The Face of the Deep (on Revelation); Poems

Two Divine Parables warn us that the call of grace condemns \vhom it does not save: —

" One... said unto Him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. Then said He unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: and sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse.... So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant... Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper."

" The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come.... Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests. And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: and he saith unto him, Friend, how earnest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen."

Lord, with a call give responsive grace, with grace diligence, with diligence perseverance, with final perseverance an entrance into Thy glory, with glory a seat at Thy Feast full of pleasure. For the sake and worthiness of Jesus Christ. Amen. 10. And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Looking back (ch. xvii. i) it seems as if this personage who converses with St. John may still be one of the seven Angels of the vials. Marvellous indeed is it to behold that beloved disciple who had lain on the Master's Bosom fall down at the servant's feet to worship him. What motive led St. John to such exuberance of humility concerns me not. But for myself I learn from the celestial disallowance of his act how safe it is for me to be set low on a lowly level and one bounded by a misty horizon, so that thence I can neither explore height nor depth nor distance to any great extent: for to say the least of it, " I am not better than my fathers." Even St. Paul felt how it would have been possible for himself to be exalted above measure.

"Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding the Head."

While half-awakened Spring lags incomplete, While lofty forest-trees tower bleak and bare,

"See thou do it not." — " He that rebuketh a man afterwards shall find more favour than he that flattereth with the tongue."

Lord Jesus, give us grace in charity to rebuke and in humility to bear rebuke; until that day when Thou shalt swallow up death in victory, and wipe away tears from off all faces, and take away from off all the earth the rebuke of Thy people.

" I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus." — -This definition exalted the Creator and abased the creature, it edified and did not puff up, it satisfied loyal hearts, not itching ears.

Such a specimen of " conversation in heaven " (if I may treat the word when thus used as including conversation in its colloquial sense: and this notwithstanding that the Revised Version substitutes citizenship, or marginally commonwealth] — • such a specimen suggests various practical points for everyday guidance.

" Fellow-servants " are more or less on a par: " brethren " are equals: if Jesus Christ is the Object of my own faith, hope, love; then all to whom He is the same are my fellow-servants to be courteously entreated, my brethren to be beloved. A system which spiritually exalts valleys and makes low moun tains and hills takes no more account of inequalities of birth, breeding, education, than of those roughnesses on an orange to which in proportion to her magnitude the excrescences of our globe have been likened. " If there be therefore any con solation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others."

Curiosity is starved; piety fed and feasted. Gossip is indirectly discouraged by a contrary model.

" The testimony of Jesus " is an essential characteristic of true servants and brethren. Whatever more it may import, it cannot consist with less than neither through fear nor favour our being ashamed of Christ and of His words.

From a fleshly mind vainly puffed up, from lack of natural affection, from respect of persons; Thou, Lord, Who lovest us all, deliver us.

From undue curiosity, vain hankerings, idle words, wasted irrecoverable time; Thou, Lord, Who understandest our thoughts long before, deliver us.

From false fear and false shame; Thou, Lord, Who art not ashamed to call us brethren, deliver us.

Into Thy hands I commend us, for Thou hast redeemed us. Thou, Lord, Who hast redeemed us all, for Thine own sake sanctify and save us. Amen.

Lord, if Thy word had been " Worship Me not, For I than thou am holier: draw not near " — We had besieged Thy Face with prayer and tear

Our crooked ground, our thorned and thistled plot; Envious of flawless Angels in their sphere, Envious of brutes, and envious of the mere

But now Thou hast said; " Worship Me: and give Thy heart to Me, My child "; — now therefore we Think twice before we stoop to worship Thee;

We proffer half a heart while life is strong And strung with hope; so sweet it is to live!

"The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." — By this " testimony of Jesus " I will (if I may) understand, as in cluded in the angelic definition, such witness as all Christians are bound to bear, and all good Christians do bear to their Master.

And this, although St. Paul emphatically intimates that disciples are not all prophets. For whilst a spirit of prediction is obviously confined to a few, a virtue of revelation (if I may term it so) is diffused throughout the area of Christendom. As certain believers were St. Paul's epistle known and read of all men, but beyond this were manifestly " the epistle of Christ "; so all believers should be and may be epistles of Christ, instinct with His Spirit, stamped with His image, exemplifying His Will. As St. Peter and St. John could only be accounted for as having " been with Jesus," so should it come to pass with any and every Christian in the face of the world. One who cannot be so much as a teacher of babes, may yet by Divine Grace become a lesson, a revelation, bearing on eternity as well as on time: such were even the least gifted of our elect fathers and mothers before us, who being in multitude as the stars of the sky and as the sand by the sea shore innumerable, "all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country/' The grace of our probation is itself a present glory; and this faithfully lived and died in announces, prefigures, guarantees the glory of future final acceptance and perfection: even as the face of St. Stephen, while the Council beheld it as it had been the face of an angel, may have set forth before them the latent aspect of those who shall be made equal to the angels.

" Prophesy, son of man." — And Exekiel prophesied by promulgating Divine decrees; and thereupon the answering dry bones prophesied by foreshowing the far-off resurrection. Two sorts of prophecy independent of any miraculous con comitant are open to us all: to declare the Will of God, and to do it.

Is it a mistake to think that prophecy (in the sense of prediction) may often address us when we fail to recognize its voice? Surely the " Thou shalt not " of the Decalogue, being an expression of the Almighty Will, may be not merely an injunction but also a prophecy: man can set it at norght in this life, but not in the next. For as the first death which kills the body cuts short all physical possibility of image worship, verbal profanity, Sabbath breaking, murder, sensuality, theft, lying speech; so the second death, which destroys both body and soul, will (as a probable inference) annul any power to transgress any commandment as a pleasurable self-indulgence, whilst not — alas! alas! — abating one jot or one tittle of re bellious will; so that lost souls hating goodness with impotent undying hatred appear like tortured bodies under the influence of curari, all the more excruciated whilst outwardly paralyzed. Thus sinners sell their souls for that which as a gratification cannot last, but turns to loathing and rancour. Truly a vanity and a vexation of spirit.

In the Egyptian darkness men saw not one another, neither did any arise from his place. So in the outer darkness thereby typified, how should there not be an end of the lust of the eyes and the pride of life!

Lord, pardon and amend us whenever we doubt, misunder stand, misstate. Suffer us not to go astray. Suffer us not to mislead each other. Whatsoever we be enlighten our minds and enkindle our affections, for the honour of Jesus Christ our Redeemer. Amen.

And speak Thy words and walk before Thy Face, Profound and calm like waters deep and still: Grant us such grace.

Not hastening and not loitering in our pace For gloomiest valley or for sultriest hill, Content and fearless on our downward race.

But are themselves filled full in its embrace, Absorbed, at rest, each river and each rill: Grant us such grace.

11. And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war.

This vision by recalling the former vision of the white horse and his rider (ch. vi. 2), reminds us that we are contemplating Him Who is the Same yesterday and to-day and for ever, " greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about Him. O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto Thee? or to Thy faithfulness round about Thee? "

[What then am I that I should dare speak? or how shall I dare be silent? O Lord Jesus, forgive me my speech, my silence. " Death and life are in the power of the tongue."]

It is wise to obey in fear, foolish to fear to obey: wfse to worship trembling, foolish to tremble instead of worshipping. A talent must neither be misused nor laid away unused.

" He... was called Faithful and True." — " O Lord, Thou art my God; I will exalt Thee, I will praise Thy Name; for Thou hast done wonderful things; Thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth." — " I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust.... His truth shall be thy shield and buckler." — " It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto Thy Name, O Most High: to show forth Thy lovingkindness in the morning, and Thy faithfulness every night."

In the former vision the Rider on the white horse " went forth conquering, and to conquer," His reward with Him, His work before Him. Now because He "doth judge" as well as " make war," this latter war seems to be rather of extirpation than of conquest; the carrying out of a righteous sentence rather than a subdual and receiving to amity of sometime enemies. The beginning has been seen, and the end must be seen.

O Lord God, Holy and True, grant that in the Mount of the Lord it may be seen by us Thy servants and trembling children. And to the end that thither at last we may attain, now give us grace to use this embittered world as our mountain of myrrh by self-denial, our hill of frankincense by self- oblation. For His only sake, the Rock of Ages, Jesus Christ. Amen.

12. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns; and He had a Name written, that no man knew, but He Himself.

" His eyes were as a flame of fire." — Word for word as our Lord revealed Himself in the first vision (ch. i. 14): then standing (it might seem) on earth, heaven not being opened till afterwards (ch. iv. i). Awful in His Unchangeableness.

His eyes did see our substance yet being imperfect. Now they see it worse than imperfect, marred, contorted. At the last day they will see it such as then it will be. Yea, before the beginning they have foreseen the end. Awful in His Unchangeableness.

Lord, suffer not awe to turn in us to slavish fear, nor godly fear to degenerate into mistrust: but give us grace fearing Thee to put our whole trust in Thee; fearing Thee much, to love Thee much mere. For Thine own sake, Lord Jesus, Who lovest us. Amen.

