Thirtieth Sunday.

LION OF JUDA. LAMB THAT WAS SLAIN.

LAMB OF GOD.

LAMB IN THE

MIDST OF THE THRONE. LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
LAWGIVER. LORD OF THE SABBATH.

WHO has not heard much of the LION, "the strongest amongst beasts, that turneth not away for any"? Prov. xxx. 30. Those who have visited his haunts tell us of his stately walk as he roams free and undaunted on his native plains, and of his majestic presence. In the dark night he makes the forests of Africa tremble with his deeptoned roaring, which swells on the ear and then dies away like the muttering of distant thunder. His two eyes glare like balls of fire and his long shaggy mane sweeps the ground. He will attack the strongest quadrupeds, or boldly face a thousand men. And who has not often watched the LAMB, that pure, gentle, innocent thing frisking in the meadows, whose very look awakens our pity? Defenceless and harmless, it falls an easy prey to its devourers. What a contrast there is between the Lion and the Lamb! And yet Jesus Christ is compared to both. He is at once the LAMB THAT WAS SLAIN and the LION OF JUDA. John heard the angel speak of a LION which had " prevailed to open the book," but when he looked round to see the LION, behold a LAMB with the marks of bleeding wounds upon Him! How surprising that He Whom the angel described as a fearless LION, should look like a meek suffering LAMB! But so it was. Such wonderful extremes are blended in Christ, and excellencies so different, that they could hardly be supposed to exist together in the same person. First let us look at the "LION."

LION OF THE TRIBE OF JUDA. Rev. v. 5. When Jacob was about to die he said to his son Judah, "Judah is a lion's whelp; from the prey, my son, thou art gone up. He stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?" This prophetic language might have referred to Judah's descendants, who many years afterwards marched foremost through the wilderness, and bore for their ensign the figure of a lion; yet there is no doubt it had reference also to the Messiah, Judah's great Descendant, the Root of David. But why is He called THE LION OF JUDA? Everywhere and in all ages the Lion has been almost a synonym for strength, victory, courage, supremacy, royalty. In one or more of these senses the Title is used here as emblematical of Christ; and,

"OF JUDA " stamps His human descent, and identifies Him with the renowned ancestor of David, whose tribe was the leading one of the twelve.

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Would it be dangerous to provoke the anger of a lion? Such things as these are written also of the LION OF JUDA. "He is terrible out of His holy places." At His presence the earth doth quake." "His eyes are like a flame of fire;" "His voice is like the sound of many waters; it shaketh the wilderness: the voice of the Lord is full of Majesty." "He shall roar like a lion, and when He shall roar the people shall tremble," for "dominion and fear are His." See Hos. xi. 10, xiii. 7; Jer. xxv. 30; Amos i. 2. From these passages we may well infer that, as it must be a fearful thing to fall into His hands as our Enemy, so it must be a grand thing to have Him to be our Protector.

Who would be afraid that had a lion to fight for him? Perhaps you remember an ancient story of a man who had a lion to be his champion. He was a slave, and ran away from his master into the woods. Tired with his journey, he lay down to sleep in a cave, but was soon awakened by the entrance of a huge lion. The man was greatly alarmed. However the lion showed no fierceness, but approached the terrified fugitive holding up his paw as though it were in pain. It appeared to be wounded; and, viewing it more closely, the slave espied a large thorn which had run into it. He had sufficient courage to draw out this thorn, upon which the lion showed evident signs of gratitude. From that time he was his friend and defender, and would suffer no one to touch him. The slave was now in a condition to defy all his pursuers, for who would dare injure a hair of his head who had a lion to protect him? Thus happy and secure ought the child of God to feel, in the persuasion that he has the LION OF JUDA to be his Almighty Shield and Defender. But the LION OF JUDA is also the "LAMB," the

LAMB THAT WAS SLAIN. Rev. v. 6. This is a typical representation of the Priesthood of Christ, and of His atoning sufferings and death. When He was crucified, He appeared like a defenceless unresisting LAMB in the mouth of Satan, the savage and roaring lion; yea, He was slain by his devouring jaws. And yet it was in that hour of His greatest weakness that he even conquered His very devourer; and in His turn triumphed gloriously over the adversary, and "for the suffering of death was crowned with glory and honour."

