No. 575
God is not in covenant relationship with the brute creation; for to them He has made no promises, although He has made a general provision for their needs. But we may understand that with all His intelligent creation He has a covenant, or agreement, to the effect that so long as they will do His will they shall possess life. Because of violation of that arrangement, the fallen angels were cast off, “reserved in chains of darkness unto the judgment of the great day” (Jude 6), to receive their final punishment. When Adam and Eve were disobedient, they violated this covenant, and came under the sentence of death. “They like men [Hebrew Adam], have transgressed the covenant; there have they dealt treacherously against me.” (Hosea 6:7, margin)
Because of Adam’s transgression, the world is not in covenant relationship with God in any sense of the word. On the contrary, they are aliens, strangers, foreigners (Eph. 2:11-13). To some extent God brought Abraham back into covenant relationship, but not fully so. To the nation of Israel He made certain promises in the form of a Law Covenant, to the effect that whoever kept that covenant would thereby demonstrate his worthiness to receive God’s blessing promised to Abraham - that through him should all the families of the earth be blessed (Gen. 12:3).
The Law Covenant was given to the Jewish nation; Moses was the mediator, for it was impossible to make the covenant with Israel directly. Although they were unable to keep that covenant because of inherited weaknesses of the flesh, yet it brought them a measure of blessing, as St. Paul points out (Rom. 7:7). While it lifted Israel above the degradation into which the Gentiles were falling, nevertheless it did not bring the blessing for which they longed. It did not remove the death penalty - it did not give them life.
In the clear light now shining for the people of God, we see that the Law Covenant was only a type of a better covenant to be made with Israel after the Church of Christ has been glorified; that Moses himself was only a type of a better Mediator; that the sacrifices of the Law were only types of the “better sacrifices” mentioned in Hebrews 9:23, and that their priesthood was a type of the Royal Priesthood of the Gospel Age (Heb. 7:27).
In the Scriptures, the words covenant and promise are used synonymously. The children of Israel were under the Abrahamic Covenant long before they entered into the Law Covenant. They are still under those covenants. St. Paul says, “God hath not cast away his people whom he foreknew.” (Rom 11:2) Then He proceeds to say that after the elect Church has been gathered from among the Gentiles, the favor of God will return to Israel; for they are still beloved for the fathers’ sake. The fathers of Israel are the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Jews are, therefore, under the Abraham Covenant (Rom. 11:25-28).
ISRAEL’S COVENANT RELATIONSHIP ACTUAL
An actual covenant relationship is one that is fully established - not merely suggested, or proposed, but accomplished. As Israel approached Mt. Sinai, God proposed to make a covenant with them. When all was in readiness, the covenant was made through Moses as the mediator. The work of mediation was twofold; the first part was the sprinkling of the law, representing the satisfaction of Justice; the second part was the sprinkling of the people, representing the bringing of the people into covenant relationship with God. That covenant was then fully made, and has remained in operation ever since (Ex. 24:3-8).
With the Israelites, God was making a covenant which was to last for centuries. It was good for only one year at a time, however. For the first year the people were in harmony with God, but at the end of that time the cancellation of sins ceased; for the blood of bulls and of goats cannot take away sin. The whole arrangement was only a type. At the end of that first year, the Day of Atonement was inaugurated, and sacrifices were made for another year. The fact that the atonement day sacrifices were repeated year by year shows that they were efficacious for only a year at a time, and so never really took away sin (Heb. 10:1-4).
After the Day of Atonement, the people made various kinds of offerings. Some of these seem to typify the presentation of the worshiper himself to God, as an indication that he wished to do the will of Jehovah. Others were for sin-offerings, indicating that the worshiper realized that there has been a measure of willfulness in his conduct. So rigid are the requirements of the Law Covenant that only one Jew, the Lord Jesus Christ, was able to keep them. This He could do because He was perfect, and the Law is the measure of a perfect man’s full ability.
That the Israelites were in covenant relationship with God through Moses, the mediator of their covenant, is demonstrated by the fact that Moses said, “He hath declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even the ten commandments.” (Deut. 4:13) Therefore the Jew is bound by the law as long as he lives (Rom. 7:1). Although the Law Covenant is not intended to be an everlasting arrangement with the Jew, yet the only ones who have been able to get from under it are those who have come into Christ; the remainder cannot rid themselves of it. But the days draw nigh when the Lord God will make a New Covenant with them through a new mediator, The Christ, who will assist them to keep the Law satisfactorily and thus to be delivered from the evil features of their covenant.
