: ' 
 
JAN 18 1918 
 
 BS 2825 .G64 1914 
 Gordon, S. D. 1859-1936 
 Quiet talks about the 
 crowned Christ 
 
/^ 
 
 JAN k^ ^iii3 
 
 QUIET TALKS 
 
 ABOUT 
 
 The Crowned Christ 
 
 S. D. GORDON 
 
 Author of 
 
 ' Quiet Talks on Power, " " Quiet Talks on Prayer, " 
 ''Quiet Talks about Our Lord' s Return'' 
 
 NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO 
 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 
 LONDON AND EDINBURGH 
 
Copyright, 1914, by 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 
 New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
 Chicago: 17 N. Wabash Ave. 
 Toronto: 25 Richmond St., W. 
 London: 21 Paternoster Square 
 Edinburgh: zoo Princes Street 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Crowning the Christ is an intensely practical 
 thing, whether taken in the personal sense or the 
 world sense. He has been crowned in the upper 
 world. With wondrous patience and gracious- 
 ness He pleads for the personal crowning in our 
 lives. Some day — no one knows just when — 
 He will begin to act as the crowned Christ in all 
 the affairs of our earth. 
 
 The initiative of all action to-day on the earth 
 is in man's hands. Some day the initiative of 
 governing action on the earth will be in the hands 
 of the crowned Christ, even while the personal 
 initiative of each man's life will still be in his own 
 hands. 
 
 God is intensely practical. Jesus was never 
 concerned about speculation nor mere discussion ; 
 He was too intent on helping people. The Bible 
 is wholly a practical book. It is concerned only 
 with helping us. It does not tell us all the truth 
 there is; we shall be constantly learning more 
 in the future life. But it does tell us all we need 
 to know now. And its purpose in telling us what 
 it does is wholly practical, — to urge us to right 
 choice, and to lives that square with the choice. 
 This is the purpose that decided just what truth 
 should be told in the Book. 
 
6 Preface 
 
 There is one book of the sixty-six devoted 
 wholly to this subject of the crowned Christ, — 
 " The Revelation of John." Every one of these 
 books touches Him at some angle, and finds its 
 deepest meaning in what He was to do and did 
 do, and yields up its secrets only under the touch 
 of His hand. But this book, the closing and cli- 
 max of all, the knot in the end of the inspired 
 thread, this deals wholly with the action of the 
 crowned Christ. 
 
 No book of the sixty-six has seemed so much 
 like a riddle and set so many a-guessing. And 
 without doubt much of its meaning will be clear 
 only as events work themselves out. Events will 
 prove the only expositor of much. But it is with 
 the deep conviction that this is wholly a practical 
 book, written wholly from a practical point of 
 view, and concerned wholly with our practical 
 daily lives, that I have ventured to take it up in 
 this series of simple, wholly practical, Quiet 
 Talks. And it is only this side of its teachings 
 that will be dealt with here. The Book is a street 
 leading into the true overcoming life the Master 
 would woo us to. 
 
 It is only after many years' study of this Book 
 of the Revelation, and a special study the past 
 three years and a little more, that I have ventured 
 to put these talks together. And now they are 
 sent out with the earnest humble prayer that 
 others may find some little practical help in 
 prayerfully reading, as I have found much in 
 prayerfully studying, under the Master's gracious 
 faithful touch. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I. The Christ Crowned, the Fact ... 9 
 
 II. The Crown Book 39 
 
 III. A Sight of the Crowned Christ . . , . 63 
 
 IV. A Message from the Crowned Christ . 97 
 
 V. An Advance Step in the Royal Pro- 
 gramme 127 
 
 VI. A Clearing-up Storm in the Realm . . 151 
 
 VII. The Crowned Christ Reigning . . . 215 
 
 VIII. Watching the Horizon 235 
 
I.— THE CHRIST CROWNED, 
 THE FACT 
 
" When God sought a King for His people of old, 
 He went to the fields to find him; 
 A shepherd was he, with his crook and his lute 
 And a following flock behind him. 
 
 " love of the sheep, O joy of the lute, 
 And the sling and the stone for battle; 
 A shepherd was King, the giant was naught, 
 And the enemy driven like cattle. 
 
 " When God looked to tell of His good will to men, 
 And the Shepherd-King's son whom He gave them; 
 To shepherds, made meek a-caring for sheep, 
 He told of a Christ sent to save them. 
 
 " O love of the sheep, O watch in the night. 
 And the glory, the message, the choir ; 
 *Twas shepherds who saw their King in the straw, 
 And returned with their hearts all on fire. 
 
 " When Christ thought to tell of His love to the world 
 He said to the throng before him, 
 'The Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep — * 
 And away to the cross they bore Him. 
 
 "O love of the sheep, O blood sweat of prayer, 
 O man on the cross, God-forsaken ; 
 A shepherd has gone to defend all alone 
 The sheepfold by death overtaken. 
 
 " When God sought a King for His people, for aye, 
 He went to the grave to find him; 
 And a shepherd came back. Death dead in His grasp, 
 And a following flock behind Him. 
 
 "O love of the sheep, O life from the dead, 
 O strength of the faint and the fearing; 
 A shepherd is King, and His Kingdom will come. 
 And the day of His coming is nearing." * 
 
 ^ Joseph Addison Richards. 
 
THE CHRIST CROWNED, THE 
 FACT 
 
 His Coronation Gift. 
 
 Christ is crowned. Not in any vague far- 
 fetched meaning, but in the plain common-sense 
 meaning of the word, He is crowned. 
 
 For crowned means put in the place of highest 
 power, with full right to exercise that power at 
 will. And when the crucified Jesus went up that 
 Olivet day, before the astonished eyes of the dis- 
 ciples, into the sightless blue, on the cloud. He 
 was received in the upper world by the Father. 
 And He was lifted up into the place of highest 
 honour and greatest power. He sat down at the 
 right hand of the Father.^ 
 
 He had said it would be so. Breathing the air 
 thick with bitter hate on the night of His trial, 
 He had quietly said to the Jewish rulers that 
 even so it would be, bringing at once about His 
 person the bursting of the storm of hate.^ Now 
 His unfaltering trust in His Father has its sweet 
 reward. 
 
 The Holy Spirit poured out on Pentecost, the 
 birthday of the Church, was the gift of the 
 
 * Mark xvi. 19. 
 
 ' Matthew xxvi. 64. 
 
 IX 
 
12 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 crowned Christ. The rushing sound as of a mighty 
 wind that filled all the house, the tongues of flame 
 plainly seen, the bold talking to the crowds of 
 foreign Jews of God's mighty power, the faith- 
 ful witnessing about the crucified Jesus in the 
 city that hounded Him to death, the convinced 
 crowds openly declaring at the peril of their lives 
 their belief in the despised Jesus, the strangely 
 rare unselfishness even in money matters, and 
 the winsome graciousness of spirit that marked, 
 not only the inner circle, but these greatly 
 increased crowds, — all this said one thing in 
 clear unanswerable tones of unmistakable power, 
 Christ is crowned,^ For the sending down 
 of the Holy Spirit was the act of the crowned 
 Christ. 
 
 And every touch of the Holy Spirit's presence 
 within trusting hearts, — the sweet peace, the quiet 
 assurance, the longing for purity, the drawing 
 away to prayer, the hunger for God's Word, 
 the intense desire to have others saved, the pas- 
 sion to please this wondrous God of ours, — all 
 these simple marks of the Holy Spirit's presence 
 in our hearts, all tell us, and each tells us, in 
 unmistakable tones, that Christ is crowned. For 
 this wondrous Spirit within is the gift of the 
 crowned Christ. 
 
 When Jesus went up from the earth, holding 
 as His sure captive the captivity of suffering 
 and death to which He had with such great 
 strength yielded, He received gifts, coronation 
 gifts. The Father gave Him all. He gave Him 
 
 * Acts ii. 33; iii. 13-16; v. 31-32; vii. 55, 56. 
 
The Christ Crowned, the Fact 13 
 
 the disposal and control of all. This was the 
 crowning. 
 
 And in His great out-reaching love Christ re- 
 ceived these gifts on behalf of men, His blood 
 brothers. And at once He gave to men, to His 
 trusting disciples, the all-inclusive gift, the Holy 
 Spirit, His coronation gift.^ So God came anew 
 to dwell with men as originally planned. 
 
 This blessed Presence within tells me, by His 
 mere presence, that Christ is crowned. 
 
 The writers of the New Testament make a 
 chorus of sweet music on this chord, ringing 
 out in clear tones the full notes of delight and 
 joy. Luke's simple narrative sounds the note 
 four times. Paul swells it out with a joyous ful- 
 ness that grows in volume and intensity as his 
 narrowing prison walls shut out more and more 
 the lower lights, and centres his upward gaze 
 upon Jesus, " far above all rule, and authority, 
 and power, and dominion, and every name that 
 is named," with " all things in subjection under 
 His feet." ^ John's special companion and work- 
 ing partner, Peter, makes this note blend with and 
 dominate the minor chord of suffering for 
 Christ 's sake.' 
 
 The Christian Hebrew who wrote so eloquently 
 to his fellow-countrymen of the immense superi- 
 ority of Jesus and so modestly withheld his own 
 name, strikes this note five times with strong, 
 
 * Psalm Ixviii. i8 ; Ephesians iv. 8 ; Acts ii. 33. 
 
 ' Romans viii. 34 ; Ephesians i. 20-22 ; Philippians ii. 
 9-1 1; Colossians iii. I. 
 
 • I Peter iii. 22. 
 
14 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 clear touch.^ He quotes that Eighth Psalm, 
 which so wonderfully gives God's own ideal for 
 man's mastery over all creation. And then he 
 tells us that in Jesus the ideal will yet be fully 
 realized. And that while the whole plan has not 
 yet fully worked out as it will, yet even now we 
 see the Jesus who tasted death for every one, 
 crowned with glory and honour as part of the 
 plan which He carried out in suffering the ex- 
 treme suffering of death. 
 
 And our Lord Jesus Himself, talking out of 
 the glory to the man who was His bosom com- 
 panion on earth, reserves as His last tender plea 
 to us to live the overcoming life this — '' he that 
 overcometh I will give him to sit down with me 
 in my throne as I also overcame and sat 
 down with my Father on His throne." ^ 
 
 And so we find out just what this word 
 crowned means. Jesus was received in the upper 
 world, exalted, glorified, made to sit down at the 
 Father's right hand, put far above all rule and 
 authority, with a name greater in the sweep of 
 its power than any other, and with all things 
 put in absolute subjection under His feet. This 
 is the simple, direct meaning of the sentence — 
 Christ is crowned. 
 
 What a contrast the two faces of that glory 
 cloud saw ! The face looking down, and the face 
 looking up! The one — the downward face — 
 looked upon a cross, a Man hanging there with 
 a mocking crown of thorns without and a break- 
 
 * Hebrews i. 3; ii. 8-9; viii. I ; x. 12; xii. 2. 
 ' Revelation iii. 21. 
 
The Christ Crowned, the Fact 15 
 
 ing heart within, scowHng priests, jeering crowds, 
 deserting disciples, sneering soldiers, weeping 
 women, heart-broken friends, a horror of dark- 
 ness, a cave-tomb under imperial seal, and black- 
 est night settling down over all. 
 
 The other — the upward face — looked upon a 
 great burst of the upper glory, the countless 
 angels singing swelling songs of worship, the 
 wondrous winged cherubim, the redeemed hosts 
 from Eden days on reverently bowing and ex- 
 ultantly singing, the exquisitely soft-green-rain- 
 bow-circled throne, the Father's face, once hid- 
 den, but to be hidden now never again, the shared 
 seat on the Father's throne, — what a contrast ! 
 
 Here crucified — there crowned. Crucified on 
 earth, one of the smaller globes of the universe. 
 On the throne of the whole universe of globes — 
 crowned ! From the lowest depth to the one ex- 
 treme height. From hate's worst to Love's best. 
 From love poured out for men to love enthroned 
 for those same men; love triumphant each time, 
 on cross and on throne. What a contrast ! What 
 a coronation! What a welcome home to a 
 throne ! 
 
 The Music of a Name. 
 
 It is most intensely interesting to recall that, 
 of course, this is just what the very word Christ 
 means, — the Crowned One. We sometimes get 
 so used to a word that it is easy to forget its 
 real meaning. The word Christ has been used so 
 generally for so many centuries as a name that 
 
1 6 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 we forget that originally it was a title, and not a 
 name. 
 
 And it still is a title, though used chiefly as a 
 name. Some day the title-meaning will overlap 
 the name-meaning. We may never cease think- 
 ing of it as a name, but there is a time coming 
 when events will make the title-meaning so big 
 as to clear over-shadow our thought and use of it 
 as a name. 
 
 It helps to recall the distinctive meaning of 
 the words we use for Him who walked amongst, 
 and was one of us. Jesus is His name. It be- 
 longs to the man. It belongs peculiarly to the 
 thirty-three years and a bit more that He was 
 here, even though not exclusively used in that 
 way in the Book. 
 
 There's a rare threefold sweetness of mean- 
 ing in that five-lettered name. There is the 
 meaning of the old word lying within the 
 name, before it became a name, victory, victor, 
 saviour-victor, Jehovah-victor. There is the 
 swing and rhythm and murmur of music, glad 
 joyous music, in its very beginnings as a com- 
 mon word. 
 
 Then it has come to stand wholly for a per- 
 sonality, the rarely gentle, winsome, strong 
 personality of the Man of Bethlehem and Naza- 
 reth, and of those crowded service-days. And 
 every memory of His personality sweetens and 
 enriches the music in the old word. 
 
 And then the deepest significance, the richest 
 rhythm, the sweetest melody, come from the 
 meaning His experiences, His life, pressed into 
 
The Christ Crowned, the Fact 17 
 
 it. The sympathy, the suffering, the wilder- 
 ness, the Cross, the Resurrection, all the experi- 
 ences He went through, these give to this victory- 
 word, Jesus, a meaning unknown before. They 
 put the name Jesus actually above every name 
 in the experiences of tense conflict and sweeping 
 victory it stands for. This threefold chording 
 makes music never to be broken nor forgotten. 
 
 "There is no name so sweet on earth, 
 No name so sweet in heaven, 
 The name before His wondrous birth, 
 To Christ the Saviour given." 
 
 Lord is a title, of course. It was used of one 
 who was a proprietor, an owner, or a master. It 
 was commonly used as a title of honour for one 
 in superior position, as a leader or teacher. In 
 speaking of Jesus it is coupled with the title 
 Christ as an interchangeable word,^ as well as 
 an additional title. But peculiarly it is the per- 
 sonal title given Jesus by one who takes Him 
 as his own personal Master,^ while it still retains 
 its broader meaning. 
 
 But Christ is peculiarly the official title of 
 Jesus. There is only one Christ. Lord is used 
 of men. It is used of both the Father and the 
 Holy Spirit, as well as of Jesus. But the name 
 Christ is used of only one person, and can mean 
 only that one. There could be only one Christ. 
 
 The word or its equivalent was used occasion- 
 ally in the Old Testament in a narrowed sense 
 
 * Acts ii. 36 • Romans x. 9. 
 
1 8 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 for the King of Israel, who is reverently spoken 
 of as " the Lord's anointed," that is, God's Mes- 
 siah or Christ.^ 
 
 But the one common thought of it among the 
 Hebrew people, growing ever intenser as the Old 
 Testament period merges into the time of the 
 New, was that there was one coming, the Mes- 
 siah, the Christ, God's chosen, the one anointed 
 and empowered, to be their Deliverer. The one 
 question that sets all hearts a-flutter about the 
 rugged John of the deserts was this : '' Is he the 
 Christ?"^ In their thought there was only one 
 to whom the title belonged. 
 
 And even so it is. Christ is the official title 
 of the One Chosen and anointed by God to be 
 ruler over His Hebrew people, and over all the 
 race, and the earth, and the universe, — God's 
 King, to reign until all have been brought into 
 full allegiance to the great loving Father.^ The 
 Christ is the Crowned One, God's Crowned One. 
 The very word Christ tells that Christ is 
 crowned. 
 
 Our Great Kinsman. 
 
 There is an intensely interesting question that 
 crowds its way in here, and it proves an im- 
 mensely practical question, too. Why was Christ 
 crowned ? We can say at once that this was His 
 
 *I Samuel xvi. 6; xxiv. 6, lo; II Samuel i. 14-16; 
 XIX. 21, and elsewhere; Psalm xviii. 50, and frequently 
 m Psahns. 
 
 •John i. 20, 25; Luke iii. 15. 
 
 * Philippians ii. 10; I Corinthians xv. J4-a6. 
 
The Christ Crowned, the Fact 19 
 
 due. He was given that which belonged to Him 
 in good right. He was reinstated in His former 
 position, with all the power and glory that were 
 His before His errand to the earth. ^ 
 
 Then too this was His vindication after the 
 shameful treatment of earth. Before the eyes of 
 all the upper world, both loyal and disloyal eyes, 
 this man whom earth hounded so shamelessly is 
 vindicated ; He is set right by the Father.^ 
 
 But there is yet more than this. It is a more of 
 a sort that concerns us very closely, and it sets 
 one's heart a-beating a bit faster. This crowning 
 was part of a plan, a plan of which our earth 
 is the centre. It was the second great part of 
 a plan of which the suffering and dying were the 
 first great part. Both were for the sake of us 
 men and our earth-home, and the lower creation. 
 
 This is the thing being emphasized in the sec- 
 ond great paragraph of the Hebrews.^ Man was 
 made the under-master of the earth and of the 
 lower creation, but lost, weakly surrendered, his 
 place of mastery. The new Man came to re- 
 cover for man what had been lost and to realize 
 this original lost plan. 
 
 And so He became our brother, sharer of our 
 flesh and blood, tempted like as we, perfected 
 in His human character by the experiences He 
 went through, then tasted to the bitter dregs the 
 death that belongs to our sin. And then foUow- 
 
 *John xvii. 5; i. 1-3; Colossians i. I5-I7- 
 ' Matthew xxvi. 64; Acts ii. 22-24, 32-36; Philippians 
 ii. 9-1 1 ; Hebrews ii. 9. 
 ' Hebrews ii. 5-18. 
 
20 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 ing that, He was crowned with glory and hon- 
 our. And so He rises to the place of mastery 
 over all that belongs to perfect man. So He 
 brings all creation into the glad subjection 
 which is its natural happy state. It is for 
 earth's sake, for the race's sake, and for the 
 sake of our faithful companions and servants, 
 the whole lower creation, that Christ has been 
 crowned. 
 
 We think more about the personal meaning to 
 ourselves of His having died and risen again. 
 We need to remember, too, this broader meaning. 
 The dying and rising secures our salvation per- 
 sonally. The crowning and the reigning will 
 work out the redemption of all nature and of the 
 lower creation,^ and this in turn will mean much 
 for men living on the earth in the Kingdom time, 
 and for the race as a race. 
 
 This leads at once to another question that 
 presses in. What is the domain of the crowned 
 Christ? If we take the crowning in the com- 
 mon meaning of that word, it means that there 
 is some domain that Christ rules over. What 
 is it that He is crowned over ? 
 
 And the answer is so sweeping as to seem 
 far-away and dreamy to us who are living on this 
 sin-hurt earth. He is the crowned Ruler of the 
 whole created universe and all intelligent beings 
 in it. He has been placed over absolutely every 
 " rule and authority and power and dominion, 
 and not only in this present age but in the com- 
 
 * Romans vii. 19-22; Jeremiah ix. 10; xii. 4, 11; xxiii. 
 10 ; Genesis iii. 17-19; Acts iii. 21. 
 
The Christ Crowned, the Fact 21 
 
 ing age."^ There is simply no limit in extent 
 to His domain. Everything has been placed in 
 subjection to Him and is now subject to His 
 word, and His alone. 
 
 There is a striking passage in Philippians that 
 fits in here.2 In speaking of the exaltation of 
 Jesus Christ, Paul is careful to explain particu- 
 larly that every knee would bow, in the heavens, 
 and, on the earth, and under the earth or in the 
 world below. 
 
 This threefold division is very striking. The 
 heaven things are understood at once, and things 
 of the earth sphere. But there is a third world 
 to be taken into account, that strange uncanny 
 world of evil spirit beings in rebellion against 
 God's authority. It is spoken of repeatedly as 
 principalities and powers, indicating numbers and 
 organization, dignity, and power.^ All of this is 
 included in what has been placed under Christ's 
 authority.* 
 
 Is Christ Reigning Now? 
 
 But there is still another question that has been 
 impatiently pushing underneath for some time. 
 And it also is an intensely practical one. Does 
 this mean that Christ is actually ruling now over 
 this domain of His? How about the affairs on 
 
 * Ephesians i. 20-22 ; Hebrews ii. 6-8. 
 
 * Philippians ii. 9-1 1. 
 
 * Ephesians vi. 12; Colossians ii. 15. 
 
 * Colossians ii. 10; Ephesians iii. 10; iv. 8-10; 
 I Corinthians xv. 24. 
 
22 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 the earth? Are all things here subject to Him? 
 Is this the way He would have things go ? And 
 some of us think the evil spirits seem pretty free 
 in their movements. This present order of things 
 that we are living in the thick of, is this the reign 
 of the crowned Christ ? And some of us feel the 
 stress of things so much that we can scarce keep 
 patient for a thoughtful poised answer to our 
 questions. 
 
 There are those, and good earnest folk they 
 are, too, who tell us that Christ has come, and 
 is constantly coming, more and more, into our 
 common life. The higher ideals that are crowd- 
 ing for expression, the more spiritual conceptions 
 of man and his brotherly relations, the constant 
 striving toward better civilization, the bettering of 
 the condition of the poor and less fortunate, the 
 increased recognition of men's rights in the com- 
 plex industrial world, the increasing effort to 
 correct evils by legislation, the great moral re- 
 forms that are sweeping aside the awful liquor 
 curse, and loosening women's bonds, and safe- 
 guarding young womanhood and children, the 
 newer aggressiveness in the missionary propa- 
 ganda and in much of the activity of the Church, 
 even the attempt to humanize and civilize the 
 warfare that in itself is stupidly savage and ut- 
 terly inhuman, — is not all this a coming of Christ 
 and of the Christ-spirit into our common life? 
 many ask. 
 
 And there is only one answer to such ques- 
 tions, a strong emphatic " yes." It surely is the 
 Christ-spirit that moves in all of this. This is a 
 
The Christ Crowned, the Fact 23 
 
 coming of Christ; and a blessed coming, too. 
 There was nothing of this sort before the Christ- 
 spirit began to sweeten the world's life. And 
 there is none of it to-day except in those parts 
 of the world where the Christ-spirit influences 
 life. 
 
 But — there's a " but " — it proves a blessed but ; 
 this is only a crumb or two falling from a loaded 
 table. And he who judges Christ by these 
 crumbs only, wholesome and toothsome as they 
 are, will have a very skimpy conception of 
 Christ. 
 
 All of this sort of thing that has come has come 
 very slowly. It has had to fight through and 
 in, every step of the way that it has come. Its 
 coming has been opposed stubbornly, maliciously, 
 viciously every inch of the road, as only those 
 know who are in the thick of the struggle for 
 these reforms, panting for breath sometimes. 
 
 It is as though a few whiffs of wholesome life- 
 giving air have breathed through the cracks and 
 crevices of the breastworks and fortifications of 
 evil in which all our common life seems en- 
 trenched. But the fortifications are still there. 
 If the sweet, wholesome breathing in through 
 cracks and crannies has been so blest, what would 
 it be if the forces of evil were clean removed 
 from the scene, and the Christ-spirit became the 
 whole atmosphere breathed fully and freely with- 
 out restraint, with no bad draughts, and no coun- 
 ter currents to guard and fight against ? 
 
 It would seem like a strange sort of a kingdom 
 if the present is even a gradual coming in of 
 
24 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 the Kingdom. We would seem to be having a 
 new, strange sort of a Christ if the present is a 
 sample of His sort of reigning. For it may well 
 be thoughtfully doubted if ever there was such 
 a condition of feverish unrest in all parts of the 
 world as to-day. 
 
 It is most difficult to put your finger on a single 
 spot of the world-map that is not being torn 
 and uptorn by unrest in one shape or another. 
 Either actual war, or constant studious prepara- 
 tion for war, actually never ceases. And it is 
 difficult to say which is the worse of the two. 
 The actual war reveals more terribly to our eyes 
 and ears the awful cost in treasure and in pre- 
 cious human blood spilled without stint. The 
 never-ceasing preparation for war seems actually 
 to cost more. In the immense treasure involved, 
 and in blood too, given out, not on an occasional 
 battlefield, but in the continual battle of daily life 
 to meet the terrible drain of taxation, it costs im- 
 mensely more. There is less of the tragic for 
 the news headings, but not a whit less, rather 
 much more, in the slow suffering, the pinched 
 lives, and the awful temptations to barter charac- 
 ter for bread. 
 
 Then there is the continual seething unrest 
 in the industrial world; the protests sometimes 
 so strange and startling against social and political 
 conditions ; the feverish greed for gold, and land, 
 and position ; the intense pace of all our modern 
 life ; the abandonment of home and home ideals ; 
 the terrific attack against our young womanhood. 
 The political pot which gathers into itself all 
 
The Christ Crowned, the Fact 25 
 
 these things, never quits boiling or boiling over, 
 in some part of the world, now here, now there. 
 And it seems like the greatest achievement of 
 diplomacy when here and there it can be kept 
 from boiling clean over, or at least made to boil 
 over less. 
 
 It would seem indeed like a queer sort of 
 kingdom if this is a sample. Some of us would 
 have less heart in repeating one petition of the 
 old daily prayer. And Christ would seem to have 
 quite changed His spirit and character if this is 
 a result of His coming. 
 
 The Greatness of Patience. 
 
 And the great simple truth is this, the truth 
 that in the strange mix-up of life we easily lose 
 sight of is this : Christ has not yet taken posses- 
 sion of all of His domain; a part of it still remains 
 to be possessed. " We see not yet all things sub- 
 jected to Him." ^ We are living in the " not- 
 yet" interval between the crowning and the 
 actual reigning. We are living on the " not- 
 yet " possessed part of His domain. 
 
 And the question that comes hot and quick 
 from our lips, even though with an attempt at 
 subdued reverence, is this : " Why does He not 
 take possession, and untangle the snarl, and right 
 the wrongs, and bring in the true rational order 
 of things ? " And all the long waiting, the sore- 
 ness of hearts over the part that touches one*s 
 own life most closely, the shortness of breath in 
 
 * Hebrews ii. 8. 
 
26 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 the tensity of the struggle, underscore that word 
 "why?"* 
 
 And the answer to the impatient question re- 
 veals all afresh the greatness of the love of our 
 Christ. His greatness is shown most in His 
 patience. But patience is one of the things we 
 men on this old earth don't know. It's one of 
 the unknown quantities to us. It can be known 
 only by knowing God. For patience is love at 
 its best. Patience is God at His best. His is 
 the patience that sees all, and feels all with the 
 tender heart that broke once under the load, and 
 yet waits, steadily waits, and then waits just a 
 bit longer. 
 
 In this He runs the risk of being misunder- 
 stood. Men in their stupidity constantly mis- 
 take strong patience for weakness or indifference 
 or lack of a gripping purpose. And God is 
 misunderstood in this, even by His trusting chil- 
 dren. But, even so, the object to be gained is 
 so great, and so near Christ's heart that He 
 waits, strongly waits with a patience beyond our 
 comprehension; waits just a bit longer, always 
 just a bit longer. 
 
 There are two parts to the answer. Jesus the 
 Christ is giving man the fullest opportunity. He 
 never interferes with man's right of free choice. 
 Man is free to do as he chooses. Every possible 
 means is used to influence him to choose right, but 
 the choice itself is always left to the man. The 
 present is man's opportunity. The initiative of 
 action on the earth is altogether in man's hand. 
 All of God's power is at man's disposal ; but man 
 
The Christ Crowned, the Fact 27 
 
 must reach out and take. This long stretched 
 out waiting time is for man's sake, that he may- 
 have fullest opportunity. The longsuffering of 
 God would woo men.^ 
 
 When at length opportunity comes to its end 
 it will be only because things have gotten into 
 such desperate shape, into such an awful fix, that 
 at length for man's sake Christ will step into the 
 direct action of the earth once again. He will 
 take the leadership of earth into His own hands, 
 even while still leaving each man free in his 
 individual choice. This is the first part of the 
 answer. The waiting is that man may have full- 
 est opportunity. 
 
 Then Christ has a great hunger for willing 
 hearts. No words are strong enough to tell His 
 longing for a free, glad, joyous surrender to His 
 mastery. He could so easily end the present con- 
 flict, but He waits that men may bring to Him 
 the allegiance of their lives, given of their own 
 glad, gracious, voluntary accord. He was a vol- 
 unteer Saviour. He longs for that love that is 
 the bubbling out of a free, full heart. 
 
 The best love is only given freely without any 
 compulsion of any sort, save only love's sweet 
 compelling. He wants what He gives — the best. 
 And so He waits, patiently waits just a bit longer. 
 This is the second bit of the answer. The long 
 delay spells out the hunger as well as the patience 
 of God's heart. The divine Husbandman is pa- 
 
 * II Peter iii. 8-9; Romans ii. 4; ix. 22; Revelation 
 ii. 21; I Peter iii. 20; II Peter iii. 15; Exodus xxxiv. 
 6-7. 
 
28 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 tiently waiting, and sending warm sun and soft 
 rains and fragrant dews while waiting.^ 
 
 " The Husbandman waiteth — 
 The Husbandman? Why? 
 For the heart of one servant 
 Who hears not His cry. 
 
 " The Husbandman waiteth — 
 He waiteth r What for? 
 For the heart of one servant 
 To love Him yet more. 
 
 " The Husbandman waiteth — 
 Long patience hath He — 
 But He waiteth in hunger — 
 Oh! Is it for thee?' 
 
 Taking with Your Life. 
 
 But — ah ! listen, there's a wonderful " but " to 
 put in here. But, while waiting He puts all His 
 limitless power at our disposal. If that simple 
 sentence could be put into letters of living flame, 
 its tremendous meaning might burn into our 
 hearts. When Paul piled up phrase on phrase 
 in his eager attempt to have his Asiatic friends 
 in and around Ephesus take in the limitless power 
 of the ascended Christ, he added the significant 
 words, " to the Church." ^ All that power is for 
 the use, and at the disposal, of the Church. 
 
 The Church was meant to be a unit in spirit 
 in loyalty to her absent Lord, wholly under the 
 dominating touch of the Holy Spirit, not only 
 
 * James v. 7. ' F. M. N. 
 
 • Ephesians i. 20-22. 
 
The Christ Crowned, the Fact 29 
 
 in her official actions, but in the lives of the in- 
 dividual members. If she were so, no human 
 imagination could take in the startling, revolu- 
 tionary power, softly, subtly, but with resistless 
 sweep, flowing down from the crowned Christ, 
 among grateful men. 
 
 Not being such a unit it is not possible that that 
 power shall be as great in manifestation as was 
 planned and meant. For no individual nor group 
 can ever take the place in action of the whole 
 unified body of believers, acting as a channel 
 for the power of the crowned Christ. That power 
 shall be realized on the earth only when the 
 Church is so unified, and at work, under the 
 reigning Christ, from the new headquarters up 
 in the heavens. 
 
 But meanwhile all of that power is at the dis- 
 posal of any disciple of Christ — the humblest — 
 who will simply live in full-faced touch with 
 Christ, and who will take of that power as the 
 need comes, and as the sovereign Holy Spirit 
 leads. 
 
 It is of this, this personal taking, that Paul is 
 speaking when he piles up that intense sentence : 
 " able to do exceeding abundantly above all that 
 we ask or think according to the power that work- 
 eth in us." ^ The great bother in Paul's day and 
 ever since, and now, is to get people to take. The 
 power is fairly a-tremble in the air at our very 
 finger-tips. And we go limping, crutching along 
 both bodily and mentally and in our spiritual 
 leanness. 
 
 * Ephesians iii. 20. 
 
30 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 Those tremendous words of Jesus, '' because 
 I go unto the Father," with the whole passage in 
 which they occur/ must be read in the light shin- 
 ing from the throne. Only so can they be under- 
 stood. But then, so read, they begin to grip us, 
 and grip us hard, as we see what He really meant 
 and means. 
 
 He who has the warm, child-like touch of heart 
 with Jesus, that the word " believeth " stands for, 
 shall — as the Holy Spirit has full control — do the 
 same works as Jesus did, same in kind and in 
 degree, and then shall do even greater than Jesus 
 ever did. Because it is now the glorified crowned 
 Christ who is doing them through some child 
 of His, simple-hearted enough to let Him have 
 full control. 
 
 And the means through which He will do them 
 is simple, child-like, trusting, humble prayer. The 
 man using the power is on his knees. The lower 
 down he gets the more and more freely the power 
 flows down and out among men. 
 
 As one learns to keep in touch — learns it 
 slowly, stumblingly, with many a stupid fall, and 
 many a tremble and quiver — as he learns to keep 
 in simple touch with the crowned Christ he will 
 find all the power of that Christ coming with a 
 soft surging throb of life wherever needed. We 
 may have all we can take. But the taking must 
 he with one's very life. No mere earnest repeat- 
 ing of a creed in Church service will avail here. 
 The repeating must be, syllable by syllable, with 
 feet and will, with hands and life, in the 
 
 *John xiv. 12-14. 
 
The Christ Crowned, the Fact 31 
 
 daily tread where each step is stubbornly 
 contested. 
 
 This is the bit of truth for the waiting time. 
 This is the song to be singing in this present 
 " not-yet " interval. And the song will help cut 
 down the length of that " not-yet/' until the fric- 
 tion of our lived faith shall wear off the " not " 
 and wipe out the '* yet," and we shall find the 
 crowned Christ a reigning Christ. 
 
 For some day this patient waiting crowned 
 Man will rise up from His seat at the Father's 
 right hand. He will step directly into the action 
 of earth once again. Man will have had his full- 
 est opportunity lengthened out to the last notch 
 ot his possible use of it. Then we shall see the 
 crowned Christ quietly stepping in, taking matters 
 wholly into His own hands, and acting in all the 
 affairs of earth as the Crowned One. Then He 
 shall reign from sea to sea, and from the Eu- 
 phrates out to where the ends of the earth be- 
 come a common line on the other side. The 
 Kingdom will have come, for the King will be 
 reigning. 
 
 The night will be gone. The day has come. 
 The shadows flee. He has come, whose pres- 
 ence puts the new day at dawn, with the East 
 all aflame, and the fragrant dew glistening gladly 
 on every tender green blade. This time of ex- 
 pectancy is over ; ^ the time of making real has 
 come. Then comes the restoration of the old 
 original love plan to earth and beast and man.- 
 
 * Hebrews x. 13. * Acts iii. 21. 
 
32 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 "Thou art coming, O my Saviour! 
 
 Thou art coming, O my King I 
 In thy glory all-transcendent; 
 In thy beauty all resplendent ; 
 
 Well may we rejoice and sing! 
 Coming I In the opening east, 
 
 Herald brightness slowly swells; 
 Coming, O my glorious Priest, 
 
 Hear we not thy golden bells? 
 
 " Thou art coming, Thou art coming ! 
 
 We shall meet Thee on Thy way, 
 We shall see Thee, we shall know Thee, 
 We shall bless Thee, we shall show Thee 
 
 All our hearts could never say! 
 What an anthem that will be, 
 Ringing out our love to Thee ; 
 Pouring out our rapture sweet 
 At Thine own all-glorious feet! 
 
 "Thou art coming! Rays of glory, 
 Through the veil Thy death has rent, 
 Touch the mountain and the river 
 With a golden glowing quiver. 
 
 Thrill of light and music blent. 
 Earth is brightened when this gleam 
 Falls on flower, rock, and stream; 
 Life is brightened when this ray 
 Falls upon its darkest day. 
 
 " Not a cloud and not a shadow, 
 
 Not a mist and not a tear, 
 Not a sin and not a sorrow. 
 Not a dim and veiled to-morrow, 
 
 For that sunrise grand and clear! 
 Jesus, Saviour, once with Thee, 
 
 Nothing else seems worth a thought! 
 Oh, how marvellous will be 
 
 All the bliss Thy pain hath bought ! 
 
The Christ Crowned, the Fact 33 
 
 " Thou art coming ! At Thy table. 
 
 We are witnesses of this, 
 While remembering hearts Thou meetest. 
 In communion clearest, sweetest. 
 
 Earnest of our coming bliss. 
 Showing not Thy death alone, 
 
 And Thy love exceeding great. 
 But Thy coming and Thy throne. 
 
 All for which we long and wait. 
 
 " Thou art coming ! We are waiting 
 
 With a hope that cannot fail; 
 Asking not the day or hour. 
 Resting on Thy word of power 
 
 Anchored safe within the veil. 
 Time appointed may be long, 
 
 But the vision must be sure; 
 Certainty shall make us strong, 
 
 Joyful patience can endure ! 
 
 " O the joy to see Thee reigning, 
 
 Thee, my own beloved Lord! 
 Every tongue Thy name confessing. 
 Worship, honor, glory, blessing, 
 
 Brought to Thee with glad accord I 
 Thee, my Master and my Friend, 
 
 Vindicated and enthroned! 
 Unto earth's remotest end 
 
 Glorified, adored, and owned ! * 
 
 Working by the Light of the Throne. 
 
 But we are still in the " not-yet " interval. We 
 see not yet all things subject to Him. This is 
 still the waiting time. It is the pleading time 
 for Him. He pleads for the personal crowning 
 of Himself in our lives, that He may reign there 
 
 * Frances Ridley Havergal. 
 
34 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 and He alone. This is our great opportunity. 
 We shall never see its like again, nor anywhere 
 else than on this earth. 
 
 In the reigning time that's coming this peculiar 
 opportunity of crowning Christ while He still is 
 absent and despised, this will be gone. In the 
 upper world they have no such opportunity. 
 There is no opposition there. Now and here is 
 the rarest opportunity to put this great waiting 
 patient Man on the throne of heart and life, 
 with possessions and ambitions and plans all in 
 subjection under His feet. 
 
 Every woman knows the name of Brussels 
 lace. The old capital of the low countries of 
 Europe has long been famous for its lace. It 
 is of great interest to note the conditions under 
 which it is sometimes made. They are condi- 
 tions studiously prepared after long experience. 
 In one of the famous lace factories in Brussels 
 there are a number of small rooms devoted to the 
 making of some of the most delicate patterns. 
 
 Each room is just large enough for a single 
 worker, and is quite dark except for one narrow 
 window. The worker sits so that the stream 
 of light falls from above directly upon the threads, 
 while he himself sits in the darkness. The dark- 
 ness aids the workman's eyes to see better, and to 
 work more skilfully in the narrow line of clear 
 light centred on the delicate task. He weaves 
 in the upper light intensified by the surrounding 
 gloom, and does exquisite work. 
 
 There is a clear line of light from a throne 
 shining down into the darkness in which we sit 
 
The Christ Crowned, the Fact 35 
 
 and move. It shines from the face of a crowned 
 Man. In the light of that Hght we can see clearly 
 to do a difficult bit of crowning work, — to crown 
 the Christ in our lives and to keep Him crowned. 
 
 As our eyes follow that line of upper light we 
 may catch glimpses of His wondrous Face up 
 there in the glory. So we shall be steadied and 
 cheered in the darkness as we stick to our glad 
 crowning work. And so we shall move forward 
 on the calendar the day when that thin line of 
 light seen now only by watching eyes shall be- 
 come a burst of glory light seen by all eyes. 
 
 And this is the thing the crowned Christ is 
 asking of us during this waiting time, this " not- 
 yet " interval. He is counting on each of us 
 being faithful to Him, our absent Lord, in this. 
 
 " He is counting on you. 
 He has need of your life 
 In the thick of the strife : 
 For that weak one may fall 
 H you fail at His call. 
 He is counting on you, 
 If you fail Him — 
 What then ? 
 
 "He is counting on you. 
 On your silver and gold, 
 On that treasure you hold; 
 On that treasure still kept, 
 Though the doubt o'er you swept 
 ' Is this gold not all mine? 
 (Lord, I knew it was Thine') 
 He is counting on you, 
 If you fail Him — 
 What then? 
 
26 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 "He is counting on you. 
 On a love that will share 
 In His burden of prayer, 
 For the souls He has bought 
 With His life-blood ; and sought 
 Through His sorrow and pain 
 To win ' Home ' yet again. 
 
