{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_72047/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_72047","id":"gutenberg_72047","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/72047","summary":null,"tags":["Bible. Revelation -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.","Category: Religion/Spirituality"],"text":"THE REVELATION OF ST.\u00a0JOHN THE DIVINE\n AN INTERPRETATION\n\n\n\n\n \u250c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2510\n \u2502 \u2502\n \u2502 Transcriber\u2019s Notes \u2502\n \u2502 \u2502\n \u2502 \u2502\n \u2502 Punctuation has been standardized. \u2502\n \u2502 \u2502\n \u2502 Most of the non-common abbreviations used to save space in \u2502\n \u2502 printing have been expanded to the non-abbreviated form for \u2502\n \u2502 easier reading. \u2502\n \u2502 \u2502\n \u2502 Characters in small caps have been replaced by all caps. \u2502\n \u2502 \u2502\n \u2502 Non-printable characteristics have been given the following \u2502\n \u2502 Italic text: --> _text_ \u2502\n \u2502 bold text: --> =text=. \u2502\n \u2502 \u2502\n \u2502 This book was written in a period when many words had \u2502\n \u2502 not become standardized in their spelling. Words may have \u2502\n \u2502 multiple spelling variations or inconsistent hyphenation in \u2502\n \u2502 the text. These have been left unchanged unless indicated \u2502\n \u2502 with a Transcriber\u2019s Note. \u2502\n \u2502 \u2502\n \u2502 Index references have not been checked for accuracy. \u2502\n \u2502 \u2502\n \u2502 The symbol \u2018\u2021\u2019 indicates the description in parenthesis has \u2502\n \u2502 been added to an illustration. This may be needed if there \u2502\n \u2502 is no caption or if the caption does not describe the image \u2502\n \u2502 adequately. \u2502\n \u2502 \u2502\n \u2502 Footnotes are identified in the text with a superscript \u2502\n \u2502 number and are shown immediately below the paragraph in which \u2502\n \u2502 they appear. \u2502\n \u2502 \u2502\n \u2502 Transcriber\u2019s Notes are used when making corrections to the \u2502\n \u2502 text or to provide additional information for the modern \u2502\n \u2502 reader. These notes are identified by \u2666\u2660\u2665\u2663 symbols in the \u2502\n \u2502 text and are shown immediately below the paragraph in which \u2502\n \u2502 they appear. \u2502\n \u2514\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2518\n\n\n\n\n THE\n REVELATION OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE\n\n AN INTERPRETATION\n\n\n BY\n A. H. AMES, M.D., D.D.\n\n\n Illustration: (\u2021 colophon)\n\n\n NEW YORK: EATON & MAINS\n CINCINNATI: CURTS & JENNINGS\n\n\n Copyright by\n EATON & MAINS,\n 1897.\n\n\n EATON & MAINS PRESS,\n 150 Fifth Avenue, New York.\n\n\n\n\n Preface\n\n\nTHE essay which follows is based upon a conviction that the closing\nbook of the canon of the New Testament, known as the Revelation of\nSaint John, presents the thoughts of that holy man and inspired apostle\nupon the subject of the kingdom of Christ, as derived by him from the\nOld Testament Scriptures and from the teachings of Christ or as drawn\nfrom direct revelations made to himself. The book presents a single\ntheme and has a well-preserved unity.\n\nWith those theories of interpretation which would make of the book an\nepitome of history, either as confined to particular epochs or as a\nwhole, and which presuppose its design to be the prediction of events,\ngreat or small, in the progress of the world or the Church, the writer\nof this essay is not in sympathy. It is mainly because of the vagaries\nand conceits to which these theories have opened the way, which have\nclouded rather than cleared the mysteries of the Apocalypse and been\nmore promotive of strife than of salvation, that so many thoughtful\nand pious minds have been driven from the study of what is one of the\nmost beautiful, as it is one of the most practical, parts of the word\nof God. How readily the coincidences, for such they are, which have\nbeen appealed to as verifications of these theories may be explained\nand accounted for will be shown in the course of the essay.\n\nQuestions of criticism or scholarship do not lie within the scope\nof the essay. It is assumed, not, however, without examination and\nreflection, that the Revelation is the work of John, the son of Zebedee,\none of the twelve, and \u201cthe disciple whom Jesus loved.\u201d It is also\nassumed that he was the author of the fourth gospel and of the epistles\nwhich bear his name.\n\nCommentaries upon the Revelation have been so numerous that their\ntitles would fill a volume. It is not likely that anything can be said\nconcerning it which is entirely new and has not been somewhere set\nforth. The writer of this essay claims originality so far as that he\nhas not seen the views here expressed elsewhere presented, although\nthey may have appeared previously. It is not possible for him to say\nwhence he has gathered the material which has grown into the essay,\nso as to make formal acknowledgment. Alford, Bengel, Hengstenberg,\nWordsworth, _The Speaker\u2019s Commentary_, Ellicott\u2019s _Commentary_, _The\nExpositor\u2019s Bible_ have been consulted freely, and also _The Symbolic\nParables of the Apocalypse_, published by T. and T. Clark. The best\ncommentary upon the Revelation he has found to be the Scriptures\nthemselves.\n\n_Washington, D. C._\n\n\n\n\n Contents\n\n\n INTRODUCTION\n\n Rules of Interpretation\u2015\u2015The Structure of the Book\u2015\u2015Reference\n to Old Testament\u2015\u2015Emblems Interpreted by Light of Jewish\n Scriptures and Ritual\u2015\u2015Particular Attention to Numbers\n\n\n PART I\n\n The Seven Churches of Asia, or the Kingdom as it Actually was in\n the Days of the Apostles and is Now\n\n\n PART II\n\n Fundamental Principles on Which the Kingdom is Based\u2015\u2015Emblem of\n the Seals\u2015\u2015Opening of the Seals\u2015\u2015The Sealed Elect\n\n\n PART III\n\n The Means by which the Kingdom of Christ is Advanced\u2015\u2015Natural\n Providences\u2015\u2015The Two Witnesses, or the Supernatural Scriptures\n\n\n PART IV\n\n The Foes of the Kingdom\u2015\u2015The Dragon\u2015\u2015First Wild Beast, or\n Spirit of Worldliness\u2015\u2015Second Wild Beast, or Spirit of False\n Prophetism\u2015\u2015Anticipations of Victory\n\n\n PART V\n\n The Counterfeit of the Kingdom, or the False Church\u2015\u2015The\n Judgments of God\u2015\u2015Vision of the Vials\u2015\u2015Babylon and its\n Doom\u2015\u2015Methods of Success Reiterated\n\n\n PART VI\n\n Progressive Steps by Which the Ideal Kingdom is to be\n Realized\u2015\u2015Restraints upon the Power of Satan\u2015\u2015Outpouring of\n the Holy Spirit under the Emblem of Resurrection\u2015\u2015Union of\n Christian Believers\u2015\u2015Final Triumph over Barbarism under the\n Emblem of Gog and Magog\n\n\n PART VII\n\n The Ideal of the Kingdom\u2015\u2015Its Distinctive Features\u2015\u2015The Central\n Principle of the Kingdom\u2015\u2015Negative Characteristics\u2015\u2015Fruits and\n Results\n\n\n\n\n Introduction\n\n\n =Rules of Interpretation=\n\nIF the Revelation of Saint John has any right to a place in the canon\nof the New Testament, it is reasonable to presume that its intention\nwas to conform to that general purpose for which all divinely inspired\nScripture is said to be given, namely, to \u201cbe profitable for doctrine,\nfor reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the\nman of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.\u201d\n\nWhat peculiarly distinguishes it is that it clothes spiritual truth\nwith a garb of mystery which, by challenging investigation, stimulates\ninquiry; which affords to the mind that solves its obscurities the\nsatisfaction always to be found in the discovery of the recondite and\ndifficult; which throws around prose realities the pleasing charm of\npoetry and art; and which, by connecting material things with a divine\nrevelation, and thus linking together nature and the supernatural,\nattests the unity of the universe in which we are placed and shows the\nworld about us and human history to be full of the presence of God.\n\nIt would surely argue great presumption in any man to claim a perfect\nunderstanding of a book so marvelous as the Apocalypse, whose teachings\nare not for one age, but for all ages. Very confidently, however, it\nmay be asserted that by the use of certain rules of interpretation many\nof its mysteries may be explained and its application to practical life\nand conduct be made evident. The reasonableness of these rules would\nbe readily admitted if applied to any other part of holy writ; and\nhesitation to accept them here proceeds solely from that mistaken view\nof the design of the Revelation which isolates it from the rest of the\nsacred canon as something \u2666anomalous and unique. So far is this from\nbeing the case that no book in the Bible can afford to stand by itself\nso little as the Apocalypse, inasmuch as there is no other into the\nfabric of which so much of the other Scriptures is intentionally woven.\nThe impression which close study of it makes is that it was designed\nby its author to serve as a sacred clasp to bind together and hold in\nharmonious coherence the whole of God\u2019s wonderful volume.\n\n \u2666 \u201canomaioms\u201d replaced with \u201canomalous\u201d\n\nThe principles of interpretation deserving special notice are four in\nnumber.\n\n1. _The structure of the book itself furnishes some guide to its\ninterpretation._\n\nThe opening chapters comprise brief letters, seven in all, which the\nauthor is directed to write to seven churches of Asia, the number\nindicating, not that these comprehended all the churches in that region,\nbut that in them were represented all phases of religious life. These\nletters set before us both the spiritual state and the environment of\nthe churches, and are advisory, monitory, reproachful, or comforting as\nthe cases demanded.\n\nThe closing chapters present us with a picture of the perfected\nChristian Church\u2015\u2015a symbolical vision, incomparable in its exquisite\nbeauty, of the complete and permanent triumph of the Gospel of Christ,\nin the individual heart and on the larger field of the world, over\nall opposing forces; the realization, in fact, on earth of the ideal\nkingdom of God made ready for the Lamb.\n\nThe most plausible suggestion, therefore, which presents itself is\nthat the intermediate portion of the book is intended to present in\nits figures and symbols the means by which the last condition is to be\nreached from the earlier one, the unformed and fluctuating state of the\nbeginning developed into the ripeness and perfection of the close, and\nthat under the guise of metaphor, trope, and vision there are revealed\nto us the dangers which the Church of Christ must expect, the enemies\nit must subdue, the weapons by which victory must be achieved, the\nencouragements upon which it may rely, and, in short, the steps through\nwhich the immature and carnal must be led in order to reach up to the\npure and perfect.\n\nNor is it with the Church at large that the warnings and counsels have\nalone to do. If \u201cwhatsoever things were written aforetime were written\nfor our learning,\u201d each individual disciple of Christ may find in this\nbook a chart for his own life\u2019s journey and have sufficient warning\nagainst the sunken rocks, the adverse tides, the dangerous headlands\nwhich are to be shunned, and which are here so clearly and plainly\nmarked out for him that he may, in the close and careful study of the\nmap, find equal profit and pleasure.\n\nIt is very important in this connection to note the statement of the\nwriter in the first verse of the book, that his commission was \u201cto show\nunto\u201d the servants of God \u201cthings which must shortly come to pass.\u201d\nIt is only by a very forced construction of the words that they can be\nmade to signify a prophecy whose fulfillment is to be delayed for long\ncenturies indefinite in their number. The most natural construction\nsurely is that the revelation intrusted to him is one of which the\nwhole, and not a part only, is to find its application in the times in\nwhich he lived, or soon thereafter, and to continue applicable until\nthe glorious result is attained of which the closing part speaks.\nAnd if we shall dismiss from our minds all prepossessions springing\nout from that view of the book which makes it a syllabus, or table of\ncontents, of Christian history the force of this remark will more\nclearly appear.\n\n2. _Reference must constantly be made to the Old Testament._\n\nThis rule, which is of importance in order to understand any part of\nthe New Testament, becomes of the highest necessity in any attempt to\ninterpret the Revelation. The writer was evidently a diligent student\nof the older Scriptures, absorbing their images and emblems until they\nhad become a part of himself. Much in his writings that at first seems\nobscure becomes plain when we put ourselves in his position and study\nthe Scriptures, which were evidently in his thoughts.\n\nThe prophetical books of the Old Testament especially are to be studied.\nBetween the relation in which the older prophets stood to the laws and\ninstitutions of Moses and that which the apostles of the New Testament\ndispensation sustained to the Lord Jesus Christ a strong similarity\nexists. Neither the one nor the other claimed to be originators\nor independent discoverers, but rather witnesses to truths already\nrevealed, which they accepted as primary and fundamental facts. Into\nthe clear understanding, indeed, of these they were enabled by divine\ninspiration to look more deeply than others could, and they were also\nsupernaturally aided to draw them out into great principles, capable of\napplication to human thought and conduct in the shaping of individual\nand national life and practice. Thus, naturally and by sympathy of\ncondition, the later writers found themselves led into careful and\nprofound study of their predecessors. The prophecies of Daniel and\nZechariah deserve to be especially consulted. Written, as they were, at\nor near the time of the captivity of Judah, they had peculiar interest\nfor one who was himself an exile for the truth. Some of the imagery of\nthe Revelation is drawn from the glowing poetry of Isaiah. And almost\nthe entire Book of Joel has been worked into the Apocalypse.\n\nBut of all helps to an understanding of the Revelation the most\nfruitful is a close and careful comparison with the Book of Ezekiel;\nespecially is this the case in reference to the closing chapters\nof both. Between the authors of these two works there were striking\nsimilarities of character and condition. But a more powerful bond of\nunion is found in the fact that both of them were pre\u00ebminently prophets\nof the Holy Spirit, seeming to have reached truer and profounder views\nof his work in the economy of redemption than any predecessors in their\nseparate dispensations. Isaiah and Paul wrote of Christ and his Church;\nbut if we wish to learn the fullest development of the office of the\nHoly Ghost we must turn to the pages of Ezekiel and John.\n\nIn addition to the Old Testament references, the prophetical discourses\nof our Lord uttered near the close of his ministry and recorded in the\nsynoptical gospels will throw much light on the Book of Revelation. The\nomission of these from the gospel of John may be accounted for by the\nfact that in the Revelation the apostle had made such large use of them.\nThe important prediction of Paul concerning the man of sin, found in\n2 Thessalonians ii, must also be compared with those of John.\n\n3. _The emblems and symbols of the Revelation must be interpreted by\nthe light of the Jewish Scriptures and ritual._\n\nThis, indeed, follows as a corollary form the preceding rule, but is of\nso much importance as to deserve special mention. Sometimes a word or a\nfigure of speech or the connections of a sentence or a passing allusion\nto some sacrificial service will afford a clew to what at the time was\nin the mind of the writer. Inasmuch as he was a Jew, \u201ctaught according\nto the perfect manner of the law of the fathers,\u201d familiar with the\nScriptures, traditions, usages, and history of his religion, his\ninterpretation of symbols and emblems would naturally be such as would\noccur to the mind of a Jew. We must place ourselves as near as possible\nto his standpoint. Yet, as he was also an inspired apostle of the Lord\nJesus Christ, we must be prepared to concede that he read deeper into\nthese mysteries than his fellows did and was able to import into them\na richer meaning.\n\n4. _Particular attention must be given to the numbers found in the\nbook._\n\nMuch that is fanciful and extravagant has, it must be conceded, been\nwritten on this subject, and to many persons any discussion of it is\ndistasteful. Yet it is certain, as the Wisdom of Solomon says, that God\nhas \u201cordered all things in measure and number and weight.\u201d Otherwise\nthere could be no such thing as exact science. Truths lie veiled in\nfigures, for these represent fixed principles and plans in the divine\nmind. As a general truth, it may be stated that the ideas expressed\nby numbers, not only in this book, but throughout the Bible, whenever\nthese are used symbolically, are those of fullness, exactness,\nand perfection, on one hand, or deficiency, incompleteness, and\nimperfection, on the other.\n\nThe numbers which figure most largely in symbolism are seven, twelve,\nsix, and three and a half.\n\nSeven is called the sacred number, and seems to express the idea of\nperfection or fullness to the highest degree and in the most unlimited\nsense. As seven days make a complete week, whole and entire, without\nredundancy or deficiency, so that to which the number seven is attached\nmust be taken as perfect, fully developed, as a complete whole. The\nexpressions \u201cseven spirits,\u201d \u201cseven seals,\u201d \u201cseven trumpets,\u201d etc.,\nimply that what they represent must be taken as entire, with no\npossible capacities lying in them unexhausted.\n\nTwelve, also, signifies completeness; but its use and application\nare more restricted. It is usually connected with the Church of God,\nand possibly has some special reference to it. Thus there are twelve\npatriarchs, twelve apostles, twelve foundations to the holy city. As\nthe number is formed by the multiplication of three, representing the\nTrinity, and four, representing the world with its quarters, it conveys\nthe thought of universality as the assured destiny of the Church.\n\nSix is, also, as a symbol, connected with the Church; but, both because\nit is less than seven, and only the half of twelve, has a sinister\nsignificance. It represents the malign and baleful influences which\ncorrupt and disintegrate the Church, shearing it of its power, limiting\nand obstructing its mission, and leaving it incomplete, defective, and\ncorrupt.\n\nThree and a half is a number having special signification and requiring\nparticular investigation. A correct appreciation of its meaning will\nthrow light upon some of the most obscure portions of the Apocalypse.\n\nIt occurs\u2015\u2015and is, indeed, the only number of which this may be\nsaid\u2015\u2015in various forms. Since three and a half years comprise forty-two\nmonths, and since forty-two months of thirty days each (the usual\nprophetical computation) equal twelve hundred and sixty days, we may\ntake these three forms, three and a half, forty-two, and twelve hundred\nand sixty, as equivalent expressions. So, also, the expression, \u201ca time,\ntimes, and the dividing of times\u201d (1 + 2 + \u00bd = 3\u00bd), is probably but\nanother form of this number. That some law governs the choice of these\nvarious forms is probable; but what, it is does not appear.\n\nSince three and a half falls short of seven, it designates\nincompleteness. But, inasmuch as it is the exact half of seven (in this\ndiffering from six), it signifies an incompleteness which has, so to\nspeak, a completeness of its own\u2015\u2015that is, an incompleteness which is\nnot anomalous and irregular, such as would be expressed by six, but one\nwhich is, by the appointment of God or as a result of its own nature,\nintended to be such. Any period of time or epoch in human history\nwhich has prescribed and well-marked limits or boundaries, any part of\nthe plan of Providence which has a specified, but only temporary and\npartial purpose as related to the whole course and complete plan of the\ndivine Being, is always designated by one or the other of the forms of\nthis number.\n\nJudaism, for instance, answered these conditions. It was a\nprovidentially ordered dispensation, but with a specific and limited\nobject; fulfilling a definite, but not the complete purpose of\nProvidence; a stage in the movement of humanity toward the kingdom\nof God, but not itself the realization of that kingdom; a type which\nneeded an antitype to round it out, and throughout which ran the\nmarks that proved it to be only temporary and preparatory to a higher\ndispensation into which it was to blossom. It was \u201ca schoolmaster to\nbring us unto Christ.\u201d Its glory was something which was \u201cto be done\naway,\u201d and consequently falls short of \u201cthat which remaineth.\u201d And it\nreached the \u201cfullness\u201d of its \u201ctime\u201d when \u201cGod sent forth his Son, made\nof a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law,\nthat we might receive the adoption of sons.\u201d And it will be found that\nwhenever Judaism is symbolized by a number in the Book of Revelation,\nit is designated by one of the allotropic forms of three and a half.\u00b9\n\n \u00b9 See Revelation xi, 3; xii, 6, 14.\n\nSo, likewise, Gentilism, to which a definite and distinct character\nor purpose is attributed, both by our Lord (Luke xxi,\u00a024) and by\nSaint Paul (Romans xi,\u00a025), but which, when severed from its Jewish\nantecedents, has the like features of incompleteness and deficiency,\nwould be symbolically expressed by some form of the same number.\u00b9\n\n \u00b9 See Revelation xiii, 5.\n\nSo generally accepted seems to have been this symbolical use of numbers\nthat it appears even in such pure and simple prose as the gospels. The\nevangelist Matthew, in recording the genealogy of our Lord, divides\nthe period between Abraham and Christ into three cycles with fourteen\ngenerations in each, or forty-two in all. This period is exactly coeval\nwith Judaism as a distinct dispensation; and forty-two is, as we have\nseen, one of the interchangeable forms of the number three and a half.\nInasmuch as the actual number of generations was, as is generally\nagreed, more than forty-two, and some principle of accommodation must\nhave controlled the evangelist in choosing it, we have a right to\nconjecture that the symbolism was so well established that no erroneous\nimpression would be conveyed.\n\nUsing these rules of interpretation as a guide, it will be found that\nmany, if not most of the obscurities which have made this book so\nperplexing and incomprehensible will be removed. A unity of purpose\nwill be seen pervading it. It will no longer appear anomalous and\n_outr\u00e9_, but harmonious with the rest of the oracles of God; a book\nfor the perusal of every individual believer, no matter how simple and\nunlearned he may be; having direct reference to his heart-experience\nand his moral conduct; a _vade mecum_ for the journey of life through\nwhose aid he may safely encounter the dangers and surely overcome the\nhindrances he may meet.\n\nThe great theme which the inspired writer and apostle here sets before\nus is the mediatorial kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. The principles\nwhich lie at the basis of that kingdom\u2015\u2015the oppositions, external and\ninternal, to its beginning and completion, the agencies, divine and\nhuman, upon which reliance must be placed to achieve success, its\nsuperiority to and triumph over all hostile forces, and all these both\nin the heart of each individual Christian and in that aggregation of\nChristians which we call the Church\u2015\u2015are here delineated as they were\nrevealed to Saint John.\n\nThe theories which make of this book an anticipation of history, and\nwhich find in the events of the last nineteen centuries continued\nfulfillments of its predictions, or which confine those fulfillments to\nthe periods either near the primitive age or near the future and final\nscenes of the drama of time are regarded as being not wholly erroneous,\nbut incomplete and partial.\n\nThat the great purposes of divine Providence are continually finding\ntheir fulfillment in the history of men and nations is a truth not\nconfined to this book, but spread throughout all the sacred Scriptures.\nThe laws of the divine administration are very exact; they can be\nneither obeyed nor disregarded without the necessary accompaniments\nof legitimate and appointed consequences. There is no improbability at\nall that moral and spiritual truths may have their processes and cycles\nof development, just as natural things have their seasons and times of\nmaturity. Whether the events that have occurred, the organized bodies,\nsecular or religious, that have appeared on the field of the world,\nwere in the mind of the apostle as he wrote is a question neither\naffirmed nor denied. What is meant to be said is that the Revelation\ndoes more than merely predict results. It goes down into the profound\nregion of causes and reveals the continuity of the plans of the divine\nBeing. However ingenious or plausible, therefore, the explanations put\nupon the prophecies of this book by the theories spoken of above, it\nis not confined to them. As long as the world lasts there will be, in\nevery age and in the experience of every believer, a fulfillment of the\ntruths here set forth. Its warnings and comforts will never be out of\ndate. Its promises and its threats are alike imperishable, for they are\na part of that \u201cword of our God\u201d which \u201cshall stand forever.\u201d\n\nA definition of the phrase \u201ckingdom of Christ\u201d is nowhere attempted\nin the Revelation. It was not needed in an age when the theme was\nthe staple of preaching and teaching. To show that it must not be\nconfounded with the visible Church was the purpose of the epistles to\nthe churches of Asia with which the Apocalypse begins. The fundamental\nprinciple upon which the kingdom is founded, the universal sovereignty\nof Christ based upon his redemptive work, is taught under the emblem of\nthe seals. The writer then advances to the instrumentalities, natural\nand supernatural, by means of which the kingdom is to be brought to\nits consummation. The antagonisms which the kingdom must encounter\nfrom foes without and within are next plainly revealed, and, lest\nthe revelation may cause discouragement, prophecies of sure and final\nvictory mingle with warnings. The retributive resources of the kingdom,\nthe just judgments which fall upon its foes, and especially upon the\nfalse and counterfeit Church, are taught under the emblem of the vials.\nThe next section discloses to us the stages of progress through which\nthe kingdom ascends to its complete establishment, and the signs by\nwhich we may test its advance or detect its decline. And finally, with\nthat glowing picture of the ideal kingdom as it shall be realized on\nearth when the Galilean shall have conquered, a picture so beautiful\nthat our highest conceptions of heaven seem embodied in it, the divine\nseer closes his rapturous vision.\n\n\n\n\n PART I\n The Seven Churches of Asia\n\n\n Revelation of Saint John the Divine\n\n\n PART I\n =The Seven Churches of Asia, or, the Kingdom\n as it Actually was in the Days of the Apostles and is now=\n\nTHE chapters which contain the epistles to the churches of Asia need\nnot detain us long; not that they are devoid of interest, but because\nanything like a commentary upon the text lies outside the scope and\ndesign of this essay, whose purpose is to interpret the general intent\nof the book itself.\n\nThe value of these letters to us lies in the pictures presented in them\nof the religious state of the churches to which they were addressed,\nand which doubtless were representative of the Christian world in the\ndays of the writer. The reading of them will dispel any illusion in\nwhich we may have indulged as to the superiority of the apostolical\nage over subsequent ones, and will shatter any hypothesis we may\nhave formed that primitive Christianity was anything like Utopia. The\ncondition of the churches which they reveal to us was one in which\ndoubt and faith, loyalty and declension, purity and worldliness,\nevil and good were interspersed in varying proportions. The tares had\nalready begun to grow with the wheat.\n\nAnd a moment\u2019s reflection will convince us that no other result could\nreasonably be expected. Divine grace does not obliterate human nature,\nand its operations are always in accordance with rule. The regeneration\nof a soul is not synonymous with its entire sanctification. Growth\nis an invariable accompaniment of life. It would have been a new and\naltogether anomalous state of things if the average of conduct attained\nby converts from Jewish and pagan standards of thought and morals\nhad equaled that to which we may aspire in whom centuries of training\nin the family, the State, and the Church have created a Christian\nconsciousness. Fervor and zeal the early disciples unquestionably had,\nbut with sad mixture of inconsistency, inexperience, and weakness.\n\nIt has always seemed hard for Christians to comprehend and fully\nbelieve the promise which our Lord gave to the Church through the\napostles, that the Holy Ghost, when he should come, should \u201cabide\u201d\nwith it \u201cforever.\u201d And this abiding presence throughout all ages of the\nSpirit of truth is not to be in partial or transient manifestation, but\nin all the fullness of his divine offices. And attention must be called\nto the fact that John, in unfolding the processes and forces by which\nthe kingdom of Christ is to be brought to its triumphant completeness,\npoints us at the beginning of his prophecy (Revelation iv,\u00a05) to the\nseven spirits of God \u201cburning before the throne,\u201d as if to impress upon\nus the perfection of degree in which the Holy Spirit gives himself to\nthis work. This does not mean that there is monotonous identity in the\nmodes of his manifestation, or that the work that he does is the same\nin kind with that which he has done in the past. We are expressly told\nthat \u201cthere are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit. And there\nare diversities of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are\ndiversities of operations, but it is the same God that worketh all in\nall.\u201d Some things which God does he never repeats. His special presence\nor work at some periods and in some things does not imply that he is\nany the less, while not in the same special way, present at all times\nand in all things.\n\n\u201cIn the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.\u201d That was done\nonce for all. From that period up to this time, indeed, the \u201cFather\nworketh;\u201d but it is not as Creator, but as Providence, developing and\nevolving from that beginning the possibilities that lay in it. What\nwe call science is the record of this development, aiming only at the\naccurate presentation of the facts of providence and the adaptation\nof them to human needs and destiny. Nature is the _terminus ad quem_\ntoward which discovery and invention tend, not the _terminus a quo_\nfrom which they start. Progress in them does not mean adding anything\nto nature or superseding it or leaving it behind and moving to\nsomething beyond it, but merely approaching closer to it, bringing us\nto better knowledge of and fuller acquaintance with it.\n\nSo, likewise, that inspiration of the Holy Ghost by which holy men of\nGod were moved to speak and write what was specially revealed to them\nis never to be repeated. The lines along which and the limits within\nwhich the Christian Church is to be led were laid down once for all,\nas those of nature also were. The work of the Spirit now is that of a\nProvidence to bring to realization the ideal then foreshadowed; and in\ndoing this he has divine freedom to breathe where and when he listeth.\nPentecost was the commencement of a process of which the closing\nchapters of the Revelation disclose the completion. And in order to\nattain this end the perpetual presence and indwelling of the Holy\nSpirit are promised in all their richness and perfection, but in\naccordance with the laws of human nature and with constant increments\nof knowledge and power.\n\nIt is vain, therefore, to claim commanding authority for any ceremony,\nformula, or organization on the ground that it corresponds with\nprimitive Christianity. The apostles never felt themselves bound to\nthat first sketch of the Church which they drew at Pentecost, as if\nthis were among the things supernaturally revealed; but they modified\nand revised it whenever they could say, \u201cIt seemed good to the Holy\nGhost and to us.\u201d Nor have we any reason to believe that the process of\nevolution which continued throughout their lives ended therewith. The\nHoly Spirit did not then cease his work of guidance and inspiration.\nThat is the truest and most apostolical Christianity which, like John,\nbeing \u201cin the Spirit on the Lord\u2019s day,\u201d holds itself ever ready to\nhear and obey the \u201cgreat voice, as of a trumpet,\u201d behind and above it.\n\nAnd this is the lesson we are to learn from the seven epistles to\nthe churches of Asia. They are the record of the beginning of the\nkingdom of Christ, repeated in the conversion and regeneration of\nevery individual Christian. They show the point of departure from\nwhich progress is to be made toward the consummation and perfection of\nthe ideal. The Christian world as it was then, with its graces and its\nfaults, is disclosed to us. The apostle, with his clearer eye, was able\nto look below the facts and recognize the principles struggling for\nthe ascendency; and, using these facts as his _data_, he drew from them\na prophecy of the development of the kingdom of Christ of marvelous\ninterest and instruction for all subsequent ages. Nor is there a single\nforce, friendly or hostile to the kingdom, which does not appear in\nthe warnings or encouragements he is directed to write to these infant\nchurches. Whoever will take the sketch of the kingdom as it actually\nappeared to the eye of John, and contrast it with the culmination\nof the process so exquisitely pictured in the last two chapters of\nthe Apocalypse, will have some conception of the field over which he\nmust travel if he would \u201ccome in the unity of the faith, and of the\nknowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of\nthe stature of the fullness of Christ.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n PART II\n Fundamental Principles on which the Kingdom is Based\n\n\n PART II\n =Fundamental Principles on which the Kingdom is Based.\n Emblem of the Seals.=\n\nWITH the fourth chapter the symbolical part of the Revelation begins,\nand continues to the end of the book. In that portion of it upon which\nwe now enter, and which includes chapters iv\u2012viii, 1, the emblem of a\nseal is employed so frequently as to make it the distinctive feature.\nWe are told of a book \u201csealed with seven seals\u201d which none but the\nLamb is worthy to open. Then we are told of the opening of these seals,\nwith visions accompanying the successive loosing of them. And, lastly,\na specific number of persons sealed in their foreheads are shown us,\nfollowing which an innumerable company is seen gathered before the\nthrone of God. It behooves us to ascertain the typical meaning of a\nseal; and if we succeed in so doing the purpose of the writer will be\ndisclosed.\n\n1. _The Emblem of the Seals._\u2015\u2015The seal has been usually taken as\nsignifying concealment or secrecy; sealed things have been regarded\nas synonymous with hidden things. And very much conjecture has been\noffered as to what were the hidden mysteries contained in the sealed\nbook or scroll. But, whatever secondary meaning the seal may have,\nconcealment is not its principal one. A seal denotes, primarily and\nspecifically, ownership, not secrecy. The sealing of anything implies\nthat it is, or is claimed to be, the property of him who affixes the\nseal. The outward stamp is the declaration that the owner makes of his\nrights and is the official token of his authority. It is the mark of\nlordship or seigniority. Any concealment of contents therein involved\nis a secondary consideration.\n\nSome illustrations from Scripture will substantiate this interpretation.\n\nWhen it is said (Romans iv,\u00a011) that Abraham received \u201cthe sign\nof circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he\nhad,\u201d it is meant that he then became in a special sense the personal\nproperty of Almighty God and entitled to all the protection of\nOmnipotence.\n\n\u201cHe that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal [\u2018hath set\nhis seal to this,\u2019 Revised Version] that God is true\u201d (John iii,\u00a033),\nmeans that the assured conviction of God\u2019s reality and faithfulness has\nbecome the personal possession of the believer, something which belongs\nto him of right.\n\n\u201cHim hath God the Father sealed\u201d (John vi,\u00a027) means that God\nofficially ratifies and acknowledges as his own what Christ does,\nand attests it with the stamp of authority.\n\nWhen Pilate sealed the sepulcher where Christ was laid (Matthew\nxxvii,\u00a066) it was meant that the tomb became the property of the\nRoman empire and was under the guardianship of its officials, and that\nwhoever tampered with it must be prepared to try questions with C\u00e6sar.\n\n\u201cYe were sealed with that Holy Spirit\u201d (Ephesians i,\u00a013) means that ye\nreceived as your own possession, in your own personal experience, the\nearnest of your inheritance; the gift of the Holy Spirit attests your\nrightful claim to it.\n\nThese examples will suffice to indicate the scriptural meaning of the\nseal. We have only to apply this meaning to the solution of the problem\nbefore us. \u201cA book written within and on the back side,\u201d that is,\ncompletely, all over, with no blank or empty space, is seen lying\nin the right hand of God on the throne. Plainly, this book with its\ncontents signifies something over which the divine Being asserts\nsupreme sovereignty, which he claims as his of right and alone. And the\nnumber of the seals\u2015\u2015seven\u2015\u2015indicates that this sovereignty is complete,\nundivided, perfect.