In its symbolism, and in the whole tenor of its prophecy, this book rests on visions of an earlier date, especially those imparted to Daniel, Ezekiel, and Zechariah. It is vain to attempt an interpretation of it without considerable familiarity with the Old Testament, for, though written in Greek, the book is entirely Hebrew in its images and allusions. There is also a very marked connection with that prophecy of the Master Jesus Christ which he poured into the ears of his disciples on the Mount of Olives. In particular, there is the same scenic or panoramic combination of events remote from each other, but having the same character and intention. Two, if not more, horizons of judgment are in view at once, the nearer a foreshadow of the more distant. D. F. 1. THE Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his 2 servant John: who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, 3 and of all things that he saw. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. 4 JOHN to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are be- 5 fore his throne; and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the firstbegotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us 6 from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Fa- 7 ther; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of 8 the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. 9 I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and 10 for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind 11 me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto 12 Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. And I turned to see the voice that spake 13 with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, 14 and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, 15 as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; and his feet like unto fine brass, as 16 if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and his 17 countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and 18 the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; 19 and have the keys of hell and of death. Write the things which thou hast seen, and the 20 things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter; the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches. EVERY blessing that belongs to our inheritance centers in this great truth, that he "who was dead" is now "alive for evermore." In him newly born, we in him die, rise, and ascend; our life is the reflection of his; if spiritually quickened by him, we too, like him, are even now, and hereafter are destined yet more gloriously to be, "alive for evermore"! "For evermore"! Words easily uttered, but in comprehension vaster than human thought can grasp, till man, entering upon eternity, shall rise to faculties fitted for the scene! "For evermore": for an existence to which the age of the earth, of the starry heavens, of the whole vast universe, is less than a morning dream; for a life which, after the reiteration of millions of centuries, shall begin the endless race with the freshness of infancy, and all the eagerness that welcomes enjoyments ever new. The blight of all our earthly pleasures is decay; our suns have scarcely risen when they set; we have but just persuaded ourselves that we are happy when the happiness is vanished. Pining after something that will endure, we are not to be for ever disappointed. Born for eternity, eternity shall surely be ours. But oh! agony insufferable, if the eternal life of Christ—the Christian's warrant of justification, of sanctity, of happiness—be but the guarantee of a death as everlasting as his everlasting life. The time shall come—we know not when, we know not how—but come it shall, when every deathless spirit shall awake to the world of deathless retribution, and each shall utter for himself the words of Christ: "Behold, I am alive for evermore!" How such words shall be uttered, with the anguish of anticipated woe, with the remembrance of years misspent, warnings despised, opportunities neglected, or with the blessed recollection of faith unwavering amid a hostile world, of tempers meek and loving in despite of all its bitterness, of temptations met and vanquished, of services that, never indeed sufficient, were still sincere—those humble but rapturous recollections that in their fearful joy are bright already with the glory they herald: which shall be our destiny when that long-promised morn shall have dawned, as under God it lies with ourselves, may God in his mercy enable us wisely to resolve! W. A. B. 1. "The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants the things which must come to pass," is a repetition and a particular application of that assurance on which all the gospel rests, "I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me." Even the visible discovery of this fact is not withheld. If Paul, as the great expositor of the present spiritual life, had seen Jesus Christ himself, and received immediately from the Lord that which he had delivered unto men, so John, as the prophet of the things to come, saw the well-remembered form again, surrounded with the symbols of majesty and judgment, and looked upon his countenance, now like the sun shining in his strength, and heard his voice as the sound of many waters. Thus the continuity of the line of prophecy within the canonical books is made as clear as that of the line of doctrine; both commencing in the words of Jesus in the flesh, both perfected by the words of Jesus in the Spirit. T. D. B.—The truth brought into the world by the Son does not consist of new metaphysical ideas about God, but rather of the revelation of his Father character. To make this revelation, it was sufficient for Jesus to reveal himself as the Son; for to prove himself Son is to teach the world what it never would have suspected—that God is essentially a Father. And if he is Father in his inmost essence, and in virtue of an eternal relation, how could his relations to his creatures fail to have also a paternal character? Such is the new explanation which the Son has given of the divine being, and which he alone as the Son could give. It is the initiation of the earth into the deepest secret of heaven: God is from all eternity Father—that is to say, love. Godet. 4. The seven churches of Asia. The "Asia" of the New Testament is not the continent of Asia nor "Asia Minor," but a Roman province which embraced the western part of the peninsula of Asia Minor, and of which Ephesus was the capital. It was a senatorial province, and was governed by a proconsul. Among its many important cities were those of the Seven Churches of the Apocalypse. It included the territory subdivided into Mysia, Lydia, and Caria. It is referred to in Acts 2: 9; 6: 9; 19: 26; and 1 Pet. 1: 1. Note the position of the Seven Churches on map, page 94. B. Grace unto you and peace. This opening salutation may fitly remind us (for in reading the Apocalypse we are often in danger of forgetting it) that the book is an Epistle, that besides containing within its bosom those seven briefer Epistles addressed severally to the Seven Churches in particular, it is itself an Epistle addressed to them as a whole, and as representing in their mystic unity all the Churches, or the Church. By "the seven Spirits" we must understand, not indeed the sevenfold operations of the Holy Ghost, but the Holy Ghost sevenfold in his operations; "that doth his sevenfold gifts impart." He is regarded here not so much in his personal unity as in his manifold energies; just as light, being one, does yet in the prism separate itself into its seven colors; for "there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit" (1 Cor. 12: 4). The manifold gifts, operations, energies of the Holy Ghost are here represented under the number seven, being, as it is, the number of completeness in the Church. We have anticipations of this in the Old Testament. 5. Christ is indeed "the first begotten of the dead," notwithstanding that such raisings from the grave as that of the widow's son, and Jairus's daughter, and Lazarus, and his who revived at the touch of Elisha's bones (2 K. 13: 21), went before. None of them could be truly said to be "begotten from the dead," but rather begotten to die again; for to be born and begotten from the dead includes an everlasting freedom from the power and approach of death. "Unto him that hath loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood." The words are richer still in comfort, when we read, as we ought, "Unto him that loves us," whose love rests evermore on his redeemed. T.—This is the current phraseology of the Scriptures. It is the burden of prophecy. It pervades and vitalizes the whole Levitical ritual. It is the constant teaching of the Redeemer himself. It is the harmonious, joyful testimony of the apostles. It is the sublime song of the redeemed in heaven. All, all concur in declaring that Christ died to redeem his people from the curse of the law, and make them kings and priests unto God his Father. H. A. B. There is no such thing as age in his sacrifice; centuries can not give antiquity to his atonement; time can not wear out its virtues. His blood is as precious now as when it first was shed, and the fountain for sin and uncleanness flows with a stream as full and purifying as when first it was opened. And how? Simply because by his intercession he perpetuates his sacrifice; and his offering, though not repeated on earth, is incessantly presented in heaven. It was enough that he should once die to make atonement, seeing he ever lives to make intercession. He is now carrying on in heaven the very office and work which he commenced when upon earth; and, though there is no visible altar and no literal sacrifice, no endurance of anguish and no shedding of blood, yet still he presents vividly and energetically the marks of his passion, and the effect is the same as though he died daily, and acted over again and again the scene of his tremendous conflict with “the powers of darkness.” E. M. 6. “To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” A fuller doxology, being threefold, occurs 4: 9, 11; and a fuller yet, being fourfold, at 5: 13; and the fullest of all, the sevenfold doxology, at 7: 12. A study of these would serve to remind us of the prominence which the doxological element assumes in the highest worship of the Church, the very subordinate place which it oftentimes takes in ours. We can make our requests known unto God, and this is well, for it is prayer; but to give glory to God, quite apart from anything to be directly gotten by ourselves in return, to thank God for his great glory, this is better, for it is adoration; but, if better, it is rarer as well. T. 7. The book, being entitled the Unveiling of Jesus Christ, opens with this announcement of his appearing: “Behold he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him; and whosoever they were that pierced him; and all tribes of the earth shall wail because of him.” We seem to hear again the words of our Lord in that great prophecy which he pronounced while he sat on the Mount of Olives a day or two before his death—a prophecy which underlies much of the phraseology of this book: “Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Mat. 24: 30). D. F.—Shall wail. These words set forth the despair of the sinful world, of “all the tribes of the earth,” when Christ the Judge shall come to execute judgment on all that obeyed not his gospel, who pierced him with their sins; they describe their remorse and despair, but give no hint of their repentance. The closing words, “Even so, Amen,” are to be taken as God’s own seal and ratification of his own word. T.—The crucifiers of every age and nation shall shrink in horror and dread before the blaze of his advent glory! In that fearful hour, how happy, beyond all that thought can conceive or words declare, for those who, familiar with the cross, can look upon it, not as the symbol of the sorrow and shame they have willingly inflicted, but as the symbol of sufferings in which they were willingly united with their Master, with him crucified, that they may be with him glorified, his blessed associates in the bliss unspeakable of his own immortal kingdom! W. A. B. 9. The kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. Kingdom and patience! as if in Jesus Christ were made compatible authority and suffering, the impassive throne of a monarch and the meek subjection of a cross, the reigning power of a prince and the mild endurance of a lamb. What more striking paradox! And yet in this you have exactly that which is the prime distinction of Christianity. It is a kingdom erected by patience. It reigns in virtue of submission. Its victory and dominion are the fruits of a most peculiar and singular endurance. By this I mean not the reward, but the proper results or effects of endurance. Christ reigns over human souls and in them, erecting there his spiritual kingdom, not by force of will exerted in any way, but through his most sublime passivity in yielding himself to the wrongs and the malice of his adversaries. And with him, in this most remarkable peculiarity, all disciples are called to be partakers; even as the apostle in his exile at Patmos writes: “I John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus.” H. B. Patmos. One of the group called the Sporades, lying twenty-four miles off the coast of Asia Minor, southwest of Ephesus. It is now called Patino, and is about twenty-five miles in circumference, and has only about six hundred inhabitants. D. F.—“I John was,” or rather “became a dweller,” “in the isle that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.” He stood on the heights of Patmos in the center of a world of his own. The island, then probably less inhabited than now, was almost a solitude. “He was in the Spirit,” withdrawn from earthly things, like Moses on Sinai, or Elijah on Carmel. But the view from the topmost peak, or, indeed, from any lofty elevation in the island, unfolds an unusual sweep, such as well became the “Apocalypse,” the “unveiling” of the future to the eyes of the solitary seer. It was “a great and high mountain,” whence he could see things to come. Above, there was always the broad heaven of a Grecian sky; sometimes bright, with its “white cloud,” sometimes torn with “lightnings and thunderings,” and darkened by “great hail,” or cheered with “a rainbow like unto an emerald.” Over the high tops of Icaria, Samos, and Naxos rise the mountains of Asia Minor, among which would lie, to the north, the circle of the Seven Churches to which his addresses were to be sent. Around him stood the mountains and islands of the archipelago—“every mountain and island shall be moved out of their places”; “every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.” When he looked around, above or below, “the sea” would always occupy the foremost place. He saw “the things that are in the heavens and in the earth and in the sea.” The angel was “not to hurt the earth or the sea,” nor “to blow on the earth or on the sea.” “A great mountain,” like that of the volcanic Thera, “as it were burning with fire,” was “to be cast into the sea.” The angel was to stand with “his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth”; “the vial was to be poured out upon the sea”; the voices of heaven were like the sound of the waves beating  Patmos. on the shore, as “the sound of many waters”; “the millstone was cast into the sea”; “the sea was to give up the dead which were in it”; and the time would come when this wall of his imprisonment, which girdled round the desolate island, should have ceased; “there shall be no more sea.” Such was the scene of the Apocalypse, varied, doubtless, by other images drawn from the prophetic books of the older Scriptures, and from the report or the actual sight of the great cities of the earth. We understand the Apocalypse better for having seen Patmos. But we can understand the Gospel and Epistles of John as well in England as in Patmos or Ephesus, or even in his own native Palestine. A. P. S. 10. On the Lord’s day.** Though the name, “the Lord’s day,” probably had here its rise, the thing, the celebration of the first day of the week as that on which the Lord brake the bands of death and became the head of a new creation, was as old as Christianity itself. T.—The Jewish Sabbath was partly of political institution and partly of moral obligation. So far as it was a political appointment, designed to preserve the Jews distinct from other nations, it is abrogated; so far as it was of moral obligation, it remains in force. Our Lord evidently designed to relax the strictness of the observance. Christianity is not a hedge placed round a peculiar people. A slave might enter into the spirit of Christianity, though obliged to work as a slave on the Sabbath; he might be “in the Spirit on the Lord’s day,” though in the mines of Patmos. Cecil. 11. These seven words of warning and encouragement so penetrated to the heart of things that, meeting the needs of these seven Churches, they also met the needs of all others subsisting in similar or nearly similar conditions. Typical and representative Churches, these embodied, one or another of them, I will not say all the great leading aspects of the Church in its faithfulness or its unfaithfulness, but they embodied a great many, the broadest and the oftenest recurring. The seven must in this point of view be regarded as constituting a complex whole, as possessing an ideal completeness. T. 12. What the apostle saw was not seven candlesticks, which are a modern piece of furniture, but seven lamps. There is a distinct reference in this, as in all the symbols of the Apocalypse, to the Old Testament. We know that in the Jewish Temple there stood, as an emblem of Israel’s work in the world, the great seven-branched candlestick burning for ever before the veil and beyond the altar. The difference between the two symbols is as obvious as their resemblance. The ancient lamp had all the seven bowls spring from a single stem. It was a formal unity. The New Testament seer saw not one lamp with seven arms rising from one pillar, but seven distinct lamps—the emblems of a unity which was not formal, but real. They were one in their perfect manifoldness, because of him who walked in the midst. In which difference lies a representation of one great element in the superiority of the Church over Israel, that for the hard material oneness of the separated nation there has come the true spiritual oneness of the Churches of the saints, one not because of any external connection, but, by reason that Christ is in them. The seven-branched lamp lies at the bottom of the Tiber. There let it lie. We have a better thing, in these manifold lights, which stand before the Throne of the New Temple, and blend into one, because lighted from one Source, fed by one Spirit, tended and watched by one Lord. A. M. The Jewish Church was one, for it was the Church of a single people; the Christian Church, that too is one, but it is also many—at once the “Church” and the “Churches.” These may be quite independent of one another, the only bond of union with one another which they absolutely require being that of common dependence on the same head, and derivation of life from the same spirit, and are fitly represented by seven, the number of mystical completeness. In the image itself by which the churches are symbolized there is an eminent fitness. The candlestick, or lampstand, as we must rather conceive it here, is not light, but it is the bearer of light, that which diffuses it, that which holds it forth and causes it to shine throughout the house, being the appointed instrument for this. It is thus with the Church. God’s word, God’s truth, including in this all which he has declared of himself in revealed religion, is light; the Church is the light-bearer, light in the Lord (Eph. 5: 8), not having light of its own, but diffusing that which it receives of him. Each too of the faithful in particular, after he has been illuminated (Heb. 6: 4), is a bearer of the light; “lights in the world, holding forth the word of life” (Phil. 2: 15). 13-16. With the Hebrew symbolism the first necessity is that the symbol should set forth truly and fully the religious idea of which it is intended to be the vehicle. Thus the New Jerusalem “lieth foursquare; the length and the breadth and the height of it are equal” (21: 16). A city, constituting thus a perfect cube, is simply inconceivable to us; but the divine seer did not care that we should conceive it; he was only careful to express the fact that this was a city which should never be moved. In this as in so many other cases, how the idea would appear when it clothed itself in an outward form and shape, whether it could clothe itself in this at all, and, if it could, whether it would find favor and allowance at the bar of taste, as satisfying the conditions of beauty, this was quite a secondary consideration. Nay, we may affirm that this was not a consideration at all; for indeed, with the one exception of the cherubim, there was no intention that the symbol should embody itself outwardly, but rather that it should remain ever and only a purely mental conception, the unembodied sign of an idea;—I may observe, by the way, that no skill of delineation can make the cherubim themselves other than unsightly objects to the eye. Thus in this present description of Christ, sublime and majestic as it is beyond all conception of ours, it is only such so long as we keep it wholly apart from any external embodiment. T.—It was a “mystery” full of voice, full of light; and he who filled it was girt in the robe and golden zone of divine beauty and gracefulness. It was full of voice for teaching, and of light for illumination; and the garment which was girt there was as a vesture of righteousness, zoned with truth. Its voice was as “many waters” for sounding forth, and as “a two-edged sword” for piercing; its light was as a flame of fire for searching, and as the sun in his strength for shedding perfect day; and its garment was as holiness for an enrobing glory, and as truth for a girdle of gracious beauty. Such was the wondrous symbol in its dress: one like unto the son of man, standing in the midst of seven golden candlesticks, and holding in his hand seven shining stars: more glorious in array than words could describe, and more powerful for operation than thought could conceive. What, then, was the symbol in its signification? Not Christ’s flesh and blood commingled and co-united with the bodies and souls of individual Christians, effecting thus a perpetual and living incarnation of himself; but Christ, showing his relation to his light-bearing churches, and to those true ministers whom he upholds with his right hand, and who, as starry lights, catch and cast forth through his churches upon the world his own glorious effulgence of saving truth and life. “The seven stars,” said the interpreting form, in the very idiom of Christ’s native tongue as he spake on earth—“the seven stars are (represent) the angels of the seven churches; and the seven candlesticks are (represent) the seven churches.” This, then, was not Christ incarnate in a darkly incomprehensible symbol; but it was the most gorgeously luminous symbol ever conceived of Christ and his churches; of Christ upholding his true ministers with his right hand; speaking through them his two-edged word of life, in sounds terribly piercing to the sinner, and affectingly solemn to the saint; and casting, through them on the churches, and through the churches on the wide world, the effulgent daylight of his own saving truth. This was “the mystery,” the meaning, of the symbol. It was a mystery, not because it was incomprehensible, but because it was rich in a meaning designed to be understood, and luminously intelligible the moment the word of interpretation was spoken. In this symbolic mystery, Christ sets forth to all ages the relation which he holds to his Church, as one whole, composed of many branches; exhibiting himself as the source and upholder of its ministry, the source and dispenser of its light; its centrally supreme and governing head, directing its movements in the divinely merciful work of slaying sin, and of spreading both the light of truth and the garment of holiness over all the earth. And this relation of Christ to his Church, this agency of Christ through his Church, must become more and more perfectly apprehended and appreciated. His Church must carry less and less of the darkness of superstitious mystery, and more and more of the light of evangelic mystery; till finally, what was represented to the lesser Asia by the mystic circle of the seven golden candlesticks, with their accompanying seven shining stars, shall have widened and thrown its circumference around the globe; becoming thus the one Church of all lands, and, with its numberless stellar angels, making universal the light both of the knowledge and of the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. J. S. S. 13. The beloved Apostle by this “like unto the Son of man” would imply that in this sublime apparition he recognized him whom he had once known on earth, the born of the Virgin Mary; who even then had claimed to be executor of all judgment, because he was the Son of man. 14. His eyes as a flame of fire. The words do not say merely that nothing can escape his searching, penetrative glance; they express the indignation of the Holy One at the discoveries of evil which he thus makes. These “eyes of fire” do not merely look through the hypocrite and the sinner, but consume him, him and his sins together—unless indeed he will suffer them to consume his sins, that so he may live. For indeed in the symbolism of Scripture fire is throughout the expression of the divine anger; and, seeing that nothing moves that anger but sin, of the divine anger against sin. 15. "His feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace." This grand and terrible image sets forth to us Christ in his power to tread down his enemies; at once to tread down and to consume them. T. 16. He it is who holds the stars in his right hand, and walks among the candlesticks. That strong grasp of that mighty hand—for the word in the original conveys more than "holds," it implies a tight and powerful grip—sustains and guards his servants, whose tasks need special grace, and whose position exposes them to special dangers. They may be of good cheer, for none shall pluck them out of his hand. That strengthening and watchful presence moves among his churches, and is active on their behalf. The symbols are but the pictorial equivalent of his own parting promise, "Lo, I am with you always!" A. M. 17. Though John was in the Spirit when he had the vision of Christ, yet it made him fall at his feet as dead; and also turned Daniel's beauty into corruption, it was so glorious and so overweighing a glory that he appeared in. But we shall at the day of our resurrection be so furnished that we shall with the eagle be able to look upon the sun in his strength. We shall then "see him as he is," who now is in the light that no eye hath seen, nor any man can see till that day. Dan. The very majesty of his celestial state, far from forming a ground of separation, seems made the ground of consolation and confidence to his poor disciples; when John sank in lifeless terror before the apparition of his glorified Master, the divine visitant did not abridge the splendors of his presence, but gave the disciple strength to endure them; to allay the shrinking apostle's fears. He did not speak of past humiliation, but of present glory. He did not diminish, but assert, the full magnificence of his claims, and fixed them as the basis of a high and holy trust. "Fear not! I am the First and the Last!" W. A. B.—This prerogative is three times claimed for the Lord Jehovah in Isaiah; and in like manner three times in this Book. It is the expression of absolute Godhead: "I am the first and the last, and beside me there is no God" (Isa. 44:6). He is from eternity to eternity, so that there is no room for any other. All creation comes forth from him, and returns to him again, as from whom and by whom and to whom are all things. T. 18. "I am he that liveth." That word, "liveth," is a word of continuous, perpetual life. It describes the eternal existence which has no beginning and no end; which, considered in its purity and perfectness, has no present and no past, but one eternal and unbroken present—one eternal now. It is the "I am" of the Jehovah who spoke to Moses. "He that liveth" is the Living One; he whose life is the Life complete in itself, and including all other lives within itself. Those years shut in out of the eternities between the birth and the ascension, that resurrection opening the prospect of that life which never was to end—these are the never-failing interpretation to the man who believes in them of the temporal and eternal in his own experience. Christ comes and puts his essential life into our human form. In that form he claims the truest brotherhood with us. He shares our lot. He binds his life with ours so that they can never be separated. What he is, we must be; what we are, he must be for ever. By the cross of love, he, entering into our death, takes us completely into his life. And when he had done all this he rose. Out of his tomb, standing there among human tombs, he comes, and lo, before him there rolls on the unbroken endlessness of being. And not before him alone—before those also whom he had taken so completely to himself. His resurrection makes our resurrection sure. Our earthly life, like his, becomes an episode, a short, special, temporary thing, when it is seen like his against an immortality. P. B. It is the mystery of redemption that establishes a truth so astounding as that man is to live for ever by placing it in a subordinate position to the still more amazing truth of the union of the divine and human natures in the person of the Mediator. Our Lord, in his private conversations with his disciples, avails himself of the stores of tropical expression for the purpose of fixing in their minds the belief of an intimate and indissoluble union between themselves and him. The Author of Immortality, resplendent in his title as "Prince of Life," "the Living One," he who "has life in himself," who is abstractedly "the Life and the Light of Men," and is "alive for evermore"; and "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever"; the possessor of all duration, "whose goings forth have been from everlasting; whose name is Father of Eternity"; he who thus draws to himself all honors as Fountain of Existence, sums up every other assurance, when he tells his followers that, "BECAUSE HE LIVES, THEY SHALL LIVE ALSO," as if formally to pledge his own immortality for theirs; or, as if they might fear extinction, when he, the Lord of Life, should be no more. I. T. 18. "And have the keys of hell and of death." We should read rather "of death and of hell," for so all the best manuscripts and versions have it. In the natural and logical order it is death which peoples hell or hades; it is a king Death who makes possible a kingdom of the dead (6:8; 20:13, 14); for by "hell" or hades this invisible kingdom or domin- ion of the dead is intended, and that in all its extent, not merely in one dark province of it, the region assigned to the lost. All who have thoughtfully compared our version with the original must regret that the one word "hell" covers in it two words so different in meaning as hades and gehenna, the first "Sheol," the gathering-place of all departed souls (Prov. 27: 20), the second the lake of fire of this book (19: 20; 20: 10), the final abode of the lost. All must lament the manifold confusions which out of this have arisen; the practical loss, indeed, among our people of any doctrine about hades at all. The relations of hades to gehenna, and also to paradise, are well put in this extract from Jeremy Taylor: "The word hades signifies indefinitely the state of separation, whether blessed or accursed; it means only 'the invisible place,' whither whoso descends shall be no more seen. Paradisus and gehenna are the distinct states of hades." T.—Hades is the world unseen, which has its door or portal by which men enter into it. Death is the departure from the seen world, which seen world has its door of exit by which men pass out of it. Hence death is called, in two or three passages of Scripture, exodus, or going out. Peter speaks of his exodus, or death; and Moses and Elias, at the Transfiguration, talk with the Lord on the subject of his exodus; a word which our translators have rendered decease. There are many doors or avenues by which men pass out of this life, none of which can be opened except by the key which the risen Son of God holds in his hand. E. M. G. considered, in the time of the apostles, the second city of Asia, Ephesus holding the first rank. One of its early bishops was Polycarp, who had been the disciple of John. Like Ephesus, it was ruined in the Turkish invasion, yet its admirable situation for commerce revived it, and it is now large and opulent. The Apostolic Church in Smyrna seems to have been harassed by the insults of the Jews, the original persecutors, who retained their hostility and even their power long after the fall of their city. Croly. He abolished death; he destroyed him that had the power of death; he was the destruction of the grave; he hath finished sin, and made an end of it; he hath vanquished the curse of the law, nailed it to his cross, triumphed over them upon his cross, and made a show of these things openly. Yea, and even now, as a sign of his triumph and conquest, he is alive from the dead, and hath the keys of death and hell in his own keeping. Bun.—Stand still now in spirit, and think that the door is unclosing for thee, and that the great things of eternity are about to be revealed to thy apprehension. A solemn moment! Flesh and blood thrill with awe and fear, like the apostles at the Transfiguration, as they enter into the cloud. But if thou art a sincere believer and follower of Christ, HE is HERE, and the light of his countenance shall stream in upon thine eye, and the divine music of those words shall break upon thine ear: "I, the Good Shepherd, the Rock of Ages, the Man who drunk to the dregs of the cup of death, I, the Resurrection and the Life, even I have the keys of hell and death." E. M. G. 19. John is commanded to write: the things which he had seen, i. e., the vision given to him of the Son of man; the things which are, i. e., wonders in heaven; and the things which shall be hereafter, i. e., future judgments, defeats, and victories. D. F.—This vision is the natural introduction to all that follows, and indeed defines the main purpose of the whole book, inasmuch as it shows us Christ sustaining, directing, dwelling in his Churches. We are thus led to expect that the remainder of the prophecy shall have the Church of Christ for its chief subject, and that the politics of the world, and the mutations of nations, shall come into view mainly in their bearing upon that. A. M. 1. UNTO the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; 2 I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast 3 found them liars: and hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, 4 and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left 5 thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of 6 his place, except thou repent. But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolai- 7 tanes, which I also hate. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. 8 And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the 9 last, which was dead, and is alive; I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, 10 but are the synagogue of Satan. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. 11 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death. WHAT Christian is there who does not feel pierced through by the words, "I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love"? Sometimes we are uplifted by high-wrought feelings till no service seems too hard, no self-denial too severe; our resolution appears sufficient for a repetition of all previous trials and many besides them. In the warmth and earnestness of our feelings old temptations fall off like a garment, and we are more disposed to wonder that we were ever enslaved than to fear that we shall be enslaved again. Selfishness, impurity, cowardice, falsehood, indolence—these seem impossible thenceforward for ever. And then comes the languor which is almost sure to follow; the return to our ordinary ways and habits; the gathering of old temptations with new ones added; the discovery that these high impulses have not made, after all, any great difference in our character; the want of delight in worship, public or private; the loss of keen sensibility of conscience. Resolutions once made with great fervor seem the fruit of mere excitement. And so we are in danger of being untrue to our first love; because when we come into this world our eyes are not strong enough to pierce below the surface and see the truth of God behind the unreality of things, and our memory is not able to retain the impression of our purer and better moments. We must not allow ourselves to be cast down, nor to despair because our hearts seem colder at one time than at another. The test of the cold heart is the yielding to sin; and, if we are clinging to Him and to his will, we may be quite sure that what we take for coldness of heart is a trial, not a treason. It is not inconstancy to our first love that we are not so passionate as we were, if we have not given our hearts to any other love or swerved from the duties which love imposes. The will does not really lose its strength to obey because the hour for feeling is past and the hour for real obedience has come. The power to serve is still left, though the service no longer seems easy or delightful: and the knowledge to serve remains behind as well as the power. F. T. SEVEN Churches are selected in the province of Asia, where the apostle John, in his later years, wielded a patriarchal influence. These were not all the Churches in the province, but seven are taken to represent the whole visible Church; and such seven, as in their diversities of faithfulness and unfaithfulness, zeal and lethargy, give opportunity for the most various counsels, reproofs, and promises with a view to the profit of the Church in all time coming. D. F.—Here, as everywhere, the word of God and the history of the apostolic Church evince their applicability to all times and circumstances, and their inexhaustible fullness of instruction, warning, and encouragement for all states and stages of religious life. P. S.—What notable contrasts do these seven offer—a Church face to face with danger and death (Smyrna), and a Church at ease, settling down upon its lees (Sardis); a Church with abundant means and loud profession, yet doing little or nothing for the furtherance of the truth (Laodicea), and a Church with little strength and small opportunities, yet accomplishing a mighty work for Christ (Philadelphia); a Church intolerant of doctrinal error, yet too much lacking that love toward its Lord for which nothing else is a substitute (Ephesus), and over against this a Church not careful nor zealous, as it ought to be, for doctrinal purity, but diligent in works and ministries of love (Thyatira); or, to review these same Churches from another point of view, a Church in conflict with heathen libertinism, the sinful freedom of the flesh (Ephesus), and a Church or Churches in conflict with Jewish superstition, the sinful bondage of the spirit (Pergamos, Philadelphia); or, for the indolence of man a more perilous case than either, Churches with no vigorous forms of opposition to the truth in the midst of them, to brace their energies and to cause them, in the act of defending the imperiled truth, to know it better and to love it more (Sardis, Laodicea). These Churches are more or less representative Churches, having been selected because they are so; the great Head of the Church contemplates them for the time being as symbolic of his universal Church, implying as much in that mystic seven, and giving many other indications of the same. The seven Epistles are all constructed precisely on the same model. They every one of them contain: 1. A command in exactly the same form to the seer that he should write to the Angel of the Church. 2. One or more glorious titles which Christ claims for himself, as exalting the dignity of his person, and thus adding weight and authority to the message which he sends; these titles being in almost every case drawn more or less evidently from the attributes ascribed to him, or claimed by him, in the manifestation of himself which has just gone before (1: 4-20). 3. The actual message from Christ to the Angel of the Church, declaring his intimate knowledge of its condition, good, or bad, or mixed, with a summons to steadfastness in the good, to repentance from the evil—all this brought home by the fact that he was walking up and down in the midst of his Churches, in readiness to punish and in readiness to reward. 4. A promise to the faithful, to him that should overcome—the heavenly blessedness being presented under the richest variety of the most attractive and often the most original images. There is not one of these promises which does not look on to, and perhaps first find its full explanation in, some later portion of the book. 5. Finally, the whole is summed up with an exhortation which shall give a universal character to these particular addresses, a summons to every one with a spiritual ear that he should give earnest heed to the things which were indeed spoken to all. In the addresses to the four last Churches the position of 4 and 5 is reversed. . . . It is recorded of the admirable Bengel that it was his wont above all things to recommend the study of these Epistles to youthful ministers of Christ's word and sacraments. And indeed to them they are full of teaching, of the most solemn warning, of the strongest encouragement. 1. Ephesus, the chief city of Ionia, "light of Asia,” as the Ephesians themselves styled it, asserting in this style that primacy for Ephesus which Smyrna and Pergamos disputed with it, had now so far outstripped both its competitors that it was at once the civil and ecclesiastical center of that “Asia” with which we have to do. Wealthy, prosperous, and magnificent, a meeting-place of oriental religions and Greek culture, and famous on many grounds in heathen antiquity, it was most famous of all for the celebrated temple of Diana, one of the seven wonders of the world, about which we read so much, Acts 19 (read pages 135, 136). But Ephesus had better titles of honor than these. It was a city greatly favored of God. Paul labored there during three years; Timothy, Aquila, Priscilla, Apollos, Tychicus, all contributed to build up the Church in that city. And, if we may judge from Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, and from his parting address to the elders of that Church, nowhere did the word of the gospel find a kindlier soil, strike root more deeply, or bear fairer fruits of faith and love. John too had made it the chief seat of his ministry during the closing years of his protracted life; from whence he exercised a wide jurisdiction over the whole of “Asia.” From a church to which so much was given much would be required. Who walketh. The seer had indeed already beheld the Lord “in the midst of the seven candlesticks,” but not “walking” in their midst. The word expresses the unwearied activity of Christ in his Church, moving up and down in the midst of it; beholding the evil and the good; evermore trimming and feeding with oil of grace the golden lamps of the sanctuary. 3. The original as it stands in the best critical editions: “And hast patience, and didst bear for my name’s sake, and hast not grown weary.” The Lord here praises the angel and in him the Church at Ephesus, that he and it had borne the burden and heat of a long day’s toil without fainting or waxing weary. 4. On the question, when the Apocalypse was given, we have a certain amount of implicit evidence here, in this reproach with which the Lord reproaches the Ephesian Angel; such as has its value in confirming the ecclesiastical tradition which places it in the reign of Domitian, as against the more modern view which gives the reign of Nero as the date of the composition of this book. It has been well observed that in Paul’s Epistle to the Church of Ephesus there are no signs, nor even presentments, of this approaching spiritual declension with which the great Searcher of hearts upbraids it here. Writing to no Church does he treat of higher spiritual mysteries. There is no word of blame in the Epistle, no word indicating dissatisfaction with the spiritual condition of his Ephesian converts. He warns them, indeed, in his parting charge given at Miletus, against dangers threatening them at once from within and from without (Acts 20: 29, 30); but no word indicates that they by any fault of theirs were laying themselves open to these. Those who place the Apocalypse in the reign of Nero hardly allow ten years between that condition and this—too brief a period for so vast and lamentable a change. It is inconceivable that there should have been such a letting-go of first love in so brief a time. Place the Apocalypse under Domitian, and thirty years will have elapsed since Paul wrote his Epistle to Ephesus. The outlines of the truth are still preserved; but the truth itself is not for a second gengeneration what it was for the first. The latter has the same watchwords as had the earlier, but they do not rouse as they did once. The virtue which they once had has gone from them. Apparently there is nothing changed; while in fact everything is changed. How often has something of this kind repeated itself in the Church! T. Left thy first love. No evil is more marked among the Christian Churches of this day than precisely the absence of this “spirit of burning.” There is plenty of liberality and effort, there is much interest in religious questions, there is genial tolerance and wide culture, there is a high standard of morality, and, on the whole, a tolerable adherence to it—but there is little love and little fervor. Where is that Spirit which was poured out on Pentecost? Where are the cloven tongues of fire, where the flame which Christ died to light up? Where? The question is not difficult to answer. His promise remains faithful. He does send the Spirit, who is fire. But our sin, our negligence, and our eager absorption with worldly cares, and our withdrawal of mind and heart from the patient contemplation of his truth, have gone far to quench the Spirit. Is it not so? Are our souls on fire with the love of God, aglow with the ardor caught from Christ’s love? A. M.—The real object of the subsequent life, as a struggle of experience, is to make a fixed state of that which was initiated only as a love. It is to convert a heavenly impulse into a heavenly habit. It is to raise the Christian childhood into a Christian manhood—to make the first love a second or completed love; or, what is the same, to fulfill the first love, and give it a pervading fullness in the soul; such that the whole man shall be for ever rested, immovably grounded in it. H. B. 5. “And repent, and do the first works.” Christ does not say “Feel thy first feelings”—that perhaps would have been impossible, and even if possible, might have had but little value in it—but “Do the first works,” such as thou didst in the time of thy first devotedness and zeal. Not the quantity, but the quality, of the works was now other and worse than once it had been. Will remove thy candlestick. The removing of the candlestick from a place implies the entire departure of Christ’s grace, of his Church with all its blessings, from that spot, with the transfer of it to another; for it is removal of the candlestick, not extinction of the candle, which is threatened here—judgment for some, but that very judgment the occasion of mercy for others. And so it has proved. The candlestick has been removed, but the candle has not been quenched; and what the East has lost the West has gained. How awful for Ephesus the fulfillment of the threat has been every modern traveler who has visited the ruins of that once famous city has borne witness. T. Forgetfulness makes us as if things had never been; and so takes away from the soul one great means of stay, support, and encouragement. When choice David was dejected, the remembrance of the hill Hermon was his stay; when he was to go out against Goliath, the remembrance of the lion and the bear was his support; so when those that have had the power of the things of God upon them can think of this when they are withdrawn, it will have some kind of operation upon the soul. And therefore you shall find that the recovering of a backslider usually begins at the remembrance of former things. "Remember from whence thou art fallen, and repent and do thy first works." Bun. 6. "But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate." Very beautiful is the tenderness of the Lord in thus bringing forward a second time some good thing which he had found at Ephesus. 7. "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches." These words recur in all the Epistles; with only this difference, that in the former three they occur before, in the latter four after, the final promise. That in every case the words usher in, or commend, truths of the deepest concernment to all, we gather from a comparison of the passages, all of them of deepest significance, where the same summons to attention recurs (Mat. 11:15; 13:9, 43; Mark 7:16; Rev. 13:9); so that Irving has perfect right when he affirms, "This form always is used of radical, and as it were generative, truths, great principles, most precious prom- "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." It is deeply interesting and instructive to observe how in this, and probably in every other case, the character of the promise corresponds to the character of the faithfulness displayed. They who have abstained from the idol meats, from the sinful dainties of the flesh and world, shall, in return, "eat of the tree of life"; or, as it is in the Epistle to Pergamos, "of the hidden manna" (2: 17). They who have not feared those who can kill the body only, who have given, where need was, their bodies to the flame, shall not be hurt by the second death (2: 11). They whom the world has not vanquished shall have dominion over the world (2: 26, 27). They who keep their garments here undefiled shall be clad in the white and shining garments of immortality there (3: 4, 5). They who overcome Jewish pretensions (and the earnest warnings of the Epistle to the Hebrews show us that this for some was not done without the hardest struggle) shall be made free, not of an earthly but of a heavenly Jerusalem (3: 12). The only Church in which any difficulty occurs in tracing the correlation between the form of the victory and the form of the reward is the last. Paradise. We may trace the word through an ascending scale of meanings. From any garden of delight, which is its first meaning, it comes to be predominantly applied to the garden of Eden, then to the resting-place (in the invisible world) of separate souls in joy and felicity, and lastly, to the very heaven itself; and we see eminently in it what we see indeed in so many words, how revealed religion assumes them into her service, and makes them vehicles of far higher truth than any which they knew at first, transforming and transfiguring them, as in this case, from glory to glory. 8. The next in order to Ephesus of the Seven Churches is Smyrna; the next not only in the spiritual order here, but in the natural as well, lying as it  Smyrna. ises, most deep fetches from the secrets of God, being as it were eyes of truth, seeds and kernels of knowledge." These words proclaim to us that they are matters of weightiest concernment to the whole Church of God, which Christ is uttering here. does a little to the north of that city. Smyrna was one of the fairest and noblest cities of Ionia. This Church must have been founded at a very early date, though there is no mention of it either in the Acts or the Epistles of Paul. T. —Smyrna was 9. These words constitute a very beautiful parenthesis, declaring as they do the judgment of Heaven concerning this Church of Smyrna as contradistinguished from the judgment of earth. Men saw nothing there save the poverty, but he who sees not as man seeth saw the true riches which this seeming poverty concealed, which indeed the poverty, rightly interpreted, was; even as he too often sees the real poverty which may lie behind the show of riches; for there are both poor rich men and rich poor men in his sight. The synagogue of Satan. A hard saying, a terrible designation on the lips of him who uses not such words at random, but one which they, once the chosen people of the Lord, had wrought with all their might to deserve. Nothing else indeed was possible for them, if they would not be his people indeed; they could not be as the heathen, merely non-Christian, they must be anti-Christian. The measure of their former nearness to God was the measure of their present distance from him. As nothing is accidental in this book, so it is worth remarking that, as we have here “the synagogue of Satan,” so presently, “the throne of Satan” (2 : 13), and then lastly, “the depths of Satan” (2 : 24); “the synagogue of Satan” representing the Jewish anantagonism to the Church, “the throne of Satan” the heathen, and “the depths of Satan” the heretical. 10. “Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer.” The great Captain of our salvation never keeps back or conceals what those who faithfully witness for him may have to bear for his name’s sake; never entices recruits into his service, or seeks to retain them under his banner by the promise that they shall find all things easy and pleasant there. He here announces that bonds, and tribulation, and death itself are before as many as at Smyrna shall continue faithful to the end. But for all this they are not to fear. Presently he will declare to them why they should not fear. T.—“Be faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” We are to be faithful unto death, this day, and every day. We are to live a life of entire consecration; crucified unto the world and the world unto us. And if we have sufficient faith to let him day by day and in all things dispose of us, take what he will, give what he will, send where he will, we need not envy those who literally suffered martyrdom for his name’s sake. For us, too, there is laid up a crown of life. G. B.—When eternal life is promised to faith, or love, or hope, it is upon supposal that those graces, being planted in the heart, shall finally prosper. He that is faithful to the death shall inherit the crown of life. It is love that never fails that shall enter into heaven. “It is hope firm unto the end” that shall be accomplished in a glorious fruition. Bates. 11. This “second death,” setting forth as it does the death in life of the lost, as contrasted with the life in death of the saved, is a phrase peculiar to the Apocalypse. But, though the word is not on the lips of the Lord during his earthly life, he does not shrink from proclaiming the fearful thing. T. 12. AND to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath 13 the sharp sword with two edges; I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan 14 dwelleth. But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumblingblock before the children of 15 Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. So hast thou also 16 them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent; or else I will 17 come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches: To him that over- cometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it. 18. And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, 19 who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass; I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last 20 to be more than the first. Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce 21 my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her 22 space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of 23 their deeds. And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you 24 according to your works. But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I 25 will put upon you none other burden. But that which ye have already, hold fast till I 26 come. And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give 27 power over nations: And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter 28 shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father. And I will give him the 29 morning star. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. THE secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and is felt by dwelling with God, by thinking of God more than by talking of him. To each of his servants he giveth “a white stone, and in the stone a new name is written, which no man knoweth save he that receiveth it.” F. W. R.—He that overcometh—every victorious soul prevailing by faith and by righteousness in the long and patient battle of life—shall have secret satisfactions springing up in his heart, known only between himself and his Lord. They will not consist in outward applauses, in visible successes, in any worldly compensations whatever. The chief of them all will be the silent assurances of his personal affection who is the purest, highest, holiest. Faith must dwell in her own sanctuary, see by her own light, feed on her own secret and immortal manna, be content with her own joy, cling to the white stone with the ineffable name, and wait for her spiritual justification and victory. F. D. H. And I will give him the morning star. In the last chapter of the Book we read, I Jesus am the root and offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. The words before us are, therefore, I will give myself to him. But myself especially in one character; as the light of life; as the light which springs up in the morning after a long night of gloom and storm; as the joy and comfort of the weary watcher, the compensation for long waiting, and the prize of long struggling. It is not wholly unlike the words of Peter with reference to the prophetic word: Whereunto ye do well if ye give heed, as to a lamp giving light in a murky place, until day dawn and the day-star arise in your hearts. The promise is that that day shall dawn, that that day-star shall at last rise upon our hearts. V. 12. Pergamos.** Although of high antiquity, its greatness, splendor, and importance did not date very far back. It only attained these under the successors of Alexander; of whom one made Pergamos the capital of his kingdom—the same kingdom which a later of his dynasty, Attalus III., bequeathed to the Romans. It was famous for its immense library, collected in rivalry with that of Alexandria; our “parchment” (pergamenum) deriving its name from thence; for splendid temples of Zeus, of Athene, and of Apollo; but most of all for the worship of Æsculapius, the remains of whose magnificent temple outside the walls of the city still remain. T. “The two-edged, the sharp sword.”—We read of this sword in the first chapter and also in the Epistle to the Hebrews. The word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and it is a discerner of the thoughts and intents. This sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, proceeds out of the mouth of Christ. 13. Where the throne of Satan is.** A very fearful description, and indicating a very merciful recognition on the part of Christ of the difficulties and of the temptations of his people. In this case he was able to testify that difficulties and temptations, of an outward kind at least, had not overcome their constancy. They had held fast what they had been taught of Christ. 14. But what the fires of martyrdom could not do, a more secret and insidious snare might effect. They who could brave martyrdom for Christ can not always resist an enemy in their own camp— some bosom sin may do what intimidation and persecution have failed to effect. Listen, then. But I have against thee a few things. How serious a beginning! Which of us can hear unmoved when Christ says, I have against thee a few things? Thou hast there, in Pergamos, men holding the teaching of Balaam, who taught to Balak how to throw a stumblingblock before the sons of Israel—namely, both to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication. That strange mixture of a man, as Balaam has been called but too truly, a man who heard the words of God and saw the vision of the Almighty,  Pergamos. yet whose heart went after covetousness, and made a fatal compromise between the service of God and the service of Mammon; when he found that he was not allowed to curse Israel, and thus to possess himself of the promised reward in one way, suggested to Balak a more subtle but far more potent spell, in the form of a temptation to Israel through the lusts of the flesh. The iniquities described in the 25th chapter of the Book of Numbers, following immediately upon the unsuccessful visit of Balaam in which cursing itself had been supernaturally turned into blessing, are expressly ascribed in a later chapter of that book (ch. 31) to the secret agency of Balaam. 15. There is no occasion for distinguishing here between the doctrine of the Nicolaitans and the doctrine of Balaam. The Nicolaitans were persons who talked loudly of the liberty of Christ, and used that liberty for an occasion to the flesh. They were among those described in the Epistle of Jude as ungodly men turning the grace of God into lasciviousness. V. 17. To eat of the hidden manna. The seeing of Christ as he is, and through this beatific vision the being made like to him, is identical with this eating of the hidden manna; which shall, as it were, be then brought forth from the sanctuary, the holy of holies of God's immediate presence, where it was withdrawn from sight so long, that all may partake of it; the glory of Christ, now shrouded and concealed, being then revealed at once to his people and in them. 18. Thyatira, a city of no first-rate dignity, was a Macedonian colony; and it may be looked at as a slight and unintentional confirmation, in a minute particular, of the veracity of the Acts, that Lydia, a purple-seller of Thyatira, is met exactly in the Macedonian city of Philippi, this being precisely what was likely to happen from the close and frequent intercourse maintained between a mother city and its daughter colonies. From this Lydia, whose heart the Lord had opened to attend to the things spoken of Paul, the Church at Thyatira may have taken its beginnings. She who had gone forth for a while, to buy and sell and get gain, when she returned home may have brought home with her far richer merchandise than any she had looked to obtain. 19. "And the last to be more than the first." The faithful in Thyatira were growing and increasing in this service of love, this patience of faith; herein satisfying the desire of him, who evermore desires for his people that they should abound more and more in all good things. 20. The whole condition of things at Thyatira was exactly the reverse of what it was at Ephesus: there much zeal for the maintenance of sound doctrine, but little love, and as a consequence, no doubt, few ministrations of love; here the activity of faith and love, but insufficient zeal for the maintenance of godly discipline and doctrine, a patience of error even where there was not a participation in it. Jezebel. A comparison of this verse with vs. 14-16 leaves no doubt that the Jezebelites, and Balaamites, and Nicolaitans, with secondary differences no doubt, were yet substantially the same: all libertine sects, dis-  Thyatira. claiming the obligations of the moral law; all starting with a denial that Jesus Christ was come in the flesh, and that in the flesh therefore men were to be holy; all alike false spiritualists, whose high-flying pretensions did not hinder them from ending in the foulest fleshly sins; or which rather were themselves the means of entangling them therein. 21. I gave her space to repent, and she repented not.** The fact that punishment does not at once overtake sinners is constantly misunderstood by them as an evidence that it never will overtake them (Eccl. 8: 11; Isa. 26: 10; Ps. 26: 11); that God does not see, or, seeing, does not care to avenge. Christ opens out here another aspect under which this delay in the divine revenges may be regarded. The very time during which ungodly men are heaping up for themselves greater wrath against the day of wrath, was a time lent them for repentance (Rom. 2: 4; 2 Pet. 3: 9), if only they would have understood the object and the meaning of it. 25. "But that which ye have already hold fast till I come." It is on this condition that he will impose on them no additional burden. What they have of sound doctrine, of holy living, this they must hold fast, must so grasp it that none shall wrest it from them, till the day when the Lord shall come, and bring this long and painful struggle for the maintenance of his truth to an end. Ever and ever in Scripture, not the day of death, but the day of the Lord Jesus, is put as the term of all conflict. 26. "To him will I give power over the nations." The royalties of Christ shall by reflection and communication be the royalties also of his Church. They shall reign; but only because Christ reigns, and because he is pleased to share his dignity with them. 28. Thus does he who is "fairer than the children of men" claim all that is fairest and loveliest in creation as the faint shadow and image of his perfections. When Christ promises that he will give to his faithful ones the morning star, he promises that he will give to them himself, that he will impart to them his own glory and a share in his own royal dominion; for the star is evermore the symbol of royalty, being therefore linked with the scepter (Num. 24: 17). All the glory of the world shall end in being the glory of the Church, if only this abide faithful to its Lord. T. 1. AND unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that 2 thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are 3 ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon 4 thee. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and 5 they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, 6 but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. 7 And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and 8 shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and 9 hast not denied my name. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship 10 before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all 11 the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast 12 which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which 13 cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. 14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; these things saith the Amen, 15 the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that 16 thou art neither cold nor hot; I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art 17 lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that 18 thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with 19 eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous there- 20 fore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and 21 open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set 22 down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. CHRIST approaches the door of the heart, and says, when there is no ear to listen, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." In the hour of thought, in the depth of night, in the shadow of trial, in the agony of remorse, he makes the soul feel that it is alone with himself. Ker.—The thought of a Divine Person, our Lord and our God, knocking for admittance; coming to us divested of his terrors, and pleading with us as a suppliant; this is the meaning of everything which befalls us, this the object of every pang of remorse, of every chastisement for sin, of every disappointment of a heart's wish, of every dispensation of an afflicting Providence, of every pain and sorrow, of every sickness and care, of every loss and woe, that Christ may make his knock heard; that the owner of the mansion may hear at last that calm patient ceaseless sound, and bestir himself to let the stranger in. V. 1. Sardis was the ancient seat of the Lydian kings, and memorable as the city of Crœsus. It was, like all the leading cities of Asia, magnificent, intellectual, and profligate. It perished in the general decay of Asia Minor. The crime imputed to the surely saw. T.—The dead thing that has a name to live is deadly; it deals in death; it assimilates all around to itself; it testifies powerfully against vital religion by the exhibition of a lifeless religion. If the light in you be darkness, how great that darkness! How mightily grew Sardis! how large the place it occupies in the ecclesiastical history of the last eighteen centuries! how baneful its influence upon the other Churches, so that they had almost to hide their diminished heads; and how largely is it represented at the present day upon the earth! Men know our name; Christ knows our works. G. B. It is a very instructive fact, that everywhere else, in the Epistles to all the Churches save only to this and to Laodicea, there is mention of some burden to be borne, of a conflict either with foes within  Ruins of Sardis. Church of Sardis is inactivity in the preservation and diffusion of the faith. Its punishment is appropriate. It shall be taken by surprise. Croly. He who hath the seven Spirits of God. The same expression occurs in the first chapter. When the Spirit of God is thus described in a sevenfold character, it is designed, no doubt, to express his diffusion (as we call it) through the universal Church, the manifold gifts and graces by which he pervades all the congregations of Christ's people everywhere. And here we are reminded that wherever the Holy Spirit acts, he acts as the Spirit of Jesus; it is he who has the seven Spirits of God. V. A name that thou livest. The fact that Sardis should have had this name and fame of life is very startling, and may summon each and all to an earnest heart-searching. There would be nothing nearly so startling if Sardis had been counted by the Churches round about as a Church fallen into lethargy and hastening to death. But there is no appearance of the kind. Sardis had a name that she lived, was well spoken of, regarded, we may well believe, as a model Church, can therefore have been by no means wanting in the outer manifestations of spiritual life; while yet all these shows of life did but conceal the realities of death; so he, before whose eyes of fire no falsehood can endure, too the Church or without, or with both. Only in these two nothing of the kind occurs. The exceptions are very significant. There is no need to assume that the Church at Sardis had openly coalesced and joined hands with the heathen world; this would in those days have been impossible; nor yet that it had renounced the appearance of opposition to the world. But the two tacitly understood one another. The world could endure it, because it too was a world. T. 2. If watching were absent, work would become formal and dead. The labor of the hands, as we all feel, degenerates quickly into barren routine, if there be not a constant effort to keep the heart fresh. Duty can never live long separate from truth, Christian service from Christ. There must be oil in the lamp if it is to burn. It is watching unto prayer that brings in this divine life, that quickens the powers, and makes them rise up for new and higher work. The special danger of our age is that we may lose perception of the real soul and end of all our labor in the multiplied machinery that carries it on. Our very Christian activities will lead to decline and death if spiritual life is not growing within, in proportion to them, if we are not realizing more strongly our own individual spiritual wants, living more in the presence of eternity, and remembering that admonition which stands connected with Christ—“Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die.” Ker.—God wills that with all due regret for what we have lost, we do not forget what we still have. Let us concentrate all the elements of life which are scattered in the midst of us. Let us unite our efforts, our prayers. Let us ask life for the community, that life which we want, and which doubtless comes only by individuals to the community; but which is reflected from the community to individuals. Life in the Spirit, love in the Spirit, the Spirit himself, that is truth in truth itself; life in life, eternity in love, the Spirit, that is Jesus Christ within us. This we must conquer on our knees, this we must urgently beg, this energetically will. A. V. 3. “Prize now”—this is what the warning word of a gracious Lord would say—“that which thou didst once prize at so high a rate, which came to thee so evidently as a gift from God, accompanied with the Holy Ghost from heaven; and repent thee of all the coldness and heartlessness with which thou hast learned to regard it.” I will come on thee as a thief. The Lord takes up and repeats here his own words, twice spoken, with slight variations, in the days of his ministry on earth; words which must have profoundly impressed themselves on those who heard them, and on the early Church in general, as is evidenced from the frequent references to them in other parts of the New Testament. It is the stealthiness of Christ’s advent, and thus his coming upon the secure sinner when least he is looked for, which is the point of the comparison. 4. Here are many promises in one. The promise of life, for only the living walk, the dead are still; of liberty, for the free walk, and not the fast bound; of beauty, for the grace and dignity of long garments only appear to the full when the person wearing them is in motion. And all this has its corresponding truth in the kingdom of heaven. God’s saints and servants here in this world of grace, and no doubt also in that world of glory, are best seen and most to be admired when they are engaged in active services of love. And such they shall have. They shall walk with their Lord, shall be glorified together with him; his servants shall serve him. And why? “for they are worthy.” There are those who “are worthy” according to the rules which free grace has laid down, although there are none according to those which strict justice might have laid down; and God is “faithful” in that having set forth these conditions of grace he will observe and abide by them. T.—“They shall walk with him in white; they shall follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.” It is true that there will be a great difference in many things. The Jerusalem above, golden and glorious, with the temple where they serve him day and night, shall be somesomething else than that where he endured the contradiction of sinners against himself. The goodly land of Canaan, flowing with milk and honey, could have no glory at its best compared with the better country when that promise is fulfilled—“Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty; they shall behold the land that is very far off.” Ker. 5. He that conquereth. Not he who has been without sin, not he who has never fallen. Not these; but they rather who have had a hard fight for it with self and sin, with world and flesh and devil, separately now, and now combined; who fell often, but ever rose again; were often defeated, but never vanquished; were often struck down, but only upon their knees; and, by the help of prayer and faith and patience, were made conquerors at last through the grace of him that loved them. These, having confessed Christ below, shall be confessed by him as his before his Father and before his angels. V. But I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. Christ had spoken when on earth of confessing those who confessed him before his Father in heaven and before the angels. That “in heaven” is of course omitted now, for there is no longer any contrast between the Father in heaven and the Son on earth; but the two confessions, which were separated before, appear united now; and in general we may observe of this Epistle that, in great part, it is woven together of sayings which the Lord had already uttered once or oftener in the days during which he pitched his tent among men; he now setting his seal from heaven upon his words uttered on earth. T. 7. Philadelphia (brotherly love). A city of the province of Lydia, in Asia Minor, about seventy miles east of Smyrna. It contains a population of about 15,000, one twelfth of whom are nominal Christians. This church was highly commended, more than any of the seven, and while her sister cities have fallen into decay, she still survives with the remains of her Christian temples and worship. Gibbon says of her: “Among the Greek colonies and churches of Asia, Philadelphia is still erect—a column in a scene of ruins.” A tall column still graces those ruins, so that this church appears like a symbolic realization of the 12th verse. Croly. 10. “Because thou has kept my word, therefore in return I will keep thee.” The promise does not imply that the Philadelphian church should be exempted from persecutions which should come on all other portions of the Church. It is a better promise than this; and one which, of course, they share with all who are faithful as they are—to be kept in temptation, not to be exempted from temptation. 11. Behold, I come quickly. This announcement of the speedy coming of the Lord, the ever-recurring key-note of this book, is sometimes used as a word of fear for those who are abusing the Master's absence, careless and secure as those for whom no day of reckoning should ever arrive; but sometimes as a word of infinite comfort for those with difficulty and painfulness hold- Church, him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God. V. The name of the city of my God. He that hath the name of this city written upon him is hereby declared free of it. This heavenly city which hath the foundations, and for which Abraham looked, the "continuing city," is but referred to here; the full and magnificent description of it is reserved as the fitting close of the book; and not of this book only, but of the whole Bible. It goes by many and glorious names in Scripture. "That great city, the holy Jerusalem," John calls it, claiming for it this title of "holy," which the earthly Jerusalem once possessed, but which it had forfeited for ever. "Jerusalem which is above," Paul calls it, while elsewhere for it is "the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem."  Philadelphia. ing their ground; he that should bring the long contest at once to an end; who should at once turn the scale, and for ever, in favor of righteousness and truth, is even at the door. Such a word of comfort is this announcement here: "Yet a little while, and thy patience shall have its full reward; only in the interval, and till I come, hold that fast which thou hast." That which Philadelphia "had" we have just seen—zeal, patience, with little means accomplishing no little work. T. 12. Those whom the Lamb has redeemed are the fittest to worship him. While they speak of his power to save as none others can, and sing of his grace and love as none but they can sing of them, they are living proofs of the might of that power and the riches of that grace and love. The mere presence of a redeemed sinner in heaven is a nobler setting forth of Jehovah's glory than any words could be, than all the songs of all the angels. "Him that overcometh," says our Lord, "will I make a pillar," a trophy, a monumental column, "in the temple of my God." C. B.—It is a little striking, as a mere coincidence, that travelers describe, among the few ruins of Philadelphia at this day, four strong marble pillars standing in one spot, which once supported the dome of a church, and on the sides of these pillars inscriptions. It is added, One solitary pillar of high antiquity has been often noticed, as reminding beholders of the remarkable words in the Apocalyptic message to the Philadelphian I can not leave this Epistle, so full of precious promises to a Church which, having little strength, had yet held fast the word of Christ's patience, without citing a remarkable passage from Gibbon (Decline and Fall, c. lxiv.), in which he writes like one who almost believes that the threatenings and promises of God did fulfill themselves in history: "In the loss of Ephesus the Christians deplored the fall of the first angel, the extinction of the first candlestick, of the Revelation; the desolation is complete; and the temple of Diana or the church of Mary will equally elude the search of the curious traveler. The circus and three stately theatres of Laodicea are now peopled with wolves and foxes; Sardis is reduced to a miserable village; the God of Mahomet, without a rival or a son, is invoked in the mosques of Thyatira and Pergamus, and the populousness of Smyrna is supported by the foreign trade of the Franks and Armenians. Philadelphia alone has been saved by prophecy, or courage. At a distance from the sea, forgotten by the emperors, encompassed on all sides by the Turks, her valiant citizens defended their religion and freedom above fourscore years, and at length capitulated with the proudest of the Ottomans. Among the Greek colonies and Churches of Asia, Philadelphia is still erect—a column in a scene of ruins—a pleasing example that the paths of honor and safety may sometimes be the same." T. 14. Laodicea, on the Lycus, was a city in Southern Phrygia, between Philadelphia and Colosse. In Roman times it was a foremost city among those of the second rank in Asia Minor. T.—All has perished now. He who removed the candlestick of Ephesus has rejected Laodicea out of his mouth. The fragments of aqueducts and theatres spread over a vast extent of country tell of the former magnificence of this city. Modern travelers speak of its present state as one of blank dreariness. "Nothing can exceed," says one of these, "the desolation and melancholy appearance of the site of Laodicea; no picturesque features in the nature of the ground on which it stands relieve the dull uniformity of its undulating and barren hills; and with few exceptions, its gray and widely scattered ruins possess no architectural merit to attract the attention of the traveler. Yet it is impossible to view them without interest, when we consider what Laodicea once was, and how it is connected with the early history of Christianity." It is indeed in that connection that its name still lives among us. V. The state of things in the Seven Churches marks evidently a period considerably later than that of Paul's Epistles addressed to the same parts. The germs of error apparent in those Epistles had expanded into definite sects (Rev. 2 : 6, 15); the first ardor of some churches had cooled (Rev. 2 : 4, 5; 3 : 2), while that of others had further kindled (2 : 19). The days of the martyrdom of Antipas, Christ's servant, are referred to (2 : 13) as certainly not recent. Again, Laodicea is described (3 : 17) as wealthy and proud. Now that city was destroyed by an earthquake between the sixth and tenth years of Nero, and recovered by her own means, unassisted by the state. This would take some years to accomplish, and still more time would be required to bring  Ruins of Laodicea. about such a state of careless ease as is here described. A. Beginning of the creation of God. Not he whom God created the first, but he who was the fountain-source of all the creation of God, by whom God created all things (John 1 : 1-3; Col. 1 : 15, 18); even as elsewhere in this book Christ appears as the author of creation. 15,16. Best understood by regarding the "cold" here as one hitherto untouched by the powers of grace. There is always hope of such an one, that, when he does come under those powers, he may become a zealous and earnest Christian. But the "lukewarm" is one who has tasted of the good gift and of the powers of the world to come, who has been a subject of divine grace, but in whom that grace has failed to kindle more than the feeblest spark. 17. "And knowest not that thou art the wretched and the miserable one, and poor, and blind, and naked." The Laodicean angel and Church were walking in a vain show and imagination of their own righteousness, their own advances in spiritual insight and knowledge. 18. There is a certain irony, but the irony of divine love, in the words. He who might have commanded, prefers rather to counsel. To the merchants and factors of this wealthy mercantile city he addresses himself in their own dialect. Christ here invites to dealings with himself. He has gold of so fine a standard that none will reject it. The wools of Laodicea, of a raven blackness, were famous throughout the world. He has raiment of dazzling white for as many as will receive it at his hands. There were ointments for which many of the Asiatic cities, perhaps Laodicea among the number, were famous; but he, as he will presently announce, has eyesalve more precious than them all. Would it not be wise to transact their chief business with him? What things does the Lord name, which when the man has made his own, he shall be no longer "poor, and blind, and naked"? They are three. And first, as he is "poor"—"gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich.” A comparison with 1 Pet. 1 : 7, teaches us that by this “goid” we must understand faith; for faith being a gift of God, must therefore be bought of Christ; and such faith as would stand the test, would endure in the furnace of affliction. Then should he be rich indeed. Secondly, as he is “naked,” “Buy of me,” says the Lord, “white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed. We should understand by this raiment not merely the righteousness of Christ imparted, but also that righteousness imputed; for both are needful, the one as needful as the other, if the shame of our nakedness is not to appear; it is the being “found in him” with all which this implies and involves. And then, lastly, “anoint thine eye with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.” The eye for which this salve is needed is, of course, the spiritual eye, that eye of the conscience by which spiritual things are discerned and appreciated. The beginning of all true amendment is to see ourselves as we are, in our misery, our guilt, our shame; and the ability to do this is the first consequence of the anointing with that eyesalve which the Lord here invites this angel to purchase of him. The Spirit convinces of sin, and by this “eyesalve” we must understand the illuminating grace of the Holy Ghost, which at once shows to us God, and in God and in his light ourselves. 19. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.** He, the great Master-builder, squares and polishes with many strokes of the chisel and the hammer the stones which shall find a place at last in the walls of the heavenly Jerusalem. In this “as many” lies the same emphasis as in the “every son” of Heb. 12 : 6. All whom He loves are included in the same discipline of correction, are made sooner or later to be able to say, “Thy loving correction shall make me great” (Ps. 18 : 35). Others may be let alone (Ps. 73 : 5, 12 ; Isa. 1 : 5); but not they. Not a few, if their prosperity lasts a little longer than that of others, fancy that they are to be exceptions to this rule. But it is never so. They can only be excepted from the discipline through being excepted from the sonship. T. 20. When we read the gracious words of the Saviour in the gospel, we might well think that divine condescension could go no further. There, he bids us to come to him, to pray for pardon and not faint, to knock at the door of mercy, to strive for entrance at the strait gate, promising us certain and full salvation, if we thus, with sincere earnestness, endeavor after eternal life; and, surely, they, who will not seek him, deserve to perish. But here, he takes the very means to win our love which he requires of us to win his. He comes nigh to us, stands knocking at our hearts, calling upon us to open the door and admit him, entreating leave to enter that he may have fellowship with us, and we with him. The last vestige of excuse is taken away, the last shadow of doubt should pass from our minds. We need no longer seek for him, he has found us. The question is no longer, Will he hear our prayer? but, Shall we hear his? Not, Will he open the door of heaven to us? but, Shall we keep our hearts closed against him? His readiness to save is assured; it is now for us to decide whether we will be saved or not. Bethune.—Christ indeed knocks, claims admittance as to his own; so lifts up his voice that it may be heard, in one sense must be heard; but he does not break open the door, or force an entrance by violence. There is a sense in which every man is lord of the house of his own heart; it is his fortress; he must open the gates of it, and unless he does so, Christ can not enter. And, as a necessary complement of this power to open, there belongs also to man the mournful prerogative and privilege of refusing to open: he may keep the door shut even to the end; he may thus continue to the last blindly at strife with his own blessedness; a miserable conqueror, who conquers to his own everlasting loss and defeat. T. I will come in to him. His presence is promised, and with it the light, and comfort, and bliss, and glory of it. Of these the heart can not hold much, and the little it can hold it is not always in a frame to enjoy; but oh to have Christ in the heart, to have the King of glory making our unworthy souls his dwelling place, living, abiding, acting in them—whether he reveal his presence, or cloud at seasons the glory of it—who does not say, “This indeed is blessedness? I have my sorrows, but with Christ within me, I have still within me a fountain of amazing joy.” C. B. 21. “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne.” A magnificent variation of Christ’s words spoken in the days of his flesh: “The glory which thou gavest me, I have given them. Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am.” Wonderful indeed is this promise, which, being the last and the crowning, is also the highest and most glorious of all. Step by step they have advanced, till a height is reached than which no higher can be conceived. And more wonderful still, if we consider to whom this promise is here addressed. He whom Christ threatened just now to reject with loathing out of his mouth, is offered a place with him on his throne. But indeed so it is; the highest place is within reach of the lowest; the faintest spark of grace may be fanned into the mightiest flame of divine love. T.—What combatant would not be satisfied if he were promised the lowest place of honor among the conquerors? But nothing less than the highest of all, the place of honor, not on the foot- stool, but in the center of the throne; in truth, only in such a loving heart as that of God could such a promise originate, and an eternity will be required by slow degrees to comprehend its import! Then open the door wide, so that nothing bars entrance within. And, “overcome!” The crown is a thousandfold worthy of the struggle, and he who holds it forth stands with us! Van O. My Father’s throne. Here are two thrones mentioned. My throne, saith Christ; this is the condition of glorified saints who sit with Christ in his throne; but my Father’s (i. e., God’s) throne is the power of divine majesty; herein none may sit but God, and the God-man Jesus Christ. To be installed in God’s throne, to sit at God’s right hand, is to have a godlike royalty, such as his Father hath, a royalty altogether incommunicable, whereof no creature is capable. Mede. 1. AFTER this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold. And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, the four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. He sees a throne in heaven and one sitting on it, bright and pure as richest precious stone; and round his throne a rainbow like an emerald, the sign to us of hope and faithfulness, mercy and truth, which he himself appointed after the flood to comfort the fearful hearts of men. Around him are angels crowned; men like ourselves, but men who have fought the good fight, and conquered, and are now at rest; pure, as their white garments tell us; and victorious, as their crowns tell us. And from the throne came thunderings, and lightnings, and voices, as they did when he spoke to the Jews of old—signs of his terrible power as judge, and lawgiver, and avenger of all the wrong which is done on earth. And there are there, too, seven burning lamps—the seven spirits of God which give light and life to all created things, and most of all to righteous hearts. And before the throne is a sea of glass, the same sea which John saw in another vision, with us human beings standing on it; the sea of time, and space, and mortal life, on which we all have our little day. It seems to us to be a great thing now—time, and space, and the world; and yet it looked small enough to John as it lies in heaven before the throne of Christ, and he passes it by in a few words. For what are all suns and stars, and what are all ages and generations, and millions and millions of years, compared with eternity, with God’s eternal heaven, and God whom not even heaven can contain? C. K. THE series of seven seals is here introduced by a glorious vision. The divine throne is seen in heaven, surrounded by twenty-four thrones for the presbyters who represent the redeemed Church, and by four composite cherubic figures, instinct with life, symbols of the vital powers of creation in harmony with redemption. These all praise the Lord; but the creation, symbolized by the Zoa [unhappily translated beasts], only speaks of the Lord, while the Church, represented by the presbyters, speaks to him, saying, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honor, and power." D. F. The purpose of this chapter and the following is to authenticate the connection of the Jewish and the Christian dispensations. The Deity, the God of Israel, as he appeared to Isaiah (ch. 6) and Ezekiel (ch. 1), is seen combined with the Christian Saviour and the Holy Spirit in the development of the seals, a course of Providence, relative to the Christian Church. His splendor is imaged by precious stones, the usual emblem of all that is most magnificent and luminous. The "rainbow" is probably expressive of the divine mercy exercised in the act of covenant and probation. The "living creatures" resemble the cherubim and seraphim of Isaiah and Ezekiel; and under the shapes of the lion, the bull, the man, and the eagle, are emblematic of the supremacy, strength, wisdom, and rapidity of Providence. The "glassy sea" (v. 6), a natural and usual image of tranquillity, signifies the perfect peace of the Church when it shall stand in the presence of God. Croly. It is from the earlier visions of the Apocalypse, from the openings of the door, the sights of the throne, and the four-and-twenty seats, and the angels, and the elders, and the living creatures, and the white-robed, palm-bearing host, and the harpers with their lofty hymns of praise, that many persons' notions of heaven are chiefly borrowed. Nor are they wrong in taking up the representations given in these visions of the position and services of the redeemed as faithful types and patterns of the destiny in reserve for those who at death do immediately pass into glory—of the adoration and praises which throughout eternity shall be ascending from their lips encompassing the throne. But it should ever be remembered that the pictures given in these visions of the place and circumstances and outward condition of the redeemed contain but a description of the state of disembodied spirits during that intermediate period which intervenes between death and the resurrection. They tell us nothing of that state which is to follow upon the resurrection, when, invested once again with a material framework, the spirit shall be fitted to renew its intercourse with material things. It is not its materialism which unfits this world, even as it now is, from becoming the eternal home of the redeemed. What we want in order to turn earth into heaven, is not to have brighter skies above us, or lovelier landscapes around us; the skies are bright enough, the landscapes lovely enough, for beings a thousand times holier and a thousand times happier than we. Nor would any outward change whatever bring the unforgiven, the unaccepted, the unredeemed sinners of our race a step nearer to the true heaven. That heaven we desire ever to remember is a condition rather than a place, an inner state of the soul rather than an outward habitation for the body. Nevertheless, a correspondence shall exist between the sinless, purified, exalted estate of the redeemed hereafter and that material habitation which shall be prepared for them. W. H. 1. It was at once a most sublime and a most practical feature in the prophetic vision vouchsafed to John that so large a part of its scenes was laid in heaven rather than on earth. "A door was opened in heaven," i. e., a door opening into heaven; the very door of entrance to the heavenly world. This door into the world above was set open to lift their thought above the murderous edicts of tyrants, and their souls above all fear of prison, torture, and death; to inspire them with the Christian heroism of faith and love and hope of a blessed immortality. H. C. 2. The words in the original rather signify that "a throne was lying in heaven, and there was one sitting upon the throne." The throne had been lying in heaven, and its occupant had been sitting upon it long before the apostle's eyes were opened to discern it—yea, long before the mountains were brought forth, or ever the earth and the world were made—even from everlasting. The beloved disciple, "becoming in the Spirit" at a certain moment, perceived what had been enacted from eternity, and shall never pass away, "a throne set in heaven and one sitting thereupon." 3. "He that sat was to look upon like a jasper and sardine stone," an appearance of the divine majesty in the person of God the Father, exactly harmonizing with that which the prophet Ezekiel had seen of old. "Upon the likeness of the throne," says he, recording his vision, "was the likeness, as the appearance of a man above upon it, and I saw as the color of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire." That is to say, the form which both prophet and apostle saw seated on the heavenly throne, was of a clear, brilliant flame-color, partly red like the sardine, or, to use a modern term, the carnelian, and partly of the lighter hue of yellow amber. E. M. G. 6. "In the midst," etc.; or, according to a Greek idiom, between it and the throne, in the interval between the sea and the throne. "Four beasts": four living creatures. As the four-and-twenty elders are the representatives of the Church, so the four living beings are representatives of creation. The number four is characteristic of the earth, with its four quarters, four courses, and four winds. The figure, originally taken from the cherubim in the tabernacle, was applied in the visions of the prophet Ezekiel, in a manner from which the description before us is transferred. V. 7,8. The cherubim here have six wings, like the seraphim in Isa. 6, whereas the cherubim in Ezek. 1:6 had four wings each. They are called by the same name, "living creatures." But, whereas in Ezekiel each living creature has all four faces, here the four belong severally one to each. The four living creatures answer by contrast to the four world-powers represented by four beasts. Fausset.—Adoration at the throne, activity in the temple—the worship of the heart, the worship of the voice, and the worship of the hands—the whole being consecrated and devoted to God—those are the service of the upper sanctuary. Here the flesh is often wearied with an hour of worship; there "they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come." And it matters not though sometimes the celestial citizens are represented as always singing, and sometimes as always flying; sometimes as always working, and sometimes as always resting; for there the work is rest, and every movement song; and the "many mansions" make one temple, and the whole being of its worshipers one tune—one mighty anthem, long as eternity, and large as its burden, the praise of the great Three-One—the self-renewing and ever-sounding hymn, in which the flight of every seraph and the harp of every saint and the smile of every raptured spirit is a several note, and repeats ever over again, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come." Hamilton. 11. Thou hast created all things. To make anything but God his own end were to set something above God. When as yet there was no creation, and no providence, God contained in himself all the reasons of what was afterward to be; and these reasons still remain. To create was in a manner to reveal himself—the earliest revelation; not by words, but acts, and every creature, with all that proceeds from it, is a part of this display. The addition of spiritual and intellectual agencies, men and angels, afforded indeed spectators of this glory, and judges of this skill. But all creature minds, however spiritual and however free, are infinitely inferior to Jehovah, and infinitely too small to afford the real motive of the universe, which must have been eternal, which must have been God. All the boundless combinations and interchanges of matter and mind (the latter being far the more complicated and wonderful), all the play of wheel in wheel, of cause in cause, of thought in thought, of passion in passion, conspire to work out one and the same result—the glory of God. J. W. A. For thy pleasure they are. God delights in his law, as the transcript of his nature; he delights in his Son, as the express image of his person; in the whole plan of salvation, as unfolding the riches of his goodness and wisdom; in the holiness of his intelligent universe, as reflecting his own moral character; in their happiness, as the effect of his power, his grace, and his mercy. For the same reason he delights in all his purposes and all his works—in his providential government—in the God-exalting truths of his word—in the enlargement, purity, and final perfection of his Church, and the fulfillment of all the designs of infinite love and mercy. As God thus delights in the manifestation of himself—that is, in his own glory—so all his acts, guided by his infinite wisdom and performed by his almighty power, are directed to this end. N. W. T. We may fearlessly say that we men are of too noble a make and too lofty a mien to give the strength of our thoughts and hearts to any beneath the throne of him who made us. No mortal man, no angel, no creature however noble and eminent, may claim in its own name and for itself the homage of a soul which, living once, lives for ever. Our end in thought, and affection, and effort must be none other than the end for which the best of men, for which the angel, for which our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, for which the almighty God himself lives, and thinks, and loves, and works. For whom does God live? For himself; that he may contemplate, and love, and glorify himself. And such is the high honor that he has put on us men, that the end of our being is none other than that of his own; nor can we refuse to love and to serve him without forfeiting our true patent of nobility among the creatures of his hand. H. P. L. 1. AND I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the 2 backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, 3 Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. 4 And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither 5 to look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven 6 seals thereof. 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 7 eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and 8 took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, hav- ing every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of 9 saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of 10 every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings 11 and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was 12 ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, 13 and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the 14 throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever. THAT song of angels which ceases neither day nor night—we would not detract from its harmony or its significance. Verily the majesty of the Invisible is deserving of such homage; and the wonders of crea- tion even of old waked into melody the sons of God, when with the morning stars they “shouted and sang together for joy.” Yet there is a song more rapturous and elevated, such as breaks from the lips of each new inmate, and is echoed by the sympathetic choir of the saints, until all heaven rings with the gladsome acclamation, “Worthy the Lamb that was slain, for he has redeemed me by his blood.” Although angels join in that song, it has a significance which they can never learn. They can never say, This Lamb was slain for us. Accordingly, the nearest to the throne of Jesus are those who represent the Church of the redeemed. They commence the new and exalted strain, “Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and hast made us unto our God kings and priests.” Next after them, the angels who circle around, unable to repress their sympathy and admiration, to the number of “ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands,” cry with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.” And, finally, the whole intelligent universe is introduced as uniting in this glorious tribute, and the chorus that swells all hearts and voices is, “Blessing and honor and glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.” Homer. It is to be noted that this revelation of God is as the God of his Church. The Father seated on the throne; the Lamb in the midst of the throne, bear- ing the marks of his atoning sacrifice; the sevenfold Spirit with his lamps of fire—this is Jehovah the covenant God of his redeemed. And next we have creation, symbolized by the four living beings; the Church, patriarchal and apostolic, represented by the twenty-four elders; and the innumerable company of angels, ministering in their glory and might, now by one of them, now by another, throughout the course of the prophecy. A. 1-7. In the right hand of God is seen a sealed roll; and Jesus Christ, appearing as a lamb which had been slain, takes the roll amid loud acclamations of praise, and proceeds to open its seven seals. Thus, while the preliminary vision to the first series represents Christ as the Inspector of the Churches, this reveals him as the powerful ruler in the midst of the throne, who "has prevailed to open the roll, and to loose the seven seals thereof." D. F. 5,6. Here the divine nature of our Lord is distinctly displayed. He is in the midst of the throne. The Saviour is in intimate union with the Father. The throne is subsequently called "the throne of God and the Lamb." He is also in intimate union with the Holy Spirit. He is the Lamb, having "seven horns"—a customary Scripture expression of majesty and power. The number seven implies perfection. The Saviour is thus Omnipotence and Omniscience—God! The connection of the Jewish and Christian dispensation is sustained as in the previous chapter. Christ is at once the "Lion of the tribe of Judah," and "the Lamb that was slain": the Jewish conqueror and the Christian sacrifice. Croly.—Lion of the tribe of Judah. Under this emblem Jesus Christ is represented, alluding to the prophetic benediction of the patriarch Jacob (Gen. 19 : 9). Judah was the regal tribe, and famous for its warlike exploits; distinguished by a succession of illustrious princes and conquerors, the descendants of David, who were at most but the forerunners and representatives of an incomparably greater personage, the Son of God, who, after he had vanquished the powers of darkness, was to be invested with an everlasting dominion, that all nations, tongues, and people should serve him. R. Hall. 6. Surely these notes of preparation, this wonderful and splendid preliminary process, would lead us to anticipate in the person of him who alone was able to open the book the appearance at least of surpassing glory; and yet, while the apostle looks with admiring expectation for the coming of one thus hailed and announced, he beholds not a being wearing an aspect of resistless power, and seemingly able to trample upon principalities and powers, but "a Lamb as it had been slain," a being, wearing amid all the grandeur by which he was surrounded the imagery of death. It was the glorified humanity of Jesus Christ upon which he gazed, bearing yet the evidences of a cruel and languishing death, to which it had submitted; the print of the nails was there, the gash of the spear was there. Exalted though he was, the evidences of his humiliation had not been effaced; there amid all his glory were the traces of his previous infamy and suffering: ing: the crucified is not lost in the glorified. We can not measure his power, his dignity, or his happiness; but, whatever they may be, they have not removed Christ to a distance from his members; he is still linked with all "who sorrow in Zion"; for, though he is in the midst of the throne, and surrounded by the praises of heaven, he is there, and is praised there, "a Lamb as it had been slain"; and while he bears the marks of the scourge, the nails, and the spear, we are safe in believing that he can feel for us in trouble, and succor us in trial. It is precisely this combination of the emblems of grandeur and the mementoes of sorrow which makes the exhibition so beautiful and interesting to us: there are the traces of his sorrow to teach us his sympathy; there is the throne to reveal to us his power; and thus the Lamb in the midst of the throne is still our sympathizing and Almighty Saviour. E. M. Once I was troubled to know whether the Lord Jesus was a man as well as God, and God as well as man; and truly, in those days, let men say what they would, unless I had it with evidence from heaven, all was nothing to me. I was much troubled about this point, and could not tell how to be resolved; at last, that in Rev. 5 : 6 came into my mind: "And lo, in the midst of the throne, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb." "In the midst of the throne"—thought I, there is the Godhead; "in the midst of the elders"—there is his manhood; but oh, methought this did glister; it was a goodly touch, and gave me sweet satisfaction. Bun. 9. It must be that each soul in heaven being for ever full of love will for ever be full of praise. Every new sight of grandeur or of beauty, and every new contrivance of the Creator's wisdom or power, will but prompt the beholder to praise the wondrous Creator. Every intellectual height reached in the infinite progress of the soul, onward and upward, must awe it into a profounder sense of the glory of the great Intelligence. Every active pursuit will swell the tide of gratitude and praise to him the ceaseless worker, in whom all persons and things "live, move, and have their being"; while the loving and holy soul, ever consciously dwelling in him who is everywhere present, must derive from increasing knowledge of and communion with the infinite and glorious One a source of exulting, endless praise—praise which will be intensified by the sympathy and song of the great minds and great hearts of the "innumerable company of angels" and of "just men made perfect"! But if in that voiceful temple any one song of praise will more than any other issue from a deeper love, or express a deeper joy, that must be the song of the redeemed! For that is a "new song" never heard before by the angels in the amplitudes of creation, and which the strange race of mankind alone can sing. N. M. While duration rolls away its ages, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever—the Lamb on the throne! And for us, saved by the blood, cheered by the presence, consoled by the love, blessed with the gifts, and enlightened with the glory of Jesus, is not such a heaven enough? "Worthy," cry the mingled voices of saints and angels, "worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing." "Worthy," again cry his redeemed, in a song which angels may not sing, but in which, with holy ecstasy, we will join, "worthy art thou; for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood." N. W. T.—We will embalm his name in our hearts. We will embalm it by a life savoring of his loveliness. We will embalm it by our praise, which shall be prolonged while we have breath, and sink away at last upon our dying lips. And we will embalm it among the songs of the upper world. While gratitude and truth remain, the name and the love of Jesus shall never be forgotten. It shall be the sweetest part of our heaven to see him on the throne—to see him bending with infinite delight over his beloved Church, to hear that shout of praise from all the redeemed, from all the angels, from all the holy creation. It shall be our heaven to bow with them and join the song. Griffin. 10. The four-and-twenty presbyters whose thrones compass the throne of God and of the Lamb represent the entire host of the redeemed. Twenty-four are selected for the whole, perhaps, because there were twenty-four courses of priests; and, under the present dispensation, all believers are priests and kings. G. B. 12-14. Everything we hear in that world is the voice of praise and thanksgiving—the universal burst of gratitude and wonder and love in songs of joy and transport, filling all its arches and making all its pillars tremble. What meethess, then, for heaven can he have who has no taste for the service and worship of God on earth? Alas! he knows not the meaning of the eternal song: "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain." Not a single note in that song can he sing, not a single sentiment can he adopt, not a single ecstasy can he feel. Love, love only, produces all this; and love he hath not. On him, heaven were a gift bestowed in vain. N. W. T. 6:1 AND I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer. And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword. And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth. And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also came black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together: and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bond man, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sit- 17 teth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? 7:1 And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed a hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel. Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Nephthalim were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Manasses were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Zabulon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand. 9. After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen. 13. And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. 8:1 And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. Ir the mere conception of the reunion of good men, in a future state, infused a momentary rapture into the mind of Tully, what may we be expected to feel who are assured of such an event by the true sayings of God? How should we rejoice in the prospect—the certainty rather—of spending a blissful eternity with those whom we loved on earth, of seeing them emerge from the ruins of the tomb and the deeper ruins of the fall, not only uninjured, but refined and perfected, “with every tear wiped from their eyes,” standing before the throne of God and the Lamb in white robes and palms in their hands, crying with a loud voice, Salvation to God that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb, for ever and ever! What delight will it afford to renew the sweet counsel we have taken together, to recount the toils of combat, and the labor of the way, and to approach, not the house, but the throne of God in company, in order to join in the symphonies of heavenly voices, and lose ourselves amid the splendors and fruitions of the beatific vision! To that state all the pious on earth are tending: and if there is a law from whose operations none are exempt, which irresistibly conveys their bodies to darkness and to dust, there is another not less certain or less powerful which conducts their spirits to the abodes of bliss, to the bosom of their Father and their God. The wheels of nature are not made to roll backward; everything presses on toward eternity; from the birth of time an impetuous current has set in, which bears all the sons of men toward that interminable ocean. Meanwhile heaven is attracting to itself whatever is congenial to its nature, is enriching itself by the spoils of earth, and collecting within its capacious bosom whatever is pure, permanent, and divine, leaving nothing for the last fire to consume but the objects and the slaves of concupiscence; while everything which grace has prepared and beautified shall be gathered and selected from the ruins of the world to adorn that eternal city which hath no need of the sun neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God doth enlighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. R. Hall. The Lamb, alone found worthy, opens, one after another, the seals of the closed book or roll, so that when they are all opened, it may be unrolled and read. One point should be urged, which is very commonly passed over: viz., that the roll is never during the prophecy actually opened, nor is any part of it read. The openings of its successive seals are but the successive preparations for its contents to be disclosed: and as each is opened, a new class of preparations is seen in prophetic vision. When the seventh is loosed, and all is ready for the unfolding and reading, there is a symbolic silence, and a new series of visions begins. A. The opening of each separate seal is not the opening of a portion of the roll, but a necessary preliminary to the opening of the entire roll. What the prophet sees, as each particular seal is broken, is not something in the roll itself, but something which occurs on the stage of vision at the moment when that step is taken toward the unfolding of God's counsels. In the case of the first four seals, the act of breaking is followed by a loud utterance from one of the four living beings which represent the universe of animated creation. The vision which is thus introduced affects creation in some one of its great departments. The utterance itself consists of the single word, Come; not, as the ordinary reading gives it, Come and see. The latter would have been addressed to the prophet: the former is more probably addressed to the Lamb of God, whose coming in glory is the desire and expectation of the creation, and is in some definite manner promoted and advanced by that which the accompanying vision denotes. V. Ch. 6. The roll of divine purpose, as unfolded in seven portions, seal by seal, produces the following results: 1. A figure of conquest on a white horse, white being the color of triumph (v. 2). 2. A figure of civil war on a red horse, taking away peace from the earth (v. 4). 3. A figure of death or scarcity on a black horse, black being a sign of mourning (vs. 5, 6). 4. A figure of devastation; death riding on a livid horse, with hades like a hearse, or moving, yawning grave following after (v. 8). This devastation proceeds under the four forms mentioned by the old prophets, war, famine, pestilence, and the ravages of wild beasts (compare Ezek. 14:21). These four judgments being directed against life on the earth, are successively announced by the four zea. Evidently they coincide with "the beginning of sorrows" foretold by our Saviour in his great prophecy or eschatological discourse, delivered on the Mount of Olives three days before his death. 5. The martyrs are to be avenged, but not yet. The Lord had said, in the discourse to which we have just referred, "Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you; and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake." When the fifth seal was broken John saw the souls of the martyrs, like the life blood of ancient sacrifices, poured out at the bottom of the altar. They cried, as once the blood of Abel cried to God from the ground; and they were clothed with favor, and bidden to rest awhile till the cup of persecution was full (vs. 9-11). 6. Universal panic. A great earthquake denotes the convulsion of society. Portents in the sky announce revolution and disaster (vs. 12-14). It is supposed by the terrified dwellers on the earth to be the great day of the wrath of the Lamb (vs. 15-17). D. F.—At the opening of the sixth seal we have reproduced the well-known imagery of our Lord's discourse and of the Old Testament prophets, describing the very eve and threshold, so to speak, of the day of the Lord: the portents which should usher in his coming, but not that coming itself. For the revelation of this, the time is not yet. First (ch. 7) his elect must be gathered out of the four winds, the complete number sealed before the judgments invoked by the martyred souls descend on the earth, the sea, the trees. The Seer must be vouchsafed a vision of the great multitude whom none can number, in everlasting glory. The day of the Lord's coming is gone by, and the vision reaches forward beyond it into the blissful eternity. Why? Because then, and not till then, shall the seventh seal, which looses the roll of God's eternal purposes, be opened, and the book read to the adoring Church in glory. Then (8:1) we have the last seal opened, and the half-hour's silence—the "beginning," as Victorinus sublimely says, "of eternal rest." Thus far the vision of the seals necessarily reached onward for its completion. But there is much more to be revealed. God's judgments on the earth and its inhabitants are the subject of the next series of visions. The prayers of the martyred saints had invoked them. Then follow the seven trumpet-blowing angels. A. 6. Four beasts.** The zoa, living creatures, are the heavenly representatives of all created life worshiping before the throne in heaven. T. In verse 8, for "Hell," substitute "Hades"; Hell is the place of punishment, as now understood, whereas the abode of the departed is here meant. A.—Hades is described here as the hearse of death, following to receive those whom death strikes down. Thus the first four visions have given us the various images of conquest, of civil war, of scarcity, and of mortality. Each of these is presented to the eye of a suffering and buffeted church, as one of those all things which are in the hands of God, and which are working together for eventual good to the cause of Christ on earth. 9. Bleeding souls at the foot of the altar, as symbols in vision, are no incongruity. The Lamb as it was slain, is no incongruity. In vision everything assumes form and shape, as if it were material. M. S. 10.** The righteous blood shed upon the earth, in the cause of Christ, is, if rightly understood, a sign, not of the discomfiture of his truth, but of the certainty of his coming to judgment. So Paul uses it (2 Thes. 1:4-10). And the opening of the sixth seal is followed by signs of this very result. We recognize in this passage much of the imagery of the Old Testament prophets. 9. Beneath the altar. We have not yet had an altar described as part of the scene; but the transition to the imagery of the earthly temple, with its great altar of burnt-offering standing in front of the building, is easily and naturally made. The word here used for the souls of the martyred saints is that which expresses their natural life rather than their spiritual: their spirits are in the Paradise of the blessed. 10. Dost thou not judge and avenge our blood.** It is not that saints in Paradise desire vengeance: it is the voice of their blood crying from the ground, and rising into the ears of a righteous Judge who can not suffer iniquity and cruelty to triumph as now for ever. 12. Whatever secondary fulfillments this opening of the sixth seal may have found in history—as in the fall of the Roman Empire, or in the destruction of idolatry, or in the demolition of any great persecuting and oppressing power in any age of the world—who does not feel as he listens to it that it has one, and can have but one, full and exhaustive accomplishment in the events which shall precede and usher in the second coming of our Lord himself for judgment? The key to its meaning is to be found, in every particular, in our Saviour's great prophecy, and delivered in answer to the question of his disciples (Mat. 24). This 6th chapter, closing with the result of the opening of the sixth seal, stops just short of this actual coming of the Son of man. It is the ancient belief that the Book of Revelation was written after the destruction of Jerusalem, under Domitian, not under Nero. If this be so, remark that John, and he who taught and inspired John with the vision of truth, did not consider the prophecy of our Lord contained in the chapter referred to, to be completed and done with, as many would now tell us, when Jerusalem fell. The ruin of Jerusalem, and of the Mosaic and Levitical institutions with it, was a fulfillment, but not the fulfillment, of our Saviour's words. Those words are manifold in their accomplishment. Wherever there is a church in a world; wherever there is a power of unbelief, ungodliness, and violence, throwing itself upon Christ's faith and people, and seeking to overbear and to destroy: whether it be the power of Jewish bigotry and fanaticism, as in the days of the first disciples; or of pagan Rome, with its idolatries and its cruelties, as in the days of John and of the Revelation; or of papal Rome, with its lying wonders and its anti-Christian assumptions, in ages later still; or of open and rampant atheism, as in the days of the first French Revolution; or of a subtler and more insidious infidelity, like that which is threatening now to deceive, if it were possible, the very elect—wherever and whatever this power be, then, in each successive century, the words of Christ to his first disciples adapt themselves afresh to the circumstances of his struggling servants; warn them of danger, exhort them to patience, arouse them to hope, assure them of victory; tell of a near end, for the individual and for the generation; tell also of a far end, not for ever to be postponed, for time itself and for the world; predict a destruction which shall befall each enemy of the truth, and predict a destruction which shall befall the enemy himself whom each in turn has represented and served; explain the meaning of tribulation, show whence it comes, and point to its swallowing up in glory; reveal the moving hand above, and disclose, from behind the cloud which conceals it, the clear, definite purpose and the unchanging, loving will. Thus understood, each separate downfall of evil becomes a prophecy of the next and of the last; and the partial fulfillment of our Lord's words in the destruction of Jerusalem, or of John's words in the downfall of idolatry and the dismemberment of Rome, becomes itself in turn a new warrant for the Church's expectation of the second advent and of the day of judgment. V. 16. The wrath of the Lamb.** The word, even in a context of vengeance and woe, still whispers mercy, grace, and peace. Even on the judgment-throne it is rich with the tender memories of Gethsemane and Calvary; even amid the dread solemnities of Omnipotent anger it speaks of a scene more sublimely divine than all their terrors. It utters the chosen title of crucified innocence, of patience unmurmuring, of love self-sacrificing. W. A. B.—The wrath in God is as much more intensely revealed in the incarnate life and ministry of Christ, as the love is, or the patience, or any other character of God. Since he is the Lamb, in other words, the most emphatic and appalling of all epithets will have its place, viz., the wrath of the Lamb. Our Christ must be the real king—Messiah—and no mere victim; he must govern, have his indignations, take the regal way in his salvation. His goodness must have fire and fiber enough to make it divine. His character is weak, unkindly, unchristly, and it can not be more, till the wrath is added to the patience of the Lamb. As he has come into the flesh to unfold God's human sympathy and tenderness, so, to maintain what is only fit proportion, he must needs be clothed in the rigors of judicial majesty. He, then, is to be the judge, as he himself openly declares, and before his judgment-seat all mankind, including all his rejecters, shall be gathered. He will separate them to their fit award. He will say, "ye did it not to me." He will speak the "depart." And this is the wrath, and this the day of wrath! H. B.—If we with our bodily eyes were to see the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and were to hear that trumpet call, at which the dead shall arise, can we, can our consciences tell us what would be our feelings at that sight and sound? Should we be filled with fear to our inmost souls, as if certain death were coming upon us, or should we look up to him whom we beheld amid the blessed company of his saints and angels, as to one whom we had long known, long loved, long desired to see, so that, love casting out fear, we should be full of joy amid all the terrors of the perishing world, because our Saviour and Redeemer was come, and our trial was over, and our perfect rest and happiness was at hand? Should we say to the mountains, "Fall on us," and to the hills, "Cover us"? or should we say, rather, "Lo, this is our God! we have waited for him, and he will save us"? T. A. 17. If there were no other argument for a future life, sin would furnish one, never to be refuted. We need descend into no depths of abstreme reasoning here—the simplest notions are conclusive enough. There is a cause standing over between the impartial Judge and ourselves; and a time for the hearing and decision of it must certainly come. If indefinitely delayed and forgotten, all loyal orders must harbor dissatisfaction and fear; while all who have actually been called to account and punished, will protest against the partiality. If conscience be but awake, the transgressor, as he stands at the verge of the present life, may thus properly decide upon his own fate. "I have sinned and perverted that which was right. Let me hide myself in the darkness of the grave! No; for God's ministers, and all beings—good and evil—shall demand me at the hands of death, and forbid I should be forgotten. The dust may not screen me—the clods may not cover me. Corruption may not say I am lost and gone. The highest tribunal is waiting my appearance; and, unless I am made there to stand, the honor of all government is blasted—the perfections of God impugned. True, I am insignificant; but yet am party in a cause in which the wisdom and purity and power of the eternal God are in question." I. T.—God regulates the movements of conscience, and God allows of no apology for sin. He can forgive it; he can forget it; he can blot it out as a cloud and a thick cloud; he can bury it in the depths of the sea; he can carry it away, so that no, more mention shall be made of it; but he never, no, never can excuse it. And the man who rejects Christ now, and treats him with scorn, and, instead of forsaking his sins, extenuates and apologizes for them, may be sure, that if not before, he will be startled by the trumpet peal of judgment; and then all his sophistry will leave him, and all his apologies will vanish, and as the great white throne is set, and the Judge descends, there will be a cry of agony, "This is Jesus whom I crucified; hide me from the presence of the Lamb." E. M.—If no immortal punishments were awaiting us, still the mere fact of being alienated from Christ, the gentle and the loving, who gave himself up to death for us, and suffered everything to rescue us from that punishment, and reconcile us, who were enemies by our transgressions, to his Father—this is greater than any punishment, and sufficient to arouse our souls, and induce us to be continually watchful. Chrys. Ch. 7. Six seals have been broken; and the breaking of each has been followed by a certain sign witnessed on the stage of vision. It has been shown how each one of the great classes of human suffering is in reality under the control of God, and how each one is premonitory of and preparatory for the return of Christ in glory. The cry of creation which introduces each is the brief and significant Come, addressed to the Lamb that was slain, and expressing that earnest expectation of the creature itself, which is waiting, ever waiting, for the manifestation of the sons of God. There has been seen the white horse of conquest, and the red horse of discord, and the black horse of scarcity, and the pale horse of mortality; there has been seen, as the fifth seal was broken, the vivid image of Christian martyrdom; and at the opening of the sixth, the fearful representation of those last terrors which shall instantly precede the second advent of the Son of man. We were prepared therefore to expect the immediate opening of the seventh and last seal, and with it the arrival of the consummation of all things. But a whole chapter intervenes. Might it not be apprehended that amid convulsions so terrific as those described under the opening of the sixth seal the Church itself might founder? Who shall secure Christ's servants against being involved in that catastrophe? Such is the misgiving to which the particular revelation now before us would minister. 1. The winds are symbols of judgment, and the four winds indicate the universality of that judgment. The angels are to be its executioners, so described in the verse which follows. But at present they are seen restraining the winds. 3. Until we have sealed. One alone actually impresses the seal: the rest concur and assist by restraining the operation of judgment until the sealing is accomplished. The image of the sealing is derived from the book of the prophet Ezekiel (9:2-6). There, too, are found the executioners of vengeance, in contrast with the one sealer. And can we doubt, after proceeding thus far, what is the precise thing designated by the sealing? We have seen God's judgments abroad in the earth; we have seen the train and procession of executioners starting with the sword of Roman conquest, and ending with the prognostications of the instantly impending advent. And we have traced the very same line of prediction through our Lord's own prophecy of the things that should come, as written in the 24th chapter of Matthew's gospel. We have seen there also the very same order and sequence; wars and rumors of wars; nation rising against nation; famines, pestilences, then martyrdoms; then, after those tribulations, the sun darkened and the moon withdrawing her light, and the sign of the Son of man already seen in heaven. He is, as it were, in act to descend. The sixth seal is opened, the seventh is trembling for its breaking. At that point the one prophecy says, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, restraining the four winds of final, devastating, desolating judgment; and I saw another angel rising from the east, and bidding them wait till he should have sealed, for distinction and preservation, the servants of his God and theirs; and the other prophecy says, The Son of man shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. What can be more precise, to the very letter, to the very end, than the coincidence of the two prophecies? What more evident, to one who will judge of Scripture by Scripture and ask the Holy Spirit who inspired both to interpret to him each by each, than that the sealed of the one are the elect of the other, and that the loving purpose and the preserving care in the one and in the other is the same, not less in the occasion of its exercise than in the nature of its operation? V. 9. The Scriptures do not intimate that in the ultimate winding up of things the aggregate of God's people will be small. The Bible seeks to excite no tears, no lamentations, because so few will join in the chorus of redemption. It gives no intimation that the Father's house will lack occupants, or that any of its apartments will stand vacant. The whole tone of the Bible, when it speaks of the final issue of time—the final results of all this world's history—is one of jubilee and triumph, never of sorrow and despondency. There is no intimation that God will make a sad failure out of this enterprise of earth, or that he will lack hearts and voices redeemed from earth to praise him. There will be no thinness in the ranks, no poverty of hearts or voices, when all his people, the portion of the Lord, shall be gathered in. J. D.—And when we look at the numbers without number of the redeemed, and at the wonderful revelation of the glory of God, of his mingled justice and mercy, which is made, and shall be for ever, in every one of these, we see a result worthy of this strange scene of six thousand years, of its central figure, the cross of Christ, and of its closing scenes, the final conflagration, and the general judgment. M. H. 10-12. This we are told they do. They worship. They satisfy, it would seem, in perfection, that mysterious instinct of devotion—that inborn craving to look upward and adore, which, let false philosophy say what it will, proves the most benighted idolater to be a man, and not a brute—a spirit, and not a merely natural thing. They have worshiped, and so are blest. They have hungered and thirsted after righteousness, and now they are filled. They have longed for, toiled for, it may be died for, the true, the beautiful, and the good; and now they can gaze upward at the perfect reality of that which they saw on earth, only as in a glass darkly, dimly, and afar; and can contemplate the utterly free, the utterly beautiful, and the utterly good in the character of God and the face of Jesus Christ. They entered while on earth into the mystery and glory of self-sacrifice; and now they find their bliss in gazing on the one perfect and eternal sacrifice, and rejoicing in the thought that it is the cause and ground of the whole universe, even the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. C. K. —Every image which denotes the purest joy is introduced into this description of the ultimate blessedness of the redeemed. They are clad in white, the wedding garments of a great festivity. Music is the natural utterance of their delight. Nor is this a strained and artificial expression. It is full-toned chorus; it is hearty praise; it is jubilant adoration. And as that doxology of the Redeemer waxes louder and fuller, the very pillars and arches of heaven are tremulous with joy. Divested of all that is tropical and symbolical in form, the one idea conveyed to us is, that the climacteric of redemption is full, irrepressible, eternal joy. A religion which falls short of positive and unfailing pleasure, as the ultimate law of life, can not meet the necessities of humanity. Redemption is an advance on creation. It more than regains what was lost, more than restores what was original. The burden of that heavenly song is salvation, blessing, and thanksgiving. The second Paradise is better than Eden. The joy of man redeemed, restored, and perfected, is greater than that of man in the glory of his innocence. W. A. What a brave encouragement is it for one that is come for grace to the throne of grace, to see so great a number already there on their seats, in their robes, with their palms in their hands and their crowns upon their heads, singing of salvation to God and the Lamb! And I say again—and speak now to the dejected—methinks it would be strange, oh, thou that art so afraid that the greatness of thy sins will be a bar unto thee, if among all this great number of pipers and harpers that are got to glory, thou canst not espy one that, when here, was as vile a sinner as thyself. Lock, man; they are there for thee to view them, and for thee to take encouragement to hope, when thou shalt consider what grace and mercy have done for them. Behold, tempted soul; dost thou not yet see what a throne of grace here is, and what multitudes are already arrived thither, to give thanks unto his name that sits thereon, and to the Lamb for ever and ever? And wilt thou hang thy harp upon the willows, and go drooping up and down the world, as if there was no God, no grace, no throne of grace, to apply thyself unto for mercy and grace to help in time of need? Hark; dost thou not hear them what they say? “Worthy,” say they, “is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.” And this is written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope; and that the drooping ones might come boldly to the throne of grace, to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Bun. 11. Angels welcome them as partakers of their joy, and delight in their happiness. When man was created, “these morning stars sang together; these sons of God shouted for joy.” When he was redeemed, their bright hosts flew to earth, and sang, “Glory to God in the highest.” When a sinner repents, there is joy in the presence of the angels; and in the midst of all the sorrows and trials and temptations here below, they are ministering spirits to the heirs of salvation. With warmth of affection will these holy beings welcome us to their blissful society above! With what transport will they lead us up to the throne of God and the Lamb, and point us to the surrounding glories of our eternal abode; with what joy will they relate, and we hear, the account of their embassies of love to us, while we were here training for heaven! And while we celebrate the grace that brought us through, and dwell on the wonders of redeeming love, though they sing not our song, yet with a voice as the sound of many waters and the voice of mighty thunderings, they will strike the chorus to our praises. 14-17. The description is highly figurative, but it conveys to us the clearest conception of unqualified good, and the total absence of all evil. There, and above all, sin shall be no more; there nothing that defiles shall enter. Every cause of sin will be removed: no enticing companions to seduce, nor carnal body to corrupt, nor deceitful heart to ensnare; no evil world to tempt, no Satan to deceive, no cessation of divine influence on the soul. All sufferings are forgotten, or remembered only to bless God, who counted them worthy to suffer for his name. From these hills of salvation, they shall look back on their passage through this troubled life, and—the winds and waves having ceased—shall enjoy the everlasting calm of heaven. Everything is done by infinite wisdom and goodness to banish the very elements of evil, to dispel the slightest shade of misery. With his own hand of mercy, their Father, God, hath wiped away all tears from their eyes. N. W. T. 17. The Lamb who is in the midst of the throne, appearing still as the Lamb of Calvary—for the scenes of that great sacrifice have left their enduring impression on all the life and joy of heaven— While duration rolls away its ages, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever—the Lamb on the throne! And for us, saved by the blood, cheered by the presence, consoled by the love, blessed with the gifts, and enlightened with the glory of Jesus, is not such a heaven enough? "Worthy," cry the mingled voices of saints and angels, "worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing." "Worthy," again cry his redeemed, in a song which angels may not sing, but in which, with holy ecstasy, we will join, "worthy art thou; for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood." N. W. T.—We will embalm his name in our hearts. We will embalm it by a life savoring of his loveliness. We will embalm it by our praise, which shall be prolonged while we have breath, and sink away at last upon our dying lips. And we will embalm it among the songs of the upper world. While gratitude and truth remain, the name and the love of Jesus shall never be forgotten. It shall be the sweetest part of our heaven to see him on the throne—to see him bending with infinite delight over his beloved Church, to hear that shout of praise from all the redeemed, from all the angels, from all the holy creation. It shall be our heaven to bow with them and join the song. Griffin. 10. The four-and-twenty presbyters whose thrones compass the throne of God and of the Lamb represent the entire host of the redeemed. Twenty-four are selected for the whole, perhaps, because there were twenty-four courses of priests; and, under the present dispensation, all believers are priests and kings. G. B. 12-14. Everything we hear in that world is the voice of praise and thanksgiving—the universal burst of gratitude and wonder and love in songs of joy and transport, filling all its arches and making all its pillars tremble. What meethess, then, for heaven can he have who has no taste for the service and worship of God on earth? Alas! he knows not the meaning of the eternal song: "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain." Not a single note in that song can he sing, not a single sentiment can he adopt, not a single ecstasy can he feel. Love, love only, produces all this; and love he hath not. On him, heaven were a gift bestowed in vain. N. W. T. 6:1 AND I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer. And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword. And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth. And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also came black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together: and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bond man, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sit- 17 teth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? 7:1 And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed a hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel. Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Nephthalim were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Manasses were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Zabulon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand. 9. After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen. 13. And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. 8:1 And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. Ir the mere conception of the reunion of good men, in a future state, infused a momentary rapture into the mind of Tully, what may we be expected to feel who are assured of such an event by the true sayings of God? How should we rejoice in the prospect—the certainty rather—of spending a blissful eternity with those whom we loved on earth, of seeing them emerge from the ruins of the tomb and the deeper ruins of the fall, not only uninjured, but refined and perfected, “with every tear wiped from their eyes,” standing before the throne of God and the Lamb in white robes and palms in their hands, crying with a loud voice, Salvation to God that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb, for ever and ever! What delight will it afford to renew the sweet counsel we have taken together, to recount the toils of combat, and the labor of the way, and to approach, not the house, but the throne of God in company, in order to join in the symphonies of heavenly voices, and lose ourselves amid the splendors and fruitions of the beatific vision! To that state all the pious on earth are tending: and if there is a law from whose operations none are exempt, which irresistibly conveys their bodies to darkness and to dust, there is another not less certain or less powerful which conducts their spirits to the abodes of bliss, to the bosom of their Father and their God. The wheels of nature are not made to roll backward; everything presses on toward eternity; from the birth of time an impetuous current has set in, which bears all the sons of men toward that interminable ocean. Meanwhile heaven is attracting to itself whatever is congenial to its nature, is enriching itself by the spoils of earth, and collecting within its capacious bosom whatever is pure, permanent, and divine, leaving nothing for the last fire to consume but the objects and the slaves of concupiscence; while everything which grace has prepared and beautified shall be gathered and selected from the ruins of the world to adorn that eternal city which hath no need of the sun neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God doth enlighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. R. Hall. The Lamb, alone found worthy, opens, one after another, the seals of the closed book or roll, so that when they are all opened, it may be unrolled and read. One point should be urged, which is very commonly passed over: viz., that the roll is never during the prophecy actually opened, nor is any part of it read. The openings of its successive seals are but the successive preparations for its contents to be disclosed: and as each is opened, a new class of preparations is seen in prophetic vision. When the seventh is loosed, and all is ready for the unfolding and reading, there is a symbolic silence, and a new series of visions begins. A. The opening of each separate seal is not the opening of a portion of the roll, but a necessary preliminary to the opening of the entire roll. What the prophet sees, as each particular seal is broken, is not something in the roll itself, but something which occurs on the stage of vision at the moment when that step is taken toward the unfolding of God's counsels. In the case of the first four seals, the act of breaking is followed by a loud utterance from one of the four living beings which represent the universe of animated creation. The vision which is thus introduced affects creation in some one of its great departments. The utterance itself consists of the single word, Come; not, as the ordinary reading gives it, Come and see. The latter would have been addressed to the prophet: the former is more probably addressed to the Lamb of God, whose coming in glory is the desire and expectation of the creation, and is in some definite manner promoted and advanced by that which the accompanying vision denotes. V. Ch. 6. The roll of divine purpose, as unfolded in seven portions, seal by seal, produces the following results: 1. A figure of conquest on a white horse, white being the color of triumph (v. 2). 2. A figure of civil war on a red horse, taking away peace from the earth (v. 4). 3. A figure of death or scarcity on a black horse, black being a sign of mourning (vs. 5, 6). 4. A figure of devastation; death riding on a livid horse, with hades like a hearse, or moving, yawning grave following after (v. 8). This devastation proceeds under the four forms mentioned by the old prophets, war, famine, pestilence, and the ravages of wild beasts (compare Ezek. 14:21). These four judgments being directed against life on the earth, are successively announced by the four zea. Evidently they coincide with "the beginning of sorrows" foretold by our Saviour in his great prophecy or eschatological discourse, delivered on the Mount of Olives three days before his death. 5. The martyrs are to be avenged, but not yet. The Lord had said, in the discourse to which we have just referred, "Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you; and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake." When the fifth seal was broken John saw the souls of the martyrs, like the life blood of ancient sacrifices, poured out at the bottom of the altar. They cried, as once the blood of Abel cried to God from the ground; and they were clothed with favor, and bidden to rest awhile till the cup of persecution was full (vs. 9-11). 6. Universal panic. A great earthquake denotes the convulsion of society. Portents in the sky announce revolution and disaster (vs. 12-14). It is supposed by the terrified dwellers on the earth to be the great day of the wrath of the Lamb (vs. 15-17). D. F.—At the opening of the sixth seal we have reproduced the well-known imagery of our Lord's discourse and of the Old Testament prophets, describing the very eve and threshold, so to speak, of the day of the Lord: the portents which should usher in his coming, but not that coming itself. For the revelation of this, the time is not yet. First (ch. 7) his elect must be gathered out of the four winds, the complete number sealed before the judgments invoked by the martyred souls descend on the earth, the sea, the trees. The Seer must be vouchsafed a vision of the great multitude whom none can number, in everlasting glory. The day of the Lord's coming is gone by, and the vision reaches forward beyond it into the blissful eternity. Why? Because then, and not till then, shall the seventh seal, which looses the roll of God's eternal purposes, be opened, and the book read to the adoring Church in glory. Then (8:1) we have the last seal opened, and the half-hour's silence—the "beginning," as Victorinus sublimely says, "of eternal rest." Thus far the vision of the seals necessarily reached onward for its completion. But there is much more to be revealed. God's judgments on the earth and its inhabitants are the subject of the next series of visions. The prayers of the martyred saints had invoked them. Then follow the seven trumpet-blowing angels. A. 6. Four beasts.** The zoa, living creatures, are the heavenly representatives of all created life worshiping before the throne in heaven. T. In verse 8, for "Hell," substitute "Hades"; Hell is the place of punishment, as now understood, whereas the abode of the departed is here meant. A.—Hades is described here as the hearse of death, following to receive those whom death strikes down. Thus the first four visions have given us the various images of conquest, of civil war, of scarcity, and of mortality. Each of these is presented to the eye of a suffering and buffeted church, as one of those all things which are in the hands of God, and which are working together for eventual good to the cause of Christ on earth. 9. Bleeding souls at the foot of the altar, as symbols in vision, are no incongruity. The Lamb as it was slain, is no incongruity. In vision everything assumes form and shape, as if it were material. M. S. 10.** The righteous blood shed upon the earth, in the cause of Christ, is, if rightly understood, a sign, not of the discomfiture of his truth, but of the certainty of his coming to judgment. So Paul uses it (2 Thes. 1:4-10). And the opening of the sixth seal is followed by signs of this very result. We recognize in this passage much of the imagery of the Old Testament prophets. 9. Beneath the altar. We have not yet had an altar described as part of the scene; but the transition to the imagery of the earthly temple, with its great altar of burnt-offering standing in front of the building, is easily and naturally made. The word here used for the souls of the martyred saints is that which expresses their natural life rather than their spiritual: their spirits are in the Paradise of the blessed. 10. Dost thou not judge and avenge our blood.** It is not that saints in Paradise desire vengeance: it is the voice of their blood crying from the ground, and rising into the ears of a righteous Judge who can not suffer iniquity and cruelty to triumph as now for ever. 12. Whatever secondary fulfillments this opening of the sixth seal may have found in history—as in the fall of the Roman Empire, or in the destruction of idolatry, or in the demolition of any great persecuting and oppressing power in any age of the world—who does not feel as he listens to it that it has one, and can have but one, full and exhaustive accomplishment in the events which shall precede and usher in the second coming of our Lord himself for judgment? The key to its meaning is to be found, in every particular, in our Saviour's great prophecy, and delivered in answer to the question of his disciples (Mat. 24). This 6th chapter, closing with the result of the opening of the sixth seal, stops just short of this actual coming of the Son of man. It is the ancient belief that the Book of Revelation was written after the destruction of Jerusalem, under Domitian, not under Nero. If this be so, remark that John, and he who taught and inspired John with the vision of truth, did not consider the prophecy of our Lord contained in the chapter referred to, to be completed and done with, as many would now tell us, when Jerusalem fell. The ruin of Jerusalem, and of the Mosaic and Levitical institutions with it, was a fulfillment, but not the fulfillment, of our Saviour's words. Those words are manifold in their accomplishment. Wherever there is a church in a world; wherever there is a power of unbelief, ungodliness, and violence, throwing itself upon Christ's faith and people, and seeking to overbear and to destroy: whether it be the power of Jewish bigotry and fanaticism, as in the days of the first disciples; or of pagan Rome, with its idolatries and its cruelties, as in the days of John and of the Revelation; or of papal Rome, with its lying wonders and its anti-Christian assumptions, in ages later still; or of open and rampant atheism, as in the days of the first French Revolution; or of a subtler and more insidious infidelity, like that which is threatening now to deceive, if it were possible, the very elect—wherever and whatever this power be, then, in each successive century, the words of Christ to his first disciples adapt themselves afresh to the circumstances of his struggling servants; warn them of danger, exhort them to patience, arouse them to hope, assure them of victory; tell of a near end, for the individual and for the generation; tell also of a far end, not for ever to be postponed, for time itself and for the world; predict a destruction which shall befall each enemy of the truth, and predict a destruction which shall befall the enemy himself whom each in turn has represented and served; explain the meaning of tribulation, show whence it comes, and point to its swallowing up in glory; reveal the moving hand above, and disclose, from behind the cloud which conceals it, the clear, definite purpose and the unchanging, loving will. Thus understood, each separate downfall of evil becomes a prophecy of the next and of the last; and the partial fulfillment of our Lord's words in the destruction of Jerusalem, or of John's words in the downfall of idolatry and the dismemberment of Rome, becomes itself in turn a new warrant for the Church's expectation of the second advent and of the day of judgment. V. 16. The wrath of the Lamb.** The word, even in a context of vengeance and woe, still whispers mercy, grace, and peace. Even on the judgment-throne it is rich with the tender memories of Gethsemane and Calvary; even amid the dread solemnities of Omnipotent anger it speaks of a scene more sublimely divine than all their terrors. It utters the chosen title of crucified innocence, of patience unmurmuring, of love self-sacrificing. W. A. B.—The wrath in God is as much more intensely revealed in the incarnate life and ministry of Christ, as the love is, or the patience, or any other character of God. Since he is the Lamb, in other words, the most emphatic and appalling of all epithets will have its place, viz., the wrath of the Lamb. Our Christ must be the real king—Messiah—and no mere victim; he must govern, have his indignations, take the regal way in his salvation. His goodness must have fire and fiber enough to make it divine. His character is weak, unkindly, unchristly, and it can not be more, till the wrath is added to the patience of the Lamb. As he has come into the flesh to unfold God's human sympathy and tenderness, so, to maintain what is only fit proportion, he must needs be clothed in the rigors of judicial majesty. He, then, is to be the judge, as he himself openly declares, and before his judgment-seat all mankind, including all his rejecters, shall be gathered. He will separate them to their fit award. He will say, "ye did it not to me." He will speak the "depart." And this is the wrath, and this the day of wrath! H. B.—If we with our bodily eyes were to see the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and were to hear that trumpet call, at which the dead shall arise, can we, can our consciences tell us what would be our feelings at that sight and sound? Should we be filled with fear to our inmost souls, as if certain death were coming upon us, or should we look up to him whom we beheld amid the blessed company of his saints and angels, as to one whom we had long known, long loved, long desired to see, so that, love casting out fear, we should be full of joy amid all the terrors of the perishing world, because our Saviour and Redeemer was come, and our trial was over, and our perfect rest and happiness was at hand? Should we say to the mountains, "Fall on us," and to the hills, "Cover us"? or should we say, rather, "Lo, this is our God! we have waited for him, and he will save us"? T. A. 17. If there were no other argument for a future life, sin would furnish one, never to be refuted. We need descend into no depths of abstreme reasoning here—the simplest notions are conclusive enough. There is a cause standing over between the impartial Judge and ourselves; and a time for the hearing and decision of it must certainly come. If indefinitely delayed and forgotten, all loyal orders must harbor dissatisfaction and fear; while all who have actually been called to account and punished, will protest against the partiality. If conscience be but awake, the transgressor, as he stands at the verge of the present life, may thus properly decide upon his own fate. "I have sinned and perverted that which was right. Let me hide myself in the darkness of the grave! No; for God's ministers, and all beings—good and evil—shall demand me at the hands of death, and forbid I should be forgotten. The dust may not screen me—the clods may not cover me. Corruption may not say I am lost and gone. The highest tribunal is waiting my appearance; and, unless I am made there to stand, the honor of all government is blasted—the perfections of God impugned. True, I am insignificant; but yet am party in a cause in which the wisdom and purity and power of the eternal God are in question." I. T.—God regulates the movements of conscience, and God allows of no apology for sin. He can forgive it; he can forget it; he can blot it out as a cloud and a thick cloud; he can bury it in the depths of the sea; he can carry it away, so that no, more mention shall be made of it; but he never, no, never can excuse it. And the man who rejects Christ now, and treats him with scorn, and, instead of forsaking his sins, extenuates and apologizes for them, may be sure, that if not before, he will be startled by the trumpet peal of judgment; and then all his sophistry will leave him, and all his apologies will vanish, and as the great white throne is set, and the Judge descends, there will be a cry of agony, "This is Jesus whom I crucified; hide me from the presence of the Lamb." E. M.—If no immortal punishments were awaiting us, still the mere fact of being alienated from Christ, the gentle and the loving, who gave himself up to death for us, and suffered everything to rescue us from that punishment, and reconcile us, who were enemies by our transgressions, to his Father—this is greater than any punishment, and sufficient to arouse our souls, and induce us to be continually watchful. Chrys. Ch. 7. Six seals have been broken; and the breaking of each has been followed by a certain sign witnessed on the stage of vision. It has been shown how each one of the great classes of human suffering is in reality under the control of God, and how each one is premonitory of and preparatory for the return of Christ in glory. The cry of creation which introduces each is the brief and significant Come, addressed to the Lamb that was slain, and expressing that earnest expectation of the creature itself, which is waiting, ever waiting, for the manifestation of the sons of God. There has been seen the white horse of conquest, and the red horse of discord, and the black horse of scarcity, and the pale horse of mortality; there has been seen, as the fifth seal was broken, the vivid image of Christian martyrdom; and at the opening of the sixth, the fearful representation of those last terrors which shall instantly precede the second advent of the Son of man. We were prepared therefore to expect the immediate opening of the seventh and last seal, and with it the arrival of the consummation of all things. But a whole chapter intervenes. Might it not be apprehended that amid convulsions so terrific as those described under the opening of the sixth seal the Church itself might founder? Who shall secure Christ's servants against being involved in that catastrophe? Such is the misgiving to which the particular revelation now before us would minister. 1. The winds are symbols of judgment, and the four winds indicate the universality of that judgment. The angels are to be its executioners, so described in the verse which follows. But at present they are seen restraining the winds. 3. Until we have sealed. One alone actually impresses the seal: the rest concur and assist by restraining the operation of judgment until the sealing is accomplished. The image of the sealing is derived from the book of the prophet Ezekiel (9:2-6). There, too, are found the executioners of vengeance, in contrast with the one sealer. And can we doubt, after proceeding thus far, what is the precise thing designated by the sealing? We have seen God's judgments abroad in the earth; we have seen the train and procession of executioners starting with the sword of Roman conquest, and ending with the prognostications of the instantly impending advent. And we have traced the very same line of prediction through our Lord's own prophecy of the things that should come, as written in the 24th chapter of Matthew's gospel. We have seen there also the very same order and sequence; wars and rumors of wars; nation rising against nation; famines, pestilences, then martyrdoms; then, after those tribulations, the sun darkened and the moon withdrawing her light, and the sign of the Son of man already seen in heaven. He is, as it were, in act to descend. The sixth seal is opened, the seventh is trembling for its breaking. At that point the one prophecy says, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, restraining the four winds of final, devastating, desolating judgment; and I saw another angel rising from the east, and bidding them wait till he should have sealed, for distinction and preservation, the servants of his God and theirs; and the other prophecy says, The Son of man shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. What can be more precise, to the very letter, to the very end, than the coincidence of the two prophecies? What more evident, to one who will judge of Scripture by Scripture and ask the Holy Spirit who inspired both to interpret to him each by each, than that the sealed of the one are the elect of the other, and that the loving purpose and the preserving care in the one and in the other is the same, not less in the occasion of its exercise than in the nature of its operation? V. 9. The Scriptures do not intimate that in the ultimate winding up of things the aggregate of God's people will be small. The Bible seeks to excite no tears, no lamentations, because so few will join in the chorus of redemption. It gives no intimation that the Father's house will lack occupants, or that any of its apartments will stand vacant. The whole tone of the Bible, when it speaks of the final issue of time—the final results of all this world's history—is one of jubilee and triumph, never of sorrow and despondency. There is no intimation that God will make a sad failure out of this enterprise of earth, or that he will lack hearts and voices redeemed from earth to praise him. There will be no thinness in the ranks, no poverty of hearts or voices, when all his people, the portion of the Lord, shall be gathered in. J. D.—And when we look at the numbers without number of the redeemed, and at the wonderful revelation of the glory of God, of his mingled justice and mercy, which is made, and shall be for ever, in every one of these, we see a result worthy of this strange scene of six thousand years, of its central figure, the cross of Christ, and of its closing scenes, the final conflagration, and the general judgment. M. H. 10-12. This we are told they do. They worship. They satisfy, it would seem, in perfection, that mysterious instinct of devotion—that inborn craving to look upward and adore, which, let false philosophy say what it will, proves the most benighted idolater to be a man, and not a brute—a spirit, and not a merely natural thing. They have worshiped, and so are blest. They have hungered and thirsted after righteousness, and now they are filled. They have longed for, toiled for, it may be died for, the true, the beautiful, and the good; and now they can gaze upward at the perfect reality of that which they saw on earth, only as in a glass darkly, dimly, and afar; and can contemplate the utterly free, the utterly beautiful, and the utterly good in the character of God and the face of Jesus Christ. They entered while on earth into the mystery and glory of self-sacrifice; and now they find their bliss in gazing on the one perfect and eternal sacrifice, and rejoicing in the thought that it is the cause and ground of the whole universe, even the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. C. K. —Every image which denotes the purest joy is introduced into this description of the ultimate blessedness of the redeemed. They are clad in white, the wedding garments of a great festivity. Music is the natural utterance of their delight. Nor is this a strained and artificial expression. It is full-toned chorus; it is hearty praise; it is jubilant adoration. And as that doxology of the Redeemer waxes louder and fuller, the very pillars and arches of heaven are tremulous with joy. Divested of all that is tropical and symbolical in form, the one idea conveyed to us is, that the climacteric of redemption is full, irrepressible, eternal joy. A religion which falls short of positive and unfailing pleasure, as the ultimate law of life, can not meet the necessities of humanity. Redemption is an advance on creation. It more than regains what was lost, more than restores what was original. The burden of that heavenly song is salvation, blessing, and thanksgiving. The second Paradise is better than Eden. The joy of man redeemed, restored, and perfected, is greater than that of man in the glory of his innocence. W. A. What a brave encouragement is it for one that is come for grace to the throne of grace, to see so great a number already there on their seats, in their robes, with their palms in their hands and their crowns upon their heads, singing of salvation to God and the Lamb! And I say again—and speak now to the dejected—methinks it would be strange, oh, thou that art so afraid that the greatness of thy sins will be a bar unto thee, if among all this great number of pipers and harpers that are got to glory, thou canst not espy one that, when here, was as vile a sinner as thyself. Lock, man; they are there for thee to view them, and for thee to take encouragement to hope, when thou shalt consider what grace and mercy have done for them. Behold, tempted soul; dost thou not yet see what a throne of grace here is, and what multitudes are already arrived thither, to give thanks unto his name that sits thereon, and to the Lamb for ever and ever? And wilt thou hang thy harp upon the willows, and go drooping up and down the world, as if there was no God, no grace, no throne of grace, to apply thyself unto for mercy and grace to help in time of need? Hark; dost thou not hear them what they say? “Worthy,” say they, “is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.” And this is written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope; and that the drooping ones might come boldly to the throne of grace, to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Bun. 11. Angels welcome them as partakers of their joy, and delight in their happiness. When man was created, “these morning stars sang together; these sons of God shouted for joy.” When he was redeemed, their bright hosts flew to earth, and sang, “Glory to God in the highest.” When a sinner repents, there is joy in the presence of the angels; and in the midst of all the sorrows and trials and temptations here below, they are ministering spirits to the heirs of salvation. With warmth of affection will these holy beings welcome us to their blissful society above! With what transport will they lead us up to the throne of God and the Lamb, and point us to the surrounding glories of our eternal abode; with what joy will they relate, and we hear, the account of their embassies of love to us, while we were here training for heaven! And while we celebrate the grace that brought us through, and dwell on the wonders of redeeming love, though they sing not our song, yet with a voice as the sound of many waters and the voice of mighty thunderings, they will strike the chorus to our praises. 