 He is counting on you, 
 
 If you fail Him — 
 What then? 
 
 " He is counting on you. 
 
 On life, money, and prayer; 
 And * the day shall declare * 
 If you let Him have all 
 In response to His call; 
 Or if He in that day 
 To your sorrow must say, 
 * I had counted on you, 
 But you failed me ' — 
 What then ? 
 
 " He is counting on you. 
 
 Oh! the wonder and grace. 
 
 To look Christ in the face 
 
 And not be ashamed; 
 
 For you gave what He claimed, 
 
 And you laid down your all 
 
 For His sake — at His call. 
 He had counted on you, 
 And you failed not. 
 What then?"* 
 
 Ah! Please God, by His grace, we shall not 
 fail in the ruling purpose of our lives. We may 
 * Mrs. Bessie Porter Head. 
 
The Christ Crowned, the Fact 37 
 
 crown Him Lord of all. We can. He asks it. 
 We surely 2mlL 
 
 "With all my powers Him I greet, 
 All subject to His call; 
 And bowing low at His pierced feet 
 Now crown him Lord of all." 
 
II.— THE CROWN BOOK 
 
"All hail the power of Jesus' Name! 
 Let angels prostrate fall : 
 Bring forth the royal diadem, 
 And crown Him Lord of all. 
 
 " O that with yonder sacred throng 
 We at His feet may fall, 
 Join in the everlasting song 
 And crown Him Lord of all! 
 
 " With all my powers Him I greet, 
 All subject to His call; 
 And bowing low at His pierced feet, 
 Now crown Him Lord of all. 
 
 " I hail the power of Jesus' Name, 
 Before Him gladly fall, 
 Bring Him my own heart's diadem 
 And crown Him Lord of all ! " 
 
THE CROWN BOOK 
 
 The CroTvning Book. 
 
 There is a crown book in this old Book of 
 God, — the Revelation of John. It is the crown 
 book, the only one. It is the crown book of the 
 sixty-six in two senses. It is the capping climax 
 of the whole revelation of God's Word. It gath- 
 ers up into itself in a peculiar way the dominant 
 characteristics of both the Hebrew Old and the 
 Greek New Testaments. 
 
 And it is the book of the Crown. The King 
 is in action. He Himself gives the message of 
 the book to John. He is seen stepping forward 
 to take possession of His realm. Then He takes 
 possession. He dispossesses the pretender. He 
 reigns over the earth. The Revelation of John is 
 the Crown book. 
 
 This is the peculiarity of the Revelation in 
 comparison with all the other books. Only here 
 is Christ seen exercising His crown rights. From 
 end to end of the Old Testament pages. His com- 
 ing is looked forward to, with an eager longing 
 that grows in intensity as the national failure 
 grows ever worse. 
 
 In the Gospels He comes, but not as He was 
 expected. He is heralded as King, and claims 
 to be King. He has all the graciousness of a 
 
 4J 
 
42 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 King in ministering to the needs of the people, 
 and all the power of a King in His personal 
 touch. But He is rejected by the nation, and 
 goes to the Cross, yet still as a King, — a hu- 
 miliated, crucified King. 
 
 In the Acts He is the risen, glorified King 
 seated at the Father's right hand in glory, and 
 at work through His followers among men on 
 the earth. But it is always in the midst of sharp, 
 bitter opposition. In the Epistles He is seen 
 crowned at the Father's right hand, guiding and 
 teaching His followers who are still suffering 
 persecution. 
 
 But in the Revelation of John all this is 
 changed. There's a sharp, decided, advance step. 
 Here He is not only crowned, but stepping di- 
 rectly and decisively into the action of the earth 
 in the full exercise of His crowned rights and 
 power. It is peculiarly the book of the Crown, 
 the royal book, the enthroned Christ exercising 
 fully and freely at will His crown rights. 
 
 Jesus' Bosom Friend. 
 
 The book was written by John the disciple and 
 apostle. This is our same old friend John, whom 
 we met first that ever-memorable afternoon, down 
 by the Jordan River road, when he was intro- 
 duced to Jesus by the John of the deserts, and 
 had his first long, quiet talk with Him.^ The 
 friendship began that day, grew steadily, and 
 never flagged. It was one of the few friendships 
 
 * John i. 35-42. 
 
The Crown Book 43 
 
 that Jesus had that never knew any lapse nor 
 eclipse. 
 
 He became, in an outstanding sense, the bosom 
 friend of Jesus. Probably it was not because of 
 any special gentleness or amiability on John's part, 
 though he may have had something of these traits. 
 It was more likely because of the deep, intelligent 
 sympathy between the two, a sympathy not only 
 of personality, but deeper and stronger because 
 of a mental and spirit likeness growing up be- 
 tween them. It would seem likely that John de- 
 veloped a mental grasp, a spirit insight, a student 
 thoughtfulness, a steadiness of temperament, and 
 with these, a growing understanding of much — 
 at the least — much of Jesus' spirit and ideals and 
 vision. 
 
 It may quite be that all this came slowly, and 
 grew up out of the constant contact with Jesus, 
 and out of the warm personal love between the 
 two men ; quite likely. Who could live so close 
 to Jesus as he and not bear the marks on mind 
 and spirit? The fire that burned so fiercely 
 in early years ^ grew into a steady, unflickering 
 flame under the influence of that personal friend- 
 ship. 
 
 It seems not unlikely that John belonged to a 
 good family, and had his home in Jerusalem. He 
 was clearly on terms of easy intimacy at the 
 palace of the High Priest,- which in itself would 
 suggest his social standing in the city. It was to 
 this man that Jesus, on the Cross, committed the 
 care of His mother. And John accepted the 
 
 ' Luke ix. 54. * John xviii. 15-16. 
 
44 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 trust as a tender token of friendship, and took 
 Mary at once to his own home. And as Mary- 
 remained in Jerusalem at least some time, and 
 John clearly for a long time, the home was likely 
 there. 
 
 John was one of the chief leaders in Jerusa- 
 lem during the Pentecost days, and after. Peter 
 was the chief spokesman, but John was always 
 close by his side. The friendship between the 
 two seems to have been close and of long stand- 
 ing. They were sent together by the Master to 
 arrange for the supper that memorable betrayal 
 night,^ and they are seen together in the activi- 
 ties in Jerusalem for many years.^ 
 
 It would seem that in later years John left Jeru- 
 salem, and made his home for the remainder 
 of his life in Ephesus. Doubtless he was led, 
 after the years of leadership in the mother 
 Church, to leave the great Jew centre, and devote 
 his strength to missionary service in the outside 
 Gentile world. 
 
 Ephesus was the chief city of the province of 
 Asia, and the natural centre of the population 
 and life of the province. John probably worked 
 out from Ephesus, preaching throughout the 
 whole district; teaching, advising, praying with, 
 and visiting the groups of little Churches scat- 
 tered throughout the province, perhaps founding 
 some, and strengthening all. For his work seems 
 to have been, not so much evangelizing, but the 
 
 ^ Luke xxii. 8. 
 
 * Acts iii. I, 3, 4, II ; iv. 13, 19; viii. 14, 25; Galatians 
 ii. 9. 
 
The Crown Book 45 
 
 much more difficult work of teaching, patiently, 
 carefully, teaching ; a work so essential to the life 
 of any Church. So he would be quite familiar 
 with the Churches to which the Revelation letters 
 are sent, and would be well known by these peo- 
 ple and loved and revered by them as a father in 
 the faith. 
 
 This personal bit about John is of intensest 
 interest in studying this book of his. It was 
 to this man that Jesus could entrust the writing 
 of this special message. John could take in what 
 the Master was showing him as few, if any oth- 
 ers, could. The close, sympathetic friendship 
 made him able to take in what his old Friend 
 and Master is now telling him in the glory. And 
 he could give it out too, simply, fully, clearly, 
 just as it was given to him. 
 
 Love can see and grasp, and can obey sim- 
 ply, where mere mental keenness fails. There 
 is no tonic for the brain like love in the heart. 
 No brain ever does its best work, nor can, until 
 the heart is fired by some tender, noble passion. 
 It was to Mary Magdalene who had such reason 
 to love tenderly that Jesus showed Himself first 
 after the resurrection.^ 
 
 And it is to John, the bosom friend, whose 
 friendship stood the severest test where all others 
 failed, that He now shows Himself in glory, and 
 entrusts this pleading message, and vision of com- 
 ing events, and of the after glory. He that will- 
 eth to do the Master's will shall know surely 
 and clearly what that will is. And he that goeth 
 
 * Mark xvi. 9; John xx. i, 11-18. 
 
46 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 farther yet, and willeth to give the tenderest love 
 of his heart, ever kept at summer heat, shall knov^r 
 the Master Himself, in present personal touch, 
 and in clear and clearing understanding of His 
 coming victorious action and crowning glory. 
 
 John wrote a Gospel ; one chief Epistle, besides 
 the two very brief personal letters ; and this book 
 of the Revelation. The Gospel and Epistles were 
 quite likely written while in Ephesus. 
 
 The Gospel was his plea to all men to whom 
 it might come to accept Jesus as their personal 
 Saviour. Its characteristic word is *' believe." 
 And the plan of it is a simple array of incidents 
 about Jesus that would lead men to a warm, in- 
 telligent belief in Him. 
 
 The chief Epistle is written to the little groups 
 of believers scattered throughout Asia Minor, 
 and doubtless in the old home district of Judea, 
 too. Its characteristic word is " abide." It is 
 an intense plea, by a personal friend to abide, 
 steadily, fully, in Christ, in spite of the growing 
 defections and difficulties pressing in so close. 
 
 The Revelation was written, quite likely, on the 
 island of Patmos while all was yet fresh in his 
 mind ; or possibly in Ephesus after his release 
 from his island prison; or perhaps begun in 
 Patmos and put into its final shape in Ephesus. 
 It is written to the little groups of believers in 
 and near Ephesus. It is a most intense plea to 
 be personally true to the Lord Jesus in the midst 
 of subtle compromise and of bitter persecution. 
 
 Its characteristic word is " overcome." It 
 speaks much of the opposition to be encountered, 
 
The Crown Book 47 
 
 and tells of greater opposition yet to come, the 
 greatest ever known. And it pleads, with every 
 possible promise, and every warning of danger, 
 that the true believer set himself against the evil 
 tide, at every risk, and every possible personal 
 loss, and so that he " overcome " in the Name 
 of the Lord Jesus. 
 
 Old and New Woven Together. 
 
 The language in which the book is written is 
 of intense interest. It is so unusual. It com- 
 bines Hebrew thought and Greek speech. It is 
 as though a Hebrew soul were living in a Greek 
 body, and the soul has so dominated the body as 
 to make decided changes in it. The thought and 
 imagery, and the very words are largely taken 
 over from the Old Testament, much of it not 
 being found elsewhere in the New Testament. It 
 is as though the Old Testament reaches clear 
 over the intervening space and writes the last 
 book of the New as an additional book of the 
 Old, but with distinct additions. But all these 
 additions are outgrowths of what is already in 
 the Old. 
 
 But while the thought and imagery are He- 
 brew, the language is Greek. But scholars note 
 that John's Greek here is different from that 
 of his Gospel, and is indeed peculiar to itself, 
 with new grammatical adjustments, as though 
 better to express his Hebrew thought. Yet, like 
 the Gospel, it is an easy Greek to learn and to 
 understand. It is as though the Old Testament 
 
48 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 were the warp of a new bit of fabric, with the 
 New as the shuttle-threads, and yet with such 
 additions as makes the pattern stand out much 
 more definite and clear^ and the colours in it 
 more pronounced. Thus this end-book is a weav- 
 ing of both Old and New into a new bit of 
 fabric, but with a more distinct pattern than 
 either. 
 
 This explains the use of the symbolism which 
 is so marked here. The picture language of 
 John's Revelation has seemed very puzzling. It 
 has seemed like a new language, to which we had 
 neither grammar nor dictionary, and the intended 
 meaning of which we could only guess at. But 
 this is because we are Westerners and a bit set 
 in our western way. And possibly, too, though 
 we dislike to confess it, because we have not 
 gotten a clear, simple grasp of this old Book of 
 God as a whole. The Bible is an Oriental book, 
 written in the characteristic picture language of 
 the Orient. 
 
 The truth is that the symbol or picture 
 language is meant to make the book easier of 
 understanding. We simply need to learn how to 
 read picture language, not whimsically, but sensi- 
 bly according to the laws of picture language. The 
 symbolism or picture sees things as they look at 
 the moment the picture is taken. The picture 
 is meant to give one general distinct impres- 
 sion of the thing being presented, the details of 
 the picture being of value only as they give col- 
 oring to that one general impression. It is con- 
 cerned, not at all, or only in the most incidental 
 
The Crown Book 49 
 
 way, with the process by which the thing came 
 to the point pictured. 
 
 There is a rare wisdom in the use of this pic- 
 ture language. It is really the common language 
 not of the Orient merely, but of all the world. 
 In our western half of the globe it is the language 
 of the street, the common crowd, the common 
 exchange of life, and of children. It is the 
 language of the primitive peoples of all parts 
 of the world. Everywhere the conventionalized 
 book-language is spoken by the few. The pic- 
 ture, with its companion, the story, is the uni- 
 versal, the original, the natural language of the 
 race. 
 
 On the mere human side here is one secret 
 of the freshness of the Bible. It is the oldest 
 book in some of its parts, but admitted to be 
 the freshest and most modern in its adaptation 
 to modern life. And the reason is simple. The 
 pictures give principles. Principles don't change 
 with the changing of centuries. Rules change. 
 Principles abide. Details alter with every gen- 
 eration. Principles of action are as unchange- 
 able as human nature, which is ever the same, 
 east and west, below the equator, and above. 
 
 John's Revelation is naturally full of this pic- 
 ture language, for it is a gathering up of the 
 chief threads of the old Oriental Hebrew fabric. 
 It will help us understand the meaning if we keep 
 in mind the simple rules of this Hebrew picture 
 language. 
 
 John, of course, was a Hebrew, bom and 
 bred in a Hebrew home, and immersed in the old 
 
50 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 Hebrew Bible from the time of his mother's 
 milk. What Greek language and culture had 
 come was a bit of the outer world come into his 
 Hebrew home and life. Now in his old age the 
 early memory is asserting itself. 
 
 Then too it is quite likely that in his imprison- 
 ment he had been brooding anew over the old 
 prophecies, reviewing afresh events since the 
 resurrection of Jesus, — the growth of the Church, 
 and now the severe persecution, with himself a 
 prisoner. And while he in no way doubts the 
 unseen overruling Hand, yet he is seeking to get 
 a fresh outlook into the future from the old 
 prophetic writings. 
 
 And through all of this without doubt the 
 Holy Spirit was brooding in unusual measure 
 over this man, reviving early memory, bringing 
 to his remembrance all things of other days, 
 deepening impressions, bringing old facts into 
 new perspective, giving clearer vision, mellowing 
 and maturing both mind and heart into fresh 
 plastic openness to further truth. And so we 
 have this little book with its Hebrew soul and 
 its Greek body. 
 
 The meaning of all this is very simple, and yet 
 a meaning of intense significance. Here is 
 summed up the whole of the revelation of God's 
 Word. Here all the lines of Revelation meet. 
 Almost two thousand years of inspiration come 
 to a climax in this little end-book. Psalmist and 
 prophet, historian and law-giver, Gospel and 
 Epistle come to a final focus point in one simple 
 intense message. The purpose of the book is in- 
 
The Crown Book 51 
 
 tensely and only practical. Here is the message 
 of the whole Bible to Christ's people for this 
 present interval between the Ascension and the 
 next great step in our Lords world-plan. 
 
 Jesus' Plea to His Friends. 
 
 And the message is simply this : put to us with 
 all the intensity of the One who gave His very 
 life for us, it is this, — that we he personally true 
 to our Lord Jesus during His present absence. 
 This comes as His personal request, that, in sweet, 
 stem purity of life, in full glad obedience of 
 spirit, in tender freshness of personal devotion, 
 in holding absolutely everything, of talents and 
 position and possession, subject to His call, and 
 in keeping our eye ever open forward and up- 
 ward for His return, we be true to Him. 
 
 He is the Lamb slain. Only through His 
 blood is there salvation for any one. He is now 
 allowing man fullest opportunity before He comes 
 to set things right. This is the in-between time, 
 much lengthened out. In the midst of formal- 
 ism and subtle compromise, the tangling of ideas 
 and issues, and the blurring of vision within His 
 Church, He calls to His own blood-bought ones 
 to be true to Himself. 
 
 There's a terrific moral storm coming. Wick- 
 edness will wax to a worst never yet known. 
 Evil will be so aggressive, compromise so radical, 
 temptations so subtle and coming with such a 
 rush, and ideals of right so blurred and dimmed 
 in the glare of the lower lights, that even those 
 
52 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 of the inner circle will be sorely tried, and many 
 will be deceived. Just at the bursting of the 
 worst of the storm the crowned Christ will ap- 
 pear. He will come on the clouds before all 
 eyes, take away His own out of the storm, then 
 clear the storm by His own touch, and begin 
 the new order of things. 
 
 The test coming will be terrific. He knows it. 
 And his knowledge makes His plea intense that 
 we be true to Himself, our beloved, crucified, 
 crowned Lord, utterly regardless of consequences 
 to ourselves. So we shall " overcome by the 
 blood of the Lamb," and be joined with Him in 
 closest intimacy during His coming reign over 
 the earth. 
 
 There is a striking thing told us at the very 
 outset of the book ; — it is a revelation. That is, 
 it is something revealed directly by God. It is 
 the only book of the Bible of which we are told 
 plainly and directly that it is a revelation. 
 
 It is not that the other books do not have the 
 same inspirational characteristic. But our at- 
 tention is explicitly called to the fact that this 
 one is, in its entirety, a direct revelation; and 
 not only so, but it is a revelation given directly 
 by God to the Lord Jesus, and given in person by 
 Him to John. This is significant. It marks out 
 the message of the book as of the utmost mean- 
 ing and importance. 
 
 This suggests a need. And the need of some- 
 thing of the sort is plain enough, if one think 
 into it. Already in John's day there was a dis- 
 tinct break-away from the simplicity and purity 
 
The Crown Book 53 
 
 of the Gospel, both in the Church and in the lives 
 of professed Christians. The messages to the 
 Churches of Pergamum and Thyatira and Sardis 
 show clearly that there had already begun a 
 rubbing out of the sharp line of distinction be- 
 tween the Church and the world. The world 
 spirit was — not creeping in, but — walking boldly 
 into the life of the Church. 
 
 It is striking to note the thing that leads John 
 to write his First Epistle, that is, the alarming 
 conditions among Christ's followers. The spirit 
 of compromise seems seeping in at every crevice. 
 And worse yet, the spirit of Antichrist, that 
 makes such a savage attack on Jesus, on the 
 deity of His person, and the atoning significance 
 of His death, this was openly at work among 
 them.^ These conditions, so familiar to those 
 who first read his little Epistle, are the con- 
 tinual underscoring of His intense plea for 
 abiding. 
 
 It is most significant that Jude's intense flame- 
 like Epistle talks entirely about conditions with- 
 in Church circles. Run through it again with 
 this fact fresh in mind, and the significance of 
 it stands out in a startling way. Peter's Second 
 Epistle reveals the same sort of an atmosphere 
 seeping in among the groups of disciples to 
 whom he writes. Not only was there doubt and 
 confusion about the meaning of the prophetic 
 teachings, but even a sneering and mocking at 
 the teaching about the second coming of our 
 Lord. 
 
 *I John ii. 18-29; iv. 1-6. 
 
54 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 These are a few indications of how things were 
 in the Church generally before the first century 
 had closed. It was a time of confusion and com- 
 promise. The air was tense. The need was 
 critical. It would seem that if ever our Lord 
 would give a simple direct revelation afresh, to 
 His people, it would be in just such circum- 
 stances. And it reveals to us at once how 
 grave things looked to His eyes, and how much 
 depended on His followers having a clear under- 
 standing of how things would work out, that our 
 Lord Jesus does do just this thing, — send a di- 
 rect revelation that would meet just such a 
 need. 
 
 More Alike than Different. 
 
 It is most striking that the conditions of the 
 Church then and to-day are so much alike. The 
 line between Church and world is either badly 
 blurred, or quite wiped out. And this one fact 
 throws a flood of light upon Church conditions. 
 Within the Church, when it comes to the matter 
 of what its real purpose of being is, and what the 
 essentials of faith, the lines are hopelessly 
 crossed and tangled, even though the surface 
 shows so much striving toward at least a seem- 
 ing unity, and so much aggressiveness in action. 
 The common absence of real spiritual power, 
 that unmistakable moving, like a breath, of the 
 Spirit of God, is freely admitted. 
 
 It is a painful fact that membership in a 
 Church no longer gives any clue to a man's vital 
 belief, nor even to his moral conduct. There is 
 
The Crown Book 55 
 
 utter confusion about the practical meaning of 
 God's prophetic Word, and what the actual 
 outcome of the present order will be; that is, 
 where such things are not quite dismissed from 
 consideration. And, stranger yet, indifference, 
 or an actual repugnance, to any mention of the 
 Lord's return is the common thing. It is not 
 surprising that earnest people are bewildered 
 as to just what should be the attitude of one 
 who would ring true to the absent Jesus. It 
 hurts to remember that all this is the freely ad- 
 mitted commonplace, where such things are se- 
 riously spoken of. 
 
 Indeed it is of intense interest to note that just 
 this sort of thing has marked the whole interval 
 since these early Church days. Broadly the same 
 characteristics have marked both world move- 
 ment and the Church movement in this long 
 interval. There is a unity characterizing the age 
 since our Lord ascended. There have been dif- 
 ferences, very sharp and marked, but always they 
 have been differences in degree, now more in- 
 tense, now less. The general characteristics have 
 been the same in kind. 
 
 The need of the Church in the end of the first 
 century is its need in the beginning of the twen- 
 tieth. Surely the thing of all things needed is 
 a simple, clear, understandable revelation direct 
 from our Lord Jesus Himself. It was needed 
 then. Clearly it has been needed in every gen- 
 eration since then. And one whose pulse is at 
 all sensitive to spirit conditions to-day feels that 
 surely it is the thing needed now. 
 
$6 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 And here it is, a revelation of Himself, 
 crowned in the upper world, keeping in closest 
 touch with things down in this world, telling us 
 what the outcome is to be, and especially speak- 
 ing of our attitude toward Himself in this present 
 in-between interval. 
 
 Usually God's method with man is to give him 
 enough of a revelation of Himself in nature, and 
 in His Word, to start him straight, and guide 
 him as he goes to school with himself as chief 
 pupil, with all of nature to find out and develop, 
 and so to get mastery both of himself and of 
 nature and its forces. We recognize this as 
 the best school-teacher method for good self- 
 development. 
 
 But here something more seems needed. The 
 situation down on the earth has gotten badly 
 mixed up. Even though Jesus has been on the 
 earth, and has died, and has sent down the Holy 
 Spirit in such irresistible power, the situation in 
 the world, and among His disciples, has gotten so 
 subtly tangled and intense, the enemy is so 
 viciously and cunningly at work, that only one 
 thing will meet the need, — a revelation, a simple, 
 direct, warm revelation given us personally by 
 the Lord Jesus Himself. And here it is in this 
 little end-book, with its vision of the glorified 
 Jesus, its pleading heart-cry to His followers, and 
 its simple but tremendous outlook into the fu- 
 ture. 
 
 It would not be surprising if such a book should 
 be made the subject of special attack by the evil 
 one. It is not surprising, though it is deeply 
 
The Crown Book 57 
 
 grievous, that the common idea about this book 
 among Christian people is that it is a sort of a 
 puzzle, that it is impossible to get a simple, clear, 
 workable understanding of its message. Parts of 
 it are conned over tenderly and loved, a para- 
 graph here, a verse there, and so on, but a grasp 
 of the one simple message of the book seems not 
 common, to put it mildly. No book of the sixty- 
 six has seemed so much like a riddle to which 
 no one knew the answer. And without doubt the 
 full meaning of much will be quite clear only as 
 events work themselves out. Events will be the 
 best exposition of certain parts. But these parts, 
 be it keenly noted, are not essential to the grasp 
 of the whole message. God is intensely 
 practical. Jesus was too intent on helping peo- 
 ple to be otherwise than practical. He hasn't 
 changed. He is too tremendously wrapped up 
 in the outworking of His plans. The Bible is 
 wholly a practical book. And this crowning end 
 of it is intensely and only practical. It is with 
 the clear conviction that it is entirely possible to 
 get the simple grasp of it that shall steady our 
 steps, and clear our understanding, and feed our 
 personal devotion to the absent Jesus, our blessed 
 Lord, that these few simple quiet talks have been 
 put together. 
 
 Doing Leads to Understanding. 
 
 The outline of the book is very simple. After 
 the brief introduction^ and personal greeting,^ 
 * Revelation i. 1-3. ' Revelation i. 4-8. 
 
58 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 there comes the wondrous vision of the glorified 
 Jesus, and His personal message to John.^ He 
 is the Living One, v^ho became dead for a great 
 purpose, and is now Hving, never to die again. 
 He is seen walking quietly among the groups of 
 his followers, with eyes of flame, and heart of 
 love, keeping watch over these, His empowered 
 witnesses on earth. 
 
 And He tells John that he is to write to the 
 groups of his followers a threefold message, 
 a description of Himself as just now seen by 
 John, a description of affairs in these Churches 
 as seen by His own eyes, and an account of 
 the things that are going to happen on the 
 earth. 
 
 Then follows this description of the Churches. 
 It is in a sevenfold personal message to His 
 followers on the earth. ^ Then the vision of 
 Himself in heaven as He steps directly into the 
 action of the earth to take possession of His 
 crown domain.^ Then comes the account of 
 coming happenings. It is a sevenfold view of a 
 terrific moral storm on the earth, that will follow 
 this advance step of His in the heavens. It is so 
 terrific and includes so much, that it is possible 
 to get a clear view of it and its sweep only by 
 looking, now at this feature of it, and now at 
 this; now from this angle of vision, and now 
 from this other. 
 
 It is the final contesting of Christ's crown 
 claim as He steps forward to assert it ; the final 
 
 * i. 9-20. " Chapters ii. and iii. 
 
 ' Chapters iv. and v. 
 
The Crown Book 59 
 
 outburst of evil unrestrainedly storming itself 
 out. And it is the clearing-up storm, too. There 
 is ever the shining of a clear light just beyond 
 the outer rim of the terrible blackness of the 
 storm clouds. This takes up the greater part 
 of the little book, including chapter six, to the 
 close of chapter eighteen. 
 
 And then there is given briefly the actual com- 
 ing to earth in glory of the crowned Christ;^ 
 the new order of things under His personal 
 reign ; ^ a final crisis ; ^ and then in a vision of 
 wondrous winsomeness, God and men are seen 
 dwelling together as one reunited family, though 
 still with a sad burning reminder of the old sin- 
 rebellion as part of the picture.* And the book 
 closes with personal paragraphs to John and to 
 the groups of Churches.^ 
 
 Another of the striking things peculiar to 
 this book is the personal plea that it be read 
 and lived up to. At the very front-door step as 
 one starts in he is met full in the face with this : 
 " Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear, 
 (or give careful heed to) the words of the 
 prophecy, and keep the things that are written 
 therein." « 
 
 Here at the very outset is a plea, made to 
 each one into whose hands the little book may 
 come, for a reading, and a careful thinking into, 
 and then, yet more, a bringing of the whole 
 life up to the line of what is found here. 
 The blessing of God will rest peculiarly 
 
 * xix. i-xx. 3, ^ XX. 4-6. * XX. 7-15. 
 
 * xxi. i-xxii. 5. ' xxii. 6-21. ' i. 3- 
 
6o About the Crowned Christ 
 
 upon him who heeds this threefold plea. 
 That man is moving in the line of the plan of 
 God. 
 
 A little past the midway line of the book, all 
 at once, abruptly, in the thick of terrible happen- 
 ings being told, an unexpected voice comes. 
 Clearly it is the Lord Jesus Himself speaking. It 
 is as though He were standing by all the time 
 throughout all these pages, watching with a sleep- 
 less concern. Now He speaks out. Listen: 
 ** Blessed is he that watcheth/' that keepeth ever 
 on the alert against the subtle temptations, and 
 the compromise that fills the very air, " and 
 keepeth his garments; " ^ sleeplessly, kneefully, 
 takes care that no breath of evil get into his heart, 
 no taint of compromise stain his life, no suspicion 
 of lukewarmness cool his personal devotion to 
 the absent Jesus. 
 
 And again, doing sentinel duty at the rear-end, 
 is the same plea. *' Blessed is he that keepeth the 
 words of the prophecy of this book." - Reading, 
 heeding, obeying, watching, living up to, this is 
 the earnest plea peculiar to this book. Clearly 
 our Lord Jesus desires earnestly that it be read. 
 And He expects us to understand it. And He 
 pleads with us to live in the light of what He 
 tells us here. 
 
 He that willeth to do shall know what he ought 
 to do. He that doeth the thing he does know 
 will know more. And that more done will open 
 the door yet wider into all the fragrance of a 
 strongly obedient life, and into a clear and 
 
 ^ xvi. 15. ' xxii. 7. 
 
The Crown Book 6i 
 
 clearing understanding of the Lord Jesus Him- 
 self. 
 
 He that brings his life bit by bit up to the level 
 of the earnest plea of this special revelation, as 
 bit by bit it opens to him, will find his under- 
 standing of it wonderfully clearing. Obedience is 
 the organ of understanding. Through it there 
 comes clear grasp of the truth. 
 
 A single recent illustration of this comes from 
 Korea, that land that gives us so much of the 
 romance of missions, as well as so much of its 
 pathos. Dr. James S. Gale, of Seoul, tells of a 
 Korean who had travelled some hundred miles 
 to confer with him about Christian things. He 
 recited to Dr. Gale the whole of the Sermon 
 on the Mount without slip or error. After 
 this surprising feat of memory, the mission- 
 ary said gently that memorizing was not 
 enough; the truth must be practised in daily 
 life. 
 
 To his surprise the Korean quietly said: 
 ** That's the way I learned to memorize. I tried 
 to memorize, but it wouldn't stick. So I hit upon 
 this plan ; I would memorize a verse, then find a 
 heathen neighbour and practise the verse on him. 
 Then I found it would stick." 
 
 That's the rule for understanding this revela- 
 tion of Jesus through John, as well as all of this 
 inspired Word of God. This rule simply, faith- 
 fully, followed will open up this little end-book 
 which to many has seemed a sealed book. He 
 that " keepeth the things " that are written here 
 will find these pages opening to his eyes. He 
 
62 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 that liveth the truth he does understand will 
 understand more and better, and so live in the 
 wondrous power of it, and in the sweet presence 
 of Him who gives it to us. 
 
III.— A SIGHT OF THE 
 CROWNED CHRIST 
 
Since mine eyes were fixed on Jesus, 
 I've lost sight of all beside, 
 
 So enchained my spirit's vision. 
 Looking at the Crucified." 
 
 " The Lord Christ passed my humble cot : 
 I knew him, yet I knew him not; 
 But as I oft had done before, 
 I hurried through my narrow door 
 To touch His garment's hem. 
 
 "He drew me to a place apart 
 From curious crowd and noisy mart; 
 And as I sat there at His feet 
 I caught the thrill of His heart-beat 
 Beyond His garment's hem. 
 
 "Rare was the bread He broke for me, 
 As wine the words He spoke to me — 
 New life surged in, the old life died . . . 
 I cannot now be satisfied 
 To touch His garment's hem." * 
 
 * William Norris Burr. 
 
A SIGHT OF THE CROWNED 
 CHRIST 
 
 (Revelation, Chapter i.) 
 Transfigured by a Look. 
 
 No one ever had a sight of Christ's face and 
 forgot. No one ever gets a sight of Him and 
 gets over it. He is never the same man after 
 that. He doesn't want to be the same. 
 
 A look into the face of Christ is transforming. 
 You see Him; and you can never be the man 
 you have been and be content. A change comes. 
 You want a change. You must have it. This 
 longing is the beginning of the deeper change. 
 You can never be content again with being the 
 man you have been. 
 
 It has always been so. It always will be so. 
 For this is the natural thing. In the dawning 
 twilight of Eden God looked into the face of the 
 man he had fashioned. He drew very close to 
 him, close enough to breathe his own breath into 
 his face. And the man looked out into God's face, 
 and took on God's likeness. So he became his 
 own real self, as originally planned. 
 
 But while man was yet young, sin looked him 
 in the face. And the man looked at sin with an 
 evil longing look. And in that look he took m 
 65 
 
66 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 some of what he saw. He was marred. The 
 God image was hurt. He was not the same man. 
 And he knew it. He felt it. His eyes were 
 never the same after that exchange of looks with 
 sin. 
 
 But God helped him. He didn't go away. He 
 came closer for the sake of the sin-hurt eyes. 
 And whenever man has looked into that won- 
 drous God-face, even though seeing dimly and 
 indistinctly, something within him makes a great 
 bound. He recognizes the original of his own 
 natural self. And he catches fire at the sight A 
 holy discontent springs up within. 
 
 ** Couldst thou in rision see 
 
 Thyself the man God meant, 
 Thou never more couldst be 
 The man thou art — content'* 
 
 But you have to see Jesus as He was in His. 
 humanity to see yourself the man God meant. 
 And you have to see Jesus as He is now to see 
 the God who meant you to be like Himself. 
 
 It has always been so. This has been God's 
 simple method with men He would use. He has 
 wooed and then wooed more, and a bit longer, 
 gently, persistently, up and away and apart 
 until at last the man's eyes were trained away 
 from the lower glare enough to see the real 
 things. 
 
 Then in some vision of the night, whose dark- 
 ness helped hold back the lower earth lights, 
 God has looked a man in the face once again. Or, 
 perhaps in open day there came to him that 
 
A Sight of the Crowned Christ 67 
 
 which he could not describe. But in his inner 
 spirit he knew there was One with him whom 
 yet his outer eyes could not see, but who could 
 not be more real if his outer eyes did see. 
 
 And in that presence there was a mingling of 
 exquisite tenderness and of limitless power that 
 was overawing. Inconceivable purity and yet 
 such an unspeakable graciousness seemed blended 
 in this presence. And the man seeing was melted 
 in his innermost being with the sense of tender- 
 ness, and bowed in awe to the lowest dust in 
 the sense of overwhelming power. Those who 
 have seen will understand how poor the words 
 are to tell the story. And those who have 
 not may wonder a bit until they, too, have 
 seen. 
 
 Some Transfigured Men. 
 
 This it was that transformed that man of the 
 early dawnlight named Enoch, the seventh from 
 Adam. He was the head of the leading family of 
 the race, the racial leader. He had lived well on 
 into the seventh decade of his life. 
 
 Then the change came. He recognized a 
 Presence with him, one day. That One unseen 
 by unseeing eyes became real to him and then 
 more real. He yielded to His wooing. He com- 
 panioned with Him daily. This came to be the 
 realest thing. And he was transformed by it. 
 He grew constantly less like what he had been, 
 and more like what he was originally meant to 
 be, like his Companion. Constant contact re- 
 
68 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 stored the original likeness. He was trans- 
 formed before men's eyes, changed over from 
 within. 
 
 Then one day the transforming forces had 
 gone so far that he was transferred to the upper 
 levels, where all see His face, and his likeness 
 shines out of all faces. He never got over the 
 sight that came to him that early day. 
 
 It was this that wooed the man of Ur away 
 from his ancestral home to be a lonely pilgrim, a 
 stranger among strangers. Nothing less or else 
 could have broken the early attachments, the 
 strongest of the East. That winsome wooing 
 Presence became to him stronger than the strong- 
 est human attachments of his family and home 
 land. 
 
 This it was that steadied him through the 
 loneliness, the homelessness, the disappoint- 
 ments, the long delays, until it was the image of 
 a new man, a transformed man, a faith-begotten 
 man, that at length looked at him out of the eyes 
 of his only begotten. This it was that steadied 
 him through the hardest test of all with that 
 only begotten, the fire test on Moriah. And that 
 made the transformation yet fuller. For so he 
 grew the liker him to whose presence he insisted 
 on yielding as each test came. 
 
 So it was with that rare student of Egypt and 
 Arabia. Trained in the best that man could give 
 in the University of the Nile, and then further 
 trained by absence from man in the University 
 of the Desert, alone with sheep and stars, shift- 
 ing sand and immovable rock, he wasn't ready for 
 
A Sight of the Crowned Christ 69 
 
 his task yet. He was well trained but not yet 
 transformed. 
 
 The fires had to be kindled, purifying, melt- 
 ing, fusing fires. And only fire kindles fire. The 
 fire of the unburnt bush told him first of a new 
 kind of fire, uncatalogued on the Nile. The fire 
 of a Presence burned daily, not consuming him, 
 but only the dross in him, as he led his race 
 from Egypt to Sinai, out from the slavery of men 
 up to the freedom of the presence of God. And 
 then for six weeks, twice over, he was in the 
 Presence of Flame on the Mount. 
 
 This it was that utterly changed him into the 
 strongly gentle, patient, tender-hearted, wise man 
 who taught and trained, lived with and led, the 
 immature men and women whom God would 
 weld into a nation, a God-nation. He never got 
 over those two long visits to the Mount, nor has 
 the world. 
 
 It was nothing else than this, long years later, 
 that made the rugged man of the deserts brave 
 the traitorous Ahab in his luxurious, licentious 
 court. Without it, the sight obscured, the vision 
 lost, he is a coward fleeing like a whipped dog 
 before a bad woman, thinking only of saving 
 his own skin. It showed himself, his weak, 
 cowardly self, to himself. 
 
 A fresh vision that early morning in the mouth 
 of the desert cave made the yet deeper more 
 radical transformation. That unutterably gentle 
 sound of stillness, too exquisite to be told, only 
 to be felt by a spirit in tune, that left him not a 
 whit less willing to brave danger than before, 
 
70 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 but made over now into another sort, like him 
 whose Presence in the cave so melted him down. 
 
 This new, gentled, mellowed, strengthened Eli- 
 jah reappears in the man who received the birth- 
 right portion of his spirit. We know the new 
 Elijah by the spirit that swayed Elisha. The old 
 spirit, fiercely denouncing, calling down fire, 
 slaying the priests, but with no grief-broken heart 
 under these stern needful things, — this we think 
 of familiarly as the Elijah spirit. 
 
 The new spirit, healing, teaching, sympathizing, 
 leading, feeding, fathering, the greatness of gen- 
 tleness and patience, these characteristics of Eli- 
 jah's prophetic heir tell of the deep radical trans- 
 formation by the wondrous unseen Presence that 
 early morning in the mouth of the cave. This is 
 the birthright gift of Elijah to Elisha. Elijah 
 had a spirit-sight of God, and he never got over 
 it. He became like Him into whose face he 
 looked. 
 
 Heart Stimulant for the Brain. 
 
 But time fails, and words fail immensely more, 
 to tell this thing. Let him who would know that 
 transforming sight get quietly alone with Isaiah 
 in the temple, and on bent knees linger unhur- 
 riedly, and listen, and watch, and breathe out his 
 prayer, and strongly wait until something of 
 the same brooding Presence be discerned that 
 transformed this young Hebrew messenger of 
 God. 
 
 Then let him get alone with the Moses of the 
 
A Sight of the Crowned Christ 71 
 
 New Testament. For there is no man who was 
 so utterly transformed, and so quickly, as the 
 man on the Damascus road. The whole course 
 of his character and life was radically changed 
 as by a lightning touch. This is the most strik- 
 ing illustration of all. No man so reveals in him- 
 self the tremendous transforming power there 
 is in the sight of the Christ as does this high- 
 strung son of the Hebrew race. 
 
 But — words are such lame things. They can- 
 not tell the story here. They are all one has 
 to use. Yet they'll never be understood except 
 as the light of experience shines upon them. 
 When any one attempts to talk of such a thing as 
 this of seeing God or Christ, his words seem so 
 poor and lame and under the mark by the man 
 who has had something of the vision. And they 
 either are meaningless and uninteresting, or else 
 they seem overstated, and quite beyond the mark 
 to one who has had no inkling in experience of 
 the thing itself. 
 
