The scenes which strike us with such horror at this moment are but a specimen of agonies which have been endured for long generations in the successive struggles of mankind; and if we are horrified at the wars and agonies around us, we may be reminded, by the readiness of all nations for such conflicts, that they are almost the normal condition of humanity. In the middle of the last century Burke calculated that, assuming the numbers of men then upon earth to be computed at 500 millions at the most, the slaughter of mankind in the various wars and revolutions which were known up to that date amounted to upwards of seventy times that number, or 35,000 millions. That, on what he thought a moderate estimate, represents the amount of bloodshed which the passions of men had, up to his time, inflicted upon human society. How much more is to be added to that tremendous calculation for the wars which have followed since that date in the East and West? Taking these facts into account, we shall see good reason to recognize that the Book of Revelation, in its fearful scenes, is but a true description of the actual experience of mankind. The plagues, and destructions, and slaughters which that Book depicts, as the result of the just judgments of God, have, as a matter of fact, been realized, and it is through scenes of suffering and misery of this nature that the world is being conducted by the Divine justice to its ultimate goal.
But we have the more reason to be inexpressibly thankful that that goal is revealed to us as one of peace and bliss. It is when we bear in mind the miseries and agonies which the Book of Revelation depicts, and which are brought so bitterly home to us by such a war as the present, that we realize the full force of the promise that “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” Seeing what the world has been hitherto, and the miseries by which it is burdened now, we might well despair of such a result, unless we had the express assurance of Revelation that there is One sitting upon the throne Who gives this as the very definition of His work, “Behold, I make all things new.” We should, indeed, be ungrateful not to recognize that the state of things around us contains in itself some pledge and earnest of this revelation. Grievously as the passions of mankind degrade them in practice, there is nevertheless publicly recognized, in principle, a higher standard of responsibility, a higher and more universal obligation to maintain peace and goodwill on earth, than at any previous time in the world’s history. Even amidst such a war as is now waging, principles have been established for its conduct, which produce a great alleviation of its miseries, compared with those which were suffered in the great struggles of nations and of races in previous ages, or even during the last century. But still, none must feel more grievously than those who have the conduct of human affairs how slight would be our hopes of the establishment of complete peace on earth, did it depend simply on the wisdom or strength of even the wisest leaders of mankind. They cannot extirpate the passions which are the real ultimate cause of the wars and fightings among us. They cannot take out of men’s hearts the lusts which war in their members, and which nullify the best laws and institutions. Our hope lies in the assured faith that all the terrible scenes of which the earth is full, like those in the Book of Revelation, are under the control of Him that sitteth on the throne, that they are working out great purposes of truth and justice, that the actions of all men, small and great, are subject to His ultimate judgment, and that, finally, when the issues of right and wrong in this world have been thus worked out, in a manner which shall vindicate the truth and righteousness of God, He will fulfill His great work, in which He is even now engaged, of making all things new.
It is, indeed, an unconscious faith of this kind which sustains men, and has ever sustained them, amidst the confusions and sufferings of life and history. A deep instinct compels them to believe that they are in the hands of a God of justice and truth, and to appeal to Him in the midst of their struggles, and even in those crises in which their best efforts seem to be defeated. But it is the special privilege, the special grandeur, of the Christian Faith to have an explicit assurance of this truth from the mouth of the Judge Himself. He said unto His Apostle, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” He, the King of Peace, left with His last Apostle the warnings and the promises of this Book. Lest men should be discouraged by the terrible experiences through which they were yet to pass, He warned them beforehand that such experiences were inevitable, and that the world would have to pass through a purgatory of this kind; but at the same time He told them that, when judgment was completed, a new Heaven and a new Earth would be the result, and He bade them be assured that, amidst whatever darkness and confusion, He was sitting on the throne making all things new.