"And on His head were many crowns." — "And a crown was given unto Him " (ch. vi. 2). The Authorized Version in both passages gives crown or crowns: the Revised crown in the earlier chapter, diadems in the present text. This distinction (which my ignorance of Greek leads me to adopt on trust) suggests the Victor's Wreath as that first crown: when Christ having already with His own right hand and with His holy arm gotten Himself the victory, sets forth anew conquering and to conquer as Captain of man's salvation; that at last where He is there all His faithful ones may be also.

This second time He wears many "diadems" indicative of dominion. He is no longer enrolling recruits, raising an army: His veteran invincible troops are mounted ready to follow Him (see ver. 14).

But wherefore " many " diadems? Lord, when I cannot adore Thee in knowledge, in ignorance I will adore Thee.

Lord Jesus, Thou art God, Alone Supreme in absolute Supremacy. As God I worship Thee.

Thou art Man, Whose is the Human Name supreme above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow. As Man I worship Thee.

Thou hast created all things, and without Thee was not any thing made that was marie. As Creator I worship Thee.

Thou hast become Man, and hast taken the Manhood into God indissolubly for ever and ever. As the Firstborn of every creature I worship Thee.,

Thou art the Wisdom of God Whom He possessed in the beginning of His way. As the Divine Wisdom I worship Thee.

Thou art the Word speaking to us as never man spake. As my Teacher of absolute authority I worship Thee.

Thou art the Lord Who hath declared: My ways are not your ways. Having a good hope because of Thy word I worship Thee.

Thou art the Way whereby alone man cometh unto the Father. A wayfarer liable to error, beseeching safeguard, I worship Thee.

Thou art the King of Heaven, all Whose works are truth. I, a little one among Thy works, worship Thee.

Thou art the Truth: in Thee mercy and truth are met to gether, kindness and truth are shown forth. In the paths of Thy mercy and of Thy truth I worship Thee.

Thou art the Living God into Whrse hands it is a fearful thing to fall. Yet calling to remembrance the former days, to-day while it is called to-day I worship Thee.

Thou art the Life. Thou Who hadst power to lay Thy Life down and power to take it again, Who art Life manifested, and Who givest Thy flesh for the life of the world, I worship Thee.

O Thou Who hearest prayer, and unto Whom all flesh shall come, draw all my brethren and all my sisters and myself not outcast from their gracious company, to worship Thee.

" And He had a Name written, that no man knew, but He Himself." — This gracious revelation corresponds apparently not with any previous Apocalyptic description of Christ in Person, but rather with His promise to " him that overcometh.... I... will give him... a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it " (ch. ii. 17).

By many Names, by many Titles, we recognize Him now. Jesus, Saviour: Christ, Anointed: Emmanuel, God with us: the Good Shepherd seeking, fetching back, dying for His sheep: the Good Samaritan healing, nourishing: the Master teaching: the Lord ruling, providing, instituting: the Captain, but of salvation: the Chiefest, but girt by His ten thousand: the First-born among many brethren: the Bridegroom Who tarrieth, Who cometh: the Lamb of Atonement: the Bread of Life: the Salvation of the Cup: the Vine sap-diffusing: the Corn of Wheat multiplied after its own likeness: the Way from earth to heaven: the Door of access to the Father: the Life to all who living and believing shall never die: the Resurrection and the Life. "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace... for mine eyes have seen Thy Salvation."

Moreover, we recognize all saints as the complement, so to say, of these Names as ointment "poured forth." In divers lovely degrees of grace and glory they are saved, have the Unction from the Holy One, walk with God, are sheep who know their Shepherd's Voice, are wounded wayfarers whom the Good Physician heals and tends, are disciples of the One Master, servants and ministers of the One Lord, crusading soldiers, like-minded courtiers, brethren beloved, Virgins who wait, Brides who watch; they are accepted through the Only Atonement, are made partakers of the Body and Blood of Christ, flourish as fruitful branches of the only Vine, ripen as wheat for the eternal garner, follow Jesus from earth to heaven, enter through His merits, and being indissolubly His member?, have part in the first blessed resurrection and live for evermore. Ci By the Name of Jesus Christ... for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."

"That no man knew, but He Himself." — St. John writes not, That no man shall know; but " that no man knew." God alone knoweth the limit of man's future knowledge.

Meanwhile it is a Divine and comfortable promise that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Recognition, then, is one revealed point of Christlikeness: He recognizing us, we all must recognize Him. And because " every one that is perfect shall be as his Master," surely that supreme beatific recognition involves all congruous blessed recognitions: Christ recognizing us all, we should so far be un-Christlike if we recognized not each other.

As Israel of old spake unto Joseph, " I had not thought to see thy face: and, lo, God hath shewed me also thy seed "; so shall all saints, monuments and miracles of Divine Mercy, attest no less in the supreme day of union and of reunion.

Moreover in the surpassing rapture of that day recognition will not be all: discovery likewise (please God!) awaits us.

As one has strikingly suggested: some that glanced at afar off appear stones, when viewed close at hand may turn out to be sheep. God all along has beheld them as sheep, and sheep they were: the misapprehension (thank God) was ours.

13. And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and His Name is called The Word of God.

" Wherefore art Thou red in Thine apparel, and Thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with Me: for I will tread them in Mine anger, and trample them in My fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon My garments, and I will stain all My raiment. For the day of vengeance is in Mine heart, and the year of My redeemed is come." Thus does Isaiah's prophecy provide as it were an answer to St. John's revelation: between the twain the Cross of Calvary standing forth as an intermediate fulfil ment of the elder prophecy and a rehearsal of the later revelation.

Prophecy couples the day of vengeance with the year of the redeemed. Visions link together salvation and destruction. The blessed Cross, with on either hand the cross of a male factor hardened or penitent, shows forth the same verity in a figure. For Divine Mercy is not contrary to Divine Justice, neither is that Justice at feud with that Mercy.

" I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred."

" Without shedding of blood is no remission." None the less, "The voice of thy brother's blood crieth," — and man's blood shall be required " at the hand of man." The Red Sea saved whom it did not destroy, and destroyed whom it did not save.

His "vesture dipped in blood" seems to challenge heaven and earth: "What could have been done more to My vine yard, that I have not done in it? "

''His Name is called The Word of God."— Whatever that Other Name may be which abides hidden, this Name reveals to us our nearness and dearness to our Heavenly Father. It is His good Will, His gracious pleasure to speak to us, con verse with us, maintain intercourse with us. Jesus Christ is the Divine Word to us: and if out of the abundance of man's heart his mouth speaketh, much more fully and infallibly God Omniscient. Jesus is Truth, Wisdom, the Word: " O God... the Lord... I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which Thou hast shewed unto Thy servant." " Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come unto Thee."

We need everything in Christ, nothing out of Christ: that is, we simply need Christ. To need is a blessed thing, to lack is quite a different thing. " O fear the Lord, ye that are His saints: for they that fear Him lack nothing." But I will not be content to fear Christ: I will love Him. Amen.

Because Christ being Wisdom is the Word, and being the Truth is the Word, therefore Christians must speak words of wisdom and truth, or else must keep silence. Yet remember truth-telling Balaam and his end, oracular Ahithophel and his end: accuracy without charity, or astuteness without charity, profits nothing.

Gifts become a curse and no blessing when divorced from graces. Imagine a gift of tongues without either wisdom or truth!

O God the Son, Who being the Brightness of the Father's Glory and the Express Image of His Person, art to mankind His gracious Word, His revealed Truth, His imparted Wisdom; grant us grace to speak the truth in love, to show forth meek ness of wisdom; not to speak except truthfully, not to be wise except unto salvation. From idle words deliver us, O Lord, from wisdom of the children of this world: from words that may do hurt deliver us, O Lord, from wisdom that is foolish ness. From all which Thou acceptest not, to which Thou bearest not witness, which beareth not witness unto Thee, which hath not praise of God, deliver us. Amen.

14. And the armies which were in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

In the former vision (ch. vi. 2) the Rider on the White Horse went forth (so far as we read) alone: now the armies of heaven follow Him. Thus we behold and adore Christ alone in His work: in fellowship in His triumph. He reappears clad in the unique glory of man's redemption, the "vesture dipped in blood": whilst His elect follow Him all alike decked in the joyful glory of the redeemed, " clothed in fine linen, white and clean."

Blossoms alone in its glory, crowned all alone In a solitude of own sweetness and fragrance of own delight,

With loveliness not another's and thorns its own; As one ruddy sun amid million orbs comely and colourless,

Among all others, above all others is known; As it were alone in the garden, alone in the heavenly place,

" Followed Him." — Cross-bearers, crown-wearers. " If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be: if any man serve Me, him will My Father honour."

