Homilist Revelation 15:1-4 And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last plagues… I. THE DEMANDS OF HIS LAW ATTEST THE TRUTH OF THIS TESTIMONY. The Heavenly Teacher has reduced all the demands which the Eternal Governor makes upon us to a twofold command. 1. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart," etc. Is this demand just? This depends upon three things. (1) Whether we have the power of loving any one supremely. (2) Whether God has attributes adapted to awaken this love within us. (3) Whether these attributes are revealed with sufficient clearness to our minds. The affirmative to these things must be admitted by all. 2. "Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you." Not "whatsoever men do unto you," that might be sinful; but whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you. Would you have them false, dishonest, unkind, tyrannic, towards you? Whatsoever ye would that they should be to you, be so to them. Can anything be more just? II. THE INTUITIONS OF HIS MORAL CREATURES ATTEST THE TRUTH OF THIS TESTIMONY. In all moral intelligences there is — 1. An intuitive sense of the right. All have an inbred sentiment of right and wrong. This sentiment implies a moral standard, and what is that standard but God? 2. There is an intuitive love of the right. All moral souls love the right in the abstract; they are bound to do it. "I delight in the law of God after the inner man." All consciences go with God. 3. There is an intuitive remorse. Misery springs up in the soul from a conscious departure from the right. Cain, David, Belshazzar, Judas, are examples. 4. There is an intuitive appeal to God under the wrong as the Friend of the right. Oppressed humanity involuntarily looks to God as Judge of all the earth. Deep in the soul of the moral creation is the feeling that God's ways are just and right. No argument can destroy this consciousness. III. THE MEDIATION OF HIS SON ATTESTS THE TRUTH OF THIS TESTIMONY. 1. His life was the development of Divine righteousness. He was incarnate rectitude. "He did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth." 2. His death was the highest homage to Divine rectitude. He could have escaped death. It was the inner sense of right that urged Him on. 3. His system is the promoter of Divine righteousness. His truth inculcates it; His Spirit promotes it. His Spirit comes to "convince the world of sin, righteousness," etc. IV. THE RETRIBUTIONS OF HIS GOVERNMENT ATTEST THE TRUTH OF THIS TESTIMONY. Look at the expulsion of Adam, the deluge, the burning of Sodom, the extermination of the Canaanites, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the dispersion of the Jews. Look on to the retribution of the last day, and see what rectitude marks the whole (Matthew 25.). (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God. |
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