CHAPTER VII. We have been considering the opening of the seals. The first four seals gave us the four horsemen, signifying conquest, war, famine, and death. The fifth seal showed us the souls of saints at the altar in heaven. The sixth seal was followed by convulsions of nature. — earthquakes, falling stars, etc. We have not yet come to the seventh seal, and it does not immediately follow. The seventh chapter comes in as an episode or interlude between the sixth and seventh seals. This interlude, the seventh chapter, has its own special purpose. There was evidently a reason for inserting it here before the seventh seal. The six seals have been of a terrifying character. This interlude chapter is of a very different nature. Its effect would be to give encouragement and assurance to the suffering saints on earth. It brings out the safety of God's people, and the blessedness of those who have gone through fire and blood to a martyr's death. Now what is this seventh chapter? The first half is the sealing of 144,000 of the children of Israel.