MYSTERY OF 
 
 
 wrn^ 
 
 

 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
 Chap. Copyright No.. 
 
 Shelf^n: 
 
 H^ 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
JASPER SEASTON HUGHES. 
 
MYSTERY 
 
 OF 
 
 The Golden Cloth 
 
 OR 
 
 THE RIVEN VEIL 
 
 JASPER SEASTON HUGHES 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 White Star, Publisher 
 1898 
 
24060 
 
 COPYRIGHT 
 
 By jasper S. HUGHES 
 
 1898. 
 
 COPIES HEC!(VEB' 
 
 
MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH 
 
 OR 
 
 THE RIVEN VEIL 
 
 By JASPER SEASTON HUGHES. 
 
 AN EXPERIENCE. 
 
 Upon the living room table in my father's house had lain 
 from my earliest recollections an ancient writing, about which 
 the most fascinating traditions had gathered. It came to be 
 known as the Golden Cloth or Cloth of Gold, and into its 
 fibers were wrought and interpreted certain promises that to its 
 possessor some day would come a great reward. This strange 
 writing was an heirloom to my father as it had been to his 
 father and so on back from father to son from a period beyond 
 the point we were able to trace onr family tree. Just why it 
 had been so closely preserved and so carefully handed down 
 was never very rationally accounted for. 
 
 In my father's day it was sometimes referred to as the ^^Eo- 
 setta," meaning the famous Eosetta stone, because it resembled 
 it in having the appearance of having been written in highly 
 pictorial language, and also because it implied a possibility 
 that the mystery it held should some day be revealed and so 
 prove to be a key to a treasure-house of knowledge far more 
 valuable even than that. The characters bore unmistakable 
 marks of anticjuity and of an oriental origin, It differed from 
 
 a 
 
4 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 the Rosetta stone in being written upon parchment instead of 
 engraved in stone, and the figures employed nearly all the 
 wonders in nature, were worked in relief upon its face and 
 cunningly made of the same threads, or strands, that composed 
 the fabric like a Damasque or an Arabesque. Though the 
 language seemed to convey one and the same message, the 
 unique arrangement had led into confusion all who had at- 
 tempted its interpretation. This fact was supposed to render 
 it impossible to be understood. The innumerable efforts of the 
 great and learned who had carefully examined true copies of 
 it had failed to give the key, and many concluded it was the 
 work of some idle monk or ingenious person having no mean- 
 ing of importance and but the carr}dng out of a mere fancy to 
 dispose of idle time by weaving a trackless maze which no one 
 might ever unravel, or if he should, would be ill rewarded for so 
 great pains. But all agreed that, in view of so many failures, it 
 was a great presumption for any one to attempt the secret. 
 There grew around the Cloth therefore a veil of mist, of super- 
 stition, for its mysteries and a reverence for its antiquity as 
 well as for a vague interest in the groups of characters them- 
 selves so strangely worked into it and spread over its surface. 
 
 This strange old book fell to me and was preserved with the 
 same reverence, though not without certain mental question- 
 ings, as it had been in the hands of my ancestors through a 
 long line, even jealously, though I could not tell the reason 
 why. Being a little venturesome, I had once cherished the 
 ambitious design of some day finding at least some part of its 
 long hidden secret, and, being myself an unordained evangel- 
 ist, I had even ventured a few years before to interest my 
 listeners in its imagery who had all seen copies of the Cloth 
 of Gold and had pondered its sibyllic oracles with wonder. 
 
 I had postponed the undertaking till I might feel less of 
 awe, and might never have begun it again but for the saddest 
 
Or, the riven veil. 5 
 
 possible calamity that befell me. . Upon my lovely home, which 
 I held in my heart to be the most perfect Eden since that one 
 from which the four rivers went out long ago, there fell the 
 shadow of the darkest cloud that ever lowered over a spot which 
 perfect love had made happy from our bridal day. My dear 
 Emily sank abruptly into the abysmal pit of melancholia from 
 a previous life of continued cheerful health. My own bitter- 
 ness of spirit became to me unbearable and, disqualified for the 
 duties of life, I was compelled to seek some way to divert my 
 thoughts from an agony too intense to be borne. But my ef- 
 forts were entirely unavailing and, in whatever direction I 
 sought diversion or oblivion from my sorrow it proved unavail- 
 ing. I sought some sea great enough to drown my all consum- 
 ing grief. After some months it came to me that on my table 
 there lay a labyrinth of mystery no man had ever threaded and 
 one where I might surely lose my burden and bury my grief. 
 I determined to do so, remembering, however, that it was com-, 
 monly believed that most, or many at least, had become in- 
 sane in this venturous attempt, and a proverb had often been 
 spoken that he who attempts to find the secret of the Cloth of 
 Gold is either insane when he begins, or will be when he ends 
 it. My distress assisted my usual venturesome disposition and 
 urged me to the attempt. 
 
 The Cloth of Gold had always been kept within the lids of 
 the old family Bible as in some way akin to it like the family 
 record, or somewhat nearer, but considered as of doubtfuh right 
 to be taken into the full credit of scripture truth; and as it 
 never left its place folded in and bound with it, and as it 
 closes with words of warning well suiting the close of the great 
 book, I chose to regard it as inspired. As a vast body of tra- 
 dition had gathered around the author of the work, of little 
 value as affecting either the invention or the author of it, I in- 
 tended that all claims for the character of both should rest upon 
 
6 MYSTERY OP THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 what I might find by searching the hook itself. Here and 
 there, on the original of which ours is but a translation, are 
 to be found sayings in Greek showing all the marks of care and 
 painstaking possible' and bearing marks of literary value, but 
 are meshed together in an order of hieroglyphic misrule to 
 which neither the Eosetta stone nor any other relic of anti- 
 quity has yet furnished a parallel or the key to unlock. 
 
 A weird element of the Cloth is a sort of psalmody of an 
 unearthly and supernal type as from the spell of some en- 
 chanted dreamer or transcendental philosopher singing a dirge 
 over perished empires in which a sacramental host in white 
 joins in acclamations of victory over earth and death and time. 
 One thing of much importance to me was that all traditions 
 agreed in saying that the author of this antique was an exile, 
 and this strange mosaic which he composed contains the state- 
 ment by the author himself that it was while there he wrought 
 out the work. I said, soliloquizing, ."Here is a man who can 
 sympathize with me. He too was an exile, as I am, broken 
 hearted and far from his sweet home once graced with the 
 presence of Marj^ the mother of Jesus; and her© in this far 
 off island in solitude has found food for his mind and, may 
 be, solace for his heart. For his sake I will study this fabric." 
 Then, too, he was not a modern tobacco fiend, and did not 
 read the daily papers for his mental diet nor engage in poli- 
 tics, and being an exile presumably for life, I will pledge my 
 honor he will tell the truth and be good company, if he speaks, 
 and that will be luxury enough for me, and, so help me, I will 
 be his companion. If it prove a condescending choice, I alone 
 hold the secret. 
 
 Near the beginning I find these words in well written Greek, 
 
 Maxdpio<; 6 avayivcbdxc^v, x<xi oi dxovovrs? rbv \6yov Tf}<s 
 7Cpoq)i]TEia'i, xoci rr^povvrsi rd ev avrrf yeypa/xfieva 6 yap x<^^po? 
 kyyv'i. 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 7 
 
 ^^Blessed is he who reads these words of teaching and they also 
 who hear and keep the things written therein!" Well that 
 looks a little like a book advertisement of the modern kind, 
 but it is not. There may be very little in it, I know not, but 
 the man is honest, and since this world is not worth a fig to 
 me now my Emily languishes in deep delusion at -the Sanita- 
 rium, and her love turned away from all she ever cherished, and 
 as there is nothing else I can do, I will give good heed to this 
 lone man and his strange work. I will listen to this strange 
 old man as the lover listens to the lute. I will take the slight- 
 est clue to the secret of the soul of him who made this old 
 fabric and wrote into it a charm that has outlived and has borne 
 it above the age& in which all has perished except that which 
 has some sort of merit. Let one banished man speak to an- 
 other across eighteen centuries. Here am I, so speak on old 
 exile! I am ready, I for one will listen. Give me one thread 
 of light, or let me touch one string of thy harp, and I will 
 follow it to the end, and not let go till I can feel thy soul 
 throbs beat against mine own. Ko one else need know of our 
 matter, but thy secret, if a solace to a sorrowing heart, shall 
 be mine. I will follow thee, for I too, am out of fashion with 
 my corrupt age as thou with thine. I will search for thy bless- 
 ing as for hidden treasure, for now thy far away exile is not 
 half so distant to me as the cold mercenary world of nothings 
 and nobodies about me. 
 
 But, on second thought now, I am presumptuous. Great men 
 have tried to disclose this secret. Scholars many have searched 
 and toiled and have written glosses and have proposed such 
 questions as they knew how to answer to save their credit with 
 the multitude, and have themselves written "Caution" above 
 the Golden Cloth — tacit confession of failure— caution to all 
 not to be presumptuous to suppose any mortal mind can ever 
 follow the threads inwrought by this old hermit of the Agean. 
 
8 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 But whose affair is it if he and I can find company here? I 
 will first have enongh respect for our great learning to consult 
 its oracles as to the direction in which I shall turn my inquiry. 
 This I proceeded to do, and found that they all agreed he 
 would indeed be a blessed and happy man who should ever 
 read aright the secret of the Golden Cloth written by the exile. 
 But I could not find any who claimed to enjoy the happiness 
 he promised, though they all gave warning to the curious that 
 suit at this oracle is vain. But it was a chilling and labyrin- 
 thian road to travel, to follow their vaporous comments, and 
 so, tired and discouraged, I halted to rest. It then came to 
 me that it was supposed by some that the writing in some way 
 contained a prophetic construction; a forecast of coming times 
 as the pyramids are said to contain in their construction a 
 guide to ancient astronomy. So I fumbled over history a little, 
 keeping one eye on the Cloth; but this was spiritless and with- 
 out profit, and I found I had again wandered away from my 
 old friend. It then occurred to me that I had often said in 
 my "Telling Talks,^' which I call my lectures, that in all mat- 
 ters of conscience the first answer is best, while in all ques- 
 tions of judgment the last answer is safest, and said my heart, 
 in soliloquy, you have told this old hermit exile that. you be- 
 lieve in him and love him more than all the world. ISTow you 
 and he have it out all alone. The prompting is true: That 
 w^as my first thought, and I believe the best. I will do it. 
 Then I again read his words of blessing, and this time I no- 
 ticed the text in Greek did not say blessed is he who reads 
 these words and then goes to the commentaries to find out 
 what they mean. Ah, yes! I see. If I am to follow you I 
 cannot run off after some one else nor care too much for their 
 Opinions — just we two. We are outcasts. Good. If he is an 
 exile from home, he will speak of that and tell me the grief 
 he bore and how he bore it and for what cause he was exiled 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 9 
 
 and what difference there may be between his day when a 
 man was deported into exile on a solitary island where no loved 
 face could be seen, and one doomed to remain at home and 
 face the frown of the crowds that hate him for rebuking their 
 sins. That, I will do; I will listen to him because he put into 
 his apocalypse that which kept it from oblivion. That there 
 is some kind of reason about it, is manifest, or it could not have 
 survived, and this reason, if I can but find it, may be the goal 
 richer than hidden treasure or any last will and testament of 
 chattels. I approach it with a hungering heart and a freedom 
 of inquiry new to my experience, and in which I feel more ad- 
 vancement, working on the lower plane of personal quest for 
 sympathy than as critic or scholar for attainment. 
 
 It was soon to be seen that the theme of his story was not 
 at all about his own affairs, as mine; not a dirge over a lost 
 home, nor even a pining to return to his country, nor anything 
 of the kind; nothing in coinmon with what had driven me to 
 seek shelter from sorrow's storm. And now I seemed to in- 
 trude upon one who had risen to the sublimest heights of rap- 
 ture. He was absorbed and in ecstacy over another person 
 whose company he may have sought, or for whose sake per- 
 chance he suffered exile. Neither home nor friends nor soli- 
 tude had the least of his attention, but one who stood to hini. 
 all and more than mortal could be to me. Now I have made 
 a vulgar mistake in supposing this old hermit beneath my com- 
 pany. I am to envy him; he is above the reach and care of 
 this world, triumphant. Ah! may be he has wrought the story 
 of his Master in this book. But affecting for the moment that 
 I knew nothing of what I might fmd, only imagining that I 
 was coming for the first time to the study of the Golden Cloth, 
 I yet knew well he had a hero, but I will love him the more 
 for that. Here he has inscribed his likeness and I will study 
 him in the likenesses he draws of him, his hero, and mine, for 
 
10 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 to him I gave my loyalty .before I knew and loved Emily, and 
 to whom I referred when I frankly told her at our engagement 
 that she held the highest place in my heart any one could hold 
 on earth, emphasizing the last two words. And though that 
 first friend was removed from me further than the Agean, he 
 was always imaged in my memory and my hope since my bap- 
 tism in a stream near Clinton's Station. What if this Cloth 
 of Gold prove a revelation of him in times to come? It so 
 alleges in the opening. I am to look for "things to come to 
 pass hereafter." So, turning away from the commentaries, I 
 must accept only what I may find here alone with the Cloth 
 in hand. 
 
 The wonderful imagery of animals on earth and about the 
 throne, and rivers, seas, mountains, angels, demons, etc., seemed 
 at first to obstruct my looking deeper into its mechanism as 
 the figures on the wall divert our attention from the seams in 
 the paper. But I will begin at the base. So I began to in- 
 spect the writing most leisurely. My earnest patient search 
 convinced me I had done well in following my heart prompt- 
 ings rather than any fine theories or learned veneering. It be- 
 came manifest that this work is not a fragment of some other 
 work but a complete and finished fabric; all its seeming diverse 
 •and disconnected parts bearing definite and intelligible rela- 
 tions to some matter simple in its essence, but of enormous pur- 
 port; and I did well in taking the exile at his promise that he 
 should be a happy man who should read the words of prophecy 
 written herein. Here I began to be strengthened in the sound- 
 ness of my fixed purpose and to feel a rising hope of finding a 
 place to lay down my unbearable burden, already begun to be 
 expexieneed in part, and dismissing all my earlier impressions 
 I will persist and follow again and again any clew that gives 
 promise of progress. 
 
 First, then, I will carefully inspect the threads or strands 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 11 
 
 that seem to compose it. They are not very numerous. Here 
 I take hold of a golden thread. It is precious as having passed 
 through the fire in which I am myself so deeply tried. It 
 rises, then sinks away into the fabric and disappears to rise 
 again further on. I will follow it. But though I did follow, 
 I found I had lost it a little later, and so had to go back and 
 begin to follow again till I discovered, after several trials, that 
 by some means I could not understand, I always lost my thread 
 and could not tell how I lost it. Well, as I have nothing else 
 to do, I will find where the trouble lies. 
 
 Thousands, it may be, have trod this path before me and 
 I am but repeating their failures, and now I must. give my- 
 self a reason why, and how, I lost my strand and was not able 
 to tell how. That I will fathom. What is it that diverts my 
 attention? What is this, this mystic labyrinth whose unseen 
 mouth yawns and engulfs me at its threshold? What syren 
 sings me off my course? I have at least discovered there is 
 some mystery about its losing my attention and letting go my 
 golden strand undiscerningly and finding myself off the course 
 and gazing again upon the wilderness of confused imagery lost. 
 Well, here is a bewitchment, and again I tried and failed, and so 
 on, till I said there is no use; if I cannot follow one thread 
 through the Cloth of Gold, I never can get another step. That 
 is the least I can do, and that must be done first. I found 
 later that it was the larger figures of different moral colors 
 through which the threads passed and each time taking on the 
 color of that figure of which it formed a part like an Arabesque 
 of dazzling colors, that had absorbed me and spirited away my 
 attention and my pursuit. So I sought, and later found a sort 
 of familiarity with these figures that permitted me, after very, 
 many trials, to follow to its end at the further side, one of 
 its threads. But what have I accomplished? I have simply 
 followed one thread through to its end. Well, why could I 
 
1^ MYSTERY OP THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 not do it the first time? -What manner of bewitchery caught 
 away my attention? I am curious. If the exile is simply some 
 great artist lost in his art he is in his right place and proves 
 himself already a most interesting person, for no other I ever 
 knew could so completely phantom me out of my purpose to 
 inspect his work. Well, then, he may be a master artist so 
 great and original he has hidden his art, the secret of this 
 golden mystery, at the very threshold, so that all men are caught 
 away like himself into exile. But now, what about my thread 
 of gold? Well I take it again and follow it to the end, and 
 now I will mark its track so I can identify it by these antique 
 figures on the face if I should chance to want to use it again. 
 W^ell, there it goes now and it enters into the golden girdle 
 with which the Son of Man is girdled and enters the shining 
 chaplets of the elders around the throne who have on their 
 crowns of gold, and there is gold in the hand of the angel in the 
 temple swinging a golden censer and another angel who rides 
 the cloud chariot has a golden crown and it ends up in the 
 pavements cf a blessed city at the other end whose streets are 
 paved with gold.* Accident? Yes, of course, but still inter- 
 esting. It seems to have started at the other end where gold 
 is plentiful enough to make paving for the streets. It may be 
 
 *Now you must always be prepared to read Greek legends as you 
 would trace threads through figures on a silken damask. The same- 
 thread runs through the web, but it makes part of different figures 
 joined with other colors you hardly recognize it; and in different 
 lights it is dark or light. Thus the Greek fables blend and cross 
 curiously in different directions till they knit themselves into an 
 Arabesque where sometimes you can not tell black from purple 
 nor blue from emerald, they being all the truer for this, for the 
 truths of emotion they represent are interwoven in the same way 
 but all the more difficult to read and to explain in any order.— 
 Ruskin. 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 13 
 
 this means something of method that may justify my faith in 
 the good sense of the author and my own resolve to follow him. 
 
 I will try another strand. Here is a white thread of which 
 are the white head, and white hair, and white garments, etc. 
 Again I realize the old trouble about holding on to my thread, 
 for, in turning from one to the other side, I lose the clew to 
 find it reappearing in new and seemingly unrelated combina- 
 tions nearly impossible to carry out. But having followed it 
 to the end, I try to mark the track so I can follow it again, 
 if needed. My white thread finds its beginning in the white 
 head and hair of "the Prince of the rulers of the earth,^' which 
 are "white, white as wool and as white as snow," and it passes 
 to the elders in white robes around the throne and it passes 
 through the little gem stone which is white, and an angel reaper 
 rides a white cloud, and a white horse with a victorious rider 
 goes forth to conquer, a great white sea appears, and it ends 
 up in a great white throne at the further end. 
 
 "Green," which is found to mean living, is followed in the 
 same way, all its occurrences showing spiritual life. "Black," 
 which means ignorance, is connected entirely with things op- 
 posed to the white and to the green even as night is opposed to 
 day. Now I take the word "red" and follow it to the end to 
 fmd its track marked by a red horse with a rider having a great 
 sword to take away peace from the earth, and a sea of red blood, 
 and a great red dragon, and a lake of red fire at last for the 
 dire consignment of the wicked. 
 
 All this is something more than accident. Here, I said, is 
 an accumulation of suggestive circumstances too great to be 
 mere accident or coincidence. I begin to feel it is a little too 
 familiar to call this man my brother, although he says plainly, 
 "I, John, who also am your brother and companion in the 
 tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ!" If 
 he can ever forgive me for my first patronizing approach and 
 
14 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 the mean thought that it was a condescension for me to leave 
 all else to hear instruction from him^ I will try to be a close 
 listener to the end of his story. 
 
 I felt that I had here found the rudiments of a governing 
 principle which might gather into one the seemingly broken and 
 scattered fragments of a temple of a dream strewn across the 
 plane of time into some kind of order or articulation. 
 
N0| Order By Chapters 
 
 Order Of Time 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 15 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Revelation I. 
 
 THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 Here we drop our own allegory. It was but an echo of a 
 thousand loftier strains which inspired it, a stepping stone to 
 their approach. The singular genius of the Eevelation has 
 wakened a new song in the hearts of myriads by a melody whose 
 rhythm they could not catch, but, drawn on by a charm as yet 
 lacking intelligibility, have yearned for the joy of its light 
 as the mariner on the troubled sea at night yearns for the break 
 of day. Victor Hugo when he had himself become an exile, 
 sat down to read with a new heart and fresh interest this won- 
 drous book, and said, "In reading the poem of Patmos some 
 one seems to push you from behind. The dread entrance, 
 vaguely outlined, rouses mingled terror and longing." 
 
 How charmingly simple is this statement of its author, "I, 
 John, your brother and companion in the tribulation and king- 
 dom and patience which are in Jesus, was in the isle that is 
 called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of 
 Jesus." Ah! where is this, your kingdom, solitary man? Did 
 your king banish you into exile, or was it the other? It was 
 for claiming to be the son of God that Christ was put to death 
 and for daring to preach His resurrection that His apostles were 
 persecuted, killed or exiled. Here is the last of them. In 
 exile for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus here tran- 
 quil, on a rock mid tumultuous seas from that desolating storm 
 which swept down upon the church in the time of that second 
 Nero, here calm, confident and triumphant. It was the time 
 
1 
 
 16: MYSTERY OF THE- GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 of the deepest trial to the young church. Titus, under the em- 
 peror Vespasian, had laid Jerusalem in the dust and had put 
 out the smoke upon her altar forever. The church which had 
 been in constant expectation of the return of her Lord was 
 now quickened in the hope of His return; for whatever may 
 have been explained as the cause of His delay He had, as it 
 was understood, connected that coming with the desolation of 
 Jerusalem and had said "this generation shall not pass away 
 till all these things come to pass." Paul, who had written to 
 the saints at Thessalonica to be not over distressed about their 
 dead who had died while looking for the Lord's coming from 
 heaven, which he and they both expected, said "we which are 
 alive and remain till the coming of the Lord shall not precede 
 them,'^ was himself now dead about two years when Jerusalem 
 fell. James had long ago been slain, and Peter had closed his 
 ministry with a martyr's glory. The "pillar apostles" . were 
 dead except this one about whom Peter asked when he had 
 been foretold of his own martyrdom — "what is it to thee if he 
 tarry till I come." The vexing -and fiery persecution of Nero 
 was at a distance in the past. The desolation of Jerusalem 
 raised a new agitation in the life and hope of the church. "The 
 coming of the Lord," which Christ Himself had so closely con- 
 nected with that event, quoting from the "prophet Daniel," 
 led the Disciples to a new and profound study of Daniel's proph- 
 esy with a view to that coming, and, as we shall see, two of 
 its great visions form the very framework on which this story 
 is laid. In answer to the question "what shall be the sign 
 of thy coming" He had cited the desolation of Jerusalem, and 
 as that event stretched further and further behind them there 
 was a growing lukewarmness, and spiritual decadence had be- 
 gun as at Sardis and Laodicea. 
 
 The time of painful emergency had come and patience was 
 on trial, when an explanation of his Lord's delay must be given, 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 11 
 
 for His living witnesses were now few. He had said "this gen- 
 eration shall not pass away till all these things be fulfilled.'' 
 The mind of the exile is filled with a thousand wonderings in 
 solitude when his Lord appeared to him with the Revelation. 
 Till now the disciples had been gazing into heaven looking 
 for His return ''as ye saw Him ascend." They had been slow 
 to learn that Christ must die and rise again from the dead, 
 and though forewarned of it often, were disheartened at His 
 death and returned to their nets and were unbelieving when 
 told of His resurrection as of an idle tale and they stood gaz- 
 ing and amazed when He ascended out of their sight;, and 
 though He returned to them in power on the day of Pente- 
 cost they continued to gaze "heavenward for His glorious ap- 
 pearing with His angels to possess His kingdom and to reign 
 with themselves on thrones over Israel and the world. The 
 suspense had become agonizing when John was exiled, for, in 
 addition to the promise as they understood it that this genera- 
 tion should not pass away till all these things be fulfilled, there 
 was a rumor current that John, the Bosom Disciple, should 
 not die but should tarry till Christ should come as He Himself 
 tells us. 
 
 The minds of the believers would grow slowly but surely 
 amid these wondrous events. The crowning act was here to 
 transpire. The succession of the wondrous events were the 
 personal ministry of Christ,. His death upon the cross. His res- 
 urrection to life. His ascension to glory the day of Pentecost 
 and last His glorious appearance to John in Patmos. Great 
 prophesies are given in times of great emergencies. The per- 
 secution of the infamous Xero was more to divert attention 
 from himself, charged with the burning of Rome, than from 
 any fear of the new sect, and it is doubtful if his persecution 
 extended to any large degree into the provinces where this book 
 was directed to be sent, but there was another Nero — FlaviuB 
 
18 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 Domitius — whose aim was the extermination of the church from 
 the earth, which the churches in all the provinces where John^s 
 later life was spent, must have sorely felt. 
 
 The emperor Domitioon carried heathenism to its climax. 
 Till now the church, so dear to the heart of the exile, had not 
 seen heathenism in its direst form. 
 
 Domition was the twelfth of the Eoman Caesars. He not 
 only caused himself to be worshipped as a god, but was the 
 first to cause himself to be placed upon the legal papers as 
 ^'the Lord God Domitius." He had himself deified in the 
 public documents and thus while living assumed honors which 
 had formerly been allowed only to. the dead; and so cancels 
 a hitherto distinction. 
 
 In the isle of Patmos is an exile whom Domition has ban- 
 ished and to him his risen Lord comes back and addresses him 
 to explain the promise of His coming and these mysterious 
 words, "what is it to thee if he tarry till I come." 
 
 Here is the climax of sin met by the climax of revelation. 
 To this lone survivor who tells us four times his name is John 
 and now near the close of his life, Christ appears and says to 
 him, "I aril He that was dead and behold I am alive forever more 
 and have the keys of death and of Hades." "I am Jesus Christ, 
 the faithful witness, the first born from the dead, the ruler 
 of the kings of the earth." "He that loved us and loosed us 
 from our sins by His own blood and made us to be a kingdom, 
 to be priests unto God and His Father." The exile says, "I 
 was in the spirit on the Lord's Day and I heard behind me a 
 great voice as of a trumpet saying, Vhat thou seest write in 
 a book and send it to the seven churches.' " There, serene 
 where the storm had driven him; a book is to be written. This 
 is our order for the woven mystery. It is the revelation from 
 God. How intensely the circumstances incite our quest 
 for its secret! The first chapter seems a title page with the 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 19 
 
 spiritual and official portrait of the hero arrayed in the mys- 
 tic emblems of spiritual royalty to wage a spiritual warfare. 
 In this chapter he is five times called Jesus Christy but never 
 again so named till the mystery is finished. Here is a sugges- 
 tion of design, of mystery. The area of the maze enlarges. 
 
 "And I turned to see the voice which spake with me and 
 being turned I saw seven golden candlesticks and in the midst 
 of them one like to the Son of Man clothed with a garment 
 down to the foot and girt about the breast with a golden girdle 
 and his head and his hair were white, white as wool, white as 
 snow, and his eyes were as • a flame of fire, and his feet like 
 unto burnished brass as if it had been refined in a furnace, 
 and his voice as the voice of many waters, and he had in his 
 right hand his seven stars and out of his mouth proceeded a 
 sharp two edged sword, and his countenance was as the sun" 
 shineth in his strength." Ah! He who once sank under a Eo- 
 man cross and the jeers of a sinning world, pressed by the 
 mob, has come again, now victorious, first born from the dead, 
 made alive forevermore, now from heaven most glorious whence 
 He ascended in a cloud, now the leader of the deathless race 
 to follow. He is come! Now with a great voice as of a trum- 
 pet He declares His authority louder than in Herod^s court when 
 He stood before His own sinful nation and declared Himself 
 the Son of God and King of the Jews. What speaks this for 
 them alas! and for all His enemies? For such professions He 
 was arrested, tried, sentenced and put to death under the world- 
 wide Eoman rule, betrayed by His own people, forsaken by His 
 disciples. To the Jews who hated Him He had said, "I am 
 the Son of God;" to Herod's court that feared Him, "I am 
 the King of the Jews," and to His disciples who forsook Him, 
 "I am the Christ." Above His cross was written in three lan- 
 guages the mock inscription, "This Is Jesus, the King of the 
 
20 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 Jews/^ the irony to the Roman officers^ the doom to the Jews' 
 nation, and the ensign of salvation to the jnst. 
 
 On one side that act expressed the world's judgment on all 
 true reformers, and on the other, the love and tribulation and 
 patience of the saints illustrated by the exile himself. To all, 
 such death or exile may come, but denial never. "For of a 
 truth against the Lord and against His annointed, both Herod 
 and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel 
 were gathered together to do whatsoever thy hand and thy coun- 
 cil determined before to be done.'' The world took up arms 
 against Him, for it knew Him no*t. He was despised and re- 
 jected. They crucified Him, and bribed the soldiers to deny 
 His resurrection; they killed His chosen stars for preaching it, 
 and had now banished John, the last, into exile doomed to 
 solitude, despised and rejected of men like his Master. 
 
 But of such situations God is most mindful. It was to Moses 
 in the lonely mountain of Midian, a refugee from the brick 
 yards of Egyptian serfdom and an exile from home and kin- 
 dred, that God appeared in the burning bush and commissioned 
 him a deliverer of His oppressed children. To Noah, and to 
 Abraham, when they had estranged themselves from their kin- 
 dred by their loftier righteousness, God appeared, saving the 
 one by the ark from the watery wastes to begin a new world, 
 and the other by leading him from the altars of idolatry into 
 a far country, afterward to be made his own; and to Daniel 
 while a captive in exile far removed from "the pleasant land" 
 where the wailing singers "hung their harps upon the willows 
 and wept when they remembered Jerusalem," there God re- 
 vealed His purposes concerning all ages. So to John in soli- 
 tude among the rocky cliffs of far away Patmos whence per- 
 secution had driven him, God appears in the person of His 
 Son with the last Revelation of God to man till "He come with 
 clouds and every eye shall see Him." "I was in the isle that 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 21 
 
 is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony 
 of Jesns/' This is his short story that he had borne testimony 
 for Jes-QS. That he conld not do with impunity. That was 
 a denial of this world's right to rule. It was for claiming the 
 right to be -king that Christ was slain, and that John, His 
 servant, was banished. He had flnng back the lie in the face 
 of this accusing world by testifying to "that which we have 
 heard and which we have seen with onr eyes, and have handled 
 with our hands of the Word of Life which we declare unto 
 you.'' The sinful powers that slew his Lord remain sinful 
 and brutish and unrelenting as when Herod and Pontius Pilate 
 and the Gentiles and the Jews forgot their mutual hatreds for 
 one hour in their greater common hatred of the Christ. Ah! they 
 are met again, the crucified and the- exile, face to face, far 
 from the stormy scenes of Calvary. "What is it to thee if he 
 tarry till I come?" John is in the flesh but he says, "I was 
 in the spirit." His Lord is in glory but now also here pres- 
 ent with him, near enough to be seen^ to hear him, to touch 
 him. 
 
 "Lord, and what shall this man do?" inquired Peter, who, 
 seeing that disciple follow who had before leaned on Jesus' 
 breast at supper. Now Jesus had said to Peter, "H I will that 
 he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?" And that saying 
 went abroad among the disciples that that disciple should not 
 die. That tradition has floated on down the stream of time, 
 and may still be heard till this day among the folk-lore of 
 Europe where the reappearance of "Prester Yahonnes," as 
 he is called, from some long sequestration on the earth, is 
 thought to be as imminent as the reappearance of his Master 
 from the skies. But here, so sure as love is faithful to its 
 promise, he does come to John, the exile. "I was in the spirit 
 on the Lord's Day and heard behind me the voice of a trum- 
 pet, and having turned I saw seven golden candlesticks, and 
 
22 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 in the midst of them one like to the Son of Man clothed with 
 a garment down to the foot and girt about the breast with a 
 golden girdle/' The mob of world powers has made a failure. 
 He is not dead, but alive and manifest here, and is now with 
 the exile whom with his brother James He once named Boan- 
 erges — sons of thunder; but now creates him master scribe of 
 the world and chief of prophetic seers, commands him to write 
 in a book and to send it to the seven churches which are in Asia, 
 at Ephesus, at Smyrna, at Pegamos, at Thyatira, at Sardis, at 
 Philadelphia, and at Laodicea. The actual number of churches 
 in the world was much greater than seven, and even in Asia 
 Minor, as we know, but these by some method of selection or 
 of representation are called "The Seven Churches.'^ This raises 
 the question whether there is not here a lowering, or annulling 
 of numeral values to meet the higher purpose of some unusual 
 narration? It deeply challenges our attention. In the same 
 sentence he calls the one spirit of God "the seven spirits which 
 are before His throne." Here is numeral excess. It is enig- 
 matical. As we know the spirit of God to be one by the posi- 
 tive teaching of scripture, we here strangely find it raised to 
 a new mystical value in seven. Some occult but high purpose 
 must lie under the adding a plural and multiple value to what 
 we have so well fixed as an unit. If by the seven spirits the 
 one spirit is meant, then we have a cancellation of numerical 
 value, and a mystic value in seven that supersedes it, a spiritual 
 meaning, a sign that shall give to the factors of the narra- 
 tion he is about to give, a value and power suited to the higher 
 purpose of Him "who spoke as never man spoke.'' Here is 
 a hint we shall read on a higher plane. 
 
 But beside the seven spirits, which express all spirit, and 
 the seven churches, which express all churches, we have the 
 seven stars as though they expressed the full spiritual firma- 
 ment. He holds the seven stars in His right hand. What vast 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 23 
 
 suggestion may be contained in this manner of speech! It is 
 written here into his salutation — '^Grace to you and peace 
 from Him which Is and which Was and which Is To Come; and 
 from the seven spirits which are before His throne, and from 
 Jesus Christ, etc." The salutation of God with full titles and 
 of the seven spirits, and of the Christ bearing aloft in His right 
 hand His seven stars, while He walks amid the seven golden 
 candlesticks, which are His wondrous seven churches. A new 
 value by the process of some spiritual algebra is here expressed, 
 waiting the unknown factors to round out its mighty import. 
 By the same wondrous process we observe with amazement the 
 breaking up of the unity of the Almighty name. To Abraham 
 God said, "I am the Almighty;" to Moses He said, '^Tell Pha- 
 raoh I am that I am," verb of ever being; but here by an act 
 of transcendant audacity if not of authority, the name of Deity 
 is boldly broken into three words of time and of spiritual 
 utility, and of lofty import by new magnitudes of purpose 
 for the vast theme of the book which the exile is commanded 
 to write. "Grace to you and peace from Him which Is and 
 Which Was and Which Is to Come." Time is here divided 
 into three divine epochs by these new names of the Almighty. 
 The full list of Almighty names is here given as expressing 
 the totality of divine power. We see and identify God by all 
 these great titles. "I am the Alpha and the Omega, saith the 
 Lord God, which Is and which Was and which Is To Come, 
 the Almighty." Such method of dividing time was never till 
 now heard of. The same division of time is observed in the 
 order given to John to write "the things that are, and the 
 things thou sawest, and the things which shall come^to pass 
 hereafter." Here is a remarkable co-ordination of the divi- 
 sion of time made more wonderful by the titles of the Christ 
 who says, "I am the Alpha and the Omega., the first and the 
 last, the beginning and the end." This writing is to cover 
 
24 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 the field of time, past, present and future. Such words lift 
 the heart to heights hitherto unknown, to tell the story of the 
 hero as related to all time in the vast and awful imagery of 
 heaven, earth, sea, etc. 
 
 It is "the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave to Him 
 to show to His servants; the gospel of Christ, by Christ.'^ It 
 chooses to recognize these things by its own transcendence of 
 view. We must ascend in the spirit to receive it as John did. 
 The things of the present, past and future are not to be taken 
 as things in general, but things as they stand related to the 
 Alpha and the Omega. Things the exile and his suffering 
 brothers longed to know. So short a book as this, the limit 
 of a single vision, must view the onwardness of all ages by 
 some very abridged method. It must deal with essences, not 
 with externals, and with conditions, not places, with principles, 
 not persons. 
 
 There is in this story at least a chief personality, the hero, 
 and John, his revelator, but localities, externalities and lesser 
 personalities are sunken from view, giving bolder relief to "the 
 Alpha and the Omega," who gathers unto Himself the ends of 
 time. There are three things to be noted in this salutation. -1. 
 Never before nor after this one occurrence, does the Holy Spirit 
 hold a place between the names of the Father and the Christ. 
 This imports a lesson by transposition. In this dispensation, 
 the spirit did precede the announcement of the coronation of 
 Christ on the pentecost succeeding His ascension, and this 
 transposition of the usual order points to that fact. 2. N'ever 
 before was the Spirit spoken of as "the seven spirits'^ or 'an- 
 nounced as being before the throne of God. 3. Never before 
 was the*name of God formally divided into three words of time 
 — present, past and future, to show the epochs of Eevelation 
 time. What a daring liberty is this of transposition and of 
 destroying numeral values that a higher order may be taken, 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 25 
 
 an order in which numbers shall be raised to a higher office 
 than mere units of things. But in such an undertaking how 
 may the past, the present and the future be contained and 
 conveyed with mental distinction? That will require an ex- 
 traordinary method, and here that method is employed. 
 
 THE THINGS THAT ARE. 
 
 1. The things that are, that is to say, the things that were 
 then present and current at the time of the exile's vision, are 
 expressed in the seven letters to the seven churches. These are 
 seven open letters, as distinguished from a later sealed book 
 which followed and was contained in seven sealed messages 
 afterward called "the little book." 
 
 2. The open letters were addressed to seven actual churches 
 at Ephesus, at Smyrna, at Pergamos, at Thyatira, etc. 
 
 3. They present the relations of things then present in 
 the relation of the churches to the world and to God between 
 which they stood as suffering witnesses and lights. 
 
 THE THINGS PAST. 
 
 The things past are rewritten in sign language or cryptic 
 signals. This is therefore a double writing. The past supports 
 the story of the future as shadow supports substance. It is ' 
 represented as a book in the right hand of Him that sat upon 
 the throne "written both within and on the back." The past 
 thus becomes the divine prologue expressed in occult or cryp- 
 tic signs as the basis of the divine apologue of the things of 
 "the hereafter" told in allegory and symbol of the hero, the 
 divine Logos. The substance of the past becomes shadow of 
 things future. The things unknown and future are to be ex- 
 pressed by "the things that do appear." The future is by this 
 
26 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 means shown to be an enlargement^ or fnlfillment of the past. 
 They are thus written together and co-ordinate as parts, of one 
 great whole. We read it as we would read the writing on a 
 palimpsest where we can trace the old dim letters lying un- 
 der the new as a pattern^ the new has followed but heightened 
 in effect. Only by the clear recognition of the division of 
 time into past^ present and future^ can we find ground that 
 will support the subject matter. This is the division not of 
 chronological^ neither of logical^ but of intensely Christologi- 
 cal time, the division of sacred epochs. 
 
 The story must illustrate the thesis "I am the Alpha and 
 the Omega, the ruler of the kings of the earth, who was in 
 the beginning with the Father." We are to deal with Reve- 
 lation time so fixed that even the name of the Almisfhty is 
 broken into three divisions and made to yield to its purpose. 
 John is told to "write the things Which are and which thou 
 sawest, and which shall come to pass hereafter/' just as we 
 have seen the spirit and the churchy and the stars yield their 
 numeral values to a new ofhce they are to serve in illustrat- 
 ing the new magnitudes of spiritual commensuration in the 
 purposes of the Almighty. But it completes the assurance of 
 the beginning and on-going and consummation of time to find, 
 as we do, that the name of the Almighty undergoes a change 
 with the end of Revelation. time. In its earlier occurrences, 
 i, 4-8 and 4-8, three times we read "Him that IS and WAS 
 and IS TO COME." But at a point in the story where His com- 
 ing is declared to have occurred, the future is dropped and 
 we have only "HE that IS and WAS," xi, 17 and xvi, 5. By this 
 mighty sign is the present and the future and the on-going 
 of time signified and assured. He is the First and the Last 
 and His is the story of all time. This is even further pledged 
 by the uplifted hand of the angel of God when he swears that 
 "when the seventh trumpet is about to sound, then is finished 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 27 
 
 all the promises which God made to His servants, the prophets/' 
 
 But these divisions of time receive subdivisions in the two 
 major series, the Seals and the Trumpets, and are confirmed 
 later, in other two series to be considered in their respective 
 places in the field of vision yet before ns. These are not to 
 be argued, but only to be seen, for we are following a seer and 
 not a logician. We shall not need the logical mind so much 
 as the seeing heart. We are warned of some unusual method, 
 and a blessing is offered to him that reads and keeps the words 
 written therein. John says, "And when I saw Him I fell at 
 His feet as one dead. And He laid His right hand upon me 
 saying, ^fear not,. I am the first and the last, and the Living 
 One and I was dead and behold I am alive forevermore and 
 have the keys of death and Hades. Write therefore the things 
 which thou sawest and the things which are and the things 
 which shall come to pass hereafter.' '' 
 
 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 are the 
 seven churches. 
 
 This closes for the present the words of Christ's direct com- 
 mission to John. He will next speak to His churches. His 
 explanation of the mystery of the seven stars leaves us still 
 wondering, no nearer an understanding than when He called 
 those angels only stars. What other names have they besides 
 "stars" and "angels?" That we shall presently see. Himself 
 He clearly reveals. "I am He that was dead and behold I am 
 alive forevermore." He that loved us and washed us from 
 our sins in His own blood and made us to be a kingdom and 
 to be priests unto our God. His enemies once east lots for 
 His garment, but now He is clothed in a white garment down 
 to the foot and girt about the loins with a golden girdle they 
 
28 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 cannot touch. His head and hair once flecked with blood are 
 now fleecy as triple white, "white as wool and as white as 
 snow/^ His eyes once dim with tears are like flames of fire, 
 and his feet that trod the wine-press of man's wrath alone, 
 now gleam like molten brass in the furnace. Like a lamb dumb 
 before his shearer. He opened not His mouth before His ac- 
 cusers, but now there proceeds out of His mouth a sharp two- 
 edged sword with which to smite the nations; and His voice, 
 once but a monotone, is now like the sound of many waters. 
 There He is walking in the midst of the golden candlesticks, 
 the churches here in this world, and holds aloft in His right 
 hand His stars to whom He said, "No man shall be able to 
 pluck you out of my hand,'' and here the last and lone star 
 in Patmos says, "And He laid His right hand upon me and 
 said ^fear not.' " How close are the candlesticks, the stars and 
 the lamp-keeper! We have to keep the parts intelligible. 'He 
 walks in the midst and holds His stars in His right hand. Lo- 
 calities are effaced as if heaven and earth were annexed without 
 a seam or line to mark. John is in the spirit, and yet in 
 Patmos; Christ is walking in the midst of the churches, which 
 are here in the earth in seven cities, and yet in sight and in 
 hearing and in touch of John. It is vision, it is a mystery; 
 we cannot divide between the things known by sense, and the 
 things known by faith. The groundling may not see. The 
 .lines between the sensible and the spiritual are absent. Here 
 are seven cities of Asia and Patmos named, but beyond these, 
 and the name of John. we shall not find again, either a place 
 or a personality named. But we will keep a close watch upon 
 Christ and His associate powers, the seven stars, the seven spirits, 
 and the seven churches which are so closely related to Him. 
 Christ's number alone has not yet changed. The Almighty name 
 is given in three; the Spirit, and the Church and the Apostles are 
 all in sevens. Neither time nor death separates Christ from His 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 29 
 
 apostles and churches. We shall meet with his proper name no 
 more till the mystery be ended, and never again with His 
 apostles only as they can be seen through new symbol names 
 that express, their relations to Him. To them He said ^^Lo, 
 I am with you alway to the end of the world." We are now 
 to note well that Christ has explained to us three mysteries: 
 The one spirit as seven spirits before His throne, the seven 
 candlesticks are the seven churches, and the seven stars which 
 are the seven angels to the seven churches are the Apostles. 
 
 SYMBOL SYNONYMS. 
 
 The Revelation: To show; to signify; the open door; to break 
 seals; to sound trumpets; to hold the book open; voice of seven 
 thunders; to seal not up; to eat the book. 
 
 Alpha and Omega: The Lord God, which is and which was and 
 which is to come; the Almighty. 
 
 Jesus Christ: The faithful witness; first born of the dead; 
 Ruler of the kings of the earth; the beginning of the creation of 
 God; the Alpha and Omega; bright morning star; root of David; 
 Lion of tribe of Judah; Michael; ascending angel, etc. 
 
 The Holy Spirit: Seven spirits before His throne; seven advo- 
 cates of seven letters; seven lamps of fire; seven horns and seven 
 eyes; seal of living God; breath of life from God; fire in judgments; 
 fire blending with sea. 
 
 Seven Churches: Candlesticks; lamps of fire; seven horns and 
 seven eyes; the great multitude no man can number; the Holy City; 
 Beloved City; the temple; the tabernacle; holy woman; Mount Zion; 
 the bride; the Lamb's wife; the virgin; marriage supper of the 
 Lamb; camp of the saints; the first resurrection; the kingdom of 
 heaven; the New Jerusalem. 
 
 Seven Stars: Seven angels to the churches; the apostles; seven 
 trumpeters; seven voices of thunder; seven bowls of wrath; the 
 elders. 
 
30 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Revelation II and III. 
 
 THE LETTER WRITER. 
 
 Here in the beautiful letters we meet with things highly 
 structural and orderly. Here are seven letters written to seven 
 churches in seven actual cities in Asia Minor representing their 
 conditions at that time in the deepest realism. They are ad- 
 dressed in care of seven angel carriers^ and are plead by seven 
 spirits advocate, and, strangely indeed, are written by seven 
 writers. These recurrences of seven and their application to 
 things known to have different numeral values raises the num- 
 ber seven again into some mystic, some spiritual import. The 
 one spirit raised to seven, the many churches and the twelve 
 apostles, called stars and angels, lowered to seven; and now 
 we have also the Christ raised to seven. He avoids naming 
 himself by his usual titles, but impersonates regal and priestly 
 offices. A transcendent note of lofty import is signified by 
 this bringing together of heavenly offices to a common or 
 equivalent sign. Christ loses the unit of His personality and 
 becomes for the time seven authors by seven times impersonat- 
 ing Himself mystically and functionally in seven wondrous 
 writings. 
 
 There is some hidden purpose which compels these numerals 
 to break from their common and known value to carry forward 
 the new and exalted theme. Christ and His apostles and 
 His churches and the Spirit have found their common sign in 
 the symbol seven. These are the heavenly powers in conflict 
 with the powers of sin. Of the series or categories coming in 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 31 
 
 the sign of seven we have five that are primary and all the 
 others are secondary. 
 
 The primary are The Seven Letters, the Seven Seals and the 
 Seven Evangels, the Seven Trumpets and the Seven Avengers. 
 
 The seven letters show seven authors, seven angels, seven 
 spirits, seven candlesticks, seven warnings, seven promises, etc. 
 
 The seven Seals have seven openings, and He that opens them 
 has seven horns and seven eyes "which are the seven spirits 
 of God sent out into all the earth," and the seven Evangels 
 which supplement the Seals, as negative to positive also having 
 seven parts acted. The seven Trumpets have seven soundings, 
 and the Avengers have also seven supplementary and negative 
 parts to these. 
 
 The secondary, or complementary sevens are such as the 
 seven blessings, the seven ascriptions of praise, seven warn- 
 ings, seven promises, etc. Eeference to a Bible concordance 
 will astonish any one who had never noticed that in addition 
 to all the series of seven parts, there are so many words that 
 occur just seven times, or some multiple of seven times in the 
 book. Such words as "altar," "blessed," "Christ," "earth- 
 quake," "white," "king," "holy," "Jesus," "patience," "worthy," 
 "reign," "star," "Lord," "nations," "cloud," "saints," "come 
 quickly," "God," "prophesy," "miracle," "candlestick," etc. 
 
 No one can help feeling deeply that upon some principle 
 hitherto imdiscerned, the work is in a high degree structural, 
 regular and orderly. But how does it articulate? A world of 
 wasted labor has been spent in trying to arrange it on our 
 chronology by a wild and impalpable guessing on historical 
 parallelisms. We find in these letters Christ and His associates 
 in the most interesting positions and transpositions; the Christ, 
 His apostles. His Spirits and His churches. How divinely He 
 varies His impersonations. "These things saith He that hath 
 the seven stars in His right hand. He that walketh in the midst 
 
32 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 of the seven golden candlesticks/' "These things saith the first 
 and the last which was dead and lived again." "These things 
 saith the Son of God who hath His eyes like a flame of fire 
 and His feet like unto bnrnished brass, etc/' But observe he 
 addresses the apostles all in stereotyped phrase. "To the angel 
 of the church at Ephesus." "To the angel of the church at 
 Smyrna, etc." The spirit also speaks seven times in stereo- 
 typed but imploring words to the individual members, saying, 
 "Let him that hath an ear hear, what the spirit saith to the 
 churches." But the inspiring promises with which they close 
 like the impersonal signatures at the opening, are variant, 
 changing with each letter by functional autographs, thus, "To 
 him that overcometh to him will I give to eat of the tree of 
 life." "To him that overcometh shall not be hurt of the sec- 
 ond death." "To him that overcometh I will give to eat of 
 the hidden manna, etc." 
 
 The diversifying of these parts belongs to its unique and 
 charming method. Christ's supremacy stands forth by these' 
 pleasing distinctions. He is author and finisher. The apostles 
 are addressed as the angels in form without personal or func- 
 tional distinction as simply bearers of the messages, and the 
 Spirit does not vary His words of warning. The churches are 
 different in their several conditions, and while each preserves 
 its own autonomy, they yet show that they were regarded in 
 these letters as a part of a larger design. The failure to see 
 that Christ and His apostles were brought within the signal 
 meaning of seven, as well as the Spirit and the Church, has 
 impeded successful inquiry hitherto. This is the solvent fact 
 at the opening. We easily recognize the Christ by His nom 
 de plumes, but while His proper name, Jesus, occurs five times, 
 and the name Christ three times in the first chapter, they do 
 not occur again till the end of the Seals and Trumpets, xi, 15. 
 The one Christ has become seven authors, etc., and the one 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 33 
 
 Spirit the seven spirits of God, and the seven churches and 
 seven apostles find their common symbol in seven — not now 
 a numeral value as expressing tribal headships, but as a new 
 spiritual genesis, as members of the commonwealth of heaven. 
 To His apostles Christ had said, "Lo, I am with you alway 
 to the end of the world." "Xo man shall be able to pluck 
 you out of my hand." They were His chosen stars kept in His 
 Father's name while He was with them, but now in the apo- 
 theosis of Apocalyptic vision, they appear in function only, 
 and in form — ^^stars in His right hand when He walks in the 
 midst of the golden candlesticks, and carriers, bearing the let- 
 ters to the seven churches when He writes, in the same mystic 
 sense that He is Himself walking in their midst. We shall 
 soon follow them again where they will hold the same analogous 
 relations to Him in the Seals opening of the greater sealed 
 message to follow, and so on to the end they will keep their 
 unchanging relation as His cabinet of administration. As they 
 bore the Gospel of love at the first, as His ambassadors so they 
 continue to supplement His ministry to the world in the things 
 to be hereafter, though neither He nor they are bodily pres- 
 ent. They are in His hand and bear the letters and publish 
 the broken seals, etc., in future just as they bore the oral mes- 
 sage in their persons while on earth. Their commission is uni- 
 versal and perpetual, but only mystical and functional, and not 
 personal henceforth. His apostles. His churches and the spirits 
 are the heavenly forces associate with Him about this story. 
 It must be well noted how firmly their separate but correspond- 
 ent parts are stamped upon these letters. All the initial parts 
 are Christ's. He is the protagonist, both the Alpha and the 
 Omega, the author and finisher. He alone differentiates His 
 titles. His parts and His promises, the others are uniform as 
 yet in their respective functions, but we shall presently see them 
 acting separately. The apostles have lost their old tribal num- 
 3 
 
34 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 ber twelve^ and have lost their personahties in their common 
 relation to Him, their office only to remain through all changes 
 as the Eevelation proceeds. 
 
 Both as stars in His right hand, and as letter carriers, and 
 in one other instance presently to appear, the apostles are un- 
 differentiated and impersonal, and perform the same part. The 
 sinking of their personalities from sight raises to view the office 
 of their Master and shows their subordination. These apostles, 
 called stars and angels to the churches, etc., act a common part 
 without blame or praise or other reference to any personal part 
 they may have taken in the sins of the churches which He re- 
 proves. If they had been in militant relations with these 
 churches as shepherds responsible for their spiritual condition, 
 they could not have escaped a word of warning for their part 
 in these delinquencies; but they are entirely passive and min- 
 isterial and mystic. It is only in form, and they continue their 
 relations to Christ as though they were still alive and active 
 just as Christ is represented as alive and here walking in the 
 midst of the churches on earth and laying His hand upon the 
 trusting exile. 
 
 The revelator here effaces all minor distinctions, and so raises 
 the glory of his hero. The Christ unites with Himself all the 
 heavenly powers to carry on His work of conquest. His title, 
 "Alpha and Omega," co-ordinates Him with creation and re- 
 demption as John had already done in his gospel. He is here 
 in these letters first called the "Beginning of the creation of 
 God,'' iii, 14. Now creation that was begun with the view to 
 human redemption, was expressed in seven days. Whether 
 these were periods of time or days of vision of time by Moses, 
 they here meet the higher office of being symbolic days. There 
 are seven days of creation, and creation was made for man. It 
 was with a view to the redemption in Christ that G-od said 
 "Behold I create all things new," xxi, 5. He is both Alpha 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 35 
 
 and Omega^ the Beginning and the End. He is the new Cre- 
 ator. He completes in spirit what material creation had in 
 view. That creation was but a prophecy of the spiritual. 
 Christ "was slain before the foundation of the world/' xiii, 8. 
 "In the beginning was the word and the word was with God- 
 and the word was God. By Him were all things made, and 
 without Him was nothing made." Now as that first creat]*on 
 was expressed in seven days, He who comes wearing the names 
 of all power and authority in heaven and in earth, comes in 
 the symbol seven — creation's number. Not only has it the 
 content of creation, but also of its prophecy and is the greater 
 outcome and fullness of redemption. Seven is therefore the 
 signature in which this great psalm is written. It unites Christ 
 with creation and all creative power, and prophesies its glorious 
 consummation. With Him are associated, in carrying forth the 
 emprise of His kingdom. His apostles in form, but His saints in 
 fact, who represent His mission to the Kingdoms of men. His 
 saints are in full co-ordination with Him. Their names are 
 written in His book "who was slain for them before the founda- 
 tion of the world." Hence, His number and the number of all 
 that pertains to Him is seven — the sign of creation and redemp- 
 tion; and in this sign all the heavenly powers are written. 
 Christ and the spirit raised to seven, and the apostles and the 
 churches lowered to seven. There they form a mystic, a spirit- 
 ual equation by the use of which the new magnitudes of the 
 wondrous story is to be expressed about the newly risen king 
 who is to proceed against the enemy. Seven is the unit of 
 heavenly power. The apostles, the Spirit and the saints are 
 the factors, and they are to act both a common part as in 
 these letters, and also their several parts in the great drama 
 that is to unroll to our vision. Each factor represents the 
 totality of the divine commission. Upon the form and upon the 
 credit of the first creation, by a methodical transcendental and 
 
36 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 mystic discourse Christ appears as seven authors in these seven 
 letters with seven spirits advocate^ seven apostohc stars, and 
 seven golden churches, the sum total of the heavenly forces 
 in action to complete the work and design of creation. The 
 material creation is here subordinate to the spiritual and serves 
 as the pattern or form for its expression. Hence we have a 
 double writing. We have a superscription and under it a sub- 
 scription, a dim occult sign writing, we call the 
 
 GREAT CRYPTOGRAPH. 
 
 The Revelation is written double. It is underlaid by a 
 cryptogramic system. John is told to "write the things which 
 are and the things thou sawest — past, and the things which 
 shall come to pass hereafter." The writing of the past and 
 the future in one message is like a dead tree covered with a 
 living vine. The tree is not seen, but is discerned by its form, 
 and the vine which is open to the sight has a form not its own, 
 and so is a mystery. The tree is dead and cryptic, but im- 
 parts its form to the living vine, so that we see the vine and 
 discern the tree at the same moment and can meditate their 
 mutual relations and dependence. This is not only a double 
 writing as to time past and future, but it is a septenary as to 
 division of work as the seven days of creation given by Moses. 
 This is the base of its spiritual genesis and eschatology, and so 
 governs its greater articulation. Creation is the tree on which 
 the living vine of the future was and is laid. All the series of 
 seven reassert Creation, and prophesy its spiritual perfection 
 in the signal seven. The living pregnant future is written 
 upon the obsolete past; prediction is based on fact; "things 
 which shall come to pass hereafter'^ are given upon the form 
 and credit of things that were, and that remain to testify their 
 verity; things unknown are to be seen in the light of "the 
 things that do appear." 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL., 37 
 
 This identification of design entirely passes the line of con- 
 jecture when we come to see that the Almighty^s labors, given 
 to the Alpha and the Omega in the opening of the seven Seals, 
 is patterned exactly on the seven days of creation. The six 
 labor Seals, which no one but He was able to break, are fol- 
 lowed by a seventh, which is a sabbath rest. "And when He 
 had opened the seventh Seal there was silence in heaven for 
 about the space of half an hour." Creation is the fact and 
 form and prophecy upon which "the new heavens and the new 
 earth" are foretold, and the Alpha and the Omega, the First 
 and the Last, the Beginning and the End, is Himself the New 
 Creator, made higher than the heavens for carrying forward 
 upon the prestige of all visible and created things, that G-ospel 
 begun at Jerusalem to be heralded forth till the old groaning 
 creation shall find in Him its glorious consummation of peace, 
 joy, and Sabbath rest. We cannot enter the study of these 
 letters without these preparatory words. 
 
 It is here we take our first lesson in that synthetic continuity 
 which marks the genius of the Golden Cloth. I know of no 
 interpreter who has more than touched the border of its mighty 
 current. It is a composite of time and of divine substance with 
 Christ as vignette in bold relief. There is an entire absence 
 of diffusion or trace of vagrancy, but instead a gathering 
 together of vital spiritual truth which bears the mind and 
 heart to the lofty conception of that story of the ages by a 
 road logic cannot travel; by heights which man^s words cannot 
 reach; where the wing of faith only can scale its heights; where 
 the joyful believer, seeing Him by a truer vision, may rest in 
 hope. We must not only conceive deeply and broadly to com- 
 pass the relations of our hero to all time as the field within 
 which the fortunes of the race of man are written with him, 
 but keep account of the divine offices in which and by which 
 he is to act till the end. We are here at the fountain head 
 
38 MYSTERY OP THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 of streams which gather and swell and move onward till they 
 flow a single crystal river to gladden the city of our God, the 
 New Jerusalem. 
 
 THE DOUBLE WRITING. 
 
 We are told that John saw in the right hand of Him that 
 sat on the throne a book written within and on the back, v, 1. 
 "VVe are to read a double writing. Every word shall be estab- 
 lished by two witnesses, not in order to conceal, not to mystify, 
 but to deepen, to unify the things past, present, and to come, 
 into one; to establish the unity of God and the trinity and 
 manifestation of His power by a double witness not to be gain- 
 said. Such wondrous purpose has the "Revelation of Jesus 
 Christ which God gave to Him to show to His servants." We 
 must expect some plan commensurate with these exalted pur- 
 poses and far removed from the accidents of a dream. When 
 God was about to give His Revelation to Israel, He said to 
 Moses in the mount, "See thou make all things according to 
 the pattern showed thee in the mount." In like manner the 
 exile in Patmos is given a pattern according to which he weaves 
 the cloth of divine verities wherein is contained in mystery 
 the truth of the oncoming ages till all be finished. This pat- 
 tern consists of the things that were, but rewritten or signified 
 now in sign language. It is the essence and heart of sacred 
 history clothed upon with a divine prescience of the future 
 oncoming struggle. All that is past becomes shadow, the future 
 alone is substance. All is to find its true meaning and fruition 
 in this hope of "the things which must come to pass hereafter." 
 This distinct dualism is sustained by profound analogies con- 
 stantly to appear as we proceed. 
 
 These seven. letters have a double authorship, Christ and the 
 Spirit. "Let him that hath an ear hear what the spirit saith 
 to the churches," is added to the impersonal authorship of each 
 letter. The four living creatures around the throne are replete 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 39 
 
 with eyes, both within and without, iv, 8. The great series 
 of Seals and Trumpets are a double, one being an inside and 
 initial, the other an outside and supplemental view. The sword 
 that proceeds out of His mouth to slay the nations is two- 
 edged. This doubling is a part of the divine method. It has 
 a wondrous confirmation in the great dreams and visions of 
 the Bible that have to do with the future time. Joseph had 
 two dreams that foretold his and his family's fortune. The 
 first dream was of the eleven sheaves that did obeisance to his 
 sheaf; and the second was, the vision of the eleven stars and 
 the sun and moon that did honor to him. The vision was 
 double, but the lesson was one. King Pharaoh also had two 
 dreams. The first was of the seven lean cattle that came up 
 and devoured the seven fat cattle. And the second was the 
 seven blighted ears of corn that consumed the seven full ears. 
 Joseph was called upon to interpret these dreams. He said, 
 "The dream of Pharaoh is one. God hath showed Pharaoh 
 what He is about to do, and for that the dream was doubled 
 unto thee, it is because the thing is established of God and God 
 will shortly bring it to pass." So it had been in Joseph's own 
 experience, two dreams, but one lesson. The doubling was the 
 assurance that it came from God. Again, that most wonder- 
 ful of all visions, given to the monarch Nebuchadnezzar con- 
 cerning all ages, was also doubled and the more remarkable 
 that both the vision and its true interpretation were given to 
 him through the captive Daniel. Joseph Daniel and John, 
 all prisoners of the world powers in exile, are given visions 
 of the future concerning the will of God among men, and all 
 these are double. All this dualism finds harmony in the two 
 tables of stone on which the law of Ten Commandments were 
 written, and in the two covenants to Abraham, and back of all 
 these there were two trees in the Garden of Eden, one repre- 
 senting life and the other death. This duality is so pervasive 
 
40 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 in the Apocalypse we shall see its track all the way. It is one 
 of those threads which greatly assists our search. It was more 
 the feeling of this synthesis and persisting continuity of spir- 
 itual essence through all outward diversities than a clear per- 
 ception of its larger bearings that raised to view the imagery 
 and suggestion of a threaded cloth in the earlier studies of the 
 author. This is that genius of the book which must be grasped, 
 or all is lost. These threads are the elements of its unity and 
 continuity and climax. The intelligibility of the book is 
 enhanced by the effacement from our minds while reading it of 
 a great body of refinements and distinctions of which it is 
 oblivious. It is a picture book suited to a child's imagination, 
 but with a depth of spiritual perspective and a profundity 
 nowhere else to be found. There were many other things 
 which Jesus Said and did which John had not space to write 
 in his Gospel, but here is a method he knew not of then. 
 He writes now as he is told, while another guides and shows 
 the way. That was the gospel according to John and ended 
 with a regret for its necessary omissions;, but this is our Lord's 
 own gospel given to him from God. It opens with a blessing 
 on him that reads it, and closes with a curse upon him who 
 shall either add to or take away any of its words. It tells' 
 the whole story. 'Mo regretful omission this time. 
 
 Looking carefully into these seven letters, we notice first 
 their inseparableness. They are complementary, each con- 
 taining a part of the sum total of what he wanted to say to all 
 churches. While they have a decided autonomy, marked by 
 special conditions, they have an equally noted unity. They 
 represent the things that were then present. Taken together, 
 they form but a part of a larger plan. Their diversity is to be 
 found in their different conditions and their environments 
 that are telling against them. They are diverse in their inter- 
 nal conditions. They are united in the great common bond. 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 41 
 
 1: By the distribution among them of the sum of Christ's titles 
 and functions as "These things saith He that was dead and 
 lived again;'' "These things saith He that hath the two-edged 
 sword," etc. 2: They are united as one message by the sum 
 total of His promises thus, "To him that overcometh will I 
 give to eat of the tree of life;" "He that overcometh shall 
 not be hurt of the second death/' etc. 3: They are united 
 by being addressed through an impersonal angel and by the 
 same voice of the Spirit, "To him that hath an ear to hear, 
 etc." 
 
 The part acted by the seven angels, apostles, in these letters, 
 is uniform, ministerial and impersonal, while that acted by 
 Christ is initial, variant, multiple and authoritative. The let- 
 ters are addressed to the angels, but they teach and warn the 
 churches and make the promises to the individuals in the 
 churches; and the spirit appeals to the individuals to hear 
 what Christ in the Spirit is saying to the churches. So these 
 functions are interwoven and divinely mystic. These letters 
 were never separated, were never sent a3 seven letters to seven 
 churches independently; and no militant church officer, as 
 elder or deacon, or bishop, are to be presumed ever to have 
 borne them as such. They are each and all designed for all 
 the seven churches as to their general elements, their special 
 dealings with the seven churches, being subordinate to a gen- 
 eral design and together forming only a part of the entire work. 
 These letters are cemented in the following manner: 
 
 1. They contain matters named, which have no explanation 
 till we reach the last chapters of the book where they belong, 
 but are given here without explanation as though we knew 
 them. Such, are "the second death," "the hidden manna," 
 "the New Jerusalem," etc. 
 
 2. There are seen within these churches and their environ- 
 ments, governing conditions and evil powers that swell into 
 
42 MYSTERY OP THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 the great struggle that occupies the great middle and latter 
 part of the book and which carried the churches down with 
 them. In using the symbol seven, these letters show the fact 
 of double writing, for every use of seven is a rewriting or 
 reassertion of creation. These letters deal with the things 
 then current, "the things that are." 
 
 3. These letters use historic names symbolically, thus show- 
 ing again their deep relation to the genius of the book; 
 we have Balaam and Jezebel and Jews, etc., all symbolic. The 
 following observed order of composition of the letters illus- 
 trates a higher order of teaching: 
 
 1. Address, "To the angel of the church at, etc." 
 
 2. Signature, "These things saith he that hath, etc." 
 
 3. Commendation, "I know thy works, etc.'' 
 
 4. Instruction, "I have a few things against thee, etc." 
 
 5. Exhortation, "Eepent therefore and do thy, etc." 
 
 6. Spirit Advocate, "Let him that hath an ear, etc." 
 
 7. Promise, "To him that overcometh will I give, etc." 
 
 While all these parts are not equally distinct in all the 
 letters, most of them are, and two of them draw our atten- 
 tion by their mystic and remarkable transposition of order. 
 These are items 6 and 7. In the first three letters, the Spirit 
 advocate comes first, while in the four following He comes 
 last. 
 
 The following skeleton of the letters will show this to the 
 eye. The Spirit uses the same form in each of the letters, 
 saying, "Let him that hath an ear hear what the Spirit says 
 to the churches," and the other part is the promise of Christ, 
 "To him that overcometh, etc," thus: 
 
 EPHESUS, SMYRNA, PERQAMOS, THYATIRA, 
 
 , Let him, Let Mm, Let 7iim, To him, 
 
 To him, To him, To him, Let him, 
 
 SARDIS, PHILADELPHIA, LAODICEA, 
 
 To him, To him, To him,, 
 
 Let him, Let him, Let Mm. 
 
RCH AT 
 
 holy, he 
 
 key of 
 
 ne shall 
 
 d none 
 
 TO THE ANGEL OF THE CHURCH AT 
 LAODICE A— WRITE ; 
 
 These things saith the Amen, the faith- 
 ful and true witness, the beginning of the 
 creation of God: 
 
 have set 
 ch none 
 e power, 
 lidst not 
 ye of the 
 hich say 
 ;, but do 
 to come 
 to know 
 Use thou 
 tience, I 
 'if of trial, 
 'ipon the 
 at dwell 
 ly; hold 
 no one 
 
 I know thy works that thou art 
 neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert 
 either cold or hot, so because thou art 
 lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I 
 will spew thee out of my mouth. Be- 
 cause thou sayest, I am rich and have 
 gotten riches and have need of nothing; 
 and knowest not that thou art the 
 wretched one, and miserable, and poor, 
 and blind and naked: I counsel thee to 
 buy of me gold refined by fire, that thou 
 mayest become rich; and white garments, 
 that thou mayest clothe thyself, and that 
 the shame of thy nakedness be not made 
 manifest; and eye salve to anoint thine 
 eyes, that thou mayest see. As many as 
 I love, I reprove and chasten; be zealous 
 therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at 
 the door and knock; if any man hear my 
 voice and open the door, I will come into 
 him and will sup with him and he with 
 me. 
 
 fie him a 
 i., and he 
 Ind I will 
 God and 
 God, the 
 
 lown out 
 
 1 . 
 
 Ume own 
 
 He that overcometh, I will give to sit 
 down with me in my throne, as I also 
 overcame, and sat down with my Father 
 on his throne. 
 
 ivhat the He that hath an ear let him hear what the 
 Spirit saith to the churches. 
 
IE KBVELATION. 
 
 THE AKGE 
 
 tila I'lght hantl. 
 
 1 overcometli to him will 1 
 
 ihall not be hurt To him I 
 
 e fulfilled 
 
 > things snlth the Amen, the faith- 
 
 (behold I havo set 
 
 He that overcometh I will make bim a He that overcomoth, i will give to sit 
 
 pillar In the temple of my God. and he down with me In my throne, an I alao 
 
 shall go out thence no more; and I will overcame, and sat down with my Father 
 
 write upon him the name of my Ood and on hie throne, 
 the name of the city of my God. the 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 43 
 
 • Here is Christ in promise ascending, and the Spirit as advo- 
 cate, descending. It is not accident nor carelessness, but de- 
 signed and regular. Having made the transfer, they remain 
 in these positions to the close. This is the second bold trans- 
 position, and they warn us of others to follow. Tt is a method 
 of teaching by situations. We are here notified that we are 
 to study a work thoroughly and deeply designed. We shall 
 not find a trace of the vagrant or rambling. It was with the 
 purpose of maintaining its perfect structure inviolate that it 
 closes with a curse pronounced upon him who shall add to or 
 take away from the words of the prophecy of this book. It 
 can suffer no tampering and ever be understood. It cannot 
 be studied with a view to bolstering any theory and ever give 
 forth its true oracle. The transposition here noticed signifies 
 the ascension of Christ and the descent of the Holy Spirit. 
 Its occurring between the third and the fourth letters is our 
 first warning that the great series of sevens are all divided into 
 groups of three and four. This is the first manifestation of 
 the governing power of that great cryptic writing which rules 
 the order and arrangement of the subject matter and which is 
 a confirmation of its divine original by methods greater than 
 the rules of reasoning, greater than seeing. Alas! that we 
 should have to call that a sealed book which John was com- 
 manded to seal not up. Here already is a glory of literary 
 excellence exceeding the limited power of mortals to produce 
 
 THE ELEMENTS. 
 
 The leading elements of interest to notice in these letters 
 are: 
 
 1. Anticipation: There is a bringing forward of matters 
 that seem to belong to a later place in the story. The earlier 
 and latter parts of the book have a very noticeable resem- 
 blance. The composition here is more in harmony with the 
 
44 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 New Testament style. In the first three and the last three 
 chapters there is a lowering of that symbolic altisonance which 
 characterizes the intermediate part. "The tree of life," "The 
 second death/' and "The New Jerusalem/' etc., fonnd in their 
 natural place in the latter part of the book with explanations, 
 are found here by anticipation in these letters. 
 
 2. Impersonation: Which plays so important a place in the 
 method of treatment, has its beginning in these letters. Be- 
 ginning with these, we miss the names, Jesus and Christ, not 
 to appear again till the mystery is finished. Here, however, 
 we still see locations, the seven cities, where are the seven 
 churches, but they are related to spiritual elements without 
 a seam to mark, but are strangely and invisibly blent. Our 
 minds at first refuse to recognize the truth, which has neither 
 locality, nor personality, nor date. Yet if we stop to think we 
 know our greatest thoughts are neither personal, local nor 
 chronological. Henceforth, personalities and localities appear 
 only in a mystery. Though we miss the personal in these 
 letters, there is no other writing that appeals so directly and 
 pointedly to the heart or that is so penetrating as their warn- 
 ings and promises. "To him that overcometh will I give to 
 sit down with Me on My Father's throne." "I will give him 
 a new name written on a white stone which no one shall ever 
 know but he that receiveth it." He shall walk with me in 
 white, etc. It is almost calling you by name. It calls you by 
 duties you are conscious of doing or neglecting. 
 
 3. Satanic Element: Satan had already his seat of power iil 
 two of the places where these churches were located, Smyrna 
 and Pergamos. That power grows as we proceed and swells into 
 the great beast power that overcomes the saints and that bore 
 the apostate church as a drunken harlot into the wilderness. 
 Ephesus also had those who pretended to be apostles, but who 
 were tried and proved to be liars. Philadelphia had those who 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. * 45 
 
 blasphemed in claiming to be Jews (Christians) and were not. 
 Pergamos had those who held the doctrine of Balaam and 
 Thyatira was troubled with a Jezebel who falsely claimed to 
 be a prophetess. 
 
 4. Eetrib'ution: . Besides the great variety and beauty of the 
 promises found in these letters to be noticed in another place 
 we notice the variety of chastisements and correctives. They 
 preclude the possibility of what we call literal punishments and 
 show how wide the range of Oriental imagery here used. To 
 the church at Ephesus He says, "Repent and do thy first works 
 or else I come to thee and will move thy candlestick out of its 
 place." But to the unruly at Pergamos He said, "I will make 
 war against them with the sword of my mouth." Against the 
 followers of Jezebel He says, "Behold I will cast her and 
 they that are with her into a bed of great tribulation, and I 
 will kill her children with death." To the church at Sardis 
 He says, "I will come upon you as a thief and ye shall not 
 know what hour I will come." Of those at Philadelphia w^ho 
 claimed they were Jews and were not He says, "I will make 
 them to come and worship at thy feet and to know that I 
 have loved thee." But to the lukewarm church at Laodicea He 
 says, "Because ye are neither hot nor cold I will spew you 
 out of my mouth." 
 
 5. Mystic Element: Most wonderful is the fusion or 
 blending of the mystic element with the obvious; the occult 
 with the ocular. The boundary line fixed in our mind between 
 these is here entirely effaced. Our mental horizon, limited to 
 the discernment of truth by the usual exercise of our senses, 
 is the veil over our face when we would read this mystic master- 
 piece. It is the first work of the Revelation to remove this 
 veil and in these letters the author grades the way to it. That 
 line of distinction between the sensible and mystical may be. 
 
46 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 dim and may even defy close definition, bnt it is a fixed obstacle 
 to our readily reading a book that entirely ignores it. 
 
 The tangible and the intangible are blent at points we can- 
 not detect, and the mind accustomed to separate these by a 
 deep mental gulf falters to enter upon a field where their 
 presence is not. This is that dread entrance which all feel 
 who would enter. We weakly despair of finding intelligibility 
 where these lines of the sensible so fade away into the mystic 
 and spiritual. But that is our task; we are to see two con- 
 tinents which we know, one by sight and the other by faith, 
 annexed at a point we cannot discern. A mingled horizon 
 unites them as night lightens into day. But our joy begins 
 with finding, not that we have lost the visible, but have 
 gained the invisible to a new appreciation. It is out of this 
 situation that a revolt is raised in the mind against the Reve- 
 lation that results in agnosticism and discards this greatest 
 book as a sealed and foreboding message; and its would-be 
 interpreter, a lunatic. What a resurrection as from the dead 
 the church will experience when the veil shall be taken away! 
 "What a new realization of the divine life may quicken the 
 evangelization of the world! 
 
 Whoever has seen the panorama of the battle of G-ettysburg, 
 or its like, in a cycloramic painting will remember the sight 
 of fencing rails and an actual shock of wheat standing in its 
 own stubble in the foreground of the scene almost near enough 
 to lay the hand upon, and the painted fields of shocked wheat 
 joined to the real one at some point which the eye was not able 
 to detect, all composing the one scene of the field of battle. 
 This effacement by the artist of that line which the mind is 
 accustomed to draw between art and nature produces a realis- 
 tic effect upon the heart never to be forgotten, for we seem 
 face to face with the real battlefield itself and not with art. 
 Though we know from reflection that we are not on the actual 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 47 
 
 field of battle, yet we feel strongly that we are, and that we 
 are looking at something more than a mere picture. Now 
 what we there experience in realism over a mere painting by 
 the obliteration of onr mental distinction between nature and 
 art we experience in a multiplied degree when in the Eevela- 
 tion we miss the line we were accustomed to draw between the 
 sensible and tangible on one hand, and the invisible and intan- 
 gible on the other. The effect is heightened many times here 
 when, instead of seeing horses and men standing statuesque, 
 as in the cyclorama, we see all in action as a living drama, 
 the drama of the world's redemption, in fact, ourselves engaged 
 in it. 
 
