T n E 
 
 REVELATION OF JOHN; 
 
 WITH ]N"OTES, 
 
 (CRITICAL, EXPLANATORY, AND PRACTICAL, 
 
 DESIGNED FOR BOTH PASTORS AND PEOPLE. 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. HENRY'^COWLES, D.D. 
 
 " DnderstaiidcKt thou wiiat thou readost ? And he said, Uow can I niilcsH sonic 
 man should guide me ? "—Acts viii : 30, 31. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 D. APPLET ON AND COMPANY, 
 
 549 & 551 BROADWAY 
 
 1877. 
 
 SEP '^-^TM 
 
Euteied according to Act of Congress, iu the year 1871, by 
 
 REV. HENRY COWLES, 
 
 III the Cleik's Office of the District Court of tlie United States for the 
 Northern District of Oliio. 
 
 "v; 
 
IMIEFAOE, 
 
 The earnest request of many readers of ray ^olcs on Daniel, covipkvj 
 with a deep conviction of the importance of applying the same general 
 principles to this book as to that, has induced me to prepare this vol- 
 ume for the public. It seemed desirable also to complete the prophetical 
 books. — Those who are familiar with the numerous commentaries on this 
 book extant in our language will perhaps marvel that I have passed them 
 with so little notice. To such I would say that my system of interpreta- 
 tion docs not rest on any of those commentaries, and docs not need them 
 for its fair and full presentation. I even feared that, to arrest the course 
 of my argument in order to bring in to any considerable extent the di- 
 verse views of oUier critics, would not only encumber my book in general 
 but my argument in particular. Those who wish to see how other critics 
 have interpreted this book will readily gain access to their volumes. — 
 My aim has been to evolve the laws of interpretation applicable to this 
 book out of the book itself; out of the already extant prophecies of the 
 Old Testament ; and out of the history of those times. I dare not assume 
 that this effort is free from imperfections ; but that this method of in- 
 terpretation — this conception of its just principles — must control the con- 
 etruction of this book, seems to me too plain to admit of any question, 
 I lay down my pen therefore in the hope that in whatever points my ex- 
 ecution of this plan has been defective, abler hands, coming after, will 
 bring it to perfection. 
 
 The Greek text of tliis book is admitted to be more defective than 
 that of any other portion of the New Testament. I have aimed to intro- 
 duce all the recent corrections which seemed important for their bearing 
 upon the thought. — A favoring Providence has brought within the reach 
 of modern scholars several very ancient and valuable manuscripts which 
 were unknown to those who revised the text for our received English 
 
rr FREP'ACTB. 
 
 version. Tlircc of these are worthy of special mention : the Alexandrine, 
 dating probably about A.D. 350, made in Alexandria (Egypt), and 
 bronght from. Constantinople to England in A.D. 1628; the Vatican, 
 supposed to date about A.D. 300, long imprisoned in the archives of the 
 Papal Vatican, from ■which it takes its name, but brought slowly and with 
 (HfEculty hito the hands of able critics within the past twenty-five years ; 
 and the Sinaitie, obtained from a convent on Mt. Sinai, supposed to date 
 from about A.D. 825, but unknown till the year 1844, and only within 
 the last ten years carefully collated and brought before the learned of oiu 
 times. TischendorPs edition of the English New Testament gives tho 
 variations of the text which appetir in two of these very ancient manu- 
 scripts. — Unfortmiately, the Kevelation of John is wantmg in the Vatican. 
 
 The theory that prophetic days really mean years — that all periods of 
 time named in prophecy must be multiplied by three hundred and sixty 
 to get the actual duration — has controlled the interpretation of the Apoc- 
 alypse as given by many English and American critics. My views of this 
 theory have been given in the Appendix to my Commentary on Daniel 
 (pages 459-466). Since this volume may fall into the hands of some who 
 may not have access to that, I have placed that special dissertation in 
 this Appendix also. 
 
 A special examination of the teachings of Christ, and of His apostles, 
 in regard to the time of His then future comings, commenced with design 
 to append it to the present volume, as having important bearings upon 
 certain passages in the Revelation which speak of Christ as " coming 
 quickly," at length took so broad a range that it has been thought besJ 
 to have it appear in the Bibliotheca Sclera^ July number for 18*71. 
 
 HENRY COWLES. 
 
 Oberwn, Ohio, Mardi,l^A. 
 
HEYELATION. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 It lies upon the face of this book that it was written in a time 
 of persecution. The writer was an exile in the barren isle of 
 Patmos because of his testimony for Jesus Christ. He wrote the 
 book to those who were his "companions in tribulation," like 
 himself in the point of suffering and endurance for the Kingdom 
 of Jesus (1: 9). The whole book is addressed to the seven 
 churches of Asia (1: 4), while the second and third chapters 
 comprise special messages to each one of these churches by name. 
 A careful attention to these special messages will show that those 
 Christians were either actually suffering persecution, or at least 
 were exposed and in constant peril. The letters speak of their 
 "patience" (t. e., suffering); of their "tribulation;" of some who 
 had "kept the word" (command) "of my patience" and obtained 
 the promise that Jesus would " keep them from the hour of 
 temptation which shall come upon all the world to try them that 
 dwell upon the earth" (3: 10); of those who "had not denied 
 ray faith even in those days wherein Antipas, my faithful martyr, 
 was slain among you" (2: 13). They were exhorted to "be 
 faithful unto death," with the promise of gaining thus a crown 
 of life. Each message closes with a speciGc and glorious promise 
 to " him that ovcrconieih." To them the battle of life was " unto 
 
 blood." Altogether to the same purport is the body of this 
 
 "Revelation of St. John." First, a book (5: 1) or scroll of des- 
 tiny written on both sides is unrolled, disclosing its contents by 
 sections as one seal after another is broken. One of these seals 
 (0: 9-11) significantly opens to view "under the altar the souls of 
 
 (5) 
 
b INTKODUCTION. * ' 
 
 them that were shiin for the word of Cod and for the testhnony 
 which they held; " and they arc heard to cry witli a loud voice: 
 " How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge 
 our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" Then "white robes'' 
 (of prospective victory and joy) "were given to every one of them, 
 and it was said to them that they should rest yet for a little 
 season, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren that 
 should be killed as they were should be fulfilled." The obvious 
 construction of this passage implies that persecution was then 
 raging; that some faithful martyrs had already fallen; that their 
 murderers were then living on the earth, their crimes yet unpun- 
 ished; and that other Christian martyrs, of their brethren, were 
 to be killed as they had been before God's sword of retribution 
 
 should smite the murderers. Bearing to the same conclusion 
 
 are the scenes of chap. 7: 9-17 — the myriads of saved ones ar- 
 rayed in white who have "come out of great tribulation," but are 
 seen at rest in the fullness of joy before the throne of God. So 
 the two witnesses (of chap. 11), representative characters, indicate 
 an age of faithful testimony for Jesus which cost human blood but 
 ended in glorious victory for truth and for truth's Great King. So 
 throughout the scenes unfolded in the second part of this book 
 (13-18) we have bloody persecution, led on by the Great Dragon, 
 his auxiliary forces being the savage wild " beasts '' (the first and 
 the second) and the great harlot city-^that woman seen in vision 
 " drunk with the blood of saints and with the blood of the martyrs 
 of Jesus" (17: 6) — throughout which scenes thei'e was abundant 
 demand for "the patience of the saints" (13: 10 and 14: 12 and 
 12: 17), and for the assurance of blessedness to those that "die 
 in the Lord" and so "rest from their labors." It can not fail to 
 impress the attentive reader that every feature of this book is 
 made to bear upon the case of Christian men and women breast- 
 ing the fire and flame of persecution. They are thought of as in 
 the midst of such conflicts as try men's souls. They are precisely 
 where they need to see the surpassing majesty and glory of their 
 own risen Redeemer (1 : 13-18). They need the assurance of hia 
 presence, walking amid the seven golden candlesticks, searching 
 all hearts, witnessing every believer's personal conflicts, sufferings, 
 faith, love and fidelity to his Master; where it must be cheering 
 to see visions of myriads of men saved through blood and fire and 
 to witness the iiieflable glory of their joy, and where the judgments 
 
I>'TRODLX'TION. 7 
 
 jf the Almighty on his foes are tlie pledge of speedy victory to 
 Zion's King and people. Such comprehensively are the main 
 points made in this book. Throughout they undeniably assume 
 that the writer and his first readers were in the midst of bloody 
 persecution, and therefore give us beyond dispute tlic moral purpose 
 0/ this book of Itevelation. 
 
 Let it now be strongly said and deeply pondered: — This obvious 
 and -unquestionable moral purpose of the book may be relied on to guide 
 us to its true interpretation. For no interpretation can be a right 
 one unless it bears naturally and squarely toward attaining the 
 obvious purpose of the book. It can not be admissible to put upon 
 it or any part of it a construction which would frustrate or even 
 materially emasculate its moral purpose. The reason of this will 
 be obvious. Every sensible and earnest author writes for a pur- 
 pose and makes his points bear toward its attainment. His good 
 Kcnse will appear in the wisdom and effectiveness of his adapta- 
 tion of means to his ends : his earnestness will be the guaranty 
 that he will surely try to accomplish his purpose. Our author is 
 wonderfully strong in his manifestations of earnestness — giving 
 assurance therefore that he can not forget his great object in 
 writing. We shall see that he is not deficient in the good sense 
 that adapts his points to their obvious purpose. * 
 
 *Only for brevity's sake do I spoak of this book as the product of 
 John's owu mind and heart. I liold tlie wliole book to l)e inspired, and 
 tlierefore really the mental product of John's Divine Teaclipr — the 
 mes.sages and the vision having been given liini -wXnlQ " in the Spirit." 
 Tlieir wise adaptation to great moral ends and tliat earnestness which 
 breathes in every word and symbol are therefore primarily those of 
 
 I ho Divine Spirit. 1 extend tlie remark here made to the whole 
 
 subject of language, style, symbol and figure. For the sake of brevity 
 1 speak of all points that arise under this comprehensive head as if 
 John were the uninspired and only responsible author of the book, 
 and every feature of the style were due to his own taste, his own cast 
 of mind and modes of speech. This way of speaking of the language 
 and poetry of a prophet is unobjectionable provided it be fully under- 
 stood that it does not in any wise ignore his prophetic iusjiiration. 
 VoT, however the fact may be exi)lained, no one can deny that the 
 style and language of each prophet is as truly his own, representing 
 his own taste, culture, cast of mind and genius, as the style of Gibbon 
 is liis own, or the style of Carlyle, his. As to explanation of this fact. 
 It may suffice to say "that God speaks to liis prophets, to each in his own 
 tongue, as wise men now speak in one style to a child, in another to a 
 youth or a man ; in one style to men of no education ; in anotlier, to 
 the educated, and in their own parlance to men of any given profession. 
 That the inditing Spirit should adapt himself to the mind and tongue 
 of each ))rophet is no mystery. The fact ajaplies l)oth to messages given 
 to the propliet to be spoken or written verbatim, and to revehilions 
 made to his prophetic eye in vision, or through a revealing an}iel,f)r by 
 any other mode of comjuuuicating the thought of God to the mind oJ 
 luau. 
 
8 INTEODUCTION. 
 
 From these principles I infer that if the book was written in 
 order to produce certain moral impressions and effects upon its 
 first readers — men then living — it must have been in the main in- 
 telligible to those men. Its words, its pictured scenes, its symbols, 
 its allusions to God's enemies soon to be destroyed, must have been 
 brought down to the average level of their comprehension. The 
 writer vieant to be understood — expected to be; for he certainly 
 must have known that what his readers could not understand 
 could do them no good. On this point human nature was the 
 same then as now : words and symbols which men can not under- 
 stand are simply powerless. If the seven churches of Asia to 
 whom John wrote this entire book (1:4) could not understand 
 the main and vital things it contains, then it was to them in just 
 so far a dead letter — a book written in vain as to any effect upon 
 them — a "revelation" that revealed nothing. The notion that the 
 great body of this prophetic book was unintelligible to its first 
 readers and therefore may be interpreted to-day to mean things 
 which they could never have imagined, must be for every reason 
 rejected. Think of the blessing promised to "him that readeth 
 and to those that hear its words" (1: 3); think of the declared 
 gpeedy fulfillment of its staple predictions (1 : 1, 3, and 4: 1, and 
 22: 6, 10, 12, 20); the special blessing for those who keep i. e., 
 observe and obey those things written herein (1:3, and 22: 7); 
 the obvious need of just such sayings and showings to support the 
 Christian faith and heroism of those churches at that time; the 
 perfect adaptation of the things shown to meet their case and 
 sustain their souls under the sternest and bloodiest of scenes. 
 All these points conspire to show that the author wrote with a 
 present object; consequently, sought to be understood; therefore 
 must have made himself fairly intelligible to the average capacity 
 of those church members; and so, by resistless inference, must 
 be interpreted to mean what would lie within and not beyond the 
 pale of their thought and conception. 
 
 I deem it the more important to show that the book had a great 
 and then present moral purpose; what that purpose was; and the 
 inference as to its interpretation that flows by necessity from it, 
 because in my view these points give us the only reliable clue to 
 its just interpretation. Overlooking these points or according to 
 them only the least possible influence upon its interpretation, men 
 have speculated upon this book in endless diversity, with no one 
 
INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 result more general and deep in the public mind than the break- 
 ing down of all confidence in prophecy and the special conclusioa 
 that nothing can be known with any certainty as to the true 
 meaning of this book of Revelation. 
 
 As preliminary and essential steps in unfolding what T regard 
 as the true sense of this book, 1 must treat, 
 
 I. Of the Author. 
 
 II. Of the date of his writing. 
 
 III. Of his times — his circumstances and those of his first readers. 
 
 IV. Of the question — To whom precisely was this book prima- 
 rih' addressed and therefore specially adapted ? 
 
 V. The various indications in the book which locate its pro- 
 phetic events in place and in time, and thus become landmarks to 
 guide to its just interpretation. 
 
 VI. The sources of the writer's figurative imagery and the bear- 
 ing of these sources upon his use of them in this book. 
 
 VII. The principles or laws which should control the interpre- 
 tation of this book. 
 
 I. The Author. 
 
 The writer calls himself simply "John" (1 : 1, 4, 9, and 22: 8) 
 with no further designation save that he is "his" (Jesus Christ's) 
 "servant," and "your brother and companion in tribulation" — 
 the same who was exiled to Patmos (1: 1, 9). lie does not say 
 John the Apostle, nor John the brother of James, or one of the 
 sons of Zebedcc; does not define himself as "the disciple whoK 
 Jesus loved" (as in his gospel, 13: 23, and 19 : 26, and 20: 2, 
 and 21 : 7, 20). Yet he makes no effort to disguise his person, 
 but obviously assumes that his first readers will recognize hinj 
 without fail by the indications given. It is therefore safe to con- 
 clude that he was well known throughout all those seven churches. 
 Tliis fact of itself leaves no room to doubt that he was the venera- 
 ble and cvery-where known Apostle John. The church history 
 of the early ages from the date of this epistle onward witnesses to 
 no other John of such prominence and distinction — a father to the 
 churches, known and beloved by all. 
 
 This question of authorship is not absolutely vital to the recep- 
 tion and usefulness of this book, provided it be admitted and sat- 
 i.sfactorily shown that the author was one of the inspired men of 
 the apostolic age. Yet if John the beloved disciple was truly the 
 
10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 author, it is refreshing to know it. In my view the proof that he 
 was the author is entirely conclusive. Yet I am well aware that 
 Bome very learned critics of our times deny his authorship, especi- 
 ally on the ground of the great diversity of style between thia 
 book and the fourth gospel and the three epistles attributed to 
 John. Consequently the question should be the more carefully 
 examined and the strong points of proof more fully presented. 
 
 1. In the first place the voice of the most ancient Christian 
 Fathers is strongly and almost unanimously for him as the author, 
 
 The testimony of Papias, bishop of Hierapolis (Col. 4 : 13) in 
 
 Phrygia (flourished in the first years of the second century) and 
 who may have seen John personally, shows only that he held the 
 book to be of apostolic origin and wortliy of our Christian faith 
 (" axiopiston"). He says nothing adverse to the opinion that John 
 was the author. The presumption is that in his day there was no 
 
 occasion to affirm this. The active life of Polycarp, bishop of 
 
 Smyrna, spanned the first half of the second century and the lat- 
 ter years of the first. He is spoken of as a personal companion 
 and disciple of John; but we reach his views on the point before 
 us only by inference from the well known views of his pupil Jrc- 
 neus. The latter speaks explicitly of the Apostle John as the au- 
 thor of this book. Justin Martyr (flourished A. D. 140-164), 
 
 the earliest author and scholar after the apostles, writes: "A 
 man from among us" (Justin was of Palestine) "% name John, 
 one of the apostles of Christ, in the revelations made to him, has 
 prophesied that those who believe in our Messiah shall live a 
 
 thousand years in Jerusalem," etc. Melito, bishop of Sardis 
 
 (one of those seven churches), who flourished in the third quarter 
 of the second century, "wrote a treatise on the Apocalypse of 
 John." This is the language of Eusebius (Book 4, chap. 26), and 
 
 can be fairly construed of no other than John the Apostle. 
 
 Theophilus, bishop of Antioch {A. D. 169-180), is reported by 
 Eusebius (Book 4, chap. 24) as drawing "testimony from the 
 Apocalypse of John" in a work of his entitled, "Against the her- 
 esy of Hermogenis," Eusebius says the same of Apollonim 
 
 (Book 5, chap. IS), who was of Asia Minor, latter part of the sec- 
 ond century. Ireneits, trained in Christian life and doctrine 
 
 under Polycarp of Smyrna till about A. D. 150; then sent as a 
 missionary to the south of France (Gaul), where he was bishop 
 of Lyons (A. D. 177-202), witnesses abundantly that John the dis- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 ciple of the Lord wrote the Apocalypse. His testimony, found iu 
 his great work " A<;ainst Heresies," is chiefly in the form of quo- 
 tations from the Apocalypse, spoken of as " the words of John." • 
 
 Clement of Alexandria (A. D. 19:2-220) quotes from this book witk 
 
 tlie remark, "As John says in the Apocalypse." Tcrtullian cf 
 
 Carthage (A. D. 1 99-220) in many passages refers to the Apoca- 
 lypse as being " the work of the Apostle John." Origen, the 
 
 greatest biblical scholar among the Christian fathers to his day; 
 in early life of Alexandria (Egypt), but in later life of Palestine; 
 born A. D. 185, died A. D. 2J4, makes his testimony signally ex- 
 plicit : " John who leaned on the bosom of Jesus has left us one 
 gospel, and he wrote also the Apocalypse." lie speaks of this 
 John as "being the son of Zebedee; " also as being "condemned 
 to the Isle of Patmos for bearing his testimony to the word of 
 truth." 
 
 This list of witnesses and recital of their testimony might be 
 very greatly extended. I have selected the earliest witnesses be- 
 cause they are most likely to be original and direct, and therefore 
 have the highest value. I see no reason to doubt that these wit- 
 nesses give us the prevalent opinions of those who first received 
 this book from the pen of John and of their successors — sons and 
 grandsons, pupils and grand-pupils, of the nearest subsequent 
 years. 
 
 2. In respect to historic testimony it should however be dis- 
 tinctly stated tliat a very few counter voices are heard; but their 
 doubt or denial of the authorship of John is obviously traceable 
 either (1) to doctrinal prejudice against the book; or (2) to their 
 inference from its peculiarities of style, compared with the fourth 
 
 gospel. As to doctrinal prejudice, the facts are in brief that a 
 
 few Christians in the second century and onward gave this book 
 an extremely literal and even a repulsively gross and sensual in- 
 terpretation, which so disgusted many of their brethren tliat they 
 discredited tlie book itself, denying its divine authority, and of 
 course denying that it was written by the Apostle John. It was 
 apparently under the influence of this feeling that the scholarly 
 Dyonisius of Alexandria raised the question whether the John 
 whose name appears in this book was not another man — a posi- 
 tion which he supported by appealing to its diversity of style, 
 compared with the fourth gospel. 8uch counter testimony con- 
 sidered as properly historic is obviously of no account. It fails to 
 
i 2 INTKODUCTION. 
 
 touch the only really historic question, viz., What were the views 
 of those vrho personally knew the author, and who received the 
 book from his well-known hand ? And what voice did they hand 
 down to their children and to their pupils of the next and of suc- 
 ceeding generations ? On this simply historic question there secraa 
 to be no ground for any difference of opinion. 
 
 3. Internal traits go far to prove that the same John who wrote 
 the fourth gospel and the three epistles wrote also the Kevelation. 
 Note how he identifies himself by his use of special terms and 
 phrases and by his dominant ideas of gospel truth, and also by his 
 modes of conceiving and representing them. 
 
 (1.) Observe that he alone of all the New Testament writers, 
 thinks and speaks of Jesus Christ as " the Word of God." This 
 name stands out prominently in the Revelation (19: 13) : "Ilis name 
 is called the Word of God." It is equally prominent in the very 
 opening of the fourth gospel: "In the beginning was the Word, 
 and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." . . "And 
 the Word was made flesh," etc. (1: 1, 14.) In the epistle also: 
 "The Word of life" (1: 1), and in the disputed and doubtful 
 passage (5: 7) "The Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost." 
 [If we admit that this last passage came into our copies by inter- 
 polation, still it must have gained and held its place on the 
 strength of its harmony with John's usage and with the views of 
 the ancient church.] 
 
 (2.) By John alone of all the New Testament writers Jesus i.s 
 thought of and seen as "a Lamb slain for an atoning sacrifice." 
 AVe have this view in the Revelation. In the midst of the heavenly 
 elders is seen "a Lamb as it had been slain," to whom they sing: 
 " Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood" (5: 
 6, 9, 12). " The book of life of the Lamh slain from the foundation 
 of the world " (13 : 8). The victors on the sea of glass sing the 
 song of Moses and the song of the Lamb (15: 3). And in the 
 same strain of thought — " To him that loved us and washed us 
 from our sins in his own blood" (1 : 5). Now obseiTC how per- 
 fectly in harmony with this way of thinking and speaking you find 
 the fourth gospel : " Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the 
 
 gin of the world" (1 : 29, 3G). Peter approximates toward this 
 
 (1 Eps. 1: 19), comparing Christ to a lamb, but no other New 
 
 Testament writer save John fully reaches it. The reader will 
 
 bear in mind also that this figure is the more remarkable in the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 Revelation because the tone and purpose of the book should more 
 naturally present Christ as tlie Lion than as the Lamb — the Lion 
 who treads down his foes ratlier than the Lamb who dies a sac- 
 rifice for his friends. 
 
 (3.) Allusions to the manna of the wilderness appear in the 
 New Testament in this wi'iter only; in llev. 2: 17, — "To hira 
 that overcomcth will I give to eat of the hidden manna:" and in 
 the fourth gospel (6 : 48, 58), " My Father giveth you the true 
 bread from heaven" [the real manna]. 
 
 (4.) Only in the imagery of this New Testament writer are tlie 
 blessings of salvation, "waters of life," given to all the thirsty ones. 
 Sec in Rev. 21: 6, and 22: 1, 17. "I will give unto him that is 
 athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely." "Let him that 
 is athirst come. AVhosoever will, let him take the water of life 
 freely." In his gospel history, see 7: 37: "In the last day, that 
 great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, ' If any man 
 thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believcth on mc, 
 out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." 
 
 (5.) In his. style of thought and speech, preaching the gospel 
 is "witnessing," "testifying," bearing testimony to the truth. We 
 see this throughout the Apocalypse, e. g., in 1 : 2, and 2: 13 
 ["martyr" is the Greek word hv witness], and 3: 14, and 6: 9, 
 and 11: 3, 7, and 12: 11, 17, and 10: 10, and 20: 4, and 22: 16, 
 18, 20. In the fourth gospel we have the same use of this lan- 
 guage, 5: 39, and 15: 26, 27, and 18: 37. "For this cause (said 
 Jesus before Pilate) came I into this world that I should bear 
 witness to the truth." Sec also the author's description of his work 
 (21 : 24) : " This is the disciple which icstificth of these things and 
 wrote these things ; and we know that his icstimony is true." 
 "Witnessing" appears in the same general sense in the first 
 epistle (1 : 2, and 5 : 9, 10). These modes of thought and speech 
 appearing prominently and uniformly throughout all his books go 
 very far indeed to identify the author of them all as the same 
 man. 
 
 (6.) We carry this argument but one step further M-hcn we 
 adduce the fact that this book of Revelation and the fourth gospel 
 are essentially at one in their great cardinal points of Christian 
 faith, as well as in their peculiar forms of expression. No points 
 of revealed truth can be more fundamental than the one already 
 introduced above — Jesus Christ an atoning sacrifice for the sins of 
 
i4 INTRODUCTIO^^ 
 
 men. We have seen that this view is prominent in t!ie gospel, 
 the epistle, and the Revelation. So also is the doctrine that Jcsvts 
 is King and Lord af all^ worthy of equal honor with the Father, 
 and actually receiving it in heaven itself. The gospel gives us the 
 eternal Word who " was in the beginning ; was with God ; and 
 was God ;" by whom " all things were made " (1 : 1, 13) ; to whom 
 '* the Father hath committed all judgment'' (5: 22), and who him- 
 self speaks of " the glory which he had with the Father before the 
 world was" (17: 15). The first epistle indorses this doctrine in 
 most concise but explicit terms : — " This is the true God and tlie 
 eternal life" (I John 5 : 20). With surpassing fullness and splendor 
 the Apocalypse corroborates this doctrine by its open visions of 
 the homage and worship accorded by all the hierarchies of heaven 
 in equal strains to " Him that siltcth upon the thron-e and unto the 
 Lamb forever and ever." This worship is suj^reme; none higher 
 is known ia heaven. It therefore indorses the true divinity of 
 Jesus Christ, in harmony with both the fourth gospel and the 
 epistles of John, and iu a form of testimony than which none can 
 
 be stronger. In the same line of argument it might be shown 
 
 that all these writings concur in presenting Jesus as the Ufe of 
 his people, their Shepheiil, their Defender; while the Apocalypse 
 makes specially prominent his relation as the Avenger of their 
 martyred blood, 
 
 (7.) Objections considered. 
 
 The strong points of objection arc, — (a.) The poetry and the 
 symbols of the Apocalypse have a tone of grandeur and sub- 
 limity so unlike the plain simplicity and the metaphysical ab- 
 stractness of the fourth gospel and of the epistles that they can 
 
 not be supposed to have come from the same author. To 
 
 which I reply that the poetry and the prose of the same author 
 are naturally veiy unlike. Compare the prosaic history given Ex. 
 14 : 19-31, and 15 : 19, with the poetic song of Ex. 15 : 1-18. What 
 could be more unlike ? But the same Moses wrote both. Or com- 
 pare the fii-st two chapters of Ilabakkuk with the third; or Isa. 37 
 with Isa. 60 ; or Dan. 6 with Dan. 7 ; or Job, chapters 1 and 2, with 
 any or all of the others; or 2 Sam. 22: 1 with vs. 2-51. Surely 
 it is no strange thing that the same writei-, especially if he have 
 genius, imagination, and sublimity in him, should make his poetry 
 very diverse from his prose. And whether we are able to give 
 all the reasons for it or not, we have the fiict that prophecy 
 
IXTEODUCTION. 15 
 
 does come to us clothed (usually) in the loftiest poetry and often 
 in the grandest symbols. Yet these poetic and sublime pi'opheta 
 have given us also some very plain and unpoetic prose. To which 
 it may appropriately be added that the author of the Apocalypse 
 shows by manifold allusions that he has been reading those grand 
 old Hebrew prophets, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Zechariah, and 
 that his mind is filled with their sublime conceptions. Is it then 
 any marvel that his own style should catch their strain; or rather, 
 that his soul should enkindle from contact with their seraph i<; 
 
 lire? Let us also bear in mind that the Apocalypse was prolj- 
 
 ably written from ten to twenty years before the fourth gospel and 
 the three epistles, and consequently when the writer had more of 
 the fire and vivacity of his youth than when under the weight of 
 more than fourscore years he penned his gospel and epistles. 
 JMen of the noblest powers must pass with the lapse of years from 
 the buoyancy and glow of youth and manhood to the more cahn 
 sedateness of old age. Need it surprise us if their writings evince 
 it? 
 
 (6.) It is objected that the tone of tenderness, sympathy, and 
 love which appears in the fourth gospel is far removed from the 
 sternness, the terror, and the vengeance which reign in the Apoc- 
 alypse. But are not the zephyrs and the hurricanes from the 
 
 same God? The dews and the deluges — come they not from the 
 same Author ? The whispei'ing calls of mercy and the thunder 
 tones of the judgment trump — are they not from the same Jesus? 
 Is there not one hour for beseeching men to be reconciled to God, 
 and another hour for the vials of his wrath upon those whom no 
 mercy can toucU and no forbearance and no warnings can reclaim ? 
 And precisely to our present point, may not God employ the game 
 tongue and pen to utter both the one and the other ? Specifi- 
 cally it is claimed that the three epistles of John breathe a tender 
 spirit as from a loving father to his well-beloved children ; but 
 that the messages to the seven churches have the air of authority, 
 
 reproof, and threatening. This difference is rather strongly put, 
 
 yet no one can deny that a measure of it exists. To account for 
 it I suggest that in the messages to the seven churches the speaker 
 is rather Jesus himself than John the amanuensis; and moreover, 
 that the emergency was such as to call for the most solemn earnest- 
 ness. The tone in those seven messages is rather that of tre- 
 mendous earnestness than of asperity or vengeance. A fearful 
 
16 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 strain was upon the piety of those churches — -a time of stern and 
 portentous trial throuj^h Avhich none could pass unscathed uniesa 
 their souls should be aroused to see their peril. Hence the spirit 
 of those messages. 
 
 (c.) It is claimed that the original Greek of the Apocalypse is 
 more tinged with Hebraistic words and grammatical forms than that 
 of the known writings of John. 1 reply, it is now generally con- 
 ceded that the Aramean (a dialect of the Hebrew) was the spoken 
 language in Palestine at the time of Christ, and therefore was the 
 mother tongue of his Jewish disciples. When they began to push 
 the gospel into the outlying countries, and to write out its records 
 for the reading of the civilized world, a knowledge of Greek be- 
 came a necessity. But being in their minds superinduced upon 
 their vernacular Hebrew, it was inevitable that their newer Greek 
 would be shaded more or less by their older Hebrew. Precisely 
 this appears in every New Testament writer, yet in various de- 
 grees. I freely admit the fact put forward in the objection above- 
 named, i. e., that the Apocalypse is more deeply shaded with the 
 Hebrew tint than the fourth gospel or the three epistles of John. 
 But this fact can be accounted for without any serious damage to 
 the evidence that the same John wrote the Apocalypse. For (1.) 
 This Apocalypse was written (it is conceded by the best critics) 
 several years earlier than the gospel and the epistles, when John 
 was but recently arrived in Asia Minor from his Palestine home, 
 and hence was less familiar with classic Greek and more fresh 
 from his Aramean vernacular than in his later years: and (2.) 
 His exile in Patmos, we must assume, was cheered by the deep 
 and ardent study of the old Hebrew prophets. ^;resh from their 
 perusal, he turned to the writing of the Apocalypse — of which the 
 
 book bears most abundant traces. These important fticts in his 
 
 case suffice to show that his Hebraistic style in the Apocalypse 
 compared with his gospel is altogether what we ought to expect. 
 If the preponderance of Hebrew style were the other way — the 
 more abundant traces in the later writings and not in the earlier, 
 and when farther removed from the immediate influence of the old 
 prophets, then the argument against the common authorship of all 
 these books would be very strong, if not even conclusive. 
 
 (d.) A vast amount of labor has been expended to bring out a 
 class of words which occur in the Apocalypse and not in the fourth 
 gospel; and vice versa, another class from the fourth gosjel, not 
 
INTKODUCTION. 17 
 
 found in the Apocalypse. The same thing is also shown to some 
 
 extent in respect to special grammatical forms. But this sort of 
 
 ai-gument seems to me to have little force. It is offset in part by 
 the fact of very considerable and indeed somewhat striking sim- 
 ,ilai-ities, going to identify the author of both books as the same. 
 And why may not all the real diversities be accounted for by the 
 different dates of the books; the changes due to his greater famil- 
 iarity with classic Greek after many more years of practical 
 contact with it ; and, not least, to the great difference in the sub- 
 jects treated of— the difference natural between the loftiest poetry 
 and the plainest prose ? 
 
 n. The Date of the Wkiting. 
 
 This question involves some real difficulty, especially on its his- 
 toric side. Yet it has very considerable importance in its bearings 
 upon the interpretation of the book, and therefore calls for a care- 
 ful and candid examination. On this question of date, critical 
 
 opinions fall into two classes, one assigning it to the reign of Nero 
 (about A. D. 64-68), and the other to the reign of Domitian (A. 
 D. 95-96). It is well known that violent persecution raged at 
 both these periods, and it is possible that John was banished to 
 Patmos twice — i. e., by both Nero and Domitian, and that this fact 
 occasioned the confused and discordant notices that appear in the 
 early fathers in regai"d to the time of his banishment and the date 
 of this book. 
 
 In respect to d<ite, I will speak, 
 
 1. Of the internal evidence — that whicli appears in the book it- 
 self; and 
 
 2. Of the external, as found in fragmentary notices by the 
 Christian fathers. 
 
 1. Internal. Under this head I adduce 
 
 (1.) The fact that the culpable practices which appear in the 
 seven churches (chaps. 2, 3) are those of the early and mid-apos- 
 tolic ages — precisely those against which the churches of Asia 
 were specially warned by the circular "epistle" of the first Chris- 
 tian council (Ac. 15), and which appear in Paul's first letter to 
 the church at Corinth. Thus in Pergamos the practices indicated 
 ns " the doctrine of Dalaara" were these two: eating things offered 
 to idols and fornication (Rev. 2: 14). The doctrine of the Nico- 
 laitanes, appearing in both Pergamos and Ephesus, was very sim 
 
18 INTEODUCTIOX. 
 
 ilar (2: 15). Precisely the same practices appear in Thyatira, 
 inculcated by one called "Jezebel" (2: 20). By a remarkable 
 coincidence, the evils against ■which the first council at Jerusalem 
 specially warned the churches were prominently these two (Acts 
 15: 20, 29). ■ In Corinth the eating of things offered to idols was 
 one of the live questions then pressing sharply upon the churches 
 (1 Cor. 8).' I need not say that fornication was a second special 
 subject for rebuke and warning in that church. Thus it ap- 
 pears that the great moral questions and immoral practices which 
 pressed sorely upon the churches at the date of the Jerusalem 
 council (A. D. 50 or 52) and at the date of Paul's letters to 
 Corinth (A. D. 57-58) were the very things condemned in the 
 
 seven churches of Asia. But it will be asked, Were not these 
 
 evils rife in the age of Domitian? Possibly they were; but the 
 latest N. T. books, viz., the gospel and the epistles of John, give 
 no hint of it. Other historical records of that age are scanty; 
 but so for as I know are silent on these points. It is intrinsically 
 improbable tliat the questions in regard to eating meats offered to 
 idols Avould have continued practically unsettled forty years (from 
 
 A. D. 50 to A. D. 90). This argument amounts in my view 
 
 only to a strong probability — not to a demonstration. 
 
 (2.) The churches of Asia were suffering severely from per- 
 nicious teachers claiming to be Jcivs. In Ephesus were some who 
 said they were apostles but were not (2: 2); in Smyrna the 
 troublers said they were Jews, but were more "the synagogue of 
 Satan" (2: 9); in Philadelphia were the same class precisely 
 (3 : 9) ; while the personage called Jezebel (2: 20), claiming to be 
 
 a prophetess, was probably a Jewess also. Thus the troublers 
 
 of the seven churches at the date of this book were remarkably 
 well defined— either actually being Jews, or at least claiming to 
 
 be. Now let it be also considered that the first council was 
 
 called (A. D. 50 or 51) to counteract the mischiefs of Judaizing 
 teachers. The letters of Paul to the Galatians (A. D. 5G) and to 
 the Colossians (A. D. 62) disclose the presence and mischiefs 
 of the same set of men. These were churches of Asia, adjacent 
 to the seven to whom John wrote. Paul's first letter to Timothy 
 (1 : 3, 4, 7), written A. D. 65, alludes to men causing trouble in 
 Ephesus and puts upon them two Jewish marks — " given to end- 
 less genealogies;" and "desiring to be teachers of the law." In- 
 deed the early apostolic age was constantly annoyed by this class 
 
INTRODUCTION. 10 
 
 of men. Thus we see the most entire coincidence between tlia 
 
 case of the seven churches as it appears in these letters, and the 
 case of other churches of Asia in the years A. D. 50-66. 
 
 llere too (as before) the question must be met: Did not this 
 annoyance from Jewish and Judaizing teachers continue down to 
 
 the age of Domitian ? 1 answer, All existing historical evidence 
 
 is strongly against it. The later books of the New Testament 
 give not the least allusion to such teachers. While the earliest 
 heresies that annoyed the Christian churches came from Judaism, 
 the next in order — the second generation of them — sprang from 
 contact with Pagan philosophies and science, "falsely so called" 
 — to which it is generally conceded some of the latest writers of 
 
 the New Testament allude. What history thus testifies, the 
 
 nature of the case strongly sustains. The fall of Jerusalem and 
 the utter destruction of the temple naturally struck Judaism down. 
 More than one million of Jews perished in that fearful fall; the 
 rest were scattered far abroad. The hope of bringing the Gentile 
 converts into Jewish ritualism was forever blasted ; the power and 
 prestige of this Judaizing element fell, never to rise. Ilence the 
 inference seems irresistible that the seducers in the seven churches 
 when John wrote must have been of the age of Nero and not of 
 the age of Domitian. Of course the book was written in the for- 
 mer age and not in the latter. It may not be amiss to suggest 
 
 that we have here another special element in the retributions upon 
 the Jews of which chapters 4-11 speak, since they are before us 
 not only as the first and most malign persecutors of the infant 
 Christian church, but also as its first, most persistent, most an- 
 noying and dangerous seducers. 
 
 (3.) The seventh chapter of the Apocalypse presents a scene in 
 which four mighty angels are holding in suspense the fearful ele- 
 ments of retributive vengeance until another angel might place 
 the seal of God upon the foreheads of his faithful servants. The 
 central idea and also in the main its costume seem to be taken 
 from Ezek. 8 and 9 : " Go through the midst of the city and set a 
 mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and cry for all its 
 abominations :" this done, let the others go through the city and 
 smite, only come not near any man who bears the mark! Here 
 in the scenes of this apocalj'ptic vision, John first hears the num- 
 ber of the sealed — "one hundred and forty-four thousand of all 
 the tribes of the children of Israel," and indeed definitely twclvo 
 
20 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 thousand from each of the twelve tribes. That these represent 
 the Christian converts gathered from the lineal Jews is made 
 doubly certain by the counterpart of this first sealing, viz., the 
 view of "a great multitude which no man could number of all 
 nations and kindreds and people and tongues ; " that is. Gentile 
 converts of every land and tribe, seen before the throne already 
 clothed in white, ascribing their salvation to God and the Lamb. 
 kSo much the gospel had then achieved already. The scathing 
 judgments that were about to smite the Jewish world and in due 
 time the Gentile, would find so many garnered in safety, housed in 
 
 their eternal home before the storm should burst. Now the 
 
 definite point of my argument is that this, sealing of Jewish con- 
 verts, considered as a propJiecy, appears to be precisely coincident 
 with that of Jesus Christ in his prediction of the fall of Jerusalem 
 and of the previous gathering of his elect, as given in Mat. 24: 31 
 and Mark 13: 27. The personal preaching of Jesus and the earli- 
 est mission labors of his disciples turned first to " the lost sheep 
 of the house of Israel" (Mat. 10: 5, 6, 13). Forty years God 
 waited and wrought patiently to gather in those lost ones. Jesus 
 prophetically represents this gathering as to be done within the 
 life-time of that generation (Mat. 24: 34 and Mark 13: 30), i. e., to 
 be finished before Jerusalem should fall. The sealing and rescu- 
 ing of the elect Jews in Rev. 7 bears every trace of being the same 
 great fact. Hence its location in time shortly preceded the fall 
 of that city, and if the fulfillment precedes that fall, so and much 
 more must the prophecy itself 
 
 (4.) In the same general line of thought and of argument we 
 have a remarkable coincidence between our Lord's prediction (Luke 
 21: 24), "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles;" and 
 of the temple (Mat. 24 : 2), " There shall not be left here one stone 
 upon another that shall not be thrown down ; " and the prediction 
 through the Revelator John (Rev. 11 : 2), "The court that is out- 
 side the temple leave out, for it is given unto the Gentiles, and the 
 holy city shall thoy tread underfoot forty-two months." Both these 
 predictions concur: («) that Jerusalem was a doomed city; (i) 
 that it should be trodden down by unhallowed Gentile feet [the 
 Roman armies] ; and (c) that even the presence of the holy tem- 
 ple within it should not shield it from this desolation. My argu- 
 ment as to the date of the Apocalypse turns on the strong presump- 
 tion that this passage (Rev. 11:2) synchronizes with Christ's pre- 
 
INTKODUCTION. 21 
 
 diction of the fall of Jerusalem, and therefore proves that at th« 
 
 date of its ■writing, the city had not yet fallen. Very strong to 
 
 the same point is the statement in the same context (v. 13): 
 "And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth 
 part of the city fell" — which certainly assumes that the whole 
 city had not 'previously fallen^ but was standing. The date of its 
 actual fall is well known, viz., A. D. 70. This prophecy v/^as 
 written, therefore, shortly before this fall. 
 
 (5.) The account given of the murder of the "two witnesses," 
 naming the very place where their dead bodies lay exposed and 
 insulted (Rev. 11 : 8) — "in the street of the great city which spir- 
 itually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our [their] Lord was 
 crucijicd,'^ puts the finger of prophecy precisely upon Jerusalem, 
 and obviously conceives of it as standing at the time of this 
 vision, and indeed at the time when the murder of the two wit- 
 nesses took place. This, taken in connection with the points 
 made from chap. 7 and from chap. 11:2, would certainly seem to 
 fix the date of these events and of course the date of the book 
 which predicts them, before the destruction of Jerusalem. 
 
 (6.) Eev. 17 is professedly an explanation of the more prominent 
 symbols in the seven chapters (13-19), inasmuch as the angel said 
 (v. 7), " I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast 
 that carrieth her, who hath the seven heads and ten horns." lu 
 this explanation the woman is shown to be "that great city" 
 (Rome) "which reigneth over the kings of the earth" (v. 18), and 
 which "sat on seven hills" [mountains]. Specially to our purpose 
 it is said, " There are seven kings (v. 10) of whom five are fallen, 
 and one is, and the other is not yet come." Ilere the one that is, 
 placed in a series with certain preceding ones fallen, and another 
 following, " not yet come," must beyond all reasonable question be 
 tiie king then on the throne of Rome when this book was written. 
 It is safe to aflirm that John could not have given the date of his 
 writing more precisely and conclusively than he has done here 
 unless he had given the very name of Nero. But there were 
 obvious reasons why it was not prudent to give his actual name, 
 lie meant however to describe him so that his readers need be in 
 
 no doubt. Now since the question of date is narrowed down to 
 
 a choice between the reigns of Nero and of Domitian, it only re- 
 mains to say that this dynasty of Roman kings [emperoi's] began 
 luquestionably with Julius Cicsar, after whom we count Augustus, 
 
22 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, making the five who had fallen, and 
 reach Nero, the sixth, of whom the angel then said, "One is." 
 Galba followed "to continue but a short space" (v. 10) — accord- 
 ing to history, but seven months. The symbol and the angel's 
 count had no occasion to carry the list of kings further. If carried 
 on however and all counted in, Domitian would have been the 
 twelfth. Of course the present tense of the book — the date of the 
 vision — was not under Domitian, but was under Nero. But beyond 
 all question in proof that Nero was the one head of the beast then 
 in power when John wrote is the fact that he is absolutely identi- 
 fied by " the number of his name " (13: 18). See my notes on the 
 passage. 
 
 (7.) There are at least two books in the New Testament (the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews and 2 Peter) which are thought to con- 
 tain allusions to the Apocalypse. If this shall appear, it will follow 
 that the Apocalypse was in existence when these books were 
 written. Let us then examine a single passage in the Epistle to 
 
 the Hebrews (12: 22, 23). On the point of motives to a holy 
 
 life, the writer is contrasting the case of the Hebrews before Mt. 
 Sinai with the case of the Hebrew Christians of his own day before 
 the corresponding Mt. Zioa. He says (v. 18), "Ye are not come 
 
 unto that merely material, tangible mount [Sinai] but ye are 
 
 come unto [a spiritual] Mt. Zion, and unto the city of the living 
 God, the Heavenly Jerusalem" — [in Kev. 21: 2, "The holy city, 
 New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven"]: — "And 
 to an innumerable company of angels," [the reader may see them 
 in Rev. 5 : 11, 12, and 7:11, 12]; "to the general assembly and 
 church of the first-born which are written in heaven" [see the 
 writing of their names in the book of life, Rev. 21 : 27, and 13 : 
 8, and 20 : 12] ; " and to God the Judge of all " [Rev. 20 : 11, 12] ; 
 "and to the spirits of just men made perfect" [who stand before 
 us remarkably throughout this book of Revelation, e. g., 5 : 8-10, 
 and 6: 9-11, and 7: 13-17, and 15: 2-4, and 21 and 22]. It 
 seems to me highly probable, not to say almost certain, that the 
 writer to the Hebrews had in his eye these salient points of the 
 book of Revelation. These points are in his book for precisely the 
 purpose which the writer to the Hebrews had before him, viz. : as 
 constituting that magnificent and most impressive array of motives 
 which under the gospel were brought to bear upon the Christian 
 life, fts compared with the corresponding motives arrayed before 
 
INTEODUCTION. 23 
 
 the ancient Hebrew people even in those most impressive scenes 
 
 at Mt. iSinai. In his 2d Epistle (3: 10, 13) Peter makes two 
 
 points which the reader will notice: (1) that "the heavens shall 
 pass away" and "the earth be burnt up; " (2) that "we, accord- 
 ing to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein 
 dwclleth righteousness." John has it (Rev. 20: 11) "The earth 
 and the heavens fled away;" and (21: 1) "I saw a new heaven 
 and a new earth, and the first heaven and the first earth were 
 passed away." The righteous only dwelt there (21 : 27, and 22 : 
 14). Here then we have both the fact of the passing away of this 
 present earth and heavens, and the promise of the new. With a 
 high degree of probability Peter had the Revelation of John before 
 him and adopted its descriptive terms. But Peter fell a martyr 
 under Nero's persecution, and therefore wrote this epistle before 
 Nero's death. The date of the Epistle to the Ilebrews is not 
 known precisely, but no critics within my knowledge have placed 
 it so late as the reign of Domitian. 
 
 2. It remains to speak of the external evidence — that of the early 
 Christian fathers. This is far from being uniform, clear and 
 direct. Unfortunately the earliest fathers (Barnabas, Clement of 
 Rome, Papias, Polycarp and Justin Martyr) — the very men whose 
 testimony would have been most valuable — fail us altogether. 
 They either omitted all allusion to this point as being well enough 
 understood without their testimony, or what they wrote has per- 
 ished. The earliest of the fathers whose testimony has been relied 
 on ia Ireneus, who wrote his book "Against Ileresies," A. D. 
 175-180. His youth was spent in Asia Minor, but all his man- 
 hood and Christian work lay in Ancient Gaul [France]. From 
 the dim light that reaches us it would seem that his statements as 
 they were understood shaped the opinions of Eusebius and Jerome 
 on this question, and that they naturally controlled the views of 
 subsequent authors. Hence it becomes important to examine 
 carefully what Ireneus said — the more so because it is at least 
 supposable (I think even probable) that his testimony as to the 
 
 date of the Apocalypse has been misunderstood. The only 
 
 passage appealed to as giving his testimony occurs in some remarks 
 upon "the number of the beast" (Rev. 13: IS), which stand in 
 our received text 666. The original Greek is this. * 
 
 • " Il/ue^f aw ovK airoKtvc^vvevo/iev nepc tov ovo/iaio^ tov AvT/;(ptaTov 
 a~o<fan-ofiEvoi /3e,3a<wri/icjr, £i }«/-> £i>'£' avaipavdov r^ vvv KaioC) KtiovTTEQOai 
 
24 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 It may be translated thus: — "Therefore we do not imperil ^the 
 churches] by announcing the name of the Antichrist plainly, for 
 if it were safe and wise at the present time to proclaim his name, 
 it would have been done by him who saw the visions of the Apoc- 
 alypse, for it is not a very long time since he was still to be seen, 
 but almost in our own age, near the close of the reign of Domi- 
 tian.'' This passage has been generally understood to say that 
 the vision of the Apocalypse was seen in the age of Domitian, and 
 it seems to have been the standard authority for that opinion with 
 the Christian authors of the third and fourth centuries and onward. 
 His testimony turns on the single point whether in the last clause 
 it is he (John) who was still seen among the churches in the age 
 of Domitian, or it (the vision) which was then first seen. The 
 logic of the passage, the course of thought, should be mainly relied 
 
 on to decide this question. 1 understand the logic of Ireneus 
 
 thus : — Obviously it was not prudent to give Nero's name during 
 his life. But John lived down to the time of Domitian when Nero 
 was thirty years dead. So far forth therefore the circumstances 
 had materially changed. Now, says Ireneus, if the necessity for 
 divulging the real name of Nero is so great and the danger from 
 doing it so small that we ought to have the name brought out now, 
 then the same was true in the time of Domitian, and John would 
 have disclosed the name himself. He did not do it, for though 
 Nero was dead, yet Eome still lived, a persecuting power. The 
 danger from Nero's personal vengeance was long since passed 
 away, but other Neros might arise on the same Roman throne ; 
 therefore John remained silent: so let us. Hence the logic of the 
 passage requires that the thing seen in the last clause of this 
 passage should be John yet living in his extreme old age, and not 
 the vision itself. The supposition that it was the vision nullifies 
 
 the argument of the passage. Or thus: The argument assumes 
 
 that it would have been dangerous and therefore unwise to give 
 Nero's name openly during his life; also, that John lived a long 
 time after Neros death, so that if it were proper to give Nero's 
 name when Ireneus wrote, it was equally so in the last years of 
 John, and he would have given the name to the churches then him- 
 self. Origen seems to take the same view of the case, and per- 
 
 To m'Ofia avTov, 61 ckeivov av eppcdrj tov koi rrjv ATTOKakvrptv iupaKoroq' 
 ovSe yap irpo iro^lov xpovov Eupadrj, alia cx^oov £-c rf/g i)jieTepa^ yci'eaf, 
 TTyOOf TdJ teIei TTJg iiofiETcavov apx'/c" 
 
INTEODUCTION. 25 
 
 haps tbe same view of this passai^c from Ireneus when he says, 
 " The king of the liomans as tradition teaclics condemned John to 
 the Isle of Patmos for his testimony to the word of truth ; and John 
 taught many things about his testimony, yet did not say who c»n 
 
 denuied him in all that he has written in his Apocalypse." * 
 
 Several fathers of the tliird century and the fourth speak of John's 
 writing this lx)ok in connection with his banishment to Patmos, 
 which they locate in Domitian's reign. Yet some of them are not 
 explicit as between Nero and Domitian. Clement of Alexandria 
 eays John was banished by ^' ike tyrant'' — a name appropriate 
 enough to either, yet in usage applied less to Domitian and more 
 to Nero. 
 
 A very ancient Latin fragment [quoted in Stuart's Apocalypse, 
 1 : 20G] comes down to us, probably of the second century, saying, 
 " l*aul, following the order of his own predecessor John, wrote in 
 the same way to only seven churches by name." This assumes 
 that John wx-ote the Apocalypse befoi-e Paul wrote the last of his 
 seven letters to as many churches by name. The latest date of 
 Paul's seven was about A. D. G4. He died under Nero's persecu- 
 tion. Eusebius [bishop of Cesarea, A. D. 314-340] in his his- 
 tory (book 3 ; chap. 18, and bk. 5 : 8) speaks of John as being 
 banished to Patmos and of seeing his visions there m the reign of 
 DoMiTiAX, but quotes Ireneus (the very passage above cited) as his 
 
 specific authority. Did he not misunderstand Ireneus? lie 
 
 also refers to a current tradition to the same effect, which how- 
 ever may have grown out of mistaking the sense of Ireneus. 
 
 Jerome [born A. D. 331; died A. D. 420] held the same opinion, 
 apparently on the authority of Ireneus as above and of Eusebius. 
 
 Yictorinus of Petavio [died A. D. 303] in a Latin commentary 
 
 on the Apocalypse, says that "John saw this vision while in Pat- 
 mos, condemned to the mines by Domitian Cajsar." Many others 
 
 of a later age might be cited to the same purport, witnessing how- 
 ever only to a current tradition which so far as appears may have 
 jome from the language of Ireneus, under a misunderstanding of 
 iiis meaning. 
 
 {)n the other hand the Syriac translation of the Apocalypse has 
 this superscription: "The Revelation which was made by Cod to 
 John the Evangelist in the Island of Patmos to Avhich he was 
 
 <• See Stuart's Apocalypse, vol. 1, p. 271. 
 
 9 
 
26 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 banished Ly Xero the Emperor." Most of the Hyriac New Testa- 
 ment (known as the "Peshito"), i. e., all the unquestioned books, are 
 supposed to have been translated late in the first century or vei-y 
 early in the second ; but the Syriac version of the Apocalypse is 
 rot so old. Yet Ephraim the Syrian of Nisibis [died A. D. 378] 
 wrote commentaries on nearly the whole Bible ; often appeals to 
 the Apocalypse ; but wrote only in Syriac and probably was un- 
 acquainted with Greek and therefore must have had this book in 
 the Syriac tongue. This superscription seems to testify to a cur- 
 rent tradition in Syria at least as far back as his day, assigning 
 
 the date of the book to the age of Nero. Of later witnesses, 
 
 Andreas of Cappadocia [flourished about A. D. 500], in a com- 
 mentary on this book, favors the Neronian date. Arethas also, his 
 successor [about A. J). 540], yet more decisively. lie assumes 
 the book to have been written before the destruction of Jerusalem, 
 
 for he explains chapters 6 and 7 as predictions of that event. 
 
 Plainly then the traditions of the early ages and the testimony of 
 
 the fathers were not all in favor of the Domitian date. Some 
 
 incidental circumstances strongly favor the earlier date; e. g., the 
 account given in much detail by Eusebius [Ec. His. 3 : 23], who 
 quotes Clement to the effect that John after his return from this 
 banishment in Patmos, mounted his horse and pushed away into 
 the fiistnesses of the mountains to reach a robber chief who had 
 apostatized from the Christian faith. But Jerome represents John 
 in the last years of his life (i. e., at the time of Domitian's perse- 
 cution) as being so weak and infirm that he was carried by other 
 hands with difficulty to his church-meetings to say in tremulous 
 
 tones: "My little children, love one another." These traditions 
 
 of the aged apostle, compared with each other and with the prob- 
 abilities of the case, seem to forbid us to assign the date of the 
 Apocalypse to the reign of Domitian. 
 
 The conclusion to which I am brought after much investigation 
 is that the historic testimony for the Domitian date is largely 
 founded on a misconception of the passage from Ireneus, and as 
 a Trhole is by no means so harmonious, so ancient, and so decisive, 
 a3 to overrule and set aside the strong internal evidence for the 
 earlier date. I am compelled to accept tlie age of Nero as the 
 Inie date of this wrltiny;. 
 
IlfTEODUCTIOX. 27 
 
 III. Of the TIMES under lohich the Look was written. 
 
 Here the important facts naturally fall under tlu'cc heads. The 
 first should present the personal circumstances of the writer and 
 of his first readers whom he primarily addressed. Of this perhaps 
 enough has been said in the opening pages of this Introduction, 
 the great central fact lying out upon the face of the whole book, 
 indicating the writer to be in banishment and his readers in peril 
 and fierce temptation in the presence of impending persecution. 
 Then (2.) we should recall to mind the condition of the Jew- 
 ish people and nation; and (3.) in like manner the state of Rome, 
 both these nations being before us in this book as great perse- 
 cuting powers, incurring the retributive vengeance of the Almighty 
 
 and about to feel its fearful visitations. (2.) As to the Jews 
 
 many of my readers will scarcely need to be reminded that while 
 a few of the nation had received Jesus of Nazareth, the great ma- 
 jority had scornfully rejected him; that spiritually, these masses 
 were fearfully apostate from God; that morally, society was rotten 
 to the core ; that the high priest's office was bought and sold for 
 money, and sometimes seized and held by an armed force of ban- 
 dits and assassins ; that their bitter hostility to Jesus passed over 
 after his death upon his followers with augmented virulence ; that 
 the stoning of Stephen, the murder of James, the incessant perse- 
 cutions of Paul, the instigation of the Roman civil magistrates in 
 cities where they had no civil power in their own hands, combine 
 to evince their imjjlacable hostility against Christ and all his 
 faithful servants ; — in short, that the measure of their iniquity 
 was now full ; the day of hope and mercy, though long protracted, 
 was now about to close, and "the hour of her judgment had 
 come." Through the lips of her national Council, as well as by the 
 voice of her populace, she had demanded the crucifixion of the Son 
 of God, and had cried, " His blood be on us and on our children ! " 
 The imprecation had been heard, the challenge accepted ; and 
 now upon the children of those who shouted, "Crucify him!" his 
 blood was indeed about to come in appalling retribution ! That 
 fearful doom of which Moses had forewarned them (Lev. 2G : 14- 
 43, and Deut. 28 : 15-68) ; that doom which wrung tears from the 
 greater "Man of Sorrows" as he beheld the city and recalled the 
 murder of so many generations of prophets and righteous men 
 within her walls (Mat. 23: 34—39); that ruin which Jesus so defi- 
 nitely foretold as destined to bury her proud city in ruins and 
 
28 INTEODUCTION. 
 
 leave not one stone upon another of her glorious temple; — thai 
 doom was now waiting only for its last signal to burst forth upon 
 her. The vials of the wrath of God were in readiness for his 
 angels of death, and Prophecy at so late an hour could scarcely 
 think of forewarning the doomed. It seemed to have no other uiis- 
 bion save to comfort the people of (iod and assure them that the 
 Lord was about to smite the hopelessly hardened and guilty Jews 
 
 " because his mercy eudurcth forever.'' The heavens were black 
 
 with these storm-clouds of the wrath of God while John lay in 
 Patmos. His prophetic eye was opened and uplifted to the visions 
 thereof as seal after seal was broken, and trump after trump rung 
 
 out its blast of impending doom. Such on the Jewish side were 
 
 the salient features of the times when this book was written. 
 
 (3.) To the student of ancient histoiy, if moderately well read, 
 the Rome of Nero's time is familiar. Eight centuries of war and 
 conquest had filled Italy with enslaved captives, Rome with the 
 spoil and plunder of the civilized world and its consequent ener- 
 vation and vices, and her throne with a succession of emperors 
 whose crimes and misrule beggar description. The reaction and 
 debasement of ages of oppression were upon her, and her turn had 
 
 come to be herself scourged with War's desolations. Rome, 
 
 moreover, was radically and intensely idolatrous. Reverence for 
 her gods had been studiously engrafted into her civil institutions 
 and made one of the main pillars of her political system. To fill 
 up the cup of her abominations, the emperors in the dynasty of 
 the Caesars had exalted themselves to the rank of gods, and de- 
 manded of their people divine honors. It was to such a people 
 that Paul set forth with trenchant power the sin of idolatry — its 
 war against the light of natui'e and the law of conscience, and its 
 natural and inevitable debasement of morals and of all society. 
 The first two chapters of his Epistle to the Romans were meant 
 
 primarily for the Rome of the age of Nero. Yet the case of 
 
 Rome differed in some points from that of Jerusalem ; mainly in 
 the fact that she had sinned against less light. To this it was due 
 iliat the hour of her final ruin Avas more remote. The forbearance 
 of God had yet more time to run. Iler case had its remarkable 
 parallel in ancient Babylon. Alike, each had been the great op- 
 pressing power of contemporary nations — as to God's people, each 
 had been first the scourge in God's hand against them, and then 
 was to be herself scourged for her oppressions; but especially were 
 
INTEODUCTIOX. 29 
 
 "tlioy alike in tl)c manner in wliicli propliccy made tlic predicted 
 future judgments upon each, minister to the comfort of (iod's suf- 
 fering i)eople, and witness to the righteous retribution -which he 
 will surely visit upon the nations that array themselves against 
 his Zion. Moreover, God's predicted judgments on Bab3'lon tilled 
 out ages of history in their completion; and the same is true of 
 
 his judgments on the second great Babylon — Pagan Rome. 
 
 Coming back now to a neai-er and closer view of the Rome of the 
 Apocalypse, we have Nero — another name for tyranny and crime. 
 Ciibbon sets him forth in moderate terms as "profligate and cruel," 
 and adds of him and the other emperors of his age, " They are 
 condemned to everlasting infamy." History recites his unnatuml 
 murders — of mother, brothers, wives ; states that a fearful con- 
 flagration of nine days' continuance having destroyed the greater 
 part of Rome, and it being generally believed that the fire was 
 kindled by his order, Nero, to silence this report, charged the 
 act upon the Christians, and thus excited against them a most 
 barbarous, implacable, and universal persecution. Wild beasts, 
 crucifixion, and fire in its most torturing forms, were the common 
 
 instruments of suffering and death. There seems to be no 
 
 reason to doubt that this persecution extended to other portions 
 of the empire. The known will of the sovereign would at least 
 give the license, and human depravity would supply the malice 
 
 rc(iuisitc to violence and blood. Thus the old idolatrous harlot 
 
 — "mother of abominations" — made herself drunk with the blood 
 of the saiots and martyrs of Jesus ; and now the time draws on 
 for God to "give her blood to drink without measure." The 
 hour of her judgment is near at hand; — prophetic vision paints 
 
 fur us its glowing and terrible outlines. Such, then, in respect 
 
 to the Rome of that age were the times in which the visions of 
 the Apocalypse were shown and recorded. 
 
 IV. To whom precisely was this look primarily addressed atid 
 therefore specially adapted'? and what was its great moral pur- 
 pose f 
 
 This question has vastly important bearings upon the true in- 
 terpretation of the book. One of the first conditions precedent to 
 the true interpretation of any written document is to ascertain 
 for whom it was written, and what their circumstances and wants 
 were, that so we may master the special aim and pui-pose of the 
 
30 INTEODUCTION. 
 
 writer. When we have the people before us for whose special 
 benefit he wi'ote, and when we have reason to believe that the 
 writer knew their case well, wrote to be understood by them, and 
 therefore adapted himself to their capacities and to their circum- 
 stances, we begin to feel ourselves on solid ground as to a fair 
 comprehension of what he wrote and of its just interpretation. 
 Thus, e. g., the interpreter of the Epistle to the Romans finds it 
 exceedingly useful to consider that the people primarily addressed 
 were mostly Jews resident in Rome — the same class with whom 
 (Acts 28: 23) Paul "reasoned out of their own scriptures from 
 morning to evening." So also the epistles to the chiirch at Corinth 
 are set in full sunlight only when you study Corinth itself — its 
 philosophical culture, the national pride therein, and its dissolute 
 morals, coupled also Avith the special purposes which the letters 
 themselves clearly indicate. So in the book before us, we must 
 know to whom it was primarily addressed and for whom there- 
 fore it was specially adapted. On this point the notion has 
 
 been somewhat common that although the second and third chap- 
 ters were addressed specifically to the seven churches of Asia, 
 therein named, yet this was true of those chapters only, — the rest 
 of the book having no specific address — no special adaptation to 
 any body of people well defined either in place or time. It has 
 been loosely supposed to belong rather to the world at large and 
 indefinitely ; somewhat to the age now passing, and much of it 
 yet more definitely to the ages yet to come. It is claimed by 
 those who take this view that prophecy was not written to be un- 
 derstood by its first readers. God expected it would be and meant 
 it should be in the main unintelligible to them, and indeed that it 
 should never admit of a just and real interpretation until its ful- 
 fillment should bring out its meaning. Some of this class of in- 
 terpreters of prophecy seem to think it a most sublime idea that 
 God should throw out prophecies of the distant and magnificent 
 future, and then wait in the majesty and dignity of an inscrutable 
 Being till remote ages should come up with their revealing light 
 and give mankind their first just ideas of its meaning. An ex- 
 haustive discussion of this theory of prophecy would detain me 
 too long and turn me aside too much from my present special 
 work. I must pass it therefore with suggesting three serious and 
 indeed fatal objections against it. 
 
 (1.) In just so fur as this theory makes the true sense of proph- 
 
INTRODUCTIOK 31 
 
 ecy depend upon- the fulfilling event and not upon the revealing 
 words, it strikes at the very nature of prophec}' — which surely 
 claims to predict future events in language which reveals what 
 the event shall be before the event is. This element being ab- 
 htracted, written prophecy becomes in itself no prediction of things 
 future, for the things future must needs reveal themselves and so 
 give their first intelligible sense to the so-called prophetic words. 
 
 This theory pushed as far as some would push it brings the 
 
 predictions of the Bible upon substantially the same basis as the 
 ambiguous sayings of the ancient Delphic oracle to- Croesus: 
 " Crossing the great river you destroy a great nation ; " — the 
 event alone determining whether the "great nation" would be 
 his own or his enemy's. "Whatever tends to degrade the proph- 
 ecies of the Bible to this low form is to be not only deplored 
 
 but reprobated. To prevent a possible misunderstanding of my 
 
 position, let me say (a.) That a morally right heart, docile and 
 unprejudiced, is naturally prei-equisite to the understanding of 
 prophecy, as it is also of any and every word of God: (f>.) That 
 usually the points which God makes in prophecy are rather gen- 
 eral than particular. Prophecy is intelligible when so put that we 
 can get substantially the truth which God meant to reveal, (c.) 
 Other things being equal, nearer events will be more easily and 
 perfectly understood than more remote, because men more per- 
 fectly understand the attendant circumstances. 
 
 (2.) This theory in its application to the book before us is 
 fatally confronted by the manifold indications of a definite moral 
 purpose and aim, of such sort as presupposes that the predictions 
 are intelligible and are in fact mainly understood. This is pre- 
 eminently true in this book of Revelation. There is no book in 
 all the Bible which bears more obvious and certain marks of 
 a definite and strong moral purpose, indicating every-where that 
 the things said were designed to be understood and to have an 
 
 immediate and powerful moral influence on their first readers. 
 
 Can it be necessary to argue this point ? Surely nothing can be 
 more absurd than the theory that God sent to the seven churches 
 of Asia a series of predictions for the solemn purpose of girding 
 their souls to " endure a great fight of afllictions," but yet with 
 design made these predictions unintelligible — i. c, as to them 
 utterly unmeaning? Will it be assumed that God expected to 
 move the minds of men in tliat way? 
 
^2 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 (3.) This theory that prophecy is usually unintelligible until tlio 
 event reveals its meaning is squarely confronted by the facts of ths 
 case. Did not the Jewish scribes learn from prophecy where 
 Christ should be bo^rn ? (Mat. 2: 4-C). Did not the disciples un- 
 derstand Christ's prophecy of the fall of Jerusalem and the imme- 
 diate sign of that fall (Luke 21: 20, 21) and so escape from 
 Jerusalem to Fella — the "mountains" across the Jordan ? Did 
 they kill the sense of that prophecy by mj^stifying the word "Je- 
 rusalem" as many critics mystify the literal landmarks which 
 appear in the Apocalyj^jse ? And is it not the fact that the Mes- 
 sianic prophecies in general were very fairly interpreted by the 
 Jews long before Christ came, as appears in the Septuagint trans- 
 lation and in the Chaldee Targums ? 
 
 It is therefore both pertinent and important to inquire, Wkc 
 were those first readers to whom the book teas dfinitcly addressed 
 
 and to whose case it was cojisequently adapted f Fortunately we 
 
 have the best possible evidence on this point — the author's own 
 annouTvcement in the opening of the book — " John to the seven 
 churches of Asia " (1 : 4); "I John, your brother and companion in 
 tribulation, was in Patmos . . . and being in the spirit on 
 the Lord's day, I heard behind me a great voice, saying, What 
 thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches 
 
 Avliich are in Asia," etc. (1 : 9-11). But the abjector will claim 
 
 that this refers exclusively and solely to chapters second and third, 
 and has no reference to the remaining chapters which are the 
 great body of the book. To Avhich 1 answer, That is bald as- 
 sumption, and what is more, is an assumption squarely in the 
 face of the testimony of the book itself. For surely the author 
 and the inditing spirit ought to be allowed to give the address of 
 the book, i. e., to say to whom it was in fact addressed. The proper 
 place to say this is in the opening of the book, and again perhaps 
 it its close. Precisely in these places do we find his testimony to 
 this point. The opening testimony I have cited. The closing 
 testimony is af the same purport: "I Jesus have sent mine angel 
 to testify unto you these things in the churches." " The Lord God 
 of the holy prophets sent his angel to show unto his servants the 
 hir>gs which must shortly he done*' (22: IG, 6). Therefore these 
 'churches," these "servants" were then living, i. e., they were 
 
 the churches of Asia Minor. But although this testimony alone 
 
 is amply sufficient, yet more can be adduced. I call the reader's 
 
INTKODUCTION. 33 
 
 attention to the fact that the special messages to the seven 
 churches as they stand in chaj^ters 2 and 3 are not isolated and 
 disconnected from the rest of the book, but are interlaced in tlio 
 strongest way, both with chapter 1 which precedes, and with tho 
 cliapters that come after, especially chapters 10-22. Let us see. 
 
 In the face and the fear of persecution unto blood, a time of 
 
 stern trial came upon all those churches of Asia. They were not 
 in all respects ready to meet this trial and stand up with steady 
 faith and unflinching soul for Jesus. What must be done for 
 tlicm? what considerations must be brought before them to gird 
 
 them for endurance unto victory ? First, the great Alpha and 
 
 Oinoga, their glorified Lord and Savior, appears in surpassing 
 mnjesty to John (1 : 12--20). Uut let it be distinctly noted: this 
 transcendently glorious manifestation of Christ was not made 
 solely or even maiuly for the sake of its impression upon John 
 alone. A more important purpose was to impress the seven 
 churches with the special presence, the searching eye, the limitless 
 power, tlie ineffable glory and majesty of their own professed 
 Lord and Master. ^Mark how this is done. Kot only does John 
 describe this impressive manifestation in words of unrivaled force, 
 and send the description entire to them all, but he takes up and 
 distributes it in separate parts, applying them to set forth that all- 
 glorious Personage who sends them their respective messages. 
 'J'o E[)hesus: "These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars 
 in his right hand, who walkcth in the midst of the seven golden 
 
 candlesticks " — as you may see in chap. 1 : 12, 13, 20. To the 
 
 church of Smyrna speaketh he " who is the first and the last, who 
 
 was dead and is alive " — points which appear in 1 : 11, 17, IS. 
 
 To Pergamos thus saith he who " hath the sharp sword with two 
 edges," as said (1 : IG): "Out of his mouth went a sharp two- 
 edged sword." To Thyatira speaketh " the Son of God who 
 
 hath eyes like a flame of fire and feet like fine brass" — those 
 same words of thrilling power which j'ou may read in 1 : 14, 15. 
 
 So to Sardis he defines himself as "having the seven Spirits 
 
 of God and the seven stars" (1 : 4, 10); to Philadelphia, as "he 
 that is holy and true, he that hath the key of David," etc. (see 
 1 : 5, 18); and to Loadicea, as " the Amen, the fixithful and true 
 
 Witness, the beginning of the creation of God" (1 : 5). Thus it 
 
 irt shown impressively that the same glorious Personage at whose 
 feet John fell as onl^ dead was precisely the author of these mes- 
 
34 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 sagos to the seven churches. He Mrould have them know whose 
 voice spake these words; ivhose aya was searching every heart; 
 whose glorious presence was surely there, walking up and down 
 among those churches. 
 
 In a manner precisely analogous to these opening addresses, 
 eacli several letter closes with a blessing promised to " him that 
 overcometh." In the letter to Ephesus (2: 7) the promise is, "I 
 will give him to eat of the tree of life Avhich is in the midst of the 
 paradise of God.'' But what "tree of life " is this ? How came it 
 to be assumed that the brethren at Ephesus would know any thing 
 about this tree of life if no other part of this book were written 
 for them and to them, save the first seven verses of chap. 2 ? This 
 assumption must be a mistake; the "tree " referred to is the one de- 
 scribed in chap. 22 : 2, and John intended the last chapter of the 
 book for the reading of the church at Ephesus as really as the 
 
 lirst two. So in the letter to Sardis : "He that overcometh 
 
 shall not be hurt of the second death." Where are they expected 
 to learn of this "second death?" The answer is, in 20: 14 and 
 21 : 8, not to speak of many other passages in the last four chap- 
 ters. To the victorious ones of Pergamos the promise runs, " I 
 
 will give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white 
 stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth 
 save he that receivelh it." liut these words would quite fail of 
 expressing their full meaning unless the brethi-en of Pergamos 
 were to read through the whole book, and see especially what is 
 said (19 : 12) of the Great Conquering Chief: "On his head were 
 many crowns, and he had a name written which no man knew 
 but he- himself; " and also the numerous allusions to the opposite 
 party — the enemies of Jesus — who " bore the mark of the beast in 
 their right hand and in their forehead," as may be seen (13: IG, 
 
 17, and 14: 9, and 15: 2, and 16: 2, and 19: 26). In like 
 
 manner the victor in Sardis shall be clothed in white and his 
 name not blotted from the book of life, the glory of which promise 
 the brethren in Sardis were expected to see when they read the 
 thrilling account thereof in chaps. 19: 7-9, 14, and 20: 12; and 
 
 indeed in all these last chapters of the book. So the promise 
 
 to the overcoming ones of Philadelphia cai-ries the mind to the 
 New Jerusalem of which they might read in the last two chap- 
 ters. In this remarkable manner did the voice of Jesus, dic- 
 tating to JhIiu both these seven letters to as many churches and 
 
INTRODUCTION. 35 
 
 the iTiuiuning contents of this book, tie all the parts together, in- 
 tcrhicing thoiu as I have said, as if he foresaw the violence that 
 in future times would bo used to tear them asunder! What more 
 could he have done to prove to us that the whole book was in- 
 tended primarily for those seven churches — every word of it sent to 
 theux to be read, pondered, and understood by themselves, that they 
 might receive its full moral impression, both the full force of all 
 its threatened judgments upon their persecutors, and also the full 
 force of all its inspirations of hope and promise to "him that over- 
 
 cometh?" A careful examination of the whole book will show 
 
 that all the intermediate chapters (4-1 S) are naturally adapted to 
 jneet the great moral wants of those churches ; had a vital bearing 
 toward, this end, to gird every wavering heart with strength uiito 
 
 patient endurance and unflinching fidelity for Christ. Nothing 
 
 more seems necessai*y to complete this argument and bring it up 
 to demonstration save to adduce the reiterated declarations of the 
 book itself that the events which it predicted were then ''near at 
 hand." See 1:1: " Must shortly come to pass ; " and 1 : 3, "For 
 the time is at hand ; " and 22 : 6, " To show unto his servants the 
 things that must shortly be done;" and 22: 10, "Seal not up 
 the sayings of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand." 
 Consequently the first readers of this book would know that they 
 must look for these predicted events (at least the greater part of 
 them) very soon, within their own age. Those fearful judgments 
 on Christ's enemies they could not fail to interpret rightly, for 
 they were already so near as to "cast their shadows before." 
 
 In concluding this topic let me again remind the reader of the 
 point of my argument, viz.: that a book addressed to certain speci- 
 fied churches then under the sternest ti-ial, to be read by them for 
 their spiritual good, teas certainly made in the main intelligible— 
 must have been adapted to their understanding in both the judgments 
 it threatened and the blessings it 2^romised. The judgments threat- 
 ened were not to them unmeaning; the enemies threatened were 
 no* to them unhnorvn. The blessings promised were to be meas- 
 ured and appreciated in the light of those judgments. In respect 
 to both the judgments and the blessings we must assume that they 
 had the keenest personal interest, and therefore this entire book 
 must have thrilled their souls Avitli its utmost measure of inspiring 
 power. 
 
36 INTKODUCTION. 
 
 V. Let us consider vai-ious indications in the Look wliicli loeafo 
 its predicted events in jti/«(?g or in time, and thus become landmarka 
 
 to determine its interpretation. 1 assume that my readers will 
 
 appreciate the importance of studying this point faitlifully and 
 discreetly. The visions proper of this book are almost exclusively 
 a series of symbolic pictures — a grand panorama, painting scenes 
 of prophetic import to the eye in gorgeous colors and majestic 
 outlines. Now we wish to know what these pictures mean. 1 
 am to inquire at this point whether this writing gives us any 
 phiin nns^'inbolic hints as to the place and the time of these future 
 events which the visions pro'phctically portray. Has the revealing 
 Agent anywhere dropped, though bat for a moment, bis symbolic 
 speech and given «s liteiral unsymbolie words which mean jusS 
 what they say— which were designed apparently to explahi the 
 symbols and locate the events, and which therefore may be relieiJ 
 on for this purpose? — —We shall find a fev/ — perhaps enough for 
 our parposc. It is our wisdom to use them to the full extent of 
 
 their legitimate aid. One appears in 11 : 8, in which, speaking 
 
 of the place where the two witnesses lay murdered and nnburied^ 
 the angel says^ " Their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the 
 great city which spiritually ia called Sodom and Egypt, where alsa 
 our Lord toas cnixified." Beyond all rational doubt, this was de- 
 signed to give the literal and precise location of that event. This 
 great city in reference to its spiritual character was a second 
 Sodom (see Isa. I : 9, 10) in the twofold sense of guilt and doom> 
 But dropping all figure, the place may be known through all the 
 ages as that where the Lord was crucified. There never was or 
 could be but one city that answers to this fact of history. The 
 angel appends a literal statement to his figurative description in 
 
 order to tell us precisely the iplace. The better reading of this 
 
 remarkable clause is not "o?.-?-" Lord but their Lord — the exact 
 sense being, where their Lord also as well as themselves was 
 
 murdered. This landmark shows us therefore where to look for 
 
 the two witnesses— wAerg their testimony was given, and where 
 their martyred bodies fell. The fact stated in v. 13, that " one- 
 tenth part of the city fell," locates these erents in time to some 
 point before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, A. D. 
 
