The Atonement (Part 2)
The glorious Gospel will effect
The gath’ring in of that Elect
Which, long before time had begun,
God did foresee would trust His Son;
And whom He therefore did destine
To be conformed by power divine
Into His image, and to be
His “glorious Church,” from blemish free.
But this, though known and valued much,
Doth not the great Atonement touch.
True, ’twas the special treasure sought,
But, for it, all the field was bought.
“Christ loved the Church,” and in His love
Did for her die, that she above
Might be the partner of His throne.
But she is not the fruit alone
That from the “Corn of Wheat” doth grow,
Which He on Calvary did sow.
Think of the souls before the flood
Who trusted in the Living God –
Of Abr’am and the saints of old
Who died in faith, as we are told –
Of Israel’s thousands who foresaw
The End of all their shadowing law –
Of nations, tribes, and kindreds who
Have lived and died and never knew
Of Revelation’s glorious light,
With whom the Judge shall do the right.
Then, death takes half our race away
In infancy and childhood’s day;
These, through th’ Atoning work, are His
Who said, “Of such the kingdom is.”
Then let our minds reach on before,
Till times of tribulation sore
Shall overtake the sons of men,
And see the grace of God e’en then
In sealing thousands as His own;
Then, turn with John to yonder throne –
See gathered there from every land
That countless, white -robed, praising band
Who, in the tribulation great,
For God and Truth their lives did hate.
Then think of the millennial bliss,
When Christ shall reign in righteousness;
A thousand years of peace sublime
Shall be enjoyed in every clime.
Then, on the merits of His blood
He shall the whole creation flood
With waves of blessing, rich and free,
For He shall reign from sea to sea;
And then, as now, for every breath
All shall be debtors to His death.
And when that scene has passed away,
And all is one eternal day –
When gathered is that myriad throng,
Who through the Cross to Him belong,
From Adam to the latest one
Who’ll trust the work on Calv’ry done,
“The travail of His soul” He’ll see,
And satisfied His heart shall be.
And as to all eternity
He leads that shining company
From fount to fount of pure delight,
Mid still increasing glory bright,
Where He shall to their gaze unfold
Those glories which have ne’er been told;
For ever at each fresh display
Of love, and grace, and glory, they
Shall fall adoring at His feet,
Forget all heaven in worship meet,
And gladly to His glory own
That, through the Atoning work alone,
They have a title to be there,
To see Him, and His glory share.
The cherubim of dreadful ire,
The seraphim with Mercy’s fire,
All angels, the Archangel too,
Shall reap eternal blessing through
The death of Christ. For while therein
They see God’s estimate of sin
And fear, they also there can see
His love revealed beyond degree;
Which firmer confidence inspires,
And tunes all heaven’s unceasing lyres,
In loftier strains than e’ er before,
To swell His praise for evermore.
The Father who receives the lost,
The Son who paid in blood the cost,
The Holy Spirit of all grace,
Who leads them to their resting-place –
The great eternal, triune God,
The Source from whom Life’s river flowed,
The Goal to which its course doth tend –
Beginner of all things and End,
Finds in th’ Atonement such a rest
As seraph tongues have ne’er expressed.
God’s perfect bliss shall ever be
Around His shining throne to see
His ransomed through the Cross enjoy
Pleasures for aye without alloy.
To all creation – land and sea –
Each blade of grass, each flower and tree,
To fish and reptile, fowl and beast,
And to mankind (deserving least)
Each dawning day fresh blessing brings
On Mercy’s long-enduring wings;
And every drop of dew and rain,
And ray of light and sheaf of grain,
And universal blessing giv’n
To guilty man by gracious Heaven,
And all the pleasant things of earth,
Proclaim the great Atonement’s worth.
But for th’ Atonement who can tell
Why earth is favoured more than hell?
Why fallen man such good receives,
While fallen angels nought relieves.
But all these blessings are no more
Than earnests of what lies before.
Creation now sin’s bondage owns,
But, hopeful for redemption, groans,
And waits the time of joy and peace,
When sin and sorrow, all shall cease.
To earth O what a joyful day!
