So that in covering dust with dust at the grave of a

saint, we look beyond the tomb and see the glory; our eye rests not upon corruption, but upon incorruption; our fellowship is not with death, but with life. We shall arise. That which is sown in weakness shall be raised in power. The reign of death is hastening to a close, the reign of life about to commence its eternal gladness. Our true life is coming; the conqueror is on His way; He will redeem His own from the power of the grave, and swallow up death in victory. Behold, I come quickly, He cries. We respond, Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. II. God's reasons for abhorring death.—It contains nothing in itself that is lovable; nor has it done any excellent works because of which God or man might love it. Its history is one of evil, not of good; of wrong, and sadness, and terror; of breaking down, not of building up; of scattering, not of gathering; of darkness, not of light; of disease, and pain, and tossings to and fro, not of health and brightness. But God counts it specially unlovable for such reasons as the following: (1) It is the ally of sin.—'Sin entered into the world, and death by sin' (Romans 5:12). With sin it has gone hand in hand, passing down the generations, and spreading itself round the earth. Partners in evil, sin and death have held dark fellowship together from the beginning, the one reflecting and augmenting the odiousness of other; like night and storm, each in itself terrible, but more terrible as companions in havoc. God abhors death as the fellow and the offspring of sin. (2) It is Satan's tool.—One of the most fearful of Satan's designations is, 'he that has the power of death.' Death is Satan's most congenial work,— his trustiest weapon. To inflict disease, but not to heal; to wound, but not to bind up; to kill, but not to make alive;—these are the works of the devil which God abhors, and which the Son of God came to destroy. The workman and his tool, the master and his servant, are alike hateful in the eyes of that God who loves not evil, but good; not death, but life. (3) It is the undoing of His work.—'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And God saw everything that He had made, and behold it was very good.' Specially did he rejoice in man as His handiwork

and His property, and in man's body as that material form which His Son was afterwards to assume. God did not mean creation to crumble down or evaporate. But death has seized it. The poison of hell has penetrated everywhere. Man's body and man's earth are falling to pieces, undermined by some universal solvent; the beauty, and the order, and the power giving way before the invader. The sculptor does not love the hand that spoils his statue, nor the mother the fever that preys upon her darling; so God has no pleasure in that enemy that has been ruining the work of His hands. (4) It has been the source of earth's pain and sorrow.—Pain is the messenger of disease, and disease is the touch of death's finger; and with disease and death what an amount of sorrow has poured in upon our world! We come into contact with sorrow only in fragments or drops, as it falls upon our selves and our friends. We cannot estimate the accumulated grief of a year or a century, or even of one day, all over earth. There is no sorrow-gauge to measure the quantity that has fallen, all over our earth, since the first drop alighted. If there were such a measurement, we should be appalled at the amount of sorrow which death has inflicted on our race. But God has measured it. He knows what the amount of human grief has been; and He abhors alike the evil and the doer of it. He does not love sorrow; He has no pleasure in pain; He is not indifferent to creation's groans; and He will yet avenge Himself, and avenge man and man's earth for all the woe which death has wrought, in the day when He destroys death, and banishes pain, and dries up tears, and delivers creation from the bondage of corruption. (5) It has laid hands on His saints.—Though He permitted Herod, and Pilate, and Nero, and the kings of the earth, to persecute His Church, He did not thereby indicate indifference to the wrong, far less sympathy with the wrong-doer. He treasures up wrath against the persecutor; He will judge and avenge the blood of His own. So will He take vengeance on the last enemy. He will yet vindicate His saints, and honour the holy dust that has been scattered over sea and earth. Death and the grave shall be cast into the lake of fire, to make known to the universe eternally His sense of the wrong done to the example of the wrongdoer. Speaking of the resurrection

