THE VISION Preached in Rochester Cathedral, December 3, 1890. "And they shall see His face; and His Name shall be in their foreheads."-REV. xxii. 4. SCHOLARS differ, as often elsewhere they differ, about the time of this seeing of God. Is it the final reward of the beatific vision, when the purged eyes shall see the King in his beauty, and, like Bartimæus of old, look up at that ineffable and solemn and tender face with wonder and self-abasement; or is it that insight and contemplation of faith, whereby the eye of the regenerate spirit, "beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, is changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord"? In truth it is both, and if there are not both, there will be neither. We must see Him here, or we shall never see Him after death, save as they shall see Him who will wail because of Him. Heaven, which is the vision of God, must begin in us now if it is to be fulfilled to us hereafter; the heavenly places mean the invisible presence of the invisible God. The text-promise, shall I not call it ?-contains two chief ideas the vision and the result. I. The vision. "They shall see His face." Advent-the Second Advent, that is-implies three separated, though connected epochs: the anticipation; the judgment; the glory. For each of these there is a special vision of God, exceptionally, though not exclusively, belonging to it. And while each of the three in measure and degree is more or less appreciated and recognized by the devout spirit, the time of judgment has a wider and deeper comprehension than the time of waiting; and all three unite and culminate in the last. To see God, is not to behold Him with the organs of sense. In this meaning, "No man hath seen God at any time". ever can, ever will see Him. It is to apprehend Him in His purpose and attributes and character. In other words, to observe His order, and accept His righteousness, and know His love. What we, who are between the Advents, have to do, is continually and reverently, and even thankfully, to cultivate the sense of a divine superintending will; to live moment by moment in the awful but sustaining presence of the moral Governor of the world; and ever to be sure, even though clouds and darkness are round about Him, justice and judgment are the habitation. of His seat. We all deeply need in this time of ours— Christian men especially, if they would shine as lights in the world to appreciate and cultivate and pass on the deep and imperturbable conviction that we are not helplessly drifting in the abyss of a moral chaos, but that this wonderful, beautiful, sorrowful, perplexing world is being ruled by no iron hand, by no stolid fate, by no arbitrary. tyrant, by no unstable caprice, but by a Father, who, while He does not now choose to give account of any of His matters to those who must learn to trust before they can understand, will give account of them presently, will justify Himself before the universe as wise and just and good. Let us confess it is not always easy to trace this order, or to comprehend it. Gordon dies-perhaps does more for us by dying than by living; but the question comes, Why was he let die? Are there so many of such that the world can easily spare them? The waste places' of humanity, not only in Africa but in England, reek with seeds of moral pestilence. The nation's conscience is stirred for a moment, and then slumbers again. It takes a woefully long time not only to discover the remedies, but to apply them. When the healing comes, we so often hear the paralyzing message, "Thy daughter is dead; why troublest thou the Master?" "Too late" burns itself in letters of fire on the soul. From the tempter and the oppressor, hundreds of victims and mourners pass daily to where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest. We can only look up above the silent stars, and penetrate with an eager and invisible faith to the throne of Him who bides His time now, as in the days of His flesh; who, if He seems asleep on a pillow while His Church is tossed in the storm, is ready to be aroused by her even impatient devotion; who sitteth above the waterfloods a King for ever; who bids us wait and trust, for He is at the door. In judgment we shall see His righteousness; and do we know what that means, and are we likely to be able to bear it? As said the prophet of old, "Who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? for He is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap." But in judgment we shall come face to face with a spotless purity such as no fuller on earth could whiten; with an ineffable holiness before which the very heavens are not clean; with a justice which in infallible balances will weigh the merits and demerits of each human soul; with a love which, while it passeth knowledge, will help us, maybe to our despair, to discover what love means. Think what the revelation will be when it first bursts upon us in that tremendous moment; what the contrast between His perfection and our shortcomings, in a gulf that will seem to sever the Saviour even from the saved. When He comes to judge, seeing Him will make us see ourselves, admiring Him will make us loathe ourselves, adoring Him will make us abase ourselves; and yet, if we have on this side of death cast ourselves on Him that He may save us, yielded ourselves to Him that He may use us, contemplated Him and fed on Him in His ordinances that He may sanctify us, and committed ourselves to Him that He may keep us safe in His everlasting arms, there will be no baseness and no remorse in our wonder, and even anguish ; His righteousness will not crush us, for it will be ours as well as His. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." In glory, to which we go when the judgment is over, to reign for ever and ever, we shall see His love as no one can see it now. There will be the love of His providence: "How that the Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in ye went, until ye came into this place; the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to show you by what way ye should go, and in a cloud by day." The providence which disappointed us in what was hurtful, only to give all the way that ... who went in |