PRINCETON, N. J 
 
 '% 
 

 
 
 ^^^® 
 
 
THE DIVINE KEY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Revelation of Jesus Christ. 
 
^ PRIMERS ON PROPHECY % 
 
 ^ BY THE AUTHOR OF g: 
 
 :§ The Divine Key of Revelation. ^ 
 ^ fc. 
 
 ^ The Abomination of Desolation," i 
 
 ■^" The World's Great Sign of the Time . ^ 
 
 ^ A Scriptural and historical showing of what the "Abom- ^ 
 
 ■^ inatiou of Desolation " (Matt. xxiv. 15) is, ard what it is J^ 
 
 ti not : That it was not the pagan Roman Army destroying s?" 
 
 ^ the City of Jerusalem, in A. D., 70 ; but the papal Roman ^ 
 
 •sS Power destroying the " SAINTS " in the Dark Ages. ^ 
 
 jj Diagrams are given illustrating the thread of Jesus' two ^ 
 
 ^ great discourses: First, In the Temple (lyuke xxi.) ; ^ 
 
 ^ Second, On the Mount of Olives (Matt. xxiv). ^ 
 
 il It 
 
 ■71 Thirty-eight large pages. Third Thousand. Price, fen cents. iiV 
 
 ^ Iff 
 
 :§ An AnaIvYTicai, Exposition of the Parable jk 
 
 ^ OF THK RICH MAN AND LAZARUS; t 
 
 ^ OR ««• 
 
 ^ What Jesus Taught the Jews. f 
 
 .55 . ^ 
 
 "^ A Booklet giving a thoroughly Scriptural Analys s and j^ 
 
 "^ Exposition of the Twelve elementary Characters and ^ 
 
 ^ Conditions comprised in the Lord's Parable, and showng ^ 
 
 ■^ that it relates toJUDGMENTS on the Jews in rejecting fe 
 
 .>i Jesus, and Gkace to the Gentiles in receiving Him — k, 
 
 ^ all in This Dispensation ; and not to a future or After- ^ 
 
 ^ Death torment. ^ 
 
 %t Ninety=six pages. Third Thousand. Price, fifteen cents, ^sr 
 
 ^ Price of The Divine Key of Revelation, $1.00 ; u 
 
 % 
 
 Postage, 10 cents. 
 
 Address : 
 
 WILLIA/Vl E. BROWN, it 
 
 >s 1725 Edgely Street, Philadelphia, Pa. ^ 
 
 •Ji OR i^^ 
 
 ^ HERALD OF LIFE, | 
 
 ^ Springfield, Mass. ^ 
 
THE DIVINE KEY 
 
 Revelation of Jesus Christ, 
 
 AS GIVEN TO 
 
 John, the Seer of Patmos. 
 
 BEIPfG AN ANALYTICAL EXPOSITION OF ITS THREE 
 GREAT SERIAL PROPHECIES : 
 
 I. The Seven Golden Candlesticks, or Asian Churches. 
 
 II. The Seven Symbolic Seals. 
 
 111. The Seven Symbolic Trumpets. 
 
 AND SHOWING THAT EACH SERIES EMBRACES EVENTS WHICH 
 COVER THE ENTIRE GOSPEL DISPENSATION. WITH CHRO- 
 NOLOGICAL DIAGRAM, IN COLORS, HARMONIZ- 
 ING THE THREE SEPTENARY LINES. 
 
 WILLIAM EUGENE BROWN. 
 
 Author of " The Abomination of Desolation, The World's Great 
 
 Sign of the Times,'" and "■An Analytical Exposition 
 
 of the Rich Man and Lazarus, or What 
 
 Jesus Taught the Jewsy 
 
 ^' All Scripture given, by inspiration is profitable." — Paul. 
 
 "Blessed is he that readeth, and thev that hear the words of this Prophecy, and keep 
 the things which are ivritten therein, for the time is at hand." — fesus. 
 
 SPRINGFIELD, MASS.: 
 
 Herald of Life Office 
 
 PHrLADELPHIA, PA.: 
 
 VV. E. Bkuwn, 1725 Edgely Street. 
 
 1897. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1897, 
 
 By William Eugene Brown, 
 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 
 
 PHILADf;LPHIA, PA. : 
 GEO. F. LASHER, PRINTER AND BINDER, 
 147-51 N. Tenth Street. 
 1897. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 yC MONG the various sentiments which incite intel- 
 
 / \ Hgent persons to the perusal of a new book, an 
 
 V^ earnest love of Bible truth — a willingness to 
 
 ' ' prove all things ' ' and ' ' hold fast that which is good " — 
 
 is that to which the present attempted exposition of a 
 
 portion of the Apocalypse makes its appeal. 
 
 In the introductory chapter are stated the grounds for 
 my conviction that the Revelation proper (not the entire 
 Book) is wholly symbolic. The establishment of this 
 point I regard as of fundamental importance in reaching any 
 clear and legitimate conclusions. The reasons urged in its 
 support, its uniform application in detail throughout the 
 three visions canvassed, and the resulting beautiful 
 harmony, must speak for themselves. Of their imperfect 
 presentation I am deeply sensible, and on that score I 
 sincerely crave the indulgence of my readers, specially of 
 those whose critical acumen is sure to detect blemishes. 
 
 It was my original intention to comprise in one volume 
 the twenty-two chapters of the Revelation. But means 
 were lacking for so large an undertaking ; and, to avoid the 
 greater delay in publication, I found it convenient to close 
 with the end of the eleventh chapter, thus covering one- 
 half the book. This portion contains the three great serial 
 lines — the Seven Golden Candlesticks, the Seven Seals and 
 the Seven Trumpets — three prophetic highways across the 
 symbolic continent, from Advent to Advent. These three 
 
2 PRKFACE. 
 
 chains of symbols are, each in itself, entirely distinct and 
 complete. Studied together, there is a perfect textual 
 harmony, and a synchronism aa accurate as the most rigid 
 interpreter would require. The whole affords a view which 
 will render comparatively easy an explanation of the last 
 eleven chapters of the Revelation ; inasmuch as the remain- 
 ing symbols pertain, each, to some part of the ground 
 already thrice canvassed, and fall obviously into their 
 proper places and the general harmony. 
 
 The possibility of a harmony so complete among 
 the dissimilar symbols of this portion of Holy Writ, 
 coming from the application of an exclusively symbolic 
 interpretation, inspires the strong confidence I have ex- 
 pressed in giving this exposition to the Christian public. 
 I have called it. The Divine Key <7/"(not to) the Revelation , 
 because, as I conceive, and have attempted to demonstrate, 
 it is furnished by the revelation. A study of the Chrono- 
 logical Diagram accompanying the exposition, in order, as 
 its several divisions are elaborated, will disclose additional 
 reasons for this assurance. And I cannot too strongly 
 urge upon the attention of my readers the importance of 
 thorough familiarity with the symbols, as they are divinely 
 portrayed to us, in detail; for herein has the Holy Spirit 
 largely placed the power : it is the arrangement, the 
 grouping, the relationships of the various living creatures, 
 horses, riders, etc., principally, which makes the revelation ; 
 and it is the undei standing and application of these — the 
 revelation itself — which brings the blessing sought. 
 
 But perhaps it .should be suggested, if not with some 
 emphasis, that, in reading an expository work of this kind, 
 where differences of opinion are sure to antagonize at 
 points, there should be the most calm deliberation of 
 thought, and a complete reading up to and past those 
 points, (if not first the entire exposition, ) before even in 
 
prejpace;. 3 
 
 mind, one arrays and asserts the objections which may 
 afterwards be very properly, more fairly, and more safely 
 put forth. Let another's position be fully understood, 
 then intelligently judge it by the aid of an enlightened 
 judgment and reason, and by the infallible Word of the 
 Lord. Fair criticism and corrections forwarded to the 
 author's address, will receive his most careful considera- 
 tion. And should any truly felt commendation, by way 
 of endorsement, inspire a communication in the interests 
 of truth and those who seek it, it might prove an earnest 
 of reward after the labor incident to the preparation of 
 such a work for the public. 
 
 May the blessing of God attend the reading of this 
 volume. May Christ sanctify to each reader all of truth 
 that it contains. And may the power of the Holy Spirit 
 avert the deleterious effects of any misconceptions which 
 may mar its pages. W. E. B. 
 
 Philadelphia, Pa., 
 
 1725 Edgely St., August, 1897. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 PART FIRST. 
 
 CHAPTER I.— INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 KEV WORDS AND UNDERI.YING PRINCIPI,ES OF EXPOSITION — THE 
 WRITER — THE DATE. 
 
 Origiual Title— A Revelation not a Mystery — Revelation a 
 Key Word — Compared with Daniel — Why Daniel's Prophecy 
 was Sealed — Why the Revelation is not Sealed — Jesus 
 himself needed it — A Revelation promised — Schools of 
 Interpretation — Symbolic character of the Language used 
 — Signify the second Key Word— Symbolism a fixed Rule 
 of Entirety— Underl3ing Principles of Interpretation— All 
 Symbols Explained in the Word — Symbolic Entirety De- 
 fined — Safe Principles— Great Variety of Symbols— Medi- 
 um of Communication — the Writer — Testimony of the 
 Fathers— of Dr. Davidson — The Date — Statements of Dr. 
 Wm. Smith and Dr. A. Clarke — The Apostle not a Dilatory 
 Witness — Secret of Confusion in Dates — Dean Alford's 
 Quotations — Roy and Bp, Newton's Testimonies, I)r Jack- 
 son's, Dr. Kitto's — Quotations from Dean Merivale, M. 
 Martindale, Mosheim 19 
 
 CHAPTER XL- GOD'S INTRODUCTION. 
 
 IMPORTANCE OF THE BOOK— GLIMPSES OF THE DAVIDIAN OR 
 GOSPEI. KINGDOM — THE LORD'S DAY. 
 
 The Great Blessing— The Time at Hand— Time of the End — 
 John's Introduction — The Apostolic Benediction — Two Faith- 
 ful Witnesses — Divine Seal of the Testimony — A Prince of 
 Kings must be a Reigning King — A Joint Reign — A Glorious 
 Reign — Visibility of the Advent — Kingdom de facto— 'Hot 
 Carnal but Divine Control— The Lord's Day is the Gospel 
 Age— The Voice Behind John— A Trumpet call is Anti- 
 secret 43 
 
 4 
 
CONTENTS. 5 
 
 CHAPTER III.— BEGINNING OF THE REVELATION 
 PROPER. 
 
 JOHN'S FIRST VISION— THE SEVEN GOLDEN CANDI^ESTICKS- A 
 GOI<DEN-GIRDED ONE IN THE MIDST. 
 
 The Royal Vision — Easy first Lesson in Symbols — The Seven 
 Asian Churches not Literal — Seven Ages — Significance of 
 Scripture Names — Third Key to Symbols — Names Changed 
 with change of Character — Walking 1)y Faith, not by Sight 
 — Significant Figures in Numbers— Three, the Heavenly, 
 
 Four, the E irlhly number — Seven Series of Sevens 57 
 
 CHRIST IN THE MIDST OF THE CANDI^ESTICKS. 
 
 The Golden Girdle — Symbolic Fire — Key as a Symbol 65 
 
 PAPvT SECOND. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 I. THE EPHESIAN OR APOSTOLIC PERIOD. 
 A. D, 30 TO A. D. 64. 
 
 The Message to Ephesus — Angel Defined — The Apostolic Age 
 — First Love Lost — Repentance or Removal of Candlestick 
 — The Date again — Time for Repentance, a Clue to the Date 
 — The True Date— Dr. Patton'sView Illustrates the common 
 Misconception— Deeds of the Nicolaitans— Rising spirit of 
 Popery — Nicolaitanism not found in the Apostles — Tree of 
 Life in the midst of Paradise 68 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 II. THE SMYRNIOT OR NERONlAN PERIOD. 
 A. D. 64 TO A. D. 313. 
 
 The Message to Smyrna — The Synagogue of Satan — The devil 
 and Satan — Ten pagan Persecutions — Three Million Martyrs 
 — The phrase Second De ith found only in Revelation — Not 
 a Second penalty — One Death m Trespasses and Sins, and 
 One a penalty for Sin 78 
 
6 CONTENTS, 
 
 CHA.PTER VI. 
 
 III. THE PERGAMENE OR CONSTANTINIAN PERIOD. 
 
 A. D. 313 TO A. D. 529. 
 
 The Message to Pergamos — Charged with Apostasy — The 
 Edict of Milan — Woildly Exaltation— Faithful Antipas — 
 Balaamitical Piety — Idol Sacrifices in Israel — Symbolic 
 Eating — The first Stumbling Stone — Spiritual Adultery — 
 Hidden Manna — Immortality not an Inheritance but a Gift 
 — How men make God a Liar— John's Belief —Pauline The- 
 ology — James' View — Peter's Faith - Ancient Tesserae 84 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 IV. THE THYATIRIAN OR JUSTINIAN PERIOD. 
 A. D. 529 TO A. D. 1529. 
 
 The Creed Exalte i above the Word — Charge against Thyatira 
 Minimized — God chose the Types, We must find the Anti- 
 types—Divine Arraignment of Orthodoxy— The Types Ahab, 
 Jezebel, Elijah — Symbolic Time — A Lying Spirit as a Strong 
 Delusion — Heresy with Jezebel was Truth with God — Formal 
 Union of Church and State — The Eutychian Theory — Coun- 
 cil of Constantinople — Dr. Shedd Endorses — Dr. Schafi" Ex- 
 plains— Origin of Triaitarianism — Confessed Motherhood — 
 Trinitarianism justly Rebuked — Order of Two Natures in 
 Christ — Divine Nature cannot Die nor suffer Pain— Soul- 
 Immortality not found in Scripture — Intellect a Faculty of 
 theBrain — Distinction between Man and Animals — Intellect 
 not a Faculty of the Spirit— Meaning of Spirit — The Lie in 
 Eden a Fountain of Error — Error as a Shield for Error — 
 The Bible on the Existence of God . . 96 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CONTINUATION OF THE THYATIRIAN OR JUSTINIAN PERIOD. 
 
 Platonism in the Catholic Schools — Council of Vienna — 
 Council of Later an — Luther's Answer — Tindale's — The 
 Nicene Creed — An "lueffdble Mystery" — The Creative 
 L^igoi — God Created, Jesus Enlightened, the World — The 
 Divine Manhood of Christ — An Unrecognized Principle — 
 Importance of the Prophetic Sense — How Abraham saw 
 Chris*. — The 1260 Years' Period — Premonitory Judgments on ■ 
 
CONTENTS. 7 
 
 the Empire— The " Children " Killed with Death— Depths 
 of the Adversary — Power over the Nations —Luther Burns 
 the Pope's Bull— The Diet at Worms— The Leipsic Discus- 
 sion — CharlesV. — Protestant League — Holy League — Peace 
 ofWestphalia — Power of the Word of God — Shivered Empire 
 — Italy — France — Spain — Antichrist Recognized — Transla- 
 tions of the Bible and Papal Bulls 120 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 V. THE SARD IAN OR LUTHERAN PERIOD. 
 A. D. 1529 TO A. D. 1789. 
 
 The Message to Sardis-Meaniiig of the Term — Sardis Com- 
 pletes the 1260 Years' Period — Over Fifty Millions Slain — 
 Milton on the Martyrs — Note on the Holy Spirit — Sardian 
 Indifference in Contrast with Ephesian Zeal— Prophetic Ig- 
 norance a Judgment for Indifference — Critical Reading of 
 Psalm CXVI. 15 — Tae Promise of White Raiment magni- 
 fied by Repetition — Possibility of Fall ng from Grace 150 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 VI. THE PHILADELPHIAN OR RENAISSANCE PERIOD. 
 A. D. 1789 TO A. D. 1840. 
 
 The Message to • Philadelphia — Terms Defined — The World 
 emerges from Centuries in Babylon and Darkness — Love 
 Returns to Dwell with Men — The Church, to Rebuild Jeru- 
 salem — The Key of David — Third Phase of the Davidian 
 Kingdom — The Keys given to Peter — The Open Door — 
 Spirit of the 19th Century — Papal Bulls against the Bible — 
 The Great Bible Society — Its Fundamental Law — The Ten 
 Virgins go Forlh — John Fletcher — ^Joseph Wolff — A World- 
 wide Proclamation — A Definite Expectation — Consistent 
 Sacrifices — The Ascension Robe Falsity 155 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 VII. THE I.AODICFAN OR JUDGMENT PERIOD. 
 A. D. 184 ) TO THE END. 
 
 The Me:>sage to Laodicea — Terms Defiued — Prophecy in Dis 
 repute— " Higher Criticism " and Semi-Infidelity Flourish — 
 Spiritual Power Declines — New Foes to True Religion — 
 Supposed Riches, but Miserable Trash — Divine Indictment 
 
CONTENTvS. 
 
 for setting up False Standards — Truth and Righteousness 
 Needed — He who Formed the Eye, cau He not See? — Facts 
 not Misstated — Proofs at Hand — Popular Errors should be 
 Renounced — Christology of the Scriptures — Unity of the Son 
 of God and of Mary — ' ' Knocking " through the Signs of the 
 Advent — Watching a Duty Imperative — In the Throne with 
 Christ — A Present Association —The Melchisedec Reign ne- 
 cessarily Limited — Conclusion 170 
 
 PART THIRD. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. — SYMBOLIC ORGANIZATION OF THE 
 GOSPEL (DAVIDIAN) KINGDOM. 
 
 A cBntrai. throne surrounded by twenty- eour others — 
 
 ALL WITH crowned occupants. 
 
 A Door Opened in Heaven — The Symbol Explained — Proofs 
 of Symbolism — A Trumpet Voice— The Throne of David or 
 Israel Reappears — Btring in the Spirit — Symbols of a King 
 dom — A Rainbow — An Associated Kingdom — Not a Millen- 
 nium — Twenty-four Crowned Elders — Lightnings, Thiin- 
 derings, Voices— Lamps of Fire— A Sea of Glass — Four 
 Living Creatures — Their SVmbolic Eyes 185 
 
 CHAPTER XIII.— THE LION-LAMB AND THE 
 SEVEN-SEALED BOOK. 
 
 no man on earth, nor angel in heaven, could break the 
 
 seals— THE LAMB prevails, AND THE ELDERS AND 
 LIVING CREATURES REJOICE. 
 
 The Sealed Book Identified— Vain Effort to Open the Book- 
 John Wept— The Lion of Judah Prevails for the Task— The 
 Lamb with vSeven Horns and Seven Eyes— vSeven Historic 
 Phases of the Israelitish Kingdom — The Lion-Lamb Receives 
 the Book— The Elder's Glad New Song— Unsealing the Book 
 is the Revelation — The Reigning on the Earth is Association 
 in the Throne with the Lamb — The Gospel Kingdom 195 
 
CONTENT'S. 
 
 I^ART FOURTH. 
 
 CHAPTER XiV.— THE FIRST THREE vSEAI^S. 
 
 I. The First vSeal Opened— The Winged Lion and 
 THE White Horse. 
 
 THE APOSTOI^IC AGE — FROM THE ASCENSION, A. D. 30, TO THE 
 burning of ROME UNDER NERO, A. D. 64. 
 
 The Ivion and the White Horse— "Heaven," and " Earth," or 
 the Church, and World-Power, in Symbolic Contrast — His- 
 tory of First Period of the Church— The Temple of Janus 
 Closed— Birth of the Prince of Peace — Bow and Crown Given 
 to the White-Horse Rider 204 
 
 II.— The Second Seal Opened — The Winged Calf, 
 AND THE Red Horse. 
 
 pagan PERSECUTIONS— from NERO, A. D. 64, TO THE EDICT OF 
 MILAN, UNDER CONSTANTINE, A. D. 313. 
 
 The second Living Creature was like a Calf — The second Horse 
 was Red — A Great Sword was Given the Red-Horse Rider — 
 Christ the Giver — A Dreadful Persecution Resulted — Rome 
 thought to Extirpate Christianity— Found it Sword-Proof. . 208 
 
 III. The Third Seal Opened— The "Face as a Man," 
 AND THE Black Horse. 
 
 THE APOSTATIZING PERIOD — FROM CONSTANTINE, A. D. 313, 
 TO THE NEW CODE-JUSTINIAN, A D. 529. 
 
 The third Living Creature had a Face as a Man — The third 
 Horse was Black — Constantinian Period — Calamitous His- 
 tory — Rotteck — Symbolic Balances — Gibbon — Infidel Wrath 
 Paises God — Symbolic Wheat and Barley — The Oil and Wine 
 — Over- Pious Solicitude 210 
 
lO CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XV.— OPENING OF THE FOURTH 
 AND FIFTH SEALS. 
 
 IV. The Fourth Seal Opened— The Flying Eagle, 
 Death and the Pale Horse. 
 
 APOSTASY AND NICOLAITANISM PERFECTED — FROM JUSTINIAN, A.D. 
 529, TO THE PROTESTANT LEAGUE, A.D. I529. 
 
 The fourth Living Creature was in Flight as an Eagle — The 
 fourth Horse was Pale — A Prophetic Paradox — History of 
 the Period-Rotteck— Whelpley— The Rider of the Pale 
 Horse — Rise of the Man of Sin — Antichrist Personified — 
 Hades Followed — The Term Defined — Clarke — Bullinger — 
 Fourth Part of the Earth — Symbolic Killing — (i) Legal 
 Processes — (2) Seductive Arts 216 
 
 V. The Fifth Seal Opened— Slain Souls Under the Altar, 
 AND Hades. 
 
 A REMNANT OF THE CHURCH GROANING TO BE AVENGED— FROM 
 THE PROTESTANT LEAGUE, A. D. 1529, TO THE FRENCH 
 REVOLUTION, A.D. 1789. 
 
 Slain Souls — Soul Defined — Their Position Under the Altar — 
 Their Testimony — Their Cr^ for Judgment— Daniel's Pro- 
 phetic Promise — The White Robes — Neither Altar nor Tears 
 in Heaven, the Abode of God 225 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 VI. The Sixth Seal Opened — A Great Earthquake, Dark- 
 ened Sun and Moon, and Falling Stars. 
 
 JUDGMENT upon JEZEBEL, ROME, AND CATHOLIC KINGS, FROM 
 1789 TO THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA, 1815. 
 
 A Great Earthquake — Defined — As Seen by the Historians 
 Bower, Alison, Lamartine, Marsh — Waging War against 
 Rome — Alison — Noel's Questions — Religious Effects of the 
 Earthquake — Darkening of the Sun and Moon — Herschel on 
 Dark Day — Faber on the Revolution — Falling Stars — Rowan 
 and Pressense on the Revolution — ^Jezebel's cruel War re- 
 turns upon Herself — Apostacy of Priests — Alison on Results 
 
CONTENTS. II 
 
 —Pius VI. Confesses them — Mountains and Islands Moved — 
 Redhead writes of it— Kings and Captains Hide— Similar 
 First Advent Symbol— Hyperbole, a Common Figure — Anal- 
 aejous Scenes in Daniel — His Explanation — Great Day of 
 Wrath 228 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Continuation of the Sixth Seai,— Four Angels Hoi<d the 
 
 Winds. 
 
 the great seai,ing message— white-robed philadelphians 
 — from the congress of vienna, 1815, to 1840. 
 
 Four Angels Hold the V^inds — Sunrising Angel with the Seal 
 of God — ^How ihe Four Angels Hurt the Earth and Sea — 
 Durivage on the Unrestrained Winds — Goodrich on the 
 Holden Winds — Preparatory to the Sealing — Disappoint- 
 ment led to the Discovery of the Old Paths — First 144000, 
 then the Great Multitude Sealed — TheSealedonesIdentified 
 — Truth still Miscalled Heresy — Public Worship Restored — 
 Dr. Barber on the Secret Worship of the Scottish Covenant- 
 ers — Also the Poet Grahame — Former Dearth of Bibles — 
 Scorching Power of the Truth — The Lamb Resumes the 
 Throne — And Persecution Tears are Wiped Away 244 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 VII. The Seventh Se\l Opened— A Half Hour's Silence 
 IN Heaven. 
 
 NO PROMPT response FROM THE WAITING CHURCH. 
 
 No. Prompt Call to Come and See — Half Hour of Silence — 
 Slumbering and Sleeping Prophetically— Tradition and Vain 
 Philosophy at Fault — Popular Revival Methods Faulty — 
 " Behold the Bridegroom," the Proper Christian Watchword 262 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 The Tardy Events of the Seventh Seal — The Mighty 
 Rainbow Angel. 
 
 the advent MESSAGE — EVENTS WHOLLY OF AN ECCLESIASTICAL 
 NATURE — GREAT LIGHT FOR THE CHURCH. 
 
 Despise not the Day of Small Things — The Mighty angel — His 
 Rainbow crown — His Face as the Sun — His Feet as Fire— 
 
12 CONTENTS. 
 
 He has the Open Book — His I,oud crj' — Prophetic nearness 
 is Comparative time — Watching a divine Faith-Test — Tradi- 
 tional Switch-Off — The angel's Descent, an Organized Move- 
 ment — Seven Thnnders — The angel's Oath — A Time Proc- 
 lamation — Josiah Litch on the early Advent Movement — 
 The Charge of Censoriousness refuted 267 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Continuation of the; Seventh Seal — The Little Open 
 
 Book, 
 the advent movement, the bitter experience, and 
 the prophesying again. 
 The Seventh Trumpet Message — The little Book given to John 
 — He Promptly accepts the Gift — Eating the Book — Bitter 
 Experience resulting — The "Time of the End," not the End 
 of Time — A Pardonable Mistake — Must prophesy Again — 
 The Movement not all Wrong — Note on the Hebrew term, 
 Yainini, Year — Gesenius' Testimony 282 
 
 PART FIFTH. 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 The Chronometric Reed— Measuring the Temple and 
 
 Altar — The Age of False Worship which 
 
 Polluted Them. 
 
 the two witnesses slain by the dragon out 
 OF the pit. 
 The Measuring Reed — The Temple, Altar and Court — Sym- 
 bolic Application — Solomon's Typical Acts — The Holy City 
 under foot — Prophetic Championship — The Two Witnesses 
 in Sackcloth — Two Olive Trees and Candlesticks — The 
 Vision of Zechariah — Golden Oil— Duration of the Sack- 
 cloth State—- The Dragon from the Pit — His War upon the 
 Two Wituesses — History by Alison, Presseuse, Lecroix — 
 Witnesses Dead Three Daj s and a Half— International Pro- 
 test — Redhead's Graphic Account 295 
 
CONTENTS 13 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 Revival of the Two Witnesses — Their Ascension — 
 Renaissance of the Church in France. 
 
 END OP the second woe — GREAT EXAI.TATION OF THE WORD 
 OF GOD. 
 
 The Rejoicing over the Dead Witnesses — Testimony by Dr. 
 Croly — by Dr. Coke — The Witnesses Avenged — Revive after 
 Three Days and a Half— History by Rowan — by Eclaire — by 
 Alison — by Dr. Kett — Gregory and De Anglas — The Nevp 
 French Constitution — The Chvirch springing out of the Dust 
 — Diagram of Dates and Periods — Ascent of the Witnesses- 
 Origin of Bible vSocieLies — A Glorious Triumph — One Tenth 
 of Babylon FaUs— Goodrich Describes it — Titles Discarded 
 —End of the Second Woe 314 
 
 PART SIXTH. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 Introductory to the Sounding of the Seven Trumpets. 
 
 the angel of incense fills his censor with fire — 
 
 mission of the forerunner of CHRIST. 
 The Angel of Incense Leaves the Temple, and Casts Fire from 
 the Altar into the Earth — The Work of John, and Jesus 
 prior to His Ascension — Haggai and Isaiah Foretold the 
 Result — The Desire of All Nations — Dawn of the Gospel 
 Day — Ministry of John the Baptist — Isaiah and David De- 
 scribe the Voice of the Wilderness . 335 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 I. The First Trumpet Sounded — Hail and Fire Cast upon 
 THE Earth — Grass and Trees Burnt Up. 
 
 BOTH TRUTH AND JUDGMENT DESCEND UPON ISRAEL AND THE 
 GENTILES. 
 
 The Prophet David locates the First Trumpet, the Apostle 
 Paul, the Ivast — Isaiah and Jeremiah Define the Symbols 
 Hail and Fire — Malachi also used the figure — Trees, Grass 
 and Earth as Symbols Defined — The Third Part Explained 341 
 
14 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 II. The Second Trumpet Sounded — A Burning Mountain 
 Cast into the Sea. 
 
 mount zion, the kingdom of iviteral israel, cast off 
 among the nations. 
 Mount Zion or Israel all on Fire — Jeremiah, Zuchariah and 
 Isaiah Foretold it — Babylon an Example — Isaiah on the Fire 
 in Israel — Origin of the Gehenna Figure — Jeremiah also saw 
 Israel on Fire in the Sea — A Third Part of the Sea becoming 
 Blood, Explained — Death of One third Part of Life in the 
 Sea, Explained —The Wandering Hebrews 346 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 III. The Third Trumpet Sounded — The Burning Star, 
 
 Wormwood, Fai.ls and Embitters Rivers 
 
 and Fountains. 
 
 the nicene councii. and creed fills the church with 
 
 smoke, and pagan peoples and provinces with 
 
 the spirit of error and strife. 
 
 A Burning Star cannot emit the Pure Light of its Normal 
 State —The Star Identified — Mosheim on the Errors of the 
 Fourth Century — Constantine's reputed Conversion— Note 
 on the Development of the Doctrine of the Trinity — Pla- 
 tonism Ruling the Orthcdox Church — Smoke is not the 
 Divine Eye Salve — Driven the Errorist — Wormwood in the 
 Waters 354 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 IV. The Fourth Trumpet Sounded— The Sun, Moo.v and 
 Stars Darkened a Third Part. 
 
 THE OI.D AND NEW testaments, AND THE MlrMSTRV, 
 shrouded IN A DARK VEIE OF TRADITION. 
 
 The Symbols Explained— Gibbon on the Persecution and Van- 
 ity of Justinian — The Arians had Some Light — The Creed, 
 only Darkness and Bigotry — So-called "Orthodox" Form- 
 ulas still stand squarely with Rome's — The Flying Eagle — 
 Her Triple Woe-Message 366 
 
CONTENTS. 15 
 
 PART SEVENTH. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 V. The Fifth Trumpet Sounded — The First Woe — A Great 
 
 Smoke from the Pit Darkens the Sun and Air. 
 
 mahomet fills the world with clouds of revised 
 
 romanism and woe. 
 
 Mahomet a Fallen Star — He Knew the Gospel — His Testi- 
 mony of Christ in the Koran — Abbott on his Open Blas- 
 phemy — Chesuey, also, and Porter — Gibbon on his natural 
 Leadership — DeBesse on his Plan — His Key of the Bottom- 
 less Pit — A Great Smoke Arose — His Conquests — The Dark- 
 ened Air — Centuries of Moslem War and Woe — Pear of the 
 Austrian Empire — The Locusts put under Restraint — Tor- 
 ment the Greek Empire 150 years — Gibbon's Remarkable 
 Statement — "Men " and "Man" Symbols of Rulers — Def- 
 inite Date of the Period — DeBesse on the Dates — "Men" 
 Seek Death, from Torment — DeBesse relates the Horrors 
 they Suffered — The Locust Armies Described — Turkish 
 Horsemen — Riders and their Weapons Described — King 
 Abaddon, Apollyon 371 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 VI. THE SIXTH TRUMPET SOUNDED— THE SECOND 
 
 WOE. 
 The Four Euphratean-Bound Angels Loosed — The Third 
 Part of Men Killed by Fire, Smoke and Brimstone, 
 divine judgments — destruction of the eastern empire. 
 Voice from the Golden Altar — The Four Angels Loosed — The 
 Great River Euphrates — The Angels Identified — The Hour, 
 Day, Month and Year Reduced to Literal time — Where the 
 Period should End— The Third Part of Men Slain— Great 
 Number of Horsemen — Breastplates of Fire — Greek Fire 
 and Gunpowder — Turkish Military School — Greek Fire from 
 Arabia— Chinese Gunpowder — Tails like Serpents — Judg- 
 ments Followed by the Inquisition, not by Repentance — 
 Jew and Moslem rebuke Catholic Image Worship - 394 
 
1 6 CONTENTS. 
 
 END OF THE THREE HUNDRED AND NINETY-ONE YEARS OF 
 OTTOMAN SUPREMACY, 
 Their End in 1840 Precalculated in 1838— Published Statement 
 of Related Facts — Trouble Between the Sultan and Egypt 
 — The Porte Submits to Foreign Intervention — The Confer- 
 ence Sat in Ivondou — Ultimatum of the Four Powers — 
 Officially Presented to Mehemet Ali— Test of the Sultan's 
 Supremacy— Departed — Contemporary Testimony — Adverse 
 Testimony Refuted 405 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 VII. THE SEVENTH TRUMPET SOUNDED— THE THIRD 
 
 WOE. 
 
 Divine Judgments on Catholic Nations — Their Hidden 
 
 Talents of Delegated Power Revert to God Who, 
 
 Through Christ, Judges, Reforms, Reigns. 
 
 religious toleration throughout civilization, a glorious 
 
 fruitage. 
 Voices of Joy in the Church — The Visible Reign of God and 
 Christ in the World— Parallel Figures Cited— The Elders 
 Join the Song of Joy — Abbott Describes the Angry Nations 
 — Judgment Sent Through an Infidel Power — Why? — Cred- 
 itable, if Infidel, Reform — Monarchies More Mad — The 
 Church Recognizes the Sounding of this Trumpet — Mis- 
 taken in the Nature of the Event,, not the Date — ^Jesus' 
 Parable Requires a Mistake of the Virgins and a Tarrying 
 of the Bridegroom — The Mistake Explained — The Events 
 belong to Time — A System Temporally Judged, and a Ciass 
 Temporally Rewarded — The Opened Temple and Revealed 
 Testament — The Sanctuary Cleaused in Type — in Antitype — 
 Contention and Division resulted, but Great Truths Followed 
 — Object and Ultimate Failure of the Holy Alliance 416 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 A Popular Misconception — Last Things — Great Hail — Resur- 
 rection and Translation 435 
 
PART FIRST. 
 
 A SYMBOLIZED REVELATION OF THE LORD JESUS 
 
 CHRIST, CONCERNING SEVEN HISTORIC 
 
 DISPENSATIONS IN THE 
 
 GOSPEL AGE. 
 
 "Blessed is he that readeth and lhc[/ that hear the words of this prophecy." 
 
 CHAPTER I.— INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 KEY WORDS AND UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES OF EXPO- 
 SITION—THE WRITER— THE DATE. 
 
 CHAPTER II.— GOD'S INTRODUCTION. 
 
 IMPORTANCE OF THE BOOK— GLIMPSES OF THE DAVID- 
 IAN OR GOSPEL KINGDOM— THE LORD'S DAY. 
 
 CHAPTER III.— BEGINNING OF THE REVELATION 
 
 PROPER. 
 JOHN'S FIRST VISION— THE SEVEN GOLDEN CANDLE- 
 STICKS -A GOLDEN-GIRDED ONE, LIKE UNTO 
 THE SON OF MAN, IN THE MIDST. 
 
The study of prophecy identifies in the mind the God of revela- 
 tion with the God of nature and of history ; and, if investigated in a 
 right spirit of seriousness, may be mightily instrumental in establishing 
 a strong and practical sense of religion in the heart of the inquirer. 
 
 — Chalmers. 
 
ANALYTICAL EXPOSITION 
 
 REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 PART FIRST. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 KEY AVORDS AND UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES OF EXPOSI- 
 TION — THE WRITER — THE DATE. 
 
 WHAT can be more inspiring than a revelation 
 from the Son of God? Given under mystic 
 symbols, what could be more timely than a 
 correct, harmonious exposition, or more interesting than 
 a clear understanding, of its vexed questions? It has been 
 long before the world, comparatively little studied, and 
 much misunderstood; it is ripe for its harvest, and ready 
 to yield rich fruit to studious "servants." Dear reader, 
 let us approach the divine message with becoming rever- 
 ence and faith, and with earnest prayer. 
 
 The present title, "The Revelation of St. John the 
 
 Divine," is not the true title of the book, 
 
 origrinai ]^^^^ ^^.^g rj(|(]gf[^ j^ jg supposcd, perhaps for 
 
 '^***^* greater brevity, l:»y Eusebius, "father of 
 
 ecclesiastical history," about the begin- 
 ning of the fourth century. The first two verses, evi- 
 
 19 
 
20 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part T. 
 
 deutly, is its original, divine and proper title; namely, — 
 
 "THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST, 
 which God gave unto Him, to show unto His 
 servants things which must shortly come to 
 pass; and He sent and signified it by His angel 
 unto His servant John : who bare record of the 
 Word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus 
 Christ, and of all things that he saw." (Ver. 1, 2.) 
 
 The wonderful book thus described closes up the 
 
 canon of onr Holy Scriptures. It is the 
 A Book Most j.^gj- revelation of God to man. It came 
 Wonderful. |q g^j.^j^ direct from God, throngh His 
 
 Sou, our Lord Jesus Christ — indited in 
 
 the highest wisdom of the courts of Heaven, and brought 
 
 down to men by the highest ambassador and the holiest 
 
 harbinger ever sent on royal mission to foreign shores. 
 
 It is the Holy Father's precious gift to His Son, Avho 
 
 graciously shares the royal treasure with 
 A Gift Most men, the objects of His love. In it we 
 Precious. posscss — all Unappreciated, it may be — 
 
 one oi the richest bequests ever vouch- 
 safed to mortals; and in its study we approach the grand- 
 est work ever engaged in by men, even "that good part 
 wliicli shall not be taken from'' tliose who choose it. 
 
 A REVELATION CAXXOT REMAIN A MYSTERY. 
 
 The Revelation of Jesus Christ. — There are 
 two key z^'ords in the original title which. 
 Revelation j£ rightly uudei'stood, seem, in our opin- 
 
 a Key >vor«i. -j^j^^ after loug, carcful and prayerful 
 study of the Book — twenty-six years — 
 to fairly unlock the treasures of this Heavenly casket, 
 namely: "revelation" and "signified." And these 
 
CHAP. I.] PRINCIPLES OF EXPOSITION. 21 
 
 key words render lis the most valuable and indispensable 
 assistance. 
 
 Every branch of hnman learning, called "science," 
 has its rndimental principles first stated, to enable the 
 stndent to master the deepest things which follow. It 
 must be so in divine science, to fit it for human under- 
 standing. 
 
 1. The term revelation (Greek apokahipsis) signifies 
 properly tlie removal of a veil. It means something made 
 kiiow)i; and is divinely applied to this book. But if a 
 very popular conception concerning it is right, naniely, 
 that it is beyond the power of men to comprehend it — 
 that it is, was so intended, and must ever remain a mystery 
 — then its divine title is a divine misnomer! which thought 
 involves an unthinkable absurdity. Surely the great 
 Teacher, divine, all-wise, all-beneficent, would not apply 
 the term revelation to that which "must remain a mys- 
 tery." Furthermore, in closing the book (chap. xxii. 
 10), the Lord expressly instructed John to "seal not the 
 sayings of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at 
 hand." Why this injunction, if mystification rather than 
 revelation was intended — why? Does it not openly and 
 plainly, even positively, disclaim any such thought of im- 
 penetrable mystery? Most surely it does. 
 
 The Prophet Daniel, on the contrary, in the last 
 chapter of his great prophecy, was told 
 coinparea j^g positively to "shut up the words, and 
 
 With Daniel. gp^j^ ^-^q book." Now the Book of Eeve- 
 lation is to the Book of Daniel what the 
 New Testament is to the Old. It has been very aptly 
 said that the Old Testament is the Kew Testament con- 
 cealed; and that the New Testament is the Old Testament 
 revealed. Thus the «;zsealed prophecy of Eevelation is 
 designed to -reveal the sealed-up prophecy of Daniel. For 
 
22 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. fpART I 
 
 Daniel was not told to close up and seal forever, l)ut only 
 "to the time of the end;" when in the nature of things 
 it must he nnsealed if ever to prove of anj^ service to man. 
 God, it would seem, could not so mock the curiosity, or 
 the faitlifulness (as the reader may term it) of His people 
 ])y planning for, nor commanding, an unfruitful searcliing 
 of any part of His Word. For should the seal remain 
 to the end of time, the unmistakahle and wise purpose of 
 God in giving the prophecy would as certainly miscarry, 
 as that the former purpose, had in sealing it, would be 
 thwarted by any premature breaking of the seal. 
 
 The- closing up and sealing of Daniel's prophecy 
 
 evidently was because the time embraced 
 Why Daniel's ^y^^ igj-^g (chap. X. 1, 14). The seal 
 Prophecy Was covcrcd just the time of those generations 
 Sealed. wliicli would pass froiu the stage of action 
 
 before the grand culmination of the 
 prophecy, and which, for that reason, could not them- 
 selves be benefited by the knowledge of when the "time 
 of the end" would be, while the no less divine ensealing, 
 at the proper time, would furnish valuable information 
 and warning to that Jiarticular generation on whom not 
 only the "time of the end" should dawn, but on whom the 
 end of time itself must come. The long sealed period 
 would, through the awakened curiosity of the passing 
 generations in marking the events of the earlier, unsealed 
 visions, furnish, at the proper time, to the last generation 
 (whicli alone is really interested in the sealed portion), 
 the necessary proofs (if any were lacking) of the inspira- 
 tion and infallible nature of the predictions. And this is 
 very important to the last generation, since it must meet 
 the grand culmination of all those predictions, as we said, 
 not in the "time of the end" only, but in what is equally 
 unerringly foreshadowed, the end of time itself. 
 
CHAP. I.] PRINCIPLES OF EXPOSITION. 23 
 
 In Eevelation the case is quite different. The time is 
 five centuries briefer than in Daniel, and 
 Why the not "long," but "at hand." The sealing 
 
 Revelation is ^^p jg therefore as positively prohibited in 
 xot Sealed. the Ecvelation as it was expressly en- 
 Joined in Daniel. 
 "Which God gave unto him." — Therefore 
 there was a time when Jesus, the Son of man — equally 
 also the Son of God — needed a revelation, 
 jesns jjQt having the inherent power to know 
 
 Needed the couceming tlic time of His return to 
 Revelation. earth; else it would not have been so 
 openly and confessedly given to Him. A 
 time wlien, as He Himself says, neither He nor the angels 
 in Heaven, more than men, could penetrate the sealed 
 secret of the most High, and reveal to the Church the 
 nearing end of her sorrows, and the beginning of her 
 promised eternal joy. When the "Father only" knew 
 or could make any revelation concerning it. 
 
 "But of that day and hour knoweth no man ; no, not the 
 angels wh'ich are in Heaven, neither ihe Sotiy but the Father 
 [Matthew] only." — Mark xiii. 32. 
 
 But further, while here among men, Jesus distinctly 
 taught His disciples that He spake not out of His own 
 inherent wisdom: — 
 
 " I have not spoken of Myself, but the Father who sent Me : 
 He gave Me a commandment, what I shoiild say and what I should 
 speak. * * * Whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father 
 said unto Me, so I speak." — ^John xii. 49, 50. 
 
 Jesus was soon exalted to the right hand of the Maj- 
 esty in the Heavens, not only in power, but in zvisdom 
 also, by this revelation from His Father. And He was 
 apprised of this expectation, for He said to His dis- 
 ciples: — 
 
24 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part i. 
 
 " I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them 
 now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth 
 The RevelaUon ^g ^^^^^ jje will guide you iuto a/l truth ; for 
 He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever 
 He shall hear, that shall He speak : and He will show you things 
 to come. He shall glorify Me ; for He shall receive of tnine, and 
 shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are ntitie ; 
 [including the sealed book of Rev. v.] therefore, said I, that He 
 shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you." — John xvi. 12-15. 
 
 The Father, therefore, only foreknew — He who had 
 foredetermined — at wliat time the end should come, and 
 what signs should show the Saviour's return to be "at the 
 door." But Jesus does here solemnly declare, repeating the 
 assertion, that this knowledge, among "all" the infinite 
 possessions of His Father, is His own inheritance (given to 
 Him after His ascension — see chap. v. 1-7), and that after 
 the descent of the Holy Spirit it should even be shown 
 unto them, thus making His wise and faithful servants 
 rulers "over all His goods" — i. e., truths — as promised in 
 the parable, Matt. xxiv. 46, 47. 
 
 "To show unto His servants." — This, then, is 
 that promised revelation. It is made both in symbol and 
 in parable to His serrants — believers: they will receive it 
 and welcome it, while unbelievers would despise and re- 
 ject it. 
 
 For " the natural man receiveth not the things ['goods' or 
 truths] of the Spirit of God ; for they are foolishness unto Him ; 
 neither can He know them, because they are spiritually dis- 
 cerned." — I Cor. ii. 14. 
 
 Again, " the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, 
 and His covenant to make them know it." — Psa. xxv. 14 — 
 Margin. 
 
 " Things which must shortly come to pass." 
 
 — To show or reveal to them the things or events which 
 must soon transpire in the history of the Church before 
 they come to pass. Otherwise there could be no special 
 
CHAP. I.] PRINCIPI^ES OF EXPOSITION. 25 
 
 revelation to His servants more than to otherS;, since those 
 who lack spiritual discernment could recognize events 
 after their occurrence, why not as readily as they? We 
 should therefore approach the study of the Eevelation as 
 servants — becoming such, if not already so, by obedience 
 and the exercise of faith that it is a revelation, as stated. 
 And let our faith respect and our love firmly grasp all 
 these divine utterances of our blessed Lord and Teacher, 
 even though it should show all human theories and views 
 to be false, and prove '"^every man a liar" — a contingency 
 suggested by the Apostle Paul. 
 
 The phrase, "shortly come to pass," should have 
 more weight than it has had with many expositors. No- 
 tice how it is ignored by some of the 
 
 VARIOUS "schools OF INTERPRETATION." 
 
 The International Cyclopedia, in loco, gives this sum- 
 ming of the different "schools:" — 
 
 " I. T\\e Pnrterisi school of interpretation, who look iipon 
 
 the Revelation as fulfilled in the past, and 
 
 Prwterist especially in the great conflicts of Christianity 
 
 School. . , ^ , . , . «-.«,,- 
 
 With Judaism and paganism. * * To this 
 
 class of interpreters belong, among others, Grotius, Hammond, 
 
 Bosuet, Calmet, Eichhorn, Ewald, Liicke, DeWette, Stuart, L,ce, 
 
 Maurice. 
 
 " 2. The Futurist school regard the book, with the exception 
 
 of the first three chapters, as referring to events 
 
 Fntarist j. ^^ come to pass, and this view has been ad- 
 
 vocated, in modern times, by such writers as 
 
 Dr. J. H. Todd, Dr. S. R. Maitland, Newton and others. 
 
 " 3. What has been called the Historical and Continuous 
 
 school of expositors, who regard the Revela- 
 
 Historicni and ^j^^ ^g ^ progressive symbolic history of the for- 
 
 CoutlnuouB ^ , * , , ; , r- 
 
 School. tunes of the Church from the first century to 
 
 the end of time. To this school belong a host 
 
 of eminent names, such as Mede, Sir Isaac Newton, Vitringa, 
 
 Bengel, Faber, Ebhard and others." 
 
26 DIVINK KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part I 
 
 The writer finds himself in full accord with the His- 
 torical and Continuous view as far as is indicated in this 
 summing, however he may differ with the various writers 
 in detail. For the word "'shortly" clearly shows that the 
 revelation was to begin in Apostolic times, not only as 
 seen in the seven churches "of the first three chapters," 
 but as seen also in the other serial visions — the seven seals 
 and the seven trumpets. For, as in the visions of the 
 Book of Daniel, each passed over the same general his- 
 tory, but adding new details with each added vision, so 
 we find do the several distinct visions of the Eevelator 
 cumulate the tints and colorings which perfect and finish 
 the divine picture. 
 
 But again the periods of Eevelation are so mani- 
 festly identical with those of Daniel, and of the year-day 
 order, that it will be found impossible to exhaust them in 
 the early part of the Christian era, as taught by the Prae- 
 terists; nor, since they measure the papal system, or "Man 
 of Sin," can they be delayed to the future of our time as 
 taught by Futurists. 
 
 SYMBOLIC CHARACTER OF THE LANGUAGE USED. 
 
 "And He sent and signified it." — That is, He 
 sign-i-fied or symbolized it — gave it in signs and sym- 
 bols. 
 
 II. Thus the term signify becomes the second key 
 word in the study of the book, and it is 
 sienify the quite important to note this fact at once. 
 Second f^j. [^ settles ail all-important matter in 
 
 Key Word. fjpg^ principles in any hopeful, harmo- 
 
 nious exposition. Nearly all of Jesus' 
 teaching while here among men was by parables and fig- 
 ures; and it seems unquestionable that this revelation is 
 also zvholly of this order, since the descriptive terms make 
 
CITAP. I.] TRINCIPLKS OF RXPOSITION. 27 
 
 no exception: "it" — the Eevelation, which includes all 
 that is revealed — is "sign-i-fied," syniboliccd. I think few 
 expositors have heretofore understood it to be entirely 
 symbolic, but have thought it partly literal — some more 
 and some less. But how then shall it be determined cer- 
 tainly which part is symbolic and which literal? Shall 
 we deny to so important a divine revelation any fixed 
 authoritative rule of interpretation, and thus open the 
 field of its exposition to the misguided judgment or ca- 
 price of uninspired men, so liable, like a ship on the sea, 
 with chart and compass lost, to quickly stand on unseen 
 rocks or shores? It seems incredible that a revelation 
 specially sent from Heaven to enlighten the Church con- 
 cerning the perilous road over which she is to travel, and 
 couched in the strange language of this book, should be 
 accompanied by no fixed clue or rule for understanding it. 
 If algebra had no fixed rule for its characters, nor geome- 
 try for its figures, how could their difficult problems be 
 solved? On the contrary, every science taught by man 
 formulates its own rules: the rules are but the principles 
 
 embodied. Eevelation is God's science. 
 Syinboii)4m a ^j^,^ here is the divine rule for under- 
 Fixeci Rule of standing it, one which at once settles its 
 Entirety. qucstious and harmonizes its difficulties 
 
 amazingly, namely, the entire revelation is 
 "sign-i-Hcd" — symbolized. A failure to recognize the en- 
 tirety of its symbolic order no doubt accounts for the 
 greater part of the confusion in the many conflicting ex- 
 positions extant. One interpreter has said, this is sym- 
 bolic and that is literal; and another, equally confident, 
 has been as free to say, this is literal and that is symbolic; 
 while a third, with the same assumed right, has made still 
 another variation, and so on to the end of the list. And, 
 indeed, how can such individual discretion be denied to 
 
28 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part I. 
 
 any, if allowable in any? But again, I ask, and with all 
 the emphasis I can pnt in the words, if God has symbol- 
 ized the "Revelation," who may safely literalize it, or any 
 part of it? 
 
 UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES OF EXPOSITION. 
 
 The principles which underlie this exposition appear 
 in the following simple, natural deductions: — 
 
 1. "The Revelation of Jesus Christ" is not as exten- 
 sive as the book which contains it. 
 
 2. The first tzvo verses form the original and proper 
 title of the Revelation. 
 
 3. The third to the tenth verses, inclusive, are intro- 
 ductory, the third being God's introduction, the rest 
 John's — his explanatory words, as writer, as to place and 
 occasion of writing, and containing some plain, helpful 
 figures and references to the symbols of the revelation 
 proper. 
 
 4. The revelation proper begins with the eleventh 
 verse (of the first chapter), and extends to include verse 
 five of the last chapter (i. 11 — xxii. 5). 
 
 5. The rest, versus six to twenty-one (xxii. 6-21), in- 
 clusive, are explanatory and exhortatory, with also a few 
 easy figures interspersed. 
 
 Thus there are four plain parts to the whole matter 
 contained in the book: — 
 /. CJiapter i. 1, 2. — The Divine Title. 
 
 2. Chapter i. 3-10.— Prefatory and Introductory. 
 
 3. Chapteri.ll— xxii. 5.— THE REVELATION PROPER. 
 
 4. Chaptcrxxii. 0-21. — Explanatory and Exhortatory. 
 
 THE REVELATION PROPER, GOD gave to Christ: 
 CHRIST WHOLLY SYMBOLIZED it to John: 
 JOHN faithfully wrote it out for the Church. 
 
CHAP I.] PRINCIPLES OF EXPOvSlTION. 29 
 
 6. The other three parts (1, 3 and 4) require the 
 ordinary discretion of the reader, or expositor, in deciding 
 in any case the nature of the language used, as is required 
 in other Scripture writings, where no rule of entirety is 
 affirmed. 
 
 7. As God has Himself premised the symbolic nature 
 
 of the revelation, leaving expositors no 
 The Symbols discretion on that point, so is no dis- 
 are Exi»iaiiied crctiou left thcm in interpreting the 
 '•>' *''*^ symbols; for every principal symbol used 
 
 Word Itself. therein — mark this — is somewhere in the 
 
 Scriptures explained by the Holy Spirit. 
 Eelative to the entirety of its symbolism, let it not be 
 supposed that in asserting and maintaining it, an extreme 
 radicalism is put forth, or intended, — such as that every 
 zvord is symbolic, — by any means, for reference is had only 
 to statements, as a whole. The following illustrations will 
 make this clear: Some principal words, as such, must 
 
 necessarily have a literal, natural significa- 
 symboiie ^jqjj jj^ Order to convcy the proper inter- 
 
 Entirety prctativc first impression — the most nat- 
 
 Deflned. y^j.^^ scusc of tlic words being usually 
 
 made the basis of the symbolic reference; 
 but the sentences formed, or statements made, with which 
 such words are connected, must in verity as necessarily 
 conform to God's enunciated rule. For instance: — 
 
 1. In chapter viii. 8, "the third part of the sea be- 
 came blood." Blood here, as a word, has its literal sense, 
 else no correct, helpful, first impression is conveyed in the 
 statement to the puzzled mind — a requirement as abso- 
 lutely necessary as it was unquestionably intended; but that 
 any part of the sea literally became blood cannot reason- 
 ably be concluded. Blood is the life fluid in man and beast. 
 
30 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [parT I. 
 
 "The blood is the life of the flesh," said Moses (Gen. ix. 
 4). And so that literal sense is made the basis of many 
 figurative expressions involving "sanguinary deeds col- 
 lectively, bloodshed, slaughter, murder, war, or the state 
 of war; as, the French Kevolution was a revel of blood." 
 {Standard Dictionary.) Therefore, since the angel inter- 
 prets the luatcrs (ch. xvii. 15) to signify "peoples, and 
 multitudes, and nations and tongues," we may easily and 
 unerringly interpret the whole as signifying or symboliz- 
 ing the extremely bloody conflicts into which those diverse 
 peoples were plunged; as in the Napoleonic wars which 
 covered Europe with blood, and cost two million lives. ' 
 2. Again, in chapter viii. 11, the star called "Worm- 
 wood" was seen to fall upon "the rivers and fountains of 
 water" and "many men died of the waters, because they 
 were made bitter." Here is the divine interpretation of 
 the symbol wormwood, bitterness, in closer connection 
 than is usual. (1) If wormwood were thrown into water, 
 the water would soon, in a literal sense, become bitter. 
 (2) A star, which is a light in the Heavens, is explained 
 (ch. i. 20) to be an "angel," i. e., an agency, a teacher 
 or spiritual light-beareV in the Church. But this is a fallen 
 star, hence an apostate, false teacher. (3) The literal sense 
 of the name wormwood, then, naturally indicates the bitter 
 fruits in the experiences of those "peoples," etc. — "waters" 
 — upon which said star fell, or whom said false teacher 
 deceived. For false teachers "compass sea and land" to 
 proselyte, and leave their converts "twofold more chil- 
 dren of judgment than before (Matt, xxiii. 15). Fur- 
 ther, the multitudes of unsaved humanity are troubled, 
 polluted, restless (Isa. Ivii. 20, 21), unfeeling and bois- 
 terous (Jer. vi. 23), like the turbulent, roiled, acrid and 
 roaring waters of the sea. And these natural conditions 
 are greatly intensified among all peoples when greedy, false 
 
CHAP I.] PRINCIPLES OF EXPOSITION. 3 1 
 
 teachers deceive them — all history demonstrating their 
 double portion of bitterness, both spiritually and tempor- 
 ally. 
 
 Thus it is seen that these symbols, though somewhat 
 
 difficult, are not meaningless and unprofitable, but yield 
 rich fruit, as we shall further show, when a reasonable 
 effort is put forth to understand them. The above pas- 
 sages will be considered historically when reached in the 
 order of exposition. 
 
 The writer confidently believes that the principles 
 
 of interpretation thus indicated will be 
 *»*« found on the most rigid examination and 
 
 Principles. criticism, if also candid and Christian, to 
 
 constitute a safe rule for the entire revela- 
 tion, and proving more and more satisfactory, the more it 
 is applied in personal investigation, as making the most 
 perfect and general harmonies throughout the book, with 
 the fewest possible, if any, exceptions. Eiper experience 
 demonstrates that with its faithful use in the study of this 
 blessed revelation, most of the difficulties which have 
 heretofore been felt vanish, and a host of vexed questions 
 are answered. And many doctrinal extravagancies, also, 
 of which literalists have been manifestly convicted, will be 
 avoided. This will appear as we proceed. And, on the 
 other hand, the vagaries of Swedenborg, and the freaks 
 of other fanciful and visionary expositors, who explain 
 these symbols arbitrarily, with little or no reference to 
 divine rule or example, will be avoided. 
 
 THE GREAT VARIETY OF SYMBOLS USED. 
 
 It is interesting to note the great variety of symbols 
 called into use in the Eevelation. Nearly every known 
 thing in Heaven and in the earth is laid under tribute to 
 
32 DIVINE KKY OF THE REVELATION. fpART I. 
 
 enrich these most wonderful visions — the Holy Spirit, the 
 angels, Heaven, the sun, the moon and the stars; the air, 
 light, the rainbow, clouds, thunder and lightning, rain, 
 hail and smoke; the earth, mountains, islands, earthquakes, 
 a volcano (or "burning mountain"), rivers, fountains, the 
 sea and ships; a man, a woman, a child, a birth, souls, 
 death, a song and crying; Asia and seven of its cities, walls, 
 gates, a synagogue, a Jew, and churches; the temple, the 
 court, the altar, incense, and the candlesticks ; kings, 
 thrones, crowns, a sword, a girdle, a trumpet; merchants, 
 gold, wine, oil, bread, manna, wheat, barley; an hour, a 
 day, a month, a year, and a pair of balances; a dragon, 
 horses, beasts, a lamb, an eagle, blood, wormwood, brim- 
 stone, fire and water; locusts, heads, horns, wings, a tail, 
 a mouth and eyes; and the colors white, red, black and 
 pale. All these and others must be understood symboli- 
 cally. If they are given literal signification, in their va- 
 rious connections, the evident rule of the Eevelation is 
 violated, unless something in the connection or the cir- 
 cumstances furnishes a valid reason for an exception to a 
 general rule. ^ 
 
 THE MEDIUM OF COMMUNICATION. 
 
 " By His angel." — The angel of communication, 
 whether a celestial messenger was literally, or only in 
 vision, present with John, is doubtless a symbol of the 
 Holy Spirit with the Church, since he does not bring a 
 written-out revelation, but impresses John with the matter, 
 and requires him to write it out for the Church. It has 
 been shown that this is the predicted work of the Holy 
 Spirit, as promised by Jesus in literal discourse — quoted 
 on page eight, and found in John xvi. 12-15. 
 
CHAP. I.] " THE WRITER AND DATE. 33 
 
 THE WRITER. 
 
 "Unto his servant John." — There seems no 
 room to doubt that the writer of the Kevelation was the 
 beloved Apostle John. Who else would be referred to so 
 unqualifiedly in this connection but the Apostle John? 
 Characteristically, and unlike the popes, he withheld his 
 proper official title, and modestly styled himself John; but 
 the reference to his "record of the Word of God," for 
 which he was banished to Patmos (verse 9), gives a very 
 clear clue to his identity. For who but the Apostle John 
 "testified the Word of God, and the testimony of Jesus 
 Christ, whatever things he saw" {Emphatic Diaglott), to the 
 annoyance of the great Empire of Rome? He evidently 
 "testified," or "bare record" (past tense, in his present 
 writing, therefore) in his Gospel, some time before his 
 exile. 
 
 Little confidence can be placed in the testimony of 
 
 the so-called Christian fathers of the early 
 Testimony of Qospel ceuturics, SO utterly confused and 
 tiie Fathers. contradictory are they, except as they are 
 
 found to agree with Scriptural require- 
 ments. But we have this: "So far as historic testimony is 
 concerned, the authority of the early Church fathers — 
 c. g., Justin Martyr, Theophilus of Antioch, Irenaeus, and 
 Clement of Alexandria — all point to the Apostle John as 
 the writer." {International Cyclopedia.) Sir Isaac Newton 
 says it was "a tradition of the first churches, that John was 
 banished into Patmos in the days of Nero." And that, 
 "with the opinion of the first commentators, agree the 
 traditions of the Churches of Syria, preserved to this day 
 in the title of the Syriac version of the Apocalypse, which 
 is this: The Revelation which was made to St. John the 
 Evangelist by God, in the Isle of Patmos, into which he 
 was banished by Nero the Caesar." {Observations on the 
 
34 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part i. 
 
 Apoca., pp. 236, 237.) And Dr. Davidson, 
 Dr. Davidson's jj^ j^^g Introduction to the Study of the Neiv 
 Testimony. Tcstameiit, sajs that "Theophylact agrees 
 
 with the claim of the Syriac version." 
 (Vol.1, p. 348.) But add to this the stronger testimony, the 
 identity of style, by a comparison of chapter i. 2, 9; John 
 i. 14; xix. 35; xxi. 24, and 1 John i. 2, and the case is clear 
 for John the Apostle. But by this it is not claimed that 
 the general styles of the two books are not as dissimilar 
 as is contended by those writers who deny both the Apos- 
 tolic writing, and the divine authorship of the Eevelation. 
 But John does not claim to be the author of Revelation 
 as of the Gospel which bears his name, and he was not; 
 BO that no such similarity of style is demanded between 
 the Gospel which he indited and the Revelation which he 
 copied! save in such explanations as were his own words, 
 as pointed out above. Those skeptical writers, therefore, 
 who so declaim against the book, greatly missed their 
 mark, and fired their guns of merely human lore and criti- 
 cism at men of straw. But even Luther was deceived by 
 them, and received it not. 
 
 > THE DATE. 
 
 Unfortunately, all authentic cotemporary clues and 
 records concerning the time of writing either his Gospel 
 or the Revelation is lost. And there has been much confus- 
 ing and needless speculation among ecclesiastical writers as 
 to which book was written lirst, though the texts above 
 cited clearly give the Gospel the priority. Some have 
 
 even claimed the Gospel of John to have 
 statements of i^ggn the last of the New Testament 
 Dr. \vm. Smith writings. But Dr. William Smith, au- 
 »"* thor of the Dictionary of the Bible, and 
 
 Dr. A. Clarke, ^t^q History of the Bible (in loco), more 
 
 reasonably concludes that "probably the 
 
CHAP. I ] THE WRITER AND DATE. 35 
 
 date of the Gospel [of John] was about a. d. 78." But 
 Dr. Adam Clarke says, "this Gosepl is supposed by learned 
 men to have been written about a. d. 68 or 70, by others 
 A. d. 86 [which was his own view], and by others a. d. 
 97." And thus all writers have expressed their several 
 preferences to a probability ranging from a. d. 68 onward 
 to A. d. 97. But even the earliest date is too late a prob- 
 ability to trust without a single real Scriptural support. 
 It has been said, because John in his Gospel does not 
 mention the destruction of Jerusalem (as Luke) that there- 
 fore he must have written after that event. On the con- 
 trary, it would appear that had he written after the de- 
 struction of the holy city and the scattering of the Jewish 
 people, he would have mentioned the fact as a fulfillment 
 of the Lord's prophecy as recorded by Luke (ch. xxi. 2). 
 And would he have said (ch. v. 2), ''Now there is at Jeru- 
 salem, by the sheep market, a pool," etc., if he was writing 
 years after the city was destroyed and plowed up as a field? 
 But a reputable class of writers, from a statement of 
 Irenaeus, bring the writing of Revelation down to a. d. 
 96, under Domitian, which would bring the offence of 
 John's Gospel also down to about a. d. 86, or early in that 
 Emperor's reign, and over fifty years after the ascen- 
 sion, which is next to incredible. The Scripture clues are 
 better than anything that can be drawn from the con- 
 fused and contradictory statements of the fathers. John's 
 Gospel "record" undoubtedly caused the exile, during which 
 he received the Eevelation, not later than a. d. 54 or 55, 
 which latter fact, from a strong Scriptural clue, will ap- 
 pear incontrovertible when we reach the message to the 
 Church of Ephesus (the date, p. 73). And that Gospel, or 
 "testimony of Jesus Christ," to have stirred up the powers 
 of Rome to the point of banishing John from the Empire, 
 as he positively asserts, must therefore have been written 
 
36 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part I. 
 
 as early as a. d. 50 — eighteen to twenty-eight years earlier 
 than Drs. Clarke and Smith have suggested, and even then 
 twenty years after Jesus' ascension! Twenty years, even, 
 not to say sixty-seven with the latest view, was a long time, 
 as one would think, for a beloved disciple and "eye wit- 
 ness" to have delayed his "testimony" concerning the won- 
 derful work, teachings, death, resurrection and ascension 
 
 of his Lord. But fifty years' delay, until 
 The Apostle j^g ^j^g g^ decrepit old man, eighty, or as 
 Not a Dilatory gome will havc it, ninety years of age, is, 
 Witness. ^g J havc Said, too incredible to consider; 
 
 and I cannot believe that the beloved dis- 
 ciple of his Lord was so dilatory as to procrastinate his 
 "testimony" to that late period of his life. John, that was 
 always nearest the Master; that was first at His side after 
 His arrest; that stood by His cross when all his brethren 
 had fled; that outran Peter, and was the first man at His 
 tomb after the news of His resurrection; that was "im- 
 mediately in the Spirit" when the voice announced the 
 opened door (ch. iv.); that was "about to write" as soon 
 as tlie seven thunders had spoken (ch. x. 4), and Avas only 
 prevented by eommaddment; incredible, I say, that he 
 would delay his important "record of the Word of God," 
 his "testimony of Jesus Christ," until he trembled with 
 the weight of years! And it would seem extremely doubt- 
 ful also, that even a pagan Emperor would banish a man 
 of that age, or that God would choose such an aged man 
 for the great revelation of Patmos! Where is a precedent 
 to be found in all God's choices of agencies? 
 
 SECRET OF THIS CONFUSION OF DATES. 
 
 The importance of finding, as nearly as possible, the 
 true date of John's work will be appreciated, and will 
 reward the reader's patience in this effort to unearth what 
 
CHAP. I ] THE WRITER AND DATE. 37 
 
 misconception, prejudice and bias concerning an under- 
 standing of the strange symbols portrayed to the Apostle 
 has so successfully covered from a casual view, when its 
 bearing on exposition is met in the very first message to 
 the Church. Many of the early writers and so-called 
 fathers held mistaken views relative to the heads of the 
 leopard beast (ch. xiii.), supposing them to symbolize 
 seven Roman emperors, when nothing could have been fur- 
 ther from truth, as we now know it. They looked also for 
 a personal antichrist to be developed in one of those early 
 emperors; and more strangely still, associated the ^'anti- 
 christ" with the head that was "as it were wounded to 
 death," and was healed. By some strange freak in count- 
 ing the emperors, such as only the fanaticism of religious 
 prejudice could devise, and which history no more war- 
 rants than do the Scriptures their application of the proph- 
 ecy, they made out Nero (who really banished John) to 
 be both the antichrist and the "wounded head" — to be 
 "healed" by rising from his grave! The Church was filled 
 with that vain and fanatical speculation, and troubled with 
 the constant and idle expectation of the revival of the 
 dreaded Nero — more dreadful as the prophetic antichrist 
 and "man of sin" in the temple of God. Other "fathers," 
 furiously disgusted at these insane extravagancies (and in 
 a degree rightly so) sought, by ignoring Julius Caesar and 
 the short-termed emperors, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, either 
 to put the antichristian crown on the head of Domitian 
 (who also inaugurated a bloody war upon the Church), or 
 else at least to bring down the banishment of John and 
 the writing of the Eevelation into that reign, and thus, 
 by some means or any means, to rid the whole subject of 
 the Neronian expectation and heresy. All parties took 
 sides in this controversy, which is undoubtedly the true 
 secret of the confusion concerning this date, which is still 
 
38 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part I. 
 
 SO perplexing to students and encyclopedists. The date 
 became a watchword or a target for parties in the strife, 
 and soon the weather-vane of opinion and conjecture in the 
 study of the Book. 
 
 EARLY CHURCH AUTHORITY ON THE DATE. 
 
 But even so far as so-called "authorities" go, the early 
 
 date stands as good a showing as the later. 
 Dean Aiford's pg^n Alford quotcs Epiphauius (fourth 
 Q^notations. ccutury) in two passages where he says 
 
 (1) that John's return from Patmos "took 
 place under Claudius Caesar f (2) that he prophesied long 
 ago in the days of Claudius Caesar, when he was in the 
 Island of Patmos." (New Test, for Eng. Readers.) It 
 seems to have been taken for granted by those who have 
 criticised Epiphanius in this that he referred to the fourth 
 emperor, usually styled Claudius, instead of the fifth, com- 
 monly called Nero. But this is not certain or necessary, 
 for the two names in full are very similar: (1) Tiberius 
 Claudius Drusus Nero (a. d, 41-54); (2) Nero Clau- 
 dius C^SAR Drusus Germanicus (a. d. 54-68). Nero 
 and Claudius being in both names, and Csesar in but the 
 latter, it is probable, almost certain, that Epiphanius dis- 
 tinguished the latter emperor by adding Csesar to Clau- 
 dius, the same as the old Syriac version (above quoted) did 
 
 by adding Csesar to Nero. Eoy, author of 
 Roy and Bishop ^]^g Hebrew and Greek Dictionary, says 
 Newton's ^j^at "Epiphauius, Tertullian, Origen, An- 
 
 Testimony. ^pg^s and Arcthas, all assert that the 
 
 Eevelation was written before the destruc- 
 tion of Jerusalem, and in the reign of Nero. Bishop New- 
 ton, and many otlier eminent men, were of the same opin- 
 ion." {Expos, of the Book of Rev., p. 5.) 
 
 Some writers will have the destruction of Jerusalem 
 in the question, but for no reason that any modern expo- 
 
CHAP. I.] THE WRITER AND DATlj;. 39 
 
 sition can recognize. Thus Dr. Jackson 
 Dr. jackson*M g^yg^ "^j^g choice [of datcs] lies between 
 statement. ^ j,. 68 or 69, and A. D. 96— i. e., prior 
 
 or subsequent to the destruction of Jeru- 
 salem. The preponderance of scholarly opinion inclines 
 to the earlier date, but the arguments [he thinks] are 
 evenly balanced." {Johnson's Univer. Ency.) Dr. Kitto 
 writes thus: "The language of Tertul- 
 Dr. Kitto's ijan, Clement and Origen, is more appro- 
 
 Testimonr. priate to Nero than to Domitian. Thus 
 
 Eusebius, who follows Irenseus, associates 
 -the Patmos exile with the death of Peter and Paul, who 
 suffered under Nero." {Cyclo. of Bib. Lit., Vol. II, p. 62.) 
 The testimony altogether seems clear for the banish- 
 ment of John by Nero, the fifth emperor from Augustus, 
 A. D. 54 or 55. And yet it is not impossible from the 
 disturbances that were in the empire even in the days 
 of Claudius, the fourth emperor (in case that Epiphanius'" 
 reference — which is so improbable — was to the former 
 Claudius), that John may have been banished as early as 
 A. D. 50, in that reign. Dean Merivale, the historian, 
 speaking of the condition of the scattered Jews, says: — 
 "They were agitated year by year with rumors of new 
 Messiah's appearing on the streets of Jeru- 
 Qaotation from gajem, or on the slopes of the wilderness, 
 Dean Merivale. g^d drawing after them excited multi- 
 tudes, till their career was rudely inter- 
 cepted by the Eoman sword. The direct establishment of 
 the Eoman power in Palestine by Claudius, followed so 
 soon upon the brutal attack of Caius [Caligula], seems to 
 have driven this frantic population of Judea to a succession 
 of desperate outbreaks. Among the Jewish sojourners in 
 foreign cities, connected as they were by constant inter- 
 course ^ith their native land, the same restless feeling was 
 
40 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [parT I. 
 
 speedily manifested. It is thus that we can best explain 
 the hasty notice of Suetonius, when he states that Clau- 
 dius once more expelled the Jews from Home, on account 
 of their repeated riots at the instigation of a certain 
 Chrestus. This name, as is well known, was a form of the 
 title Christos, the anointed Messiah * * the watchword, 
 no doubt, of the disturbers of peace in the city, who looked 
 at every fresh arrival of exciting news from home, for a 
 divine manifestation in favor of the Kingdom of God." 
 {History of the Romans iindcr the Empire, Vol. VI., p. 2G3.) 
 In the Miles Martindale Dictionary of the Bible is a 
 statement concerning the edict of Clau- 
 M. Martimiaie's (-"^^^^g (^j^g fourth Empcror) "expelling all 
 saggestion. jg^^g ^^^ ^f Eome," and confirming the 
 , above poplar charge against Christ as cur- 
 rent at that time. (Acts xviii. 2. — It was through the 
 work of the Apostles, of course, since Jesus Himself as- 
 cended seven years before Claudius' reign began, and his 
 consequent rage.) He quotes Suetonius (who wrote early 
 in the second century), and says: "It is very probable that 
 the Christians, who were at that time confounded with the 
 Jews, were banished fhence likewise." {In loco.) The 
 reasonableness of this latter suggestion will at once appear, 
 since it was not that they were Jews, but that they were 
 believing in Christ and falsely charged with tumult. (See 
 Acts xvii. 3-8; xxiv. 5, 12, 13, 17-18; xxv. 7, 8.) These 
 Scriptures explain the true cause of the excitement noted 
 in the last two quotations, and Claudius' edict and rage, 
 and are strongly in favor of the early date of the banish- 
 ment under one of the Claudiuses. And 
 Mosheim Moshcim further confirms the probability 
 
 Confirms whcu hc says: "It is certain that the 
 
 Martiniiaie. \q^^ euactcd against the Christians were 
 enacted against the whole body, and not 
 
CHAP. I.] THE \vritp:r and date. 41 
 
 against particular churches, and were consequently in force 
 in the remotest provinces. The authority of Tertullian 
 confirms this." (Ecd. Hist., Vol. I., p. 32.) Another writer, 
 recounting the cruelties and murders of Nero, says: "He 
 also executed, or banished, many persons highly distin- 
 guished for integrity and virtue." {Interna. Cyclo.) 
 
 It is therefore almost certain that John wrote his 
 Gospel, which caused his exile, during the Claudian period 
 (that of the fourth Emperor), long before the destruction 
 of Jerusalem, while the excitement was rife among the 
 Jews in expectation of the Messiah, and they were stirring 
 up the people everywhere against any belief that Jesus 
 was the Son of God, and causing the Christians the great- 
 est trouble, both from local and imperial authority. And 
 it was the Apostles, the "ringleaders of the sect of the 
 Nazarenes," who were arrested and executed and banished. 
 Twenty years had passed since the miracles, crucifixion 
 and resurrection of the true Messiah; a new generation 
 had come upon the scene, and what was more neces- 
 sary under the present conditions than the 
 Lnke AVrote written tcstimouy of the eye-witnesses? 
 Late In A. D. CO. Thcrc is uo qucstion that Luke wrote his 
 Gospel under Nero (the second Claudius) 
 about A. D. 60. But he says that many before him had 
 "taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those 
 things which are most surely believed among us, even as 
 they delivered them unto us [*^], who 'from the beginning' 
 were 'eye-xvitncsscs' and ministers of the Word.''' ]\[ust 
 we not think that these "eye-witnesses" and "ministers of 
 the "Word" included John the Apostle, whose very words 
 were cited — an "eye-witness" from "the beginning?" And 
 must not those things "set forth in order," and surely be- 
 lieved, have included John's Gospel? But I will not follow 
 
42 
 
 DIVINE KEY OP THE REVELATION. 
 
 this point further here; we will find some strong internal 
 evidence, as I have said, in connection with the Church 
 
 of Ephesiis (p. 70). 
 
CHAPTEK II. 
 GOD'S INTEODUCTION. 
 
 IMPORTANCE OF THE COOK GLIMPSES OF THE DAVIDIAN 
 
 OR GOSPEL KINGDOM — THE LORd's DAY. 
 
 Text, Chapter i. 3. 
 
 "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that 
 hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those 
 things which are written therein ; for the time is 
 at hand." 
 
 THE blessing here promised is not to him who shall 
 exhibit the best natural nor acquired abilities to 
 understand the book, nor to expound the difficult 
 problems of the prophecy — not that, that would confine 
 the blessing" to a very few of "His servants;" but to the 
 reader and hearer; to every individual who gives attention, 
 such as he can, and keeps — holds in loving remembrance 
 and reverence — the words of his Lord's communication, 
 and yields ready obedience to its requirements. Suppose 
 indifferent and careless people say, "There is no use in 
 vexing ourselves with those strange figures; zve can never 
 understand them." Are they not plainly doubting — if un- 
 consciously — the wisdom, power and providence of God to 
 make it profitable to them? Is not God "more willing" to 
 give wisdom, even the Holy Spirit, to those who ask it, 
 "than earthly parents are to give good gifts unto their 
 children?" Could we comprehend the love of God before 
 He forgave our sins as well as we do now? But was that 
 
 43 
 
44 DIVINK KEY OF THK REVELATION. [part I. 
 
 the extent of His love, or the end of His power? Shall 
 we impeach the wisdom of God by saying it cannot benefit 
 nor instruct us to study this book, because it is symbolic, 
 and more difficult to understand, when it was so carefully 
 given the Church as a revelation f or shall we impeach His 
 love, by saying that He did not even intend we should 
 understand it; that it is only an idle curiosity, filled with 
 vexing, puzzling, unprofitable wonderments? On the con- 
 trary, I imderstand it is a wonderful faith-tester and faith- 
 developer. If we only believe that we are reading or hear- 
 ing a revelation from God through Jesus, and know that 
 we are keeping the words of His wonderful prophecy, the 
 blessing of understanding it will surely follow. The prom- 
 ised blessing will be the understanding of it. 
 
 "For the time is at hand." — Time for under- 
 standing all prophetic visions. Prophecy has almost 
 reached its culmination, as it spans the last historic arch of 
 time, leaping triumphantly from Advent to Advent! And 
 this is a reason assigned that such a blessing should follow 
 faithful attention to it. We have seen that in Daniel's 
 prophecy the time was long; immediate understanding was 
 not necessary, and therefore the vision 
 Time of ^^g sealed up to "the time of the end" — 
 
 the End. till |-]^e ^jj^e should be "at hand," when 
 
 an understanding would be necessary. 
 The Revelation came at a time when the unsealing should 
 begin, unfolding event after event, in order to an under- 
 standing — a premonition of ending probation, and dawn- 
 ing eternity, so necessary to be known by all men; there- 
 fore the seal was withheld from this prophecy (cli. xxii. 
 10), removed from Daniel's, and the blessing of under- 
 standing put in its place. 
 
chap. ii.] importance of the book. 45 
 
 John's introduction. 
 Text, Chapter i. 4-10. 
 
 4. John to the seven churches which are in Asia : Grace be 
 unto you, aud peace, from Him who is, and who was, and who is to 
 come ; and from the seven Spirits that are before His throne ; 
 
 5. And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the 
 first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. 
 Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own 
 
 blood, 
 
 6. Aud hath made us kings and priests unto God aud His 
 Father ; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. 
 
 7. Behold, He cometh with clouds ; and every eye shall see 
 Him, and they also that pierced Him ; and all kindreds of the earth 
 shall wail because of Him. Even so, Amen. 
 
 8. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, 
 saith the Lord, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Al- 
 mighty. 
 
 9. I, John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribu- 
 lation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the 
 isle that is called Patmos, for the Word of God, aud for the testi- 
 mony of Jesus Christ. 
 
 10. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heaid behind 
 me a great voice, as of a trumpet. 
 
 "The seven churches." — It will be better to con- 
 sider the symbolic churches at their next mention, verse 
 eleven. Asia is not repeated in that place in the oldest 
 manuscripts, but its being here is complete authority for 
 the filled elipsis there. 
 
 " Grace be unto you, and peace." — This apostolic 
 benediction of grace, mercy and peace has 
 An Apostolic ^j^g apostolic ring, and seems to further 
 Benediction. confirm the apostolic identity of the 
 writer, Paul uses it in opening and closing 
 all his fourteen epistles, save in the opening to the He- 
 brews. Peter, also, except in closing his second epistle. 
 John, in opening his second epistle and closing his third. 
 And Jude, in opening his. This little strazv, small though 
 it may seem, and unnoticed by those mistaught expositors 
 who put so little of the answer of prophecy into the Gos- 
 
46 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEI.ATION. [part I. 
 
 pel age, and so much of it into the so-called "millennium/' 
 or "age-to-come/' which should point the closer student to 
 the great prophetic consummation, so far as concerns the 
 prophetic ages, as being answered fully in our own Gospel 
 period. The prophets put it in sharp contrast with what 
 Moses and the law had given to the world. Both the law 
 and the prophets made their obeisance to the Son of God 
 on the Mount of Transfiguration; and the veiled glory that 
 was was immediately eclipsed and lost, like moon and star 
 at sunrise, in the "open-face" glory of the Son of God. 
 For the same voice that commissioned Moses and Elijah 
 in their day, now commanded them (in vision and repre- 
 sentatively) into the presence of the glorified and glorify- 
 ing Jesus, and said, "Hear ye Him." All the prophets 
 saw His glory and wrote of it. All power in Heaven and 
 earth was about to be put into His hand, "by reason of the 
 glory which excelleth:" "that in the dispensation of the 
 fullness of times [the Gosepl age] He might gather to- 
 gether in one all things in Christ." This is the true and 
 more than "millennial" glory in the age that has come.* 
 
 "From Him who is, and who was, and who 
 is to come." — A word» description of the eternal nature 
 of God, similar to the Prophet Daniel's descriptive phrase, 
 "The Ancient of Days" — the ever-existing Father. 
 
 The seven Spirits of God will be treated in connec- 
 tion with the seven churches. 
 
 "And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness." 
 — The Pharisees withstood Jesus and sought to invalidate 
 
 ♦These thoughts run all througli the Revelation, according to the prophets 
 and apostles, but cannot be followed here ; yet a comparison of the following 
 texts will not only warrant the above notice, but bespeak the reader's further 
 and closer attention. Compare the " grace and peace " benediction of the text, 
 and of the apostolic epistles with Psalms Ixxii. 3, 7, 8; Ixxxv. 7-11 ; cxxii. 4-8; 
 Isa. ix. 6,7; xxxii. 15-18; Hi. 7; liv. 10-13 (John xiv. 2G ; IJohn ii. 20-27; 
 Isa. xi. 9, 10; Jer. xxxi. 31); Zech. ix. 10; Mic. v. 4,5; Luke i. 79; ii. 14; xvi. 
 4,9, 16; xix. 42; John i. 16, 17; Acts x. 36; Rom. v. 1, 2; xiv. 17; xv. 12,13; 
 Eph. ii. 13-17, etc. 
 
CHAP. ]I.] GLIMPSES OF THE KINGDOM. 47 
 
 His testimony. They said, "Thou bearest record of Thy- 
 self, Thy record is not true." But the 
 Two Faithful Loj.(j answered, "Though I bear record of 
 witnesses. Mysclf, yet My record is true; * * * for 
 
 I am not alone, but I and the Father who 
 sent Me. It is also written in your law, that the testimony 
 of two men is true. I am one that bear witness of Myself, 
 and the Father who sent Me beareth witness of Me." (John 
 viii: 13-18.) We shall find these two witnesses under sym- 
 bol in Chapter xi. 
 
 " The first begotten of the dead." — The original 
 term here is prototokos, first-^orn, not begotten, and is so 
 rendered by the Emphatic Diaglott and other critical ver- 
 sions, as in Colossians i: 18. Said Jesus, 
 
 Divine Seal arpj^^^ ^j^-^j^ -^ ^^^^ ^f ^^le flesh is flcsh; 
 
 of the gjj(j ^j^^^ which is born of the Spirit is 
 
 Testimony. ^^^y^^ (Johu iii. 6; 1 Cor. XV. 44-4G; Gal. 
 
 vi. 7, 8). Our Lord was made perfect 
 through sufferings" (Heb. ii. 9, 10); for "He was made 
 of the seed of David according to the flesh, and [through 
 it reached the perfect and divine nature, and] was declared 
 to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit 
 of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead" (Romans i. 
 3, 4). Others have been raised from the dead to the flesh 
 life (only to die again in the order of nature), as examples 
 of resurrection power; but Jesus "ever liveth," He is "alive 
 forevermore" — "the first-^or» of the dead." 
 
 " The prince of the kings of the earth."— The 
 
 prince of demons is necessarily a demon; 
 A Prince of qj^^ ^j^g priuce of merchants, a merchant; 
 Kin^B Must ^jj^ gQ Christ, to be prince among kings, 
 *** * must at the same time be, de facto, a king. 
 
 Reigninif King, rp^ig ^^s "the good confcssion" which 
 
 Jesus "witnessed before Pilate" (1 Tim. 
 
48 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part I. 
 
 vi. 13), which the Jews "denied" (Acts iii. 13; compare 
 John xviii. 33-39; xix. 13-22). Paul preached "another 
 King, one Jesus" (Acts xvii, 7). "All power in Heaven and 
 in earth" was given into His hand at His ascension and 
 enthronement "on the right hand of the throne of the Maj- 
 esty in the Heavens" (Matt, xxviii. 18; Heb. viii. 1). 
 "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that 
 God HATH made that same Jesus whom ye crucified, both 
 Lord [Euler, King] and Christ" (Acts ii. 3G; xiii. 32, 33). 
 "Of His kingdom there shall be no end," said Gabriel to 
 Mary (Luke i. 33). His reign, and all that is Davidian of 
 His throne, will end by divine limitation when the divine 
 purpose, through priestly power and mediation, is accom- 
 plished in the redemption of God's kingdom and the estab- 
 lishment of God's will in the earth. For the Apostle, by 
 ins])iration, has declared it: read— 
 
 (1 Cor. XV. 24-28.) 
 
 24. Then cometh the end, when He [Christ] shall have de 
 livered up the kingdom to God, even the Father ; when He [Christ] 
 shall have put down all rule, and all authority and power. 
 
 25. For He [Christ] must reign, till he hath put all enemies 
 under his feet. > 
 
 26. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. 
 
 27. For He [God] hath put all things under His feet. But 
 when He saith, All things are put under Him [Christ] it is manifest 
 that He [God] is excepted, who did put all things under Him 
 [Christ.] 
 
 28. And when all things shall be subdued unto Him [Christ], 
 then shall the Sou also Himself be subject unto Him [God] that put 
 all things under Him [Christ] that GOD may be Ai<i, in ai,l. 
 
 To deny Jesus' present reign on the throne and in 
 the kingdom of David (and of God), and defer it to the 
 "millennium," or a supposed age subsequent to the Gospel 
 dispensation, is to misplace every relative prophecy in the 
 Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the lesser prophets, 
 
CHAP. II.] GLIMPSES OF THE KINGDOM. 49 
 
 and deny what the Apostles said of it in the above 
 passages and elsewhere. The present reign of Christ is 
 His present glory; and the throne, dynasty or power of 
 David (and of God) is as snrely the present throne of His 
 glory. (Type, 1 Chron. xxviii. 5; xxix. 33; 2 Chron. ix. 8. 
 Antitype, Psa. Ixxxix. 1-6, 35-37; Isa. Iv. 1-5.) 
 
 "And hath made us kings and priests unto 
 God." — This associated ofHciation or reign in the kingdom 
 of God (and of David) will be found strik- 
 A Joint ingly apparent when we reach the symbol- 
 
 Reigrn. jgj^^ Q-f ^j^g fourth chapter (which see) and 
 
 other places. It was promised by the 
 Lord to the twelve in a special manner, Matt. xix. 27-30; 
 (Lnke xviii. 28-30;) xxii. 25-30; and affirmed by Paul, Col. 
 i. 13; and by Peter, 1st p]pis. ii. 9, as clearly as here, in 
 verse 9, and elsewhere. 
 
 " To Him be glory and dominion forever and 
 ever," — This divine ascription of glory 
 A Giorions j^j^^| clonuiiiou cau rcfcp only to Jesus' 
 
 Reisn. prcscut glorious reign, of which the Scrip- 
 
 tiires reveal but one, and that "in Hcavoi" 
 not in Palestine ; while the rule, as heired from David, is, 
 of course, over mortal Israel in the earth: "Lo, I am zvith 
 you always," He said. For proofs, add to the former cita- 
 tions Psa. ex. 1-6; cxxxii. 8-18; Jer. xxxiii. 14-17; Eze. 
 xxxiv. 22-26; Dan. vii. 12, 13; Zech. vi. 11-13, etc. 
 
 "Behold, He cometh with clouds." — This is the 
 second coming of Jesus, and the key-note of this Eevela- 
 tion. Every event revealed therein has its relationship to 
 this greatest of all events fixed — near to or remote from it 
 — according to its place in the septenary scale always be- 
 fore us in the series of symbolic churches, seals, trumpets, 
 plagues, etc. Some may say this is a part of the Kevelation 
 proper, and therefore a symbolic coming. But John knew 
 
50 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEI.ATION. [part I. 
 
 this perfectly well already, from the literal words both of 
 Jesus while here (Matt. xxiv. 30), and of the angels at 
 His ascension (Acts i. 9-11). 
 
 "And every eye shall see Him, and they, also, 
 that pierced Him." — The subject of John's thought 
 here is the I'isibility of tJic advent, only, 
 visibility of .^y^^ j^Q^^ gg jg sometimes supjjosed, the 
 tiie Advent. universality of the resurrection: only liv- 
 ing eyes can logically be understood from 
 such an unqualified statement. The Jezvs are the parties 
 guilty of piercing Jesus. They clamored for His crucifix- 
 ion, and when Pilate washed his hand of the guilt, they said 
 "His blood be upon us and on our children" (Matt, xxvii. 
 24, 25; Acts ii. 22, 23; v. 28-30). Tliey came therefore 
 under the curses predicted by Moses, which, he said, "shall 
 be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy 
 seed forever (Dent, xxviii. 46). But if possible, John re- 
 ferred to the very indiA'iduals who plead for His death in 
 the presence of Pilate; who were accused at Pentecost of 
 His murder, were pricked in their heart, and cried out, 
 "Men and lirethivn, Avhat sluill we do?" they must have 
 been inchuled in the three thousand wlu)m Peter and his 
 helpers baptized in His name, adding them to the Church 
 (Acts ii. 22, 23, 37-41). They thus came under the pledge 
 of Christ (John vi. 39, 40; 44, 45; 53, 54; xi. 24, 25; 
 Koraans viii. 11; 2 Cor. iv. 13, 14; Phil. iii. 10-12; 2 Tim. 
 ii. 18, 19, etc.), and will be awakened in time to behold the 
 glory of His descent. 
 
 "And all kindreds of the earth shall wail be- 
 cause of Him." — Jesus had also described the weeping 
 of the unready tribes of the earth at sight of His sign in 
 Heaven (Matt. xxiv. 27, 30). It will be the saddest wail- 
 ing that will ever go up from the earth, because absolutely 
 inconsolable and hopeless; the throne of grace and mercy 
 
CHAP. II.] GLIMPSES OF THE KINGDOM. 5I 
 
 will have been vacated forever! But it will not be an eter- 
 nity of sadness and woe, as men have tanght, for they will 
 not be without one element of mercy even in their destruc- 
 tion. Brimstone, in an execution by fire, is a mercy — tak- 
 ing life very quickly. And Jesus Himself said, it shall be 
 "as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, 
 they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the 
 same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and 
 brimstone from Heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus 
 shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed." 
 (Luke xvii. 28, 30 — for the preservation of the righteous, 
 dead and living, see 1 Thes. iv. 14-18). 
 
 "I am Alpha and Omega." — The first and last 
 letters of the Greek a] phal jet— symbols of "the first and 
 tlie last" of any work. These are the first words of the 
 Voice which John heard (verse 11), and the first words 
 of the Eevelation proper: John has interjected them here 
 in his introduction, for he credits them and describes the 
 author thus: — 
 
 " Saith the Lord, that is, . was, and . is to come, 
 the Almighty." — John seems immediately to have as- 
 sociated this first symbol given him with God, the Al- 
 mighty, the author of the Eevelation, from his claim as 
 stated in Isaiah xliv. 6; xlviii. 12, namely, "I am the first, 
 and I am the last," etc. He had made the same application 
 to God in verse 4; therefore, those who apply the Alpha 
 and Omega here to Christ, as in chapters ii. 8, and xxii. 
 13, are not in harmony with John. 
 
 "Companion in tribulation, and in the king- 
 dom and patience of Jesus Christ." — John here 
 clearly puts the kingdom of our Lord where the tribulation 
 and patience are. It is through "much 
 A Kingfiom tribulation" that we "must enter into the 
 De Facto. kiugdoui of God" (Acts xiv. 22). He who 
 
 is not laboring in the "kingdom of God 
 
52 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [PART I. 
 
 and of Christ" now, in its earthly phase; suffering for, and 
 seeking, its development; in "patience" waiting for its tri- 
 umph over worldly kingdoms, until in their utter destruc- 
 tion (through the smiting of Daniel ii. 34, 35, 44, 45), it 
 only shall fill the world, may not expect to be glorified 
 then. Tribulation and the exercise of patience surely can- 
 not be transferred to a future millennial or any other fan- 
 cied age. They belong now, while our King-High Priest 
 rules as well as mediates, and that "in the midst of his 
 enemies" (Zeeh. vi. 13; Psa. ex. 2). The kingdom of God 
 under Moses (Ex. xix. 5, 6) was "the Church in the wilder- 
 ness" (Acts vii: 38), and the kingdom under Jesus is the 
 Church of the ISTew Covenant. The "rock" of the wilder- 
 ness Church was Christ (1 Cor. x. 4), and "upon this rock," 
 said Jesus, "I will build My Church" (Matt. xvi. 18). But 
 to Peter, an officer in the Church, for confessing the true 
 foundation, our Lord in the next verse presents the "keys 
 of the kingdom of Heaven" — power to loose from, or bind 
 men in sin! And in Luke xxii. 25, 30, Jesus places the 
 Apostles of the Church on tzvclve thrones, appointing them 
 a kingdom, that they might "eat and drink," said He, ''at 
 My table [the Lord's tajjle, or table of the Church] in My 
 kingdom." Aud Paul writes, not less clearly, that God 
 "hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath 
 translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son" (Col. i. 13). 
 Here is a kingdom in the Church of Christ (before 
 
 intimated in verse 6), with apostolic offi- 
 Not Carnal, but ggj-g^ j^ jg j^q^ gf i^^q carnal Order, domi- 
 Divine Control, j^ating througli physical force, and carnal 
 
 weapons, like Gentile kingdoms; but a 
 kingdom of voluntary service, through conquest of the zvill 
 and the affections. "My kingdom is not of this world" 
 (kosnios, "order, arrangement, regulation," etc.), said 
 Jesus; "if My kingdom were of this world {kosmos, order), 
 
CHAP. II ] GLIMPSES OF THE KINGDOM. 53 
 
 then would My servants fight, that I should not be de- 
 livered to the Jews; but now is not my kingdom from 
 hence" — not from this place — earthly. (John xviii. 36.) 
 It is Heavenly in its nature, not earthly and brutal; and 
 its power is love. Its keys were entrusted to Peter for use 
 during his Apostleship; with one he opened the Kingdom 
 of Heaven (in its third and last formative phase — see page 
 149) to the Jewish nation on the day of Pentecost; with 
 the other, to the Gentile world at the house of Cornelius, 
 three and one-half years later. What was officially loosed 
 or bound on earth was to be ratified in Heaven; not the 
 notions, prejudices or favor in the minds of Peter and 
 his fellow Apostles, nor of the Church, to whom the same 
 power extended in its official and proper capacity (Matt, 
 xviii. 17, 18); but in the cooperation of the Holy Spirit, 
 while preaching justification — freeing from sin — through 
 obedience to the Gospel, and condemnation — binding in 
 sin — through its rejection, and in deciding any questions 
 of Gospel order and propriety in cases of contention among 
 brethren. Therefore eternal conditions to all subjects of 
 all other kingdoms hinge upon the official deliverances of 
 the Church of the Son and heir of David and of God; for 
 "the words that I speak unto you," said He, "they are 
 spirit and they are life:" they "shall judge" them "at the 
 last day." It is His "kingdom" over Israel! It is His 
 "throne of glory!" Let all the earth praise Him, and 
 "Crown Him Lord of all!" 
 
 ** Was in the isle that is called Patmos." — A 
 email island in the Mediterranean sea, ofi! the coast of Asia 
 Minor, It contains a population of four or five thousand. 
 The Monastery of "John the Divine" is there since the 
 twelfth century, and the monks point you to a natural 
 grotto in the rocks, where they tell you that John wrote 
 the Revelation. He received it there it is sure; but his say- 
 
54 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part i. 
 
 ing that he "was in the isle," etc., seems to convey the idea 
 that ho had escaped at the time of his writing. 
 
 "For the word of God, and for the testimony 
 of Jesus Christ." — In describing the martyrdom of the 
 
 fifth period of tlie Clnirch (chapter vi. 9), Jolm uses this 
 same phrase. Those holy martyrs were slain for holding to 
 the Word and testimony of the Prophets and Apostles; 
 bnt John was hanished for his published "record'' of the 
 Word and testimony, having l)een an eye- and ear-witness 
 of the ministry of C'hrist, as I have previously shown. 
 
 "I was in the spirit on the Lord's day."— It is 
 true that Sunday is often styled the Lord's day, having 
 reference to Jesus' resurrection. But we must not so inter- 
 pret here, that John was "in the Spirit" on any certain day 
 of ilic i^'cck, because that would mean that He was not in 
 the Spirit on other days as well. The Apostles did not put 
 on and off religion, as is said, with "Sunday clothes." They 
 walked in the Spirit, were led by the Spirit, and were filled 
 with the Spirit, all the days of the weeks and months. The 
 Lord's day here cannot, therefore, refer 
 The Lord's ^^ Sunday. In the Prophets, the Gospel 
 
 Day is the gge is c(illed a day. "This is the day the 
 
 Gospel Day. Lord hath made; we will be glad and re- 
 joice in it" (Psa. cxviii. 22-34). "In that 
 day there shall be a fountain opened in the house of David 
 and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and unclean- 
 ness" (Zeeh. xiii. 1). "In that day the light shall not l)e 
 clear nor dark; but it shall be one day, which shall be 
 known unto the Lord, not day nor night; but it shall come 
 to pass that at evening time [the 'time of the end'] it 
 sball be light" (Zeeh. xiv. G-8). Again, He limiteth a cer- 
 tain day, saying in David [/'. c. in Psa. xcv. 7], "To-day, 
 after so long a time, as it is said, To-day if ye will hear His 
 voice, harden not your hearts" (Heb iv. 7). "Exhort one 
 
CHAP. 11. ] THE lord's day 55 
 
 another daily while it is called Today etc. (Heb. iii, 13). 
 Here we have a twenty-fuiir-hour daily running al(jng in 
 the syniholic or dispensational day. John evidently '"was 
 in the S])irit on," in relation to, or concerning, the day of 
 projfered salvation, the (lospel day or age. He donhtless 
 was in a special way oi rapport with tlie Spirit for the 
 revelation. (See also chapters iv. "3; xvii. ?>.) 
 
 "And heard behind me a great voice." — There 
 is a figure even in the fact that the voice came from he- 
 hind John- — meaning behind him in time, or chronologi- 
 cally. For in a literal sense there would be no significance 
 worth the Apostle's time in Avriting the statement, whether 
 
 the voice came from behind him, in front 
 The Voice ^f ]\\\\\ or from One side; from overhead 
 
 Av^as Behind ^j. inidcrfoot. His visious are to cover 
 John in Time, ^j^g history of tlic wholc Christian age, 
 
 which spans from the first Advent to the 
 second. About a quarter of a century has passed since 
 Jesus finished His work on earth and ascended, and John 
 is in Patmos. He has written the earth life of Christ, he 
 must now write a history of the Church, many centuries oE 
 which were still future. To begin it, he must go back and 
 bring up what is })ast. The voice said, as shown in verse 
 19 (and which, for convenience, we will anticipate at this 
 point), "Write the things which thou hast seen [the pasf], 
 and the things which arc [now transpiring], and the 
 things which shall he hereafter." Thus the vision embraces 
 something of the past, as well as of the present and the 
 future. Therefore, very significantly, the voice comes 
 from behind John, calling him to look backward. Know- 
 ing the history of the Church from Christ to his time, the 
 symbols representing it would the more easily interpret 
 themselves both to him and to his readers, and become 
 samples for interpreting those of the present and future. 
 
56 
 
 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. 
 
 "As of a trumpet." — A trumpet call is to arouse 
 all within the sound of its voice. There 
 A Trumpet Call jg nothing sccrct, to be kept quiet, or to 
 is Anti-Secret, j^g suppressccl, indicated by such a figure. 
 Arid let it be particularly observed, that 
 all the voices in this book are of this character; which fact 
 is a sharp rebuke, both to the inattention of the Church, 
 and to any indulged suspicion of great mystery as being 
 connected with the revelation. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 BEGINNING OF THE EEVELATION PROPEE. 
 
 John's first vision — the seven golden candlesticks 
 
 A golden-girded one, like unto the 
 
 son of man, in the midst. 
 
 Text, Chapter i. 11-13. 
 
 11. Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: 
 and, What thon seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven 
 churches which are in Asia ; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and 
 unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto 
 Philadelphia, and unto L,aodicea. 
 
 12. And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And 
 being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks ; 
 
 13. And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto 
 the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and 
 girt about the breasts with a golden girdle." 
 
 HERE begins the revelation proper. The symbols 
 introduced are the first and last letters of the 
 Greek alphabet, seven of the local churches of 
 Asia Minor, seven golden candlesticks, and a glorious per- 
 sonation of Jesus in the midst. 
 
 "Alpha and Omega." — This figure was explained 
 on page 51, and there was applied to God. Here the 
 speaker is as plainly Christ, as it was evident before that 
 John was quoting what "the Lord," the "Almighty," said 
 to Isaiah. For as God the Father was first and last in the 
 purpose and work of creation, and in the purpose of re- 
 demption, so Immanuel, God with us, was first and last 
 in the ivork of redemption. 
 
 " What thou seest, write in a book." — John is 
 
58 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part I. 
 
 liere commanded to write, and lie is also '"in the Spirit;" 
 so that this prophecy has all the importance and authority 
 that former i)rophecy had, which, Peter says, "came not by 
 the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were 
 moved by the Holy Spirit" (3 Peter i. 31). 
 
 For the moment, we will again pass over the seven 
 mentioned churches, to consider John's 
 The Royal f^pg^ ^^^ Toyal vision, as, startled by the 
 
 Vision. "great voice, as of a trumpet," and look- 
 
 ing backward for the speaker, he saw the 
 seven golden candlesticks, and the golden-girded One, 
 "like unto the Son of Man," walking in the midst of them. 
 This glorious personage cannot be mistaken neither from 
 his position among the candlesticks, nor from the descrip- 
 tion which follows. John recognized the likeness of the 
 Master: it clearly symbolizes, or represents, our Lord. But, 
 without taking into our minds Just now more of the won- 
 derful vision, (the details of which can be considered later,) 
 let us try to understand it thus far. 
 
 We have now seven churches, seven golden candle- 
 sticks, seven stars and seven spirits of God, brought before 
 us as before John. They enter into the revelation, there- 
 fore must be treated as symbols according to our rule. Are 
 they anywhere explained? Partly. In the twentieth verse 
 we read: — 
 
 "The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my 
 right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks : the seven stars are 
 the angels of the seven churches ; and the seven candlesticks 
 which thou sawest are the seven churches." 
 
 The churches and the candlesticks then are identical. 
 
 And notice how easy this first lesson is: 
 
 Easy First ^ caudlcstick is a special design to hold 
 
 Lesson in ^^p ^|^g natural light, while the Church is 
 
 Symbols. specially designed to hold forth spiritual 
 
 light. "Ye are the light of the world. A 
 
CHAP. III.] SEVEN GOLDEN CANDLESTICKS. 59 
 
 city that is set on a hill cannot he hid. Neither do men 
 light a candle, and put it nnder a hush el, hut on a candle- 
 stick, and it givetli light unto all that are in the house. 
 Let your light so shine hefore men, that they may see your 
 good works, and glorify your Father who is in Heaven" 
 (Matt. V. 14, 16). 
 
