thought in the Old Testament
even more tenderly suggestive of that individualising care and strong
sufficient love than the emblem of my text. We read that when, in the
exercise of his official functions, the high priest passed into the
Tabernacle he wore, upon his _breast_, near the seat of personality, and
the home of love--the names of the tribes graven, and that the same
names were written on his shoulders, as if guiding the exercise of his
power. So we may think of ourselves as lying near the beatings of His
heart, and as individually the objects of the work of His almighty arm.
Nor is this all. For there is yet another, and still tenderer,
application of the figure, when we read of the Divine voice as saying to
Israel, 'I have graven thee on the palms of My hands.' The name of each
who loves and trusts and serves is written there; printed deep in the
flesh of the Sovereign Christ. We bear in our bodies the marks, the
_stigmata_ that tell whose slaves we are--'the marks of the Lord Jesus.'
And He bears in His body the marks that tell who His servants are.

IV. Lastly, there is suggested by this text the idea of future entrance
into the land of the living.

The metaphor occurs three times in the final book of Scripture, the book
which deals with the future and with the last things. And it occurs in
all these instances in very remarkable connection. First we read, in
the highly imaginative picture of the final judgment, that when the
thrones are set two books are opened, one the Book of Life, the other
the book in which are written the deeds of men, and that by these two
books men are judged. There is a judgment by conduct. There is also a
judgment by the Book of Life. That is to say, the question at last comes
to be, 'Is this man's name written in that book?' Is he a citizen of the
kingdom, and therefore capable of entering into it? Has he the life from
Christ in his heart? Or, in other words, the question is, first, has the
man who stands at the bar faith in Jesus Christ; and, second, has he
proved that his faith is genuine and real by the course of his earthly
conduct? These are the books from which the judgment is made.

Further, we read, in that blessed vision which stands at the far-off end
of all the knowledge of the future which is given to humanity, the
vision of the City of God 'that came down from heaven as a bride adorned
for her husband,' that only they enter in there who are 'written in the
Lamb's Boo