of His own, and His plucking the prey from the spoiler, He says, 'I will redeem them from death, I will ransom them from the power of the grave;' and then, shaking His hand against the spoiler, He proclaims His purpose of vengeance: 'O death, I will be thy plagues! O grave, I will be thy destruction! Repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.' For in proportion to His love for His own is His abhorrence of their injures: 'He that toucheth them toucheth the apple of His eye.' (6) It laid hands upon His Son.—Death smote the Prince of life, and the grave imprisoned Him. This was treason of the darkest king, the wrong of wrongs, perpetrated against the highest in the universe, God's incarnate Son. And shall not God visit for this? Shall not His soul be avenged on such a destroyer for such a crime? If the meanest of His saints shall be avenged, how much more His beloved Son? In the day when God shall judge the world, this deed of darkness shall come into remembrance; and God, in casting death into the lake of fire, shall intimate His abhorrence of death, and His displeasure against this the worst of all his deeds,—the slaying of His only-begotten Son. It is not then resurrection merely, but something more than this, that our text reveals,—even God's condemnation of all that death has done. We see, too, His joy in resurrection, and His determination to prevent the recurrence, nay, the possibility of the recurrence of such an evil as death. To take the sting from death was much; to abolish death was more; but it is something more still to cast death and the grave into the lake of fire. Surely as over Babylon, the prison-house of the saints, so over death and the grave, when they descend into the abyss, we may sing this song of triumph, 'Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets, for God hat avenged you of her; for in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.' Then shall resurrection be not merely a prospect and a hope, but an accomplished fact; and not merely an accomplished fact, but an irreversible condition of creature hood. 'Neither shall they die any more,' is the consummation to which resurrection brings us. The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick; the eye shall not be dim, and the ear shall not be dull, and the brow shall not wrinkle, nor the hair be gray, nor the limbs totter, nor the

memory fail. There shall be no more curse, nor death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain; for the former things have passed away. We know that our Redeemer liveth, and because He lives, we shall live also. He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and when He shall appear, we shall appear with Him in glory. And He that shall come, will come, and will not tarry; and them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. We preach Jesus and the resurrection; Jesus the resurrection and the life; Jesus our life. We bring glad tidings concerning this risen One, and that finished work of which resurrection is the seal; glad tidings concerning God's free love in connection with this risen One. The knowledge of this risen One is forgiveness, and life, and glory. Oh then, what is there in our dying world like this to impart consolation and gladness? We shall not die, but live. Eternity is a life, and not a death; a life with Christ, and a life in Christ. For the Lamb that is in the midst of the throne shall lead us to the living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes.

XLVIII. The Vision Of The Restitution Of All Things

"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea." —

Revelation 21:1.

Of these two last glorious chapters, might we not say, 'Thou hast kept the good wine until now?' They take us into the shrine of shrines; into the very heart of the glory; into the paradise of God; into the royal banquetinghouse; into the very splendor of eternity. What a summing up of God's purposes is here! What a conclusion of the divine oracles! What a termination to the long, long desert-journey of the Church of God, calling forth from us the exulting shout which broke from the lips of the Crusaders, when first from the neighboring height they caught sight of the holy city, 'Jerusalem! Jerusalem! The first book of Scripture and the last fit well into each other; the first two chapters of Genesis and the last two of Revelation fit together like the two halves of a golden clasp set in gems. Enclosed between the two is the history of six thousand years. And what a history! What a beginning, and what an ending! It began with the new, and it ended with the new,—the strange checkered 'old' lying mysteriously between. 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.' 'I saw new heavens and a new earth.' Of these Revelation visions, some were seen by John on earth, and some in heaven, according as the point of view suited best the vision and the seer. His sight of Jesus in His priestly glory was from earth, Patmos itself; Jesus had come down to him and showed Himself face to face. The epistles to the seven Churches are written from Patmos also. But after this John is called up to heaven, like Paul, to see and hear unspeakable things, which, however, unlike those which Paul saw, would be 'lawful for a man to utter;' and most of the subsequent visions are from this heavenly standing-place.

What eyes must his have been, to look upon such terrors and such glories unmoved and undazzled! Let us notice a few of the many things regarding which he says, while standing in these heavenly places, 'I saw.' We cannot cite even one half. 'I saw four-and-twenty elders sitting,' 4:4. 'I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice,' 5:2. 'I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain,' 6:9. 'I saw, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands,' 7:9. 'I saw, another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud,' 10:1. 'I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire,' 15:2. 'I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-colored best,' 17:3. 'I saw the woman drunken with the blood of saints,' 17:6. 'I saw an angel standing in the sun,' 19:17. 'I saw thrones, and they sat upon them,' 20:4. 'I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it,' 20:2. 'I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God,' 20:12. 'I saw a new heaven and a new earth,' 21:1. 'I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven,' 21:2. This new heaven and earth which John saw were not doubt still future. He saw the future as if it were the present. Yet this new creation shall not be shadowy, but real,—as real as that described in Genesis. The former creation passes away, and the new creation comes; new heavens, new earth, new sea. The old creation is not annihilated but only purges and renewed. It passes away as the gold passes into the furnace, to come out purified. It passes away as this 'vile body' does into the grave, to come forth glorious and immortal, yet the same body. The 'restitution of all things' is to do for earth and heaven what resurrection is to do for the body. What a change! What a perfection! What a holy blessedness! Oh when shall the day break, and the shadows flee away! This first verse most significantly brings before us such things as these,— all of them blessed.