 The stars are also designed to give, or reflect, light. 
 These are "angels,'' messengers, or agents of light to the 
 churches, therefore must represent their teachers — their 
 official ministry. (See page 69.) 
 
 " Send it to the seven churches which are in 
 Asia." — Our next duty is to determine what is signified 
 hy the seven Asian churches, for they are symhols, like the 
 candlesticks, and not the literal Asiatic congregations of 
 the names mentioned. Many writers have supposed them 
 to be, and have ransacked history, and made pilgrimages 
 to the ruins of the cities of those names in Asia Minor, 
 where they were severally located, to ascertain the signifi- 
 cance of the message to each. But no such labor has 
 proved fruitful, because it was in a wrong, a literal, and not 
 a symbolic direction. For if the Eevelation of Jesus Christ 
 to "His scri'ants" — all His servants — narrows down to the 
 geography of literal Asia Minor, and even to seven of her 
 local congregations of believers, it certainly comes very 
 far short of its presumable scope. Surely, if we were not 
 held to a rule of symbolic interpretation, who could im- 
 agine why those seven congregations should be singled out 
 for so great a manifestation of the grace of God through 
 Christ, and not extend the favor to all the churches in Asia 
 Minor, and in Asia, as well; and to all the churches every- 
 where also, which the Apostles and disciples in the wide 
 range of their travels "set in order?" Why leave out 
 Antioch, Colosse, Derbe, Lystra and Iconium? They were 
 in Asia, too, and no doubt needed all the exhortations to 
 
6o DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part I. 
 
 repentance, and all the encouragements for overcoming 
 that their seven favored sisters did. But still further evi- 
 dent is it that we must seek a symbolic exposition of the 
 seven messages and churches, in that "grace, mercy and 
 peace is multiplied unto them" from God, from Christ, 
 "and from tJie seven Spirits which are before His throne" 
 (verse 4). God is no respecter of persons in dispensing 
 grace; and, besides, in no literal sense are there seven 
 Spirits of God! But "there is one body, and one Spirit, 
 even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, 
 one faith, one baptism" (B-ph. iv. 4-6). It is now very evi- 
 dent to all that there must be the same symbolic reference 
 of these "seven Spirits" to the "one 
 The Seven gj^irit" of God, as there is of the "seven 
 
 cuurciies are churchcs" to the "ouc body." Jesus 
 Seven Asea. prayed for the ttnity of the body as re- 
 gards any literal conception, which is op- 
 posed to a literal septenary or any other division. He said 
 to them, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end 
 of the world." So He is here seen walking in the midst of 
 these seven candlesticks. But the promise was made to the 
 Church universal, and iji no special way can belong to any 
 special congregations. Therefore the golden candlesticks 
 and seven Asian churches must symbolize the ivhole Church 
 of Christ, in which He abides from age to age; and the 
 seven must accordingly represent seven ages of the Church. 
 For so far as loeality is concerned, Jesus can be no more 
 walking with the candlesticks, or churches, of Asia Minor, 
 than with those of the greater Asia, of Europe, of Africa, 
 and of America. No more with local Ephesus, Smyrna 
 and the others, than with the Corinthian, the Galatian, the 
 Philippian, the Colossian, the Thessalonican, and the thou- 
 sand other local congregations. 
 
CHAP. III.] SEVEN GOIvDEN CANDLESTICKS. 6 1 
 
 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SCRIPTURE NAMES. 
 
 A ready solution of the whole difficulty is found in the 
 significance of the names selected. All 
 Third Key Biblc uamcs wd'C clioscu for their signi- 
 
 to These fication: Adam, red earth; Eve, life; 
 
 Symbols. Noah, rcst; Joh, a desert; Moses, drawn 
 
 out; Samuel, heard of God; Isaac, laugh- 
 ter; Solomon, peaceable; David, beloved; Daniel, God's 
 judge; Immanuel, God with us; Lazarus, God will help; 
 Babylon, confusion; Jerusalem, peace. The list might be 
 greatly extended. AVhen Jacob wrestled with the angel 
 of the Lord all night, his name was changed to Israel; that 
 is, A Prince of God, because he prevailed with God. And 
 that name has ever since been the favorite designation of 
 the Church: "Jacob my servant, and Israel whom I have 
 chosen." "For Jacob my servant's sake. 
 
 Names Changed ^j-^^l 7^,,^^/ j^y elcct"— clcct bcCaUSC of his 
 
 With Change prevailing— (Isa. xliv. 1; xlv. 4). "For 
 of Character, ^^q j^Qp^ ^f j^yacl am I bouud with this 
 
 chain" (Acts xxviii. 20). "All Israel [pre- 
 vailers] shall be saved" (Eomans xi. 25). "Peace be upon 
 the Israel of God" (Gal. vi. 16). And when God made a 
 covenant with Abram that Christ should come of his 
 seed, He immediately changed his name to Abraham, i. c, 
 "Father of a great multitude;" and his wife's name, which 
 was Sarai, to "Sarah," i. e., "Princess" (Gen. xvii. 5, 15). 
 This principle of signifying by names follows into the 
 Revelation, and explains many symbols. 
 
 "Which are in Asia." — Asia means a morass — 
 miry, marshy land, difficult to pass over. It is a striking 
 
 symbol of the Gospel age and its diffi- 
 waik by Faith, cultics. Here we walk by faith, not by 
 Not by sigrht. sight. The perplexities of the way are 
 
 many. "For now we see through a glas§ 
 
62 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEIvATlON. [parT I. 
 
 darkly, but then face to face" (1 Cor. xiii. 12). x\nd then 
 the passage before quoted from Zechariah is beautiful here: 
 "In that day the light shall not be clear nor dark; but it 
 shall 1)6 one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day 
 nor night; but it shall come to pass, that at evening time 
 it shall be light" (chap. xiv. 6-8). 
 
 Now from all this, it seems clear that the golden can- 
 dlesticks, with the Saviour walking in the midst of them, 
 or, as the symbolism is varied, the seven churches of Asia 
 with the seven angels and the seven Spirits of God minis- 
 tering unto them, do not in any sense relate to that geo- 
 graphical locality; but to the Church-at-large chronologi- 
 cally, in a septenary, Asian age. An age Avherein the 
 Church is walking by the twinkling star-light of faith over 
 her difficult wilderness way, toward the Canaan of her 
 eternal rest. Her journey, it is here revealed to her, is 
 through a stretch of time, divided into seven lesser ages, 
 or dispensations, named Ephesus (desirable); Smyrna (bit- 
 terness, persecution); Pergamos (elevation, exaltation, 
 pride); Thyatira (sweet savor, .sacrifice); Sardis (a remnant, 
 an escaped few); Philadeli)hia (brotherly love); Laodicea 
 (judgment of the people). Tims these significant names 
 eacli Ijeautifully and accurately characterizes its age — mark 
 this — in all its general or more prominent features, while 
 the detailed characteristics are found in the several mes- 
 sages. And this, on contemplation, will be seen to be more 
 than wonderful— a supernatural coincidence — divinely 
 forearranged, that the names of those seven Asiatic 
 churches in their several significations should accurately 
 represent the prominent characteristics of seven subdivi- 
 sions of the Gospel age, to which the Spirit of God, through 
 seven ministerial agencies, should deliver the sevenfold, 
 or seven-sealed revelation, thus giving each oncoming age 
 a specific message of " present truth." All this will be 
 
CHAP. III.] SEVEN GOLDEN CANDLESTICKS. 63 
 
 brought out fully when wc reach the seven messages and 
 the corresponding seven seals. On the following page will 
 be found a diagram illustrating the prophetico-historic 
 order and characteristic developments of these seven divi- 
 sions of Gospel time. If the reader will carefully compare 
 the prophetic requirements with the historic answerings, 
 it will be found very helpful, and suggestive of many other- 
 wise unseen harmonies with the parallel symbols, which 
 will more or less readily suggest themselves, according to 
 the reader's familiarity with the book. 
 
 SIGNIFICANT FIGURES IN NUMBERS. 
 
 Seven and twelve, composed of three and four, either 
 as parts or factors, are symbols of perfec- 
 Three, the ^j^j-^ qj. completeness. (Three and four are 
 
 Heavenly, and geveii; but three times four are twelve.) 
 Four, the Three is always the Heavenly number, 
 
 Earthly ^^j^j^g fo^^j. jg ^j^g earthly. There are in 
 
 Number, Hcaven three divine intelligencies — the 
 
 Father, the Son and the angels. There 
 are in the firmament three great lights — the sun, the 
 moon and the stars. There are in the earth three Heavenly 
 witnesses, the Spirit, the water and the blood, which 
 agree in one (1 John v. 8). There are in the divine 
 plan of salvation three developing periods — the patriarchal, 
 the Mosaic and the Christian, as seen in the three meas- 
 ures of meal (Matt. xiii. 33), and the three stages in the 
 growth of corn (Mark iv. 28). There were three entrances 
 for the high priest between the four pillars which sup- 
 ported the veil of the Holy of Holies, the Heavenly court 
 of the tabernacle; while there were four entrances for the 
 common priests between the five pillars which supported 
 the veil of the holy place, or earthly court, of the taber- 
 nacle. There are three gates on each side of the Heavenly 
 
64 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part 1. 
 
 city; but there are four earthly sides to the city. Altars 
 of sacrifice or incense were four square, and each had four 
 horns. In nature's analysis, there are four elements — 
 earth, air, fire and water. There are four seasons and four 
 winds, or points of compass. Four natural divisions of the 
 Word of God — history, prophecy, doctrine and the practi- 
 cal things. Four witnesses wrote the history of Jesus' 
 earthly life. Four metals and four beasts represent the 
 great world-empires. And four living creatures and four 
 horses are found in the seven-sealed book. 
 
 There were tzvclve patriarchs and tivclvc tribes of 
 God's typical nation; and there were tzvelvc Apostles in the 
 antitypical dispensation. When Levi lost his numerical 
 standing among the tribes, the number tzvclve was made 
 good by the division of Joseph's tribe into two, Ephraim 
 and Manassali. And when Judas fell from the Apostle- 
 ship, another was chosen to maintain the number of tzvclve 
 Apostles. There are tzvclve gates to tlie city of God, and 
 tzvclve foundations to its walls. And the tree of life bears 
 tzvclve manner of fruits, as it ripens tzvclve times in the 
 year. 
 
 There arc seven serjes of sevens in the Book of Keve- 
 lation: (1) seven Spirits of God minister 
 
 Seven Series ^^^^ ggj-^^;^ ^3^ SCVCU meSSagCS to (3) the 
 
 of Sevens. SCVCU ?igQ^ of the Cliurcli; (4) seven seals 
 
 are opened, as seven thunders utter their 
 voices; (5) seven trumpets are sounded as seven historic 
 views are delineated; (G) seven heads the beast had, and 
 (7) seven plagues were poured out upon them. These con- 
 siderations strengthen the view of a symbolic revelation; 
 and the parallelisms found all along these seven series, as 
 we proceed with them, will greatly strengthen the view of 
 the entirety of the symbolization, 
 
TRISEPTENARO-CHRONOLOGICAL DIAGRAM. 
 
 The Three Great Serial Prophecies of the Revelation Harmonized, Giving Three Bird s-Eye Views of the Entire Gospel Age. 
 
 /. THE SEVEN ASIAN CHURCHES— '^GOLDEN CANDLESTICKS."- 
 
 [Asia. "A Morass." Miry, Marshy Land— The Antitypicul U'i/i/eniess Journey In Canaan.] 
 
 1 
 
 EPHESUS. SMYRNA. 
 
 AUGUSTUS- 
 
 NERO - DIOCLE. 
 
 PERGAMOS.! .>- THYATIRA. 
 
 6 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 CONSTANTINE- 
 
 S7t7£-CHt]HCH SVPREmcr—PAPiH PFffsfQurm ffflWr PiBSHurmH CHECXElf^ 7H£-K£rofD*m:- 
 
 Justinian ahd seven tifiPEgiAi^fniBEST^oNs." iholy alliance 
 
 1^29~ 
 
 f*.*,'? 
 
 7 
 LAODlca 
 
 THe-HOUROF TRIAL- 
 
 'IRON -"CLAY" 
 
 J . 57 ye«« + — 
 
 SAITH UNTO THE CHURCHES^^^^ 
 
 II. THE SEVEN SYMBOLIC SEALS-Rev.v..vi..vn..vm.i.ix. 
 
 The Voices of the LJying Creatares. and of the AlLir, Uke_thander^_said^^O ME A N D SEE^ 
 
 UTtHE seven SYMB0LI0TRUM^^f^l-'''^;'l;^ ;'• ''■"■ 
 
 SOTH. 
 
 V f^'fST . oJ to S£CO/tD. 
 
 jSdSMLNTSUP on ISRAEL. 
 
 ' BLOOO. 
 Third part el 
 Titu, and all $fH« 
 
 ( BU/miNQ UOUNTIIIN 
 ^tt into th, Sou: OntWf 
 iort of tilt Sta btcair 
 
 BREAT VOICES P 
 Tbe FOUR ASCELS. bound ^n the EVPHRA- \ ^^^ ^^Jg^, ^oRi 
 
 3j« THIRD. . „,5:7_fDtw7ff^ a_b.«^^^^^:u:::l_:::^-. — >— 
 
 lAarmSlTTHEJHnECH'ICHM-^-- ™.^ 
 
 », «,», , „, ,„ sum. j^ocvsTS ro™«. nEf . m w pa« «f MEN. "y ''•"■ "' ' ■ «.'j^ ••: 
 
 _ Third part. 
 
CHAP. Ill] THE GOLDEN-GIRDED ONE. 65 
 
 THE SON OF MAN IN THE MIDST OF THE CANDLESTICKS. 
 
 Before closing this chapter we must hriefiy consider 
 the glorious personage seen Avalking in the midst of the 
 seven golden candlesticks: — 
 
 Text, Chapter i. 14-18. 
 
 "His head and hairs, white like wool, as white as snow ; and 
 His eyes as a flame of fire ; and His feet like unto fine brass, as if 
 they burned in a furnace ; and His voice as the sotmd of many 
 waters. And He had in His right hand seven stars ; and out of 
 His mouth went a sharp, two-edged sword ; and His countenance 
 as the sun shining in his strength. And when I saw Him, I fell 
 at His feet as dead. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying 
 unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last; He that liveth, 
 and was dead ; and, behold I am alive for evermore, Amen ; and 
 have the keys of hades and of death." 
 
 The thirteenth verse, which has already heen con- 
 sidered in part, says that He was girded 
 sisiiiticatio.1 ^yi^i-^ u^ golden girdle." All the angels 
 *•' *^*' seen in this vision, and those also de- 
 
 Goiden Girdle, gcrihed in Daniers, were thus girded he- 
 cause they were messengers of great 
 truths. Jesus said He zvas the truth. The girdle repre- 
 sents strength, and the gold truth. How do we get this 
 explanation from the Spirit? Said David, speaking of 
 Christ, "Thou hast girded me with strength" (Psa. xviii. 
 39). This is the purpose of the laborer in girding him- 
 self. Wrote Paul, "Having your loins girded about with 
 truth'' (Eph. vi. 14). And Peter, "Gird up the loins of 
 your wind'' (1 Epis. i. 13). That is, strengthen yourself 
 mentally with truth. The whiteness of 
 Kxiiinnation of jjjg j^^jj. represents the purity of His char- 
 symboiic Fire, ^^q^q^ The fire of His eyes represents 
 righteous judgment. Malachi wrote of 
 Him, "He is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap; and 
 He shall sit as a refiner and purifwr of silver; and He shall 
 
66 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part . 
 
 purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, 
 that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteous- 
 ness" (chap. iii. 2, 3). '"By the spirit of judgment, and hy 
 the spirit of burning'' (Isa. iv. 4). "I am come to send Urc 
 on the earth; and what will I, if it he already kindled?" 
 (Luke xii. 49). "The Father judgeth no man, hut hath 
 committed all Judgment unto the Son" (John v. 22). 
 These passages show that the burning light of the eyes in 
 the symbol mean righteous judgment in the office work of 
 Jesus; and explain at the same time the symbol of His 
 feet "burning as in a funuice," to represent His coming in 
 executive Judgment, "//u voice, as the sound of many 
 ivafcrsj" indicates the universality of His message — the 
 preaching of His Gospel in all languages (cliap. xvii. 15). 
 For Jesus is not using His own voice, but the voices of a 
 million zealous preachers of all tongues, to make known the 
 Gospel throughout the world. The "sharp tzvo-edged 
 szvord out of His mouth'' will be interpreted easily as "the 
 W(u-d of God" (Heb. iv. 12). ''His countenance, as the sun 
 shilling in His strength/' identifies Him as "the Light of 
 the World," the "Sun of Eighteousness" (Mal.iv. 2); as "the 
 Day-Spring from on high" (Luke i. 78). The keys of hades 
 [the grave] and of death represent His power to raise the 
 
 dead. The key is the symbol of power to 
 Meaiiins- unlock: "Key of knowledge" (Luke xi. 
 
 of Key as a 52); "key of the house of David" (Isa. xxii. 
 Symbol. 22; chap. iii. 7); "key of the bottomless 
 
 pit" (chap. ix. 1); "keys of the kingdom 
 of Heaven" (]\fatt.. xvi. 19). Jesus, having conquered 
 death and the grave, has the key of power over them for- 
 ever for Flis people. (John xvii. 2, 3; xi. 23-26; x. 27, 28; 
 vi. 27, 39, 40, 44, 45, 53, 54; iii. 36.) 
 
 Let all that have breath praise Him! and adore the 
 matchless Presence in the midst of the golden candlesticks. 
 
PART SECOND. 
 
 THE SEVEN SYMBOLIC CHURCHES. 
 
 SEVEN DISPENSATIONS OF THE CHURCH, EXTENDING 
 FROM ADVENT TO ADVENT. 
 
 " He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches." 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 I. THE EPHESIAN OR APOSTOLIC PERIOD— A. D. 30 TO 
 
 A.D. 64. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 II. THE SMYRNIOT OR I^ERONIAN PERIOD— AD. 64 TO 
 
 A.D. 313. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 III. THE PERGAMENE OR CONSTANTINIAN PERIOD — 
 
 A.D. 313 TO A.D. 529. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 IV. THE THYATIRIAN OR JUSTINIAN PERIOD— A.D. 629 
 
 TO A.D. 1529. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 CONTINUATION OF THE THYATIRI\N OR JUSTINIAN 
 PERIOD. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 V. THE SARDIAN OR LUTHERAN PERIOD— A.D. 1529 TO 
 
 A.D. 1789. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 VI. THE PHILADELPHIAN OR RENAISSANCE PERIOD— 
 
 A.D. 1789 TO A.D. 1840. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 VII. THE LAODICEAN OR JUDGMENT PERIOD— A.D. 1840 
 
 TO THE END. 
 
PART SECOND. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 I. THE EPHESIAN OR APOSTOLIC PERIOD— 
 A. D. 30 TO A. D. 64. 
 
 Tc.vf, Chapter ii. 1-7. 
 I. Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write ; These 
 things saith He that holdeth the seven stars in 
 The Message His right hand, who walketh in the midst of the 
 
 *" **»* seven golden candlesticks ; 
 
 Angel of Cphesus. 2. I know thy works, and thy labor, and 
 
 thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them 
 who are evil : and thou hast tried them who say they are Apostles, 
 and are not, and hast found them liars ; 
 
 3. And hast borne, and hast patience, and for My name's 
 sake hast labored, and hast not fainted. 
 
 4. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou 
 hast left thy first love. 
 
 5. Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and 
 repent, and do the first works ; or else I will come unto thee 
 quickl}', and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except 
 thou repent. 
 
 6. But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nic- 
 olaitans, which I also hate. 
 
 7. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit sai'h 
 unto the churches ; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of 
 the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. 
 
 EPHESUS. — The meaning of this word is desirable. 
 It descrihes the age which brought to the world 
 "The Desire of all ISTations" (Hag. ii. 7); and also 
 the Holy Spirit's work as never before nor since seen (Acts 
 ii. 2-4; Heb. i. 1, 2; ii. 1-4). It is the Apostolic age, and 
 
 68 
 
CHAP. IV.] TO THK CHURCH IN EPHESUS. 69 
 
 desirable also because taught by men who were themselves 
 taught directly by the Lord Jesus, and by the Holy Spirit. 
 It is the first age in the diagram. And these ages, or 
 "churches/' it should be noticed, are always mentioned in 
 the order there given. That Ephesus is the Apostolic 
 Church or age is confirmed by the fact that false Apostles 
 appeared in none of the others. And in no other but the 
 true one could impostors set forth such a claim without 
 immediate detection, as the age of the person would show 
 him to be of a later period. 
 
 "Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus 
 write." — The term angel has already been defined as any 
 
 agency which God uses to accomplish His 
 Angel purposes. But we shall meet it often, and 
 
 Defined. ^yg ^yj]j cousider the proofs at this point, 
 
 and settle the matter at once, and for the 
 remainder of our investigation. In Luke vii. 19, 2-4, 
 John's disciples are termed "angels," in the Greek {aiigge- 
 lon), but in English the term is rendered "messengers." 
 In the 27th verse, anggelos is applied to the Baptist. The 
 quotation is from Malachi iii. 1, where the Hebrew term is 
 malok, messenger. These are the terms that are applied 
 to the celestial beings, and rendered by the English term 
 angel, in both Testaments. Angel is not a proper name, 
 but is simply the name of an office, like the term president 
 or secretary. Any one may occupy these offices. The 
 names of the celestial angels are Gabriel, Michael, etc.; of 
 some of the terrestial angels, the disciples of John, John 
 himself, Jesus' disciples (Luke ix. 52), Paul (Gal. iv. 14), 
 Joshua's spies (Jas. ii. 25), the high priest (Mai. ii. 7), 
 Haggai (Hag. i. 13), and many human agencies through- 
 out the Bible. The angels of this revelation are all human 
 agencies, except the one who delivered the Revelation to 
 John, and before whom John fell down to worship (chap. 
 
7C DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [parT II. 
 
 i. 1; xxii. 8, 9, 16), as indicated on page 32. Carefully 
 note this fact for future help. 
 
 "Hast left thy first love."— The first love of the 
 
 Apostles and the Church of their period 
 Great Zeal of ^yr^g great. They had heen with Jesus be- 
 Fir.st Love. f^j-Q rj^j r^f^er His resurrcctiou, and knew 
 
 the base falsehood of the Jewish claim 
 that He was an impostor, and still dead! and they them- 
 selves were implicated, if it was an imposture that Jesus 
 rose. Therefore, in their great zeal for what they knew 
 to be a glorious, living truth, they sold their possessions 
 and had all things conmion. "And they, continuing daily 
 with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from 
 house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and single- 
 ness of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the 
 people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as 
 should be saved." (Acts ii. 46, 47.) But as scorn, and 
 hatred, and persecution developed, and weariness from 
 constant labor, their zeal and ardor cooled, and they al- 
 lowed their exertions to flag. Repentance and first works 
 are required of them. 
 
 "Else I will come upon thee quickly, and will 
 remove thy candlestick out of his place, except 
 thou repent." — Now if this message had been addressed 
 in any sense to the literal Church at Ephesus, it was a 
 singular divine threat — to literally remove the Ephesian 
 church! Had God adopted the Roman custom of banish- 
 ment? Would they do better, or be suitably chastised, by 
 removal, as a Church, over the mountain, across the river, 
 or sea, into some other city or land? Who can suppose 
 that that is the nature and substance of the address? But, 
 on the contrary, if addressed symbolically to an age, how 
 natural that the thought of being set aside as unworthy 
 teachers and ambassadors of the cross they claimed to 
 
CHAP IV.] THE DATTe; — iNT:gRNAL EVIDEKCE. yf 
 
 glory in; as flickering lights in the great Gospel illumina- 
 tion, to which they had contrihnted so much, would tend 
 to arouse again all their remaining energies, and again in- 
 spire their "first works." When tlie Jewish nation refused 
 to walk in and rofleet tlie light of God, they were removed 
 out of their place as teachers. The kingdom was taken 
 from them and given to another nation, "^o man, having 
 put his hand to the plow, and looking back,''' said Jesus, 
 "is fit for the kingdom of God." God has always been re- 
 moving candlesticks whenever one fails to hold up the true 
 light. We shall soon see how He removed the smoking 
 old Roman lamp and raised up the Reformers. And He 
 will in like manner remove us, those Reformers' children, 
 if we are recreant to our trust. 
 
 THE DATE AGAIN INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 
 
 The threat was to shorten the Ephesian period and 
 introduce another. The fact that Ephesus 
 Time for jg required to repent, and do her first 
 
 itepentnnoe, works, sliows that tliis letter Avas sent to 
 a. Clue to ]^pj. goiiiig time before her removal. And 
 
 the Date. \\evQ the qucstiou of the date is met again. 
 
 For the command is as positive to send a 
 message to Ephesus, the Apostolic age, late enough for her 
 to have lost her first love, yet early enough for repentance 
 — as it was to send one to Smyrna or any of the rest; and 
 demands that out of the conflicting historic testimony we 
 find a date that is early enough to permit the Ephesian 
 repentance, since it is utterly out of reason to suppose a 
 divine message of severe censure was sent too late to be of 
 any service to the parties in question. Dr. Jackson's 
 "choice" of dates — a. d. H^ or a. d. 96 (page 39) are both 
 too late, though being chosen as prior and subsequent to 
 the destruction of Jerusalem, which has no determinative 
 
72 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [parT II. 
 
 relationship whatever to the question. The burning of 
 the city of Rome — a. d. 64 — has such a rehxtionsliip, since 
 the Emperor Nero "threw the blame on the Christians, 
 whom he persecuted with relentless fur3^" (Students' 
 Encyc.) Thus in a. d. 64: began the series of ten perse- 
 cutions which characterize the Smyrniot or bitter age; 
 fixes the dividing line between Ephesus and Smyrna, and 
 at the same time proves an earlier date necessary for any 
 
 message to Ephesus. A. D. 5-f or 55, the 
 True Date. ^];^|^^, J ]^^yQ gj^.g^-^ (pagcs 3i-40), there- 
 
 A. D. 54 or 53. f^^j.g allows twcuty ycars to the Ephesians 
 
 for the loss of first love, and nine or ten 
 years afterward for repentance. The Encyclopaedia Bri- 
 tannica strikes the first intelligent Scriptural position which 
 I have met for deciding the date in the whole investigation 
 — in these words: "Finally, almost every one regards the 
 year a. d (U as the tenniniis a quo of the composition of the 
 book, inasmuch as the bloody persecution of the Chris- 
 tians in Home (xiii. 7; xvii. 6; xviii. 20-24) is presupposed 
 in the narrative." [In loco. — The passages here cited, how- 
 ever, are totally irrelevant, since they each relate to the 
 pahal persecutions of the middle ages. The right refer- 
 ences are chapters ii. 10; vi. 4, which relate to the pagan 
 persecutions of the first eentury.) The book of Eevela- 
 tion has been so generally misunderstood, that the major- 
 ity of writers have failed entirely to discover what the true 
 
 internal evidence and requirements are. 
 Dr. pattou's ] )j. William Fatten, who prepared the 
 "^'*«'^^' notes to the Cottage Testament, contends 
 
 iiiuNtrates f,,^ ^\^q \.^Iq <jate, and, as the rest of his 
 
 the comiiw.n elass, that "all antiquity" authorizes it; 
 Misconception, ^vhich authority "is supported," he says, 
 
 "by strong internal evidence, for this book 
 deseriljes the seven Asiatic churches as not only existing, 
 
CHAP IV.] TO THE CHURCH IN EPHESUS. 73 
 
 but as having flourished, and some of tliem, subsequently 
 decayed, which couki not have been the case at a much 
 earlier date." (!) This complete misconception, with the 
 others before mentioned, are undoul)tedly the origin and 
 end of the late date theory. If John had been addressing 
 those literal churches, there would have been plausilulity 
 in the view. But we have seen that the churches to which 
 the late <late writers refer are not the same as those to 
 which the Eevelation is really addressed — in the midst of 
 which the Son of JNIan was walking — but only the symbols 
 of them through the sigiiificatioii of their ncuncs, and not 
 through similarity or correspondence of history. Thus it 
 is clear that the true "internal evidence" supports the early 
 date traditions, and not the late. But we return to the 
 details of the message. 
 
 "The deeds of the Nicolaitans." — Tradition fur- 
 nishes an account of- a '•supposed" sect of this name in the 
 first century who openly taught the practice of adultery 
 and the eating of idol sacrifices. But there is no reliability 
 in the sujipositious of those who were so deceived in the 
 character of the writing as to be only anxious to find literal 
 fulfillments of the messages. If we follow our divinely 
 announced rule, we will find the true sig- 
 Rising- Spirit nificatiou without supposition. Nicola- 
 of Popery. itaiis couics from two Greek words — 
 
 "'iiikao, to conquer," and "laos, people" — 
 conquerors of the people. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown 
 say, "Mr. Chaelis' view is probable: Nicolaos- (conqueror of 
 the people) is the "Greek version of Balaam, from Hebrezu 
 Belang Am, destroyer of the people. Eevelation abounds 
 in such duplicate Hebrew and Greek names: as Apollyon, 
 Al)addon; Devil, Satan; yea (Greek, Nai), Amen. The 
 name, like other names, Egypt, Babylon, Sodom, is sym- 
 bolic." (Comm. /// h)eo.) There is no such tiling known 
 
74 DIVINE KKY OF THE REVELATION. [part 11. 
 
 in the Gospel kingdom as carnal or physical conquest; that 
 desire is sensual, earthly. While Jesus was yet with His 
 disciples, they sometimes contended for masteries, "who 
 should be the greatest in the kingxlom of Heaven" (for He 
 was declaring very positively that it was "at hand'" — Mark 
 ix. 34; Luke xxii. 24-30, etc.). But this spirit Jesus re- 
 buked, saying that the principles of His kingdom de- 
 manded submission and service, even of its highest officers 
 as of Himself, their Lord; and, unlike human kingdoms, 
 disallowed lordships, official dignities and ostentation. 
 Still that spirit lived and lurked in the hearts of men. 
 Paid, even in his day, said that "the mystery of iniquity 
 doth already work; only he who now hindereth will hinder, 
 until he be taken out of the way" (of its advancement — 
 2 Thes. ii. 7). The Apostles saw in this ambitious, Nico- 
 laitan spirit, the incipient Abomination of Desolation that 
 the Prophet Daniel had said (chap. vii. 25; viii. 23-25; 
 xi. 31) should war upon and conquer the 
 ^** people of the saints of the most High in 
 
 Nicoiaitanism ^j^g ^^^^ ^f ^j^g gj,gj^|. Rgman bcast. Paul 
 
 '" *''*^ denounces this spirit in others, and dis- 
 
 Apostie«i. claimsut in liimself. "Not for that we 
 
 have dominion over your faith," said he, 
 "but are helpers of your Joy; for by faith ye stand" (2 
 Cor. i. 24). "Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but 
 ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to 
 every man? (2 Cor. iii. 5). Paul, the great Apostle, only 
 a fellow minister, having no dominion over faith in others! 
 There was little of papal succession then through him. 
 How about Nicolaitanism in Peter? "The elders therefore 
 who are among you I exhort" (only exhort), he said, "who 
 am (Greek) a fellow-elder: * * feed the flock of God 
 which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not l^y 
 constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready 
 
CHAP. IV.J TO THK CHURCH IN EPHESUS. 75 
 
 mind; neither as being lords over the heritage, but being 
 ensamples to the flock" (1 Peter v. 1-3). How much of the 
 conquering or papal spirit was found in either Paul or 
 Peter is apparent here at a glance. Apostolic Ephesus 
 hated the desire to subordinate individual faith to human 
 notions and formulas, or anything but the pure Word of 
 God, according to the language of the Hol)^ Spirit. And 
 God also hated it, He said, and still hates Nicolaitanism 
 in prince, or priest, or pope. For "faith cometh by [in- 
 telligent] hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" (Ro- 
 mans X. 17), not through human wisdom, nor creed, nor 
 confession; albeit men, in a subordinate way, if conversant 
 with and loyal to the Word, and led by the Holy Spirit, 
 may be valuable assistant teachers, and God has always 
 used tliom as such. But we shall soon see how Nicolaitan- 
 ism grew in the woi-ld. 
 
 " He that hath an ear, let him hear what the 
 Spirit saith unto the churches." — It is what the 
 Spirit saith niito the churches, let it be noticed, and not 
 of or about them; and this confirms what was said in con- 
 nection with the question of the date of writing the Eeve- 
 lation, that it must be early enough to make each message 
 serviceable to the church addressed. The later dates allow 
 the Ephesian ]:)eriod to pass away without their ever hav- 
 ing heard of the Revelation, and cannot be right. Seven 
 times is this commandment reiterated in connection with 
 these messages, i. e., in chapters ii and iii. "If ye love Me 
 keep My commandments," said the Lord Jesus, while with 
 men. Is it less a duty, or less pleasing to Him, now He is 
 in power in Heaven? May He, through the Holy Spirit, 
 inspire love and loyalty in every reader of these pages, and 
 in all His professed people the world over, for this revela- 
 tion and to these commandments. 
 
 " To him that overcometh will I give to eat of 
 
76 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. part ir. 
 
 the tree of life." — This symbol is drawn from the 
 original tree of life in Eden. Before their sin, our first 
 parents had free access to it; hut afterward they were 
 driven from it, and a flaming sword guarded it, lest man 
 
 should now, a sinner, eat of it "and live 
 Christ tiie forever."' This right to eat of living food 
 
 Tree of Life, -^^jjg j^ever restored in the same form, hut 
 
 came with Jesus, the Son of God — the 
 only begotten, as Adam was the only created. He, the 
 second Adam, became the life of the world — the ''bread 
 of life," the "water of life," the "light of life," the "way 
 of life," and the "resurrection and the life." (John iv. 10- 
 14; vi. 27-54; viii. 1?; xi. 35, 2G; Luke xx. 35, 3G.) 
 
 "Which is in the midst of the Paradise of 
 God." — Jesus, the true "tree of life," is "in the midst" 
 of the seven golden candlesticks — the Church of the living 
 
 God. "Lo, I am with you all the days, till 
 parudise. |]^e pj^j pf ^Jie age" (Matt, xxviii. 20— 
 
 Emph. Diag.). Therefore paradise is a 
 syndjol here of the Church or kingdom of God. But if this 
 is not quite clear to any, we may reason from another 
 standpoint: the "Churqh in the wilderness" (Acts vii. 38) 
 is identical with the "kingdom" as established on Mount 
 Sinai (Ex. xix. 5, 6). And this kingdom in the Old Testa- 
 ment is also symbolized by the "garden of Eden" and the 
 "garden of God," as Assyria is by the forest of Lebanon. 
 The i)rinces of Israel were "trees'' in the garden, as the 
 King of Assyria was a ''cedar in Lebanon." The princes 
 of Israel had ])een envious of that great king, and he in 
 tiuie liad l)oth desecrated and desolated the Lord's garden. 
 Like the King of Tyrus, he bad l)een upon the "holy 
 mountain" — Zion, typical of Israel; and in the midst of the 
 "stones of fire;" and these twelve precious stones (of the 
 high i)riests' breast-plate) had been liis "covering," which 
 
CHAP. IV.] TO THE CHURCH IN EPHESUS. 
 
 77 
 
 signified his intrusion into that system of typically illus- 
 trated truths which Israel represented, corrupting them. 
 This point cannot be followed further here, but if the 
 reader will compare, thoughtfully, Ezekiel xxviii. 1-14; 
 with xxxi. 3-12, it will be seen from the use of those sym- 
 bols there how Jesus, the true "King of Israel," is here 
 called the "tree of life, in the midst of the paradise 
 [garden, kingdom. Church] of God." Said He to His fol- 
 lowers, "He that eateth Me, even He shall live by Me" 
 (Jo]]n vi. 57), using nearly the same symbol. Nothing 
 could more beautifully illustrate the important relation- 
 ship that the Lord Jesus holds to the future and eternal 
 well-being of every son and daughter of mankind, than is 
 shown by these symbols. May every reader thus partake of 
 this spiritual food from the "tree of life," and "never 
 hunoer." 
 
 fyS^^"^-^ 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 II. THE SMYRNIOT OR NERONIAN PERIOD— 
 A. D. 64 TO A. D. 313. 
 
 Text, Cliai3ter ii. 8-11. 
 
 8. And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write ; These 
 things saith the first and the last, who was dead, 
 
 The Message and is alive ; 
 
 to tiie 9- I know thy works, and tribulation, and 
 
 Angel of Smyrna, poverty (but thou art rich), and / ^fiota the 
 blasphemy of them who say they are Jews, and 
 
 are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. 
 
 10. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer : be- 
 hold, the devil shall cast sofuc of you into prison, that ye may be 
 tried ; and ye shall have tribulation ten days : be thou faithful unto 
 death, and I will give thee a crown of life. 
 
 11. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith 
 unto the churches ; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the 
 second death. 
 
 SMYRNA conies fr^m myrrh, a bitter guni;, and signi- 
 fies bitterness, trial, persecution. The second era 
 of the Church opened and closed with bitter perse- 
 cntion. The encouragement given to this Chnrch is that 
 the message of life is from one — 
 
 "Who was dead and is alive" — "for evermore," 
 the former statement (chap. i. 18) added. 
 
 " Fear none of those things which thou shalt 
 suffer; * * * Be thou faithful unto death."—/, e., 
 be faithful unto the very article of death, as a martyr for 
 truth, and for Him who was a martyr for you, "and I 
 will give thee a crown of life." Jesus is now '■'■croumed 
 with glory and honor" in Heaven; i. e., rewarded with the 
 
 78 
 
CHAP, v.] TO THE CHURCH IN SMYRNA. 79 
 
 highest position of glory and honor in the gift of Heaven. 
 And this crozvn of life which He promises here is the high- 
 est reward of life: it is eternal life. 
 
 "Tribulation and poverty." — Meaning affliction 
 and trial, and helplessness in this life; hut — 
 
 "Thou art rich." — Rich "in faith," and in the 
 hope of the future life. "Heirs of the kingdom which He 
 hath promised to them that love Him"' (Jas. ii. 5). 
 
 " Blasphemy of them who say they are Jews, 
 and are not." — The Jews, in a literal sense before Christ, 
 were the chosen people of God. And, therefore, in a fig- 
 urative sense, to say one is a Jew is to claim to be the true 
 people of God. In this case, it was a false claim. Those 
 who troTjbled Smyrna were not Christians (the true repre- 
 sentative name in this Gospel age), but were 
 
 "The synagogue of Satan." — Temple or syna- 
 gogue, literally, a place of worship, in a figure stands for 
 the worsliipers themselves: as, "Ye are the temple of God; 
 and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you;'" and "ye are God's 
 building^' (1 Cor. iv. 9, 16). But these false pretenders 
 were the people of the Lord's adversary (for that is the 
 meaning of the term "satan"), a false, opposing people, 
 seeking to cover their iniquity by assuming a good name, 
 which was blasphemy. 
 
 " The devil shall cast some of you into prison." 
 — The devil (Greek, "diaholos, accuser, calumniator") is 
 the equivalent of the Hebrew term satan. The great ac- 
 cuser and adversary of the Church in the second period 
 was not an evil spirit, but the pagan element in the em- 
 pire; for we know it was their pagan accusers that cast the 
 Church into prison. "In G4, a. d., occurred the great con- 
 flagration in Rome — a disaster due, according to Dion and 
 Suetonius, toXero himself. The emperor threw the blame 
 on the Christians, whom he persecuted with relentless 
 
8o DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEIvATlON. [parT ii. 
 
 fury." {Students^ Cyclo.) This accusation from the enemy 
 of righteousness fired the heart of the whole pagan world 
 against the supposed incendiaries of the proud capital of 
 the Eonian Empire, as those innocent victims of the em- 
 peror's hatred were now already scattered throughout his 
 vast dominions. 
 
 " That ye may be tried." — " That the /rial of your 
 faith,*' said Peter, "being much more precious than of 
 gold, which perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might 
 be found unto jjraise and honor and glory at the appearing 
 [not of death, but] of Jesus Christ" (1 Epis. i. 7). Quo- 
 tations from the prophets, before made, show that this was 
 to be Jesus' method of purifying and perfecting the 
 Church — Himself having been "made perfect through suf- 
 fering." 
 
 "And ye shall have tribulation ten days." — 
 This prediction evidently had its fulfillment in the "ten 
 persecutions" which originated and were legalized in the 
 ten edicts issued in the succession of Emperors from Nero 
 to Diocletian. The days being so fczv, they seem (as in 
 the case of the "one hour," and "half an 
 '^'**^ hour," which we will meet further on) to 
 
 Great Pagan ]jg exceptions to the year-day rule (see 
 Persecutions. pj^gg |Q]^^ ^^^^^ simply to represent com- 
 paratively short periods of time, as were 
 those persecutions. A writer says: — 
 
 "The ten persecutions, commonly regarded as general, are the 
 following: Under Nero, 64 A.D. ; under Domitian, 95 a.d.; under 
 Trajan, 107 A. D.; under Hadrian, 125 a.d.; under Marcus Aurelius, 
 165 A.D.; under Septimus Severus, 202 a.d ; under Maximinus, 
 235 a.d. ; under Decius, 249 a.d.; under Valerianus, 257 a.d.; un- 
 der Diocletian, 303 a.d." — Interna. Cyclo. 
 
 Some think that the ten days should conform to the 
 rule of the longer periods of days — "a day for a year" — 
 which rule will be considered when we reach the longer 
 
CHAP, v.] TO THE CHURCH IN SMYRNA. 8 1 
 
 periods. In tliat case it is a fact that ten years are spe- 
 cially mentioned by historians during this Smyrniot era. 
 
 Thus:— 
 
 " The tenth [persecution] began in the nineteenth j'ear of 
 Diocletian, A.D. 303. In this dreadful persecution which lasted 
 ten years, houses filled with Christians were set on fire, and whole 
 droves of them were tied together with ropes and thrown into the 
 sea. It is related that 17,000 were slain in one month's time ; and 
 that during the continuance of this persecution, in the province 
 of Egypt alone, no less than 144,000 Christians died bj- the violence 
 of their persecutors ; besides 700,000 that died through the fatigues 
 of banishment or the public works to which the}^ were condemned. ' ' 
 — Buck's Theol. Diet. 
 
 "In A.D. 303, Diocletian stained his name by authorizing the 
 last and fiercest of the ten great persecutions inflicted on the 
 Christians by the Roman emperors. See 3Iason's Persecution of 
 Dioclelian. ' ' — Student's Encyc. 
 
 It has been estimated that during the Smyi-niot age 
 not less than 3,000,000 Christians were 
 Three Miiiiou destroyed to satisfy the furious rage of 
 Martyrs. paganism against Christ and His truth. 
 
 Most clearly, then, the "ten days" of this 
 message had its fulfillment, either in the ten seasons, or the 
 tin years. The writer in inclined to regard them as an 
 exception to the rule, on account of the small number, as 
 before stated, and as referring to ten brief seasons. "He 
 that hath an ear," now repeats the Lord, as He had said 
 to Ephesus, "let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the 
 churches." Oh, that the Church would listen to her Lord. 
 " He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the 
 second death." — The term "second death" occurs no- 
 where else in the Scriptures but in the 
 Second Deatb Eevelation; therefore we must understand 
 Found Only jj- ^s a symbol, and not literal. For four 
 In Symbol. thousand years no inspired writer had ever 
 
 broached the idea to men of a second dy- 
 ing, or more than one literal death for sin. The Book of 
 llevelation was given four centuries after man was given a 
 
82 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEIvATlON. part II. 
 
 law, not as a new revelation of final rewards and punish- 
 ments (which were righteously revealed in the outset), but 
 of "things which must shortly come to pass;" and the 
 reader will not discover any departure from this rule. For 
 it could not be that the whole penalty for sin was not stated 
 by God in the giving of His law in Eden. He threatened 
 one death only as a penalty; therefore this late second death 
 in this symbolic book must be a symbol, and not literal. 
 Accordingly, "second death" is found in Revelation four 
 times: here (ch. ii. 11); xx. 6, 14; and xxi. 8. The last 
 two places affirm that the (symbolic) "lake of fire" is the 
 "second death." This death is spoken of in apposition (1) 
 Avitli the "crown of life;" (2) with the "first resurrection;" 
 (3) with the "book of life;" and (4) with the "water of 
 life," all which symbols relate to final rezvard. As a corol- 
 lary truth, then, this opposite figure, second death, sym- 
 bolises some final penalty. The term is found in the old 
 Jewish targums, and Professor Hudson quotes this Jewish 
 definition: "From which no man can come to life again." 
 
 (Debt and Grace, p. 178.) It cannot mean 
 Second Deatu g^ sccoud dying, literally, since none that 
 Not a Second ^^grc cast iuto the "lake of fire" for the 
 Penalty. "sccoud death," namely, the "beast," the 
 
 "false prophet," the "dragon," etc., were 
 ever in the lake of iire, or died as a penalty, before. The 
 "man of sin,"Jezebel, and the adulterous kings of the earth 
 — all spiritually dead — had had many preliminary judg- 
 ments, as we will find, during their long space to repent: 
 this is their final judgment penalty.* A second death im- 
 
 * We shall show, when we reach the symbol of the " lake of fire," that it rep- 
 resents a condition in a great fire of the Word of God, kindled in the " time of the 
 end," for the destruction of the above mentioned systems of deception and of 
 corrupting the Word. (See Isa. xxx. 27, 28 ; Jcr. v. 14 ; xxiii. 28, 29 ; Hos. vi. 5 : 
 Rev xi. 5; xvi. 8, 9.) The symbol is based, as is nearly always the case, on a 
 literal Scriptural precedent, namely, the lake of water which destroyed the old 
 world, and the lake of fire which the Apostle Peter (2 Epistle, chapter iii.) says 
 shall destroy the world that now is. 
 
CHAP, v.] TO THE CHURCH IN SMYRNA. 83 
 
 plies a first death; and accordingly there are two deaths 
 recognized in the doctrinal Scriptures which have that 
 order: first, death in sin; second^ death for sin: sin or 
 trespass death — a figure; and death the penalty for sin, 
 which is literal. Said Paul: "You hath He quickened who 
 were dead in trespasses and sins; * * * even when we 
 were dead in sins, hath He quickened us together with 
 Christ, * * * and hath raised us up together, and made 
 us sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 
 ii. 1-6). Here is seen the first resurrection as from the 
 first death — ^both always symbolic. Let 
 Trespass and ^^jg f^ct be noted. Adam first died fig- 
 Penai Deaths, upatively — in sin, then penally and liter- 
 ally — for that sin. The first death is tres- 
 pass death, and the second is penal death. In this sense 
 only can the "lake of fire" be a "second" death — it is a 
 symbolic penalty inflicted, temporarily and typically, for 
 first or trespass death — sin. 
 
 Those who "overcome" have their sins pardoned; 
 hence they will not reap sin's final penalty, or "be hurt of 
 tbe second death." They are, as overcomers, dead to sin, 
 and alive unto God. Their "life is hid with Christ in 
 God;" and when Christ, who is their hope of life, "shall 
 appear," then will they "also appear with Him in glory" 
 (Col. iii. 1-3). How? By the resurrection — unhurt of the 
 second or penal death, because made victors over it. "The 
 sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin [or power to 
 hold] is the law" (1 Cor. xv. 56); but the "victory" is 
 gained now, and the sting is withdrawn. The law is 
 answered and ended in Christ; and because He rose, un- 
 harmed by death, so shall His people rise unhurt. 
 
 The importance of this exposition will be better seen 
 when we reach chapter xx. 6. 
 
CHAPTER YI. 
 
 III. THE PERGAMENE OR CONSTANTINIAN 
 
 PERIOD— A. D. 313 TO A. D. 529. 
 
 Text, Chapter ii. 12-17. 
 
 12. And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; 
 These things saith He who hath the sharp sword 
 The Message with two edges ; 
 
 to the Angel 13. I know thy works, and where thou 
 
 of Pergamos. dwellest, even where Satan's seat is: and thou 
 
 holdest fast My name, and hast not denied My 
 faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was My faithful martyr, 
 who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth. 
 
 14. But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast 
 there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to 
 cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things 
 sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. 
 
 15. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nic- 
 olaitans, which thing I hate. 
 
 16. Repent ; or else I will come unto thee qiiickly, and will 
 fight against them with |:he sword of My mouth. 
 
 17. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith 
 unto the churches ; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of 
 the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the 
 stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that 
 receiveth it. 
 
 PERGAMOS, or Pergamiim (Revision), means "height, 
 elevation,^' iand therefore signifies, in this connec- 
 tion, high-mindedness, pride or worldliness. This 
 is the natal age of Churchianity. 
 
 ** The sharp sword with two edges." — It is He 
 out of whose mouth came the sharp, two-edged sword, who 
 addresses Pergamos. In addressing Ephesus He held the 
 
 84 
 
CHAP. VI.] TO THE CHURCH IN PERGAMOS. 85 
 
 "seven stars" in His right hand, and was walking in the 
 midst of the golden candlesticks. She was encouraged bj' 
 this with special protection from Jewish and all subse- 
 quent hatred which seemed ready to swallow up the infant 
 Church; and thus were all sister churches to be encour- 
 aged. Their Lord, invested with almighty power, would 
 always be "in the midst" of them. In addressing Smyrna, 
 the martyr age, it is "He who was dead and is alive for 
 evermore," comforting her overcomers with the promise 
 and hope of a like revival. Thus we shall find that in each 
 message He assumes a character, or attitude, just adapted 
 to show Himself to be the necessary help of that Church 
 in her chief est need, as detailed in her message, just as the 
 significance of the names He gave them indicated the 
 
 chiefest characteristics of each. Here in 
 The Church Pergoinos the sharp sword with two edges 
 Is charg^ed suggcsts scrious departure from truth, 
 
 with Apostatiy. apostasy, deserving the free use of the 
 
 Word of God, even to "piercing to the 
 dividing asunder" of the lustful Balaamitical teachers, 
 and the hateful Nicolaitan subjugators who were dictating 
 their false "doctrines" and manners, and forcing them 
 upon the heritage of God. 
 
 " Thou dwellest where Satan's seat is." — Liter- 
 ally, where the adversary's throne is. The true place for the 
 Church to rest is in the throne with Christ, not acting the 
 adulterous paramour of a pagan king, his adversary. Did 
 not Jesus say while personally with her, "I appoint unto 
 you a kingdom, as My Father hath appointed unto Me; that 
 ye may eat and drink at My table, in My kingdom, and sit 
 on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel?" And the 
 Apostle Peter, "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priest- 
 hood, a holy nation." And Paul, "Ye have reigned as 
 kings" i. e., in a Biblical sense; not fought carnally, nor 
 
86 DIVINE KEY OE 'ThE REVELAYION. PART II. 
 
 tyrannized, as kings of the earth do, but reigned Jointly with 
 Christ. But in the Pergamene period the spouse of Christ 
 is found in quite a ditTerent throne. The message to her 
 is a clear outline of the Constantinian era. The Smyrniot 
 period closed with the great pagan perse- 
 Tiie Noted cutiou, and the Pergamene age was 
 
 Kdictof Miinn, ^^ghercd in by the noted edict of Con- 
 A. D. 313. stantine the Great, a. d. 313. That mon- 
 
 arch saw that the dreadful persecutions 
 of his predecessors had not so much depleted the Church, 
 as it had strengthened the still multiplying followers of 
 Christ. He discovered the world's historic wonder, that 
 "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church." And 
 he resolved, as a mere matter of statecraft, to change sides. 
 He accordingly issued (in conjunction with Licinius, who 
 was then associated with him in the empire) the celebrated 
 Edict of Milan, "which restored peace to the Christian 
 Church * * * and was received as a general and fun- 
 damental law of the Eoman world." Gibbon continues: — 
 
 "The wisdom of the emperors provided restitution of all the 
 civil and religious rights of which the Christians had been so un- 
 justly deprived. It was enacted that the places of worship and 
 public lands, which had b*een confiscated, should be restored to the 
 Church, without dispute, without delay, and without expense. * * * 
 The two emperors proclaim to the world that they have granted a 
 free and absolute power to the Christians, and to all others, of fol- 
 lowing the religion which each thinks proper to prefer." — Decline 
 and Fall, etc.. Vol. II., p. 198. 
 
 Constantine claimed to have been converted to the 
 Christian cause through a vision, which exhibited to him 
 a cross in the Heavens, with the legend, "Conquer by 
 THIS." He therefore placed a cross upon the Eoman 
 standard which led his armies in carnal warfare. The fol- 
 lowing historical picture of the results tallies well with 
 the charges of the message: — 
 
 "In the davs of Constantine, the Christian religion had pene- 
 
CHAP. VI.] TO THE CHURCH IN PERGAMOS. 87 
 
 trated almost every part of the empire, No sooner, therefore, did 
 that prince declare in favor of it, than it became the religion of the 
 court, of the capital and soon of the empire 
 Great "Worldly itself. This was truly an amazing change, and 
 Exaltation. forms one of the most memorable eras in ec- 
 
 clesiastical history. * * * From this period 
 the Christian Church was loaded with honor, wealth and power ; 
 nor did her virtue ever sustain a severer trial. The chief digni- 
 taries of the empire could scarcely do less than imitate their 
 master ; and Christianity soon became a necessary qualification for 
 public office. 
 
 " The Church now no longer appeared in her ancient simpli- 
 city and purity ; lords and princes were among her converts, and 
 she was dressed hi Yobes of stale. Her ceremonies were increased ; 
 her forms of worship were loaded with pomp and splendor ; her 
 doctrines were intermingled with the senseless jargon of a philos- 
 ophy equally absurd and vain ; and the way seemed prepared, not 
 only for the decay of Christian doctrine and moralitj', but of everv 
 science which distinguishes civilized from savage nations." — 
 Whelpley's Compend of Hist., Vol. I., p. 222. 
 
 Surely the Church was in the throne with the adver- 
 sary, when Christianity, i. c, its profession, became a nec- 
 cessary qualification for public office in the Roman Empire. 
 It was the throne of the very "^'devir' — "^adversary" or 
 "accuser"' — that we have sliown cast so many saints of the 
 Smyrniot period into prison and into death. It was a 
 dizzy and dangerous "height'" for the mistaken spouse of 
 Christ. She rushed from persecution no greater than the 
 man of Nazareth suffered for her, to win her, and wliich 
 would have kept her humble and faithful, to national pet- 
 ting, position and power, which only stimulated her pride, 
 her vanity and her lust, till the sacrifices of idols and for- 
 nication even were written among her sins. And yet she 
 held fast the name of her Lord, and would 
 Faithful jjQj- j,j zvords deny the faith, even in those 
 
 Antipas. (jgyg ■^};^en faithful "•'Antipas" was mar- 
 
 tyred among them, 'Svhere," said Jesus, 
 "the adversary dwells." (Emph. Diag.) Antipas, here, 
 
88 DIVINE XKY OF THE REVEI.ATION. PART II. 
 
 like the other symhols, should be understood as a represen- 
 tative character, and not as an individual. The name is 
 thought to be derived from the words anti, opposed, and 
 papas, pope, father. There was always a remnant of strong 
 faith, which opposed any departure from the Word of God, 
 even in the worst times of apostasy. Always a Job and a 
 Jeremiah for persecution, the prison and the dungeon 
 to cut ofE their opposing testimonies; always a Joseph, 
 "whose feet they hurt with fetters," a Daniel for the den 
 of lions, and a Shadrack, Meshach and Abed-nego for the 
 furnace of fire. So there were ''Antipas," or anti-papal, 
 martyrs in those high-minded Pergamene times. The 
 Apostle Paul had pointed out the incipient "mystery of 
 iniquity" working even in the early Ephesian day. "Only 
 he who now hindereth," said he, "will hinder until he 
 be taken out of the way" (2 Thes. ii. 7). Paganism was 
 the great "dragon" that hindered the rise of the papacy, as 
 it had before hindered, with all its power, the rise of the 
 true Church. It must be "taken out of the way," for the 
 papacy must rise. It will be "cast out," and 'T)ound," and 
 shut up in the pit, as the sequel will show, when we reach 
 chapters xii and xx. The papal "mystery of iniquity" rose 
 in the Church; and "Antipas," was its inside foe and mar- 
 tyr, while paganism was its outside foe, to be also con- 
 quered and put "out of the way." 
 
 "The doctrine of Baalam." — (See the history of 
 Balaamism, Num. xxii., xxiii., xxiv.) Balaam was called 
 a prophet, but he was more pious in word than in deed. 
 
 He would not for any consideration, in 
 Baiaamiticai words nor by outward act, go against the 
 **»«*y- commandment or pleasure of the Lord — 
 
 so he thought or reasoned. But, though 
 outwardly he appeared so devout, his actions showed that 
 he "loved the wages of unrighteousness," and was self- 
 
CHAP. VI.] TO THE CHURCH IN PERGAMOS. Bg 
 
 deceived. He went anxiously enough with the Elders of 
 Moab and Midian to curse Israel — who were to God "as 
 the apple of His eye" — when the Lord at his first request 
 had said, "Thou shalt not go zvith them." And when they 
 offered him greater rewards or gold and honor, he angered 
 the Lord by pleading with Him, as if to change His mind 
 or purpose toward Israel, and went with those heathen 
 princes, and burnt sacrifices with them, to the shame of 
 all Israel. 
 
 "To eat things sacrificed unto idols." — Thus 
 Balaam taught Israel, by example, which is more powerful 
 than precept, to mingle with the heathen, and eat of their 
 idol sacrifices (Num. xxv. 1-3). The Gospel commands 
 separation from sinners; but high-minded, false-hearted 
 Pergamenians, after the "doctrine" or practice of Balaam, 
 allowed their desires to drown their consciences, and their 
 actions to commend what their professions condemned. 
 They had escaped the Smyrniot adversary of persecution, 
 only to meet the Pergamenian adversary of enticement. 
 
 What is it to eat symbolically? The Scriptures must 
 answer. Said Jesus, "Man shall not live by 
 Symbolic bread alone, but by every word that pro- 
 
 Eating, ceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matt, 
 
 iv. 4). I. e., he must by study digest in 
 the mind, and by faith assimilate into the spiritual life the 
 principles of truth and righteousness as taught in all the 
 Word of God. "Take the (little book) and eat it up," said 
 the angel to John (chap. x. 9), and he obeyed; and thus 
 also Ezekiel ate his roll (chap. iii.). In this, John and Eze- 
 kiel, as representative prophets, were giving the Church ob- 
 ject-lessons in the necessity of really receiving into the 
 inner life the divine principles enunciated in the "little 
 book" and in the "roll." The great truths concerning our 
 Lord Jesus Christ were taught objectively by the law of 
 
90 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEI.ATION. part II. 
 
 sacrifices on Jewish altars. The priests ate the sacrifices, 
 both of burnt offerings and sin offerings (Num. viii. 8-10), 
 as the Christian now cats the body of Christ, our burnt 
 offering and sin offering, in the emblems of the Lord's 
 table. All this is beautifully symbolic of the imperative 
 necessity of assimilating our lives to the life of the Son 
 of God. We eat natural food to live; and we eat spiritual 
 food to live again. But the sacrifices of idols, or false gods, 
 represent not the truth nor any divine principles, but false- 
 hood and error; and to eat of them is, not to have the Spirit 
 of truth nor walk in the light, but to have the spirit of 
 error and walk in darkness. It is error and falsehood, 
 therefore, that the Pergamenian church, from her exalted 
 position in the Eonian Empire, is charged with receiving 
 from off pagan altars as "sacrificed imto idols." Constan- 
 tine, the ostensible and doubtless sincere friend of the 
 Church — yet from the "adversary's throne," let it be re- 
 membered — removed persecution, restored that peace* 
 whicli the world giveth, and the estates which former (and 
 pronounced) adversaries had confiscated, and built fine 
 temples for essayed worship; but at the same time, with- 
 out the knowledge of Crod, but with the rashness of Uzzah, 
 
 "who put forth his hand to the ark of 
 The First (t^^j ^ud took hold of it," he assembled 
 
 stumbling- ^}^g Council of Nice (a. d. 325) and for- 
 
 stone. mulatcd a creed — the Church without 
 
 wisdom or wariness consenting. Creeds 
 are words of men, and not the AYord of God — much less 
 "every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God," 
 by which the Church should live. They are but formula- 
 tions of truth and error — mostly error, and "senseless jar- 
 gon," as said Whelpley. They have never given one heart 
 a thrill of Joy or comfort, nor the Church one moment of 
 peace; but have filled the whole world with woe. If the 
 
CHAP. VI.] TO THE CHURCH IN PERGAMOS. 91 
 
 first had been the last, it would have been well for us, and 
 for the glory of God; and the "dark ages" would have been 
 ages of light. 
 
 "And to commit fornication." — Jesus is the true 
 Bridegroom and Husband of the Church. He is her only- 
 legal helper aside from the Holy Spirit, which is of His 
 appointment. But the Church was eased with her release 
 from persecution, pleased with the gifts 
 Spiritual ^j^^j favors of the great emperor and the 
 
 Adultery. unaccustomcd applause of lords and 
 
 princess now; she forgot her separation 
 from the world and her union with Christ; she accepted 
 the coveted human help, united with the State, and thus 
 committed spiritual "fornication." 
 
 "Hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which 
 thing I hate." — No sooner had the Church officially re- 
 ceived the creed — humanly formulated — in place of the 
 whole pure Word of God — divinely given — than the Nico- 
 laitan "conquerors" began to force their pago-Christian 
 dogmas upon the "people." The Word of God was given 
 to men in a way to demand personal attention, study and 
 meditation, from old and young, ignorant and learned 
 alike. (See Psa. i. 2; cxix. 9-16, 34, 41, 42; 48, 89, 92, 
 97-100.) The creed was devised to rid the Church of Just 
 that exercise. And kings and priests united under "the 
 doctrine of the Nicolaitans" to force the living Word, the 
 source of faith, out of the hands and hearts of the people, 
 and the creed, a lifeless "symbol of faith," into its place. 
 The Lord said, "He that hclievcth not [the Word — gra- 
 ciously testified] shall be condemned." The Nicolaitans 
 said, "He that receiveth not the creed — unquestioned — 
 shall be condemned." But God hates this assumption, 
 and every Christian should hate all and any intervention 
 of man — priest or prince — between his fellow and God. 
 
gi DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEIvATlON. PART II. 
 
 "Repent! * * * sword of my mouth."— 
 Repentance is commanded; and if obedience is not yielded, 
 fighting them with the sword of His month will be quickly- 
 instituted. This shows the serious errors of the Church of 
 this period. Who can doubt or deny it? And who can 
 state the errors better than they are stated in the creed — the 
 words of the errorists themselves? Then comes the sig- 
 nificant challenge again — who will heed it? — "He that hath 
 an ear, let him hear what THE SPIEIT saith unto the 
 churches" — not what the creeds say. 
 
 " Give to eat of the hidden manna." — "To him 
 that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna." 
 This is a promise that if they will cease to eat the pro- 
 hibited food from idol altars — cease to believe or receive 
 the false teachings of their day, though it may cost a great 
 effort thus to "overcome," He will give them the proper 
 food for their spiritual health — the "hidden manna." 
 Literally, manna was the "angels' food," the "corn of 
 Heaven" (Psa. Ixxviii. 34, 25), which sustained the lives of 
 Israel during the years of their wilderness journey. It was 
 a type of Christ, who is the "true bread from Heaven." 
 A golden pot was filled with this manna, at the close of 
 Israel's journey through the great wilderness, and hidden 
 in the ark of the Old Covenant, as a testimony to all their 
 generations to come. The outside world had not this 
 manna then. It was a gift to Israel, prevailers with God, 
 or overcomers; and typified a great truth concerning future 
 life, only in Christ. 
 
 IMMORTALITY NOT INHERITED, BUT SECURED THROUGH 
 
 CHRIST. 
 
 Notice these strong words of Jesus: — 
 "My Father giveth you [not that formerly given through 
 either Adam or Moses, now, but] the true bread from heaven. 
 
CHAP. VI.] TO THE CHURCH IN PERGAMOS. 93 
 
 For the bread of God is He who cometh down from heaven, and 
 giveth [future] life unto the world." (John vi. 32, 33.) " Except 
 ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, ye have 
 NO life in you. Who so eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood. 
 hath eternal life ; and I will raise him up at the last day. * * * 
 As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father ; so he 
 that eateth Me shall live by Me.'' {Ibid. 53, 54, 57.) 
 
 The New Testament is brimming with the truth of 
 future life only through Jesus; and the Old is not less so; 
 but with the difference that the former states it more 
 plainly, the latter generally in type. The Jews whom 
 Jesus was teaching had learned through their fathers, who 
 learned it in Egypt,* the doctrine of the natural immor- 
 tality of the soul. The pagan idolaters, with whom the Per- 
 gamenians mingled, also taught the same doctrine. No 
 inspired writer affirms it, but to the contrary, that man is 
 mortal, wholly so. That death extinguishes all life in 
 
 man, and is a condition of entire uncon- 
 How Men Make sciousncss.t That the doctrine of natural 
 God a, Liar. qj. g^^]^ immortality, as popularly held, is 
 
 not true, and is a denial of the truth as it 
 is in Christ, is clearly set forth in 1 John v. 9-13: — ■ 
 
 "If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is 
 greater ; for this is the witness of God which He hath testified of 
 His Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness 
 in himself; he that believeth not God hath inade Him a liar ; be- 
 cause he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son. AND 
 
 THIS IS THE RECORD, that God hath given 
 Joiin'a Belief. to US eternal life, and this life is in his son. 
 
 He that hath the Son hath life ; and he that 
 hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written 
 unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God ; that ye may 
 
 * Herodotus, " the father of history," who wrote in the 5th century B.C., says 
 that the Egyptians were " the first of mankind who had defended the immortality 
 of the soul."— £!«terpe, c. 123. {Debt and Grace, p. 267.) 
 
 t See Gen. ii. 17 ; iii. 17-19 ; Job xiv. 10-15, 21 ; xvii. 13-16 ; Psa. vi. 5 ; cxv. 16, 
 17 ; cxix. 176 ; cxlvi. 2-4 ; Eccl. iii. 18-20 ; ix. 4-6, 10 ; Isa. xxxviii, 10, 17-19 ; Eze. 
 xiii. 22 ; xviii. 4, 20. 
 
94 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. part II. 
 
 know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the 
 name of the Son of God." 
 
 Why, then, do men say this life is in the soul ? 
 
 Paul also declares this life to be in 
 Pauline Christ, through faith, and not naturally in 
 
 Theology. ^}-^g SOul:— 
 
 "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are 
 above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your 
 affections on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are 
 dead [to self and sin], and your [future] life is hid with Christ in 
 God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, THEN [not at 
 death] shall ye also appear with Him in glory." — Col. iii. 1-4. 
 
 James says we "shall receive a crown of life, which the 
 
 Lord hath promised to them that love 
 jame*' jj^j^ (^.j^^ j -^^y rpj^^^^ ^^ convcrt the sin- 
 
 View. jj(jj. fj-om the error of his way is to "save 
 
 a soul from death" (ch. v. 20). And Peter 
 also, together with Jesus and the Apostle Paul, 
 holds up before us the "precious promises'' of God, "that 
 
 by these," says he, "ye might be partakers 
 Peter's ^^ ^/j^ divinc nature, having escaped the 
 
 Faith. corruption that is in the world through 
 
 lust" (2 Epis. i. 4). And then the Avords 
 of Jesus in prayer: — » 
 
 "As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should 
 give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him. And this is 
 eternal life, that they might know Thee, the onl}^ true God, and 
 Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." — John xvii. 2, 3. See x. 27. 
 
 It is very clear that in Jesus' teachings while here, 
 and in His offer of "hidden manna," or "true bread of 
 life," to Pergamenian overcomers — those who rejected the 
 alluring "doctrines" that were being pressed upon them — 
 there is a recognition of man's mortal nature, and need of 
 eternal life, only to be secured through Himself, of Him 
 "who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which 
 no man [in mortality] can approach unto" (1 Tim. vi. 16). 
 
CHAP. VI.] TO THE CHURCH IN PERGAMOS. 95 
 
 There seems to be no other possible signification in the 
 symbol of "hidden manna" as a gift and cure for false doc- 
 trines. Who can find another? 
 
 The "White Stone." — Those who received the 
 "liidden manna" were also to receive the "white stone, and 
 in the stone a new name written." We are told of an an- 
 cient custom among the Romans, when 
 Ancient ^^^q pcrsous or families became mutually 
 
 Tessera;. attached to cach other through kindness, 
 
 friendship or love, to divide a small white 
 stone upon which some representative name or legend was 
 inscribed, each party retaining a piece as a memento. Only 
 when these two pieces were joined again would the com- 
 plete inscription appear as proof of the original mutuality. 
 These "tcsscroc," as they were called, were highly prized, 
 and handed down from father to son, and perhaps from 
 generation to generation. Thus the "white stone" is a 
 symbol of covenant relationship. "Whosoever shall confess 
 Me before men," said the King of kings, "him will I con- 
 fess before My Father who is in Heaven." What a blessed 
 promise of love! What a precious tessera of hope! 
 
 "A new name." — The "new name" seems to re- 
 late to the divine custom already mentioned (p. 61) of 
 changing the names of parties in covenant with God, as 
 Abram to Abraham; Sarai to Sarah; Jacob to Israel, etc. 
 It is a memento of fellowship, communion with Christ. 
 And since "no man knoweth" it saving the receiver, it is 
 personal fellowship or communion through the Holy 
 Spirit's Avitness in the heart. A most blessed, and abso- 
 lutely inestimable witness. Who would not secure it at any 
 cost? 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 IV. THE THYATIEIAN OR JUSTINIAN PERIOD— 
 
 A. D. 529 TO A. D. 1529. 
 
 Text, Chapter ii. 18-20. 
 
 i8. And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write ; 
 
 These things saith the Son of God, who hath 
 The Message his eyes like unto a flame of fire ; and his feet 
 
 to the Angel like fine brass ; 
 
 of Thyatira. 19^ I know thy works, and charity, and 
 
 service, and faith, and patience, and thy last 
 works to be more than the first {Eniph. Diag.). 
 
 20. Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because 
 thou suff erest that woman Jezebel, who calleth herself a prophetess, 
 to teach and to seduce My servants to commit fornication, and to 
 eat things sacrificed unto idols. 
 
 THYATIRA signifies ''a sweet savor," an "acceptable 
 offering," We approach in this symbolic outline 
 the greatest altar that faith has ever reared for 
 sacrifice, or furnished with offerings. A new era now 
 dawns upon the Church and upon the world. There is no 
 historic evidence to show that the Pergamenians listened 
 to the Lord's call to them to repent of their pride, forni- 
 cation and false doctrines, though He fought them with the 
 sword of His mouth: by which we understand that, through 
 faithful individuals, He cut and goaded them with the 
 Word, showing them their errors, and warning them of 
 judgments. And as a result we find no improvement in 
 the characteristics of Thyatira, her sister in succession. 
 It is the Justinian era we reach now, which is as clearly 
 outlined and detailed in history as in these symbols — a 
 very marvel of correspondence. As Constantine "the 
 
 96 
 
CHAP. VII.] TO THE CHURCH IN THYATIRA. 97 
 
 Great'* espoused the cause of the Church against paganism 
 in the former period, securing her a perilous rest from the 
 divinely imposed labor and duty of personal searching of 
 the Word, in the convenience of the creed and the neces- 
 sities of priestcraft, so now Justinian, in some respects the 
 Greater, espoused the cause of popery (Nicolaitanism) and 
 the creed against the Holy Spirit, the only authoritative 
 teacher outside the Word of God itself, and the liberties 
 of the Church. The Pergamenians officially conceived a 
 
 creed and gave it birth. The Thyatirians 
 The Creed adopted it, trained and educated it, wor- 
 
 Exaited Above griped it, and made it the supreme arbi- 
 the Word. trator in Church and State. And the 
 
 bloody trail of its imperial edicts against 
 the individual thought and liberties of the humble, godly 
 laity of the Church, drawn across the Thyatirian historic 
 field, is as indelible, and an hundredfold more visible, than 
 the galaxy across the blue of Heaven. The darkness and 
 blood of the "dark ages" rose up against the light and life 
 of truth, put her to death, and threw a sackcloth of mourn- 
 ing over the Gospel sun for a thousand years. Our Lord 
 therefore appears to this erring age with — 
 
 " Eyes like unto a flame of fire." — This strikingly 
 denotes the authority and power of His rejected truth — • 
 despised and trodden under their feet — for judgment (as 
 has been shown); for as sun and flame light yet have power 
 to scorch, so the truth, when proclaimed, is ''the savor of 
 life unto life,'* to the believer; but becomes "the savor of 
 death unto death in them that perish" through its rejec- 
 tion. 
 
 "His feet like fine brass." — Literally, fine white 
 copper, or glowing "as in a furnace" (chap. i. 15). Such 
 feet would denote the absolute irresistibleness of approach- 
 ing judgment — tarrying only for possible repentance. 
 
98 DIVINE KKY OF THE REVELATION. part II. 
 
 "Works, charity, service, faith, patience.'*— 
 
 This Church is somewhat commended, it seems, for these 
 qualities, doubtless, as seen generally among the individual 
 and humble members of her laity. 
 
 "Last works more than the first."— The Ephe- 
 sians were censured for diminished zeal in first works; but 
 these Thyatirians seem to be commended (?) for increased 
 zeal in last works. If "first works" in Ephesus came of 
 "first love," they Avould seem to indicate works of real truth 
 and righteousness as opposed to routinism, formalism. 
 Like the Jews, they had "a zeal for God, but not according 
 to knowledge;" of which it was said in the prophets, "The 
 zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." And as Paul de- 
 scribed his own ante-Christian state, "being more exceed- 
 ingly zealous," said he, "of the traditions of my fathers." 
 The next verse seems clearly to warrant this view. 
 
 "Notwithstanding I have this against thee." 
 — The words '"a few things" were supplied by the transla- 
 tors to fill an ellipsis here, but they minimize the charge 
 which follows. The Emphatic Diaglott is better, giving, 
 "I have this against thee:" — 
 
 "Thou sufferest that woman Jezebel * * 
 to teach." — Jezebel was an idol- worshiping princess, 
 daughter of the King of the Zidonians, whom Ahab, King 
 of Israel, married, in open violation of Jewish law — an 
 offense to God, and to the scandal of the Israelitish nation. 
 The signification of Jezebel is uncertain: according to Mar- 
 tindale's Dictionary it is, 'hvo to thee, or the dunghill;" in 
 Young's Analytical Concordance it is, "zuithout cohabita- 
 tion." Her history is found in 1 Kings xvi. 
 God Chose 3]^_33 aj^(^ onward to xxii. 25; also, 2 Kings 
 
 the Types- j^. and X. God chose that history and 
 We Must Find pointed it out, as He did the Babylonian 
 the Antitypes, history later on, and we must find it typical 
 of the great Thyatirian apostasy, persecu- 
 
CHAP. VII.] TO THE CHURCH IN THYATIRA. 99 
 
 tion, tribulation and death of antitypical Ahab, Jezebel, and 
 "her children." Ahab, as anointed King of Israel, repre- 
 sents in the antitype the body oflficial of the Church. Jeze- 
 bel, his heathen wife, represents, then, idolatrous pagan- 
 ism in union with the body official of the Church. Women 
 were not allowed under the law to teach. Jesus chose no 
 women teachers; nor does Paul in his writings allow it in 
 the Gospel. (1 Cor. xiv. 34-37.) Thus "that woman 
 Jezebel" is prohibited for more than one reason — she is 
 also an adulterous woman. 
 
 The Church was constituted by our Lord a body of 
 kings and priests (chap. i. 6), and as such they are, so far 
 as truly led by the Holy Spirit, the proper teachers of this 
 age. But when the Church was married to Constantino, 
 Justinian and other human rulers, she forsook Christ, 
 grieved the Holy Spirit, demeaned herself, forfeited her 
 true exaltation, and perverted God's whole arrangement. 
 In yoking up with the imperialism of the world, she re- 
 ceived its spirit, and, desiring to please and edify her pagan 
 paramours, essayed to teach the followers of Christ, au- 
 thoritatively, what each must find, or believe is found, 
 taught in the Word of God. That was the hateful Nicola- 
 it anisin that so displeased God. And there came of it an 
 over-piotis zeal for "the Church," abating proportionately 
 her zeal for God. Churchianity in her eyes eclipsed, and in 
 her hand destroyed, Christianity. Jezebel taught, more 
 than Christ. Creed-making destroyed the duty and the 
 act of faithful, earnest study of the Word. And persecu- 
 tion, to put religion in others, destroyed true religion in 
 the persecutrix herself. But she was a brazen-faced wo- 
 man, and her antitype, the Eoman Church, and "her chil- 
 dren," modern (so-called) orthodoxy, I fear will never con- 
 
lOO DIVINE KEY OP THE REVELATION. PART II. 
 
 fess their errors. But I respectfully submit that it is a 
 
 fearful arraignment of the "orthodoxy" 
 
 ''*^*"® of a church or people for Christ to say. 
 
 Arraignment «£ «ThoU SUffcrCSt [willingly alloWCSt] that 
 
 "Orthodoxy." woman Jezebel to teach," etc. In doing so 
 she must at the sanie time turn away her 
 ear form the true teacher, who so unqualifiedly condemns 
 the Jezebelitic doctrines in "mother" and "children" alike. 
 And it is useless and sinful to deny it, since God declares it. 
 For, as Jezebel influenced all the succeeding history of the 
 kingdom, after her baneful influence was once gained there- 
 in, so paganism in Christian garb — ^the "spirit of error," 
 and not the "Spirit of truth" — has been the teacher ex- 
 oMcio, and grand inquisitor general of the faith, from the 
 Councils of JSFice, Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedon 
 onward throughout the dark ages, and — how far? It is 
 enough for us here to say that the stars and the moon paled 
 to darkness, and the sun, which rose in splendor over Ephe- 
 sus, went down at noon in clouds of darkness over Thya- 
 tira. Tradition, mysticism, speculation and theological 
 "smoke" and fog reigned supreme. The reader may decide 
 later whether the truth was ''established" in the empire 
 in such an atmosphere, or remained in the mountains and 
 caves in spite of it. We must give considerable attention 
 to the doctrines of this age, but will first consider the types. 
 Will the "orthodox" reader exercise candor and patience? 
 
 TYPES OF THYATIRA. 
 
 "Ahab served Baal and worshiped him;" built him 
 an house and altars, and made him a grove: 
 
 Ahab. thus in antitype did Thyatira officially 
 
 unite with paganism in spirit and letter, 
 
 receiving temples and altars and forms and mysteries. 
 
CHAP. VII.] TO THE CHURCH IN THYATIRA. lOI 
 
 Jezebel slew the prophets of the Lord, save one hun- 
 dred that Obadiah hid in a cave and fed 
 Jezebel. ^j^ BREAD and WATER, and fed 850 of the 
 
 prophets of Baal and of the groves at her 
 royal pagan table; teaching Israel "to eat things sacri- 
 ficed unto idols." 
 
 Elijah, who represented the prophets of the Lord or 
 prophecy, predicted that there should be 
 Biijab. neither dew nor rain those years but by 
 
 his word. Dew and rain represent the 
 favor and blessing of God; without them the earth would 
 be a barren desert. So, however the "orthodox" may look 
 for good doctrines or "authoritative" "symbols of faith" 
 in the creeds of that period, while their eyes are closed to 
 the type, those whose eyes are open to the Lord's figures 
 see that the type clearly discloses the fact that the Church 
 had no distilling dews of Heavenly grace, nor "showers of 
 blessing," for as many years as Israel was deprived of those 
 literal blessings in days; or as there were days in Elijah's 
 "three years and six months" of famine, Eor symbolic 
 events are measured by symbolic time. The 
 Symbolic propriety and fitness of such a rule will 
 
 '*'*"**• readily commend itself to every thoughtful 
 
 reader. A day represents a year in all sym- 
 bolic prophecy; that is, one revolution of the earth on its 
 axis being taken for one revolution in its orbit around the 
 sun. (See Eze. iv. 1-6, and margin; and Num. xiv. 34; 
 also, exceptions as noted in index.) For Elijah, by com- 
 mandment, hid himself during the period, from the ven- 
 geance of Jezebel, and was fed by the ravens, or as miracu- 
 lously shared the hospitality of an impoverished widow, 
 whose empty "barrel of meal" and "cruse of oil" neverthe- 
 less wasted not nor failed. 
 
 Ahab accused Elijah (as Thyatira accused the 
 
I02 DIVINE KKY OF THE REVEIvATION. PART II. 
 
 "Arians" — of whom we will speak later) of being the 
 troubler of Israel! But Elijah rebuked his accuser by 
 "fire of the Lord" from Heaven, and slew all the prophets 
 of Baal — the type of the symbolic "lake of fire" of to-day, 
 as we shall see, which is consuming the beast, dragon and 
 false prophet, and is scorching Trinitarianism and other 
 Eoman falsities. Then, at the prayer of Elijah, the rain 
 
 came abimdantly — which must also have 
 A liying: Spirit j^g antitype. Then came the lying spirit 
 as a strong from the Lord, in the mouth of Ahab's 
 Delusion. prophets, which led to Ahab's death— the 
 
 dogs licking his blood. And then, the 
 anointing of Jehu and the death of Jezebel, — eaten by 
 dogs, — and the violent death of all Ahab and Jezebel's 
 children. So in the antitype, we shall find when the events 
 of this period ai*e brought out, through the Message we 
 are considering, the corresponding Seal and Trumpet, that 
 the Lord had a people hidden away in the mountains and 
 secluded corners of the earth, miraculously sustained, and 
 with bread, both spiritual and temporal, not found on 
 Jezebel's table, for a period of 1,260 years of "war on the 
 saints"— moxk the term "saints" — as described by the Holy 
 Spirit (Dan. vii. 31; viii. 12, 24, 25; Rev. xiii. 7; xvii. 6); 
 but who were "heretics" and "disturbers of Israel," as 
 charged by that false teacher Jezebel. 
 
 If the types are true (and they are) all this time, there 
 was an antitypical lying spirit in the mouth of creed 
 makers, who were so indifferent to the statements of the 
 Holy Spirit that they set aside the plain Word of God for 
 the verbose formulations of men and councils. Said God, 
 "They have chosen their own ways, and their soul de- 
 lighteth in their abominations. I also will choose their 
 delusions" (Isa. Ixvi. 4). And said Paul: "For this cause 
 ["because they received not the love of the truth"] God 
 
CHAP. VII.] TO THE CHURCH IN THYATIRA. 103 
 
 shall send them strong delusions, that they should believe 
 a lie: that they all might be condemned who believed not 
 the truth" (2 Thes. ii. 10-12). Is it any wonder that "a 
 lying spirit in the mouth" should be accompanied by a 
 murderous spirit in the heart, which originated the In- 
 quisition to destroy the lives of those who did receive the 
 truth, as , Jezebel, their prototype, destroyed them, and, 
 as history shows, of "her children?" 
 
 It will be seen that the work begun in the Pergame- 
 nian age of teaching and seducing the people of the Church 
 to cat things sacrificed to pagan idols, and to commit for- 
 nication (as explained in loco), is not only continued, but 
 greatly increased in the Thyatirian era. Now we have 
 
 only to study the history of the period to 
 Heresy determine who antitypieal Jezebel is; it 
 
 with Jezebel jg ^j-^g persecuting power: who the "chil- 
 was Truth drcu" are; they are those churches con- 
 
 with God. nected with the State, which hold and 
 
 teach her doctrines: what the real "her- 
 esy" was that troubled Israel; it was what Jezebel taught 
 with authority: who the "heretics" were, upon whom she 
 launched all the war forces of the State: they were the 
 "saints of the most High;" and their "heresy" was "the 
 truth," which Eome "cast down to the ground." Let the 
 reader ponder these^ things which meet us so squarely from 
 these symbols and types without prejudice; and, in sight of 
 God, without fear or favor of men, decide in his or her 
 own mind whether we should continue to call "heresy" 
 what Eome calls heresy, but what God calls truth. 
 Whether we should continue to call "orthodox," and 
 "evangelical'' and true what Jezebel and "her children" 
 call thus, when God calls it idolatrous and false. 
 
 But we must proceed to the direct liistory of Thyatira. 
 The Ephesian or Apostolic age was short — thirty-four 
 
104 divine; key of the REVE1.ATI0N. part II. 
 
 years — and gave way for the Smyrniot age of bitterness, 
 caused by the persecutions of the pagan emperors, ISTero 
 to Diocletian — 249 years. That was followed by the Per- 
 gamenian age of pride and growing apostacy through the 
 influence of the so-called Christian emperors, Constantine 
 to Justinian — 216 years. From the new Justinian code of 
 law, issued by that emperor in a. d. 529, the Thyatirian 
 period extends for 1,000 years to the Protestant League 
 of A. D. 1529, when a change is met, and Sardis fills out 
 the balance of the 1,260 years of Eoman Catholic domina- 
 tion and persecution, 260 years, down to a. d. 1789. 
 
 The marriage of antitypical Ahab and Jezebel, i. e., 
 
 the formal union of Church and State, 
 Formal Union occurrcd in A. D. 519, and was celebrated 
 of cbnrcii \;\i}i courtly display and ceremony at Con- 
 
 and State. stautinoplc, by the Roman Senate, and 
 
 the Church as represented by the Patri- 
 arch of that city, and an embassy of papal legates from 
 Rome. The union was officially declared by the legates, 
 who "then attended the patriarch to the great church," 
 says Bower, "assisted at divine service performed by him 
 with great solemnity, >//f^ emperor, the empress, the whole 
 court, and the senate being present; and to seal the union, 
 received with him, and probably at his hands, the holy 
 . eucharist." {Hist, of the Popes, Vol. I., p. 298.) This 
 was "artfully calculated to subject, rather than to unite, 
 the see of Constantinople to that of Rome," as the patri- 
 arch declared, but he was forced to submit. This union 
 occurred just ten years before the "war on the saints" 
 fully began, by the giving of "times and laws" into the 
 hands of the Roman Church. (See Dan. vii. 23-27.) A 
 schism had separated the Eastern and Western churches 
 for thirty-five years prior to the union, which was made 
 the excuse for calling on the State to enforce the union 
 
CHAP. VII,] TO THK CHURCH IN THYATIRA. I05 
 
 (nominally of the churches, but really of State and 
 Church), so that by imperial edicts and papal bulls at last 
 all the churches were forced to subscribe to the decrees 
 of the Council of Chalcedon concerning the supposed two 
 natures in Christ, "so distinct that they could not be inter- 
 mixed, yet so conjoined that in Christ there was but one 
 person." [!] {Students' Encyc). This was the "in two 
 natures" theory with which the Council 
 '''*® intended to thoroughly uproot the Euty- 
 
 Entychian (.j^i^n "of two uaturcs" theory, which Mr. 
 
 Theory. Bowcr sums up thus: "1. That as there 
 
 was but one Christ, so there was but one 
 nature in Christ. 2. That this nature consisted of the 
 human and the divine natures become one by the hypos- 
 tatical union." {Hist, of the Popes, Vol. I., p. 199.) 
 Eutyches was summoned before a council assembled in 
 Constantinople, to answer the charge of heresy, and, being 
 abjured "to declare without ambiguity, and in the plainest 
 terms, his real sentiments concerning the nature of Christ, 
 he confessed with great candor that he acknowledged two 
 natures before the union, and but one after it."— 76. The 
 whole Council, in great rage condemned him. He ap- 
 pealed to the emperor and the pope, but he is said to have 
 "disappeared from history"! "Much at- 
 coancii of teutiou was paid," Mr. Bower says, "to 
 
 Constantinople, settling the CathoUc belief with respect 
 to the mystery of the incarnation" — a 
 mystery of their own manufacture! For the truth con- 
 cerning the holy unction, the overshadowing of the Virgin 
 of Bethlehem by the "power of the Highest," and the sub- 
 sequent birth of Jesus, is really no more mysterious, in 
 itself, than was the first Adam's creation out of dust, if we 
 only drop the creeds, and take an independent stand upon 
 the Word." 
 
lo6 divine; K^Y of YHe; REVElLAYlON. PART 11. 
 
 " But at last a symbol or creed was happily composed, to 
 which they all agreed ; aud the substance of it was that there is 
 but one Christ, perfect God and perfect man, in His divinity con- 
 substantial with God, and in His humanity consubstantial with us ; 
 that in Him the two natures were united without change, division 
 or mixture ; and subsisted, not in two persons, but in one, agree- 
 ably to the symbol of Nice." — lb., p. 213. 
 
 But what an exhibition of sublime nonsense and 
 explano-tangled contradictions! It is "confusion worse 
 confounded;" and sublimely mysterious enough! Surely, 
 "no man can hope to muddle others without first mud- 
 dling himself." It is not at all surprising 
 Dr. shedd ^-hat the learned and "orthodox" Dr. 
 
 Can Fully g^g^^ (^^-^^ Q„,^;^_ ^^^^^ y^l j^ p 4Qg)^ 
 
 Endorse. Concerning this definition, thinks it prob- 
 
 able that "the human mind is unable to 
 go beyond it in the endeavor to unfold the mystery of 
 Christ's complex person." I should say so, if only mystery 
 were desired, and this line of unfolding were to be fol- 
 lowed. But Dr. Shedd had not read Dr. Schaff. Divinity 
 has had many "doctors" since the deliver- 
 ur. Schaff auces of Chalccdon; and we have this 
 
 Can Fnrtiier explanation of the "kenotic theory"! 
 Explain. Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D., informs us in 
 
 his Ency. of Relig. Knozvl. (Vol. I., p. 
 465 *^), that "the true kenosis is a renunciation of the 
 use (chreesis), but not of the possession (kteesis), of divine 
 attributes." 
 
 But, if the "divine attributes'" M'ere abandoned for the 
 great work of the atonement, did not the work itself cease 
 to be so specially divine? Why, then, the sacrifice of the 
 Son of God? Was it all a farce, after all? If His divinity 
 was really dormant during His earthly ministry, why 
 might not John the Baptist, the greatest of prophets^ or 
 some other sanctified agent, all whose powers were active, 
 
CHAP. VII.] TO THE CHURCH IN THYATIRA. IO7 
 
 enlisted and in exercise in his office, have performed the 
 service instead? No reason can be assigned, I think, but 
 one which seeks more the clothing of mystery, than the 
 body of trnth. 
 
 ORIGIN OF TRINITARIANISM. 
 
 In harmony with the angels' charge of false doctrines 
 in the Thyatirian age, we have the testimony of Edward 
 Gibbon to the origin of Trinitarianism there. He says 
 (italics mine): — 
 
 " During ten centuries of blindness and servitiide, [under her 
 Nicolaitan conquerors,] Europe received her religious opinions 
 from the oracle of the Vatican ; and the same doctrine, already 
 varnished with the rust of antiquity, was admitted without dispute 
 into the creed of the reformers, who disclaimed the supremacy of 
 the Roman pontiff. The synod of Chalcedon still triumphs in 
 the Protestant churches ; [!] but the ferment of controveisy has 
 subsided, and the most pious Christians of the present day are 
 ignorant, or careless, of their own belief concerning the mysterj' 
 of the incarnation."— Z>ff/z«^ and Fall, etc.. Vol. IV., chap. 47, 
 If 20. 
 
 CONFESSED MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 The above charge by the foremost secular historian 
 of the 18th century is candidly confessed by the foremost 
 Christian writer of this century, the late president of the 
 American Bible Eevision Committee, Dr. Philip Schaff, as 
 follows: — 
 
 "The Council of Ephesus (431), convened by Theodosius II. 
 and Valentinian III., frequented by about 200 bishops, and led by 
 Cyril of Alexandria, and the Council of Chalcedon (451), convened 
 by Marcian, frequented by 500 or 600 bishops, and led by the rep- 
 resentatives of Bishop Leo, of Rome, laid the foundation upon 
 which the orthodox Christology of our days is still resting.^' — 
 Ency. Relig. Knowl., Vol. I., p. 560. 
 
 Oh, shame, Thyatira! "Thou sufferest that woman 
 Jezebel, that calleth herself a prophetess [in her lauded 
 and "authoritative^' Councils], to teach," said Jesus, "and 
 
I08 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION, [part"ii. 
 
 to seduce My servants " ! " Orthodoxy ' ' ! where is thy 
 repentance? and where is thy light? 
 
 TRINITARIANISM JUSTLY REBUKED. 
 
 In contrasting the unity and permanency of Moham- 
 medanism with the divisions and apostasy of the Christian 
 Church, Gihbon ironically writes: — 
 
 "If the Christian Apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, could re- 
 turn to the Vatican, they might possibly inquire the name of the 
 Deity who is worshiped with such mysterious rites in that magnifi- 
 cent temple ; at Oxford or Geneva they would experience less 
 surprise ; but it might still be incumbent on them to peruse the 
 catechism of the church, and to study the commentators on their 
 own writings and the words of their Master. But the Turkish 
 dome of St. Sophia, with an increase of splendor and size, repre- 
 sents the humble tabernacle erected at Medina by the hands of 
 Mahomet. * * * < I believe in one God, and Mahomet the Apostle 
 of God,' is the simple and invariable profession of Islam." — De- 
 cline a7id Fall, etc., ch. 50, \ 41. 
 
 I would that these charges and reflections were not 
 truthful ones. But the Eevelation gave the forewarnings 
 of all these things centuries before the historians lived 
 that record them. Space forbids my entering fully into 
 the discussion of the questions involved. Many objections 
 will rise in the mind of the "orthodox" reader (if he be- 
 lieves himself orthodox), from the unconscious bias of early 
 misteachings; but faithful exposition demands their recog- 
 nition, and I hope that enough will be made clear to in- 
 spire a new personal investigation for the rest. 
 
 One error begets another. The first was that Christ 
 preexisted as a divine person, being or intelligence, before 
 His birth of Mary. Then, having the divine nature first, 
 it could not be obliterated or destroyed, and therefore in 
 assuming the human, as the theory goes, it must be in 
 some way mixed, or blended, or "conjoined" with the 
 human. But howf was the theological and mystical — 
 
CHAP. VII.] TO THB CHURCH IN THYATIRA, I09 
 
 " Ignis fatuus that bewitches 
 And leads men into pools and ditches." 
 
 If black and white paint were simply mixed, the paint- 
 ing would be spotted; if blended, it would 
 Order of jjg gray. But there was no mixing, blend- 
 
 jesns' Two jj^g j^qj. conjoining of natures in our Lord. 
 
 Natures. ^q make my simple figure at all illustrate 
 
 the human and the divine in Jesus we 
 must let the paint first be wholly black. Then let the Al- 
 mighty Father, at the proper time, by one omnipotent 
 word, ^'change'' the black to the most immaculate white- 
 ness. For Jesus did not take the angelic or divine nature 
 at birth, but at the resurrection. He "was made a little 
 lower than the angels for the suffering of death;" hence 
 first human — exactly like the first Adam — then divine, 
 after trial; for He "was declared to be the Son of God with 
 power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrec- 
 tion from the DEAD." (Eom. i. 4; 1 Cor. xv. 3, 4.) He 
 was "made of the seed of David according to the Uesh" not, 
 to be sure, by the natural law of generation, but by a new, 
 divine overruling, and creating a new human seed, to 
 be, and which was, developed after the natural law of the 
 flesh; so that the "second Adam" is the only begotten Son 
 of God, as the "first Adam" was the only created "Son of 
 God" (Luke iii. 38). The life of that new human seed 
 zvas divine: it came down, not from Adam, but "from 
 Heaven," from God. It was that divine life, unforfeited 
 by any subsequent sin, that the law demanded, and which 
 was sacrificed for the sins of the world. I see no neces- 
 sary mystery connected with the message of the angel to 
 Mary the Virgin Mother of our Lord; with Jesus' life. His 
 sacrifice, or His death. Why should there be, more than 
 about the creation, history, conviction and death of the 
 
no DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEIvATlON. [part ii. 
 
 first Adam? Why should man's redemption be more mys- 
 terious than his original creation from the dust? 
 
 A leading misconception with Trinitarians is that 
 • they regard it necessary to deify our Lord in all His past 
 history, even in His hnman nature, that He may be prop- 
 erly deified in His resurrection history, present and truly 
 divine nature! Another false notion is that a divine 
 nature, as well as a divine germination, or life, is necessary 
 to a divine mission. But Jesus, to accom- 
 uivine Nature ^\[g\i jjjg divine worlc, must Consummate 
 Cannot Snffer j^- ^^ death; and that which is elementally 
 Death. divinc cannot suffer death or pain; be- 
 
 cause it is immutable. Therefore He was 
 "made a little lower than the angels," that He might suffer 
 death, and be declared to be the Son of God with power, 
 ''by the resurrection'' into the divine and deathless nature. 
 He "poured out His soul [life] unto death" — "the travail 
 of His sonV — "his soul an offering for sin" (Isa. liii. 10-12). 
 "His soul [nephesh-psuche, life — the same in the four in- 
 stances quoted] was not left in hell [^shcol-hades — "grave- 
 land"], neither His ^esh did see corruption" (Acts ii. 31). 
 Sinless and pure. He took the very sinner's place in recog- 
 nition of the righteousness of God's violated law, and was 
 "made a curse for us;" died God-forsaken, and was soul 
 and body dead for three revolutions of the earth — "silent 
 in the grave;" for "the dead know not any thing:" their 
 "love and their hatred is now perished; * * * for there 
 is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in 
 the grave, whither thou goest." (See Psa. xxxi. 17; Eccl. 
 ix. 4-10.) Any argument to make the "thou" of this and 
 like passages refer only to the body, not including the soul, 
 is the veriest priestcraft— "handling the Word of God de- 
 ceitfully" — and only to be reprobated by all persons loyal 
 to the expressions of the Holy Spirit, and hating, as God 
 hates, the work and doctrines of Jezebel. 
 
CHAP. VII.] TO THE CHURCH IN THYATIRA. Ill 
 
 SCHOLARS DO NOT FIND SOUL-IMMORTALITY DIRECTLY 
 TAUGHT IN scriptures! 
 
 The candid acknowledgments of scholarly Christian 
 men, relative to there being no Scriptural authority for 
 the doctrine of natural or soul-immortal- 
 Abp. Tiiiotson. ^|-y^ cannot be successfully invalidated. 
 Abp. Tiiiotson says: "The immortality 
 of the soul is rather supposed, or taken for granted, 
 than expressly revealed in the Bible." (Sermons 100, 
 166.) Dr. Parkhurst, author of a He- 
 Dr. Parkhurst. i^rew-English Lexicon and a Greek-Eng- 
 lish Lexicon to the New Testament, 
 writes: "As a noun, nephesh hath been supposed to sig- 
 nify the spiritual part of man, or what we commonly 
 call the soul, I must, for myself, confess that I can find 
 no passage where it hath undoubtedly this meaning." 
 Prof. Vinet, of the University of Basel, 
 Prof. Vinet. ^^^ ^l^e Chair of Practical Theology of 
 Lausanne, asserts: "The doctrines of the 
 existence of God and of the immortality of the soul are 
 everywhere taken for granted in His [Christ's] words, but 
 never proved." We know that all believers in the "never 
 proved" view take it for granted, but not so Jesus, the 
 Apostles, or the prophets, in a solitary instance. AVho can 
 point out such an instance? I have already shown to the 
 contrary in connection with the "hidden manna" (pp. 92- 
 95). In the same connection it is (incidentally) shown 
 why man cannot "kill the soul," or life, which Jesus says 
 God "can destroy" (Matt. x. 38); namely, it being secured 
 through faith, and "hid with Christ in God," it is beyond 
 the reach of man, though he kill the body, and directly in 
 the volition of God, as the individual may prove true or 
 recreant to Christ. If the soul may be destroyed with the 
 body, how could Jesus, who made the assertion, "take it for 
 
112 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEI.ATION. [parT II. 
 
 granted," or any other way, that it is immortal? It is an 
 unsupported notion in those who were educated from in- 
 fancy to believe it, without proof, and over whose minds 
 it consequently has now such a power, that, until they are 
 aroused and undeceived, they suppose it to be the "corner- 
 stone of religion." 
 
 Dr. John Kitto renders Genesis ii. 7, as follows: "And 
 
 Jehovah God formed the man, dust from 
 Dr. Kttto. ^jjQ ground, and blew into his nostrils the 
 
 breath of life; and the man became a liv- 
 ing animal. Here are two objects of attention, the organic 
 mechanism of the human body, and [*^] the vitality with 
 which it was endowed." Note. "We should be acting un- 
 faithfully, if we were to affirm that an immortal spirit is 
 contained or implied in this passage." — Cycl. Bib. Lit., Vol. 
 I., p. 59. The Spanish version also gives "living animal;" 
 
 i. e., living creature, being or person. The 
 Dr. conant. ygpy ^\q linguist. Dr. Thomas J. Conant, 
 
 who translated the Book of Genesis in the 
 American Bible Union edition, in his note on the phrase 
 "breath of life" in the above passage, says: "There seems 
 to be no more implied than is recognized in Isa. ii. 23, 
 where it is said, with probable reference to this passage: 
 'Cease ye from man, in whose nostrils is breath,' only 
 breath, so frail a principle of life and so easily extin- 
 guished." And, speaking of nephesh, he says: "The He- 
 brew word here rendered soul includes all beings that have 
 animal life; and hence is applied to animals of the sea and 
 land, in chapter i. 20, 21, 24, 30. The English word soul 
 (like the German seele) originally had this extent of mean- 
 ing, as in verses 20 and 30, in the margin of the common 
 version. But, as the word is now used, it would misrepre- 
 sent the meaning in those passages." 
 
CHAP. VII.] TO THE CHURCH IN THYATIRA. II3 
 
 INTELLECT A FACULTY OF THE BRAIN, NOT OF THE SOUL. 
 
 This shows that intelligence is not a faculty of the 
 soul; since the soul is the life, as defined by the Spirit of 
 God, — no matter how modern lexicons define it, — and is 
 common to the whole animal kingdom. The beast has 
 the same kind of animal life that man has. 
 Distinction j|- jg maintained, also, in the same way 
 
 Between Man — -^y f^^^^ (\vn\\ and respiration. So that 
 and Animals. ^]-^g distinction betwccn man and beast is 
 not in life or soul; but in intellect, which 
 is the function of, and inheres in, the living organ of the 
 brain. The faculty of vision in the beast is equal to that 
 in man because its organs of vision are equally perfect. 
 So with the functions of hearing, smelling, tasting, feel- 
 ing. And from these considerations, it 
 Intellect sceius incredible that, failing to find in- 
 
 TVot a Faculty tcllcct a faculty of the solil, it should be 
 o£ the Spirit, attributed by any to the spirit. The spirit 
 is not life, but that which produces life, 
 or soul, at the will of the Creator, in organi::cd matter — ■ 
 animal and vegetable — it is the vital force. It also is ident- 
 ical and common in man and in all the animal kingdom. 
 The original terms are, Hebrew, rnach; Greek, pneuma; 
 Latin, spiritus, from which our English term is derived. 
 The Scptuagint, or Greek version of the Old Testament, 
 renders rnach (spirit) in Genesis i. 2, "a breath of God." 
 Gesenius in his lexicon defines the verb. 
 Primarily, «^q breathe, to blow, especially with the 
 
 Spirit Mean.s nostrils;" the noun, "spirit, breath, breath 
 iireati., Wind, ^f ^\^q month," citing Psa. xxxiii. 6. "By 
 the word of the Lord were the Heavens 
 made; and all the hosts of them by the breath of His 
 month.'' 
 
 Ruach occurs in the Old Testament 400 times, and has 
 
114 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [PART II. 
 
 twenty-two renderings — the chief being spirit, 236 times: 
 wind, 95 times; breath, 28 times. A clear illustration of 
 its meaning is found in Eze. xxxvii. 1-14, in which pas- 
 sage it occm's twelve times; rendered breath five times, 
 spirit four times, wind two times. Webster, Woreester, 
 Todd's Johnson's Dictmiary, The Encyclopaedic, and The 
 Century, all support Genesius' definition as the primary 
 meaning. The last says: — 
 
 "The primitive and natural notion of life was that 
 it consisted of the breath, and in most languages words 
 etymologically signifying 'breath' are used to mean the 
 principle of life.'' 
 
