Thou Art the Christ. What Then?

T~ ET us suppose the Master’s question put to us in these days by the Master Himself, as of old.

What would be our answer? What should we say to Him, or to ourselves, or to the Church, or to the world?

We might say, ‘ Thou art the Christ;’ but how much would that express?

With many it would express much less than Peter meant: for Peter, as one versed in the old revelation, knew much that many, calling them¬ selves Christians, are ignorant of. With many, how¬ ever, it would express more than Peter could have implied; for ‘ the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.’ They have seen what Peter had not then seen; the cross, the grave, and the resurrection. The light from the cross has wonderfully illuminated that name, the Christ. It was hut dim to Peter; it is bright to us.

‘ Thou art the Christ, we say. If so, what do we mean, and what follows from that meaning?

What do we mean? We know what a true Israelite would mean; and our meaning, though much fuller, must he substantially the same. If Thou art the Christ, then,

1. Thou art the Seed of the Woman.

Thou art He in whom God’s first great promise to man finds its fulfilment; true seed of the woman. Thou art the Life, because of whom she was called Eve, the life; — true Son of Adam, very man, Thyself f the last Adam ’ (1 Cor. xv. 45), * the second man, the Lord from heaven ’ (1 Cor. xv. 47). Thou art He to whom the eyes of our first parents were turned, and in whom they rested, though to them Thou wert only the promised seed, the Coming One. For it was through man that God was to save man; and as by one mans disobedience many had been made sinners, so by one man’s obedience many were to be made righteous. Through her who had been ‘ beguiled ’ (2 Cor. xi. 3), through her who * was deceived ’ and “was in the transgression’ (1 Tim. ii. 13, 14), was the great Deliverer to come: very man, — made of a woman, hone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh: more truly man than the fallen sons of Adam, for sin did not belong to humanity at first, and He was without sin; the holy seed, the holy child.

Thus we have in this Christ a child of time, yet a child of eternity. He was born of a woman, yet He is from everlasting to everlasting God. The first thing we read of Him as a son of Eve, is in these words regarding His mother, ‘ She was found with child of the Holy Ghost ’ (Matt. i. 18); and again, ‘ That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost’ (Matt. i. 20). Ages before, this song had been sung:

Behold!

The virgin shall conceive,

And bear a son;

And shall call His name Immanuel (Isa. vii. 14).

And another song had been sung, very like the former, yet fuller and more exultant:

Unto us the child is born,

Unto us the son is given;

And the government shall be upon His shoulders,

And His name shall be called
Wonderful,

Counsellor,

The Mighty God,

The Everlasting Father,

The Prince of Peace (Isa. ix. 6).

And then, just before the birth of this seed of the woman, the angel Gabriel comes to His mother with these words:

Fear not, Mary,

For thou hast found favour with God.

Behold! thou shalt conceive in thy womb,

And bring forth a son,

And thou shalt call His name Jesus.

The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee,

And the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: Therefore also that holy thing,

Which shall be born of thee,

Shall be called

The Son of God (Luke i. 30, 35).

Then we come to the actual birth of the predicted seed: ‘ She brought forth her first-born son, and wrapped Him in swaddling-clothes, and laid Him in a manger ’ (Luke ii. 7). On this we hear the glorious message from above:

Fear not!

Behold!

I bring you good tidings of great joy,

1 In the preceding prediction from Isaiah, we may notice the same expression as to the naming of the child. In the former it is, ‘ she shall call His name Immanuel; ’ in the latter it is, ‘ tlcou shalt call His name Jesus.’

Which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day,

In the city of David, a Saviour,

Who is Christ the Lord (Luke ii. 11).

Thus we are brought first to Jerusalem, for there Isaiah’s prediction was uttered; then to Nazareth, for there the annunciation was given; and lastly to Bethlehem, where the child was born. In the manger-cradle of that child what a history is contained, and what a revelation of the invisible God! 0 child of Bethlehem, what a story has been Thine, and what a story is yet to be Thine! for the history of the universe, past, present, and to come, revolves

round Thee. 0 seed of the woman, what a mani-

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festation of Godhead is given to us in Thee! On Thy stony cradle is written, God is love. On the gate of the city where Thou wast born, is inscribed, God is love. On Thy tomb in after years was graven, God is love. And on that throne where now Thou art seated is engraved, God is love.

Yes; Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour of the world; Thy name is Jesus, and it is also Immanuel. We look to Thee, and live. We look into Thy cradle, and are comforted. Thou art bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh; ‘ Christ is all, and in all.’ Though rich, for our sakes Thou v

becamest poor, that we by Thy poverty might be rich. We have nothing to give Thee, but Thou hast everything to give us; and we are content to be simple receivers of Thy liberality and fulness.

2. Thou art the Son of the living God.

Thou art the eternal Son, who couldest say, ‘I and my Father are one’ (John x. 30). Thou art very man, yet also very God; all Godhead and all manhood in Thy person; the everlasting link between heaven and earth, between Creator and creature; God manifest in flesh; heir of all things; God over all, blessed for ever; Thy name Jehovah, and Thy glory divine. Now then we know that all that man can do for us, and all that God can do for us, are here. All heaven is here, all earth is here. God Himself has taken the side of man; yea, has become man, that He may accomplish man’s deliverance. The incarnation is certainly not the whole of the mighty undertaking. It is but the beginning. Yet it is a wondrous pledge of love. He who came, on man’s account, from the throne of God to the manger of Bethlehem, must love man with no common love. He cannot have ceased to care

The Christ of Cod.

for earth; He cannot have had His love quenched by rebellion, nor turned into coldness by the unworthiness and unlovableness of its objects.

Here, then, we learn at Bethlehem that Cod is love: for it is God whom we see in the manger. We hear that a child has been born. We come to its cradle; and we find that God is there. It is ‘the Word made flesh’ that lies there. The bright¬ ness of Jehovah’s glory and the express image of His person is there. That cradle gives us God’s thoughts of God, — what God wishes us to know and think about Himself. It shows us how accessible God is, and how He wishes to be approached by us. It shows us how near He has come to us, how low He has stooped, how truly one with us He has be¬ come. It is God, — the Son of the living God, — very God, who lies there. We see but helpless infancy; yet the mighty power of God is there. We see but clouds and shadows resting over us; yet on His forehead is written, ‘ God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.’ The more that we can realize of God in connection with that babe and that cradle, the more we shall know of Him who said, ‘My thoughts are not your thoughts.’ Here God speaks to us, and we to Him. These little fingers are those of Him who was ere long to touch the sick, and to heal them with His power. These hands are the hands which are soon to he pierced with nails. That head is soon to be crowned with thorns. These feet are to be fastened to the cross. These eyes are to weep at the grave of Lazarus and over Jerusalem. That body which now lies in a stony cradle, is sobn to lie in a stony tomb. And yet all these things link themselves with His God¬ head. The Son of the living God is here; and Jesus of Nazareth is He, — the very Christ of God.

