Revelation 19:9

Revelation 19:9

I. A distinction seems to be drawn between "the marriage" and the "marriage supper" of the Lamb. "The marriage" takes place now; "the marriage supper" is to follow by-and-by. "The marriage" is that act of union between each soul and Christ when the soul, drawn by God's love and made willing by His grace, is linked to, and made one with, the mystical body of Christ; "the marriage supper" will be the public celebration and the glorious consummation of that union. Therefore there are differences. "The marriage" here, blessed and beautiful as it is, has its trouble and its separation. The soul has to leave, not without pain, what once was very dear to it. And some fear cannot help to mingle even where love prevails. But at the "marriage supper" it will be all union, and no parting; and there will be no room for the shadow of a fear there.

II. "The marriage" here is an individual act. One by one, each as God chooses, one here and another there, souls give themselves to Christ. "The marriage supper" will be the solemnity of the whole Church's collective partnership, one and another, with Jesus. "The marriage" here at least, so it seems sometimes to the poor Christian's heart is capable of being dissolved again; but when the "marriage supper" comes, who will ever think of breaking the tie? In "the marriage" here, real and perfect though it be, there are intervals of distance, seasons when there is no union between the soul and Him it loves; but in the "marriage supper" the felt and visible presence of Christ will be for ever and for ever. In "the marriage" here there were many who, though truly and indissolubly joined to Christ, yet often seemed to others and seemed to themselves not to be His. The world did not acknowledge them; the Church did not acknowledge them; they did not acknowledge their own selves. But at "the" marriage supper" there will be no misunderstandings. Christ will have proclaimed His own, and the whole universe will confess Him and His saints.

J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons,1874, p. 289.