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offered by earth and heaven to the Lamb, now flow together in one stream. All God's creatures join to sing the double hymn of creation and redemption, wherein the glory of God is complete.
^ The meaning of the passage has been obscured by the adoption in the received text of the Authorized Version of an inferior reading which makes the angels sing, " Thou hast redeemed us to God." It is to this incorrect reading that we owe the luck- less misconception by which the kingly angels have been trans- formed into representatives of humanity. But these beings were regarded by the Seer as superhuman and, consequently, were not objects of Divine redemption. The Eevised Version has followed the better reading and translates, " Thou didst purchase unto God men of every tribe," making the necessary changes throughout the hymn.
^ It is possible to estimate the greatness of a man's thought by the effect it produces on other master minds. This test can be applied to the Seer's vision of the worship of the Lamb, with the utmost confidence in the result. This chapter of the Kevelation fired such enthusiasm in the soul of Hubert van Eyck that he produced the masterpiece which called the Flemish school of painting into existence. But it is not necessary to travel to Ghent to view the Adoration of the Lamb in order to realize the force of the inspiration which is inherent in these visions. The massive choruses at the close of Handel's " Messiah " represent the highest flight of human genius in the endeavour to suggest the mighty volume of praise which the Seer has built up on the great pedal note of Eedemption.i
The New Song.
" They sing " are the opening words of the text. Who are "they"? If we look back at the preceding verse, we shall see that those who swelled the chorus of the new song are divisible into two companies, two types of life. There are, first, "the living creatures," the representatives of nature animate and inanimate, now "delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God." Then there is redeemed manhood. These united together to swell the new song, * R. W. Pounder, Historical Notes on the Book of Revelation, 173.
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which extolled the accomplishment of human redemption. As such it was the continuation and final close of the hymn to the incarnate and suffering Eedeemer which had ruled the psalmody of heaven and earth from the Fall. When it began in heaven we know not; but we hear it throughout the Scriptures which testify of His coming. It is the melody which the Bible makes everywhere in its heart to the Lord. It first proclaimed from age to age a coming Deliverer ; that song became old, and a new one extolled His Advent; and now the hymn of the Incarnation, which indeed can never become old, receives its perfection when it glorifies the attainment of the great end of the Incarnation — the redemption of the human race. That song began in heaven ; for only a few upon earth knew the mystery of the Passion, and none knew it in all its meaning, when the Eedeemer left the earth. Nor can we extol the finished work of the eternal wisdom and justice and mercy with the same insight into its glory as is vouch- safed above. The song of creation can be magnified worthily only in heaven. Much more is the song of redemption reserved for that higher scene. There only can it be set to fitting music ; and hence the new song, " Thou wast slain and didst purchase with thy blood " remains the standard and text of our feebler echoes upon earth.
•J We know not upon how many points Kedemption touches ; what unseen worlds, what unborn generations, what undeveloped forms of being it embraces. We know not to what Warfare, to what Accomplishment our Lord referred when He spoke those words, " It is finished." We know not, in short, as Butler says, what in the works and counsels of God are ends, and what means to a further end, or how what appears to us as final may be initial with Him. But we see enough around us, and within us, to show that it was necessary that Christ should suffer many things, and after that enter into His glory. Enough to learn that we shall find no higher thing above, shall pierce to no deeper thing below, than the Cross and its solemn and tender teachings. If we would climb up into heaven, it is there ; if we would go down into hell, it is there also. He alone among men who has clasped this great mystery of grief and love to his bosom sees, if it be as yet but through a glass darkly, how pain and love, yes, joy also, all things that have a living root in humanity, come to bloom under its shadow ; how love that cannot die and faith that grows to certainty, and hope that maketh not ashamed, root themselves
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about it, with all fair things that wither in life, and noble things for which it has no room.^