 70. The allusions (II: 2) to the com-t of the temple and to 
 
 the holy city as " given up to the Gentiles to be trodden under 
 foot by them," become a very decisive landmark when we tak« 
 
IXTEODL'CTIOX. 37 
 
 into view their connection with v. 8 and v. 13 as above ex[)hune(l, 
 and also the obviously parallel prophecy recorded by Luke (21 : 
 2-1), "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles." This 
 chapter (llev. 11) treats therefore of Jerusalem — the persecution 
 which she brought upon Christ's faithful witnesses, and the fearful 
 doom which God brought upon her for her sins. If on a careful 
 examination of chaps. 6-9 it shall appear (as most critics have 
 thought) that chap. 11 gives us the final catastrophe, and those 
 chapters (0-0) the antecedent, foreshadowing and premonitory 
 notes of coming doom, then so much of the predicted events of this 
 book would seem to be definitely located in both ^:>/ac<3 and time, 
 and of course, we may add, in history. These points must be 
 carefully examined when those chapters come under consideration. 
 Under our present head chap. 17 ia specially important because 
 it is declared to be an explanation of the meaning of certain lead- 
 ing symbols in chaps. 13-19. The writer says (v. 1), "An angel 
 came and talked Avith me, saying, 'Come hither; I will show thee 
 the judgment of the great whore that sittcth ujwn many waters;'" 
 and yet mox-e definitely (v. 7), "Why dost thou marvel? 1 Avil! 
 tell thee the mysteiy of the woman and of the beast that carrleth 
 her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns." These are the 
 very things that John wanted to know; which he needed to tell 
 his original readers that they might know; and which w'c may 
 well rejoice to learn, for they give us the clew to all these related 
 chapters (13-19). His explanation (briefly stated) shows that the 
 woman is that " great city " of which two descriptive facts are 
 given: (a.) She. " reigneth over the kings of the earth" (v. 18); 
 {b.) She sitteth on seven mountains — i. e., is a city built on seven 
 hills. All students of Roman history will recognize the Rome of 
 that age as this city, and consequently as being in symbol this 
 woman — the great hai-lot. Xo other city approaches this descrip- 
 tion. Every clement given fits her perfectly; and what is yet 
 more, they are the great historic and geographic facts which most 
 comprehensively and precisely describe the Rome of that age. 
 She was built on seven hills; she was mistress of the civilized 
 
 world, reigning over the kings of the earth. In its place I may 
 
 notice two other corroborating features of her history : — her bloody 
 persecution of the saints, and her harlotry (idolatry). Apart from 
 tliesc however, the woman is located — her name is virtually re- 
 vealed. We know who she is. So much then is solid ground — a 
 
38 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 fixed landmark. But as yet wc lack the historic dale — the time 
 
 when. Will the explaining angel give this? Note what he says 
 
 of the succession of her kings (v. lU) : "There are seven kings; 
 live are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when 
 he cometh he must continue a short space." Now if wc take this 
 as an explanation of the seven symbolic heads of the beast (as wc 
 must), we are shut up to the literal and most obvious sense — a suc- 
 cession of five kings already fallen; a sixth then reigning; a sev- 
 enth soon to rise, but for only a short reign. Now having the 
 
 date of the vision, we know that the king then reigning was Nero. 
 Nero then is a specimen of the seven, and we must go back to the 
 rise of his dynasty and begin our count there — i. c, with Julius 
 Cassar. Beginning with him, Nero is precisely the sixth ; the sev- 
 enth — a short reign according to the prophecy — was Galba, who 
 reigned seven months. Here then we have this sei'ies of prophetic 
 events located in place — old Kome ; and in time — upon Nero's 
 reign. This is another great landmark. No interpretation of this 
 book can possibly be the true one which disregards these land- 
 marks and fails to adjust itself to their demands. The points that 
 are fixed in chap. 11 and in chap. 17 avail to prove beyond all 
 rational doubt that in this book of Revelation we have two great 
 persecuting powers, depicted, threatened, judged and destroyed, 
 each repireseuted by its great city— Jerusalem, Rome : Jerusalem, 
 involving the Jewish people and Judaism as a persecuting power; 
 Kome, involving that pagan, idolatrous, persecuting power. Whether 
 we have other persecuting powers in this book will be a subject of 
 future inquiry. These two we certainly have; for these literal 
 statements, so obviously made for the very purpose of explaining 
 what would otherwise be dark, uncertain prophetic symbols, must 
 be held to be absolutely decisive. If we can not or will not accept 
 God's own explanations, it is vain for us to expound, dreaming 
 that we have mastered the problems of the book 
 
 VI. The sources of the writer's figurative imagery, and the bear^ 
 ing of these sources upon his use of them in this book. " 
 
 * It is only toavoitl oiienivilocution that I speak of .Tolin as the writer 
 of tlii.s book and also as liiinself dotcrniining its style, tij^ares of speecli, 
 etc., while I hold most fully Miat the .Spirit of inspiration spake many 
 of these words to Jolin and showed him these s^'mbols, either iu vi.siou 
 or oy a revealing angel. 
 
 fcjee a fuller note ou this subject, p. 7. 
 
IXTllODUCTIOX. 39 
 
 Upon the fir.st point there would seem to be no room for doubt. 
 Those sources were tlie Old Testament prophets. There John 
 i()und his symbols and ligurcs ; thence he took them. The four 
 living ones of chaps. 4-G [very improperly translated "beasts"] 
 are from Ezck. 1, with some shadings from Isa. 6. The books of 
 prophetic destiny, both that of chaps. 5 and 6, with its seven seals 
 and the "little book" of chapter 10, are from Ezek. 2 and 3, even 
 to the special feature of eating it and its sweetness in the mouth. 
 'I'he diverse colored horses of Kev. 6 come from Zech. 1 and 6. 
 Tlie sealing of one hundred and forty-four thousand men in their 
 foreheads is from Ezek. 8 and 9. The great dragon [serpent] of 
 Kev. 12 was first named in the slory of the fall (Gen. 3). The 
 "beasts" of chap. 13 and onward have their prototypes in Dan. 7 
 and 8. 1'he vials of chaps. 15 and 16 come from the "cup of 
 (iud's indignation " which appears so often in the old Hebrew 
 prophets, especially in Jeremiah. (See Jer. 25: 15-28.) Of course 
 the Babylon of Rev. 18 looks back to that old Uabylon whose fall 
 Isaiah and Jeremiah so abundantly predicted. The sketching in 
 chap. 18 comes largely from Ezekiel's picture of the fall of Tyre 
 (chaps. 26-28). These cases may at least serve as specimens. 
 
 On the question whether John used these symbols in the same 
 sense in which he found them used by the old prophets, the pre- 
 sumption is strong that he did. This would unquestionably be the 
 natural course of his mind. Any wide, violent divergence from 
 tliis rule is exceedingly improbable. In general their sense where 
 .Fohn found them should be assumed to be their sense as he used 
 them. Special circumstances may demand a slight modification, 
 but ordinarily nothing more. 
 
 VIL. It remains to speak of the principles or Lavs which must 
 control the interpretation of this hook. 
 
 Need I here solicit the reader's careful attention? I will only 
 premise that if any certainty la ever to be attained in respect to 
 tiie meaning of this book, it must be reached by first determining 
 
 its just principles of interpretation. The following principles 
 
 and rules I propose to follow myself T commend them to the 
 srood sense of my readers : 
 
 1. We must come to this loolc to learn what it teaches; not to malce 
 it (rich what we ivill. That is, we must rule out of the mind all 
 preconceived theories, and bring to its stmly a mind open to the 
 
to INTKODUCTIOX. 
 
 very impressions whicli the book itself, diligently studied in the 
 light of all its known circumstances, shall legitimately make. 
 
 2. We must interpret the predictions in harmony -with God's 
 own declarations as to the time of their fulfillment. If God has 
 himself indicated whether this time be near or remote, -why should 
 we not accept his indications in their obvious sense, and interpret 
 accordingly ? How can we hope to reach the truth if we w-ill not 
 
 receive God's own teaching and . guidance ? Now the fact ia 
 
 that precisely in those parts of the book where we should look for 
 these indications, we find them, viz., at the opening of the book, to 
 give us the right clue at the outset and prevent us from being led 
 off on some false track; and again, yiear its close, to remind us 
 that we must not transcend these heaven-sent limitations in the 
 range we may take to find the leading events therein predicted. 
 
 The words in which God defines the time of these predicted 
 
 events are these: " The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave 
 unto him to show unto his servants things which must shortly come 
 to pass" (1 : 1) : "Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear 
 the words of this prophecy . . . for the time is at hand" (1 : 3). 
 " Write the things which thou hast seen and the things which are, 
 and the things which shall be hereafter " (1 : 19) — but this " here- 
 after" is not the remote, indefinite future, but according to the 
 original ["meta tauta"] the things which follow closely after, in 
 the closest connection with present events. The same language 
 and in the same sense appears (4: 1); "Come up hither" [into 
 this opened heaven] "and I will show thee things that must be 
 hereafter," i. e., in close connection with the present; things which 
 must be very soon. Such are the declarations as to the time of 
 fulfillment, in the very opening of these visions. Are they not per- 
 fectly definite and decisive ? Xear the close we read (22 : 6), 
 
 "These sayings are faithful and true, and the Lord God of the holy 
 prophets sent his angel to show unto his servants the things which 
 must shortly be done." Also (22 : 10) " Seal not the sayings of the 
 prophecy of this book; for the time is at hand." Daniel was 
 directed (8: 26, and 12: 4, 9) to "shut up the words" and "seal 
 the book" because the events predicted lay somewhat remotely in 
 the future, i. e., they referred to the age of the Maccabees and of 
 the Syrian wars, then three hundred and sixty years distant. "With 
 t'.iis case John's prophecies are contrasted and he is told not to 
 seal and shut up lils prophetic words because the time of their 
 
INTEODUCTIOX. 41 
 
 fulfillment was then near at hand. Such are the indications 
 
 kindly given by God himself in regard to the time of fulfillment of 
 the great facts revealed in this book. Inasmuch as they speak in 
 general of the things predicted with no limitation to a/eiw of these 
 things or to any defined 'part of them, we are manifestly bound to 
 apply them to the great body of these predictions. This is the 
 
 only method of fair dealing with the divine words. Yet let me 
 
 anticipate the examinatura of chapters 19-22 so far as to say that 
 Uiey seem obviously to refer to the final triumph of the gospel in 
 our world; to the scenes of the last judgment; and (probably) of 
 the future heavenly state. The laws of mental association by 
 which these events are linked with the fall of Jerusalem and the 
 judgments of God upon Eome I shall have occasion to consider 
 I'ully in their place. They constitute a very easy and natural ex- 
 ception to the statements we have been considering, which assume 
 that the main events foretold in the book were then near at hand. 
 Tliose main events we shall see refer to Jerusalem and to Home — 
 the great persecuting powers then actively hunting down and mur- 
 dering the saints. They constitute the staple facts of this book of 
 prophecy and therefore are fitly embraced in the comprehensive 
 
 statement, ''■ near at hayul." 1 am well aware that many critics 
 
 have disposed of this testimony from God himself, as to the speedy 
 fulllllment of these prophecies, in a very short-hand way. One of 
 the reviewers of Prof Stuart wrote; — "Nor would we contract 
 the mind of God to the narrow dimensions of the generation when 
 ,lohn wrote." " Nor docs it move us that at the opening of his 
 book, he says; — 'The time is at hand.' He was then judging from 
 God's point of vision, with whom a thousand years are as one day; 
 
 he was judging on the scale of eternity."* But if God had 
 
 occasion to say certain things to the churches of Asia of " the 
 generation when John wrote," and undertook to do it, who shall 
 forbid him ? AVho has any right to insinuate that such messages 
 would dishonorably belittle or contract the mind of God ? And 
 when the revealing angel said — "The time is at hand," how does 
 this critic know that " he was judging from God's point of vision 
 with whom one thousand years are as one day ?" If he meant so, 
 why did he not say so? If he has not said so, what right has any 
 critic to wrest his words from their natural sense and put upon 
 
 *Sc'C-Uiljli(jthccii Sacra, April, 1S17 ; p. Z»'L 
 
i2 INTEODUCTION. 
 
 them a construction altogether his own and in the face of their 
 phiin, ohvious meaning? If critics may use such liberties with 
 God's own words, making his declarations — "The time is at hand ;" 
 " shortly come to pass" — mean the very reverse of what they say, 
 what may they not do ? And how can God reveal any thing to 
 us so that we can surely know what he means ? If God does not 
 use the language of men as men ordinarily use it, there is an end 
 of all reliable interpretation of his words. If when he says "day " 
 he may mean a thousand years and yet give us no hint of any 
 other sense than we give to the word " day," then there is no such 
 
 thing as a trustworthy revelation from God to man. For myself 
 
 I must take it for granted that when God introduced this book of 
 prophecy to the seven churches of Asia, sa3'ing that the time of 
 fulfilling its predicted events was then near at hand, he meant 
 just what he said — meant to have them expect the great body of 
 those events very soon and be looking for them in their own times. 
 For if he had meant precisely this, he could not have said it in any 
 other words more direct and plain than these. 
 
 Many critics have said — This book gives a prophetic series of 
 historic events, running on two thousand years or more, and 
 that when God said, " These things must come to pass shortly," 
 he meant only that the scries would bcgm shortly, while the great 
 mass of its events would lie far down in the future centuries. But 
 this seems to me to be, not accepting God's words at their obvious 
 value, but forcing a sense upon them to suit the exigencies of the 
 critic's own theory. If God had really meant what these critics 
 claim, why did he not say it ? Could he possibly suppose that 
 the words he did use would be understood by the seven churches 
 as these critics interpret them ? And did he use words which he 
 knew would convey a sense quite different from the truth ? 
 
 3. We are bound to interpret this book in harmony ivith Gods 
 
 own interpretation of its symbols. Such pi'ofessed explanations 
 
 are much less numerous and full in this book of prophecy than in 
 
 Daniel. Let us the more carefully use what we have. The greater 
 
 part of chap. 17, is such explanation. It shows us definitely who 
 
 is meant by " the woman," " the great harlot." The seven heads 
 
 of the beast are explained to have a twofold reference; (1.) To 
 "the seven mountains on which the woman sitteth ;" (2.) To the 
 eevcn kings who reigned in succession, the sixth being then on 
 the throne. This is not the place to expound in full the points 
 
INTEODUCTIOX. 43 
 
 njiule in this chapter. Suffice it to say tliat as humble pupils of 
 Ipi-ophecy, sitting at the feet of our (Jreat Teacher, -we shall surely 
 seize with promptness and ponder with dilii:;ence whatever ex- 
 planations he may be pleased to give us of the meaning of his 
 own symbols. Such explanations should be permitted to throw 
 their influence over all other points, not explained, which arc of 
 the same general character. The whole prophecy to which the 
 woman and the seaven-headcd beast belong must surely be inter- 
 preted in harmony with God's explanation of these leading char- 
 acters and agents therein. 
 
 4. We must interpret in harmony lulth whatever allusions the look 
 contains to known historic events and localities. We have such allu- 
 sions in chaps. 11 and 17. In chap. 11 : 1, 2, we have the tem- 
 
 I)lo, the altar, the outer court, and the giving of it up to the Gentiles 
 to be trodden under foot of them; and in v. 8 we have another most 
 specific and unrjucstionable reference to Jerusalem — the very place 
 " where the Lord was crucified," and where his two witnesses fell 
 and lay unburied; and in v. 13 it is said that "in the same hour 
 there was a great earthquake, and a tenth part of the city (this 
 same Jerusalem) fell," etc. Now here arc various allusions to 
 historic places and objects with which John's readers were some- 
 what acquainted and with which we are familiar. There can be 
 no doubt how they would understand these words. Of all the men 
 who were ever to read this book, they were best situated to under- 
 stand it. The sense most obvious to them is doubtless the true 
 one. It would be only a great folly therefore for us to ignore such 
 historic references, and make up an interpretation of this eleventh 
 chapter and of the stupendous events whicli reach their consum- 
 mation here, just as if the prophet had given us in these allusions 
 no clew to his meaning. It would be unpardonable to fritter away 
 tlie meaning of these allusions and rob ourselves of their aid by 
 forcing upon them a fanciful meaning. They are plainly literal 
 expressions thrown into the midst of a delineation which is mostly 
 figurative and symbolic ; and therefore we may assume that they 
 were intended to be landmarks to guide the reader through the 
 entire series of symbols which culminate here. They put tlicir 
 prophetic finger on Jerusalem as the doomed city; on its corrujit 
 Judaism, its apostate priests and people, as the sworn and loTig 
 time maddened enemies of Christ and of his true Zion — now about 
 to be overwhelmed under the bolts of Jehovah's thunder. Ju 
 
i4 INTKODUCTION. 
 
 like manner the angel-intcrprctcr appcfirs in chap. 17, avowedly 
 to "show the judgment of the great harlot" (v. 1), and "to tell 
 the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carricth her, 
 which hath the seven heads and ten horns" (v. 7). This woman 
 and this beast are the prominent personages throughout chaps. 
 13-18. Here the revealing angel comes to identify the city of old 
 liome as represented by this woman, and the seven kings that 
 successively filled her throne as the seven heads of the "beast 
 that carried hei*." When he gives plain explanations of the great 
 prophetic symbols of the book, saying, " The woman whom thou 
 sawest is the great city," etc., and " The seven heads are seven 
 mountains on which the woman sitteth," and also " the seven 
 kings, of whom five are fallen," etc., why shall we not hail this 
 explanation with joy and thankfulness, accepting it as indeed a 
 light shining in an otherwise dark place, and a landmark to guide 
 our otherwise dubious way ? On Avhat ground can- we expect to 
 reach the true sense of this book if we thrust away the heaven- 
 sent teacher who comes " to tell us the mystery " of these sym- 
 bols ? 
 
 5. We must interpret in harmony with whatever indications the 
 book itself may give us showing that Christians then living were 
 to be the persecuted men of whom these visions speak and whose 
 martyrdom they assume ; and that their own persecutors were the 
 men about to be visited with desolating judgments. Such indica- 
 tions appear in the account given of the opening of the fifth seal 
 (G : 9-11) : "When he had opened the fifth seal I saw under the 
 altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God and 
 for the testimony which they held; and they cried with a loud 
 voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not 
 judge and avenge our blood 07i them that dwell on the earth?" 
 "Dwell on the earth," be it noticed, testifies that those persecu- 
 tors were then alive — then, at the time of the vision and of this 
 prayer — pursuing their diabolic mission, for the prayer of the 
 fallen martyrs cries, "How long, O Lord, wilt thou not avenge 
 our blood on them," and put an end to their murder of our sur- 
 viving brethren? The record proceeds to say, "And white 
 
 robes were given to every one of them, and it was said to them 
 that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow- 
 servaiits also and their brethren, that should be killed as they had 
 been, should be fulfilled." The white robes, significant of ultimate 
 
INTIIODUCTION. 45 
 
 victory to their cause, were for their comfort and consohition, yet 
 tliey must needs be told that more of their brethren were yet to 
 fall martyrs for a season longer; then the vials of God's ■wrath 
 would be poured out on those guilty murderers. To see this ar- 
 gument iu its proper strength, it should be borne in mind that the 
 sense most obvious and natural to the first readers of the book is 
 the true one ; tiiat althougli modern critics may overlook or ignore 
 the explicit declarations with which the book opens — " things that 
 must shortly come to pass;" "the time is at hand;" or (4: 1) 
 "things which must be" [immediately] "hereafter;" it is simply 
 impossible that John's first readers could forget or overlook these 
 statements, for they served to make these pi'ophecies matters of 
 immediate, personal and most vital interest. Consequently those 
 first readers must have made the present tense -of this vision 
 ["that dwell on the earth"] their own present time — now dwelling 
 on the earth while we are reading this book — and would apply 
 \\hat is said of the persecutors to the very men who had just been 
 murdering their own brethren — e. g., Antipas of Pergamos, "slain 
 among you" (2 : 13). Hence my argument is that, this being the 
 construction which they must needs give to these words, it is the 
 true one and we must adopt it. Therefore to apply these words 
 in their primary and proper sense to the Waldenses and Albi- 
 genses of the middle ages seems to me like mere dreaming — or 
 rather like steering one's ship in mid-ocean by defacing the log- 
 book, throwing overboard the compass, and blotting out the stars ! 
 6. If the prophetic symbols indicate fearful judgments on some 
 great persecuting power without naming or particularly describing 
 this power, we arc bound to assume that such naming and de- 
 scription are omitted because John's first readers would know 
 without its name what power was meant. This rule rests on the 
 simide principle that every sensible man writes so as to be under- 
 stood by those whom he addresses. Of course he writes for an 
 object. John wrote for a great moral object; wrote to do good to 
 the jhurches of Asia. Therefore he wrote in such a way that 
 tliey could readily understand of whom he spoke. If he omitted 
 to :iame the wicked men then about to be judged and destroyed 
 f): their violence against Christ's people, it was because he saw 
 that his readers would know without his naming them. In this 
 ca.sc they could not fail to assume that those persecutors were the 
 men under Avhoin tlicir own brethren were dying; the martyrs 
 
40 INTKODUCTION. 
 
 alluded to were of themselves. The reader will notice the re- 
 markable fact that the successive seals (chaps. 6 and 8) and the 
 successive trumpets also (chap. 9) reveal plagues, yet without 
 definitely naming the parties on whom those plagues were to fall. 
 Except the intimations given (6 : 9-11) in the cry of the martyred 
 souls seen under the altar, and in the nationality of the sealed 
 ones (chap. 7), we have nothing thus far in the book to define the 
 doomed nation or people. Chap. 11 does give us some definite 
 localities, and also some landmarks as to time. But through sev- 
 eral chapters we fail to find such indications. The rule now 
 under consideration requires us to find the persecuting power.*! 
 here foredoomed, within the immediate knowledge and experience 
 of the churches of Asia — so near that they could not think of any 
 other. This view is abundantly sustained and verified by the 
 prayer of the mai'tyrs and its answer at the opening of the fifth 
 seal, and also in chap. 11 as j'ou approach the final catastrophe. 
 
 7. We must interpret in harmony with the obvious moral pur- 
 pose of the book. What this moral purpose was the book itself 
 abundantly shows. It went to the seven churches of Asia; its 
 mission was to arm them against the temptations incident to 
 deadly persecution; to fire their souls Avith love to Christ, with 
 zeal for his cause, with the spirit of patient endurance even unto 
 torture and death. To efl'ect such results the writer brings the 
 glories of the risen Savior impressively near ; he sets before them 
 the bliss of heaven and the sympathy felt in their case by the 
 myriads around the throne ; he testifies to them most tenderly 
 that God sees their tears, notes their .agonj^j will surely render 
 vengeance to their persecutors, joy and peace to their martyred 
 brethren, and everlasting victory to his Zion. All these points 
 came home to their hearts with most thrilling power, because the 
 scenes of agonizing fear and horrible persecution ivere so very 
 near; because the sufi"erers were their own fathers, mothers, 
 brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters. "Antipas my faithful mar- 
 tyr was slain among you" (2 : 13). Every thing in this book in- 
 dicates not only an intense moral purpose, but a most direct one, 
 bearing upon the very churches then immediately addressed. Wo 
 must therefore interpret accordingly. We should do great vio- 
 lence to the whole book if we were to construe it to refer jjrimarily 
 to events far away in the remote future from those seven churches 
 — events of which they could possibly have no conception, and to 
 
INTP.ODUCTIOX. 47 
 
 wliicli they could not apply these predictions. "When the book ig 
 interpreted as a lii-story of the European kingdoms, which grew 
 out of the disintegrated Kouian Empire, continued down to our 
 own day, and of the Kouian Catholic church in the great outlines 
 of its history through all time, I must insist that such interpre- 
 tation is violently against the obvious moral purpose of the book. 
 Its first readers could not possibly take this view of its meaning, 
 therefore this view of its meaning can not be the true one. For 
 sensible writers, Avriting for a present object, must be presumed 
 to write so as to be readily understood by the average minds of 
 their readers. They never write for a great moral purpose in the 
 case of their first readers, and yet write so that not a man of them 
 can possibly understand to what they refer. To write in a man- 
 ner so utterly beyond their comprehension would inevitably de- 
 feat their moral olyect. Prophecy can by no means' be exempted 
 from this rule. Certainly and especially it can not, provided it ap- 
 pears that it was written and sent to particular churches for an 
 obvious moral purpose. Such undeniably is the case of this book. 
 A broader view of the analogy of scripture prophecy on this 
 point will be useful here. In the Old Testament age, Babylon, 
 Edom, Moab, Philistia, etc., were hostile powers, corresponding to 
 apostate Judaism and Koman Paganism in the age of this book. 
 All these powers became subjects of prophecy. Those of the Old 
 Testament age stand before us undeniably fulfilled and easily in- 
 terpreted; and thcrefoi'e give us priceless illustrations of the 
 method of such prophecy — the manner of giving it — in other words, 
 
 the important laws of prophetic interpretation. The attentive 
 
 reader of this class of Old Testament prophecies will soon satisfy 
 himself as to these vital points : — (1.) That they were written for a 
 tlien present moral purpose, viz., to as.sure the covenant people 
 tliat Jehovah was on their side, and that, being King of nations, 
 he could and would break down their foes, and visit just retribu- 
 tion upon them ; — (2.) Consequently, having a present moral pur- 
 pose to serve, they were made easily intelligible ; were designed, 
 not to hide, but to reveal the coming destiny of those hostile pow- 
 (>rs, and that they were in fact, so far as we can learn, understood 
 by the prophets and by their first hearers and readers; — (3.) That 
 the events predicted, like those revealed through John to the seven 
 cliurches, were near at hand and did shortly come to ]iass. The 
 prophecies of Jeremiah against Uabylon (chaps. 50 and 51) had 
 
48 IXXriODUCTIOX. 
 
 but few j'cars at most to wait fur their fiillillmcnt. Tlie moral ef- 
 fect sought was to be realized upon that generation — the very men 
 Avho first received the prophecy from his lips or pen. And this 
 was the model and type of the Babylon of the Apocalypse. So the 
 Lord's word by Jeremiah against the Philistines (chap. 47) was 
 fulfilled by a Pharaoh then living and by Nebuchadnezzar then on 
 his throne, and of course -with no considerable delay. Of Moab 
 Isaiah (16 : 14) said : " Within three years, as the years of a hire- 
 ling, and the glory of Moab shall be contemned." Also of Ephraim 
 (Isa. 7: 8) he said: "Within threescore and five years shall 
 
 Ephraim be broken that it be not a people." Thus it appears 
 
 that this style of ancient prophecy had a then present mission 
 and straightway performed it; was consequently made plain; 
 was in fact understood by all readers and hearers of average 
 intelligence ; and fulfilled its mission in the moral benefit of 
 that generation which first received it. So Christ's prediction to 
 his disciples of the destruction of Jerusalem had a present mis- 
 sion for the men of that generation and fulfilled it. In the 
 
 nature of the case the projihecies respecting the promised Mes- 
 siah had a long time to run. But as to the points now under 
 consideration, those prophecies are not analogous and should be 
 left out of the account. All the prophecies of the Bible that are 
 analogous concur to establish these principles beyond dispute, and 
 therefore must legitimately be accepted and applied in our inter- 
 pretation of the Apocalypse. 
 
 8. Symbols borrowed from the Old Testament should obviously 
 be interpreted in the light of their usage there. A general cor- 
 respondence of the meaning here to the meaning there should be 
 assumed — a proximate at least, though not perhaps in every case a 
 precise similarity. It being certain that the author had in hand 
 the Old Testament scriptures, but not certain that he had any 
 other book; certain, moreover, that he had read those prophets 
 carefully, intensely, with the deepest love of his heart — that Ik? 
 had made himself familiar with their imagery and symbols as weli 
 as with their thoughts; it follows that his own symbols when dis- 
 tinctly traceable to those old prophets should be construed in his 
 book mainly as they are in those original sources. This rule ap- 
 plies to the seals, the trumpets, the vials ; to the horses seen in 
 vision ; to the locusts ; to Babylon, and not least, to the usage of 
 the words "abomination," "harlot," etc., in reference to idolatry 
 
INTRODUCTION. 49 
 
 ?. While these principles of interpretation sulEce to prove that 
 the great body of the book refers to events tJicn ne^r at hand, 
 the well-known usage of prophecy will permit tlie minds of both 
 prophet and reader to pass over by analogy from these events to 
 others of like genci-al character far in the future — these future 
 events being reached, not through a continuous series of history, 
 filling up the whole interval, but under the law of analogy by 
 which one scries of events suggests another of like general dia- 
 meter, resting on the same broad principles of God's government. 
 Thus in Christ's prophetic discourse (Mat. 24 and 25) his primary 
 reference is to the destruction of Jerusalem by tlie Komans (A. D. 
 7U). Yet he also passes over from this event to the analogous 
 one — the final judgment scene. But he does not reach the final 
 judgment by filling up all the interval between the first event and 
 the seeond with a continuous prophetic history of the events in- 
 tervening. Some commentators have interpreted Mat. 24 and 2.> 
 in this way, but, in my view, without the least reason. The tran- 
 sition from the first event to the second is made by the law of 
 analog}'. The same law obtains abundantly in the old prophets, 
 c. g., Isaiah, passing from the fall of Sennacherib's host, compared 
 to the fall of the glory of Lebanon before an archangel's scythe 
 (chap. 10 and 11) to the springing up of the fresh shoot of David 
 
 from the stump of a cut-down tree. Accepting this principle of 
 
 interpretation, we naturally expect the mind of both prophet and 
 reader to be borne onward from the fall of persecuting Judaism 
 and Paganism to tlie fall of every foe hostile to Christ, and to the 
 final triumph of the Great Conqueror, as we have it in Rev. 11, and 
 
 also Kev. 10 and 20.-: The main argument for spreading out the 
 
 visions of this book into a compend of universal history has been 
 that because the series lands us at last in the Millennium, there- 
 lore it must take us over and througli all the intermediate stages 
 of human history. It might for the same reason be demanded 
 tliat we spread out the prophecy by Christ in Mat. 24 and 25, by 
 violent and fanciful applications thereof till we make it fill up the 
 entire interval between the fall of Jerusalem and the final judg- 
 ment. Such methods of interpretation ignore the whole genius of 
 
 Old Testament prophecy. 1 am well aware that many assume 
 
 this one book of the Bible, the last (as they say) of them all, to 
 have been written, not like the rest of the Bible primarily for the 
 goneri^tions then living and near, but primarily and with special 
 3 
 
50 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 design for the far distant ages — for ourselves and the generations 
 yet to come. They admit, as all sensible men must, that David 
 wrote his psalms for then present use and adapted them accord- 
 ingly ; that Isaiah had his eye primarily upon his own generation 
 in the adaptation of his prophecies, and so also Jeremiah, Ezekicl 
 and all the rest. The internal evidence of a special mission to 
 their own people and of a special adaptation to their case is com- 
 pletely decisive. So of the gospel history; so of all the epistles. 
 But this book of Kevelation they insist must be made an ex- 
 ception to this otherwise universal law. One book at least among 
 so many the Lord could certainly afford to give to us of these 
 latter days by special address and special adaptation, so that we 
 may claim it as meant for us in the same definite sense in which 
 the Jews of the captivity might claim Ezekiel's messages as theirs. 
 
 Now this may be a very pretty fancy ; but I must be plain 
 
 enough to say — it can be nothing more. For, the proofs of special 
 address, special design, special adaptation to the seven churches 
 of Asia, are fully as strong and decisive in this book as like proofs 
 are in Ezekiel, Jeremiah, llaggai, or Zechariah. Nor have we 
 the least reason to feel that we are deprived of a right or robbed 
 of a treasure when this book is put on the same footing with all 
 other books of the Bible in respect to original address and adapta- 
 tion ; for we may still use it precisely as we use all the rest of the 
 Bible, i. e., first, get its exact meaning as written and adapted to 
 its first readers for its special purposes; and then apply it aU to 
 ourselves as so much general truth good for us according to our 
 circumstances. Knowing the case of its first readers we get a far 
 more definite, precise, life-like sense of its meaning, and therefoi'e 
 have so much more actual truth to apply with the utmost precision 
 to our own case. But a book specially addressed and adapted to the 
 indefinite ages could never be soundly and safely interpreted ; for 
 who could know the circumstances of the parties addressed ? Who 
 could make any use of the landmarks of interpretation which a 
 book of prophecy must needs have, or of necessity remain unin- 
 telligible ? The endless variety of fanciful interpretations under 
 which this book has suffered above all other books of the Bible ia 
 due largely and by necessity to this grand mistake in the very 
 
 conception of its original design. Yet again, it will seem to 
 
 many that the glory of this book is departed if the events which 
 it definitely predicts are narrowed down to the doom of apostate 
 
INTRODUCTION. 51 
 
 .Torusalcm and of Patran Koine as great porsccutinsi; powers, and 
 we fail to find in it the great outlines of the world's history since 
 the first century of the Christian era, and especially if we fail to 
 find here the Pope and the system he represents. There lies 
 hefore me "A New Interpretation of the Apocalypse," brought 
 out in 1827, by Ivcv. George Crolcy, to which I refer as a sample 
 — a work brilliantly written and eminently popular. He says 
 (p. 2, 3), " It will be shown in the course of the Interpretation 
 lliat this prophecy includes m the most direct manner all those 
 great events which make the framework of history since the first 
 age of Christianity ; that it distinctly predicts the establishment 
 of the church under Constantino and his successors" [etc. on 
 through the early, the middle, and the post-middle ages], "the 
 destruction of the Spanish Armada; the civil wars following the 
 overthrow of Protestantism in France in 1GS5 ; the wars of Louis 
 XIV.; the French revolution not uarroAved down to a few con- 
 jectural verses as is usual, but detailed in an entire and unsus- 
 pected chapter with its peculiar character of Atheism and anarch}^, 
 its subsequent despotism, and its final overthrow by the armies 
 of Europe." Then quite a respectable portion remains for the 
 
 ages to come, the events being yet future. Now a prophecy so 
 
 admirably flexible that ingenious men can find in it all the inter- 
 esting events of their own times and of times yet fresh in the past 
 — indeed, all the salient points in the world's great history since 
 A. D. lUO, must be very attractive to an ingenious commentatoi*, 
 
 and very amusing, no doubt, to many readers. Moreover, apart 
 
 from this exercise of human ingenuity, there is a special religious 
 interest felt by many Protestants in finding here Pomanism in the 
 three-fold aspect, — its spiritual abominations, its bloody persecu- 
 tions, and its destiny of fiery doom. It seems to some of them 
 
 that this is God's battle-ax made ready to their hand. Now 
 
 to all who may be of this mind I wish to say very plainly that I 
 have not the least repugnance to seeing the Pope and Komanisra 
 in this prophecy provided only that God has put them here. But I 
 have an invincible repugnance to viaking prophecy myself — to 
 bringing into this book by forced or fanciful interpretation any 
 thing which God has not put here. It should be remembered that 
 the book closes with some very monitory words against " adding 
 to the things" herein written. It is a solemn undertaking to 
 make a comment on the words of God. With some sense of the 
 
52 INTEODUCTION. 
 
 inexpressible solemnity of this work 1 am holden most sacredly to 
 follow the landmarks set up by God's own finger. No attractions 
 toward this resulting sense or that — no desire to find or not to 
 find Papal Rome here — can be allowed to move my pen a hair's 
 
 breadth. According to my reading of scriptural prophecy God 
 
 has certain modes of presenting it — follows certain principles in 
 revealing it — gives certain indications (" landmarks " I have called 
 them) which were manifestly designed to guide us to their true 
 meaning and application. All these, I propose to myself and 
 suggest to my readers, should be canvassed with untiring diligence 
 and applied with our utmost coolness of judgment, with unbiased 
 heart and unclouded eye, and above all, with unceasing prayer to 
 the Great Father of light to guide us into all his blessed truth for 
 the good of his Zion and the glory of his name. 
 
THE REVELATION 
 
 OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE. 
 
 CHAPTER I, 
 
 The Look opens with the source and the channels from which 
 this rcvchition comes (vs. 1, 2); the blessing promised to the 
 readers and the hearers (v. 3) ; the address proper of the book, 
 coui)led with the apostolic benediction (vs. 4, 5), and ascriptions 
 of glory to Jesus (vs. 5, 6); the announcement of his glorious 
 coming (vs. 7, 8). Then the writer speaks of himself and his cir- 
 cumstances (v. 0); is enjoined to write what he sees and send it 
 to the seven churches (vs. 10, 11); and then describes at length 
 tlie majestic appearance of the Son of Man (vs. 12-10), and the 
 further instructions embraced in his prophetic commission (vs. 
 17-20). 
 
 1. The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto 
 him, to show unto his servants things which nni.st shortly 
 come to pass: and he sent and signified it by his angel unto 
 his servant John : 
 
 This revelation is here said to have been made by God to Jesus 
 Christ, implying that in their mutual relations to each other in the 
 sclieme of redemption, the Father is supreme, the Son subordinate; 
 and reminding us of those extraordinary words of Jesus as given 
 by JIark (13: 32): "Of tiiat day and hour knowetli no man, no, 
 
 nut the angels in heaven, neither the iSon, but the Father." 
 
 "Things which must shortly come to pass," must be said in gen- 
 eral of the contents of this entire book, and not, as some have sup- 
 posed, of the first three chapters only. "Shortly" can have no 
 sthur and no less meaning than ver)/ soon. This sense of the 
 
 (53) 
 
y4 EEVELATlON.-CnAP. I. 
 
 oriii;ihal (ircck words is absolute and decisive. It is only serious 
 trilling with God's words to say that ^^ shortly" may mean a thou- 
 sand years distant, or two and three thousand, according as the 
 exigencies of some preconceived scheme of interpretation may 
 require. Why should not God be permitted to be his own inter- 
 preter and give his own views in regard to the time of the events 
 here foretold? The rule of foir common sense must be, that what- 
 ever God may say in explanation of his own propliecies — e. g., as 
 to the time of their fulfillment, must be taken in its plain and most 
 
 obvious sense. Else how does it explain any thing? Angels 
 
 were largely employed in making these revelations to John, and 
 made them chiefly (as the word ^^ signify" indicates) by the use 
 of signs, symbols. 
 
 2. Who bare record of the word of God, and of the tes- 
 timony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. 
 
 The main question here is, whether the thing said of John, that 
 he " bare record of the Avord of God, and of the testimony of Christ," 
 is historic, describing him as having long been an apostle and wit- 
 ness for Christ, or whether it should be restricted to his function 
 as a witness to certify faidifully the things revealed to him in 
 Patmos. The latter is most in the line of thought in the context; 
 Jesus revealed these things by his angel to his servant John ; and 
 John faithfully reported every thing shown him, for the benefit of 
 
 the churches. The last clause should be read without the word 
 
 "and," which the best authorities rule out of the Greek text — the 
 sense then being, "whatsoever things he saw;" i. e., so far forth 
 as revelations were made to him, he wrote them. 
 
 3. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the 
 \vords of this prophecy, and keep those things which are 
 written therein : for the time is at hand. 
 
 This grouping of "him that readeth" with "those that hoar" 
 contemplates the public reading in their Christian assemblies. 
 We should bear in mind that printed Bibles were then unknown; 
 that manuscript copies were few and very costly, and therefore the 
 hearers would far outnumber the readers. The blessing prom- 
 ised to both classes implies that these words had a great moral 
 purpose ; were designed and adapted for the spiritual good of the 
 Christians addressed; and moreover, that John, and the inditing 
 Spirit no less, sought by every proper consideration to press the 
 brethren to a diligent study of this book. Let every reader to-day 
 
 accept this suggestion and strive for this promised blessing ! 
 
 "Keep those things written therein" assumes that duty is enjoined 
 here. Blessed are those who open their hearts to the inspiring 
 power of this book, and are promjited thercliy to the utmost fidel- 
 ity in doing the duties which it reveals. These duties were pre- 
 eminently, patient sulforing and unswerving fidelity to Christ amid 
 
REVELATION. -CHAP. I. 55 
 
 ecencs of fiercest trial and persecution unto l>loo(l. Again the 
 
 idea is reiterated, "/or the time is at ItandJ' Kead tliis book ■with- 
 out delay; receive into your mind its timely revelations; take homo 
 to your sends its inspiring inllucuces — lor these fearlul scenes of 
 blood and death arc close upon you ! 
 
 4. John to the seven clinrches ^vllicll are in Asia: Grace 
 he unto you, and peace, from him which is, and uhich was, 
 and which is to come : and from the seven S})irits which 
 are beibre his throne: 
 
 5. And from Jesus Christ, %vlio is the faithful witness, 
 and the first-begotten of tlie dead, and the prince of the 
 kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed 
 us from our sins in his own blood, 
 
 G. And hath made us kings and priests unto God and 
 his Father ; to him be glory and dominion for ever and 
 ever. Amen. 
 
 The address, "John to the seven churches," must certainly in- 
 clude the whole book, and not the c(mtents of chapters second and 
 tliird only. So v. 11 declares explicitly, "What thou seesf — i. e., 
 
 ail that thou shalt see, send to those churches. The invocation 
 
 ftillows, imploring in thcij* behalf grace and peace — every spiritual 
 blessing. But from whom'? This question involves some dilli- 
 
 fulty. The tenor of the apostolic benediction — "The grace of 
 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of Cod, and the communion of tiie 
 Holy Ghost" (2 Cor. 1.3: 14), naturally leads us to think here of 
 tlic Trinity, the threefold personal manifestation of the one God. 
 in accordance with this analogy we begin with applying to the 
 Father the phrase, " llim which is, and which was, and which is 
 to come." Jt is generally held by competent critics that this 
 (ireek phrase translates as to its meaning the Hebrew word 
 Jehovah^ which signifies The eternally Existent One, the Great 
 Immutable, who is therefore the faithful Promiser (see Ex. 3 : 14, 
 and IIos. 12: 5). IJut we must not overlook the fact that in this 
 context (vs. 8, 11, and elsewhere) these descriptive terms are ap- 
 plied precisely to the Son of (Jod, probably with special i-cferenco 
 to his pre-existent nature. Must we not therefore say that the 
 main purpose in this chapter is not so much to develop doctrinally 
 tlie fact and the relations of the Trinity, as to set forth the true 
 divinity as well as the glorious humanity of the Son of God, and 
 thus give the churches of Asia the true view of his exalted char- 
 acter and work? 
 
 What precise idea shall we find in the second phrase — ''Tlie 
 
 peven Spirits which are before his tiirone ?" The parallel and 
 
 explanatory passages to be considered are onward 3 : 1, ami 4 : f), 
 and 5 : 6. "These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of 
 God, and the seven stars;' "There were seven lamps of fire 
 
56 REVELATION.— CHAP. I. 
 
 I)urning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God;" 
 "'I'hcrc stood a lamb as it luid been slain, havinjj; seven horna 
 and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of (jod sent forth into 
 
 all the earth." ^Then fnrtiiermore we must inqnire wiiether we 
 
 can trace this peculiar dcscri|Ytion to any source in the Old Testa- 
 ment prophets, and thus ol)tain liiiht in regard to its meanina;. 
 Under this inquiry we must consider Zoch. ?> : 9 and 4: 10: 
 ' IJehold the stone that I have laid before Joshua; upon one 
 stone shall bo seven eyes: behold, I will engrave the graving 
 thereof, saith the Ijord of hosts;" "They shall see the stone 
 [■ plummet 'J in the hand of Zenibbabel with those seven; they 
 are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole 
 earth." Perhaps also Isaiah 11: 2, where the Spirit of the Lord 
 which rested upon the Messiah is thought by some to have a 
 
 seven-fold designation. This phrase — " The seven spirits which 
 
 are before the throne/' has been interpreted variously, e. g. : 
 1. To signify the seven archangels, ministering to Jesus and for 
 him in his great work of redemption. 2. To denote the spiritual 
 and providential agencies and powers with which Jesus is invested 
 and which he employs in the rctilms of providence and grace. 
 This view would include all the agencies of universal providence 
 as well as the spiritual agencies of the Holy Ghost. Strictly 
 speaking it does not involve distinct personality— nothing in this 
 ilirection beyond poetic pereonjfication. . 3. The Holy Ghost, the 
 
 third person of the Ti-inity, in his distinct personalit3\ Let us 
 
 examine these diverse op.inions. 
 
 1. That these seven spirits are seven archangels is thought by 
 Korae to find support in the circumstance that they are said to be 
 ^'before the ihivne" i. e., in the waiting attitude of servants; also, 
 that they are associated with " the seven stars " as being in like 
 manner in the possession and sacred to the service of the Son of 
 God [3 : 1 : "Saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the 
 seven stars"]; and that they appear again in symbol as seven 
 
 lamps of line burning before the throne (4 : 5). The strong 
 
 •ind, as I think, fatal objection to this view lies in the exigenciea 
 of tins invocation of "grace and peace." Can we possibly sup- 
 pose that the seven archangels are classed with the Father and 
 tlie Son as being equally or even conjointly with them the source 
 and the authors of grace aud peace to the churches? Surely this 
 is new doctrine to our Bible. It ignores the infinite distance be- 
 Veen the true God, the Infinite One, and even the most exalted 
 yf his created subjects. Grace and peace, first from the Eternal 
 Father; next from his seven archangels; last from the Eternal 
 ind Infinite Son! This is the next thing to praying to the seven 
 archangels. It certainly must assume that they are, in substan- 
 tially an equivalent sense, the source and the fountain of grace 
 and peace to human souls. The Bible and reason both revolt at 
 this! 
 
 2. Tlie second theory— viz., that the yJiraso describes the jointly 
 
IlEYELATIO:s.— CHAP. I. 0< 
 
 providential and spiritual agencies wielded by Jesus Christ in the 
 scheme of rcdeiujition, but of course not involving any distinct 
 personality, finds its chief support in its supposed and perhaps 
 probable allusion to the 'pfi^sages quoted above (Zech. 3: 9 and 
 4 : 10), and its chief objection in the circumstance that here wo 
 naturally look for real personality. The passages in Zechariah 
 manifestly treat of (iod's providential and spiritual agencies in the 
 discipline of his peo]ile and in the care of his Zion. 1 think that 
 jirobably John had those passages so far in his mind as to take 
 i'rom them the inimber seven, and tlie general idea of diverse agen- 
 cies. Then, thinking also of the New Testament illustrations of 
 the manifold workings of this "one and the same Spirit," his lan- 
 guage took the form we see — "the seven Spirits of (lod." With 
 the orientals seven is the perfect number — that which indicates 
 
 completeness ; diversity, yet unity and perfection. As said 
 
 above, the chief objection to this second theory is that a prayer 
 for grace and peace should be oifered to a personal agent and not 
 to an impersonal agency. May the blessings of grace come to 
 you (r?) from (Jod the Father; {l) from his various agencies; {<•) 
 I'rom his Eternal Son — is incongruous. It is not so unchristian 
 and uuscriptural as the theory of seven archangels; but a better 
 theory is at hand. 
 
 3. The only view which seems to me to meet the exigencies of 
 tliis passage remains to be consridered, viz., that by the seven 
 Spirits of God is meant the Jloly Ghost, as specially revealed in 
 the gospel age. This is entirely in harmony with the tone and 
 the nature of this invocation. Js it also in harmony with the de- 
 scription gli-en in this verso and with the subsequent notices of 
 
 "the seven Spirits" in this book? He is one of the three 
 
 divine persons from whom I'aul (2 Cor. 13 : 14) invokes spiritual 
 Idessings. That he is conceived of as seven-fold need not surprise 
 us if we consider the diversity of his spiritual gifts and operations; 
 the probable allusion to the "seven eyes" of Zechariah (as above 
 shown) or the abundant use of the number seven in this liook of 
 Kcvelation. That he should be seen ^^ before the throne" does in- 
 deed imply a readiness for service ; but benevolent service is no 
 dishonor to his heart, and is in no wise derogatory to his true 
 divinity. That Jesus should say of himself (3 : 1), " He that hath 
 the seven Spirits of (Jod," etc., means only what is implied in his 
 own first and chief words conccring the "Comforter:" "I will 
 pray t^ie Father, and he shall give you another Comforter'' (John 
 14: IG); "whom the Father will send in my name" (John 14: 26): 
 "whom I will send unto you from the Father he shall tes- 
 tify of me" (15:20); " 1 will send him unto you" (10 : 7); "He 
 sliall glorify me " (10 : 14). It was obviously most fitting that in 
 liiese messages to the seven churches Jesus should reveal himself 
 in the exalted dignity of his relations as the (iiver of the Holy 
 
 (Ihost. 'I'hc si;ven Sjiirits of Cod are also presented in symbolic 
 
 vision (4 : 5) as " seven lamps of tire burning before the tlironc." 
 
58 REVELATION.— CIIAr. I. 
 
 Usinn; tlio figure "lamps of fire" as only a Inimlile stepping-stone 
 to help us to reach the sublime idea of light, brilliancy, and glory, 
 we may suppose a special reference here to the function of the 
 Spirit as the great Jtevcaler of God, the Infinite Teacher^ sent forth 
 to give light concerning God and to impress all truths respecting 
 
 him upon created minds. That the Lamb as seen in vision (5: G) 
 
 a[ipears with " seven horns, and seven eyes, which are the seven 
 Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth," is an effort to present 
 in .symbol the infinite power ["horns"], and the infinite spiritual 
 iuroes of light and truth ["eyes"] which are embodied in the 
 Holy Ghost and sent forth by the Son according to his own words 
 
 (as above quoted) to his disciples. Thus this interpretation of 
 
 tiie seven Spirits of God as in our passage is fully in harmony 
 with the teaching of Christ in the New Testament respecting the 
 work and mission of the Holy Ghost, and also with the scope of 
 these first chapters of our book as designed to set forth the tran- 
 scendant dignity and glory of Jesus Christ. This interpretation 
 therefore fully meets the exigencies of the case and must for every 
 reason be adopted. 
 
 The sacred Three from Avhom blessing are invoked is com])leted 
 
 by naming Jesus Christ. The three descriptive points of his 
 
 person should be specially noted : (a) " The faithful AVitness," 
 who "before Pontius Pihite witnessed a noble confession," as 
 said by Paul (1 Tim. 6 : 14) and as may be seen (John 18: 36); 
 who never faltered before persecution and whose example there- 
 fore as a faithful witness [martyr] for God and his truth was em- 
 inently in point for the churches of Asia at this time, (i) "The 
 first-born of the dead ; " the first to break the bonds of death and 
 rise to immortal life and glory— to be thought of now, therefore, 
 not as one dea,d but as one living — living in all the majesty and 
 power of a conqueror over Death and the Grave ; and (c) As Lord 
 of all lords and King of all the kings of the earth, whose power 
 over the mightiest and proudest of them was to be so signally man- 
 ifested in these visions, for the comfort of his suffering and down- 
 crushed people. The course of thought in the words that fol- 
 low is an outgushing of the heart in grateful love and adoration. 
 Think what Jesus hath sufl'ered and wrought for us ! Unto Ilim 
 that loves [rather than "loved"], who loves us now, has loved us 
 in all the past, and will love us in all the future, forever, and hath 
 once for all [past] washed us from our sins in his own blood; and 
 hath made us a kingdom (according to the corrected text,* rather 
 than "kings") and priests unto God even his Father; — to Him 
 be all glory and dominion forever ! Who so worthy as He to 
 Avear the crown of the Universe — to bear the glories of the 
 heavenly world ? Let our loving, grateful hearts adore him now 
 
 and forever. Amen! It Avas Avell for those who Avere subjected 
 
 to fiery trial eA'en unto blood to think of this once suflering Jesus 
 and of all the pains he bore for his people even unto blood and 
 death to "wash them from their sins." So it is Avell for us in 
 
EEVELATION.— CnAP. I. 60 
 
 ihcsc latter da3's to think of that great man of sorrows and of his 
 quenuhlcss lovo for us what time soever temptation may try. our 
 heart ami Satan would discourage or frighten our weary souls. 
 
 ■ ''Washed ns from our sins in his own blood" hears the 
 
 strongest testimony to the two-fold significance of the atone- 
 ment, i. e., remission of past sins through innocent blood shed for 
 the guilty, and moral cleansing from the spirit of sinning forcver- 
 m tre. F<n- if moral cleansing were the only element, blood which 
 is properly defiling could nut have been the symbol. But blood 
 m jst come in to signify the ground of remission, pardon — as the 
 whole genius of the sacrificial system testifies. Ilcnce we have 
 both ideas, remission and cleansing, in this comprehensive and 
 briefest possible language — " washed us from our sins in his 
 blood." 
 
 7. Behold, lie Cometh uitli cloucb ; and every eye shall 
 see liiiu, and tliey aho Avhich pierced him : and all kindreds 
 of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Ameu. 
 
 'J'o what ^' comivff" does this passage refer? The reader who 
 
 shall carefully study the words of our Lord in Mat. 24: 29-31, and 
 10 : 27, 28, and 10: 23, and in kindred passages also, will readily 
 see that .lohn here refers to those declarations, using the same 
 words, and tlicreHjre doubtless in the same sense. Here we have 
 " couictli with clouds ; " there, " coming in the clouds of heaven : " 
 here, "every eye shall see him; " there, "they ['all the tribes of 
 the earth '] shall see the t^on of man coming: " here, all the kin- 
 dreds of the earth [or land] shall wail because of him;" there, 
 " then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn." " They also who 
 ]iierccd him" looks definitely to the prophecy of Zechaviah (12: 
 id); ■' Tiiey shall look on me whom they have pierced, and they 
 
 shall mourn for him." Examining those words of our Lord in 
 
 the passages above named we shall see that he seems to have be- 
 fore his mind both of his two great comings then future (the first 
 suggesting the second) ; the first, to set up his gospel kingdom 
 with power by sending down the Holy Cihost and l)y destroying 
 .lerusalem : the second, for the final judgment of all mankind; — 
 using some language that might (in itself considered) ajiply to his 
 more reunite coming; but also giving some definite limitatitins of 
 time which compel us to say that the first coming was certainly 
 in his mind as the primary and main thing intended. Tliese are 
 some of the limitations : '' Verily i say unto you. This generation 
 shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled" (Mat. 24: 3-1). 
 " Veril}^ 1 say unto you, There be_ some standing here who shall 
 not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in his 
 kingdom" (Mat. 16: 28). "Ye shall not have gone over the 
 cities of Israel till the Son of man be come" (j\Iat. 10: 23). "If 
 1 will that he tarry till 1 come, what is that to thee?" (John 
 21 : 22). These limitations are entirely decisive. They compel 
 us to admit that Jesus did use the language above quoted of his 
 
60 REVELATIOX.— CHAP. I. 
 
 first coming — the nearer one — to establish his kingdom by the 
 mission of his Spii'it and by removing out of the way the first 
 great obstacle to its prosperity — the rotten Judaism of that age 
 
 and its representative city, Jerusalem. It may be briefly said 
 
 here in passing, that according to tiie genius of prophecy, Jesus 
 might pass readily by analogy from his first coming, then near, to 
 his second. So he manifestly does in Mat. 25, giving as some of 
 the grand events of his second coming which were so powerfully 
 
 suggested by his first coming. In tlie pjassage now before us 
 
 the general drift of thought in the former part of this booli 
 strongly favors its primary reference to the first great coming of 
 Christ to establish his kingdom on earth by the gift of his Spirit 
 and the overthrow of Judaism and Jerusalem. It may have been 
 literally true that some of those who shouted, " Crucify him ! " 
 lived to " wail because of him " in overwhelming anguish over the 
 ruin of their city and the wreck of all their hopes. There 13 
 sometimes a terrible significance in God's visible, present retri- 
 butions ! 
 
 8. I am Alplia and Oraega, the Legiuning and the end- 
 ing, saith the Lord, which is, and "which was, and which 
 ia to come, tlie Almighty. 
 
 Many of my readers will not need to be told that "Alpha" in 
 the name of the first letter of the Greek alphabet, and "Omega" 
 of the last, so that these Avords have the sense. The First and the 
 Last; the One who is before all the created things of the uni- 
 verse, the Great Creator of all, and whose power and glory are to 
 be specially manifested in the closing up, the consummation, of 
 all that pertains to this world, including both things material and 
 things moral — the great globe itself and the destinies of all the 
 moral agents who shall ever have lived upon it. This is much 
 more than simply coming into existence before any other being 
 and outliving them all; i. e., the language used of Jesus Christ, 
 involves and implies much more than its terms in themselves nec- 
 essarily include. In the original, some of the oldest manu- 
 scripts omit — " the beginning and the ending." These words may 
 have been introduced by some copyist to explain the meaning of 
 the Greek woi'ds " Alpha " and " Omega " for the benefit of readers 
 not familiar with that language. Omitted or retained, the sense of 
 
 the passage is the same. The point most worthy to be specially 
 
 noted in the verse is that Jesus here assumes for himself the very 
 names — "The Lord, which is, and which was, and is the Coming 
 One," — which are given to the Father, in v. 4. "All things that 
 the Father hath" (said Jesus, John 16: 15) "are mine." It ia 
 strongly the purpose in this chapter and indeed onward through 
 the book, to present Jesus Christ in his exalted character and re- 
 lations, so that Christians then sorely tempted and tried might not 
 think of him as once in weakness he walked the earth, often barely 
 escaping the malice of his foes, and finally falling iuto their hands 
 
REVELATION.— CHAP, I, 61 
 
 f(tr torture and death ; but rather, as livinj:; for evermore, the very 
 (Jod, all glorious, almi<rlity to save or to destroy, the arbiter of all 
 huiuan destinies — death to his foes; salvation and inlinite glory 
 to his friends. In these views of him there must have been a 
 marvelous power of inspiration toward the stability and endurance 
 of the faithful martyr. 
 
 9. I John, ■\vlio also am your brother, and companion 
 in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Je.su>? 
 Cliri.st, "vvas in the isle that is called Patnios, for the uord 
 of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. 
 
 The writer introduces himself more definitely. It was geni«l 
 and winning in him to say — " Your brother," one who suffers in 
 common with yourselves under sore tribulation for the sake of the 
 
 kingdcmi and the truth of our Lord Jesus. lie was in the isle 
 
 of i'atmos, well known to the brethren of the seven churches, for it 
 lay only a little off the coast from Ephcsus; small — being only some 
 eight miles by one — barren, rocky, and rough, looking out upon 
 the great deep sea — fit place for the manifestations of heavenly 
 visions sublimely grand and magnificent, but as to all human 
 relationships and enjoyments, a desolate place of exile. There 
 John Avas shut up because he would preach the gospel and bear 
 his testimony for Jesus. 
 
 10. I Avas in the Spirit on the Lord's da}', and heard 
 behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet. 
 
 It was on the Lord's day, the Christian Sabbath, when suddc-nly 
 lie passed into that peculiar prophetic state expressed by the 
 words — "in Spirit" — a state in which the prophet is put in special 
 communication with the Ifoly Ghost as the Itevealer of prophetic 
 truth. His ear was opened to hear the very voice of Jesus, and 
 his eye to see (as in the present ease) his sublimely glorious form. 
 
 it avails little to speculate as to the p.sychological nature of 
 
 this prophetic state. Experience only can give it. 
 
 11. Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the 
 lust : and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it 
 unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, 
 and unto Smyrna, and unto Porgamos, and unto Thyatira, 
 and unto Surdis, and mito rhiiadelj^hia, and unto Lao- 
 dicea. 
 
 " What thou seest" — i. e., all that is now to l)e shown lliee in 
 the successive visions which make up this entire book. The word 
 " seest" refers properly to the visions — those of chaps. 4-22, rather 
 than to the vei'bal messages which appear in chaps. 2 and 3. Yet 
 we may admit those chapters (2 and 3) as included in the com- 
 mand, and attril)ute the ciioice of the word "seest" before hearesl, 
 
62 REVELATION.— CHAP. I. 
 
 to the circumstance that by far the greater part of the book is 
 
 made up of visions presented to the eye. Many commentators 
 
 have restricted this command to the messages that -were sin)ply 
 heard (not seen, at all), which occupy chapters second and third, 
 practically if not avowedly denying its reference to the real 
 visions — the things seen. Such construction is utterly against the 
 fair and necessary sense of the words. They are laboring to make 
 out that the real visions of the book w^ere neither written, sent, or 
 adapted to the seven churches of Asia. It is much better to let 
 
 the book speak for itself and become its own interpreter. 
 
 iSome geographical and historical notes upon these seven cities, 
 from which these churches take their name Avill be given where 
 tlieir names come up in detail (chaps. 2 and 3). 
 
 12. And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. 
 And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks ; 
 
 " Turned to see the voice," i. e., the author of the voice, the 
 speaker. The precise sense of the original is, to see whoever it 
 might be wdiose unrecognized voice 1 had heard. This pro- 
 phetic symbol, "candlestick," to represent a church (see the ex- 
 planation in V. 20), comes ol)viously from Zech. 4. The essential 
 idea is given by our Lord (Mat. 5: 14, and John 8: 12): "Ye are 
 the light oi the world;" and by Paul (Phil. 2: 15) more closely 
 because in the concrete form: "Ye shine as ligliis (luminaries, 
 or light-bearers) in the Avorld." AVhat light is to the eye, that 
 knowledge is to the mind. Hence the teachers of truth are in 
 Bymbol, light-bearers. 
 
 13. And in the niid.st of the seven candlesticks one like 
 unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the 
 foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. 
 
 "In the midst," etc., to indicate the perpetual presence of Christ 
 
 among his churches, with his people. " One like a .Son of man, ' 
 
 rather than the Son. The (Jreek is without the article, the sense 
 being, not that this personage resembled him whom 1 saw often 
 ill the days of his flesh; but merely that though clad with sur- 
 passing effulgence of glorj"-, yet the form was human — the resem- 
 blance that of man. The critical reader will note that Avhen Jesus 
 BO often spake of himself as "the Son of man" (of Avhich cases 
 tliere are said to be eighty), he always used the article — " the Son 
 of man." The expression in our verse therefore does not class 
 
 itself Avith those. His outer garment fell to the feet, and a 
 
 golden girdle was passed round at the breasts. This of course 
 was (fitly) the oriental costume of royalty, the dress worn by 
 kings, and associated with the highest ideas of dignity and ex- 
 altation. 
 
 14. His head and his hairs xocre white like wool, as white 
 as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; 
 
ItEVELATION.-CIIAP. I. 63 
 
 In the point of wliiteness this 83'nibol ia perhaps in imitution of 
 " tlie Ancient of ilaj-s " as shown to Daniel (7 : 9), "whose f^anuent 
 was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool." 
 It may l)lend the two ideas — whiteness as the symbol of purity, 
 
 . and white hairs as the crown and the glory of patriarchal ajje. 
 
 The eyes, always the most expressive and most spiritual anion;:; 
 tlie parts and organs of the human frame, are as a flame of firo. 
 Liglit, brilliancy, energy, thrilling power — all combined — can be 
 set fortii b}- no more pertinent symbol than tliis — "u flame of lire. " 
 Such were his eyes. 
 
 15. And liis feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned 
 in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. 
 
 "Crass," one of the oriental symbols of strength, is heightened 
 here by a glowing radiance, compared to metal burning in a fur- 
 nace. His voice, deep, grand, majestic as the roar of the sea, 
 
 was imagery wonderfully fresh and expressive to John, sitting often 
 on the barren cliffs of I'utmos, listening to the surging billows and 
 breakers at his feet. 
 
 10, And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out 
 of liis mouth went a sharp" two-edged sword : and liis coun- 
 tenance was as the sun shiueth in his strength. 
 
 Think of the grandeur of this scene — seven stars held In his 
 right hand; out of his mouth a sharp two-edged sword — strikingly 
 significant of his piercing words — armed with a power of truth 
 Avhieh none could gainsay, and with a majesty and terror of 
 
 (lireatening before which earth and heaven flee away! And 
 
 then to crown this wonderfully impressive manifestation, his coun- 
 tenance was as the sun in his peerless effulgence when his un- 
 (douded face pours forth such light and heat as no mortal eye can 
 bear. The "sword from the mouth" seems violent and unnat- 
 ural when thought of as seen, yet the significance is clear and the 
 representation full of powei-. While all the other points In this 
 de.-<cription are at once surpassingly grand and also in harmony 
 with nature, this seems somewhat out of such harmony. But let 
 
 Its surpassing energy atone for its apparent rudeness. In view 
 
 of this unparalleled manifestation of the subllmest elements of 
 grandeur, dignity and power, it were of small avail for us to in- 
 ([iiire whether this represents the risen Jesus as he now appears 
 u[)on his throne in the highest heavens. On this point let us sup- 
 press our curiosity and postpone our inquiries till the light of 
 heaven shall burst on our eyes. It Is enough here to say that 
 Ibis manifestation to John had a definite moral purpose, jointly 
 lor him and for those whom he, or rather Jesus through him, ad- 
 dressed — the seven churches. It was Important that both John 
 and his brethren of those churches should think of the risen Jesua 
 as no longer the frail, suEFering, feeble man of Nazareth, nor even 
 
64 KEVELATIOX.-CIIaP. I. 
 
 merely as the risen personage ■who appeared from time to time 
 during forty days after his resurrection; but far other than cither 
 of those forms and indetinitely more glorious — as now invested 
 with splendor and glory higher than Avhich no forms of matter 
 known to us have ever attained — a voice surpassing all human 
 range and power — an eye piercing and thrilling, far aliove tlie 
 merely human — a countenance that gathered into itself the efl'ul- 
 gence of dazzling, overwhelming glory. The purposed moral im- 
 pression of this scene can not be mistaken. Let the cliurches 
 know that their risen Redeemer is mighty; is crowned with glory 
 and honor and set over the realm of nature and the empire of the 
 world, "King of kings and Lord of lords." Let them have no fear 
 as to the final triumph of his cause. Let them shrink from no 
 endurance of pain even to death for his sake. Let it be settled 
 forever in their souls that such a Savior is strong to sustain his 
 friends or to crush his foes ; that his promised rewards are ineifa- 
 bly glorious, but that his wrath burns to the lowest hell, to the un- 
 utterable dismay of his pi'oudest, mightiest enemies. Such mani- 
 festations of such a Savior were adapted with Divine wisdom to 
 arm them for the conflict through wliich they were so soon to 
 pass. 
 
 17. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. 
 And he laid his riglit hand upon me, saving unto me. 
 Fear not ; I am the first and the last : 
 
 18. / am he that liveth and was dead ; and, behold, I 
 am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell 
 and of death. 
 
 The view was overpowering. 'J'liorc is a liuiit to human en- 
 durance under such an effulgence of glory. Jesus kindly relieved 
 •his mind of the sense of terror, and soothed his agitated emotions 
 
 with words and tones of comfort. "The first and the last" only 
 
 puts in simpler form what was first said (v. 8) in the words, " 1 
 am Alpha and Omega." As to the sense, "1 am the first and the 
 last" means, not properly, the first to come into being and the last 
 to cease to be ; not, 1 antedate all other beings and 1 shall outlast 
 them all; but this — I am the first Cause of all that have existence, 
 the infinite Creator of all; and I am also the Arbiter of their des- 
 tinies, having infinite control of all last things. This construction 
 gives the only admissible sense of these words taken in themselves, 
 
 and is also sustained by the immediate context. " I am he that 
 
 liveth" is put forcibly by the (Ireck participle: I am the living 
 One; this is for evermore my distinctive attribute — the living One, 
 in a sense which implies both perpetual existence in himself and 
 the source of existence to all created beings. Passing, l>y the most 
 sudden transition, from the divine to the human, he says, I was 
 indeed for a short time "dead," but mark, behold! I am now the 
 living One for evermore. Also I have absolute power over Death 
 
REVELATION.— CHAP. I. 65 
 
 and Hell. The n^encics of Death upon this sinning race, and the 
 worlds where all departed souls abide, are under my supreme con- 
 trol. I open or shut their gates at my will. Death and IJcll 
 
 (Uades) are here personiiieil as in Rev. 6 : 8, and 20 : 13, 14. 
 
 It would lead us too far aside from the current of thought here to 
 discuss and present at length the precise and correlated meanings 
 of the New Testament words lla(les and Gehenna: Hades, the in- 
 visible world wliitiier go the spirits of all the dead, some to woe 
 and some to bliss (Luke Hi: lU-20); (ichenna, exclusively the 
 nlace and the doom of the lost (Mat. 5 : 29, iJO, and lU: 28, and 
 Alark 9: 47, etc.). yufficc it here to say that our passage sets forth 
 this glorious I'ersonage as- having the absolute rule over both 
 Death himself and the destinies of all the dead who people that' 
 invisible realm of existence which lies immediately beyond this. 
 
 10. AVritc the tiling's which thou hast .seen, and the thing.s 
 which are, and the thing.s which shall be hereafter ; 
 
 The middle clause, " The things which arc," Prof Stuart and 
 some otliers construe to mean, what they are, i. e., what they sig- 
 nify. ^Vrite out the visions and their significance. This seems to 
 me too remote from the primary and usual sense of the verb to 
 be. i prefer tliis construction of the whole verse : '' Therefore, 
 since the divine Jesus who speaks to thee rules the destinies of 
 i)oth the living and the dead, and has the great future in his eye 
 and in his shaping hand, write what things thou hast seen and 
 shalt see" [the Greek aorist tense covering the recently present 
 and the nearer future], and then, expanding the thought more 
 fully he adds — "both the things which arc and the things which 
 shall be closely after these." Some of these visions revealed 
 things present; some, things near in the future: he is commanded 
 to write down both. 
 
 20. The niy.«:tery of the seven star.s which thou sawcst in 
 my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The 
 seven stars are the angels of the seven churches : and the 
 seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven 
 cluirche.s. 
 
 He explains the seven stars in his right hand to denote the 
 seven angels to as many churches. They are angels no doubt in 
 the usual sense of messengers. I>ut since their mission lies not 
 between Jesus and John, but between John and the churches, 
 they are not superhuman, but human — so many individual men 
 through whom Johi^ was to address those churches. ^Vhat other 
 functions they held besides that of communicating John's mes- 
 sages, this book does not tell us; no other document informs us; 
 it is therefore of small avail for us to speculate about it. Their 
 relations were not diocesan, i. e., over many churches, for the record 
 here restricts them each to his own, and moreover gives no hint 
 
66 REVELATION.— CHAP. II. 
 
 of ecclcsisastical power in them beyond what is implied in oon- 
 veyint; a written message from John — not to say that if those 
 churches had any diocesan, John himself should liave been the 
 man. We must pass this much litigated question with only these 
 brief hints. 
 
 CIIArTEll IT. 
 
 Here are four of the seven special letters addressed respectively 
 to Ephesus (1-7); to Smyrna (8-11); to Pergamos (12-17); and 
 to Thyatira (18-20). Obviously the reason for a distinct message 
 to each lay in what was peculiar in their respective cases ; in the 
 tone of their love, their stability, their Christian Avork, the errors 
 of doctrine and of practice which had crept in to pervert their 
 sentiments and corrupt their Christian life. While the visions 
 that follow and make up the body of the book would be pertinent 
 to them all and therefore arc addressed without distinction to 
 them all, the brief messages recorded in chapters 2 and 3 were 
 wisely addressed to these churches severally. 
 
 Geographically these cities lay on a curved line somewhat in 
 the shape of a horse-shoe magnet so that they might be taken by 
 a tourist in the very order in which they stand in this book: thus 
 from Ephesus north to Smyrna, 40 miles ; thence north to Per- 
 gamos, 60 miles ; thence east to Thyatira, 30 miles ; thence south 
 to Sardis, 40 miles ; thence south-east to Philadelphia. 30 miles ; 
 thence south-east to Laodicea, 50 miles. Near the last named lay 
 Colosse and Hierapolis. Of the seven cities, the first three were 
 maritime; the others were inland on the returning portion of the 
 curve. 
 
 1. Unto the angel of the church of Ephe.'^iis write: These 
 things saith lie that holdeth the seven stars in his right 
 hand, who walketh in the midt<t of the seven golden can- 
 dlesticks ; 
 
 2. I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, 
 and how thou canst not bear them which are evil : and 
 thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are 
 not, and hast found them liars : 
 
 3. And hast borne, and liast patience, and for my name's 
 Bake hast labored, and hast not fainted. 
 
 Ephesus was the home of the Apostle John, from which it i3 
 generally conceded he was banished, and to Avhich when free to 
 do so he returned to reside, and where tradition locates his sep- 
 
KEVELATIOX.— CHAP. 11. 67 
 
 ulchcr. It was tlic groat city of Asia ]\[inor, ftiiiious for the wor- 
 eliip of Diana. The reader will readily recall the labors and 
 history of Paul in this city (Acts 18 : 'p.)-21, and 19, and 2U: 
 
 17-38) as also his letter to them. The Ephesian brethren are 
 
 first reminded of the dignity and glory of the great Author of this 
 message, "holding the seven stars in his right hand" in the sense 
 oi xtpholding those faithful messengers by whom these words were 
 sent; also "walking amid the seven golden candlesticks" witli 
 perpetual presence and omniscient axa. Therefore, with babul 
 
 breath and reverent spirit, let them listen to his words. " 1 
 
 know " is intensely expressive. Ye may have thought (John 
 would say) that Jesus, your pi'ofessed Lord, is far away and takes 
 no special notice of your heart or life. Xo mistake could be 
 greater. The heart and the life of every one of j^ou are ever be- 
 fore him. Jesus is careful to notice with commendation what> 
 
 ever will bear it. So always. 
 
 4. Nevertheless I have someichat against thee, because 
 thou hast left thy first love. 
 
 The italic word '^somewhat" were better omitted, the sense be- 
 ing, not that I have a small account, a somcwJiat of perhaps trivial 
 sort, against thee; but 1 have this against thee, "that thou ha.st 
 left thy first love." This losing thy first love I have against thco 
 as thy great sin. ITow couldst thou forget my blood and tears 
 fur thee ; how could thine heart lose the freshness, life, and power of 
 
 thy first love to thine own Redeemer, thine own best Friend ! It 
 
 should be carefully noted that this losing of first love is accounted 
 a great sin, most oilcnsive to Jesus, most grievous to his ever loving 
 and ever constant heart. This assumes that such loss of first 
 love is by no means a necessity of the Christian life; must not be 
 excused as a thing of course — an inevitable result, and therefore a 
 trivial and scarcely censurable offence. This view of it is some- 
 times taken ; — alas, that it should be I IIow cruel to the heart of 
 Jesus! How strangely unreasonable in itself! How perilous to 
 the constancy and growth of young Christians must such teaching 
 be ! It is pertinent here to say that this decline of the Ephe- 
 sian brethren from their first love was the very point of their 
 special danger as well as of their special guilt. We are not told 
 what peculiar temptation had stolen away their heart and broken 
 down their love for Jesus. Perhaps it was the fi\scinations of a 
 great city, the dominant spirit of worldliness, polluting (socially) 
 the very atmosphere they breathed ; but be it what it may, it cut 
 the sinews of their Christian strength as against the fiery temj)- 
 tations that were to come upon them; it begat a spiritual state in 
 which they would surely fall before the first fierce blast of perse- 
 cution which should summon them to torture or to death for 
 Jesus. Nothing short of the purest, warmest love for Jesus could 
 abide such an ordr^al. Hence the solemn and fearfully earnest 
 rebuke and admonition which follow. 
 
68 KEVELATION— CIIAr. II. 
 
 5. Remember therefore from "svlience thou art fallen, and 
 repent, and do the first works ; or else I "will come unto 
 thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his 
 place, except thou repent. 
 
 ■Recall thy first love and mark how deep thou hast fiillcn. 
 ^^ Hepent" in the twofold sense of deploring thy sin and of turn- 
 ing thy heart from it. " IJo the former works " of warm and 
 earnest love and fresh devotion to thy Lord — implying what is 
 always true, that the love which Christ requires is not a mere 
 emotion that stirs only the sensibilities, and may flow off in tears 
 or evanesce in raptures, hut leave no result in true Christian 
 work for Jesus. Altogether unlike this scntimentalism — this emo- 
 tion of the novel reader who has tears but nothing else for human 
 sutFering or want — the love that Jesus calls for has vxirk in it 
 and evermore coming out of it; for what saith he? "If ye love 
 me, keep my commandments." " lie that keepeth my commandments, 
 he it is that lovcth me" (John 1-i: 15, 21). Therefore returning 
 
 to one's first love is synonymous with "doing thy first works." 
 
 J*>y what consideration is this urged ? " Else 1 will come unto thee 
 quickly " — hut not in blessings — not to give thee fresh tokens of 
 approval and esteem; hut to "remove thy candlestick out of his 
 place, except thou repent." Christ would own them as his church 
 no longer; would smite down the golden candlestick and doom 
 
 the church to extinction ! Of the nearer future of this Ephe- 
 
 sian church we have no record in the New Testament. But we 
 do know that for centuries past, that once proud city has been a 
 ruin ; from that Christian candlestick no light has gone forth for 
 many ages ! That threatening Avas but too significant of her 
 prophetic future 1 
 
 6. But this thou hast, that thou liatcst the deeds of the 
 Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 
 
 On the question who were these "Nicolaitans?" there has been 
 much diS"erence of opinion among critics. The data for an en- 
 tirely decisive conclusion seem lacking. (a) The theory that 
 
 this sect takes its name from Nicolas, "a proselyte of Antioch," 
 
 one of the seven deacons (Acts 6 : 5), is almost baseless. (6) 
 
 The theoi'y that the word has etymological affinities with Balaam, 
 both alike having the sense, destroyers of the people., lacks adequate 
 support. In vs. 14, 15, below, these two sects seem to be really 
 though not perhaps very broadly distinguished. The utmost that 
 can be safely said is that this sect in some points — perhaps some 
 leading points — resembled the Balaamites described in v. 14. Sec 
 notes on that passage. 
 
 7. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit 
 saith uuto the churches ; To him that overcometh will I 
 
EEVELATION.— CHAP. II. 69 
 
 give to cat of the tree of life, uhicli is in the mid.-it of 
 the paradise of God. 
 
 Each message introduces its closing promise to the victorious 
 one by tliis s]tecial and solemn call to attention in the same words 
 essentially Avhich so ©ften fell from the lips of our Lord {e. j., 
 Mat. 11: 15, and 13: *J, 43, etc.) In the form here used they 
 were reminded that the words he sent them were said by the 
 
 divine Spirit— God's own voice of warning and of promise. As 
 
 said in the Introduction, the promise to the conquering one is in 
 this case taken from the closing chapters of the book — the priv- 
 ilege of eating from the tree of life along the banks of the river of 
 heaven. That marvelous wealth of promise which the glorious 
 symbolism of this book has made availa1)le is here brought to bear 
 upon the Christian life of the church of Ephesus to tide them over 
 the breakers that lay before them. O, what blessings are these 
 for the conquerors ! • 
 
 SMYRNA. 
 
 8. And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write ; 
 These things sailh the first and tlie last, which was dead, 
 and is alive ; 
 
 !). I know thy works, and tribulation,, and poverty, (l)ut 
 thou art rich) and / know the blasphemy of them which 
 say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of 
 Satan. 
 
 10. Fear none of tliose things which thou shalt suffer : 
 behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that 
 ye may be tried ; and ye shall have tribulation ten days : 
 be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown 
 of life. 
 
 The descriptive points of the speaker are taken from 1: 8, 17, 
 
 18. Remarkably the tone of this message is commendatory 
 
 without exception. Jesus seems to say with free and joyous heart 
 — I know all thy fidelity and endurance for my sake; I know thy 
 poverty as to the wealth of this world — but thou art rich in faith 
 and in grace, the best of all riches. I know too the opposition and 
 persecution against thee endured already and yet to be endured — 
 
 but it shall be short. It is possible that the Jews spoken of 
 
 here made no profession of being Christians, but probable that 
 they were the Judaizcrs who were so prominent in that age. 
 Their claim to be Jews, 1 take, not in the sense of being lineal 
 descendants of Abraham, but of being true worshipers of (!od, 
 praisers of his name after the etymology of the word Judah — 
 h"om which the name "Jew" came — (Cen. 29: 35 and 49: 8). 
 Professing to be the people of God above all others, they were really 
 doing only the work of Satan ; bigoted and self-conceited were 
 
70 KEVELATION.— CHAP. II. 
 
 they, but so far from being praisers of God, tlicy were bins- 
 phemers : so far from being a synagogue of his worshipers, they 
 
 were only a "s^'nagogue of 8atan." These facts go far to prove 
 
 that the corrupt Judaism of the early and mid-apostolic age -was 
 still rife and earnest, and consequently that the crushing blow 
 given it in the destruction of Jerusalem ."Wid the consequent dis- 
 persion of the Jews and prostration of their influence, had not yet 
 
 fallen. Observe that their persecutions are traced to the devil as 
 
 their cause and author. It was well to show the churches where 
 the root and mainspring of these persecutions lay. They would 
 then understand V)etter the nature of the fight in which they were 
 parties and sufferers, and in which Jesus was to be their Almighty 
 Savior and Deliverer — the grand antagonist of Satan; sure to 
 
 conquer in the end. •" l?e thou faithful unto death," seenft to 
 
 mean, not merely as long as you may live, till your life-power is 
 exhausted and you fall asleep in your quiet bed; but rather, even 
 to a martyr's death quail not, shrink not; face the rack or the 
 flame till your soul is forced from its bodily mansion. Then I 
 will give thee a crown of immortal life. 
 
 11. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit 
 saith unto the churches ; He that overcometh shall not be 
 hurt of the second death. 
 
 The conquering one has the promise (taken up from 20 : 14, and 
 21: 8) that he "shall never be hurt by that fearful second 
 death." The first death may come upon him in forms of violence 
 and torture, but of the woes of the second death he shall know 
 nothing. Let this inspire his soul to endure ; let ^his be his con- 
 solation ! Of all these seven ancient cities, Smyrna alone re- 
 mains great, of undiminished population and trade, though the 
 glory of its architecture and the magnificence of its civilization 
 have mostly passed away. Its population is estimated at 100,000. 
 A fine harbor and a fertile inland country secure for it an ex- 
 tensive commerce. It is remarkable that precisely the one city in 
 which the church was then poor in wealth but rich in faith and 
 against which the Savior brings no censure, should be the one 
 alone of all to survive the desolations of ages. 
 
 12. And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write ; 
 These things saith he which hath, the sharp sword Avith two 
 edges ; 
 
 The descriptive point which in this case designates the speaker 
 is taken from 1 : 16 — the sword going forth from his mouth, sharp, 
 double-edged — for his words were with power; a symbol fearfully 
 pertinent in this case because there were many things in thii* 
 
REVELATION.— CHAP. II. 71 
 
 cliurcli to condemn and Ijut too much occasion for using tliia 
 iearful sword ! 
 
 13. I know thy works, and where tliou dwellest, even 
 where Satan's seat U : and thou hohlest iast my name, and 
 hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein An- 
 tipas tvas my faitliful martyr, who was shiiu among you, 
 where Satan dwelleth. 
 
 I can appreciate thy works of true allegiance and firm endur- 
 ance for my name in the Hght of all those stern surroundings — 
 thy city the place of Satan's throne wlioro ho instigated his 
 minions to murder my faithful Anti|ias. That when this nuhle 
 maptyr fell, the brethren of Fergamos did nut deny the name of 
 Jesus was to their honor. He will not forget it. 
 
 14. But I liave a few things against thee, because thou 
 hast there them that hold the doctrine of Bahmm, who 
 tiiught Bahik to cast a stumbling-block before the children 
 of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit 
 fornication. 
 
 "A few things against thee," must not be omitted. Here were 
 some of those pernicious teachers whose errors were a close imi- 
 tation of that foul policy of Balaam Avho taught I3alak the shortest 
 way to ruin a people in covenant with God, viz., to seduce them 
 
 into idolatry and fornication. This historic allusion to Balaam 
 
 will be readily understood by comparing Num. 25, with 31: IG, 
 the foi'mer passage giving the facts of shameful lewdness between 
 Israel and Moab ; and the latter ascribing this lewdness to the 
 counsel given by Balaam to tlie king of Moab. See also 2 I'eter 
 2: 15, 16. These temptations, bearing upon cAnverts from life- 
 long heathenism, must have been fearfully seductive. The eating 
 of things offered in sacrilice to idols would naturally be the stepping- 
 stone back to idol worship, as it was also the crucial tost of con- 
 formity to the idolatrous spirit of the age. It would lead to 
 mingling socially in the scenes of idol worship, and being con- 
 nected with shameless fornication would naturally plunge them 
 into the very depths of heathen abominations. No wonder Jesus 
 should " have a few things against them " if they could tolerate 
 in their communion such doctrine and such practice for a single 
 huur. 
 
 15. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the 
 Nicolaitaus, which thing I hate. 
 
 The approved reading has in the last clause in like manner 
 [ufioiu-l instead of "which things I hate." Thus we have two 
 (rreek words in this verse (the lirstand the last) which indicate tlio 
 Btrong similarity in some respect between the Nicolaitaus and tho 
 
72 REVELATION.— CHAP. 11. 
 
 BaLiamitca. "So" [wrwr] — a tiling involving like guilt — "thou 
 hast also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans in the 
 same vianncr" — which naturally means, with the same results of 
 shameless licentiousness and practical idolatry. The precise thing 
 said is not that the two doctrines were the same, but that they 
 were held similarly — which seems to mean with like guilt in the 
 church that permits it, and with the same horrible fruits of moral 
 
 corruption. This gives us the most reliable clue wo have to 
 
 the real doctrine which bore the name of the Nicolaitans, (see v. 
 6). Since it was a " doctrine" something studiously taught, yet 
 plunging its followers deep into the pollutions of idolatry, it could 
 not fail to call for the sternest reprobation. 
 
 IG. Repent; or else I Avill come unto tliee quickly, and 
 will fight against them witli the sword of my mouth. 
 
 The judgment threatened against those who will not repent 
 takes its form from the point made in the description of the au- 
 gust Speaker — a sword proceeding from his mouth! words that 
 will surely do execution ! 
 
 17» He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit 
 saith unto the churches ; To him that overcometh w'ill I 
 give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white 
 stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man 
 knoweth saving he that receiveth it. 
 
 To the victor in this stern Christian conflict, Jesus will give first 
 " the hidden manna." This should carry our thought to the use 
 made of the manna of tlie wilderness by Jesus as given by John 
 in his gospel (G : 31-58), and aObrds incidental proof that the 
 same John wrote both the "Kevclation" and the gospel. The 
 sense seems to be, the "bread of life" — the counterpart to the 
 water of life as in Rev. 22 : 1 — and itself the fruit of the tree of 
 life. He will also give him "a white stone," significant of ac- 
 quittal, as black was of condemnation. Also "a new name" upon 
 it, known only to the receiver. This seems to be put in contrast 
 with confessing his name before the angels (Luke 12: 8), and 
 naturally refers to those personal testimonies of his approval 
 which are currently known as "the witness of the Spirit" — which 
 when real are the pledge and earnest of acceptance before Christ 
 
 at the last day. Further, the preciousness of this "new name" 
 
 is set forth vividly by its application to the Great Conqueror him- 
 self (19: 12). Compare also 3: 12. "And they shall be mine, 
 
 saith the Lord, in the day when I make up my jewels " (Mai. 3 : 
 ] 7). A somewhat diflerent view of the source whence the sym- 
 bols of this verse are taken may be suggested. It supposes that 
 looking rather into the Old Testament than the New, John had 
 his eye on the manna that was really hidden in the sacred ark of 
 the covenant in the most holy place, whence his thought passes to 
 
REVELATION- -CHAP II. 73 
 
 the sacred tiame worn on the breastplate of the high priest when 
 he entered that holy place once a year — a name of which no Jew 
 was supposed to know the signilicance. But the name of Jesua 
 now tixkes the place once held by that incommunicable name, and 
 this name becomes the badge and the glory of all his accepted 
 
 people. The resulting sense is not essentially modified by these 
 
 minor qucstii)ns as to the source and explication of the figures 
 employed — a fortunate circumstance in this case, because these 
 questions are by no means easy to decide — perhaps 1 should say, 
 noam scarcely capable of very decisive solution. 
 
 TIIYATIKA. 
 
 18. And unto the :ingcl of the cliureh in Thyatira write; 
 These things saitli the Son of God, who liath his eyes like 
 unto a flame of tire, and his feet are like fine brass ; 
 
 A village of one thousand people marks th« site of the ancient 
 Tlij-atinx, The Lydia Avhom Paul met at Philippi, and whose 
 
 heart the Lord opened, was from this city. The descriptive 
 
 points which designate the Author of this message set forth his 
 searching of the heart — eyes before which no wickedness can 
 stand, and no disguises can hide the guilty! "His feet as fine 
 brass" betoken strength and majesty in his going forth. 
 
 19. I know thy works, and charity, and service, and 
 fmth, and thy patience, and thy works ; and the last to be 
 more than the ^vat. 
 
 As usual Jcsns commends whatever is commendable. The list 
 of good qualities here is long and interesting, especially the fact 
 (last named) of progress — unlike Kphcsus, where the brethren had 
 been fixlling back. Here they had been moving forward — their 
 last works more and better than their first. Clearly this proves 
 two points: (1.) That such progress in the Christian life and in 
 Ciiristian work is practicable;' (2.) That Jesus warmly approves 
 it. Let us make practical note of both these points. 
 
 20. Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, 
 because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth 
 herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to 
 commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idol.-<. 
 
 The weight of ancient textual autliority and of critical opinion 
 makes the text, not " that woman," but i/iy ivife. This raises tiie 
 question, W/iose wife? That of the messenger ("angel") of this 
 church, or of the church itself? The latter would be an unnatural 
 figure and therefore improbable. Hence I prefer the former, and 
 assume that she was tlie wife of the person to whom the letter was 
 
 4 
 
74 EEVELATIOX.— CHAP. 11. 
 
 addressed and by wliom it was sent to tlic church. I take " Jez- 
 ebel " to be, not her original proper name, but a name of historic 
 signiQcance. She was a second Jezebel. 'J'hc reader will recall 
 the scriptural record of tliis paragon of wickedness and also of 
 resolution, will, policy and seductive power (1 Kings 16: 30-o3, and 
 21, and 2 Kings 9 : 30-37). Herself the daughter of Ethbaal, 
 king of the Zidonians, bred an idolater and trained to l.iear sway, 
 slie brought into Israel an enormous power fur evil, sweeping both 
 Ahab and his people fearfully away from the ancient worsliip of 
 
 Jehovah into the gross idolatry of her native country. Like her 
 
 this second Jezebel, pretending to bo a prophetess and espousing 
 the doctrines and practices against which the first Christian Coun- 
 cil (Acts 15 : 20, 29) admonished Gentile converts, she migiitily 
 seduced the servants of Christ into fornication and the eating of 
 things sacrificed to idols. Tliese two practices are manifestly as- 
 sociated together. See notes on v. 14. 
 
 21. And I gave her space to repent of lier fornicatiou ; 
 and she repented not. 
 
 On the question whether this "fornication" Avcre literal, or only 
 the spiritual idea of idol worship, 1 hold the former view for three 
 main reasons: (1.) This is the most obvious sense; (2.) It is every- 
 where distinguished from eating things sacrificed to idols, which 
 itself was one form of idol worship; (3.) Historically it is well 
 known that idol worship was associated with lewdness in its basest, 
 
 most shameless forms. The Lord gave this woman Jezebel some 
 
 forewarniugs of his judgments upon her. and admonished her to 
 repent of these great crimes, and also gave her space for such re- 
 pentance, but in vain. 
 
 22. Behold, I will east her into a, bed, and them tliat 
 commit adultery Avith her into great tribuhition, except they 
 repent of their deeds. 
 
 Here also the literal and most obvious sense is to be accepted. 
 "I will cast her into a bed" should mean, I will bring upon her 
 some terrible disease — and the store-house of God's retributions 
 has never lacked such agencies of prostration, suffering, loathsome 
 rottenness and a death of horrors. Eemarkably the judgment 
 came (as often) so in the line of the sin as perpetually to remind 
 both herself and all who knew her whose hand sent this plague 
 
 upon her, and ivhy. Her guilty partners in this crime could 
 
 nut escape great tribulation. 
 
 23. And I will kill her children with death; and all the 
 churches shall know that I am he which searclieth the reins 
 and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according 
 to your works. 
 
EEVELATION.-CJIAP. II. 7n 
 
 "Death" in such a connoction means pestilence, mortal disease. 
 Her sins go down witli their heritage of curses upon her children; 
 not only by a physical law from whose influence lew if any escape, 
 but by the righteous, moral retribution of the great moral (Jovernor 
 of the world. Such cases arc not strictly retributive venj:;eance as 
 to the children for their lascivious mother's crimes. As to the 
 mother, they arc retribution; as to the children, only calamity 
 and perhaps discipline. In the proper sense of punishment, God 
 will punish such children only for their own sins. Hee Ezek. 18, 
 
 and my notes on tliat chapter. All the churches shall know 
 
 that I search the heart and that 1 will i^ive to every one accordini:; 
 to his works. My judiinents on Jezeijel will forciljl}'^ illustrate 
 these great elements of my character and of my righteous, moral 
 government. 
 
 2-1:. But unto yon I .«ay, and unto the rest in Thjatira, a.s 
 many as have not thi.s doctrine, and which liave not known 
 the depths of Satan, as they speak ; I will put upon you 
 none other burden. 
 
 25. But that which ye have alreadij, hold fast till I 
 .come. 
 
 There were some in this church as yet uncontaminateil. To 
 them these verses pertain.- Kcmarkably this delusion and abom- 
 ination appear here as a "doctrine" as well as a practice. On 
 what grounds the doctrine rested, by what fallacies and lies it was 
 supported, it might gratify our curiosity to know. As the case is, 
 we only know that "the father of lies" never Licked sophistry 
 and show of argument to give some plausibility to the most abom- 
 inably wicked practices, and we must satisfy ourselves with the 
 general fact without the specific illustration which this one case 
 
 might add to other thousands already extant. "Have not 
 
 known" by experience "the depths of Satan, as men call them" — 
 implying that those abominations of lewdness and idcd worship 
 went down to a depth of moral pollution below which Satan him- 
 self could not well sink — so deep that they could not be slandered 
 
 by calling them "the depths of Satan." "I will put upon you 
 
 none other burden," i. e., no extra trial or calamity because o/ the 
 crimes of Jezebel and of her paramours — no other than you have 
 had already. Whatever Christian stability you have, retain it 
 firmly till 1 come. 
 
 26. And he that overcomcth, and keepetli my works unto 
 the end, to him will I give power over the nations: 
 
 27. And he shall rule them with a rod of iron ; .as the 
 vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers : even aa 
 I received of my Father. 
 
 28. And I will give him the moruino; star. 
 
76 KEVELATION.— CHAP. III. 
 
 29. lie tliat hatli an car, let him hear Avluit the Spirit 
 Baith unto the churjches. 
 
 Here the reward to the victor in this conflict is not (like those 
 that precede it) taken directly from the closing chapters of this 
 liook, but from Ps. 2, where its primary reference is to the Mes- 
 siah. The appropriate comment on this sublimely magnificent 
 
 promise is in my view best made in those other words of John : 
 "It doth not yet appear what we shall be" (1 Eps. 3 : 2). "What 
 more can we say of this promised "power over the nations;" of 
 this "ruling them with a rod of iron;" of this Avielding a power 
 of such sort (in some unknown respect such) as Jesus has received 
 from his Father? If this power be like the providential rule of 
 the Messiah over the nations, I have no wisdom as yet for the an- 
 swer of these questions : 1 do not find any revelation that answers 
 
 them. "1 will give him the morning star" must be put in the 
 
 same category. In Kev. 22 : 16 Jesus pertinently says this of him- 
 self: "I am the bright and morning star." We accept this sub- 
 lime imagery as most pertinent when applied to Ilim : of its appli- 
 cation to his victorious human servants, what can we say? The 
 answer lies among the unrevealed mysteries of infinite grace. 
 
 oi®<o 
 
 . CHAPTER III. 
 
 Tiiree letters to as many churches make up this chapter; — to 
 Sardis (l-O); to Philadelphia (7-13); to Laodicea (l-lr-22). 
 
 1. And uuto the angel of the church in Savdis write ; 
 These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, 
 and the seven stars ; I know thy works, that thou hast a 
 name that thou livest, and art dead. 
 
 Sardis, renowned in the age of Cyrus and of the fiill of Babylon, 
 the capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia, the home of Croesus, 
 but now an utter desolation, impresses the modern traveler with 
 a sense of the retributions of divine justice that the church nearest 
 dead spiritually of the seven should be before us to-day conspic- 
 uous only for its sad and silent ruins ! For " the seven Spirits 
 
 of God," see notes on 1 : 4. It was every way pertinent that Jesus 
 should present himself before this church in his exalted perogative 
 and of&ce of sending forth the Holy Ghost. The subordinate 
 agents also (the " seven stars " being the angels of the seven 
 churches, 1: 20) are his servants. The fearfully solemn and 
 
REVELATION— CIIAr. III. 77 
 
 speeiixlly si^'iiificant declaration — " I know thy works," means here 
 — 1 know how unsubstantial, deceptive, hypocritical, thy religion 
 is. 'riiy spiritual life is but a name : in reality, as to most oF thy 
 nominal members, thou art only dead. The name they have before 
 the world stands for the external only: the inward vital elements 
 arc mostly wanting. At the heart, death reigns. 
 
 2. Be watchful, and strcnfrtheu the things wliicli remain, 
 that arc ready to die : for I have not found thy works per- 
 fect before God. 
 
 Some languishing graces still retained a perceptible vitality. 
 Christ exliorts them to give most watchful attention to the nour 
 ishing and invigoration of these lest absolute death supervene and 
 
 nothing be left but a mass of spiritual corruption. The form of 
 
 expression — " I have not found thy works perfect before (Jod," is 
 common in Hebrew in the sense — I have found them fearfully far 
 from being perfect — really the very opposite of perfect before (xod. 
 The closing thought, " before God," suggests that their standard of 
 judging of their own piety had quite omitted this element — God's 
 view of it— a fatal omission ! 
 
 o. Ixcniember therefore how thou hast received and 
 heard, and hokl fast, and repent. If therefore tliou shalt 
 not Avatch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou slialt 
 not know what hour I will come upon thee. 
 
 ''How thou hast received and heard" the gospel; how it came 
 to thee in demonstration of the Spirit and of power ; how in those 
 lirst experiences, the Holy (Jhost wrought with power on some 
 hearts and brought forth some fruits of true holiness. Kecall those 
 first experiences ; hold fast whatever of them may yet remain, and 
 repent ; return to that first life and first love. Else I will come 
 upon thee suddenly, as the thief comes by night with no forewarn- 
 ing. Their case was so bad, so ofleusive to God, there could be 
 only the shortest delay of judgment — only the forbearance of one 
 brief hour. 
 
 4. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have 
 not defiled their garments ; and they shall walk with me 
 in white : for they are worthy. 
 
 "Even in Sardis," conceives of their church and city as being 
 notoriously corrupt. ICven there, amid such almost universal 
 wickedness and moral pollution, a few, counted by individuals 
 only, were yet undefilcd. Kemarkably they had lived in a place 
 so filthy morally and their garments were yet unsoiled. What can 
 
 not the grace of (Jlod do? The closing promise takes its cast 
 
 from this description of their character. They shall walk with 
 mo in white— those men who have withstood such temptations, 
 
78 EEVELATION.— CHAP. III. 
 
 who have kept their garments without stain amid such surround 
 in,2;s — verily they are worthy to Avalk in white Avith their risen and 
 glorified Kedeemer ! 
 
 5. He that overcoraeth, the i?ame shall be clothed in 
 ■white raiment ; and I will not blot out his name out of 
 the book of life, but I Avill confess his name before my 
 Father, and before his angels. 
 
 6. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit 
 saith unto the churches. 
 
 Closing the letter in the usual form, viz., the reward promised 
 to "him that overcoraeth,'' the drapery of the promise remains 
 unchanged — "shall be clothed in white raiment" (see 19: 8). 
 "The book of life" may be studied in 20: 12, 15, and 21: 27, 
 and 13: 8. The last words come from the promise of Christ as 
 recorded by Luke (12 : 8); " Him shall the iSon of man also con- 
 fess before the angels of God." 
 
 PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 7. And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write ; 
 These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that 
 hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man 
 shutteth ; and shutteth, and no man openeth ; 
 
 This, of old the second city of Lydia, is still respectable among 
 the inland cities of Asia Minor, said to have three thousand houses. 
 
 The tone of this epistle differs widely from either the one 
 
 that nest precedes or the one that follows it, for here the Lord 
 
 found much to commend. Among the descriptive points named 
 
 by the Lord Jesus in this letter, the words " the holy " refer rather 
 to what is assumed throughout chap. 1 than to any one expression. 
 
 Every feature given there involves perfect holiness. " He that 
 
 is true" reminds us that this writer is the same John who wrote 
 the gospel (14: 6, and 17: 3), and also the Epistle (5: 20); while 
 " the key of David " can be nothing other or less than the regal power 
 of the great Son of David which in Eev. 1 : 18 is expressed in the 
 phrase, " I have the kej's of Hell and of Death ; " meaning, I am 
 the Arbiter of all the future destinies of men, having power to 
 open and to shut the realm of the dead to Avhom I will, Death 
 being only my servant, and my power being supreme. The cor- 
 rected text, following the oldest authorities, gives the phrase thus: 
 " I open, and no one loill shut : 1 shut, and no one ivill open." 
 
 8. I know thy works : behold, I have set before thee an 
 open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little 
 strength, and hast kept my word, and hast nut denied my 
 name. 
 
EEVELATIOK— CHAP. III. 79 
 
 As to the form of expression, this "open door" follows the pre- 
 ceding verse: "1 huve the key of David, opening («. c, the door) 
 and none will shut," etc. ]>ut still the question remains, does 
 the language in this verse contemplate an open door for Christian 
 .abor iu this life, or an open door of entrance upon the better life 
 to come ? The language admits of either construction. It may 
 be said that the preceding context favors its reference to the future 
 world — the following context, to the present. 1 incline to accept 
 the lead of the following context and assume its reference to an 
 open fielil for Christian labor and usefulness, with however the 
 implied idea (hat for those who work faithfully for Christ here, 
 entering into the doors he opens and toiling in true fidelity till ho 
 calls them away, the other door will be opened for an ^abundant 
 entrance into his everlasting kingdom, lie who has power to open 
 heaven and hell can also control all the present agencies of provi- 
 dence and can open doors for Christian work before all his true 
 servants. Therefore let such servants rejoice in all their toil and 
 
 labors, for their reward is sure. " Kept my word," I take to 
 
 include 1)oth preserving it in its purity and obeying it in honest 
 sincerity and faithfulness. Error and vice were in those days (as 
 often) sustained as a doctrine; hence the pertinence of the com- 
 mendation, "kept my word." 
 
 0. Behold, I will make tliem of the s^'iiagogue of Rufaii, 
 which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie ; behold, 
 I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and 
 to know that I have loved thee. 
 
 Here are the same pernicious teachers whom we saw (2 : 9) in 
 Smyrna, making unbcmnded pretensions to be first and best among 
 the worshipers of (lod, but being in truth only a " synagogue of 
 
 Satan." Their presence in so many of these seven clun-ches 
 
 testifies that when these letters to the seven churches and this 
 book of Jvevelation were written, this form of heresy, this antag- 
 onism between Judaism and Christianity, was still in its strengtii, 
 and conseciucntl}', bej'ond all reasonable doubt, that Jerusalem 
 
 liad not yet fallen. Our passage declares that (iod would give 
 
 his faithful servants in this city such tokens of his presence and 
 such demonstrations of his power and love as should bring these 
 proud and false Jews low at their feet, to acknowledge his favor 
 to them. This teaching pledges to all CJod's fiiithful servants in 
 every age that he will appear in their behalf to give them signid 
 success and ultimate honor — will "show that he has loved them." 
 
 10. Becanse thou hast kept the word of my patience, 
 I al.-<o Avill keep thee from the hour of temptation, which 
 shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell 
 upon the earth. 
 
60 EEVELATION.-CriAP. III. 
 
 " Kept the word " should have the same meaning here as In v. 
 8. " 'J'he word of my patience" must mean my injunction to 
 stand fast even at the cost of suffering affliction. " Patience " has 
 the old sense of suffering, and refers here to the pre-intimations 
 which Christ had often given tliat his faithful servants must en- 
 counter suffering for his name. " They -will cast you out of the 
 synagogue; yea, the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will 
 think tliat he doeth God service" (John 16: 2). " Yea^ all that 
 will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" (2 Tim. 
 
 3: 12). "1 will keep thee/' etc., plays upon the twofold sense of 
 
 the word "keep." Because they had kept his word in the sense 
 of a sacred treasure to be preserved in its purity and a rule of 
 life to be obeyed with unflinching and unswerving fidelity, there- 
 fore Christ will keep them from all the harm which Satan had 
 
 plotted to bring upon them. liis language implies that a fierce 
 
 and wide-spread persecution was about to come ujjon all the 
 churches for their stern and searching trial. 
 
 11. Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou 
 hast, that no man take thy crown. 
 
 "I come quickly." But this coming can not be the final one 
 for the last judgment, because that coming was then certainly re- 
 mote, and Jesus never indicated the time when it should occur 
 (Mark 13 : 32). For reasons more fully given in my notes on 
 i : 7, it may be supposed to refer somewhat definitely to Christ's 
 coming to destroy Jerusalem, considered as the first great perse- 
 cuting anti-Christian povrer, the general thought being — I am about 
 to make S2>e<;ial manifestations of my presence and power in re- 
 tributive vengeance on the present persecutors of my people, and 
 
 also for the salvation of my faithful friends. This coming will 
 
 be an hour of crisis and of stern conflict: therefore hold fast thy 
 profession; stand firmly for Jesus; a few days of terrible struggle 
 — and then, if faithful, thy crown is made sure; but one hour's 
 apostasy will be at the cost of thy crown! 
 
 12. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the 
 temple of my God, and he shall go no more out : and I 
 will write upon him the name of my God, and the name 
 of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which com- 
 eth down out of heaven from my God : and / xdll tvrite 
 upon him my new name. 
 
 13. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit 
 faith unto the churches. 
 
 "A pillar in the temple of my God" is thoroughly a Jewish 
 conception, beautifully pertinent hei-c however since it involves 
 the several ideas of a permanent fixture ; an ornamontal and es- 
 sential part of the structure; and of a tablet upon which shall be 
 
REVELATION.— CIIAr. III. «i 
 
 inscribed the name of God, the naiiic of his heavenly city, and 
 " my now name " — that of Jesus the Conqueror. The reader will 
 notice the abundant allusions to the main features of chap. 21 : 
 " The new Jerusalem which came down from (Jlod out of heaven," 
 
 etc. Of this wealth of honor and fjlory laid up for the faithful 
 
 servants of Jesus — those especially who stand tirm through the 
 scathing fires of persecution, it is Init little that we can say in de- 
 tail, for " it doth not yet appear what we shall be." That it defies 
 all illustration by models of earthly splendor; that it will surpass 
 all our present conceptions; that it will utterly distance our high- 
 est imagination — so much is most abundantly plain. Language 
 and symbol labor to set it forth, yet with an apparent conscious- 
 ness of inability to do it justice. Let him that hath an ear hear 
 tiiese words of glorious promise, and let his soul be fired thereby 
 to unlimited endurance of toil or pain or shame for Jesus. 
 
 • 
 
 LAODICEA. 
 
 14. And unto the angel of the church of the Laodice:in,s 
 write ; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true 
 witness, the beginning of the creation of God; 
 
 As to these descriptive epithets (taken substantially from 1 : 5) 
 ' tiio Amen " is explained iu the clause that follows — " the faithful 
 and true Witness," i. e., lie who came from heaven to bear wit- 
 ness to the truth of God, to reveal God to man truthfully, with no 
 imperfection, no admixture of error. Inasmuch as one of the 
 most solemn responsibilities of his persecuted people was the bear- 
 ing of a faithful testimony for (iod in the face of fire and death, 
 there was special pertinence in placing their own living Christ 
 
 before them as (he ever foithful VV'itness. " The beginning of 
 
 the creation of tJod" has been explained by some to mean, the 
 IJeing first created by God, the eldest among all created existences. 
 The fatal objection to this is that it assumes Christ to have been 
 created, while the scriptures represent him as the Uncreated One, 
 eternally existent, and really the Creator of all things. (See es- 
 pecially John 1: 1-3.) Jloreover, some take the word "begin- 
 ning" in the sense of the anlhor of existence, the First Cause of 
 beginning to be, to all who are created. The objection to this 
 lies, not against the doctrine it would teach, but against such a 
 usage of the word, this usage lacking adequate support. Another 
 meaning may be given to the leading word by a well established 
 usage and with a result which is in perfect harmony with the uni- 
 form tenor of the scriptures, viz., that of Prince, Supreme Lord. 
 In the passages where this word (arche) has this meaning, our 
 English version translates it by the word "principalities." (See 
 Kpli. 1 : 21, and 3 : 10, and Col. 1:10, and 2: 10, and Horn. 8 : 38.) 
 I'liese cases show conclusivelj' that the word is applied to beii^gs 
 ;)f great power and of high authority — real princes. So is Jesus the 
 eu|irciue I'riuce of the created universe. It was pertinent to say 
 
B2 EEVELATIOX.— CHAP. III. 
 
 this to the church of Laodicoa in precisely its circumstances at 
 tiiat moment. Tlierc can be no room for doubt that thia la what 
 Jesus meant to say. 
 
 15. I know tliy workp, that thou art neither cold nor liot: 
 I would thou wert cold or hot. 
 
 16. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold 
 nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. 
 
 While water, either cold or hot, is agreeable to the taste and not 
 ofTensivc to the stomach, it is a well known fact that lukewarm 
 water is distasteful, offensive, nauseating. Upon this fact, the fig- 
 ure before us rests. The main point of inquiry in this passage is 
 — How fixr shall we carry this tigure: how much shall we make of 
 it ? Does heat in water precisely represent fervor of feeling in 
 religion so that Ave may carry tli£ analogy entirely through and 
 infer from these words (1.) that God loves the most ardent souls, 
 of the highest possible tone of fervid emotion; (2.) that he also 
 loves the other extreme — the cold, frigid souls — even as men who 
 labor in the summer's heat love cold ice water; but (3.) that the 
 men of medium temperament, the men not hot and not cold, are 
 loathsome to him ? ^V'^hoever shall press the figure to this extent 
 will find reason to recoil from some of its points as against both 
 scripture and common sense. It is much better not to press a 
 figure of speech to more service than it was made to perform ; and 
 quite important moreover to see the pi'ccise point of comparison 
 between the material iaaage and the spiritual reality it would il- 
 lustrate. ^Guided by the nature of the figure and by the context, 
 
 we reach this result, viz., that the thing condemned is not a me- 
 dium tone of truly religious emotion, but is a^^ro^ic/ self-co7iceit, a 
 self-sufficiency which is real emptiness and vanity — which sup- 
 posing itself rich, is miserably poor, etc. This sort of piety Jesus 
 declares to be loathsome and nauseating to him, even as lukewarm 
 water is to the human stomach. This is all. There is no attempt 
 to run an analogy between heat in water and heat in religious 
 emotion; there is no purpose of pushing this analogy through and 
 making it bear at all possible points, or as the phrase is, " go on 
 all fours." Figures of speech are too useful to be so badly abused 
 as they sometimes are (shall we not say) especially those found 
 in the Bible. "I would thou w^ert cold or hot" may be con- 
 strued to mean, I would that thou were any thing else rather 
 than lukewarm. Nothing else can be so loathsome to me as 
 Your vain self-conceit. 
 
 17. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with 
 goods, and have need of nothing ; and knowcst not that 
 thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, 
 and naked : 
 
 IS. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, 
 
REVELATION.— CILVr. III. 83 
 
 tl)iit tliou niayest be rich ; and white raiment, that thou 
 niaycst be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedneps do 
 not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou 
 may est see. 
 
 "Rich," " iiKTcasod witli p;oo(ls," havins; "need of nothing" — 
 i« said not of earthly Avealth but of spiritual and heavenly. To 
 suppose these phrases to refer to the uiercliant's "goods" — to the 
 supply of our physical Avants — would carry with it the doctrine 
 that God counsels us to buy of him " ftold," the literal article ; 
 and "white raiment" — not stainless piety, but spotless cloth — all 
 
 which is only a iilarinj;; absurdity ! The original makes the 
 
 words for " wretched," "miserable," specially expressive by pre- 
 fixing the article — Knowcst not that thou art (he wretched one, 
 the miserable one — above all others, by special preeminence. The 
 sentiment is plain: dismiss this vain and loathsome seU-conceit; 
 anoint thine eyes with eye-salve so that thou canst see the things 
 that are — thyself as thou art seen by God's eye. Then having 
 emptied thy heart of this delusive self-conceit, come to Jesus to be 
 f(Ml and filled with his bread of life; come in thy conscious naked- 
 ness to be clothed ; receive Jesus in all his proffered relations — 
 tliy wisdom, thy righteousness, thy sanctilication, thy redemption 
 (I Cor. 1 : 30!, "all in all; " so shall it be well with thee. 
 
 19. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten : be zealous 
 therefore, aud repent. 
 
 "It is because T love thee that I now seek to put thy real case 
 })efore thine eyes, and shall proceed by discipline and chastisement 
 to every hopeful eflbrt to bring thee to myself All whom 1 truly 
 love, 1 labor thus to save. If! find them pufled with vain conceit, 
 I spare no rebuke and no chastisement, if so 1 may save them. 
 
 20. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock : if any man 
 hear my voice, and ojoen the door, I will come in to him, 
 and will sup Avith liim, and he with me. 
 
 If we construe this verse in hai-mony with the preceding con- 
 text, we shall get a doubly forcible and precious sense from it — 
 thus: Uehold, 1 come even to you of Laodicea; conceited, proud 
 though many of you are, yet 1 come with my riches, my white 
 raiment, my cyc-salve; and 1 knock at your door, and there I stan<l 
 yet a while waiting for admittance. If any man of you shall hear 
 my voice as in the rebuke just now spoken, and shall open his 
 heart's door and make me welcome, coming for such a purpose 
 and with s\ich love for his soul, then I will indeed come in unto 
 that man, and I will sup Avith him and he shall sup with me. A 
 least of j(ty, as when the prodigal returns and once more sits down 
 with his loving father in the old and now joj'ous home! So much 
 Christ has said to inspire hope in the darkest bosom — so much to 
 
84 EEVELATION.-CHAP. IV. 
 
 press himsolf upon these conceited Laodiceans, that they raay re* 
 ceive all riches and all joy from his hand. 
 
 21. To him that (n'ercoraeth ^vill I grant to sit with me 
 in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down 
 •\vith my Father Jn his throne. 
 
 22, He that hath an ear, let him hear v;hat the Spirit 
 saith unto the churches. 
 
 To the oyercoming one, blessings of surpassing richness arc 
 '[iroraised. What more could the Savior promise than this? — ;j 
 seat jointly shared with himself on his own throne! "Come up 
 and sit with me in the glory of my kingdom!" How can we lift 
 our thought to measure the glory of such a promise? AVhat shall 
 we think of the love and of the longing to save that yyrompted it ? 
 W!iat of the guilt involved in treating it with cold indifference, or 
 worse, with stolid rejection and contempt? 
 
 Thus close these wonderful letters to the seven churches. Were ' 
 words ever spoken more full of faithfulness to the souls of men ; 
 more fall of appreciation for all that is praiseworthy; more fuH 
 of love for all classes; more fraught with watchful and wise solic- 
 itude for their stability and endurance in the terrible conllict 
 throngh which they wei-e so soon to pass? 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 It was at once a mrat sublime and a most rn-actical feature in 
 the pi'ophetic visions vouchsafed to John in Patnios that so large 
 a part of its scenes were laid in heaven rather than on earth. The 
 stand-point of the seer was there, not here. "A door was opened 
 in heaven," i. e., a door opening into heaven; the very door of 
 entrance to the heavenly world ; and the first thing he heard was 
 that trumpet-voice previously heard (1: 10), saying, "Come up 
 hither; 1 will show thee things which are soon to come to pass." 
 It was ineffably sublime to see from this lofty stand-point how the 
 events of earth appear — to see the moving forces that work out 
 human destiny as they emanate from the Great Central Power on 
 he throne of the Universe; to see where the lightnings are forged, 
 and to look into the great magazines of fire and storm and plague 
 and death from which God's messengers bi'ing forth his bolts of 
 vengeance to hurl down upon the strongholds of his proud foes 
 on the earth below. It reminds us of the poetic conceptions of 
 Pagan mythology which constructed vast magazines, where the 
 storm-king held the winds imprisoned, but drew the bars and let 
 the gates fly open at his pleasure, that the blasts might rush forth, 
 
REVELATION.-CIIAP. IV. 85 
 
 II ml the fierce winds howl, and the stricken mariners he at their 
 wit's end ; and yet other magazines for the lii^htnin;!, tlie hail and 
 the thunder, where the bolts were forged, and the tempests also, 
 that gather blackness and pour abroad their terrible desolations. 
 Somewhat such, only higher and grander far, were the scenes laid 
 before the exile of Fatmos when this door into heaven was opened, 
 and he was called up tliither to see visions of the great central 
 throne, and of its august surroundings; to see whei-e the minis- 
 tering angels of divine judgments rticcive their commission ; to 
 witness the worship and to listen to the songs that ascribe immor- 
 tal honor to tlie great Creator and Lord of all, and to Ilim who 
 
 hath redeemed the saints of earth with his own blood. 'riios(i 
 
 views of scenes in heaven, shown in their relations to things on 
 earth in the nearer future, were not oidy sublime and grand, and 
 therefore most thrilling, but they Avere in their nature and bear- 
 ings intensely practical. AVc must not forget that .John the seer i.s 
 an exile amid scenes of wild and sad desolation, and that he wrote 
 to his companions in tribulation, then under the pressui-e or the 
 f(;ar of deadly persecution. Now it is every thing to human hearts 
 throbbing with personal fear and quivering with solicitude for the 
 imperiled cause of their blaster, to know that there is a most in- 
 tense and earnest sympathy felt in their case by all the vast and 
 glorious pf)pu!ations of the heavenly world, reaching to the very 
 
 throne of the Almighty. Those heavenly scenes bore witness 
 
 to .John witli miglity voice that tlterc were the elements of poiver — • 
 of power before Avliich the mightiest forces of Jewish or Koman 
 persecution seemed infinitely puny and insignificant. It was no 
 small thing for the churches of Asia to see the demonstration of 
 this great fact as these visions brought it home to the heart of 
 
 John. But those visions revealed not power only or chiefly, but 
 
 a wondrous and most tender sympathj. All heaven seemed to 
 gather round the book of human destiny, at first so closely sealcMl 
 from view, as if the futui-e of beings dear to their heart Avero 
 written there, yet with unwavering confidence that the Lion of the 
 tribe of Judah was competent to open it and read, and also com- 
 petent as well to wield the power and the wisdom requisite to 
 bring forth results most of all glorious and blessed for his people. 
 Tiien as the first four of those seals were successively liroken, with 
 what kindness did the four living Ones summon the symbolic horses 
 to the prophet's view with the word of command — " Corae 1" More- 
 over it was one of the most thrilling manifestations of Heaven's 
 sympathy with the martyrs, that on the opening of the fifth seal 
 John saw under the altar the souls of the martyred dead, and 
 heard their prayerful cry and also that touching answer thereto: 
 Itest yet for a little season; a few more must hill as ye have fallen; 
 but Zion's King Avill surely conquer and Zion's foes must fall! So 
 all along, the angels go fi)rth with willing soul and tireless wing 
 3n every mission, whether of deliverance to God's people or of judg- 
 aicnt on their foes. Every new scene in heaven heightens the as- 
 
50 REVELATION.— CHAP. IV. 
 
 surance tliat God's suffering people on earth are remembered there 
 
 with tcnderest solicitude and most yearning sympathy. Then, 
 
 moreover, those open visions of heaven disclose the l)U^sscdness of 
 the righteous dead who have entered into rest. You see their 
 thronging tliousands; you hoar their enraptured songs; in phiin- 
 ost, simplest words the voice from the upper temple proclaims them 
 "blessed;" and as if to crown all, the very hand of the Inliuite 
 Father himself Avipcs every tear of their eyes away ! 
 
 Thus with admirable, most pertinent and forcible adaptation do 
 these scenes in the opened heaven minister to the moral wants of 
 tlie persecuted people of (xod on earth. It was not to amuse them 
 with splendid pictures, and not to kindle poetic fire in their imag- 
 ination for the mere warmtli and joy thereof that this door into the 
 world above was sot open; but to lift their thought above the mur- 
 derous edicts of tyrants, and their souls above all fear of prison, 
 torture and death; to inspire them with the Christian heroism of 
 
 faith and love and hope of a blessed immortality. Now coupling 
 
 this conception of an open heaven and its wondrous revelations 
 with that sublime manifestation of the human person of Jesus de- 
 picted in the first chapter, we can not but admire the adaptation 
 of tliese prophetic visions to the end they had in view. How im- 
 pressive upon John and his first readers must those manifestations 
 have "been — first that of Jesus in his glory in Patmos; next that 
 of the open heaven ! Let us not overlook the wonderfully quick- 
 ening power of such views upon that faith Avhich makes unseen 
 things real ; which becomes " the evidence of things not seen," 
 aud which thus gives the victory over the world and all its 
 forces. 
 
 The chapter gives us the prophet's first introduction to the 
 scenes and personages of the heavenly world. In succession we 
 have the opened door and the voice calling him up thither (v. 1); 
 the throne and the appearance of him who sat thereon (vs. 2, 3) ; 
 the twenty-four seats and as many elders sitting (v. 4) ; the sounds 
 from the throne and the seven lamps of fire (v. 5) ; the four living 
 ones seen, described, and their song of adoration (0-8) ; coinci- 
 dent Avith their song is that of the twenty-four elders (vs.9-11). 
 
 1. After this I looked, and, behold, a door %vas opened 
 in heaven : aud the first voice whicli 1 heard- ivas as it 
 Avere of a trumpet talking w'ith me ; which said, Come np 
 hither, and I will shoAV thee things Avhich must be here- 
 after. 
 
 "After this" [Greek, " meta tanta"], soon after, in close con- 
 nection with Avhat precedes, as in 1 : lU and also in the close of 
 
 this verse. "A door opened in heaven" is more precisely a door 
 
 through -which ■when opened one mjght look into heaven. He first 
 saw this open<^d door, and then heard that trumpet voice, desig- 
 nated here as " that first voice," heard before (cliap. I : lU), in- 
 
JJEVELATION.— CIIAr. IV. 87 
 
 vitinj; liiin to come up and enter. He does not mean the first 
 voice compared with the many afterward heard in heaven, but 
 
 that one which he heard first of all, as in chapter 1. In this 
 
 open heaven he was to witness scenes which would reveal events 
 soon to occur on the earth. 
 
 2. And immeLiiatcly I Avas iu the Spirit: and, bcliold, a 
 tlirone was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. 
 
 3. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and 
 a sardine stone: and there rvas a rainbow round about the 
 throne, in sight like unto an emerald. 
 
 "I was in the Spirit" — as in this T)ook elsewhere (1 : 10, ami 
 17: 3, and 21: 10), always without the Greek article and thero- 
 Ibre not precisely in the >^pirit, but ratlier in Spirit — which moans, 
 not in the disembodied state, nor merely "in the Holy Ghost''' in 
 the usual sense of Christian experience (e. g., Rom. 8: 9, and 
 Kph. G: IS, and Jude 20), but in a state of spiritual ecstacy, in 
 s[)ecial spiritual relations to the great agent of prophetic vision. 
 
 "A throne set in heaven" imitates Dan. 7: 9, where we 
 
 should not translate "thrones cast down" [overturned], but 
 thrones firmly set, located, as a seat is placed for a friend to 
 
 occupy. One sat upon this throne whose brilliancy and glory 
 
 could be but dimly reiiresented by that of the most precious stones. 
 
 A rainliow encircled tliis inefl'ably glorious throne. It is not 
 
 said in definite words that lie who sat upon this throne was tlie 
 Infinite God; yet the homage rendered to llim (4: 8-11, and 5: 
 lo), with numerous other circumstances, leave us in no doubt as 
 
 to the fact. We may Avell admire the wisdom that forbore to set 
 
 forth any /or»i or likeness of llim who sat on this central throne, 
 'riie genius and scope of this heavenly vision demanded that the 
 divine Father should be visible. It was l)y an admirable precau- 
 tion against materialistic and consequently debasing views of God 
 that the representation gives only so much as we find here — color, 
 splendor, liut no f<rrm which would naturally lead the mind to a 
 material representation of the infinite God. 
 
 4. And round about the throne were fnir and tw(>n(y 
 seats : and upon the .seats I saw four and twenty elders 
 sitting, clothed iu white raiment ; and they had on their 
 heads crowns of gold. 
 
 Twenty-four "seats," but in Greek, thrones, yet of course lesser 
 and subordinate thrones, compared witli the great central one. 
 
 Here we are first introduceil to the twenty-lour elders ("pres- 
 
 luteroi"), clothed in white and wearing crowns of gold. \Vho 
 are they? What do they represent? Any thorough investiga- 
 tion of this point nnist take into account all the cases in which 
 thcv come before us in this l)Ook, viz. , in 4 : 10, 1 1, and 5 : 5, 0, 8- 
 11, "11, -and 7:11, l.'MT, and 11 : IC.-IS, and 11: ."., and I'J: 4. 
 
38 REVELATION.-CirAr. IV. 
 
 (1.) Plainly they are not impersonal but persoiial — i. e., they do 
 not represent merely abstract attriluites or qualities of some un- 
 known being, but they represent some order of conscious, voluntary 
 beings; for they offer intelligent worship (4: 10, 11, and 5: 8-10, 
 and 7 : 11, 12, etc.). They manifest special interest in the prophet 
 and condescend to exjdain to him the meaning of what he sees (7: 
 13-17). These it will be seen are mainly the aspects in which 
 they appear in this book. 
 
 (2.) The question being now narrowed down to the choice 
 between human and superhuman beings, I judge that we must 
 accept the former, es}iecially because they say in their song to 
 the Lamb — " Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God 
 by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and 
 nation" (5: 8-11). This could not have been said and sung 
 by any superhuman orders of created l)eings according to any 
 light in our Bible. Kor is it out of harmony with this view that 
 they appear "having golden vials full of odors which are the 
 prayers of saints" (5 : 8). Let us suppose them to be ideal rep- 
 resentatives of the glorified saints in heaven, introduced into these 
 visions to show the prophet and his readers what sphere the holy 
 from earth are filling in heaven; what sympathy they still retain 
 with their suffering brethren yet in the flesh ; what access they 
 have to the throne above and what influence there ; also what 
 their employments ai'e. So Avill the significance of this represen- 
 tation appear in all points pertinent and instructive. Let us also 
 notice tlie sympathy manifested by one of them in kindly calling 
 John's attention to the white-robed ones (7: 13), and in his ex- 
 planation (vs. 14-17) — so admirably adapted to comfort the im- 
 periled martyrs and so appropriate as coming from one who 
 represented the glorified saints already in heaven. 
 
 5. And out of the throne proceeded lightning.s and 
 thunderings and voices : and there were seven lamps of 
 fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits 
 of God. 
 
 The "lightnings, thunderings and voices" seem in this case to 
 have been designed to make a general impression rather than to 
 bear any special significance. Is'aturall}^ they must awaken atten- 
 tion and inspire awe. They do not appear to reveal any thing 
 
 definite. (See also 8 : 5, and IG : 18.) As to the " seven lamps 
 
 of fire," see notes on 1 : 4-6. By a law of inexorable necessity, 
 
 all symbols shown in vision must come down to material oljjects 
 however much it may seem to degrade the grand and magnificent 
 idea. No forms of matter wrought into sj'mbol can possibly do 
 justice to the qualities and powers of the Infinite God. These 
 seven lamps of tire must not be thought of simply as bo many 
 chandeliers in an ancient cathedral. We must rather think of 
 them as illuminating and irradiating the throne of heaven with 
 eploudor and glory such as no mortal eye could bear, but set forth 
 
EEVELATION— CHAP. IV. 89 
 
 liere under the same general syraljol which represents the church 
 on earth (1 : 20) because buth are agencies for ditfusing the true 
 light of (iod. The divine Spirit has no function mcu-e high or 
 glorious than that of revealing the true God to his creatures. 
 
 C. And before the throne flicre icas a sea, of glass like 
 unto crysfal: and in tlie midst of the throne, and round 
 about tiie thione, were four beasts full of eyes before and 
 behind. 
 
 7. And the first beast was like a lion, and the second 
 beast like a calf, and the the third beast had a face as a 
 man, and the fourth beast icas like a flying eagle. 
 
 8. And the four beasts had each of them six wings 
 about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest 
 not day and night, saying. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God 
 Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. 
 
 I judge that the words "sea" and "glass" give not the reality 
 but only the appearance. They are fine images of splendor, beauty 
 and glory. New persons are introduced here to us, called un- 
 fortunately by our translators "beasts." It is simply unaccount- 
 able that they should translate this Greek word (soon) "beast," 
 and then another Greek word (iherion, in chap 13: 1-4, 11, ]'2, 
 etc.) by the same English word, beast. The latter is a savage wild 
 Ijcast, fierce, ugly, formidaljle, and foul — a fit symbol of a great 
 civil persecuting power. lUit the word now before us means pre- 
 cisely a living oiic, endowed preeminently with life — the noblest of 
 all created endowments. Tliese four living ones are imitated in 
 part from Ezek. 1, and in part from Isa. 6. From Ezekiel they 
 have their name, "living creatures;" their number, four; their 
 symbolic tvpe, i. e., the animal forms that are grouped and com- 
 bined to represent the noblest qualities known in the animal world 
 — the lion, the ox or young bullock [better than "calf"j, the hu- 
 man face, the ilying eagle. From Isa. 6 they have the six wings 
 
 and in part the very words of their song, "Holy, holy, holy, is 
 Jehovah of Hosts" — the "Jehovah" of Isaiah being translated 
 here into the phrase — " Avhich was, and is, and is to come.'' (See 
 Votes on 1 : 4.) It is a point of some interest to reach if pos- 
 sible the true idea of these four living ones. What are thry and 
 what do thiy represent f The data upon which to base an intelli- 
 gent, relial)lc judgment must be found in what is said of them 
 in this book and in the sources (I'^.ekicl and Isaiah) whence these 
 characters seem to be taken by imitation. The passages in this 
 book, other than in this chapter, arc 5 : (5, 8, 11, 14, and 6 : 1,3, 
 5-7, and 7:11, and 14: 3, and 15 : 7, and 19 : 4. From these pa.s- 
 sagcs we learn tliat they are very near the central throne; are 
 intimately a.ssociatcd with the twcnty-rour elders, yet take prece- 
 dence of them; unite with them in adoration and praise; call the 
 
dO REVELATION. -CIIAr. IV. 
 
 attention of the prophet to the revelations made at the opening of 
 the lirst four seals ; one of them gives to the seven angels the 
 seven vials full of the wrath of God (la : 7). Such are their em- 
 ployments, as in this book. In Ezck 1, I take the four living 
 
 creatures to be symbolic representations of the providential gov- 
 ernment and agencies of Clod, considered especially as shaping 
 the history and the retributive destiny of nations. Consequently 
 they are not personal but impersonal — mere illustrations, pre- 
 sented in symbol, of the works of the great divine Agent and Lord 
 of all. But in Isaiah they are manifestly personal and not impei^ 
 sunal. They act, they speak, they cry one to another. Conse- 
 quently we must take them to be created, sinless beings of a high 
 
 if not the very highest order. In the case before us our choice 
 
 must lie between the usage of Ezekiel and the usage of Isaiah. 
 Are they, as in Ezekiel, impersonations of God's providential 
 forces; or, as in Isaiah, veritable persons, of the noblest order of 
 sinless beings ? 1 accept the latter view, because these are ob- 
 viously conscious intelligent existences, performing acts and mani- 
 festing qualities that must imply distinct personality. It may be 
 
 thought by some that their uniting (5: 8-10) with the twenty-four 
 elders in the " new song " — "Thou art worthy to take the book and 
 to open its seals, for thou hast redeemed us" etc., must imply that 
 they too as well as the elders are from the redeemed race of men 
 
 and represent them. Over against this inference I suggest that 
 
 when the four living ones lead the song (as in 4: 9-11) its theme 
 is creation, not redemption, and that in this "new song" (5 : {)) 
 the twenty-four elders lead and give shape to the sentiment and 
 the langu.age, while the living ones unite from sympathy Avith their 
 j'ounger brethren (the "elders") and not because they themselves 
 have been redeemed by Jesus' blood. This sympathy between 
 the loftiest of God's archangels and the eldership which stands for 
 the redeemed of earth is wonderfully beautiful, precious, and let 
 us not omit to say, pertinent to the great moral purpose of the 
 book, viz., to set before the persecuted saints of John's age (and 
 of every age) the sympathy felt in their case by all the hierarchies 
 of the heavenly world — a sympathy which manifests itself not only in 
 tlieir unison of heart and voice in the great choral songs of heaven 
 for creation and redemption, but in celebrating the progressive 
 steps of God's righteous retributive agencies as they work out in 
 prospect and in fact the deliverance of his imperiled people, the 
 ruin of their persecutors, and the final triumph of Christ's king- 
 dom over all the nations. In regard to the designation of these 
 
 four beings nearest the throne as Uvin/f ones, I suggest that it may 
 express their tireless energy, "They rest not day and night; " and 
 possibly also the fact that (unlike the saints from our earth) they 
 have never known death. Their life-power never wanes — never 
 
 hiis been eclipsed; mortality to them is all unknown. The 
 
 t^iuaitic manuscript, one of the oldest known, remarkably repeata 
 the word "holy" (v. 8) not merely three times but eight. 
 
REVELATION.-CIIAP. V. 91 
 
 9. And wlicii those beasts give glory and honor and 
 thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth fur ever 
 and ever, 
 
 10. The four and twenty elders fall down before him 
 that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever 
 and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 
 
 11. Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor 
 and i)ower : for thou hast created all things, and for thy 
 ■pleasure they are and were created. 
 
 Here Avc liave the mutual sympathy ami union of the four liv- 
 iu\i ones and of tlie twenty-four elders in this lirst specimoa song 
 
 ot heaven. 'The improved text makes the verl)s, "give" (v. U) 
 
 and "fall" (v. 10), ])oth future, the sense being that whenever the 
 living ones shall strike this song, the twenty-four elders tvill fall 
 prt)stratc, worship, and cast their crowns at his feet in perfect and 
 
 most blessed sympathy. This song honors and extols the in- 
 
 linite Lord as iSuprcme Creator, declaring that out of his r/orid luill 
 ["pleasure"], because of his supreme desire to bless with liap]ii- 
 ness, he has created sentient beings. They exist by virtue of his 
 creative mandate. 
 
 C 11 AFTER V. 
 
 The great feature of this chapter is the book of destiny seen in 
 heaven (v. 1) ; the question, Who can open and read it (vs. 2-4) ; 
 settled at length by the aniiouncement that the Lion of Judah has 
 conquered and will open amd read it (v. 5). lie appears in form 
 as a Lamb slain and takes the book (vs. 6, 7) ; whereupon the joy 
 of heaven breaks forth in glorious song; the living ones and the 
 elders first leading (vs. 8-10), and then the myriads of angels 
 come in with the grand chorus (vs. 11-14). 
 
 1. And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the 
 tlirone a book Avritten within and on the back side, sealed 
 with seven seals. 
 
 Unquestionably this "book" is in imitation of Ezck. 2, and is 
 the book of the future destinies of the church and of her fortunes 
 as related to her persecuting; enemies. From the fact that this 
 prophecy tills a book [scroll] and consists of seven successive sec- 
 tions each fastcnd with its own seal, Ave can infer nothing as to 
 the duration of the periods of time Avhich it covers, or as to tlio 
 ix)int where its prophetic events sliall commence tiieir fuliillment. 
 Light on these points must be sought elsewhere. The reader 
 
92 EEVELATION.— CIIAr. V. 
 
 will notice that this book is seen in the ri^ht hand of the great 
 J5oing on tlie central throne. This correspontls with the state- 
 ment (1: 1), "The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave to 
 
 him," 
 
 2. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming witli a loud 
 voice, Who is wortliy to open the book, and to loose tlie 
 seals theroof ? 
 
 3. And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under 
 tlie earth, was able to open the book, neither to look 
 thereon. 
 
 These scenes served to awaken attention and to excite interest 
 
 to its highest pitch. " Worthy to open," in the sense of com- 
 
 2)eteni, capable, coupled pei-haps Avith the idea of being honored 
 of God to make this revelation. "To look thereon" were better 
 read, therein, to look into it to read its revelations of human des- 
 tiny. 
 
 4. And I \yeY)t much, because no man was found worthy 
 to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. 
 
 5. And one of the elders saith unto me. Weep not : be- 
 hold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, 
 hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven 
 seals thereof. 
 
 The prophet feels deeply, as one whose heart is keenly alive to 
 tlie fortunes of Christ's church and kingdom, Avhose hopes of see- 
 ing some foreshadowings of her future have been raised by a siuht 
 of the book, but are now suspended and liable to be quenched in 
 darkness "if no one can be found to open it and to read. One of 
 tlie twenty-four elders (heavenly representatives of the earthly 
 church) comes to him in warm sympathy, with the welcome tiding.s 
 that one is found competent to loose those seals and to reveal the 
 contents of the book. It is the risen Messiah, called " the Lion 
 of the tribe of Judah" — the lion being the recognized and well- 
 known symbol of this tribe (see Gen. 49 : 9, 10) ; called also " the 
 Root of David," i. c, the root-shoot, the fresh growth springing up 
 from the root and constituting the new tree — a turn of thought 
 taken from Isa. 11 : 1, 10. lie "hath prevailed " (Greek, hath con- 
 quered) so as to open the book. He has proved himself worthy 
 
 and has received the honor of making this revelation. The 
 
 question has been raised whether in the state of prophetic ecstasy 
 the prophet still retained his personal consciousness and identity, 
 i. e., was still himself Plainly in this case the seer of Patmos is 
 still the same John, the anxious loving father of his spiritual chil- 
 dren, the careful pastor of his flock, the faithful disciple whjse 
 heart trembles for the ark of God and watches with deepest in- 
 terest the revelations of Ziuu's nearer future. 
 
rvEVELATIOX.— CHAP. V. 93 
 
 6. And I beheld, an(], lo, in the midst of tlie throne and 
 of the four beasts, and in the midst of tlie elders, stood a 
 Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven 
 eyes, which are the seven tSpirits of God sent forth into 
 all the earth. 
 
 And now the vision opens to briii^ tlic risen Messiah before 
 him. There, " in the midst of tlic throne," as near as possible to 
 the great central Beini;; — probably the thought is — jointly sharing 
 ■withhim the honors of that throne |sunthronos], and immediately 
 encircled by the four living ones and the twenty-four ciders, stood 
 One in appearance as a Lamb that had been slain — ^just before 
 seen as the Lion of Judah's tribe, but now the Lamb of Sacrifice 
 "who taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1: 29). The 
 genius of illustrative symbolism labors to represent his perfect 
 power and perfect intelligence, and hence tlie Lamb has seven 
 horns [supreme power], and seven eyes [perfect intelligence, 
 knowledge, truth]. These eyes, somewhat imitating Zechariah 
 (Zecb. 3: 9, and 4: 10), are thought of as repi'oseuting, not knowl- 
 edge in the abstract, or perhaps we might say, knowledge in repose, 
 but knowledge, the very light of Cod, sent forth in and by the 
 glorious special Agent of saving light and converting truth — the 
 Holy (Jhost. Ko view of the functions of Jesus is full unless it 
 includes bis sending forth the Spirit as the great Kevealer of Cod, 
 acting in a sense suboi-dinate to himself, really taking up his own 
 unfinished work and bearing it onward to glorious completion and 
 triumphant success in the enlightening, conversion and salvation 
 
 of the world. AVc may perhaps account it an imperfection in 
 
 this symbolism that what appears at first as the seven eyes of the 
 Lamb becomes so many sjiirits sent forth al>road into all the 
 earth; but we may well bear in mind that when applied to repre- 
 sent the Creat Cod, and especially the inelfablc relations of the 
 blessed Trinity, the highest cfibrts of symbolisni must prove im- 
 perfect. I'he marvel in this case is that the sj'mbols are so 
 wonderfully expressive, and that the points they present are so 
 remarkably in harmony with the great central truths of the gospel 
 
 scheme touching the points in hand. 1 need scarcely add that 
 
 something must be put to the account of the intlucnce of like 
 symbols in the earlier proi)hets — e. ff., Zechariah. 
 
 7. And he came and took tlic book out of the right 
 hand of him that sat upon the throne. 
 
 8. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and 
 four and tAventy ehlers fell down liefore tlie Lamb, having 
 every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odors, 
 which are the })rayers of saints. 
 
 The scene progresses : the Lami) of the heavenly world ad- 
 vances and takes the book of destiny. A thrill of joy pervades 
 
94 REVELATION.— CIIAr. V. 
 
 the exalted personages of heaven; first, those nearest tlio throne — 
 the four living ones and the twenty-four ciders. Each of them has 
 his harp, in readiness for outbursting song, and also "golden viala 
 full. of odors" [incense] which represent the prayers of saints. 
 Tliese vials — ^praj^ers — were specially pertinent in the hands of 
 the elders, wdio appear throughout as the special representatives 
 of the church on earth. At this point in the progress of these 
 scenes the elders seem to lead. The living ones are with them 
 
 (it would seem) under the law of heavenly sympathy. But let 
 
 us not fail to notice that the prayers of the church below have 
 very much to do with the counsels of the great throne above and 
 with the partial revelation now to be made of those counsels. 
 Many a prayer of earnestness amounting to agony has been wrung 
 from trembling, tortured hearts amid the scenes or the fear of 
 bloody violence. The incense of those prayers, treasured in golden 
 vials, now goes up before the throne. In answer thereto, the 
 Lamb has taken the book of destiny to reveal some Avords of com- 
 fort touching God's judgments on his incorrigible foes, and his 
 deliverance for his faithful friends. 
 
 9. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art wortJiy 
 to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou 
 wast slain, and hast retleemed us to God by thy blood out 
 of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation ; 
 
 10. And hast made us unto our God kings and priests : 
 and we shall reign on the earth. 
 
 "Anew song" — the old song, celelirating the wisdom, power 
 and love of God in creation having been given above (4: 9-11). 
 The "new song" celebrates not only the fact of the atoning sac- 
 rifice — -"ihe "Lamb slain" — but the now pending victories of the 
 Lamb over his enemies and the triumphs of his kingdom on the 
 
 earth. The logic of this song should be noted. "Thou art 
 
 worthy to take and open the book because thou wast slain and 
 hast redeemed thy people even by thy blood." That Avondrous 
 sacrifice, never to be forgotten in earth or heaven, justifies and 
 demands the awarding to Jesus of the most exalted honors. So 
 Paul has said (Phil. 2: 6-11). Because Jesus "made himself of 
 no reputation; took the form of a servant; became obedient unto 
 death, even the death of the cross — therefore God hath highly ex- 
 alted him and given him a name above every name." This song 
 
 celebrates the twofold work wrought by Christ for his people ; ( 1 ) 
 redemption ; (2) exaltation to glory. " Thou hast redeemed us by 
 thy blood;" thou hast also "made us unto our God kings and 
 priests." The first precedes, but the other follows. Neither can 
 
 be omitted. As to the more precise reading and sense of the 
 
 text, it may be noted that in the words — " llast redeemed us " 
 (V. 9), the Alexandrine manuscript omits "us" altogether. But 
 tiie other must ancient imuiK;^cript (namely the Sinaitic) rotaiiis 
 
REVELATIOX.— CHAP. V. 95 
 
 it The passaj^c sccins lame ami unfinished without it But in 
 V. 10 there is a <:cneral concurrence of the best authorities 
 (headed by the Alexandrine and [?jnaitic) in giving "Mew" in- 
 stead of "u.s," the sense being that tlie sung purposely includes 
 not only the already ransomed in heaven but all the then strug- 
 gling ones of earth and indeed all. who should through future ages 
 " believe on Jesus througli their word." These authorities favor 
 also the reading, " unto their (iod." Also many say, a kingdom 
 (instead of "kings"), and sonic, a, pries(/iootl (instead of "priests"). 
 The reading ^^ kingdotn" might assume that they are subjects, not 
 kings, constituting Christ's promised glorious kingdom. If we 
 accept the reading " kings," we must still hold Christ supremo, 
 and give to this word as applied to his people only the sense of 
 
 exalted lionor, dignity, reward, analogous to his own. Precisely 
 
 liow much and what is meant by the words " o?i the earth,", who 
 can tell? 1 take them to mean rhis at least — that Christ's people 
 shall not be crushe<l down and savagely ruled over on the earth 
 forever. The long prevalent course of things shall yet be reversed ; 
 the former oppressors become the crushed ones, and the foniier 
 oppressed, the exultant conr^uerors. (See Isa. 14: 2.) 
 
 11. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many ang.ls 
 round about the throne, and the beasts, and the elders: and 
 the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, 
 and thousands of thousands; 
 
 12. Saying with a loud voice, ^yorthy is the Lamb that 
 was sL'iin to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and 
 strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. 
 
 In the outer circle of the heavenly liosts appear now the angelic 
 throng in numljers almost without number. In their song all firms 
 of honor, power and glory are ascribed to the Lamb that was slain; 
 yet they do not sa}', " slain for w.s." ytill they love the song and 
 pour out their souls in most exultant strains. These are things 
 which another apostle has said " the angels desire to look into," 
 and here they are anticipating the opening glories of ^Messiah's 
 conflict and victory, rejoicing that One so worthy is to wear so 
 nobly the highest honors of the heavenly world. 
 
 lo. And every creature wliich is in heaven, and on the 
 earth, and luider the earth, and such as are in the sea, and 
 all that are in them, heard I. saying. Blessing, and honor, 
 and glory, and power, he unto him that sitteth uj)0n the 
 throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever. 
 
 14. And the four beasts said. Amen. And the four cnid 
 twenty elders fell down and worshiped him that liveth for- 
 ever and ever. 
 
9G EEVELATION.— CHAP. VI. 
 
 If the intelliiient beings in the universe have not been. all in- 
 cluded previously, this comprehensive description must take in 
 all — all the holy ones, all save the rebels in hell. All these holy 
 ones are of one heart to ascribe blessing, honor, glory, power in 
 equal strains, with undiscriminating praise, (1.) to llim that sifc- 
 teth on the throne, and (2.) to the Lamb forever and ever. No 
 question as to the supreme divinity of Jesus Christ is ever raised 
 around that highest throne of the universe. No discordant note 
 is heard there, making the slightest discrimination between the 
 infinite honor ascribed to (iod, and the equally infinite honor given 
 
 to the Lamb that was slain, his own eternal Son. To all this 
 
 the four living ones respond, "yLjioi." And the twenty-four elders 
 
 again fall prostrate and worship. The best authorities (Sinaitic, 
 
 Alexandrine and others) omit " him that liveth forever and ever." 
 This avoids the difficulty which might be felt from the appccarance 
 of discriminating between the Father and the Son. Was the 
 clause interpolated in some later manuscripts to make such a dis- 
 tinction ? or was it omitted by some to obviate it? The evidence 
 is strong for its omission. • 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The first si.x of the seven seals are opened in their order, and 
 the projihet describes what he saw and records what he heard in 
 each case. 
 
 1. And I saw wheu the Lamb opened one of the seals, 
 and I heard, as it were the noise of tliunder, one of the four 
 beasts saying, Come and see. 
 
 2. And I saw, and behold a white horse : and he that sat 
 on him had a bow ; and a crown was given unto him : and 
 he went forth conquering, and to conquer. 
 
 3. And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the 
 second beast say. Come and see. 
 
 4. And there went out another horse that was red : and 
 power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from 
 tlie earth, and that they should kill one another : and there 
 was given unto him a great sword. 
 
 5. And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the 
 third beast say. Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a 
 black horse ; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances 
 in his hand. 
 
REVELATION.— CHAP. VI. OT 
 
 G. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts 
 say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measure.s 
 of barley for a penny ; and see thou hurt not the oil and the 
 wine. 
 
 7. And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the 
 voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. 
 
 8. And I looked, and behold a pale horse : and his name 
 ihat sat on him was Death, and Hell followed witli him. 
 And power Avas given unto them over the fourth part of the 
 earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, 
 and with the beasts of the earth. 
 
 The first four of the seven seals have many points in common; 
 I therefore group them -tojrether. As the Lamb opened them one 
 after another, the four livhi}; ones successively sunnuoned a sym- 
 bolic horse to " Come." Tli<3 best authorities omit from the 
 
 text "and see." On the opening of each of these four seals, 
 
 the central figure seen in the picture was a horse, but varying 
 in color: in the first, white; iu the second, red; in the third, 
 black; and in the fourth, pale. The rider on the first car- 
 ried the bow — a war-weapon; a crown was given him, and he 
 went forth to conrpier. lie is a symbol of victory. To the sec- 
 ond there was given a great sword, and his power Avas to take 
 peace from the land, and that men should kill one another. His 
 
 mission is war. The third rider carries a pair of balances 
 
 {scales for weighing accurately); and the voice heard in explana- 
 tion of this symbol said, "A measure of wheat" [proximately, a 
 quart] " for a penny " [the price of a day's labor] ; and a charge 
 "not to hurt the oil and the wine." Scarcity and famine are the 
 
 meaning of this symbol. The rider on the pale horse had his 
 
 very name upon his brow: he is Dcat/i, and Hades follows in his 
 train. They go forth to kill — with sword, hunger, pestilence and 
 wild beasts — to the extent of one-fourth part of the people of the 
 {and, for in all these cases we are to give the word rendered " earth " 
 its more restricted and yet rather common sense, land; i. e., the 
 country had in view, which in the case of Jewish writers was their 
 
 own I'alestine. This was to them "iAe land." It admits of no 
 
 reasonable donht tliat these divei-se colored horses are imitated 
 from Zech. I and 6. The horses of Zcch. 1 : 8-11 have riders, 
 coming in symbol from the Persian post-horses, and are explorers, 
 scouts (using this military term in none but an honorable sense), 
 for they traverse the earth to observe the state of it. They repoi-t 
 every thing quiet and at rest. They represent the exploring agen- 
 cies of Ood's providence — his never-ceasing supervision of the af- 
 fairs of nations — a prerequisite to the administration of justice and 
 
 retribution. The vision of Zech. G presents chariot horses who 
 
 go forth, not to explore, but to avenge, to punish, to visit retribution 
 upon the guilt}' nations whose oppressions of God's people had in- 
 
98 REVELATION.— CHAP. VI. 
 
 curred his wrfith. So v. 8 signifies. Sec my notes on the passage. 
 
 As to the definite significance of the scenes presented on the 
 
 opening of these first four seals, it would seem that there can be 
 no reason for doubt. Conquest, War, Famine., Death are written 
 on their very face. The things said conspire with the things shown 
 to make this significance so far entirely plain. But in the spe- 
 cial application of these symbols to actual history, locating in place 
 and in time the events predicted, commentators have disagreed al- 
 most endlessly. I do not propose to distract (or to amuse) the 
 reader with these discordant and most diverse opinions. Sufiice 
 it that the majority of English authors have taken their starting 
 point — the opening of the first seal — far on in time from the date 
 of the wi'iting, two or three centuries, more or less ; and then have 
 assumed that each successive seal covered its own section of his- 
 tory to the extent of some two, three, or four centuries, thus spread- 
 ing the symbols of this chapter (the first six seals) over many hun- 
 dreds of years — in some of these schemes of interpretation nearly 
 or quite to the end of the world. The edition of the American 
 Bible Society, now lying before me, said to be "without note or 
 comment," gives the contents of this chapter thus: "The opening 
 of the seals in their order and what followed thereupon, containing 
 
 a prophecy to the end of the world.'' It is simply inevitable that 
 
 commentators who launch off in this way should diverge from each 
 other in their course almost without limit. The landmarks given 
 in this book they chiefly disregard, being careful only to "bring 
 up " at the Millennium and the end of the world either once at the 
 close of the book, or twice, the first being in this case at the end 
 of chap. 11, and then to spread out the prophecy over the interven- 
 ing ages, touching such events as may best suit their individual 
 preferences, history being explored to find something analogous to 
 these symbols, and each man judging of the importance of historic 
 events, not at all by their relations to John or to his first readers, 
 but by their apparent magnitude as seen from each commentator's 
 
 own stand-point. 1 hardly need say to my readers that I have 
 
 not the least confidence in such methods of interpreting the book 
 of Revelation, nor indeed any other book ever written. Those 
 who have read attentively my general introduction will understand 
 why. At this point I must briefly give my views of the prophetic 
 application of these symbols and the grounds on which they rest. 
 1. These four sets of symbols (briefiy called these four seals) 
 describe, not four different and distant periods of time, but one 
 period — one cluster of events. They combine to represent one 
 historic period — are parts of one whole. It is not war in one age 
 of the world; famine in another; death and carnage in another; 
 but war, famine, and death in dread combination, all conspiring to 
 afflict and plague the men of some one generation. For, these 
 things naturally go together. You can not have the white horse of 
 victory and conquest through the "bow" without war; you can 
 not have the red horse of war without having also the black 
 
EEVELATION.— CHAP. VI. 99 
 
 horse, famine, and the pnle horse, death, in his immediate train. 
 
 Then moreover this view corresponds with the significance 
 
 of these s3-mbols in the original source from which they came. 
 Zechariah's horses with riders (chap. 1) and his horses with 
 chariots (chap. G) each in their pUice are a unit in significance. No 
 sensible man (so far as I know) ever thouglit of spreading out these 
 symbols to designate each its own long age of history — each its own 
 distinct and independent set of events. Why then should such a 
 method be adopted in the case of these same symbols when used 
 by John ? Moreover I am forbidden to spread out these sym- 
 bols over ten centuries or even one, by the positive and conclusive 
 limitations fixed by Jesus Christ himself — saying, "things which 
 must shortl)/ come to pass ; " " for the time is at hand." (1 : 1, 3, 
 
 and 22: 6, 10.) Still further, the scenes at the opening of the 
 
 fifth seal must have been understood by John and his first read- 
 ers as i-eferring to their own martyred brethren and to the bloody 
 men who had taken their lives — scenes therefore of that very age 
 
 and not of ages a thousand years distant. And yet further, the 
 
 scenes of the seventh seal developed in chap. 11 are definitely 
 located near yet shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem and 
 of its temple, and therefore these preceding seals must have their 
 historic place in the series of events that shortly preceded that 
 catastrophe of ruin to Judaism and -to its great city and nation. 
 
 2. As already said, the one cluster of events to which these 
 four seals point and which they symbolize 1 find in the period 
 immediately preceding the fall of Jerusalem (A. D. 70). To sus- 
 tain this view I adduce the limitations of time just referred to in 
 tlie opening of the book and elsewhere ; in the scenes of the fifth 
 seal; and in the landmarks which appear in chap. 11. 1 have 
 also two other considerations of much force, viz.: (1.) The analo- 
 gous and indeed strikingly similar prophecies of Christ himself as 
 given in Mat. 24; Mark 13; and Luke 21. In Mat. 24: G-9 we 
 have these words : " And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of 
 wars; but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation 
 and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines and 
 pestilences, and earthquakes in diverse places. All these are the 
 beginning of sorrows." As given by Luke with at least equal 
 strength, we have (21 : 9-11): "Ye shall hear of wars and com- 
 motions ; nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against 
 kingdom, and great earthquakes shall be in diverse places and 
 famines and pestilences, and fearful sights and great signs 
 
 shall there be from heaven." That all these predicted events 
 
 come in before the fall of Jerusalem is proved by the fact that 
 they precede the predicted "encompassing" of that city " witli 
 armies" (Luke 21 : 20, 21), which was to be their signal for flight 
 
 to the mountains. If any reader should feel tlio need of more 
 
 proof, he can find it in the precise limitations of time within whicii 
 ^esus locates tliose predicted events: "Verily 1 say unto j'ou, this 
 generation shall not pass away till all be fulfilled " (Luke 21 : 32, 
 
too REVELAIIOX.— CHAP. VI. 
 
 and Mat. 24 : 34). Thus the predictions of Jesus himself as given 
 in the first three gospels and these predictions unfolded before 
 John in the first four seals and indeed in the sixth and seventh 
 also as we shall see, are entirely at one — liarmonious and coinci- 
 dent. They predict the same calamities; to occur at the same 
 
 time; among the same people; upon the same great city. (2.) 
 
 The other fact, which naturally closes my argument, is the precise 
 fuljillrncnt in the hislori/ of that 2>eriod, say during the five years 
 (A. D. 6,5-70) immediately preceding the final fall of Jerusalem. 
 Josephus has written out this history very minutely, and has 
 shown that this prophecy has its perfect counterpart in the 
 events of that precise period. Yet Josephus probably knew 
 nothing about these predictions, either as recorded by Matthew, 
 Mark, and Luke, or as shown to John in these symbols. Xo sus- 
 picion of a purpose to make out a fulfillment of prophecy can 
 
 possibly attach to him or to his history. Drawing mainly from 
 
 the work of Josephus, yet in part from Roman sources, Jahn in 
 his " History of the llebrew Commonwealth " has given a more 
 succinct account of these scenes of sedition, civil war, and conse- 
 quent treachery, corruption, Avar and carnage. Thus — " When 
 Festus became procurator of Judea [A. D. 60] he found it full of 
 robbers who devastated the country with fire and sword." [Jahn, 
 page 447.] From this time until the breaking out of the Jewish 
 war in A. D. 66, civil commotions were constantly occurring; 
 scenes of blood filled the whole country with alarm. In Syria 
 and in Galilee — points sufBcieutly remote from Jerusalem to ac- 
 count for the precise fact — " ja shall hear of wars and rumors of 
 wars," these conflicts of armies were fearful. On one day "al- 
 most all the Jews of Cesarea were murdered: their countrymen 
 were highly exasperated ; they collected in great numbers, plun- 
 dered and devastated the villages and cities of the Syrians. Phil- 
 adelphia, Sebonitis, Gerasa, Pella, and Scythopolis sufiered the 
 most severely ; Gadara, Hippo, Gaulanitis, Kedosa of the Tyrians, 
 Ptolemais, Gaza, and Cesarea were attacked; Sebaste, Askelon, 
 Anthedon, and Gaza were burnt." '' On this account the Syrians 
 fell upon the Jews who dwelt in their cities; and the whole 
 country presented a scene of confusion and blood. In every cily 
 there were hostile armies, and there was no safety for any one but in 
 the strength of the party to which he belonged. At Askelon, Ptole- 
 mais, Tyre, Hippo and Gadara, the Jews were involved in one 
 general massacre," etc. [Jahn 457, and .losephus' Jewish Wars, 
 Book II, chap. 19.] And when in A. D. 67, Vespasian swept 
 through Galilee and Samaria, and city after city fell before him, 
 " the scenes of horror and carnage were fearful ; the merciless 
 eword spared neither age nor sex ; cities were left without inhab- 
 itant." These scenes correspond with but too sad precision to 
 
 the prophetic portraying which we have in these symbols. 1 
 
 must not pass from these symbols witliout adverting again to tho 
 scenes at the opening of the first seal — the white horse and the 
 
EEVELATION.-CIIAP. VI. 101 
 
 crowned rider, going forth conquering and to conquer. I suggest 
 tliiit til is group of symbols fitly holds the lirst place in the fore- 
 ground, comprehensively forshadowing the grand result of all these 
 judgments and plagues upon the Avicked tu be victory and glory to 
 the Great Conqueror. This book of prophecy opens as it closes, 
 this first seal being significantly correlated to the last prophetic 
 scene before the jiinding of Satan. "I saw heaven opened 
 (19: 11--1G), and behold a xoKde horse, and he that sat upon him 
 was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness doth he judge 
 and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire and on his head 
 were many oroiois." " The armies Avhich were in heaven followed 
 him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, Avliite and clean." 
 This scene is the grand, triumphal procession: the first (Kev. 
 G : 2) is the foreshadowing pledge of this final result. 
 
 9. And when lie had opened the fifth seal, I saw under 
 the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of 
 God, and for the testimony which they held : 
 
 10. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, IIow long, 
 O Lord, holy and true, dost not judge and avenge our 
 blood on them that dwell on the earth ? 
 
 11. And white robes were given unto every one of them ; 
 and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a 
 little season, until their fellow servants also and their 
 brethren, that should be killed as tliev ivere, should be ful- 
 filled. 
 
 Before the revealing Spirit advances farther in these descriptive 
 symbols of judgment and terrible retribution, it is vital to his 
 moral purpose to show the prophet and his readers somewhat 
 more definitely on lohom they arc to.fiiU and ivliy. They needed 
 to know this for their own consolation and for the confirming 
 of their souls in Christian courage and fortitude to endure the 
 fiery persecutions then before them. Hence the scenes revealed 
 
 in this fifth section. Here are seen under the altar, i. e., at the 
 
 foot of it, in imploring attitude, the souls of men already slain for 
 their fidelity to Christ and his gospel. John hears their cry — 
 " How long, Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge 
 our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" It seemed to them 
 (why should it not?) that truth was suffering, that Christ's king- 
 dom was going down-, that justice was outraged by the longer per- 
 mission of such horrible persecutions, and even by the delay of 
 righteous retribution upon their murderers. («od heard their cry 
 and answered. First, white robes are given to each one of them, 
 signifying that personally they are conquerors and shall have their 
 reward — that prospectively their cause is certain to conquer, and 
 
 their Cireat King to come forth victorious and triumphant. 
 
 They are also told that there must be yet a short delay of final 
 
102 EEVELATION.— CHAP. VI. 
 
 judgment on their persecutors — a few more of their fcllow-ser- 
 vant8 and brethren having yet a martyr's death to suffer and a 
 
 martyr's crown to Avin. This revelation, made in the opening 
 
 of the fifth seal, had an obvious and admirable moral purpose. 
 ]t not only made the previous seals intelligible and the subse- 
 quent seals (the sixth and the seventh) as well, showing that they 
 predict God's retributions upon the persecutors of his people ; but 
 it revealed an open heaven and a blessed reward for the martyred 
 dead, and gave them assurance of final victory to the cause for 
 which they sufiered. These were much needed consolations and 
 
 they were inexpressibly rich. 1 have more than once referred 
 
 to this fifth seal in its bearings upon the ivne of these predicted 
 events. There being good grounds for assuming that these souls 
 seen under the altar w^ere when John saw this vision but recently 
 slain — that they were the martyred Christians of that very age 
 and perhaps of those very churches (Antipas being a samj)le, 
 2 : 13), I infer that John and his first readers would feel the full 
 force of such a scene and would find in it, first indeed the fact 
 that they had more persecution yet to suffer; but secondly, that 
 it would be only for a little season, and that reward and tri- 
 umph were sure to follow. The grounds for assuming that 
 
 these martyrs and their persecutors were men of that age are in 
 brief — that this is the obvious construction of the words, " on them 
 that dwell [now] on the earth; " that these scenes must certainly 
 be construed in the light of the limitations of time which open 
 and which close the book, and which appear in chap. 11 and 
 elsewhere ; that therefore it is simply certain that John and his 
 first readers must have understood the revelations of the fifth seal 
 as applying to their own already martyred brethren, and that 
 
 therefoi'e this construction must be the true one. To suppose 
 
 that these were the souls of martyrs, not already slain but to be 
 slain one thousand years thereafter, in the days of the Waldenses 
 and Albigenses, is simply to wrest the words from their obvious 
 sense and application, and force upon them a meaning which 
 could never have entered the mind of John or of those whom he 
 addressed. Such methods of interpretation can not be too se- 
 verely censured. They practically destroy all confidence in 
 prophecy by ignoring the legitimate principles and laws of proph- 
 etic interpretp-tion. Good men, most excellent men, have made 
 this mistake let no word of mine impeach their goodness or their 
 worthiness of aim ; but for truth's sake and to preserve prophecy 
 from abuse, I must protest against such interpretation. 
 
 12, And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, 
 and, lo, there was a great earthquake ; and the sun became 
 black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon become as blood ; 
 
 13. And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as 
 a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a 
 mighty wind. 
 
EEVELATION.— CHAP. VI. 103 
 
 14. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled 
 together ; and every mountain and ialand were moved out 
 of their places. 
 
 Here are premonitory indications of coming judgments. All 
 nature is thrilled with terror and awe, and gives tokens of her 
 agony. The heavens ahove and the earth heneath seem to fore- 
 east the fearful doom of guilty man and the awful coming of his 
 righteous Judge for terrihle retribution. Every symbol significant 
 of terror, Avrath, plague, is tasked to its utmost capacity to set 
 forth the consummation of judgment and fiery indignation upon 
 
 the guilty. ''There was a great earthquake." As recorded by 
 
 Matthew (24 : 7) .Jesus had said of this very period : " There shall 
 be earthquakes in diverse places." Palestine was somewhat sub- 
 ject to earthquakes. It would be easy to verify this prediction 
 in a literal sense. Yet the genius of prophetic vision by no means 
 requires us to find a precisely literal fulfillment of any one of 
 these descriptive points. John states what he saw when the sixth 
 seal was broken — things which had significance indeed, but which 
 did not mean that precisely these things, literally, should occur. 
 A great earthquake was a pertinent symbol of social and political 
 convulsions — the ruin of cities ; the fall of kingdoms ; the wreck 
 
 of society. The Old Testament prophets had said, " The sun 
 
 shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood" (Jt)el 
 2: 31 and Isa. 13: 10); "the stars of heaven and the constella- 
 tions thereof shall not give their light" (Isa. 13: 10); "all their 
 host shall fall down as the leaf falleth off from the vine and as a 
 falling fig from the fig-tree " (Isa. 34 : 4); " that the heavens shall 
 be rolled together as a scroll" (Isa. 34: 4). As to the removing 
 of mountains and islands, Jeremiah had said (4: 24), "I beheld 
 the mountains and lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved 
 lightly;" and Ezekiel (26: 18), "Now shall the isles tremble in 
 the day of thy fall." As recorded by i\Iatthew (24: 29) Jesus had 
 used the same symbols : " The sun shall be darkened and the 
 moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, 
 and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken." These symbols 
 therefore were not new to prophecy; they might have been famil- 
 iar to John through the reading of the Old Testament prophets. 
 Their sense here is essentially the same as there. 
 
 15. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and 
 the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, 
 and every bond man, and every free man, hid themselves in 
 the deiis and in the rocks of the mountains ; 
 
 10. And said to the mountains and rocks. Fall on us, 
 and hide us from the face of liim that sitteth on the throne, 
 and from the wrath of the Lamb : 
 
 17. For the groat day of his wrath is come ; and who 
 ehall be able to stand ? 
 
iOi EEVELATION.— CHAP. VI. 
 
 The moral force of this prophecy is signally heightened "by 
 showing not only how the material universe quailed and trembled, 
 hut how the hearts of the mightiest of men quailed also, and how 
 they flinl for shelter to the rocks and to the mountains, but too 
 glad if tliey might be buried beneath their fall rather than meet 
 the face and the frown of Ifim who sits on the throne and of the 
 
 f jjimb in the great day of his wrath ! The Greek has the conv 
 
 prehensive expression — " hid themselves into the dens and rocks 
 of the mountain," meaning that they fled into them for a hiding- 
 place. There was a suggested sense of retribution in this wliicli 
 
 both the persecuted and their persecutors must feel — that whereas 
 the hunted Cliristians had often and for a long time been com- 
 pelled to flee to caverns and rocks in the wild mountains, in some 
 periods to the catacombs of the dead for refuge, now this prophecy 
 reverses the two parties: those who had hunted them down to shed 
 their blood are now the fleeing ones, to hide in the same caverns 
 and fastnesses whither they had driven defenseless Christians and 
 where they had perhaps sought and found their victims. Isa. 14: 
 '2, treating of Jews and Chaldeans, predicts the same reversal of 
 
 their respective destiny. Note also the terrible significance and 
 
 power of those ideas — "hide us from the face of Ilim that sitteth 
 on the throne" — for who can bear to meet his dreadful eye / Who 
 can endure that look of blended dignity and love and yet of jus- 
 tice and righteousness before which no sinner can stand? And 
 who shall measure the force of that marvelous combination of 
 ideas — " the wrath of the Lamb !" It is He of Calvary, the Lamb 
 slain there, but here thought of as having been maliciously mur- 
 dered, yet now meeting his murderers face to face in fiery retri- 
 bution ! They had wildly cried, " His blood be on us and on our 
 children" — and now it comes! 
 
 Kecurring again to the application of this seal to the events 
 shortly preceding the fill of Jerusalem, 1 am well aware that some 
 of my readers will have the feeling that the prophecy outmeasure.s 
 the event — is too grand, too vast, too terrible to have had even a 
 
 primary reference to those events of history. To such I reply 
 
 (I.) That history has one way of putting its facts: poetic and 
 symbolic prophecy, another. History might tell us that fifteen 
 strong cities of Galilee were carried by storm and the masses of 
 men, women and children butchered ; that about three millions 
 of Jews, convened for their great annual passover, were crowded 
 within the walls of Jerusalem when the Roman legions invested 
 the city and shut them in: and that when the city fell, scarcely 
 so many thousands escaped — fiimine, pestilence, conflagration, their 
 own sword and the IJoman sword, had combined their powers of 
 torture and death to make this scene a climax of horrors ! iSome- 
 ivhat of this sort would be the manner of History in her record 
 of such a scene. But Poetry in prophecy might give j'^ou a bird's- 
 'yeview of the convulsions and agonies of the heavens above and 
 the earth beneath, and might paint a picture of terror and dread 
 
KEVELATION.— Cll-Vr. VII. lOo 
 
 where you ■would see kings and princes, chieftains and warriors, 
 in fearful consternation, rushing to the mountains and imploring 
 rocks-and hills to fall upon thorn and hide them from the awful 
 
 face of God ! Now it may not be an easy thing for us to place 
 
 tiie two descriptions side by side and say which means the most — 
 which outmeasures the other. Men would probably come to dif- 
 ferent conclusions upon such a ([uestion, governed very much by 
 
 the susceptibility of their minds to the poetic figures. But 
 
 passing this, I remark (2.) That the most rational way of testing 
 our main question — whether this projihecy of the sixth seal can 
 be legitimately applied in its primary sense to the fixll of Je- 
 rusalem, is, to see what is said in other prophecies of the same 
 event. I refer the reader therefore to the words of Moses (Lev. 
 L't) : 14-39, and Dent. 28 : 15-08) — prophecies, it is generally con- 
 ceded, equally applicable to the fall of Jerusalem before the Ko- 
 iiians and to its fall before the Chaldeans. Here we read — " The 
 Lord Avill make thy plagues ivonderful," etc. : " tie will bring upon 
 tlice all the plagues of Egypt which thou wast afraid of, and they 
 shall cleave to thee; and every sickness and every plague which 
 is not icriltcn in the book of this law, them will the Lord bring 
 
 upon thee until thou be destroyed." Moreover, Jesus himself 
 
 said (.Mat. 24: 21), " For then shall be great tribulation, such as 
 was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor 
 
 ever shall be." How can any symbols of prophecy be thought 
 
 to outmeasure this? 
 
 0^*^00 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 This entire chapter is interposed between the sixth seal and the 
 seventh, interrupting for the time the regular succession of the 
 scenes disclosed by the opening of the seals. We may call this as 
 many have done, an " episode ; " but the name is of small account. 
 The simple fact is that the successive seals disclose in order the 
 judgments to be sent by God on some great persecuting power. 
 This is their theme and this only. But here is a revelation, not 
 of judgments on the guilty but of blessings, first upon those Jew- 
 ish converts who having accepted Christ by faith are marked for 
 exemption from the judgments coming on their land; and next 
 upon Gehtile converts considered as "coming out of great tribula- 
 tion." They have tlieir sublimely glorious reward around the 
 throne of (Jod and the Lamb. ]\lore than one high moral pur- 
 
 i)ose was to be answered by the revelations of this chapter. (1.) 
 t lifted a great burden of solicitude from hearts trembling for the 
 ark of God lest the almost omnipresent influence of persecution 
 and the almost resistless power lodged in persecuting hands should 
 
lOG KEVELATION.-CIIAP. VI I. 
 
 quench tlic gospel's light and prevent the conversion of men to 
 (/lirist. To Christians, suffering and terror-sti'icken, nothing would 
 be more natural than this feeHng of discouragement under which 
 Hatan might tempt them to despair of their cause. To all such, 
 
 tliis revelation would be at once timely and precious. (2.) 
 
 This chapter purposely brings out near its close the ineffable 
 blessedness of those who have "gone before" through lire and 
 Ilame to a martyr's death and a martyr's reward. We can be at 
 no loss as to the moral purpose of these special revelations of the 
 bliss of heaven which we Und interposed repeatedly in this book 
 amid the predictions of judgment on persecutors. They bring 
 down the grand motive power of the heavenly rest to brace the 
 tried and tempted souls of the persecuted to Christian heroism and 
 patient endurance, sinking the agony and terror of a martyr's 
 death out of sight under the glories of that other world so near. 
 
 1. And after these things I saw four angels standing on 
 the four corners of the earth, hokling the four winds of the 
 earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on 
 the sea, nor on any tree. 
 
 "After these things" [meta tauta], here as always in the sense, 
 very soon, or perhaps immediately after. The scene would im- 
 press the beholder Avith a sense of God's supreme control over all 
 the harmful as well as the wholesome agencies of the material 
 world, suggesting also his use of angelic power to any extent at 
 his own wise discretion whenever he might have occasion to de- 
 viate little or much from his own established laws of nature. This 
 is no doubt a great fact in the providential government of God 
 over the universe of matter and to some extent of mind also, and 
 is pertinently brought out in the disclosures of this book for its 
 bearings upon the resources of God for the protection of his 
 friends and for the destruction of his enemies. 
 
 2. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, 
 iiaving the seal of the living God : and he cried Avith a 
 loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to 
 hurt the earth and sea, 
 
 3. Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the 
 trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their 
 foreheads. 
 
 Another angel now appears, having the great seal of God to 
 place upon his redeemed ones to mark them for protection against 
 the destructive agencies soon to be let loose upon the land. lie 
 commands the angels of the four winds to delay their work of 
 
 devastation till his work among God's people is done. Why 
 
 this angel is seen coming from the cast is not said, and is there- 
 fore a question of pure speculation. We let such things pass. 
 
KEVELATION.— CHAP. VII. 107 
 
 4. And I heard the number of them which were sealed: 
 and there ivere sealed a hundred and forty and four thousand 
 of all the tribes of the children of Israel. 
 
 5. Of the tribe of Juda tvere sealed twelve thousand. 
 Of the tribe of Reuben were scaled twelve thousand. Of 
 tlie tribe of Gad tvere sealed twelve thousand. 
 
 6. Of the tribe of Aser ivere sealed twelve thousand. Of 
 the tribe of Nephthalim were sealed twelve thousand. Of 
 the tribe of jMauasses were sealed twelve thousand. 
 
 7. Of the tribe of Simeon icere sealed twelve thousand. 
 Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the 
 tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand. 
 
 8. Of the tribe of Zabulon were scaled twelve thousand. 
 Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand. Of the 
 tribe of Benjamin tvere sealed twelve thousand. 
 
 It will be seen that these sealed ones are Jeivs. It is due to the 
 order and method of these visions that the number from each trilio 
 is the same. There is no occasion to press this to a literal pre- 
 cision. In the names of the tribes it is not sti-ange that Judah 
 
 stands first, nor that idolatrous Dan is omitted, and Manasseh in- 
 cluded along with Joseph to make up the number twelve. The 
 sins of Ephraim during the age of the revolt may have ruled his 
 
 name out of the list. As to the historic fact here predicted, 
 
 there can be no rational doubt that those are the fruits of the 
 gospel among the Jews prior to the fall of their city and the deso- 
 lation of their land. We readily recall the abundant proofs of 
 God's purpose to give his own covenant people the offers of gospel 
 salvation through their own Messiah, and to press them to accept, 
 long, patiently, earnestly, before he should cut short their day of 
 salvation and bring on their night of doom. We remember how 
 John, the precursor, lifted his voice throughout all the thousands 
 of Judah, preaching repentance, preparing the way of the Lord; 
 enjoiuing the people to believe on the greater One to come after 
 him. We remember how Jesus preached in all the cities of (iaii- 
 lee, Samaria, and last of all in Judah and Jerusalem; how he sent 
 forth his chosen twelve to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel;" 
 how, on the eve of his ascension, he enjoined them to commence 
 their world-wide gospel mission by " bci/inning at Jerusalem;" and 
 how the apostles exhorted their Jewish hearers to repent and save 
 themselves from that untoward generation and its near impending 
 doom. The comfort of our passage lies in the assurance it gives 
 that many were thus sealed unto salvation. (See also Acts 21 : 
 20.) Jiike the households of Israel marked with the blood of 
 sprinkling on the night of the first passover in Egypt, so these 
 tlioiisands of Israel are marked for the passing over of the fearful 
 plagues of the Almighty when his angels of desolation should let 
 up their restraining hand, and give free range to every agency of 
 
108 EL >'ELATION.— CHAP. VII. 
 
 storm, tempest, li,;j;htninf2;, hail and rain upon that guilty and doomed 
 
 people. it mij^ht bo suggested also that this sealing [marking3 
 
 in their foreheads has also in view the scene in Ezek. 9, where 
 the man clothed in linen [white] sets a mark upon the foreheads 
 of the men that sigh and cry for the abominations of Jerusalem. 
 
 9. After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which 
 no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and 
 ])eo])le, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the 
 Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands ; 
 
 10. And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our 
 God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. 
 
 "After this" — i. e., as usual, immediately after. Plainly this 
 
 multitude are not Israelites, for they are of all nations, kindreds, 
 etc. Comprehensively they are Gentiles, and of course are con- 
 verts to Christ — saved Gentiles, corresponding to the saved Jewa 
 already shown in this vision. There was no occasion to i-epresent 
 them as sealed in their foreheads, to be spared when the destroy- 
 ing angels sliould go forth, for, as here thought of, these angels are 
 destined against the land of Israel only. Hence the things to be 
 shown as to them were their equal participation in the purity and 
 the blissful rewards of heaven, their equally full and joyous as- 
 cription of their salvation to the same God on the great central 
 
 throne and to the Lamb. Precisely this we have here. The 
 
 moral purposes of this scene seem to be the joy to Christian hearts 
 that this class of the saved are a countless multitude, and that they 
 are made welcome to the full blessedness of the heavenly world. 
 It scarcely need be said that the import of their song, " Salva- 
 tion to our God," etc., is not that God is saved, but that he saves 
 lost men — is not that salvation goes to him, but that it comes from 
 him. 'J'he glorj/ of our salvation be unto God and to the Lamb 
 for evermore ! 
 
 11. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and 
 about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne 
 on their faces, and worshiped God, 
 
 12. Saying, Amen : Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, 
 and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto 
 our God forever and ever. Amen. 
 
 All the angels, forming the outer circle and inclosing the great 
 throne, the four living ones and the twenty-four elders, now man- 
 ifest their perfect sympathy and their profound interest. The 
 eeven-fold ascription, the staple of their song, corresponds remark- 
 ably with the similar seven-fold ascription from the same angelic 
 Iiost aa it appears in 5 : 12, yet differing in the order of arrange- 
 ment and in the substitution of " thanksgiving here for "riches" 
 there. What a song! No wonder Peter should say (1 Eps. 1 : 
 
IIEVELATIOX.— CHAP. VII. 109 
 
 12) of tlio ningnifiecnt themes of cospcl salvation — "which things 
 the augels desire I bend over from the battlements of the heavenly 
 city] to look into. ' And now when these matters are unfolded in 
 tlie prophetic visions shown in heaven itself, and illustrated by the 
 arrival there of saved myriads, both Jew and Gentile, why should 
 not their heart's love aud adoration be poured forth in glorious 
 song? 
 
 13. And one of tlic elders answered, saying unto me, 
 What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and 
 whence came they? 
 
 14. And I said unto him. Sir, thou knowest. And he 
 f»aid to me. These are they which came out of great tribula- 
 tion, aud have washed their robes, and made them white in 
 the blood of the Lamb. 
 
 This question by one of the elders was intended to fix the 
 prophet's attention, and thus make a deeper moral impression, 
 lie would prepare the prophet's mind for his own answer. They 
 "came out of great tribulation;" they have seen sorrow, trial, tor- 
 ture and blood unto death : but those white robes are not precisely 
 the crown of their martyrdom ; tliat whiteness is due to the blood cj' 
 the Lamb! Here we must pause to think of the striking com- 
 bination of elements in this figure — washing to a snowy whiteness 
 in blood. Was not blood, simple blood, in that age as in this, red, 
 and not white? defiling, and not cleansing? Yet there is both 
 fitness and force in this marvelous figure, and both inspired men 
 on earth and their representatives in heaven recognize it promptly. 
 'I'lic cleansing is moral, not physical; and in the blood of the Lamb 
 tiiere is untold, not to say infinite, moral power for the cleansing 
 of bouls from sin. Only by that blood comes pardon for the guilty; 
 only through the fact and the sense of pardon comes that wondrous 
 moral transformation by which trust, gratitude and love take the 
 place in depraved souls of distrust, fear and rebellion. 
 
 15. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and 
 serve him day and night in his temple : and he that sittcth 
 on the throne shall dwell among them. 
 
 16. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; 
 neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. 
 
 17. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne 
 shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains 
 of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their 
 eyes. 
 
 Such are the heavenly joys of the saved, especially of the holy 
 martyred dead. "Serving him day and night in hi.s temple" is 
 imagery of Jewish cast, the favored and honored men under tho 
 
liU REVELATION.— CHAP. VII. 
 
 Mosaic economy being those whose service lay nearest the holy of 
 holies, evermore around the 8hcchinah, his manifested presence. 
 
 "How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts 1" "Shall 
 
 dwell among them" still has the ancient earthly system for its 
 figurative ground-work — the verb "dwell" meaning precisely, shall 
 spread his tent or tabernacle over them. It is implied that he too 
 abides in the same tent with them. How blissful ! Compre- 
 hensively there can be but two main sources of illustration here 
 in our earthly prison life for setting before us the blessedness of 
 tlic heavenly state. I>oth are drawn upon largely in this passage : 
 (1.) Negatively; the denial to it of all the forms of suffering so 
 well known on earth: (2.) Positively; the manifested presence, 
 sympathy and love of the Infinite Father, of the Son, and of all 
 
 tiio holy in that world of love. The negations appear in vs. 16, 
 
 17: "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more." No 
 torrid heats shall light on them ; no tears shall ever dim their eyes 
 
 again ! Of course this list of negations does not attempt to name 
 
 ail the ills of life; these are specimen cases to cover all. It 
 
 should be noted that this method of teaching us heaven comes 
 down to our easy and perfect comprehension. It lies quite within 
 the field of our positive knowledge. Some of us have felt the pains 
 of human frailty; we have also seen the sad indications of pain in 
 the dear ones we love. But there shall be no more of it there ! 
 
 Nor let us fail to note how exquisitely tender are the last 
 
 words of this wonderful passage — "God shall wipe away all tears" 
 [Greek, "every tear"] "from their eyes." Observe it is not pre- 
 cisely that all tears shall be wiped away; is not that they shall 
 wipe away their own tears ; is not that they shall wipe away each 
 other's tears; is not that the angels shall wipe away the tears of 
 weeping saints as of their younger brethren ; it is not even that 
 Jesus shall wipe away their tears (though this might doubtless 
 have been said); but it is that the Great Father puts down his 
 own tender hand and wipes every tear away ! After this, what 
 
 could be said more ! I3ut we will not disparage the other points 
 
 so tenderly put in this matchless passage. The Lamb Avho is in 
 the midst of the throne, appearing still as the Lamb of Calvary — 
 for the scenes of that great sacrifice have left their enduring im- 
 pression on all the life and joy of heaven — Jesus, their once cru- 
 cified Redeemer, is still as ever their Shepherd, and shall feed 
 them, and he shall lead them unto living fountains of waters. 
 Food for their mental and moral nature — thought, knowledge, 
 truth, such revelations of God and of God's works as will minister 
 to the endless growth of sinless minds around the throne of God 
 shall be supplied to them by their Avell-known Shepherd. Does 
 he not know every want of their being ? Has he not constituted 
 that being, social, intellectual and moral, and has he not nurtured 
 cacli and all of its growing powers on such scale as the scenes of 
 earth admit, so that with infinite facility he can resume their edu- 
 cation and carry it on from one stage of progress to another, all 
 
REVELATION.— CHAP. VIII. Ill 
 
 along tlic iiiarcli of heaven's eternal aj!;e3? Well, all this and 
 more may be included and implied in tlie simple words — " The 
 Lamb who is in tlie midst of the throne shaM/eed them, and shall 
 load them unto living fountains of waters." 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Unlike either of the first six seals this seventh when opened 
 discloses not one particular s^nnbol, indicating a single event (or 
 some special phase of an historic period) to be sketched in few 
 words ; but it discloses an entire sevenfold set of new symbols ; 
 in other Avords, the seventh seal is itself expanded into the seven 
 trumpets, and each of these trumpets becomes a distinct symbol. 
 The object is manifestly to spread out the symbols of judgment 
 and woe, and make them more impressive by a fuller detail — a 
 
 more minute and extended description. According to Mosaic 
 
 law (Num. 10: 9) and Hebrew usage (2 Chron. 13: 12) the great 
 trumpet was blown as the signal of war, and hence became a 
 natural symbol of calamity, judgment. 
 
 In this chapter we have with the opening of the seventh seal, 
 the solemn silence (v. 1); the seven angels receiving each his 
 trumpet (v. 2) ; the symbol of incense accompanying and repre- 
 senting the prayers of saints (vs. 3, 4) ; the casting of tire from the 
 altar down to the earth and the results (v. 5) ; and then the scenes 
 which successively followed the sounding of the first four of these 
 trumpets (vs. 6-13). 
 
 1. And when lie had opened the seventh seal, there wa.s 
 silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. 
 
 This is the silence of solemn, portentous expectation ! j\Io- 
 mcntous results are foretokened: there is a sense as of something 
 grand, appalling, sublime, yet fearful, about to happen. All 
 heaven is still as if holding breath with strained eye to see what 
 is coming. Yet this waiting period is very short, for judgments 
 hasten to fulfill their mission. 
 
 2. And I saw the seven angels which stood before God ; 
 and to them were given seven trumpets. 
 
 It is noticeable that the original Greek like our English version 
 has it, not merely seven angels, but "the seven angels," as if they 
 were made definite by previous mention or liy some other circum- 
 «tances of their case. Hence those who take the "seven spirits 
 oofore the throne" (I : 4) to be the seven archangels explain the 
 
112 KEVELATIOX.— CHAP. VIII. 
 
 article here as referring to that previous mention. Others sup- 
 pose them to be simply the seven pre-eminent or arcA-angels, 
 assumed to be somewhat ■well known as usually or normally 
 " standing before God." This seems to meet best all the con- 
 ditions of this case : the seven who customarily stand nearest 
 
 before God and of highest rank. It is more to our [lurpose to 
 
 note that this is the truinp of doom ; that these angels have the 
 ministry of sounding forth each his message of fearful forewarn- 
 ing. 
 
 o. And another angel came and stood at the altar, having 
 a golden censer ; and there was given unto him mucli in- 
 cense, that he should offer it Avith the prayers of all saints 
 upon the golden altar which Avas before the throne. 
 
 4. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the 
 prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the 
 angel's hand. 
 
 It results from the prescribed arrangements for Jewish temple 
 worship that prayer is associated Avith incense. The odors exhaled 
 from burning incense ascended before God in the hour of public 
 prayer, indicating that prayer comes up before God with a pleas- 
 ing and acceptable fragrance. Hee Luke 1: 10, and Lev. 10: 12, 
 
 13. The angels seem here to perform the functions before the 
 
 altar in heaven which the High Priest performed before the altar 
 on earth. Whether this scene indicates that the angels offered 
 their prayers along with the prayers of saints on earth, it may not 
 be possible for us to determine with certainty. It is however 
 sufliciently clear that the prayers of saints on earth have an im- 
 portant connection with (<od's sending forth judgments upon the 
 great persecutors of his Zion, even as Avas shown on the opening 
 of the fifth seal (6 : 9-11). The moral purpose of this exhibition 
 we may assume Avas to assure those suffering Christians that God 
 did certainly hear their prayer for the triumph of his cause and 
 the deliverance of his people, and for the destruction of opposing 
 soAvers, in so far as this result Avas demanded by the ends of 
 justice and victory. 
 
 5. And the angel took the censei", and filled it Avith fire 
 of the altar, and cast it into the earth : and there were 
 voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earth- 
 quake. 
 
 This scene evinces the close connection between the prayers 
 that go up from the stricken souls of persecuted saints, and the 
 judgments that come down from the Hearer of prayer upon their 
 persecutors. 
 
 G. And the seven angels Avhich had the seven trumpets 
 prepared themselves to sound. 
 
EEVELATION.— CHAP. VIIT. 113 
 
 The prnlon^cd preparation — the careful, almost slow develop- 
 ment of the preliminary steps, Ibrctukcn the magnitude and so- 
 Icipnity of the impending scene. 
 
 7. The first anr^cl sounded, and there followed hail and 
 fire mingled -with blood, and they were cast upon the earth : 
 and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green 
 grass was burnt up. 
 
 8. And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great 
 mountain burnhig Avith fire was cast into the sea: and the 
 third part of the sea became blood ; 
 
 9. And tlie third part of the creatures which were in the 
 sea, and had life, died ; and the third part of the ships 
 were destroyed. 
 
 10. And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great 
 star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell 
 upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains 
 of waters ; 
 
 11. And the name of the star is called Wormwood : and 
 the third part of the waters became wormw^ood ; and many 
 men died of the waters, because they were made bitter. 
 
 12. And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of 
 the sun w^as smitten, and the third part of the moon, and 
 the third part of the stars ; so as the third part of them 
 was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, 
 and tlie night likewise. 
 
 Ixemarkably these first four trumpets have several of their most 
 prominent points in common, being alike in all; e,g.^ (1.) That 
 the plague denoted by each has its own special sphere, the first 
 falling upon the land ; the second upon the sea ; the third upon 
 rivers and fountains ; the fourth upon the heavenly bodies as 
 sources of light: and (2.) That each plague limits its destructive 
 agency to one third part: — one third part of the trees of the earth 
 Avere burned up ; one third part of the sea became blood ; one 
 third part of the living creatures in the sea died ; one third part 
 of the ships on the great waters were destroyed; the great star 
 from heaven fell on the third part of the rivers and fountains ; 
 one third part of the waters became wormwood ; one third part 
 of the sun, moon and stars was smitten, and one third of the 
 light of day and night also was cut off. Now it seems olivious 
 that this definite i-cgularity is due to the infiuence of the idea of 
 order over these symbols, and must not be supposed to measure 
 "with just this precision the extent of these several plagues. Nor 
 inde(^d need we expect to locate these judgments in actual history, 
 tlie first installment upon the earth ; tlie second upon the sea; the 
 third upon rivers and fountains ; and the fourth upon the great 
 
114 REVELATION.— CIIAr. VIII. 
 
 lights of heaven. To assume and expect this would be to mis- 
 conceive the true purpose of such symbolic representations. Much 
 less as it seems to me are we authorized to map out these succes- 
 sive trumpets on the grand chart of human history, giving to the 
 first a section of from two to iive hundred years, more or less; to 
 the second another successive section of either fixed or variable 
 length, applying every point of these symbols to some supposed 
 analogous event, etc. Home have done this, with immense labor, 
 but with ever varying results. It is simply impossible that such 
 speculations in searching out some analogies between these sym- 
 bols and the history of the long ages since the Christian era, can ever 
 be harmonious, or very satisfactory to any but those who have 
 made them. The fatal vice in them all is that their very con- 
 struction of these symbols makes them a labyrinth of mysteries. 
 Then, having made them such, they try to find a path through 
 and out, with absolutely no thread to guide them. They begin 
 tlie study of the whole book by ignoring or ruling out the land- 
 marks, or to retain the figure, the guiding thread which marks the 
 pathway through. 
 
 J Jut let us return to the symbols of our passage. To some ex- 
 tent they seem to imitate tlie plagues on Egypt; especially the 
 first, the plague of hail; the second, the waters turned to blood; 
 the third is analogous; the fourth bears a resemblance to the 
 plague of darkness, or rather it follows the general law of poetic 
 
 imagery by which darkness represents calamity. The " great 
 
 mountain burning with fire, cast into the sea," suggests volcanic 
 eruptions as its source ; the great star burning as a lamp falling 
 from heaven has its prototype at long intervals in those startling 
 manifestations in the heavens which have the appearance of being 
 great world-conflagrations, burning for months with surprising 
 
 brilliancy, and then becoming extinct forever! Inverse 11 the 
 
 waters that became wormwood were not only bitter but poisonous. 
 
 In verse 12 it becomes a question, in reference to the day and 
 
 the night, whether the language means that one-third of the usual 
 period of each was made absolutely dark; or that one-third of 
 their ordinary light was withdrawn, leaving but two-thirds of the 
 average amount shining. The latter seems most probable, this 
 being the natural result of obscuring one-third part of those lu- 
 minous bodies from which day and night obtain their light. As 
 
 has been said, all these symbols indicate calamit}^, judgment. I 
 can not regard it as demanded of the interpreter that ho make up 
 a series of historic facts which shall precisely match these sym- 
 bols one by one and measure accurately to each its amount of 
 woe, as inllictcd on each city, or each generation, or in each year. 
 Suffice it that Jesus himself in his predictions of the full of Jeru- 
 salem and its premonitory indications (Mat. 24, and its parallel 
 passages) has drawn a picture strikingly similar to this. Let it 
 also suffice that history fills the interval of some ten years, more 
 or less, before the final fall of the cit}^, with scenes of alarm, ter- 
 
EEVELATION.— CHAP. IX. 115 
 
 ror, outrage, calamity, carnari;o, crime, and -woe, to which theso 
 sjiiihols correspond with a precision that seems to me to leave 
 nothing more to be desired. 
 
 13. And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through 
 the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, w'oe, 
 woe, to the iuhabiters of the earth by reason of the other 
 voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to 
 sound ! 
 
 The best authorities read the text eagle instead of " angel " — 
 the sense being no douljt an angel Hying eagle-like through mid- 
 heaven. His mission was to pre-intimate yet more fearful woes 
 upon the sounding of tlie last tliree trumpets. Ilcncc these last 
 three are frequently designated " woe-trumpets." 
 
 o^«>^c 
 
 CIIAFTEll IX. 
 
 This chapter gives us tiie fifth and sixth trumpets, spoken of 
 sometimes as the first and second of the woe-trumpets. 
 
 1. And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall 
 from heaven unto the earth : and to him was given the key 
 of the bottomless pit. 
 
 2. And he opened the bottomless pit ; and there arose a 
 ."moke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace ; and 
 the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke 
 of the pit. 
 
 This "star" represented a conscious intelligent agent, for he re- 
 ceives the key of the pit of the abyss and proceeds to open it. He 
 is one of God's angels, brilliant and distinguished like a star. 
 For the figure we may compare Num. 24 : 17: "There shall come 
 a Star out of Jacob, and a Scepter shall rise out of Israel and 
 shall smite the corners of Moab," etc. 
 
 3. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the 
 earth : and unto them was given power, as the scorpions 
 of the earth have power. 
 
 4. And it Avas commanded them that they should not 
 liurt the grass of the earth, neitlier any green thing, neither 
 any tree ; but only tlio.se men which have not the seal of 
 God in their foreheads. 
 
116 EEVELATION.— CHAP. IX. 
 
 Tills may not mean that the Sraoko generated the locusts, nor 
 that the locusts, coining up in a dense cloud, were at first mis- 
 taken for smoke, but Avere ultimately seen to he only locusts; but 
 rather that the issuing smoke was the natural product of a burn- 
 ing pit and that the locusts came up with the smoke and so 
 
 emerged from it. Their poAver was like that of scorpions — to 
 
 torment rather than to kill. That is, while they were nearly lo- 
 custs in form and general apperance, they were essentially scor- 
 pions in their power and functions. This special feature is 
 brought out yet more defmitcly by explicit statement (vs. 4 and 5). 
 
 Naturally locusts are destructive to grass, green things and 
 
 trees, subsisting on such food ; but these are commissioned to hurt 
 only men, and of men, only those who had not the seal of God in 
 their foreheads — a circumstance which closely connects this seal 
 and its events with the scenes of chap. 7. The sealing there was 
 jireparatory to the exemption from the plagues revealed here. 
 This fact forbids us to divorce that marking of good men which 
 lies between the sixth seal and the seventh from this symbol of 
 torment which belongs to the fifth trumpet. It would be a reckless 
 severing of this intimate connection to interpret the four inter- 
 vening trumpets (chap. 8) as sweeping us on over whole centuries 
 of the history of our world, to find the scenes of the fifth trumpet 
 afar down ages beyond the marking of good men for exemption 
 from its plagues as given in chapter 7. 
 
 5. And to them it was given that they should not kill 
 them, but that they should be tormented five months : and 
 their torment ivas as the torment of a scorpion, when he 
 striketh a man. 
 
 G. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall 
 not find it ; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee 
 from them. 
 
 Here the significance of the symbol is brought out yet more 
 fully. They are not to kill but to hurt — not to take life but to 
 take from it all its joys and leave men longing for a death that 
 
 will not come to their relief! We can not be far from the 
 
 truth when Ave apply this fearful symbol of Avoe to those demoniac 
 passions that burned in human hearts and fired them to madness 
 and agony in the early months of that aAvful siege of the city of 
 Jerusalem. It was hell uncapped and its ministries of torment 
 sent up in clouds to smite their maddening stings into the guilty 
 souls of men. Whoever will read the accoutit of those conflicts 
 and feuds, or rather, of that infuriate madness which set brother 
 against brother, father against son, and son against father, and 
 turned the myriad SAVords and daggers of her Avarriors one against 
 another, making the sah'ation of the city impossible, and its un- 
 utterable ruin ineA'itable ; and then AA'ill consider for a moment 
 hoAV this must have stricken doAvn all hope in every JcAvish bosom, 
 
HEVELATIOX.-CIIAP. IX. 117 
 
 nnd palsied every arm, and made life intolerable, will see a strik- 
 ing; harmony between the prophetic portrayin;;:; and the historic 
 
 Tacts. Other prophecy had touched these prominent features 
 
 of this awful scene. Moses had written (Dent. 28: 06, 67): "And 
 thy life shall hanu; in doubt before thee, and thou shalt fear day 
 and night and shalt have none assurance of thy life: in the morn- 
 ing thou shalt say, AVould (Jod it were evening! And at evening. 
 
 Would God it were morning!" Jesus also, as recorded by 
 
 Luke (21 : 23-20): "There shall be great distress upon the land 
 and wrath upon the people : upon the earth distress of nations 
 with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts fail- 
 ing them for fear and for looking after those things which are 
 coming on the earth; for the powers of heaven shall be shaken." 
 
 7. And the shapes of the locust.? were like unto horses 
 prepared unto battle ; and on their heads tvere as it were 
 crowns like gold, and their faces ivere as the faces of men, 
 
 8. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their 
 teeth "were as the teeth of lions. 
 
 9. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of 
 iron ; and the sound of their wings 7oas as tiie sound of char- 
 iots of many horses running to battle. 
 
 10. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there 
 were stings in their tails ; and their power ivas to hurt 
 men five months. 
 
 These descriptive features combine to make up a most appalling 
 
 picture. Five months was the normal life-period of the locust. 
 
 Tiiis limit of time is therefore probably due to this fact, rather 
 than to the precise duration of the historic events to which the 
 symbol looks. Home critics stretch this period of five months to 
 one hundred and fifty years, on the baseless assumption that a day 
 in prophecy is a year in history and in fact. Such theorists are 
 respectfully requested to study Dissertation I, at the close of this 
 volume. 
 
 11. And they had a king over them, which is the angel 
 of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is 
 Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name ApoUyon. 
 
 12. One woe is past ; and, behold, there come two woes 
 more hereafter. 
 
 These ministehs of torment, coming u)) from the great pit of the 
 nbysa, are marshaled and led on by a king whose name signifies 
 'JVie I)es/ro7/er. This entire symljol of the fifth trumpet, and more 
 particularly this one feature of it — their king Apollyon — seem to 
 nhow that CJod employs the spirits of darkness as his ministers of 
 vengeance and judgment upon the incorrigibly guilty in this world 
 even — perhaps as foreshadowing their similar service of tortm-in^ 
 
L18 KEVELATION.— CHAP, IX. 
 
 tlio wicked in the ffreat prison-house of woe in the world to come. 
 Lot no one think of the devil as too good to torment his victims — 
 too good to lead on the agents and ministers of torture to madden 
 and desolate human souls, either in earth or hell, in this world or 
 the next! 
 
 13. And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice 
 from the four horns of the golden altar which is belbre 
 God, 
 
 14. Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, 
 Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river 
 Euphrates, 
 
 The sixth trumpet corresponds closely in general significance 
 with the fifth, difiering chiefly in the respect of a manifest advance ; 
 
 for while that was only torture, this is actual death. That tiiis 
 
 voice comes from the golden altar indicates again how close the 
 connection is between the prayers of saints sufifcring under perse- 
 cution and these judgments of Clod upon their persecutors. Com- 
 pare 6: 9-11, and 8: 3-6. That the four angels of destruction 
 
 are loosed from the great river Euphrates is obviously an histor- 
 ical allusion, either to Nebuchadnezzar or to Cyrus, and most 
 naturally to the former, since (Jod raised him up as his servant to 
 scourge his ancient people in that age of their deep and desperate 
 apostasy. The analogies between that age and this were in many 
 points most obvious : hence the pertinence of this symbol which 
 I)rings up God's agents of desolation from the same quarter. The 
 lloman arms were only a second edition of the lierce and terrible 
 Chaldeans, sent of God to scourge a like guilty and hopeless apos- 
 tasy from the God of their fathers. 
 
 15. And the four angels were loosed, which Avere prepared 
 for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay 
 the third jDart of men. 
 
 16. And the number of the army of the horsemen ivere 
 two hundred thousand thousand : and I heard the number 
 of them. 
 
 The time is limited, the period short; so were the scenes of the 
 siege and fall of Jerusalem. The symbols thus far seem to con- 
 template only its earlier stages, not its final catastrophe. The 
 
 numbers of horsemen are astonishingly great — so great that no 
 human eye could estimate them; but the prophet says that he 
 heard the number stated. We are left to imagine how thrilling 
 this scene must have been. 
 
 17. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them 
 that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, 
 and brimstone : and the heads of the horses ivere as the 
 
EEVELATIOX.— CHAP. IX. 119 
 
 heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and 
 smoke and brimstone. 
 
 18. By these three was tlie third part of men killed, by 
 tlie fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which 
 issued out of their mouths. 
 
 19. For their power is in tlieir mouth, aud in their tails : 
 for their tails were like uuto serpents, and had heads, and 
 with them they do hurt. 
 
 Tt is remarkable that altlioiigli the numl)or of this army of cav- 
 rilry is so enormous, yet little is apparently made of the martial 
 force of the riders — the horsemen; none of tlieir features IjciuLi; 
 <;iven save their breastplates; while the description of the horses 
 is very minute, and their destructive force is terrible. These cir- 
 cumstances may be in part ascribed to the fact that the Jews never 
 liad cavalry of their own for war, but had some bitter and woll- 
 remembercd experience of the terror of this arm of military strength. 
 Hence such a representation as this Avould be fearfully impressive. 
 
 In the fulfilling history, the shock of the Ixoman arms was 
 
 terrible. It brought down upon the Jewish state and society a 
 power which they could by no means resist. 
 
 20. And the rest of the men which were not killed b}' 
 these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, 
 that they should not w^orship devils, and idols of gold, and 
 silver, and brass, aud stone, and of wood; which neither can 
 see, nor hear, nor walk : 
 
 21. Neither repented they of their murder.?, nor of their 
 sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. 
 
 The men not killed by these plagues refused to repent. With 
 one heart they persisted to the last in their rebellion against Cod 
 and in their mad infatuation. Hence there could be no reversal 
 of their doom, nor any long suspension in this series of desolating 
 
 jilagues. The description of their sins names the worship of 
 
 devils and of senseless idols, because, of all sins known to the 
 Hebrew prophets, these liad been most abominable and offensive 
 to God. It can not be certainly inferred that the crimes of the 
 Jews which filled their cup of national guilt to its brim in the age 
 here referred to were precisely of this form. The terms of the 
 description are historic in their origin, taking their shape from the 
 ancient prophets. Their actual sins indicated a strength of moral 
 hardihood in rebellion against (rod, a depth of depravity, a des- 
 peration in their stand against Jesus of Nazai'eth, altogether sur- 
 passing the worst idolatries of the old prophetic ages. The fact 
 that under the most fearful scourging they would not repent, suf- 
 ficed to seal their doom; and now its consummation hastens on 
 aiKice. 
 
120 REVELATION.— CHAP. X. 
 
 C HA FT Eli X. 
 
 This short chapter, unsurpassed in the magnificence of its scenes, 
 is'rcmarkalile for its introduction of new imagery. The old sym- 
 bolism which in its general outline has been constantly before us 
 through chapters .5-*J is now, not perhaps entirely dropped, but 
 greatly modified by the appearance of new elements. Conse- 
 quently we have new questions of interpretation to grapple with. 
 But let it be suggested that in so far as these questions per- 
 tain rather to the drapery of the vision than to its contents and 
 subject-matter, their importance is only secondary, and is not vital. 
 Yet it must be a matter of some interest to look into these ques- 
 tions of drapery and symbol. Thus we have here the questions : 
 
 (1.) Who is this mighty angel? the Son of God himself, or some 
 archangel? (2.) What is this little book? what are its contents? 
 what its relations to the first book (chap. 5), and what (if any) to 
 the second part of this book of Revelation (chaps. 12-19)? (3.) 
 What was said by "the seven thunders?" and if their sayings are 
 not to be even conjectured, why did they speak at all, and why is 
 any thing said of their speaking? (4.) What is meant by the two- 
 fold result of eating this book, the sweetness and the bitterness ? 
 To these questions we will give some attention in their place. 
 
 More vitally important than any mere question of costume is the 
 fact that this chapter comes in here to apprise us that the grand 
 catastrophe is near — that the long delayed and final blow is about 
 to fall. The blast of the seventh trumpet, closing out the contents 
 of the seventh seal, will cut short and complete the fearful work 
 of retribution on the first grand enemy of Christianity. The event 
 is of such importance as to justify these solemn premonitions by 
 
 means of this new and magnificent imagery. Hence in this 
 
 chapter we have a mighty angel coming down from heaven, and 
 his appearance (v. 1); his little book and his attitude (v. 2); the 
 speaking of the seven thunders which was not to be recorded (vs. 3, 
 4); the solemn oath of this mighty angel and its import (vs. 5-7); 
 the taking and eating of the book and its effect (vs. 8-10) ; with 
 an intimation to the prophet of his further work (v. 11). 
 
 1. And I saw another niiglity angel come down from 
 heaven, clothed with a cloud : and a rainbow ^cas u^Don his 
 head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as 
 piUars of fire : 
 
 The reader will notice that the standpoint of the seer is some- 
 what changed. From chapter 4 onward, his point of view is 
 mainly in heaven, save that his sweep sometimes seems to em- 
 brace earth as well; but liere he sees an "angel come down from 
 heaven " — i. e., to the earth upon which the seer is supposed to 
 stand. One " mighty angel' has been seen before (5 : 2) where 
 
REVELATION.— CHAP. X. 121 
 
 our Englisli version lias "stronji;," but the CJi-eck has the same 
 
 word as here. " The rainbow," it sliould be read, perhaps in 
 
 the sense, the rainlww par cxeellencc, in its highest splendor and 
 jrlory. " Ilis face as the sun " corresponds to the description of 
 "the Son of man" (1: It)), and not essentially unlike ai"e hia 
 feet; here, "as pillars of lire; " there, "like unto fine brass as if 
 
 they burned in a furnace." AVas this "other mighty angel" 
 
 truly the Son of man, or some lofty archangel ? I incline strongly 
 to the former opinion, induced by the majesty of his appearance, 
 by the close analogy between this description and that given of 
 Je.sus Christ in 1 : 13-16 ; by the fact that Jesus appropriately 
 has the custody of the book of destiny; as in 5 : 7, and 6 : 1, etc., 
 so liere also; and further, that when Jesus becomes a messenger, 
 bringing down the book of destiny from heaven to earth, he may 
 very fitly be termed an angel. This corresponds with Old Testa- 
 ment usage. (See Ex. 23: 20-23, and elsewhere.) 
 
 2. And he had in his hand a little book oj^en : and he 
 set his ri^jdit foot upon the sea, and Im left foot on the 
 earth, 
 
 Questions of secondary interest cluster alx)ut this "little book," 
 claiming only a brief attention. Of these the main one is — WItat 
 were its contents ? Did it comprise the second great division of 
 this book of Ixcvelation, i. c, chaps. 12-19? Or was it only a 
 codicil or supplement to the first book with its seven seals, or pos- 
 sildy, what remained of that first book itself, but brought forward 
 prominently here only to reveal the great lact of this chapter — • 
 the immediate ajiproach of the grand catastrophe — the fact of no 
 more delay, but the terrible execution of the long impending venge- 
 ance ? 1 am drawn to the latter view by the following con- 
 siderations: (1.) No "book" of destiny appears in the imagery 
 tiiroughout chaps. 12-11). (2.) If this "little book" comprised those 
 ^•hapter.s, it would not be little relatively to the first, hut great. {'.'>.) 
 'i'liis l)ook appears at first as " open," indicating that its contents 
 are fairly out; not shut up; a circumstance appropriate if its 
 contents were the things brought out in this chapter, but inaj)- 
 propriate if they were the events of chaps. 12-18. (4.) It will 
 seem incongruous and unaccountable that a little book, pregnant 
 with the prophecies of Kome (chaps. 12-18), should be brought to 
 view here, on the very eve of the great catastrophe of Judaism, 
 where we naturally look for concentration of thought upon this 
 near impending and most appalling event. This latter considera- 
 tion has chief influence on my mind to restrain me from finding 
 Uome in this "little book." 
 
 The point made above (No. 3) somewhat fiivors the opinion 
 that this book is essentially the same as the first, now appearing 
 pmall because the greater part of its contents have been disposed 
 of. It is significantly said to be "open," or rather as the partici- 
 ple strictly means opened, laid open — all its seven seals broken, and 
 6 
 
122 REVELATION.— CIIAr. X. 
 
 all its contents now disclosed. It is no longer a book scaled with 
 seven seals but a book with all its seals broken. It is in the 
 same hand as when seen before in heaven. lie brinies it down 
 now for the special purpose of niakini:; the solemn proclamation 
 by the sacred oath that the time of vengeance — the time to fulfill 
 the last terrible judgment included in this l)ook — has come. 
 
 The grandeur of his attitude — his right foot on the sea and bis 
 left on the land — revealed him as the mighty Lord of all, Maker 
 nnd Sovereign of worlds. 
 
 3. And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth : 
 and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. 
 
 4. And when tlie seven thunders had uttered their voices, 
 I was about to write : and I lieard a voice from heaven 
 sayiug unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thun- 
 ders uttered, and write them not. 
 
 "He cried as a lion roai'cth ; " — the word "when" given in our 
 
 English version is omitted by all the best authorities. The word 
 
 rendered "uttered" is commonly used of speaking articulate 
 Avords and not of making inarticulate sounds. These thunders 
 (always in the best manuscripts " the seven thunders," v. 3) speak 
 audible, intelligible words, and therefore John at iirst supposed 
 they were tD be written down. The command to "seal them" 
 seems to have meant only — forbear to write them ; seal them 
 
 up in thine heart ; put no word they have spoken on paper. ■ 
 
 Why was this ? If it were wrong for us to conjecture, why did 
 they speak at all and why was so much recorded about their 
 
 speaking ? 1 have no conjecture to offer save this — that they 
 
 spake, as none but the seven thunders could speak, of the final 
 fall of Jerusalem, and that the suppression of their words harmo- 
 nizes essentially with the manner in which the sounding of the 
 seventh angel is given (11: 15), i. e., by implication rather than 
 by explicit assertion; by giving only the thrill of joy it sent 
 through heaven, and not the dark, sad aspect of woful desolation 
 as viewed on the side of human suffering, or the wreck of the once 
 sacred city and temple. 
 
 5. And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and 
 upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, 
 
 6. And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who 
 ^'.reated heaven, and the things that thei'ein are, and the 
 earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the 
 things which are therein, that there should be timie no 
 longer : 
 
 7. But in the days of tlie voice of the seventh angel, when 
 he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God shall be fin- 
 ished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets. 
 
EEVELATION.— CHAP. X. 123 
 
 "Lifted up his lumd " in the improved text becomes his right 
 hand. Lifting the hand toward lieaven was the form of the sol- 
 pinn oatii, said of Abraham ((Jen. 1-t: 22), and repeatedly of (Jod 
 himself (Ex. 6: 8, and Num. 10: 30, and Dent. 32: 40). The last 
 named passage is emphatic : " For I lift up my hand to heaven 
 and say, 1 live forever! If I whet my glittering sword and 
 mine hand take hold on judgment," etc. The coincidence of 
 tliought as well as language suggests that this awful passage may 
 have been in the mind of the august speaker in the verse before 
 
 us. " That there shall be time no longer " does not mean, no 
 
 more time as compared with eternity, i. e., no longer probation for 
 the race on this earth ; but it means precisely, no longer delay in 
 the execution of the doom threatened upon the great enemy of 
 Christ's kingdom. The delay has already been long: it can bo 
 
 protracted no longer! In verse 7, the translation, "When he 
 
 shall begin to sound," is not accurate. The original neither makes 
 nor implies any distinction between the l)oginning of his sounding 
 and the later or closing periods of it. The precise sense is, who 
 shall sound very soon, or more fully, when he shall sound, which 
 will be very soon. This (Jreek future is made by a special verb 
 [incllo'] for which we have no precise e(tuivalcnt, but which is used 
 with another verb in the infinitive to qualify it as we use an ad- 
 verb, and which indicates a future event close at hand. Examples 
 are abundant, e. g., " ready to die" (Luke 7:2); "at the point of 
 death" (John 4: 47), the same Greek words as the preceding; 
 "were almost ended" (Acts 21: 27); "the things that remain 
 which are ready to die" (Kev. 3: 2). So here, "Who is ready to 
 sound," on the very point of sounding, and when he shall do so, 
 tlien "shall the mystery of (Jod be finished." This word "mys- 
 tery " is used by the New Testament writers of things revealed by 
 the Old Testament prophets wliich were otherwise inscrutable to 
 human vision. Here the word refers to tlie judgments long before 
 predicted against the Jewish city and nation for their persistent 
 and most guilty rejection of their Messiah, as in the last two 
 chapters of Isaiah. [See my notes on those chapters.] The lan- 
 guage here does not naturally imply (as some have supposed) that 
 all the prophecies given by the old prophets were then to be ful- 
 filled, but only this special judgment which had been foreshown 
 by the prophets respecting the retributive judgment of God on that 
 people, once his own by covenant, but then fearfully, utterly, 
 hopelessly apostate. 
 
 8. And the voice ■which I heard from heaven .spake unto 
 me again, and said, Go and take tlie little book which is 
 open in the hand of the angel which standeLh upon the sea 
 and upon the earth. 
 
 9. And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give 
 me the little book. And he .said unto me, Take it, and eat 
 
124 REVELATION.— CHAP. XI. 
 
 it up ; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be 
 in thy mouth sweet as lioncy. 
 
 10. And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, 
 and ate it up ; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey : 
 and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. 
 
 To cat a book is to take its contents into tlie mind and consider 
 tliem diliijcntly, or to keep up the fiiiure, "inwardly digest" tlicni. 
 
 This symbol is imitated IVom Ezck. 2. On the question, What 
 
 precisely is meant by its being sweet in the mouth but bitter and 
 painful after being sM'allowed, we must choose between these 
 alternatives: (1.) Pleasant in its first impressions and in the first 
 view taken of it, but painful in the subsequent reflection upon it. 
 Or (2.) That some of its revelations were joyous and some were 
 sad; or which amounts nearly to the same tiling — that this great 
 event would be joyful in some of its aspects and relations but sad 
 
 and afflictive in other aspects of it. i incline to the latter view 
 
 which certainly applies forcibly to the great truth which was tlie 
 chief if not the only burden of this little book — viz., the ruin of 
 the city, temple, and civil state of the Jews. This event, seen in 
 its relations to the progress and triumphs of Christianity — seen aa 
 a sublime manifestation of Cod's righteous retribution upon a most 
 guilty people — was glorious to God and fraught with success and 
 victory to Christ's kingdom : but seen on the side of the human 
 sufferings involved in it — seen in the light of the hallowed associa- 
 tions of every Jew with the sacred temple, the holy city, the homes 
 and the sepulchers of the honored fathers, it was bitter to the 
 eoul. 
 
 11. And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again 
 before many peojjles, and nations, and tongues, and kings. 
 
 Though the scenes of the first book of destiny, and of its "little" 
 supplement, were about to close, yet John is reminded that there 
 are yet other events to be predicted. " Thou must prophesy 
 again," not before [in the presence of], but concerning people, 
 nations, etc. — i. e., Gentile powers as distinguished from Jews. 
 The language implies that thus far he has prophesied concerning 
 Jews, but that the latter part of his book will treat of Gentile 
 powers. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 In this remarkable chapter, the interest of the first great series 
 of symbols and prophetic events culminates. We reach the crisi.s 
 and culmination. Vs. 1, 2 treat of the temple, the altar and 
 
REVELATION.— CHAP. XI. 125 
 
 tlic worshipers; then follows the case of the two witnesses, their 
 functions and powers; their martyrdom and its locality; the exulta- 
 tion over tiicir unburied bodies ; their resurrection and ascension 
 to heaven ; thC consternation of their enemies and the convulsions 
 that ensued (vs. 3-lo); the sounding of the seventh angel's trumpet 
 tlic song of heaven, and the closing scene in the upper temple (vs. 
 H-19). 
 
 1. And there was given me a recti like unto a rod : and 
 the angel stood, saying, Ivise, and measure thei temple of 
 God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. 
 
 2. But the court which is without the temple leave out, 
 and measure it not ; for it is given unto the Gentiles : and 
 the lioly city shall they tread under foot forty atid two 
 months. 
 
 When Jeremiah and the old prophets tonlemplatcd and pre- 
 dicted the capture of Jerusalem, the fate of the temple could not 
 be overlooked ; indeed it was the iirst and central thought. No 
 one prediction from Jeremiah made so much impression upon the 
 people as that which declared (Jer. 7: 1-15, and 26: 6) — "I 
 will make this house like IShiloh." So in the present case the 
 temple must needs come to mind before the doom of the city is 
 
 consummated. The ''reed like a rod" and the measuring of 
 
 the temple are in imitation of Ezek. 40. Kemarkably the best 
 
 manuscripts omit the clause, "and the angel stood," the passage 
 I'cading literally — " There was given me a reed like a rod, saying," 
 etc., i. «., one, some one not defined, saying. As to the sig- 
 nificance of this transaction, no other view seems to me admissible 
 save this — that it puts in other symbol what we had in chap. 7: 
 1-8, viz., the sifting out for salvation of all the precious elements 
 from among tiie ancient covenant people before the last crushing 
 IjIow should fall. The Simeons and the Annas, the devout and 
 honest worshipers of the true God, must be carefully measured 
 otf and removed away, and possibly the symbol may include the 
 idea that all which is worth preserving in the temple itself and 
 its altar — all jts embodied truths, all its symbolic power, all its 
 hallowed associations — must be husbanded with a wise economy 
 and treasured away safely before the storm of ruin shall engulf both 
 city and temple. Hat the " court without the temple " — always far 
 less holy — leave out ; it is given to the Gentiles ; the holy city they 
 will tread proudly and insultingly under their feet three years and 
 
 an half The great event predicted here is doul)tless the siege 
 
 and ultimate sack, pillage, and utter destruction of both city and 
 temple by the Romans. The language in part (•'trodden under 
 foot") follows that of Jesus himself (Luke 21: 24): "Jerusalem 
 shall be trodden down of the Gentiles." Uut the time and in gen- 
 eral the symbols take their shape from the very analogous case of 
 the famous deseci'ation of the tcmi)lc by Antiochus as foretold hx 
 
126 REVELATION.-CIIAP. XT. 
 
 Daniel (8: 10-14, and 11: 31). This accounts for the duration 
 named here — "forty two months" — this beinj:; precisely the period 
 given by Daniel, and proximately the duration of the siege and 
 
 sack of Jerusalem by the Romans. That Jerusalem is certainly 
 
 meant by " the holy city," 1 do not see how any one can reasonably 
 doubt. So of " the temple " and " the altar," we are all afloat if 
 we abandon the literal, normal sense of these words, and consult 
 our fancy for some ideal sense which neither John or his first 
 readers could possibly have thought of Let us not forget that the 
 writer is a Jew ; that he Avas perfectly at home in whatever per- 
 tains to the temple, the altar, its worshipers, the court without 
 and the holy city ; that many of his readers also were familiar 
 more or- less with the Jewish sense of these words; so that it is 
 simply impossible that they could have given any other sense to 
 these words than what I have here assumed. Consequently here 
 is one of the landmarks of our prophetic interpretation. We know 
 that the temple, altar Mid holy city were standing at the time of 
 this vision ; we know they were on the very eve of their desolation ; 
 we know therefore that this desolation — so "shortly'' after these 
 visions were seen and recorded — can not possibly be any other 
 than that eifccted by the Roman armies A. D. 70. It should be 
 some comfort to us to know Avhere we are in place and in time in 
 this series of prophetic events. It gives a pleasing sense of cer- 
 tainty in the results of our investigations. 
 
 3. And I will give poiver unto my two witnesses, and 
 they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore 
 days, clothed in sackcloth. 
 
 These two witnesses, here sprung upon us suddenly with no pre- 
 intimation, are prominent and important characters in this series 
 of prophetic events. I hardly need say that the diversity of 
 opinions respecting them among commentators has been' almost 
 endless. My readers will excuse me from giving even a catalogue 
 of these discordant opinions, and much more from discussing and 
 combatting them — better pleased that I should labor to present if 
 possible a fair interpretation of the whole passage which will meet 
 all its exigencies and satisfy every reasonable requirement. 
 
 I will iirst state briefly my views of the two witnesses: then 
 explain particular words and phrases throughout tlie passage; 
 and close with my reasons for adopting this view of their mean- 
 ing as symbols in preference to any other. 
 
 I think these two witnesses are not literal but represev.tativa 
 5ien ; that we are not to look among the apostles or the early 
 Christian martyrs to find precisely the two individual men in 
 whom these conditions shall all meet; nor do I at all accept thase 
 moro wild theories which make them the Old and the New Testa- 
 ment scriptures; or the Jewish church and the' Christian ; or the 
 Waldenses and the iVlbigensos, etc., but I take them as representative 
 characters, standing for all those Christian witnesses for the truth 
 
REVELATION.— CHAP. XI. 127 
 
 of whom Jesus himself was at the head, and liis faithful disciplca 
 and apostles, -walkinj:: in his steps, filled up the ranks till the fall 
 af Jerusalem. The thought doubtless holds closely to those who 
 testified for Christ before the Jewish nation — who were the Lord's 
 gospel witnesses, proclaiming to the Jews both its messages of 
 mercy and its threatened doom of judgment unless they should 
 repent. Jolin the Baptist heads the list in time ; Jesus, in promi- 
 nence, dignity and power; but a host of those men — Stephen, 
 
 James, Peter and Paul, fill up the catalogue. In a symbolic 
 
 representation it can not be exjiectcd that all these individual men 
 should api)ear. The number two is chosen probably because " in 
 the mouth of tAvo or three witnesses every word" by Jewish law 
 "was established." There may also be a tacit allusion to the his- 
 toric fact that Jesus sent out his first witnesses two and two into 
 every city. According to Mark (6 : 7) the twelve were sent out 
 thus, and according to Lukc(lU: 1) the seventy. These re- 
 marks will give my general views of these two witnesses. 
 
 In the ])hrase, "1 will give power unto my two witnesses," there 
 being no Greek Avord for " power," it is better to give the phrase 
 a broader sense, perhaps thus : I will commission my two wit- 
 nesses — 1 will give them the responsibility of prophesying; or, not 
 improbably, I will give them every help they need — a heart of 
 boldness, words of wisdom — according to Christ's promise: "Jt 
 shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak" (Mat. 
 10: 19). "Twelve hundred and sixty days " is itself a sym- 
 bolic period representing special trial, temptation, conflict. The 
 antecedent historic facts which made this period of three and a 
 lialf years so memorable, sacred and significant, and which fitted 
 it so admirably for a symbolic type of like trying periods in all 
 coming ages, stand in the book of Daniel — that mournful and most 
 affiictive desecration of the temple by Antiochus Epiphanes. With 
 these historic facts in view, standing in a prophecy entirely fresh 
 to the mind of John in I'atmos, we need go no further to account 
 for this designation of time. It matters not how long precisely 
 the witnesses represented by these two, did actually testify to the 
 Jews before the iiill of their city. To these symbolic representative 
 men is assigned a period which is itself symbolic and suggestive 
 
 of calamity and trial to God's people. The numerous theories 
 
 as to these two witnesses which assume that they lived and proph- 
 esied twelve hundred and sixty years instead of so many days must 
 be discarded as utterly baseless. See the special Dissertation in 
 the Appendix. The same remarks apply to the " forty two months " 
 
 of V. 2 above. That they arc clothed in sackcloth testifies that 
 
 they are men of kindred spirit with Elijah and John the Baptist. 
 
 4. These are tlie two olive-trees, and the two candlesticks 
 standing before the God of the earth. 
 
 The older manuscripts have "Lord" instead of "God;" — "the 
 Lord of all the eartii." The two olive-trees and the two candle- 
 
^28 liEVELATION.— CIIAr. XI. 
 
 Rtieks (lamp-stands) are from Zech. 4, where they represent the 
 two sacred orders — civil rulers and priests — under whose spiritual 
 eiire tiod had placed his people and througli \Yhoin he imparted te 
 them religious truth and spiritual grace. The two witnesses are 
 also God's servants in a similar capacity, doing a similar service 
 to his people. This shotild suggest that they, like their proto- 
 tj'pes, are representative men, symbolic personages. 
 
 5. And if any man will hurt thorn, fire proccedeth out 
 of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies : and if any 
 man Avill hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. 
 
 This fire from their mouth devouring their enemies, is bold, 
 striking imagery, but not incongruous with the tone of this book. 
 See 9: 17, 18. If we might think of it as literally done, it wouki 
 make them formidable, not to say terrible to their enemies because 
 they had God on their side and his fearful judgments were sure 
 to liill in terrible retribution upon those who sought their blood. 
 
 (>. The.se have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in 
 the days of their prophecy : and have power over waters 
 to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all 
 plagues, as often as they will. 
 
 The word rendered "power" has more precisely the sense of 
 prerogative — a certain responsible function entrusted to them, cor- 
 related to their special work. In the last clause we mighi 
 
 render somewhat more literally, "To smite the land with every 
 plague," etc. The former part of the verse makes an historical 
 allusion to Elijah and the rain (1 Kings 17: 1); the latter part 
 to Moses and the plagues on Egypt (Ex. 7: 19). The case of 
 these witnesses recalls to mind those heroic and divinely honored 
 saints ; but we must not too hastily infer that they were to da 
 precisely the same things. In so plain a case of historic allusion, 
 it may be very difficult to decide how closely analogous their 
 actual deeds will be to the historic model. The witnesses were 
 men working in the spirit and power of Elijah and of Moses and 
 in somewhat analogous circumstances — like them having to di> 
 with mighty hostile forces, and withstanding them in the strengtli 
 uf the Lord of Hosts. Perhaps this is all we can safely say. 
 
 7. And when they shall have finished their testimony, 
 the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall 
 make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill 
 them. 
 
 Shielded by God's protecting providence they live till they have 
 finished their testimony ; but then the beast from the bottomlesa 
 pit prevails against them so far as to take their lives. This beast 
 (not 200H but ihcrioyi) corresponds to the "great red drajjon" of 
 
KEVELATIOX.— CHAP. XI. 129 
 
 the np.^t cliaptor, i. c, he is Siitfin himself. Bearing; in mind 
 
 tliat Jesus Christ in his earthly life and labor was " the fiiithful 
 and true AVitness" — the first and chief witness for God before the 
 Jewish people, and that his history therefore naturally determines 
 tlie type of this representative sketch of the two witnesses, we 
 naturally look into his well known history for the leading outlines 
 fliven here. We remember how through many perils he lived till 
 he had finished his testimony ; how Satan then entered into Judas 
 and through Judas betrayed him into bloody hands; how he him- 
 self said — " Xow is your hour and the power of darkness," as if 
 well aware that his chief antagonist was Satan, and that in this 
 struggle his own life was to be taken. So of all the martyrs, 
 Satan was really the great murderer. His instigations set wicked 
 men upon this work. He was the Great Leader in this war upon 
 tha pensons and the lives of the saints. 
 
 8. And their dead bodies shall lie iu the street of the great 
 city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also 
 our Lord was crucified. 
 
 That their dead bodies lie unburied in the streets indicates ex- 
 treme insult. In the current sentiments of all the ancient nations, 
 no rites were more sacred than those of sepulture; no fate was 
 
 deemed more dreadful than to lie unburied. In the general 
 
 sense of insult, this feature was applicable to Jesus in the matter 
 of his death, while in its precisefy literal sense it fails to apply, 
 because by God's special interposition he was "with the rich in 
 bis death ' (Isa. 53: 9), and had an honorable burial. But his 
 murderers intended the extremest insult, and in every other point 
 they carried out their purpose. In the fact, therefore, the signifi- 
 cation of this feature meets his case. A description of two repre- 
 sentative witnesses should aim to meet the average features of the 
 great body of those who are represented. This rule is faithfully 
 
 observed in the points made here. But the paramount interest 
 
 and priceless vahie of this verse are in the fact that it gives us so 
 ]>recisely the locality — the place where the witnesses fell ; the place 
 Mhich was obviously the principal scene of their witnessing testi- 
 mony. The prophetic finger is carefully put upon the very city, 
 it is one which in view of its spiritual character might be called 
 Sodom (as in Isa. 1 : 10) or Egypt as embodied in Pharaoh — his 
 hardened heart resisting God's avitliority persistently, despite of a 
 long series of fearful judgments ; but dropping all figures of speech, 
 it was precisely the place where the Lord Jcsits loas crucified. This 
 is perfectly definite. No words could be more so. There never 
 Wis but one city of which this could be said in such a connection 
 as this. What the city was called "spiritually" might indicate it 
 sufliciently to many readers; but to make the identification of the 
 city perfect, and to leave no possibility of mistake, the tongue of 
 inspiration said, "where their Lord also was crucified" and met 
 his death yis they met theirs. The im])rovcd text gives us here, 
 
130 EEVELATION.-CIIAP. XI. 
 
 ^' their Lord," not "our." — ■ — As to this locality fur the martyrdom 
 of the two witnesses, the reader will readily recall those very sig- 
 nificant words of .Jesus (Luke 13: 31-35) when certain Pharisees 
 said to him, "Get thee out and depart hence, for Herod will kill 
 thee ; " and he replied, " I must -walk to-day and to-morrow and 
 the day following (a very short time only, and then my life will 
 be taken here in this guilty city), for it can not be that a prophet 
 perish outside of Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killcst 
 the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often 
 would 1 have gathered thy children together as a hen gathers her 
 brood under her wings, but ye icould not! Behold, your house is 
 left unto you desolate ! " The blood of her murdered prophets and 
 apostles, and greatest of all though not the last in time, the murder 
 of her ovra Messiah, sealed her doom of unutterable desolaticn ! 
 This fact stands out among tiie most salient points in this entire 
 chapter. It explains the fact that the murder of the two witnesses 
 within the walls of Jerusalem is the last thing before the blast of 
 the seventh trumpet and the mighty fall of that great city. Other 
 historians may paint the physical agencies — may give us the work 
 of the Roman legions witliout and of suicidal factions within: but 
 (jlod's prophetic finger sketches the moral causes — the damning sins 
 that sealed her doom. 
 
 9. And tliey of the people and kindreds and tongues and 
 nations shall see their dead. bodies three days and a half, 
 and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. 
 
 10. And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over 
 them, and make merrj^ and shall send gifts one to another; 
 because these two propliets tormented them that dwelt on 
 the earth. 
 
 11. And after three days and a half the Spirit of life 
 from God entered into them, and they stood upon their 
 feet ; and great fear fell upon them ■which saw them. 
 
 Here is the hellish exultation of their murderers over the fallen 
 
 martyrs. The triumphing of the wicked is alwaj-s short: — this 
 was. The time designated — three and a half days — follows the 
 symbolic usage of three and a half as the standard pei'iod for 
 calamity. Probably the naming of this duration is due mainly if 
 not solely to the intiuence of this standard usage. There may pos- 
 sibly be a tacit allusion to the interval between Chi'ist's death and 
 
 his resurrection, commonly called three days. After the three 
 
 and a half days, the Spirit of life from God entered into them (the 
 mode of stating the fact follows Ezek. 37: 5-14), and they rise 
 alive — to the unutterable consternation of their murderers! Pre- 
 cisely this sudden alternation from diabolic exultation over his 
 death to horror and dread at his rising, must have been the ex- 
 perience of the chief priests and S(!ribes in the case of Christ's 
 death ami resurrectiun. 'J'hroo diiys merry and exultant, — thea 
 
REVELATION.-CHAP. XL 131 
 
 horror-stricken in amazeuieut and terror! Tlie imwan'anted 
 
 assumption that pro|ihetic days are really historic years — so ol'ten 
 Avrouiiht into the interpretation of these witnesses — can lead to 
 nutiiing but error, misconstruction, bee Appendix, Dissertation I. 
 
 12. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying 
 unto them, Como up liitlier. And they ascended up to 
 heaven in a cloud ; and their enemies beheld them. 
 
 I can not resist the conviction that the resurrection of Jesus 
 Christ is a sort of gi'ound-work for this part of the representation. 
 Ill i'act his case seems to have been very prominent throughout, as 
 it naturally should be because he was really the foremost and 
 greatest of these witnesses — his life, his preaching and his death 
 having unsurpassed moral significance as bearing upon the doom 
 of the Jewish city and nation. It is therefore entirely natural 
 that the case of these two representative witnesses should receive 
 such a shading, should take on such a type, as would continually 
 suggest the case of Jesus himself as the great model witness. 
 
 Otherwise it would have missed its main object. If the reader 
 
 understands Avhat 1 have all along been saying, he will not ask 
 me whether I can find any two apostolic witnesses whose dead 
 lM)dies lay unburied in Jerusalem three days and a half, over 
 whom their murderers exulted so long, but who then rose from 
 tlic dead anil ascended to heaven in the very sight of their as- 
 tounded murderers ! To make such a demand is to ignore the 
 representative, symbolic character of the whole passage and insist 
 that it shall be taken as a literal statement throughout. It might 
 as well be insisted upon that every word, every picture, eveiy 
 symliol in this book of Kevclation shall be construed literally. 
 
 13. And the same liour was there a great earthquake, 
 and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake 
 were slain of men seven tliousand : and the remnant were 
 alfrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven. 
 
 14. The second woe is past; cuid, behold, the third woe 
 Cometh quickly. 
 
 These convulsions in the material world were most appropriate 
 foretokens of the fearful ruin of the city, and fit premonitions of 
 the blast of the seventh trumpet. That during the siege of the 
 c'ty facts did literally occur to Avhich these points of the represen- 
 hvtion might correspond, is matter of history; and yet it Avould be 
 quite another thing to show which out of many earthquakes this 
 was that occurred "on the same hour," and what "tenth ])art of 
 tlie city" it was that fell, etc. Huch minuteness of application in 
 
 a prophecy of this sort should by no means be expected, It ia 
 
 supposablc that the case of the IJoman " centurion and they that 
 were with him" watching Jesus on the cross, who saw the earth- 
 
132 REVELATION^aiAP. XI. 
 
 quake and the things that were done, and feared greatly, saying, 
 " Truly this was the Son of God !" (Mat. 27: 54) may have thrown 
 its influence into these features of the representation. 
 
 Having thus endeavored to explain what is said of these " two 
 witnesses," it remains to state briefly my reasons for adopting 
 this construction rather than the literal one which I understand 
 Prof Stuart to hold, or any of those vague modern constructions 
 which find these two witnesses in the (Jld and the New Testa- 
 ment; or in the Mosaic and the Christian dispensations; or in 
 the prophets and the apostles; or in any of the true church^'s in 
 the dark middle ages; ot anywhere else according to the fancy 
 of the interpreter. — — (!•) That, as above explained, they are 
 representative men, is in harmony zvitk the symbolism of this entire 
 book. Here the fact stated briefly and in general is that the hu- 
 man figures which appear in the scenery of this book are repre- 
 sentative characters. I adduce the " twenty-four elders," representing 
 glorified saints in heaven; "the hundred and forty-four thousand," 
 sealed from among the Jews, who represent the early Jewish con- 
 verts to Christianity; the horsemen of 9: IG who represemt the 
 Homan legions, not precisely in point of numbers but of formida- 
 ble power; the "woman" of chap. 12 who represents the church, 
 and her "man-child," representing Jesus; the woman of chapter 
 17: 1-7, 18 who represents the great city, Kome. This law of 
 prophetic symbolism seems to be throughout this book universal 
 and invariable. Consequently it ought to apply in the case of 
 these two witnesses. None but the most stubborn difBcuIties, no 
 reasons save the most stringent, could justify a violation of a law 
 
 otherwise universal. -(^■) This construction harmonizes with 
 
 v. 3, which compares these two witnesses to the two olive trees and 
 tlie two lamp-stands of Zech. 4. This comparison, brought in here 
 to introduce these two witnesses and explain who they represent 
 and how they are to be taken, should be in itself decisive. As 
 those two olive-trees and lamp-stands were representative objects, 
 standing for a class of men, so are these. -(3.) This construc- 
 tion has enabled us to interpret the entire passage in a way at 
 once pertinent, facile, natural and forcible. This consideration 
 
 should of itself have great weight. (4.) It harmonizes with the 
 
 facts of the case. Such witnessing men did go forth among the 
 Jews to testify the gi'eat truths of the gospel. Their mission began 
 properly with John the Baptist, and ended only with the fall of 
 their city. Jesus himself led this witnessing host. Stephen wit- 
 nessed till, like his Ix)rd's, his murdered bmly fell in that guilty 
 city. In great numbers these witnesses fell in Jerusalem. But 
 the case covers not those only whose bodies fell there but those who 
 elsewhere, even " in strange cities" (Acts 26 : 11), were persecuted 
 by Jews, traduced before the Roman authorities, and brought to a 
 
 martyr's death. (5.) It harmonizes luith the moral purpose of 
 
 this prophecy of the fall of Jerusalem. Considered as written to 
 the seven churches, then suffering some degree of persecution and 
 
REVELATION.— CHAP. XL 133 
 
 probably fearinii; more and sorer yet to come, it could not fail to 
 impress them with the heroic sublimity of the martyr's life and 
 death ; with the certainty of a glorious reward ; and consequently 
 with the spirit of a lofty faith and a noble Christian endurance. 
 With such an example before them as that of these two witnesses, 
 fu.irjiiesting bo forcibly the witnessing life, the martyr's death and 
 the glorious resurrection of their own Redeemer, how could they 
 .slirink before any peril of life that might threaten, or any hard 
 ships of prison or exile ? Especially when they saw that the blood 
 of martyrs shed in Jerusalem brought down upon that wicked 
 city the exterminating judgments of the Almighty, it must have 
 impressed them with a sense of his righteous retribution upon his 
 incorrigible foes, and assured them that God was on their side in 
 the fullness and glory of his power both to save and to destroy, 
 and that they need not at all fear the final triumph of the wicked 
 because they have their brief moment of fiendish exultation over 
 
 the men they have vilcdy and causelessly murdered. Thus this 
 
 construction of the entire passage would avail to bring home to 
 the souls of the first readers of this book a grand and most im- 
 pressive moral power toward steadfast endurance and heroic 
 boldness for the truth, as well as a sense of God's righteous justice 
 and of his certain victory over every foe. Such as these are be- 
 j'ond all doubt the moral purposes of the entire book. The point 
 of my present argument is that this view of the two witnesses co- 
 incides perfectly in its moral purpose with the whole book, and 
 
 therefore must be the true one. 'For these reasons, each sti-ong 
 
 in itself and all united making a complete demonstration, 1 must 
 accept and maintain that these two witnesses are representative 
 characters, standing for the noble band of witnesses for Christian- 
 ity, sent of (j!od to his ancient people with his last appeal before 
 tlie fall of their city and temple. 
 
 15. And the seventh angel sounded ; and there were 
 great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world 
 are become the k'uirjdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ ; 
 and he shall reign for ever and ever. 
 
 16. And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God 
 on their scat.=, fell upon their faces', and worshiped God, 
 
 17. Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Ahniglity, 
 which art, and wast, and art to come ; because thou hast 
 taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. 
 
 18. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, 
 and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and 
 that thou shouldest give reward unto tliy servants the 
 propliets, and the saints, and to them that fear tliy name, 
 small and gi*eat ; and shouldest destroy them which destroy 
 the earth. 
 
L3J rvKVELATION.— CHAP. XI. 
 
 The soumlitiu; of tlic seventh trumpet should be a crisis, a great 
 consummation. 'J'hc seven seals are all broken ; the seventh and 
 last was resolved into seven trumpets and here wc have reached 
 the last of these. Hence some signal events are here. What is 
 this crisis? If a catastrophe, i. e., a great convulsion, a mighty 
 ruin, the question arises— A convulsion of what sort? A ruin of 
 what? If the result be only joyful, tvh>/ is it so, and whal is the 
 
 ground of the joy ? All commentators concur in finding some 
 
 extraordinary event in tliis seventh trumpet. Many think it to be 
 the beginning of the Millennium, or the final judgment at the end 
 of this world^ and the opening of a new order of existence for the 
 redeemed. Hence there is special interest and importance in this 
 question — What is this seventh trumpet? 
 
 My view is that in its primary sense and application, it is pre- 
 Ciisely the fall of Jerusalem before the Jioman a;7?ts— Jerusalem be- 
 ing considered as the grand antagonist power against Christian- 
 ity in that early Christian age. -I shall attempt to justify this 
 
 view by showing: (1.) That this description (vs. 1.5-18), fairly 
 and scripturally interpreted, not only admits but demands this in- 
 terpretation; — and (2.) That the course of the preceding seals and 
 trumpets and the slaying of the witnesses brings us precisely to 
 this great event — to no point short of this and to no point be3'^ond it. 
 
 1. It should be carefully noted that the results of this seventh 
 trumpet are shown us onh/ as seen and felt in heaven. The prophet 
 does not give us one word nor one symbol which represents things 
 seen or done on earth, save as we may infer them from what is 
 said and sung by the hosts above. He first hears great voices in 
 heaven and tells us what they said; then more definitely the 
 twenty-four elders (representatives of the church on earth) take up 
 their song of thanksgiving and with several new particulars set 
 forth the occasion and grounds of their joy in -this event by recit- 
 ing what God had so gloriously done. It is only from these 
 sources that we learn precisely the things revealed under the seventh 
 
 trumpet. Again, it should be carefully noted that these heavenly 
 
 hosts contemplate this event onli/ on its joyous side — 07ily as bear- 
 ing upon the j^rogress and triumphs of Messialis kingdom. There 
 may have been another side to the scene, one of fearful catastro- 
 phe; of awful carnage; of utter wreck to human hopes and all'ec- 
 tions — to the life and tlie heart of a great nation ; but of this eri- 
 tire side of the case, these heavenly songs say nothing. Yet it 
 would be a very strange inference (it has been made often) that 
 should conclude from the silence of heaven's songs as to any catas- 
 trophe, that there actually was ncme. Why should it surprise us 
 that those holy ones before the throne*should think of the fall of 
 the first, most obstinate and most inalign opponents of the go.spel 
 as a glorious triumph of Immanuel, and should contemplate thii 
 event only on its Godward side — only as related to the retribu- 
 tions of his glorious justice and to the triumphs of truth and sal- 
 vation over all the earth? 1 acquiesce most entirely in this view 
 
REVELATION.— CHAP. XL 135 
 
 oF their sonj]; and believe this to have been the li,nht in wliieh they 
 contcmpUited the fall of apostate Judaism and of its representative 
 city. 
 
 Let us now turn to the words heard in heaven. In the phrase, 
 
 •'The kingdoms of this world," etc., the oldest manuscripts and the 
 concurrent voice of the best critics give the singular, "The king- 
 dom of this world," the precise sense therefore being that the ruli-^ 
 the sicay of this world, ratlier than the civil power over its several 
 kingdoms, passes into the hand of our Lord. The just interpre- 
 tation of this language must be learned from Old Testament pmpli- 
 ccy and New Testament usage. 1 can present this matter her« 
 only by the briefest allusions, e. g., to (icn. 49: 10, "The scepter 
 
 shall not depart from Judah till iShiloh [the Messiah] come ; 
 
 liim shall the people obey: " to Fs. 2: 8, "Ask of me and I will 
 give thee the heathen for thine inheritance :" to Ezek. 21 : 27, 
 '■ 1 will overturn, overturn, overturn it, and it shall be no more, 
 until he come whose right it is and I will give it him ;" or to the 
 scope of Daniel's series of great Avorld monarchies which terminate 
 with giving to the Messiah ''dominion, glory and a kingdom, that 
 all people, nations and languages should serve him, and his do- 
 minion be an everlasting dominion," etc. In New Testament 
 
 usage Jesus takes up this term, " kingdom," and this strain of 
 promise, from the Old Testament prophets, and speaks during his 
 life-time of his kingdom as just at hand. The apostles after his 
 ascension spake of it as already set up. If we examine this matter 
 quite carefully, we shall see that the divine forces to be used in 
 establishing this kingdom were essentially twofold : the spiritual, 
 of which tiie gift of the Holy Ghost was central; and the physical, 
 to be employed under Ood's providential rule in the destruction 
 of opposing powers, and first and most prominent of all, apostate 
 .ludaisra and its stronghold, Jerusalem. Hence the kingdom of 
 the Messiah was in one important sense given to him upon his 
 formal inauguration in heaven at his ascension; and yet in its 
 human aspect and development, its date prtiperly turned on two 
 grand events: (1.) The descent of the Holy (lliost, revealing and 
 bringing into the great field of spiritual work this divine power; 
 and (2.) The overthrow of Jerusalem — the first grand manilesta- 
 tion of the physical, material forces — the first putting forth of tiie 
 great hand of God to sweep away opposing powers and to foil 
 8atan in the very point of his chief antagonism. It will be no- 
 ticed that in several passages Jesus speaks of his "coming" when 
 the connection and the circumstances compel us to apply this word 
 to his powerful hand in the overthrow of Jerusalem. Thus, Mat. 
 H") : 2S, "There be some standing here who shall not taste of death 
 till they sec the Son of man coming in his kingdom:" and in Mat. 
 24: 3, 34, to the question, "What shall be tlio sign of tiiy c(>n>- 
 ing?" Jesus answered in various particulars, and then said, 
 •' Verily, this generation shall not pass, till all these things be ful- 
 filled." The leading tiiuuglit iu this chapter is that with which it 
 
IS6 KEVELATIOX.— CHAP, XI. 
 
 begins — the destruction of the city and temple. The New Tea* 
 
 tament conception therefore of Clirist's settinii up his kingdom on 
 the earth gives us, on the side of its spiritual forces, the descent 
 of the Holy Ghost; on the physical side, the overthrow of Jerusa- 
 lem. These were great, central, representative events, and they 
 serve net only to date the hcginning of his kingdom, so that it could 
 be said after these events to have come, or to be set up, but they 
 are the precursor, the pledge, the prophecy of further victories — 
 the grand assurance of linal and perfect victory over every foe, 
 even till Jesus shall rule, one and alone, sole King and Lord of all 
 the earth. Xo doubt it is somewhat in this prospective aspect and 
 bearing of this first event, considered as foreshadowing and guar- 
 anteeing other like victories onward in future time, that the song 
 of heaven is sc exultant. This very song is a prophecy. It seizes 
 upon the first grand display of (jiod's providential forces in the 
 destruction of his antagonist, and confidently forecasts the final 
 and perfect victory. Thus 1 understand the meaning of the great 
 voices in heaven, saying, " The kingdom of this world is become 
 the kingdom of our Lord, and he shall reign forever and ever." 
 The elders, speaking for tlie ransomed already gathered home 
 before the throne, give thanks to (Jod that at length he has taken 
 
 to himself his great power and has begun to exert it. Their 
 
 enumeration of particulars (v. 18) should be carefully noted: 
 " And the nations wei*e angry, and thy wrath has come." The 
 allusion here is to Ps. 2 : 1 : "Why do the heathen [the nations'] 
 rage?" taken up by Peter (Acts. 4 : 25, 26): "Who by the mouth 
 of David hast said. Why did the heathen rage?" etc. "The kings 
 of the earth stood up and tlio rulers Avere gathered together against 
 the Lord and against his Christ. For of a truth against thy ludy 
 child Jesus, both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and 
 the people of Israel were gathered together," etc. The vital fact 
 was that when God brought forth his anointed Son into this world 
 to make him "Lord of all," the nations were enraged and took 
 \iis life; and now God's wrath is come upon them in righteous 
 but terrible retribution ! The correspondence in the language is 
 half obscured by our English translation, which should have pre- 
 served the relation between their wrath and God's wrath by trans- 
 lating either, " The nations were angry and thine anger has come ; " 
 or, " The nations were wroth, and tliy wrath has come." The idea 
 is that God met them hand to hand with their own weapons. 
 They persecuted his Son and his people unto blood: God meets 
 them with his opposing forces unto blood! They had madly cried, 
 " Crucify him ! and if there is any blood to he shed for it, let it 
 be the blood of ourselves and of our children ! " whereupon the 
 Almighty took up their challenge, and now the blood of the slain 
 Jesus has come upon them and their children, till there is no spot 
 
 unstained in all that doomed city ! " And the time of the dead 
 
 that they should be judged" — not of all the dead indiscriminately, 
 good and bad, and of all the ages; but specifically, as to the point 
 
EEVELATION.— CHAP. XI. 137 
 
 fn liand — the time of the dead njartjrs, -whose cry for this very 
 judgment we heard from under the altar at the opening of tlio 
 fifth seal. It was told them that there was to be a short delay, 
 and then judgment would fall upon their persecutors; God's cau.se 
 would be avenged, and his and their foes must fall. Now, there- 
 fore, appropriately, the twenty-four elders, who heard that prayer 
 of the martyred dead, allude to the fact that the time has come at 
 length! So the next clause plainly implies: "And that thou 
 shouldst give reward unto thy servants the prophets and to the 
 saints, and to them tliat fear thy name, smsiU and great." Not to 
 the old Hebrew prophets alone, though they are in a sort included, 
 as we may liave noticed in Christ's own allusion to the moral 
 causes which demanded the fall of Jerusalem : "Thou that killest 
 the prophets and stonest them that are sent [apostles] unto thee" 
 (Mat. 23: 34-38). All the martyred dead — the two slain witnesses 
 and all the host whom they represent — all the persecuted, aftlictod 
 ones, small or great, are now to have their reward in the fearful, 
 significant, yet joyful overthrow of this first and chief antagonist 
 of Christ in his kingdom. The Almighty God has come down to 
 destroy them that are morally destroying the land, whose crimes 
 have made society rotten to the core, who have broken down all 
 civil law, all wholesome restraint upon the most diabolic passions 
 of depraved human hearts. Almost never on the face of human 
 history have men seen a more terrible significance to the words, 
 "them that destroy the earth" [land], than is shown in the history 
 of Palestine during the lapse of the generation which perishell 
 
 within the walls of Jerusalem on her fall. Thus it appears that 
 
 this description of the events of the seventh trumpet, Avhen scrip- 
 turally interpreted, not only admits but demands the construction 
 Mhich applies it to the fall of Jerusalem. 
 
 2. It remains to show that the course of the preceding seals and 
 trumpets has Ijrought us precisely to this great event — to no point 
 short of it, and to no point beyond. 
 
 Let us begin witli the date of this book, the actual present of 
 the writer, which must be put about A. D. 65. Then " the things 
 that must shortly come to pass," " for the time is at hand," must 
 commence very soon. Then the first four seals describe scenes so 
 closely analogous to the events predicted by Christ as immediately 
 preceding the fall of Jerusalem that we can not mistake in apply- 
 ing them also to those times. The martyrs whose souls are seen 
 under the altar at the opening of the fifth seal were to wait yet 
 but a little season ere God would hear their prayer, and judge 
 and avenge their blood on their persecutors and murderers. Here, 
 under the seventh trumpet " the time of the dead [martyrs] that 
 they should be judged " (II: 18) has fully come. This "yet for a 
 little season " can not carry us beyond the fall of Jerusalem ; it 
 can not close earlier tlian tliat event. 'J'hon the scaling of the one 
 hundred and forty-four thousand (chap 7) must be the rescuing 
 of a great multitude of Jews by their cordial reception of Jesus, 
 
138 REVELATION.— CIIAl'. XL 
 
 who thus yielded to tlio testifying and exhorting of Peter (Acta 
 2: 40) when he said, "Save yourselves from this untoward gen- 
 eration." This gathering in of -Jewish converts was mainly closed 
 
 up before the blast of ruin swept over their city. The sixth 
 
 seal sets forth unutterable terror and dread. Of the seven 
 
 trumpets developed from the seventh seal, the first four porten<l 
 the gathering storm, set forth the skirmish fires, the flying charges 
 that precede the grand assault. The fifth trumpet foretokened 
 rather torture than death — men's hearts trembling under woeful 
 anticipations and that sinking of hope into the bitterness of despair 
 which befell the Jews when their destiny to national ruin became 
 inevitable, corresponding to the point made by Christ touching the 
 same period — "men's hearts failing them for fear." Then the 
 sixth trumpet set forth the gathering hosts of Eoman legions 
 closing in upon the doomed city. Must not this be the last pre- 
 cursor of the final crisis ? But two things more are to be 
 
 shown ; the symbol of the temple and altar measured out for sal- 
 vation, and the court given over to the Gentiles to be ti'odden 
 under their heathen feet; and then the history of the two wit- 
 nesses — their mission, their martyrdom, the contempt heaped upon 
 their unburied remains, their glorious resurrection and the pre- 
 liminary crash upon the gvcat city that ensued; — all these things 
 are the last immediate precursors of the final fall of that city long 
 spared and wi^rned and wept over by the Great Man of Sorrows, 
 but hopelessly incoiTigible and therefore hopelessly doomed to ages 
 of desolation ! The time has come for the bolts of vengeance to leap 
 from the hand of the Almighty; the strong angel has solemnly 
 affirmed with hand uplifted — " There shall be delay no longer; " — 
 therefore we are brought to precisely the crisis of her final fall : the 
 seventh angel's trumpet involves it — nothing less; nothing more. 
 It may not be amiss to suggest two other thoughts, viz., (1.) 
 that the omission in this passage of all symbols of destruction — 
 of all effort to paint the final crash of the falling city and nation — 
 may be itself implied in the prohibition, " Seal up those things 
 ohich the seven thunders uttered and write them not" (10: 4). 
 Also (2.) that rhetorically this omission is sublimely grand. The 
 power of awful symbol would seem to have been exhausted 
 already. It is not easy to conceive how any thing more appalling 
 or more dreadful could have been devised, worthy of the mo- 
 mentous catastrophe. In such an emergency, silence is wisdom ; 
 or rather, it is wise to forbear any attempt to present the" fearful 
 catastrophe in darker colors. The perfection of art and skill is 
 now to leave the rest to the imagination, and let men infer it from 
 the impressions it makes upon the holy witnesses thereof before 
 the throne — the enraptured songs that thrill all heaven in the 
 sublimely grand forecast of the Gi-eat Conqueror's triumph ! 
 
 19. And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and 
 tliere was seen in his temple the ark of his te.stamcnt: and 
 
EEVELATION.— CIIAr. XL 139 
 
 there were liylitniiigfj, and voices, and thiiii<lciiiigs, and an 
 earthquake, and great hail. 
 
 As heaven was opened to the seer at the l)ep;inninjf of this creat 
 eeries of prophetic visions (4: 1), a yet nearer view is perbajis 
 indicated here by the settini; open of the heavenly temple. Ob- 
 viously ifc is the holy of holies, the most holy apartment of the 
 temple, that is here opened to view, for within it is seen " the ark 
 of the covenant," the sacred symbol of God's perpetual relation- 
 ship to his covenant people as their faithful God. It was a 
 precious thoui!;ht to the pious Jew that the holy places and things 
 made with liuman hands were only the patterns of things in tlie 
 heavens Avhere was a holier temple, a more sacred altar, a more 
 gterious ark of tiio covenant overshadowed with sublinicr Aviuiis 
 of chei-ul)im, and disclosing; a for more august splendor of tlie 
 visible glory. This conception seems to be assumed here; the 
 open door into that up])er temple brings to this seer's view es- 
 pecially the heavenly ark of the covenant — the standing witness in 
 this case that God remembered his true and enduring people, and 
 had sent his angel of destruction down with the judgments of 
 
 retribution upon their persecutors. " There were lightnings, 
 
 and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail ; " — and what 
 were these but the echoes of the dreadful storm of divine ven- 
 geance foretokened by the blast of the seventh trumpet? These 
 convulsive hcavings and throbbing? of the great heart of nature 
 were in sympathy with the divine indignation against the awful 
 wickedness which had murdered the Son of God and which had 
 long made Jerusalem crimson with the blood of prophets and 
 apostles and martj-rs for Jesus. Similar convulsions of nature ap- 
 peared (see 8 : 3-o) when the smoke of incense significant of the 
 prayers of saints went up before God out of the angel's hand, and 
 he filled his censor with fire of the altar and cast it to the earth; 
 then " there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and 
 an earthquake." Yet more precisely analogous were the scenes 
 when the seventh angel " poured out his vial into the air (16 : 17, 
 18), and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven 
 from the throne, saying, It is done!" Great Kome is foredoomed 
 to fall 1 Then " there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings ; 
 and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were 
 upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great." Why 
 should not these mighty agencies of the material world, God s 
 ready servants, manifest their sympathy with the will and the 
 emotions of their omnipotent Maker and Sovereign? When his 
 infinite mind kindles to the demands of a righteous indignatidu 
 and a terrible retribution upon the incorrigibly guilty, why shdiild 
 not all nature speak out with her voice of thunder and let her 
 lightnings blaze and make the solid earth shake to her founda- 
 tions? Such demonstrations are most belitting; they are the wit- 
 uees which all nature bears to her .sympathy with her King. 
 
140 REVELATION.— CIIAr. XI. 
 
 Here the curtain falls and the first grand drama of this apoea- 
 lyptic book closes. Tlie first great antagonist power •which 
 sought to strangle Christianity in its birth was practically wiped 
 out. That malign, invincible hate which could not bear the pun- 
 gent rebukes of Jesus while he lived, which would not receive 
 (rod's word from his lips, which pursued him unto death, and 
 then pursued his followers with like rage, "breathing out threat- 
 ening and slaughter," and which according to history excited per- 
 secution against the faitiiful witnesses for Christ wherever they 
 went, had gone to the full length of its line, and at this fatal point 
 had encountered the Almighty God and must needs dinnk the cup 
 of his retributive vengeance ! That bloody and morally hardened 
 city has gone down with a crash of destruction ; there is joy in 
 heaven over her fall ! It witnesseth that the kingdom of Jcsns 
 Messiah is victorious: it prophesieth that every foe of this king- 
 dom must fall ; and all the holy around the throne above have joy 
 therein 1 
 
 Before I close this first main division of the book and pass on 
 to the second, I must pause for a moment to say in support of the 
 interpretation above given — 
 
 1. That only one system of interpi*eting this book can he true. 
 If this be the true one, then no other system, entirely unlike this 
 can be. 
 
 2. That I have no heart for polemic commentary. It may some- 
 times be a duty to bring np and expose the errors of, interpreta- 
 tion into which I judge that good men have fallen; but it can 
 never be a pleasant duty ; and for the most part 1 have purposely 
 left it undone, comforting myself with this view of the case: that 
 presenting and sustaining the true interpretation will satisfy intel- 
 ligent minds better. If the interpretation presented is adequately 
 supported and intelligently accepted, no adverse system can have 
 like adequate support, and therefore may be left to full by its own 
 weight. 
 
 3. I therefore close this statement of my views respecting the 
 first great persecuting power of this book by calling the reader's 
 attention to the principles and laws of interpretation laid down in 
 the Introduction. Have they, or have they not, been fairly and 
 faithfully carried out ? 
 
 (1.) First in the order of place and in my view first in impor- 
 tance, is the rule — "Come to this book to learn what it teaches; 
 not to make it teach what you will." On this point all I can or 
 need say is that I have diligently sought to make the book its own 
 interpreter and to keep my mind free from all preconceived theories 
 whatever. Each reader will judge how far this purpose may seem 
 to have been fulfilled. 
 
 (2.) By the second rule the predictions of the book must be in- 
 terpreted in harmony ivitk God's own declarations as to the time of 
 
 their fulfilhneyit. In language which must legitimately apply to 
 
 the great body of this book, aud therefore certainly to the cntii'e 
 
KEVELATION.-CIIAP. XI. 141 
 
 prophetic portion now gone over (chaps. 4-11), the divine anthor 
 has said, "the things must shortly come to pass;" "the time is at 
 Land." Our interpretation makes the time sliort — probably not 
 exceeding five years at farthest. Yet this period of time, dechired 
 of God to be "short" and "near at hand, ' is made by some sys- 
 tems of interpretation about two thousand years! They stretch 
 the prophetic events of these chapters (4-11) down to the Millen- 
 nium, and some of them beyond it, even to the final judgment! 
 Have they not altogether overstepped the limitations which God 
 
 himself has set? This mistake is the more palpable and the 
 
 less excusable because those interpreters do not even claim that 
 they find any counter or qualifying statements declaring that the 
 time contemplated for the fuHilluieut of any of these prophecies 
 (chaps. 4-19) is not short but long. There is no such coimter tes- 
 tiviony, in like manner definite and precise, over against these 
 averments that the time is short. Therefore the assumption that 
 the time is long is not only opposed squarely to God's own state- 
 ments, but has nothing definite in this part of the book to rest 
 upon — nothing whatever but the demand of a preconceived scheme 
 of interpretation ! 
 
 (3.) The third rule insists that when God interprets his own 
 
 symbols, we must accept and follow his interpretation. So far 
 
 as these divine interpretations appear in the Old Testament, the 
 symbols used here being manifestly found and interpreted there, 
 the case comes under our eighth rule. Instances of symbols in- 
 terpreted in this book directly will occur more abundantly in sub- 
 sequent chapters. We have one of no small importance in chap. 
 11:4, which explains the two witnesses by comparing them to " the 
 two olive trees and the two candlesticks standing before the G(nl 
 of the whole earth " — with unquestionable reference to Zech. 4, 
 and showing therefore that these two witnesses are rcpresentativi> 
 characters, not individual men ; and tliat their function is that of 
 revealing the true liglit of (lod — preachers of his word and min- 
 isters of his grace to mankind. 1 have interpreted the two wit- 
 nesses accordingly. 
 
 (4.) The fourth rule binds u^ to interpret in harmony with what- 
 ever allusions the book coJitains to knoivn historic events and localities. 
 
 In its description of those who are saved out of the ruin there 
 iuiplied, the seventh chapter gives us the usual well defined his- 
 toric distinction between Jews and Gentiles — one hundred and 
 forty-four thousand Jews; and then "a great multitude that no 
 man could number of all nations," who of course are Gentiles. 
 Consequently this prophecy refers to a period when converts to 
 ('hrist were gathered from both .Jews and (Jentilcs, and therefore 
 shuts oir many schemes of construction which at this point have 
 reached far beyond the apostolic age, even down to tlie sixth or 
 eighth century, where no history gives any notice of conversions 
 from the Jews. 
 
 In chap. 11 these historic allusions stand out with great distinct- 
 
142 EEVELATION.— CHAP. XI. 
 
 ness. Here is the temple still standin<x, but very near its fall; 
 here is the very city ol" Jerusalem, designated spiritually as a 
 Becond Hodom or Etrypt, but literally as precisely tlie ))lace where 
 the Lord was crucified — allusions tlierefore that positively fix the 
 -place and the time of these great events Avhich arc the climax and 
 consummation of the plagues foretold thus far in this book. It is 
 not easy to see how (iod could put the finger of prophecy more 
 squarely upon Jerusalem and its once holy but now desecrated 
 temple than he has done here. Coupled with the general limita- 
 tion of the great events of this book — "near at hand" — these his- 
 toric allusions to time and place are surely decisive. I have there- 
 fore interpreted accordingly. Moved and guided by the one 
 supreme purpose to follow God's own teaching, how could 1 inter- 
 pret otherwise ? 
 
 (5.) Our fifth rule requires that we follow whatever indications 
 the book may give to show that Christians then or recently living 
 were the mart^TS to whom it refers, and their persecutors the men 
 
 whose destruction is here foreshown. Bearing in mind that all 
 
 these things were shortly to come to pass, and comparing what is 
 said in the special letter to Smyrna {'1 : 10), and in that to Perga- 
 mos (2: 13), with the scenes at the opening of the fifth seal (ij : 
 9-11), it seems to me clear that John's first readers must have 
 understood those martyred saints to be of their own age and fYom 
 their own churches; and of course their persecutors were also men 
 of their own times. Consequently 1 have felt bound to interpret 
 accordingly. This limitation shuts off all those schemes of inter- 
 pretation which find the fifth seal fir along in the Christian cen- 
 turies from four to sis or eight hundred years after Christ. 
 
 (6.) Our sixth rule recognizes the fact that several successive 
 seals are broken before the prophecy gives any definite name or 
 clew to the parties intended — eithei' to the Christians who suflered, 
 or to their persecutors whom God would smite with plagues; and 
 it infers from this silence that the first readers of the book, re- 
 membering what was said of the time being near at hand, would 
 know who were meant without any precise naming. They under- 
 stood their own times. The limitations with which the book botli 
 opens and closes held them to their own times for both these par- 
 ties — the Christians martyred, and the wicked men who murdered 
 them. The omission of both their names and locality through so 
 many chapters is readily accounted for on this assumption. Our 
 interpretation has been put in harmony with this principle or law 
 of interpretation. 
 
 (7.) The book has an obvious moral purpose, viz., to sustain 
 and inspire the faith, courage and endurance of Christians in peril 
 from persecution. We must interpret in harmony M'ith this most 
 obvious moral purpose. We do so when m'c find the events veiy 
 near their own times and their oivn homes, for such events always 
 thrill men's souls intensely. Following this rule, we must assume 
 that they in the main understood the book; consequently that it 
 
REVELATION.— CHAP. XII. 143 
 
 spake of thinirs then near at hand, and did not speak of thinjig 
 entirely beyond tlie rani^c of their possible knowlcdjie. This rule 
 tlierefore practically shuts olF all those schemes of intcrprctalion 
 Avhich run these prophetic events onward down tlirough the subse- 
 quent centuries, even to the end of the Avorld. 
 
 (8.) Our eighth rule demands that symliols borrowed from the 
 Old Testament should be construed in general harmony with their 
 
 usage there. Accordingly 1 have interpreted the horses of the 
 
 first four seals in harmony with their prototypes in Zech. 1 and (>, 
 grouping them to give one comprehensive idea, here as there, and 
 not dissociating them utterly and spreading them, out over whole 
 
 centuries of human history. The sealing of the thousands (in 
 
 chap. 7) I found in Ezekiel's similar marking of holy men, and 
 
 construed accordingly. The "books," both the first with kn 
 
 seven seals, and the second, the "little book," I trace to Ezekiel's 
 roll, and therefore take to be prophetic disclosures of impending 
 
 judgments. The descriptive points given of the two witnesses 
 
 are obviously gathered from sacred history, either of the Old Te.s- 
 tament or of the New. 1 have interpreted accordingly. 
 
 (9.) And finally I have aimed, especially in the closing verses 
 of chap. 11, to use freely and yet not abuse that great law of 
 propiiecy by which the mind passes over by analogy from a nearer 
 event to events remote, but in their great underlying princijiles 
 similar. Thus the songs of heaven upon the fall of Jerusalem 
 sweep over the ages and grasp the downfaH of every great oppos- 
 ing force, and take in the glorious inspirations of the final triumph 
 of Christ over all" the powers of darkness, sin and Satan. Thus 
 those sublime words both fill their place a« related to the immedi- 
 ate catastrophe which called them forth, and also follow the law 
 of numerous Old Testament prophecies in rising grandly from the 
 particular to the general— from the one limited but typical, fore- 
 shadowing event, to the grand and final consummation of all gospel 
 labors and conflicts — the reign of Jesus ^Messiah, supreme and uni- 
 versal. 
 
 C II A P T E 11 X I I . 
 
 A new subject comes before us; new scenes open and new sj-m- 
 
 lols appear. This chapter raises three preliminary questions : 
 
 — (1.) Who are the three leading personages here : — the woman, 
 
 her child, and the great red dragon ? (2.) Why are these 
 
 scenes shown the prophet as located in heaven, since "the transac- 
 tions are located chiefly on earth? (3.) Wliat was the object 
 
 Bought in thus going back to matters of earlier history — the birth 
 of Christ; the persecutions raised against him and his'people, etc? 
 
144 REVELATION.— CHAP. XII. 
 
 (1.) These personages are in my view rrpresenfaiive characters, 
 the woman represcntinu; the church; her child, the Messiah; and 
 the great dragon, " the old serpent," iSatan. That the church 
 should be represented as a woman comes by imitation from the 
 old Hebrew prophets, especially Isaiah. See chaps. 49: 20-23, 
 and 54 : 1-6, and 62 : 4, 5, and 66 : 7-12. In all these passages 
 except the last named, the offspring of the woman arc her con- 
 verts, and especially Gentile Christians coming to her in throng- 
 ing hosts, crowding her tent-room and bringing riches, glory, honor 
 and joy to her happy household. But in Isa. 66 : 7 we have this 
 remarkable language which seems to have been in the mind of 
 the revealing Spirit in this chapter : " Before her pain came she 
 
 was delivered of a man-child." It is pertinent to refer also to 
 
 passages where the birth of the Messiah is definitely predicted, 
 and of course, of some mother in the ancient Jewish church; e.g., 
 Isa. 7 : 14. " Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and 
 shall call his name Immanuel; " — also 9:6: " Unto us a child is 
 born; unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon 
 his shoulder; and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Coun- 
 selor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of 
 peace." Also Mic. 5 : 2—4 : " Out of Bethlehem shall he come forth 
 unto me that is to be Ruler in Israel," etc. " Therefore shall he 
 give them up until the time that she which travaileth hath brought 
 forth," etc. ; " and he shall stand and feed " [like a shepherd] 
 "in the strength of the Lord," etc. Both these sets of passages 
 seem to have been before the mind of John, the former class giv- 
 ing the church representatively as a mother; the latter present- 
 ing her offspring, the ojie man-child, the promised ^Messiah. 
 
 That this child in the chapter before us is the Messiah is shown 
 plainly in v. 5 ; — was " to rule all nations with a rod of iron " — 
 a very obvious allusion to the prophecv, Psalms 2: 7-9; and 
 "caught up" [after his resurrection] "unto God and to his 
 
 throne ; " exalted to supreme power there. The "great dragon" 
 
 is sharply defined and identified in vs. 9, 10, as we shall see. 
 
 (2.) Why are these scenes shown to the prophet in heaven, since 
 
 for the most part they are transacted on the earth ? These 
 
 prophetic visions seem to have brought heaven and earth very 
 near together and to have shown their wonderfully intimate rela- 
 tions to each other. While most of them are located in heaven, 
 the scenes are occasionally shifted to earth Avith striking facility 
 {e. ff., cha}:^ 10: 1, 2, 4, 5, and 11: 1, 2, etc.). All these prophetic 
 events originate in the great plan and purpose of God and there- 
 fore, in a vital sense, have their source in heaven. Hence when 
 the object was to lead the prophet up to the fountain-head, the 
 spring whence these streams of influence proceed, ho must needs 
 
 be taken up to heaven. Finally, it was deemed important no 
 
 doubt to show the prophet how deeply these matters pertaining to 
 the earthly Zion take hold of the sympathies of all the holy 
 around the infinite throne. Ilence there was the utmost perti- 
 
REVELATION— CHAP. XI I. 14o 
 
 nencc und fitness in thus laying the scones of these symbols in 
 heaven. 
 
 (3.) I have in part anticipatetl my tliird point so far forth as re- 
 Bpects the object sought in locating these scenes in heaven. It 
 remains to speak of the oliject sought in going back historically to 
 the birth of the Messiah and its attendant circumstances. In my 
 view tlie object was to show the persecuted saints of that age 
 where the fiery persecutions they feared or sufiered had their ori- 
 gin ; to fix their eye on that " old serpent" who began his diabolic 
 work in Eden, wlio tasked his utmost hellish art and power to 
 crush the infant Jesus, and indeed to tempt the man Jesus, both 
 first at the beginning of his public ministry, and last, near its close, 
 in the scenes of Gethsemane and Calvary. It was well for them to 
 be reminded that Jesus had been in this fight before them and 
 had personally conquered ! It was well for them to know where 
 the great battle-field now lav, and that this was their time for 
 valiant fight and steadfast endurance even if need be unto blood ! 
 One of the prime objects in this entire chapter is manifestly to 
 put the de\'il in his true light as the chief persecutor, the arch- 
 traitor and rebel against the throne of God— the chieftain who 
 heads all the sin and all the war against God and goodness Avhich 
 appear in the universe. Let all Christians know their enem_y; 
 let them know his past historj', his present designs, his determined 
 antagonism to the Messiah and to his church and people; and his 
 
 certain defeat and shameful fall in tlie end. Such are the high 
 
 and. morally useful purposes sought in this chapter. 
 
 Accordingly we have here the woman and her peculiar condi- 
 tl(m (vs. 1, 2); the dragon and his followers (vs. 3,4); the birth 
 of the man-child, etc. (v. 5); tlie woman-mother protected (v. 6); 
 the great battle in heaven and its immediate results (vs. 7, 8) ; 
 the dragon identified and cast out (v. 9); the consequent joy and 
 songs in heaven (vs. 10, 11); the devil on earth persecuting the 
 woman (vs. 12, 13); the fight prolonged (vs. 14-17). 
 
 X. And there appeared a great wonder iu heaven ; a 
 woman dothed with the sim, and the moon under her feet, 
 and upon her lieud a crown of twelve stars; 
 
 2. And she heing with child cried, travailing in birtli, 
 and pained to be delivered. 
 
 "A great wonder"— an olijcct whirh excited great attention, 
 perhaps great surprise — a personage of most striking appearance. 
 
 lier array and adorning seem to come from the Bong of Sul- 
 
 omon (G : 4, 10), " Looking ibrth as the morning, fair as the moon, 
 clear as the sun," etc. ''The twelve stars" may have a tacit ref- 
 erence to the twelve tribes of the ancient Zion. The human ' 
 
 birth and incarnation of the Messiah seem to be presented tlius 
 mainly for the purpose of showing the great dragon in his true 
 rclation.s to Christ and to all Christ's \vork and people. 
 
146 REVELATION— CHAP. XII. 
 
 3. And there appeared anotlier Avouder in heaven ; and 
 behokl a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten 
 horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. 
 
 " Dragon " [Greek, Drakon] is but anotlicr name for a <rreat ser- 
 pent. '' Red " may signify his Ijlood}' spirit and purpose ; his seven 
 heads betoken extreme cunning; and his ten horns a very for- 
 luidable power. The crowns or diadems upon his heads show him 
 to be the Prince among the Spirits of darkness and rebellion. 
 
 4. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of 
 heaven, and did cast them to the earth : and the dragon 
 stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, 
 for to devour her child as soon as it was born. 
 
 "His tail drcAV the third part," etc.; he led the first rebellion 
 
 in the universe. " The stars of heaven " — among and of those 
 
 " morning stars " of whom it is said (Job 38 : 7) that on the birth 
 of our world they " sang together and shouted for joy." The usage 
 of the word " star " for a distinguished personage appears else- 
 where (Num. 24: 17, and Isa. 14: 12). AVhether the relative 
 
 number stated here — one-third part — gives us proximately the 
 extent of that fearful rebellion in heaven, is perhaps too much for 
 us to afiirm. It may be so. It is however more clear that the 
 writer speaks in derision of their obsequiousness and servility in 
 meanly following the great head rebel — ^^ his tail drew ihem!" 
 Would it not have been incompai'ably more iiol)le for them to have 
 stood fast in their allegiance to heaven's glorious King than so 
 meanly to suffer themselves to be drawn into most guilty rebellion 
 
 by the dragon's tail! The dragon deemed it a great" point of 
 
 strategy to seize the infant child as soon as born and crush him 
 there in his weakness. But a higlier and sharper mind than his 
 saw through his plan and thwarted it. 
 
 5. And she brought forth a man-cliikl, who was to Tule 
 all nations with a rod of iron : and her child was caught 
 up unto God, aud to his throne. 
 
 As already indicated this can be no other than the incarnate 
 jMessiah, born of a human mother, yet here thought of as born of 
 the ancient Zion church, the product of her faith and prayer, the 
 gift of God to his waiting church according to long standing 
 promise and covenant. The descriptive clause, " Kule all na- 
 tions with a rod of iron," comes from Ps. 2: 9. It should be 
 specially noted that the Greek verb here combines the two ideas, 
 of ruling and of feeding as a sInyhenL The aspect of inm power 
 comes from what was specially peculiar and prominent in David 
 wl'O stands in that second psalm as a controlling type of Christ, 
 David as king was distinguished for subduing the long standing 
 iind^ fearfully annoying enemies of Israel on every side, lie was 
 
REVELATION.— CHAP. XII. 147 
 
 a m:in of blood. In certain aspects of his character his greater 
 Son must be like him; and tliose aspects are necessarily rather 
 prominent in this book of IJcvelation, since it treats mostly of the 
 fearful judgments with which Jesus, the King of kings, will crush 
 the great persecuting forces of that age. It must not be inferred 
 that the rule of Christ over the nations which constitutes his 
 promised reign in his gospel kingdom will be "with a rod of 
 iron," for obviously Christ is thought of here as destroying his 
 enemies by his agencies in providence — not as ruling in and over 
 
 his church by his Spirit and his truth. " Caught up to God and 
 
 to his throne," is an admirable presentation in vision of God's pro- 
 tecting care of the infant Jesus; yet the history shows that this 
 was not precisely the manner of that protection. The infant was 
 made fully as safe against the dragon as if he had been taken up 
 bodily and at once to the heavenly throne. 
 
 6. And the woman fled into the wildcrnes?, where slie 
 liath a place prepared of God, tliat they should feed lier 
 there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. 
 
 This fleeing into the wilderness for shelter looks ])ack his- 
 torically to Israel brought out of Kgypt and sheltered in perfect 
 safety in that wilderness of Arabia where no Kgj-ptian army could 
 possibly subsist, and of course could not follow them — on the 
 margin of which indeed they found their grave in the waters of 
 tlio Ked Sea.. Somewhat in the same way Ilosea says (2: 14) " I 
 Avill bring her into the wilderness and there will I speak to her 
 heart " — making it a place for moral discipline, and henoe for real 
 salvation. But here the main idea is that of protection against the 
 dragon. There may perhaps be a tacit allusion to the flight of 
 Christians, shortly before the siege of Jerusalem, into the mountain 
 
 region across the Jordan. The duration of this peinod — twelve 
 
 hundred and sixty days — comes evidently from Daniel where this 
 period became historic, as the length of Zion's bitter trial and 
 ])ersecution under Antiochus Epiphanes. "We have no occasion to 
 inquire for precisely the same historic duration of either the 
 church's protection or of her sufl"ering under persecution. God 
 kept her in that wilderness as long as the occasion demanded. 
 It was a time which naturally suggested the similar period in the 
 
 history of the oMaccabees and their heroic countrj'men. To 
 
 interpret these days to mean years is just as baseless in prophecy 
 as it would be in history. See the Dissertation in the Appendix. 
 'J'his remark applies equally to v. 14 below. 
 
 7. And there was war in heaven : ^Micluu] and his anpfchs 
 fought against the dragon'; and the dragon fought and his 
 angels, 
 
 8. And prevailed not ; neither svas their phice found any 
 more iu heaven. 
 
148 REVELATION.— CHAP. XII. 
 
 It seems to be implieil that when tl)e man-chikl Avas caught up 
 to heaven the great dragnn carried the war thither, striking for 
 the murder of the infant child there. Jt may })ossibly rel'er more 
 definitely to the scenes which immediately follt>wed the great 
 revolt, since Ave can not suppose that after they had taken arms 
 against God, they could be permitted to remain in heaven. Prob- 
 ably it is safest to say that we need not look for precise historical 
 accuracy in such a symbolic representation. It umy not be amiss 
 to suggest that all which is said here of Satan's relation to place 
 should be taken as symbolic and representative rather than literal 
 and historic ; for what can we know yet of the relation of spirit 
 
 to place? A fierce and desperate battle was fought over the 
 
 new-born Messiah : holy angels and devilish angels were the op- 
 posing hosts, and the victory turned gloriously on Zion's side. 
 
 The allusion in v. 10 to "the accuser of our brethren" as " cast 
 down" from heaven, which manifestly looks somewhat to the history 
 of Job and Satan, seems to assume that the battle-ground is shifted 
 from heaven to earth — the battle, 1 mean, over the saints of God. 
 
 "Prevailed not" means, were coni|uercd. And they could find 
 
 no longer any place in heaven. 
 
 9. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, 
 called the Devil, and Satan, ■which deceiveth the whole 
 world : he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were 
 cast out with him. 
 
 We may well note the pains taken to identify the " great dragon " 
 by accumulating all his various names, somewhat as a criminal 
 indictment against a villain Avho has various assumed names will 
 carefully include them all with each its "alias" to introduce it. 
 The "great dragon" was known as "the old serpent" in the 
 record of the fall in Eden. lie had a well earned " alias" in the 
 name Diabolus — the devil — in the sense of "an accuser of the 
 [)rethren" (v. 10), having played this part in early times against 
 Job. Another "alias" he had honestly won for himself in the 
 name "Satan" — a malicious hatcr^ both of God and of all the 
 good — angels or men. Such are his significant names, grouped 
 together here to suggest. to the reader the various points of his 
 past history as given in the Bible. This dragon, the writer would 
 say, is the same old enemy of God and man of whom you have 
 heard so often — ever the same, though under names however 
 many and various. You will see that his perpetual mission on 
 earth is that of deception and lies, Avhereby he " deceiveth the 
 whole world" — its Great Prince — "the spirit that now Avorketh 
 in the children of disobedience." Let all the churches know him 
 and know only to detest and resist him. lie is hurled doAvn from 
 heaven to earth, one stage in that fearful fall midway from heaven 
 to hell, giving assurance that the same power Avliich cast him 
 headlong from heaven will ere lung plunge him from earth into 
 the bottomless abyss — '' his o\sn place," 
 
REVELATION.— CHAP. XII. 149 
 
 10. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is 
 come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, 
 and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our hreth- 
 reu is cast down, which accused them before our God day 
 and night. 
 
 11. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, 
 and by the Avord of their testimony ; and they loved nctt 
 their lives unto the death. 
 
 This grand defeat of Satan sends a thrill of joy tliron<ih heaven. 
 It is not only a foot but a prophecy — a fact whicli itself foretokens 
 other victories of like sort, only more and more effective and deci- 
 sive, tending more and more ra|ndly to the grand consummation — 
 the utter crushing out of Satan and his hosts and the linal deliv- 
 erance of the earth from his dominion. This " loud voice " 
 
 seems to come from some representative of the jilorified saints in 
 heaven — perhaps from one of the twenty-four elders, for he says, 
 "The accuser of our brethren." Certainly his interest and sympa- 
 thy are thoroughly with the sons of Ziou who are yet in the fii;;lit 
 
 on the earth. It seems to have been deemed one advantage 
 
 gained over Satan that he is hurled down from heaven, where he 
 had availed himself of his high position "to accuse the brethren 
 before God day and night." lie is now branded as a slanderer 
 
 and made to fight thenceforward under his true colors. The 
 
 language in v. 11 seems to assume that the combatants in the 
 great battle with Satan were redeemed saints, who fought the 
 good fight of faith, and conquered throui!;h the blood of the Lamb 
 and through staunch endurance and heroic witnessing for Christ 
 and his gospel. Their example thus put must have been a sub- 
 lime moral power upon the chui'chcs of Asia in their then pending 
 
 conflict under the feai* or the pressure of persecution. Or may 
 
 it be supposed that under the license admissible in symbolic vision, 
 Michael and his angels are thought of as taking up this fight JMsi 
 as if they were themselves of the redeemed of earth, and so per- 
 sonating the saved of our race, fighting for them and as they must 
 needs fight, in order to set forth the grand idea that the victory 
 over Satan, whether in heaven or on earth, is evermore through the 
 blood of Christ and through heroic endurance for his name ? We 
 may remember that when .Tesus was aljout to close his earthly 
 life by that most eventful death, in that prospective view which 
 gave him the results of Gethsemane and Calvary, he said (Jn. 12 : 
 31), "Now shall the Prince of this world be cast out." On an 
 earlier occasion, when the seventy came in from their first mission, 
 saying with joyful surprise, "Lord, even tlie devils are subject to 
 us through thy name,' he replied, "1 beheld Satan as lightning 
 fall from heaven" (Luke 10: 18). 
 
 12. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in 
 them. "NVoe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea ! 
 
150 REVELATION.— CHAr. XII. 
 
 (pr the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, 
 because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. 
 
 "AVoo to you, all yc of the earth and of the sea, for the great 
 moral battle-ticld is transferred from heaven to earth ! Satan goes 
 down among you ; the light is to be on your soil ; and you should 
 know that he is fearfully exasperated, in great wrath. Having 
 failed in the conflict above, he makes his last desperate stand on 
 
 tiie earth, and he 'knows that his time is short! ' " But "short" 
 
 is a relative term. To what other time does it here stand related ? 
 Js it a short time within which he may possibly destroy the infant 
 Jesus ? or a short time in which he may consume the young and 
 feeble Christian church by the hot fires of persecution? or a short 
 time even though reaching to his being bound with the great chain 
 as in Rev. 20 ? Or may it be short on the dial of eternity though 
 stretching to the end of this world ? The second of these suppo- 
 sitions — a short time yet for his most hopeful fight against the 
 new-born Christian church — seems to me most probable because 
 most in harmony with the logic of the context and with the obvi- 
 ous sense of the word " short." It accounts for the fierceness of 
 those terrible persecutions, and rings out a note of warning as well 
 as consolation to all imperiled Ijelievers. 8tand to your pwst 
 staunchly, for the fight will be terrific, but it will be short! 
 
 13. And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the 
 earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the 
 man-c/iiW. 
 
 When he saw himself cast out of heaven and frustrated in his 
 purpose against the man-child, he turned his Satanic hate and 
 power against the woman. It became an era of fierce persecu- 
 tion. Let all Christians know that the persecutions they fear or 
 suffer come originally from the devil. It is only a part of his 
 great antagonism against the Infinite God and his eternal Son. 
 Such a view of it assures the Christian heart of victory at last, 
 and would show the weakest saint who are his powerful allies 
 and co-workers in the fight. 
 
 14. And to the woman were given two wings of a great 
 eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, 
 where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a 
 time, from the face of the serpent. 
 
 15. And the serpent cast out of liis mouth water as a 
 flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried 
 away of the flood. 
 
 16. And the earth helped the woman; and the earth 
 opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the 
 dragon cast out of his mouth. 
 
PvF^VELATION.— CHAP. XIIT. 151 
 
 17. And the dragon Avas Avroth with the woman, and 
 wont to make war with the remnant of her seed, which 
 keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony 
 of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Here as in v. the woman is conceived of in symhol as findini; 
 refuge in the wilderness. 1 see no occasion to tie down the signifi- 
 cance of this S3-mbol to tlie flight of the Christian Jews to the 
 mountains across the Jordan for safety against the Roman arms. 
 It is doubtful whether it has any special reference to that event. 
 Its historical allusion is obviously to Israel in her Arabian wilder- 
 ness, and its significance here is simply that the same God who of 
 old helped his people to safety and to a thousand other blessings 
 in a vast wilderness even for forty years, can and will do a like 
 
 thing in this age jof hot and fearful persecution. The "wings 
 
 as of a great eagle" made her flight from a crawling serpent com- 
 paratively easy. As the old serpent found himself distanced so 
 easily and so utterly by a winged woman, he pours out a flood like 
 a river that (as the Oreek has it) he might make drifting flood-wood 
 of the woman. J?ut God had means of helping the woman even in 
 this emergency. The earth kindly opened her mouth as if she could 
 drink in rivers as readily as Satan could open his mouth and pour 
 them forth. Of course these are points in the picture-scene of this 
 vision, and not literal, historic facts. They had significance no 
 doubt — culminating in the general doctrine that God never lacks 
 the means to frustrate the devices of Satan — often, nay, usually, 
 making the very wrath of devils and of men to prai.«e himself 1 
 think it would be quite superfluous for us to ask what special point 
 in Satan's fight or strategy is denoted by the flood from his mouth, 
 or what special mode of deliverance fur his church is foreshadowed 
 by the earth opening her mouth to drink in that flood. When the 
 text gives us no light as to any specific application of a symbol, it 
 is quite wise for us to rest in the general truth taught and give it 
 
 as wide an application as we find convenient. The duration here 
 
 is the same as in v. — the conception coming historically from the 
 same Daniel. 
 
 CHAPTE R XI I 1. 
 
 This chapter introduces two new personages who play a vitally 
 important part in the scenes described throughout chapters 13-1".). 
 They are both savage wild beasts; — the first comes up from the 
 Bea (v. 1); the second from the land (v. 11); both sustain special 
 relations to the great red dragon already introduced in chap. 12, 
 for they are his servants, subserving his jiurposes aud doing his 
 work. 
 
t52 REVELATIOX.— CHAP. XIII. 
 
 Here our first main qncstion should be — Who are these beasts f 
 
 What do they represent? Certainly some preat persecuting 
 
 powers, for tliey make war with the saints and overcome them 
 (v. 7); they blaspheme God, his tabernacle and his people (v. 6); 
 they receive their power from the red dragon and do his work 
 (vs. 2, 4) ; they receive the homa.!i;e of all whose names are not iu 
 tlie Lamb's book of life (v. 8); and in all these points the second 
 beast is only a sabordinate ai;ent of the first (v. 12), acting upon 
 the public mind by great but lying miracles and by manifold de- 
 ceptions to bring to hhn the confidence and the worship of the 
 
 people. The snme view is sustained by the obvious allusion to 
 
 the beasts of Daniel's visions (clraps. 7 tind 8) which represent 
 worldly powers hostile to Christ. These are similar powers, repro- 
 duced under like symbols. For the more precise identification 
 
 of these two beasts we must bear in mind the positive limitations 
 of time within which the main events of this book must fall as 
 given us by the revealing Spirit repeatedly, in both the first chap- 
 ters of the book and the last And then finally we are very much 
 indebted to chap. 17 in which the revealing angel appears for the- 
 definite and declared purpose of explaining to the prophet and to 
 us what is meant by the woman and by the beast that carries her 
 having seven heads and ten horns. The explanations given in that 
 chapter are God's own key to the sense of this chapter and of 
 
 these two beasts. At this stage of the discussion 1 need only 
 
 say that, guided by these limitations of time, by these points of 
 character, and by these special explanations, it is simply im- 
 possible to make any thing else of the first beast save the lloman 
 Empire — the civil power of the Roman Emperors ; while the second 
 beast (v. 11), judging from the description given of him here, from 
 his influence as sketched here, and also from the further descrip- 
 tion of him which appears in chap. 16 : 13, 14, and in 19: 20 — " the 
 false prophet that wrought miracles before him " [the first beast} 
 " with which he deceived them that had the mark of the beast," 
 etc., we must interpret to be the Pagan Piiesthood — every-where 
 ministering to the idolatrous homage paid to the lloman Emperors; 
 every-where inspiring the animus of Paganism, and by virtue of 
 their character, naturally active in the persecution of Christians. 
 Beyond all question this second beast is co-onlinate and co-opera- 
 tive with the first and therefore contemporctyieous, doing its work 
 at the same time; receiving its final doom in the same fearful 
 
 hour of judgment. Another great pe-i'sonage is yet to appear, 
 
 first called "Babylon" (14: 8, and 16: 19), and then taken up 
 for a more particular description and explanation in chap. 17. 
 Her real name, her place in history, and her relation to the first 
 beast will be readily seen when those passages come under con- 
 sideration. 
 
 In this chapter the beast from the sea is described (vs. 1, 2); 
 hIso the special fate of one of his heads (v. 3) ; the worship given 
 him (v. 4) ; additional points of his character and history (vs .*>- 
 
EEVELATION— CITAP. XIII. 153 
 
 8) ; a special call of attention to him (v. 9), tvith an intimation of 
 
 God's retribution upon such wickedness (v. 10). The second 
 
 beast comes to view and is described (vs. 11-17), and the chapter 
 closes with an intimation that special wisdom will be requ-isite to 
 identify precisely the then present representative of this formida- 
 ble beast (v. 18). 
 
 1. And I stood upon the i=and of the sea, and saw a 
 beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten 
 horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads 
 (he name of blasphemy. 
 
 The prophet's standpoint is not in heaven hut on earth, the 
 thin;:;s to be shown being just now, earthly. His position is upon 
 tlio sand of the sea, i. e., upon the shore, that he may have a view 
 
 of the first great beast coming up from the sea. Probably we 
 
 may take the sea to represent the vast populations of earth con- 
 sidered as agitated by wars and revolutions, surging and tossing 
 in dismal disorder and perpetual unrest — out of which condition 
 af the various countries and kingdoms of the civilized world there 
 
 came up the (/reut Itoman Empire. 1 hardly need say that this 
 
 beast is a savage wild beast (Greek, therion), not having the re- 
 motest analogy to the four " beasts " [living ones] of chap. 4 : 6-9. 
 
 The seven heads are shown (chap. 17: 9, 10) to represent the 
 
 seven hills on which the great harlot, borne on the beast, sitteth 
 — but more prominently the seven successive emperors who were 
 ill their order and for the time being, the brain-power of the 
 
 emjiire, representing her; doing her work. Of the horns I 
 
 sliall have occasion to speak more definitely when we reach the 
 
 explanation in chap. 17: 12-17. In the last clause the better 
 
 reading gives us the plural, "names of blasphemy," apparently 
 not less than one on each head. 
 
 2. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, 
 and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his moutli as 
 the mouth of a lion : and the dragon gave him his power, 
 and his seat, and great authorit}'. 
 
 This beast though from the sea is not a sea but a land monster, 
 grouping its prominent organs from the most active, formidable 
 and terrible wild beasts known to man. To crown all, the dragon 
 has put him in power to do his own persecuting work against the 
 people and the name of God. ~ lie is Satan's prime minister and 
 general agent. 
 
 8. And I saw one of his heads as it Avere wounded to 
 deatli ; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the 
 world wondered after the beast. 
 
 The specially noticeable thing here is that one of the heads 
 received a fatal wound, and yet the beast did not die but rallied 
 
i54 EEVELATIO^\— CHAP. XIII. 
 
 and still lived. Normally the head holds such relations to th« 
 entire animal* that a deadly wound upon it is fatal to life. Here 
 the head dies but the animal lives because other heads in their 
 succession perform for their time the brain functions of the beast. 
 This comes of having more heads than one. The explanation 
 given us (17: 10) proves that these heads perform their respective 
 functions, not simultaneously but successively, for there " five are 
 fallen, one is, and the seventh is yet to come." 
 
 This dynasty of lloman Emperors was founded by Julius Cagsar. 
 It was the uprising of the old elements of liberty that cost him his 
 life. At that moment the death of the empire which he founded 
 seemed probable, not to say inevitable ; but to the wonder of man- 
 kind the beast rallied under Augustus and lived on. "His deadly 
 wound was healed and all the world wondered after the beast." 
 
 4. And they worsliiped the dragon which gave power 
 unto the beast : and they worshiped the beast, saying, 
 "\\nio is like unto the beast '? who is able to make war with 
 him ? 
 
 "And they" ("the world" — the masses of the people) wor- 
 shiped the dragon because [the better reading in place of "which"] 
 he gave power unto the beast, and they worshiped the beast," etc. 
 This is devil-worship and king-worship. Devil-worship has been 
 often practiced among the heathen in the most formal and definite 
 manner possible ; yet I am not aware that such was the case in 
 the Rome of the Csesars. But it should be borne in mind that 
 Avorshiping the emperor was virtually worshiping the devil, and 
 that he cares little for the form provided he has the reality, well 
 enough satisfied if he can draw men's hearts away from God and 
 di-aw them into any form of idol-worship. All the early em- 
 perors demanded and received religious worship as gods of the 
 nation. This horrible fact is amply attested in history. Gibbon 
 manifestly disliked to admit and record the fact, but could not 
 excuse himself "The deification of the emperor is the only in- 
 stance in which they departed from their accustomed prudence 
 and modesty." " The imperious spirit of the first Ca3sar too easily 
 consented to assume during his lifetime a place among the tutelar 
 
 deities of Home." [Decline and Fall, chap. 3 ] Of Caligula, 
 
 Taylor says, "Finding no one dare to oppose his sanguinary 
 caprice, he began to regard himself as something more than a 
 mere mortal, and to claim divine honors ; and finally he erected 
 a temple to himself and instituted a college of priests to super- 
 intend his own Avorship" [vol: 1, p. 2G1J. Unhmitcd and un- 
 restrained power filled them with pride and culminated in tliis 
 n-ssumption of the honors of real divinity. 
 
 5. And there was given unto him a mouth speaking 
 great things and l)lasj)hemies ; and power was given unto 
 him to continue ibrlv and two months. 
 
ilEVELATlON.— CHAP. XIII. 155 
 
 G. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, 
 to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that 
 dwell in heaven, 
 
 Ko blasphemy can surpass that of arrogating the homage and 
 worship due to God alone. This Avas practieally blaspheming 
 Ciod, his name, his tabernacle, and his worshipers. To receive 
 such worship from men is most emphatically to decry and traduce 
 both God and all his true worshipers in heaven. The offering 
 of such worship to men is practically and outrageously denying 
 
 supreme homage to God only. In the last clause of verse 5 the 
 
 Sinaitic manuscript, instead of "continue," etc., reads, "And' it 
 
 was given unto him to do;" i. e., what he pleased. Forty-two 
 
 months, here (as throughout this book) by historical allusion to 
 Daniel indicates an indefinite period of calamity, such as is sug- 
 gested by the case of the persecuted Jews in the age of the Macca- 
 bees. This may perhaps intimate that the persecution under 
 N'ero continued about three and a half years ; but it seems to me 
 moi-e satisfactory to suppose that. this time is named under the 
 influence of the case in Daniel to indicate that this season of per- 
 secution was like that. ^ It may have been somewhat more or less 
 than three and a half years. 
 
 7. And it was given unto him to make war with tlie 
 vSaints, and to overcome them : and power was given him 
 over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. 
 
 8. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, 
 whose names are not written in the book of lite of the Lamb 
 slain from the foundation of the world. 
 
 The sway of these Roman Emperors reached all kindreds and 
 tongues. For a season God gave them a fearful power of perse- 
 cution against his people. All were drawn into this man-worship 
 save those whose names were in the Lamb's book of life from the 
 foundation of the world. Those whom the Father had thus given 
 to him (John 10: 29) no force of persecution, no edicts of savagely 
 cruel Koman Emperors, could avail to seduce and destroy. This 
 was said to the brethren of the seven churches to show them 
 where their strength lay, in whose hand they had been put for 
 safe-keeping, and on whom therefore they might rely in the stern- 
 est emergencies. 
 
 9. If any man have an ear, let him hear. 
 
 10. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity : 
 he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the 
 sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. 
 
 But let every willing ear be open to hear this: God iviH requite 
 a terrible retribution upon all persecutors in due time. Whoever 
 shall drag others into captivity [or exile] must in due time go 
 
156 KEVELATION.— CHAP. XIIT. 
 
 himself; whoever kills God'a innocent children with the sword 
 must surely himself perish by the sword. The arrangements of 
 (iod's providence may put the patience and faith of the saints to 
 a stern trial, even for a period that may seem long ; but let thcra 
 know that God rules and at no distant day will execute justjce 
 upon the wicked ! 
 
 11. And I beheld another beast coming up out of the 
 rarth ; and he had twc horns like a lamb, and he spake as 
 a dragon. 
 
 12. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast 
 before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell 
 therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was 
 healed. 
 
 13. And he doeth great w'onders, so that he maketh fire 
 come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, 
 
 14. And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the 
 vieam of those miracles which he had power to do in the 
 sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, 
 that they should make an image to the l>east, which had the 
 wound by a sword, and did live. 
 
 This beast is distinguished from the first (v. 1) by coming up 
 from the earth (not necessarily out of the bowels of the earth) ; 
 liy having two horns (not ten) and those not as of a savage wild 
 beast but "of a lamb." Truly he had " stolen the livery of heaven 
 to serve the devil in." How innocent and harmless in appear- 
 ance; yet "he spake as a dragon." All the cunning and wicked- 
 ness of Satan were in his words. Only the more dangerous was he 
 
 for his lamb-like aspect. " Exercising all the power of the firs-t 
 
 beast" seems to mean that he works toward the same result — 
 promoting idolatry, king-worship, blasphemy against the true God, 
 and the persecution unto death of his people. Especially he 
 claims to have miraculous power, pretending to call dovrn fire 
 from heaven (like Elijah, 1 Kings 18 : 38), and so he deceives the 
 vast populations of the Roman Empire and dravi's them into such 
 worshij) of the emperor as belongs to God only. It can not well 
 be doubted that in this description the prophet drew from the 
 practices of the false prophets {e. g., in the days of Jeremiah) 
 whose influence was unutterably pernicious in depraving and de- 
 basing the people and paralyzing every effort of the true prophets 
 to turn them back to God. Equally pernicious was the influence 
 of this second beast — the Pagan priesthood. They were precisely 
 the ministers of 'heathen idolatry and of king-worship, devoting 
 their immense influence to sustain Pagan ideas, Pagan worship 
 and all Pagan abominations. 
 
 On the question whether this second beast can be Papal Rome, 
 it should surely suffice to say that every feature of the description 
 
EEVELATION.-CHAP. XIIL 167 
 
 Kints us to the Pagan priesthood; that this beast worked for the 
 igan Empei'or as Papal Rome certainly did not in the age of 
 her first seven emperors, six hundred years before Papal Kome 
 became a well-defined system, and one thousand years before she 
 became thoroughly a great persecuting power. Hence it is en- 
 tirely inadmissible to find Papal l\ome in this second beast. As 
 surely as this prophecy makes the first beast and the second con- 
 temporaneous and co-working, and as surely as history locates the 
 persecuting activities of the seven heads of Pagan Eome on the 
 one hand and of Papal Home on the other one thousand j^ears 
 asunder, so surely do the stubborn facts of history rule out as 
 absurd and impossible the theory that this second beast is Papal 
 Rome. 
 
 15. And he had power to j,nve life unto the image of 
 tlie bca.st, that the image of the beast should botli speak, 
 uud cause that as many as would not worship the image of 
 the beast should be killed. 
 
 This power to put vitality, i. e., life, force, into the first beast 1 
 take to mean only and precisely that his influence was effective, 
 great, indispensable, in sustaining the sj'stera of Paganism, and 
 in infusing the animus, or better, the virus of the persecuting 
 spirit against Ood's people. 
 
 16. And he causcth all, both small and great, rich and 
 poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, 
 or in their foreheads : 
 
 17. And that no man might buy or sell, save he that 
 liad the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of 
 his name. 
 
 As all God's people received his mark, so all the devil's follow- 
 ers must needs bear his. The ban of j)ublic sentiment fell on 
 all who would- not receive and wear this mark. They were ostra- 
 cized from society, driven from the market-place, denied the right 
 to any of the most common privileges of Poman citizens. Not 
 only was the brand of opprobrium put on them, but the mark of 
 ISatan's vengeance. 
 
 . 18. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding 
 count the number of the beast : for it is the number of a 
 man ; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. 
 
 The emperor then on the throne was for the time the representa- 
 tive of the beast. Obviously he is now before the mind, and more- 
 over ia thought of as a persecutor to whom all must yield divine 
 
 honors, or suffer under his persecuting wrath. The "number 
 
 of the beast," defined to be the " number of a man," is generally 
 (and in my view correctly) thought to refer to the numerical power 
 
158 REVELATION— CHAP. XIIL 
 
 of tlic letters -wliich compose his proper name. The ITebrevra and 
 tiic (irccks used eacli tlieir own alphabet for numerical purposes. 
 In Hebrew the Hrst letter is one ; the second, two, etc. ; the tenth, 
 ton; but the eleventh is twenty; the nineteenth is one hundred; 
 the twentieth, two hundred, etc. Hence each letter hud a numer- 
 ical power. In our passage the numerical power of the name is 
 
 {iiven to find the name itself. A preliminary question will be, 
 
 whether this name is to be spelled in Hebrew letters with their nu- 
 merical power, or in Greek letters. It being manifestly the inten- 
 tion of the writer to put his readers in a way to spell out the name, 
 nnd 3^et not give it so plainly as to expose himself or his brethren 
 to persecuting vengeance ; and inasmuch as his readers (some of 
 them being Jews) would have the advantage of the Roman magis- 
 trates in deciphering Hebrew letters, it becomes antecedently prob- 
 able that he would use them. Supposing this name to have been 
 
 written in Hebrew characters with their known numerical power, 
 and taking the name of Nero as it appears often in the Talmud and 
 in other Rabbinical writings; * we shall have as the numerical 
 equivalent of these Hebrew letters in their order, 50 + 200 -(-6 
 -\- 50; and 100 -j- 60+ 200 = 666. This result must seem quite 
 satisfactory, even though it rested on the mere fact that these seven 
 Hebrew letters by the sum' of their numerical powers give us pre- 
 cisely the well-known Heljrew name of Nei'o. Rut the proof that 
 sustains the correctness of this solution is greatly strengthened by 
 another remarkable fact. Let it be borne in mind that the received 
 Greek. text gives these three Greek letters [.I'f ~] — pronounced <:/<?, 
 xi, vau ; and having in their order these numerical powers, 600 
 + 00 -f- 6 = 666. Now the fact is brought out and fully discussed 
 by Ireneus, that in his day (A. D. 180) some manuscripts had a 
 different reading for the middle character, viz., not f (xi), but t 
 
 (iota). He insists however that the true reading is xi (^'). 
 
 Can the other reading be accounted for? It can, most readily. 
 There was a second mode of spelling the name Nero in Hebrew, 
 viz., by writing it, not Neron, but Nero, t. e., omitting the final (n). 
 The numerical power of n is fifty. Striking off this final letter 
 reduces the sum total of the " number of his name " from 666 to 
 616; and to write this amount in three Greek letters we must 
 change the middle one as they stand in our text from (xi) to 
 (iota), i. 6., from the letter which means 60 to the letter which 
 means 10. Precisely this is the change which appears in the dif- 
 ferent reading of which Ireneus speaks. Hence it becomes sub- 
 stantially certain that the "number of the beast" was understood 
 by some at least before the age of Ireneus; certain also that they 
 read in this number the name of Nero Ciesar ; certain also that 
 there being a second way of writing his name (i. e., Nero ratlier 
 than Neron), the change was made in the text which this otiier 
 spelling of the nanxe would require. This double coincidence is 
 
KEVELATION.-CIIAP. XTV. 159 
 
 of the sort which could not occur by chance and Avithout a f<inn- 
 dation in trutli, one time in ten thousand. It amounts thcrcloro 
 practically to demonstration. 
 
 Let it also be definitely noted that this passage now becomes 
 one of the irrefragable proofs that Nero ivas the reigning emperor 
 when this book was written; and also that the succession of Konian 
 emperors, of which he was the sixth (17: 10) constitute the seven 
 heads of the beast first shown coming up from the sea (13: 1), 
 which beast therefore represents the regal power of Pagan Kome. 
 
 1 have treated this subject with the utmost brevity, omitting 
 
 all allusion to scores of other opinions, none of which, as compared 
 with the view given above, has any claim upon our particular at- 
 tention. Stuart's Apocalypse, vol. 2, pp. 452-459, presents other 
 views at len'rth. 
 
 o>«<o 
 
 C II A P T E R X 1 V. 
 
 Comprehensively there are three main subjects in this chapter: 
 the joy of the redeemed in heaven; the judgments- of God upon 
 the wicked in this world, and their eternal misery in the world to 
 come. More particularly, we have a second vision of the one hun- 
 dred and forty-four thousand redeemed from earth and their char- 
 acter (vs. 1-5); the first angel and his proclamation (vs. 6, 7); 
 the proclamation of tlie second angel (v. 8); of the third (vs. 9-11); 
 (lie time of suHeriiig for the saints (v. 12), but their blessedness 
 in the near life to come (v. 13); the reaping of tlie earth by one 
 like a Son of man (vs. 14-1 f)); and the gathering of its vintage 
 (vs. 17-20). 
 
 1. And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount 
 Sion, and with him a hundred forty and four thou.sand, 
 having his Father's name written in their foreheads. 
 
 The improved reading of this verse gives us, not "a Lamb," but 
 the.hamh, which means the same previously seen and spoken of 
 (chap. 5: 6, S, 12, 13, and 0: 1, 10, and 7:"9, 10, 14, 17, and 12; 
 I I, and 13 : 8). Al.so, in the last clause, not merely "his Father's 
 name," but " having his name and the name of his Father" written 
 ill their foreheads. "The mount Zion," which is here seen in vis- 
 inn as located in heaven, transfers the sacred mount of the holy 
 
 cily below to the heavenly city al)ove. There seems no reason 
 
 to doubt that tlie numbers given here (the "one hundred and forty- 
 four thousand") refer to chap. 7; and yet I see no occasion, here 
 as tlierc, to limit this thnmg to the saved from tiie ancient Jewish 
 ualiou. They seem rather to re[ircseut all the redeemed, at least 
 
160 REVELATION.— CHAT. XIV. 
 
 all those who have "come up out of fjreut trilmlation." They bear 
 on their foi'eheads the name of their chosen Muster, the God and 
 the Savior whom they love and adore. 
 
 2. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of 
 many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder : and I 
 heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps : 
 
 3. And they sung as it were a new song before the 
 thi'one, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no 
 man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and 
 four thousand, Avhich were redeemed from the earth. 
 
 4. These are they wliieh were not defiled with women ; 
 for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb 
 whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from anion"; 
 men, being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb. 
 
 5. And in their mouth was found no guile : for they are 
 without fault before the throne of God. 
 
 In the last clause of v. 2 the improved reading, instead of "And 
 I heard the voice of harpers," gives us — " And the voice which I 
 heard was as that of harpers ; " i. e., he speaks of the same voice 
 from heaven before spoken of and goes on to describe it more 
 
 fully. It was a sound of heavenly song. Also in v. 5 the iSi- 
 
 naitic and other manuscripts concur in glving/a&tVioor/ [pseudos] 
 instead of ^' guile" [dolos] ; while the tSinaitic and Alexandrine 
 omit "before the throne of God." All the recent editors concur 
 in this omission. The special points made here are full of in- 
 terest and of moral value ; the grand magnificent chorus like the 
 roar of ocean and " the voice of great thunder; " j^et with music 
 of heavenly sweetness as of harpers playing with their harps : also 
 that it is a "new song," unlike the song familiar to heavenly ears 
 in the ages before — new because it celebrates new scenes uf vic- 
 tory through grace, new triumphs over iSatan and sin — a song 
 which none can learn but the souls redeemed from earth. This 
 does not mean that the sinless angels will not love to hear this 
 song and will not praise God for such grace to their once fallen 
 but now recovered brethren ; but does mean that their experiences 
 have no such witness to bear to the praise of grace that redeems 
 
 souls from sin and death. In v. 4 the word for virgins is in 
 
 the masculine gender, showing at least that it does not apply to 
 woman to the exclusion of man. It seems to me probable that 
 lewdness is used here to represent idolatry of heart — the giving 
 of the heart to some idol ratlier than to (jod alone — according to 
 the current usage of the Old Testament prophets. If it be taken 
 in its literal sense it must still be considered as applying without 
 distinction of sex, and also as a representative sin, really including 
 
 all sin. Characteristically they follow the Lamb wherever he 
 
 sjoeth, through scorn, shame, toil, suliering, death — with one only 
 
REVELATION.— CHAP. XIV. 161 
 
 law of life — implicit obedience to their glorious Leader; the set- 
 tled, chanfjeless purpose to follow his steps, lead wherever they 
 
 may. 'i'hese were redeemed from among men, from this fallen 
 
 race, and not gathered into heaven from some sinless realm — some 
 order of beings among wlumi sin and woe were never known. 
 They are a first fruit unto (Jod and the Lamb, as a closer transla- 
 tion of the original would recpiire. The preferable reading in 
 
 V. 5 — lie instead of "guile" — prultably looks to the staunch and 
 unflinching testimony they had borne for God in the face of per- 
 secution. Some who had previously professed Christ quailed bo- 
 fore the terrible ordeal Of torture and death, and prevaricated or 
 
 denied ; but these Avere true and could not deny Christ. 'i'he 
 
 reader will not fail to note the moral bearing of all these points 
 upon the hearts of Christians under the fierce temptations inci- 
 dent to an era of fiery persecution. It ought to bear with precious 
 mural power upon all our hearts to-day, girding us to every work 
 and to all patient endurance and self-denial; but it was specially 
 adapted to those days which so fearfully tried men's souls. 
 
 6. And I saw another angel fly in tlie midst of lieaven, 
 liaving the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that 
 dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and 
 tongue, and people, 
 
 7. Saying with a loud voice. Fear God, and give glory to 
 liim ; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship 
 him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the 
 fountains of waters. 
 
 As this angel is the first of a series of three, and designated 
 therefore with no reference to any one before him, he of v. 8 being 
 "another" {i. e., a second) and he of v. 9 being definitely named 
 " the third," there seems much pertinence in the reading of the 
 Sinaitic manuscript which has, not "another angel," but simply 
 
 iin angel. Not "fly" \mt Jlying is the precise translation of the 
 
 text. Also " an everlasting gospel," not the — there being no article 
 and therefore, so far as appears from the test, no allusion to the 
 old and well known gospel, the "glad tidings of great joy to all 
 people." Yet the main question on this passage is not settled 
 positively by this circumstance of the omission of the article. 
 This main question is whether this gospel is the general one — the 
 news of salvation — or a special one — the tidings that great Baby- 
 lon is fallen. Inasmuch as gospel means glad tidings, the word 
 
 admits either sense. In favor of the former construction here — 
 
 the good news of salvation — it may be said (1) That this is the 
 usual sense of the word in the New Testament ; (2) It helps us 
 to give a natural and appropriate sense to the word " everlasting" 
 ^— the glorious old gospel wliich has been the joy of saints since 
 tlic first promise in Eden, and is to be their joy till the last re- 
 deemed soul is gathered home, and indeed onward thence through 
 
162 REVELATION.— CHAP. XIV. 
 
 everlavsting agos ; (3) The announcement of the fall of Babylon is 
 in place (on this construction of the word "gospel") for its bear- 
 ing upon the great and vital question ■uihethcr the gospel of Christ 
 should he preached to all the world — Babylon having set herself 
 with utmost strength to oppose; God with his high arm of judg- 
 ment upon her to break her down and give free scope to the out- 
 going gospel. She stands to frustrate this enterprise : her fall 
 assures its success. These points apply to sustain the first named 
 
 construction. On the other hand, in favor of the construction 
 
 which explains "gospel" here as the glad tidings of Babylon s 
 fall may be urged, (1.) The absence of the article, i. e., the fact 
 that the writer does not say, "having the everlasting gospel" — 
 the old well known news of salvation ; but simply everlasting gos- 
 pel — everlasting good news that will bear glory to God and good 
 
 to man through all the future ages. (2.) It must be admitted 
 
 that V. 7 gives us the very Avords which the first angel proclaimed, 
 and there is at least a strong ^presumption that this is precisely 
 (he good news which is spoken of in v. 6. That is, the wn-iter first 
 gives in general terms a view of this angel's commission, his mes- 
 sage ; and then pi-oceeds to give us his very words. Hence the 
 context bears with great force in favor of this second construction. 
 
 (3.) It adds much to the force of this consideration that it is 
 
 altogether in harmony with the genius of this book to have one or 
 more angels sent forward to foreshow the outburst of any great 
 judgment. In harmony with this usage, here is a first angel 
 whose mission is to herald -the fall of Babylon. That is, he does 
 not come to preach the proper New Testament gospel, the general 
 news of salvation ; but the particular and special news that Great 
 Babylon is about to fall. The reader will bear in mind that the 
 seven seals and the seven trumpets were mostly foretokens of the 
 ftill of Jerusalem — foreshowings of some of the premonitory indi- 
 cations and progressive advances toward that final and grand re- 
 sult. So of the seven vials of chapter 16. (4.) There is some 
 
 ol)jection to the first named theory, and of course some support to 
 the second, in the question — In what sense can an angel be said 
 to have the everlasting gospel of salvation through Christ to preach 
 to all the earth ? Esj^ecially, how can he preach it by fljnng 
 through mid heaven ? It has pleased God to send, not angels, 
 but men, to preach this gospel in all the world to every creature. 
 "What can it mean that this should be done in vision by an angel ? 
 
 This objection is still heightened when we consider that this 
 
 is one angel out of three, his work being manifestly in close rela- 
 tion to theirs ; while theirs is certainly iiot in any direct sense, 
 the preaching of the gospel of salvation, but the second one an- 
 nounces the fall of Babylon, and the third, the awful woe upon 
 
 all who belong to this great Babjdon. 1 incline therefore 
 
 strongly to this latter construction — the good news that Babylor\ 
 
 is about to fail. Of course this news is good and should call 
 
 forth Jiscriptions of glory to God because Babylon appears here aa 
 
REVELATION— CHAP. XIV. lt)3 
 
 violently and mijrhtily withstanding the progress of the gospel. 
 Tliereforc God's hurling her down insures victory to Zion — suc- 
 cess over the whole earth to the mission of the gospel and the 
 salvation of the lost. Therefore " fear God and give him glory ; 
 for the hour of his judgment has come:" his justice can not 
 sleep forever; and it awakes even now to its work and the cause 
 of (»od must triumph. 'J'herefore worship him Avho shows him- 
 self the Maker and Lord of all — who, having all the elements of 
 nature in his hand, can wield them all, if need he, for the de- 
 struction of his foes. 
 
 8. And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon i.s 
 fallen, i.s fallen, that great city, because she made all 
 nations drink of the wiiie of the wrath of her fornication. 
 
 The approved reading here omits the word "city," thus: "Fallen, 
 fallen, is Baltylon the great." The name Babylon appears here 
 lirst, hut doubtless in the same sense as in IG: 19, and 17: 5, and 
 18; 2, 10, etc. That is, this is "the woman" of 17: 18; "the 
 great harlot" of 17 : 1 — explained most specificially to be the great 
 city Kome. The Hebrew writers use the symbol of a womtin to 
 represent a city. "Jerusalem is the mother of us all" (Gal. 4: 
 26) ; Zion sits as a desolate mother in the scenes painted by Jer- 
 emiah in his Lamentations (1:1, 2). Rome was a second Babylon 
 in the threefold sense (1.) of being a great persecutor and op- 
 pressor of God's people; (2.) of being thoroughly idolatrous, de- 
 voted intensely to idol-worship; (3.) of being doomed like old 
 Babylon to a terrible fall. Here the fall of Babylon is explicitly 
 attributed to her influence in intoxicating and maddening the 
 nations with the hot wine of her spiritual fornication — i. c, her 
 poisoning them all with her idolatry. " The wine of the wrath," 
 etc., is tlie hot wine, the heating, intoxicating winewhich inflamed 
 their passions toward this harlotry of idol-worship. 
 
 9. And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud 
 voice, If any nuin worship the beast and his image, and 
 receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, 
 
 10. The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of 
 God, Avhich is poured out without mixture into the cup 
 of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire 
 and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in 
 the presence of the Lamb : 
 
 11. And the smoke of their torment ascendcth up for 
 ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, wlio 
 worship the beast and his image, aud Avhosoever recciveth 
 the mark of his name. 
 
