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DANIEL AND ST. JOHN, 
 
JUL '^ 1939 
 ^^^ Q6)CAL 
 
 MNIEL AND ST. JOHN. 
 
 LECTURES 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE CLOSE, WINCHESTER, 
 
 BY/THE 
 
 REV. EDWARD HUNTINGFORD, D.C.L. 
 
 Ho}2. Canon of Winchester, 
 and late Fellow of New College, Oxford. 
 
 AUTHOR OF POPULAR 
 
 MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE FIRST ELEVEN CHAPTERS OF GENESIS 
 
 THE APOCALYPSE, WITH A COMMENTARY ; 
 
 AND OTHER WORKS. 
 
 |;:oni)on: 
 
 BICKERS AND SON, I, LEICESTER SQUARE. 
 
 IMincljEster : 
 
 WARREN AND SON, PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS, HIGH STREET. 
 1895. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURES ON DANIEL. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Lecturk 1. 
 
 The im portance, authenticity, and genuine ness of the_Bo ok| /LJ6i^ 
 of Daniel. — 1 he dream oF N ebuchadnezzar. — The continu-/ 
 ance of " the abomination of desolation" synchronous with the 
 growth of the Kingdom of God ... ... ... i — 25 
 
 Lecture II. 
 
 Daniel's Fourth Kingdom is Rome. — The vision of the Four 
 Beasts of chapter vii. — The Beast with Ten Horns the symbol of 
 the divided Roman world. — The Little Horn of chapter vii the 
 Imperial Head of the divided Roman world. — The Four Beasts 
 of Daniel embodied in the First Beast of Revelation, chapter 
 xiii. — The Image of the Beast of Revelation xiii the representa- 
 tive of the Little Horn of Daniel, chapter vii. — The Beast of 
 Daniel, the persecutor of the Jews. — The same Beast of Revela-. . 
 
 tion .xiii the persecutor of faithful Christians. — Hist orical proofs i Y^y)""_ 
 of the origi n and continuance o f Rome, an d of the p ersgcutjon 1 
 of tliejevvs by the R oman Hierarchy ~. 7.. ... 26^43 
 
 Lecture III. 
 
 The vision of chapter viii seen in Elam. — Belshazzar's ignor- 
 ance of Daniel accounted for. — The Ram of chapter viii the 
 symbol of Medo- Persia. — The Goat, of the Macedonian Empire 
 of Alexander the Great, divided among his Generals upon his 
 death. — The Little Horn of chapter viii the symbol of Antiochus 
 Epiphanes. — The marks which distinguish the Little Horn of 
 chapter vii from that of chapter viii. — How far do these corres- 
 pond with the persecuting Kings of the North of chapter xi ? — 
 Interpretation of the vision of chapters .x, xi and xii ... 44 — 60 
 
Lecture IV. 
 
 The days of Daniel and St. John symboHse years. — They cannot 
 tell us the time of the Second Advent. — They help us to har- 
 monise the synchronous predictions. — They distinguish between 
 the God-opposing Powers of chapters viii and vii. — Antiochus 
 Epiphanes the Little Horn of chapter viii. — The Imperial Head 
 of the Roman Hierarchy the Little Horn of chapter vii. — The 
 seventy weeks of chapter ix date from the seventh year of 
 Artaxer.xes. — The seventieth week dates from the call of the 
 Baptist, and in the midst of it our Lord was crucified. " He 
 shall confirm the covenant with many for one week, and in the 
 midst of the week He shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation 
 to cease" [Dan. ix, 27) ... ... ... ... 61—80 
 
 LECTURES ON THE REVELATION. 
 Lecture I. 
 
 Blessings to be expected from the study of the Revelation 
 — Its date and authorship. — Difficulties caused by rashness 
 of Commentators. • — A simple and consistent interpretation 
 attempted. — The book a dramatic Allegory. — A prophecy given 
 by symbols. — The Rider on the White Horse the hero of the 
 drama. — The symbol of Christ and His Church going forth 
 " conquering and to conquer. " — The second Rider, the symbol 
 of the Church and its Rulers armed with the sword of civil 
 power. — The third Rider, the Church and its Rulers corrupted 
 by avarice, selling its spiritual wares. — The fourth Rider, the 
 Church and its Rulers still conquering, but more deeply cor- 
 rupted, killing men's bodies with the sword of civil pov^er, and 
 their souls with the famine of the word of God. — The fifth Seal 
 exhibits the souls of the martyrs resting in Paradise. — The sixth 
 Seal prefigures the Final Judgment, and the seventh symbolises 
 the beginning of Eternal Rest ... .. ... ... 82 — 104 
 
 Lecture II. 
 
 The seven Trumpets announce the Judgment attending the 
 triumphant march of Christ and His Church. — The imagery 
 suggested by the story of the fall of Jericho and the Plagues of 
 Egypt. — Their symbolisms will be intelligible when we know of 
 what great City they predict the fall. — The great City is Roman 
 Christendom. — Its origin, and its civil and ecclesiastical elements 
 are symbolised in chapters xii, xiii, and xvii. — Prejudice either for 
 or against Rome keeps men from understanding the Apocalypse. 
 — The Church has more formidable enemies than Rome. — The 
 symbols of chapter xii. — The Woman is the Church. — Her Son 
 is Christ. — The Serpent is the Devil. — Genesis iii shows how 
 
I'AGE 
 
 Paradise was lost. — Revelation xii symbolises Paradise regained. 
 — The form of the Red Serpent explained by reference to the 
 Fourth Beast of Daniel. — The Ten-horned Beast is not the 
 symbol of the Church of Rome, but of the World-power of all 
 ages.— The escape of the Woman from the persecutions of the 
 Serpent symbolises the deliverance of the Church by the conver- 
 sion of Imperial Rome. — The waters issuing from the Serpent's 
 mouth symbolise " the human deluge " of the Northern invaders 
 of Rome. — The earth helps the Woman by absorbing the flood of 
 waters. — This symbolises the Church's escape from destruction 
 by the gradual settlement and conversion of the Northern 
 hordes ... ... ... ... ... ... 105 — 125 
 
 Lecture III. 
 
 Chapter xiii gives three symbols for the three elements of 
 Roman Christendom from the age of Charles the Great : i. The 
 Ten-horned Beast to whom the Serpent surrenders his Throne 
 and power=the Sovereigns of the divided Latin world. 2. A 
 second Beast with the two Horns of the Lamb and the voice of 
 the Serpent = the King-Bishop of Rome, the Vicar of the Lamb, 
 and the Spiritual Head of Christendom. 3. The Image of the 
 former Beast = the revived Holy Roman Emperor, the Temporal 
 Head of Christendom. — These symbolisms imply no wholesale 
 condemnation of individuals, either as Kings or Bishops. — The 
 second Beast is identified with the Papacy by eleven distinctive 
 marks. — ^The prophecy condemns the abuse, not the use, of 
 power ; the system, not the individuals connected with it ... 126 — 144 
 
 Lecture IV. 
 
 Chapters xvii, xviii and xix refer to the future. — Chapter xvii 
 a vision of Judgmeiit and of the punishment of the corrupt 
 Church by the Worldly Powers who have hitherto supported her. 
 — The period of the Woman's dwelling in the wilderness, of the 
 treading under foot of the Holy City, of the testimony of the 
 witnesses in her streets, and of the reign of the Ten-horned 
 Beast or World-power — the supporter of the woman and perse- 
 cutor of her fruitful children, — is 1260 days, forty-two months, 
 or three years and a half, proving that these symbols refer to 
 synchronous events. — The waters of chapter xvii, and the 
 Euphrates of Chapter xvi symbolise the popular support long 
 given to Babylon. — Her fall is the result of the great Apostasy, 
 and of the attempt of the worldly powers to extinguish the light 
 of Christianity. — The same powers which destroy Babylon also 
 fight against the Lamb, and are conquered by Him at His 
 Advent ... ... ... ... ... ... 145 — 165 
 
Lkcture v. 
 
 Chapter xx accounts for the absence of the Serpent for a time 
 from the drama ; the period during which he carries on his warfare 
 with the faithful by means of the World-power and the Rulers 
 of the worldly Church = the Christian Sovereigns and the Bishop 
 of Rome. — The vision predicts the long unquestioned dominion of 
 the Church in the Roman world ending in the great Apostasy of 
 Anti-Christ ; and reveals the reign of the souls of the Saints 
 with Christ in Paradise during the intermediate state. — The 
 future kingdom of the Saints is not Millennial but Eternal i66 — 184 
 
 Lecture VI. 
 
 The prophecy embraces the whole period of time between 
 the First and Second Advents. — Intended for the support of 
 the persecuted Christian in all ages of the Church, whether 
 under Pagan or Christian Rome, or at the time of Anti-Christ. 
 — The last state of the Church will be one of open hostility to 
 the world, as it was at the beginning. — Are we approaching that 
 condition ? — The seven Trumpets announce judgments upon the 
 opponents or corrupters of the Church. — The vision of chapter 
 xl is an episode explaining the symbol of the Holy City, and its 
 connection with the judgment of the sixth Trumpet. — The Tem- 
 ple and Altar represent the elect of Israel ; the Court of the 
 Gentiles, the Gentile Saints ; the Holy City itself, the Church, 
 as a whole, under the power of Gentiles and worldly Rulers. — 
 The tvvo witnesses in sack-cloth are the faithful in every age, the 
 lights of the Church, and the supporters of its light. — The Beast 
 from the Abyss, who slays them, symbolises the final Anti- 
 Christian development of the World-power who attempts the 
 extinction of Christian truth. — Closing reflections. — The safety 
 of the individual believer, in spite of his surroundings. — Victory 
 or death the watchword of the Christian soldier ... ... 185 — 207 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 The following Lectures were delivered with the hope that 
 they would suggest to the general reader satisfactory 
 answers to the objections commonly made to the genuine- 
 ness and authenticity of the Book of Daniel, and would 
 help him to understand his prophecies. 
 
 It is shown that these visions of the Hebrew Prophet 
 refer chiefly, if not exclusively, to the future of Daniel's 
 own people, the Jews ; to their persecution, from the fourth 
 century to the present day, by the rulers and people of 
 Christendom ; to the long continuance of their dispersion ; 
 to the desolation of Jerusalem during the ages of Gentile 
 dominion ; and to their final deliverance at the end of 
 the dispersion, and when " the times of the Gentiles are 
 fulfilled." 
 
 An attempt is made to explain and harmonize the 
 enigmatical numbers of Daniel and St. John ; and to show 
 how impossible it is by means of them to conjecture within 
 very many centuries the time of the Second Advent of the 
 Son of Man. 
 
 Winchester, 1895. 
 
THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 The book of Daniel is one o f the, strongest foundations 
 of our faith. _ C hristianity is an h isto rical r eligion. It is 
 founded on an historical fact; the fact that Jesus Christ 
 lived, and taught, and died, and rose again in the land of 
 Judtea, and in the reign of Tiberius. 
 
 It_js jiko— a-SJipe i'human religio n. It was founded by- 
 One Who was Divine as well as Human; and His creden- 
 tials were His merciful, mighty, and superhuman words 
 and works. 
 
 But His miracles were evidences of His Deity only to 
 those who saw them. In us it is an act of faith to believe 
 that they happened. We require first to have proofs that 
 Christ is God ; that He is, what He claimed to be, the Son 
 of God and Saviour of the world ; and then, when we are 
 convinced of this, we think it only natural that His works 
 should be superhuman. 
 
 The crowning miracle of Jesus was His Resurrection 
 from the dead ; and thei-e is no event in the past history 
 of the world so plainly and fully recorded as this in the 
 writings of contemporaries. 
 
 The following example will help us to appreciate the 
 force of this historical testimony. 
 
 About half a century before Christ was born, Julius 
 Csesar, we know, invaded this island in which we live ; but 
 we have no fii'st-hand written testimony of this fact except 
 that of the one interested party, Julius Ceesar himself. He 
 came, and returned, and told his story; but he left na 
 
 B 
 
LECTURES ON THE 
 
 traces of his invasion, for the Romans effected no settlement 
 in Britain until about a century later. And yet no sane 
 person has the slightest doubt of the fact. 
 
 But of the Resurrection of Jesus we have the written 
 testimony of five or six men, pre-eminent for truthfulness, 
 most of them having sealed their testimony with their 
 blood, most of them witnesses who had seen and heard and 
 handled His Risen Body ; men, therefore, who could not be 
 deceived themselves and would not deceive others. 
 
 But God has not left us without even stronger and more 
 convincing evidence, more ever-present miraculous proof of 
 the truth of our religion than anything resting merely on 
 the historical testimony of the early Christian writers. He 
 has given us the evidence of fulfilled and still ever-fulfilling 
 prophecy. 
 
 Our Saviour claimed to be the predicted King, the Son 
 of David, the Son of Man. And the history of eighteen 
 centuries has proved that He has established that claim. 
 Millions of millions have owned and obeyed Him as their 
 King during all those ages; and His Kingdom, such as He 
 described it, is still existing and growing in these our days. 
 
 But not only so. He predicted plainly Himself, and 
 caused others to predict, what the condition of His Kingdom 
 would be in its connection with the powers of the world up 
 to the time of His Second Advent. 
 
 The real prediction of the remote future, even in the 
 most general outline, is the greatest of all miracles. It is 
 declared by the Hebrew j)rophets to be the crucial test of 
 Deity. " I am God, and there is none else ; I am God, and 
 there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, 
 and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, 
 saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my 
 pleasure." (7s. xlvi, 9, 10.) And it is of false gods that 
 the prophet writes : " Declare us things to come. Show the 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 
 
 things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that 
 ye are gods." (/s. xli, 22, 23.) 
 
 Now the prophecies of Daniel will stand this test. They 
 have been in course of fulfilment in every age in the history 
 of those nations who have had any connection with his 
 people ; and they are being conspicuously fulfilled in our 
 own days. 
 
 His prophecies refer, as he is expressly told, not to all 
 the world, but to the future fort\ines of his own people, the 
 Jews. " I am come to make thee understand what shall 
 befall thy people in the latter days, for yet the vision is for 
 many days." {Dan. x, 14.) 
 
 Daniel's people are still with us. With an unique 
 tenacity of racial life, Israel is still found in almost every 
 part of the world in this nineteenth century. Envied, 
 hated, robbed, persecuted, and scattered, the Jews are still 
 with us, and, as an unusually talented race and the creditors 
 of almost every Christian government, they seem destined 
 to have no little influence on the future condition of the 
 civilized world. 
 
 Since the days of Daniel they have been thus scattered, 
 and some of them for more than a century before his time, 
 in exact fulfilment of the words of Amos : "For, lo, I will 
 command, and I will sift the house of Israel among ail 
 nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the 
 least grain fall upon the earth." {Amos ix, 9.) 
 
 The question, therefore, is a very simple one. We are 
 told that the visions of Daniel were intended to predict by 
 means of symbols, the significations of which are explained 
 to him, the future fortunes of his people in their connection 
 with the rulers of the world. We have before us the visions 
 of Daniel, and his people are still with us. Does their con- 
 dition in the present day, and for the last twenty-five 
 centuries, correspond with these divinely explained symbol- 
 
 B 2 
 
LECTURES ON THE 
 
 isms ? If so, then the visions cannot have been invented by 
 the prophet, but must have been miraculously impressed 
 upon his imagination by the Spirit of the Omniscient. 
 
 This question can be answered in the affirmative, what- 
 ever imcertainty there may be about the date of the book of 
 Daniel as ive noiv have it, for according to the most extreme 
 view of modern critics the prophecies could not have been 
 collected and the book put together in its present state later 
 than about 164 years before the birth of Christ, and his 
 most important prophecies evidently refer to events long- 
 after that time. 
 
 But if we believe in the I'eality of prediction there is no 
 reason whatever for doiibting, not only that the prophecies 
 were uttered by Daniel, but that the book was written by 
 him about five himdred j-ears before the Christian era. 
 
 The genuineness of the book was apparently un- 
 questioned for about eight centuries, and, although regarded 
 by Christians as one of the strongest foundations of the 
 faith, it was still unquestioned by the Jews during the first 
 three centuries after Christ. 
 
 But about the close of the third century Porphyry 
 attempted to prove that it was the work of an after-prophet 
 of the age of the Maccabees, about 164 b.c. Being one of 
 the bitterest enemies of the Christian faith his object was 
 to undermine the authority of this prophet. He perceived 
 that if Daniel wrote his prophecies at the close of the 
 Babylonish captivity, long before the time of Christ, their 
 conspicuous fulfilment must prove him to have been a true 
 prophet ; and then his prophecy of the coming of the 
 Messiah at the end of 490 years after the restoration would 
 be one of the strongest proofs that Jesus was the Christ. 
 
 The arguments of Porphyry did not avail to destroy the 
 belief either of Jews or Christians in the authenticity and 
 genuineness of the book of Daniel. But modern unbelievers. 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 
 
 in the reality of prediction have re-producccl the arguments 
 of this ancient enemy of the faith, and have added some 
 others. 
 
 The following are the objections commonly urged against 
 the genuineness of the book : — 
 
 I. It is written partly in the third person and partly in 
 the first. 
 
 II. It is not placed among the books of the prophets in 
 the Hebrew Canon. 
 
 III. " The interest of the book " is supposed to " cul- 
 minate in the relation subsisting between the Jews and 
 Antiochus." (See Driver, p. 477.) 
 
 IV. Some of its historical statements are thought to be 
 inaccurate. 
 
 V. There are found in it Persian words and the names of 
 Greek instruments of music. 
 
 VI. The prophecies are affirmed to be clear up to the 
 time of Antiochus Epiphanes, but indistinct after that date. 
 
 I. The first objection need not detain us long. The 
 third person is used chiefly in the historical and narrative 
 portions, but this is in accordance with one of the most 
 common practices of ancient writers. Julius Caesar and 
 Xenophon speak of themselves and of their doings in the 
 third person, and so Daniel, like Moses, St. John, and 
 others, does the same. Ezekiel changes from the first to 
 the third person in almost the same sentence : " I was 
 among the captives . . . and I saw visions." And then, 
 "In the fifth day of the month . . . the word of the 
 Lord came unto Ezekiel." {Ezek. i, 1.) 
 
 II. It is true that the Jews did not place Daniel in their 
 Canon among the prophets. But half the book is history. 
 It is, therefore, found in exactly its right place as an 
 historical book, for it comes just before Ezra and Nehemiah, 
 who continue Daniel's history and describe the events in 
 which the fulfilment of his prophecies commenced. 
 
LECTURES ON THE 
 
 III. Is it at all true that "the interest of the book 
 culminates in the relations subsisting between the Jews and 
 Antiochus," and not rather in the treading under foot of 
 Jerusalem by the heathen from a.d. 70 until the time of the 
 Second Advent of Our Lord ? 
 
 Nothing can be plainer than Our Saviour's interpretation 
 of the most important prophecy of Daniel, the beginning of 
 the fulfilment of which was at hand. " The abomination of 
 desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet " was future in 
 His opinion. 
 
 What did He see through His blinding tears as the 
 fulfilment of Daniel's prophecies? Jerusalem burnt by the 
 Romans ; Jerusalem re-built as a heathen city ; Jerusalem 
 with the mosque of Omar standing on the site of the 
 Temple ; Jerusalem sacked by the Crusaders, in their blind 
 and cruel zeal burning Jews by hundreds in their syna- 
 gogues ; Jerusalem in the hands of Turkish soldiers keeping 
 the peace between contending Greek and Latin Christians ; 
 Jerusalem and Judsea blighted by Mahomedan misrule ; 
 Jerusalem for eighteen and we know not how many more 
 centuries trodden under foot by Gentiles, bu not for ever ; 
 only until the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled, and 
 the dispersion of Israel ended. 
 
 Our Saviour explains the prophecy of Daniel in these 
 Avords : " When ye shall see the abomination of desolation 
 spoken of by Daniel the prophet stand in the holy place." 
 {St. Matt, xxiv, 15.) "When ye shall see Jerusalem 
 compassed Avith armies, then know that the desolation 
 thereof is nigh . . . these be the days of vengeance, 
 that all things ivhich are ivritten may be fulfilled . . . for 
 there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon 
 this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, 
 and shall be led away captive into all nations, and Jerusalem 
 shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the 
 Gentiles be fulfilled." {St. Luke xxi, 20-24.) 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 
 
 Here, then, we have a right to demand satisfactory 
 answers to two questions before we admit that it is even 
 probable that the book of Daniel was an after-prophecy of 
 the second century before Christ. 
 
 1. How came Our Saviour to speak of him as Daniel the 
 prophet ? 
 
 It is admitted that Daniel was a real historical character. 
 " Daniel, it cannot be doubted, was a historical person, one 
 of the Jewish exiles in Babylon." (Driver, p. 479.) If, 
 then, he did not see and describe the visions recorded in his 
 book, and at the time and in the place where, as he plainly 
 tells us, they were shown to him, but if some well-meaning 
 impostor invented them about the year 164 B.C., how could 
 Our Lord call him a prophet? He does not commonly 
 mention the name of the prophet, even when quoting the 
 words of a prophecy acknowledged to be genuine. Why, 
 then, does He so emphatically mention Daniel ? 
 
 2. And, then, if the " abomination that maketh desolate," 
 of Dan. ix, 27, and xi, 31, of which Our Saviour evidently 
 speaks, refers to Antiochus Epiphanes, how comes Jesus to 
 refer it to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by 
 the Roman armies % 
 
 Will not any careful reader, therefore, of the whole 
 course of the visions accept the interpretation of Our Lord, 
 and see that the interest of the book culminates in a far 
 more terrible and lasting desolation than anything which 
 happened in the age of Antiochus ? 
 
 Jesus very plainly predicts this desolation, tells us how 
 long it will endure, and declares that it is the fulfilment of 
 Daniel's prophecy. 
 
 His words have been literally fulfilled, and are still in 
 course of fulfilment in these days. It is plain, therefore, 
 that in His opinion the condition of Jerusalem and of the 
 Jews from a.d. 70 to the time of their restoration — the 
 
LECTURES ON THE 
 
 nature and period of which the future only can reveal to 
 us — was that desolation of which Daniel jDrophesied when 
 the angel Gabriel said to him, " After threescore and two 
 weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself ; and the 
 people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city 
 and the sanctuary ; and the end thereof shall be with a 
 flood . . . and for the overspreading of abominations he 
 shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and 
 that determined shall be poured upon the desolate." {Dan. 
 ix, 26, 27.) 
 
 Although, therefore, Daniel, like other prophets, has a 
 foreground to his picture in which Xerxes, Alexander the 
 Great, the Ptolemies, Seleucidte, and Antiochus are con- 
 spicuous figures in the nearer distance, the main subject of 
 the great picture itself which Jesus beheld through His 
 tears was, I repeat, Jerusalem in ruins, burnt by the 
 Romans, re-built as a heathen city, polluted by the mosque 
 of Omar, sacked by the Crusaders, profaned by the quarrels 
 of Greek and Latin Christians, rendered hopelessly desolate 
 by Mahomedan misrule. 
 
 Have we ever realized what a picture this must have 
 been to the fore-seeing eyes of the Son of David 1 Oq\\ we 
 at all measure the depth of the bitterness of that sorrow 
 which drew from the weeping Saviour the words : " If thou 
 hadst known, even thoii, at least in this thy day, the things 
 which belong unto thy peace ! but now they are hid from 
 thine eyes." {St. Ltoke xix, 42.) 
 
 It is not at all true, then, that the interest of Daniel's 
 prophecies culminates in the persecutions of Antiochus. 
 And, moreover, the notices of time mentioned in the visions 
 do not suit the Maccabfean age. 
 
 In Dan. viii, 14, the prophet is told that the desolation 
 is to last 2,300 evenings and mornings, or full days. In 
 xii, 7-13, he is told that some state of predicted desolation is 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 
 
 to continue for a shorter period, for 1,290 and 1,335 days, 
 and the last of these periods is to terminate in a " blessed 
 time," not only in the cleansing of the sanctuary but in the 
 ■end of the dispersion of Israel; for such is the meaning of 
 the expression, " When he shall have accomplished to 
 scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall 
 be finished," as it is translated in the Septuagint " When 
 the dispersion is ended." 
 
 But the final dispersion cannot be said to have begun in 
 the age of the Maccabees, much less ended. 
 
 Surely, then, we can scarcely do otherwise than identify 
 this prophecy with that of Jesus : " They shall fall with the 
 edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all 
 nations; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the 
 Gentiles." AVe ask. How long? Jesus tells us : "Until the 
 time of the Gentiles be fulfilled." 
 
 The Gentiles, and especially the so-called Christian 
 Gentiles, have been, all through the ages, the scatterers, 
 persecutors, plunderers, and murdei'ers of the Jews. And 
 the Gentiles have had, and still have, power over them ; 
 but their dominion is not to last for ever, but only until 
 their times also are fulfilled. 
 
 Then that stone which the builders refused, but which 
 has been made the corner stone of the spiritual temple, 
 shall fulfil the dream of the King of Babylon: "Thou 
 sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands (without 
 human aid), which smote the image (of Gentile dominion) 
 upon his feet, that were of iron and clay, and brake them in 
 pieces . . . and the stone became a great mountain, and 
 filled the whole earth." Thus interpreted to the prophet : 
 " In the days of these Kings shall the God of heaven set up 
 
 a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed It shall 
 
 consume and break in pieces all these kingdoms, and it shall 
 stand for ever." {pan. ii, 44.) Even as Isaiah prophesied, 
 
LECTURES ON THE 
 
 " The mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in 
 the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the 
 hills, and all nations shall flow into it." (/s. ii, 2.) 
 
 Now, whatever may be the meaning of the symbolical 
 numbers, 2,300 days, they cannot be made to fit into the 
 record of the pollution of the temple by Antiochus. "It 
 seems impossible," writes Driver, " to find two events 
 separated by 2,300 days, which would correspond with the 
 description of verse 14. In point of fact it is true that just 
 three years had elapsed since the heathen altar was set up." 
 (Driver, p. 464.) 
 
 The following words, therefore, show that the attempt 
 to apply these numbers to the pollution of the temple by 
 Antiochus is a failure: "Did we know the history of the 
 time more accurately, it would p^-ohably appear why a 
 slightly different terminus a quo (or ad quern) was fixed in 
 the several cases." 
 
 Perhaps so. But until this does appeal-, we will prefer 
 the interpretation of the vision given to us by Jesus, and 
 believe that, although the prelusive drops of the storm 
 fell on Israel in the days of Antiochus, the abomination of 
 desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet is standing now, 
 and will stand where it ought not vuitil He comes again, 
 " Whom the heaven must receive until the time of the 
 restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the 
 mouth of all his prophets since the world began." (^Acts iii, 
 21.) 
 
 The probable significance of these symbolical numbers 
 will be considered further on. 
 
 IV. We come now to the fourth of the objections to the 
 genuineness of the book, namely, that some of Daniel's 
 historical statements are inaccurate. 
 
 But what historians are there of anything like the same 
 age on whose statements we may depend rather than on 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 
 
 those of a man who professes to record events which happened 
 in his own time ? 
 
 From the confident assertions of some critics we might 
 suppose that they had access to writings of the age of 
 Daniel more trustworthy than those of a man who lived in 
 Babylon from 606 to 536 n.c. And then he mentions 
 incidentally one or two facts which fit into the history of 
 his times so far as we know it, and which would scarcely be 
 mentioned by the writer of a spurious narrative several 
 generations later. 
 
 Thus he tells us that he was carried to Babylon when 
 Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem, and was ti'ained three 
 j^ears "in the learning and tongue of the Chaldees." But 
 by-and-by we find him brought before the King to interpret 
 his dream in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. 
 How do we account for this apparent contradiction? We 
 know that Nebuchadnezzar was not really King when he 
 took Jerusalem because his father was still living. He 
 became King the following year, so that Daniel was brought 
 into his presence in his second year. (^Dan. i, 1; Je. xxv, 1.) 
 
 Then he tells us that Belshazzar offered him the third 
 place in the kingdom if he could explain the meaning of the 
 words written on the wall. Why not the second place 1 
 Joseph was made second ruler of his kingdom by Pharoah. 
 This seems to imply that Belshazzar himself held the second 
 place, and was probably associated in the kingdom with 
 his father Nabonidus, at the time absent from Babylon. 
 
 But it is also objected that Nebuchadnezzar is called the 
 father of Belshazzar, when Daniel was summoned to read 
 the writing on the wall. The answer is this. The words 
 father and son are used in Hebrew and other Oriental 
 languages to express other relations besides those of blood 
 or descent. Here it means merely predecessor on the 
 throne, or at most forefather. Thus Abraham is called the 
 
LECTURES ON THE 
 
 father of Joshua — " Thy father Abraham came from beyond 
 the river." And in the Assyrian inscriptions Jehu is called 
 the son of Omri, that is, his successor on the throne. 
 
 There is another statement which seems very strange, 
 but which is easily accounted for. 
 
 Why could not Darius, the Mede, save Daniel from the 
 den of lions ? Evidently because he was not the supreme 
 sovereign, but associated with Cyrus in the arrangement of 
 the affiurs and government of his vast and recently-acquired 
 empire, while Cyrus himself was engaged in distant con- 
 quests. 
 
 His courtiers, therefore, could press Darius with the 
 necessity of not changing any law of the Medes and 
 Persians, and the danger of breaking that law. Had he 
 been supreme suzerain he would have made short work of 
 this by enacting another law to counteract the execution of 
 the former decree, as Ahasuerus is said to have done in the 
 book of Esther. 
 
 Is it conceivable that these little apparent contradictions 
 would have been found in a spurious work written very 
 many years later ? 
 
 But it may be objected that we now have historical 
 records by means of which we may test the accuracy of the 
 historical statements of Daniel. The annalistic tablets of 
 Cyrus and Nabonidus, the last King of Babylon and father 
 ■of Belshazzar, have been deciphered and given to us by 
 Professor Sayce in his very interesting book called " The 
 higher criticism and the verdict of the monuments." 
 
 He questions the genuineness of the book of Daniel on 
 the ground of historical inaccuracy. 
 
 The cuneiform inscriptions prove, he says, that Cyrus, 
 though he conquered Nabonidus did not take Babylon after 
 any siege. " The siege and capture of Babylon by Cyrus is 
 really," he says, " a reflection into the past of the actual 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 13 
 
 sieges undergone by the city in the reigns of Darius 
 Hystaspes and Xerxes" (p. 524). The monuments prove, 
 indeed, that Cyrus was received with open arms by the 
 Babylonians as their deliverer from the tyranny and impiety 
 of Nabonidus and his son Belshazzar, and as the restorer 
 to the Babylonian cities of the images of their Gods. 
 
 But we have here a striking instance of the way in which 
 even learned and thoughtful men cling to their early im- 
 pressions of the meaning of the words of Holy Scripture. 
 
 The historical inaccuracies which the monuments reveal 
 are not those of Daniel or of any other sacred writer, but of 
 Xenophon and Herodotus, whose fictions and mistakes almost 
 all commentators have hitherto regarded as confirmations 
 of the sacred history. The reflection into the past of the 
 sieges of Darius Hystaspes, and Xerxes, is the reflection of 
 Herodotus, Xenophon, and others, but not of Daniel or any 
 other sacred historian. There can be little doubt that the 
 same confusion of events would have been found in the book 
 of Daniel if it had been written in the age of Herodotus or 
 later. His accuracy, therefore, is confirmed by his simple 
 statement — " In that night was Belshazzar, the King of the 
 Chakkeans, slain, and Darius, the Median, took the king- 
 dom, being about three score and two years old." {Dan. v, 
 30, 31.) 
 
 Of course Belshazzar was killed, and his father Nabonidus 
 would have been killed also had he been in Babylon. 
 
 But what of Belshazzar ? The monuments certainly do 
 not call him a king ; but they speak of him in a manner 
 Mhich makes it highly probable that he was associated in 
 the kingdom with his father. 
 
 It is stated again and again that while Nabonidus was 
 elsewhere " the King's son, the nobles, and the soldiers were 
 in the country of Accad " (p. 500). And Professor Sayce 
 observes : " The cuneiform inscriptions have proved that the 
 
14 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 Belshazzar of Daniel is no figment of the imagination. 
 Though he never became King of Babylon " (so the Pro- 
 fessor says) " he was at one time heir to the throne and the 
 commander of the Babylonian army. While his father 
 remained in the capital, buried with his antiquarian pursuits 
 and his endeavour to centralise his kingdom . . . Belshazzar 
 showed himself to the world as a man of action" (p. 527). 
 
 As regards his end the Professor tells us that when 
 Cyrus entered Babylon, which he did not do until three 
 months after his armies had peaceably entered the city, 
 " Belshazzar was probably dead." 
 
 This, therefore, as far as it goes, is quite consistent with 
 what Daniel tells us, that Belshazzar was slain, and that 
 the kingdom of the Chaldaeans, not of the whole vast empire 
 of Persia, Avas committed to the care of Darius, the Mede, 
 while Cyrus, as we have reason to believe, was carrying on 
 his conquests in Egypt and elsewhere. 
 
 We don't know who Darius was, or Avhat other name he 
 may have had, but it is singular that he should be called 
 Darius the Mede by any writer after the age of Darius 
 Hystaspes. This Darius, the Mede, was an old man, sixty- 
 two years old when he was set over the Chaldceans as a 
 king under the suzerainty of Cyrus. It is not likely, there- 
 fore, that he held that post very long, and so the mention 
 of his being placed for a time in that jDosition might easily 
 have been omitted in the inscriptions. Daniel, of course, 
 would mention him, and his mention of his great age and his 
 calling him Darius, the Mede, proves that he could not be 
 speaking of Darius Hystaspes, the great Persian king. 
 
 He mentions him again in ix, 1, when he calls him the 
 son of Ahasuerus, of the Median seed, and says that he 
 *' was made king over the realm of the Chaldeeans." 
 
 " Here," says the Professor, " we have another limitation 
 of date. Before Darius Hystaspes could have been trans- 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 15 
 
 formed into the son of his own son Xerxes, the reign not 
 only of Darius but of Xerxes also must have been past" 
 (p. 530). 
 
 But why should not Ahasuerus, a name of frequent 
 occurrence, have been the name of the father of Darius, the 
 Mede? And how could he be more clearly distinguished 
 from Darius, son of Hystaspes, the great king of Persia, than 
 by being called the son of a certain Ahasuerus, a Mede, and 
 made king, not at all of Persia, but of the Chaldreans ? 
 
 Had a pseudo-Daniel, then, been writing after the age of 
 Herodotus, and with an equally confused idea of the order of 
 events connected with the fall of the Babylonish empire, it 
 is scarcely conceivable that he would have omitted all 
 mention of the sieges and captures of Babylon. The true 
 Daniel omits them simply because he had lived and was 
 dead before the sieges and captures of Babylon by Darius 
 Hystaspes and Xerxes had taken place, as recorded by 
 Herodotus and Xenophon, one of them being wrongly 
 ascribed by these historians to Cyrus. 
 
 These inscriptions also tend to establish the genuineness 
 and accuracy of the prophet Isaiah, and account for his 
 mention of Cyrus by name as the future deliverer of his 
 people. It is easy to believe that a prophet in the reign of 
 Hezekiah or Manasseh might predict the captivity of the 
 Jews in Babylon and their restoration by another great 
 power already becoming important in the North and East. 
 We now see no difficulty in believing that he should predict 
 the coming of Cyrus by name. It was a well-known name, 
 and Cyrus in these inscriptions calls himself " the grandson 
 of Cyrus the great king " (p. 506). 
 
 And, moreover, the mention of Darius, the Mede, as an 
 old man set over the kingdom of the Chaldteans, suggests a 
 probable solution of another apparent contradiction in the 
 book of Daniel. In chap, i, 21, we read : "And Daniel was 
 
i6 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 {i.e., continued) unto the first year of Cyrus the king." But 
 in chap, x, 1, Daniel gives the third year of Cyrus, king of 
 Persia, as the date of his vision. 
 
 The first year of Cyrus probably means the first year of 
 his residence in Babylon as one of his capitals after the 
 death of old Darius ; but his third year was the third year 
 of his reign as king of Persia. Darius was for a time made 
 king of the Chaldseans, at the time or soon after Cyrus 
 became king of Persia. 
 
 Such an apparent but not real contradiction would 
 scarcely have been found in the book of a pseudo-Daniel. 
 
 The mention of Chaldteans together with magicians, 
 astrologers, and sorcerers is considered by Professor Sayce 
 as "another note of date." He considers that no writer 
 previous to the fall of Babylon would have done so, because 
 Casdim or Chaldtean was in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar 
 simply a national name, and became only in much later 
 times the name of disreputable fortune-tellers. But, surely, 
 the name all through the book of Daniel is used as a 
 national and an honourable name ; as an honourable name 
 even when coupled with astrologers ; for the Chaldaeans 
 Avere proud of their knowledge of astrology. These men, 
 doubtless, lost credit for a time when they failed to interpret 
 the dream of the great king ; but only for a time, and it is 
 evident that they were renowned for knowledge of many 
 other kinds besides that of astrology. Thus Nebuchadnezzar, 
 himself a Chaldtean, commands that Daniel and his com- 
 panions should be " taught the books and language of the 
 Chaldseans." {Dan. i, 4.) And when they were brought 
 before the king he talked with them, and " found them ten 
 times better than all the engravers of hieroglyphics and 
 magicians that were in all his kingdom." {Dan. i, 20.) 
 
 The Professor has proved the existence from very early 
 times of a varied and elaborate literature in Babylonia. 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 17 
 
 There is, therefore, no reason for thinking that the studies 
 of Daniel had anything to do with that of the magicians. 
 He was naturally classed with the wise men of Babylon, 
 and was nearly losing his life in conseqnence ; but his 
 studies were not like those of the astrologers and magicians, 
 who, instead of being disreputable fortune tellers, were, no 
 doubt, greatly looked np to by the people. Indeed the 
 narrative proves that in every instance Daniel was clearly 
 distinguished from these men. 
 
 Whatever branch of the varied literature he studied it is 
 certain that his reputation as an interpreter of dreams had 
 nothing whatever to do with astrology. In every instance 
 when the soothsayers were summoned by Nebuchadnezzar 
 and afterwards by Eelshazzar they came without Daniel. 
 He comes afterwards and attributes all his skill to Divine 
 Revelation, and not to any kind of magic or astrology. 
 
 V. It is objected that some Persian words are found in 
 Daniel, and a few names supposed to be those of Greek 
 musical instruments. 
 
 Professor Sayce disposes of these objections, and shows 
 that many words thought to be Persian are now known to 
 be Semitic, and that the connection of the Greeks with 
 Western Asia was very ancient and very extensive. But he 
 assumes that Persian words in Daniel, if clearly shown to be 
 such, would indicate a late date of the book. But why so 1 
 
 It would surely be very strange if there were no 
 apparently Persian words in the writings of a man in 
 Daniel's position. 
 
 Half his book is written in Aramaic, for ages the lingua 
 franca of Western Asia. It was certainly spoken in the 
 days of Abraham, and was the language of the merchant 
 and the trader. It was understood by the messengers of 
 Sennacherib and by the educated Jews in the reign of 
 Hezekiah. (2 Kings xviii, 26.) ' 
 
i8 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 Such a language must needs have assimilated many 
 foreign words. The Persians, moreover, were near neigh- 
 bours of the Medes and Elamites. The King of Elam was 
 suzerain of Western Asia in the time of Abraham. More 
 than a century before the captivity of Judah, the King of 
 Assyria placed colonies of the Israelites in the cities of 
 Media. Elani formed part of the empire of Babylon after 
 the fall of Assyria, for we find Daniel, in the third year of 
 Belshazzar, fourteen years before the fall of Babylon, " in 
 Shiishan, in the fortress which is in the province of Elam." 
 {Ban. viii, 2.) 
 
 Is it probable, then, that the language of Daniel, who 
 may have written his book at the beginning of the reign of 
 Cyrus, whether he was writing Hebrew or Aramaic, would 
 have been entirely free from every foreign element ? 
 
 But why did he write his book in two languages? There 
 is no conceivable reason why a spurious writer in the age 
 of the Maccabees should have done so. 
 
 Did he wish to imitate the ancient prophets 1 Then why 
 did he not adopt all through the Hebrew of Ezekiel or 
 Malachi ? 
 
 Did he wish to be more easily understood by his con- 
 temporaries ? Then why is his Aramaic more ancient than 
 the vernacular of his supposed age ? 
 
 On the other hand there is a very obvious and most 
 satisfactory reason why the true Daniel should have written 
 partly in Aramaic and partly in Hebrew. For what parts of 
 his book does he write in Aramaic ? Just those which he 
 wished the Babylonians and heathen to understand ; the 
 account of his interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream ; 
 the record of his folly, of his madness, and of his recovery ; 
 the profaneness and pimishment of Belsliazzar ; and his own 
 deliverance from the lions. And he also writes the account 
 of his dream in the first year of Belshazzar, the vision of the 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 19 
 
 four beasts, in the same language, because it would help the 
 Babylonians to understand the previous dream of their great 
 Iving, and warn them that the fall of Babylon was drawing 
 near. 
 
 Aramaic was not indeed the vernacular of the Baby- 
 lonians, in which language the Professor thinks the magicians 
 ought to have addressed Nebuchadnezzar, but it was a tongue 
 understood by all educated people, and, for ought we know 
 to the contrary, the language of the court in Babylon. At 
 any rate it was a language well-known to Nebuchadnezzar 
 and his wise men, who may have had many reasons for not 
 addressing the king in the language of the common people, 
 when their reputation was in so critical a position. 
 
 All Daniel's other prophecies are written in Hebrew, 
 because they did not concern the Babylonians, but were 
 intended chiefly for his own people. 
 
 As regards the Greek names of musical instruments, 
 nothing is more likely than that Greek musical instruments, 
 if not Greek performers, should have found their way to the 
 luxurious court of great Babylon, even as foreign players 
 and singers are found in our modern Babylons. 
 
 The Greeks were a highly cultivated, talented, and 
 ■colo7iizing race in the time of Daniel. The battle of 
 Marathon was fought little more than forty years after the 
 fall of Babylon. Babylon was itself a merchant city, and 
 had much intercourse with Tyre, the great merchant city of 
 the world. May not Greek instruments have been imported 
 to Babylon ? 
 
 Recent discoveries have also proved, as the Professor has 
 shown, that the intercourse between Greece and Western 
 Asia was much greater and much more ancient than was 
 formerly thought to have been the case. 
 
 Thus the following passage occurs in the quarterly state- 
 ment of the Palestine Exploration Fund of January, 1893, 
 
 page 31 : — 
 
 c 2 
 
LECTURES ON THE 
 
 " The existence of this Cypriote insci-iption, coupled with 
 the discovery of early Greek pottery, at Lachish, goes to 
 show that there must have been a considerable Greek 
 population in Southern Palestine in the seventh and sixth 
 centuries B.C. The Assyrian king Sargon, in describing his 
 campaign against Palestine in B.C. 711, states that Akliimist, 
 whom he had made king of Ashdod, had been dethroned by 
 his subjects, and a Greek, who had no right to the throne, 
 had been made king in his place." 
 
 VI. But the principal objection to the early date of the 
 book of Daniel is that first insisted on by Porphyry, the 
 bitterest enemy of Christianity, towards the close of the 
 third century. His argument, and that of his modern 
 imitators, is mainly this : that the prophecies of Daniel are 
 very clear up to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, but very 
 indistinct after that date. 
 
 It is true, as already stated, that Antiochus is a 
 prominent figure in the foreground of Daniel's picture of the 
 future. But it is not at all true that his predictions, which 
 refer to later ages up to the time of the Second Advent of 
 Christ, are less distinct than those which foreshow the events 
 of the Maccabseau age. 
 
 The best answer therefore to this, which is the only 
 really important objection, will be found in the interpretation 
 of those visions which confessedly relate to events long after 
 the time of Antiochus. 
 
 Now the fundamental vision, to which all the others 
 must be referred, is the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, inter- 
 preted by Daniel; and it is described in the historical portion 
 of the book, in the second chapter. 
 
 The great King of Babylon was meditating. Contem- 
 plating all his glory he began to think what would happen 
 after he was gone to rest. Then he fell asleep, and God 
 gave him in a dream an outline of the future, a symbolic 
 
PROPHECIES OB DANIEL. 
 
 picture of Empire from his own day to the end of all worldly 
 dominion. Starting up in wonder and fear " his spirit was 
 troubled, and his sleep broke from him." 
 
 We cannot tell whether he really did not remember his 
 dream, or whether he pretended to have forgotten it in order 
 to test the wisdom of his magicians. He probably had good 
 reason to suspect them, and argued, that if they could not 
 tell him his dream, they co\ild not explain its meaning. At 
 any rate he wanted to feel certain that he could depend upon 
 their interpretation. They confess their inability to comply 
 with such an unreasonable request, and declare that only 
 Ood could disclose such a secret. 
 
