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The eye seems a singular symbol for the Spirit, but it may be used as suggesting the swiftest and subtlest way in which the influences of a human spirit pass out into the external universe. The teaching of this emblem, then, is: "He, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received the promise of the Father, sheds forth this." The whole fulness of spiritual Divine power is in the hand of Christ to impart to the world.

I. THE "SLAIN LAMB" IS THE LORD AND GIVER OF THE SPIRIT. He "hath the seven spirits of God." Whatsoever there is, in Deity, of spirit and power; whatsoever of swift flashing energy; whatsoever of gentleness and grace; whatsoever of holiness and splendour; all inheres in the Man Christ Jesus; unto whom even in His earthly lowliness and humiliation, the Spirit was not given by measure, but unto whom in the loftiness of His heavenly life that Spirit is given in yet more wondrous fashion than in His humiliation. But it is not as the recipient, but as the bestower of the Spirit, that He comes before us in the great words of my text. All that He has of God He has that He may give. Whatsoever is His is ours; we share in His fulness and we possess His grace.

II. Look at the representation here given of THE INFINITE VARIETY OF GIFTS WHICH CHRIST BESTOWS, The number "seven," of course, at once suggests the idea of perfection and completeness. So that the thought emerges of the endless, boundless manifoldness and wonderful diversity of the operations of this great life-spirit that streams from Jesus Christ. Think of the number of designations by which that Spirit is described in the New Testament. In regard to all that belongs to intellectual life, He is "the Spirit of wisdom" and of "illumination in the knowledge of Christ," He is "the Spirit of truth." In regard to all that belongs to the spiritual life, "He is the Spirit of holiness," the "Spirit of liberty"; the Spirit of self-control, or, as rendered in our Bible, "of a sound mind"; the "Spirit of love." In regard to all that belongs to the practical life, "He is the Spirit of counsel and of might"; the "Spirit of power." In regard to all that belongs to the religious life, "He is the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba! Father!" the "Spirit of grace and of supplication"; the "Spirit of life." So, over the whole round of man's capacity and nature, all his intellectual, moral, practical and religious being, there are gifts which fit each side and each part of it. Whatsoever a man needs, that he will find in the infinite variety of the spiritual help and strength which the Lamb slain is ready to give. It is like the old fable of the manna, which the Rabbis tell us tasted upon each lip precisely what each man chose. So this nourishment from above becomes to every man what each man requires. Water will take the shape of any vessel into which you choose to pour it; the Spirit of God assumes the form that is imposed upon it by our weaknesses and needs.

III. THE UNBROKEN CONTINUITY OF THE GIFTS which the slain Lamb has to give. The word "sent" might be rendered "being sent," expressive of a continual impartation. Ah! God's Spirit is not given once in a way and then stops. It is given, not by fits and starts. There are variations in our receptiveness; there are no variations in its steady efflux. Does the sun shine at different rates? Are its beams cut off sometimes, or poured out with less energy, or is it only the position of the earth that makes the difference between the summer and the winter, the day and the night, whilst the great central orb is raying out at the same rate all through the murky darkness, all through the frosty days? And so the gifts of Jesus Christ pour out from Him at a uniform continuous rate, with no breaks in the golden beams, with no pauses in the continual flow.

IV. THE UNIVERSAL DIFFUSION OF THESE GIFTS. "Seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth." The words are a quotation from a remarkable prophecy in the book of Zechariah, which speaks about the "seven eyes of God," running "to and fro over all the earth." There are no limitations of these gifts to any one race or nation as there were in the old times, nor any limitations either to a democracy. "On My servants and on My handmaidens will I pour out of My Spirit." In olden days the mountain tops were touched with the rays, and all the lowly valleys lay deep in the shadow and the darkness. Now the risen sunshine pours down into the deepest clefts, and no heart so poor, no illiterate so ignorant but that it may receive the full sunshine of that Spirit. Every Christian man and woman is inspired, not to be a teacher of infallible truth, but inspired in the true and deep sense that in them dwells the Spirit of Jesus Christ. All of us, weak, sinful, as we are, ignorant and bewildered often, may possess that Divine life to live in our hearts. Only remember it is the slain Lamb that gives the Spirit. And unless we are looking to that Lamb, slain as our hope and confidence, we shall not receive it.

(A. Maclaren, D. D.)

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KJV: And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.

WEB: I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, having seven horns, and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth.