"When God sought a King for His people of old,
He went to the fields to find him;
A shepherd was he, with his crook and his lute
And a following flock behind him.
"O love of the sheep, O joy of the lute,
And the sling and the stone for battle;
A shepherd was King, the giant was naught,
And the enemy driven like cattle.
"When God looked to tell of His good will to men,
And the Shepherd-King's son whom He gave them;
To shepherds, made meek a-caring for sheep,
He told of a Christ sent to save them.
"O love of the sheep, O watch in the night,
And the glory, the message, the choir;
'Twas shepherds who saw their King in the straw,
And returned with their hearts all on fire.
"When Christ thought to tell of His love to the world
He said to the throng before him,
'The Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep--'
And away to the cross they bore Him.
"O love of the sheep, O blood sweat of prayer,
O man on the cross, God-forsaken;
A shepherd has gone to defend all alone
The sheepfold by death overtaken.
"When God sought a King for His people, for aye,
He went to the grave to find him;
And a shepherd came back, Death dead in His grasp,
And a following flock behind Him.
"O love of the sheep, O life from the dead,
O strength of the faint and the fearing;
A shepherd is King, and His Kingdom will come.
And the day of His coming is nearing."[1]
Coronation Gift.
Christ is crowned. Not in any vague far-fetched meaning, but in the
plain common-sense meaning of the word, He is _crowned_.
For crowned means put in the place of highest power, with full right to
exercise that power at will. And when the crucified Jesus went up that
Olivet day, before the astonished eyes of the disciples, into the
sightless blue, on the cloud, He was received in the upper world by the
Father. And He was lifted up into the place of highest honour and
greatest power. He sat down at the right hand of the Father.[2]
He had said it would be so. Breathing the air thick with bitter hate on
the night of His trial, He had quietly said to the Jewish rulers that
even so it would be, bringing at once about His person the bursting of
the storm of hate.[3] Now His unfaltering trust in His Father has its
sweet reward.
The Holy Spirit poured out on Pentecost, the birthday of the Church, was
the gift of the _crowned_ Christ. The rushing sound as of a mighty wind
that filled all the house, the tongues of flame plainly seen, the bold
talking to the crowds of foreign Jews of God's mighty power, the
faithful witnessing about the crucified Jesus in the city that hounded
Him to death, the convinced crowds openly declaring at the peril of
their lives their belief in the despised Jesus, the strangely rare
unselfishness even in money matters, and the winsome graciousness of
spirit that marked, not only the inner circle, but these greatly
increased crowds,--all this said one thing in clear unanswerable tones
of unmistakable power, _Christ is crowned_.[4] For the sending down of
the Holy Spirit was the act of the crowned Christ.
And every touch of the Holy Spirit's presence within trusting
hearts,--the sweet peace, the quiet assurance, the longing for purity,
the drawing away to prayer, the hunger for God's Word, the intense
desire to have others saved, the passion to please this wondrous God of
ours,--all these simple marks of the Holy Spirit's presence in our
hearts, all tell us, and each tells us, in unmistakable tones, that
Christ is crowned. For this wondrous Spirit within is the gift of the
crowned Christ.
When Jesus went up from the earth, holding as His sure captive the
captivity of suffering and death to which He had with such great
strength yielded, He received gifts, coronation gifts. The Father gave
Him all. He gave Him the disposal and control of all. This was the
crowning.
And in His great out-reaching love Christ received these gifts _on
behalf of men_, His blood brothers. And at once He gave to men, to His
trusting disciples, the all-inclusive gift, the Holy Spirit, His
coronation gift.[5] So God came anew to dwell with men as originally
planned.
This blessed Presence within tells me, by His mere presence, that Christ
is crowned.
The writers of the New Testament make a chorus of sweet music on this
chord, ringing out in clear tones the full notes of delight and joy.
Luke's simple narrative sounds the note four times. Paul swells it out
with a joyous fulness that grows in volume and intensity as his
narrowing prison walls shut out more and more the lower lights, and
centres his upward gaze upon Jesus, "far above all rule, and authority,
and power, and dominion, and every name that is named," with "all things
in subjection under His feet."[6] John's special companion and working
partner, Peter, makes this note blend with and dominate the minor chord
of suffering for Christ's sake.[7]
The Christian Hebrew who wrote so eloquently to his fellow-countrymen of
the immense superiority of Jesus and so modestly withheld his own name,
strikes this note five times with strong, clear touch.[8] He quotes
that Eighth Psalm, which so wonderfully gives God's own ideal for man's
mastery over all creation. And then he tells us that in Jesus the ideal
will yet be fully realized. And that while the whole plan has not yet
fully worked out as it will, yet _even now_ we see the Jesus who tasted
death for every one, crowned with glory and honour as part of the plan
which He carried out in suffering the extreme suffering of death.
