What sorrow, what sweetness, what glory!

(Alexander Smellie, "The Hour of Silence" 1899)

"Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" John 1:29

What sorrow, what sweetness, what glory — encircle the head of the Lamb of God!

1. He is the Lamb of Sacrifice. "His blood so red — for me was shed!" Priest as well as Victim, Shepherd as well as Lamb — He offered Himself in my place, without spot and blemish. He assumed my misery, and reaped the harvest I had sown — a mournful harvest of guilt and woe! His unsullied and stainless life, He gave freely, cheerfully — for my forfeited and outcast and ruined life! Oh, how He loves me!

2. He is the Lamb of Deliverance. I remember that ancient type of my Redeemer and Lord — the Lamb of the Passover. It was slain, and its life-blood was sprinkled on the door-post — and the family within was safe. The dark-winged angel of death with the sharp sword in his hand, had no condemnation for them. In the same way, behind the merit and the grace, the atonement and the intercession and the human-divine Person of Jesus — I take my stand, and I am free from condemnation!

3. He is the Lamb of whitest Purity. There is no spot in Him; He is altogether lovely. And, as I abide with Him, as I meditate on Him, as I love and trust in Him . . .
  old things pass away with me;
  I grow in grace;
  the meekness and the patience and the beauty of God's Lamb begin to be seen in my life;
  and upward and heavenward and Christward I mount!