 I recall distinctly the experience of a Danish 
 friend in Copenhagen. She had been trying to 
 read in English a certain devotional book, but 
 said she couldn't seem to grasp the meaning of 
 the English words. They eluded her, and so the 
 book didn't help her much. 
 
 Then she went through a time of sore stress 
 of spirit In the sickness and death of her mother. 
 A new experience of the nearness of God came 
 to her. And then happening — as it seemed — to 
 pick up the English book again she was amazed 
 and delighted to find how much better and more 
 
72 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 quickly she knew the words and sensed the mean- 
 ing. 
 
 It is only as the heart is fired that the brain 
 awakens. Experience gives the meaning to lan- 
 guage. Without experience it is a dead language 
 in meaning even though it be one's own mother 
 tongue. Only the man who has caught some- 
 thing of the vision of Christ's face can under- 
 stand the strong words used in talking of such 
 a vision. 
 
 It is most striking to notice that even when 
 the glory of God's presence was hidden beneath 
 human wrappings in Jesus it still could be felt. 
 Men felt that presence though they knew not 
 just what it was they felt, nor why. When the 
 glory came yet closer in the coming of Jesus, it 
 must be well covered up for the sake of men's 
 eyes, that they might not go blind at once; but 
 its power of attraction could not be wholly hid. 
 
 So really human was Jesus in the outer cir- 
 cumstance of His life that His brothers of the 
 home couldn't believe he was essentially differ- 
 ent from themselves. But the attraction of that 
 presence was felt constantly even through the 
 human hiding of it. 
 
 John of the Wilderness instinctively recog- 
 nized that here was more than the man he saw, 
 and so obeyed His word. The crowds gathered 
 eagerly in the Jordan bottoms in even greater 
 numbers than to hear John, drawn by a power 
 they felt they must yield to, and did yield to 
 gladly. 
 
 From the first the crowds gathered thick about 
 
A Sight of the Crowned Christ 73 
 
 Him, Jewish aristocrat, Samaritan half-breed 
 and sinful outcast jostling elbows in their eager- 
 ness to hear, drawn by a power they could feel, 
 but could not understand any more than they 
 could withstand it. The children loved his pres- 
 ence and touch. 
 
 The bad in life were as resistlessly drawn up 
 to a new life as the Greeks were drawn from 
 clear beyond the blue waters of the Hellespont 
 into His presence. The crowds were irresist- 
 ibly drawn to follow on that last eventful 
 journey to Jerusalem even while they felt 
 " afraid." 
 
 It was the sight of the glory on the Mount 
 that drew faithful John in with Jesus, and held 
 him steady that awful night in palace and court- 
 yard, and that later brought poor blasphemous 
 Peter back for forgiveness. The two walking to 
 Emmaus found their hearts all aflame, though 
 they supposed it was only the chance stranger 
 of the roadway they listened to. 
 
 Even those who hated Him were compelled to 
 recognize the wondrous power of His presence. 
 The Nazareth hands that itched to seize Him 
 were restrained by His presence as He passed 
 through their midst. Ten times did the Jeru- 
 salem crowds attempt his life, and ten times were 
 they restrained by a power in Him that they 
 could neither understand nor withstand. 
 
 The men officially empowered to arrest Him 
 return empty-handed, confessing the overawing 
 power of His words. That last week the leaders 
 that were hotly plotting His death felt the strange 
 
74 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 restraint of His presence while He quietly sat 
 in their very midst, and swayed the crowds. 
 
 In the garden soldiers and priests alike were 
 felled to the ground by the power of His pres- 
 ence. So it always has been. No one has ever 
 had a sight of that Face, and gotten used to it, 
 or gotten over it. 
 
 A Fresh Vision Needed. 
 
 But the thing we are specially needing to-day 
 is a sight of Christ as He is now. It seems a 
 bit strange that we don't get this more. One his- 
 toric Church has Him fastened to a cross, never 
 freed from the old fastenings. Another has Him 
 set in picture frame, behind glass. And the mul- 
 titudes prostrate themselves and reverently kiss 
 the glass. 
 
 In widely differing Churches He seems quite 
 covered up out of sight by classical ritual, beau- 
 tiful music, and impressive stately service. The 
 crowds gather and listen and bow low in hushed 
 stillness. But, apparently, Him they see not, else 
 how different their conduct as they come out, and 
 their lives. 
 
 And yet as I have mingled with the worship- 
 pers in Catholic Churches in the south of Europe, 
 in Greek Churches in Russia, and in congrega- 
 tions of the Church of England classed as " high," 
 I have been caught by faces here and there in the 
 crowd that clearly were reaching out hungrily 
 for Him, and were having some sort, some real 
 sort, of touch with Him, too. Yet it seemed to be 
 
A Sight of the Crowned Christ 75 
 
 in spite of surroundings. The insistence of their 
 hunger pierces through these to Him. He seems 
 hidden from the crowd by them. 
 
 Scholarly orthodox theologians talk learnedly 
 about Him, but Himself as He walked among us 
 and as He is now, Him it would seem that they 
 see not, at least not enough to burn through and 
 burn out and burn up and send men out aflame 
 with the Jesus-passion. Philosophies about Him 
 that are classed as " liberal " and put attractively, 
 yet have nothing of the burn in them that reveals 
 Himself. 
 
 The more modern Church of the more west- 
 em world seems to have gotten a new lease of 
 aggressiveness in service, a new intensity in ac- 
 tivities so numerous as to be a bit bewildering 
 sometimes. The wheels whir busily and noisily. 
 You feel them. But Him, the unseen presence 
 that makes you reverently wrap your face up 
 out of sight, and stand with awed heart to listen, 
 Him we seem not to see. 
 
 The wondrous quiet Voice that makes your 
 heart burn within you with a burning that 
 cleanses and mellows and melts down, that we 
 seem to hear only by getting away from the noise 
 of the whirring wheels into some quiet corner. 
 
 There are in every Church and nation those 
 who seem to have the close personal touch with 
 Himself. Their faces and daily lives show the 
 marks. Their lips may not say so much, for they 
 who see most can say least of what they see. But 
 the marks in the life are unmistakable. 
 
 Yet even here the sight of Christ emphasizes 
 
76 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 chiefly the personal side, what He is personally 
 to them. And what a blessed side that is only 
 they who know it know. They think of Him as 
 a personal Saviour, and the heart glows. They 
 see Him at the Father's right hand interceding, 
 and gratefully remember that He will forget no 
 name where there is a trusting heart. They think 
 of the Holy Spirit, the other Jesus, Jesus' other 
 self, always "alongside to help," alongside in- 
 side. And they practise letting Him work out the 
 Christ-likeness within themselves. 
 
 And all this is blessed, only blessed. They see 
 Him in His personal relation to themselves. But 
 there's something more than this. No one knew 
 more of this blessed personal part than John. 
 But John saw more than this on Patmos. He saw 
 Christ as He is now. 
 
 This is clearly a new sight of Christ. It was 
 new to John. It would seem to be new to us. 
 It is new in the pages of this book. It is some- 
 thing dififerent from any sight seen before. In 
 the Gospels we see Jesus the Man. In carpenter 
 shop and little whitewashed stone cottage, in the 
 ministering life clear from the Jordan bottoms to 
 the healing touch at Gethsemane's gate, and in 
 the suffering clear up to the ninth hour of that 
 fateful day He is the Man, one of ourselves, 
 though clearly more even in His humanity than 
 the humanity we are. 
 
 On the Transfiguration Mount the favoured 
 inner three, the leaders, see the glory within 
 shining out through the Man. So bewildered are 
 they that the chief impression that remains is of 
 
A Sight of the Crowned Christ 77 
 
 a blinding brightness. Yet this is up on a high 
 mountain far away from the crowd, and from 
 the haunts of men. 
 
 As Stephen is being stoned his eyes are opened 
 to see the Son of Man standing in glory up at the 
 Father's right hand. The Damascus traveller 
 sees an overpowering burst of glory out of the 
 blue and hears a voice speaking. In the epistles 
 Paul pictures Him seated at the Father's right 
 hand with an authority greater than any other. 
 All the power He has is placed at the disposal of 
 His followers on the earth. He Himself is above 
 in the glory.^ 
 
 But in this very end of the Book John is given 
 a new sight of Christ. He sees Him as He is 
 now. That is to say, this is the sight of Christ 
 as He is now characteristically . It is the distinct- 
 ive sight that stands out above all these others. 
 
 He is at one's right hand in closest personal 
 relation, through His Holy Spirit. He is at the 
 Father's right hand in glory waiting expectantly 
 till the time is ripe for the next direct move on 
 the earth. But there's more than these. There's 
 a sight of Him that overshadows these. It is 
 the characteristic sight that lets us see Him as 
 He is peculiarly now in His relation to affairs on 
 the earth. 
 
 Christ as He Is Now. 
 
 This new sight of Christ is the heart and soul 
 of this crowning book, this end-book of the Book. 
 * Notably Ephesians i. 20-23. 
 
78 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 It was out of this sight that this end-book 
 grew. It is written wholly under the spell of 
 this new sight of Christ. It is a revelation both 
 of Jesus Christ and by Jesus Christ; first of, 
 then by. 
 
 John begins his story by telling that he had 
 gotten such a revelation, and of the special bless- 
 ing attached to reading and fitting one's life to it.^ 
 Then foUows his salutation to those for whom 
 the revelation was given, and the book written.* 
 It is peculiarly a Church book. Its message 'is 
 not peculiarly for individual followers, but for 
 groups of believers gathered together as 
 Churches. 
 
 The salutation is absorbed with the One whom 
 he has seen in the vision, what He has done for 
 us in shedding His blood, and that He is actu- 
 ally coming again. '' Behold He cometh with the 
 clouds ; and every eye shall see Him, and they 
 that pierced Him." The Jew is specifically des- 
 ignated: the coming has special significance for 
 the Jewish nation. And all the people of the 
 earth shall penitently mourn as they see Him. 
 And then like an endorsing signature from the 
 One of whom he is writing comes the sentence : 
 " I am the Alpha and the Omega, saith the Lord 
 God, who is and who was, and who cometh, the 
 Almighty One." 
 
 Then comes the new sight of the crowned 
 Christ.^ It was on a Lord's day. John was on 
 
 * Revelation i. 1-3. ' Revelation i. 4-8. 
 
 ' Revelation i. 9-20. 
 
A Sight of the Crowned Christ 79 
 
 the lonely sea-girt isle of Patmos. He was alone, 
 brooding probably over some bit of the Word of 
 God, and about the Jesus of whom he had been 
 so earnestly testifying. It was these that had 
 brought him to his lonely island prison. These 
 ever burned within him, the wondrous written 
 Word, the immensely more wondrous Word 
 made flesh, of whom he had written, the Word 
 that was God and became a Man and walked 
 the will of God. 
 
 And as he brooded he became conscious of the 
 Spirit of God overshadowing him, gentle as the 
 soft breeze, noiseless as the fragrant dew, mighty 
 as an enveloping presence that filled his being 
 and had possession of him. 
 
 Then a voice spake and the tone of authority 
 in it was unmistakable. " What thou seest, 
 write." He was to see something. He was to 
 tell what he saw. There's a delightful touch of 
 the simplicity of natural speech here. He turned 
 to see the voice. And he saw Him who was the 
 voice of God to him. Then the sight is told in 
 the same simplicity of speech. 
 
 There is a group of candlesticks, light-holders, 
 made of gold. And in the midst of the group 
 there is some One standing. He is in outer 
 form like a man. But there is such an overpow- 
 ering sense of divine glory that John falls on his 
 face as one dead. Yet through all this over- 
 whelming experience the impression of a man 
 stands unmistakably out. 
 
 With keen, quick glance John takes in head and 
 hair, eyes and feet, voice and hands, mouth and 
 
8o About the Crowned Christ 
 
 face. A simple, natural man in every outer par- 
 ticular like himself, a brother man, wearing 
 man's garb and girdle. This is the first impres- 
 sion indelibly stamped on John's mind. 
 
 But there's more, ah, much more than a man 
 in this man ! This is the stupendous part. There 
 is some One, other than man, and more than 
 man, possessing this man. The divine fills the 
 human. It is this sense of the glory filling the 
 man that is so overpowering to John. 
 
 A glorious presence overshadows the man and 
 shines out of Him, but never obhterates nor 
 makes the man less. That indescribable glory 
 within shining out through the man magnifies 
 every part of His human being. The head and 
 hair are white, not like a pale or painted white, 
 but a transparent whiteness, an intense search- 
 ing, glowing light shining out from Him through 
 the human head and hair. 
 
 The eyes are as a flame of pure fire, the feet 
 like melting metal glowing in fire. And the 
 whole countenance was as the sun in its noon- 
 time strength shining out of a rainless, cloudless 
 sky. Humanity enveloped in deity, yet remain- 
 ing true, full humanity. God within man im- 
 measurably more than man, yet not overwhelm- 
 ing, not disturbing nor obliterating, any part of 
 his humanity, rather making every part stand 
 out more distinctly. 
 
 Is this incidentally a kind of parable? Is it 
 something like this on an immensely humbler 
 scale that was meant for us men ? God the Holy 
 Spirit dwelling in a man. He the chief one, 
 
A Sight of the Crowned Christ 8i 
 
 the divine one, yet expressing Himself through 
 the man, and doing it fully to meet the need of 
 the hour. His presence magnifying, vitalizing, 
 and using every human power, yet Himself the 
 dominant personality. 
 
 It is most striking to note that this is the 
 same in principle as every appearance of God in 
 the Old Testament pages. Sometimes He talked 
 with men when there is no suggestion made of 
 any appearance or of what the appearance was 
 like. But wherever the appearance is spoken 
 of it is always either fire or some touch of the 
 human kind or both. 
 
 In Eden He walks and speaks, two human 
 things. He talks with Abraham as a man talks, 
 and ratified the covenant by passing fire through 
 the pieces of the covenant sacrifice.^ It is as 
 a simple, natural man appearing at Abraham's 
 tent door that He talks about Sodom. It is a 
 human voice speaking about Isaac, though no 
 appearance is mentioned. Moses sees a flaming 
 bush, and hears a voice in the desert, and sees 
 a whole mount aflame while a voice speaks at 
 Sinai. 
 
 And so it was always : the fiery presence-cloud 
 in the Wilderness, Joshua's Captain taking com- 
 mand, Manoah's angel ascending in the flame of 
 the altar, the voice in the night heard by Sam- 
 uel, the flooding of Tabernacle and Temple with 
 the glory-presence, Carmel's fire descending, 
 Elijah's *' still small voice," Isaiah's vision of 
 glory and the voice, Ezekiel's man of flame speak- 
 
 * Genesis xv. 
 
82 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 ing, and Daniel's, both of the latter two akin to 
 this Revelation appearance. 
 
 But there is a distinctness and a fulness of 
 description here greater than at any previous 
 time, yet the same essential thing as at every 
 appearance of God in Old Testament pages. The 
 coming of Jesus among us has brought God 
 closer to us and made Him mean more. Jesus 
 was God coming closer and in a way that we 
 could understand better and take hold of more 
 easily. 
 
 The Identifying Mark. 
 
 But let us reverently look a little closer that 
 we may understand yet better. There are cer- 
 tain characteristics of this Man of Fire that are 
 allowed to stand sharply out here. We arc 
 meant to look at them. This is part of the 
 purpose in the heart of Christ in letting us sec 
 Him as He is here. 
 
 The sense of purity is intenser than can be put 
 into words. Fire is pure. There is nothing so 
 pure. It resists impurity. It burns it up. It 
 is most significant that this is the one thing fa- 
 miliar to us that always accompanies the presence 
 of God as He appears to men. It is always in 
 fire whether to speak His message of peace and 
 love or to remove the impurity of evil. 
 
 Our God is a consuming fire. Yet fire only 
 consumes what can't stand its flame. The fire 
 reveals purity and makes pure. God is pure. 
 The presence within the man looked out in eyes 
 
A Sight of the Crowned Christ 83 
 
 of flame, in a countenance like the sun, and feet 
 like molten brass glowing in a furnace. There 
 could be no stronger statement of purity than 
 this. 
 
 Then there is an overwhelming sense of 
 authority. That seems the human word to use, 
 though the word seems to tell so much less than 
 John felt. John feels it more than he can tell 
 it. He cannot tell it in words. His limp figure 
 lying flat on the earth tells what words never 
 can. He had seen the glory outshining in the 
 Transfiguration Mount, but this is unspeakably 
 beyond that. 
 
 There was a voice like a trumpet. It com- 
 manded John to write. It says : " I became dead, 
 and, behold ! I am alive forever more." It is an 
 authority over life to yield it up, and over death 
 to put it to death, and call life back, never again 
 to be touched by the finger of death. No such 
 authority is known among men to-day. And this 
 is further emphasized in the quiet words : " I 
 have the keys — the control — of death and of the 
 whole spirit world." 
 
 But immensely more than all this to John was 
 the intense feeling of majesty which completely 
 overpowered him. The sense of authority was 
 overwhelming. The items in the description can 
 thus be catalogued, but it is impossible to get 
 the overwhelming sense of majestic authority that 
 came to John, except as he got it, — ^by a sight, 
 something of a sight of this great crowned 
 Christ. 
 
 But who is this? Is this not merely Ezekiel's 
 
84 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 vision repeated?^ He saw just such a vision, 
 one in the Ukeness of a man, enveloped in fire, 
 and sitting on a throne. And the effect was the 
 same as Ezekiel lies flat on his face. Is it not 
 the same as Daniel saw?^ A man clothed in 
 linen, aflame with inner fire, and the same au- 
 thoritative voice, and Daniel in a deep sleep of 
 awe-stricken stupor with face on the ground? 
 He does indeed seem to be the same. The de- 
 scriptions tally remarkably. 
 
 But listen. He speaks. And the sense of ter- 
 rifying authority in the voice that spake is gentled 
 to John's tense ear in the quiet words that come. 
 Like the loving words that came to Daniel's 
 quaking heart is the personal message that came 
 to John, — " Fear not." And with the words, as 
 ever, come the new sense of stilling peace within. 
 " I am the First and the Last, and the Living 
 One." 
 
 Still it may be EzekieFs Man even yet, or 
 Daniel's. But listen : " and I became dead/' 
 Ah! this identifies Him. Now we know for the 
 first time that this Man of Flame is Jesus our 
 Brother-man. The cross becomes the mark of 
 identification. The form of the words as spoken 
 fits in with the sense of authority. With great 
 strength of heart in carrying out a great pur- 
 pose He "became dead." 
 
 This is Ezekiel's Man and Daniel's and more, 
 unspeakably more. The Man they saw has lived 
 amongst us for a generation of time, and then 
 given His life clear out for us. He has be- 
 
 * Ezekiel i. 26-28. * Daniel x. 5-9. 
 
A Sight of the Crowned Christ 85 
 
 come more in coming as Jesus. He has taken 
 human experience and suffering up into Him- 
 self. He was Creator. He has become more — 
 Saviour. 
 
 There is the same purity and authority speak- 
 ing out here as there. But here is love speaking 
 out as never was spoken out before. Here is 
 love lived out; aye, here love is died out, and 
 never living so much as when dying. Here is 
 love putting death to death for us. Purity and 
 authority fastened on a cross! This is love 
 such as man had never known, and God never 
 shown before. Calvary lets us see the love that 
 burned in the purity and controlled in the 
 authority. 
 
 John's Man is Ezekiers and Daniel's, but with 
 the love shining out through purity and author- 
 ity, and outshining both. Yet that love is the 
 purity and authority combined in action. We 
 don't know love only as we know God. And 
 we don't know God only as we know Jesus not 
 living merely but pouring out His life for men. 
 This is love — that Man, that God-man, but with 
 the God-glory hidden within, using all His 
 authority over His life to fasten His purity on a 
 cross with the thorns of our sin, and then throt- 
 tling death and bringing up a new sort of death- 
 less life for us. This — He — is love. 
 
 The Outstanding Characteristic. 
 
 But we haven't gotten to the heart of this 
 yet. There is immensely more here than even 
 
86 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 this. The distinctive thing, the characteristic 
 thing in this sight of Christ, is yet to be noticed. 
 All of this can be gotten from other sights of 
 Christ. But notice now keenly where this Man 
 of Fire is. For this is the distinctive thing. He 
 is not up in the heavens, as in Ezekiel. He has 
 not come on a special errand, as in Daniel's ex- 
 perience.^ He is walking down on the earth. 
 His whole concern is about affairs on the earth. 
 
 But note where He is on earth : not in Jerusa- 
 lem, the Jew centre; not in Rome, the world's 
 ruling centre, nor in Athens or Corinth, the 
 world's culture centres. He is seen walking 
 among a small group of candlesticks. This is 
 the centre of earth action for Him. This is the 
 significant thing of this new sight of Christ. Let 
 us look at it a moment to get at the simple sig- 
 nificance of the scene. 
 
 The candlesticks, we are told, are the Churches, 
 the little groups of followers banded together 
 here and there. These small groups of Christ's 
 followers are called candlesticks or lampstands. 
 
 There is no suggestion yet of their giving any 
 light. No lighted candles nor oily wicks are 
 burning and shining. They are only c2Lnd\tsticks. 
 They are of gold, the most precious metal, but 
 they can give no light, they can only hold the 
 light some one else supplies. The Man standing 
 amongst them is the light. The whole effect of 
 the sight of Christ here is that He is the 
 light. The presence within the man shines out 
 through head and eyes and limbs, as light, in- 
 
 * Daniel x. 20. 
 
A Sight of the Crowned Christ 87 
 
 tense dazzling light, even as the sun in his 
 strength. 
 
 Here is the distinctive thing. Christ's whole 
 interest centres in the earth. All heaven is 
 bending over watching the run of events down 
 here. The intensity of His suffering and death 
 tell the intensity of Christ's interest in the move- 
 ment of things on the earth. He has a plan. He 
 has put His very life into it. It centres wholly 
 in the affairs of us men down here. And it cen- 
 tres in His Church. 
 
 This quite upsets our common ideas about the 
 centre of things down here. We class London 
 and New York as the great financial centres; 
 Paris and Berlin as the great fashion and mili- 
 tary centres. Rome is the centre of authority 
 of the Catholic Church, and St. Petersburg of the 
 Greek Orthodox. The Man who holds all power 
 in His hands, and on whose word everything 
 depends, quietly brushes all this aside with scarce 
 a move of His hand. The earth-centre of things 
 is the Church. That is, the groups of His fol- 
 lowers banded together in various parts of the 
 world. 
 
 Sometimes it is seen as a magnificent organi- 
 zation intimately connected with the machinery 
 of government. Sometimes as very small groups 
 of persons with no social standing, despised and 
 reckoned as not worth reckoning with. But this 
 is the thing He is depending on for getting out 
 to His world. All His plans centre here. 
 
 He is the light. The light He gave and gives 
 through nature, and within every man's breast, 
 
88 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 has been awfully darkened through refusal and 
 neglect to use it, through stubborn self-will. It 
 is so darkened that ofttimes it seems to have 
 been quite put out. His coming amongst us as 
 one of ourselves, living our life, dying on our 
 behalf to free us from sin, rising again victo- 
 rious over death, sending His Holy Spirit to 
 make all this real and living to each of us, — this 
 is the light at its full shining, the flood-light. 
 
 He has made a plan for sending this flood- 
 light to every one in every part of the earth. 
 That plan centres in His followers. He is the 
 light. The Church is the light-bearer, the can- 
 dlestick. It is to hold Him up in such a way that 
 men everywhere can get in direct touch with 
 Him. When He is held up, the darkness goes. 
 The darkness can't stand the light. This is the 
 immensely significant thing here. This is the 
 sight of Christ needed to-day, a sight of Him as 
 He stands waiting on the Church to carry out 
 His plan for the earth. 
 
 The faithfulness of the Church is not meas- 
 ured by compact organization, costly houses of 
 worship, impressive services, eloquent scholarly 
 preaching, and a ceaseless round of organized 
 activities. It can be told only by how much of 
 the spirit of the Christ who died is carried, in the 
 daily life of its individual members, into home 
 and social and commercial circles until men are 
 compelled to feel its power in conviction of the 
 sin of their own lives. 
 
 Nor yet is it told by transplanting the western 
 type of civilization to far-away lands, with schools 
 
A Sight of the Crowned Christ 89 
 
 and hospitals and innumerable humanizing in- 
 fluences. All this may be blessed. And it will 
 be blessed and blest. But it is the incidental 
 thing. It is sure to follow where the Jesus light 
 is allowed to shine clearly through and out. It 
 is quite possible to have these good things with- 
 out getting the real Christ. It is quite impos- 
 sible to have Christ Himself without such influ- 
 ences coming, too. 
 
 The emphasis must be not on these things, but 
 on Him, Christ. Men need Him. He answers 
 the heart longing, and only He can. He changes 
 the nature, and nothing else is enough. The 
 Church is to take the loving, healing, personal 
 Christ to men in the fulness of His power, and 
 to all men. This is the measure of its faith- 
 fulness. 
 
 What Christ Sees. 
 
 The tremendous question that crowds in here 
 is this, What does this Man of Fire see as He 
 stands among His followers? And He tells us. 
 This is why the vision is given. He wants us 
 to see things as they look to His eyes of flame. 
 
 The Man and His message are one thing here. 
 Chapters one, two, and three belong together, 
 and should be held together in our minds. We 
 have put the Man and His message as separate 
 talks to get a clearer grasp of each. But they 
 are one. 
 
 Now we recall enough of the message to note 
 this. Five-sevenths of the light-holders are in 
 
90 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 bad shape. The lamps are smoky, badly smoked, 
 and cobwebbed. The light is dimmed. It can't 
 get out through the lamp. The crowds are stand- 
 ing in the darkness and falling into the ditch by 
 the side of the road. 
 
 Two-sevenths let the light clearly out. The 
 others are an intermingling of light and light 
 obscured, but with the obscurity overcoming the 
 other. The net result is an irritating smokiness. 
 And the movement unhindered would naturally 
 be toward a steady increase of smoky irritation 
 and obscurity until no light can get through. 
 This is what He lets us see that He sees. 
 
 Now the instinctive thing to do with a smokj' 
 lamp irritating nostrils and eyes is to put it out. 
 That is the first instinct. The second is to trim 
 the wick and do whatever else it needs to correct 
 the smokiness. Yet He waits. That first natural 
 instinct is restrained. The candlesticks are not 
 yet moved out of their place. The light still tries 
 to get out through them. The human candle- 
 stick may yet do the needful trimming and clean- 
 ing. With marvellous restraint He waits. 
 
 It is a tremendous scene that is stretched out 
 here before us, — purity and authority combined 
 in One who is standing in the midst of im- 
 purity and failure. The purity is more intense 
 than we can grasp. The authority is greater 
 than any one can realize. The impurity, the 
 failure, are bad clear beyond what we can take 
 in. The whole natural instinct here would be a 
 cleansing, instant and radical, a correcting of the 
 evil. Yet He waits. The purity would act 
 
A Sight of the Crowned Christ 91 
 
 through the authority ; the authority restrains the 
 purity. Love quietly, strongly holds both in 
 check. This restraint, this inaction is tre- 
 mendous. 
 
 Why this inaction? this restraint? And the 
 answer is simple, and as sweeping as simple. 
 His plan at this stage shall have fullest oppor- 
 tunity. His followers will be given full oppor- 
 tunity to the last notch of time and the latest 
 possibility of their being yet true. 
 
 All the intensity of His love, all the eagerness 
 of His expectancy,^ all the fulness of His plan 
 for the earth, yes all the millions of the race, all 
 the misery and ignorance, the sin and darkness, 
 the millions of babies being born into wretched- 
 ness, and the millions of non-Christian women 
 being held in slavery, and the countless numbers 
 in every land groping along in a darkness that 
 not only can be felt, but that is felt to the hurt- 
 ing point and then past that to the insensitive 
 stupor, — all this waits. 
 
 With a heart that feels all that any man is feel- 
 ing and that breaks under it, He waits that fullest 
 opportunity shall be given His followers to be 
 true. If His Church is set aside it will be only 
 at the last moment when her failure is utterly 
 hopeless. If the candlestick is removed out of 
 its place, it will be only after it has completely 
 removed itself out of all touch with the Light. 
 A candlestick holding out no light is an utterly 
 useless thing to the man in the dark. 
 
 It is possible for the Church to be a magnifi- 
 
 * Hebrews x. 13. 
 
92 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 cent organization, an honoured institution, exert- 
 ing immense influence in national politics, enor- 
 mously rich in gold and in scholarship and in 
 traditions, and even in carrying forward an ag- 
 gressive missionary propaganda, and yet be faith- 
 less to its one mission. If the Church should fail 
 in this its one mission, then the waiting time is 
 over. The way is clear for the next step in the 
 world plan. And a momentous step that would 
 be, beyond our power to grasp. But the waiting 
 time still holds out. 
 
 This is the simple, tremendous plea of this 
 new sight of the crowned Christ as He is shown 
 here. The centre of the universe to Him is 
 this earth. The centre of things on the earth 
 is His Church. The centre of things in the 
 Church is its giving Jesus the Light out to all 
 the earth. 
 
 And if this be the way things looked to His 
 eye at the close of the first century, how, think 
 you, do they look at this beginning of the twen- 
 tieth ? Has that momentum of movement toward 
 increasing smokiness slacked? Is the waiting 
 time nearly run out? 
 
 The present is a momentous time. Even 
 men of the world speak of the world-wide rest- 
 lessness as pointing to some impending event 
 of world size. And he who is in some sort of 
 simple touch with the spirit world can feel the 
 air a-thrill with the possibility of world events 
 impending, even while he wonders just what and 
 when. 
 
A Sight of the Crowned Christ 93 
 
 One in the Midst. 
 
 It is most striking how it came about that 
 John got this sight of Christ. The change was 
 not in Christ's presence, but in John's eyes. 
 Christ did not come. He was there. John's eyes 
 were opened. Then he saw Him who stands 
 watching and waiting. Christ is here. The Man 
 of Fire and of restraining love is here on the 
 earth in the midst of His Church looking and 
 longing, listening, and feeling. 
 
 If only our eyes were opened to see! There 
 standeth One in our midst whom we recognize 
 not. Wherever any company of believers banded 
 together as a Church to worship and pray and 
 break holy bread are gathered, under whatever 
 local name or in connection with whatever 
 Church communion. He stands in the midst, this 
 crowned Christ of the Patmos Revelation. 
 
 Our eyes need treatment. The hinge of the 
 eyelid is in the will and in the heart. A bended 
 or bending will opens the eye. A brooding heart 
 opens it yet more in spirit vision. Then we shall 
 see Him, as He is now in our midst, waiting our 
 obedience. 
 
 Those forty days between the resurrection and 
 the ascension are seen to be illustrations of this. 
 One can see through this Revelation sight that 
 this is one of the chief things the Master is 
 teaching as He still lingers on earth in His resur- 
 rection body. 
 
 Along the old Emmaus road, gathered about 
 the evening meal in the twilight, twice in the 
 
94 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 upper room at Jerusalem, He appears to little 
 groups of His faithful followers. Their hearts 
 are burning with the thought of Him, they are 
 talking with both tongue and eyes about Him. 
 But that He is in their midst is the last thing to 
 come into their minds. Then their eyes are 
 opened to see Him in their midst. It was a forty- 
 days' session in their training school. Then He 
 said quietly as His bodily presence goes up into 
 the blue : " Lo ! / am with you all the days until 
 the end." Their mission and His presence are 
 inseparably linked. 
 
 And it is striking again to note how John's 
 Gospel ends. The others describe the Ascension. 
 John begins his Gospel with Jesus in the bosom 
 of the Father before the world was, and ends 
 with Him walking and talking with a little group 
 of fishermen along the shore of the waters of 
 Galilee's Lake. 
 
 This is what the Church needs to-day, a sight 
 of Christ as He is now. Nothing else can save 
 its life. And nothing less can save its mission 
 from utter impending failure. 
 
 And yet while the distinctive message here is 
 for the Church, it is an individual message, too. 
 It is for each of us. I am the Church, as much 
 of it as I am, counted as one. You are the 
 Church. The Church is made up of you and me 
 and the rest of us. I must take this message for 
 as much of the Church as I am. The Man of 
 Fire is depending on me to be a candlestick 
 for His light. It is on me He is patiently wait- 
 ing to obey as fully as He means I should. 
 
A Sight of the Crowned Christ 95 
 
 And on you. 
 
 A recent incident is told of a man whose name 
 is a familiar one in the financial world, who died 
 a few years ago. He was the executive head of 
 one of our country's great railways. And a 
 man of remarkable largeness of insight and grasp, 
 and of unusual power of execution. He dealt 
 in hundreds of millions as easily as most of us 
 deal in dollars, and his rugged honesty has never 
 been brought into question. His greatest achieve- 
 ment bulks big in the material structure of one 
 of our great eastern cities. 
 
 But his gigantic tasks ran his strength to ebb 
 tide, and then it was seen that the tide was run- 
 ning out. As he lay in the sick chamber a min- 
 ister called, whose ministry had touched large 
 numbers of the men in the railroad of which the 
 sick man was head, and in the course of conver- 
 sation tactfully asked: 
 
 " Are you a Christian, Mr. Blank? " 
 
 " Yes," was the quiet, prompt reply that rather 
 surprised the minister. 
 
 " How long have you been a Christian, Mr. 
 Blank?" 
 
 " Two days," came the answer as promptly 
 and quietly. 
 
 Feeling that there was an interesting story 
 under these answers, the minister gently pressed 
 the question. Then the story came out. 
 
 " You know William, who handles freight out 
 here at ? " the sick man asked. 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " He showed me the way." 
 
96 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 " William " had been a worthless, drunken 
 man of the " down and out '' sort. He had been 
 converted at some mission and been radically 
 changed. He had gotten employment at one of 
 the freight-handling stations of this railroad sys- 
 tem. It was rough, hard work, but he had gone 
 at it earnestly in his purpose to live an honest 
 life. And in his quiet, earnest way he was al- 
 ways seeking a chance to speak to men of Christ 
 as a personal Saviour, until he became known 
 throughout that part of the system for his simple, 
 earnest piety. 
 
 As the sick man realized the seriousness of 
 things for him he had sent for this William. 
 The president of the road whose capitalization 
 ran into hundreds of millions sent for the rough- 
 handed freight handler. And William in his 
 simple, earnest way had pointed the sick man 
 to Christ. And the man of millions had made 
 a new sort of transaction. Christ and he had 
 an understanding. 
 
 And as the sick man told the minister the story 
 he paused, and then added, ''/ have given my 
 strength to the secondary things." 
 
 This was the judgment of this shrewd man of big 
 affairs as the new light had come into his life at 
 its close. Happily he had gotten the readjustment 
 of values in time for readjustment of personal 
 relationships. But his life's strength was gone. 
 
 If we might get the readjustment that would 
 put secondary things in second place, and put 
 wrong and useless things clear out, in time to he 
 of some use to our blessed Lord, 
 
IV.— A MESSAGE FROM THE 
 CROWNED CHRIST 
 
The glory of love is brightest when the glory of self 
 
 is dim, 
 And they have the most compelled me who most have 
 
 pointed to Him. 
 They have held me, stirred me, swayed me, — I have 
 
 hung on their every word, 
 Till I fain would arise and follow, not them, not 
 
 them,— but their Lord!"* 
 
 *Ruby T. Weybum. 
 
A MESSAGE FROM THE 
 CROWNED CHRIST 
 
 (Revelation, Chapters ii and iii) 
 
 Patmos Spells Patience. 
 
 Patience is strength at its strongest, using all 
 its strength in holding back from doing some- 
 thing. Patience is love at flood pleading with 
 strength to hold steady in holding back. 
 
 The love in the strength insists on waiting a 
 bit longer for the sake of the one being waited 
 for. The strength in the love obeys the love 
 passion and takes fresh hold in holding back. 
 
 Patmos spells out the patience of our Lord 
 Jesus. It tells the strength and tenderness of 
 His love. Olivet spelled out His plan. His great 
 sweeping plan, through His followers, for a race. 
 Calvary spelled out His passion, passion of love, 
 passion of suffering, in dying for a race. 
 
 Calvary, Olivet, and Patmos are inseparably 
 linked, the gentle slope of the Jerusalem hillside, 
 the little mount to its east, and the little rocky 
 isle in the far ^gean. Calvary was the passion 
 of love pouring out a life for a race. Olivet 
 was the plan of love for telling a race, till every 
 one would know the love by the feel. Patmos is 
 the patience of love pleading with the should-be 
 
 99 
 
lOO About the Crowned Christ 
 
 tellers of the story to carry out the plan, and 
 waiting, and then waiting just a little longer. 
 
 Olivet had heard the last word. There the 
 Master had told the disciples the plan. All the 
 race was to be told and taught, bit by bit, ear- 
 nestly, repeatedly, patiently, tirelessly, by word 
 and act and life. He Himself unseen by outer 
 eyes would always be with them. His supernatu- 
 ral power making real and living what they told 
 and taught. This was the plan. Olivet was to 
 be the executive of Calvary, bringing home to 
 men and making vital to them what had been 
 done there. 
 
 Then Jesus went up on the Cloud. And they 
 went out everywhere. And His power convinc- 
 ingly went with them just as He had said. Within 
 a generation the news and the power had gone 
 together to the outermost rim of the world they 
 knew. 
 
 They were expecting Him to return as a result 
 of this witnessing of theirs. The next time they 
 see His face and hear His voice will be as He 
 comes on the Cloud out of the blue. So they 
 understand and believe. This is their constant 
 expectancy. 
 
 Now that generation has moved off the scene 
 of action. Another generation has come in its 
 place, and has almost run its course and moved 
 off the scene. And still they are looking forward 
 to and talking about His return. 
 
 But now to this new generation of His follow- 
 ers something quite different comes. Instead 
 of Himself coming in glory there comes another 
 
A Message from the Crowned Christ loi 
 
 last message to them. It fits perfectly into the 
 OUvet message, but goes further and says some- 
 thing more. 
 
 The Olivet message is about taking the light 
 of the Gospel message out everywhere. The 
 Patmos message in its pictured setting of candle- 
 sticks and Man of Fire and blazing light recog- 
 nized this as the one thing to be done, but says 
 there's something the matter with the candle- 
 sticks. 
 
 The Olivet word is about taking the message. 
 This Patmos word is about the messengers. That 
 one is about the service of His followers; this 
 other about their life. The life underlies the 
 service. Nothing can so hinder and hurt the 
 service as a life not true in itself. Here some- 
 thing in the life of the Church is hindering its 
 service. The Master's plan at this stage is in 
 danger. 
 
 His broader plan extends beyond this Church 
 movement. This is one great step to be followed 
 by another. That broader plan had been out- 
 lined at the first Church Conference, held in 
 Jerusalem. James, the presiding officer, said 
 that the carrying of the Gospel to all men was 
 to be followed by a national regeneration of the 
 Jews ; and then through a regenerated Jewish na- 
 tion there would be a new era of world-wide 
 evangelization,^ and with this the Conference was 
 in agreement. 
 
 The leaders among these early disciples are 
 eagerly anticipating Jesus' return to carry on the 
 
 ^ Acts XV. 14-18. 
 
102 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 next stage. They understand that what they 
 are doing is preparing the way for this next 
 step. 
 
 But now instead of returning to carry for- 
 ward the broader plan here comes another 
 message. Apparently things are not going satis- 
 factorily. The plan at this stage is in danger, 
 while the Calvary passion back of it still burns. 
 Failure is impending. The Master might sweep 
 aside the men that are failing, and press on Him- 
 self into the next step of His plan. For the case 
 is urgent. A race is waiting. The darkness 
 thickens. 
 
 But instead He waits. With patience and 
 strength and love beyond our power to grasp He 
 waits. This is the setting of the Patmos mes- 
 sage, to which we now turn. 
 
 The Unity of the Message. 
 
 We must keep cur eyes on the Man who is 
 talking. His overawing presence gives tremen- 
 dous meaning to His words. That gentle touch 
 of the right hand has no doubt strengthened John 
 even as Daniel was strengthened. And he is 
 standing and looking as he listens. But the sight 
 of that wondrous Man walking among the can- 
 dlesticks floods his face and his whole being 
 indescribably as he listens to the message 
 spoken. 
 
 The overpowering sense of awe, of reality 
 and power, and of the tremendous meaning of 
 what is being said never leaves. So he listens. 
 
