To be near unto God - pagina 507

the Divine, in Revelation, the Lamb is not alone our Reconciler and Surety, not alone our Redeemer and Savior, and not alone the Shepherd and Bishop of our soul. No, the Lamb of God— and

in

this

antithesis

you

feel

what

strikes

and

irritates— the Lamb of God is also Lord of lords and King of kings (Rev. 17:14). The Lamb with the crown is the exalted, the holy combination of

and dominion. Your King! But in what sense? Is earthly kmgship here the real, the actual, and is the kingly self-eflfacement

image of the earthly prince applied to the Savior merely by way of comparison, by which to express his power and honor? Christ your King! Does -^ ^ ^^^ merely serve to have you think *^^^/^u of Christ, as in a distant hamlet the man beliind the plow thinks of his sovereign in the royal residence? This IS to him a secret and mysterious power, expressed in the image on a coin, but for the rest it is a power which remains foreign to him, a power far off, of whose splendor and lustre of whose glory and pomp, he can form no faint Idea but which he honors from afar. A sovereign in the glorious palace, but who is unapproachable by him, to whom he pays tribute because he is his subject, and for whom, if he is pious, he inter-

cedes in his daily prayer. And truly, there is likeness here. Christ also is enthroned in a palace of glory, even in such a palace that all royal pomp on earth pales before the splendor of its greatness. The subject of Jesus also sacrifices for his king his child in Divine ser^'lce, his money in the labor of love, his strength what must be done in behalf of his kingdom. Ihis King also has his throne afar off, and here

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