 Did these men, like some of our modern im^Jostors, 
 pretend to be thought-readers? Perhaps they did, and if so, 
 it was natural that the king should take this excellent 
 opportunity of testing their skill. Then, convinced by their 
 failure that he had found them out, he commanded them all 
 to be killed. 
 
 But Daniel and his three friends were reckoned among 
 the wise men of Babylon, and so were involved in the same 
 sentence of death. But they prayed earnestly to God, and 
 " the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision." 
 
 Daniel then reminds the king of his dream, and gives him 
 the interpretation. 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar saw in his sleep a bright and terrible 
 Image of a man. It consisted of different materials, dividing 
 it into five parts. (1.) The head was of fine gold. (2.) The 
 breast and arms were of silver. (3.) The belly and thighs 
 M'ere of brass. (4.) The legs were of iron. (5.) The feet 
 and toes consisted partly of iron and partly of potter's clay. 
 
 While the king, in his dream, was still gazing upon the 
 Image in terror, a Stone, taken out of a mountain without 
 human aid, fell upon the feet and broke not only them but 
 also the whole Image into pieces, whicli " became like the 
 
LECTURES ON THE 
 
 chaff of the summer threshing floor, and the wind carried 
 them away, that no place was found for them. Then the 
 stone which smote the image became a great mountain, and 
 filled the whole earth." 
 
 There can be no doubt whatever about the meaning of 
 this symbol, because God revealed it to Daniel, and he 
 explained it to the king. He is distinctly told that it 
 symbolizes five successive conditions of worldly Empire, so 
 far as it should have any connection with Daniel's people. 
 
 Starting from Babylon there were to be four iiniversal 
 Empires, after which the sovereignty of the world was never 
 again to be in the hands of any one ruler, but held by many 
 kings, who should continually inter-marry and yet never 
 unite as before into one great Empire, until the Kingdom of 
 God should come, destroy them all, and be established for 
 ever. 
 
 Now to the believer in the reality of the prediction of 
 the remote futui-e this prophecy joresents no difficulty what- 
 evei\ We have the beginning and the ending absolutely 
 fixed for us. 
 
 It begins with Babylon. "Thou art this head of gold." 
 It ends with the Kingdom of God and the utter and final 
 annihilation of all worldly sovereignty. When the Stone 
 falls on the feet of the Image, it not only destroys these feet 
 but all the rest of the Image — nothing remains. " Then 
 was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold 
 broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the 
 summer threshing floor, and the wind carried them away 
 that no place was found for them." {Ban. ii, 35.) 
 
 It is impossible to explain away the finality of this. No 
 past event in the history of the world has looked the least 
 like the fulfilment of it. The fulfilment, no doubt, com- 
 menced before the sovereignty of the world was divided. 
 While the Fourth Empire was still in its glory, " the Stone 
 
PROPHECIES OF DA KIEL. 
 
 23 
 
 which the builders refused " appeared. The Kingdom of 
 Christ was founded. He has not yet, however, " put down 
 all rule and all authority and power." But " He must 
 reign, till He hath put all things under His feet." (1 Cor. 
 
 Let US, then, pause here and observe that Daniel predicts 
 a state of things connected with Jerusalem and the Jews, 
 his people, which should continue during the time when 
 this Stone of Nebuchadnezzar's dream should be growing 
 into a great mountain, during the time, that is, as explained 
 to the prophet, in which the Kingdom of God should be 
 spi'eading over the whole world. And thus we have the two 
 following contemporaneous historical conceptions symbolized 
 in these visions, and the meaning of the symbolisms 
 explained to us. And Ave see that the prophecies are in the 
 course of fulfilment before our eyes. 
 
 I, " The abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel 
 the prophet," is still standing where it ought not. Jerusalem 
 was encompassed with armies and destroyed, and its peo[)le 
 have been scattered into all nations, while the city itself is 
 trodden down by the Gentiles. Our Lord Himself tells us 
 that this is the meaning of Daniel's prophecy. He also 
 speaks of it as a desolation which is destined to continue for 
 a very long time; he specifies how long. He tells us when 
 it will end, namely, when " the times of the Gentiles are 
 fulfilled." 
 
 Have we ever sufficiently considered the marvellous 
 exactness of this picture of the future of Jerusalem and its 
 people, predicted by Daniel and explained in fuller detail by 
 Christ? Nothing which Daniel jDredicts about the wars of 
 the kings of Syria and Egypt, or the profanation of the 
 Sanctuary by Antiochus, can for a moment be compared with 
 this in accuracy of detail. 
 
 When Daniel prophesied, and when five centuries later 
 
24 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 our Lord explained and enlarged his prediction, who, except 
 God, could have foreseen the condition of Jerusalem from 
 A. D. 70, to the present day? Has it not been for more than 
 eighteen centuries trodden down by the Gentiles? Is not 
 the mosque of Omar even now "standing where it ought not," 
 even as the Roman eagle stood tliere in earlier centuries? 
 Has not the cry gone up during all these ages, " God, the 
 lieathen are come into Thine inheritance : Thy holy temple 
 have they defiled?" {Vs. Ixxix, 1.) Is not that cry still 
 going up from that ruthlessly persecuted race, who can even 
 now, moi-e truly than during the exile in Babylon, say, "We 
 are become an open shame to our enemies; a very scorn and 
 derision unto them that are round aboiit us. For they have 
 devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling-place." {Ps. 
 Ixxix, 4, 7.) 
 
 But when they say, "Lord, how long wilt Thou be angry; 
 shall Thy jealousy burn like fire for ever?" We can refer 
 them for an answer to their own prophet. Until the Stone, 
 cut out from the mountain without human aid, the Stone 
 which their fathers refused, but which has become the Corner 
 Stone of the Spiritual Temple, has crushed all worldly 
 Empires and has become a great mountain filling the whole 
 earth. We can refer them for a fuller answer to the words 
 of Jesus, "Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles, 
 until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled ! " Or still more, 
 to the inspired words of St. Paul, " Hath God cast off his 
 people ? God forbid. . . . Have they stumbled that they 
 should fall ? God forbid : but rather through their fall 
 salvation is come to the (^icntiles .... God hath concluded 
 them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all." 
 {Rom. xi, 1, 11, 32.) 
 
 II. But contemporaneous with this long desolation of 
 Jerusalem is that other historical conception symbolized 
 in the dream of the king of Babylon, the falling of that 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 
 
 Stone upon the feet of the Image, which is explained to 
 mean the setting up of His Kingdom by the God of heaven ; 
 the planting and growth of that " mustard seed " " which is 
 indeed the least of all seeds : but when it is grown is the 
 greatest among herbs and bccometh a tree." {St. Matt. 
 xiii, 32.) 
 
 These two predictions are being fulfilled together. While 
 Jerusalem is being trodden down by the Gentiles, and her 
 people scattered in all nations, the Kingdom of God is 
 growing, the times of the (ientiles are fulfilling. The 
 Spiritual Temple, the Holy City, the Heavenly Jerusalem 
 spreads more and more, although herself, in a figurative 
 sense, trodden under foot by Gentiles, corrupted by the 
 influx of the worldly and the wicked, and polluted by the 
 spiritual fornication of her rulers and false brethren who 
 worship the woi'ld more than they worship Christ. (Compare 
 Rev. xi, 2, with Rev. xiii, 8.) And this state of things is to 
 continue, not for ever, but " until the times of the Gentiles 
 are fulfilled." 
 
 The great Christian Hierarchy, always the fiercest 
 persecutor of the Jews, must not expect to escape the fate 
 of apostate Israel of old. There is something terribly 
 significant in the words "imtil the times of the Gentiles 
 are fulfilled." And they bring to our minds the warning 
 words of the great Apostle of the Gentiles : " Thou wilt say 
 then, the branches were broken off", that I might be grafted 
 in. Well, because of unbelief they were broken off", and 
 thou standest by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear ; for 
 if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he 
 spare not thee. . . . Blindness in part is happened to 
 Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in." {Rom. 
 xi, 19-32.) 
 
26 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 We have seen that the beginning and ending of Daniel's, 
 fii-st prophecy, his interpretation of the dream of Nebuchad- 
 nezzai', are fixed for us. It begins with the kingdom of 
 Babylon, and ends with the final and complete destruction 
 of all worldly sovereignty by the Kingdom of God. 
 
 It is not true, therefore, that his prophecies are clear up 
 to the time of Antiochus, and less distinct afterwards. On 
 the contrary, his pi'ophecies still in coui'se of fulfilment, pre- 
 dicting the desolation of Jerusalem from A.D. 70 until the 
 Second Advent ; and the long duration of a state of divided 
 Empire in the Roman world, during which the Kingdom of 
 God is growing, and Christ is putting His enemies under 
 His feet, are much clearer and vastly more important than 
 anything connected with Antiochus Epiphanes or the 
 exploits of the Maccabees. 
 
 To prove this, we must show that Daniel's fourth Empire 
 is Rome ; for, if this is the true and obvious interpretation 
 of his prophecies, they contain real predictions of a future 
 quite remote from his day, whether the prophecies were 
 written down, just as we have them now in the Book of 
 Daniel, at the time of the return from the Babylonish exile, 
 or in the age of the Maccabees. 
 
 The Roman Empire is symbolized in Chapter ii by the 
 iron legs and feet of Nebuchadnezzar's Image. The prophet 
 explains that the sj^mbol signifies a state of divided 
 sovereignty, continuing from the time of its division up to 
 the very end, and he specially pi'edicts the notorious 
 historical fact that these sovereigns would continually 
 intermarry, and yet never unite into one Empire as before 
 (ii, 4.3.) 
 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 27 
 
 Is it conceivable that any mere man should have made 
 such a foi'tunato conjecture as this? Is it not notorious 
 that the royal families of the divided Roman world have 
 been for many centuries constantly and exclusively inter- 
 marrying, and yet, contrary to all previous experience from 
 the fall of Babylon to that of ancient Rome, have never 
 again been united inider one supreme ruler? 
 
 Something of the kind certainly happened upon the 
 death of Alexander the Great ; but all his successors were 
 absorbed one by one into the great body of the Roman 
 AVild-beast, as symbolized in Chapter vii. 
 
 The vision of Chapter vii corresponds with and explains 
 the dream of Nebuchadnezzar ; and, like that of Chapter ii, 
 it is described in the Aramfean language in order that the- 
 Babylonians might understand it, and might see how it 
 interprets for them the dream of their great king. 
 
 The successive Empii-es of the world, connected with 
 God's people, were revealed to the prophet in a dream, in 
 the first year of Belshazzar, who is supposed to have reigned 
 together with his father about seventeen years. Babylon, 
 therefore, must have been still in its glory at this time. 
 The end of its dominion, however, was drawing near, so that 
 it was well that the Babylonians should be able to under- 
 stand a prophecy so deeply interesting and so full of 
 meaning to themselves. 
 
 Its fulfilment commences with the fall of Babylon, and 
 terminates, like the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, in the 
 annihilation of all worldly dominion. 
 
 The Prophet in his dream sees four great Wild-beasts 
 rising up out of the sea ; and, in the interpretation given 
 to him, he is told that they are the symbols of four 
 kingdoms which should succeed one another, corresponding, 
 therefore, with the gold, the silver, the brass, and the iron, 
 of the image of Nebuchadnezzar. 
 
28 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 The vision evidently embraces the whole period of time 
 which was to elapse between the f;ill of Babylon, and the 
 final and complete victory of Christ and His Saints. 
 
 The symbol of Babylon and its fall is thus given in 
 vii, 4 : — 
 
 " The first was like a lion and had eagle's wings : I 
 beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was 
 lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as 
 a man, and a man's heart was given to it." 
 
 What a warning hint to Belshazzar and his subjects 
 that their end was approaching ! The meaning was so plain 
 that no detailed interpretation was needed. It was enough 
 for the revealing angel to say, " These great beasts, which 
 are four, are four kings which shall arise out of the earth. 
 But the saints of the Most High shall take the Kingdom, 
 and possess the Kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever." 
 <vii, 17, 18.) 
 
 But the symbol of the fourth Kingdom, referring to the 
 remote future and expressing the culminating interest of 
 the vision, required a much fuller interpretation. 
 
 This closing portion, therefore, of the prophet's dream 
 is given very fully and with much detail. 
 
 The fourth Empire is to be far more powerful and lasting 
 than its predecessors. It is to be quite different from them 
 and to subdue them all, and to continue, though in a divided 
 state, until destroyed by the Son of Man coming in the 
 clouds of heaven. 
 
 Here, then, we have the same sui-e ground for our 
 interpretation as in the case of the great Image. The 
 beginning and the end are fixed for us ; we have only to 
 explain the intervening portions of the prophecy. 
 
 It is not of much consequence to us how we understand 
 the intermediate sj'mbols. The Babylonians were interested 
 in the first; and the Jews during the Persian and Mace- 
 
PROPHECIES OF DAXIEL. 29 
 
 donian periods were deeply concerned with the second and 
 third ; the silver of the Image and the bear of this vision ; 
 the brass of the Image and the leopard of this vision. Bnt 
 all our interest centres in Rome and the Second Advent 
 and final victory of the Son of Man. 
 
 This fourth wild-beast corresponds with the legs and feet 
 of the great Image, but adds some details. 
 
 It is described as having Ten Horns, corresponding with 
 the ten toes of the Image, there explained to signify divided 
 empire ; not predicting that there should be exactly ten 
 sovereigns who would divide the dominion of the Roman 
 world between them, but showing that the Empire of the 
 world would be divided. No other number for divided 
 dominion could have been consistently given, the funda- 
 mental vision being that of the image of a man. 
 
 The previous vision represents these possessors of the 
 divided sovereignty, once held by Rome, as frequently inter- 
 marrying and yet never uniting into one kingdom. 
 
 But the prophet sees one, rising up among these ten, 
 more powerful than the rest, and uprooting three of them. 
 And the excessive wickedness of this ruler brings down the 
 judgment of God upon the whole world. "I beheld then 
 because of the voice of the great words which the horn 
 spake. I beheld until the beast was slain, and his body 
 destroyed and given to the burning flame . . . and I saw 
 in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of Man 
 came with the clouds of heaven . . . and there was given 
 him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom . . . his dominion 
 is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and 
 his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed" (vii, II, 14). 
 
 Two facts, then, render it impossible for any believer to 
 regard this fourth kingdom as any other than Rome. Many 
 attem]3ts have been made to escape from the stringency of 
 this evidence for the truth by identifying Daniel's fourth 
 
30 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 kingdom with that of Alexander or his successors. But no 
 ingenious manipulation of history or of the plain words of 
 Daniel can render this identification even probable. 
 
 1. Daniel's fourth Empire is evidently the most endnring 
 and the very last in the history of the world. Bnt that of 
 Alexander lasted only a few years, was then divided between 
 less than ten, and these were soon absorbed by Rome, which, 
 first iniited and then divided, has already lasted 2,000 
 years, and, as Daniel prophesies, will last until all worldly 
 sovereignty is finally annihilated, until the Son of Man puts 
 down "all rule and all authority and power" (1 Co7\ xv, 
 24). 
 
 2. And, secondly. Our Saviour distinctly speaks of 
 Daniel's most important prophecy as future in His day, 
 identifying Himself with the predicted Son of Man Who was 
 to come for judgment in the clouds of heaven. 
 
 Bnt if any doubt still remains it must be removed by 
 the corresponding vision of St. John. He, as all believers 
 and unbelievers alike admit, represents Rome by the same 
 symbol as that of Daniel's fourth kingdom. 
 
 And here it is interesting to observe how evidently 
 Daniel and St. John look at Rome from two widely differing 
 stand-points as regards time. 
 
 To Daniel Rome was future ; to St. John it was present. 
 Observe, then, how the Omniscient Spirit, Who impressed 
 these symbols upon the imaginations of the two prophets, 
 adds details to the symbol of St. John in accordance with the 
 standpoint of the Christian Seer. 
 
 The Spirit in Daniel is looking forward ; the same Spirit 
 in St. John is looking back as well as forward. And, there- 
 fore, the standpoint of each prophet is clearly marked. 
 
 The fourth Beast of Daniel has three predecessors- 
 The winged Lion of Babylon, the Bear of Medo-Persia, and 
 the Leopard of Macedonia. Then his fourth Beast has no 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 
 
 31 
 
 name, but he subdues all his predecessors ; leaves theui for 
 a time some measure of national independence, and even- 
 tually absorbs them into his own body. 
 
 Consistently with his later standpoint, as looking back 
 from Kome to Babylon, instead of looking forward from 
 Babylon to Rome, St. John describes a Beast whose body is 
 formed of the more important members of the Beasts of 
 Daniel which preceded him, and he naturally reverses the 
 order of the names of the former Beasts. In Daniel we have 
 the Lion, the Bear, and the Leopard, and then the Beast 
 who devours them all. In St. John the all-devouring Beast 
 appears with the body of the Leopard, the paws of the Bear, 
 and the mouth of the Lion. " The beast which I saw was 
 like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, 
 and his mouth as the mouth of a lion." {Rev. xiii, 2.) 
 
 Then, further, this Beast of St. John, the embodiment 
 of all the Beasts of Daniel, is more clearly identified with 
 Rome by the addition of seven heads, explained by the 
 prophet to be a double sign, first, of seven successive phases 
 of the world-power, and secondly, of the seven hills of the 
 city then ruling the world. " Here is the mind which hath 
 wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the 
 woman sitteth. And there are seven kings : five are fallen, 
 and one is, and the other is not yet come." {Rev. xvii, 9, 10.) 
 
 The divided state of the Roman world, up to the time 
 immediately preceding the Second Advent, is also represented 
 by ten horns springing out of the seventh head of the Beast. 
 
 The representative in St. John of the Little Horn of 
 Daniel seems to be the Image of the Beast set up by another 
 ecclesiastical power, less noticed in Daniel because his 
 prophecies refer almost exclusively to the fortunes of his 
 own people. 
 
 The fallen image of Imperial Rome was resuscitated by 
 the Pope in the person of Charles the Great, in a.d. 800. 
 
32 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 Ever since that time kings aiming at universal sovereignty 
 have represented in their age the partially developed Little 
 Horn of Daniel, being, like Antiochus of old, types of the 
 final Antichrist, whose pride and wickedness shall eventually 
 call down the judgment of God upon the Roman world, end- 
 ing in the annihilation of all worldly rule, and th'e final and 
 complete victory of the Son of Man, spoken of alike by 
 Daniel and the Apostolic Seer. " I beheld then because of 
 the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the 
 beast was slain, and his body destroyed and given to the 
 burning flame, and I saw one like the Son of Man come with 
 the clouds of heaven .... and there was given unto Him 
 dominion and glory and a kingdom . . . which shall not 
 pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be 
 destroyed." {Dan. vii, 11, 14.) 
 
 In like manner, in the Apocalypse, He Who is King of 
 Kings and Lord of Lords comes crowned with many diadems, 
 destroys the kings of the earth, the false prophet, and the 
 Serpent, and takes His Kingdom and reigns for ever and 
 ever. {Rev. xix — xxii). 
 
 And here again it is very important to observe that 
 Daniel and St. John look upon the same powers of the 
 world, not only from a very different standpoint as regards 
 time, the one prophesying during the rule of Babylon and 
 the other during that of Rome, but also with a very different 
 purpose. 
 
 The Spirit reveals to Daniel that which is to be the 
 condition of his own people, the Jews, and their perse- 
 cution by the powers of the world. His visions are for the 
 instruction and comfort of the Jews under their troubles. 
 To St. John the Spirit predicts the condition of the Christian 
 Church in the world. 
 
 To Daniel the angel says, " I am come to make thee 
 understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days." 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 33 
 
 (J)an. X, 14.) To St. John it is said, "He that hath an 
 ear, let him hear what the Spirit saitli to the Cliurches." 
 {Rtv. ii, 29.) 
 
 Nearly all the commentators I have consulted have failed 
 to observe this widely different point of view of the two 
 seers. Moses Stuart, indeed, very sti'ongly insists upon it ; 
 but then he considers that Daniel's outlook does not reach 
 beyond the founding of the Christian Church or Kingdom 
 of Christ at the First Advent. 
 
 But it is impossible so to limit Daniel's prophecies. He 
 manifestly predicts the final and complete annihilation of 
 all worldly sovereignty, the resurrection of the dead, and 
 coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven for the 
 Judgment of the world. Besides which, as we have seen, 
 Our Saviour applies his prophecy of the abomination of 
 desolation to the state of Jerusalem and the dispersion of 
 the Jews up to the very end of the dominion of the Gentiles : 
 " Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the 
 times of the Gentiles be fulfilled " (St. Luke xxi, 24), a 
 prediction corresponding with that of Daniel: "When he 
 shall have completed the dispersion of the holy people, all 
 these things shall be finished." [Dan. xii, 7.) 
 
 Now the careful observance of this distinction between 
 the prophecies of Daniel and St. John throws a flood of 
 light upon the visions of the Hebrew prophet. 
 
 To both the prophets is given a symbol of the same great 
 Roman world, first as a united Empire, then as an Empire 
 divided into two parts, and then as that community of kings 
 which Gibbon calls " the great republic of the West." 
 
 They both behold a Ten-horned Wild-beast rising up 
 out of the troubled sea of nations. To both the prophets 
 he is shown to be the enemy of God's people. But to 
 St. John he appears as the corrupter and murderer of 
 faithful Christians ; to Daniel as the ruthless persecutor of 
 the Jews. 
 
 D 
 
34 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 Thus St. John writes : " It was given unto him to make 
 war with the saints and to overcome them .... and all 
 that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names 
 are not written from the foundation of the world in the book 
 of the Lamb that was slain." {Rev. xiii, 7, 8.) These saints 
 are evidently faithful Christians, whether originally Jews 
 or Gentiles. 
 
 But Daniel's people are the Jews, and so this is the 
 comforting message which he delivers to them : " At that 
 time shall Michael stand up, the great Prince which standeth 
 for the children of thy people ; and there shall be a time of 
 trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to 
 that same time ; and at that time thy people shall be 
 delivered, every one that shall be found written in the 
 book," {Dan. xii, 1.) And at that time, no doubt, the 
 saying of St. Paul will be made good : " He hath concluded 
 them all in unbelief that he may have mercy upon all." 
 {Rom. xi, 32.) I 
 
 And now, before proceeding further, let us see whether 
 historians give us the same view of the dominion of Rome 
 and its persecution of the Jews. 
 
 The Roman world is symbolised in Daniel's prophecy by 
 the iron legs and feet of a great Image, and its divided con- 
 dition by the toes of the feet, consisting pai'tly of iron and 
 partly of clay ; and in the prophecies of both Daniel and 
 St. John by a great Wild-beast with Ten Horns. Does 
 history explain this symbolism ! 
 
 1. Freeman thus describes the origin, enduring do- 
 minion and central position of Rome in the history of the 
 world : — 
 
 " The nations which have stood out foremost among all 
 have been the Greeks, the Romans, and the Teutons, and 
 among these it is the Romans who form the centre of the 
 whole story. Rome alone founded a universal empire in 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 35 
 
 which all earliei' history loses itself, and out of which all 
 later history grew. That empire, at the time of its greatest 
 extent, took in the whole of what was then the civilized 
 world, that is to say, the countries round about the 
 Mediterranean Sea, alike in Europe, Asia, and Africa. The 
 Roman Empire was formed by gradually bringing under its 
 dominion all the countries within those bounds which had 
 already begun to have any history, those which we may call 
 the states of the old world. And it was out of the breaking 
 up of the great dominion of Rome that what we call the 
 states of the new world, the kingdoms, and nations of 
 modern Europe, gradually took their rise. (Freeman's 
 General Sketch, p. 15.) 
 
 We cannot think that the writer of these words 
 intended to interpret for us the visions of Daniel and 
 St. John. But it would be difficult to invent a better 
 symbol of this historical conception than that of St. John's 
 Wild-beast embodying in himself the members of Daniel's 
 symbols of previous kingdoms and then putting forth Ten 
 Horns, the symbols of divided sovereignty. 
 
 2. Then, secondly, what does history tell us about the 
 persecutions of the Jews? 
 
 It is notorious, as already observed, that Jerusalem has 
 been in the hands of the Gentiles ever since a.d. 70, and is 
 so now ; that the Jews have been scattered over the whole 
 world, from a date long before that time, and are in that 
 condition still, despised, hated, and persecuted, wherever 
 they have been. 
 
 But who have been their most constant and ruthless 
 persecutors ? 
 
 With deep shame we must confess ; Christians and the 
 rulers of the Christian Hierarchy. 
 
 This fact, I fear, is too commonly forgotten, but when 
 we realise it, it sheds much light upon these visions of the 
 Hebrew prophet. 
 
 D2 
 
36 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 What, then, does history tell us on this point 1 "What 
 treatment have the Jews received at the hands of the rulers 
 and people of Christendom ? 
 
 Those who wish full information on this painful subject 
 should read Dr. Dollinger's " Studies in European History " ; 
 Essay IX on " The Jews in Europe." 
 
 " The fate of the Jewish people," he writes, " is i^erhaps 
 the most moving drama in the history of the world." 
 Although the Romans destroyed Jerusalem, and put down 
 frequent insurrections of the Jews under false Christs with 
 a strong hand, their condition under heathen Rome was not 
 much worse than that of many other subject people. At 
 any rate they were not persecuted by the heathens as they 
 Avere afterwards by Christians. " They were, upon the 
 whole, rather protected and favoured than oppressed by the 
 Emperors ; their elders even enjoyed particular privileges." 
 
 They were persecuted, indeed, but not with the open 
 sanction of the ruling powers. " Enemies of Gods and men \ 
 So rang the cry of the heathen poj)ulace against a nation 
 Avhose springs of action were incomprehensible. About the 
 time of the Conquest of Judaea the Jews were not in- 
 fi'equently sacrificed by thousands to the fury of the 
 heathen populace." 
 
 Professor Ramsay also writes thus : " The imperial 
 policy was, from the time of Julius Csesar onwards, almost 
 invariably favourable to the Jews." They were often the. 
 objects of general hatred ; "but so far from yielding to the 
 popular feeling in this case, the imperial policy protected 
 the Jews on many occasions from popular dislike." " With 
 the Jews it was found possible to separate their religion 
 from their organization. The destruction of the temple, 
 indeed, had to be completed under Hadrian by the 
 destruction of Jerusalem, and the foundation of a new 
 Roman city there. But to a great extent after 70, an3 
 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. yj 
 
 completely after 134, the Jews accepted the situation 
 assigned them by the state — religious toleration on condi-' 
 tion of acquiescence in the unity of the Roman Empire." 
 ("The Church in the Roman Empire," i^p. 19, 354, 355.) 
 
 It is true, indeed, and was to be expected that the Jews, 
 when persecuted, should often retaliate with ferocity when 
 they had an opportunity. " Jewish fanaticism was bitter 
 and bloody in its reprisals on the heathen . . . but assuredly 
 the hand of Edom pressed hard upon Israel when it ex- 
 changed the eagle of the Roman Legions for the Labarum 
 and its cross. . . Then the Emperors on the one side and 
 the Rabbis on the other began between them to compose 
 the pages, stained with tears and blood, which make up the 
 Jewish Chronicle in the West. . . In that long and most 
 misex'able contest, which we read with shame and remorse 
 even at the distance of centuries, he that took the sword 
 wielded it blindly ; but the revolted Jew, living in the 
 midst of a great multitude which was too strong for 
 him, and always in the end suffering defeat, fell at length 
 into despair. His fanaticism did not abandon him ; it 
 became a dumb and secret passion, lying deep in his breast ; 
 or it whispered and moaned in Hebrew Strophes, the saddest 
 ever breathed by human lips, when the doors wei'e closed 
 and no informers were lurking within to carry the matter." 
 {Quarterly Review, Jaii., 1893, pp. 117, 118.) 
 
 It is pleasant to think that the early Christians treated 
 the Jews in accordance with the spirit of Christianity. 
 '•' The primitive Churches remained faithful in this matter 
 to the example and word of their Master and to the teaching 
 of the Apostles. . . The wisest and the most esteemed 
 amongst the fathers of the Church taught that the Jews are 
 brethren who have temporarily gone astray, but will sooner 
 or later return to their Father's House. . . They are and 
 will ever remain our brethren, who will in due time be 
 
38 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 united to us whenever we, through our faith and Hfe, shall 
 have roused them to emulation with us." 
 
 It is sad to read what Dr. Dollinger then goes on to 
 say : " These sentiments of the older Church were obliter- 
 ated, however, when Christianity became the religion of the 
 state in Rome. . . Ambrose pronounced the burning of a 
 synagogue in Rome to be a deed well pleasing to God. . . 
 The Christian Emperors had made no essential alteration in 
 their legislation concerning the rights and privileges of the 
 Jews until Theodosius II, in the year 439, excluded them 
 from all offices, even municipal . . . and . . . this may be 
 regarded as an indication of their position in the Eastern 
 Roman Empire as well as in Europe." 
 
 From this time onward the condition of this afflicted 
 people became, century after century, worse and worse. A 
 few instances of the way in which they were treated may 
 be mentioned. 
 
 " When the hosts of the Crusaders set out for the war 
 against the Mohammedans in Asia, they first murdered the 
 Jews in their homes and plundered their houses. The 
 establishment of the Kingdom of Jerusalem was inaugurated 
 by the burning of the Jewish inhabitants together with 
 their synagogues. These were the acts of fanatical, un- 
 disciplined bands. Yet by princes also and by people, by 
 priests and laymen, it was only natural that the decisions 
 of Popes and Councils should be taken as the standard for 
 the behaviour of Christians towards Jews." 
 
 " Kings and nobles everywhere set the example of law- 
 less oppression, ill-treatment, and robbery of Jews, and no 
 instance is to be found of the Popes rebuking their pro- 
 ceedings, or interfering to take the part of the oppressed. 
 On the contrary, when Philij:) Augustus despoiled and 
 banished the French Jews, Celestine III pronounced that 
 he had acted out of godly zeal. So when an ecclesiastical 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 
 
 prince, to make sure of his ground, petitioned the Pope 
 for permission to exile the Jews, it was willingly accorded." 
 
 Such for many ages was the conduct of the so-called 
 infallible Church, and its Popes and Councils ! 
 
 There must have been individuals who had more 
 Christian feeling towards these outcasts ; and yet even in 
 the heart, which beat beneath " the saintly monarch's mailed 
 breast," there was little pity for them. " Even Louis IX, 
 equally convinced that ... all Jews in the land were his 
 l)ond-servants, forced them several times to ransom them- 
 selves, and, when he thought he had extorted sufficient 
 from them, banished them from the kingdom and confiscated 
 what they still possessed." 
 
 It is deeply humiliating to have to record that not only 
 the heathen Romans but even the Mohammedans treated 
 the Jews far better than the Chi'istians did from the fourth 
 or fifth century to the time of the Reformation, and even 
 be^'ond that time, and in some countries up to the present 
 day. 
 
 Individual Popes, here and there, in the earlier centuries, 
 notably Gregory the Great, showed a more merciful spirit ; 
 but in the ninth century, " an exceedingly hostile tone had 
 in Rome already taken the place of the old clemency." 
 
 " Foremost in heightening the severity of the already 
 merciless legislation directed by the Church against the 
 Jews was Eugene IV. . . . It is a matter of astonishment, 
 if all the regulations were strictly enforced, how these 
 people could have carried on their wretched existence." 
 
 The whole Hierarchy was involved in this sin, for 
 " where Popes failed to interfere, the Councils of the various 
 countries made amends for the omission." 
 
 " Thomas Aquinas, whose teaching was received by the 
 whole Roman Church as unassailable, pronounced that 
 since the race was condemned to perpetual bondage, princes 
 
40 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 could dispose of the possessions of the Jews just as they 
 would of their own. ... A long list of canonical writers 
 maintained, upon the same ground, the right of princes and 
 governors to seize upon the sons and daughters of Jews, 
 and have them baptized by force." 
 
 Such has been the infallible Church of many centuries ! 
 Such is the orthodox Russian Church apparentl}^ at the 
 present day ! Well may the World-power, worshipped by 
 such a Church, be symbolized by a many-horned and all- 
 devouring Wild-beast, the ruthless pei'secutor of Daniel's 
 people. 
 
 We might have suspected Mahomet and the Mahome- 
 dan power to be prefigured by the Little Horn of Daniel. 
 But history tells us that the Mahomedans have been far 
 more merciful and tolerant in their treatment of the Jews 
 than the rulers of Christendom in Church and State. 
 
 " Cardinal Jacob de Vitry, who was well acquainted with 
 the East, observes about the year 1244, that amongst the 
 Mahomedans the Jews were enabled to carry on certain 
 occupations, although of the lowest and most despised kind ; 
 but that amongst the Christians they lived by putting 
 money out at interest. This cannot but force us to reflect 
 of what benefit it would have been to the world, both 
 Christian and Jewish, if a Cardinal or Pope in those days 
 could have taken to heart this contrast between the Jews 
 under the Koran and the Jews vnidcr the Cross, and have 
 drawn the practical conclusion, which is obvious. In the 
 same way the Jews were debarred, as a rule, from the 
 medical profession, although in Mohammedan countries it 
 was in the art of medicine that they attained to great 
 renown. But Councils had forbidden the sick, under pain 
 of excommunication, to receive remedies from a Jewish 
 physician." 
 
 " Under the Moorish Government in Spain the lot of 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 41 
 
 this persecuted, tormented people was more tolerable than 
 in any Christian country." 
 
 A traveller among the Moors in North Africa, in the 
 sixteenth century, writes thus to a friend: "At a little 
 distance is the Jewish town, surronnded by its own walls, 
 containing eight or nine synagogues, and about four 
 thousand inhabitants, most of them well educated, and 
 paying tribute to the Arab sovereign." ..." I am here," 
 he writes, " in the midst of Jews. . . They know nothing 
 of us, except that we burn them alive. How foolish and 
 cruel we are ! ^V^ould it not be much better to refute their 
 errors by reasoning and learning, than to burn both them 
 and their books, which they would be themselves the first 
 to destroy when once we had made them into sincere 
 Christians." He means not their Bible, but their Talmud 
 and Traditions. {(Quarterly Revieiv, January, 1893, p. 164.) 
 
 And here we see why it was that the Jews in Christian 
 countries were compelled to live b}' iisury. It was not so 
 at first, but they were driven to this because they were 
 debarred from every other means of living. In early times, 
 as a matter of principle, every Jew was taught some useful 
 trade by which, if necessity should arise, he might be able 
 to earn his bread. As a necessary consequence of their 
 being compelled to deal in money they became the creditors 
 of Christians, and were often persecuted and plundered by 
 them for that reason. 
 
 A theory, too, was started in the middle ages that all 
 taking of interest for loans was sinful. Our Savioui-'s words 
 in St. Luke vi, 35, " lend, hoping for nothing again " have 
 no reference to the taking of interest on loans, and are more 
 correctly translated from the Greek in the Revised Version, 
 " Lend, never despairing, or despairing of no man." But 
 *' Popes and councils, relying upon the Latin and incorrect 
 translation of our Lord's words . . . had since the end 
 
42 . LECTURES ON THE 
 
 of the eighth century unanimously and with inci'casing- 
 vehemence condemned and threatened with the punishments 
 of the Church anyone who should lend capital at interest in 
 whatever form. In the early Church only ecclesiastics 
 had been forbidden to receive interest, but with the growing 
 influence of the papal chair the prohibition was extended to 
 laymen. . . . All trade and commerce were by this means 
 intolerably shackled." " In this way the Church had placed 
 herself in opposition to natural laws, to the exigencies of 
 civil life, and to the general intercourse of mankind. . . ." 
 But everyone wanted money, " and since money-lending was 
 strictly forbidden to Christians, and could only be carried on 
 by them under course of many formalities and in roundabout 
 ways, the Jews who were debarred from all other lines of 
 industry and situations in life here stepped in." 
 
 It is not difficult to see how this strange misinter- 
 pretation of Scripture by the infallible Church affected the 
 position of the Jews, and led to their debtors becoming, as in 
 Russia in the present day, their most unrelenting and 
 interested persecutors. 
 
 We dare not hope that this sin of Christians, persisted in 
 even now in some countries, will not bring down upon 
 Christendom a terrible punishment. Let us, therefore, close 
 this part of our subject with the words of the Greek Bishop 
 of Zante, recorded in the Times of November '2nd, 1892: — - 
 "The persecution directed against the Jewish people is. 
 such a great sin that it will never obtain the pardon of the 
 Almighty. The founders of Christendom issued forth from 
 the Jews, and now this race is scorned and oppressed. It is 
 one of the first and most important peoples in the world. 
 What profound injustice characterises the persecution of the 
 Jewish people, who are guilty of no other crime than that of 
 remaining true to the faith of their forefathers ? It is to 
 them that we owe the true knowledge of the Divinity, the 
 
PROPHECIES OF DA XI EL. 43 
 
 sense of justice, the love of our neighbours, the sanctity 
 of family ties, and the respect for the Holy Scriptures. And 
 for all this ai'e we to reward them with bitter feeling? Are 
 we to acknowledge the covmtless benefits we have received 
 through them by shedding their blood? In future I and my 
 jiious brethren will be animated but by one hope, namely, 
 that we may be grateful to the Creator for preserving this 
 much persecuted people in order that it may share the 
 blessings of the human I'ace." 
 
 Those who wash to go more deeply into this painful sub- 
 ject will do well to read " The history of the Jews from the 
 earliest times to the present day," by Professor H. Graetz. 
 
 But enough has been said in the above extracts from Dr. 
 Dollinger's ninth essay to make us feel, in the words of the 
 reviewer of Professor Graetz work, that "since the world 
 began, there never was a tragedy at once so grand and so 
 pitiable." {Quarterly Review, January, 1893.) 
 
44 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 
 We have seen that history has fixed for us the beginning 
 and the end, the meaning of the first and last symbols of 
 the two fundamental prophecies of Daniel ; the Image of 
 Nebuchadnezzar's dream, and the vision of the four Wild- 
 beasts of chapter vii. 
 
 Daniel's foiirth kingdom must be that of Rome and the 
 kingdoms of the divided Roman world, for the Spirit 
 explains to him that it is to endure until all worldly 
 sovereignty is annihilated by the Son of Man coming in the 
 clouds of heaven ; and the history of twenty centuries inter- 
 prets for us his pi'ediction. 
 
 This being determined it matters little how we under- 
 stand the intermediate symbols. But if Rome is the fourth 
 kingdom connected with Daniel's people, then the Medo- 
 Persian must be the second, and the Macedonian the third. 
 
 The Medo-Persian empire, therefore, is symbolized by the 
 silver of the Image and by the bear of chapter vii ; and the 
 Macedonian by the brass of the Image and the four-headed 
 four-winged leopard of the vision of Daniel. 
 
 But these intermediate Empires, though of little conse- 
 quence to us, had a very important part to play, as regards 
 the Jews, between the age of Daniel and the final establish- 
 ment of the Roman Power. They are, therefore, dealt with 
 in more detail in chapter viii. 
 
 This vision was given in the third year of Belshazzar, 
 when the kingdom of Babylon was as yet undisturbed by 
 the insurrection of its Median and Persian provinces, and 
 had fourteen years of undisputed dominion before it. But 
 it is written in Hebrew, because it was of less interest to the 
 Babylonians, dealing as it does with two Empires not then 
 cxistinfj. 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 45 
 
 The Medes, we know, were two centuries before under the 
 rule of Assyria, for the Assyrian king deported the ten tribes 
 of Israel to the cities of the Medes. And the statement that 
 Daniel was in the neighbouring province of Elam when he 
 saw this vision, and had business to transact there for the 
 king, would seem to prove that the dominion of Babylon 
 must have been equally extensive. He is no longer Prime 
 Minister of the King of Babylon, but is employed by him in 
 some office in a distant province. 
 
 This may account for Belshazzar's ignorance of him about 
 fourteen years after. At that time he seems to have been 
 living in Babylon as a very old man in comparative obscurity. 
 And he was brought into notice again, when he read the 
 writing on the wall, and was consequently placed in a high 
 position under Darius the Mede. 
 
 He Avas in Elam, then, when he saw the vision recorded 
 in chapter viii, and there is no doubt about the meaning of 
 the symbols because they are explained to him. 
 
 The Medo-Persian Empire is symbolized by a Ram with 
 two Horns. Horns are always the symbols of jjower, and 
 these two Horns, he is told, stand for " the Kings of Media 
 and Persia." The Horn which comes up second is higher 
 than the first, indicating the superiority of Persia over 
 Media. His power spreads " Westward, and Northward, 
 and Southward." 
 
 Then the Macedonian conquests are very graphically 
 represented by the sudden, rapid, and violent approach of a 
 rough Goat. The conspicuous Horn of this creature stands 
 for Alexander the Gi'eat ; and the subsequent division of his 
 kingdom "to the four winds," and the possession of his 
 divided Empire by his Generals, and not by his children, 
 is thus described : " The great horn that is between his eyes 
 is the first king. Now, that being broken, whereas four 
 stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the 
 
46 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 nation, but not in his power." That is, not witli dominion 
 equal to his, or not being his lineal descendants. 
 
 We need not look for exactly four kingdoms among the 
 successors of Alexander, any more than we look for exactly 
 ten possessors of the divided Roman world. The number 
 four is mentioned in allusion to the expression several times 
 employed " toward the four winds " (viii, 8, and xi, 4). The 
 kingdom of Alexander, while at the height of its strength, 
 is " broken, and in its place came up four notable horns 
 toward the four winds." 
 
 Out of one of these four that Power arises which all 
 critics, believers and unbelievers alike, admit to represent 
 the Syrian kingdom of Antiochus Epiphanes. It is very 
 important to observe that this conspicuous eaemy of Daniel's 
 people is symbolized by a Little Horn coming forth out of 
 one of these four kingdoms. 
 
 In chapter vii we read of a Little Horn rising up among 
 the Ten Horns of the fourth Beast, and not out of one of 
 them. And then in chapter xi we read of a great perse- 
 cuting Power who must be identified with one or both of 
 these. 
 
 Our success, therefore, in interpreting the prophecy mainly 
 depends on our being able to show in what points these 
 three predictions resemble each other, and in what points 
 they differ. 
 
 The critics, who consider that the book of Daniel was 
 written after the death of Antiochus Epiphanes in the 
 second century before Christ and by an after-prophet, 
 assuming the name of Daniel and pretending to predict that 
 which he was really describing in symbolical language, 
 interpret the Little Horn of chapter vii, the Little Horn of 
 chapter viii, and the persecuting King of the North of 
 chapter xi, as all three alike symbolizing the Macedonian 
 King of Syria. 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 
 
 47 
 
 We must first, therefore, examine very carefully the two 
 IH-edictions of chapters vii and viii, which both describe a 
 persecuting, God-opposing Power, under the symbol of a 
 Little Horn, and see whether it is possible that they both 
 refer to Antiochus ; or whether details are mentioned con- 
 cerning them which clearly distinguish them from one 
 another. 
 
 Now when we look closely into the matter we find that 
 both prophecies agree in one point and in one only, namely, 
 in the fact that they both describe a blasphemous, perse- 
 cuting, and God-opposing Power under the symbol of a 
 Little Horn. In all other respects they hopelessly differ 
 from one another. 
 
 L They assign to the Power a different origin. 
 
 The Little Horn of chapter vii rises up among and not oitt 
 of the ten kingdoms which divide between them the 
 dominion of the fourth or Roman kingdom. 
 
 The Little Horn of chapter viii comes forth out of one of 
 t\\Q four kingdoms into which Alexander's Empire, just when 
 it had become strong, being suddenly broken, was divided 
 " to the four winds." 
 
 Thus the origin of the first is from one of ten kingdoms ; 
 the origin of the second is from one oi four. 
 
 2. Then they assign to the Power a very different end. 
 
 The Little Horn of chapter vii continues up to the very 
 Day of Judgment. His blasphemous words and persecution 
 of the Saints, towards the end of his time, call down upon 
 him and upon the whole world the judgment of God and the 
 final annihilation of all worldly sovereignty, ending in the 
 establishment of the Eternal Kingdom of the Son of Man, 
 coming in the clouds of heaven. 
 
 The description given of his end is too plain to be 
 misunderstood. " I beheld then because of the voice of the 
 great words which the Horn spake : I beheld even until the 
 
48 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 beast was slain, and his body was destroyed, and givei* 
 to the burning flame." {Dan. vii, 11.) And the interpretation 
 is thus given: " He shall speak great words against the Most 
 High, and shall wear out the Saints of the Most High . . . 
 but the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his- 
 dominion, to consume and to destroy it vmto the end. And 
 the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom 
 under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the 
 Saints of the Most High, whose Kingdom is an everlasting 
 Kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him."' 
 {Dan. vii. 25-27.) 
 
 Vei-y different is the end of the Little Horn of chapter viii. 
 Of him it is merely said, while he is standing up against the 
 Prince of princes, that " He shall be broken without hand ;" 
 that is, shall die without human action ; a fact strictly true 
 of Antiochus Epiphanes, who died a natural death after 
 an infamous reign of about eleven years. And not a word is 
 added as to that which is to follow after his death. It is 
 merely stated that a time would come when the sanctuary, 
 which he had polluted, should be finally cleansed. 
 