And our Lord Jesus Himself, talking out of the glory to the man who was
His bosom companion on earth, reserves as His last tender plea to us to
live the overcoming life this--"he that overcometh I will give him to
sit down with me in my throne as I also overcame and _sat down with my
Father on His throne_."[9]
And so we find out just what this word crowned means. Jesus was received
in the upper world, exalted, glorified, made to sit down at the Father's
right hand, put far above all rule and authority, with a name greater in
the sweep of its power than any other, and with all things put in
absolute subjection under His feet. This is the simple, direct meaning
of the sentence--Christ is crowned.
What a contrast the two faces of that glory cloud saw! The face looking
down, and the face looking up! The one--the downward face--looked upon a
cross, a Man hanging there with a mocking crown of thorns without and a
breaking heart within, scowling priests, jeering crowds, deserting
disciples, sneering soldiers, weeping women, heart-broken friends, a
horror of darkness, a cave-tomb under imperial seal, and blackest night
settling down over all.
The other--the upward face--looked upon a great burst of the upper
glory, the countless angels singing swelling songs of worship, the
wondrous winged cherubim, the redeemed hosts from Eden days on
reverently bowing and exultantly singing, the exquisitely
soft-green-rainbow-circled throne, the Father's face, once hidden, but
to be hidden now never again, the _shared_ seat on the Father's
throne,--what a contrast!
Here crucified--there crowned. Crucified on earth, one of the smaller
globes of the universe. On the throne of the whole universe of
globes--crowned! From the lowest depth to the one extreme height. From
hate's worst to Love's best. From love poured out for men to love
enthroned for those same men; love triumphant each time, on cross and on
throne. What a contrast! What a coronation! What a welcome home to a
throne!
The Music of a Name.
It is most intensely interesting to recall that, of course, this is just
what the very word Christ means,--the Crowned One. We sometimes get so
used to a word that it is easy to forget its real meaning. The word
Christ has been used so generally for so many centuries as a _name_
that we forget that originally it was a title, and not a name.
And it still is a title, though used chiefly as a name. Some day the
title-meaning will overlap the name-meaning. We may never cease thinking
of it as a name, but there is a time coming when events will make the
title-meaning so big as to clear over-shadow our thought and use of it
as a name.
It helps to recall the distinctive meaning of the words we use for Him
who walked amongst, and was one of us. Jesus is His _name_. It belongs
to the _man_. It belongs peculiarly to the thirty-three years and a bit
more that He was here, even though not exclusively used in that way in
the Book.
There's a rare threefold sweetness of meaning in that five-lettered
name. There is the meaning of the old word lying within the name, before
it became a name, victory, victor, saviour-victor, Jehovah-victor. There
is the swing and rhythm and murmur of music, glad joyous music, in its
very beginnings as a common word.
Then it has come to stand wholly for a _personality_, the rarely gentle,
winsome, strong personality of the Man of Bethlehem and Nazareth, and of
those crowded service-days. And every memory of His personality sweetens
and enriches the music in the old word.
And then the deepest significance, the richest rhythm, the sweetest
melody, come from the meaning His experiences, His life, pressed into
it. The sympathy, the suffering, the wilderness, the Cross, the
Resurrection, all the experiences He went through, these give to this
victory-word, Jesus, a meaning unknown before. They put the name Jesus
actually above every name in the experiences of tense conflict and
sweeping victory it stands for. This threefold chording makes music
never to be broken nor forgotten.
"There is no name so sweet on earth,
No name so sweet in heaven,
The name before His wondrous birth,
To Christ the Saviour given."
Lord is a title, of course. It was used of one who was a proprietor, an
owner, or a master. It was commonly used as a title of honour for one in
superior position, as a leader or teacher. In speaking of Jesus it is
coupled with the title Christ as an interchangeable word,[10] as well as
an additional title. But peculiarly it is the _personal title_ given
Jesus by one who takes Him as his own personal Master,[11] while it
still retains its broader meaning.
