Chapter 14

And to all this, we may add, that everything will be according to our mind, as we speak; all will be right in our eyes; all will equally and entirely please us, and be just as we would have it. This we see in the book of Revelation, in the progress of which the heavenly family, wherever they are seen or heard, are always found in the fullest concord with the action that is going on. In chap. iv. the throne is getting itself ready for judgment—-lightnings, thunders, and voices proceeding from it; but the elders and the living creatures have their doxologies to the name of the Lord God Almighty, who sits and orders all. In chap. v. the Lamb takes the book, and they again rejoice, taking their harps to celebrate Him, and to make merry at the prospect which this sight opens to them. In chap. xi. the seventh angel announces judgment, but they have only to fall on their faces, and worship, and give thanks. In chap. xii. the war in heaven and its issue is just as they would have it; and with a loud voice they publish "Salvation!" In chap. xv. God'sworks and ways, all things of Hiscounselor Hisstrength, form the theme of their song. And in chap. xix. the judgment of the woman who corrupted the earth calls forth again and again the hallelujah of the glorified family. Thus all, from beginning to end, is equally and altogether right in their eyes; all is exactly as they would have it. They as loudly triumph in the KinsmanAvenger(chap. xix.), as they do in the KinsmanRedeemer. Chap. v. Everything is to them beautiful in its season. The marriage of the Lamb, and the judgment of the great whore, are equally and entirely according to their mind.Different, far different indeed, from what is now felt by the believer. As far as he is spiritual, nothing is fully right around him here. And this is only increasingly so, as the world gets fuller of its own inventions, and increases with the increase of man. And a judgment this affords as to the state of our affections. For we may ask ourselves, How are we moved by the present advance in the improvements of the world? Are we congratulating ourselves and the age upon them, or are they sickening to our hearts? This may be a touch-stone of the condition of our souls, whether indeed Christ be our object or not. The great tower in the plains of Shinar would have been the boast of a Nimrod, but Abram would have turned from it to weep. Just as the merchants of the earth bewail that which the heavens rejoice over. Rev. xviii.And this is the great inquiry for us now-—Is Christ the object of our hearts-—the One that we long for? For that He will be ours, and near us and with us for ever, will be the highest point in all our rich happiness in this future heaven which we have been looking at. Provision for theheartis always the dearest thought we can entertain. As with Adam at the beginning. He was put into the possession of a goodly estate, which carried with it all that could gratify the sense. There were the trees and the fruits of that garden, pleasant to the eye and to the palate. The desire of the one and of the other, and of all the senses and faculties of man, might beholilyindulged, for the tree of knowledge had not been then eaten. The Lord God was in the supreme place, the creature was not then worshipped and served more than the Creator, and all the senses might righteously take their enjoyments, and the divine Planter of Eden had provided for them. Gen. ii. 9. Yea, and more than this. Adam receiveddominionfrom the same hand. The natural--nay, the divine--delight in power and dignity was thus provided for; for as the Lord God in the upper world called the stars by their names, thus owning them, so did He give Adam on the earth to call the cattle and the fowl by their names, thus taking headship of them. And in this way he was set in the midst of these divine provisions for his eye, his ear, his tastes, and his desire of dignity. But the heart was as yet unfed. The day of hiscoronationwas not the day of hisespousals. And the Lord God knows him. He knows the creature whom in His love and perfections He had formed. It is not good, says He, that he should be alone, I will make him an help meet for him. And Adam receives Eve from the same hand which had given him Eden with its fruits, and dominion in the earth. And then it is that his lips are opened. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." "This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh," says Adam, expressing his deep satisfaction, and that he now needed no more. Eden could not, with all its delights for the senses, nor could his vast and unrivalled dominion abroad, as "monarch of all he surveyed," do what Eve did for him. She unsealed his lips with a confession thatnowhe was satisfied. And so with us in possessing Jesus, above all glory, in our heavenly Eden, for ever.These, and the like notices of heaven scattered through the Word, it is blessed to take up and ponder. And, as one has said, "The Holy Ghost, who is called the earnest of our inheritance, acts upon these notices, and makes them living to our souls." And it is these notices and attractions which make us, in a divine sense, strangers and pilgrims here. Abraham, it has been observed, became a stranger in the earth, not from any sorrow or pressure in Mesopotamia, for we read of none such, but because "the God of glory" had spoken in the language of "promise" to him. He was drawn out from kindred and home and country by something before him, and not urged or driven out by anything behind. This was heavenly strangership here.Is it thus, beloved, or are we desiring that it may be thus, with our souls? Are we pondering the prospect, and following out the distant glimpses of it, with fixed and interested hearts? These are the present questions for the stirring and guiding of our souls. The search will lead to humbling and rebuke, but it will be an excellent oil.And, as if to give us full ease of heart in the enjoyment of this our future heaven, the Lord has taught us to know that we are in some sensewantedthere, however unimportant we may deem ourselves. For each is to be a vessel of the glory, as we have already said; of larger or smaller quantity it may be, but still each is aneededvessel in that house of glory. We commonly think how necessary the Lord is to us. True indeed. We shall celebrate the fact that we owe everything to Him throughout eternity. But it is also a truth (to the praise of the riches of grace be it spoken) that we are necessary to Him. "The woman is the glory of the man." Not in the same way, surely. He is necessary to us forlifeas well as for joy, forsalvationas well as for glory; but we are important, of course, only to His joy and glory; as it is written, "That we should be to the praise of His glory;" and again, "That in the ages to come He might shew the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." Eph. ii 7.The Lord God consulted for Adam's joy when He purposed in Himself to form Eve. Eve, we may know full well, was abundantly happy in Adam; but still the concern of the Lord was about Adam being happy in Eve. So it is even now in the dispensation of the Gospel. The true Adam is still consulted for. "The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for hisson." And so will it be still in the dispensation or age of the glory. It is called "the marriage of the Lamb"--not, as once observed to me, the marriage of the Church or of the Lamb's wife, butof the Lamb, as thoughthe Lambwere the One chiefly interested in that joy.And so it is. The Church will have her joy in Christ, but Christ will have His greater joy in the Church. The strongest pulse of gladness that is to beat for eternity will be in the bosom of the Lord over His ransomed Bride. In all things He is to have the pre-eminence; and, as in all things, so in this--that His joy in her will be greater than hers in Him.And all the foreknown to that end, and none less thanall, will form the Eve of that Adam, and be the Bride or the Woman destined thus to be the Man's joy and glory.Allhere arenow"fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth," and no lessthenwill theallbe demanded. Oh, how the Lord not only prepares the heaven, but in this way prepares the heart for it, that we may enjoy it withentire ease, seeing ourselves a needed portion of the holy furniture of the place! As Joseph would comfort his brethren by telling them that it was God who had sent him into Egypt before them, that life might be preserved by a great deliverance. Their wicked hands had done it, it is true; but God's purpose had done it also, and it is this He would have them now think of, and not the other. For this is the way of love; and "God is love." Love will not only spread the feast, but do what it can to let it be tasted with all confidence and joy of heart. Love will make the guestssitat the table, give them a plentiful board, and ease while enjoying it.Can we, beloved, read these notices of the heaven that is to be ours by-and-by, and for ever, and, as we read, wish our hearts joy that it is so? Can we count ourselves happy, having such prospects as these? As the miser can bear the scorn of the world without, in the thought of his treasures at home, can we in the hope of this joy of heaven live above the earth and its promises?Such things, however, as these, excellent as they are, have something still further with them. Theairof a place is more important to us than itsscenery. If we can get both, of course the better; but if we can have but one, the good air will be surely preferred.Now, heaven, I may say, will have both. It will be filled with a moral element or atmosphere, as well as furnished with glories; and the former (I speak as a man) will be more in the account of our joy than the latter.I have found it well at times to ponder this, and to learn something of that moral element that is to be the air of heaven. Scriptures which I have already noticed test and prove the purity of that air. The millennial atmosphere both in heaven and on earth will indeed be ever fresh, laden with balmy fragrance. If we are now wearied with our own selfishness, and with the tempers of "hateful and hating" human nature, we must long for a change of air, such as the land of the glory is said to know, the land of the voice of the turtle. If the brightness of those regions, or the scenery of the place, have its attraction (and what heart can conceive it?), what must be the atmosphere of it to our happy souls, where social life, through all its relations, as between heaven and earth, and as between Jerusalem, the land of Israel, and the most distant islands, moves and kindles continually with the most generous and delicate affections.It is not that nature will be triumphed over merely; nature will not be there; at least, not in the heavens which we are approaching. We shall not have to speak of saints carrying themselves towards each other in a good spirit. Such security is well in its place, and while we sojourn in our "vile bodies." But there the element itself will be good. The fervent currents of pure and happy minds, flowing from each to all, will form it.The moral dignity and beauty, the various and yet consistent perfections that will animate us then, will all be bright and lovely before the divine mind. God shall survey the work of His fingers through the different spheres of glory, and rest with delight in it.It is a thought much to be cherished, that our eternal ways will thus be the divine delight, and more than make up to God (I speak again after the manner of men) for the grief which, by us and in us, His Spirit is now so continually put to.Such will be themoralenjoyments in the realms of glory; no small part of that banquet at which the Lord will seat His guests, when He comes forth and girds Himself to wait upon them. Luke xii. 37. We may be but little able to comprehend the glory itself, but we can appreciate these moral characteristics of the heaven we are reaching.While still here, in the conflicts of flesh and spirit, we are, in some sense, under the guardianship ofconscience, that principle which judges of "good and evil." But conscience will not keep heaven in order. Ourpassionsand ourrighteousnesswill there be one. Little do we now advance in a heavenly direction by the gracious current of affections. But what bliss, when the very energy which bears usspeedilywill also bear usrightlyonward—-when the very gale which fills the sails will regulate the rudder; the passion that engages and delights the soul being the very rule and measure of all that is worthy of the presence of God!May we cherish in our souls these notices of heaven! Faint is their impression; humblingly indeed do some of us know this; but we may entertain them, and bid them welcome, grieved that our welcome is not more warm and affectionate.But the earth is still remembered, and kept in store for great purposes yet to be accomplished. The rainbow was, of old, as we know, made the pledge of this. It is a token of the covenant between God and all the earth, and every living thing upon it. The Lord says, that when the cloud comes, the bow shall be with it—-when the portent of judgment lowers, the sign of peace shall shine. And, as we see to this day, the earth has not been again destroyed. It may not be the residence of the glory, as it once was, and as it will be again, but still it is preserved, according to the promise of the rainbow. And Scripture is diligent and exact to show us, that in every variety of the divine procedure, this promise has been, is, and will be remembered.Thus it was surely remembered all the time the Lord had His seat in Zion; for then the Lord made the earth His habitation. But when the throne of the Lord leaves Zion, and the holiest of holies loses the glory, because the earthly people had, by their sin, disturbed its rest, and all returns to heaven (Ezek. i-xi.), we see the throne and the glory carrying the rainbow with them. That is, though the earth was then stripped of glory; though Jerusalem, the throne of the Lord, was then for a season laid on heaps, and put under the foot of the Gentiles; still the Lord would be mindful of the earth, and make it the object of His faithful care, according to His promise. And thus we see the glory, though it leave the earth, bearing with it the remembrance of the earth:the rainbow accompanies it to heaven; this telling us, that though the Lord leave the earth as the scene of His power and praise for a time, He has it still in recollection before Him. Accordingly, when the heaven is opened to our vision in Rev. iv. we see the faithful bow encompassing the throne there. How blessed this is! The Lord in the heavens is still mindful of the earth. He has thrown the very pledge of its security around His throne on high, so that though the earth see not that throne, and is no longer the place of that throne, that throne sees the earth and remembers it, and longs, as it were, for its natural footstool.This shows us the security of the earth during this heavenly dispensation through which we are now passing. The Lord is now gathering a peoplefor heaven. It is true, He is not filling the earth with glory yet, but gathering an elect family out from it, to have communion with Himself in heaven; but still He is mindful of His promise. He looks on the bow, and preserves the earth, keeps the seed-time and the harvest, the cold and the heat, the day and the night, the summer and the winter, in their stated rounds and seasons. Gen. ix.How simple all this is. When the throne went first from earth to heaven, we saw it bearing along with it the recollection of the earth; and now in its place in the heavens we see it still clasping to its breast and encircling across its brow this fond and loved token of the earth's blessing. Ezek. i.; Rev. iv.But there is still more. For let the Lord come down in the judgments that are by-and-by to visit the earth, we shall find Him as fully mindful of His promise not to destroy it, as now He is, or has been hitherto. This we see in Rev. x. The mighty angel, the angel of judgment, comes down; and he is clothed with a cloud, the fearful vessel of wrath, and token of judgment; as was said at the beginning, "When I bring a cloud over the earth." But even then the rainbow is with Him; as it was added, "The bow shall be seen in the cloud." It is not simply with a cloud He comes down, but with the cloud and the bow accompanying it. See Gen. ix. 14; Rev. x. 1. As much as to tell us, that at the very end He remembers His word, and will debate with judgment. He will say to it, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further." The cloud is to descend, it is true; the judgment must come, the vials of wrath must be poured out; but it is only to judge those who corrupt or destroy the earth, and not to destroy the earth itself; for the mighty angel, as we see from this scripture, who comes down "clothed with a cloud," has also "a rainbow upon his head." And the cloud, as it executes its commission, and pours out its water or its judgments again, must stay itself in obedience to the bow that is to measure and control it. The present course of things may cease, as in the days of Noah, but the bow shines in the eye of the Lord. His promise lives in His heart, and the earth shall be the happy scene and witness of its rich fulfilment.Thus, then, we see that even the judgment itself shall not touch the ancient promise to the earth. It is still beloved for Noah's sake, of whom it was said, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed (Gen. v.), that is, for His blessed sake whom Noah typified; and we need not say, beloved, who He is. Therefore it survives the judgment, it stands the shock of the descent of this mighty angel, though clothed with a cloud, planting his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the land, and crying aloud as when a lion roars.And what is it reserved for? For even more than the rainbow had promised it. For this is the way of God. He takes up His pledges, and is faithfulabundantly, doing more exceedingly than He had spoken. And so is it in this case of the earth. It is not only preserved, with its seed-time and its harvest, its day and its night, but it is brought into the "liberty of the glory of the sons of God." This is more than had been pledged to it. The holy city descends out of heaven, to take its connection with the earth; and, shining in due sphere above it, forth from its bosom it sends the leaves of its living tree, the streams of its living water, and the rays of its indwelling glory, to beautify and to refresh the earth and its creatures below. Rev. xxi, xxii. The rainbow need not now appear, for the cloud is gone. The bow would do well enough while there was the cloud, the promise and the pledge might comfort, while there was place for judgment, or for fear of evil; but now judgment is over. The cloud is scattered, and the bow has therefore no place. But the holy city descends out of heaven from God, to do more, much more, than merely to redeem the divine pledge. For it is glorifying, and not merely preserving, the creation. It shall thenrejoicein the presence of the Lord, when He cometh to govern the earth.Would not time fail to tell of all the types and prophecies of theearth'sblessing in the days of the kingdom? The trees and the fields and the floods, in their order, will then rejoice before the Lord. The creation itself shall be delivered into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. Psalm viii., with many a kindred voice, proclaims it. The voice of every creature on earth, under the earth, and in the sea, heard in vision by the prophet, anticipates it. Rev. v. And the promised day, when "the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose," when "the leopard shall lie down with the kid," and when "the heavens shall hear the earth, and the earth shall hear the corn and the wine and the oil," will realize it. Isaiah xxxv.; Hosea ii.Andthe nations, we know, will fill their place in this approaching system of glory. They will turn their swords into ploughshares; and instead of learning war, they will learn the ways of the Lord, and walk in His paths. At the appointed season they will wait, each with his offering, on the King in Zion, holding their high and joyous feast in the presence of His greatness there. Then from the uttermost parts of the earth shall be heard songs to the Righteous One. And then shall the call of the prophet be answered by the willing hearts of all the people: "Sing unto the Lord a new song, and His praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof. Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit: let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory unto the Lord, and declare His praise in the islands."Israelthen shall dwell safely--"every man under his vine and under his fig tree." They shall be "all righteous;" they shall be all united; they shall call every man his neighbour. "Ephraim shall not envy Judah, nor Judah vex Ephraim." The two mystic sticks shall become one in the prophet's hand. They shall be "one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel." And, as in the shadowy days of Solomon, it shall then be said, "Judah and Israel were many, as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and making merry." Their merriment, too, shall be holy. It shall be the joy of a sanctuary. "They shall abundantly utter the memory of Thy great goodness, and shall sing of Thy righteousness.... They shall speak of the glory of Thy kingdom, and talk of Thy power." Within themselves, towards the nations around, and under the God of their fathers, the God of their covenant, all shall be blessing with Israel. For thus saith the Lord God, They shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob My servant.... I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And the heathen shall known that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore. Ezekiel xxxvii.All this tells the tale of millennial joys on the earth. But in this system, of earthly glory, beyond thecreationitself,the nations, andIsrael, there is a spot still more illustrious, an object distinguished in the midst of even joys and dignities like these. I meanJerusalem.And I have before now asked myself, Why is it that Jerusalem is made so much of in Scripture? Why is it that "the Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob"?It wasHiscourt--the place of His presence both as the God and the King of Israel. His palace and His sanctuary were there. The administrations of His laws and the ordinances of His worship were there. The thrones of judgment, the testimony of Israel, and the eucharistic service of His name, were all known there. Psalm cxxii. It was the place where Jehovah had recorded His name, and where the glory dwelt, the symbol of His presence.It wasHis home. The whole land was the Lord's demesne; but Jerusalem was the mansion-house, the family dwelling. The children were placed out here and there through the tribes and divisions of the land, which was the family estate, but Jerusalem was the family mansion. It was the father's house, the common home, where, at stated holy days, the children met, according to the common way of the affection of kindred.This, I believe, was Jerusalem'sfirstattraction in the eye and to the heart of the Lord of Israel. He sought and He found a home at Jerusalem, saying, "This is My rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it." And He left it, when sin had defiled it, with all the hesitation and lingering which disappointed affection so well understands. Ezekiel viii.