T[ " All kindreds of the earth shall ivail " is the reading of the Authorized Version. I cannot put into English the full meaning of that most expressive word, "wail." Sound it at length, and
* Philip Doddridge.
26 THE SECOND ADVENT
it conveys its own meaning. It is as when men wring their hands and burst out into a loud cry ; or as when Eastern women, in their anguish, rend their garments, and lift up their voices with the most mournful notes. " All kindreds of the earth shall wail ; " wail as a mother laments over her dead child ; wail as a man might wail who found himself hopelessly imprisoned and doomed to die. Such will be the hopeless grief of all the kindreds of the earth at the sight of Christ in the clouds : if they remain impenitent, they shall not be able to be silent ; they shall not be able to repress or conceal their anguish.^
2. " They which pierced him " are by no means a few. Who have pierced Christ ? The Eoman soldier who thrust his spear into the Messiah's side is not the only one. They that once professed to love Christ and have gone back to the world ; they that speak against the Christ whom once they professed to love ; they whose inconsistent lives have brought dishonour upon the sacred name of Jesus ; they who refused His love, stifled their consciences, and rejected His rebukes ; they who scorn the love and mercy offered by the Saviour — all these may be said to have pierced Him.
^ The words " they which pierced him " are taken from Zech. xii. 10. Both here and in John xix. 37 the New Testament writer does not adopt, as usual, the Septuagint reading, which runs, " because they have mocked me " but " whom they have pierced." This, as Alford remarks, is almost a demonstration of the common authorship of the Apocalypse and the Fourth Gospel. This and John xix. 37 are the only places in the New Testament where this prophecy is alluded to.^
Ah, Lord, we all have pierced Thee: wilt Thou be
Wroth with us all to slay us all ? Nay, Lord, be this thing far from Thee and me:
By whom should we arise, for we are small, By whom if not by Thee?
Lord, if of us who pierced Thee Thou spare one, Spare yet one more to love Thy Face,
And yet another of poor souls undone. Another, and another — God of grace,
Let mercy overrun.^
* C. H. Spurgeon.
^ M. F. Sadler, The Revelation of St. John the Divine, 7»
' Christina G. Rossetti, Poetical Works, 137.
REVELATION i. 7 27
IV.
"Even so, Amen."
1. " This same Jesus shall come." These words of the angel to the disciples after the Ascension are words of comfort to those who believe. He " who loved me, and gave himself for me," is He who will come in glory; the same Jesus as went about doing good, and died to redeem us by His blood ; as full of grace and love as ever, unchangeably the same. It is our Saviour who will come with clouds, and whose coming the Apostle hails in the closing words of the text, " Even so. Amen." The first of these words is Greek, " Yes " ; the second Hebrew, " So be it " ; both together form the fullest expression that could be given of the certainty and truth of what is stated, and the deep longing of heart for the ful- filment of the prediction. Here are all St. John's innermost desires summed up and spoken out. What earnestness, what vehemence, what longing, are expressed in this double Amen ! It is the amen of faith, and hope, and joy. It is the amen of a weary, heart- broken exile. It is the amen of a saint left on earth long behind his fellow-saints, and sighing for the promised rest when the great Kest-giver comes. It is the Church's amen ; her vehement desire for the day of meeting.
^ " Even so, Amen." — " Amen" alone closed the doxology (ver. 6), but here where judgment is the theme, St. John doubles his assent. A lesson of adhesion to the revealed Will of God, be that Will what it may : a foreshadowing of the perfected will and mind of all saints at the separating right and left of the final division: an example of the conformity we must now pray and strive after : " Even so. Amen." ^
H The little word Amen means, truly, verily, certainly ; and it is a word of firm, heartfelt faith : as if thou saidst, " 0 God and Father, those things for which I have prayed I doubt not ; they are surely true and will come to pass, not because I have prayed for them, but because Thou hast commanded me to ask for them, and hast surely promised; and I am convinced that Thou art indeed God, and canst not lie. And, therefore, not because of the worthiness of my prayer, but because of the certainty of Thy
^ Christina G. RoSsetti, The Face of the Deep, 23.
28 THE SECOND ADVENT