3. If we have been obedient to that heavenly vision, then we have had another vision after a while. We find not only that Christ is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, but that He claims to be our Lord and Master. By His re- demption He has not only delivered us, but purchased us. We are bought with a price. We are not our own. And then, perhaps, comes a great struggle. We are willing enough to have our sins forgiven and give some of our heart and time and gifts to Christ. But He must have everything.
4. Then we have another vision. We are astonished to find out that although we have received Christ as a Sin-bearer and as a Master, though it seems to us that we have the best intentions and desires, yet the law of sin in our very members makes us cry
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out, " O, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death ? " Christ shows us that the secret lies in fellow- ship with Him, fellowship with Him in His resurrection and in His power. That is no easy thing. But He will make it easy. When we see that it is the gift of God, when every man has been crucified with Him, when we accept death as a gift as we accept life, all things are made new. Then it seems as though we began the Christian life over again. We say with the Apostle, " I through the law am dead to the law, that I may live unto God. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me : and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."
5. We have considered Christ in succession first as Leader, then as Lamb, then as Lord, then as Life. There is yet another vision — a vision of duty and of blessedness. And in this vision we enjoy Likeness. Was it not said of Him that He went about doing good ? Is this not the last characteristic and likeness between Father and Son, that " My Father worketh hitherto and Iwork"?1
Hi. The Visions of the Servant.
The fifth of the visions already considered is both for St. Paul and for us a vision of service. That vision needs fuller consider- ation. It is in four parts.
1. Of the four visions which more or less seize the imagination and fire the heart of Christ's ministers, first comes the vision which summons us to be the living voice of the Divine oracles, the ministers of reconciliation between God and men. This was Isaiah's vision. " I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us ? Then said I, Here am I ; send me."
2. The second vision is the vision that sends us. It points us to the place where we are to labour, and to the people whom we are to serve, and to the fellows with whom our work is to be done, and it may be to those who are to train us in doing it. St. Paul is our pattern here. " After they were come to Mysia, they
1 Theodore Monod.
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essayed to go into Bithynia ; but the Spirit suffered them not. And they passing by Mysia came down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night ; there stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us. And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them."
3. The third vision deepens, widens, expands, matures us, turning youth into manhood, and summoning us to the midsummer of life. It was St. Peter's at Joppa. The vessel descending out of heaven with all manner of fourfooted beasts, and the accom- panying voice, "Eise, Peter, kill and eat," and the significant monition, " What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common," had set the Apostle thinking and wondering, when suddenly the messengers of Cornelius stood at his door, and the Spirit said to him, "Behold, three men seek thee." That vision with all that came out of it, meant the immediate opening of the Gentile world to Christ. It was also a new era of idea, of duty, of con- quest for the Apostle. The struggle it must have meant for a conscientious Hebrew Christian it is very hard for us adequately to measure. But growth with pain is the very principle of life ; pain not only of body, but of soul — not only of soul, but of mind.
4. The fourth vision is the vision which sustains us. It was St. John's. "After this 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." This vision sustains because it inspires. It inspires us with hope for the future, and that hope, being sure and steadfast, sustains us in the present.1