-xi.Jerusalem was all this--the house of the Father, the palace of the King, and the temple of the God of Israel. For Israel were His children, His people, and His worshippers, and the affections of a Father's heart, and the joys and honours of the Lord and King, found their object and their sphere at Jerusalem. And this is more than enough to account to us for her high distinction. And all this is she to be again. It will be the palace, the temple, and the family mansion again. It will be the place of prayer for all nations. It will be the seat of legislation, worship, judgment, and government. It will be the fountain, too, of the virtues of the new covenant, from whence the living waters will flow, to make her, in those days, the mystic mother of the family. Psalm lxxxvii. And the glory of the heavens will shine on her from above, doing for her the service of sun and moon, while she is lifted up and exposed, that she may bask in the full light of it, and dwell under it as her native air. Isa. iv. 5; lx. 1; Zech. xiv. 10.And she shall be the bride of the Lord of the earth, and the queen in the day of His power. He will clothe her with ornaments as such, rejoice over her, impart His name to her, and have her so honoured and cherished by the whole world, as to treat despite of her as indignity done to Himself. Psalm xlv.; Isaiah lx.; Jeremiah xxxiii.; Ezekiel xlviii.; Zeph. iii.All this may well account for the place which Jerusalem holds in the thoughts of the Spirit. His prophets, those who spake as they were moved by Him, address her again and again as the bride, the queen, and the mother, in the days of the approaching glory. But what shall we say of Him, who has thus decked her with all beauty and dignity, and given her such relationship to Himself? Is it not wondrous and happy to see the circle of human sympathies thus seating itself in the divine mind? Isfriendshiponly human? How can I say so, when I see Jesus and the disciple whom He loved walking in company? Are the affections ofkindredmerely human? How can I say so, when I think of Christ and the Church, and a thousand witnesses from Scripture? Is the heart's fond delight inhomea divine as well as a human joy? How can I doubt it, when I thus see the Lord and Jerusalem? Surely the divine mind is the seat of all the pure and righteous sensibilities of the heart, and "the Man Christ Jesus" tells me so. The Lord God of Israel has known, and will know again, the affection that lingers round the homestead of many a family recollection and joy.Such will be Jerusalem, and such the earth itself, the nations, and Israel, in the promised days of the presence and power of the Lord. Faintly traced by the hand, more feebly responded to by the heart. But "yet true," though "surpassing fable."All Scripture, however, shows us that such joy cannot be had on earth, or in the circumstances and history of the world, in theirpresentstate, nor till the earth is made the scene of righteousness; and such it is not to be, till the Lord have ridded it of all that offends, and all that does iniquity.The sword of judgmentmust go beforethe throne of glory. The earth must be cleared of its corruptions, ere it can be a garden of holy, divine delights again.The Gospel is not producing a happy world, or spreading out a garden of Eden. It proposes no such thing, but to take out of the world a people, a heavenly people, for Christ. But the presence of the Lord will make a happy world by-and-by, when that presence can righteously return to it.The close of the Psalms shows us this. Beautiful close! All praise—-untiring, satisfying fruit of lips uttering the joy of a filled heart, and owning the undivided glory of the Blessed One! But this had been preceded by the sorrows of the righteous in an evil world, and then the judgment of that world. For that Book gives the cries of the righteous in an evil world, the joys of the Spirit in the midst of that evil, the varied exercises of the soul by the way, and the end of the righteous in the joy of praise. All, however, forbids the heart from entertaining the thought of joyin theearthtill the judgment have cleansed it; therestis to be prepared forSolomonby theswordofDavid.The proper thought of this will keep the heart from being tossed by disappointments, and take it off from the expectation of any progress to rest and stability for the world, or in it, till the Lord have executed judgment. Our joy now is to be in Himself, in spirit, in the thought of His love, and the sense of His peace, helped onward, day by day, in the hope of full and righteous joy with Him, when the wicked have gone from the scene for ever.How sensitively does the Lord's mind recede from the thought of joy in the earth, when the people were wondering at all things that He did! Turning to His disciples He said, "Let these sayings sink down into your ears; for the Son of man shall be delivered into the hands of men." But this, I may say, was only a sample of all His mind, as He looked to the earth in its present condition. It was ever in His thoughts connected with trial.Psalm lxxv. strikingly utters this. There Messiah looks on the earth as all dissolved and disordered, about to drink the cup of judgment at God's righteous hand. For the present He expected nothing from it. But then, after the exhausting of that cup, He does look on it as the scene of joy and praise and exaltation of righteousness, He Himself bearing up its pillars, and leading its songs.I feel it, however, to be a very solemn truth, that God is allowing man, giving him space and time, to ripen his iniquity, that the judgment may fall upon him in the height of his pride, and crush the system which he is raising in its point of greatest pretension and advancement. It is surely a solemn truth. But even in such a purpose, as in all others, "Wisdom is justified of all her children." The believer may be awed by such a fact in the divine dealings with man, but he approves it, understands it to be a fitting thing, that man should be allowed to produce the fully ripened fruit of his own departure from God, to present it and survey it in the pride of his heart, and then receive his righteous answer to all his boasted and enjoyed apostasy, from the signal judgment of God. The iniquity of the Amorites was to befull, ere justice should overtake it. The Lord bore with Babel till the cry of it went up to Him. Nebuchadnezzar had built "great Babylon," as he gloried, by the might of his power, and for the honour of his majesty, when he was driven from his high estate; Haman was full when God emptied him even to the dregs. And the great man of the earth, at the last, shall come to his end, just as he has planted the tabernacles of his palaces in the glorious holy mountain.It is solemn; but it is as wisdom would have it, and as faith deeply approves it. God is justified in His sayings, and overcomes when He is judged.Happy I desire to find this meditation. Where there is much conflict of thought and judgment among the saints, it is grateful to the soul to turn to subjects ofcommoninterest and delight; and when the scene around is getting full of man's inventions and man's importance, it is well, to look to those regions of light and purity, where God, supreme and all-sufficient, will gather together all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth. Regions of light and purity indeed, where all will tell of intimacy or nearness, and yet of the full sense of the position of the Creator and the creature, the Sanctifier and the sanctified. In many a delightful page of God's Word is this brightly reflected. The Lord dwelt in the midst of the camp of Israel while at rest, and, as it took its journey, went along with it, whether by night or by day, whether the road lay right onward, or turned back to the mountain or the sea. But still He wasGod, the Lord of the camp.How does all that commend itself to our souls! We bow to this. We rejoice to know that He dwells in a light that no man can approach unto, and yet that He has walked through the cities and villages of earth; that He is One whom no man hath seen, nor can see, and yet that none less than the One who is in His bosom has declared Him to us, been in the midst of us, our Kinsman in the flesh, as well as Jehovah's Fellow.His supreme authority, as Lord, is infinite; His distance and holiness, as God, are infinite. And yet He is "Head over all thingstothe Church," and God Himself is "for us." At the very moment of His commanding Moses and Joshua to take their shoes from their feet, because of His presence, He was manifesting Himself to them in symbols or characters significant of the deepest sympathy, and of the most devoted service. Exodus iii; Joshua v.But enough. I will not pursue these thoughts any further. Yet in the days of increasing gloom and perplexity, like the present, the soul is the more sent to the sure hiding-place of safety, or to the sunny Pisgah heights of hope and observation. It gets the more accustomed to meditate on the strength of those foundations which God has put under our feet-—the intimacy of that communion into which He has even now introduced our hearts-—and the brightness of those prospects which He has set before our eyes.I only ask, beloved, Are we pressing, in desire, after this portion? Are we unsatisfied with all in comparison with it? Are we refusing to form any purpose, or to entertain any prospect, short of this? In Psalm lxxxiv. the heart of the worshipper is stillon the way, unsatisfied, though he have "pools," and "rain," and "strength" of the Lord, till he reach Zion. In Psalm xc. all which the man of God sees is the vanity of human life and the "return" of the Lord. He does not anticipate changes and improvements in the condition of things, but looks to being "made glad" and of being "satisfied" at the "return" of Christ.Is this our mind? I again ask. Are we still prisoners of hope, refusing to let anything change the expectant attitude of the soul? The Holy Ghost is given to us, not to change that, but to strengthen it. His very presence does but nourish present dissatisfaction of heart, and the longings of hope and desire. He causes the saint to "abound in hope," and gives breadth and compass to the cry, "Come, Lord Jesus." Spirit of truth, the other Comforter, as He is, He does not show Himself for the Bridegroom, nor propose to make His refreshings "the marriage supper of the Lamb." The energy of hope, the desirings of the soul after our still unmanifested Lord, only speak the Spirit's presence in us the more clearly and blessedly. It is His very design and workmanship. He draws us forth to hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ.And is He, beloved, our object? The heart well knows the power of that which is its object. Do we make Jesus such? Do we find, in ourselves, anything of that sickness of hope of which we read in Scripture? And are we able to say, "When He giveth quietness, who then can make trouble?"May the Spirit shed abroad more and more, in the heart of each of us, these and the like affections. And to Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, be glory and dominion for ever! Amen.Bride of the Lamb! awake, awake!Why sleep for sorrow now?The hope of glory, Christ, is thine,A child of glory thou.Thy spirit through the lonely night,From earthly joy apart,Hath sigh'd for One that's far away,The Bridegroom of thy heart.But see, the night is waning fast,The breaking morn is near,And Jesus comes with voice of love,Thy drooping heart to cheer.He comes; for, oh, His yearning heartNo more can bear delay,To scenes of full, unmingled joyTo call His Bride away.This earth, the scene of all His woe,A homeless wild to thee,Full soon upon His heav'nly throne,Its rightful King shall see.Thou too shalt reign, He will not wearHis crown of joy alone,And earth His royal Bride shall seeBeside Him on the throne.Then weep no more, 'tis all thine own,His crown, His joy divine,And sweeter far than all beside,He, He Himself is thine.[1]I do not, however, assume that Lamech was a murderer; but he could identify himself with such. With Paul, he could, in the sense of what he was before God, speak of himself as chief of sinners. And we know also that the repentant Remnant of the latter day will, in their confession, quite take the place of blood-guiltiness after this manner. They will look to Him whom they pierced. They will, in the spirit of Daniel or Nehemiah, make themselves one with the guilty nation.[2]Some have spoken of the Jews, as guilty of the blood of Christ, so as to have betrayed the principle of self-righteousness condemned here. And yet I doubt not that there is a sense in which the Jews are--in a special sense--connected with that sin in the divine judgment. The land of the Jews is the distinguished field of blood; the blood of Jesus, in a great sense, is specially on them and their children. And so, like Cain, that people are under the special securities of God. And further; that blood is to be cleansed from off their land, though it now so stains it. Joel iii. 21.And still further; the language of Lamech, I also judge, is mystical or typical, intimating the repentance of the Jews who shed the blood, after generations of unbelief and hardness of heart. See note, p. 20.[3]Such passages as Eph. i. 10 and Col. i. 20 tell us that both the heavens and the earth are equally the scene of divine purposes. And the great argument in Rom. xi. instructs us about those purposes, and the ways and times of their accomplishment.[4]What I say of this antediluvian family is only as we see them in Genesis v. I doubt not, as under every trial of man, failure and corruption are witnessed. But I speak merely of their standing and testimony as given to us here. Sons and daughters, as we are told, were born to them, generation after generation, and seeds of apostasy were sown and sprang up among them, I doubt not. But this does not at all affect the lesson we get from this fifth chapter.[5]I am not careful to apply all this, as I believe it may be applied. I rather leave it in the way of a suggestion. But it does seem to me that the Lord,speaking of the Jewish election, takes Noah for His text or type (Matt. xxiv.); while the apostle,addressing the Church, takes his language the rather from the translation of Enoch. 1 Thess. iv. 17; 2 Thess. ii. 1. For the Jewish remnant, like Noah, will be carried through the judgment-—the saints now gathering will be in the sphere out of which the judgment is to be poured. For we are taught again and again, as I have noticed before, that exercise of power in that day, in company with the Lord, is part of the glory of the saints. See Col. iii. 4; Rev. ii. 26; xvii. 14; xix. 14.[6]It has been justly said by another, that the principle ofgovernmentwas represented in Noah; that Adam had been the representative head ofcreation, and that Noah is the same now ofgovernment. And I doubt not, that after the judicial scattering from Babel, the nations became associations in which God still recognized the sword of justice and the seat of government, which therefore are still to be exercised, and ought still to be religiously owned and reverenced.[7]As intimating blessed and distinct actions among the Persons of the Godhead, according to covenant arrangements, we may remember Messiah's words in Isa. xlviii.--"And now hath the Lord God and His Spirit sent me." What words! how full of deep, counselled, and ordered grace towards sinners! And they are quite according to the structure of things in the Gospels--for there not only does the baptism of Jesus but many passages tell us or show us, according to this word of the prophet, that the mission and ministry of the Lord Jesus were under the ordaining of God and the anointing of the Holy Ghost;--the Lord God and His Spirit sent the Son, the Christ or Messiah.[8]Just like the throne of David. That throne is for the present in the dust--the crown of Judah is cast down--but the promise of the Lord to it is remembered, as is His promise to the earth. This analogy Scripture giveth us in Jer. xxxiii. Dishonoured now or made the sport of the wicked, the promises to the earth and to David's throne are still in full remembrance, and, in their season, will be accomplished.[9]The family of Cain was the contradiction of this, in those antediluvian days. They tilled the ground for something more than livelihood. Their tillage led to the culture and advancement of the world as a system of gain and pleasure. And thus were the two families distinguished--the one was formed by faith, or by obedience to the revelation of God; the other by the despite of it, as the world is to this day.[10]In their day, Abraham's seed, or the nation of Israel, are again anearthlypeople; and they exhibit the very opposite of all this. Theysmitethe nations of Canaan; and instead of being calledfromkindred and country, they are calledtoall such things; men, women, children, and even cattle (for not a hoof was to be left behind), journeyed from Egypt to Canaan--from a land of strangers to their own inheritance.[11]The Lord Jesus, in His day, acknowledged this same pledge or symptom of the kingdom. For when the Greeks came up to the feast and asked to see Him, as the Gentile here seeks Abraham, His thoughts are immediately upon His glory. He knows indeed that glory is to be reached only by His death, and so He testifies; but still, His thoughts go out at once to the glory. See John xii. 23.[12]There aremysteriesas well asillustrations of faithin these things; but I cannot follow them here. The offer of Isaac on Moriah, we none of us doubt, is a mystery. So, I surely know, is the action of Hagar and Ishmael in chapter xxi. It is the picture of the presentoutcastbutpreservedJew--a homeless fugitive, destined, however, for future purposes of mercy. See Gal. iv. 25. But I follow not these things particularly here.[13]In the mystic history of the earth given to us in Lev. xxiii. the Church is brought in as the "poor" and the "stranger" gleaning in another man's field, in ver. 22. But as she entered that field so she left it. She was the poor one, and the stranger, and the gleaner in another's field, to the end. The field never becomes her property.Looked at in the light of this beautiful figure, what is Christendom under God's eye?[14]The Lord Jesus, in the days of His flesh, acted as the God who, of old, had called Abraham.For He put in the supreme claims of such an one."He that loveth father or mother more than Me," says He, "is not worthy of Me." And again, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their dead." Who but God can step in between us and such relationships, such obligations and services? Duties and affections like these are more than sanctioned by nature; they are enforced by law--law of God Himself. But the call of God is supreme, and Jesus asserted it in the day of His humiliation here.[15]The same mystery, I doubt not, is presented in the marriage of Moses and the Ethiopian, and in that also of Solomon with Pharaoh's daughter. Moses' second wife stands, in dignity, below his Zipporah, who shines in peculiar glory at the mount of God in Exodus xviii.; and Pharaoh's daughter, though fully acknowledged by the king at Jerusalem, would not be given a place in the city of David.[16]See the paper on "Enoch," pp. 32-37, where certain dispensational purposes of God, in their differences, are considered.[17]As to the common sin of Abraham and Isaac touching the denial of their wives, calling them their sisters, see "Abraham," p. 122.[18]Jeroboam in his day took his own way to reach the promise of God touching the kingdom of the ten tribes, by the prophet Ahijah--and he delayed his own mercy; just as Jacob does in this chapter. Nay, further. Jeroboam has to be an exile in Egypt till the death of Solomon, because of this; as Jacob has for twenty years to be an exile in Padan, for the same evil. See 1 Kings xi.[19]It is said in the Jewish writings that he was seventy-seven.[20]This parcel of ground, at last, becomes only a burying-place, like Machpelah; but it had not, at first, been purchased as such, as Machpelah was.[21]In Joseph obtaining the rights of the firstborn, there is something besides grace; but I do not notice it here.[22]Neither Pharaoh, nor Pharaoh's house, nor any in Egypt seem ever to have been told of the sin of the brethren.[23]Zaphnath-paaneah, in the old Egyptian tongue, is said to have signified "the saviour of the world"; in the Hebrew, as we understand, it might be rendered "the revealer of secrets."[24]The title now bestowed was afterwards realized, when the family estate, the land of Canaan, came to be divided between the tribes; for Joseph then gets two portions in his two sons, who are treated as though they had been two distinct sons of Jacob.[25]God is afterwards called "the God of Israel," as before He had been called the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. Because His covenant was with the nation of Israel.[26]All orders of His creatures in all places of His dominions witness Him as thelivingGod; but in the history of redeemed sinners He is witnessed as the living God invictory. This is His glory; and resurrection should be prized by us as the display of it. The sepulchre with the grave-clothes lying in order, and the napkin which had been about the head, are the trophies of such victory. John xx. 6, 7. The history of redeemed sinners celebrates Him thus. To hesitate about resurrection is to betray ignorance of God, and of the power that is His. See Matthew xxii. 29; 1 Cor. xv. 34.[27]The children of light should reckon upon the attempts of the powers of darkness against them. A sudden moment of conflict should not therefore surprise us. For we are set to be the scene or theatre of their defeat by Christ. "It is our illumination" that exposes us. That is its proper natural operation. The more we are in the light, I may say, the more exposed we are. It was Adam's creature-beauty, Job's memorial with God, and the Apostle's attachment to Christ, that laid them open to Satan.But let me add, that a "messenger of Satan" may be sent forth from the presence of God upon either thefleshor theheartof man. An evil spirit from the Lord came upon Saul, and a lying spirit came upon the prophets of Ahab. 1 Sam. xvi.; 1 Kings xxii. The Lord was beginning solemn acts ofjudgment, and, therefore, these messengers of Satan were sent forth upon theheartof those who were righteously under judgment. But other messengers of Satan reach only thebodyorcircumstances, as in the case of Paul and of our patriarch. And this isdisciplinemerely, and not judgment.[28]The knowledge of truth alone will never ensure happy or profitable ministry. If we draw merely from our stores or possessions of knowledge, we shall find ourselves confounded. The freshness of the Spirit in us, and the exercise of our gift under Him, at the time of ministry, are also needful.[29]The same Hebrew word signifies kinsman, redeemer, and avenger.[30]The Kinsmandeliveringand the Kinsmanavengingdeals with an enemy or a wrong-doer, and not, as in the case ofrepurchasing, with a righteous claimant. There is, however, this difference: in the case of delivering, the Kinsman only rescues his brother or relative out of the hand of the enemy; in the case of avenging, he visits the blood of his brother or relative upon the head of the enemy. Christ will deliver us from the hand of death at thebeginningof the Kingdom (1 Corinthians xv. 54), He will avenge us upon the head of death at thecloseof the Kingdom. 1 Corinthians xv. 26.[31]I do not regard Job so much as atype, but rather as asample. His calling was the common calling, as a dead and risen man. Every saint, now gathering for heavenly glory, is such. Israel in the latter day will be as such, and the whole system of the millennial age. The Lord Jesus holds all things, and exercises His offices, as the One that was dead and is alive again. But I judge it to be more fitting to speak of Job as a sample of the common calling, than as a type. I could not, however, object to the expression, were it used by others.Job learnt his lesson through sufferings. The Lord, I may say, did the same. Hebrews ii. iv. v. He was made perfect for His high functions in that way. Christ's compassions could not have beenpriestly, till He became a man, partaker of the flesh and blood of the children, and suffered as such. And Job's history may be read as the expression or foreshadowing of all this.So Israel. They will be as a people who, having destroyed themselves, have found their help in God. Hosea presents them in that character. Their language in chapter xiv. is the language of such a people. And Job's history may be regarded as the expression or foreshadowing of this also. He revives, he grows again as the lily, and his branches spread, at the end, as Israel and Israel's branches will, according to their prophet. So that we may speak of Job as a type. But I still feel and judge it to be more fitting, to present him as a sample of us all, in the common faith, as dead and risen with Christ.[32]It has been observed by another, that Satan isalwaysdefeated. This thought seems to get the most striking confirmations from Scripture, beyond the cases mentioned above.He is the instrument, the willing instrument, of destroying the flesh; but that destruction ends inthe saving of the spirit. 1 Cor. v. 5. He receives, gladly receives, one that is judicially delivered over to him; but all that ends insuch an one learning not to blaspheme. 1 Tim. i. 20. He sends forth his messengers as thorns in the flesh, delighting to do so, as being bent on mischief, having been "a murderer from the beginning;" but this still works good, forthe servant of Christ is thereby kept from undue exaltation. 2 Cor. xii. 7.These are illustrious exhibitions of the devil beingalwaysdefeated. Because they show this--that he lends himself directly to his own overthrow. His own weapon is turned against himself. The one whom he assails is, by the very assault, given strength or virtue against him.Happy assurance! our great adversary is never victorious! It is the pricks he kicks against.[33]Affection begets confidence. Rebecca committed herself to Eliezer,never asking her father or brother for an escort. So the more singly we love Jesus, the more confidently will our souls trust Him and His supplies for us alone, without confidence in the flesh or anything else.[34]"Tillsheplease," it ought to be, as the "love" is the female in this book. Ch. ii. 7; iii. 5; vii. 4.[35]It is commonly interpreted as though Paul, in Gal. ii. 20, were expressing hisdevotednessto his Master. But this is not so. This robs the verse of its exquisite glory. He is rather speaking of the joy of his soul in the knowledge of what a devoted and glorious Lover he had.[36]Another once observed to me, that in the Canticles, the Beloved expressesdirectly to herselfthe beauties He discerns in her; the betrothed one never does this, but recites His beautiesin the ears of others; and further observed, that there was great moral propriety in this, something quite according to the dictate of a delicate affection.[37]The saints of the present age, being heavenly in their calling, should be heavenly also in the spirit of their mind, and consciously, in all their tastes and desires, only as strangers, and not at home, in the earth; a people, as another once said, not as looking up from earth to heaven, but as looking down from heaven to earth.[38]Another once observed, that the moment of highest rapture in heaven is not when the saintsweartheir crowns, but when theycast them downbefore the throne. Rev. iv. 10.

And to all this, we may add, that everything will be according to our mind, as we speak; all will be right in our eyes; all will equally and entirely please us, and be just as we would have it. This we see in the book of Revelation, in the progress of which the heavenly family, wherever they are seen or heard, are always found in the fullest concord with the action that is going on. In chap. iv. the throne is getting itself ready for judgment—-lightnings, thunders, and voices proceeding from it; but the elders and the living creatures have their doxologies to the name of the Lord God Almighty, who sits and orders all. In chap. v. the Lamb takes the book, and they again rejoice, taking their harps to celebrate Him, and to make merry at the prospect which this sight opens to them. In chap. xi. the seventh angel announces judgment, but they have only to fall on their faces, and worship, and give thanks. In chap. xii. the war in heaven and its issue is just as they would have it; and with a loud voice they publish "Salvation!" In chap. xv. God'sworks and ways, all things of Hiscounselor Hisstrength, form the theme of their song. And in chap. xix. the judgment of the woman who corrupted the earth calls forth again and again the hallelujah of the glorified family. Thus all, from beginning to end, is equally and altogether right in their eyes; all is exactly as they would have it. They as loudly triumph in the KinsmanAvenger(chap. xix.), as they do in the KinsmanRedeemer. Chap. v. Everything is to them beautiful in its season. The marriage of the Lamb, and the judgment of the great whore, are equally and entirely according to their mind.

