Somewhat of the manifold Wisdom of God was not known unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places until the Church brought it to light. "Therefore, with Angels and Archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify Thy Glorious Name, evermore praising Thee." O Gracious Saviour, Who declaredst unto St. Peter, "What I do, thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter"; give us grace now to answer Thee with his final submission, that hereafter we may adore Thee with his insight. O Gracious Saviour, Who bestowedst upon St. John a great glory of humility when he bare record how Thou saidst not of him, "He shall not die," grant unto us in mortal life humility, and in life immortal glory. Heaven is not far, though far the sky It takes not long to live and die, Die, revive, and rise again. Not long how long? Oh long re-echoing song! "Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ." Elsewhere St. John writes: "If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater." All truth is venerable, let who will propound it; now an Apostle, at another time Caiaphas. Our Lord Himself said: "Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth. But I receive not testimony from man." Clearly then the Truth is to be believed not for his word's sake who records it, but for His Verity's sake Who reveals it. O Lord Jesus Christ, who art Truth and Wisdom, reveal Thyself unto us, we beseech Thee. Thou art not far from every one of us. Grant us good-will to draw nigh unto Thee, Who deignest to draw nigh unto us. "Who bare record . . . of all things that he saw." Blessed he who once and again saw and believed. None the less Christ's promise stands sure to ourselves: "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." O Saviour of men, Who sufferest not Thy beloved Disciple to exclude us, even us, from any height or depth of beatitude, give us grace to be of those blessed who not seeing believe. 3. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein, for the time is at hand. "Understandest thou what thou readest?" asked Philip the Deacon of the Ethiopian Eunuch. And he said, “How can I, except some man should guide me?" Whereupon flowed forth to him the stream of light, knowledge, and love. Yet not then did his illumination commence: it already was his in a measure to enjoy, respond to, improve, even before his father in God preached Christ unto him. What could he do before that moment? He could study and pray, he could cherish hope, exercise love, feel after Him Whom as yet he could not intelligently find. So much at least we all can do who read, or who hear, this Book of Revelations: thus claiming, and by God's bounty inheriting, the covenanted blessing of such readers and hearers. Any who pray and love enjoy already no stinted blessing. Even the will to love is love. A reader and hearers stand in graduated degrees of knowledge or of ignorance, as the case may be. The reader studying at first hand is in direct contact with God's Word: hearers seek instruction of God through men. The reader requires most gifts hearers may exercise fully as much grace. Most of us are hearers: having performed conscientiously the duty of hearers, we shall be the less prone to make mistakes if ever providentially promoted to be readers. Our dearest Lord, Who deigned to become the pattern of every grade of aspirant, as a Boy showed hearers how to hear (St. Luke ii. 46, 47); and as a Man showed readers how to read (St. Luke iv. 16—27). Lord, I am feeble and of mean account; Thou Who dost condescend as well as mount, Stoop Thou Thyself to me And grant me grace to hear and grace to see. Lord, if Thou grant me grace to hear and see I make but slight account Of aught beside wherein to sink or mount. It suffices not to read or to hear the words of this prophecy, except we also "keep those things which are written therein." How keep them? One part in one way, another part in another the commandments by obedience, the mysteries by thoughtful reception; as blessed Mary, herself a marvel, kept mysterious intimations vouchsafed to her, and pondered them in her heart. Yet never had she gone on in pursuit of all mysteries and all knowledge if she had not first answered in simple obedience: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.” O bountiful Lord, to Whom they who do the will of God are as brother and sister and mother, number us in that blessed company, that here we may obey and suffer as Thy patient exiles, and hereafter rule and rejoice as Thy nearest and dearest. "Blessed are they . . . for the time is at hand.” Even now, eighteen centuries later, we know not when that cry shall be made, "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet Him." Nevertheless the time was then at hand, for so the Bible certifies us, and still must it be at hand. What time? Doubtless the time of fulfilment after fulfilment until all be fulfilled. Likewise also that (so to say) secondary time when each one of us, having done with mortal life and probation, shall await judgment. For truly the end of all flesh is at hand, whether or not we possess faith to realize how a thousand years and one day are comparable in the Divine sight. "A thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night." Blessed are the wise