But there were not many, alas, whose eyes were opened to recognise the Divine glory of this holy Child. There was an aged Simeon ; there was " Anna, a prophetess " ; there were those " that looked for re- demption in Jerusalem," to whom this holy woman probably prophesied the near approach of the Saviour. After His entrance on His public work there was a Nathaniel, a Peter, a John, and the company of other
till this its destruction, which happened in the second year of the reign of Vespasian, are collected to be one thousand one hundred and thirty, besides seven months and fifteen days ; and from the second building of it, which was done by Haggai, in the second year of Cyrus the king, till its destruction under Vespasian, there were six hundred and thirty-nine years and forty-five days" (" Wars," vi. 6–8).
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apostles and disciples to whom it was given " to be- hold His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth " ; but as to the nation, they saw in Him no form nor comeliness, and when they beheld Him they saw no beauty in Him to desire Him, and what was foretold by Isaiah came to pass : " He was despised and rejected of men ; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and there was, as it were, the hiding of the face from Him; He was despised and we esteemed Him not."
In the end, after He had for three and a half years with outstretched arms continued to call Israel to Himself, but without response that which was symbolised by the departure of the Glory from the Mount of Olives, received a second, personal, and more striking fulfilment, when Jesus, also slowly and reluctantly, after shedding tears of sorrow for Jerusalem, and from the same spot whence the prophet saw the Glory depart, finally ascended out of sight. He led His disciples out as far as Bethany (on the Mount of Olives), and He lifted up His hands and blessed them, " And it came to pass while He blessed them He was parted from them and carried up into heaven." And since that event since the departure of Jesus from Israel and the world, the word I have already quoted is written more legibly and in letters of fire across the eighteen or nineteen centuries of Jewish history : " Icha- bod." Where is the glory ? The Temple destroyed ; the land a continual desolation ; the people given over to be tossed to and fro among the nations. But will the present state of things continue for ever? Will man on earth no more behold the visible display of God's glory ? For answer we take up the words of the fortieth chapter of Isaiah with which we started : " And the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed, and all flesh
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shall see it together, for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it."
Ezekiel, who saw the departure of the glory of Jehovah, also, in his visions of the future, beheld its return ; and from the same direction whence it departed. " Afterwards," we read, " He brought me to the gate, even the gate that looketh toward the east, and behold the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east, and His voice was like the noise of many waters, and the earth shined with His glory. … And the glory of Jehovah came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east. So the Spirit took me up and brought me into the inner court ; and behold the glory of Jehovah filled the house." And what is this but the same announcement in symbolical language made to the "men of Galilee," just as the Lord was departing from them, that "this same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner, as ye have seen Him go into heaven " ? As man in the glorified body He ascended, and " this same Jesus," as the "Son of Man," bodily, He shall return. Visibly, with a cloud He was received out of their sight, and "in like manner," visibly, "with the clouds of heaven," He will descend again. It was from the Mount of Olives they saw Him finally depart ; and on the same spot, " upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east," His blessed feet "shall stand in that day " (Zech. xiv. 4).
Then, and not till then, will Isaiah's prophecy be ful- filled. " And the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it."
But let us for a moment touch on the difference between the past and the future.
I. In the past Israel saw the glory of the personal
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presence of Jehovah only in symbol, and then the glory was always associated with the cloud, which while re- vealing also concealed ; for man was not yet able to bear the full unveiling of His majesty, and even Israel's prophets, who heard His voice, and were borne along by His power, had wonderingly to cry : " Verily Thou art a God that hidest Thyself, O God of Israel the Saviour ! " And even when in the fulness of time He came, in whom all the attributes of Jehovah were em- bodied, who was " the effulgence of His glory and an exact representation of His very being," we still observe the same principle at work of concealing while revealing Himself; for there was the "emptying of Himself"; there was the veiling of His glory; there was "the hiding of His power." How else could man have approached Him and lived ? How else could He have patiently endured the contradiction of sinners, and the dulness and frowardness of His own disciples, during those years of suffering as the Lamb of God ? But by and by, " the glory of Jehovah shall be unveiled? and will be no longer in symbol, but in bodily presence. There will be no longer a cloud to hide His glory from our eyes ; no longer as in a glass darkly, but face to face, for " He shall be manifested and we shall see Him as He is."
II. In the past it was only men of Israel who beheld even the symbolical or veiled glory of God, but by and by " all flesh shall see it together? for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it. "Behold He cometh with clouds ; and every eye shall see Him ; and they also which pierced Him, and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn because of Him. Even so. Amen."
We shall behold the unveiled glory of that face once so marred for us, and beholding it shall be finally and everlastingly conformed to that same image to be for
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ever "like Him" (i John iii. 2); the escaped of Israel " shall look upon Him whom they have pierced," now manifested in His true glory and power, and shall " mourn " and be saved (Zech. xii.) ; while a Christ- rejecting world will behold Him too, and seek to hide themselves in the caves and the rocks of the moun- tains ; and say to the mountains and to the rocks, " Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb " " at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven, with the angels of His power, in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus … when He shall come to be glorified in His saints and to be marvelled at in all them that believe … in that day " (2 Thess. i. 6–10, R.V.).
This is the hope of Israel and of this sin-burdened earth. Not till then will the world be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah as the waters cover the sea ; not till then will the inhabitants of the earth learn righteousness, or the dream of universal peace be realised.
And it is the hope of the Church. " For the grace of God, bringing salvation," says the apostle (Titus ii. 11–15), "hath appeared to all men." This is a terse summary of all that is implied in the first Advent. It was a marvellous display of the grace or undeserved favour of God to man ; a glorious Epiphany, as the word is in the original, on the darkness and hopeless- ness of the world. But no sooner does grace bring salvation to us than it becomes our school of discipline, and the great Teacher in that school is the Holy Spirit. And these are the lessons which we have to learn, by means and processes often very trying to flesh and
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blood, namely, that " denying ourselves in reference to ungodliness, and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly." This sums up the whole of Christian character and conduct both from the negative and positive side in relation " to this present age." But what is our attitude and expectation in relation to the future ? Here it is : " Looking for " (or " awaiting with expectation ") " the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" Here is the same blessed hope of the appearing of the glory of the personal presence of the great God and our Saviour brought over from the Old Testament into the pages of the New, and all those who have become subjects of grace are pointed to it as the goal and consummation of their blessedness,