Different, far different indeed, from what is now felt by the believer. As far as he is spiritual, nothing is fully right around him here. And this is only increasingly so, as the world gets fuller of its own inventions, and increases with the increase of man. And a judgment this affords as to the state of our affections. For we may ask ourselves, How are we moved by the present advance in the improvements of the world? Are we congratulating ourselves and the age upon them, or are they sickening to our hearts? This may be a touch-stone of the condition of our souls, whether indeed Christ be our object or not. The great tower in the plains of Shinar would have been the boast of a Nimrod, but Abram would have turned from it to weep. Just as the merchants of the earth bewail that which the heavens rejoice over. Rev. xviii.

And this is the great inquiry for us now-—Is Christ the object of our hearts-—the One that we long for? For that He will be ours, and near us and with us for ever, will be the highest point in all our rich happiness in this future heaven which we have been looking at. Provision for theheartis always the dearest thought we can entertain. As with Adam at the beginning. He was put into the possession of a goodly estate, which carried with it all that could gratify the sense. There were the trees and the fruits of that garden, pleasant to the eye and to the palate. The desire of the one and of the other, and of all the senses and faculties of man, might beholilyindulged, for the tree of knowledge had not been then eaten. The Lord God was in the supreme place, the creature was not then worshipped and served more than the Creator, and all the senses might righteously take their enjoyments, and the divine Planter of Eden had provided for them. Gen. ii. 9. Yea, and more than this. Adam receiveddominionfrom the same hand. The natural--nay, the divine--delight in power and dignity was thus provided for; for as the Lord God in the upper world called the stars by their names, thus owning them, so did He give Adam on the earth to call the cattle and the fowl by their names, thus taking headship of them. And in this way he was set in the midst of these divine provisions for his eye, his ear, his tastes, and his desire of dignity. But the heart was as yet unfed. The day of hiscoronationwas not the day of hisespousals. And the Lord God knows him. He knows the creature whom in His love and perfections He had formed. It is not good, says He, that he should be alone, I will make him an help meet for him. And Adam receives Eve from the same hand which had given him Eden with its fruits, and dominion in the earth. And then it is that his lips are opened. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." "This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh," says Adam, expressing his deep satisfaction, and that he now needed no more. Eden could not, with all its delights for the senses, nor could his vast and unrivalled dominion abroad, as "monarch of all he surveyed," do what Eve did for him. She unsealed his lips with a confession thatnowhe was satisfied. And so with us in possessing Jesus, above all glory, in our heavenly Eden, for ever.

These, and the like notices of heaven scattered through the Word, it is blessed to take up and ponder. And, as one has said, "The Holy Ghost, who is called the earnest of our inheritance, acts upon these notices, and makes them living to our souls." And it is these notices and attractions which make us, in a divine sense, strangers and pilgrims here. Abraham, it has been observed, became a stranger in the earth, not from any sorrow or pressure in Mesopotamia, for we read of none such, but because "the God of glory" had spoken in the language of "promise" to him. He was drawn out from kindred and home and country by something before him, and not urged or driven out by anything behind. This was heavenly strangership here.

Is it thus, beloved, or are we desiring that it may be thus, with our souls? Are we pondering the prospect, and following out the distant glimpses of it, with fixed and interested hearts? These are the present questions for the stirring and guiding of our souls. The search will lead to humbling and rebuke, but it will be an excellent oil.

And, as if to give us full ease of heart in the enjoyment of this our future heaven, the Lord has taught us to know that we are in some sensewantedthere, however unimportant we may deem ourselves. For each is to be a vessel of the glory, as we have already said; of larger or smaller quantity it may be, but still each is aneededvessel in that house of glory. We commonly think how necessary the Lord is to us. True indeed. We shall celebrate the fact that we owe everything to Him throughout eternity. But it is also a truth (to the praise of the riches of grace be it spoken) that we are necessary to Him. "The woman is the glory of the man." Not in the same way, surely. He is necessary to us forlifeas well as for joy, forsalvationas well as for glory; but we are important, of course, only to His joy and glory; as it is written, "That we should be to the praise of His glory;" and again, "That in the ages to come He might shew the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." Eph. ii 7.

The Lord God consulted for Adam's joy when He purposed in Himself to form Eve. Eve, we may know full well, was abundantly happy in Adam; but still the concern of the Lord was about Adam being happy in Eve. So it is even now in the dispensation of the Gospel. The true Adam is still consulted for. "The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for hisson." And so will it be still in the dispensation or age of the glory. It is called "the marriage of the Lamb"--not, as once observed to me, the marriage of the Church or of the Lamb's wife, butof the Lamb, as thoughthe Lambwere the One chiefly interested in that joy.

And so it is. The Church will have her joy in Christ, but Christ will have His greater joy in the Church. The strongest pulse of gladness that is to beat for eternity will be in the bosom of the Lord over His ransomed Bride. In all things He is to have the pre-eminence; and, as in all things, so in this--that His joy in her will be greater than hers in Him.

And all the foreknown to that end, and none less thanall, will form the Eve of that Adam, and be the Bride or the Woman destined thus to be the Man's joy and glory.Allhere arenow"fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth," and no lessthenwill theallbe demanded. Oh, how the Lord not only prepares the heaven, but in this way prepares the heart for it, that we may enjoy it withentire ease, seeing ourselves a needed portion of the holy furniture of the place! As Joseph would comfort his brethren by telling them that it was God who had sent him into Egypt before them, that life might be preserved by a great deliverance. Their wicked hands had done it, it is true; but God's purpose had done it also, and it is this He would have them now think of, and not the other. For this is the way of love; and "God is love." Love will not only spread the feast, but do what it can to let it be tasted with all confidence and joy of heart. Love will make the guestssitat the table, give them a plentiful board, and ease while enjoying it.

Can we, beloved, read these notices of the heaven that is to be ours by-and-by, and for ever, and, as we read, wish our hearts joy that it is so? Can we count ourselves happy, having such prospects as these? As the miser can bear the scorn of the world without, in the thought of his treasures at home, can we in the hope of this joy of heaven live above the earth and its promises?

Such things, however, as these, excellent as they are, have something still further with them. Theairof a place is more important to us than itsscenery. If we can get both, of course the better; but if we can have but one, the good air will be surely preferred.

Now, heaven, I may say, will have both. It will be filled with a moral element or atmosphere, as well as furnished with glories; and the former (I speak as a man) will be more in the account of our joy than the latter.

I have found it well at times to ponder this, and to learn something of that moral element that is to be the air of heaven. Scriptures which I have already noticed test and prove the purity of that air. The millennial atmosphere both in heaven and on earth will indeed be ever fresh, laden with balmy fragrance. If we are now wearied with our own selfishness, and with the tempers of "hateful and hating" human nature, we must long for a change of air, such as the land of the glory is said to know, the land of the voice of the turtle. If the brightness of those regions, or the scenery of the place, have its attraction (and what heart can conceive it?), what must be the atmosphere of it to our happy souls, where social life, through all its relations, as between heaven and earth, and as between Jerusalem, the land of Israel, and the most distant islands, moves and kindles continually with the most generous and delicate affections.

It is not that nature will be triumphed over merely; nature will not be there; at least, not in the heavens which we are approaching. We shall not have to speak of saints carrying themselves towards each other in a good spirit. Such security is well in its place, and while we sojourn in our "vile bodies." But there the element itself will be good. The fervent currents of pure and happy minds, flowing from each to all, will form it.

The moral dignity and beauty, the various and yet consistent perfections that will animate us then, will all be bright and lovely before the divine mind. God shall survey the work of His fingers through the different spheres of glory, and rest with delight in it.

It is a thought much to be cherished, that our eternal ways will thus be the divine delight, and more than make up to God (I speak again after the manner of men) for the grief which, by us and in us, His Spirit is now so continually put to.

Such will be themoralenjoyments in the realms of glory; no small part of that banquet at which the Lord will seat His guests, when He comes forth and girds Himself to wait upon them. Luke xii. 37. We may be but little able to comprehend the glory itself, but we can appreciate these moral characteristics of the heaven we are reaching.

While still here, in the conflicts of flesh and spirit, we are, in some sense, under the guardianship ofconscience, that principle which judges of "good and evil." But conscience will not keep heaven in order. Ourpassionsand ourrighteousnesswill there be one. Little do we now advance in a heavenly direction by the gracious current of affections. But what bliss, when the very energy which bears usspeedilywill also bear usrightlyonward—-when the very gale which fills the sails will regulate the rudder; the passion that engages and delights the soul being the very rule and measure of all that is worthy of the presence of God!

May we cherish in our souls these notices of heaven! Faint is their impression; humblingly indeed do some of us know this; but we may entertain them, and bid them welcome, grieved that our welcome is not more warm and affectionate.

But the earth is still remembered, and kept in store for great purposes yet to be accomplished. The rainbow was, of old, as we know, made the pledge of this. It is a token of the covenant between God and all the earth, and every living thing upon it. The Lord says, that when the cloud comes, the bow shall be with it—-when the portent of judgment lowers, the sign of peace shall shine. And, as we see to this day, the earth has not been again destroyed. It may not be the residence of the glory, as it once was, and as it will be again, but still it is preserved, according to the promise of the rainbow. And Scripture is diligent and exact to show us, that in every variety of the divine procedure, this promise has been, is, and will be remembered.

Thus it was surely remembered all the time the Lord had His seat in Zion; for then the Lord made the earth His habitation. But when the throne of the Lord leaves Zion, and the holiest of holies loses the glory, because the earthly people had, by their sin, disturbed its rest, and all returns to heaven (Ezek. i-xi.), we see the throne and the glory carrying the rainbow with them. That is, though the earth was then stripped of glory; though Jerusalem, the throne of the Lord, was then for a season laid on heaps, and put under the foot of the Gentiles; still the Lord would be mindful of the earth, and make it the object of His faithful care, according to His promise. And thus we see the glory, though it leave the earth, bearing with it the remembrance of the earth:the rainbow accompanies it to heaven; this telling us, that though the Lord leave the earth as the scene of His power and praise for a time, He has it still in recollection before Him. Accordingly, when the heaven is opened to our vision in Rev. iv. we see the faithful bow encompassing the throne there. How blessed this is! The Lord in the heavens is still mindful of the earth. He has thrown the very pledge of its security around His throne on high, so that though the earth see not that throne, and is no longer the place of that throne, that throne sees the earth and remembers it, and longs, as it were, for its natural footstool.

This shows us the security of the earth during this heavenly dispensation through which we are now passing. The Lord is now gathering a peoplefor heaven. It is true, He is not filling the earth with glory yet, but gathering an elect family out from it, to have communion with Himself in heaven; but still He is mindful of His promise. He looks on the bow, and preserves the earth, keeps the seed-time and the harvest, the cold and the heat, the day and the night, the summer and the winter, in their stated rounds and seasons. Gen. ix.

How simple all this is. When the throne went first from earth to heaven, we saw it bearing along with it the recollection of the earth; and now in its place in the heavens we see it still clasping to its breast and encircling across its brow this fond and loved token of the earth's blessing. Ezek. i.; Rev. iv.

But there is still more. For let the Lord come down in the judgments that are by-and-by to visit the earth, we shall find Him as fully mindful of His promise not to destroy it, as now He is, or has been hitherto. This we see in Rev. x. The mighty angel, the angel of judgment, comes down; and he is clothed with a cloud, the fearful vessel of wrath, and token of judgment; as was said at the beginning, "When I bring a cloud over the earth." But even then the rainbow is with Him; as it was added, "The bow shall be seen in the cloud." It is not simply with a cloud He comes down, but with the cloud and the bow accompanying it. See Gen. ix. 14; Rev. x. 1. As much as to tell us, that at the very end He remembers His word, and will debate with judgment. He will say to it, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further." The cloud is to descend, it is true; the judgment must come, the vials of wrath must be poured out; but it is only to judge those who corrupt or destroy the earth, and not to destroy the earth itself; for the mighty angel, as we see from this scripture, who comes down "clothed with a cloud," has also "a rainbow upon his head." And the cloud, as it executes its commission, and pours out its water or its judgments again, must stay itself in obedience to the bow that is to measure and control it. The present course of things may cease, as in the days of Noah, but the bow shines in the eye of the Lord. His promise lives in His heart, and the earth shall be the happy scene and witness of its rich fulfilment.

Thus, then, we see that even the judgment itself shall not touch the ancient promise to the earth. It is still beloved for Noah's sake, of whom it was said, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed (Gen. v.), that is, for His blessed sake whom Noah typified; and we need not say, beloved, who He is. Therefore it survives the judgment, it stands the shock of the descent of this mighty angel, though clothed with a cloud, planting his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the land, and crying aloud as when a lion roars.

And what is it reserved for? For even more than the rainbow had promised it. For this is the way of God. He takes up His pledges, and is faithfulabundantly, doing more exceedingly than He had spoken. And so is it in this case of the earth. It is not only preserved, with its seed-time and its harvest, its day and its night, but it is brought into the "liberty of the glory of the sons of God." This is more than had been pledged to it. The holy city descends out of heaven, to take its connection with the earth; and, shining in due sphere above it, forth from its bosom it sends the leaves of its living tree, the streams of its living water, and the rays of its indwelling glory, to beautify and to refresh the earth and its creatures below. Rev. xxi, xxii. The rainbow need not now appear, for the cloud is gone. The bow would do well enough while there was the cloud, the promise and the pledge might comfort, while there was place for judgment, or for fear of evil; but now judgment is over. The cloud is scattered, and the bow has therefore no place. But the holy city descends out of heaven from God, to do more, much more, than merely to redeem the divine pledge. For it is glorifying, and not merely preserving, the creation. It shall thenrejoicein the presence of the Lord, when He cometh to govern the earth.

