SQLite format 3@  ii!%%atableTopicsTopicsCREATE TABLE Topics (Title NVARCHAR(100), Notes TEXT)9-U02. The Trumpet-Voice and Opening Vision{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\cf1\lang2058\f0\fs23\par } uy01. The Scene and Spectator{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}{\f1\v^0 g HGbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs24 THE SCENE AND SPECTATOR\par \par Revelation 1:1-10\par \par That evening in April can never be forgotten, when sailing through the Archipelago on the way from Palestine to Smyrna, and just as the sun was sinking in subdued splendor over its western rocky ridges, our eyes rested on the Isle of Patmos. Though privileged to enjoy, a few weeks before, the most hallowed associations of all connected with the Apostle of Love, while treading the streets of Jerusalem and the shores of the Lake of Galilee, we had expected to renew these in another form, as we were afterwards permitted to do, amid the desolate ruins of Ephesus, where his own saintly life mellowed by venerable age was closed, and where his Gospel in all probability was written. But sudden and unexpected was this new souvenir of the Gospel era, seeming to rise on the bosom of the deep like one of his own visions. The trail of golden light, brighter had it been seen half an hour before on the molten waters, was yet sufficient irresistibly to recall the description of "the Sea of Glass mingled with fire."\par \par The Island itself was obscure, but it took its place thenceforward in the shrine of memory, among the world's holiest sanctuaries. Our emotions awakened at beholding the exile home of the Beloved Disciple\emdash the very spot where, before the eye of the rapt prophet, there passed the dream of all dreams\emdash "the visions of God"\emdash where the portals of heaven seemed as if they had descended and the gates of pearl had been flung open, while he heard unspeakable things which it is not possible for a man to utter!\par \par More than half a century had elapsed since John had pillowed his head on his Lord's bosom at the Last Supper, gazed in tearful agony by the cross, and wistfully followed Him with the other bereaved men of Galilee gathered on the Mount of Ascension, until the cloud received Him out of their sight. John alone of all the Apostolic company still survived\emdash the only living link connecting the Church of his day, with the ministry of the Great Master; and, like the last plank of a dismembered vessel, he was now driven by a storm of persecution to this solitary rock in the Aegean Sea.\par \par We have no account whatever of the immediate cause of his banishment from his adopted home in the great capital of Asia. We can only surmise it to have been the faithful, unflinching proclamation of the divine Person and glory of his Lord\emdash the reiterated sermon on the great opening and closing texts of his Gospel: "The Word was with God, and the Word was God." "These things are written, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God."\par \par It would almost seem indicated indeed, in this introduction to the Apocalypse, that that cardinal article in his former writings was the same for which he was still content to suffer: "who testifies t o everything he saw\emdash that is, the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ." It was the "new power" on the earth\emdash 'the power of God unto salvation,' which had come into antagonism with the power which, enthroned on the seven hills, would brook no rival even in name. It was the "another King, one Jesus," which had roused the susceptibilities\emdash kindled the jealous fury\emdash of the minions of Caesar throughout every province of the vast empire\emdash Ephesus not excepted.\par \par Be this as it may; from being the beloved Apostle, the most honored of men, he was now an exile and castaway on this inhospitable shore; his hoary locks appealing in vain to Roman clemency for exemption from galling servitude and drudgery in the mines of Patmos. But where cannot God find His people and His people find their God? He who to the lonely Jacob converted the dreary waste and the crudest of pillows into the gate of heaven, could make the wilds of an island-prison bright with His glory\emd ash resplendent with His presence! He seems, indeed, in every age of the Church, to have given special proofs and assurances of His grace and love to His more favored servants, when called either to the endurance of trial, or tempted to lapse into despondency.\par \par When the heart of Moses was ready to faint under Israel's repeated murmurings, God set him in the cleft of a rock and made all His glory to pass before him.\par \par When Elijah, the most heroic of the Old Testament wort hies, waxed weak as other men, when, in a moment of singular infirmity, leaving work and duty, he could see apparently nothing but godless altars blazing throughout the land\emdash ten thousand knees bowing to Baal and kissing his impious shrine\emdash God made all the elements of nature preach to him of the power he had disowned, and followed these by the 'still, small voice;' thus, by manifestations alike of omnipotence and love, rebuking his distrust and reviving his faith.\par \par When Paul, in a later age, had the thorn in the flesh sent to buffet him\emdash the time and occasion of his trial was made that of richer communications of divine grace. He was led most gladly, therefore, to glory in his infirmities, that the power of Christ might rest upon him.\par \par So it was with John. That aged sufferer, whose ninety years had furrowed his cheek with wrinkles, was now drinking the foretold cup and being baptized with the foretold baptism of his suffering Master and Lord. Exiled, forlorn, unbefriended by man, he was about to hold mystic communings with his Savior, shared by no mortal before or since. It was to be in the Isle of Patmos as he had before personally experienced on the Mount of Transfiguration\emdash when the heavenly visitants had vanished, his best Friend was still left, to extract loneliness from his solitude and sorrow from his heart. He "saw no man but Jesus only!"\par \par These storms of persecution might rage as they would around his unsheltered head; but he was about to know, as few have done before or since, the truth of those grand prophetic words, "a MAN" (the Brother-man he had loved on earth\emdash the glorified-Man now exalted on the Throne)\emdash "a MAN shall be as a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land."\par \par The first five opening words indicate the design of the whole Book\emdash "The Revelation of Jesus Christ." For while in their primary meaning it is a Revelation made to Christ by God the Father of things future; still, in no remote or accommodated sense is He the Revealed as well as the Revealer. As it was the adorable Redeemer in His Divine and human nature\emdash the God-man whom John in his Gospel had delighted to honor\emdash so now in his Apocalypse, the Gospel of his old age, it is still the same Great figure which fills the inspired canvas; not the Revelation of dogmas and doctrines, but of the glorified Person of his Living Lord\emdash exhibiting Him as superintending all events in the future of His Church and the world\emdash overruling all their conflicts for His own glory and the ultimate triumph of His cause and kingdom.\par \par The Book in the truest sense is the Revelation, the Unveiling, the Disclosure, the Manifestation of Christ\emdash the glorious Being in the midst of the golden candlesticks\emdash the slain Lamb standing before the throne\emdash the Lion of the tribe of Judah\emdash the Conqueror on the white horse\emdash the enthroned Judge. All the other elements and details of the visions, gorgeous as they are, are subordinate and subsidiary to this. The earthly cry is, "Come, Lord Jesus!" The heavenly cry is, "Worthy is the Lamb!" Christ is thus 'all in all' to the Church on earth and to the Church of the glorified.\par \par The evolution of successive events in history and providence is represented as being in His hand as the Church's Great Head and Ruler. Over that grand scene of earth and its kingdoms\emdash as picture after picture in magnificent unfolding passes before us\emdash the sublime ascription seems to reverberate in undying echoes, "Alleluia! for the Lord God omnipotent reigns!"\par \par The prologue, which occupies the first three verses, is followed by John's own salutation or dedication. Affectingly simple is the introduction of his own name in contrast with the doxology with which it is conjoined. "John, to the Seven Churches which are in Asia." 'John'\emdash no enumeration of his ancestors\emdash no arrogating of title or assumption of Apostolic dignity or prerogative\emdash no assertion of his near and privileged communion with his beloved Lord. And again, when he repeats the name in verse 9, it is only with the touchingly simple addition of, "John, brother and companion in tribulation." Strong corroborative testimony, were that required, that he and no other was the author of the Book. He speaks as one needing no additional or special designation, further than being the bearer of the honored name known widely and well throughout infant Christendom.\par \par He utters the opening benediction of "Grace and peace" from the thrice Holy Trinity (ver. 4). The FATHER is described as "Him who is, and who was, and who is to come;" the Great I AM in the eternity of His unchanging nature. The HOLY SPIRIT is described in the plenitude of His gifts and graces, under the sevenfold symbol of perfection\emdash 'like the seven prismatic colors in the one ray of light;' "the seven spirits who are before His throne." And inverting the customary order of enumeration, he closes with the more lengthened adoration of the Divine SON.\par \par This embraces a beautiful description. "The Faithful Witness"\emdash He who came to bear witness to the truth\emdash the Revealer of the Father. "The First-begotten of the dead"\emdash the conqueror of the last Enemy\emdash the first-fruits of those who sleep. The Prince of the kings of the earth\emdash the mighty Ruler seated on the throne of universal empire, and of whom it had been predicted, "I will make Him my First-born, higher than the kings of the earth," adding the yet more endearing delineation, which the Apostle of Love of all men was best qualified to give, (shall we say with a tear in his eye?) "Him who loved" (or rather, in the present tense "who loves") us;" (who loving His own at the beginning, loves with a deathless, unswerving love unto the end), "and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us a kingdom\emdash priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen!"\par \par Having appropriately concluded his preface with this doxology, we expect he will now proceed to put in writing the magnificent messages, whether in the shape of letter or vision, which had been revealed to him. But as the succession of bright picturings pass before his mental eye, he interrupts the narrative, in order that he may add one sentence\emdash interject one preliminary reference to that Great event to which all theology\emdash all history\emdash all time points. His inmost burdened thoughts seem to find relief in the triumphant exclamation, "Behold, He Comes with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also who pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so, Amen!" (verse 7).\par \par Owing to the important place the theme occupies in the Book, and in order more effectually to rivet upon it the attention of the reader, we may be forgiven so soon reiterating the assertion dwelt upon in the Preface, that this last topic takes its befitting place in the introduction, as the "Key-note" of all the divine music which seems to swell and circulate in the subsequent heavenly visions. We repeat, "the glorious appearing of the Great God our Savior," as it thus meets us on the threshold, so it is interwoven with the faithful counsels to the Seven Churches. It blends with the intermediate Revelations. It is the last utterance when the vision and the prophecy are sealed up\emdash the last voice heard amid the roll of apocalyptic thunders\emdash "I come quickly; surely I come quickly." While the Evangelist, just as he is awaking from his entranced dream, when the golden Temple-gates are closing, and the heavenly glories vanishing from his sight\emdash breathes the fervent prayer, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus!"\par \par One other point has still to be noted in these preliminary verses. It is the Day on which this Revelation was made (verse 10): "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day." The Day whose morning sun, to the forlorn exile, rose bright with the remembrance of a completed redemption\emdash when he loved in thought to enter afresh the vacant sepulcher, and listen in trembling transport to the words of the angels. The Day on which, ever since that Great Easter, he had been in the habit of meeting with the faithful to keep the simple commemorative feast, and which in spirit he sought, even in his present solitude, to keep still. The Lord's Day! The present may have possibly, probably, been one of special prayer. The aged Apostle, with all the fire of former love unquenched, may have been wrestling at the mercy-seat, breathing often and again his favorite supplication, "COME, Lord Jesus, COME quickly!" He is heard while yet speaking! That rising sun brings with it the glories of a Pentecostal Sabbath\emdash "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day." By this expression he would seem to denote that he was in a state of holy rapture and ecstasy\emdash withdrawn from earthly things, like Moses on Sinai, or Elijah on Carmel.\par \par The material element, for the time being, was subordinated to the spiritual. The windows of the outer senses were closed, and the entranced and illuminated inner eye became cognizant of a higher world of divine realities. Whether it was in the darkness and silence of his dungeon-vault, or in the traditional cave on the southern rocks of Patmos\emdash or when, engrossed in meditation, he wandered companionless on the sho re, listening to the music of the Aegean waves, we know not. But of this we may feel assured, never had John seen such a Sabbath, and never could he see such again, until the pledge and emblem were exchanged for the full vision and fruition of the eternal Sabbath above! What sights! what sounds! what forms! what scenery!\emdash fit recompense surely for years of conflict and toil. The solitary place was made glad.\par \par What Christian Church was ever consecrated like this? Where the most magn!ificent Sanctuary made with hands that has ever witnessed such glory? The worshiper\emdash one lonely exile. His temple\emdash a rock in mid-ocean. The theme he listens to\emdash the Church-militant\emdash its sufferings\emdash its triumphs\emdash its eternal rewards. The Preacher, no earthly ambassador\emdash but his adorable Lord, arrayed in the lusters of His exalted humanity. Oh! never did the tones of the Sabbath-bell fall so joyfully on the ear, as when the exiled and banished Pilgrim was startled f"rom his bended knees by the trumpet-voice exclaiming, "I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last!"\par \par At the moment, indeed, as we shall find, he is struck down trembling and astonished. He is unable to bear the uncreated brightness that unexpectedly burst upon him. But a gentle Hand raises him up, and well-remembered tones restore confidence and inspire love. The tears of banishment are dried. He is made to forget the absence of a beloved brotherhood of disciples and saints, in the pre#sence of ONE who 'sticks closer than a brother.'\par \par What Christ was to John, He is to His people still. How often does He convert their times of trial into seasons of special consolation! How often is the couch of sickness and the chamber of bereavement made a Patmos, where the bereft and exiled soul, shut out from the world, holds sweet converse with its Redeeming Lord\emdash an island in the world's heaving ocean of vicissitude, made resplendent with the glories of Jesus and eternity! Of$ttimes, Jesus seems to lay low in the dust, our earthly hopes and refuges\emdash desolating homes and friendships\emdash making the world itself a Patmos, only to prepare, as He disciplined John, for an apocalypse of Himself. How many, thus driven by the windy storm and tempest to the crevices of the Rock of Ages, have had from its sheltering clefts such realizing views of a Savior's presence, and enjoyed such hallowed experiences of a Savior's love, as to make earth's darkest spots of sorrow radiant with% the bliss of a foretasted heaven!\par \par "Behold He Comes!" "Surely I come quickly!" Let these words, beginning and closing the "Memories of Patmos," ring in our ears (like a vesper bell) chimes of joy and hope; peals of warning and of solemn preparation. Nearly twenty centuries indeed have elapsed since they were uttered, and still the world holds on its course\emdash the trance of the ages has not been broken by this assured manifestation of the Redeemer's glorified Person. We put our ear t&o the earth\emdash there is heard no sound of His chariot-wheels. There is nothing in the unvarying sequences of the natural world\emdash there is nothing in past history or in present experience, to indorse and countersign this predicted imminency of the Advent. Be it so\emdash "For in just a little while, the Coming One will come and not delay."\par \par Some may indulge unseemly levity as to the apparent stultifying of the Divine declaration\emdash the bridal lamps kept trimmed in hourly expe'ctancy of the Bridegroom's approach, while no footfall for weary centuries has been heard. But of this we may be assured, that He to whom a thousand years are as one day, has some wise and sufficient reasons alike for the apparent delay, and for the urgent transmission from age to age of the stirring and ever-needful prophetic watchword. One of these reasons doubtless is, that "He is patient with us; not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."\par \par Yes, when we shall be at last permitted to take our stand on the shores of the true Glassy sea, with the Harps of God, and before us the unmeasured cycles of a limitless future, we shall then, by the use of a higher than earthly wisdom, be brought to see how brief after all was the period of probation, and to vindicate the verity and truthfulness of the Divine utterance "Surely I come quickly!" "It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when He comes."\par \par \pard\cf1\f1\fs23\par } )nsideration of its accompaniments or accessories. These are threefold\emdash The seven Golden Candlesticks: the Stars He holds in His right Hand: and the Keys of Hell (Hades) and of Death.\par \par THE GOLDEN CANDLESTICKS. This is the first of the many golden emblems we shall meet with in this Book. It unquestionably denotes the Church of Christ. The purest and rarest of the precious metals is taken to symbolize that, whose preciousness can best be estimated by the price paid for its redemption\*emdash "Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it." The figure takes us at once back in thought, to the sacred furniture of a now waning, or rather, abrogated dispensation\emdash to the one candlestick, with its branches or lamps, in the Tabernacle of the wilderness and the Holy place of the Temple\emdash reminding us also of the similar beautiful and suggestive vision of the Prophet Zechariah, when he saw the candlestick "all of gold," with its seven lamps fed from the upper bowl (or reservoi+r) of olive oil.\par \par There is a remarkable and most notable difference, however, in this vision of John, from these Old Testament figurations. It is not the one candlestick, the solid central shaft of gold, with its six dependent lamps, which is here represented; but it is among seven distinct and separate candlesticks, the Divine Personage is seen walking. Who can fail to discern and appreciate the beauty and appropriateness of the distinction? The Jewish Tabernacle and Temple-lamp which r,ose before the Prophet's eye, were symbolic of the Church of God in its relation to the kingdom and economy of Israel. That ancient Church for ages stood alone in the earth as the Divine 'light giver.' But no sooner did the Jewish dispensation cease, than the Temple-lamps were separated.\par \par The Christian Church, though one in essence and spirit, is no longer one in outward or visible unity, but constituted of many parts; these, it may be, widely removed from each other. Jesus Himself, the -alone Illuminator, is represented as moving in their midst, their common bond of union. It is no longer one planet, but a system, of which He is the glorious sun and center. John had in his opening Gospel, declared, "In Him was life, and the Life was the light of men." No candlestick, no church shines of its own light\emdash from Him its light emanates. And the Church in Heaven, as already noted, is in this respect only the grander complement and counterpart of the Church on earth. In her magnificent Temp.le, the same Divine Illumination is perpetuated through eternal ages, "The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the light thereof."\par \par But as no church can live by its own light\emdash by sparks of its own kindling, so neither can it maintain its existence if it fails to scatter and diffuse its derived glory all around. Woe to any such, which professes to walk in the light of its Divine Head, and yet absorbs the God given rays\emdash keeps with niggard hand that which was given it to dispers/e and radiate to earth's circumference. The parable which condemns the faithless servant who hid his master's money, condemns also by implication the traitor-church which refuses to be evangelistic\emdash caring only for its own well-being, not for others. The absorber of spiritual light becomes in its turn the receptacle of darkness, and serves itself heir to the most solemn warning its rejected Lord ever uttered\emdash "If, therefore, the light that is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness!"\pa0r \par But, further, the Christ of Patmos is seen in the vision having SEVEN STARS in His right hand: ''And He had in His right hand seven stars"\emdash holding them, as has been supposed, as a wreath or garland. These stars are the emblems of ecclesiastical and civil rulers. Christ holding these, and holding them in His right hand\emdash the seat of power and strength\emdash the hand which grasps the reins of empire, tells far more powerfully than words, that all the subsequent actors in this p1rophetic scroll are under His supervision and control\emdash as much so as the stars and planets in the material heavens. In a spiritual and figurative sense it may be said, that He "binds the sweet influences of the Pleiades, looses the bands of Orion, and guides Arcturus with his sons."\par \par Walking among the candlesticks and having the stars in His hand, together assure us that no church faithful to Him need fear destruction\emdash no lamp can be extinguished, nor star plucked from that g2emmed garland, which has the hand of Omnipotence to protect it. If one unfaithful star falls from its setting, He will have another ready to take its place. Seven\emdash "the number of mystical completeness"\emdash can suffer no diminution. Individual churches may cease to shine and cease to be; but the Church itself is imperishable. God's Old Testament promise to His spiritual Zion is a motto for all time\emdash "Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands, and your walls are continually before 3me."\par \par The next accompanying symbols are THE KEYS OF HELL (or rather of Hades) AND DEATH, suspended by His side. Christ having Himself endured the sharpness of death, not only has opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers; but as that kingdom is entered through the dark gateway (with its gloomy portal) of dissolution and the grave, He is described here as the Keeper of these also. The whole region of Hades and the invisible spirit-land is under His sway. That 'undiscovered country' ma4ny a traveler has entered. Since our different lives began, millions on millions have passed through the mysterious shadows into darkness, and not so much as a single person of these has come back to throw one ray of light on the silent regions. No warrior, like David's three men of might, has burst through the interposing barriers and returned to tell the wished-for tale.\par \par But the Lord of life has stormed the domain and citadel of Death\emdash the 'Stronger than the strong' has assailed5 the otherwise impregnable ramparts\emdash plucked the crown from the King of Terrors\emdash taken from him the Keys\emdash the badges of possession and power\emdash and converted that somber portico into an arch of triumph, bearing the inscription, "Who has abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light!"\par \par The Apostle, overwhelmed with the magnificence and glory of the Divine vision, had fallen at the feet of his Lord 'as though dead.' Yes! despite of all his old confidentia6l communion and favored familiarity, he cowers like a terror-stricken child, beneath the unveiled majesty of the great Heart-Searcher\emdash just as the loftiest archangel is said to feel profoundest humility, because permitted to be nearest the glorious Being before whom he casts his crown. But John listens to the brief reassuring words, "Fear not!"\emdash words which may have recalled other occasions besides the Mount of Transfiguration and the night on the Sea of Tiberias.\par \par And on wha7t grounds is he told to dismiss his fears? Is the exhortation, 'Fear not: for you are in the presence of the same Lord who called you at Bethsaida\emdash who sat by you at the Last Supper\emdash who confided to you the sacred charge from the cross\emdash who met you at early morn on the lake shore, and left you with hands extended in blessing?' No! He quiets His servant's misgivings by a double revelation of Himself, as the Conqueror of Death, and as a living, Life-giving Redeemer: "I am the Living One; I8 was dead." "I am living" (as the words may be rendered) "unto the ages of the ages!" It is enough\emdash the Apostle asks no more. Moreover, feeling the touch of the magnificent Personage (for He laid His right hand upon him), he rises from his posture of prostration and crouching awe. Death is divested of its fearfulness. The vision and its great words have nerved him for the task that is now to be assigned to him, of transcribing what is about to be unfolded. He seems to say, "I shall not die, but live9, and declare the works of the Lord!"\par \par "Write," says the Divine voice to His now reassured servant, "write what you have now seen," as well as "the things that are, and the things that shall be." For behalf of my Church universal, record that which has now passed before your eyes, that all men may have some feeble apprehension of the glories of my Divine Person within the veil: what I have done\emdash and what I am still doing, as the Great High Priest, the Vanquisher of death, the Ruler: of the invisible world. "Write," not for yourself, but for the ages. Unknown to you, you will thereby soothe many a sorrow and dry many a tear!\par \par The Reader cannot fail to observe the peculiar appropriateness and adaptation of the vision with its accompaniments, for the time at which it was given. John, as we have already noted, was now the sole remaining representative of the Apostolic Church. He alone had lived to see on the political horizon, wrathful storms brooding against the Chris;tian name; and if he himself were soon to be permitted to close his eyes in death, and thank God that he was taken from the evil to come, well he knew that those on whom his mantle and spirit were to fall, would have a legacy of suffering bequeathed to them\emdash that they would be called upon to bear, in its heaviest severity, the martyr's cross, before they obtained the martyr's crown!\par \par If, then, the Apocalyptic Roll about to be unfolded to him, like that of Ezekiel, was to be written< in characters of 'lamentation and mourning and woe,' what more comforting vision could be given, than the Church's King and Head appearing in the midst of the Church itself, which was to be the theater of suffering\emdash in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks and with the stars in His right hand; wearing the garb of glorified humanity; and yet with all the symbols of regal might\emdash the avenger of His saints, the conqueror of their foes?\par \par The Vision speaks to us! The Lord has= the same motto and watchword to give His Church too, in her collective capacity, in fighting her battles, as He had just given His servant personally. It is that HE IS HER LIVING REDEEMER! "Fear not; I am He that lives! Behold! I am alive forevermore!" The Children of Zion may well be joyful in their King: the thunders may awake the fury of the ungodly, the vials may descend, the tempests may sweep\emdash for she can listen to the living voice of her living Head\emdash "I am He that lives!" And because H>e lives, she shall live also. Yes, beautiful vision! Christ with the "stars in His right hand"\emdash Christ with His ministers! Christ with His earthly potentates! Christ King of Zion! Yes, Christ King of nations! Christ retaining faithful watchmen on the Church's battlements, who, in times of deepest rebuke, and apostasy, and blasphemy, will not hold their peace day nor night! Christ declaring that the shields of the earth are His alone!\emdash controlling the schemes of other haughty potentates, alike ?for the chastisement and prosperity of His people! And then, when they have done their work, scattering them as chaff before the whirlwind!\par \par Oh! when John had the first startling intimation of this Divine apparition in Patmos\emdash when he heard the trumpet heralding his Lord's approach, saw the bright blaze of glory projected from His path, and listened to the announcement in whose presence he was\emdash "I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last,"\emdash he might have expected, on @turning around, to gaze on some dazzling throne gleaming with the coruscations of Truth, and Holiness, and Righteousness; with tiers of attendant angels and burning seraphim lining the celestial pathway! But more comforting far is it to the exiled Prophet, and to the Church of Christ to the end of time, to behold a simpler and less imposing vision\emdash the Lord holding merely a cluster of stars in His hand, and encircled with seven golden candlesticks, proclaiming the perpetuity of His mediatorial sway.A "Fear not! I am He that lives." "God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; the Lord shall help her, and that right early."\par \par Church of the living God! how wondrous your privileges! In a succeeding chapter, we have a sublime glimpse given us of Heaven, where Christ is represented in the midst of His redeemed, summoning forth, as 'the Lamb that was slain'\emdash a loud anthem from ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands. But here we have Him in gracious love, Bmoving in the midst of the Church-militant\emdash feeding each candlestick with the oil of His grace and keeping every star in its sphere in the firmament.\par \par And the beauty of the vision is, that it is not Christ dealing only with His Church universal\emdash keeping the oil from decaying, and the gold from tarnishing, and the stars from abandoning their orbits and drifting uncontrollably into outer darkness\emdash but we have in this exquisitely tender dealing with John, an assurance of wChat He is, and is willing to be, to every individual believer\emdash the poorest, the humblest, the lowest, the most obscure\emdash though his heart be a Patmos\emdash lonely and desolate; and his home be a desert rock, or a dungeon of captivity, or a hut of poverty, or a chamber of disease, or a bed of death\emdash there He is, to lay His right hand of love on the trembling one, and say, "FEAR NOT."\par \par Fear not! poor sinner, trembling under the load of your guilt: 'I am He who was dead;' DMy death is your life, My blood your plea, My cross the passport to your crown! Fear not! you weak and fainthearted, borne down under your corruptions, the strength of your temptations, the weakness of your graces, the lukewarmness of your love\emdash 'I am alive for evermore!' My grace will be sufficient for you. Fear not! suffering one\emdash you are contending with a great fight of afflictions\emdash trial after trial, like wave after wave, rolling in upon you\emdash your house has been swept, ties havEe been broken, graves opened, the tear scarcely dry when made to flow again. Fear not! 'I have the keys of the grave and of death.' Not one deathbed has been ordered, not one grave dug, not one tear permitted, without My bidding.\par \par Are you not satisfied when a Living Redeemer has the Keys of Death suspended from His sash? in whose keeping could they be better than in His? Are you afraid to die? Is the thought of death, of your coming dissolution, fearful to you? 'Fear not! I was dead!' I Fhave sanctified that grave and that dark valley, by traversing it all before you\emdash I am the abolisher of Death, and to all My people I have made the gate of Death and the gate of Heaven one!\par \par Reader, do you know this ever-living, never-dying Savior? With the triumphant faith of a saint who lived thousands of years antecedent to the Apostle of Patmos, can you say\emdash "I know that my Redeemer lives?" Jesus lives! then perish every desponding thought. Jesus lives! then though heart and flesh faint and fail, He will be the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Jesus lives! the Living among the dead\emdash Faithful among the faithless\emdash Changeless among the changeable\emdash the only unfailing, unvarying Friend in a failing, varying world! Jesus lives! then when Christ who is our life shall appear, we shall also appear with Him in glory! Like John, we will fall down at His feet and exclaim, "this God shall be our God forever and ever!"\par \par \pard\cf1\f1\fs23\par } 339-U02. The Trumpet-Voice and Opening Vision{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\cf1\lang2058\f0\fs23\par } uy01. The Scene and Spectator{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colort NN% 04. The Epistles to the Seven Churches{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\I503. The Accessories of the Vision{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs24 THE ACCESSORIES OF THE VISION\par \par Revelation 1:12-20\par \par We pass from the Vision of the Lord Jesus, to a brief co(Jf0\fnil\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs24 THE EPISTLES TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES\par \par A well-known commentator on the Apocalypse has graphically pictured the aged Evangelist ascending one of the rocky heights of Patmos, and from thence, as a center, beholding on every side, even at that early dawn of the Christian era, undoubted evidences of the spreaKd of the Gospel. Flourishing churches were planted all around, far beyond the line of the visible horizon. In Greece, those of Philippi and Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, and Corinth; in the East, Jerusalem and Antioch; in the South, Cyprus, Alexandria, and Crete; westward, in Caesar's household and Caesar's capital; while the bearers of the glad tidings had even left the impress of their early footsteps on the shores of France and Spain, and our own remote island of Britain. He who in his former years had Lwitnessed the whole Church of Christ contained in one upper-room in Jerusalem, had lived to see its line gone out through all the earth, and its words to the end of the world.\par \par In that wide sweep\emdash that supposed panoramic prospect, there was one cluster of Christian congregations, which, above all the rest, was peculiarly dear to the Exile, that is, the Churches of Asia. Not the Asia we are accustomed to think of, in its wide geographical acceptation; not even the Asia Minor\emdash Mthe peninsula equally familiar to us under the sway of modern Turkey, which embraces a continent in itself; but a comparatively limited district or province along her western coast line, and of which Ephesus formed the recognized capital. To these cities and their Churches, John's great Lord commissions him to write seven distinct Epistles or addresses.\par \par We are not to understand that seven exhausted the number of congregations of the faithful planted in that region; for, independent of oNther testimony, we have reliable information from the Epistles of Ignatius that at least two additional cities, larger than some of those mentioned, had Churches in their midst. The number seven was evidently again employed as the type of completeness\emdash that same symbol which we have already had occasion to note in regard to the description of the Holy Spirit in His manifold operations\emdash "The seven spirits which are before the throne"\emdash the symbol which we shall meet in other significant fiOgurations in subsequent portions of the Book. For example, the Lamb having seven horns and seven eyes; the seven burning lamps before the throne; or, in the outpourings of Divine judgments, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven thunders, seven vials.\par \par This symbolic number further betokens, that the epistolary addresses were designed as a directory of perpetual obligation for the whole universal Church, of all ages and all climates\emdash European as well as Asiatic. The internal condition oPf these congregations, as unfolded in the varying language employed, reflects, as in a mirror, the mixed and conflicting aspects and elements which attach in all periods of her history to the Church-militant. They are, if it may be so expressed, outlines, filled in with their own appropriate details, but in bold outline depicting the ever-varying and diversified features in church life and character\emdash the admixture of wheat with tares, truth with error, zeal with coldness, fidelity with unfaithfulnesQs, light with darkness, life with death.\par \par There is Ephesus, bold in resolute endurance, discerning, intolerant of departures from the faith, and of all tampering with heathen libertinism\emdash yet this coupled with lamentable declension from first love.\par \par There is Smyrna, battling nobly with tribulation and danger in the midst of poverty and suffering\emdash rich in faith and good works.\par \par There is Pergamos, environed with satanic influences in varied fRorms and phases\emdash the seat of hostile Jews clinging to the beggarly elements\emdash the professing members of her Christian Church polluted with the defiling doctrines of Antinomianism\emdash yet the band of faithful and true-hearted holding fast the true Name in the face of persecution and martyrdom.\par \par There is Thyatira, amid charities and zeal and all outward activities, endangered by the seductions of false teachers, those who would set up sensuous and sensual worship, deifying maSterial forms, and encouraging immoral practice.\par \par There is Sardis, with its few noble exceptions, yet, as a Church, careless, unwatchful, formal, joined to its idols, dying while it lives of spiritual sloth and blandness.\par \par There is Philadelphia, with its little strength in the midst of fierce temptations, but keeping resolutely the word with patience, repressing the spirit of evil, strong and loving in its very weakness.\par \par There is Laodicea, distinguisheTd for its worldly riches, its high-toned profession and spiritual pride; yet lowest in the scale and standard of all, with its perilous lukewarmness, neither cold nor hot\emdash a religion of boasting words, but devoid of vitality and moral strength\emdash "poor, blind, and naked."\par \par Each individual Church has thus its distinctive peculiarities, its points of danger, and points of strength and safety\emdash its subjects for commendation or rebuke. And hence these seven written messages maUy be regarded as a charge addressed by the Shepherd and Bishop of souls, through seven representative congregations, to His great diocese of Universal Christendom. There is a word of solemn warning and admonition to all, against the sins of pride and worldliness; formalism and self-sufficiency; doctrinal and heart apostasy; compromise with error; laxity of life.\par \par There is a word of gracious encouragement to the lowly, the suffering, the patient, the faithful, the duty-doing, the good andV the true; especially when alive to their spiritual weakness and insufficiency. And more solemnizing is the lesson they further convey, that He who spoke so familiarly to John of these seven congregations in that early age, is, with the same searching scrutiny, in the midst of all His congregations and churches to this hour, noting with His eyes of flaming fire their faults and errors; their neglects and failures; their sinful departures from truth; their tamperings with error; their declensions and shortWcomings.\par \par But ready, too (when He sees their weak faith requires it), with His encouragements and approval\emdash His promises and support; His sympathy and love; and the last more than the first. In a word, these Epistles contain a stereotyped message for all time\emdash as much for us in Britain as for the Orientals of the first century. Nor is it at all necessary that we should regard the seven Churches, as some writers have done, as representatives of successive epochs or chronologicXal eras of the Christian faith\emdash describing the evolution of the church-life of future Christendom; as if they resembled the rainbow, the seven-colored arc of heaven, spanning the centuries from the earthly ministry of our Lord to His second coming\emdash depicting the Ephesian age, the Sardis age, the Laodicean age, and others. Such an interpretation seems alike forced and fanciful; for it is at once manifest, by reference to a map, that the names of the towns are taken in their local order as the AYpostle himself may have visited them, beginning naturally with Ephesus\emdash alike from its own pre-eminence and John's association with it\emdash taking a northerly line to Pergamos and Thyatira, then a southerly direction, until the circuit is completed by a return to the great capital of the province.\par \par We are abundantly warranted, therefore, rather in asserting that these seven Churches, by a sort of complex unity and symbolism, embrace all periods as well as all characteristics. TheZ lessons embodied in their Epistles are limited to no age or circumstances. In common with every other portion of Scripture, they are "written for our admonition." In the words of good old Bengel, "Whether one may be so dead as the Church of Sardis, or may stand so well as that of Philadelphia, . . . this book is still fitted to be serviceable to him, and the Lord Jesus has something in it to say to him."\par \par And here may we not pause to remark, how honored was John to be the instrument in [the hand of Christ and of the Divine Spirit, in preparing this legacy for the Church of the future? Mysterious, doubtless, at the time to him and to others, was the Providence which divorced him from the scene of his active labors\emdash his ministries of apostolic love, and condemned him to silence and inaction in the sea-girt isle. But his pen was to achieve more lasting good than all his sermons and spoken utterances. The things which had happened unto him had fallen out rather to the furtherance of th\e Gospel. His own tongue, with its fervid accents, was for the time silent, and his bereaved flock would mourn the cruel separation. But the place of his exile is to be consecrated as a temple for mankind\emdash lonely Patmos is to become a spiritual oasis! The Church throughout all the world is to enjoy the compensating blessing to its last era, in these letters of surpassing faithfulness and comfort, and these visions of surpassing glory. He is shown that there are other ways of glorifying the name and ]promoting the cause of the Great Master he served, than by an answer to the prayer, "O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise."\par \par And so is it still in God's inscrutable dispensations! By these, there are often gracious ends to be subserved, which at the time are indiscernible. The tongue of the mute has been caused to sing\emdash the parched ground has become a pool, and the dry land springs of water. "Men see not yet the bright light in the clouds." "But it shall ^come to pass that at evening time it shall be light."\par \par The form which these seven letters or addresses assume is unique; or, as it has befittingly been called, artistic. They are cast in a similar mold and have a harmony and congruity of parts, which it may be well briefly to notice.\par \par (1.) They are all addressed to "the Angel" of the respective Churches\emdash the recognized representative or messenger of each congregation. It was a name or term probably borrowed from t_he presiding functionary, the minister or president, of the Jewish Synagogue.\par \par (2.) Each letter begins with "These things says He." Followed not only with a reference to the glorious Person of the Sender, but embodying some imagery borrowed from His own previous words in the preparatory vision. "These things says He that holds the seven stars in his right hand." "These things says the First and the Last, who was dead and is alive." "These things says He which has the sharp sword with two` edges." "These things says the Son of God, who has His eyes like a flame of fire"\emdash and so on.\par \par (3.) Each Epistle further begins with the impressive, solemnizing formula of the Divine omniscience\emdash "I know your works." The congregations are thus prepared with befitting seriousness and awe to listen to the words of the Great Heart-searcher.\par \par (4.) Each address ends with a phrase concerning conflict and victory, and a promise "to him who overcomes." Moreover, whaile the first part of the address is couched in plain words, the closing promise is in language of varied and beautiful figure\emdash the Tree of life\emdash the White stone\emdash the Morning star\emdash the White clothing\emdash the New name\emdash the Heavenly Throne.\par \par (5.) The address to each Church is wound up with the solemn exhortation, or refrain, "He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the Churches"\emdash a sacred reminder, that although it is Christ who walbks in the midst of the Candlesticks, and Christ who indites those Epistles to His servant John, He does not supersede the office of that Divine Agent of whom He had aforetime said, "He shall glorify me, for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you."\par \par One general practical and comforting observation may be further added\emdash that Christ, the Divine Overseer, cares for all His Churches, however great or however small. Perhaps He purposely left out the larger congregations, ancd inserted the Epistle to the comparative handful of believers at the almost unknown Thyatira, in order to give the assurance to all faithful associations of Christian men, limited in number and resources\emdash battling it may be for dear life, that it is not numerical strength or social position, or local influence and importance, which are required to ensure His cognizance and care. The few names in Sardis\emdash the little strength of Philadelphia\emdash the hundreds in Thyatira\emdash as well as the dthousands in the teeming marts of Ephesus; the Church among the Valleys of Piedmont; the missionary settlements of the lowly and unlettered Moravians; the grain of mustard-seed, wherever it has fallen\emdash each is tended, and watched, and nurtured by the Great Husbandman with patient and discriminating regard.\par \par The sublime contrast is alike true and comforting concerning Churches as concerning individuals: "Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom\emdash your dominion endures throughout eall generations; yet the Lord upholds all who fall, and raises up all who are bowed down." "In that day we will sing about a fruitful vineyard: I, the Lord, watch over it; I water it continually. I guard it day and night so that no one may harm it." "A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation."\par \par Well would it be for us faithfully to hold up that mirror of all these Churches, and see in it the reflection of our individual selves; to note the warning and the dangfer-signals as we are careering onwards in life's swift and speedily-ended journey. How soon, in their case, did the golden age degenerate into the brass and the iron! Founded in the midst of ultimate and apostolic zeal, with the dew of Christian youth upon them, how soon did they lapse into error, apostasy, and open sin\emdash removed away from the faith and hope of the Gospel, the faithful counsels and burning prayers and tears of earth's holiest men forgotten, as a dream when one awakens!\par \par May we not well take home the lessons from their extinguished light and vanished glories? "If you think you are standing strong, be careful, for you, too, may fall into the same sin." "You therefore, beloved, seeing you know these things before, beware lest you also, being led away by the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory, both now and forever. Amen."\par \par \pard\cf1\f1\fs23\par } he some preliminary and general observations regarding the Epistles to the Seven Churches of Asia. As we now proceed to the consideration of three of these, let us be solemnized by the reflection, whose utterances they are\emdash not those of John (the scribe, instructed in the Kingdom of Heaven, though he was), but the living words of John's great Master and Lord\emdash words communicated by the divine teaching and resistless energy of the Spirit of all Truth. "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spiirit says unto the Churches."\par \par The first Epistle is that to the metropolitan city of the province at that time; and for many years afterwards, one of the world's greatest capitals. Any one who has had the melancholy pleasure, as the writer has done, of treading the ruins of EPHESUS, can understand, even amid present desolation, how it rose to its proud pre-eminence\emdash what that now pestiferous swamp, with its reeds and morasses, must have been, when it formed a spacious harbor for thej merchantmen of the Aegean Sea; the unrivaled temple of Diana, a glittering mass of white marble from the adjoining quarries of Mount Prion, crowning its upper end. On a height overlooking these, amid the semi-circular seats of its great theater, a view is still commanded of the entire ancient site, reaching far out to the sea.\par \par One can still re-people the present solitude with the once busy life\emdash fancy the coasting-vessel, which more than once rounded the Island of Samos, bearing kon its deck the great Apostle of the Gentiles to the city most tenderly associated with his life and labors. Here, for three years, Paul was engaged in unremitting toil\emdash bodily and mental. Here he encountered the most virulent of persecution. But here, too, he had left behind him the most indubitable proofs of his earnest ministry; for he tells us, "By the space of three years, I ceased not to warn every one day and night with tears." From the language employed in his Epistle to the Ephesians, we caln indeed draw no decisive inference, as there are strong grounds for surmising that that Epistle was rather a circular letter addressed to the Churches of the province, than to the individual Church of Ephesus. But even if the latter were no more than merely included in this most deeply spiritual encyclical, it shows that the Apostle's sacred lessons had there taken congenial root. It is an Epistle which could only have been understood and appreciated by those "blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavmenly places in Christ," and who had been enabled to comprehend, as none other of His converts had, "the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of the love of Christ!"\par \par This Church of glowing zeal and fervor he had afterwards committed to the special charge of his spiritual son, Timothy. And if we can add yet one other to its holy memories, it was when this city of Paul's loving Epistle received in its midst the loving and beloved Apostle John, bearing along with him, according to trandition, the most honored of women\emdash the aged mother of his and her Lord. Someway amid these thorny and tangled thickets of Mount Prion in Ephesus, the dust of the Apostle of Patmos is said to rest. There, as he lived to glorify, so there he waits, to welcome his Savior at His second coming.\par \par Be that as it may, to this 'eye of Asia', as it was proudly called\emdash the civil and ecclesiastical center of Asia, the first of these seven inspired messages was sent by the Great Bishop of osouls. He who was seen in the vision simply "in the midst of the golden candlesticks," announces Himself, by a notable variation of phrase, as "walking" in their midst\emdash going about to and fro\emdash from church to church, from congregation to congregation\emdash we may add from soul to soul.\par \par "Walking"\emdash a term suggestive of His unresting, wakeful vigilance. His under-shepherds may sleep, but He that keeps Israel does not slumber\emdash He neither slumbers nor sleeps. If thesep candlesticks were left to faithless man, how often would the flickering flame languish and die! But He is the true "Watchman of the house"\emdash the sleepless Keeper of the temple courts. Blessed be God, no church, no individual, is dependent on pastor or minister! The presence and sustaining grace of Christ are the secret of all life and light! We are "kept by the power of God." It is because the great God is in the bush, that, though burning, it is never consumed.\par \par The Omniscient Savqior now enjoins John to put on record the grounds of His commendation. He begins with the lights of the picture before filling in the contrasting dark background. The subjects of approval, as we might have expected, are not few, in the case of a Church which, at all events in its earlier life, had proved itself worthy of being made the depositary of such rare means and privileges. "I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested thorse who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for My name, and have not grown weary." All this bespeaks a gigantic and prolonged struggle; just such a fierce struggle as we might have looked for with the multitudinous adversaries in that city, where cultured Greek, and subtle Oriental, and libertine Roman, and intolerant Jew, combined with the native and bigoted votaries of Diana in uncompromising hostility to the faith of Jesus.\par \psar The Elders of Ephesus, when they met Paul at Miletus, had been forewarned by him in his touching address, of the grievous wolves that were before long to assail that faithful fold. His anticipations had been too faithfully verified. With ravening fury they had descended; but though, in the simile of a greater than Paul, the wolf had come, it had failed to scatter the sheep. He whom they had taken as their Shepherd, whose cause and religion they had boldly espoused, had noted their "labor" (thetir toiling, oppressive labor, as the word means); their "patience" under threat, and persecution, and violence; their "intolerance" alike of doctrinal defection and inconsistent conduct\emdash "You cannot bear those who are evil;" their rigid and impartial discipline, exercised in the case of all false teachers and false brethren who were sneakily bringing in damnable heresies, which, under the semblance of human wisdom, were undermining the foundations of the faith. Amid scorn, and ridicule, and worldly uloss\emdash with martyr-heroism and martyr-patience, they were firmly enduring all for His name's sake! What a noble eulogy! What more could be said on His part? What more can be lacking on theirs? It almost seems as if the supreme Judge of all had in a miniature court averted the great Judgment-scene, and pronounced His unqualified "Well done!" on their good and faithful service.\par \par And yet this prolonged eulogy\emdash this full catalogue of well-earned praise, is followed with a "neverthveless." "Nevertheless, I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love." The first ardor of their early love had cooled. It was only a few brief years since Paul's Epistle was sent, but its phraseology would need to be sadly altered and modified now. Their Lord's saying on Mount Olivet had a mournful fulfillment regarding their collective body, whatever might be the individual exceptions\emdash "The love of many shall wax cold." He speaks of them as "fallen"\emdash fallen from a high eminence\ewmdash like once-soaring eagles, now with wings collapsed, struggling in the dust, their noble plumage soiled and ruffled\emdash their glory gone!