 To so-called orthodoxy, this truth is the "lost Pleiad" 
 in the constellation of truths concerning the nature of 
 man. It is thoroughly and uncontrovertibly authenticated 
 in the Scriptures and in philology, nevertheless. But 
 "Jezebel" taught that the spirit and the soul are the same, 
 and constitute an immortal and the rational principle 
 in man; notwithstanding the fact that the thirty-three 
 inspired writers of the Scriptures have used the term soul 
 785 times, (in both ^Testaments,) and the term spirit 858 
 times, — 1,643 times in all, — and have never used them 
 interchangeably, but in contradistinction to each other. 
 (See 1 Thes. v. 23; Heb. iv. 12.) And "her children" in 
 the orthodox Protestant world have received of her idol 
 sacrifices, and zealously teach her "doctrine"! And there- 
 fore it is that in Worcester's edition of Webster's Diction- 
 ary (1847) we find this note following the primary defini- 
 tion of spirit as given above: "This sense is now unusual." 
 Why now unusual? Since it is Scripturally and philologi- 
 cally sound; because of the substitution, among "her chil- 
 dren," of Jezebel's teachings for the Word of God. So 
 that now we find in the great "Standard Dictionary," (of 
 
CHAP. VII.] TO the; church in thyatira. 115 
 
 1895,) the primary definition of spirit given thus — note 
 it well: — 
 
 " The form of being or substance characterized by self-con- 
 sciousness, self-activity, and personality, and by the absence of the 
 properties that distinctively belong to matter, etc. * * * 2. A 
 being of this kind as now or formerly associated with a human 
 body. The part of man that has intelligence and is invisible and 
 incorporeal ; the rational principle of the human body." 
 
 And it is coolly and tersely stated that, "modern 
 philosophies may be classified by their views regarding 
 spirit and its relations to matter." While the true, pri- 
 mary definition is relegated, in this late "Standard," to 
 the twelfth place (!) in the order of definition, as fol- 
 lows: — 
 
 "12. Old Philos. (i) In ancient and medieval physiology, an 
 attenuated or immaterial principle, bestowing and governing vital 
 phenomena, generally connected in some way with breath : usually 
 in the plural, and used often with a qualifying adjective ; as vege- 
 tative 5/>zV/V^ ,■ \\\.2\ spirits ; 2i\\\n\?X spirits. This use gave rise to 
 numerous expressions [8®°"] now regarded as figurative, but 
 [notice] intended literally by old writers." 
 
 What an admission — candid enongh — for the "mod- 
 ern philosophies to make!" But the old writers must in- 
 clude the writers of the Word of God to ns; and their use 
 of the word niach, and their intentions concerning the 
 meaning conveyed to us, ought to settle the question of 
 the nature of spirit, in man, and in the animal creation as 
 well, with every "modern" Christian. May God continue 
 the good old literal truth "intended" by the old writers: 
 as, for instance, IMoses — Gen. vii. 22; and Solomon — 
 Eccl. iii. 18-21. Any innovation of the newer philoso- 
 phies upon tJicsc "old writers" is very dangerous. Jesus 
 appeared to the Thyatirian age — the age which conquered 
 the Church with the doctrines of those "orthodox" Eoman 
 Catholic councils, Ephesus and Chalcedon — with "eyes 
 like unto a flame of fire!" It was a dangerous apostasy to 
 
Il6 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part II. 
 
 demand such a threatening aspect towards it: its only cure 
 was the "liidden manna" — the AVord of God concerning 
 Jesus, in phice of tlie bread of idol sacrifices. And the 
 Xicolaitan s])irit of the Pergamenian age was still alive and 
 frenzied in its determination to deify Christ in His first 
 or human nature, and force the dogma (not so much as 
 if it were a wholesome faith into the heart, as arbitrarily 
 force it) into the mouth of every time-serving priest that 
 would cater to the spirit of so-called orthodoxy and Eome. 
 
 " What think ye of Christ ? Is the test 
 
 To try both your state and your scheme ; 
 You cannot be right in the rest, 
 Unless you think rightly of Him." 
 
 — Newton. 
 
 The origin of Trinitarianism was Preexisteutism (that 
 is, "the doctrine of the [personal] exist- 
 The Lie of Edei. ^^^^g ^f ^j^^ spirit— of Clirist and of man 
 a Fountain —beforc its uniou with the body"); the 
 o£ Error. origin of Preexistcntism was the doctrine 
 
 of the immortality of the soul; and the 
 origin of the doctrine of the immortality of the soul was 
 the original lie told in the garden of Eden: "Ye shall not 
 surely die;", but "ye shall be as gods, knowing good and 
 evil" — squarely contradicting God's Word, which said, 
 "Thou shalt surely die." (Gen. ii. 17.) And this 
 seemed like i)hilosophy and reason to our deceived and 
 doidjting first-parents, as it has been pretended by deceived 
 doubters and philosophists all the ages since, in all the 
 grades of doubt and "higher criticism." We have seen 
 that the Bible does not teach present immortality, but 
 denies it, and makes it a hope to those "who, by patient 
 continuance in well doing, seek for glory and honor and 
 immortality" (Romans, ii. 7); and cited the confessions of 
 authorities, that fairly represent the consensus of learned 
 
CHAP. VII.] TO THE CHURCH IN THYATIRA. II7 
 
 opinion, that the doctrine is only assumed, inferred, but 
 
 "never proved." In palliation of the 
 Error as a naked inconsistency of assuming what 
 
 Shield for cannot be proved by revelation, reason or 
 
 Error. experience, it is customary to associate 
 
 with til is postulate a fellow assumption, 
 namely, that the existence of God is also "taken for 
 granted!" The Presbyterian Quarterly (18G0, p. GOO) says: 
 "The Bible generally assumes the immortality of the soul, 
 as it does the existence of God." The Boston Rez'iczu (1861, 
 p. 446) says: "We know that the soul is immortal as we 
 know there is a God." I regard this as a shame on Chris- 
 tian scholarship. Prof. Vinet said the words of Christ, 
 also, assumed "the existence of God." But outside Jesus' 
 own declared experience, having seen the Father, there was 
 the faith of all Israel in the abundant testimony of the 
 })rophets, that rendered it unnecessary for Him to for- 
 mally prove to them the existence of God as to prove to 
 them the existence of Abraham or Moses. Moses did not 
 take it "for granted" that God, whose existence he as- 
 sumed, made the Heavens and the earth, man and all 
 things! Moses talked with God as Adam did, and saiv 
 God. He also received the law from the hand of the Angel 
 of his Presence, some of it written by God Himself in the 
 
 tables of stone. And yet, according to 
 The Bible on ^j^jg theory of "orthodoxy," the existence 
 the Existence ^f Qq^| jg ^^q-^ proved! Why is it not 
 *** ^<*^- proved, as clearly as any thing can be 
 
 jiroved, in the experience of Moses alone? 
 Because, as a last resort, if not proved, it helps in the ad- 
 vocacy of natural immortality, which must be received 
 without proof! "Misery loves company." And people in 
 their zeal for the traditions of their fathers, too easily 
 accept such propositions as truthful, or at least as plans- 
 
Il8 DIVINK KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part il. 
 
 ible excuses for — what? for attending Jezebel's banquet, 
 and partaking of things sacrificed nnto idols. But the fact 
 remains, that "the Lord descended upon (Mount Sinai) in 
 fire;" and "they saw the God of Israel [that is the Angel 
 of his Presence — Ex. xxiii. 20-22; Judg. xiii. 20-22]; and 
 there was under His feet as it were a paved work of sap- 
 phire stone, and as it were the body of Heaven in clear- 
 ness" (Ex. xxiv. 10). "The earth shook, the Heavens also 
 dropped at the presence of God; even Sinai itself was 
 moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel" (Psa. 
 Ixviii. 8). To ignore all this, and very much more, will 
 not inspire students of the Word that other Scriptures are 
 not ignored at the same time — specially those relating to 
 immortality, which is the direct cause of this ignorement. 
 The above demonstration was in presence of all Israel 
 whom Moses had "brought out of the camp to meet God," 
 that they might "believe [Him] forevei-" (Ex. xix. 9, 17). 
 And the Lord, while hidden in the cloud, "spake unto 
 Moses face to face, as a man speaketh to his friend." 
 Moses took nothing for granted; but said, "I beseech Thee, 
 show me Thy glory." And God said, "I will make all My 
 goodness to pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name 
 of the Lord before tliee. * * * And He said, thou 
 canst not see My face; for there shall no man see Me, and 
 live. * * * Behold, there is a place by Me, and thou 
 shalt stand upon a rock; and it shall come to pass, while 
 My glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the 
 rock, and will cover thee with My hand while I pass by; 
 and I will take away Mine hand, and thou shalt see My 
 back; but My face sliall not bee seen" (Ex. xxxiii. 11-23). 
 But the words of Jesus also, as do the words of Isaiah and 
 others of the prophets, prove the existence of God. Jesus 
 said not only that God was His Father, but that He knew 
 the Father, and came forth from Him. He said God 
 
CHAP. VII.] TO THE CHURCH IN THYATIRA. 
 
 119 
 
 always heard His requests; and at the grave of Lazarus, and 
 in the voices that came to Him from Heaven in tlie hear- 
 ing of the people, on the Mount of Transfiguration, and as 
 recorded in John xii. 28-30, were convincing enough proofs 
 of His Father's existence, to all convincible people. But 
 to he convinced against the will, is to liold the same opin- 
 ion still — was then, and is now. 
 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CONTINUATION OF THE THYATIEIAN OR JUS- 
 TINIAN PERIOD. 
 
 Text, Chapter ii. 21-29. 
 
 21, And I gave her space to repent of her fornication ; and 
 she repented not. 
 
 22. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit 
 adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of 
 their deeds. 
 
 23 And I will kill her children with death ; and all the churches 
 shall know that I am He who searcheth the reins and hearts : and 
 I will give unto every one of you according to your works. 
 
 24. But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many 
 as have not this doctrine, and who have not known the depths of 
 Satan, as they speak ; I will put upon you none other burden. 
 
 25. But that which ye have already, hold fast till I come. 
 
 26. And he that overcometh, and keepeth My works unto the 
 end, to him will I give power over the nations : 
 
 27. And He shall rule them with a rod of iron ; as the vessels 
 of a potter shall they be broken to shivers : even as I received of 
 My Father. 
 
 28. And I will give him the morning star. 
 
 29. He that hath an* ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith 
 unto the churches. 
 
 E cannot trace the doctrine of natural immortality 
 from Eden to Egypt, hut the "father of history," 
 as we have seen, locates it again there, where 
 Israel were hondmen for 215 years. We know the Jews held 
 it after their return,and that Jesus charged His disciples to 
 "beware of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Saddu- 
 cees." It was held douhtless by all the nations who forgot 
 God, and worshipped idols; for, "this is life eternal, that 
 they might know Thee," said Jesus, "the only true God, and 
 Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John xvii. 3), that is, 
 
 120 
 
CHAP. VIII.] TO THE CHURCH IN THYATIRA. 121 
 
 this is the way to the obtaining of immortality — this 
 knowledge of God. Present immortality was taught vigor- 
 ously by the schools of Athens, we know. But why, then, 
 should Justinian, the great Imperial Theologue, suppress 
 those schools? It was simply killing the dragon to drink 
 liis broth. Independent heathen schools could not be tol- 
 erated; but their philosophy could be assimilated. Justin- 
 ian is justly charged in this with "avarice and jealously," 
 by Gibbon, who says further that "the establishment of a 
 new religion proved fatfl to the schools of Athens," which 
 "had given so many sages to mankind." {Decline and Fall, 
 etc., Vol. IV., ch. 40.) 
 Eotteck also says: — 
 
 "The heathen philosophers were silenced by the mandate of 
 Justinian ; but their principal teachers, Plato 
 Platonlsm and Aristotle, continued to prevail even in the 
 
 ii» the Christian schools. The reputation of the Stag- 
 
 Catbollc Schools, irite [Aristotle] was greatly enhanced by Philo- 
 ponus (in the yth century), and still more by 
 John of Damascus (in the 8th), who founded his system of theology 
 upon the Peripatetic wisdom, and by this means gave birth to the 
 scholastic philosophy. Isidorus and Beda in the West were also 
 friends of the Stagirite.''' — Hist, of the World, Vol. II , p. ar. 
 
 Thus the Church of Christ, as the Jewish Church had 
 done before, received from heathenism the doctrine of soul- 
 immortality, which is so pleasing to the pride of the unen- 
 lightened human understanding. Ahab had taken Iczebcl 
 to wife; and Jezebel was feeding the prophets, and teach- 
 ing the Church. But further: — 
 
 "At the General Council of Vienne, under Pope Clement V., 
 the '■Clementine Constitutions,' or decrees by 
 Council of Clement, were approved. One of those con- 
 
 V'teiiiie, stitutions is in this form : 'AH doctrine, either 
 
 A.D. 1311-1313. rashly asserting the position or calling in ques- 
 tion the fact that the rational or intellectual 
 substance of the soul is not truly and perfectly of the form of the 
 human body — this, with the approval of the holy council, we rep- 
 
122 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEI.ATION, [part ir. 
 
 rebate as erroneous and hostile to the truth of the Catholic faith : 
 defining this in order that the truth of an unadulterated faith may 
 be known to all; and that whoever hereafter shall presume to as- 
 sert, defend, or hold pertinaciously, that the rational soul is not, 
 in itself and essentially, of the form of the human body, should 
 be considered as a A^r<?//r. '— Caranza. Summa Conciliorum, 
 
 fol 433. LUGDUNI, X587." 
 
 A comparison of the definition of spirit, quoted from 
 the new Standard Dictionary a few jDages back, will qitickly 
 ■ determine with which it agrees best, our quotations from 
 Scripture, or with the above decrees of Pope Clement V.; 
 and whether or not the popular Dictionary of to-day may 
 fairly l)e said to represent the daughters of Jezebel. The 
 Council of Lateran, under Pope Leo X., decreed as fol- 
 lows: — 
 
 " Whereas in these our days, some have dared to assert con- 
 cerning the nature of the reasonable soul, that 
 roiiucil of it is mortal^ or one and the same in all men ; 
 
 Lateral!, and Some, rashly philosophizing, declare this to 
 
 A.D. 1513. be true : * We, with the approbation of the 
 
 sacred coinicil,do condenui and reprobate aXl those 
 who assert that the intellectual soul is mortal, * and those who 
 call these things in question ; seeing that the soul is not only truly, 
 and of itself, and essentially, of the form of the human body, as 
 is expressed in the canon of Pope Clement V., published in the 
 General Council of Vienne ; but likewise immortal, and, according 
 to the number of bodies into which it is infused is singularlj- mul- 
 tipliable, multiplied, and to be multiplied : which manifestly 
 appears from the gospel, [?] seeing that our Lord saith, Thej' can- 
 not kill the soul ; and elsewhere, He who hate'th his soul in this 
 world, etc., and also because He promised eternal pain [?] and 
 eternal torments [?] to those who are to be judged according to 
 their merits in this life. Otherwise the incarnation, and other 
 mysteries of Christ, would not profit us, nor were a resurrection 
 to be expected ; * * * and we strictly inhibit all from dogma- 
 tizing otherwise, and we decree that all who adhere to the like 
 erroneous assertions shall be shunned and piinished as heretics." 
 Thus the Council asserted not only the natural im- 
 mortality of the soul, but its transmigration into other 
 
CHAP.VIII.] TO THK CHURCH IN THYATIRA. 123 
 
 bodies. And sought to draw Jesus into the view of its 
 continued life after death by a misuse of His words. For 
 Jesus taught that, "He that hath the Son hath life [a 
 future life] ; and he that hath not the Son of God hath 
 NOT life" (1 John v. 12); or "shall not see life" (John 
 iii. 36). The future, immortal life (or soul)'^ is not a gift 
 of nature, but of Christ. (John iv. 14; vi. 27, etc.) Paul 
 speaks of the Christians of Colosse as being "dead," i. c, 
 to sin, and to the world; and then says, "Your LIFE is 
 hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, 
 shall appear, then shall ye also [by a resurrection] appear 
 with Him in glory." (Col. iii. 3, 4.) It is thus true that 
 though man may kill the body, he cannot destroy the life 
 which is hid with Christ; while were the same person, as 
 a "branch" in Christ, to cease to bear fruit, he would be 
 cut off for utter destruction. (John xv. 1-5.) God could, 
 and would, destroy the life hidden as well as the body. 
 
 " 111 Luther's Defense of the Propositions condemned by Leo 
 
 X., proposition xxvii., he replies : ' It is certain 
 Martin Luther's that it is not in the power of the Church or the 
 Answer. (1520.) pope to establish articles of faith, or laws for 
 
 morals or good works. * * * But I permit the 
 pope to make articles of faith for himself and his faithful, such as 
 the bread and wine are transubstantiated in the sacrament. The 
 essence of God neither generates nor is generated. The soul is 
 the substantial form of the human body. The pope is the em- 
 peror of the world, and the king of heaven, and God upon earth. 
 T/ie soul is imviortal, with all those monstrous opinions to be 
 found in the Roman dunghill of decretals, that such as his faith is, 
 such may be his Gospel, such his disciples, and such his church.' " 
 —Luther's Works, Vol. II., fol. 107. Wittenberg, T562. 
 
 * Zoe is the Greek term most frequently rendered life in our English Version, 
 ia the term for life in the passages just quoted ; [«t5»] and is never rendered soul. 
 Pmchc, on the contrary, is rendered Jife forty times and soul lifty-eight times. 
 It is the term for soul in IMatthew x. 28, as cited in the decree of the Lateran 
 Council ; and is twice rendered life and twice soul, in Mark viii ; 35-o7. it means 
 life and should be so rendered— is, in the Revmon in Mark viii, 35-37, though soul 
 is retained in Matthew x, 28, where the Emphatic Diaglott gives life. 
 
124 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part ir. 
 
 In Archdeacon Blackburne's Works, he says, "Luther 
 
 espoused the doctrine of the sleep of the 
 Arciideacon g^^^i ^^p^j^ ^ Scriptural foundation, * * * 
 Biackimrne. ^ud Continued in that belief to the last 
 
 moment of his life." "Luther was plainly 
 on the side of those Avho maintain the sleep of the soul." 
 (Vol. III., pp. 64, 65.) "In this opinion [^] he followed 
 many fathers of the ancient church." {lb., p. 348.) 
 
 " In the year 1530, William Tyndale [the translator of the New 
 
 Testament, and martyr for his faith] answered 
 Tymdale's Sir Thomas More's Dialogue. More objected 
 
 Answer to to Luther, that he held, ' i/iai all souls lye and 
 
 sir Thonias More, sleep till domes day.' It is to be supposed that 
 
 if this was not Luther's doctrine, Tyndale would 
 have denied it ; or at least would have said that it was not held by 
 Protestants in general. Instead of that, he acknowledges it for 
 the doctrine of the Protestants, grounded on Scripture, as appears 
 by his answer : namely, 'And ye, in putting them [departed souls] 
 in Heaven, hell, and purgatory, [B^*] destroy the arguments 
 wherewith Christ and Paul prove the resurrection. * * * The 
 true faith putteth [teacheth] the resurrection [as to a hope of 
 future life], which we are warned to look for every hour. The 
 philosophers denying that [the resurrection], did put that souls 
 did ever live. And the pope joined the spiritual doctrine of Christ 
 and the fleshly doctrine* of philosophers together, things so con- 
 trary that they cannot agree. * * * And because the fleshly- 
 minded pope consenteth unto heathen doctrine, therefore he cor- 
 rupteth the Scriptures to establish it. * * * If the souls be in 
 Heaven, tell me why they be not in as good case as the angels be ? 
 And then what cause is there of the resurrection?' Again, More 
 objects thus : ' What shall he care how long he live in sin that 
 believeth Luther, that he shall, after this life, feel neither good 
 nor evil, in body nor soul, until the day of doom? ' Tyndale an- 
 swers : ' Christ and His apostles taught no other, but warned to 
 look for Christ's coming again every hour: which coming again, 
 because ye believe will never be, therefore have ye feigned that 
 other merchandise.' {Tyndale' s Works, p. 327.) These extracts 
 plainly shew what was the doctrine espoixsed by the first reformers 
 upon this subject ; that is to say, they shew what they were 
 charged with by their adversaries, and what they themselves 
 avowed." — Blackburne's Works, Yo\. III., pp. 65-67. 
 
CHAP.VIIl] TO THE CHURCH IN THYATIRA. I25 
 
 Thus did Thyatira suffer that heathen woman Jezebel 
 
 to teach and seduce God's servants. George 
 George Wishai't, "tlic Martyr," was cruelly burned 
 
 wishart. rji; ^i^Q stake as a heretic in a. d. 1546, by 
 
 her order, one of the several charges 
 l)rought against him being that he had said publicly that 
 "the soul of man should sleep till the last day, and should 
 not obtain immortal life till that time." This is found in 
 Fox and in Blackburne. But is was "an acceptable offer- 
 ing" to God, as were all those 50,000,000 lives that were 
 sacrificed during the twelve dark centuries of Jezebel's 
 reign, on the altar of a pure, loyal faith, and of a Scrip- 
 tural hope. 
 
 I have said that the doctrine of soul-immortality was 
 the origin of Preexistentism, which brought those great 
 troubles to the Church in the fourth and fifth centuries. 
 For if the soul is "the man proper," the "intellectual man," 
 the "spiritual nature as incarnate," as men are fond of 
 thinking, and can, and does, survive the death of the body; 
 then it may have lived or existed in the same conscious- 
 ness before it became connected with the body, — inde- 
 pendent of the body, as well before as after death; why 
 not? — as all the heathen philosophers have reasoned; and 
 then the "light of Asia" may yet outshine the "Light of 
 the world!" For the Light of the world, as contained in 
 the Word of God, contains no data from which such an 
 inference even can be fairly drawn. But when Eome could 
 not draw proof or fair inferences from the Scriptures, she 
 could take any thing she pleased "for granted," summon 
 tradition or a council, or both, formulate theories, and 
 fulminate bulls and edicts against all who could not find 
 
 the same in the Word of God. As early 
 Arius. ag the beginning of the fourth century 
 
 Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria, became 
 
126 DIVINK KEY OF THE REVEI.ATION. [part ii. 
 
 involved in a dispute with the patriarch (or bishop) of 
 Constantinople over the nature and preexistence of Christ, 
 which resulted in the calling of the Council of Nice, and 
 the first authoritative creed. '^Arius taught that the Son 
 was not cocssential nor coetcrnal, that he had a beginning; 
 and there was a time when he was not. The Nicene coun- 
 cil pronounced these doctrines heretical, and Arius was 
 exiled to Illyricum." (Johnson's Cyclopedia.) The Nicene 
 creed was (partly) in these words: — 
 
 "We believe in one God, Almighty, * * * and in one Lord, 
 
 Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the 
 The Father, the only begotten ; that is, of the sub- 
 
 Nlceue Creed. stance of the Father; God of God, Light of 
 
 Light, very God of very God ; begotten, not 
 made ; of one substance of the Father ; by whom all things in 
 Heaven and earth were made. * * * And those who say there 
 was a time when the vSon of God was not, or that He did not exist 
 before He was made [man], because He was made out of nothing, 
 or of another substance or essence, or that He was created or 
 mutable— the Catholic and Apostolic church anathematizes such." 
 These were the first breathings of what was then 
 
 piously styled (and is still subserviently 
 "An Ineffable Relieved to be) "an ineffable mystery"— 
 Mystery." ic^ m^stcry," says Bower, "which could 
 
 not be expressed;" and yet whose adher- 
 ents exiled or "massacred all who did not agree with their 
 way of expressing it." And, says Gibbon, "In the begin- 
 ning of the fifth century, the unity of the tzvo natures was 
 the prevailing doctrine of the Church. On all sides it was 
 confessed that the mode of their co-existence could neither 
 be represented by our ideas nor expressed by our lan- 
 guage!" (Vol. IV., ch. 47, 11 10.) It would not be 
 worth our while to speak of these things if it were not 
 for the fact that the same "ineffable" folly is taught in 
 the great schools of our day. It is a wonder that these 
 men, in their unscriptural zeal to deify the man of Naza- 
 
CHAP. VIIl] TO THE CHURCIf IN THYATIRA. I27 
 
 reth and of Calvary, would have allowed Him ever to have 
 been begotten or born at all, or at least that He was in 
 any sense the Son of man. When the proper relationship 
 existed between God and the Clinrch, as in the days of the 
 Apostles, in her simple, unadulterated faith, her artless 
 teaching of the Gospel as it imitated the Spirit and manner 
 of Jesus Himself, was accompanied by demonstrations of 
 the power of God to convert men to the true faith, "ac- 
 cording to His will." But when she began to magnify 
 mysteries more than the Gospel, (the whole spirit of which 
 she neglected to mouth her own incomprehensible theo- 
 ries,) she had departed from God, and had no power to rely 
 upon but the power of the State. And here is strong proof 
 in itself that she had departed from God as a teacher; for 
 if there were no proof in the Scriptures (which there is 
 in abundance) that her doctrines of "the Trinity," and of 
 the "divinity" (or duality) of nature, and preexistence of 
 Christ, are corrupt, the corruption of the teacher of those 
 doctrines, and in teaching them, is sufficiently demon- 
 strated, both in prophecy and history, by her loss of divine 
 power, and her adulterous leaning on the dragon's broken 
 staff of State-power. And what a lesson it should teach 
 the Protestant world respecting the declaration of God, 
 "I will kill her children with death." But death, alas! 
 being a state of unconsciousness, how insensible are the 
 dead or the dying to their condition! Oh, "the creeds of 
 Christendom!" how their history should cause every sensi- 
 tive Christian to recoil! how their verbiage should make 
 thinking Christians ashamed; and how their grandiloquent 
 vagaries put to blush and to flight — give the world its way 
 — such simple Scripture sentences as these: that God's 
 Son was "of the seed of David, according to the flesh;" (it 
 would not require an inspired revelation to inform us that 
 of simply David's son;) that He was "put to death in the 
 
128 . DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part ir. 
 
 flesh, but quickened by the Spirit" (1 Pet. iii. 18); "who 
 in the days of his flesh, when He had offered up prayers 
 and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him 
 who was able to save Him from death, (not from dying,) 
 and was heard in that He feared" (Heb. v. 7); '"being made 
 perfect through sufferings" (ver. 8, 9; ch. ii. 10); that, 
 "the first man- Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam 
 was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that zvas not first, 
 which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and after- 
 zvard that which is spiritual" (1 Cor. xv. 45, 46). 
 
 When we allow the Scriptures their simple, natural 
 sense, the great mystery that "Mystery, Babylon the 
 Great," has thrown around the mythical "incarnation" 
 theory vanishes like the morning dew. Until it can be 
 shown that there can be vision without the eye, hearing 
 without the ear, sensation without the organs of sense, 
 thought without the brain, organs in man which the Al- 
 mighty Himself originally devised and created, it is use- 
 less to continue assuming the mentality or intellectuality 
 of spirit, with the philosophers of heathendom. This is 
 the primal error of all the false theologies of the world. 
 
 Jesus did not "assume" flesh, as Trinitarians say: hu- 
 man flesh could accomplish nothing for an immortal, im- 
 mutable, sentient spirit; but the inanimate Word of God 
 (the logos) was made flesh; and that was the miracle. Jcsiis 
 was divinely (gcnnao) "begotten," but humanly (gennao) 
 "conceived," develoiJed and brought forth. "In the be- 
 ginning was the Word" — the logos, ("a 
 The Creative speaking, spcech, utterance,")— not a sen- 
 ijosom. tient spirit being. Our translators in 
 
 John i. 3, 4, in the interests of preexist- 
 entism and creeds, have personified the logos by rendering 
 autos, (manifestly it when applied to the Word,) "Hinif 
 and are followed by the Revisers. Autos in these verses 
 
CHAP. VIII.] TO THE CHURCH IN THYATIRA. 1 29 
 
 is rendered it by Tyndale, Coverdale, Cranmer, Badius, 
 Wakefield, Thompson, Dickerson, Baker, Taylor, Folsom, 
 Sharpe, Campbell and the Emphatic Diagiott. The first 
 thing in the act of creating was to speak. God said, "Let 
 there be light; and there was light." "By the Word of 
 the Lord were the Heavens made; and all the hosts of 
 them by the breath of His mouth. * * * Yov He spake 
 and it was done; He cmnmanded and it stood fast" (Psa. 
 xxxiii. 6, 9). "The Word of God is quick and powerful, 
 and sharper than any twoedged sword, * >!= * and is a 
 discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Heb. 
 iv. 12). "That which was from the beginning," says John, 
 "which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, 
 [because made fiesh], which our hands have handled of 
 the Word of life; for the life [promised in Eden — a living 
 seed] was manifested and we have seen it, and bear wit- 
 ness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with 
 the Father, and was manifested unto us," i. e., in Jesus 
 (1st Epis. i. 1, 3). "In hope of eternal life," said Paul, 
 "which God, who cannot lie, promised before the world 
 began; but hath in due time manifested His Word (logos) 
 [of promise] through preaching," etc. (Tit. i. 1-3). That 
 Jesus did not assist God in the creation of the world is 
 manifest, (1) because the "seed of the woman" and the 
 
 "second Adam" could not precede our first 
 God Alone parcuts; (2) because the Holy Spirit every 
 
 Created tiie where dcclarcs that God created all things; 
 World. {Gen. i. 1; ii. 1-4; Psa. xxxiii. 6, 9; cii. 25; 
 
 cxlvi. 6;) personally, "alone," by Himself. 
 (Isa. xlii. 5, 6; xliv. 24; xlv. 12, 18. Also, Jer. x. 10, 12; 
 li. 14, 15; Heb. i. 10; iii. 4.) Our Trinitarian translators 
 have erred seriously in several New Testament passages in 
 favor of preexistentism. 
 
 The passage in Hebrews i. 2, does not refer to the 
 
130 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part II. 
 
 creation: the word is aionas, ages, not ge nor kosmos. The 
 Emphatic Diaglott renders it, "On account of whom also 
 He constituted the ages." The phrase "by Jesus Christ," 
 in Ephesians iii. 9, is an inter poLation, now rejected by all 
 authorities. Col. i. 16, 17, when carefully read, has God, 
 not Christ, the antecedent of "Him." 1 Cor. viii. 6, first 
 clause, is clear; the second has dia, through, not hy Christ 
 — through the Word, in harmony with the above testi- 
 mony. Through is the only proper rendering of dia also 
 in John i. 3, 7, 10, 17 (twice). In this tenth verse there 
 is an ellipsis in the original which any careful, unbiased 
 reader might fill correctly. Our translators have put in 
 the word "made" — "the world was made by Him" (Jesus)! 
 This makes a square contradiction of all those passages 
 which declare that God made the world. If they had ren- 
 dered dia and aufos correctly, the contradiction could 
 be avoided by understanding that John 
 •'*-^"^ meant as the Psalmist says, "through it," 
 
 Eniigiitenert "^j^^g Word" — before it became flesh. But 
 the World. -(-j^g entire subject, from the fifth verse to 
 
 the tenth, is "the light," the light. And 
 thus the Diaglott renders verses 9 and 10: "The true light 
 was that which, coming into the world, enlightens every 
 man. He was in the world, and the world was {enlightened) 
 by Him; and yet the world knew Him not." The "world" 
 here does not mean the globe, needing nature's light, but 
 the inhabitants, needing spiritual enlightenment, the same 
 as in John viii. 12; iii. 16, 17. 
 
 I am impressed that the Word of God warrants the 
 serious charge of "a kind of blasphemy," made by some 
 during the age of the great councils, against any effort to 
 distinguish between the Son of man and the Son of God, 
 by attributing personality to the divine Word {logos) be- 
 fore it became flesh — an organized being. I submit to 
 
CHAP. VIII.] TO THE CHURCH IN THYATIRA. 13I 
 
 candid thought, that the wonderful "incarnation" is only- 
 wonderful as all God's acts are so, and that it has not the 
 pretended Trinitarian complexity of two "conjoined" na- 
 tures. Over such an imagination, the Eoman Councils 
 discoursed and descanted, bickered and contended, ad 
 nauseam. They lauded to the skies its surmised "mystery," 
 and mystified to infinity its native Scriptural simplicity 
 (which, in fact, they despised as the Jews did Jesus' un- 
 assuming person). For wherein, after all, was the actua- 
 tion of God's "Word any more wonderful than that of Jesus' 
 word (logos) during His ministry and miracle working? by 
 which, I mean, as the lexicons define the term, primarily, 
 His "word as uttered by the living voice, a speaking, 
 speech, utterance." (Eobinson.) For when Jesus spake, 
 also, "it was done," as at the beginning. For, behold! — 
 
 His wouderful word at the feast made the waters bhish ; 
 His " Peace ! Be still ! " iu the ship caused the tempest to hush ; 
 His loud " Come forth " at the tomb gave e'en corruption life — 
 But Li/e Divine! Ah! He bowed His dear head in that strife; 
 He died—i\\e Christ died ! — but jov ! He revived, as He said, 
 "I will rise the third day ! " — for this logos ccas not dead ! 
 
 The Word of God and the Word of Christ alike are liv- 
 ing or life-giving words. The birth of Jesus, and the resur- 
 rection of Lazarus and others, are miracles of the same 
 order. And wonderful as was the plan of a virginal con- 
 ception, it was not that astounding mystery that the creeds 
 would make it; but a simple miracle of the divine logos — 
 a plain actuation of the living Word of God pledged to 
 our first parents, fallen, and renewed in the oaths of God 
 to the patriarchal fathers, Abraham and 
 Divine David, that there should rise to the race, 
 
 Manhood of jj^ their family line, a divine seed that 
 Christ. should bless "all the families of the 
 
 earth." And yet, it will be seen, the origin 
 of this seed cannot be wholly of the race, since every indi- 
 
132 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part il. 
 
 vidiial of it (in direct line) is tainted, and every life for- 
 feited, in the sin of the first progenitors. Life inheres in 
 the male parent: the coming One, in blessing all the 
 families of the earth, mnst be a righteous mediator be- 
 tween God the aggrieved and man the aggrieving parties; 
 and a mediator must be equally related to the parties at 
 variance. Therefore, as I have before said, a new divine- 
 human seed must be produced, and was, through the agency 
 of the Holy Spirit — the "power of the Highest" over- 
 shadowing a virgin: the life coming "down from" God, 
 and not down from Adam, even as the first Adam's life 
 had come directly from God; while the indispensable flesh 
 which clothed it ivas from Adam and not from the dust. 
 This was the plan of wonderful love: this was the Scrip- 
 tural and original faith. "Justin Martyr informs us 
 (Hasse. Hist. Chris. Church, 98) that in his day (a. d. 
 140) it was not regarded as inconsistent with Christianity 
 to hold that Christ was a mere man." {Recast Cred. Script., 
 Vol. II., p. 53.) Now by this, they did not mean "a mere 
 man" in the sense of a sinful man, since the fall; but as the 
 '"first Adam" was, before the fall; for God pronounced 
 him, not simply good, but "very good," as he came fresh 
 from the plastic dust, and the divine creative hand. There 
 was equal sonship in the created first Adam (Luke iii. 38) 
 and the begotten "second Adam" (1 Cor. xv. 45-49), with 
 no known Scriptural difference but circumstance and en- 
 vironment. "Turtullian (a. d. 192)," the quotation con- 
 tinues, "reluctantly testifies that in his vicinity this was 
 the common sentiment." {lb.) It certainly is the plain 
 sentiment of the Scriptures; and it would have been good 
 for the Church if "scholastic philosophy" had not come 
 in to cover it up with a garment of mysticism. "It would 
 be useless," continues the author, "to multiply authorities 
 establishing the great influence that Platonism exerted 
 
CHAP. VIII.] TO THE CHURCH IN THYATIRA. 1 33 
 
 on the primitive Church. Even so late as the fourth cen- 
 tury, St. Augustine acknowledged that after he had re- 
 nounced Manicheism, that he regarded Christ to have been 
 a mere man until after he hod read certain Platonic writers. 
 See Lardner, Credit. Gospels, iii., 440." — lb., p. 21 
 
 There is a principle in divine revelation which was 
 not recognized by those medieval Councilmen in dealing 
 
 with the Christology of the Bible; and 
 A Principle modcm Trinitarians have failed to dis- 
 unrecogrnized. eovcr, at Icast to corrcct, their mistake 
 
 and learn the truth — nor can they learn it 
 till they do. I speak not hastily and inconsiderately, but 
 confidently, and with the greatest solicitude for both the 
 truih and the Church. The Apostle Paul announces the 
 principle I refer to, in Eomans iv. 17; notice it carefully. 
 God had said to Abraham 2,000 years before Christ, "A 
 father of many nations haz'c I made thee" (Gen. xvii. 5), 
 when as yet he had no child; and when it was through 
 Christ that Abraham was to obtain the fruition of the 
 promise; and this was the inspired explanation: 'Mjefore him 
 whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, 
 and callcth those things wJiich be not as though they icf/r." 
 That is, whatever God speaks, promises, or designs to be, 
 is to be considered from that moment as an accomplish- 
 ment, as surely as though it were already a demonstrable 
 fact — a living actuality. And the language of Scripture 
 
 frequently assumes this principle, and en- 
 imitortunce of couragcs tliis faith. For instance: seven 
 tiie Prophetic hundred years before the birth of Jesus, 
 Sense. Isaiah said: "Unto us a child is born, 
 
 unto us a son is given" (ch. ix. 6). One 
 thousand years before the ascension, David wrote: "Thou 
 hast ascended on high; Thou hast led captivity captive; 
 Thou hast received gifts for men" (Psa. Ixviii. 18). And 
 
134 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part i i 
 
 Jesus likewise said to the Sadducees who denied a future 
 resurrection: "Now that the dead are [shall he] raised, 
 even Moses showed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord 
 the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God 
 of Jacob. Far He is not the God of the dead, hut of the 
 living." Not that they are not dead; for that sense would 
 entirely thwart His purpose to prove to the Sadducees a 
 resurrection; but that, as He said, continuing, they "all 
 live unto Him" (Luke xx. 37, 38), i. e., prospectively. It 
 is in His plan, prophetically; and they zvill therefore live 
 again. This is plainly the prophetic sense of such expres- 
 sions, and very important to understand. It is this same 
 prophetic import, so seldom recognized, that characterizes 
 the so-called preexistent texts; as Jesus' statement to the 
 Jews (John viii. 55-58): "Your father Abraham rejoiced 
 to see My day; and he saw it, and was glad." The Jews, 
 quite misunderstanding His meaning, replied, "Thou art 
 
 not yet fifty years old, and hast Thou seen 
 How Abraiiitm Abraham?" Jesus did not say He had seen 
 Saw ciirisst. Abraham: He was not claiming great age, 
 
 but divine and prophetic origin, (which 
 is very far above the ^cope of the age question;) and He 
 answered with characteristic preciseness and wisdom: "Be- 
 fore Abraham was, / am," not I vuas. I am the prophetic 
 seed foreknown and foretold in Eden, 2,000 years before 
 Abraham was born. Abraham had the spirit of prophecy, 
 and recognized the divine arrangement in the coming 
 "seed" that should bless "all the nations of the earth." 
 (Gen. xxii. 12-18.) ' The same thought is in Jesus' prayer: 
 "0 Father, glorify Thou Me with * * * the glory which 
 I had with Thee before the world was" (John xvii. 5). 
 Jesus had this glory, not in the absolute, or personally, but 
 prophetically; for He did not live then only in the pur- 
 pose or mind and promise of God. The same is true of 
 
CHAP VIII.] TO THE CHURCH IN THYATIRA. 13^ 
 
 every Christian (in an inferior degree): said Paul, "ac- 
 cording as He hath chosen its in Him before the foundation 
 of the zvorld, that we should be holy and without blame 
 before Him in love" (Eph. i. 4). "With the precious blood 
 of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and withoiTt spot: 
 Who verily was (proginosko) foreknozvn before the foun- 
 dation of the world, but was manifested in these last times 
 for you" (1 Pet. i. 19, 20). Other passages might be cited, 
 were it desirable to multiply them; but the principle is 
 Scripturally establisiied; and the reader can verify it at 
 pleasure. And thus "the Creeds of Christendom" are ar- 
 raigned before the bar of divine revelation, under the 
 charges of adding to, taking from, and perverting, the 
 Word of God. Jezebel and her children of Thyatira are 
 identified through "the orthodox Christology of our days," 
 and they stand indicted under the charges of spiritual 
 adultery with kings and world-powers; and of eating 
 "things sacrificed unto idols," — harmonizing with heathen 
 philosophers, and saying, not, "Thus saith the Lord," but, 
 "Plato, thou reasonest well!" How can they answer, "not 
 guilty?" 
 
 The Lord Says : "I gave her space to repent." 
 — "Time so that she might repent" {Emphatic Diaglott). 
 How long a space of time was given the false teachers for 
 repentance? It is not specially mentioned 
 The i,26o ^^ ^]-^^g mcssagc, but is clearly foreshad- 
 
 Years' Period, q^^q^ jj^ the type, as 1,260 ycars in dura- 
 tion, as we saw (page 101). This period is 
 given in some definite symbolic form five times in Eeve- 
 lation (xi. 2, 3; xii. 6, 14; xiii. 5), and twice in Daniel 
 (ch. vii. 25; xii. 7). We will consider the different forms as 
 we meet them. 
 
 "Behold, I will cast her into abed." — That is 
 a bed of pain, affliction and helplessness. Her adulteries 
 
136 DIVINE KEY OP THE REVELATION. [part 11. 
 
 must be made manifest, to her shame; and her sins must 
 be requited with languishing and sorrow, according to the 
 Word of the Lord, until her end is reached in death; for 
 she "shall not come down from that bed," as was said by 
 Elijah to Ahaziah, the son and successor of Ahab and 
 Jezebel, both in the kingdom of Israel, and in the worship 
 of Baal. It is Jezebel's death-bed. Her judgments and 
 languishing will be detailed as we go on in the prophecy. 
 "And them that commit adultery with her." 
 —These are kings and rulers. All her adulteries are said 
 to have been "with the kings of the earth." She lusted 
 after power. She had lost the love and the power of 
 Christ; and held the hateful Nicolaitan doctrine of con- 
 quering subjects, not with the Gospel power of love, but 
 with the carnal power of the State. 
 
 "Into great tribultion, except they repent 
 of their deeds."— The history of Catholic kings has 
 shown no repentance, and the "tribulation" came upon 
 all kings and princes who used their power and influence 
 in the conquest of honest thought and liberty of con- 
 science. The history will be further detailed when we 
 reach the judgments and poured-out plagues of Jezebel's 
 bed-ridden period — "the time of the end;" but one extract 
 of a premonitory nature, and of general application, from 
 McCabe, will suffice here: — 
 
 "The treaty of Wesphalia [a.d. 164S] was the first effort to 
 reconstruct the European system of states by 
 Premonitory diplomacy. It was fatal to the empire, which 
 
 Judgments frorp this time existed in Germany only in 
 
 on the Empire. name. Instead of the compact realm which 
 Ferdinand II. had hoped to establish, Germany 
 was spin up into several hundred pettj' sovereignties, each with 
 all the distinctive machineiy of a separate State, and bound to- 
 gether in a nominal confederacy, with scarceh' a shadow of national 
 feeling. The international authority of the emperor was at an end. 
 The power to conclude peace or war, to build fortifications, to raise 
 
CHAP. VIII.] TO THE CHURCH IN THYATIRA. 1 37 
 
 armies or to levy contributions for their support, was taken from 
 him and conferred upon the diet, which was composed of the en- 
 voys of the princes of Germany and the representatives of fifty- 
 three free cities. * * * Germany emerged from the Thirty Years' 
 War in a terribly crippled condition. Between one-half and two- 
 thirds of the German people perished during the struggle. * * * 
 No part of Europe has ever suffered so terribly." — Hist, of the 
 World, p. 570- 
 
 What a change for Germany and Jezebel from the 
 time when Luther confronted Charles V. and all the satel- 
 lites of the pope, a century and a quarter before, in the 
 Diet at Worms. The living Word had wrought its judg- 
 ments, in its conflict with tradition. 
 
 "And I will kill her children." — As Jezebel is a 
 symbolic mother, so her children are such symbolically. 
 That is, they are all those State-Church and politico-Chris- 
 tian institutions which imitate her Nicolaitan example, 
 and, particularly, which teach her doctrines. They are 
 children by choice, and justly punishable with the old 
 mother. 
 
 " With death."— What is it to kill with death ? If 
 the reader has well in mind what was said of the "second 
 death," this figure will not be difficult. It was shown that 
 not to be "Jiurf of death is to have its "sting" (which is 
 sin) withdrawn by pardon in this life; and the "strength 
 of sin" (which is the law) ended in Christ; so that there is 
 said to be a life hidden "with Christ in God;" in other 
 words, the resurrection from death, and the appearing 
 with Christ in second advent glory, is pledged to the par- 
 doned penitent. But the "children," like the "mother," 
 as systems are false to Christ in spirit and in doctrines, 
 therefore composed of individuals out of Christ, who are 
 impenitent and unpardoned, having no life in Christ, and 
 no resurrection pledge; and when dead are killed "with 
 death," and are dead forever; or past hope: "twice dead, 
 
138 DIVINE KEY OP THE REVEI.ATION. [part ii. 
 
 plucked up by the roots." (Jiide 12.) Having been given 
 over to reprobacy. (Eomans i. 24, 28.) It was so with 
 the fathers who ate manna in the wilderness, and yet lusted 
 for the melons and leeks of Egypt. It was not the manna 
 of faith to them, and they ''are dead"' — killed "with death" 
 in the wilderness experience. (Comp. Num. xi. and John 
 vi. 47-54; xi. 11-14; Matt. ix. 24; x. 28, etc.) 
 
 "And all the churches shall know." — The re- 
 maining dispensations — Sardis, Philadelphia, and Lao- 
 dicea — shall have before them the evidences of God's right- 
 eous judgments upon the children of that woman Jezebel, 
 who is suffered to teach, and know that each will be chas- 
 tened or rewarded according to their works. "But unto 
 you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, — 
 
 "As many as have hot this doctrine." — This 
 statement shows that there were some who were not cor- 
 rupted with the unscriptural teachings of "the Church," 
 as Jezebel styled herself, but held to the Word in spirit 
 and letter in her day; and it would be strange, indeed, if 
 there were none to challenge those errors still: all which 
 shows the importance to every Christian to recognize "this 
 doctrine" by whomsoever propagated. It is the same to- 
 day as when first taught, as we have seen. 
 
 "And have not known the depths of Satan, 
 as they speak." — Depths {to7i satana) of the adversary 
 indicates studied iniquity in opposition. God holds false 
 teachers as adversaries worthy of judgment (Matt. v. 19). 
 They "wrest the Scriptures," said the Apostle, "to their 
 own destruction" (2 Pet. iii. 16) — "handling the Word of 
 God deceitfully." For with the Gospel, God gave the 
 world the Holy Spirit as a guide, helper and teacher; and 
 He holds all other teachers responsible if they do not ac- 
 cept its help and its teaching. And, relative to the cer- 
 tainty of its help, Jesus says, "He that followeth ME," not 
 
CHAP. VIII.] TO THE CHURCH IN THYATIRA. 139 
 
 "the Church," nor the Councils of men, but ''me," "shall 
 not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" 
 (John viii. 12). "My doctrine is not Mine, but His who 
 sent Me. If any man will do His zuill, he shall knozv of 
 the doctrine, whether it is of God or whether I speak of 
 Myself"' (John vii. IG, 17). How do the Scriptures speak 
 concerning the nature of Christ, of man, of death, and of 
 rewards and punishment? And how do "they speak" 
 whom the text terms adversaries? We have only to read 
 the Scriptures, and the creeds and deliverances of the so- 
 called orthodox Councils, to find the answer. Let no one 
 neglect to examine for himself, or herself, that each may 
 "know of the doctrine." For there is danger in Eomish 
 or "orthodox" error, as much now as then. Of such as 
 had it not. He says, — 
 
 "I will put upon you none other burden." — 
 Namely, than that which you, faithful Thyatirians, already 
 bear in connection with your condition and surroundings 
 — driven to the mountains like felons, and slaughtered 
 in the valleys like sheep. But here is the great command- 
 ment and the bow of promise to them: — 
 
 " But that which ye have hold fast till I come." 
 — Till the close of your period and trial, and I come with 
 the overcomer's blessing, and the message to Sardis. The 
 general apostasy is so extensive, and the changes during 
 the long Thyatirian period so great, that it is necessary 
 to characterize the Church anew, and assume a new rela- 
 tion to it through a new — the fifth — message. "He that 
 overcometh, and keepeth My works unto the end," He 
 continues, — 
 
 "To him will I give power over the nations." 
 — The overcomers of this period, though a comparatively 
 small company, were the projectors of the Protestant 
 Reformation. Representative among them were Luther, 
 
140 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEL,ATlON. [part 11. 
 
 Melancthon, Zwinglius, Wishart "the Martyr," etc. Not 
 that these workers for Christ and opposers of Jezebel were 
 correct in all their teachings, as no mortals are, but they 
 acknozvlcdgcd the inspiration of the Scriptures, and their 
 sole authority in matters of faith. They refused to suffer 
 that woman Jezebel to teach, and made a vigorous warfare 
 on her teachings. The religious liberty of the world to- 
 day, the Bible the freed Book it is, every man worshiping 
 God according to the dictates of his conscience under his 
 own vine and fig tree, is but the echo down the centuries 
 of the godly protests of those Christian heroes. Did they 
 receive power over the Catholic nations? The click of 
 Luther's hammer, on the 31st of October, 1517, as he 
 nailed his ninety-five propositions to the door of the 
 Palace Church, at Wittenberg, announced the early dawn 
 of such an emancipation for the Church. Power over the 
 nations soon began to revert from the pope and priests to 
 the people, to demand, receive and exercise the natural 
 rights of conscience in religion; and this confidence to 
 claim, and providence to receive, has never ceased nor 
 waned, in its onward march toward universal toleration, 
 to our own day. > 
 
 June 26th, a. d. 1520, Luther wrote an "Address to 
 the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, on the Eef- 
 ormation of Christendom and the Babylonian Captivity 
 of the Church." In August he published his address "To 
 the Christian Nobles of the German Empire," both in 
 Latin and in German, urging the superiority of the secular 
 over the so-called "spiritual arm." 
 
 The pope's bull of excommunication appeared in 
 
 September. In December, on the bmks 
 Lntiier Burns Qf ^hc Elbe, in the prcscuce of the pro- 
 tiie Pope's Bnii. fessors and students of the Wittenberg 
 
 University, Luther burned both the bull 
 and the books of Canon Law. On the following April, 
 
CHAP.VIII.] TO THE CHURCH IN THYATIRA, 141 
 
 (1521,) Charles V., the greatest emperor, and most bigoted 
 Eomanist since Charlemagne, always counseling "to pre- 
 serve the Catholic faith, and to show no quarter to here- 
 tics," summoned Luther before the Imperial Diet at 
 Worms. Though incurring the risk of being led to the 
 stake like Huss a century before, that great Eeformer, 
 said: "Had I known that there would be 
 Luther and the ^g ij^m^y devils at Womis as there are tiles 
 
 Diet at Worms, ^^p^^ ^^q hoUSC-topS, stlll I should joy- 
 
 fully have plunged in among them. 
 Though they burned Huss, they could not burn the truth." 
 Standing with the firmness of a martyr in the presence 
 of Charles V., the electors, archbishops, bishops and no- 
 bility of the empire, the Chancellor of the Archbishop of 
 Treves addressed him thus: "Martin Luther, his sacred 
 and invincible Majesty has cited you before his throne, 
 acting on the opinions and advice of the States of the 
 Holy Eoman Empire, to answer these questions: First: 
 Do you acknowledge these writings to have been composed 
 by you? Secondly: Are you prepared to retract them, 
 and the propositions contained therein, or do you persist 
 in what you have therein advanced?" Luther frankly ac- 
 knowledged the authorship of his books, and made his 
 great defense which shook the whole empire of Jezebel- 
 ism. God was with him as he stood before the august 
 assembly, firm as a rock, yet calm as a Christian, his 
 countenance glowing with the light and peace of Heaven. 
 These were his closing words: "/ am bound by the Scrip- 
 tures zuhich I have quoted; my eonscience is submissive to 
 the Word of God; therefore I may not, and zvill not, reeant, 
 because to act against conscience is unholy and unsafe. God, 
 help me! Amen." The evident Providence that attended 
 Luther and his colaborers in all this is beautifully set forth 
 by D'Aubigne: — 
 
142 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part li. 
 
 " The clouds were gathering over Luther and the Reformation. 
 The appeal to a General Council was a new at- 
 The Lelpslc tack ou papal authority. A Bull of Pius II. had 
 
 Discussion, pronounced the greater excommunication 
 
 A.D. 1519. against any one, even though it should be the 
 
 emperor himself, who should be guilty of a 
 rejection of the ' Holy Father's ' authority. Frederick of Saxony, 
 scarcely yet well established in the evangelic doctrine, was on the 
 point of banishing Luther from his States. A second message 
 from Leo X. would, in that case, have thrown the Reformer among 
 strangers, who might fear to compromise their own security by 
 harboring a monk whom Rome had anathematized. And even if 
 one of the German nobles had taken up arms in his defense, such 
 poor knights, looked down upon with contempt by the powerful 
 sovereigns of Germany, must ere long have sunk in the hazardous 
 enterprise. But at the moment ivhen all his courtiers were urging 
 Leo to rigorous measures, when another blow would have laid his 
 enemy at his feet, that pope suddenly changed his course and 
 MADE OVERTURES OF CONCILIATION." — Hist. Reformation, Vol. 
 II., Book V. 
 
 Speaking of the Eoman bull of 1520, D'Aubigne con- 
 tinues: — 
 
 "A new actor was about to appear on the stage. It was ///^ 
 will of God that the Monk of Wittenberg should 
 Charles V. be brought face to face with the most powerful 
 
 monarch who had appeared in Christendom 
 since the days of Charlemagne. He made choice of a prince, in 
 the vigor of youth, to whom everything promised a reign of long 
 duration, a prince whose sceptre bore sway over a considerable 
 part of the old and also over a new world, so that, according to a 
 celebrated saying, the sun never set upon his vast domains ; and 
 with this prince he confronted the humble Reformation that had 
 had its beginning in the secret cell of a convent at Erfurth, in the 
 anguish and groans of a poor monk. 
 
 "The history of this monarch, and of his reign, was destined, 
 apparently, to read au important lesson to the world. It was to 
 show the nothingness of all 'the strength of man,' when it pre- 
 sumes to strive against 'the weakness of God.' Had a prince 
 friendly to Luther been called to the empire, the success of the 
 Reformation might have been attributed to his protection. Had 
 an emperor of feeble character filled the throne — even though he 
 
CHAP. VIII.] TO THE CHURCH IN THYATIRA. 143 
 
 should have beeu opposed to the new doctrine — the success that 
 attended it might have admitted of explanation by the weakness 
 of tlie reigning sovereign. But it was the haughty conqueror of 
 Pavia whose pride was to be humbled be/ore the power 0/ the divine 
 Word; and the whole world was called to 7uitness that he to whom 
 power was given to lead Francis I. to the dungeons 0/ Madrid was 
 compelled to lay down his sword before the son of a poor tninery 
 —lb.. Book VI. 
 
 "God arrests the billows on the shore/' said Luther, 
 •^'and He does so with the sand." 
 
 Failing entirely to enforce the decree of the Diet at 
 Worms against Luther, the new Diet at Spires early in 
 1529 resolved that the reformers should accept the de- 
 cision of a majority vote on individual faith, i. e., "accept 
 defeat wherever their adversaries declared 
 Protestant themselvcs in the ascendent, and at the 
 
 League (1529). game time to abjure all thought of prog- 
 ress." But the Northern princes and 
 dukes, favorable to the Eeformation, would not for a mo- 
 ment entertain the unreasonable proposition. 
 
 "These," says Dr. Peter Bayne, " were inflexibly determined 
 that the decree of the majority [in no way based on the Scriptures] 
 should not be assented to. Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, George the 
 Pious, Margraf of Brandenburg-Anspach, the Dukes of Lunenburg 
 and Brunswick, the prince of Anhalt, and the representatives of 
 Strasburg, Niirnberg, and twelve other free cities, entered into a 
 solenui protest against the popish resolution. They were called 
 PROTESTANTS. The name, as is customary with names that felicit- 
 ously express and embody facts, was caught iip in Germany and 
 passed into every country in Europe and the world." — Martin 
 Luther, his Life and Work, Vol. II., Bk. XIV., Ch. iv. 
 
 Larned's History for Ready Reference thus speaks of 
 the incipient Protestant cause: — 
 
 "The Leipsic disputation [Dr. Eck had challenged Carlstadt, 
 a professor at L.J was preceded and followed by a host of contro- 
 versies. The whole mind of Germany was in motion, and it was 
 no longer with Luther alone that Rome had to contend. All the 
 celebrated names in art and literatiire sided with the Reformation ; 
 
144 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part ii. 
 
 Erasmus, Ulric von Hutton, Melancthon, Lucas Cranach, Albert 
 Diirer, and others." — VoL IV., p. 2449. 
 
 Thus, wonderfully, God gave the overcomers of Thy- 
 atira "power over the nations." But further, Mr. Charles 
 Hase says: — 
 
 "The Holy League between the Archbishop of Mentz, the 
 Archbishop of Strasburg, the Duke of Bavaria, 
 The Holy Leagne. George of Saxou)', Henry of Brunswick, Francis 
 (1538.) of France, Henry VIII. of England, and other 
 
 northern Powers was formed in 1538 to stay the 
 papal persecution and protect the Reformation." — Church Hist., 
 P- 391- 
 
 It was a long, hard struggle, and the "Thirty Years' 
 War" came on at last, and ended with the Peace of West- 
 phalia (1648), by the terms of which — 
 
 "The emperor conceded religious freedom in Germany, pro- 
 claimed a general amnesty, and acknowledged 
 The Peace of the sovereign rights of the several princes in 
 
 Westphalia. peace and war. The Protestants were to retain 
 
 all the religious property they had held in 1624, 
 and were to be represented equally with Catholics in the Imperial 
 Chamber. * * * The emperor was obliged to forbid the publica- 
 tion in his dominions of the bull of Pope Innocent X., which pro- 
 nounced the treat}' ' null, invalid, iniquitous, and void of all power 
 and effect.' The necessi^ty of peace was imperative, and the bull 
 zvas disregarded by all the Catholic Powers.''—]. D. McCabe. 
 Hist, of the World, p. 570. 
 
 Why did the pope suddenly change his course^ and 
 Luther continue and prosper in his? Why did ihose 
 dukes, princes and powers unite to help on the Keforma- 
 tion? and why did the Peace of Westphatia restore equal- 
 ity between Protestant and Catholic in the Imperial 
 Chamber? Because the overcomers had received the 
 promised power; and it was — 
 
 "A Rod of Iron." — If it was invisible on account of 
 a lack of faith-sight in those who felt its power, it was, 
 nevertheless, strong and inflexible, and it has held the 
 
CHAP. VIII.] TO THE CHURCH IN THYATIRA I45 
 
 nations of earth to the constantly increasing concession 
 toward individual liberty in Christ, to the downfall of 
 legal Nicolaitanism among them; for, in this respect, said 
 Jesus, — 
 
 "As the vessels of a potter shall they be 
 broken to shivers." — Consider the imperial German 
 fragments, and the dead Eoman bulls! Says McCabe: — 
 "At the beginning of the sixteenth century, all Western Europe 
 was Christian, and every nation in this part of the continent was 
 in communion with the Roman Church and acknowledged the 
 supremacy of the pope. It is true that the principles of the early 
 reformers had aifected England and some other countries so deeply 
 that martyrs had already been found, but as yet no nation had 
 definitely broken with Rome or set up any new system of religion 
 for itself. Early in the sixteenth century, however, men began to 
 think more earnestly on matters of religion. 
 Power of tiie The Bible had been circulated to a limited ex- 
 
 Word of God. tent since the days of Wycliflfe, and after the 
 
 invention of printing the early printers had 
 scarcely been able to supply the demand for the sacred volume. 
 The efiFect of the reading of the Scriptures was to open men's eyes 
 wider than ever to the abuses of the Roman Church. The divi- 
 sions of Europe into independent states had made many men in all 
 countries very anxious to be rid of the supremacy of the pope, but 
 as this was a matter of religious doctrine, they had felt powerless 
 to accomplish their desire. When they found that this supremacy 
 was not sanctioned by the Bible, and that the tyranny which the 
 pope had set up in all lands was repugnant to the Word of God, 
 their resistance to it became an hundred times more vigorous and 
 determined."— //;.?/;. of the World, p. 551. 
 
 Observe the spectacle of the "Holy Eoman Empire" 
 
 in shivers before the power of the Divine 
 
 siiivered Woid, as thus told in history — McCabe's 
 
 E:mpire. statement already given (pages 136, 137), 
 
 and the following: — 
 
 " Germany was terribly enfeebled by the long strife [the Thirty 
 Years' War]. Half, if not more, of her people had perished in 
 the intestine fighting. * * * All national feeling seemed dead 
 
146 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [parT il. 
 
 the differences of creed which arose at the Reformation tending 
 strongly to split up the countr}-. Henceforth, until recently, Ger- 
 many was merely a loose cluster of petty states, ruled by despots 
 or oligarchs, over whom the emperor had no control. * * * 
 After the war Germany continued to sink into degradation." — 
 Student's Encyc, Art. Germany. 
 
 "Before 1750, all Italy, saving a few isolated republics and the 
 
 Papal States, was divided among the houses of 
 Slilvered Italy. Lorraine, Bourbon and Savoy. Forty years of 
 
 slavery and apathy followed till, in 1792, the 
 French Republic invaded Savoy. Napoleon formed the Cisalpine 
 Republic in 1796, and the Roman Republic in 1798, and in 1804 
 added the crown of Italy to his imperial crown, making his brother 
 Joseph king of Naples in 1805." — lb.. Art., Italy. 
 
 "At the end of the Thirty Years' War France was the chief 
 
 power in Europe, and under Louis XIV. stepped 
 Shivered France, into the place from which Spain had fallen. 
 
 Louis' policy of aggrandisement was at first 
 successful, but in the Spanish War of succession his ambitions 
 were shivered. His armies were defeated, the revocation of the 
 Edict of Nantes (1685) [revived dreadful persecutions and] deprived 
 France of a large industrious population, the revenue was scandal- 
 ously misapplied, and at Louis' death, in 1715, the national debt 
 amounted to ^140,000,000 sterling. Under Louis XV., costly wars 
 were carried on with England, Spain and Austria, and bj' thje treaty 
 of Paris (1763) the larger part of the colonial possessions was given 
 up. So gross was the misgovernment that France was brought to 
 a seemingly incurable bankruptcy and misery. The country was 
 dying under the weight of the monarchy, when in the days of 
 Louis XV. 's successor, Louis XVI., the changes began which led to 
 the French Revolution." — lb.. Art. France. 
 
 ' ' During the sixteenth century, ' ' says McCabe, ' ' the wealth and 
 
 valor of her troops made Spain the most formid- 
 Shu-ered Spain. able power in Europe. * * * The constant 
 
 intercourse between that country and Germany 
 during the reign of Charles V. had caused the Lutheran doctrines 
 to be well known in Spain, and many persons had adopted them. 
 Bibles in the Castilian tongue were generally to be found in the 
 houses of the nobles and the middle class. Philip 11. was greatly 
 alarmed by these signs of heresy, and at once set the inquisition 
 to work to rid his kingdom of the evil. By a cruel persecution he 
 
CHAP.vm.] TO THE CHURCH IN THYATIRA. 147 
 
 succeeded iu banishing the Bible and the Protestant doctrines from 
 Spain. He also struck down, by the same blow, freedom of thought, 
 and threw his kingdom back into the barbarism from which it has 
 never j'et emerged." — Hist, of Ihe World, p. 1073. 
 
 Lamed, in treating the seventeenth century in Span- 
 ish history, heads the section, "The first century of 
 DECLINE AND DECAY." And says that, — 
 
 " In economical, physical, moral and intellectual aspects, a 
 decay pervaded the peninsula under the later Hapsburgers, such as 
 no civilized nation has undergone." — Hist, for Ready Re/., \o\. 
 IV., p. 2988. 
 
 If this list were to be extended, it could he shown that 
 in whatever nation Eome has obtained a political influ- 
 ence, the same general decay has followed. Eome wars 
 upon the Bible, upon the truths of the Bible, and so upon 
 God, and the well-being of all men; and righteous judg- 
 ments must follow such a course. The Eeformation, lib- 
 erty of conscience, a free Bible, live and thrive through- 
 out the world, while popery and legislative interference 
 with the rights of conscience are to the same extent de- 
 cayed and "broken to shivers." 
 
 "And I will give him the raorning star." — The 
 harbinger of coining day — the light of prophecy. This 
 symbol is said (ch. xxii. 16) to represent Jesus Himself: 
 "I am the * * * bright and morning star;" that is, as 
 said in chapter xix. 10, "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit 
 of propJiecy." The overcomers of Thyatira were to receive 
 special light on prophecy. And true to the promise, they 
 were contending for the overthrow of the papacy, which 
 they clearly recognized as the antichrist 
 Antichrist ^f prophccy. Luther's answer to the bull 
 
 Recognized. ^f p^pg Lg^ X. was entitled, "Against 
 THE Bull of Antichrist." They not 
 only recognized the "man of sin," but saw that Jezebel's 
 space for repentance, and antichrist's period of power 
 
148 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part ii. 
 
 were drawing to a close. Paul had said concerning the 
 "man of sin/' "whom the Lord shall consume with the 
 spirit of His month, but destroy with the brightness of 
 His coming." (2 Thes. ii. 1-8). They rejoiced in the 
 prospect of Christ's coming, and hailed the first bright 
 rays of tlie neariug glory that glimmered into that long 
 night of papal darkness, superstition, error, falsehood and 
 hypocrisy. The spirit of His month is the symbol of His 
 word. "The words that I speak unto you," said Jesus, 
 "they are spirit and they are life" (John vi. 63). The 
 antichrist then must be consumed, as a power, by the 
 A\^ord of God, before final destruction by the coming of 
 Jesus. The Bible had been kept in the dead languages, 
 by the connivance of the popes, to hold the people in ig- 
 norance through which to establish and augment their 
 own power; and while a dead letter with 
 The Early ^j^g people the Word could not do the 
 
 Translations. predicted cousumiug work. Wycliffe had 
 translated the New Testament in 1380. 
 Pope Gregory XL issued three bulls against him, con- 
 demning his writings, and ordering his arrest. He escaped 
 with his life, but f orty-pne years after his death, the Coun- 
 cil of Constance "ordered his bones to be taken up and 
 burned; which sentence was executed." (Abbott.) Tyn- 
 dale published his English New Testament in 1535, and 
 was arrested by order of Charles V., convicted of heresy, 
 strangled by the executioner, and his body burned. Cover- 
 dale translated the whole Bible from the Latin to Eng- 
 lish in 1535. Cranmer's, the Geneva, and the Bishop's 
 Bible followed in the same century. The desperate exer- 
 tions of the papacy to suppress a true knowledge of the 
 Word proved a knowledge and fear among the Catholic 
 hierarchy of its consuming effects upon their whole sys- 
 tem. While the incipient consumption, in connection with 
 
CHAP. VIII.] TO THE CHURCH IN THYATIRA. 
 
 149 
 
 the initial preparations for the sending out of the Bible 
 to the nations, became the "morning star" of hope to the 
 Eeformers in the indicated destruction of the papacy, by 
 the coming of their Lord. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 V. THE SARDIAK OE LUTHERAN PERIOD. 
 A. D. 1539-1789. 
 
 Text, Chapter iii. 1-6. 
 
 I. And unto the angel ofthe church in Sardis write; These things 
 saith He that hath the seven Spirits of God, and 
 Tlie Message the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou 
 
 *•* **** hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. 
 
 Angel of Sardis. 2. Be watchful, and strengthen the things 
 
 which remain, that are ready to die ; for I have 
 not found thy works perfect before God. 
 
 3. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, 
 and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I 
 will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I 
 will come upon thee. 
 
 4. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled 
 their garments ; and they shall walk with Me in white : for they 
 are worthy. 
 
 5. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white 
 raiment ; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, 
 but I will confess his nam er before My Father, and before His angels. 
 
 6. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto 
 the churches. 
 
 ARDIS means ' 'a retmiant, ' ' an ' 'escaped few. ' ' This 
 
 age, together with the Tliyatirian, as I have said, fill 
 
 out the 1,260 years of Daniel's prophecy (ch. vii. — 
 
 mentioned also five times in this), which measure the whole 
 
 period of the domination of the papacy over the Church. 
 
 During these ages, from 50,000,000 to 75,000,000 of God's 
 
 truth-loving people were put to death by 
 
 Milton on every inhuman means that human fiends 
 
 the Martyrs. could invent to torture out their lives. For 
 
 what cause? For faithfulness to the Word 
 
 150 
 
CHAP. IX.] TO TH^ CHURCH IN SAKDIS. 151 
 
 of God as against the traditions of Eome, and heresy to 
 the creeds of men. Thus Milton prayed: — 
 
 "Avenge, Oh Lord, Thy slaughtered saints, whose bones 
 
 Lie scattered on the Alpine Moiintains cold ; 
 
 E'en them who kept Thy truth so pure of old. 
 When all our fathers worshiped stocks and stones, 
 Forget not. In Thy book record their groans 
 
 Who were Thy sheep, and in their ancient fold, 
 
 Slain by the bloody Piedniontese, that rolled 
 Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans 
 The vales reecho to the hills, and they 
 
 To Heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow 
 O'er all Italian fields, where still doth sway 
 
 The triple tyrant , that from these may grow 
 An hundredfold, who having learned Thy way 
 
 Early, may fly the Babylonian woe." 
 
 After such a wholesale slaughter of her members, 
 through the machinations of the great antitypical Jeze- 
 bel, the Church is left but a remnant of herself, either in 
 numbers or in the power of her faith. And Jesus appears 
 to Sardis with the very encouragement which her depleted 
 condition at once suggests, namely, as — - 
 
 " He that hath the seven Spirits of God, and 
 the seven stars." — That is, Mp"^ from the Spirits and 
 light from the stars for each of the churches, and both, 
 therefore, as surely, even for desolated Sardis, as the rest. 
 Thus sympathy is expressed while no word of commenda- 
 tion is given. 
 
 "Thou hast a name that thou Hvest, and art 
 dead." — These words cannot apply to the overcomers of 
 Thyatira nor Sardis; but, as in all other instances, de- 
 
 * Jesus had promised the Holy Spirit (John xiv. 16, 26 ; xv. 26) as a helper : 
 Greek, pamWtVo.s, literally, "one called along side of for help." ( i'oung's Anal. 
 Cone.) A "helper." {Emph. Diag.) The i»iaglott, in appendix, defines thus: 
 "Advocate, monitor, helper, comforter;" and says, "Comforter is the most re- 
 mote meaning of the word, and does not adequately describe the office of the 
 paraclete: it was to help and direct, as well as to console." 
 
152 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part II. 
 
 ecribe the general condition of the Church at large. It 
 may be illustrated by the Jewish Church at large at the 
 first advent. Jesus described them as "hypocrites/' a 
 "generation of vipers;" but still there were His disciples, 
 a small band of faithful, truth-loving "overcomers." 
 
 "Strengthen the things which remain, that 
 are ready to die." — " Be watchful;" wake up to truth, 
 and your work of publishing it, to the salvation of your- 
 selves and those who hear you. Help those who are nearly 
 overcome of their persecutions and trials. For what will 
 be your own condition if so much more of the salt shall 
 "lose its savor?" 
 
 " For I have not found thy works perfect be- 
 fore God." — Perfect has the sense of "completed" here, 
 and is the better rendering of the Diaglott — "fulfilled," 
 Revision. Inactivity is the ground of complaint. It was 
 the fault also of Thyatira to "let alone" the Jezebel teach- 
 ers; and Sardis is only completing that work of indiffer- 
 ence, and neglecting the work of God — an active warfare 
 on the adversary. "Ye should earnestly contend for the 
 faith which was once delivered to the saints," said Jude. 
 Paul reasoned with the t^ews in the synagogues and market 
 places daily. He was active. He went where the people 
 were to be found, and put forward in his "disputings," 
 or reasonings, the truths of the Gospel. As he exhorted 
 Timothy, so he himself preached "the Word," and not 
 tradition nor theory. 
 
 Eepentance and watchfulness are demanded of the 
 Sardians, and he says in a manner sharply to them: — 
 
 "If thou shalt not watch, I will come upon 
 thee as a thief." — Come upon /hee in chastisements and 
 judgments, and to remove thy candlestick. This is not 
 the Second Advent — the coming to all the world — for the 
 Philadelphian and Laodicean ages must succeed Sardis. 
 
CHAP. IX.] TO THE CHURCH IN SARDIS. 1 53 
 
 But it is evidently typical of that coining, being much like 
 that which will come upon Laodicea, in that it requires 
 watchfulness for a thief -like surprise; and doubtless is 
 practically, to Sardis, all that the latter will mean to Lao- 
 dicea; for He continues: — 
 
 "And thou shalt not know what hour I will 
 come upon thee." — Individual opportunity for making 
 their "calling and election sure" will suddenly and unex- 
 pectedly terminate — as much so, and as fatally, in the 
 Sardian or other ages, were God to give one over to him- 
 self without further extension of mercy, as in the Lao- 
 dicean age, at the sudden termination of further mercy 
 to the world. "No man having put his hand to the plow," 
 said Jesus, "and looking back [deliberately turning away 
 from the work] is fit for the kingdom of God" (Luke ix. 
 62). He might be any moment "abandoned unto death," 
 in either willful negligence or disobedience. Not so those 
 who are still striving earnestly to overcome. A critical 
 rendering of Psalm cxvi. 15, is: "Too precious in the 
 sight of the Lord are His saints, to be abandoned unto 
 death." (Boothroyd.) Looking back is to cease to be a 
 saint. "Eemember Lot's wife," said Jesus. 
 
 "Thou hast a few names * * that have not 
 defiled their garments." — Although Sardis is but a 
 remnant all told — that being her noted characteristic — 
 there are but a "few" overcomers even in her ranks. The 
 greater number have defiled their white garments — their 
 righteousness in Christ — ^by unwatchf ulness, and not hold- 
 ing fast what they had received and heard from Christ; 
 but rather had leaned toward, countenanced, or "suffered" 
 Jezebel as a teacher, in order to be "in line with the 
 world," or to be "orthodox" m name, whether or not in 
 truth. But God always has "a few," faithful ones, and 
 here in Sardis, even, of whom He says: — 
 
154 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part II. 
 
 "And they shall walk with Me in white ; for 
 they are worthy."— These few worthy ovcrcomers of 
 every age and clime, when all are gathered at last, will 
 swell the innnmerahle throng of the saved, till it fills the 
 kingdom of God to its entire fnllness. The "white rai- 
 ment," we are told (ch. xix. 8), ''is the righteousness of 
 saints." Please compare Eomans x. 3; Phil. iii. 9; and fix 
 in the memory this promise until we reach its point of 
 parallel in the corresponding seal (as exhibited in the dia- 
 gram) to consider it more fnlly. And notice the repeti- 
 tion concerning white raiment — no other promise is thns 
 magnified: — 
 
 "He that overcometh, the same shall be 
 clothed with white raiment." — That is, "unto every 
 one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance; 
 but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that 
 which he hath." As is also so often said, "God helps them 
 who help themselves" — those who really seek after right- 
 eousness will find it. 
 
 "And I will not blot out his name out of the 
 Book of Life." — Here the possibility of "falling from 
 grace," of "receiving ^the grace of God in vain," and hav- 
 ing the name once "written in Heaven," blotted out of 
 God's book, is very clearly seen. Only the overcomers 
 name will be confessed before the Father, not all theirs 
 who have "known the way," but have turned "from the 
 holy commandment delivered unto them." And here 
 again, for the fifth time, comes the exhortation, "He that 
 hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the 
 churches." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 VI. THE PHILADELPHIA^ OR RENAISSANCE 
 
 PERIOD— A. D. 1789-1840. 
 
 Text, Chapter iii. 7-13. 
 
 7. Aud to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write ; 
 
 These things saith He that is holy, He that is 
 
 The Message true, He that hath the key of David, He that 
 
 to tlie Angel opeueth, and no man shutteth ; and shutteth, 
 
 of Plilladelplila. and no man openeth ; 
 
 8. I know thy works ; behold, I have set 
 before thee an open door, and no man can shut it : for thou hast a 
 little strength, and hast kept My word, and hast not denied My 
 
 name. 
 
 9. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, who 
 say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie ; behold, I will make 
 them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have 
 
 loved thee. 
 
 10. Because thou hast kept the word of My patience, I also 
 wUl keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon 
 all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. 
 
 11. Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, 
 that no man take thy crown. 
 
 12. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple 
 of My God, and he shall go no more out : and I will write upon 
 him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, 
 which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of Heaven from 
 My God : and / will write upon him My new name. 
 
 13. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith 
 unto the churches. 
 
 ^ 
 
 HILADELPHI A means brotherly love. It is a strik- 
 ing change from the Jezebelitic and Nicolaitan 
 spirit of otlier ages. It is the renaissance (new birth 
 or resurrection period of the Church — i. e., as a body. 
 
 155 
 
156 DIVINK KKY OF THE REVELATION. [part li. 
 
 The renaissance of letters and art began 
 Renaissance ^g early as the fourteenth century, and 
 of the ciinrcii. j-j^g Lutheran period is so counted by some 
 for the Church. But Luther and the 
 Eeformers were the earthly fathers who begat the new 
 condition. The birth took place with the organization of 
 missions and Bible societies after the French Kevolution. 
 Then love, which had seemed shut out of the hearts of 
 men for twelve centuries, returns like Noah's dove with 
 the olive leaf of peace; not like her to enter again, for a 
 single week, the dark confinement, but to call out from 
 thence forever the preserved Church of God into the 
 broad, free sunlight of Heaven — into an open door to 
 truth and knowledge, and into a large liberty in Christ. 
 This remarkable change came with the reactionary effect 
 which the Revolution had upon the world and the Church 
 generally. Mystic Babylon, that for nearly thirteen cen- 
 turies had held God's people in worse fetters than either 
 Egypt or Babylon of old, met her judgment in that great 
 Eevolution as signally as did Pharoah and his hosts meet 
 theirs in the Eed Sea, or Belshazzar and his lords theirs 
 at the hands of Cyrus^ the Lord's "shepherd" to let go 
 his captives and rebuild his city. And as with those typi- 
 cal judgments there came great deliverances to ancient 
 Israel, so to the Church of the nineteenth century there 
 came with the reaction after the French Revolution a 
 Canaan of rest from Egypt, and a return to Jerusalem from 
 Babylon. 
 
 There is peculiar significance again in the character 
 which Jesus assumes, and the manner in which He intro- 
 duces Himself to this age. The Church had been for cen- 
 turies shut up in spiritual darkness and heathenish super- 
 stition — a wilderness of great privation and dreadful per- 
 secution, until the Sardian condition was developed. From 
 
CHAP. X.] TO THE CHURCH IN PHII^ADELPHIA. 157 
 
 this condition, some way must be supernaturally opened 
 for the light of truth ever to shine on the world again. 
 The power that had been usurped by, or delegated to, the 
 kings of the earth must revert to the original, divine chan- 
 nel — the Davidian reign as extended under David's Son. 
 Jesus therefore appears at this point as, "He that is holy. 
 He that, is true" — 
 
 " He that hath the key of David."— A key is the 
 natural symbol of pozvcr. And here is a divine applica- 
 tion of one of Isaiah's prophecies given seven hundred and 
 fifty years before, as follows: Speaking of Christ, the 
 prophet said: "And the key of the house of David will 
 I lay upon His shoulder; so He shall open, and none shall 
 shut; and He shall shut, and none shall open" (ch. xxii. 
 22). The use of this key of power relates to Jesus' work 
 for the world, and therefore is to be used during time, or 
 probation. The pozuer of David was delegated by God to 
 that patriarch to reign over mortal Israel. His reign was 
 
 the second of the three distinct formative 
 Three Phases j^hascs of the Gospcl kingdom, as they are 
 *** ***® clearly represented in two of Jesus' par- 
 
 Kingdom, ables. (1) That of the "three measures 
 
 of meal," in which the leaven — the Gos- 
 pel — was hidden "until the whole lump was leavened;" 
 that is, until the completion of Gospel work (Matt. xiii. 
 33). (2) That of the seed \\'hich grew, "first the blade, 
 then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when 
 the fruit is brought forth, immediately," he continues, "he 
 putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come" (Mark, 
 iv. 26-29). (1) Paul tells us that the Gospel was preached 
 "unto Abraham," saying, "Ln thee shall all nations be 
 blessed." The patriarchal age then was the blade form 
 of the kingdom. (2) This kingdom was first regularly 
 organised under Moses (Ex. xix. 5, 6), and he was the first 
 
158 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part ii. 
 
 king (ISTum. xxiii. 21; Dent, xxxiii. 4, 5); which makes 
 the Mosaic age correspond with the car form. Saul was 
 the first king who reigned separately from the priesthood; 
 and this second phase of the kingdom was thrice over- 
 thrown, or perverted, as predicted in Ezekiel xxi. 25-27; 
 Hos. xiii. 7, 8: perverted first under the Babylonians; 
 second under the Medes and Persians, and third under the 
 Grecians. "It shall be no more the same," said God, "until 
 He come whose right it is, and I will give it Him." Jesus 
 was the rightful heir. When He came, the third phase — 
 the "full corn in the ear," the harvest phase or age — was 
 due, and He preached it at hand* Thus, — 
 
 First, Abraham and the patriarchs. 
 
 Second, Moses and the prophets, 
 
 Third, Jesus and the Apostles, 
 
 have formed the succession of God's medi- 
 Keys of the atiug rulers in bringing the world back 
 Kingrdom. from rebellion to subjection to Himself. 
 
 The keys of the kingdom of Heaven (in 
 this third phase, let me repeat, as said on page 52) were 
 given to Peter (Matt. xvi. 19), not eighteen hundred years 
 too soon, but for his ^prompt use in unlocking its privi- 
 leges and removing all bars to citizenship (1) to the Jews 
 on the day of Pentecost, when sixteen or seventeen na- 
 tionalities of that scattered people were represented at that 
 great reunion of the House of David; and each heard the 
 "Gospel of the Kingdom" in his own tongue in which 
 he was born; (2) to the Gentiles at the house of Cornelius, 
 three and one-half years later, when they also were bap- 
 tized with the Holy Spirit as a testimony that they were 
 received to citizenship, by faith, with the Hebrew tribes. 
 
 * See Zech. ix. 9, 10 ; John i. 49 ; xii. 12-ir), 23. 37-41 ; xviii. 33-39 ; xix. 1-5, 12- 
 22; Matt, xxviii. 18-20; Acts ii. 29-36; xiii. 32-34,47; xv. 16, 17 (with Isa. xvi. 5); 
 Acts xvii. 7 ; xyiii. 23, 31 ; Rom. xv, 12; Col. i 13; Hf^b. \ii. 1, 2 ; viii. 1. 2 ; 1 Cor. 
 XV. 24-28, etc. 
 
CHAP. X.] TO THE CHURCH IN PHII.ADEI.PHIA. I59 
 
 Jesus possessed the key — the power — of David; /. e., 
 He heired His throne or reign over mortal Israel — now 
 'extended, as the name implies, to all believing prcvailers. 
 Jesus also possessed the keys of death and hades, the grave; 
 that is, power over them to liberate His people at the ap- 
 pointed time, according to the purpose of God. Jewish 
 lawyers possessed, and withheld from the people, the "key 
 of knowledge" (Luke xi. 52), they would not enter the 
 kingdom under Jesus, themselves, and prevented those 
 who would enter. So the papacy, all the centuries of its 
 power, withheld the "key of knowledge" from the Church, 
 so long as the Bible was locked from them, and the creeds 
 and tradition thrust in its place. 
 
 " He that openeth, and no man shutteth ; and 
 shutteth, and no man openeth." — Who shut the door 
 of oppression against Jezebel and her Nicolaitan para- 
 mours in their Dark Age policy? Who but He in whom 
 was vested at the beginning of the Gospel age, "all power 
 in Heaven and in earth?" Who else gave the saints over 
 into the hands of the persecuting powers for the 1,260 
 years (Dan. vii. 25; Eev. vi. 2, 4, 8; xiii. 5, 7, 12)? Who 
 could open the door of the Inquisition, but He who could 
 give "power over the nations," to "rule them with a rod 
 of iron?" 
 
 "Behold, I have set before thee an open 
 door, and no man can shut it." — An open door to 
 individual thought, investigation and faith. This natu- 
 rally followed the gift of "power over the nations" which, 
 from the changes wrought through the "opened door," 
 can no longer support Jezebel in dictating all faith and 
 obedience to the world. "Faith cometh {ek) from hear- 
 ing," said Paul, "and hearing {dia) through the Word 
 of God" (Eomans x. 17). But the "Scriptures died out 
 of the world's memory" in the Dark Ages, writes Croly 
 
t6o DIVINE KEV OE THE REVEI^ATION. [pArT li. 
 
 —being hidden and smothered hy the traditions and creeds 
 of Pergamos and Thyatira. Jesus, foreseeing this, while 
 speaking of the afRiction and hatred that should befall 
 the Church, predicted, nevertheless, that "This Gospel 
 of the Kingdom shall be preached in all 
 Spirit of the ^i-^g ^^,Qj.i(j fQj. ^ witness unto all nations," 
 Nineteenth ^^f^^^ ^^le end sliould come (Matt. xxiv. 
 
 Century. -^^y fpj^jg QQ-^-^[([ j-^q| ]3g ^q^q UuleSS E neW 
 
 spirit could be infused into the world — 
 "brotherly love"^in place of Nicolaitanism. This new 
 brotherly feeling came in the wake of the French Eevolu- 
 tion- — an "open door" of hope to the whole world; such 
 as was opened to Paul for preaching the Gospel (1 Cor. 
 xvi. 9; 2 Cor. ii. 12). The old creed spirit said, "Think 
 as I da, or die as a heretic!" Wliile the new spirit of the 
 nineteenth century says, "Think, as I do, and be free!" 
 Consequently, this is an age of missions and Bible soci- 
 eties. This one century has outdone all the previous cen- 
 turies in Bible work and missions. The Bible has been 
 translated into over three hundred different languages 
 and dialects, and about one hundred and fifty million 
 copies have been disi^-ibuted to all parts of the globe. 
 And no man can shut this door of light and knowledge. 
 Popery has always used all its powers to stop the work, 
 
 and keep the Scriptures from common 
 Bulls A8--.inst ^^se, Pius VII., in 1816; Leo XII., in 
 the Bible. 1824; Pius VIII., in 1829; Gregory XVI., 
 
 in 1832 and 1844, published bulls against 
 the circulation of the Scriptures. The latter, in his rage 
 against the Word of God among the people, said: "We 
 earnestly bid you in the Lord (!) to seize out of the hands 
 of the faithful, not only Bibles translated into the vulgar 
 tongue, [the only languge in use by the common people,] 
 published contrary to our directions, but also proscribed 
 
CHAP. X.] TO THE CHURCH IN PHILADELPHIA. l6l 
 
 books of every sort." — And he the successor of Peter? 
 Ko. An adversary and a thief. "Therefore, behold, I 
 am against the [pretended] prophets, saith the Lord, that 
 steal My words every one from his neighbor" (Jer. xxiii. 
 30). Brotherly love changed things. A door was opened 
 by a mightier hand than the pope's, which cannot be 
 closed again. Let all earth's loving intelligences praise 
 God! 
 
 " For thou hast a little strength, and hast kept 
 My Word, and hast not denied My name."— The 
 efforts of Philadelphia early in this century seem well 
 to warrant this commendation. The Brit- 
 The Great jgj-^ ^nd Foreign Bible Society, said to 
 
 Bible Society, jjg "i\^q greatest agency ever devised for 
 the diffusion of the Word of God," was 
 formed in 1804. It declared its fundamental law to be, 
 "to circulate the Bible ALONE, zvith&ut notes or com- 
 ments." {Ency. Brit.) The doctrinal basis of the Evan- 
 gelical Alliance is stated in nine articles, three of which 
 are directly antagonistic to Komanism: "1. The divine 
 inspiration, authority and siiMciency, of the Holy Scrip- 
 tures. 2. The right and duty of private judgment in the 
 interpretation of the Holy Scriptures. * * * [Thus 
 challenging "the Church," and denying its claim of equal 
 authority for the traditions of Eome.] 6. The justifica- 
 tion of the sinner by faith alone." {Schaif-Herzog Ency. 
 of Relig. Knozd., Art. Evang. Alliance.) 
 
 ** Behold, * * * the synagogue of Satan."— Of 
 the adversary, of the paganish worship — the same as in 
 Smyrna, or Jezebelitic as in Thyatira, if there was any dif- 
 ference. 
 
 ** Who say they are Jews, and are not, but do 
 he." — Who say they are Christians, but are false to true 
 Christianity; who worship "the Church" and creeds more 
 than Christ. 
 
l62 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [parT il. 
 
 "I will make them to come and worship be- 
 fore thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee." 
 
 — The blessings upon those who are faithful to the Word 
 and name of Christ will be so clear and apparent to all, 
 that even their adversaries will be forced to publicly ac- 
 knowledge it, admiring the white-robed company, i. e., for 
 their evident righteousness, and fairly coveting the bless- 
 ings that follow them. It is the company that in another 
 symbol is seen with the Lamb (Christ) on Mount Zion, 
 and commended for following Him, and not the ways or 
 theories of men. For these parallels, see chapters vii. 
 13-15; xiv. 1-5. 
 
 " Because thou hast kept the word of My pa- 
 tience." — A repetition, emphasizing the commendation 
 of the eiglith verse, evidently, and furnishing a reason 
 for the promise. 
 
 " I also will keep thee from the hour of temp- 
 tation." — That is, of "trial," (Emph. Diag.,) some noted 
 hour of testing, since it affects "the whole world;" but 
 from which the Philadelphians, who have kept the Word 
 of the Lord's patience, or who have been faithful and 
 patient in observing the Word and commandments of God, 
 at every sacrifice, are ^o be kept — kept from over-discour- 
 agement and from falling. It is evidently a grand pro- 
 phetic trial to thoroughly test the whole world — all earth's 
 inhabitants of whom the Philadelphians are a part. Such 
 a test by God is not necessarily great in visible display, but 
 it will be necessarily perfect in its testing power. And 
 that it is a prophetic testing in connection with faith in 
 the return of Christ, is evident from the next statement: — 
 
 "Behold, I come quickly." — Here is a manifest 
 reference to tlie Second Advent of our Lord: it is not 
 said here, I will come to thee — i. e., to thee as a church — 
 quickly, as in speaking to the other churches, of coming 
 
CHAP. X.] TO THE CHURCH IN PHILADELPHIA. 163 
 
 in temporal judgments, for there is not a word of censure 
 in this message. This is such a coming as we had in 
 chapter i. 7 — "Behold, He cometh with clouds," etc. — 
 Cometh quickly now to the world — all "that dwell upon 
 the earth" — with rewards or the final judgment. As soon 
 as this door of independent thought was opened to the 
 world, and the Bible was restored to the people, the over- 
 coming class of the period began an earnest investigation 
 of the blessed Book; and soon the parable of the ten 
 virgins (Matt, xxv.) began to be fulfilled. In the 24th 
 chapter, Jesus had given a running survey of the history 
 of the Gospel age from His time to "the end," briefly 
 sketching the Abomination of Desolation, and the politi- 
 cal and physical signs that should precede His return to 
 earth. Then He gave the parable men- 
 The Ten tioucd, wliich begins with an adverb of 
 
 Virgins. ^^^-^-^g — ^]^g q^^j q^q jj^ ^j^g 'Sew Testa- 
 
 ment beginning thus: "THEN shall the 
 kingdom of Heaven be likened unto ten virgins, who took 
 their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom." 
 Here is a world-picture in the Philadelphian age; which 
 Jesus terms the "kingdom of Heaven," not therefore of 
 darkness nor of fanaticism. The "wise virgins" represent 
 the overcomers of the period, and the "foolish virgins," 
 those who receive the prophetic "grace of God in vain." 
 They had oil in their lamps — Bibles — but not in their 
 vessels — their hearts. The going forth to meet the bride- 
 groom represents a demonstrated expectancy in the 
 Church of the coming of Christ; comparatively small, as 
 there were but ten virgins. The tarrying of the bride- 
 groom, which so disappoints the expectant virgins, is the 
 "hour of trior that was to "come upon all the world to 
 try them." For in Luke xxi. 24-36, Jesus, after giving the 
 signs of the advent very nearly as in Matthew, speaks 
 
l64 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part II. 
 
 specially to the Church as follows: "And take heed to 
 yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged 
 with surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and 
 so that day come upon you unazvares. For as a snare 
 shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the 
 whole earth. Watch ye, therefore, and pray always, that 
 ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things [the 
 snare— to stand the test, or "trial"] and to stand before 
 the Son of man." The history of this period furnishes 
 just such an example of a world-wide expectancy, and re- 
 sulting, in the early part of this century (just over the 
 border line, in the first days of Laodicea), in an actual dem- 
 onstration, before all the world, of going 
 
 a Methodist clergyman, of Boston, Mass., 
 ovement. ^^iw^ writcs of the movement in his work 
 
 published in 18J:2 — more than half a cen- 
 tury ago: — 
 
 " Toward the close of the last century, and during the career 
 of Bonaparte, a very unusual excitement prevailed on the subject 
 of the fulfillment of the prophetic Scriptures. More was written 
 and said on the subject than had been before for 
 John Fletclier'8 ages.'* In 1775, John Fletcher, the bosom friend 
 Testlnioii}'. of Wesley, wrote a long epistle to Mr. W. on 
 
 the Second Advent, and the prophetic times. 
 He declared it as his firm belief that the Second Advent would be 
 pre-millennial ; and thought the periods would expire during the 
 last century. ' But come,' he adds, ' it most certainly will, before 
 three generations have passed off.' 
 
 " It was the age that drew forth a host of writers on the proph- 
 ecies in England and other countries. It called forth Spaulding 
 and Smith, with a long list of others in our own country. The 
 'dark day' [May 19, 1780], the French Revolution, the fall of 
 Popery, and the wars of Bonaparte, unquestionablj' awakened the 
 public mind in an unusual degree to the fulfillment of prophecy. 
 * * * It was about twenty-four years ago (1818), that persons in 
 diff"erent parts of the world, and entirely unknown to each other. 
 
CHAP. X.] TO THE CHURCH IN PHII,ADE;i.PHIA. 1 65 
 
 made the discover)' that the 70 weeks and 2,300 days of Daniel's 
 prophecy began together ; and, of course, that the 2,300 days would 
 end in 1810 years after the ending of the 70 weeks. Some, think- 
 ing the 70 weeks did not end until four years after Christ's death, 
 carried the end of the vision to 1847. Those who take the ground 
 that the 70 weeks ended with the death, or at most, the ascension 
 of Christ, end it in 1843. Among those who about the same time 
 saw this point, and began to preach it, were Mr. Davis of South 
 Carolina; A J. Krupp, of Philadelphia; William Miller, of New 
 York State ; David McGreggor, now of Falmouth, Me. ; Edward 
 Irving and Rev. Mr. Way, of England ; Joseph 
 Joseph Wolff's Wolff, the Jewish missionai-y ; and a great many 
 Message. otners of more or less note. So that, within the 
 
 last fifteen or twenty years, the cry that is being 
 made, 'Behold, the Bridegroom cometh,' has been most distinctly 
 announced in both hemispheres In Wolff's Journal of his mis- 
 sionary labors, we learn that he proclaimed it all through the East, 
 where he traveled, and awakened public attention to the subject. 
 At most of the missionary stations in the East, he preached the 
 doctrine in 183 1-2-3-4 ; had free conversation with most of the mis- 
 sionaries on the subject, as also with both Jews and Mohammedans. 
 Some of his discussions with the Mohammedans are very interest- 
 ing. More than twenty years ago, as we learn from a missionary 
 in Tartary, in a letter published in an English magazine, a Tartar 
 priest discovered from the Bible that the prophetic times were 
 nearly run out, and fixed on 1844 as the time. 
 A ■World-wide Within the last three years there have been sent 
 Prociamatioii. from our office in this city (Boston) Second Ad- 
 vent publications to nearly all the English and 
 American missionarj^ stations on the earth. They have been sent 
 to China, to Burmah, to Hiudostan, to the East Indies ; to Persia, 
 Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, Constantinople ; into 
 Africa, the West India Islands, the islands of the Pacific, and the 
 Indian missions on both sides of the Rocky Mountains. They have 
 also been scattered broadcast all over these Slates, and in the Can- 
 adas. Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, etc. There are now probably 
 five or six hundred ministers of the Gospel in the United States 
 who are engaged, more or less, in preaching the doctrine of the 
 speedy coming of Christ, and a large number who are devoted en- 
 tirely to the work. The doctrine has made more progress within 
 the last four months than in all previous time." — Prophetic Expos, 
 Vol. I., pp. 164-7. 
 
l66 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part li. 
 
 The whole world was aroused under that proclama- 
 tion and expectation (although so few, 
 A Definite comparatively, of the virgins of the 
 
 Expectation. "kingdom of Heaveu" were actually en- 
 gaged in the agitation of the subject). 
 The great expectation centered on the "Tenth Day of the 
 Seventh [Jewish] Month," 1843, — the ancient typical day 
 of atonement — and when that passed by without revealing 
 the King in His glory, so intense was the interest in, and 
 desire for, the coming glory, that the expectation held 
 over, and was even intensified as the next tenth day of 
 Tisri, in the fall of 1844, drew on. All classes of those 
 who did not love the appearing, and were not ready for 
 it, were nevertheless filled with anxious fears lest it might 
 be so. The meetings that were held by devout believers 
 were most powerful; and probably no sudden movement of 
 equal magnitude was ever attended with less fanaticism. 
 The excitement was great, — it could not be otherwise,— 
 but greatest outside the ranks. The firmest believers were 
 the calmest actors. Men believing that the end of time, 
 of probation, and of hope, was at handy 
 Consistent Consistently neglected their planting and 
 
 Sacrifices. sowiag, and other worldly vocations, and 
 
 Joined in the work of warning all to be 
 ready. Multitudes as consistently sold their possessions 
 to swell the fund for publishing and sending the living 
 Heralds everywhere with the joyful tidings of the coming 
 kingdom. But some ridiculed and published very many 
 falsehoods about the movement, as the 
 Tiie Ascension "agccnsion robcs" story, etc. These have 
 Robe Falsity, i^ecu thoroughly rcfutcd, and shown to 
 have been in every particular false, by the 
 most reliable eye-witnesses of the whole movement, again 
 and again;* but still the falsehoods crept into the cyclo- 
 pedias, where they are cruelly propagated to this day.t 
 
 See Appendix, A. t See Appendix, B. 
 
CHAP. X.] TO THE CHURCH IN PHILADELPHIA, 167 
 
 These words are penned advisedly, from personal 
 knowledge and experience in the matter, from which many 
 particular instances conld be cited. 
 
 "The Bridegroom tarried." The disappointment was 
 real and great. But the "calamity" predicted by the class 
 who are always able to say, "I told you so," did not result. 
 Those "wise virgins" neither backslid nor lost their bal- 
 ance of mind, although they "slumbered and slept" on the 
 time element of the message. From any disastrous results 
 from this great disappointment and "trial,'' those who 
 "kept the word of (the Lord's) patience" — who had "oil 
 in their vessels with their lamps" — were promised a keep- 
 ing POV^ER, and they were kept — a glorious testimony and 
 evidence of which is found in consecrated survivors, and 
 fruits of their after-work, in nearly all parts of the world, 
 specially in the United States of America. 
 
 Thus it is clear to be seen that the "hour of trial" in 
 the Philadelphian age was a prophetic test of the faith of 
 the Church in the Word of prophecy, as there had been a 
 like test upon the Jewish Church respecting the first ad- 
 vent. There were thirty years of anxious suspense from 
 the time of the angelic song, "On earth peace, good will 
 toward men," to the miracles which Jesus performed in 
 proof of His Sonship. For "the people were in expecta- 
 tion, and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether 
 he were the Christ, or not" (Luke iii. 15). They would not 
 believe prophecy, and asked for more signs. And Jesus 
 gave them one last prophetic sign: "As Jonah was three 
 days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son 
 of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the 
 earth" (Matt. xii. 40). But all that went before, and this 
 at last, failed to convince them. They were not really 
 honest men, but proved to be canting hypocrites, and 
 were condemned as such. What, therefore, shall we fear 
 
l68 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEI.ATION. [part il. 
 
 for those of this century who not only have no faith in 
 prophecy, no light on prophecy, but who have no interest 
 in the subject ? 
 
 That the movement of fifty years ago was the true 
 answer of the parable will appear certain when we reach 
 the exposition of chapter x. And that it was, and still is, 
 a genuine test of the faith of the Church is shown in the 
 immediate textual connection, "Behold, I come quickly," 
 and: — 
 
 " Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man 
 take thy crown." — Peter, speaking of the evidences at 
 the first advent, said: We have also a more sure Word 
 of prophecy; zvhcramto' yc DO WELL that yc take heed, 
 as unt& a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day 
 dazvn, and the day star arise in your hearts; knowing this 
 first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private 
 interpretation (2 Epis. i. 19, 20). Showing that for the 
 wise virgins there is light respecting the return of the 
 Lord; but for the foolish, inattentive and unbelieving, 
 who do not "do Avell" in taking "heed," there is condem- 
 nation. The same intimation also is put forth in the text 
 concerning a possibility^ of the loss of the crown of life, 
 that we found in the exhortation to Sardis respecting a 
 possibility of blotting a name out of the book of Life. 
 
 "A pillar in the temple of my God." — The over- 
 comer of Philadelphia, the wise virgin of the parable, 
 during the tarrying of, and the anxious waiting for, the 
 Bridegroom, is to be made a strong support, in the "build- 
 ing of God," or temple, "which temple," said the Apostle, 
 "ye are" (1 Cor. iii. 16, 17). A pillar, a strong support, 
 as a prophetic light-bearer in the Church; such as Peter, 
 James and John, in a measure, were to Ephesus (Gal. ii. 
 9); while the foolish virgins, inattentive, and neglectful 
 of prophecy, have allowed their lamps to go out: they are 
 
CHAP. X,] TO THK CHURCH IN PHILADELPHIA. 169 
 
 no spiritual support to the Church; and their professions 
 prove to be of no use to themselves. Will not so solemn 
 a warning arouse the indifferent masses of mere "profes- 
 sors of religion" to a sense of their duties, while the door 
 is still open, and the Bridegroom still tarries to test them? 
 These overcomers have so thoroughly proved their en- 
 tire loyalty to the will of God, that they are reckoned as 
 immovable, and the names of God, of the city, and of 
 Christ, are written upon them. They are new creatures 
 in Christ, and the new name Christian, symbolically, is 
 written in their foreheads. By it we shall recognize them 
 later. And here occurs the sixth repetition of the Spirit's 
 exhortation, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the 
 Spirit saith unto the churches." 
 
CHAPTEE XL 
 
 VII. THE LAODICEAN OR JUDGMENT PERIOD. 
 
 A. D. 1840 TO THE END. 
 
 Text, Chapter iii. 14-22. 
 
 14. And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans ■write ; 
 These things saith the Amen, the faithful and 
 The Message true witness, the beginning of the creation of 
 
 to tli« Angel God ■ 
 
 of Laodicea. 15- I know thy works, that thou art neither 
 
 cold nor hot : I would thou wert cold or hot. 
 i6. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor 
 hot, I will spew thee out of My mouth. 
 
 17. Because thou sa}"est, I am rich, and increased with goods, 
 and have need of nothing ; and knowest not that thou art wretched, 
 and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked : 
 
 18. I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the iire, that thou 
 mayest be rich ; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, 
 and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear ; and annoint 
 thine eyes with eye-salve, »that thou mayest see. 
 
 19. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten : be zealous, there- 
 fore, and repent. 
 
 20. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock : if anj^ man hear 
 My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup 
 with him, and he with Me. 
 
 21. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My 
 throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father 
 in His throne. 
 
 22. He that hath ah ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto 
 the churches. 
 
 JUDGMENT OF THE PEOPLE, is the signification 
 of Laodicea^ as drawn from its root words, laos^ the 
 people, and dike^ justice or judgment. It is the last 
 age, and theref ore /^r judgment; but in another sense, having 
 
 170 
 
CHAP. XI.] TO THE CHURCH IN LAODICEA. lyt 
 
 been thoroughly tested in Philadelphia, and the first days 
 of this period, concerning the "spirit of prophecy," the 
 people, nearly en masse, have repudiated it as an unprofit- 
 able study, and have judged themselves unworthy of its 
 blessing. The general outlook for the Church is far from 
 encouraging to her "saints" — the few — for the "higher 
 criticism" and semi-infidelity flourish, and spiritual power 
 is far in the background. 
 
 Jesus characterizes Himself in this last message as 
 "The Amen." — As He -was the "beginning" in power, 
 to Ephesus, so He will be the "ending," in glory, to the 
 overcomers of Laodicea. 
 