3. Thou art the Angel of the Covenant.

Thy name is ‘ the Angel of the Lord,’ or the f Angel Jehovah’ (Gen. xvi. 7, 13, xviii. 1, 2, 17, xlviii. 16; Judg. vi. 11-24), or the Angel of the Covenant (Mai iii. 7). Thou art He to whom the name Jehovah appertains; Jehovah, and Jehovah’s Messenger; the Sent of the Father (John vi. 44), His true Siloam (John ix. 7), His covenant Angel, to do His redeeming work on earth among the sons of men.

All Israel’s history is full of this Angel and His doings; every Jew knew His name in connection with God’s interpositions of grace and power; every Jew connected that mysterious messenger with Messiah. Angel He was; yet more than angel in the excellency of His power and in the greatness of His love. * The Angel of His presence saved them ’ (Isa. lxiii. 9), is the story of many a chapter in Israel’s annals. Oftentimes, when things were at their worst, out from the presence of the Lord this Angel came, and wrought salvation by His mighty power. c The arm of the Lord awoke, and put on strength; ’ and Israel recognised in this the inter¬ position of their own Messiah, of Him who was afflicted in all their affliction, who had again and again said, How shall I give thee up, 0 Israel? how shall I deliver thee up, 0 Ephraim? — of Him who, looking hack upon His own gracious dealings with the ever-murmuring, ever-rebelling nation in ages past, uttered these words of love, perhaps the warmest, truest, tenderest words of love ever breathed from human lips: f 0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children as a hen doth gather her chickens under her wings; and ye would not! ’ Yes; and while uttering these words of love, the Angel of the Covenant wept, — wept because they would not be saved, because they would not be blest! “Not willing that any should

perish, but that all should come to repentance, had

been Messiah’s feeling towards them in all their

apostasies; and in that coming day, when we shall

get behind the outward into the inward, and see the

true interior of Christ’s dealings with men, and the

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unseen beatings of His gracious heart toward the chief of sinners, who are repelling all His advances, we shall know how sincere His long-suffering has been, how profound His pity, how earnest His proposals of reconciliation, how tender His yearnings, how honest His tears over the rejectors of His love.

God’s eternal purpose shall stand; His election, according to the good pleasure of His will, shall be carried out; but not the less shall it be found true, that the wings extended by Messiah over Jerusalem, under which He would, fain have gathered her children, were the wings of truest tenderness as well as of almighty power. The day for the reconciliation of all these apparent difficulties will come, and we shall know the harmony between the purpose and the love.

4. Thou art the great Sacrifice.

In Thee all sacrifice centres; from Thee the four great offerings spring, and into Thee they return. Thou art the burnt-offering, the peace-offering, the trespass-offering, the sin-offering, all in one. Thou art also the meat-offering and the drink-offering. In Thee we see the double offering of the day of atonement, and the paschal lamb with its unleavened bread. In each of these we discern some special feature of Thy work for sinners, and some peculiar characteristic of Thy person as the sin-bearer. Yes; if Jesus of Nazareth be the Christ of God, then is He the propitiation for our sins, — the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. Of Him the book of Leviticus is full.

Of Him the whole tabernacle speaks, — specially the altar, and the laver, and the mercy-seat. There Christ is all, and in all; and every vessel there points to His sin-bearing work. It is the tabernacle of the Substitute; for, take away the idea of substitution, and the tabernacle, with its varied furniture and sacrifices, is an unmeaning fabric, — a mere national tent, round which the people gather, and where the tribes celebrate some unmeaning rites, as useless as those of the heathen around. The complete hearing of sin by another; one life for another; the just for the unjust: this is the great truth embodied in the tabernacle. Substitution, ransom, sacrifice, propitiation, atonement, suretyship: these are words whose meaning comes fully out in connection with the tabernacle and its services. They are inscribed on every vessel and every curtain; they speak out in every ceremony, and in every victim, in every priest and Levite. The fire, the smoke, the incense, the blood, declare the truth contained in these words beyond mistake or doubt.

The Psalms, too, — at least such as the twenty-second, the fortieth, the sixty-ninth, and eightyeighth, — unfold the sufferings of the Substitute when bearing our sins; as when He says, ‘ My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?’ (Ps. xxii. 1); and, ‘ Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, Thou hast afflicted me with all Thy waves. ... I am afflicted, and ready to die from my youth up ’ (Ps. lxxxviii. 7, 15). And then the fifty-third of Isaiah gives the key both to the book of Leviticus and Psalms: ‘ He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.... Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.... He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities.’

In connection with all these, we hear the cry on the cross, * It is finished!’ We see the veil rent in twain, and we learn that ‘ this man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God’ (Heb. x. 12). How, then, there remaineth no more conscience of sins (Heb. x. 1) to them that receive the divine testimony to the finished sacrifice. In believing the record, they obtain the forgiveness and the ‘ no condemnation ’ which come through Him who was ‘ delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification.’ 0 perfect sacrifice, what is there that a sinner, burdened with guilt, and weary of the evil within him, does not find in Thee? Peace for trouble, liberty for bondage, righteousness for unrighteousness, fulness for emptiness, holiness for pollution, rest for weariness, light for darkness, life for death, — all, all in Thee!

5. Thou art the Prophet like unto Moses.

Yes; Thou art a Prophet, yet more than a prophet; like unto Moses, yet greater than Moses; the world’s true Teacher, both in things past and inp things to come: a Prophet such as earth has never seen, ’ in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge ’ (Col. ii. 3). Earth needs a prophet, and Thou art He! Man would fain he his own prophet, hut he prophesies only folly and deceit: Thou only art what so many among us call ‘ the Prophet of humanity.’ Thou art not * a teacher come from God,’ as Mcodemus called Thee, hut the Teacher, the one Teacher of Israel and of the Church; the only Teacher who could ever say, * I am the Truth.’

Yes, in these last days we need a teacher more than ever; a divine and perfect teacher, in whose skill and instruction we can have fullest confidence, and in whose love we can entirely rest. He who taught the multitude in the days of His flesh is the teacher for us. He who never made one mistake in His teaching; who never refused to teach even the dullest; who never lost His temper with the most froward of His scholars; who never grudged His time and trouble to any one; who never exercised any needless or untender discipline; who was Father, Brother, Teacher, all in one, — this Teacher is ours.

It is He, the Prophet like unto Moses, that says, f Give ear, 0 ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, 0 earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew’ (Deut, xxxii. 1). All that was in Moses is in Him. All Samuel and David, all Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and Daniel, all Elijah and Elisha, we find in Him; nothing lacking, nothing unreal, nothing exaggerated, hut all wisdom, and earnestness, and gentleness, and calmness. Just such a prophet as we need is He, this Jesus of Nazareth, this Christ of God.