\par \par Does not this righteous upbraiding come home in solemn, searching truthfulness to many churches, many congregations, many hearts? Where is the fire and fervor and devotion of your first love? Is God's word by His old prophet a bygone memory\emdash "I remember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of your espousals?" Has the love of the worxld, or the love of sin, has neglect of prayer and of the means of grace, dulled and deadened spiritual life\emdash so that there are no kindlings of soul, as once there were at the mention of the name and the love of Jesus? Has a mechanical, formal orthodoxy taken the place of the life of faith and the life of devotion?\par \par What is to be done? Is the dull torpor, the mournful deterioration to be perpetuated? Is the lamp to be allowed to flicker and dim and die away in the darkness, without yan effort to resuscitate the flame? No! the Lord's loyalty in rebuking us, is only to prepare the way for a gracious challenge\emdash "Remember therefore from where you are fallen, and repent and do the first works." However great or ignominious the fall, it is never too late to rise and redeem the neglected past. "Turn! turn!" He seems to say, "that you die not." And turn not by rekindling a mere fitful glow of ardent emotion, but by doing "the first works"\emdash the true tests and exponents of a genuinze revival of that love which has suffered so sad a decay.\par \par The opportunity, however, may be short. If the season of grace and repentance be allowed to pass unimproved\emdash "I will come unto you quickly, and will remove your candlestick (or lamp) out of his place." The one glimmering, unfaithful candle is only taking up room in the temple-court, which another would better supply. It is like the barren fig-tree of the parable, drinking in to its worthless stem and branches the summer rai{ns, and dews, and sunshine which would have nurtured abundant fruit in others. In either case, the defaulter must be removed, for needlessly occupying temple-space or cumbering productive ground.\par \par Oh! it is a solemn thought, alike regarding churches and individuals, that it is only by reason of the Lord's marvelous patience and tolerance they are preserved. The hour of mercy is on the wing. "Except you repent" trembles on the lips of the infinitely forbearing One. His Spirit will not alw|ays strive. If His patience be tampered with and abused\emdash if a church, instead of going from strength to strength, degenerates from weakness to weakness\emdash the long-deferred sentence must go forth! How did it fare with Ephesus? Alas! she knew not the time of her visitation. The grievous wolves completed the havoc of the fold\emdash the waning love gradually lessened\emdash the once-bright candle was quenched in darkness!\par \par And where is the queenly city and her loyal, God-loving c}hurch now? The place that once knew them, knows them no more\emdash the pen of desolation has written on every fragment of her moldering ruins, "I will remove your candlestick out of his place!"\par \par The Divine Savior, after recurring once more to a redeeming feature in the case and character of the Ephesian Christians\emdash their determined stand against the licentious creed and practice of the Nicolaitanes or Baalamites, concludes with the first of the beautiful cluster of figurative prom~ises\emdash "To him who overcomes will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God." In wrath He remembers mercy. Judgment is His strange work. He who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb, and who stays His rough wind in the day of His east wind, always mingles reproof with kindness. He wills not the death of the sinner, but rather that he would turn from his wickedness and live.\par \par In that apostate Church there were doubtless a few still faithful\emdash still glowing with the old fervor of pristine love\emdash a few olive berries still on the top of the wintry boughs. It is to such He addresses the closing promise\emdash to those who would hold fast their faith and patience to the end, He would give to eat of the tree of life in the celestial Paradise. In the earliest chapters of Bible story, we have a glimpse of that Tree of life within the earthly Eden; but its gates close and the mysterious object vanishes from our sight. But a more ravishing Eden and Paradise is revealed above, where sin dare not enter, where no cherubic sword guards the way. There, is this Tree with its perennial fruits, wafting immortal fragrance and distilling immortal balm\emdash the symbol and emblem and guarantee to the glorified of the perpetuity of their bliss.\par \par It is worthy of notice\emdash as showing the connection between these Epistles to the seven Churches and the second (and in some respects distinct) part of the Book of Revelation\emdash that the figurative promises of the one have a remarkable correspondence in the other. Indeed, these figurative sayings in the seven Epistles have their amplest fulfillment and interpretation in the subsequent glowing visions of the millennial state and heavenly glory. As an old commentator says, "The first thing promised in the seven Epistles is the last and highest in the fulfillment." In the closing gorgeous vision of the water of life, "on either side of the river was the tree of life, which bore twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." Whatever was forfeited in the Fall will be more than compensated in Redemption. "Behold!" says He who sits on the throne, "I will make all things new!"\par \par And what is the great practical lesson, on a review of this searching and solemn letter? Is it not to prompt the question\emdash How does it stand with us as churches? How does it stand with us as individuals? Have we forgotten the vows of our early heart-dedication? Are the symptoms of decay and declension too painfully visible among us? Is the spiritual death-chill upon us? Has the cable been cut which anchored us to the living Rock, and are we drifting farther and farther out to the great sea of darkness?\par \par Again we ask, "What is to be done?" Is it to be abandonment? despair? No! Let us return and "do the first works" before we become castaways forever! Let us search out the peculiar sins which have caused the terrible departure and quenched the first love\emdash whether it be worldliness, or pride, or sensuality\emdash or, like these Nicolaitanes, turning the grace of God into a license for sin\emdash a boasting profession with an inconsistent or immoral life\emdash whatever has enfeebled the moral courage, and left a miserable, heartless outward form as all the remains of the once-loving soul and devoted purpose. "To him who overcomes," the Divine Head\emdash Himself the mightiest of conquerors; reminds His people of toil and struggle, as the condition of victory.\par \par Nor let us fritter the solemn individual application away, as if the reference had no bearing on ourselves, and was restricted to that martyr age\emdash to amphitheaters and arenas of blood\emdash to Domitian's dungeons and Nero's lions. The conflict, though imperceptible, is often to the spiritual nature, deadliest in a time of peace\emdash when there is nothing to rouse from the slumber of self-security and sleepiness\emdash when we are apt, by base worldly concessions and sinful compliances and self-indulgences; by arrogance and pride; by grasping covetousness and portentous forms of greed; by lax doctrines and immoral life; to deny and dishonor the name and cause of our Great Master.\par \par By those who prefer (for there is a contrast intended) eating the debilitating fruits from the tree of guilty pleasure, there will be gathered none of the fruits of the tree of life in the midst of the Paradise of God. That tree is the reward of conquest, and toil, and self-sacrifice to the fighting Christian\emdash not to the coward and selfish children of Ephraim, who, though appearing in soldier-armor, "carrying bows," have turned faint in the day of battle. On the other hand, nobly fighting and striving, the fruit of the tree (Christ's grace and strength) will be imparted even now, to give nourishment, and vigor, and needful support in all time of our tribulation.\par \par But as it is to churches in their collective capacity to which the Divine Redeemer here specially speaks, neither let us lose the solemn distinctive lesson by dwindling it down in an application to individuals alone. As surely as Ephesus\emdash the home of apostles and martyrs, with her bright sisterhood of Christian cities, was weighed in the balance and found lacking, and has been swept with the broom of destruction\emdash so surely will Britain and America be dealt with if she allows herself to be a traitor to the most gigantic spiritual trust ever bequeathed to a great people.\par \par All churches are on their trial. Well for us if we get guiding-light from these beacons of the past\emdash if we carefully hearken to the cautionary word. The Great Head who moves in the midst of His candlesticks will never be without a Church! He will never be stripped of faithful witnesses to His name and cause. His Churches may be transferred\emdash but they can never, like the candle of the wicked, be put out. The place of the faithless will be transferred to the faithful. If we refuse to shine for Him, others will\emdash if these should hold their peace, the stones will cry out!\par \par Christ indeed may not\emdash and from His utterances in these Epistles will not\emdash be unmindful of a Church's good deeds in the past. Her historic recollections, her struggles, her martyrdoms, are engraved on the palms of His hands\emdash the kindness of her youth, the love of her espousals. But neither let us trust to the possession of mere ancestral fame and prestige. It will not save us when we cease to fulfill our mission, and we become guiltily oblivious of those great truths and great principles for which our fathers suffered.\par \par "Remember from where you have fallen!" Remember! It is a word of rebuke; but it is a word of quickening and revival also. It is designed by Him to recall to us, as to Ephesus, these grand legacies of holier and better times. It is the sharp blast of a trumpet to stir within us the memories of the departed\emdash calling upon us to rekindle the torch dropped from their hands, and which is now, we fear, smoldering amid error of doctrine and laxity of life. "Remember therefore from where you are fallen, and repent and do the first works!"\par \par Be this our reply, in the might of Him who walks amid the candlesticks, "Quicken us, and we will call upon Your name." "Turn us again to Yourself, O God. Make Your face shine down upon us. Only then will we be saved!"\par \par \pard\cf1\f1\fs23\par } -e05. The Epistle to the Church of Ephesus{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs24 The Epistle to the Church of EPHESUS\par \par Revelation 2:1-7\par \par In the previous chapter, we were led to makgn traveler finds himself journeying between these two sacred cities of the Apocalypse, not as in ancient and apostolic days, by means of horse, or camel, or caravan, but by our own familiar train, the only railway that has as yet invaded the desolation of a country so rich in resources of soil, climate, scenery, and imperishable historic interest.\par \par If we found the city of Ephesus specially associated with John, Smyrna is equally identified with another name of undying celebrity in the Church of Christ. Sailing along the magnificent bay (the finest in the Archipelago), at the head of which the city with its 120,000 inhabitants is situated, the eye discerns on one of the crested heights, amid a cluster of tall cypresses, the white wall which encircles the reputed tomb of POLYCARP, the most famous of the early martyrs. This whole Epistle "to the Angel of the church in Smyrna" has a new pathos and significancy added to it, if we connect it with this honored member of the noble army of martyrs.\par \par A careful reader will at once observe that it stands out pre-eminently from the others\emdash as "the Martyr's Epistle." Its theme is suffering and trial. Nothing could possibly be more appropriate than its "comfortable words," on the supposition that the Angel or chief minister to whom these were addressed, was none other than he, who, we know from the earliest annals of the Christian Church, was an illustrious sufferer for the Gospel's sake, and was enabled so manfully to endure his fiery baptism.\par \par There is what may almost be called a romance of sacred interest about the whole history of this saintly Father; "the blessed Polycarp," as the ancient Church, for successive centuries, seems distinctively to have named him. He had lived to a venerable age, far beyond even the allotted fourscore. In the prime of his youth he had become (and that too by no formal profession, but by ardent attachment) a loving disciple of the Lord Jesus. Thenceforward, he himself tells us, for many a long year he served Him with an unswerving and unfaltering devotion. There was much in the outer circumstances of his life to deepen and stimulate the ardor of this holy love. He was the disciple of John\emdash standing to John very much in the relation of Timothy to Paul\emdash "his dear son in the faith."\par \par Irenaeus, who lived a generation later, touchingly tells how he himself in early boyhood had been honored and privileged with the personal friendship of Polycarp\emdash how he used to hear from his lips what had been told him by John, of Immanuel's person, and converse, and earthly ministry. We can picture the scene; the aged Apostle from Bethsaida\emdash one of the inner circle of beloved Disciples, and the most loved of the inner circle\emdash he who of all the honored twelve had drunk deepest of his Lord's spirit, and had the nearest place at his Lord's side\emdash how would he delight, in the mellowed evening of his days at Ephesus, to recall that matchless fellowship! How fondly would he confide every hallowed memory, as it rose before his mental eye like a dream of heaven, into the ear of the trusted friend at his side!\emdash their walks on the lakeshore of Gennesaret\emdash their confidential communion at early morn or dewy eve on their way from Galilee to the pilgrim-feasts\emdash their silent meditations as they wandered at sunset across the heights of Olivet\emdash or during the last and most solemn closing scenes, at the Supper-table\emdash the Garden\emdash the Cross\emdash the Resurrection morning\emdash the forty days\emdash in short, the "many other things which Jesus did" he so touchingly speaks of in the last verses of his Gospel, and which, though he had the heart, he had no room to record.\par \par Think of him thus making the beloved and like-minded Polycarp the depositary of this unwritten Gospel! Need we wonder that the love of the disciple and saint for his great Lord grew and intensified under such teaching, and that, with a transport of emotion, he could utter the words as his own\emdash "Whom having not seen, we love: in whom, though now we see Him not, yet believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory"?\par \par After a life of noble consistency, the hour of trial\emdash the hour of suffering arrived. It was under the reign of the Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius. The storm of persecution was first roused by the malignant enmity of the Jews, who found no difficulty in enlisting and stimulating the passions of the heathen mob. Not ingloriously to evade the hour of persecution, but obedient to the intercessions of his flock, who naturally wished to save for themselves a life of such priceless value\emdash Polycarp took refuge in the adjoining mountains to await there the subsidence of the storm; spending his anxious hours, along with a few others, in wrestling at the mercy-seat\emdash not for his own suffering Church alone, but for the whole suffering children of God scattered abroad. It seemed like a Mount of Transfiguration, where angels and the Lord of Angels strengthened him for the decease which, like a Greater Sufferer, he was about to accomplish.\par \par The cup, however, as in the case of the Prince of Martyrs, was not to pass by him, and he accepted it without a murmur. The secret of his place of concealment was divulged; but the tread of his frenzied persecutors at the door was heard with no words but those of uncomplaining submission. On his way to Smyrna, the magistrate met him, and inviting him into his chariot, sought in vain to shake his constancy. He offered release on condition of retraction. "What hurt," said he, "I beg you, shall come thereof, if you say 'My Lord Caesar,' and do sacrifice, and thus save yourself?" Once more, on reaching the amphitheater, the magistrate gave him the option of having his hands unbound by consenting to curse his Savior. "Be good to yourself," said the magistrate, "and favor your old age: take your oath, and I will discharge you. Defy Christ." The Christian hero boldly replied, in the memorable testimony, "Eighty and six years have I been His servant, yet in all that time has He not so much as once hurt me; how then may I speak evil of my King and Sovereign Lord, who has thus preserved me?"\par \par The judge rose from his seat, and tried to overawe him with the threat, "I have wild beasts to which I will throw you." "Let them come," was Polycarp's reply; "I have determined that I will not turn from the better way to the worse." "Then," said the incensed magistrate, "I will tame you with fire." "You threaten me," returned Polycarp, "with fire, which shall burn for the space of an hour and shall then be extinguished. But you know not the fire of the judgment to come, and of everlasting punishment reserved for the wicked and ungodly. Give me whatever death you desire." His silvery hairs made their silent appeal in vain to his murderers. "To the lion!" was the cry which rose from a hundred voices, alike Jewish and Pagan; and it was only because the beast of prey was already glutted, that they had to resort to the equally terrible alternative of a slow death by burning. The stake was ready. With calm deliberation he stripped off his upper garments and undid his sash\emdash making no remonstrance except for the iron hoops with which they sought to make him fast to the stake. Such appliances he told them were needless, as his heroic steadfastness proved.\par \par To quote the quaint and touching words of the original narrative, "Being bound as a ram out of a great flock for an offering, and prepared to be a burnt-sacrifice acceptable unto God, he looked up to Heaven and said\emdash (truly no nobler page is there, out of the grand liturgy of dying martyrs)\emdash "O Lord God Almighty, the Father of your well-beloved and blessed Son Jesus Christ, by whom we have attained the knowledge of You, the God of Angels, and powers, and every creature, and of the whole race of just men which live before You; I give You hearty thanks that You have allowed to bring me to this day and this hour, that I may have my part among the number of Your martyrs, in the cup of Your Son, unto the resurrection of eternal life, both of body and soul, through the operation of Your Holy Spirit; among whom may I be received this day before You as an acceptable sacrifice, as You have before ordained. For which, and for all things else, I praise You, I bless You, with the eternal and heavenly Jesus Christ, Your beloved Son: to whom, with You and the Holy Spirit, be glory both now and to all, succeeding ages. Amen."\par \par Owing to untoward causes, he had to submit to lengthened suffering. The sword completed what the fire had left undone; and when all was over, the gang of hating Jews, who had been the first to collect the wood for the fire, instigated their heathen accomplices to refuse delivering up the charred remains to the Christians and accord them decent burial. In the words of the old Epistle, which furnishes these particulars, "By his patience he overcame the unrighteous ruler, and received the crown of Immortality."\par \par What a light does this touching tale throw upon the older inspired Epistle, when we bear in mind that all this tragedy of martyrdom, in which other Smyrna Christians besides Polycarp were involved, must have been vividly portrayed to the omniscient eye of Him who wrote, as if by anticipation, the needful message of warning and comfort! What balm-words for the martyred disciples to carry with them to their scenes of torture, and to which they might cling when the growl of the hungry lions was in their ear, or the fuel was collecting in the arena! What was that comfort? "These are the words of Him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again." Heart-stirring theme of consolation! That He who in His Divine nature was from everlasting to everlasting, had, in His lowly suffering humanity, as the Incarnate Redeemer, Himself passed through the terrors of death, and that these terrors, as in the case of His true people, were only the passage and entrance into endless life! What could disarm that amphitheater and these blazing faggots of their horrors, if this could not?\par \par Then the Almighty Speaker proceeds to a more detailed cognizance of their trials. "I know your works and tribulation" (outward persecution) "and poverty" (the spoiling of your worldly goods, which, being a feeble band compared to your adversaries, you are unable to resist)\emdash "but you are rich." Hostile Jews and mocking heathens and ruthless Roman officials may "oppress you, and draw you before the judgment-seats and blaspheme that worthy name by which you are called"\emdash you may be poor in this world, but you are rich in faith, rich in heavenly treasure. You may be looked upon with cold arrogant disdain as the filth and off scouring of all. But very different is the estimate of the mocking undiscerning world from that of Him who sees not as man sees. I know the world-verdict, "Your poverty;" but here is Mine, "You are rich." Beneath the outward tattered garment obvious only to the world's eye, there is a "clothing of wrought gold."\par \par After forewarning of the blasphemous hate of the Jews\emdash those who arrogated to themselves the sacred name and prerogative of God's Israel, but who proved themselves to be rather "the Synagogue of Satan"\emdash He reveals the unseen leader and instigator of all this foul, and persistent enmity. He is styled here in the Greek 'Diabolos'\emdash that is, 'accuser' or 'calumniator'. "Behold the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that you may be tried." Some may affect to discard belief in the literal personality and power of Satan, resolving these into myth and symbolism\emdash mere allegorical representations (like Bunyan's Apollyon), of the force of human depravity and moral evil. But the story of the Church's martyrdoms tells a different tale.\par \par As Christ seemed often to afford precious discoveries of His own glorious presence to the faithful in the hour of their sufferings, so did Antichrist the great counter-worker (with characteristic malignity, and malice, heading his legions of darkness), come into fierce conflict with the powers of light in these stern battlefields of torture and endurance. In both cases\emdash invisible indeed, yet not the less truthful\emdash did Michael and his angels fight against the Devil and his angels. John would, moreover, be prepared by a reference to Satan's power in this opening Epistle, to acknowledge and estimate his activity and influence in the subsequent visions\emdash playing his own terrible part in the nations' future drama as the gigantic propagator of evil\emdash "the god of this world"\emdash "the Prince of the power of the air"\emdash "making war with the saints."\par \par In the present case, the trial, though sharp, is to be brief\emdash "You shall have tribulation ten days. But the Great Captain of salvation exhorts\emdash "Fear none of those things which you shall suffer." In the might of Him\emdash the First and the Last\emdash who, once dying, now lives for evermore, they are to be made more than conquerors! Greater is He who is with them than he that is in the world. And even should a cruel and violent death threaten, they can regard it only as a glorious passage to endless life; they can mount their fiery chariot, and as they are borne upwards in the flames, can sing, "Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!"\par \par He ends with the encouraging and appropriate exhortation and promise to the Angel, in the prospect of what Irenaeus calls "that glorious and splendid martyrdom"\emdash "Be faithful unto death, and I will give you a crown of life." Very beautiful is this closing promise, whatever figurative meaning and acceptance we may give it. At first sight we may recognize a new and impressive recurrence to the simile which Paul again and again employs in his Epistles with reference to the Grecian foot-race\emdash the runners pressing on to the goal, straining every nerve in the exciting contest\emdash and the crown, the laurel wreath, awaiting the victor at the end of the stadium, ready to be bound around his brows. More than one commentator, however\emdash and we think on good ground\emdash dissents from this interpretation.\par \par There is a harmony and uniqueness of design in the Apocalypse, as in all the other parts of Sacred Writ; and a nice and careful investigation will show, that though the Book itself be full from first to last of emblems, none of these are taken from the customs of the heathen. While the Apostle of the Gentiles never scruples to take a Pagan custom or rite to enforce a sacred lesson, the imagery of the Apocalypse is altogether Jewish, or rather is composed exclusively of sacred symbols, from the Temple candlesticks onwards. And if, as one discriminating writer remarks, the palm-bearing multitude in a subsequent vision seems at first sight to refute this theory (with its reference to the symbol of Greek or Roman triumph), it is strictly speaking no real exception, as a much more natural and beautiful meaning is its allusion to the palm branches of the Hosanna-day used by the multitudes at the great Jewish festival, the 'Feast of Tabernacles'\emdash the eternal commemoration, not so much of victory, as of rest in the true land of Canaan.\par \par The crown of life, therefore, here spoken of, would seem rather to indicate a royal crown\emdash "a badge of royal dignity"\emdash Peter's crown of glory\emdash Paul's crown of righteousness\emdash the crown given to God's king and priest\emdash the crown especially bestowed on the enduring martyr, as in that same record of Polycarp's death already referred to it is said, "he was crowned with the crown of martyrdom."\par \par Yes! we repeat this is emphatically the martyr's epistle\emdash the flame\emdash the prison\emdash the torture\emdash the sword\emdash are traced through it all. We in this peaceful age, when the faggot is quenched, and the dungeon is closed, and the sword sheathed, cannot enter into its especial comforts. But let us, as we close it, feel as if we had been treading sacred ground\emdash tracing words of hallowed consolation which ten thousand trembling hearts have read in their hour of darkness and horror\emdash words which have breathed many a blessed requiem while the tortured flesh was still palpitating and the soul struggling to be free; which have revealed to the sufferers in the hour of death, amid a canopy of smoke and flame, the white-robed angel\emdash yes, the Lord of Angels\emdash holding out to view an unfading diadem.\par \par And what seems its great lesson to us? if not this, LOYALTY TO CHRIST. The Church of Smyrna had no such roll of varied commendation as that which we found recorded concerning the Church of Ephesus. But neither is there in her case the "nevertheless" which qualifies the former, and demands from the lips of the All-Seeing a "Repent." Though nothing, however, specially and distinctly commendatory is said, she is spoken of by implication as "faithful"\emdash suffering and willing to suffer, for her divine Master's sake\emdash poverty, imprisonment, death. For this, the glorious gift and reward of life is hers\emdash the life purchased by her risen Head\emdash a part and portion of His own resurrection-life\emdash " Because I live you shall live also."\par \par Are we faithful stewards to our trust, whatever that trust may be? Are we faithful to our work, whatever that work maybe? Even though we may be painfully conscious of our lack of success\emdash seeing at times our weapons shivered in our hands\emdash the best and noblest efforts and struggles of life\emdash efforts for God and for Christ apparently a failure\emdash the fire burning our work\emdash the tide washing our breakwaters away? Never fear! It is faithfulness, not success, God looks to. The last great words of the Great Day will be these\emdash "Well done," (not good and successful, but) "good and faithful servant."\par \par What we have alone to fear is, what is here unfolded in the closing utterance of all\emdash "the second death"\emdash that death which is the fearful inheritance of the 'unfaithful'\emdash "the faithless and the unbelieving"\emdash that death which has too its transition into life\emdash but it is a life in which the raised and revivified body is married to the lost soul! A fearful thought truly to the sinner, but bringing no terror to the saint; for "he that overcomes shall not be hurt of the second death;" "on such the second death has no power."\par \par Let us be up and doing our appointed task; for soon the allotted term of working will be past, followed by the hour of reckoning and recompense. Death will not come, as in Polycarp's case, with the flame and the sword\emdash but rather most probably with noiseless step and gentle whisper. But that solemn moment we have so often thought of and so little thought of\emdash that moment when the last grain of sand in the hourglass shall run out\emdash come it must\emdash sooner than we dream of. And the great question is, How shall we meet it? Shall it be with the martyr's prayer and the consciousness of fidelity? or with the inward shudder of those who are standing on the brink of an undone Eternity? God save us from such an alternative! Be it ours now to make a heart and life surrender of ourselves to that great Conqueror, who has plucked the sting alike from the first and the second death. Relying on the strength of Him who 'was dead, and is alive, and lives for evermore,' let us feel assured that victory will at last crown our steadfast and loyal allegiance to His cause; and that we shall be able, in some lowly measure, to appropriate that beautiful comment on this whole Smyrna Epistle contained in the words of James, "Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him!"\par \par \pard\cf1\f1\fs23\par } GGB1a07. The Epistle to the Church of Laodicea{\rtf1\a"))06. The Epistle to the Church of Smyrna{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs24 The Epistle to the Church of SMYRNA\par \par Revelation 3:8-11\par \par A distance of forty miles separates Ephesus from Smyrna. The modernsi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs24 The Epistle to the Church of LAODICEA\par \par Revelation 3:14-20\par \par Laodicea was an emporium of trade, distinguished especially for woollen manufactures of rare texture-fabrics woven from the hair of the sheep and goats which browsed in vast flocks on the surrounding pastures. It was also noted for those ointments and cosmetics so prized by Orientals, and which still afford no inconsiderable commerce to the surrounding cities. Being, moreover, on the high road of commerce between Ephesus and the East, it had gathered within its walls a goodly number of merchant-princes. Its gold was well known to the traders, who with their caravans passed through its streets. Although shorn of much of its outward magnificence in the year 62 A.D., owing to the devastations of an earthquake, yet, as a test of its opulence, the havoc thus made, was repaired by the citizens alone, unaided by any imperial grant. Now a miserable village, there are yet remains, in the shape of broken columns and ruined aqueducts, to attest its former luxurious splendor.\par \par These characteristics may be mentioned, because some of them at least, as will presently be seen, throw light on the peculiar symbolism and figure employed in the Epistle. A Church had been planted there in Apostolic days. Paul, thirty years previously, refers in his Epistle to the adjoining Church of Colosse, to "the great conflict he had for them of Laodicea." However successful that hard fight may have been in the days of the Hero-Apostle, his death would seem to have turned the tide of battle: the simplicity of the 'truth as it is in Jesus' succumbed before the spirit of evil, which had its outward manifestation in worldliness, pride, and lukewarmness.\par \par The figurative language of the latter portion of the letter (to which we shall in this chapter confine ourselves) seems appropriately borrowed from the merchant city. Its material gold and silver and gay clothing\emdash its woollen mantles, silk trappings, and abundant traffic\emdash are taken as the symbols of boastful self-sufficiency and complacent self-righteousness\emdash masking and concealing its own utter beggary and nakedness in the sight of God. The Great Redeemer, the author of the Epistle, represents Himself as a traveling merchantman, the head of one of these Eastern caravans, coming laden with true riches and heavenly vestures, divine ointments and perfumes, to supply the place of the spurious and the counterfeit. He personates such a merchantman going from house to house and from door to door with His own priceless goods\emdash those spiritual verities which no material wealth can purchase.\par \par Standing in front of each dwelling, He proclaims in the ear of its residents, however unwilling to hear\emdash "You say, I am rich, and increased with goods" (or 'I have enriched myself'), "and have need of nothing; and know not that you are wretched, and miserable" (or rather, 'the wretched one and the miserable one'), "and poor, and blind, and naked." And then, having uttered the solemn protest and warning, He calls on His listeners with their hoarded goods to draw near. He opens up these, His own costly wares, the gold without alloy, which no Ophir mine could produce\emdash the glistering white vesture of His own righteousness, which no loom on earth could weave\emdash salves and aromatic oils for true spiritual vision\emdash ointments for the head, which no earthly laboratory could furnish.\par \par These Laodiceans were living in guilty self-deception. They were clad in gaudy clothing. They were imagining themselves to be in king's houses while they were bankrupts\emdash their whole life and being was a lie. "Open your doors," says the Great Vender of spiritual riches\emdash "transact with ME." "I counsel you to buy from Me gold tried in the fire, that you may be rich; and white clothing, that you may be clothed, and that the shame of your nakedness may not appear; and anoint your eyes with eye-salve, that you may see."\par \par The summons however seems to be in vain. The earnest importunate voice is, by these self-satisfied and self-contented Laodiceans, disowned and neglected. On, however, He pursues His way from street to street and from house to house, repeating the warning and the gracious offer, until the shadows of evening begin to fall. The hours of His sojourn are numbered. Tomorrow, this wayfaring Man, who has turned aside to tarry for a night, must depart. By early morn the camels must be re-loaded, the tents outside must be struck, and He must journey onwards to offer the rejected treasures to other cities. But He will not leave\emdash He will not abandon His blessed purpose of love, without one other effort at the doors of those who had in their folly spurned Him away. Though needing rest Himself, He is busied from sunset until midnight-hour in re-traversing the now silent streets, and thus exclaiming, as He stands in front of every dwelling, "behold, I stand at the door and knock." Alas! for Laodicea. These pleadings were disregarded. Christ had knocked at her dwellings, but He had knocked in vain.\par \par Separating these latter words of the Epistle from their special reference to the Laodicean Church, and giving them a universal, or rather a spiritual and personal application, let us dwell for a little on this amazing picture. The rejected yet loving Savior\emdash the Divine Merchantman from the Heavenly City, a suppliant at the door of the sinner's heart. The two brief words in this brief clause are each of them suggestive, "Behold I STAND" and "Behold I KNOCK."\par \par I. The attitude of standing suggests His CONDESCENSION. If condescension be a relative term, and increases in proportion to the distance and disparity between him who exercises it and those who are its objects, where can there be condescension similar to this? There are noble instances of condescension and kindness in earthly chronicles. We have read of those of lofty rank, who, at the promptings of philanthropy, have gone down into the dens of misery and vice, to relieve suffering and mitigate wretchedness. Tales still linger in the memories of nations, of disguised sovereigns entering the hovel of distress\emdash hands that grasped the scepter of empires, drying the orphan's tears, soothing the infirmities of age, or the pangs of sorrow.\par \par We can ascend a step higher still. We can leave the crowns and monarchs of earth, and imagine one of those bright Seraphs who hymn their songs in the upper Sanctuary coming down to our world on some mandate of mercy, hovering around the straw-pallet of some Lazarus-beggar, stooping to smooth his death-pillow, before bearing the spirit to Abraham's bosom. But what even is this?\emdash these angels bathing their wings of light in the floods of infinite glory before the throne\emdash what is this stoop of theirs, in comparison with that marvelous tale of Him who announces Himself in the opening of this Epistle as "the Amen\emdash the faithful and true Witness\emdash the beginning of the creation of God"\emdash whose throne is of old from everlasting\emdash the blaze of worlds, the jewels of His crown\emdash who has reared every arch and pillar in Nature's temple\emdash making its bells to ring an eternal chime to His glory? Yes! Behold Him who has kindled up the altar-fires of Heaven, who calls every star by name, and from whose boundless empire this tiny earth of ours would be no more missed, than the fall of the leaf in the forest, or the bursting of the bubble on the ocean\emdash to whom the universe is but as the small dust of the balance, all time but as the beat of a pulse or the swing of a pendulum! Behold Him, the mighty uncreated Lord, the all-glorious Redeemer, "of whom are all things, and by whom are all things!" Behold Him "as one that serves"\emdash His head bared to the pitiless storm, a petitioner at the door of a human heart!\par \par 2. This attitude of standing suggests further, the thought of FORBEARANCE and IMPORTUNITY. "Behold I stand!" 'I have been standing long,' He seems to say, 'and I am standing still; and though My head is wet with dew and My locks with the drops of the night, I am unrepulsed by a life of ingratitude\emdash how can I give you up?' If He had been the very kindest of human benefactors, His patience would have been long ago exhausted, His pleadings silenced, His remonstrances closed. But "have you not known, have you not heard, that the everlasting God the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, faints not, neither is weary?"\par \par His loving appeals are like the billows which, century after century, lashed into fury, have been beating on the rock-bound coast. They make no departure. They strike, but return, chafed and buffeted and baffled, to their ocean-bed, to gather up new strength for a fresh assault. Emblem of the rocky heart. The ocean of a Savior's love has been knocking and surging against it, for days and weeks and months and years. Yet, though beaten back by that adamant stone, it returns with new force to the charge. Wondrous thought, the importunity of Christ with sinners! What patience! Think of the myriads of hearts He has thus been pleading with for 6000 years! Think of the different ages and dispensations! Think of the different climates and tongues! Who would have imagined anything else but that these stern refusals would have driven Him forever away to other hearts and homes that would give a holier and kinder welcome? But, "Behold, I STAND!"\par \par Let us pass now to inquire into the import of the second term here used\emdash "Behold, I KNOCK." Christ knocks at the door of the heart in various ways.\par \par 1. He knocks by His Word. It is the rod of His power. "Is not my Word as a hammer," says He, "that breaks the rock in pieces?" His preached Word has ever been made by Him mighty to the pulling down of strongholds. It would be a poor matter indeed for a mortal man, in his own strength, with stammering tongue and feeble arm, to try and plead with sinners, and wrench the bolts from the doors of their hearts. But, "the wisdom of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." It matters not by whom the warriors' bugle-note is sounded which musters the host for the charge. It stirs the bosoms of the brave. It may be piped by coward and unworthy lips: but the old, familiar, heart-stirring strain sends the flush to the cheek and the flash to the eye, and puts nerve and sinew into the most prostrate arm. The great Gospel-trumpet, by whomsoever blown, is the trumpet of God. It sounds forth the words of God; and, as such, they shall not return to Him void. Many a poor, faint, coward-heart, in the hour of spiritual battle, hearing these, out of weakness has been made strong, waxed valiant in fight, and turned to flight the armies of the aliens.\par \par But see that you refuse not Him that speaks. Remember, every resisted knocking will woefully diminish the chances of opening. If first convictions are allowed to die away, the world's oblivion-power does its work. The next Sabbath returns\emdash its impressions are feebler. The heart, from very familiarity, becomes gradually more callous, uninfluenced, unimpressed\emdash lapsing into awful unconsciousness to the perils and prospects of eternity. And then, how sad! when these knockings of Christ fall, like the gushing tears of the bereaved, as they sob their tale of unresponded-to anguish in "the dull, cold ear of Death!"\par \par 2. Christ knocks by sickness. A bed of languishing is spread. A man is called to renounce bodily strength and prosperity for an unexpected pillow of pain. Christ had often and again knocked at his heart while busied in the world; but the hum of an engrossing industry\emdash the fever of gain and money-making\emdash allowed not the voice to be heard. He had given him the talent of health; but he had been a traitor to his trust, for no atom of time had been consecrated to the soul and eternity. He takes him aside and lays him on a couch of disease. In the quiet of that lonely chamber, the world's carking cares and siren voice now hushed and overborne, Jesus speaks! Yes, and often He speaks there loudly too. The man is hurried, without a note of warning, to the borders of the grave. The dim lamp of life flickers in its socket. It was but last week he was in the Exchange or in the market. It was but last week he was following his plough, or digging his garden, or standing by his counter, or plying his vigorous hand in his workshop. And this week, he reads in the physician's countenance, and in the choking sobs and ill-suppressed tears around his bed, that eternity is near at hand. How loudly does Christ then knock! How loudly does He speak\emdash "Prepare to meet your God!" While the answer is breathed out in trembling agony, 'Lord, I cannot meet you as I am!\emdash a few more days\emdash a few more weeks! Oh, spare me, that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more!'\par \par Has He thus been speaking to any of us? Are we the living monuments of His sparing mercy? Has He heard our prayer?\emdash has He arrested the axe, and revoked the sentence, "cut it down?" Let not His voice die away like the retiring thunder. Be it ours to say\emdash "I will pay You my vows which my mouth has spoken and my lips have uttered while I was in trouble!" "The living\emdash the living, even he shall praise You, as I do this day!"\par \par 3. Once more, Christ knocks by bereavement and death. This is the loudest knock of all. The lion is said to make the forest echo loudest in a storm of thunder. With reverence be it said, He who is "the Lion of the tribe of Judah," and who is spoken of in this Book as uttering voices "as when a lion roars." Yes! Jesus speaks and knocks loudest in the season of affliction\emdash in the lowering, thundery, storm-wreathed sky. Some beloved object of earthly affection is taken away. The world is a wilderness to the stripped and desolate heart; embittered are all its joys, poisoned its sweetest fountains. Who is there but can tell of such knockings as these? When, seated in the chamber of dissolution, you saw some cherished spirit taking its flight, leaving you to weep unavailing tears and to breathe unavailing prayers\emdash hoping against hope that it might be some wild and feverish dream which the morrow would dispel? The morrow comes, but with it the waking thoughts of agony\emdash Jesus knocks! In the silence of that death-chamber, when seated with emotions too deep for utterance, Jesus knocks! Or when standing at the grave's mouth and committing loved dust to its kindred dust\emdash in the awful stillness and solemnity of that scene, Jesus knocks! And when, returning home to the rifled and deserted dwelling, the vacant seat is marked, the absent guest is missed, the joyous voice or innocent prattle, familiar at every turn, its music gone, and gone for the forever of time\emdash and the deep, settled silence of desertion all that is left in exchange\emdash Jesus knocks!\emdash Jesus speaks!\par \par And what does He say? Poor trifler! who did prefer your clay idols to Myself; admitting them within your heart, and keeping Me standing outside\emdash I have seen fit to dash one after another to the ground, that you may be driven from the perishable to the eternal.\par \par We cannot, however, enlarge. Time would fail to tell of the many ways by which Jesus knocks. He knocks by prosperity. He can knock through the blessings with which He loads us, as well as through those He takes away. He knocks in all the vicissitudes of life. He knocks by great events, and by trifling occurrences. It may be, the return of some mournful anniversary; or the notice of a death in the obituary; or the passage of a funeral in the street; or the reading of a simple tract; or the well-timed observation or admonition of a friend. Jesus knocks! But who can tell how long? At the present hour He may be making His last appeal\emdash a final remonstrance. For oh! though persistent\emdash slow to abandon\emdash reluctant to give up\emdash there is a point beyond which even His forbearance cannot go. And THEN?\emdash What then? The dread mark is affixed on the doomed and fated doorway, and the awful word is uttered\emdash "Ephraim is joined to his idols; let him alone!" "How often would I have gathered you, and you would not?"\par \par But the tread of His footstep is still heard. His angels are still hovering around, waiting to carry tidings to Heaven of His Spirit's knocking and hearts yielding. Surely this picture of the Laodicean Church tells, as few other scriptures do, that no door, however long closed, can be hopelessly shut\emdash that no heart, however obdurate, can be beyond the reach of grace and mercy. To those of whom He spoke\emdash in the opening of the Epistle, as 'lukewarm,' and of whom He uttered the strong language that, as such, He would reject them with loathing, out of His mouth as a nauseous thing\emdash not only is it at their doors He stands pleading, but to them, if they hearken, He gives the highest, the crowning and culminating promise of all. Accepting the 'gold'\emdash the riches of His grace and salvation\emdash the 'white clothing'\emdash the glistering robe of His imputed and imparted righteousness, He will make them sharers and partakers, and that too in its most exalted aspects, of His heavenly bliss\emdash "I will grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am seated with My Father in His throne."\par \par Let us give to Him the throne of our hearts, that He may thus at last give to us the throne of His glory. Even now, as the Savior's voice is heard, in the majesty of omnipotence, let there be the willing response\emdash "Come in, you blessed of the Lord; why do you stand outside?"\par \par \par \pard\cf1\f1\fs23\par } on 6:1-8\par \par The strains of the threefold song having now died away, all is ready for the opening of the seven seals. "As I watched, the Lamb broke the first of the seven seals on the scroll. Then one of the four living beings called out with a voice that sounded like thunder, 'COME!'" In the context, Jesus had made twice over the announcement, "Behold I COME quickly." And in the words immediately preceding, He had proclaimed that speedy Advent under the most beautiful and appropriate simile\emdash as if the long weary night-watch of earth were near over, and the glorious sun-rising were at hand\emdash "I am the Bright and Morning Star." This herald-voice wakes into expectant joy the whole multitude of His ransomed people. Immediately the prayer goes up from the Church militant on earth, and gets a glad response from the Church triumphant in Heaven\emdash it is the echo of His own announcement\emdash "And the Spirit and the Bride say COME! and let him that hears say COME!" And then, as the Apocalyptic drama is closing\emdash as the last inspired vocables are dying away on the ear of the Apostle, that prayer seems answered. The words "COME! COME!" ascend before the Throne. The reply is given, "He who testifies these things says, surely I COME quickly." And yet again, the impassioned exclamation issues from the conjoint Church on earth and Heaven, forming, as we have repeatedly noted, the terminating cry of the Inspired Record, "Even so, COME Lord Jesus!"\par \par We should regard this four times repeated 'COME' (verses 1, 3, 5, 7) as identical with that which the Spirit and the Bride utter at its close. In the present case, however, it emanates not from the Church, but from the four living creatures; those symbolic beings which we have already described as the representatives of God's vast Creation. As such, we may well regard that fourfold repetition as Creation's loud and anguished cry for the advent of her great Deliverer. We can hardly fail, in connection with this passage, to call to remembrance the Apostle's striking words in his Epistle to the Romans, "For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who His children really are. Against its will, everything on earth was subjected to God's curse. All creation anticipates the day when it will join God's children in glorious freedom from death and decay." The call of these Four living beings then, is just the jubilant hope of material nature embodied in a sublime prayer.\par \par Creation 'in earnest expectation,' 'groaning and travailing in pain,' had been longing for the hour when her birth-pains would be over\emdash when her iron chains of sin and sorrow would be broken, and she would be ushered into her glorious liberty. This "subjection"\emdash these pains and sorrows\emdash could only terminate by the COMING of her Great Lord. That was the grand event towards which all her longings and prayers were directed\emdash the bright rainbow of hope that spanned the lowering sky of a distant future. What can be more beautiful, therefore, than that these four living beings\emdash the impersonations of that Creation\emdash should make heaven and earth ring with the loud Advent-cry\emdash that the breaking of each of the four seals should be accompanied, like the reverberations following the flash of lightning, with the fourfold "Come! Come! Come! Come!"\par \par They had just sung in concert the anthem of material Nature. They had joined with the representatives of the redeemed Church in the New Song of Providence. They had heard the mighty chorus of redeemed and unredeemed in the song to the slain Lamb. And now, when those who had first awakened the strain, see the Lamb opening in succession the four seals of that roll which they knew contained every event that was to transpire previous to the Second Advent; how befitting (though all in ignorance of its contents, and only desirous that no delay should frustrate the fulfillment of creation's hopes), that they should give utterance to her longing desire, 'Make no tarrying, O my God,' by the emphatic declaration, 'COME!'\par \par And this, moreover, would be in strict harmony with the two additional seals\emdash the fifth and sixth. The slain martyr's cry, though in different words, is also for their Lord's coming, "How long, Lord?" And the sixth seal conducts to the very threshold of the Advent-scene\emdash creation's sorest travail heralds the coming of the Prince of Peace. Shall we be wrong, then, in interpreting these four successive exclamations, as nature's voice\emdash or rather the unsyllabled sighs and groanings of a dumb creation taken up by the four living ones, addressed, not to the Apostle, but to his enthroned Lord, the Opener of the seals?\emdash a voice from every corner of a now sin-stricken, woe-worn world, to Judah's Lion and the slain Lamb\emdash 'COME! O Great Being of combined might and tenderness: break these fetters, and usher us into our glorious and promised freedom!'\par \par "Your whole creation groans,\par And waits to hear that voice\par Which shall restore her loveliness,\par And make her wastes rejoice.\par COME, Lord, and wipe away\par The curse, the sin, the stain,\par And make this blighted world of ours\par Your own fair world again.\par COME, then, Lord Jesus, COME!"\par \par This fourfold cry receives a fourfold answer. A vision is given to the Apostle at the opening of each seal of the prophetic roll. In other words, four preparations for the Second Advent are symbolically unfolded to him. Alas! they are visions more of trouble than of comfort. The roll, like that of Ezekiel, is full of lamentation, and mourning, and woe; for it speaks of God's four dreadful judgments as these were revealed of old to the same Prophet\emdash the Sword, War, Famine and Pestilence. He, however, who tempers judgment with mercy, begins in the opening vision with a theme and pledge of comfort: for it is none other than John's adorable Lord Himself who appears in the scenic representation. The Lion and the slain Lamb still retain their places in the midst of the Throne. But apart from these, under the new and expressive symbolism of "a Rider on a white horse" (a horse 'white as light'), with a bow in his hand and a royal crown on his head\emdash Jesus, the King and Lord of all, appears, heading a strange and varied equestrian procession. It is the reappearing of the prophetic Conqueror of the 45th Psalm\emdash The King "fairer than the children of men," with His sword girt upon His thigh, in His majesty riding prosperously, because of truth, and meekness, and righteousness; His arrows sharp in the heart of the King's enemies, whereby the people fall under Him: recalling also the subsequent, where the same Rider, similarly mounted and adorned, appears under the title of "King of Kings and Lord of Lords."\par \par Moreover, while in the three seals which follow, we only have, in equestrian symbol also, His followers and retainers\emdash His approach is in the present case heralded by "the great voice" of the first chapter. There it was spoken of as "The voice of many waters." Here it is, "As it were the noise of thunder," as "He went forth conquering and to conquer" (or, 'in order that He might conquer'). The kingdom of this symbolic warrior, unlike the gigantic ones of Babylon, Nineveh, Macedonia, and Rome, which triumphed, only in their turn to be overthrown\emdash was to be ever advancing. That God-man Conqueror rides forth, invisible, on an errand of victory which cannot be frustrated: "Of the increase of His kingdom and government there is to be no end."\par \par We have already had occasion to note the similarity between some of the visions of Ezekiel and those of John. There is another Jewish Prophet who seems to give the original framework of the present. Zechariah records two visions which bear a striking resemblance to it. In the one he saw, by night, "a Man" (the same Divine-human Conqueror) riding on a red-colored horse, and reining it up in the middle of some myrtle bushes that were growing in a valley. Behind Him were followers mounted on horses also\emdash their color, red, speckled, and white; representing either His attendant ministering angels, or those providences which follow in His train and are subservient to His wishes.