BUT let us look deeper into this sacred theme, feeling that our research is imperfect and incomplete unless it lead us to Christ Jesus. And what is Amen? It is simply the ratification of another's will. Christ is the great ratification of His Father's will. He perfectly performed it all; therefore Christ is the true Amen.
“Thus saith the Amen, the faithful and true Witness.”
God Himself in Christ performs to us all His promises. In Him they are "yea and amen." With this same word, because He delighted to ratify His Father's word, Christ was want emphatically to commence His discourse—"Verily, verily," which is, in the original, "Amen and amen.”
Thus man's truth comes from God's truth, and none can truly say Amen from the heart but he who has the life of Christ in his soul. Nothing can ratify God but Himself; and he who would truly say Amen, must have first the mind of Christ. Thus, he who desires to say a full Amen in praying must not only thereby understand that he asks, and appropriates to himself, all that his own lips have asked, but, far more than this, that there may be a general agreement between his mind and the mind of God, so that whether the prayer be granted or denied, he may be equally ready to subscribe with the hand, and utter, a willing Amen; and that all the will of God, expressed or unexpressed, may be fulfilled, not as he likes, but as God likes, with him or without him, in him or by him.
Such is "Amen." And indeed, who can calculate what would be the peace of that mind which could write such an Amen on all the yet unread pages of life? Do not turn over another leaf of time till you have subscribed your Amen to the last. It is good to be earnest and importunate in prayer for what appears to us good and desirable; hut when the event is fixed, and the mind of God manifest, then, though it may bring upon us a heavy cross, we should not even wish to remove it, but add our own verdict too, and say, Amen.
This spirit will teach you to let your desires not lead, but follow God, to look out for the indications of the road where His purposes travel, and to go after them with satisfaction. Dangerous it is for weak and foolish man to go before his God. His place of safety is always in the Amen, and thus to possess a mind that delights to throw itself into the mind of the Lord, and say, "Lord, do Thou choose; do Thou appoint; do Thou work: it is enough for me to add, Amen.”
In order to attain any measure of such a mind as this, three things are necessary.
First, you must recognize all events as under Divine superintendence. In every little care, in every vexing word, in every ruffling breeze, you must be accustomed to feel, "This is permitted by God; and His will be done." This is what makes heaven the great "Amen." There the inhabitants see no middle links; they trace through no created thing; they behold only the almighty hand of God.
Secondly, you must acquaint yourself with the character of God. It is not enough for you to know it is the Lord, but you must learn, and that experimentally, what a Lord He is; how faithful, bow good, how full of loving-kindness. For he who would be content with God's dealings must surely first be content with God Himself; and he who would always say Amen must not look upon the shadows of this scene, but upon the sovereignty, and the wisdom, and the love of Him Who shines forever and forever the same, the Sun of glory, joy, and peace.
Thirdly, you must not only connect the event with God, and God with love, but you must Connect God and all events in one great scheme, of which you only see the outline. You must look into the grand result of all the complicated work. You must be much in the distant future, and there, not in this preparatory scene but in that great development, you must engage your thoughts with the being, and the character, and the designs of God, till you are able to bring back with you to this darker world your firm Amen.
But let us pass on, and look for a moment, too, at "Alleluia." It is several times repeated in this chapter of the Bible as the native language of heaven. But that it is known on earth too, David spews us, for in all those Psalms which begin with "Praise the Lord," the word in the original, so often in the margin of the Bible, is "Alleluia." Doubtless we shall pronounce it as a foreign word till we have learned the accents of our home.
But it is a beautiful word. Even here on earth we connect it with the noblest and happiest moments of a privileged existence. It is when no cloud comes in to obscure the light of God's countenance; it is when we feel His smile; it is when we enjoy His peace; when we read all God in the full and overflowing mercy; when we look out from the heights of hope upon the fields of promise, and feel that "this God is our God forever and ever," it is then that, untaught, unprompted, the Alleluia sounds out gladly from the heart.
Had we to define "Alleluia" as it regards God, we should say it was admiration of God, affection to God, joy in God.