At the close of the Babylonish captivity, the Prophet Daniel asked the Lord for an explanation of the prophecies relating to His people. The answer to his prayer is given in detail. “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.” (Dan 9:24-27)
For an elucidation of this prophecy, the reader is referred to Studies in the Scriptures, Vol. II, Study III. All these things were to be done in those seventy weeks. Of this period of time, we find that the seventieth week was the most critical, for it was the week during which Messiah was to confirm the covenant. In our Study III, we show that this week began October, A.D. 29 and closed October, A.D. 36 - from the beginning of our Lord’s ministry until the conversion of Cornelius, the first Gentile to receive the Holy Spirit.
THE COVENANT CONFIRMED FOR ONE WEEK
During that period of seven years, God bestowed special favor upon the Jews. At the beginning of that week of years, our Lord, who was then thirty years of age, presented Himself to God as a sacrifice. This presentation was the first feature of the antitypical Atonement Day work, and corresponded to the sacrifice of the bullock in the type. Our Lord began the antitypical sacrifices; as St. Paul says, “Then said he, ‘Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.’ He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.” (Heb. 10:9) Our Lord there began to take away the type and to establish the antitype. It was necessary not only to begin the work with the antitypical bullock, but to complete it and take His place as the antitypical Moses, so to speak. This He did not accomplish until after His death on the cross.
Many other features of that antitypical Atonement Day work are not yet completed. It was a part of the atonement for the High Priest to offer the Lord’s goat and to take its blood into the Most Holy and to sprinkle it there. It was also a part of the Atonement Day work for him to come out and confess the sins of the people on the scape-goat, and a still further part for him to bless the people. During our Lord’s ministry, He fulfilled various features of the types. At Calvary His work of sacrificing Himself was finished, and the Divine acceptance of that sacrifice was manifested.
The Prophet’s statement that in the midst of the week Messiah would cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease implies that our Lord would there terminate the efficacy of the typical work for Israel as a people, and that they were rejected from Divine favor at the time that they crucified Him. A few days before His death, our Lord had said, “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.” (Matt. 23:38) This rejection seems to have been symbolized when the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, an indication of a breaking down, rather than of an opening up.
This rejection of the Jewish nation does not indicate the end of their Law Covenant. To the Church of Christ, who have been given the privilege of understanding the deep things of the Spirit of God, it appears that the efficacy of the typical sacrifices, which were offered year by year continually ceased at the death of our Lord; and that since that time, as a nation they have had no Divine favor; but that the only ones who have had favor since then are those who have come out of Moses into Christ. The typical sacrifices continued until the time when Christ died, for the reason that Jesus Himself was under the Law, a part of which He fulfilled, and no feature of which can pass away until all has been fulfilled (Matt. 5:17,18).
After our Lord’s ascension, it was possible for greater work to be done than ever before. Under the Lord’s blessing, thousands of Jews were gathered into the Gospel garner within comparatively a few days. The work of our Lord was cut short nationally, but it increased the opportunity of the Jews individually. There were only five hundred Jews who believed on Jesus until after His death, when there were thousands added to the number (1 Cor. 15:6; Acts 2:41). During the three and a half years following our Lord’s death, God did not recognize the Gentiles, for He had said that He would give seventy weeks to the Jews, and therefore He allowed no favor to go to the Gentiles until that period had expired.
After the expiration of the seventy weeks of years set apart for Israel, the Gospel began to go to the Gentiles, to gather from among them “a people for his name.” (Acts 15:13-18) During this Gospel Age, the antitypical Atonement work has been progressing. Our Lord has already offered the antitypical bullock in the sacrifice of Himself. Since Pentecost, He has been offering the antitypical goat - the Church class. This work has been in progress for more than eighteen hundred years. As soon as it shall have been finished, the blood will be taken into the Most Holy, to sprinkle the Mercy-Seat and to “make atonement for all the people,” as in the type.
