"After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands." — Rev. 7:9.

These words present to us a pictur3 of the redeemed in heaven, but they also reveal to us just as clearly the characteristics of the redeemed on earth. The great peculiarity of this Book of Revelation is, that it presents all the doctrines of the Bible in pictorial forms; not abstract truth, but concrete truth embodied in living form and color. This is the most impressive form in which truth can be stated. A bare definition of electricity would not half impress the mind as a description of the same element manifested in a thunderstorm. An abstract statement of the principles of anger or love would be stale and weak compared to a vivid portrayal of these principles unfolding themselves in actual life. And that which imparts such an overwhelming charm to this Book of Revelation is this trait of having all the elements of the moral universe thrown into their respective activities. Here we see all the truths of the Scripture disclosing themselves in their highest degree of manifestation. Here every principle of hate and love, of sin and holiness, of sorrow and gladness, of punishments and rewards, of man's fall and rise, of probation and eternity, is set forth in the warm colors of living action. Here we see the blossoming forth into history of all the seed, both of good and ill, that has been sown in the fields of time.

The three great elements of the sours salvation are presented in this text. The attitude of standing "before the throne" implies loyalty to the sovereign will, and in a much stronger manner than the mere statement of obedience. The garniture of " white robes " implies purity of nature, and more impressively than is conveyed by the abstract term "purity." Bearing " palms in their hands" represents victory to the Oriental mind, much stronger than a bare statement of conquest. Let us notice these three elements of loyalty, purity, and victory, as set forth under the imagery of the text.

1. Notice the attitude of this company: they "stood before the throne, and before the Lamb." The term "throne" indicates everything that we mean by authority, dominion, government. It is the concrete form of the divine will; that is, the divine will as it is expressed in government. We read of a "great white throne," which is but a pictorial statement of the pure will of God in the actual government of His creatures. If we think of God's will as latent or reposing in Himself, it is not then properly a throne; but God's will as related to all creatures is emphatically the throne of the universe. The position of standing indicates everything in loyalty, submission, and harmony with that enthroned will. Perfect submission to God's will is the essential meaning of standing "before the throne." The imagery here is from the custom of Oriental monarchs, who had armed soldiers to stand before them on state occasions, a bodyguard of honor ready at any instant to obey the will of the monarch. It is said that "order is heaven's first law "; if that be so, then obedience to order is heaven's first virtue. If we trace God's kingdom in every branch of it we will find this text illustrated.

In the realm of matter we read that darkness and confusion was upon the face of the world till the particles of matter were reduced to law. The "Spirit, moving upon the face of the deep," simply mustered the inorganic atoms to the method of God's plans; in other words, made them stand "before the throne," in order that beauty and utility might be reached. Adam was introduced upon the earth at that time in creation most fitted to impress him with the thought of order and obedience. As far as his senses could extend, he gathered the lesson of harmony; not a hint of rebellion could be detected; all things, with himself included, were virtually standing "before the throne." When God organized the Hebrews into a visible Church, He gathered them before His throne at Sinai and gave them the covenant of the law, and this covenant of loyalty was the basis of their national and religious history; and when Jesus brought in the new covenant of the gospel, He sent John the Baptist to preach repentance, the perfect submission of the will, as the prerequisite of the gospel, dispensation. Thus we see, at the beginning of every form of God's kingdom, submission to law, or standing "before the throne," is the first great essential. This principle of loyalty is fundamental. Any derangement at this point would unhinge our happiness through eternity. In hell every one has a will of his own, which makes it literally a pandemonium; will clashes with will, and purpose wars with purpose. In heaven there is one will alone in government, the untarnished great white throne, and the happiness of every creature's will there is its glad agreement, and hearty yielding to that one infinite will. We must not forget that this standing "before the throne" is coupled with standing "before the Lamb," denoting that the principle of submission and obedience is evangelical. It is not the submission of brute matter to law, nor of rebellious spirits to enforced authority, but a gracious yielding of the will in obedience through Jesus Christ; a loyalty made possible on man's part only through the slain Lamb. The principle of loyalty as expressed in repentance must precede pardon, and as expressed in entire consecration must precede heart purity; thus, through the grace of the atoning Lamb, who is in the midst of the throne, we are graciously assisted to adjust ourselves to God's will. And whether we be in this world or any other world, whether living or dying, whether on sea or land, in labor or rest, whenever our wills get in the attitude of perfect submission and obedience, we are at that moment virtually standing " before the throne," and in a condition to receive all the sovereign and gracious blessings which proceed from the throne and from the Lamb.

2. They were " clothed with white robes." This expression indicates the purity of their nature, their purification from both actual and original sin, and so fitting them for the society of heaven. The term "white robes" expresses the idea of holiness in a much stronger manner than we might at first suppose.

