3. How came they by their robes ? " They washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Their robes were white, like the white and glistering raiment of Christ when He was transfigured. The robes express their condition, as a purple robe expresses royalty, or filthy garments a condition of sin and misery. But it was not in love, or in any moral quality or virtue, that those robes were made white ; it was in the blood of the Lamb. The figure of a washing, even of garments, in blood, is indeed a very strong one. In some Eastern countries of old, men who were oppressed with a sense of sin actually plunged their bodies into a stream or bath of animal blood, that their souls might be cleansed. But from such gross literalness we turn away. » John Brown Paton, by his Son (1914), 368.
200 THE NOBLE ARMY OF MARTYRS
But let us never turn away from the truth which underlies the figure of garments made white by being washed in precious blood. There is cleansing for the soul in the atoning death of the Lord Jesus. Now this is a material image which is used in the text, but of course no little child among us needs to be told that it is in some spiritual sense it must be understood. It is not in the literal sense that we are to understand these words. The human blood of Christ sprinkled upon us would not make our raiment white ; and though it did, that would not bring us to heaven. Probably the Roman soldier who pierced the Saviour's side with his cruel spear, would be (in the literal sense) sprinkled with His precious blood : but that would not save him : he remained, spiritually, after that exactly what he had been before. To have our robes made white in the blood of the Lamb means two things. It means that our sins are pardoned for the sake of Christ's atoning sacrifice. And it means that our souls are made holy by the blessed Spirit Christ sent after He left this world. And there are two reasons why only those thus washed in the blood of Christ can be always before the throne of God. One is, They alone have a right to be there. The other is. They alone are fit to be there, and to be happy there.
^ One night, during that terrible winter in the Crimean War, Duncan Matheson, the evangelist, was returning, weary and sad, from Sebastopol to his poor lodgings in the old stable at Bala- klava. He had laboured all day with unflagging energy, and now his strength was gone. He was sickened with the sights he had seen, and was depressed with the thought that the siege was no nearer an end than ever. As he trudged along in the mud knee- deep, he happened to look up and noticed the stars shining calmly in the clear sky. Instinctively his weary heart mounted heaven- ward in sweet thoughts of the " rest that remaineth for the people of God," and he began to sing aloud the well-known scriptural verses :
How bright these glorious spirits shine]
Whence all their white array? How came they to the blissful seats
Of everlasting day ?
Lo ! these are they from suff 'rings great.
Who came to realms of light. And in the blood of Christ have wash'd
Those robes which shine so bright.
REVELATION vii. 14 201
Next day was wet and stormy, and when he went out to see what course to take, he came upon a soldier standing for shelter below the verandah of an old house. The poor fellow was in rags, and all that remained of shoes upon his feet were utterly in- sufficient to keep his naked toes from the mud. Altogether he looked miserable enough. The kind-hearted missionary spoke words of encouragement to the soldier, and gave him at the same time half a sovereign with which to purchase shoes, suggesting that he might be supplied by those who were burying the dead. The soldier offered his warmest thanks, and then said : " I am not what I was yesterday. Last night, as I was thinking of our mis- erable condition, I grew tired of life, and said to myself, Here we are, not a bit nearer taking that place than when we sat down before it. I can bear this no longer, and may as well try and put an end to it. So I took my musket and went down yonder in a desperate state about eleven o'clock ; but as I got round the point, I heard some person singing, * How bright these glorious spirits shine,' and I remembered the old tune and the Sabbath School where we used to sing it. I felt ashamed of being so cowardly, and said. Here is some one as badly off as myself, and yet he is not giving in. I felt he had something to make him happy of which I was ignorant, and I began to hope I too might get the same happiness. I returned to my tent, and to-day I am resolved to seek the one thing." "Do you know who the singer was?" asked the missionary. " No," was the reply. " Well," said the other, " It was I " ; on which the tears rushed into the soldier's eyes, and he requested the Scripture-reader to take back the half- sovereign, saying, " Never, sir, can I take it from you, after what you have been the means of doing for me." ^