 These verses paint with fearful imagery the torments of all the 
 worshipers of this "beast" — the same spoken of chap. 13, viz., 
 the Roman imperial power, thought of here as enforcing idol- 
 
164 . EEVELATIOX.— CHAP. XIV. 
 
 worship, and in fact the worsliip of itself as well as of the countless 
 
 gods of ancient Home. The language, "drink the wine of the 
 
 wrath of (jlod," manifest!}^ follows tlie terms whicli in v. 8 doscrihe 
 tiie sin to be punished. Jionic had led all the nations to " drink 
 of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." Ketri])ution cornea 
 upon them in the form of " drinking the wine of the wrath of 
 
 (!od." The former expression gives siiape to the latter. This 
 
 drinking from the cup of God's indignation has its antecedent type 
 and therefore its explanation in the usage of the Old Testament 
 prophets which may he seen expanded in Jer. 25: 15-29. The 
 idea there is that God leaves such guilty nations to a mad infat- 
 uation which brings on tlieir utter ruin. They eat the fruit of 
 tiieir own crimes. It is of course implied that beyond the natural 
 results of sin, the hand of God is against them in righteous retri- 
 bution. Yet this retril)ution, in the case of judgments on nations 
 in this world, often, perhaps usually, comes in the way of the 
 natural results of outrageous sinning. The phraseology here 
 points strongly to some direct infliction of suffering in righteous 
 
 punishment for sin. -The translation, "poured out," can scarcely 
 
 be justified from the original text which means precisely — which 
 
 is mixed undiluted in the cup of his indignation. It should be 
 
 noticed that these sufferings are declared to be "in the presence 
 of the holy angels and of the Lamb " — the smoke of their torment 
 forever rising within the view of the holy — a fact which had been 
 already foreshadowed in the closing verses of Isaiah's prophecy 
 ((56: 23. 24). Such a manifestation of God's righteous retribution 
 has its sublime moral lessons, and it is by no means the purpose 
 
 of God that they shall be lost upon the moral universe. " They 
 
 have no rest day nor night" — no rest in a sense of the justice of 
 tlieir cause : no rest in a feeling that they have done nobly in 
 rebellion against God and all goodness ; no rest in the spirit of stub- 
 born reckless hardihood and brave endui-ance ; no rest in the hope 
 of ultimate escape or termination to their woe. Alas ! what one 
 possible element in their cup of ruin can ever give them rest I 
 They have madly put themselves in the attitude of eternal antag- 
 onism against God : how then can they have rest so long as sin i.s 
 sin, and so long as God is Almighty, and so long as the peace and 
 the glory of his throne demand that he should make the punish- 
 ment of his madly rebellious and incorrigible enemies exemplary 
 
 before the moral universe? It is well to note the forceful moral 
 
 bearing of these scenes upon the suflering or imperiled martyrs 
 for whom primarily the Loi'd gave and John wrote these visions. 
 Well might they say — Save us from the awful doom of those who 
 worship the beast and receive the mark of his name I Fearful aa 
 our lot of suffering may be, it is but short, and all beyond is in- 
 ' etfafjle peace and glorious rest. IJut who can bear the doom of 
 the men who madly seek our lives? Let us rather pity than curse 
 thoin! Let us at least bear our hard lot in patience, for its woea 
 are nothing compared with thcii's ! 
 
EEVELATION.— CHAP. XIV. IGo 
 
 12. Here is the patience of the saints : liere arc they that 
 keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. 
 
 The best manuscripts omit the second "here" and read — ''Here 
 is the patience of the saints who keep the commandments of God," 
 etc. The idea is, Here is scope for patience; or better, giving; the 
 word patience its ancient and strict sense : Here is demand for 
 the lieroic suflering of the saints. They have before them a fearful 
 endurance of trial and torture ; let them brace their nerves for 
 this struirgle and breast the terrible storm, their eye of blended 
 faitli and hope resting on God alone, fur there is glorious reward 
 to come ! 
 
 13. And I heard a voice from lieaven saying unto me, 
 Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from 
 henceforth : Yea, saith tlie Spirit, tliat they may rest from 
 their kibors ; and their works do follow them. 
 
 A special voice from heaven proclaims, "Write, Blessed are the 
 dead, etc." This command at this precise point may have had a 
 twofold purpose — (a) to phice the reward of tlie righteous dead 
 ill strong contrast with the eternal unrest and untold woe of the 
 wicked dead; and (b) to minister to the Christian fortitude of 
 tliose who were then sul)jected to a fearful ordeal of trial, terror, 
 
 and torture. '" IJlesscd are the dead " — yet not all the dead, but 
 
 those only who die in (he Lord — in the special relation which is thus 
 most comprehensively put — dying for him, dying in peace and 
 union of soul Avith him, in humble trust and repose in his grace 
 
 and love. " From henceforth " has been taken by some to mean 
 
 specially that they are blessed immediately after death, with no 
 intervening period of unconsciousness — mucii less any intervening 
 state of purgatory : and by others to mean that whatever may have 
 been true in former ages, the Christian martyrs of this age and 
 onward will find perfect blessedness in death. It seems to me 
 to have special reference to the scenes of persecution then present 
 and impending, and to say in view of those scenes, not only that 
 the martyred dead were blessed, Imt that from this point onward 
 tlieir lot would be rather enviable than otherwise — not to be 
 I'carcd liut rather to be chosen, so glorious would be their reward 
 and so surely would they escape all tiie further toils and persecu- 
 tions of this life. Of course it alhrms the great gospel truth of the 
 immediate blessedness of those who die in the Lord, for all such rest 
 from all (he toils and trials which press upon them in this earthly 
 
 state ; all such hasten to their incfl'ably gh)rious reward. Their 
 
 works follow closely after them, to determine the question of their 
 
 destiny and to receive their appropriate reward. This must not 
 
 be pressed to mean that their iieavenly blessedness is simj)]y the 
 reward of work and not of grace; l)ut that their works are the 
 witness of their fidelity to Christ and place them within the pale 
 of his friends whom he graciously rewards immeasurably beyond 
 
166 EEVELATION.— CILVr. XIV. 
 
 tlio line of tlielr simply just dosorts. Po great is his love to those 
 who have souLjlit to bo true and i'aithful to his name! 
 
 14. And I looked, and beliold a white cloud, and upon 
 the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his 
 head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. 
 
 15. And another angel came out of the temple, crying 
 Anth a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust iu 
 thy sickle, and reap : for the time is come for thee to reap; 
 for the harvest of the earth is ripe. 
 
 16. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on 
 the earth ; and the earth was reaped. 
 
 One like a Son of man (not ^^ the Son") corresponds in this 
 point to the description in llev. 1 : 13. That he should appear 
 upon a cloud is peculiar to the glorious Son of man, as in Acts 1 : 
 9, and Rev. 1: 7, and Mat. 21: 30, and 2G : 64, and Dan. y. \2. 
 1 see no ol)jection to supposing that this represents Jesus himself 
 appearing in vision as about to reap the great ripe harvests of the 
 earth. The figure imitates Joel 3: 13. "Put ye in the sickle for 
 the harvest is ripe;" as vs. 17-19 imitate the remaining part of 
 
 this verse: "for the press is full; the vats overflow.'' The 
 
 golden crown upon his head definos him to be the glorious King 
 
 and Conqueror. See 19: 12. Kemarkably the word rendered 
 
 " thrust" applied to the sickle has the primary sense, to hurl; to 
 send down as if it were a missile weapon to do its execution by 
 being thrown from the hand. The meaning may be only — send 
 
 down thy hand which holds the sickle. The guilty nations of 
 
 the earth are here the ripe harvests reaped by the sickle of the 
 Righteous and Almighty King — for just retribution. 
 
 17. And another angel came out of the temple which Is 
 in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. 
 
 18. And another angel came out from the altar, which 
 had power over tire; and cried with a loud cry to him that 
 had the sliarp sickle, saying. Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and 
 gather the clusters of the vine of the earth ; for her grapes 
 are fully ripe. 
 
 19. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and 
 gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great 
 wine-press of the wrath of God. 
 
 This scene corresponds mainly with the preceding, differing in 
 the following respects: that there, the sickle is in the hand of the 
 glorious Son of man; here, in the liand of an angel: there, we have 
 in symbol the grain-harvest, and here the vintage: there, the reap- 
 ing closes the scene; here, the vintage is thrown into the great 
 wine-press of the wrath of God and trodden out — imitating in thia 
 
REVELATIOX.-CHAP. XV. 167 
 
 point the scene given in Isa. C>Z : 7. In each case an angel comes 
 forth, the first Irom the temple, the second from the altar, to give 
 each harvester his special commission, showing that every thing is 
 done at the immediate behest of the Great Lord of all. 
 
 20. And the wine-press was trodden without the city, and 
 hlood came out of the wine-press, even unto the horse-bri- 
 dles, by the space of a tliousaud and six hundred furlongs. 
 
 The treading of this vintage brings out blood, human blood — and 
 in quantities fearfully vast — unto the horses' bridles, for the dis- 
 tance of sixteen hundred furlongs — two hundred miles! A most 
 appalling scene! It has been often said that this is proxi- 
 mately the length of Italy, the peninsula of which Eome is the 
 great central city. If this be not the reason for this specific lim- 
 itation, I know not Avhat reason can be assigned. It must signify 
 an immense destruction of human life, although this language, 
 since it represents simply what was seen in vision, need not be 
 pres.sed to signify a precisely literal ocean of blood two hundred 
 
 miles long. It is entirely obvious that these two scenes, the 
 
 grain-harvest (vs. 14-16), and the vintage (vs. 17-20), are a two- 
 fold representation of the same grand, fearful destruction of (Jod's 
 enemies. As the power of the Pagan Rome of that age was world- 
 wide — "a great city Avhich rcigneth over the kings of the earth" 
 (17: 18) — it seems natural, not to say inevitable, to apply these 
 twofold descriptions to her predicted fall. It is but expanding in 
 new form the announcement given by the second angel (v. 8). 
 "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!" And with her shall fall 
 also the nations which drank at her hand the hot Avine of the 
 maddening cup of her bewitching idolatry. The historians who 
 have written of the decline and fall of the old Roman empire have 
 nnconscionsly written the fulfillment of these wonderful prophecies. 
 The same subject which in divine prophecy justified these varied, 
 sublime and portentous symbols, became a fit theme for human 
 history, scarcely ever surpassed in its grandcvu* of eloquence and 
 in its lessons of moral instruction. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 As the seven seals (chaps. G, and 8: 1), and the seven trumpeta 
 (chaps. 8 — 11) which were developed out of the seventh seal, all 
 precede and prelude the fall of Jerusalem, so the seven angels with 
 vi:ils, portending the seven last plagues, precede and foretoken the 
 full of old Rumo, In the opening of this chapter they appear a 
 
168 REVELATIOX.-CIIAP. XV. 
 
 new marvel in heaven; but the detailed report of their mission is 
 delayed a while to show the joy and the songs of heaven in quiek 
 anticipation of the triumph to the kingdom of Christ which the 
 judgments they foretoken were intended to secure. Hence we 
 have in this chapter the vision of the seven angels with the seven 
 last plagues (v. 1); the glassy sea and the victorious ones with 
 harps of God (v. 2) ; their song (vs. 3, 4) ; the opening of the tem- 
 ple in heaven and the seven angels coming forth from it (vs. 5, 0) ; 
 one of the four living ones gives them their golden vials (v. 7); 
 whereupon the temple is filled with smoke, indicating the glorious 
 presence of Jehovah (v. 8). 
 
 1. And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvel- 
 ous, seven angels having the seven hist plagues ; for in them 
 is filled up the wrath of God. 
 
 1 see no reason to doubt that these seven angels with the seven 
 vials, whose mission and its results fill up chap. IG, bear the same 
 relation to the fall of Pagan Home that the seven seals and the 
 seven trumpets bore to the fall of Judaism and of its representa- 
 tive city in the former part of this book. As the development of 
 those foreordained judgments was suspended there (chap. 7), to 
 show us the anticipative joy of the righteous, so here we have the 
 song of those who have gained the victory over the beast. The 
 seven angels are simply introduced to the seer ; and then the nar- 
 ration of their work is suspended to give us at this point the song 
 of the victors. These plagues are called the "last" with refer- 
 ence to the fall of Kome — the last she will need, for they will be 
 final. Possibly this thought may be embraced — the last which this 
 book will have occasion to present in detail. In these is filled up 
 the wrath of God; these will complete the judgments which the 
 justice of God demands upon the great persecuting powers then 
 extant. 
 
 2. And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire : 
 and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and 
 over his image, and over his mark, and over the nnmber of 
 his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of 
 God. 
 
 This glassy sea appeared as if the glass were mingled with fire, 
 brilliant and flashing perhaps; most radiant and splendid. The 
 terms doubtless describe the appearance — not the material itself 
 
 Upon or by it are those wlio had triumphantly withstood all 
 
 the assaults of the beast upon their piety and integrity — who had 
 come oft' conqueror in the fierce struggle and temptation which 
 befell the Christian men and women of those times. The ap- 
 proved text omits "over his mark," and also the article "the" be- 
 fore "harps of God," making it, "having harps of God." It is 
 
 not entirely clear whether this sea of glass is a tacit allusion to 
 
REVELATION.— CHAP. XV. 169 
 
 Israel standing on the hither shore of the IJcd 8ea wlien they sung 
 that famous song of Moses (Ex. 15), or whether it is part of the 
 symbolic imagery of heaven itself — the basis of the gi'eat central 
 throne, upon which the redeemed arc seen standing and singing 
 this song of triumph. 
 
 r*>. And they sing the song of JMoses the servant of GT>d, 
 and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are 
 thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, 
 thou King of saints. 
 
 4. AVho shall not fear thee, Lord, and glorify thy name? 
 for thou only art holy : for all nations shall come and wor- 
 ship before thee ; for thy judgments are made manifest. 
 
 This is doubtless called the song of Moses with allusion to that 
 ^vliich was sung on the shore of the Ked 8ea in triumph over the 
 fallen hosts of Pharaoh, then strewing the shore with their ghastly 
 dead. This allusion suggests the spirit and perhaps the manner 
 of this song, Avhile the allusion to the Lamb seems rather to give 
 us the occasion and source of their triumph, signifying that tliey 
 liavc gained this victory through the blood of the Lamb and the 
 gracious strength that comes from a risen ascended Redeemer. In 
 manner like the sous and daughters of Israel on that joyous shore, 
 but in matter as souls redeemed unto God by the blood of the 
 Lamb — so they stand on or by that sea of glass to sing this tri- 
 umphant song, which it will be seen celebrates not so much their 
 own victory as GoiCs manijcslcd glonj in his righteous judgment on 
 his foes. 
 
 5. And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of 
 the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened : 
 
 6. And the seven angels came out of the temple, having 
 the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and hav- 
 ing their breasts girded with golden girdles. 
 
 " Tlie temple of the tabernacle of the testimony" is here the 
 heavenly one in symbolic imitation of the earthly, corresponding 
 therefore both to the earlier tabernacle and to the later temple. 
 It is " the tabernacle of testimony " as containing the ark of the 
 covenant — the witness or testimony of God's covenant with his 
 people. The idea seems to be that the holy of holies is opened, 
 and the ark of testimony therefore brought to view — the whole 
 Bione signifying that in these judgments on great Babylon God 
 
 appears as the covenant-keeping God of his people. The seven 
 
 angels come forth from this very temple having the seven vials 
 full of the seven symbolic plagues. They are clad in linen, pure 
 and shining or resplendent, for the original word does not signify 
 "white," hut shining. 
 8 
 
170 EEVELATION.-CIIAP. XVI. 
 
 7. And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels 
 seven golden vials full of the urath of God, Avho liveth for- 
 ever and ever. 
 
 8. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory 
 of God, and from his power ; and no man was able to enter 
 into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels 
 were fulfilled. 
 
 As the four living ones show their s_ympathy and interest by 
 calUng the seei"'s attention as each of the first four of the seals is 
 broken (chap. 6 : 1-7), so here one of them fulfills the ofiice of 
 presenting to the seven angels these seven golden vials, symbolic- 
 ally full of the wrath of tiod — i. e., of that which represented the 
 judgments to be poured forth on the doomed, idolatrous and per- 
 secuting power. The "temple filled with smoke" revealed tlie 
 
 special presence of God as " a consuming fire " upon his guilty 
 foes (Ileb. 12 : 29), with tacit allusion perhaps to that weU-knowu 
 symbol of his presence by fire as when he came down to take his 
 abode in the new temple according to 2 Chron. 5 : 13, 14, and 7 : 
 1-3 : " Then the house was filled with a cloud so that the priests 
 could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud ; for the glory 
 of the Lord had filled the house of God." "When Solomon had 
 made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven and con- 
 sumed the burnt-oii'ering and the sacrifice, and the glory of the 
 Lord filled the house ; and the priests could not enter into the house 
 of the Lord because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord's 
 
 house." So here, no man was able to enter into the temple till 
 
 the seven plagues had gone forth and fidfilled their mission. No 
 interceding priest, no prayer in plea, protest or abatement of these 
 plagues could be heard. The divine decree of doom is irrevocable. 
 Eternal justice demands these judgments; uo power in heaven or 
 earth can stay them. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 This chapter discloses the sevenfold series of judgments that 
 came on Great Babylon, culminating in the seventh with the grand 
 consummation of her doom. This series of vials bears a striking 
 resemblance to the seven seals and also yet more to the seven 
 trumpets which are substantially an expansion of the seventh 
 seal. By successive visitations of judgment, blow after blow, upon 
 the earth (v. 2); the sea (v. 3); rivers and fountains (vs. 4-7); 
 the sun (vs. 8, 9); the throne of the beast (vs. 10, 11); the great 
 
KEVELATION.— CHAP. XVI. 171 
 
 EuphrateH (vs. 12-lG); and last, into the air (vs. 17-21)— the 
 progress of devastation is indicated and the mind receives a deeper 
 impression by the fuller expansion of the subject and the presen- 
 tation of its special details ; or rather by a succession of pictui-es, 
 scene after scene of desolation, you come to feel that woes are 
 gathered up from all the magazines of Cod's providential judg- 
 ments — all the ministries of wasting, plague and death — till the 
 climax of horrors is reached at last in hail of a talent's weight, 
 crashing down upon defenseless cities and their helpless popula- 
 tions. To some extent we may trace resemblances here to the 
 
 successive plagues on Egypt , j'ct here the scenes are not historic 
 but ideal — a species of picture-painting — things shown to the seer 
 of Patmos for the purpose of making on his mind and on the 
 minds of his readers the impression of successive judgments, di- 
 versified, vast in their range and scope, fearful in their character, 
 terribly desolating in their final result. I can not repress the con- 
 viction that those interpreters who dissociate these successive vials, 
 who assume that they occur entirely and far apart from each other, 
 one falling upon this nation in some given age of the world, another 
 upon that, far remote in place and time, and so on through the 
 entire seven, have greatly mistaken the whole drift of this vis*on. 
 As the seven seals, so these seven vials, are parts of one grand 
 whole. They fall, not upon many entirely distinct nationalities, 
 but upon some one great central power, and upon others only as 
 related to the controlling force at the center. As to time it is in 
 my view quite clear that in the case of the vials, as in the case of 
 the seals and trumpets, they stand not far remote from each other 
 but in close proximity, so that the discrimination of the successive 
 dates of their historic fulfillment is a matter of the least possible 
 account. The series is designed to group together the providential 
 blows that fell on Pagan Home, the judgments which came in suc- 
 cessive storm-blasts upon her, till, shaken to her deep foundations, 
 at last she fell, and Imperial Eome was powerless ! 
 
 1. And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying 
 to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials 
 of the wrath of God upon the earth. 
 
 Precisely rendered, the best manuscripts read — "Go, pour out 
 the seven vials," etc. The great voice of command came forth /?-owi 
 the temple where, according to Hebrew ideas, God was supposed to 
 dwell to hear the prayers of his people. Jt was in answer to their* 
 prayer that these judgments came on their cruel oppressors. See 
 chap. G: 9-11. 
 
 2. And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the 
 earth ; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the 
 men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them 
 which worshiped his image. 
 
172 KEVELATION.-CIIAP. XVI. 
 
 The vials follow the course of the trumpets in this, that the first 
 phii^ue causes suffering but does not take life. iSce especially the 
 first, second, fourth and fifth trumpets. This sore [ulcer], tor- 
 turing; and terrible, reminds us of the " boils and blains " of Egypt, 
 and may be considered as an imitation of that plague. (Ex. 9 : 9- 
 
 1 1). These judgments fell Avith exact discrimination, only upon 
 
 those who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his image. 
 8o most of the plagues of Egypt discriminated in favor of Israel, 
 smiting the Egyptians only. Several of the most ancient manu- 
 scripts (Sinaitic and Alexandrine) render it probable that the true 
 reading should be. not "upon" but into the earth, taking effect 
 terribly. 
 
 3. And the second angel ponred out his vial upon the 
 sea ; and it became as the blood of a dead man : and every 
 living soul died in the sea. 
 
 The sea became not merely as bhjod— something resembling 
 blood; but became blood, resembling that of a dying man, i. e., of 
 one mortally wounded; real blood and in abundance, as when the 
 life-sluices are opened. Of course in such an ocean no creature 
 could live ; no form of animal life could survive. Hence this 
 symbol denotes destructive agencies. 15ut it were vain to look for 
 a literal fulfillment of this. Nor would it be in place to look for 
 an era remarkable for marine disasters, or for a pestilence among 
 the myriad populations of the great deep. Such interpretations 
 lose sight of the purposed application of these symbols. 
 
 4. And the third angel poured out his vial upon the 
 rivers and fountains of -waters ; and they became blood. 
 
 5. And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art 
 righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, be- 
 cause thou hast judged thus. 
 
 6. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, 
 and thou hast given them blood to drink ; for they are 
 worthy. 
 
 Here too we readily trace the analogy with the plagues on Egypt. 
 
 The angel of the waters is he who presides over the waters, 
 
 it being assumed that God employs angelic agencies for whatever 
 
 supernatural effects he may desire upon the elements in the ma- 
 
 ■ terial world. It was therefore solemnly significant and impressive 
 
 that this angel should recognize the justice of God in this plague. 
 
 The most approved reading of v. 5 omits " O Lord," and in 
 
 place of " and shall be," has the holi/ One, thus : " Kighteous art 
 ihou who art and who wast, the Holy One, because thou hast 
 judged thus." The last clause means, not, hast decreed or de- 
 termined thus; but hast injiicted such judgments. V. 6 sets forth 
 
 the judgment after the type of the sin, to make it a vivid reminder 
 
KEVELATIOX.-CIIAP. XVI. 173 
 
 lo the suflorcrs of what they had done — thus, Because the blood 
 of saints and prophets they liave poured furth, tlierefore blood dost 
 
 tliou give them to drink! Wortliy are t'ley ! Their rivers and 
 
 their fountains of water turned to blood would remind them of the 
 rivers of blood they had made to flow from the ghastly wounds of 
 slain prophets and saints of God. 
 
 7. And I heard auother out of the altar say, Even so, 
 Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments. 
 
 It is remarkable that the Sinaitic and Alexandrine manuscripts 
 omit "another out of," and read simply and most briefly — "I 
 heard the altar say" — as if the altar were itself personified, sym- 
 jiathizing with the sufiering and praying martyrs who lay at its 
 feet — {under the altar, is the phrase in chap. G : 9-11). The altar 
 utters tho convictions of the holy in heaven, witnessing that (Jod's 
 ways in judgment on guilty Kome are true to his jiromise of pro- 
 teclion and deliverance to his people — righteous in their relations 
 to the eternal justice of his throne. 
 
 8. And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the 
 sun ; and power was given unto him to scorch men with 
 fire. 
 
 9. And men were scorched with great heat, and blas- 
 phemed the name of God, which hath power over these 
 jilagues : and they repented not to give him glory. 
 
 This plague causes suffering but not immediate death. This 
 vial poured upon the sun intensified its heat to scorching power 
 
 upon these wicked men, almost roasting them alive.-= In the last 
 
 clause of V. 8, the more exact rendering is, not "power was given," 
 but " it was given to it [the sun], or possibly to him [the angel] 
 to scorch men with fire." The original will bear either consti'uc- 
 tion equally well. But the meaning is that the heat of the sun 
 
 was so increased that it scorched men, etc. Note the result 
 
 upon these hardened sinners. They did not repent but only 
 bhisphemed God the more. This is according to the nature of 
 sinning moral agents. When sin has thoroughly gained the as- 
 cendency in the heart and the moral being gives himself up to sin, 
 thenceforward rebellion becomes a madness and a desperation, 
 showing how baseless is the hope and how contrary to the laws 
 of a sinning moral nature is the expectation that the pains of hell 
 will bring sinners to repentance. It is a moral impossibility. In 
 the present world it is far more often the case that love melts than 
 tliat fear subdues. But when even love loses its power and is 
 only despised, what i*emains for the desperate rebel but the visi- 
 tations of judgment, the madness and the woes of the lost ! It 
 
 IH remarkable that these predictions of the moral elTects of God's 
 visitations of pain on the guilty in this world should throw sr 
 
174 REVELATION.— CHAP. X S^I. 
 
 much light on the nature of sin and the moral effect of suffering 
 in the prison-house of tlie world to come. 
 
 10. And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the 
 seat of the beast ; and his kingdom was full of darkness ; 
 and they gnawed their tongues for pain, 
 
 11. And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their 
 pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds. 
 
 This plague also seems to have had for its function, torture, 
 
 not death. Upon the seat — i. e., throne of the beast, indicatin<f 
 
 that these judgments fell on Imperial Rome. The references to 
 "the great city," and to "great Babylon" (v. 19) prove that all 
 these terms — " the beast; " "the great city; " "great Babylon " — 
 are used interchangeably or nearly so, with only this distinction, 
 that the beast and his horns look more directly to the imperial 
 power, and the other terms — "city" and "Babylon," to the very 
 
 city where that imperial power had its seat and center. "Full 
 
 of darkness," literally, was darkened, deeply shaded and overcast 
 with gloom ; oppressed with grievous calamity. As usual, dark- 
 ness indicates great calamity, the dying out of hope, the pressure 
 
 of terrible ills. Here, too, as under the fourth vial, men suffer 
 
 fearfully, but repent not. So f\ir from repenting, they only blas- 
 pheme God the more desperately, with mad rage and the very 
 spirit of Satanic rebellion. 
 
 12. And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the 
 great river Euphrates ; and the water thereof was dried 
 up, that the way of the kiugs of the east might be prepared. 
 
 This sixth vial has a somewhat striking analogy to the sixth 
 trumpet (9 : 14) : " Loose the four angels who are bound in the 
 great river Euphrates." The drying of the Euphrates may be in 
 historic allusion to the drying of the Red Sea under the rod of 
 Moses, to which Isaiah also alludes (Isa. 11 : 15, IG), and not im- 
 probably to the drying of this very river-bed by Cyrus to prepare 
 the way for the capture of Babylon. We have the fact of drying 
 the bed of a great water in both cases ; the very locality is given 
 in the case of Cyrus. The underlying principle appears in both 
 cases — God's supreme, providential agency, equal to any desired 
 
 result of judgment and ruin on his enemies. As to the historic 
 
 facts predicted, it is well known that the Parthians from the great 
 East beyond the Euphrates were in the age of John the only 
 great power capable of measuring arms with Imperial Rome. 
 Under the shock of their numbers and of their energy, Rome 
 began to lose her prestige of victory and her long acknowledged 
 superiority in arms ; and soon the hordes from Northern Europe 
 and Asia broke in upon her as if indeed the way of their kings 
 had been prepared of God for the desolation of that great, idola- 
 trous and persecuting city. 
 
REVELATION.— CIIAr. XVI. 175 
 
 13. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coine out 
 of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the 
 beast, and out of the mouth of tlie false prophet. 
 
 14. For thfcy are the spirits of devils, working miracles, 
 ii'hich go forth unto the kings of the earth and the whole 
 world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of 
 God Almighty. 
 
 It results from the nature of these symbolic visions that spirits 
 I)eeomc visible. The three unclean (i. e., loathsome, wicked, Sa- 
 tanic) spirits take on the appearance of froi^s — being held up by 
 this symbol to our disgust, abhorrence, execration. They come ibrth 
 out ot" the mouth of the great red dragon of chap. 12: 3; and out 
 of the mouth of the beast of chap. 13 : 1,2; and out of the mouth 
 of the false prophet of chap. 13: 11-15. But very noticeably the 
 term "beast" in this last case is dropped and Ave have an explan- 
 atory term in its stead, i. e., the symbol shades off into or toward 
 the reality. For I see not how we can for a moment doubt that 
 the second beast (of chap. 13: 11-15) is precisely the same as the 
 false prophet here and in 19: 20 and 2U: 10. The descriptions 
 given of his functions in chap. 13: 13, 14, and in 19: 20 suffice to 
 decide this point with certainty. The first description is — '' he doeth 
 great wonders; niaketh fire to come down from heaven in the sight 
 of men; decciveth them that dwell on the earth by his miracles," 
 etc. — all in the interest of the first beast. In the latter passage 
 (19: 20) "the beast was taken and with him the false prophet 
 tiiat wrought miracles before him with which he deceived them 
 that had received the mark of the beast," etc. The "false 
 prophet" therefore is only another name for the beast which came 
 out of the earth, " having two horns like a lamb, and w^ho spake 
 as a dragon." All these three unclean spirits are further de- 
 scribed — " spirits of devils working miracles," and their special 
 mission as shown here is "to go forth and muster all the kings 
 of the world to the battle of the great day of (Jod Almighty." 
 This is done by alluring them into the idolatries of old Rome and 
 into her persecuting work against the saints of God. This of 
 course Avould put them into antagonism against Almighty God and 
 array them for that final battle which the visions of this prophecy 
 portend. 
 
 15. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watch- 
 elh, and kcepcth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they 
 Boe his shame. 
 
 "Come as a thief," but only in the respect here indicated, i. e., 
 not to steal — not to violate a precept of the moral law ; but to 
 come suddenly, with no immediate and special forewarning. The 
 symbol contemplates the taking away of another's clothing sur- 
 reptitiously, leaving him when he awoke with no garments to hide 
 
176 KEVELATION.— CHAP. XVI. 
 
 Ilia sliame. But of course snch symbols must be construed with- 
 in the limitations wliich the nature of the case demands. The 
 
 solemn admonition is, Watch ; for else the coming of the Almighty 
 in his jridgments will Und the* sleeping and leave thee naked and 
 undone ! 
 
 IG. And he gathered them togetlier into a 2>lace called 
 ia the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. 
 
 Not "he" — any one individual — but they [the three unclean 
 spirits], gathered them [the kings of the earth, v. 14} together. 
 The place Armageddon (erjual to JNIount of Megiddo) takes it* 
 name by historic allusion from Megiddo, a place famed for battle 
 and slaughter, where a host of Canaanites fell before Deborah and 
 Barak (Judges 5 : 19); and where the good Josiah was mortally 
 wounded in battle with Fharaoh-nechoh (2 Kings 23 : 29 and 2 
 Chron. 35 : 20-25) — a scene which became the more memorable 
 because of the great mourning over tiie fall of Josiah to which 
 Zechariah alludes (12: 11). The signiiicance here is essentially — 
 a place of immense slaughter. There tlie Almighty meets them 
 for terrible retribution ! 
 
 17. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the 
 air ; and their came a great voice out of the temple of 
 heaven, fi-om the throne, saying. It is done. 
 
 These awful inflictions reach their crisis and consummation un- 
 der the seventh vial. It is poured into the air, perhaps as being 
 the supposed abode of the spirits from the pit, iSatan being " the 
 prince of the power of the air" (Bph. 2:2); or may it not be be- 
 cause, poured out upon the air, it was naturally diffused over all 
 
 the realm of the beast, taking effect every-where? The "great 
 
 voice from the temple " — the recognized abode of the Great God 
 who heai*s prayer — witnesses to the connection between the prayers 
 (/f suffering martj'rs and this crushing infiiction upon the great; 
 persecuting power of the early Christian age. The p/roclamation 
 made was tersely and terribly expressive — done^ doxe ! Imperial 
 Konre goes down and is no more! So m;ueh was shown and said 
 in this heaTenly vision. 
 
 18. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; 
 and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since 
 men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so 
 great. 
 
 The old manuscripts exhibit some diversity in the onder of the 
 three words — "voices;" thunders; lightnings; with the best 
 authorities for this: "lightning and voices and thunder.'" This 
 diversity may be due to some doubt whether there were any artic- 
 ulate voices other than the echoes of the thunder, the two last 
 words in the preferred order expressing but one idea — " and voicea 
 
KEVELATION.— CILVr. XVI. 177 
 
 of the awful thunder." The earthquake was Nature's witness to 
 
 the footsteps of God, comin;; in his fearful retributions ! The same 
 symbol was the last antecedent forewarning of the first dread catas- 
 trophe (11 : lo). AVhat could be more sifjnificant, what more ter- 
 rific! as if the solid earth were trembling and giving way because 
 it could not endure the face of the Almighty in the great day of 
 his Avrath ! 
 
 19. And the great city was divided into tliree parts, and 
 the cities of tlie nations fell : and great Babylon came in 
 remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the 
 wine of the fierceness of his wrath. 
 
 This great Babylon is the same whose fall was proclaimed by 
 the second angel (1-4: tS); the same which is represented by the 
 "great harlot" and the "woman" (17: 1-G, 18), and whose fall is 
 the theme of chap. 18. ller sins of idolatry and cruel oppres- 
 sion and persecution of the saints come up before God, i-emembered 
 for retribution, and now the time has come for her to drink the 
 wine-cup of Jiis indignation. The great city seen in vision as "di- 
 vided into three parts " probably indicates in gejieral that it was 
 utterly demolished, its imperial power broken down and brought 
 
 to nought. The phrase, " the cities of the nations," the Sinaitic 
 
 manuscript gives, "the city," in the singular, apparently taking it 
 as another designation of Rome herself, the queen city of the na- 
 tions. r)ut the mass of authorities arc for the plural, which must 
 be understood to refer to the powers represented by the ten horns 
 of chap. 17: 12-17: in other words, the outlying provinces and 
 kingdoms that were long tributary to Rome ; that sinned with her ; 
 to some extent turned against her in the era of her decline, but 
 finally sulicred a similar doom of righteous retribution. 
 
 20. And every island fled away, and the mountains were 
 not found. 
 
 The scene is fearful and the language vividly descriptive. Every 
 island tied; not a mountain could be found — literally, " mountains 
 were not found." How can even the great rock formations of our 
 globe that underlie the islands and make the huge mountains, en- 
 dure the dreadful presence of the Almighty in the day of his aveng- 
 ing retributions upon the " mother of harlots and abominations 
 of the earth! " (17 : 5.) 
 
 21. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, 
 every stone about the Aveight of a talent : and men blas- 
 phemed God because of the plague of the hail ; for the 
 [jlague thereof was exceeding great. 
 
 Tiic Attic talent is estimated at fifty-sevon pounds troy and the 
 Jcwisii at one huii'lrod and fuurteon. llail-stones of such weight 
 
178 REVELATION.— CILVr. XVII. 
 
 fall like boinb-shot or cannon balls. The vial poured into the air 
 
 is bringing forth its fruit in this terrific storm! Again we are 
 
 told that men repent not under this last and most fearful infliction, 
 
 but only blaspheme God the more. The historic fulfillment of 
 
 this catalogue of woes will be more appropriately presented at the 
 close of the yet more detailed description in chap. \S. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 A strange looking beast, having seven heads and ton horns, has 
 been already shown in vision, and some things have been said by 
 way of explaining who he is and Avhat he does (13 : 1-fi) ; then a 
 great city called "Babylon the great" has been doomed to a fear- 
 ful and utter fall (14: 8-11, and 16: 19); the seven angels having 
 the seven vials, indicative of successive judgments from the Al- 
 mighty, have gone forth and poured out their vials (16: 1-21); 
 but yet so far the explanations given of these symbols have been 
 few and imperfect. JNIore explanation was needed; one of those 
 seven angels comes forward here to give it. This chapter is 
 throughout an explanation of symbols previously shown or at least 
 indicated; viz., the great harlot; the scarlet-colored beast and his 
 seven heads and ten horns. The angel distinctly declares that he 
 comes to John to give explanations: "I will shoiv thee the judg- 
 ment of the great harlot that sitteth upon many waters" (v. 1); 
 " I will tell thee the mystery of the woman and of the beast that 
 "carrieth her which hath the seven heads and ten horns" (v. 7); 
 
 In a series of visions so thoroughly symbolic, where literal 
 
 statements occur so rarely, where the landmarks of interpretation 
 are so few, it should call forth our deepest gratitude that Cod has 
 kindly given us here one whole chapter of actual explanation. It 
 will be'notcd with joy that these explanations treat of the most 
 important symbols which appear in the second principal portion 
 of the book (chaps. 13-19). Here we have the great harlot de- 
 fined (vs. 1-6); the explanation of the beast of seven heads and 
 ten horns, the heads being first explained (vs. 7-11); and next tlie 
 ten horns and their relations and deeds (vs. 12-14, and 16, 17); 
 while the waters upon which the woman sat are explained (v. 15), 
 Hud she herself is comprehensively indicated (v. 18). 
 
 1. And tliere came one of the seven angels vvhicli had the 
 seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me. Come 
 hither: I \vill shew unto thee the judgment of the great 
 whore that sitteth upon many waters; 
 
rtE\ ELATION.-CIIAP. XVII. 179 
 
 One of the highest an<;;els of the heavenly hierarchy comes with 
 inimitable kindness to show the seer of Patmos what the otherwise 
 dark symbols, brouf^ht before his prophetic eye, really meant. 
 Daniel was favored in the same wav, as may be seen (7: 16, 23, 
 and 8: 15-19, and 9: 20-23, and 10: 5-21"). John was favored 
 
 with similar explanations of other scenes (21 : 9). It should be 
 
 noticed that the angel here proposes to show not merely who this 
 great harlot is, but what judgment the Almighty was about to 
 bring upon her — "will show thee the judgment of the great harlot," 
 etc. This is mainly done in the latter part of the chapter (vs. 16, 
 
 17). That she ''sits upon many waters" is explained (v. 15) 
 
 to mean that she is the queen city of the nations — the great me- 
 tropolis of the provinces and lesser kingdoms of the civilized world. 
 8he sits upon these waters in royal state, as is said of the other 
 Babylon, her type (Isa. 47: 7), "I sit a queen," etc. Of course 
 this city can be no other than Pagan Rome. 
 
 2. "NVitli Avhora the kincrs of the earth have committed 
 fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been 
 made drunk with the wine of her fornication. 
 
 "Fornication" in the sense of the Old Testament prophets is 
 idolatry. This gi'cat harlot (Kome) had been intensely idolatrous; 
 had wrought her religion into tlic very frame-work of her civil in- 
 stitutions and her fundamental law. In the period of her history 
 here contemplated, this abomination became even more open and 
 outrageous than ever before, bj"- the deification of her emperors 
 and the demand set up that they should be worshiped as gods. 
 In this fornication all the tril)utary kings of subject nations were 
 involved. They were made drunk with the hot wine of her spir- 
 itual fornication. 
 
 An objection made at this point to the application of these 
 words — "harlot," "abomination," etc. — to Pagan Pome, should be 
 carefully examined. It is claimed that this woman can not be Rome 
 Pagan, and must be Rome Papal, because these terms are used in 
 the Old Testament only of Israel, and of her ojily in view of her 
 covenant [marriage] relation to God ; and therefore, when brought 
 forward into the Christian age must describe an apostate c/nirch, 
 
 and not a merely heathen people and their idolatrous worship. 
 
 Is this objection valid? I)oes Old Testament usage forbid the ap- 
 jilication of these terms to Rome Pagan, and require us to applj^ 
 them to Rome Papal ? 
 
 In reply I make the following points : 
 
 1. It seems to me entirely sufficient to answer that these terms 
 having passed into current use to denote idolatry and its associate 
 practices {e. g., lewdness, necromancy, the worship of devils, the 
 olTering of human sacrifices, etc.), miglit be apjilied in this book to 
 Pagan Rome and her idolatries, on the simple principle of using 
 tiie language, the figures, and the s3-mbols of the Old Testament 
 prophets in the same general sense in which they are found thera 
 
180 REVELATION.— CHAP. XVJI 
 
 2. There is no reason a priori for assumrng that the guilt and 
 the odium coucherd nnder these terma depended so much upon the 
 previous covenant relation to God of the parties to whom they are 
 applied as to make them inapplicable to Pagan Rome. In this book 
 of the New Testament, idolatry might be called adultery and abonv 
 ination, even in a heathen people, never in special covenant with 
 God, the terms being transferred naturally from the Old Testament 
 in this sense. 
 
 3. The guilt and odium of idolati-y and of its associate practices 
 are the same in nature (though less in degree) in a Pagan people 
 as in an apostate church. 
 
 4. The reason why these terms are usually applied to the Jews 
 in the Old Testament is obviously that the prophets were sent to 
 them rather than to the outlying heathen, (iod had unlimited oc- 
 casion to reprove them for their idolatries, but did not make it hia 
 special object to try to rebuke and reform the heathen of that age. 
 
 5. But should these considerations seem insufficient to obviate 
 the objection now in hand, it remains to say that Old Testament 
 usage amply sustains the application of these tei-ms to the heathen, 
 
 who were never in special covenant with God. As to the term 
 
 " whoredom," note what was said of Jezebel, a Zidonian princess : 
 " What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and 
 her witchcrafts are so many?" (2 Kings 9: 22.) Or what is said 
 of the Babylonians (Ezek. 23: 17): "The Babylonians defiled her 
 with their wlioredoms." Or what is said of Nineveh in a very 
 striking passage (Nahum 3 : 4), which seems to have given shape 
 to these expressions in the Apocalypse : " Because of the multi- 
 tude of the whoredoms of the well-favored harlot, the mistress of 
 witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredom and fami- 
 lies through her witchcraft." As to the kindred term, " abomi- 
 nation," wrought here into the very forehead name of this mystic 
 Babylon (v. 5), "The mother of harlots and abominations of the 
 earth," Old Testament usage appropriates this word more thor- 
 oughly than any other to express precisely the idolatries and asso- 
 ciate practices of real heathenism. The Mosaic law has it (Dcut. 
 18 : 9) : " Thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those 
 nations;" and (Deut. 20: 18) "Thou shalt utterly destroy those 
 nations of Canaan that they teach you not to do after all their 
 aboininaiions which they have done unto their gods." The word 
 became a name for the central and chief idol, and we read of 
 " Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites" (1 Kings 11: 5); 
 of " Chemosh, the abomination of Moab " (v. 7); of "Ashtoreth, 
 the abomination of the Zidouians" (2 Kings 23: 13). See also 
 1 Kings 14: 24, and 2 Kings 16:' 3, and 21 : 2, and 2 Chron. 36: 
 
 14. And finally it is squarely in point that Jesus himself, 
 
 speaking of the Roman legions and their idolatrous standards 
 approaching Jerusalem, as the signal to his people for flight from 
 Jerusalem, says (Mat. 24: 15, and Mk. 13: 14), "When ye shall 
 Bcc the abomination that maketh desolate," etc., "then flee to the 
 
REVELATK^X,— CHAP. XVII. 181 
 
 mountains." Of thia word "abomination" in this passage, Dr. 
 Alexander says, " It is specially applied to every thing connected 
 
 with idolatry and heathenism." With these words of his Lord 
 
 not improbably familiar and perhaps present to his mind, John 
 might very naturally speak of the same Rome at the same age as 
 
 the mother of abominations. 1 must therefore conclude that the 
 
 objection raised against the reference of these terms to Pagan 
 Rome is without adequate foundation. 
 
 3. So he cariecl me a\v;iy in tlie si:)lrit into the wilder- 
 ness : and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-colored beast, 
 lull of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten 
 horns. 
 
 "In the spirit" sliould rather be " in spii-it" without the article, 
 here as in the other passages of this book (1: 10, and 4: 2, and 
 
 'J I: 10). So we should read, "into a wilderness," not "Me 
 
 wilderness," as if it referred to some one previously named. A 
 wilderness was chosen apparently as a fit place for presenting 
 
 such scenes as were here to be shown. It is the beast, not the 
 
 woman, who is covered over with names of blasphemy. Was 
 
 this beast the same which was shown the prophet and described 
 in chap. 13: 1-8? His color is not given there, but his heads 
 and horns are there as here, seven and ten respectively; and his 
 names of blasphemy are made equally prominent in both descrip- 
 tions; there, " upon his head the nanfes of blasphemj'-; " "a mouth 
 speaking blasphemies," etc. ; licre, he is full, i. e., covered over, 
 with " names of blasjthemy." There can be no doubt therefore of 
 their true identity. There, all the points made conspire to prove 
 this seven-headed, ten-horned beast to be Pagan Rome, contem- 
 plated as a civil government, an empire; and the same is no less 
 true here. The woman, i. e., the city, Rome, reposes upon thia 
 beast. The empire built up Rome to become the mistress of the 
 world. She sat in queenly dignity upon this world-wide reigning 
 power. The Empire made the city of Rome great. 
 
 4. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet 
 coloi', and decked Avith gold and precious stones and pearls, 
 having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and 
 filthiuess of her fornication : 
 
 The woman was most gorgeously arrayed. As to the facility 
 
 of finding an easy and natural fulfillment in the Rome of John s 
 time, it matters little whether we interpret this description literally 
 of her luxury and splendor, or symbolically of her harlot-life, i. e., 
 of her enormous power toward idolatry and its abominable prac- 
 tices. The latter part of ihc verse looks most obviously to the 
 latter idea. " The golden cup in her hand full of abominations," 
 etc., was that with which she seduced the nations into her national 
 
182 REVELATION.— CHAP. XVII. 
 
 sins, poisoning the minds of the great men of the earth and firing 
 their passions toward her idolatrous corruptions. As to luxury, 
 the ruins of Ilerculaneum and Pompeii, buried in that very age 
 and disinterred within our own, reveal no two facts more striking 
 than these — that the style of common life was gorgeously splendid, 
 and that society must have been inexpressibly rotten with lasciv' 
 iousness — the fruit no doubt in large part of the debasing influence 
 of idol-worship and its associate abominations. 
 
 5. And upon her forehead rvas a name written, MYS- 
 TERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER 
 OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE 
 EARTH. 
 
 It is fully in harmony with tlie manner of this book that its 
 prominent personages should Avcar their own names on their fore- 
 
 lieads, or elsewhere on the person, On this verse, critics make 
 
 two questions (1.) How many of. these words belong to the 
 
 name and Avere written upon her forehead, and how much of the 
 
 verse (if any) is the angel's explanation of her name? (2.) 
 
 What does the name mean and to whom does it belong ? 
 
 Some editions of the English Bible put all the words after " writ- 
 ten," in large capitals, assuming that they all belong to her in- 
 scribed name. The original gives us no such help toward the 
 views of the writer. Yet it seems to me by no means improbable 
 that the English version has given it truly. The word "mystery" 
 suggests that the name is mystic, symbolic ; — has an occult mean- 
 ing. Prof. Stuart thinks that the name really written on her 
 forehead was only " Babylon the Great," and objects against in- 
 cluding in the name the words that follow, urging that this woman 
 would not call herself " the mother of harlots and abominations of 
 
 the earth." Very true, neither did she call herself " Babylon 
 
 tlie Great." The prophet is not giving us the name which Rome 
 gave to herself, but the mystic name under which this woman 
 was shown to him by the angel. All these words have their ap- 
 propriate place and fulfill their appropriate functions upon her 
 iurehead when viewed in this, their true light. As to the mean- 
 ing little more need be said. The name proves this Avoman to be 
 the very "Babylon the Great" whose fall is announced in 14: 
 
 8, and 16: 19, and throughout chap. 18. Her harlotry and 
 
 abomination need no further explanation. 
 
 6. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the 
 saints^, and with the blood of the niartyr.s of Jesus : and 
 when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. 
 
 7. And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou 
 marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and 
 of the boast that carrieth her, which hath tlie seven heads 
 and ten liorus. 
 
REVELATION.— CITAP. XVII. 1S3 
 
 i^he was seen drunk Avith the blood of the saincs and marlyro. 
 Nero insti<;ated a most bloody persecution; Domitian followed, 
 and several other emperors. Jn the phrase, " with great admi- 
 ration," [judge that "admiration" in its modern sense is not 
 quite the word. Admiring implies something akin to approving, 
 and by no means expresses the amazement and probably even 
 horror which this spectacle — a woman drunk with blood — the 
 blood of innocent men and women — had produced in his mind. 
 Ah, he must have thought — " and docs this indicate the sufferings 
 yet to be borne by the people of my CJod — the blood yet to be 
 shed of saints and martyrs, my own brethren ? " And very prob- 
 ably his inquiring mind was still asking — Who is this woman ? 
 
 What persecuting power does she represent? To this supposed 
 
 attitude of his mind the angel really replies in the verses that 
 follow. He kindly pi-oposes to identify the Avoman and the beast 
 upon which she sat, and his seven heads and ten horns. 
 
 8. The beast that tliou sawest was, and is not; and shall 
 ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition : 
 and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, Avhose names 
 were not written in the book of life from the foundation 
 of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is 
 not, and yet is. 
 
 One of the first and most vital questions bearing npon the inter- 
 pretation of this verse, and indeed of vs. lU, 1 1 as well, is this : — 
 What is the real present of these verbs — the " is not" as compared 
 with the " was," etc. ? Docs the angel go back to chap. 13 to take 
 up fop further explanation what is said there of the one head 
 mortally wounded, but from which wound the beast rallied again 
 and all the world wondered ; and Avas the temporary suspension 
 of beast-life and power at that moment precisely the "is not" of 
 this passage: or on the other hand, in these verses (8, 10, 11) is 
 the ideal present the point after five had fallen, i. e., the precise 
 
 present moment of the vision and of this explanation? This 
 
 question is not without its difficulties, yet I on the whole conclude 
 that in v. 8 and v. 11, the revealing angel falls back to the scenes 
 and the present time of chap. !.'>; Avhile in v. 10 he is not dc- 
 poribing the scenes of chap. l3, but rather is giving exactly the 
 then present status of the heads (alias kings) of the beast, so that 
 in this one verse (viz. 10) the present is the time of this vision 
 and of its explanation. 1 am driven to this conclusion by tlie 
 manifest indications in v. 8 of allusions to the scenes of chap. 13: 
 1-8, 12, 14. " The beast that thou sawest" {i. e., as described 13 : 
 1-S) and over which "all that dwell on the earth" — not written 
 in tile book of life — wondered so greatly, the reader will notice 
 identifies itself perfectly with the points made in chap. 13 — "All the 
 world wondered after the beast" (v. 3); "all that dwell npon the 
 earth shall worship him whose names are not written in the book 
 of life," etc. (v. 8). Th(j.se wonderful things — the beast mortally 
 
18-4 REVELATION.— Cir.VP. XVII. 
 
 wounded in one of his heads, yet living a^ain with more vigorous 
 life than before ; the great wonder excited by this circumstance 
 and the world-wide homage given hiui ; — these points are brought 
 up from chap. 13 for further exi)lanation and aLso to identify the 
 
 beast of which he is to speak. Hence this beast is the Konian 
 
 imperial power, the dynasty of the Ctesars which began with 
 Julius; which seemed to be smitten down when the sword felled 
 him to the earth; which therefore had its brief period of not Lcuuj 
 ("z's not") but which, to the astonishment of the world, revived 
 again with more consolidated strength than ever before. The 
 angel considering his present time to be that eventful moment 
 said of the beast, " ascendeth," or more precisely, " shall soon 
 ascend" [is just aljout to ascend] out of the bottomless pit; — for 
 the angel assumed that at death he went down there ; but on his 
 resuscitation came up again. "But he shall go into perdition," 
 for this wonderful coming to life docs not insure his immortality. 
 He is destined to be hurled back in due time to his own place. 
 
 Thus the angel predicts the fall of this Eoman Power. The 
 
 improved reading of the very last Avord of this v. 8 [parcstai] has 
 the sense — " and is near" — i. e., though for the moment you may 
 say of him, "he is not," yet he was near and would soon be in 
 life and power again. 
 
 9. And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven 
 heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth. 
 
 Here is scope for study, for deep, searching, discriminating 
 thought. Xo one can hope to understand these matters without 
 labor. It is remarkable that in chap. 13 we have at this pre- 
 cise point a very similar suggestion: "If any man have an ear, 
 let him hear" (13: 9). These are matters of vital interest, but 
 you must needs bend your ear intently if you would hear — give 
 
 your mind to deep thought if you would understand. The seven 
 
 heads have a twofold significance, first applying to the geographi- 
 cal locality of the woman, alias the city which was the capital of 
 
 this empire; and secondly, to the succession of her kings. It 
 
 need not disturb us that in the scenes of a vision as in the scenes 
 of a night dream, there should be a slight and sudden change or 
 shifting of some of the aspects, as here in v. 3 the woman sits on 
 the beast and in this v. 9 she sits on seven mountains. There is 
 truth in both views, and they are by no means incongruous. 
 Geographically she sat on the well-known seven hills of the great 
 city, Rome; but politically, she sat on the seven-headed and ten- 
 horned beast. These points are of prime importance to identify 
 her in both these respects — her relation to phtce, and her relation 
 to the great political powers of tlie world. 
 
 10. And there are seven kings : five are fallen, and ona 
 is, and the other is not yet come ; and when he cometh, he 
 must continue a short space. 
 
EEVELATIOX.— CHAP. XVII. 185 
 
 I see no reason or room to doubt that the seven kinqs jvs well 
 as the seven mountains have each their symbols in the seven heads 
 of the beast. That is, those seven heads had a twofold reference ; 
 first to the geographical jwsitlon of this great persecuting power ; 
 second, to his political history and character. The latter is the 
 
 point explained here. No symbol can be more appropriate than 
 
 this of a head or a horn upon a beast to denote the kings of a 
 given dynasty or political power. The usage of Daniel is decisive 
 to this point. In his visions (chaps. 7 and 8) horns upon a beast 
 are divinely declared and historically shown to be kings in a polit- 
 ical d^'nasty, or as the case may be, an empire. In these visions 
 shown to John it is simply undeniable that Daniel's visions — 
 beasts and horns — are the antecedent types from which these 
 symbols are taken. Hence the usage of beasts and horns in 
 
 Daniel should determine their corresponding usage here. It 
 
 need occasion no embarrassment that here we have heads as well 
 as horns. There was a demand for both. The ten horns needed 
 to be distinguished from the seven heads. A head is just as good 
 as a horn for the symbol of an individual king. 
 
 " There are seven kings." The symbol of the seven-headed 
 lieast embraces so many — no more. Of these "the five" (so the 
 (ireek has it), i. e., the first five are fallen ; the one next in the order 
 of succession is now on his throne ; the other, to fill out the seven, 
 is not yet come; but when he comes, he will have but a short 
 reign. To all this, Koman history accords with perfect precis- 
 ion. This imperial dynasty began with Julius C«sar. After him 
 reigned the other four Avho had then fallen, viz., Augustus, Tibe- 
 rius, Caligula, Claudius — five. All these had fallen at the point 
 when this vision was being shown, and this explanation of it was 
 lu'ing given. Nero was the sixth, then on the throne. Galba 
 fullowed soon, and his "short space" was historically seven 
 
 months. Thus with no forced construction but in a most easy 
 
 and obvious application of the revealing angel's words, vre have 
 tiie great facts of Roman history precisely indicated. An expla- 
 nation of prophetic symbols, divinely given, ought to tally Avitli 
 history easily and with great precision and accuracy. It surely 
 will if you bring to it the right history — i. e., if you have the true 
 application of the symbols to history. This history fits the angel's 
 interpretation of these symbols perfectlj^ There can be no rational 
 doubt, therefore, tliat this applicati(jn of his symbols to history is 
 the true one. 
 
 11. And the boast that was, aiul i.s not, even he is the 
 eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. 
 
 The seven heads are now disposed of; their history is finished. 
 But the beast still lives. The exigencies and the convenience 
 (we may perhaps say) of the symbols did not require a represen- 
 tation of more than seven heads. Whether this restriction was 
 due to a certain attractive power in the number seven — a power 
 
186 REVELATION.— CHAP. XVII. 
 
 of usage or of popular taste wliich puts almost every thing in this 
 book into sevens, it is of no special consequence to decide. But 
 the verse before us plainly shows that the beast survives his seven 
 lieads — lives on after they have all fallen; and this I take it is 
 precisely what the angel means to teach in this verse. Having 
 taught us this fact, he drops the whole subject of the heads of the 
 
 beast, and pi'oceeds to speak of his ten horns. The manner in 
 
 which he gives us this great fact of the continued life of the beast 
 after the fall of his seven lieads [kings] is very striking, yet very 
 apposite. Thus : The beast who exhibited such marvelous vitality 
 (as was shown in chap. 13) — the beast " that was," and then 
 seemed not to be, but yet revived again ; the beast that every 
 body thought was smitten dead in Julius Cajsar, but which came 
 to life again in Augustus ; that beast which would not die, even 
 he is the eighth — his life goes on after the seven heads have fallen ; 
 the beast himself is this eighth head [we no longer keep up the 
 symbol of successive lieads upon the beast] yet this beast is of 
 the seven; he has essentially the same characteristics. There is 
 no special change in this Roman dynasty. It lives under Ves- 
 pasian, Titus, Commodus, Domitian — but we can not and need not 
 trace their particular history farther. Suffice it to say that in 
 (iod's glorious and righteous purpose, this beast is destined to go 
 into perdition. Let the saints take courage. Imperial persecuting 
 Rome is fatally doomed ! 
 
 Before I pass on from this description of " the beast that was 
 and is not," it may be due to the well-earned reputation of Prof. 
 Stuart that I should notice his view of the reason why " is not " is 
 affirmed of this seven-headed beast. He argues against and rejects 
 the reference to Julius Caesar, but defends elaborately a supposed 
 
 reference to Nero. Against the reference to Julius Caesar he 
 
 urges — (1.) That (in 13 : 3) the words, "one of his heads," do not 
 necessarily mean the first one. 8o far rightly. (2.) That accord- 
 ing to the account (13: 3) this one head was not actually but 
 only seemingly killed — "as it were wounded to death." Whereas 
 Julius Cajsar was really killed; therefore the description does not 
 
 apply to him. To wliich I answer: The account shows that tiie 
 
 head received a mortal wound, but that to the astonishment of 
 the world, the least did not die of this wound, but rallied and 
 lived on. Ordinarily a wound which destroj^s the life-functions of 
 the head proves fatal to the animal; but in the case of this seven- 
 headed beast, this common law was strangely overruled. There- 
 fore the historic facts respecting Julius Ca3sar correspond witli 
 admirable precision to the descriptive points made in chapter 
 
 13: 3, 12, 14. (3.) Prof. S. deems it conclusive against the 
 
 opinion which I have presented, that " the beast in question was 
 a fierce persecutor of the Christian church ; whereas Julius Caesar 
 
 perished about a century before persecution began." Perhaps 
 
 it did not occur to Prof S. that he confounds the first head with 
 the bea.st himself, and that tliis confusion — this unobserved sub- 
 
REVELATION.— CHAP. XVII. 187 
 
 Btltution of the one for tlie other, is the only ground of his "con- 
 clusive " argument. No doubt this seven-headed boast wa.s a fierco 
 persecutor of the Christian cliurch ; but it is nowhere said that 
 the first head ■was, or tiiat the beast was during the reign of the 
 first head. Prof Stuart himself makes Julius the first of the seven 
 heads, but has not deemed it incumbent upon himself therefore 
 to prove that the beast was a fierce persecutor while this first 
 head represented the beast and wielded his power. 
 
 Passing to the view maintained by Prof. S., viz., that this 
 wounded head was Nero, it should be said that in his belief Nero 
 was not in fact wounded mortally, much less really killed ; but the 
 soothsayers of his time had predicted that he would be slain, and 
 would subsequently rise from the dead and resume his roj^al 
 power. He does not even suppose that John believed this sooth- 
 saying fiction, but thinks it was currently believed in that ago ; 
 and therefore the revealing angel spoke of this head as mortally 
 
 wounded or even as killed, yet that the beast lived again. To 
 
 this 1 reply that such honor shown to the hariolations of the 
 Roman augurs by God's revealing angel is essentially incredi- 
 ble. If the angel had any occasion to refer to their predictions 
 (a thing scarcely supposable) why did he not at least brand them 
 as false and lying? This would have been in harmony with all 
 
 he actually says of the false prophet (13 : 13-15). With sincoro 
 
 and profound respect for Prof. Stuart, I yet can not regard this 
 view of his as calling for any other answer. 
 
 12. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten king.s, 
 which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power 
 as kings one hour with the beast. 
 
 13. These have one mind, and shall give their power and 
 strength unto the beast. 
 
 14. The.se shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb 
 shall overcome them : for he is Lord of lords, and King 
 of kings : and they that are with him are called, and chosen, 
 and faithful. 
 
 The remaining part of the chapter gives us the ten horns and 
 
 their relation to tiie beast and to the harlot city. Those ten 
 
 horns seem to differ from the seven heads in two prominent re- 
 spects: — (1.) They are not strictly kings of Rome, but of foreign 
 states — those subjected or allied provinces which at some period 
 "gave their power and strength to the beast" (v. 13); "gave thoir 
 kingdom unto the beast until the words of God should be ful- 
 filled" (v. 17); but at some other period turned against the 
 harlot — " shall hate the whore and make her desolate," etc. 
 
 (v. 16). (2.) They appear to be mainly contemporaneous, not 
 
 successive. At least they are represented as acting in concert; 
 for awhile they have "received no kingdom as yet;" then, they 
 
188 REVELATION.— CIIAr. XVII. 
 
 'have power as kina;s one hour with the beast;" then, they 
 " have all one mind, making war with the Lamb, and being over- 
 come " — all as if one power, etc.-^ Further, it would appear that 
 
 they come forward ujton the arena only after the seven heads 
 have passed away. At the time of the vision, while the sixth head 
 was in power, they had received no kingdom as yet. Also, the 
 period of their co-operation with the beast was short — "one hour." 
 Yet for a time they work in full harmony with the beast, making 
 war Avith the Lamb, carrj'ing out the persecuting edicts issued 
 from the Roman throne. To the joy of the church it is declared 
 that even their combined power shall not prevail against the Lamb, 
 for he is Lord of lords and King of kings ; therefore though all the 
 kings of the earth combine against him, he conquers. It was per- 
 tinent and inspiring to the faith of the first readers of this book to 
 hear it said by this voice from heaven, " And they that are with 
 him are called, and chosen, and faithful." Under such apprecia- 
 tive and animating words, who could fail to say, 80 let us endure 
 to the end; so let us fight the battles of our Great King! It is 
 worth the universe to have such testimony from his lips that ho 
 
 appreciates our fidelity, and endurance even unto blood. To the 
 
 question, Wliat nations and provinces are represented by these ten 
 kings ? I need only answer, The subjected, tributary and allied 
 provinces generally during the ages referred to. I take "ten" to 
 bo a round, indefinite number, and am therefore by no means care- 
 ful to find precisely that number ; no more, no less. The student 
 of Roman history will readily think of Spain, the Gauls, the Ger- 
 mans, the provinces of ancient Greece, of Western Asia, and of 
 Egypt and Northern Africa. 
 
 15. And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, 
 where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and 
 nations, and tongues. 
 
 It might seem at first view that this allusion to the waters upon 
 which the woman sat is out of place in the midst of an otherwise 
 connected account of the ten kings. But a closer view will show 
 it to be precisely in place. Rome sat on scores of subject thrones. 
 She had brought within her Avails the spoils, the standards, the 
 enslaved captives, the conquered kings of a A'ast number of subject 
 kingdoms, of various peoples, from every quarter of the then known 
 and civilized world. It was over these subject kingdoms that the 
 ten kings are supposed to reign. Hence this is precisely the place 
 to refer to this great historic fact — her relations to her foreign 
 
 conquests and to her now subject provinces. It Avill be noticed 
 
 that this verse explains the last clause of v. 1 — " the great whore 
 that sitteth upon many waters." 
 
 16. And the ten horns which thou sawcst upon the beast, 
 these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and 
 naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. 
 
EEVELATIOX.— ClLVr. XVII. 189 
 
 17. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will, 
 and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until 
 the words of God shall be fulfilled. 
 
 The Sinaitic and Alexandrine manuscripts (not to mention 
 others) concur in reading, not '^ upon the beast," but ^^ and the 
 beast" [not epi, but kai^. Wc have here therefore a new and 
 remarkable fact respecting both the ten horns and the beast of 
 which they form a part, viz., that they shall turn against this 
 harlot city, shall make her desolate and naked, shall devour her 
 flesh and burn her with fire. The " making naked " is the ancient 
 prophetic threatening against the old harlot Jerusalem put with 
 terrible force by Ezekicl (16: 3G-3"J), and which is probably im- 
 itated here. So, burning with fire was the punishment definitely 
 named by Ezekiel (IG: 41); by Judah, as to be inflicted on Tamar 
 (Gen. 38: 24); and by the IMosaic law, in the case of a priest's 
 daughter guilty of whoredom (Lev. 21 : 9). Eor similar reasons 
 lire bears a prominent part in the judgment that fell on Great 
 
 IJabylon as defined in chap. 18. Hca vs. 8, 18. The historical 
 
 meaning and fulfillment of this is that these outlying provinces, 
 and apparently even the imperial power itself, shall in due time 
 turn against the harlot city (Home), and become the instrument 
 in God's hand for her punishment. The agency of God in this 
 case is deemed worthy of special notice — " F'ur God hath put it in 
 their heart to fulfill his will, and to give their kingdom to the beast 
 until the words of God shall be fulfilled." So God has been wont 
 to make the wrath of man praise himself All along the ages he 
 has showrf himself able to use with infinite facility Assyrians, 
 Chaldeans, Persians or Ivomans to execute his will in judgments 
 upon the guilty. Hence first they appear in co-operation with the 
 Ijcast in making war with the Lamb (v. 1 1) ; and next, in hating 
 tlie harlot city and bringing down the retributions of eternal justice 
 upon her (vs. 16, 17). This seems to imply that in the course of 
 events the beast and his ten horns no longer befriend and protect 
 the city of Rome, but under the over-ruling hand of God turn with 
 exterminating force against her. "The ten horns and the beast 
 hate the whore and burn her with fire" (v. 16); the horns give 
 their kingdom to the beast to fulfill the will of God in the destruc- 
 tion of the harlot city until God's retributions upon her are com- 
 pleted. Hei'e the question will arise — To what great facts of 
 
 history can these points in this prophecy refer? I answer in gen- 
 eral — that the history of the decline ami fall of the Koman empire 
 testifies most amply that those outlying provinces and kingdoms, 
 especially those of central Eui'ope ((Jauls, Germans, Goths, etc.) 
 and of central Asia (the Parthians especially), became the terrible 
 executioners of God's wratli upon old Home. So much for the ten 
 horns. But this is not all. The imperial power itself was trans- 
 ferred to Constantinople, and- then became naturally the antagonist 
 and desolator of Rome. It should be borne in mind also that the 
 
190 REVELATION.— CHAP. XVIII. 
 
 genius of the symbol requires that the beast should live in his ten 
 horns, should work in and through them during their active life, 
 just as the beast was in the seven heads, and wrought in and with 
 them during their activity. Coupling this principle with the his- 
 toric transfer of the imperial power to a rival city, we see no lack 
 of historic fulfilment in these predictions taken in their most ob- 
 vious sense. 
 
 18. And the woman which thou sawcst is that great city, 
 Vihicli reigueth over the kings of the earth. 
 
 This verse precisely defines the woman seen in vision as de- 
 scribed above (vs. 1-6). She represents precisely old Pagan Rome. 
 The language can apply to no other city of those times. Regard 
 should certainly be had to the present tense of this verb, " reign- 
 eth." The original Greek is, " which has or holds regal sway" — 
 a "kingdom," "over all the kings of the earth." Ko language 
 could affirm more strongly than this that such was her then 
 present status; that the angel speaks, not of some remotely future 
 time, but of that very time when he was speaking. I touch this 
 f\vct because it bears with resistless force against the theory which 
 assumes this woman to be Papal Rome. For the temporal power 
 of Rome Papal was never over the kings o^ all the earthy and it did 
 not reach its maximum until nearly a thousand years after the time 
 then present — the true date of this book. Such forcing of pro- 
 phetic words out of their natural and fixed sense should be sedu- 
 lously avoided, not to say strongly reprobated. 
 
 or«<c 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 The theme of this chapter is one — a very minute delineation of 
 the sins, the luxury, the traffic, and the fall of Great Babylon. 
 Conceived of as the mart of the nations, the great center of trade 
 and commerce, — the merchants and seafaring men of the earth 
 
 bewail her fall as ruinous to their prosperity. The drapery of 
 
 this chapter comes from the prophecies concerning Babylon as 
 they appear in Jer. 50 and 51, and Isa. 13 and 14; and of Tyre 
 as in Ezek. 26 to 28 inclusive. The associations connected with 
 the name "Babylon" would suggest the numerous and minute 
 points of those prophecies which predict her fall ; while the re- 
 markably close analogies between Tyre as the great commercial 
 city of ancient times and this mystic Babylon whose harlotry 
 [idolatry] was strongly associated with traffic and commerce, 
 naturally brought in those graphic and minute predictions of 
 
REVELATION.— CHAP. XVIII. 191 
 
 Ezekiol. It can not escape the reader's notice that this paint- 
 ing of the life and the fall of (Jreat Bahylon makes prominent her 
 luxury and her commerce. The question will arise — How shall 
 we understand this ? Is it a sin to trade? AV^as this her damninij 
 sin, that she bout;ht and sold and did business with the whole 
 
 civilized world ? The answer must be — that while there may 
 
 be a vast amount of sellishness, cupidity and fraud in trade, and 
 aithouiih ancient Konie may have had her share of these sins; 
 and althouiih luxury conduces fearfully to sensuality, pride and 
 moral hardihood in sin, yet there arc cogent reasons for taking 
 these descriptive points of Babylon as symbols of her idolatry and 
 of her corruptinfj influence in this respect over the leadinfj minds 
 and the creat nations of her time. Let it be noted that old Komo 
 was never specially prominent for commerce; she never was, like 
 'J'yre, the mart of the nations ; probably was even less prominent 
 in this respect than her namesake — the old Chaldean Babylon. 
 Note also that in a few passatres this symbol (commerce) is dropped, 
 and her sins are put in the well known Hebrew figures — fornication, 
 i. e., spiritual harlotry, real idolatry, thus; — "All nations have drunk 
 of the hot wine of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have 
 committed fornication Avith her" (v. 3). "And the kings of the 
 earth have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her," 
 etc. (v. 9). Yet fixrther consider that foreign commerce was alien 
 from the spirit of the ^losaic institutions because it would beget 
 too intimate associations with heathen people and thus expose 
 them to idolati'v ; that the Avord "Canaanite" meant " merchant" 
 as well as a man of Canaan (IIos. 12: 7), and hence the very 
 name would be odious to the true Israelite and naturally associated 
 with the vices and the religions of the worst idolaters ; that these 
 ideas were so prevalent in the Hebrew mind that Isaiah (23: 15- 
 IS), speaking of Tyre, uses the Avords "harlot," "harlot-hire," 
 "fornication" and "merchandize," as essentially synonymous. 
 If to all this we add the natural influence of such a model before 
 the mind as those chapters of Ezekiel (26-28) which treat of the 
 fail of Tyre and give so large a place to her trade and to her com- 
 mercial relations with all the people of the East, we shall readily 
 sec that the luxury and trade of this great Babylon must have 
 primary reference to her idolatry and to her pernicious influence 
 in this respect upon the nations of the earth. 
 
 Jn this chapter a mighty angel comes from heaven and an- 
 nounces the fall of "Great Babylon" (vs. 1, 2); assigns briefly 
 the reasons for it (v. 3); another voice from heaven calls the 
 people of God to come out from her (v. 4) ; and testifies to God's 
 retributions upon her (vs. 5, G); puts in contrast her sins and her 
 fall (vs. 7, 8) ; gives the wail of her guilty associates in crime {vs. 
 9-11); and presents under the symbols and terms of trade, a de- 
 tailed view of her sins (vs. 12-14); returns again to the wails of 
 her companions in idolatry (vs. 15-19). Let the earth rejoice in 
 liar fall, for it is God's avenging hand upon their murderers (v 
 
192 EEVELATION.— CHAP. XVIII. 
 
 20). Babylon falls like a <^reat millstone into the sea (v. 21), and 
 rinffjnf: notes of joy are heard in her no more (v. 22, 23), but the 
 blood of martyrs is found there — the procuring cause of her fearful 
 and fatal fall' (v. 24). 
 
 1. And after these tliiugs I saw another angel come down 
 from heaven, having great power; and the earth was 
 lightened with his glory. 
 
 2. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, 
 Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the 
 habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and 
 a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. 
 
 This was one of the mighty angels. His descent illumined the 
 
 earth with the blaze of his glory. There can be no doubt that 
 
 this great Babylon is the same whose fall was first spoken of in 
 
 simihir terms in chap. 14: 8 and again in 16: 19. The original 
 
 Greek gives us, not " the habitation of devils," as if it were the 
 abode of them all and the only one, but " a habitation" — one of 
 the places where they congregate and dwell. So also, not " the 
 hold of every foul spirit," but " a hold," i. e., a strong hold, a sort 
 of prison, a place of close abode. Babylon became desecrated, 
 accursed — much as is said of her prototype (Isa. 13: 19-22), and 
 alsoofldumea (Isa. 34: 11-15). 
 
 3. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath 
 of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have com- 
 mitted fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth 
 are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. 
 
 The word rendered " abundance " is the common one for power, 
 dynamic force [dunamis], but here used for the prodigiously strong 
 seductive influences of her luxury and of her proud voluptuous- 
 ness. These terms probably refer primarily to her influence to- 
 ward idolatry and its associate vices. The hot wine which she 
 administered to her paramours fired and maddened their passions 
 toward that lewdness which primarily means the giving of the 
 heart and the life to idol-worship. But inasmuch as idolatry and 
 lewdness were always associated in fact and not in symbol only, 
 the true view should perhaps include them both in such descrip- 
 tions as we have in this chapter. 
 
 4. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, 
 Come out of her, my people, tliat ye be not partakers of 
 her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. 
 
 Even as God through Jeremiah warned his people to escape 
 from old Babylon in the day of her impending fall (Jer. 50: 8, 
 and 51 : 6, 45) — " Flee out of the midst of Babylon and deliver 
 
REVELATION.— CHAP. XVIII. 193 
 
 every man his soul ; be not cut off in her iniquity ; for this is the 
 time of the Lord's venireance," etc., so here, nothing could be 
 more natural or more appntpriate than this summons, " Come out 
 of her, my people; " first, lest ye share in her sins ; next, lest ye 
 have also her plagues. Ecmaining in Babylon would involve a 
 double danger; first, of moral corruption; second, of physical de- 
 struction. For both reasons let all vi'ho hear and fear the warning 
 
 voice of God escape from Babylon. iSome commentators give 
 
 the word "sins" ["partakers of her 5e«.s " | the sense of punish- 
 ment for sin, and thus make these two clauses essentially one ; 
 flee lest ye partake of the punishment of her sins and of her 
 plagues. But this is an unusual sense of the word for "sins," 
 and therefore should not be assumed without urgent reason; be- 
 sides that the Greek word rendered "partakei-s of" involves the 
 idea of most intimate fellowship, meaning precisely, lest ye m-ake 
 her sins common to yourself and to her. 
 
 5, For her sins liave reached unto heaven, and God hath 
 remembered her iniquities. 
 
 The oldest manuscripts (the Sinaitie and Alexandrine) with the 
 concurrence of recent editors, reject the (ireek verb which means 
 to follow [anoXovdscj'] and accept one which means to cleave to- 
 gether [Ko??.au']. The figure implied in the verb is that of cleaving 
 together till the mass mounted heaven-high. Babel-like. The sen- 
 timent is that her sins have come up into remembrance before 
 God for righteous punishment. 
 
 6. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double 
 unto her double according to her works : in the cup which 
 she hath filled, fill to her double. 
 
 The tone of this verse is simply just and righteous retribution. 
 The earlier authorities for the text omit " you " in the clause, 
 " rewarded you," reading it, Render to her even as she has ren- 
 dered, i. e., to others generally. 1 regard this command as ad- 
 dressed not to (jod's people on earth, but rather to those angelic 
 
 agents who were to be the executioners of God's judgments. 
 
 There is no occasion to press the words here used to the literal 
 and extreme sense of giving to Babylon double what she deserved, 
 or even double what she had rendered of affliction and oppression 
 to the saints. This ancient Hebrew phrase means full, complete 
 retribution — nothing more. Essentially the same language ap- 
 pears in Isa. 40 : 20, and 61 : 7. The idea of rendering substantial 
 retribution to this Babylon may have been suggested by the re- 
 peated threatenings of like retribution upon the first Babylon, 
 whose case was then vividly before the mind of John. This may 
 be seen in Jer. 50: 15, 29. "As she hath done, do unto her." 
 "Recompense her according to her work; according to all that 
 she hath done, do unto her." Also Jer. 5J : 24, 49. " I will 
 
194 REVELATION. -CHAP. XVIII. 
 
 render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all 
 their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, saith the 
 Lord." "As Babylon hath caused tlie slain of Israel to fall, so 
 at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth." 
 
 7. How much slie hath glorified lierself, and lived deli- 
 oiously, so much torment and sorrow give her : for slie 
 saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and 
 shall see no sorrow. 
 
 Her pride had been her curse. According to the measure of 
 her self-glorifying and her luxurious display, so shall she be re- 
 quited with torment and mourning. What she is supposed to 
 
 ''say in her heart" is imitated from her great prototype, the first 
 Babylon, and from her sister Nineveh, as may be seen in Isaiah 
 47: 7, 8: "Thou saidst, I will be a lady forever." "That sayest 
 in thine heart, I am and none else beside me. I shall never sit 
 as a widow," etc. Also Zeph. 2 : 15 : "This is the rejoicing city 
 that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am and there is 
 none beside me." 
 
 8. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, 
 and mourning, and iamine; and she shall be utterl)'- burned 
 with fire: for strong is the Lord God Avho judgeth her. 
 
 In the last clause the improved reading has the word "judgeth " 
 in the past, not the present tense ; meaning who has previously 
 judged her, in the sense that he has passed sentence upon her 
 
 and now he executes it. The being utterly burned with fire 
 
 refers tacitly to the legal punishment [in some cases] for adultery. 
 
 See notes on 17: 16. The suddenness of this threatened doom 
 
 on great Babylon as well as various other features in this descrip- 
 tion seem to follow the prophetic foreshowing of the fall of the 
 first Babylon. In her case the facts of historj' Avere that the first 
 blow fell suddenly in one fearful night ; but the utter and final 
 
 ruin of the city filled out centuries. The facts of history in the 
 
 case of Bome will come up for special consideration when all the 
 points of this prophecy shall be fully before us. 
 
 9. And the kings of the earth, who have committed for- 
 nication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, 
 and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her 
 burning, 
 
 10. Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, 
 Ala.s, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! .for in 
 one hour is thy judgment come. 
 
 For the sense in which " the kings of the earth have committed 
 
 fornication with her" see notes on 17: 2. The conception of 
 
 the kings of the earth " standing afar off for the fear of her tor- 
 
REVELATION.— C II Al". XVIII. 195 
 
 ment" find lookiiii; as if from some mountain jK'ai< upon the 
 «!m(>ke of her burning to bewail the fall of that " great," that 
 " mighty city," is mournfully impressive. It can not well he 
 'louljted that the prototj^pe of this conception is Abraham, early 
 in the morning, " looking toward Sodom and (Jomorrah and toward 
 all the land of the plain, and lo, the smoke of tlio country went 
 up as the smoke of a furnace" ((Jen. 19: 28). Not unlike this is 
 the last scene in the prophet Isaiah (60: 'II): "All flesh shall 
 come up to worship before me; and they shall go forth and look 
 upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me; 
 for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire he quenched, 
 and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh." The fires and the 
 smoke of Gehenna (valley of liinnom) lie forever in view from the 
 overlooking walls of the city of Cod's worshipers. But here in 
 this Availing scene, the mourners are her sympathizing friends, 
 and they are smitten not only with sympathetic grief but with 
 unutterable consternation lest the doom of IJabylon should fore- 
 shadow their own, and they should wake some dreadful morning 
 to find the fires of divine retribution kindling upon their palaces 
 and cngulling their souls in ruin! 
 
 11. And the merchants of the earth sluill weep and 
 mourn over her ; for no man buyeth their merchaudise 
 any more : 
 
 12. The merchandise of .Cfohl, and .silver, and jirecious 
 stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, 
 and scarlet,' and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of 
 ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and 
 of bra.ss, and iron, and marble, 
 
 13. And cinnamon, and odors, and ointments, and frank- 
 incense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and 
 beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and 
 souls of men. 
 
