Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 26, 1861
CHRIST'S YOKE IS EASY.
By Finney
"TAKE my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Matt. xi, 29, 30.
I propose to remark especially on the first clause of each of these verses—"Take my yoke upon you—for my yoke is easy."
I. In inquiring upon this subject the first question is, What is intended by this yoke? The yoke of Christ is his revealed will, his authority. The word here rendered yoke, literally means a band, or something that binds.
II. What is it to take the yoke of Christ?
1. To take the yoke of Christ is to accept his will as our universal rule of action.
2. To take Christ's yoke is to enter into a voluntary state of entire subjection to him.
3. To take Christ's yoke is to commit ourselves to a state of voluntary, loving, confiding servitude.
4. To take Christ's yoke is to commit ourselves to universal obedience to Christ from love to him, sympathy with him, and confidence in him. This is, no doubt, the true idea of taking Christ's yoke upon us.
III. Christ's yoke is easy.
1. This the text affirms. The meaning of the word is agreeable, gentle, gracious, useful, kind.
2. Christ's yoke is easy because it is love's yoke. It is good-will universally to us. Every requirement is imposed upon us for our own good, and the highest good of the great family of which we are members. Christ's will is never arbitrary, never capricious, never selfish, requires nothing of us at any time without the strictest reference to our own highest good.
3. His yoke is easy because he never prohibits anything, and never imposes upon us any restraint except for our own good, or for the good of the race to which we belong. If at any time he restrains us, or deprives us of anything that we would like, it is love's restraint. He sees that it would be injurious to us, injurious to the world, and consequently dishonorable to him; and therefore enlightened love compels him to restrain us.
We are ignorant, often not able to judge for ourselves; we often suppose ourselves to need that which would greatly injure us. He is infinitely wise, his love is always directed by infinite wisdom; and therefore in everything in which he commands or restrains us, love is his only motive.
4. The service which we are required to render him is only a love-service. It consists wholly in love, and its spontaneous fruits and results. He requires nothing but what love will willingly and joyfully and spontaneously do. He requires us to love him; and surely this requirement cannot be grievous, inasmuch as he presents to us infinite reasons for loving him.
5. Christ's yoke is easy because the state of servitude into which we voluntarily enter, is a state of the highest liberty, the truest most perfect liberty. It is just that course of life and conduct which, above all others, a loving heart prefers. It is really doing just as we please. A heart that loves Christ supremely is the only heart that really takes this yoke of Christ. Now this loving state of mind prefers above all other courses of life, just that which Christ requires. It is therefore doing according to our own highest pleasure to do his pleasure; and therefore his service is the truest and highest liberty.
6. Christ's yoke is easy, because, although a state of subjection, it is the very opposite of a state of bondage. Although his yoke is a band, still it is love's band. It is the opposite of slavery. This service rendered to Christ is not a legal constraint or restraint. It is not slavish fear; it is not the thumbscrew of conscience to a must-do, a must-serve-the-Lord; but it is a preference of him and his service, so deep and radical, and all-pervading, that no other conceivable way or course of life is so agreeable as just that which Christ requires.
7. Christ's yoke is easy because it is not only agreeable, but in the highest degree useful to ourselves, to our friends, to the world, to the kingdom of Christ.
As I have already said, the word rendered easy, means sometimes useful, agreeable, kind, gentle, gracious. If Christ's requirements were such as consulted only his interests, and not our own, his yoke might not be so easy. But since he loves us, is aiming by his requirements to secure our own highest good, has no selfish end whatever in view in any case, his yoke is truly easy in the sense of being in the highest degree useful to us.