To each of us, with the true voice of a teacher, ‘ who has compassion on the ignorant,’ He says, ‘ Learn of me.’ He advertises for pupils, He en¬ treats us to be scholars in His school, to become f disciples,’ and to hear the words of His lips. The gate of His school is ever open, and He gives His instructions freely. All are welcome! Doth He not cry? Doth He not put forth His voice? Doth He not say, ‘ 0 ye simple, understand wisdom; and, ye fools, be of an understanding heart. Hear, for I will speak of excellent things; and the open¬ ing of my lips shall be right things. Eor my mouth shall speak truth. Receive my instruction, and

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not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold (Prov. viii. 1-10). Yet this unteachable world refuses to learn, preferring every other prophet to Him, and every other instruction to His; loving the darkness rather than the light, and preferring error to truth.

6. Thou art the Anointed One.

The true anointing is with Thee, and in Thee; the fulness of the Spirit dwells in Thee, and the divine unction rests upon Thee; for the Father f giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Thee * (John iii. 34). This anointing is that from which Messiah takes His name. He is the Messiah, the Christ, because of the anointing, because of His being filled with the Spirit. ‘ The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me ’ (Isa. lxi. 1); and because of this. He is once and again spoken of as f the Anointed One ’ (Ps. ii. 2). He is anointed as the Prophet, as the Priest, as the King; anointed not only with the Spirit of power and wisdom, but ‘ with the oil of gladness above His fellows ’ (Ps. xlv. 7). This anointing is for us. He received it that He might preach the gospel, ‘good tidings to the meek’ (Isa. lxi. 1); that He might hind up the broken-hearted; that He might give beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning. And now that He has been glorified, He dispenses this Spirit in His fulness, as at Pente¬ cost. Having received gifts for men, even for the rebellious, He distributes these gifts to His Church with open heart and hand, so that she has all, and abounds. And if she in our day exhibits only lean¬ ness, it is because she puts away the fulness which He, as ‘ the Christ, presents to her from His heavenly throne. e Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it, He says to her.

Why, then, should the Church be poor, so long as her Head is rich? Why should any saint be empty, so long as Christ is full? Why should any of earth’s rebellious ones refuse to come and partake of this divine fulness of the Spirit, so freely held out to the needy sons of men? 1 Here are some of the

1 Some in our day refuse to pray for the Spirit, and think it sin¬ ful to ask Him to come, seeing He has already come. On the same principle, they would have objected to those who, when Christ was here, asked Him to ‘come’ (see John iv. 47, 49, xiv. 23). Christ had come, yet men asked Him to come; and He came! He came to them individually, or to their house. So the Spirit has come; yet we ask Him to come; and He cometh! We ask Him to come in to us, or to our friends, or to our city. We do not mean to deny that He came at Pentecost, but still we ask Him to come to us. unsearchable riches of the Christ set before us. They come down on us abundantly, overflowing out of His fulness, and we have but to let them be poured into our lap.

*7. Thou art Jehovah-Zidkenu, the Lord our Righteousness (Jer. xxiii. 6).

Thou hast given a life of righteousness for our life of unrighteousness; a life of obedience for our life of disobedience. Thy perfection covers our imperfection in every part: Thou art our righteousness; Thou art the righteousness of God for us; Thou art made unto us righteousness; Thou, who knewest no sin, wast made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Thee. We put Thee on, — Thee, the righteous One; Thou art ‘ the best robe,’ the robe which the Father hath provided for us; Thou art

When we ask for teaching, it is as if we said, 0 Spirit, come and teach us; come and enlighten us; come and quicken us. Does He teach without coming to us? Is He a mere influence, as men indicate when they speak of ‘ divine influences ’? Does He not come in to the soul on conversion? Does He not come in when, as the Comforter, He comforts? Is He not our guest, dwelling in us, and working in us? Such quibbles about words are unworthy of Christians. the ‘ garment of salvation, and the ’ robe of righteousness’ (Isa. lxi. 10); so that, when arrayed in these, it is said to each of us, * Thou art perfect through the comeliness which I have put upon thee’ (Ezek. xvi. 14).

Messiah then, in the divine purpose, was to be the righteousness of God ’ for us. Hot only does He make us righteous by His power, but He is our righteousness, — the righteousness which God has provided, — the righteousness of incarnate Godhead. ‘Their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord ’ (Isa. liv. 17).

The righteousness of God, simply as God, was not enough for us; nay, was not suitable: the righteousness of man, as man, was wholly insufficient. But the righteousness of Him who was both God and man, who had all divine and all human righteousness, was just what we needed. They who affirm that the righteousness of God of which the apostle speaks (Rom. iii. 21) means merely the divine attribute or perfection known by that name, overthrow redemption; not only destroying the apostle’s argument in that epistle, but subverting totally the justification of the sinner as provided by God in Christ Jesus. Eor ‘ Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth * (Rom. x. 4); that is, He has fulfilled the law, in order to provide a righteousness by which the sinner is justified in believing. For in believing we receive ’ the righteousness; ’ in believing we are ‘justified;’ in believing we are so placed in oneness with Him who is the Lord our righteousness, that we are henceforth treated by God as if we had lived the righteous life which He lived, as if we had done all the righteous things which He did, and spoke all the righteous words which He spoke. Though still sinners, and deeply conscious of evil, we know that in our righteous Representative we are reckoned righteous, and dealt with by God as if all our un¬ righteousness had never been, nay, as if we had done the righteousness which He has done, as our surety and our substitute. Recognising His vicarious life and death as that on which we stand before God, and shall hereafter take our stand before the judgment-seat, we realize the truth, ‘As He is, so are we in this world’ (1 John iv. 17). ‘The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake ’ (Isa. xlii. 21); so well pleased with Him, and with what He has done, and so well pleased because of Him, and because of what He has done, that He causes His well-pleaseclness to rest on every one who accepts His testimony to the Beloved Son.

It is the Judge Himself who has proposed the plan of acquittal, and provided the substitute. We fall in with His plan, we accept the substitute, and are thus put in possession of the righteousness. With the Judge upon our side, we have nothing to fear; and we know that He is upon the side of all who are willing to own their condemnation and accept His substitute.

8. Thou art the Light of the World.

Light had always been associated with Messiah; and every Jew would remember this. As we read the prophets, we find this written everywhere; and looking into the face of Jesus of Nazareth, we say, Thou art the true light, set for the enlightening of

1 Some in our day have made use of a peculiar phraseology to express the believer’s complete exemption from judgment. ‘We V stand beyond our doom,’ they say. Not so. ‘We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ.’ We might as well say that we stand beyond death, because we have been ‘ quickened together with Christ; ’ or beyond resurrection, because we have ‘ risen with Christ. ’ Let us beware of pushing Scripture figures too far. God has graciously written them down for us, to show us how complete our acquittal is, hut let us not go beyond the words themselves. We are still on this side resurrection and the judgment. The rest will follow in due time. every man, the Sun of a dark world. Thou art He by whom the long darkness is to he banished, and the world made what it was originally designed to be, — a world of light. Thou, 0 Jesus, art earth’s true light, man’s true light!