 That the merchants of the earth bear so prominent a part here 
 may be due somewhat to the attractive influence of that remark- 
 ably analogous scene sketched most graphically by Ezekiel — the 
 fall of Tyre (chap. 26-28). He places before us Tyre, "situate 
 at the entry of the sea, a merchant of the people for many isles," 
 and says: "Tarshish was thy merchant; Javan, Tubal and Me- 
 slicch were thy merchants; Syria, Damascus, Judah also; " — indeed 
 all the nations of the then civilized world : and then in the filling 
 out of this scene, these merchants and mariners all "shall cry 
 bitterly and shall cast up dust upon their heads; they shall weep 
 for thee with bitterness of heart and bitter wailing, and in their 
 wailing they shall take up a lamentation for thee." " What city 
 is like 'i'yrus, like the destroyed in the midst of the sea!" tio 
 'lie traffickers with old Home whose heart and hand had been 
 
196 llEVELATION.— CHAP. XVIII. 
 
 with hers in vohiptuousness, idolatry and oppression are now chief 
 mourners over her lall. 'I'his sketching imitates Ezekiel in the 
 remarkable minuteness of the description and in that rare felicity 
 of moral painting which makes every distinct feature serve to in- 
 tensify the one grand impression of the whole scene. In the 
 
 last clause of v. 13, the original gives us, not any word meaning 
 precisely slave^ but the usual word for bodies [Sumata]. Naming 
 the bodies and the souls of men in apparent antithesis with each 
 other may perhaps mean: The}' trafficked in every sort of thing; 
 they even made merchandise of vien, both body and soul ! What 
 more could they tind to buy and to sell ? What on earth is too 
 sacred for their covetous fingers ? What is there that they will 
 
 not desecrate into merchandise and barter it for paltry gold ? 
 
 I judge there can be no doubt that the sale of men for slaves is 
 the special thing intended, and not only intended but stringently 
 rebuked — held up to the abhorrence of mankind and as an abom- 
 ination to the righteous God ! 
 
 14. And the fruits that thy soul kisted after are departed 
 from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly 
 are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more 
 at all. 
 
 15. The merchants of these things, whieh were made rich 
 hy her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, 
 weeping and wailing, 
 
 16. And saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was 
 clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked 
 with gold, and precious stones, and pearls ! 
 
 "Dainty and goodly" in the sense of luxurious and splendid or 
 shining. Instead of the second verb, "departed" ["are de- 
 parted from thee"], the better manuscripts give us the stronger 
 
 word — have perished from thee. Here the merchants, like the 
 
 kings in vs. 9, 10, stand afar off for the fear of her torment and 
 lift "up their wailing cry oyer her sudden and fearful fall! 
 
 17. For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. 
 And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and 
 Bailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off, 
 
 18. And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, 
 saying, AVhat city is like unto this great city ! 
 
 19. And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weep- 
 ing and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein 
 were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of 
 her costliness ! for in one hour is she made desolate. 
 
 The first clause of v. 17 ought to have been the close of v. 16. 
 1 hen the mariners are brought to view, precisely as we find in 
 
REVELATION.— CHAP. XVIIl. 197 
 
 Ezckiel 27. Instead of " all the company in ships," the oldest 
 
 manuscripts give ns — "Every one who saileth hy the place," i. c, 
 all who sliall ever pass that way and conic in sight of her smoking 
 
 ruins. The (Ircek words rendered " trade by sea " mean strictly 
 
 " work the sea," with probably reference to plying and plowing 
 the sea with their oars. Navigation was workivg the sea then in 
 
 a somewhat stronger sense than now. These mariners make a 
 
 third class (after kings and merchants) who wail as they see the 
 smoke of her burning, and join the grand chorus of bitter lamen- 
 tation. 
 
 20. Kqjoice over her, ihmi heaven, and ye holy apcstles 
 and i)ropliets ; for God hath avenged you on her. 
 
 The improved text gives us instead of "holy apostles," "ye 
 
 saints and apostles and prophets." This joy to which all heaven 
 
 is summoned should never be thought of as a purely sellish, much 
 less as a malicious, exultation over a fallen enemy, but as a joy 
 in the triumph of righteousness; a joy in the fixll of oppressors 
 and persecutors whose power Avas simple and utter antagonism 
 against human salvation, against the highest good of men on earth 
 and of saints and angels in heaven. As in the case of bloody 
 Jerusalem, so in this case of not less bloody Rome, the martj'ra 
 had lain at the foot of the altar, crying, How long, O Lord, holy 
 and true, dost thou not avenge our blood on those who withstand 
 thy cause, forbid the spread of thy gospel, and murder thy faitliful 
 
 saints ? And here comes the answer to the spirit of their cry : 
 
 " Rejoice, for (jod has avenged you on great Babylon." Anal- 
 
 agous to this was the song over the first great Babylon: "Then 
 tlie heaven and the earth and all that is therein shall sing for 
 15abylon" (Jer. 51: 48). 
 
 21. And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great 
 millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with vio- 
 lence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and 
 shall be found no more at all. 
 
 This is probably an imitation of Jer. 51 : 03, 64, where the 
 prophet is commanded to bind a stone to the book of his prophecy 
 and cast it into the midst of Euphrates and say, "Thus shall 
 iJabylon sink and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring 
 upon her." Here the action is grand, magnificent — in the spii'it 
 of this entire book. A miglity angel (not a feeble prophet) takes 
 up a stone like a great millstone, and casts it into the sea. So 
 great Babylon, old Rome as a persecuting power, must go down, 
 to rise no more. 
 
 22. And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of 
 pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in 
 thee ; and no craftsman, of Avhatsoever craft he he, shall be 
 
198 EEVELATION.— CHAP. XV III. 
 
 fouud any more in thee ; and the sound of a millstone shall 
 be heard no more at all in thee ; 
 
 23. And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all 
 in thee ; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride 
 shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants 
 were the great men of the earth ; for by thy sorceries Avere 
 all nations deceived. 
 
 The fall of a great city is shown here impressively in its results — 
 silence and desolation. The joyous sounds of busy, happy life are 
 heard in her no more ; the light of the candle shines there no more ; 
 the happy voices of bridegroom and bride shall ring out through 
 her festive halls no more. iSorrow and gloom are there ; darkness 
 
 and desolation bear sway, and there is none to resist. The moral 
 
 reason comes in appropriately — " for by thy sorceries were all the 
 nations deceived." She had seduced the world away from their 
 great Creator to the worship of idols and devils. Therefore she 
 must drink the cup of retribution ! 
 
 24. And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of 
 saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth. 
 
 God had made inquisition there for blood — and found it ! There 
 lay upon her the blood of prophets and of saints ; the holy and the 
 good of earth had perished there, and their blood had cried to Cod 
 tor retribution — had cried, and not in vain ! 
 
 At this point it is proper to give special attention to an objection 
 raised against the application of chap. 18, and its connected and 
 parallel passages, to Pagan Eome, viz., The prophecy requires that 
 this mystic Babylon should fall suddenhj, and also, should fall w<- 
 tcrhj ixn(\. forever : but this can not apply to Eome because liome 
 did not fall suddcnli/, nor can It apply to any fall of Home that has 
 yet transpired because Kome is yet standing. 
 
 To this I reply : — 1. There is need of caution against the fallacy 
 of assuming that the name Rome represents throughout all historic 
 ages the same thing. If the mystic Babylon of this prophecy 
 means Rome (as I have supposed), it of course means only the 
 Kome of the age of Nero — not the Kome of every possible age — ■ 
 not necessarily the Rome of eighteen hundred years after Nero. 
 
 The reader will especially observe that the "great city" of 
 
 this prophecy, the harlot woman, Babylon, Is {a) the queen city of 
 the world, "reigning over the kings of tlie earth;" {b) is supremely 
 idolatrous, the mother city of Paganism and of Its abominations ; 
 [c) is a great persecuting power, making herself drunk with the 
 
 blood of Christian martyrs. It is only as such that she appears 
 
 before us in this prophecy. When in these aspects she falls and 
 dies, then she Is dead to all the intents and purposes of this 
 prophecy. There may still Ijo a place called Kome, but the harlot 
 city of this book, this mystic Babylon, has sunk from the page of 
 
KEVELATION.— CIIAr. XYIII. 199 
 
 liistoiy, and the prophecy is fulfilled. 2. The history of the 
 
 Jvoine wliich stood before the prophet's eye in the age of Nero 
 
 should be attentively studied. Nothinij could have been further 
 
 from the thought of Edward Gibbon, when he sat down one hun- 
 dred years ago to write "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Em- 
 pire," than to make out an historic fulfillment of this prophecy as 
 applied to Pagan Rome. Yet the simple demands of historic truth 
 gave him the appropriate terms — "Decline and Fall." The empire 
 went down. The city was repeatedly captured and sacked, its 
 ancient glory rajjidly waned, and sunk at length to its political 
 
 grave. Note also that the Rome of this prophecy perished in 
 
 tlie most disastrous Avay possible — by ulceration of the heart — cor- 
 ruption and death at her vitals. That virile energy which had 
 nuide her arms every-where victorious and her name a terror to 
 the civilized world, was gradually emasculated; lier legions, once 
 invincible, became weak as other men, and even lent their sword, 
 not to sustain the empire, but to crush it. Her citizens, lost to 
 virtue, could no longer bear good rulers. That she should have 
 tlie vilest and Avorst men that ever lived for her emperors became 
 her inevitable dyom — the torment of her life, the misery of her 
 people, the ruin of the empire, the wreck of her glory. To give in 
 detail the facts of which the essence is condensed into these par- 
 agraphs would be to rewrite the history of the Decline and Fall 
 of Pagan Rome. 
 
 It will not be amiss however to suggest that the agencies as- 
 signed in this prophecy to the ten kings (17: 12-17) is remarkably 
 true to history, on the supposition that those kings were the for- 
 eign powers wliich for a season gave their strength to the beast 
 (v. l.'i), but ultimately turned to "hate" the harlot city and make 
 her desolate (v. 16). No broad fact of Roman history is more 
 patent than this — that the outlying kingdoms and provinces which 
 for a time lent their strength to augment her splendor as well as 
 to enlarge her empire, in process of time turned their arms upon 
 her and became the main agents in her desolation. Gauls, Ger- 
 mans, Parthians, dealt telling blows toward her weakness and 
 shame in the earlier stages of her decline ; Goths, the western and 
 the eastern, Iluns, Vandals, poured in upon her in her later stages 
 to hurl her down to her irretrievable fall. The transfer of her 
 best strength to the center of the Great Eastern Empire conspired 
 also to the ruin of Imperial Rome. The ten hoi'ns of the beast on 
 which the woman sat became ultimately the instruments under 
 (Jiod's hand and will to her destruction. Thus marvelously did it 
 come to pass that history wrote over again this prophecy of the 
 ten horns of this beast as related to the final retributions of God 
 upon this harlot city. 
 
 One of the methods of estimating both the corruptions of the im- 
 perial power and the miseries of the imperial city is to group the 
 personal history of its successive monarclis. How many in any 
 given period were miscreants, notorious only for their vices; how 
 
200 KEVELATION.— CHAP. XVIIL 
 
 many reigned only to curse their people ; how many died by yio 
 lence because the world could bear their presence uolonfter; how 
 many reigned less than five ytnirs, multiplying those civil revolu- 
 tions that crimson the best families with blood. To reach the gen- 
 eral results of such a table, we may embrace a period of two hun- 
 dred and thirty years subsequent to the death of Nero. Then 
 omitting the four reigns of Trajan, Adrian, and the two Antonines, 
 we shall find proximately thirty-six emperors with an average reign 
 of four yeai's, of Avhom twenty-three died by assassination, or the 
 altei-native of suicide, out of whom it would be hard to find ono 
 who did not richly deserve the death he died. The greater part 
 of these emperors were simply monsters in crime. Of Caracalla,. 
 perhaps somewhat worse than an average specimen, history records 
 that he murdered his brother Geta, partner with himself in the 
 empire, in the very arms of their common mother, and then con- 
 secrated in the temple of tSerapis tliat sword bathed in a brother's 
 blood ; that under the vague appellation of " the friends of Geta," 
 above twenty thousand persons of both sexes sufi'ered death by a 
 proscription which "endeavored to reach everyone who had main- 
 tained the smallest correspondence with Geta, who lamented his 
 death, or who even mentioned his name." After one year thus 
 spent at Rome, he filled out the remaining five of his reign an(i 
 life traversing the several provinces of the empire, "making eacb 
 one by turns the scene of his rapine and cruelty." "In the midst; 
 of peace and upon the slightest provocation lie issued his command 
 at Alexandria in Egypt for a general massacre. From a secure 
 post in the temple of Serapis he viewed and directed the slaughter 
 of many thousand citizens as well as strangers, without distin- 
 guishing either the number or the crime of the sixfferers, since, as 
 be coolly informed the senate, ^ aU the Alexandrians, both those 
 who had perished and those who had escaped, were alike guilty.' " 
 (Gibbon 1: 160.) No Avonder that Gibbon brands him as "the 
 common enemy of mankind." Yet "the soldiers obliged the senate 
 to prostitute their own dignity and that of religion by granting him 
 
 [at death} a place among the gotls." Yet this man was the 
 
 product of his age. His horrible crimes and the no less horrible 
 character which begat them had their causes in the moral and 
 social rottenness of the body politic. Rome was slowly dying of 
 her own intrinsic corruption. There is no death more horrible. 
 It may be a lingering one, protracted through one or more centu- 
 ries ; but who can over-estimate the horrors of a nation's_ death 
 prolonged and drawn out through centuries ? The Omnipotent 
 Arm might have sunk Rome in one short hour by an earthquake ; 
 the doom of Herculaneum and Pompeii might have swept her name 
 and memorial from the page of history for eighteen hundred years ; 
 and some would deem this a far more exact fulfillment of the 
 prophecies in this eighteenth chapter than her actual history has 
 given us. But whoaver shall carefally estimate the comparative 
 miseries of these two methods of divine retribution -will at least 
 
REVELATION.— CIIAr. XVIII. 201 
 
 ionclude tlierc is room for f^rave question. It seems be3-ond dis- 
 
 fiutc that in tliosc distinctly m-tirked respects in which this mystic 
 iabylon appears befoi-e us in these chapters, Pagan Rome did in 
 fixct go down and perish. She ceased to be the queen city of the 
 world, " reigning over the kings of the earth ;" her influence toward 
 idolatry Avas broken, and after Constantine her persecuting power 
 as pagan and idolatrous w:is at an end. 
 
 IJut still the inquiry should be fairly met: — Can we accept these 
 historic facts as a fullillmentof this prophecy? Are we authorized 
 to give these visions so free a construction that their representa- 
 tions shall be essentially met in the broad facts of this history of 
 the decline and fall of I'agan Rome ? 
 
 1. In the first place, whatever this " great city" may be, we can 
 not object that this prophecy should present it under the symbol 
 of some great city doomed to destruction in the prophecies of the 
 Old Testament. This is the uniform usage of this book of Revela- 
 tion. Its symbols, its sketchings, its colorings are taken from the 
 Old Testament prophets. It is of no avail for us to demand a dif- 
 ferent usage from this in the case of this great city. 
 
 2. The fact that this city takes the mystic name " Babylon " 
 carries us at once and inevitabl}'^ to the old Babylon' as the type 
 of this great city. Whichsoever of the great cities of Nero's time 
 (the date of this writing) this one may be, she is a second " Baby- 
 lon" and the prophecies that doomed the Chaldean Babylon to 
 fall are before the mind and furnish in part the figures and con- 
 ceptions to set forth the fall of this great city. A cai-'eful com- 
 parison of chap. 18 with Ezekiel's predictions of the fall of Tj^re 
 (chap. 2G-2S) will satisfy candid minds that those prophecies also 
 were definitely in view and were in many points imitated in these 
 descriptions. Consequently this mystic Babylon is compared by 
 John with the old Chaldean Babylon and with the Tyre of Ezekiel. 
 The language and figures here arc drawn from the prophetic de- 
 lineations there. 
 
 3. Now let it be borne in mind that the main points of the 
 objection before us are that according to this prophecy, its mystic 
 Babylon ought to fall both suddenly and utterly; and therefore 
 Pagan Rome which fell neither suddenly nor utterly can not be 
 the city here 'prophetically doomed. Bearing directly upon this 
 
 o1)jcction two points challenge our candid consideration. (a.) 
 
 That neither Bab3-lon nor Tyre fell both suddenly and utterly, as 
 the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel might seem to de- 
 mand. True, the first blow on Babylon was sudden ; but she 
 survived it; she rallied again and stood a magnificent city at least 
 till the age of Alexander — fully two hundred years. Thencefor- 
 ward she went down slowly with a decline that stretched through 
 other centuries before the prophecy was fully accomplished. Bo 
 Tyre fell before the arms of ^Nebuchadnezzar not long after the 
 date of Ezekiel's prophecy. But 'i'yre rallied again and rose to 
 probably greater splendor than ever before. Nearly two centuries 
 
202 REVELATION.— CHAP. XVIII. 
 
 more of prosperous life intervened before the next stunnina; blow 
 fell on her from the arms of tlic threat Alexander. Even after this 
 Bhe revived and other long aires intervened before the era of utter 
 desolation came upon her. Yet no sensible interpreter hesitateg 
 a moment in applying the prophecies here referred to respectively 
 to Babylon and to Tyre. The prophecies themselves are perfectly 
 definite and explicit in such application. AVe are therefore com- 
 pelled to grant that such language as that which describes Babylon 
 as going down into the mighty deep like a millstone (Jer. 51 : 6.'i, 
 64) does not mean necessarily that the city must go down as with 
 an earthquake engulfing it bodily — walls, towers, palaces and 
 people, in one vast burial beneath the ground. It is possible to 
 press such language beyond its true intent. Something must be 
 conceded to the bold genius of poetic conception. Essentially the 
 same may be said of Tyre, the prophecy being — " When 1 shall 
 make thee a desolate city." ..." When I shall bring up the 
 deep over thee and great waters shall cover thee." ... "1 will 
 make thee a terror, and thou shalt be no more," etc. ; and yet the 
 fulfillment, as said above, shows that her decline and fall Avere by 
 successive stages at quite remote intervals, not altogether unlike 
 
 the decline and fall of ancient Pagan Rome. (i^.) But there is 
 
 still another fact equally demanding consideration. We can not 
 insist that a copy like this before us in John should be (as to its 
 meaning and therefore its fulfillment) a precise imitation of its 
 original as he found it in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. For it is un- 
 questionably a fact that a considerable degi-ee of latitude is ad- 
 mitted where a prophet borrows language and imagery from a 
 previously written prophecy or from history. Thus for example 
 the Messiah is prophetically set forth as a second David. Ps. 2 
 and 45, and 110, are in this strain. The second psalm would seem 
 on the face of it to make him a bloody, all-crushing warrior, 
 "breaking the nations with a rod of iron, dashing them in pieces 
 as a potter's vessel" (v. 9). But when we intelligently apply this 
 to Jesus Christ, we make large allowances for the influence of the 
 model reign, that of the Avarlike Uavid, in shaping the thought 
 and expression of the prophecy as related to the Messiah. We 
 say — Jesus is indeed a conqueror; but of hearts, not of walled 
 cities ; by the power of truth and of love, and not of an iron rod ; 
 melting human souls to tenderness, and not crushing them pre- 
 cisely as a potter's vessel. So Fs. 45 reads, " Gird thy sword 
 
 upon thy thigh;" "thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the 
 king's enemies whereby the people fall under thee;" yet we 
 notice that the New Testament writers have quite modified the 
 warlike tone and air of these prophetic symbols, for with them it 
 is " the word of (lod" that is "sharper than any two-edged sword 
 and that pierces" even to the severing of soul and body. It must 
 be admitted then that the prophetic model before the mind has 
 commanding influence in shaping the style and expression of 
 writers of prophecy. It would be no easy task to draw a given 
 
EEVELATlON.-CIIAr. XYIU. 203 
 
 lino and say — So far, within precisely these Jiniitations, the copy 
 must keep to its ori;:ina]. llcncc we can not quite say that John's 
 description of the fall of the mystic Babylon must be kept with 
 precise historic accuracy to the sense of the prophecies of old 
 l>abylon as intcrpretc<l by history. Some latitude is admissible 
 (who can say precisely how much?) within which the second 
 liabylon — this of John — may vary, in the mode of its decline and 
 
 fall, from the type of the first. And here let no one exclaim 
 
 a;j;ainst all prophecy as too indeliii..te to be reliable or in anywise 
 useful. Let him rather say — It behooves us to study carefully its 
 laws and its usance, and to look rather for general than for en- 
 tirely specific correspondence between prophecy and its fulfilling 
 history. A general correspondence between this prophecj' of the 
 fitU of this second IJabjdon and the fall of the first Uabylon as 
 verified in history, we do undeniably find. The Kome of the time 
 of John was in fact blighted and scathed, tortured and smitten ; 
 her imperial power broken; her idolatrous influence crushed out; 
 iier persecuting terrors quenched in (Jod's own way, by judgments 
 which might well make every ear tingle and every heart quail. 
 A city called K(mie is indeed standing now, nearly on the site of 
 that Kome of old ; but is it the same city — imperial now as then? 
 mistress of the nations now as then? deifying her emperors and 
 compelling Christians to bo\v before her idolatrous military stand- • 
 ards now as tlicn ? persecuting with fire and sword, with exile and 
 torture, now as then? Koi at all! This Ivomo and tliat have 
 nothing in common but the name. The old Kome of the age of 
 John, the Rome that sat on the seven-headed and ten-horned beast, 
 has been politically defunct fifteen centuries. The Babylon of 
 Jeremiah and the Tyre of Ezekiel are not more certainly dead 
 and gone tlian the second Babylon and the second Tyre of the 
 Apocalypse — assuming these symbols to allude precisely to the 
 Kome of the age of Nero in her prominent and special character- 
 istics — world-wide supremacy; social and political power conse- 
 crated to idolatry and to bloody persecution. Whatever may be 
 true of what is now called Kome, that ol<l Kome has long since 
 drunk from the hand of the Great God of Providence the cup of 
 iiis indignation. Tlie nations that were in her vsympathy long ago 
 sang their requiem, or rath(!r poured out their wail of grief over 
 her irretrievable fall ! No such Kome has been known in the 
 
 world's history for long ages. My conclusion therefore is that 
 
 the objections in question are i-ather plausible than real; that 
 they rest on assumptions not borne out by the law.s and usages of 
 scripture prophecy; and largely on the fallacy of confounding the 
 Kome of John's age with the city called Kome to-day. Overruling 
 such objections as irrelevant and not sustained, 1 accept the ap- 
 [ilication of these prophecies of the mystic Babylon to Fagtin 
 Kome. 
 
204 REVELATION.— CHAP. XIX. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Thia chapter is in two principal parts; vs. 3-10 presenting 
 chiefly the exultation in heaven over the judgment of the great 
 liarlot city and the consequent success of the gospel in the re- 
 demption of souls from sin and the preparation of the bride for 
 
 the marriage of the Lamb. Vs. 11-21 give us the great moral 
 
 battle-field of time, seen in a sort of heavenly perspective, on the 
 principle that the great moral events of earth have their proto- 
 types in heaven. A mighty Conqueror on the white horse of vic- 
 tory appears armed for battle and conquest ; his faithful warrioa'S 
 follow him, they too an-ayed in robes of purity and seated on white 
 horses, in like manner symbolic of victory. Anticipating immense 
 carnage, an angel summons all the fowls of mid-heaven to feast 
 upon the flesh of the slain. The battle seems about to be joined, 
 but the foes of this Conqueror are powerless; there is no conflict; 
 forthwith the beast and his false prophet are violently seized and 
 cast alive into the lake of fire. AH their dupes and followers are 
 slain with the great sword of the mighty Conqueror, and his vic- 
 tory is complete. 
 
 1. And after these things I heard a great voice of much 
 people in heaven, saying, Alleluia ; Salvation, and glory, 
 and honor, and power, unto the Lord our God ; 
 
 2. For true and righteous are his" judgments ; for he 
 hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth 
 with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his 
 servants at her hand. 
 
 3. And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose 
 up for ever and ever. 
 
 Slight and not specially important textual con-ections in v. 1 
 insert "as it were" before "great voice;" omit "and honor;" 
 and give us instead of "unto the Lord our God," simply "of 
 our God," so that the verse, improved, would read, "After 
 this I heard as it were a great voice of a vast multitude in 
 beaven, saying, Alleluia! the salvation and the glory and the power 
 of God ! " This I take to be an exclamation of adoring wonder, 
 testifying that the salvation and the glory and the power of our 
 
 God have received sublime and glorious manifestations. For 
 
 his predicted judgments have been proved true by their fulfillment, 
 and also just in their very nature in view of the hon-ible guilt 
 of the great harlot who made the earth rotten with moral cor- 
 ruption and herself drunk with the blood of martyred saints, now- 
 avenged by the R'ghtcous Judge! Again, they cry, Alleluia! 
 The reader will recognize this as the Greek equivalent of the 
 
EEVELATION.— CHAP. XIX. 205 
 
 Hebrew Halloliijah, ■which means, Praise ye Jah, i. c, Jcliovah, the 
 
 Loi'd. "And her smoke rose up," witnessing to the judgments 
 
 of the great and righteous God upon her, and seeming to imply 
 that this testimony to her righteous doom was before the very eyes 
 of the adoring and grateful worshipers. They accepted this judg- 
 ment of God on the corrupt and bloody harlot as righteous and 
 glorious and as a call for grateful thanksgiving because they felt 
 its justice; they knew its necessity for the progress and triumph 
 of the gospel of salvation and for the honor and stability of the 
 
 throne of the Almighty. Do not scenes occur in human affairs 
 
 which testify that murderers ovff/i( to die, that rebels and rebellion 
 must go down ere peace and order and law can reign ? 
 
 4. And the four and twenty elders and the four beasti? 
 fell down and worshiped God tliut .«at on the throne, say- 
 ing, Amen ; Alleluia, 
 
 Here as in cliapters 4 and 5 these representative personages 
 appear, testifying to their intense sympathy in the scenes now 
 transpiring. 
 
 5. And a voice carae out of the throne, saymg, Praise 
 our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both 
 small and great. 
 
 6. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, 
 and as tlie voice of many waters, aiid as the voice of mighty 
 thunderings, saying. Alleluia : for tlie Lord God omnipotent 
 reigneth. 
 
 It is not said who uttered this voice, only that it seemed to come 
 forth from the very throne of God. It summoned all the servants 
 of God to one united utterance of praise, and every heart responded! 
 The revelator heard what seemed the shout of a countless host, 
 like the deep roar of the great ocean and as the reverberation of 
 mighty thunderings — and their cry was, "Praise Jehovah! for the 
 Lord our God, the Omnipotent, has begun to reign ! " The Greek 
 tense used here [the aorist] seems strictly to mean, not the pres- 
 ent — he reigneth now ; and not exclusively the past — he has 
 reigned; but he has entered upon his promised reign and there- 
 fore may be expected henceforward to maintain his sway, and go 
 on conquering and to conquer till every foe shall have fallen and 
 his conquest of the world shall be complete. The nature of this 
 reign should be studied in connection with those passages which 
 declare — "Ail power is given to me in heaven and in earth" 
 (Matt. 28 : 18). " There be some standing here who shall not taste 
 of death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom" 
 (Matt. 16 : 28). " He shall reign till he hath put all enemies un- 
 der his feet" (1 Cor. 15 ; 25). See notes on licv. 11 : 15, 17, and 
 .2: 10. 
 
206 REVELATION.— CHAP. XIX. 
 
 7. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him : 
 for the marriage of the Lamb is come, ard hi« wife hath 
 made herself ready. 
 
 8. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed 
 in fine linen, clean and white : for the fine linen is the 
 righteousness of saints. 
 
 9. And he saitli unto me, AVrite, Blessed are they which 
 ai-e called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he 
 fc'aith unto me, These are the true sayings of God. 
 
 The reader will not fiiil to notice the tacit bvit close relation 
 between the fall of the harlot city, Kome, and the triumphant suc- 
 cess of the gospel in bringing forth its fruits — a holy people pre- 
 pared of God through grace to be the bride of the Lamb, ller 
 moral and spiritual pvcparation, her purity and her intrinsic moral 
 beauty are more prominent here than the nuptial scene. There ia 
 no attempt to describe the marriage itself or the great marriage- 
 supper, farther than to say — Blessed are they whose pure hearts 
 insure their being invited and made welcome ! Then let it evei*- 
 more be our first care and endeavor to be clad in that fine linen, 
 radiant and pure ; for to this tlie strain of our jiassage would ex- 
 hort us. Note also that while tlie first allusion makes promi- 
 nent the Christian's own moral agency — "his wife hath 77iade her- 
 self ready" — yet as if to guard against overdoing tliat thought, it 
 is subjoined, "It was ffivcn to her" (through God's free grace) 
 "that she should be arrayed in fine linen" — which means the 
 righteousness of saints, and of which Paul has said with equal 
 pertinence, truth and beauty — " not having mine own righteous- 
 ness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of 
 Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith " (Phil. 3 : 9). 
 
 "And he said." Who is this ^' he?" Manifestly the same 
 
 personage who describes himself in v. 10, practically an angel- 
 interpreter wdiose mission Avas to stand by the revelator John in 
 his visions; sometimes to explain, and sometimes as here to sug- 
 gest what should be written for the edification of the churches; 
 
 lie now directs John to write two things: first, Blessed arc 
 
 those who are called to this marriage-supper; and secondly, that 
 these words of God are true and that events now about to happen, 
 or at least to be revealed, Avould abundantly attest their truth. 1 
 assume that the statement does not merely aflirm in general that 
 all God's words are true, nor in particular that these are, but moi"e 
 than this — that tlieir truth will be nuide gloriously plain and most 
 undeniably evident in the events about to occur. When you 
 come to this great marriage-supper you Avill see iiow true it is 
 that the invited guests gathered there are blessed ! 
 
 10. And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said 
 UDto me, See thou do it not : I am thy fellow-servaut, and 
 
REVELATION.— CHAP. XIX. 207 
 
 of tliy brethren that have the te.stimony of Jesus : worshij) 
 God : for tlie testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. 
 
 A similar scene is narrated in chap. 22 : 6-9, where again Jolm 
 fell down to Avorship before the feet of the reveahng angel. licniark- 
 ubly the antecedents also were the same there as here — thrilling 
 promises : there, the blessedness of him who keeps the projihecies 
 of this book, as here, of those called to the marriage-supper; 
 coupled also with a like averment; there, "These sayings are 
 faithful and true; " as here, "These are the true sayings of (Jod." 
 Deeply we may suppose John felt their truth and most intensely 
 did he appreciate the blessedness promised; and therefore in the 
 warmth and fullness of his soul, perhaps scarcely conscious what 
 he did, and possibly assuming that his own Lord Jesus was con- 
 cealed beneath the form of this revealing angel, he offered him 
 such worship as "was appropriate only to one truly divine. 'J'he 
 angel cheeked him in both cases with the same words: — "Take 
 care twt ; " Beware not to do that thing; "for I am [only] a fel- 
 low-servant of tiiyself and of thy brethren that have the testimony 
 of Jesus." It should be noticed that in llcv. 22: 9 we have lan- 
 guage slightly different, yet in sense doubtless the same — "A fel- 
 low-servant of thyself and of .thy brethren the prophets, and of 
 
 them Avho keep the sayings of this book; worship God." A 
 
 question will arise here in some minds — more curious than useful 
 — viz., wlicthcr this revealing angel were not some departed saint — 
 
 Moses, Elijah or perhaps Isaiah. To this I reply briefly: — (1.) 
 
 Nothing is said here at all inconsistent with the assumption that 
 he is simply one of the holy angels of the heavenly world, for they 
 are not only intensely interested but actually em]iloycd in diverse 
 
 ministrations of service for Cod's people on earth (Heb. i : 12). 
 
 (2.) This book of Revelation is full, in every chapter and almost 
 every verse, of these ministrati(ms of the real angels — not glorified 
 saints from earth, but those elder brethren of ours, evermore sin- 
 less — always ready to minister with glad heart in any way to the 
 work of (liod and of Jesus Christ in this world. There is tlvere- 
 fore the strongest presumption that this one belongs to the same 
 
 class. (3 ) There is nothing else in the Bible which at all 
 
 favors the idea that departed saints come back to us in positive 
 n"inistries of service. Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus 
 transfigured on the mount and talked with him there; but this 
 was no ordinary ministry of service to the saints, and is the oidy 
 recorded case in which they appear on earth as having comi; 
 down from heaven. 1 conclude tiierefiirc that there is no valid 
 gro>ind for this opinion and consequently must regard it as a 
 fancy better served in its rejection than by its indulgence. 
 
 The last clause of the verse demands our attention, " For the 
 testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.'' What does this 
 
 mean? and why is it said just here? Our received translaticm 
 
 prccisi'ly represents the original (Ireck botli iu the words them- 
 
208 EEVELATION. -CHAP. XIX. 
 
 solves and iu tlicir consecutive order. The first question is— 
 
 Which is the subject of the verb, " The testimony of Jesus," or 
 "The spirit of prophecy?" Tliat is, Docs tlie speaker mean that 
 testifying for Jesus involves and includes the spirit of prophecy, 
 
 or that prophecy in its true spirit testifies of Jesus? Some have 
 
 preferi'ed the latter construction, referrins; it to the fact that the 
 Old Testament prophets witnessed abundantly to the then future 
 Messiah, and that the same spirit of prophecy had yet more to say 
 of the future glories of his kingdom. J]ut unless there be some 
 very good reason, the Avords should be taken in the order in which 
 they stand, the subject of the verb before it, and the predicate after. 
 This consideration bears against the construction last named. The 
 natural order is admissible here and is therefore preferable; and 
 furthermore, it seems to me to have a better logical connection 
 with what precedes; thus, 1 am a fellow-servant of thyself and 
 also of all the old prophets. Thou, they and myself have this in 
 common, that we are witnesses for Christ, and this witnessing in- 
 volves the spirit of prophecy, /i'hey (the old prophets) testified 
 prophetically about Christ; thou and myself are now witnessing 
 for Christ by predicting his future glories and triumphs. Thus 
 we are all fellow-servants, doing a common work for om- common 
 ^Master. I therefore take this clause to mean, not that all prophecy 
 in the true spirit of it testifies about Christ, but that the witnessing 
 for Christ by all the parties 'here contemplated had the common 
 element of being prophetic. Hence the parties were brethren. 
 This accounts for the logic indicated by the word -"/or" — ''''for 
 the testimony of Jesus," etc. 
 
 11. And I saw heaven opened, and behold a Avliite horse; 
 and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, 
 and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. 
 
 12. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head 
 ivere many crowns ; and he had a name written, that no 
 man knew, but he liimself. 
 
 13. And he loas clothed with a vesture dipped in blood : 
 and his name is called The Word of God. 
 
 Assuming that chaps. 4-19 of this book present two great per- 
 secuting powers — Judaism, represented by Jerusalem, and Pagan- 
 ism, seen in old Home — it is noticeable that the prophetic scenes 
 close here as they began in the first seal (G : 2), with like s^-mbols 
 of victory for the heavenly Conqueror: — there, a white horse with 
 his crowned rider, marching forth conquering and to conquer; 
 here, the same white horse of victory, his rider the fiiithful and 
 the true; on his head many crowns, and his name ''The word of 
 God " — the deep significance of which none save himself could fully 
 comprehend. Comparing the two descriptions, Ave see that this 
 (as it should be) is far more expanded and more magnificent. 
 Svery feature here signifies tluit this conquering Hero is the Great 
 
REVELATION.— CHAP. XIX. 200 
 
 Messiah, the Son of God, now thoiivlit of as ^oing forth, in symbol 
 at least, to the final and consiuiiiiiatin;^; oonllict witli his enemies. 
 It was pre-cniinently impressive that he was clad in raiment 
 "dijipcd in lilood," the l'ore<roini; typo of wliieh wo find in Isa. 
 03 : 1-G : " Why art thou red in tliine apparel, and thy garments 
 as he that treadeth the wine-press ? 1 have trodden the wine-presa 
 alone," etc. The last clause of v. 15 renders it the more sure that 
 the scene pictured in Isa. 63 gives tlie shading to this representa- 
 tion: "he himself" (i. e., he alone) "treadeth the wine-press," etc. 
 Hence the vesture dipped in blood does not refer here to his own 
 blood shed for sin, but to the blood of his enemies shed in his 
 retributions of justice in their destruction. They are here in sym- 
 bol the vintage, and he treads them down in the great wine-vat of 
 Cod's righteous retribution. 
 
 14. And the armies which were in heaven followed him 
 npon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. 
 
 15. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sAvord, that 
 with it he should smite the nations ; and he shall rule them 
 with a rod of iron : and he treadeth the wine-press of the 
 fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 
 
 IG. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name 
 written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LOKDS. 
 
 The armies that followed him in heaven seem clad for an ova- 
 tion, not for a battle ; for a grand triumphal procession rather than 
 for a bloody campaign, or even for one hard-fought field of car- 
 nage. Indeed it docs not appear that they come into the real 
 figiit at all. The sharp sword from the month of the Almighty 
 Chieftain seems to do all the execution. Coupled with this we are 
 told below that some violent force (so the Greek word " taken," 
 v. 20, implies) seized the beast and the false prophet and hurled 
 them headlong into the lake of fire. Thus the fighting is repre- 
 sented ; so it is conducted, and so it terminates. But tlie showing 
 sets forth that "the armies in heaven" are in heart with their con- 
 quering King, and are permitted to follow in his train in this 
 prospective triumph over the fallen enemies of God and of the 
 
 kingdom of his Son. "The sword of his mouth," coupled with 
 
 his significant name, " The woj'd of God," must be understood to 
 imply that his word is power — that it is his high prerogative to 
 "speak and it is done," his expressed Avill seeming to execute it- 
 self in resistless power upon liis foes. No conception of absolute 
 power comes up at all to this — the sword from his mouth smiting 
 the nations — executing his high behests of judgment and destruc- 
 tion with a majesty all wortiiy of a God, and with a sway that 
 
 mortals would strive in vain to resist. This " ruling with a rod 
 
 of iron" imitates l*s. 2, where the drift of thought is essentially 
 the same as here, the iMessiah a second David, resistless in arma, 
 subduing the nations of his foes to his scepter As said above, 
 
210 EEVELATIOX. -CIIAr. XIX. 
 
 "trcadino; the winepress," etc., follows the figures and the thought 
 
 of Jsa. 03: 1-6. Tlie second name is symbolic of victorious 
 
 power and of his relations as sole Monarch above all the kings 
 of the earth. The first name, '"The word of God," looks usually 
 rather to the nature of his mission from heaven to earth — his great 
 ftinction as the Kevealer of God to men — though in this connection 
 it may tacitly include that marvelous power which goes with those 
 uttered mandates denouncing judgments upon his foes. 
 
 17. And I saw an angel standing in the sun ; and lie 
 cried Avlth a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in 
 the midst of heaven, Come and gather your.?elves together 
 unto the supper of the great God ; 
 
 18. That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh 
 of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of 
 horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all 
 men, both free and bond, both small and great. 
 
 This is the genius of lofty poetry. It does not prosaically locate 
 the battle-field, map out the movements of the contending armies, 
 and number the fallen dead, but promptly assumes the fact of 
 awful carnage, and summons the fowls of heaven (vultures, buz- 
 zards) to gather to one grand festival upon the carcasses of the 
 
 slain. In the last clause of v. 17 the improved text gives us, 
 
 not " the supper of the great God," but " the great supper of God," 
 the one great festival which his terrible judgments have provided — 
 one above all the rest in vastness. The passage imitates Ezekiel 
 3y in the point of setting forth the vastness of the slaughter and 
 the terrors of this retribution as measured by the masses of the 
 dead. In poetic conception far more grand than Ezekiel's, John 
 hears all flesh-devouring birds from under the vv'hole heaven sum- 
 moned to hold high carnival on the flesh of the slain. 
 
 19. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the eartli, and 
 tlieir armies, gathei'ed together to make war against him 
 that sat on the horse, and against his army. 
 
 20. And the beast Avas taken, and with him the false 
 prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he 
 deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, 
 and them that worshiped his image. These both were cast 
 alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. ' 
 
 The l)cast — the imperial power of old Rome, and the kings — 
 i. «., his horns, for they specially represent the kings of the earth 
 (17: 12-14), gather with their armies for this great and final 
 battle against hiin who sat on the white horse and his army. As 
 remarked already, they gathered for battle, but not one feature of 
 a battle appears in this grand panorama. As usual where weak 
 
EEVELATION.— CHAP. XIX. 211 
 
 mortals think to lii:;lit apilnst God, they never set beyond mar- 
 Bhalin;:; their hosts and iiianiCcsting their good will to fight: — then 
 all suddenly they are qucnciied as burnt tow. Nothing appears 
 but mountain masses ot" their I'allen dead, and the gathered fowls 
 
 of heaven feasting upon their putrid flesh. As said above, the 
 
 beast and the false prophet arc hurled living down into the lake 
 of fire. So the vision represents it. The first step in the ex- 
 position of this symbol is to trace it to its source. 1 see no reason 
 to doubt that we find this in the doom of the fourth beast of 
 Daniel (7: 11); "I beheld till the beast was slain and his body 
 destroyed and given to the burning flame," i. e., cast into a furnace 
 of fire — the foregoing type of which as it stands in Daniel must be 
 found in that terrible mode of capital punishment practiced in 
 cruel Babylon as may be seen in Dan. 3. The symbol thus traced 
 to its historic source must be held to signify an utter destruction, 
 inflicted under the righteous retributions of the Almighty, and 
 liringing to a final end their power on earth to harm the people 
 
 and the cause of God. If now the question be raised hero. 
 
 What precisely does this mean ? Is this simply an utter destruc- 
 tion of an empire, an organized persecuting power and a vile 
 iilolatrous priesthood ; or is it the sending down to hell of the 
 incorrigible sinners whose life is here portrayed; or is it both, 
 
 and the former considered as foreshadowing the latter? For 
 
 many reasons I must adopt the latter interpretation, this being the 
 current strain of numerous Old Testament passages which must 
 Ije assumed to be present here to the prophets mind; e. g. " The 
 wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget 
 God" (Ps. 9: 17). "The wicked is driven away in his ■wicked- 
 ness" (Prov. 14 : 32). "Sodom and Gomorrah are set forth as an 
 example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire" (.Jude 7). When 
 the Assyrian host fell, sinners in Zion were afraid, not merely of 
 such a death, but of that far more fearful one bevond; for they 
 cried — " Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire ? Who 
 among us shall dwell with the everlasting burnings?" (Isa. 33: 
 
 14.) 8o also Mai. 4: 1-3. So here the judgments sent on the 
 
 wicked in this world arc precursors of the wrath to come : the 
 
 former are the prelude and pledge of the latter. In Kev. 20 : 
 
 10 we see the devil cast into the same lake of fire; but certainly 
 this could not have meant that he was simply to have his worldly 
 
 fower broken as the imperial scepter of old Kome was broken, 
 his being bound Avith a great chain (20 : 1-3) had accomplished 
 that object] ; nor that he was to suffer a violent death after the 
 manner of wicked men ; but must have meant that God would 
 Bend him actually to " his own place " — the eternal prison-house 
 of woe whither according to this showing the beast and the false 
 
 prophet had already gone. In the first clause of v. 20 the most 
 
 approved reading means moi-e than that the false prophet was 
 taken up with the beast and both cast into the lake together. 
 This reading inserts the Greek words for "with him" between the 
 
212 REVELATION.-CILVr. XIX. 
 
 article and the noun in the phrase " the false prophet " — making 
 it "The [with him] false prophet" — a construction which the 
 iilioni of our tonijiiue will not admit, but the sense of which may 
 be given thus : The beast was seized and the one with him, viz., 
 the false prophet, etc. This shows how intimately associated to- 
 gether the beast and the false prophet were. The latter is forcibly 
 described as the one always with the former, his subordinate, his 
 ever faithful servant, always ministering to his vile purposes, 
 always seducing kings, nations and people to worship the first 
 
 beast. -These were cast, not " into a lake " but into the lake — 
 
 the well known prison-house of the lost. 
 
 21. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him 
 tliat sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his 
 mouth : and all the fowls wci'e filled with their flesh. 
 
 Kemarkably while the boast and the false prophet were repre- 
 sented as cast bodily and violently into the lake of lire, the remnant 
 seem to have stood the battle although they did not fight, and were 
 slain with the sword of the warrior Chief — the Great Conqueror. 
 8ee the explanation of this symbol above, in notes on vs. 14—16. 
 
 Thus closes this scene of the final destruction of the beast and 
 
 of his false prophet, and also of their armies. What could more im- 
 pressively show that Jesus Christ is indeed the Glorious Conqueror, 
 " mighty to save ; " and that his people, suffering however severely 
 under bloody persecution or in the fear of its impending storm, 
 may yet be most sure of victory for Zion in the result and at no 
 distant day ; sure also of a blissful reward if they are called to 
 resist unto blood and to lay their lives down for Him wdio laid 
 down his life for them ? Such are doubtless the great moral 
 lessons which these revelations made to the seer of Patmos sought 
 to impress. 
 
 RESUME OP THE AKGUMEXT. 
 
 The second or Roman division of this book embracing chap. 12- 
 19 closes here. A resume of the argument is therefore appropriate, 
 setting forth briefly why I find Pagan Rome and not Papal in these 
 
 chapters. The reader will bear in mind that besides the great 
 
 red dragon — well known as the devil and Satan — whose identity we 
 have no need to discuss — there are here three leading personages, 
 all persecuting enemies of God and of his people; viz. (1.) The 
 seven-headed and ten-horned beast from the sea (13: 1-8); (2.) 
 Another beast said to be "from the earth" (13: 11-17), bearing 
 also the name of "the fixlse prophet" (16: 13, and 19: 20, and 
 20: 10); (3.) Another personage known variously as "Babylon" 
 md "that great city" (14: 8); "great Babylon" (16: 19); "the 
 great harlot that sitteth upon many waters;' "mother of harlots," 
 etc. (17 : 1-9, 15, 18) and ." Babylon the great" (18 : 1-24). Under 
 the construction given above, the first personage is the imperial 
 
REVELATlON.-ClIAr. XIX. 213 
 
 power of Pagan Rome. The second is the pagan priesthood, 
 always ministering to the vital forces of paganism and doing the 
 work, well known to the Jews, of a "false prophet." The third is 
 
 the city of Ancient Rome. Other conflicting theories find Papal 
 
 Rome in the beast from the sea (No. 1); or in the beast from 
 the land (Xo. 2) ; or in the great harlot city, the mystic Babylon 
 (Xo. 3); or in the last two combined. X^ow the reader will bear 
 in mind carefully that these three personages are always kept 
 distinct from each other. The first beast, the one from the sea 
 (13: 1), is never confounded with the second beast — he from the 
 land (13: 11), alias "the folse prophet;" nor are either of these 
 confounded with the harlot city, JJabylon. Consequently this dis- 
 tinction should be duly honored in our interpretation. Again, 
 
 let it be noticed that all these personages are contemporary. They 
 are all upon the stage of action at one and the same time, bearing 
 definite, positive and vital relations each to the other. The second 
 beast always ministers to the first and of course must be on hand 
 at the same time. It is therefore simply preposterous to make the 
 first beast Pagan Rome and the second Papal, since all history 
 witnesses that Pagan Rome died long before Papal Rome was 
 
 born. Again, tlie harlot is contemporary with them both ; for 
 
 she sits upon and is borne by the first beast; the ten horns of 
 the first beast ultimately " hate the whore and make her desolate" 
 (17 : 16). These mutual and chronological relations compel us to 
 interpret all these three personages as contemporary. Therefore 
 if either of them is Papal Rome, they are all Papal Rome, and 
 Pagan Rome is not here at all. We must not mutilate and distort 
 history to help out a favorite theory. Pagan Rome and Papal 
 Rome arc chronologically centuries asunder, as every well in- 
 formed reader will admit when he considers that these personages 
 (the two beasts and the harlot city) are each and all here as great 
 persecuting powers and as nothing else. Papal Rome was not 
 known in history as a great persecuting power until far down 
 into the middle ages, say the eleventh or twelfth century, one 
 thousand years after the age of Xero, and seven or eight hundred 
 years after the last persecutions suffered from Pagan Rome. 
 Therefore we simply outrage both history and prophecy when we 
 make some one or more of these three personages Pagan Rome 
 and the rest Papal Rome. 
 
 The great question of interpretation is therefore narrowed down 
 to this one point — Fagan Rome versus Papal. Are these three per- 
 sonages of chapters 13-19 all Pagan Rome in some of its aspects, 
 
 or are they all Papal? Let us bring this chief question to the 
 
 test of the principles of interpretation which we have found ap- 
 plicable to this book of prophecy. 
 
 1. The Pagan Rome system keeps loithin the lim,itations of time 
 which (Jod himself has iixed for at least the main events of this 
 biiok. The Papal Rome system does not, Ijut strides on far be- 
 yond them. It is an outrage on the sense of words to say that 
 
214 KEVELATIOX.-CIIAr. XIX. 
 
 events seven or eiti;lit hundred or one thousand j'ears in the future 
 are "near at hand;" "shortly come to pass." This limitation of 
 time admits the Pagan Kome system with perfect facility. ]t 
 
 excludes the Papal system peremptorily. Xor let it be objected 
 
 that the final destruction of Pagan Kome was remote, for it began 
 soon; even within one year of Nero's death three emperors had 
 successively mounted the throne and successively fallen, and as 
 Taylor in his history testifies, "l\ome appeared on the very brink 
 of ruin from the madness of its own citizens " (p. 2GS). 
 
 2. The Pagan Home system corresponds precisely as we have 
 seen M'ith the interpretations and explanations given by the reveal- 
 ing angel himself in chap. 17, where the seven heads, alias kings, 
 are chronologically located and almost named. It corresponds 
 also with the identification of the number of the beast (13 : 18) 
 
 which is proved beyond all reasonable doubt to refer to Nero. 
 
 All these divinely given explanations equally pi-eclude the Papal 
 
 Roman theory. Let it not be lightly esteemed that in this 
 
 prophecy we have vitally important landmarks of prophetic inter- 
 pretation in the form of well defined historic dates and characters. 
 Here are the first seven kings of the Julian dynasty : the prophetic 
 finger drops definitely on the first one — the head which received a 
 deadly wound, but from which the beast himself recovered : the 
 sixth also as the one then reigning is pointed out most precisely 
 by the number of his name (13 : 8): and the seventh who was to 
 " continue but a short space " — given in history as a reign of seven 
 
 months. Yet again, the woman, the great harlot, shown (17 : 18) 
 
 to be "that great city which reigueth over the kings of the earth,'' 
 can not possibly he any other than Pagan Home. Her location on 
 seven mountains (17 : 9) coupled with her world-wide sway 
 (17:18) describe Rome precisely and describe no other city 
 known to John or to his first readers. Moreover, her relation to 
 the seven kings (17: 7-11) proves this beyond all rational ques- 
 tion. This woman [great city] is the Babylon of 14 : 8, and of 
 
 16 : 19, and of chap. 18. These points of identification are com- 
 plete. They leave no room to doubt that the Rome here set be- 
 fore us is Pagan and not Papal. Such identification in history it 
 were the extreme of unwisdom to ignore, or attempt to overrule. 
 
 3. The Pagan Rome system follows the Old Testament usage 
 of the words "abomination," "fornication," "harlot," etc., as ap- 
 plied to the woman of chap. 17, giving them the sense of Pagan 
 idolatry; while the Papal Rome system fails at this important 
 
 point. 1 am aware that whole volumes have been written to 
 
 show that Papal Rome is as truly idolatrous as ever Pagan Rome 
 was. This is one of those points that require adroit management 
 to make it even plausible. For it should be considered that 
 the idol systems of Western Asia and of Chaldca in the age 
 of the old prophets are the standard and model — the central ele- 
 ment of which was, the actual worship of ideal beings, supposed 
 to be represented under visible images, as really Gods, in the place 
 
liEVELATIOX.-CIIAP. XIX. 215 
 
 of the One. Supreme. Now it is, as I think, simply shinder to say 
 that Papal Kome juirposely sets up imaiics as (Jods in the place 
 of Jeht)vah. Slie claims that her I'ope is in certain respects the 
 vice-gerent of God; but she does not set him up as God and above 
 God, as an antat^onist claimant of divine homage. She has done 
 wicked thinfi^s enontih, for -which I have no apology to make; but 
 let us not breach tlie ninth commandment for the supposed sake 
 
 of truth and ri^^hteousness, to carry a point against her. 1 
 
 claim, therefore, that the harlotry of " the mother of abominations " 
 in this prophecy demands the same sort of idolatry which bears 
 this name in the Old Testament prophecies, and therefore apjilios 
 precisely to the heathenism of I'agan Eome, and not to the cor- 
 ruptions of Kome Papal. 
 
 4. Applying this prophecy to Pagan Rome we are fully in har- 
 mony with the obvious moral purpose of the book, viz., a strong 
 moral impression upon its first readers — a direct and most pungent 
 iipplicatiun to their very hearts, their personal exporiences, their 
 intense interest in the divine jutlgnients vpo7i their oivn pcj-seatfor.i. 
 
 Put the Papal Pome theory throws the event here referred to 
 
 far beyond the utmost range of their knowledge, and assumes that 
 tlie prophecy must have been to them mostly unintelligible, and in 
 80 far, without force or moral value. 
 
 5. The construction of chap. 18, given above, obeys that law of 
 interpretation Avhich demands that we follow closely the usage 
 of the Old Testament prophecies which are manifestly imitated 
 here, i. e., which were before the prophet's mind and were the 
 source from which his language and figures were borrowed. Fol- 
 lowing this law, I find a close analogy between old Pabylon 
 and old Tyre on the one hand, and this new mystic Babylon on 
 the other. Under the demands of this analogy i must find hero 
 Pagan Kome and not Papal. Pagan Kome was like those old 
 cities; Papal Kome is altogether unlike them. 
 
 G. Under the system adopted above, the seven vials of chap. IG 
 represent not a succession of dissimilar and dissociated events, 
 but a grouping of kindred events to make one general impression, 
 all being preliminary steps or premonitory indications of the im- 
 pending doom of l*agan Kome. In this respect these vials cor- 
 respond to the seals and trumpets in the former part of the book, 
 and this construction here must stand or fall with that. In this 
 vital feature both are in harmony with their prototypes — the horses 
 of Zech. 1 and the horses aud chariots of Zech. ; and also with 
 .the nature of the case. 
 
 7. The system which applies these great symbols to Pagan Kome 
 p.rovides amply (as the true system must) for passing over by analogy 
 from one series of events near at hand to other analogous events far 
 on in the future. Thus from the fall of Kome in chap. 18 and fj-om 
 the victory and triumph of the Great Conqueror in chap. 19, we pass 
 over to the final, ci)nii)lete, universal*victory of Jesus ^lessiah over 
 all his foes — the final triumjih over Satan and all his armies. In 
 
216 Revelation.— ciiAr. xx. 
 
 the same manner we applied this law of prophetic analofry in the 
 fall of Jerusalem and Judaism at the close of chap. 11. The prin- 
 ciple has perhaps a yet broader sweep here in chap. 19 and 
 onward, since the fivll of both Jerusalem and Ivorae are here before 
 the mind — the basis of a yet more conclusive and overwhelming 
 inference that Jesus will surely triumph over every foe and come 
 forth the supreme, all-f^lorious Conqueror ! 
 
 8. Finally, it should be decisive in favor of the system of inters 
 pretation above presented that it keeps within the limitations of 
 the book itself; carefully follows the landmarks octane and place ; 
 honors every historic allusion which the book itself gives; yields 
 obedience to every legitimate principle of prophetic interpretation ; 
 seeks and finds the guiding clews to the true construction within 
 the book itself and within tke Old Testament prophecies to which 
 this book refers and from which its symbolism is borrowed, and 
 thus relieves the interpreter of the necessity of throwing himself 
 upon the broad ocean of universal history to find something, some- 
 where, which seems to correspond with or can be made'to resem- 
 ble the symbols found here. The confirmation of a given prophetic 
 interpretation by fulfilling history is in place only after a faithful 
 use of all the legitimate principles of interpretation has really 
 given us their just results. That is, history should not give us our 
 system of interpretation ; it should only confirm it. To ignore 
 these principles and to launch forth in the outset upon fulfilling 
 history to fill out some preconceived system of interpretation, is 
 the fatal vice of interpreters of prophecy. I have sought continu- 
 ally to avoid this method, and to follow only those principles of 
 interpreting prophecy which are legitimate, reasonable, impreg- 
 nable. If I have succeeded, then this construction will commend 
 itself to the confidence of all judicious critics. I may perhaps 
 with no offence to Christian modesty say that it respectfully so- 
 licits their candid consideration. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 New scenes open. Nothing is said to indicate how ncarVn time 
 these scenes are to those of chapters 12-19, which give us judg- 
 ments on the first beast and the second, and upon the harlot city, 
 and also the consequent joy among the holy in heaven and the 
 anticipated triumph of King Emmanuel over all his foes. The 
 only obvious connection of this chapter with those is logic'al, not 
 chronological — a connection pf thought, not of time. This imme- 
 diately foregoing series of events, commencing with chapter 12, 
 opens with bringing to view the old serpent, called the Devil and 
 
rvEVELATlON.-CIIAr. XX. 217 
 
 Satan. lie is shown to be the prime mover and arch instij^ator 
 of all the persecutions under which the church suffers. He beara 
 a m(;rtal hatred toward the Zion-iuotlicr and her heaven-born Son 
 (chap. 12); he "gives to the first beast his power, his seat and 
 great authority" (13: 2); he perpetually plies liis old vocation — 
 ii liar and a deceiver from the beginning (Jn. 8: 44, and 1 Jn. 
 3: 8); sending forth "unclean spirits of devils" to deceive the 
 kings of the earth (16: 13, 14). So these chapters present him. 
 If we can not say that he fills the foreground of the picture, we 
 can at least see that he pulls the wires and works the machinery ; 
 his agencies underlie every movement of the hostile army arrayed 
 against heaven's king and people. And now in this chapter he 
 appears again, to receive his righteous doom. The beast and the 
 false prophet have gone to their own place (19 : 20) ; it remains 
 only to fini.sh in like manner the history of " the great red dragon." 
 This chapter gives it in three distinct stages: (1.) He is bound, 
 cast into the abyss, shut up and a great seal put upon his prison 
 gate that he go forth to deceive the nations no more for a thousand 
 years. (2.) Then he is loosed for a little season and resumes his 
 old work of deceiving the nations, with the result of gathering tliem 
 for one grand assault upon the beloved city to their own sudden 
 and utter destruction. Then (3.) he is hurlod down to his own 
 place — the lake of fire and brimstone — to his destiny of woe eter- 
 nal. This closes the histtn-y of this arch tempter of our race — 
 
 this fell hater of CJod and of all goodness. Tlie chapter before 
 
 us touches upon three other grand points in the great programme 
 of the world's history, viz., the joy of the martyred saints during 
 the thou.sand years (vs. 4-6) ; the deceiving of the remote nations 
 and their mustering to the last grand assault upon the holy city 
 (vs. 7-9); and the final judgment-scene of our race (vs. 11-15). 
 These momentous acts in the history of our world are touched 
 with extreme brevity, yet with words of thrilling power. 
 
 1. And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having 
 tlie key of the bottomle.ss pit and a great chain in lii.s 
 hand. 
 
 2. And he hiid hohl on the dragon, that okl serpent, 
 which i.s the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand 
 years, 
 
 3. And cast him into tlie bottondess pit, and shut him 
 up, and set a seal u^jou him, that he should deceive the 
 nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: 
 and after that he must be loo.sed a little season. 
 
 The words, "and I saw," are in constant use to indicate a now 
 <=cene in the great moving panorama. See vs. 4, 11, 12, and 21 : 
 
 1, etc. This angel had a key with which to open and also to 
 
 shut the abyss, and a great chain for binding the serponk Obvi- 
 ously the conception of a chain corresponds to the idea of a ser* 
 10 
 
218 REVELATION.— CHAP. XX. 
 
 pent — not of a spiritual agent, " the spirit that now wovketh in the 
 children of disobedience." llence -we must accept this as symbol, 
 intended simply to give us the idea of restraint, confinement — by 
 what precise agencies we can not know as yet— agencies, howevex", 
 that are adequate to their purpose of shutting him off for a thou- 
 sand years from his satanic work of deceiving men into sin and 
 
 I'uin. The view given here of the agencies of Satan upon the 
 
 minds of men follows that which appears throughout the preced- 
 ing chapters — " dcceiveth the whole world" (12: 9); "working" 
 [pretended] "miracles" to deceive the kings of the earth and 
 gather them to the great conflict against Almighty God (16: 13- 
 10); the great instigator to idolatry and to bloody persecution of 
 the saints. It is essentially the same view which the apostle has 
 put in the words, " The spirit that now worketh in the children 
 of disobedience" (Eph. 2 : 2), giving prominence however to those 
 aspects of his work which stand in the foreground in this book — 
 
 idolatry and persecution. This restraint upon Satan is limited 
 
 in duration — a thousand years. The reader will not need to be 
 told that this chapter has given us the word ^'■Millennium" which 
 means a period of a thousand years. By " iAe Millennium" is 
 meant precisely this period during which Satan is bound and shall 
 
 not deceive the nations. Will it be literally one thousand years, 
 
 or shall it be taken as an indefinitely long period ? The evidence 
 
 for deciding this question must come from two sources: — (1.) The 
 scripture usage of this pdirase; (2.) The light of other scripture 
 
 concerning the duration of this period. (1.) The phrase "a 
 
 thousand years" occurs three times. The Psalmist says (90: 4), 
 " For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it 
 is past" — meaning not precisely twice five hundred, but a long, 
 indefinite duration. Peter (2 Eps. 3: 8) has the words, "One day 
 is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one 
 day" — which certainly must be taken in the long, indefinite sense. 
 Solomon (in Eccl. 6 : 6) has the same usage : " Yea, though he live 
 
 a thousand years twice told," etc. 1 scarcely need refer to the 
 
 fact that the word "thousand" is spoken of other things beside 
 years in the same indefinite sense : " A thousand shall fall at thy 
 side and ten thousand at thy right hand;" "The cattle on a thou- 
 sand hills;" "A day in thy courts is better than a thousand," etc. 
 The usage of scripture seems therefore to be decisive for the in- 
 definite sense. (2.) So also is the doctrine of prophecy in re- 
 gard to the duration of this period of the ultimate prosperity and 
 triumph of Zion. On this point we have a single passage which 
 seems to be explicit and decisive. Isaiah (54 : 7, 8) puts in con- 
 trast the period in which Zion has been afflicted and not comforted 
 (in the large sense) with this period of her joyful prosperity; 
 thus, "For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great 
 mercies will I gather theo. In a little wrath I hid myself from 
 tliee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I gather 
 thee." Here the "small mjmeut" in which Zion has been com- 
 
REVELATION.— CHAP. XX. 219 
 
 paratively, relatively, forsaken stretches tlirough the long ages be- 
 fore Christ came, not to say also tliroiigh tiie Christian centuries 
 down to this era of the binding of Satan and the joy of the saints 
 therein; while the everlasting Jdndness^ spanning the long ages of 
 (lod's mercy, arc put into this thousand years. Is it then possible 
 that these thousand j-cars are to be cut sharply down to ten cen- 
 turies? Can ten centuries suffice for the di.splay of ^^everlasting 
 kindness" over against six or seven thousand years of " forsaking," 
 which relatively to this thousand j'eurs are only "a small mo- 
 ment?" ]\Iathematically put, Jf six thousand j-ears means ''a 
 small moment," how many years must be required for the mani- 
 festation of '■'' everlasfuig kindness?" For aught that appears it 
 
 must be admitted that the everlasting kindness of God's mercy to 
 his Zion is precisely this IMillennium of John. Who shall cut it 
 
 down to precisely ten hundred common years? It ought to be 
 
 added that the standard doctrine of Old Testament prophecy is 
 tinnly of this sort: "His [Messiah's] name shall endure forever; 
 his name shall be continued as long as the sun; and men shall be 
 blessed in him; all nations shall call him blessed" (Pa. 72: 17). 
 "The Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy 
 mourning shall be ended." " They shall inherit the land forever, 
 tlie branch of my plantins;, the work of my hands," etc. (Isa. 6U : 
 20, 21). See also Jer. 31: 40, and Dan. "7 : 14, 27, and ]\Iic. 4: 
 7. I must therefore consider it certain that this thousand years 
 
 should be taken as indefinite and very long. Other questions 
 
 respecting the state of the world during this period ; the preva- 
 lence of gospel light; the standard of piety; the type of Christian 
 civilization; the longevity and general happiness of the race, will 
 best be considered after the subse(iuent verses shall have come 
 liilly before us. 
 
 4. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and 
 judgment was given unto them : and / saiv the souls of 
 tliem that were beheaded ibr the witness of Jesus, and 
 for the word of God, and which had not worshiped the 
 beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark 
 upon their forelieads, or in their hands; and they hved 
 and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 
 
 5. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the 
 thousand years were finished. This -is the first resurrec- 
 tion, 
 
 6. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first 
 resurrection : on such the second death hath no power, but 
 they ,«hall be priests of God and of Clirist, and shall reign 
 with him a thousand years. 
 
 Note that the "thrones" arc put iu the foreground, the first 
 thing seen. Who are they that sit upon them? Undoubtedly 
 
220 REVELATION.— CHAP. XX. 
 
 the souls of the mnrtyrs immediately after described — the same 
 wlio " reigned Avith Christ a thousand years." Their exaltation and 
 
 blessedness are therefore the prominent features in this scene. 
 
 '■'■Judgment is given unto them; " but what judgment and in what 
 sense? The words taken in themselves might mean and have 
 been thought by some to mean that they are made associate judges 
 with Christ, sitting and reigning with him in the proper literal 
 
 sense. But this view must be rejected for three reasons; (1.) 
 
 The natural improbability, not to say impossibility, of their per- 
 forming this function; (2.) The fact that "reigning with Christ," 
 as we shall soon see, has in the Scriptures a very different sense 
 from this, viz., the sense of rejoicing in his joy, of being fully 
 blessed and highly exalted in and with him; (3.) The very vital 
 fact that these souls, here seen in vision, are identically the same 
 that were seen under the altar at the opening of the fifth seal (6 : 
 9-11), and that this scene is closely correlated to that. There the 
 revelator hears them cry, " How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost 
 thou not judge and avenge our blood ? " etc. Here he sees their 
 prayer answered ; the judgment they prayed for is given them. 
 Their blood has been judged most justly and avenged most fear- 
 fully upon their guilty murderers. The reader will note care- 
 fully that these souls according to their description must be the 
 same as those seen "under the altar" (6: 9-11); — here "be- 
 headed;" there "slain:" here, "for the witness of Jesus and for 
 the word of God;" there, "for the word of God and for the wit- 
 ness" ["marturian" as here] which they held [without faltering]. 
 The additional points here — " had not worshiped the beast," etc , 
 had not come up at the opening of the fifth seal, but came in at 
 a later stage of the book and are here only to show that these 
 martyrs include all those who suffered, whether from persecuting 
 
 Jews or from persecuting Komans. " Blessed and hol^y is he 
 
 that hath part,' etc. In what sense "holy?" Does this mean 
 merely that he is a good man, a saint in the common significance 
 of this word ? Or rather in the original sense of the word — one 
 set apart and distinguished from all others, so that the clause 
 means, pre-eminently blessed is he, distinctively above all others ? 
 
 1 accept the latter sense. 
 
 We may now give attention to the important points in this pas- 
 sage — in the following order : 
 
 1. Who are these "souls?" 
 
 2. In what sense do they "live and reign with Christ?" 
 
 3. What is meant by this " first resurrection ? " 
 
 4. What moral effect was sought by this strong and striking rep- 
 resentation of the joy of the martyrs during this thousand years? 
 
 1. Who are these " souls f" As said above, the description 
 
 accords so perfectly with that of the souls seen under the altar 
 ((): 9-11) as to leave no room for doubt that these are the same, 
 ^loreover, nothing could be more natural or more appropriate than 
 to bring them to view again here to show that their prayer is now 
 
EEVELATION.— CHAP. XX. 221 
 
 gloriously answered; their sorrow turned to joy; their blood most 
 sigiiiilly avenged; that the ^'' jxulgvient" they implored is given 
 tliem. This book of Revelation would have been incomplete with- 
 out this final view of the souls seen first under the altar. Yet 
 
 again, it is entirely in harmon^jr with the genius of this book that 
 the glories of the Millennium should be set forth as seen in the 
 joy of the martyrs and the co-ordinate joy of Christ their Lord. Note 
 how the glorious results of the fall of Judaism and of its repre- 
 sentative city are shown (11 : 15-18) in the songs of heaven ; and 
 in like manner, the results of the fall of Babylon, in the Alleluias 
 that come down as the voice of many waters and the voice of 
 mighty thunderings because "the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth" 
 (I'J: i-7). The same style of poetic conception rules in this pas- 
 sage. We are shown the blessedness of the Millennium in the 
 ineffable bliss and glory of the martyred saints exulting with their 
 glorious Lord and King. 
 
 2. In what sense do they ^^ live and reign with Christ?" In 
 
 my view "live" and "reign" serve to fill out one common idea. 
 'J'lie words help to explain each other. The state here tacitly 
 antithetic to " life " — out of which they come when they begin to 
 live — was not non-existence, but was suffering, trial— the state of 
 tlie praying and struggling martyred souls as shown (6: 9-11). 
 And this is the common usage of the word " live," taken figura- 
 tively. " Now we live [i. e., in real life and blessedness] if ye 
 stand fast in the Lord ' (1 Thess. 3 : 8). " Shall we not much 
 rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live" — be 
 richly blessed by means of our afHiction yielding the peaceful fruit 
 of righteousness? (Ileb. 12: 9.) So the "eternal life" of the 
 righteous is by no means a mere eternal existence. The tree of life 
 is not so called because it barely prolongs existence. If this were 
 its only significance, the devil himself and all the damned might 
 eat of it A little attention will show that this usage of the words 
 " live," " life," prevails throughout the Bible and indeed in uni- 
 versal language. Keigning, being a king, has been in every 
 
 age one of the chief objects of man's ambition. Hence it is nat- 
 urally put for what men most aspire after and most love — any sup- 
 posed or real blessedness. So I'aul uses it (1 Cor. 4:8); " Now 
 ye arc full ; now ye are rich ; yc have reigned as kings without 
 us." Observe that the glory and blessedness promised to God's 
 people and especially made prominent during the ages of persecu- 
 tion in promise to those who suffer with enduring patience, is 
 often presented as here; — "They shall be kings and priests of 
 God and of Christ," "With slight variations in the phraseology, 
 this figurative language abounds throughout the New Testament. 
 This book of Revelation opens with it; "Hath made us kings and 
 priests unto God" (1: 6); and in the same Avords (5: 10) with 
 the additional clause — "and we shall reign on the eai'tli." Peter 
 combines both ideas — king and priest — from Ex. 19:5; "a royal 
 priesthood," i. e., kingly priests and priestly kings — an honor which 
 
222 KEVELATION.— CHAP. XX, 
 
 blends the distinctive qualities of both the king and the priest 
 J3at Paul (Kom. 8: 17) gives us the precise idea: "If children, 
 then heirs; heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ ; if so be that 
 we suiTer with him that we may be glorified together.^' The exaltsv 
 tion to a glory like Christ's and a glory co-ordinate with Christ's 
 seems to be the precise idea so often presented in the Scriptures in 
 words or at least in general thought like this before us. See also 
 
 1 Pet. 4: 13. Now there is not the least occasion to strain this 
 
 language so as to include the responsible functions of king in the 
 universe of God. Such a sense is simply impossible because the 
 thing itself is so. Jesus Christ is Lord alone. None other than 
 he has the capabilities; none but he has the right: let none but 
 him have this supreme glory. The sense of our passage there- 
 fore is that the martyrs are ineffably blessed in their joy with 
 Christ over the binding of Satan and the " filling of the earth with 
 the knowledge of the glory of the Lord" [Jesus] "as the waters 
 cover the sea." The rest of even the righteous dead come short 
 of such a life — at least, of a life so full of blessedness at this par- 
 ticular time and because of these special events. None else can 
 appreciate and drink in this joy as those martyrs do. Others will 
 have their blessedness in its time ; but the pre-eminent joy over 
 the binding of Satan and these victories of Jesus is the lot of those 
 only who have suilered and prayed as did those martyrs seen 
 under the altar. The wicked dead come not into this account. 
 
 3. What is meant by this ''''first resurrection V 1 am well 
 
 aware of the difficulties that invest this question. These difficul- 
 ties I feel the more deeply because I see what seem to me strong 
 reasons in support of the figurative sense of " resurrection ; " and 
 yet so far as 1 know, the literal sense is adopted by most if not all 
 of the best critics. Hence it behooves me to present my views 
 modestly, yet none the less fully and clearly. Whether my views 
 are well sustained let the reader judge. 
 
 The choice lies between the literal sense — the raising of the 
 dead body to life; and the figurative, viz., joy after sorrow; the 
 passing from agony, despondency hard by despair, into high frui- 
 tion and blessedness — the change from a quasi death to real life. 
 We may call the latter the symbolic sense of the word "resur- 
 rection.'' 
 
 In favor of this usage of the word here, I adduce the following 
 considerations: — (1.) The almost universally symbolic strain of 
 this book. Not going beyond this chapter we have symbols in 
 the "great chain," the "old serpent," the "seal" put upon him, 
 the "thrones," the "second death," the "camp of the saints," the 
 " beloved city," etc., etc. It is tlierefore with and not against the 
 Analogy of the book to account this resurrection symbolic. 
 
 (2.) John found this symbolic usage of "resurrection" and of 
 its idea, in the old prophets; particularly in Isa. 20: 14, 19, and 
 Ezek. 37: 1-14, and Hos. 13: 14. [See my notes on those pas- 
 sages.} The argument here is that since John follows the usage 
 
EpVELATION— CHAP. XX. 223 
 
 of the Old Testament prophets ahnost if not quite invariably, it is 
 fair to assume that he follows it here. Seeiiii!; tiieir usa^e of this 
 idea of resurrection, he naturally adopts it himself. This, as we 
 have continually seen, is remarkably the law of this whole book. 
 
 (;5.) Another remarkable fact deserves careful consideration. 
 Twice in his gospel (viz., 5: 24-29, and 11 : 23-2G) our author 
 touches the subject of resurrection and in both cases he has two 
 resurrections before his mind, viz., (1) the raisini^ of souls from 
 death in sin to real and blessed life in God; and (2) the raising 
 
 of bodies from their graves. Note the order of his thought. 
 
 '■ lie that heareth my words and belicveth on him that sent me 
 hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but 
 is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The 
 hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of 
 the Son of (Jod, and they that hear shall /u'e." [This is the first 
 rcsuri'ection.] The second and other is put thus: "Marvel not at 
 this, for the hour is coming in the which all that are in their 
 graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth." Beyond all 
 t)uestion this second is the litei'al resui-rection of the bodies of ail 
 the dead. Equally beyond question is it that the former is a spir- 
 itual resTirrection ; i. e., the resurrection is made a figure or s^nn- 
 bol for that more wondrous and far more glorious change which 
 comes over human souls when they pass from death in sin to 
 
 everlasting life and peace in God. The resurrection of Lazarus 
 
 gives us the other case referred to. And here too the first and lead- 
 ing thought is that higher, grander and more comprehensive one — 
 " 1 am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though 
 he were dead, 3^et shall he live." As the infinite fountain of all 
 life and of all resurrection-power, 1 first evince it by raising dead 
 souls to the life of peace and love and biessedness in God — even 
 the souls of all who believe in me; and next I do the subordinate 
 and very inferior thing of raising their mortal bodies to life. The 
 first resurrection is the spiritual. This is the natural order in 
 Avhich the mind of Jesus and consequently the mind of John ar- 
 ranges the grand ideas connected with resurrection. Should it 
 therefore surprise us that having followed this order in every case 
 where he touches the resurrection in his gospel, he should follow 
 it here also ? 
 
 (4.) The strong, decisive points which set forth a literal resur- 
 rection arc lacking here. Nothing is said of bodies, much less 
 of bodies coming up out of their graves. Indeed it is quite plain 
 that John saw no bodies but only "souls." He uses precisely the 
 same language here as in chap. G : 9-11 where beyond all question 
 the souls seen were disembodied, being in the state intermediate 
 between death and the resurrection. Of these "souls" he does 
 not say that they are restored to their bodies or their bodies to 
 them; but only that they ^^ lived" — lived and reigned with Christ 
 as kings and priests — the sense of which we have already dis- 
 cus.scd. How John speaks of a real resurrection of bodies any 
 
224 EEVELATION— CHAP. X«X. 
 
 ivne may see in the closing; verses of tliis chapter : " Tiic dead, 
 iinall and (freaf, stand before (Jud;" "the sea gave up the dead 
 [bodies] that were in it," etc. 
 
 (5.) The description here compared Tvith that in 6: 9-11 de- 
 mands nothing more than this — that souls seen first in the ajrony 
 of prayer and solicitude are now seen emerging from that state, 
 or rather, fully emerged into glorious exaltation and blessedness 
 with Christ, luxuriating in his triumphs, exulting in the fall of 
 Satan, in the victories of Zion's King, in the peace and blessedness 
 of men over all this wide earth, and the consummation of the 
 divine glory in the grand scheme of salvation! Is not such a 
 transition worthy to be called a resurrection unto life? 
 
 (6.) This view of the meaning harmonizes perfectly M'ith the 
 moral purpose of the whole book. This can not be said with equal 
 
 pertinence of the other interpretation. The martyred dead 
 
 emerging from their agony of solicitude and prayer under the altar 
 to ineffable joy and triumph with Christ as if on thrones of honor, 
 would be a most impressive scene to the still imperiled and suf- 
 fering saints to whom these visions were sent. Nothing could be 
 more inspiring. How it would lift their souls from all depression 
 and fire them with zeal for even martyrdom itself since it stands 
 
 associated with such rewards! But it is by no means clear 
 
 that a literal resurrection of those martyrs in advance of all other 
 saints could be, in itself considered, in any measure so inspiring. 
 If you take out of these words the sense of ineffable joy and glo- 
 rious exaltation, and leave only the literal idea — the raising of 
 their bodies from their graves — have you not robbed them chiefly 
 of their inspiring power ? 
 
 (7.) A literal resurrection in this passage is opposed by the 
 iniiform testimony of all other scripture to the effect that there is 
 but one resurrection and that one not only general but universal — ■ 
 of all the dead ; not only all the righteous but all the wicked — "all 
 that are in their graves " (John 5: 28). See this subject discussed 
 
 in my "Jeremiah," pp. 406-409. 1 grant that such language 
 
 [of universality] may be supposed to admit slight exceptions, like 
 that recorded in Matt. 27 : 52, 53. But if this resurrection in 
 Jcihn be that of bodies, it becomes not a slight but a great excep- 
 tion, so great as essentially to break dowTi the rule. For consider 
 how many will be embraced under it. Can we limit it to the 
 martyrs of John's age — those who fell before the malignity of 
 Ihc Jews or the cruelty of Nero ? If we extend it to all martyrs 
 .■)f all Christian ages, the number becomes a host — all too many 
 to come in as an exception to statements so strong and so compre- 
 hensive as those which affirm one resnrrection only of all the 
 human race. 
 
 (8.) The first resurrection is correlated here, not distinctly with 
 a second resurrection of bodies, but with the " second death." Now 
 since this second death is certainly symbolic, i. e., is not a second 
 severing of soul from body, but simply a state full of awful terros 
 
EEVELATION.— CIIAr. XX. 225 
 
 Rnd indeOnite anguish which no other symbol but that of death 
 can adequately express, therefore we may naturally suppose that 
 (lie lirst resurrection, correlated to it, is also symbolic — used in an 
 analojjjous sense, of what is indefinitely blessed. These consid- 
 erations arc modestly submitted as the grounds which incline mo 
 stronjily to the view of a figurative as opposed to the precisely 
 literal sense of this " first resurrection." 
 