Had we to define it as regards man, we should call it a present bliss with a future blessedness in prospect.
Would you desire to be in such a spirit that throughout your life your voice may often rise to the glad Alleluia note? Then you must become holy and pure in heart. None but the pure can rightly praise. You must accustom yourself to ascend often to the mount of contemplation. You must recognize your unspeakable dignity as a child of God. You must feel yourself a fellow, yea, far more than a fellow, with the holy angels. You must know that your robe is white and your crown prepared.
You must especially realize the love of God in the gift of His Son, and the application of His grace to your heart. God's free salvation is the true source of all praise, whether on earth or in heaven. Paul's highest note of triumph was when he sang, "I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in 'Christ Jesus our Lord." So the sweetest harmony of heaven is when the innumerable company of the redeemed exclaim, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing." Amen and Alleluia must both be learned at the cross of Christ.
We do not say which is the higher or the sweeter sound, Amen, or Alleluia: but do not so love the Alleluia as to forget the Amen. Sometimes the thought of past mercies will give the preparation of heart, and the Amen will grow out of the Alleluia. Sometimes trial will lead you into the experience of such blessed and hitherto unknown comfort, that the Amen of submission will swell into the Alleluia of joy. The more you unite them,—the more you submissively rejoice and rejoicingly submit,—the deeper will you drink into the spirit of Christ, and the more nearly will your voice approach to the tones of heavenly worship.
Life opens before us; but what awaits us in its course we know not. Let us remember our Amen and Alleluia, and on every passing circumstance try to inscribe them both. If Amen fail, let us try Alleluia; and let us endeavor to know nothing, to enjoy nothing, on which we cannot write these heavenly words.
Dear reader, it may please our God—and I pray it may please Him if He sees it good—to put into your hands the cup of joy. Take it thankfully. Hesitate not to drink all its fullness. Do not ask, "Can all this joy and gladness be fit for such as I am?" Do not turn it into a cup of trembling by fears that poison lurks in the generous draft. Do not distrust Him Who delights to make His children happy, and Who will yet call you to enter into the fullness of His joy. Be not afraid to rejoice. Put your Amen to your Alleluia.
Nevertheless, if you would safely possess your joy in this uncertain world, hold it, hold all that you have, except Christ, as but a loan that you must be willing to return. Be prepared to see your fairest prospect clouded, your brightest treasure recalled from your grasp. Strengthen yourself in the Lord. Delight yourself in Him. Then, if it please Him to try you so, your happiness may be found to have centered, not in things He sent, but in Himself, and the joyful Alleluia will deepen into the firm Amen.
But if it should please Him—as I pray it may, if He sees it good for any of us—to put into our hands the bitter cup of woe; if we be disappointed of our brightest earthly hopes, or the desire of our hearts be removed from us; if our comforts are swept away, and the blossom of affection be blighted; if we should be called to pass through the dark waters of some keen affliction,—oh, in that sorrowful hour can we still be true to our heavenly motto? Can we attach our seal, our Amen, to the divine decree? Shall we not bow at the remembrance of His sovereignty, and strengthen ourselves in the assurance of His wisdom, and reassure ourselves by the experience of His people, and rest in the certainty of His love.
Yes, I trust we may have grace to say our deep, our full, Amen to all the Father does.
But is it Amen only that should reach our Father's listening ear?
Oh, dear reader, in these hours of affliction shall we not recognize the portion of the saints? Are we not learning a lesson of sympathy with every member of the suffering church of Christ? Shall we not bear the token of our calling? And as we tread the rugged path of tribulation by which they climbed "who have washed their robes," and who worship before the throne, shall we not catch the glorious tones of rejoicing praise, and echo even here the song they sing—that wondrous song, which draws half its melody at least from a suffering state,—its Amen from earth, and its Alleluia from heaven.
Dear reader, let us be ready to "rejoice in tribulation." Let us not fall short of either the Amen or the Alleluia note, contenting ourselves with the utterance of one only. Let the language of our hearts be the union of both.
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WE are not called to explain difficulties, but to believe verities!