The path of the Church across the earth is that of an unnoticed stranger. " The world knoweth us not, because it knew HIM not." (1 John 3:1.) And as her path across the earth is thus untracked, so is her path from it to be. All about her is, " a stranger here." And as the world around knows not the church, nor will be a witness of the act of her translation, she herself knows not the time of such translation. But we know this link between us and the heavens will be formed ere the kingdom, or " the world to come," be manifested. Because the saints are to be the companions of the King of that kingdom in the first acts of it, that when He bears the sword of judgment which is to clear the scene for the scepter of peace and righteousness—as He has promised, " he that overcometh and keepeth my, works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron."
"I will give him the morning star."
Is there not something of a link, something' of an intermediate, connecting action, intimated by this?
The sun is that light in the heavens which connects itself with the earth, with the interests and the doings of the children of men. The sun rules the day, the moon and the stars the night. But the morning star receives no appointment in such a system. "He appointed the moon for seasons, the sun knoweth his going down. Thou makest darkness and it is night, wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth. The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God. The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, and lay them down in their dens. Man' goeth forth to his work and to his labor until the evening." The morning star has no place in such arrangements. It is beautiful, but it shines in a solitary hour. The children of men have laid them down, And their sleep, in divine mercy, is still sweet to them, while the morning star is decking the face of the sky.
The season in which the sun shines is ours. I mean, the sun is the companion of man. But the morning star does not, in this way, recall man to his labor. It appears rather at an hour which is quite its, own, neither day nor night. The child of the earlier morning, the one who is up before the sun, the watchman who has gone through the night sees it, but none but he.
The sun, in the language or thought of Scripture, is for the kingdom. As we read, “He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God; and he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth." (2 Sam. 23:3;4, see also Matt. 13:43; 17:1-2.
I ask, then, is there not to be expected by us alight before the light of the kingdom'? Are not these signs in the heavens set there for times and seasons? Are there not voices in such spheres? Is there not a mystery in the morning star, in the hour of its solitary shining, as well as in the sun when he riseth in his strength upon the earth? Is it not the sign in the heavens of One whose appearing is not for the world, but for a people who wait for an early, unearthly Lord? The hope of Israel, the earthly people, greets the day-spring (Luke is 78)—but the Church welcomes the MORNING STAR.
" I am the root and offspring of David, and the Bright and MORNING STAR, and the Spirit and the Bride say, come." (Rev. 22:16,17.)
All things are ours: and among this glorious all, the morning star, for our transfiguration to be like Jesus, and the rising sun for our day of power with Jesus.
In the progress of our meditations we have watched a light in the heavens earlier than that of the day-spring, a light which Jesus, the Son of God, amid His other glories, claims to be, and to share with His saints. "I will give him the Morning Star: And after the morning star has shone for its brief hour, the sun in its appointed season will rise. " Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." And it shall be "a morning without clouds, as the tender grass spring, ing out of the earth by clear shining after rain." "Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad, let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof, let the field be joyful and all that is therein; then shall the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord; for He cometh to judge the earth."
"Scenes surpassing fable, and yet true.'
One has said, " Faith has a world of its own." Surely we may say, this is so—faith has indeed a world of its own. O for power in the soul to walk there; and that power lies in the earnestness and fervor of faith, which is but the simplicity and reality of faith! Blessed, beloved, when we have power to enter into and dwell in our own World! Have we not our own world at this living moment, when by faith our souls have access "into this grace wherein we stand "? That grace is the present peaceful, happy dwelling-place of the conscience sprinkled and purified, and the bright dwelling-place of hope, from whence it looks out, " for the glory of God." (Rom. 5:1-2), It may be poorly known: but it is ours. And amid all this conscious infirmity, our faith has but to glorify the Son of God, for deeper enjoyment of HIM is the diviner progress.
" The things which are seen are temporal; the things that are not seen are eternal."
" Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,"
(2 Cor. 4:18; Heb. 11:7.)