Ver. 3. Names in the Book.

I. Some observations.—1. It is a great thing to have a name in the New Testament.—Think of the roll-call in Rom. xvi. and Heb. xi.

2. It is a great thing now to have a name in the family Bible, for that generally signifies Christian training and parental prayers.

3. It is a great thing to have a name upon the pages of a church register.—How affecting are these old manuals, with their lists of pious men and women, many of whom have passed into the skies.

4. It is the greatest thing of all to have a name in the Lamb’s Book of Life.—Beyond all fame (Matt. xi. 11). Beyond all power (Luke x. 20).

II. Some questions.—1. In how many books is your name written now? 2. How can a human name be written securely in the Lamb’s Book of Life? 3. To backsliders: are you going to return to your name, or do you want it to come back to you? 4. To Christian workers: how many names have you helped to write in the Book of Life? 5. Is there any cheer in thinking how our names will sound when the books are opened in the white light of the throne?—Homiletic Monthly.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verse 4.

Christian Joy—

I. Is in the Lord.—“Rejoice in the Lord.” The joy of the Christian is not in his own achievements, still less is it in himself or in his own experiences. A glance at ourselves and the imperfections of our work for God fills us with shame and sadness. Pure, lasting joy is found nowhere but “in the Lord.” When Möhler, the eminent Roman Catholic symbolist, asserted that “in the neighbourhood of a man who, without any restriction, declared himself sure of his salvation, he should be in a high degree uneasy, and that he could not repel the thought that there was something diabolical beneath this,” he only afforded a deep glance into the comfortlessness of a heart which seeks the ultimate ground of its hope in self-righteousness, and in making assurance of salvation to depend on attainment in holiness instead of in simple faith in Christ. The friends of Haller congratulated him on the honour of having received a visit in his last hours from the emperor Joseph II.; but the dying man simply answered, “Rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” The more we realise Christ, not as a dim abstraction or a mere historic personage, but as a living and loving personal reality, the more truly can we rejoice in Him.

II. Is constant.—“Always.” Christian joy is not a capricious sentiment, a fitful rapture, but a steady, uniform, and continued emotion. The direction of the apostle to rejoice always sounds like a paradox. How can we continually rejoice when we are continually in the midst of sin, suffering, and sorrow? Still, when we think of the change Divine grace has wrought in us, when we think of the ample provisions of the Gospel every moment available to us, when we contemplate the bright prospects before us which even present distresses cannot dim, and when we remember the infinite ability of our Lord to accomplish all He had promised us, our joy may well be perennial. Airay, the earliest English expositor of this epistle, has well said: “When Satan, that old dragon, casts out many flouds of persecutions against us; when wicked men cruelly, disdainfully, and despitefully speake against us; when lying, slandering, and deceitful mouthes are opened upon us; when we are mocked and jested at and had in derision of all them that are about us; when we are afflicted, tormented, and made the world’s wonder; when the sorrowes of death compasse us and the flouds of wickednesse make us afraid, and the paines of hell come even unto our soule; what is it that holds up our heads that we sinke not, how is it that we stand either not shaken, or, if shaken, yet not cast downe? Is it not by our rejoycing which we have in Christ Jesus?”