3526. The New Wine of the Kingdom

A Sermon Published On Thursday, August 24, 1916.

I will not drink from now on from this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom. {Mt 26:29}

1. Such words could hardly have been spoken at such a time by our Lord Jesus Christ without some deep significance. Let us, then, reverently enquire into their meaning. What thoughts were those that stirred in his own heart? What lessons did he convey to his beloved disciples?

2. I. And, first, does not our Lord here express:—HIS RENUNCIATION FROM THAT MOMENT OF ALL THE JOYS AND COMFORTS OF LIFE?

3. Putting aside the cup that was filled with the juice of the vine, he said, “I shall from now on no more drink from this fruit of the vine.” Here he bids farewell to social cheer. Whatever little comforts he had enjoyed were now to be abandoned. He had never been rich; very often he had nowhere to lay his head. His clothing had always been that of a simple peasant: “a garment without seam” had sufficed for him. He had known scanty rest; he enjoyed little luxury; but now he, as it were, solemnly relinquishes every creature gratification, “I will from now on no more drink from the fruit of the vine.” Our Lord and Master did not speak as one who had been satiated with the comforts or surfeited with the pleasures of life. It is a common thing for the pleasure-seekers of the world to feel the strongest aversion to the indulgences for which they once had the keenest relish. The world’s joy cloys, its sweet honey sickens on the palate, its most fascinating entertainments, by constant repetition, pall the faculty of enjoying them. Our Saviour had encountered life in its sterner moods. His main aim was to discharge its duties, not to divert himself with its amenities. Nor did he put aside that cup out of any ostentation, as though he would display a stoic indifference. We all know that refreshment is needed to replenish the energies of the labourer or the sufferer. Nothing could be less in keeping with our Lord’s disposition than a gloomy asceticism. Yet he willingly now, before his disciples, renounces all that there was of this world’s good. Taking, then, this wine cup as a symbol, and understanding it to represent earthly cheer, we observe how significantly he sets it aside; he will partake of it no more. We ask the reason why, in the presence of so strong a determination, so clear a prediction.

4. But before I attempt to answer the question, let me remind you that there are occasions in the Christian life when a man is bound to give up all his comforts for Christ’s sake. It is by no means impossible or improbable that honest principle and sterling integrity may demand of you or me a total surrender of everything, which we have been accustomed to hold dear. A sincere Christian must maintain his conscience, even if he can scarcely maintain himself. He must come down from the broadcloth to the fustian, from the mansion to the cottage, from riding in his carriage to trudging on foot. Our forefathers did it, and they did it on principle; they did it for Christ’s sake. The martyrs did more; they laid down their lives on the altar when Christ’s cause demanded it. The same times may come back to us again. In the competition of the unscrupulous, the righteous must suffer. Business is rotten through and through nowadays. The whole way of conducting your merchandise is so doubly dyed in deceit, that I should not marvel if a Christian man often finds himself a loser by doing the right thing and maintaining a strict integrity. But we must sooner be losers in this way than lose our acceptance with God. We must be willing to sink in the world’s esteem, and be counted fools, for Christ’s sake rather than amass riches and rise to a position of commercial influence through any equivocal dealings or any kind of duplicity. We must keep our consciences from being soiled with the wiles and stratagems of those whose ingenuity is always directed to the promotion of bubble companies, or the practice of some disingenuous finesse, by which they lie in wait to deceive the unwary. Refrain from every false way. But do not vaunt your own purity or be ostentatious concerning your own virtue, as if you were better than others. Above all things, do not make a cross for yourselves, and then put it on your own back, and act the martyr. But when you must take up your cross for your Master’s sake, do it as he did, with fidelity, yet with meekness, and say, “I will no more drink from this fruit of the vine; I will no more seek the esteem of my fellows; I will no more cultivate the world’s friendship; I will no more foster the affection of those who once loved me in my sins; I will give up anything; I will give up everything; I will give up life itself, if needs be, so that I may glorify God, as my Lord and Master did.”