Scriptural holiness has two parts to it: the negative, which is the absence of sin, and the positive, the full activity of holy love. Both of these thoughts are couched in the phrase "white robe." The word "white" expresses the simple idea of purity, the unmixedness of moral principle. The word "robe" does not of itself imply either good or evil, but indicates the activity of the soul's powers. Let us notice this compound expression in detail. The word "robe," or "garment " or "clothing," as used in Scripture in reference to the soul, expresses positive moral character, either good or bad. We read of " filthy garments," "white raiment," being "clothed with humility," etc., indicating that the activity of the moral faculties, the daily carriage and behavior of the soul, produces a moral character, which is a garment to the soul, like the feathers to a bird, the hair to an animal, the scales to a fish, or the foliage to a tree; a covering unique, individual, grown from the forces of its own inner life. The term "habit" will illustrate the use of the word "robe."

"Habit" is from the same root word from whence we get habitation, inhabit, habiliment, etc.; it originally meant clothing. We speak of a riding, walking, or court habit; that is dress. But words advance in their meaning from the outer to the inner life, from the physical to the spiritual; and the word "habit" now signifies, not so much the clothing of the body as the garniture of the soul. The conscience, the affections, the will, the thoughts, are the looms in the soul, and, by their incessant activity, are weaving out a subtle fabric of moral qualities which clothes the soul with a conduct appropriate to itself. We are told that the wicked shall be "driven away in his wickedness"; that is, his own wickedness will constitute the rough sackcloth garment of his soul forever: and that the saved are clothed in "white linen, which 'is the righteousness of the saints "; that is, their holy activities of prayer, of words, of good deeds, the loyal movements of their will and the loving movements of their hearts, will forever environ them, and be the fit expression of their inner being.

The word "white" implies that the native color of sin has been washed out from the robe of the soul, and that the same soul forces, the same organs or inner looms of the soul, which once wove a filthy garment, are now so purified that the clothing is clean instead of polluted. The robe is human; the whiteness is supernatural, the result of a divine washing. Here is a clear distinction between the human and the divine in religion. The silkworm weaves its own cocoon from the substance of its inner life; but it has no power to bleach it, or to so change its inner organs that it would produce a different color. The bleaching must come from some outer and higher source. And so with us, our souls will inevitably weave out a mantle according to our inner nature; but the washing of that mantle, the purifying of the activities of the spirit, must come from beyond and above us.

In the Scriptures this distinction is ever recognized; the robe is always denominated our own, the whiteness is always attributed to the washing in the blood of the Lamb. "These are they . . . which washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Notice, the robe is theirs, the whiteness is imparted. The remembering of this distinction would show us the gross error of imputed holiness. The notion of imputed salvation is spreading enormously even in the Methodist churches of America. Ministers and evangelists who are full of antinomianism are sought for, welcomed to prominent churches and camp meetings, are put at the head of Bible conventions, and heralded as great exegetes. Their doctrines just suit the carnal mind, for they insist that the carnal mind can never be separated from the soul till death. They make a specialty of correctly quoting the letter of Scripture, but grossly pervert and deny the true spiritual meaning of Scripture; they prate nonsensically of being full of sin within, but having no sin on you; they harp on the difference between your standing with God and your state of heart; they talk of being clothed with Christ's white robe of righteousness. If we are clothed in Christ's robe, was His robe ever filthy? Did His robe need washing in His own blood?

There is not one verse of Scripture to prove such an idea. So far as mere legal justification is concerned, it is true we are accounted innocent for Christ's sake in the same sense that He was accounted guilty for our sakes; but regeneration is a positive imparting of divine life to the soul, and not an imputation, and sanctification is a positive purging out from the soul the carnal mind, and not in any sense an imputed whiteness, but a real imparted cleanness. The deluded soul that does not get its own heart robes washed, but expects to get to heaven by merely being enveloped in the imputed robes of Christ's personal holiness, will find in the end that Christ's robe will be taken to heaven where it belongs, and the depraved heart will sink into hell where it belongs. Our robes are our own, and will be our own in this world and in the world to come, and we are by faith to wash them in the blood of the Lamb. Our robes may be woven gradually, but they are washed instantaneously. Our robe belongs to the realm of works, but the whiteness is received in the realm of faith. Our robes are of different sizes, according to the length and activity of our lives, but the whiteness of the purified robes is equal; the sanctified infant and the sanctified apostle will be equally clean in heaven, but not equally clothed with good works and rewards. The recollecting of the difference between the robe and its whiteness would prevent a good deal of theological blundering between the gradual and the instantaneous, the realm of works and the realm of faith, between a fitness for heaven and rewards in heaven. All who have washed their robes by faith in Jesus have a "right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city."

