November 27

Nineteenth Wednesday after Trinity

And they shall see His Face. Revelation 22:4.

THE vision of righteousness is succeeded by the vision of grace. Butler in his dying moments expressed his awe at appearing face to face before the Moral Governor of the world, his chaplain spoke of "the Blood which cleanseth from all sin." "Ah, this is comfortable," he said; with these words he gave up his soul to God. The sequence is a necessary sequence. He only has access to the Eternal Love who has stood face to face with the Eternal Righteousness. He only who has learned to feel the awe will be taught to know the grace. The Righteous Judge is a loving Father also. This is the central lesson of Christianity. Of this He has given absolute assurance in the life, death, words, and works of Christ. The incarnation of the Son is the mirror of the Father's love. Happy he who shall realize this fact in all its fulness. Happy he on whom the light of the Gospel of Christ shall shine. All our interests in life, merged, forgotten in God's love, will come back with an intensity and force unknown before. Each outline will stand out in the light of His grace. We are to lose our souls only to find them again. We are charged to give up brethren and lands, all that is lovely and precious in our eyes—to give up all to God, only to receive them back from Him a hundredfold, even in this present time. Our affections, our friendships, our hopes, our business and our pleasure, our intellectual pursuits, must be brought to the sanctuary and bathed in the glory of His presence, that we may take them again, baptized and regenerate, purer, higher, more real, more abiding far than before.