The long-felt curse shall flee away,
And all creation, free, shall raise
One universal shout of praise.
The mountains and the hills shall sing,
The woods with joyful voices ring;
For Nature all afresh shall bloom,
And earth primeval bliss resume.
The raging sea, hushed to a calm,
Shall murmur a millennial psalm,
And all its inmates peaceful be,
Alike from fear and hatred free:
While man to man, from shore to shore,
“Know ye the Lord,” shall say no more.
And when the righteous King of Peace
Proclaims Creation’s sweet release
From all the curses of the Fall,
‘Twill to His death ascribe it all,
And, joyful for a thousand years,
Shall reap what He has sown in tears.
Now let us turn our thoughts below
Upon the filling pit of woe,
And ask the question – Who shall dwell
With the devouring flames of Hell?
The gate is wide, the way is broad,
That leads the soul away from God,
Yet never man in hell shall mourn
Who has not had a chance to turn.
Whether he be a pagan wild,
Or born a Christian’s favoured child,
God will not suffer him to go
Unwarned to everlasting woe.
Where Revelation is unknown,
And men in heathen darkness groan,
His Spirit will the wand’rer seek,
Conscience and Providence will speak,
Creation will the Godhead show,
And God shall judge them as they know;
And though they cannot Christ refuse,
The good or evil they can choose,
And shall be left without excuse;
For nothing but rejected light
Shall doom a soul to endless night.
But those who live in gospel lands,
Where many a faithful witness stands
To warn them from the downward road,
And point them to “the Way” to God;
Who will not from destruction turn,
Shall deepest sink and saddest mourn.
O favour-ladened Christendom!
From thee how many thousands come
The number of the damned to swell,
And louder make the wail of Hell.
When Death and Hell to judgment yield,
And earth shall be a teeming field
Of rising bodies – on that day,
When earth and heaven shall flee away,
Dissolving back again to space,
Before the Judge’s awful face,
They, in their sins, before the throne
Shall stand (while He Who sits thereon,
With retribution in His looks,
Shall judge them from the opened books)
Without one faint excuse to give,
Or reason why they ought to live.
“The Book of Life,” whose precious leaves
No unbeliever’s name receives,
Heav’n’s solemn verdict shall reveal,
Eternally their doom to seal,
Which God Himself cannot repeal.
With what confusion, grief and fear,
Shall they the solemn sentence hear!
Without the earth beneath their feet,
Or Heav’n above – with no retreat
Except the burning, surging sea
Of fire and brimstone, which shall be,
With all its woe, relief from rays
Of light so searching, and the gaze
Of Him Whose love they once refus’d,
And Whose long-suffering they abus’d.
And as to all eternity.
In still increasing agony,
With madd’ning grief, in dark despair,
Through all their sins they suffer there
The value of the Saviour’s blood
They still shall prove is known to God,
And God alone; and shall confess
The cause of all their wretchedness,
From which they hope for no relief,
To be the sin of unbelief.
If, at the judgment, it were seen
That all are saved who could have been –
That, to the lost, God’s offered Lamb
Was but a mockery and sham,
Which they were blinded to refuse,
His scant provision to excuse,
‘Twould lighten up hell’s gloomy plains
And turn to pleasure all its pains;
And those who into it were driven
Would not desire a place in heav’n,
While even there the favoured few
Their biased choice would almost rue.
But like the cloud to Israel light,
And to th’ Egyptians worse than night,
The Cross shall ever stand between
The upper and the nether scene;
The light of where the ransom’d dwell –
The deepest, darkest shade of hell.
The arch-fiend, too, the effect shall feel,
Of having bruised the Saviour’s heel.
He, with his whole infernal crew,
In bitter, dire remorse shall rue
That e’er he left the nether sphere
To make his blind adventures here.
Hades and Death shall vanquished be,
And all their prisoners set free.
The second death, the burning lake,
Shall all opposing powers o’ertake;
For He Who once to death did yield
Shall so completely gain the field,
That all His enemies shall be
Beneath His feet eternally.
Thus all below and all above
To all eternity shall prove,
In blissful gain, or rueful loss.
The value of THE WONDROUS CROSS.