"They shall hunger no more, neither thirst
any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb,
who is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them unto
living fountains of waters."--Rev. 7:16, 17
There would seem to be, at the first blush of these
words, an apparent contradiction of ideas and dissonance of meaning. There
is the negative of hunger and thirst, and yet a positive provision supposing
still their existence--the absence of desire, and yet the presence of rich
and ample refreshment. Now, as God's word never contradicts itself, and as
its apparent discrepancies are perfectly reconcilable--no, those very
discrepancies often confirming its actual agreement, as opposite notes in
music produce the sweetest harmony--we may suppose that there is an
underlying truth in these words of a most interesting and instructive
character, the intelligent reception of which, by the teaching of the Holy
Spirit, will convey to us a vivid idea of that special attraction of heaven
set forth in the negative--"They shall HUNGER no more, neither THIRST any
more."
The whole passage is a splendid picture of the
blessedness of those who had died in the Lord. They are first described by
the vestments which they wear--"Who are these who are arrayed in WHITE
ROBES?" They are a robed assembly, and their robes are white. The robe
in which they are arrayed is the imputed righteousness of Christ, the
"Lord our righteousness,"--"clothed upon" with "the righteousness of
God which is unto all and upon all those who believe." Not a shred of
their own righteousness composes that vestment, not a thread of their own
unworthiness is woven with that robe. It is the righteousness of the
incarnate God, wholly, entirely, and His alone. O my soul! praise and adore
the Savior who has provided for you such a righteousness--a righteousness
that has answered and honored every precept of God's law--in default of a
single work or one particle of merit of your own, invested with which you do
stand 'complete,' "accepted in the Beloved!"
How perfect must be the justification of the believing
sinner!--how costly his attire!--how resplendent his glory! seeing that he
stands in the "righteousness of GOD" Himself. "The righteousness
of GOD, which is unto all and upon all those who believe." By no
creature is this standing excelled; by none is it equaled--the sinner raised
from the ash-heap of his vileness and pollution, is made to sit among the
princes of heaven. The color of this robe is expressive. It is
"white." White is the emblem of dignity and purity. When our Lord was
transfigured on the Mount, "His face shone as the sun, and His clothing
was WHITE as the light." The angel at the tomb--the first preacher of
Christ's resurrection--was "clothed in clothing white as snow." The
ancient kings and priests, and the Roman patricians, were robed in white,
indicative of rank, purity, and rectitude. Thus are the glorified spirits
arrayed. They form a part of that "glorious Church without spot or
wrinkle or any such thing," which Christ will present to Himself and to
the Father, in that day when "those who are wise shall shine as the
brightness of the skies, and those who turn many unto righteousness as the
stars forever and ever."
A similar vision of the saints in glory is presented in
connection with the final nuptials of the Church, when the marriage of the
Lamb will be celebrated, and she shall be presented to God "as a bride
adorned for her husband." "Let us be glad and rejoice; and give honor to
Him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife has made herself
ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen,
clean and WHITE, for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints."
Have we on this wedding-garment? Divorced from our idols, and separated from
our own righteousness, are we united by the Spirit, and through faith, to
Christ? Have we a vital union with Christ the Head? Oh! let no uncertainty
attach to this momentous matter. We are either in Christ, or out of Christ;
one with Christ, or separated from Christ; for Christ, or against Christ;
invested with His righteousness, or still clothed with the filthy garments
of our own. The marriage-supper of the Lamb is fast speeding on! Oh! that
when the King comes in to see the guests, that solemn and personal
inspection may not discover us without having on the wedding-garment, which
is the imputed righteousness of the King Himself! But, with Paul, may we be
"found in Him, not having our own righteousness, which is of the law, but
that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God
by faith."
Cleansing is another distinctive feature: "And
have WASHED their robes, and made them white in the BLOOD of the Lamb."