A Message from the Crowned Christ 103 
 
 So we must listen. So only can we get into the 
 meaning of these words. The words will mean 
 only as much as the Man means in the intensity 
 of His presence. You must keep your eye on 
 this crowned Christ as you listen. 
 
 The seven-fold description given us of Christ 
 is the key to these seven messages. The partial 
 description beginning each message is seen to 
 fit into the particular condition of the Church 
 spoken to. Yet all these bits of description must 
 be put together to get the full description. It is 
 a seven-fold description of one person. 
 
 And so all the messages must be taken together 
 to see the Church as He sees it, and to get His 
 message to it. It is one message. A look at the 
 seven promises made to the overcomers makes 
 it clear that all seven are one promise. It is not 
 that one overcomer receives one thing, and an- 
 other another, but each one gets all of what is 
 mentioned in the seven. A rather careful, swift 
 look at these promises makes this clear enough. 
 
 It is spoken to one Church in seven groups 
 in seven different cities. There is one call to 
 repentance, one warning of what will happen to 
 the unpenitent at five successive stages, one plea 
 to hear seven times repeated, and one blessed 
 result to the overcomer, in a seven-fold state- 
 ment. 
 
 And there is just one evil to be recognized and 
 fought. That evil is seen to grow from one de- 
 gree to another, from bad to worse and worst. 
 Its emphasis changes from one phase to an- 
 other. It has shown itself differently in dif- 
 
104 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 ferent parts of the world, and in different ages 
 since, but it is the one evil power, always the 
 same behind the different manifestations. 
 
 There is rare combination and adaptation in 
 this message. It was meant for the Church of 
 that day, and of every day since, and for some 
 future day. For it stands as the one message 
 from Christ to His Church between Olivet and 
 His return. It is meant distinctively for the 
 Church as a whole, and yet it makes an intense 
 personal appeal to each one in the Church. 
 
 It is spoken to the little groups of Churches 
 in Asia Minor grouping about the city of Ephe- 
 sus, which had been founded by Paul and minis- 
 tered to by John. And without doubt it fitted 
 into the conditions and tendencies of those par- 
 ticular seven Churches. 
 
 But these are representative of all. Probably 
 any group of seven would be representative of all 
 in varying degree. The mother Church at Jeru- 
 salem is not named, nor the great Gentile mis- 
 sionary Church at Antioch. But these messages 
 with their approval and criticism, their warning 
 and promise, were meant for all the Church in 
 Asia and Europe and Africa at that time. 
 
 They are found to fit into the need of the 
 Church scattered throughout the world in every 
 generation since then. Always there have been 
 little groups that were faithful and true, always 
 some suffering because of their faithfulness and 
 remaining faithful in spite of suffering. And 
 always those who have been formal, who have 
 companioned with evil, who have been swamped 
 
A Message from the Crowned Christ 105 
 
 by the evil with which they companioned, and 
 those practically asleep or dead. 
 
 This Patmos message will be found to fit the 
 Church of to-day with remarkable accuracy and 
 faithfulness. And the whole probability is in 
 favor of finding that it will fit peculiarly the 
 future Church, the Church at the end of this 
 present period. 
 
 This whole book of the Revelation is pecul- 
 iarly a Church book. While it is full of instruc- 
 tion and plea for our individual lives, yet it is 
 distinctively the Church book. It stands out 
 among the books of the New Testament as the 
 one book addressed to the Church and to the 
 whole Church. 
 
 It gives the great bulk of its space to an awful 
 time of persecution that is coming to the Church 
 at some future time. This is spoken of else- 
 where, notably by Jesus in His talk with the dis- 
 ciples on Mount Olivet, but it is the chief sub- 
 ject treated here. And it is treated with great 
 detail. The name commonly applied to this com- 
 ing persecution is the great tribulation. 
 
 It is significant that the book that clearly is 
 distinctively a Church book is taken up chiefly 
 with a description of that future persecution. It 
 leads to the deep conviction that this book of the 
 Revelation so fitted to the need of the Church 
 when spoken, and in every generation since, 
 will be found to be peculiarly fitted to that gen- 
 eration of the Church that is to pass through 
 this great coming persecution; that is, to the 
 Tribulation Church. 
 
io6 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 It will probably be the mainstay and comfort 
 of those who will insist on being true daring 
 those awful days, regardless of the suffering 
 involved. No book has been more slighted and 
 ignored. It has been called by some within the 
 Church of our own generation '' the joke of the 
 Bible." It will likely come to be the book 
 most studied and loved for its light and help in 
 the terribly troublous times ahead. There will 
 be an eager, hungry searching for every scrap 
 of information, and for any fresh ray of light 
 on its meaning. 
 
 The Seven-fold Message. 
 
 Now this seven-fold message lets us see things 
 through Christ's eyes. He is letting them and us 
 see what He sees. The Scottish poet's thoughtful 
 lines might well be changed to get the yet better 
 look: *'Oh! wad some power the giftie gie us, 
 to see oursel's as " God sees us. It would do 
 more than free us from blunders and notions. 
 And we are needing more. 
 
 Each one of these seven messages begins by 
 our Lord drawing their eyes to Himself. This 
 is the thing needed most. And this will give 
 meaning and force to the message. They are 
 to be looking at Him as they listen. Then He 
 speaks of all the good things He sees. Then of 
 the faulty, weak, bad things, in a few simple but 
 unmistakably plain words. No one could doubt 
 what He meant. 
 
 Then is the pleading call to repent, with the 
 
A Message from the Crowned Christ 107 
 
 faithful warning of what will surely happen if 
 they don't. Then the earnest plea that His words 
 be listened to and taken to heart, and the won- 
 drously gracious promise held out to those who 
 steadily set themselves against the evil, and who 
 get the victory. 
 
 Let us look for a moment at each of these 
 Churches as seen by those searching eyes of 
 flame. 
 
 Ephesus is the centre of the group, the natural 
 leader, the largest and most influential, per- 
 haps the mother Church of the group, where 
 Paul and John had put in so much time and 
 strength, and whence they reached out to these 
 others. 
 
 Christ reminds them of His presence in their 
 midst and His control of the angel messengers 
 that minister to them. Then he speaks of their 
 good deeds, their tireless activity, steadfast en- 
 durance, intense zeal for the true faith, with 
 special emphasis upon their unwearying stead- 
 fastness even under sore difficulties, and their 
 hatred of those who made compromise with evil 
 so hateful to Himself. 
 
 But there is something lacking, the tender per- 
 sonal love for Himself. There's intense loyalty 
 to Church and to the faith, but a lack of personal 
 love for Himself. And the startling thing is 
 that this is said to quite outweight all these 
 good things. They may have these things with- 
 out the love, but they cannot have the love with- 
 out having these things, and at a finer tempera- 
 ture. 
 
io8 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 And this defect is crucial. If persisted in it 
 is fatal. It will actually mean their rejection 
 as His messenger. This is the critical thing 
 which we seem to have such a hard time getting 
 hold of. The essential qualification for true serv- 
 ice is the personal attachment to our Lord Jesus 
 Himself, that warm heart love which the human 
 heart longs for and gives to some one. He longs 
 for this. This is the essential; not Church or- 
 ganization nor creed, not zeal for orthodoxy, but 
 warm love for a person. Service, witnessing, 
 all the rest, are valuable to Him in reaching His 
 world only as they grow out of a tender love for 
 Himself. 
 
 And the startling thing is that this privilege 
 and opportunity of service is to be taken away 
 not because displeasing to Him, but because it 
 fails of the end in view. The candlestick is only 
 removed because it is no longer serviceable; 
 it is not giving out the light. This earnest, ag- 
 gressive, orthodox, patiently-enduring Church is 
 to be rejected as a light-holder, because it is not 
 holding out the light. This is tremendous ! 
 
 The group in Smyrna is tenderly reminded of 
 the suffering of their Lord, for they are filling 
 up what is left behind of His suffering. This 
 tells at once the depth of their personal love for 
 Him, nothing could tell it more. 
 
 They are poor in money and so despised, but 
 rich in faith and so precious to Him. They are 
 suffering at the hands of the Jews, who were the 
 outspoken, intense, fanatical enemy of the Chris- 
 tians. There is no reproach, only earnest en- 
 
A Message from the Crowned Christ 109 
 
 couragement to keep steady even through fiercer 
 fires yet to come. 
 
 The description of Himself to the Pergamum 
 group is startling. He is the one with a sharp 
 two-edged sword. There is something here He 
 must fight against. They are frankly told that 
 they have had a hard place to witness in, and ear- 
 nestly commended for being true even in the 
 midst of persecution. 
 
 But there's something wrong, and it is very 
 serious. It is as wrong and bad as it can be. 
 There is actually compromise with evil, part- 
 nership with the world in its wickedness. The 
 thing is put in the intensest way possible by 
 characterizing it as adultery. No stronger lan- 
 guage could be used to tell how He sees the 
 evil they are guilty of. And they are plainly 
 told that He will fight against them. They have 
 made themselves His enemy by joining His 
 enemies. 
 
 The Thyatira group is reminded of the purity 
 of their Lord, who cannot stand impurity but 
 searches it relentlessly out, and pursues it to 
 the death. There's a faithful minority here. 
 Their activity and love and faith and patience 
 and increasing activity in service are all counted 
 carefully over and warmly commended. 
 
 But the evil here is much worse. It is put 
 into the gravest language. " Thou sufferest the 
 woman Jezebel." This is most significant. 
 There is no worse character named in the whole 
 Old Testament. She not only represented the 
 worst adulterous uncleanness in herself, but she 
 
no About the Crowned Christ 
 
 was the national leader energetically fostering 
 unclean idolatrous practices among the people. 
 Jezebel pulled God's light-holder nation down to 
 the lowest moral level it ever reached. She 
 brazenly dominated king and people, and re- 
 mained stubbornly obstinate to the terrible 
 end. 
 
 Christ brings her name in here. Again this 
 is tremendous. No more terrific parallel could 
 have been made. Here evil characterized as 
 adulterous has actually come to a place of leader- 
 ship in the Church. With great longsuffering 
 time has been given that all this might be 
 changed, but with Jezebel-like obstinacy it was 
 determined that there would be no change. And 
 the inevitable result that will surely follow con- 
 tinued obstinacy will be a great tribulation or 
 deadly persecution. 
 
 The Sardis group is told that Christ is the 
 centre of all life and help, in the control of the 
 Holy Spirit and of the angel messengers. There 
 is nothing to commend here. There are some 
 who insist on living true lives, but they are a 
 scanty scattered few, not enough to count. 
 
 There are some ragged remnants of good, but 
 even these are sickly and nearly dead. The 
 Church is well organized, energetic, standing 
 high among men, but with an utter absence of 
 spiritual life. The personal lives of most are 
 like dirty garments. And the warning is this: 
 He will come as a thief, that is unexpectedly, 
 disagreeably, to take away what they prize most 
 and leave them stripped and naked. 
 
A Message from the Crowned Christ iii 
 
 The longest message is to the group in Phila- 
 delphia. Christ reminds them that He is holy 
 in character, faithful to His promises, having 
 full control, and giving opportunity of service 
 as the highest reward of faithfulness. This can- 
 dlestick is giving out light, for it is given yet 
 further opportunity of shining. 
 
 The chief characteristic of this group is its 
 steady plodding faithfulness. They are not 
 spoken of as brilliant or talented, but faithful 
 in the midst of opposition. He loves them with 
 the sort of deep love drawn out by love freely 
 given. And a special promise is given, a sig- 
 nificant promise. A great persecution is coming, 
 an awful testing time to all the earth. But He 
 will keep them through this unhurt because they 
 have been keeping His word so faithfully. 
 
 The common reading here is, " I will keep thee 
 from the hour of trial." It is quite as accurate 
 to read " through " in place of " from." And 
 there is good reason for taking this as the 
 sense here. The word underneath here is 
 translated by several different words in other 
 passages. 
 
 Where a word in one language may be trans- 
 lated by any one of several words the general 
 sense of the passage must decide which one cor- 
 rectly expresses the meaning. Here the mean- 
 ing must be gotten from the whole trend of New 
 Testament teaching. Like the Israelites during 
 the plagues that came to Egypt these faithful ones 
 will be kept untouched through this terrible time 
 that is to come. 
 
112 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 The Laodicea group is tt) be talked to plainly 
 by one who is a true, faithful witness in dealing 
 with His people's faults, and who has all the 
 authority of God in doing so. This is the second 
 group that actually has not one good thing to be 
 commended. There is no false teaching, no 
 compromise with evil; they are simply asleep. 
 Rich, influential, self-satisfied, grown fat and 
 sleek, — so they seem to their neighbours and 
 themselves. Wretched, poor, blind, naked, — so 
 they are. And the chastening threatened will be 
 of the severe radical sort that strong love insists 
 upon. 
 
 A Heart-breaking Sight. 
 
 Here then is the picture of the whole Church 
 as seen by the eyes of searching flame. There is 
 a mixture of bad and good, active bad, active 
 good, and sleepy indifference. There is a Church 
 within the Church. But the bad is bad enough 
 and big enough to endanger seriously the use- 
 fulness of the whole as a light-bearer. 
 
 The glass of the lantern is so smoked and 
 cobwebby that it is more useless than useful 
 to the light inside, and the crowd outside in the 
 dark. The uselessness threatens what useful- 
 ness is left. Smokiness is contagious. Cobwebs 
 grow thicker and hold more dust. 
 
 Two Churches are true and pure in the midst 
 of sore opposition. Two are corrupt in the very 
 worst way. Three, including the leader, are or- 
 thodox in form, but indifferent to Jesus Himself, 
 
A Message from the Crowned Christ 113 
 
 or asleep, or dead; three degrees of the same 
 thing, — indifference, sleep, death. 
 
 In all of these five there are those who, like 
 Ezekiel's companions, " sigh and cry over the 
 abominations that are going on," but they are 
 helpless to stay the sweep of the tide. They 
 are the salt that is saving the lump so far. Even 
 Sodom would have been saved by ten righteous. 
 
 It is plainly said to the leader Church that it 
 is no longer of use as a candlestick, except a 
 change come. It fails to give out the light. It 
 is being carried along, patiently borne with for 
 its own sake. It is failing at this point in the 
 mission. The smoking flax sending out its 
 irritating smoke in place of clear light is not 
 yet quenched. The Holy Spirit life within is 
 being sorely grieved, but is not yet put entirely 
 out. 
 
 And this is only one. Four others are plainly 
 in much worse fix. Five-sevenths are failing. 
 That bit of preservative salt would seem to be 
 working to its full capacity. 
 
 This is the picture given us here by our Lord 
 Himself. John would never have dared make 
 such a terrific arraignment of his own accord. 
 It is a picture of the whole Church at. the be- 
 ginning of the First century. 
 
 How is it at the beginning of the Twentieth? 
 A thousand million people, two-thirds of the 
 race, pretty freely supplied with the light of 
 western oil and of gunpowder, with the help of 
 the western sewing machine, and with the guid- 
 ance of western learning and skill, but to whom 
 
114 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 with minor exceptions no scant ray of this light 
 has yet gotten, these make answer. That smoki- 
 ness would seem to be rather dense. 
 
 The non-Christian crowds in so-called Chris- 
 tian lands, the overwhelming majority, to whom 
 the name of Jesus has no more practical meaning 
 than other foreign names, Shanghai, or Tokyo, 
 or Calcutta, — these make answer. The light 
 doesn't seem to have been able to get through 
 and out much, even near the candlestick. 
 
 The Church itself, when it has sometimes for- 
 gotten its statistical tables long enough to look 
 thoughtfully into this old Patmos looking-glass, 
 has now and then made answer, in a few of its 
 thoughtful leaders, while the rank and file push 
 on absorbed in their Ephesian or Sardisian or 
 Thyatiran way. 
 
 There's a striking companion bit to this in 
 Ezekiel's vision.^ That messenger to the exiled 
 colony by the Chebar had first of all the vision 
 of God that completely overwhelmed him. Then 
 he is taken in spirit to Jerusalem, and shown 
 things as they were, through God*s eyes. The 
 heathen idols were set up in the very temple of 
 God, so actually stimulating among the people the 
 horribly gross, unnamible impurities connected 
 with their worship. This was done in the open, 
 with no pretence at concealment. 
 
 Then in the vision he digs " into the wall " 
 to see the hidden things that are being done. 
 There he sees every sort of creeping, crawling, 
 slimy, repulsive animal pictured on the walls of 
 
 * Ezekiel viii and ix. 
 
A Message from the Crowned Christ 115 
 
 this secret chamber, and the leaders of the people 
 burning incense and worshipping. 
 
 This he is told is a picture of the inner hearts 
 of the men who are the leaders of the nation. 
 For dramatic intensity it would be hard to equal 
 this. The imaginations of their hearts are as 
 the unclean snakes and beasts that are found 
 only in the damp, unwholesome slime and ooze 
 of swamp and stagnant pond. 
 
 And this is God's light-bearing nation to all 
 the earth. And these are the leaders! But 
 there's yet worse. The mothers and wives and 
 daughters of the nation, the real moulders of 
 the nation's life and character, are seen pouring 
 out their very hearts over a heathen idol, with 
 all the horrible evil practices included in its wor- 
 ship. And then a group of men are shown 
 in the holy temple standing with their backs 
 to God and His temple and worshipping the 
 sun. 
 
 Under these four items are pointed out the 
 impurity and violence, the injustice and oppres- 
 sion, that mark the people. It is the inner heart 
 life of the nation that is being pictured so viv- 
 idly. But in the midst of all this are those who 
 are broken-hearted over these conditions. And 
 as the time of judgment comes in the vision these 
 are marked and spared, though they see the work 
 of judgment on every hand. 
 
 Such is the tremendous scene depicted by 
 Ezekiel. It will be seen at once what a striking 
 parallel it presents to the scene in this Revela- 
 tion book with the new light-bearer to the na- 
 
ii6 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 tions of the earth. One would never dare make 
 such an arraignment of his own accord. It is 
 humbling and heart-breaking to the last degree 
 simply to repeat what is spoken here by our Lord 
 Himself. 
 
 Clearly the Patmos picture is not only of 
 the Church then, but ever since, and now. And 
 the simple law of momentum in sliding down hill 
 will make it an accurate picture of the Church 
 at the end, the future Church. 
 
 The colouring changes at different times in dif- 
 ferent places, the black getting intenser, pot 
 black, and the light shining out more brightly 
 by contrast. But the picture remains essentially 
 as painted on Patmos. 
 
 The warnings so faithfully given run a slid- 
 ing scale outward and downward in five degrees. 
 If the Church continue as it is, it is told here 
 that it will be rejected as a light-holder. Its 
 privilege and opportunity as God's messenger will 
 be taken away.^ 
 
 Then Christ will fight against it as an enemy ,^ 
 it will be given over to a time of terrible tribula- 
 tion,^ it will be treated as prey to be robbed and 
 plundered,* and it will be rejected, spewed out 
 of the mouth, as personally disgusting. '^ 
 
 Yet in all this plain speech there is no bitter- 
 ness, only grief, only tender pleading. The plain 
 bluntness is the language of love that yearns 
 to save even yet, and that waits with untold pa- 
 tience hoping for a change. 
 
 * Rev. ii. 5 ' Rev. ii. 12-16. * Rev. ii. 22, 23. 
 
 * Rev. iii. 3. * Rev. iii. 16. 
 
A Message from the Crowned Christ 117 
 
 Wooing Promises. 
 
 But it is noticeable that, while the warning is 
 to the corporate Church, the plea and promise 
 that persists throughout is to the individual. He 
 that is willing to, let him hear and heed and be 
 controlled by the Spirit's message. 
 
 There are two groups that have remained 
 faithful. There are scattered through the other 
 five those who are faithful. And there are no 
 doubt many who feel the pull to be true but are 
 yielding to the strong undertow of the rising 
 tide by which they are being carried. 
 
 The coupled promise and plea that call out 
 so pleadingly to these at the close of each mes- 
 sage are, " to him that overcometh." This word 
 " overcometh " is very significant. It is one of 
 the characteristic notes of these messages and 
 indeed of this entire book. It is one of that 
 sort of word that sums up a whole situation in 
 itself. 
 
 There is opposition. There is conflict because 
 some won't yield to the opposition. And the 
 result of the conflict varies. Some are overcome 
 by the evil ; they go over to the enemy, body and 
 soul. Some wabble. They slip along the line 
 of least resistance, secretly holding on to some 
 few ragged remnants of convictions, but not let- 
 ting these aflFect their standing or comfort or 
 particularly their profits. 
 
 Some overcome evil. There is struggle tense 
 and continued, quickened breath, moist brow, 
 
Ii8 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 tightened nerves, the stain of blood, a scar here 
 and there, and heart-breaking experiences. But 
 they fight on, and victory comes. And the evil 
 is less, weakened in its hold on this companion 
 and that neighbour. They get the victory over 
 evil. 
 
 There's a wondrous promise to these. It is as 
 though the treasure box is placed at their dis- 
 posal. It is a seven-fold promise. Every over- 
 comer will receive all that is contained in 
 these seven promises. Note this seven-fold 
 promise: He that overcometh will have ever- 
 lasting life,^ and this is emphasized by the 
 reverse statement, " will not be hurt of the sec- 
 ond death." ^ 
 
 He will be admitted into the sweets of inti- 
 mate fellowship with his Lord, hidden from all 
 save those in this inner circle. And will re- 
 ceive a new name, the family name, that is an 
 inheritance in the family of God, joint heir with 
 Jesus Christ.^ He will have the privilege of 
 serving with the King in the blessed Kingdom 
 time coming. 
 
 And with this goes the word, " I will give 
 him the morning star." * Jesus calls Himself 
 " the bright, the morning star." ® The morning 
 star rises in the dark of night after midnight and 
 ushers in the new day. He who is in touch of 
 heart with Jesus as the night deepens to the 
 dawn will (probably) have an intimation in hia 
 
 *Rev. ii. 7. 'Rer. ii. 11. 'Rev. ii. 17. 
 
 *Rev. ii. 26-28. "Rev. xxii. 16. 
 
A Message from the Crowned Christ 119 
 
 inner spirit of the glad coming of the Morning 
 Star that ushers in earth's new day. 
 
 The overcomer will be made perfect in char- 
 acter, and find his name not only in the family 
 book, but mentioned by Christ personally to 
 His Father before the angels.^ He will be ad- 
 mitted into the innermost circle of the King 
 and be reckoned among the dependables.^ 
 And he will have closest fellowship with 
 Christ in the administration of the wondrous 
 kingdom.^ 
 
 It will be seen that these promises overlap, 
 the same thing being put now positively, now 
 negatively, and being repeated in differing words 
 to different groups. Each promise touches the 
 characteristic trait of the group spoken of. The 
 Ephesians, who had many things but lacked 
 the vital thing, are wooed with the promise of 
 life itself, which is only through touch with 
 Jesus Himself. 
 
 Smyrna in its suffering is cheered with the 
 prospect of suffering no more. The Pergamum 
 overcomer is wooed away from intimacy of 
 friendship with evil to intimacy of friendship 
 with the coming King. They who resist the evil 
 Jezebel rule in Thyatira will have the privilege 
 of ruling with the King. Those in Sardis who 
 hunger and thirst after a pure heart will have 
 the longing fully satisfied. 
 
 Those who have proven dependable in the 
 trying days in Philadelphia will have the ex- 
 quisite pleasure of being depended upon in the 
 
 * Rev. iii. 5. '^ Rev. iii. 12. ' Rev. iii. 21. 
 
120 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 inner circle as wholly trustworthy. Those in 
 Laodicea who resist the current and insist on let- 
 ting the knocking pilgrim in for heart fellow- 
 ship ^ will find themselves in fellowship with 
 Him on the throne. 
 
 It should be noticed that these promises are 
 one promise, and that that is the promise of ever- 
 lasting life, of a purified perfected character, 
 and of the privilege of closest fellowship with 
 the King Himself in the coming Kingdom time. 
 
 These promises do not take up the matter 
 of rewards for faithfulness in service, such as 
 our Lord speaks of in the twin parables of the 
 pounds and talents. The things promised here 
 are the results of being saved by the blood of 
 Christ. The privilege of fellowship with the 
 King during the Kingdom time is included in 
 salvation. All the redeemed will reign over the 
 earth. 2 
 
 This is significant. Overcoming would seem 
 to be the decisive evidence of faith in Jesus 
 Christ, the faith that receives everlasting life. 
 It takes opposition to let you know whether you 
 are willing to accept Christ. A man does not 
 know whether he really believes Christ until 
 he is opposed in his beUeving, and opposed to 
 the real hurting point. He has just as much 
 faith in Christ as he is willing to declare, and 
 stand by, and insist upon, when he is under fire. 
 Opposition is the fire test. Faith isn't faith 
 unless it can stand the fire test. 
 
 * Rev. iii. 20, 21, with Jeremiah xiv. 8. 
 
 * Rev. V. 10. 
 
A Message from the Crowned Christ 121 
 
 The Decisive Trait of Faith. 
 
 The plain inference here is that he who doesn't 
 overcome shows that he really doesn't believe in 
 his heart. And the natural result is that he does 
 not receive these things promised. That is, he 
 is not saved because he won't accept the Lord 
 Jesus as his Saviour when it comes to the fire 
 test. 
 
 There are without doubt thousands in the 
 Church who will be left behind on the earth when 
 our Lord Jesus catches up His own. This does 
 not mean necessarily that they will be lost. 
 There will be another opportunity of being saved 
 for those living on the earth at that time. The 
 Kingdom will be a wonderful time of salvation. 
 There will be a continuous revival of the realest 
 sort going on everywhere all the time. 
 
 But these would not have the blessed privi- 
 lege of fellowship with the King in the King- 
 dom, nor the blessedness of fuller resurrection 
 life at this time. That is reserved for those who 
 by grace have believed on the Lord Jesus, during 
 His absence and continued rejection, in spite of 
 the fire of opposition. 
 
 It is notable that the Thyatiran message speaks 
 of great tribulation coming to that Church if it 
 continue unchanged. And that the Philadelphia 
 Church is to be kept through " the hour of trial, 
 that which is to come upon the whole earth." 
 Throughout the Scriptures mention is made of a 
 time of persecution coming at the end. The 
 
122 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 common term for it is tribulation. It is called 
 the great tribulation. There will be more to be 
 said about this again. 
 
 It is possible that it will be found that this 
 Patmos message will have special significance 
 during that trying time at the end. But it should 
 be noted that it fits into the spirit of opposi- 
 tion that is always found where there is true, 
 faithful witnessing. 
 
 The tribulation itself will be the time of in- 
 tensest opposition carried to the extreme of vio- 
 lent persecution. It will be the climax of con- 
 ditions always present, wherever there is faith- 
 ful witnessing. Faithfulness to Christ always 
 arouses opposition. 
 
 The test of whether we really accept Christ 
 and believe Him is not in anything we say. It 
 is not even in what we are in our lives when 
 all goes smoothly. It is in what we are in our 
 lives when opposed, when it costs criticism, os- 
 tracism, petty persecution, or more outright per- 
 secution. This is our Lord's test of acceptance 
 of Himself. 
 
 We have had many definitions of what it means 
 to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And these 
 have been helpful in clearing the air and help- 
 ing us to a simple acceptance of Him. These 
 definitions have touched chiefly the inner part of 
 faith, the part we are conscious of. 
 
 Here is another definition. Here is the last 
 word on the subject, the authoritative word, 
 from our Lord Jesus Himself. It tells what 
 faith is in its outward working, the part the 
 
A Message from the Crowned Christ 123 
 
 crowd sees. The faith that accepts Jesus as 
 Saviour accepts Him also as Lord. 
 
 That faith naturally rings true to Him under 
 all circumstances. It rings truest and clearest 
 whenever opposition to Him is aroused, whether 
 the opposition of indifference, of criticism and 
 sneer, or of persecution. 
 
 There are certain commonly accepted things 
 that are in themselves only good, but which are 
 not conclusive evidence that we really have sav- 
 ing faith in the Saviour. The act of coming 
 into Church membership whether by confirma- 
 tion, by an assent to questions regarding one's 
 personal faith, or by being baptized, the fact 
 of membership in the Church, the partaking of 
 the Lord's supper, serving as an official of the 
 Church in pulpit or pew, faithful attendance, lib- 
 eral support, — these things are only good. 
 
 But they do not furnish conclusive evidence 
 of one's acceptance of Christ. It is quite pos- 
 sible to be carried along on the common current 
 in such things. There is clear evidence that 
 many are. The decisive thing, the test thing is 
 this : how we stand opposition, the polite, sneer- 
 ing sort, the more aggressive sort, or — if it come 
 to that — the violent sort. The fire reveals every 
 man's faith if there be any there. 
 
 There are two fire tests. One is of our faith 
 in Christ, as revealed in the frictional fires of 
 opposition. Whoever stands that test is caught 
 up into His presence when He comes, or goes 
 at once into His presence if our going precede 
 His coming. 
 
124 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 The second is of the love-spirit, how far it 
 has been the very breath of our life as revealed 
 by the fire of His presence. For the love-spirit 
 means personal loyalty to Jesus, purity of heart, 
 holiness of life, steadiness of purpose, and the 
 exquisite gentleness of patience in our conduct 
 toward all others. 
 
 These words of our Lord Jesus are very 
 searching. This Patmos message must have been 
 a painful one for Him to give John, and painful 
 for John to repeat. It is painful for any one 
 to repeat when its meaning is understood. It 
 should send one off into some quiet corner alone 
 on his knees with that great " search me " prayer 
 of the Psalmist.^ 
 
 Recently I was told a simple incident of one 
 of the truly great Christian men of our genera- 
 tion. He was at the head of one of the largest 
 concerns of our country employing thousands 
 of men, but never knowing any labor troubles. I 
 remember the impression made on me a few 
 years ago at the time of his death, by the re- 
 mark made to me by two different men of this 
 man's city, men that I think did not know each 
 other, or maybe very slightly. As I spoke of 
 him each man said in a subdued voice, " Oh, 
 everybody in loved Mr. ! " 
 
 This incident was told by his son. The two 
 were on a train together. The father rose and 
 went forward to another part of the train. As 
 he went out a man sitting opposite came over 
 and spoke to the son. His flashy manner of dress 
 * Psalm cxxxix. 
 
A Message from the Crowned Christ 125 
 
 and the fact that he seemed to have been drink- 
 ing suggested the sort of man he was. He said 
 to the son: 
 
 "Wasn't that Mr. So-and-so?" 
 
 " Yes/' the son repHed. 
 
 *' Well," the man said, as though talking half 
 to himself, " if there were more men like him, 
 there'd be fewer like me." 
 
 And he turned to his seat and sat as though 
 absorbed in his thought. The son, in speaking of 
 it after his father's death, said it was one of the 
 tenderest memories he had of his father. 
 
 The common crowd on the street and our 
 Lord Jesus are united in one thing: they want 
 more men like Him, Jesus our Saviour. Then 
 there'd be fewer of the other sort. 
 
v.— AN ADVANCE STEP IN THE 
 ROYAL PROGRAMME 
 
"*We are watching, we are waiting, 
 For the bright prophetic day; 
 When the shadows, weary shadows, 
 From the world shall roll away. 
 
 " We are watching, we are waiting. 
 For the star that brings the day; 
 When the night of sin shall vanish, 
 And the shadows melt away. 
 
 " We are watching, we are waiting, 
 For the beauteous King of day ; 
 For the chiefest of ten thousand, 
 For the Light, the Truth, the Way. 
 
 "We are waiting for the morning, 
 When the beauteous day is dawning, 
 We are waiting for the morning, 
 For the golden spires of day." * 
 
 ' W. O. Gushing. 
 
AN ADVANCE STEP IN THE 
 ROYAL PROGRAMME 
 
 (Revelation, Chapters iv. and v.) 
 
 A Look into Heaven. 
 
 Heaven is a place of intensest and tenderest 
 interest to every one. It is true that there is 
 less emphasis on getting to heaven as a result 
 of being saved than there was a generation ago. 
 Indeed, no emphasis at all. The whole thought 
 now is about our life here on the earth. We 
 think less about dying and more about living. 
 
 This is true. Yet every one of us has loved 
 ones who have slipped from our grasp, and gone 
 from our midst. We think of them. The ten- 
 derest memories brood over us, and come like 
 a flood sometimes. 
 
 We may have the sweet sense of assurance 
 that these loved ones are saved. But there is 
 an intense longing at times to know more about 
 them, where they are, what they are doing, how 
 much they know of things down here. These 
 thoughts will come crowding in upon us. 
 
 Now here is some light. All the questions are 
 
 not answered. But there comes clear, sweet 
 
 light to comfort our hearts during the waiting 
 
 time until we shall be joined with them again. 
 
 "9 
 
130 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 We are given here in John's Revelation the first 
 clear, definite glimpse into the upper world. It 
 is told us in the language of earth of course. 
 It must be, else we would not understand. But 
 clearly there is a glory and happiness clear be- 
 yond what earthly words can tell. 
 
 This is the first glimpse into heaven given 
 us in this old Book of God. Jacob wakes up 
 in his dream and sees a ladder set up connecting 
 earth and heaven, and the angels going up and 
 returning again while God talks with him. It 
 means much to him, but gives us no answer to 
 our questions, except to make plain that there 
 is a very real and wondrous world up there where 
 our loved ones go. 
 
 Moses is up in the mount with God for six 
 weeks nearly, twice over, but there is no sug- 
 gestion of what he may have seen; only the 
 transfiguring change in his face, and the strongly 
 gentling change in his character. 
 
 Ezekiel finds the heavens opening and sees 
 the vision, so like John's, of the wondrous Man. 
 Stephen looks up steadfastly into heaven and sees 
 the resplendent glory of God, and the crucified 
 Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Paul 
 is caught up into heaven, not improbably at the 
 time that his body lay bruised and bleeding and 
 apparently lifeless outside Lystra. But the 
 sights he sees and the over-awing glory are too 
 much to be told. But here John is taken up in 
 vision into the heavens, into the presence of God, 
 and sees much, and tells us what he sees. 
 
 It was after the vision of the glorified Man and 
 
An Advance Step 131 
 
 His message. John is sitting thinking on all he 
 has seen and heard, thinking back to Ephesus 
 and the other Churches he knew so well. He is 
 wondering perhaps how he can tell them what, 
 whom, he has seen; and wondering too how he 
 can tell them this message entrusted to him. 
 
 The holy spell is still strong upon him, when 
 all at once he noticed what looks like a door, a 
 door opened above him in the blue. And as he is 
 looking, astonished, that same voice that had 
 been speaking with him before speaks again. He 
 is bidden to " come up hither," and he will be 
 shown the things that are to happen some time 
 in the future. At once he is conscious of that 
 same gentle, enveloping presence of the Holy 
 Spirit as before. At once He is up in heaven. 
 And he tells us the scene that opens to his 
 eyes. 
 
 There is a throne set. What a comfort ! There 
 is a throne. There is a centre of authority and 
 power to our world. This Revelation is pecul- 
 iarly the book of a throne. Up yonder above 
 the moral tangle and confusion of earth is a 
 reigning throne. 
 
 There is One sitting on the throne. That 
 throne is occupied. It has not been vacated. 
 Men down here may push God off the throne 
 of their lives, and try to push Him out of the 
 affairs of the earth. But He sits on the throne 
 above. And that throne dominates the life of the 
 earth. Nothing can be done without per- 
 mission. 
 
 John can't describe this one sitting on the 
 
132 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 throne. The sight is too much for his eyes. 
 When the seventy elders of Israel see God, all 
 that they can remember is the dazzle of glory 
 in the wonderful pavement under His feet. It 
 seems like a pavement of precious stones of 
 sapphire, but as clear as crystal. So now all 
 that John can see is some One who seems to his 
 eyes like transparent precious stones blazing with 
 light. This is the only thing he can think of 
 to tell of what he sees. 
 
 Rest in the Midst of Unrest. 
 
 There is a rainbow around the throne. The 
 radiance of light shining out from this One on 
 the throne makes a rainbow. If one wonders 
 how God can look down on the misery and sin, 
 the rebellion and wretchedness that dominate 
 most of the earth, here is the answer. His finger 
 is never off the pulse. He knows all as we never 
 can. And he feels as we never do the pain of 
 life, and the discord of earth. The unceasing cry 
 of earth comes up in his ears. 
 
 But He is controlled by a purpose. It is a 
 purpose of strong patient love. He has made 
 a promise that man shall have fullest opportunity 
 unchecked by the natural sweeping judgment, 
 that invariable working out of sin and wrong. 
 That throne keeps the order of nature working 
 smoothly and faithfully for man's sake, holding 
 in restraint the forces that would hinder and 
 destroy. The rainbow is the signature to His 
 promise. That rainbow is always before His 
 
An Advance Step 133 
 
 face. That promise has never been forgotten. 
 This explains the quietness of the One on the 
 throne, looking down on the moral confusion of 
 the race. 
 
 But this rainbow is not like the common rain- 
 bows that we know. It completely encircles the 
 throne. Our rainbows are broken up. They are 
 never seen in their completeness. Our lookout on 
 things sees only a part; it never sees all. It is 
 never complete. The view of things up there is 
 complete. Everything is seen and is seen in its 
 true relation to everything else. The throne is 
 the one place of perfect perspective and poise. 
 
 And this rainbow is all of one colour, a clear, 
 soft emerald-green. We know that green is the 
 most restful of all colours. Some colours are 
 irritating. Some persons of very sensitive, nerv- 
 ous temperament are even made sick by certain 
 colours. And we are all affected more than we 
 know in a hurtful way by certain colours. But 
 green is the colour of rest. It soothes the eyes 
 and nerves and even the spirit. The rainbow 
 round about the throne looked like a quiet, quiet- 
 ing emerald-green. The One on the throne is at 
 perfect rest regarding things down here. He 
 knows all. His ears hear all, the cry of distress 
 and despair, the defiance and arrogance and blas- 
 phemy. His eyes see His children down here, 
 creative children all of them, prodigal children 
 so many of them, and trusting children walking 
 in the shadows. He sees all. And He feels all 
 with His great feeling heart. 
 
 Yet He is at rest. Do you wonder how He 
 
134 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 can be ? When Jesus saw the multitudes He was 
 moved with compassion; He suffered in heart 
 with them, for they were as shepherdless sheep, 
 torn and distressed. And the heart beating in 
 rhythm with His has as hard a time as He. If 
 He lead you in service to some foreign mission 
 land, you see and know and feel as no tourist 
 party hurried through the outer fringes ever does 
 or can. 
 
 And in Christian lands of the West, and the 
 homeland, in slum as in polite circles, in com- 
 mercial quarters as in the university world, the 
 heart that is in touch with Jesus' heart sees and 
 hears and feels and senses things as they are un- 
 der the surface or sticking boldly out through 
 the surface. And feels at times as though it can 
 never again be at rest. 
 
 How can He, on the throne, be so quiet, and 
 be at rest ? And there is an answer to our burn- 
 ing question, a simple, real answer. He knows 
 the end. He has a purpose and a plan. The 
 present is only one stage in His great plan. This 
 is man's opportunity, and possibly some one's 
 else opportunity, too. It is to be followed by 
 something else radically different down on this 
 earth. 
 
 He is held steady during this time by a great 
 purpose. It is a purpose of great, tender love. 
 To His eye looking sleeplessly down there is rest 
 even as of emerald-green. And so there will be 
 rest for him who looks sleeplessly up to the 
 throne of control, encircled in the emerald rain- 
 bow of perfect peace. And we can be of best 
 
An Advance Step 135 
 
 service to Him by resting in our hearts, resting 
 in Him, even while working in the thick of things 
 as they are down here. 
 
 They See His Face. 
 
 Then John sees twenty-four other thrones 
 round about the central throne. And on these 
 there are twenty-four men sitting. These men 
 are wearing white garments, and have crowns of 
 gold upon their heads. This is the part of in- 
 tense interest. Who are these? And what does 
 this mean? 
 
 What has been said before about picture lan- 
 guage, the language of the Orient, of childhood, 
 of the common crowd, the universal language, 
 will help us here. The Bible is an Oriental book. 
 It talks in picture language. This is humanly 
 what gives it such freshness and peculiar adap- 
 tation. The radical change of circumstances and 
 speech and mode of thought in different centu- 
 ries makes all books antiquated after a certain 
 time. This book has the freshness of youth, for 
 in its simple picture language it deals in prin- 
 ciples. But picture language must be held to 
 its simplicity. And something of familiarity 
 with the whole range of the Scripture is needful 
 to use the key to the simple picture language. 
 
