river.'* How joyful must this have made their pilgrimage through the desert! But why is Christ Jesus called a Rock? What unnumbered beauties dwell in his character! He is a Vine to strengthen; a Star to guide; a Light to direct; a Foundation on which to build; Bread to sustain; a Captain to lead; a Lamb to be sacrificed; and a Lion for strength and magnanimity. And now we are to contemplate him as a Rock; not a barren, rugged, inaccessible rock, but one as a shadow to the weary, and from which we are to behold the waters flowing out for a famishing world! Let us now go to Jerusalem and behold the waters of everlasting life gushing from our Rock Christ Jesus, as he stands beneath the delicious sky and the lovely scenery of Palestine. 'Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.' Behold the waters flowing. 'And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.' And still they flow, and there is abundance, yea, 'the waters are risen, waters to swim in, a river that cannot be passed over,' *** 'and everything shall live whither the river cometh.' 'It rises high, and drowns the hills, Has neither shore nor bound: Those that drank of the waters of Horeb 'thirsted again;' but Christ Jesus, our Rock, says, 'he that shall drink of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but it shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.' The Rock Christ Jesus can never be moved, neither can it moulder away. He is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.' The Parian marble, the firm foundations, the stately columns, the majestic buildings, and all the magnificent structures of man, though promising immortality, will be shattered into ten thousand fragments, but this Rock will stand as firm as the throne of the universe. Let thousands, let millions, with all the mountainous weight of guilt upon them, come and rest upon it, and they shall never be moved. Such then is our Rock. Millions have sought its cooling streams and refreshing shade. Let us go and gather around it, and 'drink of that spiritual Rock.' And through all our earthly pilgrimage it will follow us, 'for that Rock was Christ.' 28 LXVI. ROOT AND OFFSPRING OF DAVID. 'I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.' Rev. xxii. 16. THE several titles in this verse may all be found in their appropriate places, for we have chosen an alphabetical arrangement, on account of its simplicity and ease to the student. There is something peculiar in these appellatives. We seem at first confounded. How can a being be both the root and offspring of another? Can the root be at the same time a branch, or the branch be at the same time a root? Here meet some of those strange and seeming contrarieties which we have frequently had occasion to notice in the character of the immaculate Son of God. This subject is luminously presented by the Root and Offspring of David himself in his conversation with the sect of the Pharisees.* The Trinitarian has endeavored to prove from these appellatives that Jesus was the Creator as well as the Son of David. But we think the writer had no such sentiment in view when he penned the passage. Jesus was Lord of David because 'he is Lord * Matt. xxii. 41-45. See title LORD. ROOT AND OFFSPRING OF DAVID. 327 of all,' and yet he descended in a direct line from David, and was therefore his Offspring. He was, therefore, both the Root and the Offspring of David. As Lord of all, he would sustain David as the root sustains the tree. And yet he was a branch of that very tree which he nourished and supported! But Jesus is the Root of David only as he is the Root of all. In his spiritual kingdom, 'he is Lord of all,' for he is the source, the fountain, whence come all our spiritual blessings. There he is the Root, sustaining all as the natural root sustains the tree. But he was both the Root and Offspring of David, which cannot be said of any other individual of our race. What glories meet in the Saviour! What seeming contrarieties! Yet all is blended in perfect harmony! He is King, Priest, Saviour, Mediator, Son of God, Son of Man. And 'he bears the glory.' So many offices never before centered in one being. A very important inference may be drawn from this title. We have another proof that Jesus was the long-expected Messiah. He was spoken of by Moses, the Jewish lawgiver, by David, king of Israel, and by every prophet, even down to the very period when the prophetic age ceased. The line from which he should descend, the place where he should be born, and the time, were all predicted. All was exactly fulfilled. And when the Root and Offspring of David appeared, he confounded the Jew by his own Scriptures. He could believe that he was the Son of David, for he gave him that title, but then in what way he could be the Lord of David at the same time, he could not understand. And so will the Jew ever be confounded, till he acknowledges that he has 'found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth.'* But 'blindness in part is happened to Israel till the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.' Yes, the veil will be removed from the despised and blinded Jew, and he will at last see and understand the force of the question of his Lord when on earth, 'If David then call him his Lord, how is he his Son?' And then he will understand in what way his Messiah was both the Root and Offspring of David. Blessed period! May the Lord hasten the happy day! 'All hail, mysterious King! Hail, David's ancient Root! Thou righteous Branch, which thence did spring, Our weary souls shall rest Beneath thy grateful shade; Our thirsting lips the sweets shall taste, By thy blest fruit conveyed... *John i. 45. Rom. xi. 25, 26. |