December 26

" T o Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen."

Revelation 1:5-6

It is really the present tense in the first clause—“Him who loves us.” His love is unchanging and eternal. Saints in glory will take up this hymn of praise which will sound through endless ages through the courts of Heaven. But they who sing up there must learn to use the words down here. For God has willed that those who believe on His Son should know that their sins have been washed away by the precious blood of Christ. They are even now constituted a kingdom of priests unto God the Father to be adoring worshippers for all eternity.

When the heavenly hosts shall gather,

And the heavenly courts shall ring

With the rapture of the ransomed

And the new song they shall sing,

Though they come from every nation,

Every kindred, every race,

None can ever learn that music

Till he knows God’s pardoning grace.

All those vast eternities to come

Will never be too long

To tell the endless story

And to sing the endless song:—

“Unto Him who loved us,”

And who “loosed us from our sin”—

We shall finish it in heaven,

But ‘tis here the words begin.

—Annie Johnson Flint