One everlasting memorial of anguish and suffering

(John MacDuff, 1818--1895)

"Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering
thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand.
They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders.
In a loud voice they sang--Worthy is the Lamb who was
slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and praise!" Revelation 5:11-12

What an anthem is this! No harp is unstrung, no voice
silent. One strain thrills on every tongue--"Worthy is
the Lamb who was slain!" What an attestation to . . .
  God's immaculate holiness,
  His burning purity,
  His unimpeachable rectitude,
  His boundless mercy!

In Heaven, there shall still be one everlasting memorial
of anguish and suffering--in a place where pain never
enters and suffering is unknown!

Accordingly, when the Redeemer puts the coronation anthem
into the lips of His worshipers, He reveals Himself, not in the
glories of Godhead--but as a slain Lamb, wearing the marks of
humiliation. He tells them to make Calvary still their meditation,
and His Cross and Passion the great center of eternity. The print
of the nails in His hands, and the spear-mark in His side, are not
the mementos of shame but of victory--remembrancers of a love
whose depths the ages cannot fathom! The vision of the text thus
becomes the mightiest of preachers, replete to the multitudes
above, with the story of grace. There is a tongue in every wound
of the glorified Sufferer--silently but expressively proclaiming the
great love that He had for us!

As the slain Lamb, Jesus proclaims that the same heart which
throbbed in anguish on the Cross--still beats on the Throne;
that He is still the Almighty Friend. Precious assurance! Jesus
unchanged and unchangeable! This same Jesus, who mingled
His tears with the widow at the gate of Nain; who wept over
the memory of a cherished friendship, and was melted in a
flood of tenderest compassion over an apostate land; this
same Jesus, who breathed balm-words of comfort on the very
eve of His own agony, and in the midst of it welcomed a dying
felon to Paradise--is now, with a heart of unaltered love and
sympathy--wielding the scepter of universal empire!