 3. Then the Little Horn of chapter vii, not only rises up 
 among ten contemporaneous kings, but is " more stout than 
 his fellows," and plucks up three of these ten kingdoms by 
 the roots. Towards the end also he becomes the dominant 
 and supreme Power among them, their leader in the great 
 final I'ebellion of the world against God, and the persecutor 
 of His people. 
 
 The Little Horn of chapter viii, on the other hand, has- 
 nothing to do with three out of ten powers. He stands up 
 and acts alone as a single power, a circumstance connected 
 M'ith him which we shall see more cleai'ly when we come to 
 the vision of chapter xi. 
 
 4. Although both of these Little Horns oppose and 
 blaspheme God and persecute His people, the effects of their 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 49 
 
 misconduct are represented as continuing during widely 
 different periods of time. 
 
 The vision of chapter viii is connected with a period of 
 time symbolized by 2300 days ; but that of chapter vii with 
 a period symbolized by " A time, times, and an half," an 
 expression signifying three years and an half, and elsewhere 
 explained as signifying 1290 days. This is clear from a 
 comparison of Daniel xii, 7, with xii, 11. The question is 
 asked, " How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?" 
 The answer is, " For a time, times and an half" But in 
 xii, 11, it is said that the desolation is to last for "a thousand 
 two hundred and ninety days." In the Revelation of St. 
 John we have the same expression " a time, times and an 
 half," shown to mean three years and an half from being 
 identified with forty-two months and 1260 days. We shall 
 see further on why Daniel speaks of 1290 days and St. John 
 of 1260. For the present it will be sufficient to observe 
 that, whatever may be the meaning of these enigmatical 
 numbers, they show at any rate that the Little Horns of 
 chapter vii and viii cannot symbolize the same Power, being 
 connected with such widely different numbers. I hope to 
 show in the course of these lectures that the Little Horn of 
 chapter viii refers to Antiochus Epiphanes, but that of 
 chapter vii to a power rising up at a very much later date 
 in the history of the world, and continuing until destroyed 
 by the coming of the Son of Man. 
 
 We must now face the hardest problem in the book, the 
 interpretation of the last three chapters. We must try to 
 ascertain how far the persecuting King of the North resembles 
 the Little Horns of chapters vii and viii, and how far he 
 differs from them. 
 
 And here again our safest guides will be the evident 
 beginning and end of the whole vision. If we can deter- 
 mine these, the interpretation of that which intervenes will 
 be less important, and may be left in much uncertainty. 
 
 E 
 
50 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 The beginning of the vision is explained to the prophet, 
 so that there can be no doubt about its meaning. It- begins 
 with the third year of Cyrus, and so is the latest of Daniel's 
 visions. It differs from those of chapters ii, vii, and viii, in 
 that it was given by an Angel, when, like St. John, the 
 prophet was in a dream or trance and heard spoken words 
 predicting the future without the intervention of symbols. 
 Instead of symbols, historical persons and events of the 
 nearer future typify and pre-figure those of the more 
 remote. 
 
 Why do we say this ? Because the vision manifestly 
 extends to the Day of Judgment; to the time when the 
 dispersion of Daniel's people shall be over, when they are 
 to be delivered out of their troubles, and the troubles of 
 the closing ages of the world ; " Every one that shall be 
 found written in the book"; when "Many of them that 
 sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to ever- 
 lasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 
 And they that are wise shall shine as the brightness of the 
 firmament ; and they that turn many to righteousness as 
 the stars for ever and ever." {Dan. xii, 1-3.) 
 
 This vision, then, starts from Cyrus, and ends with 
 the resurrection of the dead. How is it with the earlier 
 visions % 
 
 Chapter ii, the Image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, starts 
 from Babylon, and ends with the annihilation of all worldly 
 sovereignty, and the final glory of the Kingdom of Christ. 
 
 Chapter vii starts from the fall of Babylon, and extends 
 to the same destruction of all earthly dominion by the 
 Advent of the Son of Man. 
 
 But chapter viii begins with the founding of the Medo- 
 Persian Empire, and ends with the death of Antiochus. 
 
 And now in chapters x, xi, and xii, we have a vision, 
 which begins with Cyrus, and ends with the resurrection 
 of the dead. 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 51 
 
 For what purpose was this vision given ? Evidently for 
 the consolation of Daniel's people, the Jews, and for the 
 support of their faith in the midst of the fearful troubles 
 which they were to pass through before the end ; during 
 the long ages of their dispersion ; during those " times of 
 the Gentiles," of which our Saviour spoke with special 
 reference to these prophecies of Daniel. 
 
 The people for whose sake the vision was given were the 
 Jews, and it refers to a vast period of time. This is certain 
 from the plain words of the Angel : " Now I am come to 
 make thee understand what shall befall thy people, in the 
 latter days ; for yet the vision is for many days." {Dan. x, 
 U.) 
 
 The full meaning of the vision was not to be known either 
 by the prophet or by anyone else until the end should be 
 drawing near, that is, until history should gradually disclose 
 its significance. " I heard," he says, " but I understood 
 not : then said I, my Lord, what shall be the end of these 
 things? And he said. Go thy way Daniel; for the words 
 are closed up and sealed till the time of the end." {Dan. 
 xii, 8, 9.) 
 
 There is no presumption, then, in saying that we may 
 hope to understand these visions better than the prophet 
 who saw and recorded them, for the following reasons : — 
 
 1. We look upon them with the past history of twenty- 
 five centuries before us. 
 
 2. We have in our hands the prophecies of St. John, by 
 whom the sealed book of ancient prophecy was unsealed, 
 and who received from an Angel " the Revelation of Jesus 
 Christ, which God gave unto him to show unto his servants " 
 that which was to come to pass. 
 
 The Revelation, indeed, was given for the support of the 
 faith of Christians under persecutions ; and the prophecies 
 of Daniel chiefly, if not exclusively, for the consolation and 
 
 E 2 
 
52 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 encouragement of the Jews fi'om the age of Antiochus to the 
 end of their dispersion and of " the times of the Gentiles,'^ 
 that is, of Gentile dominion. Bnt the Apocalypse throws 
 much light upon the visions of the Hebrew Seer. And we 
 shall see, by-and-by, how clearl}' the connection between 
 them is pointed out by the enigmatical periods of time 
 mentioned by Daniel and St. John. 
 
 Knowing, then, the beginning and the end of this, the 
 last of Daniel's visions, and having the advantage of looking- 
 back over a panorama of history embracing twenty-five 
 centuries, let us see what we can make of the predictions of 
 chapter xi. 
 
 There can be no question that Xerxes, the rich king of 
 Persia, who pi'ovoked Greece by his invasion, is pointed out 
 in verse two. " Behold, there shall stand up 3'et three 
 kings of Persia, and the fourth shall be far richer than they 
 all ; and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up 
 all against the realm of Grecia." 
 
 Now Ave need not think it strange that the names Persia* 
 and Grecia should be here mentioned by the Angel. The 
 vision was given in the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia, 
 about B.C. 534, and at this time Greece was by no means an 
 unknown country. 
 
 No allusion is made to any of the successors of Xerxes on 
 the throne of Persia, but the short-lived but vast Empire of 
 Alexander is then predicted. "A mighty king shall stand 
 up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to 
 his will." {Dan. xi, 3.) 
 
 Then just when Alexander's Empire had reached the sum- 
 mit of power, had created a new era in the history of the 
 Avorld, and stamped a character upon the nations which has 
 never since been entirely effaced, his kingdom was broken up 
 " to the four winds" and divided between his generals, called 
 his successors. And this too was predicted by the words : 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 53 
 
 " When he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and 
 shall be divided towards the four winds, but not to his 
 posterity." {Dan. xi, 4.) 
 
 The vision now becomes less distinct as referring to events 
 more distant from the Seer's age and standpoint. It is not 
 now, as we should expect from an after-prophet who had not 
 hesitated to mention Persia and Grecia by name, the kings 
 of Syria and the kings of Egypt, the Seleucidte and the 
 Ptolemies, whose doings are predicted ; but we have the 
 more indistinct terms, the kings of the North and the kings 
 of the South. 
 
 Modern critics sometimes assume that he whom they call 
 the second Isaiah must have lived about the time of the restor- 
 ation, because he mentions Cyrus by name. Why then does 
 not the supposed Pseudo- Daniel, living about j$.c. IGl, 
 mention by name so conspicuous a king as Antiochus ; or at 
 any rate adopt some title more clear and explicit than " the 
 king of the North 1 " He mentions by name the kingdoms 
 of Persia and Grecia. Why not those of Syria and Egypt, if 
 not Antiochus 'I And still further, why does he utter a great 
 many detailed predictions which were not at all fulfilled by 
 Antiochus? And why is there no mention of any of the 
 names of the Maccabsean Warriors, whose work was not very 
 unlike that of Cyrus 1 
 
 After the prediction of the fact that Alexander's Kingdom 
 was to be divided to the four winds, no mention is made of 
 any of his successors, except the kings of the North and 
 the kings of the South. The reason is that the Jews were 
 to have no connection with any others. Judaea and Jerusalem 
 became for a long time a bone of contention between these 
 two kings. 
 
 We have a prediction of the doings of these two rival 
 sovereigns during a period of about 148 years: that is, from 
 the foundino- of the kingdom of the North, the era of the 
 
54 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 Seleucidae, B.C. 312, unto the death of Antiochus Epiphanes, 
 about B.C. 164. 
 
 Thus the founding of the kingdom of Egypt is mentioned 
 first : " The king of the South shall be strong." {Dan. xi, 5a.) 
 Then the more powerful kingdom of Syria : "And one of his 
 princes, that is, one of Alexander's generals. And he, that 
 is, this other general, shall be stronger than he, that is, than 
 the former already mentioned, and shall have dominion : his 
 dominion shall be a great dominion." {Dan. xi, 56.) 
 
 The historical fact here predicted is that the king of 
 Syria should be on the whole more powerful than the king of 
 Egypt. 
 
 Then from verse 6 to 19 we read of a constant struggle 
 between these two rival Powers, and the mention of some 
 attempts at union. This we know from history to have been 
 the case. But to indentify the few incidents selected out of 
 the vast number which must have occurred in a period of 
 more than a century, and indistinctly mentioned for this 
 purpose, seems an impossible task, although it has been 
 attempted by some. 
 
 But when we come to verse 20 there seems to be little 
 doubt that the " raiser of taxes " is the immediate prede- 
 cessor of Antiochus, and the "vile person" of verse 21 is 
 that infamous ruler. And so we may, without hesitation, 
 identifj" him with the Little Horn of chapter viii. 
 
 These two historical facts are predicted in general terms — 
 first, that the Macedonian kingdom of Egypt, the kingdom 
 of the Ptolemies, woiild be great ; but secondlj^ that the 
 kingdom of Syria, the kingdom of the Seleucidte, would be 
 greater. What does the historian say of this Northern 
 Kingdom ? 
 
 " The kingdom of Syria was not confined to that country 
 alone, but also comprehended those vast and fertile provinces 
 of Upper Asia, whi(;h formed the Persian Empire, being in 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 55 
 
 its full extent bounded by the Mediterranean on the one 
 side, and the river Indus on the other." (Univ. Hist., 
 vol. viii, page 107.) 
 
 The kingdom of Egypt was much less extensive, though 
 powerful ; and Palestine and (.'cole-Syria were sometimes 
 under the Ptolemies and at others under the Seleucidre. 
 
 Then the interest of the vision centres in the kingdom of 
 Syria rather than in that of Egypt, because the prominent 
 figure is Antiochiis Epiphanes, the fiercest jDersecutor of the 
 Jews. And so we may pass over, as of little interest to us, 
 the intimations of a long struggle between Egypt and Syria 
 from B.C. 312 to 175, the date of the accession of Antiochus 
 Epiphanes to the throne of Syria. 
 
 He succeeded his deceased brother, Seleucus Philopater, 
 who had been literally a collector of taxes, having been 
 obliged to pay the Romans a thousand talents annually for 
 twelve years, as one of the terms of the treaty made between 
 Antiochus the Great, his father, and the Romans after the 
 battle of Magnesia. 
 
 Seleucus was poisoned in the twelfth year of his reign, 
 and was succeeded by his brother Antiochus, rightly called 
 a vile or contemptible person. 
 
 Assuming the title of Epiphanes, the illustrious, he soon 
 merited by his extraordinary conduct the title of Epimanes, 
 the mad man, given him by others in derision. He is thus 
 described by Mahaffy : — 
 
 "Born in 221 B.C., at the opening of his father's reign, he 
 had seen the rise and fall of the kingdom under Antiochus 
 the Great, and was thirty-one years old when the terms of 
 peace sent him to Rome. Thus he was fort^'-five years old 
 when he succeeded, of an age and experience from which we 
 might have expected a steady reign ; but Polybius, who has 
 described the extraordinary feasts and pageants he gave, 
 apparently in imitation of Alexandrian and Roman pro- 
 
56 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 cessions, gives us plainly to understand that along with high 
 and brilliant qualities there was a vein of madness in the 
 
 King In Josephu?. and in the Booh of Maccabees he 
 
 is painted as a brutal tyrant, pi'ofaning the temple of the 
 Jews, and causing wanton and ruthless bloodshed. Both 
 pictures are doubtless true, and are interesting, as they give 
 us some knowledge of the last real king of Syria." (Mahaffy, 
 Story of the Nations, page 296.) 
 
 Thus, from xi, 21 to the end of the chapter, we have a 
 prediction of the doings of Antiochus Epiphanes. 
 
 But here our modern critics meet with a very serious 
 difficulty. All the latter part of the description of this 
 persecuting, blaspheming, God-opposing Power cannot ou 
 any theory be attributed to this Syrian king, who reigned 
 eleven years and then died a natural death. 
 
 He did not " exalt himself and magnify himself above 
 every god." Quite the reverse. " lu two great things," 
 say two heathen historians, " His was a truly royal mind, in 
 gifts to cities and worship of the gods"; and, although, like 
 other blasphemers, " He spake marvellous things against the 
 God of Gods;" even shortly before his death the following 
 is written concerning him : " At Antioch, too, having pro- 
 mised a magnificent temple of the Capitoline Jupiter. . . . 
 he did not complete it, because his reign was very short." 
 
 It cannot be said, therefore, that " he did not regard the 
 God of his fathers," or that " he honoured a God that his 
 fathers knew^ not." Nor is it at all trup of Antiochus, that 
 he came to his end with none to help him, at a time when 
 he had " planted the tabernacle of his palace between the 
 seas, in the glorious holy mountain," for his end was very 
 different ; Having failed in an attempt to plunder a temple 
 at Elymais he went to Ecbatana in Media. Hearing there 
 of the defeat of his armies by the Jews, he set out with the 
 determination to destrov the whole race. On the road he 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 57 
 
 fell from his chariot, and died after great suffering ; as we 
 have seen his end described in chapter viii, being " broken 
 without hand ;" dying, that is, without human agency. 
 
 But all this, which creates an insuperable difficulty to 
 critics W'ho want to prove that a Pseudo-Daniel is describing 
 as prophecy the events of his own day, and who are, there- 
 fore, bound to show that the description exactly suits 
 Antiochus and his end ; is no difficulty whatever to us who 
 believe in the reality of the prediction by the inspired 
 prophets of the remote future. 
 
 It is one of the many and differing modes of prediction 
 to give to the type attributes, which can properly belong 
 only to the great future antitype. In the present instance, 
 instead of a symbol, such as a Wild-beast and his Little 
 Horn, we have an historical character of the nearer future 
 described by the Angel speaking to the prophet in language 
 suitable only to a God-opposing Power, who should rise up 
 at a more remote period of the world's history. And, there- 
 fore, this description of Antiochus Epiphanes must be 
 studied and interpreted by the light shed upon it by the 
 previous visions of Daniel, and by the visions of the Apoca- 
 lypse, and the descriptions of Antichrist which we have in 
 the New Testament. 
 
 Antiochus Epiphanes was the Little Horn of chapter viii. 
 But there was another Little Horn mentioned in chapter 
 vii, and clearly distinguished from him, as we have seen, 
 by many signs, and evidently destined to appear in a much 
 later age. And when we turn to the New Testament we 
 find predictions of the appearance, towards the end, of such 
 a Power corresponding with the latter part of the description 
 here given of Antiochus, the King of the Nortli. 
 
 St. Paul speaks of him as the ofF-spring of a great falling 
 away from the C!hristian faith. The Thessalonian converts 
 Jiad been led from a misunderstandinji- of some of the 
 
S8 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 Apostle's words to expect that the Second Advent was 
 close at hand. He, therefore, warned them that they must 
 not expect Christ to come again until the great predicted 
 Antichrist has been revealed. " Let no man deceive you by 
 any means ; for that day shall not come, except there come 
 a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the 
 son of perdition ; who opposeth and exalteth himself above 
 all that is called God, or that is worshipped. (2 Tkess, 
 ii, 3-4.) 
 
 This great Apostasy, St. Paul elsewhere tells us, had been 
 expressly revealed by the Spirit. " Now the Spirit speaketh 
 expressly, that in tlie latter days some shall depart froni 
 the faith." (1 Tim. iv, 1.) 
 
 Some suppose that the Apostle is here alluding to these 
 spoken woi'ds of the Angel addressed to Daniel in this his 
 last vision. This seems not improbable, or it may be that 
 the Spirit spoke plainly to St. Paul, revealing to him and 
 predicting by his mouth the coming of the great Apostasy 
 and the impious leader of it, symbolized in Dan., chap, vii, 
 by the Little Horn of the Ten-horned Wild-beast, and of 
 whom Antiochus was the historical type, the great perse- 
 cuting King of the North. 
 
 It is certain, then, that this last prophecy of Daniel, in 
 which the Angel predicts the doings of a great God-opposing 
 Power, cannot have been exhausted by Antiochus Epiphanes 
 for the following reasons : — 
 
 1. The Angel attributes to him a character and actions 
 which were not those of Antiochus. 
 
 2. The prophecy refers to a time very remote from the 
 age of Antiochus, though its fulfilment commenced in him. 
 For this impious King of the North is found persecuting 
 Daniel's people, the Jews, and fighting against God up to the 
 time of the resurrection of the dead. 
 
 3. Much of the description corresponds exactly with that 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 59 
 
 of St. Paul's Man of Sin or Lawless one and the Wild-beast 
 of the Revelation of St. John. 
 
 But here let us avoid the pitfall of many commentators 
 who would lay their finger on the point in the Angel's 
 description of tliis God-opposing Power when he passes 
 abruptly from the Syrian King to a great King of the North 
 in the last age of the world. 
 
 This is not the method of inspired prophecy. The Angel's 
 description is continuous and unbroken. But it is the des- 
 cription of the God-opposing World-power from the age of 
 Antiochas to the eve of the Day of Judgment. 
 
 We have, in fact, in these last chapters, that which we 
 may well compare to a dissolving view. 
 
 The Spirit of omniscience, looking over a panorama of 
 twenty-five centuries, and we know not how many more^ 
 exhibits a great picture to the eyes of the Seer's imagination. 
 
 The figures of great rulers rise up and fall in succession ; 
 the images of Empire melt into one another as the prophet 
 gazes upon them. 
 
 First he beholds Xerxes ; behind him, xilexander ; then 
 the Ptolemies of Egypt, and the Seleucidai of Syria. 
 Epiphanes, practically the last king of Syria, stands out in 
 bold outline for a time, persecuting God's people and profan- 
 ing His Sanctuary. But he too fades away into mighty 
 Rome, drunken with the blood of Saints from the beginning 
 to the end of her history ; removed only at the end of 
 the picture to disclose in all his hideous greatness " that Law- 
 less One, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of 
 His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His 
 coming." (2 Thess. ii, 8.) 
 
 That Antiochus was practically the last king of Syria is 
 stated by MahaffA'. Speaking of the way in which the 
 Romans stopped him in the midst of his victories in Egypt, 
 evidently alluded to in Dan. xi, 30, "The ships of Chittim 
 
■6o LECTURES ON THE 
 
 shall come against him," this historian writes, " He knew 
 the Romans well ; no doubt he knew Popilius personally, 
 and he saw that his day was come. He gave up his wai', 
 and returned through Jerusalem to his capital. Here then 
 was the climax of Roman interference. The threat of an 
 envoy was sufficient to close the last Syrian war and stay 
 the conqueror when on the eve of completing his conquest. 
 Thus the Empire of Alexander passed under Roman sway. 
 We have indeed lists of Syrian and Egyptian kings, reaching 
 down to the time when Pompey and Csesar respectively 
 made the final settlement of these kingdoms, and abolished 
 the existing sovereigns ; but this long list is merely a suc- 
 cession of names. They have neither influence upon the 
 world, nor power in their own country." {Story of the 
 Nations, page 298.) 
 
 Well, then, may the figure of Antiochus fade away from 
 the prophet's view, and give place to the stronger and more 
 enduring Image of Mighty, Eternal Rome, herself to be 
 removed for that great King of the North, the last and 
 ruthless persecutor of his people. 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 6i 
 
 LECTURE TV. 
 
 We must now examine the notices of time mentioned by 
 Daniel, and compare them with those of the Apocalypse. 
 
 These are not given to enable ns to predict the time of 
 the end; those "times and seasons" which "The Father 
 hath kept in his own hands." And the many rash attempts 
 which have been made to apply them to this purpose have 
 naturally created in the minds of some Christians a prejudice 
 against all endeavours to interpret them. 
 
 But the unwise use which has been made of that which 
 is called the year-day system is no proof of the unsoundness 
 of that principle of interpretation in itself. 
 
 The principle is this, that, where a single Beast or Person 
 is used to symbolize a state of things embracing a very long 
 period of time, a symbol is also used to represent the period 
 of time during which it continues. An Empire or a 
 Dynasty might naturally be described as continuing for a 
 great number of years. But a single Wild-beast or a single 
 conspicuous ruler could not be spoken of as lasting for 
 hundreds or thousands of years. The imagery of the 
 prophecy is, therefore, consistent throughout. The Empire 
 or Dynasty is symbolized by one Beast or by one person, 
 and so the yeai's of the dui'ation of his power are symbolized 
 by days. 
 
 The common objection made to this principle of interpre- 
 tation is that in all other parts of Holy Scriptui'e a day 
 means a day, and a year means a year. But this is true 
 only of literal projihecies. 
 
 There are many such plain and literal prophecies. The 
 prophecy itself is plain and literal, and, therefore, the 
 notices of time are equally so. " Yet seven days, and I will 
 
62 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights." 
 {Gen. vii, 4.) " Thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that 
 is not their own . . . and they shall afflict them four 
 hundred years." {Gen. xv, 13.) "Yet forty days and 
 Nineveh shall be overthrown." {Jonah iii, 4.) " Thus saith 
 the Lord, that after seventy years be accomplished at 
 Babylon, I will visit you, in causing you to return to this 
 place." {Jer. xxix, 10, and xxv, 12.) 
 
 Thus it is true of all literal prophecies that in them a day 
 always means a day, and a year always means a year. But 
 it is equally true that these prophecies never describe any 
 period of time exceeding a year as so many days. 
 
 Why, then, is the practice so widely different in sym- 
 bolical and figurative prophecies 1 Obviously for the sake 
 of consistency in the symbolism. And we have a clue to 
 the meaning of this figurative use of a day as the symbol of 
 a year in the directions given to the prophet Ezekiel. 
 
 The length of time during which God had tolerated the 
 disobedience of Israel and Judah was to be figuratively 
 represented to the people by the action of the prophet. 
 
 He draws upon a tile a picture of Jerusalem besieged by 
 her enemies. He is then commanded to lie on his left side 
 390 days, to represent the number of years during which 
 God had borne the iniquity of Israel. Then he is to lie 
 on his right side forty days longer, bearing still further the 
 iniquity of Judah. And then it is said, " I have appointed 
 thee a day for a year. {Ezek. iv, 1-8.) 
 
 Here we see clearly the principle of this interpretation. 
 The prophet could not lie on his side such a number of 
 years; but God had borne the iniquity of Israel and Judah 
 for years, and, therefore, these years were to be symbolized 
 by days. 
 
 There is really no difference in this principle of interpre- 
 tation in the case of Ezekiel, and in the prophecies of 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 63 
 
 Daniel and St. John. And, however much the system has 
 been abused by the rashness of commentators, we shut our 
 eyes against the light of Scripture if Ave refuse to follow 
 this clue purposely given xis by the Spirit in Ezekiel. 
 
 Dr. Pusey uses this example to support his interpretation 
 of the seventy weeks of Dan. ix, although he does not 
 admit tluit it applies equally or even more forcibly to the 
 2300 days of chapter vii, and the 1290 and 1335 days of 
 chapter xii. Surely if the case of Ezekiel proves that 
 Daniel's seventy weeks mean Aveeks of years, much more 
 clearly does it prove that his symbolical days must stand 
 for years. 
 
 Let us see, then, how these notices of time help us to 
 harmonize the several prophecies and to understand why 
 2300 days are spoken of in chapter viii, and only 1290 
 and 1335 in chapters vii and xii. For, as we have seen, 
 the expression "a time, times, and an half" in chapter vii is 
 evidently identical with the 1290 days of chapter xii. For 
 in chapter xii, 7, we read, " How long shall it be to the end 
 of these wonders T The answer is, " For a time, times, and 
 an half," up to the end of the dispersion of Daniel's people. 
 And then in verse 1 1 we read, " From the time that the 
 daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination 
 that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two 
 liundred and ninety days." 
 
 Now we have seen that the Little Horn of chapter viii is 
 the symbol of Antiochus Epiphanes, and that the period of 
 time during which his pollution of the sanctuary continued 
 was not 2300 days, but exactly three years. It is, there- 
 fore, almost certain that these 2300 symbolical days are 
 intended to represent years and to embrace the whole period 
 of the continuance of the abomination of desolation, 
 commenced by Antiochus, completed by the Romans, con- 
 tinuing for many centuries from that time, and continuing 
 still in these our days. 
 
64 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 If SO, then it is reasonable to conjecture that the cleansing 
 of the sanctuary at the end of the 2300 years of chapter 
 viii will coincide with the " blessed time " pi'edicted in 
 chapter xii as to come at the end of 1335 years. 
 
 We have also seen that the Little Horn of chapter vii 
 cannot have anything to do with the Syrian King, but 
 probably symbolizes the Imperial Head of the divided 
 Roman world established by the Pope in the person of 
 Charles the Great in a.d. 800. 
 
 He trnly rose up among the kings of the divided Roman 
 world, was certainly more stont than his fellows, and 
 plucked up at least three of them by the roots. 
 
 He stands iip conspicviously as the great central figure of 
 Medifeval history, the temporal Head of the great hierarchy 
 of the West. 
 
 The Holy Roman Empire, which he founded, lasted for a 
 thousand years, was then abolished by Napoleon, and 
 restored in his own person. It was revived again by 
 Napoleon III., and on his fall the Imperial Title was 
 assumed by his conqueror. It is still recognized as the 
 very highest Roj'al Title. And even now, as in ancient 
 Rome, there is more than one Caesar. We have our Ceesars 
 of Latin Christendom ; and in Russia we have indeed a 
 great king of the North, the modern representative of the 
 Eastern Cccsars, the Head of Greek Christendom, destined, 
 it may be, to reach at last the throne of Constantine. 
 
 But all these, we may be sure, are only types and shadows 
 of that terrible Lawless one who is to come, the great Anti- 
 christ of Daniel, St. John, and St. Paul. 
 
 His origin and his coming are described in language 
 which is highly figurative, and yet can scarcely be mis- 
 understood. " He Cometh up out of the Abyss (the sea), 
 and goeth into perdition." {Rev. xvii, 8.) He rises to the 
 surface, like Napoleon after the French Revolution, in the 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 6$ 
 
 last long-predicted "time of trouble." {Dan. xii, 1.; He 
 comes up out of the raging sea of Revolutionary violence, 
 the result of the fierce re-action of the human mind against 
 more than a thousand j^ears of Civil and Ecclesiastical 
 tyranny, during long ages of ignorance, superstition, and 
 the ruthless persecution of all who attempt the reforma- 
 tion of Christendom in faith and morals. 
 
 AVhat light, then, does history throw upon these symboli- 
 cal numbers ? Will it enable us to harmonize the larger 
 number of chapter viii with the smaller numbers of chapters 
 vii, xii, and of the Revelation of St. John ? It will certainly 
 do so if we regard these days as symbolizing years. 
 
 Autiochus Epiphanes polluted the Sanctuary about 170 
 B.C. Its cleansing is to take place after 2300 years. As- 
 suming that this cleansing synchronizes with " the Blessed 
 time " of chapter xii, predicted as to come at the end of 
 1335 years after the rising up of the Little Horn of chapter 
 vii among the Kings of the divided Roman world, we arrive 
 at the following result. 
 
 2300—170 = 2130. Therefore a.d. 2130 may possibly be 
 the date of the cleansing of the Sanctuary of chapter viii. 
 And now assuming that this cleansing of the Sanctuary 
 synchronizes with the " blessed time " of chapter xii, with 
 the end of the dispersion of Israel and of the times of 
 Gentile dominion, we must reckon back from a.d. 2130 
 to ascertain the date of the rising up of the Little Horn of 
 chapter vii, whose dominion is to continue for 1335 years. 
 
 Thus 2130—1335 = 795 ; so that a.d. 795 will be the time 
 at which this Little Horn rose up among the Ten Horns of 
 the Daniel's fourth "Wild-beast, the symbol of the Roman 
 World-power. 
 
 It will be shown further on that these numbers cannot 
 enable us to predict the time of the end ; but they certainly 
 do help us to harmonize the prophecies on the assumption 
 that the days symbolize years. 
 
66 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 The words of the prophet, without any reference to the 
 figures, lead us to the conclusion that the Little Horn of 
 chapter viii stands for Antiochus Epiphanes; and that of 
 chapter vii for some Power differing from him in origin, 
 character and end. And we find that the periods of time 
 connected with these two Powers confirm this interpretation 
 of the symbols in a very remarkable manner. For it is 
 notorious that Charles the Great, the founder of the Holy 
 Roman Empire, the temporal Head of the great Hierarchy 
 of the West, was crowned by the Pope as Emperor of the 
 West in a.d. 800 and was at the very height of his power in 
 A.D. 795. And from that date, more even than before, the 
 rulers of that Empire in church and state became, with their 
 subjects, the most unrelenting persecutoi's of Daniel's people. 
 
 It is quite impossible to conjecture what will be the 
 condition of the world, its rulers and people, when the time 
 of the end approaches, or what will be the state of society 
 after the events which Daniel predicts have come to pass. 
 The end will be preceded, we are told, by a great increase 
 of knowledge and freedom of intercourse. " Many shall run 
 to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." {Dan. xii, 4.) 
 There will be a time of unprecedented trouble, out of which 
 the faithful of Daniel's people shall be delivered. {Dan. xii, 
 1.) By this trouble " many will be purified and made white 
 and tried." {Dan. xii, 10.) It will issue in the termination 
 of Israel's dispersion, the cleansing of the Sanctuary, and 
 the resurrection of the dead. {Dan. xii, 2, 9, 12.) 
 
 What will follow this and the coming of the Son of Man 
 in the clouds of heaven no man can imagine. 
 
 Before the first Advent of Christ no man could form any 
 true conception of the character of that Advent of Christ 
 Himself, or of the nature of that Spiritual Kingdom, the 
 New Jerusalem, the Christian Church, which He would 
 found. Is it likely that we should be able to picture to 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. (yj 
 
 ourselves the nature, circumstances, and results of the 
 Second Advent? 
 
 If the prophet could say of the First Advent that eye had 
 not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived 
 what God had prepared for them that love Him, the glory 
 and blessedness of the Second Advent will, we may be sure, 
 equally exceed our fondest dreams. 
 
 Much which we think to be figurative may turn out to be 
 literal, and much we expect to be literally fulfilled may 
 eventually be accomplished in a manner far more spiritual 
 and glorious than we can now even imagine. 
 
 But to revert to the consideration of these numbers : will 
 they enable us to fore-know the "times and seasons" of the 
 future ? They comfort us, indeed, with the assurance that 
 the troubles of Jacob are not to last for ever, that the end 
 of the dispersion of Israel and of the period of Gentile 
 dominion are determined in the counsels of God, but they 
 do not enable ns to fix the date of that " blessed time " for 
 the simple reason that the time from which they should be 
 reckoned is kept purposely indistinct. 
 
 For how do we know that the 2300 years of chapter viii 
 are to be reckoned from the age of Antiochus % Why not 
 from the founding of the Syrian kingdom, the Era of the 
 Seleucidse — an era used for ten centuries — B.C. 312. This 
 ■would bring us to a.d. 1988 for the cleansing of the Sanc- 
 tuary, and back to a.d. 653 for the rising up of the later 
 persecutor of chapters vii and xii, a few years later than 
 the erection of the mosque of Omar on the site of the 
 Temple in the East, and a period when the Papal Hierarchy 
 was becoming very strong in the West. 
 
 And, then, on the other hand, we find our Lord speaking 
 of the setting up of Daniel's Abomination of Desolation as 
 future in His day. How do we know, then, whether the 
 2300 years ought not to be reckoned from a.d. 70 when 
 the Temple was burnt by the Romans ? 
 
 F 2 
 
68 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 This Avould bring us to a.d. 2370 and back to a.d. 1035, 
 not long before the First Crusade, a time of fearful trouble 
 to Daniel's people, and of events intimately connected with 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 Thus, even supposing our theory of interpretation to be 
 correct, it cannot help us to conjecture the end of Israel's 
 dispersion within very many cent\iries. And yet, as in the 
 case of the seventy weeks of chapter ix, they are sufficiently 
 clear to support the faith of the Saints, and to create an 
 eager expectation of deliverance. 
 
 And then, further, the period mentioned by St. John is 
 1260 years, and Daniel gives the two numbers 1290 and 
 1335, so that here too we have another source of uncertainty, 
 which nothing but the fulfilment of these prophecies will 
 clear up for us. 
 
 Now a careful comparison of Daniel with the Apocalypse 
 seems to show that both the Jewish and the Christian seer 
 symbolize the same great persecuting Head of the Roman 
 Hierarchy, but look at him with different objects in view. 
 To Daniel he is the great persecutor of his people, the Jews; 
 to St. John he represents the murderer of the Christian 
 Martyi's, and of the more fiiithful members of the Christian 
 Church ; he " Makes war with the remnant of the woman's 
 seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the 
 testimony of Jesus." {Rev. xii, 17.) He makes war with 
 the witnesses, the true lights of the Church, and " over- 
 comes them and kills them." {Rev. xi, 7.) He long 
 supports the Harlot city, which is " drunken with the 
 blood of Saints"; but in the end casts her off, and destroys 
 her, and fights out the last battle with the Lamb, Who 
 overcomes and destroys him. {Rev. xvii, 3-18.) 
 
 We may fairly conjecture, therefore, that these differing 
 numbers refer to different future events ; those of St. John 
 affecting Christians and the Christian Hierarchy, but 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 69 
 
 those of Daniel affecting the fortunes of the Jews, his 
 own people. 
 
 Time only will solve these mysteries. But the punish- 
 ment by her former lovers and worldly supporters of the 
 great persecuting Christian Hierarchy, if not of the whole 
 Babylon of Christendom, seems to be the event contem- 
 jjlated by the spirit in St. John ; and the deliverance of 
 Israel from their persecutions to be that "blessed time" 
 before the prescient Spirit of God sjieaking by the mouth of 
 the Hebrew prophet. 
 
 It does not follow that the punishment of Christendom 
 will improve the condition of the Jews, for already the 
 great Hierarchy has long ceased to have the power to perse- 
 cute them ; and the persecutions they are now enduring in 
 Russia, Germany, and France have little or nothing to do 
 with their religion or with Christianity. 
 
 It is, therefore, not improbable that the numbers of Daniel 
 and St. John, even on the assumption that they are to be 
 reckoned from the same event in the past, may purposely 
 vary as referring to different events in the future. 
 
 It may be that the Judgment of the Christian Babylon 
 will take place at the end of 1260 years ; but the deliverance 
 of Israel seventy-five years later ; the difference between 
 1260 and 1335 years. And then the words of Daniel seem 
 to predict a time of unusual trouble, probably affecting both 
 faithful Christians and Jews, continuing for 45 years, the 
 difference between 1290 and 1335 
 
 The disintegration of the Western Hierarchy, commenced 
 at the Reformation, is in process now, and, without any 
 reference to prophecy, seems to be rapidly approaching its 
 completion, though it may yet be far distant. 
 
 Lord Macaulay has thus written of the Roman Church : 
 " She saw the commencement of all the governments and 
 of all the ecclesiastical establishments that now exist in the 
 
^o LECTURES ON THE 
 
 world ; and we feel no assurance that she is not destined to 
 see the end of them all." 
 
 These words were written in 1840. More than half-a- 
 century of unusual activity and rapid change of ideas has 
 rendered his forecast somewhat less probable, for speaking 
 of the Ecclesiastical and Temporal Powers of Western 
 Christendom, Bryce writes : " From the Reformation 
 onwards, Empire and Popedom fought no longer for 
 supremacy, but for existence. One is fallen already, the 
 other shakes with every blast." (Holy Roman Empire, p. 
 389.) 
 
 I have dwelt at some length on these enigmatical numbers 
 because it is very important that the general reader should 
 be on his guard against the bold assertions of some who 
 pretend to predict by means of them the exact time of the 
 Second Advent. 
 
 I have tried to show that even if the year-day theory is 
 correct, of which no one can presume to feel certain, it is 
 quite impossible to determine from what event in the past 
 these numbers should be reckoned, so as to be able to con- 
 jecture the time of their close within many centuries. 
 
 My own private opinion, the result of more than forty 
 years study, is, that at the close of St. John's 1260 years 
 the Christian Hierarchy will be punished for its sins by 
 those very worldly Powers who have supported it from an 
 early date, but from what date it seems impossible to say. 
 If asked to suggest "a probable date, I should say fi-om a.d. 
 800, the year of the coronation by the Pope of Charles the 
 Great, the Imperial Head of Roman Christendom. 
 
 Then, since Daniel gives diiferent numbers, and is told 
 that his prophecies reveal the future trials of his own 
 people, I am disposed to think that his periods of 1290 and 
 1335 years point to great events, affecting chiefly the Jews, 
 and to take place later on in the history of the world than 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 71 
 
 the punishment of Latin Christendom. The great Western 
 Hierarchy has been the fiercest persecutor of the Jews, but 
 it does not seem probable that their persecutions will cease 
 upon its fall. 
 
 There is reason to fear that faithful Christians and Jews 
 alike will suffer perseciition up to the end, during that 
 " time of ti'ouble " of which Daniel speaks, at the hands of 
 that typical King of the North, the worldly Power " who 
 Cometh up out of the abyss and goeth into perdition," 
 that Lawless One " whom the Lord shall consume with the 
 spirit of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His 
 coming." 
 
 Then there is another statement of the prophet which 
 renders it doubtful from what event Daniel's 1290 and 
 1335 years should be reckoned. For his words are, "from 
 the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away and 
 the abomination that maketh desolate set up " these years 
 are to be reckoned. How do we know, therefore, that these 
 years ought not to be reckoned from the pollution of the 
 Temple by Antiochus or its destruction by the Romans. 
 
 This may, perhaps, be explained ; but I mention it to 
 shew still further the rashness of those who pretend by 
 these numbers to know the time of the end. 
 
 They arc not intended to enable us to prophesy, but to 
 comfort us with the assurance that the persecutions of the 
 faithful will not last a moment beyond the appointed time, 
 but that deliverance will surely come at a time known only 
 to the Father, but determined by Him from the foundation 
 of the world. 
 
 We are, in fact, in about the same position as the Jews 
 were during the half-century which preceded the First 
 Advent of Christ. An examination of chapter ix, con- 
 taining the pi'ophecy of the seventy weeks, will prove this, 
 and will shew that, like them, we know that the Son of 
 Man will come, but we know not when. 
 
72 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 I hope to show you that, until the prophecy of the 
 seventy weeks had been fulfilled in the Crucifixion of Jesus 
 and the founding of His Kingdom, no Jew could have 
 known within a period of about ninety years when the 
 Messiah was to be cut off, because he could not have felt 
 certain until that time from what event in the past the 
 seventy weeks of years Avere to be reckoned. He might 
 have expected Him half a century either before or after the 
 time when He actuallj^ appeared. 
 
 Let us, then, examine cliapter ix, the great prophecy of 
 the seventy weeks. 
 
 It was given in the first 3'ear of Darius, the Mede, who 
 seems to have been the king of Babylon, associated with 
 Cyrus, and appointed to act for him in the management of 
 all the affairs of the Chaldaeans, while Cyrus himself was 
 occupied in the prosecution of more distant conquests. 
 
 Darius, whoever he may have been, is here said to have 
 been made King of the Chaldfeans, an expression which 
 seems to suggest that he was appointed king by some one 
 superior to himself. And this is consistent with the words 
 of chapter v, where he is said to have received the kingdom. 
 This word received is the same as that used in chapter ii, 6, 
 of the wise ir>en of Nebuchadnezzar, who were to receive 
 gifts and honours if they could interpret his dream. A 
 conqueror taking possession of the throne of a conquered 
 sovereign would scai'cely have been described as one who was 
 made king, or as one who received the kingdom as he might 
 receive some gift or honour. 
 
 At this time, then, in the first year of Darius, immediately 
 after the fall of Babylon, and at the beginning of the 
 Persian kingdom, Daniel could not fail to recognize the 
 beginning of the fulfilment of his prophecies. His attention, 
 therefore, was naturally turned to the sayings of the 
 prophets who had spoken before him. And so he under- 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 73 
 
 stood by studying their books that the time of the 
 deliverance of his people must be drawing near. " I, 
 Daniel, understood by books the number of the years, 
 whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet 
 for the fulfilment of the desolations of Jerusalem, seventy 
 years. {Dan. ix, 2.) 
 
 Knowing that these desolations were the punishments of 
 his people for their sins, knowing also tliat God expects us 
 to confess our sins and to pray for the pardon and 
 deliverance which He has promised, he uttered those 
 confessions and prayers which might fitly be used by us 
 and by the Jews in these daj's, when we reflect upon the 
 fearful sins of Christendom and the persecutions of Daniel's 
 people by Christian Churches, and by the rulers and people 
 of Christian nations for so many centuries. 
 
 The time of deliverance is not indeed pointed out so 
 clearly to us as it was to Daniel, but we have the same 
 assurance as he had that the time is fore-known ani pre- 
 dicted by the Spirit, though not so distinctly as to unsettle 
 our minds, or to tempt us to relax our watchfulness. 
 
 His prayer was answered, and the prophecy was given. 
 
 The prophecy of Jeremiah was to be fulfilled to the 
 letter. The deliverer named by Isaiah was to accomplish 
 it. The captives were to be set free, and the Temple and 
 Jerusalem were to be re-built. 
 
 But David, their king, was not to come just yet. He 
 was to be expected after seven times seventy years. 
 '' Seventy weeks are decreed upon thy people, and upon 
 thy holy city, to finish transgression, and to make an end 
 of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to 
 bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up vision and 
 prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy." (ix, 24.) 
 
 It is obvious that all this could not be accomplished in 
 seventy weeks of days, and so it is admitted by almost all 
 
74 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 if not by all commentators that seventy weeks mean here 
 seventy weeks of years, or 490 years. And this pei-iod of 
 time is then divided into three portions. 1. Seven weeks 
 or forty-nine years ; 2. Sixty-two weeks or 434 years ; and, 
 3. One week or seven yeai's. 
 
 This whole period of 490 years was to be reckoned from 
 the issuing of a decree for the rebuilding of .Jerusalem ; and 
 it was to end in the making of a powerful covenant with 
 many by the Prince, the Messiah. 
 
 Thus we know from what historical event this prophecy 
 was to commence and in what it was to end. It is, therefore, 
 of less consequence to us to understand the subdivisions of 
 the period. And then, since we are looking back to a ful- 
 filled prophecy, our knowledge of the time of its fulfilment 
 enables us to fix with sufficient accuracy the event from 
 which the seventy weeks are to be reckoned. For the 
 prophecy was fulfilled in the Coming and Crucifixion of 
 Christ and the establishment of the Christian Covenant with 
 the elect of Israel. 
 
 But it would have been as impossible for a Jew, living in 
 the century before Christ, to have known the exact year in 
 which the Messiah was to appear, as it is for us to know, 
 within many centuries, the time of His Second Advent. 
 And yet the prophecy was sufficiently clear to excite in the 
 mind of the Jews, and, as Tacitus and Suetonius tell us, in 
 the whole Eastern world, an intense eagerness of expectation 
 that the Great Prince was coming and that he was to appear 
 in Judrea. And the notorious fact that thei'e was this 
 intense expectation of the coming of the Messiah, about the 
 time when he really did come, is an historical fact which has 
 to be accounted for as well as they can by all those who 
 question the genuineness of this book of Daniel. There is 
 no questioning the fact of the expectation. Why, except for 
 this prophecy, should it have arisen just about the time 
 when that expectation was realized and at no previous time ? 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 75 
 
 There are four dates from which a Jew might have 
 reckoned this period of 490 years, just as there are several 
 great Epochs from which we might conjecture that the 
 predicted periods of Daniel and St. John referring to the 
 Second Advent should be reckoned. And the indistinctness 
 is mtentional in both cases. It was purposely indistinct 
 that it might not disturb the minds of the faithful or induce 
 any relaxation of watchfulne^ss. And j'ct prophecy is 
 always clear enough to support and comfort believers in all 
 times of anxiety, trouble, or persecution. 
 
 There are four dates, then, from which a Jew might have 
 calculated the prophecy of the seventy weeks or 490 years. 
 
 I. The proclamation of Cyrus, B.C. 536. Reckoned from 
 this date the 490 years would end in b.c. 46. 
 
 II. The decree of Darius, B.C. 518, which brings us to 
 B.C. 28. 
 
 III. The decree of Artaxerxes in his seventh year, B.C. 
 458, which gives for the end a.d. 32. 
 
 IV. The decree of Artaxerxes in his twentieth year, B.C. 
 445, which brings the end to a.d. 45. 
 
 This seems to fix for us the seventh year of Artaxerxes as 
 the epoch from which the 490 years, or, excluding as we 
 must the last week, the 483 years should be reckoned. 
 
 But in all these calculations we have to remember that 
 Our Lord was born in B.C. 4, according to the vulgar Era. 
 
 The birth of Christ was not used as an Epoch until about 
 the sixth century. It was then fixed by a mistake too 
 early. The error was soon discovered, but it was not 
 thought worth wliile to cause confusion by having two 
 Epoclis, tlie common or vulgar Era and the true one. 
 
 If, therefore. Our Lord was thirty-three or thirty-four 
 years old at the time of His crucifixion, the date of that 
 event must be called a.d. 29, or, as in Greswell's Harmony, 
 A.D. 30. 
 
76 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 It is impossible to determine from the words of the 
 prophecy whether "the cutting off" of Messiah was to take 
 place at the end of 483 years, or half-a-week or 3| years 
 later. 
 
 First we are told, in verse 24, that seventy weeks or 490 
 years are to complete the whole work of Messiah ; the 
 completion of Redemption, the establishment of everlasting 
 righteousness, and the sealing up of all vision and prophecy. 
 
 Then in verse 25 the cutting off of Messiah seems fixed 
 for the end of 7 weeks and 62 weeks or 483 years, to be 
 followed eventually by the desolation of Jerusalem. 
 
 But the mention of the events of the last week or period 
 of seven years, in verse 27, and of the cessation of sacrifice 
 to be caused by something which was to take place in the 
 middle of that week, seems to require the addition of 3| 
 years to the 483 for the date of the crucifixion. 
 
 A week was to be occupied in establishing the covenant 
 with the believing Jews, those who received Jesus as the 
 Christ ; and some event in the middle of this week was to 
 cause to cease all sacrifice. What could this be except the 
 Great Sacrifice of the Cross 1 
 
 How far, then, do these numbers agree with the known 
 facts of history ? 
 
 Keckoning 483 years from the 7th year of Artaxerxes, B.C. 
 458, we come to a.d. 25. Adding to this three and a half 
 years we come to a.d. 28i. In a.d. 28 or 29 our Saviour 
 would have been thirty-two or thirty-three years old. 
 
 Since, then, the seventy weeks dated from the proclama- 
 tion of Cyrus would come to a close too early, and too late 
 if dated from the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, there seems 
 little doubt that the seventh year of Artaxerxes is the epoch 
 intended by the Spirit in the prophet. 
 
 From this year, therefore, we must reckon the seven 
 weeks or forty-nine years for the restoration and rebuilding 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 
 
 77 
 
 of Jerusalem, and the 483 years, with the addition of half 
 a week or three and a half years, for the Crucifixion of the 
 INIessiah. 
 
 We start from a command to restore and to rebuild the 
 walls of Jerusalem, and the work is to occupy forty-nine 
 years. The rebuilding of the Temple is not mentioned, 
 because this work had been completed before the seventh 
 year of Artaxerxes. The prophecy refers only to the City 
 itself and its fortifications. And these are to be built in 
 " troublous times." The words are these : " It shall be 
 built again with street and moat, even in troublous times " 
 (R.V., X. 25). What do we read, then, about the restoration 
 of Jerusalem ? 
 
 The work was begun in the reign of Cyrus ; but it was 
 frequently interrupted and even stopped by the enemies of 
 the Jews. Artaxerxes sent Ezi-a to Judcea in the seventh 
 year of his reign, and Nehemiah in his twentieth year. 
 
 In the Book of Ezra, in chapter vi, verse 14, the writer 
 speaks of work done in consequence of the prophesying of 
 Haggai and Zechariah in the reign of Darius, and he also 
 mentions Artaxerxes. " They builded and finished according 
 to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according 
 to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes 
 King of Persia." 
 
 Daniel predicted that the work would be frequently 
 interrupted, and accomplished in times of great trouble. 
 " The street shall be built again and the wall even in 
 troublous times. {Dan. ix, 25.) 
 
 This was the case, more or less, during the whole period 
 of the restoration, for, even after the work accomplished by 
 Ezra, we find Nehemiah representing the neglected condition 
 of Jerusalem toward the twentieth year of Artaxerxes ; the 
 enemies of the Jews having again destroyed much of the 
 city. Thus Nehemiah says to the king: "Why should not 
 
78 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my 
 ■father's sepulchres lieth waste, and the gates thereof are 
 consumed with fire." {^Neh. ii, 3.) 
 
 According to the prophecy the first seven weeks or forty- 
 nine years were to be occupied in building the fortifications 
 of the city. Up to the mission of Ezra, B.C. 458, very 
 little had been done towards this. The temple was nearly 
 finished, but not the city or its walls. And even after the 
 mission of Nehemiah, B.C. 445, there remained, no doubt, a 
 good deal to be done. And so, if we reckon forty-nine 
 years from the seventh year of Artaxerxes, we arrive at 
 B.C. 409, about the age of Malachi, the last of the prophets, 
 from whose language we may infer that the work of 
 restoration had been completed, so far as buildings were 
 concerned, and that the time had ai'rived for patient waiting 
 for the Great Restorer, Who should " turn the heart of the 
 fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to 
 their fathers." (J/a/. iv, 6.) 
 
 From the close of the first seven weeks, therefore, B.C. 409, 
 we have to reckon the sixty-two weeks, or 434 years, which 
 brings us to a.d. 25 of the vulgar era, when Jesus, therefore, 
 was twenty-nine years old ; about the time of the beginning 
 of the ministry of the Baptist, soon followed by the public 
 appearance and Baptism of Christ. 
 
 Then He began the great work of the establishment of 
 the covenant with the elect of Israel, in the midst of which 
 He was " cut off" by crucifixion, and so caused all sacrifice 
 to cease in efficacy, soon to be followed by its literal 
 abolition by the destruction of the Temple and the Holy City. 
 
 And thus we see that a Jew, living about half a century 
 before Christ, might well have been in expectation of the 
 coming of Messiah. History assures us that he was so, but 
 not, so far as we can judge, before that time. 
 
 No manipulation of the numbers can bring the close of 
 
PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 79 
 
 Daniel's seventy weeks to within 100 years of the age 
 of Antiochus Epiphanes. The very earliest date from 
 which it is possible, with any f;iirness of mind, to reckon 
 the 490 years is that of the proclamation of Cyrus, which 
 brings us to B.C. 46, whereas the age of Antiochus was 
 ubout B.C. 170. 
 
 Attempts have been made to get over this difficulty but 
 with how little success may be seen by anyone who will 
 read Dr. Pusey's fourth lecture on Daniel. 
 
 We may, therefore, regard the accuracy of this chron- 
 ological prophecy as one of the strongest evidences of the 
 great truth that Jesus was the predicted Christ ; and we 
 may also consider it no slight proof of the truth of Daniel's 
 own statements, that he lived and prophesied in the time 
 of the Kings of Babylon and Persia, during and at the 
 close of the exile and period of restoration. 
 
 Surely we have here a very strong confirmation of our 
 faith. Can we require greater accuracy than this? It is 
 almost impossible from the data before us to determine 
 the exact age of our Lord at the time of His Crucifixion, 
 or the length of His Ministry. AVe are told that He was 
 "about thirty years of age" at His Baptism. {St. Luke 
 iii, 23.) At the close of the 483 years he would be about 
 twenty-nine. He is supposed to have been crucified three 
 years and a half later. At the end of the half week of 
 years He would have been thirty-two years and six months 
 old. If it is true that He was a year older when He suffer- 
 ed, we may feel Avell satisfied with the accuracy of this 
 remarkable prophecy; and may justly require the un- 
 believing critic to account for it on his hypothesis that 
 Daniel's predictions were intended to reach their fulfilment 
 in the age of the Maccabees. 
 
 Let us, then, thank God for giving us, in fulfilled and 
 fulfilling prophecy, that which we so greatly need in these 
 
8o LECTURES ON DANIEL. 
 
 perplexing days, miraculous evidences of the truth of our 
 holy religion. For of all conceivable miracles there cannot 
 well be a greater than the prediction by the inspired prophets 
 of the events of the remote future which can be known only 
 to Him Who sees the end from the beginning and speaks of 
 things, which are not yet, as ever present to the eye of 
 His Omniscience. 
 
THE EEVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The following- lectures were delivei-ed in the Close, Win- 
 chester ; and the way in which they were received leads me 
 to hope that they will be welcomed by all Churchmen, to 
 whatever school they may belong, as suggesting many 
 thoughts of comfort and encouragement in these trying- 
 times. 
 
 They will prove to the reader that the Revelation utters 
 no wholesale condemnation of the Roman Church, though 
 it spares not her sins, especially the cruelty, avarice, and 
 hypocrisy of her civil and ecclesiastical rulers. He will see 
 that the Christian prophet only deals with the Church just 
 as the Hebrew prophets did with Israel of old, condemning 
 her sins, but comforting and encoui-aging her faithful mem- 
 bers ; predicting her trials and suffering, but consoling her 
 with the promise of final and complete victory. 
 
 They will enable him to understand how^ valuable the 
 Apocalypse has been to the Church in every age, how full 
 of comfort to the faithful under every trial, in spite of the 
 difficulty of arriving at the full meaning of the visions pre- 
 vious to the time of their fulfilment. 
 
 He will see why the evolution of history has rendered the 
 prophecy more intelligible in these days than it has ever 
 been before, and he will learn to take a broad and general 
 view of the meaning of the symbols employed by the pro- 
 phetic spirit, and will see how impossible it is to restrict their 
 reference to any isolated period in the history of the world 
 or the Church. 
 
 And especially they will make him feel that no wickedness 
 or spiritual deadness of his surroundings can stand in the 
 way of his own individual salvation if only he is faithful to 
 Christ. 
 
82 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 We are encouraged to study the Revelation by the 
 blessing twice pronounced on those who do so : " Blessed is 
 he that readeth and those which hear the words of this 
 prophecy, and keep the things which are written therein." 
 (i, 3.) " Blessed is he that keepeth the words of the 
 prophecy of this book." (xxii, 7.) 
 
 We are warned to approach the subject with cautious 
 humility and reverential fear. For it is written : " I testify 
 unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of 
 this book, if any man shall add unto them, God shall add 
 unto him the plagues which are written in this book : and 
 if any man shall take away from the words of the book of 
 this prophecy, God shall take away his part in the tree of 
 life, and the Holy City, in the things which are written 
 in this book (xxii, 18). 
 
 The very name of the book is encouraging, for it implies 
 that it is an intelligible prophecy. Unlike that of Daniel, 
 it is an unsealed book. Unsealed indeed. Yes. But, like 
 the rest of Holy Scriptui'e, unsealed only to those who 
 approach it in the right frame of mind. To all others it is 
 intended to be unintelligible. This was plainly predicted 
 by Daniel concerning his own visions even when their 
 fulfilment should have disclosed their meaning to the 
 faithful. His prophecies were to be sealed. He tells us 
 that he himself could not understand the meaning of the 
 visions Avhich he saw and described. " I heard, but I 
 understood not. . . . And he said, Go thy way, Daniel : for 
 the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end 
 .... and none of the wicked shall understand ; but the 
 wise shall understand." {Dan. xii, 8.) 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 83 
 
 We may expect, tlien, three great blessings from our 
 study of this prophecy : — 
 
 I. The confirmation of our faith in the Divinity of Our 
 Lord, when we see how His prediction of a state of things 
 in the remote future, which must have been inconceivable 
 to St. John who saw and described the visions, has been 
 fulfilled and is still fulfilling in Christendom. And thus we 
 shall be put on our guard against the miserable tendency of 
 this age to minimise as far as possible the miraculous 
 element in prophecy, and to limit its range to the human 
 prescience of the prophet, and to the events of his own times 
 or those immediately follo.wing. 
 
 II. The purifying, spiritualizing, and elevating of our 
 thoughts while we gaze on the Risen Jesus in His glory, and 
 contemplate the heavenly visions which were impressed by 
 the Spirit on the imagination of the Seer and described by 
 him in writing. 
 
 III. The filling of our hearts with comfort when we 
 think of those whom " we have loved and lost awhile " ; 
 for nowhere else in the Bible shall we find such consoling 
 assurances of the blissful rest of the Saints in the Paradise 
 of the intermediate state. 
 
 We shall have to contemplate with sorrow the corruption 
 of the Christian Church — as a visible organised body — from 
 its contact with the world, predicted in this prophecy. 
 But we shall find scarcely anything more strongly insisted 
 upon than the safety of the Church, in spite of the sins of 
 her rulers, and the salvation of the faithful individual 
 Christian, whatever may be the wickedness of his surround- 
 ings. Even if his Church should be spiritually dead like 
 Sardis, the faithful in it shall live ; for it is written, " 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." (iii, 4.) 
 
 G2 
 
84 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 The interpretation of the Apocalypse cannot be materially 
 affected by any questions as to its date or authorship, since 
 it is admitted by all in these days to be the work of a 
 Christian living during the first century. 
 
 Sir Isaac Newton was of opinion that it was the first 
 written book of the New Testament, thinking thus to 
 account for its Hebraic style, and the apparent imitation 
 of some of its figurative language by other sacred writers. 
 
 Many rationalists, having no belief whatever in real 
 inspired prophecy, are confident that it was a sort of 
 political pamphlet published at a time when there was an 
 idea that Nero was hot dead, but would return some day to 
 Rome. They can give no rational account of the majority 
 of the visions on this theory, and they do not scruple to say 
 that the predictions which seem to refer to the future wei*e 
 falsified by the events. 
 
 Some believing Christians have assigned the prophecy to 
 this early date from a misconception of the meaning of the 
 Temple vision of Chapter xi, regarding it as implying that 
 the book was written before the destruction of Jerusalem 
 by the Romans in a.d. 70. But we must remember that 
 Ezekiel saw and described a vision of the Temple and City 
 of Jerusalem at a time when they were in ruins ; and that 
 the Apostles considered that, in founding the Christian 
 Church, the Spiritual Temple, they were fulfilling the 
 prophecy of Amos, who said, "After*this I will return, and 
 build again the Tabernacle of David, which is fallen : and 
 I will build again tlie ruins thereof, and I will set it up." 
 {Acts, XV, 16.) The Holy City in the Apocalypse is the 
 Church of Chi-ist. 
 
 The linguistic difficulty is, no doubt, considerable when 
 we compare the language of the Revelation with the Gospel 
 of St. John. But the style of a calm historian or writer of 
 a letter often differs widely from that of a man writing 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 85 
 
 under the influence of poetic enthusiasm ; how nauch more, 
 then, if he is a rapt Seer carried away by the fervour of an 
 inspired imagination, and, as St. John says himself, in an 
 ecstatic state. Archaic and Hebraic expressions would 
 naturally come into the mind and mouth of one imitating 
 and reproducing the symbolic language of the Hebrew 
 prophets. 
 
 But whatever difliculties a later date may suggest, two 
 facts seem to prove that the Apocalypse cannot have been 
 published much earlier than a.d. 95, shortly before the 
 death of Domitian. 
 
 I. Iremeus plainly states this. He was the disciple of 
 Polycarp, who was the disciple of St. John, and is supposed 
 to have been appointed by him the Bishop of Smyrna. 
 
 Such a man must have known the truth. And he says 
 that " the Apocalyptic vision . . . was seen no very long 
 time since, but almost in our day, towards the end of 
 Domitian's reign." (V., c. 30.) 
 
 II. And, then, is it conceivable that any of the Asiatic 
 Churches can have been so corrupt as they are here 
 described during the lifetime of St. Paul or immediately 
 after his death 1 Their state is intelligible enough if the 
 Epistles were written in a.d. 95, which date will allow a 
 period of about thirty years for the development of the evils 
 denounced by the Apostle ; and we know only too well what 
 a change may pass over a Church in doctrine and morals in 
 the course of thirty yeai's. 
 
 Those who wish to go more deeply into these questions, 
 or to examine the numerous and conflicting interpretations 
 of the Apocalypse which have been suggested, will find 
 them ably and exhaustively treated by the late Dr. Lee, of 
 Dublin, in the last volume of the Speakei''s Commentary. 
 But I am afraid that they will rise from the study more 
 hopelessly perplexed as to the probable meaning of the book 
 
86 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 than they were when they began. Indeed, the difficulty 
 of the Apocalypse is not caused by the book itself, but by 
 the extraordinary liberties which have been taken with it by 
 commentators ; and still more by the strong theological 
 prejudices of many who have attempted to explain it, or to 
 predict by means of its visions those events of the future 
 which have almost always disappointed their groundless 
 expectations. 
 
 Several very useful and suggestive books have been 
 written during the last quarter of this century tending to 
 rescue the prophecy from the hands of fanatics and would- 
 be-prophets, notably the excellent commentary on the New 
 Testament published by the Society for Promoting Christian 
 Knowledge. And sober thinkers have shown upon what a 
 false principle those have proceeded who have regarded the 
 book as a continuous and consecutive prophecy, instead of a 
 number of synchronous visions, thereby involving them- 
 selves in hopeless perplexities from which they could escape 
 onl}'' by the most arbitrary and fanciful interpretations of 
 the later symbolical images. 
 
 You will not think me so foolish as to imagine that I can 
 give you in these lectures an interpretation which shall clear 
 up all the mysteries of this remarkable work ; but I do 
 claim to have tliought out from the Sacred Text itself, 
 independent of commentaries, and before I had read any of 
 them, an interpretation which is consistent in all its parts 
 with itself, with other Scriptures, and with the notorious 
 facts of the genei'al history of the last eighteen centuries ; 
 an interpretation, in fact, of that portion of the prophecy 
 which has been fulfilled, nnd is in course of fulfilment in 
 these days. 
 
 An outline of this scheme of interpretation was published 
 in 1852, at a time when the majority of sober Biblical 
 students paid little attention to the Apocalypse, and re- 
 garded any attempt to interpret it as a hopeless task. 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 87 
 
 The remark made by a friend on this first attem2)t was 
 singular, but not discouraging. " Your scheme," he said. 
 " is very easy to understand, and seems consistent all 
 through, but it can hardly be a true interpretation, for if 
 it is so, the Revelation is an intelligiljle prophecy, and every 
 one else regards it as hopelessly obscure." 
 
 After studying for many yeai's a great many commentaries, 
 both ancient and modern, I was able to fill up this outline 
 by the suggestions which I found in them, and published 
 the resi;lt in 1858, a revised edition of the same in 1871, 
 and then, in 1881, a translation and Commentary chiefly 
 for devotional reading, preceded by Essays on the reality of 
 Prediction, the History of Christendom and other subjects. 
 
 With this preface let us carefully and reverently examine 
 the visions which are described by the Apostle for the com- 
 fort and support of our faith. 
 
 Befoi'e we can hope to understand any writing, divine or 
 human, we must first ascertain to what class of compositions 
 it belongs. Is it a literal narrative % we must ask, or a 
 Poem ? or a Fable % or a Parable % or an Allegory ? 
 
 It has pleased God to reveal the truth to us in many 
 different ways, and one of these is the Allegory. The 
 Apocalypse is obviously not a Parable but an Allegory, 
 which two forms of composition are thus distinguished from 
 one another. 
 
 " In the allegory there is an interpenetration of the thing 
 signifying and the thing signified, the qualities and proper- 
 ties of the first being attributed to the last, and the two 
 thus blended together, instead of being kept quite distinct, 
 and placed side by side, as in the case in the parable " 
 (Trench on the parables, page 8). Thus, "I am the true 
 vine and ye are the branches," etc., is an allegory; but, "A 
 certain man planted a vineyard," etc., is a Parable. And 
 therefore, " The allegory needs not, as the parable, an in- 
 
88 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 terpretation to be brought to it from without, since it 
 contains its interpretation within itself ; and as the allegory 
 proceeds, the interpretation proceeds hand in hand with it, 
 or at least never falls far behind it." (Trench, page 9.) 
 
 That this is the character of the Apocalypse, as a com- 
 position, is clear from the words by which it is commenced. 
 
 It is called a Revelation, or unveiling of the futm-e, given 
 to Jesus Christ, as the great Prophet, the Human Mediator 
 between God and man, that He might point out to His 
 servants things which must shortly come to pass. From 
 Avhich we may infer that the fulfilment must have begun 
 almost immediately. 
 
 But how was it made known to nien % Not by a literal 
 narrative or prophecy, but by means of signs or symbols. 
 
 This is implied by the verb eai^yiavev, which means made 
 it known by signs or symbols shewn to St. John through 
 the ministry of an angel. And so, after this preface, we 
 are at once introduced to some of these signs : the Seven 
 Golden Lamps and the Seven Stars, the symbols of Seven 
 Churches and their Rulers, the true lights of the world. 
 
 This imagery is evidently suggested by the golden lamps 
 of the Tabernacle, differing slightly to suit the difference 
 of the things signified ; a single lamp with seven branches, 
 symbolizing the ancient Church restricted to one nation ; a 
 cluster of seven separate lamps representing the universal 
 Church embracing all nations ; the unity of the Church 
 being shown by the figure of the glorified Son of Man 
 walking in the midst of the Lamps, and holding the Seven 
 Stars in His right hand. 
 
 Omitting for the present the messages to the Seven 
 Churches of Asia, let vis try to arrive at the meaning of the 
 principal predictive portion of the book, beginning with the 
 fourth Chapter and ending with the nineteenth. 
 
 When we read of a door being opened in heaven we must 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 89 
 
 remember that we have before us an Allegory and not a 
 literal narrative. Tlie Apostle tells us that he was in an 
 ecstatic state, he was "in the Spirit." His imagination, 
 therefore, was under the overpowering influence of the 
 Spirit, so that visions were impressed upon it something- 
 like dreams, but more vivid and consistent, and less tran- 
 sient. He was, in fact, a seer, he saw visions, as it were 
 waking dreams, and he was commanded to describe what 
 he saw. 
 
 The heaven, therefore, which he saw was wholly imaginary, 
 as well as the things Avhich were in it. There were visible 
 symbols of the invisible Triune God, of the Jewish and 
 Christian Church, and of the whole of the animate creation 
 of God. 
 
 I. The Eternal Father ; the Seven-fold Spirit ; the Lamb 
 that had been slain. 
 
 II. The twenty-four Elders, representing the Twelve 
 Tribes of Israel and the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb, 
 the whole Church, Jewish and Christian. 
 
 III. Four Cherubic figures, composite creatures sym- 
 bolizing all that is most noble in God's creation. 
 
 The fifth chapter prepares us for the disclosure of the 
 future of the Church, symbolized by the unsealing of that 
 roll of prophecy which had been hitherto sealed. Only the 
 Lamb is found al)le to unseal that roll ; no one else can 
 open it or even look upon it. And so we arrive in the sixth 
 chapter at the actual disclosui-e of the future, the successive 
 opening of the Seven Seals. 
 
 We have before us evidently an Allegorical Drama. Let 
 us try to find some clue which may lead us to its inter- 
 pretation. 
 
 The opening of the First Seal disclosed the figure of a 
 Mighty Warrior, riding on a White Horse, armed with a 
 bow, crowned with the wreath of victory, and going forth 
 conquering and in order to conquer. 
 
90 
 
 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 Now, if we had nothiug else to guide us, we should 
 probably feel certain that we have here a symbol of Christ 
 and His Primitive Church. But every doubt is cleared up 
 when we turn to the closing scene of the Drama in the 
 nineteenth chapter. For there we read of the completion 
 of the conquest here begun. 
 
 Here, at the opening scene, the Great Champion goes 
 forth, victorious indeed thus far, and therefore wearing the 
 wreath of victory, but " in order to contpier," with a 
 triumphant march before Him involving many a fierce 
 battle, the subjugation of many enemies, and a long cam- 
 paign with some losses and defeats through the treachery, 
 insubordination or incapacity of the generals, and soldiers 
 acting for Him during His absence. 
 
 For as Chi'ist left this world at His Ascension to reign 
 until He has put all enemies under His feet, and then to 
 appear again for the Judgment of the living and the dead ; 
 so the Great Hero of our Allegory disappears from our 
 sight until He rides forth again from the opening heaven as 
 described in the nineteenth chapter, followed by all the 
 armies of heaven riding also on White Horses and fighting 
 out to the end the last great battle with all the powers 
 of evil. 
 
 Let us compare carefully the Rider of the Fii'st Seal with 
 that of chapter xix. 
 
 The first receives a wreath of victory, for such is the 
 signification of arecfjavof, which always means a platted 
 crown or wreath. Trench, in his " Synonyms of the New 
 Testament," speaks of this passage as " the only occasion on 
 which aTe(f)avo<i might seem to be used of a kingly crown." 
 Can we fail to be reminded by it of the crown of thorns ? 
 How little the soldiers knew what they were about when, 
 in derision of His claim to be a king, they platted a crown 
 of thorns and put it upon His head ! How little they 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. gi 
 
 thought that they were giving Him beforehand the wreath 
 of a victory to be won by suffering ! 
 
 Behold Him, then, at the end of the Allegory, coming 
 forth again from the opening heaven wearing no lono-er 
 the wreath of victory, but SiaSTj/jLara ttoWu many regal 
 diadems as " King of Kings and Lord of Lords." 
 
 But some may think it strange that a Horse and his 
 Rider should be selected as the symbols of Christ and His 
 Church. But it is naturally suggested by the figurative 
 language of the ancient prophets. 
 
 Thus Zechariah speaks of Jehovah as making the house 
 of Judah "his goodly horse in battle" (x, 3). And he 
 describes Him as using a bow: "when I have bent Judah 
 for me, and filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy 
 sons, Zion, against thy sons, Greece" (ix, 13.) Isaiah 
 also writes : " he hath made me a polished shaft, in his 
 quiver hath he kept me close " (xlix, 2.) 
 
 And, then, we cannot read the passage without being 
 reminded of the language of one of the most clearly 
 Messianic Psalms : " Ride on, because of the word of truth, 
 meekness and righteousness, and thy right hand shall teach 
 thee terrible things ; thy arrows are very sharp, and the 
 people shall be subdued unto thee. (Ps. xlv, 5, 6.) 
 
 "We have, therefore, a starting point very definitely fixed 
 for us by the Spirit from which we may commence our 
 inquiry into the meaning of the visions seen by the prophet 
 between these two extremes. We know for certain the 
 meaning of the opening scene of the Allegory and that with 
 which it closes. And it is evidently a dramatic Allegory in 
 Avhich the Rider on the White Horse is the most prominent 
 of the Dramatis Personce. He appears first "conquering and 
 to conquer," and in the last scene He comes forth again with 
 His Saints to destroy His enemies and make perfect His 
 victory. 
 
92 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 Meanwhile we come across many other Dramatis Pe7'sonce 
 all represented by symbols more or less connected with the 
 Principal Character. Some of these are His agents more or 
 less faithfully carrying on His warfare ; others are enemies 
 opposing His progress. 
 
 When the prophet wrote, the warfare had indeed com- 
 menced, but nearly the whole of the great Campaign was 
 future. We look back upon the battle-fields of more than 
 ■eighteen centiiries. We ought not, therefore, to find much 
 difficulty in understanding the symbolic language in which 
 Christ's warfare is described. And, moreover. His warfare, 
 which is also ours, is not yet accomplished. We are in the 
 very midst of it. 
 
 We presume not to pry into the future. We are more 
 than satisfied to leave it in the hands of Our Great Champion. 
 We know not when the end will come. We can only guess 
 what will be the character of our future struggles. We are 
 prepared for wounds and partial defeats. But are confident 
 of final and glorious victory, through Him who fights for us 
 and with us. 
 
 Unless we read the history of Christendom with eyes 
 blinded by prejudice we cannot fail to understand the sym- 
 bols which represent our enemies. We know only too well 
 what has tended to stain the primitive whiteness of the 
 Christian Church. And so we recognise in this projjhecy the 
 symbols of those evil principles which began to work in the 
 Apostolic age, are working now, and will continue to work 
 until the final consummation of which the prophets speak. 
 We may expect that the last fight will be a hard one, but we 
 are sure that our victory will be complete. 
 
 In the mean time we strengthen our faith by observing 
 how this marvellous picture, by which Our Lord forecasts 
 for us the corruption of Christianity by the world, is a 
 standing miracle ; tlie real prediction of the remote future 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 93 
 
 being one of the most convincing of all miracles, a miracle 
 more astounding than the resurrection of a dead man. 
 
 We may compare the Apocalypse to some of Our 
 Saviour's Parables : Take, for example, that of the grain 
 of mustard seed, and that of the field of wheat and tares. 
 
 These are parables, and the Apocalypse is an Allegory. 
 
 But the prediction is the same in both, and they are both 
 prophecies of Christ. What do they foreshow % The 
 enormous increase of the Church, but its corruption by the 
 great enemy of God and Man. 
 
 The future of the Church is predicted in the parables, but 
 only in very general outline. The Apocalypse paints with 
 greater exactness the details of the vast picture. And it is 
 a picture, as I hope to show you, close to well known general 
 history, revealing with singular clearness those social, 
 political, and spiritual forces which have made history, and 
 are still making it, picturing for us what we may call the 
 philosophy of history rather than its minute details ; and 
 never indistinct as regards the actors in the Drama. 
 
 What, then, does history teach us about the spreading of 
 the Christian Church, and its corruption % 
 
 We read that her first victories were the result of faithful 
 preaching ; Christ-like example, and the blood of martyr- 
 dom. And her real spiritual victories have always been 
 accomplished by the same, and never will be accomplished 
 by anything else. 
 
 But as early as the fourth century we find the rulers of 
 the Church beginning to act on very different principles, 
 and \ising force instead of persuasion for the propagation of 
 the truth and the repression of error. 
 
 Is this sad departure fi'om the principles of Christ and 
 reversion to those of Moses predicted in the Apocalypse ? 
 I hope to prove that it is so by explaining the symbols 
 which prefigure it. 
 
94 
 
 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 The first of these is exhibited to the Apostle upon the 
 opening of the Second Seal. Another warrior rides forth, 
 but he is very unlike his predecessor. " There went forth 
 another, a red horse, and power was given to its rider to 
 take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one 
 another, and a great sword was given to him." (vi, 4.) 
 
 Of course everyone sees that we have here a symbol of 
 war. Yes, indeed, a symbol of war ; but of what kind of 
 war 1 It needed no prophet to tell us that there would be 
 war so long as the present state of the world continvies. 
 
 This would be no unsealing of the roll of the hidden 
 future to the eyes of the Seer. And only a few commenta- 
 tors here and there have had sufficient spiritual insight to 
 discern the terrible meaning of this prophecy. 
 
 It symbolizes one of the first sinful and imchristian 
 practices of the rulers of the conquering Church when they 
 were raised by Providence to supreme power in the world ; 
 the use of the sword for the propagation of truth and the 
 suppression of error. 
 
 Observe the consistency of this interpretation ; for it is 
 one of the soundest principles of interpretation to give to a 
 similar symbol a similar meaning. 
 
 If the First Horse symbolizes the Church and the Rider 
 its Divine Ruler ; then the Second Horse must also sym- 
 bolize the Church and its Rider its Divinely appointed 
 Ruler. For Our Lord did not leave His Church in a state 
 of anarchy, but appointed a succession of Pastors to rule 
 over it in His Name and by His authority. Of such, no 
 doubt. He would speak as He did of the rulers of the Jewish 
 Church in His day : " The Scribes and Pharisees sit on 
 Moses seat ; all therefore, whatsoever they bid you, that do 
 and observe, but do ye not after their works ; for they say 
 and do not." {St. Matt, xxiii, 2.) 
 
 What, then, does history tell us about the conduct of 
 those who were appointed to rule over the Church ? 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 95 
 
 That the victory of Christianity over paganism was 
 rapidly followed by persecution for religious opinions and 
 by long and crnel religious wars, and that that state of 
 things has continued more or less ever since. 
 
 Although there have been many Bishops and Clergy of 
 saintly characters in every age, the majority, or at any rate 
 the more powerful rulers in Church and State have not 
 scrupled to use the sword of Civil Power for the propagation 
 of truth, and the forcible repression of error. 
 
 This evil principle, this mistaken reversion to Mosaism, 
 came in with the conversion of the Roman Emperors. Are 
 we sure that there are no Christian rulers even now who 
 so fail to recognize the difference between the system of 
 Christ and that of Moses, as to be willing to act on this 
 principle if they had the power to do so ? Are there none 
 who even now forget the words of Jesus to the Disciples 
 who wished to call down fire from Heaven as Elijah did, 
 " Ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of For the 
 Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save 
 them ! " {St. Luke ix, 55, 56.) 
 
 And now let us observe how close this symbolic picture is 
 to history. 
 
 " The theory of persecution," writes Gibbon, " was 
 established by Theodosius ; but the practice of it, in its 
 fullest extent, Avas reserved for his rival and colleague, 
 Maximus, the first among the Christian Princes who 
 shed the blood of his Christian subjects on account of 
 their religious opinions." (a.d. 385. Chap. 27.) He also 
 describes "a religious war of 250 years." (Chap. 47.) 
 Well might Ambrose, a Monk in the eighth Century, say 
 of these first two Horsemen, " Ille concordi£e, hie vero auctor 
 est discordise." The latter is the author of discord, as the 
 former was of peace. 
 
 Such is the record of history. Our Blessed Lord foresaw 
 
96 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 and predicted the evil plainly in His own words: — "Tliink 
 not that I am come to send peace on the earth, I am not 
 come to send peace, but a sword;" figuratively, and yet by 
 a like symbol, in the Apocalypse : — " When he had opened 
 
 the Second Seal there went forth another Horse 
 
 that was red, and power was given to him that sat thereon 
 to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one 
 another ; and there was given unto him a great sword." 
 {Rev. vi, 4, St. Matt, x, 34.) 
 
 Let us examine this vision more closely ; for it does not 
 stand alone in the prophecy. Many subsequent visions 
 throw much light upon it, and establish the truthfulness 
 of the interpretation now suggested. But in itself it will 
 bear the closest inspection. 
 
 There is meaning in the colour of the Horse. White all 
 through this prophecy is the symbol of purity and likeness 
 to Christ ; and Red is the colour of His enemies. 
 
 The same Greek word is vised for the colour of this Horse, 
 and for that of the great Serpent of chapter xii. Here we 
 have t7r7ro<; 7rvpp6<i ; there SpciKcov 7rvpp6<;. Red too is 
 the colour of the great Wild-beast of chapter xvii, and of 
 the Woman who sits upon him. 
 
 The character of the war also is marked by the expression, 
 "that they should kill one another." It predicts, not a war 
 against the open enemies of Christianity, but of Christians 
 with Christians, what we properly call " religious war." 
 And then the Sword here given is not simply any sword, 
 but a great sword, ixd')(aLpa fieydXr), in which we can 
 scarcely fail to recognize the great Imperial Sword. What- 
 ever may be the classical use of [xdy^atpa, it stands all 
 through the New Testament for the Roman Sword, the 
 symbol of Imperial Power, the Sword of Office, and the 
 instrument of execution. 
 
 This evil maxim, that it is lawful to use the sword for the 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 97 
 
 propagation of truth and suppression of eri'or, once intro- 
 duced, has, as I have already observed, never ceased to exert 
 its baneful influence in Christendom. Not only so, it has 
 been in all ages advocated by the Roman Church, as at the 
 present day by the Greek Church and its Imperial Head. 
 
 Berti'and thus writes in the sixteenth century, explaining 
 fancifully Our Saviour's words in the garden of Gethsemane 
 about the two swords : " By two swords were signified two 
 powers, the temporal and spiritual power. But in whose 
 *hands did He wish these two swords to be ? Certainly in 
 the power of Peter and the other Apostles. But the Lord 
 Pope succeeded Peter ... He wishes the temporal sword 
 to be in the hand of the La}- Judge, but in the power of the 
 Priest at his nod and command." 
 
 We know only too well that this " ambition and lust of 
 power, the cause of all evils," of which Isidore complains in 
 the fifth century, is inherent in our poor fallen nature and 
 was working already in the life-time of St. John, wlio speaks 
 of " Diotrephes who loveth to have the pre-eminence." 
 (3 John, 9.) It was a tare planted veiy early in the field of 
 the kingdom, and it needed only the sunshine and heat of 
 Imperial favour to stimulate its growth, and to ripen its 
 hurtful and most poisonous fruit. 
 
 Although this symbolic picture has never been so fully 
 treated, there is nothing novel in the application of these 
 two Horsemen to the Church and her rulers. Thus Andreas, 
 writing in the seventh centui-y, says of this Second Seal, 
 " Hanc secundam ab Apostolis successionem interpretari 
 possumus." We may regard this vision as symbolizing the 
 second succession from the Apostles. 
 
 All I claim is to have suggested an interpretation as early 
 as 1852 consistent with the other visions of the Apocalypse, 
 and to have shown it to have a deep, spiritual, and practical 
 meaning ; not to be a mere vague prediction of warfare, but 
 
 H 
 
98 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 of a kind of warfare the least likely to be anticipated by a 
 Christian writing in the first century ; but wliich was fore- 
 seen by Christ and pre-figured by this and other symbols 
 in this most wonderful prophetic forecast of the future of 
 Christendom. 
 
 But the love of power, resulting in religious persecution 
 and religious wars, has not been the worst evil principle 
 which has stained the primitive Whiteness of the Clmrch 
 of Christ. Avarice has done even more harm ; and avarice 
 is the sin plainly symbolized by the vision of the ThinF 
 Seal. 
 
 With reference to this hateful and hurtful vice, prevailing 
 among the rulers of the Church in his day, the saintly 
 Isidore writes in the fifth century : " Nos, vir optime, eidem 
 cum Scribis et Pharisaeis Judicio obnoxii sumus." " We are 
 liable to the same condemnation as the Scribes and Phari- 
 sees." And of the early coming in of this terrible evil the 
 Apostles themselves wei'e conscious. " I know that after 
 my departure shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not 
 sparing the flock " {^AcU xx, 29). " Men of corrupt minds, 
 and destitute of the truth, regarding godliness as a means 
 of getting gain" (I Tim. vi, 5). "Through covetousness 
 shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you " 
 (// Pet. ii, 3). And so this Third Rider is a merchant, 
 holding in his hand the instrument of the merchant. No 
 wonder that his Horse is described as black. 
 
 War is naturally followed by famine \ and religious war 
 by religious famine. And the famished soul, deprived of 
 its spiritual nourishment, is a more pitiable object than the 
 famished body. And the prophet Amos describes such a 
 famine : " not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of 
 hearing the words of the Lord" i^Aiaos viii, 11). Such a 
 famine is the natural result of the avarice of the Rider on 
 the Black Horse. He is a merchant. He holds in his hands 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 99 
 
 the merchant's scales, and he sells at a high price even the 
 commonest food of the hungry soul, " A measure of wheat 
 for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny ; " 
 while the more precious food, demanded by a deeper spiritual 
 need, he will not allow to be touched, " tlie oil and the wine " 
 of the Spirit. 
 
 In what age has not the Whiteness of the Church been 
 stained by the avarice of her rulers in Church and State? 
 But there have been ages in which it has been more widely 
 prevalent than in others, especially those which followed that 
 complete conquest of Paganism which established Christianity 
 as the dominant and unquestioned religion of the Roman 
 world. 
 
 " Passing rapidly," writes Hallam, " from a condition of 
 distress and persecution to the summit of prosperity, the 
 Church degenerated as rapidly from her ancient purity 
 covetousness, especially, became almost a character- 
 istic vice Simony, or the corrupt purchase of 
 
 spiritual benefices, was the second characteristic reproach of 
 the Clergy in the eleventh century." "It was the time," 
 says Guizot," of the greatest abuses of simony, of the al- 
 together arbitrary disposition of Ecclesiastical benefices." 
 Well might the venerable Bede say of this Seal : " Equus 
 niger falsorum caterva est fratrum." " The Black Horse is a 
 band of false brethren." 
 
 Peter of Blois, Archdeacon of Bath in the twelfth century, 
 speaks of his contemporaries as being " De lanji ovium, et 
 non de salute solliciti." " Looking after the wool of their 
 sheep rather than their salvation." His sermons are full of 
 condemnations of this vice, and he has handed down his 
 indignant testimony in these two Latin lines : — 
 " Nobilis ecclesije quondam venerabile nomen 
 Prostat, et in qusestu pro meretrice sedet." 
 
 This testimony to the fearful corruption of the Church 
 and her rulers was written in the twelfth century, and a 
 
 H2 
 
LECTURES ON THE 
 
 volume might be filled with similar lamentations uttered by 
 those few lights which were still shining brightly even in the 
 darkest, the blackest ages of the Church. 
 
 That ^v<^ov in this passage means a pair of scales and 
 not merely a yoke is certain from the fact that it is used to 
 weigh the wheat and the barley. And Victorinus, in the 
 third century, writes, " habens stateram in manu suji." Of 
 this Rider the benedictine Monk, Ambrose, in the eighth 
 century, writes : " Temporalibus stipendiis quorandam vitam 
 mercari queerit .... inedia spiritalis cibi necatos in 
 augmentum sui corporis sumens." 
 
 It was a vision, then, full of warning to the Church, her 
 rulers, and people in every age, which passed before the eyes 
 of the wondering Apostle when he looked "and lo a black 
 horse : and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his 
 hand," and a voice said, " A measure of wheat for a penny, 
 and three measures of barley for a penny, and hurt not the 
 oil and the wine" (vi, 5, 6.) 
 
 The natural result of the unlawful use of the sword for 
 the suppression, not of immorality, but of opinions contrary 
 to the teaching of the Church, and, of the almost universal 
 prevalence of avarice, not only among the laity but also 
 among the Clergy, was the gradual formation of a fiercely 
 anathematising and persecuting Hierarchy. This is pictured 
 later on in the prophecy by symbols the meaning of which 
 cannot well be mistaken. 
 
 A vision more terrible than any of its predecessors is here 
 seen upon the opening of the Fourth Seal, and is thus 
 described by the Apostle, " I looked, and behold a pale 
 horse, and his name that sat upon him was Death, and 
 Hades followed with him : and power was given unto them 
 over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with the sword, 
 and with famine, and with the wild-beasts of the earth " 
 (vi, 8.) 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 
 
 The colour of this Horse indicates a still wider departure 
 from the pure whiteness of the primitive Church. The 
 word here is -yXaypoq, signifying, like grass, but expressing 
 here the pale, sallow, death-like hue of grass in hot climates. 
 But it has a peculiar significance as expressing one of the 
 colours which the Priest was to regard as a symptom of 
 true leprosy, the participle ^(XwpL^wv being used in the 
 Septuagint as the equivalent of the Hebrew adjective. 
 {Lev. xiii, 49 ; xiv, 37.) The Priest is to suspect true 
 leprosy if he sees the plague in the skin yXwpi^ovcra rj 
 TTvppi^ovcra, pale greenish or x'eddish. 
 
 These colours are strikingly significant. They mark the 
 gradual departure of the Church, more and more widely, 
 from the early purity of the age of Christ and His Apostles. 
 We pass from White to Red, and Black, and reach at last 
 the loathsome and death-like hue of leprosy. Only those 
 who are ignorant of the history of Christendom from about 
 the ninth or tenth century can fail to recognise this. And, 
 as we stand afar off and cry, " Lord have mercy upon us," 
 we listen eagerly for the words of the Great Healei*, "I will, 
 be thou clean." 
 
 The names Death and Hades given to the Rider on this 
 Horse and his attendant are obviously personifications, and 
 symbolize the wicked and cruel Ecclesiastical and Civil 
 Rulers of the sufi'ering Church. 
 
 Like tlieir predecessors they still can slay men with the 
 Sword of the Civil Power ; and starve their souls with the 
 famine of the word of Cod ; and their power is supported by 
 the wild-beasts of the earth, invariably in this prophecy and 
 the Book of Daniel the symbols of the worldly sovereigns. 
 
 Does history prove the truthfulness of this picture of the 
 oppression of the Church by her wicked rulers from an 
 early century 1 It tells us of the Inquisition, the torture 
 chamber, the wrack and the fire ; of the propagation of the 
 
LECTURES ON THE 
 
 doctrines of the Church, not by persuasion, and example, 
 but with the argument of the sword. 
 
 " The Cathohc Princes (the wild beasts of the earth) 
 connected their own interest with that of the Clergy, and 
 enforced by fire and the sword the terrors of spiritual 
 censures. In the Netherlands alone, more than onehundi'ed 
 thousand of the subjects of Charles the Fifth are said to 
 have suffered by the hand of the executioner." (Gibbon, 
 C. 16). 
 
 The terrible state of things, which prevailed for many 
 ages in the Church, was thus referred to by Dr. Pusey in a 
 sermon preached at Oxford in 1837. "Plain as these things 
 are, it is even more misei'able, that in snch a cause . 
 murder, treason, rebellion, assassination, lying, perjury, 
 secret slaughter of whole bodies at once, should have been 
 justified by Divines, writing in the Name of Christ." 
 
 After these words you will scarcely think that I have 
 been too hard upon the rulers in Church and state who 
 committed these atrocities, by applying this vision to them 
 and their. works. We may observe, too, that their dominion 
 is represented as very extensive but not unlimited. "Power 
 was given luito them over the fourth part of the earth." 
 (vi. S.). 
 
 The more I read and the longer I think the more fully 
 persuaded I am that this interpretation of these Horsemen 
 is true and full of wai'ning to the Christian in every age. 
 The love of power and money, and the spirit of intolerance 
 and persecution are productive of much evil at all times, 
 and will be so, we may be sure, to the end, until the 
 heavens open, and He, once crowned with thorns, but then 
 with many diadems, as King of kings and Lord of lords, 
 comes forth, followed by the armies of heaven clothed in 
 linen white and clean, to execute Judgment and to destroy 
 all them that have corrujited the earth. 
 
REVELATION OE ST. JOHN. 103 
 
 Meanwhile we are refreshed with a glimpse of the Saints 
 who have conquered in the strife. " And 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, Lord, holy and true, dost Thou 
 not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the 
 earth 1 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 they were, should be ful- 
 filled." (vi, 9-11.) 
 
 Of this vision Bede says : " Quia ccclesiam dixerat in 
 prcesenti multipliciter afflictam dicet et gloriam animarum 
 post corporum picnam." " Because he had mentioned the 
 manifold affliction of the Chui'ch here, he will mention also 
 the glory of sonls after the pains of the body." Of their 
 prayer he adds : " They pray for the day of Judgment and 
 the destruction of the reign of sin, not from hatred of their 
 enemies, for whom they prayed in this world, but from the 
 love of righteousness, with which they themselves ai"e in 
 harmony as placed near the Judge." 
 
 That there is a place for the rest of departed Saints in the 
 intermediate state was the firm belief of the ancients, as 
 Irenreus writes : " A Paradise has been prepared for the 
 righteous, where thej' remain until the consummation." 
 (ylren. Lib. iv, c. 5.) 
 
 The closing words in which the vision of the Fifth Seal 
 is described are somewhat ominous. The Saints are bidden 
 to rest " until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, 
 that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled." 
 Time only will show whether the ranks of the Martyrs are 
 yet filled. They are certainly not so in the battle-field of 
 our Missionaries, and the Christian in all ages must be 
 
104 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 prepared, if the occasion requires it, to seal his testimony 
 with his blood. 
 
 The Sixth Seal, under images taken from the convulsions 
 of the natural world, and from the language of the Hebrew 
 prophets, describes the troubles which precede the Second 
 Advent of Christ. How far the language is entirely 
 figm'ative can be determined only by the event. Victorinus 
 regarded it as prefiguring the last great Anti-christian 
 persecution. 
 
 " In texto sigillo factus terra? motus niagnus ipsa est ilia 
 novissima persecutio." And this seems to have been the 
 opinion of Keble. 
 
 " By tempests, earthquakes, and by wars. 
 By rushing waves, and falUng stars. 
 By every sign her Lord foretold, 
 She sees the world is waxing old, 
 And through that last and direst storm, 
 Descries by faith her Saviour's form." 
 
 ( Christian Year. Adv. 2. ) 
 
 Before the Seventh Seal is opened an episode is intro- 
 duced, assuring us of the safety of the faithful under all 
 trials ; another glimpse of the blessedness of the departed 
 Saints. The Elect of Israel are sealed and numbered. The 
 multitude of the Gentiles is countless. They have been 
 protected during the great tribulation of this life, and are 
 comforted by blissful rest in the Paradise of God. 
 
 The Seventh Seal is opened, and the storm is succeeded 
 by a great calm. So Bede writes, " In Septimo cernit 
 initium quietis seternfe." And so also says Victorinus, 
 who accounts for the expression, " about the space of half an 
 hour," from the necessity of the case, because otherwise 
 the prophet could not continue his description of subsequent 
 visions, " Nam si esset juge silentium, hie finis narrandi 
 fieret." 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 105 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 In the vision of the first Four Seals we have had a 
 figurative but intelligible picture of the Church fighting her 
 way against all enemies to supreme power in the Roman 
 World, "the fourth part of the earth." The Serpent, 
 though baffled, has not allowed her to pass through the 
 conflict unwounded or unpolluted. The lust of power, the 
 love of money, and intolerance of opposition have sadly 
 stained her originally white raiment. Abusing her power 
 and the influence of her high position in the world, persecut- 
 ing and slaying lier opponents instead of persuading them 
 by argument and attracting them by love and holy example, 
 she reached at last a condition scarcely less corrupt than 
 that of Jerusalem in the days of Christ, and not unlike 
 that of Sardis, to whom it was said, " Thou hast a name that 
 thoii livest, but art dead. {Rev. iii, 1.) 
 
 And yet the religion of Christ has been all through a 
 conquering religion. It has been His warfare, although His 
 generals and soldiers have too often been very unlike Him. 
 It was His will that Christianity should triumph over 
 Paganism, and He will not allow the sins of His ministers or 
 any other obstacles to stand in the way of His triumphant 
 march. And not only so. The Church is still the society 
 which He has instituted for the salvation of her faithful 
 members ; a blessed truth which subsequent visions will 
 reveal ; even as Jesus said of the Holy City which He 
 wept over for her sins, " Ye worship ye know not what, 
 we know what we worship : for salvation is of the Jews." 
 {St. John iv, 22.) 
 
 The spreading of Christianity being thus symbolized as 
 the warfare of One going forth "conquering and to conquer," 
 
io6 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 it is consistent that the judgments which attend His trium- 
 phant march inflicted on those who openly oppose or secretly 
 corrupt His religion should be revealed by symbols of a like 
 character. 
 
 The typical warfare of Joshua and the siege and fall of 
 Jericho seem, therefore, to have suggested the symbols of 
 the Seven Trumpets of Judgment. 
 
 It is also consistent that the plagues of Egypt should 
 suggest imagei'y for the description of these judgments, and, 
 remembering that we have before us an allegory and not a 
 literal narrative, we shall understand the language in which 
 these judgments are described as we would that of any other 
 allegory. 
 
 We shall expect also that the description of these judg- 
 ments, though pointing to some well-known opponents or 
 corrupters of the Church, should, like the visions of the 
 Seals contain principles of judgment applicable to all ages, 
 reminding us always that " where the carcase is there will 
 the eagles be gathered together." 
 
 We know from the history of the past and from the signs 
 and events of our own times, that Christianity was for several 
 centuries fiercely opposed and persecuted ; then became the 
 dominant and unquestioned religion of the Roman World for 
 more than a thoiisand years; and is now being opposed again 
 ^nd is passing through a crisis, the issue of which God only 
 can foresee. 
 
 The meaning of these Trumpets will be better understood 
 when we know more of the Great City for whose judgment 
 they prepai'e the w^ay. And for this purpose it will be well 
 to pass at once to the more intelligible visions of the 12th 
 and 13th chapters. For these give us a picture of Roman 
 Christendom from the birth of Christ to the present day 
 which can only be misiniderstood by those who are un- 
 acquainted with history or blinded by theological prejudice. 
 
REVELATION OE ST. JOHN. 107 
 
 Indeed it is theological prejiidice, more than anything else, 
 which has hitherto so often kept nien from understanding 
 the Apocalypse. 
 
 Romanists and some Churchmen seem determined to see 
 no condemnation of the sins of the Latin Church in these 
 visions; and Protestant commentators are scarcely able or 
 willing to see in them anything else. And it has been the 
 prevalence of a more tolerant spirit and greater fairness of 
 mind which has caused such a marked difference in the more 
 recent commentaries on the Revelation as compared with 
 those most popular at the time when I first gave my mind to 
 the subject, now nearly fifty years ago. 
 
 The alarmingly rapid spreading also of openly professed 
 infidelity, and of opinions opposed not only to Christianity 
 but even to the very foundations of all moralitj- and religion, 
 during the last few years ; as well as the changed attitude of 
 the so-called Christian Rulers of the world towards the 
 Church, the strained relations of the Civil and Ecclesiastical 
 Powers, have shown us only too plainly that there are enemies 
 of the truth far more formidable than the Papacy, and quite 
 as likely to be predicted in such a Prophecy as the 
 Apocalypse. 
 
 Even so sound a Theologian as Bishop Wordsworth lived 
 too early to appreciate this, for he can see little except the 
 Papacy in the symbols of the Revelation. 
 
 The evident success, in fact, of more recent interpreters is 
 not due to any mental superiority or truer spiritual insight, 
 but to the further evolution of that condition of things pre- 
 dicted by the visions of the Apostle, which throws a new 
 light upon them. That which Sir Isaac Newton predicted 
 has come to pass. " The folly of interpreters," he says, " has 
 been to foretell times and things by this prophecy, as if God 
 designed to make them prophets. By this rashness they 
 have not only exposed themselves, but brought the proj^hecy 
 
io8 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 also into contempt. The desig-n of God was much otherwise. 
 He gave this and tlie prophecies of the Old Testament, not 
 to gratify men's curiosity by enabling them to foreknow 
 things, but that after they were fulfilled they might be inter- 
 preted by the event, and His own Providence, not the 
 interpreter's, be then manifested thereby to the world .... 
 He that would understand the old Prophets must begin with 
 tliis ; but the time is not yet come for understanding them 
 perfectly, because the main revolution predicted in tliem is 
 not yet come to pass .... There is already ^o much of 
 the prophecy fulfilled, that as many as will take pains in this 
 study may see sufiicient instances of God's Providence : but 
 then the signal revolutions predicted by all the holy Prophets 
 will at once both turn men's eyes upon considering the pi'e- 
 dictions, and plainly interpret them." 
 
 These words were printed in 1733, more than fifty yeai-s 
 before the French Revolution, the commencement of that 
 period which modern historians are already beginning to call 
 the Era of Revolutions. 
 
 We are living during this Era of Revolutions ; and I 
 hope to show in a subsequent lecture that they are partial 
 fulfilments of the symbolic language of the Fifth Trumpet 
 and the Fifth Phial ; the former being a figurative descrip- 
 tion of the withdrawal of Providential restraint from the 
 dangerous classes ; the latter of a judgment ftilling upon 
 the Tin-one. 
 
 But all this will be more intelligible when the later and 
 less obscui'e symbolisms' have been explained. For it is a 
 characteristic of this prophecy, that each succeeding vision 
 throws light upon that whicli precedes it. 
 
 It would be mere guess-work to give the earlier visions 
 of the Seals and Trumpets, and of the Temple and Holy 
 City the meanings suggested in these lectures, if we had 
 not the later visions beginning with the 12th chapter to 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 109 
 
 reveal to us tlieir tnie significance. Many plausible inter- 
 pretations of isolated visions in the earlier part of tlie 
 Prophecy might be suggested and have been suggested, but 
 the fair-minded interpreter must give them up at once, 
 however probable in themselves, if inconsistent with the 
 plainer visions we have now to consider. 
 
 These symbolisms begin with the 12th chapter and, to- 
 gether with the 13th and 17th chapters, give us a picture 
 in several compartments of that which we may call Christen- 
 dom from the birth of Christ until the end. 
 
 The visions of the Apocalypse being obviously synchronous, 
 the Prophetic Spirit here takes us back to the very beginning 
 of the preceding visions. 
 
 "There appeared a great sign {arjixelov) in heaven, a 
 woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, 
 and upon her head a crown of twelve stars : and she being 
 with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be 
 delivered." (xii, 1.) 
 
 We have here the well-known symbol of the Hebrew 
 prophets for the Church or people of God. She here repre- 
 sents the Jewish Chiirch, first travailing and giving birth to 
 Chi'ist, then, as the vision proceeds, mei'ged in and develop- 
 ing into the Christian Church, the Bride of the Lamb. The 
 sun and moon and the twelve stars remind us of the dream 
 of Joseph concerning her founders, and predict her future 
 glory and power. 
 
 This is the most ancient and most obvious interpretation 
 of this symbol, given ages before the follies of Maryolatry 
 had suggested a different signification. We may I'egard it 
 as quite certain that the Woman, whether faithful or like 
 Israel of old unfaithful to her Husband, is the symbol of the 
 Church all through the Apocalypse. Thus Victorinus writes ; 
 " the woman clothed with the sun is the ancient Church of 
 the fathei's and the prophets, and of the saints and Apostles I " 
 
LECTURES ON THE 
 
 The pains of travail, the common symbol of ancient 
 prophecy, well represent the critical time of Jacob's trouble, 
 for it was, as usual, just when the state of the Jewish Clnu-ch 
 had come to the worst that rescue came to the true Israel. 
 When the sceptre was finally departing from Judah and a 
 law-giver from between his feet, when the iron yoke of 
 Rome was entering into Israel's soul, then Jesus, the Great 
 Champion, was born, here called the Man Child who was to 
 rule all the nations with a rod of iron. 
 
 This was one great sign. The next is of equally fixed and 
 definite meaning, a great Red Serpent standing ready to des- 
 troy the Child. 
 
 We have here, in fact, a figurative description of Paradise 
 regained, as in Genesis iii we have a narrative, either literal 
 or figurative we cannot tell which, of Paradise lost. The 
 vision of the New Testament unveils the mystery of the Old 
 Testament narrative. The same dramatis persome are 
 brought before us. The Woman, her Seed, and the Serpent. 
 To give this symbolism any other meaning is to violate one 
 of the soundest principles of interpretation, and to leave the 
 prophecy, so to speak, floating in the air. 
 
 That the Woman here is the symbol of the Church as a 
 corporate body, and not of any individual woman, whether 
 Eve or the Virgin Mary, is placed beyond all question by that 
 which, is afterwards said of her. 
 
 (1.) Her condition in the world, after the birth of her Son 
 and Tinder the persecutions of the Serpent, is so described as 
 to exclude all idea of her I'epresenting any individual woman 
 as we shall presently see. 
 
 (2.) She is identified with the Holy Cit}^, the heavenly 
 Jerusalem, the well-known symbol of the Church. Thus, in 
 chapter xix, 7, we read of the marriage of the Lamb and that 
 His wife hath made herself ready. And again, in chapter 
 xxi, 9, we read, " Come hither, I will show thee the bride, 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 
 
 the Lamb's wife. 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." 
 
 Bearing in mind, then, that this Woman-city, as we will 
 call her, is the symbol of the Church in all ages, let us 
 examine minutely what is said about her in Chapters xii, 
 xiii, and xvii. 
 
 They give us a picture of the Church in three conditions 
 exactly such as we know her to have been in during the last 
 eighteen centuries. 
 
 I. In Chapter xii we see her, as she was during the first 
 few centuries, exposed to the open and violent persecutions 
 of the Serpent, acting first through the instrumentality of 
 Pagan Rome ; and then soon after, when the Roman Empire 
 became Christian, bringing against her those hordes of bar- 
 barians who destroyed that Empire, and, but for the Pro- 
 vidence of God, would have swept her away together with 
 all Roman rule and civilization. 
 
 II. Then in Chapter xiii we have symbolized those 
 sovereigns who divided between them the disjecta menibra of 
 ancient Rome, who became her protectors, but most op- 
 pressive and corrupting protectors, under the influence of 
 the Pope and his creature, the Holy Roman Empire, 
 founded by him in the person of Charles the Great in 
 A.D. 800. 
 
 III. But in Chapter xvii her long and undisputed do- 
 minion over the kings and nations of the Latin world seems 
 to be represented as drawing to a close. And we recognize 
 in the symbolism that changed relation towards the ruling- 
 powers of Western Christendom in which we now find her. 
 
 AVhat has brought this about? The spreading of infi- 
 delity, false socialism, and anarchical principles of many 
 kinds. This we can see ; but we cannot predict how it will 
 end : whether by some gradual process, or some sudden 
 
LECTURES ON THE 
 
 catastrophe. The latter seems to be implied by the language 
 of the prophecy, which appears to predict that the Church 
 will be punished for her sinful worldliness by those who have 
 supported her for so many ages, and, like Zion of old, will 
 be purified and redeemed by judgment. 
 
 We have the Church, then, represented in the prophecy 
 in these three conditions as regards her connection with the 
 Powers of the world. First openly persecuted by them ;. 
 then for many ages protected and corrupted by them ; and 
 in the end rejected and punished by them in consequence 
 of the falling away from the Christian faith of the latter 
 days. 
 
 This need not imply any diminution of the Church's 
 spiritual power for the salvation of believers, but only her 
 loss of political influence and a reversion to her original 
 attitude of open warfare with a sinful and godless world. 
 
 To ascertain now the significance of the peculiar form 
 given to the Devil in chapter xii, that of " a Great Red 
 Serpent with seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns 
 on his heads," we must compare it with the reproduction of 
 Daniel's well-known symbol of the world-power in all ages 
 described in chapter xiii. 
 
 And here we are on solid ground, because, however much 
 some modern critics may question the date or authenticity 
 of the book of Daniel, they all admit, because the prophet 
 so explains it, that he repi'esents the ultimate development 
 of the world-power by the symbol of a Wild-beast with Ten 
 Horns. The only difference between the two prophets is. 
 this : that St. John adds Seven Heads to his symbol to 
 identify it more plainly with Rome, the City of the Seven 
 Hills, and the possessor of universal dominion in his day. 
 
 Let us look closely at the great wild-beast of chapter xiii. 
 He is a composite creature with the body of a Leopard, the 
 paws of a Bear, and the mouth of a Lion. Evidently, there- 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 113 
 
 fore, the consummation and ultimate result of the evolution 
 of worldly dominion, passing from its seat on Euphrates, 
 through Persia and Greece to the banks of the Tiber. 
 
 The order in which these animals are mentioned is also 
 significant. Daniel looking from his stand-point begins with 
 the Lion of Babylon, the Bear of Persia, the Leopard of 
 Greece, issuing in that terrible Roman Empire, who subdues 
 all predecessors and puts forth Ten Horns. 
 
 St. John, from his stand-point, traces back the progress of 
 the Empire through the Leopard of Greece, the Bear of 
 Persia, to the Lion of Ancient Babylon, and so gives us a 
 picture of world Empire in all ages up to the Day of Judg- 
 ment. 
 
 Hopeless confusion has resulted fi-om the attempts of 
 nearly all Protestant commentators to identify this Wild- 
 beast with the Papacy. It is unquestionably the symbol of 
 the World-power in all ages and not at all of the Church. 
 Yes, of the World-power in all ages, from Babylon to the 
 end ; and yet, when we look more closely into the matter^ 
 and compare minutely the description of this symbol given, 
 first in chapter xii, then in chapter xiii, and then in 
 chapter xvii, we shall find marks indicating special con- 
 ditions of the world-power in special periods of time. 
 
 The Devil, the Prince of this world, the persecutor of the 
 Church at the beginning and until she has reached a position 
 of comparative safety from his open persecution by infidel 
 rulers, is represented in chapter xii by a great Red Serpent 
 with Seven Heads and Ten Horns ; because the Pagan 
 Roman Empire was, during the early centuries, the visible 
 instrument of his malice, and because a Wild-beast with 
 Ten Horns was Daniel's symbol of Rome. 
 
 Observe here, then, how this special period of time is 
 marked in this 12th Chapter. Because this symbol here 
 refers to Rome as yet undivided, reigning still supreme from 
 
 I 
 
114 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 the City of the Seven Hills, the Creature has crowns upon 
 its Seven Heads. 
 
 The same World-power, after the disruption of the Roman 
 Empire, held by many independent sovereigns, comes before 
 us again in chapter xiii. But mark the difference. Rome 
 is no longer the sole seat of Empire ; her dominion is now 
 held by a fiimily of independent sovereigns, called by Gibbon 
 the Great Republic of the West. The creature, therefore, 
 has now regal crowns upon its Ten Horns. 
 
 Another striking sign also indicates that a great change 
 has now passed, in this 13th chapter, over the World-power. 
 It bears no longer the form of the Serpent, but simply that 
 of worldly dominion, like the symbols of Daniel. 
 
 Why is this ? The prophecy explains itself. The Serpent 
 is represented, in chapter xii, 17, as failing in every attempt 
 to destroy the Woman, and then as going away with the 
 intention of carrying on a more secret warfare, no longer 
 with the Woman herself but with the faithful remnant of 
 her children ; that is to say, no longer with the Church 
 as an organized body, luider Civil and Ecclesiastical Rulers, 
 but with the true and living members of that organized 
 body, the faithful witnesses of Jesus, who dare to denoimce 
 her crimes and attempt her reformation. 
 
 What a sad but truthful picture of Latin Christendom 
 for many ages ! Did not the character of the Church, 
 though still like Jerusalem of old the Holy City of God 
 and home of the faithful, sadly deteriorate as an organized 
 body ? Did she not grow into a great, proud, worldly- 
 minded and persecuting Hierarchy? Did she not imitate 
 Jerusalem who slew all the prophets which were sent uuto 
 her? Did she not torture, slay and burn in the tire her 
 own more faithful children ? 
 
 We are not surprised, then, to find the Devil in our 
 allegory no longer showing himself openly in the form of 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 115 
 
 the Serpent, but giving " his power, and his throne, and 
 his great authority" to another, to Daniel's symbol of the 
 Roman Temporal Power, a Wild-beast, with seven heads, 
 and ten horns, and ten crowns upon his horns. 
 
 We shall find this same symbol of the ^Vorld-l)ower 
 represented in Chapter xvii in a widely different relation 
 to the Woman or Church, that is, to the world-worshipping 
 Church, the worship of the world instead of God being 
 always represented in Holy Scripture under the figure of 
 fornication or adultery. As Isaiah exclaims, " How is the 
 faithful city become an harlot!" iropvr] {Isaiah i, 21). 
 
 The long and intimate connection of the Church, as an 
 organized body, with the Rulers of Latin Christendom, is 
 exhibited to the wondering eyes of the Apostle under the 
 figure of a Woman unfaithful to her Husband sitting upon 
 Daniel's symbol of the World-power. 
 
 Only those who are wilfully blind, who will not see how 
 cruel and corrupting to the Latin Church has been for 
 ages the rule of Christian Sovereigns and Roman Popes, 
 can fail to understand this vision of Judgment, For this 
 xviith Chapter is a vision of Judgment: "Come hither; 
 I will show unto thee the judgment of the great harlot 
 that sitteth upon many waters : with whom the kings of 
 the earth have committed fornication" (xvii, 1-2). 
 
 The vision predicts the punishment of the Church for 
 
 the crimes of her rulers. And the instruments of her 
 
 punishment are those very worldly Rulers who have for 
 
 ages supported her, but who at last turn against her and 
 
 fight against every form of Christianity or true religion. 
 
 For it is written of these possessors of the World-power in 
 
 the latter days, not only that they shall hate the Harlot 
 
 Church and rob her of her possessions, but also fight 
 
 against the Lamb. " They shall make war with the Lamb ; 
 
 and the Lamb shall overcome them ; for He is Lord of lords 
 
 and King of kings." (xvii, 14.) 
 
 I 2 
 
ii6 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 And now, then, let us go back to the beginning of 
 chapter xii, and examine more in detail the pictures which 
 chapters xii, xiii, and xvii, give us of Latin Christendom 
 from the birth of Christ to the Day of Judgment. 
 
 Much which paints the futiu-e must remain indistinct, 
 but the symbolisms which represent the past and the 
 present are as clear as the day, and as terrible as they are 
 clear. 
 
 He who is elsewhere called " the dragon, that old serpent, 
 which is the Devil and Satan (xx, 2), stands here (xii, 4) 
 ready to devour the Woman's Seed as soon as He is born." 
 
 Stars in this prophecy have been already explained to 
 symbolize the rulers of the Church. And it was by his 
 influence with the rulers of the Jewish Church that the 
 Devil was able to accomplish the death of Christ, and to 
 bring the guilt of His Blood upon the outcast race of Israel. 
 Well, therefore, may the Serpent be represented as enlisting 
 them on his side by an intelligible figure. " His tail drew," 
 as it were swept round, "the third part of the stars of 
 heaven, and cast them to the earth." (xii, 4.) 
 
 These represent the unfaithful rulers of Israel. But the 
 true Israel then developes into the Christian Church. As 
 Daniel predicts of Messiah, " He shall confirm the covenant 
 with many." {Dan. ix, 27.) This true Israel with the 
 Gentile converts, or the Christian Church, this faithful 
 Woman becomes, therefore, the object of the fierce persecu- 
 tion of the Serpent, having the form of great Pagan Home, 
 an openly infidel Power, the instrument by whom the Devil 
 attempts the destruction of the Chvirch. 
 
 She is represented, however, as fleeing from her persecutor 
 until she reaches a place of comparative safety in the wilder- 
 ness of this world, where God has arranged that men shall 
 support her for a fixed period of time, mysteriously sym- 
 bolized by 1260 days. "Her Child was caught up unto 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 117 
 
 God and to His Throne." (xii, 5.) " He was received up 
 into heaven, and sat on the riglit hand of (Jod." {St. Mark 
 xvi, 19.) "And the woman fled into the wilderness, where 
 she hath a place prepared by God, that they should feed her 
 there a thousand two hundred and threescore days." (xii, 6.) 
 
 This brief prediction of the Church's escape from Pagan 
 Rome's persecution by her establishment in the Roman 
 Empire, is made clearer later on in the chapter. Meanwhile 
 another little vision is inserted to symbolize the great battle 
 which was fought out between Christ and His Martyrs, and 
 the Devil and his agents during the earlier centuries of 
 Christianity. 
 
 The mystery is cleared up and the meaning of this wai'fare 
 is fixed by the words of verse 11. For the combatants on the 
 side of Christ, though doubtless assisted by His angels, are 
 evidently men, whom the heavenly host speak of as their 
 brethren : " Now is come salvation and strength, and the 
 kingdom of our God, and the power of his ('hrist : for the 
 accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them 
 before God day and night. And they overcame him by the 
 blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony, and 
 because they loved not their lives unto the death " (xii, 10, 11). 
 The victory is evidently attributed to the faitliful witness of 
 the martyrs and confessors of the Church. 
 
 But why, it may be asked, should it be described as a war 
 in heaven 1 For the obvious reason that it was a battle in 
 which angels and devils were the supporters or opponents of 
 the human combatants. Of this truth St. Paul was deeply 
 conscious when he wrote, " We wrestle not against flesh and 
 blood," against mere human adversaries, "but against prin- 
 cipalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness 
 of this world, against spiritual wickedness iu high places.' 
 Better rendered in the Revised Version — "against the 
 spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places"; that is, 
 '' against wicked spirits in heaven " (E23hes. vi, 12). 
 
Ii8 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 Nothing is more plainly I'evealed in the New Testament 
 than the personality and power of the Devil, and that he 
 and his hosts were the fierce opponents of Christ and His 
 people. Our Lord calls him the Prince of this world, and 
 speaks of his overthrow and expulsion from heaven as the 
 result of His own great work. 
 
 And so, in our allegory, the victory of Michael and His 
 angels is complete. The Serpent, man's enemy, is cast out 
 of heaven. He may no longer accuse man before God as in 
 the days of Job. The words of Christ have come to pass. 
 " I beheld Satan as lightning fallen from heaven." " Now 
 is the judgment of this world, now is the prince of this 
 world cast out." Man's heavenly state is for ever secure; 
 the devil henceforth has power over his body only. He may 
 torture the body in this world, but he can no longer injure 
 the soul of the faithful Christian. " The soi;ls of the 
 righteous are in the hands of God, and there shall no tor- 
 ment touch them." 
 
 And now, what proof have we that this must be the 
 meaning of this vision of spiritual warfare, whatever may 
 have been the uses made of it by poets and painters ? 
 
 1. It is certain that Michael hei'e represents Christ, the 
 King of Angels, for the passage rests on the words of 
 Daniel : " At that time shall Michael stand up, the great 
 Prince which standeth for the children of thy people " 
 {Daniel xii, 1), that is, the great promised Messiah. 
 
 Whether there is a created Angel called Michael or 
 not we cannot tell. But in this vision he must be either 
 Christ Himself or the Symbol of Christ. For the battle is 
 the battle of Christ ; Christ alone can conquer Satan ; Christ 
 alone can put his heel upon the head of the great Serpent. 
 
 Such is the interpretation of the passage given by 
 Bullinger in the sixteenth century : " The angels whose 
 power the Serpent uses against Michael are the princes of 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 119 
 
 this world. . . . We have also Michael, that is, Christ, as 
 the l^mpire of our combat." 
 
 2. And that the angels of Michael symbolize the Martyrs 
 and Confessors of the Church is evident from the words of 
 verse 11 already quoted, for of no others could the inhabit- 
 ants of heaven say : " They overcame him by the blood of 
 the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and because 
 they loved not their lives unto the death." 
 
 What a practical lesson for the Church in all ages, 
 especially in times of religious persecution ! Thus only can 
 the Evil One be overcome, by trust in Christ's Sacrifice, by 
 faithful witness in word and life, and by willingness, if need 
 be, to die for His Truth. 
 
 This prophecy, indeed, does not represent the power of 
 the Serpent in this world as wholly destroyed by the victory 
 of Christ and His Martyrs. Far otherwise. Each Christian 
 must still fight and conquer for himself by faith in Christ. 
 But he can make his own the triumphant language of St. 
 Paul : " Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's 
 Elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that con- 
 demneth ? It is Christ' that died, yea rather that is risen 
 again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also 
 maketh intercession for us." {Rom. viii, 33.) 
 
 This is true and very comforting and encouraging, but it 
 is also true that we must suffer with Him, if we would 
 share His Glory. {Rom. viii, 17.) Well, therefore, may the 
 angels say, " Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of 
 the sea ! for the devil is come down unto you, having great 
 wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a little time." 
 Or quite literally, " knowing that he hath a little time." 
 That is to say, " knowing that he has still a little time to 
 persecute the faithful," etSo)? otl oXL'yov Kaipov e^et. 
 (xii, 12.) Christ has conquei-ed him, but the Woman, the 
 Church, is still exposed to his persecutions. And so the 
 
LECTURES ON THE 
 
 vision goes on to symbolize the persecution of the Serpent 
 and its results. 
 
 Verse 14 amplifies the brief statement of verse 6, in 
 which the Church was represented as the Woman fleeing for 
 refuge to a place in the wilderness of tliis world which God 
 had prepared for her, where men should nourish her for a 
 specified time symbolized by 1260 days. 
 
 The vision, therefore, interrupted to emphasize the warfare 
 of Christ with Satan, goes on to explain by what means the 
 Woman was enabled to reach her appointed place of safety. 
 " To the woman were given the two wings of the 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 (i.e., 'i\ years = 1260 days) from the face of the Serpent." 
 
 History tells us, that which St. John could not have known 
 or even conjectured, that the place of the Church's refuge 
 was the throne of the Csesars and their successors. To this 
 Providence was to bear her, as of old, on eagle's wings. 
 But the instruments employed for this purpose wei'e, as we 
 know, very definite wings of a very definite eagle. And it 
 is emphatically said not merely on eagle's wings, but on 
 " the two wings of the great eagle." 
 
 This is the interpretation of the passage given by Mede, 
 considered one of the most judicious commentators on the 
 Ajjocalypse in the seventeenth century. "The great eagle," 
 he says, " is the Roman Empire. His two wings, two 
 Ctesars of the Empire parted into two parts, the West and 
 East, by whose protection and conduct the Church departed 
 into an eremitical state." (Mede, page 45.) 
 
 It is also so explained by BulHnger. "He seems to me," 
 he writes, " to represent as a wilderness those kingdoms and 
 peoples which call themselves Christians, while they are 
 nothing less." And Hippolytus, explaining that the woman 
 is the Church, thus speaks of her dwelling in the wilderness 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 
 
 during the symbolical period of 1 260 days. " These are 
 the days," he says, " in which a Tyrant shall obtain supreme 
 power, persecuting the Chui'ch, fleeing from city to city, 
 and hiding in solitude in the mountains." Far seeing 
 words to be uttered by a Bishop in the third century ! 
 For the same Power which protected the Church, as a 
 •divinely instituted and organized society, was also too often 
 the persecutor of her more faithful children, the true lights 
 of the Church and the witnesses of Jesus, bearing their 
 testimony against the sins and eri'ors of their times, 
 *' clothed in sackcloth," during the same 1260 days. 
 {Rtv. xi, 3, 4.) 
 
 The conversion of the Roman Empire and the supj^ort 
 given to the Church, first by the Roman Emperors, and 
 subsequently, and down to our own times, by those in- 
 dependent sovereigns who divided between them the whole 
 Latin world, was, as we see from this prophecy, designed 
 from the beginning by the Providence of God to rescue the 
 Church from the open persecutions of the Devil by means 
 of openly infidel powers. And if the Church, as a highly 
 organized body, had not been upheld by the civil Rulers of 
 the world, Christianity, humanly speaking, could scarcely 
 have outlived the confusion and tumult of the times which 
 followed the disruption of the Roman Empire. And we 
 may recognize in this the fulfilment of the words of Isaiah, 
 Avhen he says of the Church of the future, " Kings shall be 
 thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers" 
 (xlix, 23) ; " Thou shalt suck the milk of the Gentiles, and 
 shalt suck the breast of Kings" (Ix, 16). 
 
 But the Woman, though borne on the two great wings of 
 the great Roman Eagle, was not yet safe. She is on her 
 road to her final resting place in the wilderness of this 
 world, where she is to be nourished for the 1260 days, but 
 she has not yet reached it. She has first to pass through 
 
LECTURES ON THE 
 
 the deep waters of much affliction. And so the vision 
 I'eveals the machinations of the Serpent, baffled but not 
 discouraged by the conversion of Rome. 
 
 Having failed to destroy the Church by the persecutions of 
 Pagan Rome, he now attempts to sweep away the EQipire 
 and Church together by inspiring with the lust of conquest 
 the infidel races hovering round its frontiei'S. 
 
 The figurative language by which our prophecy describes 
 this last attempt of the Serpent, retaining still his own proper 
 fonn, warring, that is, against the Church by means of pro- 
 fessed infidel powers, is exactly that which is used by almost 
 every historian who writes concerning the fall of ancient 
 Rome. Seeing that the Woman was escaping from him on 
 the two wings of the great Eagle "the Serpent cast out of 
 his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might 
 cause her to be carried away by the flood." But he did not 
 succeed in this attempt, for " the earth helped the woman, 
 and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood 
 which the Serpent cast out of his mouth." (xii, 15, 16.) 
 
 That these waters signify peoples is explained later on in 
 the prophecy. " The waters which thou sawest . . . , are 
 peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues." (xvii, 15.) 
 
 To give any other meaning, therefore, to the waters of this 
 flood in chapter 12, will be to violate one of the soundest 
 principles of interpretation, namely, that of giving the same 
 symbol the same meaning unless the context plainly suggests 
 another. Victorinus thus interprets the passage, although 
 he lived too early to understand its full significance. " The 
 water," he writes, " which the Serpent cast out of his mouth 
 signifies the people who at his command persecute her." 
 
 We have here, then, a very intelligible symbol. The 
 irruption of Northern hordes into the Roman Empire, 
 threatening the annihilation of Christianity, is compared to 
 a deluge of waters. But the allegory does not stop here. It 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 123 
 
 goes on to describe the causes which saved the Churcli from 
 sharing the fate which overtook Roman Dominion and civili- 
 zation. The latter was utterly destroyed, but the Church, 
 though fearfully corrupted by the violence and ignorance of 
 the times, escaped destruction and eventualh- became one of 
 the mightiest powers of Mediasval and Modern Europe. 
 
 The symbolism is easy to understand. The Woman 
 escapes destruction because the earth gradually absorbs the 
 flood. That is to say, these hordes of savages gradually 
 settle in the rich pi'ovinces of the Empire, and so the Church 
 has time to convert them and eventually to make them her 
 warmest and most enthusiastic, though ignorant and blindly 
 superstitious supporters. 
 
 What do historians tell us about all this ? In describing 
 the great catastrophe of the Fall of Ancient Rome and its 
 results they nse figurative language precisely the same as 
 that of this prophecy. 
 
 Thus Mosheim writes : " The Goths, the Heruli, the 
 Franks, the Huns, and the Vandals, with other fierce and 
 warlike nations, for the most part strangers to Christianity, 
 invaded the Roman Empire, and rent it asunder in the most 
 deplorable manner. Amidst these calamities the Christians 
 were grievous, nay, we may venture to say, the principal 
 sufferers." But he says, " The greater part of these 
 barbarians embraced Christianity." 
 
 " Their conquests," says Alison, " were not, in the end, a 
 mere change of government, or the substitution of one race 
 of Monarchs for another ; but a total subversion of the 
 property, customs, and institutions of the vanquished 
 people." 
 
 "Scarcely," writes Ranke, "was this great change accom- 
 plished, the Christian religion planted, the Church founded 
 when new events disturbed the world. The Roman Empire, 
 so long accustomed to conquest and dominion, was now in 
 
X24 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 its turn attacked by its neighbours, over-rim, conquered. 
 Christianity itself was shaken in the general convulsion. 
 In the hour of their utmost peril the Romans once more 
 remembered the Etrurian mysteries .... but these were 
 mere transient impulses ; while the Empire in its Western 
 provinces crumbled into ruins the edifice of the Roman 
 Church remained solid and entire." 
 
 But historians also tell us how it was that Christianity 
 escaped annihilation. It was because this destruction of 
 Roman power and civilization, though so thorough, was yet 
 so gradual, that the Church had time to convert her enemies 
 as they settled in the Roman provinces, before fresh and 
 fresh tribes came rushing in upon them. 
 
 Thus Gibbon writes : "It was not at once, or by any 
 sudden act of violence that this complete transfer of property 
 
 from the vanquished to the victors took place wave 
 
 after wave succeeded, before the whole country was occupied ; 
 one province was over-run for a whole generation before 
 
 another was invaded before the tenth centiiry the 
 
 change was complete." 
 
 Surely, then, this great convulsion which so changed the 
 face of the Roman world of the first four centuries, so 
 imperilled the very existence of the Church, and so deeply 
 affected her character in mediaeval and modern times, bring- 
 ing about a state of things the effects of which have been 
 felt for more than a thousand years, and are being felt now 
 in this age through which we are passing, was likely to be 
 predicted in such a prophecy as that before us. 
 
 But I have said that historians describe this convulsion 
 in figurative language precisely the same as that of our 
 Allegory. They constantly speak of it as a great deluge ; 
 of the successive invasions as waves succeeding waves, and, 
 not only so, but as waters absorbed by the earth as they 
 came rushing in iipon it. 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 135 
 
 There is no reason to suppose that Kingsley, when he was 
 delivering his lectures as Professor of modern history, was 
 intending to illustrate by his figurative language this chap- 
 ter of the Revelation ; yet, let us consider his words, in a 
 lecture to which he gives the title, " The Human Deluge." 
 
 " Taking one's stand," he says, " at Rome, and looking 
 towards the North, what does one see for nearly a hundred 
 years? Wave after wave rising out of the North, the 
 land of night and wonder, and the terrible unknown ; 
 visible only as the light of Roman civilization strikes their 
 crests, and they dash against the Alps, and roll over through 
 the uioimtain passes, into the fertile plains below. Tlien at 
 last they are seen too well, and you discern that the waves 
 are living men, women, and children, horses, dogs and 
 cattle ; all rushing headlong into the great whirlpool of 
 Italy : and yet the gulf is never full. The earth drinks up 
 the blood ; the bones decay into the fruitful soil ; the very 
 names and memories of whole tribes are washed away .... 
 Like water they flowed in, and like water they sank into 
 the soil." 
 
 Yes. So indeed they did ; for, although the Serpent, 
 baffled by the elevation of the Church to be the religion of 
 the Roman Empire, " cast out of his mouth water as a flood 
 after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away 
 by the flood, the earth helped the woman, and the earth 
 opened her mouth, and sw^allowed up the flood which the 
 serpent cast out of his mouth." 
 
126 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 
 Two unsuccessful attempts, then, have been made by the 
 Devil to destroy the Church. In these he has shown him- 
 self in his own proper original form as a Serpent. That is 
 to say, he has used as his instruments openly infidel powers ; 
 first, Pagan Rome, and then, the infidel enemies of Christian 
 Rome. 
 
 The Allegory now represents the Devil as entirely changing 
 his tactics. Having failed to destroy the Church, he devises 
 the means of corrupting her. 
 
 The Woman, he knows, is the Bride of the Lamb. And 
 her faithful children, in every age, he knows, must ever be 
 so. But he will try to bring about a state of things which 
 shall cavise the corruption of the Church as an organized 
 body, and, as a consequence, the persecution by the Rulers 
 of a Christian world of her faithful children. That he 
 succeeded in this is a notorious historical fact. The 
 Catholic Church, the mother in every age of eminent 
 Saints, has yet been ruled and oppressed from time to time 
 by monsters of iniquity, emj^loying at the instigation of the 
 Devil, the terrors of the Inquisition, the torture chamber, 
 and the stake for the suppressing of every attempt at 
 reformation, either in doctrine or moi'als. 
 
 The symbolical representation of this state of things and 
 the hand Avhich the Devil has had in bringing it about are 
 remarkably clear, and entirely consistent with the images 
 used by the Hebrew prophets in speaking of the Jewish 
 Church. 
 
 The Woman is the Bride of the Lamb (apvlov). The 
 Devil persuades her to commit fornication with the World, 
 the Lamb's enemy (OijpLOv), the Wild-beast of the prophet 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 127 
 
 Daniel. The way in wliich the Devil bi'ings this about, and 
 the instriuuents employed by him for this purpose, are sym- 
 bolized in chapter xiii. Its consequences in the end, that 
 is, the punishment of the corrupted Woman by her former 
 lovers, is plainly pictured for us in chapter xvii. 
 
 There are three symbols in chapter xiii representing the 
 Rulers of mediaeval and modern Latin Christendom — (1), 
 the family of Sovereigns who divided the Roman world 
 between them ; (2), the Pope, their spiritual head ; (3), 
 and his creature, the Holy Roman Emperor, their temporal 
 head. 
 
 But what connection have these with the Serpent ? And 
 what right have we to think that the prophecy points them 
 out as the Agents by whom the Devil attempts to continue 
 his secret warfare with the Church ? 
 
 Well, we have already seen that this great Wild-beast 
 with Seven Heads, and Ten Horns, with Ten Crowns on his 
 Horns, is simply a reproduction of Daniel's fourth or Roman 
 Beast; symbolizing the World-power from his own age to 
 the Day of Judguient. That the Devil endeavours to use 
 this World-power for his purpose is clearly stated in the 
 prophecy. In chapter xii, 17, the prophet sees the Serpent 
 go away with the intention of making war with the faithful 
 remnant of the Woman's seed. He sees him stand by the 
 sea-shore. And he does not see him again nntil nearly the 
 end of the allegory. But out of the sea he beholds the Wild- 
 beast coming up. Not only so. He sees also that the Ser- 
 pent gives to this Wild-beast his own power and throne and 
 great authority, so that he still obtains through him the 
 worship of men. " They worshipped the Serpent, who gave 
 his authority unto the beast ; and they worshipped the 
 beast " (xiii, 4). 
 
 Satan offered Jesus the Empire of the world if he Avould 
 worship him. The Empire of the world is not his to give. 
 
128 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 And yet it is sadly true that he can and does assist the 
 ambitious designs of Princes, and has too often used them 
 for the persecution of the Saints. And so here "It is given 
 unto him to make war with the saints and to overcome 
 them .... but he that killeth with the sword must be 
 killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of 
 the Saints " (xiii, 7-10). 
 
 In this 13th chapter the Wild-beast is said to war against 
 the Saints at all times, and towards the end of his time to 
 overcome them ; referring probably to a time yet future 
 when he will develop into the Antichrist. And this is con- 
 sistent with what we read of him in chapter xi, where he is 
 said to slay the witnesses of Jesus when they have finished 
 their testimony. He is there said also to come up out of the 
 Abyss ; as here he rises out of the sea. But a^vaao'^ 
 means the sea, a mass of raging waters ; and is so constantly 
 used in the Septuagint. 
 