 As Moses had to draw a veil over his face to screen the 
 effulgent glory he bore from the divine presence, and as that 
 veil became in figure the blindness of the Jews, who could look 
 only upon the past, not discerning what it portended of the 
 future, so we both by looking too much upon the past, and 
 by fixing refinements and limits in our minds, have veiled 
 our understandings so we could not see to the end of the 
 Gospel. We have to overcome this stubborn habit of arbitrary 
 distinctions that we may see the larger field by a transcending 
 faith that sees no false lines of artifice. Its careful perusal 
 will repay ten thousand times all the pains we give to its study. 
 The distinction between the real and the mystic is taken away, 
 and it all becomes awfully real. We shall be asking many ques- 
 tions born of artificial refinements to which this book will give 
 no answer. 
 
 We look upon these seven churches and say they were located 
 at Ephesus, Symrna, Pergamos, etc., known places in Asia 
 Minor on this earth, and in the time of John's exile in Patmos, 
 and that the respective differences in them are real, but the 
 lines of their union with each other and all churches and with 
 Christ and His apostles fade away into the mystic. 
 
48 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 John is in the isle of Patmos and is in the Spirit on the 
 Lord's Day and is in the kingdom of Jesns Christ. He is 
 separated from his fellow apostles by the imaginary line that 
 divides two worlds, he being the only survivor on earth, and 
 yet he himself must be of the seven stars whose personality is 
 both asserted and his distinct office as revelator also shadowed 
 at a later point in the book. We shall therefore see both the 
 real John and the mystic, impersonal John through his func- 
 tion. We miss the accustomed lines of distinction also when we 
 see how invisibly the things that are local and peculiar to each 
 of these churches and to each other and to all, are blent with 
 the larger sealed letters and with the great body of the book. 
 The view in which these churches is taken is microscopic in 
 its minuteness and altoscopic^ looking above and beyond them, 
 for in a large sense all churches are included. 
 
 The line that divides the literal from the symbol is not clear 
 in these letters. We are strongly inclined at first to take 
 Jezebel and Balaam and the Nicoiaitanes as literal^ and still 
 more Antipas, "my witness, my faithful one, who was killed 
 among you, etc.,'' and also those who claim to be Jews and are 
 not. But it is not easy to say whether any of these are to 
 be taken as literal. If Antipas is the proper name of a person 
 who had lost his life for the witness of Christ, then we have 
 one other, and only one other mortal besides John mentioned 
 or personally named in the entire book. When we have left 
 these letters there remains no -doubt of the entirely symbolic use 
 of all names of persons, of places and of times. But in these 
 letters the way is graded from the literal to the mystic and 
 symbolic to prepare us for the hieroglyphics which are to follow. 
 
 CLIMAX. 
 
 The element of climax has its rise in these letters. In the 
 first letter Christ is He who walks in the midst of the seven 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 49 
 
 golden candlesticks and holds the seven stars in His right hand, 
 etc., but in the last letter He is the Amen, the faithful and 
 true witness, The Beginning of the Creation of God." In 
 the first letter He says "repent" or else, "I will come to thee 
 and will move, thy candlestick out of its place except thou 
 repent," but in the last, He is already at the door, "Behold I 
 stand at the door and knock. It any man will hear My voice 
 and open the door I will come in and sup with him and he with 
 Me." The whole work is a climax ending in the glories of the 
 new heaven and new earth. 
 
 The gathering together of the names of the Almighty and 
 of the titles of Jesus Christ, and in close union with Him of 
 the apostles and churches and the Holy Spirit to be carried for- 
 ward toward a grand climax at the end, is the lesson of these first 
 three chapters to be kept steadily in view. There are elements 
 and principles in these letters which appear and reappear as 
 they pass through the animating groups of natural and super- 
 natural and infernal things, in apparent misrule, but in reticu- 
 lation like threads to the very last. By the aid of these ia 
 the light of that first experience in its study we will follow 
 and see to it that the ornate embroidery into which each enters 
 to form a part of a different figure, is but the mechanism within 
 which the mystery is contained. 
 
 That experience of the author is blended with the opening of 
 this wondrous story by as close and seamless union as that 
 which unites John, the exile, to the Revelation. 
 
 Note. — We reconcile ourselves to this condition by asking, Did 
 John feel his Lord's hand upon his person; did he hear His words 
 as audible sounds? Did he fall down bodily as a dead man at the 
 sight? Did Christ remove the candlestick at Ephesus? In what 
 sense was he walking among the candlesticks? 
 
 There is an ongoing of mighty portents of the deep, infinite 
 soundings in the consciousness of him who reads this story in which 
 4 
 
50 MYSTERY OP THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 he notes the progress of the mighty drama as of something won- 
 drous acting on the stage, which he notes more by the movements 
 and by the click of the mechanism than by an intelligible and com- 
 prehensive sense of its remoter bearings. 
 
 "It delights me most of all to read St. John. There is in him 
 something so entirely wonderful, twilight and night, and, through 
 it, the swiftly darting lightning, a soft evening cloud and behind 
 the cloud the soft full m.oon bodily; something so deeply, sadly pen- 
 sive, so high, so full of anticipation, that we cannot have enough of 
 it. It is as though I always saw him before me, lying on the bosom 
 of his Master at the last supper; as though his angel were holding 
 the light for me and in certain passages would fall upon my neck 
 and whisper something in my ear. I am far from understanding 
 everything which I read, but it seems to me that what John meant 
 was floating before me in the distance, and even when I look into a 
 passage altogether dark I have a foretaste of some great, glorious 
 meaning which I shall one day understand; for this cause I grasp 
 after every new interpretation of the writings of John. The most 
 of them only crisp the evening cloud." — M. Claudius. 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 51 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 Revelation IV. 
 
 THE ALPHA AND OMEGA.— THE NEW GENESIS. 
 
 After these things I saw and beheld a door was open in heaven 
 and the first voice which I heard was a voice as of a trumpet, one 
 saying, come up hither and I will show thee things which must come 
 to pass hereafter. 
 
 Straightway I was in the Spirit: and behold there was a throne 
 set in heaven, and one sitting upon the throne; and he that sat was 
 to look upon like a jasper stone and a sardius; and there was a 
 rainbow round about the throne, like an emerald to look upon. 
 And round about the throne were four and twenty thrones; and 
 upon the thrones I saw four and twenty elders sitting arrayed in 
 white garments; and on their heads crowns of gold. And out of 
 the throne proceeded lightnings and voices and thunders, And 
 there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which 
 are the seven Spirits of God; and before the throne as it were a 
 glassy sea like unto crystal; and in the midst of the throne and 
 round about the throne four living creatures full of eyes before 
 and behind. And the first creature was like a lion and the sec- 
 ond creature like a calf and the third creature had a face as 
 of a man, and the fourth creature was like b, flying eagle. And 
 the four living creatures, having each one of them six wings, are 
 full of eyes round about and within; and they have no rest day and 
 night, saying, Holy! Holy! Holy! Lord God Almighty which was 
 and which is and which is to come. And when the living creatures 
 shall give glory and honor and thanks to him that sitteth on the 
 throne to him that liveth forever and ever the four and twenty 
 elders shall fall down before him that sitteth on the throne and 
 shall worship him that liveth forever and ever, and shall cast their 
 crowns before the throne, saying, Worthy art thou our Lord and our 
 God to receive the glory and the honor and the power; for thou didst 
 create all things and because of thy will they were, and were 
 created. 
 
52 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 A bold transition marks our passage from the letters to "the 
 things which shall come to pass hereafter/^ The heart filled 
 with high expectations by the symmetry and beauty of the 
 seven letters here meets a repulse in the shocking incongruity 
 of association. An open vista presents a group of objects that 
 leave a mingled and confused thought and feeling upon the 
 heart. A throne is set in heaven and there are four principal 
 groups of objects about it. They are twenty-four elders, 
 arrayed in white, sitting on subordinate thrones, and seven 
 lamps of fire burning before it. A glassy sea is in repose, and 
 four living creatures, shockingly called "beasts^' in the common 
 version which are around about the throne and in the midst 
 of it. "One is like a lion, one like a calf, one has a face like 
 a man, and one is like a flying eagle.^' The appearance of four 
 brutish-looking creatures in this cast in the company of 
 heavenly symbols ofi^ends our sentiment and is repellant to our 
 sense of order, beauty and purity which was raised by the title 
 chapter and by the seven open letters. These four creatures 
 must engage our first attention. What are they to represent? 
 
 First, we note their number is four, and they are associated 
 with the seven candlesticks or lamps of fire, and with twenty- 
 four elders and the throne, etc. They are "round about the 
 throne and in the midst thereof." We notice that, while they 
 are beastly in form, they are religious in practice, for they give 
 praise to Him that sitteth upon the throne, saying, "Holy! 
 holy! holy! art Thou Lord God Almighty." This is our first 
 chant of praise and it is a strange paradoxical doxology. Over 
 against their brutish appearance and names, and their number, 
 there are these countervailing facts. First, they praise God 
 day and night, and second, they are in good company, and 
 third, they obey His Almighty power. !N'ow these creatures 
 are better named the four "living ones" or regenerated ones, 
 and their contradictory characteristics must represent them 
 
OR. THE RIVEN VEIL. 53 
 
 under changed conditions; that is, at different times. Their 
 outward appearance shows what they were at one time while 
 in rebellion, and their good company and obedience and praise 
 to God, what they have come to be at the time here given, 
 called, '-'the things which shall come to pass hereafter.'' The 
 rebel, though he is now become loyal, his body will still bear 
 the marks and scars of sin and rebellion and continue to show 
 us what he once was. 
 
 This being the first appearance of the number four, we may 
 adopt one of the methods of this book. Anticipation, and ad- 
 vance upon our narrative to look for its recurrence. We find 
 in the first four of the seals, which comprise the first group 
 of seals, that we have four horses bearing four riders and 
 accoutered in four different ways, and that the fourth horse 
 was given authority over the fourth part of the earth to kill, 
 and to kill in four different ways — with sword, with famine, with 
 pestilence and with the wild beasts of the earth, and that these 
 four horses were announced by the four living creatures saying 
 to John, "Come and see." Here is a notably frequent use of 
 four. A little further on, vii, 1, we have four angels standing 
 on the four corners of the earth holding the four winds of the 
 earth that they blow not on the earth, or sea, or trees. And 
 ag^in, ix, 14-15, we find our four angels bound in the great 
 Eiver Euphrates, one of the four rivers that divided from 
 the one river that parted into four heads outside the Garden 
 of Eden, and these angels were prepared for four points of 
 time "for- the hour, the day, the month, and the year to 
 slay, etc." 
 
 These recurrences of four at once raise the question whether 
 the number four has not, like seven, a spiritual or symbol use 
 analogous to that and whose signal value is to be demonstrated 
 in the spiritual algebra as we proceed, and which shall play 
 a correspondent but opposite part in the narration of the story 
 
54 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 ^vhich we assume this strange and forgotten old book to relate. 
 
 Now in all these occurrences of fonr^ except the first one 
 in our text, it is entirely connected with earthly things, four 
 horses on the earth, four angels standing on the earth holding 
 the winds of the earth, and later they are bound in the great 
 river Euphrates, tributary to Babylon, head of all world power. 
 This one exception of their praising around the throne of God 
 to their entirely earthly character points to their changed 
 relations in time; points to a time in this story when they 
 have become subject to "the ruler of the kings of the earth," 
 and serve Him. As no such association of things heavenly and 
 beastly, praising and serving God together, has ever yet occurred 
 in the world, it must point to a condition yet future and toward 
 which all the p«ist and the present are hopefully pointing. This 
 is the true interpretation that the thing presented first, is that 
 which is to occur last. It was so at the beginning. The first 
 promise made to fallen man was that the woman^s heir should 
 bruise the serpent's head and that is still future. John here 
 sees the last things first; he sees the triumph and fruition of 
 the kingdom. So was Abraham's first covenant about Christ. 
 And the first visions of Nebuchadnezzar and of Daniel and of. 
 Ezekiel all about the final victory and glory of Christ. 
 
 "Come up hither" means to come forward in time, not upward 
 in space. And John beheld the Alpha has become the Omega. 
 liis reign is shown to be established over His enemies. They 
 sit at His feet. They were dead in sins, but are now alive and 
 are called the "living ones." In the three first chapters we had 
 His death and resurrection and ascension and His titles and 
 His letters to the seven churches, and now we see Him in His 
 consummation, His kingdom. That this refers to the future, 
 the last state, is shown in a three-fold manner: 
 
 1. John was told to "come up here and I will show thee 
 things which shall come to pass hereafter." 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 55 
 
 2. The state of things presented had never occurred in 
 this world. 
 
 3. The praise and obedience of these four creatu]:es about 
 the throne point to a time when the kingdoms of men have 
 become the kingdom of God and His Christ, and when He 
 shall rule them with a rod of iron. He proceeds synthetically, 
 giving the sum and conclusion first and then the changes that 
 lead up to it in order. 
 
 Now the number four bears the same kind of equational 
 value in expressing the powers and kingdoms of men as seven 
 bears in expressing the powers of the kingdom of God. It is 
 a number in which the different properties and characteristics 
 of the world kingdoms find their common ground and unit of 
 power. As the symbol four bears the same relative import 
 when expressing the world powers as the symbol seven does 
 when applied to the heavenly, we have all the elements of a 
 great opposition identified, point and counterpoint, by the use 
 of signals in reading this story; for we assume for the moment 
 that the four living creatures represent the world powers — that 
 is, the exercise of brute force over man by man as against the 
 love and will of God. That is to say, as "seven" represents 
 both creation and its outcome through the New Creator, so 
 "four" represents the world fallen in sin and its outcome here 
 through redemption in Christ. What relations these four living 
 creatures may have to Herod and Pontius Pilate and the Gen- 
 tiles and the people of Israel who put Him to death and scat- 
 tered abroad the sheep of His fold we shall presently see. The 
 four living creatures, and the four horses, and the four world 
 angels all have their sign in the symbol four. Everything in 
 four is of one essential nature and adverse to everything in 
 seven except in the conditions here, where they are of one 
 accord about the one throne. While these several groups of 
 four are diverse from each other the living creatures, the horses 
 
56 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 and the world angels, etc., they are one in their hostility to 
 Christ and to all the heavenly powers that come under the 
 sign of seven. They are different symbols for the same thing 
 — that is, sinful and apostate man. But the four creatures 
 about the throne show the condition of the end, the time yet 
 future. The first universal empire of world power was the 
 Babylonian and its head was Nebuchadnezzar. He had con- 
 quered Jerusalem and had taken captive its people and had 
 taken its treasures and the holy vessels from the temple, which 
 he locked up in the treasure-house of his gods. 
 
 Thus the kingdom of God as represented in the Jevvish the- 
 ocracy became subject to universal world power of beastly rule 
 in idolatrous Babylon. AVhile the monarch having dominion 
 over the whole earth, mused in his heart what should be the 
 future of his empire, God gave him a notable dream which 
 alarmed and troubled his spirit. He said it had passed from 
 him so he could not tell it to the wise men who were called 
 upon to interpret it. He had four classes of wise men, the 
 magicians, sorcerers, astrologers, and Chaldeans. These he 
 required to tell both the dream and its interpretation on pain 
 of death and on their failure to do so, he commanded them to 
 be put to death. But Daniel, his captive, and the servant of 
 God, offered to tell the dream and the interpretation to stay 
 the.king^s hasty anger and to save both their lives and his 
 own and to teach the king that "The most High ruleth in the 
 kingdoms of men and setteth up over them the basest of men." 
 Daniel said to the king "there is a God in heaven that revealeth 
 secrets and maketh known to the king^ Nebuchadnezzar, what 
 shall be in the latter days." "As for thee, King, thy thoughts 
 came into thy mind upon thy bed what shall come to pass 
 hereafter." Now, God gave to Daniel for the purpose, both 
 the dream and the interpretation of it. "Thou, King, sawest 
 and behold a great image wh©se brightness was excellent, stood 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 57 
 
 before thee. The form thereof was terrible. This image's 
 head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms were of silver, 
 his belly and his thighs were of brass and his legs of iron, and 
 his feet part iron and part clay." This image is in four parts — 
 first, the head; second, the breast, with the arms; third, the 
 body, with the thighs, and, fourth, his legs, with the feet and 
 toes. These four parts are distinguished as being of different 
 metals and different parts, positions, etc. Daniel said, "Thou, 
 King, art a king of kings for the God of heaven hath given 
 thee a kingdom, power, strength and glory (four), and where- 
 soever the children of men dwell hath made thee ruler over 
 them all. Thou art that head of gold. After thee shall arise 
 another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom 
 of brass, which shall rule over all the earth." King Nebuchad- 
 nezzar was the head of gold and three other kings or kingdoms 
 like his own were to follow. Here is a mystery. The three 
 universal monarchies that followed are described as the Medo- 
 Persian, the Grecian and the Roman. By universal power is 
 meant to express the sum total of all human or world power. 
 The four world powers are expressed in four successive mon- 
 archies which, while they differ from one another, as world 
 powers, are all one in their essential nature and in their rela- 
 tions to God, and are, therefore, presented as one great image 
 of" man power, the power of man over man, "the man of 
 sin." It was world power that took captive the kingdom of 
 God and of Israel and is here seen as the heavenly and the 
 earthly in conflict, the heavenly now in subjection. This 
 Babylonian captivity is the juncture in human affairs where 
 God chose to show the outcome of the conflict between the 
 heavenly and worldly, which is the fleld of contest, and con- 
 cerning which God has chosen to tell what shall come to pass 
 "hereafter" "in the latter days." This conflict is strongly ex- 
 pressed by Daniel. He said, "Thou sawest till that a stone 
 
58 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 was cut out without hands which smote the image upon his 
 feet, that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces, 
 the iron, the brass, the silver and the gold." That is to say, 
 though three of these monarchies must have passed away before 
 the one represented by the feet could be smitten by Christ, 
 who came in the time of the last one, yet the stone strikes 
 them all because as related to God they are all of one nature, 
 and the stone breaking one, breaks all. They differ only 
 in their human aspects and by the changes of the on-going 
 of time. Together they were "broken and became as the chaff 
 of the summer threshing floor which the wind carried away 
 and there was no place found for them." They differ from each 
 other in point of time and in some of their characteristics, but 
 these are subordinate; being one in opposition to God, they 
 face a common doom. That is, in their brute life, in their 
 essential and common nature, Christ will crush them and they 
 shall sit at His feet. 
 
 The stone that smote the image became "a great mountain 
 and filled the whole earth." The question of all the ages is 
 whether the will of man instigated by Satan, or the will of 
 God, born of love, shall rule the life of man. It was the first 
 question. The exile's story is about this. The temptation to 
 sin was that ye may be as God, may know and do for yourself 
 and not need to believe in another, to depend upon or pray to 
 Him. All forms of exercising the will of man over man is at 
 enmity with God's purpose concerning Him. The world powers 
 have this nature in common and whether many or few, they 
 are adverse to the will of God by the exercise of brute rule. 
 The man of sin is represented in this great image seen in the 
 king's dream, and a man of righteousness, Christ, is represented 
 as the stone cut out without hands that strikes the image on 
 the feet and destroys it, and as in the image, the totality of 
 world power is represented, so in the stone which smote it, 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 59 
 
 the totality of divine power is expressed. As on the heavenly 
 side we saw how Christ gathers to Himself the heavenly powers 
 in essential union with Himself, the apostles and churches and 
 the Holy Spirit, and so leads the contest as "the Alpha and 
 the Omega" in the symbol seven, so on the other side we now 
 see a gathering of successive universal empire, the totality of 
 world power of all ages in the symbol four, united in the single 
 fact of rebellion against God, having now despised and put to 
 death His beloved Son who comes to John in Patmos to tell 
 this story of the end. All world power has its signal in four 
 as the heavenly has in seven. In whatever form it appears, 
 four bears this import, both in its multiples and in its fractions. 
 Eight and sixteen and ''sixteen hundred" and the enumeration 
 of four names, such as "tribes, peoples, tongues and nations," 
 and as murderers, sorcerers, fornicators and thieves, ix, 21, etc., 
 and "the fearful and unbelieving and abominable and murder- 
 ers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolators and liars" (twice four) are 
 all world signs. A fourth part also is a world sign, the Hebrew 
 and Greek alphabets being all numeral as well as phonetic in 
 value, there is a stronger affinity between their alphabetic and 
 numeral uses than we have in English. Four is our unfailing 
 sign for worldliness — world power the will of man against the 
 will of God, apostacy. 
 
 Now as the vision given to the king was to show him what 
 was to come to pass in the latter days, and as our Lord con- 
 nected His coming wdth the words of Daniel the prophet, we 
 are prepared to find it in the Eevelation. That is, "the things 
 which shall come to pass hereafter." The things shown first 
 are the things which shall be last to be fulfilled. Christ is 
 become the mountain that fills the earth, the perfect rule,- the 
 regeneration w^here God rules the world in righteousness. Here 
 we have an unmistakable identity. Both Nebuchadnezzar and 
 John in their visions see the world powers in their different 
 
60 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 stages as they progress toward that time. They both see the 
 overthrow of the world powers and the. establishment of the 
 heavenly. The stone cut out of the mountain itself becomes a 
 great mountain and fills the earth, and John says, "He sits on 
 a throne and the world powers serve Him." In the great image 
 the decline and fall of world power is shown by the dififerent 
 qualities and positions of the great image. This decline is 
 marked in four ways: 
 
 1. The head is a unit. 
 
 2. The chest and arms are divided. 
 
 3. The body and thighs are in three. 
 
 4. The legs with feet are four parts and the toes continue 
 to divide into ten parts. Thus the image shows weakening and 
 declines by its greater divisions. 
 
 2. The head stands highest, the chest and arms lower, the 
 body and thighs lower and the legs and feet lower till the 
 feet and toes lie prone upon the earth. 
 
 3o The gold is heaviest, the silver is lighter, and the brass 
 lighter than silver, and the iron lighter than the brass, etc. 
 
 4. The gold is more valuable than silver, the silver more 
 valuable than brass and the brass more valuable than iron, etc. 
 
 In every point of comparison, position, weight, value, unity, 
 etc., there is a weakening and decline; but in point of order 
 it was explained to the king that these kingdoms should follow 
 his own in succession of time, himself the head of the empire 
 of man, while the Eoman was to be the last, lowest, most di- 
 vided, etc. This is now the end of it. John sees to the end of 
 world power and sees God sitting on His throne and the world 
 powers in the midst of the throne and round about the throne 
 that is reigning with God under His authority. It is the moun- 
 tain, the government of heaven which Daniel said should fill 
 the whole earth. We notice that both the golden head and 
 his successors entirely lose their personalities. It is their king- 
 doms that differ from each other, being all alike and one in 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 61 
 
 their opposition to the kingdom of God. The head of gold 
 explains the mystery of unity and gives ns the method of inter- 
 pretation. That it was His kingdom and its relations to the 
 kingdoms to follow, is seen in the figure of the man, not alone 
 in the king's own personality. When Christ, the stone, cut 
 out without hands, strikes the image, He strikes it on the feet 
 which is the last in point of. time, and yet He crushes both it 
 and those also which have long ago perished, and not only so, 
 but He will break as a potter's vessel all such powers that fol- 
 low, whether called monarchies or republics, etc., that oppose 
 the supremacy of His will over the nations of earth. 
 
 We observe with wonder that the same effacement of person- 
 alities is observed here as in the heavenly powers where seven 
 was our sign. The two conflicting empires of heaven and earth 
 carry on their contest without the direct use of personalities. 
 This impersonal treatment gives fullness and clearness and ef- 
 fect to the nature and relations of the powers engaged. The 
 differences between these world powers show only their changes 
 as they gradually come under the control of the heavenly domin- 
 ion. W^hile these were shown to the king as diverse parts of 
 one image of man, where all the four parts, while differing from 
 each other, are yet human, that is man power, the sin of man, 
 or the man of sin, John sees them as four separate living crea- 
 tures, and while these wear different outward characteristics, 
 they are also one in praising and serving God around His 
 throne. They are in a common bond and are united with the 
 throne and with the elders and the seven lamps, etc. This is 
 their relation changed from rebellion to obedience. But thei' 
 outward appearance as a lion, a calf, etc., shows us their out- 
 ward difference as they had been while alien and rebellious. 
 
 Lying between these two conditions, one given in vision to 
 the monarch of Babylon and the other to John on the isle of 
 Patmos, is the irrepressible conflict of the ages, led on the 
 
62 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 one side by the Babylonian Empire, whieh had subjected the 
 kingdom of God, and on the other by the stone cut out with- 
 out hands, Christ Jesus, or the Kingdom of God. This is the 
 subject matter about which the Eevelation of Jesus Christ 
 which God gave to Him, treats. The kingdom of men in its 
 relation to the kingdom of God; the conflict begun with Baby- 
 lon when Nebuchadnezzar was king, and ends when Jesus Christ, 
 who is the first and the last, shall become and be "the ruler of 
 the kings of the earth." These four living creatures about the 
 throne present a decidedly dual aspect. In their number four, 
 and in their external appearance as beastly, and in their repre- 
 senting every tribe, tongue, people and nation, v, 9, and in 
 their reign on the earth, v, 9-10, show their worldly origin, 
 etc. But in their company, and in their fealty, and in their 
 worship, they are become heavenly. This duality of character 
 has a still larger illustration in the book of Daniel. The same 
 lesson given to the king by the great image in the vision was 
 also given to Daniel under changed symbols which he could 
 not understand any more than the king could understand the 
 vision given to him, and Daniel had to call upon the angel of 
 God to interpret his dream, even as the king was compelled to 
 call upon Daniel to interpret his. Daniel said, "I saw in my 
 vision by night and behold the four winds of heaven strove 
 upon the great sea, and four great beasts came up from the 
 sea diverse one from the other. The first was like a lion and 
 had eagle's wings, etc.; the second was like a bear, etc., and 
 the third was like a leopard with four wings on the back of 
 it, and had four heads; and ihe fourth beast was dreadful and 
 terrible and strong exceedingly, and it had great iron teeth. 
 It devoured and brake in pieces and stamped the residue with 
 the feet of it, and it was diverse from all the beasts that were 
 before it, and it had ten horns." The angel explained to Daniel 
 and said, "These great beasts are four kings (or kingdoms) 
 
OR. THE RIVEN VEIL. 63 
 
 which shall arise out of the earth/' Here is our signal "four" 
 again and the angel calls our attention to it. We have "four 
 winds" that strive, and "four diverse heasts" that rise out of 
 the sea, and one of them has "four" heads and "four" wings. 
 But to the king himself the world powers were expressed in 
 one great image "whose brightness was excellent and whose 
 form was terrible/' standing erect like a man with head of 
 gold, etc., but to Daniel is shown the same power represented 
 from a different point of view. 
 
 To him they are four great dripping beasts from the troubled 
 sea of humanity where the agitation of the sinful passions of 
 men raise up kings and rulers which follow each other and rule 
 by the exercise of brute power. This is the way God and God's 
 children view beast rule, the sinful will of man over man. Here 
 are two diverse views of world power. To the worldling, brute 
 power is dazzling and excellent, but to the godly it is mere 
 brute power that rises from the dregs and froth and foam of 
 agitated sinful humanity. This double view pervades the Apoc- 
 alypse of John. 
 
 Daniel's dream showed the same end and doom of world 
 power as shown to the king. He says, "I beheld till the thrones 
 were cast down and the Ancient of days did sit whose garment 
 was white as snow and the hair of His head like pure wool. 
 His throne w^as like a flame and His wheels burning fire." 
 
 Here we now have three witnesses converging upon the same 
 point and condition of time. The visions of the king and of 
 Daniel, and of John, all meet at this point. As John looked 
 upon the scene of the last time, "The things which are to come 
 to pass hereafter" . we should expect to see the symbols of the 
 heavenly powers also associated with them as they were in the 
 Babylonian captivity, and so we do, but the conditions are now 
 reversed. It is the kingdom come, the millennium, the fruition, 
 yet future. John saw before the throne the seven lamps of 
 
64 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 fire (the clinrclies) and round about the throne, the twenty-four 
 elders judging with Christ in His kingdom, that is, His apostles 
 and their number here double, making twenty-four. 
 
 These four living creatures have each of them six wings. 
 This is the second time we have met with the number six. Its 
 first occurrence is a mere enumeration, and is rung in the ears 
 of the backsliding Laodiceans who are lukewarm, wretched, 
 miserable, poor, blind and naked. As six is a symbol of evil 
 origin, it will play a very important place in the account pres- 
 ently to be given of brute power. Six wings show the evil 
 origin of these beasts and of all rebellion against God, Both 
 the bodies and the wings of these four living creatures are en- 
 tirely composed of. eyes. That signifies their representative 
 character. They represent all the world governmentally, po- 
 litically, hence it is said they are ruling with Him on the earth, 
 and that they praise Him "day and night.^' There is no day 
 or night in the eternal world, xxi, 22, hence must refer to 
 this world. These four creatures say "Thou hast redeemed us 
 out of every tongue and tribe and people and nation.^' They 
 represent the world powers as become obedient to God. We 
 shall meet with them again and again, seven times in all, be- 
 fore we have finished the book. These creatures at one time 
 represented as mere sea beasts as seen by heaven and as an image 
 of gold, silver and brass, etc., seen by men, are now composed 
 entirely of human eyes, all turned lovingly and devoutly toward 
 the throne of God in the millennium and the creatures or forms 
 that represent them say "Holy, hol)^, holy! Lord God Almighty! 
 which art, which wast and which is to come." They are now 
 subject and subordinate rulers. "The kingdom'' of the world 
 is become the kingdom of God and of His Christ, and the 
 heavenly powers and principles govern mankind. 
 
 The seven lamps of fire that burn before the throne are "the 
 seven spirits of God," that is, the seven churches viewed as 
 comiQjg from God, and giving light upon the throne. These 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 65 
 
 seven spirits are again explained as "the seven spirits of God, 
 sent forth into all the earth/' As lights in the world and for 
 the world, the churches have their symbol as candlesticks, but 
 as giving light npon God's throne and power, they are lamps 
 of fire burning before the throne which is a symbol both of 
 the churches and of the Holy Spirit. As the churches are God's 
 missionaries to carry the Gospel into all the world to every 
 creature, they are represented also as the seven spirits sent 
 out into all the earth, etc. The seven spirits are before the 
 throne, and they send greeting (i, 4) and are seven advocates 
 of the seven letters, saying "Let him that hath an ear hear 
 what the spirit saith to the churches, and are now seven lamps 
 bfefore the throne'-' that is light and intelligence and power 
 before the throne. In this pleasing way we begin to enlarge 
 our mystic vocabulary. The church means those elected, or 
 called out of the world; then they are shown to be candlesticks, 
 or lamp-stands that give light to the world as where converted 
 men stand to give the light of the Spirit and then as seven 
 spirits sent on missions to the whole world, and then as lamps 
 of fire before the throne as where men are not, but as showing 
 to the world the source and origin of this divine light, as com- 
 ing from God. As related to the Father and the Christ the 
 Holy Spirit comes once between their names in sending greet- 
 ing to the churches. He is joint author of the seven letters 
 and exchanges places with him after the third letter, as already 
 shown in a skeleton of the letters. 
 
 The twenty-four elders around the throne represent the Old 
 and the Kew Testament saints, or the Jews and Gentiles. As 
 Christ said to His apostles they should sit upon twelve thrones, 
 judging the twelve tribes of Israel, so here are twice twelve 
 to represent the Gentiles, w^hose dispensation this is, since it 
 was rejected by the Jews. These enthroned elders wear crowns 
 of gold to show they have conquered, and now reign. Being 
 5 
 
66 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 arrayed in white linen shows their pure character, "for the 
 white linen is the righteous acts of the saints." 
 
 "And before the throne, as it were, a glassy sea like unto 
 crystal." This is that same sea (the people) that Daniel saw, 
 out of which he saw the great beasts rise, but now how wonder- 
 fully changed! This sea must be often troubled and tossed 
 and crimsoned with blood and corrupted with dead carcasses 
 before the glorious time which John saw when it is purified 
 like crystal lying calm and white before the throne. 
 
 The fourth chapter is the tableau of the millennium, or what 
 we have imperfectly understood as such. Looking upon the 
 sea of redeemed humanity John beholds the world in mass, 
 "ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands,"- 
 all clothed in white, all glorious and joyful and praising God. 
 In these symbols about the throne we recognize the very di- 
 visions that have been so long in the world. The Old Testa- 
 ment and the New Testament, saints by an old division, now 
 sitting upon twenty-four thrones. The churches of Christ as 
 seven lamps of fire, and the four living creatures as the gov- 
 ernments of the world power, and the sea of redeemed people 
 en masse, is a true and conventional image of the very dis- 
 tinctions by which we know them now and have hitherto. 
 
 These are the four principal objects about the throne which 
 is the center of the group. "He that sat upon the throne was 
 to look upon like a Jasper stone and a sardius." The breast- 
 plate which the High Priest wore when he w^ent into the holy 
 place once each year to offer atonement for the sins of the na- 
 tion contained twelve precious stones or gems, on each of which 
 was inscribed one of the names of the twelve tribes. The "sar- 
 dius" and the "jasper" were the first and the last of these gems, 
 and here they are taken by metonomy to represent the breast- 
 plate itself, or the total of the true Israel of God. The sym- 
 bol; therefore, represents the priestly office and declares that 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 67 
 
 He who occupies the throne is a merciful and faithful high 
 priest, and that this is a throne founded upon sacrifice and 
 mercy, and that it has won the world by love. He is the King 
 of Peace and "The government is upon His shoulders." 
 
 "And there was a rainbow round about the throne like an 
 emerald to look upon." The rainbow shows the storm of world 
 tumult is over and ^he troubled sea has subsided and lies calm, 
 clear and crystalline before Him. The promise of God is ful- 
 filled. The world is redeemed from brute dominion, and the 
 four living creatures have no rest day or night praising God, 
 and the twenty-four elders shall fall down before Him that 
 sitteth upon the throne and shall worship Him, and shall cast 
 their crowns before the throne, saying, "Worthy art thou our 
 Lord and our God, to receive the glory and the honor, and 
 the power, for thou didst create all things, and because of thy 
 will they were and were created." 
 
 "And there was a rainbow about the throne like an emerald 
 to look upon." The emerald is green and its color is the symbol 
 of life. The throne is a living throne. It is not past and 
 obsolete, but living Just as the four creatures are called living 
 creatures. Green is also the symbol of living in viii, 7; ix, 4. 
 The outcome and end of creation is the objective point toward 
 which the great disclosure moves on, till the stone, which was 
 small in its beginning, shall smite and crush the image of 
 man power and shall fill the earth as a great mountain till all 
 the tribes, tongues, peoples and nations shall do in fact what 
 the monarch of Babylon in form commanded, to "worship the 
 God of Daniel." 
 
 "Out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunders and 
 voices." That is the going out of the will and command of 
 God. The voice of God is called "thunder," in its effects upon 
 the heart is called "lightning," and as spoken by men, it is 
 called "voices." All the occurrences of these symbols sustain 
 
68 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 this use. The heavenly powers so clearly identified in the three 
 first chapters are here commingling with the worldly. The 
 Father upon His living' throne with the rainbow bending over 
 it, showing all His promises fulfilled, and the apostles in judg- 
 ment on thrones, and the churches, and the host of people 
 purified now by the spirit, and with them now the old enemies 
 in full accord but with the old marks of disobedience still upon 
 them. This is the last but it is presented first. In the first 
 chapter we had Christ as He is to be. In the. letters we see 
 Him as He was at that timiC, but in the fourth chapter, we see 
 Him as He is to be at the end. The King and Daniel and John 
 all find the culmination of their Eevelations in this blessed 
 outcome. Here His will is done in the earth as in heaven. 
 The four living creatures are now as strong as a lion, obedient 
 as the calf, intelligent as man and swift as the eagle to do and 
 to execute the will of God on earth. But we have missed the 
 distinct symbol for Christ in this fourth chapter as though His 
 distinctive work had been accomplished and turned over to the 
 Father. This vision is not complete without the fifth chapter 
 which presents Christ as receiver of the Revelation. The signal 
 numbers which are here coming into view (vii, 4) do not re- 
 ceive their full import till they are carried back to their source 
 and forward again to their end. 
 
 The word '^seven" first occurs. Gen. ii, 2; and the first oc- 
 currence of "four" is in Gen. ii, 10; and their symbolic uses 
 rest upon the statements there given. As already declared, the 
 symbol seven identifies Christ with the beginning and end of 
 creation. The very use of seven therefore in this sense, while 
 it co-ordinates Christ with creation, it also co-ordinates His 
 spiritual forces with creation. His apostles. His churches, etc., 
 for it brings them to an equivalent as together constituting 
 the unit of divine power in God before the foundation of the 
 world. So are they co-ordinate in the consummation. There 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 69 
 
 can be no mistake of the intention to co-ordinate Christ with 
 creation, for He is expressly declared to be "the lamb that hath 
 been slain from the foundation of the world" and He is the 
 Beginning of the Creation of God and His saints are those 
 whose names. are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. 
 
 The symbol four is carried back in the same manner to 
 its origin. We have noticed that in all its occurrences, it is 
 of decidedly earthly origin and association both in the vision 
 of John and in the Revelation given to Daniel and to the King. 
 But the first occurrence of four identifies its use directly with 
 the sin and apostasy of man and his departure from the Garden. 
 The basis of its symbolic use therefore is to be found in the 
 river '^^that divided into four heads.'' This is the river of God 
 which went out of Eden to water the Garden, and "thence it 
 was parted and became into four heads." "The Lord planted 
 a garden East in Eden," better say East of Eden. This river 
 went out of Eden to water the Garden which the Lord had 
 planted, and when it passed through and outside the Garden 
 it became into four heads. Whether we are to consider that 
 the human family in its dispersion, after the exit from the gar- 
 den, settled along these rivers, which would be very natural, 
 or if the story itself is not allegorical, resting upon some more 
 spiritual antetype, it need make no difference, for upon these 
 four heads "to the River of God outside the Garden, the sym- 
 bol use of four is founded as signifying apostasy from God, 
 and the total of world power the disobedience of man ad- 
 verse to the heavenly will. It means the four qi^arters of the 
 earth, all tribes, tongues, peoples and nations, etc. 
 
 As the Revelation by St. John is the story of the world crea- 
 tion and world redemption, of the things thou sawest, the 
 things that are and the things which shall come to pass here- 
 after, from Him which Is, and -which Was, and which Is To 
 Come; it is at pains to compass the tragedy of the race of man 
 
70 MYSTERY OP THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 from his fall by sin to liis restoration by righteousness with the 
 use of symbols that rest on the vital fact of his fall and that 
 reach to the return of the countless millions of his race to his 
 Father's house. 
 
 The purpose of God in creating man and his fall on the 
 one hand, and his redemption on the other, being the theme 
 of this book with which God closes His word to man, I offer 
 here a diagram that may assist the mind to grasp at one view 
 the beginning, the middle state and the final outcome of the 
 redemptive scheme. 
 
 No. 1. The primitive world represents man's primitive re- 
 lation to God. a is Eden, b is the Garden East, with its river 
 and its two trees of life and death, or of love to God and love 
 for self. The river flows out from Eden and passing through 
 the Garden divides into four heads on the outside and flows 
 toward the four corners of the earth. 
 
 'No. 2. Eepresents the typical or middle state. God said 
 to Moses, see thou make all things according to the pattern 
 showed thee in the mount. That pattern was of the primitive 
 state from which man fell. The appointments of the Taber- 
 nacle which he made had special reference to man's fallen con- 
 dition; such were the altar of blood, f, and the basin for wash- 
 ing, z; the golden candlestick, m, with its seven burners; the 
 table of bread, e; the golden altar, h; the most holy place, k, 
 which represents the dwelling of God and is but another name 
 for Eden in shadow. The Tabernacle of Moses is the typical 
 world — it is both a pattern of the things which were past and 
 a shadow of good things to come. The world outside the taber- 
 nacle, called the outer court, is 1. 
 
 No. 3. Is a diagram of the new world created in righteous- 
 ness. It is a fac-simile in form of the two preceding, and is 
 the realization of them, the substance toward which the tab- 
 
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 Q_ 6 
 
 
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 N ! 
 
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 o B 
 O O 
 
 
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 or 
 
 JO 
 
 ' .n 
 
 o 
 
 f 
 
 2> 
 
 ^ : 
 
 1 tj 
 < 
 
 C 
 
 D 
 
 • » • __ — J 
 
72 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 ernacle as a shadow looked and from which, our race in fact 
 fell away. 
 
 Our three diagrams show Eden lost, then foreshadowed and 
 then regained. 
 
 It is this which Jesus Christ shows to His servant John in 
 the isle of Patmos, and toward which all true helievers are look- 
 ing with prayerful hearts. Toward this the tabernacle of Moses 
 looked. It was a pattern of the paradise lost and the shadow of 
 the paradise to be regained and is this moment in process of 
 being restored. In the tabernacle of Moses there was a veil 
 that divided the sanctuary from the Most Holy. Through this 
 veil the high priest would pass once each year to make the of- 
 fering. In diagram No. 3 that veil, p, is missing. When our 
 Lord was crucified that veil in the Temple was rent from top 
 to bottom. In symbol as applied to the Christ's dispensation, 
 that veil is said to be His flesh, Heb. x, 20, and that the new 
 and living way is consecrated with no veil to interpose, so, "we 
 may have access and come boldly unto the throne of grace," s. 
 We now stand before God unveiled as where there is no cur- 
 tain, though the veil is still upon the hearts of many now as 
 then; and as the veil which Moses wore over his face fleshly 
 Israel still wears in figure till this day, so spiritual Israel also 
 confesses her veil upon her eyes by calling this Eevelation "the 
 sealed book," a conundrum, a sphinx. 
 
 The supreme obstacle to our correctly interpreting the Apoc- 
 alypse by St. John seems to be that we still imagine a veil 
 to separate two worlds which Christ has, annexed and made 
 one. We have not understood what the removing of that veil 
 implies in our spiritual economy. There is no veil between 
 the present sanctuary and the Most Holy Place. "Where two 
 or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the 
 midst." In all places where the saints appear in this book 
 they are an unit. They are never divided from Christ by a 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 73 
 
 wall or separation, nor from each other as between the living 
 and the dead. There are no militant saints seen in this book 
 as if separated from the triumphant. They are all triumphant 
 both in heaven and on earth. These are words which cannot 
 be put together except we rend the veil from onr own hearts 
 that divides these into militant and triumphant worlds and 
 learn to regard the saints as all living in God now, and as in 
 white garments standing before God and serving Him, here and 
 now in His tabernacle. 
 
 But there is another veil that divides the sanctuary from 
 the world without, r, and that veil remains to be removed by 
 Christ through His saints. It is the veil that divides the church 
 from the world. When the nations are converted then that 
 veil also shall be taken away. Then all the nations that have 
 departed from God shall bring their treasures to Him, xxi, 24-27. 
 And they are represented as a river flowing back into the Gar- 
 den, the New Jerusalem, from four heads bearing their treas- 
 ure, . etc. That is, the four rivers of apostasy, the four part 
 image, the four beasts of Daniel, and the four horses of John 
 and the four world angels of John, all representing the apostate 
 race of man in the different stages of his return to God, are 
 to be seen at last coming back to God through the rending of 
 the outer veil where, in figure, the flaming cherubim had once 
 been placed her gates now open; all to be accomplished when 
 Christians shall demand and secure for this world's rule the 
 will of God in Christ to be done on earth as in heaven. It 
 is in this state that John sees the world powers as four living 
 creatures around the throne praising and obeying God. Apos- 
 tate man has returned to his Father's house. 
 
 What is called Eden in diagram No. 1, is called the Most 
 Holy Place in No. 2, and is the New Jerusalem in No. 3. What 
 is called the garden East in Eden in No. 1, is called the sanc- 
 tuary in the tabernacle in No. 2, and in No. 3 the same place 
 
74 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 is called the church. The river that passed through the garden 
 and parted into fonr heads on the outside could not have a 
 direct symbol in a migratory tabernacle like that of Moses, but 
 the New Testament has supplied the analogy, for the hosts of 
 Israel and their tabernacle were followed by a fountain of 
 water that gushed from a rock which God opened, and in type 
 "^'that rock that followed them was Christ." So all nations shall 
 bring their glory into it "and there shall in no wise enter into 
 it anything unclean or he that maketh an abomination or a 
 lie," etc. Here is the river again returned to the City of God, 
 and on either side of it is the tree. This time they are both 
 trees of life, t. t. 
 
 Death is no more. "And he showed me a river of water of 
 life bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and 
 of the Lamb in the midst of the street thereof. And on this 
 side of the .river and on that, was the tree of life bearing twelve 
 manner of fruit and yielding its fruits every month." In Gen. 
 ii, 8, we are told that God planted a garden Eastward in Eden, 
 Eden in the larger sense including both. "A river went out 
 of Eden to w^ater the garden." That is from Eden as a place 
 of dispensing blessings to another place where man, the re- 
 ceiver of blessings, was placed, with no definite division. It 
 was into this place that God came to speak to man about his 
 sin, and it was from this garden that man was driven and went 
 wandering to the four corners of the earth to be the victim of 
 his own sin in rejecting the counsel of God. That the man 
 thought to hide himself from God shows that he must have 
 supposed he was separated from God by some veil or separa- 
 tion, which, however, he was not, just as we are not, since in 
 our dispensation the veil is taken away and every one is brought 
 face to face with God in Jesus Christ. We are a kingdom of 
 priests and each one can come boldly to the throne of grace 
 and obtain grace to help in time of need. 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 75 
 
 The chapter closes by showing that the four living creatures 
 and Elders each offer three praises to Him that sitteth on the 
 throne. "Worthy art thou, our Lord and our God to receive 
 the glory and honor and power for thou hast created all things 
 and because of thy will they were and were created.^^ We have 
 now seen Christ as the Alpha and as the Omega, and lying be- 
 tween these is the story of how He will come to be the Prince of 
 the rulers of the earth. 
 
 THE ORATORIOS. 
 
 All the appearances we have of the four living creatures and 
 the Elders are in connection with the fruition. They appear 
 seven times in all and belong to the poetry or psalmody of 
 the book. They appear at the close of each great heavenly 
 victory, but their reappearances do not mark the chronological 
 progress of events. Although the four living creatures call the 
 four horses to view in succession, as if at advancing points of 
 time, they belong in fact to one point of time or one condi- 
 tion. They are brought forward and kept before our attention 
 as the outcome and end as though they were present. It is 
 the license of poetry and song, and presupposes our happy estate 
 as though it were present. 
 
 SYMBOL SYNONYMS. 
 
 Four living creatures: Four horses; four angels, standing on the 
 four corners of the earth; four angels bound in the Euphrates; 
 tribes, tongues, peoples and nations; them that dwell on the earth; 
 not sealed, the wicked, etc. 
 
76 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 Eevelation v. 
 
 THE MYSTERY IN SEALS. 
 
 And I saw in the right hand of him that sat upon the throne a 
 hook written within and on the back side close sealed with seven 
 seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a great voice, 
 Who is worthy to open the hook, and to loose the seals thereof? 
 And no one in heaven, or on the earth, or under the earth, was able 
 to open the book, or to look thereon. And I wept much because no 
 one was found worthy to open the book or to look thereon. 
 
 And one of the elders said to me, Weep not; behold the lion 
 which is of the tribe of Judah, the root of David hath prevailed to 
 open the book and the seven seals thereof. And I saw in the midst 
 of the throne and of the four living creatures and the four and 
 twenty elders a lamb standing as though it had been slain, having 
 seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God 
 sent forth into all the earth. And He came and taketh the book 
 out of the right hand of Him that sat on the throne. 
 
 And when he had taken the book the four living creatures, and 
 the four and twenty elders, fell down before the Lamb having 
 each one a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the 
 prayers of the saints. 
 
 The scenes of the fifth chapter are closely allied with those 
 of the fourth. There is the same cast. The same throne re- 
 mains and Him that sits thereon, but now He holds in His right 
 hand "a book written within and on the back, close sealed 
 with seven seals.'^ Here are seven sealed messages from the 
 Father. Another figure here a2:)pears upon the scene who in 
 turn becomes, for the time, the center of attraction for all eyes. 
 John says, ''And I saw in the midst of the throne and of the 
 four living creatures, and in the midst of the Elders a lamb 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 77 
 
 standing as though it had been slain, having seven horns and 
 seven eyes." A book was more to John than to any other of 
 the New Testament writers. Besides this, his wondrous hiero- 
 glyph written in exile more than a quarter of a century after 
 all other apostles had ceased to write, he had already written the 
 spiritual gospel accredited to him, possessing in addition to its 
 deeper spiritual testimony the highest literary interest; and 
 he had written three letters, one of them being the only let- 
 ter in the New Testament, addressed to a woman, "the elect 
 lady and her children," to whom he had "many things to write 
 but chose not to write them with ink and pen." Ah! how 
 recollections of that sweet home in Jerusalem where Mary was 
 guest, must have warmed in his heart to write to a mother 
 and her children. He had closed his gospel narrative with say- 
 ing "And there are also many other things which Jesus did 
 in the presence of His disciples the which, if they should be 
 written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could 
 not contain the books that should be written." These writings 
 illustrate a literary vigilance and retrospection entirely his own. 
 They show both his taste for letters, and their contents show 
 the profundity of his conception, and the tenderness of his pa- 
 thos. In all his former writings there is with him an obtru- 
 sive sense of the incompleteness of his work. He cannot tell it, 
 cannot write it with ink and pen, etc., but in this last book he 
 tells all and finishes the story and pronounces the plagues written 
 in this book, upon any one who shall either add to it or "take 
 away from the words of this prophecy." But to see a book in 
 the right hand of Him that sitteth upon the throne, close sealed 
 with seven seals, moved his anxious inquiring heart to tears, 
 and seeing it sealed with seven seals it burst full upon his heart 
 that here are also seven other messages for the seven churches 
 from the Father, but they are not open like those already sent 
 from Christ, but are sealed and in the hand of Him that sit- 
 
78 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 tetli upon the throne^ containing tlie secret things of the fu- 
 ture, "The things that shall come to pass hereafter'^ into which 
 no eye can see, not even the angels, "nor the Son except as the 
 Father givet}i Him." 
 
 This sealed message is now held forth, but no one to re- 
 ceive it, to open it, or read it. "And I saw a strong angel pro- 
 claiming with a loud voice, Vho is worthy to open the book 
 and to loose the Seals thereof.^ " Who can receive and im- 
 part these secrets? This mighty call of the angel drew the 
 attention of the wide domains of the throne, for upon call "no 
 one in the heaven or on the earth, or under the earth was found 
 able to open the book or look thereon." Neither man nor angel, 
 nor the Elders, nor the living creatures, for this is that mys- 
 tery of the future, "which the Father Jiath set within His own 
 authority." Xot being able to look thereupon, is explained in 
 the great oratorio that closes the drama. "Worthy is the Lamb 
 that hath been slain to receive power and riches and wisdom 
 and might and honor and glory and blessing, for thou wast 
 slain and did purchase unto God by thy blood, men of every 
 tribe, tongue, people, and nation, and made them to be unto 
 our God a kingdom of priests and they reign upon the earth." 
 He alone is worthy or able. AATien the seer saw the anxious 
 expectant attention of all, in the heavens and on the earth, and 
 under the earth, drawn to this emergency and no one found 
 able or worthy to open the book, or to look thereon, that is, 
 to discern its meaning, he tells us this experience: "I wept 
 much because no one was found worthy to open the book or to 
 look thereon." What an experience for the seer. Here crops 
 to view an autobiography which as an undercurrent can be 
 traced in his Gospel and his apocalypse. Ah! here is the word 
 of God he loved so much yet unspoken, shut up in seals. It 
 caused him to weep. It was when his loved Lazarus, brother 
 to Martha and Mary, was sealed in the tomb that his Master is 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 79 
 
 said for once to have wept. In the right hand of Him that 
 sits upon the throne, above the reach of all, and sealed with 
 seven seals, and no one able to break them; seven new letters 
 to John and to the seven churches and to all churches till the 
 world ends, and they are sealed up, an occasion for tears and 
 now as then. 
 
 John had been told, "what thou seest write in a book and 
 send to the seven churches,^' and he had written the seven open 
 letters of the things that were then current, but he was to 
 write not the things thou sawest only, but also the things which 
 shall come to pass hereafter, and these, no man knoweth, they 
 are sealed and no man can break the seals. These messages 
 contain the secrets of God from of old. They are not to be 
 given or trusted to men, nor to angels. There are to be no 
 intermediaries. This book is to be and is the Eevelation of 
 Jesus Christ which God gave to Him to show to His servants, 
 and the giving is here illustrated by strikingly dramatic action. 
 Here the Eevelation proper begins. What has preceded was 
 mostly open and knowable. Here is a Eevelation within the 
 greater Eevelation. The opening of these seals will be the 
 opening of the story of the future, known to God only, and will 
 fill in the time between what is known and past and that last 
 time which has been presented in the fourth chapter, which is 
 the consummation and end, etc. 
 
 This giving of the Eevelation as a sealed book in dramatic 
 form is called the giving of the Eevelation to Jesus Christ, and 
 it is chanted as the theme of exultation in the chorus which 
 closes it. At first this seems like a triple and complex method 
 of teaching, that the facts should be stated and then drama- 
 tized and then chanted in a new song. But this is our own 
 method, only in a different guise,* for we preach the gospel in 
 plain words, and we illustrate our subject, and then we sing 
 a suitable hymn. This triplicity of method turns our atten- 
 
80 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 tion to the number three as a signal number like "seven" and 
 "four" and "six/^ etc. Its constant use challenges our atten- 
 tion to its import. The book itself is called the Eevelation to 
 be shown, to be signified. It is from Him which is, and which 
 was and which is to come, the Lord God Almighty. It is from 
 the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is concerning things 
 present, past and future. John is in the tribulation, king- 
 dom and patience of Jesus Christ. He is the faithful witness, 
 the first born from the dead, the ruler of the kings of the 
 earth. The living creatures say. Holy! holy! holy! They give 
 glory, honor and thanks, etc. 
 
 The Christian dispensation as unveiled in this book shows 
 three great divisions, the evangelization beginning at Jerusa- 
 lem on the Pentecost, the Eeformation now well spent, and 
 the Regeneration to come. Its three-fold method of instruc- 
 tion is didactic, dramatic and epic. Three is the distinct sym- 
 bol for heavenly origin and carries this primary certification 
 in all its occurrences. The time which the sealed messages are 
 to cover is the time of the mystery of God which is to be 
 fulfilled, X, 7. This time also coincides wdth the time of the 
 tribulation and the patience of the saints, and its fulfillment 
 and demonstration coincides and correlates with the ascendancy 
 of the church, and the work of regeneration or the spiritual 
 genesis, the N'ew Jerusalem, the new heaven and the new earth. 
 The past, present and future are its great general divisions. 
 
 The secret of these middle times was hid in God, and eye 
 had not seen nor ear heard; no man knew, neither the angels 
 in heaven, neither the son of man, only as the Father giveth 
 to Him. The secrets within these seals are intended for the 
 churches, as shown by their number; they are of the greatest 
 importance, as shown by the pains of their delivery, and they 
 are the deepest secrets, as seen by their being close sealed so no 
 one could break them. 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 81 
 
 While John was weeping one of the Elders spoke to him. 
 This is the first time he had been addressed since the Lord 
 laid His hand upon him saying, "Fear not." 
 
 Ah! it is his beloved Lord upon whose bosom he laid his 
 trusting head in the love feast at the last supper in Jerusalem. 
 He tells us none of his feelings, only that he had wept much 
 because no one could be found to open the seven wondrous seals; 
 and now to see his beloved Master represented as the sacri- 
 ficial lamb with all the hosts of God restraining their joy, what 
 a moment! He had been trodden down in the wine-press of 
 world wrath all alone, rejected of men, deserted by His disciples. 
 He is now the center for all eyes and takes the book from the 
 right hand of Him that sits upon the throne. John does not 
 tell us the reaction of his own feelings when he saw all the 
 angels and the heaven and the earth and the sea extolling his 
 Lord. We can imagine that. It is no time for sorrow now. 
 The exile is at home again as when he stood on the mount of 
 transfiguration, with the glory of his Master while he talked 
 with Moses and Elijah. The Christ is here presented as both 
 a lion and a lamb. This is a strong paradox of symbol, lion of 
 the tribe of Judah, Lamb of God. Ah! it was Judah whose 
 prowess saved, when, stung by the disgrace that fell upon his 
 father's family, he vindicated its honor in an act of revenge 
 upon the corrupters of his sister. That act left its impress deep 
 upon his father's heart, who, when aged and dying, and lean- 
 ing upon his staff, left this encomium — "Judah, thou art a lion's 
 whelp." How multiple is the power of expression by laying 
 symbol upon symbol. He is a lamb slain and now standing be- 
 fore the throne. A lamb in meekness dumb before its shearer 
 and a sacrifice for sins. But this very meekness is the power 
 and prowess of Judah spiritualized. Here simplicity is wis- 
 dom, meekness is power, and humiliation is exaltation. The 
 symbol is a kind of figure that flashes upon the heart the points 
 6 
 
82 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 of spiritual light. Judah and David and the sacrificial lamb 
 are all drawn into one composite to focalize spiritual excel- 
 lence upon the character of Him who is to be trusted with this 
 book. Christy moved with a deep sense of shame for the sinful 
 race, which burned like a fire in His soul, was to vindicate His 
 own honor and the ways of God to men and to save those who 
 seek Him, entered the gap of death alone where the maledic- 
 tions of the world were heaped upon Him. They smote Him, 
 they spat upon Him and put Him to death between two thieves. 
 John in exile sees Him still wearing the scars of that mob. He 
 shows what He has suffered. Once rejected, dragged through 
 the streets and mocked, John sees Him now standing and re- 
 ceiving from God the sealed book. He alone is worthy. 
 "Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. He 
 was w^ounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our 
 iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and 
 with His stripes we are healed. Who His own self bare our 
 sins in His own body upon the tree.^' 
 
 Like the four living creatures about the throne. He too, bears 
 the mark of sin and of violence, but unlike them. His scars are 
 not His own, but are the marks which this world put upon Him 
 and would still inflict upon all true reformers, scars most honora- 
 ble to wear. 
 
 "And He cometh and taketh the book out of the right hand 
 of Him that sat upon the throne.^' E'ow the observing, expect- 
 ant throng breaks forth in glorious praise. 
 
 And they sing a new song, saying, Worthy art thou to takeihe 
 book and to open the seals thereof, for thou wast slain and didst 
 purchase unto God by thy blood of every tribe and people and na- 
 tion and madest them to be unto our God a kingdom and priests 
 and they reign upon the earth. And I saw and heard the voice of 
 many angels round about the throne, and the number of them was 
 ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, saying 
 With a great voice, Worthy is the Lamb that hath been slain to re- 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 83 
 
 ceive the power and riches and wisdom and honor and might and 
 glory and blessing. And every created thing which is in heaven and 
 on the earth and under the earth and in the sea and all things in 
 them heard I, saying, Unto him that sitteth upon the throne and 
 unto the Lamb be the blessing and the honor and the glory and the 
 dominion forever and ever. And the four living creatures said. 
 Amen, and the elders fell down and worshiped. 
 
 The giving of this Eevelation through Christ to His servants 
 is the subject of another drama to come later in our story, 
 so that this book will be able to show a true succession from 
 Him that sitteth upon the throne to whomsoever will receive 
 it and be blessed. So was the law given a true succession. It 
 came from God through the dispensation of angels to Moses and 
 from Moses to the people of Israel. This Eevelation God gave 
 to Christ, and Christ to the angel, and the angel gave to John 
 and John to whomsoever will read. It was given to the seven 
 churches and it is ours, brought safely unimpaired through the 
 dark ages, thanks to John's warning not to add to or take from 
 it on pain of the plagues which are written therein. Christ is 
 here called "the root of David." David the deliverer of Israel. 
 When the great coarse giant defied the people of God, David's 
 skill brought victory. All that David was as poet. Savior and 
 King, etc., are rays of light with which the worthiness of His 
 character is lighted up.. God said "when thy days are fulfilled 
 I will set up thy seed after thee and I will establish His king- 
 dom. He shall build a house for My name and I will establish 
 the throne of His kingdom forever. My mercy shall not depart 
 from him." As it is written "After this I will return and will 
 build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down, 
 and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up, 
 that the residue of men might seek after the Lord and all the 
 Gentiles on whom My name is called, saith the Lord who doeth 
 all these things." All the spiritual excellences extracted from 
 the live§ of men mdi, all the promises of God are laid liwdey 
 
84 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 contribution to raise to its transcendent heights the character 
 and office of him who is to receive and to impart the precious 
 Revelation. All shadows and types find their ecstasy in the 
 Apocalypse. This book not only rests upon shadows and types, 
 but it supplies the very faculty for reading by the effacement 
 of artificial distinctions which hinder our understandings, 
 
 Christ is here represented as a lamb, or, better, "a little 
 lamb.^^ The word occurs twenty-eight times and has a special 
 charm as a "little lamb'' in opposition to His enemy, the great 
 beast, presently to appear. The Lamb, as He takes the book, is 
 seen as a slain lamb, and that is given as the ground of His 
 worthiness. To connect His churches closely with Himself, they 
 are called the horns and the eyes of the Lamb and explained as 
 "'the seven spirits of God, sent out into "all the earth," because 
 the spirit works through the church. The horns and eyes 
 help us to identify the Lamb who received the book as the 
 Christ, who has since the first chapter appeared only in symbol. 
 But in receiving this Revelation from God we miss all symbols 
 for the apostles and churches, for this is an act in which the 
 apostles and churches had no part, but Christ alone. It is 
 a scene with Christ and with the Father. In the first doxology 
 in the fourth chapter, we had three ascriptions of praise, but 
 now, since Christ is joined to the throne as Revelator, we have 
 seven. The Father alone is praised in the first chorus, but now 
 the Lamb and then the Father, together by all creatures in 
 heaven, earth and sea. The Lamb is worthy to receive and 
 reveal secret things. He holds the book. 
 
 SYMBOL SYNONYMS. 
 
 Seals: Secrets; parables; proverbs; dark sayings. 
 
 Christ: Ruler of kings; beginning of creation of God; He that 
 hath the seven stars, etc. 
 
 The Lamb: Lion of the tribe of Judah; root of David; seal 
 opener; angel ascending; white horse; Michael; white cloud angel; 
 the Bridegroom; the word of God, etc, 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 85 
 
 CHAPTEE Y. 
 
 Revelation VI. 
 
 THE SEAL OPENER. 
 
 The seal opener stands as a slain lamb in the full gaze of all 
 in heaven and on the earth and under the earth with the sealed 
 book in his hand and unaided and unattended^ opens the seak. 
 John had seen him walking in the midst of his golden candle- 
 sticks holding his seven stars in his right hand. He then 
 wrote seven letters to the churches and addressed them to his 
 apostles in form as though they were letter carriers^ and in 
 those letters the Holy Spirit is associate with him as joint 
 author or advocate. 
 
 Having united these as associate pov/ers so closely with 
 himself, we notice their striking absence in the labors of seal 
 opening. To see Him acting this part alone and entirely aside 
 from His apostles raises again the question of method to be 
 carefully noted. Now, in all these seals openings we observe 
 the absence of His associate powers, for neither the apostles nor 
 the spirit, nor the churches appear by any sign as bearing part. 
 He is not now ministering to His candlesticks as a lampadary, 
 nor writing them letters as an absent bishop, nor ministering 
 through apostles, but is in the attitude of power and stands 
 to do His work alone. He is sole receiver of the secret things 
 of God which eye hath not seen nor ear heard, known to God 
 only, and which angels desire to look into, and about which His 
 disciples inquired and were told were things "kept within 
 the Father's own authority." 
 
 The Father has now given to Him in the sight of the seer 
 and of all observers the book of seven secrets, and He, the 
 
86 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 Lion, will break its seals. But to whom will He reveal them? 
 To His apostles, those to whom He gave the great commission, 
 those through whom in form as though they were present in 
 the world He sent the letters which John himself is supposed 
 to have carried to Ephesus. To them alone did He give the 
 commission of salvation to bear to all the world and said, "Lo! 
 I am with you alway, even to the end of the world." How 
 strikingly do we identify Him and them in this relation. To 
 none but the apostles did He ever impart secrets or explain His 
 parables. Through these seals He will speak again by mys- 
 tery as when He spoke on earth having now spoken openly 
 through His letters. But as when He explained to His apostles, 
 and they to the world after pentecost, so again here. He said 
 to them, "That which you hear in the ear, in secret, ye shall 
 proclaim upon the housetop." All these things spake Jesus to 
 the multitude in parables and without a parable spake He not 
 unto them. Matt, xiii, 34. "And His disciples came unto Him 
 and said to Him, "Why speakest to them in parables?" He 
 answered and said unto them, "Because it is given to you 
 to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to them it is 
 not given," Matt, xiii, 10. "Unto you it is given to know 
 the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to them that are 
 without all these things are done in parables, that seeing, they 
 may see and not perceive, and hearing, they may hear and not 
 understand," Mark iv, 11. "At that time Jesus answered and 
 said, "I thank Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, 
 because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and the 
 prudent and hast revealed them unto babes, even so. Father, 
 for so it seemed good in Thy sight." 
 
 Christ and His apostles stand in the same correspondent 
 relation here, as seals-opener and trumpeters. As in His world 
 ministry He at first spoke openly and then in mystery to the 
 people, so He does again, and as He then explained His parables 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 87 
 
 and dark sayings to His apostles so they might publish abroad, 
 so the trumpets now follow and explain the seals. They 
 wear new names^ but they perform the same relative parts. The 
 parable speaking mystic, Jesus Christ is secret teller or seal 
 opener, and is followed by His trumpeters as proclaimers. It 
 is only a change of names. The seals and trumpets are Christ 
 and His apostles in mystery, publishing the gospel of the future 
 as they preached the gospel of fact and faith in time past. 
 
 They each perform seven parts. He breaks seven seals and 
 they blow seven trumpets. But they are separated here as 
 they were after His ascension; not now as seven stars in His 
 right hand which shows their relation as before His crucifixion 
 while they still journeyed together and He kept them so that 
 none was lost but the son of perdition, but they follow Him 
 as after Pentecost. His promise to them was, "Lo, I am with 
 you alway even to the end of the world.^^ They are going to 
 give us the glad tidings of the future upon the form of the 
 Great Commission beginning at Jerusalem at Pentecost. But it 
 is in a mystery. We shall see the past in form or pattern, and 
 that form being so fixed on the mind, we must be guarded 
 against taking the form for the substance, a mistake all hith- 
 erto have made. The past and the future are written together 
 as shadow and substance, as inscription and superscription. 
 Christ and His apostles will now tell us the story of the future 
 in a manner so like their relations in the past, that we shall 
 be constantly inclined to ^ee only the shadow and miss the 
 substance. That which was substance — the gospel in fact — 
 now becomes shadow or form for supporting new truth about 
 the future known to God only, and that which was shadowed 
 as future now becomes substance and reality. We are to see 
 two mental images at once, as we saw the tree and the vine. 
 We are to discern things in their essence where they are one. 
 We are to know Christ and His apostles by their offices and 
 
88 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 in new names descriptive of their new parts. They are here 
 acting their parts about the fntnre exactly analogous to the 
 manner in which they acted in the gospel history under the 
 Great Commission. 
 
 Christ takes the initial with opening the seals which answer 
 to His teaching by parables, and the apostles follow with trum- 
 pets which correspond to their first proclamations. The seals 
 and trumpets are companion parts as Christ and His apostles 
 weie companion. They will also act again a supplementary 
 part to the seals and trumpets to be met in the second half 
 of the book, chapters xiii, xiy, and xv. This supplemental part 
 represents them as carrying out the second part as the seals 
 and trumpets show the carrying out the first part of the great 
 commission. We cannot enter upon the study of the noble 
 book at all till we see this larger design or mold in which it 
 is cast. Here we are to meet the second or minor cryptogram, 
 or pattern. Our major cryptogram is Creation, which rules in 
 the division of the parts acted into categories of seven. These 
 two, Creation and the Great Commission, do not comprehend 
 all the cryptogramic system, or sign writing, but only the 
 larger divisions of it. Every vital fact of sacred history used 
 to raise a spiritual truth to view in this book is of the nature 
 of a cryptograph or shadowgraph. It is a method in which 
 we are called upon to resolve what we are accustomed to know 
 as substance, back into shadow, and by mental effort to erect 
 the new spiritual substance upon that form, to see the future 
 and unknown, "even as by the things that do appear." For lack 
 of the faculty which this practice gives we may remain blind 
 and not "be able to see afar off." In this spirit of transcendence, 
 Xoah, Abraham and Moses were enabled to see the coming 
 glory of the Lord and to rejoice in its light. Moses saw Creation 
 in seven labors, or in seven visions of labor, and he discerned 
 what they pointed to, and he said, "The Lord, your God, shall 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 89 
 
 raise up to you a prophet like unto me, Him shall ye hear/' 
 That is interpreted to refer to Christ, who comes in the sign 
 of seven performing the seven great labors of the new creation; 
 hence the seven seals opening and the final, the great Sabbath 
 rest, toward which creation and all labor looks. There is no 
 confusion in these shadowgraphs on which our story is pat- 
 terned. As creation in seven labors governs the division of 
 parts, in which Christ carries out the New Creation, so also will 
 He show the relation of these parts to each other^ as that which 
 He employed in carrying forward the Great Commission. 
 Therefore, in reading the seals and trumpets, we shall see a 
 double picture and feel w^e are reading over again the Gospels 
 and Acts of Apostles (more properly Acts of the Holy Spirit) 
 and our minds will constantly tend to drop from the spiritual 
 future to the historical past. It requires we should bear con- 
 stantly in mind that in these Seals and Trumpets we are reading 
 the future, the things of hereafter, the secret things, that were 
 not known to men, nor to angels, which no one in heaven or 
 earth could receive but the slain Lamb only. This requires 
 sustained reflection and prescience to attain the blessing of 
 understanding. We read a new story raised upon the form of 
 an old one. We must now turn our attention full upon the 
 Great Commission. 
 
 That Commission as given by John himself is, "God so loved 
 the world as to give His only begotten Son that whosoever 
 believeth in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life.'' 
 This has two sides. He that believes shall have eternal life, he 
 shall not perish; while he that believes not shall perish. . Here 
 is a positive and a negative side. This two-sidedness of the 
 Commission is in essential harmony with the economy of God 
 from the beginning. The two mounts of blessing and cursing — 
 Ebal and Gerazim — on which the prophets stood to teach and 
 to warn Israel. The two tables of stone on which the laws 
 
90 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 were inscribed by the finger of God rest on the two trees of 
 life and death in the garden which the Lord planted East in 
 Eden. The two dreams each of Nebuchadnezzar and of Pharaoh 
 and of Joseph all rest on these two trees; so also the two- 
 edged sword that proceeds out of His mouth who conquers in 
 this story^ and the two sides of the book written within and 
 without, and the two trees of life that grow by the river of the 
 New Jerusalem, all rest upon these two trees in the garden 
 East of Eden, The Great Commission has this same duality, 
 or two sides of life and death, and as "the things which are 
 to come to pass hereafter" are to be conducted on that pattern, 
 we have the first part of the Great Commission carried out by 
 the Seals and Trumpets, and the second part carried out as by 
 Christ and His apostles under changed symbols which fitly 
 describe their changed functions yet to appear in their place. 
 All the subject matter of the Eevelation of Jesus Christ is 
 properly contained under these forms. The carrying out of 
 the Commission from the time John was in Patmos, is told in 
 mystery, but it is written on the witness of facts. It bears its 
 own proof. We have noticed that Christ in receiving these 
 seals and opening them acts a single and unattended part as 
 carrying out in regard to the conquest of the world powers on 
 the ideal shown to Nebuchadnezzar. Eor in that vision Christ 
 was shown as a stone, cut out of the mountain, and as crushing 
 the image of world power in His single capacity, with no appear- 
 ance of any assistant agencies employed. He performs it alone. 
 In this respect He stands head over the united world powers 
 in the name and power of God as the king stood over them in 
 the name and in the power of flesh and of sin. 
 
 But in the vision given to Daniel to supplement that given 
 to the king as the trumpets here supplement the seals, the 
 saints and not Christ are seen by Daniel overcoming the world 
 powers and as reigning under Christ. The seals and trumpets 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 91 
 
 sustain these same relations to each other. This fact holds 
 together the two great facts that Christ is to conquer and reign, 
 but He is to do it through His chosen agencies. This explains 
 why it is that in all these seals we do not have any recognition 
 of the apostles or churches. Here we challenge the candid 
 world to observe that the seal openings, being patterned exactly 
 upon Christ^s personal ministry, it not only fulfills the vision, 
 as shown to the King of Babylon in regard to his work, but 
 that doing so, it also marks the progress of on-going time as 
 was there definitely explained by the fact of successive empires. 
 The king was told that Christ, the Stone, should destroy the 
 image, and the image was declared to be the successive empires, 
 the totality of brute power, the four universal empires which 
 w^ere to succeed each other in time. Not only does the inter- 
 pretation which God gave to the king show the progress of 
 on-going time in which Christ was to accomplish the destruc- 
 tion of brute rule, but the pattern which the seals are directly 
 following — that is, the carrying forward of the Great Com- 
 mission—shows it equally clear; that is, the on-going not of 
 chronological time but as seen by the very nature of the events 
 and their changes in time, just as we know that His ministry 
 and His death and ascension must have stood to each other in 
 this order. Here our cryptogram serves us an unexpected 
 purpose. We are assured of the succession of time, not chrono- 
 logical but Christological — the only kind of time taken account 
 of in this book. We see, then, that as these seals are opened 
 we are to note they mark the progress of on-going time; first, 
 by the seven acts of Creation on which the work is patterned 
 and which are marked as the first day and the second day, the 
 third day, etc.; and second, by the on-going of the personal 
 ministry of Christ which He here follows; and third, the on- 
 going of time declared of the successive empires which He is to 
 
92 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 destroy. Thus in three ways these seal openings show the 
 progress of time. 
 
 It is pleasant to follow Christ and His apostles and His 
 churches, through their changing offices and relations, and to 
 see the correlation of their symbolic names as they stand to each 
 other, and to the offices of redemption they are to accomplish. 
 We know onr Lord first as Jesus, and then as the Christ, and 
 then in mystery as Lamp-keeper, and then as Letter- writer, 
 then as Seal Opener, then as Eevelator, holding His sealed book 
 open, and later as Sower and Harvester^ etc. In the same man- 
 ner we trace the apostles through their real and mystic func- 
 tions. When He is Teacher they are disciples; when He is 
 absent He calls them Orphans; when two of them would strike 
 down the Samaritans with fire He called them soits of thunder; 
 when He is seated on the right hand of God they become 
 apostles, sent to do His work; when He is Lampadary, trimming 
 His lamps, they no longer on earth are His stars in His right 
 hand; when He writes letters to His- churches they are His 
 carriers; when He opens seals they become his trumpeters, and 
 when He is done with giving secrets and cries with a world- 
 reverberating voice as 'of a lion's roar then they are seven 
 thunders to make the heavens and the earth shake with the 
 acclamations of the mystery finished, the Eevelation revealed. 
 So also when He as Harvester is done with sowing and reaping 
 and treading the wine-press of the wrath of God, then they 
 are the tare burners and pour the seven bowls of wrath upon 
 the disobedient. In the same manner we may follow without 
 digression and without a doubt to the end the other heavenly 
 powers, and also the few elementary principles, the contents of 
 its substance, which convey its form and structure through all 
 the areas of bold symbols in nature, as heaven, and earth, and 
 sea, mountains, rainbows, burning and bloody lakes, and 
 abysses, famines, wars, mortals, angels and demons, etc. 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEJL. 93 
 
 Through them all these few simple threads hold their way and 
 help to form them as embroidery within which are contained 
 the mystery of the glorious One to come. 
 