15. And out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations: and He shall rule them with a rod of iron: and He treadeth the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

So at the first St. John beheld Him (ch. i. 16) with a sword. In that vision we are certified that it was two-edged as well as sharp: now we read of it only as sharp. During man's pro bation, the Divine Sword has (so to say) two edges, whereof one wounds, but not incurably; yea, wounds with the very intent to heal: as St. Paul teaches: " When we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should riot be con demned with the world." The other edge, the edge of extir pation, hangs all along suspended over our heads; yet need never fall upon us, God helping our own earnest endeavour.

The final sentence upon incorrigible sinners is as the fall of that fatal edge. Christ All-Merciful has forewarned us what sort of life leads down to such a death: —

" God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved."

"Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat."

" Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire."

" Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have \ve not prophesied in Thy Name? and in Thy Name have cast out devils? and in Thy Name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity."

" The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His Voice, and shall come forth... they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation."

"Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned."

"... Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."

" Whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven."

"Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My words, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when He shall come in His own Glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels."

" Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.''

" He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not My words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day."

"... Which devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayers: these shall receive greater damnation."

" Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this, life, and so that day come upon you unawares."

"... With the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

"Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was an hungred, and ye gave Me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave Me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took Me not in: naked, and ye clothed Me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited Me not. Then shall they also answer Him, saying, Lord, when saw we Thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto Thee? Then shall He answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to Me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment."

" He shall rule them with a rod of iron." — " It is the Lord: let Him do what seemeth Him good."

Compassed with thorns and bleeding everywhere, For thy sake bearing all and glad to bear."

"Yea, thee My wandering sheep, Yea, thee My scarlet sinner slow to weep, Come to Me, I will love thee and will keep."

"Nay, fix thy heart, thine eyes, Thy hope upon My boundless Sacrifice: Will I lose lightly one so dear-bought prize? "

" Nay, weld thy 1'esolute will To Mine: glance not aside for good or ill: I love thee; trust Me still and love Me still."

"Judge not before that day, Trust me with all thy heart even tho' I slay: Trust Me in love, trust on, love on, and pray."

16. And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a Name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords.

"On His vesture and on His thigh." — Herein (if I may) I discern an intimation of Christ's Twofold Nature. As He is from eternity to eternity in Himself " Equal to the Father, as touching His Godhead," so is He throughout that same eternity inalienably and supremely, potentially if not actually " King of kings, and Lord of lords." Before any kings or any lords were, beyond human faculty of expression or grasp of under standing, the All- Holy Trinity Was. " I opened my mouth, and panted.*' Kings bowing down as bulrushes before Him, lords at the beck of His sceptre, though they be kings in heavenly places and lords beyond the bounds of the everlasting hills, of these we can form a conception, we can attest the seemliness of their adoration, prostrate with them we can adore; but the antecedent of these, of such as these, of all creatures, of any creature, silences us. God the Son is King of kings and Lord of lords, and on His thigh the Name is written.

Equally " on His vesture " is that Same Name written; on the Nature He has assumed, on the Manhood He has taken into God. For although He was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, yet hath He " by inheritance obtained a more excellent Name than they."

In Eve, the mother of all living, man desired in vain to make himself like God. But when God deigned to desire with desire to make Himself like Man, He spake and it was done: and all desire human and Divine was appeased.

" We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest."

O God, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Lights, grant unto us all the Spirit of Wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. Enlighten the eyes of our under standing that we may know the hope of His calling, and the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and the greatness of His power to usward. Reveal to us ever more and more Christ risen from the dead, and set at Thine own Right Hand in the heavenly places: Whose dominion is above all dominion, and Whose Name above every name. In which supreme Name, the Name of Jesus, we shelter our selves and plead with Thee. Amen.

O everliving God, let this mind be in us which was also in Christ Jesus: that as He from His loftiness stooped to the death of the Cross; so we in our lowliness may humble ourselves and become obedient unto death, though of con straint yet likewise willingly, believing and obeying, living and dying, to the glory of God the Father. For the Same Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.

For which the virgins love Thee: King of kings And Lord of lords? All Seraphs clad in wings;

Which east and west turn not in going forth; All many-semblanced ordered Spirits, as rings Of rainbow in unwonted fashionings;

From east and west, a feeble folk who came By desert ways in quest of land unseen,

And ever-springing ever-singing wave, Know best Thy Name of Jesus: Blessed Name, Man's life and resurrection from the grave.

17. And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;

18. That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of

captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. This elect Angel " standing in the sun " seems, as it were, elder brother to such elect souls as shall prevail to ''dwell with the devouring fire. '.. with everlasting burnings." And so the description of such souls throws lovely light (may it not?) on the character of this and of all angels.

An angel, then, walks righteously in his own order of perfection: he is holy because God is Holy, and merciful in homage to the Divine Mercy. Loving the truth, hating a lie, he speaks uprightly whatever word is put in his mouth, neither calling bitter sweet nor sweet bitter. Self weighs nought with him, the equity of God's perfect Will absorbing his will and fulfilling his pleasure. He delights not in destruction for destruction's sake, yet as a step in the equal ways of God he delights in it: nor does he investigate evil for evil's sake, but rather as an agent towards the bringing in of Everlastino- Righteousness. Thus he dwelleth on high.

Unsnared, unscared by world or flesh or devil, Fulfilling the good Will of Thy behest:

Not careful here to hoard, not here to revel; But waiting for our treasure and our zest Beyond the fading splendour of the west,

Beyond this deathstruck life and deathlier evil. Not with the sparrow building here a house:

On eager wings with wing-outspeeding wills Beyond earth's gourds and past her almond boughs, Past utmost bound of the everlasting hills.

"To all the fowls."— All, apparently the clean and doubtless the unclean, must obey that summons, concur in that act.

No man can count on an eagle as his devourer: it may be a vulture. Is it a degradation to be torn piecemeal by a carrion bird? Worse degradation it is to have made oneself the carrion it gorges upon.

Alas for kings, captains, champions, cavaliers, freemen, great men, who are no longer those excellences at all, but carrion! Alas for slaves and mean men, carrion no less and no more! All carrion, like that " flesh of horses " which in this catalogue appears mixed up undistinguishedly with the human refuse.

Before the beginning Thou hast foreknown the end, Before the birthday the deathbed was seen of Thee:

Cleanse what I cannot cleanse, mend what I cannot mend, O Lord All-Merciful, be merciful to me.

Birth I recall not, my death I cannot foresee: O God, arise to defend, arise to befriend,

19. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him that sat on the horse, and against His army.

If this which St. John now sees be consequent upon that which he saw in a former vision (ch. xvi. 13—16) where we read:".... The spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty " — the overthrow of so huge a power there only to be anticipated is here accounted for: God the Almighty Son heads and leads His army to destroy the destroyer. Every day and all day the Church Militant discerns such a muster of evil; not as yet does she discern the advance of that heavenly host: yet because the things which are seen are temporal, whilst the things which are not seen are eternal, she thanks God and takes courage.

She always did, always does, always will thank God and take courage. Shall I be the one traitor in her councils, the one craven in her camp? God forbid!

And what after all can Satan and his legions effect against the elect? They can give an immortalizing stroke to that flesh and blood which cannot as they stand inherit the kingdom of God. They can minister incorruption to corruption. They can kindle a fire which will turn to a glory. They can kill the body, but cannot cause one hair to perish. They can dig a grave, but cannot bar resurrection. "Shall not all these

take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him? "

20. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.

Brimstone is solid sulphur, sulphur which has neither been fused nor sublimated, which has not undergone elevation by fire, which abides as originally it was of the earth earthy. Of sulphur (see Latham's Dictionary) I read that it is an " ele

mentary substance so called; the name, unlike the majority of similar ones, being destitute of any technical termination indicative of its character.... This suggests the likelihood of the characters of sulphur being negative rather than

positive." Sulphur thus becomes a parable of mankind in general: brimstone of any in particular who may be con demned to the lake of fire. Sulphur is not evil by original constitution, but to become actually good it needs the elevating action of fire; not consigned to the puiifying crucible it remains gross though capable of refinement: capable of refinement yet unrefined it is at last condemned as fuel to the flame. [I mean not rny little parable for scientific experts, but for verbal dabblers like myself.]

" The beast was taken, and with him the false prophet ": — bound up as it were in a bundle to be burnt. " Fear not, neither be faint-hearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands.''

\Vho once enduredst shame that we might never fall into everlasting con tempt, pity us.

Who once madest Thy bed in a grave that we might not come short of a blessed resurrection, pity us.

Because we have said to corruption father, to the worm mother and sister,, pity us.

Who knowest and we know not the height of heaven, pity us. Joseph yearned over Benjamin. O Christ, Lord God Almighty, Who hast deigned to become our Brother, pity us. Amen.

21. And the remnant were slain with the sword of Him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of His mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

" With the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked."

The deceivers are cast alive into a lake of fire, the deceived are slain with the sword: " With Him is strength and Wisdom: the deceived and the deceiver are His." Thus the seducer being incomparably more guilty than the seduced, incurs a proportionate doom; the scale of condemnation being poised as accurately, equitably, subtly, as even the scale of salvation.

