553. The Doxologies
The Doxologies
Rev_7:9-10 : ’93After this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindred, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.’94
It is impossible to come into contact with anything grand or beautiful, whether in art or nature or religion, without being profited and elevated. We go into an art gallery and our soul comes into communion with the soul of the painter, and we hear the hum of his forests and the clash of his contests, and see the cloud blossoming of the sky and the foam blossoming of the deep. Much of my mental life is dated from the hour in which I first saw one of the works of the old masters in Edinburgh, Scotland. We go Into a concert and we are lifted into enchantment, and for days after our soul keeps rocking with emotion as the sea after great stress of weather for many days keeps rocking and surging before it comes to the ordinary calm. Even now I can feel the thrill of Jenny Lind’92s song in Castle Garden in the days of my boyhood. On this same principle, it is profitable to look off upon the landscapes which John describes’97the rivers of gladness, the trees of life, the thrones of power, and the comminglings of everlasting love. I wish that today I could take heaven out of the list of the intangibles and make it appear to you, as it really is, the great fact of history, the depot of the ages, the grand parlor of all God’92s universe. The Greek orators used sometimes with one word to arouse the utmost enthusiasm of their audiences. That word was ’93Marathon!’94 Today, I would stir your deepest, highest, grandest emotion with that imperial word, ’93Heaven!’94
My text seems to be descriptive of heaven in a great holiday. If a man had seen New York on the day when Kossuth came from Hungary and passed under the triumphal arches, and the flowers were cast into the street; and he had heard the great booming of the guns, and had come to the conclusion that that was the ordinary condition of the city, he would have been very foolish. Now, while heaven is always a grand and glorious place, it seems to me that my text is descriptive of a glorious holiday, celebrative of some great event like the birth of a Christ, or his resurrection, or the overthrow of a despotism, or the rushing in of a millennium. ’93After this, I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude which no man could’94 number, of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues, stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.’94
Speaking of the inhabitants of heaven, I mention their number, their antecedents, their dress, the symbols they carry, and their song. But how shall I tell you the number of the glorified in heaven? I have no idea, as some people seem to believe, that the chief population of heaven come from this world, but from all worlds into that great capital of the universe. I have no idea that from this one edge of God’92s domain all the glory and the grandeur that shall enter heaven are to come, but from the most distant spheres of God’92s creation a vast multitude. A writer with very great ingenuity makes calculation of how long he thinks the world will stand, and how many people there will be in each generation, and then winds up by the mathematical calculation that there will be at last in heaven twenty-seven trillions of souls. But I have no faith in that estimate. I rather take the plain statement of my text: ’93A multitude that no man can number.’94
Every few years we have the census taken, and it is quite easy to estimate how many people there are in a city, how many people there are in a State or in a nation. But who could take the census of all these nations of the glorified? It is quite easy to tell how many members there are in the different denominations of Christians’97the Baptist, the Methodist, the Episcopalian, the Presbyterian churches, and all the churches of Jesus Christ. If they were all gathered in an audience-room what an assemblage! But it would give no idea of the great throng that shall come up at last before the throne of God from all sects, from all denominations, from all ages. These worshiped God in splendid liturgy, and those in broken sentences breathed the sorrow of a broken heart. These came up from St. Paul’92s Cathedral, and those from sailors’92 Bethel. These worshiped God under shapeless rafters, and those under high-sprung arch. ’93A great multitude that no man can number.’94