 " Thou art neither cold nor hot : I would thou 
 wert cold or hot." — The great prophetic test or ' ' trial ' ' 
 proved the heart of the professed Church, and changed the 
 whole tenor of her thought and desire, as is shown in the 
 condition of Laodicea, not as she professes, as we will see, 
 but as uncovered by Him "who searcheth the reins and 
 hearts." 
 
 "Because thou art lukewarm * * * I will 
 spew thee out. ' ' — They had ])een ' ' in Christ, ' ' and knew 
 His sufferings; but could not "watch" with Him one hour 
 of trial, much less three or four. A half century of earnest 
 brotherly love and missionary work gave way, for lack of 
 persistent, living, active faith in the Word of prophecy — 
 gave way before the strain of that faith-trial, — to this Lao- 
 dicean lukewarmness; so that after all those commendable 
 works alone could not avail. God is ready to spew His 
 professed people, as He did the Jews of old, out of His 
 mouth, as a nauseating draught of lukewarm water is re- 
 jected. Let the reader reflect that this is our condition, 
 and the period in which we are now living. In medieval 
 times Christianity was most antagonized by Chnrchianity, 
 
172 DIVINE KEY OP THE REVELATION. [parT II. 
 
 and Nicolaitan zeal for creeds. But in 
 New Fofs to these Laodicean days, new foes to genuine 
 True Religion, religion and consecration to God have 
 arisen and joined the Church: Fashion 
 and Popularity are the twin goddesses that sit in the mod- 
 ern Diana's seat; the latest fad in catchpenny amusements, 
 entertainments and feasts, desecrate places formally dedi- 
 cated to the worship of God; pulpit drolleries, wit, worldly 
 wisdom and eloquence mostly displace the poivcr of the 
 Gospel; and optimistic views, anecdotes, funny or other- 
 wise, and pathetic pictures answer largely for the Gospel 
 itself. Prayer-meetings are not sought after by the mem- 
 bership as the festivals are; and when attended, an amaz- 
 ing few take an active part in the worship of the former, 
 while the masses engage freely and zealously in the festivi- 
 ties of the latter. 
 
 " Because thou say est, I am rich, and increased 
 with goods, and have need of nothing." — No one 
 should think these are literal "riches" and "goods," of 
 which the Church is boasting: they are symbolic. The 
 "goods" and "talents" which Jesus left with the Church 
 (Matt. XXV. 14), instead, of gold and material wealth, were 
 the tntths of the Gospel, which He left with His servants, 
 as each possessed "ability" and zeal to teach them. By 
 "trading," as the parable has it, the one talent would in- 
 crease to two; the two to four, and the five to ten. So in 
 accepting and teaching the principles of the Gospel, they 
 will increase and expand to the comprehension, more and 
 more, according to use. But the Church of this luke- 
 warm period are satisfied with what the early Eeformers 
 dug out for them, and consider themselves, in their luke- 
 warmness, "rich and increased Avith goods"! when with a 
 proper love for truth and zeal for God, they would con- 
 stantly desire and increase, and would also receive more 
 
CHAP. XI.] TO THE CHURCH IN LAODICEA. I73 
 
 and more, according as they use it, and as it unfolds 
 through revelation. No true Christian will ever say, I 
 have enough of truth, "and have need of nothing." It is 
 as unnatural for a Christian to be satisfied with past attain- 
 ments, as for a worldly man to be satisfied with his past 
 gains. Satisfied professors are lukewarm indeed; and are, 
 without knowing it, — 
 
 "Wretched, and miserable, and poor, and 
 blind, and naked." — What an indictment for us, from 
 Heaven! How well it stands us in hand to examine our- 
 selves, as an apostle exhorts, whether we be in the faith; 
 to prove our own selves (2 Cor. xiii. 5). Many among the 
 multifarious teachers, and many forms among the multi- 
 form systems of faith, are wrong — all cannot be right. 
 Who is wrong? and what is wrong? are questions of mo- 
 ment for every individual of Laodicea to settle. And I 
 answer, emphatically, Rome is wrong, radically so, for God 
 is her accuser. And accordingly every system, and every 
 individual, that borrows in matters of faith from the doc- 
 trines of Jezebel, are wrong, and censurable with her; and 
 must "repent" with or without her, before any further 
 light will shine for them. 
 
 " I counsel thee to buy of ME gold, tried in the 
 fire, that thou may est be rich." — We have seen that 
 gold is a symbol of truth (p. 65). When "tried in the fire," 
 a metal is refined from dross and impurities. So God 
 would have Laodiceans, whose "riches" are not genuine, 
 tried and refined, even through the fire of persecution, and 
 loss of popularity; and at the expense of being counted by 
 men as "unorthodox," and "unevangelical," because hold- 
 ing in all things to the Word, without fear of men, or 
 favor from the traditions or creeds of men. Eich in pure 
 faith, unalloyed with tradition. This is the kind of riches 
 which God respects, and counsels us to obtain. 
 
174 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part II. 
 
 "And white raiment, that thou mayest be 
 clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do 
 not appear." — The white garments of righteousness have 
 ah-eady been noticed (p. 154). Xot to have the genuine 
 righteousness of Christ is to he unclothed in the sight of 
 God; for man has no natural righteousness. 
 
 "And anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that 
 thou mayest see." — Laodicea, then, is defective in her 
 own vision — spiritually and doctrinally. God charges it; 
 and "He who formed the eye, can He not see?" Her teach- 
 ing, i. e., the representative, "orthodox" teaching of this 
 age, is therefore defective: will the reader note this? 
 Anointing sjmibolizes the reception of the Holy Spirit as 
 a helper and teacher. (Comp. John xiv. 26, and 1 John ii. 
 20, 27.) Anointing the eyes, that is, the "eyes of the 
 understanding," will correct the misteaching of those who 
 have "that doctrine," which God denounces, and calls the 
 "depths of satan, as they speak," coming down to them 
 through the creeds of Pergamos and Thyatira. They of 
 this lukewarm condition, being satisfied with what they 
 have received from popular sources, because they do not 
 closely and independently scrutinize the Word, cannot 
 without this helpful anointing see the great present truths 
 that are more and more unfolding to this generation. 
 Their minds are filled and spiritually dwarfed with for- 
 mulations and traditions of the Dark Age 
 Facts Not Councils. That I am not misstating, but 
 
 Misstated. citing rccoguized facts to meet the plain 
 
 requirements of the prophecy, I will refer 
 any reader who fears or doubts, to quotations from such 
 credible authors as Edward Gibbon, "the greatest of English 
 historians," and the late Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D., author 
 of The Creeds of Christendom, History of the Christian 
 
CHAP. XI.] TO THE CHURCH IN I^AODICEA, 175 
 
 Church, Schaff-Hcrzog Encyclopedia, etc., and President 
 of the American Board of Bible Kevision, as already given 
 on page 107. The prophecy, being by the inspiration of 
 God, warrants the facts in history; and the history being 
 so well authenticated warrants the inspiration of the 
 prophecy. 
 
 What then should be done about this Jezebelitic 
 
 "doctrine" — this Roman Catholic, but so- 
 
 Tiie Popular called "or^/wrfo.r, Cliristology of our days?" 
 
 Error siionid j^y ^\\ meaus renoiincc it, as we repudiate 
 
 be Renounced. ^J-^g pQpg^ ^^-^^ l^is ^yifg^ JeZCbcl, herSClf. 
 
 Anoint our eyes that we may understand 
 the simple Bil)le doctrines concerning the nature of man 
 and the Son of man; that man is wholly mortal; that death 
 is the destruction of all present life and consciousness; 
 that the resurrection is the new birth into eternal life, 
 promised to all true Christians, at the last day (John vi. 
 37-54); that Christ, as the second Adam, had the human, 
 
 mortal nature during His earthly life — 
 christoiosy of "-^/ag niadc of the seed of David according 
 the Scriptures. ^^ fj^^ ^^^j^^ ^-^^ ^^s declared to be the 
 
 Son of God with power, according to^ the 
 spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead" (Rom. 
 i. 3, 4). That thus He was "the first born from the dead," 
 as regards the divine nature, through the power of the Holy 
 Spirit, at the beginning of the Gospel day (Acts xiii. 33), 
 and not long ages before the first Adam. 
 
 Or that, in His birth of woman, Jesus "was made a 
 little lower than the angels for the suffering of death" 
 (Heb. ii. 9). So that in that life. He was human in His 
 nature, and divine only in origin, character and mission; 
 while in His birth from death. He was "crowned with glory 
 and honor," even the divine nature, and "exalted" to (not 
 
176 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEIvATlON. [part ii. 
 
 reinstated in) the divine presence. So that, as regarded 
 His first, human or trial life, "He who sanctifieth, and they 
 who are sanctified, are all of one; for which cause He is not 
 ashamed to call them brethren. * * * Yov verily he 
 taketh not hold of angels, but of the seed of Abraham, He 
 taketh hold" {lb., margin, verses 11, 16). 
 
 Or that the Son of God, in His first life, was born of 
 a woman, born under the law (Gal. iv. 4), 
 Unity of tiie which decided His nature in that life; but 
 Son of God jjg ^^g begotten through the instrumen- 
 and Mary. ^^lity of the Holy Spirit, the "power of 
 
 the Highest" overshadowing His virgin 
 mother, which decided the divine character of His mission. 
 And that "therefore that Jwly thing that shall be born of 
 thee," said the angel of the Annunciation, "shall be called 
 the Son of God" (Luke i. 35). That He, this Son of God 
 and of Mary, "was twelve years old," only, (not twelve 
 thousand,) when He so astonished the doctors and lawyers 
 in the temple with His questions and answers (Luke ii. 
 42-47). That afterward He "increased in wisdom, and 
 stature, and in favor n'ith God and man" (ver. 40, 52). 
 That He "began to hh about thirty years of age" at the 
 time of His baptism {lb., iii. 21-23). And that with these 
 unequivocal statements of the Holy Spirit, must and do, 
 agree all other Bible assertions concerning the Son of God, 
 whether understood by Eomanist translators and correctly 
 rendered by them or not. To despise the prescribed eye- 
 salve is to despise the prescribing Physician: if not, why 
 not? 
 
 "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: 
 be zealous, therefore, and repent." — Oh, let not mis- 
 guided Laodicea persist in her former boast of spiritual 
 treasures, and need of nothing, disdain this reproof, — not 
 
CHAP. XI.] TO THK CHURCH IN LAODICKA. I77 
 
 mine, the Lord's, — and refuse to repent! If the Church 
 at large in our day is not "wretched, and miserable, and 
 poor, and blind, and naked," in her doctrinal standards, as 
 Jesus describes, where then, let me ask the "orthodox," is 
 the Laodicea of which He predicted such conditions? Was 
 He mistaken, or is she who falsely boasts of riches — of or- 
 thodoxy f "Her children," in every feature and lineament; 
 but like the Jews, are ever saying, "WE be not born of 
 fornication; WE have one father, even God!" But Errorists 
 are blinded by their own obstinacy, and seldom ever dis- 
 cover their errors without help — eye-salve — which they so 
 uniformly despise. Otherwise Eomanism, Mohammedan- 
 ism, heathenism, and all false isms could be cured by an 
 ujaprejudiced, comprehensive investigation of the Word of 
 God. 
 
 "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock." — 
 This is one of the frequently misused texts. It is often 
 taken, detached from the book and message in which it oc- 
 curs, as a general exhortation to sinners to open the doors 
 of their hearts to the Saviour, who is knocking for admit- 
 tance. This is an unquestioned truth that may be proved 
 from many pertinent texts, but it is an entire perversion of 
 this. This address is not to sinners, in the ordinary sense; 
 but to "the Church in Laodicea." To Philadelphia, it was, 
 "Behold, I come quickly;" to Laodicea, it is, "Behold, I 
 stand at the door, and knock." And it is only the luke- 
 
 warmness of the Church, that they do not 
 The Knockine f^^g^^ j-j^g knocking. The knock is the first 
 is tiie Signs of thing you expect, when your friend is at 
 the Advent. fp^g door. And a prompt opening of the 
 
 door is what your friend expects when he 
 knocks. This is a symbolic knocking, at a symbolic door. 
 
1 78 DIVINB KBY OF THE REVELATION. [part II. 
 
 It is the signs of the Advent, challenging the attention of a 
 liikeivarm church! 
 
 The disciples asked the Lord, on the Mount of Olives, 
 "What shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of 
 the world?" With other things that should occur in his- 
 tory, Jesus told them of the "Abomination of Desolation, 
 spoken of by Daniel the prophet," and of the great tribu- 
 lation that should accompany it — greater than had ever 
 been before, or ever should be again; (which occurred, as 
 we have seen, in the Thyatirian period;) of the false 
 Christs, and false prophets that should rise; of the darken- 
 ing of the sun and moon, and of the falling stars, and the 
 shaking of the powers of Heaven. At this point he said: 
 "Now learn a parable of the fig tree. Wlien his branch is 
 yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye knozv that summer 
 is nigh: so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, 
 know that it is near, even at the doors^' (Matt. xxiv. 33, 33). 
 Thus it is clear that the signs of the Advent constitute the 
 symbolic knocking that shows the Saviour "of the door'' of 
 Laodicea. Will she, even now, hear what the Spirit saith 
 unto her? Will she hear the knocking at her door? and 
 Avill she open the door ? Laodicea, listen to Jesus 
 now: — 
 
 "If any man hear My voice, and open the 
 door," — How shall this lukewarm church prepare herself 
 to hear Jesus' "voice? Jesus Himself has told us in Luke's 
 Gospel (ch. xii. 34^37); suppose we place the passage from 
 the Gospel and this in Revelation side by side before our 
 eyes, that we may see them together, and discover their 
 liarmony. It may prove the very anointing they 
 need; — 
 
CHAP. XI.] TO THE CHURCH IN LAODICEA. 
 
 179 
 
 Luke xii. 34-37. 
 
 Eev. iii. 20. 
 
 "Behold,! 
 stand at the door, 
 and knock; if any 
 man hear my 
 voice, and open 
 the door, I will 
 come in to him, 
 and sup with 
 him, and he with 
 Me." 
 
 "For where your treasure is, there 
 will your heart be also. 
 
 "Let your loins be girded about, 
 \i. e., wdth truth,] and your lights hurn- 
 ing; and ye yourselves like unto men 
 zvho zvait for their lord, when he will 
 return from the wedding; tJiat zvhen he 
 Cometh AND KNOCKETH, they may 
 open unto him immediately. 
 
 "Blessed are those servants, whom 
 the Lord when He cometh shall find 
 watching: verily I say unto you, that 
 He shall gird Himself, and make them 
 to sit down to meat, and will come 
 forth and serve them." 
 
 Cannot the Church of to-day instantly recognize the 
 identity of thought here, in the exhortation, requirement, 
 and promise of the two passages? Surely it is but a ques- 
 tion of candid attention; and only one verse further in 
 the Revelation and we reach the exhortation repeated in 
 every message. "He that hath an ear, let him hear what 
 the Spirit saith unto the churches." What is the promised 
 reward for love enough for the Master to respect His re- 
 quest, and watch for His return? It is to sup with Him, 
 i. e., spiritually, while He tarries personally; to feast in 
 delighted fellowship with Christ on the "present truth" 
 of prophecy concerning His personal return to earth, now 
 so near to be realized. 
 
 In the Gospel of Luke, the Lord continues as fol- 
 lows: "And if He shall come in the 
 second watch, or in the third watch, and 
 find them so, [f. e., watching,] blessed are 
 those servants. And this knozv, that if 
 the good man of the house had known 
 
 Watcliing, 
 a Duty 
 Imperative 
 
l8o divine; key of the REVEI,ATI0N. [part II. 
 
 what hour the thief would come, [by any premonitions such 
 as I have given you,~\ he would have watched, and not 
 have suffered his house to he broken through. Be ye there- 
 fore ready also; for the Son of man cometh at an hour 
 when ye think not." [I. e., of yourselves, intuitively, or 
 without watching the divine signals; for it is the Father's 
 intention to bring it upon the world — upon all disobedient 
 people, "evil servants," and unwilling watchers — "as a 
 snare," and "as a thief in the night."] 
 
 "Then said Peter unto Him, Lord, speakest Thou this 
 parable unto us, or even to all? And the Lord said. Who 
 then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall 
 make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of 
 meat in due season f (Ch. xii. 38-42.) 
 
 Who cannot see in this that the watching attitude is 
 the one that alone can please God, and prove love for 
 Jesus? The watches here, like the parable of the wise and 
 foolish virgins, and the tarrying bridegroom, show, if they 
 teach anything, repeated expectations on the part of the 
 virgins, and that it was so arranged, predicted, and in- 
 tended by God, as an "hour of temptation" or trial, "to 
 try" or test the love or the indifference of the whole world 
 for the return of His Son and their only Saviour to their 
 midst. Love and loyalty are proved by the watching, and 
 rewarded by the Master's blessing, which is represented 
 as sufficient to save them. 
 
 But let us continue the parallel quotations as each 
 goes on in its place: — 
 
 Luke xii. 43, 44. 
 
 "Blessed is that ser- 
 vant, whom his lord, when 
 He cometh, shall find so 
 doing [watching]. Of a 
 truth I say unto you, that 
 He ivill make him rider over 
 all that he hath." 
 
 Eev. iii. 21. 
 "To him that overcom- 
 eth will / give to sit with 
 Me in My throne, even as I 
 also overcame, and am set 
 down with My Father in 
 His throne." 
 
CHAP. XL] TO THB CHURCH IN I^AODICEA. l8l 
 
 This joint nilership is during all the last part of this 
 period, after the type of Joseph's ruling 
 In the Throne q^qj. ^H Egypt, "except Pharaoh in the 
 With Christ. throne." "Euler over all that he hath" 
 — all revealed truth! It is thought by most 
 people, and frequently observed — sometimes even from 
 the pulpit — that the whole of God's Word cannot be under- 
 stood by the Church, and even that it was never designed 
 to be! If the statement were no more than a bit of minis- 
 terial modesty, or an individual confession of partial un- 
 derstanding of the sixty-six books of God's great revelation 
 to the world, it would not be at all surprising; for every 
 student of the "Word must feel his own littleness, as he 
 wrestles with the many ^'things hard to be understood" in 
 the divine volume. But that is not the thought usually: 
 they mean that none in any age of the Church, nor all the 
 Church, could ever, nor were designed ever, to understand 
 it all. This is truly a remarkable position for men of piety 
 and faith to assume. It really impeaches the candor of the 
 Word, if not the very wisdom and love of God, if He were 
 thus to trifle with the Church — commanding diligent 
 study and meditation upon what is absolutely beyond 
 human power to comprehend! Of course no one can un- 
 derstand it without sufficient study. But "all Scripture, 
 given by inspiration of God, is profitable for doctrine, for 
 reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 
 that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished 
 unto all good works (2 Tim. iii. 16). "Knowing this first, 
 that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private inter- 
 pretation" (2 Peter i. 20). One Scripture must interpret 
 another. How could any Scripture passage be profitable 
 that is not understood by anybody in the Church? It de- 
 pends wholly on how much proper study has been given to 
 the Word, spirit and letter, how much understanding there 
 
1 82 DIVINE ke;y of the revei,ation. part . 
 
 is in the Church, or how much profit to the individual. 
 There is the express promise of Jesus before us, to any 
 servant who uses well what he has received, in giving 
 "meat in due season" to others, that "He will make him 
 ruler over ALL that He hathf that He will give him throne 
 fellowship, like His own throne fellowship with God. This 
 is a restoration of the Ephesian power of loosing and bind- 
 ing, which means, evidently, (as stated in loco,) condemna- 
 tion for rejecting a plainly delivered message of truth, or 
 justification through a ready acceptation of the same. 
 (Matt. xvi. 19; xviii. 18.) In all history, men have strangely 
 despised and rejected judgment messages to their own swift 
 condemnation. Notably was it so with Noah's message, 
 Lot's, Jeremiah's, the Baptist's, and even that of our Lord 
 Himself. It is sad to contemplate, but Jesus' word for it, 
 this oft-repeated history will repeat again in connection 
 with Laodicea. Only overcomers can escape it. 
 
 Many suppose that the sharing of Jesus' throne is 
 
 a promise of future or final reward with 
 A Present Christ in the everlasting kingdom. But 
 
 Entbronement. ^j^jg cannot be, siucc these promises are 
 
 local, relating to conditions of the Church 
 in time, and not to eternity. The eternal rewards are one 
 thing to all people in all times; while the rewards to the 
 
 overcomers of these several churches are 
 Meichisedec different in each case. Besides Jesus' 
 Reisrn Limited, throuc and kingdom (as specifically His) 
 
 do not comprehend eternity, but time 
 only. Jesus is of the Melchisedec order — priest-king. His 
 reign is peculiar in that it is subjective under the Father, 
 as was David's through whom He heired it; mediatorial 
 like Melchisedec's, and therefore limited to the age of 
 mercy. There will be nothing to mediate in eternity. 
 When He leaves the mediatorial o^ce, He "delivers up the 
 
CHAP. XI.] TO THE CHURCH IN LAODICKA. 183 
 
 kingdom" to the Father, Paul expressly tells us, Himself 
 thereafter to be again "subject" to Him, " that God may 
 be ALL IN all" (1 Cor. xv. 24-28). Then, under the an- 
 swered prayer of our Lord, the perfected kingdom of God 
 will have come, and God's will will be done as universally 
 and perfectly in earth, as it is now done by all the celestial 
 hosts in Heaven. 
 
 Thus we have passed over the seven great eras of 
 checkered Gospel history. How diversi- 
 concinsion. gg^j j^^ j^^s been; but how perfectly have 
 all the predicting symbols found answer 
 in events and conditions that have overtaken the Church. 
 Who that has given ear to what the Spirit said unto these 
 several eras, can doubt the divine authorship of the Kevela- 
 tion? And who that gives ear to the last of the series 
 of messages, cannot recognize the picture drawn of our own 
 times? and does not feel the chilling shadows of impend- 
 ing Judgment hanging over lukewarm Laodicea? If the 
 "Amen" is about to say, "It is finished," once 
 again, ought not every sinner to be warned of the certain 
 consequences of careless or willful delay? While the gates 
 of the "city of refuge" are still unbarred, why not flee as 
 a fugitive from "wrath to come?" And should not every 
 Christian be encouraged at the prospect of beholding, on 
 this side of death, the King in His beauty, and in His 
 glory? Soon, soon, will the weariness, the longing, the 
 anxieties, the perplexities of his waiting and watching 
 close, and the gates of eternal life and glory open wide and 
 forever unto him. 
 
 "Behold, I come quickly." "Behold, I stand at the 
 door." Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! 
 
PART THIRD. 
 
 A VISION OF THE EESTOEED KINGDOM OF 
 ISEAEL. 
 
 CHEIST IN THE THRONE WITH GOD— THE CHUECH IN 
 THE THRONE WITH CHRIST. 
 
 "Co7ne up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter." 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 SYMBOLIC ORGANIZATION OF THE GOSPEL 
 (DA VIDIAN) KINGDOM. 
 
 A CENTRAL THRONE SURROUNDED BY TWENTY-FOUR 
 OTHERS— ALL ,WITH CROWNED OCCUPANTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE LION-LAMB AND THE SEVEN-SEALED 
 BOOK. 
 
 NO MAN ON EARTH, NOR ANGEL IN HEAVEN, COULD 
 
 BREAK THE SEALS— THE LAMB PREVAILS, 
 
 AND THE ELDERS AND LIVING 
 
 CREATURES REJOICE. 
 
PART THIRD. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 SYMBOLIC ORGANIZATION OF THE GOSPEL 
 (DAVIDIAN) KINGDOM. 
 
 A CENTRAL THRONE SURROUNDED BY TWENTY-FOUR 
 OTHERS — ALL WITH CROWNED OCCUPANTS. 
 
 Text, Chapter iv. 1-11. 
 
 T. After this I looked, and, behold, a door zfflx opened in heaven 
 and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking 
 with me ; which said. Come up hither, and I will show thee things 
 which must be hereafter. 
 
 2. And immediately I was in the Spirit : and, behold, a throne 
 was set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. 
 
 3. And He that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine 
 stone : and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight 
 like unto an emerald. 
 
 4. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats : 
 and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in 
 white raiment ; and they had on their heads crowns of gold. 
 
 5. And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings 
 and voices : and ihere were seven lamps of fire burning before the 
 throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. 
 
 6. And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto 
 crystal : and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, 
 were four {^zoa) living creatures full of eyes before and behind. 
 
 185 
 
1 86 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEI.ATION. [parT III. 
 
 7. And the first living creature was like a lion, and the second 
 living creature like a calf, and the third living creature had a face 
 as a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. 
 
 8. And the four living creatures had each of them six wings 
 about him ; and they zvere full of eyes within : and they rest not 
 day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who 
 was, and is, and is to come. 
 
 9. And when those living creatures give glory and honor and 
 thanks to Him that sat on the throne. Who liveth for ever and ever. 
 
 ID. The four and twenty elders fall down before Him that sat 
 on the throne, and worship Him that liveth for ever and ever, and 
 cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 
 
 II. Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and 
 power : for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they 
 are and were created. 
 
 WE now approach another very interesting serial 
 prophecy, comprising five chapters of the Eeve- 
 lation — IV., v., vi., vii. and x. The first two of 
 these chapters are introductory to the others, which give 
 the opening of the seven seals, and are among the most 
 important chapters for careful study, in view of the har- 
 monies that we must find both in the entire book, and 
 with all other prophecy, even at the loss, if need be, of 
 some popular but inharmonious views. It brings to view 
 the reorganization, und&r Jesus, its rightful heir, of the 
 old overturned Davidian kingdom (see pages 157-9). Will 
 the Millennialist reader kindly fortify himself, or herself, 
 against any possible prejudice that may be in the mind for 
 some already formulated view, while we read and reason 
 upon these introductory chapters? Truth only will ever 
 be found to harmonize with itself in all parts of divine 
 revelation. 
 
 "After this." — After the vision of the seven golden 
 candlesticks, with Jesus in the midst of them. 
 
 "A door was opened in Heaven." — A door of 
 vision like Paul's symbolic "door of utterance^' (Col. iv. 3), 
 not a door of personal entrance, since the Heaven into 
 
CHAP, xii.] A VISION OP the; kingdom. 187 
 
 which it opens is itself a symbol of the "kingdom of 
 Heaven," as used in the Gospels. It is true a door of vision 
 was opened into the literal Heaven to the dying martyr 
 Stephen; but that was a real and not a symbolic vision, and 
 was to encourage that saint with an actual vision of the 
 exaltation of his Lord, for which faith he was yielding up 
 his life. No person except the high priest, clothed in his 
 official robes "for glory and for beauty," and he but once 
 a year, could ever enter the typical "holy of holies;" nor 
 therefore can any one except Christ only, the antitypical 
 high priest, enter the antitypical holy of holies, that is. 
 Heaven. But John was freely invited to enter this door, 
 opened into the symbolic Heaven, or "kingdom of Heaven." 
 Again, in chapter xi. 15, we read that at the sound of the 
 seventh trumpet, "there were great voices m Heaven say- 
 ing. The kingdom of the world has become our Lord's 
 and His Christ's, and He shall reign for the ages of the 
 ages." (Emph. Diag. and Revis.) The world and kingdom 
 here mentioned is evidently "this" world {kosmoii, order, 
 arrangement of things), and the "kingdom of Heaven" 
 which Jesus and the apostles preached, and under which 
 
 we are living. Thus we may determine 
 Proofs of jj^ q]^\ cases where the word is used, what 
 
 Symbolism. Hcavcu is meant. In chapter xii. 7, we 
 
 read, "And there was war in Heaven: 
 Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the 
 dragon fought and his angels." Now it is simply prepos- 
 terous to think of this as the Heaven where God resides 
 — of dragons and war in the actual presence of the Al- 
 mighty. The Heaven of Heavens where God dwells will 
 never be turned into a gladiatorium for the exhibition of 
 angelic and dragonic prowess in deadly battle. But such 
 characters and such strife are found in the kingdom of 
 Heaven, here in the earth. Another instance is found in 
 
1 88 DIVINB KEY OP THE REVEI^ATION. [pART HI. 
 
 chapter xix. 11, 14, where Christ is seen in Heaven on 
 horseback, making war and followed by armies on horse- 
 back, "in Heaven!" We are warned by these things that 
 there is no safety in Eevelation outside the S3rmbolic rule; 
 and we are forced to understand that the Kevelator's 
 "Heaven'^ is identical with the "kingdom of Heaven" in 
 literal references. 
 
 "And the first voice which I heard was as it 
 were of a trumpet." — Loud, distinct, definite, intel- 
 ligible. Every voice and message in the Revelation is of 
 this character, showing the design to be understood — to 
 give a revelation. 
 
 "Which said, come up hither." — There was a 
 mental effort for John to put forth, in order to be in har- 
 mony and touch with the revelation to be made. And thus 
 is the attention, sympathy and desire of the reader also 
 challenged, and each one who would have the knowledge 
 must come up at the call of the trumpet to this Heavenly 
 plain with John, by an effort of the mind to grasp the. 
 offered information. 
 
 "And I will show you things which must be 
 hereafter." — Show them beforehand ; since all can see 
 them equally well, without supernatural showing, when 
 they become history. 
 
 "And immediately I was in the Spirit."— John 
 was evidently filled with the Spirit expressly for the pur- 
 pose of receiving the vision; but it is equally evident that 
 he was previously in the condition of mind that Jesus 
 taught all to be in (Luke xii. 36), watching, ready to open 
 immediately to the Master at His knock — ready at the call 
 to receive the Spirit and any message it might bring. By 
 meditation and study along prophetic lines — past fulfill- 
 ments and present and future prospects — every individual 
 Christian may be ready in a degree like John at any time 
 to receive the light that is constantly developing. 
 
CHAP. XII.] A VISION OF THE KINGDOM. 1 89 
 
 "And, behold, a throne was set in Heaven, 
 and One sat on the throne." — In what Heaven is this 
 
 scene pictured? is an important question. And the reader 
 will see that it is quite as important that we have some 
 rule whereby we may confidently locate the scene, as 
 whereby to interpret it. If ''Heaven" here, as in all other 
 places, does not symbolize the "kingdom of Heaven" that 
 John the Baptist, Jesus, the twelve apostles and the 
 seventy commissioned disciples, preached (Luke ix. 1-11; 
 X. 1-11), then let any futurist dissenter produce another 
 that will harmonize the various references. The experi- 
 ment may open eyes that otherwise will remain closed to 
 beautiful truths and harmonies concerning the reign of 
 
 David's Son. A throne symbolizes a king- 
 symbois of a (Jom, and with one enthroned upon it, an 
 Real Kingdom, actual, present reign. No other logical 
 
 conclusion can be drawn from this lan- 
 guage. Let the reader observe closely, and determine to 
 his own satisfaction, if any Scriptural qualifications can 
 be found that can possibly defer this kingdom and reign to 
 any other than the Gospel age. 
 
 "And He that sat was to look upon like a 
 jasper and a sardine stone ; and there was a rain- 
 bow round about the throne." — The personage here 
 described is explained in verse 8 to be the "Lord God Al- 
 mighty," in verse 11 to have created all things. Jesus is 
 not described or mentioned in this chapter, but is the chief 
 character in the next. 
 
 The precious stones mentioned are among the beauti- 
 ful gems that composed the high priest's breastplate, the 
 foundations of the walls of the Heavenly city, and called 
 (Eze. xxviii. 13, 14) "the stones of fire:" they are the most 
 precious of earth's gems, and the strongest symbols in time 
 and mortality of the glorious Personage enthroned in the 
 vision. The accompanying rainbow is a type of the Cove- 
 
igo divine; key of the re;ve;i.ation. [partiii. 
 
 nant of the age symbolized, therefore the New or Gospel 
 Covenant, as it was originally the "token" of the ISToachian 
 covenant at the time of the deluge (Gen. ix. 12-15). 
 
 "And round about the throne were four and 
 twenty thrones." — The original word thronos is twice 
 nsed here, and shonld not be rendered "seats," as in our 
 version, in the case of the surrounding thrones any more 
 than of the central throne. Our translators seemed to 
 think that the grandeur of the central throne would be en- 
 hanced if the surrounded thrones were diminished to seats, 
 merely; but they did not comprehend the scene, and took 
 a very unwarranted liberty with the divine terms. 
 
 "Twenty-four elders sitting * * * on their 
 heads crowns of gold." — This symbolism — a grand 
 central throne, surrounded by twenty-four other thrones, 
 all occupied, and the occupants crowned with golden 
 crowns — can possibly signify but one thing, namely, an 
 associated kingdom or reign. And this is just what we 
 have in the Gospel age — "The kingdom of Heaven" estab- 
 lished in the earth, as Jesus preached it. He said, "If I 
 cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of 
 God is come unto you" (Matt. xii. 28). And again, "I ap- 
 point unto you a kingdom, as My Father hath appointed 
 unto Me; that ye may eat and drink at My table in My 
 kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of 
 Israel" (Luke xxii. 29, 30). It is doubtful if any clearer 
 harmony can be found in Bible study than is here ex- 
 hibited. As God delegated power to Christ with Himself 
 in His kingdom, so Christ at the same time delegated to 
 the symbolic elders, (which I will show symbolize the 
 apostles) some of the same power with Himself. Christ in 
 the throne of power with God, and the Apostles in the 
 throne of power with Christ. To delay the Apostolic 
 thrones to the "age-to-come" or "millennium" is to deny 
 
CHAP. XII.] A VISION OF THE KINGDOM. I9I 
 
 the Lord's table to the Gospel age, and place that also in 
 the age-to-eome. 
 
 Should the reader question the exercise of regal power 
 by the apostles, let him consider the royalty of Christian 
 priesthood (1 Peter ii. 9); the reign of 1 Cor. iv. 8, 9; the 
 contrastive significance of the terms "speech" and "power" 
 of verses 19, 20, the "rod" of verse 31; the ^'judgment" of 
 Paul in verse 3 of the succeeding chapter; the delivering 
 over to the adversary of the unruly brother for the destruc- 
 tion of the flesh, and the phrase, "with the power of Christ," 
 of verses 4, 5, and the judgment "without" and "within" 
 (the kingdom mentioned in verses 19, 20 of chapter iv.) of 
 verses 12 and 13. 
 
 As to the twenty-four thrones in the symbol represent- 
 ing but twelve in fact, the reader will no- 
 '^^^ tice that in this age both the ancient houses 
 
 Twenty-four ^f jg^ael^ the 'Hwo sticks" of Ezekiel's 
 Crowned prophccy (ch. xxxvii. 16, 22, 24-28), have 
 
 Elders. bocomo One in the prophet's hand. This 
 
 dual-one-ness was originally signified in 
 the courses of the priesthood which were not twelve only, 
 but twenty-four in number, indicating the succession or 
 addition of the spiritual to the literal tribes; in the two 
 tables of stone that, being broken by Moses, were replaced 
 by another pair; in the tzvo cherubim on the mercy-seat in 
 the tabernacle and temple: one for the old dispensation or 
 house looking forivard to the coming of Messiah, the other 
 for the Gospel dispensation or house looking backzvard to 
 the work of Christ; and in the shewbread on the priest's 
 table, which was baked in twelve loaves to represent twelve 
 tribes, but was arranged always in tzvo rows to represent 
 two dispensations — the spiritual or "Lord's table" also, 
 which should succeed that of Moses, 
 
192 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [ PART III. 
 
 "And out of the throne proceeded hghtnings, 
 thunderings, voices."— Lightning, in leaping from cloud 
 to cloud, separates the atmosphere like a cannon ball plow- 
 ing through the water, leaving, for the instant, a vacuum 
 behind. The thunder and voices is the concussion of the 
 separated elements in refilling the vacuum. This aptly 
 illustrates the division among men which the Gospel king- 
 dom causes, and the discussion and contention which im- 
 mediately results. Jesus frankly told His followers that 
 the results of His work would not bring them peace in the 
 world, but division. "But in Me," He said, "ye shall have 
 peace." "For from henceforth there shall be five in one 
 house divided, three against two, and two against three. 
 The father shall be divided against the son, and the son 
 against the father; the daughter against the mother," etc. 
 (Luke xii. 51-53). When the truth concerning the Gospel 
 and kingdom of Christ comes to a community, some gladly 
 receive the Word; others reject it with scorn: then comes 
 the "voices" and contention. This kingdom or Gospel of 
 Christ has entered the world as an organized force; and 
 those who receive it have peace within in believing, but 
 tribulation in the world. The lightning and voices pro- 
 ceed from the throne — the power of Christ, the Light, 
 through His people, is pitted against the "powers of dark- 
 ness" that reign in the world (Eph. vi. 11-13). 
 
 "And there were seven lamps of fire burning 
 before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of 
 God." — The seven stars, seven angels, seven lamps of fire 
 and seven spirits are the same in office. They symbolize the 
 dispensational agencies which God uses to enlighten the 
 Church in so many "present truths" during the Gospel age. 
 The candlesticks, we have seen, on the contrary, represent 
 the dispensational churches for enlightening the world; 
 these other seven therefore, like the ancient priests, attend 
 to the candlesticks to keep them in burning order. They 
 
CHAP. XII.] A VISION OF THE KINGDOM. I93 
 
 are before the thrme — subject to and directed by the power 
 enthroned. 
 
 "And before the throne a sea of glass hke unto 
 crystal." — This sea of glass is the antitype of Moses' 
 "brazen laver," "brazen sea/' or "molten sea," as it was 
 variously called, which was made of the beautiful brazen 
 mirrors of the women of the congregation, who contributed 
 them for the purpose on account of the great proportions 
 designed for it: it being much the largest article of fur- 
 niture in all the sanctuary service. Its base was the backs 
 of twelve molten oxen, typical of the twelve tribes; and its 
 contents an immense supply of pure water, typical of the 
 abundant grace for Israel's pardon or the abundant means 
 at their disposal for securing it. The laver was placed 
 between the door of the sanctuary and the altar of sacri- 
 fice, for the convenience of the priest's washings. For they 
 must wash hands and feet in its pure water, whenever they 
 ministered before the Lord, "that they die not." This was 
 a "statute forever to them, throughout their generations." 
 (See Ex. xxx. 17-21; xxxviii. 8; 1 Kings vii. 23-26.) It is 
 clear that this was figurative of their cleansing through 
 the "righteousness of the law," and typical of ours through 
 the "obedience of faith." (Deut. vi. 24; Eomans x. 4-9.) 
 It was a visible symbol to the Israelite, as the Jordan and 
 baptism is to the Christian, of necessary cleansing and 
 purity in order to any communion, peace or fellowship with 
 God. 
 
 Thus the sea of glass represents righteousness, or a 
 cleansed condition before God. It is before the throne as 
 the molten sea was before the door of the sanctuary where- 
 in was the Davidian throne. (See Ex. xv. 17, 18; Isa. xvi. 
 5; vi. 1; Psa. Ixviii. 24; xcix. 1-4 ; Jer. xvii. 12; Eze. xxxvii. 
 24-28; xliii. 7; Zech. vi. 13.) Israel was baptized (eis) unto 
 Moses (1 Cor. x. 2) as we are baptized (eis) unto Christ 
 
194 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [parT III. 
 
 (Eomans. vi. 3) — made ''clean through the Word,'' i. e., 
 through faith in and obedience to, the Word of Jesus (John 
 XV. 3). The Word of Jesus was epitomized to the nations 
 in the great Commission (Matt, xxviii. 19, 20). For as 
 there were forms under the law, so there are under the 
 Gospel. Said the great Apostle, "Ye have obeyed from the 
 heart that form of doctrine that was delivered you. Being 
 then made free from sin, ye became the servants of right- 
 eousness" (Eom. vi. 17, 18). 
 
 "In the midst * and round about the throne 
 were four living creatures full of eyes before and 
 behind." — Not "beasts," as in the common version, but 
 (Gr. Zoa) "living creatures." (Emph. Diag. and Revis.) 
 That they represent the Church is determined by their 
 constant adoration; since "they rest not day and night, say- 
 ing, "Holy, holy, holy. Lord God Almighty, who was, and 
 is, and is to come." Each has six wings, which symbolize 
 the Heavenly agency of the Church. It was to signify 
 Heavenly service that the cherubim in the tabernacle and 
 temple were represented with wings, not that literal angels 
 have or need wings, but because they pass through the at- 
 mosphere from Heaven to earth as if by wings, and in a 
 figure are said to Uy. Aid throughout the Kew Testament, 
 the Church is characterized as the "kingdom of Heaven" 
 or "of God," harmonizing with the symbols of wings and 
 flight in its "angels" or agencies. Being filled with eyes 
 signifies that the true Church is full of light. "The light 
 of the body is the eye" (Matt. vi. 22). Eyes before signi- 
 fies power to look forward prophetically ; eyes behind, power 
 to appropriate the lessons of history; within, to discover 
 native sinfulness, and need of Christ. The principal char- 
 acteristics of the four living creatures apply to the Church 
 as a body, in the first four divisions, severally, in a remark- 
 able manner, as will appear. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE LION-LAMB AND THE SEVEN-SEALED 
 BOOK. 
 
 NO MAN ON EARTH, NOR ANGEL IN HEAVEN, COULD BREAK 
 
 THE SEALS THE LAMB PREVAILS, AND THE 
 
 ELDERS AND LIVING CREATURES REJOICE. 
 
 Text, Chapter v. 1-14. 
 
 1. And I saw in the right hand of Him that sat on the throne 
 a book written within and on the back side, sealed with seven seals. 
 
 2. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, 
 Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? 
 
 3. And no man in Heaven, nor in earth, neither under the 
 earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. 
 
 4. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to 
 open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. 
 
 5. And one of the elders saith unto me. Weep not : behold, 
 the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed 
 to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. 
 
 6. And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the 
 four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb 
 as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are 
 the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. 
 
 7. And He came and took the book out of the right hand of 
 Him that sat upon the throne. 
 
 8. And when He had taken the book, the four living creatures 
 and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having 
 every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odors, which are 
 the prayers of saints. 
 
 9. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take 
 the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and 
 hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and 
 tongue, and people, and nation ; 
 
 195 
 
196 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [PART III. 
 
 10. And hast made us unto our God kings and priests : and we 
 shall reign on the earth. 
 
 11. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round 
 about the throne, and the living creatures, and the elders : and the 
 number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thou- 
 sands of thousands ; 
 
 12. Saying with a loud voice. Worthy is the Lamb that was 
 slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and 
 honor, and glory, and blessing. 
 
 13. And every creature that is in Heaven, and on the earth, and 
 under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, 
 heard I saying. Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto 
 Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and 
 ever. 
 
 14. And the four living creatures said. Amen. And the four 
 and twenty elders fell down and worshipped Him that liveth for 
 ever and ever. 
 
 ANCIENT books were scrolls, or rolls of parchment, 
 made of prepared skins. There were seven of 
 ^ these skins on which the seven messages to the 
 churches were written. The first skin was usually rolled 
 on a piece of wood; and the rest followed one upon another. 
 In this case, as each was rolled on it was sealed with wax. 
 The breaking of a seal therefore would loosen but one 
 parchment sheet, and reveal but one message. But being 
 written on the "backside" as well as the inside, a portion 
 of each would be exposed and unsealed as the outer seals 
 were removed, and then readable at any time. Prophecy 
 was never wholly sealed; some portions were always open 
 to the understanding; and how beautifully 
 'The symbolized here. Can we identify the 
 
 Sealed Book ^losed book in the hand of God? The 
 Identified. Q^jy sealed book of which we have any 
 
 account is that w^hich contains the last or 
 fourth vision of the Prophet Daniel (chapters x., xi., xii.). 
 Daniel was told to "shut up the zvords, and seal the book, 
 even to the time of the end" — not the end of time. And 
 
CHAP. XIII.] THE LAMB AND THE SKAI^ED BOOK. 1 97 
 
 again: "The words are closed up and sealed till the time 
 of the end" (ch. xii. 4, 9). This book must be unsealed 
 and opened by the divine hand which closed it up, before 
 it can be read by men. And since God both gave that 
 wonderful vision to Daniel, and sealed it, the book is there- 
 fore figuratively in the hand, or within the power, only of 
 Him who sat upon the throne. 
 
 "And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with 
 a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, 
 and to loose the seals thereof? " — The strength here 
 symbolized evidently is spiritual. The question is not an 
 impertinent one, but a difficult one, requiring power and- 
 exercise of thought, is the clear inference of the proclama- 
 tion. For it was a loud, frank inquiry, by a Heavenly 
 agent, intended to arouse attention. Why will not all, 
 who regard Christ at all, notice these things in His reve- 
 lation, and regard the words of the Spirit? This strong 
 angel shows a commendable and typical interest in the 
 book; and so ought we to emulate His noble example. 
 
 "And no man." — Greek, oudet's, no one : So the 
 Emphatic Diaglott and the Revision; then not even the 
 angels, nor Christ, as we shall see. 
 
 "In Heaven, nor in earth, neither under the 
 earth, was able to open the book, neither to look 
 thereon." — God is in sole possession of the book, and of 
 the knowledge it contains. But when was this? — that no 
 one in Heaven or earth possessed the sealed knowledge 
 but God? It was when Jesus was on the earth with the 
 Church. Let the reader recall the circumstances. It was 
 after Jesus' sermon in the temple (Luke xxl.), in which 
 He had spoken of the end of time, and of His coming at 
 the last day. The disciples the following evening, on the 
 Mount of Olives, asked Him, saying, "Tell us, when shall 
 these things be? and what shall be the sign of Thy coming. 
 
198 DIVINE KKY OF THE RBVEI.ATION. [part III. 
 
 and of the end of the world {aionos, age — Matt. xxiv. 3). 
 Jesus promptly answered them, giving them a list of gen- 
 eral signs to be carefully watched for, and declaring that 
 they were sufficient to determine for them when His com- 
 ing would be imminent — in His own words, "at the doorf' 
 and as certainly so as the budding fig-trees would prove 
 that summer is nigh. "But of that day and hour/' said 
 Jesus, "knoweth no man, no, not the angels of Heaven, 
 [neither the Son — Mark adds,] but My Father only" (verse 
 36). That was not saying that they should never know 
 anything definitely concerning it, by any means; but that 
 it was at that time ("knoweth" being of the present tense) 
 sealed up in the hand of the Father only; and only to be 
 revealed by signs on God's part, and watchfulness on the 
 part of the Church. 
 
 "And I wept much, because no one was found 
 worthy to open and to read the book, neither to 
 look thereon." — John was "in the Spirit " in a remark- 
 able manner, and all his words and acts are suggested by 
 the Spirit, and they reveal typically what words, acts and 
 feelings in the Chnrcl\ would be approved by the Holy 
 Spirit. And we are told that even the angels desire to 
 look into these precious items of sealed knowledge (1 Peter 
 i. 11, 12). So here is a spiritual thermometer by which 
 the reader may test the warmth or coldness of his feelings 
 toward Christ. Nine case out of ten, dear reader, the sen- 
 sitive mercury of the Lord's thermometer stands at "luke- 
 warm" — many degrees below your own estimate of your 
 spiritual temperature — a degree nauseating to Christ, and 
 indicative of the perilousncss of our times (2 Tim. iii. 1-7). 
 For we are living in Laodicea, as God gauges us, an age of 
 lukewarmness and indifference, yet flattering itself, even 
 boasting, of its spiritual wealth, and all-rightness for the 
 kingdom. It was not so with John, with Ephesus nor 
 
CHAP.xni.] THE I^AMB AND THB Si^AI^ED BOOK. 199 
 
 Philadelphia. There was an earnest desire to know from 
 the sealed book its promised revelation: I call to wit- 
 ness in modern history the efforts of the Clmrch — at least 
 of the five wise virgins — even prematurely to penetrate 
 beneath those inviting but testing seals of prophecy, just 
 as the parable described, with the full approval of Heaven, 
 while the foolish, indifferent virgins were fatally disap- 
 proved. John in our text had the earnest prophetic desire, 
 even to weeping. If the reader has none of this feeling, 
 he may well be alarmed at his lukewarmness, and should 
 earnestly seek this fruit of the Spirit. 
 
 "And one of the elders said unto me, Weep 
 not; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the 
 Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, 
 and to loose the seven seals thereof." — John is 
 consoled. Christ appears upon the scene — as He will in 
 answer to every other like prayer — and prevails. This is 
 Jesus' first appearance in this symbolic view of the kingdom 
 of Heaven. He is the Eevealer! — the "Light of the World!" 
 and appears in an opportune time, when all others in 
 Heaven and earth had failed. When did our Lord prevail 
 to reach this office and "power?" When He walked the 
 earth in sorrowful obedience, and departed to the "far 
 country" of the parable — "the enemy's land" — deathland, 
 God-forsaken and alone. When He returned on the third 
 day, triumphantly and gloriously with the ''keys of death 
 and hades," with the "key of David," and with many 
 crowns and rewards of righteousness, as will now appear. 
 
 "And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the 
 throne and of the four living creatures, and in the 
 midst of the elders, stood a lamb as it had been 
 slain, having Seven Horns and Seven Eyes, 
 which are the Seven Spirits of God sent forth 
 into all the earth." — Here Jesus, "the Lamb of 
 
200 DIVINE Z^Y OP THE RKVEI^ATION. [pART III. 
 
 God/' is put in His proper place in this most apt and beau- 
 tiful symbolism of the ''kingdom of Heaven." He is in the 
 midst of the throne of the Eternal, of the four glory-giving 
 living creatures, and the twenty-four royally enrobed, en- 
 crowned, enthroned, yet worshiping elders. And all this 
 glory is rightfully His. Surely, He zuas the "King of the 
 Jews," as Pilate's superscription over His cross, in Hebrew, 
 Greek and Latin, said; He was the "King of Israel," as 
 Natlianiel exclaimed; as the great concourse of gathered 
 Israelites proclaimed with their hosannahs, when He rode 
 to the last Passover feast on the prophetic and untamed 
 colt; and as Peter boldly asserted on the day of Pentecost, 
 and as Paul unwaveringly affirmed at Antioch and main- 
 tained at Eome. And now He is the "King of Glory:" 
 the "everlasting doors" opened to Him who had prevailed, 
 and He went in and took the antitypical "castle of Zion," 
 the "holy hill" — where is building the "city of David" 
 again — "Jerusalem which is above," and which "is the 
 mother of us all," as the Apostle says, and as even David 
 exults in Messianic Psalm (xxiv). 
 
 The seven horns of the Lamb are the seven age-divi- 
 sions of His Church with which He has shared His 
 "power," and to which He has distributed the crowns and 
 thrones of promise; for horns like heads upon a symbolic 
 beast always represent so many divisions of the original 
 kingdom; (see Dan. vii. 34; viii. 30-22, and Eev. xvii. 13;) 
 and no exception to this rule can be logically or reasonably 
 pleaded here, since in this grand symbolism of the "king- 
 dom of Heaven," as an associated reign, is the only place 
 in Scripture where the "Lamb of God" is described with 
 "horns." These seven horns and eyes are the "seven Spirits 
 of God," that is, His divine power, and light or truth, run- 
 ning through the seven Messianic ages. 
 
CHAP. XIII.] THE I^AMB AND THE SEAI^ED BOOK. 201 
 
 "And He came and took the book out of the 
 right hand of Him that sat upon the throne."- 
 
 Jesus has "prevailed/' and as He said, "All things that the 
 Father hath are Mine" (John xvi. 15), He had the right 
 and the power with God to take that which He had pre- 
 vailed to make His own; and the "sealed book is hence- 
 forth in the hand, that is, within the power, of Christ. 
 
 I trust every reader feels an inspiration of gladness 
 and song at this prophetic acquisition of our Lord. And 
 let us sing it out: — 
 
 "Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, 
 Blessed be the name of the Lord." 
 
 This is the "Revelation of Jesus Christ, which 
 God gave unto Him to shew unto His Ser- 
 The Unseal ingr vANTS thiugs zvMch nuist shovtly come to 
 of the Book Is pQ^^^" ag -^g gj^ai][ presently see. Imme- 
 the Revelation, (jiately on Jcsus' rcccption of the book, 
 the living creatures and the twenty-four 
 elders fell down before the Lamb with harps and incense, 
 and the New Song of worthiness and praise to the Lamb 
 in taking the book with a view to the opening of its seals 
 to the Church. And thus they typify to us the proper 
 respect to be paid the revelation, and teach us the proper 
 attitude of the Church toward it. K the conscience of the 
 reader is quick, and the heart tender with love to Christ, 
 let me ask here if there is no need in his or her individual 
 case of changing the attitude he or she has held toward 
 prophecy before the world, as before God, up to this time? 
 And I will further suggest to the conscience of such an one 
 the question. What have I done to know more of it myself, 
 and that others may know more of it, to the honor of 
 Christ, and to the Glory of God? If these questions are 
 properly considered they may be of infinite value to some. 
 
202 
 
 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVElvATlON. [parT III. 
 
 The New Song continues: — 
 
 "And hast made us unto our God kings and 
 priests; and we shall REIGN on the earth."— This 
 was said at the reception of the hook hy the Lamb, and 
 before any of the seals were removed — at or immediately 
 after the ascension of Jesus; and harmonizes with previous 
 quotations, showing the then present, joint reign of the 
 Apostles with Christ. For they could not have been 
 crowned and made kings and priests 3,000 years before 
 there was an organized kingdom in wEich to reign. This 
 reign extends in a measure to the whole Church who are 
 reckoned kings and priests, or as Peter expresses it, "a 
 royal priesthood, a holy nation'' (1 Epis. ii. 9). Their 
 priestly reign is in connection with the royal priestly office 
 of Christ, when all are exhorted to come boldly to "the 
 throne of grace" (Heb. iv. 15, 16), which will be vacated 
 at the return of our Lord to earth and the giving up of 
 the kingdom to God (1 Cor. xv. 24-36). It is a present 
 KINGDOM, and let all take up the chorus of these rejoicing 
 priest-kings in ascribing "power, and riches, and wisdom, 
 and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing," to the 
 great King. 
 
PART FOURTH. 
 
 OPENING OF THE SEVEN SEALS IN OEDER, AND 
 WHAT FOLLOWED EACH. 
 
 ''Come and See!" 
 
 CHAPTER XIV.— THE FIRST THREE SEALS. 
 
 I. THE FIRST SEAL OPENED— THE WINGED LION 
 AND THE WHITE HORSE. 
 
 n. THE SECOND SEAL OPENED— THE WINGED 
 CALF AND THE RED HORSE. 
 
 in. THE THIRD SEAL OPENED— THE "FACE AS 
 A MAN" AND THE BLACK HORSE. 
 
 CHAPTER XV.— FOURTH AND FIFTH SEALS. 
 
 IV. THE FOURTH SEAL OPENED— THE FLYING 
 EAGLE, DEATH AND THE PALE HORSE. 
 
 V. THE FIFTH SEAL OPENED— SLAIN SOULS 
 UNDER THE ALTAR, AND HADES. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 VI. THE SIXTH SEAL OPENED— GREAT EARTH- 
 QUAKE, DARKENED SUN, MOON, AND 
 
 FALLING STARS. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII:— SIXTH SEAL CONTINUED. 
 FOUR ANGELS HOLD THE WINDS. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 VII. THE SEVENTH SEAL OPENED — A HALF 
 
 HOUR'S SILENCE IN HEAVEN. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX.— THE TARDY EVENTS OF THE 
 
 SEVENTH SEAL. 
 
 THE MIGHTY RAINBOW ANGEL. 
 
 CHAPTER XX.— SEVENTH SEAL CONTINUED. 
 THE LITTLE OPEN BOOK. 
 
PART FOUETH. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV.— FIRST THREE SEALS. 
 
 I. THE FIRST SEAL OPENED— THE WINGED LION 
 AND THE WHITE HORSE. 
 
 THE APOSTOLIC AGE — FROM THE ASCENSION, A. D. 30, TO 
 THE BURNING OF ROME UNDER NERO, A. D. 64. 
 
 Text, Chapter vi. 1, 2. 
 
 1. And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I 
 heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four living 
 creatures saying. Come and see. 
 
 2. And I saw, and behold a white horse : and he that sat on 
 him had a bow ; and a crown was given unto him ; and he went 
 forth conquering, and to conquer. 
 
 IN EACH case, one seal is broken at a time, as first, 
 second, third, etc., which shows their consecutive 
 order, as in the base of the seven churches. 
 "The noise of thunder." — Loud and bold — de- 
 signed to command the attention of all, as of necessity. 
 It was the voice of the Church quickly responding to Jesus' 
 act in breaking a seal — 
 
 "One of the four living creatures saying, 
 COME AND SEE."— This was evidently the first of the 
 four, described in chapter iv. to be "like a lion;" for those 
 which follow are called the second ("like a calf); the third 
 (with the "face as a man"); the fourth ("like a flying 
 eagle"), in order. Besides the living creatures should come 
 in this order to correctly represent the first four epochs 
 of Church history, as will appear by reference to the dia- 
 
 204 
 
CHAP. XIV.] EPOCH OF THE FIRST SEAL. 205 
 
 gram (of seals). The first or Ephesian epoch had the char- 
 acteristic courage and strength of the lion, the king of 
 beasts; that is, the most striking feature in the character of 
 the Apostolic Church was quick, strong intrepid action; 
 and the other epochs will be found as aptly illustrated by 
 their respective symbols. Not only the loud tone of voice 
 but the appeal of the living creature is a call to attention. 
 How can there be indifference to the Spirit's invitation to 
 "Come and see?'' ' 
 
 "And I saw, and behold a white horse."— The 
 living creatures which represent, as we have seen, the 
 Church — the "kingdom of Heaven," the succession of eccle- 
 siastical powers — are seen in the highest portion of the dia- 
 gram of the seals, — "in Heaven," as the symbol is termed, 
 — in contrast with the lower portion — "the earth," where 
 the horses, the civil or world-powers are seen. Thus when 
 the war occurred "m Heaven" i. e., in the sphere of the 
 Church, for it was a religious war, the dragon (which was 
 never in any other than a symbolic heaven) was said to be 
 "cast down to," and "cast out into, the 
 Heaven and earth," i. e., into a lower and subordinate 
 Eartb, the condition. For the kingdom of Christ is 
 
 chnrch- and ^^q highest authority in the world. Thus 
 worid-Power, Heaveu and earth, the Church- and the 
 Contrasted. world-power are put in symbolic contrast, 
 
 in order to show John "the things [eccle- 
 siastical and political] which must come to pass hereafter." 
 
 It is certain also from their work that the horses and 
 their riders represent the earthly or political powers — there 
 is no song of praise heard from them, as from the living 
 creatures. Wliite is a symbol of purity — not necesarily 
 religious purity: there may be purity in a political party. 
 But by most, if not all the older writers, the zuhite horse 
 has been supposed to symbolize Christianity, and its rider, 
 
206 DIVINE) KKY OF THK Ri^VE^I, ATlON . [part IV 
 
 Christ. They bring forward the white horse of chapter xix. 
 as a plausible parallel. But they fail to observe the very 
 different conditions in the two symbolisms. In chapter 
 xix., the white horse and rider are as clearly described as 
 Heavenly characters as are the living creatures. The sword 
 of the rider proceeds out of His mouth, hence the Word — 
 the sword of the Spirit. His name is called the "Word of 
 God, and His vesture was dipped in blood. It is plainly 
 Christ; and His opposers are "the beast, and the kings of 
 the earth and their armies." Besides the Church, in this 
 connection, had already been identified in the living crea- 
 tures, full of eyes, light, and which were praising God day 
 and night. How can the horses represent the Church also? 
 There would be nothing then left to represent the world- 
 power or foes of the Church. The white horse is a symbol 
 of the Eoman empire, which could be as pure in its own 
 sphere as the Church in hers; for "the powers that be are 
 ordained of God" (Eom. xiii. 1). It will be seen that the 
 color of the horses changes as the eras change, and the 
 empire changes its attitude toward the Church. 
 
 In the Ephesian or Apostolic epoch, the period of the 
 first seal, Eome had not stained its robes with the blood 
 of the saints. Pilate, the Eoman Governor, washed his 
 hands in the presence of Jesus' enemies, as innocent of his 
 death. That was Jewish and not Eoman persecution. The 
 historian thus describes the first period: — 
 
 " In the 30th year before Christ, the 724th from the building 
 of Rome, commenced the imperial reign of 
 History of the Octavius, under the titles of Emperor and Au- 
 First Period. gustus. * * * The Roman empire now ap- 
 
 peared in its utmost splendor. * * * In the 
 30th year of the reign of Augustus, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, 
 
 was born. 
 
 "The principal nations of the known world being reduced 
 under one head, and wars and commotions, revolving through long 
 tracts of time, now terminating in one immense dominion, the 
 
CHAP. XIV.] EPOCH OF THE FIRST SEAI,. 207 
 
 troubled elements of human society sunk into an universal cahn. 
 Thirst for conquest was satiated with blood ; the ambition of one 
 man was gratified while that of millions was left without hope. 
 The spirit of war, wearied with universal and almost perpetual 
 carnage, seemed willing to enjoy a moment's slumber, or was 
 hushed to silence by the advent of the Prince of Peace." — Whelp- 
 ley's Conipend of Hist.,Vo\. I, pp. 198-201. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the white horse is the 
 empire in peace, but especially in peace 
 Tiie Temple of ^^^h the Chiirch— before its persecutions 
 Janus Closed, ^^ggan. "The Spirit of war" in the Apos- 
 tolic age slept. The temple of Janus, the 
 heathen god which had two faces, and was supposed to 
 have some influence over war, was closed at this same time. 
 The shepherds on the Judean mountains heard the angel- 
 song on the night of our Lord's birth: "Glory to God in 
 the highest Heavens, and on earth peace, good will among 
 men." It was a fit time for the birth of the Prince of peace, 
 the Son of God. Did this all happen by a mere chance of 
 events? or had the Almighty, who sealed the vision of 
 Daniel five centuries before, with a purpose foredetermined 
 this condition of things as introductory to the age of 
 "grace, mercy and peace?" 
 
 "And he that sat on him had a bow ; and a 
 crown was G-IVEN unto him; and he went 
 forth conquering and to conquer." — The horse being 
 the empire, the crowned rider would symbolize the em- 
 peror. It will be noticed that the crown, or ofl&ce, was 
 given unto him; so it is with all the Powers of this book 
 and of the world; and we shall learn that God, through 
 judgments or blessings, is back of all history, causing the 
 wrath of men to praise Him, and restraining the remainder. 
 On account of his pride, God drove the great king of Baby- 
 lon out from his gilded palace, and out from among men, 
 to eat grass as oxen for seven years, "till his hairs were 
 
208 DIVINK KEY OF THE REVEI.ATION, [part I v. 
 
 grown like eagle's feathers, and his nails like bird's claws" 
 — "till thou shalt know," said God, "that the most High 
 ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever 
 He will; and until "thou shalt have known that the Heavens 
 do rule" (Dan. iv. 25, 26). 
 
 II. THE SECOND SEAL OPENED— THE WINGED 
 CALF AND THE EED HORSE. 
 
 PAGAN PERSECUTIONS — FROM NERO, A. D. 64, 
 
 TO THE EDICT OF MILAN, UNDER 
 
 CONSTANTINE, A. D. 313. 
 
 Text, Chapter vi. 3, 4. 
 
 3. And wheu He had opened the second seal, I heard the 
 second living creature say, Come and see. 
 
 4. And there went out another horse that was red : andi 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. 
 
 ^ I HE scene is greatly changed. The lion-like courage 
 ■^ of the ChurclP, and the white-horse indifference 
 of the empire is displaced in the symbols for the 
 yielding, submissive calf, and the red and bloody horse 
 and his furious rider. And, again, the watchful living 
 creature calls — 
 
 " Come and see." — The Church is faithful still to 
 the work of Christ, and calls the attention of all to the 
 broken seal. The second living creature was "like a calf:" 
 a non-resistant animal, a creature of slaughter. The prin- 
 cipal characteristics of the history of this epoch — most 
 fitly symbolized — is sacrifice; "faithfulness unto death," as 
 has been shown in connection with the Smyrniot church. 
 
CHAP. XIV.] EPOCH OF THE SECOND SEAL. 209 
 
 "And there went out another horse that was 
 red." — A great change has taken place in the empire, and 
 the changed color of the horse, in harmony with the change 
 in the living creature, is the emblem of persecution — the 
 horse is red with blood. Power is given 
 The Great ^q j-^^q rider to take peace from the earth; 
 
 Sword was ^^^ g^ great sword ivas given unto him. 
 
 Given by Jesus, q^^q^ |)y whom? It could be by none 
 other than Him in whom "all power in 
 Heaven and earth" was at the time vested, namely, Jesus; 
 for He declared Himself thus endowed after His resurrec- 
 tion, and made it the basis of the great Gospel Commission 
 (Matt, xxviii. 18-20). For what purpose was such power 
 delegated to a heathen emperor? Jesus was following out 
 the plan of His Father, who gave His beloved and only- 
 begotten Son up to a cruel death. "In bringing many sons 
 unto glory," He chose to make the Captain of their salva- 
 tion ''perfeet through suffering" (Heb. ii. 10). A note in 
 the Cottage Bible quotes the following history concerning 
 this remarkable change in the empire. The historian is 
 speaking of the persecution of Christians inaugurated by 
 Diocletian, and writes thus: — 
 
 " This persecution was both more sanguinary and more exten- 
 sive than any of the preceding : its avowed 
 A Dreadful object being nothing short of the utter extirpa- 
 
 Peraecutlon. tion of Christianity. The places of Christian 
 
 worship were everywhere demolished, Bibles 
 destroyed, and an immense number of Christians martyred. ' It 
 were endless and almost incredible, (says Mr. Echard,) to enum- 
 erate the variety of their sufferings and torments : they were 
 scourged to death, had their flesh torn off with pincers, and 
 mangled with broken pots ; they were cast to lions, tigers, and 
 other wild beasts ; they were burnt alive, beheaded, crucified, 
 thrown into the sea, roasted with slow fires, and holes were made 
 in their bodies for melted lead to be poured into their bowels.' 
 "The number of Christians [see three million martyrs, page 
 
2IO DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [PART IV. 
 
 8i] who suffered during this period led their enemies to flatter 
 themselves that they had extirpated Christianity ; and a pillar is 
 said to have been erected in Spain to the honor of Diocletian, 
 with an inscription to this effect, that he had everywhere abolished 
 the superstition of Christ, and extended the worship of the gods. 
 Another pillar in the same country is stated to have borne a similar 
 inscription ; and a medal in honor of the same tyrant still exists, 
 with this motto : ' The name of Christians being extinguished. ' ' ' — 
 Notes on ch. vi. 
 
 Peace was indeed taken from the earth, but not Chris- 
 tianity. The enemies of Christ were reck- 
 christianity, oning entirely without their host. The 
 Sword-Proof. piUars exist only in name to-day; while 
 Christianity has encircled the world with 
 Bibles and missionaries. The name of Diocletian is held in 
 merited execration, and his honor has perished with the 
 pillars that celebrated it; while the name of Christ is the 
 most precious name in all history to millions of earth's 
 purest minds and brightest intellects; and His honor is 
 sung in all lands and in all languages of eartl^and by the 
 choirs of Heaven; and is as enduring as the pillars of 
 Heaven. The reader will see that the prophetico-historic 
 epochs, as seen in thfe messages to Ephesus and Smyrna, 
 and in the first and second seals, agree most perfectly. 
 
 III. THE THIRD SEAL OPENED— THE "FACE AS 
 A MAN," AND THE BLACK HORSE. 
 
 THE APOSTATIZING PERIOD — FROM CONSTANTINE, 
 A. D. 313, TO THE NEW CODE 
 
 JUSTINIAN, A. D. 529. ] 
 
 Text, Chapter vi. 5, 6. 
 5. And when He had opened the third seal, I heard the third 
 living creature say. Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black 
 horse ; and he that §at on him had a pair of balances in his hand. 
 
CHAP XIV.] KPOCH OF THE THIRD SEAL. 211 
 
 6. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures 
 say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley 
 for a penny ; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. 
 
 A WONDERFUL change has again spread over the 
 empire. The red horse and the great sword of its 
 <^ bloody rider have disappeared. The horse is 
 black, and its rider carries a pair of balances — the symbol 
 of justice; but his appearance cautions us, and the living 
 creature, of many eyes, calls — 
 
 "Come and see." — The living creature that speaks 
 now is as greatly changed as is the horse and rider — from 
 having the appearance of a "calf," it now presents "a face 
 as a man" — a most singular figure, reminding its of the 
 Babylonian lion which had a "man's heart" (Dan. vii. 4), 
 and the eleventh horn of the "terrible" beast that had 
 "eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great 
 things" (verse 8) : the heart of man represents his pride and 
 ambition (Dan. v. 20; Eze. xxxi. 10); his eye is "an evil 
 eye" (Mark vii. 21, 22), and, with his boasting mouth, rep- 
 resents perverted human wisdom. His face is suggestive of 
 wily human prudence, in direct contrast with the docility 
 of the calf, and a proper child-like trust in God and sub- 
 mission to chastisements and judgments. 
 
 "And I beheld, and lo a black horse." — Black is 
 the symbol of calamity. And the change from the red horse 
 to the black denotes the cessation of persecution and the 
 visitation of judgments for the same. It corresponds with 
 the third epoch of Church history, — the Constantinian, — 
 Avhich is very clearly marked. The historian, in describing 
 this period, says: — v 
 
 "At his [Constantine's] death, 337, the empire was divided 
 among his sons who, unhappily, quarreled among themselves, 
 whereby the empire was so weakened as not to be able to resist the 
 numerous hordes of barbarians by which it was surrounded. 
 
212 DIVINE KEY OP THE REVELATION. [parT iv. 
 
 "At the same time the Christian Church became infested with 
 
 all the vices of the state — ambition, jealousy , 
 
 Tlie "Face dupHcity, and a spirit of hostility still more 
 
 as a Man." criminal among those who bear the name of 
 
 Christians than among heathen governments." 
 
 — Cottage Bible, Note on Rev. viii. 7, 8. 
 
 In this extract we have a reference not only to the 
 calamitous division, weakness, and barbarian sources of the 
 "decline" of the Eoman empire, (which at last wrought out 
 its "fall," and forms the subject of Gibbon's great history,) 
 but to the human face of the living creature: the linea- 
 ments of the face could not be better depicted than by the 
 words "amhitimi, jealousy, duplicity" (or double-dealing), 
 which is so easily read in the faces of some men. These 
 descriptive words seem to have sprung almost by inspira- 
 tion from the historic pen, to assist us both in identifying 
 the living creature, and in appreciating the singular sym- 
 bol of its face. The corruption of the Church in this period 
 through these typical qualities are forcibly stated by Mr. 
 Whelpley, in the extract quoted on pages 86 and 87. And 
 further, relative to the calamities symbolized by the black 
 color of the horse, we Jiave this from Kotteck: — 
 
 "In the commencement of this period [a.d. 395 to 800] the 
 Roman name fills up still the greatest part of 
 Rotteck on the the historical world. But the immense realm 
 Black Color. is now divided into two parts, the Western and 
 
 Eastern, of which the former is brought by in- 
 ternal disease and external storms to a speedy fall, the latter after 
 an almost miraculous destiny, continues its existence, yi?r the most 
 part miserable, yet for many centuries. * * * 
 
 " In the North the diverse and multinominal swarms of Ger- 
 mans, Sarmatians and Sythians move around like the threatening 
 clouds of a tempest, and fulfill, by their contemporaneous shock, 
 the destiny which had so long hung over Rome, and change sud- 
 denly THE ASPECT OF THE WORLD. * * * The Eastern empire 
 also had to see the greater part of its provinces desolated by the 
 barbarians ; some of the Northern provinces were entirely lost. 
 
CHAP. XIV.] EPOCH OF THE THIRD S:^AL. 213 
 
 All the tribes of the Goths ravaged the countries of the Danube 
 and the Hsemus before their Western expeditions." — Hist, of the 
 World, Yo\. II., p. II. 
 
 How well the black fits the horse during such a his- 
 tory. Only inspiration could have foreseen it. 
 
 "And he that sat on him had a pair of bal- 
 ances in his hand," — Not that the sword of the former 
 rider was entirely abandoned, but his use of it against the 
 Church was, and the balances become more typical than 
 the sword in the formulation of the characteristic history 
 of this epoch. The use of the balances was also perverted 
 by the pretender, so that in his hand they come, as we shall 
 find, to typify the creeds which we found in Pergamos — 
 the corresponding age-symbol. We have seen that Con- 
 stantine was instrumental in substituting the first creed 
 for the Word itself. And here is another wording of his- 
 tory that, in view of the symbol, reads like an inspiration: — 
 "Such was the rise and progress, and such were the natural 
 
 revolutions of those theological disputes, which 
 Gibbon on disturbed the peace of Christianity under the 
 
 the Balances. reigns of Constantine and of his sons. But as 
 
 those princes presumed to extend their des- 
 potism over the faith, as well as over the lives and fortunes of their 
 subjects, the weight of their suffrage sometimes inclined the ec- 
 clesiastical balance : and the prerogatives oi the King 0/ Heaven 
 were settled, or changed, or modified, in the cabinet of an earthly 
 monarch.'" — Decline and Fall, etc., Yo\. II., ch. 21, p. 325. 
 
 Gibbon, the infidel, who said so many sarcastic things 
 concerning Christianity, (it must be con- 
 infldei Wrath fgggg^ ^j^^t he had as a basis of his bitter- 
 Praises God. j^ggg j^any damaging inconsistencies in the 
 Church,) had no idea of the importance 
 of his testimony as answering the prediction of Christ. In 
 this case, with the one just previously mentioned, and 
 several that will follow in the course of this exposition, no 
 person who is first familiar with the Word of prophecy can 
 
214 DIVINE KKY OF THE REVELA'TION. [part iv. 
 
 read these remarkable, if not inspired, words of history 
 without associating them. And here is seen the power 
 of God to cause the wrath of men to praise Him, as well in 
 those who record history as in those who project its events. 
 "A measure of wheat for a penny, and three 
 measures of barley for a penny."— Was Constantine 
 selling provisions by the pint? Literalists and those who 
 confess their Christology to have been settled by the Coun- 
 cils of Nice, Ephesus and Chalcedon, will find some diffi- 
 culty in reconciling the retail grocery business with the 
 dignity of the Eoman emperor, with his history, or with 
 the Scriptures. It is better to confess this to be a sale of 
 symbolic breadstuffs, and take the consequences of the only 
 rational interpretation that can be put upon it. Constan- 
 tine and his sons were extending "their dominion over the 
 faith as well as over the lives and fortunes of their sub- 
 jects." They were doling out small pittances of the Book, 
 "every zvord" of which, Jesus declared, should be for man's 
 food. This is the secret of the human face which the living 
 creature had. It was human wisdom interfering with the 
 divine arrangement. God gave the whole Word to all men, 
 and equal rights to all to study, understand and obey it 
 according to the dictates of their individual consciences. 
 Creed-makers were diverting attention from the Bible, 
 and hindering its free and independent personal study. 
 They were weighing out the doctrines of "Jezebel," which 
 God condemns, and pronounces "the depths of satan, as 
 they speak." But as surely as they were giving out any- 
 thing, they were promulgating the doctrine of the Trinity, 
 the preexistence of Christ and the immortality of the soul. 
 All history attests this; and all the Bible attests that they 
 were putting falsities for truths, and heresies for ortho- 
 doxy. 
 
CHAP. XIV.] EPOCH OF THE THIRD SEAI,. 215 
 
 "And see thou hurt not the oil and the wine." 
 
 — The oil and wine would stand for the most precious 
 truths. And here is a pious solicitude^ on the part of the 
 creed-makers for "the truth" or what they think or wish 
 to be the truth. They have never lacked it. Rome in her 
 
 bloodiest days was as clamorous for, and as 
 over-Piotis piously solicltous about, "the truth" as 
 
 soiicitnae. Mohammed, and yet the seal of neither 
 
 made him right. To be right one must be 
 right with God, before zeal wnll be counted a virtue. This 
 is illustrated also by the bulls of the popes against Bible 
 societies, lest the minds of the common people be demoral- 
 ized through the "Word as given by the Holy Spirit! God 
 was displeased with the Pergamenians, how could He be 
 pleased with the living creature that had not only the 
 "face as a man," but a man's presumption, to reply and 
 explain when God has spoken. The two symbols are quite 
 unlike in appearance, but in signification are practically 
 identical. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE OPENING OF THE FOUETH AND FIFTH 
 
 SEALS. 
 
 IV. THE FOUETH SEAL OPENED— THE FLYING 
 EAGLE, DEATH AND THE PALE HOESE. 
 
 APOSTASY AND NICOLAITANISM PERFECTED — FROM JUS- 
 TINIAN, A. D. 529, TO THE PROTESTANT 
 LEAGUE, A. D. 1529. 
 
 Text, Chapter vi. 7, 8. 
 
 7. And when He had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice 
 of the fourth living creature say, Come and see. 
 
 8. And I looked, and behold a pale horse : and his name that 
 sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power 
 was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with 
 sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the (Gr. therion) 
 wild beasts of the earth. 
 
 TRIKING changes again appear in the imperio-eccle- 
 siastical heavens. The living creature becomes 
 a six-winged "flying eagle," and the calamities fore- 
 shadowed in the black horse have culminated in the pallor 
 of death over the horse of this period: Death is its rider, 
 and hades, the grave, follows, i. e., when the next change 
 shall come. Again the living creature calls to — 
 
 " Come and see." — This call, then, comes from the 
 eagle. As the lion is the king of beasts, the eagle is the 
 
 216 
 
CHAP. XV.] EPOCH OF THE FOURTH SEAI,. 217 
 
 king of birds. Its chief characteristics are strength and 
 timidity. As a bird it has the strength of a lion, but not 
 a lion's courage. It is the most timid of all creatures of 
 its strength. It swoops down upon its prey, and hies away 
 to the highest perches and craggy peaks of the moun- 
 tains. It therefore symbolizes Mght, and that people 
 whom Jesus exhorted to "flee to the mountains" (Matt. 
 xxiv. 15, 16). 
 
 "And I looked, and behold a pale horse." — 
 Pallor is the symbol of death. The persecutions of the 
 second epoch brought the calamities to the empire in the 
 third epoch, and they in turn wrought death to State 
 Imperialism in this fourth epoch. The empire, as such, 
 is dead; and the pale horse's rider is Death — Death astride 
 a dead Imperialism or "harse." Can this be made clear? 
 Let us study it and try. 
 
 The fourth epoch of Church history is the Justinian 
 period, as we have seen, harmonizing with the Thyatirian 
 age; and it is not less clearly marked than were the second 
 and third epochs. It commences, as is indicated in the 
 heading of this chapter in a. d. 529, — the completion of 
 the Justinian Code of Laws, — as will be explained when 
 we reach chapter xiii., and continues to the formation of 
 the Protestant League in a. d. 1529 — just one thousand 
 years. Church and State were formally united, in this 
 epoch, as was shown in Thyatirian history. In the third 
 period Pergamos and Constantine embraced and plighted 
 loves; and in the fourth, Thyatira and Justinian were 
 as formally as illegally married. It was a plain case of 
 "fornication with the kings of the earth," for the Church 
 was legally married to Christ. He was her sole legal 
 Counselor, Guide and Protector. But she leaned on the 
 arm of the State; and after the calamities to the empire 
 
il8 DIVINE KEY of the REVEIvAI^ION. [PAkT rV, 
 
 of the third epoch, the power of the State was gradually 
 sequestrated by the Church, and for 1,260 years (a. d. 
 529-1789) the Eoman empire, proper, was practically dead, 
 
 and for 1,000 years was completely so. In 
 A Prophetic ^j^g j^^h chapter we read about the beast 
 Paradox. "that wos, and is not, and yet is" (verse 
 
 8), being ridden by a woman whom we 
 recognize as Jczcbcl. It is this same pale beast having 
 death for its rider: seen here from the standpoint of its 
 present subordination to the riding power; but in that 
 place as a scarlet-colored beast, from the standpoint of its 
 persecutions in obedience to its rider. Death. So that to 
 have a clear view of this paradoxical dead and Death- 
 ridden beast, it must be seen in three lights: — 
 
 I. The horse or "beast that was" — white, red, etc. 
 
 II. The pale horse, or beast that "is not" (because of 
 its rider that is). 
 
 III. The future condition of the beast indicated by 
 the words, "and yet is," and, "shall ascend out of the bot- 
 tomless pit" (which must be reserved to its place in the 
 17th and 20th chapters). 
 
 I. As to the horse or beast that "was," we have al- 
 ready sketched its history, as it affects the Church, in con- 
 nection with the white, red and black horses — Pagan 
 Rome in its Christian-Era phases; and it is only for classi- 
 fication, and simplifying the apparent difficulties, that it 
 needs mentioning at this time. Old Pagan Eome "was" 
 the greatest power of the world during the Ephesian and 
 Smyrniot periods. But it weakened through division and 
 judgments, during the Pergamenian or black-horse period, 
 as has been shown from Gibbon, Kotteck and Whelpley. 
 
 II. That the "pale horse" correctly symbolizes the 
 death of the empire, historians confirm. Rotteck says: — 
 
CHAP. XV.] EPOCH OF THE FOURTH SEAI,. 219 
 
 " In the sixth century, under Justinian M., the heroic glory of 
 Rome seemed to flourish anew through the 
 Rotteck on the genius of Belisarius and Narses. But it was a 
 Pale Color. fleeting glimmer. The old causes of decay re- 
 
 maining — degeneracy and internal dissolution. ' ' 
 — Hist, of the World, Vol. 2., p. 13. 
 
 "We will yet add to the general picture of the character of 
 this period some principal traits. The world remained divided, 
 although unequally, between Roman degenerac}' and northern 
 barbarianism. * * * The monuments of art and industry, the 
 traces of opulence and taste, vanish ; the constant residences of a 
 dense population, the sources of sociality, and the higher culture 
 of man, the cities, sink into the dust. In the vast empire of Attila, 
 there was not a single city; half of Europe served for pasture- 
 grounds for the encampments of unsettled hordes of Cabnucts. 
 * * * Upon the whole, after the fall of the Western empire, 
 Europe is in a wild and desolate state. Places of conflagration, 
 heaps of ruins, vast deserts mark the coiirse of the migrating 
 nations and the misfortune of the times." — lb., pp. 16, 17. 
 (Italics mine.) 
 
 Let me add Mr. Whelpley's testimony which is to the 
 same effect as the above: — 
 
 "From the fall of the Roman empire, a period of darkness 
 ensued, equally dreadful for its length and for 
 Wiielpley con- the number and greatness of its calamities upon 
 firms Rotteck. mankind. To trace the history of these times 
 is like making a progress through chaos, amidst 
 upper, nether, and surrounding darkness. * * * if we except 
 Constantinople, the whole of Europe, from the fall of Rome to 
 the establishment of Charlemagne, resembled a troubled ocean. 
 The most splendid cities, the most populous countries, and the 
 most delightful regions of the earth, were harrassed and over- 
 zvhelmed with ruin and desolation.'" — Conipend of /Jist.,Yo\. I., 
 Ch. XVI., pp. 225-6. 
 
 Not only was the empire completely paralyzed through 
 
 its division, and the ravaging hordes of barbarians that, as 
 
 "the scourge of God/' were accomplishing His judgments 
 
 upon the guilty paramours, both Church and State, but 
 
 the papacy climbed upon the back of the Jaded beast, 
 
 secured the reins of power, and drove his fast ebbing life, 
 
 for the time, out of him. 
 
220 DIVINE KKY OP THE REVEI.ATION. [parT IV. 
 
 III. Let us take a Scriptural view of this rider. 
 
 "And his name that sat on him was Death." 
 
 — Death riding a pale or dead horse — the one "which was, 
 but is not" (i. e., politically dead,) because being ridden, 
 controlled. It is a symbol of the great prophetic anti- 
 christ or "man of sin" — the papacy — that for the period 
 (before mentioned) of 1,260 years usurped not only the 
 throne of the Eoman empire, but of the "kingdom of 
 Heaven," as weil. Paul, in describing him, says: — 
 
 3. 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 ; 
 
 4. Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called 
 God, or that is worshipped ; so that he as God sitteth in the temple 
 of God, shewing himself that he is God. — (2 Thes. it., 3, 4.) 
 
 This is his arrogant assumption in the Church which, 
 since God abandoned the Jewish temple, — rending its vail 
 at the crucifixion of His Son, — has been God's dwelling 
 place. (Comp. Zech. vi. 12-15; Jer. xxxi. 31-33; xxxii. 
 37-40; 2 Cor. vi. 16; Eph. ii. 17-22; Heb. viii. 1, 2, 10; 
 1 Pet. ii. 5.) In Johnson's Cyclopaedia we find this con- 
 cerning the papal usurpation both in the Church, God's 
 temple, and in the Eon\an throne, the pale, dead horse: — 
 " Upon the ruins of the ancient Roman empire there arose, 
 
 gradually, a new empire, which soon became 
 Rise of the all the more powerful as it claimed control over 
 
 Man of Sin. the souls of men as well as their bodies, and 
 
 extended its dominions beyond this life into 
 eternity. Rome became, after a short interregnum, once more 
 the seat of the central power in Europe, and thus earned its his- 
 toric name of the ' Eternal City.' It owed this supremacy to the 
 gradual development of Christianity \i. e., of Catholicism]. At 
 first the new church consisted of priests and laymen. Among the 
 former, however, external circumstances soon produced a certain 
 hierarchy. The heads of large and wealthy congregations natur- 
 ally enjoyed advantages which raised them above the great mass 
 of clergymen. Out of this number a few, again, rose to special 
 
CHAP. XV.] EPOCH OF THE FOURTH SEAL. 221 
 
 emineiice because they controlled the churches of great provincial 
 centers, such as Ephesus, Antioch, Alexandria and Rome. They 
 claimed and gradually obtained superior powers, presided at great 
 councils, and enforced obedience to their decrees. The bishop of 
 Rome not only inherited the prestige of the former capital of the 
 world, but skillfully enhanced it by claiming supreme spiritual 
 authority as successor to St. Peter, the presumed first bishop of 
 Rome." 
 
 Thus the "man of sin" exalted himself. The Lord 
 
 had exalted Peter and the apostles to His 
 Anticbrist tlii'one, in that He gave them power to 
 
 Personifleii. loose or hind (j. e., to Justify or condemn, 
 
 as sinners repent or refuse to) for the 
 very throne of Heaven; but this man presumptuously took 
 this glory to himself, and called down tlie wrath of Heaven 
 upon not his own head only, but on the pusillanimous 
 heads of all his accessories, sycophants and subjects, in the 
 Church and in the empire. But why is the papal rider per- 
 sonified by Death? Because, as the antichrist, "the man of 
 sin," the whole line of popes are "dead in sin." As Christ is 
 personified by Life, the antichrist is fitly personified by 
 Death. We put bread, which is the "staff of life," upon 
 the Lord's table to represent a living and life-giving Christ. 
 And we put a skeleton or rackabones, which is the symbol 
 of death, upon the horse to represent a spiritually dead 
 and death-dealing antichrist. 
 
 "And Hades followed with him."— Hell, the 
 word which occurs in our English version in this passage, 
 
 is from the old "Saxon term Jielaii, to 
 Clarke covcr, or hide; hence the tiling or slating 
 
 on Hell. Q-f g^ house is Called in Cornwell, heling, to 
 
 this day; and in Lancashire the covers of 
 books are so called." (Dr. A. Clarke on Matt. xi. 23.) 
 With that sense it is, perhaps, a fair enough rendering of 
 the Greek, hades. But with its modern meaning, a lake of 
 fire, it is in the highest sense inadmissible. Hades means. 
 
222 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part IV. 
 
 "The realm of the invisible, the kingdom 
 Baiiinger ^f j-^q ^^q^^^ grave-land, gravedom, all the 
 
 on Hades. graves in the world viewed as one; the 
 
 place where the divine declaration is ful- 
 filled, 'Dust thou art, and unto dust shall thou return.' " 
 (Bullinger's Anal, and Crit. Lex. and Cone.) It is not 
 "spirit-land," but the land of the dead — of putting away, 
 out of sight; and personifies the buried condition of the H 
 Church during the period that "follows" that of Death on 
 the pale horse; so that in the succeeding epoch, we have 
 I/' "the souls under the altar;" for it required both the Thya- 
 tirian and the Sardian periods, corresponding with the 
 fourth and fifth seals, to complete the 1,260 years of papal 
 usurpation. 
 
 "And power was given unto him over the 
 fourth part of the earth." — Unto /lim, namely, the 
 rider: so the Greek, margin, Emph. Diag., etc. Over the 
 fourth part of the inhabitants of the earth: not as respects 
 numbers, or territory, but degree; as if it were said, power 
 sufficient that if it were three-fourths stronger nothing 
 could stand before it, and "no flesh should be saved," as in 
 Mark xiii, 30, in which base God preserved a remnant by 
 shortening the time — the number of days; but in this case, 
 by limiting the power. God has promised that His people 
 shall not be tempted above that they are able to bear. If 
 no limit were placed upon this rider. Death, nothing could 
 resist his power and influence. Daniel, speaking of this 
 time, says: "Now when they shall fall, they shall be 
 holpen with a little help; but many shall cleave to them 
 with flatteries'^ (ch. xi. 34). A type of this is found in 
 Zech. xiii. 8, 9, where God preserved a third of the Jewish 
 people from the snare that destroyed the nation; and its 
 parallel is in the fourth or corresponding trumpet, to be 
 noticed in its place. 
 
CHAP. XV.] EPOCH OF THE FOURTH SEAI,. 223 
 
 "To kill with the sword, and with hunger, 
 and with death, and with the beasts of the earth." 
 
 — This killing must be understood as symbolic, since the 
 killer is a symbol. It may or may not ultimate in literal 
 death by violence, according to circumstances. Killing 
 by the sword and beasts seems to indicate an ultimate 
 violent death, and the arm of the state as a factor in the 
 work; while by hunger and by death would indicate ulti- 
 mate eternal death by the sin and indifference of the par- 
 ties themselves. After the union of Church and State, 
 the popes had only to pronounce the words "heretic," and 
 "excommunicated" to effectually kill an individual. He 
 was legally dead from that moment — disfranchised, and 
 having no rights that the empire would respect. He must 
 recant, and confess to the priests of the papacy, the reign- 
 ing rider, "Death," or flee to the mountains to reign with 
 Christ, and in all probability die at his post, "faithful 
 unto death." (See on chapter xx. 6.) Paul was dead in 
 this sense when he said: "For I, through the law, am dead 
 ta the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified 
 with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth 
 in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live 
 by the faith of the Son of God" (Gal. ii. 19). 
 
 I. When thus thoroughly outlawed and disfranchised 
 
 by the papacy, the Christians were liable 
 Killed Throngu ^^ immediate arrest and a violent physical 
 Legfai Process, (^gath "by the sword" or "by the beasts of 
 
 the earth." For as the Prophet Daniel 
 predicted, "his power shall be mighty, but not by his own 
 power; and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper 
 and practice, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy 
 people" (ch. viii. 24). And again, "Arms shall stand on 
 his part * * * And they that understand among the 
 people shall instruct many; yet they shall fall by the 
 
224 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [parT IV. 
 
 sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days" 
 (ch. xi. 31-33). Gibbon testifies the fulfillment of this 
 prophecy: — 
 
 "The reign of Justinian was a uniform yet various scene of 
 persecution ; and he appears to have surpassed his indolent pred- 
 ecessors, both in the contrivance of his laws and the rigor of their 
 execution. The insufficient term of three months was assigned 
 for the co7iversion or exile of all heretics. * * * But in the creed 
 of Justinian, the guilt of murder could not be applied to the 
 slaughter of unbelievers ; and he piously labored to establish, with 
 fire and sword, the unity of the Christian \i. ^., the Roman Catholic] 
 faith." — Decline and Fall, etc., Vol. IV., p. 528-530. 
 
 Such history, including that of the terrible Inquisi- 
 tion, might be cited all along the track of the Church 
 during the reign of the papacy, from Justinian to Charle- 
 magne, and from Charlemagne to Louis XVI., and through 
 which, as has been before stated, fifty million martyrs 
 were killed with the sword and beasts of the earth. 
 
 II. But many yielded too easily to the demand to 
 relinquish their personal hold on the 
 Killed Throngii ^^^.^j ^f Q.^^ ^s the only food that could 
 Seductive Arts, possibly sustain their spiritual lives. And 
 in hunger for the Word of God, and 
 through fear of the power of Kome, they allowed them- 
 selves to lose all spiritual life and become dead to God, 
 as they should have been to the world. They were killed 
 "with hunger." And now, if they remain in this condi- 
 tion, and turn not again to God, at the cost of all things 
 worldly, even of this life if needs be, they are killed to all 
 hope of a future life "with death" — with this death state. 
 
CHAP. XV.] EPOCH OF THE FIFTH SEAI,. 225 
 
 V. THE FIFTH SEAL OPENED— SLAIN SOULS 
 UNDER THE ALTAE, AND HADES. 
 
 A REMNANT OF THE CHURCH GROANING TO BE AVENGED — 
 
 FROM THE PROTESTANT LEAGUE, A. D. 1529, 
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, A. D. 1789. 
 
 Text, Chapter vi. 9-11. 
 
 9. 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 : 
 
 ID. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O 
 Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on 
 them that dwell on the earth ? 
 
 II. 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 zvere, should be fulfilled. 
 
 WE now have a change quite unlike any preceding 
 one: horse and rider and living creature vanish; 
 and we have only the altar left, and the cries 
 of the martyr company beneath, to tell of their years of 
 sacrifice; and Hades to represent the inactivity now of the 
 pale-horse empire, and therefore the hope of the promise 
 (for which they cry) concerning "shortened" days and 
 requiting "judgment" upon those who "dwell upon" and 
 "corrupt the earth;" namely, the "man of sin," Jezebel, 
 their horses and their riders. 
 
 "Souls slain." — It was shown (pages 92, 113) that 
 there can be no such thing as an intangible, "disembodied" 
 soul. The original term has three distinct significations 
 in the Bible: 1. A being; as, "man became a living soul;" 
 "eight souls" were saved in the ark. 2. The life of a 
 being; as, "He poured out his soul [psuche, life] unto 
 death;" "This night thy soul [psuche, life] shall be re- 
 
226 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEI.ATION. [parT IV. 
 
 quired of thee;" "what shall it profit a man, if he shall 
 gain the whole world, and lose his own sour [psuche, life] ? 
 3, "A state of feeling in a being;" as desire — ^that word 
 being the English rendering in several passages. 
 
 In the first sense the original Hebrew word nephcsh is 
 rendered person, thirty times; creature, nine times; body, 
 seven times. It was the persons that were slain, as John 
 saw them — the whole company of the outlawed, dis- 
 franchised Church of this fifth or Sardian period. 
 
 ** For the Word of God and for the testimony 
 which they held." — They persistently rejected the 
 creeds and held to the Word. They also persistently testi- 
 fied for truth — letting the light that was in them shine 
 all about them; refusing to put it under the Eomanist 
 bushel, even to save their lives, in view of life at the 
 Kesurrection. 
 
 "Under the altar." — The company seen were not 
 dead in a literal sense, nor were they literally under an 
 altar. It was the symbolic altar of their faith, upon which 
 they were being offered all those gloomy centuries. They 
 were in the mountains and secluded places — hiding away 
 from their enemies. > 
 
 "And they cried with a loud voice." — Cried as 
 the voice of Abel's blood cried, to God if not to their 
 slayers. So, too, it was a loud voice in the ear of God, as 
 their righteousness was great in His sight, if not in the 
 ears and sight of men. In their weary and tedious hiding 
 they were crying for judgment upon their persecutors. 
 
 " How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou 
 not judge and avenge our blood?" — Such judgment 
 had been promised the Church at this time. After de- 
 scribing the beast and his work, the Prophet Daniel had 
 said: "But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take 
 away his dominion to consume and destroy it unto the 
 
CHAP. XV.] EPOCH OF THE FIFTH SEAL,. 227 
 
 end/* And "judgment shall be given to the saints of the 
 Most High" (ch. vii. 22, 26). The white robes given 
 them was the comfort of the Holy Spirit witnessing to 
 their righteousness in Christ. And the fact that they 
 must rest or wait yet a little season shows that the period 
 was not quite exhausted, and all their brothcx- martyrs 
 had not yet been brought under the power of the pale- 
 horse rider. The judgment promised and prayed for 
 came, as we have seen, in the French Revolution, a. d. 
 1789. 
 
 " On them that dwell on the earth." — It was to 
 the whole system or dynasty of pale-horse riders — lines 
 of rulers — on whom they prayed to be avenged — they, and 
 not merely individuals, are refen-ed to as dzvdling on the 
 earth, or reigning in the empire. These were the ''kings 
 of the earth," who had "committed adultery" with Jezebel, 
 and were threatened with "great tribulation" as a judg- 
 ment. See chapter ii., 23. 
 
 To make this a picture of the literally dead martyrs, 
 their so-called "immortal souls" under the altar really in 
 Heaven (if there is an altar in Heaven), crying for judg- 
 ment upon their persecutors (if souls could cry in Heaven), 
 and receiving white robes (if souls could have entered 
 Heaven in other than white robes, or at all), would border 
 so nearly upon the ludicrous, and would be so far beneath 
 the scope of this revelation, as to be unworthy of serious 
 criticism. These were the white robes promised to the 
 overcomers of Sardis. They could not be reckoned as 
 overcomers of this period until "a little season" before its 
 close. The reader should keep these robes in mind: they 
 will be more appreciated in the exposition of the seventh 
 chapter, and most in that of the fourteenth chapter. 
 
CHAPTEE XVI. 
 
 VI. THE SIXTH SEAL OPENED-- A GEE AT EAETH- 
 
 QUAKE, DAEKENED SUN AND MOON, 
 
 AND FALLING STAES. 
 
 JUDGMENT UPON JEZEBEL, ROME AND CATHOLIC KINGS 
 FROM 1789 TO THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA, 1815. 
 
 Text, Chapter vi. 12-17. 
 
 12. Aud I beheld when He had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, 
 there was a great earthquake ; and the sun became black as sack- 
 cloth of hair, and the moon became as blood ; 
 
 13. Aud the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig 
 tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty 
 wind. 
 
 14. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled to- 
 gether ; and every mountain and island were moved out of their 
 
 places. 
 
 15. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the 
 rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every 
 bond man, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in 
 the rocks of the mounfains ; 
 
 16. And said to the mountains and rocks. Fall on us, and hide 
 us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the 
 wrath of the L,amb : 
 
 17. For the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be 
 able to stand ? 
 
 ^1 HE most remarkable symbols and convulsions in 
 JL nature figure in the opening of the sixth seal, 
 deciding the importance of the events fore- 
 shadowed. Judgment was due; and God chose His own 
 agencies to announce and bring it about. 
 
 "Lo, there was a great earthquake." — A great 
 earthquake is a great concussion of the forces in nature, 
 
 228 
 
CHAP. XVI.] EPOCH OF THE SIXTH SEAL. 229 
 
 a shock, a calamity, and doubtless ^^sually a judgment. 
 This was a great concussion of the moral, political, and 
 religious forces of the effete old Eoman system; a shock 
 to the world, and a judgment upon the Eoman Church. 
 No one of the seven epochs is more clearly marked than 
 this by the great French-infidel Revolution, the first angry 
 rumblings of which began in 1789. It was a godless 
 revolution, and it struck the knell of the godless old 
 State-Church regime, and, at the same time, of the 1,260 
 years "space" given the Eoman Jezebel to finish her work 
 of rioting and drunkenness, and to repent of her fornica- 
 tion, and of her deeds of blood. It was the shock that 
 broke up the foundations of the old Thyatirian earth, and 
 brought her "heavens" down upon the ruins; it rent 
 asunder the still bloody altar of Sardis, liberated the 
 weeping, white-robed company of martyrs, inaugurated the 
 calm of Philadelphia, and the joy and "new song" that 
 burst forth from the holy throng of the sealed thousands 
 
 upon Mount Zion with the Lamb (ch. 
 An BarthQuake xiy.). An earthquake from which the 
 as Seen g^^j^ ^^^^ ^]^g moou withdrew their faces, 
 
 by Historians, g^j^^j} ^j-^g disturbed stars rattled down from 
 
 their places, as described by the Eevela- 
 tor, must find a conspicuous place in history. Let us see. 
 Mr. Bower writes of it as follows: — 
 
 "The unparalleled wonders of the French Revolution were 
 
 considered by many as the great symbol of other 
 
 Bower Sees One. political earthquakes, which should prostrate 
 
 thrones and altars in a common ruin, transform 
 
 society, and regenerate the world."— //z^/. of the Popes, Vol. III., 
 
 P 419- 
 
 The following are Sir Archibald Alison's words: — 
 
 " There are few periods in the history of the world, which can 
 
 be compared, in point of interest and impor- 
 
 Allson AiBo, tance, to that which embraces the progress and 
 
 termination of the French Revolution. In iiQ 
 
230 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [pART IV. 
 
 former age were events of svich magnitude crowded together, or 
 interests so momentous at issue between contending nations. 
 From the flame which was kindled in Europe, the whole world was 
 involved in conflagration, and a new era dawned upon both hemis- 
 pheres from the effect of its expansion." — //'z^'i?. of Europe, Voi I., 
 p. 51- 
 
 These passages show that the Eevelation, in depict- 
 ing the great earthquake of this seal, was an inspiration 
 beyond human power to foresee, and should impress us 
 with the fact that if the Judgment of the papacy, accord- 
 ing to Daniel and the sixth seal, was so promptly and 
 visibly executed, that the judgment of Laodicea and the 
 seventh seal will not be less so. But was the French 
 Eevolution a judgment on Romanism — civil and ecclesias- 
 tical? It most certainly was. Much might be quoted to 
 show the fact with a consensus of intelligent opinion. A. 
 M. Lamartine, the illustrious French poet and historian, 
 writes thus: — 
 
 " So long as Catholicism had been the sole legal doctrine in 
 
 Europe, these murmuring revolts of mind had 
 Lamartine's not overset Empires, they had been punished 
 
 Description. by the hands of rulers. Dungeons, punishments, 
 
 inquisitions, fire and fagot had intimidated reas- 
 on, and preserved ei^ect the two-fold dogma on which the two 
 governments reposed." — Hist, of the Girondists, Vol I., p 13. 
 ' ' Did royalty fall ? Catholicism as a sovereign and civil institution 
 fell with it, and instead of one ruin caused two." — [b., p. 178. 
 
 Both the horse and its rider fell, as the text of this 
 seal, and the message to Thyatira show. In the latter 
 place it was said: "Behold, I will cast her into a bed, 
 and them thai coimnit adultery zvith her into great tribula- 
 tion, except they repent of their deeds." The following is 
 from Marsh's Ecclesiastical History, p. 300: — 
 
 "A civil constitution was formed for the clergy, to which all 
 
 were required to swear, on pain of death or 
 
 UlarBh States. banishment. The great body refused, and priest 
 
 and altar were overturned, and blood, once 
 
CHAP. XVI.] EPOCH OF THE SIXTH SEAL. 23 1 
 
 esteemed sacred, flowed to the horses' bridles. Such as could, 
 escaped through a thousand dangers, and found an asylum in for- 
 eign countries. No tongue can tell the woes of the nation." 
 
 Speaking of the events of 1798, Mr. Alison says: — 
 
 " The Directory declared war against Rome with a promptness 
 that showed how eagerly they sought the quar- 
 Waglng "War rel, and Berthier received orders to advance 
 
 Agalnit Rome. immediately upon the ecclesiastical dominions. 
 That general, at the head of eighteen thousand 
 veterans, entered Ancona on the 25th of January, 1798. * * * On 
 the 15th of February all was arranged : the revolutionists, in open 
 revolt, passed through the streets, inviting the French to enter, 
 and Berthier hoisted the flag of the Republic over the walls of 
 Rome. But the Republic did not stop at the mere conquest of the 
 city. They ordered the pope to retire into Tuscany, dismiss his 
 Swiss guards, supply their places with French soldiers, and dis- 
 posess himself of his temporal authority. * * * The aged pontiff 
 was dragged from the altar in his palace, his repositories were 
 plundered, the very rings were torn from his fingers, and he him- 
 self, with only a few domestics for attendants, was conveyed into 
 Tuscany, amid the brutal jests and sacrilegious songs of the French 
 dragoons. The subsequent treatment of this venerable man was 
 still more disgraceful to the Republic. [Yet God was causing the 
 wrath of the French infidels to praise Himself in the humiliation 
 of the blasphemous antichrist of the Vatican.] * * * But long 
 before the pope sunk under the persecutions of his oppressors, 
 Rome experienced the bitter fruits of republican fraternization. 
 Immediately on the entrance of the French troops into the city, a 
 systematic pillage was commenced that surpassed any to which 
 Rome had previously been subjected. * * * The work of revolu- 
 tion now proceeded rapidly in the Roman states. All the ancient 
 institutions were subverted^ — Hist. Europe, (Abrid. Edi.), pp. 
 108, 109. 
 