5. Now why did our Lord say, “I will no more drink from this fruit of the vine”? It was because now he had other work to do; he must, therefore, forego all that would stand in the way of his accomplishing it. He had to sweat the bloody sweat; he had to stand accused before Pilate and Herod; he had to bear his cross through Jerusalem’s malicious crowds; he had to give his hands to the nails, and his feet to the cruel iron. These were no times for thinking of comforts. And the cause of the Master may sometimes make similar demands on us. The man who will devote himself to the mission field must be willing to dispense with much of that personal and social comfort and gratification which those who stay at home look on as the best reward of their daily toil. The minister of Christ, if he would serve his Master diligently, must deny himself the rest and ease to which he would have a right if he were engaged in secular pursuits. For your Master’s work you must be prepared to forsake everything, and yield yourself up to him unreservedly. You are not true to Christ, nor fit to put your hand to his plough, if you pull that hand back because it involves any sacrifice, however heavy. If Christ gave up the wine cup, and by that act renounced everything like the comforts of life, you, too, if you have noble work to do for God, must follow his example, and in doing so you shall have your reward.

6. Our Saviour did this, again, because his love for men constrained him. Giving up the fruit of the vine was not in itself a great act of self-denial, but as a symbol it was very significant. As I have already observed, it indicated his putting aside everything that is considered gratifying and joyful in life. Jesus Christ, out of love for us, gave up everything. The heaven of heavens could not contain him. The adoration of angels fell short of his glory. He was “God over all, blessed for ever.” Yet a manger held him, and a cross upheld him! What a stoop was that—from the highest throne in glory to be a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief, and this out of love for those who hated him, and proved their hate by putting him to death! Most sweetly will this truth refresh us if we remember that it was out of love for us. We deserved nothing from him. Love for miserable sinners, nothing but pure love, could have led him to resign his gracious breath. He loved me before I had a thought of love for him. He loved you when you were struggling against his grace and defying all his law. Oh! think of his giving up everything out of ardent love! How this ought to steel us for toil or suffering! How it ought to inflame us with love for him! How willing it should make us to give up anything out of love for him, and love for our fellow men! Alas! that so few of us ever make sacrifices out of love for souls! We can do a little ordinary service which involves very little fatigue and little inconvenience, but oh! to have the old spirit of chivalry burning in our hearts which would make us cast ourselves on the very teeth of death out of zeal for the cause of Christ! Oh! that some young men here could be moved by the love of Jesus to give themselves up from this moment to live and die for him! Oh! that some holy women would renew their early consecration vows, and from this very hour be servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of no one else besides! The Church needs a few conspicuous examples of self-denying holiness, and maybe those few, like standard-bearers lifting up the ensign, would attract many others, and the Church might lift herself up from the low level of our poor, weak, beggarly profession. We might then serve Jesus a little in the way that he deserves to be served, and surrender ourselves to him more in the way of his surrendering himself for us.

7. I take it that this no more drinking from the fruit of the vine means more than my tongue could ever tell, though I would speak on for many an hour. So I leave the thought with you. It is Jesus renouncing all that makes life happy; giving up everything that cheers and gladdens; sanctifying himself for our sakes, because he is called to a noble work by his Father and by his God.

8. II. But now, secondly, I would have you think of our Lord:—AS TAKING FAREWELL OF EARTH.

9. He took the cup, and, making that the symbol of everything below, he said, “I will no more drink from this fruit of the vine.” He bade farewell to his disciples, and to the earth, on which he had lived for thirty-six years, and this he did without any repining. He did not say, “Why am I taken away in the strength of my days? Why, when scarcely forty years old, must my sun go down at noon? Why, before I have attained the full age of man, must I be laid in the grave?” No, not a word of it, and when your turn and mine shall come to bid farewell to everything on earth, and to part with all below, may we cheerfully yield to the summons without one single word of repining against God! Oh! Lord, you have called me home to rest; it was only morning, and my work was scarcely begun, and I had fondly mapped it out in the hope of much service for you and your Church, but if you bid me to come home, I will thank you that I do not have to bear the heat and burden of the day. Or if it is in midlife, just when my work is all around me, and I am busy in the vineyard, that my time of departure should come, may I still be content! There are the plants and flowers I have so fondly nurtured; over there is a tree that was about to bud, and here is what I hoped would be a fruit-bearing vine, but, Master, though I should like to have seen all these reach their maturity, and though my pride may say, “What will the Church do without me when I am gone?” yet, Lord, you did without me before I was born, and so here in the strength of my days you call me to leave these things, and I come, I come. And if the call shall come to you at night, or towards evening—as it will do, I know, for some of you, dear brothers and sisters, who are getting grey and old in years—I hope you will feel, “Lord, it is good; our day’s work is over; the shadows have lengthened; it is time to fall asleep; we do not stand so much in the earth as on it; we are waiting to be taken home, to be gathered into the garner.” Yes, without regret, I say, without any repining against the will of God, may we heave the anchor and go into port; may we just quietly shut our eyes on earth, and open them in heaven to behold the beautiful vision, without having made our last word on earth to be an act of rebellion by lamenting that the voice says, “Rise up, and Come away.”