 Let us look a bit at the simple scene here. 
 These men are elders, that is they are leaders. 
 They represent multitudes of others. Through- 
 out the Bible twelve is the number of complete- 
 ness, both in things and people. A complete 
 
136 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 gathering or throng of people is represented by 
 the number twelve. There are twelve tribes of 
 Israel, and so on. This is so familiar that 
 it need only be named without further illustra- 
 tion. 
 
 There are two great divisions of this Bible, 
 the Old Testament and the New. These stand 
 naturally for the two great divisions of time, be- 
 fore Christ and after. This division is strongly 
 marked in the Bible, and sharply marked in our 
 Christian consciousness. It has been a common 
 thing to wonder about the salvation and spiritual 
 knowledge and privileges of people who lived be- 
 fore Christ came and died. 
 
 Twice twelve make twenty-four. These 
 twenty-four elders represent the redeemed ones 
 from both of these great divisions of time. That 
 is to say, the picture tells us this. All the people 
 from creation's earliest morn up to the present, 
 including the one who went out last from some 
 sorrowing family circle, all who have had the 
 touch of heart with God, are gathered in the 
 presence of Him who sits on the throne. That is 
 one simple thing that stands out clear and sure. 
 
 These are represented as sitting. The slave 
 or servant never sat in his master's presence. 
 Friends sit together. Angels are never spoken 
 of as sitting in the presence of God. When our 
 Lord Jesus was received up He sat down at the 
 Father's right hand. We are spoken of as seated 
 in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Sitting 
 together means being on terms of intimacy and 
 fellowship. Through the precious blood of our 
 
An Advance Step 137 
 
 Lord Jesus we are all accepted in the Beloved and 
 received and trusted as He is. 
 
 These elders are clad in white garments. That 
 is one of the familiar things spoken of much 
 in this end-book. Part of the promise to those 
 of overcoming faith is that they shall be arrayed 
 in white garments, and walk with Christ in 
 white.^ Those who are faulty in the Church are 
 urged to get white garments.- The martyrs 
 waiting their vindication/ and the great multi- 
 tudes who come up out of the tribulation are 
 given white raiment.* The bride at the joyous 
 marriage supper, and the armies following the 
 conquering Christ, are clad in fine linen, bright 
 and pure.^ 
 
 We are told that this white linen means a pure 
 life.^ These garments have been washed in the 
 blood of the Lamb.'^ These multitudes have been 
 cleansed in the blood of Christ and purified by 
 the Holy Spirit and made perfect in purity and 
 holiness as they came up into the presence of the 
 Father on the throne. 
 
 These elders are wearing golden crowns. This 
 language, too, is familiar. The acknowledgment 
 and reward of faithfulness and of service is 
 spoken of commonly under this bit of picture 
 talk.^ The angels are never spoken of as being 
 crowned. Christ was crowned, that is received 
 
 ^Rev. iii. 4-5. ^ Rev. iii. 18. * Rev. vi. 11. 
 
 * Rev. vii. 9. ° Rev. xix. 8, 14. " Rev. xix. 8. 
 ' Rev. vii. 14 ; xxii. 14. 
 
 * Rev. ii. 10; iii. 11; I Corinthians ix. 25; II Timothy 
 iv. 8; James i. 12; I Peter v. 4. 
 
138 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 into the presence of the Father, as the full recog- 
 nition of His worthiness and of what He had 
 done, and in vindication after the shameful re- 
 jection by men. 
 
 These men and women and children in the 
 Father's presence have been rewarded and are 
 being rewarded for their faithfulness in obedi- 
 ence and in life. All the struggles and difficul- 
 ties, the hard road, the endurance, the patient 
 suffering for His name's sake, the faithfulness 
 in doing the allotted tasks, all these have been 
 noted and acknowledged. There is the sweet 
 peace of the Father's approval in all of these 
 before the throne. 
 
 Going to School to God. 
 
 And these are sitting on thrones. When Jesus 
 was teaching His disciples, in the dark days of 
 bitter opposition He wooed them with this : " Ye 
 shall sit upon twelve thrones." ^ And a bit later 
 as they sat round the supper table on the night 
 of His betrayal, when things are getting to the 
 darkest, again He woos them : '* Ye may eat 
 and drink at my table in my Kingdom; and ye 
 shall sit on thrones." ^ He that overcometh is 
 assured of sitting with Christ on His throne.^ 
 
 All the redeemed ones of earth are to have 
 part with Christ in the coming Kingdom time. 
 They reign with Him.* During this present time 
 the countless hosts of angels have a part in min- 
 
 ^ Matthew xix. 28. * Luke xxii. 30. 
 
 "Rev. iii. 21. * Rev. v. lo; xx. 4, 6. 
 
An Advance Step 139 
 
 istering to man on the earth. ^ Even so during 
 the Kingdom time to come the countless hosts 
 of the redeemed will have the sweet privilege of 
 service with Christ and on behalf of those on the 
 earth. And it is quite possible that they already 
 have a part in such a ministry. 
 
 A little farther in the description it is seen 
 that these elders have " each one a harp, and 
 golden bowls full of incense, which are the pray- 
 ers of the saints." Heaven is a place of wonder- 
 ful music. Its very atmosphere must be tuned 
 to the rarest rhythmic harmonies. And each one 
 has part in the music being made. 
 
 And yet more, they are continuing the sweet 
 ministry of intercession learned down on earth. 
 This means that they are in touch with earth. 
 They know the needs of loved ones and of all, 
 and they have the privilege of fellowship in 
 this with Him who ever liveth to make inter- 
 cession. 
 
 And there is one other thing we know here 
 at once without being told. If a friend tells me 
 that he has a rose garden under the care of a 
 skilled gardener, I know without being told that 
 the roses are growing. I at once look through 
 my friend's words and see bushes full of roses 
 of all colours, some full blown, some half blown, 
 some bursting buds, and some just budding. For 
 there is a garden, and a gardener, and sun and 
 rain and dew. I know there must be growth 
 and beauty. 
 
 ^ Hebrews i. 14 with Daniel vii. 10 and Psalm ciii. 
 ao-2i. 
 
I40 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 Even so we know that the loved ones who have 
 parted from us are growing. They are in the 
 Father's presence, in intimate fellowship. That 
 tells me of their growth. That little one who 
 slipped away so young, years ago, has been grow- 
 ing in mental powers, in character as well as in 
 what down here we call stature, and growing 
 most of all in love. And so at the meeting time, 
 in the air or up there, there will be instant recog- 
 nition, as well as instant delight over the growth 
 under such wondrous tutorage. 
 
 This is the glimpse into the upper world which 
 John sees and is allowed to give us here. The 
 redeemed ones of earth of all the ages are in 
 the presence of the Father and of the Lord 
 Jesus and of the angels, on terms of intimate 
 fellowship, made pure and perfect in character, 
 but always growing from more to more, and 
 having a share in blessed ministry. And they 
 listen to and have share in making music more 
 exquisite than our earthly language can de- 
 scribe. 
 
 They understand the wondrous plans for the 
 earth, for now they see all things through the 
 Lord Jesus' eyes. They have some part with- 
 out doubt in welcoming those who come to join 
 them, even as they will have part in receiving 
 those who are caught up at our Lord's return. 
 And they look forward eagerly to the glad time 
 of righting that will come then. 
 
 But let us look a bit more at what John sees. 
 Out of the throne are seen proceeding lightnings 
 and voices and thunders. Three other times in 
 
An Advance Step 141 
 
 this book it speaks of lightning and voices and 
 thunder.^ These things of course are the fa- 
 miHar accompaniments of a storm. It is notice- 
 able that each other time they are named in the 
 book it is in connection with some direct action 
 being taken by God in the affairs of the earth. 
 And each time there is some added item intensi- 
 fying the scene. 
 
 A physical storm is caused by two areas of un- 
 equal temperature coming together. The storm 
 is the process of coming together and equalizing 
 of the atmospheric conditions. The inference 
 here would seem to be that the time of action 
 has come to straighten out matters on the earth. 
 The two moral atmospheres of heaven and earth 
 seem to be coming into contact, and a storm 
 is resulting before clear weather comes. It sug- 
 gests that our Lord Jesus is taking the next 
 direct step in His broader plan. 
 
 God's Ideal of Creation. 
 
 But let us look a little further. In the book's 
 picture language there are " seven lamps of fire 
 burning before the throne." These we are plainly 
 told *' are the seven spirits of God." That is a 
 Hebrew way of saying " the perfect spirit of 
 God." This is of intense interest. The Holy 
 Spirit is represented as being before the throne. 
 
 In the confidential talk with the inner group of 
 disciples on the betrayal night, in John's Gospel,^ 
 
 * Rev. viii. 5; xi. 19; xvi. 18, 21. 
 ^ John xiv.-xvi. 
 
142 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 Jesus promises that when He has ascended up 
 to the Father He will send down the Holy Spirit 
 to them. When the Spirit has come down to 
 the disciples He will begin a new ministry of 
 witnessing to the world through them. 
 
 In the Book of Acts that promise is fulfilled. 
 The Spirit comes down with remarkable mani- 
 festations on the day of Pentecost. The dis- 
 tinctive thing He does is to take possession of a 
 group of men and form them into a new wit- 
 nessing body called the Church. He had dwelt 
 in the nation of Israel as a nation, and had been 
 withdrawn from that nation when it proved finally 
 faithless to its mission. He had dwelt in indi- 
 vidual men before and during and after that 
 time. 
 
 At Pentecost He is sent down on a new mis- 
 sion. He is to do in men all that Jesus has 
 done for them in His life and death and resur- 
 rection. But the distinctive thing of Pentecost 
 is His forming this new body called the Church, 
 through which He begins a new ministry of wit- 
 nessing to the world. 
 
 All through the Acts and Epistles He is con- 
 stantly spoken of as here on the earth working 
 in the Church and through it. He in the Church 
 is a powerful restraint upon the powers of evil 
 in the world. In Thessalonians,^ Paul has 
 spoken of a day coming when that restraint 
 would be withdrawn. The Holy Spirit, the 
 " One that restraineth now," is to be taken away. 
 Now here the Holy Spirit is represented as 
 ^ II Thessalonians ii. 6-7. 
 
An Advance Step 143 
 
 being, not in the Church, as always in the Acts 
 and Epistles, but as being " before the throne." 
 This is the second significant thing to note in 
 this scene. This also would seem to suggest the 
 beginning of a new order of things. 
 
 John goes quietly on with his description. Be- 
 fore the throne he sees a great expanse that looks 
 like a sea of clear, bright, beautiful crystal. Be- 
 fore the throne and around about the throne are 
 four living creatures or creatures of life. These 
 living creatures are of intensest interest. They 
 appear throughout the Scriptures from the Gar- 
 den of Eden in Genesis to the very close of this 
 Book of Revelation. 
 
 They are also called cherubim and seraphim, 
 that is, cherubs and seraphs. They are always 
 associated directly with the immediate presence 
 of God,^ and with His presence-chamber, in the 
 tabernacle,^ in the temple,^ and in Ezekiel's 
 vision of a new temple,* and in the thought of 
 the people.'' There is one possible exception to 
 this, where they are seen at the entrance to the 
 Garden of Eden.^ The description of them is 
 most full in Ezekiel. It varies in details, but 
 with the essentials always the same. 
 
 * Ezekiel i. 4-28; x. 1-22. 
 
 ' Exodus XXV. 17-22 ; xxxvii. 6-9. 
 
 • I Kings vi. 23-26; viii. 6-7; II Chronicles iii. 10-14; 
 y. 7-8. 
 
 * Ezekiel xH. 15-26. 
 
 °I Samuel iv. 4; II Samuel vi. 2; xxii. 11; 
 I Chronicles xiii. 6 ; Psalm xviii. 10 ; Ixxx. i ; xcix. i ; 
 Isaiah vi. 1-3 ; xxxvii. i6. 
 
 • Genesis iii. 24. 
 
144 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 The general appearance is that of a man, but 
 there are four faces as of a man, a Hon, an ox 
 or calf, a flying eagle, and sometimes a cherub 
 face. They are full of eyes everywhere, and they 
 seem enveloped in the pure fire which everywhere 
 is associated with God's own presence. These 
 descriptions combined suggest perfection of 
 purity, of intelligence, of obedience, and of 
 power. 
 
 In this book of the Revelation they are spoken 
 of seven times,^ that is, more frequently than 
 in any other book, though not so fully as in 
 Ezekiel. Five times they are leading or joining 
 in the worship of God, by men and angels, and 
 twice they are cooperating with the Lamb or the 
 angels in what is being done on the earth. 
 
 These beautiful, intelligent beings seem to rep- 
 resent the whole animate creation, man, the ani- 
 mals intimately associated in service with man, 
 those that roam at will, and the birds, and the 
 angels. It would seem as though they stand for 
 God's ideal of creation, as it was before the hurt 
 of sin came, as He holds it in His heart, and as 
 it will be after sin has gone. His ideal of a 
 perfect and perfected creation is always in His 
 presence and before His face, intelligently and 
 gladly carrying out His will, reverently and joy- 
 ously sounding His praise. 
 
 It suggests that He will not rest content until 
 His ideal for the creation shall be a sweet, full 
 realization, all sin and rebellion removed and 
 
 ' iv. 6-9; V. 6, 8, 14; vi. I, 3, 5, 7; vii. ii ; xiv. 3; 
 XV. 7; xix. 4. 
 
An Advance Step 145 
 
 all His works uniting in joyous, continuous wor- 
 ship, and glad, harmonious obedience. 
 
 The Significant Book. 
 
 All this is interesting; some of it intense in 
 interest. But it is only a setting. It is inci- 
 dental. The chief thing is yet to be told. John 
 had been told that he would be shown the things 
 that would come to pass some time in the future. 
 We come now to the beginnings of these 
 " things." 
 
 The One who is sitting on the throne has a 
 carefully sealed book or document in his hand. 
 An angel calls out loudly for any one who is 
 qualified to do so to step forward and take the 
 document and break its seals. And as John 
 watches intently no one comes forward. No one 
 can be found, either in the heaven, in earth, 
 or in the region spoken of as under the earth. 
 
 At this John is greatly distressed, and weeps 
 much, so he must have understood at once just 
 what this meant. And one of the elders com- 
 forts him with the assurance that there is One 
 who has "' overcome to open the book, and the 
 seven seals thereof,"' " the lion of the tribe of 
 Judah." This word *' overcome " suggests that 
 this one has been in some great conflict and has 
 gotten the victory and overcome all opposition. 
 And this qualifies Him to take and open the 
 document. He is the only one among untold 
 numbers so qualified. 
 
 And now John sees this One. He is standing 
 
146 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 in the very midst of the throne surrounded by 
 creatures and elders. We easily recognize this 
 as our Lord Jesus. He is a lion in leadership and 
 strength. He is a lamb in gentleness of char- 
 acter, and in the sacrificial experience He has 
 been through. The marks of death are plainly 
 seen on His person. 
 
 As He comes forward He reaches and takes 
 the book out of the hand of the One on the 
 throne. He is allowed to take it. His qualifica- 
 tion to take the document and break its seals is 
 acceptable to the One on the throne. 
 
 And as He takes the book there is a remark- 
 able burst of praise and adoration that must have 
 made all heaven ring. And those on earth in 
 touch of spirit with the scene and its purpose 
 and the Chief Actor would surely feel some thrill 
 in the spirit currents of earth. 
 
 The outburst of worship is led by the four liv- 
 ing creatures and the twenty-four elders who fall 
 down before the Lamb and sing a song. What 
 music that must be when the untold thousands 
 sing as only redeemed ones can sing. Then 
 countless hosts of angels join in and lift the 
 chorus. And then there is the creation chorus, 
 every created thing in heaven and earth, under 
 the earth, in the sea, absolutely everything seems 
 to join in this indescribable music. And the four 
 living creatures say, '' Amen." And again the 
 elders fall down and worship. 
 
 John's distress at the beginning, and now this 
 indescribable outburst of praise, tell us that this 
 is something thrilling and significant beyond ex- 
 
An Advance Step 147 
 
 pression. What does this mean, our Lord Jesus 
 taking the sealed document preparatory to break- 
 ing its seals? 
 
 It has been said in a previous talk that every 
 thread woven into the fabric of the Old Testa- 
 ment can be found in the fabric of this Revela- 
 tion book. So that if one goes to work patiently 
 he can trace every allusion here to something 
 back in these older leaves. This gives us the 
 clue to the significance of this remarkable 
 scene. 
 
 That clue seems in this case to be found in 
 the book of Jeremiah, chapter thirty-two. There 
 is found an allusion to a simple primitive custom 
 of the Hebrew people in the exchange of real 
 estate and in taking possession of property to 
 which one is entitled. 
 
 The old Hebrew custom seems to have been as 
 follows : When property was purchased the deed 
 to the new owner was made out in duplicate, an 
 open copy and a sealed copy. The open copy 
 was clearly for public information, open to all. 
 The sealed copy as clearly belonged only to the 
 owner of the property as his evidence of owner- 
 ship. So it identified him as the one named in 
 the open copy. 
 
 If a new heir comes to take possession of an 
 estate, or in case of a dispute over ownership, 
 the claimant who was adjudged the rightful heir 
 or owner would be given the possession of the 
 sealed document or deed. And as so attested 
 by the judge or court, he only would be properly 
 qualified to " take " the sealed roll, break its 
 
148 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 seals, read its contents, and so formally take 
 possession of the estate, or property. 
 
 Now under the symbolism of this old bit of 
 Hebrew custom, our Lord Jesus is represented 
 here as stepping forward to take possession of 
 the earth, and begin His reign over it. A 
 Hebrew immersed in the old primitive customs 
 of his people in Palestine would understand this 
 allusion at once, however startled or sceptical he 
 might be as to its significance in this connection. 
 
 Taking Possession. 
 
 The language used in the song of praise when 
 our Lord Jesus takes the sealed book is signifi- 
 cant. They say, " thou art worthy," that is, 
 thou art qualified; thou art the duly attested one 
 with the right to take possession. " For thou 
 wast slain, and didst purchase unto God with 
 thy blood men of every tribe,'' and so on. 
 
 Man had been given the dominion of the earth. 
 He had by obedience to the evil one transferred 
 his right to Him who is repeatedly called " the 
 prince of this world." Our Lord Jesus pur- 
 chased men out of their slavery back to their 
 original Lord, — with all that was rightfully 
 theirs. He has allowed fullest opportunity for 
 all who will to accept His Lordship. Now He 
 is about to take possession of the earth on behalf 
 of men, and for them. 
 
 This is the tremendous significance of what 
 John is shown here as something that will take 
 place hereafter. In the scene of the candlesticks 
 
An Advance Step 149 
 
 He is patiently waiting, holding Himself in re- 
 straint. Now the waiting time is over. He is 
 making the next move in His broader plan for 
 the earth. 
 
 There is no hint as to the length of interval 
 between the two scenes, how long He will wait. 
 There is no suggestion as to when this next move 
 will be made. But we are here plainly told that 
 at some time that candlestick waiting time will 
 end, and He will take a forward step in connec- 
 tion with His plans for the earth. And it should 
 be keenly noticed that what follows now in this 
 book of Revelation is the run of events that will 
 immediately follow that next step of His. 
 
 Yet this step is taken up in heaven. The first 
 action of the new move will be there. There 
 will be nothing to be seen on the earth to indi- 
 cate the change. Things there will go on as 
 before, eating and drinking, buying and selling, 
 marrying and giving in marriage, all unconscious 
 of the tremendous events being worked out. 
 
 But now the waiting time still waits. Our 
 opportunity is still open. If we might only be 
 simple enough to be true to our absent Lord 
 Jesus during this waiting time. 
 
 A bishop of the American Episcopal Church, 
 widely known for his saintly character, his cul- 
 ture, and long years of tireless service, was vis- 
 iting in the South. In the town there lived a 
 judge of wide repute for his scholarly learning 
 as well as for his culture and uprightness. Now 
 he was seriously ill, and had requested an inter- 
 view with the bishop. 
 
150 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 He asked the bishop to talk to him about per- 
 sonal religion. And the clergyman talked to this 
 thoughtful, scholarly judge in choice philo- 
 sophical language about the fatherhood of God, 
 the character of Christ, and the essential har- 
 mony of man's true nature with God. The judge 
 listened attentively for some time. 
 
 Then he apologetically interrupted his visitor, 
 and said: 
 
 " Bishop, I'm dying. Won't you please talk 
 to me just like you'd talk to my black boy, 
 Jim?" 
 
 And the bishop could, and did. He told him 
 in simplest talk that he was a sinner. Jesus cHed 
 to save sinners. His blood washes away our 
 sins. We must take Christ as a Saviour, just 
 trust Him, as simply as a child trusts its 
 mother. 
 
 So he talked. And the Judge listened. And 
 the tears came, and the peace. He came as a 
 child, and trusted, and he knew the peace that 
 passeth understanding. It was the simple telling 
 of the simple story of the Saviour who died, and 
 the simple, child-like acceptance of that Saviour. 
 The scholarly bishop helped the learned judge 
 best, in the crisis of his life, by talking as simply 
 as to a child. 
 
 If we might only be simple enough to be true 
 to this Jesus who died, during the remnant of 
 waiting time that remains. 
 
VI.— A CLEARING-UP STORM IN 
 THE REALM 
 
" God Almighty ! King of nations ! earth Thy footstool, 
 heaven Thy throne! 
 
 Thine the greatness, power, and glory, Thine the 
 kingdom, Lord, alone! 
 
 Life and death are in Thy keeping, and Thy will 
 ordaineth all: 
 
 From the armies of Thy heavens to an unseen in- 
 sect's fall. 
 
 "Reigning, guiding, all-commanding, ruling myriad 
 
 worlds of light; 
 Now exalting, now abasing, none can stay Thy hand 
 
 of might! 
 Working all things by Thy power, by the counsel 
 
 of Thy will. 
 Thou art God ! enough to know it, and to hear Thy 
 
 word : * Be still ! ' 
 
 "In Thy sovereignty rejoicing, we Thy children bow 
 and praise. 
 For we know that kind and loving, just and true, 
 
 are all Thy ways. 
 While Thy heart of sovereign mercy, and Thy arm 
 
 of sovereign might, 
 For our great and strong salvation in Thy sovereign 
 grace unite." 
 
 — Frances Ridley Havergal. 
 
A CLEARING-UP STORM IN 
 THE REALM 
 
 (Revelation, Chapters vi.-viii.) 
 
 The Area of the Storm. 
 
 Goodness arouses evil. Faithfulness to Christ 
 stirs opposition. This is a commonplace. A 
 piece of white-hot metal plunged into cold water 
 makes a great fuss. Two areas of sharply dif- 
 ferent temperatures in the atmosphere above us 
 coming suddenly together make a storm. 
 
 Purity entering an atmosphere of impurity and 
 insisting on staying, and on keeping pure, creates 
 a lively disturbance. The tempter was aroused 
 to his subtlest effort when Jesus appeared. There 
 is no such demoniac activity recorded as when 
 Jesus walked among men. 
 
 So crowning a king arouses opposition, if there 
 be opposition. And the active taking of the reins 
 of government has intensified the opposition 
 when it was strong enough to make a stand. The 
 striking illustration of this in the Bible is King 
 David. After Saul's death the men of Judah 
 anointed David king. That was the signal for 
 an immediate attack by the chief of the forces 
 of Saul's house. And this was succeeded by 
 a long war, before David was acknowledged as 
 153 
 
154 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 king over all Israel. The clearing-up storm in 
 his realm lasted a good while before good 
 weather came. 
 
 Here in this Revelation scene we have been 
 looking at our Lord Jesus is represented as step- 
 ping forward to take possession of His realm. 
 It is natural to expect a storm. This will be 
 a signal to the opposition to rally all its power. 
 But there can be no question about the outcome 
 of such a set-to. That storm proves to be a 
 clearing-up storm in the realm. It is to be fol- 
 lowed by such fine moral weather as has not been 
 known before. But the storm itself proves to 
 be a terrific one for the earth while it lasts. 
 
 The greater part of this little end-book is taken 
 up with a description of that storm. But be- 
 fore we turn to this book itself and its storm, 
 we want to get our bearings a bit, so as to un- 
 derstand better what is here. Revelation is the 
 knot in the end of a big bunch of threads. We 
 shall understand the knot better by knowing 
 more about the threads before they are tied into 
 the knot. 
 
 The storm area proves to be very large. It 
 takes in the whole earth. The Bible is a big 
 book in its outlook and grasp. It deals with 
 the whole earth, and the whole race. The 
 thoughtful Bible student comes to have a broad 
 outlook, as well as a close lookout about his 
 own front and back doors. 
 
 It is fascinating to study the geography of the 
 Bible. We talk about the world growing smaller. 
 That refers of course to the rapidity of transit. 
 
A Clearlng-up Storm in the Realm 155 
 
 It is only within a few hundred years that we 
 have learned of the earth being round. The 
 Bible map includes practically the whole world 
 as we have come to know it. 
 
 The centre of the world as seen on this map 
 may seem a little surprising. We Americans 
 feel that the centre of things is here. The Eng- 
 lishman knows that it is in London; and lately 
 the Germans have had the same exckisive sort 
 of knowledge about Berlin. The Chinese has 
 long called his country " the Middle Kingdom," 
 in the sense of its being the central kingdom 
 about which the rest of the world revolves. But 
 here the centre is seen to be on the boundary 
 line, practically, between Orient and Occident, 
 reaching out an embracing arm to each. 
 
 We have a broad division of the earth into 
 East and West. The dififerences between the 
 two, in civilization, mode of thought, religion, 
 language, and so on, are so radical as to make 
 it seem that there was no point of contact. At 
 least this has been emphasized much by western 
 writers on the East. We are disturbed just now 
 here in the far West over the Oriental, Chinese 
 Japanese and Indian crossing the far boundary 
 line between Orient and Occident and coming 
 into the United States and Canada. 
 
 Yet East and West have always overlapped 
 at the middle boundary line. There is a great 
 mixture of races in the strip where the eastern 
 edge of the West and the western edge of the 
 East come together. It is the strip running 
 roughly north and south where Russia's west- 
 
156 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 ern border and Turkey's touch Germany and 
 Austria and Greece, including the never-at-rest 
 Balkan Peninsula. Constantinople sits on the 
 dividing line between East and West, with the 
 worst of both civilizations within her confines. 
 Here the hemispheres touch and their life cur- 
 rents intermingle and flow together. 
 
 Scientific research seems to find good evi- 
 dence that all our European civilization, which 
 of course means American too, may have been 
 brought over by Eastern immigrants from cen- 
 tral Asia long ages ago, Asia coming into Eu- 
 rope. Perhaps we Westerners would not despise 
 the Easterners so contemptuously and patroniz- 
 ingly if we knew how much we are probably 
 indebted to them for our civilization as well as 
 for our Hebrew and Christian faith, our Bible, 
 and the Christian restraining bulwarks of our 
 common life. 
 
 The old common point of contact between 
 Orient and Occident was the strip of land form- 
 ing the western edge of the Orient at the eastern 
 end of the Mediterranean. Palestine has been 
 for centuries the common roadway of all nations, 
 East and West. No bit of earth has been so 
 tramped and trampled by the feet of all na- 
 tions and races. This has been the battlefield 
 of the nations through long centuries. The ends 
 of the earth have met here. It is interesting 
 that the waters that wash its western shore 
 are called the Mediterranean Sea, that is, the 
 middle-of-the-earth sea. 
 
 Here then is the centre of the map. It is the 
 
A Clearlng-up Storm In the Realm 157 
 
 centre of all things in the Bible. And it has 
 proven to be at the centre of human action 
 through history, attested by the very name given 
 to the chief body of water there. 
 
 Jerusalem, the capital city of this Palestine 
 strip, was the centre of a world power in the 
 early ages. It has been the world capital. And 
 it has in turn been fought over and conquered 
 by every world power. No city has been a 
 world centre of action during as long a stretch 
 of time, and to as many different nations. 
 
 Out from this centre the action of the Bible 
 reaches north to Russia, south to Africa (Ethio- 
 pia), east to China (Sinim, Isaiah xlix. 12), and 
 west to Spain. That practically includes the 
 world of our day. America is of course merely 
 a transplanted seedling of Europe. 
 
 Those great Hebrew leaders called prophets 
 had a world outlook. They were world mes- 
 sengers. It is intensely interesting to take a 
 piece of paper, and pencil a rough map of the 
 nations named in their messages, notably Isaiah,^ 
 Jeremiah,^ Ezekiel,^ and Daniel.* Beginning at 
 Jerusalem and Israel they reach first this way, 
 then that, up and down, back and forth, until 
 the whole world of action of that day has been 
 touched. They were men of world size. They 
 had a world outlook and a world message. 
 
 But then God's man always has. The world 
 outlook of Jesus was tremendous. And every 
 
 * Isaiah xiii.-xxiv. " Jeremiah xlvi.-li. 
 ' Ezekiel xxv.-xxxii., xxxviii.-xxxix. 
 
 * Daniel, throughout, notably vii.-xii. 
 
158 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 true disciple of Jesus Christ has the world out- 
 look. Grace broadens as well as refining. It is 
 one of the endless outworkings of sin that tends 
 toward that narrowing provincialism which 
 everywhere hinders so much, and so intensely. 
 
 Now in this world map in the Bible geog- 
 raphy two cities stand out beyond all others, 
 Jerusalem and Babylon; Jerusalem the centre 
 of God's people and of God's plans, Babylon 
 the centre of the opposing worldly power. These 
 are the two outstanding cities of the Bible 
 world. 
 
 Between these two there is an enmity and 
 warfare that is practically continuous. Jerusa- 
 lem comes to be the typical of God's people and 
 power and kingdom. Babylon stands out like- 
 wise as typical of the power and kingdom al- 
 ways and innately opposed to God and to His 
 people. The conflict between the two seems 
 irrepressible and irreconcilable. It is never out 
 of view. 
 
 Babylon has been the centre, under successive 
 dynasties, of a world empire, including not only 
 part of Asia, but reaching west to Europe and 
 south to Africa. It sat practically in the con- 
 necting strip of Orient and Occident, ruling over 
 both. In the dim dawn of history a God- 
 ignoring, and so really a God-defying and man- 
 exalting movement, centred in the city called 
 Babel. And from that time on that city, and 
 its successor Babylon, have seemed as though 
 possessed with a spirit of antagonism to God 
 and His people. It is as though it were the 
 
A Clearing-up Storm in the Realm 159 
 
 earthly headquarters of the blasphemous unseen 
 evil forces. 
 
 This is a simple bit of geography lesson in 
 the Old Testament. This is the map that lies 
 ever open in these older pages, with its two 
 capital cities marked large. And this indicates 
 the area of the storm, and the two central points 
 where its outburst will centre. 
 
 Studying the Weather Forecast. 
 
 It is interesting to find a weather forecast of 
 this storm. The old Hebrew prophets were 
 close students of national and world-wide 
 weather conditions, and much given to making 
 forecasts of impending storms. Even in the 
 New Testament there is this distinct prophetic 
 or foretelling strain running throughout. The 
 father of John the Baptist is told of his son's 
 birth; and Mary, of the unusual birth of her 
 divine Son. The disciples are told of the com- 
 ing of the Holy Spirit. And Agabus tells of a 
 great famine coming. In these instances the 
 fulfilment follows soon after the event is fore- 
 told. 
 
 The destruction of Jerusalem, foretold by 
 Christ, had at least a part of its fulfilment in 
 the terrible Titus siege of 70 a.d. Our Lord said 
 that He would return to earth in great gloiy, 
 and that there would come a great tribulation 
 to all the earth, and repeated the old prophecy 
 of a restoration of the Hebrew kingdom. These 
 have not yet occurred. 
 
i6o About the Crowned Christ 
 
 But the book of the Revelation is distinctively 
 the prophetic book of the New Testament. It 
 deals almost entirely with events that are yet to 
 come. It would be natural that it would fit into 
 the prophetic parts of the Old Testament. So 
 that one who is somewhat familiar with the 
 prophetic books of the Old naturally comes more 
 intelligently to this prophetic book of the New. 
 
 It is true that most of us have a sense of be- 
 wilderment about prophecy. We seem to feel 
 that it requires great scholarship and profound 
 study, and that an understanding of it is not 
 possible to the common run of Christians. And 
 so we largely leave it out as not understandable. 
 
 Yet prophecy is simply God's plans for the 
 future, together with a revelation of other events 
 which are not in His plan, but which He sees 
 will happen in the future. In it He tells us what 
 He means us to understand. And more than 
 this, our understanding will have practical bear- 
 ing on our attitude toward evil and compromise. 
 It will affect our faith, making it steadier, espe- 
 cially when evil seems triumphant and over- 
 bearing. It will make our prayer more intelli- 
 gent and conlBdent. 
 
 There are certain things we all know. As 
 we read back into these pages we know that the 
 break-up of the Jewish nation, which began with 
 the Babylonian Captivity, came to a terrible cli- 
 max in a complete break-up after the rejection 
 of Christ. We know that the other nations 
 commonly called Gentiles (i.e., the nations) have 
 had supremacy in the earth. Israel was at one 
 
A Clearing-up Storm In the Realm i6i 
 
 time acknowledged as the great world power, 
 with many subject nations, in Solomon's time. 
 
 But Gentile supremacy begins back in the 
 time of these Old Testament pages. There is 
 to-day practically no belief that this will ever 
 be changed, except perhaps by a stray Jew here 
 and there, who still holds to his old Bible, and 
 except by those Christians who discern God's 
 plan, and believe both in Him and in it. 
 
 In the absence of an understanding of that 
 plan of God, it has been common to apply all 
 the glowing prophetic Hebrew promises to the 
 Church. The result has been that Israel and 
 the Kingdom have been confused in our minds 
 with the Church. And this has become the com- 
 monplace in the common Church consciousness. 
 
 It is quite possible for the person of average 
 good sense to get something of a simple, broad 
 grasp of the prophetic books. It involves read- 
 ing repeatedly so as to get familiar with the 
 contents, and rapidly so as not to get too much 
 absorbed in details. 
 
 It is needful to use a common-sense interpre- 
 tation in getting at the meaning. It is a simple 
 law that one principle of interpretation should 
 be applied uniformly and consistently to all parts 
 of any one document. If I say arbitrarily, " this 
 part is rhetorical; it doesn't mean just what it 
 says, but something else; and this other part 
 means just what it says," clearly I am reading 
 my own ideas and prejudices into the book. 
 
 It is much slower, and takes more pains and 
 patience, to keep at it until all parts gradually 
 
1 62 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 clear up to us, first this bit, then that, until 
 part fits part, and all hang together. But there 
 is great fascination in it, and one's reverence 
 for this revelation of God's Word grows deeper. 
 
 Of course there is rhetorical language here as 
 everywhere. ** The Lord is my shepherd " is 
 clearly rhetorical. For God is not a shepherd, 
 and I am not a sheep, but a man. But under 
 this simple, clearly rhetorical language the ten- 
 der, personal relationship God bears to me is 
 beautifully expressed. That such language is 
 rhetorical is clear to every mind alike. 
 
 And there is a picture language here, such 
 as speaking of purity of character as " white 
 garments." The honest, earnest, unprejudiced 
 seeker after truth quickly recognizes these, and 
 learns to become skilled in discerning what is 
 meant. We come to see that Israel means 
 Israel, not the Church. Jerusalem means that 
 city in Judea, and so on. 
 
 Of course it is needful that there be an open- 
 mindedness, a humble, teachable spirit, willing to 
 accept the real truth, no matter how it may shake 
 up one's prejudices and prearranged schemes of 
 thought. And, above all, there should be a con- 
 stant prayer fulness of spirit, to learn just what 
 our God is seeking to have us know. Of course 
 there are depths here for the scholarly, profound 
 minds. But we ordinary folk can get a simple, 
 clear grasp of God's plan and revealed insight 
 into the future if we go at it in this thought- 
 ful, prayerful way. And it will be a great help 
 to us to do so. 
 
A Clearlng-up Storm In the Realm 163 
 
 Three Great Unfulfilled Events . 
 
 Let us take a swift glance at these prophetic 
 books of the Old Testament. It helps to remem- 
 ber the natural way in which these prophetic 
 books grew up. These prophets were preachers 
 and teachers. Here are some people going up 
 to the temple service one day in Jerusalem. As 
 they get near the temple they notice a little knot 
 of people standing yonder at a corner listening 
 to a man talking earnestly. Isaiah, fresh from 
 the presence of God, is talking out of a burning 
 heart to the crowd. 
 
 A visitor from another part of the land says 
 curiously to his companion, ** What's that ? '' The 
 other replies : " Oh, it's only Isaiah talking to 
 the people. He is a good man, that Isaiah, a 
 well-meaning, earnest man, but a little too in- 
 tense, I fear." And they pass on to the temple 
 service. By and by Isaiah stops. The moving 
 congregation scatters. He slips quietly down 
 to his house, and under the Spirit's holy, brood- 
 ing presence writes down a part of what he has 
 been saying. So there grew up the rolls to 
 which his name is attached. 
 
 In some such simple, natural way these 
 prophetic books grew up, always under the Holy 
 Spirit's guidance and control. They are full of 
 intense fire, and of the homely talk of street 
 and market and fireside. There are two sorts 
 of these prophets, the preachers like Elijah 
 and Elisha and those who wrote as well as 
 
164 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 spoke, and whose names are preserved in these 
 books. 
 
 There are seventeen of these little books. 
 They fall easily into four groups. The first 
 group contains those belonging in the time before 
 the nation was exiled. It is a period of about 
 one hundred and fifty years, roughly, beginning 
 in the prosperous reign of Uzziah and running 
 up to the time when the nation was taken captive 
 to Babylon. Isaiah is the most prominent 
 prophet of this period, and with him are Hosea, 
 Micah, and Amos, all of whom may have been 
 personally acquainted; and also Zephaniah and 
 Habakkuk. 
 
 The second is the exile group, Jeremiah 
 preaching in Judah, before and during the siege, 
 and to the remnant left behind in the land ; and 
 Ezekiel and Daniel bearing their witness among 
 the exiles in the foreign land. 
 
 The third group is made up of those who wit- 
 nessed after the people are allowed to return 
 to their own land again. The writer of the 
 second part of Isaiah probably preached to the 
 people as the opportunity came to return to 
 Jerusalem.^ Haggai and Zachariah stirred up 
 
 ^ The book of Isaiah falls naturally into two parts, 
 chapters i.-xl., and xH.-lxvi. The historical allusions 
 in each make it quite clear that these two parts belong 
 in two periods far apart. One hundred and eighty- 
 years intervene between the close of the time stated in 
 Isaiah's first chapter as the period of his ministry and 
 the beginning of the return from exile into which the 
 second part fits. 
 
 But the full inspiration of the second part is in 
 
A Clearing-up Storm in the Realm 165 
 
 the returned people to rebuild the temple. Joel 
 and Malachi witnessed probably a little later 
 in the same period. 
 
 The fourth is the foreign group. Obadiah 
 sends a message to the neighbouring nation of 
 Edom; and Jonah and Nahum are sent with 
 messages to Nineveh. If one will try to make 
 a picture of these people and events by reading 
 the historical books, and then watch and listen 
 as the prophets talk, it will do much to make 
 these prophetic books full of the native atmos- 
 phere in which they grew up. 
 
 Now there are three things that gradually 
 come to stand out in these prophetic books. 
 Much of what is being said is of immediate ap- 
 plication. It refers plainly to affairs being lived 
 out then. Then certain things are plainly ful- 
 filled in the coming of Christ. And again there 
 is a great deal that clearly has never been 
 fulfilled but is still future. It is the latter part 
 that naturally is of intensest interest. 
 
 Now in this latter part, dealing with the fu- 
 ture, three things stand out clear and sharp above 
 the rest. There is to be judgment upon Israel 
 for their iniquities. The changes on this are 
 rung again and again. And this stands out as 
 much in the preaching of the Captivity time, 
 and of the Return, as before the Captivity. But 
 in the midst of severest judgment there will be 
 
 no wise affected. This rarely Spirit-controlled man 
 modestly or unconsciously withholds his name from his 
 writings. And they are grouped by the old Hebrew 
 compilers with those of Isaiah. 
 
1 66 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 a remnant spared. The tree is cut down, but 
 the stump is spared; and there is life in the 
 stump. But above these there stand out these 
 three things. 
 