 Hon. Gerard Noel propounds two questions that will 
 
 be answered negatively by all who are at 
 
 ^''**''' all conversant with the succeeding history 
 
 Q,aestions. ^f ^]-,g papacy: "Can the overthrow of the 
 
 monastic orders, plunder of the Church 
 
 property, the destruction of religion by legislative en- 
 
232 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [PART iv. 
 
 actment, and the massacre of a hundred thousand of 
 her clergy, be consistent with any reasonable estimate of 
 domination and power? Under such terrific judgments 
 upon the persecutors, can we refuse to admit that the 
 period of tJte twelve hundred and sixty years has term- 
 inated its course?" 
 
 RELIGIOUS EFFECTS OF THE EARTHQUAKE. 
 
 "And the sun became black as sackcloth of 
 hair, and the moon became as blood."— This is a 
 
 symbol of the putting out of the light of Christianity, or 
 the legal ostracism of the Word of God — the New Testa- 
 ment snn, and the Old Testament moon. For a ban was 
 placed upon the whole Bible — against any private or public 
 use of it, or any confessed faith in it. Thus treated, it 
 was darkened, and could no longer emit its precious light. 
 Of such a national condition of things, what could more 
 aptly symbolize it than the darkening of the literal lights 
 of heaven? The figure is drawn from that most remark- 
 able phenomenon in nature predicted by our Lord in 
 Matt. xxiv. 29, according to which the darkening of the 
 sun and moon (literally) was to be the sign of the ended 
 tribulation on the saints. It occurred just nine years be- 
 fore the Judgments on their enemies began by the open- 
 ing of this seal, and the earthquake and darkening we are 
 considering. The world had never before seen, either in 
 nature or Christianity, a phenomenon to compare with 
 either. Of the darkened sun the astronomer Herschel, 
 
 as quoted in "Our First Century," says: 
 Herschel on "The dark day in North America (May 
 Tiie Dark Day. ^9^ 178O) was ouc of those woudcrful 
 
 phenomena in nature which will always 
 be read of with interest, but which philosophy is at a 
 
CHAP. XVI.] EPOCH OF THE SIXTH SEAl.. 233 
 
 loss to explain." * What that darkening was to the 
 physical world, the results of the French Eevolution were 
 to the religions or Christian world. Of the latter darken- 
 ing there is also much testimony like this: — 
 
 " On the memorable 25th of August, in the year 1792, an open 
 profession of atheism, irreligion and ijtfidelity 
 Faber on the was made and forthwith acted upon by a whole 
 
 French nation once devoted to the papal superstitioxis. 
 
 Revolution. Christianity was then formally abolished as a 
 
 notorious and malignant imposture by the gov- 
 ernment of revolutionary France ; and so well did the people 
 second them, that, while not a trace of the Gospel could be found 
 throughout the reprobate metropolis, every frantic oration in praise 
 of atheism was loudly and enthusiastically applauded." — Faber, 
 On the Prophecies, Vol. III., p. 363. 
 
 " On the I2th of August, 1792, the infidel king exalted himself 
 above all law ; on the 26tli of the same month he exalted himself 
 above all religion. As the first of these days witnessed the aboli- 
 tion of all the distinctions of civil society, so the second beheld 
 the establishment of atheism by law. A decree was then passed, 
 ordering the clergy to leave the kingdom within a fortnight after 
 its date; but, instead of allowing them the time specified, even by 
 their own decree, the Jacobin tyrants of France employed the 
 whole of that period in seizing, imprisoning, and putting them to 
 the most cruel deaths." — lb.. Vol. II. , p. 43. 
 
 But not only were the sun and the moon darkened, 
 but the lesser lights of the theological firmament were 
 equally affected: — 
 
 "And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, 
 even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when 
 she is shaken of a mighty wind." — These smaller 
 lights represent the individual ministry — the "angels" of 
 the churches. They were specially affected, as seen by 
 the last part of the last quotation; and many of them were 
 
 * For further testimony and particulars concerning it see above Work, Pres. 
 Dwight's Hi&i. Coll., Gage's HUt. of Rowley, Mass., or tract No. 379 of American 
 Tract Society. 
 
234 DIVINK KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part iv. 
 
 unable to endnre the loss of property, homes, and all 
 things, and they "fell," and were no longer lightbearers. 
 What led to the picture which Mr. Faber draws, began in 
 the close of 1790. Pressense, speaking of the new "Civil 
 Constitution of the Clergy," says: — 
 
 " It would have been just to require an oath of submission to 
 the civil laws, but to extend it to the new Con- 
 Pressense Says. stitutiou of the clergy was to outrage the con- 
 science of many respectable priests." But that 
 its advocates " loved it because it trampled under foot the cause of 
 Ultramontanism and the power of the papacy from which (they) 
 had suffered so much. * Finally, the decree requiring the oath 
 of the clergy was passed on the 27th of November, 1790.* This is 
 a sad date in the history of the Revolution. It consummated the 
 divorce between young France and religion, and led to still more 
 flagrant violations of liberty. * * * This decree set all France 
 into ferment. The revolutionary press brandished it as a sword in 
 the face of all reactionary priests." — Relig. and Reign o/Ter., p. 
 108. 
 
 Just one year later, the great body of the priesthood 
 
 having refused to take the oath, the Assembly resolved on 
 violent measures. Mr. Eowan writes of it as follows: — 
 
 " It was decreed, November 29th, 1791, that the members of 
 the clergy who had not taken the oath required 
 Rowan Writes. by the constitution should be deprived of their 
 pensions, which had been given them as an in- 
 demnity for the sale of their property ; that they should no longer 
 be allowed to exercise their holy functions, even in private houses ; 
 that they were declared suspected of entertaining thoughts of 
 sedition, and were placed under the surveillance of the authorities ; 
 that if any disturbance should take place in the commune in- 
 habited by a refractory priest, the departmental authorities should 
 be bound to force him to change his residence." — Hist. French 
 Revo., Vol. II., p. 13. 
 
 It will be seen that this was not a war upon indi- 
 viduals, nor nationality, but upon Christianity, or any 
 
 * This date stands "1795" in the first edition of Lacioix's translation and 
 American reprint, but it is manifestly a typographical error, as the whole connec- 
 tion goes to show. 
 
CHAP. XVI.] EPOCH OF THK SIXTH SKAL. 235 
 
 profession of it. These helpless men, 
 The Long War ^^^^^ made responsible for every misde- 
 by tiie ciiurch, meanor that should occur in their vicinity, 
 Now Returned howcvcr improbable, false or scandalous 
 Upon Herself, ^j^g charge, wcrc at the mercy of every 
 
 neighboring miscreant that had learned to 
 hate religion and its representatives. But all this was 
 exactly in reverse — an exact counterpart — of what had 
 been enacted by Justinian in behalf of the Church, in his 
 edict against the testimony of any declared heretic in 
 courts of justice, just 1,260 years before. The judgment 
 was not unjust; but multitudes of the provincial priests 
 throughout the kingdom, deceived, but honestly laboring 
 among the peasantry, and nearly as much oppressed by 
 the papacy and higher orders of the clergy as the peasantry 
 themselves, were thus put to the last extremity. Their 
 property had been confiscated; and now, because they 
 could not conscientiously take the infidel-prescribed oaths 
 to the state, which they justly thought derogatory to reli- 
 gion, and subversive of its proper exercise, they were to be 
 stripped of the pensions they had received in lieu of their 
 property rights, and put in peril of their homes at any 
 occurring disorder, which they might as much regret, 
 being as helpless also to prevent, as the state itself; and 
 were as unreasonably prohibited from even private zvor- 
 ship, as the pagans themselves had been when the Church 
 had the better of them, one thousand years before. 
 
 By the same decree the National Assembly put a 
 premium on infidel books and writings, "to the level of the 
 common people," declaring that they would consider it 
 for the "public benefit," and would cause the same "to 
 be printed and distributed at the expense of the state, 
 and recompense the writers of them." Mr. Eowan re- 
 marks: "It is needless to say that France was inundated 
 
236 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEI.ATION. [parT IV. 
 
 with works which, not satisfied with attacking the refrac- 
 tory priests, contributed to destroy all religion." — lb. 
 With all this, it conld not be otherwise than that many 
 natures or characters, through fear or favor, would fall in 
 with the general and popular defection; and so the "stars" 
 of the Church would fall. The following speech in the 
 French Assembly, quoted by Mr. Alison, represents this: — 
 
 " Citizens, representatives : You see before you your brothers, 
 who desire to be regenerated and to become 
 Apostasy of men. You see the bishops of Paris, the grand 
 
 Priests. vicars and some of the priests, who, conducted 
 
 by reason, came to lay aside the character which 
 superstition had given them ; that great example will be imitated 
 by their colleagues. It is thus that the minions of despotism 
 concur in its destruction ; it is thus that soon the French Republic 
 will recognize no other worship but that of liberty, equality and 
 eternal truth, which, thanks to your immortal labors, will soon 
 become universal." — Hist, of Europe, Vol. IV., p. 149. 
 
 Those were times again which tried men's souls. No 
 light from sun or moon or star. The darkness was like 
 that which covered the land of Egypt, and for a season 
 reigned supreme in that wretched kingdom. It was the 
 legitimate fruit of the Roman Catholic mixture of pagan- 
 ism, tradition, mysticism and perversions of the Scriptures. 
 Roman supremacy was now ended under predicted judg- 
 ments from the hand of God. Jezebel's fiendish work of 
 blood was over; and as the sun was darkened at Jesus' ex- 
 piring cry from the cross, so at the last cries from those 
 centuries of agony of His people, the sun of eternal truth 
 was veiled to mark an hour on the Christian's prophetic 
 dial. 
 
 "And the heaven departed as a scroll when it 
 is rolled together." — The old regime, the old church- 
 state "abomination of desolation" and of authority, began 
 to break up and roll away like the dismal clouds of a 
 long equinoctial storm. Mr. Alison says: — 
 
CHAP. XVI.] EPOCH OF THE SIXTH SEAL. 237; i 
 
 "It is not surprising that the higher ranks mistook 
 
 the signs of the times. They were ad- 
 Aiison a^ain. yancing into a region in which the ancient 
 
 landmarks [the old "heavens"] were un- 
 known, where the signs of a nczv heaven, and hitherto 
 unseen constellations were to guide the statesmen." — Hist. 
 Europe, Vol. I., p. 51. 
 
 Mr. Bower has preserved the brief of Pius VI., 10th 
 
 March, 1791. He says, "it was especially 
 Brief of addressed to the prelates who were deputed 
 
 Pope Pius VI. tQ ^i^g National Assembly. In it the 
 
 pontiff discussed many articles of the civil 
 constitution of the clergy, that had been enacted by that 
 body in July 1790, and the effect of which was the entire 
 subversion of the papal jurisdiction, and hierarchy in 
 France. * * * The changes and innovations introduced 
 by the Assembly into the ecclesiastical discipline, destroy 
 the fundaincntal principle's, on zvhich the authority cf the 
 Roman church is founded." — Hist, of the Popes, Vol. III., 
 p. 415. 
 
 "And every mountain and island were moved 
 out of their places." — As Mount Zion was a symbol of 
 the kingdom of God, so these mountains and islands are 
 used as symbols of greater and lesser kingdoms covering 
 the field of prophecy, namely, Europe. Earthquakes, 
 though local, are often far-reaching in their effects. So 
 it was with the great Eevolution in France: Mr. Eedhead 
 writes: — 
 
 '^All Europe stood in amazement a^id perturbation at the 
 
 events that were passing. The prodigious in- 
 Redliead's crease of power by France, and the revolting 
 
 Deacrlptlon. purposes to which she applied it, began to 
 
 arouse a universal dread for the independence 
 of nations and the existence of social order or public morality. 
 It was natural that kings and aristocracies should regard even the 
 
238 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part I V. 
 
 first outbreak of the revolution with dislike and apprehension now 
 from the frightful features it had assumed. This feeling was par- 
 taken by the whole world and prevailed even among the most 
 democratic communities. The enlightened citizens of the United 
 States shared it with the ignorant populations of Sarmatia and 
 Romelia. Upon the first reverse sustained by France, all the na- 
 tions of the earth seemed to rush simultaneously to quell her. 
 The sympathies of mankind were enlisted against her, for she had 
 shown how hideous was the spirit by which she was actuated." — 
 Hist, of France, p. 113. 
 
 In the excitement, which was justly aroused, every 
 kingdom in Europe, great and small, furnished its quota 
 of troops for the allied armies, to check the mad career 
 of the infidel Eepuhlic; for the dragon, as we shall find 
 (ch. XX.), was loosed for a season from the pit. True to 
 the symbol, these nations, as the effect of the earthquake, 
 were "moved out of their places." Who can fail to read in 
 these wonderful predictions and fulfillments, both the 
 foreknowledge and the oversight of the mind divine? 
 
 "And the kings of the earth, and the great 
 men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, 
 and the mighty men, and every bondman, and 
 every freeman, hid themselves in the dens and in 
 the rocks of the mountains." — We must not forget 
 that all these, too, are symbols — the men; their riches and 
 might; the dens, and rocks, and mountains. The figure is 
 based on a like symbolization in Isaiah ii. 10-21, when the 
 prophet, looking forward to the first advent of the Messiah, 
 was picturing the recoiling of the guilty house of Jacob 
 from Him who should "sit as a refiner and purifier of 
 silver" (Mai. iii. 2, 3); "sift them as corn is sifted in a 
 sieve" (Amos ix. 9); "shake terribly the earth," and "alone 
 
 be exalted in that day." Haggai (ch. ii. 
 A similar First (3.9) testifies that the shaking of the na- 
 Advent Symbol. fJQijg gjioiild occur at the appearing of the 
 
 "Desire of all nations" — He in whom" all 
 
CHAP. XVI.] EPOCH OF THE SIXTH SEAI,. 239 
 
 the families of the earth" were to be blessed; and the 
 Apostle Paul, in his epistle to the Hebrews (ch. xii. 26-28), 
 quotes this prophecy of Haggai as fulfilled in the Gospel 
 age. The whole description as given by the three prophets 
 and the apostle is very similar to the Eevelator's view of the 
 sixth seal; and both are undoubtedly highly symbolic. 
 They are Judgment scenes, however, and are often referred 
 to the final judgment at the last day, not without violence 
 to all the harmonies of the two Testaments. At the first 
 Advent Jesus sat in judgment upon the Jews and extended 
 His judgment to the Gentiles. (See Isa. ii. 4; iv. 4; ix. 7; 
 xi. 3, 4; xxxii. 1, 16; xxxiii. 5; xli. 1, 2; xlii. 1-4; Mic. iv. 
 3; Mai. iii. 5; Matt. xii. 18, 20; John ix. 39, etc.) 
 
 The judgment of the sixth seal is upon the papal 
 power, as we have seen by quotations from Daniel; and 
 must be succeeded by the whole period of the seventh seal, 
 and Laodicean church. The scene depicts the universal 
 consternation among the ruling and official classes of the 
 Eoman "earth" concerning the wonderful change that has 
 come over the constituted authorities in the exercise of 
 power; for the prophecy, as I have said, relates not to 
 individuals, as such, but to systems, and the official charac- 
 ters connected with them. "Bondman" and "freeman," 
 and "chief captains" and "mighty men" are not, therefore, 
 such literally, but relate to official subordination and in- 
 dependence in position. They seem to recognize the in- 
 tervention of the Almighty and the displeasure of Him 
 who has the "key of David," to open and to shut; and to 
 realize His predicted "power," and "wisdom," and 
 "honor," to control events according to His will (ch. v. 
 12). And, as the events and transformations of this cen- 
 tury loom up before the minds of those who have marked 
 the opening of these seals, there is no wonder at their 
 expressed anxiety; for the day of their pride and power 
 
240 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part iv. 
 
 had brought the day of their "perplexity" also — as all this 
 century thus far attests. Hiding in the dens and rocks 
 of the mountains (kingdoms) would represent their justify- 
 ing themselves individually as the disinterested servants 
 of the governments — screening their personal iniquities 
 under the plea of governmental interests or precedents, 
 and seeking their protection. 
 
 "And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall 
 on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sit- 
 teth on the throne, and from the wrath of the 
 Lamb." — Fear seizes the political spirits of ^ the world, 
 but it is not intelligently directed; for while their call 
 for governmental help or protection indicates disturbed 
 consciences, and some knowledge of God and Christ as 
 instituting judgments, yet their fear of the divine does 
 not appear greater than their confidence in human in- 
 stitutions. The description seems extravagant until the 
 reader is familiar with prophetic imagery. But in rhetoric 
 also hyperbole, exaggeration, is an allow- 
 Hyperboie ^ihlQ and comniou figure. Jesus said that 
 
 a Common Capcmaum was "exalted unto Heaven" 
 
 Fisare. John> Said that if all the things which 
 
 Jesus said and did were written, "the 
 ivorld itself could not contain the books.''' And David, in 
 his lamentation over the death of Saul and Jonathan, said, 
 "they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than 
 lions." (2 Sam. i. 23.) In symbolic prophecy the figure 
 is most frequently used — naturally so. If any one is un- 
 certain on this point, let the same extravagance (?) of joy 
 put into the typical song of the living creatures and elders 
 at the Lamb's reception of the power (ch. v. 12, 13) be 
 considered, and it will immediately account for the neces- 
 sary typical anxiety in the minds of those who are to 
 come under the exercise of the power, at the time of its 
 
CHAP. XVI.] EPOCH OF THE SIXTH SEAL. 24! 
 
 exercise, to be in keeping, the one with the other. But 
 the "extravagance" really is in onr own obtnseness, and 
 unimjjressibility, in matters prophetic and divine. And 
 it is not more noticeable on this special point than on the 
 attention which is nsually given to all things earthly and 
 present, and the general indifference shown to all things 
 heavenly and future. To illustrate this, let us give a little 
 closer attention to Daniel's portrayal of this same judg- 
 ment scene, but which it is probable that the greater num- 
 ber of readers, on account of the supposed "extravagance" 
 of the description, class as a fi}ial judgment scene at the 
 end of time: whereas it clearly marks only the destruction, 
 by the direct judgment or intervention of God, of the 
 beast pozvcrs in the world. For the power had only been 
 held by the several beasts in trust (which they had abused) 
 since "the kingdom" was first "given" to Nebuchadnezzar 
 (Dan. ii. 37); to the lion, the bear, the leopard, etc. (Dan. 
 vii.); and the "great sword" was ''given'' to the red horse, 
 and the "power" was "given" to the pale horse, etc. This 
 power once secured, was relinquished, and reverted to its 
 original source, only through the judgments of the Lord. 
 Notice the words of the Prophet Daniel: — 
 
 " I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of 
 days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, 
 Analogons Pro- and the hair of His head like the pure wool : 
 phetic Scenrs. His throne was like the fiery flame, and His 
 
 wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued 
 and came forth from before Him : thousand thousands ministered 
 unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him : 
 the judgment was set and the books were opened. ' '— Ch. vii. 9, 10. 
 
 Compare this pen-picture with that of Eevelation iv. 
 It is the same in spirit down to the last clause of the above 
 passage. The Eevelator was describing the original inau- 
 guration of the kingdom under Christ, at the first Advent. 
 
242 DIVINE KKY OF THK REVELATION. [parT IV 
 
 Daniel was looking beyond this, and the subsequent dele- 
 gation of power by Christ to the beasts, to the revocation 
 of the same at the end of their periods, and the mnaugura- 
 tion of the kingdom under Christ, for Judgment on the 
 beast-systems because of the misuse of delegated power. 
 Daniel therefore adds to his picture: — 
 
 "The judgment was set, and the books were opened. I be- 
 held then, because of the voice of the great words which the horn 
 spake: I beheld ^zrw till the beast zuas slain, Sind. his body destroyed, 
 and given to the burning flame. As concerning the rest of the 
 beasts, they had their dominion taken away ; yet their lives were 
 prolonged for a season and time" (ver. ii, 12). 
 
 In explaining this vision, Daniel said (ver. 25-27) 
 
 that the power given to the horn for blas- 
 
 Daniei'a phemy, and for wearing out the saints, 
 
 Explanation. ^^.^g f^j. u^ ^j^^g^ ^-^^^g^ ^^^ ^ ^i^Xi;' Or 
 
 1,260 years. "But the judgment shall sit, 
 {i. €., the judgment upon the papal horn] and they shall 
 take away his dominion to consume and destroy it unto' the 
 end" (ver. 26). For there are two other periods in Daniel's 
 visions to end after the 1,260 period, which cover the 
 "time of the end" — a period of more than a century. 
 Thus he represents a direct war upon the life of the horn- 
 power after his dominio)i is taken away, contrary to the 
 course pursued with the other beasts, whose lives were 
 prolonged. They were allowed to continue their home- 
 rule as provinces tributary to the conquering beast — they 
 were tolerated; but every effort is made to arrest and con- 
 sume the life of the last beast or horn under fiery judg- 
 ment — "the burning flame," Daniel calls it; but the 
 Revelator terms it "seven last plagues," and the "lake of 
 fire." And it is said that they were cast alive into the 
 "Jake of fire" (Rev. xix. 20), showing it to be a process of 
 
CHAP. XVI.] EPOCH OF THE SIXTH SEAI.. 
 
 243 
 
 judgment before final execution. These symbols will be 
 treated as we reach them in their places. 
 
 " For the great day of His wrath is come ; and 
 who shall be able to stand." — Day of wrath against 
 Jezebel for seducing the C-hurch to commit fornication 
 and to eat of idol sacrifices. Day of predicted judgment 
 because her given "space for repentance" is expired, and 
 she has not repented (ch. iii. 21-34). It should be suffi- 
 cient to simply repeat here (for the futurist reader), that 
 whatever this day of wrath may be thought to mean, it 
 is all under the sixth seal, and is, therefore, necessarily as 
 far removed from the final day of wrath or executive judg- 
 ment upon the world at large, as the events of the seventh 
 seal and the Laodicean church period require space for 
 accomplishment. Every rule of this book requires it — 
 a proposition so simple and axiomatic, that it would even 
 seem piierile to explain at length were it not for the fact 
 that it has seemed undiscoverable to the mass of expositors. 
 Its parallels are ch. xi. 18; xiv. 10-13, 19; xv. 1, 7, 8: 
 xvi. 1, 2; xix. 15-30; and they fully justify the above state- 
 ments, as will appear when they are reached. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 CONTINUATION OF THE SIXTH SEAL— FOUE 
 ANGELS HOLD THE WINDS. 
 
 THE GREAT SEALING MESSAGE — AVHITE-ROBED PHILADEL- 
 PHIANS — FROM THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA, 
 
 1815, TO 1810. 
 
 Text, Chapter vii. 1-17. 
 
 1. And after these things I saw four angels standing on the 
 four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that 
 the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any 
 tree. 
 
 2. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having 
 the seal of the living God : and he cried with a loud voice to the 
 four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, 
 
 3. Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, 
 till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. 
 
 4. And I heard the number of them that were sealed : and 
 there iverc sealed a hundred and forty and four thousand of all the 
 tribes of the children of Israel. 
 
 5. Of the tribe of Juda ivere sealed twelve thousand. Of the 
 tribe of Reuben zvere sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad 
 were sealed twelve thousand. 
 
 6. Of the tribe of Aser ivere sealed twelve thousand. Of the 
 tribe of Nepthalim were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of 
 Manasses were sealed twelve thousand. 
 
 7. Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of 
 the tribe of Levi ivere sealed twelve thoiisand. Of the tribe oj 
 Issachar ivere sealed twelve thousand. 
 
 8. Of the tribe of Zabulon were sealed twelve thousand. Of 
 the tribe of Joseph ivcre sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of 
 Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand. 
 
 9. After this I beheld, and, lo, a great midtitude, which no 
 man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and 
 tongues, stood before the throne, and before the L^amb, clothed 
 with white robes, and palms in their hands ; 
 
 244 
 
c!hap. XVII.] EPOCH OF YHK SIXTH SEAI., 245 
 
 10. And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God 
 who sitteth upon the thtone, and unto the L,amb. 
 
 11. Arid all the angels stood round about the throne, and about 
 the elders and the four living creatures, and fell before the throne 
 on their faces, and worshipped God, 
 
 12. Saying, Amen : Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and 
 thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God 
 for ever ,and ever. Amen. 
 
 13. And one of the elders answered, sajdng unto me. Who are 
 these that are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they ? 
 
 14. And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to 
 me. These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have 
 washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 
 
 15. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve 
 Him day and night in His temple : and He that sitteth on the 
 throne shall dwell among them. 
 
 16. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more ; 
 neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. 
 
 17. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall 
 feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters : 
 and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. 
 
 J -|-EEE we are presented again with a most remark- 
 '^'^H able, and apparently extravagant, change of scene: 
 V^ angels standing on the four corners of the earth, 
 holding or restraining the four winds, and preparing to 
 seal the servants of God; intended, no doubt, to impress the 
 Church that final work is being completed, final decisions, 
 being made, and final conditions about to be entered upon. 
 If the hyperbolism, bold and strong as it is, shall only 
 startle thought, awaken interest, and arouse action in the 
 Church and among those who are ready to perish, without 
 hope, it shall be well for them. 
 
 "After these things." — After the horrors, the con- 
 fusion, and the convictions, which sprang out of the 
 French Revolution — the earthquake which came with the 
 opening of this seal. 
 
 " I saw four angels standing on the four cor- 
 
246 DIVINE KEY OP THE REVEtATlON. [parT iV. 
 
 ners of the earth, holding the four winds of the 
 earth."— Four angels or agencies— see on chap. ii. 1, p. 
 69. The four corners of tlie earth must represent the 
 universality of the influence exerted by the quadruple 
 agency. Holding the four winds must symbolize a re- 
 straining, or holding in check, the spirit of zvar abroad in 
 the earth. For in Daniel vii. 3, we find a similar scene: 
 the four winds of heaven were striving on the great sea, 
 and four beasts came up out of the troubled sea. Waters 
 symbolize "peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and 
 tongues" (ch. xvii. 15). The four winds lashing the waters 
 into angry billows and dashing them against each other, 
 form an easy symbol of zvar, by which the four empires 
 rose one after the other. 
 
 " That the wind should not blow on the earth, 
 nor on the sea, nor on any tree."— That the spirit of 
 war shonld not influence the empire (the "earth," as in 
 contrast witli "heaven," the Church); nor the infidel 
 Republic of France (the "sea" — a principal body of the 
 "waters" which had been so much disturbed); nor any 
 prince or king ("tree" being frequently used to symbolize 
 rulers — see 2 Chor. xxv. 17-25; Eze. xvii. 1-14; Dan. iv. 
 4, 5, 20-22) to inspire a general war, till the Church could 
 be sealed. 
 
 "And I saw another angel ascending from the 
 east." — Another agency of God ascending (Greek, apo 
 anatoles heliou) from the sun rising {Emph. Diag. and 
 Rez'is.). He came, with the light of "present truth," be- 
 fore which the dim mysticism of the dark ages may be 
 dissipated at the will of every individual according as he, 
 or she, is attentive or indifferent to the messages of the 
 Spirit to the seven churches, and to the signification of 
 these opening seals. We will identify the angel by his 
 work, shortly. 
 
CHAP. XVII.] EPOCH OF THE SIXTH SEAL. 247 
 
 " Having the seal of the hving God." — Which 
 
 represents tnttli, since it was to be placed in the forehead, 
 the seat of the nnderstanding, or where truth is perceived 
 and stored. The object being to mark, set apart, sanctify 
 (John XV. 3; xvii. 17; 2 Thes. ii. 13) to the service of God. 
 
 "And he cried with a loud voice." — All the 
 
 agencies of this book have had loud, prompt voices — 
 courage and boldness to deliver tlieir messages — because 
 they were designed to be understood, and are important to 
 know. 
 
 "To the four angels to whom it was given to 
 hurt the earth and the sea." — To the four principal 
 inde})endent Powers of the earth then capable of precipi- 
 tating war, or liable to sanction it. The four agencies 
 referred to are doubtless England, and the three Powers 
 of the Holy Alliance known as the "signatory Powers;" 
 namely, Eussia, Austria, and Prussia. Had they hereto- 
 fore exercised such power, hurting earth and sea? De- 
 scribing what succeeded the shock which Europe received 
 from the excesses of the Revolutionists, history answers: — 
 "Angry communications were exchanged between the courts 
 
 of Vienna, Berlin and Paris. At length [about 
 The -Winds of March ist, 1792] * * * the Austrian minister 
 War Unre- Kauuitz despatched an ultimatum to Paris, de- 
 
 stralned. manding that the French monarchy should be 
 
 re-established in conformity with the royal 
 declaration of June 23d, 17S9. * * * Europe was now to enter 
 on a struggle which, whether we contemplate the momentous 
 magnitude of the interests involved, the permanent results arising 
 from it, or the terrible extent of the suffering and sacrifices it en- 
 tailed, is altogether without parallel in the history of nations." 
 {Student's France, pp. 545, 546.) 
 
 "We are able to show," says Durivage, " that more general 
 
 actions were fought, and more lives lost by the 
 Durivage on fortunes of war from 1800 to 1815 than ever 
 
 the winds. before in a period of ten times the same extent ; 
 
 among them Marengo, Alexandria, Austerlitz, 
 Corunna, Aspen and Essling, Wagram, Borossa, Elbuera, Boridino, 
 
248 DIVINE KEY OP THE REVELATION. [ PART IV. 
 
 IvUtzen, Toplitz, etc., * * amounting to nearly two hundred 
 general actions." — Cyclo. of Hist., p. 707. 
 
 Prophecy now demanded the holding of these winds 
 of war, since Jezebel and the kings who had committed 
 fornication with her had received so severe a judgment, 
 that a work might he done for the Church and the world. 
 Therefore tlie voice was heard, saying: — 
 
 "Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the 
 trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God 
 in their foreheads." — And now, according to the marvel 
 of prophecy, for a like period of fifteen years, (until the 
 Revolution in France of 1830,) the "earth" and "sea" 
 were as comparatively calm as they had been storm-swept 
 with war. Josiah Conder, in the Missionary Annual for 
 1833, speaking of the period succeeding 1815, says of it: — 
 
 "Comparatively speatcing, the whole earth is still; and with 
 this stillness is combined a very general ex- 
 Conder on pectation, vague and erring though it may be, 
 
 tlie Hoi«leii Qf great remedial changes, of a moral restora- 
 Wlnds. ^Jqi^ fatal to the waning superstitious and 
 
 cnmbling ["iron and clay— Dan. ii. 42, 43] systems of the old 
 world." — Goodrich's Hist, of the Church, p. 493. 
 
 The sealing is very similar to the marking described 
 in the ninth chapter of Ezekiel: one with an inkhorn was 
 commanded to go through the city of Jerusalem, and set a 
 mark upon the foreheads of all "who sigh and who cry for 
 all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof." 
 And others M-ere commanded to follow and slay all who 
 had not the mark.' So here the war-judgments in the 
 hands of the four agencies are stayed until those who 
 sigh over the corruptions and desolations of the Church 
 can be sealed for preservation and blessing. In the message 
 to this people, (the Philadelphian age — as the reader will 
 recall,) they who faithfully kept the word of His patience 
 
CHAP. XVII.] EPOCH OF THE SIXTH SEAT.. 249 
 
 were in turn to be kept from falling when the test of faith 
 in prophecy came — the ''hour of trial;" and the over- 
 comers were promised to be made "pillars in the temple," 
 or strong supports in Gospel work. This could only be 
 done by giving them extra and increasing light on the 
 Word of Prophecy. That was just what was done as the 
 answer of sealing "in the forehead" — the symbol of the 
 understanding. Daniel said, concerning the last days of 
 his sealed vision, "The wise shall understand;" while "the 
 wicked shall do wickedly, and none of the wicked shall 
 understand." This is the wisdom of obedience, rather than 
 that of a superior order of mind, as seen in the "wise 
 virgins," who did right in keeping the word of patience, 
 and watching, obediently, in contrast with the "foolish 
 virgins," who did "zuickedly" in not keeping the Word of 
 Christ's patience, and watching continuously for His 
 return. 
 
 The preparation which God made for this sealing 
 
 was to darken the sun and moon in 1780, 
 Preimrtttory jj^ tokcu of the end of the shortened days 
 to tiie Sealing. (Matt. xxiv. 21, 22), and of the great 
 
 persecution; then at the end of the whole 
 period came the predicted judgment by the French in- 
 fidels, who went further and darkened the Gospel sun, and 
 the moon (as reflecting from Moses and the prophets); then 
 fifteen years of dreadful judgments upon the whole system 
 of European Powers which had tolerated and assisted the 
 papacy — all "the kings of the earth, the chief captains, 
 and the mighty men," etc.: then fifteen years of quiet, 
 Avhich allowed the young Bible and missionary societies 
 to spring into great activity; a more general dissemination 
 of knowledge concerning the Bible, the prophecies, and 
 the signs of the times; and then the "hour of trial," as we 
 have seen. This developed the wisdom or folly of the 
 
250 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEI.ATION. [part IV. 
 
 masses concerning the truth, and sealed the wise "in the 
 forehead/' in a figure. 
 
 They were premature in their expectations, but their 
 very mistake taught them that they were 
 Disapiiointment j.^g|^|- j^ the main; that, though the Bride- 
 leci to the groom was tarrying, he was yet near, in 
 
 Discovery of ^ prophetic scusc, "cvcn at the door." 
 the Old Paths, rpj^py learned to greatly love the doc- 
 trine and the prospect; and besides, 
 in their extended and earnest investigations, other great 
 truths came to light : some which had for centuries 
 been lost sight of through the creeds, but which had been 
 struggling for recognition since Luther's day; namely, the 
 truth concerning one God and Father; concerning our 
 Lord Jesus Christ His Son through the virgin Mary, and 
 as such not a son independent of her; concerning the Holy 
 Spirit "which proeeedeth from the Father," not as another 
 Son, or an independent, sentient being or person, but an 
 influence, a "poiver," which was "poured out" upon the dis- 
 ciples on the day of Pentecost, "filled all the house where 
 (the apostles and disciples) were sitting;" so that they were 
 anointed with it, anil immersed in it; and which has held 
 a controlling influence in the hearts and minds of individual 
 members of the Church to tliis day, and will till the Lord's 
 return, and forever. That the whole being of man is 
 subject to death, which is entire unconsciousness, until 
 the resurrection by the power of Christ. That the earth, 
 renovated at the return of Jesus, is to be the future, 
 eternal home of Christ and His redeemed people. That 
 the Church are called unto holiness or sanctification, 
 "without which no man shall see the Lord." 
 
 To seal in the forehead, literally, would be to mark 
 or set apart for preservation, while others are to be de- 
 stroyed, as in the case of the inkhorn marking of Ezekiel 
 
CHAP. XVII.] EPOCH OP THE SlJtTH SEAt. 25 1 
 
 and the Passover blood on the door-posts of ancient Israel. 
 But with God, to set apart, to separate for preservation 
 eternally, is to sanctify or make holy; and this work is 
 accomplished by the truth. "God hath from the begin- 
 ning," said the Apostle, "chosen you to salvation through 
 sanctifi cation of the spirit and belief of the truth''' (2 Thes. 
 ii. 13). , "Sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy Word 
 [not a human formulation] is truth." "For their sakes," 
 said Jesns in His prayer, "I sanctify myself, that they also 
 might be sanctified through the truth'''' (John xvii. 17, 19). 
 Thousands and thousands have rejoiced in the light of 
 these plain truths during the last half century, while more 
 thousands are still in the toils and mazes of Roman Trini- 
 tarianism, soul-immortality, the personality of the Holy 
 Spirit and the devil, the "heaven's-my-horae" songs and 
 like theories. 
 
 It was shown, in connection with the message to 
 Philadelphia, that an "hour of trial'' was about to "come 
 upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth." 
 This trial was in connection with the "open door" which 
 we found was the restoration of the Bible to the world, 
 as a free book, in all languages and dialects. This sealing 
 in the forehead, tlierefore, must be of those who are 
 proven by that test, for they were sealed out of all nations. 
 IIow much of absolute truth on any certain line one must 
 be possessed, in order to be sealed unto salvation, must be 
 decided by the sealing angels: all mortals will necessarily 
 come short, in some degree, when weighed in the balance 
 of Heaven; but it is reasonably certain that each must be 
 found possessed of the "spirit of truth" that is to say, 
 of that true candor of faith, and courage of conviction, 
 that would cause them to receive and obey the truth, at 
 least when it is forced upon the attention. 
 
 "And I heard the number of them that were 
 
252 divine; KElY OF l^ltj; RElVEtATlON, [parT tv. 
 
 Sealed, a hundred and forty-four thousand, sealed 
 out of every tribe of the children of Israel." — In 
 
 connection with this statement, by way of emphasis, are 
 given the names of the several tribes. It cannot be 
 thought that the number is literal, but a figure of the 
 perfect number. It may be that the definite, in contrast 
 with the indefinite number, which immediately follows, 
 was intended to startle the Jew as to the importance of 
 the Gospel dispensation, and the work of Christ among the 
 Gentiles. The indefinite statement is as follows: — 
 
 "After this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude 
 which no man could number." — These were "of all 
 nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and languages," and 
 were standing "before the throne, and before the Lamb, 
 clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands." The 
 whole figure will yield to a careful survey of the origin of 
 the representation: Thus; nearly all the symbols of this 
 Eevelation, and of prophecy are based on some historic 
 type or incident: this on the first giving of the Gospel to 
 the nearly apostate Jewish tribes. The light shone in the 
 "darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not." A 
 limited number receited it. It was first preached to them 
 exclusively; "after" that to "every nation, and kindred, 
 and people, and language" — i. e., the Gentile world. The 
 Holy Spirit was first poured out on Jews only at Pentecost; 
 afterward on the Gentiles at the house of Cornelius. "It 
 was necessary," wrote Paul, "that the Gospel should first 
 have been spoken to you; but seeing ye put it from you, 
 and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we 
 turn to the Gentiles; for so the Lord hath commanded 
 us" (x\cts xiii. 46). Those Jews were the special people 
 of God by covenant relation; and as such, in figure, rep- 
 resent church relationship in tlie Gospel dispensation. 
 That is, God's people were in tribes before Christ, but in 
 
CHAP. XVII ] EPOCH OF THE SIXTH SEAL. 253 
 
 church organizations since; while the Gentiles were with- 
 out organization or covenant relationship. Thus when 
 the Dark Ages were ending, and the light of truth was re- 
 turning under this seal, the design was first to arouse the 
 chitrches which were in al)out the same darkness that the 
 Jews were at the First Advent; and when they, as organiza- 
 tions, turned from it and despised it, choosing to remain 
 on "the foundation laid" by the Eoman Catholic Councils 
 and bishops — "the depths of the adversary, as they speak" 
 — then it was designed to go to those outside, in the "high- 
 ways and hedges," to "constrain them to come in." For 
 as the body of the Jewish tribes rejected the blessings of 
 the "early rain" to their own confusion, so the masses of 
 Christendom have rejected, and are rejecting, the blessings 
 of the "latter rain" to their own hurt. 
 
 These white-robed ones, with palms of victory over 
 
 Death and the pale horse, have none of 
 The Sealed Ones jezebcl's livcry ou. Their robes are the 
 ideutiiied. rightcousness of saints; and iheir blood 
 
 stained all the garments of the mother of 
 abominations. They had not eaten at "Jezebel's table," 
 and therefore were heretics to those Jezebelitic churclimen 
 who "laid the foundation on which the orthodox Christo- 
 logy of our days is still resting;" but they have found on 
 the Lord's table the pure Word of God. They are not 
 lauding the Eomanist Councils, but "our God who sits on 
 the throne, and the Lamb." They rejoice that he who 
 exalted himself in God's temple is dethroned, and there is 
 none to fear or worship any more but God. "These are 
 they who came out of great tribulation, and have washed 
 their robes and made them white in the blood of the 
 Lamb." It is the martyr throng from under the Sardian 
 altar — not necessarily all the individuals, but the over- 
 coming company that crossed the line into Philadelphia. 
 
254 DIVINE KE\ OP THE REVELATION. [part IV. 
 
 The cause of their tribulation was their 
 Truth was so-called hcresy, and the nature of their 
 
 Misnamed heresY was the belief in "one God/' ac- 
 
 "Heresy." cording to the Scriptures, but contrary to 
 
 the Eoman creed (and there is really no 
 other creed in all Christendom); the belief in one nature 
 in Christ (at one time), as we have seen, but contrary to 
 the Councils of Nice and Chalcedon; the belief that the 
 soul is not an immortal entity that can live independent 
 of the body, and that (in the language of that noble mar- 
 tyr, George Wishart) man "will not obtain immortal life" 
 until the resurrection at the last day — contrary to Leo X. 
 and the Council of Lateran; that life is "hid with Christ 
 in God [not in the soul]; and when He who is our life 
 shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory" 
 (Col. iii. 3, 4). Their righteousness is not their "own" 
 righteousness, nor that of "the Church," but of God. 
 
 " Therefore are they before the throne of God, 
 and publicly serve Him day and night in His 
 temple." — The Greek warrants the rendering '' pjiblicly'' 
 serve him. Young, yi his Analytical Concordance, thus 
 defines latrci'io, and it is so given in the Emphatic Diaglott. 
 It is a beautiful thought in this connection. All through 
 the long centuries of papal persecutions, the Church were 
 forced to seek secluded resorts in desolate frontiers, un- 
 frequented valleys or mountain fastnesses, in order to 
 worship God according to the Scriptures, reason, and the 
 dictates of their consciences. But now a marvelous change 
 has come, and tlie open door of free thouglit, free speech, 
 free home and freedom of public worship "in the temple," 
 or in the great congregation, to remove the figure, calls 
 forth this glad thanksgiving song: "Blessing, and glory, 
 and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and 
 might be unto our God forever and ever. Amen." Note 
 
CHAP. XVII.] EPOCH OF THE SIXTH SEAL. 255 
 
 the contrast, as Dr. Barber describes the sufferings of the 
 Scottish Covenanters during the rage of papal persecu- 
 tions: — 
 
 "During the storm of religious persecution which raged in 
 
 Scotland, the Covenanters were hunted from 
 Dr. Barber on tiie crag to glen, throughout the highlands. The 
 Scotilsli story of their sufferings is almost incredible. 
 
 Covenanters. Nothing can be more affecting than the meas- 
 
 iires they took to enjoy the privileges of 
 religious worship. Watches were stationed from hill to hill — 
 men so sunburnt and worn out that they could be hardly distin- 
 guished from the heather of the mountains — who gave a note 
 of alarm on the approach of danger, and the Covenanters had 
 time to disperse before the bloody swords gleamed in the retreats 
 where they worshipped. In the gloomy caverns and recesses made 
 by the awful hand that fashioned Scotland's mountain scenery, 
 these martj-rs, each one nioi:rning some dear friend who had 
 been hunted down by the destroyers, met and heard the mysterious 
 words of God, and sung such wild songs of devotion, that they 
 might have been tjiought the chantings of mountain spirits. As 
 their sufferings increased, their sermons and devotional exercises 
 approached nearer to the soul-chilling trumpetings of the ancient 
 prophets, when they foresaw desolation coming out of the North 
 like a whirlwind." 
 
 James Grahanie,. the Scottish divine and poet, thus 
 beautifully describes one of their assemblies for preach- 
 ing:— 
 
 " But years more gloomy followed ; and no more 
 The assembled people dared, in face of day. 
 To worship God, or even at the dead 
 Of night, save when the wintry storm raved fierce, 
 And thunder peals compell'd the men of blood 
 To crouch within their dens ; then dauntless 
 The scattered few would meet in some deep dell, 
 B)' rocks o'er-canopied, to hear the voice. 
 Their faithful Pastor's voice ; he, by the gleam 
 Of sheeted lightnings, op'ed the sacred book, 
 And words of comfort spake : over their souls 
 His soothing accents came — as to her young 
 The heath-fowl's plumes, when at the close of eve. 
 She gathers in, mournful, her brood dispersed 
 By murderous sport, and o'er the remnant spreads 
 Fondly her wings ; close nestling 'neath her breast 
 They, cherished, cower amid the purple blooms." 
 
256 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [parT IV. 
 
 After twelve centuries of such cruel treatment and 
 sufferings, when the effectual "door" of Philadelphia and 
 the sixth seal was thrown open to them, that they might 
 publicly worship God, and rejoice in Christ, why should 
 they not shout? "Amen: blessing and glory, and thanks- 
 giving, and honor, he unto our God for ever and ever." 
 The man of sin has now lost his place of blasphemy "in 
 the temple" and the people can fearlessly enter. Critically 
 rendered, the text continues: — 
 
 "And He that sitteth on the throne shall 
 spread His tabernacle over them." — So the Revision 
 and Diaglott. The symbol is drawn from the cloud which 
 covered the Hebrews at the time of their deliverance from 
 the cruel bondage of Egypt. Said the Psalmist, "He 
 spread a cloud for a covering, and fire to give them light 
 in the night" (Ps. cv. 39). Isaiah also uses the same 
 beautiful figure in describing the Gospel rest as a relief 
 from the "yoke of bondage" (ch. iv. 5, 6): "And the Lord 
 shall create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and 
 upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the 
 shining of a flaming fire by night; for above all the glory 
 shall be for a covering [margin; "canopy," Revision]. And 
 there shall be a tabernacle [pavilion, Revision] for a shadow 
 in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, 
 and for a covert from storm and from rain." It is divine 
 protection. 
 
 "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst 
 any more." — They have been hungering for the Word of 
 God. It was shown in connection with the message to 
 Philadelphia (pp. 159, 160) how the Scriptures were forced 
 out of the bands of the common people by all the power 
 the popes could wield. The consequent hunger for the 
 word is further shown by the dearth of Bibles among the 
 people, at the beginning of this century, even. The fol- 
 
CHAP. XVII.] EPOCH OF THE SIXTH SEAI, 257 
 
 lowing statistics, remarkable to consider, are found in the 
 Encyclopaedia Britannica : — 
 
 "In 1S12 inquiry was made in the case of 17,000 families in 
 London , when it was discovered that half of them 
 Former Deartii did not possess a Bible at all. ****** 
 of Bibles. '< When the [B. and F. Bible] society began 
 
 to inquire into the state of the continent, the 
 dearth of the Scriptures was found to be greater, if possible, than 
 at home. Thus, in Ivithnria, among 18,000 Germans, 7,800 Polish, 
 and 7,000 Lithurian fL\milies, >ioi a Bible was to be found. One- 
 half the population of Holland appeared to be without the Scrip- 
 tures. In Poland a Bible could not be obtained at any price. In 
 the district of Dorphat (Esthonia), containing 106,000 inhabitants, 
 not 200 Testaments were to be found, and there were pastors who 
 did not possess the Scriptures in the dialect in which they preached. 
 Into Iceland, with a population of 50,000, of whom almost all could 
 read, not above 40 or 50 copies had penetrated ; while in Sweden 
 a single auxiliary found 13,000 families totally unprovided. " (Art., 
 Bible Societies.) 
 
 The people of this generation have small appreciation 
 of their privileges, in stich marked contrast with our per- 
 secuted ancestors, being surfeited, it may be said, Avith 
 copies of the Scriptures in their own language, and hav- 
 ing every opportunity and facility for studying them, 
 which they greatly neglect. 
 
 "Neither shall the sun light on them any more, 
 nor any heat." — This, with the preceding clause, form- 
 ing verse 16, in connection with verse 17, is drawn from a 
 prophecy of Isaiah concerning the change which came to 
 Israel at the First Advent, when the darkness, and the 
 bondage, into which the Church' had fallen in those days, 
 were in like manner displaced by the work of Christ. I 
 will paraphrase the passage a little to show us the striking 
 analogy between that original work of Jesus and this 
 under the sixth seal. Isaiah says: — 
 
 " In an acceptable time have I heard Thee, and in a day of 
 salvation have I helped Thee ; and I will preserve Thee, and give 
 
258 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION [parT IV. 
 
 Thee for a covenant of the people, to i-aise iip the earth, to cause 
 to inherit the desolate heritages : that thou uiayest say to the 
 prisoners, [cr3'ing under the altar]. Go forth; to them that are in 
 darkness, [hidden away, fearing the c/utrch and its traditions,] 
 Shew yourselves. They shall feed in the [public] ways, and their 
 pastures shall be in all high places They shall not hunger nor 
 thirst ; neither shall the heat nor sun [judgments declared by the 
 Word against persecutors] smite them ; for He that hath mercy on 
 them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall He guide 
 them." (Isa. xlix. 8-10.) 
 
 The parallelism is perfect in all its parts. Jesus came 
 to liberate the prisoners and captives (Luke iv. 18-20), but 
 also to introduce a day of vengeance (Isa. Ixi. 1, 2; Luke 
 xii. 49) upon their prison-keepers and captors. And so 
 under the seal came not only the restored bread and water 
 of life, and protection from heat and sun, but the Judg- 
 ment avenging them of their adversaries, which was 
 promised them under the altar of the fifth seal. And this 
 judgment, from which they zucrc free, 
 scorciiiug; came upon the papal "dwellers upon the 
 
 Power earth" through the scorching effects of 
 
 of tiie Truth, ^j^g Gos]iel suu. That the Word has such 
 powel- is seen by the Prophet Jeremiah 
 (ch. V. 10-14), where he charges the Church with dealing 
 "treacherously" against the Lord, having "belied" Him; 
 and that the "Word is not in them:" "Wherefore thus 
 saith the Lord (xod of the hosts. Because ye speak this 
 word, behold I will make My words fire, and this people 
 icood, and it shall devour them." Compare also ch. xxiii. 
 28, 29; Isa. xxx. 27, etc. 
 
 It is this power of the Word that causes men who 
 depart from its spirit to hate it; but why had God's people 
 been hungry for the Word of God? Because the papal 
 "man of sin," for the time, was in pozver in the temple, 
 or Church. Why will they "hunger no more," now? 
 
CHAP. XVII.] EPOCH OF THE SIXTH SEAL. 259 
 
 "For the Lamb that is in the midst of the 
 throne SHALL FEED THEM, and shall lead them 
 unto living fountains of water." — To be in the throne 
 
 is to he in pim'cr in the temple or Church again (Isa. xvi. 
 5). And thus, when God and Christ resume their places, 
 and feed the Cliurch again, it will not be a mixed diet of 
 human theory, tradition, and chaff, such as the pope-god 
 and his councils have furnished, but of His own pure 
 word of truth — geuuine wheat, as furnished by pro- 
 phets and apostles. And the fountains to which God will 
 lead them will not be human "cisterns," the so-called 
 "orthodox" creeds, but to the river of the pure water of 
 life through our Lord Jesus; for our future life is through 
 faith in Him, contrary to the trumpetings of popular 
 Christendom that it is a product of the natural "immor- 
 tality of the soul." "My people have committed two 
 evils," said God, "they have forsaken me, the fountain of 
 living waters, and have hewed them out cisterns, broken 
 cisterns, that can hold no water" — or give no (future) life 
 (Jer. ii. 13). We have seen that ancient Israel learned 
 in Egypt the doctrines of the natural immortality of the 
 soul, its transmigration to other bodies at death, etc., and 
 all their prophets reproved them. Isaiah had described 
 the reception of false views very much as Jesus did in the 
 message to Thyatira, under the symbol of "eating things 
 sacrificed unto idols" or false gods. That prophet says: — 
 
 " They err iu vision, they stumble in judgment. For all tad/es 
 are full of vomit and filthiuess, so that there is no place clean. 
 Whom shall He teach knowledge? and whom shall He make to 
 understand doctrine? * * * Wherefore hear the word of the 
 Lord, ye scornful men that ru/e this people that is in Jerusalem 
 [i. e., in the Nicolaitan sense]. Because ye have said, We have 
 made a covenant with dea/Zi [as if it were ' the gate to glory,' '] , and 
 with s/ieo/ [" gravedom, ' ' the buried or ' ' under-the-altar, ' ' condition 
 — see definition on page 221] are we at agreement ; when the over- 
 
26o DIVIN:^ key of the revelation. [part IV. 
 
 flowing scourge shall pass through it shall uot come unto us ; for 
 we have made lies [creeds] our refuge, and under falsehoods have 
 we hid ourselves : therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay 
 in Zion for a foundation [of future life, by a resurrection from the 
 dead] a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure founda- 
 tion : he that believeth shall not make haste [to receive reward at 
 death, by "agreement" with grave-land]. Judgment also will I 
 lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet ; and the hail 
 \_the trHth~\* shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters 
 [which Jesus gives— true living water ; that of eternal life— John 
 iv. 10-14] shall overflow the hiding place. And your covenant with 
 death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with sheol [' grave- 
 land '] shall not stand." — (Isa. xxviii. 7-18 ; and see ch. xlix. 2.) 
 
 It is truth only that tests faith, truth which is re- 
 A^ealed in the Word, and as it is there set forth; and noth- 
 ing that we can arrange can take its place. The sure 
 foundation for future life as set forth hy God, is Christ, 
 who is the ^Resurrection and the life," not the "tfra^A-and- 
 glory" foolishness of men. It is not happiness merely 
 that is promised to Christians, but LIFE which is the basis 
 of all experience. The following is the emphatic rendering 
 of 1 John V. 11, 12 in the Emphatic Diaglott: "And this 
 is the TESTiMONY,vThat God has given to us [the Church] 
 aionian Life, and This life is in his son. He who has 
 the SON has the life; he who has not the son has not 
 the life." Having secured the LIFE, we have hope. 
 (John vi. 37-40; 44, 45; 53, 54; Lu. xx. 35, 36; Phil, 
 iii. 8-14.) 
 
 "And God shall wipe away all tears from 
 their eyes." — These are the tears of a class, those for- 
 merly "under the altar," and the promise relates only to 
 persecution tears. The beheaded weepers asked only for 
 
 * Hail is a symbol of truth, because it cuts and pierces, like that other symbol, 
 the " sharp two-edged sxvord." Besides, truth is the only thing that can " sweep 
 a«ay " a lie ; the prophet so uses it, as also the Revelator. See also verse 2, of 
 same chapter. 
 
CHAP. XVII. ] EPOCH OF THE SIXTH SEAL. 
 
 261 
 
 judgment upon their persecutors. Now the promise is 
 fulfilled to them; they are liberated, and free to worship 
 God anywhere without molestation. They have the bread 
 and water of life now in easy access to all — the pure Word 
 of God scattered as autumn leaves; displacing the au- 
 thority of creeds and human "disciplines" — and there is 
 no more cause for "under-the-altar" tears. But God, not 
 man, has wiped them away, through the judgments brought 
 upon the "man of sin." 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 VII. THE SEVENTH SEAL OPENED— HALF 
 HOUR'S SILENCE IN HEAVEN. 
 
 NO PROMPT RESPONSE FROM THE WAITING CHURCH. 
 
 Text, Chapter viii. 1. 
 
 "And when He had opened the seventh seal, there was silence 
 in heaven about the space of half an hour." 
 
 WE have had the "noise of thunder/' the "loud 
 voice," or the "great earthquake," heretofore, 
 in the opening of the seals, but now, at least 
 by contrast, and to the thoughtful, a more striking 
 change in the silence that ensues — 
 
 "Silence in heaven." — At the opening of each of 
 the other seals the promptly responding 
 No Prompt "VqIcc" or "thundcr," loud and clear, 
 
 Call to called, "Come and see"! attracting the at- 
 
 "Come and See." tgntiou of the Church, and of the perish- 
 ing world if they would listen, to what 
 was next to occur. But now it is quiet — no voice, thun- 
 der nor earthquake; but a half hour's hesitating silence 
 in the "heaven" of this prophecy, the Church. How can 
 she love the appearing of her Lord, if there is not a ready 
 response at every token of the nearing Advent welling up 
 from her inmost affection, and crying out, "Amen. Even 
 so. Come, Lord Jesus"? Ah, it is the Laodicean period 
 opening now, and lukewarmness is to reign. The Lamb 
 of God has broken another seal, the last one of the series, 
 and holds up the open pages of the book, but, for the 
 
 262 
 
CHAP. XVIII] EPOCH OF THE SEVENTH SEAL 263 
 
 moment, there is neither "angel" nor elder to say, Come 
 and see. We shall find the explanation in connection 
 with the Eainljow Angel soon (chapter x. — see diagram). 
 
 "About the space of half an hour." — An indefi- 
 nite, short space, representative of only a brief period for 
 the fulfillment; for in its connection with these symbols, 
 it must be symbolic, and not a literal space. Laodicea, 
 the name-symbol for this last period, had "an hour of 
 trial'' which she was not able to endure creditably enough 
 to hear the Master, say "Well done," but, instead, "Be- 
 cause thou art lukewarm, I will spew thee out of My 
 mouth;'' and all because when the Lord called out this 
 opened seal, or period, her indifference to divine things — 
 even prophecy — was upon her, and she could not promptly 
 and earnestly respond, with a true, warm missionary invi- 
 tation, to all within the sound of her voice, to behold what 
 the Lord will do. 
 
 The "virgins," with trimmed lamps, were wide awake 
 in Philadelphia, and during the period of the sixth seal; 
 but they are slumbering and sleeping in Laodicea, and 
 during the seventh and last period of her history! A 
 world doomed to destruction! the last hour striking by 
 the great prophetic clock of the ages! and the Church as 
 much asleep in indifference as the world! 
 sinmberinj;- Aslccp proplictically: not that she has no 
 and siccDinsr couscious dcsirc to savc the perishing, no 
 Propiieticaiiy. niissious and no sacrifices, by any means; 
 but the Lord said He would rather that she 
 iverc cold, than making the misdirected efforts that she is. 
 God's ways and thoughts are higher than hers, and she 
 knows it, but she is satisfied zvith her oivn thoughts and 
 ways; and that is her fault — her "lukewarmness." God's 
 way is to "thunder" His prophetic marvels in the 
 ear of the world, to startle an intelligent individual 
 
264 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [PART IV. 
 
 investigation, on which to build an intelligent, opera- 
 tive faith in the coming of Israel's King and Life- 
 giver. For all the Scriptui'es iterate and reiterate 
 the great truth, that all hope of future life and im- 
 mortality depends on that coming, and a resurrection 
 from the dead, or the equivalent "change" of the liv- 
 ing saints. But through the pride of the human heart 
 which despises subjection to death, which is nevertheless 
 
 the inexorable penalty of God's violated 
 Tratiition j^^^^,^ j^j^^j tlirougli tradition and vain phi- 
 
 ami Vain losophy of men, the theory has prevailed 
 
 piiiiosopiiy g]j along the ages — as general doubt and 
 
 at Fanit. disobediencc have prevailed — that the true 
 
 and higher life begins at the event of 
 death by the escape of an imprisoned, conscious spirit, 
 also popularly called the soul. When the Church received 
 this view, as she did from heathen philosophers, she taught, 
 of course, that the "departed" soul had gone to be with 
 Christ in Heaven. And that moment she lost her in- 
 terest in the return of Christ to earth, and the resurrection 
 of the dead.* For why should He come again to us, if 
 dying saints go immediately to Him? Thus Israel of the 
 nineteenth century is but repeating the history of Israel 
 of the first, as the great Apostle testifies, saying, "They 
 that dwell at Jerusalem and their rulers, because they 
 knew Him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are 
 read every Sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in con- 
 demning Him" (Acts xiii. 27). 
 
 So prophecy is a dead letter to the mass of Christen- 
 dom to-day. "They make broad their phylacteries, and 
 enlarge the borders of their garments" again, and are 
 called by men, Eeverend doctors and teachers; but they 
 
 * See A Reply to Dr. Lyimin AbhoU, Concerning the Resurrection of the Dead, 
 by W. N. Pile (Herald of Life Office, Springfield, Mass.). 
 
CHAP, xvili] EPOCH OF THE SEVENTH SEAL. 265 
 
 heed not the voice of Christ, and have not the "testimony 
 of Jesus," for they have not the "spirit of prophecy'' (Eev. 
 xix. 10). And so it is that the Church at large, that 
 
 is, as popnhirly seen (I say it sadly), 
 Popular jg plodding witli flickering lamp over an 
 
 Revival idolatrous computation, and flattering the 
 
 Methods perishing multitudes with her inability 
 
 Faulty. -(-Q express a commensurate estimate of the 
 
 '"inherent value of a human soul"! and 
 making that, more than the present work of Christ in con- 
 nection with all His past doings, an object for recognition 
 and a motive for action. That the "value," in the estima- 
 tion of God, is not in the soul alone considered, but in the 
 loving, obedient soul, is shown by the perishing millions 
 left with scanty opportunities to know God and His re- 
 quirements. Albeit the spirit of obedience may as easily 
 be tested in the dark as in the light — as perfectly and 
 fairly, if not as solicitously and graciously, else, what 
 meaning to Paul's words to the Eomans, chapter i. 19-35 
 and ii. 12-16 ? Can the Church be justified in toy- 
 ing thus amidst the prophetic voices and thunders, and 
 refusing her Lord's invitation to Come and see? She 
 thinks to evangelize the world, asks sinners to hold up 
 their hands or sign cards, and endeavors to induce them 
 to say, We will obey Christ, and "join some orthodox 
 church"! but she will not say, "Come and see" what Christ 
 has done and is doing prophetically, to move the people 
 as He would move them. She will not say, "Behold, He 
 cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him! She will 
 not say with the "wise virgins," Behold, the Bridegroom 
 cometh; go ye out to meet Him!" Is it not because He 
 tarried to the disappointment of the few watchers, in an 
 "hour of trial," once? and because it has become a matter of 
 indifference to her, at best, through neglect of "the Word 
 
266 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEI.ATION. [parT IV. 
 
 of (Jesus') patience" in Philadelphia, and not being kept 
 now in Laodicea? What other reason can be assigned for 
 this continued "silence in Heaven" on the part of all save 
 the agency represented by the Eainbow Angel (of chapter 
 X., next to be introduced)? 
 
 "Who then shall conquer? Who maintain the fight? 
 Even they who walk by faith, and not by sight : 
 Who, having washed their robes, and made them white, 
 Press toward the mark, and see the promised land. 
 Not dim and distantly, but near at hand." 
 
 —Jane Taylor. 
 
 At this point of silence Jesus drops, for the time, the 
 events of the seal, and introduces the series of seven 
 trumpets, six of which He details in this eighth and the 
 ninth chapters, and returns to the events of this seal in 
 the tenth chapter, with the evident object of bringing the 
 relative events of the last or seventh seal and seventh 
 trumpet into very close connection before the reader as 
 they are brought out, making it easier to associate their 
 harmonies, and tending to intensify the effect. The seals 
 are completed, it will be noticed, at chapter xi. 14, the 
 first thirteen verses; of which are data furnished by the 
 French Eevolution, and introduced there to enable us to 
 locate ourselves in relation to the 1,260 years persecution 
 and papal dominion in the "temple of God;" and then the 
 seventh trumpet occupies the remaining five verses of the 
 chapter. The reader can follow this order by reading 
 between this and the next chapter the exposition of the 
 first six of the trumpets; then, returning, and reading. 
 The Events of the Seventh Seal before reading what is said 
 in connection with the seventh trumpet. Else read on 
 regularly (with the exposition) and re-read the seventh 
 seal after the seventh trumpet. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE TARDY EVENTS OE THE SEVENTH SEAL— 
 THE MIGHTY RAINBOW ANGEL. 
 
 THE ADVENT MESSAGE — EVENTS WHOLLY OF AN ECCLE- 
 SIASTICAL NATURE — GREAT LIGHT FOR THE CHURCH. 
 
 Text, Chapter x. 1-7. 
 
 1. And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, 
 clothed with a cloud : and a rainbow was upon his head, and his 
 face zvas as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire : 
 
 2. And he had in his hand a little book open : and he set his 
 right foot upon the sea, and /lis left /ooi on the earth, 
 
 3. And cried with a loud voice, as zi//iefi a lion roareth : and 
 when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. 
 
 4. And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I 
 was about to write : and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto 
 me. Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and 
 write them not. 
 
 5. And the angel that I saw stand upon the sea and upon the 
 earth lifted up his hand to heaven, 
 
 6. And sware by Him that liveth forever and ever, who created 
 heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the 
 things that theiein are, and the sea, and the things which are 
 therein, that there should be time no longer : 
 
 7. But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he 
 shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as He 
 hath declared to His servants the prophets. 
 
 WHEN the half hour's "silence" announced at the 
 opening of this seal ended, the seventh thunder, 
 or seventh voice of the Church, at once came 
 out loud and clear, as in the other seals. It was a positive 
 and forcible judgment message — "Behold, the Master 
 
 267 
 
268 divine; kky of the revei^ation. [part iv. 
 
 Cometh! lo, the Judge is at the door! Haste thee, and be 
 ready for the eternal judgment!" This cry, as we have 
 seen in considering the Philadelphian 
 Despise Not Church (pages 164-168), went round the 
 the Day of civiUzed world; and has left its impress 
 Small Tiiincs. ^^pon the literature of that day, and upon 
 the generation whose fathers and mothers 
 heard the solemn message. It is the burden of this seal. 
 It will be seen that its events are wholly of an ecclesiastical 
 nature: nothing political or military is seen or mentioned. 
 The importance to the world, at this time, — when "the 
 JUDGE STANDETH BEFORE THE DOOR," — of a Concerted 
 public demonstration of faith is made to supersede any 
 political or secular consideration whatsoever. It is a de- 
 tailed account of "the hour of trial" that came "upon all 
 the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth" (page 
 164). The winds of war are being held, we have seen, 
 by the four agencies as commissioned in chapter vii. 1-3, 
 for the sole purpose, it appears, of removing the most 
 exciting causes of a national or political character that 
 might seem to furnish an excuse for neglecting the mes- 
 sage of the "mighty angel" of this prophecy. 
 
 "And I saw another mighty angel come down 
 from heaven." — John had seen the four military angels, 
 as we may term them, restraining the war spirit over the 
 earth for the time, the angel that commissioned them, 
 the seven trumpet angels and the angel of incense (of 
 chapter viii.), but none of them were termed mighty, as 
 in this case: showing that God esteems Gospel work as of 
 greater importance to the world than all the boasted work 
 of the nations with their trusted armies and navies. Let 
 no reader fail to mark the significance of this description, 
 and the work ascribed to this angel. His coming down 
 from a symbolic heaven, must be a symbolic descent: he 
 
CHAP. XIX.] THE MIGHTY RAINBOW ANGEI.. 269 
 
 came down historically from the Philadelphian experience. 
 But Philadelphia in the diagram corresponds with the 
 upper portion of tlie sixth seal, which is called heaven — 
 the sphere of the Church — in contrast with the lower por- 
 tion, which represents earth or the civil sphere. He comes 
 down from the Philadelphian or sixth experience with a 
 seventh seal message to proclaim on "sea" and "earth," as 
 we will presently see. 
 
 "Clothed with a cloud." — A cloud in symbol de- 
 notes the presence of God: He descended to Sinai in a 
 "thick cloud" (Ex. xix. 9); He called to Moses out of a 
 cloud (Ex. xxiv. 16); He "rideth upon a swift cloud" (Isa. 
 xix. 1); Pie "covered Himself with a cloud" (Lam. iii. 44); 
 and a cloud filled the temple, at the dedication, when the 
 Lord took possession of it, to dwell with Israel (3 Chron. 
 V. 13, 14). 
 
 "And a rainbow was upon his heb,d." — The 
 "token of the covenant" which God made with Noah (Gen. 
 ix. 12-15) must symbolize the fulfillment of some cove- 
 nant through this "mighty angel." And as we shall find 
 this angel the chosen agent through whom the great 
 world's trial-of-faith (predicted in ch. iii. 10) is to be 
 made, the rainbow evidently points to the promise there 
 recorded to keep all those who had "kept the Word of 
 (Jesus') patience," during the Philadelphian age, from 
 being overcome through the trial which introduced and 
 developed the Laodicean age. 
 
 "And his face was as it were the sun." — As the 
 sun is the symbol of the Gospel, the angel's sun-bright 
 face would be representative of the return of great truths 
 — truths as they were taught by Jesus and the Apostles, 
 but lost and hidden during the ages of darkness, mysti- 
 cism, persecution and popery. The Pergamenians were 
 charged with serious departure from original standards 
 
270 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEI.ATION. [parT IV. 
 
 in the reception of false doctrines, hateful to God. The 
 Thyatirians were still more seriously accused of openly 
 receiving the teachings of Jezebel, and when reproved, 
 and given space, refused to repent. Can anyone reason- 
 ably deny these charges against the Church? that they 
 apply to the so-called "orthodox" church during the cen- 
 turies pointed out? and to the doctrines specified in this 
 exposition? Surely, then, there was need in the Church 
 of such a niigiity effort of the Holy Spirit through the 
 agency symbolized, and indicated by the descent, the cloth- 
 ing, the rainbow and the sunlit face. Sardis was but a 
 remnant Church, at best, and but "fezv" of them had "not 
 defiled their garments," we are told, and the work of this 
 angel was not done in her day. But when we reach Phila- 
 delphia, there are indications of such a work at hand. The 
 "open door" to the Word of God, characteristic of this 
 period, made it one of independent personal investigation 
 of the Scriptures, and this prepared an agency that could 
 be most aptly personated by the Holy Spirit in the form 
 described. For the Spirit is the divine agency that God 
 employs, while the form assumed personates the human 
 agency through which the work is visibly accomplished: 
 as if the very image of Christ were stamped upon a 
 people who faithfully proclaim His messages. 
 
 A considerable number of Philadelphian overcomers, 
 called "wise virgins," whom Jesus said represented the 
 "kingdom of Heaven," learned of the corruption of the 
 doctrines of the Bible by Romanism much further on the 
 same and other lines than Luther and the Eeformers be- 
 fore them had done; namely, making God a pure Spirit, 
 ^'without body, parts or passions" I making Christ, (who is 
 the express image of His [God's] person" — 2 Cor. iv. 4; 
 Heb. i. 3,) not to have been "the seed of David according 
 to the iiesh," (Ro. i. 4; Gal. iv. 4; 1 John iv. 1-3, etc.,) but 
 
CHAP. XIX.] THE MIGHTY RAINBOW ANGEL. 27 1 
 
 to have been "begotten" without a mother! and to have 
 lived ages before "his mother" who gave him birth was 
 born. Thus putting the antitype before the "figure" or 
 type (Ro. V. 14; 1 Cor. xv. 46,) the "last man" before the 
 "first man," and the "second Adam" before the "first 
 Adam," (1 Cor. xv. 45-47,) perverting the Scriptures. 
 Making man immortal by nature, whereas the Word 
 teaches that he seeks immortality through "patience con- 
 tinuance in well doing" (Rom. ii. 7) — through Christ; and 
 obtains it, if at all, at the resurrection (1 Cor. xv. 52-55). 
 Making death, which is the "wages of sin," — the penalty 
 of the Edenic law, — the "gate to glory," or the separation 
 from the body of a conscimis, intelligent spirit, instead of 
 the destruction of life and consciousness. Making Heaven 
 the place of the saint's reward, instead of the earth re- 
 newed and glorified. Making immersion, that "form of 
 doctrine which was delivered" to the Church, which 
 illustrates the hope of the resurrection, and gives the 
 "witness" of the tvatcr (1 John v. 6, 8) to one's faith in 
 the death (the point of agreement in the three witnesses), 
 or burial and resurrection of Christ, answered by only 
 moistening the forehead with water, or sprinkling a few 
 drops upon the candidate — a picturing of nothing in the 
 life or death of Christ! etc., etc. They also saw through 
 prophecy that the reverses of Romanism since the French 
 Revolution were the direct judgments of God, and con- 
 stituted the leading sign that the coming of the Lord was 
 near. It was time that light should come to the Church 
 again, and that a voice should be raised everywhere — on 
 sea and land — against these corruptions of the truth. The 
 light did come, and the voice rung out upon the ear of 
 the world, at the right time. And the light increased 
 with them until we find in the Adventist peoples, who 
 went out in faith to meet the Bridegroom as we have seen, 
 
272 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part iv. 
 
 an agency truthfully answering the personation we are 
 considering in this angel. And this will the more appear 
 as we proceed. 
 
 Not that this agency is to be compared to a celestial 
 angel in perfection of knowledge, or wisdom, more than 
 the earlier Eeformers were. God often uses very imper- 
 fect instrumentalities, in themselves alone considered, to 
 accomplish His purposes. And it is only understood that 
 they were used (mark) by the Holy Spirit, to the extent 
 of the knowledge they had gained by its help, through 
 the Word — the "open book." The angel or agency rep- 
 resents a specific message, and the unfolding of great 
 truths to the Church. In other words, it is a representa- 
 tion of the special presence of Christ -with His people, for 
 a special work or message. The reader will notice that 
 John makes no mention of seeing this angel retire from 
 the earth and sea after his descent. He remains with the 
 Church, praise his name! the light of his countenance 
 continually dispelling the darkness of her former super- 
 stitions, until the z'ery coming of the "same Jesus" whose 
 image he wears. Eor see on the sounding of the seventh 
 trumpet (first pages of the chapter). 
 
 "And his feet as pillars of fire." — The symbol of 
 fire in the eyes and upon the feet was treated on pages 65 
 and 66. This angel's message clearly is one of hastening 
 judgment. The rainbow on his head is a reminder that 
 God will never destroy the world by ivafer again; the fire 
 on his feet, that he is coming "in flaming fire" (3 Thes. 
 i. 7, 8); and that the world "is reserved unto fire, against 
 the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men" 
 (2 Pet. iii. 7). Here the fire is not seen in the eyes, as in 
 the former symbol. That personated Jesus, and indicated 
 that He, personally, was the source of the threatened 
 judgment, as was also shown by the Scripture there quoted. 
 
CHAP. XIX.] THE MIGHTY RAINBOW ANGEL. 273 
 
 "And he had in his hand a httle book open." — 
 
 This recalls the opening of this seventh seal — it was the 
 last one upon the hook; and when hroken, left an open 
 book; readable, intelligible, so that it could be compre- 
 hended throughout, by the faithful and trustful reader, 
 in proportion to the faith exercised in, and the study be- 
 stowed upon it. Thank God for an open Bible in the 
 hands of consecrated people and all lovers of "His appear- 
 ing"! 
 
 "And he set his right foot upon the sea, and 
 his left foot on the earth." — He has a universal proc- 
 lamation — an important message to all peoples. Some 
 history of the rise and development of this agency was 
 given in connection with the Philadelphia Church. For in 
 coming down "from heaven" — the upper plain of the sixth 
 seal, as we said — to the "sea" and "earth" of the seventh, he 
 comes down historically from a former experience with the 
 Holy Spirit, through which he is crotvncd with the rain- 
 bow of promise; clothed with the power and presence of 
 God; and given the little open book: his face is lighted up 
 like the sun, from the reflection of its pages of light; his 
 feet are glowing with all the fire of his being to speed the 
 news of joy, yet of judgment, at the door! Suddenly his 
 feet, with burning zeal, with awe-inspiring, warning aspect, 
 are set on sea and land: he breaks the ominous "silence in 
 heaven" from whence he descends, — 
 
 "And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion 
 roareth." — Before the earthquake's shock there is a still- 
 ness in the atmospheric heavens as if nature was in awe 
 and suspense under a presentiment of evil. So it was at 
 the descent of this angel: throughout the sixth period, the 
 conviction had been gaining strength among the watching 
 virgins of the parable, that the coming of the Lord was 
 near. To those who observed the signs as given in the 
 
274 divine; key of the revei^ation. [part iv. 
 
 34th of Matthew, and the rapidly declining power of 
 the papacy, there was, of course, no lack of evidence of 
 the nearing event. 
 
 They had not learned that to be prophetically ''near" 
 
 or "at hand," means comparatively so. 
 Prophetic Near- jj^ their prophctic inexperience they were 
 ness is Com- ijj^g ^^ie impatient child journeying 3,000 
 parative Time, -^yeary milcs across the continent, having 
 
 no experience, and therefore no judgment, 
 concerning comparative distance or time. Fifty times a 
 day he asks, "Aren't we almost there?" In the morning 
 of the last day of the ride the parent cheers him, to keep 
 up his interest and courage, with the news that "It is 
 not far now; we'll soon be there." That is true to the 
 parent, but not in harmony with the feelings of the child. 
 He expects to be there in an hour, at least long before 
 dinner-time. And after dinner he impatiently chides his 
 parent inquisitively: "Papa, you said it wasn't far; and 
 that we's 'most there, and we've rode 'most all day!" 
 "Well, child, we'll be there right soon now; it's only a 
 very little distance farther — just a few miles; we're due at 
 sundown." But to the child, the sun is days in going 
 down; and never went so slow before. 
 
 The "parable of the ten virgins," the "watches," the 
 
 "hour of temptation" or trial, were given 
 Watching: cxprcssly to develop patience and faith: 
 
 Desig^ned to faith pleases God; and "patience worketh 
 Test Faith. experience, and experience, hope." The 
 
 whole history of the Church has proved 
 that the same plan has been followed with each generation 
 — varying in detail. ISToah waited 130 years, vexed with 
 the unbelief of his generation. Abraham and Sarah waited 
 thirty years for Isaac, the child of promise, vexing their 
 souls with the Hagar and Isbmsel affair. Israel waited 
 
CHAP. XIX.] THE MIGHTY RAINBOW ANGEL 275 
 
 long for Canaan, and were afterward in no less perplexity 
 over the long delay of the "Desire" of Israel and "of all 
 nations." So were these prophetic virgins developing ex- 
 perience, faith and hope, concerning the return of Christ. 
 But there was also, on the part of others, a growing itn- 
 faith and opposition to the preaching of the advent at 
 hand. For even in Philadelphia, that had heen so zealous 
 
 for "the Word," there were many who. 
 Traditional from loug traditional schooling, and famil- 
 switch-off. iarity with prevalent Eomanist theories, 
 
 failed to distinguish between tradition 
 and the Word, as the "overcomers" were careful to do. 
 They were loth to yield the comforting notions, received 
 in babyhood, that, "Heaven's my home;" and of death, 
 "'Tis but the voice which Jesus sends to call us to His 
 arms." They loved to think — "Our friends are passing 
 over, and just before the shining shore we may almost 
 discover." They were so oblivious to the plainest state- 
 ments of the Word concerning the penalty for sin, dating 
 back to Eden, and to natural dread of death — even of the 
 Saviour, in the face of that great "enemy" of man — that 
 they could sing with devout paganish complacence, "Then 
 persevere till death shall bring thee to thy God; He'll take 
 thee at thy parting breath to His divine abode." And, 
 "on joyful wing, cleaving the sky, sun, moon, and stars, 
 forgot, [!] upward I fly." No such Platonism and folly 
 could have inspired the Apostle Paul's love for "His ap- 
 pearing," and trust for his "laid-up" crown "at that day," 
 namely, of the Advent (not of death — 2 Tim. iv. 8); nor 
 could have actuated the Apostle to "look for Him," when 
 "He shall appear the second time" — i. e., on earth — "unto 
 salvation" (Pleb. ix. 28); nor could have inspired David, 
 who said, "As for me, * * * I shall be satisfied when I 
 awake with Thy likeness" (Psa. xvii. 15); nor Job in his 
 
276 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEI<ATION. [part iv. 
 
 common-sense statement, chapter xiv. 10-15, which see. 
 But with those improtesting Protestants, it was the gospel 
 of Addison: "It must be so — Plato, thou reasonest well"! 
 instead of the Gospel of Paul and the apostles and proph- 
 ets, who wrote at least reasonably, and predicted rightly, 
 even as the Holy Spirit moved them. Therefore as the 
 opposition developed, and the supposed coming with its 
 trial drew nearer, zeal increased until faith in the Advent, 
 definitely in 1843, was of so great proportions, and of 
 such a positive nature that, when the seal was removed 
 (in the Lord's nick of time), tlie virgins were fairly awed 
 to "silence" by their own position and at the next step 
 
 to be taken: it was to organize themselves 
 Tiie Angrei's — ^]-^g u^^^ virgius," wc now Understand — 
 Descent f^j. ^ world-wide missionary campaign, in 
 
 Symbolizes an ^]^g f^^g ^f ^^^ Unbelief— not counting it 
 oreranized ^ sacrifice in many instances to sell houses 
 
 Movement. j^j^^j lands, stocks and personal effects, to 
 
 leave business and pleasure, friends and 
 families, to warn the Church and the world in spite of all 
 things, of judgment, resurrection and the translation of 
 the saints, at the end of the 2,300 days; namely, in 1843. 
 The first prophetic convention was held in the city of 
 Boston, October, 1840, where the organization was formed, 
 and the work was systematically and zealously begun. That 
 was the more immediate or visible coming down of the 
 angel to liaodicea. The historic extracts mentioned above 
 (see page 164) tell how thoroughly he compassed sea and 
 land with the evidences that compelled his action. Their 
 attitude was a bold one; and "verily, their sound went into 
 all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the [civil- 
 ized] world." 
 
 "And when he had cried, seven thunders ut- 
 tered their voices." — Thunders represent a purifying 
 
CHAP. XIX.] THB MIGHTY RAINBOW ANGEL. 277 
 
 change as taking place. Said the Psalmist, "His light- 
 nings enlightened the world" (Psa. xcvii. 4; Ixxvii. 18); 
 that is, the Holy Spirit enlightens some human agency, 
 and the voice of the agency is the thunder announcing 
 the light to the world. John heard the voice of thunder, 
 the first living creature saying, "Come and see," at the 
 opening of the first seal. There were literal thunders on 
 Mount Sinai at the change from slavery in Egypt to the 
 better bondage of the law under Moses. These thunders 
 were to cause the people to "hear and believe Moses" — to 
 impress them Avith the fact that God was speaking in the 
 message. So the symbolic thunders here are doubtless 
 for effect, as an emphasis — an exclamation point — at the 
 close of a remarkable series of events — the last seal being 
 broken. Each seal was opened with a thunder, a voice, 
 an earthquake or a cry. This last was first delayed, and 
 now, when so stoutly given, there is a grand cloud-salute; 
 an answering chorus from the perfect chime of bells in the 
 great prophetic tower! Strange that all are not inspired 
 with these Heaven-devised transactions. 
 
 And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, 
 John "was about to write;" but said he, "I heard a voice 
 from Heaven saying unto me, — 
 
 " Seal up those things which the seven thun- 
 ders uttered, and write them not." — John seems self- 
 prompted here to explain matters that should remain for 
 the regular removal of the seals by the Lamb; for that is 
 the sense of "write" as opposed to "seal up." The com- 
 mand clearly shows that these utterances were not intended 
 for the general revelation, which he zvas to write; but 
 doubtless only to assist him in his writing, or in his oral 
 teaching, and in establishing the Eevelation among the 
 early churches of his ministry. It was so with the Gifts 
 of the Spirit — of healing (not referring to healings through 
 
278 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEl,ATlON. [pARf TV. 
 
 faith and prayer), power to raise the dead, to speak in un- 
 known tongues, and other remarkable powers conferred 
 upon the Apostles for the confirmation of the New Testa- 
 ment, and the establishment of the Gospel Church: they 
 were special, not intended for the succeeding centuries; 
 and they have not come down to us. 
 
 "And the angel * * lifted up his hand to 
 heaven, and swear by Him that liveth for ever 
 and ever." — This is the most solemn attitude that could 
 be assumed, and the strongest asseveration that could be 
 made, that the statements of the parties represented by 
 this angel are genuine and true, to the best of their 
 knowledge and understanding, and of the greatest im- 
 portance to be investigated and understood by all peoples. 
 The military and other secular events of prophetic revela- 
 tion have required no such solemnities, beyond angelic 
 statement, in either Daniel or Revelation, except in this 
 matter of informing the Church, and warning the world, 
 concerning the expectation and the event of the coming 
 of our Lord. Why? Why was the fruit of the forbidden 
 tree in Eden more tempting and '"'desirable'^ to Mother 
 Eve than that of the tree of life, and of all the permitted 
 trees of the garden? Simply because it poised her little 
 zvill against the will of God. She could neither make a 
 molehill, nor unmake a mountain, but, by the grace of 
 God, she could shake her little broom in the face of the 
 Almighty, and say, I will and I zvonH, concerning the 
 every-day affairs of life. And the world of her children 
 have wept an ocean of tears, notwithstanding her ex- 
 perience, for indulging the same defiant, willful spirit. 
 God has left nothing undone to show us that He would 
 have us think less of political and secular matters, and 
 more of prophetic and religious things, specially those 
 of this last seal. But the "people" just ivon^t — "the 
 
Chap. XIX.] ThB MtGHTY feAlNBOW ANGKL. 279 
 
 Church" and the world are very much alike in this. They 
 are wiser than Solomon in all questions of science, art, 
 civil government, political economy, moral and mental 
 philosophy, physics and metaphysics, but they cannot un- 
 derstand, that is to say, they will not interest themselves, 
 in prophecy. And if our doctors do attempt it, it is 
 usually not simple, plain prophecy they wrestle with, but 
 'way up there, over the heads of the people — in the fif- 
 teenth or twentieth story — in the learned department of 
 Eschatology or Hermcncutics. Oh, that the Drs. Zaccheus 
 would come down, that Jesus might dine with them! and 
 His people be fed. But what did the angel affirm? 
 
 "That there should be time no longer." — " That 
 the time shall be no longer [delayed]," as suggested by 
 Doddridge, Gill, Emphatic Diaglott, etc. The sense does 
 not seem to be changed. The time is at hand for finishing 
 up the revelation now — and for the last demonstration, 
 even the "coming in the clouds of heaven." In the third 
 verse of chapter i., the time was at hand for the beginning 
 of the Eevelation; now for its ending, in the same sense. 
 
 That the definite time proclamation of this mighty 
 angel was fulfilled in the Adventist movement of 1840-43, 
 inaugurated by William Miller and his co-laborers, I quote 
 from a prominent pioneer of the faith and an able writer 
 of the time, Josiah Litch, before quoted. He was writing, 
 in the fall of 1842, under the heading "The Third Woe 
 OR Seventh Trumpet," and gives a clear view of the 
 position they held. He says: — 
 
 "The second woe ended with the fall of Ottoman suprem- 
 acy in 1840. At that period the Word of 
 Josiah Litcii on Qod had gained its ascendancy in the world, 
 the Early ^nd is now high in the moral heaven, flying as 
 
 Adventist on the wings of the wind, borne by a mighty 
 
 Movement. angel through the midst of heaven: and the 
 
 enemies of the Bible see the triumph of the 
 
28o DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [pART IV. 
 
 cause; and great fear falls on the infidel world. . . . Having 
 passed through six of the trumpets, and the darkness, death, res- 
 urrection, and triumph of the witnesses, we stand at the present 
 time on the verge of the great crisis when the seventh trump 
 must sound. That trump is a woe to the world, and a blessing 
 to the saints of God. It introduces the time, not when the 
 world will be converted, and the spiritual reign of Christ be 
 introduced, but the time when the dead shall be judged, all 
 God's servants rewarded, and the destroyers of the earth de- 
 stroyed. [Citing here: Rev. xi. 15-18.] Is there any millen- 
 nium and return of the Jews here predicted, as the world has 
 been taught to expect? There is no place found for it! But 
 eternity cometh quickly. 
 
 "More than two years have now elapsed since the second woe 
 passed away, and the voice from heaven, by the mouth of 
 Christ's witness proclaimed, 'the third woe cometh quickly.' 
 That period of delay must soon expire, and the seventh angel 
 sound! Then he that is filthy will be filthy still! And he that 
 is holy shall be holy still! There will be no more change in the 
 moral characters of men. That trump will come with awful 
 suddenness on the world. It will be a twinkling of an eye, 
 and all will be over! The want of instant preparation and 
 watchfulness will be an awful calamity when that day arrives . . . 
 
 "On the point of setting the day and the hour — I wish here to 
 enter my most solemn^ disclaimer against setting any definite 
 time for the second advent of the Saviour; whether it be 
 February, March, April, May, or June, or any other month in 
 the year; I have no judgment on that point. There are several 
 points in history and chronology, the anniversary of any one 
 of which may be the time; which it will be, I am utterly unable 
 to decide. I believe it will come in 1843, but for 'the day and 
 hour,' I believe, we must watch. If others think they have dis- 
 covered the day or hour, and preach it, let the responsibility 
 be on them. I enter the same disclaimer also in behalf of my 
 esteemed brethren and fellow-laborers. Miller, Himes, Fitch, 
 and Hale. I do it because I know their sentiments to be the 
 same as above expressed. There are others also of the same 
 opinion. That it will come the third or twenty-third of April, 
 we have not either of us affirmed. We have stated the fact that 
 Ferguson, in his astronomical calculations, has given us, viz., 
 
CHAP. XIX.] THK MIGHTY RAINBOW ANGBL. 28 1 
 
 that Christ was crucified on the third of April. We have a 
 right to that fact, and so has the world, and they must make 
 what use of it they think proper. But whether the 'seventy 
 weeks' ended precisely with the death of Christ, or at some 
 other point, is what I am unable to determine. That it ended 
 not many months from that, is clear and satisfactory." — Prophetic 
 Expositions, Vol. II., pp. 223-5. 
 
 On page 244, Mr. Liteh replies to a charge of censori- 
 ousness, and a hard spirit, as follows: — 
 
 "Nay, nay, my brother, my sister! you wrong me. If you 
 saw, or thought you saw, your neighbor's 
 The Old Chargre house on fire, I ask, would you not think it 
 of Censorious- your duty to arouse them and tell them the 
 nesM Refuted, worst you feared? Would you let them sleep 
 on, lest, by trying to awake, you should offend 
 them by your earnestness and importunity? I believe the Lord 
 Jesus requires of all His ministers and people to look into this 
 subject and look out for His coming. I do not believe it can be 
 neglected with impunity; and hence I must cry aloud to my 
 fellow-travelers. I should be guilty if I did not tell them all I 
 fear will 5,ome upon them. Let them show me that my fears 
 are ungrounded, and I will desist from my importunities. I 
 cannot until then." 
 
 That was exactly the spirit and plea of Paul before 
 Felix, and of Luther before Charles V. and the Diet at 
 Worms. Was there fanaticism in that? Surely, these 
 men had the calm, resolute spirit of the symbol. They 
 "cried with a loud voice," and the whole civilized world 
 heard the message, not only through the secular press, 
 (sometimes mockingly) but, as we have shown, through 
 their own publications, like the Expositions quoted above. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 CONTINUATION OF THE SEVENTH SEAI^THE 
 LITTLE OPEN BOOK. 
 
 THE advp:nt movement, the bitter experience, and 
 
 THE PROPHESYING AGAIN. 
 
 Text, Chapter x. 7-11. 
 
 7. 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. 
 
 8. And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me 
 again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in 
 the hand of the angel that standeth upon the sea and upon 
 the earth. 
 
 9. And I went unto the angel, and said unto him. Give me 
 the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and .eat it up; 
 and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth 
 sweet as honey.' 
 
 10. And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, 
 and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey; and as 
 soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. 
 
 11. And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before 
 many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings. 
 
 WITH the opening words of this passage we are 
 abk^ to locate the seventh trumpet in its relation 
 to the seventli seal. For the effect of the great 
 proclamation of this seal is to take place under that 
 trumpet. Notice it particularly: — 
 
 "But in the days of the voice of the seventh 
 angel, when he shall begin to sound." — This shows 
 that six of the trumpets had already sounded when this 
 
 282 
 
CHAP. XX.] THE LITTLE OPEN BOOK. 283 
 
 angel, who is speaking, namely, the "mighty" rainbow 
 angel, begins his work; and, therefore, that the last trum- 
 pet and last seal (which we are now considering) nearly 
 harmonize, chronologically, for the seal is already opened 
 and the trumpet is about to begin to sound. It has been 
 contended by some that what is to transpire now is before 
 the sounding, and when it is "about to sound;" Doddridge, 
 Woodhouse, and even Mr. Wilson, of the Emphatic Dia- 
 glott, fall into this error. But clearly it is "in the days of 
 the voice" of the trumpet, therefore after beginning to 
 sound; and demanding the rendering we have, "When he 
 shall begin," etc. 
 
 " The mystery of God shall be finished, as He 
 hath declared to His servants, the prophets." — 
 This mystery must relate to that which had been so long 
 under seal. When Daniel, one of those "prophets," was 
 commanded to seal the book, he had just given the three 
 great prophetic periods, in their relationship — the 1,260 
 years, the 1,290 years, and 1,335 years, which he said the 
 "wise" (virgins) should, but the wicked (including the 
 foolish virgins) should not understand. The wisdom re- 
 ferred to is that of faithfulness to the study of the Word, 
 or as Jesus termed it, of keeping "the Word" of His 
 "patience." Every seal is now off, the last trumpet is 
 about to sound, therefore every key to the unraveling of 
 that which was sealed from the understanding even of 
 the wise and studious, is now to be put at their command. 
 But it must not be thought that the keys will unlock the 
 matter to tlieir comprehension without their personal ap- 
 plication of the same. Will they, will they even now, 
 "come and see"? Will they now "hear what the Spirit 
 saith unto the churches"? Notice what follows, calling 
 for individual effort: And the voice which I heard from 
 heaven spake unto me again, and said, — 
 
284 t)lVlN:e KEY OF fHE REVE1.ATION. [paRT rv. 
 
 " Go and take the little book WHICH IS OPEN 
 in the hand of the angel, that standeth upon the 
 sea and upon the earth." — There is absolutely nothing 
 of this whole matter in reserve now. The opened book is 
 freely offered to John for his personal use. John rep- 
 resents the whole Church, as he has all the way through. 
 The angel, who is already possessed of the book, represents 
 the few "wise virgins" of the parable — those who were 
 overcomers in Philadelphia, as before said — who by their 
 faithful watching received the book in advance. How so? 
 Think: Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit should take 
 the contents of this book "and show it unto" "His 
 servants" — see the proof on pages 24, 25. "His servants" 
 are not the whole body of the apparent Church. Hear 
 the Saviour, Himself: — 
 
 "Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter 
 into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My 
 Father who is in heaven. Matiy will say to Me in that day, 
 Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy 
 name have cast out demons? and in Thy name done many 
 wonderful works? 
 
 "And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: 
 depart from me ye workers of iniquity. Therefore whosoever 
 heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him 
 unto a ioise man, who built his house upon a rock. . . . And 
 every one that heareth these words of Mine, and doeth them 
 not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, who built his house 
 upon the sand," etc. (Matt. vii. 21-26.) 
 
 It requires both these classes to represent "the kingdom 
 of heaven," the Lord said (Matt. xxv. 1, 2). Again, in 
 Luke vi. 46, He said, "Why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do 
 not the things which I say?" It is therefore plain to be 
 seen how the class that is represented by the angel came 
 in possession of the book — why his face was so bright; 
 why the rainbow of promise was about his head; and 
 why he had such zeal in his work: he had studied the pro- 
 
CHAP. XX.] THE LITTI.E OPEN BOOK. 285 
 
 phetic Word at command, with faith in, and out of respect 
 to, its Author; and the Holy Spirit had done the rest, 
 showing him ''things which must shortly* come to pass" 
 by opening the Look of prophecy to his understanding. 
 
 "And I went unto the angel and said unto 
 him, Give me the httle book." — Not the whole Bible, 
 let it be observed: that, with this exception, had already 
 been restored to the Church, and had developed the rain- 
 bow agency; but the sealed portion is now wide open, by 
 the breaking of the last seal, and John is told to take it. 
 The '"temptation" or trial that was arranged to try the 
 whole world is now to be experienced. The Church are to 
 act upon the proclamation of this symbolic angel, that the 
 mystery of God will be finished when the seventh trumpet 
 begins to sound; and tbat would be, he said, — he, the only 
 agency noticed in modern history that has given the world 
 any such message, said it would sound — -in 18-i3. 
 
 "And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up." 
 — To eat is to masticate and swallow our food. To eat 
 a book is a figure for revolving its statements in the mind, 
 and incorporating them into the understanding. This, 
 this faithful, zealous messenger did most thoroughly; and 
 he did understand very much that the "foolish virgins" 
 did not, as was 2)romised the "wise," notwithstanding the 
 great mistake and the passing of the time. They had not 
 quite comprehended what was next told the angel, how- 
 ever, and that is the explanation: — 
 
 "And it shall make thy belly bitter, but it 
 shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey." — The con- 
 templation of the subject of the book — the coming of the 
 Lord — would be very delightful to the mind of the Church; 
 but the experience connected with the expectation — the 
 tarrying of the Bridegroom — would be a bitter disappoint- 
 ment to them. The predicted bitterness came through a 
 
286 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part iv. 
 
 misapprehension which they were allowed 
 The "Time of ^q q^q^ npon, by Way of the great test or 
 the End," Not • ^rial of faith. When John was ''about to 
 the End of write/' impulsively^ without a thorough 
 
 '*'*"**• digestion of the matter spoken by the 
 
 chorus of thunders, he, too, would doubtless have ex- 
 plained the seventh seal as introducing, not the "time of 
 the end" — the true limit of the seal (Dan. xii. 9) — but the 
 end itself; the preliminary symbolic descent of the rain- 
 bow angel, not as personating Christ in His people pro- 
 claiming the Advent near, but as representing Christ per- 
 sonally in His actual return; and the finishing of "the 
 mystery of God," i. e., the seal of the prophecy, said to be 
 due when the seventh angel should ''begin to sound," not 
 as the end of the seal-mystery of Daniel's vision, which was 
 due then, but as the grand culmination or consummation 
 of all prophecy due at the end of the trumpet's sound. 
 These mistakes appear unnecessary as we look back at 
 them, now. A more thorough digestion of what the little 
 book contained would have shown that all the trumpets 
 required considerable periods of time for their soundings: 
 the fifth, 150 years; the sixth, just preceding, 391 years; 
 and that the coming of Christ could not be expected at the 
 beginning, but as the last event of the last trumpet. And 
 yet, through this same misapprehension, there are many 
 to this day, who think the seventh trumpet has not even 
 yet sounded, nor the seventh seal been broken, "else," they 
 say, "Jesus would h-ave appeared." 
 
 The history of the Church during the last half of the 
 Philadelphian period and the first years of the Laodicean 
 period furnished, as we have already shown in the exposi- 
 tion of the former Church, just such a premature, world- 
 wide expectancy, trial, tarrying, and bitterness of disap- 
 pointment. It was a movement so spontaneous and 
 
CHAP. XX.] the; UTTI.E OPEN BOOK. 287 
 
 genuine, so candid and intelligent, and withal so unique 
 and powerful that, without the same divine influence and 
 incentive, it could never be reproduced in human ex- 
 perience. But no people, I suppose, since the days of the 
 apostles, were any worse misrepresented and falsified than 
 those who proclaimed the coming of the Lord at hand, 
 basing their hopes wholly on the words of Christ and the 
 apostles and prophets. It is not denied that there were 
 fanatics and fanaticisms connecting themselves with the 
 genuine movement, like barnacles to a ship — impossible 
 to prevent, hard to remove, and exceedingly detrimental 
 to the progress of the vessel. Every good movement ever 
 inaugurated has suffered more or less in the same way. 
 The writer could cite facts and personal experiences if 
 space permitted. The interested reader may consult the 
 ^'History of the Advent Message," by I. C. Welcome. 
 
 The thoughtful reader will have noticed that no word 
 of censure was spoken by the Lord to the 
 The Mistake virgius of the parable, who prematurely 
 Pardonable. expccted the Bridcgroom. They were com- 
 mended as wise for having oil in their 
 vessels, and for being ready by constant watchfulness to 
 enter without delay when He did suddenly appear. It is 
 so here: there is no criticism, even, upon the loudness, 
 boldness, or positiveness of the angel's voice, nor the def- 
 initiveness of his message; not one word — where the Lao- 
 dicean spirit in the Church has been so full of censure. On 
 the contrary, John, as representing the Church, is com- 
 manded to continue the same work, and furnished every 
 facility for doing so. For notice: "And he said unto me," 
 he next declares, — 
 
 " Thou must PROPHESY AGAIN before many 
 peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings." — 
 The world-wide extent of his proclamation is thus indi- 
 
288 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [parT IV. 
 
 cated. History furnishes no other example, in modern 
 times, of a message concerning Jesus' personal return, 
 that could possibly be taken for a fulfillment of this 
 prophecy, or that at all approaches its requirements, than 
 that which has been cited concerning it in Philadelphian 
 history. If it has been unpopular and despised by the 
 world and a worldly Church, "as a day of small things," 
 so was the great Gospel work and message under the Son 
 of God Himself, and His own chosen representatives. It 
 matters not whether priests, and scribes, and authors, and 
 writers of encyclopaedias have spoken well or ill of it, the 
 pertinent question is. Do the Scriptures predict such an 
 expectation and disappointment? For all writers confess 
 that there were 50,000 adherents in the movement in the 
 United States during what was termed the "Millerism" 
 excitement. The "virgins" have "slumbered and slept" 
 so far as definite expectation is concerned; but, for fifty 
 years, has the expectation ceased? have the waiting virgins 
 been out of sight? And is not the proclamation revived 
 again, and sounding to the ends of civilized life, "Behold 
 the Bridegroom com^eth; go ye out to meet Him"? 
 
 There is another place, besides our text and Matt. 
 XXV., that speaks of tarrying and prophesying again; and 
 in the mouth of tAvo or three witnesses every word should 
 be established. Habakkuk ii. 2, 3 : "And the Lord 
 answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain 
 upon tables, that he may run that readeth it: for the vision 
 is yet for an appointed time [to be unsealed]; but at the 
 [appointed] etid it shall speak and not lie; though it tarry 
 [to your mistaken and premature expectation], wait for it; 
 because it will surely come, it will not tarry," that is, in 
 reality — beyond the real end. But there would be a bitter 
 disappointment and seeming tarrying, by the virgins' mis- 
 take in interpreting the "time of the end" as the end 
 
CHAP, XX.] THE LlTTtE OPEN BOOK. 289 
 
 itself. They mistook also the judgment of Daniel vii. 26, 
 that was to come upon the papal horn at the end of its 
 period — for which the saints under the altar were pray- 
 ing — for the final Judgment of the world. They mistook, 
 in their incipience in prophetic study, the cleansing of the 
 Sanctuary for the cleansing of the earth by the judgment 
 fires of the last day: whereas Daniel viii. 14 relates to the 
 cleansing of the Church of papal error. Dan. xi. 31 says, 
 "they shall pollute the Sanctuary": that is, not the earth 
 but the temple, the holy place of God's abode with His 
 people (Eph. ii. 20-23); the temple into which the "man 
 of sin" brought his polluting presence, doctrines and in- 
 fluences; in which he cast both "the stars" and "the truth" 
 to the ground (viii. 10-13), as stated immediately preced- 
 ing the statement about cleansing, in verse 14. Cleansed 
 at the "time of the end" : for He proceeds to explain to 
 Daniel (ver. 17) that "at the time of the end shall be the 
 vision," /. e., "belongeth the vision" (Sharpe and Eevi- 
 sion); or, "the vision shall be fulfilled" (Douay); "for [it 
 points] to the time of the end" (Tafel). This settles the 
 ending-point of the 2,300 days. 
 
 William Miller and his co-laborers, therefore, were 
 
 right in ending the 3,300 days (or years) 
 THe Movement ^f j)j^j^ ^.jj^ jj^ ;L843. That argument 
 Not all Wrong, uevcr has been shown wrong, and never 
 
 can be overthrown. It was not the time, 
 but the event which the period pointed out, that was wrong 
 in their teaching. It was putting the end where the time 
 of the end — the day, not of His coming, but "the day of 
 His preparation" — was being marked. For it will be no- 
 ticed, by those who study prophetic time, that the periods 
 which end at this point of mistake are all given in symbols 
 — "times," "months," "weeks," "days," with one single 
 exception in each book, namely, the 1,000 years of Revela- 
 
290 DIVINB KEY OF THB REVEI,ATI0N. [part IV. 
 
 tion, and the 1/390 years* of Daniel. The symbolic 
 periods bring ns to the time of the end and of symbolic ac- 
 complishments — a symbolic coming of Christ (the coming 
 down of the rainbow angel), a judgment (the terrible 
 French Eevolution, in answer to the cry of the martyrs), 
 all which have been already considered; the "lake of fire/' 
 
 *The original word yamim is rendered "days" three times 
 in Dan. vii. — 1,290 yamim, 1,335 yamim, end of the 2/awiw-^verses 
 II, 12, 13. Primarily, days is its meaning, but not its only 
 meaning; it means in cases years, too. There should be some 
 other reason for rendering it days, in a particular case, than 
 simply that days is its primary sense. Gesenius says it means 
 
 "(2) time, without any reference to days, Gen. 
 Ge.seiiin.s' xlvii. 8, 'the time (period) of thy life.' In 
 
 Testimony 'thg time of Abraham,' Gen. xxvi. i 
 
 on Yamim. (3) fhe signification of time is limited to a 
 
 certain space of time, namely, a year [italics 
 his], as in Syriac and Chaldee (the corresponding term being 
 here given) signifies both time and a year; and in German also 
 several words which designate time, weight, measure, etc., are 
 applied to certain specific periods of time, weight, and meas- 
 ures: Lev. XXV. 29; Judges xvii. 10. An anniversary sacrifice; 
 I Sam. ii. 19. Yearly: Ex. xiii. 10; Judges xi. 40; xx. 19; 
 I Sam. i. 3 (comp. ver. 7); ii. 19. Also used in a plural sense 
 for years, with the addition of numerals: 2 Chron. xxi. 19, 'at 
 the end of two years;' Amos iv. 4, 'every third year.'" {Heb. 
 and Eng. Lex.) It is rendered season three times, as Gen. xl. 4, 
 "they continued a season in ward," etc.; (in the singular and 
 plural forms) time and times sixty-two times, as Gen. iv. 3. 
 "in process of time it came to pass," etc.; year, years, and 
 yearly, in eight other places than those mentioned by Gesenius: 
 Nu. ix. 22; Josh. xiii. i (twice); i Sam. i. 21; xx. 6; xxvii. 
 7; 2 Sam. xiv. 26; i Kings i. i. (See Young's Anal. Cone.) To 
 these should be added the three instances of its use referred 
 to above, — the angel's closing words to Daniel — where there 
 is little doubt that years and not "days" were intended; for the 
 angel was not then giving additional symbols but was ex- 
 plaining now to the prophet, in plain terms, the practical use 
 of those symbols which he had already given him; namely, 
 that from the hidden or sealed point of the setting up of the 
 Abomination of Desolation, to the unsealing point of the time 
 of the end, "There shall be," said he, "1,290 (yamim) years; 
 Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three 
 hundred and five and thirty (yamim) years. But go thou thy 
 way till the end be; for thou shall rest, and stand in thy lot 
 at the end of the (yamim) years-" 
 
CHAP. XX.] 
 
 THE LITTLE OPEN BOOK. 
 
 291 
 
 the "new heavens and new earth/' the "sea of glass/' the 
 harps, and song of Moses and the Lamb, the holy city from 
 heaven, and God dwelling with men — all which points are 
 yet to be met in the course of the exposition. The 1,335 
 period of years has a close connection with these symbols, 
 but goes to the end itself — to a real coming of Christ; a 
 real ' descending city of God;* a final judgment of real 
 fire, that will devour all the adversaries of Christ; songs 
 of final victories; the real and glorious new heavens and 
 earth; and the literal and perfect return of the power and 
 kingdom to God, and His more real abode with men. 
 
 How John was divinely furnished for repeating His 
 work, or prophesying again before all peoples, is shown 
 in the next chapter. 
 
 * Compare John xiv. 2; Heb. xi. 10, 16; xii. 22; xiii. 14; 
 2 Cor. V. I, 2; Gal. iv. 25, 26; Phil. iii. 20, Greek politeuma. 
 "Our city, or citizenship, or civil rights. The word properly 
 signifies the administration, government, or form of a republic, 
 or state. ... It signifies also a republic, a city, or the inhabit- 
 ants of any city or place." — A. Clarke, Gomm., in loco. 
 
PABT FIFTH. 
 
 THE STUDY OF PEOPHETIC TIME COMMANDED, 
 AND AID GIVEN. 
 
 AN INFIDEL WAR ON THE CHURCH OF ERROR, 
 
 AND UPON THE SCRIPTURES OF TRUTH— 
 
 THE TRUTH TRIUMPHANT. 
 
 "The Anyel ^tuod /S'o(/in.7, Rise, and Measure the Temple 
 and Altar." 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE CHRONOMETEIC EEED— MEASUEING THE 
 
 TEMPLE AND ALTAE— THE AGE OF 
 
 FALSE WOESHIP WHICH 
 
 POLLUTED THEM. 
 
 THE TWO WITNESSES SLAIN BY THE DRAGON OUT 
 OF THE PIT. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXII. 
 
 EEVIVAL OF THE TWO AVITNESSES— THEIE 
 ASCENSION. 
 
 RENAISSANCE OF THE CHURCH IN FRANCE— END 
 OF THE SECOND WOE— GREAT EXALTA- 
 TION OF THE WORD OF GOD. 
 
PAET FIFTH. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE CHRONOMETRIC REED— MEASURING THE 
 
 TEMPLE AND ALTAR— THE AGE OF 
 
 FALSE WORSHIP WHICH 
 
 POLLUTED THEM. 
 
 THE TWO WITNESSES SLAIN BY THE DRAGON OUT 
 OF THE PIT. 
 
 Text, Chapter xi. 1-9. 
 
 1. And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the 
 angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and 
 the altar, and them that worship therein. 
 
 2. But the court which is without the temple leave out, 
 and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the 
 holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. 
 
 3. And I will give power unto My two witnesses, and they 
 shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, 
 clothed in sackcloth. 
 
 4. These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks 
 standing before the God of the earth. 
 
 5. And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of 
 their mouth and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will 
 hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. 
 
 6. These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in 
 the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to 
 turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, 
 as often as they will. 
 
 7. And when they shall have finished their testimony, the 
 beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war 
 against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. 
 
 295 
 
296 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [parT V. 
 
 8. And their dead bodies sliall lie in the street of the great 
 city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also 
 our Lord was crucified. 
 
 9. And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and 
 nations shall see their dead bodies three days and a half, and 
 shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. 
 
 JOHN is now told to measure the polkited temple 
 and altar — polhited by the Thyatirian "man of 
 sin" (2 Thes. ii. 3, 4; Dan. xi. 31), and is given a 
 symbolic measuiing reed. 
 
 "A reed like unto a rod." — This reed is sim- 
 ilar to one seen by Ezekiel (chap. xl. 3, 5) in the 
 hand of one who also had "a line of flax/' With 
 which he measured the temple of that iJrophefs vision. 
 Zechariah (chap, ii.) saw the same personage, or angel, 
 with line in hand, going, as he said, "To measure Jerusa- 
 lem, to see what is the length thereof, and what is the 
 breadth thereof." The line and the reed, of course, were 
 symbols, the same as the temple and city of the visions 
 were; and were, therefore, not for linear measurements, 
 but chronometric — for the measurement of time, or an 
 age. Doubtless either Ezekiel or Zechariah could have 
 informed those measurers, had they inquired, of the exact 
 linear dimensions of the temple, or of the walled city of 
 Jerusalem, for they were matters of Scriptural record. 
 
 " Rise, and measure." — Whatever may be the pop- 
 ular sentiment of our times relative to prophetic meas- 
 urements, John, as representing the Church, was com- 
 manded by the angel to rise and go about the the work of 
 measuring. Chronometric study was, therefore, safer for 
 him, and is safer for us to-day, then its neglect under the 
 miserably deceptive excuse tliat it is "prying into the 
 mysteries of God." He must measure something: what is 
 thus symbolized? 
 
CHAP. XXI.] MBASURINO THE TBMPLE. 297 
 
 "The temple of God, and the altar, and them 
 that worship therein." — The temple of God in the 
 Gospel dispensation is the antitype of the original 
 Mosaic tabernacle and Solomonic temple (built after 
 the same pattern) — the place selected by God for the 
 official communication of His will to Israel through 
 the priesthood ; that is, the Gospel Church as an 
 organized body. The "altar'' and the "worshipers 
 therein" (that is, in the temple) are the official body of 
 the organization — its High Priest (Heb. viii.), its bishops 
 and deacons (1 Tim. iii.), its evangelists, pastors and teach- 
 ers (Eph. iv. 4-11) — instituted, like its Levitical type, "for 
 the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, 
 for the edifying of the body of Christ (ver. 13). 
 
 "The court which is without the temple." — 
 
 The temple was surrounded by three walls inclosing 
 three open courts: the first, immediately about the temple, 
 contained the brazen sea and altar of burnt offerings, and 
 was called the "inner court," or "court of the priests," and 
 was included in the measurement. Next, outside this, 
 was the "outer court," or "court of Israel," in two apart- 
 ments, the first, entering it from the east through the 
 "beautiful gate," was called the "court of the women." 
 Outside the court of Israel again was still a much larger 
 court, beautifully ornamented with variegated marble pave- 
 ment, its outer wall with "porches" and magnificent gal- 
 leries; and was called the "court of the Gentiles," because 
 the Gentiles were permitted freely to enter into it. But 
 they must not approach too near the court of Israel, which 
 was guarded by a low balustrade, called chel, with pillars 
 at certain distances "on which there were Greek and Latin 
 inscriptions, interdicting all heathen, under penalty of 
 death, to advance farther." (See Kitto and others.) It 
 was this last court which John was told to leave out, and 
 
298 DIVINS KKY OF THB REVELATION. [part v. 
 
 " Measure it not, for it is given to the Gentiles." 
 
 — The reason assigned for not measuring this court 
 is itself symbolic, and, before it can explain, must 
 be explained, through a study of the old type. Con- 
 nected with Moses' tabernacle there was no such rec- 
 ognition of the Gentiles as was afterward "given" to 
 them, when King Solomon built the temple and added the 
 beautiful "court of the Gentiles." But if the temple and 
 altar were more highly typical, they were not more surely 
 types, than even this court. It but illustrates the Abra- 
 hamic promise that his seed should bless all nations, and 
 the prophecy that in the last days God would pour out 
 His Spirit upon all flesh. Solomon built the Gentile court 
 in type; Jesus received the Gentiles in antitype. In this 
 antitypical dispensation there is neither Jew nor Gentile, 
 as such, before God. But the term Jews may be used as 
 a symbol of its original designation, namely, those in 
 covenant with God — whom we now call Christians. We 
 found the term thus used in chapters ii. 9, and iii. 9. And 
 so also the term Gentile, though it no longer conveys the 
 idea of class or covenant interdiction, may still be used as 
 a symbol of the old condition — "children of wrath," and 
 "having no hope and without God in the world" (Eph. ii. 
 3, 13) — in the ordinary sense, sinners. 
 
 Men of the world, we understand then, at some time 
 in the history of the Church, according to 
 Application |-]^g type, are to have special recognition 
 of tiie Court, bythc Churcli — a court prepared for them 
 and afterward to be incorporated to- 
 gether, and other prophetic conditions result. Accord- 
 ingly, we find in the dispensational symbols of the Church 
 (Rev. iv. 7), as we have already seen, "the face as a man" 
 as the principal characteristic of the "living creature" 
 which symbolized that period which immediately preceded 
 
Chap. XXI.] MEASURING T^HK TEMPI,:^, 299 
 
 the age of the great apostasy and persecution. The first 
 answers to the Constantinian period, beginning in the 
 fourth century; the last, to the Justinian period, beginning 
 ih the sixth century. Of this "face-as-a-man" period, I 
 will requote a note in the Cottage Bible, which reads thus: 
 "At the same time [of Constantino's conversion] the 
 Christian Church became infested with all the vices of the 
 state — ambition, jealousy, duplicity, and a spirit of hostil- 
 ity, still more criminal among those who bear the name 
 of Christians, than among heathen governments.'^ 
 
 All this was clearly typified in the 
 Solomon's Acts -^^ork and the resulting apostasy of Solo- 
 were Typical, j^^^ ^f^er that king had built a beauti- 
 ful court for the Gentiles, instead of 
 bringing them to a better knowledge of God, they drew 
 him away after their idols: — 
 
 "But King Solomon loved many strange women [attracted 
 to his Gentile court by the splendor of its appointments and 
 surroundings], together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women 
 of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edmonites, Zidonians and Hittites; 
 of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children 
 of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come 
 in unto you; for surely they will turn away your heart after 
 their gods; Solomon clave unto these in love. And he had 
 seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; 
 and his wives turned away his heart. For it came to pass, when 
 Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after 
 other gods, .... after Ashteroth the goddess of the Zidonians, 
 and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites. And 
 Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, [thus "forsaking the 
 holy convenant" — see antitype, Dan. xi. 28, 31,] and went not 
 fully after the Lord, as did David his father. Then did Solomon 
 build an high place [typical of Pergamos] for Chemosh, the 
 abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem and 
 for Molech the abomination of the children of Ammon. And 
 likewise did he for all his strange wives, who burnt incense and 
 sacrificed unto their gods. And the Lord was angry with 
 
300 DIVINB K«V OP THE REVELATION. [pARt V. 
 
 Solomon, because his heart was turned from the Lord God 
 of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice." (i Kings 
 xi. 1-9.) 
 
 In this history of Solomon (as we saw in the case of 
 Constantine in the heights of Pergamos) is it not easy to 
 discern the typical lineaments of the "face as a man" — 
 "ambition, jealousy, duplicity" — drawn over a picture in- 
 tended to represent the divine ideal of human relation- 
 ships — meekness, humility, love, chastity, and an eye 
 single to the glory of the one God? Had Solomon re- 
 tained these, he never could have "set up" the "abomina- 
 tions" of the heathen. But, having made them a court, 
 to save them, he allowed them an influence over him to 
 destroy himself; an abomination was soon set up, Babylon 
 was soon reached, and seventy long years of bondage for 
 that people, and desolation for that land, succeeded to 
 teach Israel the will of God. So again, history repeated 
 itself when Constantine, thinking or pretending he was 
 converted to Christianity, set about converting its simple 
 unpretentious institutions and offices to conform to human 
 vanity and pomp and show; and he brought all his in- 
 fluence and wealth, as Emperor of Rome, to enhance the 
 glory of that Church whose divine Founder had said, 
 "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." The Church embraced Constantine, and 
 were intoxicated with the spirit of the world and the splen- 
 dor of his designs, and thus early committed spiritual 
 adultery with an earthly king. All her graces were gone. 
 The middle wall of partition between the Church and the 
 world was broken down; and the court, which should have 
 remained under the faithful surveillance of Israel, was 
 given up, instead, to the "Gentiles" — the world. 
 
CHAP. XXI.] MEASURING THB TEMPLE. 30I 
 
 It is thus evident that the court of the Gentiles (which 
 was not to be measured) represents the privileges extended 
 to the Gentiles at the very beginning of the Gospel dis- 
 pensation; while the temple, to which the court led, (and 
 which ivas to be measured,) represents the accepted rela- 
 tionship between Christ and believers, or, in one word, 
 that' condition known as the -Church. We are not to 
 measure the privileged condition in the court, but the 
 assumed relationship in the temple or Church. The world 
 once fairly settled in the courts of the Lord's house, the 
 "man of sin" would soon advance to the temple itself, and 
 seat himself there, as we have already seen in the history 
 of Thyatira — the Union of Church and State (p. 104), 
 and the anticlirist (p. Ii7). 
 
 "And the holy city shall they tread under foot 
 forty and two months." — The holy city was Jerusalem, 
 the "mother" of literal Israel, and a symbol of the 
 Gospel Church, the same as the temple so often is. 
 "They," the worshipers at the altar and in the tem- 
 ple to be measured — these Gentile intruders, usurpers 
 of the legitimate powers of the true ministry — shall 
 tread the "holy city" — the Church or "the saints" — under 
 foot for a specified period of time: that work and power 
 are the subjects of the several periods of prophecy, already 
 mentioned, found in the Book of Daniel. In forty-two 
 months there are (as the Jews reckoned) 1,260 days, the 
 same period of time which we have already considered; 
 
 and the only one of Daniel's periods that 
 The Prophetic ^g duplicated in this book. But if we learn 
 Championship, ^q ^^gg ^]^g j.qq^ correctly in connection 
 
 with this one period, we will be prepared 
 to "rise and measure," perhaps, all that the visions furnish 
 for measurement. This forty-two months period measures 
 the "war on the saints." It is plain that the war must 
 
302 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEI.ATION. [parT v. 
 
 commence and go on to a certain point of conquest before 
 the warring power could "set up" the Abomination of 
 Desolation "in the holy place;" for that work was to be 
 done by "arms" or armies standing "on his [the horn's] 
 part" (see the prophecy of Daniel, chap. xi. 31). The 
 1,290 period measures the complete supremacy of the papal 
 power, from the setting up of the Abomination of Desola- 
 tion to the "last end" of its "indignation against the holy 
 covenant." And the 1,335 period reaches from the same 
 point to the resurrection of the dead! But that point of 
 the complete establishment of the abomination is the divine 
 enigma of prophecy and history. Its discovery will crown 
 the successful student as the champion of prophecy, the 
 Columbus of prophetic research, and shower upon him the 
 grateful applause of all his fellow students, if not the 
 plaudits of the angels who "desire to look into these 
 things," and have watched our respectful and patient study 
 of these visions and revelations from God. 
 
 "And I will give power unto nay two witnesses, 
 and they shall prophesy a thousand and three- 
 score days, clothed in sackcloth." — The giving of 
 power to the witnesses only shows the desperate struggle 
 of their enemies for their life. Four questions arise here: 
 
 I. What power was given to the witnesses? 
 
 II. What is represented by the two witnesses? 
 
 III. What is their testimony? 
 
 IV. When do they begin and end the sackcloth state? 
 
 I answer briefly, before offering proof, (1) divine 
 power was given to (2) the Old Testament Prophets and 
 New Testament Apostles to continue, throughout the sack- 
 cloth period, (3) their testimony of truth against the creeds 
 and popular doctrines of their enemies, (the Eoman Coun- 
 
CHAP. XXI.] THE TWO WITNESSES. 303 
 
 cils that "darkened counsel by words without knowledge," 
 — words of their traditions,) faithfully verifying all their 
 predicted judgments upon their enemies, from (4) a.d. 531 
 to their death in a.d. 1791. 
 
 I. The Divine Poiver Promised. Our translators cor- 
 rectly supplied the word power. This is seen in verses 5, 6: 
 "And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of 
 their mouth, and devoureth their enemies; and if any man 
 will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. These 
 have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of 
 their prophecy; and have power over waters to turn them 
 to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues as often 
 as they will." These witnesses both prophesy and work 
 genuine miracles, therefore they have received the neces- 
 sary divine power. 
 
 This symbolism is drawn from the experiences of the 
 Prophet Elijah. They were recounted at page 100, and on- 
 ward, in connection with the Church of Thyatira. Elijah, 
 driven into the wilderness by Jezebel, did the wonderful 
 things mentioned, of calling down fire from heaven, and 
 destroying the enemies of God; of closing the heavens 
 against rain over the land of Israel for three and one-half 
 years, that is "forty and two months," or 1,260 days; and 
 again of opening the heavens for copious showers at the 
 close of the period. So were the Church without those 
 special showers of grace and blessing, according to the pre- 
 dictions of the prophets, during the 1,260 years that the 
 true Church, like Elijah, was driven to the wilderness and 
 mountains; and so, like Elijah's rain, did the blessings of 
 God come down from heaven with the open and multi- 
 plied copies of the Scriptures in the early part of this cen- 
 tury; and at the same time the fire of fatal papal and 
 national judgments fell on Rome in sight of all the world. 
 
304 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEI^ATION. [part v. 
 
 II. The Tzvo Witnesses, the Old and Nezv Testaments, 
 as representing the Prophets and Apostles. We know they 
 have the prophetic spirit and power, for they prophesy 
 truly. They are identified by the description of verse 4: — 
 
 "These are the two oKve trees, and the two 
 candlesticks standing before the Lord of the 
 earth." — The two cherubim in the Holy of Holies were 
 made of " olive tree overlaid with gold " (1 Kings vi. 23), 
 and placed upon the mercy seat, facing each other, their wings 
 spread out to the walls of the sanctuary. God (in Christ) is 
 always represented as sitting "between the cherubim;"' and 
 thus they were "standing before the Lord of the earth." 
 The tivo, therefore, represent the two dispensations which 
 meet in C^hrist — the Mosaic and the Christian. The 
 testimony of God concerning all divine things in the former 
 age is through the prophets; that in the latter age is 
 through the apostles. The space between the cherubim 
 Avas filled with the Shekinah, or cloud of visible glory, in- 
 dicative of the presence of God. This was a symbol of 
 Christ, who should be manifested to Israel between the two. 
 dispensations. Th(^ cherub representing the Mosaic dis- 
 pensation was looking fori^'ard to that manifestation; and 
 all the prophets testified of it as a matter of prophetic cer- 
 tainty: the cherub representing the Christian dispensation 
 was looking backzvard to the same manifestation; and the 
 apostles testify of it as a matter of historic verity. 
 
 The symbols are ])orrowed more directly from the 
 vision of Zechariah, and are partly explained in chapter 
 iv. of his book. That prophet saw a 
 zechariaii's golden caudlestick crowned (1) with a 
 Candlestick. hozvl, (2) with sez'e)i hunps, which were 
 connected with the bowl by means of seven 
 pipes, all of gold. Beside these, on the right and on the 
 left^ w^ere two olive trees, connected with the bowl by two 
 
MTOFTHE 
 
 
 ^'*''LL BLESS 
 
 JEWISH CHURCH 
 
 AUTrtt. 
 
 EPHESUS SMYRNA PERGflMOS. 
 
 THE GOLDEN CANDLESTICK. 
 
 The " TVo Witnesses," two "Olive Trees," or "Anointed Ones," that 
 stand by the Lord of the whole earth.— Zech. iv. 
 
CHAP. XXI.] THE TWO WITNESSES. 305 
 
 golden pipes, and emptying golden oil out of themselves. 
 The oil is explained to be the "Word of the Lord" (ver. 6); 
 the seven lamps, "the eyes of the Lord" (ver. 10), i. e., 
 the Church (chap. ii. 8), the same as the seven lamps and 
 candlesticks of the Eevelation (see pages 59, 60); and the 
 two olive trees, "the two anointed ones [referring to the 
 temple cherubim] standing before the Lord of the whole 
 earth" (ver. 14). These are the only direct explanations 
 given. But we understand the whole to be a symbolic 
 picture of the grace of God as revealed to, and bestowed 
 upon, men in two great dispensations — the Mosaic and the 
 Christian. The candlestick has two sections: (1) the boivl 
 — the "fountain opened to the house of David and to the 
 inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness;" it was 
 the fountain of sacrificial blood, typical of Christ the 
 Hebrew Seed, and the Hebrew Church, in "the dispensa- 
 tion of death:'' (2) the seven lamps, connected with the 
 bowl by their seven golden pipes, — Christ in the Christian 
 or all-nations Church, in its seven phases, in "the dispensa- 
 tion of the Spirit.'' The olive trees are the prophets and 
 the apostles of the two dispensations, "anointed" — filled 
 with the Holy Spirit — to stand "before [Gr. ton Kurioti] 
 the Lord of the earth," i. e., Jesus (Lu. i. 17, 76; ii. 11; 
 iii. 4; Acts ii. 36; x. 36), as His two witnesses. The oil 
 comes through the trees, but it is not of the trees, for it 
 is not olive, but golden oil. And as gold represents truth, 
 it is the Word of God spoken by the prophets and apostles. 
 
 The oil is first poured into the bowl through the two 
 pipes, and then flows on through the seven 
 The Golden Oil. pipes to the scvcu lamps. Jesus, Him- 
 self the seed of Abraham, — His throne the 
 throne of David, — and all truth through Him, sprang out 
 of that Hebrew fountain, and is the light and hope of the 
 all-nations Church. And all the prophets, of both dis- 
 
306 DIVINE KEY OF TEE REVELATION. [part v. 
 
 pensations, concentrate all their glorious predictions of 
 God's mercy, and exhaust all their glowing descriptions 
 of His love, in Christ, whose blood is the fountain of 
 life, and began to flow "from the foundation of the world," 
 and ended with the old dispensation, at His cross. But 
 that bowl, in itself, was all dark; it could receive nor re- 
 flect no bright ray of light from the murky waters of the 
 river of death, flowing down all the Old Testament dispen- 
 sation; there was no light or life in it — nought but golden 
 oil and faith. The golden oil flowed silently on, through 
 the bowl and pipes, past the cross to the resurrection and 
 the lamps of light and joy — the churches of the new dis- 
 pensation situated along the river of life; for at the cross 
 the dark river was turned out of its course, to be lost in 
 the sands of time; but at the resurrection, out of the new 
 hewn rock, there came also the bright new river of life and 
 hope. Along its fertile banks, on either side, (the Jewish 
 and the Christian,) and alike accessible to the Ephesian at 
 its head waters, the Thyatirian on lower banks, or the 
 Laodicean near where it empties itself in the great eternal 
 sea, there is the Tree of Life, of which who eats shall 
 never die. 
 
 III. What is the Testimony of the Tzvo Witnesses? 
 It is not something strange or new, but "the old, old 
 story." "I am not alone," said Jesus, "but I and the 
 Father who sent Me. It is also written in your law that 
 the testimony of two men is true [or to be received]. I 
 am one that bear witness of Myself, and the Father who 
 sent Me beareth witness of Me" (John viii. 16-18). This 
 was very true to Jesus' immediate audiences. But in the 
 general way, which we are considering, it is plain that all 
 the way back of Jesus the Father's testimony was through 
 the prophets; and all the way before Him, His own testi- 
 
CHAP. XXI.] THE TWO WITNESSES. 307 
 
 mony was through His apostles. "Search the Scriptures," 
 said He, * * * "they are they that testify (Revision, wit- 
 ness) of Me" (John v. 39). Men have looked in vain, and 
 will, for aa individual antichrist; and also for individual 
 witnesses to rise up for a brief space before the end, and 
 testify concerning the work of Christ. But it seems very 
 clear that the prophets in the Old, and the apostles in the 
 New Testament, are "the two anointed ones" of God, to 
 stand always before the Lord as witnesses: the first testi- 
 fying prophetically of the coming of the "Seed of the 
 woman," of Abraham and David, and predicting the glory 
 and triumph of His work; the second testifying historically 
 of His coming. His mighty works, His death. His resurrec- 
 tion, and His glory. They are "two olive trees" dispensing 
 the holy oil, and "two candlesticks" holding high the light 
 of life in Christ. 
 
 IV. Their Testimony, Clothed in Sackcloth, A. D. 
 ^ji-iypi. The familiar period of 1,260 years is the meas- 
 ure given for their time of prophesying in humiliation, 
 and it accords very nearly with the period of war upon the 
 saints; but the war did not necessarily put them in im- 
 mediate mourning. Procopius, a Greek historian of the 
 time, has the following notes: "530. The heretics are for- 
 bidden meeting at public assemblies." "531. A new law 
 forbids the heretics from giving testimony in courts of 
 justice." Only in 529 the Justinian code of laws had been 
 completed, framed entirely in the interests of Romanism; 
 in 530 the assemblies of Christians were prohibited; and 
 now, in 531, they cannot be heard in testimony before a 
 court of so-called justice. But what greater injustice 
 could be done any people. For we remember that "in the 
 Creed of Justinian the guilt of murder could not be ap- 
 plied to the slaughter of unbelievers." Thus the helpless 
 
3o8 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVElvATlON. [part v. 
 
 witnesses for God and truth had no rights left them that 
 the imperial courts of so-called justice were bound to re- 
 spect. The new law was but a license for a guerilla war- 
 fare upon them throughout the empire. There was not 
 a valuable civil right, more than religious, left them. They 
 were the only genuine representatives of Old and New 
 Testament faith left. Tradition and Falsity reigned; and 
 the few resolute believers had to flee to the mountains and 
 forests, with their secreted Testaments, for their lives. 
 To put the only living representatives of the prophets in 
 mourning was to put the prophetic and apostolic writings 
 themselves in sackcloth. But, with the loss of all earthly 
 toleration, they nevertheless retained that heavenly invest- 
 ment of divine power by which their predicted judgments 
 were visited upon their enemies; and their "rain" was 
 withheld from them throughout the period. 
 
 If we add 1,260 to 531, we have 1,791 for the close of 
 their sackcloth testimony, which was with the death of 
 the witnesses. For "when they shall have finished their 
 testimony," John coi\tinues, 
 
 "The beast that ascendeth out of the bottom- 
 less pit shall make war against them, and over- 
 come them, and kill them." — The witnesses had been 
 warred upon for 1,260 years by Eomanism, as much so, and 
 as bitterly, as paganism had been. We meet a wonderful 
 change-about now. I have showed, in connection with the 
 sixth seal (pages 232 to 236), how at the end of the 1,260 
 years of papal persecution, in the French Eevolution, all 
 the long pent-up fury of paganism burst out, nor stopped 
 with the wreck of Eomanism, but, without discrimination, 
 made a bitter onslought upon Christianity also. It was this 
 beast of the pit warring upon the witnesses. Did he kill 
 
CHAp. XXI. i tHE DRACiON AND THE WIl'NESSES. 3O9 
 
 them? There is but one answer, and that is given by the 
 Kevelator. 
 
 There was never bnt one beast cast into the bottomless 
 pit in these symbols; and consequently but one can come 
 out. It is the great red dragon, whose history begins 
 regularly in the 12th chapter, where he is conquered in 
 war, and ^'^cast out" of his exalted position. He is despoiled 
 of everything in the 13th chapter, further described in 
 the 17th chapter, and "bound" and "cast into the pit" in 
 the 20th chapter. The reference here is only incidental, 
 but is valuable in determining points in his chronology. 
 We cannot here follow the war upon him which led to 
 his casting out and binding, but leave those things to 
 their order in the exposition. But it is a most significant 
 fact brought out by the Eevelation here, in view of the 
 somewhat popular notion of his present incarceration and 
 future escape, that he escaped ONCE, at the close of the 
 two witnesses' testimony, in sackcloth! Who can show that 
 to be a future fulfillment? Who can show another incar- 
 ceration in the pit? Who, then, can show another pro- 
 phetic release? Who can maintain the millennial expec- 
 tation without it? If the beast came out of the pit when 
 the witnesses finished their testimony in sackcloth, then 
 the 1,000 years of the dragon in the pit end in unison with 
 the 1,260 years of the witnesses in sackcloth. This is 
 too plain to be candidly overlooked. 
 
 The dragon is the symbol of paganism, and the 
 synonym of infidelity; and it is one of the 
 War upon tiie j^^Qg^- patent facts in history that since the 
 Witnesses. ^^ys of Coustantiue paganism had been 
 
 under duress and the ban of the great 
 Church-State union. The French Eevolution was the 
 loosing of the beast for war. Thus Mr. Alison wrote: — 
 
3IO DIVINE KKY OP THK REVEI^ATION. [part v. 
 
 "The Jacobines of Paris founded their influences on the 
 ridicule of every species of devotion, and 
 Alison on the erected the altar of Reason on the ruins of 
 Dragron's the Christian faith. Nor was this irreligious 
 
 Work. fanatism confined to the citizens of the Metro- 
 
 polis: it pervaded equally every department of 
 France where the republican principles were embraced, and 
 every class of men who were attached to its iortunes."~IJist. 
 of Europe, Vol. i., p. 31. 
 
 Pressense, a French writer, says: — 
 
 "On the last day of September, 1791, the Constituent As- 
 sembly handed over its powers to that stormy 
 Pressense Legislative Assembly which accomplished the 
 on the sad work of sweeping away the monarchy and 
 Same. establishing the Republic on the ruins of 
 liberty. ... It sought to subordinate this 
 [the salaried State] clergy to the government [now purely 
 pagan] by means of the civil constitution and the political oath; 
 it carried constraint even into the consciences. Thus in the very 
 temple of liberty the old idol of the State had been replaced 
 on the altar by legislators who, while believing themselves bold 
 innovators, were in this manner revivers of the most obsolete 
 pretentions of the ancient monarchy Docile and pas- 
 sionate disciples of an unbelieving age, the Girondists displayed 
 in their opposition to the reactionary clergy all the prejudices 
 of a materialistic philosophy which was incapable of respecting 
 God as manifested in the human conscience. They gave to the 
 world the shameful spectacle of persecuting disciples of Vol- 
 taire." — Relig. and Reign of Ter., p. 138-144. 
 
 "The sole sublime characters in these deplorable struggles 
 were the humble martyrs, whether priests or peasants, who, 
 strangers to all political intrigues, suffered and died simply 
 for their faith." — lb., p. 151. 
 
 Furtlier on the same writer continues: — 
 
 "The great battle was fought between the Constitutionalists 
 of 1789 and the hot Radicals of 1791; between the friends of 
 liberty and the champions of mad democracy. The victory fell 
 to the latter, for the fever of the moment and the danger of 
 foreign war played into their hands Some churches were 
 
CHAP. XXI.] THB DRAGON AND THE WITNESSES. 311 
 
 opened for the nonjuring priests, and the service unmolested. 
 Still the cause of irreligion made progress day by day, and the 
 Jacobin club was constantly the theatre of violent declamations 
 against Christianity. In the departments the greatest anarchy 
 reigned." — lb., pp. 162-166. 
 
 The infidel cities of France, to intensify their ex- 
 pressions of hatred for the Bible, Christianity, and Christ, 
 vied with each other in doing homage to the memory of 
 the great infidels Voltaire and Eousseau, and "contested 
 for the honor of possessing the bones" of Voltaire. The 
 Assembly granted the inglorions "honor" to Paris. La- 
 croix thus describes the profane spectacle of receiving 
 them : — 
 
 "On July II, 1791, the authorities went in a body to the city 
 gate to welcome his mortal remains. The 
 Lacroix's coffin was placed on the site of the Bastile, and 
 
 Account. exposed to the multitude the rest of the day. 
 
 The next day the body of Voltaire was 
 mounted on a triumphal car drawn by twelve magnificently ca- 
 parisoned white horses, and drawn in procession through the 
 city towards the Pantheon. The National Assembly, and all 
 the chief official bodies of the city surrounded, preceded, or 
 followed the sarcophagus. Nothing could surpass the enthusi- 
 asm of the day, or the fulsome laudations that were devoted to 
 the memory of the great scoffer by the unbelieving generation 
 of the Revolution." — Relig. and Reign of Ter., p. 387- 
 
 France had opened the pit and let out the dragon. 
 In Kovember, 1791, under the direct pay of the Assembly, 
 as onr quotation from Eowan (p. 235) shows, he attacked 
 the Bible — the two great pillars of Christian testimony — 
 and deluged not France alone, with the ravings of a cor- 
 rupt, infidel philosophy, "which contributed to destroy all 
 religion," and prostrated the witnesses dead in the dust. 
 With all this testimony, can we fail to see that the two 
 witnesses were killed, and had ceased to give even a sack- 
 
3l^ mvINE KEY OP THE REVEI.ATTON. [part v. 
 
 cloth testimony to the nation where this scene is laid, as 
 shown in the next statement of the Eevelator: — 
 
 "And their dead bodies shall lie in the street 
 of the great city." — The clothing of the witnesses in 
 sackcloth is chargeable upon the Catholic Church, and 
 was as extensive territorially as that church or "city;" but 
 the war, killing, and exhibition of the dead bodies, was by 
 the dragon, and confined to one of the streets of the city. 
 When the symbol is a beast with seven heads, France is 
 one of the heads; or if with horns, one of the horns. 
 When as a city with streets, France is one of the streets. 
 
 "Which spiritually is called Sodom and 
 Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified." — The 
 
 sins of Sodom and Egypt were licentiousness and idolatry, 
 and are fit symbols for figurative application to the "mother 
 of harlots and "abominations," who has committed adultery 
 with so many kings of the earth. Our Lord was spiritually 
 crucified in the persons of His two witnesses. Christian- 
 ity as revealed in the Old and New Testaments completely 
 lost its hold on the affections, and its power over the 
 consciences, of an entire nation, given over to riot, licen- 
 tiousness and murder. The witnesses lay dead in that 
 great French street of Catholicism at the close of the 
 year 1791. 
 
 "And they of the * * nations shall see 
 their dead bodies three days and a half, and shall 
 not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves." 
 
 — If Mr. Eedhead had been composing history for the oc- 
 casion, with special reference to this prophecy, there could 
 hardly appear a more striking coincidence than the follow- 
 ing statement of facts furnishes: — 
 
CHAP. XXI.] fHB DRAGON AND O^HH WI'fNESSES. ji;! 
 
 "All Europe," says that historian, "stood in amazement and 
 perturbation at the events that were passing. 
 Redhead's The prodigious increase of power in France, 
 
 Graphic and the revolting purposes to which she ap- 
 
 Aeconnt. plied it, began to arouse a universal dread for 
 
 the independence of nations, and the exist- 
 ence of social order or public morality. . . . A.II the nations 
 of the earth seemed to rush simultaneously to quell her." — Hist, 
 of France, p. 113. 
 
 It was of this national "struggle" that the author of 
 Student's France wrote, as quoted on page 247. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 REVIVAL OF THE TWO WITJ;rESSES— THEIR 
 
 ASCENSION. 
 
 RENAISSANCE OF THE CHURCH IN' FRANCE — END OF THE 
 
 SECOND WOE — GREAT EXALTATION OF 
 
 THE WORD OF GOD. 
 
 Text, Chapter xi. 10-14. 
 
 10. 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 dwelt on the 
 earth. 
 
 11. And after three days and a half the spirit of life from 
 God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and 
 great fear fell upon them which saw them. 
 
 12. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto 
 them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a 
 cloud; and their enemies beheld them. 
 
 13. And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and 
 the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain 
 of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and 
 gave glory to the God of heaven. 
 
 14. The second woe is past; end, behold, the third woe 
 Cometh quickly. 
 
 THE death of the two witnesses was to be fully rec- 
 ognized during their prostrate condition. There- 
 fore were they left so long in sight of their ene- 
 mies, that their revival and subsequent exaltation might 
 appear the more prominent and prophetic by contrast. 
 
 314 
 
CHAP. XXII.] THE DRAGON AND THE WITNESSES. 315 
 
 "And they * * shall rejoice over them, and 
 make merry * '•' because these two prophets 
 tormented them." — A writer gives the following ac- 
 count: — 
 
 "A very remarkable and prophetic distinction of tliis period 
 was the spirit of frenzied festivity which seized 
 Testimony upon France. The capital and all the re- 
 *»' publican towns were the scene of civil feasts, 
 Dr. Croly. processions and shows of the most extravagant 
 kind. The most festive times of peace, under 
 the most expensive kings, were thrown into the shade by the 
 frequency, variety and extent of the republican exhibitions." 
 And though this was "a time of perpetual miseries throughout 
 France," and "the guillotine was bloody from morn till night," 
 yet "in the midst of these horrors," he continues, "there were 
 t.wenty-six theatres open, filled with the most profane and prof- 
 ligate displays in honor of the 'triumph of reason!' But more 
 formal scofifings were prepared by the express command of the 
 government. On the first of November, 1793, Gobet, with the 
 republican priests of Paris, [an example of the falling stars of 
 the sixth seal,] had thrown off the gown and abjured religion. 
 On the nth a 'grand festival,' dedicated to 'reason and truth,' 
 was celebrated in the cathedral of Notre Dame, which had been 
 desecrated and been named 'the temple of reason;' a pyramid 
 was erected in the centre of the church, surmounted by a 
 temple, inscribed 'to philosophy ' The torch of 'truth' was on 
 the altar of 'reason' shedding light! etc. The National Con- 
 vention and all the authorities attended at this burlesque and in- 
 sulting ceremony. In February, 1794, a grand fete was ordered 
 by the convention, in which hymns to 'liberty' [meaning blas- 
 phemous license] were chanted In June another festival 
 
 was ordered — to the 'supreme being,' the god of philosophy! 
 But the most superb exhibition was the 'general festival' in 
 honor of the Republic. It was distinquished by a more au- 
 dacious spirit of scoffing and profanation than all the former. 
 Robespierre acted the 'high priest of reason' on the day, and 
 made himself conspicuous in blasphemy." — Croly, On the 
 Apocalypse, pp. 119-121. 
 
3l6 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [parT v. 
 
 Nothing but biting consciences conld have instigated 
 all this. Dr. Thomas Coke also writes, as follows: — 
 
 "To prevent, in the midst of these commotions, every symp- 
 tom of returning remorse, and to banish 
 Dr. Colce reflection from every bosom, the minds of 
 
 Writes. thg Parisians were kept in a continual 
 
 fever of the most dissolute gaiety. 'Between 
 the loth of August, 1792, and the ist of January, 1794,' 
 says Robinson, 'upwards of two hundred nevi^ plays were acted 
 in the Parisian theatres. Their immorality and their barbarism 
 exceeded all conception. All the voluptuous sensuality of an- 
 cient Rome [the mother dragon] was brought upon the stage, 
 No decoration was spared that could dazzle the eye; and the 
 dialogues and representations were calculated to inflame the 
 passions, and nourish the hatred of all subordination.'" — Gomm., 
 Vol. vi., p. 187. 
 
 Thus did men "rejoice" and "make merry" over the 
 heavenly witnesses' prostration in the dust. But it was 
 brief merriment and expensive Joy; for — 
 
 "If any man will hurt them, he must in this 
 manner be killed." — This prediction was not less strik- 
 ingly verified, specially while the witnesses lay dead before 
 the nations. Vengeance returned speedily upon the heads 
 of the worst promoters of the sacrilegious work. The in- 
 iquitous monster Marat, president of the committee of 
 
 "surveillance," perished at the hand of a 
 The Witnesses young Avoman, Charlotte Corday, who 
 Revenged. traveled from Caen to Paris to kill him. 
 
 Twenty of the blaspheming Girondists 
 were guillotined at one time, October, 1793, victims of the 
 jealousies of the equally blasphemous Jacobines, when they 
 came to power, under the lead of Robespierre. Then the 
 wicked Duke of Orleans and Madame Eoland were led to 
 the scaffold. The March following Robespierre turned 
 against the Hebertists, through whose influence the decree 
 had been obtained by which "the religion of Jesus Christ 
 
CHAP. XXII.] THE DRAGON AND THE WITNESSES. 317 
 
 was formally proscribed and suppressed," and "all Christian 
 worship prohibited;" and nineteen of the vilest blasphem- 
 ers that ever lived to hate God and revile their only 
 Saviour, including Hebert himself, Vincent, Eonsin and 
 "Anacharsis" Clootz, were brought to their own bloody 
 block: all but the last two "betraying the most abject 
 weakness and terror in the last moments." Chaumette, 
 who had played high priest to reason in November, was 
 next put under the terrible knife; and in April Danton, 
 Camille Desmoulins and thirteen associate revilers of the 
 witnesses were "dragged away from the bar [of the As- 
 sembly] in the midst of their angry declamations," and 
 silenced by the same keen-edged guillotine that had slain 
 its thousands with their approval. Having now "piti- 
 lessly trampled down all opposition" among his companion 
 terrorists, "Eobespierre reigned for a brief period in sole 
 and undisputed despotism." In June, at the great "Fete 
 de I'Etre Supreme," he acted the grand high priest, in 
 open mocking blasphem}^ before the assembled thousands! 
 but in July "the triumvirate," Robespierre, Couthon and 
 St. Just, with the "ferocious Henriot," were seized and 
 put under the awful knife. And, as if the heavens would 
 laugh at this summary vengeance, the historian recounts 
 that "insults, maledictions, and brutal exultations ac- 
 companied them to the guillotine; and as the head of 
 Robespierre rolled off the scaffold, the vast crowd broke 
 into a loud, unanimous and prolonged chorus of acclama- 
 tion." See Studenfs France, pp. 566-575. 
 
 Thus closed the Reign of Terror — prophetically terrible 
 to the maddened, impious terrorists themselves — godless 
 haters and slayers of Jesus' two witnesses. They "must 
 in this manner be killed" — how quickly the merited retri- 
 bution came. As one faction after another, by fortune or 
 by conspiracy, came to power they furiously cut off the 
 
3l8 DIVINE KEY OP THE REVEI^ATION. [part v. 
 
 heads of their predecessors in blasphemy and butchery, 
 and, in their turn, cravenly laid down their own necks to 
 their swift successors in sacrilege and slaughter. 
 
 "And after three days and a half the spirit of 
 hfe from God entered into them, and they stood 
 upon their feet ; and great fear fell upon them that 
 saw them." — God's two witnesses were not dead beyond 
 revival like their guillotined adversaries, even in France, 
 for God had both determined and predicted their revival; 
 nor were they to remain in robes of sackcloth longer. 
 Three and one-half years from 1791 (allowing the war 
 which the dragon made on them before the killing was 
 reached, to have continued to the close of that year) bring 
 us to the middle of 1795. Accordingly, in April of 1795,. 
 Mr. Eowan says, — 
 
 "The Convention decreed that all individuals who had con- 
 tributed to 'the vast tyranny abolished on the 
 Rowan Qth Thermidor (27th July, 1794 -namely, 
 
 "Writes. Robespierre's survivors) should be disarmed; 
 
 that the National Guard should be reorganized 
 on the basis of '89; that all families, whose property had been 
 confiscated for any other cause than emigration should be re- 
 instated in their rights; that religiom loorsMp should be per-, 
 formed in the edifices designed for that purpose; that the revo- 
 lutionary tribunals should be definitely suppressed; and, lastly, 
 that a commission of eleven members, all Girondins, should 
 occupy itself with the framing of a new constitution. This 
 last blow was most severely felt by the Jacobines,- and to all 
 their other accusations against the Convention they now added 
 that of apostasy."— ffis^. French Revo., Vol. II., p. 172. 
 
 Surely, when their adversaries apostatize, the wit- 
 nesses may revive. The dragon was now satiated with 
 blood, dizzy from the heights of his revelry and blas- 
 phemies, and staggering from the enormity of his crimes. 
 Said a journal of the time, the Eclair: — ■ 
 
CHAP. XXII.] REVIVAL OF THE TWO WITNESSES. 319 
 
 "We are the only people in the world who ever attempted 
 to do without religion. But what is already 
 The our sad experience? Every tenth day [the 
 
 Eclair'8 recreation-day which the infidels chose to dis- 
 
 Words. place the Christian rest-day] we are astounded 
 
 by the recital of more crimes and -assassina- 
 tions than were committed formerly in a whole year. At the 
 risk of speaking an obsolete laguage, and of receiving insult for 
 response, we declare that we must cease striving to destroy 
 the remnants of religion if we desire to prevent the entire 
 dissolution of society." (Quoted by Pressense.) 
 
 This is an illustration of what man is, or what men 
 would become if left to themselves, without the influences 
 of the Holy Spirit upon or about them. Their whole 
 course, inevitably, would be an evolution downward and 
 bruteward instead of Godward or upward. Mr. Alison 
 bears this testimony: — 
 
 "Everywhere the churches during the reign of terror were 
 closed, the professors of religion dispossessed, 
 Alison's and their rights overturned; and the first steps 
 
 Testimony. toward the restoration of a regular govern- 
 
 ment were the restoration of the temples, which 
 the whirlwind of anarchy had destroyed, and the revival of the 
 faith, which its fury had extinguished."— ^ts*. Europe, Vol. 
 I., p. 31. 
 
 The three days and a half would represent, in this 
 prophecy, three years and a half, and would reach from 
 the close of 1791 to the middle of 1795, before the new 
 life would be infused into the witnesses. Mr. Henry Kett, 
 B.D., Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, 
 Dr. Kett Wrote, j^ his history says, "On the 28th of May, 
 1795, the Convention passed a decree for 
 the freedom of religious worship. On the 2/th of June, 
 same year, the churches of Paris zvere opened, and services 
 performed with great ceremony. This appearance of tol- 
 
320 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part V. 
 
 eration in the government diffused general satisfaction." 
 Eowan also says, "the Convention proclaimed liberty to all 
 religious creeds." 
 
 This was a most remarkable coincidence, if it was not 
 a divine fulfillment. Who can doubt which it was? The 
 "restoration of a regular government" was by means of 
 the new constitution, which was adopted, Pressense says, 
 "August 17th, 1795;" but that was preceded by the "re- 
 
 vival of the faith," which had been "ex- 
 Gregrory and tinguishcd." For, about the beginning of 
 D^Aneriafi. -j-j^e year, two noble and zealous patriots, 
 
 one a Christian, but the other still in the 
 mazes of infidelity, plead with burning eloquence, at the 
 bar of the Assembly, for a complete liberty of conscience — 
 Gregory, Bishop of Blois, and Boissy D'Anglas. Ko doubt 
 there was a providential moving of the patriotic heart, and 
 the courage and eloquence of D'Anglas, who, as a skeptic, 
 could be of so much service in a nation so degenerated, 
 to the lone and despised voice of a Christian bishop. Their 
 discussions brought out a decree of the Assembly (Feb. 21) 
 that "the exercise of ito worship should be disturbed;" and 
 this decree, as Pressense says, "allowed religion to spring 
 up anew on the tormented soil of France. Under its 
 favor all branches of the church were allowed everywhere 
 to celebrate their worship." Another decree was secured 
 "on the 1st of May, 1795," by which, "in the short debate 
 which thereupon ensued, the cause of religious liberty 
 triumphed, and the law of February 21st received the most 
 happy extension." (See Relig. and Reign of Terr., pp. 
 259-266.) 
 
CHAP. XXII.] REVIVAL OF THE TWO WITNESSES. 32 1 
 
 "The new constitution," continues Pressense, "was the work 
 of the moderate party, and was presented in 
 Character the Convention by Boissy d'Anglas. It was 
 
 o« the New easy to see that three years of contest had 
 
 Constitution. overturned many a revolutionary prejudice. . . 
 As to religious liberty, the new constitution 
 asserted the great principles which had triumphed in the Con- 
 vention after the fall of Robespierre. It contained the words, 
 'Every one is free in the exercise of his worship.' The words, 
 'The RepuMic salaries no worship,' consecrated one of the most 
 precious and most dearly bought of the conquests of revolution. 
 .... Worship had been revived throughout the land, and it 
 was easy to see how indestructible is the religious sentiment." — 
 lb., pp. 268-275. 
 
 The worst of the scoffing infidels had bit the dust in 
 their own fight, and the witnesses for God revived, and the 
 work of God resumed. 
 
 " If Heaven send no supplies, 
 The fairest blossom of the garden dies." 
 
 — Wm. Browne. 
 
 But— 
 
 " Behind the dim unknown, 
 Standeth God within the shadow, keeping 
 watch above His own." — Lowell. 
 
 "And pleas'd th' Almighty's orders to perform, 
 Rides in the whirlwind and directs the storm." 
 
 — Addison. 
 
 Pressense gives this glorious summing as the Unale of 
 the brief dragonic victory over the two witnesses, to the 
 honor of our prophecy, faithful to history, and to the 
 shame of those who will not believe the one, and cannot 
 deny the other. It is one of the brightest pages of history. 
 Hear what his graphic pen records: — 
 
 "Scarcely had any degree of liberty been allowed when 
 Gregory convoked at Paris, May 15th, 1795, 
 The Church a number of bishops. These men in union 
 Sprlng^ingr out published two encyclical letters, designed to 
 of the Dust. obviate various disorders, set aside the un- 
 worthy [apostate] priests, and provisionally 
 organize the church. In one of the letters these pious bishops 
 say, 'Let those to whom God has given grace to remain faithful 
 
322 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part v. 
 
 in the midst of the terrors of death, rejoice to have been worthy 
 to suffer something for Jesus Christ. We bishops especially, 
 pastors of souls, are responsible to God, to the Church and to 
 posterity for our efforts to revive the faith.' Elsewhere in this 
 document, which is worthy of the first ages of the Church, we 
 read, 'Let the pastors show their zeal to proclaim Christ; let 
 them exhort the faithful to a careful study of the New Testament; 
 let them by their conduct render their ministry respected.' The 
 bishops caused to be translated the fine treatise of St. Cyprian, 
 De Lapsis, which seemed to have been written for the exigencies 
 of that very time. Multitudes of answers were sent to the 
 circulars, and the faithful bishops and priests joined hands in 
 the work of raising up the Church. A journal for mutual com- 
 munication was established, and Gregory conceived the happy 
 thought of establishing a society of Christian philosophy for 
 the purpose of circulating works in defense of religion. In 
 most of the cities the people flocked to the services with un- 
 precedented ardor. The temples did not suffice to contain them. 
 There seemed to be a desire to prolong indefinitely the acts 
 of devotion, and tears filled the eyes of all. At Lens all labor 
 ceased, and the church of St. Peter was crowded with prostrate 
 penitents bewailing their past unfaithfulness. One could have 
 witnessed scenes as full of pathos as those which took place at 
 Jerusalem when the Jews, on returning from exile, were able 
 again to worship the God of their fathers in their own 
 land. The bishops, by their circulars, favored and directed the 
 good movement. 'Having no longer any political connections,' 
 so wrote Gregory to his colleagues, 'you will not be tempted to 
 stay yourselves on the arm of flesh. God alone will be your 
 strength. The splendor of the precious metals will no longer 
 confound with true piety that which too often was only its 
 poison. Let religion revive among us; let it revive pure as it 
 came from the hands of Christ. We are placed as it were 
 again at the origin of the Church.' 'We declare,' wrote Bishop 
 Lecos, 'that being subjects of a kingdom not of this world, 
 we iDill not dispute for temporal interests. Christianity does not 
 meddle with governments; it conflicts with none, and lives peaceably 
 under all.' This was the spirit that animated the constitutional 
 Church as revived by Gregory and his colleagues." — lb., pp. 
 305-307. 
 
 It was truly the ''spirit of life from God" that had 
 entered into the witnesses anew, and they were exerting 
 their old-time influence upon the minds of men again; 
 
CHAP. XXII.] REVIVAI. OF THE TWO WITNESSES. 
 
 323 
 
 else no such remarkable change could have so suddenly 
 come over the whole attitude of a people towards God, the 
 Bible and religion. And the value of the Bible and re- 
 ligion to men and nations, as promoters of present peace, 
 general welfare, good order, collective and individual hap- 
 piness, as well as hope for the eternal future, is most mani- 
 fest and unmistakable. In confirmation of the dates, I 
 will yet add the testimony of Dr. Henry Kett, who wrote 
 his history at the time and says (about p. 220): — 
 
 "On the 28th of May, 1795, the Convention passed a decree 
 for the freedom of religious worship. On the 27th of June, 
 same year, the churches of Paris were opened, and services per- 
 formed with ceremony. This appearance of toleration in the 
 government diffused general satisfaction." 
 
 The dates and periods thus established by historians 
 of the time, may be summarized in the following diagram; 
 and it would seem incredible that so many points in proph- 
 ecy and history could be found so completely harmonized, 
 in so many details, in a ivrong arrangement. 
 
 DIAGRAM OF THE LEOPARD, DRAGON, AND TWO WITNESSES PERIODS. 
 
 15 29 SARUIS. 17 89 PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 GREEK 
 EMPIRE. 
 
 The beast like a Leopard makes war 
 on the Saints 1260 years. 
 
 'Judgment" Destroys 
 His Dominion. 
 
 OLD PAGAN 
 ROME. 
 
 The Great Red Dragon 
 
 Out" I "Bound" 1000 years; 
 
 = Ten Horns, 
 s One Hour. 
 
 ' Loosed a Season." 
 
 OLD AND NEW 
 TESTAMENTS. 
 
 The 
 
 Two Witnesses "in sack-; i>k'g'n hh. ^„„ 
 
 ■ KILLS TKARS. i .soekn 
 
 Cloth" 1260 years. : them. I ■>"->• I to^d 
 
 Deo. 17 91 ton 95-Juiie. 
 
 * This date and the hinding will be established in history when we reach 
 chapter xx. 
 
324 DIVINB KKY OP THB REVELATION. [part V, 
 
 "And they heard a great voice from heaven 
 saying unto them, Come up hither. And they as- 
 cended up to heaven in a cloud ; and their ene- 
 mies beheld them." — They were called out of the dust 
 to a very exalted position in the world. Jesus used the 
 same figure, in a reversed order, saying, "And thou, Caper- 
 naum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought 
 dozvn to hades" — to destruction in death. (Matt. xi. 33; 
 Isa. xiv. 11-15; Lam. ii. 1; compare iv. 6.) The spirit of 
 life from God having revived the two witnesses, it also 
 reacted upon the Lord's people, not only in France, as 
 testified by Pressense, but throughout the world; and in 
 a very few years Bible societies for the translation of the 
 Bible into all languages and dialects, and for its cheap 
 publication, and extensive dissemination in all lands, were 
 formed in every quarter of the globe. Tlius, after nearly 
 thirteen centuries of contumelious sackcloth, and three and 
 one-half years of being dragged in the streets, and trodden 
 in the very mire, the dawn of the ninteenth century opened 
 a new and glorious era for the Word of God, and clothed 
 it with garments of praise and beauty. 
 
 The nations, true to prophecy, refused to allow the 
 desecrations of revolutionary France to 
 Origin o£ g^ qj^ uurebukcd, as we have seen. But, 
 
 Bible Societies, further, a great reformatory work im- 
 mediately began which was to shed an in- 
 fluence over the nations in sight of their enemies. An 
 "Association for Discountenancing Vice, and Promoting 
 the Knowledge and Practice of tlie Cliristian Religion,'' 
 was established in Dublin in 1792 — when infidelity in 
 France was in the high tide of its brief triumph, and shock- 
 ing the nations with its awful blasphemies. Also "a French 
 Bible society was founded in London, in the same year 
 (1793), for publishing the Bible in French;" and, to the 
 
CHAP. XXII.] ASCENSION OF THE WITNESSES. 325 
 
 glory of God be it said, "an edition of the New Testament 
 was published in Paris, in 1802, by another English so- 
 ciety!" In London, in 1802, "Joseph Hughes had given 
 utterance to the idea of a Bible society for the world," 
 which was well received; and steps were immediately taken 
 "to awaken interest, and find out the extent of destitution 
 at home and abroad." Three hundred persons, of all de- 
 nominations, attended its first meeting, March 7, 1794. 
 It took the name of British and Foreign Bible Society; 
 and its total issues to 1881 were 91,014,448 copies. "When, 
 in 1806, the first wagonful of Bibles came into Wales, it 
 was received like the ark of the covenant; and the people, 
 with shouts of great joy, drew it into the city." 
 
 The Nuremberg Bible Society was organized May 10, 
 1804, for supplying Austria and Germany, 
 Multiplied qj^^ received the stereotype plates of the 
 
 Societies. German Bible from the British and For- 
 
 eign Society. In 1880 it had issued 684.- 
 313 copies. The Ratisbon Society was formed in 1805, 
 changed to the Berlin Bible Society in 1806, and in 1880 
 had issued 4,661,796 copies. The American Bible Society 
 was organized in Philadelphia in 1808, and in 1880 had 
 issued 38,882,811 copies. Following this society, says the 
 secretary, "the idea was quickly taken up everywhere; so 
 that, in June, 1816, a hundred and twenty-eight Bible 
 societies were reported!" A society was formed in Hun- 
 gary in 1811, and "others in Hanover, Saxony, and the 
 smaller German States followed;" that at Wurtemberg, 
 formed in 1813, one of the most flourishing, reports a 
 total issue, in 1880, of 1,463,801 copies. 
 
 "Steinkopf's tour through Switzerland, in 1812, awoke 
 great enthusiasm; and Bible societies sprang up every- 
 where." The Russian, 1813; Swedish, 1814-1880, 920,747 
 
326 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEI«ATlON. [part v. 
 
 copies; Danish, 1814-1876, 346,026 copies; Iceland, 1815- 
 — , 10,445 copies; United Netherlands, 1815-1878, 1,386,- 
 180 copies; Norway, 1816-1880, 248,924 copies; Protestant 
 Bible Society, of Paris, 1818-1880, 624,488 copies; Malta, 
 1817; Zona, 1819, 7,377 copies; Calcutta, 1811-1880, 1,706,- 
 615 copies; Bombay, 1813-1880, 444,675 copies; Madras, 
 1820-1880, 2,871,792 copies; the Evangelical Bible Society 
 in Eussia, 1831-1880, 945,683 copies; another in Eussia, 
 by imperial sanction, 1869-1881, 668,103 copies; and the 
 Bible Society of France, 1864-1877, 267,047 copies. See 
 Scha-ff-Herzog Ency. Relig. KnoivL; Ency. Britan. 
 
 What a change for the Bible — ^for the two witnesses! 
 
 What a glorious triumph for eighty years' 
 A Giorions work ! Nearly one hundred and thirty 
 
 Triumpii. million copies by the British and Foreign 
 
 and American societies alone; and over 
 one hundred and forty-six million copies, all told, up to 
 1880 and 1881! But that was fifteen years ago; no doubt, 
 present statistics will pass 150,000,000 copies!! From the 
 rarest and costliest of books it rose, in half a century, to 
 be the cheapest and \he commonest of any book in use in 
 the world. Surely, a heavenly "voice" had bidden it 
 thither, or no such eminence could have been attained in 
 ten half-centuries. Its position in the world is now beyond 
 the reach of its enemies, who are obliged to behold it rising 
 still, and, like a cloud of glory, spreading over the earth. 
 "And the same hour was there a great earth- 
 quake, and the tenth part of the city fell." — One 
 hour of prophetic time — "a day for a year" — would be 15 
 days of literal time. But it does not appear a definite 
 symbolic period is intended here, since no such period is 
 elsewhere described. Like the "hour of temptation" that 
 came "upon all the world" to try them, it represents a 
 
CHAP. XXII.] A TENTH PART OF THE CITY FEI<I.. 327 
 
 comparatively, not a definitely, short space of time. An 
 earthquake is a shaking of the earth in the struggle for 
 release of pent-up forces, at which time anything built 
 upon the earth is liable to have its foundations destroyed. 
 The great apostate church, called Catholic, had forsaken 
 the solid rock, Christ, and had built Great Babylon on the 
 sandy soil of the Eoman earth. France was a "tenth part" 
 of the territory; and during the Eevolution was rocked 
 and tossed like a fragile ship in a furious storm. Tre- 
 mendous forces, imprisoned there for "a thousand years," 
 were struggling now for liberty, and shaking all dependent 
 foundations. The reader will recall an extract from La- 
 martine, quoted on page 230, showing how throne and 
 altar fell. Church and State in France — a tenth part of 
 the great Eoman "beast" or "city" — were overthrown, be- 
 fore the eyes of the whole world. It was the earthquake 
 of the sixth seal, which we there found was this same 
 Eevolution, a harmony very worthy of notice. 
 
 Chas. A. Goodrich, the historian, writes: — 
 
 "At the commencement of the French revolution the clergy 
 in France were both numerous and wealthy. 
 Goodrich's They amounted to no less than eighteen arch- 
 
 statement, bishops, one hundred and eleven bishops 
 
 and 150,000 priests, having under their con- 
 trol a revenue of five millions sterling, annually, besides 
 3,400 wealthy convents. The clergy and their wealth were 
 now attacked by the infidel revolutionists, and fell an easy prey. 
 The tithes and revenues of the clergy were taken away by a 
 decree of the Constituent Assembly; the possessions of the 
 Church were now declared to be the property of the nation; 
 the religious orders were abolished, the monks and nuns ejected 
 from their convents, and their immense wealth seized for the 
 nation. The revolutionary torrent, which was thus set in mo- 
 tion, destroyed law, government and religion in France, and 
 laid waste the Roman Church, both there and in neighboring 
 countries. 'The priests were massacred, her silver, shrines, and 
 
328 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEI^ATION. [part v. 
 
 saints were turned into money for the payment of the troops, 
 her bells were converted into cannon, and her churches and 
 convents into barracks for soldiers. From the Atlantic to the 
 Adriatic she presented but one appalling spectacle. She had 
 shed the blood of saints and prophets, and God now gave her 
 blood to drink.'"— flist of the Church, pp. 183, 184. 
 
 Could there be a truer and more sadly perfect picture 
 drawn? — a tenth part of the apostate Eoman city — one 
 whole Catholic kingdom — fallen! 
 
 "And in the earthquake were slain of men 
 seven thousand." — Not of "men," but (Greek) ^^ names 
 of men" — see margin, Emphatic Diaglott, and other critical 
 renderings. The names which were destroyed in the 
 Revolution refer, doubtless, to the numerous vain titles 
 which the dignitaries of the Church had drawn to them- 
 selves. She was following the antichrist now, and despis- 
 ing the true Master's exhortation to call no man on the 
 earth, father, rabbi, or master (Matt, xxiii. 8-13), and had 
 heaped to herself a multitude of vain distinctions, such as 
 Father, Father in God, Holy Father, Eeverend, Very 
 Eeverend, Eight Eeverend, Most Eeverend, Doctor, Car- 
 dinal, ArcJihish.0^, ''Archdeacon, Monk, Carmelite, Au- 
 gustinian, Dominican, Jacobin, Franciscan, Capuchin, 
 Jesuite, Minimite, etc., etc. All titles of honor and nobil- 
 ity, as King and Queen, Prince and Princess, Count and 
 Countess, Duke and Duchess, etc., were declared illegal, 
 and the term "citizen" made the common and only pre- 
 rogative of all Frenchmen; and not less than a symbolic 
 seven thousand of them fell. I do not understand it to 
 represent such a literal number, but a perfect abandon- 
 ment of titles for the time; which was literally fulfilled. 
 Jesus had established in the Church the apostles and 
 prophets, and besides, gave "some evangelists, and some 
 pastors and teachers;" and the apostles, through the Holy 
 
CHAP. XXII.] A TENTH PART OF THE CITY FELI.. 329 
 
 Spirit, established the offices of bishop* and deacon; but 
 the Church, like Capernaum, were soon "exalted unto 
 heaven," as Reverend Archdeacons, and Most Reverend 
 Archhisho-ps, etc. They were not satisfied to hold legiti- 
 mate and humble offices for such labor and sacrifices for 
 the Church as their names suggested, but sought to elevate 
 the offices as a means of elevating themselves in the sight 
 of men. And to such an extent was this carried that God 
 used the outraged moral sense of the infidel French As- 
 sembly to rebuke the carnal sensuality of the so-called 
 Church of Christ. They fell for a time, and for such a 
 rebuke, yet we are not told that they repented or gave 
 God the glory. But — 
 
 " The remnant were affrighted, and gave glory 
 .to the God of heaven." — Men are so obstinate in their 
 desires, and methods to satisfy them, that the masses are 
 not profited by reproof and chastisement; only a remnant 
 are so "exercised thereby" as to bring forth the "peace- 
 able fruit of righteousness" afterward. The history that 
 has been cited of the work and teachings of Gregory and 
 his co-laborers, so far as the same departed from the old 
 ways of Jezebel's children, abundantly illustrates such a 
 startling of the remnant to think of reforming the Church 
 and glorifying God. 
 
 "The second woe is past; and behold, the 
 third woe cometh quickly." — The second woe (which 
 is met only incidentally here, which was inflicted under 
 the sixth trumpet, and is directly connected with that 
 history— chapter viii. 13) was ended, then, with the revival 
 of the witnesses, in 1795. Let us not forget this when we 
 reach that part of our exposition. The woes, of which 
 
 *0r elder, see 1 Tim. iii. 1,2; Tit. i. 5-7. 
 
330 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEI.ATION. [PART v. 
 
 there are three, are directly connected with the last three 
 trumpets, which we will soon consider. There is, of 
 course, from this point but one woe or trumpet more; and 
 that to sound "quickly" thereafter. How quickly? We 
 may answer without presumption, perhaps, Just as soon as 
 the din, and confusion, and terror, of the great revolution- 
 ary earthquake shall sufficiently subside to allow men to 
 contemplate its results, and discover what is lost, and 
 what is left. (See "quickly" on the chart.) 
 
 It had been a "woe" upon the papacy. Under the 
 sixth trumpet, with which this second woe is connected, 
 Mohammedanism was the scourge which God used to 
 destroy the prestige, power and life of Eome. Its bluster 
 and success almost throughout the empire revived the spirit 
 of paganism in France, which had been "cast out," as we 
 shall find when we reach the 12th chapter, and "bound," 
 when we reach the 20th chapter. (See a reference, also, 
 on page 307.) If Eome could have contended with Islam- 
 ism, it could have resisted still the struggles of paganism, 
 and held it in chains. But the beast had broken his 
 "chain," according t(\ the divine arrangement — Moslemism 
 meriting his thanks. In consequence, the judgment of 
 Dan. vii. 26 had now dethroned the man of sin; but what 
 was loss to the pope, was gain to the Church. If the 
 papacy had lost its prestige and power, the witnesses had 
 gained the loss of their sackcloth, or its exchange for robes 
 of light. If the beast had lost his dominion, it had re- 
 verted to Christ, in whose name the "saints of the most 
 High" had taken it (Dan. vii. 18, 26, 27; Eev. xi. 17, 18). 
 For the kingdom of God cannot be lost — it is ever God's, 
 and everlasting, age in and age out the same, whatever 
 changes in its temporal administration, and whoever may 
 
CHAP. XXII.] A TKNTH PART OF THE CITY FELL. 331 
 
 lose delegated dominion; for He giveth it, from time to 
 time, to whomsoever He will.* 
 
 There are five verses remaining in this chapter, but 
 they belong to the seventh trumpet; and we must now re- 
 turn to chapters viii. and ix., and bring up the six pre- 
 ceding trumpets before we can proceed with them. 
 
 * Compare Psa. cxiv. 1, 2 ; 1 Chron. xvii. 11-14 ; xxix 11, 12, 23 ; Dan. iv 17, 
 25, 34, 35; Ezc. xxi. 25-27; Psa. Ixxxix. 1-4, 26-29, 36, 37 ; Mic. iv. 8, eic. The 
 "first dominion," after several " overturnings," came at length to Christ (Lu. i. 
 31-33) when He rose from the dead and from the earth to sit on the throne of God 
 as son of David and heir of David's throne. (Psa. ex. 1-6 ; Zech. vi. 12, 13 ) 
 Jesus had first put the Apostolic Church in power (Lu. xxii. 28-30 ; Matt. xvi. 19 ; 
 xviii. 17, 18): but when the Church apostatized "times and laws" were given 
 over to the beast (Dan vii. 25, 26) for a limited period. When that time expired 
 in 1795, there certainly was a reversion in ftivor of the saints of the Most High ; 
 for since that time religious toleration and the Bible have been increasing in 
 state and public favor throughout the world. 
 
PART SIXTH. 
 
 SOUNDING OF THE FIEST FOUR OF THE SEVEN 
 
 TEUMPETS. 
 
 EMBRACING JUDGMENTS COVERING THE FIRST 
 
 SIX CENTURIES OF THE GOSPEL AGE. 
 
 "Fire of the Altar Cast into the Earth." 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY TO THE SEVEN TRUMPETS— 
 
 THE ANGEL OF INCENSE FILLS HIS 
 
 CENSER WITH FIRE. 
 
 MISSION OF THE FORERUNNER OF CHRIST. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 I. THE FIRST TRUMPET SOUNDED— HAIL AND 
 
 FIRE CAST UPON THE EARTH. 
 
 BOTH TRUTH AND JUDGMENT DESCEND UPON 
 ISRAEL AND THE GENTILES. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 II. THE SECOND TRUMPET SOUNDED— A BURN- 
 
 ING MOUNTAIN CAST INTO THE SEA. 
 
 MOUNT ZION, THE KINGDOM OF LITERAL ISRAEL, 
 CAST OFF AMONG THE NATIONS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 III. THE THIRD TRUMPET SOUNDED— THE 
 STAR, WORMWOOD, FALLS UPON RIVERS 
 
 AND FOUNTAINS. 
 
 THE NICENE COUNCIL AND CREED FILL THE 
 CHURCH WITH SMOKE AND PAGAN PEO- 
 PLES AND PROVINCES WITH THE 
 SPIRIT OF ERROR AND STRIFE. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 IV. THE FOURTH TRUMPET SOUNDED— THE 
 SUN, MOON, AND STARS DARKENED. 
 
 THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS, AND THE MIN- 
 ISTRY, SHROUDED IN A DARK VEIL OF 
 TRADITION. 
 
PART SIXTH. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXIII. 
 
 INTEODUCTORY TO THE SOUNDING OF THE 
 SEVEN TEUMPETS. 
 
 THE ANGEL OF INCENSE FILLS HIS CENSER WITH FIRE — 
 MISSION OF THE FORERUNNER OF CHRIST. 
 
 Text, Chapter viii. 2-6. 
 
 2. And I saw the seven angels that stood before God; and 
 to them were given seven trumpets. 
 
 3. And another angel came and stood at 
 
 Joiin the the altar, having a golden censer; and there 
 
 Baptist. -^yas given unto him much incense, that he 
 
 should offer it with the prayers of all saints 
 
 upon the golden altar which was before the throne. 
 
 4. And the smoke of the incense, wMcli came with the 
 prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's 
 hand. 
 
 5. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire 
 of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, 
 and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. 
 
 6. And the seven angels that had the seven trumpets pre- 
 pared themselves to sound. 
 
 IN this vision, John first sees the seven angels that stand 
 before God receiving the seven trumpets. Then ap- 
 pears an eighth angel, whose ministry was at the 
 altar in the tabernacle, and was introductory to the 
 ministry of the seven that had the trumpets. The first 
 scene is, therefore, laid symholically close ahont the taber- 
 nacle, and relates particularly to the only nation that ever 
 
 335 
 
336 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part VI. 
 
 had siicli a recognized service — Israel. And since nearly 
 all the symhols of Kevelation are based on Bible history, 
 the standing before God of these seven angels doubtless 
 has reference to the history of the calling of Moses' seventy 
 assistant elders about the tabernacle before God, as noted 
 in Numbers xi. 16, 17, 24, 35. 
 
 The seven trumpets form a third series of events 
 similar to those of the churches and seals: each of these 
 series goes over the entire Gospel age, from Advent to 
 Advent; and this introductory scene of the eighth angers 
 ministry is evidently symbolic of the work of John the 
 Baptist, as forerunner of Christ, whose ministry spans the 
 age in seven subdivisions of its time. This angel is at the 
 altar of incense, the sweet odors of which were typical of 
 prayer, and offers much incense with the prayers of all 
 saints. What had been the prayer of all saints from Abel 
 to the last priest before Christ? Was there not one desire 
 of the Churcli of God? and was that not for the coming 
 of the Seed, promised to our first parents in Eden? 
 
 ISTotice, 1. In the figure, after the incense had risen 
 from the angel's hand, he signifies the 
 Fire o£ the close of that ministry by taking fire from 
 Altar Cast into ^|^g altar — wliicli had consistently and 
 the Eartii. legally bumed there from Abel's kindling 
 
 it — and cast it into the earth, as Jesus 
 seut the Apostles with the Holy Spirit and fire to all the 
 nations of the earth. 2. The law and tlie i^rophets were 
 until John; since that time, the '"kingdom of heaven is 
 ju'eached"' (Luke xvi. 16). What happened next, con- 
 sidered from either of these standpoints? Great conten- 
 tion in the symbolic world:— 
 
 "Voices, thunderings, lightnings, and an 
 earthquake." — (For an explanation gf these symbols see 
 
CHAP, xxiir.] THE ANGEI. OF INCENSE AND FIRE. 337 
 
 pages 192, 276. ) "We must, therefore, expect to find some 
 great and significant commotion in the world at the dawn 
 of the Gospel age — of the "kingdom of heaven'^ — and just 
 before the sounding of the seven trumpets which were in 
 preparation. And Jesus Himself taught that the result 
 of tlie work which John introduced would be "fire/' a 
 "sword/' and "division" — father against son, and mother 
 against daughter, etc. (Matt. x. 34, 35; Luke xii. 49-53). 
 But let Haggai describe the scene as he saw it four hun- 
 dred years before: — 
 
 "For thus saith the Lord of hosts, Yet once, it is a little 
 while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, the sea and 
 the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the DESIRE 
 OF ALL NATIONS shall come; and I will fill this house 
 with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. 
 
 "The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, [the power to 
 execute,] saith the Lord of hosts. 
 
 "The glory of this latter house shall be greater * than the 
 former, saith the Lord of hosts; and in this place will I give 
 PEACE, saith the Lord of hosts." (Chap. ii. 6-9.) 
 
 Isaiah also beautifully describes the ushering in of 
 the Gospel Era, as succeeding the law: — 
 
 "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the moun- 
 tain 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 fiow unto it.f .... For the day of the Lord of hosts shall 
 be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one 
 that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low. . . . And the 
 loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of 
 man shall be made low; and the LORD alone shall be 
 exalted in that day." (Chap, ii., 2, 12, 17.) 
 
 * Compare 2 Chron. i.\. 13, 11, 20-28 for a type,— the temple succeeding the 
 tabernacle,— an (3 2 Cor. iii. 13-18 for a fulfillmcat— the Gospel succeeding the law. 
 
 t See also chap. xl. 9, on the high mountaiu. 
 
338 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part vi. 
 
 This is an unmistakable description of the first Ad- 
 vent, the exaltation of our Lord, and His 
 Dawn of <iie manifestation not to Israel only, but to 
 Gospel Age. ^.j^g nations of the Gentiles; and coupled 
 with it, in immediate connection, a word- 
 picture of the great change wrought — radical and com- 
 plete: i. c, there is now such a revelation of the will of 
 God concerning man, in the Gospel, is the assumption or 
 foresight of the passage, such a presence of the Holy 
 Spii'it, such a quickening of the consciences of men, that 
 they can no longer .retain their pet idols, neither can the 
 ignorance of former times be longer "overlooked"* by 
 God; and the contrast is so great — the new view of God's 
 presence so vivid in the minds of the prophets — that they 
 represent the people as hurling away their idols, which 
 they had supposed were hidden from God's sight, and 
 seeking to hide themselves. All this has an antitype in 
 the symbols of the sixth seal (which see), where the same 
 hiding was attempted. Hear the prophet, as he con- 
 tinues: — ^ 
 
 "And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the 
 caves of the earth, for the fear of the Lord, and for the glory 
 of His majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly t1i(i earth. 
 [Morally and spiritually — with the "fire of the altar" — of course, 
 not literally.] "In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, 
 and his idols of gold, which they have made each one for him- 
 self to worship, to the moles, and to the bats; to go into the 
 clefts of the rocks, and into the top of the ragged rocks, for 
 fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty, when He 
 ariseth [in Christ] to shake terribly the earth." (lb., verses 
 19-21.) 
 
 *Not "winked at," as in tlie common version. See all other renderings 01 
 Acts xvii. 30. 
 
CHAP. XXIII.] the; angei. of incense and fire. 339 
 
 This symbolic or spiritual shaking of the earth — 
 "earthquake" — the Kevelator saw was the 
 Ministry of result of the eighth angel's casting the fire 
 tiie Baptist. ^f ^-^q Jewisli altar abroad in the earth — 
 among all nations — causing also the sym- 
 bolic "voices, thunderings and lightnings." Let us see 
 if all this did not come through the ministry of John the 
 Baptist, which resulted in introducing the fire of the 
 Gospel among all nations. What does Isaiah say of John's 
 ministry? He first refers to his "voice." Thus:— 
 
 "The Voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, [not in the 
 temple; but out in the "earth" where the fire was cast,] say- 
 ing, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert 
 a highway for our God [Immanuel — God with us]. Every valley 
 shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; 
 and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places 
 plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all 
 flesh [or all nations — in contrast with the one Hebrew nation 
 hitherto sought] shall see it together; for the mouth of the 
 Lord had spoken it. 
 
 "The voice said. Cry. And he said. What shall I cry? All 
 flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the fiower of 
 the field. . . . O Zion, that bringest ffood tidings, get thee up 
 into the high mountain : O Jerusalem, that bringest ffood 
 tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; 
 say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!" (Isa. xl. 3-9.) 
 The Psalmist, also, seems clearly to refer to the intro- 
 duction of the same "good tidings" when he says: — ■ 
 
 "The clouds poured out water; the skies sent out a sound; 
 Thine arrows also went abroad. The voice of Thy thunder was 
 in the heaven; the lightning lightened the world; the earth 
 trembled and shook." (Psa. Ixxvii. 17, 18.) Again: "His light- 
 nings enlightened the world; the earth saw it and trembled." 
 (xcvii. 4.) 
 
 In these and in many other passages, we have the 
 same symbols which the Revelator uses so freely — voices, 
 thunders, and lightnings, and the shaking of the earth — 
 
340 DIVINS KEY OF THE REVEI.ATION. [PART VI. 
 
 describing the work of the Baptist in introducing Jesus to 
 the world. One Scripture thus explains another; and the 
 symbols of the Old Testament are shown to be the same 
 in the New. The principle surely is right. The chronol- 
 ogy, therefore, of casting fire into the earth, and of the 
 seven angels preparing to sound their judgment trumpets, 
 seems fixed, beyond question, at the beginning of the 
 Gospel age. If anything were lacking in the above cita- 
 tions, Zechariah xiv. 4-9 miolit well have been added. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 ]. THE EIRST TRUMPET SOUNDED— HAIL AND 
 
 FIRE CAST UPON THE EARTPI— GRASS 
 
 AND TREES BURNT UP. 
 
 BOTH TRUTH AND JUDGMENT DESCEND UPON ISRAEL 
 AND THE GENTILES. 
 
 Text, Chapter viii. 7. 
 
 7. The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire 
 
 mingled with blood, and they were cast up- 
 
 From Ascension, on the earth ; and the third part of trees was 
 
 A.D. 30, to A.iD. 70. burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. 
 
 ^ I HAT the first trumpet sounded with the ascension of 
 -^ our Lord (as He will return with the sounding of 
 the seventh) seeuis very evident from tlie Scriptures. 
 Said the Patriarch David: — 
 
 "God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of 
 a trumpet. Sing praises to God ['". f., to "Immanuel" — "God 
 with us" — Matt. i. 23], sing praises; sing praises unto our 
 King, sing praises. For God is King of all the earth; sing 
 ye praises with understanding." — Psalms xlvii. 5-7. 
 
 Every expression in the above quotation, and of many 
 other similar passages, points to the dawn and gladness 
 of the Gospel day. Our Lord ascended with a shout, and 
 the sound of the first trumpet; and He will return "with a 
 shout, and the voice of the archangel," to raise the dead, 
 "at the sound of the last trumpet" — the seventh. It is 
 common with expositors to assign the sounding of the 
 first trumpet to the fourth century, from the mistaken 
 
 341 
 
342 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part VI. 
 
 view that the whole series relates to judgments upon the 
 Eoman Empire; whereas, only the last three, which are 
 called "woe" trumpets, are so devoted (see verse 13). As 
 we proceed it will be shown that the first two were judg- 
 ments upon the apostate Jewish Church; the third upon 
 paganism ; the fourth upon the apostate Christian Church, 
 and the last three upon the great apostasy of the whole 
 Old Roman State-Church system. 
 
 "And there followed hail and fire, mingled 
 with blood." — Hail, as was said (page 260), is the 
 symbol of fnifh. Said the prophet, speaking of Jesus, — 
 
 "Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong One, who as 
 a tempest of Jiail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty 
 waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the 
 hand. . ". . Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteous- 
 ness to the plummet; and the lioH shall sweep away the refuge 
 of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place." — Isa. 
 xxviii. 2, 17. See also Amos n. 4, 5. 
 
 Nothing but the truth can sweep away a "refuge of 
 lies." Fire mingled with blood symbolizes the Word of 
 God in judgment, or the fatal effect of trifling with the 
 truth. Notice what ^followed the manifestation of Jesus 
 to Israel: He was the very personification of truth, but 
 He came to "send fire on the earth," to those who would 
 not receive Him; and, said He, "what will I, if it be 
 already kindled?" (Lu. xii. 49). Because the Word of 
 God is a fire, and He came as the Word. God had said 
 by Jeremiah: — 
 
 "Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make My words 
 in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour 
 them" (chap. v. 14). "Is not My word like as a flre, saith the 
 Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?" 
 (chap, xxiii. 28, 29). 
 
 And to Isaiah He said, speaking of the introduc- 
 tion of the Gospel by our Lord: — 
 
CHAP. XXIV.] THK FIRST TRUMPET SOUNDED. 343 
 
 "Behold the name of the Lord cometh from far, burning 
 with His anger and the burden thereof is heavy: His lips are 
 
 full of indignation, and His tongue as a devouring fire And 
 
 the Lord shall cause His glorious voice to be heard, and shall 
 shew the lighting down of His arm, with the indignation of 
 His anger, and with the liame of a devouring fire, with scat- 
 tering, and tempest and hailstones." (Chap xxx. 27-30.) 
 
 Thus, in the highly wrought symbols of the ancient 
 prophets, is described the manifestation of Israel's Mes- 
 siah. As the altar-fires of typical sacrifice burned out in 
 Moses' age, the fire of Messianic truth was cast into the 
 earth, and men were burned or cleansed, according as they 
 chose relations to it. Again: — 
 
 "But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall 
 stand when He appeareth? for He is like a refiner's fire, and 
 like fuller's soap. And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of 
 silver; and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them 
 as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offer- 
 ing in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and 
 Jerusalem * be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, 
 and as in former years." (Mai. iii. 2-4.) 
 
 Isaiah uses similar language. He says: — 
 
 "When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the 
 daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jeru- 
 salem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by 
 the spirit of huriiing." (Chap. iv. 4.) 
 
 Eelative to the blood as symbolic of temporal judg- 
 ments at the first Advent, the reader may further compare 
 Isaiah Ixiii. 1-3, and Kevelation xix. 11-16. 
 
 "And they were cast upon the earth," — The 
 earth here, in contrast with the heaven of verse 1, which 
 represents the Church, or the "kingdom of heaven," must 
 be the symbol of the world, or all those peoples outside 
 the restraints of the law of God and the Gospel of Christ. 
 John the Baptist, personally, introduced Jesus only to 
 
 * As to antitypical Judah and Jerusalem, please see the author's pamphlet, 
 " The Abomination of Dewlation," etc., section VI., pp. 16-19. 
 
344 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEI^ATION. [part VI. 
 
 the Jewish people; Peter and Paul afterwards introduced 
 the Son of God to the nations of the Gentile world. "It 
 was necessary/' said Paul and Barnabas, "that the Word 
 of God should first have been spoken to you; but seeing ye 
 put it from you and judge yourselves unwortliy of ever- 
 lasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the 
 Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light 
 of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation to 
 the ends of the earth!' (Acts xiii. 46, 47.) 
 
 " The third part of trees * * and all green 
 grass was burnt up." — The trees and g-reai grass sym- 
 bolize the children of God, in proof of which I quote 
 Jeremiah xvii. 7, 8: — 
 
 "Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose 
 hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the 
 waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall 
 not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall &e green; and shall 
 not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from 
 yiehUng fruit." 
 
 And again, in Eevelation ix. 4, a contrast is drawn 
 between the grass, any green tiring and any tree, and 
 "those iJien who hav6 not the seal of God," or who are not 
 His people. 
 
 Thus the burning up of the trees and green grass, 
 as representing the genuine Israelites of the old dispensa- 
 tion, must signify the transformation from the tlesh to the 
 Spirit, or Gospel conversion — the new creation in Christ; 
 or, as stated by the Apostle Paul: — 
 
 "For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might 
 live unto God. I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; 
 yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now lire 
 in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God." (Gal. ii. 
 19, 20; and compare Rev. ix. 4.) 
 
 The third part tlius burnt up seems to refer to such 
 a proportion of Israel as would prove themselves genuine 
 
CHAP. XXIV.] THE FIRST Trumpet soUndeo. 
 
 345 
 
 Israelites by receiving the Gospel of Christ. Zechariah 
 makes the same proportion, and uses the same figures: — 
 
 "Awake, O sword, against My shepherd, and against the 
 man that is My fellow, saith the Lord of hosts: smite the shep- 
 herd, and the sheep shall be scattered; and I will turn My 
 hand upon the little ones. And it shall come to pass, that in 
 all the land, saith the Lord, ttoo parts therein shall be cut off 
 and die; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring 
 the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver 
 is refined, and will try them as gold is tried." (Chap. xiii. 7-9.) 
 
 Here, then, is clearly seen the introduction or devel- 
 opment of the Gospel in the Hebrew nation. For "Jews, de- 
 vout men, out of every nation under heaven," were provi- 
 dentially gathered at Jerusalem in the early days of the 
 Gospel, and on the day of Pentecost heard the first great 
 Gospel sermon in all the languages in which they severally, 
 had been born, and through them the Gospel was introduced 
 among all men. (See Acts ii. 5.) The wonderful mani- 
 festation that day was in fulfillment of Joel's prophecy 
 to pour out the Spirit "upon all flesh." (Ver. lG-18.) 
 This was casting fire of the Jezvish altar into the earth. 
 But the Jews, as a people, despised the Son of God, and 
 the Word of God which He brought them, and prepared 
 the way for the fiery Judgment of the second trumpet 
 upon the Mountain of God; and the second baptism of the 
 Spirit, poured out upon the Gentiles. 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 11. THE SECOND TRUMPET SOUNDED— A BURN- 
 ING MOUNTAIN CAST INTO THE SEA. 
 
 MOUNT ZION, THE KINGDOM OF LITERAL ISRAEL, CAST 
 OFF AMONG THE NATIONS. 
 
 Text, Chapter viii. 8, 9. 
 
 8. And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great 
 mountain burning with fire was cast into the 
 From Jeriisa- gea: and the third part of the sea became 
 leiii's Destruc- blood" 
 
 tion, A.D. 70, io g. And the third part of the creatures 
 
 A.D. 324. which were in the sea, and had life, died; and 
 
 the third part of the ships were destroyed. 
 
 IT IS so clear that this ''hurning moimtain" relates to 
 Mount Zion, the Hehrew or Jewish kingdom, all on 
 fire with judgments from the neglected and despised 
 Word of God, that it is indeed singular 
 Bfonnt Zion ^|^^^ g^ placG for it sliould ever have been 
 All on Fire. souglit by cxpositors in the literal Van- 
 dalic '^fire ships" of the fourth century. 
 Let the prophets speak and tell us of the desolation and 
 judgments of the Israelitish Mountain, and observe how 
 their words pave the way for the figures of the Reve- 
 lator: — 
 
 "The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we 
 have sinned! for this our heart is faint; for these things our 
 eyes are dim. Because of the Mountain of Zion, which is 
 desolate, the foxes walk upon it." (Lam. v. 16-18.) 
 
 34G 
 
CHAP. XXV.] THE SECOND TRUMPET SOUNDED. 347 
 
 "Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou 
 shall become a plain; and He shall bring forth the headstone 
 thereof [Christ] with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it." 
 (Zech. iv. 7.) 
 
 "Turn ye unto Him from whom the children of Israel have 
 deeply revolted . . . princes shall be afraid of the ensign, saith 
 the Lord, whose fire is in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem." 
 (Isa. xxxi. 6-9.) 
 
 An example had been set before Israel in the Lord's 
 judgments upon the kingdom or motinfain 
 Babylon - q£ Babvlon which should have been a 
 
 also a Burnt significant lesson to them; and Jeremiah's 
 Mountain. figurative description of it should have 
 
 been an ample commentary upon the above 
 figures relative to Zion. They knew that the history of 
 Babylon had justified the one prophecy; why did not their 
 faith expect and shun the fulfillment of the others? Hear 
 Babylon's prefigured (and now historic) doom: — 
 
 "Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith 
 the Lord, which destroyed all the earth; and I will stretch out 
 My hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and 
 will make thee a burnt mountain. ■ And they shall not take of 
 thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou 
 shalt be desolate forever." (Jer. li. 25, 26.) 
 
 It is impossible to find in the "fire ships" of Gen- 
 seric, the kingdom of the Vandals, and the Mediterranean 
 Sea, anything to answer the scope and requirements of the 
 prophecy. It is only in a strained semi-literal sense that 
 any such application could be made, and at the expense 
 of the harmonies I have noted. But the application to 
 Jerusalem answers perfectly all requirements and parallel 
 references. Notice, further, how the Prophet Isaiah had 
 prepared the mind of the Eevelator for the vision of a 
 burning mountain; he is describing the sins and judg- 
 ment of Israel: — 
 
348 DIVINE KEY OP THE REVELATION. [part VI. 
 
 "Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame 
 consumeth the chaflf, so their root shall be as 
 iBalab on tbe rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as 
 Fire in Israel, dust; because they have cast away the law of 
 the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of 
 the Holy One of Israel. Therefore is the anger of the Lord 
 kindled against His people, and He hath stretched forth His 
 hand against them, and hath smitten them; and the hills did 
 tremble, and their carcasses were torn in the midst of the 
 streets. For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand 
 is stretched out still." (Chap. v. 24, 25.) 
 
 His hand was stretched out still to Jerusalem, be- 
 cause of His promises concerning Messiah, who must come 
 of that kingdom. But Babylon must remain "desolate 
 forever." Again: — 
 
 "For wickedness hurneth as the fire: it shall devour the 
 briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, 
 and they shall m'ount up like the lifting up of smoke. Through 
 the wrath of the Lord of hosts is the land darkened, and the 
 people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his 
 brother. And he shall snatch on the right hand, and be 
 hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not 
 be satisfied; they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm; 
 Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh; and they to- 
 gether shall be agairtst Judah. For all this His anger is not 
 turned away, but His hand is stretched out still." (Chap ix. 
 18-21.) 
 
 "Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of ho«ts, send among 
 His fat ones leanness; and under His glory He shall kindle a 
 burning like the burning of a fire. And the Light of Israel shall 
 be for a fire, and His Holy One for a fiame; [Is not this the fire 
 Jesus came to kindle? Luke xii. 49;] * and it shall burn and 
 devour His thorns and His briers in one day; and shall con- 
 sume the glory of His forest, and of His fruitful field, both soul 
 and body; and they shall be as when a standard bearer fainteth. 
 And the rest of the trees of His forest shall be few, that a child 
 may write them." (Chap. x. 16-19.) 
 
 * See the author's Exposiiiun of the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, Chap- 
 ters V. and vi. 
 
CHAP. XXV. ] THE SECOND TRUMPET SOUNDED. 349 
 
 "For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year 
 of recompenses for the controversy of Zion. And the streams 
 thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust into brimstone, 
 and the land thereof shall become hurning pitch. It shall not 
 be quenched nUjM or day; the smoke thereof shall go up for 
 ever; from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none 
 shall pass through it for ever and ever." (Chap, xxxiv. 8-10.) 
 
 A multitude of such Scripture statements, with which 
 Jesus was familiar, formed the basis in His 
 Origin of tiie j^^ij-,(-| ^f ^^g Parable of the Eich Man and 
 "Geiieiina" Lazarus, and of the "Gehenna fire," which 
 
 Fis-ure. jjg g^^^j would ovcrtake the unbelieving 
 
 Jews. This Jczvish fire was typical of the 
 "lake of fire" which is predicted for the papacy in its last 
 judgment, and is exactly like it in every respect, as we 
 shall find. Is it any wonder that the Eich Man desired 
 a little cooling ivafer (such as Jesus only could give — John 
 iv. 6-14) for his parched tongue and tormented condition? 
 
 "Cast into the sea." — AVhat sea is this? As I 
 have said, it cannot refer to the Mediterranean, for it is 
 a symbol, and not literal. The beasts of prophecy, which 
 came up out of "the sea," (Daniel vii. and Eevelation xiii.) 
 came out of those symbolic "waters" which are described 
 as "peoples, and multitudes, and nations and tongues" 
 (Eev. xvii. 15). Israel was "cast off" into such a sea — 
 among the nations. In the language of Jesus, they were 
 "led away captive into all nations," while Jerusalem is 
 being trodden down of the Gentiles. Take a text or two 
 on their going bnrning into this sea: — 
 
 "The sin of Judah is written with an iron pen, and with 
 the point of a diamond. . . . O My movntuin 
 Jeremiah al.so i„ the field, I will give thy substance and all 
 saw Israel thy treasures to the spoil, and thy high places 
 
 bnrniiiiir for sin, throughout all thy borders. And 
 
 In the Sea. thou, even thyself, shall discontinue from thine 
 
 heritayc that I gave theej and I will cause thee 
 
350 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEIvATlON. [pART VI. 
 
 to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not; for 
 ye hare Jcivdled a pre in Mine anger, which shall burn forever." 
 — Jer. xvii. 1-4. 
 
 "And I will make thee to pass ivith thine enemies into a 
 land whicli thou knowest not; for a fire is kindled in Mine anger 
 which shall burn upon you." {It)., xv. 14.) 
 
 "Ye have done worse than your fathers . . . therefore will 
 I cast you out of this land into a land that ye know not. 
 neither ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods 
 day and night; and I will not shew you favor." (It), xvi. 12, 13.") 
 
 " The third part of the sea became blood." — 
 Here is shown an evident purpose and providence of God 
 in graduating His judgment to turning only one-third 
 part of the sea to blood;* in other words, to the destroying 
 to that extent of the helpfulness, protection and peace 
 that natwaUy accrues from organized government — order 
 and quiet for them among the nations. "We are exhorted 
 to pray "for kings, and all that are in authority over us, 
 that zve may lead a peaceable and quirt life in all godliness 
 and honest/' (1 Tim. ii. 2). But this power of the na- 
 tions to protect and benefit their wards scattered among 
 them, is overruled now to the third part of the extent 
 usually exercised, by these preventive judgments. A typ- 
 ical example of this prediction was furnished the Jews 
 of the first century after Christ by the experiences of 
 their forefathers in the days of the captivity. Describ- 
 iug tbose times, Jeremiah says: — 
 
 "For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called 
 by my name. ... A noise shall come even to the ends of the 
 earth; for the Lord hath a controrersy with the nations. He will 
 plead with all flesh; He will give the wicked to the sword, saith 
 the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, evil shall go 
 forth from nation to nation, and a great whirwind shall be 
 raised up from the coasts of the earth. And the slain of the 
 Lord shall be at that day from one end of earth, even unto the 
 
 * Blood having the literal sense here— see imge 29. 
 
CHAP. XXV.] THE SECOND TRUMPET SOUNDED. 35 1 
 
 other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither 
 gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground." 
 (Chap. XXV. 27-33.) 
 
 It is not difficult to understand how such a deadly 
 condition of things in the "zvaters" is symbolized by rep- 
 resenting them as turned one-third to blood. It was not 
 oil blood, for there was mercy mixed with the Judgment 
 — ''His hand (was) stretched out still." 
 
 "The third part of the creatures which were 
 in the sea, and had hfe, died." — These died symbolic 
 deaths, it is understood, as in the case of the burnt-up 
 grass and trees of the first trumpet, which we found 
 illustrated in Paul's crucifixion with Christ. They "had 
 life" in that they had the "spirit of truth," or a desire 
 to be right with God, even before they knew the truth. 
 And it was optional with the people, as they severally 
 were possessed of a "spirit of truth" or a "spirit of error," 
 to die to the world and live unto God; or to die to Christ 
 and live unto their own lusts, not being "exercised" by 
 their chastisements in a manner to bring forth "the peace- 
 able fruit of righteousness." JSTotice how, in time of 
 trial, God discriminates between the two classes. Isaiah, 
 speaking of the Gospel age, says: — 
 
 "Behold, My servants shall eat, but ye [unbelieving Jews] 
 shall be hungry; behold, My servants shall drink, but ye shall 
 be thirsty; behold. My servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be 
 ashamed; behold, My servants shall sing for joy of heart, but 
 ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation 
 of spirit. And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my 
 chosen; for the Lord God shall slay thee, and call His servants 
 by another name." (Chap. Ixv. 13-15. Compare Acts xi. 25.) 
 
 "Behold, I will extend peace to her [Jerusalem] like a 
 river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream; then 
 shall ye suck, ye shall be borne upon her sides, and be dandled 
 upon her knees. As one whom his mother comforteth, so will 
 I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And 
 
352 DIVINE KEY OP THE REVELATION. [part VI. 
 
 when ye see this, your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall 
 flourish like an herb; and the hand of the Lord shall be known 
 toward His servants, and His imlifjnatkm toward His enemies. 
 For, behold, the Lord will come ^vith flrc, and with His chariots 
 like a whirlwind, to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke 
 with flames of flrc. For bi/ flre and by Hifi sword [I. c, by judg- 
 ments and His Word] loill tlie Lord PLEAD with all flesh; 
 and the slain of the Lord shall be many." (Isa. Ixvi. 12-16.) 
 
 "And the third part of the ships were de- 
 stroyed." — The destruction of the commerce and inter- 
 communication among the nations is the loss of so much 
 life and power. So was Israel so much further crippled, 
 in his exile, under the judgments of God, as declared in 
 the predictions quoted ahove, and made helpless to that 
 extent. They were left to feel their awfid desolation, 
 and to bewail their outcast condition — forsaken of God 
 among their enemies, and even bereft of one-third part 
 
 of possible human sympathy and help. 
 The Wandering rpj^^g condltiou of uubclieving Jews 
 Hebrews. throughout the world during the Gospel 
 
 centuries has been the most forlorn, and 
 pitiable in the extreme. They are scattered as wide as 
 civilization extends, driven from nation to nation, with 
 no home-kingdom to appeal to for redress of grievances, 
 or even to look back to for sympathy, or with patriotic 
 pride. A wandering Saxon, Frenchman, German, Irish- 
 man, or descendant of any other race of men, can look 
 back with native pride to fatherland. It is not so with 
 the infidel Hebre\y: his kingdom is destroyed, and his 
 once holy city and land are under the requiting heel of 
 the infidel Turk. "If they even return to view the place 
 of the ancient Presence,'"' says Dr. Eobinson, "it is only 
 as a purchased privilege that they are allowed to approach 
 the foundations of the sacred hill where their fathers 
 worshipped the only true God. Here, in a small area 
 
CHAP. XXV.] THB SKCOND TRUMPET SOUNDBD. 353 
 
 near some huge and ancient stones, in the base of the 
 western wall of Moriah, they gather, especially on sacred 
 days, to sit weeping and wailing on the ground, taking 
 up the heart-breaking lamentations of Jeremiah — living 
 witnesses of the truth of God's word fulfilled in them." — 
 Bib. Diet. (Am. Bib. Un. Ed.) Chiseled into the rock 
 which forms the arched gateway into a Jewish cemetery 
 in Glasgow, Scotland, are these truly pathetic words: — 
 
 "Tribes of the wandering feet and weary breast, 
 Whither shall ye flee away and be at rest? 
 The wild dove hath her nest, the fox, his cave, 
 Mankind, their country, Israel, but a grave!" 
 
 This candid confession, wrung from the disconsolate 
 but impenitent Hebrews, not only truthfully epitomizes 
 all their sad history, but it has unwittingly '"graven with 
 an iron pen" in the "rock" of their inexorable (but well 
 deserved, because well forewarned) destiny, the great truth, 
 which might have been their glory, not, as now, their 
 shame; 7iamely, that Jesus of Nazareth, who wept over 
 them, and at last died at their hands, and amidst their 
 cruel jests, first with tears described their judgment, say- 
 ing, "And they shall fall by the edge of the szvord, and shall 
 be led away captive into all nations; and Jerusalem shall 
 be trodden doivn of the Gentiles, until the times of the 
 Gentiles be fultilled," — that such as He — was indeed the 
 Prophet of God, the Son of the Highest, and their own 
 rejected Messiah! "King of the Jews"! How can the 
 world, much more the Jews, or any observing intelligence 
 in the world, overlook the significance of that awfully 
 realistic symbolism?— a mountain on tire, and cast into the 
 sea — not quenched thereby, but burning ever! 
 
CHAPTEE XXVI. 
 
 III. THE THIRD TRUMPET SOUNDED— THE 
 
 BURNING STAR, WORMWOOD, FALLS AND 
 
 EMBITTERS RIVERS AND FOUNTAINS. 
 
 THE NICENE COUNCIL AND CREED FILL THE CHURCH 
 
 WITH SMOKE, AND PAGAN PEOPLES AND PROVINCES 
 
 WITH THE SPIRIT OF ERROR AND STRIFE. 
 
 Text, Chapter viii. 10, 11. 
 
 10. And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star 
 from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and 
 
 Gonstantiniaii it fgH upon the third part of the rivers, and 
 
 Era— A. D, upon the fountains of water; 
 
 324-537. II Aj^d thg 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 bittei;. 
 
 -j^ GR] 
 
 GREAT STAR, in a normal state, reflects the pure 
 -J — » light of heaven — shining clear and bright. But 
 this star, on the contrary, is on fire, "burning" 
 and smoking "as a torch." {Lex., Emph. Diag. and Revis.) 
 A torch consumes itself in burning, illuminates little, 
 and darkens and clouds the air with its smoke much more. 
 As artificial roses do not emit the sweet 
 A Torch is odoi'S of God's rosBS, SO neither can smok- 
 
 uniike a Star, j^g torchcs transmit the pure light of 
 God's stars. We must not, therefore, 
 look for any clear light from this star, which is not only 
 smoking in self-consumption, but falling from its proper 
 
 354 
 
CHAP. XXVI.] THE THIRD TRUMPET SOUNDED. 355 
 
 place of illumination. Heaven, i. e., the firmament, is 
 the place for literal stars to shine; and the Church, the 
 "kingdom of heaven," is the place for symbolic stars; 
 for they are the "angels of the Church;" not of the empire, 
 and they should be filled with the Spirit of God, not of 
 speculation and human prudence and policy, as Constan- 
 tino and his creed-makers manifestly were. And for a 
 representative of Christ to neglect his high calling of 
 ministering in the Word,- and doctrine, and grace of God, 
 to dabble with things of a purely worldly nature; to in- 
 troduce human theories, laws and policies; to cater to 
 political preferments, rewards, and honors, is to fall, sym- 
 bolically, from "heaven" to "earth;" from an exalted, 
 God-approved position in the Church, God's sanctuary 
 or holy place, to one disapproved of God, outside the 
 temple, its courts and walls, in the world. 
 
