Silently it fell,
Whence, no man might tell,
Like good dreams from heaven
Unto mortals given.
Like a snowy flock
Of strange sea-birds alighting on a shore of rock;
Silent thus and bright
Fell the manna in the night.
Silently thus and bright. In our starless night, God's sweet mercy comes All about our homes;
I02 VICTORY AND INTIMACY
Whence, no man can see,
In a sofl shower drifting, drifting ceaselessly.
Till the morning light
Falls the manna in the night.
Thus His mercy's crown.
Bread of life, came down;
At our doors it fell,
Whence, no man might tell,
Silent to the ground;
Softly shining thus through the darkness all around,
Snowy, pure, and white,
Fell the manna in the night.
(2) Jesus, whom the manna typifies, is now hidden from view. The manna was there in the golden pot, and kept in the Holy of Holies, and miraculously preserved from year to year, so that it saw no corruption. The people had never seen it, neither had the priests, neither are we told that the high priest ever did, on that one day in the year when he entered that inner sanctuary. What a thrilling figure of Him who said, " I am the bread which came down from heaven." He is our " hidden Manna " which saw no corruption. He has entered, not the Holy of Holies that was here on earth, but heaven itself. He is laid up for us in heaven. He is hidden from us now, even Him whom having not seen we love. But presently we who are made by Him priests unto God and His Father shall have boldness through His blood to enter into the Holiest. Then we shall see the now " hidden Manna," then feast our eyes and hearts on the sight of our glorified Saviour. Then the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed us, and lead us to the living fountains, i.e.y the very springs and source of life. So that then we " shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more." The " hidden Manna " shall then be revealed ; the Lamb shall be our light, and our God our glory.
^ The suggestion of mystery in this " hidden manna " was calculated to arouse the immediate interest of the Christians of Pergamum. For this was known as the City of Mystery. Its tutelary divinity, Aesculapius, was worshipped under the symbol of a serpent. It is said that the porches of his temple were crowded in the night-time with worshippers tarrying there in the hope of having dreams and visions. Pergamum was the centre of
REVELATION ii. 17 103
the Oriental occultism of those days. Its merchants carried on a profitable business in charms, amulets and cabalistic letters. Its smooth sheep-skins were famous the world over as Pergamenae chartae, which we have shortened into " parchment." ^
II.
The White Stone.
"And I will give him a white stone."
Commentators differ as to the meaning of the " white stone," and Dr. Maclaren came at length to regard it as the mere vehicle for the name, with possibly some subsidiary thought of innocence and purity. Perhaps the language is vague and indefinite just because it means and hides so much.
1. The giving of the stone is evidently a mark of the highest distinctioUy and there is much to be said for the view that the reference is to splendid gems, called Urim and Thummim (that is, lights and perfectnesses), enclosed within the folds of the high priest's breastplate which none but the high priest ever beheld.
The white stone which Jesus bestows excels the Old Testament gems. The Urim and Thummim were but dead stones, and lay but on the breast. They were but outward symbols of God. This white stone is lustrous with the very light which is God, and it is hidden within the breast itself. The upshining of faith, the far- darting beams of hope, and the outspreading glow of love are glories born of God's own glory. A Divine nature begins at the centre of the human nature. And as the Christian obeys it, it grows. As he wars against his evil loves and ambitions, a strange, sweet light dawns in the secret of his heart. To his gladdened eyes there is revealed a purity and a beauty not there of old, and not given by any hand but God's. However tiny and dim that gem may be, as his eye lights on it he knows it to be the diamond of a Godlike goodness. He knows by that token that he is now a priest. However unfit, and however slackly he uses his grand privileges, he has the loftiest dignity open to mortal. He wears ^ P. J. Burrell, The Cl(nsUr Book, 46.
I04 VICTORY AND INTIMACY
the veil through which the inner splendour glimmers, and the eternal voices are faintly heard. Soon with wondering awe, but no fear, he shall pass within and be for ever with the Lord.
^ The hidden manna and the white stone are not merely united in time, belonging both to the wilderness period of the history of God's people; they are united as both representing high-priestly prerogatives, which the Lord should at length impart to all His people, kings and priests to God, as He will then have made them all. If any should be privileged to eat of the hidden manna, who but the High Priest, who alone had entrance into the Holy Place where it was laid up? If any should have knowledge of what was graven on the Urim, who but the same High Priest, in whose keeping it was, and who was bound by his very office to consult it ? The mystery of what was written there, shut to every other, would be open to him.^