The After-glow of a Great Reign | Page 8

at least. First, the
colours of the rainbow, beautiful and various as they are, blend into the
purest white; secondly, a rainbow, even for the most careless, and those
most untouched by natural beauty, is one of the most inherently
attractive things in the world; thirdly--a rainbow is God's appointed
sign of hope, hope founded on the faithfulness of God: "While the earth
remaineth, winter and summer, seed time and harvest shall not cease";
and, fourthly--strange paradox at first, but true--a rainbow is one of the

most awful things in the world, because it reminds us that what has
created it is the terrible light which, without the atmosphere, would
scorch to nothingness; for, while the sun, through the medium of the
atmosphere, blesses, let its flames, mountains high, touch a planet that
has drifted from its course, and it scorches to death.
With those four thoughts in our minds, let us first contemplate the
rainbow round the throne of God. And we shall now understand that
the first thing which we can learn is, that there is around the throne of
God a circle of unblemished purity. We might have known it; we have
been told it over and over again. "God is light, and in Him is no
darkness at all." "With the clean thou must be clean, and with the holy
thou must learn holiness." We know it, yet where we fail is in not
realizing the awful bearing which it has upon our lives. A rainbow of
perfect purity bars the way of entrance to the throne of God, except for
the pure.
And then, secondly, to temper, as it were, the awfulness of the first
revelation, we find that the light of God is brought us through a
medium; the glory, grace, and truth of God are shown us in the face of
Jesus Christ.
And, as we follow Him during these coming six weeks, let us
remember that we are watching the rainbow, that we are watching the
medium through which the light of God reaches us in all its inherent
attractiveness. If the heavenly rainbow is not produced by the light
shining upon the tears of human penitence, where is hope for the world?
But because it is so produced, the rainbow round the throne of God
wins us to God. "Come unto Me," it seems to signify, "all ye that are
weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
Thirdly, the rainbow round the throne of God speaks of hope. Just as
the husbandman, getting anxious about his harvest, troubled by the
variableness of the season, looks up on some showery day and sees the
rainbow in the sky, and it reminds him of the faithfulness of God, and
His promise that seed time and harvest shall not cease, so the father
with his son snatched suddenly from him in the battle, so the soul
waiting so long year after year, for something to come which does not

come, so the tempted one at home or at work, looks upon the rainbow
round the throne of God, and that rainbow speaks of God's faithfulness.
"His righteousness standeth," that is what the rainbow says, "like the
strong mountains, and His judgments are like the great deep." And,
founded on the faithfulness of God, we can hope.
And yet, in spite of the attractiveness and in spite of the hope, the
rainbow round the throne of God is still awful, for it reminds us of what,
in our soft age, we are apt to forget--that "our God is a consuming fire,"
that never, from generation to generation, does He lower His standard
for a moment, that not because in one age or another sins are condoned
or thought lightly of does He vary for an instant the standard of
holiness He demands, because He has appointed a day when He will
judge the world by the standard of that Man Whom He has ordained.
And when, therefore, we turn from the prototype in Heaven to the copy
of it which we have been lately seeing on earth, we are not surprised to
find the same mingled elements of attractiveness and awfulness in the
rainbow which encircled the throne of the empire for three and sixty
years.
In the first place, we find it a rainbow of unsullied purity. No one could
go down, even for a few hours, to preach at the Court, without being
struck by the goodness of the men, as well as the goodness of the
women, who surrounded the Queen. There was an atmosphere of
goodness, of innocence, of pure home life, which constituted a
beautiful rainbow round the throne. It had what we should expect--an
attractive power throughout the world. Everyone felt, for that reason, at
home with their