THE NUMBERLESS MULTITUDE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21307, 11 April 1931, Page 21

THE NUMBERLESS MULTITUDE

Written for the Otago Daily Times. By the Rev. D. Gardner Miller. “ I saw a great multitude, which no man could number, out of every nation, and_ of all tribes and peoples and tongues.” That is how the author of the Book of Revelation opens out his vision of Heaven in that incomparable seventh chapter. The first eight verses of the chapter are undoubtedly a transcript from a Jewish Apocalypse. John simply mentions it and then drops it for good. Compared with the Christian conception of heaven, the Jewish is narrow and limited.

Heaven is not a place for a select few . from one nation, but a place for the redeemed from the whole wide world, irre- I spective of nationality, colour, or modes of worship. God does not recognise the arbitrary distinctions made by man. Every human being is a child of His and His home is open for all. It is when John begins to write of the Christian view of i heaven that his language moves to music. From verse nine to verse seventeen the literary power of the author is at its greatest. The tenderness, beauty, and skill of the passage have made it the cherished possession of the ages. The heaven he speaks of is a place of rest and service—and. above all, of intimate relationship with God. It has become quite fashionable in certain quarters to speak slightingly of heaven. There is a kind of materialistic philosophy taking hold of many people. They say, “We have no proof of an after-life; I when man dies—well, he is dead and that’s i the end of him.” Such people forget, if j ever they knew, that belief in an after- i life is universal. No matter how far back you go, you find that man, even in the | earliest stages of his career as a conscious i Being, knew he was not made to die. I ; think that many of those who have dis- I carded any beliefs they may have had in a heaven have done so in sheer revolt against the belief that used to hold sway | among the greater part of those who com- i posed the church, that heaven is a great j incentive to goodness and endurance' in ! this life, and that the fear of what the j future might bring was a safeguard against the temptation to evil. I myself refuse to look upon heaven—or hell—in that light, but that does not lead one to a denial of heaven or hell. The hope .of heaven or the fear of hell does not influence my actions. Immortality has to do with the great values of life, such as goodness, truth, and beauty. And these are part and parcel of personality, and personality is of such value to God that it is unthinkable that lie will ever suffer it to perish. We are such stuff, not as dreams are made of, but as life is made of. The ultimate reality is life, and a life that is persistent and indestructible. It knows and lives by change. But only that which is mortal in it decays. There is a seed in us of the immortal, eternal, and invisible, of whoso growth and fate we can only speak in symbol and metaphor and with bated breath. “ Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him ns Ho is.” After all is said and done the ultimate proof of immortality is ; the character of God. It is because He is what He is, as revealed by Christ, that we shall, by and by, approximate to what He has purposed for us. And it is the character of God that the author of Revelation reveals in such glowing tones in the seventh chapter,, The numberless multitude stands before and serves Him Who understands all that life has meant to the pilgrims of faith. It is THE HUMAN TOUCH in the description of God, in the vision, that makes heaven so desirable. I d»m’t know how you feel about God; but many a time, in the experiences of the strange twists and turnings of life, I have had to face serious doubts about the Deity. Of course, doubts are always of the intellect. The man who never doubts never grows. A God who lives afar off has always left an ache in my heart. Such a one is too cold and austere for my very human needs. I long for some one who knows and cares, personally. And so when I am up against it, I turn to the New Testament and there I find two pictures of God that reassure me. The one is in the fifteenth chapter of Luke and the other is in the seventh chapter of Revelation. The first is that of a father in a hurry to welcome a weary-footed wanderer; the second is that of an understanding friend who knows something of the heart-break and the sorrows of life and, because He knows, cares enough for me to meet, out of His fullness my very human needs. Look at that second picture. Notice not only the understanding care of God but also the personal relationship of Christ. The Lamb is the shepherd, who shall lead us to the fountains of the waters of life. Christ in heaven is still our shepherd. Only a religious genius could have given us that picture. Shepherd was the most beloved relationship that Jesus Himself pictured while He was on earth.

And, thqn, read again and again the closing words, “ And God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes.” Can there be a more human touch than that?, Give me these, two pictures, or presentations, of God—that of the Father and that of the Friend, and I am prepared to follow every twist and turning of life to their bitter end. But there is another thing about the numberless multitude worth noticing, and that is, that it is NOT EXEMPT FROM SUFFERING. It is in heaven not as an escape from suffering but because it has suffered. The Redeemed go through the “ great tribulation,” it docs not pass them by. That is a lesson we should all take to heart. We receive deliverance through suffering and death, not from them. To be a Christian is not to be immune from suffering —even undeserved suffering; it is to be sustained when the blows fall. There is suffering at the heart of the world: suffering is enthroned in heaven (for there in a cross in the heart of God, otherwise the cross on Calvary would have no meaning' • there is suffering throbbing in every song that tells of redemption. How many of us have said “ What have I done to suffer thus? ” May it not be that we are privileged to suffer? The most perfect etching is that taken from the plate that has been bitten deeply by the acid. So it is in human life. The acid of suffering bites deep, but the result is. if if we will have it so, strengthened character, nobler aspirations and greater capacity to become what the end of suffering leads to, Jn the wisdom of God. I often think, when I look at many people who. I know personally, are bearing almost intolerable burdens and suffering in what seems, to me, unmerited measure, that tbe Father has some special f work for them to do in the hereafter' which can only be done by those who “ boar the mark of the fellowship of pain.” I believe that God chooses His sufferers and that through their sufferings, either of themselves or for others, they are being equipped for some high and holy task—for the Redeemed "serve” Him day and night in His temple. May we all be amongst the numherlers multitude!