--Isaiah 54:12
The church is most instructively symbolized by a building erected
by heavenly power, and designed by divine skill. Such a spiritual
house must not be dark, for the Israelites had light in their
dwellings; there must therefore be windows to let the light in and to
allow the inhabitants to gaze abroad. These windows are precious as
agates: the ways in which the church beholds her Lord and heaven, and
spiritual truth in general, are to be had in the highest esteem.
Agates are not the most transparent of gems, they are but semi-
pellucid at the best:
"Our knowledge of that life is small,
Our eye of faith is dim."
Faith is one of these precious agate windows, but alas! it is often
so misty and beclouded, that we see but darkly, and mistake much that
we do see. Yet if we cannot gaze through windows of diamonds and know
even as we are known, it is a glorious thing to behold the altogether
lovely One, even though the glass be hazy as the agate. Experience is
another of these dim but precious windows, yielding to us a subdued
religious light, in which we see the sufferings of the Man of
Sorrows, through our own afflictions. Our weak eyes could not endure
windows of transparent glass to let in the Master's glory, but when
they are dimmed with weeping, the beams of the Sun of Righteousness
are tempered, and shine through the windows of agate with a soft
radiance inexpressibly soothing to tempted souls. Sanctification, as
it conforms us to our Lord, is another agate window. Only as we
become heavenly can we comprehend heavenly things. The pure in heart
see a pure God. Those who are like Jesus see Him as He is. Because we
are so little like Him, the window is but agate; because we are
somewhat like Him, it is agate. We thank God for what we have, and
long for more. When shall we see God and Jesus, and heaven and truth,
face to face?