 Out of what sea, then, did the MediiBval Kingdoms of 
 Christendom arise ? 
 
 Out of that tumult and utter confusion which followed the 
 hurling of the great mountain of Rome into that which 
 Kingsley calls " the wild weltering sea of war and misery " 
 (see Rev. viii, 8) ; the state of things vvhich followed that 
 catastrophe. 
 
 This first symbol, therefore, represents the Christian 
 Sovereigns of Europe, from the time when they divided the 
 Latin world between them up to the end of their dominion 
 far in the future. As Daniel predicted, they constantly 
 inter-marry but never unite into one kingdom ; at any rate 
 not until the coming of Antichrist. (Compare Dan. ii., 4.3, 
 with Rev. xvii, 17.) Speaking of the toes of Nebuchad- 
 nezzar's Image of Empire, Daniel writes: "Whereas thou 
 sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle them- 
 selves with the seed of men : but they shall not cleave one to 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 129 
 
 another ! " And yet union under one common Antichristian 
 Head seems hinted at in Rev. xvii, as the great trial of the 
 future, where we read the words, " God hath put it in their 
 hearts to fulfil his will {i.e., in punishing the false Woman, v. 
 16), and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, 
 until the words of God shall be fulfilled ! " 
 
 But temporal Sovereigns have not been the only rulers of 
 Christendom. The Pope has been their spiritual Head. 
 And so, out of the earth, or a more settled order of things 
 comes up before the prophet's eyes the Symbol of this 
 Ecclesiastical Ruler, fully developed. " I beheld another 
 beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like 
 a Lamb, and he spake as a serpent " (xiii, 11). 
 
 It is most important to distinguish clearly between this 
 Second Wild-beast and his predecessor. The great Wild- 
 beast with his Ten Crowned Horns has no essential connection 
 with the Church. His Crowned Horns are temporal kings ; 
 and their connection with the Church for very many 
 centuries, is, so to speak, accidental, and the result of 
 their acceptance of the Christian Religion. The Provi- 
 dence of God has caused them to be the supporters of 
 the Woman, His Church. Their own wickedness has made 
 them the instruments of worldly Ecclesiastical Rulers for 
 the persecution of faithful Members of the Church. But 
 as a symbol, this Wild-beast stands for the World-power 
 from ancient Babylon to the Day of Judgment. For more 
 than a thousand years his connection with the Church has 
 been very intimate. And this connection is symbolized in 
 chapter xvii, where the wondering prophet sees the Woman in 
 meretricious ornaments sitting upon the Wild-beast, and, to 
 his utter amazement, drunken with the blood of Saints. And 
 then he wonders still more to see the Ten Crowned Horns 
 hating her whom they have so long loved, robbing her and 
 persecuting her and at the same time fighting under Anti- 
 christ against the Lamb. 
 
 K 
 
I30 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 The non-observance of this clear distinction between the 
 symbol of the World-power and that of the Church and her 
 Ecclesiastical Head has led to endless confusion, and has 
 often hopelessly obscured the terrible significance of this 
 prophecy. 
 
 The prediction, which may well have filled the mind of 
 St. John with wonder, is that of the union for a long time 
 of the Kingdom of Caesar with the Kingdom of Christ, 
 followed by a fiercer conflict than ever in the days of Anti- 
 christ, and the full and final victory of Christ. 
 
 And now let us examine closely this Second Wild-beast 
 who comes up out of the earth (xiii, 11). 
 
 We shall see that every single thing that is predicted of 
 him marks him out as the symbol of the Pope. 
 
 He is a very composite symbol. Tliere are many com- 
 posite symbols in the Apocalypse, just as there is a mixture 
 of good and evil in the characters of men and in all human 
 institutions. 
 
 All through this prophecy we have symbols of Christ and 
 His Church ; and we have symbols of the World-power and 
 the Devil, the enemies of Christ and His Church. 
 
 But not only so. We have also symbols formed by the 
 combination of some elements in the symbols of Christ with 
 those in the symbols of His enemies. 
 
 This Second Beast is a conspicuous example of such a 
 composite symbol. Let us examine what is said of him 
 point by point. We shall then see that no other Ruler who 
 has ever yet appeared on the stage of history, except the 
 Pope of Rome, exactly fulfils every one of eleven predictive 
 marks. 
 
 But let us first remember that it does not at all follow 
 from this that the prophecy condemns all Popes. 
 
 There have been many bad Popes, but also many good 
 Popes. Just so there have been bad Bishops and Clergy 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 131 
 
 and many good Bishops and Clergy. In the sanJe way 
 the prophecy does not condemn all Temporal Sovereigns 
 and Empires, although the symbol chosen to represent them 
 is a great Wild-beast, with many crowned Horns. Such a 
 symbol well represents the irresistible power of kings and 
 the fact that this power is often cruelly exercised. The 
 symbol stands for the World-power in all ages, and therefore 
 does not imply that all Sovereigns are cruel as well as 
 powerful. Cyrus, the deliverer of Israel, was the founder 
 of the Empire symbolized in Daniel by a Bear devouring 
 his prey. 
 
 In the same way this Second Composite Beast is the 
 symbol of the Papacy in all ages, but does not imply the 
 condemnation of individual Popes. And strict Protestant 
 as I am, I never could see how the Bishop of Rome could 
 well help becoming recognized by degrees as the Head of 
 the Church ; not because he was the successor of St. Peter, 
 which he probably was not, nor, if he was, because St. Peter 
 often took the lead amongst the Apostles ; but simply 
 because he was the Bishop of Rome, the Bishop of the great 
 Imperial City, the seat of Empire. 
 
 I have always thought that we miss the point altogether 
 in our controversies with Rome when we enter upon the 
 question of the supposed pinmacy of St. Peter, his con- 
 nection with Rome, and the Pope's succeeding him in 
 that See. 
 
 We can justify our rejection of the Papal yoke on grounds 
 much stronger and more indisputable than any derived 
 from obscure historical questions connected with St. Peter 
 and the early Bishops of the Eternal City. And these 
 grounds are plainly marked out for us in the visions of this 
 chapter. 
 
 We reject and resist the dominion of the Pope, because 
 from being at first a Holy Bishop, looked up to with 
 
 K2 
 
132 
 
 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 revereftce by the whole Church, yet claiming no authority 
 over other Bishops, he became in time an usurper, a false 
 prophet, a worker or supporter of false miracles, a forger of 
 notorious historical falsehoods, a cruel corrupter, oppressor, 
 and persecutor of the Church ; and now, in our own age, 
 the inventor of new articles of the faith, and the setter 
 forth of a blasphemous claim to personal infallibility. 
 
 Let us look closely, then, at this little portrait of the 
 King-Bishop. 
 
 After the First Beast, the symbol of the World-power in 
 all ages has been fully described as finally developing, at 
 some time yet future, into Antichrist ; a Second Beast 
 appears to help him in carrying on the work of the Serpent. 
 
 Mark I. He is a Wild-beast, and as such resembles the 
 First Beast. He is, therefore, a temporal Sovereign ; for 
 such is the invariable meaning of this symbol. It is 
 notorious that the Pope has been for ages a temporal 
 Sovereign. He has had his Kingdom, his Papal States ; his 
 claim resting on the universally admitted historical forgery, 
 the Donation of Constantine. 
 
 Mark II. He does not come up, like his predecessor, 
 out of " the great weltering sea of war and misery," which 
 followed the disruption of the Roman Empire ; but he rose 
 up out of the earth, he gained his temporal sovereignty at 
 the commencement of a more settled order of things. 
 
 Mark III. We observe that he has Horns, the symbols of 
 power. But they are unlike the Ten crow^ned Horns of the 
 Fii'st Beast, the symbols of crowned Kings. They are very 
 remarkable Horns, two Horns like those of a Lamb ; 
 Kepara hvo ofxoLa apviw. But the Lamb is in this 
 prophecy the symbol of Christ. This Beast, therefore, is 
 represented as having, or, at any rate, claiming the jDOwers 
 of Christ. What a strange combination of symbols ! The 
 symbol of worldly sovereignty and the symbol of the powers 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 133 
 
 of Christ joined in one creature. This is the more remark- 
 able when we remember that the Lamb of chapter v, 6, 
 appears with Seven Horns, the symbols of universal power 
 and Seven Eyes the symbols of the Seven-fold Spirit of God. 
 
 But what has the Pope called himself for many ages ? 
 What does he claim to be now ? The Vicar of Christ. Not 
 only the Bishop of Bishops, but also the King of Kings. 
 He claims both the Imperial and the Spiritual authority of 
 Christ. 
 
 He makes this claim now, in this nineteenth century. 
 " For our own part," writes a contributor to jBrownson's 
 Quarterly/ Revieiv of July, 1857, "we believe that God is 
 King of Kings and Lord of Lords, that the Pope is His 
 vicegerent on earth, and that, when Pope and Csesar are in 
 conflict, CtBsar is wrong." 
 
 This is not a novel interpretation of this symbol, but a 
 very ancient one. 
 
 Hippolytus lived too early, of course, to know anything 
 about Papal usurpations, but he saw what must be the 
 meaning of the Horns of the Lamb, that they must imply 
 a claim to Divine and Regal authority. " In that he speaks 
 of his horns as like those of a Lamb, his meaning is that he 
 will claim to be like the Son of God, and show himself as a 
 King." 
 
 Victorinus describes him as a great false prophet. " Mag- 
 num fiilsumque prophetam dicit." And Irenseus calls him 
 the armour-bearer and false prophet of the former Beast. 
 " De armigero ejus, quem et pseudo-prophetam vocat" 
 (lib. iv., c. 28). 
 
 The same interpretation is also given by Bede and other 
 writers. Aad Bullinger thus interprets the symbol : " Per 
 •duo coruua similia Agni, utramque, et Pontificam et Regiam 
 potestatem, quam sibi Papa usurpat, puto intelligendam. 
 Similia vero Agni dicit, siquidem Christi se jactat vicarium." 
 {Bullinger Cone, p. 56). 
 
134 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 This, then, is the third mark in this composite symbol 
 pointing to the Pope. It is the symbol of him who calls 
 himself the Vicar of the Lamb, and claims authority over 
 all the Bishops and Sovereigns of Chi'istendom. 
 
 Mark IV. The Apostle describes him as speaking like a 
 Serpent iXaXei «? Sp/iKoyv. Again what a strange com- 
 bination of symbolic elements we have here ! The speech 
 of him " who deceiveth the whole world," of him whom our 
 Lord calls " the father of lies," coming from the mouth of 
 one who claims to exercise on earth the temporal and 
 spiritual authority of Christ ! 
 
 The unfortunate translation of SpaKcov dragon instead of 
 Serpent has somewhat obscui'ed the meaning of this sign to 
 the English reader. The word dragon suggests to most 
 readers the idea of cruel violence ; but the dragon of chapter 
 xii is called "that old Serpent," i.e. the original tempter of 
 man, his deceiver and accuser before God. And although 
 the idea of cruelty is not excluded here, it is deception and 
 falsehood which are chiefly pointed out. And Hippolytus 
 so explains the sign: "Quod sicut draco loquitur, hoc est 
 quod sedvictor est et non verax." In that he speaks like a 
 serpent, the meaning is that he is a seducer and not 
 truthful. 
 
 Our fourth mark, then, is a very intelligible one ; for the 
 Pope, in spite of his claim to be infallible, can scarcely be 
 called a truthful teacher of the Church. 
 
 Mark V. " He exerciseth all the authority of the former 
 Beast in his presence," evoiiriov aurov. 
 
 The former Beast, as we have seen, symbolizes the World- 
 power in all ages, held by the crowned sovereigns of 
 Christendom for the time being. But this Second Beast, 
 this Vicar of the Lamb, claims the right of meddling with 
 the affairs of them all in their veiy presence, in their 
 dominions. 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 135 
 
 Only those ignorant of history will question for a moment 
 that this may be truly said of the Pope. History records 
 one long struggle between the civil rulers of Christendom 
 and the rulers of the Church supported by the usurped 
 authority of the Pope. 
 
 Our English Sovereigns have often striven manfully to 
 shake off the yoke of Rome ; but, up to the sixteenth 
 century, only with very partial success. The Pope was able 
 for many ages to set up an " imperium in imperio " in the 
 several Kingdoms of the Latin world ; according to the 
 prophecy, to exercise all the authority of the Temporal 
 Wild-beast in his very presence. 
 
 Mark VI. " He causeth the earth and them that dwell 
 therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was 
 healed ! " Here we have an apparent inconsistency which is 
 easily explained when we remember the strange relation 
 which has existed between the Pope and Christian Sovereigns. 
 
 Though claiming an authority higher than Kings the Pope 
 has nevertheless always been the supporter of their thrones. 
 Only when Kings have resisted him or rejected his authority 
 has he done otherwise than compel their subjects to worship 
 them. The Church, all through her history, has rightly 
 been the supporter of the throne. And crowned heads are 
 beginning to find out in these days how much the Pope has 
 been able to do to help them in resisting the pressure from 
 beneath. 
 
 The French Pvevolution, that great Judgment on the 
 throne of the World-power {Rev. xvi, 10, and ix, 1-3) has 
 taught them this lesson. It taught Napoleon the same 
 lesson, and it has tavight the Church also that she has 
 enemies far more formidable to contend with in the coming- 
 ages, than the most tyrannical Popes. 
 
 It is the spiritual rather than the political influence of 
 the Papacy which is here indicated. 
 
136 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 World-worship has been the great sin of the Church, 
 Spiritual fornication ; the love of worldly povver and 
 grandeur, the worship of the Wild-beast more than that of 
 of the Lamb. The Church is the Bride of the Lamb ; she 
 must not commit fornication with the world, His rival. 
 *■'■ Love not the world, neither the things that are in the 
 world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father 
 is not in him." (1 John, ii, \b). 
 
 Although the Roman Church has, in every age, been the 
 Mother of Saints eminent for their unworldly and self-deny- 
 ing holiness, the Papacy as a system has been intensely 
 worldly, and the Popes have been mixed up with all the 
 political intrigues and worldly ambitions of men. 
 
 And in a more literal sense, no Ruler has ever yet appeared 
 in Christendom except the Pope who has been for ages at 
 once an usurper of a dominion superior to Kings, and yet a 
 firm supi)orter of their thrones. 
 
 Mai'k VIL He woi'ks false miracles. " He doeth great 
 wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven in 
 the sight of men" (xiii, 13). 
 
 This is what St. John saw, and he describes what he saw. 
 He saw this Second Beast with Lamb's Horns and the voice 
 of a serpent shewing wonderful signs in the presence of the 
 Symbol of the World-power to support his usurped authority. 
 
 We are not concerned to know whether St. John thought 
 that the prophetic Spirit was attributing real or false 
 miracles to this Power. We cannot imagine them to be 
 otherwise than pretended miracles, for we are told that 
 they are exhibited for deception, that he might deceive 
 " them that dwell on the earth." And we read of them 
 again in chapter xix, 20, when the punishment of this 
 blasphemous usurper is thus predicted. " And the beast 
 was taken and with him the false prophet that wrought 
 miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 137 
 
 received the mark of the beast," that is, the slaves of the 
 world. 
 
 St. Paul, indeed, seems to allude to these false miracles 
 when he writes of him " whose coming is after the working 
 of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders. 
 (2 TUss. ii, 9.) 
 
 But after all we need not trouble ourselves to inquire 
 whether the mediaeval, modern, or any future miracles of 
 the False Prophet are real or pretended, for they have 
 ■certainly been shown with the intention to deceive, to 
 support an usurped authority in temporal affairs, and 
 blasphemous claims to infallibility in questions of doctrine. 
 
 We might wonder that even in these days such miracles 
 should continue to deceive, did we not know to our cost 
 how willing men often are to be deceived, and to shut their 
 €yes to the truth, when it is inconvenient to believe it. 
 
 Mark VIII. The next act attributed to this Second 
 Beast is even more applicable to the Pope than any yet 
 mentioned. He heals the deadly wound of the First Beast. 
 One of the Heads of the First Wild-beast had been 
 slain with the sword, and yet the Beast himself still lived, 
 he recovered from his wound. 
 
 Observe especially this expression, "slain with the sword," 
 for it shows that a very plausible interpretation of this 
 symbolism cannot be correct. Thus Hengstenberg considers 
 that the death-wound of this symbol of the World-power 
 was given by the Atonement of Christ. 
 
 It is quite true, indeed, that Christ overcame the world 
 by His Death, and that the world notwithstanding has been 
 ever since a living enemy of the Christian. But it is not 
 this truth which is here symbolised by the death of one of 
 the Heads of the Beast, and this interpretation, however 
 plausible, is quite inconsistent with the rest of the vision. 
 
 This death-wound of one of the Heads of the Beast, that 
 
138 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 is, of one of the phases of the World-power is rightly 
 explained by Wordsworth and Alford and by most Commen- 
 tators to prefigure the destruction of Ancient Rome by the 
 Bai'barian sword, and its resurrection in the persons of those 
 who divided the sovereignty of the Roman world between 
 them. 
 
 But in the vision before us this return to life of the 
 World-power of the Roman Empire is truthfully ascribed to 
 the influence of the Pope. He it undoubtedly was who 
 raised the fallen Image of Rome, and created the Holy 
 Roman Empire at the coronation of Charles the Great, 
 A.D. 800. 
 
 I find the following words in a little book which I published 
 in 1852 in explanation of this symbolical act of setting up 
 an Image of the Beast, and giving it life : — 
 
 " One act and succession of acts of the Bishop of Rome 
 fully and exactly correspond to this typical pi'oceeding. One 
 power in Europe, and only one, has ever fully and exactly 
 fulfilled the prediction of this symbol, and has received 
 from the Pope the name and dignity and worship of the 
 former Roman Emperors." 
 
 These words were printed forty years ago ; and the inter- 
 pretation of this symbolic act was supported by copious 
 extracts from Gibbon. But although Gibbon writes so fully 
 on the subject, general I'eaders scarcely appreciated the 
 influence of the creation of the Holy Roman Empire on the 
 history of Mediaeval and Modern Christendom until Dr, 
 Bryce's vei'y interesting book appeared. 
 
 There can scarcely be a doubt that this symbolical act of 
 setting up an Image of the Beast and giving it life prefigures 
 the resurrection of the fallen Roman Power in the persons 
 of the Holy Roman Emperor and of the Sovereigns of the 
 Latin world of whom he became, through the influence of 
 his Coronation by the Pope, the acknowledged Head. And 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 139 
 
 I say this with the moi'e confidence because Chi-istian writers 
 of the earlier centuries so understood the syrnboHsm. 
 
 Of course, previous to its fulfilment, they could only see 
 the general meaning of the vision, but they saw that the 
 symbolic act predicted the resuscitation of the Power of 
 Rome after a fall. There is, therefore, nothing novel or 
 fanciful in this interpretation. For Hippolytus thus writes 
 in the third century : — 
 
 "The words 'he exerciseth all the power of the First 
 Beast before him, and causeth the earth and them that 
 dwell therein to worship the First Beast, whose deadly 
 wound was healed,' signify that, after the manner and law 
 of Augustus, by whom the Empire of Rome was established,, 
 he, too, will rule and govern, sanctioning everything by it 
 
 and taking greater glory to himself he then with 
 
 knavish skill shall heal it, as it were, and restore it. For 
 this is meant when he says ' He will give life unto the 
 Image, and the Image of the Beast shall speak, for he will 
 act with vigour again, and prove strong by reason of the 
 laws established by him." 
 
 Is not this eighth mark, then, a very striking one ? We 
 shall think so if we consider the language of modern 
 historians, and the way in which they speak of the Pope's 
 resuscitation of the fallen power of Rome, and the signifi- 
 cance of his policy when he crowned Charles the Great the 
 Emperor of Rome and founded that Holy Roman EmjDire, 
 the importance of which in the system of Mediaeval and 
 Modern Christendom has been so ably pointed out by Bryce, 
 Freeman, and others. 
 
 These writers have re-stated the facts which Gibbon 
 records, and have pointed out how important it is that we 
 should know and remember them if we would understand 
 the history of Mediaeval and Modern Europe. 
 
 Without, I should imagine, the slightest reference to the 
 
140 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 symbolism of the chapter before us, Freeman adopts the 
 same metaphor to describe the resurrection of the slain 
 Cccsars of Rome. "The strong hand of the first Frankish 
 Emperor raises the fallen Image and bids the nations bow 
 •down to it once more." (Essay iv, 142.) 
 
 This is a somewhat loose expression and not exactly 
 accurate or consistent with what Freeman elsewhere says ; 
 because it was not the Frankish Emperor who raised the 
 fallen Image of Rome, but the Pope who suggested the act, 
 and by crowning him Emperor of Rome made him a living 
 image of the Empire of the Ca3sars. 
 
 Bryce, therefore, speaks of this Empire as " an institution 
 created by and embodying a wonderful system of ideas." 
 
 These ideas were, indeed, the moving forces of society in 
 that age, but they were closely allied to another set of ideas 
 which appealed to the hopes and fears of men in another 
 world, as well as in this, and so further on he writes : " The 
 Papacy, whose spiritual power was itself the off-spring of 
 Rome's temporal power, evoked the phantom of her parent." 
 That is, in the language of the vision, persuaded men to 
 make an Image of the Beast which had been slain with the 
 sword, but had been at last healed of its mortal wound j and 
 when they had made it, gave it life. 
 
 This death and resurrection of Rome is a notorious histori- 
 cal fact, the effect of which on the political and religious 
 condition of Christendom has been felt for a thousand years 
 and is still being felt. Renan thus speaks of it in his Hibbert 
 Lectures (p. 199). 
 
 " The masterpiece of her policy was her alliance with the 
 Carolingian house, and the bold stroke by which she revived 
 in that family the Empire which had been dead for 300 years. 
 The Church of Rome then lifts herself up, more powerful 
 than ever, and again, for eight centuries more, becomes the 
 centre of all Western politics and life." 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 141 
 
 Speaking of "the Empire of elder Rome, just befoi-e this 
 revival," Bryce says, " now, as we at least can see, it had 
 been long dead, and the coiu-se of events was adverse to its 
 revival." This is ti'ue. But may we not say, " the Scripture 
 must be fulfilled." Rome Avas terribly alive in St. John's 
 day ; but during the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries she 
 seemed to be dead, she was dead. But He " Who declares 
 the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the 
 things which are not yet done" {Imi. xlvi, 10), gave in this 
 vision a pictorial prediction of its revival. And it did revive, 
 and the Pope was the chief agent of that revival. 
 
 The men of that age regarded Charles the Great as one 
 of the successors of Augustus, but, says Bryce, " the seal, 
 asci'ibed to a.d. 800, which bears the legend, ' Renovatio 
 Romani Imperii,' expresses, more justly perhaps than was 
 intended by its author, a second birth of the Roman 
 Empire" (p. 103). 
 
 We may consider, then, that we are here on solid ground, 
 and that we can scarcely be mistaken in regarding this 
 restoration of fallen Empire in the coronation of Charles the 
 Great as an eighth mark fixing the meaning of this symbol 
 upon the Pope. 
 
 But we have not done with him yet. There are other 
 marks pointing to him and to no one else so strikingly, 
 when considered together with those already mentioned. 
 
 Mark IX. He causes " that as many as would not 
 worship the image of the beast should be killed " (xiii. 15). 
 
 He slays those who resist his authority and will not 
 submit to his Imperial Creature. He is like a second 
 Nebuchadnezzar, but the Image he sets up is not a dead 
 Image of gold, which suggested perhaps the symbolism of 
 the vision, bvit a living, cruel, and persecuting Image of 
 fallen and resuscitated Empire, a power supporting his 
 usurped authority, and slaying all who resist it. 
 
:I42 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 Mark X. He subjects to civil disabilities all who refuse 
 to be marked as his slaves — all, small and great, rich 
 and poor, bond or free, must receive his mark, shall be 
 his servants, without which mark they shall neither buy 
 nor sell. 
 
 It will be only wasting time to support this interpretation 
 from legal documents and the records of history. Why, 
 only quite recently, have we ourselves shaken off the last 
 itraces of this burden of intolerance which we inherited from 
 Rome, the imposition of civil disabilities upon men in conse- 
 quence of their religious opinions. 
 
 This slaying of men and subjecting them to civil dis- 
 abilities for resisting Ecclesiastical and Civil rulers was 
 nothing new, indeed, in the case of the Popes and Sovereigns 
 of the middle ages. Tiiough the laws concerning heresy in 
 mediaeval times were more stringent and more diabolically 
 cruel and unjust, they were only the carrying out of 
 principles introduced as early as the Fourth Century. 
 
 Thus Bingham shews that " death for heresy was 
 rendered legal by Theodosius as early as a.d. 382, and 
 heretics were deprived of the right of contracting, buying, 
 and selling ; all commerce was forbidden to be held with 
 them. They were deprived of all offices of profit and 
 dignity ; they were unqualified either to dispose of their 
 estates by will, or to receive estates from others." (Bingham's 
 Antiquities, B. xvi, oh. 6.) 
 
 Mark XI. The mysterious number 666 is, we are told, 
 the number of a man. When we read the interesting 
 ■pages of the historian of Latin Christianity, and recollect 
 that the Roman or Latin world is the area contemplated by 
 this prophecy, we may accept with little hesitation the 
 interpretation of this number which Ireneeus suggests 
 .among many other possible solutions of the mystery. 
 
 It was a not uncommon ancient custom to conceal a name 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 143 
 
 ■by giving the sum of the numbers represented by each of 
 the letters of the name. Letters were used by the ancients 
 to represent numbers. They stand, in fact, in the place of 
 figui-es, in Hebrew and in Greek. It is obvious that G66 
 might thus represent a good many names. But there is 
 little doubt that the enigmatical number was intended to 
 point to Rome, the letters of the Greek word AuTeivo'i, 
 the Latin one, containing it. Thus Ireuteus writes : " Then 
 also Lateinos has the number 666 ; and it is a very probable 
 solution, this being the name of the last Kingdom. For 
 the Latins are they who at present bear rule." 
 
 When we remember that a great historian gives " the 
 history of Latin Christianity " as the title of his book, we 
 shall scarcely be inclined to question the high probability of 
 this solution of the riddle ; especially when prophecy tells 
 us it is the "number of a name" and the number of the 
 name of the Beast, "the number of a man." (xiii, 17, 18.) 
 
 It matters little whether we understand the name to refer 
 to the First Beast, the Second Beast, or the Image of the 
 Beast, because the three together symbolize the ruling 
 powers of the same Roman or Latin world, and therefore, 
 the name Latin one is applicable to them all. 
 
 We have, in fact, in the thirteenth chapter, very intel- 
 ligible symbols of the three elements of Latin Christendom : 
 (1) The crowned sovereigns of Europe, (2) the Pope of Rome, 
 and (3) the Image of fallen Rome the Pope-created Head of 
 the Holy Roman Empire. 
 
 It is impossible to conjecture what may be the future 
 doings and fortune of the great Latin Hierarchy. But we 
 must be blinded by prejudice if we do not see in it much 
 good as well as evil. 
 
 "Who has been able," writes Bryce, "to describe the 
 Papacy in the power it once wielded over the hearts and 
 imaginations of men 1 Those persons, if such there still be. 
 
144 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 who see in it nothing but a gigantic upas tree of fraud and 
 superstition, planted and reared by the enemy of mankind, 
 are hardly further from entering into the mystery of its being 
 than the complacent philosopher, who explains in neat 
 phrases the process of its growth, analyses it as a clever piece 
 of mechanism, enumerates and measures the interests it 
 appeals to, and gives in conclusion a sort of tabular view of 
 its results for good and for evil" (p. 391). 
 
 We have, then, in this prophecy no wholesale condemna- 
 tion of the Roman Church, but quite the contrary. We 
 have a prediction by well-known symbols, explained by 
 Daniel, of those Worldly and Ecclesiastical Powers who have 
 for many ages been her cruel and tyrannical rulers and 
 corrupters. These Wild-beasts are not symbols of the 
 Church, which is the persecuted Woman, the Bride of the 
 Lamb, the Holy City ; but they point out by unmistakable 
 signs the enemies of the Church, the human agents by 
 means of whom, during those ages in which the Serpent 
 dares not show himself in his proper form, he carries on his 
 warfare with " the remnant of the woman's seed which keep 
 the commandments of God and have the testimony of 
 Jesus" (xii, 17). 
 
 And what proofs we have in this of the Divine origin and 
 vitality of the Church. Had not God been with her, could 
 she have borne in every age a faithful witness in the person 
 of her Martyrs and Confessors ? Could she have outlived 
 at all the terrible pressure of civil and ecclesiastical tyranny 
 to which she has been exposed? And have we not also 
 evidences of the inspiration of this wonderful book, when 
 we see how plainly it predicts the course of the Church's 
 warfare in the world, even in the Christian world, and points 
 out the enemies with whom she has had to contend for at 
 any rate more than a thousand years % 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 145 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 The enemies of the Church, especially during the middle 
 ages, the human agents of the Serpent's warfare against the 
 Woman, by means of whom he still persecutes and corrupts 
 her, have been the Sovereigns of the Latin World, the 
 tyrannical Bishops of Rome, and his creatures the Holy 
 Roman Emperors ; and they are symbolized, as we have 
 seen in chapter xiii, by the First Wild-beast with Ten 
 Crowned Horns ; the Second Wild-beast with Lamb's Horns 
 and the speech of a serpent ; and a revived Image of one 
 of the wounded Heads of the First Wild-beast. 
 
 The prophecy then at once proceeds to comfort the Saints 
 luider their trials and sufferings. And thus chapter xiv, 
 like chapter vii, gives us one of those delightful glimpses of 
 Paradise which we have in this book, and reveals to us the 
 safety and happiness of the sealed ones of faithful Israel, 
 and the blessedness of all the dead who die in the Lord, 
 predicting the bliss of the Saints during the intermediate 
 state in the presence of the Lamb. 
 
 Then chapters xv and xvi describe the vision of the 
 Seven Phials, the Seven last Judgments inflicted on all the 
 worshippers of the world, those without the Seal of God 
 upon their foreheads, but marked as the slaves of the Wild- 
 beast. 
 
 We will pass over these chapters for the present. The 
 probable meaning of their figurative language is given in 
 my Commentary on the Apocalypse. 
 
 It will be sufficient here to observe that they appear 
 to symbolize the Judgments which prepare the world of 
 Christendom for the great catastrophe predicted in chapter 
 XV ii and those which follow. 
 
146 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 We must speak and even think with extreme caution 
 about the future. And, therefore, since chapters xvii, xviii, 
 and xix treat ahnost exclusively of the fviture, we nmst put 
 a strong curb on our imagination while we study them, and 
 especially keep our minds free from every kind of theological 
 bias or party feeling. 
 
 We must not be of the number of those who can see no 
 good in Romanism ; or of those who can see little evil in it ; 
 or of those who are comparatively indifferent to the questions 
 which unfortunately divide the Church ; if we would under- 
 stand these prophecies. For no book has ever been written 
 which requires more fairness of mind for its study than the 
 Apocalypse. With this caution let us examine chapter xvii. 
 
 And, first, we see plainly that it is a vision of Judgment. 
 ■" Come hither," says the Angel to the Seer, " I will show 
 unto thee the Judgment {Kplfxa, the sentence, the con- 
 demnation) of the great harlot that sitteth upon the many 
 waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed 
 fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made 
 drunk with the wine of her fornication" (xvii, 1, 2). 
 
 He is then taken in spirit into a wilderness, and sees 
 there a Woman sitting on a Seven-headed, Ten-horned, Wild- 
 beast. But while he is looking on this symbol he is told 
 that this Woman will not always retain her seat upon this 
 Wild-beast, but that in the end he will hate her, and 
 together with his Ten Horns will strip her of all her costly 
 ornaments, will "leave her desolate and naked, and eat her 
 flesh and burn her with fire" (xvii. 16). 
 
 Thus it is the punishment of a faithless Woman, of one 
 who has been unfaithful to her Husband and has allied her- 
 self with one who is not her Husband, which the Angel 
 exhibits to the prophet. 
 
 Have we seen any Woman before ? And have we read of 
 .any wilderness before ? 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 147 
 
 Yes. In chapter xii a Woman, evidently symbolizing the 
 Church, is persecuted by the Serpent and flees into the 
 wilderness. There she at last reaches a place prepared for 
 her by the Providence of God, where men nourish her for 
 an enigmatical period of time, 1260 days. 
 
 Several other symbolisms are connected with tliis period 
 of time, and are, therefore, shown to be synchronous. 
 
 The Holy City, another symbol of the church, is trodden 
 under foot by Gentiles for the same period (xi, 2). 
 
 The two witnesses, the symbols of the true lights of the 
 Church, bear their testimony during the same period, clothed 
 in sackcloth (xi, 3). 
 
 The reign of the Ten-horned Wild-beast of chapter xiii 
 continues for the same time (xiii, 5). 
 
 At the end of this time, as we are told in chapter xi, the 
 Wild-beast will slay the witnesses of Jesus and triumph over 
 them for a short time, symbolized by three days and an half 
 (xi, 7-12). 
 
 Thus the punishment of the corrupt Church by the worldly 
 Powers who have long supported her, synchronizes with the 
 slaughter of Christ's faithful witnesses by the same worldly 
 Powers. 
 
 This, I feel persuaded, is the general meaning of these 
 symbolisms, and they warn the Church and the faithful 
 Christian, that the great Apostasy of which St. Paul writes 
 is gradually approaching, and times of great trial to the 
 faith. It is well, at such a time, that this prophecy should 
 be made intelligible to the general reader, for we may need 
 its comfort and support sooner than we expect. " Here is 
 the patience and the faith of the Saints" (xiii, 10). 
 
 The prophet sees this unfaithful Woman sitting upon many 
 waters ; and since she is called Babylon we naturally identify 
 these waters with the great river Euphi'ates, the main source 
 of the wealth of Babylon. The meaning of these waters is 
 
 L 2 
 
148 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 explained to the prophet. They symbolize the popular sup- 
 port of the Woman. " The Avaters which thou sawest where 
 the Harlot sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, 
 and tongues." And so another vision describes how the dry- 
 ing up of her waters, the withdrawal of popular support from 
 Babylon, prepares tlie way of the Kings of the earth who 
 turn against her, rob her and destroy her. " The sixth angel 
 poured out his phial upon the great river Euphrates ; and 
 the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the Kings of 
 the East might be prepared" (xvi, 12). 
 
 These instruments of God for the punishment of Babylon 
 are called Kings of the East, because Cyrus the conqueror of 
 Ancient Babylon is called " from the East." {Isai. xli, 2.) 
 " Calling a ravenous bird from the East, the man that 
 executeth my counsel." (Isai. xlvi, 11.) They are alsa 
 called further on "the Kings of the earth and of the whole 
 world," that is, the whole Roman world, olKovfievt], the area 
 of this prophecy. 
 
 But herein they differ from Cyrus, " the righteous man 
 from the East." He was the friend and deliverer of God's 
 faithful people. These Kings, the destroyers of the Modern 
 Babylon, are also the ruthless persecutors of the faithful wit- 
 nesses of Jesus, and use ever}" effort to put out the true 
 lights of the Church. 
 
 They are the enemies of the corrupt Churcli, but they 
 are also the enemies of the Lamb. " These 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" (xvii, 14). 
 
 Let us now, then, examine this 17th chapter more closely. 
 
 Upon the forehead of this faithless Woman a name is 
 written, " Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of 
 Harlots and abominations of the earth." Whereas upon the 
 faithful Christian was written " the name of the City of 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 149 
 
 •God, new Jerusalem, wliich cometli down out of licavcu 
 from God." {Rev. iii, 12.) 
 
 She is called a Harlot and the Mother of harlots ; whereas 
 the faithful Woman is called the Holy City, the Bi-ide of 
 the Lamb. 
 
 Now we cannot doubt the meaning of this symbolism, 
 because it is constantly employed by the Hebrew prophets. 
 ^' How is the faithful city become an Harlot!" (/,«. i, 21). 
 ■" Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom ; give ear 
 unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah" {Is. i, 10). 
 
 In calling the world-worshipping Church a Harlot, and 
 accusing her of committing spiritual fornication by trusting 
 in the support of worldly rulers more than in that of God, 
 the prophecy merely reproduces the well known symbols of 
 the Old Testament. And it is most important to observe 
 that neither the Hebrew nor Christian prophecies imply any 
 condemnation of the faithful members of the Church. 
 Jerusalem, on the eve of her greatest crime and final 
 rejection, was still the Holy City, the home of all the 
 Saints who waited for the redemption of Israel ; and of her 
 worshippers, as contrasted with the schismatic Samaritans, 
 ■our Lord Himself said to the woman of Samaria, " Ye 
 worship ye know not what : we know what we worship, for 
 salvation is of the Jews." (^S*^. John iv, 22.) 
 
 It is, therefore, for her sinful worldliness, and the pride 
 and tyrannical oppression of the faithful by her Rulers, 
 that God's Judgment will certainly overtake her. The 
 faithful, no doubt, will suffer when the Judgments of God 
 fall upon the worldly Church, even as they did in ancient 
 times when Jerusalem was punished for her sins. 
 
 The Church, as a great worldly Hierarchy, has imitated, 
 has even surpassed the crimes of ancient Jerusalem, though 
 the faithful witnesses have ever shone as lights in her streets, 
 ■clothed in sackcloth, mourning over her sins. And she has 
 
ISO ■ LECTURES ON THE 
 
 further imitated Jerusalem in refusing to listen to the wit- 
 nesses of Jesus, the messengers He has sent to call her to 
 repentance ; and she is well described in this prophecy as 
 " drunken with the blood of Saints, and with the blood of 
 the Martyrs of Jesus" (xvii, 6). 
 
 Why did the prophet "wonder with great amazement" 
 when he saw this ? He would not have wondered if he had 
 heard this spoken of the Rome of Nei'O or Domitian.* But 
 he has befoi'e seen a Woman, the well-known symbol of the 
 Church, fleeing for refuge into the wilderness to escape 
 from the persecution of the Serpent. He has also seen 
 the Serpent giving his throne and great authority to the 
 equally well-known sj'mbol of the Roman Empire the fourth 
 Kingdom of Daniel. {Bev. xiii, 2.) 
 
 And now he is taken by the spii'it into a wilderness and 
 sees a Woman sitting beside many waters, explained to 
 signify peoples and nations, and also supported by the same 
 great Wild-beast, and arrayed in all the splendour of 
 Worldly-power and grandeur. Upon her forehead is written 
 the name of a city, and that city is explained to symbolize 
 Rome, the city then ruling the world. " The woman which 
 thou sawest is that great city which reigneth over the kings 
 of the earth" (xvii, 18). 
 
 The angel then proceeds to explain the vision to the 
 prophet ; to disclose the mystery or hidden meaning of the 
 Woman and of tlie Beast upon which she is sitting. 
 
 This Beast, he is told, " was, and is not, and is about to 
 come up out of the abyss (or sea) and to go into perdition" 
 (xvii, 8). "He was" — for this symbol stands, as we have 
 seen, for the World-power from the eai'liest times ; " He is 
 not" — for that development of the World-power contem- 
 plated in the vision has not yet appeared in St. John's day ; 
 but, " he is about to come up out of the sea " — he will rise 
 to the surface out of a state of revolutionary tumult, and 
 go into perdition when his work is finished. 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 151 
 
 We have already learnt from Daniel and from chapter 
 xiii of this prophecy, that this Ten-horned Beast is the 
 symbol of the World-power, in its connection witli (lod's 
 people, and in its successive developments from the age of 
 Nebuchadnezzar to the Day of Judgment. And we have 
 also seen that certain marks are given to indicate in each 
 vision where he appears the special phase of the World- 
 jDower which he symbolizes. Thus his Ten Horns are crowned 
 when he stands for the many independent sovereigns who 
 divide between them the Koman woi'ld ; as his Heads were 
 crowned when he represented ancient Imperial Rome in 
 chapter xii. 
 
 In this seventeenth chapter we are plainly told that these 
 Ten Horns stand for Ten Kings, acknowledging one as their 
 superior, and in some sense the source of their authority. 
 This superior, corresponding to the Little Horn of Daniel, 
 to whom the ten Sovereigns do homage, is not the Pope, but 
 the Pope's creature, the Holy Roman Emperor for the time 
 being. 
 
 This, at least, we know to have been the case all through 
 the ages from a.d. 800, almost up to our own times. The 
 Head of the Holy Roman Empire, though often a feeble 
 Prince, has been in theory regarded b}^ the Sovereigns of 
 Latin Christendom as the source of their authority, though 
 rarely allowed to intei'fere in any way in their dominions. 
 
 Napoleon destroyed that Empire, and claimed to restore 
 it in his own person. The title of Emperor is still considered 
 superior to that of King. It was assumed by Napoleon III, 
 and, after Sedan, was taken from him and restored to 
 Germany by the King of Prussia. 
 
 Thus a writer in The Times of September 17th, 1852, 
 speaking of the career of Wellington, says, " At the com- 
 mencement of that career which has only just ended, there 
 was an Empire of a thousand years' renown, which styled 
 
IS2 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 itself the Empire of the Caesars The great Duke 
 
 witnessed the dissohition of the Holy Roman Empire." 
 
 Napoleon III wished, we know, above all things to obtain 
 the Papal Coronation, and a writer in the SaUirday Review 
 speaks of " The Roman Empire, of which the French 
 Empire is a professed imitation, and which in some respects 
 it really resembles." 
 
 Of the German Empire the Prussian correspondent of 
 The Times of January 25th, 1871, writes thus, "Ever since 
 the German unity movement arose out of the wars of 
 Napoleon I, the re-establishment of the Imperial Dignity 
 has been a dream dear to the nation's heart " ; and he calls 
 it " The re-institution of the title, once the grandest in 
 Christendom .... their beloved and at last accomplished 
 ideal." 
 
 Thus the meaning of this symbol is intelligible enough so 
 far as it refers to the past, because we have for our guidance 
 that which the early Christians had not, the historical 
 annals of more than eighteen centuries. 
 
 But this 17th chapter refers chiefly to the future, for it is 
 evidently a vision of Judgment yet to come. 
 
 A Woman-city is in this prophecy the symbol of the 
 Church, as an organized and Divinely appointed society, 
 standing in the same relation to God as Israel of old, and 
 containing, like the Field of Wheat and Tares, and the great 
 Drag-net, all baptized Christians, both good and bad. 
 
 The World-power is symbolized by a great Ten-horned 
 Wild-beast. And so we have a picture here of the Church 
 allied for ages with the Powers of the world, and supported 
 also by the many waters of the peoples of Latin Christendom. 
 
 But the vision predicts in general terms the natural result 
 of this unholy alliance, this adulterous worship of that 
 world which is the enemy and rival of Christ. 
 
 It foretells the punishment of the Church for the faith- 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 153 
 
 lessness and worldliuess of her rulers, and then the final 
 struggle between the Lamb and the Wild-beast, a struggle 
 apparently between the faithful members of the Church and 
 the World, between the faitliful Woman and her enemy, the 
 Serpent, showing himself again, as at the first, in his proper 
 form as an openly professed infidel power, and using as his 
 instrument the long predicted Antichrist, some future 
 worldly ruler coming to the surface, as is usually the case, 
 out of the abyss of revolutionary violence, and uniting 
 under him all the powers of the world in an unholy alliance 
 to fight against Christ and the Church, and Christianity of 
 any kind as a revealed religion. " The ten horns which 
 thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the Harlot, 
 and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her 
 flesh, and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their 
 hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom 
 \into the beast (Antichrist, the Lawless One, the final 
 •development of the antitheocratic World-power) until the 
 words of God shall be fulfilled" (xvii, 16, 17). 
 
 Then shall be fulfilled more completely that of which the 
 Apostles saw the commencement, " The Kings of the earth 
 set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against 
 the Lord and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their 
 bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us." (Ps. 
 ii, 2-3.) 
 
 But the triumph of Antichrist will be short. In the 
 jDunishment of their unfaithful mother, the remnant of her 
 faithful children, the true lights of the Church, will suffer 
 with her. "And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice 
 over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to 
 another ; because these two prophets tormented them that 
 dwell on the earth" (xi, 10). 
 
 But although the worldly rulers " have one mind, and give 
 their power and strength unto the beast," although they 
 
154 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 " make war with the Lamb, 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 " (xvii, 
 13-U). 
 
 This I conceive to be the prospect constantly kept before 
 the mind of the faithful Christian in this prophecy, from the 
 age of St. John to the present day. 
 
 We have seen that the Church in these visions is 
 represented to us in three different relations to the Powers of 
 the world. 
 
 I. For about seven centuries she is symbolized as fighting 
 her way to supreme power in the Latin World, first against 
 unbelieving Jews and Pagan Rome, and then against the 
 Pagan destroyers of Christian Rome. 
 