 If we take the world church, which means the elect, or called 
 out, it undergoes the same symbolic changes correlating with 
 the immediate subject and its relations. They are candlesticks 
 when viewed as giving, the light of God to the world, and as 
 lamps, when giving the world light on God as the source of all. 
 As related to Christ the churches are His horns, powers, and 
 eyes or intelligence, and later they are the temple, the tabernacle, 
 the Holy City, the Holy Woman, the camp of the saints and 
 the New Jerusalem. So, too, the Spirit appearing first as seven 
 spirits, and then as joint author and advocate of the seven 
 letters, and later is called the Seal of the living God, and at 
 last the spirit with the bride calling upon all who will to come 
 and drink of the water of life freely. 
 
 This continuity of the few essential elements through the 
 entire work both guides our course with certainty and assures 
 the greatest coherency. The book of Eevelation itself will 
 justify the same variety of symbolic names suited to its nature 
 and mission. As a Revelation from God and from Christ and 
 from The Spirit and from one of the Elders and from the Angel 
 guide and from John, it is a polyglot of heavenly voices. 
 
 As to its double writing, it is the great cryptogram, shown 
 as a book written inside and out. As containing an epitome 
 of all the Revelation of God past, present and future, it may 
 well be called the Gospel of the Almighty. As explaining all 
 that God had said, and done, and will do, it is the Revelation 
 which He gave to Jesus Christ to show to His servants; and 
 as to its structure, it is reticulate, woven of threads of divine 
 truth into a Cloth of a Golden age to come. As to its intelli- 
 gibility, discarded and called a sealed book, a veil over the eyes 
 of spiritual Israel. As to Christy it is the seamless garment 
 
94 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 in which He has walked down these centuries undiscerned and 
 unknown as when He walked toward Emmans after His resur- 
 rection. 
 
 He holds the sealed book. The seal breaking will be the 
 utterance of seven parables. They will be a kind of chalk out- 
 line to be filled in by the trumpet ers. Jnst as in His first 
 ministry from the time His enemies sought to destroy Him, He 
 spoke in parables and dark sayings and left to His apostles to 
 explain after they had received the Holy Spirit, so again will 
 it be with the Seals and Trumpets. 
 
 Lying between Christ's ministry proper and the apostles' 
 ministry was the day of Pentecost, and so there is a day of 
 Pentecost lying between the Seals and Trumpets. While among 
 men Christ preached the Gospel in prospect to be perfected 
 and made real in His death and ascension, and the apostles 
 were to declare it as accomplished fact after the descent of 
 the Holy Spirit, so here again the Trumpets will explain after 
 an ascension takes place, chapters vii and viii. We are to read 
 these Seals as we read Christ's parables in large picture char- 
 acters, and the trumpets as we read the plainer sermons in 
 the Acts. We are to bear in mind that what follows is spoken 
 of a future church which should rise in place of the church then 
 decaying. 
 
 SEALS IN GROUPS. 
 
 The Seals are divided into adverse groups of three and four, 
 the group of four coming first. In the first group we have 
 four horses, one for each seal, and these four horses are brought 
 to our attention by the "four living creatures," each one saying 
 to John in a voice like thunder, "Come and see." These horses 
 are of different colors and are mounted by four riders, accou- 
 tered in four different ways, and the fourth horse was given 
 authority over the fourth part of the earth, etc. The open 
 letters were divided into groups of three and four and marked 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. * 05 
 
 by the transition of the promise and the Spirit, each taking 
 the other's place after the third letter, already explained. 
 
 The two groups of the Seals are marked also by a violent 
 change in the character of the symbols used, and by the effects 
 of the acts performed, etc. The second group has nothing 
 corresponding to horses, nor of living creatures, nor of things 
 earthly, but it enters a different region, showing souls of the 
 slain under the altar, and the heavens in mourning and the 
 canopy and the mountains and islands passing away, and the 
 last of this group is a silence in heaven for about half an hour. 
 Here is a manifest conflict of opposing powers between these 
 two groups of seals. 
 
 The four horses bring to view Nebuchadnezzar^s Vision of the 
 great image with its four diverse parts of gold, silver, brass, 
 iron, etc. These horses are in the world sign of four. They 
 are called to our notice by the four creatures in four separate 
 calls. They have four riders equipped in four different ways, 
 and the fourth is given power over a fourth part of the earth 
 to kill in four different w^ays. These horses show the same 
 superior headship as the image of the king's vision, and they 
 show the same decline toward the end. The head of that image 
 was gold, the arms and shoulders silver, and ending in iron 
 and clay. So here our first horse is white and everything 
 white is God's in this book; it is a heavenly sign, and his 
 rider having a crown on his head, going forth conquering 
 and to conquer, and the last horse is a pale horse, ridden by 
 death and followed by Hades. The one thing common to all 
 the parts of the king's image was that they were all man. The 
 image was that of a man, while here, though these animals 
 differ in color, etc., they are all horses, symbols of war and 
 conflict, and these horses are attended by men who also show 
 a difference in their missions by their equipments, etc. Now 
 the four living creatures we saw about the throne were engaged 
 
96 MYSTERY OP THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 in one and the same matter, praising God, and so here also 
 these living creatures perform one and the same office; they 
 simply call attention to these fonr horses. All they do thus 
 far is purely ministerial and uniform, though they differ in 
 their appearances as a lion, a calf, etc. But these four horses, 
 like the four parts of the King's image, differ. They mark dif- 
 ferent conditions which must belong to different eras of time. 
 They follow the interpretation of the King's dream in showing 
 succession and change of times. It was expressly told the king 
 that these four parts represent the universal monarchies which 
 were to succeed his own, as in fact they did. Daniel's own 
 dream of the four great beasts that came up out of the sea 
 was explained the same way by the angel of God; that is, that 
 they represented the four monarchies in succession. The vision 
 of the four horses is another vision of the world powers, not 
 of universal monarchies, but of the changing aspects of world 
 power in its last monarchy or form, as it goes' on toward the 
 golden age of the heavenly kingdom, where world power will 
 have but one office; that is, to do the will of God. 
 
 These horses mark the changes that are to take place in the 
 kingdom of men, beginning with the advent of Christ, till it 
 becomes a kingdom of God, and the use of, horses as symbols of 
 the whole world in strife is well chosen; and at a point later 
 in our story we find the whole world at war on horses to accom- 
 plish the overthrow of brute rule. It continues to grow more 
 evident that the great image of the king's dream, and the four 
 beasts shown to Daniel, and the four horses shown to John, 
 are all different manifestations of world power in its changes 
 toward the state in which it is represented as four living crea- 
 tures around the throne. This is the supreme line of jii vision 
 in this book, and the conquest of Christ over the sinful race 
 is the object toward which the great tragedy moves. These 
 manifestations of brute power are treated in a manner exactly 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 97 
 
 analogous to that we first met on the side of heavenly power. 
 That is, all world power is one in its enmity to God till the 
 last scene where it is shown to be subject and in harmony and 
 peace with His power and glory. 
 
 Four is the keynote or battle cry that continues to hold the 
 central truth of sin and apostasy to the end when it blends 
 with praise and obedience in the same creatures there regen- 
 erated. It is therefore a symbol M^hich, taken with these greater 
 facts, becomes our unfailing guide in referring all these ele- 
 ments to a common woe in the fall by sin. In these three 
 great visions we notice the man image of the king and the 
 four beasts of Daniel and the four horses of John, the first in 
 each series is the greatest. The head of the king's image of 
 gold, the king of metals, and Daniel's first beast was the lion, 
 the head of brutes, and the first horse is the purest of the horses, 
 for white is an exclusiA^ely heavenly symbol in this book. The 
 same decline or decadence is also true of them all. In one it 
 is gold as against silver, brass, iron and clay, and in another 
 a lion as against a bear and a leopard and a nameless monster, 
 and in the last it is a white horse as against a red. a black and 
 a pale one. 
 
 The king's image stands on the earth, Daniel's beasts come 
 up out of it, and John's horses go forth upon the face of it. 
 The king's image is stationary, Daniel's beasts come one after 
 another in time, ami John's horses follow each other on the 
 earth, also showing succession of on-going time. The king's 
 vision shows world power in false glory, as seen by the worldly 
 people who raise up kings; the vision of Daniel shows world 
 power as rising out of the consent of the sinful people as 
 viewed by God, while John's vision shows world power in its 
 active exercise against the will of God, men upon horses in the 
 conflict of these Christian ages. The essential truth within all 
 these being the world power or the sin of man undergoing 
 7 
 
98 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 changes on its way to the consummation. The symbol of 
 horses rests npon Zech. vi, 4-5, identified with the times and 
 circumstances of the returning from captivity as type or 
 shadow. 
 
 Here is the first appearance of the conflict between the signals 
 four and seven. The whole earth in arms is presented in 
 the sixth trumpet, a great army of horsemen let loose to make 
 war. Still later another army of white horses, a hundred and 
 forty-four thousand, at the head of which rides the ruler of the 
 kings of the earth, with "His eyes like a flame of fire and many 
 diadems upon His head.^^ 
 
 THE FIRST SEAL. 
 And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals and I 
 heard one of the four living creatures saying, as with a voice of 
 thunder, Come, and I saw and beheld a white horse and he that sat 
 thereon had a bow, and there was given unto him a crown, and he 
 came forth conquering and to conquer. 
 
 The first seal reveals a white horse, the symbol of purity, 
 and is, therefore, the head of gold to this new group. His 
 rider alone wears a crown. He is an archer with a bow and 
 his mission is conquering and to conquer — to conquer is pro- 
 phetic. Christ is become the head of world rule. He is 
 Emanuel — God with us. He is made the head of principalities 
 and powers, has all authority, both in heaven and on earth. 
 This is a new cast of the world powers, looking into the future, 
 from Patmos at the close of the first century, Christ is that 
 head of gold whose kingdom is to increase and fill the earth. 
 He is the lion that stands at the head of all world power. As 
 the monarch of Babylon stood at the head of all world power 
 in sin in the old world, so Christ stands at the head of all 
 world power in righteousness in the new. He is "the beginning 
 of the creation of God." The monarch of Babylon was idola- 
 trous and a beast's heart was given to him, but after his humilia- 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 99 
 
 tion a new heart was given to him, and Josephiis tells ns that 
 after this he remained a true servant of God the rest of his life. 
 Christ or Christianity is the white horse with his rider. Christ 
 refused the gift of the kingdoms on the terms offered by Satan, 
 which the beastly rulers had always and still continued to 
 accept, but He won them by His own valor. It is the winning 
 of these kingdoms and taking possession of them that this story 
 is all about. All the uses of seven are the prophecies and 
 pledges of His victory by the fact and presence of creation. 
 Seven is itself the union of three with four, and hence the 
 grouping of four as against three till that union is completed, 
 and then the groups are no longer arrayed as in the first series, 
 one against the other, which we shall presently see. The three 
 will conquer the four. Christ, by the death which He suffered 
 to save the lost, is not only accounted worthy to open the 
 seals, but is made both Lord and Christ, and the kingdoms 
 of the world will be awarded at the end of the battles of the 
 Lord." 
 
 "But we see not yet all things put under him, but we see 
 Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffer- 
 ing of death crowned with glory and honor." 
 
 Christ is become the head of all things. He is to rule the 
 world in righteousness. He will go down for a little while and 
 the blood-red horse will pass over Him, but He will rise again, 
 and upon His garments and on His thigh shall be written "King 
 of Kings and Lord of Lords." For our theme is. He is ruler of 
 the kings of the earth, the Alpha and the Omega. There is 
 a deep chasm between white and red — they are the flags of 
 two hostile powers. The white horse and his crowned rider 
 with a bow is Christ as the new head of world rule — the lion 
 of the tribe of Judah, the head of Gold, the king who goes into 
 a far country and afterwards returns to take account of his 
 servants. 
 
100 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 SECOND SEAL. 
 
 And when he opened the second seal I heard the second living 
 creature saying, Come, and another horse came forth, a red horse, 
 and to him that sat thereon it was given to take peace from the 
 earth and that they should slay one another, and there was given 
 unto him a great sword. 
 
 To take peace from the earthy is to attack the Prince of 
 Peace. The second seal brings a red horse. Its color is blood 
 and its mission is to kill and to destroy, and the rider is given 
 a great sword to take away peace from the world, and that they 
 might kill one another. The color of this horse is found again 
 in the great red dragon, and in the red beast that follows 
 him, and we have a lake of blood yet before us, and the sea 
 is reddened with blood, and a lake of red fire awaits the wicked 
 at the end. 
 
 We cannot see any mere personality in this horse or his 
 rider just as we could not in the white horse, nor in the head 
 of gold, etc. True, Daniel said to the king, "Thou art the 
 head of Gold," but he speaks of him only as representing the 
 empire, for when he tells him of his successors he speaks of 
 them as empires, and so, too, the first of Daniel's four beasts 
 was a lion, which did not represent a person but an empire, 
 and the white horse and rider do not represent Christ as only 
 a person, but primarily as the representative of heavenly power. 
 The red horse represents the world power in its first opposition 
 to Christianity. This is the advantage of using colors. This 
 color is the color of all the bloody work, all persecutions of 
 Christ and His followers, and, while it had its greatest fulfill- 
 ment in the times closely following the ascension of Christ and 
 in the early centuries, it has a fulfillment in all like persecu- 
 tions everywhere and always. This horse and his rider show 
 this aspect of all world power as against the claims of Christ. 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. lOl 
 
 The temper oi this world put Christ to death and killed and 
 banished His followers, and this Revelation is to show to God's 
 servants the nature of the struggle through the ages to ensue. 
 Eed marks the bloody track of sin from angry Cain down 
 to this hour. Pagan Rome laid waste the church. "Why do 
 the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? Herod 
 and Pontius Pilate and the people of Israel gathered together 
 against the Lord and against His annointed.^' "The Lord shall 
 hold them in derision.^' 
 
 THE THIRD SEAL. 
 
 And when he opened the third seal I heard the third living 
 creature saying, Come, and I saw and behold a black horse, and he 
 that sat thereon had a balance in his hand, and I heard, as it were, 
 a voice in the midst of the four living creatures, saying, A measure 
 of wheat for a penny and three measures of barley for a penny, and 
 the oil and the wine, hurt thou not. 
 
 The black horse shows the world in darkness. This is the 
 fruit of brute rule. A deep night settled down upon the world 
 following the period of the first and greatest persecutions. The 
 black horse is mounted by a merchantman, not a soldier. He 
 has a balance in his hand and holds auction, selling out heaven 
 for oil and wine, making merchandise of the word of God and 
 the servants of God. This voice comes from the midst of the 
 four living creatures. The world powers have taken possession 
 of the kingdom by force. The servants He left to take care of 
 His kingdom have been unfaithful. Some were killed and others 
 corrupted. This merchantman holds a balance; he is carry- 
 ing on an auction, selling and weighing out wheat and barley, 
 symbols of the word of God, for wine and oil, symbols of com- 
 merce, at enormous prices. Sell the word of God and your 
 traditions at famine prices and do not hurt or do injury to the 
 world^s goods. Ah! those who cast lots for His garment have 
 
102 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 a succession of their own kind who now make merchandise of 
 heavenly things and sell out His church as they sold its head 
 at the beginning. 
 
 This black horse shows that condition of things we call the 
 Dark Ages. We are presently to have that condition of things 
 presented in which a great bankrupt sale will be held of con- 
 traband stuff as merchandise when there will be no buyers. 
 Heavenly things will be degraded to the level of traffic and 
 then sold to those who grope in the dark, but the light will 
 break upon a day when no one will buy it. 
 
 THE FOURTH SEAL. 
 
 And when lie had opened the fourth seal I heard the voice of 
 the fourth living creature saying, Come, and I saw and behold a 
 pale horse, and he that sat upon him; his name was death and 
 Hades followed with him. And there was given unto them au- 
 thority over the fourth part of the earth to kill with the sword and 
 with famine and with death and by the wild beasts of the earth. 
 
 This horse is the color of death, and his rider is named 
 "Death.^' This is the end of world power, the end of man's 
 glory and the beginning of the heavenly. The iron feet and 
 toes of the great image were mixed with clay and easily broken. 
 The stone cut out without hands was to strike the image on 
 the feet. From the white horse to this pale one the colors 
 show that decline, and at last Death has overtaken the long 
 reign of brute power. The changes which were to occur in 
 the world from gold to silver and from silver to brass, and to 
 iron has the same illustration in these colors and equipments, 
 illustrating the general characteristics of world power from the 
 time of John's writing till the end. It was then in the hands 
 of the Caesars, whose power broken, should be the beginning 
 of the destruction of all power adverse to God. The white 
 horse is the kingdom of heaven begun, the red horse the bloody 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 103 
 
 sword that drove it from the field, the black horse the dark 
 ages of the ghouls that rob the dead, and last, the pale horse 
 of death and hell, the decay of brute dominion, to be followed 
 by the establishment of the kingdom of heaven to have domin- 
 ion forever and ever. There is still at this hour blood and 
 darkness in the earth, but they shall never prevail as in the 
 past. 
 
 This pale horse points to the time when the thrones are 
 to be set and the ancient of days shall sit, and judgment be 
 given to the saints. It is to be noted here that the plural is 
 twice used in these seals where the subject is singular. In 
 the second seal it is said "that they should slay one another" 
 and in the fourth seal, "And there was given unto them author- 
 ity over a fourth part of the earth, etc. This shows the repre- 
 sentative character of these horses as the spirits of the people 
 of these epochs that follov/ed each other. 
 
 It is said that Death and Hades followed this dead horse. 
 What a horrid and thrilling picture of the end of all beast 
 worship, and of rebellion against the will of God, But not 
 all persons were worshipers of brute power. Some had borne 
 testimony for Christ. That meant martyrdom or exile. The 
 red horse had passed o\'er them and their voices hushed on earth 
 must be heard again from beyond. The newly awakened idea 
 of immortality, brought to light by Jesus Christ, had left burn- 
 ing in the hearts of His followers the deepest and tenderest 
 question that was ever put up to heaven for its pity. Against 
 all the contradictions of a sinful world they had espoused the 
 hope of a heavenly kingdom and the speedy coming of the 
 Lord; and from hearts most sorely tried they had asked, 
 "What of our beloved dead whose lives have paid the penalty 
 of their love for Jesus? Where are they?" They were in dis- 
 tress for their dead. 
 
 Prompt as the voice of God from the seat of mercy when 
 
104 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 faithful AbeFs body lay warm and bleeding near bis smoking 
 altar and liis soul crying from earth to rebuke his murderer, 
 so here again the voice comes from the heavens to tell the story 
 of those who had fallen at the altar for Christ under the bloody 
 hands of Cain's true successors. 
 
 THE SECOND OR HEAVENLY GROUP. 
 THE FIFTH SEAL. 
 
 The second group is an answer to the first. The fifth seal 
 answers the question raised to God from the myriads of an- 
 guished hearts, "Where are our dead?^^ Ah, and they cried too. 
 
 And when he had opened the fifth seal I saw under the altar the 
 souls of them that had been slain for the word of God and for the 
 testimony which they held, and they cried with a great voice, say- 
 ing, How long, O Master, the Holy and the True, dost thou not 
 judge and avenge our blood upon them that dwell on the earth? 
 
 Them that dwell on the earth means the wicked. It is used 
 many times. It means settled down upon, or rooted in the 
 earth, and not simply those who sojourn upon it. These 
 precious souls had left the world under a load of obloquy and 
 shame, accused, but not convicted of wrong, and so condemned 
 and put to death, but are not dead. Their offense was trying 
 to save wicked men from their own sins. They had been driven 
 from this world in the roll of criminals and now they cry for 
 vindication. Their Master who was denied judgment and put 
 to death as a criminal under the brute powers was made alive 
 forever more, and He has the keys of death and hell and He 
 hears the cry of heart pain from the injustice of the judgments 
 they have suffered. 
 
 And there was given to them each a white robe and it was said 
 unto them that they should rest yet for a little time until their 
 fellow servants and their brethren which should be killed, even as 
 they were, should be fulfilled. 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 105 
 
 This is an echo from the resurrection of Christ, the first fruits, 
 and afterward them that rest or sleep in Jesus. The old sin- 
 ning world could not see beyond His death nor the graves of 
 His followers. But, like faithful Abel, they speak from where 
 they fell at the altar. 
 
 John, who had the greatest, calmest soul of all men here 
 in this solitary place, hears this cry from the martyrs and sees 
 the white robes given to them, and hears the promise made 
 that their cry for avengement on them that dwell upon the 
 earth shall be heard after their rest of "a little while." The 
 world's victories are only seeming. Ah! sinful man, where 
 is thy brother? He answers back to you clothed in white and 
 resting in the promise of Christ. Why do ^le heathen rage 
 and the people imagine a vain thing, the kings of the earth 
 set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the 
 Lord and against His annointed, saying, "Let us break their 
 bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. He that 
 sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them 
 in derision." And being let go, the disciples went to their own 
 company and repeated all that the chief priests and elders had 
 said to them, and they lifted up their voices to God with one 
 accord and said "Lord, Thou art God which hath made heaven, 
 and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is who by the 
 mouth of Thy servant hath said why do the heathen rage and 
 the people imagine a vain thing, for of a truth against Thy 
 Holy Child Jesus, whom Thou hast annointed, both Herod and 
 Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the children of Israel were 
 gathered together." But they are doomed. The stone cut out 
 of the mountain without hands shall crush them and become 
 the mountain that shall fill the earth. Christ has promised 
 to hear that cry from beneath the altar. "I say unto you He 
 shall speedily avenge them." 
 
106 MYSTERY OP THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 THE SIXTH SEAL. 
 CRUCIFIXION OF THE WORLD POWERS. 
 
 The sixth Seal brings ns to the climax. God finished His 
 works on the sixth day; on the sixth day He made man, and 
 in the sixth Seal Christ shall conquer him; in every presenta- 
 tion of the world powers under whatever sjnnbols they all end 
 in disaster. They stand to the rising tide of heavenly power 
 as an anti-climax. While Christ was in the world He grew 
 more pronounced and less popular till they put Him to death. 
 Though He could call twelve legions of angels to His defense, 
 yet, "as a Lamb ^ is dnmb before its shearer, so He opened not 
 His month.^' But of that judgment and execution there is to 
 be a reversal from a higher court. When, in the close of Seals 
 time, Christ shall grapple anew with the powers of darkness. 
 They shall fall and He shall be conqueror and shall rise and 
 rule with a rod of iron. 
 
 In the fifth seal He promised the crying souls beneath the 
 altar that in a "little time" they should be avenged. That time 
 has come and Christ returns judgment and execution upon the 
 enemy. This execution takes on the form and symbolism of a 
 crucifixion. Ah! the manner of His own death was by a cruel 
 crucifixion; so ended His first ministry of teaching in parables, 
 but His second ministry of breaking seals is to end in putting 
 the enemy to death, a retaliation in kind, by a mightier cruci- 
 fixion. When Christ was crucified the earth did quake and 
 the rocks were rent open and the sun was darkened and His 
 disciples were frightened away and they fled and hid themselves 
 from the face of the angry world powers. 
 
 And I saw when he opened the sixth seal and there was a great 
 earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair and the 
 whole moon became as blood and the stars of heaven fell to the 
 
 I 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 107 
 
 earth as a fig tree casts her unripe figs when she is shaken of a 
 mighty wind; and the heaven was removed as a scroll when it is 
 rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their 
 places. And the princes of the earth and the chief captains, and the 
 rich, and the strong, and every bondman, and freedman, hid them- 
 selves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and they say 
 to the mountains and to the rocks. Fall on us and hide us from the 
 face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the 
 Lamb for the great day of their wrath is come, and who is able to 
 stand? 
 
 Would they but hear it the answer is given in advance. "He 
 that hath a pure heart who hath not lifted up his soul unto 
 vanity." "He that overcometh." At His own crucifixion His 
 timid and frightened disciples fled, for the shepherd was smit- 
 ten and the sheep of the fold were scattered abroad, but here 
 in this mightier crucifixion of the enemy the princes of the 
 earth and the chief captains and the rich and the strong, and 
 with them the rabble, the bond and free, shall slink away 
 and hide themselves in the opening rocks and in the dark 
 mountain caves, and shall call upon the rocks and the moun- 
 tains to fall upon them and to hide them from the fajee of Him 
 who sits offended on the throne and from the wrath of the 
 Lamb. "The day of His wrath has come; who is able to stand?" 
 
 When He was crucified the veil of the temple which divided 
 the holy from the most holy place was rent from top to bottom, 
 but now the heavens are rent and rolled up like a scroll. The 
 islands and mountains that trembled then are now moved out 
 of their places. When on His way to crucifixion, consigned 
 by the world powers, and led by the soldiers and the mob, 
 bearing His own cross, there followed Him a great company 
 of people and of women which also bewailed and lamented Him, 
 but Jesus turned to them and said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, 
 weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children, 
 for behold the days are coming in the which they shall say, 
 
108 MYSTERY OP THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 'Blessed are the barren that never bear, and the breasts that 
 give no sustenance/ Then shall they begin to say to the moun- 
 tains, fall on us, and to the hills, cover us, for if they do these 
 things in the green tree what shall be done to them in the 
 dry?" 
 
 Righteous judgment has overtaken them. Their crucifixion 
 day has come and what they did in the green tree has re- 
 turned to them in the dry. Ah! ha! the cry and w^ail now comes 
 from the other side. The altar from which the martyrs cried 
 for avengement gives forth a solemn Amen to the execution, 
 xvi, 7. 0, the painful sight. "Hide us from the face of Him 
 that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb." 
 His wounds still testify to their crime and the wailing cries of 
 His persecuted and crying disciples are still ringing in their ears. 
 He stands now where every one can see Him, and they that 
 pierced Him and all the tribes of the earth shall niourn over 
 Him. The voice for revenge is answered and the crucifiers 
 are crucified. Infinite and loving pity has no other so tender 
 expression as this, wherein Christ's innocence made manifest is 
 the greatest pain to His enemies. While breaking these seals 
 John sees Him standing as a lamb slain. He tells the outcome 
 of the contest, the world powers put to death by the striking 
 imagery of His own crucifixion. 
 
 The fourth seal, with its pale horse and his rider, Death, 
 showed us only that the reign of man had ended, and the sixth 
 seal, which speaks on the other side, tells us how it is done — 
 by a crucifixion. Thus we see how these groups of seals assist 
 each other to tell the story, and how valuable the structure in 
 assigning the parts to their own places. We are at this moment 
 living in the sixth seal, if we read the signs aright. Brute rule 
 in the earth is breaking now, and the power of God is advanc- 
 ing as indeed for a long time, but the struggle may be hard 
 before the triumph is won. 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 109 
 
 The whole story has now been told except the seventh seal, 
 which ushers in the Sabbath. It announces the end. These 
 seals cover all of Revelation time. They tell ns the whole story, 
 on both sides, but they tell it only as related to the part which 
 Christ bore in His own oilQce, as the stone cut out of the moun- 
 tain to crush the great image. The story as now told has this 
 limit; that is, it has special reference to His conquest of the 
 world powers considered as having conspired to reject Him 
 and His kingdom. 
 
 Here we look for the seventh Seal only to note its conspicu- 
 ous absence from its place. It is not in due order. Something 
 has displaced it not hitherto discovered. The matter which 
 follows shows a break, and seemingly quite alien and unrelated 
 to what has gone before. All the commentators whose work I 
 have examined have stranded at this point. The disturbing 
 cause must be understood. It is the cryptograph or pattern 
 which governs the relations of these seals to each other and 
 also to the trumpets. It is the Great Commission. This is the 
 divine order and it supersedes all other arrangements. It gov- 
 erns the structure. Christ's ministry was not ended by His 
 death but by His ascension and His sending the Holy Spirit 
 which He promised His apostles would be given them to con- 
 vict the world of His righteousness and seal their judgment, 
 etc. 
 
 This gift of the Spirit was to precede the proper ministry of 
 the apostles. The conferring of this gift was a part of His 
 ministry, and after its descent on the day of. Pentecost His min- 
 istry was fulfilled, being committed to His apostles with the 
 promise of His presence and the guidance of the Spirit. The 
 fac-simile of this now appears in mystery here in this sixth 
 seal and before the seventh. We have the ascending angel who 
 bears aloft the seal of the living God, the Holy Spirit, which 
 none could bear but He; and which none but He could ad- 
 
110 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 minister from on high. His Seal opening ministry has a sup- 
 plement before He enters into His rest, to be shown by the 
 seventh seal. So governed by these facts of His first ministry, 
 we are to have in form a new ascension bearing away the prom- 
 ise of the Spirit and a day of Pentecost, as at the first, and 
 then He will open the Sabbath seal, bnt not till then, for so 
 the pattern rnles. That fact exactly explains the displacement 
 of the Seventh Seal and all the forms attending leave not a 
 doubt of its governing the order in this way. 
 
 The Sixth Seal brings ns forward to a place where the world 
 powers are crucified and a time when He will re-establish His 
 kingdom by a power which is given upon the form and credit 
 of the first Pentecost. The very form and tenor of what fol- 
 lows the sixth seal, and precedes the seventh, shows plainly 
 that we are following again the great facts about His ministry, 
 only they are, as we shall find, swollen into greater dimensions. 
 He has ended His six great seal opening labors by a retaliation 
 upon the brutish world that killed Him, and now we may look 
 for that mystic ascension to follow. 
 
 SYMBOL SYNONYMS. 
 
 Balance or scales: Spiritual mercliandise; trade mark; number 
 or name of beast; bankruptcy, etc. 
 
 Souls under altar: The seed caught away, 12; the martyrs; the 
 blessed dead. 
 
 White: Crystal; pure; bright; white linen; sealed on the fore- 
 head; virgins, etc. 
 
 Red: Blood; death; sin. 
 
 Black: Merchandise; marked on the hand; darkness. 
 
 Pale: Death; hell; judgment; vintage of the earth; winepress 
 of God's wrath. 
 
 I 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. Ill 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 Revelation VII. 
 
 THE MEETING GROUND.— MYSTIC PENTECOST. 
 
 "The shepherd was smitten and the sheep were scattered 
 abroad." "I will not leave you comfortless. I will send the 
 comforter which is the Holy Spirit. He shall teach yon all 
 things and bring all things to yonr remembrance whatsoever I 
 have said unto you." 
 
 The halo of the Pentecost was a reply to the black Friday of 
 crucifixion. His timid disciples, frightened by the mob, fled 
 and hid themselves. The cow^ard soldiers that guarded the tomb, 
 appalled at the sight of the angel that rolled away the stone, 
 were stricken with panic and broke discipline and fled away, 
 regardless of Eoman law and penalty and were suborned to 
 swear that the disciples had come and stolen away His body 
 while they slept; and Herod, to whom truth was such a stranger 
 that he asked "What is truth?'' released them on this false 
 pretense. The day of Pentecost must cement the ministry cut 
 off by His death. "I will come to you again," is His promise. 
 The Pentecost is to be both a supplement to Christ's ministry 
 and a preface to the ministry of His apostles. But it is more. 
 It is heaven's reply to earth; it is Christ's answer to Herod 
 and Pontius Pilate and the Gentiles and the people of Israel. 
 It is "the great day of the Lord." The broken link shall be 
 welded and the verdict of the courts below shall be reversed, 
 and the frightened disciples shall receive power from on high, 
 when the Holy Spirit is come. "Xow I go my way to Him that 
 sent me and none of you asketh me whither goest Thou. It 
 is expedient 'for you that I go away, for if I go not away the 
 
112 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will send 
 Him unto you. And when He is come He will reprove the 
 world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Of sin, be- 
 cause they believed not on me; of righteousness because I go to 
 my Father, and of judgment because the prince of this world 
 is judged.'' 
 
 On the day of Pentecost Christ must-set His seal upon His 
 apostles and upon His work, and here they must stand before 
 the sinful world powers as He had done, but under new condi- 
 tions. Here He is to be declared as risen from the dead and 
 ascended to the right hand of God and made both Lord and 
 Christ on the very spot wliere judgment was denied to Him 
 and He was turned over to the mob. He told Pilate 
 that he could have no power against Him except it were 
 given to him from above. The apostles had already re- 
 ceived the Great Commission to go and preach to all 
 nations but had also received a countermand to "tarry in 
 Jerusalem till ye be endued with power from on high." "For 
 the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet 
 glorified." When He had charged them that they should bear 
 witness for Him in Jerusalem and to the uttermost parts of 
 the earth, while they beheld, "He was taken up and a cloud 
 received Him out of their sight, and they stood gazing into 
 heaven." His ascension was necessary to the day of Pentecost 
 and a preparation for it. Upon this great event the preaching 
 and the kingdom must wait. It was to enlist the apostles under 
 the Great Commission to carry out its provisions. On that day 
 He conferred the Spirit and 'sealed with the seal of God a 
 great number of persons, given as about three thousand souls, 
 wrested from the enemy and they continued together and had 
 all things in common. The day of Pentecost* works a great 
 change in the relative position of all the actors who had taken 
 part in the great tragedy. These parts we must keep clear in 
 
I 
 
 OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 113 
 
 mind for we are following in this gospel narrative of fact the 
 pattern of heavenly things to come in a mystery. 
 
 That which is vital to the story is that Christ having been 
 put to death by the world powers ascended on high, bearing 
 with Him the promise of the Spirit which He shed forth after 
 He had been glorified and by whose power He confronted the 
 world powers and won a victory of three thousand souls from 
 the enemy, "men out of every nation under heaven, and they 
 that believed were together and had all things common, and 
 day by day continued with one accord in the temple praising 
 God and having favor with all the people.^^ 
 
 Christ having now fulfilled His ministry entered upon His 
 rest, leaving His apostles in full commission and power to carry 
 forward His kingdom. He now ceased from His labor as God 
 did from His. The part which the apostles acted and the part 
 which the world powers acted are to be seen later. We are 
 looking directly at the part which He bore. We are prepared 
 to read the relations which Christ mystically sustains to the 
 world power. 
 
 And after this I saw four angels (world powers) standing on the 
 four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth 
 (possessing the power) that no wind should blow on the earth or on 
 the sea or upon any tree. And I saw another angel ascend from 
 the sunrise having the seal of the living God, and he cried with a 
 great voice to the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the 
 earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, nor the sea, nor the 
 trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads, 
 and I heard the number of them that were sealed a hundred and 
 forty and four thousand sealed out of every tribe of the children of 
 Israel. 
 
 In the time of the sixth seal or between the sixth and sev- 
 enth, we are to have a great revival for a second church ex- 
 pressed in the imagery of a Pentecost, just as we had the world 
 8 
 
114 MYSTERY OP THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 powers destroyed under the forms and imagery of a crucifixion. 
 But that phase of the Pentecost presented here is the part which 
 Christ bears as of Himself and unattended, as already explained. 
 It shows His changed relations to the world powers as being 
 now able to command them in greater numbers than at the 
 first Pentecost. He commands the world powers mystically, 
 that is, the four world angels, that represent the total of world 
 power. The other part acted on the day of Pentecost will 
 be given in mystery in the trumpets, etc. The Great Commis- 
 sion as carried out by the Christ and the Spirit and apostles, 
 is the pattern and seems to have escaped the attention hitherto, 
 partly because the facts are given a different division and analy- 
 sis. It is differently divided, for Christ's entire part in the 
 Pentecost is given first and then the apostle's part. The Great 
 Commission has been perverted from its true proportion and 
 true purport to controversial ends, hence arises an obstacle to 
 the discernment of its form lying here. 
 
 Admit that this story of the future is ruled on the pattern 
 of the things that are past, and we have not only a sure guide, 
 but we may even have a proof of the correct purport of that 
 commission. We now stand between the seals and trumpets 
 as upon the day of Pentecost we would stand between Christ 
 and the apostles. As Christ finished His world labors, and 
 ascended on high bearing away the promise of the spirit which 
 was to come and convict the world powers by a manifestation 
 of divine power which they could not arrest and which is to 
 justify His claim, so is the fact to occur in the sixth seal; that 
 is, a new church is to rise out of the old first one and it is 
 given in the forms of the first. Here are in form again Herod 
 and Pontius Pilate and the Gentiles and the people of Israel, 
 or the four world powers, called the four angels, shown to the 
 king and to Daniel under different forms, and now at a point 
 and a time hereafter to be clearly identified as the Great Eefor- 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 115 
 
 mation we have Christ rising again and ascending, bearing 
 the seal of the living God to seal a great new church of men 
 of every nation, etc. Upon the historic substance of the gospel 
 is superimposed this fore gleam of the future; that gospel in 
 this case being but shadow, and the things to occur in the 
 sixth seal being the substance of this story told in a mystery. 
 This is the prophecy of a second church of which we shall 
 see clearly at points presently to appear. 
 
 Here are four angels; they are world angels as seen, 1st, by 
 their number, four; and 2d, by their standing on the four cor- 
 ners of the earth, while the angel of God is ascending with the 
 seal, etc.; and 3d, by their holding the four winds of the earth, 
 that is, so they will not disturb the waters that bring forth 
 beasts and that destroy the heavenly inheritance, "the earth 
 and the trees and the sea.'' It must be noticed since His ascen- 
 sion Christ claims ownership and authority over all things in 
 heaven and in earth. Now when Christ ascended He disputed 
 the hitherto unlimited control of the evil powers that put Him 
 to death and three thousand at once turned away from the 
 verdict that had put Him to death and enlisted under His au- 
 thority as loyal followers. 
 
 While these four angels are still in possession of the world 
 power (holding the winds) John sees another angel ascending 
 from the East or sunrising, "having the seal of the living God," 
 to contest their power. This identifies the part or function of 
 Christ. 1. 'No one else ever ascended bearing the seal of God. 
 That seal is the symbol for the Holy Spirit. 2. No one else 
 could com_mand a restraint upon the world powers; and 3, no 
 one else could seal the servants of God on the forehead. He is 
 further identified by rising in the East, that is, where the morn- 
 ing star rises, and He is called "the Bright and Morning Star." 
 These four world angels present to view the condition of the 
 world powers at the time here identified as the great Eeforma- 
 
116 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 tion. They are still in possession of the earth, and instead of 
 their separately marking the progress of time, as the seals do, 
 these four angels are all engaged at the same time in the same 
 affair and have no distinguishing marks to separate them as 
 by progressive periods or separate functions, hut come between 
 two seals as at one point of time. This distinction is vital. So 
 it was at the crucifixion Herod and Pontius Pilate and the Gen- 
 tiles and the people of Israel stood against Him. But as at 
 the coronation of Christ and the gift of the Spirit He was 
 enabled to put a limit upon the unrestrained exercise of world 
 authority, so now He is able again to call a greater restriction 
 and to enlist a vastly greater number of loyal subjects. It is 
 the second church. The same care taken for the symbol value 
 of four, as four angels, four corners of the earth, four winds 
 of the earth, etc., is here also given to three as a signal for 
 heavenly origin. Here we have the first sharp conflict between 
 the signals three and four. 
 
 The things which the world angels are commanded not to 
 hurt are the earth, and sea, and trees, and immediately the 
 figure is changed and we find what is meant by the earth, sea 
 and trees is the people, out of whom a great number is sealed. 
 The angel who ascends with the seal is He whom the Father 
 hath sealed and who promised to seal His chosen ones. "He 
 cried with a great voice to the four angels to whom it was 
 given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, '^Hurt not the 
 earth, neither the sea, till we have sealed the servants of God 
 on their foreheads.' And I heard the number of them which 
 were sealed, a hundred and forty and four thousand sealed out 
 of every tribe of the children of Israel." To seal them on their 
 foreheads was to cause them to understand, to claim the intelli- 
 gence and as at the first Pentecost He was able to call a halt 
 on and to limit His enemy by enlisting three thousand. He is 
 now able in the likeness of that fact to claim a much greater 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 117 
 
 number; and as those He converted then were devout Jews out 
 of every nation under heaven, so again, to preserve the sub- 
 stance on the pattern given, it says the multitude sealed were 
 "of all the tribes of Israel,'' and it has only this kind of ref- 
 erence to Israel and no reference to Hebrew flesh. To take 
 this as a reference to the Jews would tear into fragments the 
 greatest allegory ever given to the world and leave this book 
 a wreck as hitherto. He is speaking to the new Spiritual Israel, 
 and which we shall see again and again, as we proceed, can be- 
 long only to the great revival or Reformation. 
 
 To seal just twelve thousand out of the twelve tribes, which 
 are literally no more to be found, and that so definite a num- 
 ber should be sealed out of each, seems upon its face to be 
 a hard and arbitrary interpretation. Besides, the twelve tribes 
 are not given in their proper order, and the tribes of Ephraim 
 and of Dan, which were so closely associated with idolatry, are 
 properly left out of the enumeration as unfit for even symbolic 
 use, and the names of Joseph and Levi take their places, show- 
 ing that the whole is mystical and allegorical. 
 
 But the day of -Pentecost was followed by the conversion later 
 of a great multitude which was not numbered; so here, besides 
 the one hundred and forty-four thousand out of each of the 
 tribes of Israel John says: 
 
 After these things I saw and behold a great multitude, which no 
 man could number, out of every nation, and of all tribes and peo- 
 ples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb 
 arrayed in white robes, etc. 
 
 This multitude differs from the one hundred and forty-four 
 thousand only as the great multitude converted in the after- 
 math of Pentecost differed from those converted on that great 
 and notable day of the Lord. They are not two classes nor 
 in two separate worlds, but they are one and in one company. 
 There is no death line between them, only they are closely 
 
118 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 following that historic pattern which accounts for the entire 
 arrangement of these seals and trumpets and their belongings. 
 Many attempts to make these appear as Jews and Gentiles, 
 and as celestial and terrestrial beings failed of intelligibility/ 
 because it was not discerned that the story told by the Seals 
 and Trumpets articulate upon the working plan of Christ and 
 His apostles in carrying out the Great Commission. This is 
 the new Pentecost. This method once conceded, we see great: 
 coherency and dignity in the work, and though the shadow- 
 graph w^hich guides may first appear dim, it deepens with at- 
 tention into a faithful pattern and is faithfully followed out. 
 
 Thus we see that the day of Pentecost, and the events that 
 led up to it and the events that followed from it, is preserved 
 here in outline and in the relations as they were then under- 
 stood, and that upon this outline the foreview of the ages 
 is being actually fulfilled before our eyes except the personali- 
 ties which are cancelled at the start. This is a balm for a 
 troubled heart. It is of untold interest that we are witnesses 
 to the changes in the affairs of this world here described, changes 
 we believed were to occur, but did not know they were set 
 down in this book. We have noticed that the world powers, 
 as seen in the dream of the king's image, and as seen in Dan- 
 ieFs dream of the four beasts, and in John's vision of the four 
 horses, all mark the progress of on-going time, bujt here in 
 these four world angels, and in two other instances at least, 
 these world powers do not mark the on-going time, but pre- 
 sent their condition at a certain point of time where they act 
 together in a single function. These three instances are, 1, 
 when they stand on the four corners of the earth holding the 
 four winds of the earih, 2, w^hen they are bound at the great 
 Eiver Euphrates, which we shall presently see, and 3, when 
 they sit as four living creatures around the throne serving God 
 and saying, "Holy, holy, holy! is the Lord God Almighty!" 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 119 
 
 That we may not take His sealing of the saints on the fore- 
 head in too personal a sense as to Chrisf s own act, we notice 
 the plural is used — till we have sealed the servants of God, etc. 
 Christ truly seals them but not without the mediums of His 
 Spirit, His Apostles, His Churches, etc. 
 
 Beginning with verse nine we have the aftermath of this 
 mystic Pentecost. As those at Jerusalem, after Pentecost, had 
 all things common and sold their possessions and continued 
 together in perfect unity, so we here follow that pattern. Those 
 all stand before the throne, the entire host, the one hundred 
 and forty and four thousand, and the multitude now in one com- 
 pany stand before the throne of God and serve and praise Him. 
 
 It is to be borne in mind that since Christ removed the veil 
 in the temple at His death, so has He in fact removed the 
 veil between the Holy and the Most Holy places in this dis- 
 pensation; so that all the saints stand before God in one com- 
 pany without division, being all militant and all triumphant. 
 Between them all and the throne of God there is no veil. The 
 teaching of John in His gospel is "He that believeth hath eter- 
 nal life," not that he shall have it, but now and here. To be 
 arrayed in white robes is to have the righteousness of Christ, 
 and to have palms in our hands is to celebrate His glory. Here 
 is the scene of the community of all saints praising God and hav- 
 ing all things in common, both which are in heaven and in 
 earth. Now all things are yours and ye are Christ^s and Christ 
 is God's. 
 
 They cry with a great voice, saying, Salvation to our God which 
 sitteth on the throne and unto the Lamb. And all the angels were 
 standing round about the throne and about the elders and the four 
 living creatures and they fell before the throne on their faces and 
 worshiped God, saying. Amen! blessing and glory and wisdom and 
 thanksgiving and honor and power and might be unto our God for- 
 ever and ever Amen! And one of the elders answered and said 
 
120 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 ■unto me, These which are arrayed in white robes, who are they, and 
 whence came they? 
 
 The question is directly raised, "Who are these ?^' and the 
 answer puts the matter to rest. What a personal experience 
 was this for the seer — a very old man weeping much at the 
 sight of a sealed book which no one in heaven or on earth or 
 under the earth could loose, and while his eyes are still wet 
 with tears, sees this multitude in white which no man can num- 
 ber, all glorious and happy, saved in Christ, and he himself 
 addressed by one of the elders and asked who are these arrayed 
 in white robes and whence came they? Ah! he did not know. 
 Daniel did not know what his vision meant, and had to ask 
 the angel to explain, so John answers the elder who addressed 
 him, "My Lord, thou knowest.^' He ventured no part in the 
 awful drama. He told us at the first that he fell at his Mas- 
 ter's feet like one dead. The elder explains to him, "And he 
 said unto me these are they that come out of the great tribula- 
 tion and they washed their robes and made them white in the 
 blood of the Lamb." These include the souls under the altar. 
 The great tribulation describes the condition of the church till 
 the kingdom come. John had said, "I am your brother in the 
 tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ." Washed 
 in the blood of Christ and made white means that they were 
 sealed on the forehead, that is, saved by Christ. The souls 
 under the altar had received white robes given to them. "The 
 white linen is the righteous acts of the saints." The souls un- 
 der the altar were disclosed to view to answer a special ques- 
 tion, but these are presented to ask and answer a general one. 
 All the saints in Christ living and dead are presented to view 
 in this throng. These were they who had borne, and all who 
 ever would bear,* testimony for Christ. The word in the Greek 
 for bearing witness and the word for martyr are the same. It 
 is not supposable that any class of martyrs or saints would here 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 121 
 
 be shown as against or in discrimination of any other class, 
 but showing them all in one relation to the throne adds to 
 the unity and simplicity of the story. It is exactly the place 
 to show this fact coming after the Pentecost, where all were 
 together and had all things in common; not only the three 
 thousand who were in on the day of Pentecost, and heard the 
 apostles speak as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, but the 
 great multitude that came after and was not numbered, all in 
 one undivided com2:)any. 
 
 That the one hundred and forty and four thousand are sealed 
 and numbered and recorded, and as coming out of the twelve 
 tribes of Israel, is only preserving the form of that actual Pente- 
 cost where they were present at the descent of the Spirit and 
 were numbered three thousand and are said to have been of 
 "devout Jews out of every nation under heaven;" but in these 
 things only did they differ from those who came to Christ later. 
 The same follows in this mystic Pentecost, and at first we 
 are strongly inclined to think that the sealed and numbered 
 company is a different company from those who stand as a 
 multitude before the throne, but the difference is made en- 
 tirely to coincide with the pattern on which it is expressed and 
 preserved. It is the relation that we see between the three 
 thousand of Pentecost and the great company converted after 
 Pentecost. But it also shows that God takes account of His 
 saints, and not only has He commanded and secured an abey- 
 ance of the world powers to reclaim souls from their service 
 to His own, but that while no man can number the host in 
 this. His second greater church, our present reformation, God 
 knows and seals and numbers and records them every one. 
 John says, "I heard the number of them that were sealed.'' 
 He did not see them or number them himself. But of the 
 others he says, "I saw the multitude before the throne in white 
 and it was such as no man can number." This use of the defi- 
 
122 ' MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 nite and indefinite not only follows the Pentecost^, and after 
 Pentecost, conversions, but it also strongl}^ implies God's care 
 for .His people now as then. At the Jerusalem Pentecost it 
 is said, "They continued from day to day in the temple wor- 
 shiping God, etc.," and here the same fact is expressed, for 
 they are "Standing before the throne of God, and they serve 
 Him ^ay and night in His temple." In the new song which 
 they smg, iv, 10, it is said, "and they shall reign upon the 
 earth." 
 
 Of the first Pentecost it is said the Lord added to the church 
 such as were saved, and here it says, "He shall spread His taber- 
 nacle over them, etc." This shows the same care of His sec- 
 ond church as for the first. 
 
 These are they which came out of great tribulation and they 
 washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, 
 therefore are they before the throne of God and they serve him day 
 and night in his temple, and he that sitteth on his throne shall 
 spread his tabernacle over them. They shall hunger no more, 
 neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun strike upon them, 
 nor any heat, for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne 
 shall be their shepherd and shall guide them unto fountains of 
 waters of life, and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes. 
 
 This entrancing picture of the. happiness of the saints causes 
 the mind not only to ask, who are these, which is here answered, 
 but, "when shall these things be?" He is telling us these 
 things of the second church, the present and all the saved in 
 one undivided company. These are present facts but they are 
 taken mostly in the light of joyful anticipations, just as the 
 first disciples were happy and glorious in the assurance of eter- 
 nal life, though they were then being hunted down and perse- 
 cuted and put to death. We are looking upon the new com- 
 munity of saints by the pattern of the old, only while it fol- 
 lows that pattern its symbols show a greatly augmented com- 
 
 1 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 123 
 
 pany with the same happy aspects. A state of great rejoicing 
 in this world is the true and normal condition of the saved. 
 They have "fled from the wrath to come;" they have "passed 
 from death unto life;" they "have eternal life/' and its full 
 fruition lends advance installments of peace on earth and glory 
 to God in the highest. 
 
 Not only does the whole company of the saints, but the El- 
 ders and the four living creatures appear here in their place 
 about the throne; and in all the great oratorios where they ap- 
 pear as though they were present at all these great changes. 
 These great praises are the Millennium choruses sung as though 
 they were present, just as the use of seven presupposes the tri- 
 umph already won and as that the saints now have eternal life. 
 Hymns have no chronology, neither in this book nor in our 
 own usage. We sing "On Jordan's stormy banks I stand," or 
 "By cool Siloam's shady rill" or "I'll soon be at home over 
 there," and never think of being asked "when?" We sing 
 paeons of our faith and hope. So we observe that as we move 
 on in the progress of our story the oratorios make note of the 
 passing changes till they break out at the last with one grand 
 burst of thunderous praise, "The kingdom of men has become 
 the kingdom of God and His Christ." 
 
 We are now doing in fact the very thing shown here. Our 
 advances can be seen in a measure by the changes in our hymns. 
 The saints standing about the throne worshiping is the per- 
 manent condition of our lives, if we are indeed washed from 
 our sins in the blood of the Lamb, and as this picture is con- 
 nected with this great mystic Pentecost it is telling us what 
 belongs to us at this time and what belongs to all the saints 
 till the end. There is at our first reading an impression of 
 place and of time which hinders our seeing the deeper essential 
 truth. These are said to be standing about the throne, or be- 
 fore the throne, as though they were ill a heavenly world above, 
 
124 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 but it is not so in fact. There is no such division recognized. 
 The Elder says, "These are they that came np out of great 
 tribulation/' as if they had risen from the earth, but that they 
 serve Him day and night in His temple, which is on earth, 
 now annexed to heaven with no visible seam, and that He 
 shall spread His tabernacle over them, which is itinerant, as 
 though they were moving onward, and that the Lamb shall lead 
 them to fountains of water of life as a shepherd does his flock. 
 All this is unintelligible till we look above our accustomed re- 
 finements and distinctions, which a thousand theorists have 
 spun like webs over our minds and of which the Apocalypse 
 is oblivious. We are used to just such symbolic language in 
 the gospels and in our preaching, but we do not at once and 
 readily recognize it when we see the familiar facts in this new 
 dress. 
 
 The preacher will say in the same sermon that we are in 
 the Christian fellowship, that is, in the same ship as at sea, 
 having a common fate or fortune, and that we are His disciples, 
 that is, are in the schoolroom with the teacher, and that we 
 are good soldiers, that is, marching or in battle with our captain, 
 etc.; that we are at the sam^e time in a ship on the sea, and 
 in a schoolhouse, and marching on the field, we understand 
 is but telling the same general fact under different forms and 
 which are not, when taken spiritually, inconsistent, but taken 
 literally are absurd. 
 
 Literally, w^e could not hold all these relations and places at 
 the same time, but we now stand before God's throne with our 
 face unveiled, for Christ our Priest has taken away the veil in 
 the rending of His own flesh, and so the saved are one family 
 in one large place. John in exile and now his face, still wet 
 with tears, hears it said that God shall "wipe away every tear,'' 
 and He is near enough to do it, for He is near enough as a 
 shepherd to lead us. John is addressed personally and here 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 135 
 
 quotes himself as having stammered out the words in reply 
 to the elder, "And I say unto him 'My Lord, thou knowest/ " 
 He had felt the right hand of his -Lord laid upon him, had 
 heard Him speak, had taken up His pen to write and did write 
 this book. He was called upon with a voice as a voice of a 
 trumpet saying, "Come up hither," and in the spirit he went 
 forward to view the end, to see "the things that shall come to 
 pass hereafter." He now hears this redeemed multitude shout 
 with joy "Salvation to our God." He had once stood upon 
 the Holy Mount where Christ stood in glistening raiment talk- 
 ing to Moses and Elijah about the things concerning His death, 
 but it was a bolder aj)ostle than he who then dared to stammer . 
 a proposal for three tabernacles, not knowing what he said. 
 There John was a silent observer, but now he speaks, but only 
 when spoken to. "We may imagine him suffocated with in- 
 tense emotion. He cannot answer but returned the question, 
 "Thou knowest." All else forgotten, now he is absorbed. The 
 saints are praising, singing, shouting and weeping, and God is 
 comforting them, spreading His tent over them in their jour- 
 neyings, leading them to the fountains of the waters of life, 
 wiping away their tears. Here is the total of heavenly powers 
 in acclamations of victory. The saints, living and dead, in one 
 company having all things in common, both which are in heaven 
 and in earth, "for all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos 
 or Cephas or things present or things to come, all are yours, 
 and ye are Christ's and Christ is God's." The death line is 
 effaced and we view the whole countless multitude of the re- 
 deemed before God. The great advantage of His holding the 
 two sides of this mighty conflict in line is most apparent. It 
 simplifies the story to its last degree. When the representa- 
 tive parts of these two powers are presented they are differ- 
 entiated by a method at Once the clearest and most wonderful. 
 Here is a literary feat that challenges our adniirafion and ex- 
 
126 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 cites our wonder. These are the two great antagonistic forces 
 at war but the parts as acted on their respective sides are clearly 
 distinguished by their relations to their principals whose badges 
 they wear. We can see them move as we would two armies and 
 see their subordinates and can never mistake which side any 
 actor is on. Between these armies there is a gulf fixed. The 
 colors that divide them are as opposite as black and white. 
 In all his writings, in his gospel and in his letters and in this 
 Kevelation it is characteristic of John that he has no shadings 
 in his characters. They stand out as where a shadow from 
 the intense electrical light leaves a black, clear cut form, all 
 light on one side and al] deep darkness on the other. He 
 never grades heavenly things down to the earthly. He is most 
 uncompromising. 
 
 It is John who tells us that Satan was "a liar from the be- 
 ginning/^ and that he is a murderer, while Christ is altogether 
 righteous and in Him is no unrighteousness, "no darkness at 
 all." He it was who told us that Judas was a devil and a traitor, 
 and he alone of all the prophets in the Bible told us Cain's 
 motive for killing his brother. "And wherefore slew he him, 
 because his works were evil and his brother's righteous." He 
 says "the world knoweth us not because it knew Him not." 
 It is this perfect divorce and the perfect antagonism between 
 these forces that affords the highest degree of certainty to this 
 interpretation when we descend to its details. This perfect 
 lack of shadings and gradations in John's chief characters every- 
 where stands up to assist our exegesis. The effacement of per- 
 sonalities or the retirement of them from direct recognition 
 and the same subordination of places to a symbolical use added 
 to the clear cut distinction between his characters are such fix- 
 tures in his treatment as to establish our confidence in the re- 
 sults. 
 
 We are dealing with the principles and essences as they stand 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 127 
 
 related to each other in this world where sin strives against 
 righteousness; and while we at first experience a feeling of loss 
 from want of the uses of personalities and localities and chrono- 
 logical dates we are in fact a thousand times compensated hy 
 being compelled to see things in their larger, deeper and higher 
 relations divested of the narrower, harder and more abitrary 
 way in which we may have been accustomed to think upon 
 spiritual things. We shall see them rise from their sources 
 and flow onward to their consummation to the rapture of the 
 glorious end. Such a view is a mightier armor against the 
 wiles of the devil than we had yet fully known. 
 
 Our fault has been that we are too fond of the superficially 
 religious, like His first followers, looking for signs in the per- 
 sonalities, localities and times instead of principles, essences- 
 and relations. After a long acquaintance with Him, Philip 
 said, "Lord, show us the Father and it sufficeth us." Jesus said, 
 "Philip, hast thou been so long a time with Me and hast not 
 seen the Father? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." 
 
 By an unfortunate division of chapters the seventh seal comes 
 in the eighth chapter. Christ has finished His mystic min- 
 istry, including His part in this new Pentecost, and the apostle^s 
 part will follow as Trumpeters. 
 
 SYMBOL SYNONYMS. 
 
 Four angels: Four horses; four creatures; tribes; tongues; 
 peoples and nations; they that dwell on the earth, etc. 
 
 Four winds: Human spirits; passions and interests of men. 
 
 Earth, sea and trees: Earth, trees and green grass; grass, trees 
 and living things (all God's heritage in the earth claimed as Christ's 
 since his ascension). 
 
 Children of Israel: The 144,000 sealed; the multitude no man 
 could number; ten thousand times ten thousand; the saints, etc. 
 
128 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 Revelation VIII, 
 THE SEVENTH SEAL.— THE APOSTLES AS TRUMPETERS. 
 
 The last act of the Seal-opener comes here, far removed 
 from the preceding six. But it precedes the trumpets. As the 
 events of the day of Pentecost, the sending down of the Holy 
 Spirit, etc., must transpire before Christ had finished His min- 
 istry, henceforth to be entrusted to earthen vessels, the apostles, 
 and before He entered into His rest; so here we find the spirit- 
 ual replication of that fact. Christ has finished His personal 
 part by the opening of six seals, six days of labor. He now 
 breaks the seventh seal, that is, after He has acted His part in 
 this mystic Pentecost corresponding to that which He acted in 
 His actual ministry that ended in the im^artation of the spirit 
 on the day of Pentecost at Jerusalem. 
 
 And when he had opened the seventh seal there followed a si- 
 lence in heaven about the space of half an hour. 
 
 'No works follow. It is the Sabbath of the new spiritual 
 creation which He has completed and which He has told us 
 about in the disclosure of the six great labor seals. Christ is 
 done in His own single ministry and it is His millennium. We 
 have seen His new mystic ascension and His Pentecost in which 
 He sealed His servants . on the forehead, and His new power 
 over the enemy. For further intelligence we will have to look 
 to His apostles who follow and speak with trumpets. 
 
 THE TRUMPETERS. 
 
 We shall now see that the trumpeters sustain relations to 
 the Seals opener exactly analogous to those which the apostles 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 129 
 
 sustained to Christ in carrying out the Great Commission. In 
 reading we are compelled to discern two lessons at once. Our 
 training in the analytical schools of late centuries sets up a 
 revolt in the mind on this method, but thus only may we read 
 this book written within and on the back. The substance and 
 its shadow go together. They refuse to part. Toward what 
 we know as substance, that is, the Gospel facts, our minds gravi- 
 tate and harden. But the facts must be subdued into shadow 
 upon which we must read the greater, higher substance of the 
 hereafter. This is a kind of extension of mental process at- 
 tended with effort, but also with a blessing pronounced both at 
 the opening and at the close of this book upon him that reads 
 it through this veil. The Gospel of fact being familiar to the 
 mind, concerning the first church, steals our attention from the 
 second church of which he is telling us on its pattern. We 
 must raise our vision to these new heights. Our religious im- 
 pressions grown out of the great controversies of the past are 
 too violent for the serene exile, and they stand in our way 
 and obscure the higher and greater truth he seeks to impart. 
 We have also looked too steadily and intensely upon the troubled 
 wake behind us and not enough upon the peaceful things which 
 are before us and in which we are to bear an age-making part. 
 We are now to read the trumpeters separate and apart from 
 Christ, the Seal opener, as the apostles acted apart from Him 
 after the day of Pentecost. Their earlier relations to Him 
 are illustrated by His holding them in His right hand as stars 
 and as letter carriers to the churches. We shall presently see 
 them as thunderers, and again as the angels of wrath. Now 
 as stars and as letter carriers and as thunderers they act one 
 single and common part or function and are inseparable, but 
 as trumpeters they act seven independent parts, and as they 
 are now with Him in carrying out the new creation, their func- 
 tions are six days' labor and then close with a seventh which 
 9 
 
130 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 is the "kingdom come^' or the Sabbath. Xow we must note 
 well the fact that as neither the apostles nor the Holy Spirit 
 nor the Churches appeared by any sign in all the seals^ so in 
 all the trumpets neither the Spirit nor the Churches nor even 
 Christ appears^ except that He will appear in a manner which 
 corresponds to His manifestations to His apostles after the day 
 of Pentecost. Here is design of an assured order. 
 
 This analogy sustains the fact of the ongoing of time by 
 these Trumpets beyond a doubt^ and we have the time of the 
 future covered on a pattern that conforms in detail to the 
 past. That is^ the seals and trumpets each cover the whole 
 of Eevelation time, beginning with Christ's ministry and bring- 
 ing up in the same great results, one line being viewed as 
 Christ's work and the other being viewed as the work of the 
 apostles. That is as King N"ebuchadnezzar saw the triumph 
 over the world accomplished as by Christ in His own person 
 under the symbol of a stone cut out without hands, and as 
 Daniel saw the same end reached as through the saints, so 
 do the seals and trumpets respectively represent these two 
 facts, two phases of the same great fact, the prophet Daniel 
 being explained as quoted by Christ on the Mount of Olives. 
 In all these visions we mark the fact that the visions of the 
 king's image and of Daniel's beasts and of John's Seals and 
 trumpets, we have four times the unmistakable progress of on- 
 going and of completed time. These divisions of time are 
 most decided and lie at the base of the true interpretation. 
 In addition to these facts, which the book compels us to so 
 often observe, the changes themselves now within our knowl- 
 edge must have resulted from the changed conditions of the 
 world in fulfillment of Daniel's and Christ's foretelling. Their 
 own part which the apostles bore in that Great Commission 
 must now be noticed in detail. 
 
 They received the Great Commission to "go into all the world 
 
 J 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 131 
 
 and preach the Gospel to every creature/' but they also received 
 a countermand to "tarry at Jerusalem till they should be en- 
 dued with power from on high." While they tarried for the 
 promised day of Pentecost, they held a prayer service in which 
 Peter made an address and proposed that another apostle should 
 be elected who should take the place from which Judas by 
 transgression fell, and having set before them two, who had 
 journeyed with them from the baptism of John, they set them 
 before God in prayer that He would show which He had chosen. 
 The choice fell upon ^latthias, and he w^as numbered with the 
 apostles. 
 
 The next part which the apostles bore was to preach and 
 to be followed by great agitation and by persecutions, etc. 
 Here it is told in mystery, that is, a future Pentecost in strange 
 symbols is told on the pattern of the old, as it related to the 
 apostles' part of it. 
 
 And I saw the seven angels which stand before God and there 
 was given to them seven trumpets (their commission). 
 
 From this statement the account turns away to speak of a 
 matter which seems to be entirely unrelated to it. Why do the 
 trumpeters not proceed at once to sound, as we should expect? 
 They have received their trumpets. Why delay? Here an- 
 other angel joins them, and serves them, but he has not been 
 given any trumpet, but a censer only, and he acts a different 
 part and is not recognized as a trumpeter, but seems to be 
 in the lead of their prayers and with them he performs a part 
 which is prefatory to their several soundings. 
 
 And another angel came and stood over the altar having a golden 
 censer. 
 
 And there was given unto him much incense that he should add 
 it to the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was 
 before the throne. 
 
A 
 
 f 
 
 133 V MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 Incense ik the symbol for prayer, and it is explained here 
 just as he explained the stars and the candlesticks and the white 
 linen and the sea, these being of the few symbols which are 
 interpreted to its by the author. 
 
 * "And the smoke of the incense for the prayers of saints 
 went lip before God out of the angel's hand/' 
 
 The symbolism under which this prayer meeting is given 
 is the service in the temple, a minister with incense at the 
 altar, offering it up to God. This is clearly patterned on the 
 election of Matthias. It is noticeable that this angel is active 
 in the prayers, and even seems to lead, whereas we were ac- 
 customed to suppose that Matthias was passive in his election. 
 This angel serves all the rest. He offers up incense or pray- 
 ers for "all the saints.'' All the saints were present on the 
 day of his election; they were all gathered together in one 
 place. 
 
 And the smoke of the incense for the prayers of the saints went 
 up before God out of the angel's hand. 
 
 This addition of another member to the trumpeters in a 
 prayer meeting and its preceding the soundings of the trum- 
 pets, answer so completely to the election of Matthias as to 
 remove all doubt. This angel is chosen before the trumpets 
 sound. He acts a subordinate part, and yet his part precedes 
 the sounding of the trumpets. This election of an added angel 
 to the trumpeters is impersonal and mystic. We clearly see 
 in it the election of Matthias by his relations to the apostles 
 and by his function, and as it is said that the incense went up 
 before God, it would seem that the prayers were heard and 
 answered. 
 
 And the angel taketh the censer and filleth it with t^e fire of the 
 altar and cast it upon the e^rth, 
 
 I 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 133 
 
 Casting fire upon the earth is a symbol for preaching, as we 
 shall presently have instances to show, but we have no account 
 that Matthias preached, though we might fairly infer that he 
 did; but he certainly did not lead in it at that time. That is 
 the part which Peter performed, for it was he who led in it 
 and was the chief speaker, both at the election of Matthias 
 and on the day of Pentecost. Here again we meet with the 
 advantage of preserving functions and parts, without being 
 cumbered with direct personalities. We have seven Trumpets 
 answering to the apostles — that is, by acting seven parts and 
 their distinctions in these parts — by which we can in some 
 measure see the actors through the parts they acted. By means 
 of this shadowgraph we can see both the election of Matthias 
 to the apostleship and the part which Peter bore in his elec- 
 tion, the prayers about Matthias and the preaching of Peter. 
 But while their parts are reproduced in foYm in this new 
 symbolism their personalities are only implied by their relative 
 and co-ordinate acts. 
 
 Now the use of these forms is most apparent. If it is not 
 simply telling over again the things of the past^ it is teach- 
 ing us of the future on patterns of the past by a faithfulness 
 that inspires awe and wonder and praise. Seeing Peter and 
 Matthias act in one function, casting out fire, is not quite 
 new, for we have seen all the apostles acting both as seven 
 and as one and the same function in two instances, and pres- 
 ently we shall see another even more remarkable incident of 
 personality by the use of the shadowgraph. John himself acts 
 a function for all the apostles in bearing the letters to all the 
 churches. 
 
 And there followed thunders and voices and lightnings and an 
 earthquake. 
 
 These are the symbols for preaching, as already said^ but 
 
134 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 are to be noticed here not as the preaching which Peter did 
 upon the occasion of adding Matthias to the apostleship, for 
 that was agreed to peacefully, while the lightnings and earth- 
 quakes are symbols for the deep effect and agitation which fol- 
 lowed the preaching on Pentecost, so that the preaching on 
 these two events are blended into one. It seems at first strange 
 that Matthias and Peter, whose functions seem so wide apart, 
 one being the leading apostle to whom Christ gave the keys, and 
 the other a secondary or servant apostle, should stand so close 
 together in this shadovrgraph that their functional images 
 blend. It does not look much like that primacy of Peter we 
 have heard much about, but rather like Christ's own defini- 
 tion of primacy that "he who would be greatest among you 
 shall be servant of all.'' This prefatory part to the sounding of 
 the trumpets being now ended, that part of the trumpets' 
 mission will follow which corresponds to the parts which the 
 apostles took in the carrying out of the Commission after the 
 election of Matthias. 
 
 And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared 
 themselves to sound. 
 
 The apostles at Pentecost were prepared to sound; that is, 
 to preach. After this mystic prayer meeting and the election 
 of another angel the trumpeters are prepared to sound, and 
 here they begin, and the agitation follows as it did then. This 
 completes all the parts that belong to that memorable day by 
 the use of these symbolic forms so far as the parts go which 
 were borne respectively by Christ and His apostles. This kind 
 of teaching rises above that found in the types of the Old 
 Testament, though it is on the same principle. God said to 
 Moses, "See thou make all things according to the pattern 
 showed thee in the mount," and Moses proceeded to construct 
 the tabernacle. This tabernacle, built upon the heavenly pat- 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 135 
 
 tern, served the author of the Hebrew letter to illustrate the 
 Divine method of teaching. The tabernacle with its three 
 apartments and appointments was "a shadow of good things to 
 come.'' It is easy enough to trace objects of sight to their 
 spiritual substance, but the method of the Eevelation rises one 
 step higher than that. It does not use visible objects as the 
 tabernacle, but mental images of accepted truth, and raises 
 upon these another spiritual edifice, which can be seen only 
 by holding the pattern steadfast in mind and then by super- 
 imposing upon this mental base the higher spiritual truth. 
 Thus, "we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory 
 of the Lord, are changed from glory to glory even as by the 
 spirit of the Lord." If we fail to read heavenly things in 
 this higher light, we but repeat in our higher Eevelation the 
 failure which Israel made in the lower. They saw the taber- 
 nacle, but not beyond it of what it imported of spiritual glory, 
 "a shadow of good things to come." Beyond what it meant of 
 rich harvests and full baskets, they cared entirely too little. 
 May not the same be too true of spiritual Israel? May not the 
 selfish scramble over mere forms and precedents and subtleties 
 and the mingling too freely in brute force instead of heavenly 
 love have taken away our desires to read these higher lessons 
 in prophecy? 
 
 An illustration of this method of higher teaching may assist 
 our desire to see and to imderstand this book. I here offer it. 
 
 A missionary in a distant land with a company of assistants 
 sits down to talk of their future. His assistants say to him, 
 "Tell us of our future; what shall we do hereafter?" He 
 divides his forecast into seven parts and answers as follows: 
 
 1. We shall pay our debts and invoice our effects and write 
 our good resolutions. 
 
 2. "We shall raise the likeness of our great father to view 
 and wreathe it with flowers. 
 
136 
 
 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 3. We shall go in company and shall scatter flowers upon" 
 the little mounds of earth. 
 
 4. We shall declare onr freedom from the oppressor and 
 our independence. 
 
 5. We shall offer first fruits of our harvest to God. 
 
 6. We shall rejoice and send gifts to one another. 
 
 7. We shall rest. 
 
 This is mystery, but, thoughtfully considered, there can be 
 seen the tracings of our American holidays. These at first are 
 but dim allusions, like water marks in letter paper on which 
 we write. They lie under the answer to the question, "What 
 of our future in this missionary field?" 
 
 It must be first decided that he cannot be making any 
 allusions to returning home, for he is there for life. What 
 signifies this undercurrent? It will be noticed that the in- 
 Yoicing of goods, and paying of debts, and . writing of good 
 resolutions are characteristics of our New Year day. The rais- 
 ing up of our great father's likeness and wreathing it with 
 flowers brings Washington's birthday to view. 
 
 The carrying of flowers to decorate the little mounds is a 
 form of expression which starts in the mind the thought of 
 our Decoration Day, and, declaring our independence of the 
 oppressor has the pivotal word in which we speak of Independ- 
 ence Day, the glorious Fourth of July; and in the same sug- 
 gestive or cryptic way the offering of the first sheaf to G-od, 
 brings our Thanksgiving Day to view, and sending gifts one 
 to another and rejoicing has the most decided flavor of Christ- 
 raas, and our seventh is a strong suggestion of the holidays, 
 when the schools close and most labor ceases and we rest. Taken 
 altogether, the suggestion is irrefutable that our American 
 holidays must have been playing some mystic part as a sub- 
 stratum in his thought. 
 
 These allusions are given in the signs and in the number 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 137 
 
 and in the order of our holidays. As soon as it comes clearly 
 to view that such was intended, it remains to be determined 
 what kind of use is to be made of it in finding the intended 
 answer. There is but one way to take these allusions, and 
 that is as a cryptogram, a pattern, whose value is already 
 known, and to find the way from these to the higher unknown 
 whose meaning is intended to be conveyed. The thought of 
 the loved country, left forever behind, is a warm soil on which 
 to sow seeds for hope in the future. It is a wondrous way to 
 call our native land to mind through her holidays. It brings 
 to view at once all that America means. 
 
 The glory and endearments of America find their highest 
 expression in her holidays. These are the days in which are 
 gathered and from which radiate as from seven points of light 
 all the happy recollections and endearments of home, and upon 
 these he writes the higher lessons of their missionary endeavors 
 in order to vitalize their labors. We begin on this answer to 
 read our future in the light of the past: 
 
 1. To pay our debts and write our good resolutions, etc., 
 means that we are to pay our vows to God and to take account 
 of our resources for doing His service, and, 
 
 2. We are to lift up in our hearts the image of our Savior 
 to behold as in a glas3 the glory of the Lord, and, 
 
 3. That we are to do honor to those who gave their lives 
 to these missions before us, not with flowers, but by faithfully 
 carrying on their work, and, 
 
 4. That we declare abroad our emancipation from sin and 
 our freedom in Christ, and, 
 
 5. That we shall bring our new converts and devote them 
 to God, and, 
 
 6. That we shall have a joyful convocation at the end of 
 the year, a true Christmas^ and, 
 
138 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 7. That we shall have relaxation in meditation and private 
 devotion. 
 
 Thus does He write the highest lessons of things to come 
 on the highest things that are past. Creation's seven days are 
 the glory heights upon which seven seals are hroken and seven 
 glory trumpets are sounded and reverberate down the Christian 
 ages. Thus, without dates^ without personalities, and without 
 places does Christ write in characters of living light the answer 
 to their question, whose answer lies in their own power to do 
 and to achieve in the hereafter. What these trumpets are about 
 to tell us is not what the apostles did, as individuals, nor simply 
 what their function would do, but what "should come to pass 
 hereafter," considered in seven acts as trumpet blowings, as 
 though they came from the apostles, yet in fact what will come 
 from His servants, ourselves included, acting in their stead. 
 
 The apostles began the work in person, but it was carried 
 on by all the faithful after them. We are in their place, so 
 that the results of the great struggle are for the future in our 
 hands. That is, the story told already as having been carried 
 forward to the end by Christ on the heavenly side as against 
 the world powers, is now to be retold as where the apostles 
 and their successors are engaged to accomplish the same end; 
 and these two series are to be followed by a treatment in which 
 the fortunes of the church and the Holy Spirit are principal 
 subjects of discourse. 
 
 . THE TRUMPETS IN GROUPS. 
 
 The Trumpets are divided into groups of four and three just 
 as the Seals. The groups are separated by the flying of an angel 
 midheaven, who does not belong to the trumpeters, pronounc- 
 ing three woes upon them that dwell upon the earth, the 
 worldly, who are to be judged under the second group. 
 
 The first group ends with showing that the world powers 
 
 I 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 139 
 
 had gained a positive victory over the heavenly, just as the first 
 group of seals showed that the heavenly powers had gained 
 a negative victory over the worldly. Also just as the group 
 of three Seals ended in a positive victory over the worldly, 
 so does the -group of three Trumpets show the positive defeat 
 of the worldly. The Seal's and Trumpet's accounts differ from 
 each other as the two dreams of the king and of Daniel con- 
 cerning the same end, for, whereas the king saw the world 
 powers as a unit in the image of a colossal man, Daniel saw them 
 in four diverse beasts. So also the king beheld till he saw 
 a single stone cut out without hands, which struck the great 
 image and destroyed it, brake it to pieces, and then become a 
 great mountain to fill the earth, while Daniel sees the same 
 done by the saints of the Most High and the time come 
 when they possess the kingdom and sit on thrones and judg- 
 ments given to them. 
 
