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Revelation 21:9 open_in_new
THE BRIDE OF CHRIST
‘The Bride, the Lamb’s wife.’
The Church, the Bride of Christ, is not called into existence simply for itself; it is called into existence for the sake of the Bridegroom. The work of the Bride of Christ: ‘Ye shall be witnesses unto Me.’ A husband and wife ought to be one in thought, in character, in work. And that is the idea, that the Church of Christ should be one in thought, in character, and in work with Jesus Christ. What is Jesus Christ’s character? That should be the character of His Church and the different parts of the Church. What is the thought of Jesus Christ? That should be the thought of the Church, the different parts of the Church.
I. The work of the Bride.—Just think of the love of Jesus Christ for the world! Can we estimate it? Can we picture it? Can we even imagine it? And yet if we are one with Him and His Bride, there ought to be in us that same spirit of love and devotion, that keenness for the work that characterised Him.
II. The position of the Bride.—When you are united to Jesus Christ in the closest of all ties as His bride, think what a claim you have upon Him, think what a claim He has upon you. If you are His bride, what has He a right to expect from you? Loyalty to Himself, nothing coming between. What have you a right to expect from Him? Everything. And yet, unfortunately, what do we see over and over again? Men and women not living up to their rank, not realising their privileges.
III. The ambition of the Bride.—Just as a wife looks up to the husband, so the Church must look up to Jesus Christ. Jesus only! That is the cry of the Church, that is the cry of the Christian. Jesus only!
—Rev. J. E. Watts-Ditchfield.
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Revelation 21:25 open_in_new
THE NIGHT PASSED
‘There shall be no night there.’
What does darkness stand for? Of what is it often spoken of as a type?
I. Darkness is the equivalent of uncertainty.—Only when we see no more ‘through a glass darkly,’ but ‘face to face,’ only when the great enigma has been solved, shall we know even as we are known. And that is what St. John meant as he gazed upon the heavenly city, New Jerusalem, into which the kings of the earth had brought their honour and glory. There was no more uncertainty, no more of those trials of doubt and perplexity which beset us here. All was bright and radiant in the light which was no more attended by any shadow, because the shadows had every one been dispelled. ‘There was no night there.’
II. Darkness is suggestive of isolation.—In the night the faces of our fellow-creatures are withdrawn for a while, and all familiar objects are hidden.
III. Darkness is suggestive of weariness.—It is to recruit our weariness that gentle Night steals down and covers us with her mantle of forgetfulness and soothes all our powers to rest. But there will be no scope for this loving office of the night in that blessed home where weariness will be impossible, where work will be pure joy, because the glorified body, in which we hope to serve our God in ways which He will unfold to us there, will have left all weariness behind.
—Rev. W. H. Savile.