The Marriage Supper of the Camb

REVELATION xix.

6. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.

7. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

8. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white; for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

9. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.

O-DAY is the Festival of All-Saints, which is, in

TO-DAY

some respects, one of the most tender and touching

of all the festivals of the Christian year.

We do not speak to-day immediately of our dear Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him belong all the sacred feasts that mark the rest of the year-His Birth, His Circumcision, His Epiphany, His Death, His Resurrection, His Ascension.

To-day we think of our brethren in Christ, of that

mighty army of the redeemed and faithful who are bought and saved by His precious Blood. To-day we think of the multitude of those who in all time have lived, are living, and shall live in the faith and fear of God, and dying therein, or found therein at the last without dying, shall be saved in Christ at the last.

It is a lofty and a touching thought-lofty, because in the midst of the cares and troubles, and various business and interest of our lives here, it lifts us up to think of the innumerable hosts of the souls of the faithful who, having passed through the waves of this troublesome world, are now safely anchored in the paradise of God-very touching, because in that happy host which of us is there who does not hope that he can number dear friends of his own, dear Christian friends who have been called away from his side on earth, but are still bound to him by the holiest and closest of all ties, ties closer than those of blood, or earthly affection and lovethe everlasting membership in the Body of Christ, and the blessed indwelling for ever and ever of the Holy Spirit of God?

The verses which I have read to you as the text, and which were read in the second Lesson for this evening's service, form part of that great vision which you will find in the nineteenth chapter of the Book of the Revelation, in which the whole body of the redeemed, all the

saints of God, were seen by the beloved Apostle gathered together in heaven, to sing the great Song of Alleluia.

It is called the Marriage of the Lamb, and you will observe, brethren, that the language of the whole passage is in accordance with that expression. "The Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white; and the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb."

Now, who is the Lamb of this vision? doubt for a moment; it is our blessed

None can

Lord and Saviour

There is equally And what is the

Jesus Christ. And who is the wife? no doubt it is the Church of Christ. fine linen in which the Church is dressed in her glorious marriage, never to be divided, with her Lord? It is the righteousness, the righteous deeds the original text says, of the saints.

But then again, we read of the marriage supper of the Lamb, and blessed are they which are admitted to partake of it? Who then are the guests of the marriagesupper? They are, no doubt, God's saints; God's faithful people; the very same, now regarded one by one as guests of the marriage supper, who just before, regarded collectively, were spoken of as being the Bride of the

Lamb, and their righteous deeds constituting the brightness of her clothing.

Now, I beg you to observe this point particularly, brethren, for it is one which will help us materially to understand, not this Scripture only, but many others. God's people are looked at in two ways: first, as forming a great body, the Body of Christ, the Church. In this light, the whole Church is the Bride of the Lamb; secondly, as a great multitude of separate believers, regarded now as guests at the great marriage supper of their Lord.

Now, bearing this in mind, think for a few moments of the very great number of passages in the New Testament, in the Gospels and Epistles, in which this sort of language is used. St. Paul speaks to the Corinthians of presenting the Church as a chaste virgin to Christ. In other passages of the Revelation of St. John, the Church is called the Bride, the Lamb's wife. In the Epistle to the Ephesians, St. Paul speaks at length about the mystery of Christ and His Church, likening it to a marriage; and representing Christ as sanctifying and cleansing it with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing: but that it should be holy and without blemish.

There are some of the passages in which Holy Scrip

ture in other places uses the same sort of language as we read in the text, speaking of the Church altogether, not now one by one, but altogether to a bride, the Bride of Christ; according to that beautiful forty-fifth Psalm, which, speaking of the marriage of the king, says as you remember, "Upon Thy right hand did stand the queen in vesture of gold, wrought about with divers colours. The king's daughter is all glorious within, her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework; the virgins that be her fellows shall bear her company, and shall be brought unto Thee." Thus, I say, Scripture speaks in many places. The Church of God, the One, Single, Holy, Catholic Church of God, is the espoused Bride of Christ; and at the last, as seen in the vision of the Beloved Apostle, shall be presented by Christ to Christ, by God to God, holy, in white apparel, which is the righteousness of her saints, to reign with Him, as a queen for ever and ever.

But, on the other hand, there are also a great many passages in which the other part of the vision finds its likeness; in which Christian people, now regarded one by one, are spoken of as guests at the marriage feast of the king. You remember well the parables, occurring more than once, of the king who made a marriage for his son, and bade many, and how with one consent they