Revelation 8

Jesus, their once crucified Redeemer, is still as ever their Shepherd, and shall feed them, and he shall lead them unto living fountains of waters. Food for their mental and moral nature—thought, knowledge, truth, such revelations of God and of God’s works as will minister to the endless growth of sinless minds around the throne of God shall be supplied to them by their well-known Shepherd. Has he not constituted that being, social, intellectual, and moral? and has he not nurtured each and all of its growing powers on such scale as the scenes of earth admit, so that with infinite facility he can resume their education and carry it on from one stage of progress to another, all along the march of heaven’s eternal ages? All this and more may be included and implied in the simple words—“The Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters.” H. C.

8 : 1. We see reason to doubt whether the book itself, the sealed book which the Lamb takes out of the right hand of God, and of which he has now broken each successive seal, is ever read to us; whether its contents are not rather reserved for a future state, to be the subject of satisfying and adoring meditation through the ages of the eternal age. The breaking of each of the first six seals is followed by a new sign, a new scene, a new disclosure: but the consequence of the opening of the seventh seal is not sign nor scene, not speech nor disclosure, but silence: it is the signal for the dropping of the curtain upon the stage of vision, and when it rises again, it is for a new act, with other performers and amid altered circumstances. The impediments are removed, the scroll is spread, the divine reader is prepared: but the actual reading is not for earth, but for heaven. V.

8 : 2 AND I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; and the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed. And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter. And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise. And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabitants of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound! 9 : 1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace: and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth

9 were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.

10. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power

11 was to hurt men five months. And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath

12 his name Apollyon. One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.

13. And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar

14 which is before God, saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels

15 which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of

16 men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand:

17 and I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jactuth, and brimstone: and the heads of horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.

18 stone. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and

19 by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them

20 they do hurt. And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood; which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:

21 neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

10:1 And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of

2 fire: and he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and

3 his left foot on the earth, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when

4 he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto

5 me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. And the

6 angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are

7 therein, that there should be time no longer: but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

8. And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon

9 the earth. And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in

10 thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was

11 bitter. And he said unto me, Thou trust prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.

11:1 And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise,

2 and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the

3. Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and

4 threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.

5 and if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he

6 must in this manner be killed. These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite

7 the earth with all plagues, as often as they will. And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them,

8 and shall overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

9. And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies

10 three days and a half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one

11 to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth. And after three days and a half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood

12 upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven

13 in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven

14 thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly. 15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he 16 shall reign for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on 17 their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy 18 great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldst give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; 19 and shouldst destroy them which destroy the earth. And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament; and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

NOTHING is great in this world but the kingdom of Jesus Christ; nothing but that, to a spiritual eye, has an air of permanency. The history of the past has been but a history of the rise and fall of individuals and of nations; but amid all the changes and overturnings which have thus far gone to fill up the annals of time, the kingdom of Christ has remained, and, under the protection of him whose wisdom and power are symbolized by the seven spirits of God abroad in all the earth, it is steadily advancing, enlarging its boundaries on every side, and going on to fill the earth. The days which are passing now are the days of the Son of man; and each successive one as it passes, heaving into being new and surprising events, is but an illustration of the wisdom and the might of Him who sits upon the throne, as they all mark the different stages of that grand revolution which is going on, and which in its issue shall show the earth converted into a noble temple, and that consecrated to Christ; and whose melody, issuing simultaneously from every dwelling-place, shall be but the echo of the anthem long since raised in heaven—the anthem of praise to the “Lamb that has been slain.” E. M.

Chs. 8-11. Seven trumpets blown. The introduction to this series is a vision of high solemnity in the presence of God (8:2-6). There is a presentation of the prayers of saints with incense, and, as a sign of the answering of those prayers “by terrible things,” there is a casting down of altar-fire upon the earth. The same golden censer that wafted up the incense receives and pours down the fire. Thus the way is prepared for a series of devouring judgments.