 In the Seals openings Christ presents the perfect fulfillment 
 of the king's vision, preserving its unity and also its continu- 
 ity to the end. Now, the four Seals showed four horses to rep- 
 resent the world powers, but they were not diverse as Daniel's 
 beasts, as lion and bear, etc., but were all horses as the king's 
 image was in four parts, but all parts of a man colossal and 
 dazzling. The same unit is seen in the four angels that stand 
 upon the four corners of the earth, with which Christ has to 
 deal. They are a quadrate in unity, all angels, engaged in 
 the same business and at the same time. Now, as Christ is 
 shown coming in conflict with the world powers as in His 
 single function, apart from all His associate powers, so do the 
 apostles as trumpeters, exercising their functions apart from 
 Him, exactly answer to the vision given to Daniel that the 
 saints should overcome and possess the kingdom and reign. 
 
 The Trumpets differ from the Seals again in that, while 
 each seal deals with but one side of the contest, each of the 
 
140 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 trumpets shows something of both sides, shows more of a hand- 
 to-hand contest as where men commingle in battle. The sym- 
 bols, therefore, that convey the lessons of the trumpets are 
 more abstract and interfused, though when analyzed the re- 
 spective colors are clearly to be seen above the battle. Except 
 for the light we have from the vision of Daniel we should 
 make our way with difficulty through these symbols, but with 
 its assistance we feel we are moving on solid ground. 
 
 In our first group of trumpets we miss the four horses and 
 all brute symbols of every kind, but we meet with the mean- 
 ing of them in changed dress. They are now represented by 
 the people themselves as "the sea" out of which Daniel saw 
 the beasts arise. They are now called "Them that dwell on 
 the earth," and as "those men who have not the seal of God 
 on the forehead." The judgments and victories of the trumpets 
 are all against the people as people rather than against kings 
 and rulers as in the Seals. 
 
 THE FIRST TRUMPET. 
 
 And the first sounded and there followed hail and fire mingled 
 with blood, and they were cast upon the earth and the third part of 
 the earth was burnt up and the third part of the trees was burnt 
 up and all green grass was burnt up. 
 
 Here are the symbols of conflict, and of disaster to "the 
 earth, the trees and the living grass." Fire means the Word 
 of God, considered more on its penal or judgment side, and as 
 purifying in its mission. In John's teaching, to be ofte 
 noticed, judgments appear as the reverse side of the Gospel. 
 "He that believeth hath life and he that believeth not is judged 
 already." In this way salvation and condemnation go side 
 by side. Wherever the word of life is spoken it is "a savor 
 of life unto life and of death unto death." This first trumpet 
 presents the beginning of that prolonged struggle with the 
 
 y 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 141 
 
 world. It began by the apostles in their own persons to be 
 carried on by the saints who succeed to their work. The same 
 thought expressed in this first trumpet was expressed in the 
 red horse, and the reason for the change of symbols is now 
 apparent in the different points of view from which the same 
 condition is taken, as seen in the two visions of the king and 
 of Daniel. The white horse followed by the red is simpler, 
 but the Gospel preached, followed or attended with blood is 
 the same fact. Bearing witness for Christ carried with it 
 persecution, death and exile. Here blood and fire mingled. 
 It says they were cast upon the earth. The angel took the 
 fire from the altar and cast it upon the earth to express the 
 preaching. Now it is preaching and blood mingling with it — 
 that is, contest, strife. 
 
 The result of the apostles preaching is described as the earth 
 and the third part of the trees and all living grass being 
 burnt up. Christ has won all things to Himself by His death 
 and ascension, and He claims them^ so that the news from this 
 trumpet is that things went ill with the heavenly side. Notice 
 how well the signal three serves us here. The side that suffers 
 is given in three words — "earth, trees and living grass," and it 
 is "the third part" that is burnt up, and it is at pains to say 
 "burnt up" three times. The word "burnt" means only de- 
 stroyed, and as fire is a destroying element in nature, so did 
 persecution waste the church. 
 
 Thus the first trumpet, while showing the same conflict we 
 saw between the white horse and the red horse, shows it by 
 symbols that indicate the immediate contest of the preacher 
 with the people. As these Trumpets show the succession of 
 ongoing time, this first one marks the times that followed 
 the apostles' preaching. This, the first general result of the 
 irrepressible conflict, is disastrous to the cause of Christ. So 
 iiideed it was^ 
 
143 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 THE SECOND TRUMPET. 
 
 And the second angel sounded and, as it were, a great mountain 
 burning with fire was cast into the sea. 
 
 Mountain means empire, government or world power. Sea 
 means the people in mass. There can be but one world power 
 in the view of this Trumpet and that the Koman, the fourth 
 universal monarchy, and the only one which Christianity had 
 directly to deal with. It was Eome in its pagan form that put 
 Christ to death and trod His church under foot. This is the 
 mountain that was set on fire by the word of Grod and that 
 blazed from its base to its summit and toppled over into the 
 sea and sank beneath its angry billows. This is a limited and 
 a kind of negative victory. Christ is called a mountain that 
 was to fill the earth after He had struck and crushed the image. 
 Out of the sea Daniel saw his four beasts come forth — that is, 
 from among the consenting sinful people — and it is into the 
 sea that John here sees the pagan Eoman government, which 
 then held universal dominion on the earth, go down. The 
 mountain stands above the sea and looks down upon it. The 
 agitation of human passions casts up the debris that makes 
 ruling monarchs or mountains to stand over them. The results 
 of the going down of pagan Eome are given as follov/s: 
 
 And the third part of the sea became blood and there died the 
 third part of the creatures that were in the sea, even they that 
 had life; and the third part of the ships was destroyed. 
 
 The disasters still fall heavy on the signal "three." The 
 "third part" occurs three times, and "a third part" of three 
 things were hurt — the sea, the creatures and the ships. They 
 were hurt in three ways — ^by blood, by death and by being 
 destroyed — and as exactly following the sense of the first trum- 
 pet, which says "all green grass was destroyed,". it says a part 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 143 
 
 of those killed in the sea were "even those that had life," 
 meaning a life above other creatures. 
 
 John's use of the word life is suggestive and special: "In 
 Him was life and the life was the light of men." "My flesh 
 I give for the life of the world." "The words I speak unto 
 you are spirit and life." "I am come that they might have 
 life and might have it more abundantly, etc." The saints, 
 called "green grass," perish on the earth, and in the sea they 
 are the creatures "that have life." In all these symbols the 
 earth, the trees, the grass, the tenantry of the waters and the 
 ships all symbolize the proper inheritance of Christ by pur- 
 chase and by faith, "but we see not yet all things put under 
 Him," but even in these symbols in which we see the injury 
 done to the world and to society in general a special symbol 
 is kept to distinguish the saints, "green" or "living grass," and 
 creatures that have "life" in the sea. These are never lost 
 sight of. 
 
 A great battle has been fought between His servants and 
 the enemy, and, while it has acted with such disaster on the 
 heavenly side, it has also effected the removing of a great moun- 
 tain. The disciples have overturned a mountain, but, like 
 Samson, have themselves fallen under it. The effect of their 
 Gospel reacted on their persons and they were at first perse- 
 cuted and in long eras of peace became corrupted. The sea 
 into which the mountain went down boils with the moral 
 chemicals which it carried down till it was filled and corrupted 
 with the carcasses that died by reason of its dissolution. The 
 d^ad frogs that filled the river of Egypt to punish the wicked 
 world power that oppressed Israel is feeble in comparison with 
 this great sea of universal putrefaction. What can ever again 
 rise out of such a sea? No ordinary power surely. Daniel 
 told us of a nameless monster — the fourth beast — and John 
 will presently tell us more minutely of the same brute. But the 
 
144 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 Trumpets turn for one blast toward the East, whicli also had 
 a subordinate attention in the vision of Daniel. 
 
 THE THIRD TRUMPET. 
 
 And the third angel sounded and there fell from heaven a great 
 star, burning as a torch, and it fell upon a third part of the rivers 
 and upon the fountains of waters, and the name of that star is 
 called wormwood, and the third part of the waters became worm- 
 wood, and many men died of the waters because they were made 
 bitter. 
 
 The rivers are in the East as the sea is in the West. The 
 old eastern world fell under the Mohammedan power and fol- 
 lowed in point of time the fall of the Western Pagan Empire. 
 As the human family rose in the East, and as water is the 
 general symbol for the people, the rivers and fountains of 
 waters refer to the East. The symbols and relations in this 
 Trumpet refer us to Mohammed. This is a fallen star and 
 he is called "wormwood/^ which suits the office he still holds, 
 as witness the present Armenian troubles. He falls upon the 
 fountains of waters, a persecuting power upon the Christians 
 of the East, who suffer the same tribulation with all the chil- 
 dren of God. This star is fallen from heaven, not from having 
 been in glory, but as apostate and as a star fallen below his 
 pretensions, not from spiritual holiness, but as a star that leaves 
 its constellation and its glory and sinks in a hissing, sulphurous 
 smoke down to blackness on the earth, so this one is descended 
 from the profession of religion to depravity and is bitter and it 
 embitters the life of humanity. "A third part of the waters 
 become wormwood and many men died of the waters because 
 they were made bitter." 
 
 This trumpet differs from the others in three points. It lacks 
 the greater generality of character, being more local as the 
 "rivers and fountains of waters." It does not take quite the 
 
 II 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 14^ 
 
 same care of signal nirmbers, and it simply says that "many 
 men died of the waters" without intimating their character 
 as the "living grass" or "the creatures that have life" or as 
 "sealed on their foreheads," etc. 
 
 This star is said to burn like a torch, better read lamp — 
 that is, makes a pretense to religion. Such is the religion of that 
 bitter star of Esau, his hand against every man. God has an 
 interest in those men upon whom bitter Islam continues to 
 inflict wormwood. This trumpet is clearly a gain to the enemy 
 and against the righteous. The succession of these trunlpets 
 is the succession of history in its great epochs: The persecu- 
 tion of the church, the downfall of Eome and the rise of 
 Mohammedanism. This is history, rather foreview, written in 
 the isle of Patmos. The line of prophecy, both in the Old 
 Testament and the New, follows the people of God and takes 
 no account of any nations except those with whom they come 
 in contact. 
 
 THE FOURTH TRUMPET. 
 
 The first group of seals ended in the death of the world 
 powers and the first group of trumpets ends in the eclipse and 
 extinguishment of the heavenly. The sun, moon and stars grow 
 dim, and for a time go entirely out, and total darkness reigns. 
 
 And the fourth angel sounded and the third part of the sun was 
 smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the 
 stars, that the third part of them should be darkened and the day 
 should not shine for a third part of it, and the night in like manner. 
 
 The whole weight of this trumpet falls upon the church 
 or the heavenly powers. Everything that suffers in the fourth 
 trumpet is heavenly^ just as everything that suffered in the 
 fourth seal is earthly. The story is thus told on both sides, 
 the world powers dead on the one side and the heavenly eclipsed 
 
146 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 on the other. The two groups bring 'to a double climax of 
 disaster. The^ first brings triumph^ as where Christ in His 
 own office overcomes the world powers, and the second defeat, 
 as where the world has overcome His saints. 
 
 Notice how the fourth seal and the fourth trumpet are 
 arrayed against each other in the signals used. The fourth 
 seal is a pale horse— that is, a dead horse — and he is mounted 
 by "Death" and followed by Hades, which make up the pro- 
 cession. He is the fourth horse and has power over a fourth 
 part of the earth to kill in four ways — ^^y the sword, by famine, 
 by pestilence and by wild beasts." 
 
 Thus, while in the fourth seal are mingled the symbols of 
 brutishness and of perdition and they are overthrown, so in 
 the fourth trumpet, where we have the defeat and overthrow 
 of the heavenly cause in the hands of His servants, all is rep- 
 resented in heavenly symbols: the sun, moon, stars — ^three — 
 and they are smitten a third part. And the "third part" 
 occurs three times, and for a "third" part of the time they 
 should not shine at all. Thus the symbol three is associated 
 as closely with these heavenly bodies as four is with the earthly. 
 These antagonistic symbols find their climax at the close of 
 the two groups of the four seals and of the four trumpets, one 
 giving the result of the great contest upon the evil powers 
 of brute rule and the other the result upon the heavenly 
 powers of divine rule. The first and great battle is ended. 
 Both sides seem defeated. Herein is the promise of a revival. 
 The second battle will be fought on greatly changed condi- 
 tions most favorable to the last three trumpets, which are 
 heavenly victories. The death of the heavenly powers is only 
 an eclipse. Heavenly things will not remain in grave clothes 
 nor in sack-cloth, nor in darkness. A resurrection is as sure 
 to follow as that the Master Himself arose from the dead. 
 
 The darkening, spoken of in this fourth trumpet, is grad- 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 147 
 
 ual, for the sun, moon and stars are darkened "a third part" 
 and then for "a third part'' of the time they are a total eclipse. 
 All these words of time are to be taken always in the Eevela- 
 tion sense. The third part has no chronological measure at all, 
 it being used for its symbol value, showing the suffering to be 
 on the heavenly side. But the time of total darkness is the 
 time we know by the name of the Dark Ages. We may find 
 trouble in fixing any very definite time for its beginning or for 
 its end, as every sign here shows a gradual change. There is a 
 very dark place in our history following the overthrow of pagan 
 Eome and the rise of Mohammedanism, a darkness that put out 
 all the heavenly lights, and even the lower lights of human 
 learning. 
 
 The heavenly powers and the brute powers are both down. 
 It is a drawn battle. Another day is to dawn, but it must dawn 
 upon a sea of putrefaction. Out of that sea will arise another 
 beast, a monster and a wonder having all .the characteristics 
 of pagan brutality and all the forms and professions of Chris- 
 tianity, the elements of the deadliest conflict this world ever 
 saw devilishly combined. Between the two groups of Trumpets 
 is the incoming of an angel to announce the second group and 
 to tell us their meaning and purpose. 
 
 And I saw and I heard an angel flying in mid-heaven, saying, 
 with a great voice, Woe! Woe! Woe! 'for them that dwell on the 
 earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three 
 angels who are yet to sound. 
 
 This verse would better belong to the ninth chapter, where 
 the woe trumpets begin. Using the revised, which in so many 
 instances is an improvement on the common version, we refrain 
 from criticism except where the error seriously impairs the 
 sense and where the method and construction of the book make 
 it necessary to correct it. 
 
148 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 Our revisers have preferred "eagle" to "angel" in the Common 
 Version. They were probably justified in doing so on the 
 comparative merit of discordant manuscripts and having no 
 well-grounded interpretation to assist them. But "eagle" is 
 such a manifest violation of the sense as to be impossible. It 
 is impossible that an eagle^ which is a world creature in every 
 use in this book, should be pronouncing woes upon his own 
 family and kind, and especially at this point in the story. It 
 might have appeared in the first group of the Seals, as it does 
 in fact, where it lends its wings to the fallen absconding woman 
 to be presently seen, but it cannot preface these three heavenly 
 trumpets that pronounce woes upon "them that dwell on the 
 earth." This is as far amiss almost as the common version 
 which makes St. John sa}^, "And I stood upon the sand of the 
 sea," thus making him stand in the place of the dragon called 
 the Devil and Satan. So much we owe to the help of the 
 construction of the work. It must be noticed that all the major 
 series, the letters, seals, trumpets, etc., are divided into groups 
 of four and three by a special divine manifestation coming 
 between them. This angel is attending the trumpets as Christ 
 attended His apostles, visiting judgment upon the world. An 
 eagle could not abet any of these good offices in the very nature 
 of the story; and this is mentioned to show how well the struc- 
 ture and genius of the book is able to protect us from error 
 and confusion. 
 
 Errors of this kind have had their influence in adding to 
 the popular notion that the Eevelation is but an incoherent 
 dream instead of the masterpiece of all great literature, there 
 being no other given to man wherein so great and so valuable 
 intelligence is conveyed in so short a space. It is grandly 
 protected against the vaiidals of atheism and the agnosticism 
 of its friends. 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 149 
 
 SYMBOL SYNONYMS. 
 
 Mountain: Government; king; ruler; kingdom; horns; heads; 
 peoples; multitudes; nations; tongues; many waters. 
 
 Fire: Word of God in judgments; two-edged sword; sharp 
 sickle; Holy Spirit; bowls of wrath; woes upon the wicked; wine- 
 press of God's wrath, etc. 
 
150 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 CHAPTEE YIII. 
 
 Revelation IX, 1-11. 
 
 THE FIFTH TRUMPET.— THE GREAT PANTOMIME.— A DIA- 
 BOLICAL PENTECOST. 
 
 As the fifth Seal carried us beyond the world signs (the four 
 horses and horsemen upon the earth) to the spiritual world 
 beyond and showed the waiting souls beneath the altar who 
 had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony of 
 Jesus, so in the fifth Trumpet we are prepared to see opened 
 on the other side the infernal world, what the adversary and 
 his followers are doing in this dark period. 
 
 These powers proceed from opposing worlds, but their field 
 of conflict is in this. In the one we see the martyred saints 
 in the safe keeping of Christ, and in the other, the wicked 
 coming out of the pit under their leader's orders. The world 
 powers here come to view under very changed aspects. The 
 change is very great since we first met them, showing they 
 have greatly altered since that burning mountain of paganism 
 sank and quenched its lurid flames in the troubled sea. Daniel 
 saw a nameless monster arise from the sea, diverse from all 
 beasts, dreadful and terrible and strong exceedingly, having 
 great iron teeth and ten horns and nails of brass. This beast 
 "devoured and brake in pieces and stamped the residue with 
 its feet." It was with this beast that he was told the saints 
 were to have their long and final struggle and which they were 
 to "overcome and to destroy to the end.'' 
 
 The fifth Trumpet brings us well forward to this time. It 
 is later than the going down of Eome. It is the first of the 
 three trumpets that sound the victories of the heavenly power 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 151 
 
 and the downfall of the worldly by three woes from heaven. 
 The new beast which is to arise ont of the sea of decayed 
 paganism and the cinders of Christianity must be a hybrid, 
 a mongrel, beast in fact, and a Christian only in form and pro- 
 fession. 
 
 This Trumpet presents all the characteristics of a mock 
 Pentecost. It shows the use of religious symbols and forms 
 in an infernal combination. A star (a leader) is falle» called 
 "the Angel of the Abyss/' and "King of the Locusts." He 
 is given a key to open a kingdom and to let go a swarm of 
 destroying locusts of the most appalling and contradictory at- 
 tributes. They come forth as from a great mock incense, the 
 smoke as from a great furnace from "the pit of the abyss." 
 To come up out of the earth or out of the sea is the same 
 source, except the earth represents the abiding place of man 
 and the sea the mobility and agitation of human society, etc. 
 
 The fifth Trumpet presents a parody and a mock of the true 
 Pentecost and is to be noticed as the first striking appearance 
 of that great counterplot in which Satan appears as an angel 
 of light. This counterplot henceforth becomes the center about 
 which all the evil elements gather simulating the heavenly plan 
 of Salvation. AYe have henceforth to face a new power or a 
 new manifestation of the old one. This trumpet is a woe 
 to "them that dwell on the earth." 
 
 The elements of evil that were troubling the seven churches 
 in John's day have come into the ascendant. At Ephesus 
 there were some who claimed to be apostles and were proven 
 to be liars; and there were Balaamites and Jezebelites who 
 then crept into the churches and afterward crept upon the 
 throne made vacant by the Caesars, Satan's seat; and this trum- 
 pet gives them an opening to show us their origin and their 
 mission in contrast with, and in mockery of, the beginning of 
 the church of Christ on that great day of the Lord. This is 
 
152 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 an open show of the great day of Satan's reign on earth iii 
 that dark time. With this we henceforth principally deal, 
 and not, as hitherto, with Herod and Pontius Pilate and the 
 Gentiles and the children of Israel, as Christ in person con- 
 fronted them, but in the guise of heavenly power Satan trans- 
 formed into an angel of light, antichrist, to deceive the whole 
 world. 
 
 * THE GREAT PARODY AND COUNTERPART. 
 
 Henceforth onr interpretation is greatly assisted by a new 
 system of safeguards to onr procedure. 
 
 The world powers which Christ puts to death in the sym- 
 bolism of a great crucifixion here confront Him, transformed 
 as an angel of light in the symbols of a Pentecost or a great 
 opening day. Satan is given a mock Pentecost. He does not 
 now openly oppose, as at the first, in pagan conflict, but dis- 
 sembles in the signs and symbols of true religion. By this 
 method of presenting the subject we have, in addition to the 
 shadowgraph lying under the story, also a parallelograph lying 
 beside it of counteracting pretensions, a marvel of demonstra- 
 tion, ^ot only may we follow the story as by a pattern as we 
 can trace the stars of heaven on the clear face of the water, 
 but we may now pass from one to the other by direct com- 
 parison and contrast. Do those rich in literature know the 
 equal of it? It is reasonable to suppose that God in giving 
 to His servants a Revelation so extraordinary in manner and 
 matter would also furnish with it proper safeguards to its sure 
 interpretation equally extraordinary. I reverently affirm He 
 has done so. It is far easier to suppose our own bias or our 
 false education or our carnal-mindedness prevent us from read- 
 ing this book than that it should be a jumble of incoherent 
 dreams or a forever sealed and forbidden message. It begins 
 with the command of God to reveal and show to His servants, 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 153 
 
 and ends with His command not to seal np the book; and 
 now, since its detractors of every kind continue to abuse or 
 slight it, might they not as well put out a book on "The Mis- 
 takes of St. John" as a companion piece to the "Mistakes of 
 Moses?" The same class of readers might enjoy them both as 
 Pentecostal emanations from below. 
 
 THE DIABOLICAL PENTECOST. 
 
 The Christian dispensation proper was opened by the great 
 day of the Lord, a mighty Pentecost, where Christ met His 
 people and qualified His apostles and convicted the world by 
 an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and saved three thousand 
 souls, the first fruits of divine grace. Toward that Pentecost 
 all things tended from the baptism of John. Upon it all things 
 depended, and from it all things proceeded, and back to it all 
 that followed looked as "the beginning." 
 
 "The Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not 
 yet glorified." The ministry of love through the apostles dele- 
 gated to all nations was in suspense till its power was bestowed. 
 On Pentecost, Peter, to whom Christ had said, "I give unto 
 thee the keys of the kingdom," having received the Holy 
 Spirit, opened the kingdom by announcing for the first time 
 in public the resurrection, ascension, and coronation of Christ. 
 Upon this glorious Pentecost Christ met His enemy in a new 
 role and won a victory. 
 
 The fifth Trumpet brings to view the counterfeit and bur- 
 lesque of all this by an opening from below of the kingdom 
 of beast power now performing Christian pretenses. 
 
 And the fifth angel sounded and I saw a star from heaven fallen 
 to the earth. 
 
 This fallen star is also called the angel of the abyss, verse 11. 
 He is called the angel that cometh up out of the abyss, xi, 7. 
 
154 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 Fallen from heaven and risen out of the abyss are not words 
 of place or locality, but conditions of which these are symbols. 
 This angel is a star fallen apostate, and he is fallen not to the 
 earth merely, but to the abyss, and there he has a key, etc. 
 He is also here called the king of the locusts. It is not incon- 
 (sistent in this usage to say that he is a star fallen and is in 
 the pit, and on the earth, and in the wilderness, nor that he 
 is at once a star and an angel, and a king, and a servant receiv- 
 ing a key, and a beast and a destroyer, for these only describe 
 his different dispositions and offices. 
 
 Our difficulty at the first in regard to symbols rises from 
 our inability to rapidly put together signs which we are so 
 accustomed to regard as wholly inconsistent as places and per- 
 sons and to allow the symbol to flash the thought of quality 
 and relation only. Facility in doing so is not hard to acquire 
 and is the life and glory of meditation — a delight to the heart 
 ever rising, widening and deepening into infinite perspectives 
 into the spiritual with no drags of association, with the limits 
 of place, etc. We are so prone to propping our minds with 
 mere externals of places and personalities that we lag and 
 trudge when we should walk these mountain tops, stepping 
 from peak to peak in the highway which the redeemed shall 
 walk. We move on wings in this altitude. He who cannot lift 
 his feet for one moment from the earth cannot walk or run 
 in this way. 
 
 There was given unto him the key of the pit of the abyss. 
 
 The pit of the abyss calls to mind imagery which needs no 
 criticism on the literal meaning of words. The smoke that 
 accompanies these creatures speaks plainer than words of the 
 nature of this place from which they proceed. It is from a 
 source the full opposite of the heavenly. It is a perfect antith- 
 esis. This fallen star is given a key. He holds a subordi- 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 155 
 
 nate place and is delegated to open this great pit of infernal 
 power. We have three notable stars spoken of in this book: 
 Christ is the ascending star^ bearing the seal of the living 
 God and He says, "I am the bright and the morning star/* 
 But Mohammed is a fallen star to the earthy a bitter wormwood 
 upon the fountains of waters, but this is another fallen star, 
 fallen to the abyss called Abaddon, Apollyon the destroyer, and 
 he destroys with a swarm of devouring locusts. These three 
 stars represent the three religions of heaven and of earth and 
 of hell. 
 
 And he opened the pit of the abyss and there went up a smoke 
 out of the pit as the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and 
 air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. 
 
 He performs the function of an apostle, even like Peter, 
 to whom Christ gave the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Satan 
 opens his Pentecost with darkening incense, which is as the 
 smoke, not from a golden altar by a golden censer, but as from 
 a great furnace from the pit of the abyss whence he comes. 
 The Holy Spirit which came down on Pentecost in answer to 
 Christ's promise and the prayers of the saints enlightened 
 the apostles and through them all who sincerely heard them; 
 but these new apostles of the pit need darkness for their 
 work because their deeds are evil, and a great smoke comes 
 up with them that darkens the sun and the air. The earth 
 must grope in darkness, for this blackening incense puts out 
 the lights of heaven. 
 
 And out of the smoke came forth locusts upon the earth and 
 power was given unto them as the power of scorpions. 
 
 What an antithesis is this! The apostles of Christ were 
 given heavenly power to bless and to heal, but these to sting 
 and to punish. Christ's apostles went forth from a heavenly 
 
156 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 baptism of the Holy Spirit to save, but these go forth from 
 a baptism in the stinking darkening smoke from the furnace 
 of the pit of the abyss to destroy. Christ's apostles acted in 
 a character and power given to them from above, but these 
 locusts have the power of scorpions given them from below to 
 hurt men five months — that is about the natural life of the 
 locust, and this answers well to that darkest period, that ebony 
 night, in which all the constellations went out together with 
 the sun and the moon for a third part.* 
 
 And it was said unto them that they should not hurt the grass 
 of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree, but only such 
 men as have not the seal of God on their foreheads. 
 
 Here are set in full antithesis and contrast as though we 
 might otherwise mqke a mistake, those "who have the seal 
 of God on their forehead'' and those who have not, which are 
 "they that dwell upon the earth" the unenlightened, unsealed 
 and unsaved. The locusts could not hurt any green thing, as 
 grass or trees or living thing. These are already shown 
 (vii, 1-3) as the symbols for the things that are of the heavenly 
 inheritance, the assured interests of the saints and of God. 
 The ignorant and unsaved alone, the locusts, may devour and 
 poison. The saints enjoy spiritual immunity by the enlighten- 
 ing of the Holy Spirit through the knowledge of the truth. 
 Here it is again implied that rising power of Christ seen in 
 His ascension, in the mystic Pentecost in which He calls a 
 halt upon the world powers "till we seal the servants of God on 
 their foreheads." 
 
 Thus we meet again the sealed servants which the locusts 
 cannot hurt; and the sealing bears special allusion to dangers 
 arising from rival claimants for their loyalty. "It was said 
 unto them that they should not hurt the flora, or the foliage, 
 
 *See Time Element at close of book. 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 157 
 
 or any living thing— that is, spiritually living— but only the 
 dead and dry, the ignorant and vicious; and this prohibition 
 would at first seem to come from their own king, but it did 
 not. It means that they could not hurt, for now the great 
 revival has come. The morning star is rising in the East. He 
 is sealing His servants on their foreheads. He has overthrown 
 the pagan brute powers and is now preparing to overthrow 
 this new brute of awful aspect and he has gotten a new hold 
 in the earth and is able to seal His servants so that the deceiver 
 cannot hurt them. Those sealed in the mystic Pentecost as 
 having been rescued from sin are here shown to be protected 
 from the emissaries from below. 
 
 An intelligent understanding of Christ and the indwelling 
 of the Holy Spirit in the heart are the limit and inhibition 
 upon all the low stealth and cunning of the devil and his 
 apostles and his agents. The walls of salvation are beauty 
 within and defense without. When God dwells in the heart 
 by His spirit Satan cannot enter, for "ye are the temple of 
 God."' These locusts are confined entirely to dead and dry 
 diet, the ignorant who do not discern the true from the false, 
 but the destroyers are limited even here, for they may not kill 
 those whom they oppress. This limit comes from another 
 source. It is the limit of their own interest and selfishness. 
 The wicked do not destroy their own property. 
 
 And it was given tc them that they should not kill them, but 
 that they should torment them five months. 
 
 It was permitted them. The owner does not kill his slaves. 
 They are goods and merchantable. The greed of the master 
 is a shield against their murder, however much he may oppress 
 them — such is the case with, the locusts. They have a season, 
 a limit of time in which they are regnant, and they have also 
 a limit of selfishness which is a limit upon th'eir taking away 
 
158 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 the lives of their victims, though they are woefully oppressed. 
 The gloomy extent of that oppression is expressed in the next 
 verse. 
 
 And in those days men shall seek death and shall in nowise find 
 it, and they shall desire to die and death fleeth from them. 
 
 It will be noticed how the active and passive forms of speech 
 are used in this Trumpet. Death is spoken of as fleeing away 
 and the locusts are represented as being commanded to not 
 do what it means they cannot do, and that they were com- 
 manded not to kill when it was their own lust that restrained 
 them from killing, and now death is represented as fl^aing 
 away from those oppressed when they seek its mercies. The 
 oppression is great upon poor mortals when driven to seek 
 death for a refuge from the oppressor. There is some deep 
 occult meaning to the saying that they cannot find death aiiA 
 that it flees away from them when they seek its shelter from 
 greater ills; "a naked bodkin" will not in their case "put 
 an end." 
 
 Their king and oppressor claims all power in heaven from 
 which faithful John tells us he is a fallen angel. He claims 
 the earth also upon which he has sent his servants to destroy, 
 and he claims to have power even over the pit of the abyss^ of 
 which he also claims to have the key and to have the power 
 to open and to shut at will. It is this dark pit which the 
 locusts of the fallen angel hold up to the minds of his victims 
 that deters them from its darkening portals to suffer on and 
 endure the oppressor. They prefer and they seek for that peace 
 of death "where the wicked cease to trouble and the weary are 
 at rest." But with scorpion stings on one side and purgatorial 
 fires on the other they prefer to "endure the ills they have 
 than to fly to those they know not of." 
 
 Suicide is the desperate resort for those who cannot endure 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 159 
 
 the ills of such a life, but, being yictims of these poisoning 
 locusts, they are denied a burial in consecrated ground with all 
 that is implied within their law. This is why they cannot find 
 death. This is the way death flees from them. We have to 
 remember that this trumpet is giving us an inside view of 
 things on the infernal side, of the destroyer and of his angels, 
 just as the fifth seal gave us an inside view of the things of 
 the heavenly side as between the Lord and the souls of them 
 that cried to Him from the altar. They had gone out from 
 the heavenly Pentecost and had fallen, giving their lives for 
 their Master; but these come out of the pit and they torment 
 their victims and cause them to endure their torment by open- 
 ing to their deluded and poisoned minds the purgatorial fires 
 beyond in order to restrain suicide and to cause them to endure 
 oppression for gain. Let any one even to this day see the 
 comparative infrequency of suicides in papal countries. 
 
 This is that beast power which caused the astounded Daniel 
 to implore of the angel of God to tell him what it meant. 
 Its minions are able to restrain their chattels from the gates 
 of suicide by denying them the right to a burial in "holy 
 earth," consecrated to fraud and deception. 
 
 And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared for 
 war. 
 
 They have military power to enforce submission. Here is 
 the old beast power trying to force a religion into its wicked 
 service whose nature is voluntary and free and pure and whose 
 author said, "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make 
 you free indeed." 
 
 And upon their heads, as it were, crowns like unto gold. 
 
 Ah, but the Elders around the throne had the genuine; 
 their crowns were gold, while these are only like unto imita- 
 
160 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTii; 
 
 tions. They have no genuine thing ahont them. They 
 do the work of their king and his name is the Destroyer. 
 
 And their faces were as men's faces and they had hair as the 
 hair of women and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. 
 
 What a perfect farago of symbols are employed here to de- 
 scribe the character of these apostles of the pit. Faces like 
 men^ looks like they are of the masculine gender, but hair 
 like women just as strongly suggests they are feminine; and 
 as they cannot be both, perhaps they are playing a part that 
 cannot be assigned to either sex, and, as they have power, 
 perhaps they are those who forbid marriage and themselves are 
 playing a kind of neuter gender — false sanctity. We are read- 
 ing on the inside of things infernal. It is an internal view, 
 where we are to see the principles and doctrines from which 
 these actions spring, and in this picture is plainly written 
 "celibacy^'— forbidding to marry. Hair like women is an 
 effeminite look, and faces like men is masculine, and when they 
 open their mouths you can see lion's teeth. Here is the 
 lying pretense of purity by rakes who deny to marriage that 
 sacred character which God gave it at the beginning, and 
 which is the foundation of the family, a favorite symbol in the 
 Bible for describing heaven and happiness. These pretenders 
 to sanctity by a false celibacy, these serpentine poisoners gen- 
 eral, that proceed from the pit of the abyss^ from whose lion's 
 teeth we might well guard our school funds and every office of 
 trust, are painted here by the spirit of inspiration that all may 
 see their true character and mission. This inside view to tlie 
 infernals has shown three remarkable things: 
 
 1. The poisoning process as from the sting of the scorpion 
 which refers to the mind and bears close reference to that fraud 
 where the locust sends away his victims poisoned, with the delu- 
 sions of the confessional. 
 
OR, THE HIVEN VEIL. 161 
 
 2. Purgatory, over whose empire the fallen star claims do- 
 minion and by which he coerces his victim to endure a woe 
 worse than death, and, 
 
 3. Celibacy, the climax of hypocrisy and the guise under 
 which are lion's teeth for devouring whatever has not the 
 seal of God upon it, or the intelligent apprehension of God's 
 law to protect it. 
 
 This Trumpet deals with new conditions. This new present 
 world of ours began upon the ruins of a fallen empire and 
 a fallen church. We must notice that the rising power which 
 Christ is shown to have gained over the world in the sixth 
 seal, so that He could restrain it for the sealing of the saints 
 on their foreheads, is in this Trumpet shown to be power 
 which is exercised through His servants. The Trumpets deal 
 with the rise of heavenly power as though it came through 
 the apostles, or, in fact, through His saints, valuable for all to 
 know who expect Christ is to bring about these great results by 
 His own personal brightness of appearing rather than through 
 His Holy Spirit and the divine life of His servants^ 
 
 The mighty power of Christ to restrain the world and to 
 overcome it which is so plainly told of this second church 
 and second Pentecost is power which is exercised by His saints, 
 through whose efforts He is to overcome. So, too, we find it 
 on the other side. Satan accomplishes through his servants, 
 the locusts, his work on the ignorant, and they are limited by 
 their own lusts, of which he is the father, from killing their 
 victims. They fetter their minds by their lying pretenses of 
 powers they do not possess and cannot exercise. This fact 
 entirely relieves the mind from the inclination to legard these 
 achievements as proceeding immediately from the two antag- 
 onistic sources by spectacular demonstrations, but as coming 
 through human agencies. It is a war of minds, a battle of 
 11 
 
162 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 spirits on the field of time, of darkness against light^ of Christ 
 against Satan. 
 
 Both in the relations which these parts sustain to each other 
 and by the works in which they are engaged in carrying ont, 
 the recognition of human agencj^ is employed and the rela- 
 tions of their followers to their respective leaders is very close. 
 What a travesty on heavenly love and Christian brotherhood 
 is disclosed in this diabolical proselytism from below. 
 
 And they had breastplates, as it were, breastplates of iron, and 
 the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many- 
 horses rushing to war. And they have tails like unto scorpions, 
 and stings, and in their tails is their power to hurt men five 
 months. They have over them as king the angel of the abyss. His 
 name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek tongue he hath the 
 name Apolyon. 
 
 The star fallen from heaven is called the "angel of the abyss'^ 
 and "king of the locusts" and is further identified by two 
 words which point to the source of his power — "Abaddon and 
 Apollyon." The origin is from the abyss, and the agents come 
 as devouring locusts dressed in military array, and their move- 
 ments are like chariots and horses rushing to battle. It was 
 this attempt of brute power upon the early Christians that re- 
 sulted in their being hissed and stoned out of the world, their 
 souls crying henceforth, for a little time, from beneath the 
 altar. The two great opposing forces are disclosed to us as 
 beginning with two opposing Pentecosts. On one side heavenly 
 love, peace and good-will inspiring the servants of God to lay 
 down even their lives for the truth they spoke, and on the 
 other, the servants of the destroyer, as locusts come out of -the 
 pit of the abyss, and, having stings like serpents, they are 
 clad in military dress with war powers and looking like great 
 centaurs of destruction. They are vipers wearing crowns, ser- 
 pent at the tail and woman at the head, horse in body and man 
 
 I 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 163 
 
 in face, devouring with lion's teeth and stinging with scorpion 
 tails. What an infernal medley of parts — insect, brute, demon 
 and human — such only as might rise from the dregs of a "sea of 
 blood and carcasses where decayed worlds of idolatry sank to 
 rise again, a ghastly caricature of the religion of Jesus Christ, 
 with every propensity of ^ brute, insect, serpent, devil and man 
 combined! Henceforth the struggle is between these two 
 powers, and the battle takes on new aspects. They face in battle 
 and they look in different directions. They stand in their 
 own orders as climax and anti-climax. We meet the enemy 
 as we advance. Christ's kingdom increases and the kingdom 
 of the pit must decline. The currents meet and flow in oppo- 
 site directions. In this time, which is the revival or the great 
 Eeformation, we meet the Pentecost of satanic darkness brought 
 to view by the fifth trumpet, which is the first of the three 
 woes against "them that dwell upon the earth." 
 
 To one unaccustomed to this method of teaching the question 
 arises. When was this Diabolical Pentecost? It has no date, but 
 reveals a condition. It is that dark period when the sun, 
 moon and stars were entirely obscured, and the darkness is 
 ascribed in this trumpet to the devil as coming from the pit 
 and darkening the sun and the air. It was the reign of black 
 horrors that was also shown in the black horse — The Dark Ages. 
 This trumpet ascribes an imitation Pentecost as showing its 
 real character. 
 
 The fifth is one of the three heavenly Trumpets. It lets in 
 the light upon the state of the world as it was when the 
 morning star of the Eeformation arose upon it. That Pente- 
 cost looks backward in time just as the heavenly Pentecost looks 
 forward. It is said later that "the beast knoweth that he hath 
 but a short time." The titles and descriptions of the beast are 
 varied to suit his different functions and relations just as 
 Christ's are. As to heaven, the beast is a fallen star; as regards 
 
164 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 the "pit of tlie abyss/' he is the angel and porter to open and 
 shut; as regards the earth, he is Abaddon, the destroyer; as 
 to the locusts, he is their king and director; as to this great 
 false religion, he gives it all authority and po\\'er, and we 
 presently find that as to the two witnesses, he is, their mur- 
 derer; and as to God and the saints, their loud maligner. So 
 that acts ^ hich we have thought to regard as personal are char- 
 acterizations of the acts of satanic power in which all his 
 servants are engaged.* 
 
 These locusts act a great variety of parts, all satanic. This 
 strife of the conflicting powers in the world is a matter of 
 experience with all Christians; and behind these conflicting 
 powers are God, our Savior, and Satan, the destroyer. 'Ro 
 other method than the one adopted could deal with a theme 
 so vast and varied and conve}^ an intelligible lesson. The ad- 
 A^antage we seem to gain from saying that this refers to Kero, 
 and this to Xapoleon, or that these four living creatures repre- 
 sent Asia, Europe, Africa and x\merica, or that the dragon 
 represents China, is a mistake. We only pettifog for a slight 
 and momentary effect and lose the greater good to be sensed 
 by seeing these things m an omniscient light where their true 
 characters are stamped so that neither names nor localities 
 nor glosses of any kind can screen their true source and nature 
 and end from our discernment. As on the heavenly, so on 
 the infernal side, while personalities, localities and dates are 
 not directly given, they are always implied and can be seen by 
 their nearness of function -and relation. So are the times; they 
 are not chronological, but are measured as trumpet times, that 
 is, times to be known by the dominance of these epochs which 
 are represented also by the different colored horses and which 
 mark the ages. 
 
 God inspires all gracious and holy forces that make for good, 
 and Satan instigates all that tend to destroy. It does not at 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 165 
 
 first appear how this trumpet could be called a "woe" upon 
 the wicked, "them that dwell upon the earth/' since to he 
 compelled to live on the earth, where such creatures are, would 
 seem to be a hardship enough, for it is a persecuting power 
 that claims the earth and heaven, and the pit of the abyss 
 and is red with the blood of saints. It is in the deeper view 
 that those are not to be feared who kill the body only, and 
 after that have no more that they can do. The saved have 
 none of that dread of purgatorial fires with which the locusts 
 restrain their victims from suicide, while they mercilessly 
 fleece them. The saints are free from this deeper scourge. All 
 things earthly they count but dross that they may win Christ. 
 N"ot only are all saints sufferers while living in the world, but 
 the souls from beneath the altar cry, but even the eternal 
 Father is long suffering and "the whole creation groaneth to- 
 gether until now.'' 
 
 SYMBOL SYNONYMS. 
 
 Pit of the abyss: Lake of fire and brimstone; caves and dens. 
 Prison of devils: Cage of unclean birds; winepress of God's 
 wrath; the sea of blood. 
 
166 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 Revelation IX, 12-21. 
 
 THE SIXTH TRUMPET.— THE WORLD POWERS LET LOOSE. 
 
 The sixth Trumpet is prefaced like the fifth^ by a formal 
 announcement, "The first woe is past; behold there come two 
 woes hereafter." 
 
 If the preceding trumpets describe conditions that must 
 have required extension of time in carrying out, then this 
 announcement is another clear note to show its ongoing. There 
 are two woes to come "hereafter," later in time, and they also 
 have every characteristic of the successive progress of events. 
 'Not only do they follow each other "hereafter," but they are 
 marked by changed conditions we are able to recognize as be- 
 longing to different epochs. The action of this sixth trum- 
 peter does not proceed direct from the sounding as in the pre- 
 ceding trumpets. There is the introduction of another part, 
 thus interrupting the order. 
 
 And the sixth angel sounded and I heard a voice from the horns 
 of the golden altar which is before God, one saying to the sixth 
 angel, which had the trumpet. Loose the four angels which are bound 
 at the great river Euphrates. 
 
 It is a special voice from heaven. It is a special commission. 
 This voice orders the sixth trumpeter to act a part in the 
 drama which none of the others did. His office is out of the 
 due order, both in being directed by a voice direct from the 
 golden altar, and by acting a part in the drama all his own. 
 Coming from the horns of the golden altar expresses the 
 authority or power of the altar of sacrifice, that which gave to 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 167 
 
 it its mighty authority. Christ's authority or power to open 
 the seals rested on His having been slain for onr sins. This 
 voice from the golden altar said^ "Loose the four angels which 
 are bound at the great river Euphrates." This sounds very 
 like the command we heard from the ascending angel in the 
 mystic Pentecost (vii^ 2), who bore the "Seal of the living God" 
 and commanded the four angels to hold the four winds from 
 blowing so as to allow the sealing of God's servants. It is 
 indeed the same, the voice of Christ, the only voice that com- 
 mands the world powers in any instance, and here commands 
 His trumpeter to act a special part. 
 
 In the one case these world angels are commanded to not 
 hurt the heavenly work of sealing the saints, etc. (vii, 1), as 
 Christ's direct enemy, and in the other they are commanded 
 to be loosed in order that they may hurt and msike war on 
 the wicked as indirectly executing the judgments of God on 
 the sinful, for He is to loose His world powers from a bondage. 
 This is the second woe to "them that dwell on the earth." 
 This not only shows great progress in judgments on the wicked, 
 but a vast increase of heavenly power that advances from a 
 merely restraining power so as to allow the sealing of the saints, 
 to a positive power that can command the world powers to be 
 loosened that they may execute a "woe" upon the wicked; a 
 "woe" which has three plagues by which "a third part of men" 
 should be killed. 
 
 As we heard in the group of the world seals a very noted 
 voice that came from the midst of the four living creatures 
 which represented such mercernary spirit as might sell out 
 Christ and His cause, saying, "a measure of wheat for a penny, 
 etc.," so here on the heavenly side we have in like manner a 
 supplemental voice coming from this heavenly group of trum- 
 pets which shows the heavenly pov/er rising into the ascendant. 
 But this new voice is not an added trumpet, just as that was 
 
168 MYSTERY OP THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 not an added seal, but as that voice spoke the sentiment of all 
 world power^ so does this speak the sentiment of all heavenly 
 power. ISTow we note this as the second supplemental office 
 that has been added to the trumpets. The first one we identi- 
 fied as the office of Matthias introduced by a special meeting 
 and the offering of incense^ etc. (viii, 2-5.) 
 
 The Sixth Trumpeter is especially commissioned to loose 
 the four angels, that is, the world powers. Paul, the apostle 
 to the Gentiles, comes to view at once. We see him clearly, 
 unmistakably, in the shadowgraph. That is, the circumstances 
 of the sixth trumpet in relation to the trumpet series is anah 
 ogous to the circumstances of Paul's call and relations to the 
 apostleship. 
 
 This trumpet recognizes the peculiar relations which Pau' 
 sustained to Christ and to the other apostles, and to the Gen- 
 tiles. As already explained, there are no personalities in these 
 trumpets, but all the relations and differential functions of the 
 apostles are faithfully kept, so that in these we can see the 
 gospel story as carried out in the commission acted over again 
 in signs and symbols and can even infer the personalities, in 
 part, of those who at the first acted distinguished parts. We 
 saw Matthias and his election, and Peter and his preaching 
 at the opening of this trumpet series, and here at the close 
 we have in the last trumpet the circumstances of the call of 
 Paul to the ministry so faithfully preserved that we see the 
 double easily. Thus is preserved all the variations of the apos- 
 tolic function in carrying forward the Great Commission, and 
 upon those facts and relations as pattern or shadow, the new 
 church, our present reformation, is foretold. 
 
 Peter and Matthias and now Paul are brought to view by 
 their distinctive relations to the Great Commission which is 
 the pattern that guides these seals and trumpets. And we shall 
 presently see John, also, who not only wri'tes this book, but 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 169 
 
 his shadowgraph is also taken all alone, as when all the 
 others have ceased to act any j^art, and he in Patmos writes the 
 valedictory of the apostles' school. 
 
 Paul (Saul), who was engaged in crushing his Lord's feet 
 on earth, heard a voice from the anguished head in heaven, 
 which arrested him, saying, ^^Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou 
 Me?" And Jesus said unto him, "I have appeared unto thee 
 to make of thee a minister and a witness." "I will send thee 
 far hence to the Gentiles." Paul was called to the apostleship 
 out of due season and due order, but was engaged in labors 
 more abundant than they all. The same relations which Paul's 
 ministry sustained to the other apostles and to Christ and to 
 the Gentiles are just the relations which this sixth trumpet 
 sustains to the other trumpets and to the voice that calls from 
 the golden altar and to the four angels, or nations which they 
 represent. 
 
 The unmistakable shadowgraph of Matthias' election at the 
 beginning and the call of Paul to the ministry in this last of 
 the labor trumpets (the seventh being Sabbatic), settles the 
 question and compels us to recognize that the prophecy is 
 laid upon patterns, and that this is that heavenly design to 
 be certainly discerned and followed. These four angels bound 
 in the great River Euphrates are the world powers again, now 
 subject to and bound by a new power under the symbol of "the 
 great River Euphrates." Their' conditions are now changed 
 from the former state. They now appear in bondage them- 
 selves, have become vessels to a new power that comes out of 
 the old, risen out of that sea where the burning mountain sank 
 and dissolved. The pagan Caesars have gone down and the 
 new Caesar has come up with his locust swarm to devastate the 
 earth, and it is on this condition of the world that a new power 
 appears upon the field and comes not as locusts now, but 
 as an army of horsemen. That is, the four angels, or world 
 
170 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 powers, when loosed become an army to be a woe on the wicked. 
 But they are bound and tributary to mystery Babylon, and so 
 are said to be bound in tlie great Eiver Euphrates; and the 
 trumpeter is commanded to loose them, that is, to set them 
 free from this bondage; and when set free he sees them and 
 they are become a great army of horsemen, that is, the old 
 world powers, called the four angels, are now ordered to be 
 freed from that ApoUyon, the destroyer, that came up out of 
 the pit of the abyss. For Apollyon, and "the great Eiver Eu- 
 phrates,'^ and the mystery Babylon, and the Diabolical Pente- 
 cost show the world powers have become enslaved to the later 
 papal power. 
 
 The Eeformation broke upon us when the world powers were 
 in a state of bondage to this locust power. Babylon, as the 
 first seat of universal power, is the type of this new power in 
 which both the people of God are captive, as they were then, 
 and the world powers are also captive and to be loosed. As 
 God's children also are called upon to come out of her "that 
 ye partake not of her sins,'' they are not, however, identical with 
 this army of horsemen. This is the general period of Exodus 
 from captivity toward the 'New Jerusalem, and the four angels 
 of this sixth trumpet show how the world powers emerge out 
 of the Dark Ages of locusts' dominion into an army of horse- 
 men; the world turned loose armed to execute the second woe 
 upon them that dwell on the earth. 
 
 It is a punishment of the wicked by the emancipated world. 
 The Eiver Euphrates was not only tributary to Babylon and 
 the very stream of life to its sinful existence, but was also the 
 channel of death to it when Cyrus drained off the river and 
 marched into the city through its emptied bed and captured 
 it and laid its pride in the dust. World governments that up- 
 hold that great locust power. Spiritual Babylon, are well rep- 
 resented by the symbol, "the River Euphrates/' To loose these 
 
 II 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 171 
 
 powers, bound by a corrupt fealty, was to set them free to "de- 
 stroy to the end." They will no longer as before have to go 
 to that king of locusts to ask whether they may declare war 
 or conclude a peace. 
 
 We are living witnesses that that day is gone by and there 
 will be no other general power ever rise again till Christ reigns. 
 As Paul's ministry was especially to the Gentiles, there is a 
 great and striking fitness about these dramatic parts in the 
 imagery of the sixth trumpet. The lesson is plain. It tells 
 us that by the preaching of the word of God in this sixth 
 trumpet light shall arise. The governments of the world shall 
 cast off papal allegiance and turn themselves into a military 
 power to kill a fourth part of men, etc. Again the eflacement 
 of personalities from the mind, while it entails some difficulty 
 in reading at first, has the advantage of showing all things by 
 their substance, their essence, and we know and recognize them 
 by their relations to the Alpha and the Omega. This raises 
 our every thought to its greatest height, and shows that all 
 roads lead to Christ. In this way, too, we distinguish the true 
 spiritual succession from the brutish and false. It is a suc- 
 cession of doing the will of God on earth, and not the following 
 of mere names and forms. We are not used to seeing things 
 by these deeper moral relations but rather by their external 
 and less important accidents and circumstances, and so we are 
 slow to recognize them by these more essential and inward 
 relations. 
 
 If I show a cartoon of a boy drawing a plow and another 
 showing him in the schoolroom with his books, and another 
 showing him in the pulpit preaching, one would readily say, 
 "that means that a farmer's son, raised to the plow, went to 
 school, and is now preaching." That is easy to be seen, and 
 yet it gives no light on his moral relations imless in the last 
 act; but if I show a horse merely and then a slave under a 
 
172 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 master, and then an angel of God with a golden censer, offer- 
 ing incense, I strike at once into deeply moral and spiritual 
 relations, and the lesson is not so easily read. Bnt it tells the 
 same story religiously, in its deeper bearings. ^Vhile he is in 
 the place of a horse he stands related to things morally only 
 as a horse, and under his master only as a slave, but now bear- 
 ing testimony for Christ he is as an angel of God. 
 
 By this method, a cartoon showing a wolf destroying sheep, 
 and a second one showing little children leading the wolf, 
 blind and humbk, into the city, and then a third one in which 
 he is seen acting the part of a faithful shepherd caring for the 
 sheep, would represent PauFs conversion in its deeper spiritual 
 and ethical bearings. In this way we see Paul's ministry 
 through the sixth trumpet. He came last to his office and was 
 called directly from heaven and especially commissioned to the 
 Gentiles. 
 
 And the four angels were loosed which were prepared for the 
 hour, and day, and month, and year, that they should kill the third 
 part of men. 
 
 That is, the secular powers were dissolved from their alle- 
 giance to Mystic Babylon, presently to be treated at length. 
 It was done by Christ, done through the form of Paul's call 
 and apostleship, done in fact by and through the truth, preached 
 by the faithful believers as we now know, and many of them 
 by name. The several trumpets do not present the several 
 apostles separately in their several persons, but as all the apostles 
 in the several functions carried out. Just as Peter's preach- 
 ing on Pentecost represented all the apostles, but as several of 
 the apostles led in these parts, we can see their personalities 
 through the parts acted. In this instance we clearly see Paul 
 by circumstances peculiar to himself. 
 
 This method leads all the time to the study and observa- 
 
- OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 173 
 
 tion, not of events as we outwardly note them, but to disposi- 
 tions and relations and conditions by their deeper intrinsic and 
 divine values. Now since the contest of the evil against the 
 good must be in its essence always the same, the different mani- 
 festations growing out of this contest must in the nature of 
 things be analogous. That is, since the struggle between the 
 heavenly powers and the world powers is at bottom the same, 
 prophecy may have many fulfillments beside the most promi- 
 nent one, to which it primarily refers. This is a matter of 
 personal experience with every one in whose heart has struggled 
 the principles of good and evil. All the mounds and hillocks 
 are parts of and prophecies of the greater mountain — are all 
 made of the same earth, are raised by the same causes, the 
 mounds being miniature mountains only.. So we find of the 
 heavenly powers that while they differentiate upon a historic 
 pattern that re-asserts creation, and the carrying out of the 
 new creation by Christ and His apostles, the account does not 
 break away in telling us of the future as though it were in 
 some way a different dispensation, but only the different re- 
 sults as it proceeds toward its consummation and under one 
 and the same commission which we ourselves are at this moment 
 carrying forward. So that the true servants of God who put 
 their lives at His disposal, are.- now the true successors of the 
 heavenly powers and are carrying forward the power that heaven 
 exerts upon earth. A worldling sees only the outward of events, 
 while the sealed servants of God see what lies under and causes 
 them. 
 
 A worldling sees a French Eevolution only when it has broken 
 loose; a Christian sees it all the time it is gathering. He sees 
 the signs of the times and absolutely knows in the very na- 
 ture of the case and from his own experience what must hap- 
 pen, and God knows when. We are told that the four angels 
 
174 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 ■were "prepared for tlie hour, the day, the month, and the year 
 that they should kill a third part of men/*^ 
 
 The use of four words of time — ^^lour/^ "day," "month" and 
 "year," is alluding to the condition only as of world time and 
 as a time that will certainly come known to God, kept -within 
 the Father's own authority. That time has come so far that 
 living men have seen the last vestige of secular power broken 
 from the king of the locusts and the whole world let loose to 
 fight, as Daniel said, to "destroy till the end." 
 
 And the number of the armies of the horsemen was twice ten 
 thousand times ten thousand and I heard the number of them. 
 
 Two hundred million is about the present fighting force of 
 the world, though he is not trying to give the actual, but 
 the symbol number. This can refer neither to the actual num- 
 ber, nor to any one battle, for the world has not all been at 
 actual war at one time, nor were so many men ever horseback 
 at the same time, but all are now free from Babylon and are 
 liable to engage in this great battle till its purposes are ac- 
 complished, to destroy both the locust power and to put an 
 end to brute power in the earth. 
 
 This military dress suggests the nature of the work to be 
 done. The sjmibols of the first trumpet were ^Tiail and fire 
 mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth." These 
 symbols are quite similar, "fire and hyacinth," probably the red 
 variety which would answer to blood, and brimstone, which 
 suggests a deeper thought as having to do with the conditions 
 that came out of the pit of the abyss, punishment in kind as 
 where he says, "God hath judged your judgment on her," 
 xviii, 20. 
 
 The mission of these symbols brings the pale horse again to 
 view with his rider. Death, and his following by Hades, and 
 by the reappearance of horses where there is a third part of 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. ' 175 
 
 men to be killed, as there it was stated that under the pale 
 horse they should have authority over a fourth part of the 
 earth to kill, etc. It is indeed the same great truth, the world 
 powers in the act of breaking down beast rule and preparing 
 the way of the Lord. This is that crucifixion of the worl(3 
 powers spoken of in the sixth seal. The four horses showed 
 us the great changes the world powers were to pass through. 
 as from Christ in His own person, and the sixth seal showed 
 Christ, as in a personal act of retaliation, crucifying them, while 
 this is the army of horses associated with the trumpets, as where 
 Christ is acting through human agencies, in judgments, and 
 hence a great army of horses, to visit the second "woe'^ upon 
 "them that dwell on the earth." 
 
 The picture is as if there were no head, no beast of uni- 
 versal power as the parts in the king's dream and DanieFs dream, 
 or as one of the four horses, but now v/orld power without any 
 common head, simply let loose from a common bondage to 
 kill a fourth part of men. And they do not, as those just men- 
 tioned, in any way indicate the progress of ongoing time, or 
 as being of different kingdoms, etc., but are loosed to inflict 
 a general, a second woe, upon the worldly. Ah, the sinful peo- 
 ple who said "release unto us Barabbas and crucify Christ" are 
 still in the world; and now they are to be punished, "for the 
 great day of His wrath has come, and who shall be able to 
 stand?" Those who put Jesus to death have their successors 
 yet, but the world has so far changed that but few are literally 
 put to death any more. There is but one rebellion against 
 God and it all proceeds from the same source, and there is but 
 one army of the Lord and it is all animated by one Spirit. 
 The symbols connected with these horses are not Christian. 
 There is no white linen^ no white horses, no vials of incense^ 
 no harps or crowns, no new songs nor rejoicing acclamations 
 of praise to the Lamb, such as we constantly see in the com- 
 
176 
 
 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH: 
 
 pany of the saints. Besides, the saints who have been in bond- 
 age with Babylon are separately called upon to come ont (xviii, 
 4), but those who have not the seal of God in their foreheads, 
 who are the prey of devouring locnsts and are led captive by 
 this great power, are delivered and are to turn upon her and 
 destroy her, as appears later. ISTeither do we find any symbol 
 of Christ or of the Holy Spirit in the acts of this trumpet. 
 "We war not against flesh and blood, but against principalities 
 and powers," etc. 
 
 The world as a prisoner is represented to be loosed from po- 
 litical and ecclesiastical bondage and to be a world wide army 
 to destroy itself and to put down beast rule. We now see how 
 the symbols change as we progress onward through the changes 
 which the world power is to pass through. Viewed as His exer- 
 cise of man power, it is a great image of a man in four parts, 
 as gold, silver, brass, etc. Viewed as originating in the sinful 
 consent of the people, brute power that comes out of the sea of 
 humanity where the winds strive; viewed as active war forces, 
 they are horses upon the earth; viewed in their exercise of civil 
 power, they stand upon the four corners of the earth hold- 
 ing the four winds from blowing, and viewed as captives to 
 the locust power, they are bound in the river Euphrates, and 
 viewed as the scourge to destroy all brute power, they are an 
 army to execute judgment on "them that dwell upon the earth, 
 etc.," but through all phases, beast power, apostate and sinful. 
 
 All these changes come from the voice of Him who ascends 
 with the seal of the living God and who commands His sixth 
 trumpeter to loose the four angels, who become at once a world 
 of liberated militia "to kill a third part of men." We are in 
 the times of the Eeformation, of the mystic Pentecost, of the 
 Second Church, and of the multitude of saints that no man can 
 number, and getting away from the dark locust age out of which 
 it came, and the world in arms as it is this moment, breaking 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 177 
 
 down arbitrary rule and freeing the nations. We read them, it 
 is true, in a mystery but the more sure by this two-fold tes- 
 timony of shadow and substance, do they witness for God. The 
 last century has seen greater changes for good probably than 
 all the seventeen preceding, and all the forces that are moving 
 the world are moving with ever accelerating force by geomet- 
 rical ratios. This world cannot much longer choose its own 
 sinful way. These horses are accoutered in a wonderful man- 
 ner. 
 
 And I saw the horses in the vision and them that sat on them 
 having breastplates of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone; and 
 the heads of the horses are as the heads of lions and out of their 
 mouths proceeded fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three 
 plagues was the third part of men killed. 
 
 Literal "fire, smoke and brimstone" is ignited gun powder. 
 John says he saw this army killing with "fire, smoke and brim- 
 stone," and we are to see their deeper, their symbol meaning. We 
 found smoke coming out of the pit of the abyss that darkened 
 the sun and the air, and it stands for ignorance and supersti- 
 tion. Brimstone occurs six times in the book and six would 
 answer for its proper symbol, as the source "whence come wars 
 and fightings," and the lake that burns with brimstone points 
 to punishment more than mere bodily. It is a woe upon them 
 that dwell upon the earth, the symbols of modern warfare 
 used to express that deeper punishment to them that believe 
 not. John both heard and saw the number of the horsemen. 
 He saw the modern method of warfare with fire arms and used 
 them for symbols just as he would see things then known and 
 present to the world. Horses with heads like lions would be 
 the effect in his seeing as a man's face leaning forward upon 
 his horse, the horse's mane and the man's face in combina- 
 tion giving a lion-like effect. 
 
 It would seem that he saw our modern way of fighting with 
 12 
 
178 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 fire arms. He says^ "I saw in vision." Mucli that has been 
 told us could not be ocular. , No one could see the four living 
 creatures^ both on the throne and around about the throne at 
 the same time. These are mind impressions that belong to 
 the di\dne vision. He saw the very state of warfare that was 
 to overthrow beast rule. He saw fire^ smoke and brimstone pro- 
 ceed from the horses' mouths twelve hundred years before men 
 learned to fight with fire arms. The "woe" which the horse- 
 men were to inflict must be viewed in a broader and deeper 
 sense as affecting the great purpose of Christ's spiritual reign. 
 "By these three plagues" must be regarded as more than merely 
 killing men's bodies. 
 
 For the power of the horses was in their mouths and in their 
 tails, for they have tails like unto ser.pents, and have heads and 
 with them they do hurt. 
 
 The fact that the death-dealing seems to come more from 
 the horses than from their riders is because the horse is the 
 dominant in the cast^ just as man was dominant in the king's 
 image, of different parts, etc. Three times we have now been 
 brought to the times of the reformation, and we see the rise 
 of protestant governments in this sixth trumpet with a strange 
 mixture of the old and of the more enlightened conditions 
 mingled. Here we look forward to the seventh trumpet to 
 the time of the kingdom of Christian statehood and Christian 
 brotherhood, that is, the kingdom of God regnant on earth. 
 
 This time of great change was also shown in the sixth seal. 
 John saw a great earthquake, and darkness shrouded the earth, 
 and in the place where the sun should be there was only a 
 jet cavern, black as sackcloth of hair, and in that quarter of 
 the heavens where the moon's face should shine, there was 
 but a red ball, red as blood. All the stars that had twinkled in 
 their places had broken from their constellations and lay upon 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 179. 
 
 the earth like unripe figs, shaken from the trees by a: mighty 
 wind. The broad canopy, once all spangled and glorious, was 
 rolled together like a scroll, and the mountains and islands left 
 their ancient seats and fled away, and the kings and the princes 
 and the mighty men fled and hid themselves in the caves and 
 rocks of the mountains and "call upon the rocks and the moun- 
 tains to fall on us and hide us from the face of Him that sit- 
 teth upon the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb." 
 
 It is the time of killing. It is the time of the pale horse, 
 the killing of the world powers ridden by "Death and followed 
 by Hades." 
 
 For authority was given unto them over the fourth part of the 
 earth to kill with sword and famine, and death, and by wild beasts 
 of the earth. 
 
 The sixth trumpet supplements the sixth seal with the ex- 
 hibition of the world powers loosed from bondage to Babylon 
 and let go, prepared for the hour, the day, the month and the 
 year to kill a third part of men, to execute the day of His 
 wrath in a world-wide military display of awful aspect. In 
 this manner He will crucify the world powers. Their number 
 is "twice ten thousand times ten thousand," which falls far be- 
 hind the number which He gave to the saints, "ten thousand 
 times ten thousand and thousands of thousands." It would 
 seem strange that in such a scourge as this all men should not 
 repent, but such^ John tells us, is the awful fact. He sadly 
 comments: 
 
 And the rest of mankind which were not killed with these plagues 
 repented not of the works of their hands that they should not wor- 
 ship devils, etc. 
 
 What a sight to see men under all the lights and judgment 
 of Grod- still unrepentant. . Such is the awful truth ''if they 
 
180 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be per^ 
 snaded though one rose from the dead.'^ 
 
 Here we have one of the most noticeable cases of the care 
 that is taken of usage in number. The sins of the merely 
 worldling are given in the nse of four, while the idolatrous 
 are given in six. 
 
 They repented not of the works of their hands that they should 
 not worship devils, and the idols of gold, and of silver and brass, 
 and of stone, and of wood which can neither hear nor see nor walk. 
 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor 
 of their fornication, nor of their thefts. 
 
 Six is the sign of idolatry, four of apostasy, and here they 
 are placed side by side by mere enumeration in a catalogue of 
 sins. This trumpet shows the present strange condition of the 
 world. It is a middle state. The purest Christian reformer 
 and the most brutish corrupter are tolerated, and the man of 
 easy virtue who stands midway between these is a general favor- 
 ite for place and power. 
 
 A great Frenchman, looking into this age, has said, "Society 
 inexorably keeps at bay two classes of men, those who attack 
 it and those who guard it." A great American said, "The 
 world puts two kinds of men in jail, those who are not good 
 enough for society and those who are too good." A great 
 preacher said, "Until we can put away from the minds of men 
 the common error that the current Christianity of the churches 
 is the true Christianity, we can make but little progress in 
 converting the world." In politics at least the most favored 
 seems to be he who can be at the same time the fairest with- 
 out, and the foulest within. 
 
 This trumpet presents a time when the light is rising and 
 the righteous judgments of God begin to fall heavily upon 
 the world, and the shadow rests 4ark upon the disobedient, "We 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 181 
 
 have again come to the conditions that belong to the great 
 reformation and to the place in the trumpets where in due 
 order we should expect it. Its light brings to view that dark 
 time out of which the Eeformation was called by the voice of 
 God, preached again from recovered manuscripts of scripture 
 as we shall presently see. The heavenly Pentecost brought 
 Christ to view in His true character, and in His relations to 
 His Father, and' to His disciples and to the world, and so this 
 mock Pentecost throws light upon the enemy, and shows his re- 
 lations to the beast power of sinful man and to his father, the 
 devil, in oppressing sinners and killing saints. The powers on 
 one side must continue to follow the ascending star that leads to 
 glory, and on the other side the declining and waning star that 
 leads to the pit of the abyss. 
 
 What a judgment is every true life upon all deceptions of 
 a mere worldly selfish existence! What a standing rebuke such 
 a life to every sneaking, mousing thing that crawls about in 
 the dark, to hiss at the approach of light! With such a world 
 of new opportunities as now lies open in every direction what a 
 woe upon every soul that will rest upon any ground below the 
 highest on all questions of humanity, or that will stop short 
 of the whole truth, or that will consent for the sake of any 
 pride of place to withhold any word or act of reproof from all 
 the works of darkness and the devil. These trumpets record a 
 procession of mighty changes in the world, and it is out of these 
 changes that we form what we call history. 
 
 We have now seen conditions that belong to the Eeformation 
 in the Sixth Seal and in the mystic Pentecost with its one 
 hundred and forty-four thousand sealed on the forehead, and 
 now we see the most wonderful state of the world upon which 
 it gives light at its rising. The diagram on map of the scrolls 
 shows the groups to which the reader is referred. 
 
182 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 SYMBOL SYNONYMS. 
 
 Star Fallen: Angel of the pit of the abyss; king of the locusts; 
 Apollyon; Abaddon; the spotted beast: the scarlet beast; the two- 
 horned beast; the harlot. 
 
 Abyss: Outside the temple; without the city; wine-press of 
 God's wrath; lake of fire and brimstone; perdition. 
 
 RULES OF INTERPRETATION. 
 
 As the Apocalypse is synthetic rather than analytic the rules 
 of interpretation would better follow than precede the study 
 of the work, but they are offered here together more for ref- 
 erence than as a guide. Here are offered a few of the more 
 apparent of them. 
 
 1. All the uses of seven rest primarily on the seven days 
 of creation. 
 
 2. All the uses of seven are symbolical. 
 
 3. The seven days of creation rule the divisions of the 
 heavenly parts into series, or categories, of sevens. 
 
 4. Seven is the symbol for the commonwealth of heaven 
 or the Kingdom of God. 
 
 5. All the uses of four are symbolical. 
 
 6. Four is the symbol for apostasy and sin or the common 
 woe of fallen man. 
 
 7. The symbol four rests upon the river of God that divided 
 into four heads outside the garden of the Lord. 
 
 8. The relations of Christ and His apostles to each other 
 and the parts which they bore in carrying out the Great Com- 
 mission are the relations and parts which the Seals and Trum- 
 pets mystically bear in carrying out "the things which shall 
 come to pass hereafter.^' 
 
 9. The relations of Christ and His apostles and the Holy 
 Spirit and the Churches and the parts which they jointly and 
 severally bore in carrying out the Great Commission, are the 
 relations and parts which the Seals and Trumpets and seven 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 183 
 
 Spirits and Candlesticks jointly and severally act in mystically 
 carrying out "the things which shall come to pass hereafter." 
 
 10. As we have in the Seals and Trumpets and Holy Spirit 
 and the Churches the carrying out of the Great Commission 
 on its positive and saving side, so in another series, called here 
 the Evangels and Avengers, we have them carrying out the 
 Great Commission on its negative or judgment side. See dia- 
 grams of scroll. 
 
 11. The seals opening mystically represent Christ as over- 
 coming the world powers as in His own person — as shown to 
 Nehuchadnezzar in the vision of the great image which the stone 
 was to strike and to destroy. 
 
 12. The trumpet soundings mystically represent the Apos- 
 tles as overcoming the world powers according to the vision 
 showed to Daniel of the four beasts coming up out of the sea 
 and of the triumph over them as coming from the saints under 
 Christ. 
 
 13. As the seven days of creation rule the parts into series 
 of sevens, and as the parts acted in carrying out the Great 
 Commission govern the relations of these series to each other, 
 so the two visions given to Nebuchadnezzar and to Daniel gov- 
 ern in expressing the end and outcome of the contest of Christ 
 with the world powers, or sinful man. 
 
 14. The object of creation and the promise of redemption 
 are thus bound together with the promise made to Nebuchad- 
 nezzar and to Daniel and referred to by Christ, to be carried 
 out under the Great Commission, thus explaining His promise 
 of the end of the world in His sermon on Mount of Olives. 
 
 15. As Christ and His apostles represent the kingdom of 
 God as it was in the first evangelization, so the Seals and Trum- 
 pets represent it as it is in the present Eeformation and the 
 Evangels and Avengers represent the kingdom in the Regen- 
 eration to come. 
 
184 
 
 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 % 
 
 The proper correlation of the symbol names given to Christ 
 and His apostles and the Holy Spirit and the churches are 
 given in the following table to show both how well the sym- 
 bols express the acts and the relations of the actors to Christ, 
 the head. 
 
 Christ " 
 
 Lampkeeper 
 
 Author 
 
 Sealopener 
 
 Revelator 
 
 Evangel 
 
 Apostles 
 
 Stars 
 
 Letter carriers 
 
 Trumpeters 
 
 Thunderers 
 
 Avengers 
 
 Holy Spirit 
 Seven Spirits 
 Advocate 
 Seal of God 
 Breath of God 
 Fire 
 
 Churoh 
 Candlesticks 
 Seven churches 
 Temple of God 
 Woman in heaven 
 Holy City 
 
 The following double column comparison will show more than 
 twenty points in which the literal and the mystic agree in the 
 two great carryings out of the Great Commission; the one real 
 and historic and the other then future, but now in process 
 of being carried out. 
 
 1. Christ's ministry preceded 
 the ministry of the apostles. 
 
 2. At first Christ taught 
 openly, afterward by parables. 
 
 3. A day of Pentecost lay be- 
 tween Christ's ministry and the 
 ministry of the apostles. 
 
 4. The apostles explained 
 Christ's teachings after Pente- 
 cost. 
 
 5. Christ kept His apostles 
 in His care while with them. 
 John X, 29. 
 
 6. Christ ascended bearing 
 the promise of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 The Seals' ministry preceded 
 the ministry of the Trumpets. 
 
 The Revelation begins with 
 open letters, afterward by Seals. 
 
 A mystic day of Pentecost lay 
 between the Seals opening and 
 trumpeting. 
 
 The trumpeters explain seals- 
 opener after mystic Pentecost. 
 
 He holds them as stars when 
 He is among the candlesticks. 
 
 Ascends bearing the seal of 
 the living God. vii, 2. 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 
 
 185 
 
 7. Christ sent the Holy Spirit 
 on Pentecost and saved 3,000. 
 
 8. Those converted were de- 
 vout Jews out of every nation. 
 
 9. Christ's personal ministry 
 ended with Pentecost and He 
 rested, etc. 
 
 10. Christ on Pentecost re- 
 versed the verdict of the world 
 powers. 
 
 11. Christ commissioned His 
 apostles to preach abroad. 
 
 12. He gave a countermand 
 to wait for the Holy Spirit. 
 
 13. While waiting for Pente- 
 cost the apostles pray and add 
 another apostle. 
 
 14. The Holy Spirit was 
 manifest as tongues of fire. 
 
 15. Those who were saved 
 had all things common. 
 
 16. The apostles began to 
 preach on Pentecost. 
 
 17. Commotion and persecu- 
 tion followed the apostles' 
 preaching. 
 
 18. After Pentecost there 
 was a great multitude added not 
 numbered. 
 
 19. The three thousand con- 
 verted on Pentecost were first 
 fruits. 
 
 20. Christ called Paul to the 
 ministry as the last by a direct 
 call. 
 
 21. Last of all Christ ap- 
 peared to John in Patmos to re- 
 veal, etc. 
 
 On mystic Pentecost he seals 
 or saves 144,000. vii, 4. 
 
 Those sealed were out of all 
 the tribes scattered abroad, vii, 5. 
 
 After his part in mystic Pen- 
 tecost He breaks Sabbath seal 
 and rests. 
 
 In the mystic Pentecost He 
 restrains them. 
 
 He gave trumpets to them to 
 sound His truth. 
 
 The Trumpeters wait holding 
 their trumpets, viii, 2. 
 
 The trumpeters while waiting 
 add another to their number 
 with prayers. 
 
 The Holy Spirit as fire from 
 the altar is cast forth. 
 
 Those who were sealed had 
 all things common, vii, 9-17. 
 
 The Trumpets begin to sound 
 on mystic Pentecost. 
 
 Hail and fire mingled with 
 blood when trumpets sound. 
 
 After mystic Pentecost a mul- 
 titude no man could number. 
 
 The 144,000 converted on 
 mystic Pentecost were first 
 fruits. 
 
 Christ called the last trum- 
 peter by a direct call, ix, 13. 
 
 After the sixth trumpet He 
 appears with the Revelation 
 open. X, 1. 
 
186 
 
 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 22. The first church was be- 
 gun by Christ ascended, the Holy- 
 Spirit descended and the apostles 
 preaching, the world convicted 
 and sinners saved. 
 
 These are the facts of sacred 
 history. 
 
 I 
 
 The second church was begun 
 by an angel ascended, the Seal 
 of God descended, the trumpets 
 sounding the world powers re- 
 strained and the servants of 
 God recalled. 
 
