2. " I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book . . . close sealed." There is a great and majestic Per- sonality seated upon the throne of all things, in whose right hand is a book which contains the answers to all our serious problems. There may be "clouds and darkness" round about Him, but * righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne." Though the mysteries of birth and death, of whence and whither, of pain and sin, cannot be solved by human reason, there is One who knows. Books do not write themselves ; in the right hand of Him that sitteth on the throne there is "a book . . . close * M. S. Watts, George Frederic Watts, ii. 66.
i66 AN OPENED BOOK AND A NEW SONG
sealed." "And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a great voice, Who is loorthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof ? " It is moral worth that is the looked-for qualification. The angel asks the right question, not " Who knows how to open the book?" but "Who is worthy?" The problems of life are not intellectual puzzles, but paths of duty. Genius will not solve them ; their secret may be unfolded in the consciousness of a child. Moral worth will open the book. " No one knowetb . . . the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him." " And no one in the heaven, or on the earth, or under the earth, was able to open the book, or to look thereon." No one who has tried to untie the knots of the seven seals with reason has been able to give a satisfactory answer.
The Eedeemer takes the book ; all the problems of life are answered in redemption. " Worthy art thou to take the book." Why is that? Because human nature is identical in all ages; we are made for God, and unhappy till we find Him ; one step out of self is a step into God ; " he that abideth in love, abideth in God " ; Christ lifts us out of self. We hear the echoes of St. Paul's cry, " 0 wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? . . . I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." The Eedeemer solves the great problem of life : How can we be delivered from the imperious dominion, the exacting tyranny, of self ? By a greater spell He dissipates the Circean enchant- ments. He ransoms us from the bondage of self by laying down His life, from the flesh-pots of Egypt we loathe and yet love, curse and yet accept, by suffering for us upon the tree. He comes asking nothing but a cross whereon to die. The only life of pure, unselfish, devoted, cleansing, elevating love the world has ever seen is willingly yielded to be broken on the wheel of man's insensate hate, for the life of the world. He was slain, not for Himself, for He was perfect; but for us, for we are sinful.
If Victor Hugo was one of the few novelists who have under- stood the Atonement. In " Les Miserables " he puts the truth in that oft-told story of the escaping convict, Jean Valjean, hospit- ably entertained by the good old cur^, and robbing him of his silver candlesticks. When the gens cCarmes caught and brought him back with the booty in his possession, the cur4 said, " Why
REVELATION v. 9 167
should he not take them, they are his ? " Then, when the astonished officers of the law had retired, " Jean Valjean, I have bought you from yourself; go and be a better man." So Christ's forgiveness buys us from ourselves, lifts us into a higher life.i
3. The Lamb of God, who was slain on Calvary, alone has the power to disclose and to interpret the mind and purpose and ways of God. Christ breaks the seals and gives us to read pages which otherwise had been dark to men. We cannot read the Old Testament except in Christ's light. Only by an effort of the imagination can we realize how closely sealed and how dark with mystery the Old Testament would have been if Christ had not died and risen again. The truth is as clearly illustrated by the New Testament Scriptures. There are some to-day to whom the New Testament is still a sealed book. Eead the Gospels and the Epistles in the light of that death for sin, and every word and deed is translated. The cradle of Bethlehem, the carpenter's shop at Nazareth, the Jordan water at baptism, the wilderness of temptation, the garden of Gethsemane, and all the riches of grace in sermon and parable and miracle, stand out as the life-story that leads to the cross. It is the Lamb who was slain that unfolds, interprets, and expounds the New Testament.
H Thomas a Kempis ever preaches the Cross as life's great secret and underlying fact. Christ is to him the perfect example of self-abandonment and oneness with God, and His Cross is the universal Cross. His victory is the triumph of all disciples who live in Him. While the mystic generally thinks solely or mainly of the Incarnation, Thomas a Kempis never forgets the Cross, and thereby at once he safeguards personahty as well as pre- serves his religion from ecstatic excesses. Dying to self and living to God — renouncing self and regaining self in the holy Jesus' love, are the keynotes of his message. The following of Jesus is to him cross-bearing, as the road to inner consolation and peace. " Why fearest thou to take up the Cross which leadeth thee to a kingdom ? In the Cross is salvation, in the Cross is life, in the Cross is protection against our enemies, in the Cross is infusion of heavenly sweetness, in the Cross is strength of mind, in the Cross joy of spirit, in the Cross the height of virtue, in the Cross the perfection of sanctity. There is no salvation of the soul, nor hope of everlasting life, but in the Cross." ^