Who is the King of glory ?
And yet gathering new music and new meaning the surging anthem rolls,
Jehovah strong and mighty, Jehovah mighty in battle . . . He is the King of glory.
Thus the song is also of One who was mighty in battle. Looking upon Him, the glorified One, and listening to His words, the wonder grows. For in that Form, all filled with exquisite beauty, are yet the signs of suffering and of pain. The marks of wounding are in hands, and feet, and side, and His presence declares in His own words, " I am . . . the Living One ; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore." ^
Chains of my heart, avaunt I say — I will arise, and in the strength of love
Pursue the bright track ere it fade away, My Saviour's pathway to His home above.
Sure, when I reach the point where earth Melts into nothing from th' uncumbered sight,
Heaven will o'ercome th' attraction of my birth, And I will sink in yonder sea of light:
Till resting by th' incarnate Lord, Once bleeding, now triumphant for my sake,
I mark Him, how by Seraph hosts adored He to earth's lowest cares is still awake.
' G. Campbell Morgan.
ST. MARK 513
The sun and every vassal star, All space, beyond the soar of Angel wings,
Wait on His word ; and yet He stays His car For every sigh a contrite suppliant brings.
He listens to the silent tear 'Mid all the anthems of the boundless sky —
And shall our dreams of music bar our ear To His soul-piercing voice for ever nigh ?
Nay, gracious Saviour, — but as now Our thoughts have traced Thee to Thy glory-throne,
So help us evermore with Thee to bow Where human sorrow breathes her lowly moan.^
4. The Session involves Intercession. — In the Epistle to the Hebrews is constantly reiterated the thought that we have a Priest who has " passed into the heavens," there to " appear in the presence of God for us." And St. Paul says, " It is Christ Jesus that died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us " (Eom. viii. 34). There are deep mysteries connected with the thought of the intercession of Christ. It does not mean that the Divine Heart needs to be won to love and pity. It does not mean that in any mere outward and formal fashion Christ pleads with God, and softens and placates the Infinite and Eternal love of the Father in the heavens. It, at least, plainly means this, that He, our Saviour and Sacrifice, is for ever in the presence of God, presenting His own blood as an element in the Divine dealing with us, modifying the incidence of the Divine law, and securing through His own merits and intercession the outflow of blessings upon our heads and hearts. It is not a complete statement of Christ's work for us that He died for us ; He died that He might have somewhat to offer. He lives that He may be our Advocate as well as our pro- pitiation with the Fatlier. The High Priest once a year passed within the curtain, and there in the solemn silence and solitude of the Holy Place, not without trembling, sprinkled the blood that he bore thither; and but for a moment was he permitted to stay in the awful Presence. So, but in reality and for ever,
^ J. Keble, The Christian Year, Ascension Day. ST. MARK — 33
514 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
with the joyful gladness of a Son in His " own calm home, His habitation from eternity," Christ abides in the Holy Place ; and, at the right hand of the Majesty of the Heavens, lifts np that prayer, so strangely compact of authority and submission : " Father, I will that those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am." The Son of Man at the right hand of God is our Intercessor with the Father, " Seeing, then, that we have a great High Priest that is passed through the heavens, let us come boldly to the Throne of Grace."
Not as one blind and deaf to our beseeching.
Neither forgetful that we are but dust, Not as from heavens too high for our upreaching,
Coldly sublime, intolerably just: —
Nay but Thou knewest us, Lord Christ Thou knowest, Well Thou rememberest our feeble frame,
Thou canst conceive our highest and our lowest Pulses of nobleness and aches of shame.
Therefore have pity ! — not that we accuse Thee,
Curse Thee and die and charge Thee with our woe:
Not thro' Thy fault, 0 Holy One, we lose Thee, Nay, but our own, — yet hast Thou made us so!
Then tho' our foul and limitless transgression Grows with our growing, with our breath began,
Eaise Thou the arms of endless intercession, Jesus, divinest when Thou most art manl^
5. Lastly, the Ascension sets before us the ever -active Helper. The " right hand of God " is the Omnipotent energy of God ; and however certainly the language of Scripture requires for its full interpretation that we should firmly hold that Christ's glorified body dwells in a place, we are not to omit the other thought that to sit at the right hand also means to wield the immortal energy of that Divine nature over all the field of the Creation, and in every province of His dominion. So that the ascended Christ is the ubiquitous Christ ; and He who is " at the right hand of God " is wherever the power of God reaches throughout His whole Universe.