 These are the promises of 
 sacred prophecy. 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 187 - 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Revelation X. 
 
 SHOWING TO HIS SERVANTS. 
 
 The great shadowgraph, receives in the subject of the tenth 
 chapter another extension. . 
 
 When all the apostles but John had closed their testimony 
 and their ministry, the beloved disciple, an exile in the isle 
 of Patmos, receives a last message from heaven by the glorious 
 coming of Christ. To the apostles alone did Christ give origi- 
 nal messages. Jesus had said to Peter, "what is it to thee 
 if he tarry till I come?" It was John who had reclined at the 
 meal with his head nearest the bosom of his Lord, who went 
 into the trial hall, who lingered longest at the cross, who was 
 first to reach the sepulcher, being "that disciple whom Jesus 
 loved." He did tarry, and here in solitude in Patmos received 
 commission as revelator and prophet of the "things which shall 
 come to pass hereafter." He was commissioned to "write in a 
 book and send to the seven churches which are in Asia" what 
 he saw and heard. It is "the Revelation of Jesus Christ which 
 God gave to Him to show to His servants." The giving of 
 the Revelation to Christ is illustrated in the fifth chapter by 
 a dramatic action in w^hich He, in the worthiness of a slain 
 lamb, receives the book from the right hand of Him that sat 
 upon the throne, and He opens it. Here we meet with the 
 second dramatic act of the giving of the Revelation, and this one 
 is to illustrate the giving or showing "to His servants." The 
 openings of the seals begin in the sixth chapter, and that is 
 the opening of the Revelation proper, for there the secrets 
 about the future be^in to be made known. 
 
188 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 The matter of the first chapter was hardly to be called new, 
 and the second and third chapters are Christ's letters which 
 were open to all, and the fourth chapter shows the kingdom 
 come, which had so long been foretold, and the fifth chapter, 
 the Revelation to Christ, which was "not known to men, nor to 
 angels, nor even to the Son, bnt to the Father only," and sealed 
 with seven seals and which Christ breaks, and there the Reve- 
 lation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to Him, begins, though 
 it is all a revelation in a larger sense, containing a Revelation 
 from God and from Christ, and from John, and from the angel 
 guide and from one of the Elders, etc. 
 
 This dramatic giving of the Revelation to His servants is 
 quite like the first act and is supplementary to it. It shows 
 a likeness of symbols, such as would suggest its giving to His 
 servants. As yet, while John had witnessed the opening of 
 the Seals and the sounding of the trumpets which followed, 
 he seems not himself to have understood the meaning and de- 
 clined even to venture an opinion when asked by one of the 
 Elders, "who are these arrayed in white and whence came they?'' 
 The meaning of this book was yet to be made known to him. 
 
 And I saw another strong angel coming down out of heaven 
 arrayed with a cloud and the rainbow was upon his head and his 
 face was as the sun and his feet as pillars of fire and he had in his 
 hand a little book open. 
 
 "A little book" is less than the whole, and it was the hitherto 
 sealed part that He has opened and now holds to view, and 
 not the letters which were already opened, and which make the 
 larger book, including Christ's letters and John's own words, 
 etc. It is a letter within a letter; a scroll within the scroll. 
 That sealed book has never left His hand since He took it 
 from the hand of "Him that sat upon the throne," but He 
 simply dropped from our view while the trumpets were sound- 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 189 
 
 ing just as He did after Pentecost while the apostles were 
 preaching, till He appeared again to John in Patmos to speak 
 the last word to His servants. In this drama Christ holds the 
 book with the seals all broken. This appearance of the de- 
 scending from heaven is what is commonly called "the coming 
 of the Lord," and is supposed to show His coming in person 
 to set up His reign on the earth and to be visibly and per- 
 sonally present. But this coming has for its immediate end 
 the opening of the "little book," and the coming rests upon the 
 fact of Christ having visited John in Patmos and is in pur- 
 pose the complement of His dramatic reception of it, and the 
 carrying out of the will of His Father, "to show it unto His 
 servants." Now as in that appearance at Patmos, we do not 
 suppose John saw Him with his eyes, or heard Him with his 
 ears, or felt the pressure of His hand on the muscles of his 
 body, or that He was seen walking bodily among the churches, 
 or literally holding seven stars in His right hand, but all in 
 vision, in Spirit and in symbol, representing the truth about 
 His relations, etc., so we may suppose here also that to see this 
 book open may not require we should hear, or see, or feel by 
 our senses a paper papyrus, or other book in His right hand 
 as necessary to understand the Revelation God gave to Him 
 to show to His servants. 
 
 As for His kingdom to come, that belongs to the last trum- 
 pet, the seventh, by the verities of a solemn oath, and is not 
 even mentioned till later in this chapter. That trumpet has 
 not yet sounded and, moreover, the personal coming of Christ 
 should be properly found either in the seals which deal di- 
 rectly with Christ as in His own personal acts, or in the com- 
 plementary series to the seals, which we call the Evangels, 
 presently to appear, but not in the trumpet series could any 
 personal appearing be expected. 
 
190 MYSTERY OP THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 And he set his right foot upon the sea and his left upon the 
 earth and he cried with a great voice as a lion roareth and when he 
 cried the seven thunders uttered their voices. 
 
 Here they are togetlier again; Christ and His apostles, in the 
 same correspondent relations as before. What He teaches in 
 parable they publish upon the housetops; when He trims His 
 heavenly lights they shine as stars, etc. What He writes to 
 the churches they carry as messengers; what He opens to them 
 from the broken seals, they sound out as trumpeters, and now 
 what He cries out in a voice like a lion, they utter in voices 
 of thunder that shake the heavens and the earth. His taking 
 position with one foot on the earth and one on the sea is that 
 He may be heard round the earth, hence also His loud cry. 
 Christ had once, while on the e'arth, called John and his brother 
 "sons of thunder," but now the apostle's office is as thunder 
 to correspond with His lion-like roar. "What I tell you in 
 darkness speak ye in the light, and what ye hear in the ear 
 proclaim ye upon the housetops." 
 
 He had so explained to them in secret that before He left 
 them they said, "now speakest thou plainly and speakest no 
 proverb." From being preachers in fact to letter carriers in 
 form, and then to trumpeters and then to thunderers shows 
 the rising toward a thrilling climax of power. What was it 
 that Christ shouted? It was the Revelation God gave to Him 
 to show to His servants, but was only then being given to 
 John by the angel. He shows the book is open, holding it 
 open in His hand, and then &houts it; that is, makes it known 
 and the seven thunderers utter it. They uttered the same 
 thing. They repeated after Him in thunder tones. The re- 
 lation is unquestionable. This has been exactly His method 
 from the beginning. It is now the opening time and the mys- 
 tery is coming to an end. The Revelation by general con- 
 sent has been a sealed book to this hour, so much so, that it 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 191 
 
 is a reproach to any one to confidently profess to understand 
 it. Causing it to be understood is the lesson of this drama 
 and the forms enable us to identify the actors and the time 
 and place. 
 
 At a time here shown to lie between the sixth and seventh 
 trumpets the Revelation will be given and shown to His 
 servants, to understand, and when understood will be the voice 
 of God like the roar of a lion as coming from Christ, and as 
 seven voices of thunder as from the apostles. Standing upon 
 the sea and upon the earth in an all embracing attitude Christ 
 shouts aloud the hitherto sealed book, and His cry is echoed 
 as by seven-fold power of the apostles. The fact pointed out 
 is perfectly clear and intelligible, though it is told us in vision 
 by drama in symbol. It simply shows it will be made known 
 to His servants. The first giving of the Eevelation to the 
 Lamb being attended with so great dramatic display, it is in 
 keeping that the second giving should be attended by a like 
 demonstration. By searching diligently we do find its mean- 
 ing, and our making it known is as the voice of thunder, just 
 as our preaching the Gospel is sounding the Trumpets, the 
 apostles being used in form only, while the work is in fact 
 being done by the saints and just as the letters were probably 
 borne by John himself, represented as being sent through the 
 apostles. 
 
 When the seven thunders uttered their voices I was about to 
 write and I heard a voice from heaven, saying, Seal up the things 
 which the seven thunders uttered and write them not. 
 
 If John had written what he heard he would have defeated 
 the purpose intended to be served by sealing it in mystery. 
 Christ has been bringing to pass these great changes and is 
 now fulfilling them, and when this book is read it will be as 
 
192 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 the voice of God, the shout of the angel and thunder of human 
 voices. 
 
 The word "mystery" is used in this book in a way to show 
 that it was intended to conceal at least a part, and that it was 
 very successfully done, a& most agree, but it was also to be 
 revealed at the proper time, just as the advent of Christ, and 
 now when John hears the proclamation of the little secret book 
 of God, he would write it but is forbidden. At one time our 
 Lord was seized upon by those who sought to make Him a 
 king, and who did not understand His kingdom. He said "My 
 kingdom is not of this world.^^ His kingdom is explained in 
 this book. Plainly speaking John heard or saw the meaning 
 of the little book being given, as we are now trying to give 
 it, but was told to seal it up, or leave it as he had seen it in 
 the seals and trumpets where it is at the same time both given, 
 and sealed up, couched in symbols and allegories but not un- 
 derstood till the time come, and the time has come. 
 
 Time has helped us to explain it, for it has been and is now 
 being fulfilled before our very eyes. The things are now mostly 
 history, and understanding them will give to the world an epoch 
 of the mightiest uplift the heavenly power has yet exerted upon 
 mankind. This cry, the last and greatest, is to be heard by 
 all the world that the mystery is finished. These earth and 
 heaven shaking thunders will be an awakening to the children 
 of earth that the kingdom is near at hand. 
 
 Christ finished His world ministry here below, the victim 
 of man's wrath, with a cry of pain on the cross, but now with 
 His face all radiant with the sun, and the rainbow upon His 
 head where a thorny crown had rested, showing the promises 
 all fulfilled, the earth and sea now under His feet He cries 
 again with a voice that touches every shore. The little book 
 is the key that unlocks all revelation. Its deepest fountains 
 will flow when it is understood. 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 193 
 
 This impulse to write what he heard came out of the same 
 heart of heavenly fire whence proceeded that weeping over the 
 sealed book and that longing to hear about the white multitude. 
 How changed that heart since the time he asked his Lord to 
 permit him to call down fire upon the inhospitable Samaritans! 
 John's curiosity has been contagious, foy few have ever looked 
 upon these wondrous dramas and sayings who have not felt 
 the strongest desire to enter the dread presence and to see 
 to the heart of the matter. This chapter has been involved in 
 all the theories of those who," like His first disciples, have been 
 asking about the "when" and the "where" and to whom He 
 said, "of that day and of that hour knoweth no man, not even- 
 the angels of God." Some ask why these things were not 
 made known at the time. It is enough here to say that Eeve- 
 lation is progressive, if not objectively, yet subjectively, and 
 the day will come when these' thunderers will be as lullabies 
 to quiet the distressing fears and doubts of the children of God, 
 and He appeals to him that hath wisdom to consider them. 
 
 The true explanation of this book must have all the effect 
 of a new Eevelation from heaven, and as far above the other 
 Scriptures as the voice of thunder is above the trumpet, or 
 the roar of the lion is above the* cry of the eagle, or the words 
 of Christ above the words of His disciples. From having walked 
 among the candlesticks and standing before the throne as a 
 slain lamb, and flying mid heaven, as an angel He now stands 
 on the earth and the sea, and lifts up His right hand to 
 heaven in an oath upon the close of time, showing the rising 
 tide of His power. 
 
 This chapter is noticeable for the variety and beauty of its 
 dramatic situations. Its orderly place in the structure of the 
 book also affords us positive data for understanding its mean- 
 ing. We did not see Him ascend in person in the mystic Pente- 
 13 
 
194 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 cost, which we know refers to the great opening of the Eef orma- 
 tion, nor did we see Him fly in mid-heaven to announce the 
 three-woe trumpets, nor do we see Christ descending to hold 
 a book, nor stand on the sea and on the earth nor yet hear 
 His cry. That is all symbol and mystery. It is the truth about 
 the future, told in the sjmbols and forms of the past. Christ 
 did actually seal the great multitude of saints, ourselves among ^ 
 them, and the Eeformation did put a new restraint upon wick- 
 edness, and it did open upon the pit of smoke of the Dark 
 Ages to show its inferno, and the civil powers of the world 
 did break their allegiance to the locust king, and yet we have 
 seen none of these things as angels or locusts, etc., but as sym- 
 bols and representations of the reality of them. They tell the 
 truth; and we are presently to see Christ coming again and 
 again, always showing that it is He who is accomplishing these 
 great results, but they are not the coming but the comings of 
 the Lord. So, also, the open book represents only thait the 
 book of God shall be given and understood through His .serv- 
 ants, but expressed in form as coming from Him and His 
 apostles. 
 
 H we will but cease our gazing up into the skies for signs, 
 and seek the power and presence of God in our heart and con- 
 duct, we should see much more of God. A mere wonder ap- 
 pearing in the skies could not change anything. The heaven 
 is full of the glory of God now and "day unto day uttereth 
 speech'' nearly unheard and unheeded. Why should he add 
 new wonders'? Christ said to Philip, who had asked to see 
 the Father, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." 
 There are many of God's true servants who are this moment 
 lifting their longing eyes toward Patmos to understand this 
 book and to receive its blessings. It is the only book in the 
 Bible which promises a distinct blessing on him that reads it, 
 and this it does twice. It is the only one that adds a curse 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 195 
 
 to him that adds to or takes away from the words of the 
 prophecy of this book. It is the only book which is called the 
 Eevelation of Jesus Christ which God gave and commanded 
 not to seal up. It is the only book in which the spirit speaks 
 in His own person to the believers, warning them seven times 
 to hear what the Spirit sayeth to the churches. It is the only 
 book in the Bible that claims to have come from God, given 
 to Christ. It twice declares, "These are the true words of 
 God.^' It twice appeals to him that hath wisdom to consider 
 and have understanding of it. It is the only one that so ex- 
 cited the desires of an apostle to understand it that he should 
 weep much over it when sealed up, and should take and put 
 it to his mouth and eat it when given to him opened and should 
 offer twice to worship the angel that showed it to him. It is 
 the only book in the Bible that tells us that Satan is to be 
 bound with a great chain and cast into prison and sealed up for 
 a thousand years; and the only one, alas, which professing Chris- 
 tians warn us against reading, and many ministers and scholars 
 avoid, even though it solemnly says more in its own praise than 
 any other book in the Bible. 
 
 To all who experience a revulsion on reading it, these and 
 other like facts ought to be a warning; and those who make a 
 by-word of it might well consider the admonitions with which 
 it closes. 
 
 And the angel which I saw standing upon the sea and upon the 
 earth lifted up his right hand to heaven and swear by him that 
 liveth forever and ever, who created the heaven and things that 
 are therein, and the earth and the things that are therein, and the 
 sea and the things that are therein, that there shall be time no 
 longer; but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel when he 
 is about to sound, then is finished the good tidings which he declared 
 to his servants, the prophets. 
 
196 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 What need could there be of a special oath upon the close 
 of time if that time had already been made known to Daniel, 
 as some claim it was? Or how could Christ sit with His dis- 
 ciples on the mount of Olives and answer their question about 
 the last times and the end of the world, and say it is not known 
 to men nor to angels nor even to the Son if Daniel had really 
 told the time. Or how could He say to them when, just be- 
 fore His ascension they asked Him about the time of His king- 
 dom, the very thing which this book treats of, "It is not for 
 you to know the times and the seasons which the Father hath 
 kept within His own authority,^' if it had indeed been made 
 known to Daniel, or to any one else, whose writings were ac- 
 cessible. 
 
 This is now the place to mention the year, if it is to be men- 
 tioned, for that time is sworn to by the uplifted right hand 
 of the angel of God, yet it is no more definite than these words 
 will bear out, "In the days of the voice of the seventh angel 
 when he is about to sound," and this is no more definite than 
 the answers given to His disciples. In fact, it sounds very like 
 His explanations when He said, "When ye see the fig tree put- 
 ting forth her tender branches know ye thereby that summer is 
 nigh." It is said by some that the words of Christ, "No man 
 knoweth the day, nor the hour," does not say "no man know- 
 eth the year." 
 
 Passing by this method of interpretation, it is enough to say 
 of this that such intention in His words would imply that the 
 year was so well understood that the whole question turns upon 
 the day and hour, and yet where have any two of them agreed 
 as to any year? How weak and trivial such a method of deal- 
 ing with scripture. These trumpets mark the epochs of Chris- 
 tian time to be recognized by the changes only as we would see 
 a fig tree putting forth its tender branches prophesying the ap- 
 proach of summer, 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 197 
 
 And the voice which I heard from heaven I hear it again speak- 
 ing with me and saying, Go take the book which is open in the hand 
 of the angel that standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. And 
 I went unto the angel saying unto him that he should give me the 
 little book, and he sayeth unto me. Take it and eat it up and it shall 
 make thy belly bitter but in thy mouth it shall be sweet as honey, 
 and I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and 
 it was in my mouth sweet as honey; and when I had eaten it, my 
 belly was made bitter. 
 
 If he wept much when he saw the book in seals and no one 
 to open it, what mnst have been the seer's emotions when he 
 saw the book now open and himself commanded by a voice from 
 heaven to go and take the book from the hand of the angel 
 and to eat it. With what emotion he ventured to approach 
 the shining seraph, we cannot know. He has heard the voice 
 like a lion and the seven thunders explain the little book, but 
 -he is to eat it, and that is to illustrate the personal appropria- 
 tion of it; and so he takes the book out of the angel's hand, 
 as he had seen his Master take it from the Father's hand, and 
 eats it. This taking the book and eating it is the third dra- 
 matic action and shows the method of the individual's receiv- 
 ing and appropriating the Eevelation of Jesus Christ which 
 God gave Him to show unto His servants. It is to be eaten 
 bite by bite. It is bread from heaven, and the first condition 
 of its delightful enjoyment is a strong desire. When the angel 
 passed the book to the weeping seer to eat, he told him that 
 the book would be sweet to his taste but bitter in his stomach. 
 The effect here was entirely personal as to John. It was sweet 
 to him to be able to understand the book whose seals were now 
 all loosed, but the dark days that must befall the church, the 
 great falling away then in progress, was bitter to his reflection. 
 The apprehension sweet, the reflection bitter. So was the vis- 
 ion of Abraham; when God had promised him his seed should 
 bless all nations there was a horrible darkness fell upon him 
 
198 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 to symbolize the long dark period that must intervene before 
 that blessed day could come. 
 
 The difference between John's situation and our own is that 
 we stand on the hither side of that dark night and looking to 
 the glowing East where a still rising Savior may be seen shed- 
 ding increasing light upon our advancing steps, as we are able 
 to unfold the stored riches of His Eevelation. How gloriously 
 the light spreads away toward the mountain of the N'ew Jeru- 
 salem! 
 
 The great Christian movements of the future will not be 
 made up with Revelation left out as hitherto. 
 
 And they say unto me thou must prophesy again over many 
 peoples and nations and tongues and kings. 
 
 That is to say, he must prophesy again of all the things about 
 the doom of the world, for he is to cover the ground again, 
 seven times in all; including these two, the seals and trumpets. 
 These do not all cover the whole time, but they all involve new 
 matter and present new phases and relations within the time. 
 
 It is like writing history topically without the use of dates. 
 If I write the political history of our country from the begin- 
 ning to the present, and then the religious history in the same 
 way, and then the commercial, and then the history of witch- 
 craft and of human slavery, and then of steam and of elec- 
 tricity, etc., having no dates, the lines of history would not all 
 begin at the same place nor all end at the same place. Witch- 
 craft and slavery would end earlier, and steam and electricity 
 would start in later, but each line of history involves others so 
 long as they continue together. 
 
 So is written the Apocalypse of St. John. The subject mat- 
 ter has been as it respects Christ and His apostles in their re- 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. . 199 
 
 lations to the Great Commission considered on its positive side; 
 and these facts will be presented in new phases, and new mat- 
 ter will be added as the time is again passed over in part or 
 in whole as each of the heavenly powers receives separate treat- 
 ment. For the heavenly powers are the lines along which the 
 subject matter follows. 
 
200 MASTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 CHAPTEK XI. 
 Revelation XI. 
 
 THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 • 
 
 Christ is *^^the Alpha and the Omega/' the Head of all things, 
 "the Enler of the kings of the earth/^ "though we see not yet 
 all things put under Him." But He has associated with Him 
 for its accomplishment His apostles, His Holy Spirit and His 
 Churches. 
 
 The story of the future has now been told along two lines. 
 The Seals have told it as relates to the work of Christ as in 
 His own office, carrying forward the conquest promised at the 
 beginning that He should bruise the serpent's head and as 
 promised to the monarch of Babylon as destroying the glittering 
 image, etc. And the Trumpets have told it as it relates to the 
 apostles as it is accomplished by and through them; but now 
 we are to read the story as to the parts which pertained to the 
 office of the Holy Spirit and this to be followed by another line 
 in what pertains to the office of the Church. Along these four 
 lines the book clearly follows. But while the Seals and the 
 Trumpets do not directly involve the other parts, the Spirit 
 deeply involves the church, the apostles and the word of God. 
 The Holy Spirit was promised to come from the Father and from 
 the Son to the apostles on Pentecost. 
 
 We find the Holy Spirit in this book in the greeting to the 
 churches where His position is between the holy names of the 
 Father and Son (i, 4) and suggesting what is so plainly taught 
 that the administration of Christ could not begin till the Spirit 
 should be given. For "the Spirit was not yet given because 
 Jesus was not yet glorified." He came on Pentecost, and thus 
 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 201 
 
 Christ's world ministry being ended, the opening of His heav- 
 enly ministry began through the Spirit. His next appearance 
 is in the seven" letters where He speaks as joint author and ad- 
 vocate, saying, "Let him that hath an ear hear what the spirit 
 saith to the churches." His next appearance is in the fourth 
 chapter where He is seen as seven lamps of fire before the throne, 
 as He is in the first chapter said to be "the seven spirits of God 
 before His throne." In this case the Holy Spirit and the 
 church unite in one and the same symbol as we shall find again. 
 As shown already, the seven lamps of fire are symbols for the 
 church as giving to the world light upon God's throne as the 
 candlesticks are symbols that present the churches as giving 
 God's light to the world. Here is to be seen how close the 
 association of the Spirit is with the church. The next appear- 
 ance of the Spirit is in the fifth chapter, where He is mani- 
 fested as the "seven horns and seven eyes" of the Lamb who 
 receives the sealed book, and there explained as "the seven Spirits 
 of God sent forth into all the earth." Here the Spirit appears 
 ministering for Christ as His eyes and His powers sent out 
 into the world as missionaries and so here again they unite in 
 one symbol with the church as inseparable from Him as going 
 out in world-wide missions. 
 
 The Holy Spirit is thus both Joint author and advocate of 
 the letters and the light and power of Christ to all the world 
 in connection with the church. 
 
 The next appearance of the Spirit is connected with the 
 mystic Pentecost, where the angel ascending bears Him as "the 
 seal of the living God," bearing in an ascension which is only 
 another way of expressing the promise of the Spirit which 
 He promised to be given after His ascension. These different 
 relations of the Spirit to the heavenly powers is profoundly 
 interesting, and find a climax of wonder in the instance already 
 cited in the letters where as joint author He exchanges places 
 
202 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 1 
 
 with, the promises of Christ after the third letter and remaining 
 so to the end. The author and the advocate changed places, 
 one ascending and the other descending, as it* occurred at the 
 beginning, and this marked two opposing groups that divide all 
 the great series as between the earthly anjd the heavenly, 
 tonches the core of the system of double writing which is -our 
 guide in reading this strange and mighty book, for it lies at 
 the base and governs its order. The closeness of the union of 
 the spirit with Christ and His apostles and the churches in the 
 first five chapters is missing thenceforth till we come to the 
 eleventh, only because the subject-matter has followed these 
 as separate lines; and now we shall see the spirit involve them 
 all again in this chapter which tells of His mission in our 
 present new church — the Keformation. 
 
 We missed the Holy Spirit through all the seals till we came 
 to the mystic Pentecost, where he had to appear as at the first, 
 and we missed him in all the trumpets till we neared the seventh. 
 We are now. to see the part He was to bear in the raising 
 up of the second churchy as He was the harbinger in the open- 
 ing of the first church. The first church was established by 
 the oral gospel, by the word of m^outh, but the second by the 
 recovered and translated manuscripts. The Bible came out of 
 the first church, but the second church came out of the Bible. 
 
 The eleventh chapter will tell us the mission the Holy Spirit 
 performed in bringing about the second church, and to do so 
 it must involve the church and the word of Cod now as did 
 the church and the apostles at the first. We notice that no 
 direct symbols for the apostles are given in this treatment, and 
 the word of God takes their place and is treated as two Testa- 
 ments; and these are elaborately explained. The word of God, 
 as it went out at the first, was spoken, and in symbol is shown 
 as fire taken from the altar and cast out on the earth and as 
 mingling with blood and hail; and later, the throne of the 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 203 
 
 Csesars and Satanic power is seen going down like a great moun- 
 tain on fire- into the sea, and the fourth trumpet showed the 
 church of the apostles had been put out as the lights of 
 heaven, and we shall presently see the church in its first pure 
 state presented as adorned with the sun, moon and stars, which, 
 shows we have not mistaken these symbols as meaning the 
 church. 
 
 We are now to look upon the times of the Keformation and 
 the conditions out of which it came and how the result was 
 effected. It is to be noted that since the fortunes of the 
 little book have been so fully given in the tenth chapter we 
 are to have a separate account of the Old and New Testa- 
 ments, which have always been regarded as standing apart in 
 some way from the Eevelation of St. John. 
 
 It is remarkable that the Eevelation should receive a sepa- 
 rate recognition, as we see it does in the chapter we have just 
 reviewed. It is a fact that the Eevelation has always been 
 considered as in some way apart from the other Scriptures. 
 The council of Laodicea in 360 A. D. denied its right to a 
 place in the Holy Scriptures, and Luther's rejection of it at one 
 time and its slight esteem with all who regard it as a sealed 
 book, have given it a peculiar relation to the accepted canon. 
 This eleventh chapter gives attention to the Scriptures as two 
 witnesses, etc. 
 
 These two Testaments are two witnesses, two olive trees, two 
 candlesticks, two prophets, two tables of stone, etc. The Old 
 and New Testaments are divided, not only as historically sep- 
 arate, and as being chiefly Jewish and Gentile covenants, but 
 by other distinctions the apostle to the Gentiles was at great 
 pains to point out. 
 
 And there was given me a reed like unto a rod and one said 
 rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and them that 
 worship therein. 
 
204 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 John, who had already been called upon to take part in the 
 drama by receiving the book from the angeFs hand and eating 
 it, is now called upon to receive a measuring reed and is com- 
 manded to rise and measure for the new temple (the church) 
 and the altar and the worshipers. He does .not tell us that 
 he did so, and we have here no further account of the meas- 
 uring till we find the temple finished and opened at the end of 
 this chapter. Not only do the giving to him of the measur- 
 ing reed and the order to rise and measure strongly imply the 
 rebuilding of the church, but it immediately declares that the 
 Holy City, the church, shall be trodden under foot; and after 
 the reed has been used we see the new temple, the present 
 church, completed and opened. The reed is the word of God 
 and John is represented as receiving it. This and his taking 
 the little book are the only acts of his recorded in the great 
 drama, and they both pertain to his part as a minister of the 
 word. He took the book and ate it and now he measures up 
 the temple with the word of God. The church and the worship 
 and the worshipers are to be measured by the word of God. 
 
 And the court which is without the temple leave without and 
 measure it not, for it hath been given unto the nations, and the 
 Holy City shall they tread under foot forty and two months. 
 
 The Holy City and the temple are two symbols for the same 
 general fact. The shadowgraph which sustains this discourse 
 is Israel's Babylonian captivity and the treading down of Jeru- 
 salem by the Gentiles, and the return from captivity and re- 
 building of the temple and city. The captivity of the church 
 to Spiritual Babylon is represented as returning, and John is 
 commanded to measure for its rebuilding and the word of 
 God is the measuring reed. But he is not to measure those 
 without, for they are the enemy that trod the city under foot. 
 As the temple had an outer court where all persons might go, 
 
 II 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 205 
 
 called "the court of the Gentiles/' so here the symbol refers 
 to the Gentile power or worldlings that trod down the church 
 of God, and they are not to be measured in with the new 
 church of God. These are not sealed on the forehead, are not 
 recorded nor numbered, nor tabernacled, nor led to the foun- 
 tains of water, etc., but are worldlings who have trodden down 
 the church, the Holy City, forty and two months, and who 
 are to be trodden down themselves in the wine-press of God's 
 wrath (xiv, 20). 
 
 The church that John is commanded to build is the Eefor- 
 mation or great revival from the Dark Ages, which is now still 
 in process at this hour. John now turns aside to tell us about 
 the reed which is to measure the new temple, giving a num- 
 ber of symbols which end with showing the two Testaments 
 under the symbol of the two tables of the law in the ark when 
 the temple is opened in the last trumpet. Under the impres- 
 sion that John was only dreaming and that the Holy Spirit 
 had no real part in this Revelation and that it is not a Revela- 
 tion from God, this temple has been taken as the literal Jewish 
 temple at Jerusalem, contrary to the usage and genius of this 
 book, and has, by some of the greatest scholars of Christendom, 
 been used to prove the date of its writing as having taken place 
 while that temple was yet standing. The supposition is 
 wholly foreign to sound exegesis. More absurdities have arisen 
 from this than from any other part of the book, as must appear 
 clearer as we proceed. 
 
 And I will give unto my two witnesses and they shall prophesy 
 a thousand two hundred and three score days clothed in sackcloth. 
 
 The efforts to make these two witnesses personalities are 
 among those speculations now to pass away. The time these 
 witnesses are said to prophesy and their being clothed in sack- 
 cloth, precludes the possibility of their being persons, besides 
 
206 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 destroying tlie proportions of the story and the fact of it 
 not dealing with personalities in any part. 
 
 The forty-two months and the thousand two hundred and 
 three score days are not given here as measures of chronolog- 
 ical time^ bnt are the symbols of prophetic times which gave 
 the limits to the return from captivity and the rebuilding of 
 the temple at the Jews' return from Babylon. These allusions 
 to time belong to the shadowgraph on which the story of the 
 then future was written^ and our literalists and our scholars have 
 both fallen to reading the shadow and not the substance, one 
 finding the Jews' temple and the other the Jews' return to the 
 temple in this text, in which they both fell perpendicularly 
 out of the allegory. The time measure of this book is 
 by Seals and Trumpets, and all other measures belong 
 to the cryptogram and are only shadows on which the truth 
 about the future is expressed. To "prophesy in sackcloth" is 
 equal to sajdng they do not outwardly prophesy at all, and this 
 is expressed when a moment later we find they are dead, having 
 been killed by the beast. The active form being used as though 
 they were prophesying will have attention as we proceed, where 
 we find a strange reversal in the active and passive uses in 
 repeated instances. To be clothed in sackcloth implies they 
 are dead, and the word of God was dead to doing any good 
 so long as it was withheld from the people in a dead language 
 under the pretended sanctity that it was too sacred to be put 
 into the living tongue of the people. 
 
 These are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks standing 
 before the Lord of the earth. 
 
 Here the Old Testament imagery is used (see Zech. iv) in 
 the rebuilding of the city and the temple on the return from 
 captivity in Babylon. "It shall be built with the plummet in 
 the hand of Zerubbabel'," but that it shall not be accomplished 
 
 ^m 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 207 
 
 l>y the cimning hand of the carpenters, "not by might nor by 
 power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts/' 
 
 To illustrate this truth to the prophet Zechariah the Lord 
 shows him in vision two olive trees that pour their oil through 
 two golden pipes into the lamps. By this imagery the Lord 
 would teach the prophet that the return from captivity and 
 the rebuilding of the * trodden-down city and temple were to 
 be accomplished by the Spirit of the Lord through Zerubbabel 
 and his helpers. He tells us that the restoration was decreed 
 by the word of God, and this word is explained as "the two 
 annointed ones that stand before the Lord of all the earth." 
 
 A more beautiful and fitting cryptograph could not be imag- 
 ined than this. As Zechariah was praying for the return to 
 Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Holy City and the temple 
 he sees the Spirit of God and the word of God in relations to 
 each other as candlesticks with seven burners and the oil from 
 two olive trees supplying them with oil. The imagery rests 
 upon the sanctuary service. The olive trees supply the oil for 
 the lamps which receive it and the oil burning gives the light, 
 thus are united to each other in Old Testament symbols the 
 word of God, the sanctuary of God, and the Spirit of God, 
 exactly as we have them in this book, as shown in the open- 
 ing of this chapter. The very choosing of this shadowgraph 
 shows us that this chapter is dealing with the Eeformation, or 
 revival of the church. The blending of the Spirit with the 
 churches and the word on that pattern is perfect, not only in 
 preserving the same relations we have already noticed in the 
 earlier chapters of the book, but matches the facts about the 
 new building of the church, the second church, as perfectly as 
 the Day of Pentecost did in the Seals and Trumpets. That 
 Pentecost as shown is in fact the mystic declaration of the 
 new church. Christ's triumph was shown in the Seals, but 
 nothing was there said either about the church or the word 
 
208 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 • 
 going down or coming np. Neither did the trumpets meik*. 
 any mention of the church or the Bible, but only that the 
 lights of heaven went out; but now the word and in the nest 
 chapter the church are both seen to have been buried; their 
 restoration is involved in this account of the Holy Spirit and 
 the story is laid upon the symbols that relate to the restora- 
 tion of Israel from Babylonian captivity, which accounts for 
 the confusion hitherto of the shadow with the substance. 
 
 And if any man desire to hurt them fire proceedeth out of their 
 mouth and devoureth their enemies and if any desire to hurt them 
 in this manner must he be killed. 
 
 Their "mouth" is singular for plural and so is "their body/' 
 which is not very grammatical, but very good sense, for these 
 two witnesses are one word of God. It is one sword with two 
 edges that comes out of His mouth, one book written within 
 and without, one law written on two tables, etc. Just so we 
 had the voice of the trumpet of the three angels — trumpet 
 singular — viii, 13. Fire, as already explained, is the word of 
 God considered more on its judgment side, and here it is said to 
 come out of the mouth of these two witnesses to punish them 
 that would hurt them. Fire coming out of the mouth of wit- 
 nesses is only another way of expressing the casting out of fire 
 with a censer or as fire mingling with blood when the first 
 Trumpeter sounds. It means the word of God condemns those 
 who suppress or pervert it. Punishment is decreed for all who 
 hurt the word of God. This killing or devouring of those who 
 would hurt the witnesses is not a bodily but a spiritual killing 
 and is like the curse pronounced upon whomsoever shall add 
 to or take away from the word of the prophecy of this book. It 
 has blessings for those who read it and eat it, but curses for 
 those who pervert it. 
 
 These have the power to shut the heaven that it rain not durii 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 209 
 
 the days of their prophecy, and they have power over the waters to 
 turn them to blood and to smite the earth with every plague as often 
 as they shall desire. 
 
 Their having power to shut the heaven and smite the earth 
 as often as they desire would seem to make them active in doing 
 what merely results from their absence or death or being mum- 
 mified in sackcloth, etc. So it was in the absence of Elijah 
 from Israel; there was no rain; the heaven was shut up^ and 
 he was concealed, but the king accused him of troubling Israel, 
 though he was only absent and hidden, but there was no rain 
 nor word from God in his absence. This manner of speaking 
 of it comes from the world point of view here taken, as we 
 shall see in a moment. In the case of the locusts it is said, 
 "It was given them that they should not kill them, etc.,'' mean- 
 ing it was not given to them to kill, etc. So here also it says, 
 "I will give to my two witnesses and they shall prophesy in 
 sackcloth," meaning that they shall be concealed and silent, 
 but not dead, and that fire shall proceed out of their mouth, not 
 while they are in sackcloth, but they have this power and they 
 punish their enemies, as we find they do a little later, when 
 they come out of their grave clothes and ascend before the 
 eyes of their affrighted enemies (xi, 11). 
 
 He is telling us that, though they are for a time in sack- 
 cloth, as the heavens are in mourning without light, and as 
 the church is trodden to the earth under the feet of the wicked, 
 they still have this great power which God has given them, 
 and they will exert it again. These are powers that belong to 
 the word of God. Great dearth of light and knowledge fol- 
 lowed the cloaking of the Bible from the people, and it was like 
 fire- to punish those who tried to suppress it when it rose from 
 its long imprisonment. It shared the fate of all the heavenly 
 powers in the dark time referred to in the symbol of the black 
 horse and the great eclipse of the sun, moon and stars and the 
 U 
 
210 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 Holy City in the dust under alien heels. They "turned the 
 waters into blood/^ because there was no word of God to restrain^ 
 the wicked^ so the earth is liable to every plague for want of '^ 
 preserving and purifying power^ and those judgments beff 
 them that we have seen in the fifth and sixth trumpets. What 
 results from their mere absence is spoken of as coming from 
 their active agency. 
 
 And when they shall have finished their testimony the beast that 
 Cometh out of the abyss shall make war with them and overcome 
 them and kill them. 
 
 To kill them is to confine them in sackcloth, considered only 
 from the world point of view. That is to say, they will have 
 finished their testimony when the beast has overcome them 
 and killed them. The beast power that has killed the Testa- 
 ments, or witnesses, pronounces it a real death, and so long 
 as he reigns in supreme darkness their voice is not heard, but 
 they are not dead; they are, God knows, only in grave clothes, 
 like their Lord, who was killed but rose again. 
 
 And their dead bodies lay in the street of the great city which 
 spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt where also their Lord was 
 crucified. 
 
 The symbolism of place occurs here for the first time, and 
 the same care is taken to explain its symbolic use as was taken 
 at the first to explain the stars and the candlesticks. The places 
 are "spiritually called Sodom and Egypt.'^ 
 
 The "great city" which is mystically called by these names 
 is "Mystery Babylon the Great." Christ was not crucified in 
 either of these places, taken literally, nor is His bodily crucifix- 
 ion even spoken of here. He could not surely be put to death 
 literally in more than one place, but the beast spirit puts Him 
 to death in every place and in every time. But here most of 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 211 
 
 all. Mystery Babylon crucifies Him by professing to exercise 
 His authority, by beast power, a far crueler crucifixion than that 
 which Herod and Pontius Pilate inflicted at Jerusalem. It is 
 from this source the locusts come out, and from which Chris- 
 tians have been martyred. Egypt is called a city by its bad 
 likeness to Sodom and the great city. Egypt, Sodom and 
 Babylon were the three cities where the servants of God had 
 lived subject to the wicked, and were persecuted. They were all 
 cities or places of exodus and deportation to the people of God. 
 Lot was called out of Sodom and Israel out of Egypt and of 
 Babylon, hence the point that a city called The Great City, 
 out of which God calls His people, should be spiritually called 
 the city where these dead witnesses are carried as trophies of 
 war, after they have been captured and killed by beast power. 
 
 And from among the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations 
 do men look upon their dead bodies three days and a half and suffer 
 not their dead bodies to be laid in the tomb. 
 
 These symbols fitly represent the fortunes of the Old and 
 New Testaments in the street of that new Eome that rose in 
 place of that old one, which went down under the C^sars. Its 
 capitol is the "great city,'' and as it is the seat of universal 
 power it is said that "from among the peoples and tribes, 
 tongues and nations, do men look upon their dead bodies," as 
 trophies exposed to sight in the public streets; so the old Baby- 
 lon had robbed and sacked Jerusalem and had taken the vessels 
 of the Lord's house and profaned them in their drunken 
 revelry till the hand appeared upon the wall writing her doom, 
 "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin." 
 
 Ah! ha! they could kill them, but they could not bury 
 them, and they could not even prolong their seeming death. 
 "Three days and a half" is the time of their incarceration in 
 sackcloth, and is here spoken of as of dead bodies which are 
 
212 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 exposed in the streets^ not for a thousand two hundred and 
 three score days, which would represent Elijah's absence from 
 Israel, but in a symbol that correlates with the time that human 
 bodies might lay in the street to be seen, and this shows how 
 indifferent this book is to all the theories finely spun about the 
 day-for-year hypothesis by which they would have it appear 
 that the Lord has named His scheme by years in some occult 
 way. "Three days and a half is another form for expressing 
 the twelve hundred and sixty days that they were in sackcloth. 
 Here we see from a view of what the enemy is doing the 
 same limit upon his authority that we saw from the other side. 
 The beast from the pit may kill the two witnesses, but he 
 cannot bury them, nor, as we learn a moment later, prevent 
 their resurrection and ascension and enthronement in power. 
 These are limits upon his power added to those of the fifth 
 Trumpet. We do now possess these two Testaments. 
 
 And they that dwell on the earth rejoice over them and make 
 merry and they shall send gifts one to another because these two 
 prophets tormented them that dwell on the earth. 
 
 Now they are called "these (my) two prophets." This brings 
 to mind at once the feast of Belshazzar and the gayeties of the 
 proud city where the vessels of the Lord's house had been 
 stored in the treasure-house of the king's gods and had been 
 brought forth and exposed to the thousand gay lords who drank 
 wine from them when the hand of doom appeared upon the 
 wall. Such a doom fell upon that spiritual Babylon when the 
 word of God was revived. 
 
 And after three days and a half the breath of life from God 
 entered into them and they stood upon their feet and great fear fell 
 upon them that beheld them. 
 
 The word for "breath" and "spirit" is the same in Greek, and 
 our revisers did well in giving it as "breath," because it corre^ 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 213 
 
 lates with the body or bodies just spoken of as dead and being 
 brought to life by the breath entering them again. The corre- 
 lation of symbols is thus preserved as where it represents them 
 as lying three days and a half in the street. "Breath" in this 
 case is the symbol for the Spirit, and means that the Bible 
 was to be translated into the living language of the people, as 
 it was in fact. This is given in the symbolism of a resurrec- 
 tion, as where God raised Christ from the dead by the Spirit. 
 The Spirit of God raises the witnesses and they ascend. Here 
 the Spirit begins 'a new crusade against the enemy, as at the 
 Pentecost, and as this belongs to the Eeformation as a mystic 
 Pentecost it explains how Christ sealed His servants on the 
 forehead. Not that there was an actual Pentecost at the open- 
 ing of the Eeformation, but a Pentecost is ascribed to it in 
 form to show its real character, for it was the opening of the 
 second church in fact. 
 
 This trembling with fear at their resurrection and ascension 
 is like the shaking of the king when he saw the handwriting 
 upon the wall and knew that his doom was written in it. Thus 
 the captivity of Israel and his return from Babylon continues 
 to express the apostasy of the church and its restoration. 
 
 And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, 
 Come up hither, and they went up to heaven in a cloud. 
 
 The two prophets they had killed come to life, and, like their 
 Lord, they ascend in a cloud now to torment them again as at 
 first. The Old and New Testaments having been translated and 
 given to the people in their own tongue, a great change came 
 over the world. Their happiness and gayeties at the wake of 
 these dead bodies, where they indulged mutual congratulations 
 in sin, are brought suddenly to an end. These are said to go 
 up to heaven in a cloud, whence they were called. The word 
 "heaven" is used here not to refer to a place of God's abode 
 
214 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 as if separated from us, "but to a condition of His favor not 
 bounded by the death lines. There is no veil between heaven 
 and the church in this book. We see all the saints are in 
 heaven and have eternal life now. It means that they arise 
 to the favor of God and His people. Christ calls them forth 
 with a great voice through His servants. No great thing Christ 
 does is any the less great or wonderful for being done through 
 His saints. The spirit or breath of life entered into them and 
 they heard a great voice from heaven saying, "Come up hither.^^ 
 All these symbols illustrate how close these witnesses are 
 to Christ by their fortunes being related in the imagery of 
 His own death and resurrection and ascension. 
 
 And their enemies beheld them and in that hour there was a 
 great earthquake and a tenth part of the city fell, and there were 
 killed in the earthquake seven thousand persons, and the rest were 
 affrighted and gave glory to the God of heaven. 
 
 This is the earthquake of the Eeformation that shook down 
 so many thrones in Europe and that broke all political bondage 
 to Babylon. That earthquake will continue to be felt till 
 the last throne is overturned that defies the authority of the 
 Almighty. "A tenth part of the city" — that is, spiritual Baby- 
 lon — fell. A tenth part does not convey any correct idea of 
 quantity or proportion. "Ten" is the symbol for legality and 
 law and is founded upon the Ten Commandments and points 
 to the nature of the injury inflicted, as a righteous retribu- 
 tion or lawful measure from God. It was political or worldly 
 power. The marginal reading in the revised version is correct, 
 which says "seven thousand names" were killed in the earth- 
 quake. Names here is used as a symbol for a title or profes- 
 sion, as "Thou hast a name to live and are dead," and the beast 
 has "names" of blasphemy, etc. "WTien the word of God, which 
 teaches that the greater shall be least and that you shall call 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 215 
 
 no man father on the earth, began to be preached again there 
 was a great falling off in the vain, swelling titles of ecclesias- 
 tical magnates. The mountains are to be leveled and the val- 
 leys are to be filled. The word of God. makes havoc of all the 
 distinctions which brute power had made in the world, having 
 for its end and glory on earth the fatherhood of God and the 
 brotherhood of man. 
 
 The power of God is here returning to the world. They 
 cease to worship men and titles of pomp, as they did before. 
 
 And the rest were affrighted and gave glory to God. A Refor- 
 mation followed. The second woe is past; behold the third woe 
 Cometh quickly. 
 
 All that has occurred since the first woe is to be included 
 in this general "woe," the army of horsemen that was to kill 
 a third part of men, and the giving of the Eevelation as an 
 open book, and the resurrection of the two witnesses, the word 
 of God, to be used as a measure for measuring the new temple, 
 which is to be opened by the sounding of the seventh trumpet. 
 That measuring is now going on and must continue till every 
 part in it is the same size, as in Ezekial's vision, till the worship 
 is one in kind and till the worshipers are all brought to one 
 standard of spiritual excellence. 
 
 THE SEVENTH TRUMPET.— THE THIRD WOE. 
 TRIUMPH OF THE HEAVENLY POWERS. 
 
 And the seventh angel sounded and there followed great voices 
 in heaven and they said, The kingdom of the world is become the 
 kingdom of our Lord and His Christ and He shall reign forever 
 and ever. 
 
 The oath of the angel that stood with his right foot on the 
 sea and his left upon the earth and lifted his right hand to 
 heaven and swear by Him that liveth forever is now come 
 
216 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 to pass. That oath was that "in the days of the seventh trum- 
 pet, when He is about to sound, then is finished the mystery 
 of God according to the good tidings which He promised to 
 His servants, the prophets/^ Christ shall reign a thousand 
 years, but this, says He, "shall reign forever and ever." Here 
 appears the name of Christ for the first time since we left the 
 first chapter. The mystery is ended and He returns in His 
 own proper name. He is no longer veiled under impersonal 
 names and mystery parts. This also shoAvs us this is the end 
 of Eevelation, or Trumpet time, beyond which no time is 
 reached in this book, all that follows covering the same time 
 or parts of the same time. Eternity lies beyond the seventh 
 trumpet. Here God finishes all His promises. Here ends that 
 contest which was begun in the Garden of Eden. It is the 
 time of triumph and of rejoicing. 
 
 And the four and twenty Elders which sit before God on their 
 throne fell upon their faces and worshipped God, saying, We give 
 thee thanks O Lord God the Almighty which art and which wast, 
 because thou hast taken thy great power and didst reign. 
 
 In all other places where the Elders appear we have the 
 four living creatures also, but here they are missing. ' The 
 nations which they represent no more appear. They have lost 
 their distinguishing characteristic and seem no longer to appear 
 as world nations, but have become the kingdom of God. The 
 praise is given to God only and is like that given in the fourth 
 chapter, where Christ is not recognized; but in that praise "the 
 four living creatures" took part, but it must be noticed that 
 a difl^erence of time is distinctly recognized, for in that praise 
 they address the Almighty as "He that Is and Was and Is To 
 Come," while here He is addressed as He that Was and Is; 
 the futurist is wanting. He has come and is no longer "He 
 that is to come," The Elders chant that He has taken His 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. , 217 
 
 "great power and didst reign." It is to be noticed also that 
 the word "kingdom" appears here again for the first time since 
 we left the first chapter, where John says, "I am your brother 
 and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience 
 of Jesus Christ." Here is now that kingdom which began to 
 be preached, from the baptism of John and which, having been 
 so long in tribulation, is now coming to triumph, for God has 
 taken His great power to Himself and reigns. 
 
 The church means the elect or called out. Christ called out 
 a people from the world that through them He might over- 
 come the world and establish His dominion. That church was 
 trodden down and the Bible also was overcome and put to 
 death, but God raised them up. The Eevelation understood 
 will waken the church to undertake her mission of bringing 
 the world under obedience to Jesus Christ, and out of her 
 own slavery in tribulation and subordination. The church is 
 the kingdom in tribulation, while the kingdom is the church 
 triumphant on earth. A new light and temper must come 
 over Christendom before it can either take or hold a kingdom 
 whose king discards brute force either to coerce religion or 
 to fetter the mind. 
 
 And the nations were wroth and thy wrath came and the time 
 of the dead to be judged and the time to give their reward to thy 
 servants and to the saints and to them that fear thy name, the 
 small and the great and to destroy them that destroy the earth. 
 
 Again we see the last things, not only the mystery ended, 
 but the dead to be judged, both great and small, and the 
 righteous to be rewarded. There is a great controversy with 
 the nations. It says "their wrath came and thy wrath came." 
 The strange divorce between the standards of religious life 
 and of a secular and political life shows what a great change 
 is yet to be wrought before even Christians will carry into 
 
218 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 political acts those principles which they profess for their 
 guide in personal and domestic and social life. 
 
 The present state of the world defies adequate description. 
 The unrest of nations^ the close, relations into which they are 
 being brought by the new means of communication, the vast 
 armaments, the rapid increase of population, the limits of 
 new territory, the displacement of labor by the invention of 
 machinery, and above all the growth in the demands for per- 
 sonal liberty are all so vast, so new and so full of power and 
 promise that we can only wonder what, changes must await the 
 near future. Christian humility is still far from the heart of 
 this world. To submit to the gentle rule of love is a hard 
 lesson, yet to learn, and which the kingdoms of men continue 
 to resist in wrath, but God's wrath will teach them something 
 they cannot resist. 
 
 And there was opened the temple of God that is in heaven and 
 there was seen in His temple the ark of His covenant and there 
 followed lightnings and voices and thunders and an earthquake and 
 great hail. 
 
 The temple is now built. The reed, like a rod which, was 
 given to John to measure with, has been used, and the measur- 
 ing has gone on till the work is completed and the temple in 
 heaven — that is, the new church to which the witnesses 
 ascended — is finished. This is that greater house of David 
 which God promised He would build. John seems to have 
 used the reed, but actually his living brothers now and here- 
 after are to do this work. It is built not by might of man, "but 
 by My Spirit, saith the Lord." As Zerubbabel, with his 
 plummet in hand and assisted by the might and Spirit of 
 the Lord when He changed the heart of the monarch, of Baby- 
 lon to permit its rebuilding, so again after the long captivity 
 of Spiritual Israel in bondage to beast power God rebuilds the 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 219 
 
 Holy City and the temple, beginning in the sixth tnimpet and 
 ending with the seventh. John is given a reed like nnto a 
 rod and is told to rise and measure the temple, and the altar, 
 and the worshipers, and we see the new temple finished with 
 shoutings of jov and the judgment has come and the kingdom 
 and reward of the saints. 
 
 The imagery thrown about that reed to explain it is very 
 striking. They are two witnesses in sackcloth which, though 
 they are killed, rise again by the Spirit of God and ascend 
 to the place where their Lord is. They are the two olive trees 
 and the two candlesticks which they feed with oil that gives 
 the light which represents the church and the word and the 
 Spirit acting in the same close relations we saw them in the 
 first five -chapters. But they are here also said to visit judg- 
 ments on their enemies, fire coming out of their mouth, etc. 
 The beast makes war on them and overcomes them and kills 
 them and exposes them to shame as trophies in the street of 
 his capitol. Spiritual Babylon, but the Spirit raises them to 
 life and by their measure a new temple is built, about which 
 we shall presently hear more. 
 
 SYMBOL SYNONYMS. 
 
 Reed: Measuring rod; the two olive trees; the two candle- 
 sticks; the two prophets; the two tables of law; the two testa- 
 ments. 
 
 Kingdom: Reign of Christ; marriage supper of the Lamb; first 
 resurrection; the New Jerusalem; the millennium. 
 
220 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Revelation XII. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 And a great sign was seen in heaven, — a woman arrayed with 
 the sun, and the moon under her feet; and upon her head a crown 
 of twelve stars; and she was with child; and she crieth out travail- 
 ing in birth and in pain to be delivered. And there was .seen 
 another sign in heaven and behold a great red dragon having seven 
 heads and ten horns, and upon his heads seven diadems and his tail 
 draweth a third part of the stars of heaven and did cast them to 
 the earth; and the dragon stood before the woman which was about 
 to be delivered that when she was delivered he might devour her 
 child. And she was delivered of a son, a m.an child who is to rule 
 all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up 
 unto God and to His throne and the woman fled into the wilderness 
 where she hath a place prepared of God that there they may nourish 
 her a thousand two hundred and three score days. 
 
 In this chapter we are to view the fortunes of the church. 
 The first church born pure and holy from the glorious Pente- 
 cost is here presented in its ideal beauty as seen from the 
 heavenly point of view. In her is the Christ and the Holy 
 Spirit and the apostles and the saints and the martyrs, and- in 
 her also alas! are the frailties of human nature, the seeds of 
 corruption that had already grown so great at the time John 
 wrote, as let us witness in his letters. The chapter is divided 
 into two parts, giving a double view. The first twelve verses 
 give the heavenly view\ 
 
 The woman is viewed in her three relations: 
 
 1. As pure and full of loving pain to multiply herself in 
 bringing obedient children to her Lord. 
 
 2. As losing her most faithful children, who chose death 
 rather than denial of the faith or a sinful life, and so they 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 221 
 
 are caught up to God or, as regards the manner of their death, 
 they were said to be under the altar telling their Lord of their 
 injustice, 
 
 3. Her members on earth were corrupted, many of her 
 leaders turning back. At Ephesus, where John is believed to 
 have labored for awhile, some claimed to be apostles and they 
 were proved to be liars. Balaam and Jezebel had already 
 gained power in the churches when John wrote, and corruption 
 was spreading and deepening. 
 
 These three leading facts about the church are here ex- 
 pressed, and also the further fact that the woman who repre- 
 sents the church that continued on earth finally fell entirely 
 away from her heavenly profession, not so but that God still 
 regarded His own people and called them to come out of hei 
 that they might not partake of her sins and suffer her plagues. 
 
 It is in this presentation of the church that we first meet 
 the Dragon. Herein is seen the great advantage in present^ 
 ing the church under the symbol of a pure and beautiful 
 woman. Both Eve and Mary come to view. Eve with her 
 two sons, the murderer and the martyr, and Mary with her 
 son, the Savior, fleeing from Herod. Eve, fresh and beautiful 
 from the hand of God, last and best made of all His works, 
 dwelling in the flowers and sunshine of Eden, becomes the mark 
 for Satanic malice and cunning, who, in the form of a serpent 
 or dragon, lays wait to corrupt her and did corrupt her into 
 sin and her first born into a murderer, and for that reason 
 John calls Satan a murderer, and because he deceived the 
 woman he called him also "a liar from the beginning" and "the 
 father of lies." 
 
 Now, when the new spiritual creation is begun upon the 
 great day of the Lord, the joyful Pentecost at Jerusalem, the 
 church is shown as a woman clothed with the sun and with 
 twelve stara in her heavenly crgwix and the moon under her 
 
823 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 feet, the whole belt of heavenly light, and her heart throbbing 
 in joyful agony to bring forth heirs of salvation, who are also 
 the church. How glory and suffering here unite! Ah! it is 
 the new creation begun. The woman's seed is now to bruise 
 the serpent's head. "Behold I create all things new." The 
 first born of the flesh was a murderer, but the first born of 
 the spirit is a Savior, a life-giver. Satan sought the young 
 child's life while yet in Mary's bosom. The very picture of 
 Mary and the babe and of Herod seeking His life is the fitting 
 pattern that lies directly under this part of the drama. There 
 it was the dragon also, for this dragon is pagan Eome, or the 
 total of world power, but is described twice by John as the 
 Dragon, the Old Serpent called the Devil and Satan, giving 
 him four names. 
 
 This presentation of the church clothed with all heavenly 
 power brings to view the head of all diabolical power, as if the 
 church were the fullness of all spiritual forces. 
 
 The facts and incidents of Herod's seeking the life of Christ 
 lie so plainly in sight that many have seen only that, and 
 failed to read the lesson written on the pattern; a very com- 
 mon error this, to read backward instead of forward — the old 
 instead of the new, the shadow for the substance. It is the 
 old battle again under new conditions — Satan now in pos- 
 session of the Eoman world and lying in wait as a serpent to 
 devour or to destroy the new spiritual seed of the church. 
 That her seed should be called "a Son," a "man child," is 
 clearly to connect it with the promise that "the woman's seed" 
 should "bruise the serpent's head." It is to be accomplished 
 through the church. This man child is in verse 17 explained 
 to be her "seed which keep the commandments of God and 
 hold the testimony of Jesus," leaving no doubt of the intent 
 of the symbol to mean the church. The mother and child 
 are both the church, the child becoming mother. 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 223 
 
 The allegory which begins by showing the woman and the 
 serpent in direct antagonism soon turns to a general conflict 
 in which Christ and His saints on the one side and Satan 
 and his angels on the other are engaged. Here is the full 
 battle array with the heads of the hostile armies engaged. 
 
 This sign is seen in heaven — that is, in the field of vision 
 only, the church and heaven being one and inseparable in 
 John's way of speaking. As already shown, Christ having re- 
 moved the veil, heaven includes all that was included in both the 
 sanctuary and the Holy of Holies, and it was in this corre- 
 spondent position in the primitive world that Satan came to 
 Eve to tempt her in the garden .East in Eden, for there was 
 no well-marked division between Eden and the garden East. 
 
 Another sign in heaven is seen; a great red dragon, whose 
 ten horns show that he claims to govern as against the ten 
 laws of Moses, and his seven crowned heads brazenly assert 
 his pretense to be religious. He claims the kingdoms of the 
 world and it is against that claim that it is said "the woman's 
 seed is to rule the nations with a rod of iron.'' There is no 
 place in this story where the church is so divorced from Christ 
 as that Christ will bruise the serpent's head apart from her 
 agency. But a division is made in the church, for we see 
 her seed or children are caught up to God and to His throne, 
 and a part are dragged down as stars from heaven that is cor- 
 rupted from the faith, so that at the same time the church is 
 bringing forth seed to her Lord and is loosing by martyrdoms 
 and by apostasy and the church itself declining in glory. 
 
 The dragon, who is identified as he who tempted and cor- 
 rupted Eve, draws away by his tail as the serpent. He brings 
 down the leaders, called stars, from their profession, from the 
 church; but the paragraph closes with saying that the woman 
 was caught away into the wilderness where John is afterward 
 taken in the Spirit to see her, where he finds her "a drunken 
 
224 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 harlot" sitting on "a scarlet-colored beast." A seeming incon- 
 gruity is noticed in the words "where she hath a place prepared 
 of God that there they might nourish her a thousand two hun- 
 dred and three score days." That is to say, God has not 
 relinquished all claims, as that there will not again be a church 
 on earth, for it will return. This is in keeping with the ex- 
 pression in the foregoing chapter, where it is said, "I will give 
 unto my two witnesses and they shall prophesy clothed in sack- 
 cloth a thousand and two hundred and three score days." 
 During this same period, or at least in this same condition, 
 they are said to have been killed and their "dead bodies" were 
 carried into the great city, where the wicked rejoiced over 
 them as dead and harmless against sin, but were not really 
 dead. The wilderness and the city seem very opposite, and yet 
 they express in two ways the same fact. The woman is to be 
 shown under changed and fallen conditions as in a wilderness, 
 but will change back to the symbols of a city when recovered 
 and perfected as "The New Jerusalem." 
 
 Both these allusions to God's care and presence in adversity 
 and death seem to rest upon the fact that Christ in the hands 
 of His foes and slain and regarded as dead, came back from 
 a tomb guarded by His enemies, the world power. Christ was 
 not buried in the ordinary way and His despairing cry "Why 
 hast thou forsaken Me?" was a human cry, for God was with 
 Him when He was out of human sight and brought Him forth 
 again, and just so in that very likeness does He» bring back 
 His two witnesses and they ascend like their Lord and the 
 church goes down like a trodden -down city, or into the wilder- 
 ness, and we shall see it come forth and we shall see it rise 
 and ascend in that likeness. 
 
 And there was war in heaven, — Michael and his angels going 
 forth to war with the dragon; and the dragon warred and his 
 angels; and they prevailed not, neither was their place found any 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 225 
 
 more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast down, the old ser- 
 pent, he that is called Satan and the Devil, the deceiver of the 
 whole world, he was cast down to the earth and his angels were 
 cast down with him. And I heard a great voice in heaven saying, 
 Now is come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our 
 God and the authority of his Christ for the accuser of our 
 brethren is cast down which accused them before our God day and 
 night and they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and 
 because of the word of their testimony; and they loved not their 
 life even unto death. Therefore rejoice O heavens and ye that 
 tabernacle in them. Woe for the earth and the sea because the 
 Devil is gone down to you having great wrath, knowing that he hath 
 but a short time. 
 
 Here, in changed symbols, we meet exactly the same fact 
 given in the second trumpet — that is, Eome going down as a 
 mountain on fire into the sea — one viewing the conflict of 
 powers in the abstract, and the other the conflict as between the 
 participants in the struggle where all the powers are engaged. 
 A division occurs here in the point of view taken, so that what 
 follows from this to the close of the chapter is the world view. 
 The foregoing is the heavenly aspect of the case, what follows is 
 the worldly. We have already noticed these double points of 
 view in the two visions of Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel, and we 
 saw the same in the preceding chapter where the two witnesses 
 in the heavenly view appeared as God's witnesses in sackcloth, 
 and in the world view as two dead witnesses and prisoners of 
 the beast. This duality and conflict is everywhere present and 
 guides us the more safely to an understanding of its intent. 
 
 Michael,* who was the guardian angel to Israel in the time 
 of her conflict with the pagan powers, is here used to denote 
 Christ. The lion of the tribe of Judah, the Eoot of David and 
 now the angel Michael are used to describe the parts which He 
 bears in His work. He is to conquer with His saints, who are 
 also called "the woman's seed," who are to "rule the world 
 15 
 
226 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 with a rod of iron.'^ It is remarkable that, while John has 
 no shading or gradation in his characters as to their essentially- 
 opposite natures, no one can imagine a more beantifnl identifi- 
 cation of the parts which the different actors perform on their 
 respective and opposing sides than is shown in this book. Here 
 is the general conflict of the saints against the wicked. It is 
 in the leadership of the dragon that he describes him as "the 
 Old Serpent called the Devil and Satan" and as "the deceiver 
 of the whole world," and the wicked are "his angels." This is 
 so like His teaching about Satan and his children in His gospel 
 as to be at once recognized as the work of St. John. 
 
 The result of this conflict is described as the dragon being 
 "cast down out of heaven and his angels with him," and that 
 their place was found no more and that there was great rejoic- 
 ing in heaven at his fall. This refers to the overthrow of the 
 pagan Eoman government (not simply as we view it historically, 
 but in the deeper results of the overthrow of all brute dominion 
 on the earth, which is here viewed as its sequence). But we 
 at once recognize an awfulness of aspect as to the description 
 by allusions that seem to rise above even so great an event. 
 This is not the only case in which the imagery upon the mind 
 seems mightier than the interpretation we are giving. This is 
 owing to the fact that the pattern upon which it is laid gives 
 its own coloring to the lesson. It is this very method of raising 
 and coloring that has given to Homer and others that strange 
 fascination that has given such lasting literary eminence. The 
 imagery misleads the thought of the Western reader by its 
 boldness. ^ 
 
 In the eleventh chapter we felt the strong intrusive likeness 
 of Elijah's absence from Israel, and the great dearth, and all 
 the painful and tragic circumstances of the case flashed across 
 the mind, and in their electric flash we saw the really greater 
 lesson of the spiritual dearth in the world while the two wit- 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 227 
 
 nesses were both absent like Elijah and silent in sackcloth. The 
 war between Michael and the dragon seems to be laid upon 
 the event spoken of by both Jiide and by Peter concerning 
 the angels that kept not their first estate, hence we experience 
 an aspect of awfulness in reading of this battle that brings 
 those awful Scriptures to mind. Milton's descriptions of fallen 
 angels also come to mind, for here he found that ideal. 
 
 Whatever may be our opinion as to the doctrine of the 
 fallen angels it is easy to see that upon its shadow John has laid 
 the story of the conflict of Christianity with pagan Rome. 
 
 Christ had said to His disciples, "I saw Satan as lightning 
 fall from heaven." Whither this was founded upon some greM 
 fact, believed among the Jews, we may not know, but Christ 
 spoke with prophetic foreview and may have alluded to this 
 very fact. Paul also said to the saints at Rome, "Satan shall 
 shortly be bruised under your feet." It must in the first place 
 be borne in mind that the conflict between evil and good being 
 always essentially the same, all the phenomena arising out of 
 it must, in the nature of things, be analogous. It is the usage 
 of John's Apocalypse to speak in this manner of Satan and 
 his angels. At Philadelphia was a synagogue of Satan, and at 
 Pergamos a Satan's throne, and at Thyatira some had learned 
 the deep 'things of Satan, and at Smyrna the Devil is about 
 to cast some of you into prison — that is, through his angels, 
 the brutish unbelievers. The Devil operates and holds power 
 through his servants just as Christ does through His saints. But 
 it must not be taken that the kingdom is come in its entirety 
 as an actual fact at the fall of pagan Rome, as would seem 
 to be here announced, as the great chorus breaks out in heaven, 
 saying, "The kingdom has come," but potentially, the unit of 
 world power is broken and the saints of the Most High shall 
 destroy to the end." All these great oratorios are subject to 
 the rule of psalmody, for there is no chronology in songs, and 
 
228 
 
 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 this book takes the same poetic license in its songs that we do 
 when we sing. 
 
 The saints are said to overcome Satan. It is in this way 
 that "the woman's seed^' overcomes to "rule with a rod of 
 iron." The closeness of relation of Christ and His saints is per- 
 fect. They are doing what He is said to do, and they do it 
 with "the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony.'^ This 
 shows also that the conflict which seems to be in heaven is in 
 fact here on the earth. The dragon accused the saints before 
 God "day and night." There is no d^y or night in the eternal 
 world, so it was in this world all this was done, and it was 
 done before God; for the saints stand before God all the 
 time. They have eternal life and are in heaven now.- It was 
 in this struggle "they loved not their lives unto death," but 
 they conquered dying, and so the church parted in three direc- 
 tions. Some of her members were martyred and some seduced 
 from their profession and some continued on in succession, 
 corrupting as they went, till they lost all heavenly power and 
 light. At this casting down of the world powers a great ex- 
 clamation goes up^ "Eejoice heavens and ye that tabernacle 
 in them." I substitute the marginal reading "tabernacle" 
 rather than "dwell,'' as it is in keeping with the sense, and shows 
 that the contest was here on earth as tenting and transient, 
 not dwelling on the earth as the worldly do. That this fall of 
 Satan is not his final overthrow is clearly expressed in the words 
 "Woe to the earth and th6 sea because the Devil is gone down 
 to you, having great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short 
 time." The first great battle is won. 
 
 We see in this expression a perfect preface to the matter of 
 the fifth trumpet where in the symbol of a fallen angel, or a 
 beast, he opens the pit of the abyss and lets out his locusts 
 and in so doing visits the first of the three great woes upon 
 "them that dwell upon the earth/' and it is there he is called 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL, 229 
 
 the king of the locusts and the destroyer by his names in both 
 Greek and Hebrew tongues. It is striking to notice how per- 
 fect the method of relating the subordinate agencies on both 
 sides to their chiefs. Any method that would eliminate the 
 personality of the Devil would also eliminate God from this 
 wondrous story. Their titles and the representatives on both 
 sides are given with equal care, and even the woman who is 
 the mother of this heavenly progeny is travestied, as we shall 
 presently see, by the drunken mother of harlots. We have 
 now seen the fortunes of the church told from the ideal, the 
 heavenly side. It is to be noted that while the world powers 
 came first in the seals and trumpets series, it is reversed in 
 the account of the two witnesses and in that of the church 
 and also in both the great series to presently follow, in all 
 which the heavenly side is given first. 
 
 We are now to read the fortunes of the church told from 
 the worldly aspects of the case, and it will read much like a 
 reiteration of what we have just read, and this has greatly 
 troubled and misled the commentators. 
 
 And when the dragon saw that he was cast down to the earth 
 he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child and 
 there was given to the woman the two wings of the great eagle 
 that she might fly into the wilderness into her place where she Is 
 nourished for a time and times and a half time from the face of the 
 serpent; and the serpent cast out of his mouth after the woman 
 water as a river that he might cause her to be carried away by the 
 stream. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her 
 mouth and swallowed up the river which the dragon cast out of his 
 mouth. And the dragon waxed wroth with the woman and went 
 away to make war with the rest of her seed^which keep the com- 
 mandments of God and the testimony of Jesus. 
 
 In all the acts of the dragon there is the strong appearance 
 of his being acted upon from behind. Even as Christ is the 
 Michael of God^ so is the pagan world that persecuted the woman 
 
230 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 the representative of the Devil, and his defeat in the field of 
 battle is in the earth, for he persecutes the woman and sends 
 a flood after her to carry her away, and when she has found 
 shelter from his wrath he still follows up her seed "that keep 
 the commandments" and persecutes them. But here is another 
 strange division between the woman and her seed that the 
 dragon no longer persecutes her but "goes away to make war 
 on her seed," those who continued to be faithful like the few 
 names at Sardis who had not defiled their garments and those 
 who were caught up to God, etc. 
 
 The church grew so bad that some would no longer go with 
 her and it was these that the Old Serpent continued to follow 
 up. In the foregoing paragraph it was "a place prepared of 
 God^^ but now it is "her place,^' showing the point of view as 
 the worldly. Now there was no place the woman could hide 
 that the serpent could not reach her, so, as hitherto, we are 
 to see conditions and relations and not places. The wilderness 
 therefore signifies worldliness and when the woman, that is, 
 the visible church on earth, became corrupt, the serpent had 
 no further occasion to persecute her. This fact is explained 
 by the woman's doing three bad things: 
 
 1. She "took the wings of the great eagle.''' The eagle was 
 the royal ensign of Eome. She was carried away on the wings 
 of the worldly, that is, she became like other people and the 
 enmity was thus removed. 
 
 2. She accepted help from the earth. "The earth helped 
 the woman." That is a great coming down from that first beau- 
 tiful woman clothed in all the lights of heaven as at the be- 
 ginning. It is said that when the serpent sent out a flood (of 
 his fallen angels) after her that the earth opened its mouth 
 and swallowed up the river. When the worldly persecuting 
 powers found her become worldly there was no longer anything 
 in her but form and name; their hatred abated and they were 
 
 I 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 231 
 
 rather attracted with her religion, and the sinful alliance became 
 finally complete. She no longer tormented them that dwell 
 upon the earth as the two witnesses had done before they were 
 suppressed. Her glory had fled. She had found "her place." 
 
 3. She fled into the wilderness. She did this of her own 
 accord; but in the symbol of the Holy City it is represented 
 that she was trodden under the feet of the nations, two phases 
 of the one general fact, and so all the phases of the rise, the 
 persecution and fall of the church of Christ are here represented. 
 
 The stealth and cunning of Satan are well illustrated. His 
 assumption of power in ten horns and of religion in seven heads 
 drawing down the leaders of the church with his tail like a 
 serpent, or like Herod conspiring for the young child^s life, and 
 his anger and warfare like the persecution of the Neros, his 
 double nature as serpent and lizard or dragon, etc. It seems 
 a paradox that the pagan power should both persecute the woman 
 and that he should lend her his wings, and yet this is just the 
 fact, for the once pure church became so corrupted and the 
 empire became so infused with the truth that it accepted the 
 religion of Christ in a perverted form after it had gone on de- 
 caying for two hundred years after John wrote from Patmos. 
 
 The "time times and a half time" is another way of express- 
 ing the same fact as that expressed by the "three days and a 
 half and the "twelve hundred and sixty days" and the "forty- 
 two months." That is, that there is distinctly a world time 
 in which the two witnesses are in sackcloth and the church is 
 trodden down, or in the wilderness, and that the beasts shall 
 reign. This time has already been measured by the trumpets 
 which have no chronological key. 
 
 Early in the fourth century Constantine, the Emperor of 
 Eome, had professed the religion of Christ and claimed to have 
 seen the cross of sacrifice and love transformed into a great 
 crucifix in the heavens, tokening him to hold and to wield the 
 
233 
 
 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 scepter of brute power over the world in the name of Christ. 
 Eome had become Christian and the Church had become Eoman. 
 The leaders in the church, who had once been humble men, 
 had grown to be great ecclesiastical magnates, and now rejoiced, 
 saying, "We have gained the emperor," but alas, they had lost 
 Christ, as always since, when the church has gained and exer- 
 cised worldly power. Henceforth the streams become one and 
 persecution is directed now by both the church and State against 
 the remnant who still held to the primitive faith, and the 
 apostate absconding woman, retaining only her profession with- 
 out the life of Christ, became the greatest of persecuting powers. 
 We have now followed the story of the future ages along 
 the lines as they stand related to Christ as Seals opener, and 
 the apostles as Trumpeters, and the Holy Spirit as "the breath 
 of God" bringing to life the two witnesses, and directing the 
 building of the new temple the church, and the church filled 
 with the light of God crying to bring forth spiritual children 
 like a woman in travail, then corrupt and apostate. There is 
 a correlation of conditions along these four lines to be noted: 
 
 1. The white horse and the beautiful woman. 
 
 2. The red horse and the first trumpet, the war upon the 
 two witnesses and the war with the dragon. 
 
 3. The black horse, the eclipse of the sun, moon and stars, 
 the famine, etc., while the two witnesses were in sackcloth and 
 the Holy City trodden down, the woman in the wilderness. 
 
 4. The pale horse, the sixth Seal, the kingdom of the world 
 
 destroyed. 
 
 SYMBOL SYNONYMS. 
 
 Man Child: Y/oman's seed; them that keep the commands of 
 God and hold the testimony of Jesus; souls under the altar; those 
 caught up to God and to His throne; virgins on Mount Zion. 
 
 Dragon: The serpent, called the Devil and Satan; deceiver of 
 the whole earth; accuser of the saints; beast; false prophet; 
 harlot; mystery Babylon. 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 233 
 
 CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 Revelation XIII. 
 
 ORIGIN AND SUCCESSION OF BEAST POWER. 
 
 The thirteenth chapter is an answer to the first in giving 
 the titles and succession of beast power as that one gave the 
 titles and succession of divine power. 
 
 And he stood upon the sand of the sea. 
 
 This is a great improvement over the common version which 
 reads^ "and I stood upon the sand of the sea," thus making 
 St. John stand in the place of the dragon. This illustrates 
 again the facility with which references are made to places as 
 sea, earth and sand, etc., as signifying relations only. The 
 dragon is about to install a successor and he is to come up out 
 of the sea, from among the people, just as Daniel had seen the 
 beasts come forth; and this is that same monster he saw, and 
 it comes out of the sea, the troubled sea of humanity. It was 
 here the dragon, the Eoman Empire, went down, the sea, the 
 people. The Roman Empire, or Dragon, is the successor and 
 inheritor of all world power, of all the fallen empires from 
 Babylon down, and represents their totality in opposition to the 
 total of heavenly power. 
 
 And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea having seven heads 
 and ten horns and on his horns ten diadems, and upon his heads 
 names of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a 
 leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear and his mouth as the 
 mouth of a lion. 
 