10. Our Lord did not withdraw from the world as an ascetic. He did not dash the cup to the ground, or denounce its contents. He did not put away life, saying, “It is sour; I will taste no more of it.” I think I have heard some people talk about life with very much of that bitter spirit which cannot brook {tolerate} its toils and cares. They want to go home, they tell us, when in truth there is more infirmity than faith in the wish they express. They are idle. They are not willing to bear the cross. They are weary of suffering for their Master. Oh! shame on us if we are like lazy workmen, always looking for the weekends! Such fellows are never worth their pay. Shame on us if we are courting the grave so that we may rest from our labours while there are yet wanderers to be sought, outcasts to be restored, sinners to be saved! Are there not relatives and neighbours of ours who can hear the gospel from our lips? Are there no children to be taught in our Sunday Schools? Are there no little ones to be lifted out from the miry clay? Are there not new battles to be fought for Christ; new enterprises to be carried forward; regions beyond to be explored? If you have a real interest in the Redeemer’s kingdom, you may well ask for a longer life if it is God’s will so that you may take a larger share in these labours of love, and have weightier crowns to present to that dear Saviour who has gone before us to prepare mansions for our rest. So, without repining on the one hand, or even a tinge of asceticism on the other hand, he puts away the cup with as cheerful an air as he took it. He sets his face towards death. “I will no more drink.”

11. And then notice how he stops, as it were on the way. His composure is unruffled, as though death were to him only the goal of his earthly career, or rather a station on his journey to heaven. He knows he is about to depart, and yet he does not deplore it, for he perceives that it is expedient for his disciples and for him that he should go away. Oh! that when our days below come to a close, when we hear the Master’s call, and feel the symptoms of approaching death, we may not be dismayed or frightened! May God grant that we may take leave of this mortal life with peaceful confidence and holy calm! Should our exit be slow and painful, may we be steadfast in faith and full of patience! Or should it be otherwise, sudden and unexpected, may we be no less prepared and ready! Floods of wrath rose high at our Lord’s death, but there shall be no such tumult about ours. The curse gathered around his dying head; a blessing shall make a halo around ours. There was no kind of pallet {a} for him to die on; the cross was his couch. The sweet comfort of looking up to God was denied to him. “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani,” was his dying cry. But we have our Lord to meet us, and he has promised that he will make our bed in our sickness.

12. III. Our third reflection shall be this:—OUR LORD’S WORDS CONTAINED HIS DYING ANTICIPATION.

13. Did he not say, “I will no more drink from this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom”? He knew he would die, but he knew that that was not the end; he expected happier and brighter days, fairer banquets, fresher wine, and purer joys. Now did Christ mean heaven? I think he did, though that was not all. Yet was it heaven which he just then anticipated? Follow out the prospect. Does he not picture heaven to us as a place of festive enjoyment? When he says, “I shall drink no more from this fruit of the vine now with you,” does he not imply that in heaven is the meeting-place of those who triumph, and the staterooms of those who feast? All the enjoyments that can be imagined, and more, belong to the beautiful state of the glorified. Whatever was conducive to make an intellectual mind happy, whatever could tend to make a refined spirit full of bliss, shall be our portion. At God’s right hand there are rivers of joy and pleasures for evermore.