Would not time fail to tell of all the types and prophecies of theearth'sblessing in the days of the kingdom? The trees and the fields and the floods, in their order, will then rejoice before the Lord. The creation itself shall be delivered into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. Psalm viii., with many a kindred voice, proclaims it. The voice of every creature on earth, under the earth, and in the sea, heard in vision by the prophet, anticipates it. Rev. v. And the promised day, when "the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose," when "the leopard shall lie down with the kid," and when "the heavens shall hear the earth, and the earth shall hear the corn and the wine and the oil," will realize it. Isaiah xxxv.; Hosea ii.

Andthe nations, we know, will fill their place in this approaching system of glory. They will turn their swords into ploughshares; and instead of learning war, they will learn the ways of the Lord, and walk in His paths. At the appointed season they will wait, each with his offering, on the King in Zion, holding their high and joyous feast in the presence of His greatness there. Then from the uttermost parts of the earth shall be heard songs to the Righteous One. And then shall the call of the prophet be answered by the willing hearts of all the people: "Sing unto the Lord a new song, and His praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof. Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit: let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory unto the Lord, and declare His praise in the islands."

Israelthen shall dwell safely--"every man under his vine and under his fig tree." They shall be "all righteous;" they shall be all united; they shall call every man his neighbour. "Ephraim shall not envy Judah, nor Judah vex Ephraim." The two mystic sticks shall become one in the prophet's hand. They shall be "one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel." And, as in the shadowy days of Solomon, it shall then be said, "Judah and Israel were many, as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and making merry." Their merriment, too, shall be holy. It shall be the joy of a sanctuary. "They shall abundantly utter the memory of Thy great goodness, and shall sing of Thy righteousness.... They shall speak of the glory of Thy kingdom, and talk of Thy power." Within themselves, towards the nations around, and under the God of their fathers, the God of their covenant, all shall be blessing with Israel. For thus saith the Lord God, They shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob My servant.... I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And the heathen shall known that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore. Ezekiel xxxvii.

All this tells the tale of millennial joys on the earth. But in this system, of earthly glory, beyond thecreationitself,the nations, andIsrael, there is a spot still more illustrious, an object distinguished in the midst of even joys and dignities like these. I meanJerusalem.

And I have before now asked myself, Why is it that Jerusalem is made so much of in Scripture? Why is it that "the Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob"?

It wasHiscourt--the place of His presence both as the God and the King of Israel. His palace and His sanctuary were there. The administrations of His laws and the ordinances of His worship were there. The thrones of judgment, the testimony of Israel, and the eucharistic service of His name, were all known there. Psalm cxxii. It was the place where Jehovah had recorded His name, and where the glory dwelt, the symbol of His presence.

It wasHis home. The whole land was the Lord's demesne; but Jerusalem was the mansion-house, the family dwelling. The children were placed out here and there through the tribes and divisions of the land, which was the family estate, but Jerusalem was the family mansion. It was the father's house, the common home, where, at stated holy days, the children met, according to the common way of the affection of kindred.

This, I believe, was Jerusalem'sfirstattraction in the eye and to the heart of the Lord of Israel. He sought and He found a home at Jerusalem, saying, "This is My rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it." And He left it, when sin had defiled it, with all the hesitation and lingering which disappointed affection so well understands. Ezekiel viii.-xi.

Jerusalem was all this--the house of the Father, the palace of the King, and the temple of the God of Israel. For Israel were His children, His people, and His worshippers, and the affections of a Father's heart, and the joys and honours of the Lord and King, found their object and their sphere at Jerusalem. And this is more than enough to account to us for her high distinction. And all this is she to be again. It will be the palace, the temple, and the family mansion again. It will be the place of prayer for all nations. It will be the seat of legislation, worship, judgment, and government. It will be the fountain, too, of the virtues of the new covenant, from whence the living waters will flow, to make her, in those days, the mystic mother of the family. Psalm lxxxvii. And the glory of the heavens will shine on her from above, doing for her the service of sun and moon, while she is lifted up and exposed, that she may bask in the full light of it, and dwell under it as her native air. Isa. iv. 5; lx. 1; Zech. xiv. 10.

And she shall be the bride of the Lord of the earth, and the queen in the day of His power. He will clothe her with ornaments as such, rejoice over her, impart His name to her, and have her so honoured and cherished by the whole world, as to treat despite of her as indignity done to Himself. Psalm xlv.; Isaiah lx.; Jeremiah xxxiii.; Ezekiel xlviii.; Zeph. iii.

All this may well account for the place which Jerusalem holds in the thoughts of the Spirit. His prophets, those who spake as they were moved by Him, address her again and again as the bride, the queen, and the mother, in the days of the approaching glory. But what shall we say of Him, who has thus decked her with all beauty and dignity, and given her such relationship to Himself? Is it not wondrous and happy to see the circle of human sympathies thus seating itself in the divine mind? Isfriendshiponly human? How can I say so, when I see Jesus and the disciple whom He loved walking in company? Are the affections ofkindredmerely human? How can I say so, when I think of Christ and the Church, and a thousand witnesses from Scripture? Is the heart's fond delight inhomea divine as well as a human joy? How can I doubt it, when I thus see the Lord and Jerusalem? Surely the divine mind is the seat of all the pure and righteous sensibilities of the heart, and "the Man Christ Jesus" tells me so. The Lord God of Israel has known, and will know again, the affection that lingers round the homestead of many a family recollection and joy.

Such will be Jerusalem, and such the earth itself, the nations, and Israel, in the promised days of the presence and power of the Lord. Faintly traced by the hand, more feebly responded to by the heart. But "yet true," though "surpassing fable."

All Scripture, however, shows us that such joy cannot be had on earth, or in the circumstances and history of the world, in theirpresentstate, nor till the earth is made the scene of righteousness; and such it is not to be, till the Lord have ridded it of all that offends, and all that does iniquity.The sword of judgmentmust go beforethe throne of glory. The earth must be cleared of its corruptions, ere it can be a garden of holy, divine delights again.

The Gospel is not producing a happy world, or spreading out a garden of Eden. It proposes no such thing, but to take out of the world a people, a heavenly people, for Christ. But the presence of the Lord will make a happy world by-and-by, when that presence can righteously return to it.

The close of the Psalms shows us this. Beautiful close! All praise—-untiring, satisfying fruit of lips uttering the joy of a filled heart, and owning the undivided glory of the Blessed One! But this had been preceded by the sorrows of the righteous in an evil world, and then the judgment of that world. For that Book gives the cries of the righteous in an evil world, the joys of the Spirit in the midst of that evil, the varied exercises of the soul by the way, and the end of the righteous in the joy of praise. All, however, forbids the heart from entertaining the thought of joyin theearthtill the judgment have cleansed it; therestis to be prepared forSolomonby theswordofDavid.

The proper thought of this will keep the heart from being tossed by disappointments, and take it off from the expectation of any progress to rest and stability for the world, or in it, till the Lord have executed judgment. Our joy now is to be in Himself, in spirit, in the thought of His love, and the sense of His peace, helped onward, day by day, in the hope of full and righteous joy with Him, when the wicked have gone from the scene for ever.

How sensitively does the Lord's mind recede from the thought of joy in the earth, when the people were wondering at all things that He did! Turning to His disciples He said, "Let these sayings sink down into your ears; for the Son of man shall be delivered into the hands of men." But this, I may say, was only a sample of all His mind, as He looked to the earth in its present condition. It was ever in His thoughts connected with trial.

Psalm lxxv. strikingly utters this. There Messiah looks on the earth as all dissolved and disordered, about to drink the cup of judgment at God's righteous hand. For the present He expected nothing from it. But then, after the exhausting of that cup, He does look on it as the scene of joy and praise and exaltation of righteousness, He Himself bearing up its pillars, and leading its songs.

I feel it, however, to be a very solemn truth, that God is allowing man, giving him space and time, to ripen his iniquity, that the judgment may fall upon him in the height of his pride, and crush the system which he is raising in its point of greatest pretension and advancement. It is surely a solemn truth. But even in such a purpose, as in all others, "Wisdom is justified of all her children." The believer may be awed by such a fact in the divine dealings with man, but he approves it, understands it to be a fitting thing, that man should be allowed to produce the fully ripened fruit of his own departure from God, to present it and survey it in the pride of his heart, and then receive his righteous answer to all his boasted and enjoyed apostasy, from the signal judgment of God. The iniquity of the Amorites was to befull, ere justice should overtake it. The Lord bore with Babel till the cry of it went up to Him. Nebuchadnezzar had built "great Babylon," as he gloried, by the might of his power, and for the honour of his majesty, when he was driven from his high estate; Haman was full when God emptied him even to the dregs. And the great man of the earth, at the last, shall come to his end, just as he has planted the tabernacles of his palaces in the glorious holy mountain.

It is solemn; but it is as wisdom would have it, and as faith deeply approves it. God is justified in His sayings, and overcomes when He is judged.

Happy I desire to find this meditation. Where there is much conflict of thought and judgment among the saints, it is grateful to the soul to turn to subjects ofcommoninterest and delight; and when the scene around is getting full of man's inventions and man's importance, it is well, to look to those regions of light and purity, where God, supreme and all-sufficient, will gather together all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth. Regions of light and purity indeed, where all will tell of intimacy or nearness, and yet of the full sense of the position of the Creator and the creature, the Sanctifier and the sanctified. In many a delightful page of God's Word is this brightly reflected. The Lord dwelt in the midst of the camp of Israel while at rest, and, as it took its journey, went along with it, whether by night or by day, whether the road lay right onward, or turned back to the mountain or the sea. But still He wasGod, the Lord of the camp.

How does all that commend itself to our souls! We bow to this. We rejoice to know that He dwells in a light that no man can approach unto, and yet that He has walked through the cities and villages of earth; that He is One whom no man hath seen, nor can see, and yet that none less than the One who is in His bosom has declared Him to us, been in the midst of us, our Kinsman in the flesh, as well as Jehovah's Fellow.

His supreme authority, as Lord, is infinite; His distance and holiness, as God, are infinite. And yet He is "Head over all thingstothe Church," and God Himself is "for us." At the very moment of His commanding Moses and Joshua to take their shoes from their feet, because of His presence, He was manifesting Himself to them in symbols or characters significant of the deepest sympathy, and of the most devoted service. Exodus iii; Joshua v.

But enough. I will not pursue these thoughts any further. Yet in the days of increasing gloom and perplexity, like the present, the soul is the more sent to the sure hiding-place of safety, or to the sunny Pisgah heights of hope and observation. It gets the more accustomed to meditate on the strength of those foundations which God has put under our feet-—the intimacy of that communion into which He has even now introduced our hearts-—and the brightness of those prospects which He has set before our eyes.

I only ask, beloved, Are we pressing, in desire, after this portion? Are we unsatisfied with all in comparison with it? Are we refusing to form any purpose, or to entertain any prospect, short of this? In Psalm lxxxiv. the heart of the worshipper is stillon the way, unsatisfied, though he have "pools," and "rain," and "strength" of the Lord, till he reach Zion. In Psalm xc. all which the man of God sees is the vanity of human life and the "return" of the Lord. He does not anticipate changes and improvements in the condition of things, but looks to being "made glad" and of being "satisfied" at the "return" of Christ.

Is this our mind? I again ask. Are we still prisoners of hope, refusing to let anything change the expectant attitude of the soul? The Holy Ghost is given to us, not to change that, but to strengthen it. His very presence does but nourish present dissatisfaction of heart, and the longings of hope and desire. He causes the saint to "abound in hope," and gives breadth and compass to the cry, "Come, Lord Jesus." Spirit of truth, the other Comforter, as He is, He does not show Himself for the Bridegroom, nor propose to make His refreshings "the marriage supper of the Lamb." The energy of hope, the desirings of the soul after our still unmanifested Lord, only speak the Spirit's presence in us the more clearly and blessedly. It is His very design and workmanship. He draws us forth to hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

And is He, beloved, our object? The heart well knows the power of that which is its object. Do we make Jesus such? Do we find, in ourselves, anything of that sickness of hope of which we read in Scripture? And are we able to say, "When He giveth quietness, who then can make trouble?"

May the Spirit shed abroad more and more, in the heart of each of us, these and the like affections. And to Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, be glory and dominion for ever! Amen.

Bride of the Lamb! awake, awake!Why sleep for sorrow now?The hope of glory, Christ, is thine,A child of glory thou.Thy spirit through the lonely night,From earthly joy apart,Hath sigh'd for One that's far away,The Bridegroom of thy heart.But see, the night is waning fast,The breaking morn is near,And Jesus comes with voice of love,Thy drooping heart to cheer.He comes; for, oh, His yearning heartNo more can bear delay,To scenes of full, unmingled joyTo call His Bride away.This earth, the scene of all His woe,A homeless wild to thee,Full soon upon His heav'nly throne,Its rightful King shall see.Thou too shalt reign, He will not wearHis crown of joy alone,And earth His royal Bride shall seeBeside Him on the throne.Then weep no more, 'tis all thine own,His crown, His joy divine,And sweeter far than all beside,He, He Himself is thine.

Bride of the Lamb! awake, awake!Why sleep for sorrow now?The hope of glory, Christ, is thine,A child of glory thou.Thy spirit through the lonely night,From earthly joy apart,Hath sigh'd for One that's far away,The Bridegroom of thy heart.But see, the night is waning fast,The breaking morn is near,And Jesus comes with voice of love,Thy drooping heart to cheer.He comes; for, oh, His yearning heartNo more can bear delay,To scenes of full, unmingled joyTo call His Bride away.This earth, the scene of all His woe,A homeless wild to thee,Full soon upon His heav'nly throne,Its rightful King shall see.Thou too shalt reign, He will not wearHis crown of joy alone,And earth His royal Bride shall seeBeside Him on the throne.Then weep no more, 'tis all thine own,His crown, His joy divine,And sweeter far than all beside,He, He Himself is thine.