3. With "palms in their hands." This is an expression of Oriental imagery, indicative of victory, triumph. It implies that a battle had been fought and the victory gained.

Perhaps no form of vegetable or animal life represented to the Eastern mind the thought of victory more perfectly than the palm tree, growing sometimes one hundred feet high, living in the desert, and waving its leaves of perennial green for a hundred years. Overcoming desert droughts, scorching simoons, summer suns, and the flight of years, it has ever been in Eastern countries the emblem of conquest. When the followers of Jesus shouted His triumphant entrance into Jerusalem, they spread palm branches in the way, supposing He was about to ascend victoriously the temporal throne of David. When the Romans conquered Judea, they stamped the image of the palm on their next coinage of money, to indicate their triumph. The Christian life is evidently a warfare, and yet with singular accuracy the Scriptures designate the soldier life of a Christian as dating from his full salvation, his being armed with the " panoply of God." The Jews had some skirmishings in the wilderness, but their warfare, properly speaking, dated from their entrance into Canaan, the type of the believer's entrance into perfect love. The apostles began their true warfare and the enduring of hardness as soldiers after Pentecost, although previous to that time they were "registered in heaven," "the little flock," "not of the world," and "babes in Christ." Previous to sanctification the Christian wages a domestic war with the foes in his own nature, and has but little time or strength for fighting the battles of the Lord. The Lord tells us through Isaiah that He hath commanded His sanctified ones. When God has some Waterloo to be fought, some forlorn hope to carry, some awful breach to fill, some soul-humbling and severe task to be performed, He does not look to Christian babes nor to easy-going ministers nor to stiff ecclesiastics nor to dainty church devotees nor to partially sanctified though earnest believers, but His all-piercing eye scans the fields of Christendom, and His voice calls for the "old guard," those who are dead to sin and self. We learn from the order of this text that perfect submission, or standing "before the throne," is preliminary to heart purity, or the white robe; and that purification, or the washing of the robe, is preliminary to conflict and victory.

Every true saint will be led by the Holy Ghost through experiences of severe testing and trial. Satan will attack the sanctified in a stronger and bolder manner than ever before. He will use every device to poison the sweetness of perfect love, and turn it into acid or gall. He will attack the faith, either to break it down with discouragement or make it leap off into presumption or side track it on some fanatical fact; he will assail the hope to make it droop in despondency, or else inflate it with all sorts of imaginary fulfillments of prophecies and visions. Every grace will meet its test to prepare it for its eternal state. The heroic saint will be charged with riding a hobby of holiness; but long ago St. John described a heavenly cavalry riding on white horses, going out with King Jesus to fight His battles. Every intelligent earnest person rides a hobby of some kind, the great question is, What is the color of your horse?

The palm tree can endure more ill usage than any other form of plant life. It has no outer bark like other trees, and cannot be killed by any amount of girdling; its sap flows up through its heart. In like manner the purified Christian can endure ill treatment, hard usage, and, like Job, though all the outward bark of life may be peeled away, there flows from hidden sources, through the interior heart, a mysterious current of sap which keeps it ever green, though to all human eyes there seems nothing but desolation and decay. The heroism of the saint is at an infinite distance from the heroism of the world. His warfare, like the other phases of his life, is a perfect paradox to human reason.

We live by dying; the deeper our death the higher our life. We are filled with wisdom by being fools in our own eyes; we conquer by being first perfectly conquered; we meet the roar of the lion with the uncomplaining quietness of the lamb; roughness is overcome by gentleness; and long continued patience wears down the raging of the tiger. What an armor of invisible strength is requisite to fight the King's battles to the end! The heroes of salvation have left us examples worthy of imitation. When Inskip was dying at Ocean Grove, he seized a palm leaf fan lying on the bed, and waving it, whispered, "Triumph, triumph." The three thoughts in the text present three pictures to the eye of the mind: perfect order, perfect beauty, and perfect strength. Heaven is a scene of order: they all stood before the throne, rank beyond rank and circle above circle, not one out of his place; no broken link, no unsightly gap, no confusion of place or posture. What a scene of harmony, of concord, with one infinite will! Heaven is a scene of beauty: as far as the eye can reach every form is clad in white raiment. Heaven is a scene of strength: "not one feeble one in all their tribes"; no coward, no traitor, no one who has not passed through some requisite test; each according to his sphere, according to his constitution, according to his generation, has fought and triumphed.

All of these principles are now at work among men; and by cooperation with the Holy Spirit and a thorough acceptance of these truths, we may to-day be most positively identified with, and form a part of, the very company of those who stand before the throne of God and the Lamb, and wear white robes and have palms in their hands.