 This third period of Church history, we have seen, 
 both along the lines of the churches and of the seals, is 
 the Constantinean Era. When Constantino came to wear 
 the imperial purple of Eome, notwithstanding the gi- 
 gantic efforts of his predecessors, since the days of ISTero, 
 to extirpate the religion and memory of Christ; and al- 
 though three million Christians had been sacrificed to 
 pagan fury; yet Christianity lived, and, as says Whelpley, 
 "had penetrated almost every part of the empire." This 
 emperor, therefore, saw it was of God, or at least that, in 
 spite of human opposition, it was bound to succeed; and 
 from mere policy, doubtless, (judging from his after life,) 
 he declared his conversion to its principles, and claimed 
 it was through a vision that was little less wonderful 
 than was that of Saul of Tarsus. He saw a cross in the 
 sky, he said, with this legend in letters of fire, "By this. 
 Conquer." The office of Emperor of Eome was a most 
 exalted position for a disciple of Christ to occupy; and 
 
356 DIViVE KEY OF THE REVEI^ATION. [paRT VI, 
 
 Constantine thus elevated, and being as true in his dis- 
 eipleship as in his riilership, he might have been a bright 
 star in the Christian firmament. But it cannot be said 
 of him, as of Saul, that he counted "all things but loss for 
 the excellency of the knowledge of Christ." On the con- 
 trary, he demeaned that knowledge which he professed, 
 by placing the cross (as a symbol of Christ) as a standard 
 to lead his armies in carnal warfare, and that, chiefly, to 
 glorify himself. 
 
 We have seen, also, how Constantine and his sons 
 corrupted the light of the Gospel through the Nicene 
 creed, and political interference with the affairs of the 
 Church. They were but men of the world — unconverted 
 save to a worldly Churchianity, which, from political pol- 
 icy, they sought to model after the gorgeous and ex- 
 travagant forms of paganism. Mosheim writes thus of 
 their period: — 
 
 "The fundamental principles of Christian doctrine were . . . 
 often explained and defended in a manner that 
 Sfoslieim on discovered the greatest ignorance, and an utter 
 tiie Errors of confnsioti, of ideas ["smoke"]. The disputes 
 the Fourth carrfed on in the Council of Nice concerning 
 
 Century. , the three* persons [!] in the [one] Godhead, 
 
 afiford a remarkable example of this, particu- 
 larly in the language and explanations of those who approved 
 
 * Mosheim here speaks of the discussions in the Council, 
 not of the nred, which was its final, official, "authoritative [!] 
 deliverance," it should be noticed. For "the more powerful 
 part of the Church" at that time, and wisely, denied the 
 personality of the Holy Spirit, which, as they well knew, in- 
 spired writers had only spoken of as having been "poured out" 
 or "shed" and "breathed upon" the early Church; with which 
 they had been "anointed," and in which (en pneumati) they had 
 been immersed, by its filling "the whole house where they were 
 sitting." Such phrases cannot rationally be used of a person. 
 Therefore the vote of that Council refused only to declare 
 ol^cially in the creed the equality of the Son with the Father — 
 even that being unscriptural, and never once claimed by Jesus 
 
CHAP. XXVI. J THE THIRD TRUMPET SOUNDED. .357 
 
 the decisions of that council. So little light, [! on account of 
 the stnoke,] precision, and order, reigned in their discourses, 
 that they appeared to substitute [aye, they did substitute] three 
 gods in the place of one. Nor did the evil end here; for those 
 vain factions which an attachment to the Platonic philosophy 
 and to popular opinions had engaged the greater part of the 
 Christian doctors to adopt, before the time of Constantine, were 
 now confirmed, enlarged and embellished in various ways." — 
 Eccl. Uiat., vol. i., bk. ii., pt. ii., ch. iii. 
 
 Himself; so that Lactantius "speaks of the heathen objecting to 
 the Christian doctrine as implying two gods, [not three] one 
 of whom was mortal, or could die (Ben Mordecai, Apol. i. 
 119, etc.);" while they were satisfied at that time with simply 
 declaring further, "We believe also in the Holy Ghost" — the 
 Holy Spirit. (Recast Credibil. Script., vol. ii., pp. 54, 55.) 
 But after this, the majority were gradually won over to the 
 theory which makes the Holy Spirit, also, an equal person; 
 thus forming a trinity of gods — a doctrine wholly unknown 
 to our Bible. (Mk. xii. 29-32; Deut. iv. 39; Isa. xliv- 6, 24; 
 xlv. 5, 6, 14-21; John xvii. 3; i Cor. viii. 5, 6.) And thus at 
 the Council of Constantinople (381) "a hundred and fifty 
 bishops," says Mosheim, "who were present, gave the finishing 
 touch to what the Council of Nice had left imperfect, and fixed 
 in a full and determinate manner the doctrine of three persons 
 in one God, [i^] which is still received among the generality 
 of Christians"! And, to show the "spirit of error" that dom- 
 inated the whole afifair, Mosheim proceeds as follows: "This 
 venerable assembly did not stop here; they branded with in- 
 famy all the errors, [of which they were evidently incompetent 
 judges,] and set a mark of execration upon all the heresies, 
 that were hitherto known; [*S=] they advanced the Bishop of 
 Constantinople, on account of the eminence and extent of the 
 city in ichich he resided, to the first rank after the Roman pontifif, 
 and determined several other points, which they looked upon 
 as essential to the well-being of the Church in general." — Eccl. 
 Hist., vol. i., bk. ii., chap, v., §xx. 
 
 What evidence is there that the truth can be even under- 
 stood by such men; much less made more clear by their formula- 
 tions, wordy speculations, and sanctioning, in the Church, such 
 prestige from the State? But thus grew up in the creeds of 
 men, the whole theory of the Trinity, in making the living 
 presence and power of God — His omnipresence — His Spirit — a 
 third person, being, or independent, living intelligence! A folly 
 worthy only of Jezebel. (See on chapter ii. 20-24.) Three 
 PERSONS in one God, unless we deny the personality of God 
 himself! is confusion in language, and an absolute contradic- 
 tion in terms. 
 
358 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEI.ATION. [PART VI. 
 
 "No sooner had Constantine abolished the superstitions of 
 his ancestors, [i- e., the open, avowed worship of the gods of 
 the Romans,] than magnificent churches were everywhere 
 erected for the Christians, which were richly adorned with 
 pictures and images, and bore a striking resemblance to pagan 
 temples, both in their outward and inward form." — lb., Chap. 
 IV., §11. 
 
 "The virtues which had formerly been ascribed to the 
 heathen temples, to their lustrations, to the statues of their 
 gods and heroes, were now attributed to Christian churches, 
 to water consecrated by certain forms of prayer, and to images 
 of holy men. And the same privileges that the former enjoyed 
 under the darkness of paganism were conferred upon the latter 
 under the light of the gospel, or rather, under the cloud of 
 superstition [the smoke from the burning star] which was 
 ohscuring its glory " 
 
 "Many of the learned in this century undertook translations 
 of the Scriptures; but few succeeded in this arduous enterprise. 
 ...... Of interpreters, the number was very considerable, 
 
 among whom Jerome, Hilary, Eusebius, Diodorus of Tarsus, 
 Rufinus, Ephraim the Syrian, Theodore of Heraclea, Chrys- 
 ostom, Athanasius and Didymus, are generally esteemed worthy 
 of the first rank. It is however certain, that, even of these 
 first-rate commentators, [4®"] few have discovered a just dis- 
 cernment, or a sound judgment in their laborious expositions of 
 the sacred writings. Rufinus, Theodore, and Diodorus, with 
 some others, have, indeed, followed the natural signification of 
 the words; [?] the rest, after the example of Origen, are 
 laborious in the search of far-fetched interpretations, and per- 
 vert the expressions of Scripture, which they very imperfectly 
 
 understand 
 
 "The doctrines of Christianity had not a better fate than 
 
 the sacred writings from which they are 
 piatonism drawn. Origen was the great model whom 
 
 Ruling tlie the most eminent of the Christian doctors 
 
 Ortliodox (?) followed in their explications of the truths of 
 Ciiiirch. the Gospel, which were consequently explained 
 
 according to the rules of the Platonic philosophy, 
 as it was corrected and modified by that learned father, for the in- 
 struction of the youth. Those who desire a more ample and ac- 
 
CHAP. XXVI.] the; third TRLtMPElT SOUNDED. 359 
 
 curate account of this matter may consult Gregory Nazianzen 
 among the Greeks, and Augustine among the Latins, who were 
 followed for a long time as the only patterns worthy of imita- 
 tion, and who, next to Origen, may be considered as the parents 
 and supporters of the philosopliical or scholastic theology. They 
 tmre hoth zealous Platonists; and, holding for certain all the 
 tenets of that philosopher which were not totally repugnant 
 to the truths of Christianity, [*^J they laid them down as 
 fundamental principles, and drew from them a great variety of 
 subtile conclusions which neither Christ nor Plato ever thought 
 of." — lb., Chap. iii. 
 
 We have thus established the Platonic parentage of 
 "scholastic theology." And, remarkable 
 Smoke is not |-q gg^y^ q^q foundations of that theology 
 ^**'*'* are "orthodox/' so-called, still. Addison's 
 
 Eye-salve. 'Tlato, thou reasouest well," holds its 
 
 place in the popularly accepted hym- 
 nology of to-day, and is no better theology now than in 
 Plato's time. Surely, it was a smoky star that fell from 
 the so-called orthodox firmament upon the Church and 
 empire of the fourth century. This smoking torch fell 
 upon — 
 
 "The third part of the rivers and fountains of 
 waters." — These waters represent the peoples, tribes and 
 nations (Rev. xvii. 15) upon which Constantine warred as 
 an ecclesiastico-military despot. For he prevailed, not only 
 with his arts in the Catholic Councils, but with his arms 
 over the pagan nations and provinces. Mosheim says: — 
 
 "There is no doubt that the victories of Constantine, the 
 fear of punishment, and the desire of pleasing that mighty 
 conquerer and his imperial successors, were the weighty argu- 
 ments that moved ichole nations, as well as particular persons, 
 to embrace Christianity." — Eccl. Hist., vol. i., bk. ii., pt. i., §23. 
 
 Ah, they embraced not Christianity, but paganized 
 Church] anity. Mosheim admits that Origen "has an un- 
 doubted right to the first place among interpreters of the 
 
36o DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part VI. 
 
 Scriptures"! in the third century; but says, 
 orig-en the ''^^ jg j^q|- -^vithout deep concern that we 
 
 Krrorist. q^j.q obliged to add that he, also, by an 
 
 unhappy method, [then why follow it 
 up?] opened a secure retreat for all sorts of errors that a 
 wild and irregular imagination could bring forth." Think 
 of such a character being endorsed as a teacher and ex- 
 ponent of truth! He had a ''lively imagination, and main- 
 tained that" the Scriptures "were to be interpreted in the 
 same allegorical manner in which the Platonists explained 
 the history of the gods. In consequence of this pernicious 
 rule, he alleged that the words of Scripture were in many 
 places absolutely void of sense"!! And further, Mosheim 
 confesses of this hero of ancient orthodoxy as follows: 
 "Nor did the inventions of Origen end here. He divided 
 this hidden sense, which he pursued with such eagerness, 
 into the moral and mysticar' ! (Vol. i., bk. i., pt. ii., 
 ch. iii., § 5.) Thus the mystical sense, of course, could 
 be introduced wherever he pleased to find the Scriptures 
 "void of sense." 
 
 And now take two statements from the same writer, 
 
 and only a few pages beyond, which show 
 still uphoiaing- Mosheim's own equal determination to 
 Origen. maintain a popular error, and his strange 
 
 inconsistency in doing so. And let those 
 who wish to remain '"orthodox" in faith console themselves 
 as they can with the showing. In chapter v., § 14, he 
 says: — 
 
 "At this same period, Beryllus, an Arabian, Bishop of 
 Bozra, and a man of eminent piety and learning, taught 
 that Christ, before His birth, had no proper svibsistence, 
 nor any other divinity, than that of the Father; which 
 opinion, when considered with attention," Mosheim con- 
 tinues, "amounts to this: that Christ did not exist before 
 
CHAP. XXVI.] THE THIRD TRUMPET SOUNDED. 36 1 
 
 Mary, bu4 that a spirit issuing from God Himself, and 
 therefore superior to all liimian souls, as being a portion 
 of the divine nature, was united to Him at the time of 
 His birth." And then he adds with evident pleasure, 
 that "Beryllus, however, was refuted by Origeu with such 
 a victorious power of argument and zeal, that he yielded 
 up the cause, and returned to the bosom of the Church." 
 ])ut on reading this, on the contrary, we should be filled 
 with sorrow equal to Mosheim's orthodox joy, that a 
 bishop of "eminent piety and learning," and holding, 
 although not wholly correct,* yet so much more reason- 
 able and scriptural views than his opponent, should be 
 overcome by the confessed subtilty and zeal of a man like. 
 Origen, who had so little, if any, real respect for the 
 Scriptures, that he could at any time set them aside as 
 "absolutely void of sense," if they did not please his "lively 
 imagination," his ingenious "inventions," and his "mys- 
 terious and hidden senses." Does God give any truth to 
 such teachers? See Matt. vi. 23; xiii. 13; Lu. viii. 18. 
 
 In the 16th section of the same chapter the bias of 
 Mosheim is only too visible, in his efforts 
 The Bias of ^q belittle the believers in conditional im- 
 Mosiieim. mortality: he says: — "It was not only in 
 
 the point now mentioned, that the doc- 
 trine of the Gospel suffered, at this time, from the er- 
 roneous fancies of wrong-headed doctors." How they 
 were more "wrong-headed" than Origen would be difficult 
 to say. But as Mosheim will have it, — 
 
 * It may be doubted if Beryllus was correctly understood, 
 else correctly reported, however sincere Mosheim's account. 
 The seventh chapter of this work outlines, I have no doubt, 
 the Scriptural and early Church belief concerning the nature 
 of our Lord. Beryllus was not so far from this view, if, in fact, 
 he did not hold the very same, as I more believe he did. 
 
362 DIVINE KEJY OP THE REVBI^ATlON. [parT VI. 
 
 "There sprang up now, in Arabia, a certain soat of minute 
 philosophers, the disciples of a master whose obscurity has 
 concealed him from the knowledge of after ages, who denied 
 the immortality of the soul, and believed that it perished with 
 the body; but maintained, at the same time, that it was to be 
 recalled to life with the body by the power of God. The 
 philosophers who held this opinion were denominated Arabians 
 from their country. Origen was called from Egypt to make 
 head against this rising sect, and disputed with them, in full 
 council, with such remarkable success, that they abandoned 
 their erroneous sentiments, and returned to the received doc- 
 trines of the Church." 
 
 Mosheim speaks very confidently about "erroneous 
 sentiments/' and yet thinks that they were corrected by 
 such an erroneous and misguided teacher as was Origen; 
 when he might have reflected that, though disagreeing 
 
 with the philosophy of Plato, and the no- 
 scripture or tious of Origen, they were wonderfully 
 Creed, wiiieii? jjj hamiony with the statement of the 
 
 "obscure" Jesus, who said that "He that 
 hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of 
 God hath not life" (1 John v. 13; John iii. 36). In the 
 verse preceding this. He further said, "And this life is in 
 the Sonf not, then) in the Soul. And the Apostle Paul 
 said that "when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then 
 shall ye also appear with Him in glory;" not, then, at 
 death. So that the "minute" and "obscure" Arabians 
 may have been right, after all, before being robbed of the 
 truth by Origen, that the mind or all the conscious facul- 
 ties and forces of. man's being do sleep, or perish, with the 
 destruction of the body. Solomon says, "The living know 
 that they shall die; but the dead know not anything: . . . 
 their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now 
 perished', neither have they any more a portion forever 
 [for or during the ages of time] in any thing that is done 
 under the sun \i. e., again, during time] .... for there 
 
CHAP. XXVI.] THE THIRD TRUMPET SOUNDED. 363 
 
 is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the 
 grave whither thou goest" (Eccl. ix. 5, 6, 10). And David 
 says, "The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go 
 down into silence" (Psa. cxv. 17). Again, "Let my soul 
 live and it shall praise Thee" (Psa. cxix. 175). "While 
 I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my 
 God while I have any being. Put not your trust in 
 Princes, nor in the son of man in whom there is no help. 
 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that 
 very day his thoughts perish" (Psa. cxlvi. 2-4). 
 
 Must we say, to be orthodox, that all these statements, 
 and all other relative statements of the Bible are foolish 
 and "void of sense," that the superior wisdom of Plato, 
 and the subtile inventions and hidden senses of Origen 
 may stand? God forbid! Wliat, then, is the smoke, of 
 which the Eevelator saw so much in the early and middle 
 ages? which were the "erroneous fancies," and which the 
 "wrong-headed doctors," in those creed-building times? 
 Is it difficult for the candid and truly orthodox student 
 to answer? Must we not admit that the prophets, our 
 Lord, and His apostles, were true and sound, even though 
 it should prove that all the creeds are erroneous, and all 
 the creed-builders, "wrong-headed"? 
 
 But, to proceed, we find the following lucid statements 
 
 made by Mr. Gibbon: — 
 
 "The establishment of Christianity as the religion of the 
 state followed the defeat of Licinius (A.D. 
 How Gibbon 324). As soon as that event had invested 
 Ssiw Constantine with the sole dominion of the 
 
 Constantine. Roman world, he immediately, by circular 
 letters, exhorted all his subjects to imitate the 
 example of their sovereign, and to embrace the divine truth of 
 Christianity. The irresistible power of the Roman emperors 
 was displayed in the important and dangerous change of the 
 national religion. The terrors of a military force silenced the 
 faint and unsupported murmurs of the pagans. . . . Constantine 
 
364 DIVINK KEY OF THE REVEI.ATION. [part Vl. 
 
 and his successors could not easily persuade themselves that 
 they had forfeited, by their conversion, any branch of the im- 
 perial prerogatives, or that they were incapable of giving laws 
 to a religion which they had protected and embraced." — 
 Stiidcnt's Gibbon, p. 122. 
 
 So it may be said that this great luminary of the 
 Eoman world fell from the position which 
 Truly a j^g sliould havo occiipicd, although an 
 
 Fallen Star. emperor, meekly submissive to "the law 
 of Christ," in "the kingdom of heaven," 
 teaching and exemplifying the divine mill, down to that 
 mean Roman, eai'thly Imperialism which was the glory 
 of his own will; and in this he conferred upon his subject 
 provinces, not the pure religion of Jesus, but the smoking 
 exhalations of the human mind; for the Nicene creed was, 
 at best, but a false explanation of the Word of God, a 
 human "invention," and purely fancyftil theory of the 
 truth: his mission thus reflecting in the pagan "rivers and 
 fountains," not the image of Christ, as we have already 
 learned, but a creature having "a face as a man." Their 
 trust was in men; the "fathers," more than in God; and 
 their reliance on human prudence more than on the Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
 Christ, the "Bright and Morning Star," taught His 
 disciples that men should live "by every word that pro- 
 ceedeth out of the mouth of God." And proof that Con- 
 stantino, the "great star" of this period, was symbolically 
 fallen from the heavenly firmament or expansion of 
 truth, is clear, in that the Nicene Creed, which he pushed 
 both upon the Church and upon the pagan world, was not 
 only many times less than "every word. . . of God," but 
 that it was not even in any degree true to its nevertheless 
 plausible claim to being based on, or to being a fair ex- 
 planation of, the Word of God. Furthermore, the name 
 of this fallen star is — 
 
CHAP. XXVI.] THE THIRD TRUMPET SOUNDED. 365 
 
 "Wormwood; and the third part of the 
 waters became Wormwood." — Bitterness ; and sym- 
 bolic of the bitter contentions "abont words to no profit, 
 snbverting the hearers," which characterized all that long 
 nnscriptural contest concerning ''two natures" in Christ.* 
 In glancing over Mosheim's account of the "internal his- 
 tory" of. the Church during the fourth centuiy, my eye 
 caught the words bitter and bitterness, as describing doc- 
 trinal dissensions, no less than six times. This bitterness, 
 which was prominent in all the historic Eomish contro- 
 versies, is the very opposite of love, the true characteristic 
 of the representatives of the Gospel and truth. But those 
 apostatizing teachers and leaders were possessed of the 
 bitter spirit of persecution, and joined in the hateful 
 "N^icolaitan" work of subduing the people under the fallen 
 smoky star, more than under Christ, the "Bright and 
 Morning Star." 
 
 "And many men died of the waters, be- 
 cause they were made bitter." — "Men" here 
 evidently symbolize rulers, as did the riders of the 
 Eoman horses in the seals of the sixth chapter. Those 
 riders stood for whole dynasties of individual rulers. (See 
 page 227.) No less than sixteen distinct reigns succeeded 
 that of Constantine I., before the fall of theWestern Em- 
 pire. These emperors mostly took an active interest in 
 the Church; ambition catered to the general popular trend 
 of Roman thought towards apostasy: they therefore "died" 
 symbolically, that is, to God, to truth, and the true in- 
 terests of the Church, because of bitterness in the waters — 
 because of the general defection of the Church throughout 
 the empire, through the bitter, wrangling, selfish spirit 
 in which the work (said to be for Christ) was carried on 
 by the bishops, who, in turn, catered for imperial favors. 
 And thus was all Christian life and work embittered to 
 the great loss of the Church. 
 
 * See page 105 and onward for something of its history, 
 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 IV. THE FOURTH TRUMPET SOUKDED— THE 
 
 SUN, MOON AND STARS DARKENED 
 
 A THIRD PART. 
 
 THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS, AND THE MINISTRY, 
 SHROUDED IN A DARK VEIL OF TRADITION. 
 
 Text, Chapter viii. 12, 13. 
 
 12. And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of 
 
 the sun was smitten, and the third part of the 
 The moon, and the third part of the stars; so as 
 
 Jnstinian Era, the third part of them was darkened, and the 
 A.D. 520-G22. (j^y shonc not for a third part of it, and the 
 
 night likewise. 
 
 13. And I beheld, and heard an eagle flying through the 
 midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice. Woe, woe, woe, to 
 the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the 
 trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound! 
 
 ^1 HE sun and moon, as symbols, represent the light or 
 --*>- Word of God: the sun, the New Testament and the 
 Gospel of Christ; and the moon, the Old Testa- 
 ment and the law of Moses. '"The evening and the morn- 
 ing were the first day," wrote Moses: so the dimmer light of 
 the Old Covenant, with the law added as a schoolmaster, 
 brought the world on to Christ, "the Light of the World," 
 — the New Covenant, and the Gospel day. The stars 
 
 366 
 
CHAP. XXVII.] THE FOURTH TRUMPET SOUNDED. 367 
 
 symbolize the represaitative lights — the "angels" of the 
 Church, or the ministry of the period. The third part of 
 all these Gospel lights are said to be put out in this fourth 
 period; and the prophetic student will readily recognize 
 the Justinian Era and influences. Constantine began the 
 supplanting of the Word of God with the creed formulated 
 at the Council of Nice. Justinian, two centuries later, 
 formally united Church and State,* completed the creed 
 called orthodox, which had been growing steadily in the 
 Roman Catholic Councils from the first, and enforced it 
 with all the powers of the "Holy Roman Empire," and the 
 Roman Catholic Church combined. Constantine was a 
 fallen star, smoking like a consuming torch, putting out 
 the lights, and darkening the divine counsel with human 
 words! Justinian followed zealously on, setting up, as 
 we have seen, the "Abomination of Desolation" in the 
 Church, and putting out one-third part of all the divine 
 light in the world. Says the Historian Gibbon: — 
 
 "The reign of Justinian was a uniform yet various scene of 
 persecution; and he seems to have surpassed 
 Jaatinlan the hjg indolent predecessors, both in the con- 
 Persecutor, trivance of his laws and the rigor of their 
 execution. The insufficient term of three 
 months was assigned for the conversion or exile of all heretics. . • 
 But in the creed of Justinian the guilt of murder could not be 
 applied to the slaughter of unbelievers; and he piously labored 
 to establish, with fire and sword, the unity of the Christian 
 [Romanist] faith."— Z)ecZine and Fall, Vol. IV., ch. xlvii., p. 528. 
 
 What other effect could such a murderous policy 
 have upon all the weaker elements in the Church, than to 
 put out their lights, which otherwise would have con- 
 tinued to shine for Christ? The proportion does not 
 appear too great of those who would evidently apostatize 
 before such fiery trials. Mr. Gibbon says: — 
 
 *See The Abommation of Deiolation, The Wwld's Gnat Sign of the Tivus, ? § ix., x. 
 
368 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [part VI. 
 
 "Justinian addressed to the Senate and Provinces his eternal 
 oraeles; and his pride, under the mask of piety. 
 
 His Vanity. ascribed the consvtmmation of this great de- 
 
 sign to the support and inspiration of the 
 
 Deity." — lb., Ch. xliv., p. 461. 
 
 It is almost incredible that such work could be done 
 in the name of Christ, and the hardihood assumed after- 
 wards to blasphemonsly ascribe it to the ''inspiration of 
 the Deity." When the chnrch miited with such a power, 
 and for snch a purpose, how could she longer shed a single 
 ray of light? Truly, the Gospel sun and moon were dark- 
 ened — the two witnesses were clothed in sackcloth, and 
 Truth lay prostrate in the dust! The Prophet Daniel, in 
 his visions, saw and described exactly the same condition 
 of things taking place in this sixth century; and the 
 Eevelator also saw it in connection with the Thyatirian or 
 fourth Church, and the events of the fourth seal. (The 
 reader can refresh memory by rereading in those connec- 
 tions, if necessary.) Daniel describes the Roman power, 
 in connection Avith the Church, as making "war with the 
 saints/' not "heretics"' (cliap. vii. 21); and as casting "down 
 the tnifJi to the grqund" (chap. viii. 12). There was no 
 occasion to war upon the saints, nor the truth as such; 
 and it Avas not so pretended. But, being filled Avith error, 
 they piously — to use Gibbon's irony — called the saints 
 "heretics;" the truth "heresy," and the light "darkness." 
 What was the matter? Eome, State and Church Avere 
 "Avrong-headed" — AATong in every particular of the creed; 
 and the Church was AA'rong — then and noAV — in suffering 
 that Eoman AA^oman "Jezebel to teach and seduce" the ser- 
 vants of God to eat, not the bread of God, but "of idols" — 
 to put error for truth, and darkness for light. Therefore, 
 in her doctrine of the Trinity, she Avas Avrong on the nature 
 of God, of Christ, and of the Holy Spirit; in her doctrine 
 
CHAP. XXVII.] THE FOURTH TRUMPET SOUNDED. 369 
 
 of the natural immortality of the soul, she was wrong on 
 the nature of man. And so to the end of her teachings; 
 and all "her children" are wrong with her. The Arians, 
 
 too, had errors and inconsistencies, but 
 Tiie Arians iiad ^|^gy -^^g^^ light and faith cnougli to teach 
 some Ligriit. corrcctlj that the Son ''had a beginning, 
 
 and that there was a time when He was 
 not." The ISTicene Council pronounced these doctrines 
 heretical, and Arius was exiled." The Nicene Creed de- 
 clared the Son to be "very God of very God ... of one 
 substance with the Father; by whom all things in heaven 
 
 and earth were made [!] ... And those 
 The Creed, ^y]^Q g^y there was a time when the Son of 
 
 Darkness Q^^ ^^^s not, or that He did not exist 
 
 and Bigotry. before He was made [man], because He 
 
 was made out of nothing, or of another 
 substance or essence, or that He was created or mutable — 
 the Catholic and Apostolic church [apostate! church] 
 anathematizes such." Dr. Pond, in his Church History, 
 says that Arianism "was crushed almost at once, when the 
 Vandals were driven out of Africa, and the Goths out of 
 Italy, by the arms of Justinian, in the sixth century." 
 But that orthodox writer, not heeding Daniel's statement 
 that "arms" should stand on the part of Rome — of which 
 Justinian was emperor — to set up the Abomination of 
 
 Desolation, to cast, or ''crush"' the truth to 
 Dr. Pond |]-^q grouiid, and to war upon the saints, 
 
 suuareiy Confidently says, with the Eomanists, that 
 
 with Rome. ^|^g "coutcst was Carried on between the 
 
 Church and the heretics'" \ But this was 
 true only if Jeacbel was "the Church;" Romanism, Christ- 
 ianity, and the fifty million martyrs of Jesus, "heretics," 
 and not ' ' sahits. ' ' Is God right, or are Rome and her Prot- 
 estant "children"? which? Can prophecy and history 
 
370 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [parT VI. 
 
 both be wrong? Yet Dr. Pond is all right with the so- 
 called "orthodox" Protestantism of our day. incon- 
 sistent churchmen! Why protest against the pope and 
 then meekly receive the cardinal doctrines of the Catholic 
 councils? — the smoke and darkness of the fallen star? 
 the teaching of Jezebel in contempt of God's Word, and 
 in express violation of His will (ch. ii. 20-24)? Why? 
 
 John next beheld and heard — 
 
 "An eagle flying through the midst of heaven." 
 — The English translators here, though the original word 
 is aetou, eagle, give "angel." But when we know that the 
 loud voice was that of an eagle, we at once identify the 
 living creature or "flying eagle" of the fourth seal, there- 
 fore this same Justinian period. It is strange that those 
 translators could be so heedless of faithfulness to the text, 
 and of the right of the English readers, as to so meddle 
 with the words of the Holy Spirit; for it is a valuable help 
 in locating the fourth trumpet. This "flying eagle" was 
 "saying with a loud voice. — 
 
 "Woe, Woe, Woe to the inhabiters of the 
 earth." — Woe to the rulers of the earth, for the symbols 
 here have a political reference, and cannot relate to the 
 ordinary inhabitants of the empire; but to those "kings 
 of the earth," of the fourth period, who had committed 
 adulteries with Jezebel, and were soon to have their "great 
 tribulation," severe judgment, or "woes," for their in- 
 iquitous work in persecuting and killing, not "heretics," 
 but "saints." 
 
 " By reason of the other voices of the trumpet 
 of the three angels that are yet to sound." — It 
 should be remembered, therefore, that the last three 
 trumpets are woes, or judgments, upon the world-powers 
 for their iniquitous intercourse with, and support of, the 
 great apostate, harlot Church, in her cruel war upon the 
 defenseless saints of God. 
 
PART SEVENTH. 
 
 SOUNDING OF THE LAST THREE OF THE SEVEN 
 
 TRUMPETS— THE THREE WOE TRUMPETS. 
 
 EMBRACING JUDGMENTS COVERING THIRTEEN LATE 
 
 CENTURIES OF THE GOSPEL AGE. 
 
 "Woe, Woe, Woe to the InliaUters of the Earth." 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 V. THE FIFTH TRUMPET SOUNDED— THE FIRST 
 
 WOE— A GREAT SMOKE FROM THE PIT 
 DARKENS THE SUN AND AIR. 
 
 MAHOMET FILLS THE WORLD WITH CLOUDS OJ 
 REVISED ROMANISM AND WOE. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 VI. THE SIXTH TRUMPET SOUNDED— THE SEC- 
 OND WOE— THE FOUR EUPHRATEAN-BOUND 
 
 ANGELS LOOSED— THE THIRD PART 
 
 OF MEN KILLED BY FIRE, SMOKE 
 
 AND BRIMSTONE. 
 
 DIVINE JUDGMENTS— DESTRUCTION OF THE 
 EASTERN EMPIRE. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 VII. THE SEVENTH TRUMPET SOUNDED— THE 
 
 THIRD WOE. 
 
 DIVINE JUDGMENTS ON CATHOLIC NATIONS— 
 THEIR HIDDEN TALENTS OF DELEGATED 
 POWER REVERT TO GOD WHO, 
 THROUGH CHRIST, JUDGES, 
 REFORMS, REIGNS. 
 RELIGIOUS TOLERATION THROUGHOUT CIVIL- 
 IZATION. A GLORIOUS FRUITAGE. 
 
PART SEVENTH. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 V. THE FIFTH TEUMPET SOUNDED— THE FIRST 
 
 WOE— A GREAT SMOKE FROM THE PIT 
 
 DARKENS THE SUN AND THE AIR. 
 
 MAHOMET FILLS THE WORLD WITH CLOUDS OF REVISED 
 ROMANISM AND WOE. 
 
 Text, Chapter ix. 1-12. 
 
 I. And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from 
 heaven unto the earth: and to him was given 
 
 Moslem Epoch the key of the bottomless pit. 
 
 of Invasion, 2. And he Opened the bottomless pit; and 
 
 A.D. 62a-i449. there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the 
 smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the 
 
 air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. 
 
 3. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth; 
 and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth 
 have power. 
 
 4. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt 
 the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any 
 tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in 
 their foreheads. 
 
 5. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, . 
 but that they should be tormented five months: and their tor- 
 ment w«s as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man. 
 
 6. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not 
 find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. 
 
 7. And the shapes of the locusts u:cre like unto horses 
 prepared unto battle; and on their heads tcere as it were crowns 
 like gold, and their faces ivcrc as the faces of men. 
 
 373 
 
374 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION, [part Vll. 
 
 8. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth 
 were as the teeth of lions. 
 
 9. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of 
 iron; and the sound of their wings ^oas as the sound of chariots 
 of many horses running to battle. 
 
 10. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were 
 stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five 
 months. 
 
 11. And they had a king over them, who is the angel of the 
 bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, 
 but in the Greek tongue hath his name ApoUyon. 
 
 12. One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes 
 more hereafter. 
 
 • 
 J ^EEE we have a second fallen star, and with little 
 <:»"^-^ less to identify it than in the case of Constan- 
 V«) tine, who so oj^enly and loudly professed a 
 divine call and conversion. And everything in connection 
 with this star and trumpet points to Mohammed and 
 Mohammedanism — the great scourge, "plague" and "woe" 
 
 of Christendom and the world for more 
 Mohammed ^-^an five ceuturies. At first thought, it 
 
 Knew of the j^^y appear strange that one so false as 
 Gospel. ^]^g author of the Koran could be termed 
 
 an "angel" in any sense, or be said to 
 "fall from heaven." But if we consider, Mohammed had 
 opportunities to know God and Christ, equal to those of 
 Constantino, and was an equally great religious teacher. 
 Though born in Mecca, in the interior of Arabia, he had 
 traveled, when a youth, with his uncle on a commercial 
 expedition into Syria; and while there had been enter- 
 tained in one of the Christian monasteries, and had re- 
 ceived marked attention from some of the "fathers," and 
 such instruction as gave him, at that time, confidence in 
 the Scriptures and in Christ. This passage is found in 
 
CHAP. XXVIII.] PIFTH TRUMPE'T — FIRST WOE. 375 
 
 the Koran, the book of his pretended revelations (Chap. iii. 
 40 — as cited in Abbott's Hist, of Chris.): — 
 
 "Verily Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, is the Apostle of 
 God, and his word, which he conveyed unto 
 
 His Testimony Mary, and a Spirit proceeding from him; 
 
 in the Koran, honorable in this world and in the world to 
 come, and one of those who approach near to 
 
 the presence gf God." (Page 391. Also Gibbon, Vol. v., p. 108.) 
 
 Mr. Abbott says of him: — 
 
 "Mohammed, like Emanuel Swedenborg, accepted both the 
 Old and New Testaments as of divine origin. He professed 
 the most profound respect for both Moses and Jesus as pro- 
 phets sent from God." — I^- 
 
 "He assumed that the Jewish religion was from God, 
 but that its end was accomplished; that Christianity was 
 true, a divine revelation, but that, having fulfilled the 
 
 purpose for which it was proclaimed, it 
 Abbott on ^^gg j^q^^ ^q p^gg away, and give place to 
 
 his Open g^ third and final revelation, which God 
 
 Blasphemy. j^g^^j revcaled to Mohammed, his prophet, 
 
 and which, as the perfection of divine 
 wisdom, was to endure forever." — lb., p. 389. 
 
 Chesney says, "Muhammad announced that he was 
 
 about to restore the true religion of Adam, 
 Chesney. through ISToah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, 
 
 and the prophets." {Expedition to the 
 Euphj-ates^ Vol. ii., p. 451.) 
 
 Sir James Porter, in speaking of a certain ' ' text of 
 
 Muhammad," calling him "the Sent 
 Porter. ^f Q^^^ gggl of ^^ thg Prophets," says the 
 
 Turks "acknowledge two prophets, Moses 
 and Christ; but the Comforter promised by the latter, they 
 suppose to be Muhammad." {Turkey: Its Hist, and Prog., 
 Vol. ii., pp. 70, 71.) Abbott also mentions this claim to 
 
376 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION, [part VII. 
 
 being the promised Paraclete ^^ or Comforter of 1 John 
 XV. 20. 
 
 Mohammed seems to have planned for himself an 
 office superior to that of the Roman pontilf, Moses, or 
 Jesus. He was of a contemplative mind, and after his 
 marriage, at about twenty-eight years of age, to a wealthy 
 widow, who made him independent, and afforded him 
 abundant opportunity for study and meditation, he used 
 daily to retire to a cave to be alone, as he said, with God. 
 Here he claimed to have visions, and revelations from 
 heaven. He said that a copy of the Koran "bound in 
 silk and precious stones, was brought by the angel Gabriel 
 to the lowest heaven, and revealed to him by chapters and 
 verses. These fragments were produced at the discretion 
 of Mohammed." And Gibbon says, "each revelation is 
 suited to the emergencies of his policy, or passions; and 
 all contradiction is removed by the saving maxim that any 
 text of Scripture is abrogated, or modified, by any sub- 
 sequent passages"! (Vol. v., pp. 109, 110.) But it was not 
 until Mohammed was about forty years of age that he 
 began to teach his ^extravagant falsehoods. 
 
 Gibbon's description of "the prophet" shows what a 
 star of light he might have been in benighted Arabia, on 
 his return from travel, had he meditated upon, and caught, 
 the true revelations of God as he had received them, leav- 
 ing himself out of the story. It is as follows: — 
 
 "According to the traditions of his companions, Mohammed 
 was distinguished by the beauty of his person. 
 Gibbon on Before he spoke, the orator engaged on his 
 
 His Natural side the affections of a pubHc or a private 
 
 Lea«lersiiip. audience: they applauded his corrimanding 
 
 presence, his majestic aspect, his piercing eyes, 
 his gracious smile, his flowing beard, his countenance that 
 painted every sensation of the soul, and his gestures that en- 
 forced each expression of the tongue. . . . The son of Abdallah 
 * See this word defined, page 151 (note.) 
 
CHAP. XXVIII.] FIFTH TRUMPE'T — FIRST WOE. . 377 
 
 was educated in the bosom of the noblest race, in the use of 
 the purest dialect, and the fluency of his speech was corrected 
 and enhanced by the practice of discreet and seasonable silence. 
 With these powers of eloquence, Mohammed was an illiterate 
 barbarian. His youth had never been instructed in the arts of 
 reading and writing. The common ignorance exempted him 
 from shame and reproach; but he was reduced to a narrow 
 circle of existence, and deprived of those faithful mirrors which 
 reflect to our minds the minds of sages and heroes." — Vol. V., 
 pp. loi, 102. 
 
 De Besse confirms this view tliat Mohammed had 
 been enlightened. He says: — 
 
 "He had framed (his legislation) after the ancient law: this 
 
 conformity with the holy books of Moses en- 
 
 De Besse on abled the son of Abdallah the more efifectually 
 
 His Plan. ^q impress upon the Arabs a firm belief in the 
 
 mission which he pretended to have received 
 
 from God." — TurMsh Empire, p. 38. 
 
 Besides, "Mohammed, when he first arrived at Medina 
 .... directed his disciples to pray towards Jernsalem, 
 which he used to call the Holy City, the City of the 
 Prophets;" but he soon repealed that law, and required the 
 faithful to pray with their faces toward Mecca. (See 
 Bush's Life of Mohammed, p. 120.) 
 
 From all this it does not require a fertile imagination 
 to discover in Mohammed a fallen '"star," light, or teacher 
 — an apostate. 
 
 "And to him was given the key of the bottom- 
 less pit." — A key is the symbol of power. Jesus has the 
 "keys of death and hades;" and the "key of David" is "on 
 his shoulder" — the poiver of David, since he heired his 
 throne; and the poiver to raise the dead, etc. The power 
 to open and bring "smoke" out of the pit is given this 
 apostate. But what is the "bottomless pit"? We have 
 seen that heaven symbolizes an exalted position of author- 
 ity, light and truth; while earth, as in nature, is a sub- 
 
37^ DIVINE K^Y OF THE REVBl,ATlON. fpART Vll. 
 
 ordinate position, on the same lines. Each represents 
 a fixed system in contrast — the "kingdom of heaven" with 
 the "kingdom of this world." So the pit here must sym- 
 bolize a system, a kingdom of darkness — subterranean, 
 hidden, mysterious ; "bottomless," having no foundation in 
 truth. In this connection it must stand for the great 
 Roman or Latin system, which gave the world the "dark 
 ages;" under which "the Scriptures died out of the world's 
 memory;" whose loudest bulls have been launched against 
 Bible societies: it is well organized, but an abyss of tradi- 
 tion, superstition, vain show, and heathen forms; "mys- 
 tery," confusion and darkness; no light of God is in it; 
 it has no basis or foundation in truth; it is bottomless. 
 
 "And he opened the pit; and there arose a 
 smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great fur- 
 nace." — Mohammed opened the Roman pit, drew his in- 
 spiration from Romanism, and built his whole system upon 
 the false foimdation they had laid — the doctrine of 
 the natural immortality of the soul ; heaven- and hell- 
 re v/ards after death; the merit of human works through 
 which souls would be assigned at death to paradise, purga- 
 tory or hell; the merit of human intercession for detained 
 souls — not the pope's intercession, but Mohammed's. In 
 all these particulars and others, Mohammedanism was a 
 complete reduplication of Romanism. (See Bush's Life 
 of Mohammed, Goodrich's Religious Ceremonies, pp. 134- 
 136, or the Koran.) 
 
 Smoke in nature clouds or entirely obscures vision, 
 according to its density. So do falsehood, tradition and 
 superstition cloud and obscure mental and spiritual vision, 
 according to the boldness of departure from the pure Word 
 of God. This metaphoric smoke was to be a great one; 
 and so it was: the good Moslem would find corresponding 
 degrees of happiness in Paradise, according to faithful- 
 
CHAP. XXVIII ] FIFTH TRUMPET — FIRST WOE. 379 
 
 ncss to their prophet and his doctrines. On entering 
 Paradise they would find water that would quench thirst 
 forever; seventy-two wives of the "beautiful black-eyed 
 maidens," and servants, without restriction! The resur- 
 rection of the body would at last be brought about by 
 forty days of rain on the earth. For the Moslem had no 
 Eedeemer but his own good works. There is but one 
 God, and Mahomet is His prophet. God not having been 
 begotten, never Himself begat a son: Jesus, like Abraham 
 and Moses, was only a prophet now superseded by Moham- 
 med. 
 
 '"The sword,' says the Koran, 'is the key of heaven and 
 hell. A drop of blood shed in the cause of God, a night spent 
 in arms, is of more avail than two months of fasting and prayer. 
 Whosoever falls in battle, his sins are forgiven. At the day of 
 judgment his wounds shall be resplendent as vermilion, and 
 odoriferous as musk, and the loss of limbs shall be supplied 
 by the wings of angels and cherubim.' The intrepid souls of 
 the Arabs were fired with enthusiasm: the picture of the in- 
 visible world was strongly painted on their imagination; and 
 the death which they always desired became an object of hope 
 and desire." (Gibbon, Vol. v., p. 130.) 
 
 Was not all that a "great smoke" in the eyes of men's 
 understanding? But notice its greatness as regards con- 
 quests: — 
 
 "Before the death of Mahomet, he had become master of 
 all Arabia; had extended his conquests to the 
 Ma-homet's borders of the Greek and Persian empires; 
 
 Conqnests. ^^fj rendered his name formidable to those 
 
 once mighty kingdoms. . . . His throne was 
 now firmly established; and an impulse given to the Arabian 
 nations, which induced them to invade, and enabled them to 
 conquer, a large portion of the globe. India, Persia, the Greek 
 empire, the whole of Asia Minor, Egypt, Barbary, and Spain, 
 were eventually reduced by their victorious arms. Mahomet 
 himself did not, indeed, live to see such mighty conquests 
 achieved, but he commenced the train which resulted in this 
 
38o DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEI.ATION. [part vil. 
 
 widespread dominion; and before his death, had established over 
 the whole of Arabia, and some parts of Asia, the religion 
 which he had devised." — BeUi/ioiis Cvremonics, p. 122. 
 
 "And the sun and the air were darkened by 
 the SMOKE of the pit."— Is not a bookful of such ab- 
 surdities as are quoted above, accepted by millions, and 
 propagated by indomitable zeal by a powerful empire, 
 enough to darken the light of the Gospel sun, and fill the 
 spiritual atmosphere of the world with smoke? The air 
 is the life element in nature; and therefore symbolizes 
 the ecclesiastical or religious world — the Church, the same 
 as heaven. The two words are iised interchangeably in 
 the New Testament: as "the birds of the air," and "the 
 birds of heaven.'' Smoke rises in the air, and floats away 
 over the fields. So Mohammedanism rose in the religious 
 or moral atmosphere, and spread out like clouds of smoke 
 and darkness over the world. And so great was this dark- 
 ness, that it could not be overlooked in prophecy. 
 
 CENTURIES OF MOSLEM WAR AND WOE. 
 
 "And there came out of the smoke locusts 
 upon the earth. "-^The locusts come characteristically 
 in great numbers; and they represent the most dreadful 
 scourges God has ever brought upon any people as judg- 
 ments — "My gi-eat army which I sent among you," said 
 God of them and the caterpillar of Joel ii. 25. They were 
 one of the ten plagues of Egypt — "very grievous."' "They 
 covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was 
 darkened . . . and there remained not any green thing in 
 the trees, or in the herb of the field, through all the land 
 of Egypt." (Ex. X. 14, 15.) These locusts symbolized the 
 Mohammedan armies. Of their immense numbers Gib- 
 bon uses the terms "millions," and "myriads," as I will 
 quote later (under verse 16). 
 
CHAP.Xxviir.] FIFTH TRUMPKT— FIRST WOE. 38 1 
 
 Keith, in his Signs of the Tinies, has this quotation: — 
 
 "While Chosroes of Persia was pursuing his dreams of 
 recovering and enlarging the empire of Cyrus, and Heraclius 
 was gallantly defending the empire of the Caesars against him; 
 while idolatry and metaphysics were diffusing their baleful in- 
 fluence through the Church of Christ, [(Remanding judgments] 
 and the simplicity and purity of the Gospel were nearly lost 
 beneath the mythology which occupied the place of that of 
 ancient Greece and Rome, the seeds of a new empire and of 
 a new religion were sown in the inaccessible deserts of Arabia." 
 — Outlines of Hist., p. 168. 
 
 Keitti also quotes the following from Gibbon: — 
 "While the emperor [Heraclius] triumphed at Constan- 
 tinople or Jerusalem, an obscure town on the confines of Syria 
 was pillaged by the Saracens, and they cut in pieces some 
 troops who advanced to its relief [A.D. 629] — an ordinary and 
 trifling occurrence, had it not been the prelude of a mighty 
 revolution. These robbers were the apostles of Mahomet; their 
 fanatical valor had emerged from the desert; and in the last 
 eight years of his reign, Heraclius lost to the Arabs the same 
 provinces which he had rescued from the Persians." 
 
 Thus they overran the empire, like the armies of the 
 plague locusts, conquering everything before them. 
 
 "And unto them was given power as scor- 
 pions." — Bush says "their attacks were speedj' and vig- 
 orous; and Gibbon uses the terms "'deadly vcnonr and ^'in- 
 veteracy" in characterizing their revenge. The Historian 
 Abbott (J. S. C.) uses this language: — 
 
 "Immediately after the death of Mohammed, his disciples 
 pushed their conquests with amazing energy. 
 *'*■*■'** In the course of a few centuries they over-ran 
 
 Conquests. all of Egypt and of Asia Minor, and established 
 
 the most stern and unrelenting despotism earth 
 has ever known. Their military organization and prowess were 
 such, that they could bring into the field a more powerful army 
 
 than any other nation Through years of blood and tvoe, 
 
 these Moslem assaults were continued. The conquering armies 
 of the prophet took all of Asia, Egypt, Africa and Greece. They 
 
382 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION, [part Vll. 
 
 crossed the Straits of Gibraltar from Africa into Spain, over- 
 ran the whole Spanish Peninsula, and hung like « black cloud 
 upon the northern cliffs of the Pyrenees, threatening the prov- 
 inces of France. They swept both banks of the Danube to the 
 walls of Vienna. The Austrian royal family Red 
 Fear of the at midnight. It seemed inevitable that all 
 Austrian Europe was to be overrun by the Moslems, and 
 
 Bmpire. that all Christendom was to be cut down by 
 
 their bloody cimeters. . . 
 
 "At one time, the Austrian Ambassador at Constantinople 
 wrote to the Emperor Ferdinand in Vienna, — 
 
 "When I compare the power of the Turks with oyr own, the 
 consideration fills me with dismay. I see not how we can resist 
 the destruction which awaits us. They possess great wealth, 
 strength unbroken, a perfect knowledge of the arts of war, pati- 
 ence, union, frugality, and a constant state of preparation. 
 
 'On our side are exhausted finances and universal luxury. 
 Our National spirit is broken by mutinuous soldiers, mercenary 
 officers, licentiousness, intemperance, and a total contempt of 
 military discipline. Is it possible to doubt how such an unequal 
 conflict must terminate? The all-conquering Mussulmans will 
 soon rush with undivided strength, and overwhelm all Europe as 
 well as all Germany.' " — Hist. Chris., pp. 393-396. 
 
 I have quoted at length;, to impress our minds with the 
 Eevelator's apt and tivid picture of the rush and devasta- 
 tion of an army of all-devouring locusts — locusts to which 
 were given the power of scorpions. And if I were to 
 quote all of Gibbon's statements, every line would be a 
 commentary, in some sense, upon the text of the fifth and 
 sixth trumpets. 
 
 "And it was commanded them that they 
 should not hurt." — This shows the locusts to represent 
 an intelligent agency, with the power of self-restraint, as 
 well as being a powerful army for action. 
 
 "The grass of the earth, neither any green 
 thing, neither any tree." — /. e., do not hurt genuine 
 Christians. The grass, and other vegetation, and trees 
 
CHAP. XXVIII,] FIFTH TRUMPET — FIRST WOE. 383 
 
 would seem to represent the common people of the em- 
 pire — the masses, or multitudes, in contrast with the 
 "men" of the clause which follows, that would be compara- 
 tively few in numbers; while the green grass, etc., would 
 represent the life of the earth, and so the Church of 
 Christ. 
 
 " But only those men who have not the seal 
 of Grod in their foreheads." — I will treat this text first 
 in a general way, and notice the ''men," particularly, 
 later. The Moslems were very quick to discover the differ- 
 ence between an honest faith and a dishonest profession. 
 Gibbon says: "To his Christian subjects, Mahomet readily 
 granted the security of their persons. . . . and the tolera- 
 tion of their religion.'' {Dec. and Fall, Vol. v., p. 142.) 
 And notice the following "command": — 
 
 Eemarkable injuntion of the caliph ABUBEKER TO 
 
 YEZID UPON SETTING OUT ON THE EXPEDITION 
 AGAINST SYRIA, THE FIRST UNDERTAKING OF THE 
 SARACENS IN THE WAY OF FOREIGN CONQUESTS. 
 
 It can scarcely be doubted that these instructions 
 have been preserved under the providence of God, for the 
 express purpose of furnishing an illustration of this proph- 
 etic text: — 
 
 'Remember [said Abubeker] that you are always in the 
 presence of God, on the verge of death, in the assurance of 
 judgment, and the hope of Paradise. When you fight the bat- 
 tles of the Lord acquit yourselves like men without turning 
 your backs; but let not your victories be stained with the blood 
 of women and children. Destroy no palm-trees, nor burn any 
 fields of corn. Cut down no fruit trees, nor do any mischief 
 to cattle, only such as you kill to eat. When you make any 
 covenant, stand to it, and be as good as your word. As you go 
 on, you will find some religious persons who live retired in 
 religious monasteries, and propose to themselves to serve God 
 that way: let them alone, and neither kill them nor destroy their 
 monasteries. And you will find another sort of people, that 
 
384 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [PART VII. 
 
 belong to the synagogue of satan, who have shaven crowns: 
 be sure you cleave their skulls, and give them no quarter till 
 they embrace the true faith or pay tribute.' — Oakley's Hist, of 
 the Saracens. 
 
 "It has accordingly been noticed that those parts of the 
 Roman empire which were left untouched by these Saracen 
 hordes, were those in which it appears from history the remnant 
 of the true Church of God was still found residing: they were 
 only to hurt the men who had not the mark of God in their 
 foreheads."— Bush's Life of Mohammed, p. 199. 
 
 ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF TORMENT TO THE 
 GREEK EMPIRE. 
 
 AVe come now to consider a definite period of Moslem 
 invasion, not of neighboring states and provinces, but of 
 the empire itself. 
 
 "And to them it ^was given that they should 
 not kill them, but that they should be tormented 
 five months." — Here is further restraint laid upon these 
 chastising scorpions. God is giving Jezebel both time 
 and occasion "to repent," as we saw in the message to 
 Thyatira, and shall fijid in history. Five months prophetic 
 time — a day for a year — equals 150 years — such a definite 
 period of torment, before the loss of national life and in- 
 dependence, four years prior to the absolute conquest of 
 Constantinople. Gibbon says: — 
 
 "While the state was exhausted by the Persian war, and 
 the Church was distracted by the Nestorian and Monophysite 
 sects, Mahomet, 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; and our eyes are curiously 
 intent on one of the most memorable revolutions which have 
 impressed a new and lasting character on the nations of the 
 globe." — Vol. v., p. 74. 
 
CHAP. XXVIII.] FIFTH TRUMPET — FIRST WOE. 385 
 
 "In the ten years of the administration of Omar, the Sara- 
 cens reduced to his obedience 36,000 cities or castles, destroyed 
 4,000 churches or temples, and erected 1,400 mosques for the 
 exercise of the religion of Mahomet. One hundred years after 
 his flight from Mecca, the arms and the reign of his successors 
 extended from India to the Atlantic Ocean;" and "at the end 
 of the first century of the hegira, the caliphs were the most 
 potent and absolute monarchs of the globe." — lb., vol. v., pp. 
 174, 271. 
 
 Was not all that "torment" to Eome worthy of proph- 
 etic note? But Gibbon's wonderful historic penetration, 
 in ignoring prophecy and the divine pre-arrangement, seeks 
 to explain these wonderful events. He writes thus — and 
 it is remarkable (italics, mine) : — 
 
 "The calm historian of the present hour, who strives to 
 follow the rapid course of the Saracens, must 
 Gibbon's study to explain by what means the church and 
 
 Remarkable state were saved from this impending, and as 
 statement. it should seem inevitable danger. . . . In this 
 
 inquiry I shall unfold the events that rescued 
 our ancestors of Britain, and our neighbors of Gaul, from the 
 civil and religious yoke of the Koran; that protected the majesty 
 of Rome, and DELAYED [150 years] the servitude of Con- 
 stantinople — lb., p. 273. 
 
 But back of the events which Gibbon finds contribut- 
 ing to said protection in the West, and delay in the East, 
 was this prophetic announcement we are considering, 
 which should also have been recognized by Mr. Gibbon, 
 and computed. There may be an apparent difficulty con- 
 cerning, or at least it is not very clearly stated, just where 
 the five months begin, unless we notice that tliere are two 
 instances of giving power to, and commanding, the locusts: 
 the first, in verses three and four; the second in verse 
 five — last quoted, and containing the five-months com- 
 mand. That the former relates to earlier torment, the 
 latter, to 150 years of final torment, ending under the 
 
386 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVElvATlON. [part VII. 
 
 next trumpet with the killing or destruction of one-third 
 part of the system, or dynasty, symbolized by those "men 
 \vho have not the seal of God." For these "men" do not 
 symbolize other individual men, but rulers. It was said of 
 this last torment, that it was as the torment of a scorp- 
 ion — 
 
 "When he striketh a man."— If "man" was 
 used here to represent an individual, merely, it would have 
 been more natural to say, When he striketh a person — if 
 a man, a woman, or a child. But man at creation was 
 given dominion and rule over every subsequent creation; 
 and used in this emphatic manner here, must symbolize 
 the power, the empire. The earlier torment was through 
 attacks upon the people of the provinces, and not so dang- 
 erous to the life of the empire itself; the later — as when 
 "he striketh a man" — was through attacks directly upon the 
 empire itself. Mr. Gibbon marks the day of the first at- 
 tack, and providentially, since the period of the sixth 
 tnmipet (ix. 15) ends with a definite day. Notice how 
 God guided the infidel pen to assist the student of proph- 
 ecy. He says, — 
 
 Definite Date "jt was on the 21tli of July, in the year 
 
 tor the Period. 1299 of the Christian era, that Othman first in- 
 vaded the territory of Nicomedia; and the sin- 
 gular accuracy of the date seems to disclose some foresight of 
 the rapid and destructive growth of the monster." — Decline and 
 Fall, etc., Vol vi., p. 226. 
 
 The great calif Othman had, for the first time in the 
 history of the Prophet's followers, united the various 
 Moslem tribes into one great empire, since known as the 
 "Ottoman Empire;" and now his soldiers had made the 
 first direct assault on the Greek Empire. De Besse has 
 this significant passage: — 
 
CHAP. XXVIII.] FIFTH TRUMPET — FIRST WOE. 387 
 
 "It was Osman [Othman], in effect, who laid the founda- 
 tions of a poHtical and religious state in 
 De Besse's Pen Turkey, and who, by his conquests, extended 
 Notes tiie Time, the bound of his hardy, nascent, and yet 
 limited empire to the shores of the Black 
 Sea. Such were the beginnings of the Ottoman Empire in 
 1299. One hundred and fifty years elapsed before it was securely 
 established by the taking of Constantinople.— ^/le Turkish 
 Empire, p. 47. 
 
 The 150 years then would expire July 27, 1449. That 
 was the year in which Constantine Paleologus, on the death 
 of his uncle, John Paleologus II., came to the Greek 
 throne. But at that time the empire was so weakened, 
 and the Ottoman Power so strong and menacing, that the 
 Greeks thought it policy to secure the Sultan's endorsement 
 of Constantine, as against his rival brother, and did so, 
 before he assumed the crown. Gibbon says: — 
 
 "An ambassador, the historian Phranza, was immediately 
 despatched to the court of Adrianople. Amurath received him 
 with honor, and dismissed him with gifts; but the gracious 
 approbation of the Turkish Sultan announced his supremacy^ and 
 the approaching downfall of the Eastern Empire." — Ih., p. 365. 
 
 Henceforward it is plain that the emperor is but the 
 vassal of the Sultan: the life and independence of his em- 
 pire is gone; its ruler and his four dependent praefects 
 (governors of the provinces) are now to be killed, i. e., 
 politically, after the sounding of the sixth trumpet; the 
 new religion has not only overcast the writhing empire 
 with the blinding "smoke" of its superstitions, but has 
 invaded its territories, and for 150 years tormented it with 
 its locust- and scorpion-like armies. Amurath II. had 
 removed the foundations of the Greek throne; and Mo- 
 hammed II. destroyed the remembrance of it, four years 
 later (1453), by hoisting the Turkish crescent for the com- 
 ing centuries over the imperial palace and city of Con- 
 
388 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEI.ATION. [pART VII. 
 
 stantinople. But I am anticipating: the killing of the 
 third part of the rulers, or the entire subversion of the 
 Greek portion of the empire, belongs to the next period; 
 and there are several things yet to consider under this 
 tormenting period. 
 
 "In those days shall men seek death, * * 
 and death shall flee from them." — These days refer 
 to the 150 years of torment; and the death which those 
 "men" or rulers sought was official death, through fear of 
 their tormentors — the invincible and fanatical califs of 
 Mohammed. The same excessive fear is symbolically 
 manifested under the sixth seal,* and for the same effect, 
 namely, (as in the passages noted below) in order to a com- 
 mensurate appreciation of the causes put in operation — 
 the principles of the Gospel at the first Advent, the 
 principles of the Eeformation under the sixth seal, and 
 now the tormenting Judgments upon Eomanism and the 
 Greek Empire. Let De Besse state some of the horrors 
 they suffered: — 
 
 "Osman himself already commenced the dismemberment of 
 the Greek Empire in possessing himself of 
 De Besse Tells several of the cities and fortified places of Asia 
 of Their Terri- Minor; he created a sort of maritime power, 
 ble Torments, i^y means of which he committed numerous 
 acts of piracy. In 1307 he made an attempt 
 upon the rich and flourishing island of Chios, with thirty ships, 
 whose crews overspread the country, and massacred a greater 
 part of the inhabitants. A similar fate was inflicted by turns 
 on Rhodes, Samos, Lemnos, Malta, and other islands of the 
 Archipelago. On the continent the same acts were committed; 
 the towns were pillaged and burned, and the inhabitants put to 
 death." — Turkish Empire, p. 47. 
 
 "Every year a thousand Christian children were chosen 
 from the prisoners of war, who were forced to embrace the 
 faith of the prophet, and learn the art of war. When the num- 
 * See on Isa. ii. 19 ; Hos x. 8 ; Lu xxiii. 30, pages 238-241. 
 
CHAP. XXVIII ] Fifth T'RUMPEI' — first woe. 389 
 
 ber of prisoners was insufficient, the deficiency was made up 
 by a recruitment among the children of the Christians." — lb., 
 P- 52. 
 
 "While the Ottoman Empire was extending its limits to 
 the West and South, as far as Armenia and Caramania, every- 
 where gaining battles and capturing fortresses, it was no less 
 successful to the North and East. Its arms prevailed in Hun- 
 gary and Croatia, and its victorious legions returned loaded with 
 booty. The Turkish cavalry overran Croatia, Styria, Carniola 
 and Carinthia; and these incursions were renewed every year, 
 to the terror of the inhabitants, and the ruin and desolation of 
 the country. In 1471, this branch of the Ottoman troops cov- 
 ered all Croatia with fire and blood, carried ofif the cattle, and 
 conducted into slavery more than 20,000 persons. Carinthia 
 and Carinola underwent the same fate." — lb., p. 81. 
 
 "And the shapes of the locusts were like unto 
 horses prepared unto battle." — The description now 
 is symbolic of an army, or armies of cavahy: he is describ- 
 ing their appearance, here; before their destructiveness, 
 and great numbers. Arabia is the home of the horse, it 
 is said. And it is certain that the Moslem armies were 
 mostly cavalry. Speaking of the pastoral life of the 
 Arabs, Gibbon says: — 
 
 "The care of the sheep and camels is abandoned to the 
 women of the tribe; but the martial youth 
 Turkish under the banner of the emir is ever on horse- 
 
 Horsemen, back, and in the field to practice the exercise 
 
 of the bow, the javelin and the cimeter." — 
 Vol. v., p. 83. 
 
 "As the subject nations marched under the standard of the 
 Turks, their cavalry, both men and horses, were proudly com- 
 puted by the millions" 
 
 "Twenty-five years after the death of Basil, his successors 
 were suddenly assaulted by an unknown race of barbarians, 
 who united the Scythian valor with the fanatism of new prose- 
 lytes, and the art and riches of a powerful monarchy. The 
 myriads of Turkish horse overspread a frontier of six hundred 
 miles, from Taurus to Azeroum, and the blood of 130,000 
 
390 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION parT Vll. 
 
 Christians was a grateful sacrifice to the Arabian prophet. Yet 
 the arms of Togrul did not make any deep or lasting impression 
 on the Greek empire." (Vol. v., pp. 511, 512.) 
 
 This last statement will remind the reader of the re- 
 straint that at this period limits their work to torme7iting 
 the empire. 
 
 "And on their heads were as it were crowns 
 Hke gold." — A reference to the yellow turbans always 
 worn hy the Arabs. For "horses prepared unto battle" 
 would include the rider, who wore the turban like a crown, 
 and yellow "like gold." We should understand that the 
 Revelator is describing what he had never seen in real 
 life — an army of Arab horsemen, with their peculiar attire, 
 armor, fierce demeanor, and rush of battle and destruction; 
 for the historian, also, has mentioned the rapid movement 
 of Arabian horses in flight or pursuit: "No sooner," he 
 says, "do they feel the touch of the hand or the stirrup, 
 than they dart away with the swiftness of the wind." 
 (Gibbon, vol. v., p. 79.) And in speaking of a Greek 
 victory when, "in three laborious campaigns, the Turks 
 M'erc driven beyond the Euphrates," Gibbon says: "On the 
 report of this bold invasion. Alp Arsland Hezv to the scene 
 of action at the head of 40,000 horse. His rapid and skil- 
 ful evolutions distressed and dismayed the Greeks." Etc. 
 (Vol. v., pp. 514, 515.) Still more were these rushing 
 squadrons perplexing and startling to the Seer of Patmos, 
 ten centuries earlier. Tlie whole was a mysterious or 
 strange scene to a. mild and inoffensive Jew. But how 
 wonderfully true it all was to the facts of history, when 
 we compare them. As these rushing armies dash across 
 the field of symbolic vision, the Eevelator gathers up the 
 dim details of the whole appearance. 
 
 "Their faces were as the faces of men." — 
 "Men" seem to be used literally, here, because in contrast 
 
CHAP, xxviri.] FIF'TH TRUMPET — FIRST WOE. 39 1 
 
 with women and lions, as we will see, and for the purpose 
 of general identification. (See illustrative examples, p. 
 29.) A passage from Gibbon will illustrate this reference. 
 He says, "The gravity and firmness of the Arab is con- 
 spicuous in his outzvard demeanor, . . . his only gesture 
 is that of stroking the beard, the venerable symbol of man- 
 hood." (Vol. v., p. 86.) 
 
 " Their hair was as the hair of women." — The 
 Arabs, like the Chinese, wore their hair braided and hang- 
 ing in long cues down their backs. 
 
 "Their teeth were as the teeth of lions." — 
 Having reference, doubtless, to their fierceness and de- 
 structiveness of character. Gibbon speaks of the "fer- 
 ocious Bedoweens, the terror of the desert," and says: — 
 
 "The nice sensibility of honor, which weighs the insult 
 rather than the injury, sheds its deadly venom on the quarrels 
 of the Arabs: the honor of their women, and of their beards is 
 most easily wounded; an indecent act, a contemptuous word, 
 can be expiated only by the blood of the offender; and such 
 is their patient inveteracy that they expect whole months and 
 years the opportunity of revenge." — Vol. v., pp. 88, 91. 
 
 "They had breastplates as it were * of iron." 
 
 — The Arabs used breastplates, called cuirasses, and as 
 early as the second battle of Mohammed with the Koreish 
 of Mecca (a.d. 624), Gibbon says, "seven hundred of them 
 were armed with cuirasses." (Vol. v., p. 132.) 
 
 "The sound of their wings was as the sound 
 of chariots of many horses running to battle." — 
 In perfecting the symbolism, and descritjing the impetu- 
 osity of these locusts — their "speedy and vigorous" attacks 
 upon their enemies — the Revelator must, necessarily, at- 
 tribute the noisy confusion of such a furious onset to the 
 "sound of their zvings." We have seen that for ten years 
 Omar averaged, each year, a conquest of 3,600 cities or 
 
392 divine; kky op the revelation, [part Vll. 
 
 castles! destroyed 400 churches or temples! and erected 
 140 mosques for Mohammedan worship! Should not that 
 be called a ''running to battle"? Bush, in his history, 
 characterizes the "astonishing success of the Saracen arms" 
 as "a most terrible scourge upon the apostate churches in 
 the East, and in other portions of Christendom;" and 
 thinks that, as a judgment agency, nothing short of a 
 "providential ordainment" could have "inspired them to 
 the achievement of such a rapid and splendid series of 
 conquests." (Life of M., pp. 50, 51.) 
 
 "They had tails like unto scorpions; and 
 there were stings in their tails : and their power 
 was to hurt men five months." — The tails seem to 
 symbolize the cinieters or lances, both which are men- 
 tioned in the accounts of their battles: if belted to the 
 side, when not in actual use, they would hang backward, 
 or if flourished in the fury of battle, they might seem like 
 the caudal lashings of infuriated beasts. These instru- 
 ments pierce the enemy fatally, like the sting of a scorpion. 
 The five months have been already mentioned — 150 years: 
 A.D. 1299-1449. During this period they were only per- 
 mitted to torment, or hurt, men or rulers — not to kill, or 
 dethrone them. Previous to this, they were commanded 
 not to hurt the grass or green trees, as we have already 
 seen; and soon all restraint is removed — at the close of 
 the five symbolic months — and killing begins. 
 
 "And they had a king over them, who is the 
 angel of the bottomless pit." — /. <?., they had a king 
 during this five months of tormenting the rulers. Othman, 
 the faithful calif and successor of Mahomet, was the first 
 Sultan, and the first great organizer, or centralizer of the 
 Moslem forces — founder, as the quotations show, of the 
 Ottoman Empire (a.d. 1300-132G); and is therefore men- 
 
CHAP. XXVIII.] FIFTH TRUMPET — FIRST WOK. 393 
 
 tioned particularly as king of the locusts. As being the 
 angel of the pit, he was one of the foremost promoters of 
 the great smoke that rose Avith Moslemism. "On the verge 
 of the Greek Empire" (where Eomanism had ruled and 
 ruined so long), says Gibbon, "the Koran sanctified his 
 ga::i, or holy war, against the iniidcls; and their political 
 errors Unlocked the passes of Mount Olympus, and invited 
 him to descend into the plains of Bythinia;" which he did, 
 as we have seen, in July, 1399. (Vol. vi., p. 226.) 
 
 "Whose name in the Hebrew * is Abaddon, 
 but in the Greek, * * Apollyon." — These names 
 each denote the, or a, "destroyer." Othman is termed in 
 history "the bonebrcaker;" the "sword of God" and the 
 "scourge of the infidels." Thus it seems that the Lord 
 has left nothing necessary undone, to help us to identify 
 the characters that figure in this prophecy. Creasy says 
 the Sultan formerly was commonly called ^^Hiinkiar,^^ 
 the "manslaycr" ; and cites Rycant's statement that "The 
 Grand Signor can never be deposed nor made accountable 
 to any for his crimes, while he destroys causelessly of his 
 subjects under the number of a thousand a day." — Ottoman 
 Turks, vol. i., p. 152. 
 
 "One woe is past." — And behold, there come two 
 woes more hereafter. 
 
 1^ 
 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 1^ 
 
 ^*^ 
 
 
 
 Q 
 
 ^goc^^^^^^^ 
 
 ^^m 
 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 VI. THE SIXTH TEUMPET SOUNDED— THE 
 SECOND WOE. 
 
 THE FOUR EUPHRATEAN-BOUND ANGELS LOOSED 
 
 —THE THIRD PART OF MEN KILLED BY FIRE, 
 
 SMOKE AND BRIMSTONE. 
 
 DIVINE JUDGMENTS — DESTRUCTION OF THE EASTERN 
 EMPIRE. 
 
 Text, Chapter ix, 13-21. 
 
 13. And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from 
 the four horns of the golden altar which is 
 Evocb o£ before God. 
 
 Moslem 14 Saying to the sixth angel that had the 
 
 Supremacy, trumpet. Loose the four angels that are 
 
 A.D. 1449-1840. bound in the great river Euphrates. 
 
 15. And the four angels were loosed, that 
 were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, 
 for to slay the third part of men. 
 
 16. And the number of the army of the horsemen tvere 
 two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of 
 them. 
 
 17. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that 
 sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and 
 brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of 
 lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and 
 brimstone. 
 
 18. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the 
 fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued 
 out of their mouths. 
 
 19. For their power is in their tails: for their tails were 
 like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt. 
 
 394 
 
CHAP. XXIX.] SIXTH TRUMPET — SECOND WOE. 395 
 
 20. And the rest of the men that were not killed by these 
 plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they 
 should not worship demons, and idols of gold, and silver, and 
 brass, and stone, and of wood; which neither can see, nor 
 hear, nor walk: 
 
 21. Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their 
 sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. 
 
 UNDEE the fourth trumpet, the voice came from the 
 eagle, the fourth living creature; this was helpful 
 as one item of proof in settling the chronology 
 of the voice as of the Justinian or "flying eagle" period. 
 Here the voice comes from the four horns of the altar, 
 the next visual symbol in order, and points to the altar 
 period, which may be supposed to have commenced even 
 with the flight of the Church from Death on the pale 
 horse; certainly as early as a.d. 1449. 
 
 " Saying, * Loose the four angels that are 
 bound in the great river Euphrates." — The Eu- 
 phrates seems here to have a literal signification, accord- 
 ing to the principle stated on page 29, for furnishing a 
 necessary clue to the locality from whence these torment- 
 ing locusts are to come. And when we are familiar with 
 the prophecy, the statements of history seem like com- 
 mentaries on the text. Notice the following: — 
 
 "During several centuries of almost unbroken hostility, the 
 Roman empire and that of the Persians vainly disputed the 
 possession of some frontier provinces upon the Euphrates and 
 Tigris; the hour approached when this ancient enmity was to 
 be buried in one common abyss, and those provinces were to 
 recognize other rulers, and submit to other religion." — De Besse 
 Turkish Emp., p. 38. 
 
 It is very evident that the Turkish rulers and the 
 Moslem religion perfectly answers the locust army and 
 work of the vision. The Islamic hordes peopled and 
 
396 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEI.ATION. [pART VII. 
 
 issued from the great Euphratean region, and brought their 
 torments, their victories, and their religion westward over 
 the empire of the "man of sin," that merited so well the 
 judgments inflicted. Gibbon writes thus: — 
 
 "The historians of the age of Justinian represent the state 
 of the independent Arabs, who were divided by interest or 
 affection in the long quarrel of the East: The tribe of Gassan 
 was allowed to encamp on the Syrian territory: the princes of 
 Hira were permitted to form a city about forty miles south- 
 ward of the ruins of Babylon. Their service in the field was 
 speedy and vigorous . . . and, in the familiar intercourse of war, 
 they learned to see, and to despise, the splendid weakness both 
 of Rome and of Persia. From Mecca to the Euphrates the 
 Arabian tribes were confounded by the Greeks and Latins, 
 under the general appellation of saracens, a name which every 
 Christian mouth has been taught to pronounce with terror and 
 abhorrence." — Vol. v., pp. 84, 85. 
 
 "Since the first conquests of the caliphs, the establishment 
 of the Turks in Anatolia or Asia Minor was the most deplor- 
 able loss which the church and empire had sustained. By the 
 propagation of the Moslem faith, Soliman deserved the name 
 of Gazi, a holy champion; and his new kingdom of the Romans, 
 or of Roum, was added to the tables of oriental geography. It 
 is described as extending from the Euphrates to Constantinople, 
 from the Black Sea to the confines of Syria; pregnant with 
 mines of silver and iron, of alum and copper, fruitful in corn 
 and wine, and productive of cattle and excellent horses." — 
 Vol. v., p- 526. 
 
 There were four angels or agencies engaged in the 
 prophecy; and accordingly we find the 
 Fonr Agencies Ottoman nation was really a mixture of 
 Identified. Tartars, Turks, Arabs and Saracens. 
 
 These four elements are always recog- 
 nized, however designated. One writer, speaking of Asia 
 Minor, — Anatolia (Turkish Anadolia) — says: "Here took 
 place the wars of the Greeks with the Persians; of the 
 Romans with Mithridates and the Parthians; of the Arabs, 
 
CHAP. XXIX.] SIXTH TRUMPET — SECOND WOE. 397 
 
 Scljuks, Mongols and Osmons with the weak Byzantine 
 Empire. {Chamb. Ency.) But historians also speak of 
 the "separation of the Seljukian territory into four king- 
 doms: Persia, Kcrman, Syria and Roum (Anatolia)." 
 (Gibbon, vol. v., p. 523; Chesney, Exped. to Euphrates, 
 vol. i., p. 473.) And again the religious house of Islam 
 was also divided into four great imamatcs, (the term cor- 
 responding with the Christian term episcopate,) situated 
 in Aleppo, Iconinm, Damascus and Bagdad. So that we 
 have four great Moslem agencies, in race, in State, and 
 in religion, warring upon and tormenting the Eoman 
 Church and Empire. These agencies, which had been 
 "bound," — restrained — are now to be loosed. We have seen 
 the restraint laid upon them: first, not to injure the grass, 
 nor any green thing, nor tree, but only those men who 
 have not the seal of God in their foreheads; afterward, 
 under a king, for a period of 150 years, they were to 
 torment, without killing, the "men," i. e., without destroy- 
 ing the dynasty; and now they are to be loosed for general 
 havoc and destruction without constraint. 
 
 "For an hour, and a day, and a month, and a 
 year." — This period, like all others designed to measure 
 symbols, must be understood as symbolic time, according 
 to the year-day theory — the rule for which is stated on 
 page 101. And since ''a day' represents 1 year, 360 days, 
 
 One (prophetic) hour is 1-24 part of 360,= 15 " 
 
 One (prophetic) day = 1 year 
 
 One (prophetic) month — 30 days = 30 years 
 One (prophetic) year — 360 days=. . 360 years 
 
 The whole period, therefore, = 391 years, 15 days. 
 
 Thus definitely did God mark off this period of unre- 
 strained Mohammedan invasion and terror. 
 
398 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [parT VII. 
 
 We have also seen that the former period of restraint 
 
 — 150 years of tormenting only — began 
 
 Where tiie ^.^^j^ ^j^g entering of the Moslem forces 
 
 ^*'*"**** into Roman territory, on the 2yth day of 
 
 siionid End. j^j^^ j^^^. ^^^^ therefore ended on the 
 
 27th day of July, 1449. If to this date 
 we now add the period of their being loosed, or unre- 
 strained in their warfare, it would end on the nth day 
 of August, 1840 — for the prediction is thus definite to 
 the day. And the historian at the beginning of the period 
 had so carefully noted the day, as we saw, that it drew 
 from Gibbon, as he cited it, his note of the fact. Could 
 he have lived to see the record concerning Islamism — the 
 handwriting on the palace wall of the Sultan — August 11, 
 1840, it might have given him faith in the God of prophecy 
 and the Bible. 
 
 "For to slay the third part of men." — Most 
 people and writers, forgetting the symbolic nature of this 
 prophecy, think here of the slaying of the third part of 
 the population of the empire, instead of a third part of its 
 pozver or rulership. If the inhabitants were meant, why 
 were the women and children unnoticed, which made up 
 the larger part of the poi^ulation? The fact is, scriptur- 
 ally, man is the proper lord of creation. And "a man," 
 and "men," as used here, must symbolize the riding potvcr. 
 A third part of the power of the Eoman Empire must be 
 destroyed; and the facts in history abundantly warrant the 
 prophetic requirement. Speaking of the fall of the Greek 
 Empire, the historian Hallam says: — 
 
 "Every province was in turn subdued; every city opened its 
 gates to the conqueror; the limbs were lopped off one by one; 
 but the pulse still beat at the heart, and the majesty of the 
 Roman name was ultimately confined to the walls of Con- 
 stantinople. The long deferred but inevitable moment arrived 
 [A.D. 1453I, and the last of the Caesars folded round him the 
 
CHAP. XXIX.] SIXTH TRUMPE;T — SECOND WOE. 399 
 
 imperial mantle, and remembered the name which he repre- 
 sented in the dignity of heroic death. . . . Though the fate of 
 Constantinople had been protracted beyond all reasonable ex- 
 pectation, [through restraint upon the four angels,] the actual 
 intelligence operated like that of sudden calamity. A senti- 
 ment of consternation, perhaps of self-reproach, thrilled the 
 heart of Christendom." — Middle Ages, p. 259. 
 
 Further, "Mahomet the Great pursued his conquests, and 
 soon made himself master of all Greece. He likewise sub- 
 dued Epirus. . . . The revenues of the grand signior consists 
 chiefly in the product of the several countries subject to his 
 dominion. A vast number of vessels arrive annually from 
 Greece, Egypt, Natolia, and the coasts of the Black Sea, which 
 bring all sorts of stores. ",:^Tytler, Vniver. Hist., Vol. ii., pp. 
 211, 212. 
 
 Also see extracts on pages 379 and 382. And Spain, 
 at that time, was one-half under Mohammedan rule, so 
 that, at the least, one-third of the whole old Eoman Em- 
 pire became dead to the Pope and tributary to the Sultan. 
 I will speak of the close of the period after finishing with 
 the remaining symbols. 
 
 " The number of the army of the horsemen 
 two hundred thousand thousand." — Two hundred 
 million — I have no very clear light as yet on this num- 
 ber; it is like the sixteen hundred furlongs of chapter 
 xiv. 20, somewdiat hard to understand. But it must have 
 been intended to represent a very great company, only, as 
 the terms are translated in Lu. xii. 1, and Heb. xii. 23; I 
 think it was; for it is not possible that literally an army 
 of 200,000,000 Avas ever raised at one time; and hardly 
 reasonable that the total number in the field from a.d. 
 1299 to 1449, or even to the end of Turkish dominion in 
 1840, is meant, as some have suggested. John repeats, 
 "I heard the number of them;" may not its greatness, 
 then, signify the irresistibleness of their power? Doubt- 
 less this is the explanation; my own judgment accepts it 
 as harmonizing with the general principles of the book. 
 
4QO divine: KEY OF THE REVELATION, [part vii. 
 
 "Breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and 
 brimstone." — In this immediate connection fire and 
 smoke, and brimstone are said to come out of the horses' 
 mouths, and that by these three tlie third part of men 
 Avere killed, or the destruction just considered was ac- 
 complished. I regard the fire, smoke and brimstone as 
 giving the literal clue (see pages 29, 395); and the smoke 
 to be rather a repetition, by way of explanation, of the 
 jacinth, as signifying a blue color: it comes from hyacinth, 
 which is defined, "(1) Formerly, a bluish-violet gem:" 
 (Stand. Diet.) Fire is red, and brimstone is yellow: these 
 were prominent colors in the "breastplate of judgment" 
 worn by the high priests who Avere the judges of Israel. 
 To Jesus, our High Priest, all judgment is committed. 
 (Mai. iv. 1-5; Matt. xii. 18; John v. 22.) The breastplates 
 therefore symbolize a fact, namely, that the "woes" here 
 being detailed are the judgments of God upon the empire 
 now to be one-third destroyed. 
 
 " The heads of the horses were as the heads 
 of lions." — This Avould represent the strength, courage 
 and boldness of these destroyers. For these descriptions 
 and John's vision Avere not intended to present an actual 
 photograph of an Arabian army or cavalry corps, merely, 
 but to characterize, as Avell as to identify the poAver. Greek 
 fire, gunpoAvder, and cannon Avere comparatively new 
 AA'eapons of Avarfare in the age of Moslem invasion, and the 
 califs were among the first to use them. Brimstone is a 
 symbol of destruction; (Gen. xix. 24-28; Deut. xxix. 17-27;) 
 
 it is an ingredient of gunpoAvder and 
 Greek Fire and Greek fire, and with the fire and smoke 
 Gunpowder. issuing from the Arabian cannon and 
 
 "copper tubes" seemed to come from the 
 mouths of the horses, which were the principal feature in 
 the picture thus dimly (because symbolically) outlined 
 
CHAP. XXIX.] SIXTH TRUMPET — SECOND WOE. 40I 
 
 before the Seer of Patmos. In the last siege of Con- 
 stantinople, "From the lines, the galleys, and the bridge," 
 says Gibbon, "the Ottoman artillery thnndered on all sides; 
 and the camp and city, the Greeks and the Turks, were in- 
 volved in a cloud of smoke, which could only be dispelled 
 by' the final deliverance or [partial] destruction of the 
 Eonian Empire." (Vol. vi., p. 400.) And on page 379 he 
 says the Turkish "artillery surpassed whatever had yet 
 appeared in the world." But it is altogether probable that 
 the Kevelator's description is particularly of the use of 
 musketry which, if fired from the horses' backs, would 
 cause the smoke and flash of the rude fuses of those prim- 
 itive guns to appear, from a distance, to escape from their 
 mouths. 
 
 I do not find a definite statement relative to muskets 
 in the hands of the Turkish cavalry, but Gibbon, in speak- 
 ing of a sally which the Greeks made from the gates upon 
 their besiegers, mentions their use of muskets, as well as 
 cannon, and says that "the same destructive secret had 
 been revealed to the Moslems, by wJiom it zvas empl-oycd 
 with the superior energy of zeal, riches and despotism." 
 (lb., p. 388.) He further says that from the time of the 
 first Amurath (a.d. 1360) "The provinces 
 ATnrkisii q£ Thracc, Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, 
 
 Military School, ^j^^ Servia, bccamc the perpetual seminary 
 of the Turkish army." That they levied 
 a tax of every fifth child upon Christian families, and 
 educated and trained them for their armies: the most 
 robust were seized (at the age of twelve years), "their 
 bodies were exercised by every labor that could fortify their 
 strength; they learned to wrestle, to leap, to run, to shoot 
 with the bow, and afterwards zvith the musket.'" (lb., pp. 
 386, 287.) Greek fire was produced from naphtha (which 
 
402 DIVINB KKY OF THE RKVEI.ATION. [part VII. 
 
 ignites as soon as it comes in contact with the air), sulphur 
 and pitch, and was revealed to the Greeks by Callinicus, of 
 Syria, "a deserter from the service of the calif to that of 
 the emperor." (lb., vol. v., 283, 283.) Its use "was 
 continued to the middle of the 14th century, when the 
 scientific or casual comj)ound of nitre, sulphur and char- 
 coal effected a new revolution in the art of war and the 
 history of mankind." (/&., 285.) 
 
 Wells quotes Heivitt on Ancient Armor, as follows: — 
 
 "Callinicus, the philosopher, taught the use of it [Greek 
 fire] to the Greeks. He himself had probably 
 Greek; Fire, but derived the knowledge of this composition 
 from Arabia. from the Arabians; for though powder acting 
 by detonation (and consequently cannon) ap- 
 pears to have been first produced in Europe, and that not 
 earlier than the beginning of the 14th century, the Asiatics 
 had the use of powder that would fuse at a very early date. 
 The Greek fire was discharged from tubes that could be turned 
 in every direction." — Things Not Generally Known, p. 128. 
 
 And Tomlinson, on this point, also says: — 
 
 "The Chinese appear to have been acquainted with gun- 
 potvder before the Christian Era, and to have 
 Chinese used it in their fireworks, and for purposes 
 
 Gunpowder. of deflagration, but not for detonation, or the 
 propulsion of solid bodies. Such a compound 
 as this is supposed to have been obtained by the Arabs, in their 
 intercourse with China, and by them communicated to the 
 Greeks of the Lower empire. . . . The crusaders in their early 
 conflicts appear to have been struck with terror at the incendiary 
 weapons used against them." — Cyclo. Use. Arts, Vol. i., p. 823. 
 
 From this testimony, altogether, there seems to be 
 every probability, if not certainty, that the Moslem cavalry, 
 which are chiefly described, won their unprecedented 
 victories largely through the use of gvinpowder and mus- 
 kets, and Greek fire, the flashes of which seemed to come 
 out of the horses' mouths, with smoke and brimstone. 
 
CHAP. XXIX.] SIXTH TRUMPET — SECOND WOE. 403 
 
 "For their power is in their mouth and in 
 their tails." — Their tails seem to refer to the long copper 
 tubes for Greek fire, which Gibbon says "was employed 
 with equal elfect by sea and land, in battles or in sieges." 
 
 "It was either poured from the rampart in large 
 boilers, or launched in red-hot balls of stone and iron, or 
 darted in arroM^s and javelins, twisted round with flax and 
 tow, which had deeply imbibed the inflammable oil; . and 
 was most commonly blown through long tubes of copper, 
 
 which were planted on the prow of a gal- 
 savaee, Headed |gy^ ^j^^ fancifully shaped into the 
 Monstern. moutlis of savage monsters that seemed 
 
 to vomit a stream of liquid and consuming 
 fire." (Vol. v., p. 284.) 
 
 John's next statement must be, I think, descriptive 
 of these headed tubes: — 
 
 "For their tails were like unto serpents, and 
 had heads, and with them they do hurt." — Just 
 how these could have accompanied the cavalry, we do not 
 certainly know. It could hardly have been in so real a 
 sense as with the musketry; but they may have been 
 operated by the infantry or artillerymen following up the 
 cavalry, as "tails like unto serpents;" in which case the 
 description would seem most perfect. 
 
 "And the rest of the men that were not killed 
 by these plagues yet repented not." — These divine 
 judgments had entirely destroyed the Greek Empire; noth- 
 ing was left of the pride and power of the creed-making, 
 and creed enforcing, kingdom of the great Justinian, but 
 its idolatrous and adulterous history. A "third part of 
 men," rulers or rulerships, of the apostate "Holy Roman 
 Empire" had sunk into ignominious graves, notoriously 
 
404 DIVINR, KEY OF iTHE RSVEI^TION. '[1*ART X^li. 
 
 under the curse of Heaven; and yet there 
 Judgments ^^g j^q spirit of repentance on the part of 
 
 Followed by ^j^g Powcrs which remained in the West. 
 the intiaisiton, gpain, first to rally from the shock, under 
 Not Repentance. Ferdinand the Catholic, was first to estab- 
 lish the iniquitous Inquisition, to protect 
 Jezebel, uphold the creed, and destroy the Bible and the 
 saints; and under Phillip II., to organize the "Invincible 
 Armada, to dethrone Queen Elizabeth, and destroy Prot- 
 estantism in Europe. Austria, France, Germany, Italy, 
 and the lesser Catholic Powers continued to "suffer that 
 woman Jezebel to teach," and "to worship" her demons, — 
 spirits of the dead as "departed saints," — her "idols of gold, 
 silver, brass, stone and wood."* The worship of the 
 images of Christ on the cross, the Virgin Mary, and other 
 canonized "saints," is openly practiced in the Eoman 
 Church. Gibbon gives an account of an effort by the 
 Emperor Leo III., in the beginning of the 8th century, to 
 break up the shameful idolatry. He says that it was done 
 "under the mask of Christianity," and that the Greek 
 "heard with grief and impatience the name 
 Jew and pf idolaters — tlic incessant charge of the 
 
 Moslem Rebuke jgws and Mahometans, who derived from 
 Catholic ^]^g lo^^ r^j-^^ j-j^g Korau [even] an im- 
 
 imasre-worship. mortal hatred to graven images and all 
 relative worship." (Student's Gibbon, p. 
 429.) "The first assault of Leo against the images of 
 Constantinople had been witnessed by a crowd of strangers 
 from Italy and the West, who related with grief and 
 indignation the sacrilege [!] of the emperor." {lb., p. 430.) 
 "Amidst the triumph of the Catholic arms, the Eoman 
 pontiff convened a synod of 93 bishops against the heresy 
 [!] of the iconoclasts" — image-breakers. {lb., p. 432.) 
 
 * See pagan origin and practice of saint worship on pages 356, 357. 
 
CHAP. XXIX.] SIXTH TRUMPET — SECONt) WOE. 405 
 
 "Neither repented they of their murders/' — the 50 million 
 martyrs; "nor of their sorceries" — numerous false miracles 
 — such as causing "the blood of Christ" and the saints 
 (centuries dead) to appear to liquify, their images to bleed 
 or move their heads or eyes, and other tricks which I have 
 not space to recount; "nor of their fornication" — with 
 "the kings of the earth," as we have seen; "nor of their 
 thefts" — exacting money of the innocent and credulous 
 for the forgiveness of sins, and for indulgencies, etc. And 
 because there was no repentance, the French Revolution 
 came, and all its consequences, (as we have already seen 
 while studying the "two witnesses" of chapter xi.,) as the 
 end of the sixth trumpet, and of the second ivoc. 
 
 END OF THE THREE HUNDRED AND NINETY-ONE YEARS 
 OF OTTOMAN SUPREMACY IN THE GREEK EMPIRE. 
 
 We have now to consider the ending of the period 
 of 391 years and 15 days, said to measure the four angels' 
 power or permission to slay, as we have seen, the third 
 part of men. This period began definitely, as we found, 
 on the 37th day of July, 1449, where the 150 years' 
 period ended, and must, therefore, close as definitely; 
 namely,, (adding the period to the initial date,) on the nth 
 day of August, 1840. The four Moslem angels had been 
 restrained from independent action for 150 years; now 
 they are loosed for nearly four centuries. It is fair to 
 suppose, therefore, that the period covers their inde- 
 pendence as a power. Their independence began in 1449, 
 not by any special conquest of arms, but, as was shown 
 in the extract from Gibbon, by a voluntary surrender by 
 the Greek Empire, under stress of circumstances, of its 
 own independent action, in deference to tbe Moslems; for 
 they cravenly consulted the Turkish Sultan to settle a 
 question involving the Eastern throne, thus, we may say, 
 
406 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEI.ATION. [part VII. 
 
 officially acknowledging, at that date, the independence 
 of the Ottoman power. It would seem fair, therefore, to 
 expect that Ottoman independence would depart at the 
 close of their period, by a like voluntary surrender of in- 
 dependent action, under like stress of circumstances, and 
 general weakness. 
 
 What were the circumstances which led to the sur- 
 render of Ottoman independence in 1840? 
 
 In answering this question, I depend on the work of 
 Josiah Litch, Prophetic Expositions, vol. ii., pp. 193-199. 
 He was, or had been, a minister of standing in the Method- 
 ist Episcopal Church, and active in the Eainbow-Angel 
 message of the Advent at hand. He studied these trumpets, 
 and published an exposition advocating the prospective 
 fall of the Ottoman Empire, August 11, 
 Their End 1840, early in 1838, more than two years 
 
 In 1840 before tne expectation. And he says in 
 
 Precaicui.ate.1. j^jg j^ter Avork, published in 1842, (from 
 which I quote.) speaking of the extent of 
 the circulation of the former work, that "minds were ar- 
 rested and turned to the 11th of August; and vast multi- 
 tudes were ready to say, ay, did say, "If this event takes place 
 according to the calculation, at the time specified, we will 
 believe the doctrine of the Advent near;'" for he, with Wm. 
 Miller and others, were then also preaching the definite end- 
 ing of Daniel's periods m 1843. And the fact of the accurate 
 fulfillment of that calculation, as the event proved, gave 
 great weight with all parties, as well as with the leaders 
 themselves, to the other expectation, namely, that Jesus 
 would come, as determined by the other periods, in 1843; 
 and was, perhaps, the main factor in the development of the 
 "loud voice, as when a lion roareth," that characterized 
 that movement, and was sealed by the seventh thunder. 
 
CHAP. XXIX.] SIXTH TRUMPET — SECOND WOE. 407 
 
 Mr. Litch saw things clearly^ wrote as it were on the spot, 
 drew his material from original documents, and his in- 
 tegrity and the candor of his conclusions will not be ques- 
 tioned. Answering the question, 
 
 WHEN DID MOHAMMEDAN INDEPENDENCE IN CONSTAN- 
 TINOPLE DEPART ? 
 
 the author says: — 
 
 "In order to answer this question understandingly, it 
 will be necessary to review briefly the history of that power 
 for a few years past. 
 
 "For several years the Sultan has been embroiled in 
 war with Mehemet Ali, Pacha of Egypt. 
 Trouble jjj^ 1838, there was a threatening of war 
 
 Between tiie bctwccn the Sultau and his Egyptian vas- 
 snitan and gr^j^ Mchemct AH, in a note addressed to 
 Meiiemet Ali. ^j^g foreign cousuls, declared that in the 
 future he would pay no tribute to the 
 Porte, and that he considered himself independent sover- 
 eign of Egypt, Arabia, and Syria. The Sultan, naturally 
 incensed at this declaration, would have immediately com- 
 menced hostilities, had he not been restrained by the in- 
 fluence of the foreign ambassadors, and persuaded to delay. 
 This war, however, was finally averted by the announce- 
 ment of Mehemet Ali, that he was ready to pay a million 
 dollars, arrearages of tribute which he owed the Porte, 
 and an actual payment of $750,000, in August of that year. 
 
 "In 1839 hostilities again commenced, and were pros- 
 ecuted until, in a general battle between the armies of the 
 Sultan and Mehemet, the Sultan's army was entirely cut 
 up and destroyed, and his fleet taken by Mehemet, and 
 carried into Egypt. So completely had the Sultan's fleet 
 been reduced that, when hostilities commenced, in August, 
 he had only two first-rates and three frigates, as the sad 
 
408 DIVINE KEY OF" THE REVELATION, [part vll. 
 
 remains of the once powerful Turkish fleet. This fleet 
 Mehemet Ali positively refused to give up and return to 
 the Sultan, and declared, if the Powers attempted to take 
 it from him, he would burn it. 
 
 "In this posture affairs stood when, in 1840, England, 
 Russia, Austria, and Prussia interposed, and determined 
 on a settlement of the difficulty; for it was evident, if let 
 alone, Mehemet Ali would soon become master of the 
 Sultan's throne. 
 
 "The following extract from an official document, 
 which appeared in the Monitcur Ottoman, August 22, 1840, 
 will give an idea of the course of affairs at this juncture. 
 The conference spoken of was composed of the four Powers 
 above named, and was held in London, July 15, 1840: — 
 
 'Subsequent to the occurrence of the disputes alluded to, 
 and after the reverses experienced, as known 
 The Porte Sub- to all the world, the ambassadors of the great 
 mits to Foreign Powers at Constantinople, in a collective ofifi- 
 interveiition. cial note, declared that their governments 
 were unanimously agreed upon taking active 
 measures to arrange the said dififerences. The Sublime Porte, 
 with a view of putting a stop to the efifusion of Mussulman 
 blood, and to the various evils which would arise from a re- 
 newal of hostilities, accepted the intervention of the great 
 Powers.' 
 
 "Here M^as certainly a voluntary surrender of the 
 question into the hands of the great Powers. But the 
 document proceeds: — - 
 
 'His Excellency, Sheikh Efifendi, the Bey Likgis, was there- 
 fore despatched as plenipotentiary to represent 
 The Conference the Sublime Porte at the conference, which 
 Sat in London, took place in London, for the purpose in ques- 
 tion. It having been felt that all the zealous 
 labors of the conferences of London in the settlement of the 
 Pasha's pretentions were useless, and that the only public way 
 was to have recourse to coercive measures to reduce him to 
 
CHAP. XXIX.] SIXTH TRUMPET— SECOND WOE. 409 
 
 obedience in case he persisted in not listening to pacific over- 
 tures, the Powers have, together with the Ottoman plenipoten- 
 tiary, drawn up and signed a treaty, whereby the Sultan offers 
 the Pacha the hereditary government of Egypt, and all that 
 part of Syria extending from the gulf of Suez to the lake of 
 Tiberias, together with the province of Acre, for life; the 
 Pacha, on his part,, evacuating all other parts of the Sultan's 
 dominions now occupied by him, and returning the Ottoman 
 fleet. A certain space of time has been granted him to accede 
 to these terms; and, as the proposal of the Sultan and his 
 allies, the four Powers, do not admit of any change or qualifica- 
 tion, if the Pacha refuse to accede to them, it is evident that 
 the evil consequences to fall upon him will be attributed solely 
 to his own fault. 
 
 'His Excellency, Rifat Bey, Musleshar for foreign affairs, 
 has been despatched in a government steamer to Alexandria, 
 to communicate the ultimatum to the Pacha.' 
 
 "From these extracts it appears: — 
 "1. That the Sultan, conscious of his own weakness, 
 did vohintarily accept the intervention of 
 uitimatnm ^j^g great Christian Powers of Europe to 
 
 »' "•'^ settle his difficulties. 
 
 Four Powers. '^2. That the great Powers were 
 
 agreed on taking measures to settle the 
 difficulties. 
 
 "3. That the ultimatum of the London conference 
 left it with the Sultan to arrange the affair with Mehemet 
 Ali if he could. The Sultan was to offer him the terms 
 of settlement. So that, if Mehemet accepted the terms, 
 there would still be no actual intervention of the Powers 
 between the Sultan and Pacha. 
 
 "4. That, if Mehemet Ali rejected the Sultan's offer, 
 the ultimatum admitted of no change or qualification; the 
 great Poivers stood pledged to the coercion. So long, 
 therefore as the Sultan held the ultimatum in his own 
 hands, he still maintained the independence of his throne. 
 
4IO DIVINB KEY OF THE REVELATION. [PART Vli. 
 
 But that document once submitted to Mehemet, and it 
 would be beyond his reach to control the question. It 
 would be for Mehemet to say whether the Powers should 
 interpose or not. 
 
 "5. The Sultan did despatch Eifat Bey, in a govern- 
 ment steamer, (which left Constantinople August 5th,) to 
 Alexandria to communicate to Mehemet the ultimatum. 
 
 "This was a voluntary governmental act of the Sultan. 
 
 "The question, now comes up, When ivas that document 
 put officially under the control of Meheniet Alif 
 
 "The following extract of a letter from a correspond- 
 ent of the London Morning CJtronicle, of September 18, 
 1840, dated 'Constantinople, August 27, 1840,' answers 
 the question: — 
 
 'By the French steamer of the 24th, we have advices from 
 Egypt to the l6th. They show no aheration 
 uitiinntnm [j^ j-j^g resolution of the Pacha. Confiding in 
 
 Presented ^he valor of his Arab army, and in the strength 
 
 *•* ^**' of the fortifications which defend his capital, 
 
 he seems determined to abide by the last alter- 
 native; and as recourse to this therefore is now inevitable, all 
 hope may be considered at an end of a termination of the affair 
 without bloodshed. Immediately on the arrival of the Cyclop's 
 steamer with the news of the convention of the four Powers, 
 Mehemet Ali, it is stated, had quitted Alexandria, to make a 
 short tour through Lower Egypt. The object of his absenting 
 himself at such a moment being partly to avoid conferences 
 with the European consuls, but principally to endeavor, by his 
 own presence, to arouse the fanaticism of the Bedouin tribes, 
 and facilitate the raising of his new levies. During the interval 
 of his absence, the Turkish government steamer, which had 
 REACHED Alexandria on the iitii, with the envoy Rifat 
 Bey on board, had been by his orders placed in quarantine, 
 and she was not released from it till the i6th. Previous, how- 
 ever, to the Porte's leaving, and on the very day on which he 
 had been admitted to pratique, [permitted to communicate with 
 the shore,] the above named functionary had had an audience 
 
CHAP. XXIX.] SIXTH TRUMPET — SECOND WOE. 411 
 
 with the Pacha, and had communicated to him the command 
 of the Sultan, with respect to the evacuation of the Syrian 
 provinces, appointing another audience for the next day, when, 
 in the presence of the consuls of the European powers, he would 
 receive from him his definite answer, and inform him of the 
 alternative of his refusing to obey; giving him ten days which 
 have been allotted him by the convention to decide on the 
 course he should think fit to adopt.' 
 
 '^According to the foregoing statement, the ultimatum 
 was officially put into the poivcr of Mehcmct All, and zvas 
 disposed of by his orders, via., sent to quarantine, on the 
 11th day of august, 1840. 
 
 "But have we any evidence, besides the fact of the 
 arrival of Rifat Bey at Alexandria with the ultimatum on 
 the 11th day of August, that Ottoman supremacy died, or 
 was dead, that day? 
 
 "Read the following, from the same writer quoted 
 above, dated 'Constantinople, August 12, 1840: — 
 
 'I can add but little to my last letter on the subject of the 
 plans of the four Powers; and I believe the details I then gave 
 you comprise everything that is yet decided on. The portion 
 of the Pacha, as I then stated, is not to extend beyond the 
 line of Acre, and does not include either Arabia or Candia. 
 Egypt alone is to be hereditary in his family, and the province 
 of Acre to be considered as a pachalic, to be governed by his 
 son during his lifetime, but afterward to depend on the will 
 of the Porte; and even this latter is only to be granted him on 
 the condition of his accepting these terms, and delivering up 
 the Ottoman fleet within ten days. In the event of his not 
 doing so, this pachalic is to be cut off. Egypt is then to be 
 offered him, with another ten days to deliberate on it, before 
 actual force is employed against him. 
 
 'The manner, however, of applying the force, should he 
 refuse to comply with these terms — whether 
 Test of the ^ simple blockade is to be established on the 
 
 Sultan's coast, or whether his capital is to be bom- 
 
 Departed barded, and his armies attacked in the Syrian 
 
 Supremacy. provinces — is the point which still remains to 
 
 be learned; nor does a note delivered yester- 
 
412 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [parT VII. 
 
 day by the four ambassadors, in answer to the question put to 
 them by the Porte, as to the plan to be adopted in such an 
 event, throw the least light on this subject. It simply states 
 tliat provision has been made, and there is no necessity for the 
 Divan alarming himself about any contingency that might after- 
 wards arise.' 
 
 "Let us now analyze this testimony. 
 
 "1. The letter is dated 'Constantinople, August 12th.' 
 