\par \par The other vision of the same Prophet is that of four chariots with red, black, white, and dappled-gray horses, going forth to different corners of the earth; representing, in slightly diverse form, these same ministering spirits, or ministering providences, under the bidding and control of the Great Head of the Church: for it is added, "These are the four spirits of the Heavens, who go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth."\par \par Alike in these Old Testament and in the present New Testament figures, the theme and thought of comfort is, that Christ, the Lord of all, either heads the procession or gives His agents their mission and decree. He Himself goes forth, the first in the heavenly scene, marshaling all the other agencies and events, and making them subordinate to His will and pleasure. The very color of the horse on which He is seated is not without its symbolic significance. Unlike the red, and ashen, and black which follow, it is the White horse\emdash the sure pledge of righteousness and ultimate peace and victory.\par \par Such, then, was the first memorable vision given to the Seer of Patmos. Whatever might be those which follow, John could never forget this opening one. His thoughts might be occupied with the details of the subsequent procession as it swept by, after the Leader was out of sight. But the animating presence of that Divine Precursor would never be obliterated. All were following in His wake. The declaration had gone forth from Him who sat on the Throne, alike regarding angels and providences and human agents, "Behold, I have given HIM for a Witness to the people, a Leader and Commander to the people." With a commencement of the Divine drama so full of sublime consolation, the Apostle is so far prepared for the very different visions which were next to follow. We shall do little more than simply specify these.\par \par There was the fiery Red (blood-red) horse with its appropriate rider, the too truthfully symbolic color of terrible war.\par \par There was the Black horse\emdash its rider holding a pair of balances in his hand\emdash the ordinary image of peaceful commerce, of barter and exchange; but here, the equally appropriate emblem of scarcity\emdash when provisions have to be portioned out, not by bulk or measure, but by weight\emdash when the toiler of seed-time could reap nothing from the blighted fields\emdash when the harvest sickles hang rusting in the granary, and the 'famine pines in empty stalls.' "The wheat and the barley, the wine and the oil" specified, are at famine prices: the usurious vendors dealing out a stinted pennyworth to the famishing and hunger-stricken.\par \par There was the Pale horse\emdash ashen, corpse-like\emdash with ghastly skeleton\emdash Death as his rider\emdash Hell or Hades, in grim co-partnership, tracking his desolating path; the symbols and impersonations of the pestilence which walks in darkness, and the destruction which wastes at noonday\emdash the mortality so sweeping, that the wild beasts of the earth are represented as holding their carnival in the waste and devastated region\emdash the valleys of the shadow of death!\par \par What are these successive figures, but Christ Himself, under expressive imagery, rehearsing the significant sayings of His own great prophecy on Mount Olivet, as to the fearful judgments which were to be the forerunners of His second coming? Is it the Red horse? "You shall hear", said He, "of wars and rumors of wars, nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom." Was it the Black and the Pale horse? "There shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in diverse places\emdash all these are the beginning of sorrows." Appalling visions indeed! partially fulfilled in the history of the last eighteen hundred years; but which will doubtless have their main fulfillment in the times immediately preceding the Advent.\par \par And if the reflection suggests itself, How is it that that loving Prince of Peace to have so ghastly and dreadful a train of followers? We answer, they are to be regarded, not as ministers of chastisement on His Church, but rather as His judgments on the unbelieving world\emdash as an illustrious commentator calls them, "The three scourges of the wrath of God." And it is because, even as such, they are anomalies in the kingdom of a great, and good, and beneficent Ruler\emdash (the curses evoked by the sin of man)\emdash that the fourfold cry goes up loud and plaintive from a suffering creation, 'COME! COME! Why tarry the wheels of Your chariot? Undo the bandages that bind and cripple this wounded, anguished earth, and set her forth from her pining couch, walking, and leaping, and praising God!'\par \par Never let us forget that it is SIN which has been the author of all the miseries of our unhappy world! It is sin which has let slip from their leash, the dogs of war. It is sin which has given the commission alike to the black horse of Famine and the pale horse of Death. It is sin which has written so many houses and hearths and hearts desolate, and made the world we dwell in, more a tomb of mortality, than a home of the living. Shall we not long for that event, 'the Blessed hope,' which will terminate these symbols\emdash these realities of sadness? When the Royal Conqueror on the white horse shall turn around to His followers and say, "Thus far shall you go and no farther?"\emdash when these followers shall dismount their ghastly steeds, the sword of war slumbering forever in its scabbard: "When Death shall yield his ancient reign, and vanquished leave the field?"\par \par Oh! with all these untold miseries which sin has entailed and perpetuates to this hour, how appropriate, how sublime, is the loud, anguished cry which this vision so strikingly describes as going up into the ear of the Sovereign God, or rather into the ear of the great King and Head of His Church, from every corner of a burdened creation! All nature seems to have become vocal\emdash the earth has resolved itself into one vast oratory for united prayer. Its litany is monosyllabic. Its misery is too deep for language. It can articulate its grief only in the one expressive word\emdash that word is "COME!"\par \par Come! cry the four representative living ones. Come! It is echoed back from rocks and mountains, dens and caves. Come! It is warbled by streams, and repeated by torrents, and thundered by ocean-waves. Come! It is chanted by winds, it is borne on the breath of the tempest, it is wafted amid the shrieks of perishing crews. Come! It rises in mute agony from the battlefields of the slain, the homes of haggard famine, the couches of the suffering, the beds of the dying. Come! It is heard amid the tramp of the funeral procession. It mingles with the wail of the mourner. It ascends, saturated with tears, from ten thousand graveyards. Come! Blessed Redeemer! break the seals, unfold the roll, let loose the judgments. Prepare the pathway for Your chariot\emdash end the night-watch and usher in the glorious day!\par \par CREATION, God's great world, animate and inanimate, is thus with giant voice, like a mighty Levite in the courts of her own temple, ever pleading for the hour of emancipation by the coming of her King. Shall we\emdash shall the Church\emdash with all her grander, profounder interest in that majestic event, fail to reciprocate her longings, and pray that her cry be heard and ratified? Shall not the Bride say COME, and him who hears say COME? "Even so! COME Lord Jesus! COME QUICKLY!" "Make haste my Beloved! be like a roe or young deer upon the mountains of spices!"\par \par \par \pard\cf1\f1\fs23\par } \:\ }12. The Vision of the Sealed{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fo'> =M11. The Opening of the Fifth and Sixth Seals{\rtf>U510. Opening of the First Four Seals Creation's Cry{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs24 OPENING OF THE FIRST FOUR SEALS\emdash CREATION'S CRY\par \par Revelati1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs24 THE OPENING OF THE FIFTH AND SIXTH SEALS\par THE MARTYRS' CRY\par THE GREAT DAY OF WRATH\par \par Revelation 6:9-17\par \par In the previous chapter we considered Creation's cry for the coming of her great King, and the visions accompanying the opening of the first four seals of the prophetic roll. The symbolic personages revealed to the Apostle, at all events in the three latter, represented the variety of appalling judgments which were to be visited on the earth and on its guilty inhabitants. But what, meanwhile, of the Church? It is this, under a new and peculiar figure, to which his attention is next called on the opening of the Fifth seal.\par \par The locality of the scenic representation is changed. While it was athwart the broad earthly landscape, that John, from his place at the heavenly vestibule, had seen these strange equestrian riders go forth on their several commissions\emdash it is now inside the celestial sanctuary his eye is turned. At the base of an altar, similar to that with which he was familiar in the courts of the earthly Jerusalem, he listens to voices proceeding from some shadowy human forms. But not, as he had shortly before heard, uttering melody and praise, but rather a loud wail of suffering\emdash not the voices of the living, but, if the expression can be used, the voices of the dead. It was the cry "of those who were slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held"\emdash a cry extending from the death of the proto-martyr Stephen, onwards through long gloomy centuries of persecution and hate.\par \par Time would fail to enumerate the voices which mingled in that cry\emdash to rehearse the entries in that illustrious roll of heroic endurance\emdash the martyrs of the Roman catacombs, who have left the significant signature of their sufferings on monumental tablets in these subterranean vaults\emdash their blood thus crying from beneath the ground\emdash the martyrs of Lyons in the age of Irenaeus\emdash the Waldenses and Albigenses of subsequent centuries, the devoted thousands in the valleys of Perosa and San Martino, or amid the savage wilds of Dormilleuse\emdash the Huguenots of a still later epoch\emdash those involved in the massacres of St. Bartholomew, the fires of Smithfield, the secret tortures of dungeon and inquisition; which no human pen was ever allowed to describe, down to the Madagascar martyrs of our own century\emdash all who have perished by the sword or the axe, the flame and faggot, the hemlock and poison-cup, the cross and the stake; hurled from the precipice, or torn amid the savage shouts of the amphitheater; all who may have a similar legacy of suffering bequeathed to them in the Church of the future.\par \par These martyrs are represented as having their blood, like that of the sacrificial victims of old, poured out at the foot of the altar. Not, be it observed, the golden altar of incense of a subsequent chapter; but the great brazen altar of burnt-offering, where bloody offerings were alone presented. The figuration is in accordance with the literal words of the Prince of Martyrs\emdash the great Apostle himself, when, in anticipation of a violent death, he thus with calm fortitude asserts his preparation, "I am now ready to be offered," (or literally to "pour out" my life\emdash my blood\emdash as an sin-offering.\par \par From the blood of these martyrs in the vision, flowing at the base of the altar, there is a petitioning voice represented as rising loud before Him who sits on the throne, "O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long will it be before You judge the people who belong to this world for what they have done to us? When will You avenge our blood against these people?" It is of importance, however, that we note a peculiarity in the imagery; lest by a false interpretation we be led to regard this as an unworthy cry of vengeance uttered by the disembodied souls of the departed, an imprecation unbefitting the lips of the followers of Him whose dying prayer was that of forgiveness for His enemies\emdash unbefitting the crowned victors who bore their sufferings so meekly, and who might well now forget the fiery chariot which bore them to so glorious a heaven.\par \par Were it no more than to bring the present vision into harmony with subsequent ones, it could not be the souls of the martyred witnesses (in the sense of their glorified spirits) which are here represented as uttering the loud petition to an avenging God. For these, in the very next chapter, are spoken of as having already entered upon their state of exalted bliss, amid the crowd of jubilant worshipers, before the Throne and the Lamb, "clothed with white robes, and palm branches in their hands." It is rather by a bold and beautiful symbol\emdash their natural or animal life, "the blood, which is the life thereof"\emdash sending up its dumb inarticulate protestation into the ear of a Holy Judge. They are themselves (their immortal spirits), as we have just said, above and beyond all such wail of earthly suffering. But at the base of that heavenly altar, on which they are beautifully represented as having yielded their lives in sacrifice to God, they have left their own blood-drops to plead in silence. "How long, O Lord?" "O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongs; O God, to whom vengeance belongs, show Yourself!"\par \par Meanwhile it is added, "White robes were given to each of them." These white robes are generally taken, simply as the evidences of justification and acknowledged righteousness before God. But when Bengel calls the "white stole, or long white vestments, an excellent ornament and high honor," he indicates what we think is a truer and more appropriate meaning. May we not regard them as the distinctive badges of martyrdom and suffering\emdash glistering attire superadded to the "white robes" common to the whole Church triumphant specified in a future vision\emdash heavenly decorations of peculiar and pre-eminent glory, like the stars in the crown elsewhere spoken of, which are given as the distinguishing mark of those who 'turn many to righteousness'?\par \par The cry from that altar-base was not to be in vain. It is abundantly answered, in the subsequent figures, amid the soundings of the trumpets and the outpouring of the vials. God's law of righteous retributive vengeance can admit of no relaxation, either in the case of nations or individuals. Persecuting Pagan-Rome, and persecuting Papal-Rome would in due time have their scourges, to verify and ratify the truthfulness of the saying, "With the measure you use, it will be measured to you." "Shall not God avenge His own elect, who cry to Him day and night?" said One greater than the greatest of these martyred dead. "I tell you He will avenge them, and that speedily." The "souls," however, in the visio n, were told meanwhile to wait for the completion of that noble army of martyrs. It was said unto them that "they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled."\par \par Such then is the vision accompanying the opening of the Fifth seal, the heavenly altar of sacrifice, and the martyrs' cry.\par \par We now turn to THE SIXTH SEAL. It may deliberately be affirmed that there is no word-pa inting (if the term may, without irreverence, be used of inspired writing) so grand and impressive in all Scripture, as this "memory of Patmos." The most daring of modern imaginative artists has selected it as his greatest work\emdash although his treatment, however powerful, is confessedly tame side by side with the majestic language of the Apostle-exile. As in the preceding vision, John's eye had been abstracted from the equestrian symbols of the four first seals, to gaze on a great altar of sacrifice w ithin the celestial Temple; so now again, is he called back from the heavenly to the old earthly landscape\emdash to sun, moon, and stars, rocks, and islands, and mountains. But these are in a state of convulsion and chaos.\par \par Nature, in a paroxysm of agony, reels to her core. Not now, among living creatures and elders\emdash not now, among the white-robed martyrs\emdash not now an auditor of the sweet psalmodies of the skies\emdash but among earth's varied tenants, from the crowned monarc h to the bond-slave in his chains, he listens to a wild but unavailing cry for help. And who is it that has evoked this wail of terror? It is no earthly despot\emdash no earthly incarnation of tyranny and oppression. It is not even the subordinate figurative riders of the preceding seals, mounted on the red horse of war, the black horse of famine, the pale horse of pestilence and death. It is One "mightier than the mightiest." It is the majestic Being seated on the Throne! It is the wrath, not of a perishable mortal, but "the wrath of the LAMB!"\par \par The wrath of man is great; the rage of the nations, as depicted in the sequel of the Book, is terrible; the track of the conqueror is "with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood." But what is this, compared to what forms the climax and closing of this appalling vision, "the Day, the Great day" (as it stands in the original) "of His wrath has come, and who shall be able to stand?"\par \par Now, to what does this tremendous description refer? In answering the question, we must bear in mind here also, that the interpretation of the present vision must be harmony with those which precede it. While what is called the historical school regard these seals as representing successive epochs or eras following one another in chronological sequence, and their fulfillment exhausted when the eras are past; we are disposed far rather to consider the figures, not as progressive, neither as restricted in their application to any one particular period, but co-extensive over the entire ages of the Church, from the time in which John wrote to the end of the world.\par \par Nor is it any violation of this theory, to credit some particular epochs with a larger share of the realities described in the visions than others. The red horse of WAR may have been more rampant in one age than another: in that of Nero, Vespasian, Attila, Mahomet, or Napoleon. The black rider of SCARCITY may have had to poise his balances with a more trembling hand in one era than another: for example, during the Roman age\emdash in the reigns of Alexander Severus and Caracalla, which enjoyed an unhappy distinction for their grinding taxation and merciless fiscal oppression; or during those invasions which desolated the dismembering Empire of the Caesars, and when millions were left to send up their unsuccoured cry amid once smiling fields, now blackened with ashes and smoke, dearth and famine.\par \par The grim rider with his follower on the Pale horse, may have had wider scope at one time than another for their baleful work, in the decimating PLAGUE and PESTILENCE. The cry of the martyrs was doubtless louder than it has been before or since, in what was pre-eminently called "The Martyr age"\emdash during the reigns of Diocletian, Galerius, and Valerian\emdash the first grand effort of Pagan Rome to strangle the infant religion at its birth. Or, again, during the great struggles of the era of the Reformation.\par \par But still, the visions are not to be limited or restricted to any period, or to any special historic events; but rather are to be regarded as co-extensive with the history of Christendom; partially fulfilled in the past, and having, it may be, a fuller and ampler exposition in the future. The Sixth seal must, in this respect, be in harmony with its predecessors. Those who adopt the purely historical view, and represent this wondrous description to have exhausted its fulfillment with the others in the earlier centuries, appear to restrict it to events altogether unproportionate in importance and grandeur with the language of the seal itself. In accordance, indeed, with the general and enlarged interpretation we have assigned to the previous seals, we are far from asserting that this last one may not also have had a partial fulfillment in some of those more appalling revolutions which in the course of eighteen centuries have convulsed the nations.\par \par The Hebrew language\emdash the language of Scripture\emdash deals greatly in hyperbole. Figures are often employed to describe events which, to the prosaic Western mind, would appear overwrought, exaggerated, and unreal. Moreover, we must remember, that the very same symbolism here employed\emdash the veiling of the heavens, the darkened sun and falling stars\emdash was adopted by the Jewish Prophets to depict the woes impending on their own country and capital. We are not therefore disposed to question that, in a primary though subordinate sense, these vast convulsions may apply to the subversion of the enthroned despotisms and tyrannies of the world; and specially to the greatest of all moral and social revolutions, which occurred at the commencement of the Christian era\emdash the downfall of Paganism in the Empire of Rome.\par \par But yet we ask, What unsophisticated Christian, what simple reader of his Bible, can peruse these words, and rest in any interpretation short of the culminating one\emdash that we have here an unmistakable description of THE DAY OF JUDGMENT! Among all the revolutions of earth (and making, too, every allowance for the boldness and license of Hebrew symbolism), what one of them can for a moment lay claim to such a portraiture as this? Whereas, on the other hand, it does appear an appropriate conclusion to a series of visions containing a synopsis of the world's history subsequently to be amplified, to have thus depicted in magnificent coloring the final scene of all\emdash the terminating event of long ages and centuries, in the descent of her great Lord and King to His throne of Judgment; accompanied with the wild cry of the fearful and the unbelieving, to be hidden from the wrath of the Lamb, as they invoke rocks and mountains to screen them from His withering glance.\par \par That great day waited for by all time, has "surprised the hypocrites!" A daring defiant world that had long treated the warning as an idle dream, now by the heaving earthquake, and the falling stars, and the blackened sun, and the blood-red moon, awakes up to the awful verity. The despots who lived for ambition, and the misers who lived for gold, and the mighty men\emdash the warriors who made the earth to tremble, and lived for fame\emdash the freeman in his fancied freedom, and the toiling slave in his iron fetters\emdash all (be their station what it may) all who have lived a selfish, skeptic existence, are now roused in a moment to a bitter agonizing sense of their misery and ruin, call upon rocks and caves to screen and cover them from the wrath of the Lamb, "For the great day of His wrath has come, and who can stand?"\par \par Does not, indeed, the Savior Himself, in significant and emphatic words, uttered in His own final prophecy on the Mount of Olives, give the best commentary on this seal? The very language and figures He employs are the same as here, "Immediately after those horrible days end, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. And then at last, the sign of the coming of the Son of Man will appear in the heavens, and there will be deep mourning among all the nations of the earth. And they will see the Son of Man arrive on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory."\par \par What are our feelings in the prospect of "that great Day of His wrath?" It is the only one\emdash at all events out of four of the previous visions\emdash in which we have each of us individually a sure and certain personal interest. The red horse of war, we know only in pondering the sad annals of the past, or the records of contemporary history; our eyes (God grant it) may never see the plungings of that crimson steed and the unsheathings of that terrible sword. Although ever and always, in other districts of the world, we hear of the locust and the drought together marking out the desolating pathway of the black horse of famine. And although many a pining heart at home, in dens of misery, is familiar with the gaunt visage; yet that pale steed and its balance-bearing rider is a stranger, and in all probability will ever be, to those whose eyes trace these pages. The pale horse of death, in the terrific sense of plague and pestilence, only lingers in the recollection of a few: we have never seen the dreaded mark of doleful memory affixed on stricken doorways\emdash the lumbering death-wagon gathering its bundles in the awful harvest, and pursuing its errand amid silent streets.\par \par The martyr's cry has been heard in our days in the islands of the Pacific and within Spanish and Italian dungeons; but it is a stranger, and will, we trust ever be so, in this land of glorious light and freedom, where social and spiritual slavery are alike unknown.\par \par But not so the awful verity contained in this Sixth seal. We cannot decipher the hieroglyphics of the future\emdash we cannot interpret the times and seasons of prophecy; but this we do know, that sooner or later the hour will arrive, when our ears shall hear that earthquake's sound, and our eyes witness these departing heavens! Oh! with what different feelings will that event be contemplated by the two great divisions into which mankind shall then resolve themselves\emdash when all the conventional distinctions of earth shall be ended forever\emdash when the rich and the poor, the king and the peasant, the slave and the free, shall meet together under the blaze of that descending Throne!\par \par The WICKED, those who have rejected and neglected the great salvation\em dash spurned the offers of pardon\emdash despised the day of grace\emdash dishonored the Savior's name\emdash dethroned Him from their hearts and lives, when "the great day of His wrath" has bursts upon them in all its appalling and blazing splendors\emdash when the earth is shaking, and the heavens are dissolving, and the stars falling from their orbits, it will not be one, or all, of these spectacles on which their eyes will be fixed in trembling agony. One Object, and one Object alone (as if their sens!es were locked to all others), will arrest their gaze, and from which they will try in vain to escape: "Behold! HE comes with clouds, and every eye shall see HIM."\par \par They make dumb nature their god, uttering wild imprecations to its rocks and mountains, "Fall on us! and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the Throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb!" But there is no response; Creation, loyal to its great Maker, is deaf to their call. That wrath MUST be borne; that withering glance of "rejected, unrequited love must be endured. "Who shall be able to stand?" receives no answer in the heavens above, or in the depths beneath. We can imagine the sinner rushing from spot to spot in a wild delirium of despair, making rock and mountain echo to the wail from which there is no response, "Where shall I go from Your Spirit? or where shall I flee to escape from Your presence?"\par \par But "who shall be able to stand?" That cry\emdash that question in the lips of the true and devoted foll#owers of the Lamb\emdash can be answered. In that wildest drama of God's moral and material creation, there will be to him one glorious Rock of shelter and safety, where he may flee until the indignation be over and past. "A MAN shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and as a covert from the tempest." That LAMB, whose wrath will be so terrible to the scorners of His grace, will be the Dispenser of love and blessing to His own people. The pillar-cloud, all dark with terror and wrath to the Egyptians, wi$ll be gleaming with light and glory to His covenant Israel. The Hand, in the one case, 'strong to smite,' will, in the other, be 'strong to save.' Let none leave the safety of that day to hang on the risk of a peradventure . Let not the question remain in perilous doubtfulness, "Am I among the saved, or the unsaved?" Shall I stand, or shall I not stand? Shall that revelation of revelations be to me a revelation of wrath and terror, or one of peace and joy? Can I, even now, take up, in anticipation, the so%ng of one of the glorified dead?\par \par "Bold shall I stand on that Great Day;\par For who aught to my charge shall lay,\par When by Your blood absolved I am,\par From sin and fear, from guilt and shame?" -John Wesley\par \par Yes! it will be 'the Blood'\emdash the blood sprinkled on the lintels and door-posts\emdash that will then be the passover to that righteous wrath. Flee to it now. "Run for your lives! Do not stop anywhere in the valley. And don't loo&k back! Escape to the mountains, or you will die!" Escape! for, as you linger, the ominous clouds may be gathering\emdash the now slumbering earthquake may be about to burst\emdash and grace and repentance and mercy may be among the things of an irrevocable past. Blessed be God, that "great day of His wrath" has not yet overtaken you\emdash Mercy still lingers on the steps of her golden throne. The "still small voice" of redeeming love is now heard preceding "the earthquake, the wind, and the fire." Oh! hearken to its message of pardon and peace, before, in the midst of these symbols of terror and judgment-wrath, "the great day of His wrath has come, and who shall be able to stand?"\par \par While sinners in despair shall call,\par 'Rocks hide us!\emdash mountains on us fall!'\par The saints, victorious over the tomb,\par May sing for joy\emdash 'The Lord has come!'\par \par \par \pard\cf1\f1\fs23\par } (nttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs24 THE VISION OF THE SEALED\par \par Revelation 7:1-8\par \par The sixth chapter, as we have seen, contains a description of the opening of the first six seals of the prophetic roll. We regarded these as presenting a synopsis of the history and experiences of the Church, from the beginning of the) Christian era to the end of the world; the terminating one of the series containing a vivid, but unmistakable, description of the Day of Judgment. The cry had just fallen on the ears of John, from the terror-stricken myriads, "The great day of His wrath has come, and who shall be able to stand?" Can we wonder that, after such words and such a scene as this, the Apostle should feel himself awed and confounded? If such be the tremendous judgments on a guilty world, could he fail to have the question sugges*ted to him, What as to the safety and security of believers\emdash the Family of God? In the midst of that deluge of predicted wrath, could the ark be relied on to ride out the storm? Was there any sure provision made by the Church's great Head to shield and shelter His own people until the indignation be over and past?\par \par There is a pause before the opening of the seventh seal\emdash an episode or interlude, as it has been expressed, in the epic drama\emdash in order to answer this questi+on. The unsettled spirit of the spectator is calmed by a two-fold vision. Although the chapter commences with the words, "After these things," we are not to infer that what follows was intended as a historical continuation\emdash a chronological sequence to the preceding revelations. That could not be, if we are correct in considering the Sixth seal as referring to the Judgment-day.\par \par These six seals, in accordance with that interpretation, must be taken as complete in themselves, commenc,ing with the picture of the crowned Conqueror riding forth on the white horse of triumph, and ending with that same majestic Being coming amid symbols of dreadful majesty to the great judgment day. With that closing catastrophe the series ends; and any visions subsequently given, can only be additional illustrations, by a new set of symbols, of the antecedent ones. Although, therefore, the two figures of the present chapter may point with a more special application to "the time of the end," and the judgme-nts immediately preceding the Second Advent, their consolatory words embrace the whole existence of the Church. They are spoken for us, and for our age, as well as for the days of Augustine, or for the mysterious Armageddon era of an unrevealed future.\par \par The First vision contains a representation of the security of the Church on earth. The Second, of the bliss of the Church in Heaven. In other words, the safety of the Church militant, and the glory of the Church triumphant. It is the firs.t of the two which is now alone to occupy our thoughts.\par \par The Security of the Church on Earth\par \par John beheld "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." We shall come immediately to the figurative interpretation of these symbols: but we are not precluded, in the first instance, from accepting them in a literal sense, as representing the elements of/ nature delegated to the keeping of Angels. Winds, and earthquakes, and tempests are not the capricious outbreaks of unregulated mechanical force. The 'laws of nature' are, in the loftiest sense, the exponents and expressions of God's higher will. "He holds the winds in His fists." "He gathers the waters in the hollow of His hand." "He makes the clouds His chariot." "The Lord sits on the water-floods; yes, the Lord sits King forever." Let us not dethrone and undeify the great Maker and Sustainer, by subst0ituting for His sovereign rule what are called the laws and sequences of nature. "In an instant, I, the Lord Almighty, will come against them with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and storm and consuming fire." Isaiah 29:6. God, indeed, works by law. He is a God of order\emdash not of confusion. But the world's vast machinery, with all its varied and intricate movements, is not less under His supervision and control than higher moral agencies.\par \par It was an elevating t1heme of comfort to the awe-struck Apostle, amid the moral hurricanes that were threatening to break forth, that even the forces of nature were under the governance and regulation of the great Lord of all. Though man sees them not, and science in her pride may smile at the fantasy, there are sentinel-angels\emdash angels of repression and restraint\emdash holding back the impatient winds, controlling the tempests, and calming angry seas; offering no hurricane to go forth on its mission of vengeance until H2e gives the word.\par \par It offers a lesson of soothing consolation to many a stricken heart. That lightning which struck down my child was an arrow out of the quiver of God! That wave which swept him from the vessel's side! That hurricane which overthrew my dwelling, and buried loved ones in the ruins, had their pathway marked out by God. He brings forth the lightning out of His treasuries! He gives the sea its decree! He walks on the wings of the wind! And if we have been mercifully shielded3 from accident; if lightning and tempest have passed us by unscathed, and the waves that have submerged other boats have brought ours to the desired haven\emdash without casting one doubt on the order and stability of physical laws, let us think of John's imagery as the true and ultimate cause of our safety\emdash the angels of God, at His omnipotent bidding, holding back the winds of the earth, "that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree."\par \par But if it be 4admissible, in the first instance, to give to the vision this natural and primary meaning, doubtless its language has a higher significance with reference to moral tempests, and the merciful subordination of these to the controlling will and purposes of the Most High. This interpretation is brought out with greater force and significancy in the verse which follows. John was attracted by the sight of "another Angel ascending from the east (or the sun-rising)." This new celestial visitant has been considere5d by some as only one of the many glorious hosts of the skies, though more glorious and honored than his fellows. But are we not abundantly warranted in according to him a loftier nature still? May we not rather recognize him, under another name and figure, as the crowned Conqueror of the opening seal\emdash the great Angel of the Covenant? His place of advent is from "the sun-rising"\emdash the region of glad hope and rejoicing; an emblem, moreover, more than once used in connection with Christ's Person 6and glory. Had not the father of the Baptist previously described his coming Savior as "the Day-spring from on high," giving light to the dwellers in darkness and in the shadow of death? Had not that Savior thus announced Himself, "I am the Light of the world?" And as the figure of 'ascending from the east' tells of life as well as light, had not the Apostle of Patmos asserted of Him in his opening Gospel, "In Him was Life, and the life was the Light of men?"\par \par This mightiest of Angels\em7dash this mightier than angels\emdash had in His hand "the seal of the living (or "the life-giving") God;" and He cried\emdash as if claiming superiority over the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, "saying, do not hurt the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads." If it be objected to such an interpretation, that the phraseology used, "our God," would be out of place in the lips of the co-equal Son\emdash it is not8 really so. All throughout the Book of Revelation, in reference to the adorable Person of Christ, there is a beautiful blending of the Divine and the human\emdash the majesty of Deity with the assumption of the true though sinless manhood. Were not these His own words in the days of His flesh\emdash not in a moment of profound humiliation, but in the hour of glorious triumph, when the trophies of His great victory were lying scattered around the mouth of His sepulcher, "I ascend to my Father and your Fath9er, to my God and your God?" The Apostle Paul too speaks of God as the God as well as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.\par \par In the same loud voice, then, which met us in the opening chapter of the Book, this magnificent Being utters His command to the four angels of the four winds. He calls on them to keep these in check until they receive His summons. Zechariah's Horseman in the midst of the myrtle-trees is again recalled, who had his angel-retinue behind him, so that no myrtle branch c:ould be touched until they had His authority to do so. However scriptural and however comforting may be the thought of the ministry of angels, let us ever think of them as subservient to Him whose pleasure they fulfill. As in the case of Mary of old, these bright Beings are in themselves unable to dry a tear and take the load off a sorrowful heart; no answer can they give to the quest of the anxious soul, "They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him." But, as it was in her experi;ence also\emdash when the great Redeemer whose deserted tomb they had been watching comes to her, as she stood weeping and disconsolate\emdash the tears which angels fail to wipe away are wiped away by Him.\par \par In our hours of trial, when we listen to the deep moan of the moral tempest\emdash when all is brooding night around us\emdash when in our darkened skies, star after star, it may be, of earthly hope has been quenched from sight, let us turn toward the eastern horizon, Heaven's own re, when dreadful judgments were about to burst on Jerusalem, had a mark set on their foreheads by the man clothed in linen with the inkhorn at his side. John heard the number of those that were thus sealed. He minutely records them\emdash 12,000 of each tribe of the children of Israel. Israel being the figurative, representative name of the Christian Church: in all, 144,000\emdash the number symbolic of completeness. The whole of the tribes too were included\emdash the lowliest as well as the greatest\emda?sh the crouching servile tribe of Issachar as well as the Lion tribe of Judah. What was this, but, under the most beautiful and expressive of figures, to proclaim that of the Church which Christ has redeemed, not one shall be missing\emdash that "all Israel shall be saved?"\par \par As in that most memorable of incidents in Old Testament story, when the Hebrew people stood on the shores of the Red Sea and made it echo to their song of triumph, there was not so much as a hoof left behind, not a c@hild or infant that had perished amid the roar and heaving of the surging waters\emdash all were saved with a great salvation! So is it with the true Israel of God in every age. The floods may have lifted up their waves and made a mighty noise; but "the Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters\emdash yes, than the mighty waves of the sea." Their experience is, "We went through the flood on foot; there we rejoiced in Him." A greater than Moses\emdash the triumphant leader of His ransomed peopAle\emdash as He stands on the earthly shores of His stupendous victory, can say, "Those whom You gave Me I have kept, and none of them is lost!"\par \par John, as we have seen, had just been the witness of terrific revelations, "the sea and the waves roaring, and men's hearts failing them for fear." He had beheld the earth moved, and the mountains carried into the midst of the sea, the waters thereof roaring and troubled, the mountains shaking with the swelling thereof. He had seen direful invadBers\emdash Plague, Pestilence, Famine, Death\emdash go forth on their baleful mission. He had heard the cry of innocent blood ascending from the base of the altar. He had seen dreadful signs in sun, and moon, and falling stars; and voices more appalling still, calling for shelter from Infinite wrath.\par \par Oh! when upon the vision of the Apostle there bursts this aggregate of terror\emdash terrors greater far than those which desolated of old the doomed cities of the plain\emdash what does thCe great Covenant Angel say to His servant John, (the Lot of the Apocalypse)? It is in the spirit of the words which were uttered to that same dweller in Sodom, as the sun in his case too was rising upon the earth, "Hurry! For I can do nothing until you are there." (safe in 'Zoar', an emblem of heaven)\par \par Not a bolt can descend upon the world to destroy it, until all the people of God be gathered in, and the number of His elect be accomplished. Individual trials\emdash personal afflictions\Demdash the Church collectively, and believers individually, must and will endure; they have a heritage of tribulation: but their spiritual safety is unassailable. Every member of the tribe of true Israel is sealed on his forehead by the seal of the living God\emdash God's own indelible mark of election and adoption\emdash God's own pledge of inviolable security. The deluge may sweep as it may, but the Covenant Ark, containing its sacred 144,000, will rise buoyant on the waters. The Lord, as in the case ofE Noah's family, has 'shut them in;' and that Ark will do battle with the storm, until it is anchored on the top of the true Ararat\emdash the Mount of everlasting 'rest'\emdash surrounded by the new heavens and the new earth.\par \par Let us rejoice in this covenant safety. Let us rejoice\emdash not indeed that we are exempt from the trials of life, for that we are not, but that God will allow no trial to be sent but which is for our good. There was an Angel for every wind; there is a restraint Fon every judgment. He will not tempt us above that we are able to bear. Of that true "God of tempests," natural and moral, it is sublimely said, "He arrests His rough wind in the day of His east wind." If we have this SEAL, this mark of God upon us, it will form a mighty amulet (a charm) to dispel all real evil during life. It will be like the blood sprinkled on the lintels and door-posts of old, when the destroying Angel passes by. It will form a glorious passport in the hour of death into the regions ofG bliss. And, as if to make sure that none shall be missing on the great Day of Judgment, "He 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."\par \par But, in closing our contemplation of this vision, let us bear in mind that the sealing, which has its precious lesson of security and safety, has also its solemn lesson of responsibility. Sealing indicates property, possession, appropriation, Hon the part of the sealer. As the sealed of God, we are the property of Christ. "You are not your own, you are bought with a price." The ancient seal contained the name of the king, who put his own mark on his slaves or servants. That seal of John's vision, set on the foreheads of His true Israel, has engraven on it, so to speak, the very name of God. Part of the promise to the Church of Philadelphia, in a preceding chapter, is this, "I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God." The writing of the name should indicate preparation and readiness to enter the celestial city. Is it so with us? Does our character correspond with our charter of heavenly citizenship, demanding as a qualification that "holiness without which no man can see the Lord?" Christ calls us here "the servants of our God." Have we risen to any true realization of the grandeur and the destiny of such a name as this?\par \par \par \pard\cf1\f1\fs23\par } J \par The Apostle has still another vision given to him, previous to the opening of the seventh seal; it reveals THE BLISS OF THE PERFECTED CHURCH IN GLORY. In the preceding figure (the sealing of the hundred and forty-four thousand), his eye had been directed to the terrestrial landscape, amid winds and trees, seas and tempests\emdash the emblems of tribulation. Now he is in the midst of celestial scenery, surrounded by Throne and Temple, white robe and festal palm, the living fountains and pasKtures of the blessed. To the question which we have supposed must have suggested itself, after witnessing the vengeance-symbols, "What of the Church?"\emdash The sealing-vision conveys the assurance of her imperishable security; that, despite of lightning and tempest, plague, pestilence and famine, battle, murder, and death, she will be preserved intact; not a unit in her ranks missing\emdash not a name missing at the great roll-call\emdash that from all her troubles she will come forth "fair as the sun, Lclear as the moon, and terrible as an army with banners."\par \par But the sublime imagery which we are now to ponder, tells far more than this. It assures not only of present immunity from destruction, but of an inheritance of glory\emdash a fullness of bliss and joy, beyond what heart can conceive or tongue can utter! It opens up, once more, the glories of the Heaven already described to us previously, and which will yet be more fully disclosed in the cluster of visions which terminate the BooMk. John not only sees God's seven thousand hidden in sheltering caves of safety\emdash kept by 'the Angel of the Day-spring' from the avenging winds of judgment\emdash but the completed Church triumphant assembled in that calm world which lies beyond the reach of hurricane and storm\emdash engaged with a brotherhood of angels in blessed ministries of love, in the presence of God and of the Lamb.\par \par If we described the language and scenery of the vision, on the opening of the sixth seal, asN unsurpassed in Scripture for majesty and terror, we may well speak of the present as unique and peerless in a combination of beauty, tenderness, and grandeur. Although it almost seems presumption to attempt to paraphrase the words, let us briefly rehearse the substance of the vision.\par \par The Apostle beheld a great multitude (defying calculation), composed of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, standing before the Throne, and before the Lamb. In connection with these, a twofOold emblem or characteristic specially attracted his attention\emdash the white robe in which they were attired, and the palms-branches they held in their hands. The white robe cannot be other than the pure white garment of Christ's imputed righteousness, that in which He presents His ransomed people before the Throne, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing. Tertullian and some of the Fathers, as well as some later writers, have taken the palm-branch as the Greek or Roman emblem of victory. This, howePver, is a misapplication of its significance and beauty. We have in a previous chapter noted, that the imagery of the Apocalypse, so far at least as its references to the Church are concerned, is never classical or Pagan, but exclusively Jewish; we must, therefore, discover the true meaning of the palm-bearers, not amid the victors of Corinth and Olympus, nor in the Roman processions to the Capitol, but rather in connection with some expressive Hebrew rite or custom. This is not far to seek.\par \par Q However appropriate and expressive the references in Paul's Epistles may be to the games of ancient Greece (its races and wrestlings and garlanded victors), in illustration of the Christian conflict and triumph\emdash far more beautiful, as emblematic of Heaven, and especially of Heaven's glorious rest, was the palm-bearing festal gathering of the Jews of old, the Feast of Tabernacles. That feast was the concluding one of the year, when the vines had surrendered their vintage, the olive-groves theirR berries, when the garners of Palestine were full of all manner of produce. It was the feast of ingathering\emdash the great 'harvest-home' of the nation; designed, too, among other things (while celebrating the close of the agricultural season, and the storing of the land's produce), to commemorate the tent-life of their forefathers in the desert, and specially, when these wanderings were over, their rest and settlement in the land of Canaan. It was a joyous, unrivaled holiday throughout the whole kingdoSm. All manual work was suspended. Even their dwellings were forsaken; and the memories of the desert were impressively revived, by constructing temporary booths, made of intertwisted palm, olive, pine, myrtle, and "willows from the brook."\par \par During the continuance of the feast, the jubilant crowds carried in their hands, along the streets or public ways, palm branches, accompanied with festal song. What more befitting imagery of the scenes and employments of the Heavenly Canaan, the land Tof everlasting rest? What more appropriate emblem, when the wilderness wanderings of all God's redeemed Israel had ceased, the Jordan crossed, and Canaan entered, "hungering no more," and "thirsting no more," the fierce sun not "lighting upon them," nor the sirocco "heat" of the desert\emdash than to represent them, not so much as conquerors with the emblems of victory (though that would have been appropriate also), but rather as keeping, through eternal ages, their Feast of Tabernacles\emdash waving theiUr palm branches and singing their anthems of festive joy, crying with a loud voice, "Hosanna! salvation to our God."\par \par And not to anticipate the remaining portion of the vision, this antitypical similitude to the Feast of Tabernacles is still further carried out by a subsequent reference, where it is said, at the close of verse 15, "and He who sits on the Throne shall dwell among them." God Himself\emdash the God of the eternal feast and the eternal rest\emdash will Himself mingle with thVe festive throng; and not only so, but (as the meaning of the expression in the original may rather be accurately rendered), "He shall tabernacle among," or "spread His tent over them." They shall each dwell in their separate booth of joy, and each wave their separate branch of triumph; but there will be a mightier Tent over-canopying all. The pillar-cloud of the desert, unlike the olden type, will follow them across the Jordan of death, and spread its brightness above the rejoicing myriads in the true LaWnd of promise\emdash they "shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty."\par \par The beautiful imagery of the evangelical Prophet will obtain is grandest\emdash its everlasting fulfillment, "Then the Lord will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over all the glory will be a canopy. It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain." The same magnXificent simile is expanded in a future chapter of Revelation. "And I heard a voice out of heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will 'tabernacle' with them, and they shall His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and their God."\par \par The cry of the palm-bearers is "Salvation!" (or more literally), "The Salvation to our God who sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb." They would disown any personal merit in entering upon the enjoyment of such bliss. SalvatiYon, from first to last, they owe to sovereign grace and redeeming love; their palm branches they would cast at the feet of the enthroned Mediator, saying, 'Not unto us, not unto us, but unto You be all the glory.' Moreover, "they cried out with a loud voice." It is not a passing, fleeting strain, which had died away as they sang it; but a never-ending ascription. In the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, the palm branches, green today, were withered tomorrow\emdash it was a scene of transient joy. But these heaZvenly palms are never-fading; robes ever-lustrous; songs never-ceasing; "the rest without a rest," in the Heavenly Canaan.\par \par After John had thus beheld "the sealed ones" of the former vision among the white-robed of the present vision\emdash their safety and bliss secured and perpetuated\emdash he is arrested by the adorations of a wider circle. The redeemed multitude were surrounded by all the unfallen angels, who raise an antiphonal or responsive song. These stood "round about the thron[e, and about the elders, and the four living creatures; and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshiped God, saying, Amen."\par \par And then they added the sevenfold ascription of their perfected song (as it is in the more emphatic original), "The praise, and the glory, and the wisdom, and the thanksgiving, and the honor, and the power, and the might, be unto our God for the ages of the ages." These angels\emdash these ministering cherubim and seraphim\emdash the "principalities and po\wers in heavenly places"\emdash are thus represented as exulting in the bliss of the completed Church of the redeemed. If even on earth there is said to be joy in heaven among the angels of God over one sinner that repents, how can they refrain from testifying their joy at the manifestation of God's glory in the final safety and well-being of His whole Church? If even the return of one wanderer from the fold creates a jubilee amid these unfallen ranks, what must be their joy, as they gaze on the whole gat]hered flock, the mighty multitude which no man can number? If even the restoration of one stone in the ruined temple is to them matter of lofty exultation, what must it be as they behold the vast spiritual edifice completed, "the top-stone brought forth with shouting," and the cry, "Grace, grace, unto it?"\par \par But this beautiful vision revealed to John\emdash this brilliant interlude in the majestic drama\emdash is not concluded. As the song of these angels is still vibrating in his ears, o^ne of the white-robed multitude seems to approach him; as if desirous, by prompting a question, to prolong the great words and thoughts of comfort, before the curtain falls, and the spectator is once more back again amid vials and trumpet-soundings, voices and thunderings and lightnings and earthquake. "Then one of the twenty-four elders asked me, 'Who are these who are clothed in white? Where do they come from?' The respectful reply was returned, 'Sir' (or 'my Lord'), 'you know.'" And gathering from the _Apostle's brief rejoinder that he desired further explanation, the interrogator proceeds, "And he said unto me, These are they which came out of great tribulation (or, supplying the twice-repeated article, which is omitted in our translation, 'the tribulation, the 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 by day and by night (heaven's emblem of perpetuity) in His temple: and He who sits on the `throne shall tabernacle among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat (or sirocco blast). For the Lamb that is in the midst of the throne shall feed them (tend them or shepherd them), and conduct them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes." Or, as our oldest translation has it, "God shall lead forth them to the wells of the waters of life, and God shall wipe away each tear from their eyes."\paar \par We must defer, until next chapter, gathering the manifold lessons of hope and comfort which this wondrous vision supplies. Meanwhile let us ask the question, Are we preparing for the true heavenly Feast of tabernacles\emdash the great reaping-day of glory? That well-known feast and season in the land of Canaan was a joyous one of old, only to the Hebrew who had been unremitting in spring and summer toil. To the sluggard who had left his fields unsown, uncultured, untended, there could be bno participation in the songs of the jubilant multitude\emdash he had gone forth before the fall of the early or the latter rains, bearing no precious seed\emdash he could not, therefore, on that festive week, come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. It was he who had used, with laborious fidelity and drudgery, spade and plough and pruning-hook, who had utilized for field and vineyard the precious rains of heaven, that would bear his palm-branch with most exultant joy, and repose with gracteful satisfaction within his shady arbor. If there were no harvest-spoil to divide, there could be no gladness. "They rejoice before You according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil."\par \par It is so, on a vaster scale, with the spiritual sower and reaper in the prospect of immortality. While we never dare lose sight of the foundation-truth of the gospel, that salvation is of grace, not of works; yet neither dare we reject or overlook the great counterpart asdsertion, which contains at least no paradox or inconsistency to the eye gifted with spiritual discernment, that "faith without works is dead, being alone." No waving of the festal palm, by those who have abandoned their fields of heart and life labor to the thorn and the thistle\emdash who have left the seed unsown, the ground untilled, the vine to languish; and whom God, the great Husbandman, will address with the withering words on the Great day of harvest, "What could I have done more to my vineyard thean I have done? I plowed the land, cleared its stones, and planted it with choice vines. Then I waited for a harvest of sweet grapes, but the grapes that grew were wild and sour."\par \par If we would have the joyous song of the heavenly reaper, we must now be among the faithful and diligent sowers. The rest of the Feast of tabernacles above, is only possible to such. No toil here\emdash no repose, no festal hosanna yonder. "Let us labor, therefore, to enter into that rest." Up! sow your fields fand plant your vineyards; do noble work while you have space and opportunity to do it (in your own hearts and in the world around you) for God and His Christ, encouraged by the cheering assurance, "Do not be weary in well-doing, for in due season you shall reap if you faint not."\par \par To all such willing and devoted laborers; to all who have listened to the summons of the Master, "Go, work in My vineyard;" to all who have done battle with sin, manfully struggled with temptation, eradicated from the seed-plot of the heart its roots of bitterness; who in a spirit of earnest self-sacrifice have renounced the world, and in a spirit of holy self-consecration and self-surrender have given themselves to God\emdash the invitation of Christ to the weary and heavy-laden here, will have a new and glorious significance as He welcomes them hereafter at Heaven's great harvest-home, the eternal Feast of tabernacles\emdash "Come unto Me, and I will give you REST!"\par \par \par \pard\cf1\f1\fs23\par } *. Q14. The White Robes and Living Fountains of WaterhV Eu13. Vision of the White-Robed and Palm-Bearing{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs24 VISION OF THE WHITE-ROBED AND PALM-BEARING MULTITUDE\par \par Revelation 7:9-17\parIi{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs24 THE WHITE ROBES AND LIVING FOUNTAINS OF WATER\par \par Revelation 7:13-17\par \par These beautiful verses (explanatory of the previous part of the vision) we were unable to fully expound in the preceding chapter. They are more, however, than explanatory\emdash they containj some new and precious unfoldings of the Heaven of the redeemed, which cannot be passed cursorily or in silence. After the preceding revelations of judgment and terror, how grateful and soothing to the Seer of Patmos must have been this lull in the storm\emdash this bright though momentary glimpse through the midst of the tempestuous clouds! The words must have fallen on his ear like serenest music. Let us, with him, enjoy the elevated calm.\par \par Laying aside the perplexities of interpretatikon and conflicting renderings which beset many other portions of the Book, let us, under the direction, not of human commentator, but of John's celestial guide, the member of the white-robed multitude\emdash this Interpreter in the true "Palace Beautiful," enter in spirit within the open door of the upper sanctuary. The passage is like a mirror set in eternity, in which the believer sees reflected his future character and condition. We all, beholding as in a mirror our heavenly glory\emdash are encouragedl to look forward to the time when we shall be changed into the same image from glory to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord. The verses unfold to us the former experience and condition of the Redeemed, under the twofold aspect of SIN and SUFFERING.\par \par (1.) It was a condition of SIN, "They have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." From the hour when Abel was admitted a solitary representative of the glorified Church, to the time when its voice shall become "as them voice of many waters and as the voice of mighty thunderings," no human soul has ever passed, or ever can pass, within the gate into the City, that has not been stained with guilt. Every pillar in the Heavenly Temple is a ransomed pillar, bearing the inscription, "The chief of sinners, but I obtained mercy." The whitest robe there was once soiled with pollution\emdash the holiest and purest member of that redeemed family was once a rebel against the authority of the Being before whose throne he is castingn his crown.\par \par What an encouragement, amid our struggles with temptation, the buffetings of Satan, our proneness to backsliding, our depressing consciousness of ever-present frailty and corruption, our defiant pride and hardened unbelief, that this "bright array" have had thus an identity of experience with ourselves\emdash that they have passed through the same "sloughs of despond;" been held captive in the same dungeons of Doubting Castle; felt the same chains of corruption dragging themo to the dust in spite of every effort to rise heavenwards; and have finally reached their thrones and their crowns covered with the scars of battle!\par \par They are now glorified witnesses to the fullness and freeness of the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness. The Blood that has been so precious to them may be equally precious to us, their robes may be our robes\emdash their Heaven may be our Heaven\emdash their God may be our God. The guiltiest there was not too guilty to be the recippient of one of these shining garments; and there cannot, therefore, be a sinner on earth too degraded or vile to listen to the Divine invitation, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world."\par \par (2.) But their past earthly condition was also one of SUFFERING, "These are they who came out of great tribulation." And in the conclusion of the verses we are led to infer something as to what this tribulation was. When we are told they are to "hunger no more, neither thirst any qmore," it is equivalent to telling us, that once they hungered and thirsted, and fainted and groaned and were burdened. And in that most exquisitely tender of all Bible delineations of divine love, God 'wiping away all tears from their eyes,' we are informed that the place where these Redeemed came from was a weeping world, where every eye was once dimmed with tears.\par \par God's Word does not conceal, but, on the contrary, rather publishes and forewarns, that the road to Heaven is one of triarl. Christ prepared His people for the highway there being hedged with tribulation, that if any would follow Him to the crown, it must be by the way of the cross. "Beloved," says Peter, "think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you, but rejoice." These trials are the ladder-steps by which the immortal spirits in this vision attained their bliss. We can almost imagine ourselves listening to their varied testimony.\par \par "God lsaid me," would be the experience and retrospect of one, "on a bed of sickness. I was living a life of engrossing worldliness. I was taking my health as a thing of course. I thought that the strong frame, and vigorous pulse, and undimmed eye, could never, in my case, be shattered or impaired. I had no thought of death\emdash eternity I put immeasurably away from me! He who gave me the abused talent stretched me on a couch of pain. Year after year I was familiarized with the dim night-lamp\emdash the sleepltess vigils\emdash the aching head. Mine was the mournful monotonous soliloquy, 'Would God it were evening! would God it were morning!' But He allured me into the wilderness that He might speak comfortably to me. I now praise Him for it all. Through the chinks of the battered earthly tabernacle were admitted the first rays of the heavenly glory. In the solitary night-watches my lips were first tuned for the heavenly song. Heart and flesh fainted and failed me, but my tribulation led me to Him who is the sturength of my heart and my portion forever."\par \par "I was reposing in the sunshine of earthly prosperity," would be the testimony of another. "The fabled horn of plenty exhausted its ample stores in my lap. Riches increased; ah! I set my heart upon them; they filled my waking and sleeping hours; my closet, my Bible, my family, were sacrificed in the demon scramble. Life was a mad attempt to refute and gainsay the great utterance of incarnate Truth\emdash "A man's life does not consists in the vabundance of the things which he possesses!" At an unexpected moment the crash came\emdash the whole fabric of a lifetime (the golden fabric) fell to the ground. Seated amid empty coffers, and dismantled walls, and blighted hopes, I was led to bring the perishable into emphatic contrast with the eternal. I too thank my God for it all. But for that whirlwind-blast which swept over me, burying the hoarded treasures of a vain existence, I would have died the fool that I lived. But the loss of the gold which wperishes, led me to the unsearchable riches; to lay up treasure beyond the reach of bankruptcy and the fluctuations of capricious fortune."\par \par "I was an idolater of my family," another would tell. "I was leaning too fondly and tenderly on some cherished prop\emdash some gourd in the earth-bower of my happiness. The prop gave way\emdash the gourd withered. But as some gentle spirit (be it that of husband, or wife, or child, or brother, or sister) winged its flight to the realms of glory, itx brought me, as I was never before, into near and holy contact with the Unseen. The tie snapped on earth bound me to the Throne of God\emdash voices from the celestial shore were heard saying, 'Come up here!' I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. Henceforward my heart was where my garnered treasures were. And though every step of my saddened way was sprinkled with tears, every one of these were needful\emdash I could not have lacked one of them; the pangs and voids of the smitten spirit, of which ythey were the outward exponents, served to wean me from this poor world. These thorns inserted in the earthly nest drove me to the wing, and allowed me not to cease my flight until I had reached the golden eaves of the Heavenly Home!"\par \par While, however, we thus speak of the Redeemed as a tried and suffering band, we must not be misunderstood; as if we meant that their sorrows brought them there, and were the procuring causes of their white-washed robes and immortal bliss. No! Though these zonce weeping sufferers had wept an ocean of tears, that could not have wiped away the guilt of their sins. Observe, it is not "These are they who came out of great tribulation," therefore are they before the throne of God; but, "These are they who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." It is not the tribulation which saved them, but the Blood shed by the adorable Redeemer.\par \par Suffering of itself never can conduct to Heaven. The most fearful succession of tri{als can never certify to me that I am a child of God. It is only when affliction is sanctified that I can glory in it. In vain did the angel of old come down to Bethesda to "trouble the pool," unless the diseased person stepped in. In vain does the Angel of sorrow come down to the Bethesda pool of the human heart to trouble it, unless the "troubling of the waters" be followed by "the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit." "Affliction," it has been well said, "never leaves us as it f|inds us. We have only reason to rejoice in our tears, when they serve, not as, alas! is the case with many, only to dim our eyes more to unseen realities\emdash but rather, as the lenses of a telescope, to bring nearer and more endearingly to view a the Better Country."\par \par Let us pass to the other great topic these verses bring before us\emdash THE HISTORY OF THE HEAVEN OF THE REDEEMED. They supply many interesting and suggestive thoughts.\par \par (1.) It is to be a state of PER}FECT HAPPINESS. This comprehends entire exemption from trial and complete freedom from sin; in other words, a beautiful combination of Holiness and Happiness. "You shall hunger no more!" There are there no more longings that cannot be satisfied\emdash blanks that cannot be filled\emdash shadows which mock the hand that would vainly grasp them. "You shall thirst no more!" You who have been wasting your strength on nature's broken cisterns and polluted streams, listen to this. "Thirst again," the attribute ~and characteristic of universal humanity, is unknown yonder\emdash where God Himself is revealed as the Fountain of Life, and where we shall drink of the rivers of His pleasures. "The sun shall not beat upon you!" Here on earth, your journey is in a desert land; often you sigh in vain for shadowy palm or sheltering rock, to screen you from the scorching heat of affliction. In Heaven, that sun shall set to rise no more; and in its stead, God Himself is to rise on you; for "they need no candle, neither light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light."\par \par And it would seem from the glowing description, that this felicity, though it is to be perfect all at once in kind, is to be ever increasing in degree\emdash a progressive felicity, advancing with the years of eternity. The Lamb is represented as "feeding them"\emdash opening up new sources of enjoyment, affording new matter and new motive for praise, fresh views of His own glory, brighter displays of Redeeming love! "The Lamb shall lead them to living fountains of waters" as if there was an insatiable longing in these Redeemed bosoms to know more of the Great salvation, every fresh draught only quickening their desire to drink deeper still.\par \par And it is "THE LAMB" who shall lead them and feed them! The Lamb and the Fountain are the two most precious words to the pilgrim in the wilderness, and they are precious still in the land of everlasting rest. Though in Heaven there is to be eternal freedom from sin and trial and suffering, the remembrance of these is not to cease. This, we found in a previous vision, is the song which the twenty-four Elders\emdash the representatives of the redeemed, love to sing: "You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation!" Yes, and these memories of sin and sorrow, so far from marring or interrupting, will rather quicken and intensify, the grateful praises of the ransomed myriads!\par \par "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes!" This tender and beautiful description would lead us also to infer that there will be a gradual opening and unfolding of the wisdom of God's dealings with His people on earth, until the tear-drops of the wilderness, still lingering in their eyes, are all removed. Every providence will be cleared up, every dispensation vindicated. With an eye once full of tears now tearless; and a spirit once repining now giving utterance to no murmur, every new morning will find the Redeemed reposing in serener confidence and with profounder and more restful love, on the God whose hand has obliterated the last trace of sorrow!\par \par (2.) It is to be a state of GREAT GLORY. That once suffering, but now triumphant multitude are represented as having their station nearest the throne, "They are before the throne," and He who sits upon the throne "tabernacles among them." We have previously found the angels depicted as standing "around about the throne and around the Elders" (the multitude of redeemed). This intimates the amazing fact, that it is ransomed sinners who occupy the inner circle around the throne! It is ransomed sinners who are honored with the nearest gaze of Deity! What a wondrous glimpse does this open to us of Heaven!\emdash to see angel and archangel giving way to the redeemed from the earth, to let the joint-heirs with Christ be partakers with Him on His Throne!\par \par We listen to the song of the entire multitude\emdash bright armies of unfallen angels\emdash principalities, and powers, gathered in to this majestic festival of the Lamb, headed by cherubim and seraphim. One theme thrills on every tongue\emdash onward rolls the triumphant anthem, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing." But these surrounding voices are at intervals silenced. From the one favored band in the vision who are "before the throne," with festal palms in their hands and blood-bought crowns on their brows, there rises alone the chorus, "He was slain for us!"\par \par (3.) God Himself is to constitute the essence of their enjoyment. In all the beauteous and varied imagery in which these verses abound, the same grand idea is present in every clause. Is Heaven spoken of as a Palace, and He as a Sovereign seated on the throne? the Redeemed are represented as ranged before it, and the summit of their happiness attained, when it is said of them, "Now are they before the Throne of God," gazing on His unveiled majesty.\par \par Is Heaven described as a Temple, and the occupation of the Redeemed that of High Priests in the regal Sanctuary? Still He is the supreme object of their worship, "They serve Him day and night, in His temple."\par \par Again the figure is changed. These favored citizens of the Heavenly Zion are pictured as a happy Flock reposing in the meadows of glory. But what would they be without the presence of their Shepherd? "The Lamb who is in the midst of the Throne" shall tend them, feed them, guide them, enfold them!\par \par Or do we behold them changing their posture of adoration, and going in search of the living fountains of waters? While yet they were inhabitants of earth, often were they seen in the attitude of pilgrims, "coming up from the wilderness leaning on their Beloved." Behold them now, coming up from the Throne; they are leaning on their Beloved still, "It is the Lamb who leads them." It is a bold but fine conjecture of one of our great poets, when he is telling of the bright consummation of that "Course of Time" of which he sang, that there are moments in Heaven when the Redeemed around the Throne hush their voices and go, as it were, amid the solitudes of eternity, to hold communion with God alone.\par \par But these words, from which the idea probably is derived, tell us that there is no such thing as absolute solitude in Heaven. The Ransomed may for a while lay aside their harps and retire from the company of angels amid the sequestered fountains of waters; but still they are not alone\emdash the LAMB leads them and feeds them.\par \par Once more\emdash when, in the light of eternity, mysterious earthly dealings are cleared up, and dispensations vindicated, every tear removed\emdash the most touching part in this office of tenderness is the hand which wipes these tears away\emdash still it is God\emdash "And GOD shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." Yes! He is the light of Heaven\emdash the central glory of that world of brightness. Tell what this world would be without the sun, and you can form some feeble idea of what Heaven would be to the Redeemed without HIM. There are many other powerful incentives to draw us to this world of glory. Departed friends who have fallen asleep in Jesus are there. Sacred are the voices which seem ever and anon to steal down in sweetest cadence\emdash the soft whisper of Heaven's own love\emdash telling that though they cannot come to us, there is a blessed meeting-place in their own inheritance of light, which knows no parting. But in this vision of John's, there are no other or subordinate motives mentioned. The lesser rays are swallowed up in the glory that excels, and God is all in all!\par \par Reader! if you are looking forward to taking your place as a worshiper in the upper Sanctuary, the same Divine Being who will form the center and focus of your bliss there, should form the center and substance of your happiness here. Test the reality of your hopes by this. What is it that is drawing you to Heaven? Is it some dreamy indefinite idea of material splendor\emdash a place of exemption from sorrow and suffering, where every wish is satisfied, and the very fountain of tears is dried? This may be, and doubtless will be, all true. But are its Mansions desirable, because they are the dwelling-place of your God? If at this moment it were divested of all its other attractions, would it be enough to know "God shall be with them and be their God?"\par \par This was David's Heaven, "I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness." This was Asaph's Heaven, "Whom have I in Heaven but You, and there is none upon earth that I desire besides You." This was Paul's Heaven, "Having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better." This was John's Heaven, "It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." Yes! it is interesting specially to note, that to this mighty gazer of Patmos, to whom, in his apocalypse, had been revealed so many visions of dazzling beauty, Heaven consisted not in these\emdash not in scenery, nor in any outward elements of bliss; but that the essence of its happiness and glory was likeness to God\emdash serving HIM with a fervor that never wearies, and a love that knows no languor or decay.\par \par What shall we say, then (as we sum up these observations), of this dwelling-place of God's redeemed-Israel\emdash this home of the Church-triumphant? Is there nothing in all its endless bliss to fire our ambition? Do the harpings of that innumerable multitude; these perennial fountains of water; these palms ever green; these thrones ever bright; the thoughts of sorrow ended; sufferings forgotten; tears wiped away; angels our companions; above all, of God Himself our everlasting Friend and portion\emdash not urge us to break loose from the enthralling chains of earth, and to feel as if there were nothing worth living for in comparison with this?\par \par It is said of Anaxagoras, the philosopher, that one night when in the act of studying the stars, his countrymen came to confer upon him an inheritance, in token of their appreciation of his genius. His reply was, "I wish it not\emdash these heavens are my country." Can we say the same in a grander, diviner sense? Are all earthly joys, and honors, and pleasures a bauble, compared with what faith unfolds in the splendors of immortality? Would that we might thus rise to the full realization of that glorious heritage, to whose priceless blessings all can be heirs through the blood of the Lamb. There are white robes for all\emdash palms for all\emdash crowns for all\emdash Heaven for all. This vision is one of many chimes from the bells of Glory, gathering in the ransomed worshipers to the great festival. Let us listen to the summons. Let us be putting on now our festal garments, and prepare to take our place amid the rejoicing throng.\par \par \par \pard\cf1\f1\fs23\par } sentially contributed to a clear and intelligent apprehension of this passage, as well as of the structure of the entire Book, had the first verse in the present chapter formed the closing one of the preceding; or rather, had it taken a more distinctive place still, by forming the terminating words of the first of the three parallel visions of which the Apocalypse is composed. If we can venture again to use the simile which we have more than once employed in speaking of this portion of Scripture, that is, a prophetic drama in three acts, each act consisting in succession of the vision of the seals, the trumpets, and the vials, then the opening verse would form the conclusion of the first great dramatic scene.\par \par A significant interval takes place, before new figures and personations present themselves to the Apostle-spectator; "There was silence in Heaven for about half an hour." It is the beautiful remark of Victorinus (one of the oldest commentators on the Revelation) upon this half-hour's silence, that it denotes "the beginning of the saints' everlasting rest." The idea is no doubt a sublime one, and more especially taken in connection with the antitypical reference, of which we have previously spoken, to the Feast of Tabernacles\emdash the heavenly feast of rest\emdash the beginning of "the rest which remains for the people of God."\par \par But we think a more natural meaning is that which we have just given, that is, to regard the words as simply marking the pause between the parts in the sacred representation. The Apostle is once more amid the familiar surroundings of Patmos. Stunned, or, to use a phrase of Chrysostom's, "made dizzy," with these revelations, he required a temporary relaxation from the tension of thought and feeling and strong emotion. Just as Zechariah, overpowered and exhausted with the glories of one of his prophetic visions, had sunk into slumber, so that the Angel that talked with him had to come again and "wake him as a man is wakened out of sleep;" or just as John's great Master, when on earth, required such a period of respite and suspension from prolonged bodily and mental toil, to satisfy the requirements of His humanity; so, on that memorable Lord's Day in Patmos there is a break in the imagery, in order that the favored Apostle may enjoy a season of needed rest before the second great act in the apocalyptic drama opens, with its fresh revelations of the mysterious future.\par \par The half-hour's silence being concluded, the curtain anew rises, and a fresh series of visions is unveiled. We are not, however, to suppose that the vision of the seven trumpets and the trumpet-blowing angels (the new section on which we now enter) follows that of the seals chronologically. This could not be. The seven seals conducted us down to the end of the world, to the Day of judgment, and the very threshold of Heaven. If, therefore, the trumpets speak of earthly things, as they unquestionably do (the trees, the seas, the rivers, the lights of Heaven), they can only, under new phases\emdash a new set of symbols with varying representations, traverse the same ground. Indeed we are constrained to regard the seals, the trumpets, the vials, as constituting a triple "equivalent" series of visions\emdash a series not consecutive, but parallel, each embracing seven figures, each complete in itself, each starting from the same point of departure (the commencement of the Christian era), each depicting the various fortunes of the Church, until these culminate in the triumphs of her great Head, the destruction of His adversaries, and the salvation of His people. This parallelism will be found to be accurate and complete.\par \par As the opening of the seventh seal indicated the beginning of heavenly bliss, so the blowing of the seventh trumpet similarly announces the completion of 'the mystery of God,' and is ushered in by a song of thanksgiving\emdash by great voices in Heaven, saying, "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever. . . . And the temple of God was opened in Heaven." And so also is this harmony sustained in the pouring out of the seventh vial; for then we read, "There came a great voice out of the temple of Heaven from the throne, saying, It is done."\par \par Let us proceed, then, in profound reverence, to open this new volume of the great prophecy, and to follow, though with extreme brevity, this new train of revelations. The Apostle, refreshed after his half-hour's silence, is ready for the new invitation, "Come up here." The dull, commonplace scenery of his rocky home once more fades from view, and in a revived heavenly ecstacy, he waits his Savior's summons. Seven angels standing in the presence of God have had seven trumpets put into their hands. And here, too, we have preliminarily to note, that the parallelism and uniformity in the structure of the Apocalypse is still farther preserved. The reader will remember, that previous to the breaking of the seals, there was a sublime opening vision given to the Apostle\emdash a "glorious appearing" of Christ as the Mediator of His Church, under the strangely blended symbolism of the Lion and the Lamb, worshiped by ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands. This formed a magnificent preparation\emdash a grand prologue to the first section of the Book.\par \par There is a similar preparatory vision or theophany before the sounding of the seven trumpets\emdash a similar glorious revelation of the Lord Jesus as the Great King and Head of His Church, to whose Divine will and pleasure these trumpet-angels are all subordinate and subservient; just, as we found, were the avenging angels of the winds in the chapter preceding. As the former preliminary vision was that of the God-man Mediator, and specially of "the Lamb," as pointing to His atoning death and great propitiatory sacrifice, so now it is the same Divine Being, only symbolized as an Angel-priest engaged in the performance of His great intercessory work; standing (not now by the brazen altar of burnt-offering, at whose base we heard the "souls of the martyrs" uttering their cry), but by the golden Altar of incense in the Heavenly Temple. There He is represented as offering in "the golden censer filled with much incense, the prayers of all the saints"\emdash the hundred and forty-four thousand mentioned in the sealing vision\emdash the numerical symbol of completeness, and including, therefore, the entire multitude of the redeemed on earth.\par \par (n. b. The Angel-Intercessor, receiving and offering the prayers of the whole symbolized Church, is clearly beyond the capacity or functions of any mere created angel. Moreover, the priestly symbol is no new figure, but only the reappearing of Christ under the emblem by which He is first presented to us in the opening of the Book. The same observations apply to the imagery regarding "the mighty angel," in the beginning of chapter 10. He is "clothed with a cloud," the invariable emblem of Deity. The "rainbow upon his head," "his face as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire," crying "with a loud voice, as when a lion roars"\emdash all equally identify Him with the majestic Being in the opening chapter, at whose feet John fell as one dead; whose countenance was as the sun shining in its strength, whose feet were like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters.)\par \par It was a prelude-vision of glorious comfort to His servant and to the whole Church. Whether in the case of those gigantic persecutions which were more specially symbolized by the subsequent trumpet-soundings, or in the trials and tribulations of individual believers, there was a voice within the veil sending its word of consolation to every desponding spirit, "Simon, Simon, Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not."\par \par The Old Testament incense-offerings are associated with two very different occasions in the services of the Jewish Temple. Solemn and imposing must have been the scene on the great day of Atonement, when the Jewish high priest, divested of his customary gorgeous robes, and dressed in a pure white vestment, stood before the great brazen altar. After the preliminary sin-offerings and burnt-offerings for himself and for the nation had been presented, burning coals were taken by him from the altar and deposited in a golden censer. Carrying with him a handful of sweet incense, he proceeded within the curtain into the Holy of Holies. As he stood in this majestic presence-chamber of Jehovah, he took a portion of it "beaten small," and cast it among the burning embers; the cloud enveloped the mercy-seat, the fumes filling the most Holy Place with grateful odors.\par \par Similarly imposing must have been the scene which is more probably referred to here\emdash the daily offering of the incense by the ministering priest, morning and evening. Standing by the same great brazen altar, and placing, by means of a silver shovel, some live coals in his censer\emdash carrying at the same time a handful of frankincense, he advanced to the Golden altar in front of the veil which separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies. The whole of the congregation, during these solemn moments, preserved a profound silence. They remained outside engaged in devout prayer; as we read in connection with the ministration of Zechariah, "he was chosen by lot to enter the sanctuary and burn incense in the Lord's presence. While the incense was being burned, a great crowd stood outside, praying." The priest on an appointed signal, after laying the censer on the golden altar, cast the incense on the fire, and the fragrant cloud ascended.\par \par By combining these two interesting Temple memories, have we not, in this vision, strikingly brought before us the great Antitypical Priest, standing in the Heavenly Temple, receiving into His golden censer the prayers of His waiting people on earth? Perfuming them with the incense of His adorable merits, the grateful cloud ascends! The petitions of the Church throughout the whole world, individual and aggregate, rise with acceptance before God Almighty.\par \par Let us pause for a moment by this consolatory vision. A vision of comfort it was intended to be for John and for the Church of his day; and it is designed to be so also for us. The Angel-Intercessor revealed in Patmos is "that same Jesus"\emdash the same High Priest who stood in His lowly sacrificial attire beside the altar of burnt-offering on earth. The glowing embers of His own awful sacrifice He has carried within the veil\emdash within the curtained splendor of the true Holy of Holies, and there, He ever lives to make intercession! What an encouragement to prayer! Mark, they are the "prayers of all the saints" which are received into the censer, and incensed with the odor-breathing spices. The prayers not only of those 'strong in faith giving glory to God,' but the prayers also of the lowliest, the humblest, the weakest\emdash the tremulous aspirations of the penitent, the lisping stammerings of infancy; the prayer of the palace amid tiled ceilings and gilded walls; the prayer of the cottage, where the earthen floor is knelt upon, and where the only, although, after all, the noblest altar is that of the lowly heart, and the purest sacrifice that of the broken spirit; the prayer ascending from the time-honoured sanctuary and 'the great congregation;' the prayer rising in the midst of the silent desert, or from the voyager on the lonely sea.\par \par Poor and utterly unworthy as these petitions may be in themselves, they are perfumed by the fragrant merits of the Covenant-Intercessor! They are made acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. His pleading voice is never heard in vain. No variety, or amount of prayer, can bewilder Him. He can receive all, and attend to all, and answer all. The glowing coals in His censer are feeble emblems of the burning love which glows in His heart. Penitence can still go, as of old, to His feet, to pour out in silent tears the tale of sadness. Sorrow can still rush, as of old, with throbbing emotion, and cry out, in His own words as the Prince of Sufferers, "If it be possible let this cup pass." The hand of faith can still touch the hem of His garment, and the voice of faith still utter its cry, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy upon me!"\par \par And as the "all saints" spoken of here, refer, in the first instance, to those who, in the time of John, lived amid trumpet-soundings and vials (times of judgment and persecution), so is this vision specially precious and comforting to all the children of affliction. It is in the season of trial and sorrow Jesus lends most lovingly His ear to hear His people's voice. It is 'songs in the night' He most delights to listen to. It is prayers, if we may so speak, saturated with tears, He loves best to put into His censer. It was the express Divine injunction regarding the daily incense-offering in the Temple-service of which we have spoken, that on the lighting of the lamps 'at evening time,' Aaron was to burn sweet incense on the Golden altar.\par \par Afflicted believers! it is so still. 'At evening time,' when the bright world is shaded\emdash when the flowers have closed their cups\emdash when the song of bird has ceased, and the sun of your earthly bliss has gone down in the western sky\emdash then it is that the lamp of Prayer is kindled in the soul's temple. Yes! just when other lamps that have lighted your pilgrimage pathway are quenched in darkness, prayer lights its lone lamp in the heart's deserted sanctuary. It was amid the darkness of the night, at the brook Jabbok, that Jacob wrestled of old with the angel and prevailed. It is in the soul's dark and lonely and solitary seasons still, that the Church's moral and spiritual wrestlers are crowned with victory, and as princes "have power with God!"\par \par \par \pard\cf1\f1\fs23\par } d 915. The Half-hour's Silence and Preparation{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs24 THE HALF-HOUR'S SILENCE PREPARATION FOR THE TRUMPET-SOUNDINGS THE ANGEL AT THE GOLDEN ALTAR\par \par Revelation 8:1-6\par \par It would have es In the previous chapter, we considered the beautiful vision of the Angel-Intercessor standing by the golden altar of incense\emdash a vision conveying so many lessons of consolation and encouragement. The prayers of the hundred and forty-four thousand are received into His censer. There is room there for all; from the petitions of the lisping child or trembling penitent, to those of the full-grown saint in the manhood of his spiritual being. The hands of this true Moses on the Heavenly Mount never grow weary, and the omnipotent "Father, I will" is never uttered in vain.\par \par But while the vision has its message of unspeakable comfort to the believer, it has its utterances also of solemn warning to the sinner and to the world; for we read, that immediately subsequent to the reception of the prayers of the saints, the same Angel-Priest "filled the incense burner with fire from the altar and threw it down upon the earth; and thunder crashed, lightning flashed, and there was a terrible earthquake." This imagery calls to mind the same vision of Ezekiel to which we formerly had occasion to refer, wherein a the "man clothed in linen" was commanded to "go in between the wheels under the cherub, and fill his hand with coals of fire from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city." In both cases we have the unmistakable symbols of judgment.\par \par The hot ashes, thrown by the very hand that had just been revealed as 'strong to save,' indicated that to "the fearful and unbelieving" His arm was 'strong to smite.' These glowing coals, if they mingle not with the prayer-offering of the saints, will be cast forth amid despisers and scorners. The fire which does not purify, will, as in the case of Nadab and Abihu, destroy and consume. Where shall the prayerless\emdash those who have never cast one offering into the censer\emdash be found on that day when the Lord shall make inquisition? "Their drink-offerings of blood," says the Savior they have rejected, "will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips."\par \par You who have never known what it is to bend the knee in prayer, who are now living on with no interest in the intercession of Christ\emdash no part in these angel-pleadings, think how you will be able to confront on that day, an injured Savior, when He addresses you in the words He spoke to Philip of old, "Have I been so long time with you and yet have you not known Me?" Have I been with you so long in the preaching of My Word; in ordinances, in sacraments, in afflictions, in the Patmos-chamber of sickness, at deathbed scenes, at the solemn grave\emdash and yet, has My golden censer not received one solitary petition, has no breathing of yours ever helped to fuel the incense-cloud?\par \par Go to the unfrequented prayer-chamber; let the untrodden way to the mercy-seat be no longer choked with the rank weeds of forgetfulness. Let it be henceforth a beaten path. As the Divine Aaron this night lights the lamps\emdash kindles the altar-fires in the upper sanctuary, let there be altar-fires on earth too, kindled for the first time. Let angels carry the glad tidings to Heaven, "Behold, he prays!"\par \par Let us pass now to a few observations on the vision of the Seven Trumpets. These Apocalyptic trumpets evidently do not refer to the silver trumpets used on the great festival which bears the name. These latter summoned to a joyous celebration, corresponding (as has been supposed from its date in the Jewish calendar, as "the beginning of months "), to our own New Year's day. It was to the Jew the anniversary festival of the world's 'genesis.' Trumpets emitting jubilant notes, were appropriately employed in memory of the glad occasion when "the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." It formed a prelude and preparation also, for the most sacred of their convocations, the great day of Atonement.\par \par But the trumpet, to the Hebrew of old, had other and different associations. It was used to sound the alarm of war, or to be blown by the sentinels on their cities' watch-towers, when the enemy was in sight or danger was at hand. The present symbolic soundings have a similar reference; they are premonitory of battle and conflict, the precursors of judgment. As the vision of the Seals was designed to minister to the comfort of the Church in the midst of her trials, by the assurance of her ultimate deliverance and safety; so the vision of the Trumpets immediately following, was intended to be prophetic of God's judgments on the Church's enemies, and the certainty with which that punishment is to overtake them.\par \par As a commentator has well observed, the moral of the seven seals is, "Say to the righteous it shall be well with him; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings." The moral of the seven trumpets is, "Woe unto the wicked; it shall be evil with him, for the reward of his hands shall be given him." All commentators, from the earliest to the latest, have with singular unanimity pointed out the evident allusion in these apocalyptic trumpet-blowings to the occasion of the siege of Jericho on the entrance of Israel into the land of Canaan. Numerically, as well as otherwise, the resemblance is remarkable. On seven successive days was the Canaanitish stronghold to be encircled by the armies of Israel. Trumpets were to sound as the desert warriors marched round the walls, preceded by the Ark of the Covenant\emdash the token of the Divine presence. And when we remember the seven vials, which in the Book of Revelation follow the seven trumpets, we are forcibly reminded of the special additional injunction regarding Jericho, that on the seventh day of the seven trumpet-blowings there was to be a sevenfold encircling of the city and that not until the seventh circuit was completed and "a long blast" was given with the rams' horns, accompanied with "a great shout," were the gigantic walls to fall and the conquest obtained of this key to Palestine.\par \par The whole of the Apocalypse may be regarded as a New Testament and gospel history, of the march of the true Israel through the successive stages of the world's long wilderness, to the heavenly Land of Promise. It is a history of gradual aggression against the powers of evil; the triumph of the true Joshua-Jesus over all His adversaries, until He has secured for His people permanent rest within the celestial Canaan. And as the siege and conquest of Jericho presented to the Hebrews alike a vivid memorial and rehearsal of their long struggles and a pledge of final victory; so it forms no unbefitting type and picture of the greater and more glorious struggle, with its ultimate triumph and rest, which belongs to the Church of God.\par \par The whole history of the Church, as embraced in the book of Revelation, is a history of the siege of a moral Jericho\emdash the compassing of the walls of the world's giant unbelief, and their final fall before the might of Him, of whose glorious Person and presence the ancient Ark of Israel was the significant type. Trumpet after trumpet sounds its judgment-blast, each separate peal is directed with symbolic import against some department or element of outer nature\emdash the earth, with its trees and green grass; the sea, into which plunges a mountain burning with fire; the rivers and fountains of waters, poisoned with a falling meteor; the luminaries of heaven, sun, moon, and stars, smitten with darkness.\par \par As the Apostle in the previous sealing-vision had obtained the pledge of Israel's security, the Church's ultimate safety and triumph; so, through this new series of symbols, he receives the pledge and assurance of God's judgments on an unbelieving world\emdash the overturn and destruction of every citadel and bulwark of evil which has hitherto opposed the triumph of truth. The progress of the siege is necessarily slow. It may be seven encirclings and yet seven again. The faith and the patience of the true Israel is sorely tried, as they cry aloud in the anguish of hope deferred, "Lord, how long?" The scoffers on the battlements seem to hurl their taunts and missiles with impunity\emdash no split is seen in the walls, no premonitory symptoms of a breach. But come it will.\par \par Since John stood in Patmos, many circuits have been completed; many a time have these herald-angels, in the past history of Christendom and of the world, sounded their martial trumpets; nation has risen against nation and kingdom against kingdom; every fresh blast, every fresh mustering of the hosts for the battle\emdash every startling calamity\emdash the famine, the pestilence, the fall of the Siloam-tower, the storm which has strewn the coast with wrecks and filled desolate hearts with agony\emdash all these tell of the nearer approach to the grand consummation, when 'the shout of the people,' the cry of united Israel\emdash the prayers of the true Church of God, now ascending apparently in vain\emdash will obtain the expected response in a voice from Heaven, saying, "It is done!"\par \par In the midst, then, of these very judgments which now passed before the eye of John\emdash amid these trumpet-peals which carried the sound of woe to the guilty world, there were blended notes of comfort and encouragement to every drooping, desponding spirit. The triumph of truth might be chequered, but it would be sure and complete. As in the case of Jericho, "our weapons are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds." Human might and human power can do nothing in themselves against the bulwarks of evil. "We have no might against this great multitude, neither know we what to do, but our eyes are upon You." "Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward." "Stand still, and see the salvation of God." "For He brings down those who dwell on high; the lofty city He lays it low, He lays it low even to the ground, He brings it even to the dust." "The right hand of the Lord is exalted, the right hand of the Lord does valiantly." "The haughtiness of man shall be laid low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted on that day." As of the type, so of the antitype will it be in due time said and sung: "By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about many days."\par \par We may even carry further the resemblance to this old story of Israel's border city\emdash connecting it with the reference which we have previously pointed out in the palm-bearing vision, to the Feast of Tabernacles. That feast, among the other incidents it commemorated, embraced that of the siege of Jericho. For we are told that during its continuance, a procession, bearing branches of palm, accompanied with the sound of trumpets, entered the courts of the temple for seven successive days; and that, on the seventh day, they compassed seven times the altar with the same trumpet-blowings, singing their Hosanna.\par \par At the true Feast of Tabernacles in the Heavenly Temple, when the redeemed enter on their everlasting bliss and everlasting rest, they will be able to commemorate, with triumph, their toilsome struggles, their long marches around the defiant walls of earth's unbelief, when they had nothing but faith to sustain the assurance of ultimate victory.\par \par And as a befitting termination of this necessarily rapid and cursory reference to the trumpet-visions, let us only farther note the closing picture given under the sounding of the seventh Angel. "The temple of God was opened in Heaven" (Rev. 11:19). The impenetrable veil which screens from mortal sight the mysteries of that true "Holy of Holies," was for the moment drawn aside. And what is the disclosure made to the eye of the Apostle? It is another old memory of Jericho, more sacred even than its trumpets. There was seen in this Temple "the Ark of His covenant." Glorious and comforting vision with which to terminate all these terrific trumpet-soundings\emdash these symbols of wrath and judgment\emdash the voices of lightnings and thunders! The walls of the world's Jericho have fallen\emdash its bulwarks are demolished, and Israel's possession of the better Canaan is secured. But, as if to remind John, and to remind the Church in every age, of the secret of all her past victories, and to give her the pledge of her eternal rest, he gazes on the familiar symbol so often and so long associated with the fortunes and the history of the Hebrew people\emdash the safeguard of their liberties\emdash the rallying-point in every hour of disaster; but which had now to him a still deeper and holier significance as the type of the Great Propitiatory\emdash the true Covenant Ark. In the glories of His Divine person and the fullness of His mediatorial work, Jesus is set in the Heavenly Temple, the pledge and guarantee of eternal safety and peace to the Church purchased with His blood. "Because I live you shall live also."\par \par In the same closing vision, the twenty-four Elders\emdash the symbolic representatives of the whole Church of the redeemed\emdash are further pictured as falling down on their faces in an act of supreme adoration, and breaking forth in one glorious ascription, saying, "We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty, the One who is, and who was, because You have taken Your great power and have reigned."\par \par Be it ours, meanwhile, patiently to wait such an assured and glorious consummation; "looking for, and hastening unto, the coming of the day of God." Let us take our festal palm-branch and follow the pealing trumpets\emdash trumpets of joy to the Church, trumpets of woe and judgment to the world. The seventh Angel not having yet sounded, let us raise our Hosanna\emdash the "Come, Lord Jesus!"\emdash the reiterated key-note of the Book, with its divine harmonies. "Yet a little while and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry." "The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible." "The coming of the Lord draws near."\par \par The downfall of the world's anti-christian powers\emdash the destruction of its moral Jerichos\emdash will be coincident with this great event, for which all creation longs. May He who holds the seven-sealed roll in His hand hasten the day, when the last trumpet voice shall be heard, and the last shout of prayer ascend, "Your kingdom come!"\emdash bringing the glad response, ushering in the longed-for moment and announcement, "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ, and He shall reign to the ages of the ages!"\par \par \par \pard\cf1\f1\fs23\par } nE%16. The Casting of the Altar-fire on the Earth{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs24 THE CASTING OF THE ALTAR-FIRE ON THE EARTH THE SOUNDING OF THE SEVEN TRUMPETS THE CLOSING VISION AND SONG\par \par Revelation 8:5-6; 11:15-19\par \par or Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs24 THE LAMB STANDING ON MOUNT ZION WITH THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-FOUR THOUSAND\par \par Revelation 14:1-5\par \par In entering on these 'memories' of John's great Words and Visions, we stated that it would be alike unprofitable and uninteresting to attempt investigating many portions of the Apocalypse which have formed the battle-ground of rival interpreters and conflicting interpretations; and that we should confine ourselves to those which are alike more perspicuous in meaning and replete with practical instruction. It was for this reason we passed so cursorily in our last, the details of the first six trumpet-soundings. We simply alluded, indeed, to the first four of these, which had reference to God's judgments on the outer world, on the trees, the sea, the rivers, the lights of heaven. The fifth and sixth trumpets were not even mentioned. They referred to the outpouring of the Divine judgments, not on material nature, but on living men; and consisted of the plague of the locusts and the plague of the horsemen. Without attempting to dwell on circumstantials, but simply to preserve continuity, we may link together in a few sentences the intervening portions, occupying, as they do, four chapters between the sixth trumpet-sounding and the beautiful passage which opens upon us like a welcome gleam of heavenly sunshine in chapter 14.\par \par At the close of the sixth trumpet there is inserted a twofold vision\emdash that of the mighty Angel holding in his hand "the little Book," and of "the two Witnesses" prophesying in sackcloth. Then comes the sounding of the seventh Angel's trumpet, to which we have already particularly alluded. It evoked a song of triumph from the lips of Christ's ingathered Church. Heaven was opened, and a disclosure made of "the Ark of his Testament," the pledge and symbol of the inviolable security of the glorified. The special theme of their song, however\emdash the first outburst of praise on this birthday of the Church-triumphant, being an ascription of thanksgiving for the completion of God's righteous judgments on the world\emdash the symbols of bliss and joy were appropriately accompanied with "lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail."\par \par With this imagery concludes another great act in the apocalyptic drama. Yet, before the curtain falls, and before the terminating scenes, in the outpouring of the seven vials, take place, there is inserted a lengthened interlude\emdash a great prophetic vision, complete in itself\emdash regarding the Church and her three enemies. The Church is represented as a Woman arrayed in dazzling effulgence. The light of the midday sun is her vesture; the moon (probably the crescent moon) is under her feet, forming her sandals; and around her head is a tiara or coronal of twelve stars, recalling the description in the Song of Songs, "Who is she that looks forth as the morning? Fair as the moon, bright as the sun, and terrible as a starry host with banners." She is further depicted as fleeing into the wilderness, pursued and persecuted by a portentous monster\emdash a great red Dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and a cluster of seven crowns on his head. This we are specially told was Satan himself, the Prince of Darkness, the arch-enemy of the Church and of mankind, "That old serpent which deceives the whole world." Evicted by Michael and his angels from the highest heavens, the dragon and his angels are represented as turning their foiled and baffled rage against the Woman, and "making war with the remnant of her seed." But the exiled and persecuted Church is shielded from the rage of the destroyer. Eagle-wings are given her to fly farther still into the recesses of the wilderness, where, like the great Prophet of Cherith, "She is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent."\par \par Again, as the Apostle-spectator stands on the sands of Patmos, the Aegean waves rolling at his feet, he sees emerging from the bosom of the deep, another hideous monster, somewhat akin and yet differing from the former. This new fiendish beast has "seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy." These heads and horns are the well-known symbols of world-power; and though evidently referring, in the first instance, to the colossal dominion of the Roman Empire, which, in the time of John, had from its Capitol on the Tiber carried winged thunderbolts wide over the earth; yet they are by no means restricted to this; but may rather be regarded as representative of all the vast earthly empires which are hostile to Christ and His Church. To this sea-monster Satan surrenders his throne and kingdom, making him his substitute and viceroy; and terribly does the delegate fulfill the commission by his blaspheming tongue and his war with the saints.