That winter which will be the death of Time has no promise of termination. Winter that returns not to spring, night that returns not to day, death that returns not to life, woe that returns not to bliss,-who can bear it? Thou Who didst endure for us the cold night of Thy Passion; deliver us from the winter, the night, the woe, of eternal death. Thou Who didst die and revive for us; deliver us from the fruitless woeful eternity of death. 15. And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever. At the opening of the seventh seal there was silence in heaven now at the sounding of the seventh trumpet there are "great voices in heaven." In divers manners God speaketh to us. A Woe was predicted: and behold! joy as the joy of harvest, and as when men rejoice who divide the spoil. But the Woe is bound up in the joy; overthrow introduces the triumph. The Woe is mentioned first, reminding us to bear each other's burdens while we may. As yet, God prospering our poor endeavour, we may by influence, example, sympathy, a helping hand, intercession, lighten our brethren's load even as the saints by holy influence, pious example, warm hands stretched out to help, Christ-like sympathy and intercession, spend themselves to lighten ours. "The kingdoms of this world" are those which are to become "the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ." But the Revised Version in each clause gives the singular instead of the plural, kingdom instead of kingdoms. Since I know not which translation to prefer, it seems lawful to learn from both. Strength attaches to union, resource to multiplicity. The kingdom of death (notwithstanding that death is dissolution) retains strength while it coheres; for our Lord Himself declared that were Satan divided against himself his kingdom could not stand. How much more would the kingdom of life, which is the Church Catholic, wax invincibly strong if all Christendom were to become as at the first of one heart and one mind! Alas! for the offences of former days and of this day, for our fathers' offences and our own, which have torn to shreds Christ's seamless vesture. Nevertheless inasmuch as multiplicity is allied to resource, let us, until better may be, make capital even of our guilty disadvantage. Let us be provoked to good works by those with whom we cannot altogether agree, yet who many ways set us a pattern. Why exclusively peer after defects while virtues stare us in the face? Cannot we-I at least can learn much from the devotion of Catholic Rome, the immutability of Catholic Greece, the philanthropic piety of Quakerism, the zeal of many a 66 protestant." And when the Anglican Church has acquired and reduced to practice each virtue from every such source, holding fast meanwhile her own goodly heritage of gifts and graces, then may those others likewise learn much from her until to every Church, congregation, soul, God be All in all. : This present dying life has to end in final death or final life. Time must be superseded by eternity. Then the kingdom will pass away utterly from whatsoever is not" of our Lord, and of His Christ." Death will abide in evil unity, the lost in evil multiplicity : unity of impotence not of strength, multiplicity of antagonism not of alliance. Life, created but immortal, will be bound up as one in that "bundle of life," the love of God; and at the same time will be what "no man could number" in its offering of love to God. One in joy, innumerable in pleasures; one in sanctification, innumerable in graces. "And He shall reign for ever and ever." Amen. Marvel of marvels, if I myself shall behold With mine own eyes my King in His city of gold; Where the least of lambs is spotless white in the fold, O saints my beloved, now mouldering to mould in the mould, 16. And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God Judgment, mercy, salvation, destruction, all elicit worship from the citizens of heaven; amongst whom we here behold the four and twenty elders prostrate themselves in adoration, thereby enhancing not abating their proper dignity. Throughout this Apocalypse the chorus of rapturous praise occurs and recurs; like the burden of that 136th Psalm of which each verse, whatever it recounts, culminates in the words: "For His mercy endureth for ever." God's Goodness, His supremacy, His marvellous acts, His Wisdom in creation, His Providence, His destruction of the Egyptian firstborn, His rescue of enslaved Israel, His wonders at the Red Sea, His longsuffering in the wilderness, His overthrow of hostile kings, His bestowal of the promised land, His faithful remembrance, His everready help, His bounty,-all called forth the Psalmist's impartial praise. Which chant of praise from his day to our own has echoed in the Church generation after generation, and echoes still and still will echo while faith remains in the earth. "Justice and judgment are the habitation of Thy Throne ; mercy and truth shall go before Thy face. Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance." Lord, make us, I beseech Thee, like-minded with all saints whether on earth or in heaven; that we may worship Thee as they worship, trust Thee as they trust, rejoice in Thee as they rejoice, love Thee as they love. Even for the sake of our Saviour Jesus Christ the Saint of saints. Amen. "O Lord God Almighty, Which Art, and Wast, and Art to come."-The Revised Version omits "and Art to come" thus setting before us (by suggestion) that perpetual now of eternity which ensues from the unchanging Perfection of the Divine Being. For since He Whose Name is Holy "inhabiteth eternity," therefore eternity is so to say moulded upon Him; and to Him in his own Nature there exists neither past nor future, nothing ended, nothing beginning. "Which Wast" expresses the creature's experience throughout time, and the creature's mode of apprehending that eternity which (in a sense) preceded time; while, as the passage under consideration commemorates the transference of the creature out of time into eternity, the text stopping short (if in truth it does so stop short) at the words "and Wast," indicates how time has at length passed away even for the creatures of time, who thenceforward for good or for evil are conformed to the law of eternity. "Thou hast taken to Thee Thy great power, and hast reigned "—as it were responding to the prayer and prophecy : "Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over? Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away." "Thy Throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of Thy kingdom is a right sceptre." 18. And the nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that Thou shouldest give reward unto Thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear Thy Name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth. St. Paul writes: "Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath neither give place to the devil." Here at the sunset of time the nations are angry; and God suffering His whole displeasure at length to arise destroys them which destroy the earth. "Thou sattest in the Throne judging right. Thou hast rebuked the heathen, Thou hast destroyed the wicked, Thou hast put out their name for ever and ever. O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end." "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.' After life, death: after death, judgment: after judgment, life everlasting or death everlasting. "My comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength." So brief al ife, and then an endless life O Lord Jesus, Who knowest them that are Thine; when Thou rewardest Thy servants the prophets, remember, I beseech Thee, for good those who have taught me, rebuked me, counselled me, guided me; and in that day show them mercy. When Thou rewardest the saints, remember, I beseech Thee, for good those who have surrounded me with holy influences, borne with me, forgiven me, sacrificed themselves for me, loved me; and in that day show them mercy. When Thou rewardest the great that fear Thy Name, remember, I beseech Thee, for good those who have been my patterns of any virtue or grace, of repentance, acknowledgment of offences, begging of pardon, obedience, patience, perseverance; and in that day show them mercy. When Thou rewardest the small that fear Thy Name, remember, I beseech Thee, for good, ignorant disciples, halting followers, weak cross-bearers, the kneelers on feeble knees, the faint believers who faint not utterly; and in that day show them mercy. Nor forget any, nor forget me; but in that day show us mercy. Amen. I think of the saints I have known, and lift up mine eyes To the far-away home of beautiful Paradise, Where the song of saints gives voice to an undividing sea On whose plain their feet stand firm while they keep their jubilee. As the sound of waters their voice, as the sound of thunderings, While they all at once rejoice, while all sing and while each one sings; Where more saints flock in, and more, and yet more, and again yet more, And not one turns back to depart thro' the open entrance door. O sights of our lovely earth, O sound of our earthly sea, Speak to me of Paradise, of all blessed saints to me; Or keep silence touching them, and speak to my heart alone Of the Saint of saints, the King of kings, the Lamb on the Throne. "And that Thou. . . shouldest destroy them which destroy U |