virgins whose lamps burn on unto the endless end. "Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching." "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." "The time is at hand," ever at hand; yet it waits long for us: "Who knoweth if he will return and repent? But if we will not return or repent, "iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall... whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant." O Lord God of time and eternity, Who makest us creatures of time to the end that when time is over we may attain to Thy blessed eternity; with time, Thy gift, give us also wisdom to redeem the time, lest our day of grace be lost. For our Lord Jesus' sake. Amen. Astonished Heaven looked on when man was made, When fallen man reproved seemed half forgiven; Surely that oracle of hope first said Astonished Heaven. Even so while one by one lost souls are shriven, Even so while man still tosses high his head, While still the All-holy Spirit's strife is striven;— 4. John to the seven churches which are in Asia : Grace be unto you, and peace, from Him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before His throne; 5. And from Jesus Christ, Who is the faithful Witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth. Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, 6. And hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. "John to the seven Churches."-Gracious the speaker, because his mouth was filled with a grace not his own. Whoso speaketh for God must take heed to speak like God. If St. Paul made himself all things to all men, that he might by all means save some, how much more Christ! St. John saluteth, but not with his own salutation: "What hast thou that thou hast not received?" Nothing perhaps ever brought more vividly home to me the condescension, not of the servant, but of the Master, than once when at a Communion which was to me almost a sick Communion, the Celebrant in administering moved a chair slightly for my greater convenience. "He knoweth whereof we are made; He remembereth that we are but dust." 66 "Grace be unto you, and peace."-Before we tremble, God reassures us. Yea, like as a father pitieth his own children, even so is the Lord merciful unto them that fear Him." O God Almighty, by Whom and before Whom we all are brethren, grant us so truly to love one another, that evidently and beyond all doubt we may love Thee. Through Jesus Christ Thy Son, our Lord and Brother. Amen. "Grace . . . and peace."-"Thou shalt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee because he trusteth in Thee." "From Him which is, and which was, and which is to come."-Not "was-is-is to come." "Is" abides perpetual, unalterable, dominant. Antecedent to creatures, antecedent to time, is revealed to our finite conception by 66 was ": outlasting time, by "is to come" whilst parallel with creatures, with time, with all beginnings and all ends, abides the eternal "is." We creatures of time, who might instinctively have written was-is-is to come," are thus helped, not indeed to understand, but to adore the inconceivable, eternal, 66 absolute Unchangeableness of God. We run a course; not so He. "And from the Seven Spirits which are before His throne."These words appear to correspond with those of Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord . . . the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord." Also with the description of the golden candlestick in the Mosaic Tabernacle: "And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold . . . And thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof: and they shall light the lamps thereof, that they may give light . . ." A mystery confronts us. We read of Seven, yet we dare not think except as of One. "O God the Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son have mercy upon us, miserable sinners." "Lighten our darkness, we beseech Thee, O Lord." Multitude no less than Unity characterizes various types of God the Holy Spirit. Water indefinitely divisible, and every portion equivalent in completeness to the whole. Fire kindling unlimited flames, each in like manner complete in itself. Dew made up of innumerable drops: so also rain, and if we may make the distinction, showers. A cloud as a cloud is one, while as raindrops it is a multitude. And as in division each portion is a complete whole devoid of parts, so equally in reunion all portions together form one complete whole similarly devoid of parts: let drops or let flames run together, and there exists no distinction of parts in their uniform volume. "Before His throne."-As the golden candlestick stood before the Holy of Holies. "And from Jesus Christ, Who is the Faithful Witness."Not John, but Jesus: or rather Jesus through John, and John only because of Jesus. St. John, the Apostle of love, becomes here the mouthpiece of very Love. So that in this Apocalypse not glories only, joys unutterable, perfection, are witnessed to us by Love, but terrors likewise, doom, the Judgment, the opened Books, the lake of fire. Love reveals to us these things, threatens now that it may spare then, shows us destruction lest we destroy ourselves. Let us not in all our tremblings forget or doubt that it is Faithful Love which speaketh. My God, Thyself being Love Thy heart is love, |