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Grave. To take up the Patriarch's strain: Not only are His Words written in a book-the book of the everlasting Gospel; but the great facts of His Death and Resurrection are graven with an iron pen in the Rock; graven by the soldier's lance on the Rock of Ages, there to be read by the eyes of Men and Angels for evermore 1.

And what next does the Patriarch say? The sequel is solemn and significant. I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom my shall behold, and not another. Yes; every eye eyes shall see Him; they also which pierced Him3.

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Let us endeavour to realize to ourselves this fact. Let us represent to ourselves the future circumstances of the great Day,-the Easter-Day of the World'. Then we shall all be raised from our graves, and behold Him Who died for us and rose again; and, behold, He is alive for evermore 3. He will then come upon the clouds of heaven. We shall look on Him Whom we have pierced. wounds He received for our sake. For He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed.

1 Job xix. 22-24.

We shall see the

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4 Among the Interpreters who suppose that the "Revelation" was made on Easter-Day, (see above, p. 139,) may be mentioned Eichhorn ad loc. (i. 10.) See also Rosenmüller, and Suicer v. Kupiaký.

5 Rev. i. 18.

6 Isaiah liii. 5.

If we could give a voice to that precious blood which flowed from them, and speaketh better things than that of Abel'; if those wounds could speak, what now would be their language to us?

You have felt indignant, it may be, with the Gentile soldier, who pierced your Lord's side. But consider yourselves. He was the soldier of Cæsar, you are the soldiers of Christ. He had not seen what you see; he had not received what you enjoy. He knew not that his lance fulfilled a prophecy, and proved that He Whom he pierced is Christ. He had no St.John to teach him the meaning of those sacred streams which gushed from the wounded side of the Son of God. But you have been quickened by Christ's Death.

Even now, in a certain sense, the text has been fulfilled to you. Christ, who will come hereafter on the clouds of heaven with His holy Angels, has come, and comes daily to you on the clouds of Apostles and Prophets'. You have seen Him Whom you have pierced. You are compassed with a cloud of Witnesses. You have been baptized into Christ's Death and your life has been hid with Christ in God. You have been bathed in that water, and cleansed by that blood, which flowed from His precious side. You hear the words of St. John.

You

1 Heb. xii. 24.

2 Berengaudus in Rev. i. 7. Venit cum nubibus. Possunt per nubes Apostoli cæterique Prædicatores intelligi. See above, p. 145.

8 Heb. xii. 1.

4 Col. iii. 3.

are invited to drink of the cup of salvation', and to be refreshed with manna from heaven. You have been instructed by the doubts of St. Thomas, and by the faith of St. John. You have seen the proof of Christ's resurrection; and, in that, the earnest of your own.

How, then, are you acting? Are you risen with Christ? Are you walking in newness of life?? Do you mortify your members on the earth, and set your affections on things above? Do you remember the terms of the covenant to which you were pledged at your baptism? or do you think little of them? Have you forgotten what Christ has suffered for you; and have you despised what He has purchased for you? Are you of those who, by an ungodly life, as the Apostle says, crucify afresh the Son of God, and put Him to open shame; and who count the blood of the covenant, wherewith they were sanctified, an unholy thing, and do despite to the spirit of grace * ? Then thou art the man. Not the Roman soldier with his lance, but thou, the so-called Christian soldier with thy sins, art the fittest object of thine own reprobation. Thou hast pierced, and art piercing, Christ. Therefore condemn thyself; mourn over thyself; look with a contrite heart, and streaming eyes, on Him Whom thou hast pierced. Think what anguish thy sins have cost Him. Think on the heinousness of sin, which demanded such a sacrifice.

1 Psalm cxvi. 13.

3 Col. iii. 5.

2 Rom. vi. 4.

4 Heb. x. 29.

4

Pray to Him for Pray for love, like

Think, therefore, of the punishment due to it hereafter. Let Him henceforth be Thy Lord and Thy God. Pray to Him for pardon. Grace. Pray for a clean heart. His. Bear the cross for Him, as He bore it for Thee. Bear the marks of His death on thy heart, as He bears them in heaven. Suffer with Him, as He suffered for Thee. Dwell in heart and soul with Him. Meditate on His invincible Might, and awful Majesty. See in His Wounds the proof of His Victory. They proclaim that He has vanquished Satan, and burst the bands of death, and broken in pieces the powers of darkness, and raised Himself; and that He will raise thee; and that all who are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of Man', and shall come forth. And then, when all the dread scenes described in the Apocalypse shall be displayed before us; when the smoke of the bottomless pit shall ascend from beneath, and the gates of heaven be opened above; when the sea shall give up the dead in it, and death and the grave shall deliver up the dead in them; when the dead, small and great, shall be raised, and stand before God, and the Throne be set, and the Books opened, and every one be judged; and when every eye shall see Him, they also which pierced Him; then God grant that we may see Him with joy; then, when Christ, Who is our life, shall appear, may we also appear with Him in Glory!

1 John v. 28.

3 Rev. xx. 13.

Rev. ix. 1, 2. xiv. 11. xix. 3.
Rev. xx. 12.
5 Col. iii. 4.

LECTURE VI.

REV. i. 1.

The Revelation of Jesus Christ.

Ir is my purpose on the present occasion to state to you what appears to me to be the true view of the plan of the Apocalypse; and to illustrate it by an Expository Comment, which will be continued in subsequent Discourses.

What is the design of the Apocalypse?

This, I am aware, is a difficult question, and one on which very different opinions have been entertained by Interpreters of great learning and ability; and it is, therefore, far from my intention to pronounce a confident judgment upon it. The result of my inquiries is offered, with due deference, for your consideration, and with a deep sense of the need of caution and sobriety, and of prayer for spiritual illumination, in the treatment of this solemn subject.

Let me premise a few words concerning the subsidiary means for the Exposition of the Apocalypse.

M

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