8. Christ's yoke is easy because he only requires a love-service; and he gives us a love-reward. He does not stipulate to pay us upon the principle of justice; nor do we stipulate to serve him for pay. He has no servants but love-servants. Those that sympathize with him, that love his person, are devoted to the great interests for which he lives, and have entire confidence in him. In short, all his servants serve him because they love him, and love his service. To all such he gives a love-reward. It is not pay on the score of justice, it is not what they deserve, but what his bountiful love is pleased to give them. He gives them more than pay, more than a reward on the principle of justice, infinitely more. His servants all prefer to leave the reward with his love; they want no stipulation as to wages. We serve him because we love him, and he rewards us because he loves us. All this makes his yoke very easy.
9. Christ's yoke is just as easy as enlightened, true love can make it. I said enlightened love, I said true love; that is neither enlightened nor true love that indulges children to their own injury, that suffers them to act upon their impulses without restraint or requirement. Christ loves us too well to indulge us to our hurt. His love is too true to let us go ungoverned, and grow up in self-will and perverseness. This yoke is a state of servitude for our own highest good, and hence for his glory. He subjects us to his will, and requires us to seek his pleasure because his pleasure is always good. He does not make us slaves, and compel us to serve him in order to promote his interests without reference to our own. The service which he requires of us does indeed glorify him just for the reason that he146governs us for our own good.
For if he does not govern us for our own good, it would not be glorious for him to govern us. If the service which he requires of us were not for our own highest good it would be disgraceful to him and not for his glory. But because his government is entirely unselfish, because his heart is set upon doing us good, because he has been willing to deny himself for the purpose of promoting our good, because he brings us into a state of voluntary subjection that he may restrain us from doing ourselves and those around us any harm, and requires of us just that course of life which shall conduce most to our peace, our comfort, our highest good in time and in eternity, therefore the yoke is easy, and the service redounds to his glory.
10. The things which he requires of us are most in accordance with our whole nature. This state of servitude is in entire accordance with our own highest reason, with the most enlightened dictates of our conscience, with the truest, most healthy, and most rational gratification of every susceptibility of our being. He lays no appetite or passion under any restraint but for our own highest good. So it is with every restraint, every cross, every trial—everything in his whole treatment of us is demanded by our nature and relations as the condition of our highest well-being.
11. In short, Christ's yoke is easy because it is really more of a divine charm or enchantment, than a yoke of bondage. The soul enters into a state of servitude, and takes this yoke, because constrained by a view of his love. It continues in this service, and clings to this state of servitude, because bound fast by the cords of this love of Christ. In short, this servitude consists in just this; it is the soul's continual offering of itself as a living sacrifice to Christ, a mere yielding of itself to the divine charm of Christ's all-prevailing love. The soul is drawn in this servitude, and not driven. It is called with an effectual calling; it is persuaded by an effectual persuasion; it is overcome and conquered, and subdued, and held by the charm of Christ's love.
IV. I inquire in the next place, To whom is this yoke of Christ easy?
1. Not to the hypocrite who only professes to take it, but does not in fact love the Saviour. There are many who profess to be religious, and to be the servants of Christ, who are continually complaining of the severity of the servitude. To them his commandments are grievous, his yoke is heavy, unendurable. They will sing:
> "Reason I love, her counsels weigh,
> And all her words approve;
> But still, I find it hard to obey,
> And harder still to love."
This class of persons are living in the seventh of Romans. They make their resolutions, and as often break them. They cry out, "O wretched man that I am." The Bible has said, "Wisdom's ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." It has also said that the "commandments are not grievous." And in this text we have Christ's own testimony that his yoke is easy. But there are many professors of religion who regard religion as a thorny way.
> "True, 'tis a straight and thorny way."
they say. With them it is not as "the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." Their experience is not in accordance with the Bible at all. They do not find their religion a peace-giving religion. They do not know the kingdom of God in their experience to be "righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." The fact is, they have made a radical mistake; they have not taken Christ's yoke. They have taken the yoke of the law upon stiff necks, and therefore they find their religion a perfect bondage. Let no such one suppose himself to be really in the accepted service of Christ.
