Oh, I know the conventional answers we give to such an inquiry, I know the panegyrics paid him by many whose lives belie their lips. I know how easy it is to pay compliments to Christ. Even Renan placed on the brow of Jesus a crown of golden words. But what about this Galilean? Does He specially attract you? Jeremy Taylor's first rule for the spiritual life is "Don't lie to God."
In the experience of the men who knew Him best Jesus was supreme. He was above all: He was the all in all, Standing alongside them one cannot but sense their awe, their wonder, their gratitude as they gaze up at Him. Move close to John's side When he wrote the words of our text he was an old man. Those words in Revelation, fifth chapter, ninth and tenth verses. When John penned them he was a hard working man, He was a day labourer in the stone quarries of the rocky little Isle of Patmos. He toiled for less than a pittance, It always gives me a pang; it wrenches my heart, to see an old man bowed with years, labouring in the late sunset of life at excessively hard work. St. John was such an one.
According to many modern theories he ought ta have been railing against man and God. He was even a prisoner, an aged one, on the rock pile in the quarry at Patmos, According to mang: modern theories, hi condition should have stifled the life of the soul. But he could take off on vaster flights than a Charles A, Lindbergh or millionaire Hughes. He mounts up in our text to worlds unseeable and spanning the sea of time, takes in the sights of eternity. He hears men and angels, singing a new song round the great white throne. The burden of this song is the redeeming work of Christ. "Worthy art Thou to take the book and open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain and didst purchase unto God with thy blood, men of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and madest them to be unto our God a kingdom and priests; and they reign upon the earth." Thou redeemed us unto God. What a great thing, that! We were prisoners! Pri-sorers to sin. We were serfs and slaves to wickedness, Now we are unbound, The shackles have been struck from our wrists, our ankles, We are free! free! free! More than that we are imbued with a new spirit, Our darkness is now light, Our restless sues is now calm. Our fear is now faith. Our self-contempt is now self-respect. All this is priceless.
A very recent and most modernistic P* testimony to this is set forth in a 1956 volume by Henry C. Link. The title is "The Return to Religion," Link, a Ph.D."man is a professional psychologist. He is the Director, New York City's Pyschological $er-vice Centre. For years he was agnostic, perhaps even rabidly anti-Christian. [fitoush psychology and its practical implications he has been driven back to religion, His contacts with inquiring clients revealed the age-long unrest of the mind and emotions of men, "Mankind is still on the quest for abiding happiness. Men need poise, confidence, peace, self-respect. How well Jesus knew that. He came to redeem and restore. Rutherford used to say: "Blessed are they who help us to get back self-respect." gift is more precious, John knew much about all this, So he pictures us all standing before God, shame on our faces, filth on our robes. If only someone could blot out the past, could give us a new start. If! if! if! "Ah"! says John, "thats just what Christ did for me." "That's just what He did" adds John, "for a great multitude no man can number."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.