A Gracious Message
“This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest, and this is the refreshing” —
“?l?e trsttfirtlj tfjtse tijiiigs saith, .SutElg 5 rcmequichlg.” — Rev. xxii. 20.
, No one had so enjoyed the privilege of sitting
under the shade of the Divine Heavenly
‘Palm as the writer of this Book of Revelation. No wonder that he should sigh and long for a renewal of the personal presence and fellowship of his ascended Lord: and that the well-known key-note of his latest writing — the farewell inspired legacy to believers of the future, should be, “The Lord is coming!” Again, and again and again (four times in the one chapter from which our motto-verse is taken) do these notes sound in the ears of a waiting, expectant Church. First, in verse 7, “Behold, / come quickly.’’’’ Second, in verse 12, “Behold, I co?7ie quickly, and My reward is with Me.” Third, in verse 17, where * the Coming One ’ had beautifully announced Himself as “The Bright and Morning Star; “the response — the longing prayer rises in blended harmony from the Church on earth and the Church in heaven:” And the Spirit and the Bride say, Corned Once more, in verse 20, the last audible voice of the Great Redeemer, until that voice be heard on the Throne — gives, too, the assurance of His syeedy coming. We close the Divine record with this “blessed hope” like a rainbow of promise spanning the sky of the future, “He which testifieth these thi?igs saith, Surely I come quickly.”
We may appropriately liken these reiterated references in the last Book of the Bible, to the ringing of the chimes with quickening peal, as the worshippers are gathering to take their places in the Heavenly Temple.
The prospect of that promised Advent put music of old into the lips of Patriarchs and Psalmists, Apostles and Prophets. “Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad... before the Lord: for He cometh, for He cometh to judge the earth.” “The Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.” The Apostle Peter, like a Avatcher on cliff or tower, eager to catch the earliest beam of sunrise, speaks of “looking for, and hasting unto, the coming of the day of God.” “Looking for that blessed hope,” says St. Paul, “even the glorious appearing of the Great God our Saviour.” “I am persuaded,” says the same in one of his dying utterances, “that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him, against that day.” By the Great Lord Himself, believers are represented as servants, cheerfully working on, during their Master’s absence; but all alert for the sound of His footsteps, that, “when He cometh and knocketh, they may be ready to open unto Him immediately.”
As we now listen in the message at the head of this meditation to the latest voice of the Great ‘Testifier,’ — the last toll of the Advent-bell, let it sound to us like strains of seraphic music floating on a midnight sea. Let it proclaim in our ears blended comfort and warning; tempering prosperity, mitigating adversity, moderating the world’s ambitions, stimulating to holiness, preparing for heaven. Whatever may be the antecedent or intervening events described in the other parts of the Apocalypse — events in which, whether as regards the Church or individuals, we are, doubtless, deeply interested — let “the Second Coming” tower above them all, like some colossal Alp, with plain and valley” and lowlier mountain between, but rising peerless in the blue horizon, its top golden with heavenly sunlight; and from its eternal snows and hidden fountains, sending forth ten thousand streams of hope and joy.
Bright and Morning Star! Harbinger of eternal day! Who will not bid Thee welcome? Who will not help, in the noblest sense, to
“Ring in the Christ that is to be “?
“The Spirit says. Come!” The Divine Agent, whose own “coming” as the Paraclete or Comforter, was declared by the departing Saviour to more than indemnify the Church for her Redeemer’s absence, hails the advent which is to crown and consummate His own work as “the Glorifier of Christ.” “The Bride says. Come,” the ransomed Church on earth, longing for the bridal day of perfected bliss; — the ransomed Church in heaven, saints, martyrs, departed friends, who have fallen asleep in Jesus — take up the antiphonal strain, and cry “Come!” A groaning creation, weary of the bondage of sin and sorrow, and longing for liberty, cries “Come!” Can we take up one of the multiplying echoes, and, uniting our prayer with the sons of God, give willing response to the Apostle’s closing invocation: “And let him that heareth say Come?” Can we include ourselves in the words of another ‘Watcher ’ for this Day-spring. “For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord!” “Wherefore,” he adds, Waiting Pilgrims! seat yourselves in calm expectancy under the shade of this choice Elim-Palm: — let the glorious outlook cheer, refresh, and solace you — “Wherefore, comfort one another with these words!”
“His voice on earth we did not hear;
His steps below we could not trace;
But when His glory shall appear,
We too shall meet Him face to face.
“So surely as the leaves and flowers
In summer time come back again — So surely as in sultry hours
The dark clouds bring the pleasant rain —
“Shall He, who, in His lowly love,
Came down that we might be forgiven,
Break, glorious, through the clouds above,
And take His children home to heaven.”
“MY SOUL WAITETH FOR THE LORD MORE THAN THEY THAT WATCH FOR THE MORNING; I SAY, MORE THAN THEY THAT WATCH FOR THE MORNING.”