 We have here the beast of the fifth trumpet who is there 
 called a "fallen star," and "the angel of the pit of the abyss/' 
 
234 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 and "the king of the locnsts/^ and "Abaddon and Apollyon/' 
 He is said, in the eleventh chapter, to be "the beast that 
 Cometh np out of the pit" to make war upon the two wit- 
 nesses and to overcome them. In the fifth trumpet he is said 
 to have been given a key showing his subordination and service 
 to Satan or the Dragon, and it is here explained that he is 
 successor to the authority and power of the Dragon. Wear- 
 ing crowns or diadems on his horns instead of on his heads 
 gives him three more diadems than the Dragon. He is spotted, 
 showing his mixed or double nature and office. Coming ou.t 
 of the sea in which Christianity and paganism went down we 
 should expect a spotted or mongrel thing the same as we saw 
 at the opening of the pit of the abyss in the characteristics of 
 the locusts. His ten horns profess and proclaim his title to 
 rule, and his seven heads signify his claim to religion same as 
 the Dragon. He assumes heavenly symbols transforming him- 
 self into an angel of light. His feet are like the feet of a 
 bear that is ambling about and unlike a calf which walks 
 straight forward under the yoke. 
 
 This beast made his first emprise upon our scene by a mock 
 Pentecost. In this way he pretends to religion and acts that 
 part which is a parody on the Pentecost of Christ. He is the 
 man of sin against the man of righteousness. He is the anti- 
 christ. Every beastly person is an antichrist in the true sense 
 to the extent of his power. The Dragon is antichrist and the 
 man of sin, and so is his successor, and so is that other beast 
 yet to appear, and so the harlot, and wherever a Satan's seat 
 is or an opposer of Christ there is antichrist, servant of Satanic 
 power. 
 
 And I saw one of his heads as though it had been smitten to 
 death and his death stroke was healed. 
 
 The beast here acts a part coarsely imitating the death of 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 235 
 
 Christ. He suffers death in one of his heads and it revives 
 and lives again. This is a leading act in that great counter- 
 plot and simulation in which Satan would appear as an angel 
 of light. The beast suffers a death and a resurrection and an 
 ascension to sit on the dragon's throne who gives him all au- 
 thority and power. Out of that sea of pagan Eome that went 
 down, there came another Eome that held and exercised the 
 same power as the first and added to it the devilish pretense 
 of being Christian. 
 
 The beast has seven heads, that is, seven forms -of govern- 
 ment, as we shall presently see all expressions of beast power. 
 Beginning with the Eoman power there was first the kingly 
 head of Eomulus and his successors, then the Consular, then 
 the Military, then the Tribunes, the Decemvirs, the Trium- 
 virate, the Imperial and the Papal. It is not necessary to the 
 purpose of this truth that there should have been numerally 
 just seven heads, for in every use of seven in the book the 
 symbol use is primary and the units value secondary. The 
 seven trumpets contained nine parts acted and so we will find 
 the seven bowls with nine actors. So also the ^eals and the 
 Evangels have supplemental parts acted, etc. The purpose here 
 is to clearly identify the nature of that great wicked power 
 which falsely claimed to represent Christianity. With this pur- 
 pose in view all the parts of the redemptive scheme might be 
 represented as being mocked in a tragic simulation by the beast 
 without their actual occurrence, as all that would be done 
 in such case by beast power would be a mock, representing as 
 formal what might have been essential only, for the opposition 
 is essential and real, a counterfeit in all its parts. But it is 
 true both in fact and in form that one of the heads of the 
 beast, that is, one of the forms of government, under which 
 Eome existed, did expire and was revived. The imperial form 
 of the Eoman government expired or was put to death by the 
 
236 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 order of Odoacer and was revived in the person and headship 
 of Charlemagne. This is the death and coming to life of one 
 of his heads, and it was that head or form "under which John 
 lived and wrote. 
 
 And the whole earth wondered after the beast and they wor- 
 shiped the beast saying, Who is like unto the beast and who is 
 able to make war with him? 
 
 His worshipers ascribe supreme power to him. He repre- 
 sents all secular and all spiritual power and authority. The 
 coarse, selfish, unconverted heart has no truer picture drawn 
 than this. All who are brutish worship brute power. It is 
 the exercise of brute power instead of divine love over the heart 
 that this story is all about. These brutish people wonder, and 
 admire, and follow after beast power. It is their religion. 
 
 And they worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority 
 to the beast. 
 
 "These are they that dwell on the earth." The word "dwell" 
 here (ketoikeo) means rather to be rooted in the earth, implying 
 earthiness of soul. This most unthinking and unreasonable 
 worship is the kind of religion that comes from such. They 
 praise both the Dragon, who gives away the power, and the 
 beast, who receives it. There are congratulations all around. 
 The groveling and superstitious must lionize something or 
 somebody and it does not make much difference who or what, 
 so long as it holds beast power. 
 
 And they worshiped the beast, saying, Who is 'like unto the 
 beast and who is able to war with him? And there was given to 
 him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and there was 
 given to him authority to continue forty-two months. 
 
 The beast continues to receive endowments, the parody and 
 *i>ock of those the Father o^ave to the Christ. The beast has 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 237 
 
 a great loud mouth, both for professing great things and for 
 speaking blasphemies against God and against the servants 
 of God whom he so much hates. He has power "to continue 
 forty-two months." This is the time given in which the Holy 
 City shall be trodden under foot (xi, 2). Here we have an- 
 other of those limits upon his power, a limit of time. It is 
 also a limit on the suffering of the heavenly powers. The 
 temple in ruins and the two witnesses in sackcloth, and the 
 woman in the wilderness, were all limits upon the time when 
 the heavenly cause should suffer as well as limits upon the 
 duration of the beast power, and they are coequal. 
 
 And lie opened his mouth for blasphemies against God to blas- 
 pheme His name and His tabernacle, even them that dwell in 
 heaven. 
 
 "Them that tabernacle in heaven" is the better rendering 
 and is the opposite of "them that dwell on the earth," for the 
 wicked "dwell" but the saints only "tabernacle," the church 
 and heaven being annexed and one as already shown. The 
 Dragon accused them day and night and the beast follows them 
 in the same way, abusing and persecuting the saints, pretend- 
 ing to act as God while warring against Him. But we recog- 
 nize the great change that has come over the world, for it 
 was the Dragon that persecuted the first church, while this 
 beast and his successor persecutes the second. 
 
 This brings us again into times and conditions that pertain 
 to the Eeformation. It is the tabernacle to be set up again, 
 the temple rebuilded, the church called out of spiritual Baby- 
 lon as at first it was called out of the world. These are dif- 
 ferent symbols for one and the same fact. 
 
 And it was given to him to make war with the saints, and to 
 overcome them, and there was given unto him authority over every 
 tribe, and people, an^ tongue, and nation, and all that dwell upou 
 
238 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 the earth shall worship him, every one whose name hath not been 
 written in the hook of life of the Lamb that hath been slain from 
 the foundation of the world. 
 
 We now see exactly what kind of people are meant by tribes, 
 peoples, tongues and nations, the worldly and unsaved as opposed 
 to the saints. The spotted beast succeeds to both the power 
 and the wicked acts of the Dragon making "war upon the 
 saints." He overcomes them. But there is a limit to his wor- 
 ship. Only those worship him ^Vhose name hath not been 
 written in the Lamb's book of life," the worldly worshipers of 
 beast power. 
 
 The beast is shown again to be a creature of time, but Christ, 
 the Lamb, hath been slain from the foundation of the world. 
 The contrast is very striking between having the "name writ- 
 ten in the book of life of the Lamb that hath been slain from 
 the foundation of the world" and to belong to a beast who 
 has but a short time, but "forty-two months." 
 
 If any man hath an ear to hear let him hear. If any man is for 
 captivity into captivity he goeth. If any man shall kill with the 
 sword, with the sword must he be killed. Here is the patience ahd 
 the faith of the saints. 
 
 This seems to stand above the narration as an interjected 
 part. It has the weight and formality of a solemn moral 
 axiom. It must have special reference to suffering from the 
 use of brute force. The words of introduction is the formula 
 used by the Holy Spirit seven times in the letters, "If any 
 man hath an ear let him hear." To state this maxim as the 
 patience and the faith of the saints must have reference to a 
 time beyond their life; for we do not see personal vindication 
 or righteous retribution here, and it was from under the altar 
 that John saw the souls that had been slain for the testimony 
 of Christ and heard them crying for avengement and saw them 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 239 
 
 receiving reward and assurance of a coming vindication. The 
 righteous retribution of God is here pledged by the greatest 
 assurance. It is the patience and the faith of the saints. Christ 
 shall both reward them and establish His rule in the earth. 
 It strengthens them to endure persecution and death. His 
 book of life contains their names, and eternity shall be theirs 
 when time is ended. And this sustaining truth is the sub- 
 stance of their faith. Neither here nor in John^s Gospel is 
 it always clear who is the speaker. But John seems entirely 
 passive and to give only what he saw and heard. This axiom 
 miay be regarded as a direct statement of the Holy Spirit of 
 the doctrine of the saints in relation to the use of brute force 
 and the final triumph of Christ. Its occurrence, coming just 
 after the account of the beast and the Dragon and before the 
 third member of the beast trio appears, signifies a change of 
 program like that which the day of Pentecost brought by the 
 coming of the Spirit, for this beast trio mocks the heavenly 
 trinity as we are soon to see. Kt base the characteristics of 
 the Dragon and the beast are the same, and the holy vision 
 is at pains to show the succession and the essential sameness 
 while showing also their different manifestations. How closely 
 wedded are dragon, brute and human in this sketch! 
 
 We are here about to take another step in the evolution 
 of diabolical powers by the appearance of a third member and 
 will see the full line of battle drawn betweeen the heavenly, 
 on one side, and the worldly and diabolical powers on the 
 other. The story discloses the animating and incentive spirit 
 that lies under and actuates all oppositions to the Christ. 
 
 THE TWO HORNED BEAST. 
 
 And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth and he had 
 two horns like unto a lamb, and he spake as a dragon, and he 
 exerciseth all the authority of the first beast in his sight, and he 
 
S40 MYSTERY OP THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 maketh the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first 
 beast whose death stroke was healed. 
 
 This is the third manifestation of the brute trio and stands 
 in the same analogous relation to it that the Holy Spirit stands 
 to the heavenly trinity, and so performs parts which are a 
 parody on the Holy Spirit as the spotted beast enacts a parody 
 on the offices of Christ. This beast is of low origin. It comes 
 up out of the earth as the Holy Spirit came down from Heaven. 
 It did not come up out of the sea, for that represented universal 
 power, but from the earth, something less than the sea, as we 
 shall presently notice. This beast has a much improved ap- 
 pearance over the greater one. He has "two horns like a lamb,'' 
 and we shall next see that he also performs acts of a mixed 
 character. "He spake as the dragon," means that he held to 
 the teaching and doctrine of the Dragon, a successor. "And 
 he exerciseth all the authority of the first beast in his sight" 
 shows a close relation to both, and his enforcing the worship 
 of the spotted beast by the use of his authority fully allies 
 him with the diabolical power. 
 
 He receives the doctrine of the dragon and uses the authority 
 of the beast for enforcing it. He comes to enforce beast or 
 Dragon worship upon his subordinates. 
 
 And he doeth great signs that he should even make fire to come 
 down out of heaven upon the earth in the sight of men, and he 
 deceiveth them that dwell upon the earth by reason of the signs 
 which it was given him to do in the sight of the beast; saying to 
 them that dwell on the earth that they should make an image to 
 the beast who hath the stroke of the sword and lived, and it was 
 given unto him to give breath to it that it should both speak and 
 he caused that as many as should not worship the image of the 
 beast should be killed; and he causeth all the small and the great, 
 and the rich and the poor, and the free and the bond, that there be 
 given them a mark on their right hand or upon their forehead and 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 241 
 
 that no man should be able to buy or to sell save he that hath the 
 mark, even the name of the beast or the number of his name. 
 
 The first thing to notice about this beast is the heightened 
 appearance of his rehgions acts. He not only looks like a 
 lamb and' orders an image to be made of the spotted beast, 
 but he works signs and wonders and enforces religious ob- 
 servances and even orders a religious trade mark to be branded 
 upon his subjects which is done in the sight of the spotted 
 beast, that is, with respect to him. This is a very remarkable 
 change from the symbolism of the earlier part of the book 
 where we have had horses, etc., to show the world powers con- 
 sidered in their simpler form as merely and only worldly. We 
 shall not again meet with these simpler forms, but this more 
 complex and double natured, wherein is combined all the hos- 
 tility of the dragon with an assumption of Christian authority 
 and enforced worship in simulations of Christian obedience. 
 It is here we reach the summit of infernal and brute power, and 
 the two hostile forces come into full opposition as opposing 
 kingdoms. We see a gradual introduction of the participants 
 and actors upon the stage of the drama. 
 
 In presenting Christ as the hep of this great story the seer 
 declares His beginning before the birth of time, and even that 
 He was slain from the foundation of the world, that He is the 
 Alpha and the Omega, was with the Father in the beginning, 
 etc. The Father is "He which Is and Which Was and Which 
 Is To Come, the Lord God Almighty^' and Christ is His Son 
 to whom He gave "all authority in heaven and in earth," is 
 now "the prince of the kings of the earth." 
 
 On the other side we have the Dragon, the beast and the 
 two horned beast, who is also called "the false prophet," xix, 
 20. This false prophet represents the spirit or doctrine of 
 the dragon and acts "in the sight of the beast," but it has a 
 more tolerable aspect than either the beast or dragon. On the 
 16 
 
242 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 heavenly side are the heavenly powers^ the Father and His 
 Christ, and the apostles and the Holy Spirit and the churches 
 and the word of God; and on the brute side, the old Serpent, 
 the great Dragon, called Satan, and the Devil, and the Spotted 
 Beast, called the Destroyer, etc., and the two-horned False 
 Prophet, and the locusts and them that dwell on the earth who 
 are not sealed on the forehead but marked on the hand, etc. 
 These correspondent parts are so strangely disposed in the order 
 of the story that we had very little thought of the great array 
 they make when gathered together and presented at points of 
 opposition. The order that disposes them to these strange 
 situations is that deeper, that divine order of cryptographic 
 writing or pattern which gives this book the pre-eminence of 
 being the greatest literary wonder of all ages. 
 
 The Seals and the Trumpets are the great major series and 
 they are ruled on a definite pattern and all other matters take 
 their relations and positions from these as they proceed to 
 unfold. In their inner and essential natures, the parts acted 
 are regular and orderly, and our first bewilderment begins to 
 break as the mist clears away and we appreciate the evident 
 design and the multiple power of expression which this order 
 affords us. Such words, such postures, such transitions reach 
 heights and depths never before opened to the human mind 
 and heart. 
 
 John founds Christ's claims to rule the world in the totality 
 of His creative, redemptive and heavenly power, and on the 
 other side He has given us the names and situations and acts 
 of the enemy and his allies which take root in the profound- 
 est depths of diabolism. It is from the breadth and depth of 
 the heart he enables us to see and to feel whence these two 
 opposing spirits arise, one of them worshiping heavenly love 
 and the other brute lust. One, sincere, chaste and refined, love 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 
 
 243 
 
 joy and peace, etc., and the other worldly, undiscerning, coars-e, 
 brutish and devilish. 
 
 Here are gathered into one view and placed side by side these 
 two opposing powers. As the great parody is a simulation, 
 it is both an opposition and imitation. Some of the points 
 appear later in the story and some are added, not specifically 
 stated in the text, but implied by the facts given of the two 
 opposing powers. 
 
 THE GREAT PARODY AND COUNTERPART ON THE GOSPEL 
 OF SALVATION. 
 
 The heavenly power. 
 The heavenly trinity. 
 Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 
 
 Father gave all power to Son. 
 Christ descended and ascended. 
 
 Christ was put to death and rose 
 
 from the dead. 
 Christ opens His kingdom with 
 
 a heavenly Pentecost 
 Christ sent out His apostles to 
 
 save endowed from above. 
 Christ is given the key of David 
 
 to open his house. 
 Christ does will of the Father. 
 Christ humbled Himself. 
 Christ continues forever. 
 
 Christ makes war with the 
 sword of His mouth, the truth. 
 
 Christ saves His people. 
 
 Christ seals and numbers His 
 people. 
 
 Christ seals on the forehead. 
 
 The diabolical power. 
 
 The diabolical trio. 
 
 Dragon, Beast and False 
 Prophet. 
 
 Dragon gave all power to beast. 
 
 Beast descended from heaven 
 and ascended from the pit. 
 
 Beast had one head put to death 
 and it revived. 
 
 Beast opens pit with diabolical 
 eruption of smoke. 
 
 Beast brought up locusts to de- 
 stroy endowed from below. 
 
 Beast given key to open his pit. 
 
 Beast does the will of dragon. 
 
 The beast exalts himself. 
 
 Beast continues for forty-two 
 months. 
 
 The beast wars with blasphem- 
 ies and with lies. 
 
 Beast deceives the people. 
 
 Beast marks and bulks his 
 slaves. 
 
 The beast brands the hand or 
 head. 
 
244 
 
 MYSTERY OP THE GOLDEN CLOTH: 
 
 Christ is in white raiment. 
 
 Christ came in the sacred seven. 
 
 Holy Spirit came after ascen- 
 sion of Christ. 
 
 Christ hath a bride. 
 
 Christ hath a city, the New Je- 
 rusalem, 
 
 Christ is the mystery of God 
 manifest as flesh. 
 
 Christ absent a little while, etc. 
 
 Christ entombed three and a 
 half days. 
 
 Christ has a millennium of a 
 thousand years. 
 
 The Holy Spirit is Christ's wit- 
 ness. 
 
 The Holy Spirit was manifest as 
 fiery tongues. 
 
 The Holy Spirit came from 
 heaven. 
 
 The Holy Spirit showed the 
 things of God. 
 
 The Holy Spirit breathed life 
 into the two dead witnesses. 
 
 The Holy Spirit caused the dis- 
 ciples to praise God. 
 
 Christ's church is the mother of 
 
 martyrs. 
 Christ gave true glory to His 
 
 church. 
 The saints tabernacle in heaven. 
 
 The beast is spotted and scarlet. 
 
 Beast in secular and Satanic six. 
 
 False prophet came after the 
 beast had taken his seat. 
 
 The beast has a harlot. 
 
 Beast has a city. Mystery Baby- 
 lon, the Great. 
 
 Beast is the mystery of iniquity 
 manifesting himself as God. 
 
 Beast present then absent, etc. 
 
 The Devil is entombed a thou- 
 sand years. 
 
 The Devil is let out for a little 
 while. 
 
 The two-horned beast is false 
 witness before the spotted 
 beast. 
 
 False prophet calls down fire in 
 sight of men. 
 
 False prophet comes out of the 
 earth. 
 
 False prophet took the things of 
 the beast to show. 
 
 False prophet breathed life into 
 the image of the beast. 
 
 False prophet caused his sub- 
 jects to worship the image of 
 the beast. 
 
 Beast's church is the mother of 
 the harlots. 
 
 Beast gave false glory to the 
 harlot. 
 
 The wicked dwell on the earth. 
 
 These might be carried much further but those given suffi- 
 ciently illustrate how these parts stand over against each other 
 and show how greatly they assist our study at the base of this 
 story. These parts were not all played in the time of the 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 245 
 
 apostles and are not finished yet. This beast power, showing 
 itself as a counterfeit religion and making snch great pre- 
 tenses, has been fairly understood since the Eef ormation's dawn. 
 It was the great light the Eevelation gave on this by which 
 the Keformation found its way out of "Mystery Babylon.'' 
 
 The essential thing to know about the two-horned beast 
 is his relation to the beast and the dragon and his joint 
 opposition with them to Christ. This is fairly well presented 
 in the table we have just seen. Eome was the inheritor of all 
 world power. It was out of her that Daniel saw the great 
 monster arise that was diverse from all the other beasts. But 
 Eome changed her relations to the heavenly powers, passing 
 from her pagan and dragon nature to a great state religion 
 with Christian pretensions. These two Eomes stand to the 
 Christian church as red dragon and spotted beast. By the 
 very imagery which the story employs they are the sum and 
 representatives of all world power. That is, all that is ad- 
 verse to God's will is fully represented in both these mani- 
 festaitions, and not only so, but the sum of all diabolism is ex- 
 pressed in this second Eome as in the first. 
 
 While the associate powers, the great leaders on both sides 
 of the contest, are seen only subordinately and through their 
 functions, their places are cared for by signals and relations 
 not to be mistaken and which always identify them in their 
 places and acts. In this way each part represents its own place 
 on its own side and stands against each and all on the oppos- 
 ing side, and the seeming opposition as shown in our table 
 illustrates the true relations of the parts on their respective 
 sides. 
 
 The Father and the Son and the Spirit and all. the saints, 
 while they are seen separate, are a spiritual commonwealth, and 
 adverse to them are Satan and the beast and false prophet 
 and the wicked, a compact and common woe of antagonism. 
 
246 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 The clear recognition of this fact reduces the story to a very 
 simple affair, for whatever difficulties we may at first experi- 
 ence, we cannot go astray from the main fact and its essential 
 hearings. The story begins with the fall of man by sin in the 
 garden East of Eden, and this we did not meet with at the 
 first. This two-horned beast that came up out of the earth 
 as the Holy Spirit came down from heaven, speaks like a 
 dragon and he exercises "all the authority of the first beast 
 in his sight." This expression shows he is acting a part as 
 in presence of, or as in reference to the beast. He also uses 
 his authority to compel his subjects, "them that dwell upon 
 the earth," to worship the first beast whose deadly stroke was 
 healed. Thus he acts in subordination. The mention of the 
 "deadly stroke" here as a descriptive of the beast is a parody 
 on the praise given the Lamb, because he was slain and did 
 redeem us unto God by His blood. But this two-horned beast 
 commanded his subjects to make, and they did make, an image 
 to the spotted beast and he gave life to it. And the image 
 being made, and life having been given to it, they who made 
 it are required to worship it on pain of death, political and 
 religious death. So he causes a mark to be given by branding 
 a sign on their heads, or hands, as a trade mark, so they may 
 trade; "a measure of wheat for a penny and three measures 
 of barley for a penny," comes to view now again as describing 
 a mercenary religion. 
 
 Over against these evil signs are counteracting parts to be 
 noticed, which show a nearer approach to Christianity though 
 he belongs to the diabolical trio. "He has two horns like a 
 lamb and he makes fire to come down out of heaven in the 
 sight of men." This brute "deceives them that dwell on the 
 earth by reason of the signs which it was given to him to do 
 in the sight of the .beasts." These are not to be taken as 
 genuine signs, as those with which Christ attested His divine 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 247 
 
 mission, for there is nothing genuine in them from the pit 
 of the abyss to the throne of the Caesars, but they had all the 
 effects of miracles to the class of people who are so degraded 
 as to make an image to the spotted, ten horned beast and then 
 to worship it. He gave it life, not physical or spiritual life, 
 but a beas-tly life, declaring it the religion of the Realm. These 
 were of the kind that the locusts preyed upon, and are such 
 as might have crucified the Lord and trodden down the "Holy 
 City." The two signs this two-horned beast wrought were to 
 command fire to come down and to give life to the image of 
 the beast. Fire is the symbol for the word of God, and to 
 cause it to come down out of heaven (the church) is a pro- 
 cess exactly the opposite of its rising from the dead and ascend- 
 ing as it did when the Holy Spirit raised the two witnesses 
 that lay dead in the city of the beast. One is bringing the 
 Bible into the church and the other handing it down from 
 the church to the world. Causing fire to come down to the ' 
 earth and in the sight of men is the counteract to the Holy 
 Spirit's descent on Pentecost to give the true word, and the 
 giving of life to the image is a mock of the breathing of life 
 from God into the two witnesses and giving them life to rise and 
 ascend, etc. 
 
 Although we are able to see plainly the counterplay of 
 opposition and imitation in this sign, we can only conclude 
 that it seemed a miracle to his deluded followers, for it says 
 that he was a deceiver and they were susceptible to deception 
 and obeyed his authority. They were branded as slaves on 
 the hand, in order to enjoy religious commerce. They were 
 vassals, not sealed of God, not intelligent Christians. Now 
 as the act described as the Spirit of God giving life to the 
 two witnesses was interpreted to mean that God's Spirit moved 
 His servants to translate His word into the language of the 
 people, so here in this counterplay we must infer that some- 
 
248 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 thing was done to the word of God that the dragon or the 
 beast did not do, and that the Holy Spirit did not do, for 
 it was brought down. The word of God was given to John 
 as a rod to measure the temple, and the altar, and the worship- 
 ers, and when it was finished the two witnesses were seen in 
 the symbol of the ark of the covenant which contained the 
 two tables of stone. Bnt this bringing down the word, or 
 fire, is an opposite process and is brought to the earth and 
 "in the sight of men.^^ That is to say, the Bible was given 
 to the people and in their own language. The other 
 sign which the false prophet wrought was that after he had 
 commanded his servants to make an image that is a facsimile 
 of the beast he gave life to it. Now that spotted beast was 
 no other than the new Eome that came np where the old one 
 went down, and that was a state religion, and so mnst the image 
 have been that was made in its likeness; and as its life de- 
 pended npon world power so there mnst have been world power 
 exercised in creating the image. This image mnst be a secu- 
 lar hierarchy like its parent type. Here is another state re- 
 ligion patterned on the former, and life is given to it and 
 it is supported by authority and "he caused that as many as 
 would not worship it should be put to death," that is, com- 
 mercially dead in this kind of commerce. This bears suggestive 
 relations to the monarch of Babylon commanding all his people 
 to worship the great image he set up on pain of literal death. 
 Eeligion enforced by beast power is offensive to God. 
 
 This is a mercantile kind of religion in which none can take 
 part except they have the trade mark. Not to be able to buy 
 or sell is equivalent to being killed. To receive the mark on 
 the right hand or on the forehead were exactly equivalent, for 
 in such persons the head and hand are of the same unthinking 
 stuff. They find their level in the flesh. These are wondrous 
 characterizations without personalities, but they are such as en- 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 249 
 
 able us to see all men through them. They are such as en- 
 able us to see on which side every one stands on that greatest 
 of all questions. Losing sight of personalities, we yet see in 
 these parts where every actor is putting in his work. This sim- 
 plifies our' knowledge and clears our vision of spiritual things 
 and relations. 
 
 To show the advantage and to illustrate this method of teach- 
 ing, if we say "all the world should have the Washingtons 
 and Jeffersons of the Americas" we seem" not at first to have 
 expressed a matter of large bearings. But we have divided the 
 world into two parts, the one blessed and the other unblessed. 
 "The Americas" does not take on close definition in the mind 
 at once nor equally in all minds. 
 
 One will think only of the countries so named, or of the one 
 proper America, while another will at once include all repub- 
 lics of the world as Americas in this sense. One will think of 
 Washington and Jefferson in their persons and personal char- 
 acteristics while the other will properly see them in their rep- 
 resentative characters as related to the republic in which they 
 acted a distinguished and age-making part, and also in other 
 republics where other men have acted the same corresponding 
 parts, just as the sacred writer saw Enoch still living and im- 
 ^nortal in the world. But as no other country is just like 
 America, the mind begins to compare, keeping America in 
 view as the pattern to see what nations may in this sense be 
 called Americas. 
 
 The lines may be drawn differently in different minds, but 
 through all opinions as to which may be called Americas, 
 America herself remains the fixed standard for judging and 
 we positively know that was meant, though we may not clearly 
 prove that some other countries might or might not have been 
 included in the mind of the speaker. Not the map of the 
 continent, nor its geography, nor its religion, etc., comes to 
 
250 MYSTERY OP THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 view, but the character of the goyernnient, and that we always 
 carry in the mind in looking aronnd the world to find which, 
 in this sense, are Americas and which are not. 
 
 This is exactly the kind of descrij^tion the Eevelation gives 
 ITS of the world powers that slew the innocent Son of God. 
 The Eomes slew Him and trod His holy city under foot and 
 assumed to administer His kingdom. AAHiich are the Romes? 
 Take her characteristics, as here so well drawn, for our stand- 
 ard, and not only every government may be brought to the 
 test, not only every church, but every individual as well, who 
 abets, in any form, organized oppositions to the law of the Lamb 
 slain to redeem the world. 
 
 Washingtons and Jeffersons are not thus referred to at all 
 in their personal characters, but for what they represent. Men 
 greater in personal character might be found; men who repre- 
 sented greater interests to the world, even, and found outside 
 of all republics, but it is with the single view to their relations 
 with governments they are here used. So it is in this Eevela- 
 tion. It is in the view that the Christ is to rule this world 
 that this book was written and that His enemies are so clearly 
 and so well illustrated as of the beast, etc. 
 
 Beyond Eome, pagan and papal, no government is clearly 
 signified here, except the two-horned, or earth beast, but all 
 governments are, in the degree of application to them of the 
 great fact of opposition to His reign, also guilty before this 
 description. 
 
 So every church in like manner, and every member of 
 church who upholds or abets opposition to the will of the Christ 
 or perverts His truth, is of the Eomes and of the Harlots of 
 the earth. 
 
 If we have fixed or can fix definitely that the spotted beast 
 is a great politico-religious power. Papal Eome, as the Dragon 
 is pagan Eome, then it remains for us to fix with equal defi- 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 251 
 
 niteness this other power, this two-horned beast "called also 
 the false prophet/' that pays fealty to the spotted beast and 
 the Dragon, and that exercises all the "authority of the first 
 beast in his sight." Who is he? Not a person, but a power 
 that answers to these characteristics as follows: 
 
 1. Earthly in origin as opposed to the heavenly. 
 
 2. Having a more innocent appearance, more lamblike. 
 
 3. Speaks or holds the doctrine of the Dragon, resting its 
 claims upon political authority, world power, by virtue of suc- 
 cession, etc. 
 
 4. It exercises all the authority of the first beast, command- 
 ing religious acts, etc. 
 
 5. Makes "them that dwell upon the earth, the worldly 
 people, to worship the first beast.'' 
 
 6. It translates the word of God or brings down fire to 
 the earth and for the common use "in the sight of men." 
 
 7. It works signs, creating, by its authority, an image to 
 the spotted beast and causing it to breathe, "to have life, etc." 
 
 8. It causes all its subjects to receive the mark of the beast 
 or his name or the number of his name^ on the right hand 
 or in the forehead in order to hold commercial relations in 
 his kingdom. Is there any power having any connection with 
 the beast that will respond to this description? 
 
 1. The distinctly British Church as a separate institution 
 sprang out of a quarrel Henry the Eighth had with the Pope 
 (to whom England had been loyal) about his sinful divorces. 
 Earthy enough in origin, surely! 
 
 2. Some of the worst features of the papacy are not allowed 
 in the British established Church. More innocent looking, 
 "two horns like a lamb." 
 
 3. The English Church holds to the doctrine of succes- 
 sion through the popes. "Voice of the Dragon," world power. 
 
252 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 4. It is established by law, is a world power in ecdesiastical 
 dress, that is a religions state, and a political elinreli. 
 
 5. Its membership is required to be loyal to its authority 
 and so to the doctrine and practice of succession, through Eome. 
 
 6. King James' translation of the Scriptures, ordered by 
 the British government, has spread the world around, "caused 
 fire to come down in the sight of men." 
 
 7. Henry the Eighth commanded and the government of 
 Great Britain formed a church in imitation of the papal church, 
 making the head of the English government the head of the 
 English church, as the Pope of Rome is the head of the Roman 
 church, that was an "image" of the spotted beast. 
 
 8. The English priests fraternize with the Roman church 
 and preserve an attitude of corresponding unfraternity with 
 the antipapists. 
 
 Reordination is not required of a Roman priest on uniting 
 with the English church, and the unfraternal attitude of the 
 English church toward the Evangelical people is well known. 
 What a sharp outline photograph this is to have been taken 
 so many centuries before it came to pass. In plain words then 
 we have a trio — Pagan Rome, Papal Rome and British Rome. 
 But in as far as other state religions, or other churches re- 
 sort to world power, and world methods, they are also included 
 by the very method of presentation here illustrated, and are 
 of the Romes earthy and brutish. 
 
 Here is wisdom. He that hath understanding let him count the 
 number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number 
 is six hundred and sixty-six. 
 
 There is no other thing about the Revelation that has so 
 stoutly contradicted its being a revelation as the specula- 
 tions about the number of the Beast. 
 
 The direction in which the exegetes and expositors have 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 253 
 
 sought the solution has entirely misled them. They have all 
 undershot the mark. 
 
 What could the faithful exile have thought to have seen 
 the learned guessing that has been wasted over those few words 
 of his? The methods sought for the answer were entirely 
 alien to the genius of the book. 
 
 The solution sought by adding together the numeral values 
 of the letters that give the result 66Q is a paltry treatment, 
 far below the work, and has gone far toward bringing the noble 
 old Cloth into disrepute. He who sits down with pencil and 
 paper to work out on the numeral values of these letters by 
 the use of the Hebrew Gematra or any such method will never 
 give the world what is asked for. He has missed not the scope 
 only and the aim, but also the very heart of the matter. 
 
 The book chooses its ov/n mode, but in that mode does all 
 that its vehicle is capable of doing to convey the true meaning. 
 
 Poetic and dramatic art we have in large measure and in- 
 terspersed with mighty sayings of God Himself in pl^in and 
 awful words, but juggling with alphabetical signs has no place 
 here. The abuse of this book as a resort for all kinds of ad- 
 venturers for the purpose of escaping the proofs which might 
 easier test their preaching from other Scriptures; and its abuse 
 from doctrinal controversies and from wonder-lovers in general, 
 who have used it for personal or sectarian ends, there is none 
 of them have done more wrong than those who have treated 
 it as a book of acrostics, or of conundrums. It is true that in 
 language of so large patterns and mental perspectives drawn 
 in characters so deep, clouds and rivers and mountains of rain- 
 bows and thunders and pealing trumpets; of star-fallings, sun- 
 scorchings and drouths; of gaping abysses and striving of winds; 
 of men angels, demons, etc., there would seem to be a large 
 room given for different opinions, but the cryptic is methodical, 
 the Cloth is woyenand regular. There i§ unity of the highest 
 
254 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 order. The vision follows strictly its own path^ and it chose 
 forms of expression that outwear all changes and come safely 
 unimpaired to lis across these eighteen centuries, and its great 
 facts the worst history cannot badly pervert. 
 
 The expression "Here is wisdom/^ some of onr learned men 
 have taken somewhat in the light of a personal challenge, and 
 a vast waste of learned guessing and riddle solving have been 
 indulged in. But wisdom is not learning, is not education, and 
 never can accept them in its place. 
 
 "They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firma- 
 ment; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars 
 forever and forever." The wise man is he who builds his 
 house upon a rock, not on the shifting sand. Those who are 
 "sealed with the seal of God in the forehead," those "who taber- 
 nacle in heaven" while here. These are "wise," and in this 
 is their wisdom that they follow the "Little Lamb whithersoever 
 He goeth." "These" have understanding. Another mislead- 
 ing phrase is in the words, "It is the number of a man." Taking 
 this in a personal sense, many have searched for individuals, 
 the letters of whose names when used as numerals would, by 
 the process of addition, amount to 666. 
 
 "N'eron Caesar" is one^ of the names which, by this method 
 seems to many to be the person referred to. A dozen other 
 names have been suggested with greater or less acceptance as 
 the person who is to wear this brand of 666. 
 
 The conflicting claims are so nearly equal as to have left 
 our commentators in a state of confusion amid the conflict- 
 ing claimants, etc. This method was resorted to from an early 
 day, and it is said that as early as the third century it was 
 observed that "Lateinos" contained the required number, and 
 that therefore the Latin kingdom was meant. But since it is 
 the beast that has this number, it cannot be personal. The 
 beast is impersonal. The beast is a succession of persons and 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 255 
 
 powers, expressed in seven heads and ten horns of the Dragon 
 and beast, etc. Eather it is a power already described, com- 
 posed of allied powers and having two diverse natures, shown 
 not only by the heads and horns of these beasts, but also by 
 the spots,' etc.; so that no personality can answer to it. As on 
 the heavenly side all personalities are submerged to give ele- 
 vation to the principals, the divine trinity, so on the other 
 side the same subsidence of personality is had to give eminence 
 to the diabolic trio. The words, "for it is the number of 
 man,'' must not be taken to refer to any one man in contrast 
 to other individual men, but man as opposed to God, sinful, 
 apostate man. 
 
 The current and somewhat plausible interpretation is found 
 by adding together the numeral values of the letters worn on 
 the Pope's tiara. But it is also ingenious, like the former, 
 and out of keeping with the scope and tenor of the work, even 
 requiring a juggle with the proper spelling to get the result. 
 
 It is the number of man^ mortal and sinful, as against the 
 Lamb, the first man Adam against the second man Christ. That 
 is, the Lamb comes in God's number and the beast in the evil 
 sign. This gives meaning and point to the antithesis. 
 
 We note that this number is both the number of the Beast 
 and the number of his name, and that no man should "be 
 able to buy or to sell save he that hath the mark even the 
 name of the Beast or the number of his name." To have the 
 name or the mark was equivalent, therefore, to having the 
 number of the name. 
 
 It is declared that this two-horned beast causeth all, "that 
 there be given them a mark on their right hand or upon their 
 forehead (in order that they might buy or sell), and that no 
 man should be able (or enabled) to buy or to sell save he 
 that hath the mark, even the name of the beast." 
 
 This description clearly points to a trade mark, a commercial 
 
256 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 sign. The motive and object of imposing the name or num- 
 ber of the beast upon his subjects was a commercial one. None 
 should buy or sell save he that hath the mark, or the name, or 
 its equivalent, the number of the name. For trading purposes 
 he can have either, for either will answer. It must be noticed 
 that this is not alone the number of the first or spottedHDcast, 
 but the number of the two-horned beast also, for it is he who 
 is said to enjoin it. By implication he also himself has the 
 number, and all his subjects are required to have the num- 
 ber or the name which is the same. 
 
 The mark of the beast therefore was not a mark of dis- 
 tinction as between the first and second beast, nor as between 
 the beast and the dragon, but was the mark of both beasts, 
 and therefore also of the diabolical trio, and also of them that 
 worship it; and this is in contrast with the Lamb and His sealed 
 host. "If any man receive a mark in his forehead or upon 
 his hand he also shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God." 
 
 That is to say, in the further illustration of the great parody 
 already given, that as the Lamb seals His servants in the fore- 
 head, causing them to understand the truth and to walk in 
 its holy light, so the beast marks his servants in the right 
 hand or in the forehead so they will serve him. That is as 
 the Lamb comes in the sacred number of seven, so the beast 
 comes in the secular number of six. It was entirely with ref- 
 erence to buying and selling that his servants were required 
 to have the number, or the name of the beast. 
 
 In his claims and assumptions as opposed to the Lamb, he 
 is in the number six, a time number as opposed to eternity, 
 worldly as opposed to heavenly, and labor and commerce and 
 trade as opposed to rest, religion and eternity, etc. Six is the 
 symbol of time and toil just as seven is of rest and reward. 
 Seven is sacred, six is secular. Christ came by seven angels, 
 seven churches, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven thunders, 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 257 
 
 seven ,evangels, seven bowls of wrath, etc. But the beast and 
 his kingdom are all work days. He knows no Sabbath, has 
 no rest for the hereafter. He is of the earth and earthy. He 
 was not slain from the foundation of the world. Those who 
 follow him "they dwell on the earth, shall wonder whose names 
 were not written in the book of life from the foundation of 
 the world when they behold the beast how that he was and 
 is not." The dragon is six, the beast is six, and the second 
 beast called the false prophet, is six, and all their worshipers 
 are marked with his name or the number six. 
 
 But the symbol goes far deeper than all this. It is the sign 
 of idolatry in its deepest inferno. Six is said to be the symbol 
 of the Elusinian Mysteries, and the sign of the Isis, the Egyp- 
 tian Deity. It is the symbol in pagan mysteries^ for devil wor- 
 ship and of spiritual theosophy in the deceptions of pagan 
 priestcraft. Our word stigma comes from the name of the 
 sixth letter in the Greek alphabet. There was a special form 
 of the letter used for a mystery symbol different from the letter 
 in ordinary use. The "mark" means a brand or a stigma, etc. 
 This is what he imposes on his servants. This is the word 
 that was used to express the brand that was put upon cattle 
 and stock and slaves and prisoners of war to show their own- 
 ership, etc. Our word stigma is from stizo, which means a 
 brand or mark of dishonor, and it is the same meaning given 
 to this mark. Sinful man was created on the sixth day and 
 the serpent was created on the sixth day and it is given six 
 names in the Bible. Goliath bore his symbols of strength when 
 he carried six pieces of armor. His height was six cubits and 
 the weight of his armor six hundred shekels. He was full 
 clad in heathen symbols. 
 
 The image that Nebuchadnezzar sat up to be worshiped in 
 the plain of Dura was six cubits broad, and sixty cubits 
 high and was worshiped with six instruments of music. 
 17 
 
258 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 While some of these facts are only suggestive, they all have a 
 bearing on the mysterious number six in connection with idol- 
 atry. It strikes root in the very depths of diabolism as point- 
 ing to the source of sin and the fall of man; and John, who 
 is the apostle of love, is also the apostle of ultraism, leaving 
 not one bright color or trait in the character of Satan or those 
 allied with him. We have three very interesting uses of the 
 number six in this book and they all have the same allusion 
 to idolatry that four has to apostasy, etc. The backslidden 
 church at Laodicea has six deprecations as follows: They are: 
 
 1. 
 
 Lukewarm. 
 
 4. 
 
 Poor, 
 
 2. 
 
 Wretched, 
 
 5. 
 
 Blind, 
 
 3. 
 
 Miserable_, 
 
 6. 
 
 Naked, 
 
 and those who did not repent after the woe of the sixth 
 trumpet, John says they worship: 
 
 1. Devils, 4. Idols of brass, 
 
 2. Idols of gold, 5. Idols of stone, 
 
 3. Idols of silver, 6. Idols of wood, 
 
 and in the chapter before us we have religious slaves: 
 
 1. The Small, 4. The Poor, 
 
 2. The Great, 5. The Free, 
 
 3. The Eich, 6. The Bond. 
 
 , Six occurs only in these cases. One can fairly see the old 
 serpent crawling through all this trading and marking the 
 servants of beast power. 
 
 The buying and selling well represent the religious busi- 
 ness of worldlings and world power and world worship. They 
 make merchandise of Christ as they did of His garments, and 
 they sold His servants and tramped down His church. Christ 
 is not said to come in any number expressly, but He does in 
 fact come in the symbol seven. In six days God created the 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. - 259 
 
 heaven and the earth and on the seventh He rested^ and 
 seven is the symbol of His rest and fullness and of all His 
 heavenly powers, His apostles, His churches and the Holy 
 Spirit, all looking to the divine consummation. Six is devilish 
 and is opposed to seven, which is heavenly. It stands in the 
 Greek thus: '^ '^ 1= 66Q, 
 
 In this manner, if we were to express Christ in symbol num- 
 bers, it would stand: ''^ q 5=777. 
 conquest, perfection, eternity and Sabbatic rest. 
 
260 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 CHAPTEE XIV. 
 
 Revelation XIV. 
 
 THE REGENERATION. 
 
 We have now passed over the first great division of the 
 Apocalypse. The two major series are the Seals and Trumpets, 
 and joined with these we saw the work of the Holy Spirit 
 reviving the two witnesses (the word of God) to measure the 
 new temple, and^ following these, the fortunes of the church. 
 There is no extension of time in the two great series to follow, 
 as though they came later, but they will cover the same period 
 of time, or so much of it as is involved in the phase of the 
 subject to be treated. There is no time beyond the seventh 
 trumpet and the seventh seal, as they each mark the end. 
 "Within that period all is finished. What follows now is a dif- 
 ferent point of view or the presentation of the subject matter 
 related to the second half of the Great Commission. 
 
 The Seals and Trumpets, taken together with the chapters 
 on the Spirit and the Church, gave so much of the substance 
 of the story as relates to the first part of the Great Commis- 
 sion, while the double series, which we are now to study, give 
 the subject matter as it is related to the judgment or negative 
 side of the Great Commission upon them that believe not. 
 Disposed upon this order a great range of correlated parts has 
 been brought to view which have vital relations to the 
 subject, but not with direct reference to chronological order. 
 The treatment along these closely related lines must, of course, 
 involve each other, just as writing a commercial history of a 
 country must involve its political and military history, etc. 
 But these two double series are related to each other on a plan 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 261 
 
 which shows by their nature and relations to belong to the 
 two sides of the Great Commission respectively. John's own 
 giving of the commission is "God so loved the world that He 
 gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him 
 shall not perish, but have eternal life/' Life and death are 
 the alternatives. Till now all we have read pertained to the 
 first or positive side, and w^hat follows is the negative and 
 judgment side upon the wicked. The Seals and Trumpets 
 come to view again, but in new names and offices, which clearly 
 show the last things as respects the punishment of the wicked 
 and rewards of the saints. 
 
 The fourteenth chapter stands in relation to the second 
 half of the book somewhat as the fifth stood to the first half. 
 That chapter presented Christ standing before the Father to 
 receive thie sealed book concerning the Eeformation; this 
 shows him standing before the regeneration on the beautiful 
 Mount Zion with His saints looking into the regeneration with 
 the last commission to the world. The Christian dispensation 
 is thus viewed in three parts: 
 
 The first is the Evangelization under the apostles, the second 
 is the Reformation in which we are now engaged, the time of 
 trumpeting, and the third the Eegeneration, in which all beast 
 power shall be put down and which is an extension of the 
 Eeformation on a new basis. The first is given in history, the 
 second is given in mystery, the third will be given in the 
 full open light of the prophecies revealed and understood. 
 The seals are to be broken and read. The two new series we 
 now must study we will call the Evangels and the Avengers 
 of the Eegeneration, as words fittingly expressing their acts and 
 correlations, the first series having no name given it and the 
 second being called "the seven vials" or "bowls of wrath." 
 
 By the number of seven parts in these series, and by their 
 relation to each other, and by their joint relation to the two 
 
262 MYSTERY OF TIIE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 major series (Seals and Trumpets) all show clearly it is Christ 
 and His apostles acting over again corresponding but other 
 and different parts in this great achievement; and as we found 
 their relations in the Seals and Trumpets were the relations 
 they sustained under the Great Commission, and as carrying 
 it out on the positive side, so here they are in correspondent 
 parts carrying it out on the negative side, the last of God's 
 plagues upon the disobedient. Christ now stands before the 
 Eegeneration with His sealed saints to again perform seven 
 parts as He did in opening the seven seals, but now seven angels 
 are employed. Two angels are supplied with apparently no 
 other design than to make good the seven parts and to show 
 that what the seals and trumpets were to the positive these are 
 to the negative side of the Great Commission. So it preserves 
 unity of design. He wrote seven letters and opened seven seals 
 and now acts seven parts again. 
 
 It must, of course, be firmly fixed in mind that these are 
 only the forms chosen to express the truth that God is in fact 
 carrying out these judgments through His saints. There is 
 no intimation of any new forces to enter the field other than 
 those already known and appointed. We have the sum of all 
 heavenly powers- now at work except the Eevelation of St. 
 John, which is practically an almost forbidden book, though 
 it is the chief corner stone of the N'ew Testament. Our present 
 Eeformation was not the result of new visible forces, but the 
 new use and application of the old, under the power of the 
 Holy Spirit in the hearts of His servants. So we may expect 
 the Regeneration also to be greater far with the great sealed 
 book now open. 
 
 And I saw and behold the Lamb standing on the Mount Zion and 
 with him a hundred and forty and four thousand having his name 
 and the name of his Father written on their foreheads. 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 263 
 
 The number of the saints who were said to be about the 
 throne to worship Him when Christ tool-c the book to open 
 it was "ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of 
 thousands/^ and at the mystic Pentecost there were "numbered 
 a hundred and forty and four thousand/' same as here; but 
 when John saw them himself he pronounced them "a multi- 
 tude which no man can number." It includes all saints, for 
 his treatment of them never admits a division. These saints 
 are now seen having their reward. They have His name 
 and His Father's name written on their foreheads, and this is 
 their passport to all fields of the Lord's possessions. 
 
 When he took the book to open it the angels or saints sung 
 a new song, saying, "Thou art worthy to take the book and 
 to open it, etc.," but now they sing another "new song." It 
 is the song of Moses and the Lamb; the song of deliverance; 
 but the oracle does not answer the question whether this is' in 
 the spirit world. It will not divide on that line. All saints 
 have eternal life now. 
 
 And I heard a voice from heaven as the voice of many waters 
 and as the voice of great thunder and as the voice of harpers harp- 
 ing, and they sing as it were a new song before the throne and be- 
 fore the living creatures and the elders and no man could learn the 
 song save the hundred and forty and four thousand, even they that 
 had been purchased out of the earth. 
 
 Each guest now stands with his Lord, and, having His 
 name written on his forehead and a harp in his hand, in a 
 swell of exclamations he sings deliverance as he looks down 
 upon the fields now reaped and the harvest gathered and the 
 stubble to be burned. The song he sings no other can ever 
 learn. N'o one can sing salvation who has it not, though we 
 suffer our choirs to perpetrate the lie sometimes in our 
 churches. 
 
 These are they which were not defiled with women (false 
 
264 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 churches) for they are virgins. These are they that follow the 
 Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These are purchased from among 
 men to be the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their 
 mouth was found no lie, they are without blemish. 
 
 They will not even sing a lie. What a suggestion is this 
 that these are they that follow the Lamb whithersoever He 
 goeth, for in times of simulations there is no truly good move- 
 ment that is not soon corrnpted by men, so that which at an 
 early stage is a helper of oiir virtue, our faith, and our per- 
 sonal purity, afterward becomes an obstacle and a corrupter 
 of them; and those who follow the Lamb whithersoever he 
 goeth have to hold all the organizations of men like Israel on 
 leaving Egypt ready to go at a moment's warning; for Christ 
 cannot be found in any of the corrupt organizations of men 
 where selfishness rules and where pretense to religion is a mock 
 of the true. Here on Mount Zion, with Him whom they fol- 
 lowed whithersoever He goeth, they sing in thunderous praises 
 to the twanging of ten thousand times ten thousand harps and 
 the melody of voices. The exodus is now effected and the dark 
 waters roll behind us and we sing the song of deliverance while 
 the waves flow on above our enemies. This is the opening 
 of the Eegeneration. We seem near at this hour. 
 
 The Lamb is mentioned twenty-eight times and in every case 
 a better translation would give us young lamb or "Little 
 Lamb,'' and in this we see the refinement and endearment of 
 his name as John was fond of using it against the great coarse 
 beast that counterfeits His holy offices. His painstaking for 
 His own precious followers is marked by the same care for 
 their preservation. They are sealed on the forehead and 
 recorded and numbered and clad in white garments and are 
 tabernacled and led to living fountains of water and have His 
 own and His Father's names written on their foreheads, etc. 
 No locality as Mount Zion can be thought of any more than 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 265 
 
 an actual writing on the forehead. It is a condition, not a 
 place. 
 
 Long absent from his friends and from the once beloved 
 city of his fathers and from the dearest spot on earth, his own 
 home, to which he led Mary weeping from the cross, John 
 now sees his Lord on the once glorious Mount Zion clothed 
 with the glories of triumph and His saints rejoicing. The 
 Jews' temple, once the pride of Israel, is now in the dust. 
 The place is profaned and the disciples scattered, the apostles 
 all dead, and now what thoughts must have filled his heart 
 while he looked upon this scene, we cannot tell. He has seen 
 his Lord, heard Him speak, felt His hands upon him, yet 
 he has not ventured to reply or speak to Him. This is the 
 preface to our new series, the Evangels and Avengers. All the 
 imagery that represented the worldly and diabolical powers as 
 dominating over the saints and the church are henceforth miss- 
 ing. Heaven is triumphant now and till the end. There are 
 no more symbols showing God's people in oppression. Hence- 
 forth all is judgment upon the wicked. 
 
 In looking upon these two great series, the Seals and Trum- 
 pets on one hand and the Evangels and Avengers on the other, 
 we will think of the two mounts of cursing and blessing, Ebal 
 and Gerazim, between which Israel waited while the two groups 
 of prophets stood and pronounced blessing and cursing; the 
 two tables of stone containing the law, the two trees in the 
 Garden, the book written within and on the back side, the 
 two-edged sword, the two great dreams of Joseph and of Pha- 
 raoh and of Nebuchadnezzar, the two candlesticks, the two 
 olive trees, the two witnesses, and the two trees in the New 
 Jerusalem, and related to these the two sides of the Great 
 Commission, which is the form that governs the relations of 
 the categories of the major sevens to each other. The Evangels 
 and Avengers are companions as respects each other as the 
 
266 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 Seals and Trumpets were companions^ and^ taken together, they 
 are negative companion to them as the second part of the Great 
 Commission is negative to the first part. 
 
 The Evangels and Avengers, like the Seals and Trumpets, 
 record the progress and ongoing of time, but they do not begin 
 at the same point, but rather as belonging by their nature to 
 the time of the three "woe^' trumpets. The important point 
 in which these series differ from the Seals and Trumpets is 
 that in these the world powers have no victories. Even their 
 number "four" is missing. Everything goes the heavenly way. 
 AATiile we see again the same divisions into groups of four and 
 three, the groups of three come first, as, in the letters, and now 
 both groups are heavenly victories. The numbering in the Evan- 
 gels series goes only as far as to three, as "the second angel" 
 and "the third angel," and the other four parts go unnum- 
 bered, and this seems to have escaped attention hitherto, so 
 that it was not discerned as vital to the order that there are 
 seven actors in the series to properly supplement the seven 
 Seals, which they do. It is strange to observe that not only 
 do these two series stand to each other in the same analogous 
 relation as do the Seals and Trumpets in the points named, 
 but there lies between them a Pentecost occupying the same 
 relative position, and occupying about the same relative space, 
 but it is a different kind of Pentecost. The day of Pentecost 
 not only affirmed Christ's righteousness, but convicted the 
 world of sin. It does not as the first one face the Evangeliza- 
 tion, but the Eegeneration. It does not show the early acts 
 of the apostles, thus indicating that they come later and belong 
 to the three woe trumpets. 
 
 THE FIRST EVANGEL. 
 
 And I saw another angel flying mid heaven having an eternal 
 gospel to proclaim to them that dwell upon the earth and unto every 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 267 
 
 nation and tribe and tongue and people, and he saith with a great 
 voice. Fear God and give him glory for the hour of his judgment is 
 come and worship him that made the heaven and the earth and the 
 sea and the fountains of waters. 
 
 The heightened aspect of this evangel's mission shows we 
 have come out into greater light. We are looking upon the 
 times and conditions of the regeneration, the last call, when 
 the starlight of our present Eeformation will sink away before 
 the rising sun of that new glad day of the third and finishing 
 work of the heavenly powers. The power of God, and the 
 people of God are coming into the ascendant and are no longer 
 to crawl about the earth seeking a place where to be tolerated 
 by its mere sufferance as hitherto. An eternal Gospel refers 
 to the more permanent state of things as against the changeful 
 and transitory of hitherto. 
 
 The evangel mounts above the earlier stage. At first the 
 truth rode a horse, and then it cast out fire as from within 
 the temple, and then- it mingled with blood in the unequal 
 strife with brute force, then it rose to the voice of Trumpets, 
 then as the uttering of voices of thunders, but now it takes 
 to the heavens and flies aloft above our heads and cries aloud 
 a last call so that all the tribes and nations of the earth can 
 hear. At the Eeformation the truth arose as from the dead 
 and ascended to the temple, but now it comes as from on 
 high and on rapid wing flies from nation to nation, saying, 
 "Fear God and give Him glory," and proclaiming the eternal 
 gospel unrestrained and above all harm to be followed by an- 
 other to bring good news, more yet. 
 
 The mention of all nations and tribes and tongues and 
 people and of the sea and the fountains of waters show the 
 greatest extent and universality in the preaching. There is a 
 grandeur about this preaching not hitherto seen. It is like 
 a formal summon with authority from God. What a time of 
 
268 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 largeness and activity is this! The present means and methods 
 of spreading the gospel strongly suggest the approach of such 
 a time and invite us to rise and possess the kingdom. 
 
 THE SECOND EVANGEL. 
 
 And another, a second angel, followed, saying. Fallen! fallen! is 
 Babylon the great which hath made all the nations to drink of the 
 wine of the wrath of her fornication. 
 
 The same rising into greater power is noticed again in the 
 
 extent of judgment. At first, at the reformation, she fell only 
 
 "a tenth part/' but now proud Babylon falls twice. She is 
 
 "fallen_, fallen." She falls and falls; the wicked city that has 
 
 made all the nations drunken with the wine of the wrath of her 
 
 fornication. This angel also flies midheaven, following the 
 
 first to tell all nations the joyful news of a great disaster upon 
 
 the enemy. 
 
 THE THIRD EVANGEL. 
 
 And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a great 
 voice. If any man worship the beast and his image and receive a 
 mark upon his forehead or upon his hand he also shall drink of 
 the wine of the wrath which is prepared unmixed in the cup of his 
 anger; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the 
 presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb, and 
 the smoke of their torment goeth up forever and ever, and they 
 have no rest day and night, they that worship the beast and his 
 image and whoso receiveth the mark of his name. 
 
 This is a picture of the fate of all who worship beast power. 
 This third angel also flies mid heaven, calling the awful judg- 
 ment of God upon all who worship the beast or his image. The 
 symbols of punishment hitherto had more of a temporal aspect 
 as hiding in the caves and rocks, etc., but this has in it the 
 fire and brimstone forever and ever. It also shows that false 
 religion is classed with beast worship. 
 
 The two groups of the Evangels are divided by the 
 
 I 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 269 
 
 words: "Here is the patience of the saints, they that keep 
 the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." This same 
 sentiment we had in substance in xiii, 10. It is toward this 
 righteous retribution that the children of faith look forward. 
 It was this that consoled and quieted the souls of the martyrs 
 that cried from under the altar. As the light of the truth 
 about Christ has risen so greatly already, it is doubtful if the 
 believer can even now live up to the highest light and not 
 be required to suffer vexation and persecution from the wicked, 
 the wickedest of whom themselves profess the religion of Christ 
 and hold membership in a so-called church. Joined to this 
 truism is another saying spoken from heaven and sanctioned 
 by the Spirit very like those utterances we heard in the seven 
 letters. 
 
 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, Write, Blessed are the 
 dead which die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, 
 that they may rest from their labors, for their works follow with 
 them. 
 
 Here again we see a condition advanced greatly upon 
 the former state. They will no longer cry from under the 
 altar, as at the first, but are blest and happy saints. It calls 
 our attention to a great change. At that early time all who 
 fell under the stroke of beast power had, like our dear exile, 
 to look down into the dark future in which personal worth 
 and example must be lost in the night of its darkness that 
 shut them off from their fruit here in this world. The voices 
 of the slain then cried from beneath the altar to their Master 
 for retribution^ but now all is changed. They looked forward 
 to a time when the Bible would be clad in graveclothes and 
 the church would be trodden under the feet of the nations, and 
 even what light the world had would be turned to darkness 
 and their own names lost from the world's history. The bones 
 of a few of them would be preserved and worshiped more than 
 
270 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 their deeds were imitated^ but their souls must cry from another 
 world. 
 
 Their lives were without succession on earth. John saw 
 the wrong way in which the churches were moving and hence 
 his strong desire to see what the seven sealed messages con- 
 tained about their future. No wonder the book was bitter to 
 his reflections^ but now he announces a time when all is 
 changed. What is done in righteousness henceforth shall live 
 and the fruits of our sowing shall increase. The time has 
 come when ^^their works do follow" and hence ^^blessed are 
 the dead who die in the Lord henceforth, yea saith the Spirit." 
 They rest from their labors^ they no longer cry from under the 
 » altar and their works do follow with them^ consoling thought! 
 
 How wonderful are the present means of preserving all that 
 one does and not only for handing it down to posterity, but for 
 spreading it abroad — the printing press, the telegraph, the tele- 
 j)hone and even the phonograph, so that not only his thoughts 
 and deeds, but his likeness and his voice may all be taken and 
 handed down to speak like Enoch when he is no longer here, 
 "being dead he yet speaketh." 
 
 In the Evangels the first group are sowing angels, and the 
 second group are harvesting angels. How vividly the words 
 come to mind. "He that soweth the good seed is the son of 
 man; the seed is the word of God; the field is the world; 
 the good seed are children of the kingdom, but the tares are 
 the children of the wicked one, and the enemy that sowed 
 them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world and the 
 reapers are the angels." 
 
 THE HARVESTERS. 
 
 The harvesters are in pairs. Two gather the wheat and 
 two burn up the tares. Two act as voices from within and two 
 act as harvesters without. But the tares here are changed 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 271 
 
 into the symbol of an earth-creeping vine to represent the 
 wicked. 
 
 And I saw and behold a white cloud and on the cloud I saw 
 one sitting like unto a son of man having on his head a golden 
 crown and in his hand a sharp sickle. 
 
 The cloud was the ascension chariot of our risen Lord, 
 with the cloud He was mantled when He descended with the 
 little book open. The cloud is now His flying vehicle in which 
 He goes to the harvest of the earth. He was first seen with 
 a bow, riding a white horse, and again we see Him with 
 a sharp two-edged sword coming out of His mouth toward His 
 foes, but this time He has a sharp sickle going to the wheat 
 harvest. This still shows the rising toward a climax in every 
 part He bears. "One like unto the Son of man" almost calls 
 His name. It is indeed the Son of Man. This is another 
 coming of the Lord and is a far more plausible one for a 
 theory of His visible appearing than that we met with in the 
 tenth chapter, where He comes with the little book open in 
 His hand to reveal, but now with a sickle to the harvest. 
 
 And another angel came out of the temple crying with a great 
 voice to him that sat on the cloud, Send forth thy sickle and reap, 
 for the hour to reap has come for the harvest of the earth is over- 
 ripe, and he that sat upon the cloud cast his sickle upon the earth 
 and the earth was reaped. 
 
 The two parts being employed by two angels seems to have 
 no other object than to fill up the measure to seven to har- 
 monize with the seven seals. This harvest is a wheat harvest 
 as against the vintage harvest which is to follow. An angel 
 within the temple commands the angel upon the cloud to 
 thrust in his sickle. This temple angel suggests it is the 
 church taking part. In studying it we must not forget that 
 it is in fact ourselves doing all that is done — that is, the church 
 
273 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 in that larger sense of the sum total of all the heavenly powers 
 now at work and that the use of these forms is to preserve an 
 order and to give assurance that it is a part of the carrying 
 out of that gospel which began in miracles, but since the 
 Eeformation has won without them. 
 
 And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, 
 he also having a sharp sickle, and another angel came out from the 
 altar, he that hath power over fire, and he cried with a great voice 
 to him that had the sharp sickle, saying. Send forth thy sickle and 
 gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully 
 ripe, and the angel cast his sickle into the earth and gathered the 
 vintage of the earth and cast it into the winepress of the wrath of 
 God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and there 
 came out blood from the winepress even unto the bridles of the 
 horses as far as a thousand and six hundred furlongs. 
 
 This is not a battle, not a war scene. It is a harvest scene 
 and the blood which forms a sea in which horses might swim 
 is the blood of "the vine of the earth," which creeps upon 
 the earth, and whose fruit is clustered like the sins of the 
 wicked city which are said to cleave together (xviii, 5, margin). 
 The place of execution is outside the city. "V^Hien John was 
 commanded to rise and measure the temple and the altar and 
 the worshipers he was told not to measure the court without, 
 for it is given to the Gentiles. Without the temple and outside 
 the city mean the same thing viewed from two points. It means 
 those outside the fold or church. The wheat harvest being 
 ripe has already been gathered in, and each grain has a dis- 
 tinct personality and is cared for. But the vine cleaves to- 
 gether. The earth vine holds the same relation in this figure 
 of the harvest that the tares do to the wheat in one of His 
 parables and that the goats do to the sheep in another. Also 
 this earth vine is expressed by the red horse, by the black 
 horse, by the dragon and by the beasts. They are all of one 
 
OR, TliE RIVEN VEIL. 273 
 
 family and are to be taken without the church or kingdom 
 to be put into the wine-press of the wrath of God. These 
 are they who are not measured, not numbered, not sealed on 
 the forehead, not saved, but are engrossed or massed together 
 and here described in their overthrow as so many furlongs of 
 blood. They are now in the wine-press of the wrath of God, 
 to be trodden till their blood runs a red sea where horses may 
 swim to their bridle bits. The wheat is gathered in and safely 
 eared for, but the chaff, the tares, the goats, the creeping vine 
 are now harvested and the vintage is taken without the city 
 and is trodden in the wine-press of the wrath of God till the 
 blood runs and fills a basin in extent of furlongs four times 
 four multiplied by a hundred, sixteen hundred furlongs. 
 
 Four times four multiplied by one hundred, the grand sum 
 total of all worldliness and sin brought to execution. This has 
 a strong general resemblance to the crucifixion of the world 
 powers in the sixth seal and .to the world powers let loose to 
 shed blood in the sixth trumpet. The separation is now com- 
 plete; the wheat is gathered, the tares are burned and we shall 
 soon behold again that new sea of joyful saints, of the mil- 
 lennium clear as crystal. The sea into which the mountain 
 sank and filled with corruption is going to be purified. The 
 angel that commands the gathering of the vine is said to be 
 he that hath power over fire; that means the weapon is the 
 word and a sword and a bow and fire, etc. Christ's personal 
 victories are represented as won by a bow in His hand, and 
 a sword coming out of His mouth, and by His treading His 
 enemies under His feet, and by crucifying them, and as ruling 
 them with a rod of iron, and as binding Satan with a chain 
 and sealing him up and casting him into a lake of fire. These 
 are symbols of the Regeneration and purifying of the v/orld. 
 In these Evangels we do not see anything like the mingling of 
 fire with blood, or a mountain on fire, or other results as v/here 
 18 
 
274 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 tlie apostles were the actors, but like the seals, as where Christ 
 acts in His own function, all confirming the fact that the Evan- 
 gels are the complement and the negative to the Seals as the 
 bowls of wrath or Avengers are to the Trumpets. 
 
 The horses mentioned here as swimming in blood to their 
 bridle bits are red horses — ^that is, worldliness — swimming in 
 its own gore in the great defeat it is to sustain from the 
 treading in the wine-press or from the sword that proceeds 
 out of His month as in battle, where we are presently to see 
 the army of white horses arise where the white horse of the 
 first seal is become victorious and head of the armies of heaven. 
 Every sign and symbol connected with this series shows the 
 heightened conditions of the great drama. Angels fiy mid- 
 heaven and ride upon a white cloud and carry sickles and come 
 from within the temple and from the altar, and order the 
 harvesting of grain, and the gathering and treading down of 
 the wicked outside the holy city. Human life has changed 
 conditions. It is declared by a voice from heaven that hence- 
 forth blessed are the dead that die in the Lord; they rest 
 from their labors now, are satisfied and blessed. Here is a 
 triumph on earthy which is the field of battle. The Evangels 
 tell the entire story on the negative or judgment side of the 
 Great Commission just as the Seals told it on the positive and 
 saving side. This is the form and structure upon which the 
 Revelation of God concerning things which shall come to pass 
 hereafter articulates. 
 
 I 
 
 m 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 275 
 
 CHAPTEE XY, 
 
 Revelation XV. 
 
 THE PENTECOST OP REGENERATION. 
 
 The subject of the fifteenth chapter is of the nature of a 
 Pentecost. It stands related to the Evangels and Avengers 
 in a way exactly analogous to that which the mystic Pente- 
 cost, of the seventh chapter, stood to the Seals and Trumpets. 
 
 1. We notice that its position lying between the Evangels 
 and Avengers suggests its character. 
 
 2. Its supplementary relation to the Evangels and its prefa- 
 tory relations to the Avengers Series also tell its nature. 
 
 3. It is in its nature related to the Evangels and Avengers, 
 having affinities with both, like that we saw between the Seals 
 and Trumpets, the glassy sea here being mingled with fire, etc. 
 
 The apostles are now commissioned with the vengeance of 
 our God. 
 
 And I saw another sign in heaven great and marvelous, the 
 seven angels having the seven plagues which are the last; for in 
 them is finished the wrath of God. 
 
 These are called definitely ^^the seven angels," as though 
 we had known them before. They seem to stand and hold 
 the plagues very like their standing and holding the seven 
 trumpets and as 'then there was an interruption of the order 
 to elect another angel, so there is here an interruption in the 
 proceedings, but without any election. It is carrying out the 
 same commission. This is in form a Pentecost to the nega- 
 
276 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 tive and judgment side of the Great Commission, but it is 
 dim and partial. 
 
 And I saw as it were a glassy sea mingled with fire and them 
 that come victorious from the beast and from his image and from 
 the number of his name standing by (or upon) the glassy sea hav- 
 ing harps of God. 
 
 It wonld seem that the victors were standing on the sea, but 
 it is only, saying they were of the sea or part of the sea itself. 
 Those nearest were seen in vision as persons, but at a distanc'e 
 they blended into a sea, as we see in a picture .of a multitude 
 of people. 
 
 This sea represents "all nations" in process of Regenera- 
 tion. We have seen them as "ten thousand times ten thousand 
 and thousands of thousands" and as "a great multitude" in 
 white linen which no man could number. 
 
 This is the same sea into which the mountains sank and 
 corrupted it with the carcasses of the slain, but now purified. 
 We see it at different stages, just as we saw the four beasts 
 changing to be the living creatures. We saw this sea twice in 
 the millennium, where it is crystalline, and once at an earlier 
 stage, where it was defiled, but now we see it fire blent, all 
 mingled, with the word of God purifying it. At the first Pente- 
 cost at Jerusalem the fire sat as flaming tongues on the heads 
 of the apostles, and at the mystic Pentecost of the seals and 
 trumpets fire was represented as being cast out of the temple 
 upon the earth and as mingling with blood and hail, but now 
 the once perturbed sea of humanity, then putrified with death 
 like the rivers of Egypt, is fire blent as when the sun shines 
 down into the sea. This is the sea of the world's victory over 
 brute rule, and a once beastly world now standing with joy 
 before the throne with Pentecostal harps, harping the glory 
 of the Regeneration. Everything is on an enlarged scale now 
 and triumph fills the air. 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 277 
 
 And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the 
 song of the Lamb, saying. Great and marvelous are thy works, O 
 Lord God Almighty, righteous and true are thy ways, thou King of 
 the Ages, who shall not fear Lord and glorify thy name for thou 
 only are holy, for all the nations shall come and worship before 
 thee for thy righteous acts have been made manifest. 
 
 The time has come when the goodness of God is gladly 
 acknowledged by the nations. This does not say that all indi- 
 viduals will be spiritually saved, but that the nations will be 
 under His rule, "the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the 
 earth as the waters cover the deep." It is a redeemed world, 
 where the wicked even outwardly conform to Christ's reign. 
 
 And after these things I saw, and the temple of the tabernacle of 
 the testimony in heaven was opened and there came out of the 
 temple the seven angels which had the seven plagues, arrayed in 
 linen pure and bright and girded about their breasts with golden 
 girdles. 
 
 This is the second account we have had of the opening of 
 this temple, but it is now described not as the opening of the 
 temple simply, but it is greatly heightened in the form, of 
 expression. There it was "the temple of God in heaven," but 
 now "the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven 
 is open." There the ark of the covenant, which silently spoke 
 for God, was seen in its place (xi, 19), but now the seven 
 angels come out clad in white, "jeweled," as the Eevised has it, 
 to execute the will of God on the disobedient. Here again 
 is that rising into greater power and glory that so clearly 
 marks these later series. 
 
 The tabernacle belonged to the condition of the exodus and 
 of sojourning through the wilderness; but when the Jordan 
 was crossed the tabernacle was folded away, merged into the 
 temple, which is permanent. This points to a time when the 
 
278 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 tribulations and the patience of the kingdom are over, and 
 the kingdom is triumphant and permanent. When this temple 
 was opened by the seventh Trumpet it was attended by great 
 voices in heaven^ saying, "The Kingdom has come." That 
 was on the positive side, but now, when it is shown again, it 
 is for another purpose — to punish wickedness, etc. — as closing 
 up the time of tribulation. This shows we are dealing with 
 the same conditions of things, but looking to final results with 
 the enemy defeated and subjugated. At every step there is an 
 air of largeness leading up to that state of things we saw in 
 the fourth chapter, called the Millennium, when the Elders 
 and the four living creatures shall sit down in grateful praise 
 before the throne to extol the majesty and the will of God. 
 What a consoling thought it is to see these seven angels come 
 out of the temple — that is, the church itself — coming out of 
 its tribulation to execute divine retribution and to rule over 
 the world in righteousness. This is telling us in these terms 
 that the church will pour out the bowls of wrath on the very 
 roots of sin and rebellion. 
 
 These avenger angels come out of the temple, the new 
 temple of the Eegeneration. They are arrayed for their work, 
 but who shall give them their bowls of wrath to pour out 
 upon the roots of sin? 
 
 And one of the four living creatures gave unto the seven angels 
 seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who Jiveth forever and 
 ever. 
 
 What a surprise! One of the Four Living Creatures, repre- 
 sentative of the world powers, the old enemy, now offering 
 friendly offices, assisting the church! The old foe meeting 
 the delegates of the church and handing to them the bowls of 
 wrath of Almighty God to pour out on sin! The church and 
 the world powers come together at last! This is exactly the 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 279 
 
 result shown by the seventh Trumpet. This is the first time 
 they have come together since we saw them in the fruition, 
 and so we are notified that we have again come to that state 
 of affairs where the world powers succumb and obey and co- 
 operate. The kingdom of men has become the kingdom of 
 God and of His Christ. 
 
 And the temple was filled with the smoke trom the glory 
 of God and from His power, and none was able to enter into the 
 temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels should be finished. 
 
 The dedication of Solomon's temple is the pattern that lies 
 under this lesson, and upon it the superscription of the 
 redeemed world is now written before our eyes. The taber- 
 nacle of the wilderness forever folded away, the journey ended, 
 the promised land reached at last. These are the facts by 
 which He is telling us of the end of the journey of time, and 
 tribulation of the saints, a time that is nearing us rapidly 
 now every day with increasing velocity of hastening and 
 ominous events. 
 
 Solomon's Temple on that happy day of its glorious dedi- 
 cation is the shadowgraph on which is here inscribed the sub- 
 stance — that is, the opening of that great temple which is 
 now being measured and builded till it shall stand the delight 
 of all nations and far greater than this present, middle and 
 compromised state of the church. Ah! the world will be 
 glorious then. 
 
 His ways with men will be no longer questioned. We have 
 come to a high plain. Between this, our day, and that there 
 must be great changes in the accepted ideas of Christ's right 
 over governments. 
 
 And none was able to enter into the temple till the seven 
 plagues of the seven angels should be finished. 
 
280 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 Why should they not be able to enter into it? It is because 
 all are emulating each other now in doing the will of God. 
 The church's long struggling has conquered and in conquering 
 has lost her distinguishing traits and is now sunken from sight 
 by the greater glory just as the rising sun puts out all the stars. 
 The church once in tribulation has become the church in 
 triumph, and the world now emulates her example, and uni- 
 versal uprising of the nations to convert brute power into 
 brotherhood will for the time supersede or outshine the church 
 so that one cannot tell church member from non-church mem- 
 ber. The greater glory shall extinguish the lesser while the 
 dedication is going on. What an expression of the greatness 
 of God's glory! The church, once lost to the world in the 
 wilderness, is now lost to sight in the smoke of its greater 
 incense of praise. 
 
 The story of Israel is retold in the shadowgraph and upon 
 it is expressed the glorious time to come. Israel in bondage, 
 then his exit, his journey and arrival in the promised land, 
 and the temple built and dedicated with such glory that you 
 cannot tell those inside from those outside, for the temple that 
 is the church will be enveloped with a world of glory. From 
 Jerusalem we start, and then through the Dark Ages we have 
 gone and are still going, till we are delivered and the temple 
 open, filled with incense, the whole world shall be as at the 
 dedication of Solomon's temple. 
 
 But we are asked what ground have we to expect such 
 unlikely and impossible changes in the world? The promise 
 of God. Then we have only to see what has been done to show 
 how perfectly reasonable the hope. God's dealings with Israel 
 were full of paradoxes such as these: 
 
 1. How could a nation of freed slaves come forth out of a 
 polytheistic nation, as Egypt, and themselves be monotheists? 
 
 2. How could they become polytheistic in practice when 
 
 I 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 281 
 
 they got to be a nation to themselves, their own law con- 
 demning it? 
 
 3. How could they be cured of polytheism while serving 
 another polytheistic nation, as Babylon? 
 
 4. How could the Jews, the narrowest and most exclusive 
 people on earth, give to the world its broadest and greatest 
 reformer, Christ? 
 
