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ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white; for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints." "And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." These are full of suggestive thoughts; the Saviour selecting us to be his bride, not because of something beautiful on us, nor something attractive in us, but in his own sovereign and unutterable love. When a man selects a woman to be his wife, he does so because there is something beautiful, or attractive, or fascinating to him in her; but when Christ selected the Church to be his bride, he selected her not because she was beautiful, but to make her beautiful; not because she was holy, but to make her holy; not because she was lovely, but to make her lovely. He says himself, describing this very thing: "When I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, it was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness; yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine. Then washed I thee with water; and I anointed thee with oil. I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badger's skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk. I decked thee also with ornaments; and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck. And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head. Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil; and thou wast exceedingly beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom. And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty; for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God." And the same beautiful image, so full of thought, occurs in the Epistle to the Ephesians, where Christ says: "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and

cleanse it with the washing of water by the word; that he might present it to himself a glorious church :" now this is the marriage supper of the Lamb, this is the bridal festival in glory; "that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." He adds: "As a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments." This is extremely suggestive. In the original language, in the Hebrew, it is literally: "As a bridegroom decketh himself with a mitre like a priest." What a fine thought, that our priest is not merged in the bridegroom; that Christ, in every relationship in heaven, as Prophet, King, Bridegroom, Husband, retains still running through all the priestly office! Hence John says when he looked into heaven: "I saw a Lamb just as if he had been slain;" he saw also the great High Priest having the golden censer in his hand. So that even in his relationships as King, as Prophet, as Lord, as Bridegroom, he still retains the cohesion and the foundation of all, his priestly, or atoning, or intercessory office.

We have, in the next place, the bride. She also is to deck herself with jewels. I have often said, and I do not see anything irrational or unreasonable in supposing that it should be so, that precious stones are, in the beautiful words of a poet, the scattered wrecks, the disintegrated fragments of Paradise. There are but two

material things in this world that are perfectly beautiful; the flowers of summer, and the everlasting flowers that we call diamonds, and amethysts, and gems, and jewels. These are spoken of constantly in Scripture as beautiful. I have heard Christian persons say to me, Is it lawful to wear these things? It is perfectly lawful if you have paid for them, and it is certainly very beautiful to do so. Objectors quote a passage in Peter's Epistle, and ask, Does not Peter condemn such ornaments? Nothing of the sort. He says of women: "Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden

man of the heart." That language is comparative. "Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life." It does not mean you are not to work for your daily bread; but that you are to work more for living bread than for daily bread. So in adorning with gems-you are not to pride yourself on, nor to make that your chief charm, your great attraction; your adorning is not to lie chiefly, mainly, far less exclusively in such things; but in the hidden man of the heart-that inner beauty which excels and eclipses all. We read in the Apocalypse that the new Jerusalem has twelve precious stones for its foundation. Is there anything sinful in a diamond? I think it is most beautiful; it seems to my mind like a bit of Paradise-I mean material Paradise still surviving. And there is nothing in a flower that is unlovely, but the very reverse; and perhaps these things will all be taken and consecrated to adorn the palace of our King. Like a bride adorned with jewels. What is she? She gives up her own name; she gives up her own responsibilities; she takes her husband's name. Our name was Mara, the bitter; but this name becomes in Christ Naomi, the beautiful. She shall be called by a new name, and she will receive it when she joins in the new song. And then this bride we are told he will present to himself a glorious church. Read the 45th Psalm, and you will see a beautiful picture of the presentation of this bride to the Lord Jesus Christ; where he tells us: "Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father's house; so shall the king greatly desire thy beauty; for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him. And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift; even the rich among the people shall intreat thy favour. The king's daughter is all glorious within; her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework; the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee. With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought, they shall enter into the king's palace. Instead

of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth." What a magnificent scene will that be when the priestly Bridegroom, adorned with a mitre that never fades; having on his breastplate the precious stones, the Urim and the Thummim, shall, in the world that will be, present to himself this bride, now hidden, but then in bridal robes, in coronation garments; when the lightning of her loveliness shall cover the whole earth with its splendour; and a song of joy shall rise around that bridal, the marriage supper of the Lamb, the consummation of a long betrothal, like a rainbow hovering round a fountain, for ever and ever! Creation shall be spoiled of its most precious things to adorn the dwelling-place of our King. Depend upon it the devil is not to have the mastery ; the world is not to be his. Christ, Redeemer, King, Creator, shall return to reign.

LECTURE XXIV.

THE APOCALYPTIC GLORY.

LANGUAGE fails to express the glory of the world as it will be. Imagery, the noblest and most magnificent, sinks under the burden of beauty and grandeur.

"The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee; but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory," &c.-ISAIAH xl. 19-21. PROPHECIES here expand into promises. It is asked perhaps, what distinction is there between these? A promise is a prophecy of a good thing. Prophecy is the prediction of good or evil, or neither good nor evil, as the case may demand; but a promise is the prophecy of what is good. Each promise is the setting of a precious jewel; each good thing the apple of gold fixed and placed in the network of silver. Faith seizes the great doctrinal truths of the Gospel, which come from, and shine with concentric splendour on him in whom all truths are harmony, and resting upon those doctrinal truths, and upon him who is the root of all and the end of all, faith feels and inspires safety, confidence, and peace. But hope, on the other hand, seizes the promise, and feeds on the precious contents of the promise, and is refreshed by its perfume and elevated and enlarged by contemplating its beauty. Hope feeds on promises as bees feed on flowers, is satisfied and becomes strong. In other words, faith looks at what is written respecting the Rock of Ages, and feels at peace; hope lifts its eye, spreads its wing, and stretches its flight into that future of glory and of blessedness, and

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