But _Christ_ is peculiarly _the official title_ of Jesus. There is only
one Christ. Lord is used of men. It is used of both the Father and the
Holy Spirit, as well as of Jesus. But the name Christ is used of only
one person, and can mean only that one. There could be only one Christ.
The word or its equivalent was used occasionally in the Old Testament in
a narrowed sense for the King of Israel, who is reverently spoken of as
"the Lord's anointed," that is, God's Messiah or Christ.[12]
But the one common thought of it among the Hebrew people, growing ever
intenser as the Old Testament period merges into the time of the New,
was that there was one coming, _the_ Messiah, _the_ Christ, God's
chosen, the one anointed and empowered, to be their Deliverer. The one
question that sets all hearts a-flutter about the rugged John of the
deserts was this: "Is he _the_ Christ?"[13] In their thought there was
only one to whom the title belonged.
And even so it is. Christ is the official title of _the One_ Chosen and
anointed by God to be ruler over His Hebrew people, and over all the
race, and the earth, and the universe,--God's King, to reign until all
have been brought into full allegiance to the great loving Father.[14]
The Christ is the Crowned One, God's Crowned One. The very word Christ
tells that Christ is crowned.
Our Great Kinsman.
There is an intensely interesting question that crowds its way in here,
and it proves an immensely practical question, too. _Why_ was Christ
crowned? We can say at once that this was His due. He was given that
which belonged to Him in good right. He was reinstated in His former
position, with all the power and glory that were His before His errand
to the earth.[15]
Then too this was His vindication after the shameful treatment of earth.
Before the eyes of all the upper world, both loyal and disloyal eyes,
this man whom earth hounded so shamelessly is vindicated; He is set
right by the Father.[16]
But there is yet more than this. It is a more of a sort that concerns
_us_ very closely, and it sets one's heart a-beating a bit faster. This
crowning was part of a plan, a plan of which our earth is the centre. It
was the second great part of a plan of which the suffering and dying
were the first great part. Both were for the sake of us men and our
earth-home, and the lower creation.
This is the thing being emphasized in the second great paragraph of the
Hebrews.[17] Man was made the under-master of the earth and of the lower
creation, but lost, weakly surrendered, his place of mastery. The new
Man came to recover for man what had been lost and to realize this
original lost plan.
And so He became our brother, sharer of our flesh and blood, tempted
like as we, perfected in His human character by the experiences He went
through, then tasted to the bitter dregs the death that belongs to our
sin. And then following that, He was crowned with glory and honour. And
so He rises to the place of mastery over all that belongs to perfect
man. So He brings all creation into the glad subjection which is its
natural happy state. It is for earth's sake, for the race's sake, and
for the sake of our faithful companions and servants, the whole lower
creation, that Christ has been crowned.
We think more about the personal meaning to ourselves of His having died
and risen again. We need to remember, too, this broader meaning. The
dying and rising secures our salvation personally. The crowning and the
reigning will work out the redemption of all nature and of the lower
creation,[18] and this in turn will mean much for men living on the
earth in the Kingdom time, and for the race as a race.
This leads at once to another question that presses in. What is the
_domain_ of the crowned Christ? If we take the crowning in the common
meaning of that word, it means that there is some domain that Christ
rules over. What is it that He is crowned over?
And the answer is so sweeping as to seem far-away and dreamy to us who
are living on this sin-hurt earth. He is the crowned Ruler of the whole
created universe and all intelligent beings in it. He has been placed
over absolutely every "rule and authority and power and dominion, and
not only in this present age but in the coming age."[19] There is
simply no limit in extent to His domain. Everything has been placed in
subjection to Him and is now subject to His word, and His alone.
There is a striking passage in Philippians that fits in here.[20] In
speaking of the exaltation of Jesus Christ, Paul is careful to explain
particularly that every knee would bow, _in the heavens_, and, _on the
earth_, and _under_ the earth or in the _world below_.
This threefold division is very striking. The heaven things are
understood at once, and things of the earth sphere. But there is a third
world to be taken into account, that strange uncanny world of evil
spirit beings in rebellion against God's authority. It is spoken of
repeatedly as principalities and powers, indicating numbers and
organization, dignity, and power.[21] All of this is included in what
has been placed under Christ's authority.[22]
Is Christ Reigning Now?