 5. Expecting a Messiah, how could they reject and crucify 
 Him and continue to hold out against Him when the most 
 enlightened nations accept and worship Him? 
 
 6. How can the Gentiles, who hate and persecute the Jews, 
 adore the Savior, born of a Jew woman? 
 
 7. How could Christianity overthrow the Eoman govern- 
 ment ? 
 
 8. How could our present civilization come out of the Dark 
 Ages? 
 
 In the first place we must remind ourselves that this is 
 the purpose and the outcome of this story, and that greatly 
 changed conditions await the future of our onward march; 
 though we may not yet see how it is to be accomplished, our 
 Father knows and we work. 
 
 The Eeformation came as from a restraint upon the world 
 power merely permitting the sealing of God's servants and a 
 replacement of t^e ark in its place, as already seen. In this 
 state we saw three mighty forces in the field. But here is a 
 picture of the world powers having run their course, and having 
 destroyed the Babylon they once served (chapters xvii and 
 xviii), are now themselves brought under the will of the Lord 
 and working with the saints in the regeneration. 
 
 The rebuilding of the temple and the replacement there of 
 the two witnesses in their places are given as the cause, and 
 the independence of governments from the locust power^ gave 
 the opportunity for increase and spread of the light. But 
 
282 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 here we meet conditions differing from those of the Reforma- 
 tion as they differed from the Dark Ages and from the first 
 evangelization. In the view jnst taken of the Evangels we 
 do not see a permissive attitude as in the Reformation, sealing 
 in the forehead as if by sufferance of the enemy and in a 
 subordinate position, but the messengers of Christ are aloft 
 on high in midheaven, and flying from nation to nation among 
 all tribes and tongues and peoples, etc., preaching above the 
 housetops boldly, openly and triumphantly, 
 
 Now we see the world powers in new relations to the church. 
 That is at a time yet to come, and upon the borders of which 
 I think we now stand; the world powers will have come to 
 their third estate and will help the church in causing "the 
 wilderness to blossom as a rose," and this mighty co-operation 
 will efface for the time the distinction so that none can dis- 
 tinguish the temple of incense from the temple of justice and 
 humanity. 
 
 The world that knew not God, the world that crucified the 
 Little Lamb, and that banished the most beloved exile is to 
 come into accord with His purpose and in consonance with 
 His church till the church has lost its distinguishing charac- 
 teristics. To the first church the world power was a red 
 dragon, a bloody murderer and slew our Lord and His fol- 
 lowers; in the second they stood in a permissive and tolerant 
 attitude, but in the third and last they themselves gave to 
 the shining, jeweled angels of light from their own hand the 
 bowls of God's wrath that shall completely "bruise the serpent's 
 head." Such indeed is the lesson conveyed by these forms. 
 But before this last condition can be had there is to be a 
 reckoning of the world powers with their former liege, the 
 king and kingdom of the locusts, and also another one with the 
 followers of the Lamb. World powers that lend themselves to 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 283 
 
 the will of man as against the will of God are at enmity with 
 God. 
 
 The close relation of the Protestant governments to the 
 Eeformation is full of suggestion as related to this wonderful 
 story. As these were closely connected in their separation from 
 the locust kingdom so they have continued in close relations. 
 They each took one full step from that power. The govern- 
 ments have assumed in the main a position of toleration to- 
 ward all without regard to former or to present differences 
 in religion. In our own America, at least, Protestantism is 
 so closely allied to political and commercial power that the 
 churches are a sort of reflex or image, so far as public and 
 organized immorality is concerned, and in those cities where 
 the locusts have the power the state of things is even worse. 
 Even upon such a question as the licensing instead of suppress- 
 ing of gambling and liquor dealing and now prize fighting, by 
 government, there is, I believe, no practical difference between 
 the church and the state. It has been declared that in every 
 state where the liquor power demands high license, low license, 
 or local option, the great parties in politics accept the policy, 
 and that the churches in these several states generally permit 
 the same policy at least by refusing to maintain discipline over 
 their offending members. If this is true in any degree it is a 
 damaging fact against the close and hurtful connection of the 
 church with the sinning world power. Here is a present state 
 of things which this book shows to be an intermediate stage 
 and transitory in fts very nature. It is reflection upon such 
 facts that leads one to expect very great changes. For it- is 
 manifest that nothing like a millennium can ever be had while 
 the church is adulterously following the world powers, to do 
 or to permit the worst of evils to society. Governments in the 
 lowest stage, seen in the toes of the great image, that lie 
 prone and divided on the earth, as at present they do, may 
 
284 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 not possess great governing powers^ bnt sncli as they have 
 cannot be nsed to abet crimes npon society nor nnder any 
 pretense permit them to exist for a money or other considera- 
 tion. It is here written that when the new evangel shall pro- 
 claim, he will say: "Babylon is fallen! is fallen!'' It fell 
 first with the Eeformation and secession of governments from 
 its power. Bnt it must fall again; and in America, at least, 
 it seems to be getting ready for it. Now the world powers, 
 it- is declared, will do this, completely destroying it, and the 
 fact is here dramatized where one of those four world creatures 
 that has six wings and is all composed of eyes is seen to take 
 part. One of the four living creatures we saw around the 
 throne in the millennium "gave unto the seven angels seven 
 golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who liveth forever and 
 ever." The world powers are to act with the church of God 
 in visiting His judgments iipon all the wicked institutions of 
 the world. It is so represented here. We stand at this hour 
 in that middle compromised and uncertain state resting upon 
 an armistice with the powers of darkness. 
 
 There is a feeling at this hour that the world stands upon 
 the brink of a pulsating crater. The state is too religious to 
 oppress any sect, and the sects are too worldly to convert gov- 
 ernment into Christian statehood. The people afraid of their 
 rulers, and, as always hitherto, the rulers afraid of the people; 
 painful hesitancy! The perturbed condition of the nations; 
 their instability; the obstruction by obsolete things once re- 
 garded as dispensable furtherances; the discontent; the new 
 agencies of power, speed and facility in every direction; the 
 close alliances of nations once strangers and far away; the 
 strange positions and transpositions of all the affairs of the 
 world at this moment are all signs of approaching changes. 
 Crime, too, is organizing, and all seem to feel we must meet 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 285 
 
 in 'some final contest of Armageddon the inevitable settlement 
 of old accounts. 
 
 The present denominations, surviving from their first and 
 well-begun work, seem to be obsolete as to the new and inevit- 
 able conditions of the world. Their early work created im- 
 proved conditions in the world, whit^h, in their later state, they 
 are in poor condition to forward. The malign conditions of 
 the world powers require a new alignment of Christian forces 
 that will compel government to be what God designed it to 
 be, "a praise to them that do good and a punishment to them 
 that do evil." 
 
 We are entering upon the third estate of the Christian age 
 and the wondrous aspect of afl:airs is full of possibilities. The 
 improved methods of travel and for the spread of intelligence, 
 together with the great awakening of the human mind through- 
 out the world, offer the opportunities that should awaken and 
 arm for the fray the entire Christian world as never before. 
 
 His church cannot rest with having simply effected a divorce 
 of itself and of the world powers from Babylon, any more 
 than the world powers can rest with this half-way measure 
 with Babylon. * 
 
 The world powers are to wheel into an attitude of hostility 
 to medieval political ecclesiasticism, and God's people are to 
 form in line to send out the angels of truth to accomplish their 
 part through the testimony of the Christ. And with this same 
 sword of truth are to stand up against the world powers to 
 convert governments into Christian statehood and Christian 
 commerce into Christian brotherhood, till no flag shall float 
 over a slave, nor slavemaker of any kind, till no ship shall bear 
 as commerce that which destroys life or degrades character. 
 
 The author of this work recently put forth in the public 
 prints as a proposed offset and negative to organized crime and 
 organized consenting to crime^ the following pledge of divorce; 
 
286 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 Overcomer's Vow: "What I ought not to do as a Christian 
 of my own accord I will not do in any combination with 
 others/' That might set free a better conscience and lay the 
 corner-stone for a new ethical movement in honor of Christ. 
 
 There is a brighter day ahead^, the last best state of the 
 world. We are nearing the last days of the great tribulation 
 to be followed by the Eegeneration. With dogma, ritualism, 
 and rationalism, etc., as forms of religion forever abolished, 
 and great free Christian men and women following the Lamb 
 withersoever He goeth, keeping His commands freely and in- 
 telligently, with no interference by any earthly authority, ad- 
 ministering the law on the all-comprehensive plan of "love 
 the Lord, thy God, with all thy mind, might and strength, and 
 thy neighbor as thyself,^' what a glory envelops the very 
 thought of it! 
 
 We noticed that one of the living creatures gave the seven 
 bowls of wrath to the seven temple angels — that is, to the 
 church — and the church accepted. They are friends, are in 
 a common cause to purify the earth. The church has broad- 
 ened her mission to saving the world, and the world powers 
 now lend their aid. They are friends, because the world now 
 walks by the will of God and not by the will of man. But 
 what do the bowls contain? The wrath of God upon all the 
 wickedness of the earth, upon all ungodly institutions of the 
 earth, upon the very foundations and sources of them. The 
 kingdom of men is become the kingdom of God and of the 
 Lamb. He now reigns on all thrones, in all municipalities. 
 "Old things have passed away. Behold, I create all things 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 287 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 Revelation. XVI. 
 THE AVENGERS. 
 
 The Avengers follow the Trumpeters by marks of identity 
 not to be mistaken. We recognize we have the apostles again, 
 only in changed names that suit their changed office. We 
 have known them as Disciples, as Apostles, as Stars, as Angels, 
 as Trumpeters, as Thunderers and now as bowls of wrath or 
 Avengers. In all these we see the several parts and relations 
 that belonged to them as Christ's chosen representatives stand- 
 ing always next to Him. 
 
 The Avenger series has seven parts, and in addition we have 
 three supplementary parts, just as we had in the Trumpet 
 series. These supplemental parts are the "angel of the waters," 
 the "voice from the altar/' and the "voice from the throne." 
 Not only do the seven Avengers follow the Trumpeters in their 
 number, and in having supplementary parts, but the bowls which 
 they empty are poured upon the same objects that engaged the 
 Trumpets and in the same order, only as four of the Trumpets 
 announced disaster to the heavenly things, these all inflict judg- 
 ments and woes upon the worldly. Like the Trumpets the 
 Avengers are in groups of four and three, only the group of 
 three comes first as in the letters and the Evangels and there 
 is no opposition between the groups, both bringing heavenly 
 triumphs. They are disastrous to the world powers and to the 
 wicked. 
 
 Conceding the Avengers are carrying out the negative and 
 judgment side of the Great Commission, we have perfect har- 
 mony of parts and of relations at once established, and the 
 
288 MYSTERY OF THiE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 pattern continues to guide us. The first bowl is wured upon 
 the earth, the second upon the sea, the third upoii the foun- 
 tains of waters, etc., exactly following the order of the Trum- 
 peters, showing they belong to the same system, only revers- 
 ing the order so far as to make them all calamitous to the 
 wicked. This shows that we are passing over the same sub- 
 ject matter, that we are doubling the ground and are follow- 
 ing the same pattern to show a different result upon the world 
 powers from the first. Much as we desire dates here, and to 
 bring these to the order of chronology and personalities, we 
 confess to a strong sense of pleasure in the coherency and 
 tenacity of the treatment. We shall, however, notice that the 
 symbols used in this series are more abstract, more attenuated. 
 They point more to the wrath of God upon the sources of 
 sin, than upon persons and nations. 
 
 Our language and our thoughts are too gross and materialistic 
 to see and feel the full force of these subtilized symbols at 
 this time, but there is every probability that in a day of 
 greater ethical refinement we shall see and feel the full force 
 of them. These symbols represent a state of things in the 
 spiritual world that corresponds to the power and mystery of 
 electricity in physical. Through a little wire an energy that 
 we can neither see, nor smell, nor taste, nor lay our hand upon, 
 is exerted that exceeds a hundred times the strength of a horse 
 or of the wire^s own tensile resistance that conveys it. "WHien 
 the human mind is once turned upon the metaphysical and 
 spiritual world as it has been upon the material, we may see 
 more clearly and feel more pungently the deep spiritual im- 
 port of these judgments. 
 
 We are surely in the twilight of that day when these awful 
 retributions will be understood, though language cannot now 
 nor ever will tell those "groanings which cannot be uttered." 
 They belong to a deeper world than this. 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 289 
 
 The day was when the childish thought of crisping flesh 
 was the most dreaded of all punishment, but no punishment 
 can compare with that far deeper pain that may fall upon the 
 spirit and soul. The new conditions rising in the world may 
 be the live wires that shall give not only life and light, but 
 also death to all who fall athwart their mighty current. 
 
 And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven 
 angels, Go ye and pour out the seven bowls of the wrath of God into 
 the earth. And the first went and poured out his bowl into the 
 earth and it became a noisome and grievous sore upon the men 
 which had the mark of the beast and which worshiped his image. 
 
 This description of this first judgment is so general as to 
 defy anything like detail. But beast worship will be punished. 
 
 The earth itself becomes unbearable to those who have long 
 abused its blessings. All that they sought to possess only that 
 they might misuse it has now turned against them and they 
 must suffer the results of their own evil doing. We have had 
 judgments all the way, but these are the last and the greatest. 
 This one is a reply to the first Trumpet which mingled the 
 blood pf the martyrs with the preaching. The present com- 
 pressed state of the world is such that men must henceforth 
 act and live imder more uniform conditions as one great family 
 to rise or to fall together. 
 
 The forces are now at work that are to destroy the condi- 
 tions that have governed and oppressed the world hitherto. 
 We are trembling upon the brink of changes which no human 
 calculations ca^ foreshadow as to what new conditions shall 
 rule the world. Selfishness still continues to rule in politics 
 and commerce. These conditions can give way only under 
 great pressure and that pressure is growing more intense every 
 day as personal rights come more and more into view and are 
 better understood. 
 
 The great locust plague was the first, and the great military 
 19 
 
290 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 plague was the second^ and the third plague will end in the 
 complete overthrow of beast dominion. Though according to 
 John's teaching, judgments always follow as the negative of 
 salvation, yet these are the last and great judgments of God 
 and we may safely refer their time to the three greater trum- 
 pets which sound the three woes. Here is a great heightening 
 of judgments equal to the heightened power of the preaching. 
 
 THE SECOND BOWL. 
 
 And the second poured out his bowl into the sea and it became 
 as the blood of a dead man and every living soul died, even the 
 things that were in the sea. 
 
 The brighter grows the light the deeper grows the shadow. 
 "When the mountain sank burning into the sea a third part of 
 the creatures and of the shipping were destroyed but now the 
 whole sea becomes as the blood of a dead man, a boiling mass 
 of putrefaction and every creature is dead — complete revenge 
 upon rebellion. 
 
 This is a total destruction of world power. It is the story 
 of the pale horse told again in different symbolism and as pro- 
 ceeding from the apostles or saints as it then proceeded from 
 the Christ. But as the sea was then a symbol of the people, 
 the present looks more to the sources of sin and of brute power 
 in them that "dwell upon the earth." 
 
 THE THIRD BOWL. 
 
 And the third poured out his bowl into the rivers and the 
 fountains of the waters and it (or they) became blood. 
 
 Using the singular for the plural which occurs so often assists 
 us in keeping the essential unity of the subject. There is a 
 constant effort to preserve all the minor distinctions under one 
 head in perfect unity for there are but two great spirits in this 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 291 
 
 conflict and all the aids and accessories on the respective sides 
 are of one nature and one destiny. 
 
 The third bowl calls our attention to the East, just as the 
 third Trumpet did, and the calamity is not now as then a 
 third part^ as where the heavenly interests were hurt, but now 
 it is against the world and is total. Our hearts turn to Armenia 
 and our prayers to God for her at this trying hour. 
 
 And I heard the angel of the waters saying, Righteous art thou 
 which art and which wast, thou holy one, because thou didst thus 
 judge; for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and 
 blood hast thou given them to drink, they are worthy. And I heard 
 the altar saying. Yea, Lord God the Almighty, true and righteous 
 are thy judgments. 
 
 The same wide sweep of judgment is seen here as in the 
 second bowl. The angel of the waters is only expressing a 
 sentiment in regard to the righteous retributions of God, and 
 the altar as representing those who have suffered martyrdom 
 for the cause of truth. That voice of crying from beneath 
 the altar is now satisfied and responds with a great "amen;" 
 God has given His enemies blood to drink and the altar jus- 
 tifies the act. Their vindication is complete. The retribution 
 is awful and final. God speed the day! 
 
 THE FOURTH BOWL. 
 
 And the fourth poured out his bowl upon the sun and it was 
 given it to scorch men with fire, and men were scorched with great 
 heat and they blasphemed the name of God which hath the power 
 over these plagues and they repented not to give Him glory. 
 
 The enemy was able to put the sun out at one time, but 
 now its rays have returned with scorching heat upon him. 
 The sun is the great "savor of life unto life in this physical 
 world and also of death unto death." So it is in the spiritual 
 
292 
 
 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 world. United with God by faith, the light of His testimony 
 enlightens the mind and warms the heart, but separated from 
 Him by disobedience those same rays work death. When that 
 great second woe fell npon the world by the army of horsemen, 
 John said notwithstanding that men died of such a plague, 
 still they repented not of iheir transgressions. 
 
 But here when a mightier judgment is visited upon the very 
 heart and root of sin, still they not only refuse to repent but 
 return blasphemy for all His goodness. It is clearly intimated 
 here that the wicked have taken notice of all these judgments, 
 showing that they are not local but general. The wicked are 
 hardened more and more. The power that hurts men is the 
 will of God, and is expresssed in His word. It was the tes- 
 timony of the two witnesses that tormented them that dwell 
 on the earth. Over their dead bodies they rejoiced and at 
 the sight of their resurrection they took fright, and that word 
 is getting brighter all the time and still they resist it and re- 
 pent not. We shall punish the wicked more when we raise 
 our own standard of Christian living. 
 
 THE FIFTH BOWL. 
 
 And the fifth poured out his bowl upon the throne of the beast, 
 and his kingdom was darkened and they gnawed their tongues for 
 pain, and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their 
 pains and their sores, and they repented not of their works. 
 
 The fifth trumpet opened the pit of the abyss, the seat of 
 Satanic power, and now the fifth bowl is poured out on this 
 seat. The smoke from that pit darkened the sun and tlie air 
 and brought on the dark night and now a retribution in kind 
 is visited upon it. The locusts who devoured all the earth 
 gnaw their tongues. As Egypt was plagued to compel it to 
 loosen its grip on God's people by the visitation of sores, etc.^r 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 293 
 
 SO they are here again punished to cause them to let go their 
 sins. 
 
 What a great variety of symbols we have for expressing these 
 punishments upon the wicked. They are frightened and run 
 away to hide and call upon the rocks and hills to fall upon 
 them and they frighten and flee at the rising of the two dead 
 witnesses. They are afflicted with sores, and the sea in which they 
 live becomes blood, and blood is given them to drink and 
 they are sunken in the lake of blood where horses swim to their 
 bridle bits, their rivers run blood, they are scorched with great 
 heat, their kingdom is in darkness, they gnaw their tongues, 
 being in anguish with pains and sores, they are led by unclean 
 spirits like frogs, and hailstones fall upon them from heaven 
 about the weight of a talent, etc.^ and at last are cast into a 
 lake of fire and brimstone. 
 
 These illustrate again in how highly figurative and Oriental 
 serse all these are to be taken/ not that they are less real but 
 beyond our power to perfectly understand, just as far as the 
 heavenly things which eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor 
 has entered into the heart of man to fully comprehend. The 
 time is drawing nearer when this will be a hard world for 
 sinners to live in. Hiding places will soon bring a high pre- 
 mium, a time when every rogue^s gallery will not only have 
 the picture of every criminal, but his measurements, that tell 
 upon him with such certainty as no one can escape. Our 
 means of sending intelligence can catch the flying rogue, and 
 crime will be hedged in very closely after awhile. The dark 
 ages have passed away and they are as great strangers in a 
 world of light as God's saints were in the age of darkness. 
 They gnaw their tongues. Alas, they were born too late. The 
 kingdom of God come is an awful pain to them. It is said 
 here for the second time that they repented not of their works. 
 Such will not repent though one rose from the dead. 
 
394 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 THE SIXTH BOWL. 
 
 And the sixth poured out his bowl upon the great river Euphrates 
 and the water thereof was dried up that the way might be made 
 ready for the kings that come from the sunrising. 
 
 The sixth, bowl brings up again the Euphrates as did the 
 sixth trumpet. As the draining off of the Euphrates left a 
 dry bed so that the armies of the East under Cyrus were en- 
 abled to enter Babylon and take the city, so shall be the sixth 
 bowl of wrath upon spiritual Babylon. 
 
 The kings of the East, or of the sunrising in this ^^ase, . 
 mean the Christian kings, the kingdom of kings and priests 
 who have risen to world ascendancy. That river of lust that 
 gave "Mystery Babylon" all her glory will be drained off and 
 the wicked city will be taken. The angel that bore on high 
 the seal of the living God is called the angel of the East or 
 of the sunrising, and He, Christ, is called the bright and morn- 
 ing star, the star of the East. 
 
 We are now approaching rapidly that consummation, and 
 as we look upon this ever heightening glory, what a heightening 
 of hope also to the believing soul! The kingdom has come 
 out of its long tribulation and patience, and now, like a con- 
 quering army from the East, they march in and possess the 
 great city and put down oppression forever. "The government 
 shall be upon His shoulders." 
 
 And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the 
 mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet three 
 unclean spirits, as it were, frogs, for they are spirits of devils 
 working signs, which go forth to the kings of the whole world to 
 gather them together unto the great day of God the Almighty. 
 Behold I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth 
 his garments lest he walk naked and they see his shame. And they 
 gathered them together into a place which is called in the Hebrew 
 Harmageddon 
 
 I 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 295 
 
 Harmageddon was the field of decisive conflict in Israel. 
 It was tlie mountain of Megiddo. There Gideon and Barak 
 had triumphed by faith in God over IsraeFs foes. 
 
 It is the pattern on which this decisive conflict against the 
 powers of darkness will be fought and from which there will 
 be no going back forever. The battle of Harmageddon is now 
 being fought out. It is a battle of principles, and bloody wars 
 are its accidents only. About the most remarkable thing in 
 this wondrous book is the abrupt parenthesis that interrupts 
 this passage. 
 
 Behold I come as a thief. Blessed Is he that watcheth and 
 keepeth his garments lest he walk naked and they see his shame. 
 
 Nothing could be more decisive. Here is both a warning 
 and a promise as in time of great danger. It sounds like a 
 startling voice at midnight and like a clap of thunder from a 
 clear sky. It is a sharp interjection, a piercing cry of caution. 
 
 Its position is full of suggestion not only by its immediate 
 relations but by its more remote, in fact, to all the great 
 series. Of the four series, the Seals, the Trumpets, the Evan- 
 gels and the Avengers, it is the last of them, and of the seven 
 last plagues it is the last, and it is at the last end of the last 
 one. The church at Sardis had a name to live. It had that 
 outward well being that opiates the conscience and puts it to 
 rest. It was to this church that Christ wrote, "Behold I 
 come as a thief." And it was to the rich lukewarm church 
 at Laodicea He said "Because thou art neither cold nor hot 
 I will spew you out of my mouth'' and "thou knowest not that 
 thou art wretched and poor and miserable and blind and naked." 
 
 When the opposition from the powers of wickedness shall 
 abate and the tribulation and that kind of prompting to Chris- 
 tian activity shall die away, then comes this sharp cut as from 
 a lance in a time of lukewarmness and apathy to announce that 
 
396 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 the bridegroom cometh. When we shall say Christ has con- 
 quered this world and made it blossom like a rose and we shall 
 begin to ascribe our wealth and peace to our own wisdom then 
 we are warned by this stinging caution to be faithful^ to watch. 
 Already this very state of things abounds. "Behold He cometh 
 and every eye shall see Him and they that pierced Him and 
 all the tribes of the earth shall mourn because of Him." He 
 will come as lightning comes out of :the East. 
 
 THE THREE UNCLEAN SPIRITS. 
 
 Not only do we have a great wealth of symbols in these 
 Evangels and Avengers going to show the raising of heavenly 
 power, but a corresponding lowering of that power of evil 
 which in such times must show its worst forms. At the times 
 when God has put forth His mightiest power Satan has also 
 risen in extraordinary exertions to counteract it. It is a strange 
 but awful fact that great goodness excites great wickedness; 
 that a pure and noble character is a mark for the malice and 
 for the darts of Satan, that -as the saints get purer and higher, 
 sinners wax worse and worse. 
 
 When Moses went into the court of Egypt to claim deliv- 
 erance for his people, he was withstood by the magicians of 
 Pharaoh, who wrought similar signs to counteract the impres- 
 sion upon the king's mind. This they did three times, but 
 when it came to the fourth miracle, wrought by Moses, the ma- 
 gicians gave it up and told the king that this one was from 
 God, and they could not do it, but Pharaoh's heart was hard-., 
 ened, and he held on to his slaves. 
 
 "As Jannes and Jambrese withstood the truth of Moses in 
 the court of Pharaoh, so do these resist the truth." When the 
 Christ came into the world there was a like satanic manifesta- 
 tion of the evil spirits that cried out: "Why hast thou come 
 to torment us before our time.". Here is the last time. It is 
 
 d 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 297 
 
 the time of the sixth Trumpet and of the sixth bowl of wrath 
 and at the further end of it, and just before the seventh Trum- 
 pet shall blow and end all. Here we have Satanic manifes- 
 tations also. The three spirits refer to the three beasts, all 
 evil, from whose mouths they are emitted. It is a mockery 
 of the divine trinity. Neither does it import anything as to 
 whether they came out of the three mouths or out of one, as 
 the word of God on Pentecost proceeded from one, even Peter, 
 and yet was the word of all the apostles. The law of opposites 
 guides us here. This has the characteristics of another dia- 
 bolical Pentecost, the going out of frog spirits, filthy, Ijiiig 
 and deceiving. The former was an opening of the pit of the 
 abyss, from which came smoke and locusts to devour and to 
 sting, etc. This follows the Eegeneration Pentecost as that 
 one did the Eeformation Pentecost. These spirits, like frogs, 
 evangelists, that go forth, missionaries to the kings of the 
 earth, cold, scientific agnostics. Not now to sting and de- 
 vour, but to pretend to miracles. They are the spirits of de- 
 mons. They are gathering up the world kings to war against 
 the Christian kings. They that dwell upon the earth are to 
 meet them that dwell in heaven, in one decisive Waterloo. 
 The devilish trio will use pretended miracles to accomplish its 
 bad ends. 
 
 THE SEVENTH BOWL. 
 
 And the seventh poured out his bowl upon the air and there came 
 a great voice out of the temple from the throne saying It is done. 
 
 It was into or upon the air, simply emptied, without any 
 direct effect. In the opening of the seventh seal there was 
 silence, only silence, in heaven for about the space of half an 
 hour, and with the blowing of the seventh trumpet there was 
 the shout of victory,^ the "kingdom come." The last trumpet 
 and the last bowl combine upon a point of great disturbance 
 as if at the close. They describe the same general fact from 
 
298 MYSTERY OP THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 their opposite points of view as trumpeters of salvation and 
 as avengers of wrath. 
 
 And there were lightnings and voices and thunders, and there 
 was a great earthquake such as there was not since there were men 
 upon the earth so great and earthquake and so mighty. 
 
 Here we have again the fact of the sixth seal told with a 
 heightened aspect corresponding to its point of view. We are 
 not reading of a different but only of the same fact differently 
 related. In the Seals and Evangels there is a greater simplicity 
 and distinctness of parts^ while in the Trumpets and Avengers 
 there is a more terrible and commingled aspect to what is 
 done as where adverse elements are face to face in battle. 
 
 We saw the two-point view from which the two witnesses 
 were said to be both in sackcloth still alive^ and as dead trophies 
 lying in the street^ and the church as hidden imder God's care 
 in the wilderness, and as sunken in sin, buried, trodden under 
 foot, etc. This double view rests upon and is sustained by 
 the two points of view given respectively to Xebuchadnezzar 
 and to Daniel of the world powers and how they were to be 
 overcome. 
 
 And the great city was divided into three parts and the cities of 
 the nations fell and Babylon the Great was remembered in the sight 
 of God to give unto her the cup of wine of the fierceness of his 
 wrath. 
 
 But at the rise of what we call the Eeformation the great 
 city fell "a tenth part," but here it is divided into three parts 
 and the cities of the nations fell, that is the state religions 
 that follow the great city called Mystery Bab5don, for city is 
 the symbol for church. When the bowls of wrath had swept 
 away beast rule, they swept away all the religions that rest 
 upon it. 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 299 
 
 And every island fled away and the mountains were not found, 
 and great hail, every stone about the weight of a talent, cometli 
 down out of heaven upon men; and men blasphemed God because 
 of the plague of the hail, for the plague thereof is exceeding great. 
 
 Thus ends a picture of God^s terrible judgments upon the 
 wicked and upon wickedness in the abstract. As showing how 
 all literalities are excluded from possible use, we notice that 
 these punishments are as sores on their bodies, and as being 
 suffocated in a sea of blood and scorched with the hot rays 
 of the sun and are crushed and killed by falling hail stones 
 that fall upon them, etc., thus making a literal interpretation 
 impossible. Even the mountains and the islands which they 
 thought would still be their abode where they might live in 
 sin, have fled away and left them without a place to live in, 
 and trying to hide, they call upon the rocks and mountains 
 to fall upon them and hide them from the offended face of 
 their Redeemer. 
 
 The hail that falls upon them is in great stones about the 
 weight of a talent. Both the punishments of Pharaoh come 
 to view and the defeat of Bethhoron (Josh, x, 1-11), where 
 God rained hail on His foes. How great shall be the remorse 
 and anguish of those who reject the Father of mercies who 
 love not His praise but return evil for good, blasphemy for 
 blessing, and hatred for loving kindness. 
 
 SYMBOL SYNONYMS. 
 
 The wicked flee from fright: Afllicted with sores; in a sea of 
 blood; drink blood; their rivers are blood; scorched with heat; 
 their kingdom is darkness; they gnaw their tongues; deceived by 
 unclean spirits; hailstones fall upon them. 
 
 Slain in battle: Trodden in winepress of God's wrath; call upon 
 rocks and mountains to fall upon them; are cast into a lake of fire 
 and brimstone, etc. 
 
300 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 CHAPTEE XVII. 
 
 Revelation XVII. 
 
 JUDGMENT OF THE GREAT HARLOT. 
 
 Christ hath a bride. First seen she is arrayed in the full 
 orb of heavenly glory^ clad with the sun^ the moon nnder her 
 feet and her head adorned with a crown of twelve stars, and 
 in soul-travail to give birth to the heirs of Salvation. 
 
 The beast also has a woman, a fallen, proud and drunken 
 harlot, "mother of the harlots and abominations of the earth." 
 Eve, fairest flower of Eden, angel of its fragrant bowers, but 
 through the tempter^s guile sinned against heaven and went 
 out from the presence of God to toil in the wilderness and to 
 bring forth a murderer who slew his Godfearing and faithful 
 brother. So, too, this fair woman, born of that blest Pente- 
 cost, too soon went out from her paradise of purity into the 
 wilderness of sin and there gave birth to murderers who slew 
 the spiritual seed, "who kept the testimony of Jesus." In 
 the wilderness we here find her dismantled of her true glory, 
 now a tawdry harlot apostate and to be destroyed. 
 
 There is a likeness of order here, for as the story about the 
 fall of the pure church followed the Seals and Trumpets, so 
 the story of the false church follows the other two comple- 
 mentary series, the Evangels and Avengers, which record the 
 triumphs of heaven and the fall of beast rule. Here we meet 
 that fallen church. She has lost her heavenly heritage and 
 boasts of a lordly succession through the beast trio to which 
 she is wedded. 
 
 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven 
 bowls and spake with me saying, Come hither and I will show thee 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 301 
 
 the judgment of the great harlot that sitteth upon many waters 
 with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication and they 
 that dwell upon the earth were made drunken with the wine of her 
 fornication, and he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness, 
 and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet colored beast full of names 
 of blasphemy having seven heads and ten horns. 
 
 In explaining the relations of the harlot to the beast power 
 there is not only the same painstaking care we observed in 
 explaining the relations of the holy woman to the heavenly 
 power but also exactly the same method. The harlot is both 
 successor to and ruler over brute power, and that power comes 
 from the dragon who deceived Eve in the Garden of the Lord 
 and who sought the life of the infant Jesus and who stood 
 before the pure church at Jerusalem to devour her spiritual 
 seed. When the beast first appeared he was said to have been 
 spotted but now he is scarlet. The reason of this change is 
 seen in the fact that when seen alone his spots represented 
 his double character, secular and religious, but now the woman 
 represents the religious side of his nature and so both sides 
 are shown in separate symbols, but are of the same color, that 
 is, the same nature. They are treated in the closest relations 
 and then separately on exactly the same method that we saw 
 employed in giving !he relations between Christ and His church 
 on the heavenly side. The beast represents the total of brute 
 power and imparts it to the harlot, a parody on the power 
 and glory which Christ imparted to His church. The harlot 
 sits upon the beast and also upon his seven heads, and upon 
 seven mountains, as well as upon many waters, which are 
 many peoples, all symbols of beast power in its different mani- 
 festations. 
 
 Using so many symbols to show the same essential truth 
 in so many phases affords a large amount of information &.nd 
 does away with the possibility of our taking them in a literal 
 
302 MYSTERY OP THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 sense. Sncli errors as that "the many waters" mean the Medi- 
 terranean, or that the "seven monntains'^ mean the seven heaps 
 of earth on which Eome sits, or that the Beast is any person 
 as Nero or Napoleon, etc., is rendered impossible. The woman 
 has snbdned the beast and she sits upon all his heads and 
 upon all the peoples, tribes and nations, etc. 
 
 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet and decked 
 with gold and precious stone and pearls, having in her hand a 
 golden bowl full of abominations, even the unclean things of her 
 fornication, and upon her forehead a name written, Mystery, Baby- 
 lon the Great, the Mother of Harlots, and of the abominations of the 
 earth. 
 
 See how her putting on of Jewels confesses the loss of true 
 glory. This picture of the fallen woman is as dreadful and 
 repulsive as that of the holy woman was ineffably glorious. 
 Her hand holds out a cup of abominations with which she 
 has corrupted the kings and all that dwell upon the earth. 
 She carries her name upon her forehead. She is lost to the 
 sense of shame. This is Babylon again. The first Babylon 
 on the Euphrates held all world power and held God^s people 
 in bondage, so this one claims to have all power and she held 
 the Christian saints in world bondage for a long dark time. 
 The heavenly woman was mother of virgins and of martyrs, 
 while this one is mother of harlots and abominations of the 
 earth. 
 
 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints 
 and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus and when 1 saw her I 
 wondered with a great wonder; and the angel said unto me, where- 
 fore didst thou wonder. I will tell thee the mystery of the woman 
 and of the beast that carrieth her which hath the seven heads and 
 ten horns. 
 
 What a state of the world! The ruling harlot drunk on the 
 blood of saints and the kings and people drunk from her cup 
 
 m\ 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 303 
 
 of fornications. Again John tells ns his emotion on beholding 
 this strange and awful sight. He says, "I wondered with a 
 great wonder/' and of this the angel guide took notice and 
 said to tlie seer, "Wherefore didst thou wonder? I will tell 
 thee the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carrieth 
 her.'' He explains the "mystery" of the stars and candlesticks 
 and of the harlot and beast. Those not explained are easily 
 implied by their relations, etc. The only symbols explained 
 are those that pertain to the true church and the false. 
 
 The beast thou sawest was and is not, and is about to come up 
 out of the abyss, and to go into perdition. And they that dwell 
 on the earth shall wonder, they whose name hath not been written 
 in the book of life from the foundation of the world when they be- 
 hold the beast how that he was and is not and shall come. 
 
 The origin and doom of the brute are given first, just as 
 on the other side in the first chapter we saw Christ risen from 
 the dead and become the Alpha and the Omega. The beast 
 is about to come up out of the pit. This is the prediction of 
 antichrist that occupies so large a place in both John's and 
 Paul's writings. He will ascend from the pit to do his work, 
 he will open his pit and send forth his apostles and after this 
 he will go into perdition. To come up out of the abyss would 
 seem to be something different from coming up out of the 
 sea, but it is only a deeper expression for the same fact. The 
 words "he was and is not," etc., rest on the facts about Christ's 
 absence, etc., for we have seen that every description of the 
 beast finds its meaning by opposition to Christ, just as the 
 dragon is opposed to God and the two-horned beast is op- 
 posed to the Holy Spirit and the harlot to the bride, etc. This 
 point is further brought out in the words: 
 
 And they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, they whose name 
 hath not been written in the book of life from the foundation ot 
 
304 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 tlie world when they behold the beast, how he was, and is not and 
 shall come (or be present). 
 
 In the first place this is descriptiye of the beast and it de- 
 scribes his likeness or his assumed likeness to the acts <of Christ. 
 The primary reference of everything in this book is to Christ 
 as the Alpha and the Omega. "\Ye have just had the ascension 
 and descent of the beast and we have seen that he was put 
 to death in one head, and raised to life again, and now we see 
 a mock of another^ part which Christ bore. The beast people 
 make as much wonder over it as they did over the wonders 
 wrought by the false prophet. It is a parody on the surprise 
 which Christ gave His disciples by His resurrection from the 
 dead after a short absence. They were scattered like sheep 
 ,when the shepherd was smitten and Peter, the leader, said, "I 
 go a fishing and the other apostles say we will go with you." 
 
 And the women had taken sweet spices to embalm the body 
 when the glad news came that He had risen from the dead, and 
 Peter and John ran with their might to the sepulcher to find 
 the great surprise verified. Christ had several times alluded 
 to His temporary absence from the disciples and His return 
 to them. All these allusions are given in John's gospel and 
 they drew very marked comment from His enemies and also 
 from His disciples. 
 
 "A little while and je shall not see me, and again a little 
 while and ye shall see me because I go to the Father." Then said 
 some of His disciples among themselves, "What is this He saith 
 unto us, a little while and ye shall see me, and again a little 
 while and ye shall not see me, we cannot tell what He sayeth," 
 John XV, 16. We have in another place explained what was 
 alluded to by the death and revival of one of the beast's heads, 
 that the imperial headship of Rome expired and was re-estab- 
 lished. Now this is supplemented by the fact that he went 
 away a little while in simulation of Christ's absence and came 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 305 
 
 back again, and that they that dwell on the earth shall be sur- 
 prised, rather than they admire and praise Him in this. It is 
 a parody or imitation on the absence of Christ and on the 
 wonder of the disciples to see Him reappear as He did, rising 
 from the dead and appearing again. When we remember it 
 was John who gave ns all those references to Christ's tenipo- 
 rary absence, five in all, and how deeply it impressed him, 
 the explanation is satisfactory. It fills ont the parts acted by 
 Christ by a counterpart of simulations. The head of divine 
 government having suffered death and risen from the dead 
 after a little time, so it is ascribed to the worldlings that their 
 destroyer and deceiver, the beast, was temporarily absent by 
 a death in one of his heads and lived again and in that they 
 wonder and praise him. 
 
 This all goes to show how persistently a merely worldly pro- 
 fession will adhere to idolatrous worship through all deceptions. 
 "We have found nowhere else so terrible a warning against all 
 beast rule and beast worship or man fearing as this. 
 
 Here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are 
 seven mountains on which the woman sitteth and they are seven 
 kings; the five are fallen, the one is, and the other is yet to come. 
 
 The head that had not yet come is the Papal and the head then 
 present was the Imperial. Five forms had fallen. They were 
 then living under the sixth or imperial form of Eoman Eule. 
 This is all descriptive of Eome. The fallen woman was heir 
 to the totality of world power, having all the power of the 
 beast and the Dragon, and she sat upon all the heads or forms 
 of government in this sense, though five had passed away. The 
 beast that is to come will tarry a little while. 
 
 And the beast that was, and is not, is also an eighth and is of the 
 seven and goeth into perdition. 
 
 Here is another manifestation of brute power not hitherto 
 
306 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 seen in this book but seen in the book of Daniel. It differs 
 from all the others only as "an eighth" for "it is of the seven" 
 that is like them and of the essentially brute nature. Now 
 the four universal monarchies that represented the sum total 
 of all world power and illustrated it, found a successor in the 
 beast and then in the beastly harlot, but we have seen in our 
 own day all these ended and the harlot stripped of the last 
 vestige of secular power and we still have brute governments, 
 or brute power out of the same old stuff. This remaining beast 
 power is what is here called an "eighth" and is to be destroyed. 
 It is not Eoman in the sense here used but brute power in 
 general remaining diffused in the world waiting the triumphs 
 of Christ to end it and to establish Christian statehood, the 
 kingdom of Christ and of G-od. 
 
 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings which have 
 received no kingdom as yet, but receive authority as kingdoms with 
 the beast for one hour. These have one mind and they give their 
 power and authority unto the beast. These shall war against the 
 Lamb and the Lamb shall overcome them, for He is Lord of Lords 
 and king of kings; and they also shall overcome that are with him 
 called and chosen and faithful. 
 
 The ten kingdoms or dependencies of the Roman Empire 
 are here alluded to. It has hitherto been thought necessary 
 to point out and name these ten kingdoms and there has been 
 some diversity of opinion as to which of these dependencies 
 ought to be properly regarded as the "ten" alluded to. But 
 this is mistaking the method and hunting for a numeral "ten" 
 instead of a symbol "ten." It is the symbol and not the num- 
 eral we want in order to identification. It is not the fact, pri- 
 marily, but the nature and relations of them he describes. 
 It is not so essential that we identify Eome as in opposition 
 to other powers as that we identify it by its hostile relations to 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 307 
 
 the kingdom of God. This is the supreme point. This is 
 the fact that lies at the root of all oppositions. 
 
 Rome is presented to ns by a method that shows us all that 
 is Eoman in its relations to the Christ, all else is mere inci- 
 dence. The numeral value does not need to hold good. It is 
 secondary. To attempt a numeral identification is a mistake. 
 While the prophecy is trying to identify the essential oneness 
 we have been trying to identify the formal and literal. The 
 attempts to identify Rome by the seven heaps of earth on which 
 the city stood, or by the ten kingdoms, Avould be as useless as 
 denying the allusions to the apostles and churches and Holy 
 Spirit, because they come in the number seven. This does not 
 deny there may have been just ten of these kingdoms in the 
 Roman Empire, but this book does not cite them to show that 
 it could not be any other power, but rather that it cannot be 
 of any other nature than hostile to Christ. This has been 
 thought to be an irrefutable proof of Roman identity, and the 
 provinces named by Sir Isaac Newton as the ten, have been 
 accepted quite generally. These ten kingdoms in Rome are 
 in symbol the ten toes in the great image of Nebuchadnezzar's 
 dream and the ten horns of the Dragon and of the Beast. 
 
 Here is the meaning of the ten horns of the beast and of 
 the dragon, for the angel is here explaining to John what this 
 beast and the woman mean. The identification and impugn- 
 ment are terrible and the succession of beast power is sure. 
 The Roman government has ten kingdoms, and these are the 
 ten horns of the beast and of the dragon and they are the 
 ten toes of the great image and these all rest upon a pre- 
 tense of divine authority in the ten commands of God given 
 to Moses for the government of His people. The dragon and 
 beast assume to exercise these powers, and it is the overthrow 
 of this usurpation that Christ has come and about which the 
 whole story relates, 
 
308 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 Here is the root of this great parody. It has its rise in 
 the self assertion of sinful man to rule himself, and to throw 
 off God's rule over him, and hence we have in these manifesta- 
 tions of beast power the symbol ten, which is the sign of all 
 heavenly power in political or world rule. The ten horns rep- 
 resent a parody or mock of the ten commandments of God 
 and the seven heads are a parody on the symbol seven as claim- 
 ing all religious authority and spiritual fruition. The entire 
 scope brings us to the first great victory, the beast power, Pagan 
 Rome, destroyed, then holding power by simulating Christ's 
 religion. Christ's first great conquest is to cast out the dragon, 
 then the spotted beast succeeds to the throne and the harlot 
 represents the religion of the spotted beast and of the dragon, 
 a successsion of beast rule. That image shown the king of 
 Babylon is the great Zodiac of time, and the last and lowest 
 of it is to be found divided into these ten toes explained as 
 kingdoms, both to John and to Daniel. It is upon these that 
 the harlot sits. She is the inheritor of all beastliness. She 
 claims to hold both the law and the gospel over the whole 
 world. We have done injustice to this book by raising ques- 
 tions over these ten kingdoms and over personalities, much to 
 the loss of proper attention to the deep central truth to be 
 conveyed. 
 
 The waters which thou sawest where the harlot sitteth are 
 peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues and the ten horns 
 which thou sawest and the beast these shall hate the harlot and shall 
 make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and shall burn 
 her utterly with fire. For God did put in their hearts to do His 
 mind and to come to one mind and to give their kingdom unto the 
 beast until the words of God should be accomplished, and the 
 woman whom thou sawest is the great city which reigneth over the 
 kings of the earth. 
 
 Here is the place to learn to read these symbols. Here we 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 309 
 
 find that to sit on the beast, and to sit upon many waters, is 
 the same thing and not only so, but it is explained that she 
 sits on the heads of the beast and that these heads are moun- 
 tains and that they are also called kings. Kings, heads, horns, 
 mountains, peoples, tribes and even toes are all symbols for 
 government; its forms, its provinces, its source, etc. But when 
 it says she sits on many waters it is explained to mean all na- 
 tions and peoples and tongues, etc., the people simply as peo- 
 ple as the source from which Daniel saw the beast rising as 
 out of the sea. The close relations of this woman with the beast 
 and the dragon have been fully shown and now follows the turn- 
 ing away .of these powers from her and her destruction by 
 them. A change and a divorce come and the world powers 
 destroy her whom they once served. Here again we see the 
 highly figurative way in which these symbols are to be taken 
 when it says in a contradictory manner that these powers 
 shall "make her desolate and shall eat her, hate her and burn 
 her with fire,^^ etc. What a lesson is here for all corrupt friend- 
 ships; when the evil bond is broken and each holds the secret 
 and shame of the other's guilt. 
 
 That which is spice to our common speech is the staple 
 with John. Our language is plodding and our thoughts drag 
 heavily along. When Shakespeare lends us wings enough to 
 raise our feet for but a moment from the earth we smile upon 
 him as little children who are helped to leap a gully. But 
 where John leads us we walk upon mountain tops and upon 
 the brink of giddy precipices and step from peak to peak above 
 the clouds and seem to touch the heaven and feel more that 
 some one is leading us than that we are being pushed from be- 
 hind as Hugo has said. No believer will ever read this book 
 deeply but must feel that heaven is mysteriously near and ask, 
 "Where am I?" 
 
310 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 God did put it in their hearts (these kingdoms of men) to do his 
 mind and to come to one mind and to give their kingdom to the 
 beast until the words of God be accomplished. 
 
 And then tliey turn against her and devonr her and burn her 
 with fire. These things are now facts, except the powers have 
 now gone so far only as to withdraw^ all support from her, but 
 they will go still further until the will of God is carried out to 
 the uttermost. Beast power itself has come under new condi- 
 tions. It is now called "an eighth/^ and is of or out of the 
 seven to be destroyed by Christ. Protestantism is incidentally 
 if not directly favored by the turning of the world powers 
 against Eome, but Romanism is tolerated and continues to as- 
 sert its old spirit wherever it has a chance and is never to be 
 trusted again. 
 
 A degenerate protestantism is a prop for the harlot church. 
 The accepted dogma that the state and the church must be 
 forever separate, answered a very effective purpose in loosing 
 and freeing the powers from their vassalage to a most corrupt 
 church, but it does not settle the question of what Christ re- 
 quires of governments. AA'lioever supposes the present as the 
 settled condition of either the state or the church is deeply 
 deluded and very poorly equipped for great Christian service. 
 
 There can be no rest till Christian statehood shall be es- 
 tablished throughout the world. The coming church will see 
 that this shall come to pass, for that church will have no dogmas. 
 It will need only Christ. It will ask and answer "what would 
 Jesus do?'^ The verities of Christianity will be presented in 
 the new higher light of this Revelation and the old methods of 
 procedure will be obsolete. The day is near when all opposition 
 to the divinity and Lordship of Jesus Christ will cease forever. 
 
 The introduction of enlightened conscience into civic and 
 commercial life will be the beginning of the second great pro- 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 311 
 
 cess of the ages. The church cannot help the state to do that 
 which the church itself cannot do, and the church cannot live 
 and suffer her members to act in two characters at open war 
 with each other. Not religious formularies, nor doctrines, nor 
 sects, but a great living faith in Christ that will carry the 
 conscience into government and commerce and dispose them on 
 the principles that rule the personal, domestic and social re- 
 lations of Christian life will soon put an end to the beast idea 
 of rule, and this God has begun to bring about already. 
 
 Protestantism has settled one thing, and that is that political 
 power shall no longer be under the control of the harlot. But 
 as to what use may be made of brute power it has not yet 
 settled. It has divorced both itself and Eomanism from the 
 state. This is only destructive. -Its great movement must be 
 constructive. That new church will tell the state it cannot 
 engage in the opium or rum traffic nor in any way destroy 
 the life of man nor permit its destruction or degradation under 
 the pretense of a penal tax for anticipated injuries or other 
 pretense. The present truce must end. Daniel recognized this 
 state of the world in the words "And the judgment shall set 
 and they shall take away his dominion to consume and destroy 
 it unto the end, and the time came when the saints possessed 
 the kingdom" vii, 22. And as concerning the rest of the 
 beasts, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives 
 were prolonged for a season and a time, vii, 12. That happy 
 time is yet before us, for we seem not yet to understand what 
 it means for the saints to possess the kingdom. 
 
 And the woman whom thou sawest is the great city which reign- 
 eth over the kings of the earth. 
 
 We have now seen the dragon power passed over to the 
 beast, and from the beast to the harlot, and now the harlot 
 
312 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 is treated "under the symbolism of a great city and in opposi- 
 tion to the Holy City, the New Jerusalem. 
 
 SYMBOL SYNONYMS. 
 
 Wilderness: Apostasy; sin; court without; outside the city; 
 beastly. 
 
 Harlot: Great city; mystic Babylon; Sodom; Egypt. 
 
 Heads: Forms of government, as kingly, consular, imperial, etc. 
 
 Horns: Provinces or subordinate governments. 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 313 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Revelation XVIII. 
 
 THE GREAT DIRGE. 
 
 The harlot is the false church, the great city Mystery Baby- 
 lon. Her doom is written in the strain that foretold the doom 
 of the old city of the plains on the Euphrates that ruled the 
 whole world and took Israel captive (Isaiah xiii^ 9). 
 
 "And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, 'the beauty of the 
 Chaldees excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom 
 and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited neither shall it 
 be dwelt in from generation to generation. Neither shall the 
 Arabians pitch tent there. Neither shall the shepherds make 
 their fold there, but the wdld beasts of the desert shall lie there 
 and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls 
 shall dwell there and satyrs shall dance there; and the wild 
 beasts of the forest shall cry in their desolate houses and dragons 
 in their pleasant palaces; and her time is near to come and her 
 days shall not be prolonged." The second, the mystic Baby- 
 Ion, "spiritually called Sodom and Egypt," is to receive her 
 doom in this doleful strain. 
 
 And after these things I saw another angel coming down out of 
 heaven having great authority and the earth was lighted with his 
 glory, and he cried with a mighty voice saying, Fallen! Fallen! is 
 Babylon, the great; and is become the habitation of devils and a 
 hold of every unclean spirit and a hold of every unclean and hate- 
 ful bird, for by the wine of the wrath of her fornication all the 
 nations are fallen and the kings of the earth committed fornica- 
 tion with her and the merchants of the earth waxed rich by the 
 power of her wantonness. 
 
314 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 We notice this judgment of the great harlot is attended by 
 another coming of the Lord. It differs from His other com- 
 ings in a manner suited to the changed nature of the errand. 
 This angel comes with great authority and he takes up a stone 
 and casts it into the sea to give dramatic effect to the cer- 
 tainty of the downfall of the great city, the false church called 
 the "Harlot." The kings and merchants of the earth have com- 
 mitted spiritual adultery by lending her their corrupt power 
 and receiving her pretended absolutions. Pure Paganism is not 
 so dangerous a foe to Christ as this pretense to religion. 
 Ananias and his wife, Sapphira^ were smitten with death as 
 a deterrent to hypocrisy. "By the wine of the wrath of her 
 fornication" the kings and merchants and people had been 
 made drunken. It was a horrid spectacle to see beast power 
 pretending to sit in the place of God. 
 
 And I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come forth my 
 people out of her, that ye have no fellowship with her sins and that 
 ye receive not of her plagues, for her sins have reached unto 
 heaven and God hath remembered her iniquities. 
 
 It has often been asked where were God^s people during the 
 dark days of the woman^s hiding in the wilderness? 
 
 Here is an answer in part at least. This cry to the early re- 
 formers was like a voice from heaven to come forth from 
 bondage and that they might not partake of her sins. They 
 came forth out of her and will continue to come till she is 
 totally deserted and desolated. So far as the original church 
 is concerned, we have shown that under the symbols of the 
 Holy City, and of a fallen temple it went into decay, and 
 under the symbol of the ^beautiful woman it went into the wil- 
 derness apostate and dishonored on the wings of the Eoman 
 eagle; and we found this same fact in the fou.rth trumpet where 
 all the lights of heaven went out, and now we hear God calling 
 
 i 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 315 
 
 .His people to come out of her. All the reasons why God's peo- 
 ple should come out of Babylon hold equally good for their 
 coming out of every combination that subverts loyalty to Christ 
 or corrupts a pure life. 
 
 The reason given for calling them to come out from the 
 Harlot rule is "that ye have no fellowship with her sins and 
 that ye receive not of her plagues.'' To remain with her is 
 to be guilty of her sins and punishable with her plagues. Who 
 can fix the boundaries of what is meant by the symbol "Baby- 
 lon ?" Who can say which are daughters of the harlot and to 
 what extent this wicked power may still corrupt the churches? 
 Who can expect to see the church rise to those new heights of 
 glory and power portrayed to us in the Evangel series, acting 
 under our present standards of applied morals? How can any 
 true Christian rest satisfied with the present status, or expect 
 to see the regeneration begun without a far deeper and mightier 
 work of God in the life of believers? That call to come forth 
 must continue to sound till no society or party can claim the 
 loyalty of any Christian if it does not truly represent Christ 
 in its principles and life. The first and highest command from 
 heaven is to "save yourselves from this crooked generation." 
 "Come forth out of her in order that ye may have no fellow- 
 ship with her sin/' — to stay is to fellowship with her sins. 
 
 Render unto her even as she rendered, and double unto her the 
 double according to her works. In the cup which she mingled, min- 
 gle unto her double. How much soever she glorified herself and 
 waxed wanton so much give her of torment and mourning, for she 
 said in her heart I sit a queen and am no widow and shall in no 
 wise see mourning, therefore in one day shall her plagues come, 
 death and mourning and famine, and she shall be utterly burned 
 with fire, for strong is the Lord God which judged her. 
 
 Her fall is double and her own evil judgments are- doubled 
 upon her. How vain to hear men talk of remaining within 
 
316 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 evil combinations corruptly loyal to sin with a view to reform- 
 ing them. It was never done nor ever can be. They should 
 come forth out of them and oppose them. God says come 
 out of Sodom, come out of Egypt, come out of Babylon, come 
 out of this worst Babylon of living pretense, come out of every 
 false thing, oh my people, and have no fellowship. It is a 
 judgment and a pang bitterly felt by the wicked when good 
 men for conscience' sake withdraw themselves from evil com- 
 binations. God separated Noah and Abraham and Israel to 
 preserve righteousness in the earth, and Christ was "separate 
 from sinners" and for that reason was "made higher than the 
 heavens." "Come ye out from among them and be ye separate, 
 saith the Lord; touch not the unclean and I will receive you." 
 
 And the kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived 
 wantonly with her shall weep and wail over her when they look 
 upon the smoke of her burning standing afar off for fear of her 
 torment saying, Woe! woe! the great city Babylon, the strong city, 
 for in one hour is her judgment come. 
 
 Ah! it is a bad thing to make sinful alliances. It is evil to 
 have another in trust of your sin which you so much desire 
 to hide. It makes humility and confession so hard and presses 
 so close to cause one to act the hypocrite and to cause him to 
 willingly wear a fairer name before men than before God, fear- 
 ing man more than God, exalting man above God, so he con- 
 fesses brute power and denies the power of God and that true 
 glory of Christ, who humbled Himself and became obedient 
 even to the death of the cross. "How can ye believe on Me 
 so long as ye receive honor one of another?" Now that the 
 time of her retribution comes and judgment falls heavily upon 
 her, then the old paramours, the merchants and kings whose 
 secret guilt she holds, stand afar oif for fear of her torment. 
 So it is with all corrupt alliances. They will fall and the guilty 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 317 
 
 shall try to hide in the rocks and eaves. Those who lead ns 
 into sin care very little for the results that may befall ns. 
 
 What a very doleful lament the earth kings make over the 
 perishing city: 
 
 And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her for no 
 mau buyeth her merchandise any more; merchandise of gold and 
 silver and precious stones and pearls, and fine linen, and purple, 
 and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood and every vessel of ivory, 
 and every vessel of most precious wood, and of brass, and of iron, 
 and marble, and cinnamon, and spice, and incense, and ointment 
 and frankincense and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and 
 cattle, and sheep, and merchandise of horses, and chariots, and 
 slaves, and souls of men. 
 
 Now we understand that voice that came forth after the third 
 seal, which said, "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.'' Here is a great bankrupt sale, with no bidders 
 to bid on her contraband stuffs. Every article of usefulness, 
 of beauty, and luxury for sale, but alas! no buyers. The mer- 
 chantmen and traders by sea mourn over her failure that none 
 will longer buy her merchandise. The people have no further 
 use for her fraudulent trinkets of harlotry and superstition. 
 Her dead stock of merchandise might be invoiced in more 
 literal words as follows: "Auction! auction! For sale! for 
 sale! to the highest bidder. Altars, Archbishops, Bones, Bless- 
 ings, Beads, Crosses, Candles, Cardinals, Cathedrals, Confes- 
 sionals, Councils and Celibacies, Dominicans, Fish, Flagella- 
 tions, Fathers and Good Fridays, Friars, gray, black and 
 crossed; Gowns, black and white; Masses, high and low and 
 dry; Monasteries, Nuns, Novices and extreme unctions. 
 Macerations and surplices; Saints' Days and Holy Water, Holy 
 Earth, Holy Indulgences, and Holy Mother Church," all for 
 
318 MYSTERY OP THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 sale and not a buyer^ nor a bidder on earth; Almighty God 
 speed the blessed day! 
 
 '^I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou 
 mayest become rich, and white garments that thon mayest clothe 
 thyself/^ 
 
 And the fruits which thy soul lusted after are gone from tliee 
 and all things that were dainty, and sumptuous are perished from 
 thee and men shall find them no more at all. The merchants of 
 these things which were made rich by her shall stand afar off for 
 fear of her torment, weeping and mourning, saying, Woe! Woe! 
 the great city, she that was arrayed in fine linen and purple and 
 scarlet and decked with precious stone and pearl, for in one hour 
 is so great riches made desolate. 
 
 First the kings, then the merchants, then the shipmasters 
 in turn lament her desolation and bankruptcy and utter a 
 double woe. 
 
 And every shipmaster and every one that saileth any whither 
 and mariners and as many as gain their living by the sea stood 
 afar off and cried as they looked upon the smoke of her burning 
 saying, What city is like the great city? And they cast dust on 
 their heads and cried weeping and mourning saying, Woe! Woe! the 
 great city, wherein were made rich all that had their ships in the 
 sea by reason of her costliness, for in one hour she is made desolate. 
 
 Here the dirge is interrupted by a parenthesis in which the 
 seer addresses an exulting apostrophe to the saints and apostles. 
 The somber refrain over the deserted city bursts up with joy 
 on the other side and the heavenly glory breaks out in accla- 
 mations of unrestrained rejoicing. 
 
 Rejoice over her thou heaven and ye saints and ye apostles and 
 ye prophets, for God hath judged your judgment on her. 
 
 How true His words sound when He said, "The world shall 
 rejoice and ye shall sorrow, but your sorrow shall be turned 
 into joy." This cheer must have dried away the tears from the 
 
or; the riven veil. 319 
 
 exile's face. Since he began, to tell ns his emotions and the 
 parts he bore our hearts ask at every new turn, and how did 
 he feel here? 
 
 And a strong angel took up a great stone as it were a mill stone 
 and cast it into the sea saying, Thus with a mighty fall shall 
 Babylon the great city be cast down and shall be found no more 
 at all. 
 
 The doom of old Babylon was dramatized by the order of 
 Jeremiah to Seriah that when he had made an end of reading 
 the book of Babylon's doom to her sinful people he should 
 bind a stone to it and cast it into the Euphrates and say, "Thus 
 shall Babylon sink and shall not rise from the evil I will bring 
 upon her." This action does not illustrate the suddenness of 
 the fall so much as the certainty of it. Then follows this 
 tender sadness to close the dirge of world sorrow that begets no 
 repentance toward God. 
 
 And the voice of harpers and minstrels and flute playery and 
 trumpets shall be heard no more at all in thee, and no craftsman of 
 whatsoever craft shall be found any more at all in thee, and the 
 voice of the millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee, and the 
 voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at 
 all in thee, for thy merchants were the princes of the earth; for 
 with thy sorcery were all the nations deceived and in her was 
 found the blood of prophets and saints and of all *that have been 
 slain upon the earth. 
 
 She did not in her single self slay all that have been slain 
 upon the earth, but she does not have any single self. She is 
 the embodiment and representative of all brute and all diabol- 
 ical power. In this sense she is guilty of the blood of all and 
 not only so, but every one who hates his brother or denies God 
 is guilty of all the sin of all the enemies of God, for he is 
 with him and of them in one common cause. One is not guilty 
 of a part of the sin? committed by his company, or party, or 
 
320 
 
 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 trust, or church with which he holds membership, but is him- 
 self guilty of all its sins as though he had consented to them 
 each, for he consents to all. "Their sins cleave together/^ The 
 desolation pictured here causes a shudder. The halls where 
 music and gayety once abounded now silent, and the voices 
 of lovers stilled and the millstone and the anvil of the smith 
 no longer heard and this is the awful imagery in which brute 
 power is to give way to the glorious light of "the Lamb of God, 
 who taketh away the sin of the world." 
 
 1 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 321 
 
 CHAPTEK XIX. 
 
 Revelation XIX. 
 
 MARRIAGE OP THE LAMB.— THE GREAT SUPPER OF GOD. 
 
 Ah! now the enemy is vanquished. The harlot has been 
 judged and her pride is fallen and her jewels taken away and 
 her city bankrupt and she is burnt with fire and her merchants 
 mourn and the kings and merchants and mariners stand afar 
 off to bemoan her. It is time for the bride to appear. She 
 that was clothed with the sun and jeweled with the stars, the 
 moon under her feet, shall now come forth again a pure virgin 
 and yet the mother of saints, as Mary was both the mother of 
 Jesus and a chaste virgin. The marriage of the Lamb has 
 ■come.' Long separated, the time has at last come for the rap- 
 ture. Here the greatest of the great oratorios is given. Now 
 with music and rejoicing the spiritual festivities go forward 
 amid deafening acclamations of joy. 
 
 After these things I heard as it were a great voice of a great 
 : multitude in heaven saying, Hallelujah, Salvation and Glory and 
 power belong to our God for true and righteous are his judgments; 
 for he hath judged the great harlot which did corrupt the earth with 
 her fornication, and he hath avenged the blood of his servants at her 
 hand; and a second time they say. Hallelujah! And her smoke 
 goeth up forever and ever, and the four and twenty elders and the 
 four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sitteth on 
 the throne, saying. Amen! Hallelujah! and a voice came from the 
 throne saying. Give praise to our God all ye his servants, ye that 
 fear him, the small and the great. And I heard as it were the voice 
 of a great multitude and as the voice of great waters and as the 
 voice of many thunders saying. Hallelujah, for the Lord of our 
 God reigneth. Let us rejoice and be exceeding glad and let us give 
 .21 
 
322 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 the glory unto him for the marriage of the Lamb ie come and his 
 wife hath made herself ready. 
 
 The parable of the marriage supper spoken by our Lord 
 comes vividly to mind. The bridegroom long expected now 
 appears and His coming brings the greatest joy. The bride hath 
 made herself ready and the feast of rejoicing has begun. " It 
 was given to her that she should array herself in fine linen 
 bright and pure, "for the fine linen is the righteous acts of 
 saints." 
 
 "The righteous acts of saints!" What a day of rejoicing it 
 will be when dogma and formalism give way to Christian living 
 and doing. "I was hungry and ye fed me; I was thirsty and 
 ye gave me drink, in prison and ye visited me. Then shall he 
 say, ^Come, ye blessed of My Father, inasmuch as ye did it 
 unto one of the least of these. My brethren, ye did it unto 
 Me.' " Of such deeds as these, done in the name of Christ, 
 the garment of white linen is to be woven. 
 
 And he said to me, Blessed are they that are bidden to the mar- 
 riage supper of the Lamb. 
 
 They have kept their lamps trimmed and burning and the 
 cry, "Behold the bridegroom cometh," meets an echo in their 
 hearts, and all the great company shout, the multitude in 
 heaven and the elders and the four living creatures. Four times 
 they acclaim Hallelujah! and a mighty voice from the throne 
 adds its loud accent, "Give praise to God all ye servants that 
 fear Him, the small and the great." "And He sayeth unto 
 me, these are the true words of God." 
 
 Twice the guiding angel gives this solemn declaration. How 
 wide of a dream are such positive and assuring words. There 
 are seven blessings pronounced as there are seven choruses 
 sung and seven ascriptions of praise chanted. This blessing 
 is to those bidden to the marriage of the Lamb." 
 
 We seem to be so much nearer to hear the blessing repeated 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 333 
 
 and then the positive assurance that "these are the true words 
 of God/^ How glorious it must all be and we find ourselves 
 wishing for a little more definiteness; but a more definite 
 or literal description would fall below, for what have we ever 
 experienced of joy that would not put a limit and leave a taint 
 on the glory of that blessing? It was John who said, "We 
 are now the sons of God and it does not yet appear what we 
 shall be, but Ave know that when He shall appear we shall 
 be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." 
 
 The mystery element about this book seems to some to 
 belong more to the realm of dreams than to the supreme reality 
 that it is and declares itself to be. Believers should stop to 
 think how much of all they learn of Christ is in figurative 
 language, for His sixty or more titles are all figurative. How 
 this rejoicing over the marriage supper of the Lamb affected 
 the exile himself is clearly seen. He does not tell us what 
 words of praise filled his soul or fell from his mouth, but if 
 there was the slightest possibility :that he was only dreaming, 
 it all left him when his angel guide said, "These are the true 
 words of God," for his inclinations to worship rose in his heart, 
 and he falls before him and offers divine honors to his brother, 
 the angel guide. 
 
 And I fell down before his feet to worship him and he said unto 
 me, See thou do it not. I am a fellow-servant with thee and thy 
 brethren that hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God, for the 
 testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. 
 
 The two disciples knew not their Lord after His resurrection 
 as He walked with them toward Emmaus. There was some- 
 thing very realistic about this angel's presence that brought the 
 old saint to his knees. How shall we imagine his feelings when 
 told "I am your fellow servant and of your brethren that hold 
 the testimony of Jesus." This is the first time the angel has 
 declared himself, and the first time he has uttered any senti- 
 
324 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 ment about the Revelation. His short sermon^ besides his 
 warning to John not to worship him, but to worship God, is, 
 ^'These are the true words of God; the testimony of Jesus is 
 the spirit of prophecy/^ He is the Alpha and the Omega. He 
 is the Spirit and the end of all prophecy. He is the seed of 
 the woman that should bruise the serpent's head. Of him all 
 the prophets sang. 
 
 We shall presently see that John a second time offers to 
 worship this angel guide. It is interesting to know not who 
 this angel was, as though he were bodily and literally present, 
 but in whose functioii did he act? He says, "I am a fellow 
 servant and of thy brethren, etc." There are no direct per- 
 sonalities in any of the parts, but we have seen Matthias and 
 Peter and Paul through their functions, their shadowgraphs, 
 and may we not here see who this guiding angel would be in 
 the same way? 
 
 In xxi, 9, he says, '^One of the seven angels which had the 
 seven bowels of wrath spoke to me, saying, ^Come hither and 
 I will show thee the bride the wife of the Lamb' " — that is, one 
 of the apostles. Beside Paul and Matthias and Peter and 
 John himself we have not seen any others. We look at once 
 to that inner circle of Christ's disciples who were with Him 
 in the mount of transfiguration and in the garden of suffering, 
 etc., and who played the most active parts in the gospel history. 
 His brother James, who is always named first where they are 
 both spoken of comes easily to mind, but there was another, 
 Peter, who stood very close to John. It throws a side light 
 on the character of John that he received Peter to his home 
 and to his heart after the crucifixion, having forgiven him for 
 denying his Lord and swearing about it, for John was of a vin- 
 dictive and hasty temper, as we may infer from his having 
 requested of his Master that he might command fire to come 
 dowr from heaven and consume the inhospitable Saniaritans, 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 325 
 
 and his austere nature we might infer from his having no 
 shading or gradations in his characters, they being all in white 
 and black, all devils or saints, and would hardly be of a for- 
 giving nature. With these seemingly adverse qualities he yet 
 became the apostle of love, and Peter^ the impetuous, seems 
 to be more anxious for his fate than concerned for his own, 
 for when his Lord told him that when he grew old another 
 should lead him whither he would not go; he, turning to 
 John, asked, "And what shall this man do?" and was told, 
 "What is it to thee if he tarry till I come?" We may never 
 know all that prompted that question of Peter nor of all that 
 Christ conveyed in the answer, but it shows a peculiar solici- 
 tude upon the part of Peter and bears a mystic import upon 
 the part of the Master. 
 
 How pleasing the thought that these two, whose intimacy 
 is so well attested, should meet again in this vision! What a 
 meaning may be hinted at in those words, "What is it to 
 thee if he tarry till I come?" To Peter was given the keys of 
 the kingdom of heaven, and, not only was he the speaker at 
 the election of Matthias and on the day of Pentecost, but was 
 sent for to go to the house of Cornelius, where the first Gen- 
 tile convert was to be gained; but now we seem again to see 
 his shadowgraph in an angel doing what we might expect 
 Peter to do in opening or showing this new kingdom of the 
 hereafter to John. 
 
 And I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse and he that 
 sat thereon called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth 
 judge and make war and his eyes are a flame of fire and upon his 
 head are many diadems; and he hath a name written which no one 
 knoweth but he himself, and he is arrayed in a garment sprinkled 
 with blood and his name is called the word of God and the armies 
 which are in heaven follow him upon white horses clothed in white 
 linen, white and pure. 
 
3^6 MYSTERY OP THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 Tliat is^ the white horse^ once ridden down by the red, has 
 returned. He comes followed by the armies of heaven^ the 
 hundred and forty-four thousand, the multitude no man could 
 number, all the saints. It is the bridegroom and his retinue, 
 his marriage pageant. He comes from the war, he wears many 
 diadems upon his head, he has a name written which no other 
 can wear, for he is the first fruits, the first born from the 
 dead. He trod the wine-press alone and he comes with his 
 garments sprinkled with the blood, as from the wrath of God 
 which he treads and presses from the earth vine "without 
 the city.'' His name is Faithful and True and He is "called 
 the Word of God.'' He judges and makes war against spiritual 
 wickedness in high places. He is the "Michael" who has cast 
 Satan out of heaven. His followers who have been with him 
 in the war now follow with him in procession to the feast, 
 "the marriage supper." The Word that was in the begin- 
 ning with God now rides a white horse in heavenly conquest 
 on earth. 
 
 And out of his mouth proceeded a sharp sword that with it he 
 should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron 
 and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of Almighty God, 
 and he hath on his garment and on his thigh a name written King of 
 Kings and Lord of Lords. 
 
 He has conquered the world powers, and now rules them 
 with a rod of iron. His will is mightier than the armaments 
 of the earth. For His servants will for Him gladly give up 
 their lives. All the rationalism, ritualism and materialism of 
 this world never caused one man to quit lying or stealing or 
 sinning, but for Him and to follow Him, "they love not their 
 lives even unto death." All this picture of His warfare is not 
 to be separated from His crucifying the world powers, but 
 presents it in a different phase only. It is Christ, viewed in 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 327 
 
 relation to His reception by the new church, which comes forth 
 as a bride adorned for her husband, and also a conquerer of 
 sin. 
 
 And I saw an angel standing in the sun and he cried with a loud 
 voice saying, to all the birds that fly in midheaven, Come and be 
 gathered unto the great supper of God that ye may eat the flesh of 
 kings and the flesh of captains and the flesh of mighty men and 
 the flesh of horses and of them that sit thereon and the flesh of all 
 men, both free and bond and small and great. 
 
 At the first thought there is a shocking incongruity in 
 calling upon all the birds of prey to come to a marriage and 
 feast at the great supper of God. It is as distasteful as that 
 the four beasts, as they are called in the common version, 
 should be seen in the company of the Elders and joyful saints 
 before the throne. The mixing of figures here is in violation 
 of our rhetoric. The rejoicing is as if it were a heavenly jubilee 
 and a pageant in white, led by a warrior whose garment is 
 sprinkled in blood as if returning from a field of battle^ and 
 the great supper of the marriage of the Lamb, where the birds 
 of the air are called to do the eating and feasting, and that 
 is also a field of battle, where the horse and the rider lay side 
 by side in their own gore. 
 
 The point in which this very mixed allegory is to be taken 
 is that the captains and mighty men, the world powers, are 
 become food for the birds of prey. It would be vapid to 
 mention any menu as a repast for the great supper of Grod. 
 The feeling is more one of victory than of hunger, and that 
 victory is such as throws eternal contempt on all the glory of 
 earth. The satisfying of the appetite is too slight to express 
 an occasion so great, or a joy so profound and widespread and 
 enduring as is here pictured. It is much like saying that in 
 the rapture and glory of the marriage of the Lamb all the 
 glory of earth will be as nothing. That to become kings and 
 
328 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 great captains is a prize for which men will wade through blood 
 and terror, receives here its true meaning in the vanity and 
 despair of fallen world magnates. They are fit only for vul- 
 tures. An angel stands in the snn and cries to all the vnltnre 
 tribes to come and feed npon the pride of man, come and eat 
 the glory of the kings and chiefs slain in battle. What a 
 sense of the awful and eternal contempt for all the glory of 
 man is here expressed; what an inferno for all the pride of 
 rebellion that an angel from the new Jerusalem should tell 
 us standing in the sun that in this new glory-land, where 
 Christ is the nuptial Prince, world kings and war captains are 
 food only for buzzards. It was in this light that God showed 
 to Daniel the nature of apostate man in the usurpation and 
 exercise of brute rule over man by the symbols of great brutes 
 coming up out of the sea. 
 
 It was shown by the four beasts of world power that rose 
 out of the sea of the sinful race which had spread over the 
 earth. Here at this culmination of glory, at this marriage of 
 the Lamb and the great supper of G-od, we have also the utter- 
 most of the shame of the enemy, the outcome of brute rule 
 on the earth, dramatized in a most startling manner. All our 
 methods and contrivances of speech are surpassed by this 
 strange and awful mixture of allegory; a battle field with a 
 triumphal march and a marriage supper with the vultures 
 eating the carcasses of the enemy. A mere supper would be 
 spiritless, but a victory is united to it giving great and enlivened 
 expression. Your kings and captains and rich men and mighty 
 men, whose glory and power have been raised upon the toil and 
 tears of so many and whose temples are erected on the blood 
 and bones of their subject millions, are fallen. They lay 
 mingled to the level with dead horses and where all their glory 
 is but a supper for unclean birds, dwellings of devils and holds 
 of every unclean spirit. This mixing of allegory has the effect 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 329 
 
 to break down the possible use of the literalistic method of 
 interpretation. All that we seem to grasp even in the ordi- 
 nances tends to harden in our hands. Our Christian ordinances 
 and our holidays seem to go into degeneration by our using 
 them, for we contend for forms to the constant neglect of the 
 spirit they were designed to inspire. The time was when our 
 Independence Day was better kept than now, when the read- 
 ing of the Declaration of Independence disposed all hearts to 
 a fervent patriotism. Thanksgiving Day once filled the 
 churches, and gratitude mingling with a holier resolve, filled 
 all hearts with praise. But these and other holidays have de- 
 generated. Christmas, the Christian Day, is noted above all 
 others for gluttony, drunkenness and folly. 
 
