It would be too wide a field to comment in succession on each instance in this book in which, in different aspects and varied connections, we are brought into contact with the Lamb. In tracing through, from the fifth chapter to the end, “the Lamb” is ever in the ascendancy.
The song of heaven is, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.” (vs. 6-13.) It is from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, that the men of this world seek to hide themselves in fear. (6:15-16.) The palm-bearing multitude before the throne have “washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” (7:9-14.) It is the Lamb that feeds them, and leads them (as a shepherd) “to living fountains of waters.” (7:17.) It is the blood of the Lamb that answers all the accusations of Satan, as the accuser of the brethren day and night, on high. (7:10-11.) It is in the book of life of the Lamb slain that the names of the faithful are found written amidst the corruptions of the beast.
(8.) It is the Lamb, also, on Mount Zion with the sealed ones, whose honor and privilege it is to “follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.”
(14:1-4.) Again, whoever worships the beast or his image, and receives his mark in his forehead or in his hand, will be tormented in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.
(14: 9-10.) It is the song of Moses, and the song of the Lamb, that is sung with the “harps of God” by those who, in victory over the beast, stand on “the sea of glass.” (15:2-4.) It is against the Lamb that the beast and the ten kings make war; and the Lamb shall overcome them; for he is “King of kings, and Lord of lords.” (17:12-14.) It is the marriage of the Lamb that strikes the note of joy in heaven; and to be called to the marriage supper of the Lamb is the mark of honor and blessing then. (19:7-9.) And after the seals are loosed, and the trumpets are blown, and the vials poured out—when Satan is bound, and the clangor of earth’s judgment is hushed, it is “the Bride, the Lamb’s wife,” that is the wondrously glorious spectacle on which the apostle is called to gaze. (21:1) They are the twelve apostles of the Lamb; whose names are in the twelve foundations of the “holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.”
(21:14.) Of this city the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple, and “the Lamb is the light thereof.” (21:22-23.) There is to be no inhabitant in this glorious city “whose name is not written in the Lamb’s book of life.” (21:27.) And onwards “the river of the water of life” flows out of “the throne of God and the Lamb.” (22:1.) And finally, there is to be no more curse, because the throne of God and of the Lamb are to be there. (22:3-5.)
“Rest of the saints above,
Jerusalem of God,
Who in thy palaces of love,
Thy golden streets, have trod
To me thy joy to tell,
Those courts secure from ill,
Where God Himself vouchsafes to dwell,
And every bosom fill.
Who shall to me that joy
Of saint-thronged courts declare,
Tell of that constant sweet employ
My spirit longs to share?
That rest, secure from ill,
No cloud of grief e’er stains;
Unfailing praise each heart doth fill,
And love eternal reigns.
The Lamb is there, my soul!
There God himself doth rest;
In love divine diffused through all,
With him supremely blest.
God and the Lamb—’tis well!
I know that source divine
Of joy and love no tongue can tell,
Yet know that all is mine.
But who that glorious blaze
Of living light shall tell,
Where all his brightness God displays,
And the Lamb’s glories dwell?
God and the Lamb shall there
The light and temple be,
And radiant hosts forever share
The unveiled mystery.”
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