April 23

“Lo, in the midst of the throne... stood a Lamb as it had been slain.” — Revelation v. 6.

I^^HY should our exalted Lord appear in His wounds in %iy wounds of Jesus are His glories, His jewels, His sacred ornaments. To the eye of the fceliever, Jesus is passing fair because He is “white and ruddy:” white with innocence, and ruddy with His own blood. We see Him as the lily of matchless purity, and as the rose crimsoned with His own gore. Christ is lovely upon Olivet and Tabor, and by the sea, but oh! there never was such a matchless Christ as He that did hang upon the cross. There we behold all His beauties in perfection, all His attributes developed, all His love drawn out, all His character expressed. Beloved, the wounds of Jesus are far more fair in our eyes than all th’ splendor and pomp of kings. The thorny crown is more than an imperial diadem. It is true that He bears not now the sceptre of reed, but there was a glory in it that nMVcr flashed from sceptre of gold. Jesus wears the appearitu.-e of a slain lamb as His court dress in which He wooed c*” souls, and redeemed them by His complete atonement. Nor are these only the ornaments of Christ: they are the trophies of His love and of His victory. He has divided spoil with the strong. He has redeemed for Himself a g,”at multitude whom no man can number, and these scars a? e the memorials of the fight. Ah! if Christ thus loves to retain the thought of His sufferings for His people, ho’j should His wounds he to us I

how every wound of His
A precious balm distils,
ATiich heals the scnrs that sin had made,
And cures all mortal ills.

rhose wounds are mouths that preach liii grarw

The ensigns of His love;
The seals of our expected blisa

In Daradisc abo“»e.”