According to which Divine model of Justice and Mercy, Holy Mother Church now disciplines or would fain discipline her children: " Of some have compassion, making a differ ence: and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh."

'•'And all the fowls were filled with their flesh." — "The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to o'bey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it ": — a proverb with a natural meaning and a super natural suggestion.

The end of all things is at hand. We all

Stand in the balance trembling as we stand j Or if not trembling, tottering to a fall.

The end of all things is at hand.

And Heaven flings wide its gates to great and small, The end of all things is at hand.

Earth is pre-eminently that rolling stone which gathers no moss. She has treasure, but it can be laid up in heaven only: she has a harvest, but her harvest-home is in heaven.

1. And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

" An evil man seeketh only rebellion: therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him." Not that I dare mis deem of this avenging Angel as tinged with any taint of cruelty, but only as merciless when God All-Merciful shuts up His loving-kindness in displeasure. If " the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel," no less are the " cruelties " of the righteous merciful; for the casting away of all evil is the restitution of all things.

Who forged that chain? Surely the dragon himself. So Goliath furnished the sword which smote off his own head, and Haman reared the gallows on which he himself came to be hanged. Thus we are self-bound in the chain of sin before God tightens it upon us as a chain of penalty.

" O God, Whose nature and property is ever to have mercy and to forgive, receive our humble petitions; and though we be tied and bound with the chain of our sins, yet let the pitifulness of Thy great mercy loose us; for the honour of Jesus Christ, our Mediator and Advocate. Amen."

In the same sense that " God made not death," made He not punishment.

O God our God, Who hast no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, from death deliver fleshly sinners, spotted, stained, leprous, hideous, one and all and me a sinner.

From destruction deliver worldly sinners, clogged, weighed down, glued fast to perishing earth, one and all and me a sinner.

From the bottomless pit, from the lake of fire, deliver spiritual sinners, wilful, rebellious, defiant, braving vengeance, one and all and me a sinner.

For the love of Jesus, Who laid aside His Glory, Who learned obedience, Who was crucified, Who made His grave with the wicked and with the rich in His death, for love of one and all and of me a sinner. Amen.

2. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,

3. And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

Truly a joyful day when these " former things " shall come to pass. Meanwhile if it was not for Apostles to know the times and the seasons which the Father hath put in His own power, how much less for me!

The date is hidden, the event revealed: the date therefore concerns me not at present, the event concerns me at once.

But what? must we fall a helpless prey to the strong raging dragon, the insinuating serpent, until an angel secure him with chain and seal and the lid of hell? Not so. Even now already thou hast thy chain at hand, my brother, my sister: I, if I will, have mine.

" Satan trembles when he sees The weakest saint upon his knees."

Prayer is a chain apt presently to bind him, and which he cannot snap; prayer which links earth to heaven, human weakness to Divine Strength, me (if I will), even me to my Redeemer. Though the great and wide sea be Leviathan's playground, yet to him and to his habitation alike God hath assigned a bound by a perpetual decree so that neither can pass over it.

Lord Jesus, Who Alone makest our prayers acceptable to the Father, shelter us under prayer, hide us in prayer, give us breathings of prayer wherewith to quench the fiery breath of the dragon, wisdom of prayer whereby to silence the lying subtilty of the serpent. Amen.

Not dragon simply, or serpent simply; but serpent-dragon to be fled from when met raging, and still more to be feared when gliding unobtrusively. Not a novice, but an "old serpent," surpassingly subtil when Eve encountered him, and having now the accumulated experience of thousands of years and millions of victories. — Good Lord, deliver us.

"A seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till...." — If upon himself ^ Cain's mark as it were. If upon his prison, then we are reminded of the irreversible act of Darius: " A stone was brought, and laid upon the mouth of the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet, and with the signet of his lords; that the purpose might not be changed."

Hell has no bottom, but has a lid: I need not fall in. Hell has indeed no bottom, yet has it one only exit and that upwards. A figure to me of the folly of piling sin on sin in hopes of self-extrication. To cover one lie by a second lie thickens the lid over me.

Lord, grant us wills to trust Thee with such aim Of hope and passionate craving of desire, That we may mount aspiring, and aspire

Yesterday, this day, day by day the Same: So sparks fly upward scaling heaven by fire, Still mount and still attain not, yet draw nigher

To saints who mount, the bottomless abyss Is as mere nothing: they have set their face Onward and upward toward that blessed place Where man rejoices with his God, and soul

"The thousand years... a little season." — I can com pute a thousand, but not a little. The thousand years I might call long: the little season I incline to figure to myself as much shorter. Either would appear brief if compared with the whole of time; and time from beginning to end would itself dwindle to mere brevity if set against eternity. Never theless eternity hangs on time. " Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! "

The thousand years of exemption are to be " fulfilled." We read not that the little season of final horror is to be fulfilled. Perhaps Divine Compassion may cut it short; if so, it appears in harmony with Christ's promise: " For the elect's sake those days shall be shortened."

" He must... " — What is to be understood by this must? an irresponsible, inflexible fate overbearing the Will of the Almighty? — Not so: it expresses to us the fiat of that Al mighty Will. — Shall would have conveyed the same without ambiguity. — Possibly so: and if so, a surface ambiguity is here superadded for my profit. — How should it profit one?— By pressing home upon me to acquiesce in any case and to trust in every case. By practising me in discerning truth and eschewing error. — But suppose the other should be the true sense? — I cannot suppose what contradicts everything I know. — But suppose it for argument's sake. — I will not even for argument's sake suppose that to be true which I know to be a lie.

4. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judg ment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received Ms mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

Lord Jesus, grant us grace to live not by bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth out of Thy mouth.

Grant us in Thy Revelation to see as it were thrones where on sitteth that word which Thou hast spoken, and which is to judge us at the last day.

Grant us to understand somewhat and to believe all. Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.

Remember Thy sigh, Gracious Saviour, remember Thy word Ephphatha, and evermore open deaf ears. Amen.

Glorious as is the lot of these princes and peers of the Millennium, I yet perceive one thing: the causes — secondary causes, of course; the primary cause being Divine gratuitous Love — the secondary causes of their lofty beatitude are, with a single exception, within the reach of every Christian; of whom not one need pollute himself by devil worship or idolatry, or need befoul his mind by evil thoughts, or his will by evil choice, or his hands by evil deeds. The qualification not open to all is the being " beheaded " for witnessing their good confession • and this qualification was not bestowed even on St. John himself, bosom friend, beloved disciple, true witness (see St. John xxi. 24) though he was.

To be excluded with St. John surely excludes not from the innermost blessedness, from the deepest heart of Divine Love. And who shall realize St. John's joy, his peace, his overflowing gratitude and unspoken " It is enough," when he realized St. James his brother as fulfilling every condition of this great exaltation?

They who love as brethren, they who love neighbours as self, can best surmise such a rapture.

Souls who aspire to the millennial glory, yet who involun tarily fall more or less short of the revealed qualification, may all together be likened to the spiral tendril of a passion-flower climbing skyward, each curve advanced one grade in approxi mation, none touching the goal. Thus some confessors have borne prolonged witness in instant hazard of life, and some have endured bitterness of persecution bitter as bitterness of death, and some have taken their life in their hands to reap the mission field, and some have sacrificed earthly prospects to spiritual fidelity, and some have offered up earthly love on the altar of heavenly love. And beside or below this galaxycoruscate resplendent souls who laden with a daily Cross have followed Christ in weariness and painfulness, in vvatchings and fastings often, in poverty submitted to with Christ or assumed for Christ, in that contented lack of all things which is their true possession, in perfecting work of patience, in self-abase ment, self-forsaking, self-oblation; and amongst them behold unobtrusive saints who rejoice in beds of loathsomeness or of agony.

What reward shall these and such as these inherit? What reward shall they not inherit? O Jesus Christ, King of Joy and of Glory, bring us also to see the felicity of Thy chosen, and rejoice in the gladness of Thy people, and give thanks, with Thine inheritance. Amen.

Unless, which let me not for a moment suppose, the dese cration of the Jewish Seventh Day preceded the consecration of the Christian First Day, it follows that two " Sabbaths " must once at least in the course of time have occurred in undivided succession. Thus (if lawfully I may) I endeavour to realize to myself one aspect of the Millennium: it is the closing Sabbath of time, scarcely disjoined from the permanent Sabbath of eternity; it is one marked fulfilment of that promise to the Meek, " they shall inherit the earth." Time receives a blessing as it gives place to more blessed eternity: for " Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come."

" But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."

" Fulfil her week." Leah and Rachel, recognized figures of the Active and Contemplative Lives, seem consequently to become figures of Time and Eternity. Each claims her rights, the week of each must be fulfilled: Leah takes precedence of Rachel, Rachel supersedes Leah.

Whether we speak of Leah or of Time, either is characterized by craving, aspiring, unsatisfied love: whether of Rachel or of Eternity, either is characterized by satisfaction of love.

