Read the sixty-second chapter of Isaiah, where he says: "As the
bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over
thee." There is a wedding coming which will eclipse all the princely
and imperial weddings the world ever saw. It was a great day when
Napoleon took Josephine; it was a great day when Henry VIII. led Anne
Boleyn over the cloth of gold on the street, the cloth of gold
reaching up to the palace; it was a great day when the King of Spain
took Mercedes; but there will be a greater time when the Lord shall
take His bride, the Church, to Himself.
Long time ago they were affianced, but she has been down in the
wilderness. He has written her again and again, and the day of
marriage is fixed. She has sent word to Him. He has sent word to her.
But, oh! was there ever such a difference in estate? The King on the
one side, the bride of the wilderness, poor and persecuted, on the
other. The wealth of the universe on the one side, the obscurity of
the ages on the other. The pomp of heaven on the one side, the poverty
of earth on the other. But He will endow her with all His wealth, and
raise her to sit with Him on a throne forever.
Come, thou bridal morn of the ages! Come! and there shall be the
rumbling of great wheels, great chariot wheels down the sky, and there
shall be riders ahead and mounted cavalry behind, the conquerors of
heaven on white horses. Clear the way! A thousand trumpets blare.
"Behold! the bridegroom cometh: go ye out to meet Him."
Then the charioteers shall rein in their bounding steeds of fire, and
the King shall dismount from the chariot, and He shall take by the
hand the bride of the wilderness, all the crowded galleries of the
universe, the spectators. Ring all the wedding bells of heaven. The
King lifts the bride into the chariot and cries, "Drive on! drive up!"
and the clouds shall spread their cloth of gold for the procession,
and the twain shall go through the gates triumphant, and up the
streets, and then step into the palace at the banquet, where ten
thousand potentates and principalities and dominations, cherubic and
archangelic, with ten thousand gleaming and uplifted chalices, shall
celebrate the day when the King of Heaven and earth brings home His
bride from the wilderness. Make haste, my beloved. Be thou like to a
roe, or a young hart upon the mountains of spices.