\n\nWhat the contents of the book were we may infer from the preceding\nchapter (iv), in which we are shown the court of the Lord God\nomnipotent, with his loyal and obedient servants and hierarchies\nworshiping him and saying, \u201cThou hast created all things, and for\nthy pleasure they are and were created.\u201d The book with its seals\nis a symbol of the fundamental truth of all truths, that all things\nand beings in this universe, whatever and wherever they are, belong\noriginally and normally to the Creator. His sovereignty over his\ncreatures is absolute, illimitable, and eternal.\n\nIt is quite in accordance with John\u2019s cast of mind (and this furnishes\nno slight evidence as to the authorship of the Revelation) in unfolding\nto us the plan of redemption to take his stand at that period in the\npast, far back and without date, when God was all in all, and when\nsin had not entered to dispute his supremacy; just as in his gospel\nhe commences, not with the Christ in the maturity of his powers, or\neven incarnate in the flesh, but with the pre\u00ebxistent Word who was \u201cin\nthe beginning,\u201d \u201cwas with God,\u201d and \u201cwas God.\u201d Profoundest of all the\napostles, his mind reveled in the contemplation of beginnings and ends,\nof the primeval origin and final consummation of things, of the alpha\nand omega of creation.\n\nBut along with this vision of sovereignty came the coincident\nremembrance of the universe as it is, disordered and in rebellion; of\na sinful world wandering from its orbit, disputing the supremacy of its\nMaker and God, and in unequal and hopeless conflict with Omnipotence.\nInto whose possession should it pass, and who could assume the reins of\npower which seemed to have fallen from the hands of the Creator?\n\nA thought similar to this appears to have passed through the mind of\nIsaiah when he turned from the vision of the throne \u201chigh and lifted\nup,\u201d with the seraphim veiling their faces in the presence of holy\nMajesty, to the spectacle of himself and the world, and cried, \u201cWoe is\nme! for I am undone.\u201d\n\nSo John \u201cwept much\u201d when, after this view of immaculate purity combined\nwith almightiness, he contemplated a sinful world powerless to dispute\nwhat it would not willingly obey. Who was there worthy to \u201copen\nthe book\u201d and to \u201cloose the seals thereof,\u201d and thus to bring back\ncreatures to their rightful allegiance? If they would not submit, yet\ncould not resist, the result could be only disaster, for the heavens\nmust rule, and successful rebellion was impossible.\n\nBut there came to John hope and help, as there had come also to Isaiah;\nand to both from \u201cthe altar.\u201d As John looked he beheld the \u201cLion of the\ntribe of Judah,\u201d but in the form of a \u201cLamb as it had been slain,\u201d take\nthe book from the right hand of God and proceed to break the seals.\n\nNow, if a seal is the emblem of ownership it follows that the\nauthorized and permitted loosing of a seal must mean the transference,\nor delegation, of proprietorship. And this is the meaning here. There\nis an endowment\u2015\u2015donation, rather\u2015\u2015of authority, and the change in\npossession is published. That which belonged to and had been under the\nrule of the Father is consigned to and becomes the possession of the\nSon. And the change is not simply one of sovereigns, but of the ground\nprinciple of sovereignty; not only of rulers, but of methods of rule.\nThe song of the \u201celders\u201d and \u201cliving creatures\u201d is now, not \u201cThou didst\ncreate,\u201d but \u201cThou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood.\u201d There is\npresented to us, in fact, a picture of the mediatorial sovereignty of\nthe Son of God. We see the inauguration of the kingdom of Christ, the\nfundamental principle of which is, \u201cYe are not your own;\u201d for \u201cye are\nbought with a price: therefore glorify God.\u201d It was written in the\nPsalms, \u201cThe Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I\nbegotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine\ninheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.\u201d\nJohn was looking upon the fulfillment of that decree.\n\nOf this mediatorial kingdom of Christ, thus presented to us in symbol,\nso much is said in the Bible that only a few texts need to be referred\nto out of the many which might be cited. Our Lord himself said of it\nthat the Father \u201chath committed all judgment unto the Son\u201d (John v,\u00a022).\nAnd again, \u201cAll things are delivered unto me of my Father\u201d (Matthew\nxi,\u00a027). And still again, \u201cAll power is given unto me in heaven and in\nearth\u201d (Matthew xxviii,\u00a018). So in Hebrew ii,\u00a08, it is recorded, \u201cThou\nhast put all things in subjection under his feet.\u201d And Paul has written,\n\u201cThen cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to\nGod, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all\nauthority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies\nunder his feet\u201d (1 Corinthians xv, 24,\u00a025).\n\n2. _The Opening of the Seals._\u2015\u2015In the exercise of his sovereignty\nthe mediating and atoning Lamb assumes the authority committed to him,\nand the history of redemption begins. We approach the heart of this\nwonderful book, and its great purpose begins to reveal itself. But the\nunfolding of that history has been so different from the conception of\nit that was possible even to an apostle that \u201cblindness in part\u201d would\nhappen to us all if we had not the revelation of God\u2019s plans made known\nto us in order to check despondency and animate to labor.\n\nJohn was one of those to whom the Master had said, \u201cBehold, I send\nyou forth.\u201d He had heard and has recorded the prayer of the great High\nPriest, \u201cAs thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent\nthem into the world.\u201d He had received the great commission, \u201cGo ye\ntherefore, and teach all nations.\u201d He had been taught that Christians\nwere to be \u201cthe salt of the earth\u201d and \u201cthe light of the world\u201d and\nwere to \u201coccupy\u201d until Christ comes again. What expectation more\nreasonable could he entertain than that redemption, proceeding from\nthe heart of the Father, consummated in the sacrifice of the Son, and\napplied by the ever-abiding Spirit, would move forward without let or\nhindrance from its commencement to its glorious realization? And this\nis implied in the vision of the opening of the first seal: \u201cBehold a\nwhite horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given\nunto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.\u201d The first\nstroke of God\u2019s providence always drives the kingdom well forward. It\nis the subsequent ones that try men\u2019s faith.\n\nWhen the promise of the seed which should bruise the serpent\u2019s head was\ngiven to Eve, and, following that, a son was born to her, was it not\nnatural that, in the fullness of her faith, she should exclaim, \u201cI have\ngotten a man from the Lord?\u201d\n\nWhen Almighty God, who had just beaten down Pharaoh and Amalek and\nwritten the law with his own fingers, said to Moses, \u201cAs truly as I\nlive, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord,\u201d could\nthe prophet have any doubt that the ark of the covenant would move\ntriumphantly onward until it came to perfect rest in Canaan?\n\nThere is much to show that the apostles of Christ anticipated the\nspeedy conquest of the world by his kingdom. The conversion of\nthousands at Pentecost, the multitude of accessions which followed,\nthe obedience of a great company of priests, the appearance of miracles\nall conspired to foster this expectation. The morning hour of every\nreformation is bright and golden. It is later on that clouds gather and\nthe skies darken. Painful realities soon shake men out of such sunny\ndreams, and banish such fond illusions as did the murder of Abel, the\nlusting after the fleshpots of Egypt, the imprisonment of Peter, the\ndefection of Ananias, the martyrdom of Stephen and James. And as the\npendulum of hope swings so easily to the extreme of despair, and every\nlittle Ai seems to our alarmed imagination a walled Jericho, nothing\ncan be conceived more helpful to faith and courage than to learn that\nsuch things must needs be, and to be comforted at the same time with\nthe assurance that, though in the world we shall have tribulation, yet\nChrist has overcome the world and we must not lose heart.\n\nThis is the purpose for which the visions accompanying the opening\nof the seals were given to John. The second seal signifies war; the\nthird, famine; the fourth, pestilence; the fifth, martyrdom; the sixth,\nrevolutions that seem to \u201cshake the heavens, and the earth, and the\nsea, and the dry land.\u201d These are strange instruments to do God\u2019s will,\n\u2666unlooked-for messengers to perform his bidding. But not only all\nthings, but all events as well, are under the sovereignty of Christ;\nand in spite of these obstacles, and perhaps by means of them, his\nkingdom moves forward. And when the seventh and last seal shall be\nbroken, when every messenger shall have been delegated, when the last\nneeded encouragement shall have been given and the last enemy destroyed,\nthen will come the unbroken and eternal Sabbath of rest.\n\n \u2666 \u201cunlookod\u201d replaced with \u201cunlooked\u201d\n\n3. _The Sealed Elect._\u2015\u2015The third part of this section comprises two\nvisions: first, of the \u201chundred and forty and four thousand,\u201d out of\nthe twelve tribes of Israel, sealed in their foreheads; and, then, of a\ngreat multitude out of all nations and peoples, clothed in white robes\nand bearing palms in their hands. The purpose of these visions is to\nshow that God\u2019s ownership extends, not only to things and events, but\nto persons as well. \u201cThe Lord knoweth them that are his.\u201d\n\nThere need not be any hesitation in interpreting these visions as\nreferring to Jewish and Gentile Christians respectively. The same\ndistinction between the two is made in chapter xiv, 1\u20126, where the\nhundred and forty-four thousand who stand on Mount Zion singing a song\nwhich no others could learn, namely, the song of Moses and the Lamb,\nare marked off from those in every nation and people to whom the angel\nflies with the everlasting Gospel.\n\nIt is not meant, surely, that the number one hundred and forty-four\nthousand is to be taken in an absolutely literal sense. The definite\nnumber in all probability stands for a great multitude. How large the\nnumber of believing Israelites was in the days of the apostle we have\nno means of determining. That it was large may be fairly inferred from\nActs xxi,\u00a020. And in the great day of accounts the number may be seen\nto be beyond our largest calculation.\n\nStill less are we authorized to impute this separation of Jew from\nGentile to any national exclusiveness on the part of John. No apostle\nof the circumcision was any more emphatic than was Paul, the apostle of\nthe Gentiles, in asserting that the order of salvation is, first, the\nJew, then, the Gentile, and that \u201cGod hath not cast away his people\nwhich he foreknew,\u201d although \u201cblindness in part is happened to Israel,\nuntil the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.\u201d And what part the Jew\nmay yet play in bringing about that fullness no man is able to predict.\n\nMoreover, there is no inferiority implied in the privileges and graces\nwhich the great multitude enjoys as compared with the sealed elect.\nThey are kings and priests unto God; they are clothed with the robes of\nvictory and joy. And the images by which their nearness to Christ and\ntheir participation in the fullest measure of nourishment, safety, and\nfelicity are expressed are not elsewhere exceeded in the Revelation.\nThe description of their triumph seems to anticipate the consummation\nof the ideal kingdom of Christ, with which the closing chapters of the\nApocalypse are replete.\n\n\n\n\n PART III\n The Means by which the Kingdom of Christ is Advanced\n\n\n PART III\n =The Means by which the Kingdom of Christ\n is Advanced\u2015\u2015Emblem of the Trumpet=\n\nTHE section of the Revelation which begins with chapter viii,\u00a02, and\ncloses with chapter xi, is characterized by the symbol of the trumpet.\nIn the interpretation of this symbol the key to the understanding of\nthe section must be found. It must not be inferred, because the vision\nof the trumpets follows that of the seals, that it designates events\nsubsequent to the latter. The seals themselves, as we have seen, are\nnot intended to be predictions of historical events, but strictly\nemblems of truths or principles; and the trumpets must be in like\nmanner regarded. Succession, coincidence, or any other relation of time\nhas no necessary connection with them. They represent varying phases of\nthe kingdom of Christ, and their relation thereto is the only one that\nneed be regarded.\n\nThe trumpet was a familiar instrument in the ritual of Judaism, having\na well-known and prescribed use, and is frequently referred to in\nthe Scriptures. The mention of the word would readily suggest to the\nmind of a Jew its symbolic import, and the writer of the Apocalypse\ndoubtless employed it in this sense.\n\nThe trumpet was used as a means of summons. When an assembly was to\nbe gathered, when an alarm was to be given, when a message was to be\ncommunicated, it was by the trumpet that attention was arrested and\na hearing enforced. It signified that tidings were to be delivered\nto which it behooved men to listen. It increased the range of\nthe unassisted human voice, with the difference that, while the\nintensifying of the sound through the use of the instrument carried it\nover larger spaces, there was a loss of that delicacy, flexibility, and\ncapacity to convey emotions which belong to the unaided human organs of\nspeech.\n\nIt was by the trumpet, sounding long and loud, that Jehovah announced\nhis presence at Sinai to Moses and the awe-stricken people, and bade\nthem prepare to receive his law. It was by the blowing of trumpets\nthat the approach of the jubilee year was announced\u2015\u2015that very striking\ntype of the redemption purchased by Christ. When the Israelites were\nmarching around Jericho \u201cseven priests bearing seven trumpets of rams\u2019\nhorns\u201d went before the ark of the Lord; and on the seventh day, when,\n\u201cat the seventh time,\u201d the priests blew with the trumpets, the walls\nfell. And the prophet Joel says, \u201cBlow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify\na fast, call a solemn assembly: gather the people.\u201d So familiarly has\nthis symbolism passed over into the Christian Church that the preaching\nof salvation is very commonly spoken of as the blowing of the Gospel\ntrumpet.\n\nIf the seals emblematize the truth that all things belong of right to\nChrist as Mediator, the question very naturally follows, How is this\n_de jure_ ownership to be made a _de facto_ one, and what instruments\nare put into the hands of the Church to enable it to establish the\nkingdom of Christ on earth? The vision of the trumpets is designed to\nbe the answer to this question.\n\nThe trumpets, then, signify the instrumentalities by which men are\ncalled to the kingdom of Christ, or the measures which the divine\nBeing employs to advance that kingdom. Their number, seven, indicates\nthat these measures are complete and comprehensive, including every\navailable resource and employing all possible methods of approach\nto man. God avails himself of every legitimate device to constrain\na sinful world to accept the proffer of salvation ere he passes from\nchastisement and correction to retributive and final judgment. Thus\nthose who reject the offer will be found without excuse, and the\ndespisers of the wedding garment will be stricken speechless in the day\nof accounts.\n\nThe sounding of the trumpets, it will be noticed, is preceded by the\n\u201cprayers of the saints;\u201d for that \u201cthe effectual fervent prayer of a\nrighteous man availeth much\u201d with God is one of the fundamental facts\nof the kingdom (Psalm xviii, 6\u201217). And the token of the hearing of the\nprayers is seen in the \u201cvoices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and\nan earthquake\u201d that followed when the seven angels with the trumpets\nprepared to sound. The vision doubtless recalled to John\u2019s mind the\nremembrance of that day when, as the disciples prayed, \u201cthe place was\nshaken where they were assembled together;\u201d God revealing himself in\nthe new dispensation as he had done at Sinai when about to communicate\nhis law. The grandeur of the preparation suggests the importance of the\ntidings to be communicated.\n\nIt will be also observed that the episode of the \u201ctwo witnesses\u201d\n(chapter xi) falls within the section marked by the trumpet emblem.\nThe appropriateness of this and the ease with which it takes its place\nhere furnish no slight evidence that the explanation of the Revelation\nadopted in this essay is correct.\n\nThere are two modes by which the divine Being has chosen to communicate\nthe knowledge of himself and of his will. These are his works and his\nword. The one is that manifestation of himself in nature of which Paul\nspeaks when he says, \u201cThe invisible things of him from the creation\nof the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are\nmade, even his eternal power and Godhead.\u201d The other is supernatural,\nthe revelation of himself as a power above nature and not limited by\nits laws. It is of this that Peter says, \u201cWe have also a more sure word\nof prophecy.\u201d\n\nThe most searching and subtle analysis to which knowledge and its\nsources have been subjected has resulted in this\u2015\u2015that even in the\nalembic of modern doubt, after the most biting acids have tried their\nsolvent power, there is left as the residuum a conviction that, besides\nthis known and knowable universe, there exists a first cause or force.\nAt the beginning and basis of all things a duality must be acknowledged.\nIf human thought by its unaided light is incompetent to go beyond\nthis, it is not allowed to stop short of it. \u201cThe momentum of thought,\u201d\nHerbert Spencer says, \u201cinevitably carries us beyond conditioned\nexistence to unconditioned existence.\u201d \u201cThe certainty that, on the one\nhand, such a power exists, while, on the other, its nature transcends\nintuition and is beyond imagination, is the certainty toward which\nintelligence has been from the first progressing. To this conclusion\nscience inevitably arrives as it reaches its confines.\u201d This power,\nwhich science may know only as \u201can infinite and eternal energy,\u201d is\nthe Being whom the Scriptures reveal to us as the Lord God, of whom and\nthrough whom and to whom \u201care all things: to whom be glory forever.\u201d\n\nFrom this first Cause knowledge comes to us through two channels\u2015\u2015his\ndeeds and his words. The first of these is accessible to all mankind;\nfor the Gentiles, which have not the law, \u201cshow the work of the law\nwritten in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness.\u201d But as\nthat which is constant and habitual soon ceases to attract attention,\nand the orderly and uniform processes of nature excite less interest\nand awaken feebler curiosity than the anomalous and occasional,\nin like manner it is most frequently by calamities, adversities,\nseeming withdrawals of God\u2019s face that men are brought to reflection,\nconsideration, and obedience. \u201cWhen thy judgments are in the earth, the\ninhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.\u201d It is this truth\nthat the vision of the trumpets symbolizes. It signifies the warnings\nin the field of natural providence which the divine Being gives to men,\nin order to show the evil and peril of sin and thus draw back their\nsouls from the pit. The second of these channels of knowledge is found\nin the oracles of God, the Scriptures committed to the chosen people.\nAnd these are symbolized in the episode of the \u201ctwo witnesses,\u201d which\nforms a part of the trumpet section.\n\nThe details of the trumpet scenes are not, it must be confessed, easy\nof interpretation. They seem to be selected from various parts of the\nOld Testament, and grouped according to some plan not explained to us,\nsuggesting the thought that the interpretation of them is not to be\nfound in any single event, but in some common truth embodied in many\nevents.\n\nThe conjunction of \u201chail\u201d with \u201cfire\u201d (viii,\u00a07) is also found in Exodus\nix,\u00a024; that of \u201cfire\u201d with \u201cblood\u201d (viii,\u00a07) in Joel ii,\u00a030; while\nall three of these elements are separately mentioned in many passages.\nThe moving of mountains (viii,\u00a08) is referred to in Psalm xlvi,\u00a02, and\nIsaiah liv,\u00a010; and a burning mountain in Jeremiah li,\u00a025. \u201cWormwood\u201d\n(viii,\u00a011) occurs in Jeremiah ix,\u00a015, and Amos v,\u00a07. The darkening of\nthe heavenly bodies (viii,\u00a012) is found also in Isaiah xiii,\u00a010; Amos\nviii,\u00a09; and Joel ii,\u00a031. \u201cLocusts\u201d (ix,\u00a03) are mentioned in Exodus\nx,\u00a04; Nahum iii,\u00a017; Joel i,\u00a04.\n\nBut the assemblage of the events in the Revelation differs from\nany other in the Bible. It is more systematically arranged than in\nthe series foretold by our Lord in Matthew xxiv. It differs from\nthe account of the Egyptian plagues of Exodus in omissions, the\nintroduction of new details, and in the fact that the plagues occur\nin a different order. The hail, for instance, which is the seventh\nEgyptian plague, is the first of the plagues in the Revelation. All\nthis may be explained by the fact that the plagues of Egypt were\nconfined to that country and were adapted to its local climatic\nconditions, while the plagues of the Revelation have for their field\nthe world itself, and were intentionally diversified in being fitted\nto this larger sphere.\n\nThat a close connection exists between man and his dwelling place, the\nearth, is a truth in which both science and the Scriptures cordially\nconcur; the dispute, if any, between them is not as to the fact,\nbut its cause. The doctrine of evolution, which receives such wide\nacceptance, rests upon this connection as a fundamental axiom; and\nthe Scriptures confirm the fact in the accounts of the creation and\nthe fall. The difference between science and the Scriptures is, that\nwhat evolution attributes to the operation of natural law the Bible\nexplains by the working of a moral power. As for man\u2019s sake the ground\nwas cursed and all nature made to suffer by reason of his rebellion,\nso do they bear constant witness to his advance or degeneration in\nrighteousness. As purity is in general promotive of prosperity, so does\nsin produce disaster. \u201cAs the moral life of the soul expresses itself\nin the physical life of the body for the latter\u2019s health or corruption,\nso the conduct of the human race affects the physical life of the\nuniverse to its farthest limit in space. The Old Testament is not\ncontented with a general statement of this great principle, but pursues\nit to all sorts of particular and private applications. The curses\nof the Lord fell, not only on the sinner, but on his dwelling, his\nproperty, and even on the bit of ground he occupied. The doctrine\nof the Old Testament is that man\u2019s sin has rendered necessary the\ndestruction of his material circumstances, and that the divine judgment\nincludes a broken and rifled universe.\u201d\u00b9\n\n \u00b9 _Isaiah_, vol.\u00a0i. chap.\u00a0xxxviii, pp. 419,\u00a0ff., in the\n _Expositor\u2019s Bible_, New York, A.\u00a0C. Armstrong & Co.\n\nAnd these calamities, whether brought about directly by the divine\nGovernor, or through the operation of general laws, which is but\nanother mode of his action, are so many trumpet calls from God warning\nmen to retrace their erring steps and submit to his kingdom. \u201cIt was\nplague and fire,\u201d Leigh Hunt says, \u201cthat first taught the Londoners\nto build their city better.\u201d And the divine Being may make use of like\nmeans to forward his moral government.\n\n1. _Natural Providences._\u2015\u2015In the _first_ trumpet scene the blow\nfalls upon the earth itself. Its productive resources were severely\ndiminished through the destructive agencies of nature, intensified, it\nmay be, by the horrors of war. The hail and the fire were mingled with\nblood. And, since food is essential to life, \u201cthe king himself being\nserved by the field,\u201d such a disaster must sorely oppress mankind. The\napostle had himself witnessed at least one widely-extended famine, and\nhad noted how the exhibition of Christian benevolence had been made the\nmeans of promoting the kingdom of Christ (Acts xi, 28\u201230).\n\nThe _second_ trumpet scene deals with disasters affecting \u201cthe sea,\u201d\nthe great highway of commerce, and disturbing the exchanges of the\nproducts of labor among men. More than once in the history of the world\nsocial revolutions have been the plowshare turning up the soil, that\nseeds of religious reformation might the better grow.\n\nIn the _third_ trumpet scene it is the sources of water supply that are\naffected. A star, falling from heaven, turns them to wormwood, which in\nthe Old Testament is used as a symbol of bitterness and poisoning. It\nis in the contamination of these sources that epidemics and pestilences\nusually find their commencement, and a merciful Providence generally\nspares them until other and milder warnings have been tried.\n\nIn the _fourth_ trumpet scene the heavenly bodies are involved,\ncarrying out the idea, so frequently expressed in the Bible, of the\nsympathy which the whole creation seems to feel with the great events\ntransacted on earth. The universe is so bound together that whatever\ntouches one part of the great Governor\u2019s empire ultimately affects\nevery other (Exodus x, 21\u201224; Isaiah xiii, 9\u201211; Joel ii,\u00a031; Matthew\nxxiv,\u00a029; xxvii,\u00a045). Yet the images in this scene may be figurative\nemblems of the ruling powers of earthly kingdoms, and the vision may be\ninterpreted as synonymous with the predictions of Haggai ii, 6\u20129, and\nHebrews xii, 26\u201229, in which the shaking of heaven and earth is made to\nprecede the coming of the kingdom of Christ.\n\nThe _fifth_ trumpet scene is undoubtedly the most difficult of all to\ninterpret and requires more elaborate treatment. In striving to explain\nits obscurities the only safe and satisfactory method is to search for\nwhat may be regarded as certain and plain in the vision, and from this\nas a starting point to essay the more difficult.\n\nTwo things seem to stand out prominently and comparatively clearly in\nthe scene. Assuming the star which fell from heaven, to whom was given\nthe key of the bottomless pit, and who is closely connected with the\nangel of the pit named Abaddon or Apollyon\u2015\u2015that is, destroyer\u2015\u2015to be a\nrepresentation of Satan, then for the first time this archenemy of God\nand man is introduced personally upon the stage. In whatever the fifth\ntrumpet signifies he directly or indirectly has a pre\u00ebminent share.\nThen, again, the mention of locusts points us to the prophecy of Joel,\nwhere the destructive ravages of this scourge are such a conspicuous\nfigure. If we can reach a satisfactory solution of Joel\u2019s prophecy\nwe may reasonably expect an understanding of this prophecy of the\nRevelation.\n\nIn the great prophecy of Joel, brief in extent, but comprehensive in\nimport, the background upon which the earnest preacher of God paints\nhis vivid pictures is the alarming condition of spiritual declension\nand apathy into which the people had fallen, accompanied with fearful\nneglect of the service of God and its ordinances. To awaken the\npeople out of this deadly state he predicts the approach of an awful\nscourge, the ravages of which would be felt in a resultant condition of\nextraordinary impoverishment and penury. Poverty of spirit must precede\nentrance into the riches of the kingdom of heaven. And so the prophet\nis commissioned to promise that, after repentance and renewal of\nconsecration, there shall be a rich and plentiful effusion of the Holy\nSpirit; and he assures the penitent that \u201cwhosoever shall call on the\nname of the Lord shall be delivered\u201d and shall escape the impending\ndestruction.\n\nNothing is more probable, therefore, than that the writer of the\nRevelation meant to warn the Church of Christ against a decline in\nfaith or relaxation in zeal. He assured it that such a lapse would\nbe followed by the intrusion into its field of some dangerous enemy.\nWhat the character of this enemy should be is indicated by two things.\nIt will be noticed that, if John deviates from the description of the\nlocusts given by Joel, it is in the direction of bringing humanity more\ninto the picture. The locusts spoken of in this fifth trumpet scene are\nto have crowns like gold upon their heads; their faces are to be as the\nfaces of men; their hair to be as the hair of women; they are to hurt,\nnot as real locusts do, the earth and its products, but men; their\nsting, unlike that of other locusts, is to be as the sting of scorpions;\nand their work will be, not the destruction of human life, but the\ncausing of such misery as to make human life unhappy and undesirable.\nThey are to be under the direction of Satan, whose field of operations\nin the warfare he wages against the kingdom of Christ is, not the earth,\nbut the world of human beings.\n\nThe truth, then, which seems to be indicated in this obscure vision\nis, that whenever a Christian man or Church declines into lukewarmness\nor apathy there may be expected to follow an incursion and invasion by\nother and lower forms of religious life and thought. Wherever iniquity\nabounds and the \u201clove of many\u201d waxes cold there is sure to be an inroad\nof heresy, false doctrine, more or less heterodoxy of creed. The human\nheart, like nature, abhors a vacuum. Where true godliness wanes false\nreligions rush in to fill the void; and the intensity of zeal which\nfalse religions awaken measures the declension that has befallen true\nfaith. The evil spirit that comes back to a home from which he has\nbeen once expelled, and finds it empty, swept, and garnished, takes\nto himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, \u201cand the last\nstate of that man is worse than the first.\u201d The temperature of religion\nwhen it falls to lower levels never does so equably. The nobler and\nmore ideal parts suffer most severely, and, like the shriveled idol\nof the Philistines, at last \u201conly the stump of Dagon is left to him.\u201d\n\nThere can be no question that the advocates of the historical\ninterpretation of the Revelation have a very strong support for their\nhypothesis in the application of this part of it to the rise and growth\nof Mohammedanism. It is not to be denied that many of the essential\ncharacteristics of that false religion are quite accurately delineated\nin this picture. The rise and rapid extension of Mohammedanism were\npossible only because of the dead, formal, and corrupt condition of\nthe Christendom which it encountered. Its prophet and founder preached\na faith which was purer than that of many a so-called Christian\nbishop; and it achieves its triumphs now only in those regions where\nChristianity has degenerated into spiritual barrenness and puerile\nceremonialism. But in this, as in so many instances, the historical\ninterpretation errs, not through incorrectness, so much as through\nincompleteness. In claiming any one historical event as the fulfillment\nof prophecy it impoverishes inspiration by confining that fulfillment\nto a single fact. Mohammedanism is but one illustration of a profounder\ntruth. The Revelation of John is meant for all ages. It is constantly\nfinding new illustrations and applications. In setting before us the\ncauses of decline as well as of growth, the Revelation teaches us to\nbe looking for these causes at all times, that we may avert the decline\nor forward the growth; and thus it is furnishing new examples of its\ndivine truth and new evidences of its divine origin, without exhausting\nits force in any single example or any single evidence.\n\nThe _sixth_ trumpet sounds, and the vision which is presented to us is\none of increasing danger and darkness. Warnings unheeded give way to\nalarms still more threatening. The noonday bell of invitation deepens\ninto the curfew toll of departing day. The approach of an immense and\nimposing array of horsemen armed for battle strikes deeper terror than\ndid the invasion of the locusts and indicates judgments more formidable.\nThe power of Satan to harm is overmastering mercy\u2019s efforts to save,\nand the restrictions which had been laid upon his authority are being\nrelaxed. We are told now that \u201cby these three was the third part of\nmen killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone.\u201d As\nthere is suggested a spiritual condition which has gone beyond mere\ndeclension and apathy to deeper states of alienation from God, so the\nperils threatened end, not with a destruction of the happiness of life,\nbut in death itself.\n\nIt must be noticed that the region from which the new and alarming\nscourge proceeds is the \u201cgreat river Euphrates.\u201d To understand this\nwe must place ourselves at the standpoint of the apostle. The river\nEuphrates was to Palestine what the Danube and the Rhine were to\nthe Roman empire\u2015\u2015the line of demarcation between civilization and\nbarbarism. The East was the quarter from which the earlier prophets\nalways apprehended danger. It was in the Euphrates that Jeremiah was\nbidden to cast the book with the stone tied to it (Jeremiah li,\u00a063). On\nthe hither side of the great river lay the kingdoms with which Israel\nhad mainly had intercourse. On the north of Palestine was Syria, on\nthe south, Egypt; on the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris or near by\nwere Assyria and Babylon. The peoples of these kingdoms were, indeed,\nnations whose God was not the Lord; yet between them and Israel a\n_modus vivendi_ had to some degree been established, and some common\nrules of international intercourse were recognized. But on the farther\nside was the land of barbarians among whom the arts of civilization\nwere unknown, who acknowledged no code of comity or obligation with\nwhich the chosen people were familiar, whose ways and modes of warfare\nwere impenetrable and strange, and from whom all possible evils might\nbe expected.\n\nThere is, it must be sadly confessed, in all human beings a latent germ\nof barbarism, a survival of the carnal or animal nature. Suppressed,\nindeed, it may be by culture, education, or other moral or secular\nforces, and its existence hardly surmised, yet it only awaits fostering\nconditions to manifest its presence and reassert its power. Without\ndivine grace no Christian is free from liability to an outburst of\nthe carnal mind which may destroy the spiritual life of the soul. Nor\ndoes any grade of civilization exempt nations from the possibility\nof a reversion to barbarism, if the excitements to it are allowed to\nexist or precautions against its inroads are neglected. Bishop Butler\nexpressed the opinion that whole communities, like individuals, might\nbecome insane. Perhaps it is nearer the truth to explain the sudden\nfrenzies to which men and nations have sometimes given way as an\nuncontrolled irruption of the barbarous element within. Farther on, in\nthe twentieth chapter of the Revelation, we shall find this tendency\ntoward barbarism more particularly referred to by John, and the\nappreciation of it will help us there to solve one of the most\nperplexing problems of the book.\n\nEthnology either ignores this liability to revert to barbarism or\ndenies it, and by so doing impairs the value of those hypotheses as\nto the primitive condition of the race which it seeks to substitute\nfor the Bible story. It is not always easy to determine whether any\nparticular stage of barbarism marks a step upward in the advance of a\ngrowing people or a decline toward animalism from a superior state; yet\nthe correctness of our inferences depends upon an accurate diagnosis of\nthis question.\n\nBut human experience is constantly furnishing illustrations confirming\nthe utterances of the word of God as to the possibility of a fall from\nhigh grades of cultivation to the depths of savagery. If the counsels\nof God are unheeded and the convictions of the Holy Spirit are resisted\nnothing can follow but a descent into lower grades, until the savage\nforces that underlie our nature assert supremacy and overleap the weak\nbarriers which reason and judgment set up to stay them.\n\nSomething like this seems to be the warning meant to be conveyed\nthrough the sixth trumpet. A striking commentary upon this was given\nbut a few centuries after John\u2019s death, when the hordes of barbarians\nthat had been only waiting opportunity swept with irresistible fury\nover the crumbling walls of the corrupt and decadent Roman Empire,\nand imposed upon the Christian Church the task of saving civilization\nitself from destruction. We may not even now relax our watchfulness or\nput off the armor of our faith, lest this may involve a reversion of\nmankind to barbaric naturalism. And a return to barbarism is the lowest\ncondition to which human nature can fall. From such a state recovery\nis well-nigh hopeless and repentance an extreme improbability, for the\nresources of mercy will have been almost exhausted, and beyond lies\nonly doom.\n\nIt should be noticed that the Revelation speaks of three woes. The\nfirst one predicted is described under the fifth trumpet. The second\none is declared by the sixth trumpet. The third one is not uncovered at\nall. It lies in that future world from which the curtain is not lifted\nand into which even the light of revelation feebly penetrates. Whoever\nhas rejected all the warnings of love and descended the moral scale\nuntil he has reverted to the state of sensualism is but a step from\nthe second death. \u201cHe that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap\ncorruption.\u201d\n\n2. _The Two Witnesses, or, the Supernatural Scriptures._\u2015\u2015The episode\nof the \u201ctwo witnesses,\u201d to which we are now brought, is one that has\nsorely tried expositors. Though many and various solutions of it have\nbeen attempted, Alford, in his commentary upon the passage, says, \u201cI\nwill further remark, and the reader will find this abundantly borne out\nby research into histories of Apocalyptic exegesis, that no solution\nat all approaching to a satisfactory one has ever yet been given ...\nof this portion of the prophecy.\u201d If it shall be found, therefore, that\nthe principles which have hitherto guided us enable us to penetrate\nto the core of this mystery, and evolve a meaning intelligible and\nreasonable, and which, while interpreting all the details without\ndistortion or suppression, is in harmony at the same time with the\nScriptures in general and with the purpose for which they have been\nrevealed, then we may indulge the hope that these principles are\ncorrect and may advance with some confidence to the problems that still\nlie before us. Though long tunnels are yet to be threaded, with only\nbrief intervals between them of open air, we shall in time, perhaps,\nreach the light of day and rest in the sunshine of discovered truth.\n\nIt has been already said that through the vast space that intervenes\nbetween the divine Being and man two great lines of communication\nstretch. These are his works and his word. It is this truth which\nthe trumpets symbolize, and we have not yet gotten beyond the section\nof the Revelation in which this emblem of the trumpets is the ruling\none. Six of the trumpets have sounded. Whatever can be done by natural\nprovidences to arouse men to spiritual thought and action has been\nsounded by them. Nature has no other voices with which to speak to\nmankind. But the resources of Omnipotence are not exhausted. God\nhas yet other means of approach to his creatures. And if, therefore,\nbecause of heedlessness or obduracy or preoccupation of mind or\nabsorption in temporal things, one of these lines of light from God\u2019s\nmercy falls with too light a touch to arrest men\u2019s attention or awaken\nthem to danger or win their consent to seek God\u2019s favor, there remains\nanother and more efficient one, namely, his written word; and here is\nthe place where we should expect allusion to it.\n\nThe two witnesses, then, may be reasonably interpreted as signifying\nthe _law_ and the _prophets_, the titles under which the Old\nTestament Scriptures received by John as divinely inspired were almost\nuniversally designated. Should these fail of their purpose, even the\ndivine Being, we may reverently say, had no other way of reaching\nman. It is our Lord himself who says, \u201cIf they hear not Moses and\nthe prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from\nthe dead.\u201d When the great and strong wind rending the mountains, and\nafter this the earthquake, and after this the fire, have failed, it is\npossible that the still small voice will arouse to faith and hope and\nduty. Should it not do so, then the case is hopeless.\n\nIn order to verify the solution which is here proposed of the episode\nof the two witnesses, a careful examination will be made of the facts\nas detailed in the text.\n\nThe introduction of the two witnesses, however, is preceded by two\nvisions by way of prelude. This, we shall find, is what we might\nreasonably expect. If the witnesses are, indeed, symbols of the sacred\nScriptures, God\u2019s direct revelation of his will and character to men,\nit is proper that the scope and purpose of all revelation shall be\nplainly laid down, that we may know how far the revealed word of God is\nto be regarded as evidence, and also that some criteria shall be given\nby which we shall be able to discern what the inspired writings are,\nand how to differentiate them from human productions. In other words,\nwe have here from the pen of John his own views of biblical criticism,\nand it would have been well if they had been more carefully heeded in\nthe discussions of inspiration recently so rife.\n\nIn the first of these two visions a \u201cmighty angel\u201d is seen to \u201ccome\ndown from heaven, clothed with a cloud\u201d and with \u201ca rainbow upon his\nhead.\u201d And he had in his hand a little book open. But, when \u201cseven\nthunders had uttered their voices\u201d and John was \u201cabout to write,\u201d\na voice was heard from heaven saying, \u201cSeal up those things which\nthe seven thunders uttered, and write them not.\u201d This prohibition is\ndistinctly declared to be only for a time. \u201cIn the days of the voice\nof the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God\nshould be finished, as he hath declared unto his servants the prophets.\u201d\n\nIf the interpretation put upon the two witnesses is correct, and if\nthey symbolize the Scriptures, then the purpose of this prelude is to\nindicate what we are to look for in them. It is not the design of the\nBible to communicate all possible truth, but only such measure of it\nas has reference to the kingdom of Christ. Although the things which\nare revealed belong to us and to our children, there are still secret\nthings which belong to the Lord our God. He has communicated much, but\nhe has withheld much, and doubtless the reasons for the revelation and\nthe reserve are equally wise. There are truths which man\u2019s own powers\nenable him to discover. There are other truths beyond his ability to\ncomprehend even should they be revealed. These are excluded from the\nScriptures as being aside from their purpose. It is only \u201cwhen that\nwhich is perfect is come,\u201d and \u201cthat which is in part shall be done\naway,\u201d that we shall know as we are known. Very much that we know\nnot now we shall know hereafter. But the Bible has specific reference\nto the kingdom of Christ and reveals only what has relation to that\nkingdom. \u201cThe testimony of Jesus\u201d is the spirit of all prophecy. That\nwhich lies within the capacity of man to discover is left to the wisdom\nand patience of men. That which pertains to the future life, and would\nsimply satisfy curiosity to know, is reserved to the time when we shall\nhave laid aside mortality. The Scriptures reveal to us only what it\nis needful for us to know that we may enter and enjoy and forward the\n\u2666kingdom of Christ. Paul was not allowed to utter the words he had\nheard in his heavenly ecstasy, and John is likewise prohibited from\nuttering things which belong solely to the divine Being and await his\npleasure to publish. It was sufficient for him to be told that, however\nbitter and unpalatable his message might be, he must still \u201cprophesy\nbefore many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.\u201d\n\n \u2666 \u201ckingom\u201d replaced with \u201ckingdom\u201d\n\nThe second prelude also has reference to the limitations within which\nall revelation is confined. \u201cThere was given me a reed like unto a\nrod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God,\nand the altar, and them that worship therein. But the court which is\nwithout the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto\nthe Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and\ntwo months.\u201d\n\nThere are two elements in this which furnish guides to its\ninterpretation. One is the distinction so emphatically made between\nthe temple itself, which, as we know, was reserved exclusively for\nIsraelites, and the outer courts, which were given to the Gentiles.\nThe other is the use of the symbolical number forty-two.\n\nNow is it not a reasonable thing that the apostle, when about to point\nus to the law and the prophets as God\u2019s two witnesses, shall put a\nbroad distinction between them and all mere human productions? The\ntemple itself is the field within which they fulfill their office, and\nthose only who speak from it are God\u2019s accredited messengers. If the\nScriptures are the standard by which truth concerning the kingdom of\nChrist is to be tested, if they have authority to bind the consciences\nof men, there must be some criterion by which they shall be judged.\nAnd this is the criterion\u2015\u2015\u201cSalvation is of the Jews.\u201d God\u2019s messengers\nand witnesses sprang from them. And Paul confirms this declaration\nwhen he says that the chief advantage which the Jews had was that\n\u201cunto them were committed the oracles of God.\u201d The highest creations\nof human genius fall short of the special inspiration which belonged to\nthe prophets and patriarchs and apostles of Israel. The outer courts,\nindeed, were given to the Gentiles. Theirs was the world of art, of\nscience, of commerce, of literature, of politics, of earthly dominion;\nbut the temple and the altar belonged to the chosen race. Brilliant\nstars brightened the darkness of the Gentile sky, but the sun of\nspiritual truth shone only to the teachers whom God called out of\nIsrael; and Homer and \u00c6schylus, and muse and sibyl, must \u201cpale their\nineffectual fires\u201d in the presence of his seers and anointed ones. And\nthis is confirmed by the use of the symbolical number forty-two. This\nnumber, as we have seen in the Introduction, typifies a period which\nhas definite limits and fulfills a specific purpose. It may designate\nJudaism proper or Gentilism proper. And the meaning here is that now,\nand throughout this present cycle of time, the kingdom of God has been\ntaken from the Jew and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits\nof the kingdom. Neither the temple, nor the altar, nor the inspired\nScriptures belong now exclusively to the Jew. The chosen race has\nforfeited its prerogative of exclusiveness, and the foot of the Gentile\ntreads the inner as well as outer court. The Bible belongs to us as\nwell as to Israel.\n\nWith these important and interesting preludes explained, and the reason\nof their introduction in this place accounted for, we are prepared to\ninvestigate the vision of the two witnesses.\n\nIt has already been said, but the importance of the matter requires its\nrepetition, that the paragraph containing the vision of the witnesses\nis a part of the section of the Revelation of which the trumpet is the\nruling symbol; for it is not until the close of this paragraph that\nthe seventh trumpet sounds. It seems, therefore, plausible that what\nis symbolized by the witnesses has some continuous connection with that\nwhich is designated by the trumpets. And, inasmuch as the trumpets are\nemblems of the instrumentalities which the divine Being employs to call\nmen to repentance, obedience, and the service of himself, the witnesses\nare an emblem of some such instrumentality, having the same end in\nview, but operating in a different mode. The six trumpets which have\nalready sounded represent what the divine Being does by way of natural\nprovidence, approaching men by calamities, distresses, the observed\nconnection between impiety and moral, as well as intellectual,\ndecadence, and such like means. But nature in any and all of its modes\nof manifestation does not comprise all the modes of communication\nbetween God and man. Nor is the testimony which it bears to God the\nhighest testimony. The same Being who \u201cformeth the mountains, and\ncreateth the wind,\u201d who \u201cmaketh the morning darkness, and treadeth\nupon the high places of the earth,\u201d also \u201cdeclareth unto man what is\nhis thought.\u201d \u201cThe heavens,\u201d indeed, \u201cdeclare the glory of God; and\nthe firmament showeth his handiwork.\u201d But the law of God does more.\nIt converteth the soul. Nature\u2019s witness is given by dumb signs or\ninarticulate sounds. It has no speech nor language. Its worshipers\nmay cry aloud to their Baal from morning until the time of the evening\nsacrifice, but there is none to hear, nor any God that regards. It is\nto and through the human spirit that the divine Spirit must communicate\nhis deepest truths; nor has he done all that may be done until he has\ngiven to men his word. \u201cThe grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the\nword of our God shall stand forever.\u201d\n\nThe two witnesses, human and intelligent, aptly and appropriately\nrepresent this higher mode of communication which God employs to\nimpress and teach men. By them we are to understand the law and the\nprophets, the two component parts of the Old Testament Scriptures,\nwhich at the date of the Apocalypse constituted the only canonical\nScriptures known. In the paragraph which follows there is an intimation\nof the New Testament; but as yet it was not in existence as a collected\ncode. The Bible which Christ and his apostles knew was the Jewish Bible.\n\nThe proof of this somewhat novel interpretation of the two witnesses,\nif, indeed, any interpretation of any part of the Apocalypse can be\ncalled novel, lies in the fact that it explains all the details of the\nvision which are presented to us simply, easily, and without any forced\nconstruction. It is essential to group together the separate details,\nand then endeavor to explain them.\n\nThe seer says of these two witnesses that they prophesy in sackcloth\ntwelve hundred and sixty days, which, as has been said in discussing\nrules of interpretation, is one of the numbers symbolical of Judaism;\nthey are identified as corresponding with the \u201ctwo sons of oil, that\nstand by the Lord of the whole earth,\u201d of whom Zechariah wrote (Revised\nVersion); they have power to devour their enemies and shut heaven\nby the miracles of withholding the rain, turning waters to blood,\nand smiting the earth with plagues. There is a period when their\n\u201ctestimony\u201d is finished. When that period is reached their enemy, the\nbeast from the bottomless pit, kills them, and their dead bodies lie\nexposed for three and a half days \u201cin the street of the great city,\nwhich spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was\ncrucified.\u201d At the end of this period \u201cthe Spirit of life entered into\nthem, and they stood upon their feet;\u201d and they finally \u201cascended up to\nheaven\u201d amid convulsions which shake the earth and fill men with terror.\n\nHow accurately all these features of the paragraph find their\nfulfillment in the law and the prophets, or the Old Testament\nScriptures, may be readily shown:\n\n_First._ It is worthy of consideration as a strong point that the\nexpression, \u201cthe law and the prophets\u201d (sometimes \u201cMoses and the\nprophets\u201d), is the one almost invariably employed by our Lord in\ndesignating the older Scriptures (Matthew v,\u00a017; vii,\u00a012; xi,\u00a013;\nxxii,\u00a040; Luke xvi,\u00a031; xxiv,\u00a027; as also John i,\u00a045; Acts xiii,\u00a015;\nxxviii,\u00a023).\n\n_Secondly._ The testimony of the prophets and writers of the Old\nTestament may be truly said to have been given in sackcloth. What one\nof these messengers of God ever met with a cordial reception? Well\ndid Stephen say, perhaps in the hearing of John himself, \u201cWhich of the\nprophets have not your fathers persecuted?\u201d \u201cThey were stoned, were\nsawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered\nabout in sheepskins, and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted,\ntormented\u201d (Hebrews xi,\u00a037; Luke xi, 49\u201251).\n\n_Thirdly._ The law and the prophets found their special embodiments and\nrepresentatives in Moses (John i,\u00a017) and Elijah (Malachi iv, 4,\u00a05);\none the unequaled statesmen and legislator, the other the most striking\nand, in many respects, the greatest of the long line of prophets. The\nmiracles ascribed to the two witnesses were actually wrought by these\ntwo extraordinary and typical men. To Moses was given power to turn\nwaters to blood and to smite the earth with plagues. It was at the\nprayer of Elijah that the heaven was shut so that it rained not but\naccording to his word.\n\n_Fourthly._ Zechariah\u2019s vision of the \u201ctwo olive branches which through\nthe two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves,\u201d and which\nare said to be \u201cthe two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the\nwhole earth,\u201d finds its most appropriate and exact fulfillment in the\nHoly Scriptures, which testify of Jesus (John v,\u00a039). And it was the\nrepresentatives of the law and the prophets, or Moses and Elijah, who\nwere chosen to stand by our Lord when he appeared in glory upon the\nMount of Transfiguration.\n\n_Fifthly._ The \u201ctestimony\u201d of the law and the prophets is distinctly\nsaid by our Lord himself to have been \u201cfinished\u201d when his own\nforerunner, John the Baptist, appeared. \u201cFor all the prophets and the\nlaw prophesied until John\u201d (Matthew xi,\u00a013); \u201cThe law and the prophets\nwere until John\u201d (Luke xvi,\u00a016).\n\n_Sixthly._ Although the Jews professedly acknowledged the law and the\nprophets to be of divine origin, our Lord emphatically charged against\nthem that they had by their glosses and traditions in effect abrogated\nthem; devitalizing them and making their authority to be a dead letter\n(Matthew xv,\u00a06; Mark vii,\u00a013; Luke xi,\u00a052).\n\n_Seventhly._ At no period did this nullification of the power of\nthe Holy Scriptures reach such extremes as during our Lord\u2019s active\nministry on earth. The dead bodies of the law and the prophets may\nbe said, without exaggeration, to have lain exposed in the streets of\nJerusalem, where our Lord was crucified.\n\n_Eighthly._ The bodies of the two witnesses are said to have lain\n\u201cthree days and a half.\u201d As the period of our Lord\u2019s active ministry\nhas been computed at three and a half years the number may refer to\nthat. But as three and a half is a symbolical number, designating a\nhalf period, it may be used to designate the same here. The ministry of\nour Lord was such a half period, which was not completed until it had\nbeen supplemented by the gift of the Holy Spirit.\n\n_Ninthly._ After the \u201cthree days and a half the Spirit of life from\nGod\u201d is said to have \u201centered into\u201d the two witnesses, \u201cand they\nstood upon their feet.\u201d This was remarkably fulfilled on the day\nof Pentecost, when, by the illumination and inspiration of the Holy\nGhost, the apostles were moved to draw from the law and the prophets\nthose convincing arguments and promises and appeals which led to the\nconversion of thousands.\n\n_Tenthly._ The two witnesses after their resurrection are said to\nhave \u201cascended up to heaven\u201d in the presence of their enemies. This\nfinds its fulfillment in the fact that the Hebrew Scriptures, with the\nadded life given them by the New Testament, have been accepted by the\nChristian Church, not as the exclusive property of the Jewish Church or\nas the archives of the Hebrew nation, but as the common heritage of the\nworld and the canonical word of God to the whole human race.\n\n_Lastly._ The convulsions of nature which are said to have accompanied\nthe ascent of the witnesses to heaven were exactly fulfilled, as John\ncould testify, in the events that followed Pentecost\u2015\u2015the terror and\nalarm of Christ\u2019s enemies, the fear that came upon all, the shaking\nas by an earthquake of the place where the disciples were assembled in\nprayer, and the rapid increase in numbers of those who were slain of\nthe Lord and raised to a new spiritual life.\n\nIf this explanation of the episode of the two witnesses is correct\nthe depreciation, or rather, perhaps, under-appreciation of the Old\nTestament, which exists even among those who do not question its\ninspiration, is without ground or reason. In the opinion of St. John\nthe addition of the New Testament does not in any wise supersede or\nrender obsolete the older Scriptures. In the education of the human\nrace the Creator did not begin with the more abstruse and highly\ndeveloped teachings of the New Testament, but with the natural,\nbiographical, historical, and providential facts of the Old. With\nthe exception of the evangelical gospels, which belong really to both\ndispensations, since the Christ whose life and words and deeds are\nthere recorded is both the consummation of the one dispensation and the\nseed and promise of the other, no part of holy writ exceeds in interest,\nattractiveness, and simplicity the law and the prophets, in which John\nand Peter and Paul were trained.\n\nThe Old Testament contains, albeit in embryo, all doctrines and truths\nessential to the kingdom of Christ. If for a while it was kept secreted\nwithin the bounds of Judaism, this was not because its revelations were\nmeant exclusively for the chosen people, but that its sacred treasures\nmight be guarded from waste and wanton destruction until the rest\nof the world was prepared to welcome them. If much of its meaning\nwas misconceived and misconstrued by the Jewish mind, this must be\nattributed largely to the frailty and ignorance of human nature. The\nNew Testament does not so much add to the Old Testament as illustrate,\nexplain, and apply it. It is the interpreter, not the destroyer, of the\nOld. It opens its secrets, brings to light its truths, reveals to us\nthe face of Jesus Christ everywhere in it, and enforces its teachings\nby the power of the Holy Spirit. But the Scriptures of the Old\nTestament are the imperishable record of the foundation of Christ\u2019s\nkingdom upon earth. Without them the writings of the New Testament\nwould be without connection with that continuous chain of inspiration\nwhose first link was forged when God said, \u201cLet there be light.\u201d\nAnd, equally so, without the New Testament the Old would be merely a\nfoundation lacking a superstructure, and thus incomplete. Its chain of\ninspiration would be without any sure anchorage in the future eternity,\nand thus hang helpless and useless, with no power to bridge the gulf\nbetween the alpha and omega, the beginning of time and its end. But\nthe Old Testament can never become obsolete. Not one jot or tittle of\nit shall pass away until all is fulfilled. And the revelation given in\nthe New \u2666Testament can no more supersede or abolish it than science can\nsupersede nature, of which it is the ordained expositor.\n\n \u2666 \u201cTestameut\u201d replaced with \u201cTestament\u201d\n\nThere is a healthiness, too, about the Old Testament like to the quiet\nrestfulness of nature. When men are disposed to wander from the safe\npath into the vagaries of mysticism or asceticism nothing will correct\nthe aberrance more surely than diligent and profound study of its sober\nrealities and its everyday life. The reading of it calms the fevers\nand dispels the illusions to which we are prone. It brings to us those\nsoothing influences which we feel when we look at the\n\n \u201cGood gigantic smile of the brown old earth\n On autumn mornings,\u201d\n\nor, lying under forest shades, watch the gentle swaying of foliage, or\nlisten to the purling of brooks, or catch glimpses of the calm blue sky.\nWe need its concrete facts to save us from the abstractions of a vague\nand unreal idealism.\n\nThus closes the vision of the trumpets. They represent the messengers\nwhom God employs to call men to repentance, the methods he avails\nhimself of to forward the kingdom within and without us. He will not\ncease to strive with us until every appeal likely to reach us has been\ntried. When nature and the supernatural, the word of God in providence\nand the richer word of God in revelation, have exerted their power\nthe resources of the divine Being have been, we may with all reverence\nsay, exhausted, and the time is ripe for the closing of the drama of\nprobation, that he which is righteous may be righteous still, and he\nwhich is filthy may be filthy still.\n\nYet the writer of the Revelation does not allow us to remain in doubt\nas to the result of God\u2019s efforts to save a lost world. The wisdom\nof God is not astray. \u201cHe will rest in his love.\u201d He has himself\nabsolute confidence in the success of the plans of redemption. When\nthe _seventh_ and last trumpet shall sound the curtain will fall upon\na world restored to God, upon a paradise regained, and great voices in\nheaven shall say, \u201cThe kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms\nof our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n PART IV\n The Foes of the Kingdom\n\n\n PART IV\n =The Foes of the Kingdom=\n\nWITH chapter xii another section of the Apocalypse begins. Two great\ntruths relating to the kingdom of Christ have been discussed\u2015\u2015the\nfundamental principle of mediatorial sovereignty upon which it is based,\nand the instruments, providence and the written word, by which it is\nadvanced. It follows very naturally and logically that the antagonists\nby whom the kingdom is opposed should also be disclosed to us. Out of\nhis abundant grace and in tender compassion for human ignorance, God\nhas made known to us, through this marvelous book, the adversaries with\nwhom we must contend before the kingdom can attain its consummation in\nour hearts or in the world at large.\n\nWhile no part of the Revelation is easy of interpretation, or can be\nmade intelligible without very careful study both of itself and of the\nwhole Bible, there has been added to this part of it the embarrassment\nof the _odium theologicum_. Bitter controversial strifes have raged\naround the interpretation of it and have raised a cloud of prejudices,\nthrough which the truth has been sometimes dimly seen. From all such\nprejudices we must free ourselves. We are approaching holy ground, and\nit behooves us to put off our shoes, that nothing of human invention\nmay intervene between our naked feet and the sacred floor of God\u2019s\ntemple.\n\nWe need this caution the more because from the nature of the case the\ninterpretation of this part carries us more or less into the field of\nhistory. The foes of the kingdom of Christ are visible foes, as well\nas invisible. The contest is not only for the individual man, but for\nthe race. The commission given to the Church is, \u201cGo, preach my Gospel\nto every creature;\u201d and the keynote of the song of triumph with which\nthe last part closed was, \u201cThe kingdoms of this world are become the\nkingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ.\u201d\n\nThere is, therefore, a tendency to confine the interpretation to the\nfield of history, to direct the attention to large and collective\nbodies of men, either world powers or religious societies, or to those\nhistorical events and cycles of events which have apparently changed\nthe currents of the ages, and to insist that in these the fulfillment\nof the prophecy lies.\n\nBut history itself is only the record of individuals. We delude\nourselves when we fancy that by association anything is created. That\nmystical something which is imagined to be in collective bodies more\nthan in the individuals that compose them is a mere figment of the\nbrain, and to discuss it is simply to revive the barren conceits of the\nschoolmen. A Church is only \u201ca congregation of believing men;\u201d a State\nis a co\u00f6perative association of individuals, not a corporation; and\nneither one has any powers or forces other than those which exist in\nthe individual members. Man is both the microcosm and the macrocosm.\n\nThe chief value of the inspired book which we are now studying lies in\nthe fact that it discloses to us those forces, spiritual and otherwise,\nthe conflict between which makes up the life history of each individual\nof mankind. It is a chart meant for every navigator of this boundless\nocean of human existence. Its truths will be as precious and important\nto the last man on this globe as they are to us. The reefs and breakers\nit describes are not perils past which any age can sail and then look\nback upon as things done with, but dangers which beset every voyager.\nIt is true that in the history of large bodies of men, whether secular\nor religious in their character\u2015\u2015in the temptations, declension, growth,\nand triumph of nations and Churches\u2015\u2015illustrations of its truths and\nfulfillments of its predictions will be found. But these, we must\ninsist, are merely illustrations. Long as the world shall last the\n\u2666Apocalypse will prove itself to be a part of God\u2019s boon of revelation,\nin that each follower of Christ shall find it of inestimable value for\nhis own private guidance, inspiration, and study.\n\n \u2666 \u201cApocalyse\u201d replaced with \u201cApocalypse\u201d\n\nLooking by the light of God\u2019s lamp through the ages to come, John\nwas allowed to foresee the successful completion of the life work and\nplans of Jesus the Saviour. He who began both his gospel and his great\nepistle with \u201cthe beginning\u201d also follows the course of the drama of\nredemption to its final \u201camen.\u201d The saint who, leaning on the bosom of\nJesus, looked up to him as the Author of his faith was also permitted\nto fall at his majestic feet and worship him as its Finisher. And, from\npersonal communion with and contemplation of him as the Son of man,\nhe rose to the grander conception of him as the Christ, the Word of\nGod, King of kings, and Lord of lords. He was taught, also, that the\nprogress through which his own conceptions of the Son of God had passed\nwas but a type and example of that which shall take place in time on\nthe field of the world and in the hearts of mankind. The cross upon\nwhich Jesus of Nazareth suffered was, indeed, a throne from which he\nascended to the crown of the universe. But John, too, saw that ere that\nfinal consummation can be reached there are foes to be encountered,\nhindrances to be removed, antagonists to be overthrown. A great and\neffectual door is opened unto us, but there are many adversaries. To\nthe consideration of these he therefore now calls our attention:\n\n1. _The Dragon, or Satan._\u2015\u2015The first of the adversaries with whom the\nkingdom of Christ has to dispute supremacy is the devil, the archfiend\nand enemy of God and man.\n\nThat Satan, the evil one, is referred to in the description of the\ngreat red dragon having seven heads, ten horns, and seven diadems seems\nan interpretation so natural that it is hardly worth while to seek\nfor far-fetched meanings when so plausible an explanation lies near at\nhand. The ten horns (Zechariah saw but four\u2015\u2015Zechariah i,\u00a018) are the\ninstruments with which he seeks to scatter and destroy the sheep of\nGod. The seven heads with diadems represent the pride and haughtiness\nof spirit in which he boasts that the power and glory of all kingdoms\nhave been delivered to him and that he gives them to whom he will.\nIt is a struggle for life and death between him and the Christ. If\nPaul, the man of affairs, with his practical conception of things\nin their concrete relations, says, \u201cOur wrestling is not against\nflesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers,\nagainst the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual\nhosts of wickedness in the heavenly places\u201d (Revised Version), much\nmore strongly does John, with his intuition of abstract principles,\nrecognize and emphasize the power and working of the dark spirit whose\nnames are Satan and \u201cdestroyer.\u201d No writer of the New Testament speaks\noftener or more clearly of the evil spirit than does John. In vivid\nimagery and with graphic condensation he sums up the history of the\nkingdom of darkness, the long record of Satan\u2019s undying antagonism to\nthe kingdom of Christ.\n\nThe woman arrayed \u201cwith the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon\nher head a crown of twelve stars\u201d (see Genesis xxxvii,\u00a09), represents\nthe Church collectively and in its most general expression; primarily,\nthe Jewish Church, inasmuch as Christianity had just begun its mission;\nbut not confined thereto. Against the Church, against every individual\nof it, this murderer and liar from the beginning wages relentless\nwarfare. His is the power behind all other antagonisms. To devour the\nchild of the woman in the hour of its birth, to destroy humanity itself\nif he can, seems to be the aim of his being. Not a soul is now born\ninto the kingdom of Christ by regenerating grace but Satan is there to\ncrush the newly-given life, if possible, in its inception.\n\nWhen the first gospel of salvation and victory was given to Eve, \u201cThy\nseed shall bruise the serpent\u2019s head,\u201d Satan began his machinations to\ndefeat the prophecy, even though he knew that he could do no more than\nbruise the heel of the promised seed.\n\nWhen the promise given to Abraham of a posterity countless as the stars\nof heaven was about to receive its fulfillment in the extraordinary\nfertility of the sons of Jacob in Egypt, it was Satan who inspired\nPharaoh to issue the cruel edict commanding the death of every Hebrew\nmale child.\n\nWhen Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea it was the same dragon that\nurged Herod to his mad purpose of slaying every young child throughout\nits coasts. \u201cThis is the heir; let us kill him, that the inheritance\nmay be ours.\u201d\n\nAnd it is against this wily foe, \u201cthe prince of the power of the air,\u201d\n\u201cthe spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience,\u201d that we\nall have continually to struggle.\n\nFor protection against such an adversary there is certainly need of\ndivine aid. And that help has never been withheld. \u201cThere were given\nto the woman the two wings of a great eagle.\u201d Is not this an echo of\nExodus xix,\u00a04, \u201cI bare you on eagles\u2019 wings,\u201d and also of Psalm xci,\u00a04,\n\u201cAnd under his wings shalt thou trust\u201d? And in addition to this we\nare told that God prepared \u201ca place\u201d in the wilderness where the woman\nmight fly and be nourished. Does not this refer to Palestine, that\nquiet, secluded land, nigh the great highways of the world and yet\naloof from them, where in comparative isolation Israel might develop\nher own resources and grow in strength until she should be ready for\nher broader mission? If the purpose of the divine Being fell short of\nfull realization the fault was not his, but hers, through her lust to\nbe like the surrounding nations.\n\nThe numbers, too, representing the period of this seclusion, \u201ctwelve\nhundred and sixty days,\u201d and \u201ca time, times, and half a time,\u201d are\nforms of three and a half, which, as has been said in the Introduction,\nsymbolizes Judaism, or any cycle with a definite purpose which is,\nhowever, only a half period.\n\nAnd further confirmation of the reference to the Church of Israel\nis found in the allusion to the archangel Michael, who is always\nrepresented in the Scriptures as sustaining some special relation to\nIsrael (Daniel x,\u00a021; xii,\u00a01).\n\nYet, mighty as Satan is and venomous as is his hostility, the believer\nis endowed with weapons of offense and defense still more potent.\n\u201cThey overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their\ntestimony\u201d (or \u201cwitness\u201d with reference, doubtless, to the testimony of\nthe two witnesses of the preceding chapter). In other words, the cross\nof Christ and the word of God are the conquering weapons with which\nbelievers win the victory over Satan. The Lord Jesus had most plainly\nforetold the secret of victory in the hearing of John when he had said,\n\u201cNow is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world\nbe cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all\nmen unto me.\u201d And, doubtless, these words came with fullness and force\nto the memory of the apostle when he heard the \u201cloud voice saying in\nheaven, Now is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God,\nand the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast\ndown.\u201d\n\nNot yet, however, is Satan ready to cease his efforts to destroy. He\nchanges the field of conflict, but does not relinquish the malice of\nhis assault. If he cannot in heaven, that is, the Church, countervail\nthe kingdom of Christ, he will attempt it in the earth, on the field\nof secular life. \u201cThe serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood,\nafter the woman: that he might cause her to be carried away of the\nflood.\u201d There is, perhaps, a reference here to Isaiah lix,\u00a019: \u201cWhen\nthe enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift\nup a standard against him.\u201d Looking back at that chapter, we shall find\nthat the flood spoken of means an unusual increase of social disorders\nand crimes. That is most probably the meaning here. Satan is the foe\nalike of God and man. His enmity is directed as much against all order\nand morality as against goodness and righteousness. He is that \u201clawless\none\u201d of whom Paul speaks in 2 Thessalonians ii,\u00a03 (Revised Version). If\nhe were allowed to carry out his will he would subvert all government,\nspiritual or secular. But, says the apostle and seer, \u201cThe earth helped\nthe woman.\u201d For its own protection and existence the State must execute\nlaws, must preserve order, and must secure itself against anarchy and\nunbridled libertinism; and, in so far as it guards social morality, it\nfosters spiritual prosperity. In restraining crime and violence it must\nneeds allow the kingdom of Christ opportunity to grow.\n\nFoiled thus again, Satan does not abandon the conflict, but resorts to\nother and more wily means to make war with the \u201cremnant\u201d of the woman\u2019s\nseed \u201cwhich keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of\nJesus Christ;\u201d and the history of these efforts must next engage our\nattention.\n\n2. _The First Wild Beast, or the Spirit of Worldliness._\u2015\u2015In the\nchapter of the Revelation which precedes the appearance of the beasts\n(Revelation xii,\u00a012) the warning had been given, \u201cWoe to the inhabiters\nof the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you,\nhaving great wrath.\u201d We are now to witness the fulfillment of this\nwarning. The apostle saw two wild beasts rise, one from the sea, the\nother from the land, both of them formidable foes and intense in their\nhostility to the kingdom of Christ. There can hardly be a question but\nthat these are intended to represent the means by which Satan, thwarted\nin his direct assaults, endeavors to carry on his warfare. And just\nas Christ, in carrying forward his mediatorial kingdom, makes use of\nthe two instrumentalities, providence and the written word, so also,\nin imitation of him, his fierce antagonist has his two emissaries and\nagents. We shall find as we study this part of the Revelation that one\nof the most deceptive and dangerous arts which Satan employs is his\nmanner of counterfeiting the form and aping the methods of Christ, in\nhope that he may thereby delude the unsuspecting or heedless. We ought,\ntherefore, very carefully to note every feature, that we may be able\nto detect these dangerous incarnations of the spirit of evil, and thus\nescape his snares.