14-17. The description is highly figurative, but it conveys to us the clearest conception of unqualified good, and the total absence of all evil. There, and above all, sin shall be no more; there nothing that defiles shall enter. Every cause of sin will be removed: no enticing companions to seduce, nor carnal body to corrupt, nor deceitful heart to ensnare; no evil world to tempt, no Satan to deceive, no cessation of divine influence on the soul. All sufferings are forgotten, or remembered only to bless God, who counted them worthy to suffer for his name. From these hills of salvation, they shall look back on their passage through this troubled life, and—the winds and waves having ceased—shall enjoy the everlasting calm of heaven. Everything is done by infinite wisdom and goodness to banish the very elements of evil, to dispel the slightest shade of misery. With his own hand of mercy, their Father, God, hath wiped away all tears from their eyes. N. W. T. 17. The Lamb who is in the midst of the throne, appearing still as the Lamb of Calvary—for the scenes of that great sacrifice have left their enduring impression on all the life and joy of heaven— Jesus, their once crucified Redeemer, is still as ever their Shepherd, and shall feed them, and he shall lead them unto living fountains of waters. Food for their mental and moral nature—thought, knowledge, truth, such revelations of God and of God's works as will minister to the endless growth of sinless minds around the throne of God shall be supplied to them by their well-known Shepherd. Has he not constituted that being, social, intellectual, and moral? and has he not nurtured each and all of its growing powers on such scale as the scenes of earth admit, so that with infinite facility he can resume their education and carry it on from one stage of progress to another, all along the march of heaven's eternal ages? All this and more may be included and implied in the simple words—"The Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters." H. C. 8 : 1. We see reason to doubt whether the book itself, the sealed book which the Lamb takes out of the right hand of God, and of which he has now broken each successive seal, is ever read to us; whether its contents are not rather reserved for a future state, to be the subject of satisfying and adoring meditation through the ages of the eternal age. The breaking of each of the first six seals is followed by a new sign, a new scene, a new disclosure: but the consequence of the opening of the seventh seal is not sign nor scene, not speech nor disclosure, but silence: it is the signal for the dropping of the curtain upon the stage of vision, and when it rises again, it is for a new act, with other performers and amid altered circumstances. The impediments are removed, the scroll is spread, the divine reader is prepared: but the actual reading is not for earth, but for heaven. V. 8 : 2 AND I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; and the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed. And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter. And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise. And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabitants of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound! 9 : 1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace: and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth 9 were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. 10. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power 11 was to hurt men five months. And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath 12 his name Apollyon. One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter. 13. And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar 14 which is before God, saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels 15 which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of 16 men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: 17 and I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jactuth, and brimstone: and the heads of horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. 18 stone. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and 19 by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them 20 they do hurt. And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood; which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: 21 neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. 10:1 And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of 2 fire: and he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and 3 his left foot on the earth, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when 4 he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto 5 me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. And the 6 angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are 7 therein, that there should be time no longer: but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets. 8. And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon 9 the earth. And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in 10 thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was 11 bitter. And he said unto me, Thou trust prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings. 11:1 And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, 2 and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the 3. Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and 4 threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. 5 and if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he 6 must in this manner be killed. These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite 7 the earth with all plagues, as often as they will. And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, 8 and shall overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. 9. And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies 10 three days and a half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one 11 to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth. And after three days and a half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood 12 upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven 13 in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven 14 thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly. 15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he 16 shall reign for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on 17 their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy 18 great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldst give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; 19 and shouldst destroy them which destroy the earth. And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament; and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail. NOTHING is great in this world but the kingdom of Jesus Christ; nothing but that, to a spiritual eye, has an air of permanency. The history of the past has been but a history of the rise and fall of individuals and of nations; but amid all the changes and overturnings which have thus far gone to fill up the annals of time, the kingdom of Christ has remained, and, under the protection of him whose wisdom and power are symbolized by the seven spirits of God abroad in all the earth, it is steadily advancing, enlarging its boundaries on every side, and going on to fill the earth. The days which are passing now are the days of the Son of man; and each successive one as it passes, heaving into being new and surprising events, is but an illustration of the wisdom and the might of Him who sits upon the throne, as they all mark the different stages of that grand revolution which is going on, and which in its issue shall show the earth converted into a noble temple, and that consecrated to Christ; and whose melody, issuing simultaneously from every dwelling-place, shall be but the echo of the anthem long since raised in heaven—the anthem of praise to the “Lamb that has been slain.” E. M. Chs. 8-11. Seven trumpets blown. The introduction to this series is a vision of high solemnity in the presence of God (8:2-6). There is a presentation of the prayers of saints with incense, and, as a sign of the answering of those prayers “by terrible things,” there is a casting down of altar-fire upon the earth. The same golden censer that wafted up the incense receives and pours down the fire. Thus the way is prepared for a series of devouring judgments. Seven angels “prepared to sound” the trumpets which were given to them. The results which ensue are arranged in several respects like those which follow the breaking of seals. Thus, in either case, there is a difference marked between the first four and the remaining three. [The first four complete the world-wide judgments, and with the fifth the three woes on mankind begin. A.] There is an interval between the sixth and seventh, occupied by two episodical visions. The greatest intensity of terror is under the sixth; and then, as under the seventh seal there was silence in heaven, so under the seventh trumpet the mystery of God is finished. D. F.—When the seventh is about to sound the consummation of God’s judgment passes unrecorded, as it did under the seals; and at the seventh trumpet we have the song of thanksgiving and triumph in heaven. Such remarkable correspondence carries its own explanation: the two visions of the seals and trumpets run to one and the same termination. A.—This section of the prophecy does not follow chronologically upon the former, that of the seals. As the former, so this also had no doubt a minor fulfillment, perhaps many minor fulfillments, in times near to (or in part coincident with) those of John himself; and certainly the former, no less than this, carries us down to the very end of time. The two visions, briefly distinguishable as that of the seven seals and that of the seven trumpets, are on the whole rather parallel to each other than consecutive. The trumpet had various sacred associations in the history and ritual of Israel. In the giving of the law on Mount Sinai it was the last signal of God’s immediate presence (Ex. 19:16, 19). Hence its solemn application in the New Testament (1 Thes. 4:16). The trumpet was the appointed summons to sacrifice and to worship (Num. 10:10). It was the signal of war; announcing its approach, and summoning to defense (1 Sam. 13:3). But, various as were the Old Testament associations, all sacred and solemn, with the sounding of the trumpet, there was one only with the particular combination here found, that of seven trumpets (Josh. 6:2-5). This passage contains the key to the prophecy now before us. In the days of John the Church of Christ was a little army compassing a mighty stronghold, peopled with gigantic powers, and ready to laugh to scorn its few and feeble assailants. But the vision of the seven trumpets was full of hope, full of comfort, for them. It bade them remember the siege of Jericho in the days of old, when by faith alone the victory was won, without one blow struck or one engine aimed by man. Even so shall it be in that greater and more magnificent war by which the kingdoms of the world are to be made at last the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. The great city with its walls and bulwarks before which the little army of the faithful is encamped, and which must fall before they can gain entrance into the heavenly Canaan, is now the world of sin, of apostasy, of unbelief; the world, calling itself by different names in different centuries, but uniform and unchanged through all ages at least in this, that it is not subject to the law of God, and is not on the side of Christ in his warfare against the enemies of human good and human happiness. Against this world, changing ever in its form, but unchanged and unchangeable in its deep inner principles, the Church which is Christ's army has to make war in Christ's name. And how? Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, said the Lord of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain! Before my servant, before my people, before the ark of my covenant, before my word and my will and my outstretched arm, thou shalt become a plain; for the battle is the Lord's, and the cause of his Church is his cause. V. The effects produced, as the trumpets are successively blown, may be summarily stated thus: 1. Havoc on the earth. 2. Convulsion; part of the sea turned into blood. 3. Bitterness. 4. Darkness. All these woes fall upon "a third part" of the earth, the sea, the rivers and fountains, and the heavenly orbs. There is a marked reserve. The judgments recall the plagues of hail, flood, and darkness that fall on Egypt; and, like those plagues, they stop short of extermination, being intended for humiliation and warning. 5. The letting loose of hellish malice for a season. 6. The loosing of "four angels, which are bound in the great river Euphrates." That river represents the peoples and multitudes that sustain the mystic Babylon (17 : 15); and a great force among them, held in for a time, breaks forth. A mighty host goes out to kill and slay. After seven thunders have been uttered, and a vision had of the death and resurrection of two witnesses, the last step in the series is reached. 7. Great voices are heard in heaven. Under the seventh seal, heaven was silent; but now "great voices" proclaimed the world-sovereignty of "our Lord and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever." Therefore the Church, represented by the twenty-four presbyters, gives solemn thanks to the "Lord God Almighty." Some of the historical interpreters give definite meanings to this series in a wonderful fashion. The first trumpet announces the invasion of Italy by Alaric, the second sounds for Genseric, the third for Attila, the fourth for Odoacer, the fifth for Mohammed, and the sixth proclaims the Turkish invasion of Christendom, and capture of Constantinople. All this seems wild and arbitrary in the extreme. The cycles of visions repeat the same lessons and warnings, announcing judgments and distress of nations before the coming of the Lord. Yet they are not mere repetitions. The revelation under the trumpets is in advance of that under the seals. It shows more fully the agencies to be employed for and against the Church, and mentions evils and oppositions which are yet more clearly developed under the next revolution of the wheel. D. F. 8 : 3. There was given to him much incense, that he might give it to the prayers of all the saints on to, that is, to be offered upon, the golden altar. The incense was used to give a sweet scent to that fire-offering upon which it was thrown. When the angel has incense given him to throw upon the prayers of the saints, it indicates that those prayers may now rise with acceptance to the throne of God; in other words, that the time for actually offering them, because the time when God will answer them, is now fully come. And then there goes up the smoke of the incense out of the angel's hand, for (that is, to give a sweet scent to) those prayers which before were lying as it were saverless because premature. We Christians know of one and but one Mediator. The angel's part is not one of intercession or of mediation: he comes simply to testify that God's time is come, and that the prayers of the saints for deliverance and for victory have been heard and shall now be answered. And now the angel has taken the censer, and he filled it from the fire of the altar, and cast the contents upon the earth. The censer had fulfilled its first office, that of scenting and perfuming the prayers of the saints: now it has a ministry of judgment. The very censer, which had just been used to give fragrance to the prayers of the saints, was immediately afterward employed to scatter fire from off the same altar upon the earth. Prayer, then, has two aspects. It brings an answer of peace to the offerer: it brings an answer of judgment upon the world of evil. And does not this passage give us what I may indeed call a formidable idea of the consequences of Christian prayers? The final answer to such prayers, the fulfillment of the cry uttered from generation to generation, Thy kingdom come, is the discomfiture and destruction of all evil; sin first of all, and with it all those who have determinately taken part with sin. Yes, the prayer of a Christian man may be set forth, as the Psalmist says, before God as incense; but it returns back upon earth in the shape of a fire to consume evil. 9-13. The sixth judgment. A voice is heard from among the four horns of that golden altar on which lie for sacrifice the prayers of saints. It is the cry of God's oppressed people on earth which brings down this judgment upon the world of their oppressors. The judgment itself consists in setting free four angels hitherto bound; in giving scope, that is, to the operation of a particular agency thus far restrained by God's long-suffering toward the world of the ungodly. The angels are four in number, in allusion to the four corners of the earth, or the four winds, to express the world-wide character of the judgments foretold. The place of their binding first and then of their loosing is the river Euphrates, marked in the Old Testament as the boundary between the kingdom of Israel and the kingdoms of the East, whether Assyrian, Chaldean, or Persian, as the limit from beyond which came the hosts of invading nations to make war upon the nations and upon the city of God. The Euphrates is thus used as a general emblem of the seat of God's hosts of war gathered for attack upon an unbelieving or apostate world. (See Isa. 13.) Who the enemy is against whom the hosts of the Lord are thus mustered may be gathered from the 20th and 21st verses. He is the world sunk in sin, and therefore hostile to the Church. The predictions of chapters 8 and 9, like those in the section of the seven seals, are manifold, not single, in their fulfillment. Wherever war has been employed, under God's overruling providence, to humble pride and to break up overgrown and over-bearing powers, there have these chapters had an accomplishment again and again, and each separate accomplishment has been in its turn a prediction and prognostication of the greatest accomplishment and of the last. Those hordes of invading barbarians which broke up the monster empire of Rome, and out of whose conquests modern Europe eventually grew, were one fulfillment—they were not the only fulfillment—of these prophecies. Never were the figures of locust-swarms, with their teeth as of lions and their hair as of women, more strikingly exemplified than in those irruptions. But they did not exhaust these prophecies. The words of God are manifold in their application, just because they deal not with instances only, but with principles. 10:7. The statement is that a time is fixed in God's counsels for the completion and termination of the present mixed state; that the sounding of the seventh trumpet, according to the figurative language of this portion of the Book of Revelation, shall be the signal for the close of that which is; and that this purpose and determination of God is good news to his servants. V.—[For a more complete and satisfactory exposition of this and other points, read Dr. Vaughan's judicious and admirable Lectures upon this book. B.] 10:8 to 11:14. These episodes between the sixth and seventh trumpets, are distinctly introductory to that which is next to follow. A little book is given to the seer, sweet to his mouth, but bitter in digestion, with an announcement that he is yet again to prophesy to many nations—that a fresh series of prophetic visions, glorious indeed but woful, was now to be delivered by him. These begin by the measurement of the temple of God—seeing that it is the Church herself, in her innermost hold, which is now to become the subject of the prophecy. The course of the two witnesses, recalling to us by their spirit and power Moses and Elias, is predicted: and during the prediction, one principal figure of the subsequent visions is by anticipation introduced: the wild beast that cometh up out of the abyss. That this is so, is at once fatal in my estimation to the continuous historical interpretation. I can give no explanation of the two witnesses. I have studied the various solutions, and I own that I can not find any which I can endorse as satisfactory. A. 11:1,2. Even before Jerusalem was destroyed, even while the material temple was still standing—how much more now, when (as we believe) the sword of Roman conquest had already done its work upon the holy city and its sanctuary—the name of the temple of God had been transferred from the building on Mount Zion to the living community of believing men. Now, to measure this temple is to mark out its extent; to ascertain how much (if I might so express it) is temple; what are the dimensions, what the limits, of that which is really holy. Like the very different yet not wholly divergent vision of the sealing, it is the object of this passage to indicate the safety, because the indelible consecration, of God's true servants. The shrine is to be measured: the court is to be left out. There shall always be a true Church, a true spiritual divine temple: but there shall be appended to it a larger space which must be described rather as an outer court of that temple, a community which partakes not in the true worship of devotion and self-dedication, and which, whatever its profession and whatever its name, is in reality a multitude without grace and without vitality. 3. The witnesses are in one sense ideal, but in another sense they are real persons: they are the witnesses of revelation, the witnesses of truth, the witnesses of the gospel, the witnesses of God, the witnesses of Christ, in every age: personified here as two in number. The two witnesses must raise the voice of their prophesying during the interval longer or shorter, the symbolical three years and a half, forty and two months, or twelve hundred and sixty days of mingled fidelity and defection, of a measured shrine and a trampled court; and then, then at length, in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, who is about to sound, then shall the end come; then shall the mystery of God be finished even as he evangelized his servants the prophets (10:7). 4. The witnesses here are said to be the two olive-trees and the two candlesticks which stand before the Lord of the earth. And the vision of Zechariah (4:11-14) has taught us to connect the two emblems. The olive-trees are the feeders of the lamps. Through the two golden pipes they empty the golden oil out of themselves into the lights which shine before God. How glorious a description of the office of the earthly witnesses! They are channels of grace, and they are concentrations of light. The Church in her darkest times shall not lack, has not lacked, these. V. 6. The half of the mystic seven is a ruling number in the apocalyptic periods. Three years and a half had been the duration of the drought prayed for by Elijah (Jas. 5:17); "a time, times, and the dividing of time" (= three years and a half), was the prophetic duration of the persecution of the saints in Dan. 7:25. Thus we find here that the two witnesses, one of whose powers is to shut up heaven that there shall be no rain, shall prophesy 1,260 days, i. e., three years and a half; also the testimony of three witnesses is to endure forty-two months (= three years and a half), as that of Moses endured through the forty-two stations of Israel in the wilderness. Three days and a half are the bodies of the witnesses to lie unburied in the street of the great city (v. 9); again, for 1,260 days is the woman to be fed in the wilderness; again, forty-two months is the period of the power of the first wild beast, which ascended from the sea (13:5). Of these latter periods no satisfactory solution has ever been given. Again and again, the interpreters of prophesy have fixed a time for the end of them; again and again, that time has passed unsignalized by any event; again and again, these interpreters have shifted on their ground into the as yet safe future. A. 7-13. There is a triumph over the fall of Christ's witnesses. The world rejoices over them, as one after another they pass away from the scene of their testimony; for deeply had the sting of their words and the sting of their deeds, the reproof of their gospel, and the reproof of their example, entered into the souls of their despisers and their adversaries. For three days and a half, for the half of the seven, for a period short and incomplete, the triumph of the world, the dance around the corpses, is suffered to continue: men send gifts one to another, as in a day of feasting and of joy over glad tidings. But there comes for the faithful witnesses a morning of joy after this night of weeping; their cause triumphs, though they may be no more; their memory revives, and is honored when honor can no more elate: they themselves are in the heavenly mansions: already rest, hereafter glory! V.—Christianity, like civilization, may be overborne at different points, or turned from its course; but it must recover its lost ground. It is a guardian power, which has long been carrying the human family, as in its bosom, over a rugged road, and beneath inclement skies; but will not be stayed until it have fulfilled its trust. I. T. 15. "The kingdom (sovereignty) over the world is our Lord's, and his Christ's." The kingdoms of the world give way to the kingdom over the world exercised by Christ (Dan. 2:44). The earth-kingdoms are many; His shall be one (Zech. 14:9). Fausset.—Can the earth be enlightened? Can the nations be disenthralled? Can the whole creation, which has groaned and travailed together in pain until now, be brought out of bondage into glorious liberty? Yes, all this can be done, and will be done: First, by the judgments of heaven, in which the Son of man will come upon the strong man armed, and take away his armor; secondly, by the universal propagation of the gospel, before the light of which idolatry, imposture, and superstition will retreat abashed; thirdly, by frequent and, at last, general revivals of religion, giving resistless power to the gospel, as it is preached to every creature. L. B.—The means are at command, and just so soon as the Spirit is poured out like water upon the thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground, we shall find the great cause of the world's conversion moving on toward its ultimate triumphs, with an efficacy and a glory that will awaken new songs in heaven. Expansion is the very law of the Saviour's kingdom. Christianity embraces every feature of increase and perpetuity; and, whenever it shall please God to give the Spirit in primitive fullness and power to all our churches and all our missionaries, we shall be prepared to hear it shouted on earth, and echoed from heaven, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ! D. Magic. 16. The twenty-four elders. The scenery of the fourth and fifth chapters still continues; the council is still sitting in heaven upon the fortunes of earth; with such additional features as we have from time to time noticed in the sections which followed. And here the adorations of the fifth chapter are renewed, in special acknowledgment of the assumption of universal dominion by the Lord and his Christ. 18. And to destroy those who destroy the earth. There is only one word in the original language for destroying and corrupting. To defile is to destroy. To corrupt the earth is to destroy the earth. It is, to spoil God's work; to mar and to disfigure by its abuse that which God made all beautiful and all holy. See then what a sinful life is! See how God's enemies, that is, the ungodly and the sinful, are regarded in heaven! They destroy the earth. God meant everything for one use, and they turn everything to another use. God meant his creation to be enjoyed by his creatures; enjoyed with moderation, enjoyed with thankfulness, enjoyed in kindness, in tenderness, in love; and behold, we have gone forth to trample and to waste, to sully and to defile, to turn to selfish indulgence, to use as instruments of vile temptation, or as implements of unholy warfare, those things or those persons, those members and faculties, those bodies, those minds, those souls, which might have been and which ought to have been altogether applied to his service and made vocal with his praise. And now at last the season is come to destroy those who have thus destroyed the earth. 19. The temple of God was opened. The secret place of his dwelling was thrown wide open, giving sight, giving access, giving place and abode for men. The eye of John rests once again in vision upon the lost ark of his nation: he sees it in heaven, and he sees it disclosed to public gaze. There is no longer any enclosing wall, no longer a concealing curtain. What could this indicate but that the mystery of God is now finished, his counsels accomplished, his work concerning man consummated? V. Christianity fulfills its own prophecies; it proves its divine origin by superhuman victories. Every opposing religion, and every arrogant philosopher, it has overcome in its resistless march, and from them all, one after another, has been heard the expiring cry, wrested, it is said, from the apostate Julian: "Thou hast conquered, O Galilean!" It is more than realizing the vision of Cicero, in his "Laws," that "the whole world is to be esteemed one community of gods and men." Through our earth it is diffusing the principle of justice, as it also here first made charity to be the greatest of the virtues. It has ennobled womanhood, sanctified childhood, spiritualized manhood, and opened to all the gates of endless life. It helps us to "strip off our fond and false identity," and "woos and clasps us to the eternal spheres." It has brought the kingdom of God to the very vision and heart of man. It touches our deepest and tenderest feelings, and makes us strong for conflict or submission. It awakens, that it may still, the sense of guilt. It relieves our untold sorrows, and imparts these hidden joys no tongue can tell. Its inmost efficacy is seen in the formation of a holy mind, in the transformation of a sinner into a loving child of God, a marvel which neither science knows, nor art can imitate. And in the race, as in the soul, it creates new and higher wants, and satisfies them. Its promises irradiate the future, as its beneficence has blessed the past. Human rights and human wants demand its triumphs. The world travails and sighs for redemption, so that perpetual war may issue in perpetual peace; that oppression and caste may be abolished; that labor may be guided by moral law, and not by the soulless rule of supply and demand; that our politics may be patriotic and just; that the terrible inequalities of social life may be eradicated, the hungry fed, the naked clothed; that the physical may be for the moral, and the moral for the spiritual; that our humanity may be one brotherhood, in Christ our elder brother and our King. All this is pledged in the triumph of his kingdom, fore- shadowed in the promise of its millennial glory. And though some expositors, adhering to the letter, put that glory in a merely sensual and Jewish form, reminding us of Milton's sarcasm, that "what to the Jew is only Jewish is for the Christian Canaanitish," yet, that it is to be a kingdom in which Christ shall reign and redemption be completed, is insured to us by the faithful pledge of him who has promised, and is alone able to effect, that grandest of consummations, that brightest vision of the race, the ushering in of that "sacred, high, eternal noon," in which the kingdoms of the world shall become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. H. B. S. Jesus, their once crucified Redeemer, is still as ever their Shepherd, and shall feed them, and he shall lead them unto living fountains of waters. Food for their mental and moral nature—thought, knowledge, truth, such revelations of God and of God's works as will minister to the endless growth of sinless minds around the throne of God shall be supplied to them by their well-known Shepherd. Has he not constituted that being, social, intellectual, and moral? and has he not nurtured each and all of its growing powers on such scale as the scenes of earth admit, so that with infinite facility he can resume their education and carry it on from one stage of progress to another, all along the march of heaven's eternal ages? All this and more may be included and implied in the simple words—"The Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters." H. C. 8 : 1. We see reason to doubt whether the book itself, the sealed book which the Lamb takes out of the right hand of God, and of which he has now broken each successive seal, is ever read to us; whether its contents are not rather reserved for a future state, to be the subject of satisfying and adoring meditation through the ages of the eternal age. The breaking of each of the first six seals is followed by a new sign, a new scene, a new disclosure: but the consequence of the opening of the seventh seal is not sign nor scene, not speech nor disclosure, but silence: it is the signal for the dropping of the curtain upon the stage of vision, and when it rises again, it is for a new act, with other performers and amid altered circumstances. The impediments are removed, the scroll is spread, the divine reader is prepared: but the actual reading is not for earth, but for heaven. V. 8 : 2 AND I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; and the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed. And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter. And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise. And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabitants of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound! 9 : 1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace: and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth 9 were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. 10. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power 11 was to hurt men five months. And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath 12 his name Apollyon. One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter. 13. And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar 14 which is before God, saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels 15 which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of 16 men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: 17 and I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jactuth, and brimstone: and the heads of horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. 18 stone. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and 19 by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them 20 they do hurt. And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood; which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: 21 neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. 10:1 And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of 2 fire: and he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and 3 his left foot on the earth, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when 4 he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto 5 me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. And the 6 angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are 7 therein, that there should be time no longer: but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets. 8. And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon 9 the earth. And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in 10 thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was 11 bitter. And he said unto me, Thou trust prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings. 11:1 And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, 2 and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the 3. Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and 4 threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. 5 and if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he 6 must in this manner be killed. These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite 7 the earth with all plagues, as often as they will. And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, 8 and shall overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. 9. And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies 10 three days and a half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one 11 to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth. And after three days and a half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood 12 upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven 13 in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven 14 thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly. 15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he 16 shall reign for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on 17 their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy 18 great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldst give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; 19 and shouldst destroy them which destroy the earth. And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament; and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail. NOTHING is great in this world but the kingdom of Jesus Christ; nothing but that, to a spiritual eye, has an air of permanency. The history of the past has been but a history of the rise and fall of individuals and of nations; but amid all the changes and overturnings which have thus far gone to fill up the annals of time, the kingdom of Christ has remained, and, under the protection of him whose wisdom and power are symbolized by the seven spirits of God abroad in all the earth, it is steadily advancing, enlarging its boundaries on every side, and going on to fill the earth. The days which are passing now are the days of the Son of man; and each successive one as it passes, heaving into being new and surprising events, is but an illustration of the wisdom and the might of Him who sits upon the throne, as they all mark the different stages of that grand revolution which is going on, and which in its issue shall show the earth converted into a noble temple, and that consecrated to Christ; and whose melody, issuing simultaneously from every dwelling-place, shall be but the echo of the anthem long since raised in heaven—the anthem of praise to the “Lamb that has been slain.” E. M. Chs. 8-11. Seven trumpets blown. The introduction to this series is a vision of high solemnity in the presence of God (8:2-6). There is a presentation of the prayers of saints with incense, and, as a sign of the answering of those prayers “by terrible things,” there is a casting down of altar-fire upon the earth. The same golden censer that wafted up the incense receives and pours down the fire. Thus the way is prepared for a series of devouring judgments. Seven angels “prepared to sound” the trumpets which were given to them. The results which ensue are arranged in several respects like those which follow the breaking of seals. Thus, in either case, there is a difference marked between the first four and the remaining three. [The first four complete the world-wide judgments, and with the fifth the three woes on mankind begin. A.] There is an interval between the sixth and seventh, occupied by two episodical visions. The greatest intensity of terror is under the sixth; and then, as under the seventh seal there was silence in heaven, so under the seventh trumpet the mystery of God is finished. D. F.—When the seventh is about to sound the consummation of God’s judgment passes unrecorded, as it did under the seals; and at the seventh trumpet we have the song of thanksgiving and triumph in heaven. Such remarkable correspondence carries its own explanation: the two visions of the seals and trumpets run to one and the same termination. A.—This section of the prophecy does not follow chronologically upon the former, that of the seals. As the former, so this also had no doubt a minor fulfillment, perhaps many minor fulfillments, in times near to (or in part coincident with) those of John himself; and certainly the former, no less than this, carries us down to the very end of time. The two visions, briefly distinguishable as that of the seven seals and that of the seven trumpets, are on the whole rather parallel to each other than consecutive. The trumpet had various sacred associations in the history and ritual of Israel. In the giving of the law on Mount Sinai it was the last signal of God’s immediate presence (Ex. 19:16, 19). Hence its solemn application in the New Testament (1 Thes. 4:16). The trumpet was the appointed summons to sacrifice and to worship (Num. 10:10). It was the signal of war; announcing its approach, and summoning to defense (1 Sam. 13:3). But, various as were the Old Testament associations, all sacred and solemn, with the sounding of the trumpet, there was one only with the particular combination here found, that of seven trumpets (Josh. 6:2-5). This passage contains the key to the prophecy now before us. In the days of John the Church of Christ was a little army compassing a mighty stronghold, peopled with gigantic powers, and ready to laugh to scorn its few and feeble assailants. But the vision of the seven trumpets was full of hope, full of comfort, for them. It bade them remember the siege of Jericho in the days of old, when by faith alone the victory was won, without one blow struck or one engine aimed by man. Even so shall it be in that greater and more magnificent war by which the kingdoms of the world are to be made at last the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. The great city with its walls and bulwarks before which the little army of the faithful is encamped, and which must fall before they can gain entrance into the heavenly Canaan, is now the world of sin, of apostasy, of unbelief; the world, calling itself by different names in different centuries, but uniform and unchanged through all ages at least in this, that it is not subject to the law of God, and is not on the side of Christ in his warfare against the enemies of human good and human happiness. Against this world, changing ever in its form, but unchanged and unchangeable in its deep inner principles, the Church which is Christ's army has to make war in Christ's name. And how? Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, said the Lord of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain! Before my servant, before my people, before the ark of my covenant, before my word and my will and my outstretched arm, thou shalt become a plain; for the battle is the Lord's, and the cause of his Church is his cause. V. The effects produced, as the trumpets are successively blown, may be summarily stated thus: 1. Havoc on the earth. 2. Convulsion; part of the sea turned into blood. 3. Bitterness. 4. Darkness. All these woes fall upon "a third part" of the earth, the sea, the rivers and fountains, and the heavenly orbs. There is a marked reserve. The judgments recall the plagues of hail, flood, and darkness that fall on Egypt; and, like those plagues, they stop short of extermination, being intended for humiliation and warning. 5. The letting loose of hellish malice for a season. 6. The loosing of "four angels, which are bound in the great river Euphrates." That river represents the peoples and multitudes that sustain the mystic Babylon (17 : 15); and a great force among them, held in for a time, breaks forth. A mighty host goes out to kill and slay. After seven thunders have been uttered, and a vision had of the death and resurrection of two witnesses, the last step in the series is reached. 7. Great voices are heard in heaven. Under the seventh seal, heaven was silent; but now "great voices" proclaimed the world-sovereignty of "our Lord and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever." Therefore the Church, represented by the twenty-four presbyters, gives solemn thanks to the "Lord God Almighty." Some of the historical interpreters give definite meanings to this series in a wonderful fashion. The first trumpet announces the invasion of Italy by Alaric, the second sounds for Genseric, the third for Attila, the fourth for Odoacer, the fifth for Mohammed, and the sixth proclaims the Turkish invasion of Christendom, and capture of Constantinople. All this seems wild and arbitrary in the extreme. The cycles of visions repeat the same lessons and warnings, announcing judgments and distress of nations before the coming of the Lord. Yet they are not mere repetitions. The revelation under the trumpets is in advance of that under the seals. It shows more fully the agencies to be employed for and against the Church, and mentions evils and oppositions which are yet more clearly developed under the next revolution of the wheel. D. F. 8 : 3. There was given to him much incense, that he might give it to the prayers of all the saints on to, that is, to be offered upon, the golden altar. The incense was used to give a sweet scent to that fire-offering upon which it was thrown. When the angel has incense given him to throw upon the prayers of the saints, it indicates that those prayers may now rise with acceptance to the throne of God; in other words, that the time for actually offering them, because the time when God will answer them, is now fully come. And then there goes up the smoke of the incense out of the angel's hand, for (that is, to give a sweet scent to) those prayers which before were lying as it were saverless because premature. We Christians know of one and but one Mediator. The angel's part is not one of intercession or of mediation: he comes simply to testify that God's time is come, and that the prayers of the saints for deliverance and for victory have been heard and shall now be answered. And now the angel has taken the censer, and he filled it from the fire of the altar, and cast the contents upon the earth. The censer had fulfilled its first office, that of scenting and perfuming the prayers of the saints: now it has a ministry of judgment. The very censer, which had just been used to give fragrance to the prayers of the saints, was immediately afterward employed to scatter fire from off the same altar upon the earth. Prayer, then, has two aspects. It brings an answer of peace to the offerer: it brings an answer of judgment upon the world of evil. And does not this passage give us what I may indeed call a formidable idea of the consequences of Christian prayers? The final answer to such prayers, the fulfillment of the cry uttered from generation to generation, Thy kingdom come, is the discomfiture and destruction of all evil; sin first of all, and with it all those who have determinately taken part with sin. Yes, the prayer of a Christian man may be set forth, as the Psalmist says, before God as incense; but it returns back upon earth in the shape of a fire to consume evil. 9-13. The sixth judgment. A voice is heard from among the four horns of that golden altar on which lie for sacrifice the prayers of saints. It is the cry of God's oppressed people on earth which brings down this judgment upon the world of their oppressors. The judgment itself consists in setting free four angels hitherto bound; in giving scope, that is, to the operation of a particular agency thus far restrained by God's long-suffering toward the world of the ungodly. The angels are four in number, in allusion to the four corners of the earth, or the four winds, to express the world-wide character of the judgments foretold. The place of their binding first and then of their loosing is the river Euphrates, marked in the Old Testament as the boundary between the kingdom of Israel and the kingdoms of the East, whether Assyrian, Chaldean, or Persian, as the limit from beyond which came the hosts of invading nations to make war upon the nations and upon the city of God. The Euphrates is thus used as a general emblem of the seat of God's hosts of war gathered for attack upon an unbelieving or apostate world. (See Isa. 13.) Who the enemy is against whom the hosts of the Lord are thus mustered may be gathered from the 20th and 21st verses. He is the world sunk in sin, and therefore hostile to the Church. The predictions of chapters 8 and 9, like those in the section of the seven seals, are manifold, not single, in their fulfillment. Wherever war has been employed, under God's overruling providence, to humble pride and to break up overgrown and over-bearing powers, there have these chapters had an accomplishment again and again, and each separate accomplishment has been in its turn a prediction and prognostication of the greatest accomplishment and of the last. Those hordes of invading barbarians which broke up the monster empire of Rome, and out of whose conquests modern Europe eventually grew, were one fulfillment—they were not the only fulfillment—of these prophecies. Never were the figures of locust-swarms, with their teeth as of lions and their hair as of women, more strikingly exemplified than in those irruptions. But they did not exhaust these prophecies. The words of God are manifold in their application, just because they deal not with instances only, but with principles. 10:7. The statement is that a time is fixed in God's counsels for the completion and termination of the present mixed state; that the sounding of the seventh trumpet, according to the figurative language of this portion of the Book of Revelation, shall be the signal for the close of that which is; and that this purpose and determination of God is good news to his servants. V.—[For a more complete and satisfactory exposition of this and other points, read Dr. Vaughan's judicious and admirable Lectures upon this book. B.] 10:8 to 11:14. These episodes between the sixth and seventh trumpets, are distinctly introductory to that which is next to follow. A little book is given to the seer, sweet to his mouth, but bitter in digestion, with an announcement that he is yet again to prophesy to many nations—that a fresh series of prophetic visions, glorious indeed but woful, was now to be delivered by him. These begin by the measurement of the temple of God—seeing that it is the Church herself, in her innermost hold, which is now to become the subject of the prophecy. The course of the two witnesses, recalling to us by their spirit and power Moses and Elias, is predicted: and during the prediction, one principal figure of the subsequent visions is by anticipation introduced: the wild beast that cometh up out of the abyss. That this is so, is at once fatal in my estimation to the continuous historical interpretation. I can give no explanation of the two witnesses. I have studied the various solutions, and I own that I can not find any which I can endorse as satisfactory. A. 11:1,2. Even before Jerusalem was destroyed, even while the material temple was still standing—how much more now, when (as we believe) the sword of Roman conquest had already done its work upon the holy city and its sanctuary—the name of the temple of God had been transferred from the building on Mount Zion to the living community of believing men. Now, to measure this temple is to mark out its extent; to ascertain how much (if I might so express it) is temple; what are the dimensions, what the limits, of that which is really holy. Like the very different yet not wholly divergent vision of the sealing, it is the object of this passage to indicate the safety, because the indelible consecration, of God's true servants. The shrine is to be measured: the court is to be left out. There shall always be a true Church, a true spiritual divine temple: but there shall be appended to it a larger space which must be described rather as an outer court of that temple, a community which partakes not in the true worship of devotion and self-dedication, and which, whatever its profession and whatever its name, is in reality a multitude without grace and without vitality. 3. The witnesses are in one sense ideal, but in another sense they are real persons: they are the witnesses of revelation, the witnesses of truth, the witnesses of the gospel, the witnesses of God, the witnesses of Christ, in every age: personified here as two in number. The two witnesses must raise the voice of their prophesying during the interval longer or shorter, the symbolical three years and a half, forty and two months, or twelve hundred and sixty days of mingled fidelity and defection, of a measured shrine and a trampled court; and then, then at length, in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, who is about to sound, then shall the end come; then shall the mystery of God be finished even as he evangelized his servants the prophets (10:7). 4. The witnesses here are said to be the two olive-trees and the two candlesticks which stand before the Lord of the earth. And the vision of Zechariah (4:11-14) has taught us to connect the two emblems. The olive-trees are the feeders of the lamps. Through the two golden pipes they empty the golden oil out of themselves into the lights which shine before God. How glorious a description of the office of the earthly witnesses! They are channels of grace, and they are concentrations of light. The Church in her darkest times shall not lack, has not lacked, these. V. 6. The half of the mystic seven is a ruling number in the apocalyptic periods. Three years and a half had been the duration of the drought prayed for by Elijah (Jas. 5:17); "a time, times, and the dividing of time" (= three years and a half), was the prophetic duration of the persecution of the saints in Dan. 7:25. Thus we find here that the two witnesses, one of whose powers is to shut up heaven that there shall be no rain, shall prophesy 1,260 days, i. e., three years and a half; also the testimony of three witnesses is to endure forty-two months (= three years and a half), as that of Moses endured through the forty-two stations of Israel in the wilderness. Three days and a half are the bodies of the witnesses to lie unburied in the street of the great city (v. 9); again, for 1,260 days is the woman to be fed in the wilderness; again, forty-two months is the period of the power of the first wild beast, which ascended from the sea (13:5). Of these latter periods no satisfactory solution has ever been given. Again and again, the interpreters of prophesy have fixed a time for the end of them; again and again, that time has passed unsignalized by any event; again and again, these interpreters have shifted on their ground into the as yet safe future. A. 7-13. There is a triumph over the fall of Christ's witnesses. The world rejoices over them, as one after another they pass away from the scene of their testimony; for deeply had the sting of their words and the sting of their deeds, the reproof of their gospel, and the reproof of their example, entered into the souls of their despisers and their adversaries. For three days and a half, for the half of the seven, for a period short and incomplete, the triumph of the world, the dance around the corpses, is suffered to continue: men send gifts one to another, as in a day of feasting and of joy over glad tidings. But there comes for the faithful witnesses a morning of joy after this night of weeping; their cause triumphs, though they may be no more; their memory revives, and is honored when honor can no more elate: they themselves are in the heavenly mansions: already rest, hereafter glory! V.—Christianity, like civilization, may be overborne at different points, or turned from its course; but it must recover its lost ground. It is a guardian power, which has long been carrying the human family, as in its bosom, over a rugged road, and beneath inclement skies; but will not be stayed until it have fulfilled its trust. I. T. 15. "The kingdom (sovereignty) over the world is our Lord's, and his Christ's." The kingdoms of the world give way to the kingdom over the world exercised by Christ (Dan. 2:44). The earth-kingdoms are many; His shall be one (Zech. 14:9). Fausset.—Can the earth be enlightened? Can the nations be disenthralled? Can the whole creation, which has groaned and travailed together in pain until now, be brought out of bondage into glorious liberty? Yes, all this can be done, and will be done: First, by the judgments of heaven, in which the Son of man will come upon the strong man armed, and take away his armor; secondly, by the universal propagation of the gospel, before the light of which idolatry, imposture, and superstition will retreat abashed; thirdly, by frequent and, at last, general revivals of religion, giving resistless power to the gospel, as it is preached to every creature. L. B.—The means are at command, and just so soon as the Spirit is poured out like water upon the thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground, we shall find the great cause of the world's conversion moving on toward its ultimate triumphs, with an efficacy and a glory that will awaken new songs in heaven. Expansion is the very law of the Saviour's kingdom. Christianity embraces every feature of increase and perpetuity; and, whenever it shall please God to give the Spirit in primitive fullness and power to all our churches and all our missionaries, we shall be prepared to hear it shouted on earth, and echoed from heaven, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ! D. Magic. 16. The twenty-four elders. The scenery of the fourth and fifth chapters still continues; the council is still sitting in heaven upon the fortunes of earth; with such additional features as we have from time to time noticed in the sections which followed. And here the adorations of the fifth chapter are renewed, in special acknowledgment of the assumption of universal dominion by the Lord and his Christ. 18. And to destroy those who destroy the earth. There is only one word in the original language for destroying and corrupting. To defile is to destroy. To corrupt the earth is to destroy the earth. It is, to spoil God's work; to mar and to disfigure by its abuse that which God made all beautiful and all holy. See then what a sinful life is! See how God's enemies, that is, the ungodly and the sinful, are regarded in heaven! They destroy the earth. God meant everything for one use, and they turn everything to another use. God meant his creation to be enjoyed by his creatures; enjoyed with moderation, enjoyed with thankfulness, enjoyed in kindness, in tenderness, in love; and behold, we have gone forth to trample and to waste, to sully and to defile, to turn to selfish indulgence, to use as instruments of vile temptation, or as implements of unholy warfare, those things or those persons, those members and faculties, those bodies, those minds, those souls, which might have been and which ought to have been altogether applied to his service and made vocal with his praise. And now at last the season is come to destroy those who have thus destroyed the earth. 19. The temple of God was opened. The secret place of his dwelling was thrown wide open, giving sight, giving access, giving place and abode for men. The eye of John rests once again in vision upon the lost ark of his nation: he sees it in heaven, and he sees it disclosed to public gaze. There is no longer any enclosing wall, no longer a concealing curtain. What could this indicate but that the mystery of God is now finished, his counsels accomplished, his work concerning man consummated? V. Christianity fulfills its own prophecies; it proves its divine origin by superhuman victories. Every opposing religion, and every arrogant philosopher, it has overcome in its resistless march, and from them all, one after another, has been heard the expiring cry, wrested, it is said, from the apostate Julian: "Thou hast conquered, O Galilean!" It is more than realizing the vision of Cicero, in his "Laws," that "the whole world is to be esteemed one community of gods and men." Through our earth it is diffusing the principle of justice, as it also here first made charity to be the greatest of the virtues. It has ennobled womanhood, sanctified childhood, spiritualized manhood, and opened to all the gates of endless life. It helps us to "strip off our fond and false identity," and "woos and clasps us to the eternal spheres." It has brought the kingdom of God to the very vision and heart of man. It touches our deepest and tenderest feelings, and makes us strong for conflict or submission. It awakens, that it may still, the sense of guilt. It relieves our untold sorrows, and imparts these hidden joys no tongue can tell. Its inmost efficacy is seen in the formation of a holy mind, in the transformation of a sinner into a loving child of God, a marvel which neither science knows, nor art can imitate. And in the race, as in the soul, it creates new and higher wants, and satisfies them. Its promises irradiate the future, as its beneficence has blessed the past. Human rights and human wants demand its triumphs. The world travails and sighs for redemption, so that perpetual war may issue in perpetual peace; that oppression and caste may be abolished; that labor may be guided by moral law, and not by the soulless rule of supply and demand; that our politics may be patriotic and just; that the terrible inequalities of social life may be eradicated, the hungry fed, the naked clothed; that the physical may be for the moral, and the moral for the spiritual; that our humanity may be one brotherhood, in Christ our elder brother and our King. All this is pledged in the triumph of his kingdom, fore- shadowed in the promise of its millennial glory. And though some expositors, adhering to the letter, put that glory in a merely sensual and Jewish form, reminding us of Milton's sarcasm, that "what to the Jew is only Jewish is for the Christian Canaanitish," yet, that it is to be a kingdom in which Christ shall reign and redemption be completed, is insured to us by the faithful pledge of him who has promised, and is alone able to effect, that grandest of consummations, that brightest vision of the race, the ushering in of that "sacred, high, eternal noon," in which the kingdoms of the world shall become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. H. B. S. Jesus, their once crucified Redeemer, is still as ever their Shepherd, and shall feed them, and he shall lead them unto living fountains of waters. Food for their mental and moral nature—thought, knowledge, truth, such revelations of God and of God's works as will minister to the endless growth of sinless minds around the throne of God shall be supplied to them by their well-known Shepherd. Has he not constituted that being, social, intellectual, and moral? and has he not nurtured each and all of its growing powers on such scale as the scenes of earth admit, so that with infinite facility he can resume their education and carry it on from one stage of progress to another, all along the march of heaven's eternal ages? All this and more may be included and implied in the simple words—"The Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters." H. C. 8 : 1. We see reason to doubt whether the book itself, the sealed book which the Lamb takes out of the right hand of God, and of which he has now broken each successive seal, is ever read to us; whether its contents are not rather reserved for a future state, to be the subject of satisfying and adoring meditation through the ages of the eternal age. The breaking of each of the first six seals is followed by a new sign, a new scene, a new disclosure: but the consequence of the opening of the seventh seal is not sign nor scene, not speech nor disclosure, but silence: it is the signal for the dropping of the curtain upon the stage of vision, and when it rises again, it is for a new act, with other performers and amid altered circumstances. The impediments are removed, the scroll is spread, the divine reader is prepared: but the actual reading is not for earth, but for heaven. V. 8 : 2 AND I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; and the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed. And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter. And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise. And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabitants of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound! 9 : 1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace: and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth 9 were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. 10. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power 11 was to hurt men five months. And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath 12 his name Apollyon. One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter. 13. And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar 14 which is before God, saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels 15 which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of 16 men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: 17 and I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jactuth, and brimstone: and the heads of horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. 18 stone. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and 19 by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them 20 they do hurt. And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood; which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: 21 neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. 10:1 And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of 2 fire: and he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and 3 his left foot on the earth, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when 4 he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto 5 me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. And the 6 angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are 7 therein, that there should be time no longer: but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets. 8. And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon 9 the earth. And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in 10 thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was 11 bitter. And he said unto me, Thou trust prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings. 11:1 And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, 2 and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the 3. Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and 4 threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. 5 and if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he 6 must in this manner be killed. These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite 7 the earth with all plagues, as often as they will. And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, 8 and shall overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. 9. And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies 10 three days and a half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one 11 to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth. And after three days and a half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood 12 upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven 13 in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven 14 thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly. 15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he 16 shall reign for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on 17 their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy 18 great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldst give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; 19 and shouldst destroy them which destroy the earth. And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament; and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail. NOTHING is great in this world but the kingdom of Jesus Christ; nothing but that, to a spiritual eye, has an air of permanency. The history of the past has been but a history of the rise and fall of individuals and of nations; but amid all the changes and overturnings which have thus far gone to fill up the annals of time, the kingdom of Christ has remained, and, under the protection of him whose wisdom and power are symbolized by the seven spirits of God abroad in all the earth, it is steadily advancing, enlarging its boundaries on every side, and going on to fill the earth. The days which are passing now are the days of the Son of man; and each successive one as it passes, heaving into being new and surprising events, is but an illustration of the wisdom and the might of Him who sits upon the throne, as they all mark the different stages of that grand revolution which is going on, and which in its issue shall show the earth converted into a noble temple, and that consecrated to Christ; and whose melody, issuing simultaneously from every dwelling-place, shall be but the echo of the anthem long since raised in heaven—the anthem of praise to the “Lamb that has been slain.” E. M. Chs. 8-11. Seven trumpets blown. The introduction to this series is a vision of high solemnity in the presence of God (8:2-6). There is a presentation of the prayers of saints with incense, and, as a sign of the answering of those prayers “by terrible things,” there is a casting down of altar-fire upon the earth. The same golden censer that wafted up the incense receives and pours down the fire. Thus the way is prepared for a series of devouring judgments. Seven angels “prepared to sound” the trumpets which were given to them. The results which ensue are arranged in several respects like those which follow the breaking of seals. Thus, in either case, there is a difference marked between the first four and the remaining three. [The first four complete the world-wide judgments, and with the fifth the three woes on mankind begin. A.] There is an interval between the sixth and seventh, occupied by two episodical visions. The greatest intensity of terror is under the sixth; and then, as under the seventh seal there was silence in heaven, so under the seventh trumpet the mystery of God is finished. D. F.—When the seventh is about to sound the consummation of God’s judgment passes unrecorded, as it did under the seals; and at the seventh trumpet we have the song of thanksgiving and triumph in heaven. Such remarkable correspondence carries its own explanation: the two visions of the seals and trumpets run to one and the same termination. A.—This section of the prophecy does not follow chronologically upon the former, that of the seals. As the former, so this also had no doubt a minor fulfillment, perhaps many minor fulfillments, in times near to (or in part coincident with) those of John himself; and certainly the former, no less than this, carries us down to the very end of time. The two visions, briefly distinguishable as that of the seven seals and that of the seven trumpets, are on the whole rather parallel to each other than consecutive. The trumpet had various sacred associations in the history and ritual of Israel. In the giving of the law on Mount Sinai it was the last signal of God’s immediate presence (Ex. 19:16, 19). Hence its solemn application in the New Testament (1 Thes. 4:16). The trumpet was the appointed summons to sacrifice and to worship (Num. 10:10). It was the signal of war; announcing its approach, and summoning to defense (1 Sam. 13:3). But, various as were the Old Testament associations, all sacred and solemn, with the sounding of the trumpet, there was one only with the particular combination here found, that of seven trumpets (Josh. 6:2-5). This passage contains the key to the prophecy now before us. In the days of John the Church of Christ was a little army compassing a mighty stronghold, peopled with gigantic powers, and ready to laugh to scorn its few and feeble assailants. But the vision of the seven trumpets was full of hope, full of comfort, for them. It bade them remember the siege of Jericho in the days of old, when by faith alone the victory was won, without one blow struck or one engine aimed by man. Even so shall it be in that greater and more magnificent war by which the kingdoms of the world are to be made at last the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. The great city with its walls and bulwarks before which the little army of the faithful is encamped, and which must fall before they can gain entrance into the heavenly Canaan, is now the world of sin, of apostasy, of unbelief; the world, calling itself by different names in different centuries, but uniform and unchanged through all ages at least in this, that it is not subject to the law of God, and is not on the side of Christ in his warfare against the enemies of human good and human happiness. Against this world, changing ever in its form, but unchanged and unchangeable in its deep inner principles, the Church which is Christ's army has to make war in Christ's name. And how? Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, said the Lord of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain! Before my servant, before my people, before the ark of my covenant, before my word and my will and my outstretched arm, thou shalt become a plain; for the battle is the Lord's, and the cause of his Church is his cause. V. The effects produced, as the trumpets are successively blown, may be summarily stated thus: 1. Havoc on the earth. 2. Convulsion; part of the sea turned into blood. 3. Bitterness. 4. Darkness. All these woes fall upon "a third part" of the earth, the sea, the rivers and fountains, and the heavenly orbs. There is a marked reserve. The judgments recall the plagues of hail, flood, and darkness that fall on Egypt; and, like those plagues, they stop short of extermination, being intended for humiliation and warning. 5. The letting loose of hellish malice for a season. 6. The loosing of "four angels, which are bound in the great river Euphrates." That river represents the peoples and multitudes that sustain the mystic Babylon (17 : 15); and a great force among them, held in for a time, breaks forth. A mighty host goes out to kill and slay. After seven thunders have been uttered, and a vision had of the death and resurrection of two witnesses, the last step in the series is reached. 7. Great voices are heard in heaven. Under the seventh seal, heaven was silent; but now "great voices" proclaimed the world-sovereignty of "our Lord and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever." Therefore the Church, represented by the twenty-four presbyters, gives solemn thanks to the "Lord God Almighty." Some of the historical interpreters give definite meanings to this series in a wonderful fashion. The first trumpet announces the invasion of Italy by Alaric, the second sounds for Genseric, the third for Attila, the fourth for Odoacer, the fifth for Mohammed, and the sixth proclaims the Turkish invasion of Christendom, and capture of Constantinople. All this seems wild and arbitrary in the extreme. The cycles of visions repeat the same lessons and warnings, announcing judgments and distress of nations before the coming of the Lord. Yet they are not mere repetitions. The revelation under the trumpets is in advance of that under the seals. It shows more fully the agencies to be employed for and against the Church, and mentions evils and oppositions which are yet more clearly developed under the next revolution of the wheel. D. F. 8 : 3. There was given to him much incense, that he might give it to the prayers of all the saints on to, that is, to be offered upon, the golden altar. The incense was used to give a sweet scent to that fire-offering upon which it was thrown. When the angel has incense given him to throw upon the prayers of the saints, it indicates that those prayers may now rise with acceptance to the throne of God; in other words, that the time for actually offering them, because the time when God will answer them, is now fully come. And then there goes up the smoke of the incense out of the angel's hand, for (that is, to give a sweet scent to) those prayers which before were lying as it were saverless because premature. We Christians know of one and but one Mediator. The angel's part is not one of intercession or of mediation: he comes simply to testify that God's time is come, and that the prayers of the saints for deliverance and for victory have been heard and shall now be answered. And now the angel has taken the censer, and he filled it from the fire of the altar, and cast the contents upon the earth. The censer had fulfilled its first office, that of scenting and perfuming the prayers of the saints: now it has a ministry of judgment. The very censer, which had just been used to give fragrance to the prayers of the saints, was immediately afterward employed to scatter fire from off the same altar upon the earth. Prayer, then, has two aspects. It brings an answer of peace to the offerer: it brings an answer of judgment upon the world of evil. And does not this passage give us what I may indeed call a formidable idea of the consequences of Christian prayers? The final answer to such prayers, the fulfillment of the cry uttered from generation to generation, Thy kingdom come, is the discomfiture and destruction of all evil; sin first of all, and with it all those who have determinately taken part with sin. Yes, the prayer of a Christian man may be set forth, as the Psalmist says, before God as incense; but it returns back upon earth in the shape of a fire to consume evil. 9-13. The sixth judgment. A voice is heard from among the four horns of that golden altar on which lie for sacrifice the prayers of saints. It is the cry of God's oppressed people on earth which brings down this judgment upon the world of their oppressors. The judgment itself consists in setting free four angels hitherto bound; in giving scope, that is, to the operation of a particular agency thus far restrained by God's long-suffering toward the world of the ungodly. The angels are four in number, in allusion to the four corners of the earth, or the four winds, to express the world-wide character of the judgments foretold. The place of their binding first and then of their loosing is the river Euphrates, marked in the Old Testament as the boundary between the kingdom of Israel and the kingdoms of the East, whether Assyrian, Chaldean, or Persian, as the limit from beyond which came the hosts of invading nations to make war upon the nations and upon the city of God. The Euphrates is thus used as a general emblem of the seat of God's hosts of war gathered for attack upon an unbelieving or apostate world. (See Isa. 13.) Who the enemy is against whom the hosts of the Lord are thus mustered may be gathered from the 20th and 21st verses. He is the world sunk in sin, and therefore hostile to the Church. The predictions of chapters 8 and 9, like those in the section of the seven seals, are manifold, not single, in their fulfillment. Wherever war has been employed, under God's overruling providence, to humble pride and to break up overgrown and over-bearing powers, there have these chapters had an accomplishment again and again, and each separate accomplishment has been in its turn a prediction and prognostication of the greatest accomplishment and of the last. Those hordes of invading barbarians which broke up the monster empire of Rome, and out of whose conquests modern Europe eventually grew, were one fulfillment—they were not the only fulfillment—of these prophecies. Never were the figures of locust-swarms, with their teeth as of lions and their hair as of women, more strikingly exemplified than in those irruptions. But they did not exhaust these prophecies. The words of God are manifold in their application, just because they deal not with instances only, but with principles. 10:7. The statement is that a time is fixed in God's counsels for the completion and termination of the present mixed state; that the sounding of the seventh trumpet, according to the figurative language of this portion of the Book of Revelation, shall be the signal for the close of that which is; and that this purpose and determination of God is good news to his servants. V.—[For a more complete and satisfactory exposition of this and other points, read Dr. Vaughan's judicious and admirable Lectures upon this book. B.] 10:8 to 11:14. These episodes between the sixth and seventh trumpets, are distinctly introductory to that which is next to follow. A little book is given to the seer, sweet to his mouth, but bitter in digestion, with an announcement that he is yet again to prophesy to many nations—that a fresh series of prophetic visions, glorious indeed but woful, was now to be delivered by him. These begin by the measurement of the temple of God—seeing that it is the Church herself, in her innermost hold, which is now to become the subject of the prophecy. The course of the two witnesses, recalling to us by their spirit and power Moses and Elias, is predicted: and during the prediction, one principal figure of the subsequent visions is by anticipation introduced: the wild beast that cometh up out of the abyss. That this is so, is at once fatal in my estimation to the continuous historical interpretation. I can give no explanation of the two witnesses. I have studied the various solutions, and I own that I can not find any which I can endorse as satisfactory. A. 11:1,2. Even before Jerusalem was destroyed, even while the material temple was still standing—how much more now, when (as we believe) the sword of Roman conquest had already done its work upon the holy city and its sanctuary—the name of the temple of God had been transferred from the building on Mount Zion to the living community of believing men. Now, to measure this temple is to mark out its extent; to ascertain how much (if I might so express it) is temple; what are the dimensions, what the limits, of that which is really holy. Like the very different yet not wholly divergent vision of the sealing, it is the object of this passage to indicate the safety, because the indelible consecration, of God's true servants. The shrine is to be measured: the court is to be left out. There shall always be a true Church, a true spiritual divine temple: but there shall be appended to it a larger space which must be described rather as an outer court of that temple, a community which partakes not in the true worship of devotion and self-dedication, and which, whatever its profession and whatever its name, is in reality a multitude without grace and without vitality. 3. The witnesses are in one sense ideal, but in another sense they are real persons: they are the witnesses of revelation, the witnesses of truth, the witnesses of the gospel, the witnesses of God, the witnesses of Christ, in every age: personified here as two in number. The two witnesses must raise the voice of their prophesying during the interval longer or shorter, the symbolical three years and a half, forty and two months, or twelve hundred and sixty days of mingled fidelity and defection, of a measured shrine and a trampled court; and then, then at length, in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, who is about to sound, then shall the end come; then shall the mystery of God be finished even as he evangelized his servants the prophets (10:7). 4. The witnesses here are said to be the two olive-trees and the two candlesticks which stand before the Lord of the earth. And the vision of Zechariah (4:11-14) has taught us to connect the two emblems. The olive-trees are the feeders of the lamps. Through the two golden pipes they empty the golden oil out of themselves into the lights which shine before God. How glorious a description of the office of the earthly witnesses! They are channels of grace, and they are concentrations of light. The Church in her darkest times shall not lack, has not lacked, these. V. 6. The half of the mystic seven is a ruling number in the apocalyptic periods. Three years and a half had been the duration of the drought prayed for by Elijah (Jas. 5:17); "a time, times, and the dividing of time" (= three years and a half), was the prophetic duration of the persecution of the saints in Dan. 7:25. Thus we find here that the two witnesses, one of whose powers is to shut up heaven that there shall be no rain, shall prophesy 1,260 days, i. e., three years and a half; also the testimony of three witnesses is to endure forty-two months (= three years and a half), as that of Moses endured through the forty-two stations of Israel in the wilderness. Three days and a half are the bodies of the witnesses to lie unburied in the street of the great city (v. 9); again, for 1,260 days is the woman to be fed in the wilderness; again, forty-two months is the period of the power of the first wild beast, which ascended from the sea (13:5). Of these latter periods no satisfactory solution has ever been given. Again and again, the interpreters of prophesy have fixed a time for the end of them; again and again, that time has passed unsignalized by any event; again and again, these interpreters have shifted on their ground into the as yet safe future. A. 7-13. There is a triumph over the fall of Christ's witnesses. The world rejoices over them, as one after another they pass away from the scene of their testimony; for deeply had the sting of their words and the sting of their deeds, the reproof of their gospel, and the reproof of their example, entered into the souls of their despisers and their adversaries. For three days and a half, for the half of the seven, for a period short and incomplete, the triumph of the world, the dance around the corpses, is suffered to continue: men send gifts one to another, as in a day of feasting and of joy over glad tidings. But there comes for the faithful witnesses a morning of joy after this night of weeping; their cause triumphs, though they may be no more; their memory revives, and is honored when honor can no more elate: they themselves are in the heavenly mansions: already rest, hereafter glory! V.—Christianity, like civilization, may be overborne at different points, or turned from its course; but it must recover its lost ground. It is a guardian power, which has long been carrying the human family, as in its bosom, over a rugged road, and beneath inclement skies; but will not be stayed until it have fulfilled its trust. I. T. 15. "The kingdom (sovereignty) over the world is our Lord's, and his Christ's." The kingdoms of the world give way to the kingdom over the world exercised by Christ (Dan. 2:44). The earth-kingdoms are many; His shall be one (Zech. 14:9). Fausset.—Can the earth be enlightened? Can the nations be disenthralled? Can the whole creation, which has groaned and travailed together in pain until now, be brought out of bondage into glorious liberty? Yes, all this can be done, and will be done: First, by the judgments of heaven, in which the Son of man will come upon the strong man armed, and take away his armor; secondly, by the universal propagation of the gospel, before the light of which idolatry, imposture, and superstition will retreat abashed; thirdly, by frequent and, at last, general revivals of religion, giving resistless power to the gospel, as it is preached to every creature. L. B.