The veil had been spread over all nations, and Messiah came to remove it; the light for ages shone in the darkness, though the darkness did not receive it. Ages before He came, He was announced as the Star out of Jacob (Hum. xxiv. 17), as the Sun of righteousness (Mai. iv. 2). The light that Israel had in their dwellings, was light from Him (Ex. x. 23). His was the light that beamed out of the pillar-cloud (Ex. xiv. 20). His was the ‘light of the morning’ predicted by David (2 Sam. xxiii. 4). His was the light of which we read so often in the Psalms, ‘The Lord is my light ’ (Ps. xxvii. 1). His is the light that is ’ sown for the righteous ’ (Ps. xcvii. 11). It is He whom Isaiah calls the ‘light of Israel ’ (x. 1 7); and of whom he says to Israel, ‘Arise, shine, for thy light is come’ (lx. 1); and ‘the Lord shall be thine everlasting light’ (lx. 19). He was the dayspring from on high (Luke i. 78), the light to lighten the Gentiles (Luke ii. 32); and it is of Him that the evangelist wrote, ‘In Him was life, and the life was the light of men ’ (John i. 4). He Himself took up the ancient symbol, and applied it to Himself, ‘ I am the light of the world ’ (John viii. 12, vii. 5).

As the revealer of the Father, He is the light of the world; as the forgiver of sin, He is the light of the world; as the raiser of the dead, He is the light of the world. Already in some measure this has been exhibited; but when He comes the second time, it shall be more fully seen how truly He is the f day-star ’ (2 Pet. i. 19). He is the bright and morning star (Rev. ii. 28, xxii. 16). All light is in Him; the light of the knowledge of the glory of God is in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. iv. 6). We look to Him, and are lightened (Ps. xxxiv. 5): that which we see in Him gives us light; for in Him is no darkness at all. All the gracious character of God is exhibited in Him, the man Christ Jesus; and he that hath seen Him hath seen the Father. In believing on Him, we pass out of darkness into light; and in continuing to believe, we continue to enjoy the light. Let us hear the words spoken to the Ephesian Church, f Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light ’ (Eph. v. 14). Thus shall we walk as children of the light and of the day, walking in His light, and not in the light of man.

9. Thou art the Shepherd of Israel.

Well has the Holy Spirit chosen this name for Messiah, in reference to the errand of grace on which He has come to earth; and very fully did the Lord Jesus recognise this when He was here, again and again making use of the figure as applicable to Himself and His work.

For feeding and watching his flock, a shepherd needs many qualities. He must not be merely f a hireling, caring not for the sheep; ’ but must love his flock. He must be tender in his dealings with them, — with the young, and the sickly, and the wandering. He must be brave, not dreading danger, nor fleeing from the lion and the bear. He must be strong, capable of much endurance and labour, able to go far in quest of his stray ones, to lay hold on them, to lift them to his shoulder, and carry them home. He must be patient, not getting angry at their stupidity, or vagrancy, or perverseness; but ever bearing with them, and all the more because of their frowardness. He must be gentle, not speaking roughly, nor threatening, nor using harsh measures with them. He must be watchful, very watchful, with his eye upon them all, in rain, or wind, or storm, or snow, with little time for rest to himself, content to snatch repose now and then as it may offer. He must be skilful, — skilful in guiding; knowing the country well through which his flock is passing, whether it be desert or good pasture; knowing also the wells and springs by the way, the still waters and the green pastures, the shades whether of rock or grove where they may rest at noon. He must be a physician too, able to bind up that which is broken, and to heal that which is sick; knowing well where the herbs grow for medicine, or for binding up of sores and wounds.

Looking, then, up to Jesus of [Nazareth, as He asks us, Whom say ye that I am? we answer: Thou art Israel’s Shepherd, the Church’s Shepherd, and our Shepherd, so that we shall not want. Thou leadest us by the green pastures and the still waters; Thou dost not over-drive one sheep or lamb in all Thy scattered flock; Thou seekest and searchest them out in all places where they are scattered in the cloudy and dark day; Thou seekest that which is lost; Thou bringest again that which is driven away, and bindest up that which is broken, and strengthenest that which is sick; Thou feedest Thy flock like a shepherd; Thou gatherest the lambs with Thy arm, and carriest them in Thy bosom, and gently leadest those that are with young. Thy sheep hear Thy voice; Thou callest them by name, and leadest them out; Thou goest before them, and they follow Thee, for they know Thy voice. Thou art the ‘ chief Shepherd ’ (1 Pet. v. 4), the ‘ great Shepherd ’ (Heb. xiii. 20), the ‘ good Shepherd, who gavest Thy life for the sheep (John x. 11); and to Thee we say, Give ear, 0 Shepherd of Israel! Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock, Thou that dwellest between the cherubim, shine forth. Thou art gentle, and tender, and gracious; Thou art strong, and brave, and patient; Thou art watchful and skilful, alike for guidance and for health, — Lord Jesus Christ, we look up to Thee! Save, and guide, and protect, and bless, that no evil and no enemy may prevail, but only good come nigh to us.

10. Thou art the Life of the World.

Life and light are twins. They are like double stars, separate, yet linked together. He who has the life has the light, and he who has the light has the life. The living One is the light-giving One. But the life of the Christ is a life which, alike in nature, and in power, and in immensity, is like no other life. Let us look at it.

Death has spread itself over the earth since the time that man sinned and brought upon himself the doom declared at first by God, ‘ In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die’ (Gen. ii. 17). ISTor is it one kind of death that has come upon our race, but death in every form and of every kind has come. That which God calls death has become the heritage of the sons of Adam; and a sore heritage it has been, including in it condemnation, darkness, alienation from God, pain, sorrow, terror, with the separation of the body from the soul, the corruption of the grave, and the second death beyond. Who shall undo all this evil-doing? what second man shall destroy the first death, and cancel the second, with all their temporal and eternal accompaniments? Only He who is pre-eminently the Man, made of a woman, yet one with the living God. Tor in order to have death removed, not only in man, or beast, or herb, we must go back to the original fountainhead of being, to Him who not only has life, but who is life, and from whom the exuberant overflow of life is sufficient to undo all death, and to impart a life that shall never succumb to the power of death, or of him who has the power of death, again.

Messiah comes! He comes as life; at once the possessor and bestower of life to all who need it. Life to the dead, and life from the dead, is that which the Christ of God proclaims! This is His errand and His work. ‘ I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly ’ (John x. 10).

