Bible Commentaries

A New Song (for Holy Innocents" Day)

Revelation 14:3

Why, when heaven is yet ringing with the bright message of peace, does the wailing of Ramah, of Bethlehem, shriek in upon it with discordant jar? Perhaps the words of today's Epistle may suggest our attitude while feeling after the teaching of the Holy Spirit on this festival.

The Apostle in his vision is contemplating a great company standing with the Lamb on Mount Zion, worshipping before the throne, and from that throne proceeds a voice as of many waters, and the voice of a great thunder.

I. It may be that the Teaching of Holy Innocents" Day is part of the New Song of the Church which comes forth from the throne of God. For it is the song of infant wailing, an inarticulate cry, the song of those "whose only language is a cry," a cry of pain, of anguish, and of misery. All who came near Christ more or less suffered by approaching Him, just as if earthly trouble and pain went out of Him, as some precious virtue, for the good of their soul. Surely this is part of the new song of Holy Innocents" Day, the true meaning of suffering in the economy of the world.

II. The Song that Mounts up before the Throne Today is also a Song without Words.—It tells of no great achievements, no mighty actions. It tells of nameless fame, of passionless renown, of the glorious blessing of innocency as one of the choicest treasures of heaven. There is no other strain like it. Imperfection mingles with the song and the glory of the greatest martyrs. But they are without fault before the throne of God. The honour bestowed on little children—the honour which belongs to innocency—is another distinguishing mark of Christianity, the new song which the Church has tried to learn. Is the Holy Innocents" Day put there simply to daunt us, and to kindle remorse, and aggravate our loss? No, we can in a sense make ourselves young again. We can go straight to our Father's home, and ask Him to teach us even in this weary world, "Lord, what wouldst Thou have me to do?"

Revelation 14:3

What a blessing it is that there are things so good and delightful that no repetition of them can convert them into bores! Were there not some such things, eternity would be but a melancholy prospect for us. The song of heaven is called a new Revelation 14:4

Christmas Day is followed by three other holy days: St. Stephen, St. Revelation 14:4

Today we commemorate the deaths of the little children slaughtered at Bethlehem to allay the unworthy fear of Herod. The blood-shedding of these little ones, martyrs in deed if not in will, strikes almost a discordant note amid our Christmas festivities. Our hearts are still full of the gladness of the coming of the Child-King. In our ears we still hear the ring of childish laughter, we can still see the brightness of the children's eyes, as they feel that so much of all the Christmas merry-making has been organised in love, that they may have their part in the rejoicing at the birthday of the King In the midst of it all we are pointed to this tragedy of old, the slain little ones, victims to the cruel hatred and fear of an unworthy king. We realise that it is all part of the great strife for our salvation which our Lord waged. These little victims were but the first sacrificed by the powers of evil to retard the progress of the kingdom of light. Cruelty and hatred compassed the death of the King Himself, and since then saints have suffered, blood has been shed, tears have flowed, and martyrs have witnessed by their deaths.

I. The Tragedy of Child-Suffering.—It reminds us, too, of the ever-present tragedy of child-suffering—the suffering which results from the misdoing, cruelty, or neglect of adult people. How sad it all Revelation 14:4

I am obliged to mention, though I do it with great reluctance, another deep imagination which at this time, the autumn of1816 , takes possession of me—there can be no mistake about the fact; viz, that it would be the will of God that I should lead a single life. This anticipation, which has held its ground almost continuously ever since—with the break of a month now and a month then, up to1829 , and after that date without any break at all—was more or less connected in my mind with the notion that my calling in life would require such a sacrifice as celibacy involved: as, for instance, missionary work among the heathen, to which I had a great drawing for some years. It also strengthened my feeling of separation from the visible world.

—Newman's Apologia pro Vita Sua.

This was also a text over which Milton says he "did not slumber," taking it as an incentive to purity, which struck "doubtless at fornication; for marriage must not be called a defilement".

Revelation 14:4

When Joseph John Gurney was adopting more and more strictly the principles of Quakerism, he wrote in defence of his conduct: "It will be difficult to the outward man to become more of a Friend, but it is the path of the cross; and of those who had the Father's name written on their foreheads, St. John heard a voice from heaven saying, "These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He leadeth them"."

In the last chapter of Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte applies the same text to the resolute character of St John Rivers in his missionary career. "A more resolute, indefatigable pioneer never wrought amidst rocks and dangers. Firm, faithful, and devoted; full of energy and zeal and truth, he labours for his race.... His is the ambition of the high master-spirit, which aims to fill a place in the first rank of those who are redeemed from the earth—who stand without fault before the throne of God; who share the last mighty victories of the Lamb; who are called and chosen and faithful."

Keble makes this verse the text of his lines on "The Holy Innocents" Day".

Revelation 14:4

John Evelyn, in his Diary, quotes this verse in describing the last hours of his dear son: "Such a child I never saw; for such a child I bless God, in whose bosom he is! May I and mine become as this little child, who now follows the child Jesus, that Lamb of God, in a white robe, whithersoever He goes; even Revelation 14:4-5

This is a picture, furnished by Revelation 14:6-7

From this passage Edward Bickersteth preached his great sermon at the Jubilee of the Church Missionary Society in1848 , in St. Anne's Church, Blackfriars. He dwelt on the Gospel as everlasting (1) in contrast with perishing empires; (2) in contrast to the pretensions of vain philosophy; (3) in its suitableness to the most urgent wants of mankind; (4) in the eternal blessings it conveys; (6) in the obligation of every Christian to diffuse it.

Reference.—XIV:7.—N. D. Hillis, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvii. p328.

Revelation 14:9-10

I believe it to be quite one of the crowning wickednesses of this age that we have starved and chilled our faculty of indignation, and neither desire nor dare to punish crimes justly. We have taken up the benevolent idea, forsooth, that justice is to be preventive instead of vindictive; and we imagine that we are to punish, not in anger, but in expediency; not that we may give deserved pain to the person in fault, but that we may frighten other people from committing the same fault.... But all true justice is vindictive to vice, as it is rewarding to virtue. Only—and herein it is distinguished from personal Revelation 14:13

After describing the scene at Cromwell's deathbed, Carlyle quotes this verse to round off his hero's career:—"Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord; blessed are the valiant that have lived in the Lord. Amen, saith the Spirit—Amen. They do rest from their labours and their works follow them.

"Their works follow them. As, I think, this Oliver Cromwell's have done and are still doing! We have had our "Revolutions of Eighty-eight," officially called "glorious," and other Revolutions not yet called glorious; and somewhat has been gained for poor Mankind. Men's ears are not now slit-off by rash Officiality; Officiality will, for long henceforth, be more cautious about men's ears. The tyrannous star-chambers, branding-irons, chimerical kings and surplices at All-hallowtide, they are gone, or with immense velocity going. Oliver's works do follow him! The works of a Revelation 14:15

I must, in passing, mark for you that the form of the sword or sickle of Perseus, with which he kills Medusa, is another image of the whirling happy vortex, and belongs especially to the sword of destruction and annihilation; whence it is given to the two angels ( Revelation 14:16), who gather for destruction, the evil harvest and evil vintage of the earth.

—Ruskin, The Queen of the Air, sec30.

References.—XIV:18.—Expositor (6th Series), vol. ix. p139. XV:1.—Ibid. (6th Series), vol. x. p200. XV:2 , 3.—S. H. Fleming, Fifteen-Minute Sermons for the People, p62. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture— Revelation , p341. XV:2-4.—J. H. Holford, Memorial Sermons, p166.