NUMBERS are relative.
He who from a country-hamlet for the first time comes to a town, is surprised at its size, while he in turn who comes from a town to a great city, sees his town vanish from sight. And so it goes on step by step. What is Amsterdam as compared with Paris? And what is Paris by the side of London?
So it is with respect to meetings, with gatherings, with the massing-together of people. A full village church or a full market-place at a village festival is the largest crowd of people, which a villager can vividly imagine. The square at Amsterdam full of people, when the Queen appears on the balcony of the palace, is already ten times more. Yet what is our full square by the side of the hundred thousands which London brings together at one parade?
And far more strongly evident is this relative character of all numbers, when you compare life here with life above.
This is already true with respect to the firmament, for who counts the dots in the milky way? And it shows itself more clearly still, when you consider the numbers of heavenly reckoning.
On Patmos, as St. John tells us, he heard God’s angels before the Throne sing with a great voice the song of the Lamb. And when he looked up he heard that the number of angels was: ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands.
Now 10,000 × 10,000 is already one hundred million. Thus 10,000 × 10,000s is at least two or three hundred million. And to this is added the “thousand times thousands,” i.e., still several millions more.
It certainly will not do, to give these numbers as a sum in statistical lists. In Revelation, for instance, numbers express an idea of magnitudes, no results of measurement. They merely tend, in symbolism of numbers to give you an idea of quantities and of the constituents of those quantities.
The every time recurring 144,000 is not taken by actual count, but express the 12 × 12 × 1000, in which 12 again is equal to 3 × 4, a product in which three expresses the holy, four the cosmical; and this multiplication is again multiplied by 1,000, i.e., by 10 to the third power to express the idea of perfection of all living creatures of earth who by grace appear blessed before God.
Also the more than 2 or 300 million of angels does not refer to statistics, but tends to give you an idea of the interminable multitudes of heavenly hosts and of their interminable ordination.
As we say, that “we can walk over people’s heads,” or that it is “black with people,” so here in the Apocalypse this mighty, round number indicates, that the angelic host as it were undulates in endless and interminable length and breadth and depth around the Throne of God.
AND yet, notwithstanding that this multitude of heavenly hosts was so great that it defies all comparison with human gatherings here on earth, the holy apostle tells us, that he heard this innumerable multitude sing, heard them sing with one great voice, and that he could overhear what they sang.
So indeed he tells us. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the Throne, saying with a great voice: “The Lamb that is slain, is worthy to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and thanksgiving!” (Rev. 5, 11, 12).
And now we well know, that here we have to do with a vision, and that this also can not be taken as a literal description of reality thus revealing itself, yet so much is clear, that in this way an idea was imparted to the apostle of the mode of existence in the heavens.
What now is implied in that idea?
Even this. That in the world above with God groups of living beings of such mighty proportions attain unto fellowship and unity of utterance, that everything that we observe regarding this on earth in churches, at meetings or on public squares, by the side of this simply sinks away into nothingness.
The shortness of our vision, the limited scope of our voice, and the boundary of distinct hearing are bound with us to so small a distance, that fellowship and unity of utterance for one single million persons among us is absolutely unthinkable. Four persons taken to the square meter, which is already very crowded, it would take a square of 250,000 square meters, to accommodate them all. And if this were thinkable, how could you ever bring such a multitude to clear, distinct utterance of voice and song?
And yet on Patmos St. John receives the idea, the impression of a multitude, which is several hundred times greater.
For this reason in Revelation every time again the indication of that great voice.
THAT “great voice” is expressed another time by speaking of “a voice as when a lion roareth” (10, 3), “a voice as of thunder” (6, 1), or of “a voice of many waters” (14, 2).
Especially this last expression is graphic. For, when the storm is risen, from how far a distance you hear the rushing and the roaring of the great sea, as it lashes shore and dunes with its booming waves. Yet these mighty waves are nothing but collected waterdrops. And so is the voice of that interminable undulating multitude, in which every angel or every blessed one by himself is nothing but one single waterdrop.
Does not all this point to a practice of fellowship above, which very far transcends every limit of our practice of fellowship on earth?
Unimpeded practice of fellowship, by mutual self-expression, does not for the most part extend among us beyond half a hundred persons. In well ordered gatherings it reaches at most the number of half a thousand. And one-sided speaking of one, while others hear, finds its boundary already at ten thousand. Full fellowship of life in conversation on the other hand is for by far the most of us limited to the very narrow circle of some twenty persons.