They are not only justified, but they are also pardoned. A related truth
with justification is pardon--essentially distinct, they are yet savingly
one. Justification gives us a title to heaven; pardon, a fitness for its
enjoyment--the one clothes us, the other cleanses us--by the one we pass out
of the court of God's justice, freed from all condemnation; in virtue of the
other we emerge from the prison of God's law, released from all debt.
Justification, in its forensic sense, looks upon a believing sinner as
though he had never broken the law; pardon, as though he had never incurred
its guilt.
Now it was this twofold condition of the glorified saints
which appeared in the vision of the Evangelist. They were washed in the
blood of the Lamb--therefore they were before the throne of God. It
was not their own blood that washed them--it was not their suffering of
martyrdom that exalted them--they could only occupy that position as they
were cleansed and robed--the blood and righteousness of the Savior
constituting their one and only plea. Sin-burdened, guilt-oppressed soul!
behold your present and future standing before God! No longer hesitate to
plunge into the sea of Christ's blood, or to accept the offered robe of His
righteousness. No merit of your own will afford you the slightest
encouragement to come to Christ; and no demerit shall dare prohibit your
coming. Though you were the most holy of fallen creatures that ever lived,
though you were to sacrifice your first-born for your transgression, the
fruit of your body for the sin of your soul, yes, give your own body to a
martyr's flame, all would not avail to place you as a pardoned and justified
sinner before the throne of God: you could only stand there on the footing
of Christ's Atonement once finished for all time. "THEREFORE they are
before the throne of God."
"Jesus! Your blood and righteousness
My beauty are, my glorious dress;
In flaming worlds, in these arrayed,
With joy shall I lift up my head."
Precious blood! glorious righteousness! you are my trust
and hope now; and hereafter my plea, my boast, and my song forever and ever!
Another feature of the glorified saints is the discipline
through which they came. "These are those who came out of great
tribulation." Suffering was their school--trial their
discipline--affliction their furnace. The path to heaven is the royal road
of suffering. There the King Himself walked, learning, though a Son,
obedience by the things which He suffered. Our blessed Lord foretold us of
this: "In the world you shall have tribulation." And the apostles but
echoed this truth when they reminded the early Christians that, "through
much tribulation they were to enter the kingdom." In this crucible their
principles were tested, in this furnace their grace was tried; and, like the
three children of Israel, they lost nothing in the flames but the cords that
bound them, emerging from the baptism of suffering with not even the smell
of fire upon their garments.
Accept, then, beloved, the discipline of the Refiner as a
necessary part of your heavenly training, and as assimilating you to the
"noble army of martyrs" who have gone before you. And though the tongues of
fire leap high, and the furnace blazes with heat, yet One like unto the Son
of Man shall tread it at your side, and you shall come out of it with no
trace of the fire upon your robes, except their deeper purity and richer
luster.
These words may also admit of a pointed and remote
allusion to the great tribulation which is to overtake God's Church
during the terrible reign of the coming Antichrist. This future baptism of
fire, more terrific in its nature and consuming in its effects than any that
ever preceded it, will, for the elect's sake, be shortened; but from its
searching flames the Church of God will emerge all the more resplendent, and
her Head all the more triumphant. Every species of evil, and form of false
doctrine, and mode of torture that ever existed, now embodied in this
hydra-headed monster, will then be entirely and forever destroyed; and from
out this fierce and fiery tribulation the saints of the Most High shall be
delivered, "purified, and made white, and tried." From this rapid
view of the character and heavenly position of the saints in the New
Jerusalem, let us more closely consider this negative quality of their
blessedness--"They shall HUNGER no more, neither THIRST any more, neither
shall the sun light upon them, nor any heat."
Shall we take the lowest idea suggested by this negative
of heaven--the total absence of all bodily hunger? In this
lowly, but expressive sense, there shall be no more hunger or thirst. That
the saints of God have often been exposed to famine--that many noble
servants of Christ, and laborers in His vineyard, have perished by hunger
and thirst, is a notable fact in the history of the Church of Christ. Of the
Church in the wilderness it is recorded, "Hungry and thirsty, their soul
fainted within them." Speaking of his deprivations for Christ, and those
of his fellow-apostles, Paul could testify, "We both hunger and thirst,
and are naked." And this suffering for Jesus he numbered among the
highest lessons of his spiritual education--"I have learned, in whatever
state I am, therewith to be content--in all things I am instructed to be
HUNGRY, and to suffer NEED." Our blessed Lord will show this to have
been a part of the discipline of His saints in that day when, before an
assembled world, He will recognize the humble crust and the simple cup of
cold water, given to a needy disciple in His name, as given to Himself.
