^ " Less and less, I think, grows the consciousness of seeking God. Greater and greater grows the certainty that He is seek- ing us and giving Himself to us to the complete measure of our
342 THE THRONE OF GRACE
present capacity. That is Love, not that we loved Him, but that He loved us. I am sure that we ought to dwell far more upon God's love for us than on our love for Him. There is such a thing as putting ourselves in the way of God's overflowing love and letting it break upon us till the response of love to Him comes, not by struggle, not even by deliberation, but by necessity, as the echo comes when the sound strikes the rock. And this, which must have been true wherever the soul of God and the soul of man have lived, is perfectly and finally manifest in the Christ- hood of which it is the heart and soul.^
(1) It is the opinion of some that, in the phrase " the throne of grace," an allusion is made to the so-called mercy-seat in the Jewish temple, on which God is represented as sitting enthroned, and where He heard the supplications of His people presented by the high priest, when He accepted their oblations, and from which He dispensed to them the blessings that they needed. For this, however, there seems no sufficient reason. The writer has no call here to refer to the mercy-seat; and it is unlikely that, in seeking to raise the minds of his readers to the elevation of specifically spiritual worship through Christ, he would clothe his sentiments in language borrowed from the outward Jewish worship ; to say nothing of the fact that " mercy-seat " is a rendering which has nothing in the original to jvistify it, and that Jehovah is nowhere represented as " sitting enthroned on it," but rather as sitting on a throne upborne by the cherubim, from which He looked down on the blood-sprinkled lid which covered, and, as it were, hid from view, the covenant broken by Israel, and demanding the punishment of the transgressors.
(2) Others have thought that this throne of grace is the mediatorial throne on which Christ sits, not the throne of God the Father. But though it is undoubtedly true that our Lord is now exalted to the throne of heaven, where He sits possessed of all power and authority, it does not appear that it is of this that our author is speaking here. His subject leads him to contem- plate the priestly office and work of Christ rather than the regal, and the light in which we are taught to regard Him here is not so much that of the Being to whom we are to come as that of the Medium through which we are to come. As He has pro- cured eternal redemption for us, and as He appears in the
^ PhillijJS Brooks : Memories of His Life, 606.
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presence of God for us, we have access with confidence to the Most High. Through Him we have the introduction or privilege of entrance to the Father. Access to the throne of grace, then, is access to God the Father, as seated on that throne. Such language is of course figurative : it describes God after the manner of men. But it does describe Him to us; it is not a merely ornamental figure, it is a figure designed vividly, and in a manner calculated to impress our minds, to convey to us certain ideas concerning God in His relation to us, ideas which it is of importance that we should receive, as intimately connected with the furtherance in us of a true and spiritual religion.
^ I suppose if I were more simple-minded I should have been thinking over my faults and failures, desiring to do better, making good resolutions. But I don't do that. I do desire, with all my heart, to do better. I know how faltering, how near the ground my flight is. But these formal, occasional repentances are useless things; resolutions do little but reveal one's weakness more patently. What I try to do is simply to uplift my heart with all its hopes and weaknesses to God, to try to put my hand in His, to pray that I may use the chances He gives me, and interpret the sorrows He may send me. He knows me utterly and entirely, my faults and my strength. I cannot fly from Him though I take the wings of the morning. I only pray that I may not harden my heart ; that I may be sought and found ; that I may have the courage I need. All that I have of good He has given me ; and as for the evil. He knows best why I am tempted, why I fall, though I would not. There is no strength like the abasement of weakness ; no power like a childlike confidence.^
"Holy of Holies," awful name —
Where, in a still retreat, The Presence of the Godhead dwelt,
Upon the mercy-seat : Veiled from the eye in darkness dim, Enthroned between the cherubim.
Once in the year, within the veil,
In mystic robes arrayed, The High Priest entered, and with blood
An expiation made: But blood of victims could not cleanse And purge the guilt of man's offence.