But there is still another question that has been impatiently pushing
underneath for some time. And it also is an intensely practical one.
Does this mean that Christ is actually ruling now over this domain of
His? How about the affairs on the earth? Are all things here subject to
Him? Is this the way He would have things go? And some of us think the
evil spirits seem pretty free in their movements. This present order of
things that we are living in the thick of, is this the reign of the
crowned Christ? And some of us feel the stress of things so much that we
can scarce keep patient for a thoughtful poised answer to our questions.
There are those, and good earnest folk they are, too, who tell us that
Christ has come, and is constantly coming, more and more, into our
common life. The higher ideals that are crowding for expression, the
more spiritual conceptions of man and his brotherly relations, the
constant striving toward better civilization, the bettering of the
condition of the poor and less fortunate, the increased recognition of
men's rights in the complex industrial world, the increasing effort to
correct evils by legislation, the great moral reforms that are sweeping
aside the awful liquor curse, and loosening women's bonds, and
safeguarding young womanhood and children, the newer aggressiveness in
the missionary propaganda and in much of the activity of the Church,
even the attempt to humanize and civilize the warfare that in itself is
stupidly savage and utterly inhuman,--is not all this a coming of Christ
and of the Christ-spirit into our common life? many ask.
And there is only one answer to such questions, a strong emphatic "yes."
It surely is the Christ-spirit that moves in all of this. This is a
coming of Christ; and a blessed coming, too. There was nothing of this
sort before the Christ-spirit began to sweeten the world's life. And
there is none of it to-day except in those parts of the world where the
Christ-spirit influences life.
But--there's a "but"--it proves a blessed but; this is only a crumb or
two falling from a loaded table. And he who judges Christ by these
crumbs only, wholesome and toothsome as they are, will have a very
skimpy conception of Christ.
All of this sort of thing that has come has come very slowly. It has had
to fight through and in, every step of the way that it has come. Its
coming has been opposed stubbornly, maliciously, viciously every inch of
the road, as only those know who are in the thick of the struggle for
these reforms, panting for breath sometimes.
It is as though a few whiffs of wholesome life-giving air have breathed
through the cracks and crevices of the breastworks and fortifications of
evil in which all our common life seems entrenched. But the
fortifications are still there. If the sweet, wholesome breathing in
through cracks and crannies has been so blest, what would it be if the
forces of evil were clean removed from the scene, and the Christ-spirit
became the whole atmosphere breathed fully and freely without restraint,
with no bad draughts, and no counter currents to guard and fight
against?
It would seem like a strange sort of a kingdom if the present is even a
gradual coming in of the Kingdom. We would seem to be having a new,
strange sort of a Christ if the present is a sample of His sort of
reigning. For it may well be thoughtfully doubted if ever there was such
a condition of feverish unrest in all parts of the world as to-day.
It is most difficult to put your finger on a single spot of the
world-map that is not being torn and uptorn by unrest in one shape or
another. Either actual war, or constant studious preparation for war,
actually never ceases. And it is difficult to say which is the worse of
the two. The actual war reveals more terribly to our eyes and ears the
awful cost in treasure and in precious human blood spilled without
stint. The never-ceasing preparation for war seems actually to cost
more. In the immense treasure involved, and in blood too, given out, not
on an occasional battlefield, but in the continual battle of daily life
to meet the terrible drain of taxation, it costs immensely more. There
is less of the tragic for the news headings, but not a whit less, rather
much more, in the slow suffering, the pinched lives, and the awful
temptations to barter character for bread.
Then there is the continual seething unrest in the industrial world; the
protests sometimes so strange and startling against social and political
conditions; the feverish greed for gold, and land, and position; the
intense pace of all our modern life; the abandonment of home and home
ideals; the terrific attack against our young womanhood. The political
pot which gathers into itself all these things, never quits boiling or
boiling over, in some part of the world, now here, now there. And it
seems like the greatest achievement of diplomacy when here and there it
can be kept from boiling clean over, or at least made to boil over less.
It would seem indeed like a queer sort of kingdom if this is a sample.
Some of us would have less heart in repeating one petition of the old
daily prayer. And Christ would seem to have quite changed His spirit and
character if this is a result of His coming.
The Greatness of Patience.
