Saviour, I shall immediately recognize the sacrificial marks of the slain Lamb.* He is adored and praised by the heavenly hosts themselves, as " the Lamb that was slain.” † The great object of dread to the reprobate multitude, in the day of account, will be “the wrath of the Lamb." I To Christ, under this character, the white-robed host in glory are to look for all their bliss, having overcome their great adversary, and gained the palm of victory, through his blood. || The light of his presence and glory is to be the never-setting sun of the heavenly world; || and the full tide of everlasting happiness to the millions of the saved, is to flow from the throne of “the Lamb." ** O my soul, wilt thou not give up all things, to be numbered with them “who follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth”? ++ Blessed, holy, spotless LAMB! Seated on the rainbowed throne, Wilt thou one so guilty own? * Rev. v. 6. Rev. vii. 9, 10, 14, 17. ** Rev. xxii. 1. Yes; it was for such as I That thy precious blood was spilt: Nothing brought thee here to die — Nothing but our woe and guilt. Shed it was : the purple tide Flowed o’er Calvary's riven mount, Gushing from thy mangled side, Filled the sin-atoning fount. "Tis enough! No leprous spot Meets Jehovah's piercing gaze: All is pardoned — all forgot: Saviour, take the endless praise. Lo! the white-robed choirs arise; Hark! I hear their lofty strain: Join, my soul, the pealing skies; Shout — THE LAMB FOR SINNERS SLAIN! TWENTY-FOURTH MEDITATION. LIGHT. My Saviour is Light; for “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” * Sin is spiritual darkness; and when sin entered our world, it was as though the sun had set forever, If Adam, as some suppose, fell on the very day of his cre. ation, his mind must have been filled with gloom, when he saw the material sun go down, and while the darkness of nicht prevailed. But he would recognize in the sun's rising again a token of divine favor, and a figure of Him who was to bear the name and character of the Sun of righteousness. What light is to the natural and sentient world, the Lord Jesus Christ is to my soul. It is the medium of knowledge, whereby chiefly we become acquainted with the visible and material creation. It is the lamp of Science, which directs * 1 John i. 5. 66 For her steps to all the fountains of wisdom. In the absence of Christ, my soul is involved in mental darkness, like the Egyptians behind the pillar of cloud and fire. When he comes, his presence is as the bright aspect of that pillar to the favored Israelites, or as the new-made light, pouring its illuminating flood on the young world. God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ." * Truly, light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun.” + My Saviour imparts a flood of knowledge to the soul that receives him, though it may flow in with all the variety of time and manner that marks the tide-flux of the ocean. Light, in sacred language, means deliverance from ruin. “ The Lord is my salvation.” \ In him I am safe I am saved. It is the emblem of joy, comfort, and happiness : and is not my Saviour the gladness, and consolation, and felicity of my soul? He is that “ light of the eyes which rejoiceth the heart.” s To reject him, is to seal up one's soul for perdi my light and * 2 Cor. iv. 6. + Eccles. xi. 7. # Ps. xxvii. 1. Prov. xv. 30. tion ; * to accept him, is lise itself. For " in him is life ; and the life is the light of men." + O my Saviour, thou art “the true light;” I and, having thee with me, like Israel of old, I shall have light in my dwelling, $ even if it were but a hovel, such as theirs, in the land of bondage. Should days of dark judgment come over my country, like those which betokened the wrath of God upon the guilty cities of Judah, and I should have to exclaim, with the weeping prophet, “I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form and void, and the heavens, and they had no light,” || -it shall be my consolation, that the light of thy countenance will never be withdrawn from my soul, and that, in common with the whole body of thy church, I shall exultingly, or at least believingly, say, “ Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy; when I fall, I shall arise ; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me." Thou being thyself “the light of the world, he that followeth thee shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life,” ** because thou wilt be the * John üj. 19. John i. 4. † John i. 9. 0 Ex. x. 23. Mic. vii. 8. ** John viii. 12. |