“Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy
word:
“For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.”—ST. LUKE ii. 29, 30.
OUR thoughts are often directed to the blessed prospect of our Lord’s
return, and there cannot be a doubt that His personal coming is the
crowning hope of the Church of God. At the same time, it is most
important for us to be, if I may so express it, familiar with the thought
of the present heaven. The youngest amongst us may be cut down at any
moment, and the old amongst us must be convinced that our time is short,
and that our places must soon be filled by others. We ought, therefore,
to know where we are going, and what it is that awaits us when “the
earthly house of this tabernacle shall be dissolved.” {28a}
The words of our text, so often chanted in our churches, express a
sentiment to which, I fear, many who chant them are entire strangers, for
they express the peaceful readiness with which Simeon was looking forward
to his death. It had been “revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he
should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.” {28b} He
had, therefore, spent his latter days waiting and watching for the
promised Christ, and at length, when the Child was presented in the
Temple, he saw in that Child the Messiah for whom he had been waiting,
and then it was that, his hope being fulfilled, he could bless God and
say, “Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace.”
There are three subjects suggested by his words.