2. Christ's yoke is not easy to the selfish, who only take it outwardly, from fear or hope of reward. There are many who profess to be Christians, who have no true love to Christ himself, no true sympathy with him; consequently they have no joy in his service, no pleasure in it for its own sake. They have undertaken to be religious simply to secure something for themselves; and they work hard to make something out of it. But they do not find Christ's yoke easy because it is not a spontaneous love-service. It is not that course of life which above all others they choose because they love the Saviour supremely, but it is something which they must comply with as a condition of being saved. It will not do to lose their souls, therefore they must be religious at any rate though they find it exceedingly hard to be so. But this is not Christ's yoke; this is not a love-service; this band is not a band of love that binds them to the cross of Christ.
3. Christ's yoke is not easy to the self-willed. There are those who profess to be religious whose wills have never been subdued to Christ. They are like unweaned children; and they are continually chafing in their bondage as if Christ's yoke were iron. Of course their state of servitude is not a love-service, is not the true yoke of Christ.
4. Christ's yoke is not easy to any who are not constrained by his love.
But it is easy to every one who really understands what his yoke is, and truly takes it upon himself. It is easy to all who truly choose Christ as their sovereign Lord, their Head, their Saviour, who enter into sympathy with him, and have confidence in him, who make common cause with him and merge their will in his, who in all things trust him. To all this class, who thus really take this yoke upon them, it is easy. And I might add, that the same is true of all the burdens which he really imposes upon us. Christ's yoke is easy and his burden is light to all truly loving, confiding, and submissive souls.
REMARKS.
1. Then let it be understood that Christ's real yoke, or the true service of Christ, is never hard. His real yoke is never heavy. It is self-will and selfishness that at any time fault the yoke or the service of Christ.
2. If what we call religion is burdensome, it is not Christ's yoke, it is not Christ's religion. If we make an uphill business of it, and if we find it "hard to obey, and harder still to love," Christ says to us, Who has required this at your hand? What I require of you is a love-service, not this slavish service.
If you love me not, if you do not serve me from love, I abhor your doings. Let no one think himself truly religious whose religion is a bondage, and not the highest liberty.
3. Whatever is hard in religion is made so by our want of heart, our want of love, our want of confidence, and is therefore not Christ's yoke at all. It is not true religion, it is not Christian liberty.
4. All truly religious duties are easy. If we make them hard they are not a love-service, and not what Christ requires. If we make them hard we spoil them. If we go complainingly about his service, grumbling about the difficulties and the hardness of his service, he loathes our bondage; he cannot accept it.
5. Let it be understood, then, that they who make religion a hard, uphill matter, have no gospel religion.
6. This subject will throw light upon the true nature of the christian warfare. This is not hard, a something to which we are to be screwed up, and whipped up by our consciences. It is only love to Christ spontaneously resisting temptation to displease him. It is not hard work for the most affectionate husband or wife to resist infidelity to him or her whom each loves most. This resistance is not that to which we are whipped up by a mere sense of obligation, or fear of consequences. It is the spontaneous resistance of love to that which is entirely inconsistent with it. Such is the christian warfare.
7. Nothing that love cannot well afford to do is ever required of us in our christian life. Of course if everything is for our highest good, as well as for the highest glory of Christ, love can well afford to do it, or abstain from it.
8. Love cannot afford to have one of Christ's commandments abated, nor one of his prohibitions relaxed. His will is perfect; his true service is the perfection of liberty; his true yoke is as easy as possible.
9. Let no one judge of Christ's religion by the common representations of it. Should we judge of Christ's religion from the complaints of many of its professors, we should infer that Christ kept his children on short allowance, that he required "brick without straw," that he is a hard master, and even a cruel slave-holder. Their mouths are full of complaints. They do not hesitate to say in their prayers and in their conversation that which implies that Christ's commandments are most grievous, that his yoke is too heavy to be borne, that he supplies their spiritual wants so sparingly that he keeps them little short of absolute famine and starvation. Nay, they represent the commandments as beyond the possibility of obedience, and the service which he requires as so entirely above their reach, that by no grace received in this life are they ever able to obey him. Now this is surely as opposite to the teachings of Christ, and this text, as possible. Just compare this text and many similar ones to the old confession of faith, that "no man, since the fall, is able, either in his own strength, or by any grace received in this life, to obey the commandments of God."