—The means are at command, and just so soon as the Spirit is poured out like water upon the thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground, we shall find the great cause of the world's conversion moving on toward its ultimate triumphs, with an efficacy and a glory that will awaken new songs in heaven. Expansion is the very law of the Saviour's kingdom. Christianity embraces every feature of increase and perpetuity; and, whenever it shall please God to give the Spirit in primitive fullness and power to all our churches and all our missionaries, we shall be prepared to hear it shouted on earth, and echoed from heaven, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ! D. Magic. 16. The twenty-four elders. The scenery of the fourth and fifth chapters still continues; the council is still sitting in heaven upon the fortunes of earth; with such additional features as we have from time to time noticed in the sections which followed. And here the adorations of the fifth chapter are renewed, in special acknowledgment of the assumption of universal dominion by the Lord and his Christ. 18. And to destroy those who destroy the earth. There is only one word in the original language for destroying and corrupting. To defile is to destroy. To corrupt the earth is to destroy the earth. It is, to spoil God's work; to mar and to disfigure by its abuse that which God made all beautiful and all holy. See then what a sinful life is! See how God's enemies, that is, the ungodly and the sinful, are regarded in heaven! They destroy the earth. God meant everything for one use, and they turn everything to another use. God meant his creation to be enjoyed by his creatures; enjoyed with moderation, enjoyed with thankfulness, enjoyed in kindness, in tenderness, in love; and behold, we have gone forth to trample and to waste, to sully and to defile, to turn to selfish indulgence, to use as instruments of vile temptation, or as implements of unholy warfare, those things or those persons, those members and faculties, those bodies, those minds, those souls, which might have been and which ought to have been altogether applied to his service and made vocal with his praise. And now at last the season is come to destroy those who have thus destroyed the earth. 19. The temple of God was opened. The secret place of his dwelling was thrown wide open, giving sight, giving access, giving place and abode for men. The eye of John rests once again in vision upon the lost ark of his nation: he sees it in heaven, and he sees it disclosed to public gaze. There is no longer any enclosing wall, no longer a concealing curtain. What could this indicate but that the mystery of God is now finished, his counsels accomplished, his work concerning man consummated? V. Christianity fulfills its own prophecies; it proves its divine origin by superhuman victories. Every opposing religion, and every arrogant philosopher, it has overcome in its resistless march, and from them all, one after another, has been heard the expiring cry, wrested, it is said, from the apostate Julian: "Thou hast conquered, O Galilean!" It is more than realizing the vision of Cicero, in his "Laws," that "the whole world is to be esteemed one community of gods and men." Through our earth it is diffusing the principle of justice, as it also here first made charity to be the greatest of the virtues. It has ennobled womanhood, sanctified childhood, spiritualized manhood, and opened to all the gates of endless life. It helps us to "strip off our fond and false identity," and "woos and clasps us to the eternal spheres." It has brought the kingdom of God to the very vision and heart of man. It touches our deepest and tenderest feelings, and makes us strong for conflict or submission. It awakens, that it may still, the sense of guilt. It relieves our untold sorrows, and imparts these hidden joys no tongue can tell. Its inmost efficacy is seen in the formation of a holy mind, in the transformation of a sinner into a loving child of God, a marvel which neither science knows, nor art can imitate. And in the race, as in the soul, it creates new and higher wants, and satisfies them. Its promises irradiate the future, as its beneficence has blessed the past. Human rights and human wants demand its triumphs. The world travails and sighs for redemption, so that perpetual war may issue in perpetual peace; that oppression and caste may be abolished; that labor may be guided by moral law, and not by the soulless rule of supply and demand; that our politics may be patriotic and just; that the terrible inequalities of social life may be eradicated, the hungry fed, the naked clothed; that the physical may be for the moral, and the moral for the spiritual; that our humanity may be one brotherhood, in Christ our elder brother and our King. All this is pledged in the triumph of his kingdom, fore- shadowed in the promise of its millennial glory. And though some expositors, adhering to the letter, put that glory in a merely sensual and Jewish form, reminding us of Milton's sarcasm, that "what to the Jew is only Jewish is for the Christian Canaanitish," yet, that it is to be a kingdom in which Christ shall reign and redemption be completed, is insured to us by the faithful pledge of him who has promised, and is alone able to effect, that grandest of consummations, that brightest vision of the race, the ushering in of that "sacred, high, eternal noon," in which the kingdoms of the world shall become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. H. B. S. Jesus, their once crucified Redeemer, is still as ever their Shepherd, and shall feed them, and he shall lead them unto living fountains of waters. Food for their mental and moral nature—thought, knowledge, truth, such revelations of God and of God's works as will minister to the endless growth of sinless minds around the throne of God shall be supplied to them by their well-known Shepherd. Has he not constituted that being, social, intellectual, and moral? and has he not nurtured each and all of its growing powers on such scale as the scenes of earth admit, so that with infinite facility he can resume their education and carry it on from one stage of progress to another, all along the march of heaven's eternal ages? All this and more may be included and implied in the simple words—"The Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters." H. C. 8 : 1. We see reason to doubt whether the book itself, the sealed book which the Lamb takes out of the right hand of God, and of which he has now broken each successive seal, is ever read to us; whether its contents are not rather reserved for a future state, to be the subject of satisfying and adoring meditation through the ages of the eternal age. The breaking of each of the first six seals is followed by a new sign, a new scene, a new disclosure: but the consequence of the opening of the seventh seal is not sign nor scene, not speech nor disclosure, but silence: it is the signal for the dropping of the curtain upon the stage of vision, and when it rises again, it is for a new act, with other performers and amid altered circumstances. The impediments are removed, the scroll is spread, the divine reader is prepared: but the actual reading is not for earth, but for heaven. V. 8 : 2 AND I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; and the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed. And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter. And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise. And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabitants of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound! 9 : 1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace: and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth 9 were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. 10. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power 11 was to hurt men five months. And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath 12 his name Apollyon. One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter. 13. And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar 14 which is before God, saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels 15 which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of 16 men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: 17 and I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jactuth, and brimstone: and the heads of horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. 18 stone. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and 19 by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them 20 they do hurt. And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood; which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: 21 neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. 10:1 And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of 2 fire: and he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and 3 his left foot on the earth, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when 4 he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto 5 me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. And the 6 angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are 7 therein, that there should be time no longer: but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets. 8. And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon 9 the earth. And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in 10 thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was 11 bitter. And he said unto me, Thou trust prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings. 11:1 And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, 2 and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the 3. Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and 4 threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. 5 and if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he 6 must in this manner be killed. These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite 7 the earth with all plagues, as often as they will. And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, 8 and shall overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. 9. And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies 10 three days and a half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one 11 to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth. And after three days and a half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood 12 upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven 13 in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven 14 thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly. 15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he 16 shall reign for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on 17 their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy 18 great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldst give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; 19 and shouldst destroy them which destroy the earth. And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament; and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail. NOTHING is great in this world but the kingdom of Jesus Christ; nothing but that, to a spiritual eye, has an air of permanency. The history of the past has been but a history of the rise and fall of individuals and of nations; but amid all the changes and overturnings which have thus far gone to fill up the annals of time, the kingdom of Christ has remained, and, under the protection of him whose wisdom and power are symbolized by the seven spirits of God abroad in all the earth, it is steadily advancing, enlarging its boundaries on every side, and going on to fill the earth. The days which are passing now are the days of the Son of man; and each successive one as it passes, heaving into being new and surprising events, is but an illustration of the wisdom and the might of Him who sits upon the throne, as they all mark the different stages of that grand revolution which is going on, and which in its issue shall show the earth converted into a noble temple, and that consecrated to Christ; and whose melody, issuing simultaneously from every dwelling-place, shall be but the echo of the anthem long since raised in heaven—the anthem of praise to the “Lamb that has been slain.” E. M. Chs. 8-11. Seven trumpets blown. The introduction to this series is a vision of high solemnity in the presence of God (8:2-6). There is a presentation of the prayers of saints with incense, and, as a sign of the answering of those prayers “by terrible things,” there is a casting down of altar-fire upon the earth. The same golden censer that wafted up the incense receives and pours down the fire. Thus the way is prepared for a series of devouring judgments. Seven angels “prepared to sound” the trumpets which were given to them. The results which ensue are arranged in several respects like those which follow the breaking of seals. Thus, in either case, there is a difference marked between the first four and the remaining three. [The first four complete the world-wide judgments, and with the fifth the three woes on mankind begin. A.] There is an interval between the sixth and seventh, occupied by two episodical visions. The greatest intensity of terror is under the sixth; and then, as under the seventh seal there was silence in heaven, so under the seventh trumpet the mystery of God is finished. D. F.—When the seventh is about to sound the consummation of God’s judgment passes unrecorded, as it did under the seals; and at the seventh trumpet we have the song of thanksgiving and triumph in heaven. Such remarkable correspondence carries its own explanation: the two visions of the seals and trumpets run to one and the same termination. A.—This section of the prophecy does not follow chronologically upon the former, that of the seals. As the former, so this also had no doubt a minor fulfillment, perhaps many minor fulfillments, in times near to (or in part coincident with) those of John himself; and certainly the former, no less than this, carries us down to the very end of time. The two visions, briefly distinguishable as that of the seven seals and that of the seven trumpets, are on the whole rather parallel to each other than consecutive. The trumpet had various sacred associations in the history and ritual of Israel. In the giving of the law on Mount Sinai it was the last signal of God’s immediate presence (Ex. 19:16, 19). Hence its solemn application in the New Testament (1 Thes. 4:16). The trumpet was the appointed summons to sacrifice and to worship (Num. 10:10). It was the signal of war; announcing its approach, and summoning to defense (1 Sam. 13:3). But, various as were the Old Testament associations, all sacred and solemn, with the sounding of the trumpet, there was one only with the particular combination here found, that of seven trumpets (Josh. 6:2-5). This passage contains the key to the prophecy now before us. In the days of John the Church of Christ was a little army compassing a mighty stronghold, peopled with gigantic powers, and ready to laugh to scorn its few and feeble assailants. But the vision of the seven trumpets was full of hope, full of comfort, for them. It bade them remember the siege of Jericho in the days of old, when by faith alone the victory was won, without one blow struck or one engine aimed by man. Even so shall it be in that greater and more magnificent war by which the kingdoms of the world are to be made at last the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. The great city with its walls and bulwarks before which the little army of the faithful is encamped, and which must fall before they can gain entrance into the heavenly Canaan, is now the world of sin, of apostasy, of unbelief; the world, calling itself by different names in different centuries, but uniform and unchanged through all ages at least in this, that it is not subject to the law of God, and is not on the side of Christ in his warfare against the enemies of human good and human happiness. Against this world, changing ever in its form, but unchanged and unchangeable in its deep inner principles, the Church which is Christ's army has to make war in Christ's name. And how? Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, said the Lord of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain! Before my servant, before my people, before the ark of my covenant, before my word and my will and my outstretched arm, thou shalt become a plain; for the battle is the Lord's, and the cause of his Church is his cause. V. The effects produced, as the trumpets are successively blown, may be summarily stated thus: 1. Havoc on the earth. 2. Convulsion; part of the sea turned into blood. 3. Bitterness. 4. Darkness. All these woes fall upon "a third part" of the earth, the sea, the rivers and fountains, and the heavenly orbs. There is a marked reserve. The judgments recall the plagues of hail, flood, and darkness that fall on Egypt; and, like those plagues, they stop short of extermination, being intended for humiliation and warning. 5. The letting loose of hellish malice for a season. 6. The loosing of "four angels, which are bound in the great river Euphrates." That river represents the peoples and multitudes that sustain the mystic Babylon (17 : 15); and a great force among them, held in for a time, breaks forth. A mighty host goes out to kill and slay. After seven thunders have been uttered, and a vision had of the death and resurrection of two witnesses, the last step in the series is reached. 7. Great voices are heard in heaven. Under the seventh seal, heaven was silent; but now "great voices" proclaimed the world-sovereignty of "our Lord and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever." Therefore the Church, represented by the twenty-four presbyters, gives solemn thanks to the "Lord God Almighty." Some of the historical interpreters give definite meanings to this series in a wonderful fashion. The first trumpet announces the invasion of Italy by Alaric, the second sounds for Genseric, the third for Attila, the fourth for Odoacer, the fifth for Mohammed, and the sixth proclaims the Turkish invasion of Christendom, and capture of Constantinople. All this seems wild and arbitrary in the extreme. The cycles of visions repeat the same lessons and warnings, announcing judgments and distress of nations before the coming of the Lord. Yet they are not mere repetitions. The revelation under the trumpets is in advance of that under the seals. It shows more fully the agencies to be employed for and against the Church, and mentions evils and oppositions which are yet more clearly developed under the next revolution of the wheel. D. F. 8 : 3. There was given to him much incense, that he might give it to the prayers of all the saints on to, that is, to be offered upon, the golden altar. The incense was used to give a sweet scent to that fire-offering upon which it was thrown. When the angel has incense given him to throw upon the prayers of the saints, it indicates that those prayers may now rise with acceptance to the throne of God; in other words, that the time for actually offering them, because the time when God will answer them, is now fully come. And then there goes up the smoke of the incense out of the angel's hand, for (that is, to give a sweet scent to) those prayers which before were lying as it were saverless because premature. We Christians know of one and but one Mediator. The angel's part is not one of intercession or of mediation: he comes simply to testify that God's time is come, and that the prayers of the saints for deliverance and for victory have been heard and shall now be answered. And now the angel has taken the censer, and he filled it from the fire of the altar, and cast the contents upon the earth. The censer had fulfilled its first office, that of scenting and perfuming the prayers of the saints: now it has a ministry of judgment. The very censer, which had just been used to give fragrance to the prayers of the saints, was immediately afterward employed to scatter fire from off the same altar upon the earth. Prayer, then, has two aspects. It brings an answer of peace to the offerer: it brings an answer of judgment upon the world of evil. And does not this passage give us what I may indeed call a formidable idea of the consequences of Christian prayers? The final answer to such prayers, the fulfillment of the cry uttered from generation to generation, Thy kingdom come, is the discomfiture and destruction of all evil; sin first of all, and with it all those who have determinately taken part with sin. Yes, the prayer of a Christian man may be set forth, as the Psalmist says, before God as incense; but it returns back upon earth in the shape of a fire to consume evil. 9-13. The sixth judgment. A voice is heard from among the four horns of that golden altar on which lie for sacrifice the prayers of saints. It is the cry of God's oppressed people on earth which brings down this judgment upon the world of their oppressors. The judgment itself consists in setting free four angels hitherto bound; in giving scope, that is, to the operation of a particular agency thus far restrained by God's long-suffering toward the world of the ungodly. The angels are four in number, in allusion to the four corners of the earth, or the four winds, to express the world-wide character of the judgments foretold. The place of their binding first and then of their loosing is the river Euphrates, marked in the Old Testament as the boundary between the kingdom of Israel and the kingdoms of the East, whether Assyrian, Chaldean, or Persian, as the limit from beyond which came the hosts of invading nations to make war upon the nations and upon the city of God. The Euphrates is thus used as a general emblem of the seat of God's hosts of war gathered for attack upon an unbelieving or apostate world. (See Isa. 13.) Who the enemy is against whom the hosts of the Lord are thus mustered may be gathered from the 20th and 21st verses. He is the world sunk in sin, and therefore hostile to the Church. The predictions of chapters 8 and 9, like those in the section of the seven seals, are manifold, not single, in their fulfillment. Wherever war has been employed, under God's overruling providence, to humble pride and to break up overgrown and over-bearing powers, there have these chapters had an accomplishment again and again, and each separate accomplishment has been in its turn a prediction and prognostication of the greatest accomplishment and of the last. Those hordes of invading barbarians which broke up the monster empire of Rome, and out of whose conquests modern Europe eventually grew, were one fulfillment—they were not the only fulfillment—of these prophecies. Never were the figures of locust-swarms, with their teeth as of lions and their hair as of women, more strikingly exemplified than in those irruptions. But they did not exhaust these prophecies. The words of God are manifold in their application, just because they deal not with instances only, but with principles. 10:7. The statement is that a time is fixed in God's counsels for the completion and termination of the present mixed state; that the sounding of the seventh trumpet, according to the figurative language of this portion of the Book of Revelation, shall be the signal for the close of that which is; and that this purpose and determination of God is good news to his servants. V.—[For a more complete and satisfactory exposition of this and other points, read Dr. Vaughan's judicious and admirable Lectures upon this book. B.] 10:8 to 11:14. These episodes between the sixth and seventh trumpets, are distinctly introductory to that which is next to follow. A little book is given to the seer, sweet to his mouth, but bitter in digestion, with an announcement that he is yet again to prophesy to many nations—that a fresh series of prophetic visions, glorious indeed but woful, was now to be delivered by him. These begin by the measurement of the temple of God—seeing that it is the Church herself, in her innermost hold, which is now to become the subject of the prophecy. The course of the two witnesses, recalling to us by their spirit and power Moses and Elias, is predicted: and during the prediction, one principal figure of the subsequent visions is by anticipation introduced: the wild beast that cometh up out of the abyss. That this is so, is at once fatal in my estimation to the continuous historical interpretation. I can give no explanation of the two witnesses. I have studied the various solutions, and I own that I can not find any which I can endorse as satisfactory. A. 11:1,2. Even before Jerusalem was destroyed, even while the material temple was still standing—how much more now, when (as we believe) the sword of Roman conquest had already done its work upon the holy city and its sanctuary—the name of the temple of God had been transferred from the building on Mount Zion to the living community of believing men. Now, to measure this temple is to mark out its extent; to ascertain how much (if I might so express it) is temple; what are the dimensions, what the limits, of that which is really holy. Like the very different yet not wholly divergent vision of the sealing, it is the object of this passage to indicate the safety, because the indelible consecration, of God's true servants. The shrine is to be measured: the court is to be left out. There shall always be a true Church, a true spiritual divine temple: but there shall be appended to it a larger space which must be described rather as an outer court of that temple, a community which partakes not in the true worship of devotion and self-dedication, and which, whatever its profession and whatever its name, is in reality a multitude without grace and without vitality. 3. The witnesses are in one sense ideal, but in another sense they are real persons: they are the witnesses of revelation, the witnesses of truth, the witnesses of the gospel, the witnesses of God, the witnesses of Christ, in every age: personified here as two in number. The two witnesses must raise the voice of their prophesying during the interval longer or shorter, the symbolical three years and a half, forty and two months, or twelve hundred and sixty days of mingled fidelity and defection, of a measured shrine and a trampled court; and then, then at length, in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, who is about to sound, then shall the end come; then shall the mystery of God be finished even as he evangelized his servants the prophets (10:7). 4. The witnesses here are said to be the two olive-trees and the two candlesticks which stand before the Lord of the earth. And the vision of Zechariah (4:11-14) has taught us to connect the two emblems. The olive-trees are the feeders of the lamps. Through the two golden pipes they empty the golden oil out of themselves into the lights which shine before God. How glorious a description of the office of the earthly witnesses! They are channels of grace, and they are concentrations of light. The Church in her darkest times shall not lack, has not lacked, these. V. 6. The half of the mystic seven is a ruling number in the apocalyptic periods. Three years and a half had been the duration of the drought prayed for by Elijah (Jas. 5:17); "a time, times, and the dividing of time" (= three years and a half), was the prophetic duration of the persecution of the saints in Dan. 7:25. Thus we find here that the two witnesses, one of whose powers is to shut up heaven that there shall be no rain, shall prophesy 1,260 days, i. e., three years and a half; also the testimony of three witnesses is to endure forty-two months (= three years and a half), as that of Moses endured through the forty-two stations of Israel in the wilderness. Three days and a half are the bodies of the witnesses to lie unburied in the street of the great city (v. 9); again, for 1,260 days is the woman to be fed in the wilderness; again, forty-two months is the period of the power of the first wild beast, which ascended from the sea (13:5). Of these latter periods no satisfactory solution has ever been given. Again and again, the interpreters of prophesy have fixed a time for the end of them; again and again, that time has passed unsignalized by any event; again and again, these interpreters have shifted on their ground into the as yet safe future. A. 7-13. There is a triumph over the fall of Christ's witnesses. The world rejoices over them, as one after another they pass away from the scene of their testimony; for deeply had the sting of their words and the sting of their deeds, the reproof of their gospel, and the reproof of their example, entered into the souls of their despisers and their adversaries. For three days and a half, for the half of the seven, for a period short and incomplete, the triumph of the world, the dance around the corpses, is suffered to continue: men send gifts one to another, as in a day of feasting and of joy over glad tidings. But there comes for the faithful witnesses a morning of joy after this night of weeping; their cause triumphs, though they may be no more; their memory revives, and is honored when honor can no more elate: they themselves are in the heavenly mansions: already rest, hereafter glory! V.—Christianity, like civilization, may be overborne at different points, or turned from its course; but it must recover its lost ground. It is a guardian power, which has long been carrying the human family, as in its bosom, over a rugged road, and beneath inclement skies; but will not be stayed until it have fulfilled its trust. I. T. 15. "The kingdom (sovereignty) over the world is our Lord's, and his Christ's." The kingdoms of the world give way to the kingdom over the world exercised by Christ (Dan. 2:44). The earth-kingdoms are many; His shall be one (Zech. 14:9). Fausset.—Can the earth be enlightened? Can the nations be disenthralled? Can the whole creation, which has groaned and travailed together in pain until now, be brought out of bondage into glorious liberty? Yes, all this can be done, and will be done: First, by the judgments of heaven, in which the Son of man will come upon the strong man armed, and take away his armor; secondly, by the universal propagation of the gospel, before the light of which idolatry, imposture, and superstition will retreat abashed; thirdly, by frequent and, at last, general revivals of religion, giving resistless power to the gospel, as it is preached to every creature. L. B.—The means are at command, and just so soon as the Spirit is poured out like water upon the thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground, we shall find the great cause of the world's conversion moving on toward its ultimate triumphs, with an efficacy and a glory that will awaken new songs in heaven. Expansion is the very law of the Saviour's kingdom. Christianity embraces every feature of increase and perpetuity; and, whenever it shall please God to give the Spirit in primitive fullness and power to all our churches and all our missionaries, we shall be prepared to hear it shouted on earth, and echoed from heaven, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ! D. Magic. 16. The twenty-four elders. The scenery of the fourth and fifth chapters still continues; the council is still sitting in heaven upon the fortunes of earth; with such additional features as we have from time to time noticed in the sections which followed. And here the adorations of the fifth chapter are renewed, in special acknowledgment of the assumption of universal dominion by the Lord and his Christ. 18. And to destroy those who destroy the earth. There is only one word in the original language for destroying and corrupting. To defile is to destroy. To corrupt the earth is to destroy the earth. It is, to spoil God's work; to mar and to disfigure by its abuse that which God made all beautiful and all holy. See then what a sinful life is! See how God's enemies, that is, the ungodly and the sinful, are regarded in heaven! They destroy the earth. God meant everything for one use, and they turn everything to another use. God meant his creation to be enjoyed by his creatures; enjoyed with moderation, enjoyed with thankfulness, enjoyed in kindness, in tenderness, in love; and behold, we have gone forth to trample and to waste, to sully and to defile, to turn to selfish indulgence, to use as instruments of vile temptation, or as implements of unholy warfare, those things or those persons, those members and faculties, those bodies, those minds, those souls, which might have been and which ought to have been altogether applied to his service and made vocal with his praise. And now at last the season is come to destroy those who have thus destroyed the earth. 19. The temple of God was opened. The secret place of his dwelling was thrown wide open, giving sight, giving access, giving place and abode for men. The eye of John rests once again in vision upon the lost ark of his nation: he sees it in heaven, and he sees it disclosed to public gaze. There is no longer any enclosing wall, no longer a concealing curtain. What could this indicate but that the mystery of God is now finished, his counsels accomplished, his work concerning man consummated? V. Christianity fulfills its own prophecies; it proves its divine origin by superhuman victories. Every opposing religion, and every arrogant philosopher, it has overcome in its resistless march, and from them all, one after another, has been heard the expiring cry, wrested, it is said, from the apostate Julian: "Thou hast conquered, O Galilean!" It is more than realizing the vision of Cicero, in his "Laws," that "the whole world is to be esteemed one community of gods and men." Through our earth it is diffusing the principle of justice, as it also here first made charity to be the greatest of the virtues. It has ennobled womanhood, sanctified childhood, spiritualized manhood, and opened to all the gates of endless life. It helps us to "strip off our fond and false identity," and "woos and clasps us to the eternal spheres." It has brought the kingdom of God to the very vision and heart of man. It touches our deepest and tenderest feelings, and makes us strong for conflict or submission. It awakens, that it may still, the sense of guilt. It relieves our untold sorrows, and imparts these hidden joys no tongue can tell. Its inmost efficacy is seen in the formation of a holy mind, in the transformation of a sinner into a loving child of God, a marvel which neither science knows, nor art can imitate. And in the race, as in the soul, it creates new and higher wants, and satisfies them. Its promises irradiate the future, as its beneficence has blessed the past. Human rights and human wants demand its triumphs. The world travails and sighs for redemption, so that perpetual war may issue in perpetual peace; that oppression and caste may be abolished; that labor may be guided by moral law, and not by the soulless rule of supply and demand; that our politics may be patriotic and just; that the terrible inequalities of social life may be eradicated, the hungry fed, the naked clothed; that the physical may be for the moral, and the moral for the spiritual; that our humanity may be one brotherhood, in Christ our elder brother and our King. All this is pledged in the triumph of his kingdom, fore- shadowed in the promise of its millennial glory. And though some expositors, adhering to the letter, put that glory in a merely sensual and Jewish form, reminding us of Milton's sarcasm, that "what to the Jew is only Jewish is for the Christian Canaanitish," yet, that it is to be a kingdom in which Christ shall reign and redemption be completed, is insured to us by the faithful pledge of him who has promised, and is alone able to effect, that grandest of consummations, that brightest vision of the race, the ushering in of that "sacred, high, eternal noon," in which the kingdoms of the world shall become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. H. B. S. 12 : 1 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: and she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and three-score days. And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman; and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.13 : 1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: 8 and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If any man have an ear, let him hear. 10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man: and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. 14 : 1 And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him a hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: and they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile; for they are without fault before the throne of God. 6 And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveeth the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them. 14 And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap: for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped. And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. ONLY "they who die in the Lord" are here accounted blessed; it can not possibly be gain to die till Christ has first been made the life of the soul. Where this becomes our matebless privilege, in the way of faith and penitence, we may expect a state of bliss, not merely after centuries have rolled over our dust, but even from the moment of our departure from this life. "Henceforth," said the Spirit, "the dead in Christ are blessed." And in this rest "their works do follow them," that is to say, from every seed of faith and love, strewed here below with unwearied hands, the harvest is to be expected there. Mark well, it stands not that their works precede them, in any wise to open for them heaven's portals; but that their works do follow them, where hidden good treads forth at once to view. Van O. We rest on this, "I go to prepare a place for you." A place is prepared for each one of us; a place fitted to our distinct character, a separate work fitted to develop that character into perfection, and in the doing of which we shall have the continual delight of feeling that we are growing. Our ideals shall become more beautiful, and minister continually to fresh aspiration. Feelings for which we found no food here shall there be satisfied with work, and exercised by action into exquisite perfection. And this shall be shall be in a father's home, where all the dearest dreams of home-life shall find their happy fulfillment; in a perfect society, where all the charming interchange of thought and giving and receiving of each other's good which makes our best happiness on earth, shall be easier, freer, purer, more intimate, more spiritual, more intellectual; and binding all together, the omnipresent Spirit of love, goodness, truth, and life, whom we call God, and whom we know in Jesus Christ, shall abide in us, and we in him, "for he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him." S. A. B. Chs. 12-14. We have seen in the Book of Revelation thus far, and we shall see in it hereafter, not so much one continuous stream of prophecy, starting from the times of John, and carrying down the fortunes of the Church with historical precision till they are finally lost in the great ocean of eternity: but rather a number of parallel streams, each marked by some definite purpose and principle, and each ending only with the end of time, even with that last discomfiture of the opposing powers of evil which shall introduce the universal reign of Christ, and usher in the new heavens and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. We shall not be surprised therefore to observe in the section now to be opened a return to a very elementary point in the history of the Church of God. The general subject of the three chapters which form this section is the enemies, the three enemies, of Christ's Church. We shall find that this also is a passage complete in itself, and ending only with the same catastrophe of the powers of evil which we have already observed as the termination of the vision of the seals in the 1st verse of the 8th chapter, and of the vision of the trumpets in the last verse of the 11th. V. 12:1-17. And now opens the great prophetic course of visions regarding the Church. Her identification in the eyes of the seer is first rendered unmistakable, by the scene opening with the appearance of the woman and the serpent, the enmity between him and her seed, the birth of the man-child who should rule over the nations—his ascension to heaven and to the throne of God. The flight of the woman into the wilderness, the casting down of Satan from heaven no longer to curse the brethren there, his continued enmity on earth, his persecution of the remnant of the woman's seed, these belong to the introductory features of the great vision which is to follow, and serve to describe the state in which the Church of God is found during the now pending stage of her conflict. 13:1-10. What follows carries out the description of the war made by the dragon on the seed of the woman. A wild beast is seen rising out of the deep, uniting in itself the formerly described heads and horns of the dragon, and also the well-known prophetic symbols of the great empires of the world: representing, in fact, the secular powers antagonistic to the Church of Christ. To this wild beast the dragon gives his might and his throne; and notwithstanding that one of its heads—the pagan Roman empire—is crushed to death, its deadly wound is healed, and all who are not written in the Lamb's book of life worship it. 11-18. The further carrying out of the power and influence of the beast is now set before us by the vision of another wild beast, born of the earth, gentle as a lamb in appearance, but dragon-like and cruel in character. This second beast is the ally and servant of the former: makes men to worship its image and receive its mark, as the condition of civil rights and even of life itself. Here, in common with very many of the best interpreters, I can not fail to recognize the sacerdotal persecuting power, leagued with, and the instrument of, the secular: professing to be a lamb, but in reality being a dragon, persecuting the saints of God, the inseparable companion and upholder of despotic and tyrannical power. This in all its forms, pagan, papal, and in so far as the reformed churches have retrograded toward papal sacerdotalism, Protestant also, I believe to be that which is symbolized under the second wild beast. 14:1-20. Next, the apocalyptic vision brings before us the Lamb on Mount Zion with the first-fruits of his people, and the heavenly song in which they join—as prefatory to the announcement, by three angels, of the prophecies which are to follow, so full of import to the people and Church of God. These are, first (vs. 6, 7), the proclamation of the everlasting gospel as previous to the final judgments of God; next, the fall of Babylon (v. 8), as an encouragement for the patience of the saints; third (vs. 9-11), the final defeat and torment of the Lord's enemies. After these (vs. 11, 12) is heard a voice proclaiming the blessedness of the holy dead. Then follow, in strict accord with these four announcements, 1, the harvest and the vintage of the earth (vs. 14-20), and the seven last plagues, symbolized by the outpouring of the vials (15:1; 16:1-21); 2, the ample details of the fall and punishment of Babylon (chs. 17, 18); 3, the triumph of the Church in the last defeat of her Lord's enemies (19:11-21); 4, the millennial reign (chs. 20-22); and finally, the eternity of bliss. There is reason to interpret the harvest (14:15, 16), of the ingathering of the Lord's people: the vintage (14:18, 19), of the crushing of his enemies; both these being, according to the usage of this book, compendious, and inclusive of the fuller details of both, which are to follow. The vintage is taken up and expanded in detail by the series of the vials (ch. 16); seven in number, as were the seals and the trumpets before. These final judgments, specially belonging to the Church, are introduced by a song of triumph from the saints of both dispensations, and are poured out by angels coming forth from the opened sanctuary of the tabernacle of witness in heaven (15:2-8). A. Ch. 12. One of the prime objects of this entire chapter is manifestly to put the devil in his true light as the chief persecutor, the arch-traitor and rebel against the throne of God—the chieftain who heads all the sin and all the war against God and goodness which appear in the universe. Let all Christians know their enemy; let them know his past history, his present designs, his determined antagonism to the Messiah and to his Church and people; and his certain defeat and shameful fall in the end. H. C. 1-6. Some leading facts in relation to the Saviour's entrance into the world and exit from it are obviously glanced at here. The reader can not avoid calling to mind the birth of Christ, the massacre at Bethlehem by Herod, the character of him who was to "rule over the nations" as disclosed in Psalm 2, the temptation of Christ by Satan, the ascension of the Redeemer to heaven after he had risen from the dead, and finally the persecution of the Church with the protection vouchsafed to it on the part of Heaven. That Satan is here presented as following the ascended Redeemer with the design of annoying him must strike every well-informed mind as a lively symbol of the malignity and bitterness with which the enemy of God and man pursued Jesus and his disciples at all times and on all occasions. M. S. 1. The woman clothed with the sun, and having on her head a crown of twelve stars, is the Church of God; the Church regarded as one whole from the days of Abraham, perhaps we may say from the day of the fall itself, under whatever special dispensation placed—the Patriarchal, the Israelite, or the Christian. 3. The dragon represents in various passages of the prophets of the old testament that great Egyptian power which had been the first oppressor of the Church of Israel. And thus with equal fitness it becomes in this Book of Revelation the title of that prince of this world whose deep and bitter hostility to God and his Christ prompts all the efforts and frames all the machinations by which the world seeks to undermine the influence of the Saviour and of his people. The dragon is henceforth another name for the devil or Satan. Seven heads and ten horns. Notice that though there is a unity of persons in the arch-enemy of God, he is yet in his operations a many-headed power; he exercises his influence through many channels; every phase of the ungodly, antichristian world is one of his manifestations; and further, the power which is thus various and thus multiplied is also a strength; it possesses ten horns, the scriptural emblem of vigor and force. We can not despise the power of evil, though we may forebode its downfall. 5. Caught up unto God.** The years of infancy and boyhood, of youth and of manhood, the workshop of Nazareth, the journeyings to Jerusalem, the call of disciples, the labors of teaching and of healing, the cruel mocking and scourging, the bitter cross and the quiet grave, all are passed over: he who declares the end from the beginning speaks here but of birth and of ascension, and tells us only that, while the dragon stood in readiness to devour the child which should be born, the child was caught up unto God and to his throne. The woman flees into the wilderness. Like Israel of old fleeing from the wrath of Pharaoh, the Church of God, whose Lord and Master has been taken up from her, finds a dwelling-place in her desolation in the wilderness. There, like Israel of old, she has food provided for her of God. The period of her abode is described in figures now familiar to us. The 1,260 days are the same period during which God's two witnesses prophesy clothed in sackcloth. It is the same period, otherwise described as one of forty and two months, during which the holy city is trodden under foot of the Gentiles (11:2, 3). It is the same period, otherwise described as one of three years and a half, of a time and times and half a time (v. 14), during which our Lord's own ministry upon earth was protracted, and after which the spirit of life from God entered into the two dead witnesses and they ascended up to heaven in a cloud while their enemies beheld them (11:11, 12). It is, in short, that period, of the three and a half, the half seven, the broken and imperfect as opposed to the complete and sacred whole, which is again and again the designation of the reign of evil, of the humiliation of God's truth and of God's Church, as contrasted with that endless triumph of the cause of holiness and of Christ which shall comfort the sufferings of Zion and redress the wrongs of the saints. 9. That spiritual enemy with whom our struggle and our warfare lies, is (1) the great dragon; the prince of this world; the leader and commander of the aggressions of the world upon the Church of Christ, upon the people of God. He is (2) the ancient serpent; the very person who in the earliest days of our race, having himself fallen yet earlier from his original uprightness, appeared as the tempter of man, and through his bodily appetite seduced him from his Maker. He is (3) the slanderer and the adversary, the devil and Satan; he who, as we read in the opening of the Book of Job, and again, more briefly, in the 3d chapter of Zechariah, calumniates and slanders before God those whom he has first deceived and overthrown below. He is the slanderer, or calumniator, as well as the adversary. He first seduces man, and then tells of him! And thus (4) he is described as the misleader of all the world; he who leads astray all the world. He was cast out into the earth. The real thing spoken of is the breaking of Satan's power by the Redemption. The devil is like one who has been thrown from a great height, and falls upon the earth bruised and humbled. He is no longer master. If any one still serves him, it is his own fault. 11. We shall best regard the words as anticipative and prophetic in their tone; as describing the victory which has been won by Christ's servants, one after another, and age after age, under the dispensation of the gospel; and of which the completion of Christ's work by ascension contained not the promise only, but the power. They conquered him, it is written of these, as one by one they have finished their course and accomplished their warfare, him the deceiver and the slanderer, him the tempter and the accuser, owing to the blood of the Lamb. This was the secret of their strength. They overcame him, too, through (owing to) the word of their testimony: that is, the word or message which they attest; of which they are witnesses. And they loved not their life unto death. They carried their life's devotion even to the length of death. They overcame the devil by a self-sacrifice which stopped not short of death. The three weapons by which the Christian victory is won, as described for us in the song of triumph in heaven over the downfall of the great enemy of man, are these: the atonement made for all sin in the death of Christ; the word or message of God, to which all true Christians bear in act and in endurance a firm and intelligible testimony; and that spirit of entire self-devotion and self-surrender which perseveres even unto death, and stops not short (if God so require) of the sacrifice of life itself for Christ. V. In the martyr ages of the Church we behold a vast array of active genius and power, that could not be permitted to spend itself in works of benefaction to the race, but was consecrated of God to the more sacred and more fruitful grace of suffering. The design was, it would seem, to prepare a Christly past, to show whole ages of faith populated with men who were able, coming after their Master and bearing his cross, to suffer with him and add their human testimony to his. And so it has been ordered that the Church of God shall know itself to be the child of suffering patience. The scholars, the preachers, all the great and noted characters, who have served the Church by their labors, pass into shade, we think little of them; but the men of patience, the holy martyrs, these we feel as a sacred fatherhood, charging it, oh, how seriously and filially! upon our souls, to be followers of them, who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Who that feels the power of these martyr ages descending on him, can ever think, even for a moment, that the passive virtues of the Christian life are sterile virtues, and that action is the only fruitful thing? H. B. 17. The description here given of the true seed is twofold. They keep the commandments of God, and they hold the testimony of Jesus. Either of these without the other must be, for us at least—we enter not into the question as it may affect past ages, or nations still sitting in darkness—an incomplete, nay, a fallacious test of true membership, of true worship. It is the old combination; faith and works; a heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, and a life suitable to one who loves God. That is salvation. That is redemption. Not the liberty to keep the testimony of Jesus without keeping the commandments of God. Not the liberty to use words of love and faith toward Jesus, and go forth in works to deny him. V. 18 : 1-7. Out of the sea, i. e., from the midst of troubled nations, emerged a wild beast before the eyes of the seer; a dreadful monster, having the agile frame of a leopard, the paws of a bear, and mouth of a lion, with seven heads and ten horns. It combined all the bestial forms seen by Daniel; and must be understood as recalling and condensing in one formidable power all the old-world despotisms that oppressed the Israel of God. The beast took up the persecution of the saints which the dragon instigated. Therefore it can be nothing else than that Roman imperialism which sent the apostle John himself into exile for his faith, and became throughout all the known world a merciless tyrant to the Christians. All world-tyranny, all use of brute force to repress spiritual life and movement, in whatever age, falls under the same symbol of the wild beast. D. F. 2. The deadly wound indicates some blow struck, with apparently fatal consequences, at the power of the ungodly and antichristian world. Such a blow was the conversion of the Emperor Constantine to the faith of Christ, and the establishment of a nominal Christianity as the religion of the great Roman Empire. It might have seemed as though the trials of the Church, collectively at least, were then for ever ended. But the deadly wound was healed. Not yet had the kingdoms of the world really become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ; the nominally Christian empire could persecute as well as the openly idolatrous; he that was born after the flesh was still the natural enemy of him that was born after the spirit; and papal Rome in later ages too often resumed the sword which pagan Rome had dropped. But let it call itself what it may, pagan or Christian, popish or Protestant, the world is still God's enemy; still hates the light; still is not subject to the law of God; still is offended in Christ, first for his humility, and then for his holiness; still looks coldly upon, still casts out, still, if it dares—and it does dare—will persecute those who by act and word testify of it that its works are evil! V. 7. It was given unto him to overcome them. As of old, so now, those to be persecuted by the beast in various ways have their trials severally appointed them by God's fixed counsel. Fausse!—The afflictions, therefore, that the church in the wilderness has met with, these cups of gold, are of more worth than are all the treasures of Egypt; they are needful and profitable, and praiseworthy also, and tend to the augmenting of our glory when the next world shall come. They are also a means by which men are proved to be sound, honest, faithful, and true lovers of God; to be those whose graces are not counterfeit, feigned, or unsound, but true, and such as will be found to praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. And this has been the cause that the men of our church in the wilderness have gloried in tribulation, taking pleasure in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, and in distresses, for Christ's sake. Bun. 10. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. In these coming, these predicted, these inevitable sufferings under the power of the second enemy of the Church, a large demand will be made upon the submission and upon the faith of God's saints. 11. And I saw another wild beast rising out of the earth. The third enemy—we may gather, I think, from the marks affixed to him—is the ungodly antichristian wisdom, as the second is the ungodly antichristian power, of the world. It is that false philosophy, that science falsely so called, that speculative and skeptical opinion, that reason without humility and without God, which, with all its professions of elevation and of independence, has ever been the real ally of the world and the bitterest enemy of revelation and of the Church. This it was which propped up a system of idolatry in which it had itself no vestige of faith. This it was which united with the coercive power of a heathen state in running down and making havoc of the new religion and the young Church of Christ. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. The brute force of the second enemy were powerless without this intelligence of the third. Sometimes the two may work together in one ruler; the demoniacal acuteness, and the animal cruelty. Sometimes, more often perhaps, they are found disjoined, and the only link of union is a common godlessness. That is the combining and cementing sympathy. That is the one characteristic which the second enemy shares with the third. Both of them look earthward; neither can lift up his eyes to the God above. Therefore they are one in their work, one in their aim, and one in their end. 14:1. And I saw—the usual opening of a new vision—and behold, the Lamb standing on the mount Zion. Not a Lamb, but the Lamb. By this time the figure of the Lamb is so familiar to the readers of the book in its application to Christ the Saviour and Redeemer that it may be introduced without comment or explanation. Sion, which was properly one of the group of hills forming the metropolis of Israel, became in the language of prophecy the name of that heavenly city which is to be the everlasting abode of the Saviour and of His redeemed. And I heard a sound out of the heaven—not a sound from Mount Zion, but from above, out of heaven—as a sound of many waters and as a sound of a great thunder; and the sound which I heard was as of harpers harping on their harps. The combination of fullness, of majesty, and of sweetness, in the sound heard, is expressed by bringing together the three comparisons thus indicated. And they, the heavenly harpers, sing a new song before (in presence of) the throne and before (in presence of) the four living creatures, representatives of creation, and the elders, representatives of the universal Church; and no one was able to learn the song, except the hundred and forty and four thousands, even they who have been purchased from the earth. The heavenly song, though sweet and glorious in its general sound to the ear of the prophet who is still in flesh, can be learned only by those who are no longer clogged with mortality, but have already passed through death into incorruption and glory.* 4.5. The character of the redeemed is here set before us under the four heads, of purity, of obedience, of unworldliness, of truthfulness; and their heavenly state, as one of safety, of rest, of happiness, of converse and communion with Christ. V. They are the redeemed from among men. They are the first fruits unto God and the Lamb. They are the subjects of his regenerating love and grace. They were once creatures of sin and children of wrath. Now they are before the throne of God in his likeness. Before the throne of God without fault. Before the throne of God in glory! And therefore, a faultlessness infinitely perfect, a glory and a blessedness unchangeable and everlasting, and boundless as the perfection of God! G. B. C. 6. The everlasting gospel.** It is called “the gospel of his grace,” because it flows from God’s free love; “the gospel of the kingdom,” as it treats of the kingdom of grace and of glory; “the gospel of Christ,” because he is the author and subject of it; “the gospel of peace and salvation,” as it promotes our present comfort, and leads to eternal nal glory; “the glorious gospel,” as in it the glorious perfections of Jehovah are displayed; “the everlasting gospel,” as it was designed from eternity, is permanent in time, and the effects of it are eternal. Buck. 12. We can not be useless while we are doing and suffering God’s will, whatever it may be found to be. And we can always do that. If we are bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit, we are not useless. And we can always do that. If we are increasing in the knowledge of God’s will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, we are not useless. And we can always do that. While we pray we can not be useless. And we can always do that. God will always find us a work to do, a niche to fill, a place to serve, nay, even a soul to save, when it is his will, and not ours, that we desire to do; and if it please him that we sit still for the rest of our lives, doing nothing else but waiting on him, and waiting for him, why should we complain? Here is the patience of the saints. A. W. T. 13. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord; blessed from henceforth; blessed from the moment of their death, blessed yet more as the end of all things draws near. Then shall the condition of repose be exchanged for a condition of glory; the unclothed soul for the soul clothed upon with that spiritual, that resurrection body, which Paul describes as its house from heaven. For action, for those blessed works of unwearied ministration, for which God, we doubt not, destines his saints in the ages of an eternal existence, the soul will need the presence of that body which shall be restored to it at the resurrection of the just. For rest, for repose after the storms of life, for thankful reminiscence, adoring praise, and glorious anticipation, the soul divested of the body will suffice: Verily I say unto thee, To-day shall thou be with me in paradise. Blessed, from henceforth, are the dead which die in the Lord: Even so, saith the Spirit; for they rest from their labors. And their works follow with them. Not one act honestly done for Christ—done in humility, done in sincerity, done in earnestness, done in unselfishness—shall fail or be forgotten when the joyful summons shall be heard at evening, Call the laborers and give them their hire. It is not for man to anticipate the reward of his deeds on earth: he knows that the very best of them needs itself to be forgiven, needs to be washed in tears of repentance and sanctified through a more availing blood. This is well. Nevertheless the word of God standeth sure. They shall rest from their labors: and their works follow with them. V. The Condition of Souls between Death and the Resurrection.—That this state will be something other than that which follows the final judgment is evident. The work of redemption will not be complete till death is swallowed up in victory, and the resurrected bodies of the saints rehabilitate their waiting spirits and both are glorified together. Neither will any soul in the future life be fully conscious of the measure of its desert till the influence which survives as all has borne its fruit in time; nor the glory of Christ in his mediatorial work be complete till all enemies are put under his feet. Moreover, it is clearly intimated of that glorious array of faithful souls, illustrious patriarchs, martyrs, and men of renown mentioned in the eleventh of Hebrews, that they have not yet attained all that they sought; and that one believing age is not to be per- fected, except in connection with every other, in that glorious consummation at the end of the world, after which will come the icons in which God will show "the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." 12 : 1 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: and she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and three-score days. And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman; and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.13 : 1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: 8 and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If any man have an ear, let him hear. 10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man: and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. 14 : 1 And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him a hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: and they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile; for they are without fault before the throne of God. 6 And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveeth the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them. 14 And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap: for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped. And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. ONLY "they who die in the Lord" are here accounted blessed; it can not possibly be gain to die till Christ has first been made the life of the soul. Where this becomes our matebless privilege, in the way of faith and penitence, we may expect a state of bliss, not merely after centuries have rolled over our dust, but even from the moment of our departure from this life. "Henceforth," said the Spirit, "the dead in Christ are blessed." And in this rest "their works do follow them," that is to say, from every seed of faith and love, strewed here below with unwearied hands, the harvest is to be expected there. Mark well, it stands not that their works precede them, in any wise to open for them heaven's portals; but that their works do follow them, where hidden good treads forth at once to view. Van O. We rest on this, "I go to prepare a place for you." A place is prepared for each one of us; a place fitted to our distinct character, a separate work fitted to develop that character into perfection, and in the doing of which we shall have the continual delight of feeling that we are growing. Our ideals shall become more beautiful, and minister continually to fresh aspiration. Feelings for which we found no food here shall there be satisfied with work, and exercised by action into exquisite perfection. And this shall be shall be in a father's home, where all the dearest dreams of home-life shall find their happy fulfillment; in a perfect society, where all the charming interchange of thought and giving and receiving of each other's good which makes our best happiness on earth, shall be easier, freer, purer, more intimate, more spiritual, more intellectual; and binding all together, the omnipresent Spirit of love, goodness, truth, and life, whom we call God, and whom we know in Jesus Christ, shall abide in us, and we in him, "for he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him." S. A. B. Chs. 12-14. We have seen in the Book of Revelation thus far, and we shall see in it hereafter, not so much one continuous stream of prophecy, starting from the times of John, and carrying down the fortunes of the Church with historical precision till they are finally lost in the great ocean of eternity: but rather a number of parallel streams, each marked by some definite purpose and principle, and each ending only with the end of time, even with that last discomfiture of the opposing powers of evil which shall introduce the universal reign of Christ, and usher in the new heavens and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. We shall not be surprised therefore to observe in the section now to be opened a return to a very elementary point in the history of the Church of God. The general subject of the three chapters which form this section is the enemies, the three enemies, of Christ's Church. We shall find that this also is a passage complete in itself, and ending only with the same catastrophe of the powers of evil which we have already observed as the termination of the vision of the seals in the 1st verse of the 8th chapter, and of the vision of the trumpets in the last verse of the 11th. V. 12:1-17. And now opens the great prophetic course of visions regarding the Church. Her identification in the eyes of the seer is first rendered unmistakable, by the scene opening with the appearance of the woman and the serpent, the enmity between him and her seed, the birth of the man-child who should rule over the nations—his ascension to heaven and to the throne of God. The flight of the woman into the wilderness, the casting down of Satan from heaven no longer to curse the brethren there, his continued enmity on earth, his persecution of the remnant of the woman's seed, these belong to the introductory features of the great vision which is to follow, and serve to describe the state in which the Church of God is found during the now pending stage of her conflict. 13:1-10. What follows carries out the description of the war made by the dragon on the seed of the woman. A wild beast is seen rising out of the deep, uniting in itself the formerly described heads and horns of the dragon, and also the well-known prophetic symbols of the great empires of the world: representing, in fact, the secular powers antagonistic to the Church of Christ. To this wild beast the dragon gives his might and his throne; and notwithstanding that one of its heads—the pagan Roman empire—is crushed to death, its deadly wound is healed, and all who are not written in the Lamb's book of life worship it. 11-18. The further carrying out of the power and influence of the beast is now set before us by the vision of another wild beast, born of the earth, gentle as a lamb in appearance, but dragon-like and cruel in character. This second beast is the ally and servant of the former: makes men to worship its image and receive its mark, as the condition of civil rights and even of life itself. Here, in common with very many of the best interpreters, I can not fail to recognize the sacerdotal persecuting power, leagued with, and the instrument of, the secular: professing to be a lamb, but in reality being a dragon, persecuting the saints of God, the inseparable companion and upholder of despotic and tyrannical power. This in all its forms, pagan, papal, and in so far as the reformed churches have retrograded toward papal sacerdotalism, Protestant also, I believe to be that which is symbolized under the second wild beast. 14:1-20. Next, the apocalyptic vision brings before us the Lamb on Mount Zion with the first-fruits of his people, and the heavenly song in which they join—as prefatory to the announcement, by three angels, of the prophecies which are to follow, so full of import to the people and Church of God. These are, first (vs. 6, 7), the proclamation of the everlasting gospel as previous to the final judgments of God; next, the fall of Babylon (v. 8), as an encouragement for the patience of the saints; third (vs. 9-11), the final defeat and torment of the Lord's enemies. After these (vs. 11, 12) is heard a voice proclaiming the blessedness of the holy dead. Then follow, in strict accord with these four announcements, 1, the harvest and the vintage of the earth (vs. 14-20), and the seven last plagues, symbolized by the outpouring of the vials (15:1; 16:1-21); 2, the ample details of the fall and punishment of Babylon (chs. 17, 18); 3, the triumph of the Church in the last defeat of her Lord's enemies (19:11-21); 4, the millennial reign (chs. 20-22); and finally, the eternity of bliss. There is reason to interpret the harvest (14:15, 16), of the ingathering of the Lord's people: the vintage (14:18, 19), of the crushing of his enemies; both these being, according to the usage of this book, compendious, and inclusive of the fuller details of both, which are to follow. The vintage is taken up and expanded in detail by the series of the vials (ch. 16); seven in number, as were the seals and the trumpets before. These final judgments, specially belonging to the Church, are introduced by a song of triumph from the saints of both dispensations, and are poured out by angels coming forth from the opened sanctuary of the tabernacle of witness in heaven (15:2-8). A. Ch. 12. One of the prime objects of this entire chapter is manifestly to put the devil in his true light as the chief persecutor, the arch-traitor and rebel against the throne of God—the chieftain who heads all the sin and all the war against God and goodness which appear in the universe. Let all Christians know their enemy; let them know his past history, his present designs, his determined antagonism to the Messiah and to his Church and people; and his certain defeat and shameful fall in the end. H. C. 1-6. Some leading facts in relation to the Saviour's entrance into the world and exit from it are obviously glanced at here. The reader can not avoid calling to mind the birth of Christ, the massacre at Bethlehem by Herod, the character of him who was to "rule over the nations" as disclosed in Psalm 2, the temptation of Christ by Satan, the ascension of the Redeemer to heaven after he had risen from the dead, and finally the persecution of the Church with the protection vouchsafed to it on the part of Heaven. That Satan is here presented as following the ascended Redeemer with the design of annoying him must strike every well-informed mind as a lively symbol of the malignity and bitterness with which the enemy of God and man pursued Jesus and his disciples at all times and on all occasions. M. S. 1. The woman clothed with the sun, and having on her head a crown of twelve stars, is the Church of God; the Church regarded as one whole from the days of Abraham, perhaps we may say from the day of the fall itself, under whatever special dispensation placed—the Patriarchal, the Israelite, or the Christian. 3. The dragon represents in various passages of the prophets of the old testament that great Egyptian power which had been the first oppressor of the Church of Israel. And thus with equal fitness it becomes in this Book of Revelation the title of that prince of this world whose deep and bitter hostility to God and his Christ prompts all the efforts and frames all the machinations by which the world seeks to undermine the influence of the Saviour and of his people. The dragon is henceforth another name for the devil or Satan. Seven heads and ten horns. Notice that though there is a unity of persons in the arch-enemy of God, he is yet in his operations a many-headed power; he exercises his influence through many channels; every phase of the ungodly, antichristian world is one of his manifestations; and further, the power which is thus various and thus multiplied is also a strength; it possesses ten horns, the scriptural emblem of vigor and force. We can not despise the power of evil, though we may forebode its downfall. 5. Caught up unto God.** The years of infancy and boyhood, of youth and of manhood, the workshop of Nazareth, the journeyings to Jerusalem, the call of disciples, the labors of teaching and of healing, the cruel mocking and scourging, the bitter cross and the quiet grave, all are passed over: he who declares the end from the beginning speaks here but of birth and of ascension, and tells us only that, while the dragon stood in readiness to devour the child which should be born, the child was caught up unto God and to his throne. The woman flees into the wilderness. Like Israel of old fleeing from the wrath of Pharaoh, the Church of God, whose Lord and Master has been taken up from her, finds a dwelling-place in her desolation in the wilderness. There, like Israel of old, she has food provided for her of God. The period of her abode is described in figures now familiar to us. The 1,260 days are the same period during which God's two witnesses prophesy clothed in sackcloth. It is the same period, otherwise described as one of forty and two months, during which the holy city is trodden under foot of the Gentiles (11:2, 3). It is the same period, otherwise described as one of three years and a half, of a time and times and half a time (v. 14), during which our Lord's own ministry upon earth was protracted, and after which the spirit of life from God entered into the two dead witnesses and they ascended up to heaven in a cloud while their enemies beheld them (11:11, 12). It is, in short, that period, of the three and a half, the half seven, the broken and imperfect as opposed to the complete and sacred whole, which is again and again the designation of the reign of evil, of the humiliation of God's truth and of God's Church, as contrasted with that endless triumph of the cause of holiness and of Christ which shall comfort the sufferings of Zion and redress the wrongs of the saints. 9. That spiritual enemy with whom our struggle and our warfare lies, is (1) the great dragon; the prince of this world; the leader and commander of the aggressions of the world upon the Church of Christ, upon the people of God. He is (2) the ancient serpent; the very person who in the earliest days of our race, having himself fallen yet earlier from his original uprightness, appeared as the tempter of man, and through his bodily appetite seduced him from his Maker. He is (3) the slanderer and the adversary, the devil and Satan; he who, as we read in the opening of the Book of Job, and again, more briefly, in the 3d chapter of Zechariah, calumniates and slanders before God those whom he has first deceived and overthrown below. He is the slanderer, or calumniator, as well as the adversary. He first seduces man, and then tells of him! And thus (4) he is described as the misleader of all the world; he who leads astray all the world. He was cast out into the earth. The real thing spoken of is the breaking of Satan's power by the Redemption. The devil is like one who has been thrown from a great height, and falls upon the earth bruised and humbled. He is no longer master. If any one still serves him, it is his own fault. 11. We shall best regard the words as anticipative and prophetic in their tone; as describing the victory which has been won by Christ's servants, one after another, and age after age, under the dispensation of the gospel; and of which the completion of Christ's work by ascension contained not the promise only, but the power. They conquered him, it is written of these, as one by one they have finished their course and accomplished their warfare, him the deceiver and the slanderer, him the tempter and the accuser, owing to the blood of the Lamb. This was the secret of their strength. They overcame him, too, through (owing to) the word of their testimony: that is, the word or message which they attest; of which they are witnesses. And they loved not their life unto death. They carried their life's devotion even to the length of death. They overcame the devil by a self-sacrifice which stopped not short of death. The three weapons by which the Christian victory is won, as described for us in the song of triumph in heaven over the downfall of the great enemy of man, are these: the atonement made for all sin in the death of Christ; the word or message of God, to which all true Christians bear in act and in endurance a firm and intelligible testimony; and that spirit of entire self-devotion and self-surrender which perseveres even unto death, and stops not short (if God so require) of the sacrifice of life itself for Christ. V. In the martyr ages of the Church we behold a vast array of active genius and power, that could not be permitted to spend itself in works of benefaction to the race, but was consecrated of God to the more sacred and more fruitful grace of suffering. The design was, it would seem, to prepare a Christly past, to show whole ages of faith populated with men who were able, coming after their Master and bearing his cross, to suffer with him and add their human testimony to his. And so it has been ordered that the Church of God shall know itself to be the child of suffering patience. The scholars, the preachers, all the great and noted characters, who have served the Church by their labors, pass into shade, we think little of them; but the men of patience, the holy martyrs, these we feel as a sacred fatherhood, charging it, oh, how seriously and filially! upon our souls, to be followers of them, who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Who that feels the power of these martyr ages descending on him, can ever think, even for a moment, that the passive virtues of the Christian life are sterile virtues, and that action is the only fruitful thing? H. B. 17. The description here given of the true seed is twofold. They keep the commandments of God, and they hold the testimony of Jesus. Either of these without the other must be, for us at least—we enter not into the question as it may affect past ages, or nations still sitting in darkness—an incomplete, nay, a fallacious test of true membership, of true worship. It is the old combination; faith and works; a heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, and a life suitable to one who loves God. That is salvation. That is redemption. Not the liberty to keep the testimony of Jesus without keeping the commandments of God. Not the liberty to use words of love and faith toward Jesus, and go forth in works to deny him. V. 18 : 1-7. Out of the sea, i. e., from the midst of troubled nations, emerged a wild beast before the eyes of the seer; a dreadful monster, having the agile frame of a leopard, the paws of a bear, and mouth of a lion, with seven heads and ten horns. It combined all the bestial forms seen by Daniel; and must be understood as recalling and condensing in one formidable power all the old-world despotisms that oppressed the Israel of God. The beast took up the persecution of the saints which the dragon instigated. Therefore it can be nothing else than that Roman imperialism which sent the apostle John himself into exile for his faith, and became throughout all the known world a merciless tyrant to the Christians. All world-tyranny, all use of brute force to repress spiritual life and movement, in whatever age, falls under the same symbol of the wild beast. D. F. 2. The deadly wound indicates some blow struck, with apparently fatal consequences, at the power of the ungodly and antichristian world. Such a blow was the conversion of the Emperor Constantine to the faith of Christ, and the establishment of a nominal Christianity as the religion of the great Roman Empire. It might have seemed as though the trials of the Church, collectively at least, were then for ever ended. But the deadly wound was healed. Not yet had the kingdoms of the world really become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ; the nominally Christian empire could persecute as well as the openly idolatrous; he that was born after the flesh was still the natural enemy of him that was born after the spirit; and papal Rome in later ages too often resumed the sword which pagan Rome had dropped. But let it call itself what it may, pagan or Christian, popish or Protestant, the world is still God's enemy; still hates the light; still is not subject to the law of God; still is offended in Christ, first for his humility, and then for his holiness; still looks coldly upon, still casts out, still, if it dares—and it does dare—will persecute those who by act and word testify of it that its works are evil! V. 7. It was given unto him to overcome them. As of old, so now, those to be persecuted by the beast in various ways have their trials severally appointed them by God's fixed counsel. Fausse!—The afflictions, therefore, that the church in the wilderness has met with, these cups of gold, are of more worth than are all the treasures of Egypt; they are needful and profitable, and praiseworthy also, and tend to the augmenting of our glory when the next world shall come. They are also a means by which men are proved to be sound, honest, faithful, and true lovers of God; to be those whose graces are not counterfeit, feigned, or unsound, but true, and such as will be found to praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. And this has been the cause that the men of our church in the wilderness have gloried in tribulation, taking pleasure in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, and in distresses, for Christ's sake. Bun. 10. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. In these coming, these predicted, these inevitable sufferings under the power of the second enemy of the Church, a large demand will be made upon the submission and upon the faith of God's saints. 11. And I saw another wild beast rising out of the earth. The third enemy—we may gather, I think, from the marks affixed to him—is the ungodly antichristian wisdom, as the second is the ungodly antichristian power, of the world. It is that false philosophy, that science falsely so called, that speculative and skeptical opinion, that reason without humility and without God, which, with all its professions of elevation and of independence, has ever been the real ally of the world and the bitterest enemy of revelation and of the Church. This it was which propped up a system of idolatry in which it had itself no vestige of faith. This it was which united with the coercive power of a heathen state in running down and making havoc of the new religion and the young Church of Christ. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. The brute force of the second enemy were powerless without this intelligence of the third. Sometimes the two may work together in one ruler; the demoniacal acuteness, and the animal cruelty. Sometimes, more often perhaps, they are found disjoined, and the only link of union is a common godlessness. That is the combining and cementing sympathy. That is the one characteristic which the second enemy shares with the third. Both of them look earthward; neither can lift up his eyes to the God above. Therefore they are one in their work, one in their aim, and one in their end. 14:1. And I saw—the usual opening of a new vision—and behold, the Lamb standing on the mount Zion. Not a Lamb, but the Lamb. By this time the figure of the Lamb is so familiar to the readers of the book in its application to Christ the Saviour and Redeemer that it may be introduced without comment or explanation. Sion, which was properly one of the group of hills forming the metropolis of Israel, became in the language of prophecy the name of that heavenly city which is to be the everlasting abode of the Saviour and of His redeemed. And I heard a sound out of the heaven—not a sound from Mount Zion, but from above, out of heaven—as a sound of many waters and as a sound of a great thunder; and the sound which I heard was as of harpers harping on their harps. The combination of fullness, of majesty, and of sweetness, in the sound heard, is expressed by bringing together the three comparisons thus indicated. And they, the heavenly harpers, sing a new song before (in presence of) the throne and before (in presence of) the four living creatures, representatives of creation, and the elders, representatives of the universal Church; and no one was able to learn the song, except the hundred and forty and four thousands, even they who have been purchased from the earth. The heavenly song, though sweet and glorious in its general sound to the ear of the prophet who is still in flesh, can be learned only by those who are no longer clogged with mortality, but have already passed through death into incorruption and glory.