And the great simple truth is this, the truth that in the strange mix-up
of life we easily lose sight of is this: _Christ has not yet taken
possession of all of His domain_; a part of it still remains to be
possessed. "We see _not yet_ all things subjected to Him."[23] We are
living in the "not-yet" interval between the crowning and the actual
reigning. We are living on the "not-yet" possessed part of His domain.
And the question that comes hot and quick from our lips, even though
with an attempt at subdued reverence, is this: "Why does He not take
possession, and untangle the snarl, and right the wrongs, and bring in
the true rational order of things?" And all the long waiting, the
soreness of hearts over the part that touches one's own life most
closely, the shortness of breath in the tensity of the struggle,
underscore that word "why?"
And the answer to the impatient question reveals all afresh the
greatness of the love of our Christ. His greatness is shown most in His
_patience_. But patience is one of the things we men on this old earth
don't know. It's one of the unknown quantities to us. It can be known
only by knowing God. For patience is love at its best. Patience is God
at His best. His is the patience that sees all, and feels all with the
tender heart that broke once under the load, and yet waits, steadily
waits, and then waits just a bit longer.
In this He runs the risk of being misunderstood. Men in their stupidity
constantly mistake strong patience for weakness or indifference or lack
of a gripping purpose. And God is misunderstood in this, even by His
trusting children. But, even so, the object to be gained is so great,
and so near Christ's heart that He waits, strongly waits with a patience
beyond our comprehension; waits just a bit longer, always just a bit
longer.
There are two parts to the answer. Jesus the Christ is giving man the
fullest opportunity. He never interferes with man's right of free
choice. Man is free to do as he chooses. Every possible means is used to
influence him to choose right, but the choice itself is always left to
the man. The present is man's opportunity. The initiative of action on
the earth is altogether in man's hand. All of God's power is at man's
disposal; but man must _reach out_ and _take_. This long stretched but
waiting time is for man's sake, that he may have fullest opportunity.
The longsuffering of God would woo men.[24]
When at length opportunity comes to its end it will be only because
things have gotten into such desperate shape, into such an awful fix,
that at length _for man's sake_ Christ will step into the direct action
of the earth once again. He will take the leadership of earth into His
own hands, even while still leaving each man free in his individual
choice. This is the first part of the answer. The waiting is that man
may have fullest opportunity.
Then Christ has a great hunger for _willing_ hearts. No words are strong
enough to tell His longing for a free, glad, joyous surrender to His
mastery. He could so easily end the present conflict, but He waits that
men may bring to Him the allegiance of their lives, given of their own
glad, gracious, voluntary accord. He was a volunteer Saviour. He longs
for that love that is the bubbling out of a free, full heart.
The best love is only given freely without any compulsion of any sort,
save only love's sweet compelling. He wants what He gives--the best. And
so He waits, patiently waits just a bit longer. This is the second bit
of the answer. The long delay spells out the hunger as well as the
patience of God's heart. The divine Husbandman is patiently waiting,
and sending warm sun and soft rains and fragrant dews while waiting.[25]
"The Husbandman waiteth--
The _Husbandman_? Why?
For the heart of one servant
Who hears not His cry.
"The Husbandman waiteth--
He _waiteth_? What for?
For the heart of one servant
To love Him yet more.
"The Husbandman waiteth--
Long patience hath He--
But He waiteth in hunger--
Oh! Is it for thee?"[26]
Taking with Your Life.
But--ah! listen, there's a wonderful "but" to put in here. But, while
waiting _He puts all His limitless power at our disposal_. If that
simple sentence could be put into letters of living flame, its
tremendous meaning might burn into our hearts. When Paul piled up phrase
on phrase in his eager attempt to have his Asiatic friends in and around
Ephesus take in the limitless power of the ascended Christ, he added the
significant words, "to the Church."[27] All that power is for the use,
and at the disposal, of the Church.
The Church was meant to be a unit in spirit in loyalty to her absent
Lord, wholly under the dominating touch of the Holy Spirit, not only in
her official actions, but in the lives of the individual members. If she
were so, no human imagination could take in the startling, revolutionary
power, softly, subtly, but with resistless sweep, flowing down from the
crowned Christ, among grateful men.