\n\nThe first wild beast of John\u2019s vision rose from the sea\u2015\u2015an expression\nwhich, when used symbolically, designates the secular or temporal\nworld, in antithesis to the Church. His distinctive characteristics are\nintense pride, the possession of vast power, strong vitality enabling\nhim to recover speedily from severe injuries, insatiable craving after\nhomage and ability to secure it, outrageous blasphemy, and undisguised\nas well as unceasing hostility to Christ and his saints. It is a mooted\nquestion whether by this beast John meant to describe and foretell\nthe coming of some individual person or some organization of men,\nsecular or religious, State or Church; or whether the characteristics\nhe portrays are intended to represent some principle of evil, always\nat work, mightier and more enduring than any organization of men, which\nmanifests itself in various forms and at all times, but transcends all\nits manifestations, and against which, because it is one of Satan\u2019s\nmost successful means of antagonism, every Christian must keep\nperpetual watch.\n\nThe latter of these hypotheses seems to be more in keeping with the\ncast of John\u2019s strongly idealistic and abstract mind, and also with the\npurpose of the Apocalypse as intended for the edifying of believers.\nAnd furthermore, as the kingdom of God is not something that cometh\n\u201cwith observation,\u201d so that men can say of it, \u201cLo here! or, lo there!\u201d\nbut is something \u201cwithin\u201d us, so its opponent is not to be sought in\nany particular organization or special event or single individual, but\nrather in some abstract principle, all the more dangerous because it\nexists separate and distinct from these.\n\nIn his description of this wild beast John draws his data from\nthe prophecy of Daniel; and a study of that book will aid in the\nelucidation of this. It is, indeed, true that in the mind of Daniel\nthe antagonists and allies of God alike assumed the form of kingdoms,\nor world powers. But this resulted from the fact that his cast of mind\nwas essentially concrete, and also because as a statesman and man of\naffairs, charged with the administration of finances and politics,\naccustomed to the handling of men in collective bodies and to deal with\nmatters affecting their external relations, his conceptions of religion\nregarded rather its outward manifestations than its inward power.\nWe are not, however, compelled to believe that John, while using the\nprophecies of Daniel as his basis, was limited to the conceptions of\nthe older prophet. He had a better key to the hieroglyphics of the\nkingdom and could read their meaning more clearly. Behind the forces\nwhich play their part upon the world\u2019s stage he could recognize the\nspiritual principles of which they were incarnations.\n\nThe world power which loomed largest to the mind of Daniel, and whose\nhostility to the kingdom of Christ was most dreaded by him, was one\nthat sprang up after the death and among the successors of Alexander\nthe Great. That extraordinary captain and gifted statesman, the first\nruler who grasped the conception of the essential unity of mankind and\nwho strove to realize it by the fusion of races into one nation, left\nno one at his death capable of comprehending or executing his plans;\nand the empire that was formed by his ten generals was a heterogeneous\none, possessing elements both of weakness and strength that were\nincapable of being welded into unity. Among the descendants and\nsuccessors of these generals was Antiochus Epiphanes, whose hatred\nof Judaism amounted to real monomania, and whose insane purpose\nto exterminate utterly the customs, usages, religion, and even the\nexistence of Judaism carried him to such extremes as to arouse a spirit\nof revolt which, under the guidance of the Maccabees, defeated his\nintent. In him the prophet Daniel foresaw the incarnation of all that\nis hostile to Christ and his kingdom.\n\nIn the days of John the political sovereignty of the world was wielded\nby a still more formidable power, one that combined in itself the\nstrength of all the four kingdoms of Daniel, uniting the lion, the bear,\nand the leopard with the added and imparted authority and power of the\ndragon. That power was the Roman Empire, between which and Christianity\nhad already begun the antagonism which was to leave its decisive and\ndisastrous effects upon both.\n\nThe policy of Rome toward conquered peoples and religions had not\nbeen one, customarily, of harsh severity; indeed, it had been marked\nin general by unusual liberality. Having so many gods in her own\nPantheon, it has been said, the addition or subtraction of a few\nmore or less was hardly worth consideration. But upon one thing Rome\ninvariably and absolutely insisted\u2015\u2015the preservation of public order.\nHer administration was one of strict, even stern, paternalism. The\nindividual existed for the State, and had no rights but such as the\nState allowed. The central power did all the thinking; the subject\nhad only to submit, whatever his personal wishes. Upon the emperor,\nas the embodiment of the State, devolved the onerous responsibility of\nsecuring and, if need were, of enforcing peaceful and lawful relations\nbetween men and men. Whenever therefore, the profession of any religion\nor the organization of any guild or association interfered with the\nprosperity of any branch of trade or commerce or manufacture, the\nemperor felt called upon to interpose, in order to redress the injury\ncaused or wrong suffered thereby. The more conscientious and upright\nthe emperor, the more he felt the responsibility of administering the\nlaws; and thus just and righteous rulers, like Trajan and Antoninus and\nMarcus Aurelius, were more likely to enforce these rules of order, even\nto the point of persecution, than such men as Nero and Caligula and\nDomitian, upon whom moral considerations sat loosely.\n\nThe early persecutions of Christians sprang out of this fact. There\nwere things Christian men would not do. They would not eat meat\nsacrificed to idols; they would not attend the spectacles of the\ntheater; they would not worship or own images; and, as the trades and\nprofessions that lived by these things suffered with the increase of\nChristians, complaint was made to the emperor, and the power of the\nState invoked in behalf of public order. The riot at Ephesus (Acts xix,\n23\u201241) is a case in illustration.\n\nVery soon, however, the Roman authorities came to see that there was\nsomething back of Christian worship that differentiated it from other\ncults. There was a principle of individual liberty, a conviction of\npersonal freedom, an appreciation of unseen and divine realities which,\nif unchecked, threatened the paternalism and the emperor\u2015\u2015the worship\nof the C\u00e6sars and the continuance of the empire; and so Christians\nbegan to be persecuted simply because they were Christians. Thus began\nthe antagonism that did not cease until the empire became nominally\nChristian, and the Church, striving after the universality of the\nempire, became worldly and paternal in its turn. This antagonism John\nclearly discerned, and reveals it in the Apocalypse.\n\nBut we shall be astray if we conceive that the beast which the\napostle saw symbolized only the Roman or any other empire. There\nis an evil principle which was in existence long before that empire\nwas established, and has continued with unabating energy since its\ndissolution; of whose power earthly and worldly kingdoms are but\nmanifestations; which Satan has employed in all ages as one of his most\nsuccessful weapons; and whose deadly hostility to the Christian and the\nChurch is implacable. It is the principle of worldliness, that spirit\nof the world against which the Bible so frequently and faithfully warns\nus.\n\nIt is not easy to define worldliness. If it could be described\nexactly, and its bounds accurately meted, its danger would be greatly\ndiminished. If we could point to the doing or abstaining from doing\nof specified things, or the using or refraining from using of any\nparticular faculties, and say, \u201cThis is worldliness and this only,\u201d\nhow much easier it would be to avoid it! Worldliness is a principle,\na spirit and temper of the soul. It can find a field for its exercise\nanywhere and everywhere, in things essentially good as well as in the\nessentially evil. Its intrinsic spirit lies in this\u2015\u2015that it disengages\nmen and things from their normal relation of dependence upon and\nsubjection to God, and sets them up as rivals to him. It assumes to\ndisplace the Creator from his rightful sovereignty over thoughts and\ndesires and affections and activities, and transfers allegiance to\nsome created thing. It substitutes something temporal and earthly for\nGod and gives to it the worship that belongs undividedly to him. It\nmanifests itself, John tells us, in \u201cthe lust of the flesh, the lust of\nthe eyes, and the vainglory of life.\u201d This is the spirit of which the\nBible speaks so plainly and forcibly in passages like these: \u201cIf the\nworld hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you;\u201d \u201cThe\ncarnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of\nGod, neither indeed can be;\u201d \u201cKnow ye not that the friendship of the\nworld is enmity with God? whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the\nworld, is the enemy of God;\u201d \u201cIf any man love the world, the love of\nthe Father is not in him.\u201d And every characteristic of the wild beast\nwhich John saw exhibits this spirit of worldliness. It, and it alone,\nexhausts the fullness of the description.\n\nOf this beast which John saw, one of the heads was, as it were,\n\u201cwounded [or slain] to death\u201d\u2015\u2015the very words which were used in the\ndescription of the Lamb (Revelation v,\u00a06), as if there were in this an\nattempted, although feeble, imitation of Christ. Worldliness, too, has\nits Calvaries and Gethsemanes; but they fall far short in measure and\nin purpose of the great sacrifice of the cross. They are compulsory,\nnot self-chosen sacrifices; they are not redemptive and substitutional\nin their design, but retributive inflictions of divine justice; they\ninvolve but a part of the being, and are not, as was Christ\u2019s offering,\nthe surrender of the whole self.\n\nMany such wounds has worldliness received. The serpent\u2019s head has been\nbruised again and again by the seed of the woman. In the judgments\nwhich have come upon the world throughout the course of its history\u2015\u2015in\nthe deluge, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the exodus from\nEgypt, the overthrow of Nineveh and Babylon, the fall of Jerusalem\u2015\u2015its\nspirit has been rebuked, condemned, punished. Indeed, in all the\ndissolutions and decay of nature\u2015\u2015in the fading of the grass, in the\nfalling of the flower and of the leaf\u2015\u2015the warning is being constantly\ngiven, \u201cThe world passeth away, and the lust thereof.\u201d Most of all,\nin the cross of Christ has the world received its deadliest wound. But\nhow soon is the wound healed, how quickly are the lessons of providence\nforgotten! and the tide of worldliness, stayed for a moment, resumes\nits volume and rapidity and carries its victims to their destruction.\n\nIt is this power of recuperation which contributes to the might of\nworldliness and makes it the more dangerous. Success adds to its\nfascinations and multiplies its votaries. \u201cAll the world wondered\nafter the beast\u201d whose deadly wound was healed. In comparison with its\ntriumphs the cross of Christ becomes a stumbling-block to some and\nfoolishness to others, because of the paucity of its victories. And in\nworshiping the beast its followers are scarcely aware, or are oblivious\nto the fact, that they are worshiping the dragon himself; for Paul says,\n\u201cThe things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and\nnot to God.\u201d\n\nAnother striking and conspicuous characteristic of the first beast was\nhis virulent blasphemy. Upon his heads were \u201cthe names of blasphemy.\u201d\nThe voices of his mouth were blasphemy. His fierce, ambitious purpose\nto displace God and usurp his throne\u2015\u2015and this is what the Bible\ndefines blasphemy to be\u2015\u2015moved him to demand such homage as can be\ngiven rightly to God alone, and to set up his own tabernacle and name\nas competitors with God\u2019s. Is not this descriptive of the spirit of\nworldliness? How exacting it is of the worship of its devotees! In\nplace of the Creator, who is blessed for ever, it substitutes the\ncreature. It enthrones nature in some one or other of its phases as the\nrival of the divine Being. It will not admit the visible universe, with\nits laws, to be merely the vehicle through which God reveals himself\nand his thoughts, but demands for it equality of homage with its Maker.\nIt does not claim for itself power to work miracles, and will not\nbelieve that any are possible. It does not base its authority upon any\nsupernatural revelation, and denies that any is needful. Like Absalom,\nin the gates it whispers in every man\u2019s ears, \u201cO that I were made judge\nin the land!\u201d and thus draws unwary souls into treason against their\nKing. It arrogates to itself the right to the whole of man\u2019s being\u2015\u2015to\nall beauty and life, to all literature and art, to all recreation and\nenjoyment, to the exclusive and undivided use and administration of all\nearthly powers and faculties.\n\nAnd how ruthless and cruel this spirit of worldliness can be! Does any\nhuman soul, driven by dissatisfaction and heartache, seek to lift the\nveil and penetrate to the secret shrine of the universe, or to pierce\nthe \u201crose mesh\u201d of mystery that surrounds us and ascend to the divine\nSpirit above and beyond it, how quickly is the fascinating smile of the\nworld turned to bitter scorn, and its smooth flattery to remorseless\npersecution! With what haughtiness and assumption does it contend that,\nin everything relating to music and poetry, to the \u00e6sthetic arts, to\nfinance and politics and social matters, the question of morals has no\nplace and God and religion have no right to enter!\n\nTo this beast, we are further informed, power, or authority, was given\n\u201cto continue forty and two months.\u201d This number, it has been previously\nsaid, is the symbol of an epoch which is limited and fractional, but\nwhich has a definite purpose pervading it.\n\nThroughout the whole period of Judaism this beast raged with all his\nferocity against the Church of the Old Testament. And, although the\nwild beast next to be delineated was a more formidable adversary to\nreligion than even he, yet the temptation to fall into the ways, and\nfollow the practices, and to drop down to the religious level of the\nungodly world of heathenism around constituted a peril to the Hebrew\nfaith against which the prophets had need frequently to lift their\nvoices. And how constant even now is the peril to the Christian Church\nand the Christian believer of falling into the worship of the same\nbeast of worldliness, is so patent a truth that every man\u2019s observation\nand experience are sufficient to prove it. The victims of worldliness\nare, indeed, many, and to resist sorely tries \u201cthe patience and the\nfaith of the saints.\u201d But its doom is sure and irretrievable, whether\nthat doom shall come by the sword of God or by captivity. Its own\nmethods of hostility shall be turned against itself.\n\n3. _The Second Wild Beast, or the Spirit of False Prophetism._\u2015\u2015In\nattempting to solve the mystery of the second wild beast which John\nsaw we are confronted with a task much more serious than has as yet\nbeen presented to us. Not only is this antagonist of Christ a more\nformidable one than any hitherto encountered, but there seems an almost\npurposed obscurity and indistinctness about the description, as if to\nthe seer himself the beast appeared in so vague and nebulous a form,\nor else was of such composite and heterogeneous character, as to be\nincapable of more exact delineation. The only way to reach the truth is\nto seek out such features of the description as may be regarded plain,\nand from them to advance to the more perplexing ones.\n\nIt will be noticed, then, that the second beast rises not as the\npreceding from the sea, but from the earth; that is, from the Church,\nnot in its ideal state, but in its actual condition, as the field of\nhuman activity and influence.\n\nAgain, it is noticeable that, while in the description of the first\nbeast the expression \u201cit was given him\u201d occurs again and again (much\nmore conspicuously in the original than in the translation), in the\ncase of the second one this expression is, in the main, although not\nin every instance, superseded by words suggesting active agency\u2015\u2015\u201che\ndoeth,\u201d \u201che maketh,\u201d \u201che causeth\u201d\u2015\u2015these being all various renderings\nof the same Greek word. This would seem to imply that, while the first\nbeast is merely an emissary or instrument executing the will of another,\nthe second differs from him in that he has, or assumes to have, some\npower of originating action, some causative agency, and that he regards\nhimself as having independent authority. While, therefore, the results\neffected by both are the same (\u201cHe had power to give breath to the\nimage of the beast\u201d), those results are brought about in different ways.\n\nAnother very important feature of the description is that, while the\ndistinguishing characteristic of the first beast is blasphemy\u2015\u2015an open\nand undisguised assumption of the prerogatives of God, with intense and\navowed hostility to him\u2015\u2015the properties of the second are duplicity,\ndeception, and self-deceit\u2015\u2015perversion of the truth rather than\nantagonism to it; and hypocrisy, if more insidious, is far deadlier\nthan open opposition. He has the appearance of a lamb, while speaking\nas a dragon. He is said to work miracles, or at least is said to\nprofess so to do, which the first beast did not. And he counterfeits\nthe work of God, in that by a peculiar mark he stamps upon his\nfollowers his claim to them, as the divine Being affixes to his a seal\nin attestation of his ownership.\n\nOne further remark may be made. Three times in the subsequent part\nof the Revelation (Revelation xvi,\u00a013; xix,\u00a020; xx,\u00a010) these two\nadversaries of Christ are brought into juxtaposition, and in these\ninstances it is the first beast alone who is designated by that name.\nThe second beast has the synonym of \u201cthe false prophet.\u201d The term\nseems to mark his superior power or craft; to the malice of a beast\nis added the higher intelligence of a man. The combination attests the\nformidable character of this wily antagonist.\n\nIn this last-named feature lies a suggestion which may serve as a clew\nto the interpretation of the symbol and unveil its mystery. A false\nprophet can stand only in contrast with a true one. It will be needful,\ntherefore, to discuss, somewhat in detail, the characteristic functions\nof the prophetical office as set forth in the Scriptures.\n\n\u201cThe usage of the word [prophet],\u201d says Cremer,\u00b9 \u201cis clear. It\nsignifies one to whom and through whom God speaks. What really\nconstitutes the prophet is immediate intercourse with God, a divine\ncommunication of what the prophet must declare. Two things, therefore,\ngo to make the prophet\u2015\u2015an insight granted by God into the divine\nsecrets or mysteries, and a communication to others of those secrets.\nNew Testament prophets were for the Christian Church what Old Testament\nprophets were for Israel, inasmuch as they maintained intact the\nimmediate connection between the Church and, not the Holy Spirit in her,\nbut the God of her salvation above her. The prophets, both in the old\nand the new dispensations, were messengers or media of communication\nbetween the upper and the lower world.\u201d\n\n \u00b9 _Lexicon of New Testament Greek_, third English edition,\n pp. 568,\u00a0569.\n\n\u201cThe primary idea of a prophet,\u201d says Ewald,\u00b9 \u201cis of one who has seen\nor heard something which does not concern himself, or not himself alone,\nwhich will not let him rest. It wholly absorbs him, ... so that he\nno longer hears or is conscious of himself, but of the loud and clear\nvoice of another who is higher than himself. He acts and speaks, not of\nhis own accord; a higher one impels him, to resist whom is sin. It is\nhis God, who is also the God of those to whom he must speak.\u201d\n\n \u00b9 _Prophets of the Old Testament_, vol.\u00a0i, p.\u00a07. London,\n Williams and Norgate.\n\n\u201cThat which,\u201d says Oehler,\u00b9 \u201cmade the prophet a prophet was not his\nnatural gifts nor his own intention; and that which he proclaimed as\nthe prophetic word was not the mere result of instruction received nor\nthe product of his own reflection. The prophet, as such, knows himself\nto be the organ of divine revelation, in virtue both of a divine\nvocation capable of being known by him as such, ... and also of his\nendowment with the enlightening, sanctifying, and strengthening Spirit\nof God.\u201d\n\n \u00b9 _Theology of the Old Testament_, \u00a7\u00a7 205, 206. New York, Funk\n and Wagnalls.\n\nWith these statements the concurrent testimony of the New Testament\nis in harmony: \u201cGod ... at sundry times and in divers manners spake\nin time past unto the fathers by the prophets\u201d (Hebrews i,\u00a01); \u201cThe\nprophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God\nspake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost\u201d (2 Peter i,\u00a021).\n\nIt was, therefore, essential to the credibility and authority of the\nprophet that he should have received some direct revelation from God.\nThe message intrusted to him to deliver must be from a source above and\noutside himself. It was not sufficient that God spake in him; he must\nbe able to say that God spake to him. When to the student prepared\nby the guidance of a teacher to receive them nature reveals its facts\nand laws, these come to him as something external to him. They are not\nsuggestions or inspirations of his own mind, but owe their origin to a\nsource exterior to it. So likewise with the prophet. How the revelation\ncame to him, and how his hearers became convinced that God had spoken\nto him, are questions that do not touch the truth of his message. The\nimportant thing is that the prophet was the agent and representative of\nGod in delivering a message which had previously been committed to him.\nHerein lay the distinction between the priesthood and the prophetical\noffice. A priest was a man on whom was laid the responsibility of\nappearing before God on behalf of men; a prophet was one who stood in\nthe presence of men on behalf of God. A priest represented man in the\ncourt of God; a prophet represented God in the court of human life. A\npriest was man\u2019s advocate; a prophet was God\u2019s advocate. The function\nof the priest was to intercede for his fellows; identity of condition\nand tender sympathy with them were therefore prime requisites. The\nfunction of a prophet was to deliver God\u2019s word to man; strict fidelity\nto his message and to the truth were his essential qualifications.\nAs the priesthood, then, was a type of Christ, finding its perfect\nrealization in him who laid down his life a ransom for us, the\nprophetical office was a type of the Holy Ghost, whose work it is\nto convey to man the message of God, whether it be of conviction, of\njustification, of sanctification, of inspiration, or of assurance.\n\nIf, therefore, by a \u201cfalse Christ\u201d is meant one who usurps the place\nof Christ and substitutes himself for him, demanding from men the\nallegiance due only to the Son of God, then by a \u201cfalse prophet\u201d must\nbe meant one who unconsciously or purposely substitutes himself for the\nHoly Spirit, setting forth his own conceptions or visions as the voice\nof God.\n\n\u201cThe characteristic,\u201d says Oehler,\u00b9 \u201cof the false prophets is declared\nto be that they speak that which they themselves have devised. These\nlatter are designated (Ezekiel xiii,\u00a02) as prophets \u2018out of their own\nhearts,\u2019 who \u2018follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing;\u2019 \u2018they\nspeak,\u2019 according to Jeremiah xxiii,\u00a016, \u2018a vision of their own heart,\nand not out of the mouth of the Lord.\u2019\u201d\n\n \u00b9 _Theology of the Old Testament_, p.\u00a0464.\n\nNo stage of history has been free from such presumptuous prophets.\nTheir existence and the disastrous work they wrought are set forth\nagain and again in the Old Testament Scriptures. But that their\nappearance in larger numbers and under more formidable guises may be\nexpected in the New Testament dispensation follows from a consideration\nof the influence of Christianity upon human nature.\n\nUnquestionably, one marked result of that copious effusion of the Holy\nSpirit, which beginning at Pentecost has continued until now, was a\nquickening of the human soul to a realization of its individuality.\nFifteen centuries of sad experience and a convulsion which disrupted\nWestern Christendom were needed to bring any large portion of the\nChurch to an appreciation of the privileges which inhere in this\nindividualism. Since the great Reformation of the sixteenth century,\nmen have come by freer study of the Bible to discern more clearly the\npossibilities which it teaches of personal consciousness of sonship,\nand of the individual possession by the Holy Spirit of every soul\navailing itself of the privilege; although there have never been\nwanting those who have discerned the possibility of individual\ncommunion with the spiritual world.\n\nIn individualism lurks a danger against which no revelation can\nabsolutely secure us. I may transgress its prescribed limitations and\nbecome excessive. It may strive after independence from its Creator\nand put forth its hands to forbidden fruit. It may assume prerogatives\nwhich the divine Being reserves to himself. It may substitute its\nown imaginings and volitions for voices of God, and displace that\nreal spirituality which only the Holy Ghost can create with an\nauto-spiritualism which is deceptive, illusory, and specious, the\nprecursor of spiritual and intellectual anarchy.\n\nOur Lord gave warning of this peril when, predicting the trials which\nshould come, he said, \u201cThere shall arise false Christs, and false\nprophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if\nit were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.\u201d Paul foresaw it,\nsaying to the Ephesian elders, \u201cOf your own selves shall men arise,\nspeaking perverse things, to drawaway disciples after them.\u201d It was\nthis which led John to write, \u201cBelieve not every spirit, but try the\nspirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone\nout into the world.\u201d\n\nThe writer of the Revelation had no need to go beyond his own memory to\nfind symptoms of this spirit. Already it had begun to manifest itself\nin the apostolic Church. Simon Magus was a conspicuous but not solitary\nexample. In the epistles to the seven churches there are cautions\nagainst \u201cthe Nicolaitans\u201d and \u201cthe woman Jezebel, which calleth herself\na prophetess,\u201d very distinct from those which denounce the pleasures\nor the persecutions of the world. In the ante-Nicene age gnosticism,\nwith its pretensions to a theosophy more profound, a knowledge\nmore extensive and exact, a code of ethics more consistent, and a\nself-denial more rigid than those of the faithful, was a more dangerous\nadversary than the Roman empire; and we who appreciate the skillfulness\nof its specious arguments realize that nothing but the providence of\nGod carried the artless and unsuspicious Church safely through the\nperil.\u00b9 And throughout the ages since there has been a continuous\nreappearance of this spirit, sometimes within, sometimes outside\nthe Church; not always avowedly antagonistic to Christianity, but\nassuming to be a more perfect form of it; not impugning the authority\nof the Scriptures, but claiming to possess deeper views of their\nesoteric meaning; not openly subverting the foundations of morals,\nbut superseding them by a show of a more austere and uncompromising\nsanctimoniousness. It so puts on the appearance of a lamb that its\ndragon nature is hard to detect. It has cropped out in Manich\u00e6ism, in\nPaulicianism, in Albigensianism, among hermits and pillar saints, among\npietists, mystics, occultists, and other professors of a strained and\nexalted perfection and illumination to which only the elect initiate\ncan aspire, and from which the common masses of believers are excluded.\n\n \u00b9 Bigg, _Christian Platonists of Alexandria_, Bampton Lectures,\n 1886, lecture\u00a0i, p.\u00a035; Harnack, _History of Dogma_, book\u00a0i,\n chapter iv.\n\nIt is hard to describe this spirit by a single name. It wears so many\nforms that no one word can comprehend all of them. Even the apostolic\npen failed to depict this adversary clearly or sketch its outline with\ndistinctness. Deceit seems to be the pervading and controlling element\nof its being, and to affect both substance and form. But it has as\nits usual accompaniment one mark which it stamps upon its devotees\u2015\u2015a\nscrupulous and rigid asceticism which deludes itself with the hope\nof emancipation from the necessary conditions of earthly life, which\ndenounces as sinful things proper in themselves, simply because\nthey are natural or secular, and which aims at the profitless and\nimpracticable task of anticipating in this life the celestial state of\ndisembodied spirits. No creature can ever with impunity contravene the\nlaws imposed upon his nature. The abnormal and excessive development\nof one side of man\u2019s constitution is sure to involve a corresponding\natrophy of some other side, and thus the sins excluded by one system\nof defenses find entrance through some other avenue left unguarded. And\nthe constant result of asceticism has been in the end to revive with\nnew power the worldliness it aimed to destroy; so that in this sense\nthe second beast gives \u201clife\u201d and breath \u201cunto the image\u201d of the first.\nFor the termination of all hyperspiritualism has been either in an\narrogant self-exaltation, the very opposite of Christian humility and\nlove, or in an antinomianism which, under the affectation of liberty,\ngives loose rein to sensualism.\n\nTo the question, which thus becomes of vital importance, How shall we\n\u201ctry the spirits\u201d to know \u201cwhether they are of God\u201d? John has elsewhere\nfurnished a sufficient answer: \u201cEvery spirit that confesseth that Jesus\nChrist is come in the flesh is of God: and every spirit that confesseth\nnot that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is\nthat spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come;\nand even now already is it in the world\u201d (1 John iv, 2,\u00a03).\n\nThe central principle of all asceticism, in whatever form, and whether\nperceived and acknowledged or not, is that matter is essentially evil\nand spirit essentially good. It is in the contact of soul with body\nand of spirit with matter that sin lies. Holiness, therefore, means\nonly the diminution or destruction of this contact. All bodily desires,\nactivities, and enjoyments, if they cannot be annihilated, must be\nreduced to the minimum, that thereby the ascendency of the spirit\nmay be gained and maintained. Thus human nature is mutilated to half\nits capacities. Religion becomes only a \u201cconcision,\u201d not a process of\ntransformation. The problem of redemption is no longer the moral one\nof the salvation of the soul from the guilt and pollution of sin, but\nthe metaphysical one of the liberation of the spirit from matter.\u00b9\nBy such as hold this view of things the assumption by the Son of\nGod of the likeness of sinful flesh, his birth, his fellowship with\nearthly conditions and experiences, can never be fully accepted; his\ncrucifixion is attenuated into a figure of speech or becomes a mere\nparable, and cannot be the necessary means of our salvation.\n\n \u00b9 M\u00f6ller, _History of the Christian Church_, vol.\u00a0i, pp.\n 152,\u00a0153. New York, Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1892.\n\nAgainst such a theory the Revelation is one long protest. Its keynote\nis salvation through \u201cthe Lamb that was slain.\u201d Nor does anything prove\nso conclusively that John was the author of the Apocalypse as the fact\nthat in it, in the fourth gospel, and in the epistles which bear his\nname, the central and fundamental truth was the same: \u201cThe Word was\nmade flesh, and dwelt among us;\u201d and, \u201cThis is he that came by water\nand blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood.\nAnd it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.\u201d\n\nThe acquisition of knowledge depends as much upon a right method as\nupon an earnest purpose. Alphabets must be mastered before sentences\ncan be read. No one can understand the higher mathematics who has not\nbeen grounded in the fundamental axioms. And one of the axioms of the\nspiritual life is that the Holy Spirit cannot be given until Jesus is\nglorified (John vii,\u00a039). Whoever does not accept, with all implied\ntherein, the exemplary earthly life and the atoning and sacrificial\ndeath of the Son of God may well pause to reflect whether the spirit\nwhich leads and moves him is indeed the Spirit of God, or whether it\nis not the spirit of evil and untruth. We may not set limits to the\nspiritual flights of which the soul is capable, but it must have a\nsolid basis from which to start; otherwise it wastes its strength in\naimless wanderings amid mazy fogs and vagaries.\n\nThe path of truth lies between extremes, and from either side of the\nridge along which it winds steep declines lead to dangerous abysses.\nIf a man, on the one hand, accepts to the full the reality of the\nincarnation of the Son of God, and then does not advance to that other\nrevealed truth, that the Holy Ghost is of equal power and divinity and\nthat his mission is as wide in its range and as complete in its effects,\nreligion will be to him a thing of externals, of outward and mechanical\nforms and rites. On the other hand, the ascetic who would aspire to\nthe full heights of the revelation of the Holy Spirit without accepting\nwhat must precede success\u2015\u2015the real humanity of our Lord, his cross,\nhis grave, his resurrection\u2015\u2015will surely miss the path and be lost in\nabstractions, fanaticisms, delusion, and deceit.\n\nOne last feature descriptive of the second beast remains to be\nconsidered\u2015\u2015the number of his name. \u201cLet him that hath understanding\ncount the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his\nnumber is six hundred threescore and six.\u201d If John meant to cover a\nmystery he has certainly succeeded, for no explanation has as yet been\noffered convincing enough to command the acceptance of the Church.\nUnquestionably this is the most difficult to solve of all the problems\nof the book, and the apostle is thought to intimate this in saying,\n\u201cHere is wisdom;\u201d although possibly his meaning is that the special\nneed for wisdom lies in defense against the wiles of this adversary,\nrather than in solving the mystery of his name.\n\nThe interpretation which has met with the largest assent is based on\nthe usage of employing the letters of the Greek and Hebrew alphabets as\nnumerals. Men have attempted to discover some name the letters of which\nwhen added will give the numerical value six hundred and sixty-six.\nThe name which has secured the largest number of advocates is Lateinos\n(Latin), which, written in Greek characters and numbered, gives six\nhundred and sixty-six. By Roman Catholic interpreters who accept this\nsolution the empire of Rome is supposed to be meant; by Protestants,\nthe Church of Rome. Dr. Adam Clarke thought this solution to \u201camount\nnearly to demonstration.\u201d\n\nIn recent times many German and other scholars, mainly for reasons\nbased on a special theory of the date of the Revelation, prefer the\nwords Nero C\u00e6sar, which, written in Hebrew letters, number six hundred\nand sixty-six. Iren\u00e6us (died about 202), who attempted the problem, out\nof many names preferred Teitan, possibly to suggest an analogy between\nthe attempts of Roman emperors to crush the Church and the unsuccessful\nwar of the Titans against the gods, without venturing to put forth his\nopinions in more definite form. Very many other names of men, ancient\nand modern, have been proposed, with greater or less plausibility; for\ncuriosity to decipher numerical symbols, when it possesses a man, holds\nhim with almost the fascination of gambling. But it is apparent that\nthe combination of names possible with only a few letters is so much\nbeyond computation that almost apostolical inspiration is requisite to\ndecide upon the right one.\n\nTo the word \u201cLateinos,\u201d strong as are its claims, the objection lies\nthat the Roman or Latin empire can scarcely be meant, since the beast\nJohn describes is evidently a spiritual power, not a secular one. Nor\ncan the Roman Church be meant, for it was not known as Latin in the\ndays of the apostle, nor for centuries afterward; and, as one design\nof the Apocalypse was to comfort and instruct the generation in which\nJohn lived, it would have been inconsistent with that design to select\na name which could have no meaning intelligible to it or to many\ngenerations succeeding. There is wisdom in the words of Bleek:\u00b9 \u201cThe\ndiscovery that a definite name contains this number as the value of its\nletters in Greek would not warrant us to assume the correctness of the\ninterpretation if other hints in the book respecting the beast did not\nagree.\u201d\n\n \u00b9 _Lectures on the Apocalypse_, p.\u00a087. London, Williams &\n Norgate, 1875.