THE COVENANT OF SACRIFICE
The Abrahamic Covenant, as it was given to Abraham, is a complete covenant, whose provisions include all mankind; for it reads, “In thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” (Gen. 12:3; 28:14) Its promise is to the seed: (1) Jesus; (2) The Christ, Head and Body; (3) the earthly seed through them. Its provisions extend to all who have the faith of Abraham. The promise of God was that a blessing shall come to all the families of the earth. This promise was confirmed by an oath on the part of God, so that by two immutable things - the oath and the promise of God - the heirs of the promise may be sure of its fulfillment (Heb. 6:13-18).
The seed of Abraham, which is to bless all the families of the earth, was intended to be a spiritual seed. Since Abraham and his posterity were natural men, the only way by which they could become the spiritual seed was by the sacrifice of the earthly nature and the attaining of the spirit nature. The opportunity for making this sacrifice was first given to our Lord Jesus. By carrying out His covenant of sacrifice, He became the Head of the seed which is to bring the blessing (Psa. 50:5; 40:7-10).
During the Gospel Age, Jehovah has been selecting the members of this spiritual seed, that they may lay down their human life and earthly interests in order to attain to the spirit nature. The selection of this seed has been the work of the Gospel Age. Soon the seed will be all gathered; then the work of blessing the natural seed will begin, and through them the blessing will subsequently spread to all nations, as these shall accept the Divine favor.
The Church will always be in covenant relationship with the Father. The fact that He calls them sons implies that they are bound to Him (John 1:12). Every father is in covenant relationship with his children, and they with him. Every child has a responsibility to its father, and the father to the child. The fact that God has received the Lord Jesus and the Church as sons (Heb. 3:6) signifies that they are in covenant relationship with Him. St. Paul says, “We are the children of God; and if children, then heirs.” (Rom. 8:16,17) His statement not only implies that relationship, but proves it; for the sons have a right to the things which the father has provided for his children.
All who hunger and thirst after righteousness (Matt. 5:6), all whose souls long for God ”as the hart pants after the water brook” (Psa. 42:1), and who, have found Him, have consecrated themselves to Him - these have received the anointing of the Holy Spirit, witnessing with their spirit that they are sons of God (Rom. 8:14-16). As anointed sons these can discover in themselves the worthy traits of true sons - loyalty, zeal, energy, discretion, faithfulness, obedience.
There are, however, conditions attached to this covenant of sacrifice; there are certain requirements which must be fulfilled. All must become partakers of the sufferings of Christ, if they would participate with Him in the glories to follow. But the arrangements for keeping our contract are complete in Christ. Therefore if we put ourselves under His care, this covenant will be everlasting with us, and we shall have “the sure mercies of David.” (Isa. 55:3)
COVENANT RELATIONSHIP TO BE RE-ESTABLISHED WITH HUMANITY
In Jeremiah 31:31-33, we read, “I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah… after those days.” The expression, “those days,” we understand to refer to Israel’s “seven times” of punishment, promised by the Lord for the violation of their Law Covenant. This New Covenant is to be made with Israel alone; for God never purposed to make a covenant with the Gentiles. The New Covenant will properly be so called because it will take the place of the old Law Covenant, which God made with Israel and which was broken by them. After Israel shall have been fully established under their New Covenant, all other nations will be privileged to come into this relationship after the manner set forth in the Law. All the world will eventually be blessed thereby.
The New Covenant, then, is to be made with such of Abraham’s descendants as are able to receive it. Since the people are not worthy to enter directly into relationship with God, that covenant must have a mediator. The Mediator is the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Church, His Body. The Scriptures indicate that the Mediator is nearly completed.
The Word of God distinguishes between a covenant and its mediator. A covenant does not go into operation until after it has been fully mediated. When Moses mediated the Law Covenant, he first offered sacrifices; then he took the blood of the animals and, dividing it into two parts, sprinkled both the Book of the Law and the people (Ex. 24:4-8; Heb. 9:9-24). After he had done this, the Law Covenant was in force; and it will continue until superseded by its antitype, the New Covenant.