Where did they get this? Is this in accordance with Christ's teaching in this text? Is this according to the text in which it is said that "his commandments are not grievous," and that all "his ways are ways of pleasantness, and all his paths are peace?" The fact is, that Christ's religion has been grossly misrepresented by its professors.
Such a statement as that in the confession of faith is a stumblingblock, and as contrary to the teachings of Christ as possible.
10. You that are not Christians may see your mistake in this regard. You have been misled. You have been deceived by the complaining spirit that you have heard among professed Christians. You have thought religion was hard, something unendurable, impracticable, something not suited to your present nature, relations, and condition. But those that have stumbled you are not Christians. If you would read your Bible you would see that these complaints are not the Christian spirit; and that all this talking and praying which really implies that religion is an uphill matter, something so far above our reach as to keep the mind in a constant strain that is unendurable by human nature—that this is all a mistake.
The fact is, the kingdom of God, when it is really established in the soul, is "righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." It is the charm of Christ's love revealed to the soul, sweetly drawing it away into a perpetual offering of itself to a delightful love-service to Christ. Everything that is hard about it is made so by unbelief, by a want of love, by self-will. All that, therefore, is without the pale of Christ's true service. Whatever is not done for love, is no acceptable service rendered to Christ.
11. Those of you whose religion is a bondage, can in the light of this subject discover your mistake. Who has required this bond-service at your hands? Christ is no slave-holder. He employs no slave-drivers to whip you to duty. If the law as a schoolmaster had brought you to Christ, you would have escaped from this bondage.
But, beloved, do not mistake your bond-service for true religion. Do not mistake, do not mistake this drudgery in which you engage, and which you call religion for that spontaneous love-service which Christ requires. The difficulty is, you have not taken Christ's yoke.
12. In the light of this subject, all professors of religion can see whether and how far you really serve Christ. Do you ever find passages in your experience in which all is a spontaneous love-service, natural, peaceful, joyous? If you147have never had this experience, you have never yet come to Christ at all. If you have had this experience and have fallen from it, you have fallen from the real, acceptable service of Christ.
Your present state, and your present religion, is not a christian state of mind, nor the accepted service of Christ. You have fallen into the bondage of your own unbelief. And who has required this bond-service at your hand? This is not Christ's yoke.
13. How much ruinous misapprehension exists in regard to what constitutes the christian religion. The great mass of professors of religion are in such bondage—and the same is true, I fear, of many ministers—that they grossly misrepresent the religion of Jesus. By their teaching, by their prayers, by all that you see and hear from them, you would get the impression that the religion of Christ is the most difficult, uphill, unendurable task that ever any one undertook. It amounts to a gross libel upon the religion of Jesus. They profess to be Christ's disciples, profess to wear Christ's yoke; and yet "it is that which neither we nor our fathers have ever been able to bear."
Alas! that Christ is so dishonored, so contradicted, so misrepresented, his religion presented in such a repulsive light as to frighten the young and make them think it is unendurable, except as the lesser of two evils. It may be a lesser evil, they think, to wear this yoke of iron than to go to hell; but it is at best so hard, so void of comfort, so almost unendurable, that for this life, to say the least, a course of sin is far preferable to Christ's religion. So far as this world is concerned they cannot afford to be religious. It is only to escape from hell that the thought or the effort can be endured. But how gross is this misrepresentation; and how fatal is the delusion that this fastens upon the minds of those that are not religious.