Bride of the Lamb! awake, awake!Why sleep for sorrow now?The hope of glory, Christ, is thine,A child of glory thou.Thy spirit through the lonely night,From earthly joy apart,Hath sigh'd for One that's far away,The Bridegroom of thy heart.But see, the night is waning fast,The breaking morn is near,And Jesus comes with voice of love,Thy drooping heart to cheer.He comes; for, oh, His yearning heartNo more can bear delay,To scenes of full, unmingled joyTo call His Bride away.This earth, the scene of all His woe,A homeless wild to thee,Full soon upon His heav'nly throne,Its rightful King shall see.Thou too shalt reign, He will not wearHis crown of joy alone,And earth His royal Bride shall seeBeside Him on the throne.Then weep no more, 'tis all thine own,His crown, His joy divine,And sweeter far than all beside,He, He Himself is thine.

Bride of the Lamb! awake, awake!

Why sleep for sorrow now?

Why sleep for sorrow now?

The hope of glory, Christ, is thine,

A child of glory thou.

A child of glory thou.

Thy spirit through the lonely night,

From earthly joy apart,

From earthly joy apart,

Hath sigh'd for One that's far away,

The Bridegroom of thy heart.

The Bridegroom of thy heart.

But see, the night is waning fast,

The breaking morn is near,

The breaking morn is near,

And Jesus comes with voice of love,

Thy drooping heart to cheer.

Thy drooping heart to cheer.

He comes; for, oh, His yearning heart

No more can bear delay,

No more can bear delay,

To scenes of full, unmingled joy

To call His Bride away.

To call His Bride away.

This earth, the scene of all His woe,

A homeless wild to thee,

A homeless wild to thee,

Full soon upon His heav'nly throne,

Its rightful King shall see.

Its rightful King shall see.

Thou too shalt reign, He will not wear

His crown of joy alone,

His crown of joy alone,

And earth His royal Bride shall see

Beside Him on the throne.

Beside Him on the throne.

Then weep no more, 'tis all thine own,

His crown, His joy divine,

His crown, His joy divine,

And sweeter far than all beside,

He, He Himself is thine.

He, He Himself is thine.

[1]I do not, however, assume that Lamech was a murderer; but he could identify himself with such. With Paul, he could, in the sense of what he was before God, speak of himself as chief of sinners. And we know also that the repentant Remnant of the latter day will, in their confession, quite take the place of blood-guiltiness after this manner. They will look to Him whom they pierced. They will, in the spirit of Daniel or Nehemiah, make themselves one with the guilty nation.[2]Some have spoken of the Jews, as guilty of the blood of Christ, so as to have betrayed the principle of self-righteousness condemned here. And yet I doubt not that there is a sense in which the Jews are--in a special sense--connected with that sin in the divine judgment. The land of the Jews is the distinguished field of blood; the blood of Jesus, in a great sense, is specially on them and their children. And so, like Cain, that people are under the special securities of God. And further; that blood is to be cleansed from off their land, though it now so stains it. Joel iii. 21.And still further; the language of Lamech, I also judge, is mystical or typical, intimating the repentance of the Jews who shed the blood, after generations of unbelief and hardness of heart. See note, p. 20.[3]Such passages as Eph. i. 10 and Col. i. 20 tell us that both the heavens and the earth are equally the scene of divine purposes. And the great argument in Rom. xi. instructs us about those purposes, and the ways and times of their accomplishment.[4]What I say of this antediluvian family is only as we see them in Genesis v. I doubt not, as under every trial of man, failure and corruption are witnessed. But I speak merely of their standing and testimony as given to us here. Sons and daughters, as we are told, were born to them, generation after generation, and seeds of apostasy were sown and sprang up among them, I doubt not. But this does not at all affect the lesson we get from this fifth chapter.[5]I am not careful to apply all this, as I believe it may be applied. I rather leave it in the way of a suggestion. But it does seem to me that the Lord,speaking of the Jewish election, takes Noah for His text or type (Matt. xxiv.); while the apostle,addressing the Church, takes his language the rather from the translation of Enoch. 1 Thess. iv. 17; 2 Thess. ii. 1. For the Jewish remnant, like Noah, will be carried through the judgment-—the saints now gathering will be in the sphere out of which the judgment is to be poured. For we are taught again and again, as I have noticed before, that exercise of power in that day, in company with the Lord, is part of the glory of the saints. See Col. iii. 4; Rev. ii. 26; xvii. 14; xix. 14.[6]It has been justly said by another, that the principle ofgovernmentwas represented in Noah; that Adam had been the representative head ofcreation, and that Noah is the same now ofgovernment. And I doubt not, that after the judicial scattering from Babel, the nations became associations in which God still recognized the sword of justice and the seat of government, which therefore are still to be exercised, and ought still to be religiously owned and reverenced.[7]As intimating blessed and distinct actions among the Persons of the Godhead, according to covenant arrangements, we may remember Messiah's words in Isa. xlviii.--"And now hath the Lord God and His Spirit sent me." What words! how full of deep, counselled, and ordered grace towards sinners! And they are quite according to the structure of things in the Gospels--for there not only does the baptism of Jesus but many passages tell us or show us, according to this word of the prophet, that the mission and ministry of the Lord Jesus were under the ordaining of God and the anointing of the Holy Ghost;--the Lord God and His Spirit sent the Son, the Christ or Messiah.[8]Just like the throne of David. That throne is for the present in the dust--the crown of Judah is cast down--but the promise of the Lord to it is remembered, as is His promise to the earth. This analogy Scripture giveth us in Jer. xxxiii. Dishonoured now or made the sport of the wicked, the promises to the earth and to David's throne are still in full remembrance, and, in their season, will be accomplished.[9]The family of Cain was the contradiction of this, in those antediluvian days. They tilled the ground for something more than livelihood. Their tillage led to the culture and advancement of the world as a system of gain and pleasure. And thus were the two families distinguished--the one was formed by faith, or by obedience to the revelation of God; the other by the despite of it, as the world is to this day.[10]In their day, Abraham's seed, or the nation of Israel, are again anearthlypeople; and they exhibit the very opposite of all this. Theysmitethe nations of Canaan; and instead of being calledfromkindred and country, they are calledtoall such things; men, women, children, and even cattle (for not a hoof was to be left behind), journeyed from Egypt to Canaan--from a land of strangers to their own inheritance.[11]The Lord Jesus, in His day, acknowledged this same pledge or symptom of the kingdom. For when the Greeks came up to the feast and asked to see Him, as the Gentile here seeks Abraham, His thoughts are immediately upon His glory. He knows indeed that glory is to be reached only by His death, and so He testifies; but still, His thoughts go out at once to the glory. See John xii. 23.[12]There aremysteriesas well asillustrations of faithin these things; but I cannot follow them here. The offer of Isaac on Moriah, we none of us doubt, is a mystery. So, I surely know, is the action of Hagar and Ishmael in chapter xxi. It is the picture of the presentoutcastbutpreservedJew--a homeless fugitive, destined, however, for future purposes of mercy. See Gal. iv. 25. But I follow not these things particularly here.[13]In the mystic history of the earth given to us in Lev. xxiii. the Church is brought in as the "poor" and the "stranger" gleaning in another man's field, in ver. 22. But as she entered that field so she left it. She was the poor one, and the stranger, and the gleaner in another's field, to the end. The field never becomes her property.Looked at in the light of this beautiful figure, what is Christendom under God's eye?[14]The Lord Jesus, in the days of His flesh, acted as the God who, of old, had called Abraham.For He put in the supreme claims of such an one."He that loveth father or mother more than Me," says He, "is not worthy of Me." And again, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their dead." Who but God can step in between us and such relationships, such obligations and services? Duties and affections like these are more than sanctioned by nature; they are enforced by law--law of God Himself. But the call of God is supreme, and Jesus asserted it in the day of His humiliation here.[15]The same mystery, I doubt not, is presented in the marriage of Moses and the Ethiopian, and in that also of Solomon with Pharaoh's daughter. Moses' second wife stands, in dignity, below his Zipporah, who shines in peculiar glory at the mount of God in Exodus xviii.; and Pharaoh's daughter, though fully acknowledged by the king at Jerusalem, would not be given a place in the city of David.[16]See the paper on "Enoch," pp. 32-37, where certain dispensational purposes of God, in their differences, are considered.[17]As to the common sin of Abraham and Isaac touching the denial of their wives, calling them their sisters, see "Abraham," p. 122.[18]Jeroboam in his day took his own way to reach the promise of God touching the kingdom of the ten tribes, by the prophet Ahijah--and he delayed his own mercy; just as Jacob does in this chapter. Nay, further. Jeroboam has to be an exile in Egypt till the death of Solomon, because of this; as Jacob has for twenty years to be an exile in Padan, for the same evil. See 1 Kings xi.[19]It is said in the Jewish writings that he was seventy-seven.[20]This parcel of ground, at last, becomes only a burying-place, like Machpelah; but it had not, at first, been purchased as such, as Machpelah was.[21]In Joseph obtaining the rights of the firstborn, there is something besides grace; but I do not notice it here.[22]Neither Pharaoh, nor Pharaoh's house, nor any in Egypt seem ever to have been told of the sin of the brethren.[23]Zaphnath-paaneah, in the old Egyptian tongue, is said to have signified "the saviour of the world"; in the Hebrew, as we understand, it might be rendered "the revealer of secrets."[24]The title now bestowed was afterwards realized, when the family estate, the land of Canaan, came to be divided between the tribes; for Joseph then gets two portions in his two sons, who are treated as though they had been two distinct sons of Jacob.[25]God is afterwards called "the God of Israel," as before He had been called the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. Because His covenant was with the nation of Israel.[26]All orders of His creatures in all places of His dominions witness Him as thelivingGod; but in the history of redeemed sinners He is witnessed as the living God invictory. This is His glory; and resurrection should be prized by us as the display of it. The sepulchre with the grave-clothes lying in order, and the napkin which had been about the head, are the trophies of such victory. John xx. 6, 7. The history of redeemed sinners celebrates Him thus. To hesitate about resurrection is to betray ignorance of God, and of the power that is His. See Matthew xxii. 29; 1 Cor. xv. 34.[27]The children of light should reckon upon the attempts of the powers of darkness against them. A sudden moment of conflict should not therefore surprise us. For we are set to be the scene or theatre of their defeat by Christ. "It is our illumination" that exposes us. That is its proper natural operation. The more we are in the light, I may say, the more exposed we are. It was Adam's creature-beauty, Job's memorial with God, and the Apostle's attachment to Christ, that laid them open to Satan.But let me add, that a "messenger of Satan" may be sent forth from the presence of God upon either thefleshor theheartof man. An evil spirit from the Lord came upon Saul, and a lying spirit came upon the prophets of Ahab. 1 Sam. xvi.; 1 Kings xxii. The Lord was beginning solemn acts ofjudgment, and, therefore, these messengers of Satan were sent forth upon theheartof those who were righteously under judgment. But other messengers of Satan reach only thebodyorcircumstances, as in the case of Paul and of our patriarch. And this isdisciplinemerely, and not judgment.[28]The knowledge of truth alone will never ensure happy or profitable ministry. If we draw merely from our stores or possessions of knowledge, we shall find ourselves confounded. The freshness of the Spirit in us, and the exercise of our gift under Him, at the time of ministry, are also needful.[29]The same Hebrew word signifies kinsman, redeemer, and avenger.[30]The Kinsmandeliveringand the Kinsmanavengingdeals with an enemy or a wrong-doer, and not, as in the case ofrepurchasing, with a righteous claimant. There is, however, this difference: in the case of delivering, the Kinsman only rescues his brother or relative out of the hand of the enemy; in the case of avenging, he visits the blood of his brother or relative upon the head of the enemy. Christ will deliver us from the hand of death at thebeginningof the Kingdom (1 Corinthians xv. 54), He will avenge us upon the head of death at thecloseof the Kingdom. 1 Corinthians xv. 26.[31]I do not regard Job so much as atype, but rather as asample. His calling was the common calling, as a dead and risen man. Every saint, now gathering for heavenly glory, is such. Israel in the latter day will be as such, and the whole system of the millennial age. The Lord Jesus holds all things, and exercises His offices, as the One that was dead and is alive again. But I judge it to be more fitting to speak of Job as a sample of the common calling, than as a type. I could not, however, object to the expression, were it used by others.Job learnt his lesson through sufferings. The Lord, I may say, did the same. Hebrews ii. iv. v. He was made perfect for His high functions in that way. Christ's compassions could not have beenpriestly, till He became a man, partaker of the flesh and blood of the children, and suffered as such. And Job's history may be read as the expression or foreshadowing of all this.So Israel. They will be as a people who, having destroyed themselves, have found their help in God. Hosea presents them in that character. Their language in chapter xiv. is the language of such a people. And Job's history may be regarded as the expression or foreshadowing of this also. He revives, he grows again as the lily, and his branches spread, at the end, as Israel and Israel's branches will, according to their prophet. So that we may speak of Job as a type. But I still feel and judge it to be more fitting, to present him as a sample of us all, in the common faith, as dead and risen with Christ.[32]It has been observed by another, that Satan isalwaysdefeated. This thought seems to get the most striking confirmations from Scripture, beyond the cases mentioned above.He is the instrument, the willing instrument, of destroying the flesh; but that destruction ends inthe saving of the spirit. 1 Cor. v. 5. He receives, gladly receives, one that is judicially delivered over to him; but all that ends insuch an one learning not to blaspheme. 1 Tim. i. 20. He sends forth his messengers as thorns in the flesh, delighting to do so, as being bent on mischief, having been "a murderer from the beginning;" but this still works good, forthe servant of Christ is thereby kept from undue exaltation. 2 Cor. xii. 7.These are illustrious exhibitions of the devil beingalwaysdefeated. Because they show this--that he lends himself directly to his own overthrow. His own weapon is turned against himself. The one whom he assails is, by the very assault, given strength or virtue against him.Happy assurance! our great adversary is never victorious! It is the pricks he kicks against.[33]Affection begets confidence. Rebecca committed herself to Eliezer,never asking her father or brother for an escort. So the more singly we love Jesus, the more confidently will our souls trust Him and His supplies for us alone, without confidence in the flesh or anything else.[34]"Tillsheplease," it ought to be, as the "love" is the female in this book. Ch. ii. 7; iii. 5; vii. 4.[35]It is commonly interpreted as though Paul, in Gal. ii. 20, were expressing hisdevotednessto his Master. But this is not so. This robs the verse of its exquisite glory. He is rather speaking of the joy of his soul in the knowledge of what a devoted and glorious Lover he had.[36]Another once observed to me, that in the Canticles, the Beloved expressesdirectly to herselfthe beauties He discerns in her; the betrothed one never does this, but recites His beautiesin the ears of others; and further observed, that there was great moral propriety in this, something quite according to the dictate of a delicate affection.[37]The saints of the present age, being heavenly in their calling, should be heavenly also in the spirit of their mind, and consciously, in all their tastes and desires, only as strangers, and not at home, in the earth; a people, as another once said, not as looking up from earth to heaven, but as looking down from heaven to earth.[38]Another once observed, that the moment of highest rapture in heaven is not when the saintsweartheir crowns, but when theycast them downbefore the throne. Rev. iv. 10.

