"Ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of
the living God, . . . and to an innumerable company of
angels; to the general assembly and church of the
firstborn; . . and to God the Judge of all; and to the
spirits of just men made perfect; and to Jesus; and to
the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things
than that of Abel. "-HEBREWS xii. 22-24.
To how great splendor had these
Hebrew Christians been accustomed-marble courts, throngs
of white-robed Levites, splendid vestments, the state and
pomp of symbol, ceremonial, and choral psalm! And to what
a contrast were they reduced-a meeting in some hall or
school, with the poor, afflicted, and persecuted members
of a despised and hated sect! It was indeed a change, and
the inspired writer knew it well; and in these magnificent
words, the sublime consummation and crown of his entire
argument, he sets himself to show that, for every single
item they had renounced, they had become possessed of a
spiritual counterpart, a reality, an eternal substance,
which was compensation told over a thousand fimes.
"Ye are come."
He refuses to admit the thought of it being a future
experience, reserved for some high day, when the heavenly
courts shall be thronged by the populations of redeemed
and glorified spirits. That there will be high days of
sacred festivity in that blessed state is clear from the
Apocalypse of the beloved Apostle. But it is to none of
them that these words allude. Mark that present tense,
"Ye are come." Persecuted, weary, humiliated,
these Hebrew Christians had already come to Mount Sion, to
the city of the living God, and to the festal throngs of
the redeemed. That they saw not these by the eye, and
could not touch them by the hand of sense, was no reason
for doubting that they had come to these glorious
realities. And what was true of them is true of each
reader of these lines who is united to the Lord Jesus by a
living faith.
WE BELONG TO MOUNT SION. "Ye are
not come unto the mount that might be touched and that
burned with fire, . . . but ye are come unto Mount Sion."
At the bidding of these two words two mountains rise
before us. First, Sinai, stern and naked,
rifted by tempest, cleft by earthquake, the center and
focus of the vast sandstone passages which conducted the
pilgrim host, stage above stage, until it halted at its
foot.
But, grand as Sinai was by nature, it
must have been grander far on that memorable day in which
all elements of terror seemed to converge. There was the
flash of the forked lightning out of the blackness of the
brooding clouds. There was the darkness of midnight; the
peal of thunder, the reverberations of which ran in
volumes of sound along those resounding corridors; the
whirlwind of tempest, and the voice of words which they
entreated they might not hear any more. And all was done
to teach the people the majesty, the spirituality, and the
holiness of God. The result was terror, struck into the
hearts of sinners, trembling at the contrast between the
greatness and holiness of God and their own remembered
murmurings and shortcomings. Even Moses said: "I
exceedingly fear and quake."
In contrast with this stands Mount
Sion, the gray old rock on which stood the palace
of David and the Temple of God-sites sacred to Jewish
thought for holy memories and divine associations.
"The Lord hath chosen Sion, he hath desired it for
his habitation. This is my rest forever; here will I
dwell; for I have desired it." To the pious Jew,
Mount Sion was the joy of the whole earth, the mountain of
holiness, the city of the Great King. Her palaces, gray
with age, were known to be the home and haunt of God. The
very aspect of the hoary hills must strike panic into the
heart of her foes. And her sons walked proudly around her
ramparts, telling her towers, marking her bulwarks,
considering her palaces, whilst fathers told to their
children the Stories of her glory which in their boyhood
they too had received (Psalm xlviii.).
The counterpart of this city is ours
still, ours forever. The halo of glory has faded off those
ancient stones, and has passed on to rest on the true city
of God, of which the foundations are Righteousness, the
walls Peace, and the gates Praise; which rises beyond the
mists and clouds of time, in the light that shines not
from the sun or moon, but from the face of God. In other
words, somewhere in this universe there is a holy society
of souls, pure and lovely, the elite of the family of man,
gathered in a home which the hand of man has never piled,
and the sin of man has never soiled. Its walls are jasper,
its gates pearl. Into it nothing can enter that defiles or
works abomination, and deals in lies.
The patriarchs caught sight of that
city in their pilgrimage; it gleamed before their vision,
beckoning them ever forward, and forbidding their return
to the country from which they had come out. And the Seer
of Patmos beheld it descending from God out of heaven,
bathed in the divine glory.
