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SERMON XXVII.

THE LAMB WITH SEVEN HORNS AND SEVEN EYES.

BY THE REV. D. G. GOYDER.

Revelation v. 5, 6.

"And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns, and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth."

THE infinite wisdom which dictated the Word of God, can only be comprehended by those who acknowledge that God is wisdom itself; and to all who seek it, for the purpose of regulating their lives, he freely communicates it. If we draw near to him with humble and penitent hearts, and wait with humility until we be prepared for the manifestation of spiritual light, he will cause that light to shine in the dark places of our understandings, and open our mental sight so that we may perceive how full of intelligence is his own Holy Book. The Lord never can communicate unto his creatures all the fulness of divine intelligence, nor can mankind ever arrive at an infinity of heavenly knowledge. As limited or finite beings, they can only receive portions of heavenly wisdom; and those portions can only be communicated as the mind is prepared to receive them. When our Lord was upon earth, he had many things to communicate, but mankind could not bear them then and one of those many things was, an exemplification of the character, attributes, and perfections of the Diving Being. But he left the world with an assurance that the time would come when he would shew mankind plainly of the Father; and he has redeemned his gracious promise; for we now behold him fully revealed-fully brought forth to view in the only begotten Son, full of grace and truth-God manifest in the flesh. How darkly mysterious were his words, that all things in the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms, contained things relating to himself; yet how

plainly is this now perceived by the humble Christian. Could men have been privileged centuries ago with a sight of the wonderful things contained in the law, there is too much reason to believe they would have profaned them by evil, and, therefore, the Lord wisely hid the knowledge of them. It is a great truth, which is confirmed by the experience of all who have studied the Scriptures, that no one can receive light from the Lord whilst he continues either in an evil course of conduct, or has a high opinion of his own wisdom. From the wise and prudent the deep secrets of the Word are hidden, while they are revealed to those who are humble, poor in spirit, babes. The secrets of the Lord are open to them that fear him, to those that hope in his mercy. Neither the inflated by his own knowledge, nor the corrupted by his own vicious and evil courses, can, without repentance, experience the blessedness of conjunction with the Lord, for good and evil, truth and falsehood cannot dwell together. Between the self-derived intelligence of one class of religious professors, and the wickedness of another, the truth of the Lord has been either darkened by words without spiritual knowledge, or polluted by the most flagrant and desolating evils. Thus, (Isaiah xxix. 11,) "The vision of all is become as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee; and he saith, I cannot, for it is sealed. And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee; and he saith, I am not learned. Wherefore the Lord saith, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precepts of men; therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder. For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid." Here, then, is the cause why the knowledge of the Lord has not been communicated. From the days of the early disciples, whose hardness of heart refused to believe all that Jesus taught, or that he was the only God, down to the present period, selfishness has so far predominated over the love of the Lord and neighbourly love, and self-derived intelligence has so perverted and falsified the truths of divine revelation, that the Bible has continued to be as the words of a book that is sealed. The two commandments upon which hang all the law and the prophets, namely, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself," are buried beneath this load of selfishness.

It must be obvious to all, that such a state as is here depicted, is not favourable for the reception of that pure truth, which teaches, that without Jesus Christ we can do nothing; and, consequently, it cannot be fitted to receive that degree of blessedness, which hears the Word of God and does it. From the days of the early disciples, then, down to our own time, through the dark ages of papal supremacy to the so-called enlightened periods of protestantism, wherever self-love and the love of the world has predominated, the Bible has been a sealed book, and the light of its truth has shone amidst thick intellectual darkness-which darkness has been incapable of comprehending it. But blessed be the Lord God of heaven, there is now much less selfishness than formerly. The powers of darkness and evil have been confined to their own proper sphere, and the Lord appears a second time unto salvation, in the power and glory of the spiritual sense of his Word. The Lion of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seals thereof.