14. It is not merely a ruinous misapprehension to those who are without, but to those who belong to the church and yet are living a life of bondage. Their misapprehension of the religion of Jesus is destructive. It is not only a stumbling-block to others, but the ruin of their own souls. When will these bondmen learn that this is not what Christ requires at their hands? He beseeches you to really give him your hearts, to enter into his love-service, to take his sweet yoke of love upon you that you may breathe easily and walk at liberty as the sons of God.
15. What folly to make only a pretence of being Christ's servants, to pretend only to wear his yoke. This is of no use. To render him any other than a love-service is not truly to serve him at all; you gain nothing by it to yourselves; you do no good to others by this bond-service; you do not meet the wishes of Christ at all. What motive then can you have for this folly? Do you not know that Christ is greatly dishonored by those that leave their hearts in the world, and consequently make their religion a bondage? I beseech you misrepresent him not; deceive not yourselves. Mislead not others. Serve him lovingly, or attempt not to serve him at all. Take his easy yoke and render him a love-service, or no service at all. "The Lord loveth a cheerful giver," and a cheerful giver only. He will not accept a service that is not a heart-service, that is not a free service.
16. Remember that all duty acceptably performed, must be free, it must be cheerful, it must be loving. Let no one deceive himself by supposing that he does his duty when he does it in a spirit of bondage, and not from love.
17. From what has been said, it must be seen that there is real enjoyment in wearing Christ's true yoke, in all true religion, in all that Christ really requires.
We always enjoy pleasing those whom we most love. In this we necessarily find our truest and highest enjoyment, in the promotion of the honor and in doing the pleasure of those whom we supremely love.
Whatever is not enjoyed is not true religion. We often hear people say they do not enjoy religion.
They are religious, they say, but they are not at present enjoying religion. But this is a mistake. If they have true religion, that is, the religion of love, it must in its very workings, produce enjoyment.
18. If you look steadily at this subject, you will see how much Christ's account of his real service differs from the common experience. Now is Christ's account of his own religion to be taken as true? or are we to suppose these experiences that are really inconsistent with it, are true religion? Christ's own account of his religion must stand! He has told us what service is acceptable to him, and he is to be the judge in such matters. Let no one pretend that his experience is christian, unless he finds that Christ's yoke is easy.
19. This false, but common experience, is the world's great stumblingblock. Really many of the representations from the pulpit are such a gross misrepresentation of the true religion of Jesus, that whole churches are in bondage, and the ungodly without the church are perfectly afraid of religion.
20. Christ is not responsible for these slavish experiences. They are only the result of selfishness and unbelief. He cannot away with them, he abhors them. They are his dishonor, the church's stumbling block, and the world's ruin.
21. Christ's true service is the soul's true rest. In immediate connection with the text you remember he says, "ye shall find rest unto your souls." True religion is truly the soul's recreation, the soul's amusement, the soul's highest liberty; it is the rest of faith, the deep repose of loving confidence. It is love, and only love, with its spontaneous fruits. This is the whole of it; and this is in the best and truest sense the soul's rest.
22. The real service which Christ requires of us could not be easier and still be real. Did he require less than love with all its spontaneous fruits, it would not be real. But if it is love and its spontaneous fruits it could not be easier.
23. We cannot afford to have less to do than Christ calls upon us to do. We need not fear to have more to do than is for our own highest good.
24. We cannot afford to have less to bear, fewer crosses, fewer duties, fewer burdens. We cannot afford to have anything lighter, anything easier, or anything more agreeable. The whole of his service is the most useful, the most truly agreeable, the most in accordance with our whole nature and all our relations, of any course of life possible or conceivable.
And now what do you say? Will you that never have taken Christ's yoke, now take it? Will you now offer yourself a willing sacrifice to be Christ's living servant forever? Will you who have worn bondage, lay it aside, give up your selfishness, your self-seeking, your unbelief, and truly embrace Christ, and take his easy yoke and find rest for your souls?—Finney.
CHILDLIKE SUBMISSION.
WHAT pleases God, O pious soul!
