The Saints in Heaven
H. C. Haydn, D. D. Revelation 7:9-17 After this I beheld, and, see, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds… There is no good reason why this graphic picture of the heavenly land should be in our hands except for some practical purpose. The Bible is a practical book. The Bible comes to put the seen where it belongs, and give the unseen a chance to get hold of us, lest, in wilful near-sightedness, we miss altogether the eternal realities with which lies our chief concern. Linger in the vestibule we must for a time, but how? With faces averted from the cathedral entrance, indifferent to what lies beyond, or intent upon the grander thing that lies before us, for whose revelation we wait with expectant heart? In this picture — (1) Heaven is nothing if it be not realistic. It has a local habitation as well as a name. So had it to all Bible-men of faith. How real to them i(2) Again, what catholicity in heaven! Of the covenant mercies of the Jewish tabernacle it was hard for a Gentile to get a glimpse; to sit down as one of the true Israel was his only as by reluctant concession to an alien. But this exclusiveness lingers not even to cast a shadow. No barrier of race nor of high or low, of early or late, intervenes to hinder that they come into that high fellowship of God-like catholicity. (3) But, though so catholic, there is a discrimination of character which makes them one, which also gives to heaven an air of exclusiveness. They are white-robed, all of them, and not one robe made white by any process save one. The fact and the manner of it are both significant. There are no notes of discord in the song they sing — no praises but of One and the efficacy of His atoning blood, Rejecting Christ as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, be it by Jew or Gentile, is turning away from Him who opens and no man shuts, shuts and no man opens. It is to reject the only means of blanching character to snowy whiteness, the only condition of sin's forgiveness. (4) Note the contrasts to their former condition. (H. C. Haydn, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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; WEB: After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no man could number, out of every nation and of all tribes, peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.