Leah herself declares her fruitfulness to be that which gives her a hold upon her husband: similarly, works wrought in time secure to the creatures of time their hold upon the Divine Spouse. Leah said: " Now this time will my husband be joined unto me, because I have born him three sons.... God hath endued me with a good dowry; now will my husband dwell with me, because I have born him six sons." How in dissoluble was the tie thus woven between them Jacob himself suggests when he makes his last bed where he "buried Leah." Time passes away, but the result of Time passes not away.

" Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.... Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates " — please God, the gates of pearl.

Eternity cometh to stay, Eternity stayeth to go not again: Eternity barring the way,

Arresting who plan or who pray, Arresting creation, — while grand in its wane Time passeth away.

"With Christ a thousand years."— Whilst in Thy sight a thousand years are but as yesterday, seeing that it is past; in our sight they would be less than yesterday, than a moment, than the twinkling of an eye, if a millennium could end in parting. If after knowledge of Thee our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, if after having known Thee our Way of Righteousness, saints could at last be severed from Thee, they would indeed be of all men most miserable. As now foresight of death straitens and disenchants life, so then would foresight of divorce balk and embitter union. If in order to hasten and have done with the last pang even downcast Elijah requested for himself that he might die, how much more might those!

Lord, Good Lord, suffer not one who hath had knowledge that Thou art Jesus, ever for any pains of life or death to fall from Thee.

5. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resur rection.

"The rest of the dead" — prisoners of hope, prisoners of fear, waiting a thousand years, waiting thirteen thousand moons: years which will terminate, yet which in some sort are already the beginning of the endless end; moons (if I may call them moons) without phases, unchangeable, irre vocably fixed; without terror for the prisoners of hope, without hope for the prisoners of fear.

The popular saying " While there is life there is hope " implies also that while there is life there is fear. Hope and fear in this life are interdependent. Indeed hope without fear might perhaps be viewed no longer as hope but rather as longing expectation, fear without hope as desperate antici pation. But during probation such distinctions are beside the question. Fear is the ballast of Hope, Hope the buoy of Fear.

O my God, Who demandest of us patient hope and trustful fear, give us, I beseech Thee, that which pleaseth Thee: contented fear, resigned hope, unexhausted patience, all based on faith, and faith itself based on love. For Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.

6. 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.

" Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it," — said once our Lord.

These "blessed and holy" of the First Resurrection ex perience this privilege in its plenitude. Literally they fulfilled the annexed condition, literally does God fulfil to them His promise. " On such the second death hath no power," it has no hold upon them, it does not apply to them: thus indeed are the children free!

Behold the host of men, the host of women, yea, even the host of young children also, who on such wise lost life and saved it. Once over them devout persons made great lament ation, a grief they were to their fathers, a pang to the mothers that bare them, for love of them brethren and sisters sat alone and kept silence, for love of them kindred faces gathered blackness. Now and for evermore these are they whom their brethren praise, whom virgins love, with whom all saints claim kinship, whom fathers bless, and because of whom mothers forget sorrow for joy that such are born into the world, the deathless world.

A priest must of necessity have somewhat to offer. Where fore well may they be priests of God and of Christ, who have offered themselves and have kept back nothing. Now they who kept nothing lack nothing, they who gave all receive all. They counted the cost, and having counted gave their all: this better all which they receive they count not and cannot count.

These are champions of hosts, alphas of constellations. Their consummate §dory lies not within reach of every man.

Nevertheless it 9 their gift which is exclusive, not their grace. One who cannot be martyr in deed may yet be martyr in will. Man recognizes the first dazzling company: our God recognizes (thank God) both the first and the last. " Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul." " Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord."

" They shall be priests... and shall reign." — " Melchizedek king of Salem... was the priest of the Most High God." On earth kings exercise a Royal Priesthood when they inter cede for and bless their people: Priests a Spiritual Royalty when they rule their flocks with wisdom and self-postponement. Such functions, virtues, dignities, appertain in various degrees to all superiors; and every intercessor (and what Christian is there debarred from intercession?) becomes so far a superior. " Covet earnestly the best gifts/'' and secure them by the " more excellent way."

lovest all, give unto each one of us grace to shine as Thy spark, Thy flame, Thy conflagration, as best may please Thee, and best may glorify Thee. We are called by Thy Name and lack nothing, we are dear unto Thee and it is enough.

Yea, blessed and holy is he that hath part in the First Resurrection!

We mark well his bulwarks, we set up his tokens, we gaze even we On this lustre of God and of Christ, this creature of flawless perfection: Yea, blessed and holy is he.

But what? an offscouring of earth, a wreck from the turbulent sea, A bloodstone unflinchingly hewn for the Temple's eternal erection,

Yea, this is that worshipful stone of the Wise Master Builder's election, Yea, this is that King and that Priest where all Hallows bow down the

Yea, this man set nigh to the Throne is Jonathan of David's detection, Yea, blessed and holy is he.

7. And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,

8. And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

As Satan went in, so comes he out: a liar and the father of lies; a murderer from the beginning and to the end.

He is loosed but not freed. He appears lord of sin: but like the whole wretched rabble of his fellow-sinners he too is merely servant of that sin to which he obeys.

The wages of sin is death: to penitence the first death, to impenitence the second death. " The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.:'

God's chastisement is always good: my response may be either good or evil. On what does my response depend? on my own will.

Lord Jesus, Who didst so bind Thyself with cords of love, that having saved others Thyself Thou couldst not save: con straining us by love save us.

Thou Who wast bound and led captive by wicked men, agents of the devil: by Thy captivity free us.

Bind us if Thou wilt; but tenderly as in Thine own swaddling bands, guards of weakness, screens from peril. Amen.

That thousand years' imprisonment wrought no reformation: therefore hell ensued.

parison better rather than worse than the little season of rampant wickedness; — I mean, even as regards the wicked one. By inference: hell itself in all its horror may so far be better than ante-hell.

A spiritual-minded and very dear person once suggested to me (and to me the suggestion was new and unheard of) that this final insurrection of Gog and Magog seduced and stirred up by diabolical deceit, may not be as heretofore a rebellion of the living; but rather a closing death-struggle of the alreadydead, occurring in the interval between the first and the second death. My friend dropped no more than a very few words, but thus I attempt to state her idea. Years ago she went home from shadows to substances, and happy should I be were I a mirror to others of some of her wisdom. Only let not errors of mine be imputed to her.

Contemplating the text under such a borrowed light, the deceit may apparently consist not in sophistries such as erst entrapped the living fool to say in his heart, There is no God; but in equally futile sophistries now encouraging the creature to a trial of strength with its Creator: a much more desperate undertaking than if earth should so challenge the sun.

As such a scheme, however, trenches upon interpretation, I pursue it no further, except to note how vividly it sets before me that he who dies a rebel rises a rebel; and that lost souls are punished not for sins left behind, but for sin clung to, persisted in, chosen with unrelaxed, inflexible choice.

Ezekiel in three successive chapters (xxxvii., xxxviii., xxxix.) sets before us in vision or in prophecy a resurrection to life of perished Israel, and an upsurging and destruction of Gog with his hosts of Magog. However these three chapters may admit of a previous temporal interpretation, they exhibit no less a vivid symbol of events which will close time and open eternity.

That there is difference as well as likeness between these tworevelations touching Gog and Magog, is suggested by Ezekiel's Gog and Magog being derived expressly "out of the north parts," whilst St. John's muster from " the four quarters of the earth." The first host is a multitude, the second a multitude of multitudes: and even of the former it is predicted: "Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee."

" The number of whom is as the sand of the sea." — Nearly the same simile is used of faithful Abraham's descendants: "As the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable." So that sand which is neither good nor evil, by being compared to something good and to something evil indifferently, reminds us once more how a simile is not a proof, neither is an illustration evidence.

I in my degree must bear this in mind. Sand may curb excursiveness, but cannot serve for a foundation.

" Fear ye not Me? saith the Lord: will ye not tremble at My presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it?" — "Every one that heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it." — "The sand [is] weighty," says the Proverb.

9. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

" If it had not been the Lord Who was on our side, now may Israel say; if it had not been the Lord Who was on our side, when men rose up against us: then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us: then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul: then the proud waters had gone over our soul. Blessed be the Lord, Who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth."

"On the breadth of the earth." — Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? declare if thou knowest it all." Broad yet finite: narrower than a hairbreadth by comparison with infinity. " I see that all things come to an end: but Thy commandment is exceeding broad."

"The camp of the saints." — For the last time we thus behold the Church Militant; shortly she will reappear as the Church Triumphant: for the last time terrible as an army with banners; then and for evermore fair as the moon, clear as the sun.

The saints form a camp, but we perceive not that at this juncture they fight. It may be that like their Divine Captain they neither strive nor cry; but now are called to stand still and see the salvation of God, as Israel once on the

Red Sea coast awaited deliverance. "Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." Having done all, they stand.