We have first to notice the signification of the right hand, in which the book sealed with the seven seals, was seen by the Revelator. The most careless reader of the Scripture cannot have failed observing the very frequent mention which is made of the right and left sides of the body, and the right and left members as the right eye, the right hand, and the right foot; and that a distinction is intended to be made is manifest, where these members are treated of. Thus, if the right eye offend thee, pluck it out. If thy right hand offend thee cut it off. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget, &c.. When the state of the wicked is described, "their right hand is the right hand of a lie;" and those on whose forehead the character of the beast was inscribed, also received his mark in their right hands. The distinction betwen the right and the left hand is also pointed out most distinctly by that remarkable prophecy (Isaiah ix. 20): "And he shall snatch on the right hand and be hungry, and eat on the left hand and not be satisfied." From these passages, and particularly the last, an obvious distinction is made between the right and the left hands. That we may be able to comprehend the nature of this distinction, let us return to the first passage, "if thy right eye of fend thee, pluck it out." Here the eye corresponds to the understanding, but still there is a difference between the right eye and the left. This difference appears to be the same as that which exists between the light of the sun and the light of the moon. The moon only shines by reflection of the sun's beams upon it; and the

left eye has its principal power from the aid communicated to it by the right. Anatomists are now in possession of certain evidence of this interesting fact, through the discoveries of Sir Charles Bell; and those who are desirous of testing the truth of this observation will have their labour amply repaid by perusing his treatise of the Bridgewater Series, written to demonstrate the wisdom, power, and goodness of God in the creation. But let us mark this distinction in the passage under consideration,-" If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out." The eye is the understanding, and the right eye is that powerfully influential truth, which disposes and governs all the other powers of truth in the mind. That is, the right eye is the principle of truth, in which is a living principle of goodness. Thus the Lord says, "The lamp of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light; but if thine eye, be evil thy whole body shall be full of darkness." The eye in a state of evil, is that which gives offence, it has that within it which is destructive of the soul's happiness, and it is that destructive principle which is to be plucked out and cast from us. The same distinction exists between the right and the left hand. The right hand having reference to the power that it derives from good, and the left hand to the power which is derived from truth. The former part of the subject-the right hand when in a state to give offence, instead of having the power to do good, manifests the power to do evil, and it is on this account that it is commanded to be cut off, lest the happiness of the soul should be endangered. When we perceive that the left hand is the power which is derived from truth-we shall be enabled to account for the singular fact mentioned of the men of Benjamin, that they were lefthanded, and could hurl stones at a hair's breadth and not miss: for stone itself is symbolic of truth; and the left hand being symbolic of the power or strength of truth, in this circumstance all their dexterity consisted. It is, therefore, indispensable that the distinction between the right and the left hand should be properly known-the one is the power which is derived from good or charity-the other from truth or faith. When we do good, when we perform any work of charity, it must be done from a really good motive, else, though it may be beneficial to the person on whom we bestow it, it is not a good action to us: hence the beauty of the Lord's divine counsel: "When thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth, that thine alms may be in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret may reward thee openly." When the left hand knows

what the right hand performs, the action is performed from a principle of truth destitute of the genuine motives of charity. It is done to be seen, to obtain the praise of men, to be published abroad on subscription lists, not that it may be kept secret; but that the fact may be published throughout the world that so and so has given a guinea to a charitable institution. It meets with the reward it craves-the reward of praise from men, but it fails in obtaining that more durable approbation from Him who seeth in secret and who will reward his faithful servants openly.

Such, then, being the signification of the right hand, when predicated of man, namely, that of the power of good in the will, the right hand of the Lord has a signification precisely similar, except, indeed, that the power of man is finite, and receives all its ability to do good from the Lord, but the power of God is infinite and selfderived; and the right hand of the Lord is therefore symbolic of his divine omnipotence and omniscience. This is confirmed by the Psalmist (lxxxix. 13, 14, 15); "The north and the right hand, thou bast created them. Thou hast a mighty arm, strong is thy hand and high is thy right hand." Now in the right hand of him who sat on the throne, is the book sealed with seven seals.

And this will lead to the inquiry—what shall we understand by this book. And here let it not be lost sight of, that this book is not only in heaven, but absolutely in the right hand of the king of heaven; it is written within and on the back side; it consequently must contain information of both an interior and exterior nature, and being in the possession of Omnipotence and Omniscience itself, and no one in heaven or in earth being found worthy to open it or to read it, must of necessity contain such things as the Divine Being alone can be acquainted with. Now let us enquire-is there in man or angel any thing which can be hid from every other being save the Divine Being? Every person will readily answer in the affirmative. No one knows the state of man's affections and thoughts; no one can search the heart and try the reins of the children of men or of the angels in heaven, save He who sitteth upon the throne and liveth for ever and ever. If this be admitted, and none but an infidel will dispute it, then this book sealed with the seven seals, signifies the state of all both in heaven and on earth, which can be known only to Omnipotence and Omniscience. The state of all in heaven is signified by what is written within, and the state of all upon earth by that which is written without, while its being sealed with seven seals, denotes that the whole is hid from the eyes of man and can only be known to the Divine Being himself.

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