Seven angels “prepared to sound” the trumpets which were given to them. The results which ensue are arranged in several respects like those which follow the breaking of seals. Thus, in either case, there is a difference marked between the first four and the remaining three. [The first four complete the world-wide judgments, and with the fifth the three woes on mankind begin. A.] There is an interval between the sixth and seventh, occupied by two episodical visions. The greatest intensity of terror is under the sixth; and then, as under the seventh seal there was silence in heaven, so under the seventh trumpet the mystery of God is finished. D. F.—When the seventh is about to sound the consummation of God’s judgment passes unrecorded, as it did under the seals; and at the seventh trumpet we have the song of thanksgiving and triumph in heaven. Such remarkable correspondence carries its own explanation: the two visions of the seals and trumpets run to one and the same termination. A.—This section of the prophecy does not follow chronologically upon the former, that of the seals. As the former, so this also had no doubt a minor fulfillment, perhaps many minor fulfillments, in times near to (or in part coincident with) those of John himself; and certainly the former, no less than this, carries us down to the very end of time. The two visions, briefly distinguishable as that of the seven seals and that of the seven trumpets, are on the whole rather parallel to each other than consecutive.

The trumpet had various sacred associations in the history and ritual of Israel. In the giving of the law on Mount Sinai it was the last signal of God’s immediate presence (Ex. 19:16, 19). Hence its solemn application in the New Testament (1 Thes. 4:16). The trumpet was the appointed summons to sacrifice and to worship (Num. 10:10). It was the signal of war; announcing its approach, and summoning to defense (1 Sam. 13:3). But, various as were the Old Testament associations, all sacred and solemn, with the sounding of the trumpet, there was one only with the particular combination here found, that of seven trumpets (Josh. 6:2-5). This passage contains the key to the prophecy now before us. In the days of John the Church of Christ was a little army compassing a mighty stronghold, peopled with gigantic powers, and ready to laugh to scorn its few and feeble assailants. But the vision of the seven trumpets was full of hope, full of comfort, for them. It bade them remember the siege of Jericho in the days of old, when by faith alone the victory was won, without one blow struck or one engine aimed by man. Even so shall it be in that greater and more magnificent war by which the kingdoms of the world are to be made at last the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. The great city with its walls and bulwarks before which the little army of the faithful is encamped, and which must fall before they can gain entrance into the heavenly Canaan, is now the world of sin, of apostasy, of unbelief; the world, calling itself by different names in different centuries, but uniform and unchanged through all ages at least in this, that it is not subject to the law of God, and is not on the side of Christ in his warfare against the enemies of human good and human happiness. Against this world, changing ever in its form, but unchanged and unchangeable in its deep inner principles, the Church which is Christ’s army has to make war in Christ’s name. And how? Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, said the Lord of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain! Before my servant, before my people, before the ark of my covenant, before my word and my will and my outstretched arm, thou shalt become a plain; for the battle is the Lord’s, and the cause of his Church is his cause. V.

The effects produced, as the trumpets are successively blown, may be summarily stated thus: 1. Havoc on the earth. 2. Convulsion; part of the sea turned into blood. 3. Bitterness. 4. Darkness. All these woes fall upon “a third part” of the earth, the sea, the rivers and fountains, and the heavenly orbs. There is a marked reserve. The judgments recall the plagues of hail, flood, and darkness that fall on Egypt; and, like those plagues, they stop short of extermination, being intended for humiliation and warning. 5. The letting loose of hellish malice for a season. 6. The loosing of “four angels, which are bound in the great river Euphrates.” That river represents the peoples and multitudes that sustain the mystic Babylon (17 : 15); and a great force among them, held in for a time, breaks forth. A mighty host goes out to kill and slay. After seven thunders have been uttered, and a vision had of the death and resurrection of two witnesses, the last step in the series is reached. 7. Great voices are heard in heaven. Under the seventh seal, heaven was silent; but now “great voices” proclaimed the world-sovereignty of “our Lord and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.” Therefore the Church, represented by the twenty-four presbyters, gives solemn thanks to the “Lord God Almighty.”

Some of the historical interpreters give definite meanings to this series in a wonderful fashion. The first trumpet announces the invasion of Italy by Alaric, the second sounds for Genseric, the third for Attila, the fourth for Odoacer, the fifth for Mohammed, and the sixth proclaims the Turkish invasion of Christendom, and capture of Constantinople. All this seems wild and arbitrary in the extreme. The cycles of visions repeat the same lessons and warnings, announcing judgments and distress of nations before the coming of the Lord. Yet they are not mere repetitions. The revelation under the trumpets is in advance of that under the seals. It shows more fully the agencies to be employed for and against the Church, and mentions evils and oppositions which are yet more clearly developed under the next revolution of the wheel. D. F.