Over against this Holy Scripture gives us in every way the impression, that in the world above there are virtually no boundaries to this practice of fellowship, and that of our limitation by reason of distances, not a shadow of evidence is found above.
Of course all this can not be portrayed otherwise than by images borrowed from this life. Other language we do not understand. But when angels receive wings and fly from one end of the heavens to the other, when they blow trumpets with a sound that penetrates all heavens, and when we read of the general assembly in the one Father-house of all just men made perfect, yea, of millions of beings who in unison express themselves in such a way, that not only their voice is heard, but also what they say and sing is understood, all this gives us the impression of a life of fellowship by nothing arrested or limited, of a fellowship of saints such as no one on earth has ever even remotely known or surmised.
OF this rich practice of fellowship the fundamental thought lies in God Himself.
Every one feels and knows that in every place he can practice fellowship with God, and that there is never one moment, when God is not able to hear our prayer. The omnipresence of God is for God’s child no abstraction, but a reality. On one side it is the practice of fellowship in prayer, and on the other side it is the ever-present experience of the nearness of God, when our sins do not banish this from our heart.
Of our Savior altogether the same holds true. Distance never breaks our fellowship of soul with the High Priest in the sanctuary above.
When Holy Scripture shows that among angels also there is a practice of fellowship, which puts all our idea of earthly practice of fellowship in the shade, is it not self-evident of the blessed also to believe, that man, created after the image of God, in his highest consummation, shall be able and called to similar fellowship, no longer bound by narrow limitations?
Even development of life here on earth points very definitely in like direction.
First there was no fellowship among people save through the spoken word, and not only every country, but almost every hamlet and village lived apart.
Then came writing, and at once communication at distances became possible. After writing came the press by which wealth and rapidity of communication was increased tenfold. Steam once more accelerated that same communication. Finally telegraph and telephone rendered communication possible at farthest distances. Even now already the wireless operates, i.e., a means, without wire, to practice fellowship directly through the air. And who shall say what acceleration and simplification all this will yet undergo in the coming century?
What lies in the fundamental idea of man’s creation after God’s image and what Holy Scripture tells of life above, tallies altogether with what development of life here on earth already begins to reveal in ever clearer lines. And so it is not said too strongly, when we believe in a life of fellowship and a mutual practice of communication among the blessed above, which is bound by no limitation, but extends itself throughout the whole Father-house, in all mansions above, and to all the blessed.
DO you fathom the depth of the enrichment of life which this implies?
Life without fellow-creatures is to vegetate. Only by living with others does our own life become life in the full sense of the word.
We are not a collection of grains of sand, but as people we are organically one and bound up with other people. This living together of one communal life is the life of love, and love spreads beams of light, which reflected from the mirror of every blessed soul, multiply themselves a thousand and ten-thousandfold, and only thus pour forth the full splendor of richest and most glorious light.
Already here on earth your heart is richer in the measure in which you share sweet and bitter with others; through the web of their life weave the threads of your own life’s web, and in the intimacy of their utterance of life find food and warmth for your own existence of soul.
And yet, to how few does not this limit itself here on earth! Your intimate circle is already large when it enjoys the cherishing of a two dozen grown persons.
And it is this limitation which once takes an end, to flow out in a full practice of fellowship with all God’s saints.
Even then with difference. The many mansions point to a closer union with those who are one of mind, of disposition, of talent and calling.
But yet, with all together it remains one living together in the one Father-house.
And thereby shall your heart wake up to an energy of love and life of fellowship, such as here had never entered your heart. To a fellowship bound to no place, and to a fellowship limited to no time. A fellowship no more by means, but without means. A fellowship going out from being to being and from heart to heart. And every time when by dying, by the new entering into heaven of one whom God called to come up higher, the company of the just made perfect extends itself, there will also be new gains for you in behalf of the wealth of the life of your heart.
And then only will you understand aright what love is.
Not to stand by the weak and take compassion upon the wretched, for that you will no longer be able to do in heaven.
Misery there has ceased.
No, but a life expressing itself in an endless living together with and inliving in others, and only in the life of love with others discover the wealth and enjoy the wealth, which God was pleased to create in you by giving you a human heart.
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