\n\nAnother explanation offered is that the number six hundred and\nsixty-six is but a threefold repetition of the number six, John thus\nintending to mark in the most emphatic manner that, however mighty the\npower or long the duration of the beast shall be, it will inevitably\nfall short of the completeness and permanence of Christ\u2019s kingdom, as\nsix is less than seven.\n\nStill another explanation proposed is that the number was originally\nwritten with the Greek letters \u03c7\u03be\u03db; \u03c7 being equal to six hundred, \u03be\nto sixty, and \u03db to six. As \u03c7 (_ch_) is the initial letter of Christ,\n\u03be is supposed to be an emblem of Satan, being afterward so used by\nthe Gnostics, and \u03db is the initial of \u03c3\u03c4\u03b1\u03c5\u03c1\u03cc\u03c2, _cross_. The symbol, it\nis said, refers to some Satanic power intervening between Christ and\nthe cross, some system which honors him as teacher but denies him as\nSaviour, which accepts Jesus, but not \u201chim crucified.\u201d The description\naccords well enough with that of the second beast; but whether it\ncan be extracted from the number six hundred and sixty-six is another\nquestion. The monogram, while harmonizing with the symbolism of the\nApocalypse, and also delineating the nature of the beast, does not\nexplain the emphasis which seems to be laid upon his \u201cname.\u201d\n\nThere is, however, one detail in this part of the description of\nthe beast often overlooked, but which may carry us far on our way\nto decipher the secret of the number. The number of the name is not\nmonopolized by the beast; it does not exhaust itself in any single\nindividual. We are told that \u201cno man might buy or sell, save he\nthat had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his\nname.\u201d The beast has followers who imbibe his spirit and partake\nof his characteristics, and to whom his name and number are equally\nappropriate. It is more in keeping with this statement, as well as\nwith other details, to interpret the beast as a principle rather than\na person, as being some spirit of evil which, assuming prominence in\nsome man or organization, is yet shared by many men and organizations.\nThe ascetic, false prophetism which fulfills the other details of the\ndescription coincides also with this.\n\nIf, following out the rule of interpretation which has guided us\nhitherto, and assuming that John drew his prediction of the future\nfrom facts and tendencies existing in his day, we read the epistles\ncontained in chapters ii and iii, we shall find that among the perils\nwhich threatened the apostolic Church none was more imminent than that\nwhich is called \u201cthe doctrine of the Nicolaitans,\u201d which was but a\nreproduction of the heresy of Balaam, the gifted and formidable rival\nand antagonist of Moses; the name Nicolaus, indeed, meaning in Greek\nthe same that Balaam does in Hebrew. So deep a mark did Balaam make\nthat throughout the Old Testament, as well as the New, he stands\nas the representative, as he was the first example, of that spirit\nof false prophetism which, beginning as ascetism, degenerates into\nantinomianism and prostitutes genius to the service of the flesh. Now,\nit is certainly true, as Z\u00fcllig shows,\u00b9 that the words \u201cBalaam, the\nson of Beor, soothsayer,\u201d if written in Hebrew letters do make up the\nsum six hundred and sixty-six. It seems, therefore, probable that some\nembodiment of his insidious spirit, some reproduction of his deadly\ndoctrine, with its resultant lawless practices, is the solution of this\nmysterious symbol, the second beast, against which John earnestly warns\nthe Church in all ages to guard itself as the most dangerous foe to the\nkingdom of Christ. And possibly the arch\u00e6ological researches which are\nnow bringing to light much of the hidden history of earlier ages may\nyet discover to us the sect which served as the basis of his warning.\n\n \u00b9 _Bleek, Lectures on the Apocalypse_, p.\u00a0285.\n\nThe interpretation which has here been put upon the symbols of the\ntwo wild beasts\u2015\u2015namely, that they represent, the one the spirit of\nworldliness, the other that autospiritualism or self-centered piety\nwhich, for lack of a more comprehensive phrase, may be designated as\nfalse prophetism or false asceticism\u2015\u2015derives some confirmation from\nthe fact that their resulting effects have been such as the author\nof the Revelation predicted. Worldliness seems the baser of the two,\nbut its dominion is briefer and less stable. As the mind can never\nbe content with agnosticism, but must by necessity search for some\nexplanation of the mystery of being until satisfaction is gained, so\nthe heart can never fully rest in hopes and themes and joys which are\nonly earthly. The religious instincts inherent in and inalienable from\nour nature will assert themselves and cry for God. On the other hand,\nasceticism, while it seems to present a loftier ideal and holds men\nthereby with a more permanent grasp, is all the more baleful by reason\nof its deceptiveness. It veils pride, ambition, malice, selfishness,\nunder the guise of superior sanctity, which, while imposing on others\nby its well-masked duplicity, lulls its victims into almost hopeless\nslumber by its hypocrisy. Those whom it allures by its professions\nof superior piety it mocks with disappointing dreams. It is the dark\nshadow that always waits on holiness and liberty; it is the special\ntemptation that besets souls seeking after purity and knowledge; while\nworldliness is that to which those are most prone who mingle much with\nthe world and deal with earthly realities. If, on the one hand, it\nis easy for men to fall into the danger of using their heaven-given\nfaculties for the ignoble purpose of gratifying their lower desires\nor of turning stones to bread simply that they may live, it is equally\neasy, on the other, to wander into the opposite error of presuming\nrashly upon God\u2019s providence and mercy, although humility has\ndegenerated into boasting and love has been perverted to censoriousness.\nFrom neither tendency can the regeneration of the world come; both are\nalike enemies of God and of man.\n\n4. _Anticipations of Victory._\u2015\u2015It is one of the characteristic\npeculiarities of St. John\u2019s literary style to introduce a subject\nwhich for the moment he merely suggests to our notice, returning to\nit subsequently in order that he may amplify and complete it. He goes\nover his work again and again, each time adding some new touch, with\nthe purpose of bringing out in greater prominence some detail of his\nsubject. While each section, therefore, contains in measure an epitome\nof the whole, in each one some single point is more specifically and\nelaborately discussed. There is, it is true, advance of thought; but\nthe eagle of the apostolic band moves in circles, bringing into notice\nof his keen eye every part of the field over which he soars, while each\nswoop of his wing carries him a little beyond his former orbit, so that\nhis progress is in spirals. The principle which controlled him seems to\nhave been that of presenting to us in sharp and striking antithesis the\ncontrasts between conflicting ideas, while he holds them under our\nobservation.\n\nIt is also characteristic of a disposition like St. John\u2019s, and of a\nlife so contemplative and secluded as his was, to view things in the\nlight of their essential principles; not as they become, modified by\ncontact and in relation with each other, but as they radically and\ngerminally are. By consequence such minds, instead of being occupied\nwith the intermediate changes, pass at once to ultimate results and see\nthe end in the beginning.\n\nAn instance of this appears in the fourteenth chapter, which is\nreally but an epilogue to the preceding chapters. In the twelfth and\nthirteenth chapters we have had presented to our vision the formidable\nenemies with which the Christian believer must struggle. They have\nbeen described most graphically and with a fullness of detail not\nsubsequently exceeded. The _dramatis person\u00e6_ are all put upon the\nstage, and no new actors in the tragedy of existence need be expected.\nBut these enemies are sufficiently numerous and terrible to excite\napprehension and awaken earnest inquiries as to our means of resistance\nand possibilities of success. The seer, therefore, pauses for a moment\nto review the resources put within our reach and to assure us of their\nadequacy. \u201cGreater is he that is in you,\u201d he says, \u201cthan he that is\nin the world.\u201d And he fully indorses the emphatic declaration of Paul,\n\u201cThe weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to\nthe pulling down of strongholds.\u201d\n\nIn prophesying victory over the dragon and the beasts to the saints of\nChrist, John separates them into two classes, as he had done in chapter\nvii. This is not in any spirit of Jewish narrowness or exclusiveness.\nHe had long gotten beyond that and learned to call no man common\nwhom God had cleansed. Even Paul, the apostle of the uncircumcision,\nrecognized a distinction between the Jew, who was first, and the\nGentile; so there can be alleged against John no bigotry in recognizing\nthe distinction, inasmuch as he foreshadows equal victory to both\nclasses. There can hardly be a question that by the \u201chundred forty and\nfour thousand\u201d John meant Israelites after the flesh; for they \u201cstood\non the mount Sion;\u201d they sang a song which none others but themselves\ncould learn, namely, the song of Moses and of the Lamb ( xv,\u00a03); they\nwere \u201cthe first fruits unto God and to the Lamb\u201d (xiv,\u00a04); they were\nwithout \u201cguile,\u201d with reference no doubt to John i,\u00a047. They were\n\u201cvirgins,\u201d having the true asceticism\u2015\u2015freedom from ungodliness and\nworldly lusts. There was reason for rejoicing to a Jew like John in the\nfact that, in spite of the opposition of the rulers and Herods among\nthe chosen people to whom had been committed the oracles of God, and\non the very spots of the crucifixion and resurrection, so many of his\nformer co-religionists had become disciples of Christ and followed the\nLamb whithersoever he led them.\n\nBut the word of God is not bound, nor is it the exclusive property of\nany race; and the seer immediately adds the vision of the multitudes\nof \u201cevery nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,\u201d to whom \u201cthe\neverlasting Gospel\u201d was preached and among whom it found adherents. The\nfullness of the times had come, and Gentiles might \u201cfear God, and give\nglory to him,\u201d the one Creator of \u201cheaven, and earth, and the sea, and\nthe fountains of waters.\u201d\n\nOne new feature is now introduced. Babylon, which occupies so much\nof the subsequent part of the Apocalypse, is here for the first time\nmentioned. Babylon, it will be attempted to show, is not another\nadversary, but an apostate Church which has succumbed to adversaries\nand thereby become a counterfeit and rival to Christianity. It is here\nbrought upon the stage by anticipation, and its doom foretold, to give\ncompleter assurance of the coming victory over all forms and results of\nsin and evil.\n\nThe age in which John lived was an age of martyrdom. How severely\nthis fact tried \u201cthe patience\u201d and faith of the early Christians we\nknow from hints in other apostolical writings. Paul found it necessary\nto show to his brethren in Rome that if they suffered with Christ it\nwas that they might be also glorified together with him. Peter, too,\ncomforts those whose faith was being so sorely tried with the assurance\nthat the trial of their faith was \u201cmore precious than of gold that\nperisheth,\u201d and would be \u201cfound unto praise and honor and glory at\nthe appearing of Jesus Christ.\u201d And so John gives to the Church of his\nday the glad tidings that, although God buries his workmen, he carries\non his work; that they, if they died \u201cin the Lord,\u201d should \u201crest from\ntheir labors;\u201d and that \u201ctheir works\u201d should survive and go on winning\nvictories after their departure.\n\nIf it should be asked how or with what weapons they were to overcome,\nJohn gives the answer which is found so often in the Book of Revelation\nthat it is one of the keys to unlock its mysteries\u2015\u2015they overcome\n\u201cby the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony\u201d\n(Revelation xii,\u00a011); by which latter expression is meant, doubtless,\nthe Scriptures, as explained in the chapter upon the two witnesses.\nThat the two visions which now follow, the harvest of the world and\nthe vintage scene, refer to these two weapons of success furnishes an\nexplanation of them so simple and easy that it is strange they should\nhave occasioned so much difficulty to commentators.\n\nThe prophet Joel, from whose writings these visions are drawn (Joel\niii,\u00a013), probably among the earliest and certainly among the greatest\nof the Hebrew seers, appears to have been gifted with a foresight of\nthe future remarkable even for one of that extraordinary body of men.\nThe final and complete triumph of God\u2019s cause over all opposing foes in\nand through Zion, and the deliverance of the Church from all bondage,\noppression, and danger, preceded by a plentiful outpouring of the Holy\nSpirit upon all classes, ages, and conditions, stood out before him\nas a certain and assured fact. The details of the methods by which\nthis result was to be achieved were not revealed to him, nor is it\nsurprising that, being thus left to himself, he could conceive of no\nother instrumentalities than those which in his experience of human\naffairs had passed under his own observation. This is not the only\ninstance in which the apostles of the New Testament, while confirming\nthe prophets of the Old as to results, have discerned more clearly the\npower of spiritual forces, and for swords and carnal weapons and rods\nof iron have substituted the more peaceful instrumentalities of the\nsword of the Spirit, the breath of the Messiah\u2019s lips, and the staff of\nthe Good Shepherd.\n\nThe writer of the Revelation, expanding and evangelizing the vision of\nJoel, saw \u201ca white cloud,\u201d and One \u201clike unto the Son of man\u201d sitting\nthereon, \u201chaving on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp\nsickle.\u201d \u201cOut of the temple\u201d an angel came and cried to him, \u201cThrust\nin thy sickle, ... for the harvest of the earth is ripe.\u201d Whereupon he\ncast his sickle upon the earth, and \u201cthe earth was reaped.\u201d\n\nIn these words surely a reference is to be seen to the words of our\nLord himself uttered in the hearing of John and recorded in Matthew\nxxiv, 14, 30,\u00a031: \u201cAnd this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached\nin all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the\nend come.... And they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of\nheaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a\ngreat sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from\nthe four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.\u201d\n\nThis metaphor of the harvest as the result of the sowing of God\u2019s word\nis one of the most common to be found in the Scriptures. \u201cThe sower\nsoweth the word\u201d (Mark iv,\u00a014), or \u201cthe word of the kingdom\u201d (Matthew\nxiii,\u00a019), or \u201cthe word which by the Gospel is preached unto you\u201d (1\nPeter i,\u00a025). \u201cSo is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed\ninto the ground; and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed\nshould spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth\nforth fruit of herself [that is, automatically and spontaneously]....\nBut when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the\nsickle, because the harvest is come\u201d (Mark iv, 26\u201229).\n\nThat \u201cthe word of God is quick and powerful\u201d (Hebrews iv,\u00a012); that\nit has God\u2019s life in it (John vi,\u00a063); that it is the great weapon of\nwarfare, defensive and offensive, to the Church and the believer; that\nit is the incorruptible seed by which men are born into the kingdom (1\nPeter i,\u00a023); that it is the instrument whereby we are sanctified (John\nxvii, 17), is the concurrent declaration of the Scriptures themselves.\nThat it is to be preached by apostles, prophets, pastors, and teachers\nis the commission binding on all: \u201cGo ye into all the world, and preach\nthe Gospel to every creature\u201d (Mark xvi, 15). This Bible is sufficient\nof itself, all other things are only ancillary; \u201cin due season we shall\nreap, if we faint not\u201d (Galatians vi,\u00a09). All literature and art and\nculture and science are but as \u201cthe grass\u201d that \u201cwithereth,\u201d or \u201cthe\nflower\u201d that \u201cfadeth;\u201d \u201cbut the word of our God shall stand forever.\u201d\nAnd the martyrs of the apostolical age had the inspired assurance of\nJohn to console them, that if they faithfully bore witness to the word\nthey might fall, but \u201ctheir works\u201d would follow on after them. And in\nso saying he is only re\u00ebchoing the words which he himself had heard\nfrom the Master, \u201cOne soweth, and another reapeth\u201d (John iv,\u00a037). And\nJohn shows how completely he had gotten away from Jewish narrowness and\nabsorbed the Master\u2019s spirit, in his recognition of the fact that the\nBible is for every nation and kindred and people.\n\nThe other instrumentality of victory put within the reach of the\nChurch, namely, the all-sufficient \u201cblood of the Lamb,\u201d is beautifully\nillustrated in the vintage vision, which has most needlessly perplexed\ncommentators.\n\nAn angel\u2015\u2015not now the Son of man\u2015\u2015is seen coming \u201cout of the temple\nwhich is in heaven\u201d with a sharp sickle. Another angel came out from\nthe altar, who is described as having \u201cpower over fire\u201d (the same\ncombination as is found in Isaiah vi,\u00a06), and at his cry the sickle was\nthrust into the earth, and the clusters of fully ripe grapes gathered\nand cast \u201cinto the great wine press of the wrath of God.\u201d\n\nIt is hardly possible to read these words without seeing in them a\nreference to Isaiah lxiii, 1\u20126. By the great mass of believers the\nwords are interpreted as an allusion to and a prophecy of the atoning\nwork of Christ. It certainly seems that the writer of the Revelation\nso understood them, not only from the connection of this vintage scene\nwith the blood of the Lamb, but also from Revelation xix, 11\u201216, where\nthe same connection of the two themes, the \u201csharp sword\u201d issuing from\nthe mouth of Christ, that is, the word of God, and the \u201cvesture dipped\nin blood,\u201d with the treading of the wine press, is found.\n\nOur belief in the plenary inspiration of the writers of the Scriptures\ndoes not compel us to the conviction that they always comprehended\nthe full import of their message, or that all the particulars embraced\ntherein stood out clearly and plainly in their minds. This is one of\nthe instances in which prophets and wise men desired to see the things\nwhich we in the kingdom of Christ see, but did not see them. Every man\nin painting mental pictures must of necessity use colors with which\nhis own mind is acquainted, and which he has acquired by experience and\nobservation. And Isaiah and the other prophets, in the age and with the\nsurroundings in the midst of which they lived, had no other means of\nconveying to the minds of men the true revelations which were given to\nthem of the suffering and victorious Messiah than terms such as they\nsaw exemplified in the world of history and in the men about them. Any\nother terms would have been incomprehensible, and so have failed of\ntheir purpose to help and inspirit. And the divinity of the Bible is\nseen conspicuously in this\u2015\u2015that the framework in which its glorious\npictures were set is capable of expansion to the times in which we\nlive and the larger views we have, without fracture or distortion. The\nsigns and symbols which by divine illumination were presented to them\nhave come down to us; but we, with the clearer light of the Sun of\nrighteousness, can read intelligently what were hieroglyphics to them,\nand, looking with unveiled face, can behold therein the glory of God.\nThat John, in thus quoting from Isaiah, has Calvary and Gethsemane in\nhis thoughts is shown by his specifying particularly that \u201cthe wine\npress was trodden without the city,\u201d bringing out the truth, of which\nHebrews xiii,\u00a012, is the witness, that \u201cJesus also, that he might\nsanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.\u201d\n\nIt is true that in the prophecy of Isaiah there appears an element of\nvengeance and wrath that does not comport with our ideas of salvation\nand redemption, and even repels. The element is still there; but the\nNew Testament teaches us that all that was lonely, painful, agonizing\nin human redemption was borne by the Christ for us. We are \u201cbought\nwith a price,\u201d but he paid it. He was \u201cmade a curse for us.\u201d He \u201cbare\nour sins in his own body on the tree,\u201d and by his \u201cstripes\u201d we are\n\u201chealed.\u201d However feeble may be the traces of vicariousness in nature,\nhuman life is full of it, is built about it. All love is manifested\nin vicarious suffering. Scarce any rise but that some fall; scarce any\nbecome rich but that others become poor; there is hardly a smile or\na laugh of joy for which some pain is not felt or some tear not shed\nsomewhere. And, if God manifests his love by sending \u201chis Son to be\nthe propitiation for our sins,\u201d this is but an illustration of the\ntruth, as apparent in the spiritual world as in that of nature, of the\ntransmutation of forces; the sum not being increased or diminished, but\nthe places and modes of manifestation changing.\n\nThe remainder of the vintage scene may be easily explained, difficult\nas it has seemed to most interpreters, by applying the key which is put\ninto our hands, if we accept the solution offered above.\n\nWe must now for almost the first time take up the prophecy of Ezekiel,\nwhich from this place onward almost singly rules the Apocalypse,\nand the careful study of which will throw light upon what seems most\nobscure.\n\nWe are told that \u201cblood came out of the wine press, even unto the horse\nbridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.\u201d\n\nTurning to Ezekiel, we find that the last chapters of that great\nprophecy are taken up with a beautiful description, ideal and\nfigurative, doubtless, of the restored temple, holy city, and land\nof the new Israel of God. In the forty-seventh chapter of Ezekiel the\ndimensions of this ideal land are very carefully stated. The boundary\nline of it was, on the north side, Hamath, in latitude thirty-four\ndegrees twenty minutes, and, on the south, a line drawn from Tamar, at\nthe southern border of the Dead Sea, to Kadesh, a brook emptying into\nthe Mediterranean. If, now, we measure on a map the distance between\nthese lines, we shall find it to be two hundred miles, or sixteen\nhundred furlongs.\n\nThis whole space, comprehending all of the Holy Land, was thus entirely\ncovered with the blood which flowed from the wine press trodden\nby the Son of God. Could there be a more complete statement of the\nall-sufficiency of that atoning blood? It is the same truth presented\nto us here which John has elsewhere in plainer prose revealed to our\nfaith: \u201cThe blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.\u201d\n\nAnd as if still further to verify the statement he tells us that the\nblood reached to \u201cthe horse bridles.\u201d There is an allusion in this\nto Zechariah xiv,\u00a020, where we are told that in \u201cthe day of the Lord\u201d\nthere shall be \u201cupon the bells [or, as the margin has it, \u2018upon the\nbridles\u2019] of the horses, Holiness unto the Lord.\u201d The ideal land is not\nonly covered in its whole extent with the atoning blood, but so deep is\nthe stream that it buries all beneath it, except where upon the surface\nis displayed the significant inscription, \u201cHoliness unto the Lord.\u201d\nSurely there is no lack in the provisions of salvation. \u201cWhere sin\nabounded, grace did much more abound: that as sin hath reigned unto\ndeath, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal\nlife, by Jesus Christ our Lord.\u201d\n\nThus, then, in these beautiful visions is it shown that the believer\nand the Church are sufficiently armed for the encounter with any\nantagonist, however furious or formidable. We are supplied with\n\u201cthe sword of the Spirit\u201d and \u201cthe blood of the Lamb.\u201d Whatever the\ntasks may be that lie before us, having these, we have all necessary\nequipment. Nothing shall be able to harm us so long as we continue to\nbe followers of God.\n\nIf the harvest scene illustrates the extent of divine grace, and is an\nemblem of the living seed which, small in its beginnings, grows into\na great and widespreading tree under whose branches all the nations\nof earth may find shelter and rest, the vintage scene illustrates the\ndepth to which salvation penetrates. The whole extent of human need is\nreached. Neither is there a want anywhere which may not be satisfied.\nAnd through the use of the divinely appointed means the kingdom of\nChrist may be brought to its ideal of perfection, in us and in the\nwhole Church, until God shall, indeed, be all and in all.\n\n\n\n\n PART V\n The Counterfeit of the Kingdom, or the False Church\n\n\n PART V\n =The Counterfeit of the Kingdom, or the False Church=\n\nTHE section of the Revelation which we now reach, and which extends\nfrom chapter xv to the close of chapter xix, may be called the judgment\nsection. There is a striking parallelism between it and part iii, or\nthe vision of the trumpets, which symbolizes the methods through which\nthe kingdom of Christ is furthered. As that section divided itself into\ntwo parts\u2015\u2015first, the natural agencies which divine Providence employs,\nand, next, the supernatural word\u2015\u2015so, also, this sets before us what\nmay be designated natural judgments, and then those special visitations\nof divine justice which await an apostate Christian or Church.\n\n1. _The Judgments of God. Vision of the Vials._\u2015\u2015The fifteenth and\nsixteenth chapters need not detain us long, inasmuch as the resemblance\nbetween them and the visions of the trumpets is so great that much\nof what might be said has already been anticipated. Vials, or basins\nrather, were vessels used in the Mosaic ritual as receptacles. The\nterm is used here to designate the judgments which must fall on men if\nthe warnings and messages symbolized by the trumpets are unheeded. The\nGospel, we are told by St. Paul, may be a savor of death unto death,\nas well as of life unto life. The words of the Lord Jesus will either\nbecome spirit and life to us, or they will judge us at the last day.\n\nFrom \u201cthe temple of the tabernacle of the testimony\u201d \u201cseven angels\u201d are\nseen issuing forth with vials containing \u201cthe seven last plagues.\u201d The\nword for \u201cplague\u201d is the same used in chapter xiii,\u00a03. It was there\napplied to a temporary wound which was quickly healed. Its connection\nhere with the word \u201clast\u201d and with the number \u201cseven\u201d indicates that\nthe wounds or blows are final and incurable. The judgments are not\ncorrective and disciplinary, but retributive and irreversible.\n\nThe angels with the plagues issue from the temple of the tabernacle\nof the testimony. This name is that which is applied to the structure\nMoses erected in the wilderness and which contained the ark of the\ntestimony. Its use here implies that the judgments that follow are\nto be found recorded in the Old Testament Scriptures. The old word is\nGod\u2019s faithful witness, bearing plain testimony to his righteousness\nand to his anger at sin and iniquity.\n\nStill further, it was one of the four beasts, or living creatures, who\nput the vials into the hands of the angels; and, as the four beasts are\nsupposed to be symbolical representations of the animate creation, the\ntruth declared would seem to be that these judgments come as natural\nprovidences, or by the operation of laws which the divine Being has\nstamped on his creation.\n\nThe plagues fall successively upon the same places that are named in\nthe parallel vision of the trumpets\u2015\u2015the first upon the earth; the\nsecond, upon the sea; the third, upon the rivers and fountains of\nwaters; the fourth, upon the sun; the fifth, upon the throne of the\nbeast, darkening his kingdom; the sixth, upon the Euphrates.\n\nIt is very instructive to contrast these judgments with the beautiful\nfigures by which John, in the last chapters of the Revelation, seeks to\nportray the glorious privileges and blessings of the perfected kingdom\nof Christ.\n\nThus, in opposition to the \u201cnoisome and grievous sore\u201d that fell \u201cupon\nthe men which had the mark of the beast,\u201d we have, in chapter xxii,\u00a02,\nthe declaration that \u201cthe leaves of the tree\u201d of life \u201cwere for the\nhealing of the nations.\u201d\n\nIn opposition to \u201cthe sea\u201d which \u201cbecame as the blood of a dead man,\u201d\nwe are told, in chapter xxi,\u00a01, that \u201cthere was no more sea.\u201d\n\nAs a contrast to \u201cthe rivers and fountains of waters\u201d which \u201cbecame\nblood,\u201d we are told in chapter xxii,\u00a01, of \u201cthe pure river of the water\nof life, clear as crystal.\u201d\n\nOver against \u201cthe sun\u201d which \u201cscorched men with great heat,\u201d the\nstatement is made, in chapter xxi,\u00a023, that \u201cthe city had no need of\nthe sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did\nlighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.\u201d\n\nAnd, while judgment fell on the throne of the beast, \u201cand his kingdom\nwas full of darkness, and they gnawed their tongues for pain,\u201d we learn\nof the new city that \u201cthe throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it;\nand his servants shall serve him.\u201d \u201cAnd there shall be no night there;\n... for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign forever\nand ever.\u201d There seems to be in this a reminiscence of the plague of\ndarkness with which the Almighty visited Pharaoh and the Egyptians, and\nwhich was the last one before the final stroke of his judgment upon the\nfirstborn (Exodus x, 21\u201223).\n\nThe fifth trumpet was interpreted as a prophecy of the blindness, both\nof heart and mind, which comes upon men when faith declines and grace\nwanes. This interpretation appears to be confirmed by the judgment\nwhich the plague of the fifth vial inflicts.\n\nThe locality of the sixth plague is the Euphrates. This river, as has\nbeen previously said, was the boundary line between civilization and\nbarbarism. The mention of it implies that the last conflict in which\nthe kingdom of Christ shall engage will be waged to oppose an inroad\nor outburst of barbarism. But as John presents this matter with fuller\ndetails in chapter xx the discussion of it will be postponed until that\npart of the Revelation is reached.\n\nOne new feature, which is introduced for the first time in connection\nwith the sixth vial, is the singular sentence, \u201cThat the way of the\nkings of the east might be prepared.\u201d The origin of this expression is\nto be found in Isaiah xli,\u00a02, to which it has doubtless a reference. In\nthat passage, \u201cthe righteous man from the east\u201d to whom is given \u201crule\nover kings\u201d is, undoubtedly, Cyrus, whose advent and success are thus\nforetold. And the meaning is that, as out of heathenism God raised up\nthat marvelous man as an instrument to accomplish his purposes in the\ndeliverance of his people, so there is such fullness of resources in\nthe reach of divine power that in any emergency or peril he is able\nto find, anywhere, means to rescue his followers or his Church out of\ndanger.\n\nMoreover, the apostle saw coming \u201cout of the mouth of the dragon,\nand out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false\nprophet\u201d \u201cthree unclean spirits like frogs.\u201d Over against the divine\nTrinity, the kingdom of darkness and sin has its counterfeit trinity.\nEach of its component persons has its emissaries and messengers. For\nthe final conflict all these will summon their entire resources. Behind\nall attempts to foil and defeat the development and perfection of the\nkingdom of Christ lie these evil powers. But their efforts will be\nfutile; inevitable destruction and doom await them; and the inspired\nseer here merely suggests the judgment of which full particulars are to\nbe subsequently given.\n\n2. _Babylon and its Doom._\u2015\u2015No part of the Apocalypse has given rise\nto so much controversy as that which now engages our attention; and as,\nunhappily, the controversies have often originated in denominational\nprejudices and intensified denominational bitterness, this section has\nbeen made a shibboleth by which to test conflicting creeds. Truth is,\nindeed, of paramount obligation. We have no right to accept or reject\ninterpretations of the Scriptures simply on the ground that they accord\nwith or are repugnant to our beliefs. It is no part of our prerogative\nto sit in judgment upon the word of God or to force it to speak\naccording to our mind. And nothing is ever really consistent with love\nwhich is not consistent with truth. If, however, the purpose of this\nremarkable book is to set before us those spiritual forces which work\nin the heart of every individual, as well as in collective masses,\nthere seems no valid reason why we should in this part of it depart\nfrom those general principles upon which it is elsewhere framed, or\nseek for latent meanings when one which lies on the surface is capable\nof explaining and harmonizing its mysteries.\n\nAre we to understand by Babylon the Church of Rome, or the Roman\nEmpire, or any specific body or association of men, religious or\nsecular? Is the revelation here given us an anticipatory epitome of\nhistory, a foreshadowing of events that have already transpired and\nare now recorded among the annals of the race? Is it a prophecy the\nfulfillment of which can be known only by learned scholars acquainted\nwith history, upon whose information the wayfaring man and the\nuntutored disciple of Christ must depend? Is it a portion of Holy Writ\nwhose best commentators must be found in Gibbon and Hume and such like\nunbelievers? Truly, then, Saul is \u201camong the prophets;\u201d and this book\nis singular and anomalous among the revelations of God, whose purpose\nhas ever been to make wise the simple, who else would be cut off from\naccess to the sources of truth and light.\n\nIf any of the prophecies of this book can be proven to find their\nexhaustive fulfillment in any particular and definite body, individual,\nor event, so that when we have identified the body or individual or\nevent we have reached the whole purpose of the writer, then, of course,\nits value as inspiration ceases or, at least, is materially diminished.\nIt may have an arch\u00e6ological interest as a record of past conditions,\nbut its influence upon the present and future is somewhat like that of\na fossil upon living types.\n\nWhen the prophets of the old dispensation uttered their denunciations\nof the luxuries, the sensualism, the cruelty, the gilded vices, or\nthe coarser sins of the cities and empires of the ancient world their\npurpose was not to vent vindictiveness against conquerors under whose\nmight the Israel of God was oppressed and trampled down, but to direct\nthought and attention to a spirit of evil, a principle of the kingdom\nof darkness, which for a while found an embodiment therein, yet was not\nwholly comprehended in it. The empires crumbled into dust, the great\ncapitals became masses of decaying ruins, but the spirit which animated\nthem lived on, surviving their destruction.\n\nSuch was, doubtless, the design of this Apocalyptic vision. Babylon\nis a symbol of something that has its fulfillment again and again, but\nis never exhausted in any manifestation. The generations of men, down\nto the close of time, must watch for and be warned against the spirit\nwhich it embodied, and every individual Christian, as well as the\nChurch at large, needs the caution which is here given him against such\nforms of it as are likely to tempt him from the path of duty or safety.\n\nOf all the hostile powers with which the Hebrew people were brought\ninto contact and from whom they suffered Babylon seems to have been\nthe most dreaded, and the animosity expressed toward it by the prophets\nwas emphatic and marked. Its approaching doom evoked no sentiment\nof pity, but was hailed with unmingled satisfaction. What there was\nabout Babylon which justified such exceptional fear and dislike it\nis, perhaps, not possible for us fully to understand, although we may\nattain some appreciation of it.\n\nRegarding Nineveh, we have reason to conjecture that its peculiarity\nwas intense and supreme secularism. No temple has been found amid its\nruins that was not merely the adjunct of a palace. The priest was the\nservant of the king. All religious instincts and institutions were\nsimply tools which the haughty monarch unscrupulously used to carry out\nhis cruel and ambitious projects. Such a condition of things can never\nendure long. It works its own destruction, finding its cure within\nitself. It was the demoralization resulting from a similar condition\nwhich sapped the strength of the Greek Empire of Byzantium and, by\nisolating it from all allies or sympathy, led to its overthrow.\n\nIn Egypt the spheres of the State and of the Church maintained some\nindependence of each other. Vast as was the sovereignty of the Pharaohs,\nit was not such as to encroach upon or absorb the functions of the\npriestly caste.\n\nIn Babylon, however, still another condition prevailed. Here the\npriesthood was the ruling order; the religious element dominated the\nsecular. The palace was a part of the temple. It is noticeable how\nstrongly in the prophetic descriptions of Babylon the Chaldean element\nis emphasized. It is styled \u201cthe beauty of the Chaldees\u2019 excellency,\u201d\n\u201cthe land of the Chaldeans,\u201d marking thus the supremacy of that order\nof soothsayers, sorcerers, and professors of magic and occult science.