The Multitude of the Redeemed
‘I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.’ — Revelation vii. 9.
SERE are multitudinous national elements fused into a living brotherhood. Here are racial differences losing themselves in a vital union, as ten thousand separate streams lose themselves in the communion of the great deep. ‘All nations and kindreds and peoples’ stand together in sympathetic and heart-locked unity. How is the wondrous fellowship achieved? I think the words of the fisherman-seer point out the spiritual solvents by which all racial and national elements are to be transmuted into international love. What are they? What seem to be the elements which constitute this family life? Mark this: — these diverse ’ nations and kindreds and peoples ’ were all alike in
this, they were all ’ clothed in white robes ‘; in this too they were all akin, they all had 1 palms in their hands ‘; in yet a third characteristic do we find agreement, they united in a common song, ‘Salvation unto our God, In these three common characteristics there is suggested the explanation of the family life above, and in this is indicated the line along which the strife-riven and jealous and revengeful nations of our day are to be brought into a fruitful and fundamental brotherhood.
1. The first essential to national brotherhood is the ‘white robe.’ That necessity is fundamental. If the ‘white robe’ be missing, brotherhood will always be counterfeit and a phantom. ‘White robes are holy habits.
The cleansed heart is the primary necessity to a true union of hearts. Impurities can never be brought into permanent union. We fight against the law of God when we seek to establish cohesion between the unclean. This is true in the life of the home as well as in the life of the nation. True family union can only be realized when every member of the family wears the white robe. Alliances between the unclean nations constitute only a ‘covenant of death, The brotherhood of man and the union of nations will not be accomplished by any diplomatic
shrewdness, by any alliance based on the identity of material interests, by any concert established for purpose of mutual defence. These may produce neighbourly contact; but as for brotherhood — the sweet angel will remain afar off, waiting for men to put on the ‘white robe,’ and not until the nations have been purged from their moral and spiritual filth shall we see the fellowship which makes the family life above, and which draws into a loving and vital union ‘a multitude whom no man can number, of all nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues.’
2. All the members of the great company carried ‘palms in their hands.’ The palm was a favourite symbol of the Hebrew people. Perhaps its gracefulness, its queenliness, its faithful endurance throughout the changing seasons, had made the people regard it as a beautiful and persistent friend. It was used as a symbol of conquest and sovereignty, and as such it has come down to our own day. We speak of a man as ‘taking the palm, by which we indicate that, after making a comparison, we decide that among many men this man is the victor, the best. So the palm is the emblem of conquest. This multitude ’ whom no man could number,’ comprising every nation and every tongue, bear palms in
their hands. What have they conquered?
Self. Each tiafc dethroned himself that he may crown his brother. By love they serve one another. Family life is impossible when each member is self-assertive, and constitutes a force of personal aggression. Family life is possible and beautiful when every member carries a palm, a symbol that self is merged and lost in the welfare of the whole. The greatest of all possessions is self-possession, as the greatest of all conquests is self-conquest. Before the kindreds can form a brotherhood the peoples must carry the palm, the palm which indicates a suppressed and surrendered self. Happily, they who have washed their robes in the cleansing energies of the Christ, appropriate the Master’s Spirit, and in the constraining power of His crucifixion are willing and ready to crucify themselves. They who wash in His blood acquire the spirit of sacrifice, and sacrifice self. They who wear the white robes also bear the palm. 3. There is yet a third characteristic. The multitude whom no man can number have their family life consolidated by a common praise. They unite in the glorious song: 1 Salvation unto our God who sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, There is no unifying influence like worship and praise.
The family and the church will find a wondrous unifying medium in the atmosphere of devotion. Men find their kinship best when they are upon their knees. When men leave the platform of controversy and take to singing and prayer, they enter the domain of fellowship.
Here then are the three great characteristics of the family life in glory, and they suggest the ways to a divine brotherhood on earth: white robes,’ the washing from uncleanness in the blood of the Lamb: ‘the palm,’ the entire suppression of selfishness: the song of praise, the participation in a common worship.