* 4.5. The character of the redeemed is here set before us under the four heads, of purity, of obedience, of unworldliness, of truthfulness; and their heavenly state, as one of safety, of rest, of happiness, of converse and communion with Christ. V. They are the redeemed from among men. They are the first fruits unto God and the Lamb. They are the subjects of his regenerating love and grace. They were once creatures of sin and children of wrath. Now they are before the throne of God in his likeness. Before the throne of God without fault. Before the throne of God in glory! And therefore, a faultlessness infinitely perfect, a glory and a blessedness unchangeable and everlasting, and boundless as the perfection of God! G. B. C. 6. The everlasting gospel.** It is called “the gospel of his grace,” because it flows from God’s free love; “the gospel of the kingdom,” as it treats of the kingdom of grace and of glory; “the gospel of Christ,” because he is the author and subject of it; “the gospel of peace and salvation,” as it promotes our present comfort, and leads to eternal nal glory; “the glorious gospel,” as in it the glorious perfections of Jehovah are displayed; “the everlasting gospel,” as it was designed from eternity, is permanent in time, and the effects of it are eternal. Buck. 12. We can not be useless while we are doing and suffering God’s will, whatever it may be found to be. And we can always do that. If we are bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit, we are not useless. And we can always do that. If we are increasing in the knowledge of God’s will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, we are not useless. And we can always do that. While we pray we can not be useless. And we can always do that. God will always find us a work to do, a niche to fill, a place to serve, nay, even a soul to save, when it is his will, and not ours, that we desire to do; and if it please him that we sit still for the rest of our lives, doing nothing else but waiting on him, and waiting for him, why should we complain? Here is the patience of the saints. A. W. T. 13. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord; blessed from henceforth; blessed from the moment of their death, blessed yet more as the end of all things draws near. Then shall the condition of repose be exchanged for a condition of glory; the unclothed soul for the soul clothed upon with that spiritual, that resurrection body, which Paul describes as its house from heaven. For action, for those blessed works of unwearied ministration, for which God, we doubt not, destines his saints in the ages of an eternal existence, the soul will need the presence of that body which shall be restored to it at the resurrection of the just. For rest, for repose after the storms of life, for thankful reminiscence, adoring praise, and glorious anticipation, the soul divested of the body will suffice: Verily I say unto thee, To-day shall thou be with me in paradise. Blessed, from henceforth, are the dead which die in the Lord: Even so, saith the Spirit; for they rest from their labors. And their works follow with them. Not one act honestly done for Christ—done in humility, done in sincerity, done in earnestness, done in unselfishness—shall fail or be forgotten when the joyful summons shall be heard at evening, Call the laborers and give them their hire. It is not for man to anticipate the reward of his deeds on earth: he knows that the very best of them needs itself to be forgiven, needs to be washed in tears of repentance and sanctified through a more availing blood. This is well. Nevertheless the word of God standeth sure. They shall rest from their labors: and their works follow with them. V. The Condition of Souls between Death and the Resurrection.—That this state will be something other than that which follows the final judgment is evident. The work of redemption will not be complete till death is swallowed up in victory, and the resurrected bodies of the saints rehabilitate their waiting spirits and both are glorified together. Neither will any soul in the future life be fully conscious of the measure of its desert till the influence which survives as all has borne its fruit in time; nor the glory of Christ in his mediatorial work be complete till all enemies are put under his feet. Moreover, it is clearly intimated of that glorious array of faithful souls, illustrious patriarchs, martyrs, and men of renown mentioned in the eleventh of Hebrews, that they have not yet attained all that they sought; and that one believing age is not to be per- fected, except in connection with every other, in that glorious consummation at the end of the world, after which will come the icons in which God will show "the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." 12 : 1 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: and she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and three-score days. And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman; and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.13 : 1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: 8 and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If any man have an ear, let him hear. 10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man: and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. 14 : 1 And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him a hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: and they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile; for they are without fault before the throne of God. 6 And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveeth the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them. 14 And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap: for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped. And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. ONLY "they who die in the Lord" are here accounted blessed; it can not possibly be gain to die till Christ has first been made the life of the soul. Where this becomes our matebless privilege, in the way of faith and penitence, we may expect a state of bliss, not merely after centuries have rolled over our dust, but even from the moment of our departure from this life. "Henceforth," said the Spirit, "the dead in Christ are blessed." And in this rest "their works do follow them," that is to say, from every seed of faith and love, strewed here below with unwearied hands, the harvest is to be expected there. Mark well, it stands not that their works precede them, in any wise to open for them heaven's portals; but that their works do follow them, where hidden good treads forth at once to view. Van O. We rest on this, "I go to prepare a place for you." A place is prepared for each one of us; a place fitted to our distinct character, a separate work fitted to develop that character into perfection, and in the doing of which we shall have the continual delight of feeling that we are growing. Our ideals shall become more beautiful, and minister continually to fresh aspiration. Feelings for which we found no food here shall there be satisfied with work, and exercised by action into exquisite perfection. And this shall be shall be in a father's home, where all the dearest dreams of home-life shall find their happy fulfillment; in a perfect society, where all the charming interchange of thought and giving and receiving of each other's good which makes our best happiness on earth, shall be easier, freer, purer, more intimate, more spiritual, more intellectual; and binding all together, the omnipresent Spirit of love, goodness, truth, and life, whom we call God, and whom we know in Jesus Christ, shall abide in us, and we in him, "for he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him." S. A. B. Chs. 12-14. We have seen in the Book of Revelation thus far, and we shall see in it hereafter, not so much one continuous stream of prophecy, starting from the times of John, and carrying down the fortunes of the Church with historical precision till they are finally lost in the great ocean of eternity: but rather a number of parallel streams, each marked by some definite purpose and principle, and each ending only with the end of time, even with that last discomfiture of the opposing powers of evil which shall introduce the universal reign of Christ, and usher in the new heavens and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. We shall not be surprised therefore to observe in the section now to be opened a return to a very elementary point in the history of the Church of God. The general subject of the three chapters which form this section is the enemies, the three enemies, of Christ's Church. We shall find that this also is a passage complete in itself, and ending only with the same catastrophe of the powers of evil which we have already observed as the termination of the vision of the seals in the 1st verse of the 8th chapter, and of the vision of the trumpets in the last verse of the 11th. V. 12:1-17. And now opens the great prophetic course of visions regarding the Church. Her identification in the eyes of the seer is first rendered unmistakable, by the scene opening with the appearance of the woman and the serpent, the enmity between him and her seed, the birth of the man-child who should rule over the nations—his ascension to heaven and to the throne of God. The flight of the woman into the wilderness, the casting down of Satan from heaven no longer to curse the brethren there, his continued enmity on earth, his persecution of the remnant of the woman's seed, these belong to the introductory features of the great vision which is to follow, and serve to describe the state in which the Church of God is found during the now pending stage of her conflict. 13:1-10. What follows carries out the description of the war made by the dragon on the seed of the woman. A wild beast is seen rising out of the deep, uniting in itself the formerly described heads and horns of the dragon, and also the well-known prophetic symbols of the great empires of the world: representing, in fact, the secular powers antagonistic to the Church of Christ. To this wild beast the dragon gives his might and his throne; and notwithstanding that one of its heads—the pagan Roman empire—is crushed to death, its deadly wound is healed, and all who are not written in the Lamb's book of life worship it. 11-18. The further carrying out of the power and influence of the beast is now set before us by the vision of another wild beast, born of the earth, gentle as a lamb in appearance, but dragon-like and cruel in character. This second beast is the ally and servant of the former: makes men to worship its image and receive its mark, as the condition of civil rights and even of life itself. Here, in common with very many of the best interpreters, I can not fail to recognize the sacerdotal persecuting power, leagued with, and the instrument of, the secular: professing to be a lamb, but in reality being a dragon, persecuting the saints of God, the inseparable companion and upholder of despotic and tyrannical power. This in all its forms, pagan, papal, and in so far as the reformed churches have retrograded toward papal sacerdotalism, Protestant also, I believe to be that which is symbolized under the second wild beast. 14:1-20. Next, the apocalyptic vision brings before us the Lamb on Mount Zion with the first-fruits of his people, and the heavenly song in which they join—as prefatory to the announcement, by three angels, of the prophecies which are to follow, so full of import to the people and Church of God. These are, first (vs. 6, 7), the proclamation of the everlasting gospel as previous to the final judgments of God; next, the fall of Babylon (v. 8), as an encouragement for the patience of the saints; third (vs. 9-11), the final defeat and torment of the Lord's enemies. After these (vs. 11, 12) is heard a voice proclaiming the blessedness of the holy dead. Then follow, in strict accord with these four announcements, 1, the harvest and the vintage of the earth (vs. 14-20), and the seven last plagues, symbolized by the outpouring of the vials (15:1; 16:1-21); 2, the ample details of the fall and punishment of Babylon (chs. 17, 18); 3, the triumph of the Church in the last defeat of her Lord's enemies (19:11-21); 4, the millennial reign (chs. 20-22); and finally, the eternity of bliss. There is reason to interpret the harvest (14:15, 16), of the ingathering of the Lord's people: the vintage (14:18, 19), of the crushing of his enemies; both these being, according to the usage of this book, compendious, and inclusive of the fuller details of both, which are to follow. The vintage is taken up and expanded in detail by the series of the vials (ch. 16); seven in number, as were the seals and the trumpets before. These final judgments, specially belonging to the Church, are introduced by a song of triumph from the saints of both dispensations, and are poured out by angels coming forth from the opened sanctuary of the tabernacle of witness in heaven (15:2-8). A. Ch. 12. One of the prime objects of this entire chapter is manifestly to put the devil in his true light as the chief persecutor, the arch-traitor and rebel against the throne of God—the chieftain who heads all the sin and all the war against God and goodness which appear in the universe. Let all Christians know their enemy; let them know his past history, his present designs, his determined antagonism to the Messiah and to his Church and people; and his certain defeat and shameful fall in the end. H. C. 1-6. Some leading facts in relation to the Saviour's entrance into the world and exit from it are obviously glanced at here. The reader can not avoid calling to mind the birth of Christ, the massacre at Bethlehem by Herod, the character of him who was to "rule over the nations" as disclosed in Psalm 2, the temptation of Christ by Satan, the ascension of the Redeemer to heaven after he had risen from the dead, and finally the persecution of the Church with the protection vouchsafed to it on the part of Heaven. That Satan is here presented as following the ascended Redeemer with the design of annoying him must strike every well-informed mind as a lively symbol of the malignity and bitterness with which the enemy of God and man pursued Jesus and his disciples at all times and on all occasions. M. S. 1. The woman clothed with the sun, and having on her head a crown of twelve stars, is the Church of God; the Church regarded as one whole from the days of Abraham, perhaps we may say from the day of the fall itself, under whatever special dispensation placed—the Patriarchal, the Israelite, or the Christian. 3. The dragon represents in various passages of the prophets of the old testament that great Egyptian power which had been the first oppressor of the Church of Israel. And thus with equal fitness it becomes in this Book of Revelation the title of that prince of this world whose deep and bitter hostility to God and his Christ prompts all the efforts and frames all the machinations by which the world seeks to undermine the influence of the Saviour and of his people. The dragon is henceforth another name for the devil or Satan. Seven heads and ten horns. Notice that though there is a unity of persons in the arch-enemy of God, he is yet in his operations a many-headed power; he exercises his influence through many channels; every phase of the ungodly, antichristian world is one of his manifestations; and further, the power which is thus various and thus multiplied is also a strength; it possesses ten horns, the scriptural emblem of vigor and force. We can not despise the power of evil, though we may forebode its downfall. 5. Caught up unto God.** The years of infancy and boyhood, of youth and of manhood, the workshop of Nazareth, the journeyings to Jerusalem, the call of disciples, the labors of teaching and of healing, the cruel mocking and scourging, the bitter cross and the quiet grave, all are passed over: he who declares the end from the beginning speaks here but of birth and of ascension, and tells us only that, while the dragon stood in readiness to devour the child which should be born, the child was caught up unto God and to his throne. The woman flees into the wilderness. Like Israel of old fleeing from the wrath of Pharaoh, the Church of God, whose Lord and Master has been taken up from her, finds a dwelling-place in her desolation in the wilderness. There, like Israel of old, she has food provided for her of God. The period of her abode is described in figures now familiar to us. The 1,260 days are the same period during which God's two witnesses prophesy clothed in sackcloth. It is the same period, otherwise described as one of forty and two months, during which the holy city is trodden under foot of the Gentiles (11:2, 3). It is the same period, otherwise described as one of three years and a half, of a time and times and half a time (v. 14), during which our Lord's own ministry upon earth was protracted, and after which the spirit of life from God entered into the two dead witnesses and they ascended up to heaven in a cloud while their enemies beheld them (11:11, 12). It is, in short, that period, of the three and a half, the half seven, the broken and imperfect as opposed to the complete and sacred whole, which is again and again the designation of the reign of evil, of the humiliation of God's truth and of God's Church, as contrasted with that endless triumph of the cause of holiness and of Christ which shall comfort the sufferings of Zion and redress the wrongs of the saints. 9. That spiritual enemy with whom our struggle and our warfare lies, is (1) the great dragon; the prince of this world; the leader and commander of the aggressions of the world upon the Church of Christ, upon the people of God. He is (2) the ancient serpent; the very person who in the earliest days of our race, having himself fallen yet earlier from his original uprightness, appeared as the tempter of man, and through his bodily appetite seduced him from his Maker. He is (3) the slanderer and the adversary, the devil and Satan; he who, as we read in the opening of the Book of Job, and again, more briefly, in the 3d chapter of Zechariah, calumniates and slanders before God those whom he has first deceived and overthrown below. He is the slanderer, or calumniator, as well as the adversary. He first seduces man, and then tells of him! And thus (4) he is described as the misleader of all the world; he who leads astray all the world. He was cast out into the earth. The real thing spoken of is the breaking of Satan's power by the Redemption. The devil is like one who has been thrown from a great height, and falls upon the earth bruised and humbled. He is no longer master. If any one still serves him, it is his own fault. 11. We shall best regard the words as anticipative and prophetic in their tone; as describing the victory which has been won by Christ's servants, one after another, and age after age, under the dispensation of the gospel; and of which the completion of Christ's work by ascension contained not the promise only, but the power. They conquered him, it is written of these, as one by one they have finished their course and accomplished their warfare, him the deceiver and the slanderer, him the tempter and the accuser, owing to the blood of the Lamb. This was the secret of their strength. They overcame him, too, through (owing to) the word of their testimony: that is, the word or message which they attest; of which they are witnesses. And they loved not their life unto death. They carried their life's devotion even to the length of death. They overcame the devil by a self-sacrifice which stopped not short of death. The three weapons by which the Christian victory is won, as described for us in the song of triumph in heaven over the downfall of the great enemy of man, are these: the atonement made for all sin in the death of Christ; the word or message of God, to which all true Christians bear in act and in endurance a firm and intelligible testimony; and that spirit of entire self-devotion and self-surrender which perseveres even unto death, and stops not short (if God so require) of the sacrifice of life itself for Christ. V. In the martyr ages of the Church we behold a vast array of active genius and power, that could not be permitted to spend itself in works of benefaction to the race, but was consecrated of God to the more sacred and more fruitful grace of suffering. The design was, it would seem, to prepare a Christly past, to show whole ages of faith populated with men who were able, coming after their Master and bearing his cross, to suffer with him and add their human testimony to his. And so it has been ordered that the Church of God shall know itself to be the child of suffering patience. The scholars, the preachers, all the great and noted characters, who have served the Church by their labors, pass into shade, we think little of them; but the men of patience, the holy martyrs, these we feel as a sacred fatherhood, charging it, oh, how seriously and filially! upon our souls, to be followers of them, who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Who that feels the power of these martyr ages descending on him, can ever think, even for a moment, that the passive virtues of the Christian life are sterile virtues, and that action is the only fruitful thing? H. B. 17. The description here given of the true seed is twofold. They keep the commandments of God, and they hold the testimony of Jesus. Either of these without the other must be, for us at least—we enter not into the question as it may affect past ages, or nations still sitting in darkness—an incomplete, nay, a fallacious test of true membership, of true worship. It is the old combination; faith and works; a heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, and a life suitable to one who loves God. That is salvation. That is redemption. Not the liberty to keep the testimony of Jesus without keeping the commandments of God. Not the liberty to use words of love and faith toward Jesus, and go forth in works to deny him. V. 18 : 1-7. Out of the sea, i. e., from the midst of troubled nations, emerged a wild beast before the eyes of the seer; a dreadful monster, having the agile frame of a leopard, the paws of a bear, and mouth of a lion, with seven heads and ten horns. It combined all the bestial forms seen by Daniel; and must be understood as recalling and condensing in one formidable power all the old-world despotisms that oppressed the Israel of God. The beast took up the persecution of the saints which the dragon instigated. Therefore it can be nothing else than that Roman imperialism which sent the apostle John himself into exile for his faith, and became throughout all the known world a merciless tyrant to the Christians. All world-tyranny, all use of brute force to repress spiritual life and movement, in whatever age, falls under the same symbol of the wild beast. D. F. 2. The deadly wound indicates some blow struck, with apparently fatal consequences, at the power of the ungodly and antichristian world. Such a blow was the conversion of the Emperor Constantine to the faith of Christ, and the establishment of a nominal Christianity as the religion of the great Roman Empire. It might have seemed as though the trials of the Church, collectively at least, were then for ever ended. But the deadly wound was healed. Not yet had the kingdoms of the world really become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ; the nominally Christian empire could persecute as well as the openly idolatrous; he that was born after the flesh was still the natural enemy of him that was born after the spirit; and papal Rome in later ages too often resumed the sword which pagan Rome had dropped. But let it call itself what it may, pagan or Christian, popish or Protestant, the world is still God's enemy; still hates the light; still is not subject to the law of God; still is offended in Christ, first for his humility, and then for his holiness; still looks coldly upon, still casts out, still, if it dares—and it does dare—will persecute those who by act and word testify of it that its works are evil! V. 7. It was given unto him to overcome them. As of old, so now, those to be persecuted by the beast in various ways have their trials severally appointed them by God's fixed counsel. Fausse!—The afflictions, therefore, that the church in the wilderness has met with, these cups of gold, are of more worth than are all the treasures of Egypt; they are needful and profitable, and praiseworthy also, and tend to the augmenting of our glory when the next world shall come. They are also a means by which men are proved to be sound, honest, faithful, and true lovers of God; to be those whose graces are not counterfeit, feigned, or unsound, but true, and such as will be found to praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. And this has been the cause that the men of our church in the wilderness have gloried in tribulation, taking pleasure in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, and in distresses, for Christ's sake. Bun. 10. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. In these coming, these predicted, these inevitable sufferings under the power of the second enemy of the Church, a large demand will be made upon the submission and upon the faith of God's saints. 11. And I saw another wild beast rising out of the earth. The third enemy—we may gather, I think, from the marks affixed to him—is the ungodly antichristian wisdom, as the second is the ungodly antichristian power, of the world. It is that false philosophy, that science falsely so called, that speculative and skeptical opinion, that reason without humility and without God, which, with all its professions of elevation and of independence, has ever been the real ally of the world and the bitterest enemy of revelation and of the Church. This it was which propped up a system of idolatry in which it had itself no vestige of faith. This it was which united with the coercive power of a heathen state in running down and making havoc of the new religion and the young Church of Christ. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. The brute force of the second enemy were powerless without this intelligence of the third. Sometimes the two may work together in one ruler; the demoniacal acuteness, and the animal cruelty. Sometimes, more often perhaps, they are found disjoined, and the only link of union is a common godlessness. That is the combining and cementing sympathy. That is the one characteristic which the second enemy shares with the third. Both of them look earthward; neither can lift up his eyes to the God above. Therefore they are one in their work, one in their aim, and one in their end. 14:1. And I saw—the usual opening of a new vision—and behold, the Lamb standing on the mount Zion. Not a Lamb, but the Lamb. By this time the figure of the Lamb is so familiar to the readers of the book in its application to Christ the Saviour and Redeemer that it may be introduced without comment or explanation. Sion, which was properly one of the group of hills forming the metropolis of Israel, became in the language of prophecy the name of that heavenly city which is to be the everlasting abode of the Saviour and of His redeemed. And I heard a sound out of the heaven—not a sound from Mount Zion, but from above, out of heaven—as a sound of many waters and as a sound of a great thunder; and the sound which I heard was as of harpers harping on their harps. The combination of fullness, of majesty, and of sweetness, in the sound heard, is expressed by bringing together the three comparisons thus indicated. And they, the heavenly harpers, sing a new song before (in presence of) the throne and before (in presence of) the four living creatures, representatives of creation, and the elders, representatives of the universal Church; and no one was able to learn the song, except the hundred and forty and four thousands, even they who have been purchased from the earth. The heavenly song, though sweet and glorious in its general sound to the ear of the prophet who is still in flesh, can be learned only by those who are no longer clogged with mortality, but have already passed through death into incorruption and glory.* 4.5. The character of the redeemed is here set before us under the four heads, of purity, of obedience, of unworldliness, of truthfulness; and their heavenly state, as one of safety, of rest, of happiness, of converse and communion with Christ. V. They are the redeemed from among men. They are the first fruits unto God and the Lamb. They are the subjects of his regenerating love and grace. They were once creatures of sin and children of wrath. Now they are before the throne of God in his likeness. Before the throne of God without fault. Before the throne of God in glory! And therefore, a faultlessness infinitely perfect, a glory and a blessedness unchangeable and everlasting, and boundless as the perfection of God! G. B. C. 6. The everlasting gospel.** It is called “the gospel of his grace,” because it flows from God’s free love; “the gospel of the kingdom,” as it treats of the kingdom of grace and of glory; “the gospel of Christ,” because he is the author and subject of it; “the gospel of peace and salvation,” as it promotes our present comfort, and leads to eternal nal glory; “the glorious gospel,” as in it the glorious perfections of Jehovah are displayed; “the everlasting gospel,” as it was designed from eternity, is permanent in time, and the effects of it are eternal. Buck. 12. We can not be useless while we are doing and suffering God’s will, whatever it may be found to be. And we can always do that. If we are bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit, we are not useless. And we can always do that. If we are increasing in the knowledge of God’s will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, we are not useless. And we can always do that. While we pray we can not be useless. And we can always do that. God will always find us a work to do, a niche to fill, a place to serve, nay, even a soul to save, when it is his will, and not ours, that we desire to do; and if it please him that we sit still for the rest of our lives, doing nothing else but waiting on him, and waiting for him, why should we complain? Here is the patience of the saints. A. W. T. 13. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord; blessed from henceforth; blessed from the moment of their death, blessed yet more as the end of all things draws near. Then shall the condition of repose be exchanged for a condition of glory; the unclothed soul for the soul clothed upon with that spiritual, that resurrection body, which Paul describes as its house from heaven. For action, for those blessed works of unwearied ministration, for which God, we doubt not, destines his saints in the ages of an eternal existence, the soul will need the presence of that body which shall be restored to it at the resurrection of the just. For rest, for repose after the storms of life, for thankful reminiscence, adoring praise, and glorious anticipation, the soul divested of the body will suffice: Verily I say unto thee, To-day shall thou be with me in paradise. Blessed, from henceforth, are the dead which die in the Lord: Even so, saith the Spirit; for they rest from their labors. And their works follow with them. Not one act honestly done for Christ—done in humility, done in sincerity, done in earnestness, done in unselfishness—shall fail or be forgotten when the joyful summons shall be heard at evening, Call the laborers and give them their hire. It is not for man to anticipate the reward of his deeds on earth: he knows that the very best of them needs itself to be forgiven, needs to be washed in tears of repentance and sanctified through a more availing blood. This is well. Nevertheless the word of God standeth sure. They shall rest from their labors: and their works follow with them. V. The Condition of Souls between Death and the Resurrection.—That this state will be something other than that which follows the final judgment is evident. The work of redemption will not be complete till death is swallowed up in victory, and the resurrected bodies of the saints rehabilitate their waiting spirits and both are glorified together. Neither will any soul in the future life be fully conscious of the measure of its desert till the influence which survives as all has borne its fruit in time; nor the glory of Christ in his mediatorial work be complete till all enemies are put under his feet. Moreover, it is clearly intimated of that glorious array of faithful souls, illustrious patriarchs, martyrs, and men of renown mentioned in the eleventh of Hebrews, that they have not yet attained all that they sought; and that one believing age is not to be per- fected, except in connection with every other, in that glorious consummation at the end of the world, after which will come the icons in which God will show "the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." It is a fair inference from Scripture, not only that souls are in a state of conscious activity, but that, as Judas, so every other goes to his own place. "Death alters our condition and our surroundings, but most likely affects our essential personality not at all." Says Von Oosterzee, "The to-day of the soul after death is the simple continuation of the course followed on earth, downward or upward, and in which it now inwardly ripens for the portion which will be manifested at the last day, and of which it already experiences a foretaste of the enjoyment or the terror." Absent from the body is to be present with the Lord in some one of the many mansions, or to awake to the consciousness of an abused probation and a rejected opportunity. This intermediate state may also serve an end, as well as actually be a waiting for the consummation of all things. The soul released from all bodily hindrances and infirmities is open to the searching scrutiny of the light of truth as never before; and, "pervaded with light by the heavenly glancing of God's fire," is becoming adjusted to that life, into which death is a birth, and which invites it to a yet sublimer destiny when rehabilitated by its glorified body, and admitted to its inheritance as an heir of God in the new earth wherein righteousness shall for ever dwell. No adjustment to the absolutely holy life of heavenly society is so essential as a moral one. No place is now found so favorable to it as that which brings us into communion with God. How rapid the progress when the veil is taken away and we see him as he is. We are, then, to regard the intermediate state between death and the resurrection as one of transition from this state to that which is final, along the lines of choice and habit made our own here and now. "Upon the broad as upon the narrow way falls the impenetrable curtain of death; but the first step after borders immediately upon the last step before the curtain. Advancement and progress are made ever in the same path in which the man was already walking even before his death. A transition from the one to the opposite condition after death is accordingly spoken of as inconceivable by the mouth of truth itself." Haydn. 15: 1 And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven 2 last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God. And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his im- age, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having 3 the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true 4 are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judg- 5 ments are made manifest. And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the taber- 6 nacle of the testimony in heaven was opened: and the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded 7 with golden girdles. And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden 8 vials fall of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled. 16: 1 And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, 2 and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men 3 which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image. And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: 4 and every living soul died in the sea. And the third angel poured out his vial upon the 5 rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou 6 hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given 7 them blood to drink; for they are worthy. And I heard another out of the altar say, Even 8 so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments. And the fourth angel poured 9 out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power 10 over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory. And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they 11 gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains 12 and their sores, and repented not of their deeds. And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the 13 kings of the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the 14 false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God 15 Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, 16 lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called 17 in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is 18 done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so 19 great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine 20 of the fierceness of his wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not 21 found. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great. 17: 1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore 2 that sitteth upon many waters: with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten 4 horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and 5 filthiness of her fornication: and upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF 6 THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. 7 And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. 8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast 9 that was, and is not, and yet is. And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven 10 heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of 12 the seven, and goeth into perdition. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the 13 beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. 14 These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful. And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are 16 peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and 17 shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be 18 fulfilled. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth. 18: 1 And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; 2 and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and 3 the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through 4 the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her 5 plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. 6 Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: 7 in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit 8 a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for 9 strong is the Lord God who judgeth her. And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they 10 shall see the smoke of her burning, standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Aias, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. 11 And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their 12 merchandise any more. The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and 13 marble, and cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls 14 of men. And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more 15 at all. The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off 16 for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, and saying, Alas, alas that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious 17 stones, and pearls! For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar 18 off, and cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this 19 great city! And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of 20 her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate. Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and 21 ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her. And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall 22 that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and 23 the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee; and the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for 24 by thy sorceries were all nations deceived. And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth. 19:1 And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God: for true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the 3 earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And 4 again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia. 5 And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye 6 that fear him, both small and great. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: 7 for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to 8 him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine 9 linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the 10 true sayings of God. And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of 11 Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and 12 True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he 13 himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called the 14 Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, 15 clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he 16 treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. 17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper 18 of the great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of 19 all men, both free and bond, both small and great. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the 20 horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into 21 a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. THE Bible is a self-evidenced miracle; and the miracle consists in this, that a book the composition of which occupied more than fifteen centuries of time, prepared by different hands and minds, with no possibility of collusion, and differing each from the other so much as Moses and John, Samuel and Peter, Solomon and Paul, Ezekiel and Luke, David and James, each preparing and shaping his appropriate work, and that work of each as distinct from every other as the book of Genesis and the Apocalypse, the Psalms and the acts of the Apostles, the book of Ruth and the argument in the Epistle to the Romans, the prophecies of Isaiah and the letters of the disciple whom Jesus loved; that, in all this vast variety of material, history, ritual, description, genealogy, law, proverb, prophecy, ode, apothegm, precept, fact, doctrine, apology, reasoning, there should be as complete a unity of subject, the whole compacted and framed together into one book, and that having but one theme, as if it had been composed in the lifetime of one man, and by his own many-sided and varied faculties. And that which alone gives unity to this far-stretching and varied material is Jesus Christ and his salvation. Deep answers to deep across intervening ages, and there is but one voice, "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy"; all times and all events converge in one truth, "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." He who does not comprehend this structure of the Book of God in the unity of Jesus Christ his Son, will never reach himself the compactness and strength of a perfect Christian man, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. W. A. Chs. 15-19. The last passage of the 14th chapter brought down the inspired disclosure to the very end of all things. After the vision of the harvest and the vintage there can be no later transaction upon the defiled and desecrated earth. The next revelation in order of time must be that of the new heavens and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. But there are parts of the picture still to be completed before we are prepared for the descent of the holy city from heaven to earth, and the final establishment among men of the tabernacle of God. In particular, we have yet to learn in fuller detail the fate of the three enemies described in the last section. We have heard in the 14th chapter in general terms that their overthrow is destined and certain. But the particulars of the overthrow have not yet been disclosed. V. 15:1-4. Here, also, preceding the seven vials of wrath, is a scene of heavenly triumph. Victors stand over the crystal sea mingled with fire, as on a shore of safety, singing "the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb." We are, of course, reminded of the song of Moses and his triumphant host on the shore of the Red Sea. In that ancient ode of victory they sang, "Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?" In this they sing, "Great and marvelous are thy works, O Lord God Almighty! just and true are thy ways, thou King of nations. Who should not fear, O Lord, and glorify thy name, for thou only art holy?" 5-8. This prepares for judgment on oppressors. Seven angels come out of the temple, and to them one of the "four living ones" delivers seven golden vials or goblets full of the anger of the ever-living God. The action of the living creature is significant, because the plagues or blows are about to fall on the various regions of creation—the earth, the sea, the fresh waters, and the sun. 16:1-21. As the vials are successively poured out by the angels, the seven last blows or plagues fall upon men, and recall several of the plagues inflicted on Egypt. The parallel between these and the judgments under the trumpets is very remarkable. 1. Fire and blood on the earth. 2. Fire and blood on the sea. 3. Wormwood on rivers and fountains of water. 4. Darkness of sun, moon, and stars. 5. A fallen star—the opening of the abyss—darkness—locusts. 6. Loosing of four angels in the Euphrates, and issuing of a great host to hurt and destroy. 7. Consummation, with announcement of divine judgment; voices, thunders, lightnings, and hail. Grievous sore on the earth. Blood in the sea. Blood in rivers and fountains of water. Scorching heat from the sun. Darkness on the throne of the beast, and in his kingdom. Drying up of Euphrates—appearance of three unclean frog-like spirits—gathering of kings to war. Consummation, with announcement of divine judgment; voices, thunders, lightnings, and hail. Is it not plain that these do not describe consecutive periods of history? They have such a coincidence as plainly indicates that they set forth, by line upon line, and in the old Hebrew style of repetition with expansion, the same principles of divine judgment. D. F. The course of these judgments is in some particulars the same as that of the trumpets. The earth, the sea, the rivers, the lights of heaven, these are the objects of the first four; but ever with reference to those who worship the beast and have his mark on them. At the fifth, as in each case before, there is a change from general to special; the throne and kingdom of the beast, the river Euphrates, these are now the objects; and the seventh passes off, as in each former case, to the consummation of all things. Meantime, as so often before, anticipating hints have been given of new details belonging to the other angelic announcements. At the sixth vial (vs. 12-16) we have the sounds of the gathering of an approaching battle of God's enemies against him, and the very battle-field pointed out. After the seventh and its closing formula (vs. 17-21), Babylon comes into remembrance before God, to give her the cup of his vengeance. Thus, then, we pass to the second of the angelic announcements—the fall of Babylon (ch. 17). A. 1-11. The special object of the judgments now to commence is the second of the three enemies of Christ and his Church, the wild beast from the sea, which unites in itself the attributes of the worldly power in every form and phase. These judgments have been executed in a greater or less degree throughout all time. But the terms of this prophecy, no less than the position which it occupies in the Book of Revelation, prepare us to expect a more intense and concentrated manifestation of God's judgment upon an opposing and blaspheming world as the last end of all things shall draw on. The judgments of which we here read are described as the seven last plagues, in which is filled up the wrath of God. 12. At the sounding of the sixth trumpet there is a similar introduction of the river Euphrates. Loose the four angels bound at the river Euphrates. The Euphrates, speaking roughly, was the boundary between Israel and Israel's invaders. It was the eastern barrier (with the desert between) of the holy land and of the chosen people. The river Euphrates, the ancient barrier between Israel and the enemies of Israel—the typical barrier between the Church, which is the Israel of God, and the enemies of the Church—is to be dried up, to prepare the way of the kings from the east. The typical home of the Church in the language of all prophecy is Palestine and Jerusalem; and therefore the typical home of the foes of the Church is in the region to which Palestine and Jerusalem ever looked as the quarter of danger, as the source of attack. The enemies of Christ are gathering for one last and decisive onslaught upon his servants and upon his throne: God foresees this; God permits this; yea, God would have it so: and therefore one of his latest vials of judgment is poured upon the Euphrates, that the hostile powers may march undisturbed against Jerusalem, and meet their great discomfiture in a struggle the deadliest and the last of all. 13. There is an agency of God, and there is an agency too of man. God dries the Euphrates; the enemy emits the spirits, the unclean and lying spirits, which are to draw the nations across it. Thus it is in all time: man can ill distinguish between the agency of permission and the agency of causation; between that power which stands aside and makes room, and that power which solicits, which inspires, and which directs. That which God hinders not he in some sort does. Often does his word speak of him as acting where a cautious and timid theology might rather speak of him as allowing. This we know, and thus far, at all events, we are safe in affirming constantly, that all good is of God, and that all evil is of God's enemy. It is of good that the conflict of truth and falsehood, of light and darkness, should at last receive its decision: it is of evil than any one soul is induced to cast in its lot in that struggle with the hosts of antichrist. God dries the Euphrates; but the unclean spirits fill the invading ranks. God prepares the way. But the influence by which the hosts of evil are mustered is not of God. I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. Each of the three great enemies of Christ's truth and of Christ's Church contributes a special influence ence toward this result, this gathering of the powers of evil to combat and to ruin. There comes out of the mouth of the dragon that spirit of unbelief, of doubting, mistrusting, at last denying, God's express word, whether of revelation, of command, or of promise, by which in Eden itself the serpent tempted, and by listening to which woman first and then man fell. The evil spirit from the mouth of the beast which is the world bids us think the things that are seen more real and more valuable than the things which are not seen; bids us deem nothing so desirable, nothing so necessary to us, as the good opinion of a man that shall die; bids us live for esteem, or live for praise, or live for power, or live for pleasure, or live for wealth, and not live for God, and not live for eternity. And what shall we say of the unclean spirit of the third enemy, of the false prophet, the creature and abettor of the second? Surely the wisdom of this world, no less than the power of this world, has in this generation a real and an oppressive influence. 15. Behold, I come as a thief. The thief comes at night; comes without notice; comes while men sleep; comes suddenly and by surprise upon a house barred against his approach. I beseech you to remember that the second coming of Christ, that coming which will set the seal of permanence upon what is, and make your then state before God your state for ever, will have this special peculiarity, it will be a surprise. And everything in you which says peace and safety; every feeling of your heart which breathes tranquility in the present; every calculation based upon to-morrow being as this day; every confident look at the bright cheerfulness of your fireside, or at the healthy and happy countenance of wife or child; still more every prayerless morning and every thankless night, when you rise as to a life all your own, or close your eyes in sleep as upon a world which will as certainly be yours to-morrow—is a sign, not of the distance, but of the nearness of Christ's advent. The peculiarity of Christ's coming is that everything which seems to defer really brings it near; everything which seems to make it improbable is an argument of its certainty and of its approach. Behold, I come as a thief. What shall we say then, but that the inspired word is reasonable which adds, Blessed is he that watcheth? Against an event so sure in its fact but so doubtful in its time, what can we do but watch always? To be wakful, in the Christian sense of that word, is not to be sleeping in indifference, not to be sleeping in self-indulgence, not to be sleeping in godlessness, not to be sleeping in sin. It is to be men of prayer, men of self-command, men of activity; I say it again, men of prayer. It is to have the communication ever open between the soul and its God. It is to have the aspect ever upward and ever onward. It is to have Christ ever real to us, the Holy Spirit ever present. It is to observe with a serious steadfastness the signs of the times; to compare the features of our generation with the marks given in Scripture of the latter days, of the times of the end. It is to rejoice with a sincere and a thankful joy in every victory won for Christ in the world or in a soul. It is to use this world as not abusing it; to use it as a trust, not as a possession. It is to have the affection set on things above, not on things on the earth; to have our conversation, our citizenship, already in heaven; to have our very life, the life that is most dear and most real and most precious to us, hidden even now with Christ in God. So when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory. V. 16. In Judges 5: 19 we read: "The kings came and fought, then fought the kings of Canaan in Taanach by the waters of Megiddo." There the Israelites gained a signal victory over the Canaanish kings. Here, it is said, "he gathered them together into a place called Armageddon." Now, if it was meant that the people of God should be victorious over the combined forces of their enemies, could it be better represented than by saying that the battle of Megiddo should be fought again? On this assumption the battle of Armageddon is simply a conflict between the Lord's servants and his allied foes, in which the former should gain a signal victory. That it will be a struggle involving bloodshed, and the other circumstances of human warfare, appears to be entirely an assumption. The conflict may be moral. The weapons of warfare may be spiritual. This view is more in harmony with the general character of the Revelation than that which would make one human battle with carnal weapons the symbolic representation of another human battle of the same kind. J. Hall. 17-21. Since the hailstones come by weight and the wrath comes by measure—for so a talent and a cup import—it follows that the Almighty God, even in the midst of the heat of all this anger, will keep to the rules of justice and judgment while he is dealing with this enemy; he has not passions to carry him beyond rules of judgment, nor weakness to cause him to fall short of doing justice; therefore he has his judgments for her by weight, and his indignation by measure. But yet this weight and measure are disposed according to the measure and nature of her iniquity, and come to sweep her as with the bosom of destruction, until she is swept off from the face of all the earth. Bun. Ch. 7. It is there told, almost without figure, what is the seat, and what the name, and what the place in history, and what the singular, the unprecedented end, of that power which in John's time was the rider upon the wild beast. Her seat was the city of the seven hills. Her name, that of the great empire then reigning over the kings of the earth. Her place in history, the sixth and last but one of those mighty empires which have successively towered above the thrones of the earth. She comes after Egypt, after Assyria, after Babylon, after Persia, after Greece. Strange to tell, she does not come before any one similar embodiment of the giant strength of that beast which is the world. She is to be followed by a seventh head; but that seventh head is a mere cluster of ten horns. The head exists but for the purpose of carrying those ten horns. The power which is to replace imperial Rome is a divided, not a concentrated, force. Marvelous prediction! audacious, were it not divine! but not more marvelous in its peculiarity, not more bold in its positiveness, than true in its fulfillment, in the history of the past and in the circumstances of the present! V. 14. In the Gospel of John we read the life of Christ on earth; a man conversing with men, humble, poor, weak, and suffering, we behold a sacrifice ready to be offered, and a man appointed to sorrows and death; but in the Revelation of John, we have the gospel of Christ now raised from the dead. He speaks and acts as having conquered the grave, and triumphed over death and hell, as entered into the place of his glory; angels, principalities, and powers being made subject unto him, and exercising the supreme universal power he has received from the Father over all things in heaven and earth, as our Saviour, for the protection of his Church, and for the sure happiness of his faithful servants in the end. Bossuet. 17. We live under the most peculiar of all the phases of the world's power, and we are taught in prophecy that it is the last of all. Since John wrote, one phase has passed and another has come in; he wrote under the sixth; we are living under the seventh; and there is no eighth. With what earnestness ought we to read and to ponder the brief saying of the text, until the words of God shall be fulfilled! God has fulfilled some of them, yea, many, since the time that John fell on sleep. He has caused the curtain to fall upon one act of the drama, and he has raised it by his providence upon another, upon the last of all. Who can tell us how long it shall yet continue, ere the incidents be quite exhausted and the catastrophe be fully come? At all events we know this; that for each one of us the end of all things is at hand: if the Saviour's advent come not soon to us, we shall surely go to it. Meanwhile let us at least know that there is an end; and let us be waiting for it, and watching! Ch. 18. This chapter is a graphic picture of the fall of Rome. It is drawn from an earlier likeness, and painted in colors not new but old. Earlier prophecies, denouncing judgment upon preceding empires, furnish the main features of this. Those things which Isaiah and Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Nahum, saw and recorded concerning Tyre and Nineveh and Babylon of old, are here gathered together, and written of a later tyrant; of an oppressor not of Israel, but of the Church of Christ and of the gospel. In the very fact of that application, of that transfer, of that repetition, we see a sign of the wisdom and of the grace of God. What could be so encouraging, so reassuring, to a prostrate, exiled, persecuted people, as to be reminded, from their own Scriptures, of oppressions and sufferings endured of old time by God's servants, and of the retribution by which those ancient wrongs had been recompensed and redressed? What could be a surer warrant for the hope that a Babylon of the present, powerful as she appeared, and deeply rooted, and securely fenced and guarded, might yet in the mysterious working of God's providence be brought to desolation and to nothingness, than the declaration that one sits in the seat of an earlier Babylon, whose houses are now full of doleful creatures, wild beasts crying in her desolate houses, and dragons in her pleasant palaces? To call Rome Babylon was of itself a pledge of its demolition. The policy of that great empire, and the philosophy of that great empire; its principle, and its want of principle; its belief in human power, and its indifference to divine power; its skepticism as to all truth, and its toleration of all religions which would themselves tolerate; all had conspired together to make the empire of Rome the foe of Christianity. Sometimes by the caprices of her rulers, and sometimes in spite of their injunctions, Rome had proved herself in fact not a neutral but a persecuting power. In her, when she came to be judged, whether by history or by prophecy, was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all that were slain upon the earth. And at last judgment fell; a judgment of disruption and of dissolution; a judgment full of justice, and a judgment full of admonition. To the severity of that judgment the city itself bears an infallible testimony. So early as the beginning of the fifteenth century this was the language of a reflecting observer: "The hill of the Capitol, on which we sit, was formerly the head of the Roman empire, the citadel of the earth, the terror of kings; illustrated by the footsteps of so many triumphs, enriched with the spoils and tributes of so many nations. This spectacle of the world, how is it fallen! how changed! how defaced! the path of victory is obliterated by vines, and the benches of the senators are concealed by a dunghill. Cast your eyes on the Palatine hill, and seek among the shapeless and enormous fragments the marble theatre, the obelisks, the colossal statues, the porticoes of Nero's palace: survey the other hills of the city, the vacant space is interrupted only by ruins and gardens. The forum of the Roman people, where they assembled to enact their laws and elect their magistrates, is now enclosed for the cultivation of pot-herbs, or thrown open for the reception of swine and buffaloes. The public and private edifices, that were founded for eternity, lie prostrate, naked, and broken, like the limbs of a mighty giant; and the ruin is the more visible, from the stupendous relics that have survived the injuries of time and fortune" (Gibbon, ch. 71). But is it then with walls and buildings that the righteous anger of God wages its warfare? Is it any impeachment of the truth of his prediction, if another city rises in its turn upon the ruins of Babylon, or another power diverse from the former plants its throne upon the ruins of imperial Rome? Not so. It may be noticeable, as a permanent index of judgment, if wild beasts of the desert still lie where Babylon the glory of kingdoms once spread wide her habitations; if dragons still cry in those pleasant palaces where kings once reigned, vassals of a yet mightier throne. But not less really, if less visibly, are God's denunciations against a second Babylon verified, if after the fall of imperial Rome papal Rome rose and flourished for her season, built herself churches with the stones of temples, and reigned in turn over subject consciences as her predecessor had reigned over prostrate nationalities. There have been times, it has been well said, when the papacy looked very like the beast of the Revelation: at such times, in the same degree, God's judgments upon Babylon were applicable and appropriate to the papacy. And that which was not explained nor meant to be explained to John, time has revealed to us; namely, that the fall of the Babylon that then was was not destined to be the immediate precursor of the end of all things. Even John was instructed to write, There are seven kings: five are fallen; and one is; and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space (17:10). That short space has been expanded by the event into a period of several centuries. Other Babylons, on a smaller scale, and with features less precisely marked, have come and gone since John's prophecy against Rome was fulfilled. The beast still is, and still develops himself from time to time in new forms. Wherever he develops himself, there arises another Babylon; and of the ruin of that other Babylon the ruin of the first Babylon and of the second is an infallible and ever-growing proof. V. 19:1-10. The time now draws near for the final termination of the conflict. The irrevocable doom has been pronounced. But before the final condemnation, the episode (so usual in this book) of praise, thanksgiving, and anticipated completion of victory, comes in with a delay of the main action. The episode (as usual) has three parts: 1. All the inhabitants of the heavenly world are represented as uniting in a song of triumph and of thanksgiving on account of the righteous judgments of God which are about to be inflicted (vs. 1-4). 2. A voice from the throne in heaven speaks, and requires of all his servants everywhere renewed praise, which accordingly is shouted (vs. 5-8). 3. The glorious prospect for suffering martyrs is disclosed. They will be guests at the marriage supper of the Lamb. The Church is indeed the Lamb's bride, and the exultation of the Messiah is vividly sketched in the declaration of the angel interpreter, at whose feet John, in a state of astonishment, falls. Jesus, the angel declares, is the object of worship by him; and therefore he (the angel) can not claim the worship of his fellow-servants, who, like him, are merely instruments in making known the prophecies respecting the triumph of redeeming grace (vs. 9, 10). M.S. 10. Jesus. The lines of both Testaments meet in him as in one common center. In the testimonies of the Bible concerning the glory, grace, and work of Christ, the Old Testament confirms the New, and the New Testament illustrates the Old. "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy"; that is, the essence, the substance, the aim and end of all prophecy. Without the preëminence of Christ they become like other writings; but admit this, and then there is but one gospel under all dispensations—but one Saviour for all sinners. And whoever are the speakers or writers, whether patriarchs, or prophets, or kings, or angels, or poets, or apostles, or disciples, each vies with the other to give Christ the preëminence. The glories of heaven and the wonders of the earth, the honors of offices or the happiness of relations, the attractions of beauty or the authority of dignity, are chosen as metaphors to set forth the preëminent excellence of Christ. Sherman. 11-16. The wisest of living Britons has said, "Infinite pity, yet infinite rigor of law. It is so that the world is made." It is so the world must be made, because it is made by Jesus Christ our Lord, and its laws are the likeness of his character; pitiful, because Christ is pitiful; and rigorous, because he is rigorous. So pitiful is Christ that he did not hesitate to be slain for men, that mankind through him might be saved. But so rigorous is Christ that he does not hesitate to slay men, if needful, that mankind thereby may be saved. War and bloodshed, pestilence and famine, earthquake and tempest—all of them, as sure as there is a God, are the servants of God, doing his awful but necessary work for the final benefit of the whole human race. C. K.—It is “the faithful and true who in righteousness doth judge and make war.” He is represented as Head of the Church, sitting on “a white horse”; while, as Head over all things to the Church, he is described as “having on his head many crowns, as clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, as smiting the nations with a sharp sword, ruling them with a rod of iron, treading the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God, and having on his vesture and on his thigh the name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.” W. S. It is a fair inference from Scripture, not only that souls are in a state of conscious activity, but that, as Judas, so every other goes to his own place. "Death alters our condition and our surroundings, but most likely affects our essential personality not at all." Says Von Oosterzee, "The to-day of the soul after death is the simple continuation of the course followed on earth, downward or upward, and in which it now inwardly ripens for the portion which will be manifested at the last day, and of which it already experiences a foretaste of the enjoyment or the terror." Absent from the body is to be present with the Lord in some one of the many mansions, or to awake to the consciousness of an abused probation and a rejected opportunity. This intermediate state may also serve an end, as well as actually be a waiting for the consummation of all things. The soul released from all bodily hindrances and infirmities is open to the searching scrutiny of the light of truth as never before; and, "pervaded with light by the heavenly glancing of God's fire," is becoming adjusted to that life, into which death is a birth, and which invites it to a yet sublimer destiny when rehabilitated by its glorified body, and admitted to its inheritance as an heir of God in the new earth wherein righteousness shall for ever dwell. No adjustment to the absolutely holy life of heavenly society is so essential as a moral one. No place is now found so favorable to it as that which brings us into communion with God. How rapid the progress when the veil is taken away and we see him as he is. We are, then, to regard the intermediate state between death and the resurrection as one of transition from this state to that which is final, along the lines of choice and habit made our own here and now. "Upon the broad as upon the narrow way falls the impenetrable curtain of death; but the first step after borders immediately upon the last step before the curtain. Advancement and progress are made ever in the same path in which the man was already walking even before his death. A transition from the one to the opposite condition after death is accordingly spoken of as inconceivable by the mouth of truth itself." Haydn. 15: 1 And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven 2 last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God. And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his im- age, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having 3 the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true 4 are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judg- 5 ments are made manifest. And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the taber- 6 nacle of the testimony in heaven was opened: and the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded 7 with golden girdles. And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden 8 vials fall of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled. 16: 1 And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, 2 and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men 3 which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image. And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: 4 and every living soul died in the sea. And the third angel poured out his vial upon the 5 rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou 6 hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given 7 them blood to drink; for they are worthy. And I heard another out of the altar say, Even 8 so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments. And the fourth angel poured 9 out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power 10 over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory. And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they 11 gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains 12 and their sores, and repented not of their deeds. And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the 13 kings of the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the 14 false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God 15 Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, 16 lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called 17 in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is 18 done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so 19 great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine 20 of the fierceness of his wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not 21 found. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great. 17: 1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore 2 that sitteth upon many waters: with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten 4 horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and 5 filthiness of her fornication: and upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF 6 THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. 7 And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. 8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast 9 that was, and is not, and yet is. And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven 10 heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of 12 the seven, and goeth into perdition. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the 13 beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. 14 These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful. And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are 16 peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and 17 shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be 18 fulfilled. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth. 18: 1 And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; 2 and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and 3 the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through 4 the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her 5 plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. 6 Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: 7 in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit 8 a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for 9 strong is the Lord God who judgeth her. And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they 10 shall see the smoke of her burning, standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Aias, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. 11 And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their 12 merchandise any more. The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and 13 marble, and cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls 14 of men. And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more 15 at all. The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off 16 for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, and saying, Alas, alas that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious 17 stones, and pearls! For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar 18 off, and cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this 19 great city! And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of 20 her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate. Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and 21 ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her. And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall 22 that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and 23 the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee; and the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for 24 by thy sorceries were all nations deceived. And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth. 19:1 And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God: for true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the 3 earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And 4 again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia. 5 And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye 6 that fear him, both small and great. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: 7 for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to 8 him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine 9 linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the 10 true sayings of God. And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of 11 Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and 12 True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he 13 himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called the 14 Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, 15 clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he 16 treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. 17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper 18 of the great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of 19 all men, both free and bond, both small and great. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the 20 horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into 21 a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. THE Bible is a self-evidenced miracle; and the miracle consists in this, that a book the composition of which occupied more than fifteen centuries of time, prepared by different hands and minds, with no possibility of collusion, and differing each from the other so much as Moses and John, Samuel and Peter, Solomon and Paul, Ezekiel and Luke, David and James, each preparing and shaping his appropriate work, and that work of each as distinct from every other as the book of Genesis and the Apocalypse, the Psalms and the acts of the Apostles, the book of Ruth and the argument in the Epistle to the Romans, the prophecies of Isaiah and the letters of the disciple whom Jesus loved; that, in all this vast variety of material, history, ritual, description, genealogy, law, proverb, prophecy, ode, apothegm, precept, fact, doctrine, apology, reasoning, there should be as complete a unity of subject, the whole compacted and framed together into one book, and that having but one theme, as if it had been composed in the lifetime of one man, and by his own many-sided and varied faculties. And that which alone gives unity to this far-stretching and varied material is Jesus Christ and his salvation. Deep answers to deep across intervening ages, and there is but one voice, "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy"; all times and all events converge in one truth, "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." He who does not comprehend this structure of the Book of God in the unity of Jesus Christ his Son, will never reach himself the compactness and strength of a perfect Christian man, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. W. A. Chs. 15-19. The last passage of the 14th chapter brought down the inspired disclosure to the very end of all things. After the vision of the harvest and the vintage there can be no later transaction upon the defiled and desecrated earth. The next revelation in order of time must be that of the new heavens and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. But there are parts of the picture still to be completed before we are prepared for the descent of the holy city from heaven to earth, and the final establishment among men of the tabernacle of God. In particular, we have yet to learn in fuller detail the fate of the three enemies described in the last section. We have heard in the 14th chapter in general terms that their overthrow is destined and certain. But the particulars of the overthrow have not yet been disclosed. V. 15:1-4. Here, also, preceding the seven vials of wrath, is a scene of heavenly triumph. Victors stand over the crystal sea mingled with fire, as on a shore of safety, singing "the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb." We are, of course, reminded of the song of Moses and his triumphant host on the shore of the Red Sea. In that ancient ode of victory they sang, "Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?" In this they sing, "Great and marvelous are thy works, O Lord God Almighty! just and true are thy ways, thou King of nations. Who should not fear, O Lord, and glorify thy name, for thou only art holy?" 5-8. This prepares for judgment on oppressors. Seven angels come out of the temple, and to them one of the "four living ones" delivers seven golden vials or goblets full of the anger of the ever-living God. The action of the living creature is significant, because the plagues or blows are about to fall on the various regions of creation—the earth, the sea, the fresh waters, and the sun. 16:1-21. As the vials are successively poured out by the angels, the seven last blows or plagues fall upon men, and recall several of the plagues inflicted on Egypt. The parallel between these and the judgments under the trumpets is very remarkable. 1. Fire and blood on the earth. 2. Fire and blood on the sea. 3. Wormwood on rivers and fountains of water. 4. Darkness of sun, moon, and stars. 5. A fallen star—the opening of the abyss—darkness—locusts. 6. Loosing of four angels in the Euphrates, and issuing of a great host to hurt and destroy. 7. Consummation, with announcement of divine judgment; voices, thunders, lightnings, and hail. Grievous sore on the earth. Blood in the sea. Blood in rivers and fountains of water. Scorching heat from the sun. Darkness on the throne of the beast, and in his kingdom. Drying up of Euphrates—appearance of three unclean frog-like spirits—gathering of kings to war. Consummation, with announcement of divine judgment; voices, thunders, lightnings, and hail. Is it not plain that these do not describe consecutive periods of history? They have such a coincidence as plainly indicates that they set forth, by line upon line, and in the old Hebrew style of repetition with expansion, the same principles of divine judgment. D. F. The course of these judgments is in some particulars the same as that of the trumpets. The earth, the sea, the rivers, the lights of heaven, these are the objects of the first four; but ever with reference to those who worship the beast and have his mark on them. At the fifth, as in each case before, there is a change from general to special; the throne and kingdom of the beast, the river Euphrates, these are now the objects; and the seventh passes off, as in each former case, to the consummation of all things. Meantime, as so often before, anticipating hints have been given of new details belonging to the other angelic announcements. At the sixth vial (vs. 12-16) we have the sounds of the gathering of an approaching battle of God's enemies against him, and the very battle-field pointed out. After the seventh and its closing formula (vs. 17-21), Babylon comes into remembrance before God, to give her the cup of his vengeance. Thus, then, we pass to the second of the angelic announcements—the fall of Babylon (ch. 17). A. 1-11. The special object of the judgments now to commence is the second of the three enemies of Christ and his Church, the wild beast from the sea, which unites in itself the attributes of the worldly power in every form and phase. These judgments have been executed in a greater or less degree throughout all time. But the terms of this prophecy, no less than the position which it occupies in the Book of Revelation, prepare us to expect a more intense and concentrated manifestation of God's judgment upon an opposing and blaspheming world as the last end of all things shall draw on. The judgments of which we here read are described as the seven last plagues, in which is filled up the wrath of God. 12. At the sounding of the sixth trumpet there is a similar introduction of the river Euphrates. Loose the four angels bound at the river Euphrates. The Euphrates, speaking roughly, was the boundary between Israel and Israel's invaders. It was the eastern barrier (with the desert between) of the holy land and of the chosen people. The river Euphrates, the ancient barrier between Israel and the enemies of Israel—the typical barrier between the Church, which is the Israel of God, and the enemies of the Church—is to be dried up, to prepare the way of the kings from the east. The typical home of the Church in the language of all prophecy is Palestine and Jerusalem; and therefore the typical home of the foes of the Church is in the region to which Palestine and Jerusalem ever looked as the quarter of danger, as the source of attack. The enemies of Christ are gathering for one last and decisive onslaught upon his servants and upon his throne: God foresees this; God permits this; yea, God would have it so: and therefore one of his latest vials of judgment is poured upon the Euphrates, that the hostile powers may march undisturbed against Jerusalem, and meet their great discomfiture in a struggle the deadliest and the last of all. 13. There is an agency of God, and there is an agency too of man. God dries the Euphrates; the enemy emits the spirits, the unclean and lying spirits, which are to draw the nations across it. Thus it is in all time: man can ill distinguish between the agency of permission and the agency of causation; between that power which stands aside and makes room, and that power which solicits, which inspires, and which directs. That which God hinders not he in some sort does. Often does his word speak of him as acting where a cautious and timid theology might rather speak of him as allowing. This we know, and thus far, at all events, we are safe in affirming constantly, that all good is of God, and that all evil is of God's enemy. It is of good that the conflict of truth and falsehood, of light and darkness, should at last receive its decision: it is of evil than any one soul is induced to cast in its lot in that struggle with the hosts of antichrist. God dries the Euphrates; but the unclean spirits fill the invading ranks. God prepares the way. But the influence by which the hosts of evil are mustered is not of God. I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. Each of the three great enemies of Christ's truth and of Christ's Church contributes a special influence ence toward this result, this gathering of the powers of evil to combat and to ruin. There comes out of the mouth of the dragon that spirit of unbelief, of doubting, mistrusting, at last denying, God's express word, whether of revelation, of command, or of promise, by which in Eden itself the serpent tempted, and by listening to which woman first and then man fell. The evil spirit from the mouth of the beast which is the world bids us think the things that are seen more real and more valuable than the things which are not seen; bids us deem nothing so desirable, nothing so necessary to us, as the good opinion of a man that shall die; bids us live for esteem, or live for praise, or live for power, or live for pleasure, or live for wealth, and not live for God, and not live for eternity. And what shall we say of the unclean spirit of the third enemy, of the false prophet, the creature and abettor of the second? Surely the wisdom of this world, no less than the power of this world, has in this generation a real and an oppressive influence. 