 II. Then we have a picture of the union for many ages of 
 the two opposed Kingdoms of Caesar and Christ, during that 
 time when Christianity was the dominant and unquestioned 
 religion of the Roman World. 
 
 This union of Church and State ought to have been a 
 blessing to both, and was so to some extent. It was 
 evidently a state of things brought about by the Providence 
 of God for the protection of the Church, the increase of her 
 influence, and the preservation of the truth. From the open 
 persecution of the Serpent, she "flees into the wilderness, 
 where she has a place prepared of God, that men should 
 nourish her " (xii, 6). 
 
 But the rulers of Church and State abused their power; 
 and the Church, the Bride of the Lamb, was tempted to 
 commit spiritual fornication by worshipping the World, His 
 enemy and rival. 
 
 III. In her third predicted condition is symbolized the 
 result of this sin. Her pi'ide, her worldliness, her false 
 miracles, and false teaching, the tyranny, intolerance, and 
 cruelty of the Church and her supporters, during the ages 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 155 
 
 of superstition and ignorance, cause at last a fierce reaction 
 of the human mind long kept in a state of darkness, and 
 issue in the excesses of revolutionary violence, infidelity, 
 false socialism, and Anarchy. Tims the third and last 
 condition of the Cliurch is similar to the first, a state of 
 open warfare with the World-power. 
 
 Of this " last and fiercest storm " we have as yet seen 
 only a few prelusive drops. But whenever it begins in 
 earnest this prophecy will support our faith. For " he that 
 leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity ; he that killeth 
 with the sword must l)e killed with the sword. Here is the 
 patience and the faith of the Saints" (xiii, 10). 
 
 But the vision of this 17th chapter not only pi'edicts the 
 punishment of the faithless Woman for her fornication svith 
 the Wild-beast, it also explains the mystery of the Seven 
 Heads of the Beast. 
 
 In chapter xiii the prophet sees one of the Seven Heads 
 of the Beast " wounded to death, and his deadly wound 
 healed." He then sees how this wound was healed by the 
 influence of the Second Beast with Lamb's Horns, namely, 
 by the resuscitation of fallen Empire in the person of 
 Charles the Great, the " Image of the Beast which had the 
 wound by a sword and did live" (xiii, 3, 14). 
 
 In chapter xvii the prophet is told that these Heads of 
 the World-power are not all existing at the same time like 
 the Ten Horns. They represent the successive developments 
 or phases of the World-power from the age of Daniel to the 
 end of all worldly sovereignty. 
 
 As Daniel saw the successive Empires which should be 
 connected with God's Church represented by a succession of 
 different Beasts ; so this same succession, this continued life 
 of the World-power, and the way in which the Empire of the 
 world is continually changing hands, was symbolized to St. 
 John by the successive fall and rising again of the Heads of 
 the Beast. 
 
156 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 By comparing the two chapters together we learn that it 
 was either the Sixth or the Seventh Head which "was 
 wounded to death and its deadly wound healed." For St. 
 John is told that Five had already follen ; that the Sixth 
 was living in his day ; that the Seventh would live but a 
 short time ; and that the Head which should succeed this 
 and continue to the end would be an Eighth coming out of 
 or succeeding the Seven. {avTO<i oySoo'i iari, kuI e« tmv 
 eirra ian, kuI ei? aircokeLav vTrdyet.) 
 
 The correct interpretation of this picture of the Empire 
 of the Latin world hinges on the expression, " the other," 
 that is the Seventh, "is not yet come; and when he 
 Cometh, he must continue a short time" (xvii, 10). 
 
 History reveals to us the probable meaning of this 
 symbolism. A very short-lived Empire succeeded the fall 
 of ancient Rome, and preceded the resuscitation of the 
 Roman Emjjire in the person of Charles the Great. The 
 Seventh Head, therefore, probably refers to the short-lived 
 Gothic or Ostrogothic Kingdom of which Gibbon writes 
 thus: "The Gothic sovereignty was established from Sicily 
 to the Danube, from Sirmium or Belgrade to the Atlantic 
 ■Ocean ; and the Greeks themselves acknowledged that 
 Theodoric reigned over the fairest portion of the Western 
 Empire" (ch. xxxix). 
 
 Of the same Kingdom Milman says : " The Ostrogothic 
 Kingdom was an intermediate state between the Roman 
 Empire and the Barbarian monarchies." Of Theodoric he 
 writes : " In him met and blended the Roman and the Goth. 
 In peace he exchanged the Gothic military dress for the 
 purple of the Roman Emperor. He preserved the ancient 
 titles both of the Republic and of the Empire. When 
 Theodoric appeared in Rome, the Emperor might seem to 
 revive in greater power and majesty than he had displayed 
 since the days of Theodosius the Great. (^Milman's Latin 
 Christianity, I, 295, 297, 299.) 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 157 
 
 But the future only will show whether this is the I'eal 
 meaning of the short-lived Head of the World-power, or 
 whether it is a development of the AVorld-power yet to 
 come, to be followed by that Antichrist whom St. Paul 
 describes as " The man of sin," that Lawless one, 6 avoao<i, 
 the Anarch, " the son of perdition, he that opposeth and 
 exalteth himself against all that is called God, or that is 
 worshipped ; so that he sittcth in the temple of God, setting 
 himself forth as God." (2 Thess. ii, 4.) 
 
 All we know for certain is this, that there will be a final 
 struggle between the Lamb and the Wild-beast, between 
 Christ with His Saints and the last Head of the World- 
 power ; and that Christ will conquer. For of the final 
 Antichrist Daniel writes : " The Judgment shall sit, and 
 they shall take away his dominion, to consume and destroy 
 it unto the end." And of the Son of man he says, " There 
 was given unto him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom,^ 
 that all the peoples, nations, and languages, should serve 
 him : his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall 
 not pass away, and his Kingdom that which shall not be 
 destroyed." {Dan. vii, 14, 26.) 
 
 The prospect before the Church, therefore, is that of a 
 return, after many centuries of dominion, to a state of open 
 warfare, as of old, with the Powers of the world. 
 
 We know not when these things will come to pass, or 
 what will be the state of the world when they occur, or 
 whether they will come soon or after many ages of trial. 
 But that the guilty lovers are beginning to grow weary of 
 one another, that the worldly powers and the worldly Church 
 are straining almost to breaking the bonds which have so 
 long held them together, is one of the most striking and 
 ominous signs of our own times. 
 
 We are, in fact, gradually passing from the second into 
 the third predicted condition of the Church in its relation 
 to the Powers of the world of which we have spoken. 
 
158 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 That great persecuting Hierarchy, which was formed 
 during the middle ages, was not destined to last for ever. 
 Let us not fail to recognise that it had its work to do in the 
 Providence of God, and did it. 
 
 Its disintegration commenced at the time of the Reforma- 
 tion. Then began that division of the house against itself 
 which precedes and causes its fall. 
 
 The Reformers had a noble work before them which the 
 tyranny of the Popes and the wickedness of Christian 
 Sovereigns prevented them from accomplishing. Had it 
 not been for the opposition of Rome and France, the morals, 
 doctrines, and discipline of the Church would have been 
 reformed without any division. 
 
 But a more fatal blow than the divisions of the Reforma- 
 tion was given to the Church and Christianity itself as a 
 revealed religion at the close of the last century and the 
 beginning of this, when the great Abyss of revolutionary 
 violence was opened at the French Revolution. 
 
 It is too early yet to estimate the final result of that 
 great convulsion. But we cannot fail to see one of its 
 effects. It has loosened to an amazing extent the bonds 
 which have hitherto connected the Church with the powers 
 of the world ; and as a consequence even Christianity itself 
 is no longer the universally acknowledged religion of Europe 
 and its dependencies. 
 
 The extraordinary revival of the English Church, and the 
 vigorous efforts which she is making to stem the torrent of 
 irreligion and infidelity which is sweeping over Christendom, 
 is encouraging so far as our own Empire is concerned. But 
 the outlook in other countries is very alarming. Even if we 
 had not this prophecy to warn us, we could scarcely help 
 anticipating very great trials of the faith. 
 
 The great Babylon of this vision does not fall alone ; she 
 involves in her ruin many other cities. " The great city 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 159 
 
 was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations 
 fell, and great Babylon came in remembrance before God." 
 (Rev. xvi, 19). 
 
 But, after all, what is included in the name Babylon? 
 How far will her ruin extend to other cities ? 
 
 It is quite certain, because it is so explained to us, that 
 Babylon, in this prophecy, represents the city of Rome as 
 the metropolis of the world ; and the Church of Rome as 
 for ages the owner of that city, the seat of her Empire. 
 
 But it is by no means clear how far this symbolism 
 extends, or how much of the Church the term Babylon 
 embraces. To ascertain this, we must consider what Rome 
 signified in the age of St. John, and then what was, and 
 still is, the extent of the claim and dominion of the Bishop 
 of Rome. 
 
 Now the term Rome in St. John's days, and for many 
 ages after, signified the whole vast Empire of which Rome 
 was the capital. The removal of the seat of Empire to 
 Constantinople, and the sacking of Rome, did not get rid of 
 this idea from the minds of men. The maxim was, "Where 
 the Emperor is, there is Rome." And, still further, when 
 Christianity had been thoroughly established, Roman and 
 Christian became almost synonymous terms (see Bryce, 
 p. 24). Such was the extensive meaning of the word Rome 
 in St. John's age and in those ages which followed. 
 
 When the sovereignty of Rome came into the hands of 
 its Bishops and their creatures, the Holy Roman Emperors, 
 the limits of that Sovereignty were certainly not con- 
 tracted. In reality its dominion was confined to the 
 Western Empire, but in theory and claim it was universal. 
 
 Thus Bryce writes : " In a.d. 476, Rome ceased to be the 
 political capital of the Western countries, and the Papacy, 
 inheriting no small part of the Empire's power, drew to 
 herself the reverence which the name of the city still com- 
 
i5o LECTURES ON THE 
 
 manded, until by the middle of the eighth or at least of the 
 ninth century, she had perfected in theory a scheme which 
 made her the exact counterpart of the departed despotism, 
 the centre of the Hierarchy, absolute mistress of the 
 Christian world." 
 
 Elsewhere he writes : " The two great ideas which ex- 
 piring antiquity bequeathed to the ages that followed, Avere 
 those of a world-wide monarchy and a world-wide religion." 
 " By the extension of her citizenshiiD to all her subjects, 
 heathen Rome had become the common home, and, figura- 
 tively, even the local dwelling-place of the civilized races of 
 man. By the theology of the time, Christian Rome had 
 been made the mystical type of humanity, the one fiock of 
 the faithful scattered over the whole earth, the Holy City 
 whither as to the temple on Moriah, all the Israel of God 
 should come up to worship." (Bryce, p. 298.) 
 
 And thus Gibbon writes : " In the beginning of the 
 twelftli century, the era of the first crusade, Rome was 
 revered by the Latins as the Metropolis of the world, as the 
 Home of the Pope and Emperor, who, from the Eternal City 
 derived their title, their honours, and the right and exercise 
 of temporal dominion " (chap. 69). 
 
 If then Babylon in this vision stands for Rome at the 
 time of her punishment by those worldly powers with whom 
 she has so long committed spiritual fornication by trusting 
 to them rather than to God, we seem compelled to under- 
 stand the name in that wide sense which the name Rome 
 has so long borne. We must not confine it to the city, or 
 even exclusively, perhaps, to the Papal Chui^ch of Rome. 
 
 There can be only one Church, and this prophecy only 
 contemplates one Church. It is obvious that Societies of 
 Christians may be found in very different moral and spiritual 
 conditions, in different cities or countries, without being 
 otherwise than members of the Mystical Body of Christ. 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. i6i 
 
 This is shown at the beginning of the prophecy, by the 
 messages sent to the Seven Chiu'ches of Asia, as also by 
 the various Epistles of St. Paul to the Churches which he 
 had founded. The Churches of Corinth, Rome, and Ephesus 
 were not separate Churches, but branches of the one 
 Catholic and Apostolic Church. 
 
 Although our Lord predicted the divisions of Christendom, 
 His prediction did not sanction them. And it was His last 
 prayer that the testimony of His Church to the world might 
 not be impaired by the quarrels of believers. " Neither pray 
 I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe in 
 Me through their word, that they all may be one ; as thou, 
 Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one 
 in us ; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." 
 {St. John xvii, 20-21.) 
 
 It is obvious, therefore, that the Church never ought to 
 have been divided ; and the Latin Church, even after the 
 Eastern Schism, was not divided vuitil the time of the 
 Reformation. 
 
 The guilt of that great schism rests mainly upon Rome. 
 The guilt of the subsequent scattering of the flock into 
 countless sects i-ests mainly on the Civil and Ecclesiastical 
 rulers of the Reformed Churches. 
 
 We can scarcely help recognising, therefore, in the name 
 Babylon a reference to Rome as the chief source of our 
 divisions, and also a very significant title for the whole 
 Church of these latter days, of which Rome claims to be the 
 Head, a City of Confusion, and of many discordant tongues. 
 
 But although she may be justly named Babel, she is never- 
 theless the City which contains, like the literal Babylon and 
 the old Jerusalem, all the true Israel of God, described in 
 this prophecy as " the remnant of the woman's seed which 
 keep the commandments of God, and hold the testimony of 
 Jesus" {Rev. xii, 17), and also as the faithful witnesses of 
 
 M 
 
1 62 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 God, the true lights of the Chiirch, ever shining in the streets 
 of the Holy City even while she is trodden down by Gentiles, 
 and deserving the names of Sodom and Egypt for the sins 
 and worldliness of her rulers and people. " I will give power 
 unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand 
 two hundred and three-score days, clothed in sackcloth. 
 These are the tw^o olive trees, and the two candlesticks stand- 
 ing before the God of the earth." {Rev. xi, 3.) 
 
 It is because men forget that the Church, like Jerusalem 
 of old, may be extremely wicked and worldly, without 
 ceasing to be a Divinely instituted Society for the preserva- 
 tion of the truth and the salvation of individual souls, that 
 they miss the terrible meaning of this prophecy. Does a 
 woman cease to be the lawful wife of her husband because 
 she commits fornication with another? Let us go to the 
 Old Testament for our answ^er. (iod represents Himself 
 jis the Husband of Israel, and He is the Husband of the 
 Church. Like Israel she may sin and be put away from 
 her Husband for a time, but He will give her no bill of 
 divorcement. "Thus saith the Lord, Where is the bill of 
 your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away % or 
 which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you?" 
 (Isai. i, 1.) "They say. If a man put away his wife, and 
 she go from him and become another man's, shall he return 
 unto her again ? Shall not that land be greatly polluted ? 
 But thou hast played the harlot with many lovers, yet 
 return again to me, saith the Lord." (Jer. iii, 1.) 
 
 It was this sad truth which pressed so heavily upon the 
 heart of Keble, and which has caused that strain of sadness 
 which is so perceptible in many of the poems 'of the 
 Christian year. He and many others have recognised these 
 two ominous signs of the times in which we ai'e living. The 
 decay and worldliness of the Church ; and the fact that she 
 is losing her hold upon the rulei'S of the world. Thus in 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 163 
 
 Mr. Lock's Biography of Keble T find these words: "The 
 powers of the world may any day turn their backs upon us." 
 This sentence occurred in a letter from a friend, and the 
 Biographer adds : " This is exactly what was liappening ; 
 the powers of the world were turning their backs upon the 
 Church, but its champions were being prepared " (p. 76). 
 
 In spite of tlie religious revival of our day, and the 
 amazing increase and vigour of our English brancli of the 
 Church, the outlook, on the whole, is even less cheerin"- 
 towards the close of this century than it was at the 
 beginning. The powers of the woidd are certainly turnino- 
 their backs upon the Church, while in the East they are 
 still terribly oppressing her. 
 
 What the result will be no man can predict; but the 
 general teaching of this prophecy cannot well be mistaken. 
 It may be regarded as quite certain that the Ten-horned 
 Wild-beast is the symbol of the World-power, and that thd 
 Woman-city is the symbol of the Church. She is the 
 lawful wife of the Lamb, and all the faithful in her will 
 be declared to be so when she has been punished for her 
 worldliness, which is spiritual fornication. 
 
 We are warned that the hostility of the world in the end 
 will be directed not only against the Church, but against 
 Christianity in any form as a revealed religion. For these 
 Ten Horns, united with the final Antichrist, not only rob 
 and destroy Babylon, but also slay the witnesses of Jesus 
 and fight against the Lamb, until the Lamb has overcome 
 them and established His Kingdom for ever. 
 
 Chapter xviii contains the dirge of fallen Babylon taken 
 almost word for word from Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. 
 
 It is a very alarming chapter to read. We can scarcely 
 help asking ourselves how far the Judgment seems likely to 
 extend. 
 
 Does it predict a Judgment upon the'Christendom of our 
 
 M2 
 
i64 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 day similar to that of Rome in the fifth Century? We 
 cannot tell. God only knows. But we cannot help seeing 
 that there is a spirit of infidelity, hatred of God, and 
 anarchy abroad in every nation of Christendom. The storm 
 is gathering ; when will it come ? Let us hope and pray 
 that it come not in our day. The seething Abyss might be 
 opened again, as at the end of the last century, with effects 
 upon our boasted civilization and Christianity which few 
 thoughtful politicians can contemplate without serious mis- 
 givings. 
 
 We walk upon the ashes of a volcano, whose smouldering 
 fires are by no means extinct. It is, therefore, quite im- 
 possible to conjecture how far this terrible Judgment on 
 Babylon the Great will extend. 
 
 But in chapter xix we have, as the result of the punish- 
 ment of the harlot-city, the glorious revelation of the 
 Church purified by her trials and restored as a pure Bride 
 to her Husband. 
 
 God has redeemed Zion with Judgment, and purified the 
 sons of Levi. The City and Church of Rome, and all 
 worldly and wicked Christians, Churches, and Sects, have 
 been cleansed by the persecutions of the day of Antichrist. 
 The witnesses who have long testified in sackcloth, have 
 been apparently silenced for a very brief space, but rise 
 to life again to the astonishment and confusion of their 
 enemies ; and, therefore, the prophet hears " the voice of a 
 great multitude, as the sound of many waters, and as the 
 sound of mighty thunderings, saying, "Alleluia! for the 
 Lord God Omnipotent reigneth ; let us rejoice and be glad, 
 and give glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb is 
 come, and His Wife hath made herself ready, 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 " 
 (xix, 7, 8). 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 165 
 
 And thus we come to the close of the Allegory of the 
 Rider upon the White Horse. He Who at first rode forth 
 "Conquering and in order to conquer" (vi, 2) now comes 
 again from the opening heaven to complete His victory. 
 But he does not come alone, His Saints follow Him, riding 
 also upon White Horses, clothed in fine linen, white and 
 clean, I'eminding us of the words of St. Jude, " Behold, the 
 Lord cometh with ten thousands of His Saints, to execute 
 Judgment upon the ungodly." {St. Jude, 14). 
 
 The Wild-beast, some future development of the World- 
 power ; some despot, it may be, rising to the surface out of 
 the abyss of Revolution, the final Anti-Christ with his con- 
 federate Powers, also gathers together his armies for a final 
 battle with Christ and His people. 
 
 We know not how, where, or when this last battle will 
 take place ; we only know, to our unspeakable comfort, that 
 the victory of Christ wnll be complete and final ; for the 
 Prophet sees that the Wild-beast was taken, and with him 
 the False Prophet who had worked miracles before him, by 
 which he had deceived all world-worshippers marked as his 
 slaves, that they were cast alive into a lake of fire, burning 
 with brimstone, and that all the wicked that remained were 
 slain with the sword of Him that sat upon the horse, which 
 sword proceeded out of his mouth (xix, 19 — 21). 
 
i66 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 We arrived in the previous Lecture at the consummation 
 of all things ; the Second Advent of Christ, and the com- 
 plete and final destruction of the wicked (xix, 11 — ^21). 
 
 But what has become of the Serpent % He has not been 
 seen by the pi'ophet since he beheld him in Chapter XII, 
 baffled in his attempts to destroy the Church and to prevent 
 her establishment in the woi'ld, first by all the power of 
 Pagan Rome, and then by that deluge of infidel hordes by 
 whom he tried to sweep away the Empire and Church 
 together. 
 
 St. John then mentions three things concerning this 
 great enemy. 
 
 1. He tells us first, that he went away in anger (aTrrjXOe) 
 with the intention of still carrying on his warfare, not now 
 with the Woman herself who has escaped to a position of 
 safety in the wilderness of the world, but with the faithful 
 remnant of her seed (xii, 17). 
 
 2. Then, secondly, that he gave his own power, and 
 throne, and great authority to the possessor of the World- 
 power (xiii, 2). 
 
 3. And, thirdly, that he continued to deceive, but not, as 
 before, by the propagation of professed infidelity, but by 
 speaking through the mouth of one who claimed to be the 
 Vicar of the Lamb, one who had the form of a Worldly 
 Ruler, but the Horns of a Lamb (xiii, 11). 
 
 The vision of Chapter xx, therefore, is introduced to 
 account for this absence of the Serpent from so many pre- 
 vious scenes of the drama, and to predict his end. 
 
 But the vision has, for another object, the consolation of 
 the Saints and the support of tlieir faith under all their 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 167 
 
 trials. The prophet beholds the souls of all the Martyrs and 
 Confessors, and of all who have refused to he marked as the 
 slaves of the world, reigning with Christ in the inter- 
 mediate state, even before the general resurrection of the 
 dead. 
 
 We must carefully observe that the prophet says nothing 
 about their bodies. He tells us plainly that he is speaking 
 of those persons whose bodies have been slain and are there- 
 fore in their graves awaiting the general resurrection of the 
 dead; but who, having "risen with Christ from the death of 
 sin to the life of righteousness," now live and reign with 
 Him in the Paradise of God. And this state of happiness 
 with Christ is called the " First Resurrection " ; the 
 resurrection, probably, to which St. Paul desired to attain 
 {Phil, iii, 11). 
 
 Let us carefully examine this chapter. 
 
 The Seer beholds an Angel coming down fi-om heaven, 
 holding the key of the Abyss, with a great chain in his hand. 
 He seizes the Serpent and binds him for a thousand years, 
 and shuts him up in the Abyss that he may not be able to 
 deceive the Gentiles until the end of the thousand years, 
 after which he is to be set free again for a short time. 
 
 There is only One in this prophecy Who is said to have 
 the Key of the Abyss, and that is Christ, " I am the first 
 and the last. I am He that liveth, and was dead ; and, 
 behold, I am alive for ever more, Amen ; and have the 
 Keys of Hades and death" (i, 18.) This Angel, therefore, 
 is either Christ or His Messenger. 
 
 Then the Abyss is quite different from the Lake of fire 
 in this prophecy ; and it is here evidently a place of tem- 
 porary restraint and imprisonment, whereas the Lake of fire 
 is the symbol of the final destruction of the wicked ; a 
 symbol of Eternal Ruin under the image of literal and 
 matei'ial fire; just as Eternal Bliss is symbolized by a 
 
i68 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 literal, material City with golden streets and gates of pearl. 
 It is most important to observe how cleai-ly the Abyss or 
 Sea is distinguished from the Lake of fire in this prophecy. 
 And we find the Abyss used elsewhere in the New 
 Testament as symbolizing the temporary prison of devils. 
 Thus we read in the account of Our Lord's miracle in the 
 country of the Gadarenes that the devils " besought Him 
 that He would not command them to go out into the Abyss" 
 (et? rrjv a^vaaov aireXOelv). {St. TaiIcp viii, 31.) And 
 elsewhere they beseech Him not to torment them before 
 the time. 
 
 Do not such passages seem to suggest that which was 
 evidently the case, namely, that the Death and Resui'rection 
 of Jesus Christ greatly diminished the power of the Devils 
 in this world ? And if so, does not this account for much 
 which is very mysterious and contrary to our present 
 experience in the narratives of the old world, and especially 
 of the demoniacal possessions in the time of Christ ? 
 
 At any rate, the passage before us describing the seizing, 
 binding, and imprisoning of the Serpent for a time reminds 
 us of Our Lord's words, " Now is the Judgment of this 
 world, now shall the prince of this woi'ld be cast out." 
 {St. John xii, 31.) "When a strong man armed keepeth 
 his palace, his goods are in peace : but when a stronger than 
 he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh away 
 from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth 
 his spoils." {St. Luke xi, 21.) " No man can enter into a 
 strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he will first 
 bind the strong man ; and then he will spoil his house." 
 {St. Mark iii, 27.) 
 
 We have no difficulty in imderstanding this figurative 
 language of Our Saviour. Why should we find it more 
 difiicult to understand the words of this Allegory? Is it 
 not evident that we have here in the form of an Allegory 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 169 
 
 the reproduction of the parable of Jesus concerning His 
 binding the strong man ? 
 
 (Christ was " manifested to destroy the works of the 
 devil." He accomplished His great work in His own Person, 
 when He died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven. 
 Then He bound the strong man and proceeded to spoil his 
 goods. " He went forth conquering and to conquer." His 
 noble army of ]\Iartyrs drove the eiiemy out of one strong- 
 hold after another, until His Church was established as the 
 unquestioned Mistress of the Roman World, and remained 
 so for a thousand years. 
 
 But this victory over Paganism, as history teaches us, was 
 the work of many centuries; the spoiling of the strong man's 
 goods was a gradual process. The mustard seed had to 
 grow and put forth its branches and become a great tree. 
 The drag net had to be carried out in ever widening circles 
 by the fishermen until it had embraced the whole ocean of 
 the Latin Nations, gathering of all kinds, good and bad, to 
 be drawn to the Eternal Shore. 
 
 Such must be the meaning of this allegorical description of 
 the temporary imprisonment of the Serpent, because the 
 purpose of his binding is specified. His power was to be 
 so far controlled that he should not be able to keep the 
 Gentiles in unbelief during his imprisonment : " That he 
 should deceive the Gentiles no more until the thousand years 
 should be fulfilled." (xx, 3.) 
 
 Thus far, then, we have a figurative but intelligible 
 description of the notorious historical fact, the defeat of all 
 the efforts of the devil to keep the Roman world from 
 accepting and establishing the Church of Christ as the 
 dominant and unquestioned religion of the Latin Nations for 
 a thousand years. 
 
 But the prophecy has elsewhere shown that this establish- 
 ment of the Church in the world would, through the pride, 
 
I70 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 avarice, and worldliness of her rulers, be by no means an 
 unmixed blessing, or prevent the devil from continuing to 
 deceive and persecute Christ's faithful servants through the 
 instrumentality of Christian Princes and the Bishops of 
 Rome. We have seen that when the Serpent found that he 
 could no longer openly deceive and persecute he gave up his 
 own throne and great authority to the World-power, the 
 sovereigns of Christendom, and spoke through the mouth 
 of the Bishops of Rome. 
 
 The prophecy, therefore, proceeds to comfort the victims 
 of the cruelty of civil and ecclesiastical rulers during the 
 thousand years of the undisputed supremacy of the Church ; 
 those true lights of the Church ; the witnesses of Jesus, 
 clothed in sackcloth j "those that should be slain for the 
 witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and for refusing 
 to worship the Beast and his Image," or to be marked as 
 his slaves " (xx, 4). The prophet beholds the souls of all 
 these Saints and Martyi's living and reigning with Jesus in 
 anticipation of the general resurrection of the dead for the 
 thousand years, during which the Serpent is imprisoned. 
 
 What is the condition of these Saints'? Our ignorance of 
 everything connected with the spiritual world is so profound 
 that it is impossible even to conjecture their state. All we 
 know for certain is that Justice has been done them («ptyu,a 
 iSode avToi<i), as we I'ead elsewhere, " 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 
 they were, should be fulfilled" (vi, 11.) 
 
 That they have form of some kind seems to be implied by 
 the statement that the prophet saw them. " I saw thrones 
 and they sat upon them " (xx, 4). " I saw under the altar 
 the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, 
 and for the testimony which they held " (vi, 9.) 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 
 
 171 
 
 Then it has been conjectured by Moses Stuart and 
 others that the prophecy may be intended to show 
 that these Saints anticipate, in a measure, the general 
 resurrection of the body, and are already clothed upon 
 with some spiritual body, such as that of which the 
 Apostles speak. And this will account for .many very 
 mysterious passages of Scripture, such as the visible 
 appearance of Moses and Elijah at the Transfiguration ; 
 and the statement of St. Matthew that " many bodies of 
 the Saints which slept arose and came out of the graves 
 after His resurrection, and went into the Holy City, and 
 appeared unto many." {St. Matt, xxvii, 52.) It may 
 also explain the words of St. Paul, " If by any means I 
 might attain unto the resurrection of the dead." {Phil, iii, 1 1.) 
 And still more the words, " We know that if our earthly 
 house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building 
 of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the 
 Heavens. And in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be 
 clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. If so 
 be that being clothed we shall not be found naked." 
 (2 Cor. v, 1-3.) 
 
 All we know for certain here is, that the Saints pass 
 through the grave and gate of death into the beloved 
 presence of Jesus, there to live and reign with Him until 
 He comes again to judge the world. And this expectation 
 it was which drew from St. Paul the words, " To me to live 
 is Christ, and to die is gain . . . yet what I sliall choose I 
 know not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a 
 desire to depart and to be with Christ ; which is far better 
 {iroWw fjuaWov Kpeicraov) : nevertheless, to abide in the 
 flesh is more needful for you." (Phil, i, 21-24.) 
 
 The Serpent, then, is represented in this vision as pre- 
 vented from keeping the Gentiles in unbelief for a thousand 
 years, at the end of which period he is to be permitted 
 
172 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 again to deceive the nations, and to imperil the very 
 existence of the Church in the days of Anti-Christ 
 (XX, 8, 9.) 
 
 Is he already beginning this work in our day ? If this 
 thousand years were mentioned only in connection with the 
 temporary restraint of the Serpent, we might conjecture 
 that the vision predicts the duration of that period in which 
 Christianity should be the dominant and unquestioned 
 religion of the Roman world, from, say, a.d. 800 to 
 A.D. 1800. And modern writers speak of the French 
 Revolution, the commencement of that which they call the 
 Era of revolutions, as the opening of the Abyss. " A store 
 of retributive hatred is laid up for us in the case of the 
 arrival of what people have agreed to call the ' Abyss ' — 
 that is, the return to power of the liberal party in France." 
 
 " The Emperor preserves France and even Europe from an 
 
 .Abyss." {SaUirday Revieiv, No. 118.) In the Revue des 
 
 Dexix Mondes, a writer speaking of the second French 
 
 Revolution says, " I'abime se rouvrit." In Rev. ix, 2, we 
 
 read in the French Bible, " II ouvrit le puits de I'abime." 
 
 But this period of a thousand j'ears, though first men- 
 tioned with special reference to the controlling of tlie power 
 of the Serpent to prevent the establishment of the Church, 
 refers also to the reign of the Saints with Jesus. Is it, then, 
 intended that we should understand it literally of a thousand 
 years 1 or as a general term for the whole unknown period 
 of time between the First and Second Advents of Christ? 
 It is neither possible nor very important to answer this 
 question. 
 
 On the whole it seems most probable that a thousand 
 years is intended to express a long time ; that Satan, on the 
 one hand, should be prevented for a long time from keeping 
 the Gentiles in unbelief, but should at last be permitted to 
 bring about the great apostasy ; and, on the other hand, 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 173 
 
 that during all that time the souls of the Saints should be 
 reigning with Christ in Paradise. Of these blessed ones tlie 
 pi'ophet says : " Blessed and holy is he that hath part in 
 the first resurrection ; on such the second death liath no 
 power " (xx, 6). 
 
 But there is a confused and general idea in the minds of 
 some persons that this chapter predicts a personal reign of 
 Christ and His risen Saints in this world. At any rate one 
 constantly hears the Millennium spoken of as something 
 future. And '*many serious interpreters of the Apocalypse 
 take this view of the vision. 
 
 But there are many objections to this view, which would 
 be reasonable enough if it were not for the terrible 
 catastrophe which is described as following the release of 
 the Serpent from his prison at the close of the period of the 
 Church's unquestioned dominion. 
 
 Nothing can be more final than the closing scene of 
 chapter xix. Christ comes again, followed by all His 
 Saints, to fight out His last battle with all the powers of 
 the world. The Beast and his false prophet are cast into 
 the lake of fire, " the remnant are slain with the sword of 
 him that sits upon the horse . . . and all the fowls are 
 filled with their flesh." 
 
 We have reached this final catastrojjhe several times in 
 the earlier visions, and have then been taken back by the 
 prophetic spirit to the beginning of things again. 
 
 Thus the sixth seal discloses the Day of Judgment, and 
 the wicked call upon the rocks to fall upon them and hide 
 tliem " from Him that sitteth on the Throne, and from the 
 wrath of the Lamb" (vi, 16). 
 
 Then again, " the seventh angel sounded, and there were 
 great voices in heaven, saying, the kingdoms of this world 
 are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ ; 
 and He shall i-eign (not as in chapter xx for a thousand 
 
174 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 years, but) for ever and ever." And this is said to take 
 place at the resurrection of the dead : " The nations were 
 angry (as at the close of chapter xx) and Thy wrath is come, 
 and the time of the dead that they should be judged .... 
 and that Thou shouldst destroy them which destroy the 
 earth "(xi, 15—18). 
 
 Immediately after this we are taken back again to the 
 birth of Christ and the subsequent warfare of Himself and 
 His saints with the Serpent and the World-powers, luitil we 
 reach the Judgment again, when the harvest of the earth is 
 ripe and the clusters of the vine of the earth are ready for 
 the sickle and are "cast into the great winepress of the 
 wrath of God " (xiv, 20.) 
 
 Again "the seventh angel poured out his phial into 
 the air ; and there came a great voice out of the temple in 
 heaven, from the throne, saying, It is finished" (xvi, 17.) 
 
 Thus in Chapter xix we are brought to the end of all 
 worldly sovereignty and the destruction of all the wicked ; 
 and immediately afterwards taken back again to the 
 beginning, the great work of Christ in binding the strong- 
 man that He may spoil his goods. 
 
 There are many other insuperable difficulties suggested 
 by the popular expectation of a Millennial reign of Christ as 
 yet to come. 
 
 We all hope for and expect a future glorious reign of 
 Christ, when at last He has put all the enemies of Man's 
 happiness beneath His feet, when He has overcome the last 
 enemy which is death. And there are many very clear 
 predictions of this Kingdom. 
 
 We know neither its place nor its nature, or what will 
 be our condition in it. " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
 neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive 
 what God hath prepared for them that love Him." But of 
 two things we are quite certain : (1) That it will endure 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 
 
 17 
 
 for ever, and not only for a thotisand years ; and (2) that it 
 will not be followed by the fearful catastrophe described in 
 the closing verses of this chapter. 
 
 Daniel several times prophesies of this Kingdom, but 
 always as an everlasting Kingdom, and as following the 
 complete and final annihilation of all Worldly Sovereignty. 
 Tims, in explaining the dream of the king of Babylon, he 
 says, " the Kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it 
 shall break in pieces and consume all these Kingdoms, and 
 it shall stand for ever. {Dan. ii, 4-i.) 
 
 Again when the Antichrist has brought down upon 
 himself his own destruction and that of all woi'ldly rulers 
 he thus speaks of the Kingdom which is given to the Son 
 OF Man : " His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which 
 shall not pass away, and his Kingdom that which shall not 
 be destroyed." {Dan. vii, 14.) 
 
 There is not, indeed, a single word in any other part of 
 Scripture about a Millennial kingdom, but many of a king- 
 dom which shall endure for ever ; and, invariably, one 
 wliich shall follow the final destruction of all tlie wicked. 
 
 The reproduction, therefore, under another figure of the 
 great Apostasy of Antichrist at its close clearly proves that 
 wo have in this twentieth chapter only another vision pre- 
 dicting the state of things which should exist in the interval 
 between the First and Second Advents of Christ, with 
 special reference to the invisible agency of the Devil and 
 the happiness of all those who resist him here, Avho here rise 
 with Christ from the death of sin to the life of righteousness, 
 and then pass from this world into the Paradise of God, 
 being partakers of the First Resurrection and those over 
 whom the second death hath no power. 
 
 Biit what are we to think of the loosing of Satan out of 
 his temporary prison? 
 
 Is there anything in the previous visions which can throw 
 any light upon this symbolism ? 
 
176 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 It will help us to answer, this question if we carefully 
 observe upon what principle the successive visions of this 
 prophecy are arranged. 
 
 The Revelation is not a continuous prophecy, but a 
 collection of many synchronous visions intended to throw 
 light upon one another. And so the prophet not only 
 recapitulates and, after several times reaching the great 
 consummation, takes us back again eitlier to the beginning 
 or to some earlier era in the evolution of events ; but he 
 also anticipates, he alludes in his earlier visions to signs and 
 symbols occurring further on in the prophecy. And so it is 
 only by a very careful comparison of all the visions that we 
 can arrive with certainty at the meaning of any one of them. 
 
 It is assumed, apparently, that the reader has the entire 
 collection of visions constantly before him. And he who 
 wishes to understand them miist read the whole prophecy 
 over and over again until this is the case with him. He 
 will then profit by the frequent recapitulations and antici- 
 pations which he meets with. 
 
 I have mentioned some of the recapitulations ; here are 
 some of the anticipations. 
 
 In chapter ii, 7, we have the "tree of life," anticipating 
 xxii, 2. 
 
 In chapter ii, 13, "Satan's throne," in anticipation of 
 xiii, 2, " The Serpent gave him his power, and throne, and 
 great authority." 
 
 In chapter ii, 21, the fornication of a Church, in antici- 
 pation of xvii, 2. 
 
 In chapter iii, 5, the white clothing and "the book of 
 life," in anticipation of xiv, 8, and xx, 12-15. 
 
 In chapter iii, 12, "the new Jerusalem, which cometh 
 down from heaven," in anticipation of xxi, 2. 
 
 In chapter vi, 8, " the beasts of the earth," in anticipation 
 of xiii, 1, and xvii, 3, etc. 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 177 
 
 In chapter xiv, 8, " Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great 
 city," in anticipation of xvii, 16, and xviii ; and referring 
 back to the great city of xi, 2, 8, there called the Holy City, 
 trodden under foot by Gentiles, Sodom, and Egypt. 
 
 Upon this principle, then, we may look back to some of 
 the earlier visions for an explanation of this symbolism of 
 the loosing of Satan out of his prison. It evidently refers 
 to the withdrawal of some Providential restraint, for a long 
 period preventing him from spreading open and professed 
 infidelity in the world, and again arraying infidel powers in 
 hostility to the Church and religion of Christ. 
 
 We find two striking anticipations of this in the earlier 
 visions. 
 
 In the passage before us we have a very brief summarv 
 of that which has been more fully given in ix, 1, 2, and xi, 7. 
 In ix, 1, 2, we read that one came with a key and opened 
 the Abyss, out of which issued scoi'pion-like locusts, the 
 agents of Satan, led by a great Destroyer, causing such 
 confusion and misery, that men desired death rather than 
 life, but could not find it. Then the result of this setting 
 free of the powers of evil is described in xi, 7, when the 
 prophet sees that the true lights of the Church, the witnesses 
 of Jesus, are slain by the Beast that ascendeth out of 
 the Abyss just before the general resurrection and the final 
 destruction of the wicked. 
 
 In chapter xx, then, the effect of the loosing of Satan is 
 the spreading of infidelity, resulting in the gathering to- 
 gether of all the powers of the world against the Church. 
 He goes out " to deceive all the nations which are in the four 
 quarters of the earth." These go "up on the breadth of 
 the earth, and compass the camp of the saints about, and 
 the beloved city." Then comes the final judgment upon 
 him and all his human agents. " Fire came down from God 
 out of heaven, and devoured them." 
 
178 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 The devil is then cast, not now into the Abyss but into 
 that place of final punishment, that Lake of fire into which 
 the prophet had seen the Beast and his false prophet thrown 
 in the previous vision of chapter xix. 
 
 The visions of chapters ix, x, and xi describe the same 
 facts in slightly different symbolism and in fuller detail. 
 
 The Abyss is opened Avith the result that the agents of 
 the devil bring on at last the great Antichristian Apostasy, 
 ending in the death of those witnesses, who have borne their 
 testimony, during the whole period of the corruption of the 
 Church, clothed in sackcloth. 
 
 The end also is much the same, and deliverance comes 
 with equal suddenness. " After three days and a half the 
 
 spirit of life from God entered into them And they 
 
 ascended up to heaven in a cloud ; and their enemies 
 beheld them." Nothing in Chapter xx can exceed the 
 finality of this vision of xi, 12, 13, " in the earthquake were 
 slain of men seven thousand ; and the remnant were 
 affrighted and gave glory to the God of heaven." Then 
 the Seventh Angel sounds, and it is said, " the kingdoms of 
 this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his 
 Christ; and he shall reign," not for a thousand years, but 
 " for ever and ever." 
 
 Such, then, is the meaning of this vision of Chapter xx. 
 It takes us, as it were, behind the scenes, and shows us that, 
 although human agents have been at work, the real struggle 
 has been going on between the old Serpent and Him Who 
 came to place His wounded heel upon his head and eventually 
 to crush his power for ever. First He binds him, and in 
 the end casts him into the lake of fire. 
 
 Is there, then, no glorious prospect of a reign with Christ 
 before the suffering Church ? Surely there is. For perse- 
 cuted Israel and for the persecuted Church, a more perfect 
 restoration is at hand than that which followed the return 
 of the exiles from Ancient Babylon. 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 179 
 
 And we must not forget that there are promises of 
 restoration for long forsaken but not forgotten Israel as well 
 as for the once all-powerful but deeply-sinning Church. 
 We have in this prophecy the sealed ones of all the tribes 
 of Israel, as well as the countless multitudes of Gentile 
 Christians, and of these it is said that they " come out of 
 the great tribulation, and wash their robes, and make them 
 white in the Blood of the Lamb " (vii, 14.) 
 
 A time wnll come, we know not how soon, when "judg- 
 ment must begin at the house of God." We cannot change 
 God's order. It is only through much tribulation that 
 either Jew or Gentile can enter into the final and glorious 
 kingdom of God. 
 
 It is for the poor persecuted Jew as well as for the 
 faithful witness of Jesus, long clothed in sackcloth, that 
 the Holy City, the new and heavenly Jerusalem is building 
 in heaven. 
 
 That which Ezekiel described with so much detail of 
 measurement for the consolation of the captives in Babylon 
 of old is held out before the eyes of the twelve tribes of 
 Israel and of the Christian Church in these two last 
 chapters of the Bible. And the names of Gog and Magog 
 are specially mentioned as the last enemies of the Church in 
 Rev. XX, 8, to remind the reader of the Hebrew prophet's 
 description of the destruction of all those who opposed the 
 literal restoration of Israel in the days of Cyrus. 
 
 Whether these names have any further reference to the 
 final enemies and last persecutors of Israel and the Church 
 the future only will show. They are found amongst the 
 names of some northern Powers in the Old Testament, and 
 the final persecutor in Daniel is "the King of the North." 
 
 We only know for certain that the Church will be 
 punished for the sins of many centuries before the end 
 comes, and that those who punish Babylon will also 
 persecute the Saints. 
 
i8o LECTURES ON THE 
 
 To the Church, therefore, "when her last trial comes ; 
 when the great Wild-beast of the world, at the instigation 
 of the Devil released from his prison, turns savagely upon 
 her, the words of Isaiah will be as consoling as the}^ were to 
 Israel of old — " Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith 
 your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry 
 unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her 
 iniquity is pardoned ; for she hath received from the Lord's 
 hand double for all her sins." {Is. xl, 1, 2.) 
 
 It has been sometimes objected to this interpretation of 
 chapter xx, which is that of Bishop Wordsworth and of 
 many other sober commentators, that the early Christians 
 regarded the Millennium as future. They could not think 
 otherwise. To them it was future, in whatever sense they 
 understood it. And the fact that it was future to them 
 made it impossible for them to form any true conception of 
 the full meaning of the vision. 
 
 Many, however, regarded it as predicting the establish- 
 ment of Christianity in the world, while the departed Saints 
 were reigning with Christ in Paradise. 
 
 Some, indeed, could not get rid of the Jewish expectation 
 of a personal reign of the Messiah on the literal throne of 
 David. But the majority objected strongly to this material 
 view of things. 
 
 As time went on the opinion seems to have prevailed 
 almost universally that the thousand years mentioned in 
 this vision predicted the period of time which was to elapse 
 between the First and Second Advents of Christ. 
 
 The effects of this expectation were remarkable. It 
 caused the greatest alarm and confusion as the end of the 
 tenth century drew near. 
 
 Thus Robertson writes, speaking of the crusades: "The 
 thousand years mentioned by St. John were supposed to be 
 accomplished, and the end of the world to be at hand. A 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. i8i 
 
 general consternation seized mankind, many velinfinislicd 
 theii' possessions, and, abandoning their friends and families, 
 hurried with precipitation to the Holy Land, where they 
 imagined that Christ would quickly appear to judge the 
 world." " This belief was so universal and so strong, that 
 it mingled itself with their civil transactions. Many 
 charters in the latter part of the tenth century begin in this 
 manner ' Appropinquante mundi termino,' ' the end of the 
 world being at hand ' " (Robertson's Charles V, I, 27, 285). 
 
