^ 6. Grote, iu The Contemporary Review, xviii. 139.
REVELATION xix. 9 265
essential, yet the occasion is one of profoundly religious import. Marriage being a Divine ordinance, wedding festivities must in the nature of things also bear a decidedly religious character.^
2. We dare not say that the feast is a promise that our Lord will love us more than He loves us now, but He will indulge His love for us more ; He will manifest it more, we shall see more of it ; we shall understand it better ; it will appear to us as though He loved us more. He will lay open His whole heart and soul to us, with all its feelings, and secrets, and purposes, and allow us to know them, as far at least as we can understand them, and it will conduce to our happiness to know them. The love of this hour will be the perfection of love. This marriage-feast will be the feast, the triumph, of love — the exalted Saviour showing to the whole universe that He loves us to the utmost bound love can go, and we loving Him with a fervour, a gratitude, an adora- tion, a delight, that are new even in heaven.
^ I may think shame to take heaven, who have so highly pro- voked my Lord Jesus : But seeing Christ's love will shame me, I am content to be ashamed. My desire is that my Lord would give me broader and deeper thoughts, to feed myself with wonder- ing at His love ; I would I could weigh it, but I have no balance for it. When I have worn my tongue to the stump in praising of Christ, I have done nothing to Him ; I must let Him alone, for my withered arms will not go about His high, wide, long, and broad love. What remaineth then, but that my debt to the love of Christ lie unpaid for all eternity ? ^
3. When we think of this marriage supper of the Lamb, we cannot but return to that supper in the upper chamber of Jerusalem which occupies so strikingly similar a position in the life of Jesus. There Jesus said, " Take, eat : this is my body, which is for you " ; " This cup is the new covenant in my blood." That was a feast in which He gave Himself to be for ever the nourishment of His Church. And, in like manner, in the marriage supper of the Lamb, the Lord, who became dead and is alive for evermore, is not only the Bridegroom but also the substance of the feast. In Him and by Him His people lived on earth; in Him and by Him they live for ever.
^ Uncydopcedia of Religion and Ethics, v. 802, 803, 807. 2 Letters of Samuel Eutherford (ed. 1894), 257.
266 MARRIAGE SUPPER OF THE LAMB
^ The Lord's Supper is something more than a "sign," a picture setting forth certain facts and truths so that everyone may see them. It is also a " seal," a personal pledge and token of understanding between Christ and the Christian heart. It is a particular stamp and plain handmark set down on the offer of Jesus in the Word. As a seal it has, no doubt, also a public side. The seal may be worn as a ring on the finger (in the East, on the arm) as well as against the heart (Cant. viii. 6), telling everyone that the wearer has received it. Coming to the Lord's Supper is a badge and profession of following Christ, as truly as wearing scarlet is a badge of being in the Queen's service. Anyone who cares to look can see the red mark on the letter of invitation which you carry in your hand as you go to the Table. But the seal has a private and secret side. Anyone may see the seal on the letter : no one may break it and tell the contents but the receiver ; anyone may see the ring on your finger, but none but the wearer can say what attachment it conveys, or whether there is any attachment conveyed at all.^
Ill
The Guests.
1. Who are " they which are bidden to the marriage supper of the Lamb " ? As we raise the question we are reminded of the mysterious doctrine of election, and of the distinction which Jesus Himself made : " Many are called, but few are chosen." And we tremble as we think how Jesus warned His hearers of the scrutiny to which all are subjected.
But let us remember for our comfort that marvellous parable of grace which tells of the householder who, when they that were first bidden to his feast treated with indifference and insult the invitation of their friend, sent forth his servants to the streets and lanes of the city, and then to the highways and hedges, to compel the very vagrants and beggars to come in that the wedding feast might be furnished with guests. Jesus compared the King- dom of Heaven to that generous host and his generous, over- flowing hospitality.
^ The invitation, when despised by those to whom it was originally addressed, was conveyed to those who could least of 1 R. W. Barbour, Thoughts, 65.