1. It was a new song — new, because its topics were new ; for what so new and strange as God incarnate shedding His blood upon the cross, and by virtue of that offering redeeming the lost kindreds and nations of the earth ? — new, because it is the song of the new creation, the song of those to whom '* all things are become new " — new hearts, new lips, new hopes, new graces. And so it is new, and shall be new for ever ; no newness to grow old some day ; no name of newness to become an anachronism when a few years or a few generations are gone by ; but new with an eternal newness, like the everlasting strength and undecaying youth of the Most High. All is new; new to the ancient worshippers of heaven, new to the redeemed who now first join them, new to the saints who daily and hourly enter within the veil, new to the Seer who wrote the word, and new to us who hear it.
•[[ It is related of Peter Mackenzie, the Durham miner, who became the noted Wesleyan preacher and lecturer, that when he first started out on his career as an evangelist his purpose was to get a crowd of people together for others to preach to. He would gather the crowd himself, and then get somebody to speak to them. But one day he had a large crowd but no speaker, so they forced him into speaking. He said, " If I must preach, give me my subject," and they said, '' Preach about heaven." " Very well," said Peter Mackenzie, and thereupon launched out in a characteristic description of heaven. Eight in the middle of his sermon some one shouted out, " Peter, what do they do in heaven ? " He paused for a moment, and then said : " One thing they do is to sing. I expect one day to walk along the streets of the eternal '^ity, and come face to face with David playing an accompaniment on his harp to his own great song, * The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.' I expect some day I shall lead the choir in heaven, and if ever I do, there are two songs I am going to give out. One is No. 749 in the Wesleyan Hymn-book, * My God and Father, while I stray ' ; but if I ever give out that song in heaven, half the angels in the choir will say, * Peter, you are in heaven, and you cannot stray.' Then if I give that out, and they cannot sing it, I will try another. No. 651, in the AVesleyan Hymn-book, * Though waves and storms beat o'er my head ' ; and then, not half
^ Dora Greenwell, The Patience of Hope (ed. 1894), 33.
i6o AN OPENED BOOK AND A NEW SONG
the angels, but the whole choir will be on their feet, saying, 'Peter Mackenzie, this is heaven; there are no storms here.' Then I think I shall stand in wonder and amazement, and say, ' What shall we sing ? ' and from every angel in the skies will come the answer, * Sing the New Song ! ' ' Sing the New Song ! ' Then all the redeemed in heaven, from the least unto the greatest, will join in singing an ascription of praise unto Him who hath loved us and washed ua from our sins in His own precious blood."!
2. The new song is sung both by saints on earth and by saints in heaven. It is the song with which the whole company of the redeemed shall enter into the joy of their Lord, sung by the saved as they pass into their full consummation of body and soul. When the judgment is past and the final glory of heaven is attained, we shall all together sing. Those worshippers without us will not be made perfect. That final hymn ear hath not yet heard, nor hath it yet entered into the heart of man, whether in heaven or on earth, to conceive. It cannot be sung till all the singers are made ready ; nor shall it be heard but in the New Jerusalem, where He that sitteth upon the throne shall for the last time say, " Behold, I make all things new." St. John gives us one brief glimpse, but what we then behold is only the beginning ; the spirits of the just made perfect were already there in countless multitudes, as we are told, and their number has been swelling onward from that day to this, filling fast the many mansions of our Father's house. Singers of this song are constantly passing from the outer courts, where they rehearse it, into the Holiest. Each moment adds a new voice to the harmony of heaven, and not one added voice does the Eedeemer's ear fail to distinguish. The ransomed of the Lord are returning to Zion, not merely one by one, but in ever-increasing tribes, with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads. This door of hope in our valley of Achor gives us a glance that should comfort our life by showing what death is: that it is to the prepared only a passage for his soul, with the same uninterrupted song, scarcely faltering in death, into the presence of Christ and the saints who wait for him.