Grace in the Generations
IMAGINE, that Prince William the Silent were still alive, and after having founded and delivered the Dutch nation, had happily ruled over them all these centuries, and still ruled them, and was sure, as long as sun and moon endure, to wield the scepter over them,—would not the tie between such a prince and the people founded, saved and made happy by him, far excel every idea of fondness and devotedness.
With Prince William this was not possible. For even if the base crime of Balthasar Gerards had not cut him off early in life, he would long ago have paid his toll to death. Even the first Orange-prince was mortal, and not by him in person, but only through the House that is named after him, could his generation continue in the fatherland.
Israel, on the other hand, has very really dreamed this wondrous dream. What is more, it has received the sure prophecy, that a permanent King would come. And finally, in the fullness of time, at His resurrection from the dead, has begun the Kingship of that Prince of Heaven.
To this Prince it is said in Psalm 45: “Thy throne is for ever and ever.” It is of that King that in the song of Solomon it is sung (Ps. 72): “They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations,” yea, that at the end of the psalm it is said:
“His name shall endure for ever; yea, so long as the sun endures, his name shall be propagated from child unto child” (Dutch version).
A SUPERFICIAL Bible-reader sees nothing special in this.
For, thinks he, also the names of King David and of King Solomon have been handed down now almost thirty centuries from generation to generation. Of Nebuchadnezzar every child knows. Of Cyrus and Alexander every high school boy can tell the story. And though Prince William lives no more among us, his illustrious name shall never be forgotten.
So, it is taken as a something strikingly common, that also the name of the Messiah lives on and on; and the Psalmist said nothing out of the ordinary, when he proclaimed, that His name, so long as the sun endures, shall be propagated from child to child.
But he who speaks thus forgets, that there stands with it: “They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure.” One can hold a deceased prince in thankful remembrance, one can visit his tomb and immortalize the memory of his deeds in the epic; but a deceased prince one cannot fear.
To fear a king takes for granted that he still lives, bears rule, and can still bless you.
And so in Psalm 72 in the days of the Old Covenant this glorious ideal is held before the faithful people, and this rich promise given, that once a King should rise, who would not die, whose Kingdom would have no end, who would not merely rule for a while, but for ever and for aye, and whose name as that of an ever ruling and ever blessing Prince would be honored not merely in one generation, but through long series of generations, and in that sense be propagated from child to child.
The people ever changing, but always over that people the one and selfsame King.
WE still live under the sweet dominion of this of God-anointed King. Age after age went by, sometimes stormed along, but whatever fell and whatever tumbled and changed, His throne stands for ever and aye; He, our King, lives and still reigns.
There is even now no prince on earth comparable with this King, as little in the extensions of His domain, as in the faithfulness wherewith He rules His people, and in affectionate love wherewith that people swear loyalty and fidelity to Him.
At the glory of Jesus’ crown every prince on earth becomes little more than a pseudo-king. So brief, so limited, so little impressive is their power.
This kingship of Jesus stands so high, because it never is anything else than real. Over no one is He King, but He rules in his heart, over his person, over his whole existence, and He lets not go, until every one of His subjects becomes partaker of the full salvation.
WHAT is the course pursued among us, with respect to this propagation of His name from child to child?
Does it mean merely, that you tell your child the story of Jesus? Is this purpose reached, when at school your child sings in chorus with other children: “How sweet the name of Jesus sounds?”
Propagating that name from child to child, is it done, when there is a Christian school, where from generation to generation our children hear of Jesus and sing praises to Him?
When His name lives on the lips, and dominates in the memory, and you do not subscribe to the foolish notion, of “silently bearing witness to Jesus,” is His name then propagated in the sense of Psalm 72, from child to child?
So that nothing else is implied herewith, nothing deeper, nothing more real, than a keeping in mind of the name of Jesus, keeping His name from passing into forgetfulness, and at most a continuous utterance of that name with certain reverence and childlike veneration?
So the Bible-reader would have it, who does not understand the depth of Scripture, and has never been enchanted by its rich ideals.
But God’s people must not rest content with such superficial interpretation.
No, propagated from child to child the name of our King is only, when generation after generation, children, and presently from these children men and women rise, who will glory in that King as their Prince and Lord, and when century upon century, so long as the sun endures, the genuflection of Thomas repeats itself with the worshiping exclamation: My Lord and my God!
Because He is an eternal King, His name cannot be propagated, except by him who wills to be a subject of that King.
And therefore, propagated from child to child the name of this King only is, when from child to child there are not only always those, who hold this name in mind, but also such as confess it, and apply that name to themselves, acknowledging Him the King Who also bears rule over and in their heart.
THIS is the high end, toward which all Christian training must be directed.
In holy Baptism to receive the mark of this King, and, as soon as consciousness wakens, to acquaint the child with that King, as with a King Who bears rule eternally, Who also must bear rule over him, and to Whom likewise every child given us of God in His favor, owes submission as subject, and the tribute of praise and worship.
So only do you come to the generation-idea of faith.
Not merely to the prayer, once saved to enter the palace of that King; and not to commit the child you love to that King; but from the passion of faith not to see in your own generation the subjects of King Jesus die out.
A vain man investigates his pedigree, that perchance he might come across some ancestor of name, some person of fame among men. But a true child of God asks rather and far more, whether among his forebears there were those who were “known of the Lord.” And he feels rich, and overjoyed, when two or three centuries back he comes across a concatenated succession of men and women, who continued faithful in the fear of the Lord.
Not to have an earl or a duke, but a martyr in his old family, is then highest and richest genealogical glory.
So backward in history, but also forward into the future of our generation. Every one in his own.
No one of us knows, how long the Lord will yet tarry, before the Maranatha goes into fulfillment.
But suppose, there will yet ten, yet twenty generations come after us, then this quickens our ambition, to be able to prophesy that children of God, sprung from our loins, as with holy links, will form one great chain, which from now on until our Lord’s return will propagate our generation, not merely in the life of the world, but also among the people of God.
As long as the sun shall endure, from child to child, also among the children, that shall come forth from you.
This you have not in your own power.
But in increasing measure this becomes the content of your most fervent prayer. And because you so learn to pray, you develop a far more glorious efficacy in the bringing up of your children.
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