The Mediator of the New Covenant will be The Christ. For more than eighteen hundred years, our Lord has been offering the great antitypical sacrifices of Himself and His Church. As soon as He will have finished making application of the blood, he will have made satisfaction for the sins of the world. This act will correspond to the sprinkling of the book by Moses. Divine Justice having accepted this arrangement, the Mediator will antitypically sprinkle the people; that is, He will show them how to come back into full accord with God.
The New covenant will begin to swallow up the old Law Covenant as soon as the Kingdom is established. The Scriptures indicate that the first to receive it will be the Ancient Worthies. Raised from the dead to human perfection, they will form the nucleus of the new arrangement in the earth. Next in order will be those who have been known as Christians, but who have not been consecrated to death, and Jews who have been consecrated to the Law, but who have been blinded. Gradually the light will come to all who love righteousness and hate iniquity. Sprinkled from all sympathy with evil, they will make their declaration of full loyalty to God. In due time this light will spread to all kindreds and tongues and nations.
CHANGE OF HEART IN THE MILLENNIUM
The Prophet Jeremiah, speaking of the New Covenant (31:34), says, “They shall know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” The sins and iniquities of Israel will no longer be remembered against them. Christ will have appeared on their behalf and made satisfaction for their sins. They will then be as free from original sin as the Gospel Church is. The atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ is the sufficiency for all (1 John 2:2).
The Prophet Ezekiel tells us that during the next Age the hearts of mankind will be changed. He says, “Thus saith the Lord God… A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.” (Ezek. 36:22-27) This change of heart is entirely aside from the making of the New Covenant. It will take a thousand years to remove the stoniness out of the hearts of mankind and to make them stand without a mediator. Those who receive everlasting life must attain this condition; for all of God’s creatures who would live forever must keep His Law perfectly.
During the Millennium, God will not recognize the people, because of their imperfection, their weakness; but all of their dealings will be through the Mediator, until they shall have been brought up to perfection. At the end of the thousand years, they will be delivered up to the Father, unblamable before Him (1 Cor. 15:24). God will then receive them as sons, heirs of the earthly blessings which He has provided for mankind - the things given to Adam. The very moment when the merit of Christ is applied for the world is the same moment when they will be turned over to the Mediator. Then they will be in covenant relationship with God, but only through the Mediator, until they shall have reached human perfection and shall enter into His relationship directly with the Father.
The New Covenant will continue everlastingly; and as it is proper to say that Moses mediated the Law Covenant, so we may say that Christ will mediate the New Covenant. But it would not be proper to say that Moses is now the mediator of the Law Covenant; for a covenant does not need a mediator after it has been mediated. So the New Covenant will need no Mediator after the thousand years. But the title “Mediator” may belong to Christ to all eternity, just as one who has been a judge, ever after receives the title of “Judge.”
At the end of the thousand years, when the Messiah will have accomplished His work of Restitution, He will cease to act as Mediator. But the covenant will continue to stand; for if that relationship with God were to be removed from the people, they would have no blessing of everlasting life. That blessing depends upon covenant relationship with God. Under the favorable conditions of the New Covenant, whosoever will may have an opportunity to become the children of The Christ, the seed of Abraham.
At the conclusion of the thousand years, the willing and the obedient receive the commendation, “Well done,” and will be accepted as fit for the condition of everlasting life on the human plane. Those who prove to be unworthy of life will be destroyed in the Second Death.
(Pastor Russell, Reprints 5162-5164, January 15, 1913)
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NINE HAPPY HEADLINES
“Good news in our region remains annoyingly slim, which underscores just how amazing the finale to 2004 is turning out to be, as I write.
“We have been inundated with a flood of nonstop headlines that cannot fail to bring smiles to the faces of even our most hard-boiled Jeremiahs.
“A tour d’horizon reveals no less than nine most uncommon rays of sunshine, all coming rapid-fire.
“Ding dong the witch is dead: Clearly, his lingering obstructionist presence spelled doom for anything remotely connected to ending violence or reopening the peace process. The minute he headed south, however, new windows of opportunity opened.
“I don’t know if it will happen overnight; communism evaporated after the Berlin Wall fell. But both parties are seriously expecting a scenario fueled more by talking than by suicide bomb attacks.
“More President Bush: The vast majority of Israelis reflectively welcome four more years of Bush, Condi, Cheney, the whole neocon crew. Ironically, the only scar from November’s elections was the incongruity of American Jews voting overwhelmingly against the candidate whom most of us view as the best friend Israel has had in the White House for decades.
“The fact that Israel is apparently not such a priority for American Jewish voters is frankly troubling. Thank God for 50 million Evangelical voters, who see things a little more clearly than our own folks.
“Egypt: Suddenly, after all these years, a huge warming of relations. Mubarak apparently wants to play a role again in defining the peace.
“He is pressuring the Palestinians to behave, lobbying moderate Arab regimes and suddenly he sent Israeli Druse prisoner Azzam Azzam home to Israel after eight years in a Cairo prison on trumped-up charges.
“Iraq: Saddam’s fall has been followed by a can of worms, which may obscure the benefits in many American eyes, but Israelis enjoy a different perspective: No more Saddam means no more Scuds, no more strategic threat, and with no price paid by IDF engagement or losses, if one is permitted to say the indelicate.
“Whatever ultimately happens there, we have a well-deserved respite, be it short-range or more permanent.
“Syria: Washington’s guardians of shock and awe are keeping a trained eye on Syria, and that is a very good thing. Damascus knows that ‘regime change’ is not simply a hollow threat under a Bush White House.
“Syria has made cooing noises these 60 days about rekindling bilateral peace negotiations with Israel. Serious or not, they are on the ropes and under scrutiny. The U.S. and France have even joined to press the regime to withdraw from Lebanon. The increasing isolation of Damascus can’t be bad for us.
“Libya: Our old nemesis Muammar Gaddafi’s transmogrification into a kinder gentler nutcase dictator began earlier in 2004, but it continues. He is now reaching out to Libyan Jewish expatriates. Though Gaddafi is not a serious player, we do sleep just a little more soundly knowing all this ice-breaking is underway.
“Iran: We have one sole implacable existential threat these days, and it’s the prospect of a nuclear Iran. This issue is by far the most urgent potentially volatile challenge of all those mentioned herein - yet even here, there’s a tad of sunshine at the end of the tunnel. Serious folks in Washington and Europe claim that the combination of mullahs with nukes is unacceptable.
“Longer range, the people are clearly moving seriously toward throwing the regime out and restoring some kind of democracy, which would automatically ameliorate the problem. My bet: it may take five years, and it is a race in time, but I believe regime change will happen even in Iran.
“Icing on the cake: What better, more profoundly uplifting way to conclude 2004 than yet another chartered flight of North American newcomers on December 28, courtesy of Nefesh B’Nefesh, with the Jewish Agency for Israel?
“More Americans and Canadians (about 3,000) came on aliya in 2004 than during any year since 1983!
“Did I promise nine happy headlines? Almost forgot. It’s raining…hard…outside my window at this very minute.
“The Water level in the Kinneret, the country’s main reservoir, is looking just fine, and its still 2004!”
(Charley I. Levine, a Jerusalem-based public affairs consultant, The Jerusalem Post, January 7, 2005)
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WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES CALLS FOR “BOYCOTT” OF ISRAEL
“PARIS - The world Council of Churches, the main body uniting non-Catholic Christians, encouraged members on February 22nd to sell off investments in companies profiting from Israeli control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Council’s Central Committee, meeting in Geneva, praised the United States Presbyterian Church for examining the possibility of divestment in Israel similar to the financial boycott it used against the apartheid regime in South Africa two decades ago.
“The Presbyterian threat, which echoes divestment debates at some U.S. universities, has set off a wave of dissent in the church and angered American Jewish leaders.
“But the Central Committee, in a document approved at a weeklong meeting at WCC headquarters that ended on February 22nd, highlighted the divestment push and encouraged other member churches to consider doing the same.
“It was not clear how many of the WCCs 342 Protestant and Orthodox member churches would heed the call. ‘Multinational corporations have been involved in the demolition of Palestinian homes,’ the WCC statement said. Human rights groups have urged Caterpillar Inc., the world’s largest maker of construction machinery, to stop selling bulldozers to the Israel Defense Forces, saying they are used to wreck innocent Palestinians’ homes in Gaza and the West Bank.