 4. The moral effect sought by tliis strong and striking presenta- 
 tion of the blessedness of the martyrs has been brought out inci- 
 dentally during my argument, and can not fail to be readily seen. 
 It harmonizes perfectly with the great moral purpose which per- 
 vades the whole book, viz., to ins{)ire the utmost Christian heroism 
 and patient endurance under the fear or the present pressure of 
 bloody persecution. 
 
 The Millennium so far as revealed by John is now before us. 
 The reader Avill see that the description is very limited, making 
 only three leading points, viz., the binding of Satan ; the duration 
 of this restraint; and the joy of the martyrs with Christ over the 
 iilorious event. If we ask for the agencies which are to introduce 
 and produce this millennial age, these visions give no answer be- 
 yond what is comprehended in the one fact — Satan bound. If we 
 ask what John has taught us respecting the state of the world 
 during this Millennium, we are left to infer it from these two 
 facts — the withdrawing of Satan's influence, and the joy of the 
 martyrs and of Jesus over the victory of his cause, the triumph 
 
 of his reign. AVc may however turn back to Old Testament 
 
 prophecy and there find many of the most important questions 
 fully answered. For example, if we ask for the political, moral, 
 and religious state of the world, we learn that wars will cease; 
 crime disappear; that hate will die out of human bosoms and love 
 reign in its stead; the idols will utterly perish; one God only 
 sliall be worshiped and obeyed from the rising to the setting sun. 
 If we ask, What agencies are to Avork this wondrous change? we 
 are promptly answered — " For the earth shall be full of the 
 knowledge of the Lord [Jesus] as the waters cover the sea." 
 The light of the gospel shall go forth to every land, shall reach 
 every eye, and through attending grace transform every heart. 
 Not Satan but Jesus shall reign. Satan deceives no longer; the 
 truth of God in his gospel leads men in the paths of righteousness 
 and peace. These long ages form the grand theater for mani- 
 festing the transforming power of the gospel of salvation — redemp- 
 tion by the cross of Jesus. It is the consummation of the gospel 
 age, in which the inherent power of God's Spirit with his truth, 
 borne in the willing hands and loving hearts of his peojtle, ■vyill 
 
 have free course and be glorified. Moreover, it will allbrd an 
 
 opportunity never enjoyed before of estimating the amount of 
 malign influence exerted by Satan upon our race to instigate 
 •;rime, intensify depravity, draw men away from (iod to idols, and 
 iu general to withstand God and his truth and ])eople. During 
 
226 EEVELATIOX.— CHAP. XX. 
 
 this thousand years it may be seen how much opposing force is 
 Bubtractcd and how much yet remains to be encountered and 
 overccmc. But most affecting and sublime of all is the concep- 
 tion given us in this millennial age of the magniiicent results of 
 the gospel upon human well-being. Men Avill see as never before 
 that the gospel is indeed "the power of God unto salvation" — a 
 salvation that really saves from the miseries of sin. Think of the 
 limitless sweep and range of this power; think how the blessed- 
 ness of each saved soul is augmented by the known blessedness 
 of all; think how the joyous present will be the more enjoyed for 
 its contrast with the ti'oubled, the sinning and the suffering past; 
 and finally, conceive with Avliat ineffable joy the saints will repose 
 in the assurance of a long, long reign of truth and righteousness 
 and peace over a world in which Satan has held sway so cruelly 
 and so long. Will it not be joyous to know that the reign of Jesus 
 Messiah will be indefinitely longer? 
 
 7. And when the thousand years are expired, Satan sliall 
 be loosed out of his prison, 
 
 8. And shall go out to deceive the nations which are iu 
 the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather 
 them together to battle : the number of whom is as the 
 sand of the sea. 
 
 9. And they "went up on the breadth of the earth, and 
 compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved 
 city : and fire came down from God out of heaven, and 
 devoui'ed them. 
 
 The w^ords and figures used here are easily traced to Ezek. 38 
 and 39, where we have a like account of the mustering of remote 
 northern nations; the very names, Gog and Magog; the vast num- 
 ber of their hosts; their vain attempt to besiege and destroy the 
 holy city, and the fearful judgments of the Almighty which blasted 
 their efibrts and swept their hosts with fell destruction. In p]ze- 
 kiel the agencies employed in their destruction are more A-arious ; 
 here they seem concentrated in the one most terrible of all — fire 
 from God out of heaven. The conception of the saints as " en- 
 camped" and of "the beloved city" is altogether Jewish in its 
 origin, for it locates the scenes in Palestine. The woi'd "earth" 
 ["breadth of the carth"'\ should rather be the land — that of the 
 
 ancient Jews. There is no occasion to infer that these events 
 
 are identical with those referred to by Ezekiel. It is the usage 
 of John throughout this book to borrow his terms and figures from 
 the old prophets, and then describe with them events analogous 
 but not at all the same. Judging from its place in the prophetic 
 series, the great conflict of Ezek. 38 and 39 precedes the millen- 
 nial age wdiich stands in the closing chapters (4U-4S) ; while here 
 iu John it certainly follows the Millennium. 
 
REVELATION.— CHAP. XX. 227 
 
 This account of the loosing of Satan and its results is most re- 
 markable. I am not aware that any allusion to it appears else- 
 where in the Scriptures. Indeed the tenor of all the Old Testa- 
 ment prophecies of the millennial age represents it as not only in- 
 definitely long, but as stretching onward to the very end of time. 
 At least there is no hint of an abrupt termination and a marked 
 reverse like what appears here. The Old Testament prophets do 
 not locate the resurrection and the final judgment as related to 
 the millennial age, but rather seem to make the glorious blessed- 
 ness of the Millennium merge into the eternal heaven. We can 
 not however say that their testimony stands in direct collision with 
 this. The fact is rather that their testimony is negative; this is 
 positive. They fail to say any thing about this reverse; John def- 
 initely affirms it. It is in vain to ask why they omitted it, sup- 
 posing it to be true. God did not give prophecy on the princi])Ie 
 of revealing all truth to every prophet. We must rest on the 
 ground that he would not have said these things to John, and 
 through him to us, if they had not been true.—; — Assuming their 
 truth, therefore, it is obvious that one part of God's design in per- 
 mitting this last development of Satan in our world may have 
 been to exhibit his agency before our race and before the moral 
 universe with far more distinctness and prominence than ever 
 before. After the long ages of Christ's peaceful and triumphant 
 reign, the very name of Satan, and much more his pernicious 
 agencies, may have been almost forgotten from the human mind, 
 not to say from angelic minds as well. One more exhibition of 
 Satanic hate and revenge and power will not be amiss for the 
 moral instruction of the universe. Coming at this stage, in the 
 strongest possible contrast with the beneficent reign of the Great 
 Messiah, it will stand out most signally before the universe as the 
 moral ground of his eternal doom. Who can then fail to see that 
 he is indeed a devil and a Satan, infinitely deserving his destiny 
 
 of torment in the lake of fire and brimstone forever and ever! 
 
 It is noticeable that here as in Ezekiel 38 and 39 there is no in- 
 timation that the people of God joined battle with the hostile in- 
 vaders. It rather seems that they "stood still to see the salvation 
 of God " — and 7iot in vain ! The scene is shaped, perhaps purposely, 
 to reveal the blazing right arm of the Almighty in judgment on his 
 foes! It will avail little for us to define God's methods in a case 
 like this ; general views and results are all that he has been pleased 
 to give us. 
 
 10. And the devil that deceived them Avas cast into the 
 lake of fire and brimstone, where the bea.st and the false 
 prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever 
 a"id ever. 
 
 This is his final doom. The clau.se, " that deceived them," 
 
 indicates his damning crime — cruelly and falsely alluring them on 
 
228 EEVELATION.— CHAP. XX. 
 
 to their rnin ; reckless of their welfare ; malicionsly bent on with- 
 standing God and hia people, and npon destroying the peace of the 
 nniverse to the utmost extent of his power. Oh, how richly does 
 
 he deserve his doom ! The qncstion will arise whether this 
 
 "lake" is or is not the same with the abyss [abnssos] translated, 
 " the bottomless pit." The fact of different names almost de- 
 mands a diflference in the things to which the names are applied. 
 Klsc how coald we account for the two distinct names? More- 
 over, the abyss seems to be a place of duress, confinement, only 
 or at least chiefly; but this "lake" is pointedly described as "a 
 jiluce of torment." The same distinction between the present and 
 the remotely future condition of lost angels — the legions of Satan — 
 is elsewhere indicated : — " Into everlasting fire, prepared for the 
 devil and his angels" (jNIat. 25: 41); "Art thou come hither to 
 
 torment us before the time'?" (Mat. 8: 29.) -"The beast" and 
 
 " the false prophet," i e., the guilty persecutors of whom these are 
 the repi'csentative characters, have the same destiny, as had been 
 
 said before (19: 20). The moral bearing of these great facta 
 
 upon the persecuted saints of John's age will be readily seen. 
 
 11. And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat 
 on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; 
 and there wa.s found no place for them, 
 
 12. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before 
 God ; and the books were opened : and another book was 
 opened, which is the booh of life : and the dead were judged 
 out of those things which were written in the books, accord- 
 ing to their works. 
 
 I see no reason to doubt that these verses describe the scenes 
 of the final judgment. For aught that appears this judgment will 
 follow closely upon the events of the verses immediately preceding. 
 The grandeur and majesty of this final judgment as here de- 
 picted are unrivaled. "A great while throne" — white being sig- 
 nificant of purity and righteousness. No farther attempt is made 
 to describe the iace of him that sat upon it save to say that before 
 its sublime presence, the earth and heaven fled aivay as if they 
 could not bear it ! They fled, but found no place to hide ! _ Shall 
 we say — They sink into annihilation before his dread majesty ? 
 
 Then I saw the dead, small and great, young and old, of all 
 
 time — stand before the throne [so the best authorities give the text, 
 instead of -before God]; — "and the books were opened" — follow- 
 ing the human conception of books of record in w4iich the deeds 
 of every human life have been registered against this dread day 
 
 of final account! One special book is there and is opened — 
 
 "the book of life" — showing that the righteous, all redeemed souls 
 [shall we say also unsinning infants?] have their names. And all 
 the dead — the long succession of human generations since the 
 world began, are judged out of those books of record, each and all 
 
EEVELATION,— CHAP. XXI. 229 
 
 according ts their works. Such also is the view given of the final 
 jiulgmcnt in various other scriptures; and such a transaction ia 
 manifestly demanded for the purpose of revealing to all the in- 
 telligent minds of the universe the righteousness of God's final 
 decisions upon human destiny. It naturally precedes the last 
 award of endless blessedness to the righteous; of equally endless 
 woe to the wicked. !So Christ has taught us, Mat. 25 : 31-46. 
 
 13. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and 
 death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them : 
 and they were judged every man according to their works. 
 
 14. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. 
 This is the second death. 
 
 15. And whosoever was not found written in the book 
 of life was cast into the lake of fire. 
 
 The question, Whence came these "dead?" is here answered. 
 The sea gives up the myriads who fouud their graves there. In 
 the terms, "Death" and " Hell" [Thanatos and Hades], we seem 
 to have the King of the under-world [Thanatos] and his dominions 
 [ Hades] where the dead have been received and kept, and whence 
 their bodies come up in this great resurrection day. It is re- 
 markable that the " sea" should be thought of as holding a part 
 
 of the dead, and the graves on land as having another part. 
 
 In V. 14 the sense seems to be that Death and Hell, personified, 
 are destroyed. Having fulfilled their mission, they are no more. 
 "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death" (1 Cor. 15: 
 
 20). The Sinaitic and Alexandrine manuscripts with which the 
 
 best modern editors concur, add to this v. 14 the words, " the lake 
 
 of fire." V. 15 shows that the whole race falls into two classes 
 
 only; those who are written in the book of life, and those who are 
 not. All the latter are cast into the lake of fire. The destiny of 
 the former is not specially spoken of here, but is given in full in 
 the two remaining chapters. 
 
 o>*4o 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 This chapter and vs. 1-5 of the next bring before us the closing 
 scenes in the magnificent panorama of the Apocalypse. 'I'he main 
 question of interpretation here is whether this is truly the heavenly, 
 post-resurrection state. Does this state follow the final judgment 
 as brought before us in vs. 11-15 of the previous chapter? I am 
 compelled to take the affirmative by the following considerations. 
 (1.) The consecutive order of the visions naturally demands 
 
230 REVELATION.— CHAP. XXI. 
 
 it. We have had the Millennium ; then the last rallying of Sp^tan's 
 hosts and their destruction; then the " great white throne" of final 
 judgment with the resurrection of all the dead immediately pre- 
 ceding and the wicked sent to their eternal destiny following: — so 
 that now it only remains to unfold much more in detail the eternal 
 home and state of the righteous. That this should be given much 
 more fully than the corresponding doom of the wicked is legiti- 
 mately in harmony with the moral purpose of the whole book. 
 There is every reason to assume that this is precisely the order 
 of succession in these stupendous events which close up the moral 
 history of our race as related to this earthly life and its corre- 
 sponding future. (2.) The first verse alludes definitely to the 
 
 passing away of the first heaven and the first earth and indicates 
 that these new scenes come upon the great stage of action subse- 
 quently, i. e„ after the old earth and heavens are gone. No 
 rational sense can be given to this language save by assuming 
 that we are now borne onward to the state beyond the resurrec- 
 tion and the final judgment. The very intent of this clause — 
 "for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away" — 
 must have been to locate these new scenes beyond and subsequent 
 
 to those before described. (o.) All the features of this new state 
 
 as here given represent it as the consummation of final retribution 
 for all the moral good and moral evil of our present world. The 
 righteous are shown in their eternal reward ; the wicked in theirs. 
 
 (4.) No objection lies against this view of the passage on the 
 
 ground that the symbols and imagery are boiTowcd from things 
 earthly — lai'gely from Old Testament descriptions of the gospel 
 age of the world — in general, from Jewish conceptions of the holy 
 city as the dwelling.-place of Israel's God. If any thing positive is 
 to be said of the ultimate heavenly world it must by the laws of 
 the sternest necessity be put in symbolic language, and these 
 symbols must be drawn from things with which we are familiar. 
 Otherwise all possible illustration is precluded. All positive con- 
 ceptions of heaven must be built upon our actual conceptions of 
 things earthly. Suppose an effort to evade this necessity. For 
 example, suppose that the words used are in the dialect of heaven 
 and not the dialect of earth ; the figures and symbols used for 
 illustration are borrowed from the scenery of the planet Saturn 
 and from the great facts in the history of that planet. How 
 
 much wiser should any of us be for such a revelation ? 1 
 
 have said, " all positive conceptions of heaven," for my argument 
 does not look specially to those negative conceptions of the 
 heavenly state which the Scriptures readily give us. It is easy 
 to say of heaven — "No night there;" no tears there; no sorrow 
 there ; no sin there ; nothing whatsoever that worketh abomination 
 or maketh a lie; "no more sea," etc. Such negations of the ills 
 of our present state come home at once to our souls, impressed by 
 our bitter experience of life's conflicts and woes, of its griefs and 
 tears ; and we feel that by these points of the description, we have 
 
REVELATION.-CIIAP. XXI. 231 
 
 learned something definite about heaven. And we have. But 
 heaven is more than a system of negations. It is more than earth 
 with these ills of earth taken out. Hence we naturally long to 
 know something beyond these negative points. The symbolism of 
 this chapter is an efibrt to teach us something more — an effort 
 which by the demands of a stringent necessity seeks to build up 
 a positive heaven upon the illustrations afforded us in the scriptural 
 views of the earthly Zion. The point of my argument here is that 
 this resort to the earthly Zion for symbols and illustrations with 
 which to lift our thought to the heavenly world ought not to 
 j)rojudice or in any Avay damage our doctrine that these scenes do 
 
 set forth the real heaven that lies beyond the final judgment. 
 
 The thoughtful reader will notice that this argument has become 
 incidentally (and I may say unintentionally) an exegesis of the 
 chapter, giving in the main the clew to its just interpretation. 
 
 1. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the 
 firf^t heaven and the first earth were passed away ; and there 
 was no more sea. 
 
 The "heavens" here spoken of, both the "first" Avhich passed 
 away and the "new" which comes into its place, should obviously 
 be interpreted of the lower, the visible heavens, and not of the 
 higher one, the glory of which is the central throne of the Infinite 
 God. There is no reason for supposing that this higher heaven 
 "fled away" before the presence of him who sat on the great 
 white throne of judgment (20: 11). The lower and mundane 
 
 heaven and this only can be thought of in these passages. The 
 
 phrase — " new heaven and new earth" — comes by imitation or al- 
 lusion from Isa. 51 : 16, and 65 : 17-25, and 66 : 22. There they 
 represent the beneficent moral changes wrought in our world by 
 the gospel, with special reference to the gospel millennial age, as 
 the reader will see by careful attcnticm to those passages in their 
 connection. See my Notes upon them. But here these terms arc 
 transferred to the new order of things and to the new Avorlds that 
 spring into being or order after the final judgment. This new 
 heaven and new earth bear a sense compared with that in Isaiah, 
 higher by far, yet analogous. 1 see no necessity for holding the 
 words to precisely the same ideas, i. e., to represent here the 
 
 millennial rather than the post-resurrection state. " No more 
 
 sea." Jn some of its aspects the sea symbolizes things sublime, 
 vast, and grand ; but in the more common Hebrew usage, what- 
 ever is agitated, changeful, full of unrest, with often a strong 
 moral shading of the guilty rebellion and unrest of sin. Recur- 
 ring to the symbolism of this book, we may well notice that the 
 seven-headed, ten-horned beast (13: 1) "rose up out of the sea." 
 Hence the passage before us suggests the gratel'ul assurance that 
 in this new heavenly state there shall be no more such sea — the 
 
 liouie of dragons and of savage terrible beasts. farther back, 
 
 in the visions shown to Daniel (7 : 2, o) " the four winds of heaven 
 
232 EEVELATION— CIIAr. ^XL 
 
 strove upon the great sea, and four great beasts came up from the 
 son," etc.; and in yet more ancient times the sea was a symbol 
 of ungoverned self-will, recklessly working ruin and demanding to 
 be fii-mly curbed in; for Job (7 : 12) asks — "Am I a sea or a 
 whale that thou settest a watch over me?" Isaiah (51: 20) 
 makes fit and forcible use of this symbol: "The wicked are like 
 tlie troubled sea when it can not rest, whose waters cast up mire 
 and dirt;" and Luke (21: 25) draws a vivid picture of the dis- 
 tress of guilty nations, trembling under the impending judgments 
 of the Almighty, in the words — "the sea and tlie waves roaring." 
 With these symbols before us we may readily understand why in 
 this new heaven and earth " there shall be no more sea." 
 
 2. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming 
 down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned 
 for her husband. 
 
 This grand conception — a vast city let down from the highest 
 heaven — should be thought of as ideal rather than actual — a thing 
 of symbol rather than of reality. Jerusalem — a name dear above 
 all other names to the ancient saints — dear because it was the 
 city where God dwelt with his people and where all the hallowed 
 associations of his presence and worship clustered together, be- 
 came the fitting symbol for the new heavenly state. Remark- 
 ably it appears here in forms of perfect beauty ; even as the bride 
 adorned for her husband in the holy scenes of marriage. This 
 comparison appears again (vs. 9, 10) — the city in its virgin attire, 
 arrayed for that one hour most eventful of her life, where taste, 
 adornment, and beauty are more in place than ever elsewhere. 
 The reader will notice that this conception is essentially the same 
 wliich we have in the l^ong of Solomon and which appears in 
 various forms"throughout the Old Testam.ent prophets and the New 
 Testament writers — the church washed from her sins, clothed in 
 white, her loving heart given in virgin simplicity and purity to 
 her glorious Husband, her Jesus — at once both Lover, Lord, and 
 King. This symbol fitly gives us the grand consummation of the 
 heavenly state. What could present it more beautifully or more 
 
 appropriately? In this verse the most anuient manuscripts omit 
 
 the word "John." 
 
 3. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying. Be- 
 hold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell 
 with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself 
 ehall be with them, and he their God. 
 
 4. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes ; 
 and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor cry- 
 ing, neither shall there be any more pain : for the former 
 things are passed away. 
 
 Of course the figure, "tabernacle of Clod," comes from Jewish 
 history — the holy tent in which Ood dwelt among men in his vis- 
 
EEVELATION.— CHAP. XXI. 233 
 
 iljle glory. Here it witnesses to us that the glory and blessedness 
 of the future heavenly world are in the manifestations of (Jod's 
 presence with his people. Nearer to them than ever before, man- 
 ifesting his presence and his love in modes and forms which our 
 loAV earthly thought can by no means reach, he does however 
 show that the chief element which makes that state a pure and 
 perfect heaven is precisely this — that (jod is so perfectly wilh his 
 people, so truly and gloriously (heir God. And such a God ! Ho 
 great, so good, so kind to them, so glorious in every manifestation I 
 VVhat is said here is remarkably personal in its bearings upon his 
 people — " shall wipe away every tear ; " shall cause that there be 
 no more death or pain ; — all those " former things" that made this 
 
 lower world so full of trial and sadness, passed lorever away ! 
 
 lu the lirst clause of v. 3 the better reading gives us "out of the 
 throne" instead of "out of heaven." In sense this correction 
 makes the idea more specific. The voice comes not merely fnmi 
 lieaven in general, but from its infinite throne, i. e., from the very 
 lips of him who sat thereon. 
 
 5. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, 1 
 make all things new. And he said uuto ine, Write : for 
 these words are true and faithful. 
 
 Probation and mortality impressed themselves upon the former 
 world and shaped every feature of the divine administration — 
 every element in the character of the state itself. In this new 
 world probation gives place to retribution and "this mortal puts, 
 on immortality." Therefore naturally all things become new. 
 
 Will it not be a wondrous change ? Pausing in the process of 
 
 the vision as if to impress more deeply this great fact of a mo- 
 mentous change from this state to that, he said to the revelator, 
 AV^rite; for here are great truths; "these words are faithful and 
 
 true ; " most reliable and full of thrilling significance. The 
 
 improved reading gives the last two words in this order — " faithful 
 and true." 
 
 6. And he said unto mc, It is done. I am Alpha and 
 Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him 
 that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. 
 
 This emphatic, "It is done!" appears (16: 17) as spoken by a. 
 great voice from the temple of heaven when the seventh angel 
 sounded and great IJabylon fell ! Its essential thought is consum- 
 vuition — the finishing of the grand drama of earth, the rounding 
 
 up to completion of the great scheme of human salvation. In 
 
 tlie middle and last clauses of the verse the relation of the ideas 
 is signally beautiful. 1 am the Great Author and the Great Fin- 
 isiier of thig scheme of salvation; and the central feature of the 
 whole scheme is this — The water of life free to every thirsty soul ! 
 To all who wiU be blessed, blessings beyond measure rich a:sd 
 glorious ! 
 
234 REVELATION.— CHAP. XXI. 
 
 7. He that overcomcth shall inherit all tilings ; aiid I 
 will be his God, and he shall be my sou. 
 
 The reading wliicli stands in the English margin is now gen- 
 erally accepted on the credit of the best manuscripts; not "all 
 
 things " but tJiese things — the things now under consideration. 
 
 The last clause is expressive beyond all other language possible : 
 "I will be a God to him; he shall be a son to me." What could 
 creature ask more or better of his glorious Creator ? 
 
 8. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, 
 and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idol- 
 aters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which 
 burneth with fire and brimstone : which is the second death. 
 
 The blessedness of such sonship is shown yet more forcibly in 
 its contrast with the doom of the ungodly ; therefore once and 
 once only in this chapter our minds are directed to the case of 
 those who would not have the waters of life and vjould 7iot be the 
 dutiful sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty.^ The specifi- 
 cations here come naturally from the types of wickedness then 
 most common and patent in the circumstances of the times. The 
 " fearful " who shrink before the dangers of persecution and deny 
 their Lord; the "unbelieving" who had no faith in God or in his 
 word; the "abominable" whose vices had made them loathsome 
 to God and to all the good ; " murderers," probably with allusion to 
 the persecutors of the saints ; " whoremongers," under the moral pol- 
 lutions incident to idol worship and an idolatrous age; " sorcerers," 
 playing into the devil's hands and doing his work; "idolaters," 
 disowning the true God, and setting up false gods; and "all liars," 
 co-operating with the liither of lies in deceiving men away from 
 the true God, into all wickedness ; — these and such as these, loving 
 sin and pollution and committing themselves to utter rebellion 
 against the true God — shall have their part in the lake of fire — 
 the second death. 
 
 9. And there came unto me one of the seven angels 
 which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, 
 and talked Avith me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee 
 the bride, the Lamb's wife. 
 
 From this point one of the chief revealing angels proceeds to 
 
 give a more minute and full view of the new and glorious city. 
 
 It will be noticed that this bride, the Lamb's wife, is identically 
 the great city, svmbolic of the future heavenly state. See note on 
 V. 2. 
 
 10. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and 
 high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy 
 Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, 
 
REVELATION.- CHAr. XXT. 235 
 
 11. Having tlie glory of God : and her light ivas like 
 nnto a stone most ])recious, even like a jasper stone, clear 
 as crystal ; 
 
 12. And had a wall great and high, and had twelve 
 gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written 
 thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the 
 chiklren of Israel : 
 
 lo. On the east three gates ; on the north three gates ; 
 on the south three gates ; and on the west three gates. 
 
 14. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, 
 and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. 
 
 The best authorities for tlic text cive, instead of " that great city, 
 the holy Jerusalem," only this — "The holy city Jerusalem." Jn 
 V. 14 the word "twelve" is added before "names," thus; "and 
 in them the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb." 
 
 Of this "great and h\ii}i mountain," it were inept to ask 
 
 where it stood, as if we were forgetting that this is vision and not 
 reality. It would be of little avail also to inquire where the "lioly 
 city" rested and had its location after it came down out of heaven. 
 It is well for us that God has made no attempt to teach us celestial 
 geography to the extent of locating the future heaven. Better far 
 that he should teach us (as he does) what heaven is ; what makes 
 
 its blessedness; and who shall have welcome entrance there. 
 
 The first descriptive point is comprehensive and expressive — 
 " having the glory of God." The manifestations of his presence 
 constitute both its visible splendor and its essential blessedness to 
 
 his people. "And her light" ["phoster"] "was like a most 
 
 precious stone." This word "light" can not be the slate opposed 
 to darkness ; nor has it precisely the sense of luster, eifulgence, 
 as one might suppose fi-oui its being compared with a precious 
 stone; but (as the Greek word demands) it has the sense of 
 luminary, of the source of heaven's light — its sun. This flamed 
 and shone like a jasper stone, all refulgent and most beautiful. 
 
 That the twelve tribes of Israel figure so prominently in this 
 
 description docs honor to the place they filled in the ancient 
 church. So of the twelve names of the twelve apostles. Their 
 labors helped to lay the foundations of the Christian church amid 
 immense labors and sufferings. 
 
 15. And he that talked with me had a golden reed to 
 measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall 
 thereof. 
 
 10. And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as 
 large as the breadth : and he measured the city with the 
 reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth 
 and the height of it are equal. 
 
236 REVELATION —CHAP. XXI. 
 
 17. And he measured the wall thereof, a hundred and 
 forty mid four cubits, according to the measure of a man, 
 that is, of the angel. 
 
 In V. 15 the best textual authorities add the Arords "for a 
 
 measure," thus : " had for a measure a golden reed," etc. The 
 
 passage imitates Ezek. 40: 1, and also Zech. 2: 1. The same 
 thing appeared Rev. 11 : 1. The process of measuring it before 
 the eyes of John would give him a more impressive sense of it8 
 
 vastness and glory, The perfect symmetry is a special point. 
 
 Remarkably the height of its walls is the same as their length and 
 their breadth. This gives the impression not only of perfect sym- 
 metry but of unsurpassed magnilicence — the obvious purpose of 
 this representation. 
 
 18. And the buildhig of the wall of it was of jasper : and 
 the city rvas pure gold, like unto clear glass. 
 
 19. And the foundations of the wall of the city were 
 garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first 
 foundation xvas jasper ; the second, sa^iphire ; the third, a 
 chalcedony ; the fourth, an emerald ; 
 
 20. The fifth, sardonyx ; the sixth, sardius ; the seventli, 
 chrysolite ; the eighth, beryl ; the ninth, a topaz ; the tenth, 
 a chrysoprasus ; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an 
 amethyst. 
 
 21. And the twelve gates xoere twelve pearls ; every sev- 
 eral gate was of one pearl : and the street of the city was 
 pure gold, as it were transparent glass. 
 
 All the resources of things splendid, beautiful, rare and costly, 
 seem to be drawn upon and exhausted in this description of the 
 heavenly city. As in the building age of Solomon, silver was of 
 small account and gold was every-where, so here the city was pure 
 
 gold and even the streets of the city. This word " streets " 
 
 means however not merely the traveled roads, but the broad 
 places — the public squares and grounds not covered with build- 
 ings. Of the reality which corresponds with this wealth of 
 
 imagery, what can we know as yet? In general Ave are taught 
 that Jesus whose are the wealth and the glory of the universe 
 will spare no cost in fitting up the mansions of heaven for his 
 eternal abode with his redeemed people. 
 
 22. And I saw no temple therein : for the Lord God 
 Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. 
 
 2-3. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the 
 moon, to shine in it : for the glory of God did lighten it, 
 and the Ijanib is the light thereof. 
 
REVELATION.— CHAP. XXI. 237 
 
 Tliat no temple is there shows that it rises hij;;h above the 
 eartlily Jerusalem in which the temple was the pre-eminent f^lory. 
 *l'liat it needs not the sun or the moon for its light testifies in like 
 manner that its glor}"- far transcends the glory of earth. It is 
 every thing to that. world that God and the Lamb are there! — are 
 tliere in such revelations of their glory and in such relations to 
 their redeemed sons and daughters as language and symbols strive 
 in vain to set forth. 
 
 24. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk 
 in the light of it : and the kiug.s of the earth do bring their 
 glory and honor into it. 
 
 25. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: 
 for there shall be no night there. 
 
 26. And they shall bring the glory and honor of the 
 nations into it. 
 
 'The more approved reading of the text omits — "of them which 
 are saved," giving us only — " The nations shall walk in the light 
 of it " — in language imitating the prophetic portrayal of millennial 
 times, e. g., Isa. 2: 3, "JMany people [nations] shall go and say, 
 Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord," .... "we will 
 walk in his paths," etc. That " the kings of the earth do bring 
 their glory and honor into it" imitates the thought of Isa. 60: 11. 
 " Thy gates shall be open continually that men may bring unto 
 
 thee the wealth of the Gentiles," etc. The shutting of city gates 
 
 by night signiGcs more or less of danger — the possibility of a night 
 assault or of some undesirable intruder. But here we have mag- 
 nilicent gates, yet no danger — no need of their being even shut! 
 " No night tliere ! " 
 
 27. And there shall in nowise cuter into it any thing 
 that defileth, neither ichatsoevcr worketh abomination, or 
 makeili a lie : l)ut they ■which are written in the Lamb's 
 book of life. 
 
 The better authorities for the text give ns, instead of " defileth " 
 [koinounj the word for common [koinon] in the sense of vnclean. 
 The meaning of the passage is not materially afi"ected by the 
 change. No impure thing is there. The men of impure heart 
 and life have no place in that city. Only the ransomed, only 
 those whose religion has made them personally holy, heartily true 
 to God, wholly his by loving and absolute consecration, submis- 
 sion, trust, worship — such only are there. On no other point are 
 these revelations of the great eternal future more positive and de- 
 cisive than in this — the stringent separation of all human souls 
 into two great comprehensive classes according to character, and 
 tlie gathering of all the pure and holy into the one place, the 
 heavenly city ; but all the impure and unsanctilied into the lake 
 of fire. 
 
238 KEVELATION.— CHAP. XXII. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 1. 
 
 The first five verses close the description of the New Jerusalem. 
 According to all principles of propriety they should have been in- 
 cluded in chap. 21. The remainder of this chapter pertains to 
 
 the conclusion of the whole book. 
 
 1. And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear 
 as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the 
 Lamb. 
 
 2. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of 
 the river, ivas there the tree of life, which hare twelve man- 
 ner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month : and the 
 leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 
 
 The best manuscripts omit the word " pure " before " river." 
 
 This river imitates that of Ezek. 47: 1-12. The latter however 
 comes forth from under the temple and really I'epresents gospel 
 blessings in the great millennial age, while this comes out fi'om 
 under the throne of God and the Lamb, representing in a corre- 
 sponding manner the blessedness of the eternal heaven. While 
 
 in this New Jerusalem there is no more "sea" — that being a 
 symbol of whatever is agitating, uncertain, tempestuous; there is a 
 rivei; a precious oriental symbol of blessings forever flowing, nat- 
 urally insui-ing perennial verdure, trees and shade unfailing, and 
 exemption from thirst and barrenness — the sore evils of oriental 
 
 tropical regions. This tree of life and its various fruits come 
 
 also from Ezek. 47 (see v. 12) where obviously we have the plural, 
 " trees." iSo also here, there must be trees and not merely one 
 ti-ee, for if only one, how could it be on both sides of the river ? 
 'i'he writer speaks of the tree of life there just as we would say of 
 any given district — The palm-tree is there, or the pine, or the 
 cedar — meaning that this variety of tree abounds there. The 
 meaning seems to be that these trees lined either bank of the 
 river between it and the streets which also ran parallel on each 
 
 side — a scene of superlative beauty. This " tree of life " as well 
 
 as that of Ezekiel have their prototype in the primitive garden. 
 
 3. And there shall be no more curse : but the throne of 
 God and of the Lamb shall be in it ; and his servants 
 shall serve him : 
 
 4. And they shall see his face ; and his name shall be 
 in their foreheads. 
 
 5. And there shall be no night there ; and they need no 
 candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God givpth 
 them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever. 
 
EEVELATION.— CHAP. XXII. 239 
 
 "No more curse" appears in its thought in Zech. 14: 11; our 
 received version beintr, " no more utter destruction." Tlie sense 
 is — Xo more visitations of divine disjdeasure; nothing that brings 
 
 cahimity or any physical evil. Tlie fact that God and the 
 
 Lamb are thei"e has been repeatedly implied; that their throne is 
 there is the new point made here, heightening the glory of this 
 heavenly world since it shows that this is no secondary heaven, 
 fitted up as some have supposed in the new earth, i. e., in thii 
 world regenerated by fire, while the heaven of God's throne is still 
 elsewhere and indefinitely higher and more glorious. Utterly un- 
 like that system of things, this description, associates the redeemed 
 most closely and intimately, even in tlie locality of their residence, 
 
 with the throne itself of God and of the Lamb. " His [the 
 
 Ijamb's] servants shall serve him" — precisely how and in what 
 sort of service is not said. 'J'hat he has work for them to do in 
 the great scheme of the last all-comprehensive economy of the 
 universe, there can be no rational doubt. Is it not hinted at in 
 the expressive words, "Ye are my witnesses ?" If the "angels 
 desire to look into these things" (of redemption) even now, may 
 not tlie same angels desire to learn yet more; and the new-born 
 angelic beings whom God may create in the ages to come — why 
 should not they have something to learn which none in the created 
 universe know so well as the redeemed themselves ? A range of 
 possible, nay probable, service opening in this line so widely and 
 80 gloriously, tempts me to follow it out and say — The gospel 
 scheme has made stupendous and transcendent manifestations of 
 (iod, both in the line of his mercy and of his justice ; that these 
 manifestations have in them a glorious moral power of priceless 
 value for all the created minds of the universe — a power which 
 the universe can not afford to lose — a power which the throne 
 and moral government of God (speaking reverently) can not afford 
 to lose or to let pass into forgetfulness, or in any way fall short 
 of their utmost possible efficiency upon the universe of intelligent 
 minds. Hence a demand upon his redeemed servants for service, 
 long as the ages roll on — wide as the universe of intelligent beings. 
 Who knows but this service — witnessing to such facts concerning 
 God and the Lamb as they have in their rich experience, may be 
 not only a joy but a positive moral power unto fresh love and 
 adoration; a positive invigoration to their obedient life; a posi- 
 tive safeguard against ever falling before temptation's power — to 
 the myriads whom God will duly create to people the j-et empty 
 worlds hung out in our sky and the yet unborn worlds which his 
 creative hand may bring into being when the moral appliances 
 are in readiness to make their existence a sure as well as a price- 
 less blessing? For myself 1 can not regard these sujipositions as 
 either idle or irrational speculations. It would be easy to adduce 
 many things from the Scriptures and, most of all, frojji the words 
 of Jesus himself that bear strongly in support of these general 
 views of the future responsibilities and services of those who have 
 
240 REVELATION.— CHAP. XXI I. 
 
 been " faithful over a few things " here. That the redeemed have 
 service to render in behalf of their glorious Lord is one of the 
 best tilings revealed of heaven. How could they endure a state 
 in which they could do nothing to puqjose to express their love 
 and their gratitude to llim to whom they owe so much ! As here 
 this love and gratitude are best expressed by service which blesses 
 others, which brings other souls to Jesus' feet; so there some 
 form of service which goes out benevolently to bless others accord- 
 ing to the well known heai't of the loving Master, must be the 
 perfection of the heavenly life. Let us thank his name before- 
 hand for the pi'ospect thereof! "And they shall see bis face." 
 
 This indicates the most intimate and perfect knowledge — the most 
 precious intimacy. They are not dwelling in the remote distance, 
 too far away to see his loving eye, or to hear his inspiring voice, 
 or to feel the very breath of his love; but they " see his face " as 
 we see the face of a dear friend and find therein the fullest man- 
 ifestations of love and sympathy possible in our present existence. 
 Of course this symbol comes from our earthly experience. How 
 can we expect this thought to be expressed otherwise ? Essen- 
 tially the same sentiment appears in John's first epistle (3:2): 
 " We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." This 
 gives us both the precious fact, and the most blessed moral result 
 
 thereof in our heavenly culture. "His name shall be in their 
 
 foreheads" — the perpetual testimony that they are his. This refers 
 tacitly to the case of the wicked persecutors who bore " the mark 
 
 of the beast" in their foreheads and in their hands. "They 
 
 vshall reign forever and ever" — as to which see my notes on 20: 4. 
 
 6. And he said unto mo, These sayings are faithful and 
 true : and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel 
 to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be 
 done. 
 
 7. Behold, I come quickly : blessed is he that keepeth 
 the sayings of the prophecy of this book. 
 
 Remarkably this book closes, repeating many of the same points 
 which appear in the introduction. The older and better manu- 
 scripts give us, instead of " The Lord God of the holy prophets," 
 this: "The Lord God of the spirits of the prophets," i. e., he who 
 controlled their prophetic communications ; who gave them their 
 messages as he now sent them by his angels. That God sent 
 these messages, that he sent them by his angel, that they pre- 
 dicted events soon to transpire, wore points that appear promi- 
 nently in the introduction of tlie book. So too is the promise of 
 blessings to those who keep, i. e., who remember, study and live 
 upon the things herein said. The book had a definite and pre- 
 cious moraUpurpose, as I have often had occasion to repeat. 
 
 "Behold, I come quickly" — to visit these threatened judgments 
 upon Jerusalem and upon Rome — to make the revelations of my 
 
REVELATION.— CHAP. XXII. 2-il 
 
 justice and of my power which are vital to the propor setting up 
 of my kingdom among men. (isee notes on 1 : 7, and 3 : II.) 
 
 8. And I John saw these tilings, and heard them. And 
 when I had heard and seen, I fell down to ^Yorship before 
 the feet of the angel which shewed me these things. 
 
 9. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not : for I an) 
 thy fcllow-.serYant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and 
 of them which keep the sayings of this book : worship 
 God. 
 
 The original makes the first clause somewliat emphatic, thus : 
 "It was 1 John who was hearing and seeing these things;" or 
 
 tlius: " I John was the one who was hearing and seeing," etc. 
 
 Jn regard to this ollered worship and the reply of the angel, see 
 1!) : 10 and notes there. It should be specially noted that the 
 tjreck does not say or necessarily imply that tliis revealing angel 
 represents himself as one of the prophets. What the Greek says 
 is precisely this: "1 am a fellow-servant of tliyself and of thy 
 brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this 
 book." 1 am only a servant — not, as you may have supposed, the 
 very Master himself. I am doing a work common to the angels 
 and to the prophets, viz., the revealing of future events from the 
 CJreat God of the prophets. On the question wliether this re- 
 vealing angel was the spirit of one of the old prophets, or (»ne of 
 those beings known in the scriptures as angels — "ministering 
 spirits, sent forth to minister to the heirs of salvation" (lleb. 1 : 
 14) — the utmost that can be said on this passage is that this lan- 
 guage admits (perhaps equally well) either construction; but the 
 analogy of the whole book goes solid for the opinion that this is 
 one of the sinless angels. The term "angel" is used in this book 
 outside of this passage scores of times — always in this special 
 sense, a supra-mundane being, and never in any other. 
 
 10. And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the 
 prophecy of this book : for the time is at hand. 
 
 Seal not these things — /. c, for fatui'c generations only to read ; 
 do not lay them over in safe keeping for the ages to come as words 
 of no particular account to the men of your own times; for tlicir 
 fubtllment is close at hand. The vital and personal interest of 
 these words is for the churches of Asia, now under the fires of per- 
 secution. Let them know that God hears their cries and sees their 
 tears, and is almost ready to avenge their blood upon their guilty 
 
 persecutors. The injunction not to seal is a tacit allusion to tlie 
 
 opposite direction given to Daniel (Dan. 8: 26, and 12:4, 9), the 
 words of whose prophecy referred to events onward into the timea 
 of the Syrian wars in the age of the Maccabees, some three hun- 
 dred and sixty years distant. But the things foretold through 
 11 
 
242 EEVELATION— CHAP. XXII. 
 
 John were not remote compared with those spoken through Dan- 
 iel and measured by that standard, but were near at hand — a fact 
 which pci-emptorily sets aside all those systems of interpretation 
 which spread the staple events of John's prophecies over the whole 
 range of the Christian age down to the Millennium. 
 
 11. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he 
 which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is right- 
 eous, let him be righteous stiU : and he that is holy, let him 
 be holy still. 
 
 12. And, behold, I come quickly ; and my reward is 
 with me, to give every man according as his work shall 
 be. 
 
 The closest rendering of v. 11 which the genius of our language 
 allows will be of this sort: "Let the unjust doer still act unjustly; 
 lot the filthy live filthily still ; let the righteous man still practice 
 righteousness, and the holy still live holily." The words are here 
 at all because the author thinks of the moral effects, possible or 
 actual, of the revelations he has made upon the men Avhose des- 
 tiny they reveal. If the wicked persecutors and the filthy idola- 
 ters still repel every warning and persist in their iniquity, let them 
 go on — to their destruction. !So also let the righteous hold on 
 steadfastly in their righteousness despite of persecution unto blood; 
 for the relribution of both parties is close at hand. " I come quickly," 
 1 bring my reward for both friend and foe — " to every man as his 
 
 work shall be." Perhaps the passage has a shade of bearing 
 
 of this sort: — Although the wicked should persist in their perse- 
 cutions and abominations despite of these fearful warnings, yet 
 let not the righteous be dismayed or be tempted to apostasy, but 
 let them still abide in their integrity and wait for the hour of 
 swift retribution — so near at hand ! The passage has been sup- 
 posed by some to teach that death fixes the character and there- 
 fore the destiny of all men, bad or good, unchangeably. All I 
 feel authorized to say as to the bearing of our passage upon this 
 doctrine is that it seems to assume that the wicked men here 
 thought of (the persecutors and idolaters who figure prominently 
 in this book) Avill persist in their iniquity and therefore will meet 
 their just doom. But the precise point asserted and the argument 
 made must be construed as above — the demands of the context re- 
 quiring this construction. The "coming" contemplated in v. 
 
 12 is manifestly the retribution predicted in this book upon cor- 
 rupt Judaism and idolatrous Paganism — both of which at the date 
 of this book were historically near. 
 
 13. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, 
 the first and the last. 
 
 The most reliable manuscripts reverse the order of the last two 
 clauses, reading thus : — " The first and the last ; the beginning 
 
KEVELATION.— CIIAr. XXII. * 243 
 
 and the end" — a cliana;e which does not essentially aflFect the 
 Bense. The sentiment of these woi'ds becomes specially em- 
 phatic by their relation in these closing; para^craphs. The Great 
 ^Iessiah, Creator of all worlds, the Author and Finisher of hu- 
 man salvation, seems to rise before us in the majesty of his being 
 and of his glorious works to utter these last words of promise, de- 
 nunciation and warning. 
 
 14. Blessed are they that do his commandment?, that 
 they may have right to the tree of life, aud may euter in 
 through the gates into the city. 
 
 15. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whore- 
 mongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever 
 loveth and maketh a lie. 
 
 Remarkably the Sinaitic and Alexandrine manuscripts give us, 
 "washed their robes," instead of "do his commandments." 
 "l?lessed are they who have washed their robes," etc., Avith prob- 
 able allusion to 7 : 14: "have washed their robes and made them 
 white in the blood of the Lamb;" and to 1 : 5: "Unto him that 
 loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood." It is 
 not easy to account for such diversity in the manuscripts. The 
 transcriber may have had in mind other kindred passages, and 
 may have written from the thought in his mind rather than from 
 the copy before him. In this case either reading is germain to 
 
 the context and true to fact. All such have right to the tree 
 
 of life from which sinners, as Adam and Eve in Paradise, are ex- 
 cluded. Without the city, howling like the undomesticated dogs 
 
 around oriental cities, are men lost to virtue, useless to their race, 
 accursed of God and of all the good; "sorcerers" — always de- 
 nounced in the Scriptures; "whoremongers" — all the sensual, 
 
 corrupt, debased, etc. See a similar catalogue of the various 
 
 classes of the wicked, in 21 : 8, and the notes there. The doctrine 
 of the passage is that broad and evermore true one — None are shut 
 out from heaven save those who are xnijit to enter; none sent down 
 to hell save those whose spirit is of hell, whose hearts are base, 
 who have made themselves only the more selfish aud hardened 
 under all the influences of this world of mercy. 
 
 16. I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you 
 these things in the churches. I am the root and the off- 
 spring of David, and the bright and morning star. 
 
 The precise sentiment with which the book opens reappears 
 
 here near its close: "I Jesus have sent mine angel," etc. 'the 
 
 " root of David," follows the Hebrew usage of Isa. 11 : 1, and Rom. 
 15: 12 — the root-shoot — a growth from the root, equivalent to 
 "ofl'spring." This identifies the speaker as the very Messiah of 
 aucieut promise; the very Personage whose gospel work and 
 
244 EEVELATION.-CHAP. XXII. 
 
 triumphs stand out so conspicuously in that eleventh chapter of 
 Isaiah from -which the term "root oi' David" came. The desig- 
 nation, '" Morning Star," is specially pertinent in such a connec- 
 tion — the harbinger of glorious day ; the promise and prophecy of 
 light and glory to this Avorld, otherwise all desolate! 
 
 17. And the Spirit and the I)iide say, Conic. And let 
 him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is atliirst 
 come. And whosoever ■will, let him take the ^^•ater of life 
 freely. 
 
 The tone of this verse considered in view of its place amid tlie 
 scenes of this book is wonderfully rich and impressive. Think 
 of the real author's standpoint and of the grand objects that lie 
 within his range and ours. The "river of the water of life" is 
 flowing before the eye ; the joys of the redeemed have come down 
 in their voices of song and alleluias of praise and triumph. Over 
 against these there have been visions of the lost; the smoke of 
 their torment arising forever and ever ; the lake that burneth with 
 lire and brimstone -opening its horrid jaws to engulf for evermore 
 the filthy, the abominable, whoremongers, idolaters ; and not least, 
 we have the grand issue of the great moral conflict of earth — 
 victory for Zion and magnificent success to the gospel in subduing 
 the world to Jesus — all significant of the grand truth that " the 
 seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head," and Satan be 
 not only foiled but infinitely cursed for his antagonism to God and 
 goodness, and all his followers with him. And now all these 
 sublime realities standing embodied before us in speaking sym- 
 bols, the voice of the inditing. Spirit is heard — "Here is salvation 
 for lost men : Come to these waters of life ! " The " bride " — as if 
 conscious of her high, destiny and thrilled with the glory of her 
 marriage union with the Lamb — lifts up her voice and cries, Coine I 
 And that the call may never lack voices to utter it and to send its 
 summons round the globe, let him that heareth say. Come! And 
 lest some sad, consciously guilty, despairing soul should say — 
 "That invitation can not mean me" — it is added. Let him that is 
 athirst, come ! Last of all, to give the call the broadest possible 
 scope, it is proclaimed, " Whosoever will, let him take the water 
 of life freely ! " Provided for all ; offered to all ; welcome to all; — 
 none shall fail but those who rule themselves out — none save those 
 who dash the brimming cup from their own lips ; none but those 
 who hate Jesus and love death ! 
 
 18. For I testify unto every man that heareth the words 
 of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto 
 these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are 
 written in this book: 
 
 19. And if any man shall take away from the words of 
 the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part 
 
REVELATION.-CHAP. XXII. 245 
 
 out of the bdok of life, and out of the holy city, and from 
 the thiugs ■which are written in this book. 
 
 Fitly and most solemnly the book closes -with admonitions against 
 cither adding or takin<r from the things herein written. Let them 
 stand as the very words of God ! Let tlicm stand undiluted, un- 
 impaired, unmodified ; for how should man be wise above («od ! 
 How should he dare to tone down the fearful thrcatcnings of this 
 liook, or shift their application from the sinner of Avhom God has 
 
 sjtoken ? While these visions thus apply in their full force to 
 
 all intentional or careless change in these words either by adding 
 or by subtracting, they liave also a subordinate application to 
 misconstructions and misinterpretations through prejudice or lack 
 of diligent attention to the legitimate principles of prophetic lan- 
 guage. ;Most solemnly sliould all those who preach from this book 
 and all who profess to expound it give heed to these admonitions. 
 May the spirit of truth impress on all his servants a supreme re- 
 gard for the integrity of these words and a solemn and Avholesome 
 fear of changing their significance to make them mean cither 
 
 moi'c or less than what God has said and intended ! The textual 
 
 corrections in these verses, suggested by the best authorities, are 
 not of vital moment. In v. IS, instead of "Add unto these things," 
 read "Add unto them" — i. e., the words above spoken of In v. 
 10, instead of "book of life," they have " tree of life.'' 
 
 20. He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come 
 quickly : Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. 
 
 The best authorities modify the text of this verse so that it reads 
 ill this simple way — "He that testifieth these things saith, Verily 
 I come quickly." [The pro})het answers] " Amen ; come Lord 
 .Icsus." Thus his full heart responds to the Avclcome assiu-ance 
 that the coming of the Lord Jesus iu retribution upon both saint 
 and sinner — the two great parties who appear in antagonism 
 throughout this book — was then near at hand. 
 
 21. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ he with you all. 
 Amen. 
 
 In the best authorities the apostolic benediction takes this sim- 
 ple form: "The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all." Thus 
 
 this peerless book closes. Long have its sublime utterances and 
 its grand predictions thrilled the hearts of men : more and more, 
 as its true significance is more correctly evolved, may it be an 
 cffeotive power toward that great consummation of victory to Zion 
 and her King which its symbols so magnificently foreshow. 
 
DISSERTATION 1 = 
 
 on THE THEORY THAT " DAY, IN rUOrUECY, MEAN'S YEAR. 
 
 Does the vcord "day" in prophecy mean a year? And on the 
 
 Bame prhiciple, must other periods of time, e. g., months and years, 
 be multiplied by three hundred and sixty to ^et the real time in- 
 tended ? This is our question. Technically and in short, this 
 
 is often called the "day-for-a-year-thcory;" but it is supposed to 
 apply not only to the usage of the word lor day, but equally to the 
 vord for month and at least to the word "time," which Daniel 
 uses for a year. So that the broad principle is that prophetic no- 
 tations of time must be multiplied by three hundred and sixty to 
 
 pet the real historic duration. 1 am compelled to discard this 
 
 theory as utterly baseless, false, and of course mischievous and de- 
 lusive; for the following reasons: 1. All reasonable presump- 
 tion is utterly against it. For prophecy comes from God to men in 
 the common language of men. If it did not, it would reveal noth- 
 ing, without a special revelation to explain it — a new revelation to 
 teach the meaning of the new prophetic language. Symbols in 
 prophecy are no exception. For in the statements made respecting 
 these symbols, words are used in their well-known sense. The 
 word "lion" means a lion, and the word "bear" means a bear. 
 When a lion is seen in vision as a symbol, we fall back upon the 
 known qualities of the lion and his known relations to other ani- 
 mals to find the significance of the symbol. But this is in no w.ay 
 peculiar to prophecy. We should do just the same in poetrj'', or in 
 common conversation. So that symljols in prophecy are no excep- 
 tion to the common law that prophecy comes to us in merely hu- 
 man language, using its words in their established and well-known 
 sense. Hence the presumption is entirely against this theory of 
 day for year. If God speaks to men, the presumption is wholly ia 
 fiivor of his using the common language of men in its usual sense. 
 The Hebrews had suitable words Ibr both day and jear, and they 
 n?cd them as correctly as we do ours. If God had occasion to 
 speak to them of time in the future, why should he not use their 
 language as they did? 2. No reason lying in the nature or ob- 
 jects of prophecy aflbrds the least presumption in favor of this 
 
 theory. 'J he only reason which 1 have ever heard of, or seen, 
 
 assigned for this usage of day fur year, is that God meant to make 
 
21^8 DISSERTATION I. 
 
 his statements as to time unintelliiiiljle until tlicir fiilfillnient. That 
 
 is, he meant to lock up this part of the truth and hide tlie key. 
 
 I reply, 1. There is no evidence that God has intended or tried 
 to hide what he seemed to reveal. There is no evidence of his re- 
 sortini; to enigma lest prophecy should be understood too soon. It 
 does not appear that he has been specially careful to hide the point 
 of duration lohile profcasivg to reveal it. When he chooses not to 
 reveal the time of events, he manifestly forbear's to give it; this is? 
 all-sui2cient for that purpose. What would be gained by puttina 
 liis revelations in the Ibrm of a puzzle or riddle? Not to say here 
 that this would seem to be beneath the dignity of the great God, I 
 still press this question ; Why should the Ix)rd thus tantalize his 
 people and mock their desire to undei'stand what he has said in 
 prophecy as to the time of predicted events ? Where the Lord 
 sees fit to say nothing about the time, we bow to his wisdom. 
 Where he has spoken of the time, why may Ave not try to undei-- 
 stand wliat he says ; and further, why should we not assume thrit 
 he laas revealed these notations of time to be studied and understood 
 and not to puzzle and confound the honest inquirer? Yet further: 
 the notion that God meant to put things in such a shape that tho 
 real time should come to light only after the event, and only by 
 means of the event, is utterly without sujiport; for there is no 
 prophecy in that; it foretells nothing about the time; of itself it 
 means nothing; and no good reason can be given why God should 
 in this way profess to communicate prophecy and yet communi- 
 cate nothing! 
 
 2. If this precise plan of day for year had been adopted, a 
 few well-authenticated f\icts would have brought the key to light, 
 and would have effectually frustrated the object of concealment. 
 I'^or, after the key is found, it is a very simple matter to use 
 it. Nothing can be more simple or more certain in its results than 
 a pi-ocess of multiplication in pure mathematics. Multiplying a 
 given period of time by three hundred and sixty is soon done and 
 
 done surely. ^I'he appearance of artifice in this scheme seems 
 
 to me beneath the dignity of the great and holy God. It is alto- 
 gether out of harmony with the rest of the Bible. All else is lucid, 
 lionest, and manifestly said in order to be understood by the docile, 
 
 humble, diligent reader. Nor let it be thought that the case of 
 
 our Lord's speaking to the Jews in parables, and explaining them 
 only to his disciples, refutes my position. For that was judicial — 
 a judgment sent on self-hardened and self-blinded sinners because 
 of their chosen blindness. But this prophetic theory, if true, would 
 ]ie a judgment on good men who love the truth, and who honestly 
 wish to learn all that God has been pleased to reveal. 
 
 3. This theory is entirely without foundation. It has no legiti- 
 mate evidence for its support. It is a castle built in the air. 
 
 There is not a single case of prophetic time, in which the fulfill- 
 ment has verified this principle of multiplying the prophetic time 
 by three hundred and sixty to get the actual time. It is thought 
 there are some events yet future — almost ready to come — ^which 
 
DISSERTATION 1. 210 
 
 will be in point and will prove it to every body's satisfaction; but 
 
 they riave not come yet ! On the contrary there are numerous 
 
 cases of prophetic time already fuUillcd which prove that designa- 
 tions of time in propliecy mean what they say, and are to be taken 
 in their usual sense. These statements should be carefully con- 
 sidered and well supported. Let us have patience to examine in suf- 
 
 ficicntdetail the alleged evidence tliata prophetic day means 3'ear. 
 
 (1.) Appeal is made to Kum. 14: 33,34; " Vour children shall 
 wander in the wilderness forty years. After the number of the 
 days in -which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for 
 
 a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years." Is this a 
 
 case of the word day used for year ? or of the word day used for 
 only one three hundred and sixtieth part of the time really meant? 
 IJy no means. Nothing of the sort. Througliout this passage, the 
 word day means a common day, — nothing more. The word year 
 needs no multiplying by three hundred and sixty to iind the time 
 
 intended. The oi\\j prophecy in this passage — here in the form 
 
 of a denunciation, or threatened punishment — is, "Ye shall wander 
 forty years." But docs this mean, Ye shall wander in the wilder- 
 ness three hundred and sixty times forty years; i. e., fourteen 
 tliousand and four hundred years? Who can believe that? If 
 God had said, " Ye shall wander forty days," and the event had 
 proved that he truly meant forty years, using the Avord day to mean 
 year, the case would have been in point. But he did not say that, 
 
 and no good reason can be assigned why he should have said it. 
 
 Will the reader still ask. Does not the Lord say, "Each day for a 
 
 year?" and is not that precisely what we claim? 1 answer; Those 
 
 are the words he uses, but their meaning is nothing like what you 
 claim, lie means only that the years of their wandering shall 
 correspond to tlie days of their searching the land through their 
 committee, the twelve spies. The one purpose of the Lord in this 
 form of threatening was to make their punishment a perpetual re- 
 minder of their sin — a thing which he often does for the best of 
 moral reasons. All through their weary wanderings, they could 
 say; "Forty days our brethren searched out the land, and brought 
 back that unbelieving report; we heard it, and, indorsing all its 
 unbelief, we practically said, Save us from going there ! The Lord 
 gave us our prayer in judgment, and we have forty years before ua 
 in this dreary wilderness!" This is all. 
 
 {'!.) Another proof text very analagous to the preceding ia Ezek. 
 4 : 4-6. Ezekiel is commanded to lie on his right side forty days 
 and on his left three hundred and ninety days, before all Israel, to 
 indicate that he bears (in symbol) the iniquity of Judah forty 
 years, and of Israel three hundred and ninety. The language is; 
 " For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity according to 
 the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: — So shalt 
 thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. Then lie again on 
 thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iuiquity of Judah forty 
 
 days: — I have appointed thee each day for a year." But observe 
 
 throughout this passage that in every instance the word day is used 
 
250 DISSERTATION I. 
 
 for a common day — never in the sense of year; and the word year 
 means only one year; never three hundred and sixty years. True, 
 the si/mholic act of lyin,i^ on one side forty days denoted that in this 
 Bymbolic, representative manner he bears their forty years of sin- 
 ning; but this extension of time from one day of symbol to one 
 year of sin lies not in any peculiar use of the word "day," for there 
 15 no peculiar use of it here ; but it is in the symbol, and is there 
 
 only by special divine arrangement and statement. If the Lord 
 
 had said "forty days" when he meant forty years, it would be 
 •Bomewhat to the point. But he did not use his words so. There 
 is no proof that he ever did. Certainly this case does not afford 
 the least particle of such proof. 
 
 (3.) Another somewhat analagous passage is 2 Pet. 3:8: "One 
 day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as 
 one day." Unfortiinately if this means any thing to the yjurpose, it 
 means far too much. For if it applies to the case in hand, the 
 word day means, not one year only, but one thousand years ! And 
 then, further, one thousand years mean one day, and our long mil- 
 lennium is cut down wofully I And then it would be impossible to 
 tell which way to work out this problem — whether we must multiply 
 by one thousand or divide by it 1 Who could tell us whether in 
 any given prophecy a day means one thousand years, or a thousand 
 
 years means one day? Happily that little word "aa" relieves 
 
 us of all our perplexities, showing that the passage has nothing to 
 do with this theory that God says day when he means year. 
 
 (4.) Much the most important passage ever thought of as proof 
 of the theory in question is Dan. 9 : 24-27 — the celebrated prophecy 
 of the "seventy weeks." But this has been already examined in 
 my commentary on tlie passage in its place, to which the reader 
 can refer. He will there find these main points made, viz. : that 
 the oi'iginal word means in its singular number, a seven — a heptad; 
 and this may be a seven of days or a seven of years : that the fern-' 
 inine plural is currently used for hejDtads of days; the masculine 
 plural (which we have here) never by itself for the common week 
 of days, but when a week of days is meant, the word days is ap- 
 pended, as in Dan. 10 : 2, 3 ; and finally that after a word and a 
 special form of a word which simply suggests the idea of a seven — 
 a seven of something, we must ask — a seven of what ? and must 
 look for our answer in the context — in the thought already before 
 the mind. In the present case, there can be no doubt that this 
 thought is, the seventy years of captivity. Then seventy sevens of 
 years must be the sense of this phrase, and it involves no usage 
 jf the word day to mean year — no usage of any current notations 
 af time in a way to need multiplying by three hundred and sixty 
 to get the actual time. 
 
 (5.) All individual proof texts failing, some will still fall back 
 upon the general idea that prophecy has a special fondness for 
 highly figurative language; — so that they seem to themselves to 
 make a pretty strong argument for their theory when they call it 
 tu instance of strong Jigurative language — such as abounds in 
 
DISSERTATION I. 251 
 
 prophecy. Cut tiiis is a simple foUacy. TIiosc who say tliis 
 
 i'ail alto^^ethcr to notice what figures iu rhetoric arc. Perliaps tlioy 
 confound figures iii rhetoric with figures in mathematics — two 
 tilings most unlike in sense, however like in the word. If men 
 would only notice that there is no rhetoric and no scope for the im- 
 agination in a mathematical process; e. g., in multiplying by three 
 hundred and sixty, they might be disabused of this fallacy. Fig- 
 ures in language turn on some resemblances which only the im- 
 agination can recognize and appreciate. But figures in mathematics 
 make no appeal to the imagination. This " day-for-a-year theory" 
 needs no function of the imagination to solve and apply it. It re- 
 quires only a shoi't process in multiplication — in simple mathemat- 
 ics, lias this the least analogy Avith the use of the Avord "light" 
 for what is joyous and "darkness" for Avhat is sad? Not the least 
 imaginable. The failure to note such distinctions may serve to 
 mislead and delude ; it can serve no other purpose. 
 
 (6.) Of the proofs from usage for the theory in question, all the 
 rest, known to me, are in the class yet to be fulfilled and verified ; 
 or rather, like Mr. Miller's Second Advent in 1843 — yet to be ex- 
 
 ?loded. Those which assi2:n the final fall of llomanism to A. I). 
 806 are soon to follow Mr. Miller's. It will be soon enough to 
 believe this theory on the strength oi fulfilled ■proi^hecy when the 
 cases of suitable sort and in sufficient number do actually occur. 
 
 It is simply amazing that this theory has obtained so much 
 
 credence on absolutely not the least foundation. Against all rea- 
 sonable presumption — in the face of the strongest prima fiicie evi- 
 dence against it, there should be a very imposing array of substan- 
 tial argument for it before it gains any credence. How strange, 
 then, that it has gained so much Avithout the first particle of reli- 
 able proof? 
 
 4. It still remains to assume the offensive against this theory 
 and show that fulfilled prophecy is all against it. 8o far as IJiblo 
 history giA^cs us the fulfillment of Bible prophecy in Avhich notations 
 of time are iuA'olved, the "usus loqueudi" proves that AA'ords in 
 prophecy denoting ihne are used in their common, normal sense, 
 and never in the enigmatical, peculiar way affirmed by this theory. 
 Thus the Lord through Noah predicted the flood after one hun- 
 dred and tAventy years ((Jlen. 6: 3). Did it turn out to be 43,2U0 
 
 years, or only 120? Again in reference to this flood, the Loi'd 
 
 said to Noah (Clen. 7: 4), "Yet scA^on days and I will cause it to 
 rain forty days and forty nights." That Avould have been aAvful at 
 forty years, and Noah and his company all that time shut up in the 
 
 ark! To Abraham (Gen. 15 : 13) the Lord said, "Thy seed shall 
 
 be a stranger in a land not theirs" (Egypt), "and they shall afflict 
 them four hundred years." iJoes this need to be multljilied by 
 tliree hundred and sixty ? Was the actual time four hundred 
 
 years, or one hundred and forty-four thousand? In Num. 14: 
 
 84, the prophecy stands, "Your children shall wander in the wil- 
 derness forty years." Did it prove to be forty, or tliree hundred 
 aud sixty times forty — x. e., fourteen thousand and four hundred? 
 
252 DISSERTATION I, 
 
 Tn Isa. 7: 8 is this prophecy: ""Within sixty-five years shall 
 
 I'iphraim be broken that it be not a people." Was this really sixty- 
 live, or was it prophetic time" (so called), i. e., twenty-three thou- 
 sand and four hundred years? Even sixty-five carries the end 
 several years beyond the end of the kinijdom as destroyed by Shal- 
 rnanezer, B. C. 722, for the reiii;n of Ahaz, son of Kemaliah, lay 
 1>. C. 759-740. The prophet included a final crowning act by Esar- 
 Iiaddon, filling the country with colonists from other countries, and 
 embraced this within the sixty-five years. Isaiah (16: 14) pre- 
 dicted of Moab, " Within three years as the years of a hireling, 
 shall the glory of Moab be contemned." Should this be accounted 
 as really three years, or as one thousand and eighty years? But 
 if this is three, why is not three and a half in Dan. 7: 25, and 12; 
 
 7, just three and a half? In Jer. 25: 4 it is predicted, "These 
 
 nations (Judah included) shall serve the king of lUibylon seventy 
 years." And Jer. 29: 10 reads, "After seventy years be accom- 
 plished at Babylon, I will visit yon, and perform my good words 
 toward you, in causing you to return to this place." Now it waa 
 because these time-designations meant just, what they said that 
 Daniel could "understand by books the number of the years" of 
 this captivity and adjust himself to it. It is plain that he had not 
 a particle of confidence in this theory of a day for a year, and of 
 one year named when three hundred and sixty years are really 
 meant. If he had believed this theory, he would have set the res- 
 toration twenty-five thousand and two hundred years after the cap- 
 tivity; i. e., 25,200— G06=A. D. 24,594— and he must have de- 
 spaired of living in this world to see it! And now shall it be 
 
 assumed that after having had such welcome proof that God means 
 just what he says when he gives dates and numbei's in prophecy, 
 he will hinaself darken his own dates by enigmas that none can 
 understand ? Or if it be replied, This was not Daniel but the re- 
 vealing angel, then I ask, Would not Daniel have protested against 
 it, saying, 1 have myself been exceedingly comforted, aided, and 
 blessed by being able to understand by books when the divine 
 numbers in prophecy would end; but how of this? No mortal can 
 ever understand it! 0, if Daniel might only speak out of heaven 
 to those who so darken his plain words and so magnify his simple 
 numbers, would he not rebuke them ? It can scarcely be neces- 
 sary to refer to Ezek. 29: 11, 13, which predicts a temporary cap- 
 tivity of Egypt; forty years; not fourteen thousand and four hun- 
 dred years; nor to Jonah's prophecy against Nineveh; "Yet 
 forty dajrs and Nineveh shall be overthrown." It would have 
 changed the case very essentially if he had meant forty years. But 
 why in such a case should not the Lord say what he means, even as 
 he expects and requires men to do? Is there any conceivable rea- 
 son why he should say day when he means year ? Is this accord- 
 ing to (ruth? And what can be the use of it? One case yet, 
 
 more important than any other, is that of Daniel's own usage 
 (Dan. 4: 16, 23, 25, 32). In each of these four verses it is pre- 
 dicted that king Nebuchadnezzar'* insanity would continue " until 
 
DISSERTATION I. 253 
 
 seven iimes should liave passed over him." So long he would be 
 with the beasts of the fiehl,. would eat grass as oxen, and be wet 
 
 with the dew of heaven. How long a period, is this? The jmI 
 
 vocates of the theory in question maintain strenuously that 
 Daniel's "time, times, and the dividing of time," or "an half," 
 (chap. 7: 25, and 12: 7,) equals three and a half years, and that 
 these being prophetic years are really twelve hundred and sixty 
 years. On no one point are they more united and strenuous tiian 
 on this. Now the same writer, in the same book, will use the same 
 word in the same sense. Unless there be some very great diller- 
 cnce in the circumstances, this rule must hold good. No rule of 
 interpretation can be more vital or more reliable than this. But in 
 the present case no difl'orencc of circumstance can be shown. I>(ith 
 are prophecy. Uoth use the same word; therefore it must be usod 
 in both cases in tlio same sense. If three years and a half in 
 prophecy is really of actual time twelve hundred and sixty years, 
 then "seven times," equal to seven years of prophetic time, becomes, 
 when converted into actual time, twenty-five hundred and twenty 
 
 years ! — a long time, trul}', for one man to eat grass ! Some people 
 
 will think there must be something very special and even mystei'ious 
 in this word, "a time," when used for a year, and hence they read- 
 ily admit this theory of (so called) " prophetic time," when applied to 
 Daniel's word, a " time." But the seven " times " [years] of the king's 
 insanity is just as truly prophetic time as the three and a half " times " 
 [years] of ascendency of Antiochus over the Mosaic institutions and 
 
 sacrifices — "times and laws." The cases above adduced are not 
 
 culled out — a few of this sort from amid many of the opposite. 
 There are none of the opposite sort. There is not one case in all 
 the Bible in which fulfilled prophecy shows that pi'ophetic time is 
 estimated on the rule of a day for a year. The usage of the Bible 
 goes solid against this theory. When, from its nature, this theory 
 ought to have the veiy strongest support from Bible usage before it 
 can be reasonably accepted, it has not the first particle of proof in 
 
 its behalf, either from Bible usage or from any other source. As 
 
 we might rationally expect, all scriptural usage shows that when 
 God has given pro[)hetic time, he meant to have it understood., and 
 therefore used the language of men as men use it. One of his 
 special objects in giving prophetic time has been to afford to his 
 people the benefit of knowing the duration, or the era, as the case 
 may be, beforehand. Therefore, he could no more employ a myth 
 or a riddle to puzzle his people over his dates, than he could give 
 precepts and inculcate duty in so blind a way that none could un- 
 derstand him without a new revelation to reveal his meaning. Is 
 it not a marvel that interpreters of prophecy could so far ignore 
 the veracity and the sober honesty of the Holy One as to impute to 
 him such a use of language as this theory involves ? 
 
 5. There is yet one more objection to this theory, lying in the 
 fact that its advocates apply it only to the periods of Zion's calam- 
 ity and persecution : never, or almost never, to the period of her 
 prosperity They apply it to the prophecies of the sway of Anti 
 
251:' DISSERTATION I. 
 
 christ; never to tlie prophecies of the true jNIessiah's reign 
 Scarcely a man within my knowledge has applied this enormous 
 multiplier to the thunsand years of Messiah's promised reign !— - 
 Now, it is bad enough to attempt to make capricious discriminations 
 at all as to the usage of words, and say in one set of prophecies day 
 means only day and year only year ; while in another set, day means 
 3'ear, and one year means three hundred and sixty. This, I say, 
 is bad enough at the best. But it is ineffably bad to apply this 
 awful multiplier to the eras of antichristian rule and not to the dura- 
 tion of the Messiah's reign ! liook at the reason why this discrim- 
 ination is so revolting. (1.) It assumes that God aims and plan.s 
 
 to hide from his people the actual duration of their calamities until 
 the time arrives; or, rather — worse yet — he purports to reveal it; 
 gives us the usual words for well-known periods of time ; but uses 
 them 60 that his "people will see only one three hundred and six- 
 tieth part of the truth ! He calls the time a day when really it is 
 a year ; he calls it three years and a half when really it is twelve 
 hundred and sixty years ! — — Believe this of our God — :who can ? 
 
 If he had seen lit not to disclose the duration of the church's 
 
 great calamity, very well. All his trustful children would bow 
 submissively to his wisdom, and would still trust his love. But 
 that he should profess to reveal it, and then state it at only one 
 three hundred and sixtieth part of the actual time — that is simply 
 horrible 1 And then to cap the climax, that he should state the 
 duration of her prosperity in a way to make it seem all that it is, — 
 this sets off the other usage in a still more strange and revolting 
 light. (2.) A second reason why this discrimination is so ob- 
 jectionable is, that it makes the reign of Antichrist relatively long 
 and the reign of the real Christ relatively short. Antichrist tri- 
 umphs twelve hundred and sixty years; Jesus Christ only one 
 thousand! The eras of persecution, straitness and calamity, sur- 
 pass the era of peace, truth, righteousness and salvation! I take 
 it this is incredible. I have a full conviction that the greatness of 
 (iod's mercy toward our world forbids it. The sure word of proph- 
 ecy is absolutely and mightily against it — as witness what the 
 Lord said by Isaiah (54: 7, 8); "For a small moment have I for- 
 saken thee " (Zion) " but with great mercies will I gather thee. In 
 a little wrath I hid my face from thee /or a inornent; but with ever- 
 lasting kindness -will I have mercy upon thee, saith the Lord thy 
 Kcdcemer." Does a moment compare with everlasting duration, 
 
 as twelve hundred and sixty years to one thousand ? These 
 
 points may, I trust, suffice to show why this theory never ouglit to 
 be true and never can be. 
 
DISEASES OF MODERN LIFE. 
 
 By B. IK RICHARDSOJf, M.D. 
 
 1 vol., 12mo, Cloth, S20 pages, - - _ $2.00. 
 
 From the Tribune. 
 
 " He has no affinity with the class of old-women doctors who are eternally fussing 
 and dosing, and with their infallible prescriptions break down more constitutions than 
 all the skill of the faculty can repair. His principal aim is to point out the causes which 
 lead to disease, and to prevent its occurrence by observing the physical laws which are 
 the conditions of health." 
 
 From Nature. 
 
 "The work is of great value as a practical guide to enable the reader to detect and 
 avoid various sources of disease, and it contains, in addition, several introductory chap- 
 ters on natural life and natural death, the phenomena of disease, disease antecedent to 
 birth, and on the etTects of the seasons, of atmospheric temperature, of atmospheric 
 pressure, of moisture, winds, and atmospheric chemical changes, which are of great 
 general interest." 
 
 From the CJiarleston Courier. 
 
 "In this valuable and deeply-interesting work Pr. Richardson treats the ncr\ous 
 system as the very principle of life; and he shows how men do it violence, yet expect 
 immunity where the natural sentence is death." 
 
 From the Toledo Chronicle. 
 
 "His aim in the book under consideration is to teach the lis ing generations to so 
 conduct themselves, and avoid and prevent disease, that death will not come prematurely, 
 as is almost generally the case at the present time. His work contains many useful and 
 valuable hints, suggestions, and directions, and they arc put in such good and readable 
 shape that one does not lire in studying them." 
 
 From the Boston Comwonwealtk. 
 
 "Particular attention is given to diseases from worry and mental strain, from the 
 prisbions, from alcohol, tobacco, narcotics, foods, impure air, late hours, and broken 
 sleep, iilleness, intermarriage, etc., thus touching upon causes which do not enter into 
 the consideration of sickness." 
 
 D. APPLETON & CO., Publishers, 
 
 549 & 551 Broadway, New York. 
 
CHRIST IN MODERN LIFE. 
 
 SERMONS PREACHED IN ST. JAMES CHAPEL, LONDON. 
 
 By Rev. STOPFORD A. BROOKE, M. A., 
 
 Honorary Chaplnin-in-Ordinary to the Queen. 
 
 1 volume, i2mo. Cloth Price, $2.00. 
 
 " Nobly fearless, and singularly strong. . . . Carries our admiration throughout." 
 — British Quarterly Review. 
 
 "No one can be insensible to the charm of his style, or the clear, logical manner in 
 which he treats his subject." — Churchman's Monthly. 
 
 " No one who reads these sermons will wonder that Mr. Brooke is a great power in 
 London, that his chapel is thronged, and his followers large and enthusiastic. They 
 arc fiery, energetic, impetuous sermons, rich with the treasures of a cultivated imagina- 
 tion." — Guardian. 
 
 " In the style in which it is written it is beyond all praise ; in clearness of diction, in 
 delicate truth of analysis, in beauty and aptness of illustration, in earnestness and elo- 
 Huence of address, he reminds his reader continually of T. W. Robertson, while in 
 depth and range of thought, and in profundity of view, he is the superior of that almost 
 m.-ilchless sermonizer. He unfolds the incarnation of the Divine Son of God in its ap- 
 plication to all needs and phases of humanity, in its regenerating, guiding, forming, 
 and perfecting graces ; in its solution of the spiritual problems of our human history ; in 
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 fecting discipline to all departments of human life and action, and all ages of our pro- 
 gressive life, from infancy to our birth, by dealh, into a higher life; in its adaptation to 
 individual progression, and to the progi ession toward the good of our being, of our 
 collective humanity, in a way most true, and admirable, and impressive. He pre- 
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 action, in its own sphere, of the other."— Church yeurnal. 
 
 " There is a manliness of tone, a vigor of illustration, a beauty of language, and 
 the manifest beating of a loving heart in its pages, which challenge our admiration." 
 — Christian Observer. 
 
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 topics of lively interest. The book is altogether healthful and invigorating." — Chris- 
 iian Leader. 
 
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"A rich list of fruitful topics:' 
 
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 HEALTH AND EDUCATION 
 
 By the Rev. CHARLES KINGSLEV, F. L. S., F. G. S., 
 
 CANON OF WESTMINSTER. 
 
 i2mo. Cloth Price, $1.75. 
 
 " It is most refreshing to meet an earnest soul, and such, preeminently, is Charles 
 Kingsley, and he has shown himself such in every thing he has written, from ' Alton 
 Locke' and 'Village Sermons,' a quarter of a century since, to the present volume, which 
 is no exception. Here are fifteen Essays and Lectures, excellent and interesting in 
 different degrees, but all exhibiting the author's peculiar characteristics of thought 
 and style, and some of them blending most valuable instruction with entertainment, 
 as few living writers can." — Hart/ord Post. 
 
 "That the title of this book is not expressive of its actual contents, is made mani- 
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 Charles Kingsley is fascinating, whether he treats of Gothic Architecture, Natural 
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 " For thj style alone, and for the vivid pictuics frequently presented, this latest 
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Musings over the "Christian Year" 
 
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 One small thick 121110. Printed on tinted paper. Price, $2.00. 
 
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 those expressed in the work will find it interesting and instructive."— 
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PRIMARY TRUTHS OF RELIGION. 
 
 By Right Rev. THOMAS M. CLARK, D. D., LL. D., 
 
 BISHOP OF BUODE ISLANn. 
 
 1 vol,, 12mo. Price, $1.00. 
 
 From the Alligcmeine Literarsche Zeitunff, Berlin r 
 
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 apologetics of jn'eat interest and value. The boolv discusses, in five parts, the proWiiiis 
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 From the EnQlish Churchman and Clerical Jorirnal, London: 
 " Bishop Clark has published this pithy treatise to meet the unsettled state of mind 
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 From the Church Opinion, London : 
 
 "Bishop Clark's work is invaluable, as it is not written in a style above the capabili- 
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 of Positivism." 
 
 From a review in the Literary WbrkJ, London: 
 
 "We welcome this book from the pen of an American Bishop. Dr. Clark has done 
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 From the yew York Erprcsx : 
 
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 New York: D. APPLETON & CO.. Publisiieks, 549 & 551 Broadway. 
 
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Date Due 
 
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