"I was HUNGRY, and you gave me food--I was THIRSTY, and you gave me
drink." Who can read the early history of the Patagonian Mission, and
not recall the touching fact of Gardner and his fellow-missionaries dying of
starvation in their noble and self-sacrificing efforts to plant the standard
of the cross on those heathen shores?
Now, keeping these facts in view, there is a peculiar
charm in this impressive negative--the absence of all literal hunger
and thirst in heaven. "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more."
We are here reminded that the risen bodies of the saints will not be
material or corporal, but spiritual and immaterial. "It is sown a natural
body, it is raised a SPIRITUAL body." What this "spiritual body" will
be, we are left to conjecture. Enough that it will require no longer the
material nourishment needful to sustain our present life, but will be
sustained by nourishment suited to its nature and requirements--gathered, it
may be, from 'the tree of life,' which, 'bearing twelve manner of fruits,
and yielding her fruit every month,' is planted in the midst of the street,
and on either side of the river. But this lower interpretation of the
negative is not without its practical teaching. Let us not forget that many
of the Lord's most holy saints--many among His hidden but brightest jewels,
are, in this life, suffering, and even dying, because of bodily necessities.
Be it our holy mission to seek them out, and supply their
need. "Deal your bread to the hungry," (Isa. 58:7)--recognizing Jesus
in His needy saints. Thus shall we prove the reality of our faith, and the
sincerity of our love. "If a brother or a sister be naked, and destitute of
daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be warmed and
filled; notwithstanding you give them not those things which are needful to
the body, what does it profit?" (James 2:15, 16)
No, more. Not to the needs of the saints only are we to
give of our abundance, but also to those who are not--yes, even to our
enemies. "If your enemy is HUNGRY, feed him; if he THIRSTS, give him drink."
Oh! how divine and heavenly is the religion of Christ! Where else, on
the face of earth, will a religion be found which teaches us to love our
enemies, and to do good to those that despitefully use us? But the gospel of
Christ inculcates this, and the gospel is divine. Lord, impart to me its
mold, and imbue me with its spirit.
Saint of God! often hard pressed for the necessaries of
life, and, like the Shunamite widow, with "not anything in the house, except
a cruise of oil," (2 Kings 4:2) do not think harshly of your God and
Father--that thus He should deal with you. Your blessed Lord passed through
this trial before you, for He ofttimes hungered and thirsted, and even had
no where to lay His head. All is in love; and your present temporal need is
but designed to prepare you for that blessed world, and to heighten its
bliss, of which, in its literal sense, it is said, "And they shall hunger
no more, neither thirst any more." Until the dawn of that blessed
negative, trust the love, providence, and faithfulness of your covenant God,
who has promised concerning His child, that, "bread shall be given him;
his water shall be sure." (Isaiah 33:16) Recall the assuring words of
Jesus, "Your Heavenly Father knows that you have need of these things."
This negative also teaches the absence of spiritual
hunger and thirst in the New Jerusalem of the saints. At
first sight this would seem to indicate the withdrawal of one of the most
blessed conditions of our present Christianity--the spiritual appetite of
the regenerate soul. Most true, indeed, is this, a blessed condition of the
believer! What is it that unmistakably confirms the existence of our
spiritual life, and evidences the fact of its healthy growth? Is it not the
soul's appetite for food, its longing desire for its own spiritual
nourishment, whereby it grows in grace and in the knowledge of God and of
Christ? "Blessed are those who HUNGER and THIRST after righteousness,"
or, as the Greek expresses it, happy are they! Beloved! have we
this evidence within us of real conversion, this attribute of healthy
spiritual life--the soul's hunger and thirst after God, and righteousness,
and heaven? Hence David's experience--why not ours?--"As the deer pants
after the waterbrook, so pants my soul after You, O God. My soul thirsts for
God, for the living God."
