The Throne View

“Be silent to God, and let Him mould thee.” — Psalm xxxvii. 7 (Luther’s translation). “He that goeth aside to sit quietly in the secret place with the Most High, will find Him coming over so close that this man shall be lodging under the very shadow of the Almighty.” — Psalm xci. 1 (Free translation).

” Calm in the suffrance of wrong.

Like Him who bore my shame;

Calm, ‘mid the threatening, taunting throng,

Who hate Thy holy Name.”

Horatius Bonar

B UT does he know about us down here; about just us, here by the old family hearth-fire?

And does he Imow about how things are down here? the needs that he thought about and cared for, the things that remain undone because he is not here, the sorrow that tugs so at your heart even in your sleep, and — and the — the loneliness — that gnaws, that eats into the very air you breathe. Does he know? And if he does how can he be 36 happy? How could one ever be happy again who knows even a little of the real distress and loneliness and sore need of life down here — how can he?

And the rush of uncontrolled emotion comes anew. And the break in the heart begins bleeding afresh. And one of those great flushes of feeling sweeps over you as you ask.

You may let it out. Some can and do. You may keep it, most of it, under the lock and key of strong restraint. Some can and do. And they feel the wear on the inner wheels all the more.

How can he? — They up there — how can they? Well, you see, you have dropped your eyes a little, until you see only part, the distressing, weeping, breaking part. But they can see all. That’s the answer to your “howV’ There’s a throne up yonder. They are getting the throne view. They’re under the blessed brooding spell of the 37 quieting green rainbow which the throne-light makes as it shines out.

Over all our world there’s a throne; there is control; there is mastery. There is an eye that never slumbers, but instead watches sleeplessly with love’s sleeplessness. There is a sensitive finger laid on the pulse of the old earth’s life. There’s a masterful hand on the helm.

He — the one you are thinking of — he sees all this. He doesn’t know all. Ah! he’s just beginning his lessons in knowing. But he does know enough to steady him, while the rest is working out.

Suppose we let him, the one you are thinking of, help us here a little. That is, let us try to see things a bit as he sees them up there. Let us try to get something of the throne view.

We ’ll draw our Bibles over and recall some of the things the Book tells.

And he, his presence yonder — what we know that he does know, this will help us. It will make it all more real and personal.

What we’re needing most is the throne view. We need to see things as our Lord Jesus sees them. That will help us greatly as our feet press the common clay, our common round of life.

The present time is not all the time there is. There is more coming after this. And the more will be a different sort from this. And it will wholly change the whole look of things. And — may be — it’ll come soon, this other different sort, sooner than any of us now think.

This tragedy, so common, of broken homes and broken ties and broken hearts, broken plans and hopes and dreams — all this breaking, this is not God’s plan.

This tangle of sorrow and breaks, shortened lives and disappointed plannings, this is all dead-set against God’s plan. It runs straight across the grain of God’s plan. It hurts His heart more than it does. ours.

This is one result of man’s freedom; only this; all of this. This is the one only explanation. This is the image of God in which we were made — this freedom of choice and action. And all this distress of sickness and death, of war and strife among men, of disappointments and heart-aches, all this is a result, one result, of man’s freedom. That is one thing to see clearly.

The present is not the whole. It’s only a part. It’s only a hyphen, a thing in between. There’s something coming after the hyphen, this tragic, tangled, tangling hyphen.

There is a change coming. It will be a radical change. It will be a blessed 40 change. It will be a change back to original Eden conditions.

Some day our Lord Jesus is coming back. The blue that opened to let Him through and up, will open again to let Him through and down.

He will come in great glory just as He naturally is. His glory was hidden before, for the sake of our eyes. No one knows when He will come. But, mark you keenly, when He does come .... 1

That fire is doing better now, isn’t it? That stirring up of the fagot did good. We are getting a bit warmer now. The chill is less marked. Give that big log there a turn — so — that’s good.. Now we’ll go on.

When He does come, it will not be to wind things up, to close things up. It will be to begin things anew on the old earth, on the original plan.

Yes, there will be some radical 41 changes at the beginning of the new order of things. But chiefly it will be a fresh start on the original plan of life on this same old earth, as first planned by God.

There will be no war then. There will be a gradual cessation of sickness and death until these are largely, almost wholly unknown. Envy, hatred, jealousy, bickering, fighting, rivalries of the bad sort and of the not-good sort — these will be gone.

Pain, hunger, poverty, weakness, distressing partings, ignorance, passion, prejudice, superstition, gradually these will go until they will be almost forgotten. It will be a reign of love, of life and vigor, on this same old earth, with the present laws of living, learning, growing, serving, all in full sway, but in a natural way.

The co mm on word for it all is Kingdom, the thing we all pray daily to 42 come. The atmosphere of it will be an atmosphere of love, strong pure true love.

The purpose of it will be to let men really get acquainted with God, and God’s way of things. They will be finding how life will be when God is let in as freely as is natural, both to life and to Him.

There’ll be need of helpers in that day, great need of trained tested trusty helpers. This present time is part of our school time. And so is the present interval with those who have been taken up and away.

Our loved ones who have been taken from our clinging grasp are in school. They are in training. They are being got ready for the service of the Kingdom time that’s coming down on the old earth.