LECTURE III.

THE EVERLASTING HIGH-PRIEST.

"And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars; and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death."-REV. i. 12-18.

THERE cannot be a doubt, that he who is thus described, in language so solemn, and yet so picturesque, is the Lord Jesus. Christ. Nor can there be a doubt that the Being here delineated is also God; for the very acts and features peculiar to Deity are predicated and asserted of the Lord Jesus. Does Christ "walk in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks ?" God said, (Lev. xxvi. 12,) "I will walk among you." So our Lord promised in another place, "Where two or three are met together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Again, he says, "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive (or the living one) for evermore"-language clearly descriptive of Jehovah.

In order to show the unity that subsists in these portraits of Deity, between the revelations of the New Testament and the Revelations of the Old, we may read a somewhat similar description of Deity, presented to us in the Prophet Daniel, chap. vii. 9: "And I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery

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flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him; thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the judgment was set, and the books were opened." And so in chap. x. 5: "I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz"-the "golden girdle about his breast"-"his body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude." There is no doubt that this was the Lord Jesus Christ who appeared to Daniel, as in all the other anthropomorphic epiphanies of the Old Testament, as well as to John, and that both these prophecies relate to the glory of the same Being, and the progress of the same gospel.

The first epithet by which Christ is here distinguished, is “the Son of Man." This name is rarely given by the evangelists to the Saviour; but is almost always assumed by the Saviour himself, as best descriptive of his lowly condition. The phrase "Son of Man," is used according to the Hebrew idiom, to denote a state of special infirmity, humiliation, and suffering. Thus, in the Psalms it is said, "Put not your trust in princes," i. e. the highest of the land; "nor in" what is contrasted with them, "the son of man," i. e. the meanest or the poorest of the land. We have thus, in this picture of Jesus in the midst of his celestial grandeur as the Son of Man, new evidence that his humilitation is not lost in his glory-that the cross is still resplendent amid the vision of the throne-that the name that was pronounced in Bethlehem, in Gethsemane, and on Calvary, is audible in the songs of the blest; and thus the "Lamb as if he had been slain," is the sublimest, as it is the central feature of that glory which is yet to be revealed.

The next description of him is, "He was clothed with a garment down to the feet." This garment is unquestionably, from the minute description of it given in the book of Exodus, the robe that was worn by the high-priest, who is said to have been robed with it for sacredness, and for beauty, and for glory; and thus the sacredness of the priest and the dignity of the king are

superadded to the humanity of the Son of Man,-whatever can indicate humanity and deity is revealed, in short, in order to constitute the full portrait of the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of glory.

It is added, there was a girdle about his loins. This is best explained by referring to the use of the word in other parts of the Scriptures; thus, Job xxi. 18: "He girdeth his loins with a girdle." Again, God is said to "loose the girdle of kings;" i. e. to reduce them to weakness; and when an ancient Jew, or Greek, or a Roman, who wore the long robe, called the toga, was about to engage in some manual labour, "he girded up his loins," to use the Scripture language, or fastened the flowing skirts of his raiment by a girdle round his waist. We thus infer from the picture under which Jesus is represented, that he is not only clothed with sacredness, and radiant with glory, but girded with strength and might, omnipotent to save.

We read next, that "his head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow." The white or hoary head is always regarded in Scripture as synonymous with authority, reverence, and even beauty. Thus, Lev. xix. 32: "Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man." Thus, Prov. xvi. 13: "The hoary head is a crown of glory;" and so venerable is age in the mind of Deity, that God himself is represented to us as the Ancient of days; and in Scripture, the cutting off of the hair signified the loss of honour, of authority, dominion, and power; and hence, then, we gather from this hieroglyphic portrait of Jesus, as having "hair like wool, and white as the snow," that grandeur, authority, honour, and power, in their highest excellency, exclusively belong to him. He is then described as having "eyes like flame." Fire is the most penetrating thing we know; it pierces and reduces all things: and eyes like flames of fire must imply the omniscience of Christ. His eye can reach all distances-rise to all heights-descend to all depths-and enter all concealment. There is not a thought in our hearts, but lo! he knows it altogether. It is his own assumed and just prerogative, "I am he that searcheth the hearts, and trieth the reins of the children of men." And what a solemn truth is this, that there is not a thought that flits with light

ning speed across a single mind in this assembly, that is not as clearly seen by God, and registered above, as I am at this moment seen and heard by you. "Search my heart, O God, and try my throughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.'

Again, it is stated that his feet were as brass. This has also its meaning. Brass is used in Scripture to denote strength, endurance. Thus we read, "gates of brass," i. e. gates of great strength, and not easily to be broken open. Hence his feet being like brass implies that his enemies should be trodden down-that no obstacles should arrest him-that no difficulties should make him weary that he is able to execute in his power the purposes of mercy and of love which he has formed toward his own. It is said that his feet, which were like brass, glowed like molten brass, 66 as if they burned in a furnace.” This may denote the tribulations through which he would have to pass the trials which he would have to endure-partly perhaps in his body, the church-the scenes of opposition through which he would have to pass, before his ransomed church would be lifted from her ruin, and reinstated in that glory, and dignity, and greatness which he had prepared for her before the foundation of the world.

It is next said, "His voice was as the sound of many waters," or, as the parallel passage in Daniel describes it, "His voice was as the voice of a great multitude." The apostle Paul thus describes the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, when he says, "Whose voice then shook the earth; but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven." And this voice, which is like the sound of a mighty multitude, or like the roar of the restless waves, is that very voice which Christ himself describes when he says, "The hour is coming and now is, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of Man, and shall come forth; they that have done evil, to the resurrection of damnation; and they that have done good, to the resurrection of life." This voice gathers volume and impetus every day; it is reflected in increasing echoes from every land; it mingles with the din of great cities, and asserts for itself supremacy and awe. It crosses unspent the sands of the desert; it sounds amid the noise of the

sea-waves and the tumults of the people; and one day this voice, which was so "still and small" in Bethlehem, shall be heard through the universe, and the universe shall respond, “like the voice of a mighty multitude," saying, "Salvation and honour and glory and blessing unto God: Hallelujah, the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth."

"Out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword." We are at no loss about determining the meaning of this figure, for it is said that the word of God is "quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword." And again, "the word of God is the sword of the Spirit ;" and this teaches us that the secret of his victories shall not be "the sword of Cæsar, but the sword of the Spirit." Christ's kingdom shall be established over all the earth, not by the influence of diplomacy, or by the conquests of arms, but by the force of truth, the persuasiveness of love, the power of the Spirit of God.

"His face did shine as the sun in his strength." John saw the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, and the very words which are here used to describe Christ in his apocalyptic glory, are almost the identical words employed by him to describe the Lord Jesus Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration. So Paul describes him when he saw him on his way to Damascus, as surrounded with a light above the brightness of the sun; and he is described here not as the sun rising in the morning and struggling with mists, nor as the sun enveloped in clouds and almost eclipsed, but as the Sun of righteousness, shining in his meridian splendour, or "in his strength."

Such is the vision that John saw. When he beheld it, it is said, "he fell at his feet as dead." There is an intensity in the celestial glory which organs of flesh and blood cannot now bear. The eye of the mole cannot endure the light of the sun; and so the eye of flesh and blood cannot at present endure the vision of the glory of the Lord. It was the same vision that Isaiah saw and describes in chap. vi. of his Prophecy, where we read, that he beheld the glory of the Lord, and when he beheld it he fell at his feet, saying, "Wo is me! for I am a man of unclean lips; and mine eyes have seen the Lord of hosts." "This said Isaiah," says the evangelist, "when he saw his glory, and spake