There is nothing more impressive than an army. You stand on a hillside and see thirty thousand or forty thousand men marching on’97the scene is overwhelming. But take all the legions of Sennacherib and of Xerxes and of Cyrus and of Alexander and of Napoleon and all the armies of our own centuries, and then mount a fleet steed and ride along the line and review the troops, and that great host will seem only like a half-formed regiment as compared with the armies of the redeemed. I stood at Williamsport during the war, and I saw a large part of the army march down toward the banks of the Potomac, and it seemed as if the line were interminable. But today I take the field-glass of St. John, and look off upon the multitude, the great host, the armies of light, and beyond are thousands and beyond are millions of souls, and I try to count the companies and the regiments and the battalions, but I fail, I fail. I close the portfolio, I put aside the pen, I cannot make the calculation. I have only to cry out in the words of my text: ’93A great multitude that no man can number.’94 Tax your imagination, torture your ingenuity, break down all your powers of calculation in trying to tell of hundreds of hundreds of hundreds, and thousands of thousands of thousands, and millions of millions of millions, and quadrillions of quadrillions of quadrillions, and quintillions of quintillions of quintillions, and then when the head aches and the heart faints, cry out in your exhaustion, ’93A great multitude that no man can number.’94
But my subject advances, and it tells you of their antecedents. ’93Of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues.’94 Some of them spoke Scotch, English, Irish, Swiss, Spanish, Italian, Choctaw, Iamo, Burmese. As in a city now, you can tell by the accentuation from what part of the earth the people have come, so of those in that great city of the sun we will be able to find out from what part of this earth, and from what part of other worlds the inhabitants have come. These reaped Sicilian wheat-fields and those picked cotton from the pods. These under tropical skies gathered tamarinds and yams. These crossed the desert on camels, and these shot over the snow drawn by Siberian dogs. These were plunged into Austrian dungeons. These were confined in London Tower. These walked through Spanish Inquisition. These fought with wild beasts in the amphitheater. These hunted the walrus and the white bear in regions of everlasting snow, and these heard the sound of fire-winged birds in African thicket. They were white, they were black, they were red, they were copper colored, they were Moravians, they were Waldenses, they were Albigenses, they were Sandwich Islanders. ’93From all nations and all tongues.’94
On earth different nations prefer different kinds of government. We Americans prefer a republic, in England they prefer a limited monarchy, in Austria they prefer an absolutism; but in that great land to which we go, they all prefer a monarchy with Christ at the head of it; and if that monarchy should be disbanded, and it should be left to the votes of all the nations of the universe who should reign, by overwhelming and unanimous suffrage Christ would be made the President of the universe. Magna Charta, bills of right, houses of burghers, triumvirates, congresses, parliaments dissolved at the touch of Jesus’92 scepter. All antecedents, all nationalities, or to come back to the words of my text, ’93of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues.’94
But my subject advances, and it describes the dress of the glorified. The object of dress in this world is not only to veil the body but to adorn it. The God who twisted for the brow of the morning the blue ribbons of the sky, and slippered with violeted green grass the feet of the spring morning’97surely, that God does not despise ornate apparel. My text says they are in white. In this world often we wear working apparel. It is always a sign of great weakness on the part of a man if he is ashamed to be found in his working apparel. Bright or glistening dress would be all out of place in the banking house or in the factory or delving in the mine or sweltering at the forge or binding the books. In this world we must have on working-day apparel. But when our work is all done, and these hands are folded from earthly toil and the chariots are all fashioned and the temples are all finished and the mansions are all done, no more use for working-day apparel, we shall be clothed in white. In this world we often have to wear garments of mourning. Black scarf for the arm, black gloves for the hands, black veil for the face, black band for the hat. Abraham mourning for Sarah. Isaac mourning for Rebecca. Rachel mourning for her children. David mourning for Absalom. Mary mourning for Lazarus. Every second of every minute of every hour of every day a heart breaks. From zone to zone, and from pole to pole, the earth is cleft with sepulchral rent; and it is no wonder that the earth can so easily bloom and blossom, for it is rich with moldering life. Graves, graves, graves! But our bereavements all over, our partings ended, we standing in reunion with our loved and departed ones, what more need of the black? what more need of mourning weeds? It will be white.
A poet in very quaint style’97an anonymous poet’97describes the soul going out of this darkness into that light:
I journey forth rejoicing
From this dark vale of tears,
To heavenly joy and freedom,
From earthly care and fears.
Where Christ my Lord shall gather
All his redeemed again
His kingdom to inherit,
Good-night, till then.
