By the Rev. JOHN LOVE, D.D.
“Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold; and all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on thee, as a bride doeth” (Isaiah xlix. 18).
“GREAT and marvellous,” saith the assembly of redeemed spirits in heaven, “Great and marvellous are thy Works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.” It is, however, through thickets of apparent contrariety and contradiction that the eternal wisdom makes its way to fulfil the designs and purposes which, when accomplished, shall occupy the search and the wonder of everlasting ages.
The complaint recorded (verse 14 of this chapter) hath a very glorious sound. It hath been frequently in the mouths of individual believers, and hath staid them when their feet were stumbling on the dark mountains. And if we consider the prospects of the Christian Church, the foundation on which she rests, the words of divine promise put in her mouth, and the spiritual weapons of warfare she holds in her hands, and compare with these the present state of religion through the habitable parts of this whole earth, it may perhaps be considered as a complaint to be justly assumed by the whole multitude of Christian believers now in the world, as a collective body. The Zion now existing on the earth may say “The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me.” Such expostulations, however, cease to appear strange when we consider such words as we see recorded (verse 4) as coming from the lips of the beloved of the Eternal Father, in whom his soul delighted. “Then I said, I, whom Jehovah hath called from the womb, whose name he hath mentioned with delight from the bowels of my mother, I, whom he hath made a polished shaft and hid in his quiver; I, to whom He said, thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified; I said, pierced with anguish, and worn down with disappointment, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain.” But the reply to such complaints from the Church and from her Redeemer, complaints that, as it were, touch the heart-strings of Deity, is emphatical indeed.
To the majestic though humbled Redeemer the answer is in these terms, “It is a light thing that thou shouldst be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob; I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation to the ends of the earth. In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and I will give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, that thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves.”
And to the spouse of the Redeemer the answer issues forth from on high in accents of still more tender condolence: “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold I have graven thee on the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.”
From the same bowels of compassion and love, but in a tone which rises with each sentence in grandeur, significance, and triumph, proceed the words of the text, “Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all those gather themselves together and come to thee. As I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on thee, as a bride doeth.”
Where is the faith which is prepared to meet such words as these, and to follow them out to their vast extent? It shall be created, it shall be expanded, it shall be inspired with conquering vigour, while we inquire into the meaning and certainty, while we drink in the sweetness, while we bow to the authority and grace of those words of the living God.
I. The Church’s attention is summoned to a “vast multitude of converts” pouring in upon her from every side, “Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together and come to thee.”
“Lift up thine eyes,” thy dejected eyes, suffused with tears, those eyes which conviction of sin hath sharpened, and which have looked far into eternity, those eyes which have seen scenes of desolation, defilement, and mourning, those dove-like eyes which nothing can delight but the view of thy Redeemer coming in the glory of His kingdom.
Behold the object which will soothe every drooping spirit, which will satiate and replenish every sorrowful soul. See what a throng! How numerous! How beautiful! Multitudes! Multitudes! not in the valley of decisive judgment but in the fields of blessing. Myriads! Nations! A world travelling in birth! A world newly created!
The early promises of grace opened wide the door of hope. They spread out an ample bosom prepared to embrace immense numbers of perishing sinners. But through a long series of ages, the Church was taught the preciousness of salvation by its rareness. Hope was sustained by a succession of converts, small in number, and forming to the eyes of sense an inconsiderable minority in the midst of crowds who passed on into eternity, under the curse and power of iniquity.
But the enlarged promises of the everlasting covenant assume a largeness of grace worthy of the love of Him, before whom all nations are as the drop of a bucket, in whose eyes systems of worlds appear little objects.
The spirit of promise draws the picture of a whole earth, thick set with living converts, like the sky bespangled with stars, or like the surface of the earth, whose shrubs and trees twinkle with the dew of the morning. He displays a multitude which no man can number, which no imagination can completely apprehend, a multitude surpassing far, it is to be believed, the number of those hosts which fell from heaven, yea, probably far surpassing the hosts of blessed angels which remain there; a multitude sufficient to occupy the whole habitable places of this great earth, successively through a long train of blessed ages.