\par \par Once more, John beholds another\emdash a third Beast\emdash rising now, not from the sea, but from the earth\emdash one of hybrid form, half lamb, half dragon; yet an emissary of the abyss and darkness, and confederate with the sea-born Beast\emdash wearing a pretended gentleness and lamblike meekness, combined with the dragon's subtlety, cruelty, and mischief\emdash a giant deceiver, doing great wonders, performing false miracles, and arrogantly exacting homage from "those who dwell on the earth." This has been generally supposed (however interpretations may conflict in details) to represent that gigantic religious machinery, in all its varied phases and protean shapes, first Pagan then Christian, but which has attained its culmination in the persecuting power and tyrannical usurpation of the Church of Rome\emdash that hybrid of simulated meekness and humility, the gentleness of the lamb in combination with haughty pretension and cruel intolerance\emdash the washer of pilgrims' feet, yet the kindler of Inquisition-fires\emdash the disposer of crowns and kingdoms\emdash the arch-ruler of men\emdash the Vicar of God!\par \par While the previous sea-monster was the representative of brute force, secular despotism, the tyranny of sword and conquest, of dungeon, and rack, and faggot\emdash this latter is that of ecclesiastical despotism, going forth among the nations with all deceivableness of unrighteousness\emdash its weapons moral and spiritual\emdash its enthralled and crouching victims\emdash the depraved intellect, the enslaved conscience, the distorted reason, the fettered will. We are reminded of the description which the great Dreamer, in his "Pilgrim's Progress" puts into the lips of Christian when in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, "While I was musing, I espied before me a cave, where two giants, Pope and Pagan, dwelt in old times, by whose power and tyranny the men whose bones, blood, ashes, and mangled bodies lay there, were cruelly put to death."\par \par But in this mystic Book, vision is interlaced and supplemented with vision. And as we have just described that of the Woman and her three enemies as an appendage to the seven trumpet-soundings preceding the opening of the vials, so the figure which we are now more specially to consider, forms an epilogue or addition to this interjected imagery; while it constitutes also a befitting introduction to the scenes of final triumph and final vengeance which occupy the last chapters of the Apocalypse.\par \par The preceding revelations, so full of woe and sadness, were calculated to depress and overwhelm the spirit of the Apostle. The present is, as if a telescope were put into his hands, enabling him to pierce the environing gloom, and obtain the assurance of ultimate safety; or, to use the simile suggested by the wilderness where the persecuted Church had fled, as if an oasis had suddenly been opened up to him in the midst of the desert, with its wells and palm trees, telling of the welcome refreshment and shade.\par \par Perhaps the darkest part of the whole Apocalypse had now been reached. The very heaven above, which, at the opening of the Book, was radiant with visions of surpassing glory and resonant with song, brings before the mind recent memories of conflict and the clang of battle. "There was war in Heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels." The final expulsion of the Great Enemy from the heavenly world seems to have been, in some mysterious way, connected with the completion of Christ's Redemption-work on earth. "Now," says the true Michael\emdash the 'Man-child' of the prophetic vision, caught up unto God, and to His Throne, "Now," says He, in anticipation of His ascension, "shall the Prince of this world be cast out." "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from Heaven." The same event had thus been celebrated in prophetic strains: "You have ascended on high; You have led captivity captive."\par \par And when that war was hushed, and the battle turned from the celestial gates, it was only, as we have noted, for the cast out legions to make earth the scene of their renewed unholy strife. If these judgments on the Church had been the disciplinary chastisements of her Great Head, John would have bowed with unfaltering trust. But it was a fearful brotherhood and confederacy he beheld of the powers of human and satanic evil\emdash a compound of brute force and demon force; man, the tool and instrument of hellish impulses, raging against the Lord and His Anointed. Satan was marshaling the hosts of evil men; and from these duped, malignant human agents the appeal was heard, "Who is like the Beast? who is able to make war with him?" Well might the trembling Apostle exclaim, in words uttered by David in a kindred hour of terror and despondency, "Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for His mercies are great, and let me not fall into the hands of man."\par \par It was, then, amid such gloomy picturings that the Patmos-exile turned his eye from sea and earth and wilderness, to the already well-known emblems of the Lamb, the four Living ones, the Elders, the Throne, the Hundred and forty-four thousand. It deserves, moreover, specially to be noted, in connection with the vision, that it is not to be taken as a picture of the Heaven that is hereafter to be\emdash the Heaven of the completed Church-triumphant (that is reserved for future revelations, which we shall come by and bye to consider); it is rather the Heaven of the present\emdash the calm world that now exists, when the earthly battle is still raging, and the lower horizon is still black with tempests.\par \par The first object in this new scene which arrests John's attention is his beloved Savior\emdash the great King and Head of the persecuted Church. "I looked, and lo! the LAMB!" (so it with the definite article)\emdash "I looked, and lo! the Lamb!"\emdash as if that symbol was now to him a well-known and welcome one. He whom he had previously seen, in the opening vision, in the midst of the Throne, adored by the ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, is now beheld "standing on Mount Zion," set as King on His own holy hill. He had with Him, and around Him, an assemblage of an hundred and forty-four thousand; having "His name" as well as "His Father's name written in their foreheads."\par \par It was expressly asserted in the preceding chapter, as one blasphemous usurpation of the third Beast, or monster from the earth, that "he causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their forehead." This was Satan, the great counter-worker, mimicking and counterfeiting the work of God, as described in the previous sealing-vision, thereby deceiving, if it were possible, the very elect.\par \par John had just seen crouching nations stooping to the usurper, and, allowing the degrading mark of vassalage to be put on their foreheads. He looks up to the Church in glory. He sees the redeemed, with the indubitable brand of a diviner vassalage, bearing in their bodies, (on their foreheads,) "the marks of the Lord Jesus."\par \par Then he listens to a strangely-mingled psalmody, whose combined cadences come floating to his ear, as if it had been one voice from Heaven. It was made up of 'many waters,' 'great thunder,' and 'the voice of harpers harping with their harps.' It was the loudness of the thunder-peal and of the ocean-waves, combined with the dulcet tones of the sweetest musical instrument. The song he heard was as it were "a new song." We are not told in what its newness or novelty consisted, nor what formed the theme of its magnificent melodies; probably it would be an ascription of joyful thanksgiving for their safe deliverance, on the part of those who had now exchanged the pilgrim warfare for the pilgrim rest: those who, with eagle-wings, had once taken themselves to the desert shelter, but who had now soared to the heights of Heaven, and made their perch on the Tree of Life in the midst of the Paradise of God. It may have been a song in which was mingled a celebration of safety and joy, with the rehearsal of former struggles\emdash the trials they had patiently borne, the temptations they had successfully resisted; or it may have been a song of heart-cheer and encouragement directed to the toiling warriors and sufferers below, anticipatory of a like sure triumph if faithful unto death; or it may have been a song only "as it were" new, but which was really the ever old one\emdash the same which Abel sang at the gates of Eden, and which John had either sung that day on the rocks of Patmos, or subsequently in his home at Ephesus, "Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood!"\par \par All the information he gives us regarding the song is, that no man could learn it but the hundred and forty-four thousand. It could not be understood or sung by the saintliest of human lips, inasmuch as, very possibly, until the spirits of the just are 'made perfect'\emdash until they are ushered into their state of glorification\emdash they cannot fully comprehend the language of Heaven; those "unspeakable words which it is not lawful (or possible) for a man to utter." Even this favored Apostle, in entering the Temple above, would require his lips to be touched with the seraphic live-coal, before they could be attuned to the meaning and melody of its praises.\par \par Such being the scene of worship in Heaven unfolded to the eye of the Apostle, let us proceed to note the delineation here given of its WORSHIPERS.\par \par (1.) They are described as Redeemed (verse 3) "Who were redeemed from the earth." And, again (verse 4), "These were redeemed from among men." Not that modern amplification of Scripture\emdash that travesty of a revealed truth\emdash which would read it, "the redeemed of the earth," as indicating the universal ransom and restoration of the race. But "the redeemed from among the earth"\emdash the ransomed elect\emdash those represented in a former vision as specially sealed, or in the preceding chapter as having overcome the red dragon, (yes, all their foes,) by the blood, or "owing to the blood, of the Lamb." In other words, they are God's own seven thousand (distinguished from the Baal-throng), once hidden in the wilderness-caves of earth, now forever in the clefts of the True Rock of Ages\emdash safe from the windy storm and tempest.\par \par This warrant for the possession and occupancy of their thrones and their crowns, occupies, as well it may, the forefront and vanguard of their characteristics. It is the repetition, in another form, of the words of a recent figure we specially considered, "Who have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." As on the earthly mount of Transfiguration, so on this heavenly Zion, the Apostle recognizes the theme of ecstatic conversation to be, "the death accomplished at Jerusalem." Their New song is the song of Redeeming love. Redemption has alone earned them a right to the description with which the vision closes, when they are spoken of as being "without fault before the throne of God."\par \par (2.) The worshipers are represented as being undefiled. Not only in this world were they justified by the blood, but they were regenerated and sanctified by the Spirit of Christ. Not only had they the righteousness imputed, but the righteousness implanted: and one special element in that subjective righteousness here mentioned, is that of chastity of life\emdash virgin purity. How searchingly does the language of the vision come home to every heart, with its deep corruptions and impurities of thought and deed\emdash making inquisition of those fleshly lusts that war against the soul, which blunt and wound and defile the conscience, and all the sensibilities of our higher natures, setting these on fire of hell\emdash the fierce antagonists to that holiness, without which, it is declared, no one can see, and, doubtless, no one can enjoy, God!\par \par How it brings down the sentence of withering condemnation on those, whose unchaste imaginations and unchaste lives have converted their souls (yes, these souls that were designed to be God's temple) into chambers full of all pollution and sensual imagery\emdash a den of foul beasts, a cage of unclean birds\emdash those whose every look is impurity, and who are as reckless of the virtue and innocence of others as they are of their own! How could any such, wallowing ever deeper in the mire, dream of joining that unspotted band in the Heavenly Zion? How could these polluted lips think of warbling the virgin-song of the undefiled? Those who are thus earthly, selfish, sensual, devilish, would be as incapable of appreciating that bliss, as the uncultured and untutored savage, to whom noise is alone music, and gaudy tinsel is alone beauty, could appreciate the exquisite harmonies of Mozart or Beethoven. Ascend to Heaven? join the faultless choir before the throne? No, they are self-conscious that they carry a chronic hell within them. The words which our own great epic poet puts into the lips of Satan, are indorsed by such, as containing a too truthful description and photograph of their own feelings and history: "Each way I fly is hell\emdash myself an hell!"\par \par "Myself an hell!"\emdash its fires already kindled\emdash the hell of fiendish, lustful, polluted thoughts, with their corresponding hell of remorse and upbraiding\emdash the eagles of vengeance already preying on the carcass\emdash the fabled lash of the Furies already descending\emdash retribution already begun.\par \par On the other hand, blessed truly are "the undefiled, who walk in the law of the Lord"\emdash who have escaped the corruptions that are in the world through lust; in the volume of whose heart the white leaves have their virgin purity unblotted and unstained. You, too, who are mourning the loss of those whose sun has gone down in early morning\emdash who, full of high promise, have perished "at the threshold-march of life"\emdash rejoice in the thought that they have "clean escaped"\emdash that these lambs of the flock have passed into the heavenly fold, with the fleece of early innocence unpolluted. Before impurity stirred the well of pure thought, they have been taken away, it may be, from much evil to come!\par \par More blessed and honored, in one sense, are those\emdash and many such there are\emdash who, by dint of resolute self-discipline and high principle, have bravely fought the long fight, and come out of it unwounded, unscathed; who with unabashed face can make the appeal to the great Heart-Searcher, of a good conscience and a pure life: but safer at least are they, who, away from the sudden gusts and hurricanes of temptation, have soared early upwards, and, with unsoiled plumage\emdash unruffled wings, have sank into the clefts of the Rock forever. If they had been allowed to remain longer on earth, who can tell but some crude storm might have blighted fair promise and belied fond hopes? But before summer's sun could scorch, no, before spring's frost could nip one bud or blast one leaf or blossom, the Great Giver, in mercy, took the flower to His own safer paradise\emdash gave the summons,\par \par "Waft her, angels, to the skies,\par Far above yon azure plain;\par Glorious there like you to rise,\par There like you forever reign."\par \par Oh! what would thousand and thousands give, who are now drifting, as miserable, shattered wrecks on life's sea\emdash health, innocence, purity, gone\emdash what would such give, to be as they are, inheriting in all its grandeur that best beatitude, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God!"\par \par "She is not dead, the child of our affection,\par But gone into that school,\par Where she no longer needs our poor protection,\par Where Christ Himself does rule.\par \par "In that great cloister's stillness and seclusion,\par By guardian angels led,\par Safe from temptation, safe from sin's pollution,\par She lives whom we call dead."\par \par (3.) They are represented as following Christ (verse 4) "They follow" (or literally 'who are following') "the Lamb wherever He goes." They are seen indeed, in common with their great Lord, "standing" on the Mount Zion. But it is standing ready for His service\emdash prepared to embark in ministries of holy love for Him\emdash and, along with "the armies which are in Heaven," spoken of in a subsequent vision, ready to follow Him "upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean." Is this our conception of a future state of bliss? Not a dreamland of inaction, consisting only of a series of negations, the absence of the sad catalogue of evils which beset us here; but do we realize it as a sphere of holy, spiritual activity, where we shall be enlisted in embassies of love and loyalty to the dear Lord who redeemed us? If so, Heaven\emdash the manhood of our spiritual being\emdash should have, at all events, its childhood on earth\emdash what we are to be, should have its dim and shadowy reflection in what we now are. If we are to follow the Lamb in glory, that path of trustful and loving obedience should have its commencement here on earth.\par \par Is it so? Are we thus following Him\emdash following Him as a flock trustfully follows its shepherd? following Him, not fitfully or capriciously\emdash not at set times and seasons only, when the summer sky is overhead, and the birds are on the boughs, and the valleys of life are shouting for joy\emdash but willing to follow Him when the sky is lowering\emdash when the birds have folded their wings, and these valleys of existence are shrouded in mist and darkness\emdash no patches of verdant grass to be seen, the music of no still waters to be heard, yet ready to say, "Though He slays me, yet will I trust in Him?"\par \par Do we follow Him in the sense of seeking to be like Him\emdash to have our wills equivalent with His?\emdash setting His great Life of purity and obedience and self-sacrifice before us, and desiring that ours be a feeble transcript of its spotless excellencies? Do we follow Him, moreover, with the realizing thought before us of a Living Person?\emdash not as the votaries of a creed, linked to some dry and formulated dogmas from which the great living 'life' has departed\emdash but following, as these undefiled and faultless on the Mount Zion are represented as doing\emdash following Himself\emdash the Lamb of God\emdash anticipating the time when "we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is," and when we shall be able to say the words of Peter, "We are eyewitnesses of His majesty: we are with him in the Holy Mount!"\par \par (4.) One other characteristic of the hundred and forty-four thousand is here mentioned\emdash they are honest and sincere. (verse 5) "And in their mouth was found no lie." It is the echo in the New, of an Old Testament beatitude, "Blessed is the man. . . .in whose spirit there is no deceit." The great Lord of all could pronounce no higher encomium on an earnest seeker becoming a beloved follower, than this, "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit." We need not consider strange the special closing reference which is here made to this attribute of heavenly bliss, when we think how much of the reverse is, alas! manifested on earth\emdash how much duplicity, double-dealing, lack of candor, truthlessness, how much finessing and deceit, counterfeiting the pure and the real with what is base admixture and alloy\emdash pretentious blossom with an utter failure of fruit; a world of appearances, mocking and deceiving; like the apples of Sodom, beautiful to look upon, but perishable caskets enshrining dust and ashes.\par \par They who have grown thus weary with the world's falseness and hollow hypocrisy will cease to wonder how, amid higher elements of bliss, John finishes the record of one of the grandest of his visions with the assertion regarding the redeemed\emdash "And in their mouth was found no lie, for they are without fault before the throne of God."\par \par This entire figure, as we have seen, was primarily intended as a vision of comfort for the Church in her dark days, when the wilderness was her home and the dragon of persecution was tracking her flight. She is encouraged to look forward to that bridal-hour, when, as the affianced Spouse of the Heavenly Bridegroom, she shall come up from the wilderness leaning on the arm of her Beloved, to sing her nuptial song on the Hill of Zion.\par \par But it is a vision of comfort and consolation also, to every individual pilgrim and child of sorrow. It is a glimpse above and beyond the clouds, into that calm world where the voice of wailing is no more heard\emdash "wasting nor destruction within its borders." It tells, that whatever be the needed wilderness-discipline here, the redeemed of the Lord shall at last come to Zion with everlasting songs on their heads. To all of us, it is an answer to the question, 'What are the characteristics, what the qualifications, of that heavenly citizenship?' "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart\emdash who has not lifted up his soul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully." "He who walks uprightly, and works righteousness, and speaks the truth in his heart." "He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation."\par \par \par \pard\cf1\f1\fs23\par } 17. The Lamb Standing on Mount Zion{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generat Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, they are blessed indeed, for they will rest from all their toils and trials; for their works (good deeds) follow them!" Rev. 14:13\par \par The beautiful vision we last considered, was intended, as we found, to be one of comfort and consolation for the Church in a season of environing darkness and trouble. It is followed immediately by a succession of three angel-voices. The first, is that of the bearer of the everlasting Gospel, as he speeds his way in mid-heaven to the nations of the earth, with the wide commission to preach the glad tidings to every nation and kindred and tongue and people. The second, intimates the fall of the mystic Babylon. The third, in tones louder still, issues a proclamation of warning to all abettors of the great anti-christian apostasy; to come out from among them, that they do not be partakers of her plagues.\par \par It is at the close of these three, that the words which head this chapter come in, like another of those sweet, solitary strains of heavenly music we have noted more than once in the preceding pages. One resplendent and dreadful picture after another had just been passing before the eye of the Apostle; the scroll had its alternating dark letters, and its illuminated coloring. But there was something now which could not be delineated by symbol. It is a Divine revelation, addressed, not to the eye, but to the ear. Moreover, it was one of such sacred importance as to demand immediate transcription. Other words\emdash other picturings and figures\emdash might be safely left to memory; but this, dictated by a heavenly voice on the spot, must on the spot too be committed to writing. The roll of apocalyptic thunders is suddenly hushed, and thus is the silence broken\emdash And I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Write this down: Blessed are those who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, they are blessed indeed, for they will rest from all their toils and trials; for their works (good deeds) follow them!"\par \par It is vain to inquire from whom this voice proceeded. This is left indeterminate. It may possibly have come from one of the twenty-four elders of chapter 7; possibly it may have emanated from the Great Covenant Angel Himself\emdash the Majestic Being standing on the sea and the earth, with 'the little book' in His hand. More probably it may have been uttered by one specially delegated from the ranks of the ministering spirits, who are sent forth to minister to the heirs of sa lvation\emdash some heavenly Barnabas\emdash some "Son of Consolation" dispatched on an errand of comfort to the lonely isle and its lonely prisoner. Be he, however, who he may, his voice has become loud as the sound of many waters: for the brief utterance, wafted like a chime from the bells of the Upper Sanctuary, has awakened chords of responsive harmony in ten thousand, thousand aching and sorrowing hearts in every age of the world.\par \par Nor need we pause too curiously to ascertain the pr ecise meaning and import of the term here used, "from now on." It may simply indicate, that, from the moment of death, when the spirit is emancipated from its earthly fetters, that blessedness begins; or, as in the verse immediately preceding, John speaks of "the patience or endurance of the saints" in the midst of their persecutions, it might be designed, in the first instance, as a special word of hope and comfort to those who had the prospect of suffering and martyrdom. But it was by no means restricte d to such. It is a message intended and adapted for all time and for all places\emdash wherever there are weeping eyes and bleeding hearts\emdash wherever there is a Christian's deathbed\emdash a Christian's funeral\emdash a Christian's grave.\par \par Let us consider these two points: I. The Beatitude, "Blessed are those who die in the Lord." And II. Its divine ratification, "Yes, says the Spirit, they are blessed indeed, for they will rest from all their toils and trials; for their works (good deeds) follow them!"\par \par I. "Blessed are those who die." Startling words are these, viewed by themselves and apart from the Gospel. "Blessed are those who die!" How the death-chamber belies the utterance\emdash refuses to countersign the strange benediction! Where is the blessedness in the spectacle of that inanimate clay\emdash that mute and voiceless marble\emdash that moldering and shattered casket from which the glory has departed? Does it not seem a cruel mockery\emdash a parody on th e sacred words? That eye which once beamed affection now rayless\emdash that hand which once gave and returned the grasp of tender love, or that smoothed the wrinkles from the brow of care or sorrow, now powerless\emdash that intellect with its varied resources\emdash the memory with its garnered treasures\emdash the heart with its divine sympathies\emdash all now dull, pulseless, unresponsive as the unfeeling stone!\par \par Do you call the flower 'blessed,' that yesterday was swinging its tiny censers with their fragrant perfumes, but which today, nipped by the frost, or battered by the hail, hangs shriveled on the branch or has fallen on the ground? Do you call the giant oak, the ancestral monarch of the forest 'blessed,' when it lies prone on the sward with upturned roots, wrenched from its old moorings by the sweep of the pitiless tempest? Do you call the sculptor's breathing marble 'blessed,' which had just received the last delicate strokes of his chisel, but which, by unfortunate accident, strews in a hundred fragments the floor of his studio? Then, but not until then, can you pronounce 'blessed' that apparent destruction of all that is fair and lovely in life\emdash that cruel severance of dearest ties and fondest associations\emdash the eclipse and extinction of some orb of love, some familiar star, which has risen and set, gleamed and gladdened in the little firmament of our being ever since memory did its work!\par \par And then follow that procession to the narrow house appointed for all living\emdash while the bright jewel is gone, the very casket, broken and mutilated, must be buried out of our sight. Not the altar-fire only is quenched, but the shrine itself must be demolished. The green sod or the silent stone is all that is left to memorialize the 'loved and lost.' No! no! call it not 'blessed.' There can be no gladness\emdash no jubilee here. Stop the music of pipe and tabret\emdash call in the hired minstrels\emdash muffle the drum\emdash put on sackcloth\emdash sit in dust and in ashes\emdash say, 'Ah, my brother!' or, 'Ah, sister!' Do not mock the dead\emdash Do not mock the living, with the mis-timed utterance of 'blessed.' It is not the scene or occasion for beatitude and benediction.\par \par Death!\emdash it is a dark, cruel, ruthless, repulsive thing\emdash a cold, frigid destructive avalanche coming sweeping down amid the warm heart's affections\emdash making earth's smiling valleys scenes of desolation and ruin. It is an anomaly in God's universe. It is a dreadful and awful thing to die!\par \par The ship has sailed to the silent land, we know not where. No sign, no look of affection can be returned as we wave the tearful adieu. There is no retracing of the voyage; no homeward-bound vessel from these distant mysterious shores. We need not hoist the signal from the watch-tower; love need not light its beacon to greet the lone wanderer. Weep sorely for him who goes away\emdash for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.\par \par Such is nature's cold philosophy\emdash nature's sad soliloquy, uncheered and unillumined by the Gospel. Such, too, is the sad musing of many to whom that Gospel has never come in its quickening and enlightening power\emdash to whom the present world is their "be all and end all." It is the Christian alone, who, under the teachings of a diviner philosophy, can utter through tears, as he stands by the grave of those who have fallen asleep in Jesus, "Blessed are those who die in the Lord."\par  \par We cannot pause now to investigate the pregnant meaning of that brief description of the Christian character here given, "who die in the Lord." Those who have been privileged to stand by a believer's death-bed will know what the phrase means better than by words. It implies vital union with Christ; the acceptance of Him as a Savior\emdash alike from the guilt and the power of sin; and the reality of which union has been evidenced by the testimony of a holy life. It is effected not by the application of the outward baptismal sign; not by sacramental act, or efficacy, or ritual; not by the holding up of the crucifix before the face of the dying, nor muttering prayers and incantations over the casket of the dead\emdash neither does it consist in the badge and shibboleth of any ecclesiastical party, nor in the mere religious utterances of the last hour, to which the whole previous life is in painful contrast. It is not the transient ecstasy of frame and feeling; not the bidding farewell to the world, and an avowed resignation to leave it when nothing else remains; a willingness to loosen the cable when the vessel is already drifting from its anchorage into infinite darkness. Far less is it the sinful, morbid desire\emdash dictated often by wounded pride, or disappointed ambition, or faithless friendship\emdash to be done with the world, and become oblivious to its ingratitude and wrongs\emdash saying, with the fugitive Prophet of Carmel, "It is enough\emdash take away my life;" or, with the peevish Prophet of Nineveh, "It is better for me to die than to live."\par \par But it is the calm, peaceful resting at the close of life, on the work and merits of a Savior, long ago found and long ago precious. It is Paul's noble and triumphant affirmation, "To die is gain," grounded on the antecedent testimony, "For me to live is Christ." The sublime consciousness that he was "in the Lord," gave him a noble indifference alike to living or dying; it made him content either for a while with the distant vision of heaven, or to be ushered at once into the full fruition. It mattered not whether Christ were magnified in his body by life or by death. He could say, with heroic calmness and complacency, "Whether we live, we live unto the Lord, or whether we die, we die unto the Lord; whether we live therefore or die, we are the Lord's." Oh! to him, and to all such, the last Enemy is robbed of his terrors! What to the unsaved sinner is the gloomy portico leading to the grave, is to the Christian the vestibule of Heaven. The life of faith in the Son of God encircles, like a crown of glory, his dying head.\par \par Neither is it of any moment where or how that death may come. It may be the long tedious experience of months and years, when pin by pin of the earthly tabernacle is taken down\emdash the wasting consumption, the gradual decay. Or it may be with the speed and suddenness of the lightning-flash. It may be in the stillness and quiet of the home-chamber, surrounded with loving eyes and familiar voices; or it may be in some far-off Patmos isle\emdash or in the hut of the settler\emdash or in the cabin on the lone sea\emdash or in the dungeon's darkness\emdash or at the martyr's fire\emdash or amid the shout and shell of battle. It signifies not\emdash the Gospel requiem is the same wherever sounded. "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." "Blessed are those who die in the Lord."\par \par II. But this angel-utterance is ratified by a Divine voice, "Yes, says the Spirit." The Divine Spirit of God sets His seal to the beatitude; and He assigns a twofold reason for the blessedness which had just been pronounced on the holy dead.\par \par (1.) "They rest from their labors." Many are the scriptural symbols employed to illustrate the future glory and happiness of Heaven. It is spoken of as a mansion, a city, a kingdom, a temple. But no figure comes home with such power and beauty and appropriateness as that of rest. It is the weary husbandman having gathered in his implements, and stored the fruit of his spring and summer toils. It is the weary laborer at the end of life's long week enjoying the calm of the eternal Sabbath. It is the warrior having ungirded his stained and dust-covered armor on the banks of the river of life, and exchanged the weapons of conflict for the festal palm and the victor's crown. It is the weary bird now no longer beating its wings against the bars of its cage, as it caught up the notes caroled in the far country, and warbled its pensive earth-song, "Oh, that I had wings, . . . for then would I flee away and be at rest!"\par \par Sin and suffering together have converted this fair earth into a place of wailing and unrest, and made the spirit long for a world where these are felt and feared no more. Not that the Christian desires heaven as a place of exemption from the holy activities of his being. No! if we hear of "the Divine gift of rest," there is "a divine gift of work" too. Work, consecrated work, even on earth is happiness; and the higher the consecration, the higher will be the satisfaction in the unresting occupations of the glorified. The believer longs only for cessation from that which impedes his activities here; and the absence of which would enable him to continue a rejoicing laborer in that world where the cry is never heard, "Oh, wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"\par \par There he will be enabled to serve God without interruption. No baffled labor; no crushing disappointments; no wearing anxieties; no treachery of tried and trusted friends; no silent, secret griefs, which, unknown to the world, take from life its sweetest ingredients; no evil heart of unbelief, no failure of cherished plans and brilliant hopes; no sickness, laying its paralyzing hand on successful toil, and crippling the warrior on the very eve of conquest. But rather, the bud stymied on earth will expand into the full blossom; those cut off in the midst of their days will be permitted  to complete the unfinished and unfulfilled purpose, and, unclogged by all material hindrances, to go forth in endless missions and ministries of loving service. It will be "the rest without a rest"\emdash the rest from sin, and the rest in God. "Blessed" are such dead! "This is the rest with which you may cause the weary to rest, and this is the refreshing."\par \par (2.) A second element in the blessedness of the holy dead here given is, that "their works (good deeds) follow them." "Not," says !an old divine, "that their works go before them in order to win God's favor." But they follow after them, alike as the tests and evidences of their vital living union to Christ, and as the grounds on which will be apportioned the nature and degree of their eternal recompense.\par \par For we must never, for the support and vindication of one great Bible declaration, nullify and contradict another. While the title to heaven is altogether apart from ourselves, secured as a free gift of grace in Ch"rist\emdash the purchase of His dying love; yet every good deed done by His people as the fruit of their faith, will have its corresponding reward. As in the material skies, 'one star differs from another star in glory,' so will believers have their different spheres assigned them in the firmament of eternity\emdash some describing a nearer, some a more distant orbit relative to the great central throne. There will be the inheritor of five, and the inheritor of ten cities; the possessor of the five talent#s, and the possessor of ten; those who will shine as the brightness of the skies; those who will have a crown of surpassing glory round their brows, even "as the stars forever and ever."\par \par It is not, however, the doer of great works and gigantic or brilliant deeds who alone is to have this glorious recompense\emdash he who out of his abundance can give the golden tribute to the cause of Christ, or bear in a jeweled cup the offering of love to His people; but the poor, the humble, the lone$ly, the bedridden, who have glorified their Savior by meek submission and patient bearing of the cross; who had nothing to give but the two mites, or the cup of cold water, and that, too, from an earthen pitcher; yet valued and recompensed by Him who accepts the deed according to what a man has, not according to what he has not.\par \par Nor must we exclude from the words their significant meaning with reference to this world, as well as to the next. For even here, the works of the holy dead fol%low them. When a Christian dies\emdash when the lips are closed and the voice silent, and the sods of the churchyard cover him\emdash that is not the last of the man in the living sphere of living being, which in one sense he has left. He lives on! There is a presence and influence more real, more deathless, than the mere bodily frame. Like the glow of the descending sun lighting up the Alpine peaks long after the orb itself has sunk behind the visible horizon, so the works of the holy and the good linger& behind them. They have an earthly as well as a heavenly immortality.\par \par The friend you loved is sleeping the long sleep where "the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest." Men say of him, as they miss him on the street, or in the busy mart, or in the house of God, "He is gone!" No, not so! Do not call the sacred spot where his ashes lie\emdash do not call regarding him, "the land of forgetfulness." His words and works are still among us. There is a speech of the dead, the l'anguage of undying memories. The outward features have perished, but the spirit is indestructible. Mind cannot die. Holy deeds know no death-bed, no grave, no corruption. "The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance."\par \par How many there are whose only "blessed life" is the life of sense\emdash the life of selfish and sensuous pleasure\emdash the life of glitter and display and superficial gaiety! In such, there is nothing glorious to "follow;" and even those things which are objec(ts of honorable aspiration\emdash lands, houses, riches, titles, diadems\emdash the accidents of existence, not its realities\emdash cannot be ferried across the dark river! Then it will be said to every votary of the present and the perishable world, who has no inheritance in anything that is higher and better, "Your gold perishes with you!" "Remove the diadem, take off the crown!" "The fashion of this world passes away!"\par \par Let us ask, What anticipations have we regarding our own departu)re? Can we contemplate that hour with calm emotion? Can we echo and anticipate regarding it and ourselves the words before us? or are we content to leave it an unsolved problem until the unwelcome hour arrives? Certain on everything else, are we all uncertainty on this?\emdash heedless, it may be, whether the works following will be the trail of light, or the shadows of darkness, and the legacy we bequeath, that of blessings or of curses.\par \par There is nothing, surely, more calculated to rou*se from the perilous dream of indifference, to the hopes and hazards of eternity, than to bear about with us the realizing sense of this aspect of a limitless future\emdash as the perpetuation and expansion of present character, the prolongation of present tastes and habits.\par \par The works of earth, "following" like the wake of a vessel, will have their completion in the world beyond. Earth is the germ, the seed-plot of immortality; the child of time, is the father of the full-grown manhood +of eternity. Every passing hour of the present life is gathering and shaping that endless futurity; these transient moments we now value so little, are molding everlasting destinies; the words we utter today will go echoing on forever; the deeds done today will be the architects of our bliss or woe, and will outlast millenniums!\par \par And if such be the case, then it is plain that character is not a thing that can be formed and extemporized on a death-bed. Character is the epitome of the life,\emdash the steady glow of its morning, noon, and evening hours; not the mere watery gleam and burst of sunshine at the close. We dare not, indeed, limit the grace of God; we dare not close the doors against the peradventure of a death-bed repentance; and yet we never can sufficiently lift up the voice of warning against the awful deception of which thousands are guilty, who flatter themselves that a few hours of penitence, just when the sand-glass is at its final grain, will reverse a guilty past\emdash -that a few tears then, will wipe out what has been engraved on the life as with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever! Oh, "live in the Lord" if you would "die in the Lord!"\par \par And if these words we have been pondering have to any a more sacred meaning, if they sound fresh in your memories, as you may have lately stood by the solemn death-bed or solemn grave, the lines chiseled with tears on your heart of hearts\emdash take them from the unknown heavenly Voice of the Vision as a special. parable of consolation. I repeat, it is beautiful to find in the very midst of a Book of strange and portentous figures\emdash amid its voices of thunder, and flashes of fire, and smoke of darkness\emdash this gleam of heavenly sunshine\emdash an olive branch of comfort, borne to the lonely exile and lonely heart in the midst of the storm.\par \par What can more touchingly evidence God's tender interest, alike in His dying people and in those who are mourning their departure, than when He thus /hushes the tempest's breath, that this balm-word may fall first on the ears of the Island Prisoner, and through him on the ears of a whole weeping world? Yes, believer! "Blessed are your dead." "They have entered into peace; they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness." Kindle around their graves lamps of fire; not the lamps which superstition places around the shrines of the departed, but the holy lights which they themselves kindled\emdash the lights of faith, and love, and patience, and submission, and meek bearing of injuries, and close walk with God. They have joined the ranks on the distant shore, and beckon you to follow. Do not be disobedient to the Heavenly Vision. Grasp up these torches as sacred legacies they have left you, to bear you on in your darkened way. And if their bright example has taught you how to live, let it tune your lips also to the prayer, "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like His!"\par \par \par \pard\cf1\f1\fs23\par } hA18. The Blessedness of the Holy Dead{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs24 THE BLESSEDNESS OF THE HOLY DEAD\par \par And I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Write this down: Blessed are those who die in the2 been victorious over the beast and his statue and the number representing his name. They were all holding harps that God had given them. And they were singing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb:\par \par "Great and marvelous are your actions,\par Lord God Almighty.\par Just and true are your ways,\par O King of the nations. Rev. 15:2-3\par \par The seven angels who were holding the bowls of the seven plagues came from the Temple,3 clothed in spotless white linen with gold belts across their chests. Rev. 15:6\par \par Then I heard a mighty voice shouting from the Temple to the seven angels, "Now go your ways and empty out the seven bowls of God's wrath on the earth." Rev. 16:1\par \par We have, in previous chapters, taken a rapid glance at two out of the three great parallel series of visions in the Book of Revelation\emdash those of the Seals and those of the Trumpets. One other group of figures, that of the Vi4als, still remains, previous to the grand final disclosures regarding the Celestial City and the Church of the glorified. We found the two former were preceded by magnificent introductory visions\emdash the adoration of the slain Lamb, and the Angel with the golden censer standing by the golden altar. So also is it in the case of the Vials, in which there was to be a new symbolic outpouring of divine judgment on one especially of the portentous monsters delineated in chapter 13\emdash "the Beast and his 5image."\par \par The true Church being, moreover, basely counterfeited in this hybrid foe, which conjoined the horns of the Lamb with the mouth of the dragon, could not fail to tremble for her own safety, and to stand in need of a special upholding word of comfort in the prospect of retribution. That preparatory vision of consolation is given in the words we are now to consider. Before the seven golden-belted angels come forth from the opened temple, bearing in their hands the cups or bowls of w6rath to be poured on an apostate church and an apostate world, John has his attention directed to another "sign in heaven." It is a sea, calm as glass, mingled with fire. A crowd of victors are seen on its shores, uniting with harp and voice in a song of lofty adoration.\par \par There would seem to be little doubt as to the real allusion in the suggestive imagery. Standing, indeed, now (as the spectator himself describes in chapter 14), "on the sands of the sea," looking across the Aegean Sea\e7mdash its calm waters transmuted into molten gold\emdash the island-home of the Apostle-prisoner and its surroundings may have possibly added power and reality to the figure.\par \par But who can question that it had its grand original in the memories of another sea-shore\emdash other minglings of fire\emdash and other harps of triumph? Who can fail, in this new apocalyptic representation, to call to remembrance that ever-illustrious scene in early Jewish story\emdash the proudest in all the old8 Hebrew annals\emdash when the Israelites, ranged on the sands of Asia with the Red Sea between them and their old house of bondage, sang their song of victory\emdash Miriam and her sisters answering with timbrels, as they made the shores ring with the refrain, "Sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider has He thrown into the sea"?\par \par Nor is it the name given, "The Song of Moses"\emdash which alone is suggestive of the allusion. The glassy sea was "mingled 9with fire." Have we not here, also, the counterpart in that opening drama of the Exodus\emdash the pillar of fire giving its glorious light to Israel, but flashing vengeance on their Egyptian pursuers? You may remember the exceptional appointment on that night of miracle, with reference to this fiery column\emdash it "removed and went behind the Hebrews." At other times their pioneer and precursor, it now remained in their rear; so that as the Israelites, rank by rank, reached the opposite shore, they saw: its lurid light reflected in the waters. The opposite side of the same pillar formed a murky cloud and darkness to the Egyptians; or, if it emitted light, it was only the fitful gleams and coruscations of the forked lightning\emdash the arrows of God\emdash to dazzle and perplex and terrify.\par \par After the world's long night of peril, the symbolic Church of 'just men made perfect'\emdash God's glorified Israel\emdash having left forever behind them the land of their oppressors, stand safe o;n the heavenly shore. Every billow of tribulation is hushed\emdash all is changed into a calm, reflecting the glory of the Everlasting Hills, and of the Sun of Righteousness. How vivid the contrast between that glassy, waveless sea\emdash without a disturbing element\emdash and the apostate Church on earth spoken of in chapter14 as "seated on many waters"\emdash fretted with tempest, tossed on a troubled ocean-sea which cannot rest! Blessed and glorious emblem of everlasting tranquillity\emdash these celeto their mandate; but after the former have issued from the temple, the song continues. It is not a brief introductory solo merely\emdash a solitary paean before the conflict; but rather like martial music mingling in the roll of battle, or like words of heart-cheer and sympathy borne ever and always, amid the surging of the tempest, to the ears of the perishing crew. If so, the song has this additional interesting characteristic, that it is being sung now\emdash that as the judgment-angels are abroad on ?their mission, the ear of faith can catch up its strains. The song of the perfected Church we shall come to hereafter; the present is that of the partially completed and completing ranks of the glorified.\par \par It is the song sung on the Heavenly Mount while the battle is still raging in the plain beneath. Let us then, for a little, ungird the wilderness-armor and hearken to the music of the harps of God. On His own Sabbath, it may be, the day and hour of solemn truce, with the arms of confli@ct piled on the silent sands, let us forget the Egypt plagues behind, and the perils of the desert before, and listen with rapt reverence to "the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb."\par \par There are various interesting views we may take of this blended song. First, we may regard it as the Song of the two Dispensations\emdash that of the Old and the New\emdash the mighty multitude of redeemed gathered in under both, meeting under their great representative heads\emdashA a united Church. The glorious company of apostles, the goodly fellowship of prophets, and the noble army of martyrs, are assembled on the celestial shores to sing the song of their common deliverance\emdash to mingle their combined yet diverse experiences, and proclaim these for the encouragement of the drooping and faint-hearted, who are still struggling in the conflict, or buffeting the billows.\par \par How vast and varied are these experiences! Each harper has his own tale to utter and his Bown song to sing. There are the patriarchal harps swept by the hand of Abel and Noah, Abraham and Joseph; telling of purposes of covenant love proclaimed amid the withered bowers of Eden, or written in the rainbow of heaven that spanned the receding waters of the flood, or recalling mercies that were showered around the tent of the Pilgrim of Canaan, and the Captive in the Egyptian dungeon. There are the prophetic harps, from Moses to Malachi, rehearsing those glowing utterances which evoked of old their Ctuneful melodies. There is Isaiah, resuming the very strain of his undying parable of consolation, "Comfort, comfort my people." There is Hezekiah with his balm-words for the troubled and terror-stricken, "God is our refuge and strength, a present help in trouble," There is David and Daniel, with their older memories of heroic faith and calm reliance, which led to ultimate deliverance and victory. There is the harp of the Simeons and Annas, who, in their day and generation, stood on the threshold of a newD era of time, celebrating still the praises of the great "Consolation of Israel," for whom they had long waited, and waited not in vain. There is the Baptist, in the presence of the "True Light," uttering louder than ever his old proclamation, "He must increase, but I must decrease."\par \par One after another of the apostolic band has his own hallowed story to relate\emdash reminiscences of touching tenderness, and motives and encouragements to brave and stern endurance. John has more glorious Evisions of endearing fellowship with his great Lord than all the sublime picturings of Patmos. Paul has to tell how the things that happened unto him "have fallen out rather to the furtherance of the Gospel." Peter, in loud accents which know no faltering, can now exclaim, "Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You." We can listen to the holy women of Judea, and Galilee who tracked on earth the footsteps of Incarnate Mercy, joining with the Miriams and the Deborahs of the olden dispensation in aFbundantly uttering the memory of His great goodness, and talking of His righteousness. There are the Marys and the Elizabeths, rejoicing in God their Savior. There is the weeping penitent of Gennesaret with nothing now but the tear of love in her eyes, sweeping her harp with bolder hand because she had been forgiven much. There is the woman of Sychar and Mary of Magdala, and the sisters of Bethany, and the other holy watchers by the tomb of buried love, now echoing and prolonging the song through everlastGing ages which they were the first to raise, "The Lord is risen indeed."\par \par There are the martyred multitudes under Pagan Rome, and the faithful and heroic confessors under Papal Rome, who are described, in this vision of the crowned harpers, as having "gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over the number of his name." But we are lost in the attempt to catch up or follow these lofty harmonies. It is the blending, in one magnificent cadence, of all the voices of the faHst-gathering Church triumphant\emdash from Adam, re-tuning the broken harp of Paradise lost, to those who are at this very hour entering the spirit-land; all of every rank and of every age\emdash from the true Israelite wearing the monarch's crown, to the true Israelite whose earthly birthright was rags and penury\emdash from the aged Melchizedecs and Methuselahs and Elis, to the little children who sang their hosannahs in the temple\emdash the representatives of ten thousand thousand whose infant tonguesI, stilled on earth, have been early tuned to the immortal song.\par \par Oh! whatever be the jarring notes of conflicting ages and conflicting sects here, all is harmony yonder. "Those who are delivered from the noise of archers," now, in the fellowship of unmarred and unbroken communion, rehearse to one another, harp answering to harp, and soul to soul, "the righteous acts of the Lord." It is the realization of the longed-for unity of God's people\emdash the interchange of the patriarchal and tJhe apostolic\emdash the Jewish and the Christian\emdash the Song of Moses blending in sweet accord with the Song of the Lamb; and the words of sublime liturgy, so often belied on earth, become the noble and truthful liturgy of Heaven, "The Church throughout all the world does acknowledge You!"\par \par II. Another view we may take of this blended ascription is, that which is most obvious, to regard it as the song of PROVIDENCE and the song of GRACE. "The Song of Moses"\emdash the song of ProvideKnce. "The Song of the Lamb"\emdash the song of Grace, or Redemption. The anthem itself is an antiphonal strain, sung in alternate parts; and its subject-matter, as given in verses 3, 4, would seem to justify the twofold division. It was God's wondrous providential "works," in the miraculous plagues of Egypt and the passage of the Red Sea, which formed the special theme of the olden Song of Moses. The Song of the Lamb, again\emdash that of the New Testament Church\emdash celebrated rather the wondrous "wayLs" of God\emdash His justice, His truth, His dreadful holiness, as manifested in the plan of redemption. And, therefore, if the strains of the former befittingly be this, "Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty," no less appropriate and beautiful are those of the latter, "Just and true are all Your ways, O King of the ages; who shall not fear You, and glorify Your name? for You only are holy."\par \par First, then, let us hear these harpers sing the Song of PROVIDENCE, "the Song oMf Moses, the servant of God." They delight, in other words, to sing a song similar to that which Moses sang on the shores of the Red Sea\emdash the leading characteristic of which is the recognition and adoration of God's sovereignty. It is worthy of special note, how strikingly, in all their references to the exodus, the Hebrew psalmists and prophets love to bring into bold prominence this grand feature of the personal agency, foreknowledge, and power of Jehovah. "They went through the flood on foot; theNn did we rejoice in Him." "He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through, and He made the waters to stand as a heap. In the daytime, also, He led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire." "You rode upon Your horses and Your chariots of salvation. You walked through the sea with Your horses\emdash through the heap of great waters."