15. Behold, I come as a thief. The thief comes at night; comes without notice; comes while men sleep; comes suddenly and by surprise upon a house barred against his approach. I beseech you to remember that the second coming of Christ, that coming which will set the seal of permanence upon what is, and make your then state before God your state for ever, will have this special peculiarity, it will be a surprise. And everything in you which says peace and safety; every feeling of your heart which breathes tranquility in the present; every calculation based upon to-morrow being as this day; every confident look at the bright cheerfulness of your fireside, or at the healthy and happy countenance of wife or child; still more every prayerless morning and every thankless night, when you rise as to a life all your own, or close your eyes in sleep as upon a world which will as certainly be yours to-morrow—is a sign, not of the distance, but of the nearness of Christ's advent. The peculiarity of Christ's coming is that everything which seems to defer really brings it near; everything which seems to make it improbable is an argument of its certainty and of its approach. Behold, I come as a thief. What shall we say then, but that the inspired word is reasonable which adds, Blessed is he that watcheth? Against an event so sure in its fact but so doubtful in its time, what can we do but watch always? To be wakful, in the Christian sense of that word, is not to be sleeping in indifference, not to be sleeping in self-indulgence, not to be sleeping in godlessness, not to be sleeping in sin. It is to be men of prayer, men of self-command, men of activity; I say it again, men of prayer. It is to have the communication ever open between the soul and its God. It is to have the aspect ever upward and ever onward. It is to have Christ ever real to us, the Holy Spirit ever present. It is to observe with a serious steadfastness the signs of the times; to compare the features of our generation with the marks given in Scripture of the latter days, of the times of the end. It is to rejoice with a sincere and a thankful joy in every victory won for Christ in the world or in a soul. It is to use this world as not abusing it; to use it as a trust, not as a possession. It is to have the affection set on things above, not on things on the earth; to have our conversation, our citizenship, already in heaven; to have our very life, the life that is most dear and most real and most precious to us, hidden even now with Christ in God. So when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory. V. 16. In Judges 5: 19 we read: "The kings came and fought, then fought the kings of Canaan in Taanach by the waters of Megiddo." There the Israelites gained a signal victory over the Canaanish kings. Here, it is said, "he gathered them together into a place called Armageddon." Now, if it was meant that the people of God should be victorious over the combined forces of their enemies, could it be better represented than by saying that the battle of Megiddo should be fought again? On this assumption the battle of Armageddon is simply a conflict between the Lord's servants and his allied foes, in which the former should gain a signal victory. That it will be a struggle involving bloodshed, and the other circumstances of human warfare, appears to be entirely an assumption. The conflict may be moral. The weapons of warfare may be spiritual. This view is more in harmony with the general character of the Revelation than that which would make one human battle with carnal weapons the symbolic representation of another human battle of the same kind. J. Hall. 17-21. Since the hailstones come by weight and the wrath comes by measure—for so a talent and a cup import—it follows that the Almighty God, even in the midst of the heat of all this anger, will keep to the rules of justice and judgment while he is dealing with this enemy; he has not passions to carry him beyond rules of judgment, nor weakness to cause him to fall short of doing justice; therefore he has his judgments for her by weight, and his indignation by measure. But yet this weight and measure are disposed according to the measure and nature of her iniquity, and come to sweep her as with the bosom of destruction, until she is swept off from the face of all the earth. Bun. Ch. 7. It is there told, almost without figure, what is the seat, and what the name, and what the place in history, and what the singular, the unprecedented end, of that power which in John's time was the rider upon the wild beast. Her seat was the city of the seven hills. Her name, that of the great empire then reigning over the kings of the earth. Her place in history, the sixth and last but one of those mighty empires which have successively towered above the thrones of the earth. She comes after Egypt, after Assyria, after Babylon, after Persia, after Greece. Strange to tell, she does not come before any one similar embodiment of the giant strength of that beast which is the world. She is to be followed by a seventh head; but that seventh head is a mere cluster of ten horns. The head exists but for the purpose of carrying those ten horns. The power which is to replace imperial Rome is a divided, not a concentrated, force. Marvelous prediction! audacious, were it not divine! but not more marvelous in its peculiarity, not more bold in its positiveness, than true in its fulfillment, in the history of the past and in the circumstances of the present! V. 14. In the Gospel of John we read the life of Christ on earth; a man conversing with men, humble, poor, weak, and suffering, we behold a sacrifice ready to be offered, and a man appointed to sorrows and death; but in the Revelation of John, we have the gospel of Christ now raised from the dead. He speaks and acts as having conquered the grave, and triumphed over death and hell, as entered into the place of his glory; angels, principalities, and powers being made subject unto him, and exercising the supreme universal power he has received from the Father over all things in heaven and earth, as our Saviour, for the protection of his Church, and for the sure happiness of his faithful servants in the end. Bossuet. 17. We live under the most peculiar of all the phases of the world's power, and we are taught in prophecy that it is the last of all. Since John wrote, one phase has passed and another has come in; he wrote under the sixth; we are living under the seventh; and there is no eighth. With what earnestness ought we to read and to ponder the brief saying of the text, until the words of God shall be fulfilled! God has fulfilled some of them, yea, many, since the time that John fell on sleep. He has caused the curtain to fall upon one act of the drama, and he has raised it by his providence upon another, upon the last of all. Who can tell us how long it shall yet continue, ere the incidents be quite exhausted and the catastrophe be fully come? At all events we know this; that for each one of us the end of all things is at hand: if the Saviour's advent come not soon to us, we shall surely go to it. Meanwhile let us at least know that there is an end; and let us be waiting for it, and watching! Ch. 18. This chapter is a graphic picture of the fall of Rome. It is drawn from an earlier likeness, and painted in colors not new but old. Earlier prophecies, denouncing judgment upon preceding empires, furnish the main features of this. Those things which Isaiah and Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Nahum, saw and recorded concerning Tyre and Nineveh and Babylon of old, are here gathered together, and written of a later tyrant; of an oppressor not of Israel, but of the Church of Christ and of the gospel. In the very fact of that application, of that transfer, of that repetition, we see a sign of the wisdom and of the grace of God. What could be so encouraging, so reassuring, to a prostrate, exiled, persecuted people, as to be reminded, from their own Scriptures, of oppressions and sufferings endured of old time by God's servants, and of the retribution by which those ancient wrongs had been recompensed and redressed? What could be a surer warrant for the hope that a Babylon of the present, powerful as she appeared, and deeply rooted, and securely fenced and guarded, might yet in the mysterious working of God's providence be brought to desolation and to nothingness, than the declaration that one sits in the seat of an earlier Babylon, whose houses are now full of doleful creatures, wild beasts crying in her desolate houses, and dragons in her pleasant palaces? To call Rome Babylon was of itself a pledge of its demolition. The policy of that great empire, and the philosophy of that great empire; its principle, and its want of principle; its belief in human power, and its indifference to divine power; its skepticism as to all truth, and its toleration of all religions which would themselves tolerate; all had conspired together to make the empire of Rome the foe of Christianity. Sometimes by the caprices of her rulers, and sometimes in spite of their injunctions, Rome had proved herself in fact not a neutral but a persecuting power. In her, when she came to be judged, whether by history or by prophecy, was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all that were slain upon the earth. And at last judgment fell; a judgment of disruption and of dissolution; a judgment full of justice, and a judgment full of admonition. To the severity of that judgment the city itself bears an infallible testimony. So early as the beginning of the fifteenth century this was the language of a reflecting observer: "The hill of the Capitol, on which we sit, was formerly the head of the Roman empire, the citadel of the earth, the terror of kings; illustrated by the footsteps of so many triumphs, enriched with the spoils and tributes of so many nations. This spectacle of the world, how is it fallen! how changed! how defaced! the path of victory is obliterated by vines, and the benches of the senators are concealed by a dunghill. Cast your eyes on the Palatine hill, and seek among the shapeless and enormous fragments the marble theatre, the obelisks, the colossal statues, the porticoes of Nero's palace: survey the other hills of the city, the vacant space is interrupted only by ruins and gardens. The forum of the Roman people, where they assembled to enact their laws and elect their magistrates, is now enclosed for the cultivation of pot-herbs, or thrown open for the reception of swine and buffaloes. The public and private edifices, that were founded for eternity, lie prostrate, naked, and broken, like the limbs of a mighty giant; and the ruin is the more visible, from the stupendous relics that have survived the injuries of time and fortune" (Gibbon, ch. 71). But is it then with walls and buildings that the righteous anger of God wages its warfare? Is it any impeachment of the truth of his prediction, if another city rises in its turn upon the ruins of Babylon, or another power diverse from the former plants its throne upon the ruins of imperial Rome? Not so. It may be noticeable, as a permanent index of judgment, if wild beasts of the desert still lie where Babylon the glory of kingdoms once spread wide her habitations; if dragons still cry in those pleasant palaces where kings once reigned, vassals of a yet mightier throne. But not less really, if less visibly, are God's denunciations against a second Babylon verified, if after the fall of imperial Rome papal Rome rose and flourished for her season, built herself churches with the stones of temples, and reigned in turn over subject consciences as her predecessor had reigned over prostrate nationalities. There have been times, it has been well said, when the papacy looked very like the beast of the Revelation: at such times, in the same degree, God's judgments upon Babylon were applicable and appropriate to the papacy. And that which was not explained nor meant to be explained to John, time has revealed to us; namely, that the fall of the Babylon that then was was not destined to be the immediate precursor of the end of all things. Even John was instructed to write, There are seven kings: five are fallen; and one is; and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space (17:10). That short space has been expanded by the event into a period of several centuries. Other Babylons, on a smaller scale, and with features less precisely marked, have come and gone since John's prophecy against Rome was fulfilled. The beast still is, and still develops himself from time to time in new forms. Wherever he develops himself, there arises another Babylon; and of the ruin of that other Babylon the ruin of the first Babylon and of the second is an infallible and ever-growing proof. V. 19:1-10. The time now draws near for the final termination of the conflict. The irrevocable doom has been pronounced. But before the final condemnation, the episode (so usual in this book) of praise, thanksgiving, and anticipated completion of victory, comes in with a delay of the main action. The episode (as usual) has three parts: 1. All the inhabitants of the heavenly world are represented as uniting in a song of triumph and of thanksgiving on account of the righteous judgments of God which are about to be inflicted (vs. 1-4). 2. A voice from the throne in heaven speaks, and requires of all his servants everywhere renewed praise, which accordingly is shouted (vs. 5-8). 3. The glorious prospect for suffering martyrs is disclosed. They will be guests at the marriage supper of the Lamb. The Church is indeed the Lamb's bride, and the exultation of the Messiah is vividly sketched in the declaration of the angel interpreter, at whose feet John, in a state of astonishment, falls. Jesus, the angel declares, is the object of worship by him; and therefore he (the angel) can not claim the worship of his fellow-servants, who, like him, are merely instruments in making known the prophecies respecting the triumph of redeeming grace (vs. 9, 10). M.S. 10. Jesus. The lines of both Testaments meet in him as in one common center. In the testimonies of the Bible concerning the glory, grace, and work of Christ, the Old Testament confirms the New, and the New Testament illustrates the Old. "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy"; that is, the essence, the substance, the aim and end of all prophecy. Without the preëminence of Christ they become like other writings; but admit this, and then there is but one gospel under all dispensations—but one Saviour for all sinners. And whoever are the speakers or writers, whether patriarchs, or prophets, or kings, or angels, or poets, or apostles, or disciples, each vies with the other to give Christ the preëminence. The glories of heaven and the wonders of the earth, the honors of offices or the happiness of relations, the attractions of beauty or the authority of dignity, are chosen as metaphors to set forth the preëminent excellence of Christ. Sherman. 11-16. The wisest of living Britons has said, "Infinite pity, yet infinite rigor of law. It is so that the world is made." It is so the world must be made, because it is made by Jesus Christ our Lord, and its laws are the likeness of his character; pitiful, because Christ is pitiful; and rigorous, because he is rigorous. So pitiful is Christ that he did not hesitate to be slain for men, that mankind through him might be saved. But so rigorous is Christ that he does not hesitate to slay men, if needful, that mankind thereby may be saved. War and bloodshed, pestilence and famine, earthquake and tempest—all of them, as sure as there is a God, are the servants of God, doing his awful but necessary work for the final benefit of the whole human race. C. K.—It is “the faithful and true who in righteousness doth judge and make war.” He is represented as Head of the Church, sitting on “a white horse”; while, as Head over all things to the Church, he is described as “having on his head many crowns, as clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, as smiting the nations with a sharp sword, ruling them with a rod of iron, treading the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God, and having on his vesture and on his thigh the name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.” W. S. It is a fair inference from Scripture, not only that souls are in a state of conscious activity, but that, as Judas, so every other goes to his own place. "Death alters our condition and our surroundings, but most likely affects our essential personality not at all." Says Von Oosterzee, "The to-day of the soul after death is the simple continuation of the course followed on earth, downward or upward, and in which it now inwardly ripens for the portion which will be manifested at the last day, and of which it already experiences a foretaste of the enjoyment or the terror." Absent from the body is to be present with the Lord in some one of the many mansions, or to awake to the consciousness of an abused probation and a rejected opportunity. This intermediate state may also serve an end, as well as actually be a waiting for the consummation of all things. The soul released from all bodily hindrances and infirmities is open to the searching scrutiny of the light of truth as never before; and, "pervaded with light by the heavenly glancing of God's fire," is becoming adjusted to that life, into which death is a birth, and which invites it to a yet sublimer destiny when rehabilitated by its glorified body, and admitted to its inheritance as an heir of God in the new earth wherein righteousness shall for ever dwell. No adjustment to the absolutely holy life of heavenly society is so essential as a moral one. No place is now found so favorable to it as that which brings us into communion with God. How rapid the progress when the veil is taken away and we see him as he is. We are, then, to regard the intermediate state between death and the resurrection as one of transition from this state to that which is final, along the lines of choice and habit made our own here and now. "Upon the broad as upon the narrow way falls the impenetrable curtain of death; but the first step after borders immediately upon the last step before the curtain. Advancement and progress are made ever in the same path in which the man was already walking even before his death. A transition from the one to the opposite condition after death is accordingly spoken of as inconceivable by the mouth of truth itself." Haydn. 15: 1 And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven 2 last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God. And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his im- age, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having 3 the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true 4 are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judg- 5 ments are made manifest. And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the taber- 6 nacle of the testimony in heaven was opened: and the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded 7 with golden girdles. And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden 8 vials fall of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled. 16: 1 And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, 2 and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men 3 which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image. And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: 4 and every living soul died in the sea. And the third angel poured out his vial upon the 5 rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou 6 hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given 7 them blood to drink; for they are worthy. And I heard another out of the altar say, Even 8 so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments. And the fourth angel poured 9 out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power 10 over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory. And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they 11 gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains 12 and their sores, and repented not of their deeds. And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the 13 kings of the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the 14 false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God 15 Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, 16 lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called 17 in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is 18 done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so 19 great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine 20 of the fierceness of his wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not 21 found. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great. 17: 1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore 2 that sitteth upon many waters: with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten 4 horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and 5 filthiness of her fornication: and upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF 6 THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. 7 And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. 8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast 9 that was, and is not, and yet is. And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven 10 heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of 12 the seven, and goeth into perdition. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the 13 beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. 14 These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful. And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are 16 peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and 17 shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be 18 fulfilled. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth. 18: 1 And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; 2 and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and 3 the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through 4 the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her 5 plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. 6 Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: 7 in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit 8 a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for 9 strong is the Lord God who judgeth her. And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they 10 shall see the smoke of her burning, standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Aias, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. 11 And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their 12 merchandise any more. The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and 13 marble, and cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls 14 of men. And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more 15 at all. The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off 16 for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, and saying, Alas, alas that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious 17 stones, and pearls! For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar 18 off, and cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this 19 great city! And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of 20 her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate. Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and 21 ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her. And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall 22 that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and 23 the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee; and the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for 24 by thy sorceries were all nations deceived. And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth. 19:1 And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God: for true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the 3 earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And 4 again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia. 5 And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye 6 that fear him, both small and great. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: 7 for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to 8 him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine 9 linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the 10 true sayings of God. And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of 11 Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and 12 True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he 13 himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called the 14 Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, 15 clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he 16 treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. 17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper 18 of the great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of 19 all men, both free and bond, both small and great. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the 20 horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into 21 a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. THE Bible is a self-evidenced miracle; and the miracle consists in this, that a book the composition of which occupied more than fifteen centuries of time, prepared by different hands and minds, with no possibility of collusion, and differing each from the other so much as Moses and John, Samuel and Peter, Solomon and Paul, Ezekiel and Luke, David and James, each preparing and shaping his appropriate work, and that work of each as distinct from every other as the book of Genesis and the Apocalypse, the Psalms and the acts of the Apostles, the book of Ruth and the argument in the Epistle to the Romans, the prophecies of Isaiah and the letters of the disciple whom Jesus loved; that, in all this vast variety of material, history, ritual, description, genealogy, law, proverb, prophecy, ode, apothegm, precept, fact, doctrine, apology, reasoning, there should be as complete a unity of subject, the whole compacted and framed together into one book, and that having but one theme, as if it had been composed in the lifetime of one man, and by his own many-sided and varied faculties. And that which alone gives unity to this far-stretching and varied material is Jesus Christ and his salvation. Deep answers to deep across intervening ages, and there is but one voice, "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy"; all times and all events converge in one truth, "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." He who does not comprehend this structure of the Book of God in the unity of Jesus Christ his Son, will never reach himself the compactness and strength of a perfect Christian man, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. W. A. Chs. 15-19. The last passage of the 14th chapter brought down the inspired disclosure to the very end of all things. After the vision of the harvest and the vintage there can be no later transaction upon the defiled and desecrated earth. The next revelation in order of time must be that of the new heavens and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. But there are parts of the picture still to be completed before we are prepared for the descent of the holy city from heaven to earth, and the final establishment among men of the tabernacle of God. In particular, we have yet to learn in fuller detail the fate of the three enemies described in the last section. We have heard in the 14th chapter in general terms that their overthrow is destined and certain. But the particulars of the overthrow have not yet been disclosed. V. 15:1-4. Here, also, preceding the seven vials of wrath, is a scene of heavenly triumph. Victors stand over the crystal sea mingled with fire, as on a shore of safety, singing "the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb." We are, of course, reminded of the song of Moses and his triumphant host on the shore of the Red Sea. In that ancient ode of victory they sang, "Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?" In this they sing, "Great and marvelous are thy works, O Lord God Almighty! just and true are thy ways, thou King of nations. Who should not fear, O Lord, and glorify thy name, for thou only art holy?" 5-8. This prepares for judgment on oppressors. Seven angels come out of the temple, and to them one of the "four living ones" delivers seven golden vials or goblets full of the anger of the ever-living God. The action of the living creature is significant, because the plagues or blows are about to fall on the various regions of creation—the earth, the sea, the fresh waters, and the sun. 16:1-21. As the vials are successively poured out by the angels, the seven last blows or plagues fall upon men, and recall several of the plagues inflicted on Egypt. The parallel between these and the judgments under the trumpets is very remarkable. 1. Fire and blood on the earth. 2. Fire and blood on the sea. 3. Wormwood on rivers and fountains of water. 4. Darkness of sun, moon, and stars. 5. A fallen star—the opening of the abyss—darkness—locusts. 6. Loosing of four angels in the Euphrates, and issuing of a great host to hurt and destroy. 7. Consummation, with announcement of divine judgment; voices, thunders, lightnings, and hail. Grievous sore on the earth. Blood in the sea. Blood in rivers and fountains of water. Scorching heat from the sun. Darkness on the throne of the beast, and in his kingdom. Drying up of Euphrates—appearance of three unclean frog-like spirits—gathering of kings to war. Consummation, with announcement of divine judgment; voices, thunders, lightnings, and hail. Is it not plain that these do not describe consecutive periods of history? They have such a coincidence as plainly indicates that they set forth, by line upon line, and in the old Hebrew style of repetition with expansion, the same principles of divine judgment. D. F. The course of these judgments is in some particulars the same as that of the trumpets. The earth, the sea, the rivers, the lights of heaven, these are the objects of the first four; but ever with reference to those who worship the beast and have his mark on them. At the fifth, as in each case before, there is a change from general to special; the throne and kingdom of the beast, the river Euphrates, these are now the objects; and the seventh passes off, as in each former case, to the consummation of all things. Meantime, as so often before, anticipating hints have been given of new details belonging to the other angelic announcements. At the sixth vial (vs. 12-16) we have the sounds of the gathering of an approaching battle of God's enemies against him, and the very battle-field pointed out. After the seventh and its closing formula (vs. 17-21), Babylon comes into remembrance before God, to give her the cup of his vengeance. Thus, then, we pass to the second of the angelic announcements—the fall of Babylon (ch. 17). A. 1-11. The special object of the judgments now to commence is the second of the three enemies of Christ and his Church, the wild beast from the sea, which unites in itself the attributes of the worldly power in every form and phase. These judgments have been executed in a greater or less degree throughout all time. But the terms of this prophecy, no less than the position which it occupies in the Book of Revelation, prepare us to expect a more intense and concentrated manifestation of God's judgment upon an opposing and blaspheming world as the last end of all things shall draw on. The judgments of which we here read are described as the seven last plagues, in which is filled up the wrath of God. 12. At the sounding of the sixth trumpet there is a similar introduction of the river Euphrates. Loose the four angels bound at the river Euphrates. The Euphrates, speaking roughly, was the boundary between Israel and Israel's invaders. It was the eastern barrier (with the desert between) of the holy land and of the chosen people. The river Euphrates, the ancient barrier between Israel and the enemies of Israel—the typical barrier between the Church, which is the Israel of God, and the enemies of the Church—is to be dried up, to prepare the way of the kings from the east. The typical home of the Church in the language of all prophecy is Palestine and Jerusalem; and therefore the typical home of the foes of the Church is in the region to which Palestine and Jerusalem ever looked as the quarter of danger, as the source of attack. The enemies of Christ are gathering for one last and decisive onslaught upon his servants and upon his throne: God foresees this; God permits this; yea, God would have it so: and therefore one of his latest vials of judgment is poured upon the Euphrates, that the hostile powers may march undisturbed against Jerusalem, and meet their great discomfiture in a struggle the deadliest and the last of all. 13. There is an agency of God, and there is an agency too of man. God dries the Euphrates; the enemy emits the spirits, the unclean and lying spirits, which are to draw the nations across it. Thus it is in all time: man can ill distinguish between the agency of permission and the agency of causation; between that power which stands aside and makes room, and that power which solicits, which inspires, and which directs. That which God hinders not he in some sort does. Often does his word speak of him as acting where a cautious and timid theology might rather speak of him as allowing. This we know, and thus far, at all events, we are safe in affirming constantly, that all good is of God, and that all evil is of God's enemy. It is of good that the conflict of truth and falsehood, of light and darkness, should at last receive its decision: it is of evil than any one soul is induced to cast in its lot in that struggle with the hosts of antichrist. God dries the Euphrates; but the unclean spirits fill the invading ranks. God prepares the way. But the influence by which the hosts of evil are mustered is not of God. I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. Each of the three great enemies of Christ's truth and of Christ's Church contributes a special influence ence toward this result, this gathering of the powers of evil to combat and to ruin. There comes out of the mouth of the dragon that spirit of unbelief, of doubting, mistrusting, at last denying, God's express word, whether of revelation, of command, or of promise, by which in Eden itself the serpent tempted, and by listening to which woman first and then man fell. The evil spirit from the mouth of the beast which is the world bids us think the things that are seen more real and more valuable than the things which are not seen; bids us deem nothing so desirable, nothing so necessary to us, as the good opinion of a man that shall die; bids us live for esteem, or live for praise, or live for power, or live for pleasure, or live for wealth, and not live for God, and not live for eternity. And what shall we say of the unclean spirit of the third enemy, of the false prophet, the creature and abettor of the second? Surely the wisdom of this world, no less than the power of this world, has in this generation a real and an oppressive influence. 15. Behold, I come as a thief. The thief comes at night; comes without notice; comes while men sleep; comes suddenly and by surprise upon a house barred against his approach. I beseech you to remember that the second coming of Christ, that coming which will set the seal of permanence upon what is, and make your then state before God your state for ever, will have this special peculiarity, it will be a surprise. And everything in you which says peace and safety; every feeling of your heart which breathes tranquility in the present; every calculation based upon to-morrow being as this day; every confident look at the bright cheerfulness of your fireside, or at the healthy and happy countenance of wife or child; still more every prayerless morning and every thankless night, when you rise as to a life all your own, or close your eyes in sleep as upon a world which will as certainly be yours to-morrow—is a sign, not of the distance, but of the nearness of Christ's advent. The peculiarity of Christ's coming is that everything which seems to defer really brings it near; everything which seems to make it improbable is an argument of its certainty and of its approach. Behold, I come as a thief. What shall we say then, but that the inspired word is reasonable which adds, Blessed is he that watcheth? Against an event so sure in its fact but so doubtful in its time, what can we do but watch always? To be wakful, in the Christian sense of that word, is not to be sleeping in indifference, not to be sleeping in self-indulgence, not to be sleeping in godlessness, not to be sleeping in sin. It is to be men of prayer, men of self-command, men of activity; I say it again, men of prayer. It is to have the communication ever open between the soul and its God. It is to have the aspect ever upward and ever onward. It is to have Christ ever real to us, the Holy Spirit ever present. It is to observe with a serious steadfastness the signs of the times; to compare the features of our generation with the marks given in Scripture of the latter days, of the times of the end. It is to rejoice with a sincere and a thankful joy in every victory won for Christ in the world or in a soul. It is to use this world as not abusing it; to use it as a trust, not as a possession. It is to have the affection set on things above, not on things on the earth; to have our conversation, our citizenship, already in heaven; to have our very life, the life that is most dear and most real and most precious to us, hidden even now with Christ in God. So when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory. V. 16. In Judges 5: 19 we read: "The kings came and fought, then fought the kings of Canaan in Taanach by the waters of Megiddo." There the Israelites gained a signal victory over the Canaanish kings. Here, it is said, "he gathered them together into a place called Armageddon." Now, if it was meant that the people of God should be victorious over the combined forces of their enemies, could it be better represented than by saying that the battle of Megiddo should be fought again? On this assumption the battle of Armageddon is simply a conflict between the Lord's servants and his allied foes, in which the former should gain a signal victory. That it will be a struggle involving bloodshed, and the other circumstances of human warfare, appears to be entirely an assumption. The conflict may be moral. The weapons of warfare may be spiritual. This view is more in harmony with the general character of the Revelation than that which would make one human battle with carnal weapons the symbolic representation of another human battle of the same kind. J. Hall. 17-21. Since the hailstones come by weight and the wrath comes by measure—for so a talent and a cup import—it follows that the Almighty God, even in the midst of the heat of all this anger, will keep to the rules of justice and judgment while he is dealing with this enemy; he has not passions to carry him beyond rules of judgment, nor weakness to cause him to fall short of doing justice; therefore he has his judgments for her by weight, and his indignation by measure. But yet this weight and measure are disposed according to the measure and nature of her iniquity, and come to sweep her as with the bosom of destruction, until she is swept off from the face of all the earth. Bun. Ch. 7. It is there told, almost without figure, what is the seat, and what the name, and what the place in history, and what the singular, the unprecedented end, of that power which in John's time was the rider upon the wild beast. Her seat was the city of the seven hills. Her name, that of the great empire then reigning over the kings of the earth. Her place in history, the sixth and last but one of those mighty empires which have successively towered above the thrones of the earth. She comes after Egypt, after Assyria, after Babylon, after Persia, after Greece. Strange to tell, she does not come before any one similar embodiment of the giant strength of that beast which is the world. She is to be followed by a seventh head; but that seventh head is a mere cluster of ten horns. The head exists but for the purpose of carrying those ten horns. The power which is to replace imperial Rome is a divided, not a concentrated, force. Marvelous prediction! audacious, were it not divine! but not more marvelous in its peculiarity, not more bold in its positiveness, than true in its fulfillment, in the history of the past and in the circumstances of the present! V. 14. In the Gospel of John we read the life of Christ on earth; a man conversing with men, humble, poor, weak, and suffering, we behold a sacrifice ready to be offered, and a man appointed to sorrows and death; but in the Revelation of John, we have the gospel of Christ now raised from the dead. He speaks and acts as having conquered the grave, and triumphed over death and hell, as entered into the place of his glory; angels, principalities, and powers being made subject unto him, and exercising the supreme universal power he has received from the Father over all things in heaven and earth, as our Saviour, for the protection of his Church, and for the sure happiness of his faithful servants in the end. Bossuet. 17. We live under the most peculiar of all the phases of the world's power, and we are taught in prophecy that it is the last of all. Since John wrote, one phase has passed and another has come in; he wrote under the sixth; we are living under the seventh; and there is no eighth. With what earnestness ought we to read and to ponder the brief saying of the text, until the words of God shall be fulfilled! God has fulfilled some of them, yea, many, since the time that John fell on sleep. He has caused the curtain to fall upon one act of the drama, and he has raised it by his providence upon another, upon the last of all. Who can tell us how long it shall yet continue, ere the incidents be quite exhausted and the catastrophe be fully come? At all events we know this; that for each one of us the end of all things is at hand: if the Saviour's advent come not soon to us, we shall surely go to it. Meanwhile let us at least know that there is an end; and let us be waiting for it, and watching! Ch. 18. This chapter is a graphic picture of the fall of Rome. It is drawn from an earlier likeness, and painted in colors not new but old. Earlier prophecies, denouncing judgment upon preceding empires, furnish the main features of this. Those things which Isaiah and Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Nahum, saw and recorded concerning Tyre and Nineveh and Babylon of old, are here gathered together, and written of a later tyrant; of an oppressor not of Israel, but of the Church of Christ and of the gospel. In the very fact of that application, of that transfer, of that repetition, we see a sign of the wisdom and of the grace of God. What could be so encouraging, so reassuring, to a prostrate, exiled, persecuted people, as to be reminded, from their own Scriptures, of oppressions and sufferings endured of old time by God's servants, and of the retribution by which those ancient wrongs had been recompensed and redressed? What could be a surer warrant for the hope that a Babylon of the present, powerful as she appeared, and deeply rooted, and securely fenced and guarded, might yet in the mysterious working of God's providence be brought to desolation and to nothingness, than the declaration that one sits in the seat of an earlier Babylon, whose houses are now full of doleful creatures, wild beasts crying in her desolate houses, and dragons in her pleasant palaces? To call Rome Babylon was of itself a pledge of its demolition. The policy of that great empire, and the philosophy of that great empire; its principle, and its want of principle; its belief in human power, and its indifference to divine power; its skepticism as to all truth, and its toleration of all religions which would themselves tolerate; all had conspired together to make the empire of Rome the foe of Christianity. Sometimes by the caprices of her rulers, and sometimes in spite of their injunctions, Rome had proved herself in fact not a neutral but a persecuting power. In her, when she came to be judged, whether by history or by prophecy, was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all that were slain upon the earth. And at last judgment fell; a judgment of disruption and of dissolution; a judgment full of justice, and a judgment full of admonition. To the severity of that judgment the city itself bears an infallible testimony. So early as the beginning of the fifteenth century this was the language of a reflecting observer: "The hill of the Capitol, on which we sit, was formerly the head of the Roman empire, the citadel of the earth, the terror of kings; illustrated by the footsteps of so many triumphs, enriched with the spoils and tributes of so many nations. This spectacle of the world, how is it fallen! how changed! how defaced! the path of victory is obliterated by vines, and the benches of the senators are concealed by a dunghill. Cast your eyes on the Palatine hill, and seek among the shapeless and enormous fragments the marble theatre, the obelisks, the colossal statues, the porticoes of Nero's palace: survey the other hills of the city, the vacant space is interrupted only by ruins and gardens. The forum of the Roman people, where they assembled to enact their laws and elect their magistrates, is now enclosed for the cultivation of pot-herbs, or thrown open for the reception of swine and buffaloes. The public and private edifices, that were founded for eternity, lie prostrate, naked, and broken, like the limbs of a mighty giant; and the ruin is the more visible, from the stupendous relics that have survived the injuries of time and fortune" (Gibbon, ch. 71). But is it then with walls and buildings that the righteous anger of God wages its warfare? Is it any impeachment of the truth of his prediction, if another city rises in its turn upon the ruins of Babylon, or another power diverse from the former plants its throne upon the ruins of imperial Rome? Not so. It may be noticeable, as a permanent index of judgment, if wild beasts of the desert still lie where Babylon the glory of kingdoms once spread wide her habitations; if dragons still cry in those pleasant palaces where kings once reigned, vassals of a yet mightier throne. But not less really, if less visibly, are God's denunciations against a second Babylon verified, if after the fall of imperial Rome papal Rome rose and flourished for her season, built herself churches with the stones of temples, and reigned in turn over subject consciences as her predecessor had reigned over prostrate nationalities. There have been times, it has been well said, when the papacy looked very like the beast of the Revelation: at such times, in the same degree, God's judgments upon Babylon were applicable and appropriate to the papacy. And that which was not explained nor meant to be explained to John, time has revealed to us; namely, that the fall of the Babylon that then was was not destined to be the immediate precursor of the end of all things. Even John was instructed to write, There are seven kings: five are fallen; and one is; and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space (17:10). That short space has been expanded by the event into a period of several centuries. Other Babylons, on a smaller scale, and with features less precisely marked, have come and gone since John's prophecy against Rome was fulfilled. The beast still is, and still develops himself from time to time in new forms. Wherever he develops himself, there arises another Babylon; and of the ruin of that other Babylon the ruin of the first Babylon and of the second is an infallible and ever-growing proof. V. 19:1-10. The time now draws near for the final termination of the conflict. The irrevocable doom has been pronounced. But before the final condemnation, the episode (so usual in this book) of praise, thanksgiving, and anticipated completion of victory, comes in with a delay of the main action. The episode (as usual) has three parts: 1. All the inhabitants of the heavenly world are represented as uniting in a song of triumph and of thanksgiving on account of the righteous judgments of God which are about to be inflicted (vs. 1-4). 2. A voice from the throne in heaven speaks, and requires of all his servants everywhere renewed praise, which accordingly is shouted (vs. 5-8). 3. The glorious prospect for suffering martyrs is disclosed. They will be guests at the marriage supper of the Lamb. The Church is indeed the Lamb's bride, and the exultation of the Messiah is vividly sketched in the declaration of the angel interpreter, at whose feet John, in a state of astonishment, falls. Jesus, the angel declares, is the object of worship by him; and therefore he (the angel) can not claim the worship of his fellow-servants, who, like him, are merely instruments in making known the prophecies respecting the triumph of redeeming grace (vs. 9, 10). M.S. 10. Jesus. The lines of both Testaments meet in him as in one common center. In the testimonies of the Bible concerning the glory, grace, and work of Christ, the Old Testament confirms the New, and the New Testament illustrates the Old. "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy"; that is, the essence, the substance, the aim and end of all prophecy. Without the preëminence of Christ they become like other writings; but admit this, and then there is but one gospel under all dispensations—but one Saviour for all sinners. And whoever are the speakers or writers, whether patriarchs, or prophets, or kings, or angels, or poets, or apostles, or disciples, each vies with the other to give Christ the preëminence. The glories of heaven and the wonders of the earth, the honors of offices or the happiness of relations, the attractions of beauty or the authority of dignity, are chosen as metaphors to set forth the preëminent excellence of Christ. Sherman. 11-16. The wisest of living Britons has said, "Infinite pity, yet infinite rigor of law. It is so that the world is made." It is so the world must be made, because it is made by Jesus Christ our Lord, and its laws are the likeness of his character; pitiful, because Christ is pitiful; and rigorous, because he is rigorous. So pitiful is Christ that he did not hesitate to be slain for men, that mankind through him might be saved. But so rigorous is Christ that he does not hesitate to slay men, if needful, that mankind thereby may be saved. War and bloodshed, pestilence and famine, earthquake and tempest—all of them, as sure as there is a God, are the servants of God, doing his awful but necessary work for the final benefit of the whole human race. C. K.—It is “the faithful and true who in righteousness doth judge and make war.” He is represented as Head of the Church, sitting on “a white horse”; while, as Head over all things to the Church, he is described as “having on his head many crowns, as clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, as smiting the nations with a sharp sword, ruling them with a rod of iron, treading the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God, and having on his vesture and on his thigh the name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.” W. S. It is a fair inference from Scripture, not only that souls are in a state of conscious activity, but that, as Judas, so every other goes to his own place. "Death alters our condition and our surroundings, but most likely affects our essential personality not at all." Says Von Oosterzee, "The to-day of the soul after death is the simple continuation of the course followed on earth, downward or upward, and in which it now inwardly ripens for the portion which will be manifested at the last day, and of which it already experiences a foretaste of the enjoyment or the terror." Absent from the body is to be present with the Lord in some one of the many mansions, or to awake to the consciousness of an abused probation and a rejected opportunity. This intermediate state may also serve an end, as well as actually be a waiting for the consummation of all things. The soul released from all bodily hindrances and infirmities is open to the searching scrutiny of the light of truth as never before; and, "pervaded with light by the heavenly glancing of God's fire," is becoming adjusted to that life, into which death is a birth, and which invites it to a yet sublimer destiny when rehabilitated by its glorified body, and admitted to its inheritance as an heir of God in the new earth wherein righteousness shall for ever dwell. No adjustment to the absolutely holy life of heavenly society is so essential as a moral one. No place is now found so favorable to it as that which brings us into communion with God. How rapid the progress when the veil is taken away and we see him as he is. We are, then, to regard the intermediate state between death and the resurrection as one of transition from this state to that which is final, along the lines of choice and habit made our own here and now. "Upon the broad as upon the narrow way falls the impenetrable curtain of death; but the first step after borders immediately upon the last step before the curtain. Advancement and progress are made ever in the same path in which the man was already walking even before his death. A transition from the one to the opposite condition after death is accordingly spoken of as inconceivable by the mouth of truth itself." Haydn. 15: 1 And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven 2 last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God. And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his im- age, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having 3 the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true 4 are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judg- 5 ments are made manifest. And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the taber- 6 nacle of the testimony in heaven was opened: and the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded 7 with golden girdles. And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden 8 vials fall of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled. 16: 1 And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, 2 and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men 3 which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image. And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: 4 and every living soul died in the sea. And the third angel poured out his vial upon the 5 rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou 6 hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given 7 them blood to drink; for they are worthy. And I heard another out of the altar say, Even 8 so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments. And the fourth angel poured 9 out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power 10 over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory. And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they 11 gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains 12 and their sores, and repented not of their deeds. And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the 13 kings of the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the 14 false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God 15 Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, 16 lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called 17 in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is 18 done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so 19 great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine 20 of the fierceness of his wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not 21 found. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great. 17: 1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore 2 that sitteth upon many waters: with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten 4 horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and 5 filthiness of her fornication: and upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF 6 THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. 7 And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. 8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast 9 that was, and is not, and yet is. And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven 10 heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of 12 the seven, and goeth into perdition. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the 13 beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. 14 These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful. And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are 16 peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and 17 shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be 18 fulfilled. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth. 18: 1 And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; 2 and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and 3 the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through 4 the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her 5 plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. 6 Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: 7 in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit 8 a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for 9 strong is the Lord God who judgeth her. And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they 10 shall see the smoke of her burning, standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Aias, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. 11 And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their 12 merchandise any more. The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and 13 marble, and cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls 14 of men. And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more 15 at all. The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off 16 for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, and saying, Alas, alas that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious 17 stones, and pearls! For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar 18 off, and cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this 19 great city! And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of 20 her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate. Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and 21 ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her. And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall 22 that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and 23 the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee; and the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for 24 by thy sorceries were all nations deceived. And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth. 19:1 And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God: for true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the 3 earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And 4 again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia. 5 And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye 6 that fear him, both small and great. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: 7 for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to 8 him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine 9 linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the 10 true sayings of God. And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of 11 Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and 12 True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he 13 himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called the 14 Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, 15 clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he 16 treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. 17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper 18 of the great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of 19 all men, both free and bond, both small and great. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the 20 horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into 21 a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. THE Bible is a self-evidenced miracle; and the miracle consists in this, that a book the composition of which occupied more than fifteen centuries of time, prepared by different hands and minds, with no possibility of collusion, and differing each from the other so much as Moses and John, Samuel and Peter, Solomon and Paul, Ezekiel and Luke, David and James, each preparing and shaping his appropriate work, and that work of each as distinct from every other as the book of Genesis and the Apocalypse, the Psalms and the acts of the Apostles, the book of Ruth and the argument in the Epistle to the Romans, the prophecies of Isaiah and the letters of the disciple whom Jesus loved; that, in all this vast variety of material, history, ritual, description, genealogy, law, proverb, prophecy, ode, apothegm, precept, fact, doctrine, apology, reasoning, there should be as complete a unity of subject, the whole compacted and framed together into one book, and that having but one theme, as if it had been composed in the lifetime of one man, and by his own many-sided and varied faculties. And that which alone gives unity to this far-stretching and varied material is Jesus Christ and his salvation. Deep answers to deep across intervening ages, and there is but one voice, "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy"; all times and all events converge in one truth, "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." He who does not comprehend this structure of the Book of God in the unity of Jesus Christ his Son, will never reach himself the compactness and strength of a perfect Christian man, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. W. A. Chs. 15-19. The last passage of the 14th chapter brought down the inspired disclosure to the very end of all things. After the vision of the harvest and the vintage there can be no later transaction upon the defiled and desecrated earth. The next revelation in order of time must be that of the new heavens and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. But there are parts of the picture still to be completed before we are prepared for the descent of the holy city from heaven to earth, and the final establishment among men of the tabernacle of God. In particular, we have yet to learn in fuller detail the fate of the three enemies described in the last section. We have heard in the 14th chapter in general terms that their overthrow is destined and certain. But the particulars of the overthrow have not yet been disclosed. V. 15:1-4. Here, also, preceding the seven vials of wrath, is a scene of heavenly triumph. Victors stand over the crystal sea mingled with fire, as on a shore of safety, singing "the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb." We are, of course, reminded of the song of Moses and his triumphant host on the shore of the Red Sea. In that ancient ode of victory they sang, "Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?" In this they sing, "Great and marvelous are thy works, O Lord God Almighty! just and true are thy ways, thou King of nations. Who should not fear, O Lord, and glorify thy name, for thou only art holy?" 5-8. This prepares for judgment on oppressors. Seven angels come out of the temple, and to them one of the "four living ones" delivers seven golden vials or goblets full of the anger of the ever-living God. The action of the living creature is significant, because the plagues or blows are about to fall on the various regions of creation—the earth, the sea, the fresh waters, and the sun. 16:1-21. As the vials are successively poured out by the angels, the seven last blows or plagues fall upon men, and recall several of the plagues inflicted on Egypt. The parallel between these and the judgments under the trumpets is very remarkable. 1. Fire and blood on the earth. 2. Fire and blood on the sea. 3. Wormwood on rivers and fountains of water. 4. Darkness of sun, moon, and stars. 5. A fallen star—the opening of the abyss—darkness—locusts. 6. Loosing of four angels in the Euphrates, and issuing of a great host to hurt and destroy. 7. Consummation, with announcement of divine judgment; voices, thunders, lightnings, and hail. Grievous sore on the earth. Blood in the sea. Blood in rivers and fountains of water. Scorching heat from the sun. Darkness on the throne of the beast, and in his kingdom. Drying up of Euphrates—appearance of three unclean frog-like spirits—gathering of kings to war. Consummation, with announcement of divine judgment; voices, thunders, lightnings, and hail. Is it not plain that these do not describe consecutive periods of history? They have such a coincidence as plainly indicates that they set forth, by line upon line, and in the old Hebrew style of repetition with expansion, the same principles of divine judgment. D. F. The course of these judgments is in some particulars the same as that of the trumpets. The earth, the sea, the rivers, the lights of heaven, these are the objects of the first four; but ever with reference to those who worship the beast and have his mark on them. At the fifth, as in each case before, there is a change from general to special; the throne and kingdom of the beast, the river Euphrates, these are now the objects; and the seventh passes off, as in each former case, to the consummation of all things. Meantime, as so often before, anticipating hints have been given of new details belonging to the other angelic announcements. At the sixth vial (vs. 12-16) we have the sounds of the gathering of an approaching battle of God's enemies against him, and the very battle-field pointed out. After the seventh and its closing formula (vs. 17-21), Babylon comes into remembrance before God, to give her the cup of his vengeance. Thus, then, we pass to the second of the angelic announcements—the fall of Babylon (ch. 17). A. 1-11. The special object of the judgments now to commence is the second of the three enemies of Christ and his Church, the wild beast from the sea, which unites in itself the attributes of the worldly power in every form and phase. These judgments have been executed in a greater or less degree throughout all time. But the terms of this prophecy, no less than the position which it occupies in the Book of Revelation, prepare us to expect a more intense and concentrated manifestation of God's judgment upon an opposing and blaspheming world as the last end of all things shall draw on. The judgments of which we here read are described as the seven last plagues, in which is filled up the wrath of God. 12. At the sounding of the sixth trumpet there is a similar introduction of the river Euphrates. Loose the four angels bound at the river Euphrates. The Euphrates, speaking roughly, was the boundary between Israel and Israel's invaders. It was the eastern barrier (with the desert between) of the holy land and of the chosen people. The river Euphrates, the ancient barrier between Israel and the enemies of Israel—the typical barrier between the Church, which is the Israel of God, and the enemies of the Church—is to be dried up, to prepare the way of the kings from the east. The typical home of the Church in the language of all prophecy is Palestine and Jerusalem; and therefore the typical home of the foes of the Church is in the region to which Palestine and Jerusalem ever looked as the quarter of danger, as the source of attack. The enemies of Christ are gathering for one last and decisive onslaught upon his servants and upon his throne: God foresees this; God permits this; yea, God would have it so: and therefore one of his latest vials of judgment is poured upon the Euphrates, that the hostile powers may march undisturbed against Jerusalem, and meet their great discomfiture in a struggle the deadliest and the last of all. 13. There is an agency of God, and there is an agency too of man. God dries the Euphrates; the enemy emits the spirits, the unclean and lying spirits, which are to draw the nations across it. Thus it is in all time: man can ill distinguish between the agency of permission and the agency of causation; between that power which stands aside and makes room, and that power which solicits, which inspires, and which directs. That which God hinders not he in some sort does. Often does his word speak of him as acting where a cautious and timid theology might rather speak of him as allowing. This we know, and thus far, at all events, we are safe in affirming constantly, that all good is of God, and that all evil is of God's enemy. It is of good that the conflict of truth and falsehood, of light and darkness, should at last receive its decision: it is of evil than any one soul is induced to cast in its lot in that struggle with the hosts of antichrist. God dries the Euphrates; but the unclean spirits fill the invading ranks. God prepares the way. But the influence by which the hosts of evil are mustered is not of God. I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. Each of the three great enemies of Christ's truth and of Christ's Church contributes a special influence ence toward this result, this gathering of the powers of evil to combat and to ruin. There comes out of the mouth of the dragon that spirit of unbelief, of doubting, mistrusting, at last denying, God's express word, whether of revelation, of command, or of promise, by which in Eden itself the serpent tempted, and by listening to which woman first and then man fell. The evil spirit from the mouth of the beast which is the world bids us think the things that are seen more real and more valuable than the things which are not seen; bids us deem nothing so desirable, nothing so necessary to us, as the good opinion of a man that shall die; bids us live for esteem, or live for praise, or live for power, or live for pleasure, or live for wealth, and not live for God, and not live for eternity. And what shall we say of the unclean spirit of the third enemy, of the false prophet, the creature and abettor of the second? Surely the wisdom of this world, no less than the power of this world, has in this generation a real and an oppressive influence. 15. Behold, I come as a thief. The thief comes at night; comes without notice; comes while men sleep; comes suddenly and by surprise upon a house barred against his approach. I beseech you to remember that the second coming of Christ, that coming which will set the seal of permanence upon what is, and make your then state before God your state for ever, will have this special peculiarity, it will be a surprise. And everything in you which says peace and safety; every feeling of your heart which breathes tranquility in the present; every calculation based upon to-morrow being as this day; every confident look at the bright cheerfulness of your fireside, or at the healthy and happy countenance of wife or child; still more every prayerless morning and every thankless night, when you rise as to a life all your own, or close your eyes in sleep as upon a world which will as certainly be yours to-morrow—is a sign, not of the distance, but of the nearness of Christ's advent. The peculiarity of Christ's coming is that everything which seems to defer really brings it near; everything which seems to make it improbable is an argument of its certainty and of its approach. Behold, I come as a thief. What shall we say then, but that the inspired word is reasonable which adds, Blessed is he that watcheth? Against an event so sure in its fact but so doubtful in its time, what can we do but watch always? To be wakful, in the Christian sense of that word, is not to be sleeping in indifference, not to be sleeping in self-indulgence, not to be sleeping in godlessness, not to be sleeping in sin. It is to be men of prayer, men of self-command, men of activity; I say it again, men of prayer. It is to have the communication ever open between the soul and its God. It is to have the aspect ever upward and ever onward. It is to have Christ ever real to us, the Holy Spirit ever present. It is to observe with a serious steadfastness the signs of the times; to compare the features of our generation with the marks given in Scripture of the latter days, of the times of the end. It is to rejoice with a sincere and a thankful joy in every victory won for Christ in the world or in a soul. It is to use this world as not abusing it; to use it as a trust, not as a possession. It is to have the affection set on things above, not on things on the earth; to have our conversation, our citizenship, already in heaven; to have our very life, the life that is most dear and most real and most precious to us, hidden even now with Christ in God. So when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory. V. 16. In Judges 5: 19 we read: "The kings came and fought, then fought the kings of Canaan in Taanach by the waters of Megiddo." There the Israelites gained a signal victory over the Canaanish kings. Here, it is said, "he gathered them together into a place called Armageddon." Now, if it was meant that the people of God should be victorious over the combined forces of their enemies, could it be better represented than by saying that the battle of Megiddo should be fought again? On this assumption the battle of Armageddon is simply a conflict between the Lord's servants and his allied foes, in which the former should gain a signal victory. That it will be a struggle involving bloodshed, and the other circumstances of human warfare, appears to be entirely an assumption. The conflict may be moral. The weapons of warfare may be spiritual. This view is more in harmony with the general character of the Revelation than that which would make one human battle with carnal weapons the symbolic representation of another human battle of the same kind. J. Hall. 17-21. Since the hailstones come by weight and the wrath comes by measure—for so a talent and a cup import—it follows that the Almighty God, even in the midst of the heat of all this anger, will keep to the rules of justice and judgment while he is dealing with this enemy; he has not passions to carry him beyond rules of judgment, nor weakness to cause him to fall short of doing justice; therefore he has his judgments for her by weight, and his indignation by measure. But yet this weight and measure are disposed according to the measure and nature of her iniquity, and come to sweep her as with the bosom of destruction, until she is swept off from the face of all the earth. Bun. Ch. 7. It is there told, almost without figure, what is the seat, and what the name, and what the place in history, and what the singular, the unprecedented end, of that power which in John's time was the rider upon the wild beast. Her seat was the city of the seven hills. Her name, that of the great empire then reigning over the kings of the earth. Her place in history, the sixth and last but one of those mighty empires which have successively towered above the thrones of the earth. She comes after Egypt, after Assyria, after Babylon, after Persia, after Greece. Strange to tell, she does not come before any one similar embodiment of the giant strength of that beast which is the world. She is to be followed by a seventh head; but that seventh head is a mere cluster of ten horns. The head exists but for the purpose of carrying those ten horns. The power which is to replace imperial Rome is a divided, not a concentrated, force. Marvelous prediction! audacious, were it not divine! but not more marvelous in its peculiarity, not more bold in its positiveness, than true in its fulfillment, in the history of the past and in the circumstances of the present! V. 14. In the Gospel of John we read the life of Christ on earth; a man conversing with men, humble, poor, weak, and suffering, we behold a sacrifice ready to be offered, and a man appointed to sorrows and death; but in the Revelation of John, we have the gospel of Christ now raised from the dead. He speaks and acts as having conquered the grave, and triumphed over death and hell, as entered into the place of his glory; angels, principalities, and powers being made subject unto him, and exercising the supreme universal power he has received from the Father over all things in heaven and earth, as our Saviour, for the protection of his Church, and for the sure happiness of his faithful servants in the end. Bossuet. 17. We live under the most peculiar of all the phases of the world's power, and we are taught in prophecy that it is the last of all. Since John wrote, one phase has passed and another has come in; he wrote under the sixth; we are living under the seventh; and there is no eighth. With what earnestness ought we to read and to ponder the brief saying of the text, until the words of God shall be fulfilled! God has fulfilled some of them, yea, many, since the time that John fell on sleep. He has caused the curtain to fall upon one act of the drama, and he has raised it by his providence upon another, upon the last of all. Who can tell us how long it shall yet continue, ere the incidents be quite exhausted and the catastrophe be fully come? At all events we know this; that for each one of us the end of all things is at hand: if the Saviour's advent come not soon to us, we shall surely go to it. Meanwhile let us at least know that there is an end; and let us be waiting for it, and watching! Ch. 18. This chapter is a graphic picture of the fall of Rome. It is drawn from an earlier likeness, and painted in colors not new but old. Earlier prophecies, denouncing judgment upon preceding empires, furnish the main features of this. Those things which Isaiah and Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Nahum, saw and recorded concerning Tyre and Nineveh and Babylon of old, are here gathered together, and written of a later tyrant; of an oppressor not of Israel, but of the Church of Christ and of the gospel. In the very fact of that application, of that transfer, of that repetition, we see a sign of the wisdom and of the grace of God. What could be so encouraging, so reassuring, to a prostrate, exiled, persecuted people, as to be reminded, from their own Scriptures, of oppressions and sufferings endured of old time by God's servants, and of the retribution by which those ancient wrongs had been recompensed and redressed? What could be a surer warrant for the hope that a Babylon of the present, powerful as she appeared, and deeply rooted, and securely fenced and guarded, might yet in the mysterious working of God's providence be brought to desolation and to nothingness, than the declaration that one sits in the seat of an earlier Babylon, whose houses are now full of doleful creatures, wild beasts crying in her desolate houses, and dragons in her pleasant palaces? To call Rome Babylon was of itself a pledge of its demolition. The policy of that great empire, and the philosophy of that great empire; its principle, and its want of principle; its belief in human power, and its indifference to divine power; its skepticism as to all truth, and its toleration of all religions which would themselves tolerate; all had conspired together to make the empire of Rome the foe of Christianity. Sometimes by the caprices of her rulers, and sometimes in spite of their injunctions, Rome had proved herself in fact not a neutral but a persecuting power. In her, when she came to be judged, whether by history or by prophecy, was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all that were slain upon the earth. And at last judgment fell; a judgment of disruption and of dissolution; a judgment full of justice, and a judgment full of admonition. To the severity of that judgment the city itself bears an infallible testimony. So early as the beginning of the fifteenth century this was the language of a reflecting observer: "The hill of the Capitol, on which we sit, was formerly the head of the Roman empire, the citadel of the earth, the terror of kings; illustrated by the footsteps of so many triumphs, enriched with the spoils and tributes of so many nations. This spectacle of the world, how is it fallen! how changed! how defaced! the path of victory is obliterated by vines, and the benches of the senators are concealed by a dunghill. Cast your eyes on the Palatine hill, and seek among the shapeless and enormous fragments the marble theatre, the obelisks, the colossal statues, the porticoes of Nero's palace: survey the other hills of the city, the vacant space is interrupted only by ruins and gardens. The forum of the Roman people, where they assembled to enact their laws and elect their magistrates, is now enclosed for the cultivation of pot-herbs, or thrown open for the reception of swine and buffaloes. The public and private edifices, that were founded for eternity, lie prostrate, naked, and broken, like the limbs of a mighty giant; and the ruin is the more visible, from the stupendous relics that have survived the injuries of time and fortune" (Gibbon, ch. 71). But is it then with walls and buildings that the righteous anger of God wages its warfare? Is it any impeachment of the truth of his prediction, if another city rises in its turn upon the ruins of Babylon, or another power diverse from the former plants its throne upon the ruins of imperial Rome? Not so. It may be noticeable, as a permanent index of judgment, if wild beasts of the desert still lie where Babylon the glory of kingdoms once spread wide her habitations; if dragons still cry in those pleasant palaces where kings once reigned, vassals of a yet mightier throne. But not less really, if less visibly, are God's denunciations against a second Babylon verified, if after the fall of imperial Rome papal Rome rose and flourished for her season, built herself churches with the stones of temples, and reigned in turn over subject consciences as her predecessor had reigned over prostrate nationalities. There have been times, it has been well said, when the papacy looked very like the beast of the Revelation: at such times, in the same degree, God's judgments upon Babylon were applicable and appropriate to the papacy. And that which was not explained nor meant to be explained to John, time has revealed to us; namely, that the fall of the Babylon that then was was not destined to be the immediate precursor of the end of all things. Even John was instructed to write, There are seven kings: five are fallen; and one is; and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space (17:10). That short space has been expanded by the event into a period of several centuries. Other Babylons, on a smaller scale, and with features less precisely marked, have come and gone since John's prophecy against Rome was fulfilled. The beast still is, and still develops himself from time to time in new forms. Wherever he develops himself, there arises another Babylon; and of the ruin of that other Babylon the ruin of the first Babylon and of the second is an infallible and ever-growing proof. V. 19:1-10. The time now draws near for the final termination of the conflict. The irrevocable doom has been pronounced. But before the final condemnation, the episode (so usual in this book) of praise, thanksgiving, and anticipated completion of victory, comes in with a delay of the main action. The episode (as usual) has three parts: 1. All the inhabitants of the heavenly world are represented as uniting in a song of triumph and of thanksgiving on account of the righteous judgments of God which are about to be inflicted (vs. 1-4). 2. A voice from the throne in heaven speaks, and requires of all his servants everywhere renewed praise, which accordingly is shouted (vs. 5-8). 3. The glorious prospect for suffering martyrs is disclosed. They will be guests at the marriage supper of the Lamb. The Church is indeed the Lamb's bride, and the exultation of the Messiah is vividly sketched in the declaration of the angel interpreter, at whose feet John, in a state of astonishment, falls. Jesus, the angel declares, is the object of worship by him; and therefore he (the angel) can not claim the worship of his fellow-servants, who, like him, are merely instruments in making known the prophecies respecting the triumph of redeeming grace (vs. 9, 10). M.S. 10. Jesus. The lines of both Testaments meet in him as in one common center. In the testimonies of the Bible concerning the glory, grace, and work of Christ, the Old Testament confirms the New, and the New Testament illustrates the Old. "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy"; that is, the essence, the substance, the aim and end of all prophecy. Without the preëminence of Christ they become like other writings; but admit this, and then there is but one gospel under all dispensations—but one Saviour for all sinners. And whoever are the speakers or writers, whether patriarchs, or prophets, or kings, or angels, or poets, or apostles, or disciples, each vies with the other to give Christ the preëminence. The glories of heaven and the wonders of the earth, the honors of offices or the happiness of relations, the attractions of beauty or the authority of dignity, are chosen as metaphors to set forth the preëminent excellence of Christ. Sherman. 