"Crowned with glory for the suffering of death!" Yes, in heaven Jesus Christ is more admired for His sufferings than for His victories. Listen to the burden of their songs! Do they sing, "Worthy is the LION that slew His foes"? They might well sing that; but they sing rather," WORTHY IS THE LAMB THAT WAS SLAIN!' For the Lord Omnipotent to be victorious is a thing of course; but for Him to suffer and to die is a matter for infinite amazement and rapturous

LAMB THAT WAS SLAIN. LAMB OF GOD.

255 praise. The atoning work of Christ more delights saints and angels than any other manifestation of His glory. We read that "Angels desire to look into these things;" let us also enquire into the meaning of this wonderful Title of our Lord, the LAMB THAT WAS SLAIN, and the

LAMB OF GOD which taketh away the sins of the world. John i. 29. Three questions occur here. The first is, Why is He called a LAMB? A lamb is an emblem of patience, meekness, gentleness. You cannot provoke a lamb, nor did you ever hear of a lamb doing any one an injury. Innocence and harmlessness are inseparable from all our ideas of a lamb; and thus it is a figure of Christ. In His strength and majesty the LION is His emblem, but in His meekness and humility He resembles a LAMB. Thus we read, "He is brought as a LAMB to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth." Isa. liii. 7. But He was called a LAMB principally in reference to His sacrificial death; since it was a Lamb which was used for the passover and the morning and evening sacrifice. And that the figure might be more suitable, it was to be without blemish or imperfection. Why was the Lamb offered thus continually? Surely to teach the worshipper, who stood by and saw it slain, that his sins deserved death, but that God would accept of a substitute. And yet that the substitute then offered before his eyes, could not really take away his guilt; and that therefore the sacrifice must be repeated again and again, and be cleansed by other sacrifices, until God should provide some Victim that would really take away the dreadful stain of sin.

"Not all the blood of beasts

On Jewish altars slain,

Could give the guilty conscience peace,

Or wash away the stain.

But Christ, the Heavenly LAMB,
Takes all our sins away;

A sacrifice of nobler name

And richer blood than they."

2. Why was He called THE LAMB OF GOD? Because He is not a sacrifice of our choosing but of God's appointment. God hath not left us to enquire "Wherewith shall we come before the Lord ?" But He Himself "provides a LAMB for a Burnt Offering; " even His Only Begotten Son Whom He loved better than all worlds. In Psalm xl. 6, 7, 8, we read that God had no pleasure in burnt offerings for sin. Why? Because by them justice was not satisfied, sin was not removed. Therefore He hath provided another Sacrifice, even Christ, who accepts the appointment and comes to do His will. It is in allusion to this will of God that our Lord says, Luke xxiv. 26, "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things?"

3. What is the LAMB OF GOD appointed to accomplish? He "taketh away our sins." Among the Jews, the priest was said to

bear their iniquity, but he did not suffer for it. He put it upon the lamb, and the lamb suffered for it. But Jesus our Great High Priest bare our sins Himself. And the sins of the world were such a load even to Christ, that He bent under it and sweat great drops of blood, while He bare them in His own body and carried them away. O what an agonized death did He die! Who can contemplate without shuddering the poignant smart of those wounds in His hands and feet, as He hung for hours suspended on the cross? Yet not one word of complaint did He utter, till to all His other sorrows was added the sense of God's absence or desertion. And then there fell from His lips that bitter and mysterious cry, "My God! My God! why hast Thou forsaken Me?"