 The -first thing stands out big. It is the thing 
 the nation never forgot. The beUeving Hebrew- 
 still clings to it. The wailers at the wall of 
 Jerusalem to-day never forget it. It is this: 
 there is to be a future time of great glory for 
 the nation of Israel in their own loved land} 
 The kingdom is to be restored, but with a glory- 
 indescribably greater than ever known. This is 
 the bright golden thread, thick and strong, run- 
 ning through from end to end. 
 
 It will come through that spared remnant. 
 The old stump will put out a new shoot. It 
 will be through the coming of a great king, 
 who will prove to be their greatest king,* and 
 will reign not only over Israel, but over all 
 nations as tributary to Israel, with Jerusalem 
 as the capital city both of Israel and of the 
 whole earth.* At its beginning there will be a 
 gathering of Israel from among all the nations 
 where they have been scattered.* To assist these 
 scattered pilgrims to get to their own land, the 
 tongue of the Egyptian sea on the southwest is 
 to be destroyed ; and the waters of the Euphrates 
 on the extreme east are to be so scattered or 
 dried up that men can walk over dry-shod. 
 
 When the great king comes there will be 
 genuine penitence among the people over their 
 
 Msaiah ii. 2-4. * Isaiah xi. 1-9; xxxii. 1-6. 
 
 ' Micah iv. 1*8. * Isaiah xi. 11-16; xxvii. 12-13, 
 
A Clearing-up Storm in the Realm 167 
 
 past sins,^ and they will become a wholly changed 
 people.^ Israel will be a nation converted by 
 the power of the Holy Spirit through the con- 
 version of the people individually. There will 
 be at this time a resurrection of God's people 
 who have died.^ 
 
 The new reign and kingdom is to be one of 
 great spiritual enlightenment to all nations.* 
 There will be everywhere a new, remarkable 
 openmindedness to God and His truth. ^ And 
 there will be the same visible evidence of the 
 presence of God at Jerusalem as when the pillar 
 of fire and cloud was with them in the wilder- 
 ness. That wondrous presence-cloud is to be 
 always in view." 
 
 This sounds to our ears like the highly col- 
 oured visionary dream of some over-enthusiastic 
 Hebrew. Yet this is a calm statement of what 
 is found here. And be it keenly marked, it is 
 a picture which the godly Hebrew of the old 
 time never lost sight of. This is the first thing 
 that stands out in these prophetic pages. 
 
 The second thing stands out distinctly. Pre- 
 ceding this wondrous kingdom the earth will be 
 visited by terrible judgments^ There is an 
 awfully dark shadow before the blaze of light 
 breaks out. A terrific storm will come before 
 the sun shines out in its new strength. All 
 
 * Zechariah xii. 10-14. 
 
 * Jeremiah xxxi. 8-19, 33, 34. 
 
 * Isaiah xxvi. 19 ; Daniel xii. 2. 
 
 * Micah iv. 1-2. " Isaiah xxv. 7. * Isaiah iv. 2-5. 
 'Isaiah xxiv. 1-13, 17-20; ii. 12-19; Micah vii. 15-17- 
 
1 68 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 nations will combine to make war against the 
 Jew. Their forces will be gathered at Jerusa- 
 lem.^ At the head of the coalition will be a 
 power called Babylon.- There will come a ter- 
 rific battle, victory for the coalition will seem 
 assured. The sufferings of the Jews will be 
 indescribable. 
 
 Then there will come a day never after to be 
 . forgotten. In the midst of the indescribable 
 horrors of that battle, when things are at their 
 worst for the Jew, then comes the deliverance. 
 Suddenly Jehovah will appear out of the heavens, 
 with a great company of holy ones. His feet 
 will stand upon Mount Olivet to the east of 
 Jerusalem. There will be a terrible earthquake, 
 and an equally terrific shake-up of the heavenly 
 bodies. The luminaries, sun, moon, and stars, 
 will be darkened.^ There will be terrible judg- 
 ments visited not only upon the earth, but upon 
 the evil spirit powers.* Repeated emphasis is 
 put upon the judgment to be visited upon 
 Babylon. 
 
 All this will sound like a veritable fairy tale 
 to many who are not familiar with this Book 
 of God ; the unlikeliest thing imaginable. Yet 
 this is the thing seriously set forth throughout 
 these old prophetic pages. I have given a few 
 references in footnotes. But these few scat- 
 tered passages of themselves will not give an 
 adequate conception of what these pages hold. 
 
 ^ Zechariah xii. 1-9; xiv. 1-2. * Isaiah xiii. 1-13. 
 
 ' Zechariah xiv. 1-8. 
 
 * Isaiah xxiv. 21-22 ; xxvii. i. 
 
A Clearing-up Storm in the Realm 169 
 
 There is all the fascination of a novel, and 
 immensely more and deeper fascination than any 
 novel, in reading these prophetic pages repeat- 
 edly in the way already spoken of till their mere 
 contents become somewhat familiar. Then tak- 
 ing paper and pencil, running through again, and 
 drawing off patiently and carefully, item after 
 item of these prophecies plainly not yet ful- 
 filled, and then slowly and painstakingly put 
 them together in what would be a simple, logical 
 order. 
 
 It will be helpful, in reading, to remember 
 that it is a common thing with these writers 
 to speak of a future thing as already past. It 
 is a bit of the intensity that sees the thing that 
 is yet to come as already accomplished. And 
 one should discern between the immediate thing 
 that may likely occur in that generation and the 
 far-distant thing. A careful noting of the lan- 
 guage will make the difference clear. 
 
 This is the second thing that stands out, the 
 visitation of judgments. 
 
 Then there is a third thing. This terrible 
 visitation of judgments comes in connection 
 with, and at the close of, a time of great perse- 
 cution of the Jew by the nations. Jeremiah 
 speaks of it as the time of Jacob's trouble,^ and 
 the Man of Fire tells Daniel that there will be 
 a time of trouble such as never was since there 
 was a nation even to that same time} This per- 
 secution of the Jew, and the visitation of judg- 
 ments on the earth as a deliverance from it, 
 
 'Jeremiah xxx. 7-8. ^Daniel xii. i. 
 
170 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 are connected with the setting up of the 
 Kingdom. 
 
 These are the three things that stand domi- 
 nantly out in these prophetic pages as distinctly 
 future, the great Jew persecution unprecedented 
 in intensity, the visitation of terrible judgments 
 on the earth, and the coming of a glorious king- 
 dom. And the three are connected. We know 
 that no events have yet taken place that at all 
 satisfy the language used of these three con- 
 nected events. 
 
 This is the simple outline of expected coming 
 events with which the thoughtful reader of God's 
 Word is supposed to be familiar. The reverent 
 student of God's promises and plans and revela- 
 tions would naturally have all this clear and fresh 
 in his mind as he turns to open the pages of the 
 prophetic book of the New Testament. 
 
 Forecast of the Great Storm . 
 
 Now it is of intense interest to note that our 
 Lord Jesus speaks of these same three things, 
 at much length, and with much emphasis; the 
 persecution, the visitation of judgments, and 
 the kingdom. It came to me as a great surprise 
 and with startling force when I realized, after 
 gathering out this summary from the Old Testa- 
 ment, that the three things that stand out so 
 sharply there are the very things Jesus speaks 
 of here with such fulness and emphasis. 
 
 He puts special emphasis on the time of per- 
 secution as of unprecedented horror and ferocity. 
 
A Clearing-up Storm in the Realm 171 
 
 He plainly indicates that this will be directed 
 not only against the Jew, but against His own 
 followers. Three times this talk of His on 
 Olivet just before His death is given at much 
 length.^ That talk is given to a little group of 
 Jewish disciples who have broken with the Jew- 
 ish leaders, and who become the great leaders of 
 the Church formed at Pentecost. 
 
 He speaks of that terrible experience as 
 " great tribulation," ^ " such as there hath not 
 been the like from the beginning of the creation 
 which God created until now, nor ever shall 
 be." ^ We shall find it spoken of in this book 
 of Revelation as " the tribulation, the great 
 one." ^ It has come to be spoken of commonly 
 as '' the tribulation " and " the great tribula- 
 tion." 
 
 With all this fresh in mind, a run back through 
 the Old Testament brings out that it is spoken 
 of there much more than we may have realized. 
 The warning to Israel, at Sinai, as they made 
 the covenant of allegiance with God, of the bitter 
 punishment that would come if they were un- 
 true, has seemed many times as though couched 
 in very intense, almost extreme language.^ But 
 it is found to fit into these later descriptions of 
 this great tribulation to come. That warning is 
 repeated, in as intense words and with a greater 
 fulness, by Moses in his series of farewell talks 
 
 * Matthew xxiv.-xxv ; Mark xiii ; Luke xxi. 
 
 ' Matthew xxiv. 21, 29. ' Mark xiii. 19. 
 
 * Revelation vii. 14 literally. 
 ** Leviticus xxvi. I4-39* 
 
172 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 in the Plains of Moab,^ and it runs through the 
 song he left for their use.^ 
 
 The experiences of the people of Israel in 
 Egypt are found to be an illustration of the 
 coming experience at the end, great persecution 
 and suffering, then great deliverance through a 
 visitation of judgment upon their persecutors, 
 and great revelation of God's glory following. 
 And the experience of the three young Hebrew 
 exiles in Babylon comes to mind. They went 
 through the fire, seven times heated, and they 
 had a marvellous deliverance, and then high 
 promotion.^ 
 
 Certain Psalms shine with new light in the 
 light of this terrible truth. Chief among these 
 is the Ninety-first. Quite likely it grew up out 
 of the experience of Israel at the last before 
 leaving Egypt. It, of course, has its practical 
 use in one's daily life. But the vividness and 
 intensity of its meaning will probably never be 
 realized as during the coming tribulation days. 
 Nor will the exultant note running through the 
 nine Psalms immediately following it be appre- 
 ciated as by those experiencing deliverance when 
 the tribulation is over. The Forty-sixth Psalm, 
 and the Psalms of praise immediately following 
 it, likewise seem to get new light. 
 
 It is quite probable that very much, all through 
 this Book of Psalms, will be understood and 
 appreciated fully only by the generation of God's 
 people that go through the tribulation and know 
 
 * Deuteronomy xxviii. 15-68. * Deuteronomy xxxii. 
 ' Daniel iii. 
 
A Clearing up Storm In the Realm 173 
 
 the deliverance follov/ing. Much of the old Book 
 of God is quite meaningless to the Christian who 
 has had no tribulation experience. That is, I 
 mean who has never known opposition in his 
 Christian faith, or who has slipped easily along 
 when there is opposition. 
 
 The outstanding features in the Old Testa- 
 ment of this great experience are terrible perse- 
 cution of the Jew, deliverance at the very worst 
 pitch of extremity, by a visitation of judgment 
 on their enemies, and by Jehovah coming in per- 
 son for their deliverance ; and then the great 
 Kingdom following. 
 
 The outstanding features spoken of by our 
 Lord Jesus in His Olivet talk agree with this, 
 but go much more into detail, especially about 
 the tribulation. The tribulation will be preceded 
 by wars, rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes, 
 and persecution. There will be many false relig- 
 ious teachers, many Christians untrue to their 
 faith, and a great increase of wickedness. This 
 is a sort of foreshadowing. 
 
 The tribulation itself will find all this enor- 
 mously intensified. It will begin with some as- 
 tonishing act of blasphemy in the temple in 
 Jerusalem, run its terrible course, and close 
 with a series of judgment-events, earthquake, 
 heavens shaken, and great distress, ending in the 
 visible appearance of the Lbrd Jesus Himself, 
 out of heaven on the clouds. And this will be 
 a signal for great penitential mourning among 
 the people on the earth. 
 
 This, then, is the simple, broad outline with 
 
174 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 which the thoughtful reader of God's Word 
 would naturally be familiar as he turns to this 
 prophetic book at the end to get our Lord's last 
 message to His followers. 
 
 Getting a Broad, Clear Outlook. 
 
 As we turn now again to the book of Revela- 
 tion it will help us to remember the general plan 
 followed in its writing. It is like a series of dis- 
 solving views of the same scene, each of which 
 lets us see the same thing from a different point 
 of view. 
 
 This is a simple teaching rule for getting a 
 clear grasp of what is being taught. We are 
 familiar with it in the Bible. The story of crea- 
 tion is told in the first chapter of Genesis, and 
 then told again in the second chapter with de- 
 tails not given in the first, the two together pre- 
 senting the complete story. The historical books 
 of Chronicles present one view of the kingdom 
 of Israel, the official. The books of the Kings 
 give another look at the same period; and the 
 prophetic books a wholly dififerent view as seen 
 by these rarely spiritually minded men of God. 
 Daniel is shown four visions of future events, 
 all covering the same general stretch of events, 
 but with a fuller description, here of one part 
 and there of another. The four Gospels are a 
 familiar illustration of the same principle in 
 teaching and story-telling. This is the plan fol- 
 lowed here. 
 
 I was impressed anew with the practical value 
 
A Clearing-up Storm In the Realm 175 
 
 of this method one day in St. Petersburg. We 
 had gone to look at the panorama of the siege 
 of Sebastopol, then on exhibition in a huge, 
 round building. It will be remembered that the 
 British and French allied themselves with Tur- 
 key and Sardinia in an attempt to restrain the 
 encroachments of Russia on Turkish territory. 
 The famous charge of Balaklava, immortalized 
 by Tennyson, is remembered as the most stir- 
 ring event of that war. Its chief event was the 
 siege of Sebastopol on the Crimea peninsula, in 
 the Black Sea. 
 
 At the panorama we stood as though on a 
 high central point in the city of Sebastopol, with 
 the view spreading out in all directions. To 
 the north lay the harbour with the Russian ships 
 securely bottled in by the attacking fleets. To 
 the west a body of French soldiers were re- 
 treating, hotly pursued by Russian troops, while 
 in the distance British troops are hurrying to 
 the relief of the French. 
 
 Then we looked east, where the fighting was 
 going on at close range, the wounded being car- 
 ried away and the reserves hastening up to take 
 their places. And again we turned to the south, 
 where the battle raged fiercest. The face of the 
 commanding officer stood out so vividly. And 
 we almost shrank from the fierceness of the fire. 
 And the smell of powder almost seemed stifling. 
 
 And as I stood brooding afresh on the horrors 
 of inhuman war, I was tremendously impressed 
 that only by such successive views could I get 
 such a grasp of that memorable siege. I had 
 
176 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 a more intelligent and vivid understanding of 
 it than ever before. 
 
 And so it is that we may get a simple, clear, 
 and real grasp of the tremendous tribulation 
 time that is coming, that it is presented to us 
 in this fashion, first one distinct view, then an- 
 other, and another, till some understanding of 
 the whole begins to get hold of us. 
 
 We have seen the Lord Jesus, in the vision in 
 chapters four and five, as He comes 'forward 
 to take an advance step. We have seen the tre- 
 mendous outburst of praise in heaven as He 
 steps forward. This step and scene are in 
 heaven. The earth is wholly unaware of it 
 at that moment. 
 
 Now all that follows is connected directly 
 with that advance step. This is the significant 
 thing to get clearly fixed in mind. At the pres- 
 ent time our Lord Jesus is still walking among 
 the candlestick Churches watching and waiting. 
 We are still in that waiting time. The Holy 
 Spirit still dwells in the Church on earth. 
 
 At some time in the future, no one knows, 
 nor can know, just when, the Lord Jesus will 
 rise up in readiness for an advance move. He 
 will withdraw the Holy Spirit from the Church 
 up into His presence again " before the throne.'* 
 Then in connection with this advance step there 
 will occur on the earth the things spoken of in 
 these pages following. This is the tremendous 
 fact to keep clear, the immediate connection 
 between these happenings on earth and His new 
 move in heaven. 
 
A Clearing-up Storm in the Realm 177 
 
 We come now to these happenings on earth. 
 There are seven distinct views given here in 
 this section, chapters six to the end of the book. 
 There is a great detail in description which it 
 would be both instructive and interesting to 
 study out. But we want to get at the essential 
 things. And so we will give our time and 
 thought to these essentials. 
 
 Our Lord Jesus is represented as about to 
 take possession of His realm. The first step is 
 a dispossessing of the claimants in possession. 
 This furnishes the key to what follows. The 
 descriptions are of the process of cleaning out 
 the evil forces. At the close of this we find Him 
 taking possession (in chapter twenty) and reign- 
 ing over the earth. 
 
 These descriptions make it clear at once that 
 this is the tribulation so much spoken of in these 
 preceding pages. What follows fits so into what 
 has been spoken of that the identification seems 
 complete. The thing our Lord Jesus is revealing 
 here talHes with what He had told John before 
 on Olivet. 
 
 There comes first a general description of the 
 whole period (chapters vi.-vii.). Then follows a 
 description of how these happenings will come. 
 It will be through the withdrawal of restraint 
 and so the loosening out of evil (chapters viii.- 
 ix.). During this whole period there will be a 
 special faithful witnessing on earth, in the midst 
 of the riot of evil, to God and His truth (chap- 
 ter xi.). 
 
 A detailed outline of the run of events fol- 
 
178 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 lows, giving much additional information, pictur- 
 ing the rise and characteristics of the leader of 
 the tribulation time, and the manner of its close 
 (chapters xii.-xiv.). There follows this a de- 
 scription of the judgments and the supreme con- 
 test with which the period closes (chapters xv.- 
 xvi.). There is a description of the organized 
 system of evil, and then of the fall of the capital 
 of the system (chapters xvii.-xviii.) And then 
 follows the actual coming of our Lord Jesus, the 
 setting up of the kingdom, and subsequent events 
 (chapters xix.-xxii.). 
 
 A General Look at the Storm and Its Close. 
 
 We turn now to the first of these.^ It begins 
 with a crowned One seated on a white horse 
 going forth conquering and to conquer. This 
 description agrees with the much fuller descrip- 
 tion of the Lord Jesus near the end of the book, 
 as he goes to the earth for the decisive close of 
 the tribulation.^ 
 
 This gives fresh emphasis to the fact that 
 what follows is the direct result of His advance 
 step. At once there follows on earth a time 
 of war, famine, death, and of persecution to the 
 death of God's people. There is no hint as to 
 how long this goes on. It is brought to a close 
 with an earthquake and an equally terrific dis- 
 turbance of the heavens, the sun, moon, and 
 stars, something unknown before. 
 
 The utmost consternation is created on earth. 
 
 * Chapters vi.-vii. ' Chapter xix. 
 
. A Clearing-up Storm in the Realm 179 
 
 All conditions of men, crowned kings, merchant 
 princes, men of autocratic power financially and 
 politically and socially, join with the humblest 
 in hiding themselves in the great holes made by 
 the earthquake. They feel that the time of judg- 
 ment has come, and they are not ready for it 
 
 The description of their terror tallies remark- 
 ably with the prophetic language used by 
 Isaiah/ even as the whole description fits into 
 our Lord's Olivet talk. This is seen to be a 
 general, rapid vision of the whole tribulation 
 period. 
 
 Then there follows what clearly seems to be 
 a parenthesis fitting in just before the great 
 earthquake. The earth and sea have been ter- 
 ribly torn up by the earthquake. This paren- 
 thesis begins with a command that the earth and 
 sea be not hurt until certain things have taken 
 place. 
 
 This fits the two events of the parenthesis in 
 just before the ruinous earthquake takes place. 
 The two events are of a radically different sort 
 from what has just been told. They are thus 
 put by themselves, and the run of evil and of 
 judgment upon it, put by itself, so keeping these 
 two quite clear, following the general plan of 
 the book. 
 
 There are two events in this parenthesis. 
 There is what is called the " sealing " of a cer- 
 tain number of the Hebrew tribes on the earth. 
 Twelve thousand of each tribe are sealed, making 
 a total of one hundred and forty-four thousand. 
 
 * Isaiah ii. 10-22. 
 
i8o About the Crowned Christ 
 
 The word " seal " is used in two senses in the 
 Bible, as a means of fastening up a writing or 
 roll, and, in the New Testament, commonly for 
 the presence of the Holy Spirit in a human life. 
 
 The seal in this second sense was a mark of 
 -ownership. Paul tells us that we are sealed with 
 the Holy Spirit,^ so indicating that -we belong 
 to the Lord Jesus, who gives us this evidence of 
 His ownership. If this simple, natural meaning 
 be taken here, it would mean that at this time 
 the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon the 
 Jew. The spiritual regeneration spoken of so* 
 frequently in the prophetic pages takes place at 
 this time. 
 
 The significance of the numbers should be no- 
 ticed. Twelve is the number commonly used 
 in the Bible for corporate completeness, to indi- 
 cate that a group is complete. Twelve times 
 twelve would simply represent a fully completed 
 corporate number. That is to say, upon the 
 entire body of Jews then living on the earth 
 the Holy Spirit is poured out, thus marking them 
 •once again as God's peculiar people, restored 
 fully to favour after the long national rejection. 
 
 The second event is of equally intense interest, 
 indeed to us of non-Jewish birth it has yet 
 greater interest. John is up in heaven. It is 
 from that point of view that he sees. Now he 
 is suddenly startled. All at once there appears 
 before his eyes a group he had not seen before. 
 He describes it as a great multitude, actually 
 <countless, out of all the peoples of the whole 
 
 * II Corinthians i. 22 ; Ephesians i. 13 ; iv. 30. 
 
A Clearing-up Storm in the Realm i8i 
 
 earth, a great polyglot polyracial world company. 
 
 They are clothed in white, holding the con- 
 queror's palm in their hands, and singing, making 
 wondrous music. John is getting another taste 
 of the music of heaven. And their singing is a 
 signal for a fresh outburst of praise by the 
 angels, the elders, and the living creatures. All 
 this seems to occur suddenly, this appearance of 
 this new company before the throne. 
 
 John gazes spellbound, wondering who these 
 are, and where they come from, and what this 
 means. And he is told that these are they that 
 come out of the tribulation, the great one, down 
 on the earth. Then in a few exquisitely tender, 
 heart-touching words their happiness is de- 
 scribed. 
 
 These two events occur just before the ter- 
 rible earthquake and the shake-up of the earth's 
 heavenly bodies. Just before the judgment that 
 closes the tribulation this double event takes 
 place, the conversion of the Jews, and the catch- 
 ing away out of the tribulation distress on 
 earth, up into the presence of the throne, of the 
 followers of our Lord Jesus. 
 
 We remember that that great Jew, Paul, was 
 converted by the appearance of 'Jesus in the 
 heavens above him. We remember that in the 
 Olivet talk Jesus says that His followers will 
 so be gathered up to Himself at the time of His 
 second coming. These two events, taking place 
 here, tell us what has happened down on the 
 earth. In his vision John, being in heaven, sees 
 these things as they appear from above. 
 
1 82 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 This is the first view of the tribulation. It 
 begins with the moment when our Lord Jesus 
 up in heaven begins action, describes the char- 
 acteristics of the tribulation on earth, and closes 
 with the national regeneration of Israel, and 
 the catching up from earth of Christ's true 
 followers. 
 
 Evil Let Loose. 
 
 The second view runs through chapters eight 
 and nine. Chapters ten and eleven to the close 
 of verse thirteen make a distinct parenthesis. 
 And then this view is picked up again at eleven, 
 fourteen, and runs to the close of that chapter. 
 But this final bit in chapter eleven is merely a 
 connecting link with what comes later. Prac- 
 tically the whole of this view is in chapters eight 
 and nine. 
 
 It closes with an earthquake, so connecting it 
 with the final event in the first view. It begins 
 with a period of prolonged silence, which would 
 seem to answer to the hush in the great volume 
 of praise in the first view, when the Lamb takes 
 the sealed roll. So it carries us back to the same 
 starting-point as there. 
 
 There is first a striking scene before the 
 throne, where John sees a golden altar. On this 
 there is being oflFered incense, which is said to 
 be added to the prayers of all the saints. In- 
 cense and prayers rise together before God. 
 Then an angel pours some of the fire of this 
 prayer-altar into the earth, and a storm follows. 
 
A Clearing up Storm in the Realm 183 
 
 So these two views, first and second, have an- 
 other common starting-point, the beginning of a 
 storm. 
 
 This is a very suggestive scene. The prayers 
 of all the saints, both in earth and heaven, have 
 a decided restraining influence over evil down 
 on earth at the present time. At the close 
 they will become a decisive influence in the 
 cleaning-up process on earth, and the bringing 
 in of the new order. 
 
 Then follows a fourfold description of dis- 
 tressing events on earth, which are caused by 
 fiery influences coming out of the heavens. The 
 language used seems to make clear that it is 
 through a loosening out of the powers of evil 
 that the tribulation comes. 
 
 In the picture language of the vision, " a great 
 mountain burning with fire was cast into the 
 sea," with injurious results to water, to life, 
 and to shipping. A mountain is a common 
 figure in the Bible for a great ruling power. So 
 Israel is called by Isaiah.^ The seventeenth 
 chapter of Revelation speaks of seven kingdoms 
 as seven mountains.^ In Jeremiah, Babylon, 
 which is spoken of repeatedly and typically as 
 being the embodiment of evil and of opposition 
 to God, is called : ^* O destroying mountain . . . 
 which destroyest all the earth, (I) will make of 
 thee a burnt mountain." ^ It speaks here also 
 of " a great star,* burning as a torch," that fell 
 
 * Isaiah ii. 2. * Revelation xvii. 9-10. 
 ' Jeremiah li. 25. 
 
 * Revelation viii. 10, see also ix. i ; Isaiah xiv. 12-15. 
 
184 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 upon the rivers and makes them bitter as 
 wormwood. These two things seem to suggest 
 clearly that the great hurt done to sea and 
 vegetation, to all life, and through the obscur- 
 ing of the heavenly lights, is a result directly 
 of the powers of evil having been loosened 
 out. 
 
 The long restraint upon evil through the pres- 
 ence of the Holy Spirit in the Church is now 
 withdrawn in the withdrawal of the Spirit. His 
 withdrawal is practically an answer to the tacit 
 prayer both of world and Church. That prayer 
 is being answered. The " One " who restraineth 
 has been withdrawn. This it is that makes the 
 tribulation on its negative side. The awful char- 
 acter of the demons from the pit is so utterly 
 beyond human experience up to that time that 
 there seem no adequate words to describe 
 them. 
 
 The Gospels are full of the awful activity of 
 demons on earth in possessing men. In our own 
 land there is not wanting plenty of evidence of 
 men horribly possessed by demons. In the older 
 countries of Europe this experience is much 
 more marked. But it is in heathen lands that 
 it is most marked, where even the very air seems 
 charged with evil forces, as though these unseen 
 demons swarmed about. 
 
 Yet all this sort of thing is now under re- 
 straint. What it will mean to have that restraint 
 withdrawn, and the horrid hordes here described 
 free to do as they will, no imagination can de- 
 pict. This is well called the first woe, and an 
 
A Clearing-up Storm in the Realm 185 
 
 awful woe it will be. Mercifully there is a time 
 limit set on this demon activity. 
 
 Following this comes the loosing out of an- 
 other horde of demons, as difficult of description, 
 and yet more terrible. They seem countless, 
 yet there is a limit to their numbers. The su- 
 preme Hand is never wholly withdrawn. These 
 have power to kill as well as to torment. This 
 is the second woe. It is most strikingly no- 
 ticeable that neither of these things has influ- 
 ence to make men penitent. 
 
 The last item of this view is given in chapter 
 xi. 14-19. The announcement is made that the 
 sovereignty of the world is transferred to our 
 Lord and His Christ. The temple of God is seen 
 open, and some further action takes place, but 
 the detail of it is reserved for another view. 
 Such is the terrible sight in the second view of 
 the tribulation time. Evil is loosened out, ap- 
 parently unrestrained, and yet under restraint. 
 This it is that makes the tribulation on its posi- 
 tive side. 
 
 The parenthesis in the description of this view 
 has been spoken of. It runs through chapters 
 ten and eleven to the close of verse thirteen, and 
 contains two chief things. The first is a little 
 group of three items. There is a fresh descrip- 
 tion of our Lord Jesus as He is seen standing 
 with one foot on the sea and the other upon 
 the earth, and holding a little open book. Then 
 seven thunders roar out. John is about to write, 
 but is told not to. That terrific storm coming 
 is far greater than can be told. Then comes the 
 
1 86 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 solemn declaration that there will be no further 
 delay, but that at once shall be finished up this 
 terrible time of judgment. Then follows a per- 
 sonal word to John. These three items make up 
 chapter ten. 
 
 God's Faithful Witnesses. 
 
 Then comes the second thing, in chapter eleven 
 on to verse thirteen, which proves to be the third 
 view of the tribulation. It shows that during the 
 whole of this tribulation time there will be a 
 special faithful witness being borne to God and 
 His truth. As the Holy Spirit is being with- 
 drawn from the Church, these two men begin 
 their special ministry of witnessing. 
 
 The place of that witness will be Jerusalem. 
 But recent events will have brought a greatly 
 diversified population to that city from all parts 
 of the world. So that the witness becomes 
 world-wide in its immediate reach, and probably 
 in the reports of it that go out. 
 
 While there is good reason for thinking that 
 these two witnesses may be Enoch and Elijah, 
 the two men of Bible record, one before the 
 Flood and one after, who were distinctively 
 God's witnesses, and were taken away without 
 death, yet it is best not to stop over a matter 
 that has been and is apt to be a matter of mere 
 idle speculative talk.^ The thing worthy of note 
 
 ^ In regard to Elijah, see Malachi iv. 5-6. John the 
 Baptist came in the spirit and power of Elijah, and 
 of him our Lord said, " this is he who was to come." 
 
A Clearing-up Storm in the Realm 187 
 
 is that as the Holy Spirit's distinctive witness 
 is withdrawn there will be these two special wit- 
 nesses sent to Jerusalem for a witness that will 
 be world-wide in its extent and influence. Such 
 is God's gracious patience and longsuffering. 
 
 These two men are clothed in mourning as a 
 part of their witness. They have miraculous 
 power in protecting themselves against attack, 
 and in withholding rain, and sending plagues 
 among the people, and in turning water into 
 blood, to give force and effect to their testi- 
 mony. Their witness continues through twelve 
 hundred and sixty days. 
 
 John had already been told that Jerusalem 
 would be trodden under foot by the nations for 
 
 Yet the events of judgment spoken of in Malachi did 
 not take place when John the Baptist and Jesus came. 
 The events spoken of prophetically in connection with 
 His coming are divided into two groups, those of 
 graciousness, finding fulfilment at the first coming, those 
 of judgment followed by graciousness, at the second 
 coming. So John the Baptist fulfils the Elijah part at 
 the first of these two; in all probability Elijah himself 
 at the second part, i.e., "before the great and terrible 
 day of Jehovah come." 
 
 In regard to Enoch, the passage in Jude, verse 14, 
 is of significance. The language, " Enoch prophesied. 
 ... the Lord came, etc.," is probably spoken in the 
 sense, familiar in the Bible, of a future action seen 
 as already done. Here Enoch is spoken of as prophe- 
 sying or preaching, not to the people before the Flood, 
 but to a certain class of men belonging to Jude's gen- 
 eration, that is to the Church generation. The likeli- 
 est meaning of the words is that Enoch, the seventh 
 and so on, will prophesy, saying, "behold the Lord 
 Cometh," and so on to close of verse 15. 
 
1 88 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 forty-two months. We are apt to think that 
 it has been trodden under foot or desecrated by 
 the nations for an immensely longer period. But 
 prophecy never gives any reckoning of time for 
 Israel, except when Israel is an organized na- 
 tion. It is concerned with telling Jewish national 
 events. 
 
 At this time the Jews have their national or- 
 ganization again in Palestine. For forty-two 
 months after the nation has been newly set up 
 the city will be so trodden under the desecrating 
 feet of the nations. This is the first hint of 
 time we have had. The witnessing and the dese- 
 cration of the holy city will continue side by 
 side for three and a half years. 
 
 At the end of this period evil will be given 
 full swing over these witnesses. They are killed 
 and their bodies left lying in the streets, while 
 the international crowds make merry because 
 their tormentors, as these two are called, are 
 gone. Then before the terror-stricken gaze of 
 these crowds the two men come to life, and are 
 caught up into the heavens. Is this the mo- 
 ment when all are caught up? Quite possibly. 
 Then comes the terrible earthquake as at the 
 end of the other two views. 
 
 The one distinctive thing told here is that 
 during the tribulation, in the midst of all the 
 blasphemous reign of unrestrained wickedness, 
 there will be the unbroken, faithful witnessing. 
 This seems to explain why the account comes as 
 a parenthesis in the account of the awful riot 
 of evil. During the worst of the evil there will 
 
A Clearlng-up Storm in the Realm 189 
 
 go on unbroken the faithful, gracious testimony 
 of God's truth and love. 
 
 The Lawless Leader. 
 
 The fourth view takes the longest sweep of 
 any, thus far, goes into much more detail, and 
 gives much fresh information. It runs through 
 chapters twelve to fourteen. In the intensely 
 picturesque language of a woman arrayed in the 
 most glorious splendour and dignity and power 
 imaginable the nation of Israel is depicted. 
 
 This woman is with child. In more intensely 
 dramatic language Satan is pictured as standing 
 before the woman waiting to destroy her child 
 as soon as born. The child is born, a man- 
 child, who is to rule all the nations with auto- 
 cratic sway. He is caught up to heaven, and his 
 mother flees into the wilderness from the ser- 
 pent. This is the opening action of this view. 
 
 The meaning lies open on the face. Israel 
 gave birth to the man Jesus, who foiled all the 
 attacks of Satan and ascended to heaven. The 
 old prophetic characteristic of connecting events 
 far apart without reference to intervening time 
 is marked here. The long interval between the 
 break-up of the Jew nation and its taking shape 
 again as a nation, which has lasted nineteen 
 hundred years roughly, comes between the last 
 word of verse five and the first word of verse 
 six. 
 
 The prophetic writing takes no reckoning of 
 Israel, except as a nation. The woman fleeing 
 
190 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 into the wilderness is Israel organized again as 
 a nation suffering persecution. She is so per- 
 secuted for twelve hundred and sixty days, but 
 divinely protected and preserved. Such is the 
 first act of the drama pictured here.^ 
 
 Then we are told why the woman flees, that 
 is, the explanation of this special persecution 
 of the Jew this time.^ Satan has had his head- 
 quarters somewhere in the heavens, below God's 
 throne, but above the earth. Now, after a con- 
 flict, he is cast out of heaven, down to the earth. 
 Here is a third event that comes approximately 
 at the beginning of the tribulation time, Satan 
 is cast down to the earth. 
 
 The Holy Spirit is withdrawn from the Church 
 up to heaven, so removing the restraint upon 
 evil. Satan is cast out of heaven and comes 
 down to earth. Thus there is a double intensi- 
 fying of evil on the earth, the withdrawal of 
 restraint, and the presence of the evil one him- 
 self. And as the witness of the Holy Spirit is 
 withdrawn the special witness of the two men in 
 Jerusalem begins. 
 
 The defeat of Satan in this heavenly conflict 
 draws out a burst of praise from the upper hosts. 
 It is because of the great victory of our Lord 
 Jesus in His death that this victory is gotten. 
 They overcome because of the blood of the 
 Lamb, and the word of their testimony, and 
 they loved not their lives unto death, — a three- 
 fold cord that could never, and can never, be 
 broken or successfully resisted. 
 
 ' Revelation xii. 1-6. ' Revelation xii. 7-17. 
 
'A Clearlng-up Storm in the Realm 191 
 
 This explains the special persecution at this 
 time of the reshaped Jewish nation. It is the 
 outburst of the rage of the freshly defeated 
 Satan. But the Jew is protected. The armies 
 that would swallow the Jew up are swallowed up 
 by the great earthquake that closes the tribula- 
 tion time. 
 
 The length of this persecution is put in two 
 different ways, twelve hundred and sixty days, 
 and " time, times, and half a time." This lat- 
 ter phrase seems to be an old Oriental or He- 
 brew way of saying a year, two years, and half 
 a year. The same length of time is expressed 
 in yet another way in the eleventh chapter, forty 
 and two months. The time is thus put in three 
 different ways, that we may know surely that it 
 means just plain three and a half years of our 
 common time. It is significant that the dragon 
 makes war with ** the rest " of the woman's 
 seed. This can only mean the Church, which 
 of course was born in the Jewish nation. This 
 is the first run of events in this view.^ 
 
 Then follows a description of the awful leader 
 of evil during the tribulation time.^ It is sig- 
 nificant that, as Satan is cast out of heaven down 
 to the earth, this leader appears among men. 
 He has great intelligence and power and is the 
 very embodiment of blasphemy. He is described 
 as a strange mixture of wild beasts, having the 
 chief characteristic strength of each, the cunning 
 of the leopard, the feet of the bear, and the mouth 
 of the lion. 
 
 * Revelation xii. ' Revelation xiii. 
 
192 About the Crovvned Christ 
 
 He is the personal representative on earth 
 among men of Satan. There is something 
 strangely uncanny in the suggestion that he is 
 some former leader, who died, and is now raised 
 from the dead. There seems to be nothing too 
 daring for Satan to attempt in his impious oppo- 
 sition to God. This leader comes into great 
 prominence and power. All the world wonders 
 after him. And they worship Satan, who is rec- 
 ognized as giving his power to this notorious 
 leader. 
 
 He comes to be accepted as the world ruler, 
 and is commonly worshipped by the people. And 
 he not only persecutes God's people, but over- 
 comes them. A limit of time is set to his sway. 
 It is the same as already noted for Jerusalem 
 being desecrated, for Gods two witnesses, and 
 for the persecution of the Jew, i.e., forty and 
 two months, three and a half years. 
 
 It is striking that in the midst of the descrip- 
 tion of his terrible reign there comes a word that 
 sounds like an echo from those messages to the 
 Churches. ''If any man hath an ear, let him 
 hear." ^ Then the word goes on warning, plead- 
 ing, and encouraging. In the midst of these 
 blasphemous conditions every man must do as 
 he personally decides. He may yield to this evil 
 and become a captive of evil, bound hand and 
 foot. He may try to use the world's weapons 
 in fighting God's battle, but will find himself 
 outmatched in their use. He may rise to the 
 true level, and steadfastly cling to his faith, 
 
 * Chapter xiii. 9-10. 
 
A Clearing-up Storm In the Realm 193 
 
 and endure, and by faith be victorious in the 
 end. 
 
 The description goes on to tell of the blas- 
 phemous worship demanded of all. This leader 
 has an assistant or lieutenant to whom he depu- 
 tizes great power. He makes an image to his 
 chief, and demands all to worship at this shrine. 
 He has supernatural power, that is, deviUshly 
 supernatural. He performs great miracles, even 
 calling down fire from heaven. He gives breath 
 to the image and makes it speak. And he pun- 
 ishes with death any one who refuses this blas- 
 phemous worship to the leader and his image. 
 And every one is required to have a mark on his 
 hand or his forehead as indicating his loyalty 
 to the leader. Whoever refuses is unable to 
 buy or sell. It is the boycott principle carried 
 to the last extreme. 
 
 While God's two witnesses are doing miracles 
 by divine power this lieutenant is doing them 
 by devilish power. So the fearful account goes 
 on. One can easily imagine the vast crowds 
 swayed by the idolatrous worship, and the in- 
 tense suffering and distress among those who 
 insist on being steadfast and true in their faith. 
 
 Now in the midst of all this terrible scene 
 John is suddenly and tremendously startled by 
 something else.^ 
 
 In the vision John is in heaven looking down 
 on these scenes on the earth. Now his atten- 
 tion is attracted by a scene that suddenly takes 
 place before his eyes in heaven. It is a scene 
 
 * Revelation xiv. 1-5. 
 
194 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 of wondrous winsomeness and beauty. It stands 
 out in sharpest contrast with what is going on 
 on the earth. 
 
 There's a great company standing around the 
 Lord Jesus, before the throne. They are sing- 
 ing a wonderful song to the accompaniment of 
 harps, which they have. The volume of music is 
 like the voice of many waters, or like great 
 thunder. There is a simple, fine description of 
 the character of these singers. They are pure, 
 and they are obedient. In their purity they are 
 as undefiled virgins, the highest possible state- 
 ment of purity. And they follow the Lamb un- 
 questioningly whithersoever He goeth with 
 fullest obedience. 
 