11-16. The wisest of living Britons has said, "Infinite pity, yet infinite rigor of law. It is so that the world is made." It is so the world must be made, because it is made by Jesus Christ our Lord, and its laws are the likeness of his character; pitiful, because Christ is pitiful; and rigorous, because he is rigorous. So pitiful is Christ that he did not hesitate to be slain for men, that mankind through him might be saved. But so rigorous is Christ that he does not hesitate to slay men, if needful, that mankind thereby may be saved. War and bloodshed, pestilence and famine, earthquake and tempest—all of them, as sure as there is a God, are the servants of God, doing his awful but necessary work for the final benefit of the whole human race. C. K.—It is “the faithful and true who in righteousness doth judge and make war.” He is represented as Head of the Church, sitting on “a white horse”; while, as Head over all things to the Church, he is described as “having on his head many crowns, as clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, as smiting the nations with a sharp sword, ruling them with a rod of iron, treading the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God, and having on his vesture and on his thigh the name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.” W. S. It is a fair inference from Scripture, not only that souls are in a state of conscious activity, but that, as Judas, so every other goes to his own place. "Death alters our condition and our surroundings, but most likely affects our essential personality not at all." Says Von Oosterzee, "The to-day of the soul after death is the simple continuation of the course followed on earth, downward or upward, and in which it now inwardly ripens for the portion which will be manifested at the last day, and of which it already experiences a foretaste of the enjoyment or the terror." Absent from the body is to be present with the Lord in some one of the many mansions, or to awake to the consciousness of an abused probation and a rejected opportunity. This intermediate state may also serve an end, as well as actually be a waiting for the consummation of all things. The soul released from all bodily hindrances and infirmities is open to the searching scrutiny of the light of truth as never before; and, "pervaded with light by the heavenly glancing of God's fire," is becoming adjusted to that life, into which death is a birth, and which invites it to a yet sublimer destiny when rehabilitated by its glorified body, and admitted to its inheritance as an heir of God in the new earth wherein righteousness shall for ever dwell. No adjustment to the absolutely holy life of heavenly society is so essential as a moral one. No place is now found so favorable to it as that which brings us into communion with God. How rapid the progress when the veil is taken away and we see him as he is. We are, then, to regard the intermediate state between death and the resurrection as one of transition from this state to that which is final, along the lines of choice and habit made our own here and now. "Upon the broad as upon the narrow way falls the impenetrable curtain of death; but the first step after borders immediately upon the last step before the curtain. Advancement and progress are made ever in the same path in which the man was already walking even before his death. A transition from the one to the opposite condition after death is accordingly spoken of as inconceivable by the mouth of truth itself." Haydn. 15: 1 And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven 2 last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God. And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his im- age, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having 3 the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true 4 are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judg- 5 ments are made manifest. And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the taber- 6 nacle of the testimony in heaven was opened: and the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded 7 with golden girdles. And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden 8 vials fall of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled. 16: 1 And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, 2 and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men 3 which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image. And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: 4 and every living soul died in the sea. And the third angel poured out his vial upon the 5 rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou 6 hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given 7 them blood to drink; for they are worthy. And I heard another out of the altar say, Even 8 so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments. And the fourth angel poured 9 out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power 10 over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory. And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they 11 gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains 12 and their sores, and repented not of their deeds. And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the 13 kings of the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the 14 false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God 15 Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, 16 lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called 17 in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is 18 done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so 19 great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine 20 of the fierceness of his wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not 21 found. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great. 17: 1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore 2 that sitteth upon many waters: with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten 4 horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and 5 filthiness of her fornication: and upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF 6 THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. 7 And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. 8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast 9 that was, and is not, and yet is. And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven 10 heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of 12 the seven, and goeth into perdition. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the 13 beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. 14 These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful. And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are 16 peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and 17 shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be 18 fulfilled. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth. 18: 1 And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; 2 and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and 3 the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through 4 the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her 5 plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. 6 Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: 7 in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit 8 a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for 9 strong is the Lord God who judgeth her. And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they 10 shall see the smoke of her burning, standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Aias, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. 11 And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their 12 merchandise any more. The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and 13 marble, and cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls 14 of men. And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more 15 at all. The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off 16 for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, and saying, Alas, alas that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious 17 stones, and pearls! For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar 18 off, and cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this 19 great city! And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of 20 her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate. Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and 21 ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her. And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall 22 that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and 23 the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee; and the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for 24 by thy sorceries were all nations deceived. And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth. 19:1 And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God: for true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the 3 earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And 4 again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia. 5 And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye 6 that fear him, both small and great. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: 7 for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to 8 him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine 9 linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the 10 true sayings of God. And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of 11 Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and 12 True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he 13 himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called the 14 Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, 15 clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he 16 treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. 17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper 18 of the great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of 19 all men, both free and bond, both small and great. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the 20 horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into 21 a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. THE Bible is a self-evidenced miracle; and the miracle consists in this, that a book the composition of which occupied more than fifteen centuries of time, prepared by different hands and minds, with no possibility of collusion, and differing each from the other so much as Moses and John, Samuel and Peter, Solomon and Paul, Ezekiel and Luke, David and James, each preparing and shaping his appropriate work, and that work of each as distinct from every other as the book of Genesis and the Apocalypse, the Psalms and the acts of the Apostles, the book of Ruth and the argument in the Epistle to the Romans, the prophecies of Isaiah and the letters of the disciple whom Jesus loved; that, in all this vast variety of material, history, ritual, description, genealogy, law, proverb, prophecy, ode, apothegm, precept, fact, doctrine, apology, reasoning, there should be as complete a unity of subject, the whole compacted and framed together into one book, and that having but one theme, as if it had been composed in the lifetime of one man, and by his own many-sided and varied faculties. And that which alone gives unity to this far-stretching and varied material is Jesus Christ and his salvation. Deep answers to deep across intervening ages, and there is but one voice, "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy"; all times and all events converge in one truth, "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." He who does not comprehend this structure of the Book of God in the unity of Jesus Christ his Son, will never reach himself the compactness and strength of a perfect Christian man, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. W. A. Chs. 15-19. The last passage of the 14th chapter brought down the inspired disclosure to the very end of all things. After the vision of the harvest and the vintage there can be no later transaction upon the defiled and desecrated earth. The next revelation in order of time must be that of the new heavens and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. But there are parts of the picture still to be completed before we are prepared for the descent of the holy city from heaven to earth, and the final establishment among men of the tabernacle of God. In particular, we have yet to learn in fuller detail the fate of the three enemies described in the last section. We have heard in the 14th chapter in general terms that their overthrow is destined and certain. But the particulars of the overthrow have not yet been disclosed. V. 15:1-4. Here, also, preceding the seven vials of wrath, is a scene of heavenly triumph. Victors stand over the crystal sea mingled with fire, as on a shore of safety, singing "the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb." We are, of course, reminded of the song of Moses and his triumphant host on the shore of the Red Sea. In that ancient ode of victory they sang, "Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?" In this they sing, "Great and marvelous are thy works, O Lord God Almighty! just and true are thy ways, thou King of nations. Who should not fear, O Lord, and glorify thy name, for thou only art holy?" 5-8. This prepares for judgment on oppressors. Seven angels come out of the temple, and to them one of the "four living ones" delivers seven golden vials or goblets full of the anger of the ever-living God. The action of the living creature is significant, because the plagues or blows are about to fall on the various regions of creation—the earth, the sea, the fresh waters, and the sun. 16:1-21. As the vials are successively poured out by the angels, the seven last blows or plagues fall upon men, and recall several of the plagues inflicted on Egypt. The parallel between these and the judgments under the trumpets is very remarkable. 1. Fire and blood on the earth. 2. Fire and blood on the sea. 3. Wormwood on rivers and fountains of water. 4. Darkness of sun, moon, and stars. 5. A fallen star—the opening of the abyss—darkness—locusts. 6. Loosing of four angels in the Euphrates, and issuing of a great host to hurt and destroy. 7. Consummation, with announcement of divine judgment; voices, thunders, lightnings, and hail. Grievous sore on the earth. Blood in the sea. Blood in rivers and fountains of water. Scorching heat from the sun. Darkness on the throne of the beast, and in his kingdom. Drying up of Euphrates—appearance of three unclean frog-like spirits—gathering of kings to war. Consummation, with announcement of divine judgment; voices, thunders, lightnings, and hail. Is it not plain that these do not describe consecutive periods of history? They have such a coincidence as plainly indicates that they set forth, by line upon line, and in the old Hebrew style of repetition with expansion, the same principles of divine judgment. D. F. The course of these judgments is in some particulars the same as that of the trumpets. The earth, the sea, the rivers, the lights of heaven, these are the objects of the first four; but ever with reference to those who worship the beast and have his mark on them. At the fifth, as in each case before, there is a change from general to special; the throne and kingdom of the beast, the river Euphrates, these are now the objects; and the seventh passes off, as in each former case, to the consummation of all things. Meantime, as so often before, anticipating hints have been given of new details belonging to the other angelic announcements. At the sixth vial (vs. 12-16) we have the sounds of the gathering of an approaching battle of God's enemies against him, and the very battle-field pointed out. After the seventh and its closing formula (vs. 17-21), Babylon comes into remembrance before God, to give her the cup of his vengeance. Thus, then, we pass to the second of the angelic announcements—the fall of Babylon (ch. 17). A. 1-11. The special object of the judgments now to commence is the second of the three enemies of Christ and his Church, the wild beast from the sea, which unites in itself the attributes of the worldly power in every form and phase. These judgments have been executed in a greater or less degree throughout all time. But the terms of this prophecy, no less than the position which it occupies in the Book of Revelation, prepare us to expect a more intense and concentrated manifestation of God's judgment upon an opposing and blaspheming world as the last end of all things shall draw on. The judgments of which we here read are described as the seven last plagues, in which is filled up the wrath of God. 12. At the sounding of the sixth trumpet there is a similar introduction of the river Euphrates. Loose the four angels bound at the river Euphrates. The Euphrates, speaking roughly, was the boundary between Israel and Israel's invaders. It was the eastern barrier (with the desert between) of the holy land and of the chosen people. The river Euphrates, the ancient barrier between Israel and the enemies of Israel—the typical barrier between the Church, which is the Israel of God, and the enemies of the Church—is to be dried up, to prepare the way of the kings from the east. The typical home of the Church in the language of all prophecy is Palestine and Jerusalem; and therefore the typical home of the foes of the Church is in the region to which Palestine and Jerusalem ever looked as the quarter of danger, as the source of attack. The enemies of Christ are gathering for one last and decisive onslaught upon his servants and upon his throne: God foresees this; God permits this; yea, God would have it so: and therefore one of his latest vials of judgment is poured upon the Euphrates, that the hostile powers may march undisturbed against Jerusalem, and meet their great discomfiture in a struggle the deadliest and the last of all. 13. There is an agency of God, and there is an agency too of man. God dries the Euphrates; the enemy emits the spirits, the unclean and lying spirits, which are to draw the nations across it. Thus it is in all time: man can ill distinguish between the agency of permission and the agency of causation; between that power which stands aside and makes room, and that power which solicits, which inspires, and which directs. That which God hinders not he in some sort does. Often does his word speak of him as acting where a cautious and timid theology might rather speak of him as allowing. This we know, and thus far, at all events, we are safe in affirming constantly, that all good is of God, and that all evil is of God's enemy. It is of good that the conflict of truth and falsehood, of light and darkness, should at last receive its decision: it is of evil than any one soul is induced to cast in its lot in that struggle with the hosts of antichrist. God dries the Euphrates; but the unclean spirits fill the invading ranks. God prepares the way. But the influence by which the hosts of evil are mustered is not of God. I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. Each of the three great enemies of Christ's truth and of Christ's Church contributes a special influence ence toward this result, this gathering of the powers of evil to combat and to ruin. There comes out of the mouth of the dragon that spirit of unbelief, of doubting, mistrusting, at last denying, God's express word, whether of revelation, of command, or of promise, by which in Eden itself the serpent tempted, and by listening to which woman first and then man fell. The evil spirit from the mouth of the beast which is the world bids us think the things that are seen more real and more valuable than the things which are not seen; bids us deem nothing so desirable, nothing so necessary to us, as the good opinion of a man that shall die; bids us live for esteem, or live for praise, or live for power, or live for pleasure, or live for wealth, and not live for God, and not live for eternity. And what shall we say of the unclean spirit of the third enemy, of the false prophet, the creature and abettor of the second? Surely the wisdom of this world, no less than the power of this world, has in this generation a real and an oppressive influence. 15. Behold, I come as a thief. The thief comes at night; comes without notice; comes while men sleep; comes suddenly and by surprise upon a house barred against his approach. I beseech you to remember that the second coming of Christ, that coming which will set the seal of permanence upon what is, and make your then state before God your state for ever, will have this special peculiarity, it will be a surprise. And everything in you which says peace and safety; every feeling of your heart which breathes tranquility in the present; every calculation based upon to-morrow being as this day; every confident look at the bright cheerfulness of your fireside, or at the healthy and happy countenance of wife or child; still more every prayerless morning and every thankless night, when you rise as to a life all your own, or close your eyes in sleep as upon a world which will as certainly be yours to-morrow—is a sign, not of the distance, but of the nearness of Christ's advent. The peculiarity of Christ's coming is that everything which seems to defer really brings it near; everything which seems to make it improbable is an argument of its certainty and of its approach. Behold, I come as a thief. What shall we say then, but that the inspired word is reasonable which adds, Blessed is he that watcheth? Against an event so sure in its fact but so doubtful in its time, what can we do but watch always? To be wakful, in the Christian sense of that word, is not to be sleeping in indifference, not to be sleeping in self-indulgence, not to be sleeping in godlessness, not to be sleeping in sin. It is to be men of prayer, men of self-command, men of activity; I say it again, men of prayer. It is to have the communication ever open between the soul and its God. It is to have the aspect ever upward and ever onward. It is to have Christ ever real to us, the Holy Spirit ever present. It is to observe with a serious steadfastness the signs of the times; to compare the features of our generation with the marks given in Scripture of the latter days, of the times of the end. It is to rejoice with a sincere and a thankful joy in every victory won for Christ in the world or in a soul. It is to use this world as not abusing it; to use it as a trust, not as a possession. It is to have the affection set on things above, not on things on the earth; to have our conversation, our citizenship, already in heaven; to have our very life, the life that is most dear and most real and most precious to us, hidden even now with Christ in God. So when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory. V. 16. In Judges 5: 19 we read: "The kings came and fought, then fought the kings of Canaan in Taanach by the waters of Megiddo." There the Israelites gained a signal victory over the Canaanish kings. Here, it is said, "he gathered them together into a place called Armageddon." Now, if it was meant that the people of God should be victorious over the combined forces of their enemies, could it be better represented than by saying that the battle of Megiddo should be fought again? On this assumption the battle of Armageddon is simply a conflict between the Lord's servants and his allied foes, in which the former should gain a signal victory. That it will be a struggle involving bloodshed, and the other circumstances of human warfare, appears to be entirely an assumption. The conflict may be moral. The weapons of warfare may be spiritual. This view is more in harmony with the general character of the Revelation than that which would make one human battle with carnal weapons the symbolic representation of another human battle of the same kind. J. Hall. 17-21. Since the hailstones come by weight and the wrath comes by measure—for so a talent and a cup import—it follows that the Almighty God, even in the midst of the heat of all this anger, will keep to the rules of justice and judgment while he is dealing with this enemy; he has not passions to carry him beyond rules of judgment, nor weakness to cause him to fall short of doing justice; therefore he has his judgments for her by weight, and his indignation by measure. But yet this weight and measure are disposed according to the measure and nature of her iniquity, and come to sweep her as with the bosom of destruction, until she is swept off from the face of all the earth. Bun. Ch. 7. It is there told, almost without figure, what is the seat, and what the name, and what the place in history, and what the singular, the unprecedented end, of that power which in John's time was the rider upon the wild beast. Her seat was the city of the seven hills. Her name, that of the great empire then reigning over the kings of the earth. Her place in history, the sixth and last but one of those mighty empires which have successively towered above the thrones of the earth. She comes after Egypt, after Assyria, after Babylon, after Persia, after Greece. Strange to tell, she does not come before any one similar embodiment of the giant strength of that beast which is the world. She is to be followed by a seventh head; but that seventh head is a mere cluster of ten horns. The head exists but for the purpose of carrying those ten horns. The power which is to replace imperial Rome is a divided, not a concentrated, force. Marvelous prediction! audacious, were it not divine! but not more marvelous in its peculiarity, not more bold in its positiveness, than true in its fulfillment, in the history of the past and in the circumstances of the present! V. 14. In the Gospel of John we read the life of Christ on earth; a man conversing with men, humble, poor, weak, and suffering, we behold a sacrifice ready to be offered, and a man appointed to sorrows and death; but in the Revelation of John, we have the gospel of Christ now raised from the dead. He speaks and acts as having conquered the grave, and triumphed over death and hell, as entered into the place of his glory; angels, principalities, and powers being made subject unto him, and exercising the supreme universal power he has received from the Father over all things in heaven and earth, as our Saviour, for the protection of his Church, and for the sure happiness of his faithful servants in the end. Bossuet. 17. We live under the most peculiar of all the phases of the world's power, and we are taught in prophecy that it is the last of all. Since John wrote, one phase has passed and another has come in; he wrote under the sixth; we are living under the seventh; and there is no eighth. With what earnestness ought we to read and to ponder the brief saying of the text, until the words of God shall be fulfilled! God has fulfilled some of them, yea, many, since the time that John fell on sleep. He has caused the curtain to fall upon one act of the drama, and he has raised it by his providence upon another, upon the last of all. Who can tell us how long it shall yet continue, ere the incidents be quite exhausted and the catastrophe be fully come? At all events we know this; that for each one of us the end of all things is at hand: if the Saviour's advent come not soon to us, we shall surely go to it. Meanwhile let us at least know that there is an end; and let us be waiting for it, and watching! Ch. 18. This chapter is a graphic picture of the fall of Rome. It is drawn from an earlier likeness, and painted in colors not new but old. Earlier prophecies, denouncing judgment upon preceding empires, furnish the main features of this. Those things which Isaiah and Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Nahum, saw and recorded concerning Tyre and Nineveh and Babylon of old, are here gathered together, and written of a later tyrant; of an oppressor not of Israel, but of the Church of Christ and of the gospel. In the very fact of that application, of that transfer, of that repetition, we see a sign of the wisdom and of the grace of God. What could be so encouraging, so reassuring, to a prostrate, exiled, persecuted people, as to be reminded, from their own Scriptures, of oppressions and sufferings endured of old time by God's servants, and of the retribution by which those ancient wrongs had been recompensed and redressed? What could be a surer warrant for the hope that a Babylon of the present, powerful as she appeared, and deeply rooted, and securely fenced and guarded, might yet in the mysterious working of God's providence be brought to desolation and to nothingness, than the declaration that one sits in the seat of an earlier Babylon, whose houses are now full of doleful creatures, wild beasts crying in her desolate houses, and dragons in her pleasant palaces? To call Rome Babylon was of itself a pledge of its demolition. The policy of that great empire, and the philosophy of that great empire; its principle, and its want of principle; its belief in human power, and its indifference to divine power; its skepticism as to all truth, and its toleration of all religions which would themselves tolerate; all had conspired together to make the empire of Rome the foe of Christianity. Sometimes by the caprices of her rulers, and sometimes in spite of their injunctions, Rome had proved herself in fact not a neutral but a persecuting power. In her, when she came to be judged, whether by history or by prophecy, was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all that were slain upon the earth. And at last judgment fell; a judgment of disruption and of dissolution; a judgment full of justice, and a judgment full of admonition. To the severity of that judgment the city itself bears an infallible testimony. So early as the beginning of the fifteenth century this was the language of a reflecting observer: "The hill of the Capitol, on which we sit, was formerly the head of the Roman empire, the citadel of the earth, the terror of kings; illustrated by the footsteps of so many triumphs, enriched with the spoils and tributes of so many nations. This spectacle of the world, how is it fallen! how changed! how defaced! the path of victory is obliterated by vines, and the benches of the senators are concealed by a dunghill. Cast your eyes on the Palatine hill, and seek among the shapeless and enormous fragments the marble theatre, the obelisks, the colossal statues, the porticoes of Nero's palace: survey the other hills of the city, the vacant space is interrupted only by ruins and gardens. The forum of the Roman people, where they assembled to enact their laws and elect their magistrates, is now enclosed for the cultivation of pot-herbs, or thrown open for the reception of swine and buffaloes. The public and private edifices, that were founded for eternity, lie prostrate, naked, and broken, like the limbs of a mighty giant; and the ruin is the more visible, from the stupendous relics that have survived the injuries of time and fortune" (Gibbon, ch. 71). But is it then with walls and buildings that the righteous anger of God wages its warfare? Is it any impeachment of the truth of his prediction, if another city rises in its turn upon the ruins of Babylon, or another power diverse from the former plants its throne upon the ruins of imperial Rome? Not so. It may be noticeable, as a permanent index of judgment, if wild beasts of the desert still lie where Babylon the glory of kingdoms once spread wide her habitations; if dragons still cry in those pleasant palaces where kings once reigned, vassals of a yet mightier throne. But not less really, if less visibly, are God's denunciations against a second Babylon verified, if after the fall of imperial Rome papal Rome rose and flourished for her season, built herself churches with the stones of temples, and reigned in turn over subject consciences as her predecessor had reigned over prostrate nationalities. There have been times, it has been well said, when the papacy looked very like the beast of the Revelation: at such times, in the same degree, God's judgments upon Babylon were applicable and appropriate to the papacy. And that which was not explained nor meant to be explained to John, time has revealed to us; namely, that the fall of the Babylon that then was was not destined to be the immediate precursor of the end of all things. Even John was instructed to write, There are seven kings: five are fallen; and one is; and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space (17:10). That short space has been expanded by the event into a period of several centuries. Other Babylons, on a smaller scale, and with features less precisely marked, have come and gone since John's prophecy against Rome was fulfilled. The beast still is, and still develops himself from time to time in new forms. Wherever he develops himself, there arises another Babylon; and of the ruin of that other Babylon the ruin of the first Babylon and of the second is an infallible and ever-growing proof. V. 19:1-10. The time now draws near for the final termination of the conflict. The irrevocable doom has been pronounced. But before the final condemnation, the episode (so usual in this book) of praise, thanksgiving, and anticipated completion of victory, comes in with a delay of the main action. The episode (as usual) has three parts: 1. All the inhabitants of the heavenly world are represented as uniting in a song of triumph and of thanksgiving on account of the righteous judgments of God which are about to be inflicted (vs. 1-4). 2. A voice from the throne in heaven speaks, and requires of all his servants everywhere renewed praise, which accordingly is shouted (vs. 5-8). 3. The glorious prospect for suffering martyrs is disclosed. They will be guests at the marriage supper of the Lamb. The Church is indeed the Lamb's bride, and the exultation of the Messiah is vividly sketched in the declaration of the angel interpreter, at whose feet John, in a state of astonishment, falls. Jesus, the angel declares, is the object of worship by him; and therefore he (the angel) can not claim the worship of his fellow-servants, who, like him, are merely instruments in making known the prophecies respecting the triumph of redeeming grace (vs. 9, 10). M.S. 10. Jesus. The lines of both Testaments meet in him as in one common center. In the testimonies of the Bible concerning the glory, grace, and work of Christ, the Old Testament confirms the New, and the New Testament illustrates the Old. "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy"; that is, the essence, the substance, the aim and end of all prophecy. Without the preëminence of Christ they become like other writings; but admit this, and then there is but one gospel under all dispensations—but one Saviour for all sinners. And whoever are the speakers or writers, whether patriarchs, or prophets, or kings, or angels, or poets, or apostles, or disciples, each vies with the other to give Christ the preëminence. The glories of heaven and the wonders of the earth, the honors of offices or the happiness of relations, the attractions of beauty or the authority of dignity, are chosen as metaphors to set forth the preëminent excellence of Christ. Sherman. 11-16. The wisest of living Britons has said, "Infinite pity, yet infinite rigor of law. It is so that the world is made." It is so the world must be made, because it is made by Jesus Christ our Lord, and its laws are the likeness of his character; pitiful, because Christ is pitiful; and rigorous, because he is rigorous. So pitiful is Christ that he did not hesitate to be slain for men, that mankind through him might be saved. But so rigorous is Christ that he does not hesitate to slay men, if needful, that mankind thereby may be saved. War and bloodshed, pestilence and famine, earthquake and tempest—all of them, as sure as there is a God, are the servants of God, doing his awful but necessary work for the final benefit of the whole human race. C. K.—It is “the faithful and true who in righteousness doth judge and make war.” He is represented as Head of the Church, sitting on “a white horse”; while, as Head over all things to the Church, he is described as “having on his head many crowns, as clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, as smiting the nations with a sharp sword, ruling them with a rod of iron, treading the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God, and having on his vesture and on his thigh the name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.” W. S. 17-21. A great contest ensues, to which the hosts are gathered under the sixth bowl of wrath (16 : 14). But the actual conflict does not occur till after the fall of Babylon, which is under the seventh bowl or vial. This battle is symbolical, not literal. We are never to think of the Lord Jesus Christ as asserting his rightful power on the earth by onsets of cavalry, or the slaughter of wild beasts, princes, and soldiers, amid the screaming of vultures assembled for a ghastly feast. The only sword wielded by the King of kings is the sword of his mouth, and no weapons are seen in the armies from heaven that follow him. His sharp mouth-sword or word suffices to slay the opposing kings and armies—i. e., to subdue and extinguish national opposition to Christ. But that mouth-sword had no effect on the beast and the false prophet; it is not even applied to them. They are cast alive into a “pool which burns with fire and brimstone.” Thus these formidable symbols of evil activity are committed to an element which wholly consumes. In other words, the influences which they represent and impersonate come to such an end that they can never rise or reappear among the sons of men. D. F. God will have things go on thus in the world till his word shall be fulfilled; the deceived and the deceiver are his. Things therefore must have their course in the church in the wilderness till the mystery of God shall be fulfilled. God will get to himself great glory by permitting the boar, the man of sin and the dragon, to revel in the church of God; for they by setting up and contending for their darkness, and calling it the light, and by setting it against that light which is light in very deed, do not only prove the power of truth where it is, but illustrate it so much the more; for as black sets off white, and darkness light, so error sets off truth. The Church will not give place, for she knows she has the truth; the dragon and his angels, they will not give place, but as beaten back by the power of truth. Therefore there will, there must, there can not but be, a spiritual warfare here, and that until one of the two is destroyed, and its body given to the burning flame. Bun. We are living, not in the time of the sixth, but in the time of the seventh head of the wild beast; that head which is known by its ten horns; that power which is designated by division, not by concentration; by a plurality, not by a unity, of crowns and thrones on earth. And here we read of the closing scene of the period of that seventh supremacy. It is the last of the empires: there is none to follow it. It is to terminate in that great outbreak of evil which under many different figures appears both in Old Testament and in New Testament prophecy as the sure token of the last end of all. And then upon this last concourse of the powers of evil bursts the full blaze of the divine glory in the person of Jesus Christ, unto conviction, consternation, and final ruin. V. 1. AND I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his land. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. 4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. And when the thousand years 8 are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to 9 battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire 10 came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. 11. And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and 12 the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written 13 in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every 14 man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is 15 the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. In the very being—the rational and moral being—that God has given us, he has inwoven the future judgment; he has constructed our nature so that it demands this award as its necessary completion. Our daily life is one long prophecy of that day. In the gloomy recollections of age, in the man of crime who struggles in vain to crush a rebuking conscience, in the youth who weeps the bitter fruits of passion, in the very child who runs to hide his conscious fault—in all alike is foreshadowed the terrible decree of universal judgment. For judgment we are born, for judgment we flourish, grow old, and die. Nature herself dares not deny the certainty of retribution; the gospel but confirms her conviction; for, even in regions where the gospel has never sounded, her voice, speaking in all nations, languages, and times, has proclaimed from pole to pole that God shall judge his creature. But revelation alone could tell the circumstances and accessories of this great event; and revelation has abundantly done so. The Judge himself has undrawn the curtain of eternity; he has shown us his own everlasting throne, and the procedures of his court, and the test he shall demand, and the verdict he shall deliver. It is a strange thing thus to read the story of our own hereafter; to hear delivered, with all the minuteness of some history of past events, a scene in which each of us individually must perform his own special part, and that part the most awful and decisive in all eternity. Strange to see one single point in the clouded future thus flashing out amid the impenetrable obscurity of all the rest; and that one the point on which all the rest is ultimately to depend. Strange, indeed; yet stranger still, that it can be contemplated with so little emotion; that men can live admitting its certainty, yet never remembering its approach; that, when once granted to be true, it should not be found to occupy every thought, and to make the great directive principle of existence. W. A. B. 1-3. The doom of the dragon.—He has been cast out of heaven into the earth (12 : 9). Let that be the first stage of his discomfiture. The second will be when he is bound with a chain and cast into the abyss, there to be confined for a thousand years. Though sin will not be wholly expunged from the earth during that period, the active power of the tempter will be restrained, and the saints will be free from his wiles as well as his fiery darts. 7, 8. But the dragon is to be let loose again, and wickedness will have a brief revival on the earth. Satan will come out of prison incorrigible and incurable as he entered it—the inveterate impersonation of malice and deceit. Terrible fiend! The sight of Eve's innocence stirred in him no pity. The manifestation of the Son of God brought him to no repentance. A thousand years of restraint in the abyss teach him no submission. He is no sooner at large again than he resumes his old employment of deceiving the nations and assailing the saints. 9, 10.** But the cup of his iniquity is full; and he reaches the third and final stage of his discomfiture. The confederacy which he leads against the holy city is scattered by devouring fire from heaven, and then he himself is overtaken by his doom. It is not, as the mediæval notion was (not yet extinct among us), that the devil is to be a king in hell, tormenting at his pleasure lost souls of men, but that he himself is tormented; as hitherto the most active of sinners, hereafter the most helpless; as more wicked than others, so in the end more miserable. There is a serious difficulty about the second coming of Christ. Many passages in both Testaments connect his advent with the establishment of his kingdom on the earth; and it is taught in the nineteenth chapter of this book that he will be revealed from heaven with attendant saints before the millennium; that he will then subdue his enemies, and introduce a reign of righteousness and peace. There are, however, many other passages, of equal authority, which describe our Lord as coming with flaming fire to judge the world; and the last judgment is certainly after the millennium (vs. 11-15). On this interpreters have broken into parties; and then, as is not uncommon in controversy, each party, occupying itself with the parts of Scripture which favor its distinctive theory, becomes more and more confident in its own opinion. It is not within the power of man to tell us now what may or may not be inclosed within the truth and fact of the Lord's second coming. Only the future can determine. The prophecy regarding Messiah in the Old Testament seemed to intimate only one advent for all purposes; but we now perceive that it covered a double advent, a coming in weakness, and a coming in power, a coming to suffer, and a coming to reign. There is no reason why the prophecy in the New Testament regarding the second advent may not unfold a double import; the more so that the language touching the resurrection of the dead, though often seeming to point to one event, unfolds a double import, a resurrection of the just, and a subsequent uprising of the unjust. It is clear that Christ will come to quell his adversaries, reward his servants, and bring in millennial peace; but it is not clear whether or not that appearing will be visible to the world at large. Enough that it will be quite appreciable by his saints. He will interpose in such a way that they who follow him in the great battle of God Almighty will know right well who it is by whom they are led, and to whom the victory is due; and they who reign in life upon or over the earth will know well who it is with whom they reign as kings and priests to God. But this does not exhaust the prophecy of his appearing. At the last day he will come in his glory, seen by every eye, to judge the quick and the dead. Let us endeavor to keep all this truth honestly in mind. 4. The Millennial blessedness.—Whether or no one thousand ordinary solar years are intended, a definite period is fixed, during which the meek shall "inherit the earth," and the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be "given to the people of the saints of the Most High." D. F. Dr. Hodge thus summarizes the generally received views of the future of time: "It is clearly revealed, both in the Old and the New Testaments, that the gospel is to exercise an influence over all branches of the human family, immeasurably more extensive and more thoroughly transforming than any it has ever realized in time past. This end is to be gradually attained through the spiritual presence of Christ in the ordinary dispensations of Providence and ministrations of his Church. The period of this general prevalency of the Gospel will continue a thousand years. Either at the commencement, or during the continuance of this period, the Jews are to be converted to Christianity. At the end, there will be a comparatively short season of apostasy and violent conflict between the kingdoms of light and darkness. Then will follow—Christ's advent, the general resurrection and judgment: these will be simultaneous; and they will be succeeded by the burning of the old and the revelation of the new earth and heavens." Of the Millennium so far as revealed by John, the description is very limited, making only three leading points, viz., the binding of Satan; the duration of this restraint; and the joy of the martyrs with Christ over the glorious event. If we ask for the agencies which are to introduce and produce this millennial age, these visions give no answer beyond what is comprehended in the one fact—Satan bound. If we ask what John has taught us respecting the state of the world during this Millennium, we are left to infer it from these two facts—the withdrawing of Satan's influence, and the joy of the martyrs and of Jesus over the victory of his cause, the triumph of his reign. We may however turn back to Old Testament prophecy and there find many of the most important questions fully answered. If we ask for the political, moral, and religious state of the world, we learn that wars will cease; crime disappear; that hate will die out of human bosoms and love reign in its stead; the idols will utterly perish; one God only shall be worshiped and obeyed from the rising to the setting sun. If we ask, What agencies are to work this wondrous change? we are promptly answered—"For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord [Jesus] as the waters cover the sea." Satan deceives no longer; the truth of God in his gospel leads men in the paths of righteousness and peace. These long ages form the grand theatre for manifesting the transforming power of the gospel of salvation—redemption by the cross of Jesus. It is the consummation of the gospel age, in which the inherent power of God's spirit with his truth, borne in the willing hands and loving hearts of his people, will have free course and be glorified. H. C. 4-6. Nearly all through the Christian centuries there has existed an opinion, gaining at times a wide prevalence, that there is to be a pre-millennial resurrection of the righteous, who shall reign with Christ for a thousand years, while the rest of the dead still slumber on in their graves. In support of this opinion, appeal is made to the twentieth chapter of the Apocalypse. But a closer inspection of the chapter might have disclosed the fact that the resurrection here spoken of as preceding the thousand years, is a resurrection not of all the saints, but only of the martyred saints. It would be disingenuous to deny, or try to blink, the difficulties which beset not this passage alone, but the entire book of the Apocalypse. Till the Champollion appears, who shall decipher this mysterious hieroglyph, we can do no better than interpret the passage in question figuratively. Perhaps the meaning of it is, that before the Millennium is ushered in—that “mellow Indian summer of the church on earth”—the spirit of the martyrs must be reproduced throughout the ranks of the redeemed. The martyrs may thus be said to issue from their graves in advance of the general resurrection, to sit regnant with Christ. But whatever may be done with this passage, it will not answer for us to disregard the many other passages which speak of only one resurrection at the end of the world. The New Testament holds up clearly before us one great day, for which all other days are made; the day of final judgment, the day of God, when the Son of Man shall be seen coming in the clouds with the retinue of all his disembodied saints, when the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and all the dead shall live again embodied, in order to the completeness of their being and the fullness of their retribution. R. D. H. As to the notion of a descent to the earth by Christ and the martyrs and their visible reign here, there is not a word in the text nor even an implication. What a conception it would be, to mingle celestial and terrestrial beings in one common mass? The glorified Saviour and the glorified martyrs, mingling with material and punishable beings, and becoming subject again to the laws of matter? If it be said that the earth is to be changed entirely, at the beginning of the millennium, and to be fitted by this change for the abode of such glorious beings raised from the dead, where then are Gog and Magog to live during this period—and other men—are they still mortal beings or not? Besides all this, John has not yet said a word respecting the renovation of the earth. It is only at or after the period of the general judgment that this renovation takes place, Rev. 21 : 1. M. S. 6. On such the second death has no power.** The Scriptures set before us “death” as manifested in two forms; and Christ as the destroyer of one, the ruler and restrictor of the other. These are mysteriously entitled “the first” and “the second” death; both, as we may infer from the sameness of the name, successive developments, first on a less, afterward on a vaster and more terrible scale, of that common principle, whatever it be, of death, which is the original and stated “wages of sin.” The first form of death results on the sin of nature, and is therefore universal as it is; the second form, which perhaps is naturally the sequel or maturity of the former, is, by the mercy of God, restricted to unpardoned guilt. To both, Christ, “who is our life,” is the appointed adversary, and over both he triumphs, though in different ways; over the first by raising all mankind, over the second by conducting his faithful to glory. W. A. B. 9. Gog and Magog.** John borrows his imagery from Ezek. 37, 38, and 39. That the names of these enemies will be literally Gog and Magog, and that they are literally to come from the four corners of the earth, and besiege the literal Jerusalem, no one versed in the language of prophecy will contend. Enough that the names of old enemies are employed to designate new ones, as yet without a name. Enough that they come from the bosom of unconverted heathens, and that they oppose and persecute Christians wherever they meet them. These are the things signified; all the rest is costume. 11-15. The opposition of all enemies being thus effectually put down, it follows, of course, that the Church will afterward enjoy undisturbed tranquillity and prosperity. But on this the writer does not dwell. Still the fact that he does not make nothing against the supposition of a long intervening period between the destruction of Gog and Magog and the general judgment. It should be remembered that one leading topic of the book is the subjugation of the enemies of the Church; and that topic is now completed. The writer passes on immediately, therefore, to the final and glorious reward of the righteous, when the probation of all the redeemed is to be completed, and the august drama is brought to its final close. But before the final reward can be distributed, a general judgment is to be instituted, at which all that have been concerned in the Redeemer’s kingdom, either as friends or enemies, are to be present, and to receive their final sentence. The remainder of the chapter is occupied in describing this scene. M. S. The opening proclamation of the Lord’s coming (1 : 7) notifies also its effect on the world: “Every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.” And these sounds continue. Things do not melt quietly into the peace of the kingdom of God. There is a crash of ruin, and a winepress of the wrath of Almighty God, and a lake that burns with fire and brimstone. And this judgment falls, not only on principles and powers of evil, but on nations of men; and not only on nations, but on separate persons, even on “every one who is not found written in the book of life.” He who does not accept the reality of the world’s rebellion and ruin, and of the wrath and judgment which it brings, must certainly reject this whole book from the canon; and, with it, must tear away large and living portions of every preceding book of Scripture. T. D. B. It was a visionary representation only of this august scene that the apostle beheld: we shall behold the scene itself, the great reality. And we shall be more than spectators of it, we shall be parties in it. With some things that are written in this mysterious book we may have little or nothing to do; they concern others, but not us: with what is written here we have everything to do. C. B.—Mix ourselves up as we may, let the gradations in the appearances and outer details of character be what they will, the line runs out straight from the great white throne, and you and I and all souls are on the right hand of it, or on the left. F. D. H. 12. The dead, small and great, stand before God.** Of a multitude like this we can not conceive. But here are all the millions of men who have lived and died in all the earth since the earth began, all uprising in one and the same awakening moment, and all brought, by some secret, irresistible impulse, to one and the same spot; gathering together, some willingly, some reluctantly; some joyfully, some despairingly; but yet gathering together all in one vast assembly, before one and the same throne. What a spectacle! a being in the human form calling up, and compelling to stand before him, every one of the human race who has ever breathed; without difficulty, without effort, placing them all passive and powerless at his bar! Well may he say, "Ye shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power." C. B. Nations and men have acted freely, and their very caprice and willfulness have been worked, by an overmastering wisdom, into that web whose woof no hand of man has held, and whose web and woof together have made up one grand, consecutive, advancing history. The scroll of time has been slowly unrolled; each nation, each man, has written upon it, as he thought he would, his own brief record, and then it was rolled up, and others came and wrote; and when it is all unrolled and read, we find thereon one epic, the connected history of God and man. H. B. S. The books opened. By what means soever made known, it is the truth that will come out. None shall be wearied by the tediousness of the trial; leisure enough shall be granted to carry it through. A man's deeds, in due succession, shall be recounted: and the most succinct and satisfactory method, perhaps, will be for himself to recount them. He may well be trusted to do so; for he feels at every pore that the atmosphere of truth is about him. I. T. Every man is now, whether he wills it or not, unconsciously writing his own biography; his whole life forming a work of more importance, to himself at least, than any other in the universe—each volume a year, each chapter a month, each day or hour a page. At judgment memory will read the whole, and be compelled to feel that every word is true. It is strange, too, how rapid—reasoning from analogy—such a review may be, without diminishing from its distinctness; states of being, or successive acts which occupied long periods of time, may rapidly be recalled in all their minute features. In moments of sudden peril, when death seemed approaching, how frequently have men told us that they beheld, in a twinkling of an eye, the great features of their whole life, like a panorama, passing before their mind's eye! And thus at judgment, clear, yet rapid—intensely real and vivid, yet sudden as light—may the life of the boy, and the man, and the patriarch, from the first to the last moment of conscious and responsible existence upon earth, be presented to the mind with a self-evidencing power of truth, which can not, which dare not, be denied or resisted. The Book of Providence shall be opened. In this book has been recorded, and from its pages can be shown, by Jesus Christ, everything which has been done to us by himself since the hour of our birth till that of our death. Every temporal mercy or spiritual blessing, every advice given by ministers, relations or friends, every Sabbath which dawned upon us, every visitation of sickness or domestic affliction, every item, in short, of that immense sum of things which, in his providence, or by his grace, was given us each successive hour of our life, and which was intended to mold our characters according to the will of God; all shall be revealed at judgment, that the universe may know what Jesus Christ, the King, has really done for each one of his subjects, and what each subject has been, and done, in relation to him. "Another book will be opened, which is the Book of Life." In that book are inscribed the characters of all God's people, and the evidence of the reality of their faith in Christ and obedience to him. Their works, which are the evidence, results, and rewards of faith, are recorded by that same Spirit through whose power alone the soul has lived, believed, and been enabled to bring forth such fruit to the praise of the glory of God by Jesus Christ. In the book of life will be found recorded by the omniscient Holy Spirit of Truth, that secret life of every saint which was "hid with Christ in God." Then shall be revealed the reality of their repentance and inward renewal of soul; the sincerity of their love to God and his people; their secret prayers, thanksgivings, confessions, intercessions, and holy communion with God; their plans, longings, and sacrifices for the spread of the gospel, and the glory of God upon earth; their deeds of charity for Christ—every prison they entered, every naked one they clothed, the hungry they fed, or the offenses forgiven by them from love to him who forgave them; that whole character, in short, which is the result of union with Christ, will be evidenced to the universe from what is recorded of it in the Lamb's Book of Life. N. M. 14. The second death.** The true death—the real death—is the death of the soul. It is when the soul is severed from its God, and from hope, and peace, and joy; when it lives without life; survives only to suffer; is cut off from its high destiny, and driven away from him who is the RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE. Religion is life, and heaven is life, and hell is existence without life, continued being, where the soul is held in existence only to continue to die. THIS IS DEATH. Hear him speak who saw it all, and who knew it all: "The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." There, according to him, the sufferer shall lift up the eyes, "being in torment," and ask in vain for a single "drop of water" to cool the tongue; there "the worm dieth not, and the fire shall not be quenched"; there shall be "everlasting punishment"; there shall be "outer darkness"; there shall be the execution of the sentence, "Depart, accursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." These are the words of the meek and mild and benevolent Redeemer—the most tender and kind and merciful of all who have dwelt on the earth; who used such expressions as these, "How can ye escape the damnation of hell?" as if they became no other lips but his. In that dread sphere no spirit strives to reclaim the lost. On no zephyr there is the message of mercy borne, whispering peace. No God meets the desponding there with promises and hopes; and from no eye there is the tear of sorrow ever wiped away. There is no such friend as Jesus, no voice of mercy, no day-star of hope, no father, mother, daughter, pastor, angel, to sympathize; no one to breathe for the lost the prayer for pardon; no great Intercessor to bear the cry for mercy up to the throne of God. It is death—lingering, long, interminable death—the dying sorrow prolonged from age to age; outward, onward toward eternity—ever lingering, never ending. A. B. THE word of prophecy foretold the coming of Messiah to set up a kingdom of saving mercy, according ing to which he did come. By the same word are we assured of his return as Judge of quick and dead. The fact, not the method; not the details, but the grand outlines of this conclusion of history in time are given us. This much only is necessary to its full moral effect upon us. Inquiries, therefore, in the direction of detail, serve rather to belittle than to exalt and define to our view this "spiritual mountain-land" unto which we are come, led by the word of Revelation. The Scriptures affirm that: 1. God hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world. This day is not to be conceived of as a period of twenty-four hours, but rather as one of the days of creation, or as a prophetic day; a period of time long enough for the full and proper consummation of the trial of every man, the bringing of every secret thing into judgment, and the awarding according to righteousness. 2. This day follows immediately upon the general resurrection of all the dead. No words can better set forth this solemn judgment scene than those of our Lord in the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew: "When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory; and before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats." In anticipation of this hour, at the voice of the Son of man, the graves and the sea give up the dead which are in them. 3. Not only will all who have lived upon the earth, without exception, be numbered in that vast assemblage, but also "the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day." So that this judgment scene must be regarded as having relation to the two rival kingdoms in this world now contending for mastery, and yet to grapple in more deadly conflict as the day approaches; the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of Satan. 4. The Judge will be none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. It is most fitting that he, "by whom, and for whom, and to whom are all things," should judge the world. By his omniscient wisdom and unimpeachable righteousness, by his two-fold nature as divine yet human, by his providence over the race from the beginning, and his headship to his Church, by his matchless love for the world and his redeeming power over it, he is qualified to judge the world in righteousness, according to the deserts and qualifying conditions of every man's life and character. 5. At that tribunal will every man be impartially tried and judged. Every work will be bring into judgment with every secret thing, the little as well as the great. The great springs from the little, is made up of littles, hinges on littles. Nothing is unimportant as determining character and desert. The possibility of such a minute disclosure is set forth in the fact that men are to be judged out of the Books. The expression implies, beyond question, that the waves of time have swept nothing into utter oblivion—that it is possible to call up the secret and public life of every man from Adam to the latest born of time, and every moment of it. That which is hid shall yet be made known, that which is covered shall yet be revealed. And this is so searchingly and universally true, that it matters not how successfully guilt has been covered, how long men have ceased to wonder over some deed of wrong, or how many years have been throwing their ever-accumulating events upon it, it shall yet be trumpeted abroad, and the light shall reveal it, when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. Though personal desert is closed at death, no man is then ready for final award in respect to the outcome of time. Though he has passed off the stage of life, and character has taken its final shape, he is still a factor in the forces of this world. The evil and the good men do, live after them; and what is seen to flow from their lives after death may far exceed all for which they were held responsible before death. In life they were just able to set the ball of influence in motion, and nothing has been able to arrest its progress. When will such a man as Paul be ready for the judgment? He is only more widely potential now than ever before, and the last trump will break upon his undiminished influence for good. So of all marked men and women, Christian and infidel, who in life throw the weight of their character for or against the Lord and his truth, and possibly commit to the stream of time a book which will live after them, a name which posterity will reverence or detest, and deeds which will be celebrated and have their influence upon coming generations. Obviously, there is well-nigh no limit to the illustration of a fact which bears in upon us with an awful solemnity, and assures us that a hundred or a thousand years away our influence may be found incarnated in some noble or some vagabond life. We are not done with our influence till the story is all told, and its bearings upon the present economy are all registered in the Books, and the opening tells the story of our desert, and fixes our final place. A general judgment has, also, a deep significance as the conclusion of an economy; the grand finale of a dispensation. Time was, and time shall be no longer, and what is the outcome of God's government over men? For scores of centuries men have been swarming upon this earth. It has been the scene of the rise and fall of nations; of warring armies and bitter feuds; of religious faiths clashing at every point; of sweeping visitations of judgment and glorious dispensations of mercy! Clouds murky with the blackness of unbelief, and bright above the brightness of the sun with the radiance of a martyr-faith, have swept over it. And it is a fit and an august conclusion of a world-economy like this, that God should make apparent before all kindreds, and peoples, and tongues, the excellency and righteousness of his ways. As the centuries shall pass in review, each life, each deed, exposed before all, to the searching light of that day, setting them in fairest view and in hidden springs, with all qualifying circumstances; the ways of providence no longer obscure; no sophistry any more allowed to dim the escutcheon of truth; no love of sin or blinding selfishness warping the judgment—as on and on the scroll of time unrolls, the antediluvian world, the patriarchal age, Israel's kingly period, the new dispensation of gospel light, and the final act of history is reached, bringing out, as it certainly will, the unsullied glory of the government of God over men, angels, and devils—one can almost hear, from the depths of that future, the acclaim, in which even the condemned must acquiesce, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing!" Haydn. 21:1 AND I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth 2 were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with 4 them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. 5. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto 6 me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am 7 Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the 7 fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will 8 be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. 9. And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the 10 Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and 11 shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, hav- ing the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper 12 stone, clear as crystal; and had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: 13. On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the 14 west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names 15 of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. And he that talked with me had a golden reed to mea- 16 sure the city, and the gates thereof, and the walls thereof. And the city fleth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve 17 thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. And he measured the wall thereof, a hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure 18 of a man, that is, of the angels. And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and 19 the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. And the foundations of the wall of the city 20 were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst. 21. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl; and the 22 street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. And I saw no temple therein: 23 for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the 24 Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the 25 light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. And the 26 gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. And they 27 shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life. 22: 1 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of 2 the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her 3 fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and 4 his servants shall serve him: and they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their 5 foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever. THE Lamb who on earth was declared to be "the light of the world," is in heaven equally declared to be "the light thereof." In the infinite progression of holiness that belongs to an infinite existence of glory, we shall be but drawing more and more freely from an infinite source; the Holy One that "in- habiteth eternity" is inexhaustible as the eternity he inhabits. Christ is as necessary to the heavenliness of heaven as he is to the holiness of earth. The abiding sanctity of his nature is the condition of ours. In the eternal laws of the divine reason it is decreed that Christ shall be the authorized dispenser of spiritual blessedness to his redeemed; that every grace shall flow through his channel, or cease to flow, and to this law, universal in the world of time and sense, eternity can bring no termination, heaven pre- sent no exception. W. A. B.—God designs that we shall expect and desire the heaven he has prepared, not because we know what is there, but because we trust him, and believe that it is a world where the law of Christ has unobstructed and perfect sway. To kindle and sustain in us that faith, his word represents heaven under images which, in their natural sense, are quite incompatible with each other. It is a city of gems and gold, it is an open country with trees and running water, it is a world with no more sea, and it is a sea of glass, it is a house, and it is an innumerable multitude of worshipers on a mountain top before the throne. These are the helps applied to our feeble spiritual sense through the imagination. But underneath the uncertainties of imagination there is a fixed and solid substance of revealed truth. To this truth every separate image points, exhibiting some one or another of its attractive faces. The truth itself is, that of that society of redeemed souls, glad in their infinite joy, Jesus Christ is the center, the light, and the life. There is no discord or division there, because he is love, and there—as it is not here—every spirit and the whole place take their law and temper from him. Nothing that is defiled or that maketh a lie enters there, because he is pure and true. If the memory of the miseries of this life remains at all, such recollections will not be painful; the knotted problems will all be loosened and dissolved in the celestial chemistry of some strange, new light; for he has pledged himself that there shall be no pain there: no sick-beds; no broken friendships; no lost love; no aching heart; they shall hunger no more. There will be no wretchedness of unfulfilled desire, of failure to do right, of unanswered affection, of baffled aspiration and poor performance, because, having chosen him before all, and got clear of all the earthly competitions and shortcomings, we shall have enough in having him, and shall be satisfied with his likeness. F. D. H. WE have seen that the events of a thousand years—the invasion by Gog and Magog, with their defeat; the ultimate confinement and punishment of Satan; and, lastly, the general judgment—are all crowded into the space of teelee verses (20 : 4-15). This shows that the very distant future is designed to be merely glanced at by the writer. So it is with our Hebrew prophets. But here there is special reason for brevity. The main object of writing the book is already accomplished in substance. Christians have been consoled by assurances that all the enemies with whom the Church was in conflict would surely be overthrown. That the writer should enlarge so much as he has done in the last two chapters, in the description of the new Jerusalem and the final and glorified state of the Church, falls entirely within his general plan. He set out to cheer desponding Christians, and animate them in the great contest that was going on to fidelity, fortitude, and perseverance, by assurances of certain victory here and of eternal crowns of glory hereafter. Often, in the course of the work, he opens heaven to the eye of faith, and makes it to see the glories there enjoyed. Often he repeats the most solemn assurances of future happiness. Why should he not close with a description of this which would cause every heart to beat high with hope and joy, and make the faithful followers of Christ regardless of persecution and distress? M. S. The coming of the Lord is not the last thing which we know. After that event has closed the present age, after the victory has been won and the judgment has dealt with things that are past, the final results appear and the true life of man begins. The doctrine of the book is ultimately and pre-eminently one of restoration. The drama of the world must be finished and its dispensation closed. The Lord must have come, the dead have been raised, the judgment have sat, the heavens and the earth which are now have passed away, and the new creation have appeared, before the chosen people shall see the city of their habitation. Here, at the last step, we have a definite and satisfactory completion of the former doctrine of the future. There is to be a perfect humanity; not only perfect individually, but perfect in society. There is to be a city of God. “The Holy City!”—there is the realization of the true tendencies of man. “New Jerusalem!”—there is the fulfillment of the ancient promises of God. Dwell for a moment on the word “city,” under the remembrance of what it was to those in whose language the book is written. The city is a constitution of society complete in its own local habitation, the visible collection of buildings being a symbol of the organized life within. It is the most perfect realization and the most convenient representation of society in its maturity, in which the various relations of men are so combined as to promote the welfare of the several members and secure the unity of a common life to the whole. “It is” (as has been said) “the perfecting of the self-provisions of Nature, and the condition of the highest well-being of man.” The Bible is one long account of the preparation of the city of God. We are accustomed in the present day to read it too exclusively from the individual point of view, as the record for each man of that will of God and that way of salvation with which he is personally concerned. This it is, but it is more than this. It places before us the restoration, not only of the personal, but of the social life; the creation, not only of the man of God, but of the city of God; and it presents the society or city, not as a mere name for the congregation of individuals, but as having a being and life of its own, in which the Lord finds his satisfaction and man his perfection. The “Jerusalem which is above” is, in relation to the Lord, “the Bride, the Lamb’s Wife,” and, in relation to man, it is “the Mother of us all.” In its appearance the revealed course of redemption culminates, and the history of man is closed; and thus the last chapters of the Bible declare the unity of the whole book, by completing the design which has been developed in its pages, and disclosing the result to which all preceding steps have tended. Take from the Bible the final vision of the heavenly Jerusalem, and what will have been lost? Not merely a single passage, a sublime description, an important revelation; but a conclusion by which all that went before is interpreted and justified. We should have an unfinished plan, in which human capacities have not found their full realization, or divine preparations their adequate result. To the mind that looks beyond individual life, or that understands what is needful to the perfection of individual life, a Bible that did not end by building for us a city of God would appear to leave much in man unprovided for, and much in itself unaccounted for. But, as it is, neither of these deficiencies arises. Revelation decrees not only the individual happiness, but the corporate perfection of man; and closes the book of its prophecy by assuring the children of the living God that he hath prepared for them a city. T. D. B. The vision of holy Jerusalem recalls a similar one in the Book of Ezekiel. When that prophet was in exile, and the city of Jerusalem was desolate, he was “brought in the visions of God into the land of Israel,” and set upon “a very high mountain by which was the frame of a city on the south.” He proceeds to describe that ideal city and its temple. Now was John in exile, and Jerusalem lay desolate; and he was taken “in the spirit,” or in the visions of God, “to a great and high mountain,” where he saw Jerusalem in splendor “descending out of heaven from God” (v. 2). The city described has within it the glory of God; a brightness as of jasper, or rather of what we call the diamond, clear as crystal. A city gate in the East was the seat and symbol of justice and power. This city has twelve magnificent gates, each one “a several pearl.” The gate-keepers are holy angels. The names inscribed on the gates are those of the twelve tribes of Israel, God’s covenant people, in contrast with the “names of blasphemy” seen on the mystic Babylon (vs. 11, 12). The foundations of the walls are twelve precious stones; and on them are inscribed “the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.” This indeed is noble fame. Where are the names of those who treated the apostles with contumely as the offscouring of all things? The high priests and elders who imprisoned them, the emperors and governors who sat in judgment on them, where will their names be found? In oblivion or in infamy. But the very foundations of the city of God must crumble away, before the names of the twelve apostles can be lost (v. 14). The wall is great and high: and the city itself a cube of unparalleled size. That which Ezekiel saw was very vast, as measured by an angel. But we are not to literalize the measurements in one case or the other. In Hebrew symbolism, all consideration of symmetrical form is subordinated to that of religious significance. And it is as absurd to materialize the holy Jerusalem as it is to literalize the cherubic figures (v. 16). The city is of pure gold, a symbol of entire sacredness. In Scripture, silver is the metal of commerce; gold of royal dignity and of sacred value. It is especially mentioned that “the street” is of pure gold; not the streets, but the broadway or place of civic concourse. It is implied that daily intercourse, public opinion, and social life will all be pure and holy to the Lord (v. 18). Externalism in divine worship is superseded. No more need of temples made with hands, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of the holy city. Nay, the very sun and moon shall be needless in the blaze of divine glory, shining on the city of the saints (vs. 22, 23). There are kings and nations, not dwelling in the city, who bring offerings and homage to its gates. This, too, is in contrast with what has been said of great Babylon, which weakened the kings of the earth who supported it, and hurt the prosperity of nations (v. 24). The crowning glory of Jerusalem in this vision is its purity. The earth itself will not be purged of all impurity, till it is renewed by fire; the nations, even in millennial times, shall not be free of plagues, for they require “healing”; but the city, symbolic of the Church, will admit no unclean persons, idolaters, or liars, but those only “who are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (v. 27). O blessed Civitas Dei! The ransomed shall see it with still greater joy than filled the way-worn and war-worn crusaders, when at last they looked on the city which had drawn them from afar, and shouted Jerusalem! Jerusalem! The vision is prolonged (22 : 1-5) so as to show us Paradise restored. The waters of Eden and the tree of life reappear. The former flow in one shining river from the throne of God and the Lamb which is within the city. [This also is a reproduction of the river which Ezekiel saw issuing from the sanctuary and giving life whithersoever it flowed, ch 47.] The tree of life stands “in midst of the street,” or chief place of concourse, open to all the citizens; and such trees line both banks of the river, yielding fresh fruit every month. The curse which fell on man for disobedience in Eden is now removed. It is a paradise of obedience. The servants of God openly honor and serve him; therefore they shine in his light, and reign for ever and ever. D. F. Every beautiful and precious object on earth is a type and a shadow of heaven. The whole visible universe, with its manifold works of divine wisdom and power, is but a volume of illustrations, leading us by easy steps to the knowledge of that world of infinite love above and beyond the stars. The Spirit of all truth has interpreted these pictures with exquisite clearness and grace. The Book of Revelation, especially in its closing chapters, is illuminated with a wealth of imagery beside which all the poet's dreams of the golden age and all man's uninspired aspirations of the good time coming are poor and mean. Here is the perfection of all beauty, a light ineffable, to which the sun can add no brightness; a celestial paradise, infinitely surpassing the garden which the Creator's own hand planted eastward in Eden; an eternal city, of which God is the builder, the temple, and the light. And the inhabitants of the heavenly world are in harmony with their dwelling-place, for "the nations of them that are saved walk in the light of it." From the feet that tread those golden streets, or wander in the sweet fields of everlasting spring, all defilement is removed and all weariness has departed; from the eyes that behold those heaven-built walls and fountains of living water God has wiped all tears away; and the voices that flow together in the anthems of celestial rapture know no note of sadness for evermore. O blessed vision of unfading glory! O sweet, seraphic vision of perfect purity and peace, of eternal rest, of joy unspeakable! V. D. 1. "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth"—the same, yet not the same, because gloriously renewed in symmetry and beauty by the Almighty power, and adapted to the residence of beings of a higher physical, intellectual, and moral order than the children of Adam—viz., the children of the resurrection; a world as far superior to this as this excels the dismal earth that existed before the Creator fitted up Adam's dwelling-place, a scene of vast thickets and marshy flats, where, through the gloom, huge saurians sought their prey, and "dragons tare each other in the slime." In the arrangement of heaven and earth described in Genesis, the sea has prominent mention: but in the new home of the blessed, John saw "no more sea"; no separating waste of briny waters; sweet fountains and rivers of pleasures, but no cruel, restless, stormy sea. D. F.