Accept with joy; though thunders roll,
And tempests lower on every side,
Thou knowest naught can thee betide
But pleases God.
The best will is our Father's will,
And we may rest there calm and still;
Oh! make it hour by hour thine own,
And wish for naught but that alone
Which pleases God.
His thought is aye the wisest thought;
How oft man's wisdom comes to naught!
Mistake or weakness in it lurks;
It brings forth ill, and seldom works
What pleases God.
His mind is aye the gentlest mind;
His will and deeds are ever kind:
He blesses, when against us speaks
The evil world, that rarely seeks
What pleases God.
His heart is aye the truest heart;
He bids all woe and harm depart,
Defending, shielding, day and night,
The man who knows and loves aright
What pleases God.
He governs all things here below,
In him lie all our weal or woe;
He bears the world within his hand,
And so to us bear sea and land
What pleases God.
And o'er his little flock he yearns,
And when to evil ways it turns,
The Father's rod oft smiteth sore,
Until it learns to do once more
What pleases God.
What most would profit us he knows,
And ne'er denies aught good to those
Who with their utmost strength pursue
The right, and only care to do
What pleases God.
If this be so, then, world, from me
Keep, if thou wilt, what pleases thee,
But thou, my soul, be well content
With God and all things he hath sent,
As pleases God.
And must thou suffer here and there,
Cling but the firmer to his care;
For all things are beneath his sway,
And must in every truth obey
What pleases God.
True faith will grasp his mercy fast,
And hope bring patience at the last;
Then, both within thy heart enshrine,
So shall the heritage be thine
That pleases God.
To thee forever shall be given
A kingdom and a throne in heaven;
And there shall be fulfilled in thee,
And thou shalt taste, and hear, and see
What pleases God.
Reason Versus God’s Word
If you could find a mariner so silly when darkness settles upon the deep, as to look for direction in his course, to the phosphorescent lights upon the billows, and not to the compass, he would be a good representation of the person who trusts to his reason as a guide to future happiness, and rejects the oracles of God.
Public Opinion and John Brown
PUBLIC opinion is stronger than armies or navies. This John Brown did not seem to appreciate. But Dr. Cheever stated that his death removed the curse of dumbness from more pulpits than the whole of the American Revival.
The Decline of the Pulpit
By Knickerbocker
WE think the pulpit has greatly degenerated of late years. We very much need some of those old sterling sermons, which were full of God's stirring truth, and not filled up with man's soothing philosophy, as in these days. When a minister takes a text we want he should preach it, and not from it.—Knickerbocker.
CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE IN SUFFERING.
Go to dark Gethsemane
Ye that feel the tempter's power,
Your Redeemer's conflict see,
Watch with him one bitter hour?
Turn not from his griefs away,
Learn of Jesus Christ to pray.
Follow to the judgment hall,
View the Lord of life arraigned;
O the wormwood and the gall!
O the pangs his soul sustained!
Shun not suffering, shame, or loss,
Learn of him to bear the cross.
Calvary's mournful mountain climb,
There, adoring at his feet,
Mark that miracle of time,
God's own sacrifice complete;
It is finished, hear him cry,
Learn of Jesus Christ to die.
Early hasten to the tomb,
Where they laid his breathless clay,
All is solitude and gloom,
Who hath taken him away?
Christ is risen, he meets our eyes,
Saviour teach us so to rise.
The Virtue of Kindness
You will never repent of being too kind, too gentle, or too humble; but you may have to regret a want of these excellences.
The Power of Kindness.