All along their weapons had been superhuman, their warfare spiritual, not carnal. They fought the battles of the Lord not only to save their own souls alive, but likewise so far as in them lay to subdue the adversaries to His obedience; in themselves and in all mankind aiming to promote the Divine glory and supremacy. Theirs was a long-drawn fight in hope and charity, in faith, zeal, and obedience. It may be that as to any active agency they are mercifully exempted from the war of extermination.

"The beloved city."—" The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God." " The Lord hath chosen Zion; He hath desired it for His habitation. This is My rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it."

" Fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them." — Nevertheless, why will we die? Fire from heaven once reclaimed an apostate nation; once carried up a saint by a whirlwind into heaven. This day is still the day of salvation; there is yet time, there is yet room. Why will we die? If we die it is by our own obstinacy.

O Merciful Lord God, O Lord most Merciful, so replenish us with grace that whatever else may be hidden from us we may always everywhere and in all things discern Thy mercy. For if being Truth Thou canst not deny Thyself, neither being Love canst Thou be other than Thyself. In which Thine Unchangeableness grant us quiet hearts, assurance of holy hope, peace, patient confidence of love. For Jesus Christ's sake, Who is our All in all. Amen.

For folly give us wisdom, Good Lord, for heart of stone heart of flesh, for rebellion loyalty, for sin righteousness, for death resurrection, for mortal life, life immortal. Good Lord, for Thine own sake. Amen.

Sodom perished by fire for pride, fulness, idleness, neglect of the poor, haughtiness, depravity: from crying sin and signal punishment, Good Lord, deliver us, as Thou didst deliver righteous Lot vexed of soul.

Nadab and Abihu perished by fire for offering strange fire: from presumption and sacrilege, from fellowship in evil and not in good, Good Lord, deliver us.

Certain Israelites perished by fire for murmuring in the wilderness: from thankless discontent, Good Lord, deliver us.

the Priest's Office: from exceeding our rights and outstepping our order, Good Lord, deliver us.

Two Captains of Fifty for slighting a Prophet perished by fire with their Fifties: from like sin and like destruction, Good Lord, deliver us, as Thou didst deliver with his Fifty the third Captain humbling himself and deprecating wrath.

10. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

"The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death."

Did Satan then seek death? Yes, even if he named not death that which he sought. He sought not life: and there upon seeking somewhat he sought death. A fearful parallel holds good: as he, so we, if we seek not life seek death.

O Christ our only Life, our Life immortal, Who of old hast declared, " I am found of them that sought Me not "; say to us also "Behold Me, behold Me," and with the word give the grace. So shall we not die but live and declare Thy works, O Lord: so with all living shall we praise Thee as I do this day.

Satan is " that old serpent "; and in the serpent tribe we observe ghastly, loathly, emblematic likenesses of Satan. Con strictors some of them, some vessels of venom; flat heads, unemotional eyes, forked darting tongues are amongst them: silent, insinuating, gliding, they are upon us before we know that they are near. Yet of all living creatures which my memory records no one in Satanic suggestion approaches, to my own thinking, the octopus.

One single small octopus in an aquarium is all I have seen. It had a fascination for me. Inert as it often appeared, it bred and tickled a perpetual suspense: will it do something? will it emerge from the background of its water den? I have seen it swallow its live prey in an eyewink, change from a stony colour to an appalling lividness, elongate unequal feelers and set them flickering like a flame, sit still with an air of immemorial old age amongst the lifeless refuse of its once living meals. I had to remind myself that this vivid figure of wickedness was not in truth itself wickedness.

" Where the beast and the false prophet are." — " Art thou also become weak as we: art thou become like unto us? "

Recognition appears no less essential to the rancorous horror of hell than to the felicity of heaven. Recognition points and clenches hatred as well as love. If so be they are immured eternally together, what other soul could be to Caiaphas as Judas, or to Judas as Caiaphas? or to the Pharisee as his own twofold more child of hell, or to that child as that Pharisee?

Alas for seducer and seduced who once called their bond love, and behold it is loathing! " Day and night for ever and ever."

11. And I saw a 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.

" Great," and all other thrones are as footstools before it: *l white," for it is the tribunal of absolute equity. " Fear before Him, all the earth." " And I will wait on Thy Name; for it is good before Thy saints."

This fleeing away of earth and heaven, of irresponsible nature, may serve as a symbol how neutrality (if in truth neutrality can be said ever to have existed) will be abolished at the last day. Either the Right Hand or the Left, no middle region: either saint or reprobate, no mixed character.

Earth, heaven, neutrals: "there was found no place for them."

O Christ our God, inasmuch as Thy sacred footsteps con ferred not perpetuity on this present earth, let us not harbour a grudge because endeared familiar places must one day know us no more.

O Christ our God, inasmuch as Thy triumphant Ascension conferred not perpetuity on the heaven that now is, let us not lose patience while we await the unseen heaven Thou preparest for them that love Thee.

Stir up thy heart to choose the still unseen: Strain up thy hope in glad perpetual green

"Where they have reaped, by faith kneel thou to glean: liecause they stooped so low to reap, they lean

— But thou purblind and deafened, knowest thou Those glorious beauties unexperienced By ear or eye or by heart hitherto? —

I know Whom I have trusted: wherefore now All amiable, accessible tho' fenced, Golden Jerusalem floats full in view.

Alas! what fire is it which flushes the world's face to an " angry and brave " rose?

The Church Militant exhibits a pale, ascetic face, because the pale forecast of the " Great White Throne " abides upon it. A light heart is not for her, but rather the weight of an everconscious responsibility. Idle words are not for her, for of such an account must be given in the Day of Judgment. Revellings and such like are not for her, for though one eat and drink to-morrow he must die. Her courage is curbed by fear, her fear spurred by courage. She lifts not up her face to a window, neither cries she to an arm of flesh, Who is on my side? who? But she lifts up her eyes to the unearthly hills from whence cometh her help, even from the Lord Who hath made heaven and earth.

" It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart. Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning: but the heart of fools is in the house of rnirth. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool: this also is vanity."

12. 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.

Thou Who knowest what is in man, O Son of Man, have mercy. Thou Whose works were all good, have mercy. Thou Whose life, in the sight of the unwise, once hung in suspense before

Thou Who Thyself ever knowest what Thou wilt do, have mercy. On the small, mercy. On the great, mercy.

Thou Who art unlike us in Thy sinlessness, on us sinners have mercy. Thou Who art like us in Thy Humanity, on us Thy brethren and Thy

Blot out our evil works from Thy Book of Works, and have mercy. Write our names in Thy Book of Life, and have mercy.

" Stand before God " — past kneeling, past praying; not to be converted, but sentenced. Now, not then, is the day of salvation: not then except for the already saved.

My page in the Book of Works is to me awful: the contents are my own, the record is not my own. It is my life's record without oversights, without false entries or suppressions: any good set down accurately as good; all evil, unless erased by Divine Compassion, set down accurately as evil. Nothing whatever is there except what I have genuinely endeavoured, compassed, done, been: I meant it all, though I meant not to meet it again face to face. It is as if all along one had walked in a world of invisible photographic cameras charged with instantaneous plates.

The Book of Life may seem yet more awful, kept secret as it has been from the foundation of the world in the knowledge of God Omniscient.

Yet is it really so? It is in fact no independent statement,, but appears to be essentially an index or summary of the other. I who composed although I compiled not my Book of Works, I myself virtually entered or entered not my name in the corresponding Book of Life: to dread this beyond the other, is to dread a sum total rather than those very items which produce the total.

For whilst we read that "the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the Books," it was none the less " according to their works."

13. 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.

If I make my bed in hell, if I dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, the darkness will not cover me, but Thy right hand will find me and fetch me back. To saints a promise, to sinners a threat: a blessing, an anathema, "according to their works," and not otherwise.

" The sea gave up the dead which were in it." — The dead, but nought else was as it would seem reclaimed: the diver, but not the pearl which cost him his life; the crews, but not the bullion of foundered ships of Tarshish. Thus complicated civilization produces or amasses riches: and the riches come to nothing except as accusers, and the lives cannot be silenced in the day of account. In that day many luxuries may turn out to have been unlawful, and the price of blood. Ahab was requited in Naboth's vineyard. " So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom."

Death (if I may so express myself) has an enormous swallow, but no digestion: Hades may be viewed as rather a pound than a prison. Like the feaster with him who hath an evil eye, they twain shall "vomit up " the eaten morsel: they have feasted with Satan, and like that evil-eyed host they must be excluded from the land of blessed life everlasting.

Yet Death presents two aspects, Hades two regions: a kindly aspect for Christ-lovers, a twilight bright with afterglow for any who have worked the work of Christ. So that we may pray: —

Father of the fatherless, clear Lord, Tho' Thou set me as a mark against Thine arrow,

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

" God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord... but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, Who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel."

Thus St. Paul points out that our being called "with an holy calling" precedes our duty of working and guarantees our ability to achieve those works according to which we shall be judged. This premised, I think we may infer that each man's lot must inevitably be either to partake of the sanctifying afflic tions of the gospel along with its life and immortality; or else so to cling to death (for this mortal life is a slow death, and sin a superadded death) that at last death and he must be abolished together.