I. Here is the end of sin.—The world has lain in wickedness, but it shall do so no more. The overflowing flood of evil shall then be dried up, and sin be known no more upon this earth and under these heavens. What an ending shall be the ending of sin! For six thousand years it has triumphed; then its triumph ends. Not the shadow of sin or evil in any form shall pass over this fair globe. It shall, even more than at the first, be very good. II. The end of the serpent and his seed.—How many ages had run out from the time that the serpent seduced Eve and ruined our world,—from the hour when God said, 'Thou art cursed above all cattle; I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed!' The seducer's triumph is now over; he himself is cast out of this earth and bound; the terrible battle of so many ages has been fought, and the battlefield cleared forever; earth is now no longer at Satan's mercy; and a trace of his long dominion over it remains. The creation that he marred rises from its ruin and sorrow more glorious than at first. His reign is ended; his legions are in chains; his spell is dissolved; his work of disfigurement all undone. III. The end of the curse.—From this time there shall be 'no more curse.' He who was made a curse for us has cancelled earth's curse forever. No cursed thing in any shape shall again be seen; only that which is blessed and holy. The earth and its fullness shall then be the Lord's, in a way till now unknown. Blessed kingdom, and blessed King! From every particle of dust, from air and earth and sea, shall the curse be expelled forever. O fair and spotless creation, great paradise of God! The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. The end of corruption and mortality.—These are the fruit of the curse, and with the curse they disappear. Death is no more. The grave is emptied. Disease is abolished. The inhabitant shall no more say, I am sick. Feebleness and weariness are unknown. The head aches not, nor the heart.

The eye grows not dim, nor the ear dull. All is immortality and incorruption, and beauty and eternal health. The end of sorrow.—Into this new creation no grief shall ever enter. The days of mourning shall be ended. Sorrow and sighing shall flee away. God shall wipe away all tears. There shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying. There shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun,—for it is written, 'The Lord shall be thing everlasting light, and thy God thy glory;' 'Thou shalt weep no more.' Everlasting joy shall be upon our heads. The vale of tears shall then be the land of song.

And with the end of these things shall come the beginning of the glorious and the blessed. The old passes away, and the new comes up like the sun in its strength. Winter is over and gone. It is sweet spring and perpetual summer now. It is the kingdom that cannot be moved, the undefiled inheritance, the reign of righteousness, the reign of the righteous King. Into this nothing that defileth shall enter, nothing unworthy of the presence of the glorious King. All this for those who once were sinners,—the lost and worthless. Blood has brought it. The cross has done it all. Through death life has come. The crucified Christ has opened the gate for us, and all may go in. The same Jesus who has brought the glory for us bids us come. Far and wide go out the messages of invitation, Come in, Come in! At each gate waves the blessed hand afar, beckoning us with all urgency to enter. Echoing amid earth's vales and hills, through every land, the trumpet sounds that summons the wanderer, and assures him of most loving welcome. Will you hesitate, O men, or neglect, or scoff, or refuse? All this glory waiting you! These open gates inviting you! And this poor, dark, death-stricken earth speaking to you each hour, and saying, This is not your rest; I have nothing for you but sorrow, and pain, and despair! O men of earth, will you miss the prize thus placed within your reach? Will you despise the love that yearns and weeps over you in your folly? Will you not listen and live? Will you not listen, and go in and become heirs of the glory and the joy?

XLIX. God's Tabernacle On Earth

"Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men."— Revelation 21:3.

The voice that uttered these words is said to have been a great one, indicating their importance, and God's desire that we should listen to the announcement. It is not surely without a meaning that a great voice should be thought needful to speak the words, and that a special note of its greatness should be left upon record for us. We are not told who utter it. It 'came out of heaven;' that is all we know. It was not the inhabitants of earth looking round and wondering at something which had thus taken place in the midst of them; it was the inhabitants of heaven looking down from the upper glory, and rejoicing in what had at length, after so many ages and so many hindrances, been accomplished upon earth. It reminds us of the joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, though the occasion is one of far greater magnitude and wider compass. Yet it does not seem in this place to be the voice of God Himself, but the voice of the angel multitudes that fill the heaven of heavens, and stand before His throne. That the tabernacle of God should be pitched in heaven, and among themselves, was nothing new; but that it should be pitched upon earth, and among the sons of men, this calls forth admiration and gladness. 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men!' Frequently in the course of these visions does John hear 'voices,' which, like explanatory words, come in to cast light upon the symbols, and to tell us the impression which the scenes are making, not merely upon John, but upon other beings, both in earth and heaven. Sometimes it is the voice of a 'mighty angel' (ch. 5:2); sometimes the voice of 'many angels' (verse 2);