\nBabylon was a theocracy, but the god who ruled it was the prince\nof darkness, not Jehovah. The Church governed the State, but the\nChurch was one that incarnated the spirit of worldly-mindedness, not\nheavenly-mindedness. So that, in an altogether peculiar and special\nsense, it was the rival and counterfeit of the true Church of God,\ngiving exercise to the religious instincts of men sufficient to satisfy\nconviction and quiet conscience, while debasing them by turning them\ninto the channels of lust and sensual gratification.\n\nYet, as a matter of fact, the domination of Babylon proved less\nhurtful to the Jewish nation than did the hostility of any other of\ntheir great enemies. The form of worldliness which the Israelites\nencountered in Egypt was such as almost to make them forget their\nbondage in remembering the enjoyments they had found there. Their\nactual experience in Babylon during the years of their captivity,\nthe lessons they learned and the comparisons they drew when brought\ninto personal relationship with its life, left no lingering love of\nidolatry and cured them forever of any desire to worship its gods.\n\nBut the Babylon of the book of Revelation comprehends more than the\nBabylon of the Hebrew prophets. The dangers which beset the Christian\nwould be far less than they are if the Babylon of this world, which\nopposes itself as a rival to the kingdom of Christ, had no fascinations\nbeyond those which the great city by the Euphrates could offer. The\nwily enemy of mankind is too subtle to depend upon any such powers of\nattractiveness as were embodied in the capital of the Chaldean Empire.\nAnd in describing the counterfeit of the kingdom of Christ the writer\nof the Apocalypse adds to his portrait of Babylon features which are\nused by Ezekiel as characteristic of another great capital, Tyre.\nBabylon was never a center of commerce; in no sense could it be\ndescribed as a city whose merchants were princes. The same is also true\nof Rome, and is thus adverse to the opinion that John meant to describe\nthe city of the C\u00e6sars and of the popes. His delineation of Babylon\nwould apply to Corinth or Carthage in ancient times, and to Venice or\nAmsterdam or London in more modern days, with greater aptness than to\nthe metropolis on the Tiber. In this alteration of the emblem in which\nthe writer of the Revelation indulges, in the blending and interweaving\nof details descriptive of both the Babylon and the Tyre of the Old\nTestament into the composite figure of the Apocalyptic Babylon, in the\ntransition from Isaiah\u2019s sublimely ironical shout of triumph over the\nmetropolis by the Euphrates to Ezekiel\u2019s sad and pathetic dirge over\nthe fall of the commercial emporium of Ph\u0153nicia, a clew is given us to\nthe interpretation of his meaning.\n\nThe influence of Tyre upon the Hebrew people and religion was always\ndeleterious, almost disastrous. The intercourse which began in the\nmagnificent Solomon\u2019s love of show and splendid state and luxury,\nand which was increased by the intermarriage of the royal houses of\nAhab and Jehoshaphat with Tyrian princesses, was fruitful of moral\ndegeneration. From the spiritual pesthouse upon the Mediterranean came,\nfirst, Tyrian art, then, Tyrian wares, then, Tyrian idols, and, then,\nthe unbridled and lawless sensualities for which Tyre was notorious,\nuntil Baal had displaced the golden calves set up by Jeroboam in Bethel\nand had well-nigh overthrown the altars of Jehovah in the city of the\ngreat King.\n\nThe Babylon which John saw and whose rise and fall he predicts was one\nthat embraced in itself the unbounded pride, the self-sufficingness,\nthe love of sorceries and dark arts of magic, along with the\ndemoralizing practices of a great mart of commerce\u2015\u2015a mongrel figure\ninto which all forms of evil and sin were woven.\n\nThe probability, therefore, is that John meant to describe, not\nany individual or definite city or Church, but the incarnation of\na spurious and apostate Christianity which, assuming the appearance\nof the true, is animated by principles wholly destitute of and\nantagonistic to the power and life of Christianity, and thus deludes\nonly to destroy.\n\nThis opinion derives confirmation from the connection in which the\nsection stands. Up to this point the writer of the Revelation has been\ncollecting his data, so to speak, summing up the elementary forces,\nfriendly and hostile, which have to do with the success or failure of\nthe kingdom of Christ. He has announced its fundamental principles,\nthe means by which it is to be carried forward, the enemies which\nmust be encountered. It now remains for him to show in a concrete form\nthe results. At the close of the Revelation he shows us the result of\nsuccess in that exquisite picture of the ideal true Christianity. But\nbefore doing this he also shows the result of failure in the picture of\nthe ideal false Christianity. The antitheses between the two are drawn\nout in sharp contrasts.\n\nIn chapter xxi,\u00a09, it is said to him, \u201cCome hither, I will show thee\nthe bride, the Lamb\u2019s wife.\u201d Here (xvii,\u00a01) it is said to him, \u201cCome\nhither: I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that\nsitteth upon many waters.\u201d\n\nIn chapter xxi,\u00a06, it is written, \u201cHe said unto me, It is done.\u201d So\nhere (chapter xvi,\u00a017), when the seventh angel poured out his vial a\nvoice was heard crying, \u201cIt is done.\u201d\n\nIn chapter xii, where for the first time the field of battle is\ndescribed and the enumeration of the hostile forces is begun, religion\nis presented to us under the figure of a woman who has fled to the\nwilderness. Since then the trial is supposed to have been gone through\nwith, the long war has been fought, the varying moments of the struggle\nhave been detailed, and we are now brought to the summing up of the\nissue.\n\nIn chapter xxi,\u00a010, John is carried away \u201cin the spirit to a great and\nhigh mountain,\u201d and there is shown him the woman in the form of \u201cthat\ngreat city,\u201d \u201cthe holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out\nof heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband\u201d (verse 2). Here\n(xvii, 3,\u00a04) he is carried away \u201cin the spirit into the wilderness,\u201d\nand he sees the woman; but now she is sitting \u201cupon a scarlet-colored\nbeast, full of names of blasphemy, ... arrayed in purple and scarlet\ncolor, and decked with gold.\u201d She has failed in the conflict. She has\nnot come victorious out of the wilderness, as Christ did after his\ntemptation. She has made peace with her enemies. She has joined with\nthe flesh, the world, and the devil. She is no longer spotless and pure,\nready for her bridal with the Lamb, but has become a harlot.\n\nThus, once, Orpah and Ruth stood together by the side of Naomi, while\nthe Holy Land beckoned them all toward it. Ruth chose that better part\nand, sheltered beneath the hovering wings of the God of Israel, found\npeace and rest and an eternal portion with the saints; but Orpah loved\nthe blue hills of Moab and, though sadly and reluctantly, turned back\nto idolatry and oblivion and spiritual death.\n\nSuch a conflict awaits us all; and the issue must be, either that happy\none hereafter to be more accurately described under the figure of the\nNew Jerusalem, or else that alliance with the powers of darkness which\nJohn records in the emblem of Babylon.\n\nThe details of the description given of Babylon add further\nconfirmation to the explanation offered above. In chapters xii and xiii\nthe three great enemies of the kingdom of Christ were enumerated\u2015\u2015the\ndragon and his emissaries, the two beasts. In the present chapter\n(xvii) they are represented as combined. The woman is seen sitting upon\na scarlet-colored beast. She is arrayed in purple and scarlet, but not\nin \u201cfine linen,\u201d which is \u201cthe righteousness of saints.\u201d She has in her\nhand a cup, but instead of the sacramental blood of the Lamb, it is\nfull of \u201cabominations and filthiness of her fornication.\u201d She is not\n\u201cfilled with the Spirit,\u201d but \u201cdrunken with the blood of the saints,\u201d\nfor \u201cshe hath cast down many wounded, yea, many strong men have been\nslain by her\u201d (Proverbs vii,\u00a026).\n\nIt will be remembered that, in the description of the first wild beast,\nit is said that when the deadly wound which it had received was healed\nthe whole world wondered after it in astonishment at the recuperative\npower which it exhibited. But, at this vision of the woman allied\nwith the beast, with a commingling of the influence of the second wild\nbeast, even John himself wondered with great wonder at a corruption of\nreligion so complete and yet so enticing, a perversion so unexpected\nand yet so alluring, a transformation so plausibly and artfully\naccomplished. There seems to have been awakened in him something of the\nperplexity he had experienced in looking at the second wild beast, as\nif its duplicity were a mystery of iniquity beyond his power to fathom.\nOnce one of the psalmists wondered, as he tells us, at the prosperity\nof the wicked, until he entered the sanctuary and there saw their\nlatter end foreshadowed. So, likewise, was the mind of John relieved\nby the angel who came to him and said, \u201cI will tell thee the mystery\nof the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her;\u201d for as the curtain\nwas lifted the doom of Babylon was revealed to him and the mystery was\nsolved.\n\nBut, however plain the mystery was to him, it is assuredly not equally\nso to us. The explanation which suggests itself to us the most readily\nis not necessarily the most correct one; indeed, the words, \u201cHere is\nthe mind which hath wisdom,\u201d seem to indicate otherwise and to force us\nto seek some meaning deeper than that which is most obvious. Although,\ntherefore, the expression, \u201cThe seven heads are seven mountains, on\nwhich the woman sitteth,\u201d apparently identifies Babylon with Rome,\neither imperial or papal, it would satisfy all the conditions of the\nproblem as well, and be more in harmony with the principles on which\nthe Revelation is constructed, to interpret the expression as referring\nto the great world empires which have successively dominated the\nhuman race and cast their shadows across the path of centuries, and in\nwhich John saw the embodiment of the world-principle, essentially and\nperpetually antagonistic to the kingdom of Christ.\n\nOf these world empires five had already fallen\u2015\u2015Assyria, Babylon,\nPersia, Macedonia, and the empire of Alexander\u2019s successors. The empire\nof Rome, which was the one existent in John\u2019s days and the most compact\nand formidable of them all, was the sixth. \u201cThe other,\u201d he says, \u201cis\nnot yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.\u201d\nOf this difficult passage many explanations have been offered, but it\ncannot be said that they are satisfactory. Whether John anticipated the\nfall of the Roman Empire and the establishment of another world empire\nto succeed it for a brief period of time we are not able to say.\n\nIt would not be any impeachment of the inspiration of the apostles\nto admit that upon matters relating to the time of our Lord\u2019s coming\nthey were not able to predict with certainty. Christ himself said that\n\u201cof that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are\nin heaven, neither the Son, but the Father;\u201d and we cannot concede\nthat his disciples were more fully enlightened than he. There are\nindications that the apostles anticipated the personal manifestation of\nthe Master at a date earlier than has proven to be the fact, because,\nlooking through the ages, mountains appeared in their vision to blend\ninto one which we have found by experience to be separated by valleys\ndeep and wide.\n\nBut, inasmuch as it was revealed to John that prior to the realization\nof the ideal kingdom of Christ there is to be a decisive conflict with\nthe combined powers of evil, as will be more fully discussed when we\nshall have reached the twentieth chapter of the book, may it not be\nthat it is that final embodiment of the world-principle which he here\nforetells as the seventh antagonistic kingdom?\n\n\u201cAnd the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of\nthe seven, and goeth into perdition.\u201d These words seem to imply that\nthis \u201ceighth\u201d is not a separate and distinct empire, but is that common\nprinciple of worldliness which finds its embodiment in all the seven\nand yet is distinct and separable from them. It is both immanent in\nthem and transcendental to them.\n\nAnd there is, perhaps, here an intended and striking contrast between\nthis evil principle and the divine Being with whom it assumes to\ncontest supremacy. It was said of the Lord God Almighty, in the\nadoration of the living creatures (Revelation iv,\u00a08), that he \u201cwas,\nand is, and is to come.\u201d Of this counterfeit principle of evil it must\nbe said, \u201cIt was, and is not.\u201d God is true, real, the same to-day as\nyesterday and forever. He that hath received Christ\u2019s testimony can set\nhis seal to this assured and blessed certainty. Of the evil principle\nit can only be said that it is always vanity, falsehood, a lie. Its\npast is all a bitter remembrance; its future a shadow, a deception, a\ndream; and he that trusts it is a fool mocked with illusions that are\nnever realized and cheated with hopes that forever disappoint.\n\nIt is not likely that any world-kingdom comparable in extent and power\nwith those which in ancient times subjugated mankind will ever be seen\nagain. Christianity develops and cultivates a spirit of individualism\nwhich is inimical to their recurrence. Since the disappearance of the\nRoman Empire no successor to it has arisen. The empires of Charlemagne\nand Napoleon were narrow and petty in comparison with that of the\nC\u00e6sars. Some such thought appears to have been in the mind of John\nwhen he foretold that there shall be \u201cten kings, which have received no\nkingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.\u201d\n\nBut the spirit of evil which finds temporary embodiment in these\nworldly sovereignties does not disappear with their overthrow. It\nincarnates itself in other and more dangerous forms. There are subtle\nand cunning manifestations of this spirit which, by plausible and\nenticing imitations of the religion of Christ, do far more than any\nworldly kingdom can to overthrow true Christianity and substitute in\nits place the counterfeit kingdom, the deadly rival which is designated\nby the emblem of Babylon.\n\nWithout violating the spirit of charity, and in fealty to the\nobligation of truth, it must be confessed that the history of\nthe Church of Rome has too often furnished just occasion for its\nidentification with the Babylon of the Apocalypse. Its worldliness,\nits unscrupulous alliances with kings and princes to carry out its\nambitious projects, its disregard of moral obligations in the pursuit\nof its policy, its ignoring of the demands of justice, honor, truth\nand mercy, its persistent struggle to achieve and maintain temporal\nsupremacy, its awful claim of present and eternal mastery over the\nbodies, minds, and souls of men, its luxury and wantonness, its\nbloody spirit of persecution on the one hand, and, on the other, the\nduplicity, the false asceticism, the assumption of the appearance of\nthe Lamb while animated by the spirit of the dragon, the substitution\nof its own codes and edicts and ethics for the word of God, which have\nspecially characterized its religious orders and confraternities, are\nsufficiently like the adversary of true religion delineated by St. John\nto excite thought and induce self-examination.\n\nBut it would be unjust to charge to the account of systems\nimperfections and errors which spring out of the inherent frailty of\nhuman nature. And the spirit of evil against which the apostle warns\nus has had unhappily a range wider than pagan or papal Rome or any\norganization yet witnessed on earth. If that Church has too often\ncarried upon her forehead the title, \u201cMother of harlots,\u201d instead of\nthe motto, \u201cHoliness unto the Lord,\u201d she has many a sister who must sit\nbeside her as of kindred spirit; and, if the one has been \u201cAholah,\u201d the\nother has been \u201cAholibah.\u201d If, among her followers, she has numbered\nboth some of the purest saints who have trodden this earth and some of\nthe vilest sinners, and these, too, in her loftiest places, she is not\nalone in the distinction.\n\nThere have been individuals and Churches calling themselves Christians\nand Protestants that, like veritable Messalinas, have burned with\nincessant lust after every form and fashion of worldliness, and\nwhose lovers, as Jeremiah says, have not had need to weary themselves\nin seeking for them. There is too much truth in the biting sarcasm\nof Heine: \u201cChristianity was once based on blood; it now rests on\nanother basis\u2015\u2015money. Wafers of silver and gold are the only ones that\nwork miracles in modern days.\u201d When the solemn services of the holy\nsacraments lose their attraction and are accounted dull and pale when\ncompared with the brighter light of social festivities; when prayer\nmeetings are sparsely attended, while glittering parlors are crowded\nwith guests; when the shouting of souls newly born into the kingdom\nis drowned by the \u201cchant to the sound of the viol;\u201d when grief over\n\u201cthe affliction of Joseph\u201d is far less than the sorrow for the loss\nof worldly prestige or patronage; when religion is used simply as\nan adjunct to the social propensities or a synonym for liberality in\npromoting financial enterprises\u2015\u2015then there is need that we read again\nthe apocalyptic vision of Babylon, that we may avert the doom that is\ncertain otherwise to come. Destruction must surely be the end of those\n\u201cwhose god is their belly, and whose glory is their shame, who mind\nearthly things.\u201d The vials of divine anger must sooner or later empty\ntheir plagues upon all such.\n\nIn the selection and introduction of Tyre as the representative of\na worldly Church the apostle indicates the source from which danger\nis to be apprehended. Tyre was a mart of commerce. Upon her ships\nthe merchandise of the world was transported, and it was sold in\nher markets. Her trade extended to the ends of the earth, and by her\nmercantile transactions she was brought into contact with the whole\ncircle of known nations. The close acquaintance and fellowship thereby\nwrought with all religions, races, and customs produced its customary\nresult of lowering the standard of morals and, under the specious plea\nof encouraging liberalism of opinion, led to apathy toward all religion;\nwhile, at the same time, the increase of wealth, art, and refinement\ncreated a love for luxury and worldly good. Corrupted herself, she\nbecame in turn a source of corruption to others, and her intercourse\nwith Israel had a disastrous effect upon the chosen people.\n\nIn this lies the peril of contact with the world. It is the scene of\nconflict; it may be the field either of defeat or victory. The Lord\nJesus prayed, not that his disciples should be taken out of the world,\nbut that they should be preserved from its evil. We are placed in it\nthat we may transform it. It is possible that all beauty, art, wealth,\nculture, and commerce may be sanctified and made to contribute to the\nredemption of the world. Every thought may be brought into captivity to\nthe obedience of Christ.\n\nBut it may, on the contrary, transform and corrupt us. Without the aid\nof supernatural grace the influence of the world upon the Christian\nis demoralizing and destructive. Whatever is without God is equally\nwithout hope. Art, for instance, separated from its mission as\nan auxiliary to morals and religion and made independent, becomes\nartificial, and then degenerates into artifice. The world, instead of\nbeing lifted to a higher plane, drags the Christian to its own level.\nIt is remarkable that Paul, whose facilities of observation were large\nand powers of perception keen, when writing to the Romans, the people\nof the eternal city, whose one dream and ambition in all her history\nhad been power, commended the Gospel of Christ as \u201cthe power of God\nunto salvation;\u201d but, when writing to Corinth, the busy center of\ncommerce and merchandise, full of wealth, luxury, and corruption, he\npresented as the only influence which could correct these evils this\nprofound truth: \u201cKnow ye not that ye are not your own? For ye are\nbought with a price: therefore glorify God.\u201d\n\nThere has not been a period since the days of John when the lesson\nwhich he wished to enforce in this vision of apostate and fallen\nBabylon was more important than now. Between the age of the apostles\nand the times in which we live a stronger resemblance exists than\nbetween any epochs in the annals of man. The rapid increase of means\nof transportation by which the ends of the earth are drawn together is\neffecting that state of things which the consolidation of the civilized\nworld under the control of the Roman Empire produced. The boundaries\nbetween nations are being effaced; and their easy communication with\neach other makes possible an exceptional intermingling of languages,\nusages, moral codes, and religion. There is the same tendency toward\nthe denial of all supernaturalism, on one side, and, at the opposite\nextreme, toward an eclecticism which concedes some truth to all forms\nof religion, while questioning the absolute truth of any, as that\nwith which the apostolic Church was confronted. There is an excessive\nliberalism which, in its aversion to narrowness and under the plea of\nenlightened culture, would abandon all that specifically differentiates\nChristianity. But we will have read the records of the ante-Nicene\nperiod in vain if we have not learned from them that an imperfect\nChristianity, while it does not gain the world, does lose its own soul,\nand that the regeneration of mankind keeps exact pace with the measure\nof spirituality and purity which prevails in the Church of Christ.\n\nBabylon, the counterfeit of the kingdom, is doomed to inevitable\ndestruction. Over the sad end of a Church dominated by the spirit of\nthe world and which has finally apostatized from Christ the worldly may\nsay, in regretful lament, \u201cAlas, alas, that great city;\u201d the \u201cmerchants\nof the earth\u201d may \u201cweep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their\nmerchandise any more;\u201d but the heavens rejoice. For where there is\npermanent alienation from God no real life can survive: \u201cThe voice of\nthe bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee.\u201d\nThere can be no fruitful activity or profitable labor, for \u201cthe sound\nof a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee.\u201d There can be no\ninward illumination or safe walking, for \u201cthe light of a candle shall\nshine no more at all in thee.\u201d\n\n3. _Methods of Success Reiterated._\u2015\u2015After a few words of exultant\ntriumph over the fall of Babylon, and the bright hopes for the future\nof Christ\u2019s kingdom opened up thereby, in which heaven and earth unite,\nthe apostle, before finally leaving the subject, points us again (in\nchapter xix) to the weapons by which victory must be won. Repeating\nwhat has been so often said by him that the impression is made on us\nthat herein lies the central thought of the book, but with a fullness\nof detail not previously equaled and with a stress of emphasis which\nguarantees the importance of the truth, he asserts again that the\nconquering weapons are \u201cthe blood of the Lamb\u201d and \u201cthe word of\ntheir testimony\u201d (Revelation xii,\u00a011; xix, 15). The cross and the\nBible\u2015\u2015these are the means by which the world is to be overcome,\nthese are the instruments through which the Lord Jesus Christ and\nthe Holy Ghost work, and with these the Christian and the Church are\nsufficiently armed for any conflict or adversary.\n\nJohn saw \u201cheaven opened (verse 11), and behold a white horse.\u201d Thus\ndoes the Christ appear at the close of the conflict, sitting upon the\nwhite horse of victory, just as he appeared at the beginning when,\narmed with the bow, \u201che went forth conquering, and to conquer\u201d (chapter\nvi,\u00a02). He is described by the titles which he had attributed to\nhimself in his letters to the seven churches of Asia. He is here the\n\u201cFaithful and True;\u201d so had he written of himself to Laodicea. \u201cIn\nrighteousness he doth judge and make war;\u201d to Philadelphia he had\ncalled himself \u201che that is holy, he that is true.\u201d \u201cHis eyes were as\na flame of fire;\u201d these very words he had written to Thyatira. \u201cOut\nof his mouth proceedeth a sharp sword;\u201d to Pergamos he had spoken\nof himself as the one having \u201cthe sharp sword.\u201d To Ephesus he had\ndescribed himself as the one that \u201cwalketh in the midst of the golden\ncandlesticks [or churches];\u201d and here he is seen in company with the\narmies of his followers. He had promised Sardis that the faithful\nshould walk with him \u201cin white;\u201d here the saints with him are \u201cclothed\nin fine linen, white and clean.\u201d To Smyrna he had said, \u201cI will give\nthee a crown of life;\u201d and here upon his head are \u201cmany crowns.\u201d He\nhas a name which all can read, \u201cKing of kings, and Lord of lords,\u201d\nruling (shepherding) the nations with the iron staff of his power.\nBut he has also a name that no man knoweth; for he had himself said,\n\u201cNo man knoweth the Son, but the Father.\u201d He is the Word of God, the\nembodiment and utterance of the Godhead\u2019s deepest thought and being,\nthe \u201cbrightness\u201d of the Father\u2019s glory, \u201cand the express image of his\nperson.\u201d\n\nThe weapons which he employs are distinctly said to be the \u201csharp\nsword\u201d that goeth \u201cout of his mouth,\u201d and the blood by which he atoned\nfor sin. The \u201csharp sword\u201d means, unquestionably, \u201cthe sword of the\nSpirit,\u201d the word inspired by the Spirit of truth, the Scriptures which\ntestify of him (John v,\u00a039), the word by which we are sanctified (John\nxvii,\u00a017), the Bible of revelation. By this word, \u201cthe breath of his\nlips,\u201d he slays the wicked (Isaiah xi,\u00a04). With this, \u201cthe spirit of\nhis mouth,\u201d he consumes the wicked one (2 Thessalonians ii,\u00a08).\n\nAnd the other weapon is his blood. He is \u201cclothed with a vesture dipped\nin blood.\u201d \u201cHe treadeth the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of\nAlmighty God.\u201d In no way could the cross be more explicitly indicated.\nLifted up from the earth upon it, he draws all men unto himself. It is\n\u201cChrist crucified\u201d who is the \u201cpower\u201d and \u201cwisdom\u201d of God. No weapons\nmore carnal than these does he employ; none other do we need. By them\nthe beast and the false prophet are overcome, and both are \u201ccast alive\ninto a lake of fire.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n PART VI\n Progressive Steps by Which the Ideal\n Kingdom of Christ is to be Realized\n\n\n PART VI\n =Progressive Steps by Which the Ideal\n Kingdom of Christ is to be Realized=\n\nTHE twentieth chapter of the Revelation is one full of the most\nimportant matter. It describes the stages through which the kingdom\nof Christ must pass in order to attain its ideal state. The key to its\nsolution is to be found in a careful and close study of the prophecy\nof Ezekiel, between which and it so exact a parallelism exists that\nneither can be understood without a comprehension of the other. A just\nappreciation of this fact would have precluded many of the ingenious\nbut untenable hypotheses which have based themselves upon this section,\nand will now serve to throw light upon what seems obscure and almost\nundecipherable.\n\nThe Book of Ezekiel consists of two distinct parts, the dividing line\nbetween which is the siege and capture of Jerusalem. The earlier part\nof the book is a record of the many and gross idolatries and sins into\nwhich Israel had been tempted and fallen. The sum of these amounted to\na spiritual infidelity and adultery which justly deserved the anger of\nJehovah. And it was the sad and painful task of the prophet to repeat\nthe solemn warnings with which he had been intrusted of impending and\nterrible doom.\n\nSucceeding this are denunciations by the prophet of severe and crushing\njudgments upon the surrounding nations, from whose intercourse Israel\nhas received deadly harm, being corrupted by contact with them, both\nin peace and war, and more especially in a lowered spiritual life.\nThis part of the Book of Ezekiel comes to an end in chapter xxxiii,\u00a021,\nwhere the mournful announcement is made to the prophet that the\npredicted blow had fallen: \u201cOne that had escaped out of Jerusalem\ncame to me, saying, The city is smitten.\u201d It was a conclusive proof\nof his authority to be considered a true prophet of God, but not less\ndeplorable on that account.\n\nThe remaining part of the book is taken up with brighter themes. Out\nof the nettle, danger, God has plucked the flower, safety. The fall of\nJerusalem, which seemed to involve its disappearance from history, is\nthe means of its salvation. The pages of the prophet are bright with\nhis predictions of an Israel raised to a new and higher ideal, and\nrestored thereby to the favor of God. The steps by which this happy\ncondition is to be brought about are successively unfolded to us and\noccupy the book to its close. The false shepherds (chapter xxxiv),\nthe unworthy and unfaithful rulers who, like the thieves and hirelings\nof whom Jesus spake (John x), fed themselves and cared naught for the\nflock, are to be removed; and God offers himself to be a shepherd to\nIsrael, searching his sheep, seeking them out in the cloudy and dark\nday, binding up that which was broken, and bringing again that which\nwas lost\u2015\u2015a beautiful predictive type of the Messiah, the good Shepherd\nwho laid down his life for the sheep.\n\nIn addition to this, the false prophets and unsafe guides whom Israel\nhad followed are to be taken out of the way, and God promises in their\nstead to put his Spirit within Israel, cleansing them from all their\nfilthiness and their idols and giving them a new heart and a new spirit\n(xxxvi, 25\u201227). This promise of spiritual regeneration is illustrated\nby the vision of the valley of dry bones (xxxvii, 1\u201214). At the word\nof the prophet \u201cthe bones\u201d which lay whitening in the valley \u201ccame\ntogether, bone to his bone,\u201d assuming the form and appearing in the\nlikeness of men. But something more than human preaching was required,\nfor as yet the forms were without life. Then the \u201cbreath\u201d of the Holy\nSpirit entered into them, like the wind whose sound was heard on the\nday of Pentecost, \u201cand they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an\nexceeding great army\u201d of actual and real men.\n\nThe first and closely following result of the spiritual resurrection\nthus wrought by the Holy Spirit was the reunion of Judah and Ephraim\n(verses 15\u201228). These two branches of Israel, unhappily disunited,\nalways suspicious of each other, often in actual hostility, had by\ntheir division brought reproach upon God\u2019s cause and had subjected\nthemselves to the disasters, oppressions, and captivities which had\nmarked their history. Now the schism was to be healed. They were to\nbecome one, so that God could say again, \u201cThey shall be my people, and\nI will be their God.\u201d Then shall follow a new era of unexampled peace,\nprosperity, and productiveness. \u201cDavid my servant shall be king over\nthem,\u201d \u201ctheir prince forever.\u201d \u201cMy tabernacle also shall be with them;\nyea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And the heathen\nshall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel.\u201d The fulfillment of\npart of this prophecy is distinctly declared by the angel of God who\nannounced to the Virgin Mary concerning Christ (Luke i,\u00a032), \u201cThe Lord\nGod shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall\nreign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall\nbe no end.\u201d Now it is a remarkable fact, of which use will hereafter\nbe made to clear up the mystery of one of the obscurest parts of the\nRevelation of John, that the reign of David and his descendants over\nthe throne of Jerusalem was exactly one thousand years. In the year\n1063 B.\u00a0C. David was anointed king by Samuel and won his first triumph\nin his memorable overthrow of Goliath; and in 63 B.\u00a0C. Judea became\nsubject to Rome, and the royal supremacy of David\u2019s line came to an\nend.\u00b9 The \u201cscepter\u201d then departed from Judah, and the \u201clawgiver from\nbetween his feet.\u201d\n\n \u00b9 Dr. William Smith, _New Testament History_, p.\u00a0731.\n\nImmediately following this remarkable prophecy of Ezekiel is that\nconcerning \u201cGog, the land of Magog\u201d (chapters xxxviii, xxxix). He is\ninstructed to say to Gog, \u201cAfter many days thou shalt be visited: in\nthe latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back\nfrom the sword\u201d (xxxviii,\u00a08); \u201cThou shalt ascend and come like a\nstorm\u201d (xxxviii,\u00a09); \u201cThou shalt come up against my people of Israel\u201d\n(xxxviii,\u00a016); nevertheless, in the thirty-ninth chapter it is recorded,\n\u201cI am against thee, O Gog\u201d (xxxix,\u00a01); \u201cThou shalt fall upon the\nmountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the people that is\nwith thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort,\nand to the beasts of the field to be devoured\u201d (xxxix,\u00a04); \u201cThen shall\nthey [that is, Israel] know that I am the Lord their God\u201d (xxxix,\u00a028);\n\u201cNeither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out\nmy Spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God\u201d (xxxix,\u00a029).\n\nEzekiel closes his prophecies (chapters xl\u2012xlviii) with his pictures of\nrestored Israel, its new ideal temple, and city, and land.\n\nThe lines of thought thus laid down by the prophet of the Old Testament\nare so closely followed by the author of the Apocalypse that there\nseems no other conclusion left to us than that the parallelism of\nsubject is intended to be as exact as is that of language and imagery.\n\nIn the Apocalypse, too, \u201cthe faithful city\u201d (Isaiah i,\u00a021) has\nforfeited her faith and \u201cbecome an harlot.\u201d The dire catastrophe which\nthe seer of the old dispensation saw falling upon corrupt and apostate\nJerusalem has also fallen upon Babylon, the unfaithful Church of the\nnew. So, also, before the eyes of the apostle, as well as those of the\nprophet, there gleamed a vision of a restored Church, pure and clean,\ndescending from God out of heaven, adorned as a bride for her husband.\nHow this vision is to be made real, how that splendid city is to be\nbrought into existence of whose glories the eloquent figures of the\nclosing chapters inspire such lofty conceptions, it remains for him to\ntell us, in order that in all ages to come Christian men may discern\nthe paths along which they must labor and the steps through which they\nmust ascend if their efforts are to be crowned with favor and success.\n\nHow valuable a help the study of Ezekiel affords us in the\ninterpretation of the Apocalypse may be seen in the light which it\nthrows upon the subject of the \u201cthousand years.\u201d The foundation of\nthose theories of a millennium which have taken such hold upon the\nminds of men as to have perceptibly modified language and to have made\nthe word one of the commonplaces of thought lies in the few verses\nwhich make up the first half of the twentieth chapter. There must be\nsomething peculiarly attractive about these theories and very much in\nthem accordant with our instinctive hopes, since the paragraph in the\ntext furnishes but a narrow basis upon which to build a superstructure\nso large. It is not easy, moreover, to understand why, in a book so\nallegorical as is the Apocalypse, this paragraph should enjoy the\nexceptional distinction of demanding a literal interpretation, as would\nbe the case if these theories are admitted. Nevertheless, it is true\nthat, from very early ages in Christian history until now, a belief\nin and expectation of a personal and visible appearance and reign\nupon earth of the Lord Jesus Christ, inaugurating with his saints a\nperiod, stretching through a thousand years, of inconceivable peace and\nprosperity, has been entertained by many of his purest and most zealous\nfollowers, and has even been made the distinguishing tenet of large\nbodies of men. Whether these opinions are legitimately based upon the\ntext and how far a correct exegesis compels us to accept them we must\nnow inquire, endeavoring in all fairness and candor to so interpret\nthe inspired words as to make the various details of the paragraph\nconsistent with each other and with the rest of the sacred Scriptures.\n\nReferring once more to the prophecy of Ezekiel, we find the order of\nevents there described to be, first, a resurrection of dry bones and a\nvivification of them into men, then a united Church and people of God,\nan undefined period of happy prosperity, a restoration of the kingdom\nof David, a combined assault upon this kingdom by hostile nations under\nthe name of Gog and Magog, and the complete and final victory of the\nkingdom over them.\n\nIn the Apocalypse the same order is followed, with variation only\nin some details of the picture. The only feature which can be called\nnew is that of the binding and loosing of Satan; and even this, by\nimplication, at least, is in Ezekiel. It is certainly a reasonable\npresumption that the same truths, whatever they are, were in the mind\nboth of the prophet and the apostle, and were intended to be taught by\nboth.\n\nNow, if anything in the interpretation of the Apocalypse may be relied\non as valid and beyond question it is that the reign of Christ is not a\nfuture event, to be expected at some day which has not yet dawned upon\nearth, but is a present and existent fact. That kingdom was inaugurated\nwhen the Lord Jesus, having risen from the dead and ascended to heaven,\nled captivity captive and bestowed upon his followers the gift of the\nHoly Spirit. When St. Paul in writing to the Corinthians says, \u201cHe must\nreign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet,\u201d surely the meaning\nis that he does now reign and shall continue so to do until the result\nis accomplished.