14. We learn, too, that the joys of heaven are social, for Jesus says, “Until I drink it new with you.” I wonder what those make of heaven who think we shall not recognise each other there! I rather admire the reply of a good minister to his wife, who, when she asked him whether he would know her in heaven, said, “Know you in heaven! Of course, I shall; I know you here, and I shall not be a greater fool there than I am here.” We are to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and they will not have golden masks or veils that shall cover their faces. Heaven is a place where they shall eat and drink, and rejoice together, and I take it that much of the joy of heaven will consist in seeing the bright spirits whom we shall recognise as being men and women in whom Christ’s Spirit dwelt on earth, and in whom Christ’s Spirit shall dwell above. Oh! I look forward to meeting David, whose Psalms have so often cheered my soul. I long to meet Martin Luther and Calvin, and to have the power of seeing such men as Whitfield and Wesley, and walking and talking with them in the golden streets. Yes, heaven would scarcely be so full of charms in the prospect if there were not the full conviction in our minds that we should know the saints, and feast with them in a spiritual manner.

15. But still our Lord’s description of heaven represents himself as happy, and happy with his people, “Until I drink it new with you.” Alas! these earthly banquets are too often spoiled with revelry and excess, that while using them as emblems of the feast above, I feel as if I half dishonoured that feast. In many cases the festivities of earth have become so degraded and wicked that the Christian shrinks from mingling with them. But we shall drink it new—this wine of heaven. The wine of heaven shall be nothing that can make us sin, or even think of evil. There shall be in it nothing impure or polluted.

   Pure are the joys above the skies,

   And all the region peace.

And those joys will not be like those of earth—fickle and frothy, volatile and variable, by reason of which we are often lifted up, only to betray our weakness and presumption. The wine will be new; it will be holier joy, purer, sweeter. It will be a divine joy, in which Christ will have his share, and we, his people, shall each take our portion.

16. I have been wondering what will be the exhilarating contents of the wine cup that we shall drink with Christ in heaven. I think it will be partly the joy of hearing that sinners repent on earth. We shall hear about it. The angels do. “There is joy in heaven among the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Oh! how glad we shall be when we hear that after we were dead and gone our dear boy was converted, and that in that place where we were once accustomed to assemble God’s Spirit is still resting on the ministry. It will be a joy to hear the angels come and tell of tens of thousands of sinners brought to Jesus weeping, and finding pardon in his blood. There is a grand cup in store for you who love souls, when you shall hear this good news. It is Christ’s cup, I know, but you, too, shall drink from it.

17. Another ingredient of the joy will be to see the saints holding on their way and increasing in their likeness to Christ—to see the boy growing up and resisting temptation, and all his spiritual faculties developing. It is the joy of Christ to see his saints below growing in grace and persevering under difficulties, and that is the cup of which we shall drink too. We shall be cheered by seeing our brethren who will be fighting the battle in this world when we have left it. Shall we see them? See them! Why not? What does the apostle say? “Since we are surrounded with so great a cloud of witnesses.” Who are the “witnesses” but those bright and immaculate spirits who, from the battlements of heaven, look downward and rejoice as they see us win the race? And we shall soon take our place among the spectators, and look down and see the race of the righteous whom we have left behind, and rejoice as we see them win their crowns.

18. Another ingredient of that heavenly cup will be to see the saints come up to heaven. Oh! what bliss it is to Christ as, one by one, they come up to his bosom, the purchase of his agonies, each one exhibiting the power of his grace in the change of their nature. If I could get a place close to the gate, how I should like to welcome one of the younger ones of this congregation who may not arrive until long after we have entered into rest! Yes, Christ is not losing his reward. He does see his soul’s travail, and how we, too, will clap our hands as we say to each other:—

   They come, they come; thine exiled bands,

      Where’er they rest or roam,

   Have heard thy voice in distant lands,

      And hasten to their home.

   Thus, though the universe shall burn,

      And God his works destroy,

   With songs thy ransomed shall return,

      And everlasting joy.