sometimes the voice of the elders and living creatures (ib.); sometimes it is the voice of 'much people' (ch. 19:1); of a 'great multitude' on earth (verse 6); sometimes it is a great voice 'out of the temple' (ch. 26:17); sometimes it is a voice from the 'altar' (ch. 9:13); sometimes from the 'throne' (ch. 26:17); sometimes it is a voice 'in heaven' (ch. 11:15, and 12:10); sometimes it is a voice from or 'out of heaven,' which two last expressions come with fuller meaning when contrasted with that other passage, 'there was silence in heaven' (ch. 8:1). This great voice from heaven is heard making such announcements as these: 'Come up hither' (ch. 11:12); 'the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.' It is this voice which is as the voice of many waters and of a great thunder; which is as the voice of harpers harping with their harps, who sing new songs before the throne, which none could learn but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed form the earth (ch. 14:1-4). It is this voice out of heaven which, in our test, proclaims, 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men.' Perhaps it is the same with the 'shout' (1 Thessalonians 4:16). Taking up this announcement as containing something of unspeakable interest and importance to us, we consider the great event which it proclaims, not indeed as yet accomplished, but most assuredly to be so in God's wise time; so that just as eighteen hundred years ago the cry was heart from earth, 'It is finished,' so the second great cry shall be heard from heaven, 'It is done.' 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men;' 'Behold, I make all things new.' As to the time when this great issue comes to pass, I do not say much. It is, of course, after Christ has come the second time; yet not perhaps immediately, at least to its full extent. For while the millennial age of peace and glory may be truly called the tabernacling of God with men, the new heavens and the new earth, it is still imperfect, being but the first and preparatory stage of the more glorious, and perfect, and eternal consummation which is to succeed, and to which specially our text refers.

Keeping this in mind, we consider, first, The desirableness of this issue; secondly, God's declared purpose as to this; and, thirdly, The manner or process by which God has brought it about. I. The desirableness of this state of things.—Many things show us this.

(1) The interest which the inhabitants of heaven take in it, as seen in the words before us.—Though not of the race of man, nor dwellers on earth, they rejoice in the holy blessedness which has now taken possession of earth. They do not envy our race, nor are they jealous of our earth as having obtained an honour which once belonged exclusively to themselves and to heaven. There is no bitterness of selfish rivalry, no uneasiness felt at the prospect of having their monopoly of glory thrown down, and the prerogative of being the metropolis of the universe shared with a planet like ours, so inferior in size, and once the seat of most hateful evil. They can do nothing but rejoice in seeing earth become the dwelling-place of Jehovah,—in beholding the tabernacle of God now pitched among the children of men. (2) The pains and costs which God has been at to bring about this issue.—He has grudged nothing; He has not spared His only-begotten Son, —so infinitely desirable does He reckon this result. Surely that must have a large space in His eye and heart, for the accomplishment of which He was willing to make such a sacrifice! Surely the ultimate glory must be precious in His estimation, when, in order to bring it about, He can submit to allow such developments of evil, such an overflow of sin, such a reign of Satan for so many thousand years, instead of at once setting fire to the guilty world, and burning it into a second hell. (3) The work of Christ, through which it has been brought about.— Not without the sacrificial work of Christ could this end have been attained. As it would have been unrighteous in God to pardon a sinner without this work, so would it have been no less so without this to restore and re-glorify the sinner's world. The leper's habitation, no less than the leper himself, requires the sacrifice, and the blood, and the cleansing water.