Yet He does not give life by a mere command, as at the first creation. There is a hindrance; some¬ thing has come in along with man’s sin, which says that the old way of imparting life is at an end, and that a mere command would be unavailing: for that which has now come in, and exercises sway, is too powerful to be thus dealt with, for it wields the power of law and righteousness. These must be dealt with and pacified ere life can find its way to

The Christ of God.

the dead; for the death was a righteous death, and only by righteousness can it he cancelled.

The Life, then, has come; but it has come to die! Without this death of ‘ the Life,’ the quickening voice cannot reach the tomb. ‘ That which thou sowest is not quickened except it die’ (1 Cor. xv. 36); * Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground, and die, it abide th alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit’ (John xii. 24). It is the death of f the Life ’ that brings life to the dead. Thus it is, that while the first Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening spirit (1 Cor. xv. 45). The Christ possesses the fulness of life in Himself (John v. 26), but it cannot flow out to us till He dies. He lays down His life, and the life bursts forth over earth: the dying has unbarred the gate, and that gate cannot again be closed. This is the flesh which has been given for the life of the world, and the blood which has been shed for its thirst.

Thou, 0 Christ, art our life. Law giveth no life, power imparteth no life, but Thou givest it by Thy death. Thy death has given Thee the power of communicating life. And now each of us may have it freely, — the judicial life, which springs out of the ‘ no condemnation; ’ and the spiritual life, which is the new creation, the being begotten again. Thou, 0 Jesus of Nazareth, art truly the Life of the world; Thou hast life enough and love enough for us. And these are not merchandise, to he bought and sold; they are to he had for the taking: for Thou openest Thy hand, and givest freely. Thou art the bread of life, of which any may eat freely; Thou art the living water, of which we may drink without money or price.

11. Thou art the Bruiser of the Serpent’s Head.

By Thee, 0 Christ of God, Jesus of Nazareth, who didst die and rise again, as the sin-hearer, the great enemy of God and man is to be destroyed. Thou hast gone forth conquering, and to conquer. By Thee Satan is cast out, and cast down, and bruised under our feet 1 (Ptom. xvi. 2 0). By Thee is he to he overthrown, in the last great battle between heaven and hell; and by Thee is he to be hound

1 It’ is ‘ braising, ’ not extinction, nor annihilation, far less restoration, that is predicted regarding the great adversary. What the eternal braising of the serpent’s head may fully mean, we cannot say. We must be content with such passages as the twentieth of Revelation, specially ver. 10, and Matt. xxv. 41. in chains in the abyss of fire (Rev. xx. 1-10). Thou art conqueror; such a conqueror as all the potentates of evil shall not he able to confront; such a conqueror as makes our own victory sure. The conquered One, yet the conqueror; the bruised One, yet the bruiser: conquering by being conquered, bruising by being bruised. The bruising of Thy heel was the bruising of the serpent’s head.

This paradox or contradiction in the first promise must have struck those who heard it, and those who in after ages received it. There was a mystery that required solution, and the only key to the solution was the institution of sacrifice; the inscription on each patriarchal altar was, ‘ Thou shalt bruise His heel, He shall bruise thy head.’ The altar was the symbol of the battle; it was the battle-field itself. There the two battles were to be fought, and the two victories won: the first battle going against the woman’s seed; and the second, or final one, in His favour, by the complete overthrow of the serpent, or man’s great enemy. It was to be waged not between God and man, nor between Satan and man, but between God and Satan; or God personified in the Christ, and man’s enemy personified in Satan and symbolized in the serpent: man being, as it were, the prize or trophy of the fight between the Son of God and the foe of man.

On the results of the transaction done at that altar, man’s eternal welfare was to turn. The Son of God went there first to be bruised, and then to bruise. It was a peculiar battle, and a peculiar victory. At that altar there were the blood, the fire, the smoke, the ashes, the incense, — all indicating the mysterious process by which the first promise was to be wrought out. Each of these had to be studied aright, in order that the sinner might understand how the bruised One could be the bruiser, how the vanquished was to be the conqueror, how death was to win life. The mystery of sin-bearing could not then be fully comprehended, but some light was shed upon it. The sinner who brought the lamb, and who shed its blood at the altar, waiting to see every part of the process carried out, and the victim consumed to ashes, went away satisfied with what had been done; disburdened by having given his burden to the priest, and seen it laid upon that altar; relieved in conscience and delivered in spirit by having seen the devour¬ ing fire consume the offering, leaving nothing but the ashes, in token that the fire had spent itself upon the victim, and that righteous wrath had righteously passed away from himself.

‘There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, was the real meaning of every sacrifice. The bruised One has triumphed, the dying One has won the sinner’s victory. ‘ Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.’ Tor He could only redeem the accursed one by taking the curse upon Himself. He could only save the sinner by taking the sin upon Himself.

12. Thou art the Redeemer.

In Thee we have redemption through Thy blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of Thy grace. Thou hast redeemed ns to God by Thy blood: and we know that our Redeemer liveth. Thou hast bought us back from the enemy; Thou hast found a ransom for us, and leadest us out of prison. Thou art made unto us redemption (1 Cor. i. 30); Thou hast obtained eternal redemption for us (Heb. ix. 12). The redemption of the soul, the redemption of the body, the redemption of the purchased possession, — all this is Thine, the work of Thy love and power; and we are f sealed unto the day of redemption

This redemption was completed on the cross; there the price was paid and the ransom found. The burial and resurrection added nothing to the redeeming work; they were but the evidence and seal of its completeness. In suffering, the just for the unjust, Christ did it all. The cross was our redemption. The cross was our justification. In that cross we have power, and life, and blessing. Christ crucified is the power of God; and to the cross we turn for strength in the day of weak¬ ness; we glory in it, for by it the world is crucified to us, and we unto the world. Redemption and power are associated together, as truly as redemption and deliverance; and it is at the cross of Christ that we find these. By His stripes we are healed. By His death we live. By His blood we are redeemed; as it is written, we are ‘ justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus’ (Bom. iff. 24). The apostle speaks of the day of redemption as a day still future (Eph. iv. 30). And so it is. For not till resurrection is redemption really completed.

The Christ of Cod.

Yet we may say there are two days of redemption: the first, that which began it, — on the cross; the second, that which is to finish it, — at the resurrection, — when He comes to raise the dead, and change the living saints. To the first of these faith looks back trustingly; to the second, hope looks forward joyfully. The ransom, in virtue of which we are redeemed, was paid upon the cross; the redemption, which is the completion of the end for which the ransom wTas given, still awaits resurrection. Tor redemption in its full sense means the actual accomplishment of the thing contemplated, — the full deliverance of the objects for whom the ransom was paid down. Redemption from Egypt or Babylon refers to the actual recovery of the bondsmen, and redemption from the power of the grave to the actual resurrection. ‘ I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. 0 death, I will be thy plagues; 0 grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes’ (Hos. xiii. 14).