To that city we have come. It has come
down into our hearts; day by day we walk its streets; we
live in its light, we breathe its atmosphere, we enjoy its
rights. We have no counterpart in our experience of Mount
Sinai, with its thunder and terror; but, thank God, we
have the reality of Mount Sion, with its blessed and holy
privileges. Sinai is the law, temporary and intermediate;
Sion, the Gospel, eternal and abiding. Sinai is full of
human resolutions and vows, made to be broken; Sion is the
election of grace. Sinai is terrible with the thunder of
law; Sion is tender with the appeals of the love of the
heart of God.
WE BELONG TO A GREAT FESTAL THRONG. The
converted Jew might miss the vast crowds that gathered at
the annual feasts, when the tribes of the Lord went up;
whilst kinsfolk and acquaintance took sweet counsel
together, as they went to the house of God in company.
But, to the opened eye of faith, the rooms where they
knelt in worship were as full of bright and festal
multitudes as the mountain of old was full of horses and
chariots of fire. And these are for us also.
There is an innumerable company
of angels. Myriads. Thousand thousands minister to
our Lord; ten thousand times ten thousand stand before
him. When, therefore, the saintly spirit ascends the altar
steps of true devotion, it passes through a vast host of
sympathetic spirits, all of whom are devoted to the same
Master, and are joining in the same act of worship.
Listen! Do you not hear the voice of many angels around
the throne as you draw nigh?
There is also the general
assembly and Church of the first-born. We meet the
Church of the redeemed each time we sincerely worship God.
We may belong to some small section of the visible Church,
unrecognized and unknown by the great bulk of our
fellow-believers. We may be isolated from all outward
fellowship and communion with the saints, imprisoned in
the sick-chamber, or self-banished to some lone spot for
the sake of the Gospel; but nothing can exclude us from
living communion with saintly souls of all communions and
sects and denominations and names.
Your name may be written on no
communicants' roll, or church register. But is it written
in the Lamb's Book of Life in heaven? If so, then rejoice!
This is more important than if the spirits were subject to
you. And, remember, whenever you worship God you are
ascending the steps of the true temple, in company with
vast hosts of souls, whether on this side or on the other
of the veil of sense. Neither life nor death nor rite nor
church order can divide those who, because they are one
with Christ, are forever one with each other.
There are also the spirits of
just men made perfect. If the former phrase rather
speaks of the New Testament believers, this may be taken
to describe the Old Testament saints. Or, if the one
designates those who are still serving God on earth, the
other probably refers to those who have passed into the
presence of God, and have attained their consummation and
bliss.
Who can be lonely and desolate, who can
bemoan the past, who can disparage the present, when once
the spirit is able to realize that rejoicing company, in
earth and heaven, circling around the Saviour as planets
around the central sun, and sending in tides and torrents
of love and worship? Yea, who can forbear to sing, as the
ear detects the mighty harmonies of every creature which
is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth,
saying, "Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power,
be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the
Lamb forever."
WE ARE COME TO THE BLOOD OF JESUS. We
dare not approach the august Judge of all, were it not for
the Mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ the
righteous. Nor would he avail for his chosen work, unless
he had shed his most precious blood, which has ratified
the new covenant, and cleansed away our sins, and now ever
avails to sprinkle us from an evil conscience, removing
each stain of guilt so soon as the soul confesses and
seeks forgiveness, with tears of penitence and words of
faith.
It speaks better things than
Abel's. That was the blood of martrydom; this of
sacrifice. That accursed, as it cried from the ground;
this only pleads for mercy. That denounced wrath; this
proclaims reconciling love. That led to
punishment which branded the murderer; this issues in
salvation. That was unto death; this is unto life.
All blood has a cry.
Listen to the cry of the blood of Jesus. It speaks to man
for God. It speak~ to God for man. It tells us that there
is no condemnation, no wrath, no judgment; because the
thunderstorm broke and exhausted itself on Calvary. And
when we go to our Father, it pleads for us from the wounds
of the Lamb as it had been slain.
Oh, precious blood! if better than that
of Abel, how much better than all the blood of all the
beast1 ever slain; than all the sacrifices ever offered;
than al1 the tears or prayers ever presented in the
strength of human virtue: we cannot, we will not
refuse thee, or turn away from thy pleading cry, or reject
him who once spake from the cross, and now speaks from
heaven!