“Jewish groups are clearly upset. ‘Instead of talking about peace, we’re talking about Presbyterians,’ David Elcott, director of inter-religious affairs for the American Jewish Committee, said this month. ‘They have deflected conversation in a very negative way.’”
(By Haaretz and Rueters Services, February 22, 2005, reported by Bridges For Peace)
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ACRE CRUSADER CITY UNCOVERED
“In a major historical find, sections of an 800-year old Crusader city have been uncovered beneath the Old City of Acre. They will be opened to the public in June. The 12th-13th century quarter, which housed the compound of the Knights of St. John, was discovered virtually intact underneath the Ottoman citadel, which was later used by the British as a prison.
“The areas includes a large chapel, streets and shops from the Crusader period, and further on, a dining hall and an immense courtyard, which had been previously uncovered. Some of the original plaster on the wall in the quarter still has the engravings that the Crusaders made when they came to the Holy Land, including drawings of the boats they sailed on from Europe.
“Only 5% of the total Crusader city has been uncovered so far, with excavations still ongoing. Tens of thousands of people lived in the Crusader city for nearly 200 years before it was conquered by the Mamelukes in 1291, who left it forlorn for a couple of centuries.
“A total of NIS 40 million [U.S. 9.2 million] has been invested in the four-year excavation and renewal project.”
(By Etgar Leikovits, Jerusalem Post, February 25, 2005)
BACKING THE BIBLE
“Just published evidence from a U.S.-directed archeological dig in Jordan further authenticates the Bible’s descriptions of the existence of the ancient nation of Edom during the eras of King David and his son, King Solomon.
“The full results of the 2002 excavation by a team of international scholars at the site of Khirbet en-Nahas (‘ruins of copper’ in Arabic), are reported in the current issue of the British journal, Antiquity, published last week.
“The new study, headed by the archeology Prof. Thomas Levy of University of California, San Diego, contradicts much contemporary scholarship claiming - on the basis of no physical evidence - that no Edomite state existed before the eighth century BCE. Until the new discovery, many scholars said the Bible’s numerous references to ancient Israel’s interactions with Edom could not be valid.
“While previous investigations in Edom had been carried out in the Jordanian highland zone and put the rise of the Edomite kingdom during the eighth to sixth centuries BCE, the new archeological data from modern-day Jordan presents strong evidence for the involvement of Edom with neighboring ancient Israel as described in the Bible and indicates the existence of the biblical nation of Edom at least as early as the 10th century BCE when David and Solomon lived.
“The Edomite lowlands, home to a large copper ore zone, had been ignored by archeologist because of the logistical difficulties of working in the extremely dry and hot region. But with an anthropological perspective and using high precision and radio carbon dating, the team showed evidence of two major phases of copper production - during the 12th to 11th centuries BCE and the 10th to ninth centuries BCE.
“The archeologists dug up evidence of construction of massive fortifications and industrial scale metal production activities, as well as more than 100 building complexes, Egyptian scarabs of a ‘walking sphinx’ and a hunting scene provide additional evidence of metal-working activities at the site in the period around 1200 to 900 BCE. The researchers note in the journal article that these results ‘push back the beginnings of Edom 300 hundred years earlier than the current scholarly consensus and show the presence of complex societies, perhaps a kingdom, much earlier than previously assumed.’
“Excavations at Khirbet en-Nahas were part of the Jabal Hamrat Fidan Project and carried out under the auspices of the UC-San Diego and Jordan’s antiquities department. Working under Levy, the international team included Russell Adams (of McMaster University of Canada): Mohammed Najjar (of Jordan) and Prof. Andreas Hauptmann (of the German Mining Museum). The digs were funded by grants from the C. Paul Johnson Family Charitable Foundation and the university.”
(The Jerusalem Post, March 4, 2005)
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THAT SERVANT
For Him whom we truly adore
Upon that lonely bed
A saint hath found his conflicts o’er,
And laid his dying head!
No gloom of fear hath glazed his eye,
For though loud noises roll
The Aurora of Eternity
Was rising on his soul.
And who so humbly walked as he,
A conqueror in the field,
Wreathing the rose of victory
Around his radiant shield?
Champion of Jesus! on that breast
From whence thy fervor flowed,
Thou hast obtained eternal rest -
The bosom of thy God!