The white-robed throng--7:13-14. “ 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.” The interrogative of verse 13 brought the answer of verse 14 and identified the multitude as the survivors of tribulation. It was an advance scene and corresponded to “ the hour of trial,” chapter 3:10; the “ tribulation” of chapter 2:10; and to the Lord’ s language in Matthew 24:21, after which he would gather his elect “ from the four winds, and from one end of heaven to the other” --verse 31. The preservation of the true seed of Israel, the success of the cause of Christ, the victory of the church, and the universal sway, of Christianity in the expansion of the gospel, were the parallels in all of the visions; and they covered in each instance the same events, and alike defined the period of these afflictions. The apocalypse belonged to that time. The company which emerged from tribulation were described as having washed their robes in blood. This was not the washing away of sins in baptism, of Acts 22:16; nor the washing of water by the word of Eph 5:26; nor having our bodies washed with pure water of Heb 10:22. It was the washing of their robes--it was the blood bath of tribulation, symbolically in the blood of the Lamb who Himself shed his blood for the cause for which they also suffered.