^A. C. Beuson, The Upton Letters, 317.
344 THE THRONE OF GRACE
0 Great Eedeemer ! God and Man,
Victim and Priest in one; Thou, entering Heaven with Thine own Blood,
Didst once for all atone ; Thou hast removed the awful cloud. Which once the oracle did shroud.
Now a bright Eainbow o'er the Throne
Sheds lustre from above, Where showers of Judgment mildly shine,
Gilded by beams of Love; Thy Blood, 0 Lamb of God, is there. Pleading for us with ceaseless Prayer.
Cleansed by feharfe Blood, we now approach
Boldly the Throne of Grace : 0 may we, following the Lamb,
Come to that Holy Place; Lord, who for us didst deign to bleed. Be Thou our help in time of need ! ^
3. To the throne we should come with hearts that harbour no treason ; to the throne we should come with large petitions as those who expect greatly ; to the throne we should come with the deepest sincerity and earnestness, remembering how high and wonderful a thing it is to enter the brightness of its radiance. But knowing its own flaws, its faultiness, its feebleness, the spirit rests on the thought that the throne is a throne of grace. Often and often we can approach it only with broken words, with wandering hearts, with ignorant desires, with passionate sobs and sighs. There is One who is there to interpret with loving tenderness our tears, our dim longings for deliverance and purity. Often we can come only defiled within and without. We come to the throne with defects of faith, defects of knowledge, defects of life, but they may all be overlooked and forgiven. We come with griefs we cannot name, but we come to Him whose eyes behold with compassion our most intimate and secret and shameful miseries. We are living in a year of grace and we are living under the reign of grace. Those who approach an earthly throne may be troubled infinitely by some breach of custom or ^ Christopher Wordsworth.
HEBREWS IV. i6 345
etiquette, but the place of our sanctuary, our glorious high throne from the beginning, is a throne of grace.
^ We are called to the throne of grace, not to the throne of law. Eocky Sinai once was the throne of law, when God came to Paran with ten thousand of His holy ones. Who desired to draw near to that throne ? Even Israel might not. Bounds were set about the mount, and if but a beast touched the mount, it was stoned or thrust through with a dart. 0 ye self-righteous ones who hope that you can obey the law, and think that you can be saved by it, look to the flames that Moses saw, and shrink, and tremble, and despair. To that throne we do not come now, for through Jesus the case is changed. We are still on praying ground and pleading terms with God, and the throne to which we are bidden to come, and of which we speak at this time, is the throne of grace. It is the throne set up on purpose for the dispensation of grace ; a throne from which every utterance is an utterance of grace; the sceptre that is stretched out from it is the silver sceptre of grace ; the decrees proclaimed from it are purposes of grace ; the gifts that are scattered adown its golden steps are gifts of grace ; and He that sits upon the throne is grace itself. It is the throne of grace itself. It is the throne of grace to which we approach when we pray.^
The way is open to the throne of grace,
Draw near, and in the name of Jesus plead ;
It was for sinners that He shed His blood. Looking to Him, come now with all thy need.
The Father waits to hear thy humble prayer, And Jesus speaks, Ask and thou shalt receive ;
Most gracious is the call, the promise great, Full blessing will be thine if thou believe !
III.
The Blessings Obtained,
"That we may receive mercy, and may find grace to help us in time of need."
1. Our chief and comprehensive request at the throne of grace must ever be mercy and grace. The first prayer of penitence
^ C. H. Spurgeon.
346 THE THRONE OF GRACE
is, " God be merciful to me a sinner." He who atoned for sin is before the throne to plead for sinners, Grace includes more than mercy. It is seasonable succour at all times. If mercy forgives our failings, grace helps us not to fail. We need mercy to pardon, grace to purify; mercy to give life, grace to nourish it ; mercy to rescue us, grace to guide us ; mercy to lay the foundation of the temple, grace to complete it to the top-stone. Grace every day, in all circumstances: in prosperity, lest we forget God; in adversity, lest we distrust Him; in temptation, lest we fall ; in conflict, lest we yield ; in anguish, lest we faint. Our great encouragement is that on the throne is One who has known the need of help from God, from angels, and from men.
^ There are two who are unfit for showing mercy : he who has never been tried ; and he who, having been tempted, has fallen under temptation. The young, untempted, and upright, are often severe judges. They are for sanguinary punishment : they are for expelling offenders from the bosom of society. The old, on the contrary, who have fallen much, are lenient : but it is a leniency which often talks thus : Men must be men — a young man must sow his wild oats and reform. So young ardent Saul, untried by doubt, persecuted the Christians with severity, and Saul the king, on the contrary, having fallen himself, weakly permitted Agag to escape punishment. David, again, when his own sin was narrated to him under another name, was unrelenting in his indignation : " The man that hath done this thing shall surely die." None of these was qualified for showing mercy aright. Unthinkingly we should say that to have erred would make a man lenient; it is not so. That truth is taught with deep significance in one of the incidents of the Eedeemer's life. There stood in His presence a tempted woman, covered with the confusion of recent conviction. And there stood beside her the sanctimonious religionists of that day, waiting like hell-hounds to be let loose upon their prey. Calm words came from the lips of Him who " spake as never man spake," and whose heart felt as never man felt. " He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone." A memorable lesson of eternal truth. Sinners are not fit to judge of sin — their justice is revenge, their mercy is feebleness. He alone can judge of sin — he alone can attemper the sense of what is due to the offended Law with the remembrance of that which is due to human frailty — he alone is fit for showing manly mercy, who has, like his Master, felt the