\par \par And these are but the echoes of the original song itself. "Your right hand, O God, has become glorious in power. Your right hand, O LoOrd, has dashed in pieces the enemy. With the blast of Your nostrils the waters were gathered together; the floods stood upright as a heap. The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil. You blew with Your wind; the sea covered them, they sank as lead in the mighty waters . . . The Lord shall reign forever and ever!" Oh! blessed assurance for the Church of God in the midst of all tribulations, and one we have found so often repeated in this closing Book of the sacred Canon, that tPhere is a personal will and a personal God enthroned behind and above these apparently conflicting elements! The God of the olden pillar-cloud is in the pillar-cloud still. Man proposes, but God disposes.\par \par It is for us, meanwhile, patiently to wait the development of His plans; to take on trust these strains from the harpers which we cannot understand until we ourselves join their ranks. Every evolution in the great program is His, who presides alike over the counsels of His Church and tQhe destinies of the nations. It is He who now strengthens and appoints the angels of judgment. It is His own mighty voice which gives the commission, "Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth." When that judicial errand was being accomplished, the subsequent confession of one of these ministers of vengeance would doubtless be that of all\emdash "And I heard the angel of the waters say, 'You are righteous, O Lord, who are, and were, and shall be, because You have judged thus!R" These glorious Beings, in the execution of their ministry, ask no questions. It is JEHOVAH, the Lord God Almighty, the Just, and the True, and the Holy\emdash who has given them their mandates. With unswerving loyalty, forth they go, panoplied in "pure and white linen, having their chests girded with golden sashes."\par \par And when their task is done\emdash when the last vial has been outpoured, and the Great Voice again comes out of the Temple of Heaven, saying, "It is done"\emdash when theSy return to their thrones to surrender their trust, and lay the emptied vials at the feet of their great Lord\emdash what is the next entry of the recording spectator? "After these things I heard a voice of much people in Heaven, saying, Alleluia! Salvation, and glory, and honor, and power unto the Lord our God: for true and righteous are His judgments . . . 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! foTr the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!"\par \par Let us catch up the lofty echo of this Song of Moses\emdash the Song of Providence; the song sung\emdash yes, and now being sung, on the shores of glory! The Providence which sits enthroned over the Church and the world presides over our individual destinies. Often there may be profound mysteries in the Divine dealings, "deep may call to deep." We may at times lose the footsteps of a God of love, and be led in our bewilderment to exclaim, "Your way is Uin the sea, and Your path in the deep waters, and Your judgments are not known." But there is a day coming when the rectitude of His dealings and doings will be vindicated\emdash when the floods which now lift up their waves and make a mighty noise shall be stilled into a glassy calm, mirroring nothing but the red, fire-like glory of Justice, and Mercy, and Love; and when, not with the blare of the trumpets of earthly warfare, but on the tuneful chords of Heaven's own sweetest instrument, we shall sing wiVth the harpers on the glassy sea\emdash "The Song of Moses, the Servant of God."\par \par The Second theme of the twofold song is "The Song of THE LAMB"\emdash the Song of Grace and of Redemption. This is a louder, loftier, sublimer strain. We have met it before, more than once, in the previous figures, so that we have the less need to dwell on it here. In the connection in which it stands in the present passage, we are forcibly reminded of one of the most impressive incidents in the life of ourW Incarnate Redeemer. Moses, the author of the Song of Providence, in company with another illustrious fellow-harper from the glassy sea, came down to an earthly mount to witness the Transfiguration of Him whose day they had both seen afar off, and were glad. It was not, however, the theme of Providence which then engrossed their thoughts, nor the Song of Providence which thrilled on their lips. "They appeared in glory, and spoke of His death, which He would accomplish at Jerusalem."\par \par As Xif they would thereby proclaim, that the theme of Redemption, the Song of the Lamb, is the sublime topic which fixes the contemplation\emdash tasks the immortal energies of the redeemed above\emdash the blessed bond of union linking together the varying dispensations\emdash the legal, the prophetical, the Gospel\emdash the Church on earth and the Church in Heaven. All other themes pale before it. All other works and designs of Providence constellate around the Cross of Calvary, as the planets around a cenYtral sun. No other theme, no other song, has any glory, by reason of this glory which excels\emdash Christ is all and in all! Not only of Him and through Him, but "to Him are all things." Glorious indeed is the Song of Creation\emdash the song which the psalmist puts into the lips of the starry heavens, as these spangled, glittering minstrels of the skies declare the glory of God and show forth His handiwork\emdash day unto day uttering speech, and night unto night showing knowledge.\par \par GlZorious, too, was that Song of Moses on the Red Sea shores. No greater or more signal earthly deliverance was ever celebrated in poetry or music. It stands out by itself with peerless grandeur, in annals sacred and profane. But, after all, what a feeble type of that deliverance which is being now sung and celebrated by the heavenly harpers!\emdash a deliverance from the bondage of condemnation and death!\emdash as we look across the sea of Divine wrath, and behold our sins, like the hosts of Pharaoh, sunk [into its depths! Oh! sing unto the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things! His right hand and His holy arm have gotten Him the victory. Thanks, eternal thanks, be unto God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!\par \par If the befitting utterance of Creation and Providence be, "Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty," Redemption, as it takes its stand by the Cross, and beholds the meeting in blissful harmony of all the attributes of Jehovah\emdash Trut\h with Mercy, and Righteousness with Peace\emdash has this song, too, peculiarly its own, "Just and true are all Your ways, O King of the ages! who shall not fear You, and glorify Your name? for You only are holy."\par \par Let us sing that twofold blended song now, that we may sing it forever. It is continually waxing louder. Well-known voices missed on earth, add to the sublime harpings and melodies of the skies. The host passing through the Red Sea of earthly trial is, age by age, year by yea]r, week by week, diminishing; the shores of glory are crowding with ever-augmented numbers. Meanwhile, let the girded angels of judgment go forth on their mission\emdash and whether it be to pour the contents of their incense-bowls on a desolated world\emdash on rivers, and fountains, and sea, and lights of heaven\emdash amid predicted voices and thunderings, lightnings and earthquake\emdash the crash of falling cities and the wild paroxysms of affrighted nature; or whether it be to carry these vials to individual homes and hearths\emdash we shall listen to the voice of Him who has given the mandate, "Go your ways;" we shall hearken to the calm lullaby stealing down from the harpers on the sea of glass, as they proclaim, amid all convulsions and all changes, the sway alike of a God of Providence and Grace, and exhort us to sing with them, even now, what will form the theme and anthem of eternity, "The Song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the LAMB!"\par \par \par \pard\cf1\f1\fs23\par } &A19. The Song of the Harpers by the Glassy Sea{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs24 THE SONG OF THE HARPERS BY THE GLASSY SEA\par \par I saw before me what seemed to be a crystal sea mixed with fire. And on it stood all the people who had1` shamefully exposed." Revelation 16:15\par \par In the previous context, we found the golden-belted angels issuing forth from the Temple with their bowls or vials full of the wrath of God. They are completing their mission of vengeance. The great Day of Judgment\emdash the time of the end\emdash the consummation of all things\emdash is gradually drawing near. In the immediately preceding verse there is described a mustering of the forces of evil at the instigation of three unclean spirits. Thesea, in language of strong metaphor, are represented as "going forth to the kings of the earth, and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty." At this announcement of Satan's final gigantic effort for mastery\emdash the last conflict of great principles\emdash when a bold and defiant skepticism is rampant, and ungodliness is abounding\emdash the faith of the Church may be ready to fail, and her courage to falter. But a Divine voice, alike of comfort and of warning, bbreaks in parenthetically.\par \par John, up to this point, has been the faithful recorder of the visions which were passing before him. Once more it is THE COMING ONE whose utterances are interjected in the midst of the dreadful and dreaded figures. It is the old key-note of the Book\emdash the leading "Memory of Patmos," which is again sounded. We had almost forgotten it amid the rapid rush and succession of apocalyptic symbols\emdash amid the thunderings, and lightnings, and tempest. But the tcrumpet-tones once more rise clear and distinct above the clang of battle. He of whom in the first chapter it was announced, "Behold, HE COMES with clouds"\emdash He who, in the closing chapter of all, announces Himself, "Surely I AM COMING QUICKLY"\emdash makes the intermediate proclamation, "Behold, I COME AS A THIEF! Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments with him."\par \par We have in these words a Monition (a warning) and a Benediction. Let us briefly ponder them in their order.\pdar \par I. The MONITION, "Behold, I come as a thief." The second coming of Christ is to be sudden and unexpected. It was not so with His first coming. Independent altogether of Hebrew prophecy, that advent had its dim and shadowy premonitions in the Gentile world. It was amid the hush of general expectation\emdash when "all men were musing"\emdash when, in the words of the great poet, "Birds of calm sat brooding on the charmed wave"\emdash when the sword was sheathed, the temple of Janus was shuet, and palm branches of peace strewed the pathway of the expected King\emdash that the Child of Bethlehem was born.\par \par "No war or battle's sound,\par Was heard the world around;\par The idle spear and shield were high up hung;\par The hooked chariot stood\par Unstained with hostile blood;\par The trumpet spoke not to the armed throng;\par And kings sat still, with awful eye,\par As if they surely knew their Sovereign Lord was bfy."\par \par So also is it with the spiritual Advent of the Redeemer to the souls of His people. That, too, unless in rare and exceptional cases, is a gradual 'coming.' "His going forth is prepared as the morning." His approach is not like the abrupt and sweeping water-flood, but rather like the silent dew as it distills imperceptibly on blade and flower.\par \par Different will it be, however, at His second Advent. With the speed of the lightning flash\emdash with the suddenness of thge entrapping snare, or the assault and surprise of the midnight robber; when men are asleep\emdash when every bolt and fastening seem protection against the prowling invader, then the cry shall be heard, "Behold, the Judge is at the door!" Our Lord Himself, in His own memorable discourse, gives a vivid picture of the state of the world at His final appearing. It shall be "as in the days of NOAH." The ante-diluvians were pursuing their guilty revelries\emdash listening with mocking incredulity to Noah's sthrange parable of predicted wrath\emdash seeing in the clear sky overhead no symptoms of coming disaster\emdash then "the flood came and destroyed them all."\par \par Or it shall be "as in the days of LOT." The same tale of terror seemed contradicted by the smiling plains beneath and the bright skies above; for "the sun," we read, "had risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar." In other words, when he reached his shelter, and the hour of doom had arrived, there was nothing seen but the plaiy of sunbeams, "sowing the earth with orient pearl." No black omen was visible; the dwellers in Sodom woke up, heedless of fears, to a new day of godless riot; when suddenly the windows of heaven were opened, and bolts of living fire descended on the doomed cities!\par \par So shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. "Behold, I come as a thief!" The world will have rocked itself asleep on the subject of its Lord's appearing. That appearing will be among the obsolete dogmas of its creed; denoujnced and discarded as a myth of prating fanatics and enthusiasts. It is so in large measure already. Outer nature, in its unvarying and apparently stereotyped laws, gives no indication of any such arrest on its appointed sequences; day follows night; summer treads on the heels of winter; autumn repays with interest the sower's springtime toil. There is no wrinkle on earth's brow\emdash no symptom of decrepitude. It may be rather augured from the progress of science\emdash the gigantic strides of discoveryk\emdash that the earth is like the eagle, molting her feathers for a renewal of her youth. Nothing is there in the canopy above, nor in the garnered treasures hidden beneath her surface, to countersign and ratify the incredible warning of this Seer of Patmos.\par \par The lovers of pleasure\emdash those who desire to have no higher portion than this life\emdash are only too ready to accept these theories of a godless and skeptic philosophy\emdash to pursue with undisturbed greed the paths of sinl and the race for riches. Secure against invasion, avarice heaps up its treasure, and shouts its defiant boast, "Tomorrow shall be as today, and much more abundant." "No," says Christ, as He awakes the dormant peal of the Advent-bell, "do not believe the world's lie; for it is just when that lie has won for itself a fatal acceptance\emdash when mankind have sunk into this state of guilty, bold, defiant indifference\emdash that My footfall shall be heard\emdash Behold, I come as a thief!"\par \par m Just when the scoffer is uttering his arrogant challenge, "Where is the promise of His coming?"\emdash when all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of the creation\emdash when the husbandman is pursuing his peaceful labors\emdash when the groves are vocal with song, or the valleys shouting with summer joy\emdash when the marts of commerce are crowded, and the wheels of industry are revolving\emdash when the ring of hammers is heard in workshop, when white-winged commerce is tracking asn aforetime the highway of the nations, when the student is poring over his books, or the astronomer is registering the time of the next eclipse, or the politician is casting up the possibilities of peace and war\emdash when the oblivious world, little dreaming of change, is immersed in her own gigantic selfishness and ambition\emdash then, yes then, "Behold! I come as a thief!"\par \par The figure here used by the Lord, and spoken by Him from a state of glory, is the very same He employed in Hiso magnificent prophetic utterance on the Mount of Olives in the days of His humiliation. "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him!"\par \par Paul uses the same significant simile, "for you pknow very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape!"\par \par And to the same effect, Peter remembers the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, "But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and everything in them will disappear in fire, and the earth and eqverything on it will be exposed to judgment."\par \par It is at night\emdash midnight\emdash the robber's hour\emdash when darkness has drawn its sable curtains around a silent world\emdash that the cry shall be heard, "Behold, the Bridegroom comes! Go out to meet Him!"\par \par II. We have spoken of the Monition. Let us now glance at the appended BENEDICTION, "Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed." The referrence here may be the simple and ordinary one, of a man, heedless of all danger, lying down to sleep with his garments cast carelessly aside; the thief suddenly enters his chamber, takes forcible possession of his clothing, and leaves him naked and defenseless. Or more probably, according to the great commentator Lightfoot, the allusion may be to a Jewish custom in the service of the Temple of Jerusalem. Twenty-four wards or companies were appointed night by night to guard the various entrances to the sacsred courts. One individual was appointed as captain over the others, called the "Man of the Mountain of the House of God." His duty was to go round the various gates during the night to see that his subordinates were faithful at their posts. Preceded himself, by men bearing torches, it was expected that each wakeful sentinel should hail his appearance with the password, "O man of the mountain of the house, peace be unto you!" If, through unwatchfulness and slumber, this were neglected, the offender was betaten with the staff\emdash his garments were burnt\emdash he was branded with shame for failure of duty, by being left in a state of nakedness.\par \par It was in contrast with these slumbering Levites, that Jesus may be supposed to pronounce a blessing on His true people, who watch and keep their garments ready, and are saved from the reproach of spiritual nakedness. Their attitude is that of wakeful sentinels, who, anticipating their Lord's coming, are ever standing on their watchtower, pacingu their rounds, having on the whole armor of God, "the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left;" so that, "being clothed, they may not be found naked."\par \par And yet, be it ever remembered, that, knowing the possibility even of His own faithful disciples being involved in this state of drowsy unwakefulness, it is to them He addresses, as the great Captain and Overseer of His spiritual Temple, the solemn words, "Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of thev house will come back\emdash whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn."\par \par Are we in the expectant attitude of those who are described as those who "love His appearing?" Who are waiting for "the promise of His coming?" That second coming of Christ ought, with all of us, to be regarded by its apostolic name as "The Blessed Hope"\emdash the polar star in the sky of the future. It is true, indeed, that in one sense, to the believer, death is equivalent to wthe coming of his Lord, as being the hour which will usher him into His immediate presence. But death is never spoken of in Scripture as a blessed hope. Even the Christian holds his breath as the King of Terrors passes by. He may be ready to slip the cable whenever his Lord gives the word\emdash he may be ready to enter the dark valley, and, under the guidance and grace of the Shepherd-Leader, he may fear no evil\emdash but it is a dark valley notwithstanding: the tear, and the weeping cypress, and the saxble mourning, have ever formed the associations and accompaniments of the final hour and scene.\par \par Not so is it, however, with Christ's Advent. It is a jubilant anticipation. The believer can long for it\emdash can pray for it, "Even so, COME Lord Jesus;" "Make no tarrying, O my God;" "Make haste, my Beloved! be like a roe or a young deer on the mountains of spices."\par \par How often does Samuel Rutherford break forth into some such impassioned words as these, "All is night thayt is here: therefore sigh and long for the dawning of that morning. Persuade yourself that the King is coming. Wait with the wearied night-watchers for the breaking of the eastern sky."\par \par Nor let us for a moment suppose that this watching is some foolish, transcendental frame of mind which divorces the Christian from daily work and duty. These vigils may be best kept, not in cloistered seclusion. He watches most nobly and truly, who does so, not by abstracting himself from life's rough drzudgery and needful calls, but who, in the midst of the ordinary avocations of the world\emdash amid the fever and turmoil of busy existence\emdash can catch up the jubilant chimes wafted to the ear of faith from the bells of glory.\par \par Let these inspired utterances be ever ringing their varying magnificent melodies in our ears, "Yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry." "I will come again, and receive you unto myself." "A little while, and you shall not see {Me; and again a little while, and you shall see Me." "The end of all things is at hand; be therefore sober, and watch unto prayer." "Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed!"\par \par Be it ours to keep this sentinel-guard over the garments of a holy character and spotless life; jealous of the invasion of sin; realizing from day to day and from hour to hour the solemn thought, "In this dress\emdash in these garments, I m|ust one day appear before my great Lord!" dreading the possibility, through unwatchfulness, of being deprived of any part of them, and thus of being "ashamed before Him at His coming."\par \par If we expected a long-absent brother or friend from a distant land, how careful should we be in our preparations to give him welcome! How house and hall would be decorated and adorned! How would ingenuity be taxed to deck out his chamber with every tribute which fond affection could devise! How careful to} efface every association or memory of sadness, and prevent the occurrence of one note of discord or disharmony that would mar the joy of that glad return!\par \par How should it be with us, in the prospect of welcoming the Brother of brothers, the Friend of friends? How should the home of every heart be "swept and garnished," decked in best holiday attire, to give to the long-absent Lord, love's most loyal welcome! Every day is bringing that Advent nearer\emdash lessening the span of that rainb~ow of promise. The "little while, and you shall not see Me," is widening; the "little while, and you shall see Me," is diminishing.\par \par The Church is like the sailors in the book of Acts, who "as we were being driven across the Sea of Adria, the sailors sensed land was near." Is this true in a nobler sense of "the Better country?" Are we thus on the outlook to "see the King in His beauty, and the land that is very far off?" Others may be voyaging on in guilty unpreparedness, having nothing but the prospect of being stranded in a night of darkness and despair. "But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief." Let the Blessed Hope impart new animation and intensity to your every Christian grace, strengthening your faith, calming your fears, quickening your zeal, disarming affliction of its sting, and death itself of its brief triumph. Let each Sabbath, each providential dispensation, add new power to the summons, "Awake, awake! put on your beautiful garments!" "Prepare to meet your God, O Israel!" So that when that glorious second Advent shall be consummated\emdash when the Lord shall come and all His saints with Him\emdash we may be able rejoicingly to exclaim, "Lo! this is our God! We have waited for Him, and He will save us! This is the Lord, we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation."\par \par "Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when HE COMES, shall find watching!"\par \par \par \pard\cf1\f1\fs23\par } xx|9M20. The Coming One; and the Blessed Watcher{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs24 THE COMING ONE; AND THE BLESSED WATCHER\par \par "Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be_\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs24 THE GREAT DAY OF JUDGMENT\par \par "And I saw a great white throne, and I saw the One who was sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from His presence, but they found no place to hide. I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God's throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to the things written in the books, according to what they had done. The sea gave up the dead in it, and death and the grave gave up the dead in them. They were all judged according to their deeds." Revelation 20:11-13\par \par In the previous chapter we had our attention again specially called to the theme of the Advent\emdash the approaching consummation of all, "Behold, I COME as a thief." It was the herald-cry, "Prepare the way of the Lord." "The Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come." The chariot wheels to a waiting, weary Church had long "tarried;" but they are now at hand. The warning voice need no more be sounded. The Day\emdash that dreadful Day, "the Great Day of the Almighty;" the Day waited for by all time, has come at last, the Day of Judgment\emdash the Assize of God. Remembering that we, each one of us, will be among the myriads who will throng the area of that Great tribunal, let us with profound reverence and godly fear unfold, in brief outline, the contents of these sublime and solemn verses. We have successively set before us\emdash the Throne, the Judge, the Flight, the Gathering, the Books, and the Final Judgment.\par \par (1.) THE THRONE\emdash "And I saw a great white throne, and I saw the One who was sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide."\par \par Other thrones had been spoken of in the preceding part of the Apocalypse; but these have vanished. The glories of all the old empires have passed as a dream when one awakens. All other crowns have crumbled into decay. Kings of the earth, and great men, and rich men\emdash colossal powers, political and ecclesiastical, "sitting on many waters"\emdash have been driven like chaff before the whirlwind. "The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked and the scepter of the rulers." In the immediately preceding context, the throne, too, of the chief apostate Satan, the arch-usurper and arch-deceiver, who had so long held earthly kingdoms and scepters under his vassalage, had fallen\emdash his iron crown had been torn forever from his brow; his doom consummated by being cast into the lake of fire.\par \par High above this wreck of powers, human and Satanic, rises conspicuous before the Seer of Patmos the Throne of all Thrones. It is designated "a Great white throne"\emdash a throne of pure alabaster, corresponding with the "garment white as snow," spoken of in the Book of Daniel, in which was attired the Ancient of Days. The color indicates the spotless purity and justice of Him who is seated thereon, as the sole, unchallenged arbiter of the eternal destinies of mankind. No other imagery could so solemnly testify to the unsullied rectitude and righteousness which will characterize the awards of that Day. As a commentator justly notes, there is here not even the emblem which is employed in the fourth chapter of this book, where there is seen surrounding the same Throne and the same Judge an encircling rainbow of emerald, the well-known symbol of covenant-grace. The reign of grace is now over, these rainbow-tints have melted away in the inaccessible light. Grace has descended the steps of the tribunal, and Justice has taken its place.\par \par (2.) It is this JUDGE who next claims our thoughts. "And I saw a great white throne, and I saw the One who was sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from His presence, but they found no place to hide."\par \par In one respect it is the joint throne of Father and Son, "the throne," as it is spoken of in the immediately preceding context, "of God and of the Lamb." But in the truest sense it is the crowned Mediator\emdash He who has been throughout looked and longed for as 'The coming One,' who assumes by mediatorial right and prerogative the office of Supreme Judge. Other scriptures leave us in no doubtfulness as to this. The Divine Redeemer Himself, in the most unequivocal language, asserts and claims these judicial functions, "The Father has committed all judgment to the Son. . . . He has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of man." "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." "It is He," says Peter, "who was ordained of God to be the Judge of the living and the dead." "For," says Paul, "we must all appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ." Yet, again, in addressing his Athenian audience on the heights of Mars Hill, "For He has appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness, by that Man whom He has ordained."\par \par From the expression employed in the words which follow the verses we are now considering, "from whose face"\emdash we may almost infer, that it is not God Almighty in His spiritual essence and divine glory who is to occupy in invisible majesty that majestic tribunal; but rather one wearing the face and form of glorified Humanity. The present passage is antithetical to the magnificent introduction in the first chapter, "Behold, He comes with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also that pierced Him; and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him." The now undisputed Judge of all, is the same Being who is there represented with a countenance like the sun shining in his strength. The Angel-intercessor before the golden altar, of a former vision, receiving the all-prayers, is now exalted in His absolute sovereignty to be the dispenser of both punishment and reward. What greater attestation could be given to the supreme divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ than this? "The heavens shall declare His righteousness: for GOD is Judge Himself!"\par \par None but One invested with the Divine attributes could have the necessary qualifications for the gigantic task. Omniscience to take in at a glance all the crowded incidents in the histories of these countless millions; to sift with unerring and impartial scrutiny 'the secrets of men.' Omnipotence to secure that none evade His summons\emdash or succeed, behind rock or mountain of earth or in cavern of ocean, to screen themselves from His searching, discriminating eye! Yes! "The hour is coming, in the which all who are in their graves shall hear His Voice, and shall come forth: those who have done good unto the resurrection of life; and those who have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation."\par \par (3.) Next, we have to note the FLIGHT of the earth and heaven at this great Epiphany. "And I saw a great white throne, and I saw the one who was sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from His presence, but they found no place to hide."\par \par We may perhaps best leave the interpretation of these words to their own indefinite grandeur. Some commentators, in order that they may tally with their own prophetic theory, have regarded them as nothing more than highly-wrought poetic drapery, intended to indicate figuratively, the stupendous nature of the transaction described; just as physical convulsions in other parts of this Book are taken to symbolize great moral crises and catastrophes. Or if there be a fleeing away of material luminaries, that it is not intended to mean any actual convulsion or displacement of the existing system; but only what we are spectators of every morning, as the moon and stars dim their pale lusters before the advancing sun,\par \par "The Lord will come, the earth shall quake;\par The mountains to their center shake,\par And withering from the vault of night,\par The stars withdraw their feeble light."\par \par  Had the words stood alone in the Apocalypse, such an interpretation might have been entertained or accepted. But in the light of other passages of Scripture we are driven to conclude, that they refer to a literal destruction and wreck of the present economy, "a dissolution of the present cosmos"\emdash preliminary to renovation and renewal. The parallel words of Peter's unfigurative Epistle, are too strong and decided to warrant any more modified interpretation, "The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up."\par \par (4.) We have the GATHERING, "I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God's throne." What an assembly! All who have ever trod the earth, from the first to the last member of the human race. No conventional human distinctions can plead exemption. Rich and poor\emdash young and old\emdash learned and unlearned\emdash peasant and wealthy\emdash king and beggar. It matters not where or when they have lived; whether when the world was young, or in its colossal manhood and maturity, or in its years of decrepitude and decay; whether their home was amid the burning deserts of the tropics or amid polar snows\emdash the icebergs of eternal winter; whether amid the hum of busy cities, or the stillness of mountain solitudes. It matters not what their name, or rank, or color of skin, or age, or pedigree. Tyrants who have made the world to tremble; Nimrods in the race for fame, and riches, and conquest; cottagers unknown beyond their village home; the aged pilgrim of fourscore years; the little child laid in its early grave.\par \par The SEA is represented in the following verse as surrendering its dead\emdash giving up what for ages it has held in custody\emdash the myriad of sleepers in its still silent caverns, those who have gone down amid the howling of the tempest with the costly freight. Or amid the tug of grappling weapons and the roar of battle\emdash or the wasted invalid who had fallen into the last long sleep far away from the graves of his forefathers.\par \par Death and Hades, too, are in the same verse, by a bold personification, represented as twin demons surrendering their captive prisoners with reluctant grasp, whether from storied urn and marble mausoleum, or from the heaps of the battlefield, or the winding-sheet of Alpine snows, or the churchyard's unepitaphed mounds\emdash all will be there in that teeming mass of immortality! Vain will be the attempt to escape or evade the scrutiny. A previous figure of this same Book has represented the sinner calling on the rocks and mountains to fall upon him, that he may be hidden and covered from the face of the Judge. But their adamant ears are deaf to pity; loyal to their great Creator, they refuse to forsake their old moorings\emdash they leave the suppliant to wail out the unsuccoured cry, "Where shall I go from Your Spirit, or where shall I flee from Your presence!"\par \par  (5.) We have next the OPENING OF THE BOOKS, "And the Books were opened; and another Book was opened which is the Book of life."\par \par The imagery is borrowed from human tribunals, where a written or printed indictment is produced. These 'books' or rolls, or registers, described here, embody this written indictment. They contain all the charges that can be laid against the sinner. They have engrossed and catalogued in their infallible pages, all the deeds which have been committed by every single individual of that mighty assembled aggregate. How scrupulously minute and detailed each such biography will be! details in the life-story that have long ago passed into oblivion, but which now, like the undeveloped photograph, jump into life on exposure to the sunlight! Sins of thought that never embodied themselves in deed. The unchaste look, the envious glance, the muffled resentment, the harbored malice, the uncharitable wish, of which none but the eye of the Unseen and the All-seeing took cognizance!\par \par How will the guilty footsteps be retraced on the sands, which the tidal wave of oblivion was thought to have effaced forever! How will the tale be engraved as with an iron pen on these enduring tablets, as to the means by which many dragged themselves or dragged others downwards to ruin! Volumes of recorded sin which were thought long ago to have perished in the flames, or their leaves to have moldered and been moth-eaten, they discover have all been treasured up in the library of God! and one by one is brought down\emdash every line and every entry read before men and angels!\par \par The blasphemous oath uttered in a moment of fiery passion\emdash read out! The successful lie which screened a deed of dishonesty or fraud\emdash read out! The stab at their neighbor's good name and reputation to exalt their own\emdash read out! The deed of darkness and villainy, of which they thought the stars alone were the unconscious witnesses\emdash read out! In that hour there will come forth the writing of a man's hand, as of old at Belshazzar's feast, on the wall of the king's palace. Nothing is now hidden that shall not then be known! The Divine saying will then be invested with new and dreadful emphasis and meaning, "All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do!"\par \par But "another book is opened, which is the Book of Life." In that Book the names of the saved are written. It would be presumptuous to speak confidently or dogmatically with regard to the precise nature of this volume and its relation to the others just adverted to. It is supposed by some to be the register, not only of the names of God's spiritual Israel, but to contain an enumeration of the services rendered by them to their heavenly Master; and thus, while the entries of previous books will regulate and adjust the retributive sentences to be pronounced on the ungodly, the Book of Life will regulate the graduating scale of rewards in the case of the righteous.\par \par (6.) This, at all events, is the next point spoken of, THE FINAL JUDGMENT, embracing the case alike of sinner and saint, "And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." That throne and judgment will be an impartial and just tribunal. The sentences of the Great Judge will not be arbitrary; each one will be scrupulously and exactly weighed and meted out. To this principle of retribution we have recently been led to advert in connection with another Memory of Patmos. It was announced in unmistakable words by the Great Apostle, "For there is going to come a day of judgment when God, the just judge of all the world, will judge all people according to what they have done. He will give eternal life to those who persist in doing what is good, seeking after the glory and honor and immortality that God offers. But He will pour out His anger and wrath on those who live for themselves, who refuse to obey the truth and practice evil deeds." And yet again, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad."\par \par While the thought of just and equitable retribution ought, to the sinner, to be a solemn and appalling one, should it not form also, in the case of every true believer, a quickening motive and incentive, that the allotments of eternity will be the counterpart of the deeds and doings of time; his everlasting recompense will be in accordance with the measure of fidelity which has regulated the discharge of his earthly trust. In the last chapter of Revelation, where the Divine Redeemer again strikes the key-note of the book, and reveals Himself as the quickly 'Coming one' where He is speaking, too, specially, if not exclusively, to His own people, He affirms this same truth, "Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done."\par \par Reader, what is it that fires men's ambition in this world?\emdash the boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, the lust of conquest, the triumphs and trophies of intellect, the love of fame, the thirst for riches. But what are these, all combined? Baseless nothings, compared to the honor and privilege of him who has his name written in the Book of Life, and who, by reason of that very eternal inheritance, is giving all diligence to make his calling and election sure; adding to his faith virtue, and knowledge, and temperance, and patience, and every Christian grace. Everything else perishes with the present world! But the wealth of holy character\emdash that alone is enduring. It alone knows no bankruptcy: it alone owns no decay.\par \par Space forbids farther to dwell on these sublime and dreadful picturings of the great terminating act in the terrestrial drama!\emdash the close of the present dispensation. Some philosophers of our own time may throw doubt on the question of future retribution as one which they have ventured to call "insoluble to human creatures." And yet it is strange to find modern skepticism thus lagging behind even the old philosophy of heathen nations. They at least had groped their way, through the darkness, to their own solution of the problem, and admitted no such insolubility. The dreams of Pagan mythology recognized alike the gloom of Tartarus and the bliss of Elysium. Even the philosophers of Athens, who scouted and scorned Paul's doctrine of the "resurrection of the dead," offered no denial to his assertion that "God would judge the world in righteousness." And when the same apostle subsequently brought the same great theme before a profligate Roman, "the judgment to come," Felix trembled!\par \par In every human bosom, be it Christian or Pagan, savage or civilized, there is a consciousness of right and wrong, a recognition of moral responsibility. The coming tribunal of a last Judgment has its harbinger and preliminary in the miniature court of conscience here. The solemn adjudications of the Great Day come floating up the ages. So that despite of all infidel creeds and the rejection of the authority and inspiration of the written Word, conscience brings many a man, in his more earnest and sober moments, to subscribe the saying of Solomon, "God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil."\par \par Add to this, and apart also from the unfoldings of revealed truth, we have the strongest presumptive expectation of a future retributive economy, from the fact of the present unequal distribution of happiness and misery, and its probable, or rather its certain rectification and adjustment hereafter. Who is not cognizant, every day, of instances of vice pampered and caressed, and on the other hand, of goodness and beneficence and virtue trampled on and overlooked? We see, in one case, a creature of God, who has belied His image\emdash some miserable and depraved victim of selfishness, and baseness, and lust, scattering nothing but baneful influences around him, "earthly, sensual, devilish," yet, with the cup of material plenty filled to the brim; the world smiling on him; wealth unimpaired; an apparently enviable and envied child of prosperity.\par \par While on the other hand, we see, it may be in the adjoining house or street, some lofty, pure, generous, unselfish spirit; but on whom the arrows of misfortune, one after another, have been emptied from God's quiver. Is it the widow in her agony, bereft of husband and children, health and means; hurried by successive bereavement into pitiless and broken-hearted poverty, and weeping over the helpless orphans she has to cast unbefriended on the world? Oh! forbid the thought, that a kind, and just, and righteous God would allow such inequalities, were there no Judgment Day coming when these discrepancies would be rectified, these inequalities adjusted; when the villain who walked now unchallenged in his villainies, would at last be visited with his long-delayed penalty; and when the pining flower of goodness and virtue, that had nothing now but harsh tempests and withered scattered blossoms, would be allowed to waft its fragrance in a more genial climate! Abraham's philosophy has an echo and response in every bosom and in every age, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?\par \par But though we thus conceive that this question of a coming retribution is congenial to both reason and conscience, and on the principles of eternal rectitude, we have a more sure word of prophecy to which we do well to take heed. "The word that I speak unto you," says Christ, "the same shall judge every man at the last day." God's Word leaves us without excuse. Not in all questions certainly, but in this, at least, it fully endorses the judgments of reason. They both set their seal to the one immutable and equitable principle which is to regulate the decisions of that Day, "He who is unjust let him be unjust still; and he who is filthy let him be filthy still; and he who is righteous let him be righteous still; and he who is holy, let him be holy still!" What more need be added, but to urge preparation for that magnificent gathering, "Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision!"\emdash each standing in his lot at the end of the days\emdash his weal or woe for eternity unchangeably fixed!\par \par We would not, if we could, enter on the undefined awfulness of the words embraced in this same passage, 'The second death,' and 'the lake of fire.' It is enough that they describe the unutterable anguish of a spirit born for immortality and for union with the divine, having, by its own recklessness and guilt, lost its glorious center, and left in self-abandonment to drift away\emdash an outcast from bliss!\par \par "The second death!" It tells of the extinction of true life and gladdening hope\emdash no memories but the poor memory, it may be, of having gained the world, but at the priceless uncomputed sacrifice of losing the soul! A solitary, isolated being, with the blank of despair around him, above him, beneath him, within him: the spectral forms of his own sins, the sole companions of that infinite of darkness; and the crushing, withering reflection ever present, that he was himself alone responsible for the undoing of his eternity!\par \par But we shall not enlarge. With these dreadful words, and this dreadful vision, the terrors of the Book close. The curtain once more falls amid these thunderings, and lightnings, and tempests\emdash when it rises again, it is to unfold the gladdening pictures of the two last chapters; a glorious burst of heavenly sunlight after the thick darkness!\par \par The seer of Patmos has concluded his record of the Church's conflicts, and trials, and persecutions; and the befitting punishment to be inflicted on her enemies. Nothing now remains, but that to which the whole preceding figures tended\emdash the revelation of the new heavens and the new earth, the dwelling-place of the Redeemed! The storms are all past, every wave is stilled, the haven is in sight! "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." At the close of this chapter, we seem to be in the position of Christian and Hopeful in the Pilgrim's Progress; "They had the city itself in view, and they thought they heard all the bells therein to ring, to welcome them thereunto." When we resume these "Memories," it will be to "enter within the gate into the city."\par \par \par \pard\cf1\f1\fs23\par } **`=23. No Death! No Sorrow! No Crying! No Pain!{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}{\f1\fׂze22. The New Heaven and the New Earth{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2221. The Great Day of Judgment{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {10;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs24 THE NEW HEAVEN AND THE NEW EARTH\par \par Revelation 21:1-4, 9-12, 21, 25-27\par \par We have reached the concluding act in the great drama to "the things which shall be hereafter." The number of God's elect is accomplished; the bridal day of the Church Triumphant has at last arrived\emdash the consummated bliss of Christ and His people. It is the clear shining after rain; the morning, without clouds; "the darkness is past and the true light shines." All the apocalyptic scenery regarding the Church Militant (the church on earth) terminates with the previous chapter. All its fierce Armageddons are fought\emdash the great assize is dispersed\emdash the Books are closed\emdash the inquiry hushed, the 'wide gulf' is fixed forever. The Evangelist is now represented standing like another Noah on the heights of Ararat, gazing on a renovated world. After passing through the crucible of its own latent fires, it has come forth, immortal, from its ashes, in new resurrection-attire. On the occasion of the deluge, although a vast aqueous mass rolled over the surface, or part of the surface of the globe, submerging its hills and valleys, this did not involve the destruction of the planet. It rose rather from its water-baptism clad in fresh loveliness and verdure. So, we have strong reason to believe, will it be in this second and last fiery baptism. The earth will be in a state of melting\emdash the elements "melting with the fervent heat." The now imprisoned fires sweeping over its surface, charring its forests, and reducing its rocks to powder. But though there will be displacement, dislocation, decomposition, there will be no annihilation\emdash these will be no more than fiery purifiers, from which it will come forth, newly created\emdash attired in more than pristine beauty.\par \par Travelers, who have ascended Mount Vesuvius, tell us that some of the old lava-channels, which years ago poured down their molten streams of destruction, are now covered with luxuriant vines and purple clusters. So will it be on a vast, gigantic scale, with this world and its thousand volcanoes of living fire. Life and luxuriance will once more clothe its seared and smitten sides. From that tremendous conflagration will emerge "a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness."\par \par One special feature alone is here noted in its altered physical aspect, that there will be "no more sea." These last fires have dried up the watery element\emdash reclaimed those vast solitudes of ocean, which now often form a rampart, preventing the brotherhood of nations. The world's habitable surface being thus indefinitely widened and expanded, room will be made for all "the nations of the saved." Do not think that these picturings of a renewed and renovated earth are too strange and incredible facts for human belief. They are not a whit more so than other Scriptural revelations dearest to our hopes and encircling our every thought of the future. Not more strange, surely, is the astounding truth that the body laid in the grave resolved into its primitive clay\emdash moldering in insensible dust\emdash is one day to rise exultant from the tomb, its pulses beating with immortality! Not more strange is the fact of the unsightly seed or grain, embedded in the ground, springing up in graceful and multiplied form; or the dull, torpid, loathsome caterpillar, bursting its dark prison-house and soaring aloft in varied and brilliant hue. Not more strange or unaccountable are any of these, than that this earth, convulsed, shattered, disorganized\emdash a wreck of matter\emdash shall emerge from its grave in holiday attire\emdash break from its chrysalis shell, radiant with beauty, "like the wings of a dove, covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold."\par \par In the present chapter, we have brought before us, in succession, what the Apostle saw and what he heard. In other words, we have THE PICTURE, or what was presented to his eye; and THE VOICE, or what was addressed to his ear. In vision, John stands on the bare, naked platform of the new heavens and the new earth, over which we may imagine the morning stars are again singing together, and all the sons of God are shouting for joy. As he gazes\emdash lo! a resplendent city, and one of gigantic proportions, with towers, walls, and gates\emdash reminding him, at a glance, of his own beloved Jerusalem\emdash seems slowly and magnificently to descend from the upper heavens. At first, as if dazzled with the sight, and awed by the majestic voices which accompany and follow, he ventures on no description.\par \par By and by, however, in a subsequent verse, he is conducted by an angel\emdash a bright inhabitant from the spirit-world\emdash to a great and high mountain. From this height he obtains a more thorough survey. He marks that the city has twelve gates, each gate sentineled by angels\emdash that these gates are never shut at all by day, seeing that the city itself is bathed in a flood of everlasting brightness; "for there is no night there." All the costliest material\emdash gold and crystal, and every stone of priceless value, from the jasper to the amethyst, are employed as the earthly symbols and exponents of a glory which cannot otherwise be translated into human language.\par \par What unutterable thoughts must have thrilled through the beloved Disciple's soul at that moment of all moments! For what was that moment? It was the fulfillment, in vision, of all his life-long prayers and longings. It was the birthday of the perfected Church! Amid the crowding reflections which rushed to his mind on the figurative descent of this new Jerusalem, his memory seems at the instant to travel back to the streets of the old Jerusalem. He thinks of solemn words uttered by Divine lips within view of its towers and temples, "Behold the bridegroom comes!" The new city suggests the emblem of this sacred parable. The Bridegroom has come!\par \par The last vision in the chapter preceding, was of the Judge seated on His throne. But now that enthroned Lord has left the judgment-hall for the coronation-hall. The Day of the everlasting marriage has arrived. Make way for the Bride\emdash the Lamb's wife!\emdash the glorified Church without spot or blemish or any such thing. "The new heaven and the new earth" are her royal bridal chamber. "I, John, SAW the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband!" Such, then, was the PICTURE which rose before the enraptured eye of the seer of Patmos.\par \par Having sought briefly to describe what John's eyes saw, let us now turn to what his ears heard; let us turn from the Picture, to THE GREAT VOICE.\par \par I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, "Look, the home of God is now among His people! He will live with them, and they will be His people. God Himself will be with them. He will remove all of their sorrows, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. For the old world and its evils are gone forever."\par \par And the one sitting on the throne said, "Look, I am making all things new!" And then he said to me, "Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true."\par \par The evangelist spectator is not now forbidden, as on a former occasion, to "write." When the seven thunders uttered their voices, after the appearance of the rainbow-crowned angel as detailed in the tenth chapter, and when he was about to transcribe, a prohibition was addressed from heaven, "Write not." No such arrest is at present put upon his hand. It is the reverse. He receives the positive instruction from the great Judge Himself, "Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true." God graciously authorizes him to pen the glorious revelation for the comfort of His Church in every age. "He that has ears to hear, let him hear." The utterance of the unknown Speaker contains a beautiful twofold description of the citizen's felicity. First, we have a positive description of what that bliss is to comprehend; and second, a negative.\par \par The POSITIVE\emdash "Look, the home of God is now among His people! He will live with them, and they will be His people. God Himself will be with them."\par \par The NEGATIVE\emdash "He will remove all of their sorrows, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. For the old world and its evils are gone forever."\par \par We shall in the present chapter confine ourselves to the positive aspect of heavenly happiness. The essence of this positive bliss is, yet again, to consist in (what we have had occasion to note more than once as a main characteristic of heavenly felicity set forth in previous visions), the everlasting presence and enjoyment of God Himself! "Look, the home of God is now among His people! He will live with them, and they will be His people. God Himself will be with them." That holy city, new Jerusalem, descends, but it descends not alone. The name of the city from that day shall be Jehovah Shammah\emdash "The Lord is there." The children of Zion are joyful in their King. Farther, does not this passage seem strongly to indicate, that the Great God of heaven designs to make the new redeemed earth the future abode of the Shekinah-glory\emdash His own palatial residence, the special seat of His vast empire, the metropolis of eternity? "Look, the home of God is now among His people! He will live with them, and they will be His people. God Himself will be with them." Just as Jerusalem\emdash the first Holy city\emdash was the sacred capital, the seat of the theocratic government\emdash so this "holy city, new Jerusalem," the home of the Church triumphant, would seem destined to be the future capital of a rejoicing universe. Jehovah is to transfer the pavilion of His heavenly glory to His ransomed world.