[1]I do not, however, assume that Lamech was a murderer; but he could identify himself with such. With Paul, he could, in the sense of what he was before God, speak of himself as chief of sinners. And we know also that the repentant Remnant of the latter day will, in their confession, quite take the place of blood-guiltiness after this manner. They will look to Him whom they pierced. They will, in the spirit of Daniel or Nehemiah, make themselves one with the guilty nation.[2]Some have spoken of the Jews, as guilty of the blood of Christ, so as to have betrayed the principle of self-righteousness condemned here. And yet I doubt not that there is a sense in which the Jews are--in a special sense--connected with that sin in the divine judgment. The land of the Jews is the distinguished field of blood; the blood of Jesus, in a great sense, is specially on them and their children. And so, like Cain, that people are under the special securities of God. And further; that blood is to be cleansed from off their land, though it now so stains it. Joel iii. 21.And still further; the language of Lamech, I also judge, is mystical or typical, intimating the repentance of the Jews who shed the blood, after generations of unbelief and hardness of heart. See note, p. 20.[3]Such passages as Eph. i. 10 and Col. i. 20 tell us that both the heavens and the earth are equally the scene of divine purposes. And the great argument in Rom. xi. instructs us about those purposes, and the ways and times of their accomplishment.[4]What I say of this antediluvian family is only as we see them in Genesis v. I doubt not, as under every trial of man, failure and corruption are witnessed. But I speak merely of their standing and testimony as given to us here. Sons and daughters, as we are told, were born to them, generation after generation, and seeds of apostasy were sown and sprang up among them, I doubt not. But this does not at all affect the lesson we get from this fifth chapter.[5]I am not careful to apply all this, as I believe it may be applied. I rather leave it in the way of a suggestion. But it does seem to me that the Lord,speaking of the Jewish election, takes Noah for His text or type (Matt. xxiv.); while the apostle,addressing the Church, takes his language the rather from the translation of Enoch. 1 Thess. iv. 17; 2 Thess. ii. 1. For the Jewish remnant, like Noah, will be carried through the judgment-—the saints now gathering will be in the sphere out of which the judgment is to be poured. For we are taught again and again, as I have noticed before, that exercise of power in that day, in company with the Lord, is part of the glory of the saints. See Col. iii. 4; Rev. ii. 26; xvii. 14; xix. 14.[6]It has been justly said by another, that the principle ofgovernmentwas represented in Noah; that Adam had been the representative head ofcreation, and that Noah is the same now ofgovernment. And I doubt not, that after the judicial scattering from Babel, the nations became associations in which God still recognized the sword of justice and the seat of government, which therefore are still to be exercised, and ought still to be religiously owned and reverenced.[7]As intimating blessed and distinct actions among the Persons of the Godhead, according to covenant arrangements, we may remember Messiah's words in Isa. xlviii.--"And now hath the Lord God and His Spirit sent me." What words! how full of deep, counselled, and ordered grace towards sinners! And they are quite according to the structure of things in the Gospels--for there not only does the baptism of Jesus but many passages tell us or show us, according to this word of the prophet, that the mission and ministry of the Lord Jesus were under the ordaining of God and the anointing of the Holy Ghost;--the Lord God and His Spirit sent the Son, the Christ or Messiah.[8]Just like the throne of David. That throne is for the present in the dust--the crown of Judah is cast down--but the promise of the Lord to it is remembered, as is His promise to the earth. This analogy Scripture giveth us in Jer. xxxiii. Dishonoured now or made the sport of the wicked, the promises to the earth and to David's throne are still in full remembrance, and, in their season, will be accomplished.[9]The family of Cain was the contradiction of this, in those antediluvian days. They tilled the ground for something more than livelihood. Their tillage led to the culture and advancement of the world as a system of gain and pleasure. And thus were the two families distinguished--the one was formed by faith, or by obedience to the revelation of God; the other by the despite of it, as the world is to this day.[10]In their day, Abraham's seed, or the nation of Israel, are again anearthlypeople; and they exhibit the very opposite of all this. Theysmitethe nations of Canaan; and instead of being calledfromkindred and country, they are calledtoall such things; men, women, children, and even cattle (for not a hoof was to be left behind), journeyed from Egypt to Canaan--from a land of strangers to their own inheritance.[11]The Lord Jesus, in His day, acknowledged this same pledge or symptom of the kingdom. For when the Greeks came up to the feast and asked to see Him, as the Gentile here seeks Abraham, His thoughts are immediately upon His glory. He knows indeed that glory is to be reached only by His death, and so He testifies; but still, His thoughts go out at once to the glory. See John xii. 23.[12]There aremysteriesas well asillustrations of faithin these things; but I cannot follow them here. The offer of Isaac on Moriah, we none of us doubt, is a mystery. So, I surely know, is the action of Hagar and Ishmael in chapter xxi. It is the picture of the presentoutcastbutpreservedJew--a homeless fugitive, destined, however, for future purposes of mercy. See Gal. iv. 25. But I follow not these things particularly here.[13]In the mystic history of the earth given to us in Lev. xxiii. the Church is brought in as the "poor" and the "stranger" gleaning in another man's field, in ver. 22. But as she entered that field so she left it. She was the poor one, and the stranger, and the gleaner in another's field, to the end. The field never becomes her property.Looked at in the light of this beautiful figure, what is Christendom under God's eye?[14]The Lord Jesus, in the days of His flesh, acted as the God who, of old, had called Abraham.For He put in the supreme claims of such an one."He that loveth father or mother more than Me," says He, "is not worthy of Me." And again, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their dead." Who but God can step in between us and such relationships, such obligations and services? Duties and affections like these are more than sanctioned by nature; they are enforced by law--law of God Himself. But the call of God is supreme, and Jesus asserted it in the day of His humiliation here.[15]The same mystery, I doubt not, is presented in the marriage of Moses and the Ethiopian, and in that also of Solomon with Pharaoh's daughter. Moses' second wife stands, in dignity, below his Zipporah, who shines in peculiar glory at the mount of God in Exodus xviii.; and Pharaoh's daughter, though fully acknowledged by the king at Jerusalem, would not be given a place in the city of David.[16]See the paper on "Enoch," pp. 32-37, where certain dispensational purposes of God, in their differences, are considered.[17]As to the common sin of Abraham and Isaac touching the denial of their wives, calling them their sisters, see "Abraham," p. 122.[18]Jeroboam in his day took his own way to reach the promise of God touching the kingdom of the ten tribes, by the prophet Ahijah--and he delayed his own mercy; just as Jacob does in this chapter. Nay, further. Jeroboam has to be an exile in Egypt till the death of Solomon, because of this; as Jacob has for twenty years to be an exile in Padan, for the same evil. See 1 Kings xi.[19]It is said in the Jewish writings that he was seventy-seven.[20]This parcel of ground, at last, becomes only a burying-place, like Machpelah; but it had not, at first, been purchased as such, as Machpelah was.[21]In Joseph obtaining the rights of the firstborn, there is something besides grace; but I do not notice it here.[22]Neither Pharaoh, nor Pharaoh's house, nor any in Egypt seem ever to have been told of the sin of the brethren.[23]Zaphnath-paaneah, in the old Egyptian tongue, is said to have signified "the saviour of the world"; in the Hebrew, as we understand, it might be rendered "the revealer of secrets."[24]The title now bestowed was afterwards realized, when the family estate, the land of Canaan, came to be divided between the tribes; for Joseph then gets two portions in his two sons, who are treated as though they had been two distinct sons of Jacob.[25]God is afterwards called "the God of Israel," as before He had been called the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. Because His covenant was with the nation of Israel.[26]All orders of His creatures in all places of His dominions witness Him as thelivingGod; but in the history of redeemed sinners He is witnessed as the living God invictory. This is His glory; and resurrection should be prized by us as the display of it. The sepulchre with the grave-clothes lying in order, and the napkin which had been about the head, are the trophies of such victory. John xx. 6, 7. The history of redeemed sinners celebrates Him thus. To hesitate about resurrection is to betray ignorance of God, and of the power that is His. See Matthew xxii. 29; 1 Cor. xv. 34.[27]The children of light should reckon upon the attempts of the powers of darkness against them. A sudden moment of conflict should not therefore surprise us. For we are set to be the scene or theatre of their defeat by Christ. "It is our illumination" that exposes us. That is its proper natural operation. The more we are in the light, I may say, the more exposed we are. It was Adam's creature-beauty, Job's memorial with God, and the Apostle's attachment to Christ, that laid them open to Satan.But let me add, that a "messenger of Satan" may be sent forth from the presence of God upon either thefleshor theheartof man. An evil spirit from the Lord came upon Saul, and a lying spirit came upon the prophets of Ahab. 1 Sam. xvi.; 1 Kings xxii. The Lord was beginning solemn acts ofjudgment, and, therefore, these messengers of Satan were sent forth upon theheartof those who were righteously under judgment. But other messengers of Satan reach only thebodyorcircumstances, as in the case of Paul and of our patriarch. And this isdisciplinemerely, and not judgment.[28]The knowledge of truth alone will never ensure happy or profitable ministry. If we draw merely from our stores or possessions of knowledge, we shall find ourselves confounded. The freshness of the Spirit in us, and the exercise of our gift under Him, at the time of ministry, are also needful.[29]The same Hebrew word signifies kinsman, redeemer, and avenger.[30]The Kinsmandeliveringand the Kinsmanavengingdeals with an enemy or a wrong-doer, and not, as in the case ofrepurchasing, with a righteous claimant. There is, however, this difference: in the case of delivering, the Kinsman only rescues his brother or relative out of the hand of the enemy; in the case of avenging, he visits the blood of his brother or relative upon the head of the enemy. Christ will deliver us from the hand of death at thebeginningof the Kingdom (1 Corinthians xv. 54), He will avenge us upon the head of death at thecloseof the Kingdom. 1 Corinthians xv. 26.[31]I do not regard Job so much as atype, but rather as asample. His calling was the common calling, as a dead and risen man. Every saint, now gathering for heavenly glory, is such. Israel in the latter day will be as such, and the whole system of the millennial age. The Lord Jesus holds all things, and exercises His offices, as the One that was dead and is alive again. But I judge it to be more fitting to speak of Job as a sample of the common calling, than as a type. I could not, however, object to the expression, were it used by others.Job learnt his lesson through sufferings. The Lord, I may say, did the same. Hebrews ii. iv. v. He was made perfect for His high functions in that way. Christ's compassions could not have beenpriestly, till He became a man, partaker of the flesh and blood of the children, and suffered as such. And Job's history may be read as the expression or foreshadowing of all this.So Israel. They will be as a people who, having destroyed themselves, have found their help in God. Hosea presents them in that character. Their language in chapter xiv. is the language of such a people. And Job's history may be regarded as the expression or foreshadowing of this also. He revives, he grows again as the lily, and his branches spread, at the end, as Israel and Israel's branches will, according to their prophet. So that we may speak of Job as a type. But I still feel and judge it to be more fitting, to present him as a sample of us all, in the common faith, as dead and risen with Christ.[32]It has been observed by another, that Satan isalwaysdefeated. This thought seems to get the most striking confirmations from Scripture, beyond the cases mentioned above.He is the instrument, the willing instrument, of destroying the flesh; but that destruction ends inthe saving of the spirit. 1 Cor. v. 5. He receives, gladly receives, one that is judicially delivered over to him; but all that ends insuch an one learning not to blaspheme. 1 Tim. i. 20. He sends forth his messengers as thorns in the flesh, delighting to do so, as being bent on mischief, having been "a murderer from the beginning;" but this still works good, forthe servant of Christ is thereby kept from undue exaltation. 2 Cor. xii. 7.These are illustrious exhibitions of the devil beingalwaysdefeated. Because they show this--that he lends himself directly to his own overthrow. His own weapon is turned against himself. The one whom he assails is, by the very assault, given strength or virtue against him.Happy assurance! our great adversary is never victorious! It is the pricks he kicks against.[33]Affection begets confidence. Rebecca committed herself to Eliezer,never asking her father or brother for an escort. So the more singly we love Jesus, the more confidently will our souls trust Him and His supplies for us alone, without confidence in the flesh or anything else.[34]"Tillsheplease," it ought to be, as the "love" is the female in this book. Ch. ii. 7; iii. 5; vii. 4.[35]It is commonly interpreted as though Paul, in Gal. ii. 20, were expressing hisdevotednessto his Master. But this is not so. This robs the verse of its exquisite glory. He is rather speaking of the joy of his soul in the knowledge of what a devoted and glorious Lover he had.[36]Another once observed to me, that in the Canticles, the Beloved expressesdirectly to herselfthe beauties He discerns in her; the betrothed one never does this, but recites His beautiesin the ears of others; and further observed, that there was great moral propriety in this, something quite according to the dictate of a delicate affection.[37]The saints of the present age, being heavenly in their calling, should be heavenly also in the spirit of their mind, and consciously, in all their tastes and desires, only as strangers, and not at home, in the earth; a people, as another once said, not as looking up from earth to heaven, but as looking down from heaven to earth.[38]Another once observed, that the moment of highest rapture in heaven is not when the saintsweartheir crowns, but when theycast them downbefore the throne. Rev. iv. 10.