Not being such a unit it is not possible that that power shall be as
great in manifestation as was planned and meant. For no individual nor
group can ever take the place in action of the whole unified body of
believers, acting as a channel for the power of the crowned Christ. That
power shall be realized on the earth only when the Church is so unified,
and at work, under the reigning Christ, from the new headquarters up in
the heavens.
But meanwhile all of that power is _at the disposal of any disciple of
Christ_--the humblest--who will simply live in full-faced touch with
Christ, and who will _take_ of that power as the need comes, and as the
sovereign Holy Spirit leads.
It is of this, this _personal_ taking, that Paul is speaking when he
piles up that intense sentence: "able to do _exceeding abundantly above
all that we ask or think_ according to _the power that worketh in
us_."[28] The great bother in Paul's day and ever since, and now, is to
get people to _take_. The power is fairly a-tremble in the air at our
very finger-tips. And we go limping, crutching along both bodily and
mentally and in our spiritual leanness.
Those tremendous words of Jesus, "because I go unto the Father," with
the whole passage in which they occur,[29] must be read in _the light
shining from the throne_. Only so can they be understood. But then, so
read, they begin to grip us, and grip us hard, as we see what He really
meant and means.
He who has the warm, child-like touch of heart with Jesus, that the word
"believeth" stands for, shall--as the Holy Spirit has full control--do
the same works as Jesus did, same in kind and in degree, and then shall
do even greater than Jesus ever did. _Because_ it is now the glorified
crowned Christ who is doing them through some child of His,
simple-hearted enough to let Him have full control.
And the means through which He will do them is simple, child-like,
trusting, humble prayer. The man using the power is on his knees. The
lower down he gets the more and more freely the power flows down and out
among men.
As one learns to keep in touch--learns it slowly, stumblingly, with many
a stupid fall, and many a tremble and quiver--as he learns to keep in
simple touch with the crowned Christ he will find _all_ the power of
that Christ coming with a soft surging throb of life wherever needed.
_We may have all we can take._ But _the taking must be with one's very
life_. No mere earnest repeating of a creed in Church service will avail
here. The repeating must be, syllable by syllable, with feet and will,
with hands and life, in the daily tread where each step is stubbornly
contested.
This is the bit of truth for the waiting time. This is the song to be
singing in this present "not-yet" interval. And the song will help cut
down the length of that "not-yet," until the friction of our lived faith
shall wear off the "not" and wipe out the "yet," and we shall find the
crowned Christ a reigning Christ.
For some day this patient waiting crowned Man will rise up from His seat
at the Father's right hand. He will step directly into the action of
earth once again. Man will have had his fullest opportunity lengthened
out to the last notch of his possible use of it. Then we shall see the
crowned Christ quietly stepping in, taking matters wholly into His own
hands, and acting in all the affairs of earth as the Crowned One. Then
He shall reign from sea to sea, and from the Euphrates out to where the
ends of the earth become a common line on the other side. The Kingdom
will have come, for the King will be reigning.
The night will be gone. The day has come. The shadows flee. He has come,
whose presence puts the new day at dawn, with the East all aflame, and
the fragrant dew glistening gladly on every tender green blade. This
time of expectancy is over;[30] the time of making real has _come_. Then
comes the restoration of the old original love plan to earth and beast
and man.[31]
"Thou art coming, O my Saviour!
Thou art coming, O my King!
In thy glory all-transcendent;
In thy beauty all resplendent;
Well may we rejoice and sing!
Coming! In the opening east,
Herald brightness slowly swells;
Coming, O my glorious Priest,
Hear we not thy golden bells?
"Thou art coming, Thou art coming!
We shall meet Thee on Thy way,
We shall see Thee, we shall know Thee,
We shall bless Thee, we shall show Thee
All our hearts could never say!
What an anthem that will be,
Ringing out our love to Thee;
Pouring out our rapture sweet
At Thine own all-glorious feet!
"Thou art coming! Rays of glory,
Through the veil Thy death has rent,
Touch the mountain and the river
With a golden glowing quiver,
Thrill of light and music blent.
Earth is brightened when this gleam
Falls on flower, rock, and stream;
Life is brightened when this ray
Falls upon its darkest day.
"Not a cloud and not a shadow,
Not a mist and not a tear,
Not a sin and not a sorrow,
Not a dim and veiled to-morrow,
For that sunrise grand and clear!
Jesus, Saviour, once with Thee,
Nothing else seems worth a thought!
Oh, how marvellous will be
All the bliss Thy pain hath bought!