The following anecdote was narrated at a meeting lately held in behalf of education:
A certain British school was remarkable for the rough and savage disposition of the boys who composed it. In consequence it had obtained the unenviable designation of "The Bull-dog School." The teacher, under whose supervision this state of things existed, and who seemed quite unable to remedy it, was accordingly dismissed. His successor, aware of these circumstances, and earnestly desiring the welfare of his charge, began by inquiring what mode or principle of action would be most likely to secure it. After much thought he concluded that kindness was the key to the boys' hearts, and observantly waited for some favorable opportunity to try its work. Such an occasion soon occurred. One of the boys became dangerously ill. The teacher called upon him. This act was altogether without a precedent; a report was soon circulated, and a good impression was suddenly made. When the school met, the teacher informed the boys about their companion, and inquired if two would agree to call every day, and ascertain the state of his health. The idea was novel. Like new things, it was cheerfully received, and the boys acted regularly upon it. Their school-fellow had been ordered to have some wine. His parents were very poor, and had not the means for complying with this order. The teacher became aware of the fact. He then, after telling the circumstances to his scholars, asked if they could at all help in this matter. One and another immediately cried out, "I will give a penny," "I will give a farthing," and so on according to their resources. All countenances were bright with joy. A collection was made. The requisite sum, minus sixpence, was obtained.
The master inquired if all had been given they could spare. "Yes." It was sad to be so near the attainment of their object, and yet after all, disappointed. Silence prevailed. At last one little fellow said, "Won't you give the sixpence teacher?" "Certainly; I only waited for you to ask me," was the reply. The wants of their school-fellow were met; his health was in due time restored. But the influence of this act of kindness did not cease with the occasion. The boys had felt the luxury of doing good. The school from that time became quite reformed; a proof how correctly they judge and act, who not only train the intellect, but also the hearts of the young. No principle is so powerful for good in the education of mind, as that of intelligent kindness—the love which, while it does not overlook wrong-doing, shows that it is not quenched by it—and that furnishes a constant and powerful impulse to goodness.
THE FIRST VISION OF THE REVELATION.
THE heading which we have placed over these lines, implies the position that the revelation given to John on the isle of Patmos, was not given at one and the same time, but is composed of different visions given at different times. Is this a correct position? We are inclined to think it is. None will doubt that the revelation was given to John in vision. This state is implied in the expression "in the Spirit." He says in Chap. i, 10, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet &c., meaning by the expression, in the Spirit, that he was then in vision. The vision which composes the first part of this book appears to be well defined; and the second vision is introduced by an expression similar to the one which introduces the first. In the first verse of Chap. iv John says, After this, I looked and behold a door was opened in heaven, and the first voice which I heard was, as it were the voice of a trumpet talking with me which said, Come up hither and I will show thee things which must be hereafter; and immediately I was in the Spirit, &c. If the same expression in chap. i, 10, denotes that he was then in vision, this expression in chap. iv, 2, would denote the same; but if the vision of chap. i, was continued, embracing the whole book, the fourth chapter with the rest, there would have been no occasion for his saying that he was again in the Spirit, or again in vision, and certainly there would be no propriety in using such language.
We conclude then, that the first vision is contained in the first three chapters of the book, and that chap. iv, by the repetition of the declaration that he was in the Spirit, introduces another and a subsequent vision; and that the expression "after these things," which introduces the chapter, does not denote that what he saw, as related in chapter iv, and onward, took place after what he had previously related was fulfilled, but only that he saw these things after he had seen the former. It may here be asked, if John was in vision only when he says he was in the Spirit, how he could say in the first verse of the chapter that he looked and a door was opened in heaven, &c. Answer. He could behold it just as Stephen [Acts vii, 54-56] filled with the Holy Ghost, looked up and saw the heavens opened and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. There are doubtless such ecstasies independent of vision. If there are not, the question still remains to be settled, what John meant in chap. iv, 2, by being in the Spirit, a state into which he entered, after he had seen heaven opened and heard the voice telling him to come up hither.