What an object is this to the truly illuminated Church which understands the value of salvation, and perceives how many salvations are wrapped up in that of a single soul. For it is not a mere crowd, important by mere numbers, which stands held forth in the promise as the ultimate result of infinite love, and of the travail of the Mediator’s soul. It is a crowd, every individual of which appears rich with divine glory. For we must notice:—
II. That this great multitude “is a selected throng of human beings,” on each individual of which the distinguishing electing love of God hath particularly and personally rested from eternity, and in connection with this, a particular influence of the power of Jehovah is to be recognised as universally impressed on this whole multitude, wherein the Church is permitted to triumph.
Causes and effects must be proportioned to one another. But sometimes great effects are produced with such ease, and seem so congenial to these subjects, that the cause is almost overlooked. This is the case in the ordinary works of the Almighty. When we stand on the bank of a great river and observe its waters moving forward in silent majesty, we are apt to forget, while the movement seems so easy and natural, that there is implied in it an operation of immense power, and that in a manner which no philosopher has yet been able to explain, the power of the Creator, in what is called gravitation, is impressed on every particular drop in the great body of flowing waters. So while the benevolent Christian forms ideas, corresponding to the promises of God, of countless multitudes flowing together to the goodness and salvation revealed in His Church, the movement seems so desirable and so reasonable, that he needs to be reminded of the greatness of that power by which an effect so great is produced. It is proper, therefore, to think of the strong native opposition in each individual who comes truly to the Saviour. It is necessary to think of the accumulating force of that combined opposition which hath formed, through so many ages, that fatal course or current of the world which hath appeared irresistible. Then it will be necessary to apprehend a greatness of power, not merely resembling that which secretly bears on the waters of the river in their natural course, but rather like that which turned back the overflowing streams of Jordan towards their source, or which divided the waters of the roaring ocean.
We contemplate the revealed arm of Jehovah as the immediate cause of this confluence of true converts. Still, however, a further cause must be sought. Why is that arm of power which lay hid through so many ages, while millions on millions were perishing, at length so signally displayed? Here we approach the awful sacred fountain of love—we revolve that lofty name, “I am that I am.” Our thoughts flow back as far as the wings of imagination and of faith can carry them into the abyss of the past eternity. We think of the self-existing essence of the Person first in Deity, in the earliest stirrings of divine counsel and affection, opening its ample stores of condescending love and compassion towards unworthy human transgressors.
“Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us.” See Him looking forth from the height of paternal Deity towards those countless multitudes of sinners, involved in the same condemnation and depravity which bring eternal ruin on their equals in transgression, but taking hold of each individual soul in all that multitude, with a love unspeakable, more tender than that with which any human heart ever embraced the most select object of its dearest regards. Sacred awful fountain of love! In thee I discern the sublime cause of the great effect. How sovereign, yet how tender! How unobliged, yet how strong and determinate are thy movements! How personal, yet widely expanded! Let me, with revering, ecstasy, approach this fountain of love of the first in Deity, while I hear its determinate voice in the word of promise, “All these gather themselves, together, and come to thee. As I live, saith Jehovah, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all.”
III. A third subject of inquiry invites our thoughts in the words before us. They transfer to the Church of the living God “the honours of His surprising works of love.” These converted multitudes become His ornament, “Thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on thee, as a bride doeth.”
What an image is here! I know not whether most to admire its august magnificence, or its condescending delicacy and sweetness. It reminds me of similar emblems in other parts of the sacred oracles, such as that (Rev. xii.): “A woman clothed with the sun, having the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” I think of an ancient distinguished member of the Church, the patriarch Abraham, led forth by the divine hand under the star-bspangled glowing vault of heaven, and turning thither his heavenly-directed eyes, to see the emblem of the brighter multitude of believers who should call him father. In my text, honours like his are extended to the whole Church existing previously to those surprising and joyful enlargements.
Let this now be the subject of our inquiry, in what wonderful ways the vast extension of the powers of converting grace through the world shall be enjoyed, with the most delicious sense of ornament and honour, by the genuine Church.
1. By those converted multitudes the Church is honoured while they acknowledge the inexpressible value of the formerly existing spiritual Church of Jehovah.
