"Your brother, and companion . . in the kingdom. of Jesus Christ."-Thus far St. John addresses all baptized Christians; but not necessarily all, as concerns "tribulation" and "patience." The first and obvious privileges are ours by Royal gift; the second and less obvious are likewise ours potentially and in the germ, yet neither effectually nor in maturity unless our own free will co-operate with God's predisposing grace. Patience is a great grace; but is it at all a privilege? Yes, surely. The patient soul, lord of itself, sits imperturbable amid the jars of life and serene under its frets. "Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." Hence we infer that where patience is perfect, nought else will remain imperfect. Tribulation cannot but be a privilege, inasmuch as it makes us so far like Christ. O Tender Lord Jesus, Who layest not upon us more than we can bear, give us patience in tribulation; a courageous, sweet patience; a patient, indomitable hope. "I John. was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ."-All for edification, nothing for self-glorification: so much and no more does St. John tell us of his confession and exile. Christians should resemble fire-flies, not glow-worms; their brightness drawing eyes upward, not downward. 10. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, 11. Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day."-Rome and St. John had come to an issue. Rome had power of life and death, chains and sentence of banishment on its side: St. John on his side had the defence of the Most High and the shadow of the Almighty. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty," neither was the Word of God bound. Immovable as Patmos the rock amid buffeting winds and waves, St. John stood fast in the liberty wherewith Christ had made him free. Earth cannot bar flame from ascending, Eagle and sun gaze at each other, O St. John, with chains for thy wages, Rome hath passed with her awful voice, Earth is passing with all her joys, So from us all follies that please us, Jesus, in love looking down hither, "A great voice, as of a trumpet, saying ."-Now if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? But this trumpet voice uttereth no uncertain sound, but a great alarum, sounding an alarm in God's holy mountain, and bidding every soul make ready against the sounding of that other trumpet-blast which will compel a response from living and dead, one and all. If we entertain any uncertainty as to this voice, the uncertainty lurks in ourselves, not elsewhere. So when long ago sundry men appeared "as trees, walking," any peculiarity observed resided in the vision of him who gazed, not in the appearance of them who walked. Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth. Grant us ears to hear, eyes to see, wills to obey, hearts to love: then declare what Thou wilt, reveal what Thou wilt, command what Thou wilt, demand what Thou wilt. Amen. The clause, "I am Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last," is here omitted by the Revised Version. Very nearly the same words have already occurred (ver. 8) and will recur (xxi. 6; xxii. 13). "What thou seest, write in a book, and send it . . .”. "Write," and forthwith St. John wrote. "Send it," and when the moment came, means of transmission would be forthcoming. Could St. John forecast those means? Very probably not; but like another blessed saint before him, he did what he could. Not so we. We make sure that the first step which depends on ourselves can be taken, but we indulge misgivings as to the second step which depends upon God alone. Whereupon we omit that first step divinely put within our own power. God condescends to trust us, and we will not trust Him. Lord, I am here.-But, child, I look for thee Lord, that way moans a wide insatiate sea : Set foot upon the water, test and see If thou canst come to Me. Couldst Thou not send a boat to carry me, Nay, boat nor fish if thy will faileth thee: O Lord, I am afraid.—Take hold on Me: Save, Lord, I perish.-I have hold of thee, I made and rule the sea, I bring thee to the haven where thou wouldst be. "To the seven Churches which are in Asia."-What St. John saw and wrote concerns Christendom of to-day, no less directly and urgently than it concerned the seven Churches of the Apostolic day. The great voice as of a trumpet adjures every soul within hearing. As a matter of history, those seven Churches were in the main swept away long ago, misbelief ravaging and occupying their territory. Their charge has been transferred to us, their burden laid upon us : it is we who are called upon to overcome, Amen! 12. And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; 13. And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. 14. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire; 15. And His feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and His voice as the sound of many waters. 16. And He had in His right hand seven stars and out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. "When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face; my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek." At the call of Jesus the saints turn as doves to their windows. Are then their faces ever set from and not towards their Lord? Yes, by a figure, and so far as to confirm what St. John himself elsewhere avers: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves." Mortal saints at the best are such as St. Paul describes himself as being: "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus." Christ is our fountain-head and our abyss; we begin from Him, we end in Him. What He maketh us we are; what He bestoweth upon us we possess. We, as it were, pour and empty ourselves and our treasures into Him, yet we enrich Him not: what have we that we have not received? The gifts He giveth us are and remain His: we only ourselves, unless we abide in Him, retain neither life nor portion. "All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again "—this is true of earth's sea and of all which it typifies full it is, yet not filled, and it moans as with a craving unappeasable. Let us not refuse fulness to choose emptiness. "Behold your God! . . . Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket. . . And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering." "I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my Beloved." As sleep with a wakeful heart soon to be fully awakened, as the needle's trembling to and fro to find its rest, so is the saint's turning from and turning back to Christ. The sanctified heart was neither slumbering nor estranged, but the face had as it were perforce been turned away while the feet sped on some Divine errand. "Turn again then unto thy rest, O my soul." "I turned myself to behold Wisdom." "And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the seven candlesticks One like unto the Son of man."-St. John first saw, or at least he first mentions having seen, not the One like unto the Son of man, but the seven surrounding candlesticks. Even in that overwhelming Presence, and at that moment of visible reunion, those likewise he beheld thus vividly bringing home to us the precept: "That he who loveth God love his brother also." O Gracious Lord Omniscient, Who hast forewarned us that if we love not the brother we see neither can we love Thyself unseen; replenish us with such grace that we may love our brethren much for Thy sake, and Thee much more for Thine own sake. And if any love us, grant us our heart's desire that from love of us they may ascend to the supreme love of Thee. Amen, merciful Lord Jesus, Amen. Moreover, who were they that St. John saw? Not (so far as we read) St. James his brother and fellowheir, not St. Peter with whom he had walked in the House of God as a friend, not one by one any of those elect persons whom he loved in the truth, and to one of whom he wrote: "And now I beseech thee . . . that we love one another." He beheld, and merely in a figure, congregations of Christians, the majority of whom he may never have seen face to face in the flesh. Now St. John wrote by inspiration of the Holy Ghost. "Saith He it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written." If St. John, a man so greatly beloved and so greatly corresponding to the Divine Love, recovered not in that moment of ecstasy the visible presence of saints personally dear to him, much more may we believe that from our frail selves the prospect of such reunions is kept veiled purposely and in mercy. As it is and thus relegated to the background of celestial prevision, the hope of reunion eclipses all earthly hopes placed in the foreground, it might block out even our hope of the Beatific Vision. O Gracious Lord God, Who deignest to make of man Thy mirror, that we in one another may behold Thine Image and love Thyself; unto every one of us grant, I beseech Thee, thus to love and thus to be beloved. For our Lord Jesus Christ's sake, Son of God and Son of man. Amen. "Seven golden candlesticks."-"The King's Daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold." "Is not... the body [more] than raiment ?" So likewise the light of the candlestick is more than the gold thereof. Exterior gifts and privileges adorn and dignify Christ's Bride, interior grace makes and keeps her His. True alike of church, of congregation, of two or three gathered together, of each solitary soul. The golden candlestick is the vessel appointed to honour: the light freely received must freely be given forth. The gold is personal, yet by sympathy becomes common to all if "one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it." The light too is personal, but by emission is shared by all set on its candlestick it gives light to all that are in the house. |