171

LECTURE XII.

DAY WITHOUT NIGHT.

"And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it."—Revelation xxi. 24-26.

THESE words seem to indicate a national existence during the millennial age. There is nothing necessarily sinful in those ties, and bonds, and affinities that make up what is called a nation. Rule for Christ and obedience in Christ, if perfectly developed, would be a noble and glorious spectacle. It may, perhaps, be true that those divisions and intersections of the great family of man, which are found in the age that now is, may be of divine origin, and of a destiny no less divine. It may be that, instead of being dislocated and broken up in the dispensation to come, they may be only more thoroughly consolidated; and being pervaded and cemented by love and truth, nations may endure in the after-ages of the earth; and these shall be testimonies ther that national existence is a holy and heavenly ordinance-to be purified and perfected, not dissolved with frameworks of merely earthly origin.

If this shall be so, then the New Jerusalem shall be the great metropolis of the earth, reposing in the light and beauty of an unsetting sun, and the crowns, and sceptres, and thrones of innumerable kings, reflecting the rays of the Shechinah, shall give the glory of all they are to Him, whose are their thrones, and for whom they rule. Laws shall then be leaves from the tree of life, love shall be the secret and the source of allegiance, and perfect liberty and light the possession and the enjoyment of all.

But however possible such national existence may be, it is not The Gro necessarily implied in the words before us.

1

005 means frequently a multitude, without any implied reference to organization of any class or kind; thus, we read in the Iliad of Homer, ε005 εTapos, a body, or number of comrades; εθνος λαων, a multitude of men; έθνεα μελισσάων, swarms of bees and, in harmony with this, we may render os Goμevov, multitudes or companies of the saved. The redeemed will not be a few, nor easily counted; they will be "a great multitude, which no man could number." "The saved," are those referred to in Acts ii. 47: "The Lord added to the church daily (obs owkopevous, the saved ones, literally) such as should be saved." They are saved from the curse and condemnation of sin, by the blood of Jesus; and from the power, dominion, and tyranny of sin, by the Holy Spirit of Jesus; from the penal consequences of sin, by the sacrifice of Christ; and from the prevalence and predominance of sin, by the Spirit of Christ; and that, too, in the future age, perfect, finally, for ever.

Their distinguishing possession is salvation-a salvation received in time and perfected in eternity-begun now, and consummated in the age to come. Its fountain is in God; "in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel;" it is through Christ alone. "Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." It was announced in Paradise-prefigured in sacrifice-proclaimed in promises-preintimated in propheciesportrayed in shadows, and types, and ceremonies; "but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ," who was raised up its "Captain," and is exalted a Prince and a Saviour to bestow it. It comes in grace, and ends in glory; begins in individual hearts, and terminates in multitudes of the saved. It is described in Scripture, and acknowledged by believers to be "great," "glorious," "to the uttermost," from "generation to generation;" having prophets for its inquirers, and angels for its students, and preachers for its advocates, and the Scriptures for its channel, and the sacraments for its seals, and happiness for its issue. Saints are chosen and appointed to it before the foundation of the world, "are kept through the power of God unto it-realize the assurance and earnest of it”— "receive it as the end of their faith"-rejoice and glory in it;

and, finally, constitute together, amid the light of the millennial state, a great multitude of the saved, with palms in their hands, saying, Salvation unto our God and to the Lamb. These companies of the saved will all walk, and thus make progress in the light of the New Jerusalem, guided by the unerring beams of that glory which originally dwelt between the cherubim, now no longer the monopoly of a few, but the possession and the privilege of "a great multitude which no man can number." The church, which they compose, shall no more be local or national, but catholic, in the strictest sense of that misused and perverted word. The whole earth shall be filled with the glory of God, and its humblest and its highest tenantry shall follow no longer the fitful flashes of human passion, or the meteor-lights of illregulated fancy, nor the guesses at truth of wavering reason, nor the dim lights of patristic or ecclesiastical tradition; but the pure and perfect guidance of the Lamb. Every province of nature, every path of the saved, every work of Providence, or product of grace, shall reflect the glory of God, and each inmate of that sacred and sublime metropolis shall walk, i. e. make progress in the light of it, rising evermore on untiring wing to loftier heights of knowledge, and drinking ever fresh and ever multiplying delight from every new Apocalypse of the glories and perfections of him who is King of kings and Lord of lords.