What are these peculiar treasures and excellencies? I hope, my brethren, many of you know them well. They are the treasures of divine truth, unfolded by a wisdom coming from above; they are the influences of the Spirit of truth conveying into the inmost soul, with certainty at once sweet and demonstrative, the most interesting and extensive discoveries of divine eternal truth. The treasures and prerogatives of the Church are the stores of salvation; they are the unsearchable riches of merit, righteousness, and redemption, the ransom price, powerful to rescue from the flames of eternity and to open the paradise of immeasurable joys, and to do this for worlds upon worlds of the guilty. These treasures are the true medicines of diseased souls, the healing, purifying fountains; they are the riches in inimitable universal sanctity; they are the rivers, the floods of divine condescension brought down from heaven to earth, and lifting earthly beings to the delights and dignities of heaven.
While the multitude of converts in the various climes of this otherwise poor earth discern those glorious treasures deposited with the once despised Church, they come into the posture in which prophecy exhibits them: “And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising” (Isa. lx. 3). “They shall fall down unto thee; they shall make supplication unto thee, saying, Surely God is in thee, and there is none else; there is no God” (Isa. xlv. 14). “They shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord; for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me” (Isa. xlix. 23).
2. Benevolence, philanthropy, goodwill to men.
Venerable names, but often abused and falsely assumed. But it is to the singular and genuine benevolence of the true Church of the living God that the converted world shall gather its flowers and wreath its laurels. That heaven-breathed benevolence, those supplications, those self-denied, persevering exertions, which originate in the knowledge and communion of the crucified Saviour, these bear the palm of victory in this warfare. I commiserate those well-meaning people who deceive themselves with words, and reasonings, and human authority, while they disregard the loud testimony of Scripture and experience concerning the inutility of all the productions of unrenewed human nature when brought to the work of subduing the stubborn pride and rebellion of an apostate world.
It is in the period to which our thoughts are guided by the prediction in the text, when the face of the covering cast over all people and the veil spread over all nations shall be destroyed—it is then that the sentiments of mankind shall be rectified on this subject, and that the world shall discern its real enemies and its true friends. When the fruits of that benevolence, which long sighed and mourned in secret places, or pursued its unostentatious exertions under the shade of obscurity and contempt, appear over spreading and beautifying the whole earth, then the delivered nations shall bless that pious love, that heavenly kindness, which, from the days of Abel, the Redeemer of sinners hath infused into the breast of his spiritual spouse.
3. But in what “diversified forms,” and in what “overflowing abundance,” shall the honours of the Church, mingled with those of her high Redeemer, flow in upon her from every quarter of the world!
The unfolded secrets of error, superstition and vice, in every land, shall spread new lustre on the fair lines of eternal truth and holiness. The multitude of human beings inspired with heavenly energy, combining all the variety and extent of human genius and industry, in investigating and adorning the truth, and in shewing forth the praises of the God of salvation, and through the attending influence and blessing of the Spirit from on high, shall enrich and adorn the cities of our God in an unexampled, unimaginable manner. Blessed shall be those eyes which shall see a new train of Christian heroes, philosophers, politicians, princes, patriots; orators and poets, walking forth in every clime, and gathering in the honour and glory of the nations, to be collected at the feet of the Lamb who was slain, and to decorate the bride, the object of his eternal conjugal regards. Instead of the iron bond of connection, formed by a selfish, sordid, and often blood-stained spirit of commerce or of conquest, the nations, drawn into union by the silken cords of heavenly love, and formed into fair, symmetrical, peaceful combination, shall be actually assumed by the Church of the Redeemer as her ornament and glory, and “she shall clothe her with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on her, as a bride doeth.”
This adorning, these honours, however, shall by no means be confined to the happy race of believers then found on the earth; when such august scenes open they shall reach backward through all ages—they shall embrace the spirits of the righteous in glory, especially, “the souls under the altar of them who have been slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held.” In the living esteem and honour of these truly enlightened and dignified ages, the sufferers of all periods shall virtually rise from the dust of death, and appear as having judgement given to them from on high, as clothed with white robes, as sitting on thrones, the objects of universal esteem, admiration and praise throughout the new-born world.
IV. But have we entered the regions of airy fancy, the fairyland of fiction? Are those things a dream, or “is there certainty attached to them?”