All that we have to do individually is to see that we are true to Him, and in our hearts live in obedience to His will. In the text He goes on to say to the Apostle, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son.” “Blessed,” he says again, “are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.” We are not able, with our limited and earthly vision, to discern “the work that God worketh from the beginning of the world,” or the course of His judgments in the world at large. That is beyond us, and we must submit and take our part, whatever it may be, in these mysterious manifestations, possessing our souls in the patience which such assurances as those in the text can alone provide. But we can have the comfort, for our own selves, of passing through this strange and painful scene in sure and certain hope of our ultimate blessedness, provided in our own hearts and souls we give ourselves up to the rule and the order of Him Who is the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, provided we make it the whole purpose of our lives to do His commandments, and, by His grace, overcome the evil which besets us in our own lives. Our personal and private lives reflect in greater or less degree those stern experiences which this Book describes in the case of the world at large. We have our sins, and as the consequences of our sins our sufferings and sorrows, desolations and punishments of various kinds, and we must expect to have to bear them till the moment of our departure arrives. But by God’s grace we are also allowed in some measure to anticipate the privilege which is held out to the world at large, and which is our own ultimate hope. The fulfilment of the blessed promise of making all things new is not merely commenced, but, if we will, is consciously commenced, within our hearts and souls while we are upon earth. “We ourselves,” says St. Paul, “groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body,” just as “the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” But we have the first-fruits of the Spirit. His grace is within us at all times to give us new hearts and new spirits, to introduce His peace into our souls, and to enable us to spread that peace around us. Let us only seek it faithfully, and the renewing and replenishing water of life will restore us and maintain our energies, and will be in us as a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
Resistance Unto Blood.
CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL, GOOD-FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 1916.
“Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.”—Heb. xii. 4.
“Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.” That is the manner in which the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews applies the Cross of Christ as an example and an inspiration to Christians. He is exhorting them to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us,” and to “run with patience the race that is set before us,” “looking unto Jesus the Author and Perfecter of our Faith, who, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the Cross.” It is an aspect of our Saviour’s Cross which it is most important to realize if its significance for ourselves is to be duly appreciated. What was it that brought our Lord to the Cross? Of course, the ultimate cause was that the will of God required that sacrifice to be made for the expiation of human sin. “Him,” said St. Peter, “being delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.” But God’s counsel and will were worked out by human agencies; and it is of infinite interest to consider what were the motives which led men like the leaders of the Jewish nation to commit the awful crime of putting to death the Son of God, manifested in perfect human nature. The simple explanation is that He “resisted unto blood, striving against sin.” Our Lord strove against sin, and sinners could not endure His antagonism; and the opposition between the two was so intense that one or other of the two antagonists had to be overpowered. That is the substance of the story of our Lord’s life as told by the Evangelists. Our Lord came proclaiming that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand—a Kingdom with higher claims and severer judgments than the Jews could tolerate. It claimed a spiritual perfection instead of a legal one, an obedience of the heart instead of a mere compliance in external acts; it penetrated into the secrets of the conscience; and our Lord further declared that He Himself was the Judge by Whom these claims would be enforced. The Jewish rulers felt that this amounted to superseding themselves and their authority, and they treated our Lord as a usurper who must be suppressed. The tremendous denunciation of the Scribes and Pharisees: “Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,” was an act of open and righteous hostility to the authorities who had rejected His mission and spurned His claims. They felt that He or they must be overthrown, and they used the Roman Government to destroy Him.
It thus appears that our Lord’s crucifixion was the culminating struggle in the never-ceasing battle between right and wrong, righteousness and sin, in which the history of mankind consists. Our Lord appeared as the representative of absolute righteousness, and He was put to death because men could not endure that righteousness. In His rejection by the Jews and His crucifixion by the Roman Governor, the highest official representatives of human righteousness at that time and place combined to condemn themselves. But they could not have consummated that sacrifice without the consent and even co-operation of our Lord Himself. He had power, if He had chosen to exert it, to destroy them and assert His Divine supremacy. “Thinkest thou,” He said, “that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He shall presently give Me more than twelve legions of angels? But how, then, shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?” Instead of destroying His enemies, He submitted to be put to death Himself. He allowed the unrighteousness of human nature to break in full force upon His own head; He Himself became its victim, and a victim of such infinite greatness as to constitute an expiation for all the sin of mankind. Sin and evil can only be avenged by an adequate exhibition and endurance of their consequences. But that endurance and that manifestation were afforded, in the highest conceivable form, in the destruction, so far as men could effect it, of perfect goodness and holiness. That was what our Lord’s submission to the Cross involved. When that expiation had been made to God and God’s righteousness, our Lord assumed His full authority as a Saviour and a Judge, and, by His Resurrection and Ascension, established the Kingdom of Heaven in all its grace and power. Henceforth men have lived under that dispensation of love as well as of justice, and the Cross has been held aloft among them as the means and the assurance of forgiveness and of grace.