I do not, however, assume that Lamech was a murderer; but he could identify himself with such. With Paul, he could, in the sense of what he was before God, speak of himself as chief of sinners. And we know also that the repentant Remnant of the latter day will, in their confession, quite take the place of blood-guiltiness after this manner. They will look to Him whom they pierced. They will, in the spirit of Daniel or Nehemiah, make themselves one with the guilty nation.

Some have spoken of the Jews, as guilty of the blood of Christ, so as to have betrayed the principle of self-righteousness condemned here. And yet I doubt not that there is a sense in which the Jews are--in a special sense--connected with that sin in the divine judgment. The land of the Jews is the distinguished field of blood; the blood of Jesus, in a great sense, is specially on them and their children. And so, like Cain, that people are under the special securities of God. And further; that blood is to be cleansed from off their land, though it now so stains it. Joel iii. 21.

And still further; the language of Lamech, I also judge, is mystical or typical, intimating the repentance of the Jews who shed the blood, after generations of unbelief and hardness of heart. See note, p. 20.

Such passages as Eph. i. 10 and Col. i. 20 tell us that both the heavens and the earth are equally the scene of divine purposes. And the great argument in Rom. xi. instructs us about those purposes, and the ways and times of their accomplishment.

What I say of this antediluvian family is only as we see them in Genesis v. I doubt not, as under every trial of man, failure and corruption are witnessed. But I speak merely of their standing and testimony as given to us here. Sons and daughters, as we are told, were born to them, generation after generation, and seeds of apostasy were sown and sprang up among them, I doubt not. But this does not at all affect the lesson we get from this fifth chapter.

I am not careful to apply all this, as I believe it may be applied. I rather leave it in the way of a suggestion. But it does seem to me that the Lord,speaking of the Jewish election, takes Noah for His text or type (Matt. xxiv.); while the apostle,addressing the Church, takes his language the rather from the translation of Enoch. 1 Thess. iv. 17; 2 Thess. ii. 1. For the Jewish remnant, like Noah, will be carried through the judgment-—the saints now gathering will be in the sphere out of which the judgment is to be poured. For we are taught again and again, as I have noticed before, that exercise of power in that day, in company with the Lord, is part of the glory of the saints. See Col. iii. 4; Rev. ii. 26; xvii. 14; xix. 14.

It has been justly said by another, that the principle ofgovernmentwas represented in Noah; that Adam had been the representative head ofcreation, and that Noah is the same now ofgovernment. And I doubt not, that after the judicial scattering from Babel, the nations became associations in which God still recognized the sword of justice and the seat of government, which therefore are still to be exercised, and ought still to be religiously owned and reverenced.

As intimating blessed and distinct actions among the Persons of the Godhead, according to covenant arrangements, we may remember Messiah's words in Isa. xlviii.--"And now hath the Lord God and His Spirit sent me." What words! how full of deep, counselled, and ordered grace towards sinners! And they are quite according to the structure of things in the Gospels--for there not only does the baptism of Jesus but many passages tell us or show us, according to this word of the prophet, that the mission and ministry of the Lord Jesus were under the ordaining of God and the anointing of the Holy Ghost;--the Lord God and His Spirit sent the Son, the Christ or Messiah.

Just like the throne of David. That throne is for the present in the dust--the crown of Judah is cast down--but the promise of the Lord to it is remembered, as is His promise to the earth. This analogy Scripture giveth us in Jer. xxxiii. Dishonoured now or made the sport of the wicked, the promises to the earth and to David's throne are still in full remembrance, and, in their season, will be accomplished.

The family of Cain was the contradiction of this, in those antediluvian days. They tilled the ground for something more than livelihood. Their tillage led to the culture and advancement of the world as a system of gain and pleasure. And thus were the two families distinguished--the one was formed by faith, or by obedience to the revelation of God; the other by the despite of it, as the world is to this day.

In their day, Abraham's seed, or the nation of Israel, are again anearthlypeople; and they exhibit the very opposite of all this. Theysmitethe nations of Canaan; and instead of being calledfromkindred and country, they are calledtoall such things; men, women, children, and even cattle (for not a hoof was to be left behind), journeyed from Egypt to Canaan--from a land of strangers to their own inheritance.

The Lord Jesus, in His day, acknowledged this same pledge or symptom of the kingdom. For when the Greeks came up to the feast and asked to see Him, as the Gentile here seeks Abraham, His thoughts are immediately upon His glory. He knows indeed that glory is to be reached only by His death, and so He testifies; but still, His thoughts go out at once to the glory. See John xii. 23.

There aremysteriesas well asillustrations of faithin these things; but I cannot follow them here. The offer of Isaac on Moriah, we none of us doubt, is a mystery. So, I surely know, is the action of Hagar and Ishmael in chapter xxi. It is the picture of the presentoutcastbutpreservedJew--a homeless fugitive, destined, however, for future purposes of mercy. See Gal. iv. 25. But I follow not these things particularly here.

In the mystic history of the earth given to us in Lev. xxiii. the Church is brought in as the "poor" and the "stranger" gleaning in another man's field, in ver. 22. But as she entered that field so she left it. She was the poor one, and the stranger, and the gleaner in another's field, to the end. The field never becomes her property.

Looked at in the light of this beautiful figure, what is Christendom under God's eye?

The Lord Jesus, in the days of His flesh, acted as the God who, of old, had called Abraham.For He put in the supreme claims of such an one."He that loveth father or mother more than Me," says He, "is not worthy of Me." And again, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their dead." Who but God can step in between us and such relationships, such obligations and services? Duties and affections like these are more than sanctioned by nature; they are enforced by law--law of God Himself. But the call of God is supreme, and Jesus asserted it in the day of His humiliation here.

The same mystery, I doubt not, is presented in the marriage of Moses and the Ethiopian, and in that also of Solomon with Pharaoh's daughter. Moses' second wife stands, in dignity, below his Zipporah, who shines in peculiar glory at the mount of God in Exodus xviii.; and Pharaoh's daughter, though fully acknowledged by the king at Jerusalem, would not be given a place in the city of David.

See the paper on "Enoch," pp. 32-37, where certain dispensational purposes of God, in their differences, are considered.

As to the common sin of Abraham and Isaac touching the denial of their wives, calling them their sisters, see "Abraham," p. 122.

Jeroboam in his day took his own way to reach the promise of God touching the kingdom of the ten tribes, by the prophet Ahijah--and he delayed his own mercy; just as Jacob does in this chapter. Nay, further. Jeroboam has to be an exile in Egypt till the death of Solomon, because of this; as Jacob has for twenty years to be an exile in Padan, for the same evil. See 1 Kings xi.

It is said in the Jewish writings that he was seventy-seven.

This parcel of ground, at last, becomes only a burying-place, like Machpelah; but it had not, at first, been purchased as such, as Machpelah was.

In Joseph obtaining the rights of the firstborn, there is something besides grace; but I do not notice it here.

Neither Pharaoh, nor Pharaoh's house, nor any in Egypt seem ever to have been told of the sin of the brethren.

Zaphnath-paaneah, in the old Egyptian tongue, is said to have signified "the saviour of the world"; in the Hebrew, as we understand, it might be rendered "the revealer of secrets."

The title now bestowed was afterwards realized, when the family estate, the land of Canaan, came to be divided between the tribes; for Joseph then gets two portions in his two sons, who are treated as though they had been two distinct sons of Jacob.

God is afterwards called "the God of Israel," as before He had been called the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. Because His covenant was with the nation of Israel.

All orders of His creatures in all places of His dominions witness Him as thelivingGod; but in the history of redeemed sinners He is witnessed as the living God invictory. This is His glory; and resurrection should be prized by us as the display of it. The sepulchre with the grave-clothes lying in order, and the napkin which had been about the head, are the trophies of such victory. John xx. 6, 7. The history of redeemed sinners celebrates Him thus. To hesitate about resurrection is to betray ignorance of God, and of the power that is His. See Matthew xxii. 29; 1 Cor. xv. 34.

The children of light should reckon upon the attempts of the powers of darkness against them. A sudden moment of conflict should not therefore surprise us. For we are set to be the scene or theatre of their defeat by Christ. "It is our illumination" that exposes us. That is its proper natural operation. The more we are in the light, I may say, the more exposed we are. It was Adam's creature-beauty, Job's memorial with God, and the Apostle's attachment to Christ, that laid them open to Satan.

But let me add, that a "messenger of Satan" may be sent forth from the presence of God upon either thefleshor theheartof man. An evil spirit from the Lord came upon Saul, and a lying spirit came upon the prophets of Ahab. 1 Sam. xvi.; 1 Kings xxii. The Lord was beginning solemn acts ofjudgment, and, therefore, these messengers of Satan were sent forth upon theheartof those who were righteously under judgment. But other messengers of Satan reach only thebodyorcircumstances, as in the case of Paul and of our patriarch. And this isdisciplinemerely, and not judgment.

The knowledge of truth alone will never ensure happy or profitable ministry. If we draw merely from our stores or possessions of knowledge, we shall find ourselves confounded. The freshness of the Spirit in us, and the exercise of our gift under Him, at the time of ministry, are also needful.

The same Hebrew word signifies kinsman, redeemer, and avenger.

The Kinsmandeliveringand the Kinsmanavengingdeals with an enemy or a wrong-doer, and not, as in the case ofrepurchasing, with a righteous claimant. There is, however, this difference: in the case of delivering, the Kinsman only rescues his brother or relative out of the hand of the enemy; in the case of avenging, he visits the blood of his brother or relative upon the head of the enemy. Christ will deliver us from the hand of death at thebeginningof the Kingdom (1 Corinthians xv. 54), He will avenge us upon the head of death at thecloseof the Kingdom. 1 Corinthians xv. 26.

I do not regard Job so much as atype, but rather as asample. His calling was the common calling, as a dead and risen man. Every saint, now gathering for heavenly glory, is such. Israel in the latter day will be as such, and the whole system of the millennial age. The Lord Jesus holds all things, and exercises His offices, as the One that was dead and is alive again. But I judge it to be more fitting to speak of Job as a sample of the common calling, than as a type. I could not, however, object to the expression, were it used by others.

Job learnt his lesson through sufferings. The Lord, I may say, did the same. Hebrews ii. iv. v. He was made perfect for His high functions in that way. Christ's compassions could not have beenpriestly, till He became a man, partaker of the flesh and blood of the children, and suffered as such. And Job's history may be read as the expression or foreshadowing of all this.

So Israel. They will be as a people who, having destroyed themselves, have found their help in God. Hosea presents them in that character. Their language in chapter xiv. is the language of such a people. And Job's history may be regarded as the expression or foreshadowing of this also. He revives, he grows again as the lily, and his branches spread, at the end, as Israel and Israel's branches will, according to their prophet. So that we may speak of Job as a type. But I still feel and judge it to be more fitting, to present him as a sample of us all, in the common faith, as dead and risen with Christ.

It has been observed by another, that Satan isalwaysdefeated. This thought seems to get the most striking confirmations from Scripture, beyond the cases mentioned above.

He is the instrument, the willing instrument, of destroying the flesh; but that destruction ends inthe saving of the spirit. 1 Cor. v. 5. He receives, gladly receives, one that is judicially delivered over to him; but all that ends insuch an one learning not to blaspheme. 1 Tim. i. 20. He sends forth his messengers as thorns in the flesh, delighting to do so, as being bent on mischief, having been "a murderer from the beginning;" but this still works good, forthe servant of Christ is thereby kept from undue exaltation. 2 Cor. xii. 7.

These are illustrious exhibitions of the devil beingalwaysdefeated. Because they show this--that he lends himself directly to his own overthrow. His own weapon is turned against himself. The one whom he assails is, by the very assault, given strength or virtue against him.

Happy assurance! our great adversary is never victorious! It is the pricks he kicks against.

Affection begets confidence. Rebecca committed herself to Eliezer,never asking her father or brother for an escort. So the more singly we love Jesus, the more confidently will our souls trust Him and His supplies for us alone, without confidence in the flesh or anything else.

"Tillsheplease," it ought to be, as the "love" is the female in this book. Ch. ii. 7; iii. 5; vii. 4.

It is commonly interpreted as though Paul, in Gal. ii. 20, were expressing hisdevotednessto his Master. But this is not so. This robs the verse of its exquisite glory. He is rather speaking of the joy of his soul in the knowledge of what a devoted and glorious Lover he had.

Another once observed to me, that in the Canticles, the Beloved expressesdirectly to herselfthe beauties He discerns in her; the betrothed one never does this, but recites His beautiesin the ears of others; and further observed, that there was great moral propriety in this, something quite according to the dictate of a delicate affection.

The saints of the present age, being heavenly in their calling, should be heavenly also in the spirit of their mind, and consciously, in all their tastes and desires, only as strangers, and not at home, in the earth; a people, as another once said, not as looking up from earth to heaven, but as looking down from heaven to earth.

Another once observed, that the moment of highest rapture in heaven is not when the saintsweartheir crowns, but when theycast them downbefore the throne. Rev. iv. 10.

Back to IndexNext