19. Above all, and perhaps best of all, the wine cups of heaven are filled with the brimming, sparkling joy of delight in God’s glory. In the latter days the hymn that now breaks on Christian ears shall greet the ear of every savage and barbarian. Those who go down to the sea in ships shall sing the name of Christ as they spread the sail. The nomads in Arabia’s deserts shall listen to the name of Jesus, the Saviour of men. Far off the swarthy inhabitants of Africa’s sunny plains, and up there, where the sun scarcely shines on the natives of frosty Labrador, in every region of the earth, prayer also shall be made for him continually, and he shall be praised daily. God shall be glorified, the whole world shall become an altar for God’s praise; his saints shall worship him, and sin, death, and hell shall be overturned, and Christ, if he drinks of this cup new in his Father’s kingdom, will give us, who share in his struggle, to partake also in his victory.

20. But surely this is not all. I think when Christ said, “Until I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom,” he referred to his second coming to the establishment of the kingdom of God; to the millennial splendour of the Redeemer’s reign, and to what will close it, when he shall deliver up the kingdom, the mediatorial kingdom, to God, even the Father, and God shall be All in all. I am not going to prophesy. That is not my line. Those brethren who can prophesy succeed so admirably well in duping their followers, and also in contradicting each other, that I feel no inclination to enlist in their ranks; but if I can make anything out of God’s Word, it is clear that a day shall come when the cause of Christ shall have supremacy, when the kingdom of God shall be among men, when here on earth the Jew shall acknowledge the Messiah, and the nations of the Gentiles shall come bowing before his throne. There is to be a time when universal peace shall prevail; when the sword shall be beaten into a ploughshare, and the spear into a pruning-hook; and there is to be a day when Satan shall be bound and cast into his infernal den in prison; when death and hell also are to be cast into the lake of fire. I take that to mean that there will be a day when good will triumph over evil; when righteousness will vanquish iniquity; when God shall have put beneath his feet publicly before the sons of men all those rebel bands of demons and men who stood up against him, and all the consequences of their sin in diminishing the glory of God shall be for ever put away. Such a day shall come, when the great hallelujah shall be sung; when the marriage banqueting table shall be spread; when every elect soul shall sit at it, with Christ at the head; when every soul is redeemed by Jesus’ blood from among men, every soul quickened by the Holy Spirit and kept by the power of God to salvation, shall, with his body raised from the dead, being perfect according to the adoption and the promise, stand up, with Christ at the head, and:—

   Sing hallelujah to God and the Lamb,

   And sing hallelujah for ever, Amen.

Then shall this glorious wine cup of the New Jerusalem’s best wine be passed from lip to lip. Then God shall be worshipped by all his redeemed. Then tears shall be wiped away, and sin and grief shall cease for ever. Then the saying of the Master shall be fulfilled, “I will not drink from now on of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” Roll on, you wheels of time, roll on and bring the glorious day, and may we be there! Amen.

{a} Pallet: A straw bed; a mattress; a small, poor, or mean bed or couch. OED.

Expositions By C. H. Spurgeon {Ro 8:26-30 Re 21:10-22:5}

Romans 8

26. Likewise the Spirit also helps our infirmities: for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Groanings, then, are prayers, indeed, and prayers which the Spirit of God most certainly hears. And those desires which altogether exhaust language, or which cannot be put into language by reason of the exhaustion of our sorrow, these are nevertheless heard by God, for the Spirit of God is in them.

27. And he who searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

That is, when the mind lies still, and God the Holy Spirit writes his will on it, and also writes God’s will. Hence such prayers are sure to be effective, for they are only the shadow of God’s secret purpose falling on the soul as a kind of prelude to the coming fulfilment of that purpose. Saints’ prayers are prophets of God’s mercies. We are sure of it; we have no doubt whatever; we know it by experience, as well as by revelation.

28. And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God

Not yet “all mankind,” but those who “love God.”

28. To those who are the called according to his purpose.

For they would never have loved God if he had not called them to it, and had not purposed to call them.

29, 30. For whom he foreknew, he also predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he predestinated, those he also called: and whom he called, those he also justified: and whom he justified, those he also glorified.

One is tempted to linger over that golden chain, and examine every link. It will suffice, however, to observe that every link is well-fastened to the next. Where there is the “foreknowledge,” which is an alias for the “forelove,” there is also “elect”—there must be “called”—there shall certainly be “justification,” and where that is, there must be “glory.”

Revelation 21

Here we shall see a picture of what the Church of God is to be in the latter days; but inasmuch as this vision came out of heaven, it gives us an idea of what is in heaven already. Crowded as it is with almost impossible beauties, this description is given to us to let us think, and by faith conceive, of the glories of the future state.

