There never has been a day of opportunity like this in the history of the Church and the world. The way is open ; the door is open ; the hearts of the nations are open. Will the Churches rise to the great call which summons them ? Will they, failing to obey Christ, and failing to communicate Him, themselves lose Him ? Is the element of the heroic still vigorous in Christianity ? Does Christ still stir the hearts of His people so that they are willing to die for Him ?
" A people is upon thee loving death as thou lovest life," was the message of the Mohammedan of old to his enemy. Is there still in Christendom the spirit which loves death for Christ's sake ? If there be, then in this, the great day of opportunity, the tide of the world's destiny will be turned towards the Lord Jesus Christ. And it will be turned. For the Spirit is still in the midst of the Church, and until the end adoring lips will cry —
"Now let me burn out for God."^
^ In the early days of New Zealand history. Governor (after- wards Sir) George Grey was walking, on a lovely Sunday afternoon, with Bishop Selwyn. They entered a tent, followed by a messenger bearing dispatches which had just arrived. One letter to the bishop brought the news of the death of Siapo, a Loyalty Islander, who had become a Christian, and was being educated at Auckland under the bishop's supervision. Overcome with grief, Selwyn burst into tears. Then turning to the Governor, he exclaimed, " Why, you have not shed a single tear ! " " No," replied Grey, " I have been so wrapped in thought that I could not weep. I have been thinking of the prophecy that men of every race were to be assembled in the kingdom of heaven. I have tried to imagine the joy and wonder prevailing there at the coming of Siapo, the first Christian of his race. He would be glad evidence that another people of the world had been added to the teaching
1 N. Maclean, Oan the World he Won for Christ? 174. REV. — 12
178 THE REDEEMED
of Christ." " Yes, yes," said Selwyn, " that is the true idea to entertain; I shall weep no more!"
III.
The Unity.
The multitude that no man can number is a Society. Their robes have become white because every stain of selfishness has been washed from them by the blood of the Lamb. Their palms show that they have gotten the victory over those causes which have destroyed the unity of kindreds and nations here. There is no dull uniformity, no single tongue: all is harmonious amidst diversity. Here, some have glorified power to the destruction oi meekness ; some have pretended that meekness is incompatible with strength. There, all give glory to Him that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb. Here, men who are sealed in the Name of God have thought that they glorified that Name most by de- claring His damnation of His enemies or theirs. In that company, the one word which is connected with the Divine Name is salva- tion— salvation from the curse that men have made for them- selves.
^ " All nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues." — Never, since Babel, a unison ; no longer, since the first Christian Pente- cost, an inevitable discord : for ever and ever, a harmony. Babel dissolved the primitive unison into discord : Pentecost reduced the prevalent discord to contingent harmony, but reclaimed it not into unison. Unison is faultless : harmony is perfect. On earth the possibility of harmony entails the corresponding possibility of discord. Even on earth, however, whoever chooses can himself or herself keep time and tune : which will be an apt prelude for keeping eternity and tune in heaven.^
^ A Canadian bishop has lately described what he saw and heard one night. He and some friends were on one side of a great Canadian river; a company of Christian Indians on the other. As the Englishmen gazed into the falling fire they heard a hymn across the river. This was succeeded by a hush. The song of the Eed men across the water drew out a song from them, and that touched the Indians to a prayer whose measured tones just reached them across the water. 0 sweet communion of
1 Christina G. Rossetti, Tlie Face of the Deep, 231.
REVELATION vii. 9, 10 179
saints ! " What was the river between ? " asks the bishop. What, indeed ? On one side there rose prayers and praises in the langu- age of Milton and Shakespeare, of saints and sages ; on the other, in words borrowed by the wild hunters from the glee of the water- fall or from the sighing of the pinewood. Yet once again the whole earth seemed to be " of one language and of one lip." Out from the darkness there rose not a mere picture — a reality. Not the white Christ, with the blood-drops trickling down ; but the living Christ, radiant and mighty. The harp of language with its myriad chords rang out through the starry silence. Not the Indian and the English only. Not one language was quite absent from the chorus. No longer Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin. " All nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues." ^