I suppose that amongst so many things which I understand not, thus much I may understand. Because death and Hades are " cast into the lake of fire," impenitent man may expect to find every plague which he has ever known, rankled against, kicked against, there amongst unknown plagues ready to receive him, and to become unto him as the cloak that he hath upon him, and as the girdle that he is alway girded withal. Superb strength must writhe bound hand and foot with grave-clothes, dainty beauty corroded by obscene corruption. Hades the intermediate prison reappears intensified as Hell the final prison, the first death as the second death.

"By Thine Agony, by Thy precious Death and Burial, Good Lord, deliver us."

15. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Or according to the Revised Version: " And if any was not found written in the Book of Life, he was cast into the lake of fire."

This latter translation may suggest (if I dare so think) a Divine tenderness, yearning, regret. No summary sentence was pronounced, but the Book was searched: " who knoweth if—?" — "and if so be that he find it —." Not that God Omniscient before the beginning foresaw not the end, or that in the ultimate issue of all courses any (except to their own cost) will have resisted His Will; but Holy Scripture being written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope, condescends to the limit ation of our intelligence and the faintings of our heart, and deals tenderly with us, showing us at a first glance the Fatherly Divine Love; then at a second anxious look, more vivid and deeper becomes the revelation of that same Love; so that the more we look the more Love we perceive; until other aspects fall into the background, and sometime afraid though we are and cannot but be, yet (by God's grace) we put our trust in Him.

" God is Love." Yet I must not so pervert that most comfortable word as to make it mean that He will exercise a mercy contrary to justice. Beyond a doubt "God is Love": it is my own conception of love which may not in truth be love.

What in the height and depth of my soul, transcending far my level of attainment, "as high as heaven... deeper than hell "; what is in truth my own ideal of love?

Such love, at once an affection and a mystery, would sacrifice not myself alone but the beloved object also to his (or her) highest good. Which faithful " for better for worse " chooses the utmost good attainable; or if perfection or even genuine good has become unattainable, then chooses the least evil within possibility.

" Into the lake of fire."—"... Into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.... For every one shall be salted with fire." Not consumed, but conserved; not devoured by fire, but salted with fire.

Whether for good or for evil, to be consumed appertains to time, to be unconsumed appertains to eternity.

1. 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.

Behold, one heaven and one earth have passed away, but Christ's word has not passed away. Blessed are now the poor in spirit and the persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are now the meek, for they inherit the earth. Well might St. John who " saw," look up and lift up his head; for however remote, his redemption, the general redemption, was drawing nigh.

Meanwhile the first heaven and the first earth make up our own present lot. Of those others God giveth us not as yet so much as to set our foot on, although He promises them to us for a possession.

The temporary heaven and earth above, around, beneath us, import us now, supply now things convenient for us. These we are bound to use, and by no means to misuse or neglect. " He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own? " And though the things which are seen be but temporal, yet a work of the Great Creator is and cannot but be so great, that I suppose neither the profoundest and most illuminated saint, nor all saints summed up together will have exhausted the teaching of things visible, even when the hour comes for them to give place to things invisible. " Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of Man be come."

Heaven and earth are to be renewed. Not so the sea: "There was no more sea." And wherefore not the sea? Regarding the first creation as symbolical, one answer (however inadequate: please God, not contradictory of truth) suggests itself. The harvest of earth ripened, was reaped, was garnered: the sea nourished and brought up no harvest. It bore no fruits which remain, it wrought no works which follow it. It was moreover originally constituted as a passage, not as an abode: across it man toiled in rowing to the haven where he would be, but itself never was and never could become that haven. Thus it presents to us a picture of all which must be left behind. In Ezekiel's vision of the healing river, we yet read concerning a portion of the sea-space: " But the miry places thereof and the marishes thereof shall not be healed'; they shall be given to salt," — given over, it would seem, to reprobation.

"Ye are the salt of the earth," said our Divine Teacher: salt in reference to earth and its prevalent corruption, not apparently in any immediate reference to the kingdom of immortality and perfection. " Have salt in yourselves," He said again; but still apparently in reference to man's conduct during probation.

That is an accursed region whereof we read: " That the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein." Again, the accursed man " that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord... shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited." And the Prophet Zephaniah asso ciates " the breeding of nettles, and saltpits, and a perpetual desolation." Also we " Remember Lot's wife."

Yet how shall we be consoled for our lost sea with its familiar fascination, its delights, its lifelong endearedness? Lo! heaven enshrines its own proper sea of glass as it were mingled with fire, and the uplifted voice of the redeemed is as the sound of many waters. There at last is fulness of that joy, whereas the sea never yet was full; there plenteousness of pleasures as a river. There music unheard hitherto, un imaginable, in lieu of the long-drawn wail of our bitter sea.

Or if after all we cannot during our actual weakness be thoroughly and consciously consoled on this point, let it at least bring home to us that better it is to enter into life, halt, or maimed, or one-eyed, than having two feet, hands, eyes, to be shut out. To suffer loss and be saved is better than' to forego nothing and be lost.

" There was no more sea."— As in a far different matter, " For our sakes, no doubt, this is written."

0 my God, bestow upon us such confidence, such peace, such happiness in Thee, that Thy Will may always be dearer to us than our own will, and Thy Pleasure than our own pleasure. All that Thou givest is Thy free gift to us, all that Thou takest away Thy grace to us. Be Thou thanked for all, praised for all, loved for all. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. A- men.

Out of the lovely light: No foambow any more may crest that swell Of clamorous waves which toss;

2. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

" For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying."

(If I am not mistaken) a double point of likeness here connects St. John with his Adorable Master. Throughout the Gospel record of Christ's sayings whilst on earth He never once calls Himself by His Blessed Name of Jesus; but speaking from heaven first to Saul of Tarsus, afterwards in this Apoca lypse (ch. xxii. 1 6) in reference to the Churches, He nameth Himself by that Name which is above every name, whereat every knee shall bow and which every tongue shall confess. Even so the beloved disciple who in his Gospel enters not his own name so much as once, now speaking as from within the door opened into heaven names himself thrice, and of these times twice in the emphatic form " I John."

To ourselves an alluring lesson of present abasement, future exaltation. Thus pearls submerged awhile in deep waters come to light hereafter in the City of God.

1 think too that our eager hope of recognition, the craved for " I am I and you are you " of eternal reunion, is hereby solaced and strengthened; whilst we perceive one such identity as might even have eluded observation on earth proclaimed triumphantly in heaven.

My Lord, my Lord Jesus, Thou art enough, Thou by Thy self art enough. Yet withholdest Thou no good thing from them that live a godly life. And Thou discernest the heart's desire of every man, and Thou hearest the request of all lips. Every heart's desire and request I commend to Thee, most loving Lord. Amen.

What will it be at last to see a " holy " city! for Londoners, for Parisians, for citizens of all cities upon earth to see a holy city. Truly as yet this also "eye hath not seen." Not such is or ever was Jerusalem that now is, or Rome though styled eternal or sacred, or Moscow albeit called holy: neither does any continent or island rear such, nor is any ruin extant of such, nor is so much as one material foundation-stone laid of such.

Nevertheless whoever seeks citizenship at last in that all holy City must now day by day watch, pray, labour, agonize it may be, to sanctify his allotted dwelling in his present mean city; though this be as Babylon awaiting destruction, as an actual city of the plain clamouring for the vengeance of eternal fire.

Art thou as Lazarus? Hold fast godliness and contentment, earnests and precursors of great gain. Art thou as Dives? Heed betimes the voice of Lazarus: —

I, laid beside thy gate, am Lazarus; See me or see me not I still am there, Hungry and thirsty, sore and sick and bare,

While thou in all thy ways art sumptuous, Daintily clothed, with dainties for thy fare: Thus a world's wonder thou art quit of care,

One day a worm for thee, a worm for me: With my worm angel songs and trumpet burst And plenitude an end of all desire:

But what for thee, alas! but what for thee? Fire and an unextinguishable thirst, 1 hirst in an unextinguishable fire.

New Jerusalem has been gathered from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven: stone by stone, soul by soul, here a little and there a little. Laps of luxury, fire of temptation, ease of riches, squalor of destitution, pinnacles of giddy exaltation, mountains of difficulty, valleys of humiliation, each has sent up its prefixed weight, number, measure, nothing lacking, nothing over. Redeemed, called by name, claimed, precious, honourable, beloved, brought from the east and gathered from the west, given up by the north and by the south kept not back, God's sons have been brought from far and His daughters from the ends of the earth; even every one that is called by the Divine Name, formed of God, created for His glory. Alleluia!

New Jerusalem comes down " from God out of heaven," not as leaving God, but inasmuch as His Presence goeth with her. As when of old that Adorable Presence led the elder Israel in the stages of their Exodus, so now that Same Adorable Inalienable Presence leads her out and brings her in, is beneath her for stability, over her for benediction, around her for acceptance. As a chaste virgin espoused she comes down, longed for, toiled for, Self-sacrificed for, bought with a great price by Him Who gave His whole Substance for love.