\par \par There is a throne in the city; "And the one sitting on the throne said, 'Look, I am making all things new!'" In one beautiful sense, indeed, already may it be said, with reference to Christ's incarnation, that the tabernacle of God has been with men. Jesus, the incarnate Son, pitched His tabernacle in the midst of human tents. "The Word," says John in his Gospel, "came and dwelt (or lit. tented or tabernacled) among us." And it is this sublime antecedent fact which disarms the other of any marvel and incredibility; no, which, indeed, would almost render appropriate and befitting the transference of which we speak, of God's manifested presence from the invisible heaven to the visible platform of a regenerated earth.\par \par We cease to wonder at the bestowment of peerless honors on a world that was selected, amid a wide sisterhood of planets, for such a marvelous display of love and mercy as in the atonement and death of the Prince of Life and Lord of Glory! If this is the case (as we know on Scripture authority it is) that God passed by the angels that sinned\emdash and as the word literally means, those, too, highest in state, principal in rank\emdash the aristocracy of heaven; if God passed by them, "For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants;" if He selected this insignificant world of ours on which to uprear that wondrous cross, and make it the theater of His Son's humiliation and death\emdash is there any improbability, rather, is there not the strongest presumptive probability, that He may convert the scene of surpassing abasement and suffering into the scene of honor and exaltation; and to principalities and powers in heavenly places make known by the Church (the Church redeemed and glorified) His own manifold wisdom?\par \par There would, we confess, have been something almost transcending belief, in the thought of this earth being thus marked out for such peculiar and pre-eminent distinction, if we had not the antecedents of Gethsemane and Calvary. But after the great "mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh," we can marvel at no other mysteries; no, we seem to see a sublime congruity in the world where the God-man suffered, being the spot where the God-man glorified is eternally to reign. "Why do you look with envy, O rugged mountains, at Mount Zion, where God has chosen to live, where the Lord Himself will live forever?" Psalm 68:16. But we shall not farther expand this thought. For, after all, the mere locality is comparatively immaterial.\par \par More momentous, delightful, and comforting is the great truth we have found so often reiterated in these visions, as forming the main element in the bliss of the ransomed citizens\emdash namely, that God is in their midst. Twice over in one verse is it here said, "Look, the home of God is now among His people! He will live with them, and they will be His people. God Himself will be with them"\emdash the fully verified meaning and interpretation of "IMMANUEL" (God with us). It has been beautifully said, that just as every lovely and varied tint in field and flower is traced to the one pure, parent, colorless ray\emdash so every gate and jasper wall and sapphire pavement in that jeweled city, owe their brilliancy and glory to the altogether lovely One, "the Light which no man can approach unto."\par \par Oh, wondrous assemblage! Oh, amazing honors! The tabernacle of the great God with redeemed men! As the ranks of the unredeemed cherubim and seraphim gather around the Holy city\emdash hovering with their bright wings over the new Jerusalem\emdash we can picture them exclaiming, in a higher sense than the words ever bore on earth, "How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel!" The City of the Heavenly Jerusalem, although it is described here as of immense size, is but one House. All will dwell together as brethren, as children of the same Heavenly Father, in one Everlasting Home. 'In My Father's house are many dwelling places.'\par \par We have room for only one other point in the suggestive themes of these verses\emdash the near and intimate fellowship which is to exist between the ransomed multitude and their God, further brought out in the additional strong and expressive language, "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." What does this mean? We need not say that there can be no tears in heaven. The symbol must be explained by reference to some earthly feelings. It has been truthfully observed by an expositor of this passage\emdash his remark, we think, furnishes the right key to the interpretation of the figure\emdash that "the most sacred test of affection is to wipe away a tear."\par \par It is indeed the most delicate of all offices one human being can perform towards another, that of offering sympathy in seasons of tearful sorrow. The most experienced "sons of consolation" can testify, that the more they venture to come into personal contact with aching hearts, and to cross thresholds darkened with bereavement, the more do they feel the great solemnity of the ground; that sorrow is a thing of that exquisite tenderness, that no stranger dare intermeddle with it. Every bereft spirit will respond to words of an earnest writer, who evidently knows well what a sacred thing it is to give sympathy; or, in the significant figure now before us, to "wipe away a tear." Oh, the preciousness of silence in the hour of heart-cutting grief! Oh, the misery of the minstrels and people making noise! Oh, the jarring discord of glib sympathy! Oh, the bitter mockery of commonplace condolence! Oh, for those who know how to speak with the pressure of the hand; for those to whom God has given the mute eloquence of the eye; for those who do not pretend to understand our grief! Yes, we repeat\emdash it is no ordinary one\emdash no ordinary friend\emdash who can dare touch these harp-strings of sorrow!\par \par There are indeed such, in seasons of deep desolation, whom we love to welcome into the smitten home. There are hands we love on such occasions, to hold. While drawing back from the cold commonplace contact of ordinary routine sympathy, there are those to whom, in this significant language of John, we gratefully entrust the wiping away of the gathering or falling tear. Such, however, is the prerogative alone of true and faithful, of tried and tested friendship and love. 'Behold,' says John, in the expressive figure of this passage\emdash Behold the endearing relationship which will exist between God and the believer in that Holy city. They will confide in Him as lovingly and tenderly, as the bereft one on earth, who allows the hand of human affection to wipe the tear-dimmed eye!\par \par Are we looking for this city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God? Amid the other gorgeous symbolism, do we keep in mind that which has met us under various figures in previous descriptions, and which is suggested here under a new one, its "streets of pure gold like transparent glass"\emdash that vast as are its dimensions, a gigantic cube, with gates in every quarter, wide open for the admission of every tribe of God's spiritual Israel, yet within it "there enters nothing that defiles." Multitudes of the saved are to be welcomed in\emdash yet there is one badge of citizenship indispensable in the case of every person in these teeming millions\emdash "the pure in heart" alone can "see God."\par \par The sentinel angels at every watch-tower have the old prophetic summons addressed to them, "Open the gates to all who are righteous; allow the faithful to enter." Isaiah 26:2. Over every entrance is the superscription, "This is the gate of the Lord through which the righteous may enter." Psalm 118:20. "Blessed are those who wash their robes so they can enter through the gates of the city and eat the fruit from the tree of life"\emdash the City which has foundations! There are no permanent foundations for anything here in this present world. Here we have no "continuing city." Earth's most stable social and domestic structures are sand-built, not rock-built. They are at the mercy of every capricious hurricane; and death, sooner or later, will convert them into a mass of ruins! Let us seek to live under the elevating assurance, that we are the soon to be glorified inhabitants of this new Jerusalem! taking as our motto, "Pilgrims and Strangers on the earth!" "Our citizenship is in Heaven!"\par \par Let us live up to our peerless privileges, as those who in the future are to dwell with Him who has promised to be with us and to be our God. If trial be appointed\emdash the loss of earthly friends\emdash earthly portions\emdash be it ours to fall back from the wreck and bankruptcy of the present world, and focus on our glorious inheritance to come! Let us take down our harp from the willows; and sing, it may be amid withered props and perishable refuges\emdash amid rifled homes and falling tears and the shadows of death, "But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a heavenly city for them!"\par \par \pard\cf1\f1\fs23\par } nil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs24 NO DEATH\par NO SORROW\par NO CRYING\par NO PAIN\par \par "And there will be NO MORE death or sorrow or crying or pain. For the old world and its evils are gone forever." Rev. 21:3-4\par \par In already considering the representation given by the Apostle of Patmos of the New Heaven and the New Earth, "the holy city, New Jerusalem, descending out of Heaven from God"\emdash we have confined our attention to the positive elements of bliss in store for the Church of the glorified, as these are described in the verse immediately preceding, "Look, the home of God is now among His people! He will live with them, and they will be His people. God Himself will be with them, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."\par \par We come now to the negative description which John gives of that same blessedness. It is a fourfold delineation. He conducts us in thought, first, down to Earth, and exhibits a hall or picture-gallery, whose gloomy recesses are hung with representations of\emdash Death; Sorrow; Crying; Pain; and then, taking us to the New Jerusalem above, we find, if we may so express it, the corresponding recesses in its glorious walls are blank\emdash "And there will be NO MORE death or sorrow or crying or pain. For the old world and its evils are gone forever." These in their order\emdash\par \par I. There shall be no more DEATH. We must, in the first instance, visit the Earth and pace its picture-gallery of gloomy illustrations. It contains a vast gathering of diverse and ever-varying portraits of death. Here is a picture of old age, one who has lived beyond the appointed fourscore years\emdash his brow furrowed with wrinkles, "gathering up his feet into the bed." Here is manhood in its prime, with eye apparently undimmed and natural force unabated, bidding farewell to those who are soon to be fatherless. Here is a mother pressing a blighted flower to her bosom. Here is a king borne from his sack-clothed palace, a mourning nation following the funeral procession. Here is the friendless beggar carried from his couch of loneliness and poverty to the last narrow home of all. Here is the Philanthropist, the widow and orphaned children lining the streets as the funeral procession passes, and pronouncing the silent eulogy with their tears. Here is the strong swimmer in his agony resigning himself to his inevitable fate. Here the companion-picture, as from the side of a vessel, the coffin is lowered into the silent depths where no epitaph can be written, nor footstep follow, nor tear fall. Here is the captive in his cell, uttering alone his last appeal to Heaven, with no human eye to cheer him, and no human hand to smooth his straw pillow. Here is unfortunate courage, lying on its crimson shroud, deaf to the roar of battle, amid heaps of slain. Here is the drunkard, with the drained cup at his side and delirium in his eye. Here is the bold skeptic, the defiant reprobate, the scorner of grace, with haggard look, gazing on the sand-glass at his side, wearying for the termination of its wasted grains. Here is the Believer, his lips moving in their last prayer, his eyes closing in their last slumber gently as an infant's sleep; while white-robed angels hover over his pillow ready to bear the soul to Paradise.\par \par But why linger in these corridors? They are co-extensive with all time. Every second, it has been computed, a fresh picture is thrown off for their somber walls. At every beat of our pulse a death takes place! The Rider on the Pale Horse has never slackened his speed since the hour of the fall. Death has passed upon all. Every household has its saddened memories. What circle is there where there is no name mentioned with faltering lips? What fold among us but misses its lamb? What family Bible but has the significant record under a cherished entry? Who has not pressed the cold hand? Who has not watched "life balanced in a breath"\emdash the dwindling candle-flame flickering in the socket? Who has not contributed a loved portrait to the silent gallery? Who has not chiseled names, fragrant with affection, on monumental tablets?\par \par And if, in some rare exceptions, death, the great foe of human happiness, has not yet come, who among us has not the dread anticipation for ourselves or for others of the inevitable hour? Who has never been a prey to the disquieting thought of the unheralded footfall\emdash the sudden incursion of nature's great midnight robber?\par \par But in Heaven "there shall be no more Death!" In that Holy City, New Jerusalem, there shall be no death-gallery\emdash no chamber of terrors\emdash no brush\emdash no paint\emdash no canvas to delineate them. No "loved and lost" there; but all loved and restored, never to be lost again\emdash the iron crown of the King of Terrors trampled forever in the dust! The Believer, the glorified citizen will there reign in life\emdash wear the diadem of immortal being, sealed by the mighty Angel who has in His hand "the seal of the life-giving God!" Oh, blessed, comforting thought!\emdash the very fear of this last enemy, felt and dreaded no more\emdash the saying brought to pass, as it is written, "DEATH is swallowed up in victory!"\par \par II. There shall be no SORROW there. We descend yet again to Earth's picture-gallery. We are taken now to a silent, secluded, lonely spot. The hush of sacredness and privacy is here. The former corridor we trod, is patent to the observation of all. Ah! it cannot be hidden; it comes with observation: the muffled bell\emdash the darkened window\emdash the mournful procession\emdash the somber attire\emdash the missed face in the exchange, the street, the home, the House of God.\par \par But there are often pictures of hidden grief and sorrow, hung away from public view in the secret chambers of the heart. The saddest spectacles of earth are not those unfolded to the eye. There are scenes with a screen drawn between them, which are not for public gaze. They are kept with key and padlock; the gallery is paced with silent footstep and bated breath. It is this hidden, muffled, unuttered grief which we believe is here referred to in the word "Sorrow."\par \par Are there none whose eyes trace these pages, who know of such pictures that are engraved\emdash deeply-embedded in the walls of their inmost heart? That cutting disappointment of young and ardent affection\emdash that cruel withering of a cherished gourd\emdash that faithless wound of your trusted friend\emdash that base requital of a long friendship\emdash that unkind stab on reputation? Or, more painful still; as we pass to Sorrow's most secluded, shadiest niche\emdash that blot on character\emdash that profligate boy\emdash that picture of lost virtue and blighted innocence\emdash that castaway on his plank\emdash that ship, that abandoned lonely hulk, without mast or sail or rudder\emdash drifting, drifting away on the surges of despair!\par \par In that city of God there shall be no more Sorrow. These pictures of sorrow shall be burnt to ashes with the last funeral fires of Time. No sad realities, no sad memories can be perpetuated on the walls of Heaven. To take an illustration from the photographic world\emdash the undeveloped picture remains on the plate, while it is preserved in a dark chamber. But expose it without using the fixing solutions to the light, it immediately fogs and evaporates; every trace of it is lost. So with these pictures of Sorrow. Remove them from this dark world and its gloomy corridors; expose them to the eternal sunshine of Heaven, where the darkness is past and the true light shines; they are gone\emdash not a vestige of sadness is left. "There shall be no more sorrow;" the former things are passed away.\par \par III. There shall "be no more CRYING." Enter another room in the Earthly gallery. John could doubtless understand, better than we, the meaning and appropriateness of the expression here employed with reference to this next chamber. It is an oriental corridor. In these eastern countries a wild demonstrative grief was often indulged in, as it is to this day. With us, it is otherwise. Our homes of sorrow are seldom or never scenes of frantic and uncontrollable anguish. The smitten heart rather retires within itself, seeks the sacred calm of its own chamber, and utters its plaint in silent tears. Perhaps its sorrow is all the profounder and more real on this account\emdash like the deepest stream, it has least sound.\par \par It is different with other nations, and specially the orientals. Their funerals, as we know from a Gospel picture, were accompanied with "the minstrels and people making a noise." When the first-born in Egypt were found dead, there was "a loud cry," we read, that went up throughout all the land of Egypt. Doubtless, that night when Israel marched forth in the darkness, they would be met at every step by bereaved mothers having dust on their heads and sackcloth on their loins; beating their chests, and making the still air resound with the dirge of woe.\par \par When Herod executed the cruel decree of slaughtering all the infant children of Bethlehem, "In Rama there was a voice heard, lamentation and weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they were no more." The voice of these bereft Hebrew mothers is represented as waking the echoes of the death-stricken land. By a bold figure or impersonation, Rachel is represented rising from her grave, as if her ashes were stirred by the cry of blood, and seating herself amid the murdered innocents, indulging in a wild and inconsolable lament.\par \par We may take perhaps the crying spoken of here, more truthfully still, as denoting aggregate mourning; the loud shout or wailing of numbers, in contradistinction to the individual and personal woes indicated by the previous word Sorrow. Such was the howl which reached the ear of the wakeful prophets of Israel, rising throughout the land at the approach of the hosts of Sennacherib. Such was the shriek (as the word literally means) which arose from Philistia on the approach of the same colossal invader, "Wail, you Philistine cities, for you are doomed! Melt in fear, for everyone will be destroyed."\par \par Such, above all, was the cry, unparalleled in its fearfulness, which arose from the unfortunate millions of doomed Jerusalem\emdash the dirge of woe which was heard amid the horrid blaze of their temple and city\emdash an utterance of despair so loud and terrible, that, in the words of the historian, the very mountains around gave back the echo. Such is the cry which is still, ever and anon, heard from wounded, tortured, terror-stricken nations, when the sword leaps from its scabbard at the bidding of unbridled ambition, and plunges whole kingdoms into mourning\emdash or when oppression lifts its cruel rod, and the old, old story is told of the strong trampling on the weak; wringing a mournful wail from the down-trodden and enslaved.\par \par In our great Indian Empire, it seems but yesterday, since a similar shriek of bereft widows and desolate orphans ascended to the skies. The war-drum has again been heard. The dogs of war have been again let loose, and a louder moaning than all has just ascended from bloody battlefields, and that, too, in the midst of the fairest provinces of God's earth, desecrating the name alike of Christianity and civilization, "enough to make devils triumph and angels weep." Alas! that cry will be echoed and perpetuated so long as the Prince of darkness holds sway over the pride and passions of fallen humanity.\par \par Blessed be God, in Heaven, that "cry," in whatever sense we take it, shall never be heard. "There shall be no more Crying." One of the songs of the ransomed citizens of the New Jerusalem, as they call to their now conquered oppressors, will be, "My enemies have met their doom; their cities are perpetual ruins. Even the memory of their uprooted cities is lost." We read in ver. 24, "The nations of the earth will walk in its light, and the rulers of the world will come and bring their glory to it." Whatever was great and glorious and honorable among these earthly kings and sovereigns will be brought into the new City and kingdom of the redeemed. But no crown shall be there stained with sinful ambition\emdash no scepter dimmed with the lust of conquest\emdash no spirit debased with the cannibal-thirst of war. No, the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day, for peace shall be within its walls and prosperity within its palaces. How joyful to forecast the glories of that celestial city where "there shall be no more Crying!"\par \par IV. Neither shall there be any more PAIN. Descend we yet once more to the supposed picture-gallery of Earth. It is this time, again, a quiet, secluded corridor in these halls of sadness. We leave the loud din and cry of multitudes; and our thoughts are centered on the picture of one solitary object. For long years, that wasted invalid has been prostrated on a couch of distress, uttering day by day the weary plaint, "Would God it were evening; would God it were morning;" suffering ploughing its deep furrows on the cheek\emdash every nerve a chord of anguish\emdash gnawing pain fastening, vulture-like, on every bone and sinew; the very footfall of loving friendship forbidden to cross the hushed chamber, lest it may awake sensations of torture.\par \par Or, is there not emotional pain as well as physical suffering? Yes; there are painful duties, painful associations, painful meetings, painful partings, painful separations. There is the pain of breaking up and severing valued and trusted friendships. There is the pain (what parent has not felt it when it comes?) of the first break in the family. There is the pain of having oceans and continents intervening between those whom the ties of nature, or the accidents of life, have taught us to love. There is the pain which Paul's Ephesian friends had, when they accompanied him to the ship at the Port of Miletus, and in solemn prayer the parting blessing of Heaven was asked and given.\par \par There is the worse emotional pain of unhappy estrangement between Christian and Christian\emdash those who are conscious of loving the one Lord, yet passing and repassing on the street without one sign of acknowledgment and recognition; alienated by some miserable party distinction or some still more unworthy private misunderstanding, which in their better moments and better natures they deplore with tears.\par \par But in Heaven there shall be no more pain of any kind and the key to all the blessedness of this deathless, sorrowless, painless place is, that it is to be a Holy city; "I John saw that Holy city." Hushed will be the cry of anguish, because ended forever will be the reign of sin.\par \par And now, having explored these four picture-galleries of Earth, to illustrate by contrast the fourfold negative bliss of Heaven\emdash let us bear in mind, in conclusion, to whom it is we owe all the joys, positive and negative, of this celestial city\emdash who is it that has plucked that sting from death; that has hushed, and will at last forever hush, that voice of wailing and crying and pain? We must revert to the magnificent opening vision of the Book\emdash to the majestic Being who was seen walking in the midst of the golden candlesticks, and hear His voice: "Fear not; I am He that lives and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore; and have the keys of the grave and of death."\par \par Enter by faith the Redeemer's vacant tomb. See the vestments in which He had been wrapped. These are lying scattered on the rocky floor, the blessed vouchers and evidences, that in behalf of all His covenant people, He has burst the bands of death. But behold, too, a further significant symbol. The napkin is folded up. It is carefully laid by. It is of use no more. The time of tears is over. The weeping world has had its anguish hushed by that risen Conqueror. Its sorrow, its crying, its pain\emdash oh! for a little longer these may, and will continue. But the fear of eternal anguish, eternal weeping, eternal crying, is now past! And so brief is our weeping time during earth's passing night, so near is the tearless hour, that the napkin may well be folded up, "wrapped together in a place by itself." Gaze upon it reposing in the tomb of Jesus as the pledge of a tearless immortality.\par \par Blessed Savior! You who shed for me, not Your tears, but Your blood, open these gates of righteousness in the celestial city; then shall I enter into them, and praise the Lord. It is Your sovereign grace and bleeding love which will bring me there! This, shall be my ascription now, in sight of these jeweled gates and jasper walls, and my ascription, when admitted as a glorified inhabitant, "Blessed be the Lord, who has shown me His marvelous kindness in a strong City!"\par \par \pard\cf1\f1\fs23\par } imes New Roman;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs24 THE RIVER OF THE WATER OF LIFE\par \par "Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and His servants will serve Him." Rev. 22:1-3\par \par In the previous chapter, we had the sublime description of Heaven as a City, the palatial residence of the glorified Bride of Christ\emdash a city without temple, without light of sun or moon, or material luminary, yet resplendent with eternal radiance. Here we have conjoined to it a restored Paradise, with its crystal river and perennial Tree of Life. Earth's two holiest spots, Eden and Jerusalem, are thus employed in blended symbol, further to image forth a bliss which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor heart conceived. The verses form a befitting climax to the series of preceding visions. How often have they been listened to by the dying believer, cheering him in his passage through Jordan, tuning his voice to his closing earthly song, until its notes mingle with those of the Seraphim!\par \par Let us seek to gather from them a few additional thoughts, under new emblems, of the nature of the coming Heavenly bliss\emdash a few additional glimpses of the Everlasting Home. The reader must bear so far with repetition; although under varying imagery, some of the same characteristics recur with which we are already acquainted. The inspired Painter loves to delineate over and over again the same subject, only rendering it under new aspects.\par \par The first thought here regarding the happiness in reserve for the saints of God in their future Heaven is, that it is a divinely-originated happiness. John sees this River of the Water of Life "flowing from the Throne of God;" it has its fountain-head there. Could the simile possibly have been suggested by the only river-source with which he was familiar in Palestine, and which had to him the holiest of memories; that which no traveler who has seen it can ever forget\emdash the welling up of the Jordan in the cavern at the base of giant Mount Hermon ('the kingly mountain'), itself the most glorious emblem in that land of sacred symbol of the Throne "Eternal in the Heavens?" Proceeding from the footstool of this mountain-throne, the Jordan river, from the gush of its pure stream, might well suggest the words, "the river of the water of life."\par \par This, too, is the first feature in the vision which arrests the attention of the apostle; for, although the scenery on either side of the river occupied the foreground of the picture (nearer his point of vision,) yet, before entering on its description, he follows the Stream to its source. He sees it rising up from the foot of the Throne of God! And this will form one of the great elements of joy to the ransomed saints above, tracing all their wealth of bliss and glory to its origin in the free sovereign grace and love of Jehovah! Except for His sovereign grace, there could have been no river, no harp, no crown, no song. By the grace of God they are what they are!\par \par  Moreover, not only does the vision tell that God is the author and source of all happiness in heaven, but that He Himself constitutes heaven's happiness! It is an emanation from Him\emdash its beams radiate from the great central Sun. Let the proclamation be sounded in the upper Sanctuary\emdash 'There is no God'\emdash and the joys of Heaven would terminate. Annihilate that majestic Throne, and the river would cease to flow; the blessedness of angels and the Redeemed, would be at an end. There may be, and there doubtless will be, other joys; but God Himself will be to His Ransomed their "exceeding joy." Jerusalem of old had no river. No Tigris, or Euphrates, or Tiber washed her walls, or flowed through her environing valleys. The Jordan was at a distance, and the Kedron was a winter torrent, which left a dry channel all summer long. But she had a nobler equivalent and compensation\emdash "The glorious Lord will be to her in the place of broad rivers and streams." This, in a loftier sense, will be true of the Heavenly Jerusalem\emdash "GOD is in the midst of her." The song of earth will be the song of eternity, "all my springs are in You," "with You is the fountain of life."\par \par A second element in the Heavenly bliss of the redeemed, spoken of in these words, is that it is a happiness derived from, and dependent upon, the atoning work of Christ. The river proceeds from "the Throne of God and of the Lamb." And it is again added, in verse 3, "But the Throne of God and of THE LAMB shall be in it." 'The Lamb' denotes in this Book, as we now well know, the sacrificial name of Jesus. While we are reminded by "the Throne of God" of the purposes of love in the adorable Trinity from all eternity, we are specially reminded that the redeemed, as they crowd by the banks of the River of Life watching its outflowing, will trace up all their covenant privileges to the Savior who died for them, and make this their eternal ascription, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, for You have redeemed us unto God by Your blood!" They will see every gem of their crown, resplendent with His atoning work and righteousness. They will understand then the full meaning of that expression of Paul's, where Heaven is spoken of as "the purchased possession."\par \par Each gate of this 'City of the Crystal sea' will bear the inscription, "You are not your own, you are bought with a price." No, more, it recalls one of the truths of a former vision, which we need not again expand, the perpetuity of the exalted humanity of the Savior. Though His throne is spoken of here, denoting His Deity and kingly Sovereignty, it is the Throne of THE LAMB. He will still be known in the midst of His redeemed Church as the sacrificial victim of Calvary\emdash not only the Brother in our nature, but as "Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood!"\par \par The next thought these words bring before us, is also one with which previous visions have made us familiar, that the heavenly happiness will be pure in its nature. It will be the happiness of holiness. If we take the River as symbolic of the believer's bliss, its purity specially arrested the attention of the Apostle. "He showed me a pure river of the Water of life;" and in verse 3 it is said, "there shall be no more curse." The greatest curse of all, is the curse of sin. That curse will be at an end; and the Redeemed will know, in all its beauty and fullness, the truth of the beatitude, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."\par \par How present happiness and peace are marred and polluted by impurity! The breath of sin blurs the windows of the soul; the curse of sin blights the fairest flowers in the earthly garden. The corruption of the heart, like the wind on the surface of the lake, disturbs its loveliest reflections; and every stream that flows from it is ruffled and troubled too. Many a man, with all the world can give to make him happy\emdash riches, honors, fame\emdash is wretched, because of the venom of some ser pent-sin, which he has nurtured and fondled, to the destruction of his own peace! The moral virus has tainted his whole life and being\emdash he has become the slave of his lust and is therefore miserable. Look at the world around us\emdash what a scene of fretfulness and agitation! How unlike the divine picturing of the Seer of Patmos! Mark sin's 'plottings and counter-plottings'\emdash its envyings and slanders\emdash its frauds and ambitions\emdash its feuds and hatreds\emdash and intense love of self. \par \par By that pure River of Life there will be no such disturbing causes\emdash "no curse" (or "accursed thing"); but one vast community of holy beings pervaded by one law\emdash the law of love. We shall be happy, because holy; heaven will be found to consist in assimilation to the divine character in its holiness\emdash the blending of the human with the divine will. "It does not yet appear what we shall be" (there is much regarding the circumstantials of heavenly bliss which remains unrev ealed); "but (this) we know, that when He shall appear we shall be like Him." "And," adds the Apostle, "let every man that has this hope in him, purify himself even as He is pure." Think once more of this often reiterated qualification of heavenly citizenship. It is "a pure river of the water of life" on whose banks the Redeemed are to recline, and of whose streams they are to drink. "Without holiness no man can see the Lord."\par \par A fourth element of future Heavenly joy suggested in these w ords is, that there shall then be a full disclosure and revelation of all that is mysterious in earthly dispensations. What often makes the river of earth dark and turbid, is the mystery of the Divine dealings. We watch that river in its flow, or gaze down into its channel, but all is muddy, baffling, perplexing\emdash "Your judgments are a great deep." But John, as he gazes, sees not only a pure river, but it is translucent\emdash it is "clear as crystal." In God's own light he sees light\emdash all will be revealed then. Every 'why' and 'wherefore' will be resolved\emdash every "needs be" will be interpreted and explained. As we stoop over the crystalline depths, the ascription often before uttered through tears, will be then made with jubilant voice, "Righteous are you, O Lord;" "We have known" (and now believe) "the love of God to us!"\par \par A fifth characteristic of future Heavenly happiness here suggested is its diversity. The figure of the River is now changed to that of a Tree. "On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations." Unlike the fruit-bearers of earth, which had only their annual crop and no more, it is fruit-yielding each successive month of the eternal year\emdash it has its twelve fruit harvests. That Tree is Christ! We read of the Tree of life in Eden lost. Here we read of it again in Paradise regained. No flaming sword now guards the way. It stands in the open street, free to every glorified citizen\emdash the pledge and guarantee of his immortal joy. In Jesus, this ever-living Tree, there is found every kind of exalted happiness; bliss suited to the varied tastes and capacities and spiritual longings of His ransomed people. All are pictured as being congregated under its majestic shadow, gathering the food they most desire; and no sooner is one crop gathered\emdash than lo! the branches are anew laden and the baskets anew filled.\par \par  "There is a river, the STREAMS (the manifold streams) whereof make glad the city of God." How different from earth! There, often when one stream is dried, all is dried. One awful misfortune comes, and the heart pines and withers, and nothing else can fill up its aching voids; one gourd is smitten, and nothing can reanimate its drooping, withered leaves. Even those on earth whose worldly cup has been fullest, who know best what joy is, how short-lived, how unsatisfactory, after all! How it palls on the worn-out appetite, if it have no higher and nobler element in it!\par \par But in Heaven the blessedness is ever new. Its characteristics are\emdash abundance, variety, perpetuity. "You are complete in Him." The Tree, the River, the Leaves, seem beautifully to harmonize with the successive emblems, which, in a preceding vision, describe the happiness of the glorified. Is it the Tree and its abundant fruits? "They shall hunger no more." Is it the River of living water? "They shall thirst no more." Is it the shadowy overcanopying Leaves with their healing influences? "The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat." The believer's bliss being a covenant one, and divine in its origin (flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb), is changeless and inexhaustible! No darkness can cloud it\emdash no rock of human vicissitude can impede its current. It flows on, and on, forever, "to the ages of the ages!"\par \par Once more. The words indicate another constituent element in the happiness of Heaven (which has also been anticipated in a previous vision), that is, the activities of a glorified life, "and His servants shall serve Him." Heaven is not to be a blank existence. Even on earth there is a blessing in the law of labor\emdash a blessing wrapped up in the very curse, "In the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread." The most wretched of lives is a life of compelled idleness. The most joyous is a life of active usefulness\emdash the apostolic combination of diligence in business with fervency in spirit. And the same law will hold good in Heaven. It will be no dreamy, sentimental, Mohammedan Paradise. The Redeemed will be engaged serving God in active ministries of holy love. "They rest," and yet "they rest not." They rest in the perfect peace of God, the realized possession of His favor. But they rest not, in the labor of a faithful service. Their highest happiness is in doing His pleasure. They "serve Him day and night in His temple."\par \par What a pleasure on earth, a faithful servant experiences in doing the work of his master well! Even when such fidelity may be little deserved, or such labor poorly requited, it is rendered cheerfully from a sense of duty. What infinitely higher and purer joy will those Redeemed Saints in Heaven have, in serving ONE all worthy of their love, and who has infinite and surpassing claims on their regard! Then, at least, shall they serve Him with a devotion that never flags, a constancy that never falters, a singleness of eye and aim which admits of no deflection or deviation, a zeal which knows no decay. Duty will be transformed into delight. God's service will be its own noblest recompense. The cry of the old champion, as he first girded on his armor, will be the joy of eternity, "Lord! what will you have me TO DO?"\par \par How are we affected by these renewed glorious picturings of a future Heaven? Is it to us a pleasing prospect, that all the evils once brought in by Sin are to be removed\emdash that the unstrung tuneless harp is to have its old harmonies revived\emdash that our lost Eden is to be more than restored, for it is to be restored without the possibility of failure or fall. We have been again specially reminded of Heaven's main moral characteristic. If this passage had described nothing but material beauty\emdash the River, the Tree, the luscious Fruits, the Golden-paved streets, these would all (in themselves) fail to satisfy the aspirations of the Redeemed Soul. But "I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness." "Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have right to the Tree of life, and enter in through the gates into the City."\par \par Nor are these spiritual blessings (symbolized by the Tree and its abundant fruitage) blessings reserved only for the future. They are ours now. We are invited now to partake of these fruits, and to repose under that shelter. "Christ who is our Life." Life is now alone found in Him; out of Him is death\emdash the curse. Like the emblem of this Heavenly vision too, He is accessible at all times. The Tree bears fruit every month. Every month of life's momentous year we may come to Him. Youth may come to Him in spring. Manhood may come to Him in summer. Even Old age may take shelter under these glorious branches. When other trees of existence are bared and stripped by winter blasts, He is filled with leaves, a refuge from the storm and a covert from the tempest.\par \par In the bright months of prosperity, in the dreary months of adversity; in months of sickness when laid on the lone pillow; in the dark months of bereavement, this Tree is stretching forth its sheltering arms of mercy, that every weary, wandering bird may be screened from the gathering tempest. God grant that we may experience in part now, and in their glorious reality for evermore, the fulfillment of the Psalmist's exulting words, "He who dwells in the secret place of the most High, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty!"\par \par \pard\cf1\f1\fs23\par } P9U-25. Closing Chimes{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4$A24. The River of the Water of Life{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 T\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs24 CLOSING CHIMES\par \par "Behold, I am coming soon! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy in this book." Rev. 22:7\par \par "Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with Me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. Rev. 22:11-12\par \par The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" Rev. 22:17\par \par He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming soon!" Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. Rev. 22:20\par \par We have now arrived at the close of our meditations on this deeply interesting, though mysterious and difficult portion of the Word of God. In accordance with what was stated at the outset, whatever is ambiguous and conjectural, has, as much as possible been avoided, and from the golden treasure-house, selection has been made only of those passages which are most practical, solemnizing, edifying, and comforting. It has been called by Wordsworth, who has grasped well its spiritual meaning and significance, "a manual of consolation to the Church in her pilgrimage through this world to the Heavenly Canaan of her rest. It cheers with the consolatory assurance, that Christ is mightier than His enemies; that they who die for Him, live; that they who suffer for Him, reign; that the course of the Church upon earth is like the course of Christ Himself; that she is here a Witness of the Truth; that her office is to teach the world; that she will be fed by the Divine Hand, like the ancient Church, with manna in the wilderness; that she will be borne on eagles' wings in her missionary career; and yet, that she must expect to suffer injuries from enemies and from friends; that she, too, must look to have her Gethsemane and her Calvary, but that she will also have her Olivet; that through the pains of agony and suffering, and through the darkness of the grave, she will rise to the glories of a triumphant ascension, and to the everlasting joys of the New Jerusalem; that she who has been for a time 'the Woma n wandering in the Wilderness,' will be, forever and ever, the Bride glorified in heaven."\par \par The great topic of the Second Coming of Christ, with which we are now so familiar, again challenges our consideration, standing out, as it does, more prominently in this concluding chapter than in any of the antecedent portions of the Apocalypse. We may appropriately liken these reiterated closing references to the ringing of the chimes with quickening peal, as the worshipers are gathering to take! their places in the Heavenly Temple. Again, and again, and again, and yet again (four times in this one chapter), do these bells sound in the ears of a waiting expectant Church. First, in verse 7, "Behold, I come quickly." Second, in verse 12, "Behold, I come quickly, and My reward is with Me." Third, in verse 17, where 'The Coming One' had beautifully announced Himself as "The Bright and Morning Star;" the response\emdash the longing-prayer\emdash rises in blended harmony from the Church on earth and th"e Church in Heaven, "And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come." Once more, in verse 20, the last audible voice of the Great Redeemer until that voice be heard on the Throne\emdash gives too the assurance of His speedy coming. We close the Divine record with this "blessed hope," like a rainbow of promise spanning the sky of the future, "He who is the faithful witness to all these things says, "Yes, I am coming soon!"\par \par Has the Lord been slack concerning His promise? The hands of the clock of# Time have moved slowly on, generation after generation since these declarations were uttered, and the Advent-hour has never yet struck. There is still no sign of the "Coming"\emdash no sound of the Savior's footfall. We strain our eyes from the window of prophecy; and though, at times, prognosticators and solvers of chronological numbers would persuade us that they see the heralds of His approach\emdash the indications of the Morning Star; new events transpire to demolish their theories\emdash the world $goes on as before, and 'the glorious appearing' is as far from us apparently as ever. Like the mother of Sisera looking through the lattice, the cry of deferred hope still is, "Why is His chariot so long in coming? why tarry the wheels of His chariot?"\par \par "The Church has waited long,\par Her absent Lord to see,\par And still in loneliness she waits,\par A friendless stranger she.\par \par "Age after age has gone,\par Sun after sun has set,\par % And still in weeds of widowhood\par She weeps, a mourner yet."\par \par How is this? How are we to reconcile the repeated assertions of a Savior who is faithful in all His promises, with the fact that eighteen centuries have traveled onward in succession, and yet the great culminating promise of a speedy coming has not been fulfilled? In reply, we may begin by giving the words of another Apostle, "Beloved, do not be ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a& thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."\par \par Space and time are two relative terms. Is it space? a yard, even a mile, is a brief distance to us; it is a laborious pilgrimage to the tiny insect. To traverse a hemisphere would be for us a vast journey; it would be but a moment in the angel's flight. A planetary system would appear a wide expanse to the angel; it would be but a speck in the eye of God\emdash one of the milestones of immensity, so to speak, in the journeyings of Omnip'otence!\par \par So also with regard to Time. Periods of time which seem great to some, may seem small to others. Look at the ephemera, with their apparently fugitive moments of conscious being. They were called into existence after the morning sun had risen, and before he sets again, they have perished. The same day witnesses their birth and their death. Their lifetime to us, is like the briefest of one day out of our threescore and ten years. All things are thus long or short, great or small, (according to the standard by which we judge them. Hills that appear high to the peasant born in the plains, are nothing to the shepherd of the Alps and Apennines. The inland lake which appears large to the child who has never been beyond the mountains which enclose it, is nothing to the sailor who is familiar with the wide ocean. The swiftness of the railway train or of the cannon ball is great; but what is it to the man of science, who can compute the velocity of light\emdash those golden arrows shot fro)m the sun at the rate of 192,000 miles in a second?\par \par We may apply this to the saying of Christ in these verses. The period elapsing between His first and second Coming is great to us, but nothing to Him. To us, during these indefinite ages, generations have already come and gone; revolutions of empires have taken place; kingdoms have risen and fallen, and new dynasties have sprung from their ashes. But what is that to the everlasting God, with whom a thousand years are but as yesterday w*hen it is past, and as a watch in the night? Our standard to measure periods and events is 'Time.' His standard to measure periods and events is 'Eternity.'\par \par ETERNITY\emdash it is the lifetime\emdash the biography of the Almighty\emdash each epoch and era a page in the vast volume! If we compute from the birth of creation, when the first pillar of the earth was laid, to the period when the angel shall proclaim 'time to be no more,' it may appear a long lapse of ages\emdash eras on eras\e+mdash millenniums on millenniums; yet in His sight, compared with Eternity, what is it all? as the beat of a pulse, or the swing of a pendulum. When, therefore, we may be inclined to wonder at the apparent non-fulfillment of Christ's assertion, let us remember who says it! It is He to whom past, present, future, are alike the same. What to Him is that span of years, be what it may, which bridges the period between His first and second coming? It is as nothing! As He is leaving with His servant and Evangel,ist His last inspired utterance, and the clouds which screen Him from mortal vision are once more gathering around Him, He exclaims, taking all time in at a glance, "Surely I come quickly!"\par \par Again, it is worthy of remark, that in the apparent delay of the second Coming, God is only acting in conformity with His own uniform procedure and with the principles of His government, alike in nature and providence. In accordance with the analogy of nature, the Divine purposes are slowly matured. -The full light of day is not ushered in all at once. There is first the glimmering dawn, then sunrise; gradually the fiery chariot is driven up the steeps of heaven. The development of vegetation follows the same progressive law, from the incipient bud of early spring, through the green leaves and blossoms of summer, to the golden glories and ripe fruits of autumn. Our world might have been created by a word\emdash the fiat of the Almighty might have formed and finished it in the twinkling of an eye\emdas.h but He purposely took six periods of time to elaborate His own handiwork before pronouncing it very good. In the physical and mental development of man\emdash the High Priest of this creation\emdash we have to note the same thing\emdash he reaches his natural stature and his intellectual maturity, not at once\emdash but after the lapse of many years.\par \par And so it is in greater things. There is a plan in all God's dealings and providential arrangements. There was a preparation of a thousa/nd years before the first advent of Christ. He, the promised Seed of the woman, might have come at once\emdash in the very hour of the Fall. He might have come (as Eve expected Him) when she hailed her firstborn child with the words "I have gotten a man\emdash the Lord!" That Lord might have glorified Eden with His presence, and restored its blighted, withered bowers. But such was not God's way. A long ritual of blood and sacrifice had to intervene. Prophecy upon prophecy had to be uttered and fulfilled. 0Many an old pious Hebrew "looked" anxiously; but, like Simeon and Anna, they had to "wait" for the Consolation of Israel. There was an era set apart and appointed, called "the fullness of time," when the Incarnation would take place, and no sooner.\par \par Christ seems to have anticipated with holy ardor that appointed period. When it arrived He came "quickly." "Lo I come!" were His words, "I delight to do Your will, O my God." Moreover, even after His advent to the manger of Bethlehem, many ye1ars elapsed before the great Offering took place. He would not\emdash could not anticipate. He would not leave Galilee for Judea until "the hour had come." But no sooner had the appointed season elapsed, than His reserve and reluctance are set aside: then He waited not a moment\emdash again He came "quickly." "When the time was come that He should be received up, He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem." "There is a terrible baptism ahead of me, and I am under a heavy burden until it is accomplishe2d."\par \par So also is it with regard to His future Coming. Certain great transactions have to take place in the world; certain great events have to be evolved, before the grand climax of His advent in glory. He Himself tells us that His gospel must be "preached as a witness to all nations, and then shall the end come." It is remarkable that even His apostles, though their language at times seems to indicate that they expected the Advent in their own day\emdash specially note some great anteced3ent occurrences, which leave the period not only indeterminate, but connect it with a distant future. Paul speaks of a great "apostasy" preceding it, "That day shall not come unless there be the apostasy (or falling away) first, and that Man of Sin be revealed." James exhorts to patient endurance and waiting; and gives the comparison of the husbandman having patience for the maturity of his seed; as if he looked far onwards to the Great event which was to signalize the world's harvest-home. Peter, while i4n one breath he speaks of the end of all things being at hand, and this as a motive to sobriety, watchfulness, and prayer, guards in the next, against the unwarrantable inference of a coming of Christ in the generation then living.\par \par And what have we seen in this Book of Revelation, in which the same topic is so constantly introduced, but the record of a series of providential dispensations, which must all occur before Christ can take to Himself His great power and reign? These repeated s5tatements in this chapter regarding the Second Advent, are inserted in the form of a postscript to the Book. Might they not be equivalent to the declaration, "When all these preceding visions are accomplished, when all these seals are broken, these vials exhausted; when the power of the false Prophet is crushed, and Romanism trodden underfoot, the great Dragon cast out, Apollyon the deceiver vanquished; when the mission angel shall have sped his way amid the world's benighted millions; when every nation s6hall have heard the joyful sound; when the Jews, My own outcast people, shall have caught up the universal hymn, and mingled with the Gentile Hosanna their Hebrew 'Alleluia'\emdash then (immediately after) I shall Come QUICKLY! I am only waiting the signal that the mystery of God on earth is finished, and the gates and everlasting doors of Heaven which lifted up their heads that I might enter in, shall be once more opened, that I may come forth to pour My benediction on My redeemed Church."\par \par 7 Zecharias of old "tarried in the temple;" the people waited for him. It is so with our Great High Priest. He has said, "I come quickly." He seems to tarry. But there is work to do before the celestial veil can be withdrawn, and we can see Him as He is. "From henceforth," we read, (after His ascension), "He is waiting until His enemies be made His footstool." But whenever these preliminary conquests over His enemies are complete; whenever the final intercessory prayer ascends, "Father, I will that the8y also whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am;" then with joy ('quickly') will He appear, to utter the last and most gladsome of all His invitations, "Come, you who are blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world!"\par \par And, in addition to what has already been said, it may be yet further added, that when Christ says, "Behold I come quickly," and has not come, the delay may be to give the world space for repentance. This is one of the vi9ews which the apostle Peter emphatically sets forth: "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise (of His second Coming), as some men count slackness; but is patient toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." There was a reprieve of 120 years, in the case of the dwellers on the old earth, before the flood came and destroyed them all; and now, again, before the deluge of fire sweep, He would give space\emdash "He would command all men everywhere, to repent." Hi:s not coming quickly, is a gracious token of His marvelous forbearance. He will give this prodigal world an opportunity, before He closes the gates of home and welcome, to arise and go to its Father.