^ Principal D. W. Simon illustrates (Tivice Born, 194) the unity and diversity of the redeemed by quotations from the hymns of the world. First of all he shows how widespread is the accept- ance of a hymn like " Eock of Ages." Our English hymn-books, he goes on, teem with translations from the German, with transla- tions from the Latin, with translations from the Greek — " Jesus ! Thy boundless love to me " (German) ; " Jesus ! Thou joy of loving hearts ! " (Latin) ; " 0 happy band of pilgrims " (Greek). It is an illustration that might be worked out easily and with much effect.
1. They are one in their Position or Standing — " standing before the throne and before the Lamb." Once they were "strangers and foreigners"; now they are "fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God." Once they were far off; now they are made nigh. Once they were afraid to draw near; now they have access with boldness. "Happy are thy men," said the Queen of Sheba to Solomon, " which stand continu- ally before thee." Happy are they who stand before the throne and before the Lamb. It is this that marks the difference between the first vision and the second, between the worship of the Creator and the worship of the Redeemer. They who worship the Creator veil their faces with their wings; every one of the redeemed, however vast their number and various, is made nigh by the blood of Christ.
^ Longings for pardon, for rest, for peace are met by the
simple acceptance of this Saviour, whose blood speaks peace to
the conscience and whose love brings rest to the heart. So
powerful is this sprinkled blood that it can carry a sinner into
^ Archbishop Alexander, Verhum CruciSf 126.
i8o THE REDEEMED
the holiest of all to hold communion at the Mercy-seat with a reconciled God and Father. " One touch of this cleansing blood seals the soul for service." Its voice — like the sound of the waves on the shore — is ever speaking peace in a believer's ear, " some- times loudly, sometimes less clearly, but always speaking." " If a believer can do without the blood he is a backslider." " At the Bush Moses was forbidden to draw nigh, but afterwards on the Mount he went up into the very presence of God. What made the difference ? At the Bush there was no sacrifice" ^
2. In Character — " arrayed in white robes." The white robes, we are afterwards told, are the righteous acts of the saints. They are an exchange for the "filthy rags" of selfishness and self- righteousness. If still here, they may not be wholly white ; but even here He sees them in their shield, and looks upon them in the face of His anointed, and He sees no iniquity in Jacob and no perverseness in His Israel. And yet it is no hollow, fictitious righteousness. Their will consents. They themselves have washed their own robes — only they have not washed them in their own blood ; they have made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
H It is related of Queen Victoria that one day she visited a paper-mill, the owner of which showed her through the works, and, not knowing who she was, took her, among other places, into the rag-room. When she saw the filthy rags, out of which the paper is made, she exclaimed, "How can these ever be made white ? " " Ah, lady ! " was the reply, " I have a chemical process of great power, by which I can take the colour even out of these rags!" Before she left, the owner discovered that she was the Queen. A few days after, the Queen found lying upon her writing- desk some of the most beautifully polished writing-paper she had ever seen. On each sheet were stamped the letters of her name, and her likeness. There was also a note from the mill-owner, ask- ing her to accept a specimen of the paper, with the assurance that every sheet was manufactured out of the dirty rags she had seen.
3. In Feeling — " and palms in their hands." Archbishop Trench will have it that it is a feeling of joy. For the Apocalypse, he says, moves altogether in the circle of sacred imagery; all its symbols and images are derived from the Old Testament. And so he refers to the Feast of Tabernacles, when with branches of palm trees the people rejoiced before the Lord seven days. But
* Reminiscences of Andrew A, Bonar, 134.
REVELATION vii. 9, 10 181
the Seer of the Apocalypse was certainly familiar with the palm as a symbol of victory. And perhaps the two ideas are not so far apart. If it was joy, it was the joy of a great triumph, triumph over the world, the flesh, and the devil ; the joy of being more than conquerors through Him that loved them. In the presence of Christ has always been fulness of joy, downward from the time in which " your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day."
It is more natural to think that the mention of the palms here, together with the expression in ver. 15, "He that sitteth on the throne shall spread his tabernacle over them," is intended to indicate that the redeemed are represented as keeping the Feast of Tabernacles. At that feast not only was it the custom for the faithful to dwell in booths or tents, but also in the festal solemni- ties to carry in their hands palm branches with myrtles and willows, in fulfilment of the charge in Lev. xxiii. 40 : " Ye shall take you on the first day the fruit of goodly trees, hranches of palm trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook." These palm branches, or lulahs, as they were called, were borne in procession by the worshippers on each of the seven days of the solemnity, when they accompanied the priest to the pool of Siloam, as he went to draw water from thence, to bring it to the Temple and pour it out by the altar. So this great multitude which St. John sees bear palms in their hands when the Lamb is about to lead them to no earthly fountain or pool, but to " living fountains of waters." This view seems also to obtain a further confirmation from the fact that the thought of the tabernacle feast is not unknown to the propliets of the Old Testament in connexion with the future of the Church of God, e.g., Zech. xiv. 16. It was not merely that this feast formed the most joyous of all the festive seasons of Israel ; it was rather that it was the " feast of ingather- ing," a sort of harvest home, and was thus regarded as pointing forward to the final harvest when Israel's mission should be completed, and all nations should be gathered unto the Lord.