4. The metaphor of Christ as the Morning Star suggests — (1) the Distinction He has ; (2) the Light He gives ; (3) the Cheer He imparts ; (4) the Hope He inspires.
(1) The distinction Christ has. — The morning star is pre- eminently the star of distinction. It is larger and brighter to view than any other ; it is the only star that has light enough to cast a shadow ; it is indeed so dazzlingly bright that on this very account we know less about its material surface than about other planets ; the light cannot be penetrated to make research. It is, as astronomers tell us, the most brilliant of all the planets, and * J. Vaughan, Sermons, iv. 4.
REVELATION xxii. i6 405
the most beautiful object to us in the heavens. No one can mistake the morning star in the firmament, or confound it with any other orb. It shines pre-eminent and alone. In the words of Milton, it " flames in the forehead of the morning sky." Thus is it with Christ. He is the " bright " as well as the Morning Star. He is without a rival in time, and He will be, even more gloriously, without a rival in eternity. "In all things he has the pre- eminence."
^ The morning star is what is known in astronomy as the planet Venus. The Greeks and Eomans named the planets after their gods and goddesses ; but, as old Thomas Adams says, " we need not trouble our heads about such matters, Christ is our morning star." ^
(2) The light Christ gives. — The classical names for the morn- ing star mean light-bearer or light-bringer. And this is what Christ is. In Him is the light of truth, of wisdom and knowledge, of righteousness and holiness, of consolation and joy; in Him, above all, is the light of our salvation. That light is in Him, and in Him only ; in Him in contrast to the darkness that is every- where else, and that would always have been but for His rising. It belongs to the day star to appear in the midst of gloom when the shades of night are still thick and heavy, and to announce their departure. It was in this sense that Christ came as the Light of the world.
There was a general sense in which the whole world sat in darkness, as it does still where Christ is not known. "Dark- ness covered the earth and gross darkness the people." When Christ came, the world was in the darkness of guilt, with only light enough to read the sentence of conscience, but none to see how it could be reversed. There was the darkness of depravity — a darkness of untold misery ; but when Christ came into the world, a Morning Star appeared upon the brow of night. He scattered the darkness of ignorance by revealing God, salvation, and immortality. He removed the darkness of guilt by atoning for it. He met the darkness of depravity by sending down the effectual beams of truth, purity, and spiritual life, into hearts the most degraded ; and He dispelled the darkness of misery by lifting upon the world the light of God's countenance, by solv- * R. Cowan, The Weakness of Qod, 278.
4o6 CHRIST'S WITNESS TO HIMSELF
ing the mystery of the grave, and by assuring the children of sorrow that trouble, pain, and death work together for good to them that love God. Thus was Christ the Light of the world when He came ; thus is He the Light of the world still ; and to His appearing, as to that of the day star amidst the long-enduring gloom, the words of the prophecy may be applied : " The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light : they that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined."
^ Of the morning star, as light-bringer, herald and harbinger of day, the beauty and transcendent brightness is being continually celebrated by poets, as by Homer {II. xxii. 317) ; by Virgil {uEn. viii. 389); by Ovid {Trist. i. 3. 71); and by Milton {Par. Lost, iv. 605 : " Hesperus, that led the starry host, rode brightest "). Thus does He who is *' fairer than the children of men " claim all that is fairest and loveliest in creation as the faint shadow and image of His perfections.^
^ In the Apocalypse Christ is called the Morning Star, but in the Gospels He is the Sun. The comparison in the Apocalypse belongs to a different period and another circle of thought. Its meaning may be illustrated by the expression in the letter to the Church at Thyatira, " he that overcometh ... I will give him the Morning Star " (Kev. ii. 28). We must understand that the Star is the dawn of a brighter day and a new career. To the victor there shall be given the brightness and splendour and power that outshine the great Empire, and the promise of and entrance upon a higher life. It is the same thought as afterwards suggested the term dies natalis for the day on which a martyr died: this day was his birthday, on which he entered into a nobler life. After the same fashion Christ calls Himself in Eev. xxii. 16 the Morning Star, as the beginner and introducer of a new era.2