"Thou art coming! At Thy table,
We are witnesses of this,
While remembering hearts Thou meetest,
In communion clearest, sweetest,
Earnest of our coming bliss.
Showing not Thy death alone,
And Thy love exceeding great,
But Thy coming and Thy throne,
All for which we long and wait.
"Thou art coming! We are waiting
With a hope that cannot fail;
Asking not the day or hour,
Resting on Thy word of power
Anchored safe within the veil,
Time appointed may be long,
But the vision must be sure;
Certainty shall make us strong,
Joyful patience can endure!
"O the joy to see Thee reigning,
Thee, my own beloved Lord!
Every tongue Thy name confessing,
Worship, honor, glory, blessing,
Brought to Thee with glad accord!
Thee, my Master and my Friend,
Vindicated and enthroned!
Unto earth's remotest end
Glorified, adored, and owned!"[32]
Working by the Light of the Throne.
But we are still in the "not-yet" interval. We see not yet all things
subject to Him. This is still the waiting time. It is the pleading time
for Him. He pleads for the _personal crowning_ of Himself in our lives,
that He may reign there and He alone. This is our great opportunity. We
shall never see its like again, nor anywhere else than on this earth.
In the reigning time that's coming this peculiar opportunity of crowning
Christ while He still is absent and despised, this will be gone. In the
upper world they have no such opportunity. There is no opposition there.
Now and here is the rarest opportunity to put this great waiting patient
Man on the throne of heart and life, with possessions and ambitions and
plans all in subjection under His feet.
Every woman knows the name of Brussels lace. The old capital of the low
countries of Europe has long been famous for its lace. It is of great
interest to note the conditions under which it is sometimes made. They
are conditions studiously prepared after long experience. In one of the
famous lace factories in Brussels there are a number of small rooms
devoted to the making of some of the most delicate patterns.
Each room is just large enough for a single worker, and is quite dark
except for one narrow window. The worker sits so that the stream of
light falls from above directly upon the threads, while he himself sits
in the darkness. The darkness aids the workman's eyes to see better, and
to work more skilfully in the narrow line of clear light centred on the
delicate task. He weaves in the upper light intensified by the
surrounding gloom, and does exquisite work.
There is a clear line of light _from a throne_ shining down into the
darkness in which we sit and move. It shines from the face of a crowned
Man. In the light of that light we can see clearly to do a difficult bit
of crowning work,--to crown the Christ in our lives and to keep Him
crowned.
As our eyes follow that line of upper light we may catch glimpses of His
wondrous Face up there in the glory. So we shall be steadied and cheered
in the darkness as we stick to our glad crowning work. And so we shall
move forward on the calendar the day when that thin line of light seen
now only by watching eyes shall become a burst of glory light seen by
all eyes.
And this is the thing the crowned Christ is asking of us during this
waiting time, this "not-yet" interval. He is counting on each of us
being faithful to Him, our absent Lord, in this.
"He is counting on you.
He has need of your life
In the thick of the strife:
For that weak one may fall
If you fail at His call.
He is counting on you,
If you fail Him--
What then?
"He is counting on you.
On your silver and gold,
On that treasure you hold;
On that treasure still kept,
Though the doubt o'er you swept
'Is this gold not _all_ mine?
(Lord, I knew it was _Thine_.')
He is counting on you,
If you fail Him--
What then?
"He is counting on you.
On a love that will share
In His burden of prayer,
For the souls He has bought
With His life-blood; and sought
Through His sorrow and pain
To win 'Home' yet again.
He is counting on you,
If you fail Him--
What then?
"He is counting on you.
On life, money, and prayer;
And 'the day shall declare'
If you let Him have _all_
In response to His call;
Or if He in that day
To your sorrow must say,
'I had counted on you,
But you failed me'--
What then?
"He is counting on you.
Oh! the wonder and grace,
To look Christ in the face
And not be ashamed;
For you gave what He claimed,
And you laid down your all
For His sake--at His call.
He had counted on you,
And you failed not.
What then?"[33]
Ah! Please God, by His grace, we shall not fail in _the ruling purpose_
of our lives. We may crown Him Lord of all. We _can_. He asks it. We
surely _will_.
"With all my powers Him I greet,
All subject to His call;
And bowing low at His pierced feet
_Now_ crown him Lord of all."