I hear my Saviour calling,
The joyful hour has come;
The angel guards are ready
To guide me to my home.
When Christ our Lord shall gather
All his redeemed again
His kingdom to inherit,
Good-night, till then.
But my subject advances, and it tells you the symbols they carry. If my text had said they carried branches of cypress’97that would have meant sorrow. If the text had said that they carried nightshade’97that would have meant sin. If it had said they carried weeping willows’97that would have meant mourning. But no. Palm branch! ’93I beheld a great multitude clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.’94 In olden times when a conqueror came home from victorious battle, he rode at the head of the army and under the triumphal arch, and the people would come out with branches of the palm tree and wave them in the line of the returning host, and that meant greeting, and it meant victory. What a suggestive symbol to our souls! The glorified look back and they remember the long journey they traveled. They look back and they remember the burden they carried. They look back and they remember the glorious rescue God wrought out in their behalf, and they are exultant before the throne waving their palms. They kneel at the feet of Christ and then think of his wounds and his sufferings in their behalf, and they say: ’93This is the Christ who wept my griefs, this is the Christ who bound my wounds, this is the Christ who died my death,’94 and they will rise and stand waving their palms. That Christ on earth had a long and very weary way. He crunched the hard crust. Infernal spite spat on both cheeks. He was despised and rejected of men, but now the redeemed stand around about him. They behold him enthroned and crowned. Standing there exultant in that glorious presence they are waving their palms. Christ remembers the story and he recites the victory. He tells of victories for the Church, victories for the truth, everlasting victory’97victory of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. And as he announces these victories all the glorified, host beyond host, rank beyond rank, gallery above gallery, stand waving their palms.
Henry V, after a great battle, called his troops to halt, and before they yet left the field, he asked the chaplain to read one of the Psalms of David that they might celebrate the victory and give God the glory. The chaplain opened at the Psalms, and when in the midst of that great army he came to the words, ’93Not unto us, O Lord, but unto thy name give glory,’94 the king dismounted, and the troops all got off their horses, and the army knelt, and some upon their faces echoed the verse: ’93Not unto us, not unto us, O Lord, but to thy name give glory.’94 But what a scene it will be when all the victorious troops of God on high, having fought their last battle and gained their last victory, shall celebrate the joy on their knees, on their thrones, waving their palms!
My text advances one step more and speaks of their song. Dr. Dick declares in one of his learned works, that he thinks the inhabitants of heaven will spend much of their time in the study of arithmetic and the higher branches of mathematics. I hope we will not all have to go into that study. There is no charm in such a thought as that to me. I prefer the statement of my text that it is to be eternal psalmody. ’93Crying with a loud voice, Salvation to our God and unto the Lamb.’94 In this world we have secular songs and nursery songs and harvest songs and boatmen’92s songs and sentimental songs; but the greatest song of heaven, according to my text, will be salvation from death and hell unto eternal life through the blood of the Lamb. ’93They cried with a loud voice, Salvation unto our God and unto the Lamb.’94
I see a soul entering heaven, and the loved ones who preceded it gather around and hail the newly-arrived, and they say, ’93What shall we sing?’94 and the newly-arrived says, ’93Sing Salvation.’94 And after a while there is a chain of oppression snapped, there is a throne of despotism destroyed, or the Church of Jesus Christ on earth gains some great victory, and the angels before the throne cry: ’93What shall we sing?’94 and the multitudes around about the throne will answer, ’93Sing Salvation.’94 And after a while the Church militant will rush up into the arms of the Church triumphant and while the righteous are ascending and the world is burning and all, things are being wound up, the cry will be lifted, ’93What shall we sing?’94 and there will come up a response like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of mighty thunderings, ’93Sing Salvation.’94
In this world there are songs plaintive with sorrow, and there are songs dirgeful for the dead; but no weeping symphony there, no wailing anguish. The tamest tune will be a hosanna. The dullest song will be a triumphal march. Joy of cherubim. Joy of seraphim. Joy of the ransomed. Joy forever. On earth churches sometimes sang very poorly. They sang sometimes out of accord. Some would not sing, some could not sing, some sang too high, some sang too low, some sang by fits and starts; but in that great audience of the redeemed all the voices will be in accord, and they who on earth knew no difference between a plantation melody and the ’93Dead March in Saul,’94 will lift an anthem which the Mendelssohns and the Beethovens and the Schumanns never imagined, and through all eternity you might listen and not hear one discord’97all the heights and depths and lengths and breadths and immensities of heaven filled with hosanna.
