"Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, It is more blessed to give than to receive." O Lord, on Whom we gaze and dare not gaze, Kind Lord, companion of the two or three, Yet art Thou with us, Thou to Whom we run, "Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God." The unutterable, unapproachable Majesty of "One like unto the Son of man" bids us fall prostrate. "Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few." I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord, coeternal and co-equal with the Father. Daniel the prophet "beheld . . . and the Ancient of Days did sit, Whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like the pure wool. . . . A fiery stream issued, and came forth from before Him. . . . And, behold, One like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days." So now St. John beheld "One like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire; and His feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace." Daniel beheld a garment white as snow, but saith not that it was girded. St. John beheld a girded garment, but nameth not its colour. God, as God, is not girded: "The Father Incomprehensible, the Son Incomprehensible, and the Holy Ghost Incomprehensible. And yet they are not three Incomprehensibles, but One Incomprehensible." God, as Christ, is girded: "He took on Him the seed of Abraham." Once even He deigned to say: "How am I straitened . . . ! ” God inhabiteth eternity: Christ was sent forth in the fulness of time, and before His Passion spake saying: "My time is at hand." The white garment recalls that light which no man can approach unto, wherein God dwelleth. But Isaiah in vision beheld Christ red in His apparel when, wearing the girded garment, He proclaimed Himself Mighty to save. Our Lord's own gracious words express to us the mystery of His eternal glory with the Father, and of His somewhile self-restriction to the limitations and poverty of time: "I have glorified Thee on the earth: 1 have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own Self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was." "Clothed with a garment down to the foot."-Behold our great High Priest ! Now under the Mosaic dispensation, how was Aaron the first high priest clothed, and wherewith were his sacred vestments overclothed? King David partially informs us :"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments; as the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore." That unction symbolic of God the Holy Spirit overflowed not Aaron's person only, but his robe also: in like manner Christ's Divine graces overflowing from Himself the Head, pour down upon His members, until the least little one whose life is hid with Christ may sing merrily: "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels." For if brotherly unity be like that precious ointment, then is that precious ointment under some one of its many aspects like brotherly unity which unity with one another, yea, with Christ Himself, it lies within our own option to clench and perpetuate according to His benign announcement: "Whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is My brother, and My sister, and mother." God's commandment is exceeding broad, not by us limitable. Amongst its incalculable treasures we here find our own commanded blessing, even life for evermore,-Christ, Who is our life. "The King . . . asked life of Thee, and Thou gavest it Him, even length of days for ever and ever." "And girt about the paps with a golden girdle."-This girdle lying next the Sacred Heart, as it were binds and constrains it. Now gold Christ hath in common with the saints who all together make up the Church's golden candlestick. The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone, may seem memorialized in this golden girdle which, not for malediction but for benediction, Christ weareth for a girdle wherewith He is girded continually. O Lord, Who so hast loved us, Who so lovest us, grant us grace so to love Thee that we may never fall away from Thy love. "His eyes were as a flame of fire."—"Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly . . . Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty." God is Light: Christ is Light of Light, Very God of Very God. His eyes are light, all-seeing: "Yea, the darkness is no darkness with Thee, but the night is as clear as the day the darkness and light to Thee are both alike." O Lord, Who beholding Adam and Eve in their misery didst find comfort for them, Who beholding David in his pollution spakest the word that he should not die; Thou, Lord, Who hast beheld all sinners from the first sinner, and wilt behold us all even unto the last; turn Thy face from our sins, but turn it not from us. These are the very Eyes which I myself at the last day may look upon, and which will look upon me. "In the Day of Judgment, good Lord, deliver us." O Jesu, gone so far apart Only my heart can follow Thee, That look which pierced St. Peter's heart Turn now on me. Thou Who dost search me thro' and thro' And mark the crooked ways I went, Look on me, Lord, and make me too Thy penitent. "His feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace.""I will make the place of My feet glorious." These dazzling Feet before which the sun running his course as a giant and the moon walking in brightness are ashamed, whence came they? Out of great tribulation. These are they C which went about doing good, and grew weary along the paths of Palestine, and climbed Calvary, and were nailed to a cross. These are they which a penitent sinner and an accepted saint washed with tears, kissed, anointed with precious ointment, dried with tresses of hair. These are they which in infancy a Virgin Mother swaddled, and which after the Resurrection holy women were permitted to touch. No cross, no crown: no humiliation, no glory. Such is the rule for fallen man. And Christ, Who took upon Himself our nature and calls us brethren, exempted not Himself from the common lot. He willed thus to become like us. We by following Him shall in our turn put on a measure of His likeness. To-day He denies not to His beloved crosses and humiliations: tomorrow what will He deny to them whom He invests with crowns and glory? "What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour ? " I have read of a holy person who said: "O my feet, ye shall tread upon the stars." Feet that would climb up into heaven must wend their way thither by treading in Christ's footsteps. "Feet was I to the lame," said righteous Job, whose end was better than his beginning. Now to walk in Christ's incomparable footsteps is both easy and difficult. The easiness lies in our surroundings, the difficulty in ourselves. Flesh is weak, and spirit too often unwilling; otherwise London or any other neighbourhood might become to us holy as Palestine. There waits in every direction abundant good to be done, if only we have the will patiently to do it, first counting the cost. For though no literal mountain obstruct our path, mountainous opposition may confront us; and if it please not God to remove it, then in His strength, weary and heartsore as we may be, we must surmount it, "looking unto Jesus." "But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well-nigh slipped." "No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him." "Draw me, we will run after Thee." "Feet have they, but they walk not," writes the Psalmist, in his description of idols: and he appends thereto, "They that make them are like unto them." Thus we behold the idolater furnished with useless feet; and so far like him appears the sluggard, standing here all the day idle on feet useless because unused. "O thou that art named the house of Jacob, is the Spirit of the Lord straitened? are these His doings? do not My words do good to him that walketh uprightly? . . . Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest." "I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto Thy testimonies." How beautiful upon the celestial mountains will be those feet which, ever following in the steps of Jesus, at length ascend into the hill of the Lord, and stand in His holy place! Surely it is no mean privilege here to wash feet which shall be dazzling there. It is good to wash them, it is better to follow them. Worthily to wash the saints' feet we need ourselves to be saints. It is a blessed communion of mutual service which our tender Lord enjoins upon us when He says: "Ye also ought to wash one another's feet "-having first by His loveliest example commended to us His lovely precept. "What shall I say? He hath both spoken unto me, and Himself hath done it." What will it be, O my soul, what will it be To touch the long-raced-for goal, to handle and see, To rest and revive and rejoice, to rejoice and to rest! "His voice as the sound of many waters."-Blessed be God Who hath vouchsafed us the revelation: "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it." Our loving Lord hath declared: "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice." We are of those who tremble at Thy word; Who faltering walk in darkness toward our close We journey to that land which no man knows, Not ours the hearts Thy loftiest love hath stirred, Yet, Hope of those who hope with hope deferred, Centuries before St. John, the Prophet Ezekiel beheld and heard the Divine Glory and Voice: " Behold, the Glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east and His Voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with His Glory." J |