Why does our exalted Lord still bear his wounds in glory? Because the wounds of Jesus are his glory! They are his jewels, his sacred ornaments. To the eye of faith, Jesus is beautiful beyond words precisely because he is "white and ruddy"—white with perfect innocence, ruddy with his own blood. We see him as the lily of matchless purity, and as the rose crimsoned with his own gore.

Christ is lovely on Olivet. He is glorious on Tabor. He is beautiful by the sea. But oh! there never was such a matchless Christ as he that did hang upon the cross! There we beheld all his beauties in perfection, all his attributes developed, all his love drawn out, all his character expressed.

Beloved, the wounds of Jesus are far more fair in our eyes than all the splendor and pomp of kings. That crown of thorns? It outshines every imperial diadem that ever sat on a human head. True, he no longer holds a reed for a scepter—but there was a glory in it that never flashed from scepter of gold!

Jesus wears the appearance of a slain Lamb as his court dress! This is the royal attire in which he wooed our souls and redeemed them by his complete atonement. And these are not merely ornaments of Christ: they are the trophies of his love and of his victory. He has divided the spoil with the strong. He has redeemed for himself a great multitude whom no man can number, and these scars are the memorials of the fight.

Ah! if Christ thus loves to retain the thought of his sufferings for his people, how precious should his wounds be to us!

"Behold how every wound of his A precious balm distils, Which heals the scars that sin had made, And cures all mortal ills.

Those wounds are mouths that preach his grace; The ensigns of his love; The seals of our expected bliss In paradise above."