Our connection with this redemption is, like the whole of our connection with the person or work of the Christ of God, a very simple one. It is that expressed in these words: e He that believeth is not condemned’ (John iii. 18). ‘He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life’ (John v. 24). ‘ By His knowledge (i.e. by the

knowledge of Himself) shall my righteous Servant justify many’ (Isa. liii. 11). ‘He that believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God’ (1 John

V. 1).

The Christ of God is our Bedeemer, and it is by believing that we get possession of His redemption for ourselves.

Concerning this redemption the Holy Spirit has fully spoken; and we know that His testimony is true, for it is the testimony of God that can¬ not lie. In receiving this divine testimony, we become connected with the redemption and the Bedeemer. Hot by waiting, or working, or buy¬ ing, or deserving, do we get this whole redemption and this whole Bedeemer, but simply by believing. ‘ He that believeth,’ — this is the way in which God has always put His gospel. ‘ He that believeth ’ is the proclamation which He commands us to make. Are we content with this? Or do we say it is too simple to be true? Surely we cannot be delivered and justified by simply believing! Well, go and dispute the matter with God, and ask Him His reasons for putting it so singly. Persuade Him to mystify His language, and alter His terms. But, till you have succeeded in procuring from Him the changes which yon think would make it a better and safer gospel, it would be well for you to take it as it is. You are not likely to improve it; and to render it more complex in its terms, would only place it beyond the reach of sinners who, sensible of total impotence and unworthiness, find it in its simplicity the only good news suitable to their case.

13. Thou art the Saviour of the World.

Thou, 0 Jesus of Nazareth, hast come to seek and save that which was lost. Thy name is ‘Saviour, Christ the Lord’ (Luke ii. 11); ‘God my Saviour’ (Luke i. 47); the ‘Saviour of the world’ (John iv. 42); ‘ God our Saviour’ (1 Tim. i. 1); ‘Our Saviour Jesus Christ’ (1 Tim. i. 10). Salvation is linked with Thy name. Thy person, Thy work, Thy life, Thy death, Thy resurrection.

Saviour of the lost, we own Thee, 0 Christ of God.

‘ Who hath saved us ’ is the song we sing (2 Tim. i. 9); to Him who is ‘able to save to the uttermost’ (Heb. vii. 25). He ‘came into the world to save sinners’ (1 Tim. i. 15). ‘The Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost ’ (Matt, xviii. 11); and ‘ by grace we are saved, through faith ’ (Eph. ii. 5). We preach Christ the Saviour of sinners, and say: ‘ Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved’ (Acts xvi. 30); for there is no salvation in any other, nor any other name given under heaven, whereby we must be saved (Acts iv. 12). As the deliverer, He saves. As the looser of bonds, He saves. As the forgiver, He saves. As the justifier, He saves. As the shepherd, He saves. As the quickener, He saves. As the propitiation, He saves. The whole completeness of that which we call salvation is to be found in Him, without stint, or lack, or grudging. In His fulness is salvation, just such as a lost one needs; — deliverance from all evil, and the possession of all good.

His willingness to communicate what He possesses, is as boundless as His fulness. He loves to give; nay, He giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not. He is clothed with the garments of salvation (Isa. lxi. 1 0), and He delights to impart that salvation to all who need it. Out of His lips goeth the word of salvation (Acts xiii. 26), that all who come within the sound of His voice may hear and live (Isa. lv. 3). He is the author of eternal salvation (Heb. v. 9), and He presents Himself as such to the lost. His long-suffering is salvation (2 Pet. iii. 15); for He waits upon the sinner, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. His Holy Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Himself (2 Tim. iii. 15). The Pather hath f set Him to be a light of the Gentiles, that He should be for salvation unto the ends of the earth ’ (Acts xiii. 47). Thus, then, He speaks to us, and says: ‘ Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth’ (Isa. xlv. 22). This is the salvation and this is the Saviour of whom we preach, in preaching * the Christ of God.’ ‘ Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,’ is our message; — and how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?

All that salvation is we do not, cannot know, now; but we shall know hereafter. There is so much to be saved from; there is such manifold fulness in the Saviour; and there is, over and above the mere salvation, such a glory, and honour, and blessedness in reserve for the saved, that we may truly say that we know not, and shall never fully comprehend, what salvation is. The f wells of salvation 9 (Isa. xii. 3) are very deep. The heights of salvation are very lofty. The circle of salvation is very large. The joy of salvation is satisfying and exuberant. And all this is so free and rich, that we can only say it is infinitely worth the having; all things which eye hath seen, or ear hath heard, are not to be compared with it. He who gains it, gains all that is worth the having; he who loses it, loses everything, and is left inconceivably and eternally poor.

1 4. Thou art the Resurrection and the Life.

The Christ of God was to be the conqueror of death and the spoiler of the grave. Through Him the old sentence of death was to be reversed, and life both for soul and body was to be restored. He came to abolish death, and bring life and immortality to light: to bind the strong man, and to spoil his house; to destroy death, and him that had the power of death; and to lead captivity captive. The expression ‘ I am the resurrection and the life ’ carries us to the apostle’s statement as to the dead and living saints at the Lord’s coming. ‘ He that believeth in me,’ says our Lord, ‘ though he were dead, yet shall he live,’ is similar to the words, ‘ The dead in Christ shall rise first.’ ‘ He that liveth and believeth in me ’ (i.e. the living saints, or f we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord ’) f shall never die,’ resembles ‘ We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,’ or as it is written again, ‘ We that are alive and remain shall be caught up together into the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we be for ever with the Lord’ (see 1 Cor. xv. and 1 Thess. v.).

Very great importance is attached in Scripture to resurrection; redemption is incomplete without it. The work of Christ fails in one main part of its reversal of Satan’s work, if it do not accomplish this. Hence He Himself reiterates the words so often, f I will raise him up at the last day.’ The theological tendencies of our day are either to deny it or to undervalue it. And hence the special value of our Lord’s peculiar refutation of the Sadducees, when he quoted the words, * I am the God of Abraham, in proof of resurrection, and added, ‘ God is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living ’ (Matt. xxii. 32).

Some have wondered why our Lord should select such a passage as proof in this case. But first of all, it was needful in arguing with the Sadducees to look hack to Moses for his proof; and secondly, it was needful to take words which should go down to the very root of the doctrine, and exhibit its basis as resting on the very being of God, on His relationship to His creatures, on His character as the living One, on the impossibility of His being the God of the dead. As Abraham’s God, He was as much pledged to deliver Abraham’s body as his soul. Resurrection was as essential a part of redemption as forgiveness and regeneration. The restoration of every good thing that man had lost was necessary to the fulfilment of God’s eternal purpose, and was inseparably connected with the character and work of Him who came not simply as our propitiation, but our substitute, taking on Him our infirmities that He might deliver us from them, going down into our grave that He might

The Christ of Cod.

pluck us thence, and purchase for us bodies like His own, glorious and incorruptible.