\n\nThe mediatorial sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ is, indeed,\nthe one theme of the whole book of Revelation. The consummation and\nundisputed supremacy of the kingdom has not been reached. It is in its\nmilitant, not triumphant state. But imperfection within and hostility\nwithout no more affect the reality of its being, although they may\nmilitate against its well-being, than did treason within and war\nwithout contravene the fact of the sovereignty of David and his house\nover Judah. Into this kingdom not a select number, but all the true\nfollowers of Jesus are introduced. They are \u201ca royal priesthood.\u201d They\nare \u201cjoint heirs with Christ.\u201d \u201cWe see not yet,\u201d indeed, \u201call things\nput under him;\u201d but we see Jesus \u201ccrowned with glory and honor;\u201d and\n\u201che that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for\nwhich cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.\u201d\n\nAgain, it may be accepted as almost an axiom of interpretation that\nthe resurrection referred to in the words, \u201cThey lived and reigned with\nChrist,\u201d means a spiritual change, and not a physical or bodily one.\nIt is synonymous with that epoch in the Christian\u2019s life when he is\ndelivered \u201cfrom the power of darkness\u201d and translated \u201cinto the kingdom\nof God\u2019s dear Son,\u201d that crisis of spiritual existence which is called\nconversion or regeneration, when one is \u201cborn from above\u201d and raised\nwith Christ into newness of life. The resurrection spoken of is stated\nto be that of \u201cthe souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of\nJesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshiped the beast,\nneither his image.\u201d It is also called \u201cthe first resurrection,\u201d thus\ndifferentiating it from another and subsequent resurrection of \u201cthe\nrest of the dead.\u201d This first resurrection, moreover, exempts those who\npartake of it from the power of \u201cthe second death,\u201d which is defined\nas the being \u201ccast into the lake of fire.\u201d It separates them from \u201cthe\nrest of the dead\u201d\u2015\u2015those who are dead \u201cin trespasses and sins,\u201d as they\nthemselves once were\u2015\u2015who live not again until \u201cthe thousand years\u201d are\nfinished.\n\nWe are now on sure ground. The meaning of this vision is that the\nmediatorial kingdom of our Lord is to be established on the earth, and\nthat by the proper use of those instrumentalities which have been given\ninto our hands, namely, the word of God and the blood of the Lamb,\nit shall advance in spite of all opposition and hindrances, until all\nworldliness and false prophetism shall be eliminated, until Christ\n\u201cshall have put down all rule and all authority and power,\u201d until \u201cthe\nkingdoms of this world\u201d shall become \u201cthe kingdoms of our Lord, and of\nhis Christ,\u201d and \u201che shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even\nthe Father,\u201d and the prayer shall be fulfilled which daily ascends to\nthe throne of grace, \u201cThy kingdom come.\u201d The millennium is now. We are\nliving in it. Its light shines but dimly, it is true, but it will shine\nmore and more until the perfect day.\n\nThe period during which the saints shall live and reign with Christ\nis stated to be \u201ca thousand years.\u201d Conjecture has been rife as to\nwhy this number should be selected. Manifestly, here, at least, the\nyear-day theory, that which makes every day mentioned in the book the\nsymbol of a year, breaks down. Otherwise, the period would be too long;\nand none have been found to maintain the opinion that the millennium is\nto last three hundred and sixty-five thousand years. Yet, to interpret\nthe expression literally, as if it meant exactly a thousand of our\nyears, would be to depart entirely from the rule of the Apocalypse, in\nwhich numbers are taken as symbols of epochs, not as a measurement of\nduration. There is no reason given why in this case exception should be\nmade to the constant and unvarying use of days and months and years in\nthis book.\n\nHere, again, reference to the book of Ezekiel will dissolve the\nobscurity and present us with an explanation simple, consistent, and\nentirely in accordance with the usage which elsewhere prevails in the\nApocalypse.\n\nIn the description which Ezekiel gives of the happy results which were\nto follow the resurrection of the dry bones and the reunion of Israel,\none of the particulars which tenderly touched every Jewish heart was,\n\u201cDavid my servant shall be king over them; and they shall all have\none shepherd.\u201d Whether the prophet was himself conscious of the full\nmeaning of these words or not, it is nevertheless the fact that it was\nnot in any merely earthly descendant of David that this prediction was\nto be realized, but in the Messiah, \u201cgreat David\u2019s greater Son.\u201d So,\ndoubtless, the apostle of the Apocalypse accepted it. And, inasmuch as\nthe sovereignty of David\u2019s house was, as has previously been said, just\none thousand years, what more natural than that John should see in this\nnumber the signature and symbol of the reign of Christ? He does not\nmean that the duration of that reign shall be limited to a thousand\nyears, but that, be it longer or shorter, this number is its symbol\nand emblem. Whatever he mentions as taking place during the thousand\nyears is to be understood by us as occurring during the progress of the\nmediatorial kingdom of Christ from its commencement to its culmination.\nIn the sight of the divine Being the period between the establishment\nof the kingdom and its complete and final triumph over all its foes,\nbe it longer or shorter, is the day of Christ, and \u201cone day is with the\nLord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.\u201d\n\nThe moments or stages in the growth of the kingdom are now to be\nspecified.\n\n1. _Restraints upon the Power of Satan._\u2015\u2015There is one item in the\nrevelation made to John, and through him to us, which is peculiar\nto him. It is, indeed, implied in the book of Ezekiel, but is not\nexplicitly communicated. This is the restraint which is put upon the\npower of Satan. An angel is seen to \u201ccome down from heaven, having\nthe key of the bottomless pit [the same mentioned in chapter ix, 1\u201211]\nand a great chain in his hand [see 2 Peter ii,\u00a04; Jude\u00a06]. And he laid\nhold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan,\nand bound him a thousand years.\u201d \u201cWhen the thousand years are expired,\nSatan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive\nthe nations;\u201d but this loosing of him, it is said, will be for only\n\u201ca little season\u201d before his final destruction. As the thousand years\nare a synonym for the reign of Christ, the meaning is that during the\nexistent mediatorial sovereignty of Christ Satan is debarred his full\nliberty. His judgment has not, indeed, come, and he still exists, but\nhis activity is circumscribed, and his power to hurt is limited and\ncurbed.\n\nIt will be remembered that in the twelfth chapter Satan was described\nunder the emblem of the dragon and his futile hostility toward the\nwoman was depicted. At the close of the chapter we were told that \u201cthe\ndragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant\nof her seed.\u201d Since that time he has seemed to disappear from mention\nand is directly alluded to only occasionally. His place in the drama of\nwarfare has been taken by the two wild beasts, his emissaries, in whom\nall enmity against Christ and his followers has been concentrated. Now\nthat these have been judged and consigned to their doom and have in\nturn passed from the stage, the apostle reverts to the evil one behind\nand within them, whose subordinate agents they were.\n\nOne of the noteworthy facts of the universe brought to light mainly\nby this book of Revelation, but fully corroborated by other scriptures\nwhen attention is directed to its quest, is the ambition of Satan to\ncopy and travesty the divine Being, both in modes of manifestation and\nmethods of work. His abilities seem to lie, not in the direction of\noriginality, but of imitation. He is not a creator or inventor, but a\nconsummate actor and a master of the art of mimicry. As the Deity is\nrevealed to us in the triune personality of Father, Son, and Spirit, so\nalso there is a trinity of evil\u2015\u2015the dragon, the beast, and the false\nprophet.\n\nAnd, again, during the continuance of the mediatorial sovereignty\nof Christ established for the elimination of sin from the universe\nthe Father does not directly interpose, but has delivered all things\ninto the hands of the Son, and through him to the Holy Spirit, whose\ninstruments are the cross and the Bible, and whose witnesses and\nmemorials are the two sacraments. In like manner, there is an attempted\nimitation of this on the part of Satan. His personal agency in human\naffairs is confined within narrow limits, not of his own will surely,\nbut by reason of him who hath subjected him. Whatever influence his\nmalignity and deep-seated hatred of God can exert in order to defeat\nthe plans and purposes of redemption is wielded mainly through his\nsubordinates, the two wild beasts. He himself is incarcerated in the\nabyss of darkness at the will of his Master and Lord. He seems to have\nbeen allowed personally to tempt Christ; but his arts were wasted, he\nlost the field of battle, and must pay the penalty of defeat. Referring\nto this, the Lord Jesus said, \u201cI beheld Satan as lightning fall from\nheaven;\u201d and again, \u201cNow is the prince \u2666of this world cast out;\u201d and\nagain, \u201cThe prince of this world is judged.\u201d\n\n \u2666 duplicate word \u201cof\u201d removed\n\nWhile, therefore, the opposition which the Christian encounters, the\ntemptations which beset him, the evil against which he must struggle\nproceed incipiently from the great adversary, it is only the emissaries\nand agents of the ruler of this world\u2019s darkness whom he is called\non personally to encounter. As God, in order to save man, must become\nincarnate in human flesh, so must Satan, in order to tempt, embody\nhimself in some earthly form.\n\nThe comforting assurance which Paul administered to the brethren of\nCorinth was, \u201cThere hath no temptation taken you but such as is common\n[that is, moderated] to man.\u201d The work of the Lord Jesus Christ extends\nsome of its blessings to all the race of mankind, to the disobedient\nas well as to the faithful, and tempers the vicissitudes of our mortal\nstate to our capacity of enduring them. It exempts us, though it did\nnot him, from exposure to Satan\u2019s unshackled power. Satan himself is\nbound and shut up in the pit. God\u2019s seal is on him, for he, too, is\nthe property of the divine Being. And he deceives \u201cthe nations no\nmore\u201d till the thousand years are fulfilled. Then he is to be \u201cloosed a\nlittle season,\u201d as we shall see, prior to his overwhelming discomfiture\nand irretrievable defeat.\n\n2. _Outpouring of the Holy Spirit under the Emblem of Resurrection._\n\u2015\u2015What has already, in the interpretation of this part of the\nApocalypse, been said upon this question will obviate the necessity\nfor any long discussion of it. Holding the prophecy of Ezekiel in\nmind, we cannot but conclude that what was meant to be taught by\nthe resurrection of the bones in the valley of vision is likewise\nindicated by the expression, \u201cThey lived and reigned with Christ.\u201d\n\u201cThis is the first resurrection.\u201d As the resurrection spoken of in\nEzekiel was a striking emblem of the power of the Holy Spirit to effect\nspiritual regeneration, so are the words to be taken here. The usage\nof describing regeneration by the emblem of a resurrection is so common\nin the Scriptures that there is no need to adduce illustrations of it.\nNor is there any need to dwell upon the analogies between the two or to\ndraw out the important lessons suggested thereby.\n\nOne truth, however, is so vital that it must detain us a moment,\nnamely, the absolute necessity for the supernatural agency of the Holy\nSpirit in the inception of spiritual life. No one who believes in an\nactual resurrection\u2015\u2015that is, in one that is more than figurative and\nspiritual, in a resurrection which extends to man\u2019s complete being, in\na resurrection of the body, and not a mere continuance of the life of\nthe soul\u2015\u2015conceives that any natural agents in existence, or, at least,\nwithin our knowledge, are competent to produce it. The bodies we have\nhere are \u201cterrestrial,\u201d brought into and continued in existence by\nthe operation of natural laws. The body of the resurrection, whatever\nits connection and continuity with the present one, is confessedly\n\u201ca spiritual body.\u201d No forces within the realm of nature are able to\ncreate life or to restore it to that which has lost it. The experience\nand observation of all the centuries fully establish this truth.\nWhether our present bodies or souls come into existence by traduction\nor direct creation is another question; but all Christians are agreed\nthat the resurrection of the body must be effected by the direct action\nof God.\n\nSo, likewise, analogy would teach, must it be with regeneration of\nthe soul. That change by which we are raised from the death of sin to\nthe life of God, that transformation by which we cease to be merely\ncitizens of earth and become citizens of heaven, can be effected only\nby the direct and supernatural agency of the Holy Spirit. No material,\nearthly, or human forces are sufficiently mighty to bring it to pass.\nHere God must specifically act\u2015\u2015not as in other modes of his work,\nbut by a distinct exercise of power. Nor are we allowed to conceive\nof entrance into the spiritual kingdom of God as the resultant of any\nprocess of evolution or growth; whatever preparation is made for it,\nthe spiritual life of the soul begins in a special operation of the\nHoly Spirit as specific and distinct as that by which God \u201cbreathed\ninto his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.\u201d\nThe closing chapters of the sacred Scriptures are in unison with the\nopening ones of Genesis, and from the prelude to the final \u201camen\u201d there\nis one harmonious melody.\n\nIt must be remembered that John was a witness to and a participant in\nthe extraordinary effusion of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.\nHe speaks, therefore, of that which he knew and testifies to that which\nhe had seen. While the results of the transformation wrought in him are\napparent to us, the fact of it was to him a matter of consciousness.\nIt is because he had experienced the power of the Holy Spirit that he\ndeclares the necessity for its exercise. And the stress laid upon this\nregenerating agency of the Spirit in order that we may be made to live\nand reign with Christ is no slight evidence that the man who wrote the\nApocalypse and he who recorded the words of Christ, \u201cExcept a man be\nborn again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,\u201d were one and the same\nperson.\n\nThere is no warrant in Scripture for the assumption that the descent\nof the Holy Ghost upon the band of disciples in Jerusalem was intended\nto be an anomalous event and incapable of repetition. In the form of\nmanifestation possibly it was, and in the accompanying signs; but not\nin its spirit and power. Our Lord plainly promised to his disciples\nthe abiding presence of the Comforter to the end of the ages. But\nthat promise was and is conditional. The Holy Ghost was not given\nuntil Jesus was glorified, neither can he be now. The recognition\nand reception of Christ as our only hope and Saviour is the measure\naccording to which the Spirit now imparts his life. Nor can any\ndefinition or theory of Christianity be accepted as correct in which\nthe atonement of Christ does not hold the place of central principle.\nAnd in proportion as the crucified Christ is believed on and accepted\nas the only name \u201cgiven among men, whereby we must be saved,\u201d may\nricher and more abundant outpourings of the Holy Spirit in his offices\nof regeneration and sanctification be expected.\n\n3. _Union of Christian Believers._\u2015\u2015There is one particular and\nimportant item relating to the coming of Messiah\u2019s kingdom which is\ndescribed with greater minuteness and fullness of detail by Ezekiel\nthan by the writer of the Apocalypse. This is the unity of the Church\nof God\u2015\u2015a point upon which the older prophet lays great stress. This\nunity is set forth both as a direct result of spiritual resurrection\nand as an essential element of preparation for the final conflict with\nevil. By symbol and in word he strongly emphasizes the declaration that,\nas the sticks which he took became one stick in his hand, so should\nJudah and Ephraim be made one in God\u2019s hand. \u201cI will make them one\nnation.... They shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be\ndivided into two kingdoms any more at all.\u201d All the wounds of division\nshall be closed and the scars of schism healed.\n\nIt cannot be said that this same truth is so patent in the Revelation,\nbut it is there by justifiable inference. The fact that the saints live\nand reign with Christ implies that the kingdom is a united one. The\nunion and fellowship of the saints with each other, without division\nor alienation, is assumed. The obviousness of the truth was sufficient\nreason for less explicitness of statement. At any rate, if the apostle\ncan be accused of any omission here he made ample amends in the\nprominence given to the subject in the fourth gospel, in which he\nrecords the prayer of our great High Priest, \u201cThat they all may be one;\nas thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in\nus: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.\u201d\n\nThe subject which thus opens out to us is one of such absorbing\ninterest as to demand ample consideration. If it be true, as the words\nof the prophet and, indirectly, of the apostle seem to indicate, that\none result of that spiritual quickening by the Holy Spirit called\nconversion or regeneration is to bring about union between all who\ncall themselves disciples of Christ, then that regeneration cannot\nbe regarded as complete or normal which does not produce fellowship\nwith all other believers; neither can any Church be said to have\nattained a state in any great degree approaching its ideal which is\nnot in union with the whole Church of Christ. And, in addition, any\ninstrumentalities we may employ in order to bring about the conversion\nof the world must be ineffectual, or, at least, greatly shorn of their\ninfluence, until there exists in the Christian world a unity which\nfinds its example and the source of its power in the divine nature.\n\nUpon this important question there is entire consentience of opinion\namong the inspired evangelists and apostles of the New Testament. They\nrecord their conviction that Caiaphas was speaking as a true prophet\nof God, however faulty his motives in so doing, when he said that Jesus\nshould die in order to \u201cgather together in one the children of God\nthat were scattered abroad.\u201d Appreciating the immense loss of power\nwhich had resulted from the schism between Judah and Ephraim, a loss\nfelt even more severely in the moral than in the political world, they\nstrove with all their might to prevent a like division between the\nJewish and Gentile converts to Christ. Nor did they cease their efforts,\nalthough laying themselves open to the imputation of inconsistency,\nuntil finally the matter became one of life or death to Christianity.\nWith a tenacity which appears to us akin to obstinacy, they clung to\nthe hope that the Jewish nation would accept Christ as Messiah and King,\nthat the old Church would, under the transforming power of the Holy\nSpirit, merge into the new as the dawn melts into the day, and that\nthus the continuity of history would be preserved.\n\nThere can be no question that the rejection of Jesus as Saviour by his\nown people was a serious disaster. It created a division among those\nwho believed in a living God, a personal Providence, and broke the\nunity of their testimony in the court of mankind. It sent Christianity\nout to its work heavily handicapped; and acute opponents, like Celsus\nand Porphyry, were not slow to avail themselves of the advantage it\ngave them. Nor has the loss of power therefrom accruing been recovered\nto this day. The event is sufficient justification for the wise\nconservatism which marked the actions of the apostles.\n\nAs little room can there be now for question that the divided,\ndistracted, segmentary condition of Christendom, with the animosities,\nenvies, sectarianism, undue exaltation of non-essentials, concentration\nof efforts upon things of minor importance, and cultivation of bigotry\ncaused thereby, operates as a most active factor in shearing the\nreligion of Christ of its legitimate influence. Nor could increase\nof power within and superiority to the world without be brought about\nso quickly by any means as by a unity of believers\u2015\u2015such unity as the\nNew Testament inculcates. This statement in no degree conflicts with\nthe uniform declaration of the Scriptures that the word of God and the\nblood of Christ are the two all-important and all-sufficient agencies\nfor the furtherance of the kingdom; it only asserts that the Bible and\nthe cross will not have accomplished their purpose until such unity\nshall have followed their acceptance.\n\nPaul, the apostle of the Gentiles, no less emphatically affirms with\nall his authority the necessity of this union. A careful study of his\nepistles will show that he divides the religious history of the world\ninto three distinct periods\u2015\u2015Judaism, Gentilism, and a final period in\nwhich these shall be united.\n\nFirst was Judaism, which began with Abraham, the pioneer and father of\nsuch as believe in a living, personal God. It ran its course, fulfilled\nits mission, and had attained what Paul calls \u201cthe fullness of times\u201d\nwhen \u201cGod sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to\nredeem them that were under the law.\u201d The office of Judaism in the r\u00f4le\nof redemption was to bear witness to the supernatural. The Jew believed\nthoroughly in God as the Creator, the Providence over nature, the\nRuler and Judge of mankind; in God as a person distinct from nature and\nsupreme over it. He fully recognized the obligation of the commandment,\n\u201cThe Lord our God is one Lord; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God\nwith all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.\u201d\nBut he exalted the supernatural so highly as to put an impassable chasm\nbetween God and his creatures. The immanent presence of God in nature\nwas lost sight of in the conception of his transcendency over it. An\nincarnation of the Deity and, above all, any such contact of God with\nhumanity as to admit of the possibility of his suffering was abhorrent\nto the mind of the Jew. And so when Christ came to his own as the Word\n\u201cmade flesh\u201d his own received him not. And, with his foot almost upon\nthe throne of the world, the Jew stumbled and fell.\n\nFollowing this period, in Paul\u2019s conception, was that of Gentilism,\nwhich has also its peculiar mission, runs its destined course, and has\nits times of fullness toward which it tends (Romans xi,\u00a025). This was\nalso the conception of Christ himself; for he had said, \u201cJerusalem\nshall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles\nbe fulfilled\u201d (Luke xxi,\u00a024).\n\nThe mission of the heathen Gentilism lay in the sphere of nature and\nhumanity. With all the beauty, grace, order, motion, and life of the\nworld the Gentile was in sympathy. His defect was that he rose no\nhigher. The gods he believed in were simply human and natural forces\npersonified and exalted. His need was to be impressed vividly with the\nconception of the reality of the supernatural and to recognize the\ndivine Being above and beyond man and the world.\n\nTo meet the needs of all classes of humanity God has employed those two\ngreat instrumentalities to which reference is so constantly made in the\nRevelation of St. John\u2015\u2015on the one hand, the Bible, the written word,\nthe sword of the Spirit, with its intense realization of the presence\nand power of God in nature and history; on the other, the cross, the\nblood of the Lamb, with its rich testimony to the fact that \u201cGod so\nloved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever\nbelieveth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.\u201d\n\nIt was Paul\u2019s confident and inspiring belief that when the fullness of\nthe Gentiles should have come there would be a union of all believers\nin God; \u201cand so all Israel shall be saved.\u201d And this is the truth to\nwhich the writer of the Apocalypse bears witness in his vision of the\nsaints who \u201clived and reigned with Christ\u201d in one united and concordant\nkingdom.\n\nIf, then, the attainment of so desirable and blessed a result as that\nof the consummation of Christ\u2019s kingdom upon earth is contingent upon\nthe unity of believers it surely behooves the disciples of Christ to\nlabor more earnestly than ever before for this unity. The magnitude of\nthe result is worth the sacrifices needed to gain it.\n\nIn what this unity shall consist, in what sense believers are to be one,\nis a question upon which lawful difference of opinion may be allowed,\nand it is to be settled only by a sympathetic and careful study of the\nScriptures. But as to the mode of its attainment and as to what must\nprecede its realization the Bible is sufficiently precise and \u2666explicit.\nIt will not be secured by a conventional agreement to accept any common\nand universal symbol, sacrament, or organization; unity means something\ntoo vital for that. It will not be founded upon the basis of any past\nfact, upon any historical creed or institution or order of ministry;\nunity is something akin to life, and life is progressive, anticipative,\nnot retrospective. The Jewish people were of one common lineage, having\nthe same fathers, the same oracles, the same institutions, but it was\nby no chain descending from past times that they were held in unity; as\nsoon as the hope of a future Messiah vanished their past associations\nbecame a rope of sand.\n\n \u2666 \u201cexplict\u201d replaced with \u201cexplicit\u201d\n\nThe Lord Jesus Christ has himself most plainly and authoritatively\nannounced to us the processes by which alone this unity can be attained.\nIn the ever memorable words of his prayer as our great High Priest\nhe said, \u201cSanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth,\u201d and\nthen almost immediately added, \u201cThat they all may be one.\u201d The unity\nwhich he anticipated and now desires is one that must be preceded\nby sanctification. This is fully in accordance with the prophecy of\nEzekiel, for the union by which Judah and Ephraim were made one was\npreceded by the resurrection to life which occurred when the dry\nand withered bones had been breathed upon by the Spirit. And, in the\nparagraph of the Apocalypse now under consideration, it was only after\nthe souls of the witnesses and followers of Jesus had been raised by\nthe first resurrection that they lived and reigned with Christ. Nor\ncan any unity be real which is not preceded by a spiritual resurrection\nfrom the death of sin into newness of life through the power of the\nHoly Spirit.\n\nWhat is here said of unity as applied to the body of believers is\nequally applicable to each individual. The kingdom of Christ does not\nreach its designed consummation in the individual until the heart is\nunited to fear the name of the Lord. The exclusion or omission of any\npart of our composite nature from the sanctifying influences of the\nHoly Spirit in so far mars the integrity and concord of the kingdom and\nis below its ideal. Entire sanctification is, as has been said by John\nFletcher, a constellation made up by the union of all the graces in a\nglorious galaxy. And St. Paul teaches us that it is only when we shall\n\u201ccome in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of\nGod,\u201d that we shall have attained \u201cunto a perfect man, unto the measure\nof the stature of the fullness of Christ.\u201d\n\n4. _Final Triumph over the Carnal Mind, or Barbarism. Emblem of Gog\nand Magog._\u2015\u2015With this glorious picture of the outpouring of the Spirit\nand the complete union of the Church of Christ in his mind, the apostle\npasses on to the decisive conflict and crowning victory of the kingdom.\n\u201cWhen the thousand years are expired,\u201d he says, \u201cSatan shall be loosed\nout of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations.\u201d\n\nIt is worthy of note that the word which is used by St. John for\n\u201cexpired\u201d is the same used in the fourth gospel in several important\nand significant places, although differently translated. It is found\nin the prayer of Jesus (John xvii,\u00a023) in connection with the thought\nof unity, as in the section of the Revelation just considered, and is\nthere rendered \u201cmay be made perfect.\u201d It is found in the same prayer\n(John xvii,\u00a04), and is used by our Lord in speaking of his active work\nupon earth, being there translated \u201chave finished.\u201d It is also recorded\nby St. John as being one of our Lord\u2019s exclamations while on the cross\n(John xix,\u00a030), and is there also rendered \u201cfinished.\u201d\n\nFrom these uses of the word the inference is very reasonable that it\nsignifies, not so much the termination of a period of duration, as the\ncompletion of a process. The thousand years may be said to have expired,\nnot at the close of any number of years of time, but whenever the ends\nfor which the kingdom of Christ is established are attained. Until\nthose purposes are accomplished the power of Satan is restrained and\nhe is not allowed to exercise the full measure of his strength. He who\nmakes \u201cthe wrath of man\u201d to praise him, while \u201cthe remainder of wrath\u201d\nhe restrains, guards his Church and his servants as \u201ca garden inclosed.\u201d\n\nHistory and experience furnish many an example of the providence\nthat shelters and shields the infancy and immaturity of Churches and\nbelievers until adult strength has acquired power to resist. The storm\nthat bends the reed will not move the sturdy oak; and one \u201crooted and\ngrounded in love\u201d can withstand blasts that would be disastrous to the\ngrowing and tender shoot. All progress in human laws, in fact, tends\nto surround the evil-disposed with increasing restraints, in order that\nthe weak and helpless and inexperienced may have an equal chance to\ndevelop their individuality.\n\nBut at the expiration of this period, we are told, Satan is allowed to\ngo forth to deceive the nations. The writer of the Apocalypse describes\nthe final assault of Satan upon Christ\u2019s kingdom under the emblem, so\noften quoted and so much misunderstood, of Gog and Magog. In so doing\nhe draws again upon Ezekiel; and if we wish to ascertain the meaning\nof both the apostle and the prophet we must revert to the circumstances\nunder which the prophecy was originally given, and must, in this\ninstance, have recourse to history.\n\nNot long prior to the time of Ezekiel there had occurred a sudden\nand terrible irruption of barbarians into the civilized parts of the\nworld, which had caused widespread alarm and terror and shaken to its\nbase the fabric of society which had through preceding centuries been\nlaboriously built up. An immense horde of Scythians, in the rudest\nstage of savagery, without pity or regard for class, sex, age, or\ncondition, with intense contempt for and hatred of those arts of\nrefinement which they were incapable of appreciating, broke loose from\ntheir primitive home and, sweeping down through Asia, overwhelming\ncities and empires, threatened to destroy every vestige of literature,\norder, and religion and to turn the world back to chaos and anarchy.\nHappily their onward course was arrested before the injury they caused\nhad become irreparable. From this circumstance the name Gog, which was\nthat of the horde, became the symbol of barbarism, and was used as such\nboth by the prophet of the Old Testament and the apostle of the\nRevelation.\n\nThe truth which is intended to be presented is the possibility of\nan inroad of that barbarism from which no age is free and from which\nthe most imminent peril to Christianity is to be dreaded. There is in\nevery human being, however civilized, a germ of barbarism, a strain\nof savagery, which though repressed by education, by culture, or by\nlaw, is not destroyed by them, and which under favoring conditions may\nbecome the ruling principle of life. In every community of men there\nwill be found some who represent the highest stage which the community\nhas reached; but there will be found some who remain in the most\nrudimentary condition of barbarism. It is the struggle between these\nopposing elements which makes the life of the community.\n\nGog and Magog do not represent heathenism, which is simply a lower form\nof religion capable of being improved by the increased light of the\nGospel. They represent the spirit of barbarism, which opposes itself to\nevery form of religion, lurking as the dark shadow which waits upon all\ncivilization, ready to manifest itself whenever the power which hinders\nits manifestation relaxes its vigilance. And unhappily there are, even\nin civilized and Christian countries, institutions allowed to remain\nwhose only result is to foster the tendency toward barbarism, whose\npurpose is to feed the lower sensual appetites and passions that are at\nwar alike with law, education, culture, and religion, and between which\nand the kingdom of Christ must be perpetual antagonism until one or the\nother shall be exterminated. The study of history will reveal the fact\nthat times occur in the life of nations when the tendency to revert to\nbarbarism asserts itself in unusual strength, when the normal movement\nupward and onward is arrested, and the forces which drag men downward\npredominate temporarily.\n\nIt is such times and conditions of which Satan avails himself to show\nhis most malignant power. With all such tendencies he is in closest\nalliance, and in the effort to intensify them finds his most congenial\nemployment. It is a mournful fact that the impulse toward the higher\nand better is not the only one to be found in man or in any creature;\nwe must take into the account the opposite fact of the tendency to\nrevert to lower and baser levels. Indeed, it is not uncommon to notice\nthat an unusual movement in one direction seems to originate an almost\nequal one in the opposite. Nor can there be any guarantee that the\nhigher and purer faculties shall assert their legitimate sway except\nin the promised guidance and help of God. In individual experience,\neven after long and faithful service and growth, there will come at\ntimes sudden suggestions and temptations which reveal the existence\nof desires and passions we had supposed extinct, but which have been\nkept down only by God\u2019s grace and our unceasing watchfulness; such also\nis the case with the larger aggregations of men into communities and\nsocieties. And the price we must pay for liberty is eternal vigilance.\n\nThe barbarian is, indeed, a man; the essential elements of humanity\nlie in him as in all men. But there are properties which belong to the\nlowest states of society which constitute a differential characteristic\nand which disappear or, at least, become dormant when growth and\nculture take place.\n\nThe barbarian is an intense realist. He dwells in the region of\nfacts\u2015\u2015such facts as are discoverable by his physical nature only.\nOf sentiment, of ideals, he knows nothing and cares less. Such things\nas these are spiritually discerned, and he is a natural man only. Of\nthat unseen ether which lies around the bare and bald facts of life,\nconnecting them with the divine and eternal source of things, of those\nloftier visions of the true, the beautiful, the good which fill the\nmind of the cultured with intensest delight, he has no conception. His\ndelights and employments are sensual and low, and the end of all of\nhis energies is to gratify them. Arcadian simplicity fades away with\nincreased geographical and ethnological knowledge.\n\nThe only forces which the barbarian appreciates, therefore, are the\nmechanical and physical. With him might is right. Of the power of\nspiritual forces he has the most inadequate notions until he finds how\nweak his cunning and artifice are in the presence of civilization. Of\nthat sacrifice and renunciation of self for the sake of love of which\nthe cross of Christ is the summit and crowning example and in which\nis the demonstration of the power and wisdom of God he is incapable of\nappreciation until the Holy Spirit breaks the chain with which Satan\nhas bound him; and then he ceases to be a barbarian. Clovis spake the\nreal feeling of the savage, even when baptized, in exclaiming, \u201cHad\nI been there with my Franks they should not have nailed Jesus to the\ncross.\u201d\n\nBy profession the barbarian is a soldier. He knows somewhat of the\npower of weapons of war and but little else. The mechanical and\nindustrial pursuits by which society is bound together are objects of\nscorn to him. He has profound contempt for labor as beneath his pride.\nThe aristocracy he admires is built on idleness and bloodshed, not on\ntoil or skill or honest work.\n\nBarbarians divide themselves on national lines alone. The broad\nhumanity which overlaps territorial boundaries, or a patriotism which\ncan embrace all mankind and recognize a universal brotherhood, the\nbarbarian is not able to comprehend, or else he despises the notion as\nsilly and puerile. He has no consideration of any ties save those of\nkinship, if, indeed, fully of these. All within this limit may not be\nfriends; but certainly all without are enemies, for whose welfare he\nneed have no regard and whose rights he does not recognize.