8 : 3. There was given to him much incense, that he might give it to the prayers of all the saints on to, that is, to be offered upon, the golden altar. The incense was used to give a sweet scent to that fire-offering upon which it was thrown. When the angel has incense given him to throw upon the prayers of the saints, it indicates that those prayers may now rise with acceptance to the throne of God; in other words, that the time for actually offering them, because the time when God will answer them, is now fully come. And then there goes up the smoke of the incense out of the angel’s hand, for (that is, to give a sweet scent to) those prayers which before were lying as it were saverless because premature. We Christians know of one and but one Mediator. The angel’s part is not one of intercession or of mediation: he comes simply to testify that God’s time is come, and that the prayers of the saints for deliverance and for victory have been heard and shall now be answered.

And now the angel has taken the censer, and he filled it from the fire of the altar, and cast the contents upon the earth. The censer had fulfilled its first office, that of scenting and perfuming the prayers of the saints: now it has a ministry of judgment. The very censer, which had just been used to give fragrance to the prayers of the saints, was immediately afterward employed to scatter fire from off the same altar upon the earth. Prayer, then, has two aspects. It brings an answer of peace to the offerer: it brings an answer of judgment upon the world of evil. And does not this passage give us what I may indeed call a formidable idea of the consequences of Christian prayers? The final answer to such prayers, the fulfillment of the cry uttered from generation to generation, Thy kingdom come, is the discomfiture and destruction of all evil; sin first of all, and with it all those who have determinately taken part with sin. Yes, the prayer of a Christian man may be set forth, as the Psalmist says, before God as incense; but it returns back upon earth in the shape of a fire to consume evil.

9-13. The sixth judgment. A voice is heard from among the four horns of that golden altar on which lie for sacrifice the prayers of saints. It is the cry of God’s oppressed people on earth which brings down this judgment upon the world of their oppressors. The judgment itself consists in setting free four angels hitherto bound; in giving scope, that is, to the operation of a particular agency thus far restrained by God’s long-suffering toward the world of the ungodly. The angels are four in number, in allusion to the four corners of the earth, or the four winds, to express the world-wide character of the judgments foretold. The place of their binding first and then of their loosing is the river Euphrates, marked in the Old Testament as the boundary between the kingdom of Israel and the kingdoms of the East, whether Assyrian, Chaldean, or Persian, as the limit from beyond which came the hosts of invading nations to make war upon the nations and upon the city of God. The Euphrates is thus used as a general emblem of the seat of God’s hosts of war gathered for attack upon an unbelieving or apostate world. (See Isa. 13.) Who the enemy is against whom the hosts of the Lord are thus mustered may be gathered from the 20th and 21st verses. He is the world sunk in sin, and therefore hostile to the Church.

The predictions of chapters 8 and 9, like those in the section of the seven seals, are manifold, not single, in their fulfillment. Wherever war has been employed, under God’s overruling providence, to humble pride and to break up overgrown and over-bearing powers, there have these chapters had an accomplishment again and again, and each separate accomplishment has been in its turn a prediction and prognostication of the greatest accomplishment and of the last. Those hordes of invading barbarians which broke up the monster empire of Rome, and out of whose conquests modern Europe eventually grew, were one fulfillment—they were not the only fulfillment—of these prophecies. Never were the figures of locust-swarms, with their teeth as of lions and their hair as of women, more strikingly exemplified than in those irruptions. But they did not exhaust these prophecies. The words of God are manifold in their application, just because they deal not with instances only, but with principles.

10:7. The statement is that a time is fixed in God’s counsels for the completion and termination of the present mixed state; that the sounding of the seventh trumpet, according to the figurative language of this portion of the Book of Revelation, shall be the signal for the close of that which is; and that this purpose and determination of God is good news to his servants. V.—[For a more complete and satisfactory exposition of this and other points, read Dr. Vaughan’s judicious and admirable Lectures upon this book. B.]

10:8 to 11:14. These episodes between the sixth and seventh trumpets, are distinctly introductory to that which is next to follow. A little book is given to the seer, sweet to his mouth, but bitter in digestion, with an announcement that he is yet again to prophesy to many nations—that a fresh series of prophetic visions, glorious indeed but woful, was now to be delivered by him.

These begin by the measurement of the temple of God—seeing that it is the Church herself, in her innermost hold, which is now to become the subject of the prophecy. The course of the two witnesses, recalling to us by their spirit and power Moses and Elias, is predicted: and during the prediction, one principal figure of the subsequent visions is by anticipation introduced: the wild beast that cometh up out of the abyss. That this is so, is at once fatal in my estimation to the continuous historical interpretation. I can give no explanation of the two witnesses. I have studied the various solutions, and I own that I can not find any which I can endorse as satisfactory. A.