She has received all and now she gives back all. She is " adorned for her Husband," for her Beloved Who is indeed more than another beloved. He loved her first, and now she returns His love. He is the Sun, and now as His moonmirror she appears clear as the sun. He is the Life, and now she has received life from Him and lives to Him. She is His lily, no longer among thorns because He once wore those thorns that so He might take them out of her way. He is All-Holy: and now, her heart purified by His Blood and sanctified by His Spirit, she sees Him Whom to see beatifies. His graces shed on her form the ornament to her head and the chains about her neck. Beautiful are her feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel 'of His peace. Behold her in tenderness His dove, in likeness His sister, in union His spouse.

Behold her! yea, also, and behold thyself, O thou called to be a saint. Her perfections are thy birthright; thou art what she was, what she is thou mayest become. That Goodness which is her fountain of good overflows to thee likewise. Covet earnestly gifts such as hers, practise self-adornment for love of Him who loveth thee. Reserve gems and pearls for immortality when thou shalt be flawless as they. Adorn thyself meanwhile with flower-like graces: humility the violet, innocence the snowdrop, purity the lily; with sweetness for a honeysuckle, with penitence for a fruitful thorn. To-day put on the garments of salvation prepared for thee, that to-morrow thou mayest be promoted to wear the garments of praise. ''Then shall every man have praise of God."

Whose citizens are lovely, and whose King Is Very Love; to Whom all angels sing;

Saluting Love with palm-branch in their hand: Thither all doves on gold or silver wing Flock home thro' agate windows glistering

A bower of roses is not half so sweet, A cave of diamonds doth not glitter so, Nor Lebanon is fruitful set thereby: And thither thou, beloved, and thither I May set our heart and set our face, and go

3. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying1, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.

I know not whether the following train of thought is allowable: if not, I repudiate it.

" Out of heaven "—or according to the Revised Version: " Out of the Throne." By this double reading two immutable things, the consensus of heaven and the Supreme Decree from the Throne, may be suggested. Not that in either case it is other than a Divine behest; but thus I seem to see once again and vividly the final absolute unity of all sanctified wills with the Supreme Will. Will, pleasure, approval, choice, in these, in all, the perfected elect are at one with their Father, Redeemer, Sanctifier. "God... with men" pervades, so to say, the verse: three times it is expressed; three times, the number of completeness.

" The Tabernacle " itself appears as threefold. It is Christ in ^Whom dwelleth all the Fulness of the Godhead Bodily. It is the one Church built up in Him and constituted a dwelling of the Holy Spirit. It is each individual saved soul instinct with the Divine Life and Presence. For ever and ever, one by one, each soul a separate, self-conscious, loving, adoring, rejoicing entity: not a drop swallowed up in an ocean, a flame merged in a conflagration, but what it was that it is and that it will be for ever and ever.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost:

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be world without end. Amen.

"The Tabernacle." — Here where all is perfected, final, irreversible, one might perhaps have expected the word to be Temple rather than Tabernacle. Yet Tabernacle it is, and so has special associations proper to itself.

It carries thought back to that outset (if I may call it so) of Divine Love to the chosen nation when the Angel of His Presence saved them, and He led them and carried them. And to the tenderness of that wonderful word to David: " Shalt thou build Me an house for Me to dwell in? Whereas I have not dwelt in any house since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle. In all the places wherein I have walked with all the children of Israel spake I a word with any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to feed My people Israel, saying, Why build ye not Me an house of cedar? " And indirectly to that mystery of grace: " The gifts and calling of God are without repentance." " Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after Me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. Israel was holiness unto the Lord, and the firstfruits of His increase." "God is faithful."

Moreover the word Tabernacle, by recalling to our mind the older progressive journey day after day, may perhaps encourage us to look for progress throughout the days of the years of eternity. Further on indeed we shall encounter the word Temple with all its associations of accomplishment, perpetuity, rest. But here the word written for our learning is Tabernacle, which thus becomes our " word of exhortation."

"God Himself shall be. with them, and be their God."— Yet in some measure it has been so all along as to the righteous. The Goodness of God awaits not a new earth, then and not till then to begin being with His beloved and being their God. Of old He declared, " I change not ": it is men that shall be changed. Sin forgiven, guilt abolished, infirmity healed, the possibility of lapse ended, we ourselves (please God) shall be renewed when all things are made new.

In the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, shall be brought forth out of its treasure things new and old.

" With them " and "their " is a promise made unto us and to our children, and to as many as the Lord our God shall call. Yet is it not a promise, or of the nature of a promise, except to such as are willingly His people: to obstinate sinners it would be no promise at all, ""but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation."

God made man, Satan unmade man, Christ remaketh man. Yet is it also true that man makes or unmakes himself by virtue of his free will.

From our foes protect us, from ourselves rescue us, let not freewill turn to selfwill and curse our blessings. Good Lord, Kind Lord, Longsuffering Almighty Lord Jesus. Amen.

In mine own sight and God's most holy sight! To reach thro' any flood or fire of pain "Whiteness most white:

To learn to hate the wrong and love the right, Even while I walk thro' shadows that are vain, Descending thro' vain shadows into night.

Give me, for mortal frailty give me might, Give innocence for guilt, and for my stain Whiteness most white.

4. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying1, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

It needeth God and it will be God to "wipe away all tears." " As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And when ye see this, your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like an herb."

Together with my dead body shall they arise.

Shall my dead body arise? then amen and yea In quest of a home beyond the uttermost skies

We know the way: thank God Who hath showed us the way! Jesus Christ our Way to beautiful Paradise,

Jesus Christ the Same for ever, the Same to-day. Five Virgins replenish with oil their lamps being wise,

Five Virgins awaiting the Bridegroom watch and pray: And if I one day spring from my grave to the prize,

My brother, my sister, thus shall it be with thee, and thus can I well believe that it will be with thee. Blessed are they that weep now, then to laugh; that mourn now, then to be comforted. And right dear in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. And on the birthday of life immortal anguish of pain shall be forgotten for joy of being born into the eternal world. Therefore are they wise who as yet scarce smile a little, and frequent the house of mourning rather than the house of feasting, and die daily, and groan and travail in patient pain waiting for the redemption of the body. My brother, my sister, happy in knowing these things, and happier still in doing them.

I recollect in a fine sermon meeting with a thought which substantially remains with me. Devout souls, steeped as it were in the anguish of Holy Week, may by stress of that verylove and sorrow be unable at a moment's notice to unfurl bright Easter wings and soar triumphant heavenward: so that Easter may overtake them less like giants rejoicing at the goal than like strengthless convalescents still with no more than one step between them and death, carried in kind arms out into the reviving sunshine, laid down in a pleasant spot to inhale the sweet free air, learning gradually to assimilate a renewed hope, joy, peace.

To some such phases a student of the Apocalypse appears liable: " I am afflicted, and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer Thy terrors I am distracted." Pardonable, laudable up to a certain point; but beyond that point not to be indulged. Let us not persist in remaining as Zion, who said, " The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me," even when the message came: " Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the Lord hath comforted His people, and will have mercy upon His afflicted."

It is possible to substitute an actual meditation on tears, death, sorrow, crying, pain, for a professed meditation on their abolition. (Whereof I should beware. The homely old proverb bears witness: It is a poor heart that never rejoices.)

If I can scarcely forecast a wiping away of my own tears, I can trustfully contemplate that blessed consummation for all tears of some whom I have loved and revered, who in earlier days set before me examples of things lovely and of good report.

With one such holy cherished memory I connect the text: " O how plentiful is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee: and that Thou hast prepared for them that put their trust in Thee, even before the sons of men! Thou shalt hide them privily by Thine own presence from the provoking of all men: Thou shalt keep them secretly in Thy tabernacle from the strife of tongues."

With a second: "Hearken, O daughter, and consider, incline thine ear: forget also thine own people, and thy father's house. So shall the King have pleasure in thy beauty: for He is thy Lord God, and worship thou Him."

With a third: " For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing...."

Two of these I watched to the last breath, and the third nearly to the end. I have witnessed tears, death, sorrow, crying, pain. God grant that I may witness the general and particular abolition of all these when death shall at length be swallowed up in victory: that I, that we all, may witness and share in that rapture.

Death done away from among the living at last, Man shall say of sorrow — Love grant it to thee and me! — At last, " It is past."

Thou heart of my heart, thou soul of my soul, my Friend? Shalt thou say of pain, "It is past," nor say it with me Beloved to the end?

" For the former things are passed away." — The word \sfor, not by any means although. The flesh and blood endeared tous by a lifetime, the marrying and giving in marriage which formed the vocation and felicity of our fathers and mothers from Adam and Eve downwards, have passed away. Had they not, neither would death and its associates have passed away.

What is good must often be given up in favour of something better. Who would perpetuate blossom and forego fruit?

To over-cultivate, develop, double a flower, destroys its fruitfulness. Such double flowers have no future.