\n\nAnd because of these things the stage of barbarism is politically that\nof socialism, of that form of it in which the individual has no value\nor right of independent thought or action, except as the clan or tribe\nor community may confer them. The discernment of the real worth of\nman is the gift of the religion of Jesus. In its teaching that the\nblood of Christ has been shed for the redemption of all mankind, that\nthe manifestation of the Spirit has been given to everyone, and that,\ntherefore, it is not allowed to call any man common or unclean, it has\nlaid the only solid foundation upon which true liberty, independence,\nself-respect, and the highest enjoyments of life can be based.\n\nHow rife this spirit of barbarism is, even in societies and States\ncalled civilized and Christian, a moderate degree of observation\nwill prove. It is to be understood, of course, that to say a tendency\nexists in mankind to revert to barbarism is far from saying that such\na tendency is likely to predominate. In pointing out the dangers which\nbeset civilization the Bible does by no means countenance despondency\nor encourage doubt as to the future of history. It indicates perils for\nthe purpose of inciting us to the use of the means which it suggests\nfor avoiding them. The spirit of the Bible is one of most cheerful hope\nas to the outcome of the conflict between good and evil; and nowhere is\nthe tone of assurance stronger than in the Revelation.\n\nBut we shall be very unwise if we shall neglect to guard against those\nsymptoms of danger which are manifesting themselves. The persistent\nattempts to reduce literature and poetry and art to a barbaric realism,\ndragging into light lusts and passions which modesty, culture, and\nreligion hide from view; the disposition, which seems to increase,\nto make the boundaries of States and empires coincide with kinship\nof race, and thus to limit men\u2019s interests and aspirations to their\nown nationalities; the multiplication of armies and the conversion\nof kingdoms into camps, in which every citizen must be a soldier; the\nfearful increase of destructive dynamitism and anarchy; the employment\nof the most advanced science and education in the invention and\nimprovement of machines of war; the growth of that form of socialism\nwhich denies all individualism of property, family, and labor\u2015\u2015these\nare indications of that proneness to barbarism from which mankind is\nnot yet free, and from which it will not be free until the world comes\ninto the enjoyment of the liberty of Christ.\n\nThe keen eye of the apostle discerned, even in the apparently secure\nage in which he lived, the signs of coming perils and dangers; and\nagainst these, men and Churches of all ages have had to struggle. The\nbattle of Christ with Magog is part of that conflict with the carnal\nman that rages in the heart of every Christian, as well as in the world\nat large. Happily, however, we know from the pen of inspiration the\nfull measure of danger to be apprehended, and may rest in the assurance\nthat Satan has no other appliances of mischief in reserve when these\nare exhausted.\n\nIt will be noted that the apostle says, in describing the assault\nof Gog and Magog upon the kingdom of Christ, \u201cThey went up on the\nbreadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and\nthe beloved city.\u201d A distinction is made between the \u201ccity,\u201d which\nsymbolizes the Church, and the circumjacent \u201ccamp,\u201d which is interposed\nas a bulwark between it and the enemy, and which may be regarded as\nrepresenting law, education, government, and other conservative forces\nof the world. There lies in this a thought characteristic of the\nprofound mind of the beloved apostle. In a sense most true and deep,\nChristians are \u201cthe salt of the earth.\u201d The interests of humanity\nare bound up with the welfare of the kingdom. In fighting the battles\nof God the Church is guarding the welfare of mankind. The bark of\nChristianity carries man and all his fortunes. Barbarism is the common\nenemy of government and of religion, and in striving to injure one\nstrikes at the other. Gog and Magog are antagonistic to the \u201ccity\u201d and\nthe encircling \u201ccamp\u201d alike. In resisting the emissaries and allies of\nSatan Christianity is struggling for the benefit of civilization and\nsafeguarding all earthly good, even as its Master died not for his own\nnation only, but for all men dispersed over the globe. For its own sake,\nif not out of regard for religion, society should jealously prohibit\nany infringement of divine law. \u201cHappy is that people, whose God is the\nLord.\u201d\n\nOn the other hand, it is a matter of profoundest importance to the\ncause of religion that it shall maintain the order and prosperity of\nthe community. No Christian can be indifferent to the welfare of the\nState in which he lives. As he dares not allow himself in his own\npersonal experience to watch without concern any indications of the\ngrowth of the carnal mind, neither can he be listless or apathetic when\nopinions destructive to society are spreading abroad. The attacks upon\ngovernments are but the prelude to assaults upon religion. Again and\nagain has \u201cthe earth helped the woman,\u201d and resistance to lawlessness\nand anarchy been preservative of the existence of the Church. However\nfar any established government may fall below the ideal, it is yet\nbetter than none. \u201cThe powers that be are ordained of God,\u201d although\nNero may wield the scepter. Forms of government are subject to change\nand may be altered in order to conform to higher ideals; but the\nexistence of government itself is essential to the fulfillment of the\npurposes of God.\n\nBut, however formidable the assault, the apostle does not allow any\nfears of defeat to eclipse his hope for the future. Victory, however\nlong deferred, is sure to come at last to the Christian and to the\nChurch. \u201cBe of good cheer,\u201d the Lord said; \u201cI have overcome the world.\u201d\nThe weapons he has put into our hands are amply sufficient for our\nneeds, nor are any agencies necessary beyond those with which he has\nsupplied us.\n\n\u201cFire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.\u201d The \u201cfire\u201d\nhere is undoubtedly the fire of the Holy Ghost, the baptism from above\nof which John the Baptist spake when he said, \u201cHe [the Christ] shall\nbaptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.\u201d There came, it may be,\nto the apostle, when he wrote these words, memories of an incident of\nhis life (Luke ix, 51\u201256). In his anger at the inhospitable Samaritans,\nwith a spirit of vindictiveness at the insult to his Master, he had\nsaid, \u201cLord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven,\nand consume them, even as Elias did?\u201d How quickly followed the sharp\nrebuke of the Lord Jesus, \u201cYe know not what manner of spirit ye are\nof.\u201d The weapons Christ uses are not carnal, but spiritual. The fire\nwhich is to devour Gog and Magog is the Holy Spirit who descended upon\nthe Church at Pentecost. The destruction which awaits them is that of\ntheir sins and animosity, not of their persons. The Spirit of truth\nwhen he comes reproves the world \u201cof judgment, because the prince of\nthis world is judged.\u201d\n\nAnd both the struggle and the victory are for each individual believer,\nas well as for the Church at large. \u201cWe know that whosoever is born of\nGod sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and\nthat wicked one toucheth him not.\u201d \u201cYe are of God, little children, and\nhave overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that\nis in the world.\u201d\n\nThus the consummation to which the apostolic seer looked forward\nis reached at last. The Lamb into whose hands the dominion of all\nthings was committed has prevailed. He has \u201cput down all rule and all\nauthority and power.\u201d \u201cHe [that is, God] hath put all things under his\nfeet.\u201d Principalities and powers are \u201csubject unto him.\u201d He who was\nlifted up upon the cross is now on the \u201cgreat white throne.\u201d The Father,\nhe himself had said, gave him \u201cauthority to execute judgment also,\nbecause he is the Son of man.\u201d The time of the fulfillment of this\npromise has come. Death, \u201cthe last enemy,\u201d is destroyed. The gates\nof Hades have no longer power to resist the forces of the kingdom of\nChrist. Nothing that is hostile to him can look upon his face. Daniel\u2019s\nprophecy has been brought to pass. \u201cThe iron, the clay, the brass, the\nsilver, and the gold\u201d are \u201cbroken to pieces together,\u201d and become \u201clike\nthe chaff of the summer threshing floors;\u201d and the wind has \u201ccarried\nthem away,\u201d that no place is \u201cfound for them.\u201d The kingdom which the\nGod of heaven has set up has consumed all other kingdoms and stands for\never (Daniel ii, 35,\u00a044; vii, 13,\u00a014).\n\nBut there is one thought developed in the closing paragraph of chapter\nxx which deserves a moment\u2019s consideration. It is that in the relation\nwhich men and things sustain to the Lord Jesus Christ lies the true\ntest of character and the standard of future, as well as present\njudgment. \u201cSet for the fall and rising again of many in Israel,\u201d\nthrough him \u201cthe thoughts of many hearts\u201d are revealed (Luke ii,\n34,\u00a035). He is, as has been aptly said, the touchstone of human hearts.\nAnd it will be by the \u201cinasmuch as ye did\u201d or \u201cdid it not\u201d unto him\nthat the final sentence on men will be determined.\n\nThis truth is set forth in the expression, \u201cthe book of life.\u201d\n\u201cWhosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the\nlake of fire.\u201d In the prophecy of Daniel, to which there is evidently\nreference in this paragraph, mention is made of \u201cbooks\u201d that \u201cwere\nopened.\u201d The writer of the Apocalypse also alludes to the \u201cbooks\u201d that\n\u201cwere opened.\u201d But he adds to this that \u201canother book was opened, which\nis the book of life;\u201d and in chapter xxi,\u00a027, he calls it \u201cthe Lamb\u2019s\nbook of life.\u201d It is apparent that this additional standard of judgment\nbelongs to the New Testament dispensation and is something having\nrelation to the specific work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul has this\nin mind in saying (1 Corinthians xvi,\u00a022), \u201cIf any man love not the\nLord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maran-atha.\u201d The Saviour had\ngiven a foreshadowing of the same truth in telling his disciples,\n\u201cWhosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess\nalso before my Father which is in heaven.\u201d We hear an echo of this in\nthe epistle to Sardis (Revelation iii,\u00a05): \u201cHe that overcometh, the\nsame shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his\nname out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my\nFather, and before his angels.\u201d The same truth is indicated by John in\nhis first epistle (1 John v,\u00a012): \u201cHe that hath the Son hath life; and\nhe that hath not the Son of God hath not life.\u201d\n\nThe character of men is not to be estimated solely by their actions,\nand to make destiny depend upon them would hardly be just. Every act,\nwhether of word or deed, has its own standard of judgment. That which\ndetermines its quality as good or bad is its fitness or unfitness to\nits designed end; in this consists its conformity with its ideal. A\nmoral agent has, however, another standard of judgment. Goodness or\nbadness in his case is determined by the conformity of his motives,\npurposes, and intentions with his ideal, which is the fulfillment of\nthe will of his Creator. Not only what he does, but why he does it,\nenters into the estimate of his moral character. A perfect man would\nbe one in whom faith in the Son of God and experimental knowledge of\nhim are in unison, one whose conduct springs out of a living faith,\nand in whom a correct faith is translated into actual and complete\nrighteousness of conduct.\n\nIt is a fact that upon the fundamental principles of ethics the\ngreat religions of the earth do not differ so much from each other as\npresumption leads us to anticipate. This agreement of the moral codes\noccasions surprise and even perplexity upon the first appreciation\nof the fact. But the explanation is simple and easy. These codes are\nlargely the result of observation upon the established and permanent\nlaws of the universe, deductions from facts with which testimony,\nreason, and consciousness make men acquainted. The data being the same,\nthe conclusions reached are closely similar.\n\nIt is the motive power which they bring to bear upon men in order\nto induce them to actual realization of and conformity to their\nmoral convictions that determines the superiority or inferiority of\nreligions. That which constitutes the distinguishing characteristic of\nChristianity and gives it its immense pre\u00ebminence over all other forms\nof religious belief is that it reveals to us the cross of Christ as the\ngreatest motive power that can operate in human nature. To depreciate\nor ignore the atonement is to leave out the differentiating element of\nthe religion of Jesus. \u201cHe that believeth on the Son hath everlasting\nlife: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the\nwrath of God abideth on him\u201d (John iii,\u00a036). \u201cWe must all be made\nmanifest before the judgment seat of Christ; that each one may receive\nthe things done in the body\u201d (2 Corinthians v,\u00a010, Revised Version).\nWherever, indeed, the full revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ has not\nbeen given to men they are to be judged by \u201cthe law written in their\nhearts, their conscience also bearing witness\u201d (Romans ii,\u00a015). But\nwhere the revelation has been made it is in likeness to him that the\ntest of character lies. And for the final determination of destiny\nthere must be, not only the books of words and deeds, but also the\n\u201cLamb\u2019s book of life.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n PART VII\n The Ideal of the Kingdom\n\n\n PART VII\n =The Ideal of the Kingdom=\n\nBY these long steps has the holy apostle brought us, through this\nwonderful record of perils, conflicts, defeats, victories, judgments,\nand blessings, to the conclusion toward which he has from the\ncommencement been tending; and in the two chapters which close the book\nhe depicts the ideal and perfect kingdom of Christ as it appeared in\nhis conception of it. As Ezekiel in his lonely captivity by the Chebar\nwas comforted with anticipations of a new Canaan and a new temple,\nwherein Israel, purified by its sufferings and cleansed from idolatry,\nshould enjoy renewed and uninterrupted communion with Jehovah, so was\nthe exiled apostle of Patmos gladdened with a prophetic foresight of\nnew heavens and a new earth in which righteousness shall dwell, not\nas a wayfarer or one that tarrieth for a night, but as a permanent\nand eternal inhabitant. For the instruction of all the generations\nto follow John presents his inspired conception of what the kingdom\nof Christ in its purest and final form is, whether it be conceived as\nexisting in the heart of an individual believer, or as synonymous with\nthe Church, the body of believers.\n\nWe are certainly not compelled, and it may seriously be questioned\nwhether we are allowed, to interpret the concluding chapters of the\nApocalypse as a vision of the future heaven which awaits the just,\nof the glorified and celestial state of believers who have passed\nthrough the trials of earth and have entered into their final reward.\nThe probabilities are very strong that it is rather the vision of a\nredeemed and purified earth, the victory which shall result here from\nthe complete ascendancy of Christ, which is presented to our faith\nand hope. This interpretation of the vision would give consistency\nand unity to the book. It would account for the discrimination which\nis certainly made between the \u201ccity\u201d and the nations which \u201cwalk in\nthe light thereof,\u201d and also for the statement that the leaves of\nthe tree of life are \u201cfor the healing of the nations;\u201d and it is\nconfirmed by the fact that in his first epistle, which was probably\nwritten subsequently to the Apocalypse, John declared that it had not\nbeen revealed or made manifest to him at that time what we shall be\nwhen Christ shall be manifested to us in his heavenly glory (1 John\niii,\u00a02)\u2015\u2015a statement hardly to be reconciled with truth if the vision\nof the Apocalypse is to be taken as a revelation of the heavenly state.\n\nThe careful student will not fail to observe that upon all questions\nrelating to the life beyond the grave the Bible preserves a marked\nreticence; nor is there any more impressive evidence of its divinity\nthan this. To gratify a curiosity which might easily become morbid\nis no part of its object and might defeat its more practical purpose.\nWhile, therefore, it shows us the rent veil and opens the curtain\nsufficiently to reveal to us a world lying beyond, it does not allow\nus to penetrate further or uncover to us the mysteries hidden therein.\nIt is enough for us to know that a way leads from the holy place to\nthe holy of holies, and that Christ is that way, the life of the world\nbeyond as he is of this, and the truth and reality of both alike. It\nis not certain that a revelation to us of the glories of the celestial\nstate would realize to us the satisfaction we anticipated. Even\nwere a revelation made to us in terms which we were able to grasp\nand comprehend, that which would be blissful to our glorified and\ntransformed faculties might not seem so to our earthly ones, and the\nrevelation might become rather a stumbling-block than a stimulus. We\nknow that the prophecies concerning the Messiah in the Old Testament\nwere not only obscure, but even seemed to involve contradictions, which,\nhowever, his advent in the flesh explained and reconciled. This may be\nthe case also in regard to the future state of the blessed. And God is\nno less merciful, doubtless, in what he withholds than in what he\nimparts.\n\nIt is the ideal kingdom of Christ here in its perfect and completed\nform, and not the glorified realm above, which John so exquisitely\ndescribes. The imagery he uses to adumbrate it may be glowing, but it\nis not beyond what may be gathered, though in less poetic dress, from\nother parts of the Scriptures. Even should it be conceded that the\npicture is simply an ideal one, a dream of beauty not meant to be\nrealized, in fact, something the attainment of which lies beyond the\npossibilities of this mortal life, still the presentation to us of the\nperfect state can not be without its uses of help and comfort.\n\nBut it was not the cast of John\u2019s mind to be pleased with imagined\nfancies. It has been well said (in _Guesses at Truth_) that \u201cin\ncharacter, in affection, the ideal is the only real.\u201d It is not without\nreason that John has so elaborately described the agencies with which\nChrist has so amply endowed his Church and his disciples, and which are\nsufficient, if rightly used, to reduce to actual experience all that is\nportrayed as ideal.\n\nIn one of those graphic sketches which connect the Apocalypse so\nclosely with the gospels John convinces us that it is fact, and\nnot fancy, which has been engaging his pen. At the beginning of his\nministry upon earth Christ, we are told, was taken to \u201can exceeding\nhigh mountain,\u201d whence \u201call the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of\nthem,\u201d were shown him; and Satan said to him, \u201cAll these things will I\ngive thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.\u201d From this temptation\nthe Master recoiled with indignant rebuke. Instead thereof, he chose\ndeliberately the path of suffering and privation, the path that led\nto the garden and the cross, to Gethsemane and Calvary. With full\nappreciation of all it involved, he took the cup put into his hands\nby the Father. In the closing scenes of the Apocalypse the battle is\nsupposed to have been fought, the conflict has ceased, and now John\nhimself stands, as Christ had stood, upon \u201ca great and high mountain;\u201d\nand, behold, there was shown him \u201cthat great city, the holy Jerusalem,\ndescending out of heaven from God.\u201d The cross has conquered, and the\nkingdoms of the earth have become the possession of our Lord and of his\nChrist. And he who himself overcame the world has given assurance to\nall his followers, however humble, that they, too, may be victors.\n\nTheories of the Church and kingdom of Christ, definitions of their\nnature and mission, abound. Many have taken on them to specify\nthe notes or characteristic marks by which the true Church may be\nidentified. It cannot, therefore, fail of interest or profit to learn\nwhat the holy St. John, the inspired apostle who leaned on the bosom of\nJesus, has to say of the tests by which we may try the spirits to see\nwhether they are of God. Under the veil of figure and metaphor, we have\nthe profound and long-studied conviction of one who was competent to\ndecide, and to whom the wisest of mankind may look up with reverence\nfor instruction. Nor need anyone have difficulty in determining for\nhimself whether the kingdom of Christ finds its realization in his own\nsoul, or long hesitate in identifying the true Church of Christ, which\nis simply the kingdom of Christ ruling in society.\n\n1. _The Distinctive Features of the Kingdom._\u2015\u2015The first mark of the\nkingdom upon which John lays stress is that it is supernatural in its\norigin. The holy city that he saw descended \u201cout of heaven from God.\u201d\nIt came \u201cdown from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for\nher husband.\u201d It is not the resultant of any process of development or\ngrowth from a prior state. Whatever preparation may precede and make\nready a basis for its reception, the kingdom itself is inaugurated\nby the direct and personal agency of the Holy Spirit. Whatever\ninstrumentalities the Holy Ghost may use as his media, his is the\nundivided quickening power. In this declaration the writer of the\nApocalypse and the author of the fourth gospel are in agreement. It is\nhe who records the words of the Lord Jesus, \u201cExcept a man be born of\nwater and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God\u201d (John\niii,\u00a05).\n\nAnother feature of this kingdom is that its mission lies specifically\nin the realm of divine things. It has \u201cthe glory of God.\u201d The name of\nthe city is, \u201cThe Lord is there\u201d (Ezekiel xlviii,\u00a035). Its God is its\nglory. It is God\u2019s witness in nature and to men of a power above and\nbeyond nature and man. There are natural means and agencies endowed\nby the Creator to carry forward earthly work; but he has planted the\nkingdom in the midst of mankind, and its one great business is to\ntestify of him. For the doing of this work the Church is accountable.\nIn whatever other tasks the Church may engage or whatever methods\nit may employ in fulfilling its mission, its one supreme office and\ndistinct characteristic is to bear witness to a divine presence and\na divine power in the world. \u201cIn his temple doth everyone speak of\nhis glory.\u201d All art, ritual, discipline, philanthropy, and economies\nthat do not directly lead to God, and have not for their purpose to\nemphasize the need, the presence, and the inward experience of the\nsupernatural, are aside from the purpose of the kingdom and below its\nideal.\n\nA third mark of the kingdom is that it has to do primarily with\nthe religious faculties. As the distinction between nature and the\nsupernatural is permanent and ineffaceable, so the Church and the\nworld can never be made to coincide, however widely the Church may be\nextended or however thoroughly the world may be permeated by the spirit\nof the Church. \u201cThe nations of them which are saved shall walk in the\nlight\u201d of the new Jerusalem, \u201cthe kings of the earth do bring their\nglory and honor into it;\u201d but the distinction between it and them\nexists and abides. It will be as true in the last days as when our\nLord first spoke the words, \u201cMy kingdom is not of this world.\u201d However\nomnipotent and omnipresent God may be in nature and the universe, he\ncan never be made identical with them; and, however thoroughly they\nmay be penetrated by his Spirit and come to perfect accord with him,\nthey can never be so lifted up as to rival or supersede his supremacy.\nAnd, although common life and work may be sanctified by being done in\nthe spirit of Christ, and religious life may flow out from the central\nsource through all the ordinary and natural channels of our being, the\nreligious and the secular can never be made one. \u201cOut of Zion shall\ngo forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem;\u201d but the\ndischarge of earthly duties and the reformation of earthly conditions\ncan never exhaust the obligations of man. There will still remain those\nrelations to the supernatural of whose existence and sovereignty it is\nthe pre\u00ebminent mission of the Church to testify. The kingdom of God is\n\u201crighteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.\u201d\n\n2. _The Central Principle of the Kingdom._\u2015\u2015The central figure in this\nkingdom is Christ crucified. It is the Lamb around whom all the imagery\nof the apostle\u2019s description gathers. The light\u2015\u2015luminary, rather\u2015\u2015of\nthe kingdom was \u201clike unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper\nstone, clear as crystal.\u201d That this refers to Christ seems probable\nfrom Revelation iv,\u00a03, where it is said that he that sat upon the\nthrone \u201cwas to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone,\u201d and is\nfurther confirmed by Revelation xxi,\u00a023, where the Lamb is said to be\n\u201cthe light\u201d of the city. Moreover, it is said, \u201cThe first foundation\nwas jasper,\u201d which is but confirmatory of what Peter had said in the\npresence of John to the \u201crulers, and elders, and scribes:\u201d \u201cThis is\nthe stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the\nhead of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other.\u201d (Acts iv,\n11,\u00a012.)\n\nStill further, \u201cThe building of the wall of it was of jasper.\u201d Christ\ncrucified is the defense and the bulwark of the kingdom. The atonement\nof Christ is the most powerful argument the Church can use and\nconstitutes its strongest claim upon the reason and heart of men. It\nis \u201cthe power of God, and the wisdom of God.\u201d It is Christ crucified\nthat makes the separation between the kingdom and the circumjacent\nworld. It is not in its ethics that the distinguishing peculiarity of\nChristianity lies, but in the preaching of the cross. In the opinion\nof John any other definition of Christianity throws down Christianity\u2019s\nonly wall of safety and separation.\n\nYet there is no exclusiveness about the kingdom. The city has three\ngates on each of its four sides, facing the four quarters of the globe,\nthat all men may find ready access. \u201cEvery several gate is of one\npearl\u201d\u2015\u2015that pearl of great price which Christ said a man should be\nwilling to sell all that he has to buy, becoming eternally rich by the\nexchange.\n\nNor is there any narrowness. Its length and breadth and height exceed\neven those large measurements which Ezekiel thought to be ample enough\nfor the ideal temple he saw. \u201cWhatsoever things are true, whatsoever\nthings are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are\npure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good\nreport; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise\u201d\u2015\u2015all these\nthings belong legitimately to the kingdom. The kings of the earth may\n\u201cbring their glory and honor into it;\u201d only that which \u201cdefileth\u201d or\n\u201cworketh abomination\u201d or \u201cmaketh a lie\u201d is excluded. When once a man\nin the center of his being is rightly adjusted to the Lamb of God, the\ncenter of all being, he may unfold all his powers and give exercise to\nevery faculty of his renewed nature safely, wisely, completely, without\nfear of infringement upon any other being or of going astray from his\nCreator.\n\n3. _Negative Characteristics._\u2015\u2015Not less remarkable is the negative\nside of the kingdom, the absence from it of many things with which we\nare familiar. When an ideal has been attained much that was necessary\nin the process of attainment falls away as obsolete; the scaffolding\nwhich is used in the erection of a building is removed when the\nbuilding is completed.\n\nThere is a noticeable avoidance in the closing chapters of the\nApocalypse of any reference to the sacraments, to ritual, or to such\nlike means of grace. John saw \u201cno temple therein; for the Lord God\nAlmighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.\u201d \u201cWhen that which is\nperfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.\u201d When\nthe consummation of the kingdom has been reached the relation of the\nsoul to its Creator shall not be through intermediate agencies, but\ndirect and intuitive.\n\nThere is no mention made of any special priestly class, for the promise\nshall have its complete fulfillment to all, \u201cYe are a chosen generation,\na royal priesthood;\u201d and all life shall be a priestly work and service.\n\nNor is there any allusion to the prophetic office as a separate\nfunction. \u201cThey need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord\nGod giveth them light.\u201d \u201cThe anointing which ye have received of him\nabideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you\u201d (1 John ii,\u00a027).\nThe prediction of Jeremiah (Jeremiah xxxi,\u00a034) has reached its time\nof fulfillment: \u201cThey shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and\nevery man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know\nme, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord.\u201d\n\nYet upon this point, more almost than upon any other, it is of the\nutmost importance that we shall \u201cdistinguish the times.\u201d We must\nnot assume, because these aids and appliances are not needful in the\nperfected state of the kingdom, that they are not essential in the\nformative period, and thus, at great risk and with imminent peril,\nneglect or depreciate those means of grace which the Creator has deemed\nnecessary for our present condition.\n\n4. _The Fruits and Results of the Kingdom._\u2015\u2015They in whom the kingdom\nrules shall have access to the tree of life, that heavenly wisdom of\nwhich Solomon says, \u201cShe is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon\nher: and happy is everyone that retaineth her\u201d (Proverbs iii,\u00a018).\n\u201cThis is life eternal,\u201d One greater than Solomon says, \u201cthat they\nmight know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast\nsent\u201d (John xvii,\u00a03). Their lives shall abound in fruitfulness. Their\nministry shall be, like the Lord\u2019s, \u201cfor the healing of the nations,\u201d\na remedy for all the spiritual and earthly maladies of mankind.\n\nThe curse of sin shall be destroyed, \u201cand there shall be no more\ncurse.\u201d \u201cChrist hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made\na curse for us\u201d (Galatians iii,\u00a013). \u201cThe blood of Jesus Christ his Son\ncleanseth us from all sin\u201d (1 John i,\u00a07). And walking \u201cin the light,\nas he is in the light,\u201d and being \u201cpure in heart,\u201d his followers shall\n\u201csee God.\u201d \u201cThey shall see his face; and his name shall be in their\nforeheads.\u201d\n\n * * * * *\n\nThus with this sublime vision closes this marvelous book. There is no\ntruth revealed elsewhere in the sacred Scriptures that may not be found\nin its pages. So complete is it, indeed, that \u201cif any man shall add\nunto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written\nin this book.\u201d Nor is there any truth revealed in this book which\nmay not be found elsewhere in the Scriptures, so perfectly does it\nharmonize with all divinely inspired truth. Therefore, \u201cif any man\nshall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall\ntake away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city,\nand from the things which are written in this book.\u201d\n\nThe Apocalypse of St. John fitly closes the sacred canon; for, drawing\nso much, as it does, from all the rest of God\u2019s wonderful book, it\nholds the truths derived therefrom in a coherent union never to be\ndissolved or broken.\n\n\n\n\n Index\n\n\n Albigenses, 137.\n\n Apocalypse. See Revelation.\n\n Apostolic and present age,\n resemblance between, 198.\n\n Asceticism and worldliness contrasted, 148\u2012150.\n\n Asceticism,\n prevalence and danger of, 138, 139.\n\n Atonement,\n all-sufficiency of, 164, 165.\n\n Babylon,\n destruction of, 199;\n relation of Church and State in, 179\u2012181.\n\n Balaam, 147, 148.\n\n Barbarism,\n characteristics of, 244\u2012247;\n possibility of reversion to, 74, 75, 243.\n\n Beast,\n scarlet colored, 186\u2012188.\n\n Bible,\n reticence of, 263.\n\n Christ crucified,\n the central figure of Revelation, 270, \u2666271.\n\n \u2666 \u201c171\u201d replaced with \u201c271\u201d\n\n Christian liberty, 272.\n\n Christianity,\n antithesis between true and false, 184, 185.\n\n Church and State,\n interdependence of, 110, 249, 250.\n\n Church,\n conquering weapons of the, 110, 155, 202;\n the ideal, 266, _ff._;\n notes of the true, 266, _ff._;\n separable from world, 269, 270;\n supernatural origin of the, 267;\n a witness to God, 268.\n\n Church unity, 228, _ff._;\n an apostolic hope, 230, 231;\n how attained, 236, 237;\n importance of, 232.\n\n Daniel,\n prophecy of four beasts in, 115.\n\n David,\n duration of dynasty of, 209.\n\n Dragon, the;\n divine protection from, 108;\n hostility of, to the church, 107.\n\n Dry bones. _See_ Ezekiel, vision of dry bones.\n\n Emblem,\n of seal, 39\u201241;\n of trumpet, 56, 57.\n\n Epistles to seven churches of Asia,\n their lesson to us, 34.\n\n Euphrates,\n reference to, in sixth trumpet, 72, 73.\n\n Ezekiel,\n prophecy of, 163, 164, 205, _ff._;\n vision of dry bones, 207, 208.\n\n False prophet,\n marks of, 133.\n\n False prophetism,\n second wild beast a symbol of, 126.\n\n Fifth trumpet. _See_ Trumpet fifth.\n\n First trumpet. _See_ Trumpet first.\n\n Forty-two,\n symbolism of, 19.\n\n Fourth trumpet. _See_ Trumpet fourth.\n\n Gentilism,\n mission of, 234.\n\n Gnosticism perilous to Christianity, 136.\n\n God, knowledge of;\n how obtained, 59\u201261.\n\n Gog and Magog, 209, 240\u2012243, 252, 253.\n\n Harvest scene,\n meaning of, 157\u2012159.\n\n Holy Spirit,\n his work preceded by that of Christ, 141, 142.\n\n Individuality an outgrowth of Christianity, 134, 135.\n\n Inspiration and human genius, 84.\n\n Interpretation,\n principles of, 10;\n reference to Old Testament necessary in, 13\u201216;\n structure of book a guide to, 11\u201213.\n\n Jewish ritual a key to emblems and symbols, 16.\n\n Joel,\n prophecy of, 155\u2012157.\n\n Judaism,\n its office in the plan of redemption, 233.\n\n Knowledge of God through his works and word, 59\u201261.\n\n Lamb\u2019s book of life, 254, _ff._\n\n Lukewarmness,\n evils of, 69, 70.\n\n Man and the earth,\n close connection between, 63, 64.\n\n Manich\u00e6ism, 137.\n\n Mediatorial sovereignty, 45, 46, 214.\n\n Michael the archangel, 109.\n\n Millennium, 211, 212, 217, 218.\n\n Mohammedanism illustrative of fifth trumpet, 70, 71.\n\n \u2666Nicolaitans, 136.\n\n \u2666 \u201cNicolaitanes\u201d replaced with \u201cNicolaitans\u201d\n\n Nineveh,\n special characteristics of, 178, 179.\n\n Numbers,\n importance of, 17.\n\n Old Testament,\n its relation to the New, 93\u201295;\n reference to it necessary in interpretation, 13\u201216.\n\n Palestine,\n geographical seclusion of, 108, 109.\n\n Paulicianism, 137.\n\n Peculiarities distinguishing the Revelation, 9.\n\n Plagues, the, 170.\n\n Prophetical books,\n importance of study of, 14.\n\n Purpose of the Revelation, 9.\n\n Resurrection,\n spiritual, 224, 225.\n\n Revelation,\n general purpose of the, 9;\n limitations of the, 81, 82;\n theme of the, 23;\n unity of the, 22.\n\n Roman Empire,\n policy of administration, 117, 118.\n\n Rome,\n Church of, 192, 193.\n\n Sacraments,\n absence of allusion to, 273.\n\n Satan,\n his power restrained, 219;\n loosing of, 238.\n\n Sea,\n emblem of secular world, 113.\n\n Seal,\n emblematic meaning of, 39\u201241;\n loosing of, 44.\n\n Sealed book,\n meaning of, 41, 42.\n\n Sealed elect, 50\u201252.\n\n Second trumpet. _See_ Trumpet second.\n\n Second wild beast,\n number of, 142\u2012148.\n\n Seven churches of Asia,\n spiritual condition of, 30.\n\n Seven seals,\n opening of, 46.\n\n Seven,\n symbolism of, 18.\n\n Seventh trumpet. _See_ Trumpet seventh.\n\n Simon Magus, 136.\n\n Six,\n symbolism of, 19.\n\n Sixth trumpet. _See_ Trumpet sixth.\n\n Theme of the Revelation, 23.\n\n Third trumpet. _See_ Trumpet third.\n\n Three and a half,\n symbolism of, 19\u201222.\n\n Tree of life, 274, 275.\n\n True prophet,\n marks of, 129\u2012131.\n\n Trumpet,\n emblematic meaning of, 56, 57;\n fifth, explanation of, 67\u201271;\n first, explanation of, 65;\n fourth, explanation of, 66;\n second, explanation of, 65;\n seventh, explanation of, 97;\n sixth, explanation of, 72\u201276;\n third, explanation of, 66.\n\n Twelve,\n symbolism of, 18.\n\n Twelve hundred and sixty,\n symbolism of, 19, 88, 109.\n\n Two witnesses,\n interpretation of, 79.\n\n Tyre,\n deleterious influence upon religion, 182, 183;\n emblem of commerce, 181, 182, 195, 196.\n\n Unity of the church. _See_ Church unity.\n\n Vials,\n vision of, 169.\n\n Victory,\n anticipation of, 150.\n\n Vintage scene,\n meaning of, 159\u2012165.\n\n Witnesses, the two;\n fulfilled in Law and Prophets, 87\u201292.\n\n Woes,\n the three, 76.\n\n World empires, 189;\n recurrence of, impossible, 191.\n\n World religions,\n agreement of moral codes, 256, 257.\n\n Worldliness and asceticism contrasted, 148\u2012150.\n\n Worldliness,\n blasphemy of, 123, 124;\n definition of, 120;\n first wild beast, a symbol of, 112;\n recuperative power of, 122.","title":"The Revelation of St. John the Divine : $b An interpretation","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":51367}