 "2. 'Yesterday/ the nth of August, the Sultan ap- 
 plied, in his own capital, to the ambassadors of four 
 Christian nations, to know the measures which were to be 
 taken in reference to a circumstance vitally affecting his 
 empire, and was told that 'provision had been made,' but 
 he could not know what it was; and that he need give 
 himself no alarm 'about any contingency that might 
 AFTERWARD arise!!' From that time, then, they, not he, 
 "would manage that. ' ' ■ 
 
 "^^^lere was the Sultan's independence that day? 
 GONE !• Who now had the supremacy of the Ottoman 
 Empire in their hands ? The great Pozvers! 
 
 ''According to previous [prophetic] calculation, there- 
 for e,_ ottoman SUPREMACY did depart on the ELEVENTH 
 OF AUGUST, 1840> into the hands of the great Christian 
 Pozvers of Europe." 
 
 The case seems overwhelmingly established, but Mr. 
 Litch proceeds to give further contemporary testimony: — 
 
 "The following is from Eev. Mr. Goodell, missionary 
 of the American Board, at Constantinople, addressed to 
 the Board, and by them published in the Missionary 
 Herald, April, 1841, p. 160:— 
 
 'The power of Islamism is broken forever; and there is 
 no concealing the fact even from themselves. 
 
 Contemporary They exist now by mere sufiferance. And 
 
 Testimony. though there is a mighty effort made by the 
 
 Christian governments to sustain them, yet at 
 
 every step they sink lower and lower." — Proph. Expo., Vol. II., 
 
 p. 189. 
 
CHAP. XXIX.] SIXTH TRUMPET — SECOND WOE. 413 
 
 Mr. Litch continues: "But it is said the Turks yet 
 reign! So also says our witness — but it is by 'mere suffer- 
 ance' They are at the mercy of the Christian nations. 
 Their independence is gone." 
 
 He then introduces the following adverse testimony, 
 — so intended, — but which he refutes:- — 
 
 "Eev. Mr. Balch, of Providence, E. I., in an attack 
 on Mr. Miller for saying that the Ottoman Empire fell in 
 1840, says:— 
 
 'How can an honest man have the hardihood to stand up 
 
 before an intelligent audience and make such 
 
 Adverse Testi- an assertion; when the most authentic version 
 
 mony Refuted, of the change of the Ottoman Empire is that 
 
 it has not been on a better foundation in fifty 
 
 years, for it is now re-organized by the European kingdoms, 
 
 . and is honorably treated as such.' 
 
 "But how did it happen that Christian Europe re- 
 organised the government? AVhat need of it if it was not 
 disorganised? If Christian Europe has done this, then 
 it is now, to all intents and purposes. Christian Europe's 
 government, and is only ruled nominally by the Sultan 
 as their vassal. This testimony is the more valuable from 
 having come from an opponent. It is true, the Christian 
 governments of Europe have reorganized the Turkish Em- 
 pire, and it is their creature. Erom 1840 to the present 
 time, the Ottoman government has been under the dicta- 
 tion of the great Pozvcrs of Europe; and scarcely a measure 
 of that government has been adopted and carried out with- 
 out the interference and dictation of the Alliance; and 
 that dictation has been submitted to by the Turks. 
 
 "The London Morning Herald, after the capture of 
 St. Jean d'Acre, speaking of the state of things in the Otto- 
 man Empire, says: — 
 
 'We [the allies] have conquered St. Jean d'Acre. We have 
 dissipated into thin air the prestige that lately invested as with 
 
414 DIVINE KE;y of the REVEI.ATI0N. [part VII. 
 
 a halo the name of Mehemet Ali. We have in all probability 
 destroyed forever the power of that hitherto successful ruler. 
 But have we done ought to restore strength to the Ottoman 
 Empire? We fear not. We fear that the Sultan has been re- 
 duced to the rank of a mere puppet; and that the sources of the 
 Turkish Empire's strength are entirely destroyed. If the supre- 
 macy of the Sultan is hereafter to be maintained in Egypt, it 
 must be maintained, we fear, by the unceasing intervention of 
 England and Russia.' " 
 
 Eight years subsequent, (1848,) Mr. Litch wrote his 
 work, The Restitution, and, speaking of this same prophecy 
 of the sixth trumpet, wrote: — 
 
 "Since 1840, every act of the Turkish government has shown 
 that its power was gone, and that it was dependent upon the 
 Christian Powers of Europe for its existence. When, in 1843, 
 a renegade from Mohammedanism was put to death by order 
 of the government of Constantinople, it well nigh cost the gov- 
 ernment its existence, and would quite have done so, had not 
 the pledge been given England and Prussia that no more should 
 be put to death on that account. And so in every other case, 
 the Turkish government has submitted to Europe in every great 
 measure of government, ever since the eventful rjear of IS40. 
 We are therefore still bound to hold that prophecy accom- 
 plished." 
 
 Mr. Litch, in his clay, was right in that affirmation; 
 and from his day to our time, the same is equally true. 
 The Sultan of Turkey has been known as the ''sick man 
 of Europe" now for over half a century; and had he not 
 been bolstered up by England and other European Powers, 
 would ere this have entirely lost his hold in Europe. "The 
 Turks have now. ceased to be formidable. The empire 
 becomes weaker and weaker every day," says Goodrich, 
 "and may be regarded as tottering on its base." {Hist. 
 All Nations, vol. ii., p. 833.) And within the last forty 
 years large portions of their provincial territory have been 
 wrested from them by the Powers. Surely, then, in 1840, 
 the supremacy of Islamism was ended. 
 
CHAP. XXIX.] SIXTH TRUMPET — SECOND WOE. 415 
 
 And here, with the close of its last period, which 
 covers all the time that is measured to Moslemism as a 
 special judgment agency, I believe that the Turk drops 
 out of special jirophecy ; and that his collapsed and servile 
 empire remains to disturb only under the general predic- 
 tion of " distress of nations, with perplexity ' ' (Luke xxi. 
 25). What is brought out further of national disturb- 
 ance, under the following trumpet and last woe, comes 
 from the fret and anger of the other European Powers, at 
 the visible decay of Monarchism under the first proclama- 
 tion of the seventh trumpet, namely, " 77/<? kingdom of 
 this world is become our Lord' s and His ChrisV s.^'' What 
 I shall there say of the new power exercised in the world, 
 the new spirit infused into it in spite of mad monarchies, 
 the vivid and truthful picture of the citation which I shall 
 give from a writer in the New York Indepcjideyit^ etc., 
 seems to fit the mold, and fill out the prophetic outline, in 
 full. As to the expectation of many that Turkey must 
 yet come to a more marked, or utter end, with none to 
 "help him," (Dan. xi. 45,) I am confident that that 
 prophecy applied to the willful king of that chaj^ter, and 
 was exhausted with the "eighth-head" empire under the 
 Napoleons. Of this I will speak (D. V.) in connection 
 with chapter xvii. 
 
 This now completes the six trumpets of chapters viii. 
 and ix., and we will return to chapter xi. 15, where, in 
 following out the seals, we found the seventh trumpet in- 
 troduced, and whence we returned to bring up to that 
 point the first six. For it will be seen that chapters x. 
 and xi. 1-14 are equally related to the sixth trumpet and 
 the seventh seal, there being a lapping of that seal and 
 trumpet, as regards chronology. Those passages, there- 
 fore, having been traced under the seal, need not be re- 
 peated here, under the trumpet. 
 
CHAPTEE XXX. 
 
 VII. THE SEVENTH TRUMPET SOUNDED— THE 
 THIED WOE. 
 
 DIVINE JUDGMENT ON CATHOLIC NATIONS— 
 
 THEIR HIDDEN TALENTS OF DELEGATED 
 
 POWER REVERT TO GOD WHO, THROUGH 
 
 CHRIST, JUDGES, REFORMS, REIGNS. 
 
 RELIGIOUS TOLERATION THROUGHOUT CIVILIZATION, A 
 GLORIOUS FRUITAGE. 
 
 Text, Chapter xi. 15-19. 
 
 15. And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great 
 voices in heaven, saying, The kingdom of 
 Epoeii of the this world is become our Lord's and His 
 "Migriity Christ's; and He shall reign for ever and ever.* 
 
 Angel," tiie ^ i6. And the four and twenty elders, that 
 
 Advent Cry, g^t before God on their seats, fell upon their 
 1843 to tiie faces, and worshipped God. 
 
 End. 17 Saying, We give Thee thanks, O Lord 
 
 God Almighty, who art, and wast, and art to 
 come; because thou hast taken to Thee thy great power, and 
 hast reigned. - ^,j ' ■£! 
 
 18. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, 
 and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that 
 thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, 
 and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; 
 and shouldest destroy them that destroy the earth. 
 
 19. And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and 
 there was seen in His temple the ark of His testament: and 
 
 * This verse is thus rendered by the Emphatic Diaglott, Revision and all 
 critical versions. 
 
 416 
 
CHAP. XXX ] SEVENTH TRUMPET — THIRD WOE. 417 
 
 there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an 
 earthquake, and great hail. 
 
 WE now have reached the twenty-first and last of 
 the general serial prophecies of Eevelation. It 
 embraces the most interesting period among all 
 the others we have passed over, in the history of the Chnrch 
 in her militant state. Liberty of investigation and of 
 faith, free speech, and general enlightenment, and uni- 
 versal religions toleration among civilized nations, is the 
 glorious fniitage of the destruction of papal and Moslem 
 supremacy in the world. The Christian Church gives 
 Christ the glory, attributing her new-found privileges 
 to the exercise of His power. 
 
 "Great voices in heaven." — These represent, as 
 we have before seen, distinct and definite messages of joy 
 and hope in the Church of Christ — "heaven," the "king- 
 dom of heaven," as opposed to the kingdoms of the world. 
 But let it be particularly noticed that the greatness of the 
 voices manifestly represent the divine importance of the 
 messages being delivered, or of the proclamations being 
 made, and not the greatness of the Church, or of its rem- 
 nant, making the announcements. They come immediately 
 at the close of the Philadelphian period. The Church 
 is just realizing the power of love upon the world, in con- 
 trast with that exercised by the papacy, and the influence 
 that one brief age of "brotherly love" has had upon the 
 governments of earth, in so changing their policies as to 
 cause them to grant the unprecedented liberties they en- 
 joy. They acknowledge it to be the work of Christ, and 
 no more fear the pale horse or its rider. They are — 
 
 "Saying, The kingdom of this world is become 
 our Lord's and His Christ's." — When Jesus rose from 
 
4l8 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION, [part VII. 
 
 the dead, all power in heaven and in earth was given into 
 His hand. It was He, therefore, who delegated the great 
 power to the horses and their Eonian riders, as we have 
 seen, for 1,260 years; but those years have expired now, and 
 the beast Power has met its Judgment under the two pre- 
 ceding trumpets and woes, culminating in the French 
 Revolution, at the close of the period, a.d. 1789, and on- 
 ward. And now the power thus delegated for that specific 
 period, reverts to Clod and Christ, who sit in one throne 
 of grace and power. The Church, so long oppressed by 
 Rome, now rejoices to behold prophecy fulfilling, and the 
 power of God manifested in these judgments, and changed 
 conditions. The rejoicing is the voice of the Advent 
 angels or agencies in the world; and are the same as the 
 Ten Virgins that represented the "kingdom of heaven" 
 
 in the 25th chapter of Matthew, and were 
 Parallel Saying, Bchold the Bridegroom cometh; 
 
 Figures. ^j^g same class as the overcomers of the 
 
 Church of Sardis, who were clothed with 
 white raiment; and the chronology is the same as of the 
 Church of Laodicea, the "lukewarm" members of which 
 were exhorted to "buy themselves "white raiment," and 
 anoint their eyes with eyesalve that they might see what 
 was fulfilling about them, while the overcomers, who had 
 these preparations, were promised to sit zvith Christ in His 
 throne, even as He was Himself sitting in power and 
 authority with the Father. (On this, see pages 180-183.) 
 This joint-reign is all in relation to the power of con- 
 demnation or justification in connection with the message 
 intrusted to them for proclamation — the power to loose 
 from sin, or bind therein (see pages 51, 52); and is in time, 
 under the period of this trumpet, and not after the trumpet 
 influence is past, and the eternal age begun. It exactly 
 synchronizes in character with the rejoicing of the Church, 
 
CHAP. XXX.] SEVENTH TRUMPET — THIRD WOE. 419 
 
 and their new song of reigning on the earth with Christ, 
 at the opening of the little book (chapter v. 9, 10); and in 
 time with the song of chapter xix. 1-6, which came im- 
 mediately after the results of the judgments as delineated 
 in chapters xvii. and xviii. 
 
 " The twenty-four elders * * fell upon their 
 faces and worshipped God." — These twenty-four 
 elders (explained on page 191) were seen in chapter iv. 
 surrounding the great central throne on which God the 
 Almighty was sitting, holding the little book; and from 
 whose hand Christ, the Lamb, who was afterwards seen 
 in the midst of the throne and of the elders, took the 
 book. Thus the two personages of the Father and the 
 Son are everywhere recognized throughout the Eevelation 
 — a fact that should not be overlooked. The elders were 
 worshipping the Father, here, and in chapter iv. 8-11; 
 while in chapter v. 8-12 the worship is specifically that 
 of the Lamb; but in verses 13, 14 changing to both God 
 and the Lamb. Some will have it that Christ is the 
 Almighty of this book — a most manifest error: it comes 
 from failing to see that the terms "Alpha and Omega," 
 the "first and the last," are equally proper as applied both 
 to God, first in creation (Isa. xli. 4, xliv. 6, xlviii. 12; 
 Rev. i. 4, 8, xxi. 5, 6), and to Jesus, who is the "first-born 
 from the dead," and first in redemption (Rev. i. 5, 11, 
 17, 18; ii. 8; xxii. 12, 13). 
 
 " O Lord God Almighty, who art, and wast, 
 and art to come." — Evidently the Almighty Father, 
 uncreated, unbegotten, always and ever existing, is here 
 described. 
 
 "Because thou hast taken to thee thy great 
 power, and hast reigned."— The Almighty, John says, 
 has taken or retaken to Himself {Syriac, "assumed") the 
 
420 DIVINB KBY OF THE REVELATION. [paRT Vll. 
 
 great jjower which, through Christ, he had for 1,260 years 
 delegated to the beast, or death on the pale horse, to put 
 the saints to death, and to east the truth to the ground. 
 This giving of power for that work is made clear in Dan. 
 vii. 31-27; Rev. xiii. 5, 7. We have seen how at the close 
 of 1,260 years of dominion, Romanism was judged, and 
 its dominion over the saints taken away by means of the 
 French Revolution. God reigned over the nations of the 
 earth in a new sense in that dreadful judgment, and also 
 through the period of the sixth trumpet. There was a 
 taking to Himself great power such as He had not been 
 exercising for centuries before, and the Church rejoiced, 
 and shouted, as is said in chapter xix. 6, 7 — just following 
 the detailed account of the judgments of chapters xvii. 
 and xviii. — "Alleluia ; for the Lord God omnipotent 
 REiGNETH . . rejoicc, and give honor to Him; for the 
 marriage of the Lamb is come." 
 
 "And the nations were angry, and thy wrath 
 is come." — That is, the third "woe" is come upon the 
 angry nations. Under the sixth trumpet, the wrath of 
 God upon the papacy had completed itself for a brief 
 space in the French Revolution; and as that woe closed 
 (xi. 14), it was said, the third woe corncth quickly: the sec- 
 ond woe had followed the first without a single year's 
 respite; but now, the third and last "cometh" after a 
 comparatively brief intervening space called "quickly." 
 The great anger of the nations, which called soon for the 
 wrath of this last trumpet and woe, is seen in the work 
 of the so-called Holy Alliance of 1815 and onward. All 
 the Powers of Europe, great and small, from England 
 and Russia to Denmark and Switzerland, except the Pope 
 and the Porte, had joined in an im\\o\y alliance for the 
 maintenance of the old monarchial systems, and despot- 
 isms, which the dark ages had made darker and more 
 
CHAP. XXX.] SBVBNTH TRUMPET — THIRD WOS. 421 
 
 despotic, and from which the great Eevolution — God's 
 judgment — had called loudly for a halt. 
 
 Concerning the national commotion and anger, the 
 spirit of the Alliance and of those times, the historian 
 J. S. C. Abbott, speaking of ISTapoleon's work in Italy, 
 (1809 to 1815) writes:— 
 
 "All Europe was divided into two parties, deadly hostile 
 
 to each other — the friends of the liberal prin- 
 Abbott on the ciples which the French Revolution had in- 
 Ansry Xations. troduced. and the friends of the old regimes. 
 
 All of the one party followed the lead of 
 France, for with France they stood or fell. All of the other party 
 obeyed the call of England, Austria, Russia, and Prussia, for 
 it was only by the combined energies of all these courts, that 
 the people of Europe, every where clamoring for popular rights, 
 could be prevented from overthrowing the aristocratic govern- 
 ments. 
 
 "Joseph Bonaparte, at a sweep, had annulled all the feudal 
 
 laws of Naples, and all the corrupt tribunals 
 Canse of connected with them. Joachim Murat, follow- 
 
 Aneer. jng in his footsteps, and guided by the equable 
 
 principles of the Code Napoleon, which code 
 is still the admiration of enlightened jurisprudence, established 
 impartial tribunals of justice, in which the people had a fair 
 representation; equalized all taxes; opened every post of emolu- 
 ment or honor alike to the competition of the rich and the 
 poor, the high-born and the lowly-born; suppressed the con- 
 vents which had become nurseries of fanaticism, idleness and 
 licentiousness; established institutions of popular education; en- 
 dowed colleges in every province, and a university at Naples, 
 with the highest course of classical, mathematical, and philo- 
 sophical studies; and devoted especial attention to the establish- 
 ment in every province of seminaries for the education of 
 females. 'France,' said Napoleon, 'needs nothing so much as 
 good mothers.' This sentiment he enjoined upon all govern- 
 ments over which he could exert an influence." — Hist. Italy, 
 P- 534- 
 
42 2 DIVINB KSY OF THE REVEI.ATION. [PART VII. 
 
 Again, Mr. Abbott wrote of the nations' anger, which 
 so soon called for another earthquake, in the wrath of 
 God:— 
 
 "The great object of the Congress of Vienna, upon the 
 downfall of Napoleon, in 1815, was so to dis- 
 Brewing member and reconstruct Europe as to hold 
 
 Aiierer. its peoples in entire subjection to the feudal 
 
 kings. Italy was, therefore, by the allies, cut 
 up into fragments, and so parcelled out as to render any rising 
 of the people in favor of popular rights almost impossible." 
 (Hist. Italy, p. 590.) "For ten years," he continues (after the 
 organization of the Carbonari Society in 1820) "the volcanic 
 fires were gathering for a new erruption. The overthrow of 
 Charles X., and the enthronement of Louis Philippe, [1830,] 
 aroused the popular party all over Europe," etc. 
 
 Napoleon's influence was felt to every part of the 
 earth, and yet, notwithstanding the glorious change he 
 wrought, the deadliest opposition came from every quarter 
 of the old adulterous Church-State system, which knciv 
 not God and believed not His Word, and saw only Napo- 
 leon as their foe. But the 'Hiving creature'' had "eyes" 
 that could see, and so the last thing under the sixth seal 
 was "a loud voice, saying. Salvation to our God zvho sittcth 
 upon the throne, and unto the Lamb" (ch. vii. 10); and the 
 last thing under the sixth trumpet was the "remnant" 
 also giving "glory to the God of heaven' (eh. xi. 13). Some 
 one may candidly suggest here, "But Napoleon and the 
 Revolutionists were infidel, and neither did they know 
 God, nor believe' His AVord." Can anything good come 
 from such a source? No, not from such a source; but 
 from God through it, tlie same as God raised up Pharaoh, 
 that he "might shew (His) power" in him, and that His 
 "name might be declared throughout all the earth" (Ro. 
 ix. 17). God could not well institute these necessary re- 
 
CHAP. XXX.] SEVENTH TRUMPET— THIRD WOE. ^2^ 
 
 fonns as a means to dispell the medieval 
 Why judB-ment dai'kness, and enlighten and liberate the 
 cameThrougu chupch, through Jezebel or "her chil- 
 lufidei Men. dren;" (who were zvorse than infidel, be- 
 cause they were adding hypocricy to unbe- 
 lief;) for they held a position before all the world as "The 
 Church! Orthodox and Evangelical!" and as such would 
 have taken all the glory to "the Church." Or had God 
 chosen as his instrument the remnant of the period, those 
 who "have the testimony of Jesus," (the ten virgins,) they 
 were so small, for so great a work, that the result would 
 have appeared immediately as an astounding miracle, and 
 would have enabled them that saw it to walk by sight and 
 not by faith, and Avould thus have thwarted the purpose 
 of God. So it was the infidel Eepublic which destroyed 
 the Bible, and the infidel, or IMohametan, Napoleon who 
 blasphemed God, yet brought His judgments upon Jezebel, 
 and opened and suppressed 3,400 convents and monaster- 
 ies — "nurseries of fanaticism, idleness and licentiousness" 
 — in France alone; in Italy 9,817 of them, setting the idle 
 fanatics to work— digging both for spiritual and for na- 
 tural food. For not only were schools established, but, as 
 Mr. Abbott continues, — 
 
 "Agricultural societies were formed in every province; 
 
 charitable institutions founded; a national in- 
 Creditable, i£ stitute was established, and a general board of 
 Infidel, Reform, directors of public works was organized, 
 
 under whose vigorous superintendence the 
 most important improvements were prosecuted all over the 
 kingdom. The state revenues were augmented, the public 
 credit completely established, and the enormous national debt 
 so far liquidated as to amount, at the fall of Napoleon, to but 
 six hundred thousand dollars." — lb. 
 
 And speaking of the improved condition of the papal 
 states, after these judgments upon the pope, he says: — 
 
424 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEI.ATION. [parT VII. 
 
 "The people of the papal states were so intensely hostile to 
 the ecclessiastical government under which they had groaned, 
 that this change was hailed with general and cordial satisfaction. 
 There is undisputed testimony that the papal states had never 
 before been so prosperous and so happy." — lb., p. 335. 
 
 But multiplying republics and advancing peoples were 
 dangerous neighbors of monarehial and despotic govern- 
 ments; and the "nations were angry," for Napoleon and his 
 plans were their constant terror. Four republics had been 
 established in Italy, and — 
 
 "All Europe was alarmed, for all Europe was in danger of 
 
 being revolutionized step by step. Naples was 
 Monarcbies almost frantic with rage in seeing the prin- 
 
 tiie More Mad. ciples of the French Revolution advance thus, 
 
 even to her very doors. Austria and Spain 
 were roused vehemently. And the applause with which the 
 English people greeted these republics, and their clamor for 
 parliamentary reform, so thoroughly alarmed the English 
 government that they adopted the secret resolve that, at every 
 hazard, the Republic must be put down in France, and the 
 Bourbons restored to their despotic throne. For it was mani- 
 fest to the least discerning, that these increasing and growing 
 republics were but the fruit which the French Revolution was 
 bearing." — lb., p. 516.* 
 
 "In the winter of 1812, the proudest army France has ever 
 
 raised perished among the snows of Russia. 
 Aroused It was the signal for all the old monarchies 
 
 Angler. of Europe again to combine to destroy 
 
 Napoleon, the disturber of their thrones. He 
 struggled against them with a heroism which has excited the 
 wonder of the world. One million two hundred thousand 
 bayonets advanced upon exhausted France, and Napoleon fell; 
 and with him fell, of course, all those liberal governments his 
 genius had created, and his arm had upheld. . . . The execrable 
 despotism of the Bourbons was reestablished over the sub- 
 jugated French people. . . . Earth has witnessed many crimes, 
 but never one on a more gigantic scale than this. 
 
 "Italy encountered the same doom as France. Her con- 
 stitutions were trampled in the dust, her liberal governments 
 
CHAP. XXX.] SEVENTH TRUMPET — THIRD WOE. 425 
 
 indignantly demolished, and the old worn-out regimes of priestly- 
 fanaticism and aristocratic tyranny unrelentingly reestablished. 
 The triumphant allies met in congress at Vienna (1815) to 
 divide the spoil, and to map out Europe anew, in such a way, 
 that the people should be effectually prevented from any farther 
 attempts to establish free governments." — lb-, p. 537. 
 
 "The revolution in France in 1830, by which the elder 
 branch of the house of Bourbon was driven from the throne, 
 and the scepter placed in the hands of Louis Philippe, con- 
 vulsed Italy from the Alps to the extremities of Calabria" (lb., 
 p. 549) ; and "aroused the popular party all over Europe" 
 (P- 591)- 
 
 I have given these extended extracts — a tithing out 
 of the mass, had I space for more — to show, as they do 
 conclusively, what the text demands, an international 
 anger, definite, fixed, and recognizable, not general, un- 
 certain and doubtful, during the short space of time called 
 "quickly," between the French Eevolution, which ended 
 the second woe, and the coming of the third woe. The 
 seventh trumpet must introduce it, but seems to be held 
 back for a little time, as if for a last "space to repent," or 
 else, if they chose, to develop their obstinate anger. And 
 then, at its sounding, the Lord's zvrath is come. Now, 
 this trumpet was still future, we saw, under the seventh 
 seal, when the "mighty" rainbow angel was making his 
 positive proclamation, in 1840, "that there should be time 
 no longer;" but in the days of the voice of the seventh 
 angel, when he should begin to sound, the mystery of God 
 should be finished; i. e., the matter so long sealed up 
 from human penetration,' should then be accessible to the 
 understanding of the Church. The historic, world-wide 
 proclamation of the advent, that it would 
 The Date, Q^cur in 1843, which fulfills the symbolic 
 
 Rigrht; TUe proclamation of the rainbow angel, (which 
 Kvent, AVrongr. ggg^ j^^^j f^j. j^g jj^sis this Very expecta- 
 tion, that the seventh trumpet would then 
 
426 DIVINB KEY OF THE) REVELATION. [pART VII, 
 
 sound, at the expiration of the 2,300 days of Daniel viii. 
 14. Let the reader refresh his memory of their position 
 as stated in the language of Josiah Litch, page 279. The 
 exactness of the fulfillment is, indeed, very striking. The 
 ending of that period in 1843 is demonstratable: it was 
 clearly demonstrated in the exposition of Daniel viii. and 
 ix., by those pioneer writers of this sealing age; — nnsealing 
 of the book of prophecy, but the sealing of the servants 
 of God in the forehead — intellectually — as regards proph- 
 ecy; (see sealing under the sixth seal;) and their position on 
 that period and date never has been, nor can be, success- 
 fully controverted. But they mistook the cleansing of the 
 sanctuary for the coining of Christ and the cleansing of 
 the earth of sin and its effects, and fitting up the earth for 
 the inheritance and home of the saints. This was the 
 mistake that caused for them the "tarrying" of the Bride- 
 groom, as the parable of our Lord, prophetically fitted to 
 their history, required; and called for the instruction to 
 the rainbow angel, as we have seen, that he must prophesy 
 again. If, then, that "mighty" angel was not mistaken 
 in regard to the ending of the period, and the sounding 
 of the seventh trumpet in 1843, what should have been 
 expected to end the period, and answer the trumpet at the 
 beginning of its sound {i. e., had there been no "hour of 
 trial," and no test for wise and foolish virgins to enter 
 the programme)? This is an important question: let us 
 consider it in the clear light of the requirement of this 
 prophecy in connection with Daniel's predictions; and in 
 order best to do so, let every reader not familiar with his 
 seventh and eighth chapters, read them just here, and we 
 will also advance a step in the text: — 
 
 "And the time of the dead, that they should 
 be judged, and that thou shouldst give reward 
 unto * * prophets and saints." — The reference 
 
CHAP. XXX.] SEVENTH TRUMPET — THIRD WOE. 427 
 
 here evidently is to the dead represented by the rider of 
 the pale horse, and the souls under the altar, etc., and to 
 the expired time of the "quickly" which intervened, as 
 we found, between the second and third woes. We have 
 also found a relationship, as we came on, between this 
 quickly and the revolution which, as a judgment, closed 
 the 1,260 years of Daniel vii. 25, 26, and also the second 
 woe. For the seventh trumpet must bring the third woe. 
 We may, therefore, consider the answer to the above ques- 
 tion under these heads: — 
 
 I. The true cleansing of the sanctuary. 
 
 II. The beast's lost power and its reversion to the 
 original giver — its visible assumption by the Almighty; 
 and 
 
 III. The time for judging the world-powers (as such), 
 and avenging the crying souls beneath the Sardian altar. 
 
 All this, it must be remembered, is to be accomplished 
 under this trumpet, in time, not after the Advent. Even 
 Dr. Patton, Editor of the Cottage Testament Notes, says: — 
 
 "We agree with Lowman and Fuller that the judgment 
 here spoken of (ver. 18) is not the Jast judgment, or 'the con- 
 summation of all things;' but 'manifestly refers to the avenging 
 of the martyrs by the judgments to be inflicted on the papal 
 power under the seven vials, antecedent to the millenium:'"* 
 
 I. The sanctuary is not the earth, but the Church. 
 God's literal dwelling is in Heaven, not 
 The Mistake ^j^ |-]^g earth. But Moses' tabernacle and 
 Explained. Solomon's temple were by God's arrange- 
 
 ment made for a typical and spiritual 
 dwelling place for God; and were, for that reason, carefully 
 
 * That is, antecedent to the coming of the Lord. I can find no future mil- 
 lennium taught in Revelation, nor mentioned by Jesus nor any Apostle, nor in 
 the Prophets. A right view of the present reign of Jesus will, I believe, correct 
 that misjudgment, and put the true light on Revelation xx. I hope soon to ex- 
 amine that subject in another volume. 
 
428 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEIyATlON. [PART VII. 
 
 modeled after heavenly "patterns." They were typical of 
 the Gospel Church, which is an "holy temple" in which 
 God and Christ, by the Holy Spirit, dwell (see 1 Cor. iii. 
 15, 16; Eph. ii. 19-23, etc.). This temple was polluted 
 by the "man of sin," (Dan. viii. 10-12; xi. 31; 2 Thes. ii. 
 3, 4,) who cast the trutJi to the ground, and destroyed the 
 saints. This temple must be cleansed from his polluting 
 presence and power, so that universal liberty of conscience 
 shall obtain in faith and in religious worship. 
 
 II. The seventh trumpet is decidedly a proclamation 
 
 trumpet. Its "great voices," the prostra- 
 The Trumpet ^jqj^ ^f ^|^g eldcrs and their song of thanks- 
 Beionss to giving, represent the grateful recognition 
 
 '^^™^' and distinct and positive proclamation by 
 
 the Church of the wonderful, new, 
 changed condition of affairs in the world by the loss of 
 beast power, — Nicolaitan, Jesuitical, papal, monarchial, — 
 and its assumed, extended and beneficient exercise by God. 
 The joyous proclamation is the first thing under the 
 sounded trumpet; therefore the great achievements which 
 were being celebrated by the symbolic elders, must have 
 preceded the sounding, and belong to time. The extracts 
 from history which have been cited, and which might have 
 been multiplied and extended, show exactly what the 
 symbols demand as to national, political, and ecclesiastical 
 conditions in the world, between the period of the French 
 Revolution, which ended the second woe, and 1843, when 
 the great proclamation of the fall of Babylon under the 
 judgment of God, and the joy of the Church at the out- 
 stretched scepter of the Almighty, reached the ear of the 
 world. 
 
 III. The symbolico-prophetic judgments upon, the 
 great harlot or jjapal system., and the connected avenging 
 
CHAP. XXX.] SEVENTH TRUMPET — THIRD WOE. 429 
 
 A System rewai'ds of the saints, as a class, so long 
 
 Judged, a Class crushed under the iron heel of Eome, are 
 Rewarded. g|;jj^ ygj-y commonly mistaken (as by the 
 
 rainbow agency) for final or eternal in- 
 dividual punishments and rewards. On the contrary, 
 they belong wholly to present judgments and vindications: 
 they are retributive, or avengeful, respectively, as regards 
 the papal system and the Church; but corrective, or an 
 earnest of final reward, respectively, as regards the in- 
 dividuals composing the Catholic system and the true 
 Church. 
 
 "And shouldst destroy them that destroy 
 the earth." — These destroyers were the riders of the Ro- 
 man horses which John saw taking "peace from the 
 earth," i. e., the Powers that succeeded those visible sym- 
 bols which characterized the earlier periods of Church his- 
 tory. Destroy them, as they had destroyed others, in usurp- 
 ing their dominion. In Daniel's visions he was shown the 
 delegation of power to the beast-kingdoms of the world; 
 that they used it against the Church, warring upon the 
 saints, and casting the truth to the ground; that the war 
 would continue 1,860 years; and that then the judgment 
 should sit, and they should take away the dominion of 
 the beast-power, to consume and destroy IT (the power, 
 not yet the personnel of the beast) "to the endf and dur- 
 ing which "time of the end" the saints of the most High 
 should take the recovered kingdom, and possess it them- 
 selves forever, or for the age. Abundance of history has 
 been cited, during the course of these comments, to verify 
 and completely counterpart every specification in those 
 predictions. The hateful dominion of popery is consumed 
 and destroyed throughout the world; and universal re- 
 ligious toleration prevails. The saints, with a free and 
 open Bible, as effectually possess the kingdom of the world 
 
430 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [PART VII. 
 
 to-day, as the papacy did during the Dark Ages. The 
 Almighty reigns, and blessings in copious showers des- 
 cend upon the waiting Church and an ungrateful world, 
 such as the saints of papal days never could have dreamed 
 of without the clearest views of prophecy. 
 
 "And the temple of God was opened in 
 heaven, and there was seen in His temple the ark 
 of His testament." — "Heaven," reducing the symbol, 
 is "the kingdom of heaven" that Jesus said "is not of the 
 world." And the temple which was opened, is the Church 
 which was closed; for "the light of the world" was shut in, 
 so that no light shone out during the dark ages of popery. 
 The man of sin had been exalting himself, darkening 
 counsel with words and creeds, so that the "Scriptures 
 died out of the world's memory;" but now it is open, and 
 the "ark of the covenant is seen." 
 
 A condition of things like this had obtained in the 
 days of literal Israel. In the fifty-seven 
 Tbe sanctnary yg^^j-g ^f ^-j^g rcigus of Manuasseh and of 
 Cleansed, Amou, kiugs of Judah, they "did evil in 
 
 in Type. ^]^g ^sight of the Lord, after the abomina- 
 
 tions of the heathen," and "reared up 
 altars for Baal, and made a grove, as did Ahab king of 
 Israel; and worshipped all the hosts of heaven, and served 
 them," until Judgment was decreed upon them, "that who- 
 soever heareth of it," said God, "both his ears shall tingle." 
 (2 Kings xxi.) In this case, also, the Word of God was 
 lost sight of entirely. But Josiali instituted reforms, 
 when he came to the throne. "He did that which was 
 right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of 
 David his father." In repairing the temple, they found 
 the long neglected and lost book of the law, and read it 
 in the presence of king Josiah. And when the king 
 realized the departure of Israel from the words of the 
 
CHAP. XXX. J SEVENTH TRUMPET— THIRD WOK 43 I 
 
 book of the law of God, he rent his garments and wept 
 before the Lord. And he gathered unto him all the 
 elders of the kingdom, and the prophets and priests and 
 people, great and small, and he went into the temple and 
 read in the ears of all the people all the words of the book 
 of the covenant which was found in the house of the Lord. 
 And they cleansed the temple, and thoroughly reformed 
 the worship of Israel. 
 
 In the ark which is discovered here — the reference 
 being to that which Moses made — were the "tables of 
 testimony," the golden pot of manna, and Aaron's rod 
 which budded, all which were figures of Christ as law- 
 Giver and life-Giver. The book of the law also was kept 
 in the "side &f the ark/' and the glory of God, also a 
 type of Christ, was manifested between the two cherubim 
 upon the golden lid: the cherub Avhich typified the Jewish 
 dispensation, was looking forivard to the glory of the 
 Messiah; and the other cherub, which represented the 
 Gentile times, was looking backzvard to the same point of 
 glory. Christ between was and is the only true Mediator. 
 The papacy, in closing up the house of God from the 
 ]ieople, had made the pope and his })riests mediators; and 
 in the place of the Word of God, they put the traditions 
 of men, and the cajion lazv of priests and councils for the 
 guidance, or rather the control, of the Church. But now 
 the masks are torn off: a new spirit rules 
 Cleansed now |]^g world; the temple is open and ac- 
 in Antitype. ccssible to all — to the peasant, the com- 
 mon people, priests and popes alike; the 
 ark of the covenant is seen — the visible glory and reign of 
 Christ throughout civilization eclipses the medieval splen- 
 dor of the antichrist, reveals the tinselry of his unright- 
 eous robes, and dissipates the darkness that alone made 
 possible his power among men. 
 
432 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION, [part. VII. 
 
 The direct description of the events of this trumpet 
 closes here with — 
 
 "Lightnings, voices, thunderings, an earth- 
 quake and great hail." — The temple being now opened, 
 and the truth freed for common investigation, (1) division 
 naturally resulted, through contention for and against it, 
 among the people; (2) an upheaval, or revolution, in the 
 empire; and (3) great truths rained down with cutting 
 eflPects upon the shattered remains of the old regime. A 
 writer in the New York Independent, in 1871 or 1872, drew 
 the following vivid picture: — 
 
 "The great Powers assembled themselves together, more 
 than fifty years ago, in the name of the 'Holy 
 Real Object and Undivided Trinity,' to secure the perma- 
 and Failure neut estaMisJiment of such prerogatives of 
 o' ***«' despotism as had survived the earthquake of 
 
 Holy Alliance, the French Revolution, and the fiery whirl- 
 wind of the Napoleonic wars that came after 
 it. They did their work well, being wise in their generation; 
 and it endured for a good while. But, though they could im- 
 pose their will upon the kingdoms of the earth into which men 
 were divided, their power ceased at the frontier of the kingdom 
 within men's breasts, from which all external principles and 
 powers proceed in the last analysis. They could not silence 
 the still small voice which, issuing from the recesses of that 
 kingdom, was heard prophesying the downfall of the Great 
 Babylon which they thotiglit they were building to endure for- 
 ever. [And thought, perhaps, correctly enough, but for the 
 oncoming woe!] And in due time decrees went forth from that 
 kingdom within overturning dynasties, changing the outward 
 face of Europe, annulling treaties, repealing laws, and making 
 a very different icorld from that which had been ordained in 
 1815. And the signs of the times are still threatening in their 
 
 aspect, 
 
 — ' with fear of change 
 Perplexing monarchs.' " 
 
 Why this wonderful change? Were men, of them- 
 selves, grown better? No, indeed; but there was an 
 
CHAP. XXX.] SEVENTH TRUMPET— THIRD WOE. 433 
 
 almighty and all-beneficial Killer upon the throne which 
 the Seer of Patmos saw; and the "due time" mentioned 
 in this forecast was after this seventh trumpet sounded. 
 
 It has been said that the revolutionaiy spirit of 1848 
 shook every throne in Europe. The English author of a 
 French history says: — 
 
 "The echo of the French Revohition of 1848 made itself 
 heard, as usual, throughout continental Europe. 
 A Symbolic The revolt of the Hungarians, headed by 
 
 Eartiiauake. Louis Kossuth, became extremely formidable: 
 . . . the emperor fled from Vienna to Ins- 
 briick, and terror and anarchy reigned throughout the empire. 
 .... Intense agitation was likewise excited at Rome, where 
 the reigning pontiff, Pius IX., had for some years shown him- 
 self disposed to grant considerable reforms, [under the mighty 
 stress of new conditions which he could not control!] and had 
 appointed a libeial and constitutional government. A violent 
 tumult was raised by the Democrats in November (1848), and 
 the prime minister, Count Rossi, was brutally assassinated on 
 his way to the opening of the legislative chamber. The palace 
 of the Quirinal was next besieged by the armed populace, and 
 fresh concessions were forcibly extorted from the pope. Find- 
 ing he was no longer an independent sovereign, Pius quitted 
 Rome secretly and in disguise, on the 24th of November, and 
 took refuge in Gaeta, in the Neapolitan territory. A revolu- 
 tionary government was forthwith established at Rome, which 
 decreed the deposition of the pope, and proclaimed a Republic. 
 Events of the same kind took place at Florence in February, 
 1849; the grand-duke fled from his capital, and embarked for 
 Gaeta; and a provisional executive was immediately installed." 
 — Student's France, p. 700. 
 
 This revolution was little less worthy of the symbolic 
 name earthquake, than its great predecessor, imder the 
 sixth seal and trumpet. It was not called a great earth- 
 quake, as was that: it was less violent, shocking and bloody; 
 but it was much more extensive in immediate or directly 
 out-reaching effects. Another .writer says: — 
 
434 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [PART vii. 
 
 "In 1848, the French Revolution spread the spirit of revolt 
 into Germany, causing many of the sovereigns to grant char- 
 ters to their people, or to fly before the popular insurrection. 
 The Germanic Confederation was [for a time] broken up." — 
 Savage, TJie World, Geograph., Histor., and Statis., p. 3^8. 
 
 Not France only, but all surrounding peoples seemed 
 mad with their governments or governors, stirred by the 
 influences of the voice of the seventh trumpet ago .nst the 
 "inhabiters of the earth/' (rulers,) who were thus writhing 
 under its "woe." Speaking of Austria, the same writer 
 says: — 
 
 "In April (1848), the emperor (of Austria) and his ministers 
 promulgated a constitution. The turbulence of faction increased, 
 and the country became a scene of anarchy and disorganiza- 
 tion, nation fighting against nation, and race against race. 
 Cities were burnt and pillaged, and ultimately the emperor 
 was obliged to fly from the capital and take refuge in his 
 Sclavonic dominions. Finding himself powerless, and unable 
 longer to cope with the disturbed state of matters, he finally 
 abdicated his throne in favor of his nephew, Joseph Francis, on 
 the 2d of December." — lb., p. 340. 
 
 Continuing the quotations, Mr. Savage speaks of the 
 revolution in other countries as follows: — 
 
 "In i848-'49, the Magyars declared Hungary to be separated 
 from the crown of Austria, and a sanguinary civil war ensued, 
 which was terminated by the intervention of Russia with an 
 army of 200,000 men." (lb., p. 344.) "Frederick William IV. 
 ascended the throne of Prussia -n 1840. An extensive revolu- 
 tion was begun in 1847, and serious conflicts occurred between 
 the people and the soldiers, which were suspended by the king 
 yielding a liberal constitution. (lb., p. 349.) In Denmark, 
 "Holstein and Schleswig revolted, and a bloody war ensued." 
 (JK p. 352.) 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 What lurther need be said? Surely, this extensive 
 political earthquake was worthy of its place in prophecy. 
 The "might/' rainbow angel appeared in 1840, declaring 
 the seventh trumpet would sound in 1843. Immediately, 
 the world was filled with the controversy of the '' voices " 
 concerning the fall of Babylon, and the righteous reign of 
 God in His judgments upon Jezebel and Rome, and this 
 second earthquake of 1848. Could any imagined arrange- 
 ment of the events of history better suit the demands of 
 the prophecy, in all its details, from the first revolution of 
 1789 to that of 1848, than that which has now been set 
 before the reader? 
 
 Yet many people suppose that these prophecies are 
 
 not sufficiently exhausted for an expeeta- 
 A Popular ^^^^ ^f ^^ie comiug of the Lord, until the 
 
 Misconception, ^ery personnel of Eome shall be destroyed, 
 
 and of the Turk also, or, at least, that he 
 be "driven out of Europe." They say, "Romanism and 
 Islamism live and flourish still." Not so: they live and 
 languish, exactly as the "plagues" and judgments require. 
 For the physical destruction of neither of those Powers is 
 anywhere made a subject of symbol or a sign of the Ad- 
 vent. Final, eternal judgment and punishment is no- 
 Avhere in the Word of God left to figure, symbol, parable, 
 or allegory, but set in plain, positive language. — "Dust 
 thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."* "The soul 
 
 * Gen. iii. 19. 
 
 435 
 
436 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVEI«ATION. [part vil. 
 
 that sinueth, it shall die."^ "Shall utterly perish in their 
 own corruption."- "To whom is reserved the blaclcness 
 of darkness forever."^ "The end of those things is 
 death."* "The wages of sin is death;"^ but the gift of 
 God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."^ It 
 is not the being or vital existence of either Eome, the pap- 
 acy or Eomanism, nor the Porte or Islamism, but their 
 supremacy as Powers, that is the subject and burden of 
 these prophecies. Eomanism may no more tread under 
 foot the saints, with iron heel; but, according to the spirit 
 and light of the new age, she and "her children" may as 
 freely propagate her exposed and putrid traditions and 
 creeds, if she will, as may the true heralds of the cross 
 and of the coming One hold forth the Word of Life. The 
 periods also of predicted Moslem "woes" — of prophetic 
 "torment," and of killing symbolic "men" — are expired, 
 clearly so. These are the signs of JESUS' COMING. 
 What will be the residts of that coming? We read in a 
 literal account: "Whom the Lord shall consume [as we 
 have seen] with the spirit of His mouth, [His Word, as 
 we have been showing] and shall DESTEOY with 
 
 THE BRIGHTNESS OF HIS COMING" (2 Thcs. ii. 8). 
 
 The depletion of those prophetic Powers, and the 
 destruction of their supremacy, surely stand out in bold 
 relief in this, our Lord's, great prophetico-historic paint- 
 ing. Can we, then, avoid the conviction that the series 
 of Trumpets, like those of the Churches and Seals, has 
 already a clear- fulfillment, in all its herein described 
 features, portrayed on the pages of the world's volume of 
 authentic history? Ah, here it stands, calmly waiting 
 the last jots and tittles to be filled in, wooing attention, 
 and commanding faith for readiness when the last shall 
 come ! 
 
 » Eze xviii. 4, 20. 2 2 Pet. u 12. ^ Jude 13. ■• '■> Ro. vi. 22. 23. ^VVho is "the 
 Resurrection and the Life. " (John xi. 25). 
 
CHAP. XXX.] CONCLUSION. 437 
 
 Thus the three great septenaro-prophetic series, now- 
 passed over, end alike, in that neither 
 Last Things. niinutelj describes the very last events, 
 as zee might expect them to do. Faith, 
 and zvatchiiig for the last, after so much has been given, 
 are what God evidently expects and designed. Sturdy faith 
 and intelligent watching is certainly calculated to please 
 the Lord. The seventh church period closed, after many 
 details relative to its lukewarmness, with "Behold, I stand 
 at the door, and knock!" The very next thing, then, 
 would be the entrance. He knocks at the door of the 
 Church's attention and love by the signs of His coming, 
 which are minutely described in Matthew xxiv., and Luke 
 xxi., and therefore need not be detailed again in either 
 of these series of views. So neither need the knocking of 
 Laodicea be repeated under the seventh seal, nor the last 
 trumpet. 
 
 The seventh seal, therefore, after detailing the work 
 of the rainbow angel, his Joyous message, his mistake and 
 bitter experience, and the command and preparation to 
 prophesy again, closes with the first French Kevolution, 
 and the announcement of the second woe past, and the 
 third woe coming quickly. 
 
 The last trumpet has the proclamation of the king- 
 dom of the world reverted to God and Christ, the Church's 
 rejoicing at the fact, and the anger of the nations; the 
 time of their {corrective) judgment, the vindication of the 
 saints through an earnest of reward, the opened temple, 
 and the discovered ark; the lightning of division, the 
 voices and thunder of contention concerning truth and 
 error, right and wTong, and the earthquake 
 Great Hail. which, as we have seen, followed quickly; 
 and, finally, closes with the great hail. 
 Hail has been already defined as truth, the only thing 
 
438 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. [parT VII. 
 
 which caa sweep away the "refuge of lies." We have 
 pointed out, in part, the heresy of the "orthodox" creeds, 
 a tissue of falsity, and a refuge of error; and the great 
 liail from the Word of God, the truth concerning the 
 nature and character of God, the original and the present 
 nature of Christ, the present and the prospective nature of 
 man, etc., is sweeping away from the minds of willing 
 and teachable disciples the foundations laid in Roman 
 Catholic councils for Trinitarianism, pre-existentism, and 
 the }iaftiral immortality of the soul in man. Let them 
 go! Let the pure Word of God remain! 
 
 The trumpet, let it be noticed, does not close where 
 
 these descriptions do; but embraces many 
 Resurrection j^q^ jggg important iteuis, which have more 
 *"'* special relation to some other prophecy 
 
 Translation. qj. geries, as the seven last plagues, etc., 
 
 and are, therefore, reserved for such state- 
 ments to follow on in due order, as being sufficient. For 
 instance, the Apostle Paul adds the grand climacteric 
 prophecy, which so nearly locates that event of all events, 
 and to which all others point, when he declares that "We 
 shall not all sleep, but Ave shall all be changed, in a moment, 
 in the twinkling of an eye, at the sound of the last trumpet; 
 for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised 
 incorruptible, and zve shall be cJianged.'^ (1 Cor. xv. 
 51, 52.) 
 
 "O, GLORIOUS day of heavenly rest! 
 
 We hail each sign of thee; 
 With eager hearts and longing eyes 
 
 We wait thy dawn to see. 
 Those gilded rays of glory bright. 
 
 Resplendent as the sun, 
 Must soon to every eye make known 
 
 The holy coming One." 
 
CHAP. XXX.] CONCLUSION. 439 
 
 With cheerful hope, though tearful eyes, 
 
 Still trusting in thy Word, 
 We long to see the eastern skies 
 
 Reveal thy advent, Lord. 
 Then would our waiting souls rejoice, 
 
 Could we thy face behold; 
 In ages of triumphant bliss, 
 
 Whose joys can ne'er be told." 
 
 ir L lia\e mapped out the events of these trunipets 
 aright, evidently this glorious consunniiation event is near 
 at hand, if not already quite due. Momentous conclusion! 
 Blessed, blessed hope! The palpable facts are before us: 
 we are living in the seventh and last phase of Church 
 liistory — Laodicea, the judgment ago; amid the closing 
 events of the seventh and last seal; and the seventh and 
 last trumpet has been sounding for half a century: its 
 last crucial and glorious event must be at hand. Let the 
 sinner fly to the only Refuge! Let the Church rejoice, 
 and be robed and ready! Then will she shout the glad 
 response, ''Amen! even so, come, lord jesus!" 
 
 We have now completed the exposition of eleven 
 chapters of the "Revelation of Jesus Christ," and there are 
 eleven chapters more, which must be reserved for a futtire 
 volume in the near future, the Lord willing, and tarrying 
 His coming for another year or more. 
 
 I trust the work, through the help of the Holy Spirit, 
 will prove helpful to all who give it attention, and that the 
 result will, in some degree, redound to the glory of God 
 and our Saviour. And, oh, may reader and writer be ever 
 filled with the blessed Spirit, and zcaiting. and zvafching, 
 and ready for 
 
 "HIS APPEARING." 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 The following letter from Joshua V. Hinies, the most intimate 
 associate of, and the publisher for, William Miller during the whole 
 movement, from 1839 to 1850, explains and speaks for itself. It was 
 written for The Outlook^ (formerly The Christian Union,) and 
 published in that paper in 1894, during a temporary revival of the 
 falsehood, under the heading : — 
 
 ASCENSION ROBES AGAIN. 
 
 We are glad to be able to print the following letter from 
 " Father Himes," who is undoubtedly the best living authority on 
 the question which has interested so many of our readers. We 
 have also received several other letters from correspondents to the 
 effect that they had heard of ascension robes, or knew of the gen- 
 eral belief in them, but no one has. we believe, asserted that he 
 actually laid eyes on an ascension robe, with the exception of the 
 writer of the short letter added to that of Mr. Himes. - The Editors. 
 
 To THE Editors of "The (jutlook:"— I have been much interested 
 In the articles lately appearing in "The Outlook" upon the question 
 of ascension robes. I am glad that public interest has been again 
 aroused upon this topic, for it is time it should be settled, and set- 
 tled right; and nothing is truly settled until it is settled right. 
 
 I wish to say that I was intimately associated with William 
 Miller for eleven years, beginning in 1839; that with him I attended 
 hundreds of meetings, laboring with him in public and private, and 
 was with him at his home in the State of New York on the night 
 of the tenth day of the seventh month, when we expected the Lord 
 to come; and, having had a perfect knowledge of everything con- 
 nected with that worlc, I Ijnow the whole story of ascension robes 
 to be a concoction of the enemies of the Adventists, begotten of 
 religious prejudices, and that there is not a scintilla of truth In It. 
 No wonder the writer In "The Outlook" of October 27 did not give 
 his name and address. The statement that "to be prepared, dressed 
 In their ascension robes, was the instruction given by their leaders 
 to the rank and file of the Millerites," is almost too silly to be 
 noticed. The writer originated, and with others signed, the call 
 for the first Adventist conference, which was held with the church 
 over which he was pastor in Boston, Mass., In 1840. 
 
 During those eventful days, from 1840 to 1844, and for several 
 years after, I had charge of all their publishing work, and no man. 
 living or dead, knew better what was taught and done by Advent- 
 ists than did I. There were some excesses, such as always attend 
 
 440 
 
APPENDIX. 441 
 
 great religious upheavals, but they were not committed by the "In- 
 struction of their leaders," and the putting on of ascension robes 
 was not one of those excesses. 
 
 When these stories first started, and while I was publishing In 
 the Interests of the Adventist cause, I kept a standing offer, in 
 the paper of which I was editor, of a large reward for one well- 
 nuthonticated case where an ascension robe was worn by those look- 
 ing for the Lord's return. No such proof has ever been forthcom- 
 ing. It was always rumor, and nothing more. Absolute evidence 
 never has been furnished. It has always been one of those delight- 
 ful falsehoods which many people have wanted to believe, and hence 
 its popularity and perpetuity until this present day. I have refuted 
 the story hundreds of times, in both the "Advent Herald" In Boston 
 Mass., and in the "Midnight Cry" in New York, which had a circu- 
 lation of tens of thousands of copies; and no accusers ever made 
 an attempt to defend themselves, although I held my columns open 
 to them to do so. And now, at the age of ninety years, with a full per- 
 sonal experience of those times, before God, who is my Judge, and 
 before whose tribunal I must soon appear, I declare again that the 
 ascension-robe story is a tissue of falsehoods from beginning to end, 
 and I am glad of the opportunity to deny it once more before I die. 
 
 The preparation urged upon the "rank and file" of those looking 
 for the coming of the Lord was a preparation of heart and life by a 
 confession of Christ, a forsaking of their sins and living a godly life; 
 and the only robes they were exhorted to put on were the robes of 
 righteousness obtained by faith in Jesus Christ— garments made white 
 In the blood of the Lamb. Nothing of an outward appearance was 
 ever thought of or mentioned. Joshua V. IIimes, 
 
 Rector St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Elk Point, South Dakota. 
 October 29, 1894. 
 
 Following is the letter referred to, of which a writer remarks ; 
 ■'The letter per contra, being a childish recollection, could hardly 
 be received in a court of law as satisfactory evidence, particularly 
 as against the testimony of such a man as Mr. Himes : — 
 
 To THE Editors op "The Outlook:"— I can answer for ascension 
 robes on the Millerites in Troy, N. Y., but cannot tell the date. They 
 were gathered in an assembly-room on the west side of Fourth 
 street, just below what was then Albany street, but now Broadway. 
 I was a child, and, with other children (I think we were coming from 
 school), went up the steps softly and carefully, as though we were 
 approaching a horror or something uncanny; standing at the door 
 we peei)ed in, taking one good look, and then scampered awav as 
 fast as our feet could carry us, scared at having seen the saints in 
 their white robes. H. W. B. 
 
 Troy, N. Y. 
 
 The 15th Psalm, and the Scriptures generally, denounce the 
 taking up of false reports against a neighbor. The spirit of this 
 letter is easily discerned. It is not a new thing under the sun for 
 
442 DIVINE KEY OF THE REVELATION. 
 
 people who love to embellish stories of their childhood, to repeat 
 them — never diminishing the embellishments -until they come 
 really to believe them themselves. It is not denied that there 
 were many people at that time that suggested in ridicule that the 
 " Millerites " were robing themselves " to go up " in presence of 
 their children and neighbors. One of those grown children in my 
 presence a few years since was narrating a story similar to the 
 above, when I said : " Mrs. West, did you see the robes? " She 
 replied : ' ' No ; I did not see them my self , but our neighbors saw 
 them." Her daughter, who was listening, replied with manifest 
 surprise : " Why mother, I always understood you to say that you 
 saw them." Her mother replied: "No; I can't say that I saw 
 them myself; but there were plenty of people who did." Shame 
 on such malicious testimony, based only on idle report, and loving 
 to have it so. What court would receive it, even on the oath of 
 the would-be witness? This circumstance illustrates how easily 
 falsehoods are put in circulation for truth, through misplaced con- 
 fidence in gossipers. 
 
 B. 
 
 The following is from an editorial in The Advent Christian 
 Quarterly for January, 1870, on this same theme, and shows the 
 onlv real foimdation for any such mocking stories : — 
 
 'A8CENSI0N ROBES.' 
 
 'A great multitnrte, * * * clothed with white ro))es'— Rev. vii. 9. 
 
 "Adventists have ever loved to dwell upon the passages from 
 the Revelator's vivid pen where he describes the great company he 
 saw in vision, wearing white robes, with palms of victory in their 
 hands. To be of that company is to attain all that God has promised 
 to fallen man through our Saviour. 
 
 'We have heard of the robe, and the palm, and the crown, 
 And the silvery band in white,' 
 
 and we love to talk and sing of them. And not only so, but we un- 
 derstand the Imagery, and can talk of them understandingly. In 
 the palm we see the emblem of victory, eternal victory over mor- 
 tality and death. • • » • The crown we look for is a crown of life, 
 of life eternal; for it fadetb not away. It will be given when the 
 Chief Shepherd shall appear. (1 Pet. v. 4.) It means a body fasti- 
 loned like unto Christ's glorious body, Incapable of death. 
 
 "And we look for a 'robe,' Indeed, as Jesus has counseled us to 
 do, that we 'may be clothed, and that the shame of our nakedness 
 do not appear.' (Rev. iii. 18.) This garment is described in Scripture 
 phrase as of 'fine linen, clean and white, which [dropping the meta- 
 phor] is the righteousness of saints.' (Rev. six. 8.) • * • * This is 
 
APPENDIX. 443 
 
 our expected robe. To none wearing this will It ever be said: 'Friend, 
 bow earnest thou in hither not having on a wedding garment?' This 
 robe entitles the wearer to be caught up, or ascend to meet the Lord 
 In the air, to enter through the gates Into the city to the marriage 
 of the Lamb, and so may, adopting the language of our assailants, 
 very properly be called an 'ascension robe.' ♦ * • ♦ 
 
 "From the frequent expression of our hope to receive this robe, 
 with palm and crown, our opponents, both in and out of the Church, 
 have. constructed not a few scandals; and among the most senseless 
 of these are the 'ascension robe' stories. Doubtless It would be stoop- 
 ing for us to notice tbcm in these pages, were It not for the fact 
 that the falsehood has been put on enduring record, for the little 
 ^^'hile time may last, in works to which the public turn with con^- 
 rtence for correct information on the topics presented. 
 
 '"The New American Encyclopaedia,' published by the Appletons, 
 of New York, and edited by Charles A. Dana and George Ripley, has 
 given character to this libel, which will cause many to believe It 
 true, spite of any testimony we could bring to the contrary. Yet 
 this authoritative and generally accurate work, and popular notions 
 to the contrary notwithstanding, we challenge the proof that any 
 Adventist, ever, anywhere, under any circumstances, prepared an 
 'ascension robe.' " 
 
 The editor proceeds to quote the article as it appears in the 
 enc3clopedia, under the heading, William Miller (to which I must 
 refer the reader) and remarks : — 
 
 "That nothing might be wanting to complete the Injustice of this 
 sketch, the first part of it was sent in the proof-sheets, to 'The 
 Advent Herald' office in Boston, for correction as to dates and minor 
 details. As it stood it was as fair an account of the Advent move- 
 ment as could be expected from those having no sympathy for it. 
 Kut the allusion to ascension robes was not In those proof-sheets; it 
 was added after the Information asked for was received from the 
 'Herald' office. What motives influenced the editors of that great 
 work to publish a scandal calculated to create prejudice against us, 
 without giving an opportunity for refutation, we will not undertake 
 to define; certainly they were not of a very high order. And unfor- 
 tunately for their credit for accnrncy In dealing with an unpopular 
 movement, they have contradicted themselves in their record of us. 
 After stating that the Adventlsts. once numbering from 30,000 to 50,000, 
 'still exist, but with greatly diminished numbers,' the editors, In Vol. 
 XIV., p. 484, say: 'They have now four or five periodicals, and num- 
 ber near or quite IGO.OOO members In the United States, British Amer- 
 ica and Great Britain.' In one volume we have 'greatly diminished 
 in numbers;' In another our numbers are trebbled!! 
 
 "The attention of the publishers of the encyclopaedia was called 
 to these errors years ago; but it still continues to bear false wltneea 
 against us." 
 
 Belcher's History of Religious Denominations, and other 
 similar works repeat such falsehoods ad nauseam, which we have 
 pot space to notice here, 
 
INDEX 
 
 TEXTS OF SCRIPTURE (OUTSIDE THE REVELATION) TREATED OR CITED. 
 
 Genesis i. i, p. 129; 20, 21, 24 
 30, p. 112; ii. 1-4, p. 129; 7 
 p 112 ; 17, p. 116 ; iii. 19, p 
 435 ; vii. 22, p. 115 ; ix. 4, p 
 30; 12-15, P- 190; xvii. 5, p 
 133; 5, 15. P- 61 ; xxii. 12-18; 
 P- 134- 
 
 Exodus X. 14, 15, p. 380; xix 5, 
 6, pp. 52, 76, 157 ; 9 17 ; xxiii. 
 20-22 ; xxiv. 10; xxxiii. ii-2j, 
 p. 118, 
 
 Numbers viii. 8-10, p. 90 ; xi. 
 16, 17, 24, 25, p. 336 ; xiv. 34, 
 p. loi ; xxiii, 21, p. 158 ; xxii., 
 xxiii , xxiv. p. 88 ; xxv. 1-3, 
 p. 89. 
 
 Deuteronomy vi. 24, p. 193 ; 
 xxviii. 46, p. 50 ; xxxiii. 4, 5, 
 p. 158. 
 
 Judges xiii. 20-22, p. 118. 
 
 I Kings vi. 23, p. 304; xi. 1-9, 
 pp. 299, 300 ; xvi. 31-33, p. 98. 
 2 Kings ix., x., p. 98. 
 
 Psalms xvii. 15, p. 275 ; xxv. 14, 
 p. 24; xxxi. 17, p. no; xxxiii. 
 6, p. 113 ; 6, 9, p. 129 ; xlvii. 
 5-7, p. 341 ; Ixviii. S, p. 118; 
 18, p. 133; Ixxvii. 17, 18, p. 
 339; xcv. 7, p. 54; xcvii. 4, 
 P- 339; cv. 39, p. 256; ex. 2, 
 p. 52; cxv. 17, p. 363; cxvi. 
 15, P- 153 ; cxviii. 22-24, p. 54 ; 
 cxix. 175; cxhi, 2-4, p. 363. 
 445 
 
 Ecclesiastes iii. 18-22, p. 115; 
 
 ix. 4-10, pp. no, 363. 
 Isaiah ii. 2, 12, 17, p. 337 ; 19-21, 
 
 p. 338; 10-21, p. 238; iv. 4, p. 
 
 343; v. 24, 25; ix. 18-21, X. 
 
 16-19, P- 348; xvi. 5, p. 259; 
 
 xxviii. 7-18, p. 259; 2, 17, p. 
 
 342 ; XXX. 27, p. 258 ; 27-30. p. 
 
 343 : xxxi. 6-9, p. 347; xl. 3-9, 
 p. 339; xxxiv. 8-10. p. 348; 
 xlix. 8-10, 257; Ixi. I, 2, p. 
 258; Ixv. 13-15, p. 351 : Ixvi. 
 12-16, p. 352. 
 
 Jeremiah ii. 13, p. 259 ; v. 14, p. 
 
 342 ; 10-14, p. 2^8 ; XV. 14, 
 
 xvi. 12, 13, p. 350; xvii. 1-4, 
 
 p. 349 ; 7, 8, p. 344 ; xxv. 27, 
 
 33, p. 351 ; xxviii. 28, 29, pp. 
 
 258, 342 ; 30, P- 161 ; Ii. 25, 26, 
 
 P- 347- 
 Lamentations v. 16-18, p. 346. 
 Ezekiel iv. 1-6, p. loi ; xviii. 4, 
 
 20, p. 436; xxi. 25-27, p. 158 ; 
 
 xxviii. I -14, p. 77 ; xxxvii. 16, 
 
 22, 24-28, p. 191; xl. 3, 5, p. 
 
 296. 
 Daniel ii. 37, p. 241 ; 42, 43, p. 
 
 248 ; iv. 25, 26, pp. 207-8, 242 ; 
 
 vii. 2, p. 246 ; 9, 10, p. 241 ; 
 
 II, 12, pp. 102, 368 ; 21, p. 102 ; 
 
 26, p. 242 ; 22, 26, pp. 226-7 ; 
 
 23-27, p. 104 ; viii. 10-I2, 14, 
 
 17, p. 289; 12, 24, 25, p. 102 
 
446 
 
 INDEX OF TEXTS. 
 
 24, p. 223 ; X. 1, 14, p. 22 ; xi. 
 
 31, pp. 289, 296, 302 ; 28-31, p. 
 
 299 (note) ; 31-33, p. 224 ; 34, 
 
 p. 222 ; xii. 4, 9, p. 197 ; 11, 12, 
 
 13, p. 290 (note). 
 Hosea xiii. 7, 8, p. 158. 
 Joel ii. 25, p. 380. 
 Amos ix. 9, p. 238. 
 Habakkuk ii. 2, 3, p. 288. 
 Haggai ii. 6-9, pp. 238, 373. 
 Zechariah ii. 8, iv. 6, 10, 14, p. 
 
 Sf^S; 7, P- 347; vi. 13, p. 52; 
 
 xiii. I, p. 54 ; 7-9, pp. 222, 345 ; 
 
 xiv. 6-8, pp. 54, 62. 
 Malachi iii. 2, 3, pp. 66, 238 ; 2- 
 
 4, P- 343- 
 Matthew iv. 4, p. 89 ; v. 14, 16, 
 P- 59; 19, P- 138; vi. 22, p. 
 194; vii. 21-26, p. 284; X. 28, 
 pp. II r, 123 (note) ; xi.23, p. 
 324 ; xii. 28, p. 190 ; 40, p. 167 ; 
 xiii. 33, p. 157 ; xvi. 18, p. 52 ; 
 
 19, pp. 158, 182 ; xviii. 17, 18, 
 PP- 52-3, 182; xix. 27-30, p. 49; 
 xxiv. 3, p. 198 ; 14, p. 160 ; 15, 
 16, p. 217; 27, 30, p. 50; 32, 
 
 33. P- 17S; 36, p. 19S; 46, 47, 
 p. 24; XXV. 1-13, p. 163; 14, 
 p. 172; xxviii. 18, p. 48; 18, 
 
 20, pp. 194, 209. 
 
 INIark iv. 26-29, p. 157 ; xiii. 20, 
 
 p. 222; 32, p. 23; 35, 37, p. 
 
 123 (note). 
 Luke i. 33, p. 48; 35, ii. 40, 52, 
 
 42-47, p. 176; iii. 15, 167; 
 
 21-23, p. 176 ; 38, pp. 109, 132 ; 
 
 iv. 18-20, p. 258; ix. i-ii, p. 
 
 189; 62, p. 153; X. i-ii, p. 
 
 189; xi. 52, p. 159; xii. 34-37, 
 
 p. 179; 38-42, pp. 179, 180; 
 
 43, 44, p. 180; 49-53. P- 337; 
 
 49. P- 258; 51-53. P- 192; 
 xvi. 16, p. 336 ; xvii. 28-30, p. 
 51 ; XX. 37, 38, p. 134; xxi. 
 24-36, p. 163 ; xxii. 25, 30, pp. 
 
 I 49. 52, 190- 
 
 ! John i. 3, 4, p. 128 ; 3, 7, 10, 17, 
 
 p. 130; iii. 6, p. 47; 36, pp. 
 
 123, 362; iv. 10-14, P- :6; 14. 
 
 p. 123; v. 39, p. 307; vi. 27, 
 
 p. 123; 32,33.53, 54.57. PP- 
 
 50, 77, 93; 63, p. 148; vii. 16, 
 17, p. 139; viii. 12, pp. 76, 159; 
 13-18, pp. 47, 306 ; 55-58, p. 
 134; xi. 25, 26, pp. 76, 436; 
 
 I xii. 28-30, p. 119 ; 49. 50, p. 23 : 
 
 xiv. 16, 26, pp. 151 (note), 174 ; 
 
 XV. 1-5, p. 123 ; xvi. 12-15, P- 
 
 24 ; xvii. 2, 3, p. 94 ; 3, p. 120 ; 
 
 5, p. 134; 17, 19, p. 251 ; xviii. 
 I 36, p. 53- 
 
 Acts ii. 5, 16, 18, p. 345 ; 31, p. 
 j no; 36, p. 48; 46, 47, p. 70; 
 
 iii. 13, p. 48; vii. 38, p. 52; 
 
 xiii. 32, 33, pp. 48, 175; 27, p. 
 
 264 ; 46, p. 252 ; 46, 47, p. 344 ; 
 
 xvii. 7, p. 48 ; xxviii. 20, p. 
 
 61. 
 Romans i. 3, 4 pp. 47, 175, 270 ; 
 
 19-25, p. 265; ii. 7, pp. 116, 
 
 271 ; 12-16, p. 265 ; iv. 17, p. 
 
 133; vi. 17, 18, p. 194; ix. 17, 
 
 p. 422 ; X. 3, p. 154 ; 4-9, p. 
 
 193; 17, pp. 75, 159; xi. 25, 
 
 p. 61 ; xiii. I, p. 206. 
 I Corinthians ii. 14, p. 24 ; iii. 5 
 
 p. 74 ; 16, 17, p. 168 ; iv. 8, 9 
 
 p. 191 ; 9, 16, p. 79 ; viii. 6, p. 
 
 130; X. 4, p. 52; xiii. 12, pp. 
 
 61, 62; xiv. 34, 37, p. 99; '^Y. 
 
INDEX OF TEXTS. 
 
 447 
 
 24-28, pp. 48, 183, 202 ; 45, 46, 
 p. 128 ; 45-49. PP- 132, 271 ; 56, 
 p. 83. 
 2 Corinthians i. 24, p. 74; ii. 12, 
 p. 160; iv. 4, p. 270; xiii. 5, 
 
 P- 173- 
 Galatians, ii. 9, ]). 168; 19, p. 
 
 223 ; 19, 20, p. 344 ; iv. 4, p. 
 
 176 ; vi. 16, p. 61. 
 Ephesians i. 4, p. 135 ; ii. 1-6, p. 
 
 83 ; 20-22, p. 289 ; iii. 9, p. 130 ; 
 
 iv. 4-6, p. 60. 
 
 Philippians, iii. 9, p. 154. 
 Colossians i. 13, p. 52; 16, 17, p. 
 
 130 ; iii. 1-3, pp. 83, 94 ; 3, 4, 
 
 pp. 94, 123, 254, 362. 
 
 1 Thessalonians v. 23, p. 114. 
 
 2 Thessalonians i. 7, 8, p. 272 ; 
 ii. 1-8, p. 148 ; 3, 4, pp. 220; 
 296; 7. P- 74; 10-12, p. 103; 
 13. P- 251. 
 
 I Timothy ii. 2, p. 350 ; vi. 13, 
 PP 47, lS ; 16, p. 94. 
 
 2 Timothy iii. 16, p. 181 ; 1-7, p. 
 
 198. 
 Titus i. i-^, p. 129. 
 Hebrews i. 2, p. 129; 3, p. 270; 
 
 ii. 9, 10, pp.47, 209; 9, p. 175; 
 
 II, 16, p. 176; iii. 13, iv, 7, 
 
 p. 54; 12, pp. 114, 129; 15, 16, 
 
 p. 202 ; v. 7-9, p. 128 ; xii. 26- 
 
 28, p. 239. 
 James i. 12, p. 94 ; ii. 5, p. 79 ; 
 
 V. 20, p. 94. 
 
 1 Peter i. 7, p. 80; 11, 12, p. 19S ; 
 13, P- 65 ; 19. 20, p. 135 ; ii. 9, 
 pp. 191, 202; iii. 18, p. 128; 
 
 V. 1-3. P- 75- 
 
 2 Peter i. 4, p. 94 ; 19, 20, p. 
 168; 20, p. 181; 21, p. 58; ii. 
 12, p. 436; iii. 7, p. 272; 16, 
 p. 138. 
 
 I John i. I, 2, p. 129; ii. 20, 27, 
 p. 174; V. 6-8, p. 271; 9-13, 
 P- 93; 12, p. 123; II, 12, pp. 
 260,362. 
 
 Jude 12, p. 138; 13, p. 436. 
 
INDEX 
 
 OF 
 
 Authors, Cyclopaedias, etc., Quoted or Referred to. 
 
 Abbott, Dr. Lyman, The Outlook, (Nov. 1894,) 264 (note), 440. 
 Abbolt, J. S. C. D.D., Hist of Christ., 148, 375, 381, 421, 2-3-4-5. 
 Alford, Heury, D.D.. Ne7u Tfstament for t.nglish Readers, 38. 
 Alison, Archibald, F.R S.E., ///.y/. i5"?^r(9/)^, 229-30-31, 236-7,310-19 
 Andreas, (seventh ceutui}-,) 38. 
 Arethas, (sixth century,) 38. 
 Arius, (fourlh century,) 125, 126. 
 Augustine, (fourth century,) 133. 
 
 Bayne, Dr. Peter, Martin Luther, His Life and Work, 143. 
 
 Beryllus, Bishop of Bozra, third century.) 360-1 (and note). 
 
 Blackbvirne, Archdeacon, W01 ks, 124. 
 
 Boochroyd, Iranslation of the Scriptures, 153. 
 
 Boston Review, (1661,) 117. 
 
 Bower, Archibald, History of the Popes, 104-5-6, 126, 229, 237. 
 
 Buck, Charles, Theological Dictionary, %\, 
 
 Bull.inger, Anal, and Crit. Lex. and Cone, 222. 
 
 Bush, George, Life of Mohammed , 377-8, 381-4, 391. 
 
 Caranza, Stitnuia Conciliornm, 121, 122. 
 
 Chamber's Encyclopcrdia, 397. 
 
 Chesney, Francis Rawdon, Exped. to the Euphrates, 375, 397. 
 
 Clarke.Dr. Adam, Commentary on the Scriptures, 34, 291 (note). 
 
 Clement, of Alexandria, (second century,) 33. 
 
 Coke, Di-. Thomas, Commentary on the Scriptures, 316. 
 
 Conant, Thomas J., D.D., A^n. 'Bib. Union Ed. of Genesis, 112. 
 
 Conder, Josiah, Missionary Annual, (1883.) 24S. 
 
 C(7//«^^^//5/t', (Notes,) 209, 210, 211. 
 
 Council of Lateran, (a.d. 1513,) 122. 
 
 Council of Vienne, (a.d. 1311-1313,) 121, 122. 
 
 Creasy, Sir Edward S., Ottoman Turks, 393. 
 
 Croly, George, LL.D. , On the Apocalypse, 315- 
 
 Correspondent, New York Independent, (1871 or 72,) 432. 
 
 Correspondent, London Morning Chronicle, (1840,) 410, 411. 
 
 Davidson, Samuel, D.D., LL.D., Intro, to Study of New Test., 34. 
 D'Anglas, Boissv, French political Reformer, 320, 32 r. 
 D'Aubigne, J. H. M., History of the Reformation, 142, 143. 
 DeBesse, Turkish Empire, ,^77, 387-8-9, 395. 
 Devins, R. M., Our First Century, 232. 
 Durivage, Cyclopedia of History, 247. 
 
 Ecclair, (French Journal — Revolutionary Era,) 311, 319. 
 Emphatic Diaglott, Trans. New Test., 33, 76, 87, 9S, 129. •3''. I35. 
 151 (note), 194, 197. 
 
 4-J8 
 
INDEX OF AUTHORS, ETC, 449 
 
 Ertcyclopcsdia Britannica, 72, 161, 257. 
 Epipbanius, (fourth century,) 38. 
 Eusebius, (fourth century,) 39. 
 
 Faber, On the Prophecies, 233. 
 
 Fletcher, John, " Friend of Wesley," 164. 
 
 Gesenius, Hebrew-Ens:lish Lexicon, 1T3, 290 (note). 
 
 Gibbon, Edwaid, Decl and Fall of the Rom. Enip.. 86, 107, 108, 
 
 213, 224, 363 376. 379, 381-3-4-5-6-7-9, 3SO-I-3-6-7, 401, 3. 
 Goodrich, Religious Ceremonies, 178, 379. 
 Goodrich, 8 G. , History of all Nations, 414. 
 Goodrich, Charles A., History of the Church, 378, 379 
 Grahame. James, 255. 
 Gregory XVI , Pope, 160. 
 Gregory, Bishop of Blois, 320. 
 
 Ha Ham, Henry, Middle Ages, 398. 
 
 Hase, Dr. Charles, Hist. Christian Church, 132, 144. 
 
 Herodotus, (fifth century,) 93 (note). 
 
 Herschel, Sir William, 232. 
 
 Hudson, Prof. C. F., Debt and Grace, 82, 93. 
 
 Himes, Joshua V., 440, 441. 
 
 Himes, William I/., Advent Christian Quarterly, 442, 443. 
 
 International Cyclopedia, 25, 33, 41, So. 
 Irenaeus, (second century,) 33, 39. 
 
 Jackson, S. M., D.D., 'Lh-'D., Johnson's Umver. Ency., 39. 
 Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary, 73. 
 Johnson's ( yclopedia, 126, 220, 221. 
 Justiu Martj-r, (second century,) 33, 132. 
 
 Kett, Henry, History French Revolution , 319, 323. 
 
 Kitto, John, D.D., Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature, 39, 112. 
 
 Keith, Signs of the Times, (quoting Gibbon,) 381. 
 
 Lamartine, A. M. L,. P., History of the Girondists, 230. 
 
 Lardner, Nathaniel, Credibility of the Gospels, 133. 
 
 Lardner, Dr., Outlines of History, 381. 
 
 Lamed, J. N., History for Ready Reference, 143, 144, 147. 
 
 Lecroix, in Ecclair, (French Journal,) 311, 319. 
 
 Leo X., Pope, (1513-1531,) 122. 
 
 Litch, Josiah, Prophetic Expositions, 164-5, 279-281, 407, 414. 
 
 Liither, Martin, Works, 123, 140, I4r, 147. 
 
 Loudon Morning Herald, (1840,) 413. 
 
 Marsh, John, D.D., Ecclesiastical History, 230-231. 
 Martindale, Miles, Dictionary of the Bible, 40, 98. 
 McCabe, J. D., History of the World, 136-7, 144-5, 146-7. 
 McCulloch, J. H., Recast of the Credib. of the Soipt., 132-3. 
 Merivale, Charles, Hist, of the Romans under the Empire, 39. 
 Milton, John, (seventeenth century,) 151. 
 
45<5 INDEX OF AUTHORS, ETC. 
 
 Monitetcr Ottoman, (Turkish Journal — 1840,) 408. 
 More, Sir Thomas, ( The Dialogue,) 124. 
 Mosheim, J. L., Ecclesiastical History, 40, 356-362. 
 
 Newton, Bishop Thomas, 38. 
 
 Newton, Sir Isaac, Observatiofis on the Apocalypse, 33. 
 
 Noel, Hon. Gerard, 231, 232. 
 
 Ockley, Simon, History of the Saracens, 384. 
 Origen, (third century,) 356-7-8-9-360-1-2-3-4. 
 
 Parkhurst, J. M. A., Hebrew and English Lexicon, 11 1. 
 
 Patton, William, D.D., Editor Cottage Testament, 72, 427. 
 
 Pond, Enoch, History of God's Church, 369. 
 
 Porter, Sir James, Turkey: Its History and Progress, 375. 
 
 Presby erian Quarterly, (i860,) 117 
 
 Pressense, Edward de. Religion and the Reign of Terror, "z-iii,, 310. 
 
 Redhead, History of France, 237, 238, 313. 
 Robinson, Greek and English Lexicon, 131. 
 Robinson, Bible Dictionary, 352. 
 
 Rolteck, Karl, History of the World, 121, 212, 213, 219. 
 Rowan, History of the French Revolution, 234, 318. 
 Roy, W. L., Exposition of the Book of Revelation, 38. 
 
 Savage. C. C, The World, Geograph., Histor. and Statis., 434, 435. 
 
 SrhafF, Philip, D.D.,LL.D., SchaffHetzog Encycl., 106, 161, 174. 
 
 Septuagint, (Greek) Old Testament, 113. 
 
 Sharpe, Samuel, Translation Old Testament, \oj. 
 
 Shedd, W. G. T., D.D., History of Christian Doctrine, 106. 
 
 Smith, William, LL.D., History of the Bible, 34. 
 
 student's Encyclopccdia, 72, 79, 81, 105, 145-6. 
 
 Student's France, 247, 317, 433. 
 
 Suetonius, (second centur}-,) 40. 
 
 Tafel, Translation of the Sacred Scriptures, 289 
 
 Taylor, Jane, 266. 
 
 Tertullian, (second century,) 38, 132. 
 
 Theophilus, of Antioch, (second century,) 33. 
 
 Tillotson, Archbishop, Sermons, in. 
 
 Tomlinson, Cyclopcedia of Useful Arts, 402. 
 
 Tyndale. William, (sixteenth century,) Works, 124, 129. 
 
 Tytler, Alexander F-., Universal History, 399. 
 
 Vinet, Prof. A. R., Character of the Gospel, iir. 
 
 Wells, Things not Generally Known, 402. 
 
 Whelpley, Samuel, M.A., Compend. of History, 87, 206-7, 2:9. 
 Wishart, George, (the Maityr, i6th century,) 125, 254. 
 Wolff, Joseph, y(3«r«a/ (quoted by Litch), 165. 
 
 Young, Robert, LLD., Analytical Bible Concor., 98, 290 (note). 
 
INDEX 
 
 OF 
 
 Subjects not directly mentioned in the text : as a rule 
 textual subjects must be looked for in the order of 
 exposition . 
 
 Abominalion of Defolation — 
 The, its rise outlined iu chap- 
 ters vii. aud xv. ; citations on, 
 301-2, 367-369. 
 
 Abraham — how he saw Christ, 
 134 ; father of the Hebrew 
 kingdom, 157-8. 
 
 Advent Movement — The, 164, 
 279 ; the Mighty Angel of, 
 273 ; organized, 276 ; world- 
 wide, 286-7 ; mistake pardon- 
 able, 287 ; half a century old, 
 288 ; not all wrong, 289 ; ex- 
 plained, 427. 
 
 Age-to- come — doctrine of, erro- 
 neous, 45-6, 190-1. 
 
 Ahab — King of Israel, ico.ioi. 
 
 Alpha and Omega, 51, 57. 
 
 Alliance — The, Evangelical, doc- 
 trinal basis of, 161; Hoi}', 247, 
 420, 432. 
 
 Amurath II., 387. 
 
 Angel — medium of communica- 
 tion, 32 ; the term defined, 69 ; 
 "mighty," rainbow, identi- 
 fied, 270-71 ; human and im- 
 perfect, 272, 279, 287-90, 416, 
 426. 
 
 Antichrist— The (Man of Sin), 
 recognized, 147 ; rise of, 220; 
 personified, 221. 
 
 Auti-secet — voicts, 56. 
 
 Apostolic Benediction, 45. 
 
 Apostasy — Church charged 
 with, 85 ; of Catholic priests, 
 236 ; of the infidel Conven- 
 tion, 318. 
 
 Arians, 102, 125, 126, 369. 
 
 .\sia — definition of, 61. 
 
 Attributes — the Divine, 106. 
 
 Autos — better use of, 128, 130. 
 
 Baptist — ^John, 335 ; ministry of, 
 
 339- 
 
 Benediction — The, of Apostolic 
 Epistles, 45. 
 
 Reryllus — the Good, in conflict 
 with Origin, the Bad, 360-62. 
 
 Bible — The, on existence of God, 
 117; papal bulls against, 140, 
 147, 160; early translations of, 
 148 ; scarcity of, 257 ; power 
 of, 258 ; societies, origin of, 
 324-5 ; many others, 325-6 ; 
 doctrinal basis of, 161 ; a glo- 
 rious triumph, 326. 
 
 Blood — literal sense of, 29, 350. 
 
 Brief of Pius VI., 237. 
 
 Carbonari — society of, 422. 
 Censoriousness — charge of, re- 
 futed, 281. 
 
 451 
 
452 
 
 INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 
 
 Charles V., 141, 142. 
 
 Christ — a king de facto, 47; iu 
 the Davidianline, 48-9 ; iu the 
 kingdom of heaven, 51-3, 85 ; 
 in Paradise (symbolic), 76-7 ; 
 throne antagonized, 85 ; no 
 preexistent life, 108, 125; a 
 new divine- human seed, 109- 
 deified by Rome before glori 
 fied by God, 115-6; did not 
 assume, but was made flesh, 
 128 ; did not assist in Crea. 
 tion, 129 ; divine manhood of, 
 131-2 ; how seen by Abraham, 
 
 134- 
 
 Christology — of the Creeds, 106 ; 
 of the Scriptures, 175 ; unity 
 oftheSonof God and of Mary, 
 176. 
 
 Church — in the wilderness, 52 ; 
 union with State, 97 ; formal 
 union, 104, 217, 368; renais- 
 sance of, 321. 
 
 Churchianity — ant agonizing 
 Christiauity, 84, 171-2; 356, 
 358-9, 404. ■• 
 
 Claudius — Nero Caesar, 38, 39. 
 
 Confusion — of dates, secret of, 
 36. 
 
 Constantine — conversion of, 86, 
 90. 96, 355; apostasy of, 217, 
 367. 
 
 Constitution — New Civil, 
 (France, 1790.) 234,(of I795.) 
 320 ; character of, 321. 
 
 Council--of Nice, 90; Constan- 
 tinople, 105; Chalcedon, 105, 
 107 ; Ephesus, 107 ; Vienna, 
 121 ; Lateran, 122. 
 
 Covenanters— Scottish, Barber 
 and Graham on, 255. 
 
 Creed — The, first stumbling 
 stone, 90; exalted above the 
 Word, 97 ; how its influence 
 is harmful, 99 ; makers of, de- 
 ceived, 102; substance of sec- 
 ond edition of, 106 ; text (in 
 part) of the first, 126; all 
 came from Romanism, 107 ; 
 spirit of, 160; darkness and 
 bigotry of, 369. 
 
 Daniel's Prophecy — why sealed, 
 22. 
 
 Date — of the Revelation, 34 ; 
 early church testimony, 38 ; 
 clue to, 71 ; true date, 72 ; date 
 right, event wrong, 425. 
 
 Dates — confusion of, 36; dia- 
 gram of, 323. 
 
 Day — the I^ord's or Gospel, 54, 
 337-8; of small things, 268. 
 
 Death, second, 81, 82 ; trespass 
 and penal, 83. 
 
 Delusion — strong, following un- 
 belief, 102. 
 
 Diagram — Chronological, 64 ; 
 of periods, 323. 
 
 Diet at Worms, 141. 
 
 Divinity — Doctors of, ic6. 
 
 Doctrine — of Balaam, 88; Jeze- 
 belitic, 102 ; taken for grant- 
 ed, III ; corrupt, 270-1. 
 
 Dragon — The, 88, 102,205; bind- 
 ing of, 309, 323 (see diagram 
 and note), 330; loosed, 238; 
 his war upon the witnesses, 
 308-317. 
 
 Earth — iu contrast with heaven 
 205 , fire cast into, 336, 343, 
 345t 
 
INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 
 
 453 
 
 Earthquake — defined, 227-8 ; as 
 seen by historians, 228-9 ; re- 
 ligious effects of, 232-3 ; de- 
 stroys a tenth part of the great 
 city, 326-7 ; at First Advent, 
 similar, 336 ; political effect 
 of, 432 ; of 1848, 433-5- 
 Empire — The Greek, seduces 
 the Church, 97 ; Holy Roman, 
 141, 367 ; shivered, 145 ; in 
 Italy, France, Spain, 146-7 ; 
 dominated by the Papal 
 Church and Justinian Code of 
 laws, 217; civil power decays 
 in the Eastern, the ecclesias- 
 tical rises in the Western, 218- 
 19. Rise of the Ottoman, and 
 assault on the Greek, 386-8 ; 
 period of restraint, 384-7, 397 ; 
 rapid conquests of, 389 ; its 
 " holy war," 393 ; source and 
 elements of its armies, 396-7 ; 
 period of supremacy, 394, 397, 
 405, 414 ; loss of indepen- 
 dence, 398 ; submits to foreign 
 intervention, 408 ; drops out 
 of specijic prophecy, 415, 435. 
 Elijah — type of true Church, loi . 
 Epoch— of Moslem invasion, 
 373; of supremacy, 394; of 
 the "mighty" Rainbow An- 
 gel, 416. 
 Era — Christian, 337-8, 341; Con- 
 stantinian, 354; Justinian, 
 366. 
 Error — a fountain of, 116 ; a 
 shield for, 117 ; of the fourth 
 century, 356. 
 Errorist — Origen the great, 360. 
 Eutychiau Theory, 105, 
 
 Excepliou — to the symbolic 
 rule: the teu days, 80: one 
 hour, 162 ; half hour, 263 ; the 
 1000, 1290 and 1335 years' pe- 
 riods, 2S9-90 ; Euphrates of 
 ch. ix. 14, 395 ; two hundred 
 million, 399. 
 
 Exposition — underlying princi- 
 ples of, 28 ; safe, 31. 
 
 Fire — Explanation of, 65 ; in 
 Zion, 346-7; in Bab^lou, 347. 
 In Israel, 348-50 ; origin of 
 the Gehe7iva, 349 ; and typi- 
 cal of the " Lake of," 82, 349 ; 
 Greek, 400 ; composition of, 
 401 ; origin of, 402. 
 
 Figures — similar, 238-9; hyper- 
 bole, 240-2 ; parallel, 252-3, 
 257-S, 418. 
 
 First-born — of the dead, 47. 
 
 God — ^His existence proved, 117. 
 Go.d — girdles of, etc., explain- 
 ed, 65. 
 Gospel day— age, 537. 
 Gunpowder, 400; Chinese, 402. 
 
 Hadl'S — ^(grave-land), soul not 
 
 left iu, no ; Clarke on, 221 ; 
 
 Bullinger on, 222. 
 Hail — explained, 260 (note) , 
 
 342-3 ; great, 437. 
 Heaven — kingdom of, 51-3, a 
 
 vision of, 185-194 ; in contrast 
 
 with " earth," 205. 
 Hebrews— Jews, wandering, 
 
 352-3- 
 
 Hell — see hades, and sheol. 
 
 Heresy — Neronian, 37; mis- 
 named by Jezebel, 103, 254, 
 368 ; by Dr. Pond, 369. 
 
454 
 
 INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 
 
 Images — woisliip of, iu tie 
 Catholic Church, 404 ; break- 
 ing of, a "heresy" iu the 
 Catholic Churcli, 404. 
 
 Immortality — to be sought in 
 "hidden manna," a gift of 
 Christ, 92 ; not inherited, 92- 
 3; natural possession, first 
 taught in Egypt, 93 (and note); 
 not taught in the Bible, iii; 
 a subject of hope, 116; how 
 obtained, 120; how taught in 
 heathen schools, 121 ; belief 
 in, enforced by Rome, 121-22; 
 denied b}' Luther, 123 ; by 
 Tyndale, 124; by Wishart, 
 125 ; in Christ, not in the 
 soul, 123, 260, 362. 
 
 Incarnation — The, theory, 12S. 
 
 Infidel — wrath praises God, 213 ; 
 king, 233 ; constitution, 234 ; 
 books, 235 ; Republic, 238. 
 
 Interpretation — schools of, 25. 
 
 Inqiiisition — The, 103, 224, 404. 
 
 Israel — on fire, 347-50; wander- 
 ers, 352-3. * 
 
 Jezebel — a type of apostasy, 98, 
 loi ; her doctrines identify 
 her children, 135, 137, 177. 
 
 Judgments — upon Jezebel, 135- 
 6; upon Catholic kings, 136- 
 7, 144 ; on the papal system, f 
 237-8, 428-9. 
 
 Justinian — Catholic emperor, 96 [ 
 -7 ; his noted Code of laws, 
 104, 217, 323; a persecutor, 
 367 ; his vanity, 36S. j 
 
 Key — words, 22, 61 ; as a sym- i 
 bol, 66; of David, 157, 199, ! 
 keynote of Revelation, 49. i 
 
 Keys — of the kingilom, 52-3. 
 
 Kenotic Theory — The, 106, 
 
 Kingdom of heaven — glimpses 
 of, 47-9, 51-3 ; not carnal, 74 ; 
 paradise its sj'mbol, 76-7 ; 
 three phases of, 157-8; like 
 ten virgins, etc., 163 ; given 
 over to the beast, 207, 241, 
 417-8; retaken through judg- 
 ments, 242, 418-20, 429. 
 
 Knocking — at the Church's door 
 by the signs of the Advent, 
 
 177-79. 436-7- 
 Koran—The, 374-5-6, 379, 393. 
 Kosiuos — (World, order, etc.), 
 
 52. 
 
 Lake of fire — 82 (and note), 349, 
 242. 
 
 League— The Holy, 144 ; Prot- 
 estant, 143. 
 
 Leipsic discussion, 142. 
 
 Liar — making God a, 93. 
 
 Lie — The, of Eden, 116; lyiu<j, 
 spirit, 102. 
 
 Lightning, 192, 276, 336. 
 
 Logos — the term defined, 128; 
 the creative agency, 129-30. 
 
 Luther — at the Diet at Worms, 
 141. 
 
 Man — distinguished from the 
 animal by intellect, not soul, 
 113 ; the term "mere man " 
 defined, 132. 
 
 Manhood — of Jesus, divine, 
 131-2. 
 
 Man of sin, 147; rise of, 220. 
 
 Martyrs — to paganism, 8r ; to 
 Romanism, 150-1, 222-4 ; Mil- 
 ton's prayer for, 151. 
 
INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 
 
 455 
 
 Mehemet Ali — war with the Sul- 
 tan of Turkey, 470. 
 
 Melchisedec — the anlitypical, 
 reign, 182-3. 
 
 Milan -Edict of, 38. 
 
 Military school — Turkiih, 401. 
 
 Millennium — theory of, unsus- 
 tained in Scripture, 45-6 (with 
 note), 190-1. 
 
 Mohammed — history of, 374 ; 
 his blasphemy, 375 ; natural I 
 leadership, 376; plan, 377; 
 conquests, 379-81. 
 
 Moslemism — menaces the Aus- 
 trian Empire, 382 ; torments 
 the Greek, 384-393 ; one-third 
 destroys it, 394-405. 
 
 Monarchies — mad, 420-24. 
 
 Motherhood — confessed, 107; 
 and rebuked, 108. 
 
 Mother Eve — willful spirit of, 
 278. 
 
 Names — significance of, 61 ; 
 changed with change of char- 
 acter, 91, 95; of men slain, 
 328-9. 
 
 Nature — of man, 92-94, 1 10-116; 
 of Christ, 105-110; a second 
 not a dual, 109, 128 ; the di- 
 vine cannot die, no. 
 
 Napoleon I. — his influence^ 
 421-5. 
 
 Nephesh — (soul, life, being) I 
 subject to death, 110-12,225-6. 
 (See Soul.) 
 
 Nero — Emperor, 37-41. 
 
 Nicholaitan — derivation , 73 ; 
 doctrine, 91 ; spirit not in the 
 Apostles, 74-5. 
 
 Numbers — the heavenly, and the 
 earthly, 63-4. 1 
 
 Origeii — the Krrorist, 356-360. 
 
 Origin — of Trinilarianism, 107. 
 
 Orthodoxy — arraigned, 99, 100, 
 270. 
 
 Osman (Othman) — Founds the 
 Ottoman Empire, 387; as- 
 saults the Greek, 388, 393. 
 
 Paganism — (the dragon), 79, 85, 
 8S, 90, 99-101, 309, 330; in 
 the Church, 356, 358, 404 ; 
 pagan Rome, 218. 
 
 Paleologus, Jolin, and Constan- 
 tiue, 387. 
 
 Paradelos—ih^ Holy Spirit, 151 
 (note) ; Mahomet's claim to, 
 375-6. 
 
 Paradise — a symbol of the king- 
 dom, 76-7. 
 
 Paradox — a prophetic, 218. 
 
 Patmos — the Isle of, 53 ; John's 
 banishment to, 39. 
 
 Paths — Old, discovered, 250. 
 
 Peace — prophetic with the 
 Prophets, 46 (note) ; present 
 with the Apostles, 45-6; of 
 Westphalia, 144. 
 
 Periods — prophetic. (See 
 Years.) 
 
 Peiseculion — ten pagan, .80, 
 209; Romanist, 150. 
 
 Phranza — Greek historian, 387. 
 
 Platonism — in Catholic Schools 
 and Councils, 121 ; in Creeds, 
 132-3-5. 358-9: in hymns, 275, 
 359- 
 
 Popery — rising spirit of, 73, 97. 
 
 Power — civil, delegation of, 207, 
 21S, 241 ; revocation of, 242, 
 417-8; restraining, 247. 
 
456 
 
 INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 
 
 Prt calculated — the Ottomai] pe- 
 riod of Supremacy, 406. 
 
 Preexistence— of Christ, notper- 
 sonal, 108, 125-32 ; of His 
 children in same prophetic 
 sense, 135 ; origin of popular 
 view, 214. 
 
 Principles — of exposition, 28 ; 
 safe, 31. 
 
 Principle — A, unrecognized in 
 exposition, 133. 
 
 Proclamation — a worldwide, 
 165, 425; 7th trumpet, 428, 
 
 437- 
 
 Prophetic sense — Importance 
 of, 133-4 ; analogous descrip- 
 tioas, 240-1, 252-3, 257-8, 418. 
 
 Psuche — (soul, life, being) sub- 
 ject to death, no, 225 ; to de- 
 struction, III. (See Soul.) 
 
 Reign of Christ — restored Da- 
 vidian throne, 47-S ; throne 
 of glory, 52-3. 185 ; a real 
 kingdom, 189; an associated 
 reign, 190 -i ; power *over or 
 keys of death, of David, 199- 
 202 ; rejoicing over, 419-20. 
 
 Reign of Terror — The, 317, 319. 
 
 Renaissance — of the Church, 
 156, in France, 319, 322. 
 
 Revival — Popular methods, faul- 
 ty, 265. 
 
 Revelation — a key word, 20; de- 
 fined, 26; proper, 28, 57. 
 
 Revolution — French, reaction 
 of, 156 ; a symbolic earth- 
 quake, 228-30; religious ef- 
 fects of, 232-3 ; end of second 
 woe, 405, 420, 432. 
 
 Rifat Bey, 409. 
 
 Robes — white, 154, 162; "ascen- 
 sion robes" falsitj', 166; the 
 true, 227, and Appendix B. 
 
 Roll — Fzekiel's, eating of, 89. 
 
 Ruach — (spirit) defined, 113; 
 Eng. renderings, 114; philo- 
 logical unfairness of the later 
 lexicons, 114-5. (See Spirit ) 
 
 Saints — misnamed heretics, 103, 
 254, 368-9 ; war on, 222-4. 
 
 Sanctuary — misunderstood, 426; 
 explained, 427-9; cleansed 
 typically, 430; antitypically, 
 
 431- 
 
 Saracens, The, 381, 385,392, 396. 
 
 Schools — 01 interpretation, 25. 
 
 Scholastic Theology, 359. 
 
 Second death, 81-3. 
 
 Shekinah — (Divine glory), 304. 
 
 Sheol — (Hell, grave-land) soul 
 not left in, no. (See Hades.) 
 
 Sealing — in the forehead ex- 
 plained, 248-9, 250-1. 
 
 Sealed — The, identified, 253-4. 
 
 Signify — a key word, 20, 26-7. 
 
 Seven — Symbolic factors of, 63 ; 
 seven series of, 64. 
 
 Society, Carbonari, 422. (See 
 Bible.) 
 
 Soul — Natural immortality of, 
 first taught in Egypt, 93 ; He- 
 rodotus on, 93 (note) ; subject 
 to death, jio 225-7; destruc- 
 tion, III ; intellect not a fac- 
 ulty of, 113, denying immor- 
 tality of, condemned by popes 
 and councils, 12 1-2 ; Luther 
 on, 123; Luther, Tyudale and 
 Wishart,on the sleep of, 124-5; 
 
INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 
 
 457 
 
 the Roman "balances" and 
 what was weighed, 213-4; 
 future life of, depends on 
 Christ and the Resurrection, 
 123, 260, 362 ; native value of 
 overestimated, 265. 
 
 Spirit — (original terms) intel- 
 lect not a faculty of, 113 ; how 
 the later Lexicons treat, 114- 
 5 ; the H0I3', a Helper, 151 
 (note) ; not a person, 250- 1> 
 356 (and note). 
 — of the 19th century, 160. 
 — of life from God, 322. 
 
 Strong Delusion — following un- 
 belief, 102-3. 
 
 Stumbling stone — first creed, 90. 
 
 Stones of fire, 76. 
 
 Symbols — Divine explanation 
 of, 29; variety of, 31; first 
 lesson in, 58. 
 
 Symbolic — fire, 65 : eating, 89 ; j 
 time, 10 1 ; earthquake, 432. 
 
 Sj'mbolism — a fixed rule of en- 
 tirety, 27 ; same explained, 
 29 ; proofs of, 187. 
 
 Tesserae, 95. 
 
 Throne — of David, of glory, 
 
 48-9 (type references), 52-3; 
 
 of grace, 202 ; in the, with 
 
 Christ, 181-2 ; a vision of, 186- 
 
 94 ; key or power of David, 
 
 157-9- 
 Thrones— twelve Apostolic, 52 ; 
 
 a present enthronement, and 
 
 limited reign, 182-3. 
 
 Thunder, 192, 272, 336, 
 
 Time — symbolic, loi ; table of, 
 367 ; comparative, 274 ; of the 
 End, 22, 44; not the end of 
 time, 286, 429. 
 
 Tradition, at fault, 264 
 
 Tree of Life (Christ), 76 306. 
 
 Trees — two olive, 304, 305. 
 
 Trial — hour of, 162, 249, 251. 
 
 Trinitarianism — origin of, 107, 
 116; rebuked, 108; teachers 
 of, in error, 128-9, 224. 
 
 Truth— power of, 258 ; a test of 
 faith, hail a symbol of, 260. 
 
 Types — (of David's throne), 49 ; 
 (of Christ), 92 ; of conditions 
 in the Gospel Church, 98, 
 loo-i ; in sparing a third part, 
 222 ; in Isaiah's vision, 238 ; 
 in Solomon's acts, 299, 330. 
 
 Ultimatum — concerning Turko- 
 Egj'ptian war, 409, 410. 
 
 Union— of Church and State, 
 104. 
 
 Virgins — The ten, 163; discov- 
 ery of the "wise," 250, 270; 
 "slept " prophetically, 263. 
 
 Visibility of the Advent, 50. 
 
 Vision— The Royal, 58, 65. 
 
 Voices — anti-secret, 55-6, 192, 
 276, 336, 432. 
 
 War — on the Saints, 222-4 ; on 
 Rome, 231 ; by the dragon 
 235 ; on the witnesses, 309,- 
 367-8 ; of Turkey and Egypt, 
 407. 
 
 Watching — an imperative duty, 
 179-80 ; a test of faith, 274. 
 
458 
 
 INDEX OP SUBJECTS. 
 
 Westphalia — Peace of, 136, 144. 
 Wilderness— Church in, 52. 
 Winds— holding the four, 245-7 i 
 
 Conder on, 248. 
 Witnesses — the two, 47, 302-7; 
 
 war on, 309, 367-8; triumph 
 
 of, 330-32- 
 Witness — of the water, 271. 
 Word of God — power of, 145. 
 Worms — Diet at, 140. 
 
 }'ainii)i — (daj^s or years), 290 
 (note). 
 
 Years — 1260, 100, 104, 135, 150, 
 301 ; 1290 and 1335 (Dan. xii. 
 11-13), 289-91; 150, of Otto- 
 man restraint, 384-7 ; 391, 15 
 days, Ottoman agencies 
 loosed, 405-414. 
 
 Zion- — Mount, on fire, 346. 
 Zoe — (life), 12-3 (note). 
 
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