2. 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 labors; and their works do follow them--14:13. This passage has been truly named the beatitude of Revelation. It appears to have an identification with chapter 20:6: “ Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power.” Both passages referred to the martyrs--and here again the proleptic element of chapter fourteen is seen in verse thirteen, as the scene depicted was ahead of the orderly developments of the apocalypse; in that this benediction on the death of the martyrs chronologically belonged at the end; and was therefore a prolepsis with the other events of chapter fourteen. There is a remarkable variation in the form of address in verse thirteen. Instead of the usual form of seeing the vision of events, John was represented in this verse as hearing a command. The commanding voice said, Write. It was a special voice giving an order, not by vision, but by direct command to write it down. As stated, this verse along with Revelation 20:6 was a martyr scene: “ Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth” --meaning from then on in martyrdom. They belonged to the martyred group--the aggregation of the man child “ caught up unto God” ; the hundred fortyfour thousand “ redeemed from the earth.” They were the dead who had died in the Lord--in the cause for which they were martyrs. The beatitude of the Spirit was: That they may rest from their labors--that is, from the travail of persecution --and their works do follow them. There was a descriptive distinction here in their labors and their works. The labors referred to the parturition of birth--the travail, the pain, of bringing forth the man child; hence, labors had reference to the rigors of the persecution unto death, or martyrdom. The works referred to their righteous acts in the midst of the period of torture and trial. These works, saith the Spirit " . . . do follow them.” Their deeds of faith and fidelity in the unfaltering performance of their prime duty followed on after their martyrdom to abide with, comfort and encourage the rest of the seed--the remnant that remained on the earth--as though the martyrs by these righteous acts were yet among them. In that way one’ s righteous lives and deeds yet follow on among men after they are transported from this earth on which we dwell. These blessed dead had been swept from the earth in martyrdom, dying in the cause of the Lord, and though they had been “ caught up unto God” and “ lived and reigned with Christ” in a state of victory, they nevertheless remained in the spirit of their works with those who were left on the earth to face the next stages of the violent drama of persecution. Since the subjects of the Spirit’ s beatitude were represented as having died in the Lord, manifestly the object of the beatitude was to strengthen, encourage and uphold the living in their darkest hour. In that way it may be appropriately applied to the church today. Loyalty to Christ in any generation requires the full measure of the martyr spirit of courage and endurance, and martyrdom in its worst does not always result in immediate death. We may all possess the soul of a martyr, and in that spirit we live in the Lord, as the blessed dead had died in Him.