\par \par There is a merciful pause and parenthesis before the final doom is uttered. Like that emphatic pause and ellipsis in the words of Micah, He says, "And because I will do this to you, 'Prepare to meet your God!'" The patience of God waited in the days of Noah before the reservoirs were unseal;ed. The patience of God waited in the days of Abraham before the bolts of fire leapt from the brimstone-cloud, and laid Sodom and Gomorrah in ashes; and His patience is now again manifested in this last dispensation, that sinners may yet embrace the call to repent and be saved, and that every living member of His living Church throughout the world may be gathered in.\par \par But without dwelling on these and other possible reasons for the delay of the Coming, the word is sure, "He that shall coager goes forth on his ocean-highway, anticipating the fond welcome of friends in the distant harbor; but rocket and lifeboat and heroic effort all fail to save, when the fatal reef is struck. The merchant sends forth his vessel, borne along with propitious breezes, but when in sight of port it founders or a mighty cyclone comes, as if the very spirits of the deep were stirred\emdash its moorings are snapped as string\emdash its timbers are tossed on the wild waves, and its owner is a ruined man. The farm?er has his fields filled with a golden harvest\emdash in one night the rains have descended on the mountains\emdash down sweeps the torrent, and his waving crops are a mass of desolation. You can say "Surely," of nothing here; all is 'Perhaps'. But the Lord is "not a man that He should lie." "He SHALL come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all those who believe." "SURELY," He says, "I come quickly!"\par \par Believer, be it yours to be living in the habitual anticipation of thi@s day. This prospect put music of old into the lips of Patriarchs and Psalmists and Apostles and Prophets. "Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad . . . before the Lord; for He comes, for He comes to judge the earth." "The Lord, my God, shall come, and all the saints with You." The Apostle Peter, like a watcher on cliff or tower, eager to catch the earliest beam of sunrise, speaks of "looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God."\par \par We have already adverted to the reAmarkable contrast between the way the inspired writers speak of Death and of Christ's Second Coming. Death! it is ever described as an enemy\emdash a terrible foe armed with a sting\emdash a destroyer, a usurper. But the Second Coming of the Redeemer is the topic of joyous expectation. Believers are represented as servants, cheerfully working on during their Master's absence; but all alert for the sound of His footsteps, that "when He comes and knocks, they may be ready to open unto Him immediately." We kBnow well, that this most glorious yet dreadful of truths has been despised by the scoffer, and made the subject of unholy derision. The challenge is presumptuously made, 'Where is this speedy coming which is spoken of? It is a tale of superstitious terror\emdash a lie for which you have no authority, save the ambiguous words of an antiquated Book.'\par \par Because the Lord delays His coming; because nature maintains her unvarying sequences; because she has no sign of age or decay on her majestiCc brow; he cannot credit the amazing truth that all these visible things shall one day be dissolved. So thought men, "filthy dreamers," before the flood. They would not believe the tremendous catastrophe, until the waters were sweeping down their refuges of lies; and they found, when it was too late, that the door of the ark and of mercy was shut against them! May it not be so with us? There may be in our case, as with them, a time of reprieve\emdash a merciful period of grace and forbearance\emdash when Dfrom the true Ark there is a voice heard saying, "Come unto Me and I will give you rest."\par \par If the eye of one such unhappy scorner should fall on these pages, let him avail himself of this "the day of merciful visitation." Forbid that when the deluge is heaving, the trumpet sounding, the world passing away, he should come to find, but find too late, that "neither is there salvation in any other;" to bewail wasted years, lost opportunities, misspent Sabbaths, niggardly and selfish deeds, uEnrighteous and unjust practices, his work all undone when his time is done! For, let such observe, that there are warning sounds which mingle in this closing chapter with other joyous advent chimes.\par \par Among these, none is more solemn than that verse which asserts the permanence and perpetuation of moral character\emdash that as men live, so do men die; that present principles, habits, tastes, are shaping, molding, consolidating, our eternal destinies. "He that is unjust, let him be unjustF still; and he which 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. Behold, I come quickly, and," it is added, "My reward is with Me to give" (or literally, "to give back") "each one as his work is." "To give back!" solemn, truthful, equitable definition of a limitless future of bliss or of woe! It is a 'giving back' to each one of the present\emdash a paying back of contracted debt, whether of good or of evil\emdash a Greaping corresponding to the sowing\emdash the awards of eternity scrupulously regulated by the transactions of time.\par \par Is it not a comfort, also, to those who may be mourning their "loved and lost," that while the unjust will be unjust still, and the filthy will be filthy still; the holy will be holy still, the meek and gentle will be the meek and gentle still; those known for lowly and unostentatious deeds of love, will continue these ministries of holy activity through eternity. Yes! tHhe flower we think nipped in the bud, will there unfold and expand its blossoms, shedding unfading fragrance, and decked with unfading beauty.\par \par God grant we may not be in darkness, that that day should overtake us as a thief! Rather, as we now listen to the latest voice of the Great 'Testifier,' the last toll of the advent-bell, the last 'Memory of Patmos,' let it sound to us like strains of seraphic music floating on a midnight sea. Let it ring in our ears blended comfort and warning; tIempering prosperity, mitigating adversity, moderating the world's ambitions, stimulating to holiness, preparing for heaven.\par \par Whatever may be the antecedent or intervening events to which we have alluded, let the Second Coming itself tower above them all, in the glorious distance, like some colossal Alp, with plain and valley and lowlier mountain between, but rising peerless in the blue horizon, its gleaming top golden with heavenly sunlight, and from its eternal snows and hidden fountainJs sending forth ten thousand streams of hope and joy, to refresh the dwellers in the Valley of tears! Bright and Morning Star! Harbinger of eternal day! who will not bid You welcome!\par \par "The SPIRIT says come!" The Divine Agent, whose own "coming," as the Paraclete or Comforter, was declared by the departing Savior to more than compensate the Church for her Redeemer's absence, hails the advent which is to crown and consummate His own work as the Glorifier of Christ.\par \par "The KBRIDE says come!" The ransomed Church on earth, longing for the bridal day of perfected bliss\emdash the ransomed Church in heaven, saints, martyrs, departed friends who have fallen asleep in Jesus\emdash take up the antiphonal strain, and cry COME!\par \par A groaning CREATION, weary of the bondage of sin and sorrow, and longing to go forth from its leper-couch, walking and leaping and praising God, cries COME!\par \par Can WE take up one of the multiplying echoes, and, blending our pLrayer with the sons of God, give willing response to the Apostle's closing invocation, "And let him that hears say COME?" In lowly rejoicing confidence, can we include ourselves in the sublime words of another faithful 'Watcher' for this glorious Day-spring, "For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up togetherM with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words." 1 Thes. 4:16-18\par \par He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people. Amen. Rev. 22:20-21\par \par "Christ is coming! let creation\par From her groans and travail cease;\par Let the glorious proclamation\par Hope restore and Nfaith increase;\par Christ is coming!\par Come, O blessed Prince of Peace.\par Earth can now but tell the story\par Of Your bitter cross and pain;\par She shall yet behold Your glory,\par When Thou comest back to reign;\par Christ is coming!\par Let each heart repeat the strain.\par Long Your exiles have been pining,\par Far from rest, and home, and Thee;\par Soon, in heavenly vestures shining,\par Their Restorer they shall see.\par Christ is coming!\par Haste the joyous jubilee.\par With that 'blessed hope' before us,\par Let no harp remain unstrung;\par Let the mighty advent-chorus\par Onward roll in every tongue:\par Christ is coming!\par Come, Lord Jesus, quickly come!\par \par "Behold, I am coming soon! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy in this book." Rev. 22:7\par \par \pard\cf1\f1\fs23\par } P. It is a passage which brings us not only to the threshold of Heaven, but opens a vista into Heaven itself. We also now enter on an entirely new portion of the Apocalypse. It was the golden candlesticks with the Son of Man walking in their midst, and the messages to the seven representative Asiatic Churches, which hitherto engaged the attention of the Seer of Patmos. He is now to pass within the Palace gates into the presence-chamber of the King. The "former trumpet-voice" summons him to higher manifestaQtions.\par \par It is, moreover, the Future\emdash the future of the Church militant and then the glories of the Church triumphant\emdash which are henceforth to engage his thoughts, "Come up here and I will show you the things which must be hereafter." That 'hereafter' is to occupy the whole sequel of the Book. The present chapter and the one following present to us in glowing coloring the scenery of Heaven. They give, as it has been appropriately called, the description of the celestial counciRl-chamber\emdash also the words of the threefold song which thrills on the lips of its glorified inhabitants. It is the first of this triple theme of praise which we mainly listen to in this vision.\par \par As we might well imagine, when the privileged Disciple gets his initial glance into that Heaven of Heavens, it is the magnificent Throne of Deity, the focus and center of all, which arrests his gaze. And combining the description of the chapter with others which follow, this grandest of visiSons\emdash truly a Revelation of Revelations\emdash consists in the manifestation of God as the God of Redemption. It is the FATHER (His redemption-name, in His paternal covenant relation to His people) who is seated on the Throne. The second Person in the adorable Trinity is subsequently represented under the name and form of a LAMB\emdash the emblem of His mediatorial character and work. The seven lamps of Fire (flaming torches), burning before the throne (like 'the seven spirits of God' of the opening Tchapter), form the appropriate symbol of the HOLY SPIRIT in the plenitude of His gifts to His Church, enlightening, purifying, refining\emdash "the Spirit of judgment and the Spirit of burning."\par \par The Throne itself was like a jasper and a carnelian stone, the emblems alike of purity and justice; for the jasper, whatever it was, is spoken of in a later chapter as being "as clear as crystal." While encircling all, was the Rainbow of emerald\emdash the refreshing memorial of the covenant of Ugrace\emdash tempering the awe which must have been felt by the emission, ever and always, from "out of the throne" of the old Sinai symbols of judgment, "lightnings and thunderings and voices." "Green (emerald)," says the best of the old commentators, "is of all colors the most agreeable; . . . and when God represents himself as the jasper and carnelian, He exhibits Himself in His holiness and glory; . . . but the green rainbow is a mark of the Divine condescension and forbearance. . . . We are not able Vto fix our eyes on the Divine majesty and holiness\emdash they frighten us away; but the friendliness of God allures us and inspires us with an assured confidence." Such were the leading features in the vision.\par \par But there were, besides, other imposing and significant accessories. There was before the Throne "a glassy sea like unto crystal." A needful space thus intervened between these great and glorious figurations and the person of the spectator; while the Sea of glass itself suggestedW the calm majestic repose of the Heavenly Temple, in contrast with the discords and disharmonies of the earthly. Strange and marvelous, too, were other forms in immediate proximity with the throne. "Round about the throne were twenty-four thrones" (lesser thrones), upon which twenty-four elders were sitting in the symbols of priesthood and royalty, of endurance and victory, arrayed in white clothing, and having on their heads crowns of gold. These assessors were doubtless representative beings\emdash the Xrepresentatives of a double twelve\emdash the twelve Patriarchs or tribes of Israel under the old, and the twelve Apostles of the new dispensation\emdash those same who are subsequently heard blending their voices in the twofold song descriptive of both economies, "The Song of Moses the servant of God and the Song of the Lamb."\par \par Nor is this all. "In the midst of the throne\emdash (perhaps, rather "in front of the throne"), and round about the throne\emdash were four Living Creatures fullY of eyes before and behind," and which assumed the fourfold similitude of a lion, a young ox, the face of a man, and an eagle. These six-winged beings were also doubtless representative; and though other figurative meanings, as we shall see, may be attached to them, they were intended, in the first instance, to symbolize, not as in the case of the twenty-four elders, the later and more glorious results of Redemption, but all the Creatures of God, or rather, Creation itself, animate and inanimate. They areZ the embodiment of creature perfection, creation-life\emdash Strength, Patience, Intellect, Activity\emdash and as such they have their assigned place and mission to celebrate the glory of the Great Supreme. Their unresting song, struck by the key-note of the Book, is this, "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, who was, and who is, and who is to come."\par \par But they sing not that song alone\emdash it is an antiphonal strain. Their ascription is immediately followed by a repeater from the twe[nty-four elders, who take their blood-bought crowns and cast them before the throne\emdash by the expressive act disowning all claim of merit or righteousness.\par \par It is specially, however, to be noted, that this their opening song, is not a Redemption-anthem; it is not even the anthem of Providence\emdash both of these are reserved. It is the earlier\emdash the anterior ascription which had been sung of old by the morning stars at Creation's birth\emdash "And when those living creatures gi\ve glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives to the ages of the ages, the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and worship Him who lives unto the ages of the ages, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, "You are worthy, O Lord (or, as it is in some translations, "Our Lord"\emdash our God in covenant\emdash differing thus from the song of the four living creatures), to receive glory" (or rather) "the glory, and the honor and the power" (which t]hese Your representative creatures have rendered You), for You have (not redeemed, but) created all things, and for Your pleasure they are and were created."\par \par This rapid and superficial outline of the vision itself will be better filled in and supplemented, as we endeavor to ascertain its practical bearing on the case of the Apostle of Patmos and on ourselves.\par \par (1.) As to the special meaning and lessons it conveyed to John. In this vision, the truths and symbols regardi^ng the Church on earth which were set before him in the first chapter, were, if it may be so expressed, authenticated and countersigned in Heaven. It was shown to him that they formed as glorious a reality in the upper, as in the lower Sanctuary. A Jew, and familiar with the writings of the Prophets, he could hardly fail, as he now gazed within that opened door, to call to mind two similar pictorial revelations, unfolded at an earlier era to Seers of kindred spirit and temperament with himself. The first _of these was that remarkable vision given to the Prophet Isaiah when just entering on his great career. He stood, as he himself tells us, under the entrance of the holy Temple of Jerusalem. All at once gates and inner veil seemed mysteriously uplifted or withdrawn, and he was permitted to gaze far within, on those awful recesses, which even no prophet was permitted to enter\emdash the very Holy of Holies itself. There he saw the Jehovah of Israel seated on a throne\emdash "seated on a throne, high and exa`lted, and the train of his robe filled the temple." The two bright-winged seraphim as a royal guard stood on either side. Each had six radiant wings: with two of these the head was covered, in token of reverence\emdash with two the feet, in token partly of imperfection, partly of humility\emdash two were outstretched as if ready for flight, in token of willing obedience.\par \par It was a seasonable Apocalypse to the untried and misgiving youthful messenger, at a time when the horizon was black awith storm and disaster. The Assyrian was about to make his nest in the cedars of Lebanon, ready to swoop down on the doomed and defenseless kingdom of Judah. And more depressing to the fervid spirit of the young Prophet was the inveterate obstinacy of the hearts he had been called to quicken. Was his mission to be surrendered in despair? Will he use his prophetic foresight only to proclaim "Ichabod" (the glory has departed) in the midst of a guilty people and a hopeless cause; and perhaps abandon his ownb faith in the God of his fathers? Is the cruel tyrant who sat enthroned in the palaces of Nineveh, henceforth to rule the earth without a rival? A glimpse within that temple told him the reassuring truth. There was there a Living Being mightier than the Assyrian king Sennacherib. His name was "The King, the Lord Almighty," surrounded with ministering spirits, swift of wing in his service, and reverentially waiting His commands. And even though, at the very time, he was told that the cities were to be "wascted without inhabitant, and the houses without men, and the land to be utterly desolate"\emdash yet the Lord being in His holy place, the children of Zion might well be joyful in their King.\par \par The earth would never be without its Ruler\emdash Judah would never be without its God. In the blinding splendors of that temple-vision, he could exclaim in trembling transport, "My eyes have seen the King!" What though earthly armies should be let loose on the people and the land he loved, his earsd had just heard glorious Creatures chanting the song, (and so loud and fervid was the ascription, that post and pillar and cedar-gate shook to their foundations,) "Holy, Holy, Holy! the whole earth is full of His glory."\par \par It is enough\emdash he is nerved for more than half a century of toil and heroic endurance, "The Lord reigns; let the people tremble\emdash He sits between the cherubim; let the earth be moved. The Lord is great in Zion; and He is high above all the people. Let them praeise Your great and awesome name; for it is Holy."\par \par The other kindred vision, which could not fail to be familiar to John, was the still sublimer one given in a later age to the Prophet Ezekiel. That mourning exile was located, with many of his banished countrymen, on the banks of the river Chebar. The land of their fathers was lying desolate\emdash the city sitting now uninhabited, that was once full of people. A whirlwind seemed to come from the far north, a great cloud, and a fire infoflding itself, chariot-like in motion\emdash a series of mighty wheels of strange complexity intersecting one another, were turned by means of four living creatures. "Their faces looked like this: Each of the four had the face of a man, and on the right side each had the face of a lion, and on the left the face of an ox; each also had the face of an eagle." While high over all was "the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone; and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the agppearance of a man above upon it." This likeness of the glory of the Lord was moreover encircled with "the appearance of the rainbow that is in the cloud in the day of rain."\par \par Ezekiel, like Isaiah, was filled at this time with saddest anticipations. All around, in the land in which he was a stranger, he beheld the visible symbols of gigantic regal power, boundless ambition, savage cruelty. He listened to the crushing story of human tyranny and wrong. But the vision on the Chebar revealedh, in his case too, a mightier than the mightiest of human kings and tyrants\emdash wheels higher than these chariot-wheels of Assyria\emdash wheels apparently involved and in confusion, 'wheel within wheel;' but all, when understood, moving in sublime harmony.\par \par Glorious, mighty beings were impelling them, putting their shoulders to their gigantic circles; while above all, was a lustrous throne of sapphire purity and righteousness; and on that throne\emdash not as in the marble sculpturesi on which the Prophet's eye must often have gazed, the gigantic embodiment of brute force\emdash but "the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it"\emdash with the bright emblem of grace and love\emdash the encircling rainbow. What did these picturings reveal to the lonely exile? What did they tell him? But to bide his time\emdash to fear neither the might of Babylon nor Assyria; for there was a great Being enthroned over and above the wheel-like complications and confusions of the lower world, ajnd directing them all. Himself holy and omnipotent. "Spread out above the heads of the living creatures was what looked like a surface, sparkling and awesome like crystal," which was beneath His feet. He had also an army of glorified creatures doing His pleasure, who would yet vindicate His ways in the restoration of His people, and in the evolution of good to His Church and to mankind.\par \par John, the later of the three Jewish Seers, needed a similar assurance in times of similar darkness ankd impending woe. He had, indeed, as we have previously seen, already received the guarantee of the Church's safety\emdash beholding his Lord walking amid the candlesticks, with the two-edged sword in His mouth, and holding the stars in His hand. But these same soul-comforting truths, viewed from the earthly standpoint, are now further confirmed by this glimpse into the heaven of heavens. Gazing within that opened door, he too has his apprehensions allayed. He also, like the two ancestral Prophets, beholdsl in vision a glorious PERSON, a personal God, a personal King; not as the earlier Seer did, enveloped in whirlwind and cloud\emdash but seated on a throne of jasper and carnelian in a blaze of light\emdash with the clear sea of rock-crystal before Him reflecting His own glorious image, and angelic servants waiting upon Him, eager to do His pleasure; while the well-known Rainbow, the Rainbow of God, spanning the firmament\emdash the rainbow which succeeded the deluge on the earth\emdash was again seen, them blessed pledge of peace and love!\par \par John knew that the world was on the eve of great events; that even the apparently immutable throne of the Caesars would soon rock to its foundation. But what of that? There was one seated on the Throne he now beheld in that unveiled Heaven, who "lives for the ages of the ages"\emdash a King above all human kings, a power that would outlive all human dynasties and empires. "The Lord God Almighty" was the name by which He was adored by these living Beingns. All else might change\emdash HE was unchangeable. Whatever tribulations may be appointed, the Apostle and the Church will patiently endure, because they are ordained by Him.\par \par The complicated wheels of Ezekiel are again to revolve but their revolutions he can now calmly and trustfully contemplate. With the simple faith of the little child in the dark Temple of Shiloh, as further truths are to be unfolded to him, he can say\emdash "Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears."\par \par o But though these were the special lessons of the time for John, there are comforting lessons of another and more general kind, for us also. We must not think of this vision as one, so to speak, improvised for a particular occasion\emdash in other words, that it is the representation of an exceptional scene in Heaven, introductory to the subsequent unfoldings of the Book. It is a glimpse or symbol of what Heaven is now, and what Heaven will be to all of us who enter within the gates into the city; its peperless element of glory and bliss consisting in the full vision of God\emdash God in His covenant aspect, as the God of Salvation\emdash His throne encompassed with the emerald rainbow.\par \par Interesting is it to contemplate the diverse multitude of worshipers who surround Him\emdash the Redeemed from the earth, as well as the other multitudes of created intelligences. The Redeemed are here represented in their twofold character of "kings and priests." As kings, wearing golden crowns\emdash aqs priests, wearing white clothing; while the other worshipers, who appear under the fourfold similitude, are described as "full of eyes" (or "teeming with eyes"), and moreover, that "they rest not day nor night." From this we may infer their wakeful vigilance, their unceasing, untiring employment in the heavenly ministry; the four-fold symbol further indicating, it may be, different occupations, and different arenas for the enlistment of their immortal energies, but all conspiring to promote the glory of rthe one great Object of adoration and love.\par \par We are further reminded, as we listen to the majestic voice in the vision, that all events in the world's history and our own are planned\emdash appointed. "Come, said that voice, and I will show you things which must be hereafter." That word must is a precious one, considering Who utters it. The Divine Being seems to say of, and to every actor in the subsequent chapters, as He did to Cyrus of old, "I clothed you, though you have not known Me.s" The program of coming events is in His hands! That Heaven where He reigns supreme is a world of order. In the calm blue of these serene ethereal heights, there are no more rolling clouds or moral hurricanes\emdash no more darkness and gloominess. Justice and Judgment are the habitation of His throne: Mercy and Truth go before His face.\par \par We may further, from this vision, draw the inference how deep is the sympathy between the members of the Church triumphant (the church in heaven) and tthe Church militant (the church still on earth). These twenty-four elders\emdash the representatives of the Redeemed from the earth\emdash form part of the worshipers of the enthroned King, and are present during the future unfolding of the great drama. How cheering and elevating the thought that even now, amid our struggles and trials, "the great ones of the olden time"\emdash the glorified dead, are interesting themselves in us; sympathizing with us in our sorrows, desiring our welfare\emdash waiting, itu may be; to give us welcome home!\par \par And more solemn than all\emdash how near this other world is\emdash or may be. "Heaven is in no far distant star"\emdash no "land that is very far off." There is but a narrow curtain separating from the true inner sanctuary. A door is opened, and Heaven is there! Death seals our bodily senses, as a temporary trance did John's, and we are ushered in a moment (in the twinkling of an eye) before "God the Judge of all, and the spirits of just men made perfect."\par \par Oh! are we ready? Whether it be in the lonely Patmos of a long sick-bed, or fresh from the marts of busy life, or like Isaiah, at the threshold of the Temple, or like Ezekiel, in the Chebar of a distant land\emdash are we ready for John's summons, "Come up here?" Are we ready to meet the twenty-four elders? Are we ready to put on the white robe and the golden crown? Are we ready to take up the holy song? Are we ready to meet the Holy God?\par \par \par \pard\cf1\f1\fs23\par } XXy8. The Opened Door and Creation-song{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs24 THE OPENED DOOR: AND CREATION-SONG\par \par Revelation 4\par \par One may well shrink from the risk of dimming, by the employment of any human words, the grandeur of such a passage as thisOxter is now to be blended with grander anthems, the song of PROVIDENCE and the song of GRACE. These are evoked by new objects or figures in the sublime Heavenly Vision. The Almighty Father, seated on the throne of jasper and carnelian, has, lying on His open right hand a Roll, similar to what was used by the Prophets in recording their divine utterances. It was the Roll of Providence, the symbolic Volume of the Divine counsels, containing the prophetic history of the Church, and the destinies of the nationys to the end of time. This roll was "written on both sides"\emdash that is, not only on the upper side which met the Holder's eye as it was unwound from its cylinder; but on the back also it was filled with lettering. There were no blanks in it\emdash no vacant spaces that would admit of new entries. This crowding of the writing indicated exhaustive fullness. It was, moreover, "sealed (lit. "sealed down") with seven seals"\emdash again the mystic memorial symbol of completeness, betokening, in another wayz, that it formed an all-comprehensive record and register of the will and ways of the Supreme, its contents reaching onwards through the world's six work-days to the great seventh day\emdash the Sabbath of eternity.\par \par The sealing further implied that its contents were sacredly locked and concealed from public gaze; and yet, lying on the open palm of the hand indicated also that there was no unwillingness on the part of the enthroned One to divulge its contents, if any worthy to undertake {the task could be found.\par \par "A mighty angel" appeals to his fellows. He asks if there be no potent arm that can wield its strength in breaking open these seals and revealing the hidden mysteries? He proclaims with a loud voice, "Who is worthy to open the roll and to open the seals thereof?" There is silence in Heaven. Amid the adoring ranks around, no one responds to the summons. None in the heights of glory\emdash none on the platform of earth, none "under the earth (that is, in the deeps| of Hades\emdash the region of departed spirits) were able to open the roll, neither to look thereon."\par \par The awe-struck and wondering Seer "weeps" at the confessed failure. He had received the invitation and assurance, on the first opening of the heavenly door, "Come here, and I will show you things which must be hereafter." Is He, whose name was "Faithful and True," to belie His own promise and to defraud His servant of his fond expectation? John knew the priceless value of what that Boo}k contained. Let only the seals be broken, the parchment unfolded, and a flood of light would be thrown on an enigmatical future; many an anxious fear and foreboding would be stilled; many a perplexity solved. Whether in dark characters of mourning and woe; or in golden and silver lettering, he knew there would be a glorious revelation of Truth and Righteousness, and a sublime "vindication of the ways of God to men."\par \par What a boon would such a Revelation be to the Church in every coming a~ge! But when the proclamation of the herald Angel is unanswered\emdash the secrets of the scroll likely to remain locked in impenetrable mystery, the tears of the lonely man on his lonely island begin to flow, tears akin to those of Mary Magdalene when she stood by the blank sepulcher "weeping," mourning over the apparent ruin and frustration of her fondest hopes. This is surely a touching episode in the apocalyptic drama! the Apostle, in his moment of glowing rapture at the very gate of Heaven, with a tear, (or rather a flood of tears, for he 'wept much',) furrowing his cheek, in the sincere sadness of baffled and disappointed expectations.\par \par It reminds us of yet another kindred weeper, whose hero-heart was proof against all cowardly weakness, but who was similarly moved when he heard of those who were enemies to the cross of Christ. Paul was jealous for the Cross and the Sacrifice; John for the Crown and Kingdom of their common Lord and Master. Both were in unity in their unselfish interest for the advancement of His cause, the vindication of His name, the promotion of His glory! Yes! it is indeed an impressive picture to see men who never wept for themselves weeping for that which was to them dearer than self\emdash dearer than life. It lets us into the tender agony of great souls. We have heard of patriots mourning for their Fatherland\emdash noble natures throbbing at the contemplation of iron-handed tyranny and cruel wrong\emdash men whose brave spirits would never permit them to wince or falter under the threat of torture or in the storm of battle, but who could only speak through tears and choked utterance in proclaiming their country's woes.\par \par Such too is the anguish of earnest Christian patriots\emdash such the tears shed by them over the misapprehension and misinterpretation of the Divine ways and counsels, the rejection of the Divine offers of mercy through stern unbelief and defiant pride. Such ought to be the feelings and emotions of every true soldier of the cross as he sees thousands perishing around him\emdash the Gospel-trumpet sounding its warnings apparently in vain\emdash honest efforts apparently frustrated and baffled\emdash all a gigantic failure. We lately heard of one of the standard-bearers in the Missionary battlefield\emdash a noble and a true man\emdash weeping like a little child, because the work he had so near his heart seemed to be progressing so tardily\emdash the little done, the much undone\emdash the colossal walls of heathendom frowning defiance on his puny endeavors, and he left to cry through his tears and prayers, "Lord, how long?"\par \par Would that there were more of a similar spirit! And such there would be, were the surpassing grandeur and importance of that work and its awful responsibilities realized as they ought. There is a saying of one of our old divines, that "the sins of men are enough to make devils triumph and angels weep." If a tear can thus be said to befit the eye of an angel-spectator of earth's depravity and corruption, what should it be in the case of those, who, partakers of the frailties and sins of humanity, are themselves called as God's witnesses and ambassadors to stand between the living and the dead!\par \par It well becomes all Churches and all their members, from time to time, as if it were at Heaven's opened door, thus to ponder the shortcomings of the past; opportunities of good neglected; souls around still perishing; God's name blasphemed; Christ's cause dishonored; vice unrebuked; infidelity rampant; and yet Death, Judgment, and Eternity at hand! May God kindle some of the fervid spirit which dictated the impassioned agonizing declaration of the Prophet of Judah\emdash "Oh, that my head were as waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!"\par \par But to return. The aged Apostle's 'much weeping' is immediately changed into joy and triumph. One of the Elders\emdash one of those forming the redeemed white-robed multitude\emdash bids him dry his tears\emdash for some Being had been found infinitely worthy "to open the Book." John was at this time the most illustrious believer in the Church on earth\emdash a giant among his fellows. Few if any in Heaven had been so honored as he; yet an unknown member of the Church triumphant is now his instructor; showing that there are revelations of truth made to the glorified which are withheld from those who, as ministering priests in the lower sanctuary, are still compassed with infirmity; so that it may be said with regard even to the most advanced in knowledge and faith and love among the latter, "He who is least in the kingdom of Heaven is greater than he."\par \par But who is He who is thus discovered to be worthy? When all Heaven is silent, who is the favored one found equal to the task? It is "the Lion of the tribe of Judah." The Lion\emdash the victorious symbol of the favored and the royal tribe, of whom the dying Patriarch thus spoke in his farewell benedictions: "Judah is a young lion that has finished eating its prey. Like a lion he crouches and lies down; like a lioness\emdash who will dare to rouse him?" But one of the twenty-four elders said to me, "Stop weeping! Look, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the heir to David's throne, has conquered. He is worthy to open the scroll and break its seven seals." It is Christ\emdash He who was alike of the tribe of Judah and of the lineage of David, that is pronounced worthy to be the unfolder of the hidden mysteries.\par \par But He is so by conquest. It is as the Divine Vanquisher of sin and death He has qualified Himself (so to speak) to be the exponent and interpreter of the Divine counsels. "It is," says Augustine, "by reason of His humiliation as man, that Christ received the roll, and not by reason of His Godhead." It is as the Mediator of His Church He has the right and prerogative to break the seals and unfold the contents.\par \par John gazes upwards in joyful expectancy. But what sudden change has taken place in the mystic figurations? He turns his eye in the direction of the Throne, where the worshipers already described are bending before some One adorable object. That object was seen "standing in the midst of the Throne" (or rather perhaps "in front of the Throne"); and from this time onwards, occupies the most conspicuous place\emdash the central point in the Heavenly Visions. The Apostle looks for the majesty of Judah's Lion. He expects to see some Being of unutterable might. But\emdash strange thing for Heaven!\emdash the object of adoration is no longer symbolized by the Lion, but by A LAMB. The word used in the original is also remarkable. It is "a little Lamb"\emdash a word peculiar to the Apocalypse, occurring here alone in this diminutive form in the New Testament, with the single exception of its use in Christ's charge to Peter in the closing chapter of John's Gospel, where he employs the same expression, "Feed my little lambs."\par \par More than this, the Lamb of the vision appears covered with wounds and blood-scars, as if recently killed in sacrifice; and the closing ascription of the heavenly throng is not "worthy is the Lion that has conquered"\emdash but "worthy is the Lamb that was slain!" What is this but the Divine Redeemer proclaiming, in expressive similitude, both the tenderness of His nature and the perpetual efficacy of His mediatorial sacrifice and work, in the midst of the Church purchased by His precious blood?\par \par  In conjunction, however, with these symbols of meekness and gentleness, humiliation and suffering, there are two others added of omnipotence and omniscience. That little Lamb had "seven horns" (horns\emdash the invariable emblem of kingly power) and "seven eyes," which are interpreted as "the Seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth"\emdash the Holy Spirit, in the sevenfold symbol of perfection and manifold operation, sent forth according to Christ's own promise as His Glorifier and Testifier.\par \par All seems now ready for the longed-for disclosure. This glorious Being "came and took the book out of the right hand of Him who sat upon the Throne." The Apostle, we may imagine, is all eagerness to listen to the stupendous revelations of the future which are to be made on the breaking of the seals. But he must for a time at least suspend his anxiety until two grand doxologies are sung\emdash two new and distinct ascriptions of praise welcoming the approach of the Lord of Providence and the Lord of Grace, who was thus alone found worthy. "And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints." We have in these the twofold symbols of praise and prayer. The Harps, whether gold or silver, were for purposes of adoration, while the golden bowls were filled with the prayers of the Saints (or literally, of "the holy ones") of earth. Beautiful picture! the prayers and cries from the sorrowing, suffering Church below, are received into these golden bowls by "the ministering ones," and placed, as we shall afterwards find, in the hands of the One only Intercessor, to be perfumed with the incense of His adorable merits.\par \par Meanwhile, the first part of the "new song" rises from the conjoined voices of these Saints and living Beings; "new," because evoked by the sudden appearance in the midst of the Throne of the Unfolder of the roll, the majestic Expositor of the otherwise inscrutable counsels. The words sung are these\emdash "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because You were slain, and with Your blood You purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth." "We shall reign on the earth;" not, as in our rendering, in the future tense, as if some glorious kingdom were in store\emdash but it is a present reign. Cheering, as it has been observed, must the utterance have been to the Apostle, that even that afflicted, despised, persecuted remnant called 'the Church on earth,' was recognized in Heaven as a reigning power\emdash exercising dominion and lordship through its great Head, anticipatory of that period when, as King of kings and Lord of lords, He will put all things under His feet, and vindicate His claim to universal sovereignty as celebrated in the fourfold enumeration of "every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation!"\par \par Such was the First song, or the first chorus of the "new song." But it was sung by a comparatively limited number of representative voices. The vast myriads of unfallen angels\emdash the originals of Heaven, if we may so call them\emdash had taken no part in it. There is a pause; and then we listen to a strain sublimer still, which may be designated the Great Redemption anthem joined in by the entire heavenly host. We shall do no more than give its own grand words without comment. It is a mighty volume of praise, which sends its multiplying echoes out to the very circumference of being. Not now the few favored representatives\emdash but the countless multitudes of angels, principalities, and powers, in their endless concentric circles, have gathered to this great inauguration festival, to present their lofty homage and adoration to the slain Lamb.\par \par We seem to realize for the first time the sublime meaning of the saying, "Inhabiting the praises of eternity;" for the wide vault and circuit of heaven, the vast corridors of limitless space and time, are crowded with ministering spirits, and have become vocal with song. This is their doxology, "Then I looked again, and I heard the singing of thousands and millions of angels around the throne and the living beings and the elders. And they sang in a mighty chorus: "The Lamb is worthy\emdash the Lamb who was killed. He is worthy to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing." And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea. They also sang: "Blessing and honor and glory and power belong to the one sitting on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever."\par \par Such is the ascription. It has waxed louder and louder like the noise of many thunderings; the waves of sound have extended themselves in ever grander and increasing cadence until they reach the outskirts of being. Then gradually receding, they seem to rock themselves to rest; and the terminating strain is given by those who struck at first its key note\emdash " And the four living creatures said AMEN." Then all is silence. The twenty-four Elders prostrate themselves in silent adoration, and worship Him who lives for the ages and the ages!\par \par There are many thoughts, alike of grandeur and comfort, which crowd upon us on a review of this vision. We must be content with alluding to the two leading consolatory ones. The first embodies the same truth we met with in the preceding chapter, but which is more fully developed here\emdash that the roll of Providence is in the hands of Jesus. There are times, in the history of the world, we spoke of in connection with the former vision, when, amid political complexities\emdash the prevalence and triumph of human tyranny and wrong\emdash still more, times in our individual experiences, in the mysteries of daily life\emdash amid startling providences or baffling dispensations, that the old moorings threaten to give way, or have momentarily given way, and we feel ourselves drifting out on the cheerless sea of human doubt and distrust\emdash when all is dark around, no rift in the cloud\emdash no star in the midnight sky\emdash and in the anguish of bitter unbelief we are tempted to mutter the querulous complaint, "Where is now my God?" Or, if that God lives and reigns, does He live as a God of terror? does He answer to the fire-god of the Phoenician in his Baal-worship, or to the Jupiter-god of the Roman, armed with the thunderbolt and forked lightning? or, in the phantasies of a later philosophy, has He abdicated His throne, and left man and his fortunes to wild chance, to be driven, as things of fate, here and there on the fitful waters\emdash the vessel without a pilot, the world without a ruler?\par \par No! the roll of Providence, containing the fortunes of the nations as well as all that concerns His Church and people, is in the keeping of the Christ of Calvary. "The Lord is King! He sits between the Cherubim!" It is He who mingles every drop in the cup, and lights every furnace, and orders every trial, and draws every tear. Oh! what would many have been in those hours of gloomy despair, when the props of existence were tottering underneath them\emdash what they thought were life's strongholds giving way like the yielding ice beneath their feet\emdash what would they have been, but for the sustaining assurance that that roll of human destiny is in the hand of the Lord who died for them!\par \par We can now understand the reason of this strange, mingled symbolism\emdash the appropriate figure of the Lion of the tribe of Judah in conjunction with a slain Lamb\emdash that anomaly in Heaven\emdash the memorials of pain and suffering in a place where sorrow never enters and suffering is unknown. Is it not to tell us of a blessed union of might and tenderness; that we may confidently commit our everlasting destinies to Him; for as the Lion of the tribe of Judah He is able to defend us\emdash as the slain Lamb He is able to sympathize with us? What more could we desire, than this combination of Omnipotence and Love\emdash the greatness of Godhead and the sympathy of Humanity in the Person of the now Living One, who once was dead? Let the seals be opened and the vials descend! We will trust in Him who alone is found worthy to open the book; add our "Amen" to that of the four living creatures; and with the Elders fall down and worship Him who lives forever and ever!\par \par The second memorable thought or reflection here suggested is, that it was the SLAIN Lamb in the midst of the Throne, who summoned forth this loud anthem peal. It was sung by myriads of myriads; and among those myriads, by the lips of unsinning Angels who had no personal interest in His great atoning work. How much more surely ought that amazing sacrifice, thus symbolized, to evoke our loftiest praises and stir our deepest gratitude and devotion! Let us fondly grasp the magnificent truth in all its wondrous reality\emdash not diluting it to square and dovetail with modern theologies\emdash not eliminating from it its grandest mysteries because they are mysteries; but rather content to receive them and rejoice in them as stupendous mysteries of love: "Christ crucified! the power of God."\par \par While we delight to adore Him as the Lion of the tribe of Judah\emdash while earth's lowly praises blends with the grander symphonies of the skies, "You are the King of glory, O Christ! You are the everlasting Son of the Father!"\emdash let the ever-present recollection of His anguish, His bleeding love and atoning sacrifice, give deeper fervor and intensity to the prayer\emdash "O Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant us your peace! O Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us!"\par \par It is the cross of Christ, the everlasting love of God in 'so' loving the world, which will form the theme of eternity. Angel-intellect from every corner of the universe of being, will stoop over the fathomless abyss and exclaim, "Oh, the depth!" Not to Elders alone, with their white clothing and redemption-crowns and golden vials full of incense\emdash the representatives of the ransomed\emdash but "to principalities and powers in heavenly places, will be made known by the Church" (through the glorified Person and adorable work of her living Head and King), "the manifold wisdom of God."\par \par \par \par \pard\cf1\f1\fs23\par } tt-yqMacDuff - Revelation (1871){\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonn199. The Seven-sealed Roll and the New Song{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs24 THE SEVEN-SEALED ROLL AND THE NEW SONG\par \par Revelation 5:1-10\par \par The CREATION song of the preceding chapwttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs24 MEMORIES OF PATMOS\par (A devotional commentary on the book of Revelation)\par By John MacDuff, 1871\par \par (This book is not about prophetic theories and predictions. It is all about Jesus! It is encouraging and uplifting throughout.)\par \par Preface\par \par \pard\fi-560\li560\sl240\slmult1 1. The Scene and Spectator\par 2. The Trumpet-Voice and Opening Vision\par 3. The Accessories of the Vision\par 4. The Epistles to the Seven Churches\par 5. The Epistle to the Church of Ephesus\par 6. The Epistle to the Church of Smyrna\par 7. The Epistle to the Church of Laodicea\par 8. The Opened Door and Creation-song\par 9. The Seven-sealed Roll and the New Song\par 10. Opening of the First Four Seals\emdash Creation's Cry\par 11. The Opening of the Fifth and Sixth Seals; the Martyrs' Cry, and the Great Day of Wrath\par 12. The Vision of the Sealed\par 13. Vision of the White-Robed and Palm-Bearing Multitude\par 14. The White Robes and Living Fountains of Water\par 15. The Half-hour's Silence and Preparation for the Trumpet-Soundings, the Angel at the Golden Altar\par 16. The Casting of the Altar-fire on the Earth; the Sounding of the Seven Trumpets; and the Closing Vision and Song\par 17. The Lamb Standing on Mount Zion with the Hundred and Forty-four Thousand\par 18. The Blessedness of the Holy Dead\par 19. The Song of the Harpers by the Glassy Sea\par 20. The Coming One; and the Blessed Watcher\par 21. The Great Day of Judgment\par 22. The New Heaven and the New Earth\par 23. No Death! No Sorrow! No Crying! No Pain!\par 24. The River of the Water of Life\par 25. Closing Chimes\par \pard\sl240\slmult1\par \par \par PREFACE\par \par For many years has the writer desired to approach, and as often has he been deterred from approaching, this mysterious portion of the Word of God\emdash "the Holy of Holies" of Sacred writ. Nor does he feel, that standing thus long in the outer vestibule has in any way better qualified or emboldened him, at the present hour, to withdraw the veil. If he ventures now to enter, it is not with daring or presumptuous footstep. It is not, assuredly, with the design of becoming a volunteer in the ranks of prognosticators and soothsayers\emdash still less of claiming the ultimate solution and fulfillment of any part of the ambiguous symbolism of the Book, in those tragic events, which, while the present pages are passing through the press, have been convulsing the nations. By no bold divining of "the secret things" which belong only to God, would he seek to pander to the credulous and the curious, "rushing in where angels fear to tread."\par \par He does not undertake to expound or defend formally and systematically any one of the varied prophetic theories, which divide apocalyptic expositors. But independent of all such\emdash independent even of any consecutive treatment of the Book itself\emdash there are to be found within it manifold isolated passages of transcendent grandeur, beauty, and comfort, which may\emdash with special edification, be selected as themes for sacred meditation\emdash radiant stars in its skies, which can be seen by the naked eye of faith, without the aid of the prophetic lens or telescope\emdash priceless gems, not in its deep mines, but lying on the surface, to which the visions which surround them may be used only as a setting\emdash thus preserving a certain unity and continuity of treatment, without involving committal to any peculiar scheme of interpretation.\par \par It has been well said by a devout and thoughtful master in Israel\emdash "In order to derive much benefit from the Book of Revelation, it is not necessary to have an understanding of its prophetic signification. We shall not have missed the blessing, if, in the course of our perusal of it, we have caught glimpses, it may be dim and mysterious glimpses, of heavenly blessedness hereafter to be realized, and of that Divine Person, who opened the gates of Heaven to all believers\emdash glimpses such as stir in us more fervent aspirations after spiritual good, and urge us forward on our pilgrimage with better hope and heartier energy. Even as the wayworn traveler catches, through tangled branches, the pinnacles and spires of the city to which he is bound, and, cheered by the momentary and disjointed vision, presses on towards it with elastic step and buoyant heart."\par \par Mr. Arnold states, "We should bear in mind, that predictions have a lower historical sense, as well as a higher spiritual sense; that there may be one, or more than one, typical, imperfect, historical fulfillment of a prophecy, in each of which the higher spiritual fulfillment is shadowed forth more or less distinctly."\par \par The pages, accordingly, which follow, purport to be "Memories"\emdash no more; leading strains in the magnificent melody, omitting many subordinate ones. Moreover, this selection from 'some of the great words and visions' is taken mainly from the opening and closing chapters.\par \par A few preliminary words may not be out of place here, regarding the general plan and structure of the Apocalypse. It may be described as a record of the struggles and victories of the Church, viewed in connection with God's dealings with the nations. It consists of two parts or volumes. The First contains a prologue or introduction, followed by the seven epistles to the seven Churches of Asia. The Second may be described as a prophetic drama in three acts or sections; comprehending the vision of the Seals, Trumpets, and Vials. This second volume, which may be called the Revelation proper, begins also with a sublime prologue, and ends with an equally sublime and solemn epilogue or conclusion.\par \par Of the events recorded in this Great prophecy, there is one, ever and always recurring, of pre-eminent and peerless grandeur\emdash THE SECOND COMING OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. Indeed, the Apocalypse may emphatically be named "The Book of the coming One." Its key-note or weighty watchword is, "Maranatha" ("The Lord is coming"). This forms the culminating point of each separate portion of the sacred drama\emdash seals, trumpets, vials. The curtain (if with reverence it may be so expressed) falls, at the end of each act, with the announcement in the ear of the waiting Church, of 'the Blessed hope.' To use another simile, as it is the opening, so is it the magnificent closing chime of all, "Behold He comes with clouds"\emdash "Surely I come quickly."\par \par The Author rises from the task, deeply impressed alike with the grandeur of the divine theme and the imperfection of the human treatment. Yet, while laying the golden key of interpretation which unlocks its profoundest mysteries, at the feet of Him whose name, in one of its most sublime visions, is "the Lion of the tribe of Judah," saying\emdash "You alone are worthy to take the Book and to open the Seals thereof;" both writer and reader may take courage, as the eye falls on the inscription above the Temple portico\emdash "Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near." Rev. 1:3\par \par GENERAL OUTLINE\emdash\par \par "Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later." Revelation 1:19\par \par Part 1. "The things seen;" or, The Opening Vision, with Christ's Charges to the Seven Churches. Revelation 1 through 3\par \par Part 2. "The things which are now;" or, Christ with His Church Universal on Earth. Revelation 4 through 10\par \par Part 4. "The things which will take place later;" or, Christ in Heaven ruling His Church Militant and Triumphant. Revelation 11 through 22\par \par \par \pard\cf1\f1\fs23\par }