The kings of the earth, it is here stated, shall bring their glory and honour into it. So it was predicted, many hundred years before John, in Isa. lx. 11: "Therefore thy gates shall be open continually, they shall not be shut day nor night, that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought. The glory of Lebanon shall come to thee, the fir-tree, and the pine-tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary, and I will make the place of my feet glorious." Again, it is written, "The sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee;" and again, "All they from Sheba shall come, they shall bring gold and incense;" and again it is written, "Thou shalt also suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shalt suck the breast of kings." In Ps. Ixxii. it is also written, "The kings of Tarshish and the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall

offer gifts. Yea, all things shall fall down before him, and all nations shall serve him." And in 1 Kings x. 24, we have a typical picture of the splendour of the true Solomon, the king of peace: And all the earth sought to Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart; and they brought every man his present, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and garments, and armour, and spices, horses, and mules: and the king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars made he to be as the sycamore trees that are in the vale, for abundance." This prediction of kings consecrating their glory in the millennial age, may refer to those who are now kings; that is, who are so previous to the Millennium, and who shall then bring what is their present glory and honour into it. Some such reference seems to be indicated in 1 Cor. xv. 24: "Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule, and authority, and power; for he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death." We must, of course, understand by the expression, "they shall bring their glory and honour into it"-not any earthly royalty, adding one ray to the splendour, or one atom to the magnificence of the New Jerusalem, for this is impossible. They derive all their glory from it, and can add none to it. But in the same way as we give glory and honour to God, by acknowledging all we have to be the borrowed reflection of his beneficence, and requiring to be devoted to him as its legitimate and proper use; so these kings and nations shall see all they are and possess in the light of the New Jerusalem, and shall trace on every honour, and blessing, and power, with which they have been endowed, the superscription of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and lift up to him alone ceaseless praise, as the author, and owner, and sovereign bestower of all. They will sing in their songs-"These crowns which we wear derive all their lustre, and these sceptres which we wield their sway, and these thrones on which we sit their strength and stability from thee, who art the Prince of the kings of the earth. These flowers receive from thee their existence, their fragrance from thy breath, and their tints from thy smiles; and these gems are beautiful because thou

lookest on them, and this scene is so glorious because thou art in it." All above, around, below, will be luminous with the light of the Lamb. These redeemed ones will sing with new voices David's song, in 1 Chron. xxix. 10: "Blessed be thou, Lord God of Israel our Father, for ever and ever. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heavens, and in the earth, is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might, and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all. Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name."

It is also added in this beautiful vision of the future glory, "And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day," or, as it is predicted in Isaiah, "Thy gates shall be open continually, they shall not be shut day nor night." According to the usage and idiom of ancient times, open gates were the recognised symbols of the existence of national peace; and shut gates, the established and felt evidence of the outbreak of war. Thus Ovid describes the heathen heaven as being apertis valvis, with open gates; i. e. in a state of perpetual peace. So also Cæsar says, portas clauserunt, they shut the gates, or declared war. This New Jerusalem, therefore, into which all kings bring their glory, will exist in perpetual peace-perfect peace within, and unbroken peace without. There will be no bulwarks, for there will be no possibility of assault. There will be no soldiers, for swords will have been turned into ploughshares, and spears into pruninghooks, and the nations will learn war no more. Thus perfect light and perpetual peace shall embosom the Apocalyptic city, and gladden the risen and redeemed saints who constitute its inhabitants.

It is also added, "There shall be no night there:" as the Millennium will be the Sabbath of the earth, it will be followed by no night. By referring to Genesis, we find these words at the close of the account of the creation of each day: "And the evening and the morning were the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth day." But in the account of the creation of the

h