The wedding feast!
(Octavius Winslow)
"Let us be glad and rejoice and honor Him. For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and His bride has prepared herself." Revelation 19:7
Jesus sustains no relation to His Church more expressive than this. From all eternity He betrothed her to Himself. He asked her at the hands of her Father, and the Father gave her to Him. He entered into a covenant that she should be His. The conditions of that covenant were great, but not too great for His love to undertake. They were that He should . . .
assume her nature,
discharge her legal obligations,
endure her punishment,
repair her ruin, and
bring her to glory!
He undertook all, and He accomplished all-because He loved her!
The love of Jesus to His Church, is the love of the most tender husband. It is . . .
exclusive,
constant,
affectionate,
matchless,
wonderful.
Jesus . . .
sympathizes with her,
nourishes her,
provides for her,
clothes her,
watches over her, and
indulges her with the most intimate and endearing communion.
The Lord Jesus will come in the clouds of Heaven, and this will be the occasion of His public wedding of His Church. Her present union to Him is secret and unknown-invisible to the world. But He will appear, openly and visibly to take her to Himself; and before His Father and the holy angels He will solemnize her eternal union.
Oh what a time of splendor and of rejoicing will that be! Arrayed in His nuptial robes, Jesus will descend to make her His own; and she, "prepared as a bride adorned for her husband," will go forth to meet Him. Then will be heard the song of angels, "Let us be glad and rejoice and honor Him. For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and His bride has prepared herself."
Yes! "Blessed are they who are called unto the wedding feast of the Lamb."