^ Dr. Magee, then Bishop of Peterborough, was one of the speakers at a discussion on Pessimism that took place at the
1 J. Wilbur Chapmau, Balls of Gold, 36.
REVELATION v. 9 161
Manchester Church Congress of 1888. Christianity, he maintained, was at once both the most pessimistic and most optimistic of all the philosophies of life. " You, the pessimist," he said, " tell me of the sorrow, the suffering, the misery of humanity ; and I tell of the time when death shall be destroyed, and when sorrow and sighing will be done away with, and when men will weep no more. You tell me here of mystery and difficulty and perplexity; and I tell you of the time when we shall know even as we are known, and doubt and mystery, like sin and sorrow and shame, shall fade away in the white light around the throne on which sits the Lamb that died for mankind. There, in the future, lies the completed optimism of Christianity. Here, in the Christian life, though working feebly and imperfectly as it does, is to be seen the evidence of the truth of Christianity that we may take home to our hearts. Let us strengthen this evidence, each one of us, in our daily Christian life, and meanwhile we can patiently await the time when the day of full unclouded vision shall dawn, and the shadows of our fears and doubts shall flee away for ever." ^
3. We must be encouraged to learn this new song for ourselves. St. John came down from his Patmos elevation, as he came down from Mount Tabor, but not to forget what he had seen and heard. He was still in the Spirit, though he no longer heard these un- utterable things ; and we know by the opening doxology of this book what strain it was that lingered in his ears. We also are learning the same song. It is our blessed privilege to sing, in these our probationary days of sorrow, and conflict, and salvation not yet finally secure, the song of confident assurance : " Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood be glory and dominion for ever." Kedemption from our guilt through faith in the atonement ; salvation from our defilement through the washing of His Spirit purchased by His blood ; the priestly conse- cration of dominion over our own souls in the strength of union with Himself — these are the three-one blessings which we may rejoice in by an assured experience in this lower world. If we are taught that song by the Spirit here, and hold fast our confidence unto death, we shall one day sing it new in our Saviour's Kingdom.
^ A minister was calling upon a dying man, who would not accept Jesus. He said God was merciful, and he would trust
^ J. C. Macdonnell, Life of Archlishop 3Iagee, ii. 254. REV. — II
i62 AN OPENED BOOK AND A NEW SONG
God. " Well," said the minister, " what will you do when you get to heaven?" He said, "I shall do what everybody else does." " Well, what do they do ? " asked the minister. " They sing," he said. " Will you sing ? " said the minister. " Yes," he said, " I shall sing." Then the minister quoted Kev. xiv. 3 : " And no man could sing that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, they which were redeemed from the earth." But he had misquoted it. It is not that way ; it is thus it should read : " And no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, they which were redeemed from the earth." You have got to learn it here to be able to sing it yonder. You have got to strike the note to-day to be able to sing it to- morrow. You have got to get into tune now, or be out of tune yonder.^
4. One peculiarity of the " new song " lies in those who sing it. For the first time in history it is a united voice — a voice out of " every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation." It is not that there has ceased to be a separate tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation. It is from out the diversities that the song is heard. It is not the voice of a brotherhood which has been purchased by the elimination of distinctions ; it is a harmony pulsating through these. It is a declaration of the fact that humanity is deeper than all its varieties. It is a protest against the belief that any difference of environment can ever counterbalance the points of agreement between man and man. It is emphatically a new song — quite foreign to the spirit of paganism, not native even to the spirit of Judaism. It is the emergence into the world of a fresh thought — the idea of an equal human nature lying below the accidents of time and space — the brotherhood of soul with soul.
^ It is a delight to a soldier or traveller to look back on his escapes when they are over ; and for a saint in heaven to look back on his sins and sorrows upon earth, his fears and tears, his enemies and dangers, his wants and calamities, must make his joy more joyful. Therefore the blessed, in praising the Lamb, mention His redeeming them out of every nation and kindred and tongue ; and so, out of their misery and wants and sins, and making them kings and priests unto God. But if they had nothing but content and rest on earth, what room would there have been for these rejoicings hereafter ? ^