11:1,2. Even before Jerusalem was destroyed, even while the material temple was still standing—how much more now, when (as we believe) the sword of Roman conquest had already done its work upon the holy city and its sanctuary—the name of the temple of God had been transferred from the building on Mount Zion to the living community of believing men. Now, to measure this temple is to mark out its extent; to ascertain how much (if I might so express it) is temple; what are the dimensions, what the limits, of that which is really holy. Like the very different yet not wholly divergent vision of the sealing, it is the object of this passage to indicate the safety, because the indelible consecration, of God’s true servants. The shrine is to be measured: the court is to be left out. There shall always be a true Church, a true spiritual divine temple: but there shall be appended to it a larger space which must be described rather as an outer court of that temple, a community which partakes not in the true worship of devotion and self-dedication, and which, whatever its profession and whatever its name, is in reality a multitude without grace and without vitality.

3. The witnesses are in one sense ideal, but in another sense they are real persons: they are the witnesses of revelation, the witnesses of truth, the witnesses of the gospel, the witnesses of God, the witnesses of Christ, in every age: personified here as two in number. The two witnesses must raise the voice of their prophesying during the interval longer or shorter, the symbolical three years and a half, forty and two months, or twelve hundred and sixty days of mingled fidelity and defection, of a measured shrine and a trampled court; and then, then at length, in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, who is about to sound, then shall the end come; then shall the mystery of God be finished even as he evangelized his servants the prophets (10:7).

4. The witnesses here are said to be the two olive-trees and the two candlesticks which stand before the Lord of the earth. And the vision of Zechariah (4:11-14) has taught us to connect the two emblems. The olive-trees are the feeders of the lamps. Through the two golden pipes they empty the golden oil out of themselves into the lights which shine before God. How glorious a description of the office of the earthly witnesses! They are channels of grace, and they are concentrations of light. The Church in her darkest times shall not lack, has not lacked, these. V.

6. The half of the mystic seven is a ruling number in the apocalyptic periods. Three years and a half had been the duration of the drought prayed for by Elijah (Jas. 5:17); “a time, times, and the dividing of time” (= three years and a half), was the prophetic duration of the persecution of the saints in Dan. 7:25. Thus we find here that the two witnesses, one of whose powers is to shut up heaven that there shall be no rain, shall prophesy 1,260 days, i. e., three years and a half; also the testimony of three witnesses is to endure forty-two months (= three years and a half), as that of Moses endured through the forty-two stations of Israel in the wilderness. Three days and a half are the bodies of the witnesses to lie unburied in the street of the great city (v. 9); again, for 1,260 days is the woman to be fed in the wilderness; again, forty-two months is the period of the power of the first wild beast, which ascended from the sea (13:5). Of these latter periods no satisfactory solution has ever been given. Again and again, the interpreters of prophesy have fixed a time for the end of them; again and again, that time has passed unsignalized by any event; again and again, these interpreters have shifted on their ground into the as yet safe future. A.

7-13. There is a triumph over the fall of Christ’s witnesses. The world rejoices over them, as one after another they pass away from the scene of their testimony; for deeply had the sting of their words and the sting of their deeds, the reproof of their gospel, and the reproof of their example, entered into the souls of their despisers and their adversaries. For three days and a half, for the half of the seven, for a period short and incomplete, the triumph of the world, the dance around the corpses, is suffered to continue: men send gifts one to another, as in a day of feasting and of joy over glad tidings. But there comes for the faithful witnesses a morning of joy after this night of weeping; their cause triumphs, though they may be no more; their memory revives, and is honored when honor can no more elate: they themselves are in the heavenly mansions: already rest, hereafter glory! V.—Christianity, like civilization, may be overborne at different points, or turned from its course; but it must recover its lost ground. It is a guardian power, which has long been carrying the human family, as in its bosom, over a rugged road, and beneath inclement skies; but will not be stayed until it have fulfilled its trust. I. T.

15. “The kingdom (sovereignty) over the world is our Lord’s, and his Christ’s.” The kingdoms of the world give way to the kingdom over the world exercised by Christ (Dan. 2:44). The earth-kingdoms are many; His shall be one (Zech. 14:9). Fausset.—Can the earth be enlightened? Can the nations be disenthralled? Can the whole creation, which has groaned and travailed together in pain until now, be brought out of bondage into glorious liberty? Yes, all this can be done, and will be done: First, by the judgments of heaven, in which the Son of man will come upon the strong man armed, and take away his armor; secondly, by the universal propagation of the gospel, before the light of which idolatry, imposture, and superstition will retreat abashed; thirdly, by frequent and, at last, general revivals of religion, giving resistless power to the gospel, as it is preached to every creature. L. B.—The means are at command, and just so soon as the Spirit is poured out like water upon the thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground, we shall find the great cause of the world’s conversion moving on toward its ultimate triumphs, with an efficacy and a glory that will awaken new songs in heaven. Expansion is the very law of the Saviour’s kingdom. Christianity embraces every feature of increase and perpetuity; and, whenever it shall please God to give the Spirit in primitive fullness and power to all our churches and all our missionaries, we shall be prepared to hear it shouted on earth, and echoed from heaven, “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ! D. Magic.