There is a legend that when people entered the Temple of Diana in olden times, sometimes their eyesight was extinguished by the brilliancy of the room, the gold and the glitter of the precious stones, and therefore the janitor when he introduced strangers into that room always said to them: ’93Take heed to your eyes.’94 The stranger entered that room with shaded vision. But, O my friends, when the song of the redeemed rises about the throne, many-voiced and multitudinous, you take heed of your ears’97the song so loud and so stupendous.
They sing a rock song, saying: ’93Who is he that sheltered us in the wilderness, and was the shadow of a great rock in a weary land?’94 and the chorus comes in: ’93Christ, the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.’94 They sing a star song, saying: ’93Who is he that guided us through the night, and when all other lights went out shone on us, the morning star for the world’92s darkness?’94 and the chorus will come in: ’93Christ, the morning star for the world’92s darkness.’94 They sing a flower song, saying: ’93Who is he that brightened the way for us and breathed perfume into our soul, and bloomed on through frost and tempest?’94 and the response, the chorus will come in: ’93Christ, the Lily of the Valley, blooming through frost and tempest.’94 Yea, they sing a water song, saying: ’93Who is he that gleamed upon us through the top of the rock, and brightened all the ravines of earthly trouble, and was a fountain in the midst of the wilderness?’94 and the chorus will come in: ’93Christ, the fountain in the midst of the wilderness.’94 Will we join that song? Are we today rehearsing for it?
A good Christian woman dying in a house near the village church where every Saturday night the choir met for rehearsal, thought she heard them singing in the last moment; but it was Wednesday night and they were not at rehearsal. In her dying moment she said: ’93How sweetly they rehearse to-night; I never heard them sing so sweetly in the old church before.’94 ’93Why,’94 they said, ’93it isn’92t Saturday night; they are not rehearsing; it is Wednesday night.’94 ’93Oh,’94 she replied, ’93you are mistaken; it is Saturday night, and they are rehearsing now the song.’94 Yes, it was the rehearsal of a song, but not the song of earth. It was the song of heaven. Will our closing today be in rehearsal for that great anthem? My friends, if we do not sing it here we will never sing it there. You want to sing it there, for even now you are thinking of loved ones who have gone over’97father, mother, loved ones there. You want to know what they are doing now? I will tell you what they are doing. They are singing. You want to know what they wear? I will tell you what they wear. They wear white. Oh, if you only started this day for heaven! Angels of God poising mid-air, cry up the news: they are coming! Gatekeeper of heaven, forward the tidings. Watchman on the battlements, throw the signal. Let there be joy in heaven over sinners penitent and forgiven. They are coming! If we miss heaven, it will not be because we do not want to get there; but if we lose it, it will be in the same way that Louis Philippe lost his empire. The palace was besieged, the national guards were in defense, and the general of the army said to the king: ’93Shall we fire?’94 ’93No,’94 he replied, ’93not yet, not yet.’94 After a while when the soldiers began to exchange arms with the citizens, and it was found that the castle was about to be surrendered; then King Louis Philippe said: ’93Fire!’94 ’93No,’94 said the general, ’93it is too late, we have surrendered.’94 Down went Louis Philippe, and from the face of the earth the house of Orleans, just because he said: ’93Not yet, not yet.’94 God forbid that we should postpone the assault of our spiritual foes until the castle surrendered, and we have lost heaven the way Louis Philippe lost his empire.
Autor: T. De Witt Talmage