 Who are these, and where have they come 
 from so suddenly, at this moment, into the pres- 
 ence of the One on the throne ? The description 
 tells just what has happened. When things are 
 at their devilish worst down on the earth the 
 Lord Jesus has caught up His own from the 
 earth. And they have become like Him in char- 
 acter, for now they see Him face to face as He 
 is. 
 
 This recalls the scene, essentially the same, 
 back in the first view, in chapter seven, where the 
 great multitudes are suddenly seen before the 
 throne with palm branches, songs, and white 
 garments. It is the same company as there. 
 But there is a difference in telling the numbers. 
 There they are too many to be counted. Here 
 they are said to be a hundred and forty-four 
 thousand. It is symbolical, a picture number, 
 
A Clearing-up Storm in the Realm 195 
 
 the number of full corporate completeness as 
 with the Spirit-baptized Jews in chapter seven. 
 
 The believers caught up out of the great 
 tribulation have been joined by the trusting 
 hearts of all time who have been waiting in the 
 Father's presence for this glad day. The num- 
 ber is now complete of all from creation's ear- 
 liest dawn, who by grace have followed fully, 
 regardless of hindrance or opposition. This 
 great climax is thus seen by John in sudden 
 and sharp contrast with the climax of hellish 
 evil on the earth. 
 
 Then John is shown the steps by which this 
 climax is reached.^ Verses six to the close of 
 this chapter seem clearly to be a detail of what 
 has gone before, describing the steps by which 
 this climax is reached, and then reaching fur- 
 ther to the judgment upon the evil. During the 
 iniquitous scenes being enacted on earth an 
 angel is seen flying in mid-heavens calling to the 
 people on earth, in warning, to give their wor- 
 ship and reverence to God only. The gracious 
 wooing of God never ceases. 
 
 Another angel follows, calling out that the 
 great system of iniquity, in which they are en- 
 meshed, is doomed, A third gives solemn warn- 
 ing that those who yield to the terrible pressure, 
 and engage in the blasphemous worship, will be 
 surely and terribly punished. Again there comes 
 another echo of the strain of pleading in the 
 Church messages. In the midst of just such 
 conditions as prevail then, the saints can be 
 
 ' Revelation xiv. 6-20. 
 
ig6 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 steady in keeping the commandments of God 
 and the faith of Jesus. 
 
 And down into the awful persecution being 
 waged comes an encouraging voice from heaven. 
 There is special blessing from God on all those 
 who remain true, even unto death. There will 
 be sweetest rest for them, and their faithful 
 witnessing and suffering shall be all noted and 
 acknowledged and rewarded as they come up into 
 the Father's presence. 
 
 And then follows the blessed harvest of the 
 righteous whose wonderful arrival in heaven 
 has already been told in the opening scene of 
 this chapter. And then follows the awful har- 
 vest of evil down on the earth, the visitation of 
 judgments coming at the very end of the perse- 
 cution. 
 
 So closes this long remarkable view of the 
 tribulation. It connects back with the nation 
 of Israel. Its beginning is connected practically 
 with the casting of Satan down to earth. It 
 gives a description of the leader and the nature 
 of the persecution, and a brief statement of the 
 steps with which it ends. And it states in three 
 different ways that the length of time involved 
 is three and a half years. 
 
 A Bitter Cup to Its Dregs. 
 
 The fifth view ^ is, not of the whole tribula- 
 tion time as with these others, but of only a 
 part, the closing part. It speaks of the visita- 
 tion of judgments, the great climactic battle, 
 
 ^ Revelation xv.-xvi. 
 
A Clearing-up Stomi in the Realm 197 
 
 and the earthquake, with which the period is 
 brought to its end. 
 
 It connects at the point in the fourth view ^ 
 where those who have been suffering in the tribu- 
 lation are seen standing before the throne singing 
 with harps. It is said that they are singing the 
 song of Moses, who had the experience of tribu- 
 lation and deliverance in Egypt, and the song 
 of the Lamb, who went through the worst 
 tribulation experience in His contest with Satan 
 and sin on our behalf. 
 
 It connects also with the close of the second 
 view,^ where the temple is seen opened and the 
 ark of the covenant is seen. That covenant is 
 now to receive further fulfilment. God never 
 forgets His promises and agreements. Seven 
 angels have seven golden bowls full of the wrath 
 of God. In this way is told the visitation of 
 judgments now described as taking place at this 
 time. 
 
 In the first view the picture is of seals being 
 broken or opened, which indicates the execution 
 of a document. The trumpets of the next view 
 indicate a commanding call to action; the seven 
 thunders, not written, a great storm. These 
 bowls or vials indicate the administration of a 
 dose of bitter-tasting medicine. The visitation of 
 judgments by God is commonly spoken of in 
 Scripture in this language.^ 
 
 ^ Revelation xiv. 1-5. ^ Revelation xi. 19. 
 
 ' Psalm xi. 6; Ix. 3; Ixxv. 8; Job xxi. 20 ; Isaiah H. 
 17, 22, 23; Jeremiah xxv. 15-17; Ezekiel xxiii. 31-33; 
 Habakkuk ii. 16; Zechariah xii. 2. 
 
198 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 Then follows the description of the judgments 
 upon men's persons, and everything concerning 
 their life. Men's bodies are diseased, the water 
 is unfit to drink, the food supply cut short ; they 
 suffer with terrible heat, and then darkness. But 
 there is no penitence. The Euphrates is said to 
 be dried up, suggesting that it is the great river 
 at or near the world's centre of action. So, it is 
 said, the way is prepared for the kings that come 
 from the east. 
 
 And the prophetic bit in Isaiah comes to mind 
 about men passing over the Euphrates at the 
 time of the great gathering of the Jews.^ As 
 though aroused by all this to bitterest opposition 
 there is increased demon activity, and through 
 it a great gathering of all nations, at a place 
 named in Palestine, for a great battle. 
 
 Then a terrible climax comes in the earth- 
 quake, with which the first, second, and third 
 views closed. It is the worst earthquake ever 
 experienced. It centres in *' the great city," 
 Babylon, the capital of the whole system of 
 wickedness. With the storm is a terrible hail. 
 The description tallies with that in the close of 
 the fiT-st view,- and with the vivid prophetic bit 
 in Isaiah ii. 10-22. 
 
 There's no suggestion of how much time all 
 this takes. The judgments visited on Egypt at 
 the deliverance of Israel are described at much 
 greater length, running into ten items. Yet all 
 could have occurred within five weeks, allowing 
 for brief intervals. Whether these judgments 
 
 ' Isaiah xi. 15-16. * Revelation vi. 15-17. 
 
A Clearing-up Storm in the Realm 199 
 
 occur in succession, or all at once, or partly in 
 both ways, they could all come within a very 
 short time. This fifth view depicts the final 
 scene. It gives the visitation of judgments end- 
 ing the tribulation period, describes a great 
 pitched battle, in which all nations are involved, 
 and ends with the earthquake. This is the third 
 of the three great woes.^ 
 
 The sixth view is of the great system of wick- 
 edness in the world, through which the tribula- 
 tion comes, and which is judged at its close.^ 
 The description is full of details of great interest 
 and instructiveness, but we can only have time 
 at present for the essential thing being taught. 
 The Spirit takes John into a wilderness. To the 
 Spirit's eye wherever wickedness has sway, 
 whether vulgar or polished, political or commer- 
 cial, cunning or brazen, it is a wilderness. 
 
 Here is shown a woman gorgeously clothed, 
 prodigally bedecked with jewels, and having a 
 cup in her hand, made of gold, but full of vile 
 filth. Upon her forehead appears a description : 
 "Mystery [or explanation of mystery], Baby- 
 lon the great, the mother of harlots and of 
 the abominations of the earth.*' This woman is 
 riding upon a strange beast ; it is scarlet-colored, 
 with seven heads and ten horns, and full of blas- 
 phemous names. This is the startlingly suggest- 
 tive picture. 
 
 Who is this woman? And what is this beast 
 upon which she is seated? The whole descrip- 
 tion taken together suggests that she is meant 
 
 * Revelation xi. 14. * Chapters xvii. and xviii. 
 
200 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 to stand for the whole system of wickedness 
 which has had such sway in the world from 
 earliest time until the end. And the beast repre- 
 sents typically the dominant governmental pow- 
 ers. The two have always worked together. 
 There has been a consistent unity of spirit and 
 of characteristic, and a persistent devilishness 
 marking the wickedness in the world throughout 
 the ages. 
 
 It has been as though there were an unseen 
 spirit power tirelessly at work behind all the 
 varied manifestations of evil. The dominant 
 characteristic always has been blasphemy of God. 
 It has controlled thrones and royal power, and 
 has had unlimited gold at its command. And it 
 has always been an enemy, subtle or open, cun- 
 ning or violent, of God and His people. 
 
 That system or genius of evil is represented 
 in the Old Testament as finding expression in 
 one great political power after another, but 
 chiefly in the power of Babylon. Babylon stands 
 typically in these older pages, not merely for the 
 great empire of the Euphrates, but for the un- 
 seen spirit of evil lying behind that power, and 
 making use of it to carry through its own foul 
 purposes. 
 
 But that unseen evil spirit power has found 
 more than one agency to dominate and use. 
 Babylon long since passed off the stage as a 
 political factor. But the power of evil has not 
 ceased. It is distressing to note another great 
 organization behind and through which the power 
 of evil has worked. What is the system that 
 
A Clearing-up Storm in the Realm 201 
 
 has, for the past sixteen centuries, been sup- 
 ported by the various great civil governments? 
 
 There is only one answer. It is the organiza- 
 tion known as " the Christian Church." And 
 the term Church must be taken here in its full- 
 est, broadest meaning. Its great main stem his- 
 torically is the Roman Catholic Church. The 
 first great split-off was the Greek Orthodox 
 Church. The Church of England was a later 
 break-off. These, with the various government- 
 ally supported Churches, and those free of such 
 support, and various ancient primitive bodies, — 
 these all together make up the organization 
 known as '' the Church." 
 
 The two symbolical characteristics of this 
 woman and the two dominant characteristics of 
 this historical Church are the same. The Church 
 has been and is supported almost wholly by the 
 civil governments, and used by them in further- 
 ing their policies. And it has been active in 
 persecuting to death the people of God who 
 would not yield to its domination. It has been 
 marked by intolerance of all not yielding to its 
 wishes, and especially of the Jew. That intoler- 
 ance has been carried not only to the extreme of 
 blood, but a riot of bloodshed. This is utterly 
 heart-breaking to realize and to repeat. 
 
 The woman is said to be " drunken ( i ) with 
 the blood of the saints, and (2) with the blood 
 of the martyrs of Jesus." The twofold state- 
 ment is seen to cover the two great periods, be- 
 fore Christ and since. And it covers also the 
 two great powers through which the spirit of 
 
202 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 evil has chiefly worked in those two periods. 
 But the name given first in the plains of Shinar, 
 and used characteristically of the God-defying 
 power of evil, is given here, Babylon. It will be 
 Babylon again at the very end after the Church 
 system is overthrown. 
 
 It is plainly said that the beast represents the 
 great civil or governmental power in its final 
 stage, the shape it will be in at the end when 
 these events occur.^ The chief dominating po- 
 litical power of the world will have passed 
 through a succession of changes, seven kingdoms 
 successively following each other. At the end 
 there will be a combination of some sort, with 
 ten great subdivisions, and one great head over 
 all. 
 
 But at the last, the civil power will discard the 
 Church, and persecute it. The spirit of evil thus 
 gets embodiment typically in the great Babylon 
 power, then in the Church, and at the very last, 
 in a coalition of civil powers heading up in a 
 new Babylon. 
 
 Then follows announcement of the fall of 
 Babylon. The city is regarded here as the 
 earthly capital of the organized system of un- 
 seen evil spirit power at work in the world. The 
 city and the system are inseparably allied. The 
 name Babylon is used in the Bible for both sys- 
 tem and city. 
 
 If the question be asked what city is meant 
 here, there can be but one answer. From the 
 twelfth of Genesis on the Bible never touches 
 
 * Revelation xvii. 8-12. 
 
A Clearing-up Storm in the Realm 203 
 
 history, except as history touches Israel as a 
 nation. A thoughtful review of the book makes 
 this clear. And this book of Revelation is a 
 gathering-up of Bible threads, and only these. 
 There is only one city in the Bible record that 
 answers to the description here, " the great city 
 which reigneth over the kings of the earth." 
 " Babylon the great." 
 
 But the old Babylon lies in ruins. And its 
 ruined condition has been quoted as the fulfil- 
 ment of the famous passage in Isaiah xiii. 19-22. 
 It should be carefully noted that the present 
 conditions at the site of old Babylon do not seem 
 to satisfy fully the language of that passage. 
 It would seem to be another illustration of the 
 rare use of language in the Bible, which adapts 
 a passage accurately to one event, and then to a 
 second event, a long time afterward. 
 
 This would, of course, involve the rebuilding 
 of the old capital of the Euphrates. The rever- 
 ent student quietly notes the movements taking 
 place in that part of the world, but restrains mere 
 curious speculation, as he continues fervently 
 to pray, *' Thy kingdom come." 
 
 This eighteenth chapter of Revelation seems 
 like an echo of that intense twenty-first of Isaiah, 
 and indeed of a strain sounding all through the 
 prophetic books. One familiar with the old writ- 
 ings is not surprised to find this echo; he ex- 
 pects it. No echo of God's voice or purpose is 
 ever lost. God never loses any of the threads out 
 of His hand. 
 
204 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 Hallelujah! He Comes. 
 
 The seventh view presents the climax. It in- 
 cludes from chapter nineteen to chapter twenty- 
 two, verse five. It presents in full the great scene 
 that closes this tribulation period; touches the 
 kingdom in a bare word so as to fit it into its 
 place in the scheme of events being outlined; 
 and then gives the final wind-up after the King- 
 dom time is over. We want to look now at the 
 portion connected immediately with what has 
 just gone before, the description of the wondrous 
 close of the tribulation, in chapters nineteen, 
 verse one, to twenty, verse three. 
 
 John hears a great outburst of worship and 
 praise in heaven. It resembles the outburst 
 back in chapter five, when the Lamb took the 
 book. But it is seen to be yet greater than 
 that. Its joy and delight seem wholly un- 
 bounded. Again the living creatures and the 
 four and twenty elders lead the song that bursts 
 out. 
 
 John tries to tell how great was the volume of 
 adoring song that fills all heaven. It is like 
 the voice of a great multitude, like the waters 
 that he had heard many a time breaking in 
 deafening roar on the rocky coast of Patmos, 
 like the mighty thunders which he had heard so 
 much in these visions. 
 
 And the song they sang explains the exuber- 
 ance of their singing, " Hallelujah: for the Lord 
 our God, the Almighty reigneth." At last He 
 reigneth. In the earlier parts of the book God 
 
A Clearlng-up Storm in the Realm 205 
 
 is spoken of as ** He who is and who was, and 
 who Cometh." ^ As later events are described 
 that last part " who cometh " is significantly 
 dropped.^ Clearly at these points being de- 
 scribed He has come. Now the great realiza- 
 tion bursts out from countless voices, the Lord, 
 our God, the Almighty reigneth! 
 
 And John is bidden to write the words whose 
 refrain has filled such a place in hymns and 
 devout speech, " Blessed are they that are bid- 
 den to the marriage supper of the Lamb." And 
 the one who seems to be serving as John's guide 
 puts peculiar emphasis on all that is being re- 
 vealed by saying, " these are true words of 
 God.' 
 
 John is so overwhelmed that he falls down 
 to worship this one. And then he finds that 
 this is one of his own redeemed brothers of the 
 earth. And as He quietly bids John give his 
 worship to One only, He adds very significant 
 words : *' the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of 
 prophecy." The whole genius and soul of all 
 this wealth of prophecy is to point men to our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, God to us. 
 
 And now comes the event toward which the 
 ages have looked. The heavens open. And our 
 Lord Jesus appears coming in glory to earth. At 
 last He comes. There's a wonderful description. 
 He comes as a conqueror, riding forth to judge 
 the earth righteously, and to make war on evil. 
 His eyes are as a flame of fire, and upon His 
 
 * Revelation i. 4, 8 ; iv. 8. 
 
 * Revelation xi. 17 ; xvi. 5. 
 
2o6 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 head many diadems. He has a name indicating 
 that He is all alone in the experiences He has 
 been through, and in His character. He comes 
 as King of kings and Lord of lords, to rule all 
 the earth with a new absolutism, to right all 
 wrongs, and visit the indignant wrath of God 
 upon all sin. 
 
 As He appears an angel gives warning of 
 what is coming. In words that are an echo of 
 Ezekiel's, long centuries before, he calls to 
 all the scavenger birds of the earth that haunt 
 battlefields to come to a great feasting time.^ 
 And John sees the vast armies of the nations of 
 the earth all gathered together for a last mighty 
 battle, under the leadership of the great leader 
 of lawlessness and his lieutenant. 
 
 And the utter impotence of their struggle 
 against God is revealed in the quietness and 
 brevity with which their defeat and capture are 
 told. Satan's great earth leader and his chief 
 who deceived the people with his miraculous 
 power, both are taken and forever put away. 
 And then Satan himself is chained and fastened 
 securely in the abyss. Such is the tremendous 
 consummation quietly told in a few lines. And 
 then follows the setting up of the glorious king- 
 dom on earth. 
 
 Whatever the immediate circumstances under 
 which the Second Psalm was penned, it will be 
 readily seen how it fits into this situation at the 
 end. 
 
 * Ezekiel xxxix. 17-20. 
 
A Clearing-up Storm in the Realm 207 
 
 "Why do the nations tumultuously assemble, 
 And the peoples meditate a vain thing? 
 The kings of the earth set themselves, 
 And the rulers take counsel together, 
 Against Jehovah and against His Anointed, saying, 
 ' Let us break their bonds asunder, 
 And cast away their cords from us.'" 
 
 But their efforts seem so puny, and the result 
 so one-sided, that 
 
 "He that sitteth in the heavens will laugh: 
 The Lord will have them in derision." 
 
 And we remember that, in these Revelation 
 pages, it is always with the sword of His mouth 
 that the Lord Jesus is said to fight, as we read 
 on: 
 
 "Then will He speak unto them in His wrath. 
 And vex [or trouble] them in His sore displeasure; 
 
 [saying] 
 *Yet / have set my King 
 Upon my holy hill of Zion.*" 
 
 Then the Son speaks: 
 
 " I will tell of the decree : 
 
 Jehovah said unto me, 'thou art my Son; 
 
 This day have I begotten thee. 
 
 Ask of me and I will give thee the nations for tkiotf 
 inheritance, 
 
 And the uttermost parts of the earth for thy pos- 
 session. 
 
 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; 
 
 Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.' *" 
 
 And the writer of the Psalms closed with a 
 
2o8 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 word of earnest counsel to the kings of earth: 
 
 " Now therefore be wise, O ye kings : 
 Be instructed, ye judges of the earth. 
 Serve Jehovah with fear, 
 And rejoice with trembling [awe], 
 Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish in the 
 
 way, 
 For His wrath will soon be kindled. 
 Blessed are all they that take refuge in Him." 
 
 Thus it is seen that these seven views describe 
 (i) the general characteristics of the tribula- 
 tion time; (2) the way in which it comes, that 
 is, by the withdrawal of restraint and so the 
 loosing of evil; (3) the faithful witness being 
 borne throughout the period; (4) the great evil 
 leader and the character of the persecution he 
 wages; (5) the visitation of judgments upon 
 earth with the great gathering of nations to 
 battle against God; (6) the world system of evil; 
 and (7) the coming of our Lord Jesus to judge 
 evil and set up the kingdom. 
 
 Still He Waits. 
 
 It will at once be noted that these things group 
 up, naturally and easily, under three headings. 
 First, there is a terrible persecution of God's 
 people. This will end in a visitation of judg- 
 ments, including great plagues. There will be 
 a gathering of the armies of all nations, and a 
 great battle. It will end in a decisive defeat for 
 them by the personal coming of the Lord Jesus,- 
 and will be accompanied by a terrific earthquake 
 
A Clearing-up Storm in the Realm 209 
 
 and an equally terrific shake-up of the heavenly- 
 bodies connected with the earth, sun, moon, and 
 stars. Then comes the establishment of the 
 Kingdom of God upon earth. These three things 
 stand dominantly out. 
 
 It comes as a surprise to one who has not been 
 thinking especially about it, to find how these 
 three things are the same three that stood out 
 so prominently at the close of the study of 
 future items in the old prophetic books. It is 
 natural that it should be so, of course, since the 
 Book of God is one in its essential unity. 
 
 But there is a great fascination in finding the 
 parts to come together so simply and naturally. 
 As we gather up the Old Testament pages these 
 three things sift out and group together as dis- 
 tinctly not yet fulfilled, and so future. As we 
 listen to our Lord Jesus talking, again these same 
 three items are emphasized by Him. And now 
 the same three are found here. 
 
 Dr. A. F. Schauffler tells of a striking experi- 
 ence he had in connection with his mission work 
 in New York City. A letter came to him from 
 a stranger in Germany. It said : '' I know you 
 are a city missionary. I am sending a trunk in 
 your care. Inclosed in this letter you will find 
 a piece of paper cut. A man will come and pre- 
 sent to you a piece of paper matching this piece. 
 Please give him the trunk." And enclosed in 
 the letter was a piece of paper cut in zig- 
 zags. 
 
 Letter and paper were laid away to await de- 
 velopments. Some weeks later a stranger came 
 
2IO About the Crowned Christ 
 
 in and presented a queerly cut piece of paper, 
 saying : " I think you have a piece that matches 
 this." Dr. Schauffler got out his piece of paper, 
 laid the two side by side, found that they 
 matched, and said to his visitor : " There's your 
 trunk." 
 
 Even so these prophetic pages of the New 
 Testament are found to fit exactly the pages of 
 the Old, written centuries before. It is not sur- 
 prising, however. One hand cut the paper into 
 two pieces in Germany, and naturally they fitted 
 when put together in New York. One Hand has 
 guided the men writing in both Old and New. 
 
 When Jeremiah was first called to his work 
 as God's messenger he was shown in vision the 
 branch of an almond tree. The almond tree is 
 the earliest of all trees to wake from its win- 
 ter's sleep at the first hint of spring warmth 
 coming. And so it was called the " watching " 
 or " watcher '' tree. Then God said to Jeremiah : 
 " Even so, I eagerly watch over my word to 
 bring it to life and fruitage at the very earliest 
 opportunity." ^ And so the word of this watch- 
 ing God and its fulfilment match, regardless of 
 the thing we call time, even running into cen- 
 turies. 
 
 And it is very helpful for those of us who have 
 had a sort of dread of prophecy as of a vague 
 something that we can't understand, to find after 
 all how simple it is. Just three great items stand 
 out of these prophetic pages that are waiting ful- 
 filment. 
 * Jeremiah i. 11-12. 
 
A Clearing-up Storm in the Realm 211 
 
 Such is the seven-fold view, which is taken up 
 almost wholly with the clearing-up storm in the 
 King's realm. But all this is still future. We 
 are still in that waiting time. Our Lord Jesus 
 still stands among the candlesticks. Still He is 
 waiting for His Church to be faithful. He still 
 waits for each of us who is a bit of His Church. 
 He is depending on us to be faithful, by His 
 grace, day by day, during this waiting time. And 
 while He waits all His limitless power is at our 
 disposal, as we follow His leading. We may 
 take as much as we need. But the taking must 
 be with the life. 
 
 A dear missionary friend told of a simple ex- 
 perience that meant much to him. We were 
 walking together in the town in Korea where 
 his mission work is. His school was the centre 
 of the recent troublous times in Korea, and 
 the storm seemed to rage about his own person 
 at its outburst. As we talked all his native 
 teachers and several of his older students were 
 in prison. The experience he told me was of 
 earlier days in this country, but had come back 
 to his memory as a great refreshment during 
 the troublous times. 
 
 He was a professor in a small college in our 
 Middle West. Special funds were being raised 
 for extension. He was to ask a certain man 
 of wealth for a large donation. He planned 
 and prayed much, and at last went to see the 
 man in another city by appointment. He had 
 a keen sense of the responsibility of his 
 task. 
 
212 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 As he entered the building where the man's 
 office was he was greeted cordially by a young 
 man whom he remembered as a former student, 
 to whom he had been friendly in some time of 
 minor need. But he had not connected him in 
 his mind with this wealthy man, whose son he 
 was. Now as the former student learned of his 
 professor friend's errand, he said with all the 
 confidence of a son on good terms with his 
 father : 
 
 " Come right in ; father's here." 
 
 As they stepped into the man's office the son 
 said, simply: 
 
 " Father, this is an old friend of mine. He's 
 all right. Give him whatever he wants.'' 
 
 And the father, busy at his desk, with barely 
 a look at the appointed visitor, reached one 
 hand over for his checkbook, and simply 
 said: 
 
 " How much do you want ?" 
 
 My friend, taken completely by surprise at 
 the unexpected turn of events, managed to name 
 the large sum he had been thinking and praying 
 over so much. And before he could quite re- 
 cover from his surprise, he found himself outside 
 walking up the street with the coveted check in 
 his pocket, praising God for such an answer to 
 his prayers. It had been years before, but as 
 we walked and talked it all came back with a 
 fresh flush of feeling. 
 
 The present is a waiting time. It may seem 
 to some as though they are in the wilderness. 
 Clear and distinct comes a quiet voice: 
 
A Clearing-up Storm in the Realm 213 
 
 " What'll you have ? Whatever you choose to 
 ask, for My Son's sake." 
 
 May we reach out to take as much as He is 
 reaching down to give. But the taking must be 
 with the life. 
 
VIL— THE CROWNED CHRIST 
 REIGNING 
 
" On this side of the river and on that was the tree 
 of life, bearing twelve fruits," 
 
 " A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot ! 
 Rose plot, 
 Fringed pool, 
 Ferned grot — 
 The veriest school 
 Of peace ; and yet the fool 
 
 Contends that God is not — 
 Not God! in gardens! when the eve is cool? 
 
 Nay, but I have a sign; 
 'Tis very sure God walks in mine." 
 
THE CROWNED CHRIST 
 REIGNING 
 
 (Revelation, Chapters xx:4-xxii.) 
 
 Day Is Coming. 
 
 It's a long lane that has no turning. Every 
 valley leads up a hillside to a hilltop. Every 
 storm ends in sunshine at the last. Every night 
 runs out; the dawn will break; the new day 
 comes ; the shadows flee before the new shining. 
 The battle for right will end in victory, and in a 
 decisive victory. There'll be no draw here. 
 Faith wins at last. It's been a long night of 
 fighting. Sometimes it seems endless. 
 
 The man in the thick of the fight, with moist 
 brow, and clenched hand, and quick breath and 
 throbbing heart, sometimes sobs out the prayer, 
 " O Lord, how long before the night is over, 
 and the dawn breaks ? " And quietly through 
 the smoke and din of the conflict a still, small 
 voice says, " Steady, my child, steady ; the day 
 is surely coming, and with day victory; steady, 
 steady a bit longer." 
 
 Now here in vision the fight is over, the vic- 
 tory won. And God's visions always become 
 realities. The vision is yet for the appointed 
 time, and it panteth breathlessly toward the real- 
 217 
 
2i8 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 ization, and will not fail nor delay. Though it 
 tarry, wait for it ; it will certainly come on time ; 
 it will not be late.^ 
 
 In the seventh view the kingdom follows im- 
 mediately that decisive conflict and the putting 
 of Satan out of the way for the time being. The 
 redeemed ones at once begin their blessed service 
 of fellowship with the King in reigning over 
 the kingdom. Emphasis is placed on the fact 
 that at this time there has been a resurrection 
 of believers. And these resurrected ones join 
 with those caught up without death in adminis- 
 tering the kingdom. This kingdom is said to 
 last for a thousand years, that length of time 
 being named only here, and here six times. 
 
 There is much talk in our day about the king- 
 dom. All Christendom has been repeating for 
 nineteen centuries the petition, " Thy kingdom 
 come." It will be of intense and practical in- 
 terest to see just what the kingdom is, as pic- 
 tured in the Bible. It is barely mentioned in 
 this place in Revelation, to fit it into its place in 
 the scheme of future events being outlined. 
 
 But it is the chief theme in these old prophetic 
 pages, around which all others group. Imme- 
 diate historical events furnish the setting, but 
 there is a continual swinging to the coming 
 future greatness. The yellow glory-light of the 
 coming kingdom is never out of the prophetic 
 sky. Jeremiah is the one most absorbed in the 
 boiling of the political pot of his own strenuous 
 time, but even he, at times, lifts his head and 
 
 * Habakkuk ii. 3- 
 
The Crowned Christ Reigning 219 
 
 gets such a glimpse of the coming kingdom 
 as causes him to mix some rose tincture with 
 the jet black ink he habitually uses. 
 
 The Kingdom Picture. 
 
 Let us look briefly at the kingdom picture of 
 these older pages. Its capital is Jerusalem, 
 which becomes the world capital. It will be the 
 joy of the whole earth. Israel will be the first 
 nation of the earth, to which all others will be 
 tributary. But it will be not the Israel of these 
 old pages, nor the Jew as he is known charac- 
 teristically throughout history. Israel will be a 
 new nation, made new in character by the power 
 of the Holy Spirit. The winsome picture of the 
 baptized crowds at Pentecost gives an inkling of 
 the spirit that will sway the new nation.^ They 
 will be a nation of radiant faces and thrilled 
 hearts. 
 
 The effect of this upon all other nations is 
 marked. Through Israel's regeneration and new 
 leadership, every other nation is to know a new 
 spirit life. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit 
 upon Israel is to be followed by an outpouring 
 upon all flesh. Pentecost is merely a beginning 
 of what is to be universal. There will be a 
 widespread voluntary coming to Israel for re- 
 ligious instruction. She becomes the world's 
 teacher until the knowledge of God covers the 
 whole earth as the waters cover the sea. But 
 all this will be purely a voluntary movement 
 
 * Acts ii. 44-47 ; iv. 32-34. 
 
220 About the Crov/ned Christ 
 
 among the nations. There will be war no longer, 
 but universal peace. 
 
 There's one part of the picture specially com- 
 forting. That vast majority, the poor, will be 
 specially guarded and cared for. There will be 
 no hungry people, nor cold, nor poorly clad ; no 
 unemployed begging for a chance to earn a dry 
 crust, and no workers fighting for a fair share 
 of the fruit of their toil. But there are yet 
 tenderer touches on the canvas. Broken hearts 
 will be healed, prison doors unhung, broken 
 family circles complete again. 
 
 A recent issue of The Sunday School Times 
 tells a simple, touching incident of a mission 
 hall in Korea. A Korean woman living in the 
 country heard of the wonderful things happen- 
 ing there, and came to town to find out for her- 
 self, and get some help. But she didn't know 
 where the hall was, nor what name it was called. 
 So she inquired on the streets for the place where 
 they cured the broken heart. And at once she 
 was directed to the mission hall. That sort of 
 thing will become a blessed commonplace in the 
 beginning of the kingdom time. 
 
 Then there are certain radical changes in 
 nature. Splendid rivers of waters are to flow 
 through or by Jerusalem, suggesting radical 
 changes in the formation of the land there. That 
 fortress city, on the hilltop, Jerusalem, becomes 
 as the world's metropolis, a mighty city, with 
 rivers floating a world's commerce. The light 
 of sun and moon will be greatly intensified, so 
 influencing the fertility of the earth. Before 
 
The Crowned Christ Reigning 221 
 
 their healing light and heat, in the newly tem- 
 pered atmosphere, all poisonous growths, the 
 blight of drought, and suffering of untempered 
 heat, will disappear. 
 
 And with this goes a change in the animal 
 creation. Hate will be gone. And so beasts 
 that are dreaded because of their ferocity and 
 treachery and poisonous power will be wholly 
 changed. There will be mutual cessation of 
 cruelty to animals by man, and of danger to 
 man by animals, for all hate and violence will 
 be gone. 
 
 And some one raises his eyebrows sceptically 
 and says, ironically, ** What fairy tale, what 
 skipper's yarn, is this?" Well, I frankly con- 
 fess that I don't know anything about this mat- 
 ter, except what I find in this old Book of God. 
 But I confess, too, that I try studiously to get 
 a common-sense, poised, Spirit-enlightened un- 
 derstanding of what this Book does tell. And 
 then I accept it, and go by it, regardless of proba- 
 bilities or improbabilities. It may seem like a 
 fairy tale, yet it is only the picture of the 
 coming kingdom soberly set forth in these old 
 pages. 
 
 As we turn to the Gospel pages we find the 
 kingdom to be the chief thing Jesus is talking 
 about. The Gospel days are sample days of the 
 kingdom in the personal blessings bestowed. 
 Read through these accounts of blind eyes 
 opened, the lame walking, the maimed made 
 whole, the dumb singing, the distressed in what- 
 ever way relieved, the ignorant instructed, the 
 
222 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 sinful wooed, and the bad of heart and life be- 
 ing blessedly changed. 
 
 All this is a taste of the kingdom. Jesus was 
 wooing men to accept King and kingdom. To- 
 day, as in all Church time, bodily healing is a 
 privilege for those who can take it, and a gift 
 for the rare few who can be entrusted with it. 
 In these Gospel pages it was freely bestowed on 
 multitudes, and the gift exercised with power by 
 many. Even so it will be in the kingdom time. 
 
 Most of the parables are found to be connected 
 in their first meaning with explaining about the, 
 kingdom. The kingdom will follow the law of 
 growth that is common in nature, sowing, wait- 
 ing, cultivating, and reaping.^ Its influence will 
 spread gradually until all feel its presence and 
 power.^ It must meet and deal with the ob- 
 stacles presented by different men's temperaments 
 and dispositions and temptations.^ There will 
 be opposition, gradually overcome, but never 
 fully."* Many will be carried along by the cur- 
 rent of the day. It will be a good current, for 
 righteousness will be the common thing then. 
 But in their hearts many will long for some- 
 thing else, something different.^ 
 
 But to many, the new blessed kingdom mes- 
 sage will come as a treasure accidentally 
 stumbled upon, not being looked for, but now 
 valued as very precious.® To others it will come 
 
 ^ Mark iv. 26-29. Matthew xiii. 31-32. 
 
 * Matthew xiii. 33. " Matthew xiii. 3-9. 18-23. 
 
 * Matthew xiii. 24-30. ° Matthew xiii. 47-50. 
 
 " Matthew xiii. 44. 
 
The Crowned Christ Reigning 223 
 
 as the thing they have been eagerly seeking for, 
 and which satisfies the deepest yearnings.^ One 
 who has had any touch with the pathetic yearn- 
 ing of years found in non-Christian lands can 
 better appreciate the results of this kind in these 
 glad coming days. 
 
 The characteristic spirit of the kingdom 
 stands sharply out in contrast with the dominant 
 spirit of our own time. The kingdom is said to 
 belong peculiarly to those who are " poor in 
 spirit," in whom self-assertion and pride have 
 quite gone out, leaving them humble and lowly 
 in heart. The meek will inherit the earth, and 
 will take down all the walls and fences, for all 
 conditions of life are radically changed. The 
 penitent man or woman will be freely received 
 regardless of their past, while the proud will 
 find the doorway too low for their unbending 
 heads.2 
 
 Rewards in the kingdom will not be given as a 
 matter of merit, as in our present endless cut- 
 ting and rivalry, but will be thought of wholly 
 as evidence of the graciousness of the King.' 
 And yet more striking, the rewards given will 
 be the privilege of serving, some more, some less, 
 according as they have become skilled in serv- 
 ing.* He who serves most truly will be given 
 preferment.® The thing prized above all else 
 will be glad obedience to the King. 
 
 It will be seen that the kingdom is to be 
 
 * Matthew xiii. 45-46. ' Matthew xxi. 31. 
 
 • Matthew xx. 1-16. * Luke xix. 11-27. 
 
 " Matthew xx. 25-28. 
 
224 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 a time of world-wide evangelization. Indeed 
 this is the purpose of the kingdom. There are 
 two periods of world-wide evangelization in our 
 Lord's planning. The present is the Church 
 time of such evangelizing. This is, of course, 
 the true main objective of the Church. This is 
 the reason for the Church's existence, to take the 
 message of a crucified risen Christ to all men, 
 that so the way may be prepared for His return, 
 and through that for the next period of evan- 
 gelizing. 
 
 The kingdom period of world-wide evangeli- 
 zation is under radically different conditions. 
 Then the evil one will be removed from the 
 scene of action, the Holy Spirit will have been 
 poured out upon all flesh, and so the moral veil 
 now upon men's eyes will be removed. The 
 Jews, with all their characteristic aggressiveness 
 and perseverance, now intensified by the Holy 
 Spirit's presence, will be a nation of mission- 
 aries to all the earth. The redeemed ones in their 
 resurrection bodies will have the blessed privilege 
 of helping. And over all will be the presence 
 and supervision of the King, our Lord Jesus 
 Himself. That will be world-wide evangeliza- 
 tion in earnest. 
 
 Such is a faint glimpse given in both Old and 
 New Testaments of the kingdom spoken of in 
 these Revelation pages in such few words. Al- 
 most the whole Bible lies back of those few 
 words. What a time it will be for this old earth ! 
 With renewed fervour our hearts repeat, " Thy 
 kingdom come.'' 
 
The Crowned Christ Reigning 225 
 
 The Final Crisis of Choice. 
 
 But it is made clear at once to John that the 
 kingdom is not an end in itself. It is a means 
 to an end, a wonderful means to a blessed end. 
 It is startling to find that after that long blessed 
 reign the evil one is to be loosed out of his prison- 
 abyss. This seems at first flush too startling to 
 be credible. But on reflection the reason becomes 
 plain, and reveals the strength as well as the 
 tenderness of God's love. 
 
 All through the kingdom time there are those 
 who are in heart opposed to this new order of 
 things. They long for the leeks and onions and 
 garlic of the old eating. There will be some 
 yielding only a feigned allegiance to the King.^ 
 That dragnet of the parable has gathered some 
 fish that didn't want to be caught, and want a 
 chance to get away to their own native waters 
 again. ^ The tares of another parable are left 
 in with the wheat until the end reveals which 
 is real wheat and which really tares.^ 
 
 The one thing God longs for is love. And 
 that only is love which is the free outpouring 
 of the heart. He longs for love as our free 
 choice. This is the image of God in which we 
 have all been made. We are most like God in 
 power, in the right of free choice. We are most 
 like Him in character when we use our power 
 as He uses His; when we choose what He 
 
 * Psalm xviii. 44; Ixvi. 3; Ixxxi. 15; note marginal 
 readings. 
 
 ' Matthew xiii. 47-50. * Matthew xiii. 24-30, 36-43. 
 
226 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 chooses for us. And so there must be a final 
 time of sifting and choosing. 
 
 Here is the strength of love, that dares loose 
 Satan out that so we must choose in the face of 
 opposition. For faith isn't faith except it can 
 stand the fire test, the friction fire test of oppo- 
 sition. Here is the tenderness of love, that longs 
 to have a return love as pure and free as its own, 
 and so gives fullest opportunity for it to be re- 
 vealed and to grow. 
 
 So Satan is loosed out for his tempting work. 
 And another great world crisis comes, and an- 
 other great settlement; this the final one. The 
 devil, his beastly Antichrist and false prophet, 
 are put out of the way forever. 
 
 A great dazzling throne is set. And One sits 
 on it with a face of indescribable glory. Then 
 comes the second resurrection, of all those not 
 included in the first resurrection a thousand years 
 before. This is a judgment of all who have died, 
 with the exception already noted. The judg- 
 ment of the living spoken of in Matthew, twenty- 
 five, probably is in connection with the closing 
 scene of the great crisis, just before this judg- 
 ment of the resurrected dead, or possibly in con- 
 nection with this judgment. This is the final 
 judgment. 
 
 Gladness and distress mingle in reading the 
 account: gladness that the contest, age long, is 
 over ; distress to find that for some there is what 
 is described briefly but with terrible intensity, 
 in the words, " the lake of fire.'* Yet there is 
 still comfort in noting the language used of 
 
The Crowned Christ Reigning 227 
 
 these, — " if any." ^ It is not the language of a 
 great multitude, but rather of an incorrigible 
 scattered and scant minority. 
 
 Home at Last. 
 
 And now for the seventh time in this last 
 vision John says, " I saw." Bit by bit the view 
 opens up before his eyes, from the coming of the 
 Lord Jesus out of the opened heavens, on and 
 on, until now the final view of all bursts in a 
 winsome glory before his astonished, delighted 
 eyes. 
 