16. The twenty-four elders. The scenery of the fourth and fifth chapters still continues; the council is still sitting in heaven upon the fortunes of earth; with such additional features as we have from time to time noticed in the sections which followed. And here the adorations of the fifth chapter are renewed, in special acknowledgment of the assumption of universal dominion by the Lord and his Christ.

18. And to destroy those who destroy the earth. There is only one word in the original language for destroying and corrupting. To defile is to destroy. To corrupt the earth is to destroy the earth. It is, to spoil God’s work; to mar and to disfigure by its abuse that which God made all beautiful and all holy. See then what a sinful life is! See how God’s enemies, that is, the ungodly and the sinful, are regarded in heaven! They destroy the earth. God meant everything for one use, and they turn everything to another use. God meant his creation to be enjoyed by his creatures; enjoyed with moderation, enjoyed with thankfulness, enjoyed in kindness, in tenderness, in love; and behold, we have gone forth to trample and to waste, to sully and to defile, to turn to selfish indulgence, to use as instruments of vile temptation, or as implements of unholy warfare, those things or those persons, those members and faculties, those bodies, those minds, those souls, which might have been and which ought to have been altogether applied to his service and made vocal with his praise. And now at last the season is come to destroy those who have thus destroyed the earth.

19. The temple of God was opened. The secret place of his dwelling was thrown wide open, giving sight, giving access, giving place and abode for men. The eye of John rests once again in vision upon the lost ark of his nation: he sees it in heaven, and he sees it disclosed to public gaze. There is no longer any enclosing wall, no longer a concealing curtain. What could this indicate but that the mystery of God is now finished, his counsels accomplished, his work concerning man consummated? V.

Christianity fulfills its own prophecies; it proves its divine origin by superhuman victories. Every opposing religion, and every arrogant philosopher, it has overcome in its resistless march, and from them all, one after another, has been heard the expiring cry, wrested, it is said, from the apostate Julian: “Thou hast conquered, O Galilean!” It is more than realizing the vision of Cicero, in his “Laws,” that “the whole world is to be esteemed one community of gods and men.” Through our earth it is diffusing the principle of justice, as it also here first made charity to be the greatest of the virtues. It has ennobled womanhood, sanctified childhood, spiritualized manhood, and opened to all the gates of endless life. It helps us to “strip off our fond and false identity,” and “woos and clasps us to the eternal spheres.” It has brought the kingdom of God to the very vision and heart of man. It touches our deepest and tenderest feelings, and makes us strong for conflict or submission. It awakens, that it may still, the sense of guilt. It relieves our untold sorrows, and imparts these hidden joys no tongue can tell. Its inmost efficacy is seen in the formation of a holy mind, in the transformation of a sinner into a loving child of God, a marvel which neither science knows, nor art can imitate. And in the race, as in the soul, it creates new and higher wants, and satisfies them. Its promises irradiate the future, as its beneficence has

blessed the past. Human rights and human wants demand its triumphs. The world travails and sighs for redemption, so that perpetual war may issue in perpetual peace; that oppression and caste may be abolished; that labor may be guided by moral law, and not by the soulless rule of supply and demand; that our politics may be patriotic and just; that the terrible inequalities of social life may be eradicated, the hungry fed, the naked clothed; that the physical may be for the moral, and the moral for the spiritual; that our humanity may be one brotherhood, in Christ our elder brother and our King. All this is pledged in the triumph of his kingdom, fore-

shadowed in the promise of its millennial glory. And though some expositors, adhering to the letter, put that glory in a merely sensual and Jewish form, reminding us of Milton’s sarcasm, that “what to the Jew is only Jewish is for the Christian Canaanitish,” yet, that it is to be a kingdom in which Christ shall reign and redemption be completed, is insured to us by the faithful pledge of him who has promised, and is alone able to effect, that grandest of consummations, that brightest vision of the race, the ushering in of that “sacred, high, eternal noon,” in which the kingdoms of the world shall become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. H. B. S.