—Life is a voyage over a turbulent sea; changing circumstances come rolling after each other, like the undistinguishable billows of the great ocean. Tempests and storms rise. There is wearisome sailing, no peace, but "ever climbing up the climbing wave." That is life! But for all that, there is an end to it some day; and it is worth while for us to think about our "island home, far, far beyond the sea." Surely some of us have learned the weariness of the work and voyage of this world. Surely some of us are longing to find anchorage while the storm lasts, and a haven at the end. There is one, if only you will believe it, and set yourselves toward it. On the shore stands the Christ; and there is rest there. There is no more sea, but unbroken rest, unchanging blessedness, perpetual stability of joy, and love in the Father's house. Are we going there? Are we living for Christ? Then, "he brings us to the desired haven." A. M. 2. This grand conception—a vast city let down from the highest heaven—should be thought of as a thing of symbol rather than of reality. Jerusalem—a name dear above all other names to the ancient saints—dear because it was the city where God dwelt with his people and where all the hallowed associations of his presence and worship clustered together—became the fitting symbol for the new heavenly state. Remarkably it appears here in forms of perfect beauty; even as the bride adorned for her husband in the holy scenes of marriage. This comparison appears again (vs. 9, 10)—the city in its virgin attire, arrayed for that one hour most eventful of her life, where taste, adornment, and beauty are more in place than ever elsewhere. The reader will notice that this conception is essentially the same which we have in the Song of Solomon and which appears in various forms throughout the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament writers—the Church washed from her sins, clothed in white, her loving heart given in virgin simplicity and purity to her glorious husband, her Jesus—at once both lover, lord, and king. This symbol fitly gives us the grand consummation of the heavenly state. H. C. 3. With men . . . his people. Personality is the crowning fact of history. It thrills the life of to-day; it will make the society of heaven resplendent. What would be the significance of heavenly fellowships if Abraham is not to be recognized as the man who was called from Ur of the Chaldees to be the father of the faithful! What if David is not to be recognized as the shepherd king, author of a psalmody that will never grow old; a great sinner profoundly penitent, washing his hands in innocency and humbly trusting in the mercy of God! What if Paul, "the greatest purely human power in history," is not to be known as the man whose writings we have read, loved, and cherished, and whose flaming life kindled our souls in the warfare we were called to wage! In this fact of personality, never to be weakened, making life, here and for ever, a continuous chain without a missing link, lies the possibility of a social, intellectual, loving, serving, worshipful existence in the eternal home of the redeemed, such as we but faintly imagine. Heaven will be a commonwealth of living personalities, numberless, peerless, sinless; gathered out of every people, and tongue, and kindred, and nation of the earth; coming up from the moral battle-fields of this world to the Mount of God; the powers that made them shine, that made them useful and beloved, that made them immortal upon earth, only enhanced in brilliancy; and their deeds only set in bolder relief, as justifying the honor put upon them by the righteous judge. Haydn. God himself with them. The best intercourse of the most favored men with their Maker, in the transfigurations of devotion, is imperfect. It is unsatisfactory, and provokes hungering and thirstings after some manifestation of God more direct and sensible. Meanwhile this process of spiritual reconciliation and recovery is going on, and the promise of redemption is that man again shall see the face of his God. Now, partially restored, man sees through a glass darkly, but ultimately his intercourse with his Maker shall be immediate, uninterrupted, direct, and joyful. Through the mighty power of him who assumed our nature, we shall be as truly reconciled to God, harmonized with him, and associated with him, as if the shadow of sin, and fear, and repulsion, had never passed upon the soul. W. A. 4. Could language well be more exhaustive of the ills of life which are thus for ever excluded from the paradise of God? Death, pain, sorrow, crying, tears, all manner of curse! Each word tells a tale which every human life has helped to make tragic and awful. They have all displayed their worst as the fruit of sin and been made the instruments of discipline against sin, and now, with it left out, their mission is ended. God be praised! We shall see the last of these. A single glance through this open window reveals a consummation of the kingdom of life and glory which fitly concludes and sublimely crowns the history of this world's conflicts and trials. Haydn.—We are not told what heaven is, nor of what its joys consist; but nothing that has here caused evil or suffering shall be there. The apostle pictures before him all the woe of this world; and he takes his pencil, dipped in the incandescent light of heaven, and draws it across the scene, and every vestige of sorrow vanishes, and the golden city of God fills the whole vision. This wondrous blessedness shall be given to every one who trusts lovingly in Christ. J. P. T.—None too soon can we give up expecting to have our weary questionings answered here, and begin to look for the bright appearing of our Lord and Saviour to clear away all the clouds and turn our night into day. It is to be accepted with a sublime faith in the power and faithfulness of God, that this is a sphere of broken households, of wedlocks and partings, of hopes and disappointments, of welcomes and adieux, and nothing else is to be expected till he who is the resurrection and the life makes all things new, and the gathering together of his people is into a kingdom which death shall not invade. Haydn. The former things are passed away. How all that is loftiest in human conception—its learning, its philosophy, and its poetry—pale before one glance at such a scene! Sorrow passed away, and the unclouded dawn begun! All that humanity groans for, all that man asks of nature and that nature can not give, all that love (the essential spirit of the universe) outpoured upon its chosen objects could bestow, all seen to be the bright lot of these blessed ones, and all for eternity! The love of knowledge satisfied in the perpetual contemplation of the substantial truth; the love of beauty in the unveiled source of all that is beautiful; the love of happiness in the enjoyment of secure and perpetual bliss; the love of the fellow-creatures in the society of holy and responding brother-spirits: and this to be for ever! W. A. B.—This life, so full of conscious power, so bright with immortal love, so divine in its glorious fellowships, so grand with tuneful harmonies and holy blessedness of inward rapture and perfect knowledge, is æonian. It is life eternal. Heaven will never cease to be a holy temple. The tabernacle of God will never be withdrawn from men. The Song of Moses and the Lamb will never die away into forgetful silence. Darkness will never shroud the glory of God in awful eclipse. Sin will never enter; the unclean thing will never defile the city of God, the inheritance of those who hear his—'Come, ye blessed, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.' It is life æonian—life eternal! Haydn. 6. In this shadowy state of mortal life, unbelief is for ever crowding redemption into a corner—conceiving it to be the faith of a few people, the concern of Sabbath days, the mere comfort of the sick and dying; but in the illumination of eternity, redemption will be seen as the great end and unity of all things human, the key of history, the harmony of events, the beginning and the ending of this world's life. Then shall we attach new meaning to the august titles of our Lord—the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the King of kings and Lord of lords—for of him, and through him, and to him, are all things, to whom be glory for ever! W. A. 8. The 'lake of fire and brimstone, the blackness of darkness for ever,' are words of a terrible signification. But no words can fully express the terrible ingredients of their misery; the punishment will be in proportion to the glory of God's majesty that is provoked, and the extent of his power. And as the soul was the principal, and the body but an accessory, in the works of sin, so its capacious faculties shall be far more tormented than the limited faculties of the outward senses. Bates. We do not expect to find the New Jerusalem a city whose walls are four hundred and fifty leagues in length, breadth, and height. The figure is that of a perfect cube, like the holy of holies in the temple, and indicates its perfectness, as the dwelling-place of God. We are not actually looking for a city of gold, “as it were transparent glass,” the foundations of whose walls are garnished with all manner of precious stones, and whose twelve gates are as many resplendent pearls. Ideas of its perfectness and its glory must be given us, if at all, through some sort of imagery. And how better than by putting for commonest uses, such as walls, gates, and streets, the rarest, costliest, most coveted things of earth; by making the glory of God like a jasper stone, clear as crystal, the light of a city which is being let down from heaven, and all so holy, so divine, as to be one grand and solemn temple! We do not empty this imagery of its content; we seize it as embodying an unspeakable fact which language, under the breath of the Divine Spirit, labors to express. We are bound to do the same thing by the “bottomless pit,” “the lake of fire and brimstone,” “the smoke of torment,” “the Gehenna of fire.” These, like the others, are material symbols of solemn and awful facts in the life beyond death. We have no right to empty them of their content any more than we have to insist upon their literal interpretation. The one symbolizes the abode of holiness and righteousness, which may well be glorious as language can paint it; its river, water of life, straight from the throne of God; its tree, a tree of life yielding perennial fruit. The other symbolizes the place where “the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars,” shall congregate. There is a place there that corresponds to their true character. It is described under the awful imagery of a “lake of fire,” and the torment of a guilty conscience is a “worm that never dies,” and a “fire that is never quenched.” We are not at liberty to make the Christian heaven a Mohammedan paradise of sensual delights. We are no more at liberty to make the Gehenna of lost men a mediæval hell of physical torments. Haydn. 14. Names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.** The builders of cities are celebrated in history, but here are men whose names are associated with the very foundations of that heavenly city, the “new Jerusalem,” “which is above all.” They had the Saviour’s constant instructions. They enjoyed his daily care and love. They received the Holy Ghost and the gift of tongues. They spread the knowledge of his name to the ends of the earth. Their names are symbolically represented to us as inscribed in the foundation stones of heaven, because they were honored with the work of building up the kingdom of Christ from its foundations; and all who are saved are said to be built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. N. A. 22,23. That no temple is there shows that it rises high above the earthly Jerusalem in which the temple was the preëminent glory. That it needs not the sun or the moon for its light testifies in like manner that its glory far transcends the glory of earth. It is everything to that world that God and the Lamb are there! are there in such revelations of their glory and in such relations to their redeemed sons and daughters as language and symbols strive in vain to set forth. H. C.—God is the source of the light and the Lamb is the medium through which it shines. He is “the image of the invisible God”—“the Word” by which the whole mind of God is expressed. By the works of creation produced “by him and for him”; by his providence which develops God’s designs (for the Lamb was appointed to open all the seals); by his great mediatorial work; by the instructions which he has imparted in person and through his prophets and apostles; and by the Spirit which acts under him; he has brought forth all the light which has been shed on the character, government, and designs of God. Add to this, that the splendor surrounding his human body, and which he will impart to the bodies of his saints as the royal robes in which the sons of God are to be set forth, will pour immortal day upon the senses. Griffin.—Then we shall behold him, who is the sun from whom our light comes, the King from whom our royalty comes, the Priest who gives us our priesthood, the Lamb who has bought us our salvation; and the more we gaze the more we shall love. A. W. T. The light thereof. There are two ideas generally connected with the word “light” in Scripture, when used in a spiritual sense—one primary idea, knowledge, because light shows us things as they are; and then a secondary idea, joy, because a right knowledge of spiritual things imparts joy. When, therefore, we are told that there is light in heaven, that God dwells in light there, that the inheritance of the saints there is an inheritance in light, we are to understand that heaven is a world of knowledge, and such knowledge as gives rise to pleasure and joy; that we shall not lose our character as intellectual beings there; that our minds and understandings will go with us to heaven, and be called into exercise in heaven, and have everything brought before them, that can expand, and elevate, and delight them. C. B.—Unto God eternal light was ever: created light was for the creation, not himself, and as he saw before the sun, may still also see without it. In the city of the new Jerusalem there is neither sun nor moon; where glorified eyes must see by the archetypal sun, or the light of God, able to illuminate intellectual eyes, and make unknown visions. Intuitive perceptions in spiritual beings may perhaps hold some analogy unto vision; but yet how they see us, or one another, what eye, what light, or what perception is required unto their intuition, is yet dark unto our apprehension; and even how they see God, or how unto our glorified eyes the beatifical vision will be celebrated, another world must tell us, when perceptions will be new and we may hope to behold invisibles. Browne. 26. Vast, and beyond all comprehension, is the temple of eternity; but it is still growing. All they who, before Christ, confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth, and died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off—all these are in the kingdom and temple of Christ. All the redeemed, the fruit of all the centuries since the Lord was received up into heaven, are in his kingdom. Imagine the mighty gathering! Imagine one God, one Christ, one Spirit, and one temple! Imagine the number of glorified human forms which will compose that living temple! Imagine every heart full of the vehemence of love, and every tongue burdened with praise! Pulsford. 24. Walk in the light of it.** It has been observed by Cudworth that divine wisdom hath so ordered the frame of the whole universe that everything should have its own appropriate receptacle, to which it shall be drawn by all the mighty force of an irresistible affinity; and, as all heavenly bodies press toward the common center of gravity, so is all sin, by a kind of strong sympathy and magnetic influence, drawn toward hell; while, on the other hand, all holiness is continually drawn upward to heaven, to embosom itself in glory. Heaven is not merely a thing to come; it is in one sense a present possession; for “he that believeth in the Son hath everlasting life.” It is rather a state than a place—a state within us, rather than a thing without us; it is the likeness, and the enjoyment, and the service of God; that which every true Christian carries in his bosom now, and to which he will fully enter hereafter, when he shall be made perfect in love. To this state all true religion is ever tending; the spirit of love is the motion and progress of the soul toward its eternal rest in the presence of God. No man can be prepared for the celestial felicity while his heart is destitute of this; and whosoever has most of it knows most of the unseen and ineffable joys of the righteous. He lives in the vestibule of the heavenly temple, and is ready, whenever its doors shall be opened, to enter into the dwelling-place of God. The image of God is upon him, and the likeness of Deity is always attended with something of the happiness of the Deity. Oh, the bliss of that state, where the faculties of the mind, inconceivably expanded, shall let in the full streams of the divine beneficence, and open themselves to the uttermost to comprehend the breadth and length, the depth and height, of that love which passeth knowledge; where divine goodness will so act directly upon the soul as to raise it to a state of holy enjoyment surpassing all our present imaginations. J. A. J. 27. There is no figure of speech to be evaded or explained away in the words which affirm that “there shall in nowise enter into it anything that defileth, neither worketh abomination, nor maketh a lie.” Were it otherwise, what would the story of redemption mean? What empty rhetoric the invitations and warnings of Jesus become! But now, from a world that sin has cursed, from hells on earth where the worm now gnaws and the fire is already kindled; from eyes blear with sin, and hearts livid with blackness; from far-off, strange lands of prodigal wanderings; from haunts lurid with evil thinking, evil speaking, evil doing, and ghastly with near proximity to the pit; from heights where pride looks coldly down in self-righteousness—men are bidden to look away to the Mount of God; to flee from the wrath to come; to lay hold of eternal life; and in their impotence, uncleanness, their pride, their madness, their despair, to look to him, who in love and might comes forth to save that which is lost, and bring the wanderer home! Laying hold of him, following him, the defiling thing is left behind; the defiling haunts are forsaken; the true and upright life is entered upon; the righteous character is in process of formation. Think not to enter heaven but through Christ, the door. Haydn. 22:1. Since this river of water of life proceeds from the throne, it intimates that in grace and mercy there is great majesty; for grace, as it proceeds, has a voice from the throne. And indeed there is nothing in heaven or earth that has such majesty and commanding greatness in and upon the hearts of the sons of men, as has the grace of God. There is nothing overmastereth the heart like grace, and so obligeth to sincere and unfeigned obedience as that. Bun.—However profound the knowledge to which they have attained, however pure the white robes in which they are arrayed, however exquisite the felicity which they enjoy, however boundless and magnificent the prospects that are stretched out before them—they are indebted for them all solely and exclusively to the sovereign grace of God, manifested through Jesus Christ his Son. Every stream, every spring, every drop of the water of life proceedeth from the throne of God and of the Lamb, and the glory, the stability, the security, the everlasting blessedness of every saint or angel that belongs to the glorified hosts is resting upon that fact. And as it is just as impossible for that river to be dried up, or despoiled of its virtues, or diverted from its course, as it is for God's throne to be demolished, or the regal crown torn from the great Redeemer's head, we conclude that there shall be the bursting forth everlastingly, and through all the ages of an interminable eternity, of the river of the water of life, of which the saints drink, and which maketh glad the city of our God, and that, therefore, the glory of the saints shall be contemporaneous with the throne of Jehovah, and durable as the government of eternity. J. A. W. 2. The harmonious unity of Scripture is herein exhibited. The fathers compared it to a ring, an unbroken circle, returning into itself. Between the events of Genesis and those at the close of the Apocalypse, at least six thousand or seven thousand years intervene; and between Moses the first writer, and John the last, about fifteen hundred years. How striking it is that, as in the beginning we found Adam and Eve, his bride, in innocence in Paradise, then tempted by the serpent, and driven from the tree of life, and from the pleasant waters of Eden, yet not without a promise of a Redeemer who should crush the serpent, so at the close, the old serpent cast out for ever by the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, who appears with his bride, the Church, in a better Paradise, and amid better waters (v. 1); the tree of life also is there with all its healing properties, not guarded with a flaming sword, but open to all who overcome (2 : 7), and there is no more curse. Fausset.—While in this New Jerusalem there is no more "sea"—that being a symbol of whatever is agitating, uncertain, tempestuous; there is a river, a precious oriental symbol of blessings, for ever flowing, naturally insuring perennial verdure, trees and shade unfailing, and exemption from thirst and barrenness—the sore evils of oriental tropical regions. This tree of life and its various fruits come also from Ezek. 47 (see v. 12), where obviously we have the plural, "trees." So also here, there must be trees. The meaning seems to be that these trees lined either bank of the river between it and the streets which also ran parallel on each side—a scene of superlative beauty. H. C. In that he saith this city hath a tree of life in it, he alludes to the garden of Eden, the pleasant paradise that God began the world withal; whereby he signifies, that as the world began with a paradise, so also it shall end with a paradise, when sin and Satan have done their worst. This new Jerusalem shall be the wind-up of the world; and in it shall stand the tree of life, as there stood one in the goodly garden which was the beginning thereof. Now, this tree of life being in the midst of this city, it signifies that the inhabitants of it shall be sweetly shadowed, refreshed, and defended with its coolness, and also sweetly nourished and comforted with its dainties. Bun. 3. Shall serve him.** It is perfectly clear that heaven is a state of vigorous employment. The worlds which God has made are the theatre where labor is to be performed, where the designs of Jehovah are to be accomplished by human and by angelic agency. Those new heavens and that new earth will be filled with means and instruments for diffusing happiness, for doing good. They shall follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. They shall serve God day and night in his temple. They shall rest only from sin and from its effects, from calamity, pain, sickness, pollution, and death. B. B. E.—Next to the removal of every curse, the perfection of body, soul, and spirit, and the actual vision of God, is the joyful activity of man's renovated nature. Occupation was the pleasure of innocence. Man was made for action, as streams are made to flow. He was God's image and likeness, and God is life and action, motion and power. Sin entered, and retribution changed work into labor. The curse doomed man to earn and eat his bread by the sweat of his brow. Christianity has immensely modified and changed man's condition already; the curse has been mitigated and lightened; and we have only to anticipate the promised time when there shall be no more curse, to satisfy ourselves what enjoyment will spring from the unwearied exercise of our immortal powers. What forms of service await restored humanity—what occupations shall furnish occasion for its renovated activity—to what labor of love, what ministrations of mercy, what vigorous work, or sweet grace, the redeemed shall be invited—we may not conjecture; but surely he who gives us so much to do on earth, and so much pleasure in doing it, will not fail, amid the relations of all worlds and all beings, in furnishing to man restored to his loyalty abundant occupation. W. A.—Sleepless, unfatigued, needing neither food nor rest, subject to no wants, weaknesses, or wearinesses, how may the redeemed be ever plying the glad and busy task of acting out the impulses of their own spiritual nature, and doing the pleasure of the Lord that bought them! And when all is spiritual, and all immortal, what an opening is there for the spiritual and immortal soul—possessed of a kindred body, and ushered into a congenial world; to express itself in communion with all holy intelligence, unembarrassed and unclogged by any perishable claims; to receive pure light from the light that shines all around in “the new heavens and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness”; and to go forth, with strength proportioned to its own untiring aspirations, on the errands of God’s holy righteousness and love over all the realms of creation. Candlish. 5. No night there.** In the eternal summer there is nothing that is doomed to die. All things live unfadingly that breathe in unbroken communion the breath of life; and now for these immortal ones, as to the Lord himself, a thousand years are as one day, but a day to which there comes no night. The whole history of the kingdom of nature, of humanity, of the kingdom of God, is an eternal alternation of light and shade. The earthly Jerusalem, moreover, expired in clouds and darkness; but behold, the heavenly city bathes itself in eternal sunbeams, and never does the approach of evening dim the joy of its inhabitants. Van O. What need now for the lighting up of the golden candlesticks, or for the radiance of the stars which Christ now holds in his right hand, when the darkness of the night is past, and the Sun of Righteousness himself is shining? What need now for temples, for ministrations, or for intercessions, for the lessons of sages or prophets, for the sweet psalms first struck on David’s lyre, or for the magnificent visions of men who spoke even as they were moved by the Holy Ghost? What need of these when Christ himself is there, the end of the law, the sum of the gospel, the desire of saints, the glory of heaven, whom all the hosts of the unfallen and the redeemed everlastingly worship and adore? I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it; and where these are there is the shining of an everlasting light, and the spreading of a perennial feast; there the green pastures that never wither and the quiet waters that never fail; and there the strains of golden harps blending with glad voices in the melodies of the new and everlasting song. J. A. W. Oh, the safety, oh, the comfort, oh, the repose and the satisfaction of being for ever with the Lord, in whose blood we have already washed our robes! Then to be fed by him, then to be led by him, will be indeed the consummation of the joy of heaven. To be with him, as one cared for upon earth, sought out, rescued, emancipated, sanctified; as one carried safely through life’s dangers, soothed under life’s sorrows, supported through life’s trying and painful end; to be with him at last, as never before, face to face, and yet without ceasing to be with him heart to heart and spirit to spirit; to be always with him, and for ever; to do everything, not only for him, but in his presence, under his eye, and beneath his smile; this will be beyond mere safety, beyond mere comfort, beyond mere service, however constant and perfect; this will be a relation into which no human love ever is admitted; this will be a community of life and soul beyond the nearest and dearest of earth’s friendships; this will be the ideal to which human sympathy pointed, this the goal of which human love was but the starting-point. V. 6. AND he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done. 7 Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this 8 book. And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I 9 fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things. Then 10 saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the 11 prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God. And he saith 12 unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand. He 13 that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he 14 that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, 15 behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his 16 work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. 17 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, 18 and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and 19 whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. I 20 Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root 21 and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And 18 whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, 19 God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. 20 He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly: Amen. Even so, come, Lord 21 Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. The Spirit and the bride say, Come. This remarkable gospel of invitation has a peculiar significance as a message of Jesus back to the sinners of earth, for whom “he endured the cross, despising the shame.” It comes from the throne of all power to which sixty years before he had ascended, carrying the humanity with him, and after his finished sacrifice and completed scheme of redemption had been proclaimed by his inspired apostles to the utmost limits of the known world. In full view of the scheme completed by the offering of the sacrifice once for all, of the outpouring of his Spirit, of the complete opening of the new and last era of redemption, of the dispensation of the Spirit, of the historic faith, now substituting facts actual for the types and symbols of prophecy, and of the Church of one nation, under the old covenant with Abraham, become the Church of all nations under the new covenant, he utters this last gospel as the climax of all the gospels which God had revealed through the prophets, through his Incarnate Son, and through the apostles. This, then, is the gospel according to Jesus ascended. It is the peculiar type of that gospel which, without symbol or altar or limit of nation, is to be preached till his second coming. So, also, it is significant as the last paragraph of the last chapter of the last book of God’s revealed word. For immediately upon its utterance and record, that great seal—written all over with curses against him who shall by a single word add to or subtract from the revelation here finished—closes up finally the com- munications from heaven. But Jesus has one more last word to say. In every conceivable form of as- surance and invitation he had called sinners through all the divers manner of his revelations before, yet still his love seems to stay the hand that is putting on the seal, that it may first insert one more invitation and assurance, lest some poor, dark-minded sinner should still despond and despair. “Stay,” the ascended Jesus seems to say: “Put not on the cursing seal, till there first be put in one more gospel assurance and invitation. And make it wide as human thought can possibly conceive of it; plain as human language can possibly utter it; and cordial as the heart of God alone can give it. Assure them from me, David’s Creator, and yet, as the offspring of David, their brother, partaker of flesh and blood; assure them from me, the Day-star of all their longings, now risen and enthroned in the heaven, that the fountain of life is now thrown wide open, and its streams are gushing forth in all their infinite fullness, with every barrier of approach to it absolutely taken away. Tell them that not only have they leave to come, but every lov- ing voice in heaven and earth pleads and urges them to come. My spirit whispers to the depths of their spirits, saying, ‘Come.’ My bride, the Church, in all her divinely appointed ordinances cries, ‘Come!’ ‘Come.’ Nay, more, lest it be in highways and hedges where there should be no Church ordinances to reach any one, every sinner that heareth my voice himself is authorized to say to any other sinner, ‘Come.’ Nay, more, lest there should be no such sinner to invite him, tell any soul that feels the thirst not to stand on ceremony, but, self-invited, ‘Come.’ Nay, more still, lest now some poor, sin-darkened soul should stumble at the word ‘athirst,’ and doubt if his thirst is real or great enough, say absolutely, ‘Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.’ I will be the Saviour of any that will have me for a Saviour. Only let him cry in his despair, ‘O Lamb of God I come—just as I am.’” S. R. 6-21. This epilogue to the book corresponds to its brief prologue. It enforces the authority of the book, and emphasizes the hope of the Lord’s com- ing. The order of speech in it seems to be this: The angel, v. 6. The Lord, v. 7. The seer, v. 8 “ vs. 9-11. “ vs. 12-20. “ vs. 20, 21. The angel of chapter 1 : 1 dwells on the faithful- ness and truth of the revelation. The Lord says, “Behold I come quickly,” and pronounces a blessing on him who keeps the sayings of this book. The seer adds his testimony, “It was I, John, who heard and saw these things.” Again the angel announces the imminence of the things revealed, and draws a deep line between the righteous and the wicked. The Lord repeats the intimation of his coming; proclaims himself the first and the last; defines who they are that will be admitted into the holy city, and who will be shut out; warns against all tampering with “the words of the book of this prophecy”; and then, for the third time, declares, “Yes, I come quickly.” The seer replies with the grand and simple prayer, “Amen. Yes, come, Lord Jesus!” This chapter is a noble conclusion of the book, and the book a noble conclusion of the Bible. The last sweet note of a piece of music dwells in the listener’s ear. Even though in a lengthened piece there may have been many varieties of musical expression, and, among these, wild piercing strains and pealing tumults of sound, the composer and performer take care to produce the last notes round and soft, to fill, soothe, and satisfy the sense. And may not this book of prophecy be likened to a mighty oratorio in which there is one all-prevailing, oft-recurring air, “Behold! the Lord cometh”? There is a splendid burst of sound, then a sustained, difficult passage, then a gentle or a pensive melody; now a solemn recitative and then a high strain and grand chorus of sublimity, in which, from the open heavens, myriads of voices join. But, as this magnificent composition draws to a close, the notes are loving, simple, and sweet. After ecstasies that move every power of the imagination and every feeling of the heart, all is ended in a prayer that Christ would come, and a kindly benediction of all saints. So terminates, not this book only, but the Bible, the complete book of God, and therefore the book of love. The words fall with soothing cadence, and linger with us when more brilliant passages are lost: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with the saints.” D. F. 7. The prophet Malachi closes the canon of the Old Testament by a solemn appeal “to the law of Moses, and to the statutes and judgments:” “Remember them” (Mal. 4 : 4). John closes the four Gospels with a similar reference (John 20 : 31). Paul closes his Epistles with a testimony to the sufficiency and inspiration of Holy Scripture (2 Tim. 3 : 14-17). Peter in like manner closes his Epistles with similar exhortation, and with a warning against perversion of Scripture. Jude also closes the Catholic Epistles with a memento to his readers: “Remember ye the words spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 17). Lastly, John closes the Apocalypse with a promise of blessing to those who keep its sayings, and a curse on those who take from it or add to it. W. We must all feel that the piety of our day incloses itself too much within the limits of individual life. That I should be pardoned, saved, and sanctified; that I should serve before God and be accepted in my service; that I should die in peace and rest in Christ; that I should have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming—these are worthy desires for an immortal being, and for these the gospel provides. But it provides for more than these; making me the member of a kingdom of Christ, and the citizen of a city of God. There ought surely to be a consciousness within me corresponding to that position; there ought to be affections which will associate me in spirit with that larger history, in which my own is included, and which will make me long that the kingdom of Christ should come and the city of God be manifested. The blessedness ascribed to him that reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy can belong only to those who read it and hear it thus. These are soberly truthful words, whose thought is far too often overlooked. T. D. B.—We ought to receive and to ponder God’s whole revelation; not its gentler and softer parts only, but those which are sadder and sterner too; not those verses or chapters only which tell of unconditional forgiveness and illimitable mercy, but those also which ring the knell of sin and disclose to an incredulous world the future punishment of the wicked. It is not because it is a joyful message, but because it is God’s message, that the revelation is sweeter than honey and the honeycomb to him who loves God. It is the being spoken to at all by him which is the joy and the glory. It is the being in communication at all with the source of light, with the fountain-head of truth; it is the being fed out of the heavenly store, and dealt with as one cared for by him who is life and love; it is this which the faithful servant, it is this which the reverent son regards as above price, and accepts in every part with adoring gratitude. V. 11. It is not that there are not many mansions in heaven; it is not that men or angels prevent their entrance; it is not that the election or reprobation of God bars the door against them; it is not that means, many and great, are not employed to introduce them into the presence of the Lord; but it is because men are unholy that they do not enter in. The unholy are, in the eternal state, unholy still; and hence they never see the Lord. They continue to sin, and they reap the wages of sin, which is death. R. T.—“He that believeth not,” saith Christ, “is condemned already, and the wrath of God abideth on him.” On the other hand, “He that believeth hath everlasting life”; the estate of heaven is already begun in his soul. Every man carries within him here the germs of his heaven or hell. The grace of God nurtures the one, keeping it alive to the day of deliverance; the mercy of God restrains the other from bursting forth until the day of doom. The gospel theory leaves really no place for the cavils against the injustice of punishing a man eternally for the sin of a few days on earth. For, according to this theory, the sinner, remaining unchanged by the grace of God, and without the new life, goes on into eternity just as he is, to sin on, and therefore to suffer on for ever. S. R.—The general impression of the Bible, as a whole, is that of two classes of people—the godly and the wicked; of a God, boundless in his love, mercy, and patience toward all; offering pardon to all, without respect of persons or conditions; treating with tender fatherliness all who accept his overtures, and with righteous retribution all who finally reject them; of two destinations corresponding to each sort of character, popularly known as heaven and hell—it is a matter of indifference by what names these localities are known, for character is the essential thing—that these two states are conscious states of being; the wicked know themselves as punished and miserable for cause—the righteous know themselves as blessed for cause; and that these states are then final and eternal. With this general impression that the Bible leaves correspond the last chapters of Revelation and the finality which sounds out with dreadful emphasis: “The time is at hand. He that is unjust let him be unjust still; and he that is filthy let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous let him be righteous still; and he that is holy let him be holy still.” With this aspect of finality harmonizes the intense earnestness of the Saviour and the apostles in pressing upon men the claims of God, and urging their acceptance this day, this hour, as if it were now or never. Also the clearly revealed fact that, after the judgment, the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom sinful men have access to God, will give up his mediatorial office—an emphatic intimation that the work of redemption is finished. Haydn. 13. The one solemn proclamation begins in the first and ends in the last chapter, as though it were the key-note of the entire: “I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last!” marking the sameness of his eternal being and agency through the long succession of revolutions the book records, and, in this brief expression of the divine omnipotence of the Messiah, drawing, as it were, the moral of it all. W. A. B. 17. The tone of this verse, considered in view of its place amid the scenes of this book, is wonderfully rich and impressive. Think of the real author’s standpoint and of the grand objects that lie within his range and ours. The “river of the water of life” is flowing before the eye; the joys of the redeemed have come down in their voices of song and alleluia of praise and triumph. Over against these there have been visions of the lost, the smoke of their torment arising for ever and ever; and, not least, we have the grand issue of the great moral conflict of earth—victory for Zion and magnificent success to the gospel in subduing the world to Jesus—all significant of the grand truth that “the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head,” and Satan be not only foiled but infinitely cursed for his antagonism to God and goodness, and all his followers with him. And now, all these sublime realities standing embodied before us in speaking symbols, the voice from heaven is heard, “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely!” Provided for all; offered to all; welcome to all; none shall fail but those who dash the brimming cup from their own lips; none but those who hate Jesus and love death! H. C. THE RIVER OF LIFE WILL ROLL ON FOR EVER. Its pure waters, clear as crystal, shall for ever gladden and refresh the inhabitants of heaven. But on the banks of that river you may never recline. Far away from that pure stream—far away from all the bliss of heaven—far away from the redeemed and happy throng assembled there, may be your eternal abode, where never again shall you hear the invitation, “Whosoever will, let him come and take the water of life freely.” To-day, all the universe invites you. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit say, “Come.” The Church on earth and the Church redeemed say, “Come.” The friend that has gone to the skies and the friend on earth say, “Come.” The tender father; the affectionate mother; the pastor; the brother; the sister—all say, “Come.” Your own nature; your conviction of the truth; your sense of sin; your dread of death; your inextinguishable desire of immortality; your conviction that “this world can never give the bliss for which you sigh”—all say, “Come.” To-morrow, how changed may be the scene! Death’s cold fingers may have felt after the strings of life, and chilled them, and your soul may be beyond hope and heaven. Not a voice from all the universe will EVER say to you again, “Come, take the water of life freely.” A. B.—The next word which we shall hear from the world’s Redeemer will decide and divulge what treatment we have bestowed on his great salvation. Which shall it be, COME, or DEPART? What an epitaph that would be for a ruined soul for which Christ died, “Ye would not come unto me, that you might have life!” W. A. The wide commission of Christ at the very close of Revelation, “Let him that heareth say, Come!” was successfully carried out in the earliest days of Christianity. All who learned the story of the cross felt and obeyed the impulse to tell it. And this great lay commission abides in full force to-day. It is addressed to every disciple. B.—Man, the moment he is made a Christian, becomes a missionary; the unction of the saint is thus expended in the duties and sacrifices of the servant. And it is the feature, the grand, ennobling feature, of the gospel, that he who drinks deepest of its living water thirsts most to diffuse it. Cumming. 18,19. The Bible as an inspired record is an infallible, and it is the final, authority for faith and life. Its inspiration involves its infallibility. Interpreted, as all works must be, by its real spirit, it gives us truth without error. Light and life come from the ministry of the word. Its hallowed sayings are our stay, when all other support fails; our rock amid the billows; the songs of our pilgrimage; the pledge of our final rest. Such implicit faith may be stigmatized as bibliolatry; but where else can we go to find the words of eternal life? Bibliolatry clings to the letter; spirituality in the letter finds the spirit, and dares not disown the letter which guided to the spirit. For the enduring wants of the soul, for the problems of sin, salvation and eternity, we here find an unwavering authority, and rest in faith and joy upon the last assurance of the highest testimony, Thus saith the Lord. And, as it is an infallible, so is it a final authority. No man may add unto, or take away from, the words of this book. "Here is the judge that ends the strife." Like its divine author, it has full oft been called before human tribunals, been reviled, spit upon, yea buried, that it might rise again with new power and bless even its persecutors. Of controversy, as history testifies, it has ever been the arbiter; of opposing systems, the invariable conqueror: every scheme of men has become wan and shriveled at its touch. Beyond its revelations and its prophecies thought can not reach; it contains as well the oldest of records as the most living of prophecies. New assailants in the flush of self-consciousness call it antiquated, and its antiquity is as that of God himself; it is older than the stars and the earth, and awaits their dissolution, that all its revelations may be fulfilled. But it is also ever new, as well as ever old, the most progressive as it is the most conservative of influences, the counterpart of the wisdom of God: all literature has drawn deep and precious draughts from this unfailing fountain; its orient pearls are scattered through all lands; philosophy has there found the test of its errors and the lordliest of its truths; for four thousand years its words have been inspiration and life, comforting the downcast, and breaking the oppressor's rod; pledging peace to the penitent, and opening to all the very gates of endless life; subduing with imperial might all other words, speaking in such tones of authority as you read in no other books; and in the very name of the Lord proclaiming a kingdom, which has been ever advancing yet never subdued; and thus like a living power has it been doing a living and abiding work among the children of men, in every clime, in every language, and now wider than ever before are its words rehearsed—its lines have gone out through all the earth and its words to the end of the world. H. B. S. 20. That disciple who had been favored in a peculiar degree with the gift of intuition and profound contemplation; who was admitted to the special confidence of the Head of the Church; and who, as the patriarch of the apostolic Church, experienced most of its conflicts and sufferings, its victories and hopes—that disciple was best fitted of all the apostles to be the organ of these revelations of the future and the final completion of the Church, and to seal her sacred records. The mystic John was by his sanctified natural gifts, as well as by his position and experience, predestinated, so to speak, to unveil the deep foundations of the Church's life and the ultimate issue of her history; so that in the Apocalypse the apostle simply placed the majestic dome upon the wonderful structure of his gospel, with the golden inscription of holy longing: "Even so, come, Lord Jesus!" P. S. "Come, Lord Jesus," is the epitome of all the prayers that the believer is called upon to offer. It is a prayer for the overthrow of Satan's kingdom; for the extinction of sorrows, the cessation of pain, the wiping away of tears; for the descent of the New Jerusalem; for the sanctification and perfection of saints; for the creating anew of all things; in a word, for the new heaven and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. Let this prayer never die on our lips while we have breath: "Even so, come, Lord Jesus, come quickly." G. B. THE central idea of Christianity, as a distinct system, can only be found in him of whom prophets did testify, evangelists write, and apostles preach; whose life was the crowning glory of humanity, as his death was its redemption; and from whose death and from whose life influences and blessings have streamed forth, constant and inestimable; in him, whose nature, more wonderful than any other, unites the extremes of humanity and divinity; whose work, more glorious and needed than any other, reconciles heaven to earth and earth to heaven; and whose dominion is as intimate in its efficiency as it is eminent in its claims and beneficent in its results. He is the center of God's revelation and of man's redemption; of Christian doctrine and of Christian history, of conflicting sects, and of each believer's faith, yea, of the very history of this our earth, Jesus Christ is the full, the radiant, the only center—fitted to be such because he is the God-man and the Redeemer; Christ—Christ, he is the center of the Christian system, and the doctrine respecting Christ is the heart of Christian theology. And with that glorious Person all the other truths of our faith are inherently connected. The distinct personality of Christ is the starting point from which to infer the reality of the distinctions in the Godhead; atonement and justification center in him; our very spiritual life is hid with Christ in God; if we believe in him we are born of God; we are to be changed into the image of Christ; the sacraments of the Church testify of him until he come. And a theology which finds its center in such a being, can not be a barren, abstract system; but it gives us a direct and personal object for our faith and love. Thus, and thus only, does Christian theology express the Christian faith in its perfect form. Let us come to have a deeper sense of the grand realities of our faith. To come to these is our safety, our defense. To see and feel and know what Christianity really is in its inward and distinctive character; to study those central truths which lie at its foundation; here is our strength. Let us come unto Jesus. When Christ is to us more than a doctrine, and the atonement more than a plan; when the Incarnation assumes as high a place in revealed, as creation does in natural theology; when the Trinity is viewed not as a formula, but as a vital truth, underlying and interwoven with the whole Christian system; when from this foundation the whole edifice rises up majestically, grand in its proportions, sublime in its aims, filled with God in all its parts; when we feel its inherent force streaming out from its living centers; then, then are we saved from those extreme tendencies which are the most significant and alarming sign of our times; then, then are we elevated above those lesser controversies which have narrowed our minds and divided our hearts. Here also we have a real inward experience as well as an objective reality; for the best and fullest inward experience is that which centers in Christ; and the center of the experience is then identical with the center of the divine revelation. Never are we so far from having any abstract ethical or metaphysical principles exercise an undue influence; never are we so far from a too fond reliance on self and never is self so full and satisfied; never are we in a better position for judging all our controversies with a righteous judgment, or nearer to the highest Christian union; never do the divine decrees shine in so mild a luster, so benign with grace, so solemn and severe in justice; never can we be more wisely delivered from the material attractions of an outward rite, or from the ideal seductions of a pantheistic system; never is doctrine so full of life, and life so richly expressed in doctrine; never does systematic theology so perfectly present the full substance of the Christian faith in a truly scientific form; and never are philosophy and faith so joined in hymeneal bonds, where they may “exult in over-measure,” as when Christ is set forth as the living center of all faith and of all theology, in whom the whole body is fitly joined together, compacted by that which every joint supplieth. For, to Christ, as Mediator, all parts of theology equally refer. He is both God and man, and also the Redeemer. The logical antecedents of his mediation are, therefore, the doctrine respecting God, the doctrine respecting man, the fall and consequent need of redemption, as also that triune constitution of the Godhead, which alone, so far as we can conceive, makes redemption by an Incarnation to be possible. Thus we have the first division of the theological system, the antecedents of redemption, which is also first in both the logical and historical order. Its second and central portion can only be found in the person and work of Christ, his one Person uniting humanity with divinity, in the integrity of both natures, adapting him to his one superhuman work, as our prophet, priest, and king, making such satisfaction for sin that God can be just and justify every one that believeth; and this second division of the system follows the first in both the logical and historical order, giving the peculiar office of the second person of the Godhead, the purchase of redemption, the Christology of theology. And in like manner the same mediatorial idea passes over into the third and last division of the system which treats, in proper logical and historical order, of the application of the redemption that is in Christ, to the individual, to the Church, and to the history and final supremacy of the kingdom of God both in time and eternity. Union with Christ through the Holy Spirit is here the dominant fact; his union with the individual, whence justification, regeneration, and sanctification, for our life is hid with Christ in God; his union with the Church, which is his body, here, as Gerhard says, “like Christ subjected to the cross that it may in the future life with him be glorified.” And this scheme of divine realities, and not of mere abstract doctrine, is ultimately to be referred to the counsel of him, of whom, through whom, and to whom are all things. It gives us the true end of God in creation, which can only be, in any profound philosophical, not to say theological aspect, the making the essential glory of the triune God to be extant and manifest in space and time, in a system which subordinates happiness to holiness and man to God. In redemption prepared, purchased, and applied, we have the whole of Christian theology. H. B. Smith. WHILE the Scriptures insist with peculiar emphasis upon the mediation of Christ, and represent the functions which are discharged in it as essential to salvation, it is not sufficiently considered that these functions themselves are not necessarily sacerdotal—that they might have been discharged by one who was not a priest in the common acceptance of the term. All that seems to be indispensable to salvation is the obedience of a substitute voluntarily assuming our guilt and able to endure the curse of the law. The Epistle to the Romans discusses the principles of the gospel in their general relations to the moral government of God, and demonstrates, as well as asserts upon authority, the absolute necessity of legal substitution in order to life. But if the disclosures of revelation stopped here, we might look upon the death of the Redeemer as the result simply of the operation of justice—a death inflicted by the law, exclusively penal in its nature and relations, exacted of him in the same sense in which it would otherwise have been exacted of the sinner. We might regard pardon as resulting from faith in that death as a satisfaction to justice, and access to God as immediate and direct in consequence of this historical fact as a past reality. The principles here discussed would resolve the security of our state into the covenant faithfulness of God without the least insight into the manner in which it is actually made available to the saints. All that we could say would be that our debt has been paid, that justice no longer demands our lives, that God has promised in consequence of the Redeemer's death to receive us into favor, and upon the ground of that death we might approach him ourselves and sue for mercy. This is all that could be certainly collected from the general discussion of this Epistle. But when we turn to the Epistle to the Hebrews we find indeed a substitute, and the substitute demanded by the Epistle to the Romans, but that substitute is embodied in a priest; we find a death, a penal death, a death which is commensurate with the curse of the law, but it is a death which is also a sacrifice—at once the result of the operation of justice and of a free-will offering to God. We find justification and pardon resolved ultimately into the obedience and death of Christ as past historical facts, but immediately due to relations sustained to him as a living person and Redeemer; and access to God ascribed, not so much to faith in his past achievements as to his present appearance for us in the holiest of all; and the covenant faithfulness of God is seen to be maintained through the agency of him who ever liveth to make intercessions for us. The Epistle to the Hebrews may be regarded as a detailed account of the method in which the great law of substitution has been actually applied in the redemption of our race. While that to the Romans shows what must needs be done in order to our salvation, the Epistle to the Hebrews shows how it has been done; and where the arrangements have gone beyond the strict requisitions of necessity, they are demonstrated to be the dictates at once of mercy and wisdom. Priesthood is the perfection of mediation. There is not a single circumstance which distinguishes a priest from a general substitute which is not significant, a proof of goodness, a fresh illustration of the adaptation of redemption to the condition of its objects; not a single circumstance which distinguishes a sacrifice from the ordinary forms of death that does not enhance the preciousness of the Saviour's work. The full effect of this truth is lost upon most Christian minds through inattention to the distinctions in question. They admire the goodness and adore the wisdom of God in providing a substitute for the guilty, able to reconcile the conflicting claims of justice and of grace; but apart from the adaptation of his person to the mighty work they see nothing upon which they are accustomed to dwell as peculiarly indicative of the divine goodness. They overlook the adaptation of his office; they forget that the manner in which he has accomplished the work is as glorious as the matter—the how as sublime as the what. The work as done, the person by whom, exhaust their topics of admiration and of praise, and they fail to enter into those other motives of faith, devotion and thanksgiving, which are derived from the contemplation of the office in its essential and distinguishing features. They use the terms Priest and High Priest, and have a habitual reference to the appearance of the Saviour in the presence of God; but their High Priest is, after all, but little more than an all-sufficient sponsor, and his intercessions are regarded rather as acts of royalty than sacerdotal pleas. It is amazing how little and seldom we enter into those views of the death of the Redeemer which spring from the consideration of it as a real and proper sacrifice—how little we discriminate betwixt a legal representative and a consecrated priest, betwixt Christ glorious in his kingdom and equally glorious in the holiest of all, betwixt even his triumphant ascension as a King and his passage as intercessor, not without blood, into the presence of God. As these distinctions are evidently important, and the benefits of that peculiar form of mediation to which the Saviour was appointed are clearly explained by the apostle, it may be well to show how much we have gained and how pre-eminently God is glorified by this whole arrangement. A priest is a solemn minister of religion—the channel through which all worship is conducted—the organ of all communications betwixt God and the people. This august agency none can assume without the authority of God. So awful and momentous is this office, which really collects the prayers and praises and thanksgivings of a world into a single person, which centers the hopes of mankind upon the conduct of a single individual throughout all ages—so tremendous is this responsibility and so sublime this honor, that it would be the climax of presumption on the part of any one to propose that it should be conceded to him. It belongs to God, and to God alone, to designate a priest. The idea of a mediatorial worship conducted by a permanent and glorious minister, and so conducted as to strengthen the ties of personal obligation, is an idea which could only originate in the mind of the Deity; and there was an evident fitness and propriety in the solemnity and grandeur attached to the appointment of Jesus to this office when he was consecrated not without an oath. A scheme which contemplates an arrangement of this sort bears stamped upon it the strongest impress of grace. It sprang from the bosom of God; it was mercy, which conceived the purpose of salvation; mercy, which accepted the substitute; and mercy upon mercy, the exuberance of grace, which made that substitute a priest. The very nature of the priesthood demands that the spirit of sublime devotion to God and heroic self-sacrifice to man, which first secured his consent to the enterprise, should animate him at every step in his history, and sanctify every function of his office. He is not to be the passive recipient of ill. As a priest he must act—there are things to be done even in the endurance of the curse—and his whole heart must burn with piety and compassion while he bears the sins of the world in his own body on the tree. The lofty and godlike motives which induced the Redeemer, in the counsels of eternity, before the morning stars had yet sung together or the sons of God shouted for joy, to become the Lamb to be slain, must have continued to operate with undiminished intensity, or the prerogatives and glory of his office had been forfeited. The priestly spirit must have continued to dwell and to reign in his heart, or the priestly robes would have been taken from his shoulders. He must have been as free, as cordial, as delighted, when he uttered the cry of lamentation and woe upon the cross, which shook the earth and startled the dead, as when at the glorious suggestion of the scheme he uttered the language, Lo, I come. As the work of a priest, it is stamped upon the whole process of redemption that the substitute gave his consent; that his self-devotion was spontaneous and free—the execution of a settled purpose to which he was impelled by no constraining influence of the divine will, by no transitory fervors of enthusiasm, no martyr impulse of the moment; that he delighted in the work—it was his meat and drink; he felt it to be an honor and not a hardship, its successful achievement a crown of glory, and not a triumph over cruelty. This single consideration, that it displays so conspicuously the freeness of the Saviour's mediation, is itself a sufficient vindication of the wisdom and fitness of a priesthood. It shows that our felicity has not been purchased at the expense of the rights of another; and, though there was an immense cost of suffering and of blood, it was never for a moment begrudged. The joy of the Mediator in the work, therefore, and the vindication of God from all suspicion of cruelty, injustice, or severity, is complete and triumphant when the Saviour's death is made a sacrifice—a free-will offering to God. Furthermore, when Jesus is seen to be a priest, and his death a sacrifice, the whole transaction becomes an august and glorious act of worship. And there is something, to our minds, inexpressibly sublime when we contemplate the scheme of redemption as accomplished by an act of worship—when we look upon Jesus not as a passive recipient of woes, the unresisting victim of law, but as a minister of religion, conducting its services in the presence of angels and men, upon an emergency which seemed to cover the earth with darkness. Our world becomes the outer court of the sanctuary, where a sacrifice is to be offered in which the Priest and the Victim are alike the wonder of the universe—in which the worship which is rendered leaves it doubtful whether the Deity is more glorious in his justice or his grace. In this aspect the satisfaction of Jesus is not merely the ground upon which others are at liberty to approach and adore the divine perfections; it is itself a prayer uttered by the lips of one whose deeds were words—a hymn of praise chanted by him whose songs were the inspiration of holiness and truth. Every proud imagination is rebuked, every insinuation against the character of God is felt to be a shame to us, every disposition to cavil or condemn is consigned to infamy, when we remember that the whole work of Jesus was a solemn service of religion, as well that by which he descended into the grave as that by which he passed through the heavens into the holiest of all. He was a priest in his death, a priest in his resurrection, a priest in his ascension. He worshiped God in laying his life upon the altar, he worshiped him in taking it again, and it was an act of worship by which he entered with his blood into the very presence of the highest to intercede for the saints. It was religion in Jesus to die, to rise, to reign, as it is religion in us to believe in these great events of his history. Here, then, is an incalculable advantage of priesthood. While it makes the passion of the Redeemer a full and perfect satisfaction of divine justice, and so lays an adequate foundation of pardon, it vindicates the divine glory in every step of the proceeding by making every step an act of adoration and praise. It makes the Saviour adore the Father in his death, makes that very death an offering of praise, redemption itself a mighty prayer, and throws the sanctities and solemnities of worship—and worship on the part of one who knew what was the proper ground of worship—around all the stages in the development of the economy of grace. This seems to us to be the very climax of wisdom. It was glorious to have provided a substitute who should be able to bear our sins in his own body upon the tree, to have devised a scheme by which the conflicting claims of mercy and justice should be adjusted and harmonized—by which God could be just and at the same time the justifier of those who believe in Jesus; but it was the very perfection of wisdom to have executed this scheme so that the intensest sufferings should have produced only a deeper impression of the divine glory and of the excellence and value of the divine law. Surely in this arrangement the law is magnified and made honorable. Another immense advantage of a priesthood is that it quickens and stimulates the devotion of the Church by the assurance it inspires that all true worship, however imperfect or inadequate, shall infallibly be accepted and rewarded. There must be a mediator of prayer and praise, of all the exercises of religious worship, as well as a mediator to purchase our pardon. This is accomplished by a priesthood. There is no direct and immediate approach to God. We come before him only in the name of our priest, who attracts us by community of nature, and who presents all our worship for us before the eternal throne. Our prayers are not heard and received as ours, but as the prayers of Jesus; our praises are not accepted as ours, but as the praises of Jesus. The imperfection which attaches to our performances, our pollution and weakness and unbelief, stop with the High Priest; his intercession and atonement cover all defects, and we are faultless and complete in him. The prayer which reaches the ear of the Almighty is from him, and not from us, and must be as prevalent as his worth. Here is our confidence, not only that Jesus died, but that Jesus lives—that he is our intercessor in the heavenly sanctuary, and there presents, enforces, and sanctifies the religious worship of earth; here is our confidence that in the whole process of salvation God regards the Redeemer and not us, and deals out blessings according to his estimate of Christ; here is our confidence that if any man sin we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. What an encouragement to prayer and praise! And what thanks shall we render unto God for adapting the marvelous scheme of his grace with such consummate wisdom to the wants and weaknesses of men! It deserves, finally, to be added that a mediation of priesthood is the form in which consolation is most effectually administered to the children of men. It is necessary to any substitute that he should be a kinsman of our race, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. But besides the possession of our nature free from the stain and impurities of sin, nothing more is required for the purposes of vicarious righteousness and penal expiation than the consent of the substitute to undertake the task. If he can die the death to which we are doomed, and is willing to suffer in our stead, he is a competent redeemer. But though this is all which is absolutely essential to a legal substitution, it is not all which the state and condition of men evince to be desirable. We want a redeemer with a brother's heart as well as a brother's nature. Though not indispensable to our safety, it is indispensable to our comfort that our substitute should be touched with a feeling of our infirmities, that he should be able to bear our sorrows and carry our griefs. Now this exquisite sympathy, which is one of the most powerful incentives to faith and love, is essential to a priest. Every high priest ordained for men must not only be a participant of their nature, but must have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way. He must enter with sympathetic tenderness into all their temptations and calamities, their fears and apprehensions, their cares and sorrows. He must be prepared to pity and encourage the weak, to comfort the weeper in the house of mourning, to wipe the widow's tears, to hear the orphan's cries, to lie down with the beggar upon his pallet of straw, and to watch with those to whom wearisome nights are appointed. He must be a friend in all those emergencies in which friendship is our richest boon. This qualification is found preeminently in Jesus. And those who have felt his presence in their trials can appreciate the priceless value of his sympathy. He has gone before us through every path of sorrow, and we can not utter a groan nor heave a sigh which does not go to his heart. His pity for the guilty is as tender as his sympathy with the saints. No language can express the intensity of his compassion for those who in ignorance and folly disregard the day of their merciful visitation, and are heaping up wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. He has no pleasure in their death. The sublimest example of compassion which the world has ever beheld was furnished by the Saviour in that memorable prayer in which—when "the clouds of wrath from heaven and from earth, pregnant with materials which nothing but a divine hand could have collected, were about to discharge themselves on him in a deluge of agony and blood," when insulted by men, abandoned by his friends, mocked by his enemies, jeered by devils and deserted by God, he was about to expire in solitude and darkness—he could still, for a moment in the plenitude of his pity forgetting these unspeakable calamities, sue for the forgiveness of the remorseless agents of his death. This was compassion like a God. And what an exquisite spectacle of tenderness was that when Jesus, on the cross, just before the consummation of the last event that should fulfill the predictions of ancient prophecy, consigned his mother to the care of the beloved disciple! Surely such a High Priest became us. In our waywardness and folly, in our sins and temptations, in our murmurs and impatience, we should alienate any other friend but him that sticketh closer than a brother. J. H. Thornwell. An old Jewish proverb runs that "The secret of man is the secret of the Messiah." Man knows what he is, and is to be, only as he knows the Son of God. In him the enigma of human destiny is resolved. And this is the testimony of history, as well as the pledge of revelation. For eighteen hundred years millions of living and believing hearts have hailed Jesus of Nazareth as the Head and Redeemer of the race, the incarnation of divinity. Ancient history converged to his cross; modern history has received from him its organizing law. In him human thought, too, has found the solution of the problem of human life, the disclosure of the divine theodicy, the reconciliation between God and man, the center of the whole drama of history, even to its consummation in a kingkingdom which shall know no sin, and have no end. The facts of Christ's life, testimony, death, resurrection, ascension and regal dominion, are the substance of the faith of the Church; without them Christianity itself has no vital power or independent being. This historic supremacy of Jesus is incontrovertible. It is as real as religious life and faith. Christ can no more be expelled from the course of history than the sun from the circle of the sky. Skepticism about Christ is also skepticism about history itself; unbelief in him is unbelief in the controlling ideas by which men have been inspired, and in the chief objects for which men have hitherto lived. And such is the mysterious fascination which still issues from his transcendent person, that even the incredulous are drawn to him against their very will. He has power over them. To take the veil from his form is dimly felt to be like taking the veil from the master of our fate, and reading the profoundest meaning of our earthly life. Here is the urn of destiny, and that urn holds no dead ashes. His power over men is still the power of a living personality. To every thoughtful mind, believing or unbelieving, he is the ideal of humanity, the Son of man, and, as no other, the very Son of God. The vehemence with which his claims are denied implies a covert apprehension that they may still be real. When faith is lost reverence is cherished. Not to bow before his matchless worth is to be faithless to humanity if not to divinity itself. His influence is the marvel of history. This, to say the least, is a wonderful spectacle, and puzzling to the skeptic. All the logic, the criticism, and the philosophy of naturalism, and of pantheism, can not suppress this spontaneous homage to the unrivaled spiritual excellence of him who is supernaturalism itself in the midst of human history. And the problem infidelity has to solve is this: How can the recorded facts, attesting his character and work, be explained, or explained away, and still leave room for reverence? Not in the miracles alone, but in the whole life of Jesus, supernaturalism has its stronghold. Here, and here alone, all is to be won, or all lost. If Christ's whole life can be interpreted on the basis of naturalism, and he still remain the hero of humanity; if such faith in him can be retained while prophecy and miracle are annulled, then the battle of infidelity is substantially gained. Naturalism must find Christ inexplicable and paradoxical. It can neither explain his nature, nor his acts, nor his words, nor his historic position and influence. But in the faith of the Church, the ideal and real are blended, the earlier and later words of Jesus are harmonized, his profoundest teachings made luminous, his mysterious death seems to be necessary to his divine office, while his resurrection and ascension complete his work and explain his historic triumphs. The universe is no longer, as in the theory of Renan, on its dark side, an "abyss," and on its side of light the phantom life of transient human beings; but the infinite One and the finite world are united and reconciled in one complete system, whose center is found in the person and work of an incarnate Deity. Nothing in all literature and all philosophy equals this sublime and radiant idea, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, as it shines in the face of Jesus Christ our Lord. It is written in the open page of the divine oracles, it is impressed upon the soul of the believer, it is drawn out in the theologies of the Church, it is hymned in penitential and jubilant psalms, in its substantial lineaments it is omnipresent in the history of the world, it unites time with eternity, and it explains the controlling power of the Son of God in the annals of our race, whose highest destiny is to be found in coming to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. The Jesus of the Gospels, the Epistles, and of the Church, is human and divine, is king and priest in an eternal kingdom, is the Saviour of the world, is the lord of life. And this is the essence of supernaturalism. And naturalism must expel Christ from the heart and the Church, from the conscience and the life, before it can expel supernaturalism from human history. H. B. Smith. 1. As HISTORY.—Christianity begins as history, the history of the most extraordinary man, by common consent, in character, career, and influence, who ever lived upon the earth, or influenced the course of human affairs. He appears at first as a teacher and reformer. He gathers disciples, impressing himself by some uncommon fascination, wherever he goes, upon one and another whom he attaches to his person and his cause, in spite of the severity of the service and the frankness with which he explains it. He speaks to the public doctrines that are strange for their searching character, and almost revolutionary for their boldness, but always with the air of authority, as one divinely commissioned to proclaim the truth and exact obedience. His deeds attract attention and enforce awe at the mysterious power which lay in his hand and his voice. He uttered mysterious words respecting his person, his origin, his future destiny, and the triumph of his kingdom—words which, as they grew more explicit, were more and more perplexing for their marvelous import and their astounding audacity—words at which his most confiding followers were more and more amazed, though they believed he could not deceive them; while his bitterest enemies were more exasperated, though they could not satisfy even themselves that “he had a devil, or was mad.” Once or twice, extraordinary manifestations were made to a select number of his most trusted friends of something as yet unexplained in his person, which overwhelmed them with amazement and exalted them with reverent delight. As we follow this new historic force to the death of its Author, it is all gathered within the person and the life of this one Being. All its energy and capacity to endure are in him; all its power to gain or hold the convictions or the confidence of others is his personal force. He dies in shame and agony: he is buried; and in his tomb are buried with him the hopes of those who had looked for his coming and kingdom. But he lives again: he remains alive some forty days, and is then removed for ever from the earth. But first he bequeaths to his followers the simple duty of proclaiming the history of his life. And at the first recorded assembly of those who received this trust, they show that they are mindful of it by taking measures to give it effect. Christianity thenceforward was propagated as history. At the bold proclamation of this completed life, the cause, that was apparently lost, gains as it never had gained before. In the story of the dead Christ who had risen, there was power to shake the nations. A new adherent also appears among the boldest advocates of the cause which he had persecuted—not convinced, indeed, by the testimony of the other witnesses, but by the direct manifestation of the Master himself, from whom he received, not only his commission to teach, but the matter of the gospel which he was to proclaim. But Paul, like the rest, propagated Christianity as a history, telling the one story of the facts of Christ’s life, superadding and emphasizing Christ’s appearance and communications to himself. In his writings, largely doctrinal as they are, the well-known history is repeatedly assumed and affirmed to be true. The history proclaimed and accepted was, very largely, a history of supernatural events. The very kernel and interest of this history, as well as its attractiveness and force, lay in what was believed to have been wrought by divine power, and to have been incapable of being effected by any inferior agent or agency, whether of knowledge or skill. This was what Paul believed; this was what Paul’s disciples were taught in Thessalonica and Corinth, in the provinces of Galatia, and in Rome—all within some sixteen or twenty years after the Christian story was complete. The Christian history is still believed to be a true history by the great mass of men over whom Christianity is a controlling power. The majority of those who call themselves Christian worshipers, every time they assemble renew the profession of their faith in the leading facts which this history records. And no examples of human duty and perfection have ever yet been furnished which are at once so instructive and so moving as those which this history records. No stories of human duty and self-sacrifice are more instructive and more animating than the stories which Christ taught in parable and precept, and himself enacted in this life. Every man who lives in Christendom can not but live in a temple where the history of Christ and the Christ of history are felt in ten thousand influences. The earth to him is far more green and beautiful, the heavens are more benign, the spring more full of hope, the summer more joyful, the autumn more sage, the winter more serene, man is more interesting, life is more sacred, death is more significant, the universe is more full of moral import, because Christ is believed to have visited the earth, and to have dwelt among men, and to have gone before to prepare a place for them in better dwellings. 2. CHRISTIANITY AS TRUTH OR DOCTRINE.—Christianity is more than a history: it is also a system of truths. Every event which its history records either is a truth, or suggests a truth, or expresses a truth, which man needs to assent to or to put into practice. Wherever we begin—with the person of Christ, the work of Christ, or the promises of Christ—we find some truth suggested, confirmed, or enforced. If we begin with his person, we are led into authorized inferences or unauthorized speculations concerning God, and Christ's relation to God before, during, and after his appearance upon the earth. If we consider his work—whether in his life or death, or both—we are beset by inquiries, which we are forced to attempt to answer, concerning man's need; and these open the Christian truth concerning sin, and man's deliverance; and this unfolds to us the truth concerning redemption. If we reflect on the promises of Christ, the doctrines of the purifying Spirit, of perfected holiness, and of eternal life, claim our attention. Christianity is a series of truths upon which its power and dignity depend—truths which it implies, enforces, or reveals. It implies the being and holiness of a personal God; it manifests and impresses him as a forgiving Father, who sympathizes with and seeks to reclaim his wandering children; it implies and enforces the fact and the evil of personal guilt, which, if persisted in, must separate the guilty creature from the equitable and guiltless Creator; it manifests Christ as the Saviour from sin with all its evils. Among these evils, none is more prominent than its self-propagating and progressive power, involving discouragement and despair. Against this it provides the promised aid and help of a divine agency that encourages and assists the human spirit to confidence and victory. It enforces and reveals all these truths by the constant manifestation of the supernatural as an agency above the laws and above the forces of mere Nature, but which neither disturbs nor interrupts the harmony or order of a universe in which a personal God and impersonal law can never be in conflict. And its truths are taught and enacted for practical effect alone. If God is revealed as a Spirit, it is that we may worship him in spirit and in truth; not that the speculations of mere curiosity respecting the possibility of an Infinite Spirit, and of his relations to the finite, may be excited or put to rest. If men are convinced of guilt and danger, it is not that they may speculate about either, but that they may repent, and be reformed. If Christ is set forth to them as a Deliverer, it is not that they may perfect a science respecting his person or his work, but that they may believe and obey him. Christianity, then, as truth, proves Chris- Christianity to be superhuman: first, because the truths themselves are, some of them, such as man could not, and others of them are such as he would not, attain of himself; secondly, because the most important and peculiar of them, though wide-reaching and general, and capable of being expanded into a science that is profound and recondite, are presented to the race, not as doctrines, but as facts—not in the forms of science, but simply as history; and, last of all, because they are such in their nature and adaptations as to justify the acceptance of a supernatural history itself as probable and true, which would otherwise be improbable and incredible. Thus Christianity as history declares and enforces Christianity as doctrine; and Christianity as doctrine makes credible Christianity as a history. Thus whatever independent and separate claims Christianity may assert as a history are made doubly strong by the separate claims of Christianity as doctrine. The union of the two more than doubles the strength of either; the mutual dependence of the two gives to their union an organic power. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/butler/