 God's own ideal, that He has been carrying 
 in His heart, is pictured. That ideal is that He 
 and man shall dwell together as a family. The 
 ideal is not a Church nor a Kingdom. These 
 are merely great means to a greater end. 
 The ideal is the family, all dwelling to- 
 gether in sweetest harmony and content, with a 
 common board, and a common fireside in the 
 twilight of the day, and all the sweet fellowship 
 that these stand for. 
 
 John sees a new heaven and a new earth, the 
 old heaven and earth gone, and with them the 
 seoaration of the wide sea gone forever, too. 
 He sees the holy city, Jerusalem, made over new, 
 coming down out of the new heavens to man's 
 new dwelling-place, the new earth. It presents a 
 wondrous, joyous appearance as of a bride 
 adorned for her husband. 
 
 Then a great voice out of the throne speaks 
 
 * Revelation xx. 15. 
 
228 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 of this ideal in the heart of God for Himself and 
 His friend, man. " Look ! God has pitched His 
 tent down amongst men, and they shall be His 
 peoples, and He will be their God." He will 
 live with them as a Father-mother-God, person- 
 ally caring for each one, Himself wiping away 
 every tear from every eye. A single tear and a 
 single pair of eyes will be enough to claim His 
 personal attention at once. 
 
 His presence insures the absence forever of 
 death, and mourning, and pain, and crying. The 
 dirge music has sung its last song. The minor 
 chords are gone. All the old things of a sor- 
 rowful sort are quite gone. And as John looks 
 He that sitteth on the throne makes the glad 
 announcement, " Behold, I make all things new." 
 And John is bidden to write all this, for " these 
 words are faithful and true" 
 
 And again the One on the throne seems to 
 look eagerly forward to His ideal as already 
 actually accomplished: "They are come to 
 pass." And to let John feel the certainty of it 
 all He says, " I am the Alpha and the Omega, 
 the beginning and the end." The power that 
 has done all from creation's morn will complete 
 all clear to the end. 
 
 And then the tenderness of that highest love 
 which finds expression in the personal touch 
 comes out in the next words : " I will give unto 
 him that is athirst of the fountain of life freely." 
 The smallest need of any one will have His per- 
 sonal thought and attention, and they shall have 
 the best there is, and have it in abundance. 
 
The Crowned Christ Reigning 229 
 
 And the old pleading that runs like a strain 
 of music throughout these pages comes again: 
 " He that overcometh shall inherit these things. 
 I will be His God, and he shall be my son/' and 
 so entitled to the inheritance. 
 
 Then plainly, clearly, with all the honesty of 
 love, comes the warning of the terrible outcome 
 for those who refuse His tender love. It is most 
 significant that this most winsome picture at the 
 end of the book contains the dark, black shad- 
 ows, which remain in the picture at the end. 
 
 All this is spoken directly to John by God 
 Himself. It is not sent by an angel, or by a 
 redeemed human messenger. It comes to John 
 direct with all the force and tenderness of a 
 word spoken to him out of the very heart of God. 
 
 And now an angel carries John off to let him 
 see this that is called both a bride and a city. 
 And from the top of a high mountain John looks 
 out and sees a most wonderful city, coming down 
 out of heaven from God, filled and flooded with 
 the glory of God. 
 
 And the best language that earth knows any- 
 thing about is used in the attempt to describe 
 this city ideal. Its dimensions are perfect in 
 proportion and in their outer relations. Its 
 foundations are adorned with the costliest, most 
 precious stones, the walls are built of jasper, 
 and each gate is one immense pearl ; but the city 
 itself is builded of a gold as transparent as pure 
 glass. Israel and the Church are as sweet mem- 
 ories of past days, recalled now by gates and 
 foundations. 
 
230 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 But these are passed by in noting the outshin- 
 ing glory of the presence of God. In the simple 
 language which has become so imbedded in the 
 heart and imagination of the Church, " the 
 city hath no need of the sun, neither of the 
 moon, to shine on it; for the glory of God did 
 lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." 
 And the winsome description goes on. The na- 
 tions walk in this wondrous light of God's pres- 
 ence, and the kings of earth bring glad tribute 
 of their glory into it. " And the gates thereof 
 shall in no wise be shut by day, for there shall 
 be no night there." '' And there shall in no wise 
 enter into it anything unclean, or he that doeth 
 an abomination and a lie, but only they that are 
 written in the Lamb's book of life.'' 
 
 In the midst of the city is a river of water of 
 life clear as sparkling crystal, flowing out from 
 the throne of God and of the Lamb. On each 
 side of the river is the tree of life yielding con- 
 tinual fruitage. And the leaves of the tree were 
 for the healing of the nations. 
 
 And the heart never fails to respond with a 
 quickened beat to the lines : " His servants shall 
 serve Him; and they shall see His face; and His 
 name shall be in their foreheads;" — that is, His 
 character shall shine out of their faces. " And 
 there shall be no night there; and they need no 
 candle, neither Hght of the sun; for the Lord 
 God giveth them light. And they shall reign 
 forever and ever.'" 
 
 Such is the heart-touching, heart-gripping tale 
 of God's ideal for man. His creature and com- 
 
The Crowned Christ Reigning 231 
 
 panion and friend. All the best that the city 
 stands for of human life, and all the best that the 
 country, typified in the garden, stands for, are 
 forever blessedly joined. And in the midst — 
 Himself, and gathered about Him His redeemed 
 ones, as children about a father, in a union and 
 fellowship cemented by the heart's blood of God, 
 never more to be put asunder. 
 
 The Master's Last Words. 
 
 And John closes the book with a few personal 
 paragraphs. The vision is complete. Now come 
 the closing words. For the third time John is 
 solemnly assured, " these words are faithful and 
 true." And again comes the voice as of some 
 One always standing by as John is being shown, 
 ** Behold, I come quickly." And again the words 
 with which the book begins come to seal all its 
 impressions, — blessed is he that reads, and pray- 
 erfully seeks to understand the simple message, 
 and who sets himself to live his life in the light 
 of this simple tremendous message. 
 
 And John is significantly told not to seal up the 
 message. Daniel had been told to seal up the 
 message given him, for it would not come to pass 
 until the latter days after great intervening 
 events had taken place.^ But there are no inter- 
 vening events before this message is to come true. 
 It has been possible for the fulfilment to come in 
 any generation since John saw and wrote. It is 
 yet more possible, growing distinctly toward the 
 
 * Daniel xii. 4, 9. 
 
232 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 probable, that these things shall come in our 
 generation. The words remain open, waiting 
 an expectant fulfilment. They are not to be 
 sealed up but openly proclaimed, for the time 
 when it is possible for these things to work out 
 is at hand. This is a present practical issue. 
 
 And meanwhile, during these days of the wait- 
 ing time each one who reads or listens, however 
 reluctantly, to the message, will follow the bent 
 of his own deliberate choice, but with ever in- 
 creasing intensity. The pure will become more 
 pure; the bad yet worse. There's no standing 
 still as we listen. 
 
 And again come the solemnly repeated words : 
 " Behold, I come quickly." His coming is the 
 next step in the great plan. There were then, 
 and there are now, no great intervening events 
 to be worked out, and waited for. His com- 
 ing is imminent. It is a thing to be expected. 
 And He brings with Him the wages due each 
 one. 
 
 And like the signature of certification at the 
 book's beginning,^ comes now the personal signa- 
 ture at its close : " I am the Alpha and the 
 Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and 
 the end." So He personally certifies to us the 
 absolute accuracy and reliability of this mes- 
 sage. 
 
 And with the signature come again the 
 gracious pleading and warning intermingled. 
 Any one who will may wash his robes in the 
 fountain provided, and may eat of the life-giving 
 
 * Revelation i. 8. 
 
The Crowned Christ Reigning 233 
 
 tree, and come unto the God-lit city. And 
 equally clear it is that any who insist on doing 
 so may remain outside unwashed. Each one is 
 free to do as he wills. 
 
 And once again comes the emphatic, solemn 
 announcement of the accuracy and dependability 
 of this message of John's Revelation : '' /, Jesus, 
 have sent mine angel to testify unto you these 
 things for the Churches." It is distinctively a 
 Church message, and comes with all the direct 
 authority of our Lord Jesus Himself. And He 
 patiently reminds us of His authority, — I am 
 both root and offspring of David, both before 
 him and after him. I am the bright, the morn- 
 ing star, that rises while it is yet night and brings 
 in the new day. 
 
 And again the spirit of winsome pleading 
 breaks out to those unwashed ones who insist on 
 staying outside the gate. Both the Spirit and 
 the whole company of washed ones say " come." 
 And let him that heareth that sweet word pass 
 it out to those farther away until the last man 
 hears and feels. And let them know that any- 
 body at all who is thirsty may come freely and 
 drink of the river of the water of life. 
 
 And yet once again comes the peculiar certify- 
 ing of the contents of this Revelation message, 
 and a solemn warning against any interfering 
 with its meaning. Jesus says, — I hereby certify 
 unto every man that hears the words of the 
 prophecy of this book: if any man add to them, 
 making them mean something else than I in- 
 tend, God shall add unto him the plagues that 
 
234 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 are written in this book: and if any man shall 
 take away, or lessen the meaning, God shall 
 take away his part from the tree of life and out 
 of the holy city. It comes as a very solemn 
 warning. 
 
 And yet once more comes the emphatic as- 
 surance both of the reliability of the book itself, 
 and of the certainty of its great central message, 
 — " He who testifieth these things saith, ' yea, I 
 come quickly.' " 
 
 And John fervently adds, " Amen ; come, Lord 
 Jesus." And so says every heart in tune with 
 His heart who is coming. 
 
VIII.— WATCHING THE 
 HORIZON 
 
" Thy Kingdom Come.' 
 
 Thou art coming! We are waiting 
 
 With a hope that cannot fail; 
 Asking not the day or hour, 
 Resting on Thy word of power, 
 
 Anchored safe within the veil. 
 Time appointed may be long, 
 
 But the vision must be sure: 
 Certainty shall make us strong, 
 
 Joyful patience must endure. 
 
 O the joy to see Thee reigning, 
 
 Thee, my own beloved Lord ! 
 Every tongue Thy name confessing, 
 Worship, honour, glory, blessing, 
 
 Brought to Thee with glad accord ! 
 Thee, my Master and my Friend, 
 
 Vindicated and enthroned! 
 Unto earth's remotest end 
 
 Glorified, adored, and owned." 
 
 —Frances Ridley Havergal. 
 
WATCHING THE HORIZON 
 
 The Thrill of Expectancy. 
 
 Watching reveals character and makes it. It 
 means wakefulness, an ideal, a purpose, and a 
 hopeful expectancy. Some people only look. 
 Their eyelids are not shut. Something passes 
 before the eye. They look, but they rarely see. 
 
 It takes a soul to see. It needs a spirit awake 
 to see out through the eye, and see into persons 
 and events passing by, and see forward to what 
 is coming to-morrow. Some sleep. The body 
 is awake in daytime. They walk and talk and 
 eat, buy and sell, count money and hoard it. 
 But their eyes are never lifted to the outer 
 horizon. They are settled in an even, contented 
 round. Their spirits sleep. 
 
 A wakefulness of spirit to the time and its 
 need, an ideal clear and high of what should be, 
 a purpose strong and masterful that holds the 
 life up toward the ideal, an expectancy eager, 
 brave, steady ; an eye fixed intently on some One 
 unseen, — this is what watching means. It re- 
 veals character. It makes character. It reaches 
 out strong spirit hands, and brings nearer and 
 sooner the thing watched for. 
 
 Watching has always been a characteristic of 
 the men God has used. He used them because 
 237 
 
238 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 He could. They were of use. Their spirit made 
 them serviceable. Their watching opened the 
 way for fellowship ot spirit and partnership in 
 action. It put them in tune with Him who never 
 slumbers nor sleeps, and who watches over His 
 pledged word, to bring it to pass at the earliest 
 possible hour. 
 
 The watcher sings. His favourite song is *' I 
 will lift up mine eyes." He sees what is coming. 
 He sees Him who sits beyond the horizon of our 
 common outlook. And seeing Him grows this 
 sort of expectancy, and the expectancy becomes 
 the controlling thing. 
 
 It was this sort of expectancy that made Abra- 
 ham a pilgrim at seventy-five, and that grew 
 deep the pilgrim trait of patient endurance 
 through the weary twilight years till the promised 
 heir came, and even beyond that, wove the finest 
 texture into his character when the severest test 
 came. 
 
 It was this expectancy that drew Moses away 
 from the court life of Egypt, and the possible 
 prospect of wearing imperial purple, to become 
 the leader of a straggling crowd of slaves. And 
 it held him steady on through long years, wilder- 
 ness travel, criticism, and non-appreciation, on 
 and on, till Nebo's top was climbed. He en- 
 dured as seeing Him who was invisible to the 
 unseeing eyes of the crowds at His side. 
 
 Such expectancy has steadied every leader for 
 God, in these old pages from first to last, young 
 Joseph in the dungeon, Joshua in the glare of the 
 limelight, into which he was suddenly thrust, 
 
Watching the Horizon 239 
 
 and ruddy-faced singing David fleeing and hid- 
 ing for his life from the javelin of Saul. It was 
 the clear-seeing eye of Isaiah and Jeremiah in 
 the homeland, and of Ezekiel and Daniel among 
 the weeping exiles, that kept the heart of the 
 nation warm with the vision of what was surely 
 coming. The thrill of expectancy runs through 
 the pages of this old Hebrew classic. Its light is 
 never out of the eye, nor its alluring out of ear- 
 shot. 
 
 When Jesus walked among men expectation 
 ran high. When He was killed the gloom of the 
 three days was the gloom of a bright light sud- 
 denly put out. The darkness was intensified 
 by the light that had been shining. Then there 
 came a new sort of expectancy, higher, finer, of 
 the inner spirit. This Jesus was coming back, 
 in all the glory of the old prophetic vision, made 
 realer by the personal touch these men knew, 
 and this new expectancy puts all the paper of the 
 New Testament a-tremble with delight. It is 
 the light that lighteth every page and epistle, 
 every contested path of witness, and every hour 
 of suffering because of faith. 
 
 The Church of these New Testament pages is 
 a watching Church. The expectancy of the 
 Lord Jesus' return is the north star of their sky. 
 It never swerves. All the rest revolves around 
 it. They see everything else in relation to this. 
 Their going into all the world and preaching to 
 every creature was not simply for men's conver- 
 sion: that surely: but beyond that, it was to 
 bring the Christ back for the next step in His 
 
240 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 world programme. He would come and set up 
 His kingdom, and then through the kingdom 
 would come a yet wider, farther-reaching world 
 evangelizing.^ This expectancy controlled their 
 life and activity. Through their faithful world 
 witnessing He would come. 
 
 And as the knot is put on the end of the 
 thread of revelation the very knotted thread 
 seems aglow with the glory of what is coming. 
 The Bible from end to end is a-thrill with ex- 
 pectancy, a hopeful watching for something, aye, 
 for some One. 
 
 A Calendar of Events. 
 
 We have been looking a bit closely at this 
 knot in the end, the threads composing it. Now 
 we want to gather up all that we have been go- 
 ing over with the light that comes from the other 
 pages, so as to have some sort of a simple, clear 
 grasp of the truth. This will help our eyesight. 
 We can watch the horizon better. Our eyes 
 will be steadier in the glare of the lower lights, 
 and sharper to see in the Spells of darkness that 
 get thicker now and then. 
 
 It is interesting to notice that this book of the 
 Revelation is a calendar book. That is to say, 
 it is not a calendar of dates but of events. It 
 gives coming events in the order in which they 
 will occur. Its table of contents becomes an 
 outline of coming events. There is the Man 
 of Fire standing among the candlesticks. Then 
 
 ^ Acts iii. 20-21 ; XV. 14-18. 
 
Watching the Horizon 241 
 
 comes an hour when He advances to the next 
 step in His programme. Then, step by step, 
 there follow the occurrences until the kingdom is 
 actually here. And then the after events, when 
 the kingdom's work is done. 
 
 It turns out that this thing of our Lord's re- 
 turn cuts a wider swath than we are apt to 
 think, if we don't stop to think. That is because 
 of Who it is that is coming. An event takes 
 on the size of the chief person concerned. This 
 Lord Jesus is the One through whom our 
 world was made in the early time, when there 
 were no calendars. So His coming naturally 
 concerns the whole world. It concerns the sys- 
 tem of evil in which the world is entangled, and 
 the evil spirit world so closely interlocked with 
 our own. 
 
 Then our Lord Jesus came amongst us as a 
 man. He came as a Jewish man, and to the 
 Jewish nation. So His coming concerns the 
 Jew and the Jewish capital, Jerusalem. When 
 He sent down His executive, the Holy Spirit, a 
 new organization was formed, the Church. So 
 His coming concerns the Church, and concerns 
 it very intimately, for it is spoken of as a body 
 of which He is the head. When Jesus came it 
 was to die for a world and to redeem a world. 
 And so His coming concerns the future plans of 
 the earth and the race. 
 
 Yet though His coming has such a broad 
 sweep, it is quite possible to get a grasp of the 
 few essential items in the programme. And this 
 will make our footing steadier, our vision clearer, 
 
242 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 our praying more confident, and our soul-win- 
 ning and witnessing warmer and truer. We turn 
 now to try to get this simple, helpful understand- 
 ing. 
 
 The present is the time of the candlesticks. 
 The Man of Fire is in our midst unperceived. 
 The unseen Eyes of Flame see. Our Lord Jesus 
 still waits, and depends on the faithfulness of 
 His Church. The light is still shining out. The 
 dark places are getting some light. The light 
 has not yet wholly failed to get out through the 
 human lantern to the crowd in the dark. 
 
 The characteristics of this waiting time, so 
 long prolonged, are plainly put. In the outer 
 world there will be an increasing lawlessness 
 and disregard of every sort of restraint, and an 
 increasing power of organization and centraliza- 
 tion. There will be an increasing getting to- 
 gether for more effective action. 
 
 In the Church world there will be an in- 
 creasing formalism, a compromise with evil and 
 with the world spirit. There will be a decrease 
 of warm personal devotion to the Lord Jesus 
 as the controlling motive power. And there will 
 be a growing inclination to make light of, or 
 ignore, or jeer at, the idea of the Lord Jesus' 
 return. 
 
 As this period wears on toward its close, and 
 so on toward the events to follow, there will be 
 a coming together of the Jews scattered through- 
 out the world in an attempt to regain Palestine 
 and reconstitute the Hebrew nation there with 
 its temple and old sacrificial ritual. These 
 
Watching the Horizon 243 
 
 are the three chief tendencies that will char- 
 acterize the present waiting time preceding the 
 group of coming events. 
 
 The decisive index-finger, that this present 
 period is actually coming to its close, will be this 
 movement among the Jews. The movement to 
 regain control of Palestine may rise and fall 
 back, gain and lose again. But some day it will 
 come to its head. By some arrangement with 
 the nations concerned the Jewish nation will 
 actually be set up again in Palestine, and the 
 building of the temple in Jerusalem begun. This 
 will be the decisive indication. This is an un- 
 failing index-finger. The hands of the clock 
 are moving then toward the striking of the hour. 
 Soon the sands will be run out and the hour- 
 glass turned. 
 
 The Beginning of the End. 
 
 At some time soon after that point is reached 
 two unseen events will occur, that is, unseen on 
 earth. Roughly, it will be three and a half years 
 after, though the whole tendency of the Scrip- 
 ture is to discourage the figuring of exact time. 
 Yet information is given that the outlook may be 
 intelligent. These events are unseen on the 
 earth. They take place in heaven. 
 
 The Holy Spirit will be withdrawn from the 
 Church. He will not be withdrawn from indi- 
 viduals. He abode in men before the Church 
 was formed, and will after the Church has cast 
 Him out. He is withdrawn only because He has 
 been practically and wholly cast out 
 
244 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 The Lord Jesus, who sent Him down to form 
 the Church and witness through it, will with- 
 draw Him from the Church. The candlestick 
 has moved out of all touch with the light. And 
 now the light is withdrawn, and so the candle- 
 stick moved out of its place as the light-bearer. 
 This is probably the advance step taken by our 
 L>ord Jesus that marks the beginning of the end. 
 
 At the same time there occurs a conflict of 
 spirit forces up in the heavens. While the earth 
 seems to be Satan's chief place of activity, yet his 
 headquarters are up in the heavens, that is, 
 somewhere below the throne of God and above 
 the earth. This conflict is against him and his 
 spirit forces. It is led by Michael, the arch- 
 angel. It results in Satan and his host being cast 
 out of the heavens and down to the earth. 
 
 It is significant that as the Holy Spirit goes 
 up, this conflict follows, and Satan is cast out 
 and down. Is it the Holy Spirit's return there 
 that precipitates this conflict, and defeat for 
 Satan? It would seem not improbable. So the 
 moral situation on the earth is intensified doubly. 
 The blessed Holy Spirit, with all His power of 
 restraint over evil, is withdrawn. The evil spirit, 
 with all his power of intensifying evil, is cast 
 down in person to the earth. These are the two 
 unseen events marking the advance move of the 
 end time. 
 
 There will be nothing on earth at the moment 
 to indicate that these tremendous events have 
 happened. There is no suggestion of how much 
 time is involved. Time is a matter of earth's 
 
Watching the Horizon 245 
 
 calculation. Quite possibly we would speak of 
 these events as occurring in a very brief time, 
 perhaps an instant of our reckoning. These are 
 the two events unseen on the earth. 
 
 At the same time there will begin two events 
 seen taking place on earth. The first is the com- 
 ing to the front of a man, a terrible leader of 
 the forces of unrighteousness. Paul speaks of 
 him as *' the Lawless One." John's name for 
 him is "the Antichrist." He becomes the human 
 representative or incarnation of Satan. As 
 Satan is cast down out of the heavens this 
 leader comes to the front on earth. 
 
 He seems to have official position at the head 
 of some great coalition of nations, with a wide 
 area of authority. He seems to be some former 
 notable leader known in history, who died, but 
 is now brought back to life again by Satan's 
 supernatural power. 
 
 As he forges to the front there follows on 
 earth a horrible time of war, famine, pestilence, 
 death, and persecution. He arbitrarily breaks 
 the agreement with the Jews under which they 
 have re-established their nation, and begins a 
 terrible persecution of them. He sets up in the 
 temple a blasphemous image, and requires that 
 all people shall worship it. This strikes not 
 only at the Jew, but at the Christian as well. 
 
 At one stroke of genius he compels absolutely 
 universal attention to his command by forbidding 
 the doing of any business except by those willing 
 to worship the image. Those refusing the wor- 
 ship are killed. He will have an assistant doing 
 
246 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 wonderful miracles by Santanic power to deceive 
 and persuade the people. During this time there 
 is a loosing out on the earth of countless hordes 
 of unseen demons to torment men. 
 
 All this continues for three and a half years. 
 The time is stated in three different ways to 
 make quite clear just how long is meant. This 
 is the first of the two seen events. It centres 
 at Jerusalem and seems to reach out practically 
 to all the earth. 
 
 The second event is significant. During all 
 this terrible time of persecution and blasphemy 
 and the riot of evil, there will be two men in 
 Jerusalem preaching the Gospel of the Lord 
 Jesus, and calling on men to repent. As an 
 emphasis of their witness against the awful 
 wickedness current they will be clothed in 
 mourning. They will have miraculous power to 
 attest their witness, and to protect themselves 
 against attacks upon their lives. The great 
 crowds of many nationalities in Jerusalem will 
 make their witness practically world-wide in its 
 direct as well as its indirect influence. 
 
 This also continues for three and a half years. 
 As the Holy Spirit is withdrawn from the 
 Church as the witness of the Lord Jesus, these 
 two special witnesses appear. In His great 
 faithfulness and patience God never leaves Him- 
 self without a witness. This is the second event 
 seen on earth. These two, evil at its worst, and 
 God's special witnesses, run along side by side, 
 both centring in Jerusalem. 
 
Watching the Horizon 247 
 
 The Climax — He Comes. 
 
 Then there comes a group of four events. 
 And these four are very closely associated to- 
 gether in point of time. They occur at the close 
 of the period of persecution and wickedness. In- 
 deed, it is their occurrence that brings the close. 
 Yet the exact time when they happen is left 
 quite uncertain. 
 
 And this clearly is another bit of the tendency 
 in the record to keep our thought on the main 
 events, and not on figuring out time. We are 
 to keep to the essentials and be wary of mere 
 speculation. For the sake of clearness I am put- 
 ting these four events separately, but this does 
 not mean that some of them may not be occur- 
 ring at the same moment, or that all may not 
 come within a very brief time. We simply do 
 not know. It looks as though we are not meant 
 to know. 
 
 There is a Jew event. The Holy Spirit comes 
 down upon the nation of Jews in simple, tremen- 
 dous, converting power. This is put in connec- 
 tion with the coming down out of the heavens 
 on a cloud of the Lord Jesus. It seems to be 
 this sight of their great Kinsman, Jesus, whom 
 they crucified, that is used by the Holy Spirit 
 to strike penitence to their stubborn hearts. Lit- 
 erally a nation is born again in a day. It will 
 be with the whole nation as it was with Saul 
 on the Damascus road, as sudden and unex- 
 pected, as startling and as radical ; as sudden and 
 unexpected an appearance of Jesus, as startling 
 
248 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 to the Jews, as radical in the absolute spirit 
 transformation. 
 
 There is a Church event. And here the word 
 Church is used to describe all believers in the 
 Lord Jesus. That will be a much sifted and 
 chastened company of people. This event is 
 also connected with the open, visible coming of 
 the Lord Jesus, out of the upper blue, before all 
 eyes. It affects two separate companies of be- 
 lievers. The bodies of all believers who have 
 died will be raised out of their graves, in- 
 habited again by those who lived in them. Then 
 the living believers shall have a transforming 
 touch upon their bodies. And the two companies 
 shall be caught up into the air into the pres- 
 ence of the Lord Jesus. 
 
 As they come into His presence there will 
 be a purifying and perfecting of character, and 
 an adjustment of relations with Him. There 
 is no suggestion of how much time is involved. 
 We naturally think of things as taking place 
 through so much time. Our limitations in this 
 regard will be gone then. It may be what we 
 now call instantaneous. 
 
 There is a world event. There will come to 
 the earth and to men a visitation of terrible judg- 
 ments, affecting men's bodies, the sea and rivers, 
 vegetation, an intensifying of the sun's heat, and 
 possibly a terrible darkness — in short, affecting 
 everything concerning man and life on the earth. 
 There will be a great gathering of the armies of 
 the nations at a place in Palestine. Again there 
 is no suggestion of how much time this visita- 
 
Watching the Horizon 249 
 
 lion of judgments runs through, nor this gather- 
 ing for battle. 
 
 Then there is the event, the great climax event, 
 the actual coming of the Lord Jesus, out of the 
 heavens, down to the earth. At the moment 
 when He comes the Jews will be in the midst 
 of a terrible siege in Jerusalem. Against the 
 city will be assembled the armies of the nations. 
 The city will be taken, the looting and ravaging 
 already begun. 
 
 Then suddenly, out of the blue above, the 
 Lord Jesus comes in a great blaze of blinding 
 light, accompanied by great numbers. He will 
 come to Olivet. With the coming will be a ter- 
 rible earthquake, such as the earth has never 
 known. 
 
 It is a striking geological fact that the greatest 
 " fault," or break in the earth's surface, is 
 found in Palestine, running north and south from 
 Antioch on the Orontes down even into Africa. 
 But this earthquake will affect very wide areas, 
 including the city of Babylon, which will be 
 shaken to utter destruction. That earthquake 
 will make radical changes in the formation of 
 the earth's surface in Palestine. 
 
 At the same time there will be an equally ter- 
 rific shake-up in the heavenly bodies, the sun, 
 moon, and stars. The effect of both these upon 
 the vast panic-stricken multitudes will be most 
 pitiable. They will call upon the upheaved rocks 
 to hide them from the wrath of God. 
 
 These are the four events occurring at this 
 time. They are grouped together. It seems im- 
 
250 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 possible to say first this, then that. They are 
 grouped. The great essential thing standing out 
 is that our Lord Jesus' coming will be at a ter- 
 rible climax of evil. There will be partial judg- 
 ment visited on the earth. The system of evil 
 will be wholly overthrown. The Jews will be 
 converted as a nation by the Holy Spirit. The 
 Church will be caught away out of the distress, 
 and will have part with our Lord Jesus in His 
 coming. 
 
 It should again be noticed that in all this there 
 are no time notes, except as to the length of this 
 tribulation time. The persecution of the Jew 
 and desecration of Jerusalem, the time of the 
 two witnesses, and the sway of the Antichrist, 
 each runs through three and a half years. There 
 are no time notes whatever for the present 
 waiting-time. And though the length of the 
 tribulation itself is stated, yet it should be noted 
 that the exact time of the Lord Jesus' actual 
 return still remains quite undetermined. 
 
 In Daniel's prophecy there are four events 
 spoken of as occurring at this time, and each 
 is measured from the time when the sacrifices 
 are stopped and the chief desecrating act in the 
 temple begins. The tribulation runs for three 
 and a half years. Thirty days later comes some 
 glad event not specified further. Seventy-five 
 days later there comes another glad event, and 
 two years ten months and twenty days later the 
 complete cleansing of the temple. Each of these 
 portions of time is measured from the same 
 starting point. This would suggest a period of 
 
Watching the Horizon 251 
 
 readjustment after the Antichrist is slain, run- 
 ning through almost three years. All these 
 time notes are of a year of three hundred and 
 sixty days, not our common calendar year of 
 three hundred and sixty-five and a fraction 
 days. 
 
 There comes the period called the kingdom. 
 Its capital is Jerusalem. The regenerated nation 
 of Israel becomes the first nation of the earth, 
 with all other nations tributary. Israel's leader- 
 ship is a blessed one in its spiritual influence over 
 all others. The Jews are a missionary nation, 
 whose one passion is to make the knowledge of 
 God known throughout the earth. 
 
 The redeemed ones of all the earth through 
 all times will reign over the earth in fellowship 
 with the King, the Lord Jesus. In their resur- 
 rection bodies, with all present bodily restric- 
 tions and limitations gone, they will have a 
 blessed share in the new earth ministry. 
 
 The purpose of the kingdom is world-wide 
 evangelization, but with all the conditions radi- 
 cally changed. Satan, with all evil spirits, is 
 removed from the scene of action. The nation 
 of Jews, baptized by the Holy Spirit, is the 
 missionary force, under the direction and help 
 of the Church. The Holy Spirit will have been 
 poured out upon all flesh, making all peculiarly 
 open to the truth. 
 
 What a wonderful time of continual revival it 
 will be ! But that much abused word '' revival " 
 will have its sweet, original meaning restored. 
 It will mean a re-living, a new life of the Spirit 
 
252 Aboiit the Crowned Christ 
 
 coming, that will naturally include the body, 
 too. 
 
 Intelligent Watching. 
 
 Such are the events, near and far, which some 
 day will come up over the horizon of our com- 
 mon life, ushering in a new day. And we are 
 bidden by our Lord Jesus to watch. We watch 
 for Him, and for anything that tells us His com- 
 ing is nearing. 
 
 Watching means wakefulness, an ideal, a pur- 
 pose, an expectancy, and a daily life under the 
 control of wakefulness, ideal, purpose, and ex- 
 pectancy. That our Lord Jesus will actually 
 come to this old earth and reign, this is the ideal. 
 That we shall, by grace, be true to Him in every- 
 thing, day by day, during this waiting-time, this 
 is the purpose. That we shall indeed see Him 
 come, and be caught up into His presence with- 
 out death, this is the expectancy. 
 
 That this shall all be a real thing to us, con- 
 trolling all our relationships, our gold, and our 
 life, and that we shall reverently, thoughtfully 
 seek to understand what He has told us about it, 
 this is the wakefulness. This is what watching 
 means. Our bodies may be asleep, our brains 
 and hands absorbed in the day's task, but our 
 hearts can be awake for the sound ahead of 
 the coming of His feet. 
 
 " But how can you watch for Him. if there are 
 intervening events ? " So the question came 
 to me this summer by a thoughtful, godly min- 
 
Watching the Horizon 253 
 
 ister who looks for His coming. And I said: 
 " Because His coming is one of a little group of 
 events which cluster about His coming." 
 
 The crowd stands watching at the railway- 
 station in England to see the king's train come 
 in. Yet they know that before it comes the pilot- 
 engine will come, running ahead about so many 
 minutes to insure the safety of the way. The 
 coming of the pilot-engine heightens the in- 
 tensity of watching, for now soon the king will 
 come. 
 
 The watcher in the sick-chamber, weary with 
 the long night's anxious vigil, goes to the east 
 window to see if day is coming. There comes 
 a bare lighting-up in the east, just a slight les- 
 sening of the darkness that is everywhere. But 
 even this much brings a sigh of relief. The sun 
 itself may not be seen for two hours or more. 
 But you know without looking at the clock that 
 the sun is coming and is near. Its presence near 
 sends the light far ahead. 
 
 When the trees begin to send out swelling 
 bud and tender green leaf and catkin, we know 
 summer is coming, even though the chill is in 
 the air, and the night may even now bring a 
 touch of the white of frost. " Even so ye also 
 when ye see these things know that He is nigh, 
 even at the doors." ^ 
 
 There's something intensely practical about 
 this thing of watching. I mean the intelligent 
 watching that a thoughtful study of God's Word 
 promotes. There is a striking sentence used in 
 
 ^ Matthew xxiv. 33. 
 
254 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 describing some of the men that rallied to David 
 during the clearing-up storm that preceded his 
 reign. It is said of certain of the tribe of 
 Issachar that they *' had understanding of the 
 times to know what Israel ought to do " in the 
 matter of making David the accepted king over 
 the realm.^ Their thoughtful study and judg- 
 ment of the time made them wise leaders of 
 action. 
 
 There is a similar significant word spoken to 
 Daniel in the final vision in which these end 
 events are being disclosed. And we recall that 
 the speaker is He for whose coming we look. 
 He says, " They that are wise shall under- 
 stand." 2 Daniel had prayerfully set himself to 
 understand God's will for his people.^ When the 
 wonderful vision was given him in answer to his 
 patient study and continued prayer, the Man of 
 Fire who came to him said, " Now I am come 
 to make thee understand." 
 
 It is wise, by thoughtful, prayerful study of 
 God's Word, to try to understand what He has 
 told us. Not to do so is not wise. And more, 
 it will become increasingly needful that others 
 be taught as these events draw on. Daniel 
 is told in this same connection that " They that 
 are wise shall instruct many." ^ 
 
 The opening words of the Revelation, and es- 
 pecially the closing paragraphs, emphasize this 
 same thing. The revelation is given that we 
 
 * I Chronicles xii. 32. '^ Daniel xii. 10. 
 ' Daniel viii. 15-17; ix. 1-2; x. 1-3, 11-14, 
 
 * Daniel xi. 33. 
 
Watching the Horizon 255 
 
 may read and understand and hold our lives 
 true to this vision. This thing is intensely 
 practical. Indeed, it is the practical thing for 
 our day. We can understand the simple essen- 
 tials revealed here. Our Lord Jesus earnestly 
 desires us to do so. Surely we will, for His 
 sake. 
 
 A Spirit Sensitiveness. 
 
 The thoughtful watching that grows out of 
 an understanding of our Lord's plans influences 
 subtly and mightily one's whole life. It deepens 
 wondering reverence for the Lord Jesus Him- 
 self, His present power and personal glory sit- 
 ting up yonder in the indescribable glory of the 
 Father's presence, and His patience and strength 
 in this waiting-time. It draws out a depth and 
 tenderness of personal love for Himself and of 
 devotion to Him. 
 
 There comes to be a keenly acute conscience 
 about evil, and about compromise with evil ; and 
 yet with it a sanity of judgment on particular 
 questions arising, and a gentle consideration for 
 others who see otherwise, or think they do. Evil 
 grows in subtlety and in aggressiveness in our 
 day, and probably will yet more. It seeks es- 
 pecially to make inroads among God's professing 
 people. Yet evil is evil. Its true inwardness is 
 quickly revealed by adding a " d " at the begin- 
 ning of the word. And it grows increasingly 
 repugnant in whatever guise, as we come to study 
 more its inner spirit as revealed in these dis- 
 closures of the end times. 
 
256 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 Then, too, this watching affects one's judg- 
 ment of, and attitude toward, Christian service, 
 and toward movements in the Christian world. 
 The getting-together spirit is getting more and 
 more into Church circles. The fervent heart re- 
 peats constantly our Lord's prayer, " that they 
 may all be one." Yet it becomes clear that there 
 may be movements toward union that are not 
 of the Holy Spirit's initiation, and that cannot 
 have his approval. 
 
 It is not enough to do good. That may prove 
 to be a low level of action. The thing is to find 
 out what God has planned, and fit into that, with 
 all the warmth of one's being. His will is al- 
 ways good, and better, and best. The good thing 
 may not be the thing He has planned and wants 
 done. 
 
 It becomes increasingly clear that our Lord 
 Jesus is a great general. He has the whole cam- 
 paign of action mapped out, and every detail 
 of it thought into and thought out. As one comes 
 to learn more of His plans, and Himself as a 
 planner, there comes to be a passion for doing 
 His will. One moves from the old position of 
 working for God up to the position of so fitting 
 in that God works through us. 
 
 And there comes to be a consciousness that He 
 is doing immensely more through the things we 
 do than we are conscious of. So in all Church 
 activity there comes to be a reaching out in spirit 
 to discern what He wants done, and putting all 
 the strength into that. 
 
 Then, too, one's thought of foreign missionary 
 
Watching the Horizon 257 
 
 service undergoes a change. The actual taking 
 of the message of Christ to those who haven't 
 heard comes to have first place. Educational 
 work and medical and humanitarian, and the 
 like, in missionary service, are seen to be wisely 
 used when held strictly in place as a means to 
 a direct end. And their value is judged wholly 
 by their being a means of bringing those whom 
 they touch face to face with the Christ that 
 died. 
 
 It seems to be possible to spend fifty years 
 and more establishing mission work in the city 
 centres of a foreign-mission country, and all 
 good, blessed work ; and yet have the great mass 
 of that country's population in utter ignorance 
 of the Gospel message and its power. 
 
 As the Holy Spirit is allowed control increas- 
 ingly, there comes to be a better understanding 
 of God's purposes and of His plans, an earnest 
 cooperation in the Church movement for mak- 
 ing Christ known to all men everywhere, a faith- 
 fulness in all the circle of one's own home 
 Church, and a warm personal winning of men 
 to know the Lord Jesus as their Saviour. 
 
 So it is seen that watching for our Lord's re- 
 turn affects one's whole life in an intensely prac- 
 tical way. It deepens faith in Him. It leads to 
 an intelligent detachment in social and commer- 
 cial and even Church circles, while making an 
 increase of thoughtful regard for others. It 
 purifies the personal life. It chastens and deep- 
 ens and gentles the personal character. 
 
 It seems very striking and very strange that 
 
258 About the Crowned Christ 
 
 when Jesus was bom there are just two persons 
 named, outside the immediate circle, who seemed 
 to have the spirit instinct that recognized who 
 He was. There was a man living in Jerusalem 
 whose name was Simeon. Who was he? rich? 
 poor? cultured? of lowly station? No one 
 knows. But whoever he was, he had cultivated 
 close walk with God. That's clear. And into his 
 inner spirit came the conviction that the Christ 
 promised for ages, so long waited for, the Christ 
 was now coming, and he would see Him. 
 
 And a similar story is told of the woman called 
 Anna. These two were in that simple touch of 
 heart with God that could in spirit sense the 
 coming of the Christ. There may have been 
 others. We are not told. But the emphasis 
 remains on the fact that few seemed to discern 
 the working out of God's tremendous plan. 
 
 Will it be so again? It would surely seem 
 that intelligent watching would make one sensi- 
 tive in spirit to coming events. Yet there would 
 ever be a mingling of deepest reverence, and a 
 thoughtful caution regarding mere speculation, 
 while the fervent prayer that Jesus taught is 
 daily repeated, " Thy kingdom come." 
 
 And John's closing Revelation prayer con- 
 stantly breathes out, " Even so, come, Lord 
 Jesus." 
 
 PRINTED IN THE UNTraD STATES OF AMERKA 
 

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