Behold a fearful picture of the anguish of mind that will surprise the lost sinner when he shall feel himself finally abandoned of God! See what will then befall him! When God forsakes His Son, all sorts of evils are let loose upon Him, and He dies in the midst of aggravated horrors. Priests and rulers, soldiers and servants, all conspire to insult Him. He is deserted by friends, taunted by enemies, assaulted by wicked spirits! A deadly sorrow, a mortal agony oppresses Him, which, after a few hours, brings Him to the stillness of death. He dies of a wounded spirit, a broken heart. It is not bodily pain, great as that must be, but insupportable grief, that causes His death. Behold the LAMB OF God in that last hour of His mortal conflict! Doth He not seem to say in the words of the prophet, "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto My sorrow, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted Me in the day of His fierce anger"?

And why all this? Because He stood in our place and suffered what was due to our sins. He was the Victim on whom the fire of God's wrath fastened that we might escape. But if any of you despise that wonderful intervention, and neglect to apply with earnest prayer for an interest in it, then we do most solemnly warn you, the fire of God's wrath will fasten on you. And can you endure to think of so fearful a fate? Oh, make haste! fall down before Him, and say, "Lord, let that blessed Sacrifice avail for me! Give me an interest in all the benefits that flow from it! Let that precious blood cleanse me from all my sin. Let its atoning virtue remove all my guilt, and let its sanctifying virtue, applied by the Holy Spirit, purify me from all defilement! Let me be numbered with those who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb!"

But now, having gazed with deepest reverence upon the LAMB SLAIN, turn with me for a few moments to the contemplation of the glorious vision of the LAMB ENTHRONED; the

LAMB IN THE MIDST OF THE THRONE, as depicted by the seer in Rev. v. You will observe three circles of worshippers surrounding the throne, who with loud acclamations fill the vast

LAMB IN THE MIDST OF THE THRONE.

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empyrean. The innermost band is the Church, represented in. mysterious hieroglyph by the "four Living Ones; "-and the four and twenty Elders

"With vials full of odours sweet

And harps of sweeter sound."

These sing "a new song" (ver. 9 and 10), while the Angels stand round with silent rapture, listening to a strain they cannot reach. Not long are they mute, however. At the first pause they join the song; yet, you observe, with a variation suited to the circumstances (ver. 12). They go as far as they are able, but they cannot sing it all. Still that second company of worshippers does its very utmost to exalt THE LAMB THAT WAS SLAIN.

But just as when one casts a great stone into some still lake, the water first forms a circle where the stone goes down; then there is another, and again another circle; and still there appear others widening out one knows not whither. So, when that mighty anthem strikes upon "the sea of glass before the throne," behold, the circling praises widen and expand, till presently thundering voices come rolling in from all the outlying creation. The outermost circle (or as Watts says),

"The whole creation join in one,

To bless the sacred Name

Of Him who sits upon the throne,
And to adore the Lamb."

In Ps. cxlviii. the Psalmist invites all the universe to contribute its praises. And as we read his sublime ode, we seem to hear the sun and the moon, and all the stars in the milky way, and in the regions beyond, returning their joyous echoes; and the sea roaring forth its thundering response. And so all worlds with all their inhabitants, all nature with all its tributaries, swell the chorus, and sing and shout to the praise of Him "without Whom was not anything made that is made;" and Who took upon Himself a created frame, as one of themselves; and all to manifest the mighty love of God's heart, and to redeem and glorify His church.

Now, should we be right in regarding all this as if it were merely meant to describe just one act of worship on one particular occasion? Does not this most resplendent vision rather present to us the Lord Jesus, in His Person and Acts, as One everlastingly enthroned in the estimation and affection of all intelligent virtuous beings? their Well-beloved, their Chief Joy; the Manifested Glory, the Very Beauty and Crown of all Creation, outshining in His peerless pre-eminence all other displays of grace and glory in the universe. What He is, and what He does, is so surpassingly beautiful and glorious, that all in heaven and all on earth are perfectly enamoured with it. He is therefore "exalted, and extolled, and very high."

Every fresh manifestation of His beauty, every new work, every inward thought of His, as it comes into action, fires afresh the passions and lights up the joy of all beholders and participators.