In the restoration of earth, and its reinhabitation by God, Christ sees of the travail of His soul. (4) The desire with which prophets and righteous men have desired this issue.—The times of the restitution of all things have been spoken of by all the holy prophets since the world began. All prophecy is full of this coming glory. Holy men spoke of it, prayed for it, waited for it, saw it afar off, and were glad. Surely that which their pens so largely wrote of, and their hearts so earnestly longed for, must be infinitely desirable. (5) The change which it will produce on earth.—Over all its face sin has spread itself, like the over flowings of some dark river of hell. Evil has prevailed, Satan has reigned, a rebellious hatred of Jehovah has showed itself, pain and sorrow have poisoned it in every part, disease and death compass it about. It is a blighted, withered, ruined, woe-stricken region. It is so as seen by our eyes, how much more when seen by angels' eyes! How much more still when seen by the eyes of God! How infinitely desirable that all this evil should be undone, this curse up torn, this death exchanged for life, this sorrow turned into joy! And what a difference it will make when such shall actually be the state of things on earth! Sin shall no longer defile, death shall no longer destroy, sorrow shall no longer overshadow. God shall not longer be banished from His own creation. Who, when reading such prophetic descriptions as the following, can fail to realize the desirableness of the glorious change?— 'There shall be no more curse; but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him;'—'There shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light, and they shall reign for ever and ever;'— 'There shall in nowise enter into it anything that defileth;'— '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.' If, then, that change be so infinitely desirable,—if the issue described in our text be so inconceivably glorious,—how needful that those who are expected to share it should meanwhile walk worthy of it! The prospect of

such a glory should be as transforming as it is comforting, as sanctifying as it is gladdening. If this be our hope, what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness! Is it so with us? II. The declared purpose of God as to this glorious issue,— God having His tabernacle with men. One of the earliest statements is an intimation of God's purpose respecting this. Paradise was meant not merely as man's abode, but as God's abode with man; so that when man sinned, God is represented as coming down to the garden in the cool of the day. Men sin then frustrated, if we may so speak. God's purpose in the meantime, yet it did not hinder that purpose from being made known. This great original purpose of God to have His dwelling with men continued to be presented to man in type and prophecy form that day forward, to show that it had only been postponed, not abandoned,—postponed in order to be carried out more fully and more gloriously than it could have been before. Especially was this the case in Israel's history, from the time that the tabernacle was erected in the wilderness to the day when the temple and city were laid in ruins by the hand of the aliens. The name of the tabernacle was 'Jehovah's Tent,'— the tent in which He took up His abode, and round which He gathered the tents of Israel,—'the tent which He placed among men' (Psalm 78:60). The whole story of Israel is the exhibition of God's desire to dwell with men, and man's refusal to allow God to dwell with him. The statement in the Gospel of John regarding the Son of God is another declaration of this same purpose: 'The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us;' literally, tabernacle or pitched His tent among us. And, in our Lord's words, we have more than once the intimation of the same thing, or rather of a twofold purpose,—that God should dwell with man, and that man should dwell with God; as in that remarkable answer to one of His disciples, 'If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him' (John 14:23). And it is this which is the complete fulfillment of Christ's name Immanuel, 'God with us.'

God then has all along been telling us not merely that He has a heaven of which He desires to make us partakers,—His own blessed heaven, the paradise that was never lost,—but that He means to make a second heaven of this very earth of ours; and out of that paradise, that Eden, that earth, which was lost and marred by man, to bring a more blessed and incorruptible paradise, in which He will pitch His tent, and where He will make His dwelling with the sons of men. As in the person of Christ we see these two things,—man taken up to God, and God coming down to man, so as indissoluble to combine in one perfect being all that is excellent in the Creator and in the creature; so in the universe of God the same two-fold perfection is to be exhibited,—man taken up to dwell with God in God's holy heaven above, and God coming down to dwell with man in man's holy earth below. And are not these two things brought before us in these words of Christ spoken to the Laodicean Church: 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man will hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with me?'—I with him as well as he with me! And is not this the filling up of all blessedness, the consummation of all glory? Without it would not something have been a wanting both in earth and heaven,—both to God and man? From the beginning then, God has announced this as His purpose. Age after age has He set this before us, in type and prophecy. All that has taken place on earth has been bearing upon this, and helping it forward. God means yet to dwell with men. This is the Bible message to us. God means to dwell with men. This is His eternal purpose; and had it not been so, would He not long since have abandoned such an earth as ours, and either made it pass into nothing or turned it into hell? Nor have there been any intimations of God's design ultimately to abandon earth, after He has accomplished certain ends. He has nowhere said that after having spared it, and made use of it for a certain time, and for certain ends, He will leave it to desolation, or reduce it to nothing. On the contrary, all that He has said and done hitherto indicate His intention to restore it, to glorify it, and to fit it for being His abode. God has, beyond mistake, declared His purpose as to the destiny of earth; and that purpose shall

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