Whether we are able just now to apprehend the full value of resurrection or not, matters little. God evidently lays great stress upon it, and seems to intimate that, without this, His great scheme would be mutilated. Many say, Oh, if we be eternally blest, what matters it whether we have bodies or not? Hay, but, 0 man, who art thou that repliest against God, undervaluing thy body which God created, and thereby affirming that this material part of creatureliood was a needless act of power, or perhaps a mistake?

It is a curious phenomenon, that in proportion as philosophic materialism makes progress in our day, resurrection is underrated or ridiculed. One would have thought that materialism would have welcomed the doctrine of resurrection as in sympathy with itself. Hot so: it dislikes resurrection; specially, no doubt, because the superhuman and supernatural are thus called in; but also because, while affirming the existence of matter, resurrection assumes the existence of spirit. In other words, the material is based upon the spiritual; and resurrection implies a totally different kind

Thou art the Christ What then? Ill

of materialism from that which, modern scepticism has advocated.

The connection of resurrection with Christ renders the reconciliation of resurrection with materialism impossible. 4 Jesus and the resurrection ’ was what the apostles preached (Acts xvii. 18). The two things are so linked together, that they who might he inclined to take the one without the other cannot. They must take both or none.

It is difficult to see why resurrection is so little dwelt upon by Christians. If the soul is safe, they say, we need not. care what becomes of the body. God’s thoughts, however, on this matter are not ours. His estimate of the body is not low and poor. When He shall transform and glorify us, then it shall he seen what the body is, to what honour it can attain, and what high functions and services to the soul it can perform. As the ‘ vile body,’ or ‘body of humiliation’ (Phil. iii. 21), it may often seem now a hindrance, a drag, and a deformity; hut in the day when it shall he made like unto the glorious body (or body of the glory) of Him who is the resurrection and the life, it will he seen in its full serviceableness, and perfection, and beauty; the handmaid of the soul and the minister of God; the golden link or communication between the material and the spiritual, the visible and the invisible; that wondrous agency by which the will draws all precious things out of what we call nature, — music from the air by touch, sweetness from substances by taste, beauty out of the stone by sculpture, power out of the fire, and fertility out of the barren soil. Tor the uses of the body, in its different members and senses, are beyond number, and altogether wonderful; and what we see of their uses now, is nothing in comparison with what we shall see hereafter, when God Himself takes up the human frame, and as from a well-tuned harp draws out of it the melodies of the everlasting age.

We should prize resurrection. It is the true day of meeting and re-union; the day of perfection and blessedness. Then that which is sown in weakness shall be raised in power. Voices long dumb shall speak again. Eyes long dimmed shall look into each other again. Hands shall once more clasp each other, — and the long, long day of human fellowship shall begin, never to change or end.

‘ Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs’ (Isa. xxvi. 19).

Of this fair prospect the Christ of God is the centre. ‘ Because I live, ye shall live also.’ We rise because He has risen. We live because He liveth. His incorruption is ours; and His glory is our glory. All that we shall have in that resurrection-day we shall owe to Him alone who died for us, and who rose again. Faith knits us to His cross. Faith links us to His grave. Faith connects us with His resurrection in the fulness of its eternal love and power. Through Him who is our resurrection we shall know what it is to have death swallowed up in victory, and to sing the song of triumph:

0 death, where is thy sting?

0 grave, where is thy victory?

The sting of death was sin;

The strength of sin was the law.

But thanks be to God,

Who giveth us the victory,

Through our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is of the resurrection unto glory, honour, and immortality that the apostle sings so triumphantly, inviting us to join in his song. It is the song of the first resurrection, like that which Moses and Miriam sang when the Bed Sea was crossed; the song of victory over death and the grave; to which

song we may add this as its completion:

Blessed are they that are called
To the marriage supper of the Lamb;

Blessed and holy is he

That hath part in the first resurrection:

On such the second death shall have no power;

But they shall be priests of God and of Christ,

And shall reign with Him a thousand years.

15. Thou art the Judge.

( The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son;... and hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, be¬ cause He is the Son of man’ (John v. 22, 27). It was part of God’s purpose that the world should he judged by a man; and the Christ, as the ‘ second man, or ‘last Adam, has come to be the world’s Judge; not now, indeed, for He is not yet judging, and He has not set up His throne of judgment (John ix. 39). But still He is Judge, and as such He will come again in His glory.

f Jehovah is our Judge ’ was part of Israel’s creed. Again and again He is sung of in the Psalms as Judge; Judge of the earth, and the ends thereof; Judge of the nations, — as in such passages as the following:

Let the nations be glad,

Yea, sing for joy:

Bor Thou shalt judge the people righteously,

And govern the nations upon earth (Ps. lxvii. 4).

And again, in reference to Messiah, Asaph sings:

God standeth in the congregation of the mighty;

He judgeth among the gods (Ps. lxxxii. 1).

•

And once more, speaking of the coming judgment and reign, David speaks:

He shall judge the people righteously!

Let the heavens rejoice,

And let the earth he glad;

Let the sea roar,

And the fulness thereof.

Let the field be joyful,

And all that is therein:

Then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice

Before the Lord!

For He cometh!

For He cometh!

To judge the earth:

He shall judge the world with righteousness,

And the people with His truth (Ps. xcvi. 10-13).

It is to judgment that all things are now point¬ ing forward; and the coming of the Judge, who is the Christ of God, is the world’s great hope. Like that of the ancient judges in Israel, His office is not one, hut manifold. They were raised up to clear the land of enemies, to sit in judgment, and to reign as kings. So shall it he with our Judge. And for Him, as such, we look. The Church looks for Him; the world looks for Him; creation looks for Him. In Him, God’s great original purpose concerning earth will he carried out. He comes to set up His throne, to take the reins of government, and to rule in righteousness. Men shrink from such a crisis in earth’s history as the arrival of the Judge implies. They dread the judgment, and they have begun to disbelieve and deny it.

That ‘ God will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath appointed 5 (Acts xvii. 31), is a doctrine counted obsolete by many. The current of the age is against it. The march of intellect has superseded the necessity for it. The larger and wider views of God’s character now evolving, show that He is not likely thus to arraign His creatures before His bar. Man, with His progress in science, and his skill in art, is getting too powerful to be thus summarily dealt with!