 However absurd this may now seem to us, it shows at 
 any rate that the belief was then very general that this 
 vision of chapter xx refers to the period of time intervening 
 between the founding of the Church by Christ and His 
 Second Advent ; and, therefore, that an Eternal and not a 
 Millennial Kingdom, such as that described by Daniel and 
 chapters xxi and xxii of this prophecy, would then commence. 
 
 We have seen that the other objection of believers in a 
 future Millennium, namely, the fact that the continued 
 existence of evil in Christendom proves that Satan was not 
 bound, is fully answered in the previous visions, which 
 represent the Devil as still working and deceiving, but 
 employing Christian Agents to do his work; giving his own 
 throne and authority to wicked and worldly rulers pi'ofessing 
 to be Christians, and by them persecuting the faithful ; and 
 deceiving many by means of the false teaching of the Bishop 
 of Rome. 
 
 The prospect before the Church, therefore, is that of a 
 return to its original condition, a state of open warfare with 
 the world, and, as a consequence, of many trials of the faith. 
 And widely as the interpreters of the prophecy differ from 
 one another they all anticipate a final struggle with the 
 powers of evil. They could not well think otherwise, for 
 the final contest is too plainly revealed to leave any room 
 for doubt. 
 
i83 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 We cannot tell how long the warfare Avill last. But we 
 may feel certain that the apparent victory of the great 
 Wild-beast will be short, his discomfiture complete, and the 
 end of all, the glorious Kingdom of the redeemed, the new 
 and heavenly Jerusalem. 
 
 Those who wish to understand and realize the present 
 position and future prospects of the Christian Church in this 
 our age of luibelief and Revolutions cannot do better than 
 study " Guizot's Meditations on Christianity," published by 
 Murray. 
 
 In his preface to the first sei'ies of these meditations he 
 thus writes : — " For eighteen hundred years Christians wex'e 
 in turn persecutors and persecuted; Christians persecuted as 
 Christians ; Christians pei'secutors of every one who was not 
 Christian ; Christians eventually persecuting each other 
 
 after having had to endure proscription and 
 
 Martyrdom under the Imperial government of Paganism, the 
 Christian religion lived, in its turn, under the guard of the 
 civil law, defended by the arms of the secular power. In 
 these days it exists in the very presence of libei'ty, it has to 
 deal with free thought, with free discussion. It is called 
 upon to defend, to guard itself, to prove incessantly and 
 against every comer its moral and historical veracity, to 
 vindicate its claims upon man's intelligence and man's soul 
 
 Religions liberty, that is to say, the liberty of 
 
 believing, of believing differently, or of disbelieving may be 
 but imperfectly accepted and guaranteed as a principle in 
 certain states ; but it still is evident that it is becoming so 
 more and more every day, and that it will eventually become 
 the common law of the civilised world. One of the circum- 
 stances which render this fact pregnant with importance is 
 that it does not stand isolated ; but holds its place in the 
 great intellectual and social revolution, which, after the fer- 
 mentation and preparation of ages, has broken out, and is "in 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 183 
 
 course of accomplishment in our days. The scientiHo spirit, 
 the preponderance of the democratic principle, and that of 
 political liberty are the essential characteristics and invincible 
 tendencies of tins revolution." 
 
 The following words also, taken from Renan's Hibbert 
 Lectures (p. 203) are very noticeable. Speaking of the 
 present state and future prospects of the Roman Church, he 
 says: "The strange excesses to which daring the last fifty 
 years it has lent itself, this unparalleled Pontificate of Pius ix, 
 the most astonishing in history, cannot come to a common- 
 place end. There will be thunders and lightnings, such as 
 always accompany the great day of God's Judgments. And 
 this old ^lother, who cannot die yet, will have much to do in 
 order to remain still possible, still acceptable to those who 
 have loved her. It may be tliat, to stay the progress of 
 modern thought, which is her conqueror, she will have re- 
 course to the arts of the sorcerer The Catholic 
 
 Church is a woman : let us distrust the magic words of her 
 agony." 
 
 The study of ecclesiastical history is a heart-sickening 
 study. It cannot record that vast amount of faithful and 
 loving work which is ever going on in the Chui'ch, the work 
 of those faithful witnesses of Jesus, the true lamps and olive 
 trees of the Holy City. An occasional glimpse of some one 
 of these seven thousand in Israel cheers from time to time 
 the heart of the student of history ; but the main picture 
 before him is one of strife and worldliness. The evil is 
 necessarily forced upon our notice, but the good will be 
 revealed only on the Day of Judgment. 
 
 The external aspect of things is ever more and more 
 saddening. We see how very soon the pure streams of the 
 water of life are polluted by human strife, ambition, avarice, 
 and cruelty. 
 
 But this pi-ophecy reveals to us that the warfare of 
 
i84 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 Jerusalem will be accomplished when she has been punished 
 for her sins. And it may be to us, if faithfully studied, that 
 which the word of God was to David, a beacon light to show 
 us the way to our true home, and also " a lantern to our 
 feet " by which we may see and avoid the snares and pitfalls 
 which lie in our path as we travel on across the rugged 
 wilderness of this world of darkness and sorrow towards the 
 Holy City, the eternal home of the redeemed, Avho have 
 washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the 
 Lamb. 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 185 
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 
 I mentioned in my first lecture that we may expect three 
 great blessings from the study of the Revelation. 
 
 I. The confirmation of our faith in the Inspiration of Holy 
 Scripture, and in the miraculous origin of our religion. 
 
 II. The purifying, spiritualizing, and elevating of our 
 thonghts. 
 
 III. Support in all persecutions and trials of the faith, 
 and unspeakable comfort in the hour of bereavement and 
 sorrow. 
 
 A knowledge of the meaning of the symbols and a per- 
 ception of their application to the history of the Chiu'ch in 
 its connection with the world is a great help towards the 
 attainment of these blessings, if we take a sufticiently broad 
 view of their meaning. 
 
 Embracing as it does the whole period of time between 
 the founding of the Church and the Second Advent of 
 Christ, it was natural that the prophecy should be very 
 obscure at the first, and should become clearer and clearer 
 as time went on, and as the evolution of history should 
 throw more and more light upon it. 
 
 But it was given for tlie support of the faith in every age 
 from the beginning, and it has had this effect, and few 
 probably appreciate sufficiently the influence wliich it has 
 had at all times in supporting the Christian undei* trial or 
 persecution. 
 
 Living under the Pagan Csosars he was encouraged by it 
 to struggle manfully against Rome, "drunken with the 
 blood of saints," and he beheld under the Altar of God the 
 souls of the Martyrs arrayed in white robes and resting with 
 Christ. Thus, like Stephen, he could look up in his agony 
 
i86 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 and see the heaven opened and the Son of Man standing at 
 the right hand of God. 
 
 Living nnder a Christian Emperor in the fonrth century, 
 and persecuted because he could not conscientiously receive 
 the teaching of the Church of that day in all its minute 
 definitions, varying often according to the views of the 
 reigning Ca3sar, he felt that Rome was still the predicted 
 enemy whose violent proceedings he might lawfully resist. 
 Willing to be taught by argument he would yet feel justified 
 in refusing to accept the doctrine of Rome at the point of 
 the sword, of Rome still "drunken with the blood of the 
 saints." 
 
 As time went on a great change passed over Rome. She 
 died, as we have seen, and rose to life again, no longer now 
 the seat of a civil ruler so much as of a great Ecclesiastical 
 Power. And yet the persecuted Christian could not fail to 
 see that she was still " drunken with the blood of Saints." 
 And it is, perhaps, difficult for us to feel in these days what 
 a support to the faith of the Reformers this prophetical con- 
 demnation of Rome must have been. It is probable that 
 without this prophecy very many would have shrunk from 
 resisting the overwhelming influence of the long standing 
 Roman dominion. 
 
 We cannot wonder that the Reformers should have failed 
 to discriminate between the symbols of the World-power, the 
 great Wild-beast and his Harlot city, and that it should have 
 become a settled conviction in the minds of nearly all 
 Protestant Commentators, that the Beast of the Apocalypse 
 was the Papacy. How could they discriminate between 
 them? The World-power and the worldly Church formed for 
 many ages the Civil and Ecclesiastical elements of Roman 
 Christendom. We know better now only because the relations 
 between the Civil and Ecclesiastical powers have greatly 
 changed in the course of the present century. 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 187 
 
 And here we see how important it is to take abroad view 
 of the symbols of this prophecy, and I hope T have succeeded 
 in persuading- you that they embrace vast and unknown 
 periods of time. 
 
 Thus the great Wild-beast with his Seven Heads and Ten 
 Horns stands for the World-power from the earliest times 
 nntil the Day of Judgment, so far as he has anything to do 
 with the people of God ; and, in his final development, he is 
 the predicted Antichrist. 
 
 Babylon also stands for Rome, in the widest sense of that 
 name, from the age of St. John until the time of her final 
 punishment ; and for the Church as being for ages conter- 
 minous with the Latin Erapii'e and receiving laws from 
 Rome, the throne of her Imperial and Ecclesiastical Rulers. 
 
 Regarding the symbols in this broad aspect we can only 
 dare to speculate about the future by the light of the past, 
 just as we may predict from the known nature of a tree 
 what is likely to be its fruit. 
 
 As regards the future, therefore, we may conjecture that 
 we are gradually drifting into a condition of things in which 
 faithful Christians will find themselves again, as at the 
 beginning, in open hostility to the woi'ld. But whether 
 this opposition will be violent or not we cannot tell. 
 
 The great enemy has tried persecution, and found it a 
 failui'e. Persecution makes Martyrs ; and Martyrs sanctify 
 their views and persuade others to adopt them. And yet 
 the j^rophecy seems to hint at persecution ; and it is alarm- 
 ing to think what persecution even in a mild form might do 
 with the ordinaiy Christian in these days 
 
 We have already had massacres of Priests in France, and 
 few Archbishops of Paris, it has been said, have died in 
 their beds. Cuizot writes thus of the future of Christianity : 
 
 " It is of the most serious importance for Christians not 
 to deceive themselves, either as to the nature of the struggle 
 
LECTURES ON THE 
 
 Avhich they will have to sustain, or as to its perils and the 
 legitimate arms whicli they may use to combat them. The 
 attack directed against the Christian religion is one hotly 
 carried on, now with a brutal fanaticism, now with a 
 dexterous learning. At one time with the appeal to sincere 
 convictions, and at another invoking the worst passions ; 
 some contest Christianity as false, others reject it as too 
 ■exacting and imposing too much restraint ; the greater part 
 apprehend it as a tyranny. Injustice and suffering are not 
 so soon forgotten ; nor does one readily recover from the 
 effect of terror. The memory of religious persecutions still 
 lives, and this it is which maintains in multitudes, whose 
 opinions vacillate, aversion, prejudice, and a lively sentiment 
 of alarm." [Meditations on Christianity. Preface to first 
 series.) 
 
 Bearing in mind these signs of our times, let us examine 
 one of the Visions already alluded to in previous lectures 
 but not fully explained, I mean the Temple Vision of 
 chapter xi. But first we must lead up to it by examining 
 the visions of the Seven Trumpets in chapters viii and ix, 
 for it is introduced as an episode to explain the symbolism 
 of the Seventh Trumpet. 
 
 We have seen that the Seven Seals sjaiibolized the 
 victorious progress of Christianity, conquering all opponents 
 until established as the dominant religion of the Latin 
 World. 
 
 The Church conquered at first by the use of the legitimate 
 Aveapons of argument, persuasion, and example ; but after- 
 wards too often by the sword, and by the persecution of all 
 who would not submit to her teaching. But whatever may 
 have been the means which she employed, whether lawful 
 or unlawful, she continued to conquer, for it was God's will 
 that she shoi;ld conquer. 
 
 The Seven Trumpets, therefore, symbolize the Judgments 
 
REVELATIOX OF ST. JOHN. 
 
 which have accompanied Christ's triumphant march, and 
 liave been inflicted upon all the opponents and corrupters 
 of His Church. The first two Trumpets announce the 
 Judgments inflicted on the opponents of Christianity, and 
 the rest those which fall upon its corrupters. And these 
 Trumpet Visions, although tliey each point especially to one 
 event, are yet far from being exhausted by that first 
 fulfilment, but are, like other symbols in this book, in 
 constant course of fulfilment all through the ages. 
 
 Upon the sounding of the First Trumpet the prophet 
 witnesses a terrible hail-storm, reminding him of one of 
 the plagues of Egypt. It destroys the third part of the 
 trees and burns up all the grass of the earth (viii, 7). We 
 can scarcely fail to see the meaning of this when we call to 
 mind the words of the Baptist and the significant actions 
 and words of Jesus. 
 
 " The axe," says the Baptist, " is laid unto the root of the 
 trees : therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good 
 fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire" (.S*^. Matt, iii, 10). 
 In the destruction of the old Jerusalem, Christ first came 
 to Judgment, a Judgment still falling on her children. 
 Scattered over the face of the earth the trees of Israel are 
 still with us blasted with the fire of heaven, beacons to warn 
 all in every age of the terrible end of the unfruitful. 
 
 The figurative language reminds us of the words of Jesus 
 when he cursed the barren fig tree ; and when He spoke the 
 parable of the unfruitful tree ; and, still more, when He 
 said to those who pitied Him on the road to Calvary, 
 " Weep not for Me but for your children .... for if they 
 do these things to (Me) the green tree, what shall be done 
 to (them) the dry." 
 
 We remember, too, the language of Isaiah, "The day of the 
 Lord of Hosts shall be ... . upon all the cedars of Lebanon 
 and upon all the oaks of Bashan." And again, " Behold I 
 
I90 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 lay in Ziou for a foundation a stone .... judgment also 
 will I lay to the 'line, and .... the hail shall sweep away 
 the refuge of lies." 
 
 Thus, the first opponent of the Church, the old Jerusalem 
 with its system was removed out of her way ; and a lasting 
 warning against unfruitfulness of life was impressed upon 
 Christians for all time. Thus Bede writes on this passage, 
 " By trees the different condition of men is signified ; the 
 first Trumpet points out the common destruction of the 
 wicked with fire and hail." 
 
 A greater and more formidable obstacle in the Cliurch's 
 path was Imperial Rome. The prayer of faith, therefore, 
 must not only burn up the unfruitful tree of Israel, but 
 also uproot the great mountain of Rome and hurl it into 
 the sea. And so, the Second Angel sounds his Trumpet, 
 and, " as it were a great mountain burning with fire was 
 cast into the sea, and the third part of the sea was turned 
 into Blood " (viii, 8, 9). 
 
 This figurative language is almost identical with that of 
 Jeremiah sjooken concerning the fall of ancient Babylon ; 
 " Blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations 
 against her .... Behold, I am against thee, desti'oying 
 mountain, saith the Lord, which destroyeth all the earth ; 
 and I will stretch out My Hand against thee, and roll thee 
 down from the rocks, and will make of thee a burnt 
 mountain." (Jer. li. 25) 
 
 It was indeed a sea of blood into which Imperial Rome 
 was thrown, as Kingsley says, the condition of things 
 following the downfall of Rome could only be compared to 
 " a great weltering sea of war and misery." 
 
 There can be little doubt that this vision predicted the 
 fall of Rome, and it was so understood while Rome was at 
 the height of her power. Thus Victorinus writes on this 
 passage : " By the trumpets and phials are signified .... 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 191 
 
 either the fall of cities or the great fall of Babylon, that is, 
 of the Roman State." 
 
 This vision, however, like all the others in this wonderful 
 book, has its lesson for all ages, and teaches us that the 
 prayer of fiiith will eventually remove all mountains out 
 of the path of the Church, however much she may be 
 oppressed, persecuted, or corrupted. For this word went 
 forth of old and shall not return empty : " The mountain of 
 the Lord's House shall be established in the top of the 
 mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills ; and all 
 nations shall flow into it." {Isai. ii, 2.) And so, whatever 
 revolutions or trials of the faith may be before us or our 
 children in these latter days, we may take to ourselves the 
 comforting words of the Psalmist : " God is our refuge and 
 strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will we 
 not fear, though the earth be moved, and though the 
 mountains be carried into the midst of the sea." {Ps. xlvi, 2.) 
 
 Thus the two most formidable opponents of the conquer- 
 ing Church were removed out of the way. But she herself 
 now becomes the object of judgment; and a terrible judg- 
 ment fell upon her for her sins in the seventh century, by 
 which the very waters of life were turned into poison. 
 
 Upon the sounding of the Third Trumpet the prophet 
 sees a star falling from heaven and poisoning the waters of 
 life. " There fell a great star from heaven, burning as it 
 were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, 
 and upon the fountains of waters ; and the name of the star 
 is called Wormwood ; and the third part of the waters 
 became wormwood ; and many men died of the waters 
 because they were made bitter" (viii, 10, 11). 
 
 Bede well explains this vision as prefiguring the falling 
 away from the faith of false teachers and their corruption 
 of the streams of Holy Scripture. But it would seem to 
 point in its first application to the great heresy of Mahomet, 
 
192 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 for he was not so much an introducer of a new religion as a 
 corrupter of the two principal religions already existing in 
 the world. His system embodies the teaching of the Old 
 and New Testaments with his own additions and the estab- 
 lishment of himself and his successors as the true Prophets 
 of God. 
 
 It would be difficult to find more fitting figurative language 
 to describe his system than that before us. He allowed the 
 waters of Holy Scripture to flow on, but poisoned them by 
 his own false teaching. And his coming was indeed a most 
 terrible Judgment on Christendom of which the effects are 
 still widely felt. His religion is even now a vigorous and 
 progressing, though a most debasing, religion. 
 
 Of this scourge of Christendoiii, especially of its Eastern 
 portion, Gibbon writes thus: "While the State was exhausted 
 by the Persian wai", and the Church was distracted by the 
 Nestoi'ian and Monophysite sects, ]\Iahomet with the sword in 
 one hand and the Koran in the other, erected his throne on 
 the ruins of Christianity and of Rome. The genius of the 
 Arabian prophet, the manners of his nation, and the spirit of 
 his religion, involve the causes of the decline and fall of the 
 Eastern Empire .... one of the most memorable revolutions 
 which have impressed a new and lasting character on the 
 nations of the globe." 
 
 Yes, indeed. This was a judgment inflicted chiefly on 
 Eastern Christendom ; but it was nearly involving the West 
 also. " The modern conquerors," says Creasy, " took Jeru- 
 salem in 637, and erected the Mosque of Omar on the very 
 site of the Temple. They soon over-ran the Eastern Empire, 
 occupied the whole of North Africa, and took possession of 
 Spain, and, had it not been for the victory of Charles Martel 
 at Tours, in 732, would have made Mohammedanism instead 
 of Christianity the religion of Europe. Arnold ranks the 
 victory of Charles Martel .... among the most signal 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 193 
 
 deliverances which aftected for centuries the happiness of 
 mankind. Exactly a century passed between the death of 
 Mohammed and the date of the battle of Tours. During 
 that century the followers of the prophet had torn away half 
 the Roman Empire : and besides their conquests over Persia, 
 the Saracens had over-run Syria, Egypt, Africa, and Spain in 
 an nnchequered and apparently irresistible career of victory." 
 {Creasy, p. 153.) 
 
 Truly, then, this vision, though like others pregnant with 
 warning for all ages, seems to point especially to that 
 strange enthusiast who poisoned and is still poisoning the 
 waters of life with the gall and wormwood of his debasing 
 system. 
 
 The figurative language of the Fourth Trumpet is equally 
 intelligible and full of instruction. A partial eclipse of the 
 sun and moon, the darkening of the lights of heaven, 
 overtakes those who shut their eyes to the light of truth. 
 The darkness of the ages of superstition and ignorance was 
 judicial inasmuch as it was the I'esult of the sins of the 
 Church. 
 
 Ruthless cruelty and the persecution of those who dared 
 to have any independent opinion, grasping avarice, and the 
 terrible famine of the word of God, shut up in languages 
 little understood even by the rulers of the Church and 
 entirely hidden from the masses of the people, brought a 
 Judgment upon Christendom not unlike that which fell on 
 Israel of old when their eyes were judicially blinded that 
 they might not see the light. Historians, indeed, ascribe 
 the darkness of the middle ages to the sins of the Church. 
 
 " All these symptoms of decay," says one, " were either 
 the means or the consequences of hierarchical tyranny. 
 This at its earliest outset shed around it the first shades of 
 mental darkness. In proportion as it advanced the gloom 
 deepened ; and the hour of its culmination was the noon of 
 
 o 
 
194 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 night." " No circumstance," says Hallam, " is so prominent 
 in the first survey of society during the earlier centuries of 
 this period as the depth of ignorance in which it was 
 immersed .... an inconceivable cloud of ignorance over- 
 spread the whole face of the Church, hardly broken by a 
 few glimmering lights, who owe almost the whole of their 
 distinction to the surrounding darkness." {Middle Ages, ix.) 
 
 This figurative language is also the same as that employed 
 by the ancient prophets. Thus Micah writes : " Thus saith 
 the Lord concerning the prophets that make my people err, 
 that bite with their teeth, and cry. Peace .... night shall 
 be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision, and it shall be 
 dark unto you, that ye shall not divine ; and the sun shall 
 go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over 
 them" (iii, 5, 6). And Amos uses the same language: "I 
 will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken 
 the earth in the clear day " (viii, 9). 
 
 We cannot be far wrong, then, if we apply the symbolism 
 of this Fourth Trumpet to that judicial darkness which 
 came over the Church for many ages, a darkness which 
 even in this age of light has not wholly passed away, because 
 many individuals and large portions of the Church still cling 
 to the delusions of the middle ages, and love darkness rather 
 than light. 
 
 A rude awakening followed, as we know, when the light, 
 gradually admitted, at last burst forth with a lurid glare to 
 be followed, for a time at least, by the deeper darkness of 
 total unbelief. 
 
 The vision of the Fifth Trumpet seems to symbolize 
 Revolution, the Providential and Judicial withdrawal of 
 restraint from the enemies of society and religion. 
 
 The Abyss or Sea is used in two senses in this prophecy 
 as in the rest of Scripture, and is distinguished from that 
 which we commonly call Hell, which is figuratively described 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 
 
 195 
 
 as a Lake of fire, the place of the final destruction of the 
 wicked. The Abyss or Sea moans either the tunmltuous 
 masses of the people or a place of temporai-y imprisonment. 
 
 In chapter xx we have seen that Satan is represented as 
 shut up in this prison for a time, and in the end set free 
 again for his final struggle with Christ and His Church. In 
 the vision of this Trumpet, the prison is opened and the 
 agents of Satan are sent forth, figui'ativcly described as 
 scorpion-like locusts. 
 
 The meaning and teaching of the symbolism is obvious. 
 He whom Christ binds that he may not deceive is set free 
 by men when they willingly allow themselves to be 
 deceived, and, when they act thus, God sends them strong 
 delusion that they should believe his lies. (2 The)^)^. ii, 9-11.) 
 
 It was only after the preparation and fermentation of 
 ages that the devil, long held down by the chain of God's 
 Providence, was able at last to send forth his agents. 
 
 These Scorpion-locusts, therefore, symbolize the false 
 teachers, scoffing philosophers, learned infidels, socialists, 
 communists, nihilists, and anarchists, by whom the devil is 
 permitted in these days to punish Christendom for her sins, 
 especially for resisting the light of truth and attempting to 
 put down with fire and sword all efforts to reform the 
 Church. 
 
 The blow fell first where the sin had been greatest. 
 France sowed the wind when she massacred the reformers. 
 She reaped the whirlwind during the reign of terror and the 
 wars of Napoleon, the Destroyer. 
 
 We cannot conjecture how long this state of things, this 
 era of Revolutions, will continue, or in what it will end ; but 
 of one thing we may feel absolutely certain. The stings of 
 these scorpions, the teeth of these devouring locusts shall 
 hurt only the wicked. The faithful Christian, sealed with 
 the seal of the Living God, shall be safe. His faith shall 
 
 02 
 
196 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 never waver, his courage shall never fail, for to these pests 
 of society it is commanded that they shall hurt nothing which 
 is green, living, and fruitful, but only those men " who have 
 not the seal of God upon their foreheads " (ix, 4). 
 
 The same encouragement was given to the prophet 
 Ezekiel, and the same symbol is used to represent his 
 enemies. " Be not afraid of them," says the Lord to him, 
 " though thou dwellest among scorpions." {Ezek. ii, 6.) 
 And so Our Lord says to His disciples, " Behold, I give you 
 power to tread on Serpents and Scorpions, and over all the 
 power of the enemy ; and nothing shall by any means hurt 
 you." {St. Liike x, 19.) 
 
 We know not, then, how long these scorpions will be per- 
 mitted to war against the society, civilization, and religion 
 of Christendom, but the vision of the Sixth Trumpet seems 
 to predict a more universal and combined attack upon 
 Christianity than any which has yet occurred, in the course 
 of which great Babylon is judged. 
 
 In chapter vii, 1, the prophet sees four Angels of 
 Judgment standing upon the four corners of the earth. 
 But they are commanded not to hurt the earth until God's 
 saints have been sealed. Here, in chapter ix, 14, upon the 
 sounding of the Sixth Trumpet, the command goes forth to 
 " Loose the four Angels which ai-e bound at the great river 
 Euphrates." 
 
 Euphrates, we know, is the river of Babylon, her defence 
 and the source of her riches. In chapter xvii she is 
 represented as sitting upon many waters, there explained to 
 symbolize the many nations and peoples who support her. 
 
 These four angels, therefore, whatever Powers they 
 mav represent, evidently symbolize the future destroyers 
 of Babylon. For many ages they are unable to destroy 
 her, because her waters protect her ; in plainer words, the 
 support which she receives from the people who believe in 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 197 
 
 her prevents the rulers of the world from punishing her 
 for the spiritual fornication whicli their predecessors have 
 hitherto comniitted with her. 
 
 This mention of the four angels and the four corners of 
 the earth, predicts the universality of the combinati(.)n of 
 the Powers of the world in the latter days against Babylon. 
 But we must not forget that the prophecy represents these 
 Powers as the persecutors of the faithful Woman, the enemies 
 of the Holy City; as well as the destroyers of Bal)3^1on, the 
 great Harlot. 
 
 Consistently with this in chapter xx, Satan, the great 
 deceiver, appears gathering together " the nations which are 
 m the four quarters of the earth," and "compassing the 
 camp of the Saints and the beloved city." 
 
 But in order to destroy the corrupt Church, Satan must 
 endeavour to withdraw from her that popular support 
 which has hitherto prevented the rulers of the world from 
 punishing her. And the prophecy foreshows how this will 
 be brought about ; namely, by the undermining of all belief 
 in Christianity, and the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 This is symbolized by the vision of the Sixth Phial, 
 which synchronizes with that of the Sixth Trumpet. 
 
 The Sixth Angel pours out his phial upon the great river 
 Euphrates, the water is dried up, and the way of the Kings 
 of the East is thus prepared. In jjlainer words, popular 
 support is withdrawn from the Great City. 
 
 How is this brought about % The prophecy explains : by 
 the propagation of lies, issuing fi-om the mouth of the Ser- 
 pent, the Wild-beast, and the False prophet ; that is, from 
 the Devil, the World, and False Teachers. The prophet sees 
 three unclean spirits like fi'ogs, reminding him of one of the 
 plagues of Egypt, and he explains that they are the spirits 
 of devils, working wonders, and gathering together all the 
 powers of the world for the last great battle of Armageddon, 
 
LECTURES ON THE 
 
 the mountain of Megiddo, the place of final conflict. The 
 result is the fall of the Gi'eat City, and the cities in alliance 
 with her (xvi 12-19). 
 
 Are there not indications even now that Rome is losing her 
 hold upon the masses of the people % And is not this the 
 result of the spreading of infidelity and unbelief in the vital 
 truths of Christianity itself ? 
 
 The gates of hell, we know, will never prevail against the 
 Church because she is founded upon a rock. But Christ 
 never promised that she should escape the persecution of the 
 Avorld or the piinishment of her sins. And it is persecution 
 for the trial of the faithful and the punishment of a world- 
 worshipping Hierarchy which is predicted by the symbolic 
 language of this Prophecy. 
 
 Let us now, then, consider the Temple-vision of Chapter 
 xi which is introduced as an episode to the vision of the Sixth 
 Trumpet, to explain what is meant by the Great City of this 
 book. 
 
 The Great City in this chapter is the symbol of the Church 
 or rather of Christendom in the widest sense of that word. 
 It is evidently identical with great Babylon of chapter xvii, 
 for it is here connected with Euphrates, the river of Babylon 
 (compare ix,, 14, with xi, 13). And this excludes the idea 
 of the vision having any reference to the literal Temple and 
 Old Jerusalem. Like Jerusalem of old the Church, for her 
 sins and spiritual fornications, is here called Sodom. And, 
 that we may not think of her as a single city, she is also 
 called Egypt, a vast country in which Israel was long in 
 bondage, a coinitry and so a community of cities. The 
 Church, in fact, in this prophecy is fittingly identified with 
 Rome, in that wide sense in which that word was used in St. 
 John's day. And so here it is called not only Sodom and 
 Egypt, but also the city in which the Lord was crucified. 
 For the Jerusalem of that day was a part of Rome ; and 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHX. 
 
 199 
 
 Our Lord was crucified in a Roman Province and by a Roman 
 Procurator. 
 
 There is nothing unusual in the symbolism of this eleventh 
 chapter. We are familiar with the same figurative language 
 in other Scriptures. The Temple of God is the common 
 symbol of the Church, and even the individual Christian is 
 called the Temple of the Holy Spirit. " Know ye not," 
 writes St. Paul, " that ye are the temple of God, and that 
 the Spirit of God dvvelleth in you?" (1 Cor. iii, 16.) 
 " Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house." 
 (1 /*f^ ii, 5.) " Ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto 
 the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem." 
 {Heh. xii, 22.) 
 
 There is little difticulty, therefore, in understanding this 
 vision. The Temple and Altar with its worshippers ; the 
 outer Court of the Gentiles ; and the City of Jerusalem 
 symbolize together the whole of Christendom in its widest 
 sense. And the prophecy draws a clear distinction between 
 the faithful and unfaithful portions of the Church. 
 
 The Temple and Altar with its worshippers, are measured, 
 because they represent the Elect of Israel, the 144,000 of 
 the Twelve Tribes mentioned before in Chapter VII. Here 
 they are measured ; there they were sealed. 
 
 Then he is told not to measure the Court of Gentile 
 worshippers; just as in Chapter VII he sees a great multi- 
 tude which no man could number, out of every nation and 
 tribe and people and language. 
 
 We have here, then, the faithful remnant of Israel, and 
 the countless Gentile Saints. " But the Kingdom of 
 Heaven," says our Lord, " sufFereth violence, and the violent 
 take it by force." {St. Matt, xi, 12.) One of those preg- 
 nant sayings of His pointing not only to that which was 
 present, but also to that which was to come. Aud so it 
 was, when force was used to spread the Gospel, that the 
 
LECTURES ON THE 
 
 Gentiles came in in crowds ; and the Church, as a whole, 
 became greatly changed. 
 
 She can no longer be called the Temple and Altar of God, 
 or even the Court of Gentile worshippers. Henceforth she 
 is still, indeed, the Holy City, but the Holy City trodden 
 under foot by the Gentiles. 
 
 It would be difficult to find a better symbol than this for 
 the Church, regarded as a great Hierarchy, closely allied 
 with the Powers of the world, and becoming by degrees more 
 and more the Harlot of the Wild-beast. And this is no 
 novel interpretation, for Bede says of chapter vii : " We can 
 understand that after enumerating the tribes of Israel, to 
 whom the Gospel was first preached, he wishes to make 
 mention also of the salvation of the Gentiles." And of the 
 vision of chapter xi Victorinus writes concerning the Holy 
 City : " This means that it should be trodden under foot by 
 worldly men as by Gentiles." 
 
 This profanation of the Holy City by Gentiles, this 
 corruption and oppression of the Church by the Powers of 
 the world is to last, we are told, for a fixed and definite 
 time. Yes. Fixed and definite, we know for our comfort, 
 in the secret counsels of God, but I'evealed to us by an 
 enigma which time only can solve. 
 
 The oppression here mentioned is to last forty-two months, 
 the very same period of time as that fixed for the dominion 
 of the Wild-beast of chap, xiii, 5, of whom we read that 
 power was given to him also for forty-two months. This 
 teaches us that the oppression is the same, here symbolized 
 by the profanation of the Holy City, and there by the cruel 
 dominion of the Wild-beast. 
 
 But the Church is a living Church, and no oppression by 
 her rulers or corruption by false teachers can ever extinguish 
 her light. As there were seven thousand faithful in Israel 
 in the days of Ahab, so God has His witnesses in every age. 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 
 
 These are the lights of the world. Their prayers are con- 
 tinually going np to God, and His judgments avenge their 
 wrongs. 
 
 During the same forty-two months or 1260 days these 
 faithful ones in every age bear their testimony in sackcloth. 
 The miracles ascribed to them in the allegory teach us that 
 Moses and Elijah, the representatives of the Law and the 
 prophets, are introduced into the Drama as symbols of the 
 faithful witnesses of Christ. 
 
 But it is evident that they do not represent individual 
 witnesses because they ai'e called " the two olive trees and 
 the two candlesticks which stand before the God of the 
 earth " (xi, 4). And we know that in this prophecy a 
 candlestick is the symbol not of an individual but of a 
 Church. "The Seven Candlesticks which thou sawest are 
 the Seven Churches " (chap, i, 20). 
 
 Then they are also called Olive trees because they are not 
 only the lights or lamps of the Church but also the feeders 
 of the Lamps. The imagery is taken from the vision of 
 Zechariah, who sees two Olive trees pouring their golden 
 oil into the lamp, and is told that they symbolize " the two 
 anointed ones that stand before the Loi-d of the whole earth"; 
 the restorers of the fallen temple." {Zech. iv, 11 — 14.) 
 
 Perhaps the Light-giving portion of the Church is 
 symbolized here by two Lamps rather than by Seven, as in 
 chap, i, 20, in allusion to this prophecy of Zechariah ; or 
 because the Church during their testimony was divided into 
 the Eastern and Western branches ; or better, perhaps, for 
 the reason suggested by Bede : " Ecclesia duobus populis 
 unita." Or it may signify that the faithful of Israel and 
 of the Christian Church are the witnesses of God in all 
 ages, Israel being in reality the witness to the truth of 
 the Old Testament, and the Christian Church to that of the 
 New Testament, the two foundations of the religion of 
 
LECTURES ON THE 
 
 Jesus. At any rate it is certain that these two witnesses 
 in sackcloth represent all through the ages the true lights 
 of the Church and the supporters of its light. 
 
 You will remember that it is predicted in chapter xvii 
 that the corrupt Church or Babylon is to be punished by 
 the Worldly Powers who supported her, not from any zeal 
 for the truth, but from hatred of God and of all true 
 religion. They plunder and destroy the corrupt Church 
 because they hate and reject true Christianity of every 
 kind ; and so it is during their warfare with the Lamb that 
 they rob and burn Babylon. 
 
 The same is clearly pointed out in this 11th chapter; 
 only that our attention is here mainly directed to the con- 
 duct of the worldly Powers towards the more faithful portion 
 of the Chui'ch. 
 
 These witnesses bear their testimony in sackcloth for 
 1260 days, the same period of time as that dui-ing which 
 the faithful Woman of chapter xii is nourished in the wilder- 
 ness of this world. And then the same Wild-beast who 
 comes up out of the Abyss or sea, and exercises his 
 dominion for the same period of time, slays them and leaves 
 their bodies unburied in the streets of the Great City for 
 three days and an half (xi, 9). 
 
 Time only will explain the meaning of this, but it has, 
 we mvist admit, a very ugly look. Does it predict that 
 the worldly Powers of some future time will attempt to 
 extinguish the true lights of Christendom, and will in a 
 measure succeed ? It may be so ; and they are here repi'e- 
 sented as triumphing, though for a very short time, at their 
 apparent success. The following words are certainly very 
 alarming : " they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice 
 over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to 
 another ; because these two pi'ophets tormented them that 
 dwelt on the earth" (xi, 10.) 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 203 
 
 Are there no indications of this state of feeling among 
 the unbelievers of the present day ? Are there none now 
 I'ejoicing at their boasted emancipation from the restraints 
 of Christianity % They remind us of the words of the 
 Psalmist : " Let us break their bonds asunder and cast away 
 their cords from us." {Ih. ii, 3.) 
 
 But the vision also reminds us of the words of the 
 Psalmist which follow — -" He that dwelleth in heaven sliall 
 laugh them to scorn : the Lord shall liave them in derision. 
 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath : and vex them 
 in hi.s sore displeasure," saying, " Yet have I set my king 
 upon my holy hill of Sion." For the triumph of the world 
 is very brief. After three days and an half the witnesses 
 rise again and ascend up into heaven. Then the Great City 
 falls, and the Seventh Angel sounds his Trumpet " and 
 there are great voices in heaven, saying, the kingdoms of 
 this world ai'e become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his 
 Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever" (xi, 13-15.) 
 
 I have already explained the probable meaning of these 
 enigmatical numbers, 42 months, 1260 days, and three days 
 and an half ; and proved that if they signify years, which is 
 very likely, they cannot possibly enable us to predict the 
 time of the end, for the simple reason that it is quite 
 impossible to conjecture within many centuries the date of 
 their commencement. At any rate they enable us to see 
 how the various visions synchronize with one another; they 
 comfort us witli the assurance that the times and seasons, 
 though wisely and mercifully concealed from us, are fixed in 
 the counsels of the Omniscient ; and they clearly predict 
 that the triumph of Antichrist will be very brief. The 
 faithful bear witness in sackcloth for 1260 days; but the 
 apparent victory of the world over them continues only for, 
 three days and a half ; perhaps for the three years and a 
 half, the long expected period of the reign of Antichrist. 
 
204 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 The fall of great Babylon may be at hand, or many 
 centuries may elapse before she is fully ripe for Judgment. 
 But of the interval of time which there may be between 
 her fall and the Day of the final Judgment of the world, no 
 indication whatever is given in this prophecy. 
 
 The fall of Babylon, whether the time of her fall is 
 predicted or not, is one incident only in the warfare of the 
 world with Christ ; and who shall say how long that war- 
 fare will last, or when our Great Champion shall come forth 
 again from the opening heavens " crowned with many crowns 
 as King of kings and Lord of lords?" 
 
 And now, what has been my object in delivering these 
 lectures ? Chiefly to persuade you to study the Revelation, 
 that you may experience the blessing twice pronounced on 
 those who do so. 
 
 There is a spirit abroad in these days which is undermining 
 the faith of thousands. This prophecy is given especially 
 for the confirmation of our faith. If the interpretation I 
 have suggested is only moderately correct, see what proof we 
 have of the inspiration of Holy Scripture, and of the certainty 
 of those great truths upon which all our hopes depend. 
 
 However far we may go wrong in details, and it has been 
 well said that the commentator on such a book may be 
 pardoned, not only if he errs, but if he errs greatly; however 
 we may err in details, there is no question that a great his- 
 torical fact, a state of things which must have appeared 
 inconceivable to any Christian in the first century, I mean 
 the union for a long period of time, of the Kingdoms of Christ 
 and Cffisar, is plainly predicted. And who, unenlightened by 
 the Spirit of God could have so plainly predicted it 1 
 
 But the reverent study of the Revelation is also a 
 spiritualizing and elevating study. It brings Our Blessed 
 Lord very close to us, even " walking in midst of the 
 Churches." We see Him, like the three Apostles on the 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 2.0$ 
 
 mountain, in the dazzling splendour of His Divine Nature • 
 and yet as the Mighty Saviour, Who has loved us, and 
 washed away our sins in His Blood, and prepared for our 
 reception the many mansions of His Father's House. 
 
 Indeed, even the most hostile critics admit that this 
 prophecy must have been written by a Disciple of Jesus, and 
 that it teaches in the most certain language the doctrines of 
 the Divine and Human Nature of Christ, and of redemption 
 and remission of sins through His Blood. 
 
 It also brings the unseen world very near to us. It draws 
 aside the thick veil which hangs over the Sanctuary of God. 
 Flashes of golden light come to us in our ti'oubles through 
 the opening curtains, and we see those whom we have loved 
 and lost, weeping, it may be, as fresh from sorrow — for tears 
 are natural and never forbidden, — weeping so far as spiritual 
 beings can weep, but weeping with One at hand Who wipes 
 away all tears. 
 
 I have never been able to believe that the happiness of 
 the intermediate state can be perfect. Can the happiness 
 even of the Human Jesus on His Mediatorial Throne be 
 perfect until He has put all the enemies of man's happiness 
 ])eneath His feet? Can the state of the departed, however 
 pure and holy they may be, be one of perfect bliss before 
 the Last Great Day % Is it conceivable that they can be so- 
 selfish and forgetful as to be capable of unmixed happiness, 
 when separated from those whom they have loved on earth, 
 and who are still passing through the great tribulation of 
 this life % We are not told so in the Apocalypse. On the 
 contrary they are revealed to us as having indeed come out 
 of the great tribulation, but as ever crying, as regards tliose 
 on earth, "0 Lord, how long?" 
 
 Yet they have unspeakable and to us inconceivable com- 
 forts. To them to live was Christ, and to die has proved to 
 be gain ; and they are bidden to rest yet for a little season. 
 
2o6 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 until the sufferings of their brethren are over. And mean- 
 while white robes of spotless righteousness are given to each 
 one of them. {Rev. vi, 11.) 
 
 They understand, they see with a clearness unattainable 
 by us, the glorious end of all. The clue is given to them 
 Avhich unravels all the tangled threads of this strange life of 
 trial. They know with absolute certainty the truth of that 
 saying, " All things work together for good to them that 
 love God." {Rom. viii, 28.) 
 
 And, then, how full of warning is this prophecy ! Well 
 may our great enemy, the World, be represented as a 
 monstrosity, as something altogether unnatural ; a cruel 
 and crushing monster altogether out of harmony with the 
 order of the world of Nature. A many-headed and therefore 
 ever living enemy. Head succeeding head, as the creature 
 is slain and lives again. Ever changing his form, but ever 
 still the enemy of the Saints of God. Pagan or Christian 
 or infidel and Anarch, still persecuting the faithful disciple 
 of Christ. 
 
 Such he seems to us while we are under his oppression. 
 But at times he comes to us as a Seducer, as one who would 
 tempt us to spiritual fornication or world-worship, drawing 
 away our hearts from the love of the Lamb. 
 
 But whether our enemies are cruel or seducing, the 
 prophecy warns us that we must overcome them. Victory 
 or death is the watchword of this prophecy. And, above 
 all, individual salvation is promised to all who conquer, 
 however great may be the wickedness of their surroundings. 
 
 To him that overcometh, while love is cooling as in 
 Ephesus, it shall be given " to eat of the tree of life which 
 is in the Paradise of God " (ii, 7.) 
 
 Of him who overcometh, in the fierce persecutions of 
 Smyrna, it is written : " Be thou faithful unto death and I 
 will give thee the crown of life" (ii, 10.) 
 
REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 207 
 
 To him that overcomcth, in a Church Hke Perganios, it 
 shall be given to eat the hidden manna, to feed on Jesns in 
 his heart by faith (ii, 17.) 
 
 To those who overcome while Thyatira is persuading 
 to spiritual fornication, shall be given domhiion over the 
 nations and the bright and morning star of hope (ii, 28.) 
 
 Those who ovei'come even in Sardis, boasting of life but 
 spiritually dead, shall be clothed with robes of righteous- 
 ness and shall have their names written in the book of life 
 <iii, 5.) 
 
 He that overcometh in feeble but faithful Philadelphia, 
 shall Idc made a pillar in the Temple of God, and shall have 
 the name of God and of the City of God written upon his 
 forehead (iii, 12.) 
 
 And even in lukewarm Laodicea zeal and repentance 
 shall open the heart of the faithful ; for it is written : 
 " Behold, I stand at the door and knock ; if any man hear 
 my voi(!e and open the door, 1 will come in to him and will 
 sup with him and he with me " (iii, 20). 
 
 And in the midst of our doubts and perplexities in this 
 thoughtful and inquiring age we welcome the voice of that 
 mighty angel, " who sware by him that liveth for ever and 
 ever .... that there shall be no more delay ; but in the 
 days of the voice of the Seventh Angel, when he shall 
 begin to sound, the mystery of God shall be finished, as he 
 hath declared to his servants the prophets " (x, 6, 7). 
 
 " Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in 
 his own blood, and hath made us Kings and priests unto 
 God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever 
 and ever. Amen " (i, 5, 6). 
 
 THE END. 
 
y 
 
Date Due