10, 11. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. Having the glory of God: and her light was like a most precious stone, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;

But what the glory of God may be, what mortal mind can imagine? All the imagery which the apostle uses must fall far short of that simple expression, “Having the glory of God.” That glory is to be on the Church, and on every individual member of it. The glory of every believer shall be nothing less than the glory of God.

12, 13. And had a great and high wall, and had twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates, and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates.

From every quarter of the world God’s chosen shall come and find a gate straight ahead of them, an entrance into heaven. Die at the Equator, or die at the Pole, there is an immediate entrance into the rest of God from any place where we may die. Blessed be the name of God for this.

14-16. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. And he who talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and its gates, and its wall. And the city was square, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and its height are equal.

This is an idea scarcely able to be grasped, to see a city which is as high as it is broad. Such cities cannot exist on earth. They are meant for that glorious future state. They will exist under the new heavens and in the new earth, which we look for at the coming of our Lord.

17, 18. And he measured its wall, a hundred and forty-four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel. And the building of its wall was of jasper: and the city was of pure gold, like clear glass.

All these joys are without a sediment of sin. Gold on earth is a dull thing. You cannot look into it. But the joys of heaven, if compared to gold, must be transparent. “Pure gold like clear glass”—all the earth taken out of it, from all its earthly grossness gone. The joy of heaven is divine.

19, 20. And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all kinds of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.

See how lovingly our apostle counts the foundations. He might have lumped them all into one, and said, “The foundations were of these twelve stones,” but it must be the first foundation, the second, the third, the fourth. He dwells on each one. The joys of heaven will bear dwelling on; they will bear reflection. Here our joys, when they are over, leave only a handful of thorns—only a handful of ashes like thorns that crackle and blaze under the pot, and leave little behind them. But the eternal and spiritual joys will bear for us to go into detail, and each one shall be most precious.

21. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls.

Whoever heard of such pearls? In what ocean but in the depth of God could such pearls be found? The twelve gates were twelve pearls.

21. Each individual gate was one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.

Streets are used for fellowship. There men meet each other, and the fellowship of heaven will be golden, bright, clear, and perfect. Here, when we meet each other, we soon display and discover our mutual faults, but there they shall delight each other with their common beauty, all the beauties being borrowed from the Lamb, who is the glory of the place.

22. And I saw no temple in it.

For it was all one temple.

22, 23. For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God illuminated it, and the Lamb is its light.

Let us be going that way soon, brothers. Ah! my brothers, may we all meet there. What must it be to be there!

24-27. And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honour into it. And its gates shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it. And there shall by no means enter into it anything that defiles, neither whatever works abomination, or makes a lie: but those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Revelation 22

1, 2. And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of its street, and on either side of the river, the tree of life was there, which bore twelve kinds of fruits, and yielded its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

Abounding joy, varied joy, always changing, yet always perfect; a tree which bears twelve kinds of fruits, and yet has fruits every month. Oh! when shall we get away to those golden orchards; when shall we sit under those vines, and press the clusters with our lips?

3. And there shall be no more curse:

Of labour, of sin, of sorrow, of death.

3. But the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it:

So that we shall all be in the throne-room, all beholding the King in his beauty, and ourselves made his courtiers.

3. And his servants shall serve him:

That is heaven to me, for here we sometimes are unable to serve him as we wish. We are distracted, worried, carried away from holy service by multitudes of cares, but there his servants shall serve him.

4. And they shall see his face;

What a happy blending—service and communion—the hands busy, but the eves ravished with the wonderful sight of the face of God! You shall see his face. If any of us could see the face of God on earth, no doubt we should die. The vision would be too bright for us. When one heard this, one of the greatest saints, he said, “Then let me see it and die,” and I do not wonder that he said so, for the sight of God, even should we die here, must still be perpetual, and it would make us live again. “They shall see his face.”

4. And his name shall be on their foreheads,

Their faces made like God’s face, then—his name, his character, reflected on their brows—is this not worth having?

5. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God gives them light; and they shall reign for ever and ever.

They themselves shall be kings. They shall reign for ever and ever.