If then the first three chapters contain in themselves a complete vision, as seems to be evident, we inquire, How much is embraced in that vision? One principal feature of the book of Revelation, which every one recognizes and allows, is that events are not introduced throughout the book in chronological order. One train of events is introduced and we are carried down through that to the end. We are then taken back and placed upon another track of prophecy, and carried down through that to the end in the same manner. And so on. By the seven seals [chaps. iv-vii], events are introduced commencing far back in the past, and reaching down to the great day of the wrath of the Lamb; or rather, seven great periods are introduced, each distinguished by certain great events to the end of time. The same may be said of the seven trumpets. Chaps. viii, ix. In the first three chapters, as the subject of the first vision, seven churches are brought to view. Do these partake of the same nature of the seals and trumpets, and denote seven periods to be especially marked by the condition and experience of God's people, during the times to which they apply? We think they do. It would be extremely natural that with the history of the course of empire, and the transactions of the powers and kings of earth, the history of God's people, the journeyings and circumstances of the church, till her final triumph, should also be presented. And if what is said of the seven churches is a view complete in itself, the probabilities in favor of this position are greatly increased. "Write the things which thou hast seen," were the directions given to John [chap. i, 19], "and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter." This vision then contains events which were future in the days of John. But this idea alone is incompatible with that view which would make the messages to the seven churches descriptions merely of seven literal churches existing in the days of the apostle.
The words, "which are in Asia," in verse 11, which speaks of the seven churches, are not found, according to Dr. Clarke, in ancient and reliable manuscripts. Understanding the seven churches in whatever way we may, those words seem to be unnecessary. As denoting seven periods, they certainly are so, and as denoting seven literal churches in Asia they are equally so; for where would be the propriety of singling out seven churches in Asia with the definite article the—the seven churches in Asia, when there were many more than that all about in that region? Even in that portion of Asia Minor, where the seven which are mentioned were situated, and right in their very midst, were other important churches. Colosse, to the Christians of which place Paul addressed his epistle to the Colossians, was but a slight distance from Laodicea. Miletus was nearer than any of the seven to Patmos where John had his vision. It was an important station for the church, as we may judge from the fact that Paul during one of his stays there sent for the elders of the church of Ephesus to meet him at that place. Acts xx, 17-38. At the same place he also once left, in good Christian hands no doubt, Trophimus, his disciple, sick. 2 Tim. iv, 20. And Troas was not far removed from Pergamos. We must hence conclude that there is a significance in the seven churches far beyond anything that could be derived from the application of the language to seven literal churches, which among many others existed in Asia in the days of John.
This conclusion is further strengthened by the description of the mystery of the seven golden candlesticks, and the seven stars. When John turned to see the voice that spake with him [verse 12], he saw seven golden candlesticks, and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like the Son of man, who had in his right hand seven stars. These were thus explained to John: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches. Verse 20. The angels of the churches are the ministers of the churches. Their being held in the right hand of the Son of man, denotes the upholding power, guidance, and protection vouchsafed to them. But there were only seven of them in his right hand. And are there only seven thus cared for by the great Master of assemblies? May not rather, all the ministers of the gospel dispensation learn from this that they are held in the right hand of the great head of the church? Such looks to us to be the only consistent conclusion. Again, John looking into the Christian dispensation, saw only seven candlesticks in the presence of the Son of man, symbolizing only seven churches. Why only seven? Seven as used in scripture is a number denoting fullness and completeness; and like the seven stars, the seven candlesticks can denote nothing less than the whole of the things which they represent. The whole gospel church in seven periods must be symbolized by them. No other conclusion seems admissible.
With the application of these churches to the periods of time which they occupy, the readers of the REVIEW are already familiar. We have only designed here to present a few general reasons for the position that the seven churches denote seven periods or states of the christian church, and reach down to the end of time. In conclusion let us express the hope that the fearful warning to the Laodiceans, that which now concerns the church, will not by frequent repetition in reading and writing, lose its power to stir our hearts to their inmost depths. We are too apt to go to sleep over the most alarming warnings, if they are oft repeated. May the true Witness help us to be keenly sensitive to his counsel, repent of our backslidings, avail ourselves of his gracious offers, and be prepared at last to have a seat with him upon his throne.