Oh! to possess more of this vital religion--this
spiritual life--this ascent of the living water welled within the soul, and
springing up in communion with God, in fellowship with Christ, in
aspirations after holiness, in longing desires for heaven--yes, springing up
into eternal life. Such shall be supplied. "He satisfies the longing
soul, and fills the hungry with goodness." "Blessed are those who hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." Out of the
fullness of Christ, from the granary of His word, and the streams flowing
through the appointed channels of grace, the Lord will supply all its need.
He has promised to "keep the souls of His saints alive in famine;" that
is, when a scarcity of the bread and water of life exists--as, alas! in
many places and pulpits of the land it often does--in the absence of a truly
evangelical ministration of the word, and a spiritual and simple form of
worship--the Lord will still feed and nourish the souls of His saints,
keeping their grace and their graces alive amid the spiritual drought amid
which they dwell. Oh! let us never forget what a full and present Christ we
have to live upon; that, in the most destitute place, amid the most barren
means--no rich pastures of the Gospel--no spiritual means of grace--no
communion of the saints--isolated, lonely, and depressed--Christ is near to
you, in all the plentitude of His grace, and tenderness of His love, and
watchfulness of His eye, and sympathy of His nature; and your soul shall
live, for He will "guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in
drought, and make fat your bones; and you shall be like a watered garden,
and like a spring of water whose waters fail not." (Isaiah 58:11)
But, in heaven, the soul's spiritual hunger and thirst
will cease, simply because it will have passed beyond the region of
necessity--all need swallowed up in supply, all destitution in plenty, all
desire in complete satisfaction. "In Your presence is fullness of joy; at
Your right hand there are pleasures forever more." "As for me, I will behold
Your face in righteousness--I shall be satisfied when I awake, with Your
likeness."
No more shall we need the holy Sabbath--hallowed and
welcome as it now is--for there it will be one eternal Sabbath. No more
shall we require the Supper of the Lord--needful and precious as it now--is
for there we shall banquet at the marriage supper of the Lamb. No more
demand a Christ-exalting ministry--much as we prize it now--for there we
shall be in the blissful presence of Christ Himself, leaning upon His
ineffable bosom, gazing upon His transcendent countenance, feasting upon His
overflowing love, and basking in the unclouded beams of His glory.
"O happy souls! O glorious state
Of overflowing grace!
To dwell so near the Father's seat,
And see His loving face!
"Lord! I address Your heavenly throne;
Call me a child of Thine;
Send down the Spirit of Your Son,
To form my heart divine."
"Neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat."
The sun of affliction will never scorch--the fiery darts of Satan will no
more be hurled--the heat of toil and labor will have passed--the fires of
persecution will no longer burn--all this will entirely and eternally have
passed.
"For the Lamb, who is in the midst of them, shall feed
them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters." Christ's
place in heaven will be, what it ever has been in the care of His Church and
in the government of the world--central. He will, as the Lamb of God
once slain, be "in the midst of the throne"--He shall occupy the
central place in the universe. And still it will be His office to minister
to His Church. He will feed them with the heavenly bread, and make them to
drink of the new wine of the Father's kingdom--and will lead them, not to
torpid and failing springs, but to "living fountains of water"--ever
springing, ever ascending, ever increasing, at which the enlarged and
enraptured soul will drink--drink deeply, drink incessantly, and drink
forever. Heaven is a 'garden of fountains,' all its blessedness, all its
fullness, all its beauty flowing then--as now it flows--from CHRIST the
Lamb--occupying then--as He occupies now--the first and the last and the
central place in His Church's salvation, adoration, and love--and so Christ
will still be to His glorified saints through all eternity, what He was to
them through all time--"ALL AND IN ALL!"