With many in our day, judgment by the direct interference of God is considered out of the question. Man’s own indiscretions may injure him. His follies may avenge themselves upon him. He may thus be self-judged and self-punished, as his conscience troubles him, or as he reaps the fruit of his misdeeds. But beyond these effects of his conduct, — the recoil of his own violence, — judgment cannot be. It is unpliilosophical, unnatural, and in the teeth of the world’s history. There will be earthquakes, with submerged cities; but these are the evolution of the laws of nature. There will be the sweeping hurricane, levelling the works of man. There will be the tempest, raising the billows, and swallowing up navies. There will be the lightning, splitting rocks and towers. There will be the pestilence, prosecuting its remorseless march over sea and land, from east to west. There will be the famine, emptying cities and villages of their millions. There will be all these; but these are not judgment, nor forerunners of the Judge! They are the unfolding of certain rigid laws, which have been impressed on nature from the beginning, and cannot be interfered with. Beyond these agencies of terror there is no judgment, and no penalty for man’s guilt!

Thus speaks philosophy, more and more boldly every year. Prosecuting the devious speculations of unbelief, it gets further and further from God. It hates the thought of God coming nearer man, either to punish or reward. ‘ Where is the promise of His coming? ’ is its boasting shout.

Yet the Judge will come. The Christ will come. He waits, because He is long-suffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. He lingers because He loves. He is slow to leave the throne of grace, and to ascend the throne of judgment. For His mercy endureth for ever; and every part of creaturehood is of value in His eyes. What a gospel this delay preaches to the sons of men, even when not a word is spoken! He lingers and tarries, because He pities, and seeks not to destroy, but to save. Each hour’s delay is a fresh message of grace to you, 0 man! It says to you: Tarry not, draw near, be reconciled, enter into peace through the blood of the covenant, and live for ever.

16. Thou art the King of Kings.

In God’s purpose there was a King. One will was to be the ruler of many wills. One man

was to have dominion over earth and sea. In

heaven there seems to be no such predominance or pre-eminence of the one over the many. God there is all, and under Him directly the heavenly hosts. On earth it was otherwise. God was to rule it by means of a man, and the first Adam

was set on its throne as sole and sovereign ruler.

Earth was given to naan to be ruled by him as well as replenished.

The first man left his first estate, and lost his crown. Since then there have been many rulers among the many subdivisions or regions of earth. And these rulers man has called kings. Eor many ages they have been exercising dominion, yet they have failed to rule successfully. Earth is no nearer its normal state of order and peace than it wTas when first they took up their sceptres. Nay, under the rule of man, confusion multiplies; law¬ lessness and disobedience overflow; and nothing but the sword prevents this world from being a chaos and a slaughter-house. The armies of earth, meant for war, are the only preservers of peace.

God means to prove man to the uttermost, and to test his ability to govern and to preserve order on his own earth. When that proof has been completed, and man demonstrated to be un¬ able to rule his own world, then God introduces His own King, who is to rule the earth in righteousness.

This King of kings is the Christ of God. Times without number has God described for us this Messiah and His kingdom, — His fitness to reign, and the glory, as well as the peace and order, by which that reign is to be distinguished.

Thus David speaks in his last words:

There shall he a just one ruling over men,

Ruling in the fear of God.

He shall be as the light of the morning
When the sun riseth;

A morning without clouds (2 Sam. xxiii. 4).

Thus he speaks in the well-known psalm of the kingdom:

Give the King Thy judgments, 0 God,

And Thy righteousness unto the King’s Son.

He shall judge Thy people with righteousness,

And Thy poor with judgment.

In His days shall the righteous flourish;

And abundance of peace shall be
As long as the moon endureth.

He shall have dominion from sea to sea,

And from the river to the ends of the earth.

All kings shall fall down before Him;

And all nations shall serve Him (Ps. lxxii. 1-11).

Thus, too, Isaiah points the prophetic finger to the coming King, — the expected Christ:

Behold!

A King shall reign in righteousness,

And princes shall decree judgment.

Yea, this man shall be
An hiding-place from the wind,

And a covert from the tempest;

As rivers of water in a dry place,

As the shadow of a great rock in a weary land (Isa. xxxii. 1).

And again he points to Him, and dilates upon the glories of His reign as the reign of peace, the ‘ restitution of all things, the more than restoration of Paradise:

There shall come forth a rod
Out of the stem of Jesse,

And a branch (a shoot)

Shall grow out of his roots:

And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him,

The spirit of wisdom and understanding,

The spirit of counsel and might,

The spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.

With righteousness shall He judge the poor,

And reprove with equity for the meek of the earth:

And He shall smite the earth
With the rod of His mouth,

And with the breath of His lips
Shall He slay the wicked.

And righteousness shall he the girdle of His loins,

And faithfulness the girdle of His reins.

The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,

And the leopard shall lie down with the kid;

The calf, the young lion, and the fatling together;

And a little child shall lead them.

And the cow and the bear shall feed;

Their young ones shall lie down together:

And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

The sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp,

And the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den. They shall not hurt nor destroy In all my holy mountain:

For the earth shall be full
Of the knowledge of the Lord,

As the waters cover the sea (Isa. xi. 1-9).

His crown, His throne, His sceptre, are fully described in many ways, and by different prophets; each seeming to vie with the other as to who shall speak of them most perfectly. Messiah as King, is one of the most prominent themes of prophecy. We find Him everywhere as such, — the Church’s joy, the world’s hojie, Israel’s expectation, and creation’s deliverance. And when He comes again in His royal splendour, we read:

In righteousness doth He judge and make war.

His eyes are as a flame of fire,

And on His head are many crowns;

And He is clothed with a vesture dipped in blood:

And His name is called the Word of God.

Out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword,

That with it He should smite the nations;

And He shall rule them with a rod of iron:

And He treadeth the wine-press
Of the fierceness and wrath
Of Almighty God.

And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh A name written,

Iving of kings and Lord of lords (Rev. xix. 11-15).

Messiah is at once Priest and King. His is the royal priesthood, or the priestly kingship. He is Melchizedek, King of Salem, and Priest of the Most High God. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. As son of Adam, His dominion is over earth; as son of David, His kingdom is over Israel. Yet is He King of heaven also, seated on the eternal throne, and wearing the crown of the universe. Por there is a future for the Church, a future for Israel, a future for the earth, a future for heaven, a future for the universe in connection with His kingship as

Them art the Christ. What then? the Christ of God, which is as blessed as it is boundless, as glorious as it is eternal.

On His throne shall His Church sit, sharing His triumphs and glories: for each of His re¬

deemed is an heir of God, and a joint-heir with Christ. ‘ If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him.’ Our designation is, ‘ partakers of the glory that shall be revealed.’ The lines have fallen

unto us in pleasant places; yea, we have a goodly heritage. We eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. We receive

the crown of righteousness (2 Tim. iv. 8), the

crown of life (Jas. i. 12), the crown of glory (1 Pet. v. 4). Ours is the Morning -star; and having overcome, we sit with Messiah on His throne, even as He overcame and sat down with the Father on His throne.