Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/45

Rh ceased and the waves subsided. And in that memorable prayer for his murderers, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," we have the clear outshining of God's own, tender, long-suffering, forgiving and redeeming love. And, added to all this, we have the corroborative testimony of the beloved disciple to whom "a door was opened in heaven;" and who was thus introduced, as it were, into the very presence- chamber of the Almighty, and permitted to view things in the bright blaze of that great splendor which surrounds the Throne. And from this high plane of spiritual observation—seeing, not in the obscure lumen of the natural mind, but in the crystal light of the celestial realms—he ascribes to the Lord Jesus Christ the attributes and prerogatives which belong to no one but the supreme Being. "Unto Him that loved us and hath washed us from our sins in his own blood ... to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever," is the opening ascription in this sublime Apocalypse. Next, the seer beholds Him in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, encircled with a celestial radiance, "his countenance as the sun shineth in his strength;" beaming with love and wisdom all divine, and illumining the churches with his matchless splendor; at the same time declaring Himself "the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, which