A distinguished heathen poet, addressing himself to one of the fictitious objects of his admiration, speaks in this manner: “Dou you hear her, or am I deceived by a lively fancy? I see myself wandering with delight among the groves of the blessed, watered with sweet streams, and fanned with delightful breezes.” Such elegant pathos of a poor idolater will be pardoned by the philosopher, and will command the admiration of the man of classical sensibility; but both the philosopher and the man of classical sensibility, if impious, will pronounce it an intolerable enthusiasm, a madness not to be forgiven, if our souls are set on fire by the burning rays of truth coming from the true and eternal God. Shall we stand in awe of such censures? No; we are bound to despise them; for we have examined the grounds of our confidence; we have heard in the sacred oracles that inimitable voice of the Holy One, which shall at length silence all their voices; we know with a certainty, firm as demonstration, and sweet as the joys of heaven, that the Spirit of inspiration speaking in the Scriptures is truth. That Spirit summons us to joy, while he spreads out the wonderful scenes of salvation to be transacted in this sinful world. And he exhibits the bright seal of Deity, assuring us that in the indulging such hope we do not follow cunningly-devised fables. “As I live, saith Jehovah, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament.” The oath of Deity! The life of Deity! What securities are these!
1. It is difficult for us, who know so little of God, to apprehend in a becoming manner the solemn grandeur and authority of the oath of God.
The habits of a devilish profaneness debauch the human mind, otherwise we would feel inexpressible awe under the idea of an oath when emitted by the meanest individual possessed of the power of reason. What, then, would be the solemnity attached to the oath of a seraph, one of the sons of the morning, in the celestial regions? The oath of an angel would rise in its solemnity and force above that of the wisest of human beings in proportion as he possesses deeper reverence of Deity, and is capable of looking farther than mortals can do into those infinite perfections to which the appeal is made. But when the uncreated Majesty itself in the heavens rises from the throne, and before the appalled multitude of angels, assuming the posture of swearing, appeals to that life of immense glory, whereof He is conscious, to procure belief of his promissory engagements, who shall then hesitate? Shall not unbelief then shrink away with horror? Shall not faith then lift up its head, and, walking on its high places, tread lightly over the tops of obstructing mountains of opposition? “As I live, saith Jehovah, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament.”
2. The infinite life of Jehovah is the source of all existence, strength, and excellency; while therefore it is appealed to for the purpose of giving assurance of the promises, it exhibits the rich fountain of all those multiplied energies which shall operate as the instrumental means of fulfilling these great promises:
“I have girded thee,” saith God to the yet non-existing hero, “I have girded thee, though thou hast not known me.” Even the irrational animals are witnesses of the divine power to impart vigour, sagacity and invincible fortitude. The horse prancing fearlessly in the valley, the behemoth advancing among the shady trees with bones like bars of iron, the leviathan with a heart like the nether mill-stone, looking forth like the eyelids of the morning, making the deep to boil around him; these are some of the innumerable visible monuments of the efficacy of divine operation in inferior animal beings. But what shall be the effects when Immanuel, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, shall pour from the heavens the spirit of wisdom and of might, and shall bring into the world armies of such lions as the world never saw, excepting in some comparatively rare examples, in the days of bloody persecution? The man who shall bear the triumphant cross round the globe, shall exhibit strength and fortitude, not like the terrifying fierceness of partial selfish heroes, but holy, benevolent, irresistible, heaven tempered, like the prowess of angels. Before such men in whom Jesus shall put forth his living powers, what obstructions, what terrors, can earth or even hell exhibit? Jehovah lives; therefore the promise shall be accomplished.
3. After such securities it is hardly necessary to reason on the subject, otherwise a long train of arguments, in confirmation of the promise, might be brought forward.
We might vindicate the superior preferableness of the Church’s claims above those of any other of her haughty rivals; we might shew that so many millions of creatures made for eternity are too costly a sacrifice to be always offered up to the wild freak of bloody ambition, or to the equally careless, but more sordid monster, commercial avarice, or to the vain-glorious insolence of unfounded, impotent philosophy. Such competitors as these must quickly retire when the Church of the living God rises in her brightness. Even the awful sovereign justice of Jehovah, which, in its mysterious range through the ages that are past, has devoured so many victims, will at length say, It is enough; and, smelling an odour of rest in the sacrifice of Jesus the Son of God, suffer the earth to become the joyful dominion of triumphant mercy.