 This poem from Patmos has received but little from scholar- 
 ship and has but little to offer it. It more than any other book 
 addresses the heart, wherein are the wellsprings of joy, grati- 
 tude and obedience. In this direction all its mighty symbols 
 move. What we call analysis is weak through its very proc- 
 esses and what we fondly regard as exact knowledge is too often 
 but a clumsy and vapid veracity of externals and a complacent 
 security in delusions. 
 
 This age of analysis must soon give way to the coming age 
 of synthesis. The world that Bacon caused to be taken to 
 pieces to look at will be put together again and seen in its 
 true wholeness. The subterfuges of intellectual gymnastics' 
 must give way to the song and myriad-shaped beauty of Christ's 
 religion. These last chapters of the Eevelatipn throw open the 
 gates to reflection in a way that transcends the limits of all 
 our literary contrivances. The very mixing of rhetoric in this 
 manner keeps the mind from hardening symbols of spiritual 
 thought into mere things, and opens to view the spiritual 
 world as deep and inexhaustible and beautiful to the soul as 
 the starry worlds to the eye. 
 
330 
 
 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies 
 gathered together to make war with him that sat upon the horse 
 and against his army. And the beast was taken and with him the 
 false prophet that wrought the signs in his sight wherewith he 
 deceived them that had received the mark of the beast and them 
 that had worshiped his image. They twain were cast alive into the 
 lake of fire that burneth with brimstone, and the rest were killed 
 with the sword which came forth out of his mouth and all the 
 birds were filled with their fiesh. 
 
 This is the two-horned beast who is three times called "The 
 False Prophet." There are two punishments as there are two 
 salvations. There is the salvation of restoration of this world 
 to the rule of Christ with His rod of iron^ and there is the 
 eternal salvation of the soul beyond the field of time; so there 
 are two punishments^ one that brings this world under His 
 authority and one that consigns to the lake of fire or perdition 
 hereafter, but their line of definition does not appear, as both 
 blessings and judgments begin hero and go on. The great 
 variety of symbols employed to express the punishments of the 
 evil powers are in variety and extent quite like those used to 
 express the relations of joy and gladness and triumphs be- 
 lievers are promised to enjoy in Christ. We experience a sense 
 of strangeness in the symbols of the Eevelation only because 
 we have not adopted .them in usage. We are quite used to 
 symbols and figures about Christ and salvation in current Chris- 
 tian use. 
 
 We notice in the following table in how many different 
 ways we express the same fact of our being saved: 
 
 He Savior 
 He Shepherd 
 He Father 
 He Physician 
 He Teacher 
 He Judge 
 He Ruler 
 
 We lost 
 We strayed 
 We orphans 
 We sick 
 We ignorant 
 We criminal 
 We in prison 
 
 He saved us 
 He found us 
 He adopted us 
 He healed us 
 He taught us 
 He justified us 
 He liberated us 
 
 We are saved 
 We are fiock 
 We are family 
 We are whole 
 We are disciples 
 We are just 
 We are free 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 331 
 
 Thus we have said the same fact seven times over^ but all 
 in symbol and figurative language, and by preserving the 
 proper correlation we see how "found/^ and "healed/' and 
 "adopted/' and "justified/' etc., are different ways of saying 
 "converted/' just as "fiock/' and "family/' and "disciples" are 
 different ways of saying "the church/' etc. This can be car- 
 ried on 'through another seven in the same manner. Thus the 
 Eedeemer redeems us; the Author writes upon us and we are 
 the Letter of Christ; the King naturalizes us and we are 
 "fellow citizens;" the Holy One sanctifies us and we are saints, 
 etc. 
 
332 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 CHAPTEE XX. 
 Revelation XX. -. 
 
 SATAN BOUND.— THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 Satan^ repulsed in the spiritual contest of the great tempta- 
 tion of Christy seized Him and bound Him and led Him to the 
 nearest seat of Satanic power and there denied Him judg- 
 ment and condemned and killed the guiltless and the just 
 one, who was "as a lamb dumb before his shearer." He came 
 to our Lord in His solitude and tempted Him to use His divine 
 power to appease His human hunger and so to discredit His 
 perfect humanity; and then he tempted Him to cast Himself 
 from the pinnacle of the temple upon the angels of God and 
 their charge and so to deny or discredit His perfect divinity, and 
 then he tempted Him to deny both His divine and human 
 nature by falling down before the Devil in an act of worship. 
 But Christ said three times, "It is written," and then He said, 
 "Get behind Me, Satan." 
 
 When Christ stood before Pilate He said, "You could have 
 no power against Me at all except it were given thee from 
 above." "Thinkest thou not that I could pray to My Father 
 and He shall presently give Me more than twelve legions of 
 angels?" In the judgments against the sinful world there 
 is to be a special reckoning with Satan, who stands behind 
 them all, and as he instigated the imprisoning of Christ in 
 the tomb, it is meet that a punishment be inflicted that shall 
 have in it the form and suggestion of retribution as coming 
 from Christ. Satan's arrest and imprisonment therefore is 
 very properly ascribed as the personal act of Christ. We are not 
 looking now upon some later judgment than those already given, 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 333 
 
 but only upon another aspect of the same. The great harlot 
 has received a just judgment and now the judgment of Satan 
 is the subject. As the mock church was judged by the saints 
 or the true churchy so shall Satan be judged by the Christ. 
 This is not something apart from the other judgments, but 
 the proper antithesis respected, the woman's seed, Christ, bruis- 
 ing the serpent's head. The true church shall judge the false, 
 and the Christ, its head, shall judge the head of the false, and 
 the imagery of His own seizure and burial in the tomb is 
 employed to describe His retaliation upon Satan just as He 
 is represented as punishing the world powers, in the sixth 
 seal, in form as a crucifixion. 
 
 Christ is now in the foreground and is the chief, and hence 
 a heightening of expression, as if it might be an occasion to 
 itself of a different time or nature. But it is a fact already 
 seen in other phases. This same heightening we noticed when 
 the church came into view which brought out all Satanic power 
 in the great red dragon as the serpent that beguiled Eve. 
 For the three days and nights that Christ was shut up in the 
 tomb Satan is to be shut up for a thousand years, and Christ 
 shall execute the sentence as if in His own person. He shall 
 open the pit of the abyss and shall put the deceiver in and 
 seal him in for "a thousand years" that he may "deceive the 
 nations no more." That suppresses the kingdom of Satan and 
 raises the kingdom of God into power. He has overcome the 
 wicked one as if in his own person. 
 
 And after this I saw an angel coming down out of heaven having 
 the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid 
 hold on the dragon, the old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, 
 and bound him for a thousand years and cast him into the abyss 
 and shut it and sealed it over him that he should deceive the na- 
 tions no more until the thousand years should be finished; after 
 this he must be loosed for a little time. . 
 
334 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 Deceiving the nations has been his wicked business for a 
 long time. "When he is made to cease from deceiving the 
 nations then the kingdom of God will rise and rule. This 
 is also a coming of the Lord besides those mentioned to bind 
 Satan and imprison him. He holds the key which Satan pre- 
 tended to have, and to have given to the beast and by which 
 he carried on that great fraud about purgatory, by which he 
 could deceive and oppress his victims and yet prevent them 
 from suiciding. Satan is here again given four appropriate 
 names— "Serpent," "Dragon," "Satan," and "Devil." 
 
 A thousand years means a long time, a full legal sentence, as 
 the symbol "ten" imports. It is multiplied by one hundred, 
 just as four was multiplied by itself, and then by one hundred 
 to give the total of world punishment in a lake of blood that 
 ran from the wine-press of the Avrath of God sixteen hundred 
 furlongs. By the same method the saints who are sealed on 
 tlie forehead are called tv^elve thousand for each tribe, and 
 then multiplied by .twelve to give both the parts and the sum 
 total in the sj^mbol twelve to indicate they are God^s chosen, 
 etc., and yet their actual number, John says, no man could 
 count. This is not a multiple, not numeral, but symbol. This 
 coming of Christ, like those already noticed, has special refer- 
 ence to the things which Christ is in form doing, what, in fact. 
 He is doing through His saints here in action upon the earth. 
 
 And I saw thrones and they that sat upon them and judgment 
 was given to them and I saw the souls of them that were be- 
 headed for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God and such 
 as worshiped not the beast neither his image and received not the 
 mark upon their foreheads and upon their hand, and they lived and 
 reigned with Christ a thousand years, but the rest of the dead live 
 not again till the thousand years should be finished. 
 
 This thousand years is now identified both by the fall and 
 imprisonment of Satan and by the rise and reign of Christ and 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 335 
 
 the saints. These are the reverse conditions to the same gen- 
 eral facts as positive and negative, just as the- ascendancy of 
 brute power and the imprisonment of the church in the wilder- 
 ness are opposite sides to the same general fact, and are co- 
 equal. These were the opposite conditions before the Eeforma- 
 tion as these later are the opposite conditions in the regenera- 
 tion or first resurrection. 
 
 DanieFs vision of the reign of the saints (Dan. vii, 27) is 
 here fulfilled, and the words of our Lord that the apostles 
 should sit upon thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel 
 in the regeneration, has here also its fulfillment. It is the 
 reign of Christ and His apostles and His saints. With the 
 entombment of Satan, who is the head of Satanic powers, comes 
 the first resurrection and the ascension of the heavenly powers 
 to reign. This resurrection includes all who were beheaded 
 and those sealed and all who worshiped not the beast, etc. It 
 includes all saints. A confusion arises as soon as we divide the 
 living from the dead saints and assume a personal, bodily resur- 
 rection. The living saints are raised as well as the dead. Such 
 questions as, "Will marriages and births and deaths go on?'^ 
 and "Will immortals and mortals live side by side?" and "Will 
 those who die be at once raised again?" etc., are perplexing. 
 Out of these and like questions have grown many confused 
 theories bewildering and unsatisfactory. 
 
 This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath 
 part in the first resurrection; over these the second death hath no 
 power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall 
 reign with him a thousand years. 
 
 The rest of the dead are those that worship the beast and 
 his image; who have oppressed the saints; whose descent and 
 imprisonment are coincident with the emancipation and ascend- 
 ancy of the saints. The conditions are reversed. Christ and 
 
336 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 His saints have risen and Satan and the wicked are in tribulation 
 and in prison. 
 
 This ascendancy of Christ and His saints and His truth in 
 the earth is called "the first resurrection/' and it includes all 
 the saints, those whose souls cried from beneath the altar, and 
 those later who refused the mark of the beast, even ithe living 
 and dead and unborn. Those born during this time will reign 
 Avith Christ while they live and continue to reign with Him 
 without respect to living or dying, for here, as heretofore, the 
 death line does not appear, does not divide the saints. The 
 souls under the altar and the living shall together reign, for 
 there is no division between them, the veil having been taken 
 away. Our difficulty here lies in our making a distinction 
 which the Apocalj^pse does not make. Other scriptures or the 
 interpretation of other scriptures have been imported into this, 
 and it has been forced into answering a complex question which 
 it does not entertain. The first presentation we have of the 
 saint's triumph in this book is that of the fruition or millen- 
 nium condition where the Elders and the four living creatures 
 and the sea of glass are all in one and the same relation to the 
 throne, and in their second appearance (vii, 9) we have them 
 in the same symbols and they are before the throne and upon 
 the earth serving day and night (there being no day or night 
 in the eternal world) and being led to fountains of waters, etc. 
 Their appearance on every occasion is without distinction as 
 to heaven or earth. They are "they that tabernacle in heaven," 
 and the veil being rent, heaven and the church are annexed and 
 we are in heaven while on earth and have eternal life now in 
 John's mode of teaching. 
 
 The added words, "Blessed is he that hath part in the first 
 resurrection," at first adds an appearance to a personal, bodily 
 resurrection. But there are seven of these blessings in all. 
 "Blessed are they that are bidden to the marriage supper of 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. SSt 
 
 tke Lamb" and "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord 
 from henceforth, yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from 
 their labors and their works do follow with them.'^ 
 
 •These three blessings point to the same general condition of 
 things. Now we have already seen that as Christ had a resur- 
 rection and ascension, so had His two witnesses; so also we 
 saw His church lost and buried in the wilderness and it arose 
 and came forth, and also in the figure of a temple, was trodden 
 down and buried in the dust and was raised up and opened, etc. 
 We also saw a parody or pantomime on these central facts, in 
 which the false prophet gives life to the image of the beast, 
 that he breathed life into the image of the beast, and that the 
 beast itself has one head raised from the dead and restored 
 to life. All this goes to show that a resurrection is a symbol 
 w^ell suited to express the rising of the people of God and 
 the kingdom of God into the ascendancy from a long state of 
 tribulation and subordination. We may not only say this is 
 "the first resurrection, but also the ascension, for the analogy 
 and the usage of the symbols employed fully sustain the con- 
 clusion. But an ascension into the upper air or to a place 
 is not in harmony with the method of this book, whatever 
 other scriptures may seem to teach. This is that great change 
 already spoken of now in an all-comprehensive view. 
 
 The tribulation and kingdom and patience in w^hich John 
 said he was in the isle of Patmos is become the triumph and 
 kingdom and fruition of Jesus Christ, now risen, now on 
 Mount Zion, now the Kew Jerusalem descended, etc. Christ 
 and His apostles and His saints have risen from a state of 
 subordination to one of ascendancy and dominion. The appear- 
 ance of a bodily resurrection has been read into the text. We 
 have just read two other blessings (there being seven in all) 
 and these two are ^^Dlessed are the dead which die in the Lord 
 from henceforth'' and "blessed are they which are bidden to 
 22 
 
338 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 the marriage supper of the Lamb." N'ow, these are not bless- 
 ings on different persons nor on different conditions, but the 
 same blessings under changed symbols expressed in proper 
 correlation with the point of view in which the subject is held 
 at the moment. In the condition here spoken of they are 
 blessed while they live and blessed when they die. It is the 
 time of the marriage supper, old things are passed away. 
 Those who are born in this time are joyful, they are blessed 
 while they live and blessed when they die, for they are in the 
 first resurrection. All things in heaven and earth have been 
 made subject to Christ, and the kingdom has come and there 
 is peace on earth and good will among men, and the saints 
 are all happy and victorious. The prayer *^Thy will be done 
 on earth" is answered. This is a condition we have now met 
 with the seventh time, but under different symbolism, so that 
 we failed to notice we were reading a fact seven times related, 
 now under the symbol of "the First Eesurrection." 
 
 1. We had this fact first in the Seals series, in which 
 Christ, after He had opened the six labor seals, opened the 
 Sabbatic, or seventh seal, and there was silence in heaven for 
 about the space of half an hour. This is what we call the 
 millennium, viewed as a rest to the new Creator; having 
 finished His creative work, enters into His rest. 
 
 2. The Trumpets, which represent the apostles as over- 
 coming the world in six labor trumpets, sound the seventh 
 or jubilee trumpet, and it is announced that "the kingdom of 
 men is become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ." 
 This shows the millennium, as where G-od reigns over the 
 world through the apostles. 
 
 3. The Holy Spirit, who raises the two dead witnesses to 
 life from the dead, by which the new temple, the church, is 
 measured, and raised up and opened, and out of which the 
 
OR. THE RIVEN VEIL. 
 
 339 
 
 wicked are judged and the righteous rewarded, shows the mil- 
 lennium as a restitution of order and justice, etc. 
 
 4. The church, which began with such glory and had to 
 struggle with the Dragon, comes to the end of her warfare hy 
 casting out the Dragon, pagan Eome, into the earth, and it is 
 declared that "now is come the salvation and the power and 
 kingdom of God and the authority of His Christ, for the 
 accuser of our brethren is cast down.^' This is the millennium 
 potentially or made possible. 
 
 5. Christ acting seven parts as evangels and as negative to 
 the seven seals and in judgments on them that dwell on the 
 earth when He acts the last part. He gathers the vine of the 
 earth and tramps it in the great wine-press of God's wrath 
 without the city till the blood, runs a sea in which horses can 
 swim. This is the millennium in judgments as coming from 
 Christ upon the wicked. 
 
 6. The avengers are the apostles carrying the negative to 
 the trumpets by pouring out seven bowls of wrath of God 
 in judgments on the wicked and the last of these ends with 
 a mighty earthquake ;which shows the nations of the earth 
 fallen and the end declared in the solemn words "It is done.'' 
 This- also shows the millennium, as we call it, on its judgment 
 side and as being visited upon the world through the apostles 
 or the saints and brought to an end. 
 
 7. But now after this great result has been brought to 
 view in harmony with the acts of the agencies respectively em- 
 ployed and after the judgments have been visited from all these 
 sources on the different classes of the wicked ' then we have 
 all the heavenly powers acting in or^e grand concert called the 
 "First Eesurrection," and this is the millennium as the tri- 
 umph of saints and of the apostles and of the church and of 
 Christ and of all the heavenly powers over ^11 sinful powers. 
 All who have not worshiped the beast nor his image and the 
 
340 
 
 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 souls under the altar with the word of God and the glory and 
 power of God shall rise and reign^ and the Devil, the beast, 
 the dragon, the false prophet, the wicked, and filthy, etc., shall 
 be crucified, shall be trodden in the wine-press, shall be slain 
 upon the battlefield, shall be crushed with hailstones, shall 
 be cast into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, etc. 
 So we have the millennium expressed on its positive and its 
 negative sides and in symbols that present it in harmony with 
 the agencies and methods by which it is said to come about. 
 This is the first resurrection; it is the Marriage of the Lamb, 
 the New Jerusalem, the Fruition, viewed in its different phases 
 and relations. Notice we are not concerned with any general 
 doctrine of the resurrection, but only what this Apocalypse 
 teaches. 
 
 Eeproach and subjection are removed. The saints are vin- 
 dicated; they live and reign with Christ; the souls from under 
 the altar proclaim a loud amen (xvi, 7). Thrones are set and 
 the saints sit upon them; they now reign with their Lord. 
 None of the perplexing questions, such as "Will the living 
 saints be changed to immortal bodies, and will they cease to 
 marry and propagate their species ?^^ "Will resurrected saints 
 dwell among the mortals, and will those who die have an 
 immediate resurrection, and will the wicked continue to prop- 
 agate?'^ are answered. All these and other perplexing ques- 
 tions rise from the mistaken notion that John is speaking of 
 the raising of the body from the grave. It is a resurrection 
 in which the living, the dead, and those to be born shall par- 
 ticipate described under many symbols, as the kingdom, mar- 
 riage supper, etc. 
 
 And when the thousand years are finished Satan shall be loosed 
 out of his prison and shall come forth to deceive the nations which 
 are in the four quarters of the earth. Gog and Magog to gather 
 them together to the war the number of ^ whoin is as thie sand 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. Ml 
 
 of the sea and they went up over the earth and compassed the camp 
 of the saints about and the beloved city and fire came down out of 
 hea,ven and devoured them and the devil that deceived them was 
 cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where are also the beast 
 and the false prophet and they shall be tormented day and night 
 forever and ever. 
 
 • 
 Here is another struggle on the earth after the thousand 
 years of Christian supremacy. Ezekiel told of a day when 
 Israel, having dwelt safely in the land brought back with the 
 sword, shall again be invaded, the enemy saying, "I will go 
 up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that 
 are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without 
 walls and having neither bars nor gates to take spoil,'^ etc. 
 (Ezek. xxxvii, 11). Ah, they are not all driven out. The 
 wicked we have seen all the way, and they are still in the 
 earth. For a long time they have been outwardly subject to 
 the kingdom of heaven, but now they make one more effort to 
 again corrupt the earth and are again and forever defeated. 
 Christ has already brought about many changes. We have 
 traced the limitations He placed on the world powers and the 
 harlot and we see Him still rising. The ownership of wives 
 by their husbands, so that they could even sell or kill them 
 at will, and the ownership of children as property was allowed 
 not very far in the past among advanced nations. The enslave- 
 ment of tribes of men and their use as chattels, to be worked 
 as brutes or to be killed for sport. Hostility toward stran- 
 gers and the consequent difficulty of travel in alien lands, 
 brutal punishments by prison and by torture, and ordeal, as 
 means of extorting testimony; piracy that not long ago covered 
 the seas, and persecution for conscience' sake till lately preva- 
 lent! How these and many other beastly forms of inhuman- 
 ity have been passing away wherever the light of God's word 
 has gone. A feeling of universal sympathy is rising all over 
 
342 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 the world and under Christian missions must continue to raise 
 the standard of righteousness. 
 
 The great counterpart is here carried out to the full. As 
 Christ has a millennium, so the adversary must have a coun- 
 ter-millennium, but it is in an inverse ratio of continuance, 
 for he is let out of prison for "a Jittle while" only, and then 
 destroyed forever. Christ had reigned for a little time in His 
 miniature kingdom, beginning at Jerusalem, and then came 
 the long reign of darkness; but He is at this time rising to 
 the ascendant and is sealing the great multitude of saints and 
 He will have a long reign, called a thousand years, and then 
 Satan shall try again and shall go down to rise no more. 
 
 On Christ's side here is a great climax and on Satan's side 
 a great anti-climax. The conditions are reversed and Christ 
 is become in truth the Euler of the kings of the earth. A 
 little while I am with you, w^as true of His personal absence 
 and also true of His church, v^hich should go down, like its 
 Lord, and rise again in the greater second church. How deep 
 and mystic are all the relations of all these parts and elements 
 connected with Christ! They marshal about Him as on the 
 wide field of battle, as all the clouds that spread over the sky 
 move to the center of the storm. 
 
 THE GREAT WHITE THRONE. 
 
 And I saw a great white throne and him that sat upon it from 
 whose face the heaven and the earth fled away and there was no 
 place found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small 
 standing before the throne, and books were opened and another 
 book which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of the 
 things which were written in the books according to their works. 
 And the sea gave up the dead which are in it, and death and hades 
 gave up the dead which were in them and they were judged every 
 man according to his works and death and hades were cast into the 
 lake of fire. This is the second death even the lake of fire, and if 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 343 
 
 any man was not found written in the book of life he was cast into 
 the lake of fire. 
 
 There is a universality and a finality to this lesson not 
 hitherto found in this book. This is the final judgment, and 
 it includes all classes. There are two kinds of books and two 
 classes — the great and the small — and they come from death 
 and Hades; and "every man according to his works'' shows 
 a final and eternal separation. The second death is the lake of 
 fire. Into that lake the Dragon and the beast and the false 
 prophet precede their followers, who are cast into it also, 
 even as the saints go into their Father's house, where Christ 
 has preceded to prepare mansions for them. We read in the 
 preceding chapter that "they twain were cast into the lake 
 of fire and that the rest are killed with the sword of Him that 
 sat upon the horse." 
 
 This is retaliation in kind. The dragon was wroth with the 
 remnant of the woman's seed; he went away to make war 
 with the rest of her seed which keep the commandments of 
 God after he had destroyed the church. So Christ now pursues 
 the remnant of the wicked with the sword of His mouth. 
 Thus these judgments, which at first confuse us with the 
 "when" and the "where," as though they, were independent, 
 are found to be different phases of the same general fact, all 
 having reference as counterpoint to some part in the main story. 
 We follow the same method in these judgments that we do 
 in the other parts, observing that what seems strange and 
 unrelated is, in fact, very closely related either by affinity with 
 some other member, as in the cryptograph or by a counteract 
 on the opposing side. 
 
 The punishments form a chapter to themselves worthy our 
 attention. The locust plague of the fifth trumpet and the 
 military plague of the sixth and the crucifixion of the sixth 
 seal and the treading of the wine-press and all the seven last 
 
'HE GOLDEN CL( 
 
 plagues of the bowls of wratli were visited upon tlie people of 
 the world in general, while a special judgment is visited upon 
 the harlot, and the special judgments on Satan and the beast 
 and false prophet are reserved for the last. The different 
 figures under which these are expressed have their proper cor- 
 relations in the different points under which the same general 
 fact is, viewed. Killing with the two-edged sword, cutting 
 down with a sickle and treading down the wine-press, and the 
 sea of blood that flowed from it, and sealing up of Satan in 
 the pit of the abyss and casting him into the lake of fire and 
 brimstone are all different ways of expressing the same fact 
 that Christ, as though in His own person, would execute these 
 judgments on the anti-christ, the adversary, and if we assume 
 that Christ will in His own person bind and imprison him we 
 must assume by the laws of language Satan will also be visible 
 and in his own person, and that a visible chain and a pit must- 
 be employed. 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 345 
 
 CHAPTEE XXI. 
 Revelation XXI. 
 THE PROMISES. 
 
 Every one who has read this book must have experienced 
 a feeling of vagueness and the wish that its lessons might be 
 brought more within the ordinary method for identifying and 
 realizing truth. But over against this there have been coun- 
 tervailing advantages in heights and intensities of expression 
 which the heaven above and the earth and the under world 
 have been employed in giving effect. The vagueness most felt 
 at the start arises from the very unlooked-for method of dis- 
 posing of the materials with which it deals, and yet we show 
 that it all contributes to the main proposition, "I am the 
 Alpha and the Omega," and the divisions for treatment follow 
 His associate powers, the apostles, the Holy Spirit, and the 
 churches, in their own order. Upon His own part there is no 
 other scripture that so truly makes one feel that Christ is speak- 
 ing to him so closely and personally, almost calling Him by 
 name. 
 
 In the seven letters there is a minuteness of care and pains- 
 taking and a delicacy and certainty of touch upon the heart 
 nowhere else to be found. Christ in these letters makes the 
 most personal and pointed allusions. To the church at Ephesus 
 He said: 
 
 "I know thy works and thy toil and patience and that thou 
 canst not bear evil men and didst try them that call them- 
 selves apostles and did find them false." To another at 
 Smyrna He said: "I know thy tribulation and poverty and 
 the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not, 
 
346 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 but are of the synagogue of Satan." To those at Pergamos: 
 "I know where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is, and 
 didst not deny My name even in the days of Antipas^ My wit- 
 ness, My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan 
 dwelleth." At Thyatira: "I know thy works and thy love 
 and ministry and patience and that thy last works are more 
 than the first." At Sardis: "I know thy works, that thou 
 hast a name, that thou live st and thou art dead." "Behold, 
 I have set before thee a door opened which none can shut, 
 that thou hast a little power and didst keep My word and didst 
 not deny My name." "I know thy works, that thou art neither 
 cold nor hot." 
 
 The liveliest and most intense interest is seen in all these 
 letters for the individual. The mention of Jezebel the wicked 
 and of Antipas the faithful and the few names of Sardis which 
 had not defiled their garments even where the church was 
 about to die. How quick and piercing are these appeals to 
 the heart, and even more so are the promises, which are all 
 given to the individuals. "To him that overcometh I will 
 give to eat of the tree of life." "To him will I give to eat 
 of the hidden manna and will give him a white stone, and 
 on the stone a new name written which no one knoweth but 
 he that receiveth it." "To him that overcometh I will give 
 him the morning star." "I will make him a pillar in the 
 temple of My G-od." "I will write upon him the name of My 
 God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, 
 which cometh down out of heaven from God, and Mine own 
 new name." "I Avill give to him to sit down with Me on My 
 throne, even as I also overcame and sat down on My Father's 
 throne." "He shall inherit all things." 
 
 Such promises as these have led many a heart to desire to 
 "read the words of the prophecy of this book." The New 
 Jerusalem of which we are about to read has the same detail 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 347 
 
 and minuteness of interest that we met in the seven letters. 
 All the references to the saints, the promises and the descrip- 
 tions are marked by painstaking care and tender refinement 
 of feeling. Christ knows them each. He seals them with the 
 seal of the living God on their foreheads, and writes His own 
 name and His Father's name, and the name of the city of His 
 God upon them; and writes their names in His own book of 
 life and presents each one a signet, a white gem stone, in 
 which He writes a new name, one that can never tarnish, and 
 "a name which none can ever know but he that receiveth it;" 
 that is. His own personality and personal experience, which is 
 unlike all others, being His personal knowledge and sweet 
 reminiscence — to be His own forever, a sweet memorial and per- 
 sonal keepsake. He numbers them that none may be lost; He 
 walks with them in white raiment and communes with them 
 by the way; He sits with them on His own and His Father's 
 throne, and gives them His rod of judgment over the nations 
 to smite them as a potter's vessels are broken to shivers. Out 
 of great tribulation they come to the marriage supper of the 
 Lamb, and to eat the hidden manna, and to eat of the tree 
 of life in the paradise of God. Against Him the second death 
 has no power nor shall he ever again go out from the presence 
 and glory of God. He is a raptured member of the happy 
 throng of singing virgins upon the lovely Mount Zion, who 
 "sing the new song of Moses and the Lamb," a song that none 
 but the one hundred and forty-four thousand can ever learn, 
 for no other can know the joys of salvation, a happy victor 
 triumphant over sin and over death and over the grave. Over 
 all enemies and at peace with the Lamb of God forever and 
 ever. 
 
 tThe holy dreams of the young convert so soon and so often 
 plunged into the cold realities of this lower selfish world; the 
 wing of hope so often cut by the darts of the wicked, his pure 
 
348 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 love as from a foimtain so soon resisted; all this, and more, 
 Christ remembers and knows and bids him watch and pray and 
 promises him all His own treasures and calls him blessed. 
 Through all repulses the faithful servant follows the heavenly- 
 vision of faith that leads on its quenchless, its boundless life, 
 as from a spring of life within that flows on to eternal life. 
 Above all the fiery darts of the wicked above the plane where 
 chilling rebuffs may strike He walks in Godlike attire. He 
 rises to heights malice cannot reach and so overcomes, to sit 
 down with his Lord and to walk with Him in white and to 
 sing with Him the new song. Such a rich legacy of promise 
 exceeds all fable, transcends imagination itself. N'ot the dream 
 of childhood's flowing buoyancy on its onward wing can touch 
 -the upward limit of its glory. 
 
 That bright and morning star that draws our attention from 
 all the constellations by its singular beauty He promises to 
 him that overcometh, and a mansion above the glory of the 
 sky. Clothed in a priceless white garment, the gift of heaven, 
 a garment white as snow, every thread of which is woven in 
 love's sacrifices untarnishable forever, and a crown of gold for 
 his head that becomes a victor over sin and Satan, shall be 
 his own evermore. 
 
 And above this whole wicked earth as its conqueror, and 
 owning all the heavens as freely as though he were the single 
 victor, he reigns a priest and a king unto God like his Im- 
 manuel. In never-ending joy his harp and new song shall be 
 heard in all the happy fields and gardens of the Lord amid 
 everlasting balm and beauty. The marks and scars of his 
 tribulation shall be his passport to all the distant worlds where 
 one star differs from another. He wears the glory of God 
 upon his heart, he walks above the hilltops and sees and knows 
 that it is his own self, remicmbers every experience of life, and 
 knows it is indeed himself now, with everything taken from 
 
 ■ 
 
 II 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 349 
 
 liim that can give him trouble or pain, every infirmity gone, 
 and death itself removed forever from his fears. 
 
 Upon his passport is written the name of his Father and 
 of the Lamb, to pass imehallenged amid all the outposts of 
 heavenly space, where he goes unhindered and unharmed. 
 God's seal is upon him so he cannot go astray nor ever be lost 
 from His presence. He shall be trusted as faithful, shall be 
 a pillar in the temple of my God. He shall not hunger nor 
 grope in the dark, nor shall heat strike him nor darkness ever 
 overtake him. He is already saved and his eternal life begun 
 here below. He follows the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. He 
 watches all the great matters of dispute among men and looks 
 to see which side his Master would stand on and there firmly 
 takes his place. He is called wise and is measured by the 
 golden reed of truth and he measures all his duties by the 
 measure of his Master's will. 
 
 All these promises come from the great Overcomer, who is 
 called "The Faithful and the True Witness." Faithful en- 
 deavorer, thou mayest become an overcomer. Thou shalt be 
 contented in sorrow, at home in exile, happy in misery, rich 
 when poor. Above the reach of envy and of scorn and malice 
 there steadily hold on thy faithful way, for He is faithful who 
 said, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." 
 
 THE WICKED. 
 
 In the description of the ^ew Jerusalem, to be found in 
 the two chapters that close the book, we notice the same pains- 
 taking and minuteness of description of its parts and qualities 
 that we have seen so unvaryingly from the first. All that per- 
 tains to the saints is indicative of care and thought. How 
 sustained is this multiple allegory of God's last precious word. 
 IST'ot only is this to be seen in the uniform particularity with 
 which the saints and all that pertains to them are described and 
 
350 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 promised, but also by the way in wliicli the wicked are con- 
 stantly referred to as coarse and fickle and imdiscriminating, 
 and all that pertains to them is waste and loss and without 
 measure. They are always alluded to in signs of apostasy and 
 sin, as four or some multiple of four, or as six, or as sixteen 
 hundred furlongs of blood, etc. We are about to read that 
 "the fearful and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, 
 and fornicators, and sorcerers, and liars shall have their part in 
 the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second 
 death. 
 
 "We have found them all the way as perverters, as cruel and 
 hard and unrepentant, and in the last chapter the last glimpse 
 we get of them is in the words that close their doom for- 
 ever. "He that is unrighteous let him be unrighteous still, 
 and he that is filthy let him be filthy still." At Ephesus, where 
 it is supposed that John himself had preached, there were pre- 
 tenders to the apostleship who were proven liars. At Smyrna 
 there were servants of the Devil who were about to cast the 
 saints into prison, and at Pergamos Satan had a throne, where 
 Antipas My faithful one was killed, and there, too, were the 
 Balaamites, such as taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block, 
 etc. Their equestrian sign is a red horse, whose rider has a 
 great sword given to him to take peace from the earth. They 
 make merchandise of heavenly things, as shown in the black 
 horse. They raise up brutal rulers over themselves and they 
 tread down the Holy City under their feet. When they assurne 
 to be religious they come forth as locusts from the pit and 
 devour and destroy and corrupt the earth. They make war 
 on the two witnesses and kill them and expose their dead 
 bodies in their streets and rejoice and send gifts one to an- 
 other that they cannot torment them any more. They receive 
 a trade mark in their hand or on their forehead, that they 
 may carry on commerce in religioiTs frauds, They are left 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 351 
 
 without the temple and are not measured when it is building. 
 They worship the dragon for giving his power to the beast and 
 then worship the beast for receiving it; and then they are 
 ordered to make an image to the beast and they obey the order 
 and then worship it, the work of their own hands. 
 
 In their world life they are numbered four and in the 
 source of their evil power they are numbered six. They are 
 the servants of the Devil and the dragon, who seeks to destroy 
 the child of the holy woman. They worship - the harlot and 
 are made drunk on her cup of abominations and they mourn 
 over her desolations. They wonder and are disappointed when 
 the beast power is no more and are amazed to see the hills 
 and mountains moved forever from their sight and call upon 
 the hills and rocks to fall upon them. They are frightened 
 when the two witnesses, which they killed, rise from the dead, 
 and they run and Side away in the caves and among the rocks 
 when they see Him that sits upon the terrible high throne and 
 the face of the offended Lamb. Their sins cleave together 
 and they are the earth vine that is gathered and taken with- 
 out the city to be trodden in the wine-press of God's wrath, 
 and they gnaw their tongues with agony and curse God for 
 their pains^ and they are overthrown in battle and their own 
 carcasses and those of their leaders, and kings, and generals 
 are the food for buzzards, and they are left outside the city of 
 the Xew Jerusalem with dogs and sorcerers, and they remain 
 coarse and filthy and are cast into the lake of fire and brim- 
 stone, which is the second death. They remain proud, self- 
 willed and impenitent to the end. Short-sighted, ungrateful 
 and unholy they will continue to be till the second death shall 
 separate them forever from God and His saints. How sus- 
 tained is this story to the end! 
 " Satan, the instigator of all sin, receives fromj. John a de- 
 scription' that leaves him' without a redeeming trait. - Milton 
 
352 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 and Dante and others, wlio have tried to give a true likeness 
 of the Devil in their works made the mistake to leave some 
 trace of respectability in his character, bnt when John is done 
 with him he is ntterly loathsome and vile, without a trai't to 
 admire. He drags down the stars with his tail, he issues water 
 ont of his month after the absconding woman, and he has seven 
 heads and ten horns bearing crowns, and he blasphemes God 
 and issues from his mouth three unclean spirits like frogs, 
 which go into all the earth to rally the world kings to make 
 battle against God at the last day. His doom is to be cast 
 into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, where also 
 are the beast and false prophet, doomed forever and ever. 
 
 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven 
 and the first earth are passed away; and the sea is no more. And 
 I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven 
 from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I 
 heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle 
 of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be 
 his peoples, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God: 
 and he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall 
 be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, 
 any more: the first things are passed away. And he that sitteth 
 on the throne said. Behold, I make all things new. And he saith. 
 Write: for these words are faithful and true. And he said unto me. 
 They are come to pass. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the begin- 
 ning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the foun- 
 tain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit 
 these things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But 
 for the fsarful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, 
 and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolators, and all liars, their part 
 shall be in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone; which is 
 the second death. 
 
 And there came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls, 
 who were laden with the seven last plagues; and he spake with me 
 saying. Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the wife of the 
 Lamb. And he carried me av/ay in the Spirit to a mountain great 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 353 
 
 and high, and shewed me the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out 
 of heaven from God, having the glory of God: her light was like 
 unto a stone most precious, as it were a jasper stone, clear as 
 crystal: having a wall great and high; having twelve gates, and at 
 the gates. twelve angels; and names written thereon, which are the 
 names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: on the east 
 were three gates; and on the north three gates; and on the south 
 three gates; and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city 
 had twelve foundations, and on them twelve names of the twelve 
 apostles of the Lamb. And he that spake with me had for a meas- 
 ure a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and 
 the wall thereof. And the city lieth four square, and the length 
 thereof is as great as the breadth: and he measured the city with 
 the reed, twelve thousand furlongs: the length and the breadth 
 and the height thereof are equal. And he measured the wall there- 
 of, a hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of 
 a man, that is, of an angel. And the building of the wall thereof 
 was jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto pure glass. The 
 foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all manner 
 of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, 
 sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; the 
 fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; 
 the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; 
 the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst. And the twelve 
 gates were twelve pearls; each one of the several gates was 
 of one pearl; and the street of the city was pure gold, as 
 it were transparent glass, and I saw no temple therein: for the Lord 
 God the Almighty, and the Lamb, are the temple thereof. And the 
 city hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine upon it: 
 for the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamp thereof is the 
 Lamb. And the nations shall walk amidst the light thereof: and 
 the kings of the earth do bring their glory into it. And the gates 
 thereof shall no wise be shut by day (for there shall be no night 
 there): and they shall bring the glory and the honor of the na- 
 tions into it: and there shall in no wise enter into it anything un- 
 clean, or he that maketh an abomination and a lie: but only they 
 which are written in the Lamb's book of life. 
 
 23 
 
354 
 
 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 CHAPTEE XXII. 
 
 EEVELATIOI>r XXII. 
 
 And he shewed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, 
 proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the midst 
 of the street thereof. And on this side of the river and on that 
 was the tree of life, bearing twelve manner of fruits, yielding its 
 fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing 
 of the nations. And there shall be no curse any more: and the 
 throne of God and of the Lamb shall be therein: and his servants 
 shall do him service; and they shall see his face; &,nd his name 
 shall be on their foreheads: And there shall be night no more; 
 and they need no light of lamp, neither light of sun; for the Lord 
 God shall give them light: and they shall reign forever and ever. 
 
 And he said unto me. These words are faithful and true: and the 
 Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent his angel to shew 
 unto his servants the things which must shortly come to pass. And 
 behold, I come quickly. Blessed is he that keepeth the words of the 
 prophecy of this book. 
 
 • And I, John, am he that heard and saw these things. And when 
 I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel 
 which shewed me these things. And he saith unto me, See thou do 
 it not: I am a fellow-servant with thee and with thy brethren the 
 prophets, and with them which keep the words of this book: wor- 
 ship God. 
 
 And he saith unto me. Seal not up the words of the prophecy of 
 this book; for the time is at hand. He that is unrighteous, let him 
 do unrighteousness still: and he that is filthy, let him be made 
 filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him do righteousness 
 still: and he that is holy, let him be made holy still. Behold, I 
 come quickly; and my reward is with me, to render to each man ac- 
 cording as his work is. I am the Alpha and the Omego, the first and 
 the last, the beginning and the end. Blessed are they that wash 
 their robes, that they may have the right to come to the tree of life, 
 and may enter in by the gates into the city. Without are the dogs. 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 355 
 
 and the sorcerers, and the fornicators, and the murderers, and the 
 idolators, and every one that loveth and maketh a lie. 
 
 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things 
 for the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the 
 bright, the morning star. 
 
 And the Spirit and the bride say. Come. And he that heareth, 
 let him say, Come. And he that is athirst, let him come: he that 
 will, let him take the water of life freely. 
 
 I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy 
 of this book. If any man shall add unto them, God shall add unto 
 him the plagues which are written in this book: and if any man 
 shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God 
 shall take away his part from the tree of life, and out of the holy 
 city, which are written in this book. 
 
 He which testifieth these things saith. Yea: I come quickly. 
 Amen: come, Lord Jesus. 
 
 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with the saints. Amen. 
 
 The ends of the great tragedy of man come together. The 
 river that flowed out from the Eden of God's presence and 
 through the garden out toward the four corners of the earth,* 
 now flows back to water the garden and to gladden the city of 
 our God, the New Jerusalem. "The kings of the earth do 
 bring their glory into it and the nations shall walk in the midst 
 of the light thereof. '^ The city is a cube symbol of perfection. 
 
 Here again are the two trees in the garden of the Lord, one 
 on either side of the river, but are now both trees of life, and 
 they bear twelve manner of fruit and bear their fruit every 
 month. There is no longer any tree of death, for death is no 
 more. God says, "Behold, I make all things new." And 
 He said unto me — "these words are faithful and true, and the 
 Lord God of the spirits of the prophets sent His angel to show 
 to His servants the things which must shortly come to pass; 
 and Behold, I come quickly to render to every man as his 
 work is." 
 
 To one who has long been settled in the thought of a sudden 
 
346 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 but are of the synagogue of Satan/^ To those at Pergamos: 
 "I know where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is, and 
 didst not deny My name even in the days of Antipas, My wit- 
 ness, My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan 
 dwelleth." At Thyatira: "I know thy works and thy love 
 and ministry and patience and that thy last works are more 
 than the first/' At Sardis: "I know thy works, that thou 
 hast a name, that thou livest and thou art dead." "Behold, 
 I have set before thee a door opened which none can shut, 
 that thou hast a little power and didst keep My word and didst 
 not deny My name." "I know thy works, that thou art neither 
 cold nor hot." 
 
 The liveliest and most intense interest is seen in all these 
 letters for the individual. The mention of Jezebel the wicked 
 and of Antipas the faithful and the few names of Sardis which 
 had not defiled their garments even where the church was 
 about to die. How quick and piercing are these appeals to 
 the heart, and even more so are the promises, which are all 
 given to the individuals. "To him that overcometh I will 
 give to eat of the tree of life," "To him will I give to eat 
 of the hidden manna and will give him a white stone, and 
 on the stone a new name written which no one knoweth but 
 he that receiveth it." "To him that overcometh I will give 
 him the morning star." "I will make him a pillar in the 
 temple of My God." "I will write upon him the name of My 
 God and the name of the city of My God, the ITew Jerusalem, 
 which cometh down out of heaven from God, and Mine own 
 new name." "I will give to him to sit down with Me on My 
 throne, even as I also overcame and sat down on My Father's 
 throne." "He shall inherit all things." 
 
 Such promises as these have led many a heart to desire to 
 "read the words of the prophecy of this book." The Few 
 Jerusalem of which we are about to read has the same detail 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 347 
 
 and minuteness of interest that we met in the seven letters. 
 All the references to the saints, the promises and the descrip- 
 tions are marked by painstaking care and tender refinement 
 of feeling. Christ knows them each. He seals them with the 
 seal of the living God on their foreheads, and writes His own 
 name and His Father's name, and the name of the city of His 
 God upon them; and writes their names in His own book of 
 life and presents each one a signet, a white gem stone, in 
 which He writes a new name, one that can never tarnish, and 
 "a name which none can ever know but he that receiveth it;'^ 
 that is. His own personality and personal experience, which is 
 unlike all others, being His personal knowledge and sweet 
 reminiscence — to be His own forever, a sweet memorial and per- 
 sonal keepsake. He numbers them that none may be lost; He 
 walks with them in white raiment and communes with them 
 by the way; He sits with them on His own and His Father's 
 throne, and gives them His rod of judgment over the nations 
 to smite them as a potter's vessels are broken to shivers. Out 
 of great tribulation they come to the marriage supper of the 
 Lamb, and to eat the hidden manna, and to eat of the tree 
 of life in the paradise of God. Against Him the second death 
 has no power nor shall he ever again go out from the presence 
 and glory of God. He is a raptured member of the happy 
 throng of singing virgins upon the lovely Mount Zion, who 
 "sing the new song of Moses and the Lamb," a song that none 
 but the one hundred and forty-four thousand can ever learn, 
 for no other can know the joys of salvation, a happy victor 
 triumphant over sin and over death and over the grave. Over 
 all enemies and at peace with the Lamb of God forever and 
 ever. 
 
 The holy dreams of the young convert so soon and so often 
 plunged into the cold realities of this lower selfish world; the 
 wing of hope so often cut by the darts of the wicked, his pure 
 
348 MYSTERY OF THE GOLBEN CLOTH; 
 
 love as from a fountain so soon resisted; all this, and more, 
 Christ remembers and knows and bids him watch and pray and 
 promises him all His own treasures and calls him blessed. 
 Through all repulses the faithful servant follows the heavenly 
 vision of faith that leads on its quenchless, its boundless life, 
 as from a spring of life within that flows on to eternal life. 
 Above all the fiery darts of the wicked above the plane where 
 chilling rebuffs may strike He walks in Godlike attire. He 
 rises to heights malice cannot reach and so overcomes, to sit 
 down with his Lord and to walk with Him in white and to 
 sing with Him the new song. Such a rich legacy of promise 
 exceeds all fable, transcends imagination itself. N'ot the dream 
 of childhood^s flowing buoyancy on its onward wing can touch 
 -the upward limit of its glory. 
 
 That bright and morning star that draws our attention from 
 all the constellations by its singular beauty He promises to 
 him that overcometh, and a mansion above the glory of the 
 sky. Clothed in a priceless white garment, the gift of heaven, 
 a garment white as snow, every thread of which is woven in 
 love's sacrifices untarnishable forever, and a crown of gold for 
 his head that becomes a victor over sin and Satan, shall be 
 his own evermore. 
 
 And above this whole wicked earth as its conqueror, and 
 owning all the heavens as freely as though he were the single 
 victor, he reigns a priest and a king unto God like his Im- 
 manuel. In never-ending joy his harp and new song shall be 
 heard in all the happy fields and gardens of the Lord amid 
 everlasting balm and beauty. The marks and scars of his 
 tribulation shall be his passport to all the distant worlds where 
 one star differs from another. He wears the glory of God 
 upon his heart, he walks above the hilltops and sees and knows 
 that it is his own self, remembers every experience of life, and 
 knows it is indeed himself now, with everything taken from 
 
 I 
 
 j| 1 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 349 
 
 liim that can give him trouble or pain, every infirmity gone, 
 and death itself removed forever from his fears. 
 
 Upon his passport is written the name of his Father and 
 of the Lamb, to pass unchallenged amid all the outposts of 
 heavenly space, where he goes unhindered and unharmed. 
 God's seal is upon him so he cannot go astray nor ever be lost 
 from His presence. He shall be trusted as faithful, shall be 
 a pillar in the temple of my God. He shall not hunger nor 
 grope in the dark, nor shall heat strike him nor darkness ever 
 overtake him. He is already saved and his eternal life begun 
 here below. He follows the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. He 
 watches all the great matters of dispute among men and looks 
 to see which side his Master would stand on and there firmly 
 takes his place. He is called wise and is measured by the 
 golden reed of truth and he measures all his duties by the 
 measure of his Master's will. 
 
 All these promises come from the great Overcomer, who is 
 called "The Faithful and the True Witness." Faithful en- 
 deavorer, thou mayest become an overcomer. Thou shalt be 
 contented in sorrow, at home in exile, happy in misery, rich 
 when poor. Above the reach of envy and of scorn and malice 
 there steadily hold on thy faithful way, for He is faithful who 
 said, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." 
 
 THE WICKED. 
 
 In the description of the New Jerusalem, to be found in 
 the two chapters that close the book, we notice the same pains- 
 taking and minuteness of description of its parts and qualities 
 that we have seen so unvaryingly from the first. All that per- 
 tains to the saints is indicative of care and thought. How 
 sustained is this multiple allegory of God's last precious word. 
 [NTot only is this to be seen in the uniform particularity with 
 which the saints and all that pertains to them are described and 
 
350 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 promised, but also by the way in which, the wicked are con- 
 stantly referred to as coarse and fickle and nndiscriminating, 
 and all that pertains to them is waste and loss and without 
 measure. They are always alluded to in signs of apostasy and 
 sin, as four or some multiple of four, or as six, or as sixteen 
 hundred furlongs of blood, etc. We are about to read that 
 "the fearful and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, 
 and fornicators, and sorcerers, and liars shall have their part in 
 the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second 
 death. 
 
 We have found them all the way as perverters, as cruel and 
 hard and unrepentant, and in the last chapter the last glimpse 
 we get 01 them is in the words that close their doom for- 
 ever. "He that is unrighteous let him be unrighteous still, 
 and he that is filthy let him be filthy still.^' At Ephesus, where 
 it is supposed that John himself had preached, there were pre- 
 tenders to the apostleship who were proven liars. At Smyrna 
 there were servants of the Devil who were about to cast the 
 saints into prison, and at Pergamos Satan had a throne, where 
 Antipas My faithful one was killed, and there, too, were the 
 Balaamites, such as taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block, 
 etc. Their equestrian sign is a red horse, whose rider has a 
 great sword given to him to take peace from the earth. They 
 make merchandise of heavenly things, as shown in the black 
 horse. They raise up brutal rulers over themselves and they 
 tread down the Holy City under their feet. When they assunie 
 to be religious they come forth as locusts from the pit and 
 devour and destroy and corrupt the earth. They make war 
 on the two witnesses and kill them and expose their dead 
 bodies in their streets and rejoice and send gifts one to an- 
 other that they cannot torment them any more. They receive 
 a trade mark in their hand or on their forehead, that they 
 may carry on commerce in religious frauds, They are left 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 351 
 
 without the temple and are not measured when it is building. 
 They worship the dragon for giving his power to the beast and 
 then worship the beast for receiving it; and then they are 
 ordered to make an image to the beast and they obey the order 
 and then worship it, the work of their own hands. 
 
 In their world life they are numbered four and in the 
 source of their evil power they are numbered six. They are 
 the servants of the Devil and the dragon, who seeks to destroy 
 the child of the holy woman. They worship the harlot and 
 are made drunk on her cup of abomin'ations and they mourn 
 over her desolations. They wonder and are disappointed when 
 the beast power is no more and are amazed to see the hills 
 and mountains moved forever from their sight and call upon 
 the hills and rocks to fall upon them. They are frightened 
 when the two witnesses, which they killed, rise from the dead, 
 and they run and hide away in the caves and among the rocks 
 when they see Him that sits upon the terrible high throne and 
 the face of the offended Lamb. Their sins cleave together 
 and they are the earth vine that is gathered and taken with- 
 out the city to be trodden in the wine-press of God's wrath, 
 and they gnaw their tongues with agony and curse God for 
 their pains^ and they are overthrown in battle and their own 
 carcasses and those of their leaders, and kings, and generals 
 are the food for buzzards, and they are left outside the city of 
 the New Jerusalem with dogs and sorcerers, and they remain 
 coarse and filthy and are cast into the lake of fire and brim- 
 stone, which is the second death. They remain proud, self- 
 willed and impenitent to the end. Short-sighted, ungrateful 
 and unholy they will continue to be till the second death shall 
 separate them forever from God and His saints. How sus- 
 tained is this story to the end! 
 
 " Satan, the instigatbr of all sin, receives from John a de- 
 scription ' that leaves him' without a redeeming trait. - Milton 
 
353 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 and Dante and others, who have tried to give a true likeness 
 of the Devil in their works made the mistake to leave some 
 trace of respectability in his character, but when John is done 
 with him he is -utterly loathsome and vile, without a trai't to 
 admire. He drags down the stars with his tail, he issues water 
 ont of his month after the absconding woman, and he has seven 
 heads and ten horns bearing crowns, and he blasphemes God 
 and issues from his month three unclean spirits like frogs, 
 which go into all the earth to rally the world kings to make 
 battle against God at the last day. His doom is to be cast 
 into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, where also 
 are the beast and false prophet, doomed forever and ever. 
 
 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven 
 and the first earth are passed away; and the sea is no more. And 
 I saw the holy city, NeW Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven 
 from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I 
 heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle 
 of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be 
 his peoples, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God: 
 and he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall 
 be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, 
 any more: the first things are passed away. And he that sitteth 
 on the throne said. Behold, I make all things new. And he saith, 
 Write: for these words are faithful and true. And he said unto me. 
 They are come to pass. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the begin- 
 ning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the foun- 
 tain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit 
 these things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But 
 for the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, 
 and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolators, and all liars, their part 
 shall be in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone; which is 
 the second death. 
 
 And there came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls, 
 who were laden with the seven last plagues; and he spake with me 
 saying. Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the wife of the 
 Lamb. And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 353 
 
 and higli, and shewed me the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out 
 of heaven from God, having the glory of God: her light was like 
 unto a stone most precious, as it were a jasper stone, clear as 
 crystal: having a wall great and high; having twelve gates, and at 
 the gates. twelve angels; and names written thereon, which are the 
 names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: on the east 
 were three gates; and on the north three gates; and on the south 
 three gates; and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city 
 had twelve foundations, and on them twelve names of the twelve 
 apostles of the Lamb. And he that spake with me had for a meas- 
 ure a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and 
 the wall thereof. And the city lieth four square, and the length 
 thereof is as great as the breadth: and he measured the city with 
 the reed, twelve thousand furlongs: the length and the breadth 
 and the height thereof are equal. And he measured the wall there- 
 of, a hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of 
 a man, that is, of an angel. And the building of the wall thereof 
 was jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto pure glass. The 
 foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all manner 
 of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, 
 sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; the 
 fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; 
 the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; 
 the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst. And the twelve 
 gates were twelve pearls; each one of the several gates was 
 of one pearl; and the street of the city was pure gold, as 
 it were transparent glass, and I saw no temple therein: for the Lord 
 God the Almighty, and the Lamb, are the temple thereof. And the 
 city hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine upon it: 
 for the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamp thereof is the 
 Lamb. And the nations shall walk amidst the light thereof: and 
 the kings of the earth do bring their glory into it. And the gates 
 thereof shall no wise be shut by day (for there shall be no night 
 there): and they shall bring the glory and the honor of the na- 
 tions into it: and there shall in no wise enter into it anything un- 
 clean, or he that maketh an abomination and a lie: but only they 
 which are written in the Lamb's book of life. 
 
 23 
 
354 
 
 MYSTERY OP THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 CHAPTEE XXII. 
 
 Revelatiois' XXII. 
 
 And he shewed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, 
 proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the midst 
 of the street thereof. And on this side of the river and on that 
 was the tree of life, bearing twelve manner of fruits, yielding its 
 fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing 
 of the nations. And there shall be no curse any more: and the 
 throne of God and of the Lamb shall be therein: and his servants 
 shall do him service; and they shall see his face; and his name 
 shall be on their foreheads: And there shall be night no more; 
 and they need no light of lamp, neither light of sun; for the Lord 
 God shall give them light: and they shall reign forever and ever. 
 
 And he said unto me, These words are faithful and true: and the 
 Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent his angel to shew 
 unto his servants the things which must shortly come to pass. And 
 behold, I come quickly. Blessed is he that keepeth the words of the 
 prophecy of this book. 
 
 - And I, John, am he that heard and saw these things. And when 
 I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel 
 which shewed me these things. And he saith unto me, See thou do 
 it not: I am a fellow-servant with thee and with thy brethren the 
 prophets, and with them which keep the words of this book: wor- 
 ship God. 
 
 And he saith unto me. Seal not up the words of the prophecy of 
 this book; for the time is at hand. He that is unrighteous, let him 
 do unrighteousness still: and he that is filthy, let him be made 
 filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him do righteousness 
 still: and he that is holy, let him be made holy still. Behold, I 
 come quickly; and my reward is with me, to render to each man ac- 
 cording as his work is. I am the Alpha and the Omego, the first and 
 the last, the beginning and the end. Blessed are they that wash 
 their robes, that they may have the right to come to the tree of life, 
 and may enter in by the gates into the city. Without- are the dogs, 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 355 
 
 and the sorcerers, and the fornicators, and the murderers, and the 
 idolators, and every one that loveth and maketh a lie. 
 
 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things 
 for the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the 
 bright, the morning star. 
 
 And the Spirit and the bride say. Come. And he that heareth, 
 let him say, Come. And he that is athirst, let him come: he that 
 will, let him take the water of life freely. 
 
 I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy 
 of this book. If any man shall add unto them, God shall add unto 
 him the plagues which are written in this book: and if any man 
 shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God 
 shall take away his part from the tree of life, and out of the holy 
 city, which are written in this book. 
 
 He which testifieth these things saith, Yea: I come quickly. 
 Amen: come. Lord Jesus. 
 
 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with the saints. Amen. 
 
 The ends of the great tragedy of man come together. The 
 river that flowed out from the Eden of God's presence and 
 through the garden out toward the four corners of the earth,* 
 now flows back to water the garden and to gladden the city of 
 our God, the New Jerusalem. "The kings of the earth do 
 bring their glory into it and the nations shall walk in the midst 
 of the light thereof.'' The city is a cube symbol of perfection. 
 
 Here again are the two trees in the garden of the Lord, one 
 on either side of the river, but are now both trees of life, and 
 they bear twelve manner of fruit and bear their fruit every 
 month. There is no longer any tree of death, for death is no 
 more. God says, "Behold, I make all things new." And 
 He said unto me — "these words are faithful and true, and the 
 Lord God of the spirits of the prophets sent His angel to show 
 to His servants the things which must shortly come to pass; 
 and Behold, I come quickly to render to every man as his 
 work is." 
 
 To one who has long been settled in the thought of a sudden 
 
356 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 end of the things of time, and the income of the eternal order 
 there comes a feeling of disappointment in not finding at the 
 end that line sharply and definitely drawn. 
 
 The great white throne and the general judgment (xx, 10) 
 seem to mark that line, and yet that impression is partly effaced 
 by the description which follows of the Xew Jerusalem which 
 comes down from God out of heaven and rests upon the top 
 of a great mountain and is described in the symbols of the 
 earth as having a river and street and walls and stones, etc. 
 
 It must constantly be remembered that in following John's 
 discourse we cannot in the first place always tell whether it is 
 himself or his Master that is speaking — the distinction is not 
 apparent. In his mind we also miss that distinction in our 
 own between the life here and the life hereafter. With him "He 
 that believeth hath eternal life now and here, and he that 
 believeth not is now condemned.'^ A¥e have also noticed the 
 same effacement of distinction between the church and heaven, 
 lor the saints here on earth suffering persecution are said to 
 "tabernacle in heaven," while the wicked "dwell," that is, settle 
 down in the earth. 
 
 Again, John nowhere draws a sharp line between the absent 
 and the present saints, but holds them in one general com- 
 pany and describes them in symbols and signs which belong 
 to both worlds in common, so that the line between the here 
 and the hereafter can not be found, and for this reason it is 
 impossible to derive support to any over-refined eschatology. 
 Even the word "sea," meaning the people, is neutral and does 
 not of itself determine the character of the people when 
 standing alone, but as vre see it turbulent with the rage of 
 human passion, then polluted with carcasses of the dead, then 
 fireblent with the fire of the regeneration, and then crystalline, 
 purified before the throne in the fruition. It is noticed that 
 as he brings eternal life and joy into this life so he also car- 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 357 
 
 lies suffering beyond death in the same manner, and shows 
 lis the souls under the altar of those beheaded, crying "How 
 long, Lord, till Thou avenge us," etc., and this is in har- 
 mony with Christ^s suffering persecution at the hands of Saul, 
 even on His throne crying, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou 
 Me?" and it adds deep meaning to those words that "God 
 is long suffering to usward." Also we notice His promises and 
 His retributions have this common property: They are given 
 in signs that take no account of that gulf our minds have 
 fixed between the things of time and the things of eternity. 
 But between the two opposing forces and their allies the differ- 
 ence is as between day and night and that antagonism persists 
 till the awful doom is spoken, "Let him that is filthy be filthy 
 still." 
 
 This method of treatment gives rise to a new and deep 
 ethical feeling. But it was not to John alone that these lines 
 were missing, but the characteristic of Christ after His resur- 
 rection. When Mary stood at the empty tomb weeping, a 
 person whom she supposed to be the gardener spoke to her and 
 said, "Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou?" and 
 she said to Him, "H thou hast borne Him hence tell me where 
 thou hast laid Him and I will take Him away." Then Jesus 
 spoke her name, "Mary!" and she knew Him and said, "Eab- 
 boni !" Where can we locate the mystery in this incident ? The 
 account of .the two disciples going to Emmaus on the same day 
 is in point. It is said that Jesus overtook them and asked 
 them why they were sadly communing, and they supposed He 
 was a stranger in Jerusalem, that He had not heard of these 
 things, and that He began to open to them the scriptures 
 concerning Himself, and that He upbraided them for their 
 hardness of heart and unbelief in not believing the scriptures 
 that He must rise from the dead, and it was not till they had 
 ended their journey and had gone into the house and had re- 
 
358 MYSTERY OP THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 clined at meat and He liad given tlianks that they knew Him. 
 The rejected paragraph, in Mark xvi, 12, says, "He changed 
 His form/' and Luke, "that their eyes were withholden." In 
 what this change consisted and on which side does not clearly 
 appear. So when the disciples were assembled within closed 
 doors Christ appeared and said to them, "Handle Me and 
 see that it is not a spirit, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones 
 as ye see Me have.'' How He came within the range of their 
 identification and how He passed out of it does not appear. 
 At the early dawn at the sea of Tiberius, when the disciples 
 had been fruitlessly fishing all nighty a voice was heard from^ 
 the shore asking if they had taken anything and they answered, 
 nothing, and He said, "Cast your net on the right and ye shall 
 find." Not till they had cast the net and felt the throbbing 
 net alive with fish did John discern and proclaim "It is the 
 Lord." For forty days after His resurrection Christ hovered 
 over this chasm, this borderland between two worlds, where 
 we have fixed a gulf, being seen of many, and then ascended 
 to heaven wrapped in a cloud and disappeared :^om their sight, 
 having annexed two worlds by the rending of the veil that 
 is His flesh upon the cross, leaving a borderland an enchanted 
 twilight in which He dwell eth; in which we see Him walking 
 in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks and laying His 
 right hand upon the exiled saint, saying, "Fear not." It is in 
 this borderland we find room for prayer, fo*r sweet meditation, 
 for cheerful sacrifice. It was in this twilight I sought and 
 found the rapt seer of Patmos, the Bosom Disciple of Christ, 
 when my Emily was torn from me by an evil power that bound 
 her in delusions of an awful hell of tormenting fiends, till I 
 had suffered tribulation three years and a half and had fol- 
 lowed the seer to the end of his vision. In this borderland 
 of mystery is found the soul's union with God and out of this 
 all true evangelization must proceed. In this mystic middle 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 359 
 
 land John stood to write this Greater Gospel for this greater 
 age and no one may expect to successfully meet its rational- 
 ism and materialism who does not know how the "great mys- 
 tery of Godliness" and the mysterious union of the saved with 
 their Savior. Divest your preaching of this power and your 
 message falls dead. "Behold, I am alive forever more, and My 
 reward is with Me." 
 
 AUTHENTICITY. 
 
 There has never been any serious question of the authen- 
 ticity of the Apocalypse. Some of the evidences of its Johan- 
 ine authorship are here given, based on John's other writings: 
 
 1. The author four times calls himself John and "I, John, 
 your brother." 
 
 2. He is at more pains to give the Hebrew names of places 
 than any other New Testament writer: John v, 2, "Now, 
 there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate, which is called in the 
 Hebrew Bethesda;" xix, 13, "a place called the Pavement, but 
 in Hebrew Gabbatha;" xix, 17, "Into a place of a skull, which 
 is in Hebrew called Golgotha;" Eev. ix, 11, "His name in 
 Hebrew is Abaddon;" Rev. xvi, 16, "Into a place which is 
 called in Hebrew Harmageddon." 
 
 3. His deeper spiritual discernment of the acts and sayings 
 of Christ discernible everywhere in his writings. 
 
 4. His lack of shading in his characters. He sees all per- 
 sons as white or black, as Christian or devilish. He tells us 
 that Judas was a devil and a traitor. He alone tells us Cain's 
 motive in killing his brother and that he who hates his brother 
 is a murderer. He tells us that Christ is altogether righteous 
 "and in Him is no darkness at all," and he leaves a pen picture 
 of Satan without a trait to respect, but one of loathing and 
 disgust only. 
 
 5. He alone told us about the mysterious words of Christ, 
 that he would "be a little while with them and then absent. 
 
360 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 etc." This appears in the parody of the beast who has one head 
 put to death and it revives^ and so He is present and absent and 
 returns, etc. 
 
 6. The ^Yords of Christ to Peter, "What is it to thee if he 
 tarry till I come?" and His after appearing to him in Patmos 
 to fulfill this implied promise. 
 
 7. His use of the Logos calling Christ the Word of God — 
 John i, 1, and Eev. xix, 13. 
 
 8. A snbcnrrent of autobiography runs through both his 
 great books. 
 
 9. Tradition is strongly in favor of John's authorship. 
 
 DATE. 
 
 Perhaps Canon Farrar has done more to influence current 
 opinion toward the earlier date for the Apocalypse than any 
 other single person. The point he seems to gain by holding this 
 earlier date is a bitterly controyersial one, that is to divert the 
 odium from the papacy by showing these prophecies all ful- 
 filled in the Xeronian persecution, thus defending what he calls 
 "A lister church," meaning, rather, the "Mother church.'' 
 
 He says even "the most reverent inquiries have pronounced 
 the Apocalypse to be unintelligible," and yet upon his unin- 
 telligible interpretation he chiefly founds his arguments for 
 its earlier- date. He pronounces it the most intensely Jewish 
 of all the books of the New Testament and erroneously cites 
 xi, 2, to show that the old Jewish temple was still standing. 
 He also cites chapter 13 as referring to the then reigning em- 
 peror, both which, according to the interpretation given in 
 this book, are very wide of the mark. Since he and most 
 others with him give up the book as unintelligible, they have 
 no right to base a theory of its date upon their own interpre- 
 tation or that of any one who has so reverently studied it with- 
 out finding it understandable. But he frankly says that the 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 361 
 
 chief obstacle to the acceptance of the true date arises from the 
 authority of Irenacus, who said, "It is not long since the vision 
 was seen, but almost in our own generation toward the end of 
 the reign of Domitian." Jerome and Eusebeus both go to 
 Irenacus for authority. 
 
 But the scholarly dean thinks that Irenacus meant to say Nero 
 and that he simply wrote the wrong name, a "lapsus calami," 
 and he says that he has done so himself, and that Irenacus meant 
 to write Nero instead of Domitian. But he rests his cause 
 much upon the bad Greek of the Apocalypse, it being so un- 
 grammatical and so full of solecisms as compared with John's 
 gospel as would show it to have been written earlier when 
 John was new at the Greek language. Now, we have not 
 yet noticed a grammatical error in the Apocalypse that did not 
 strengthen the sense by maintaining the unity of the subject- 
 matter. As to the solecisms, how can those pronounce upon 
 them who declare the book unintelligible after the reverent 
 inquiries have failed to give any intelligence ? This negative 
 criticism is based on a comparison of the Greek of the Apoca- 
 lypse with the Greek of the gospel and it has entirely too 
 slender a foundation to weigh against the evidence of its later 
 authorship. But even on the ground of internal evidence there 
 is a far higher reason for its later date than any flimsy theory 
 about its grammar, solecisms, etc. 
 
 1. There is an advance in the theology of the Apocalypse 
 beyond any of John's other writings. If we take the Logos 
 of his gospel, which is a distinct line in which John exceeds 
 all others, we will find that his Apocalypse carries the concep- 
 tion to still higher and greater extent, for, while his gospel 
 co-ordinates Christ with the beginning, his Apocalypse goes 
 further and co-ordinates His apostles with Him in the sign 
 of creation and that the saints also have their name written 
 
362 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 in the book of life of Him slain from the foundation of the 
 world/^ 
 
 2. It would seem strange also that so mnch matter about 
 "the New Jerusalem^^ and "the hidden manna" and a great 
 many other matters entirely new should be known to John 
 and none of it get into his gospel if it had been written later, 
 as the "Dean" labors in vain to show. 
 
 3. It is a violent presumption to suppose that John, who 
 makes so frequent mention of his close relations to Christ, 
 could omit to allude to anything so important as the appear- 
 ance of Christ to him in the isle of Patmos and his wondrous 
 Eevelation that he should make no reference to it. He is at 
 pains in his gospel to tell us what Christ said to Peter, "What 
 is it to thee if he tarry till I come?" when the latter asked 
 Him, "And what shall this man do?" John tells us that this 
 saying of Christ went forth among the brethren that that dis- 
 ciple should not die, etc., but John explains it that Christ 
 did not mean to say he should not die, but only "What is it to 
 thee if he tarry till I com^?" 
 
 N'ow, on the theory that the Eevelation was written earlier 
 than the gospel, how can we imagine John telling of these 
 prophetic words of Christ which had created a mistaken and 
 widely circulated rumor and yet forget to correct it by telling 
 us that Christ had come to him and laid His hand upon him 
 and spoken to him in Patmos? John was very sensitively alive 
 to all the attentions he received from his Master, and such a 
 manifestation as this, and such a deep experience as this, can 
 hardly be imagined to entirely escape some sign or allusion 
 in his gospel if it had been written later, and the more so when 
 we think how his gospel is underlaid by his autobiography. 
 But no one has attempted to show that any allusion to the 
 Apocalypse can be found in his gospel. 
 
 The positive testimony of Irenaeus as to the time has no 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 363 
 
 external rebutting testimony of a serious nature, and the gram- 
 matical errors and solecisms cannot stand for a moment as 
 argument against the manifest enlargement of thought found 
 in the Eevelation or against Jolin^s well-known habit of show- 
 ing his close relations to Christ such as, that he reclined nearest 
 to Him at supper, that he went into the court of the high 
 priest with Him, that he stood at the cross and received the 
 charge from his Lord to take Mary to his own home, and that 
 he should outrun Peter and come first to the tomb, and that 
 he should write that he had seen and had handled of the word 
 of life, and yet should have entirely forgotten to allude to the 
 Apocalypse or to let drop some of its more advanced thought 
 in his gospel. 
 
 4. It must also be noticed that John closed his gospel by 
 clearly indicating the unfinished account he had given, "many 
 other things did Jesus,^' etc:, and also the remarkable fact 
 that in two of his three letters he left them in an unfinished 
 state. He says, "I have many things to write, but will not 
 write with ink and pen;" but he closes his Eevelation with the 
 plagues of this book upon him who adds to or takes away 
 from the words of its prophecy, closing it as a finished work. 
 Higher criticism in making an exception of the single book of 
 the Apocalypse to give it an earlier date than the traditional 
 one has completely tripped itself. 
 
 THE STORY. 
 
 The story which is the subject-matter of the Eevelation of 
 Jesus Christ arises from two central and opposite sources. 
 
 If we were writing the story in our own method we should 
 begin by finding these two centers and placing them at once 
 in opposition through their respective leaders. That would 
 be Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Euler of the kings of 
 the earth, first born from the dead, versus he that is called the 
 
364 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 Dragon, the Old Serpent, the Devil and Satan, the father of 
 lies and liars, and of murder and of murderers, the keeper of 
 the pit of the abyss, etc. But the story is written upon a 
 different plan, one that assumes the fallen condition and defeat 
 of Satan. 
 
 Christ nowhere allows Himself to be considered as on equal 
 terms of contest with Satan, but starts on the assumption I 
 am the First and the Last. ^^Get behind Me^ Satan," is His 
 constant attitude toward him. The quiet and deliberate and 
 constant way in which He assumed to be from the Father and 
 to be His Son, and to possess all authority in heaven and in 
 earth, and under the earth, over mind and matter, and des- 
 tiny, is the wonder of the world^ and yet more wonderful that 
 He is working out the truths of His claims by the power of 
 His love over the hearts of men. It is Christ telling this story 
 and He tells it in His own way. He is the Alpha and the 
 Omega. "I was dead, and behold I am alive forever more." 
 He has come to bruise the serpent's head. 
 
 The story of the temptation and fall of man is now told 
 again, joined to a prophecy and foreview of His restoration. 
 This is the new creation and not an afterthought of man, 
 but purposed of God, and hence is connected with and inscribed 
 in the signs and signatures of creation as a part of it insepa- 
 rable, and the carrying out of its intent; hence its treatment 
 in creation's number seven, the sign at once of creation and 
 redemption binding the fall and the restoration into one whole. 
 All the heavenly parts in the drama are ruled by this number, 
 so that all the subordinate parts are united by one sign into 
 the commonwealth or kingdom of heaven, thus heightening 
 the effect and giving unity to the central truth to be illustrated. 
 
 As Christ began this work in His own person and carried 
 it forward by His apostles and the Holy Spirit and churches, 
 their respective relations to Him and to each other in the 
 
 Mi 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 365 
 
 Great Commissioii which they were to carry out are preserved 
 by signs on exactly the same method as creation. The seven 
 days of creation govern the number of parts to be taken and 
 the Great Commission governs the relation of those parts to 
 each other. So that we dimly but surely trace the Gospel 
 Story told over again as we proceed in reading it. This is told 
 in a manner which clearly shows that the saints are, in fact, 
 carrjdng the work which in form persists as though it were 
 being done by Christ through the apostles as present in person. 
 
 The opposing powers of Satan do not anywhere get primary 
 attention, but come to view, as they are related to the story 
 about Christ as it proceeds to unfold. For this reason it was 
 not clearly discerned, nor that the adverse part which the enemy 
 acts was so complete a counterpart to the acts and offices of 
 Christ and of the Holy Spirit, etc. The fuller development of 
 Satanic power comes on when the fortunes 6i the word of God 
 and the churches come under review (chapters xi to xiii). 
 Then Satan comes forward to destroy the woman's seed, as 
 he did in the garden, and to destroy the two witnesses^ etc. 
 
 Every part heretofore is treated in subordination to the 
 central truth about the Christ. 
 
 With the sixth trumpet we discern three forces in the field 
 of action. The world powers themselves become involved with 
 and bound in the toils of service to Babylon confined in the 
 river Euphrates, and, being loosed, are transformed into a 
 world-wide military camp which belonged neither to the locust 
 power nor to the congregation of the saints. Thenceforward 
 we see these three forces in the field till Babylon is destroyed, 
 and till the rider on the white horse returns from the battle 
 of Harmageddon, his vestments sprinkled in the blood from 
 the wine-press which is trodden without the city and ends with 
 but one power in the field, the kingdom of heaven, all pervasive 
 and all glorious. 
 
366 MYSTERY OP THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 The arrangement and construction are strange for two rea- 
 sons. Firsts that the subject-matter about the triumphs of 
 Christ should follow on a pattern of facts, and, second, that 
 parts about Satan should follow these facts with very little 
 appearance of order or regularity. It is only when they are 
 gathered up and placed side by side that we see the force and 
 dullness of the opposition. There is no line or order of pro- 
 cedure for the facts about the Satanic forces. They follow the 
 story about Christ and the story about Christ follows the form 
 of things past, already illustrated. All the story bears prime 
 reference to the awful, the lofty, the Godlike theme with which 
 God closed His revelation. We are living witnesses of the on- 
 going of these might}^ works. 
 
 The trivial view of Dean Farrar and some others that the 
 vision was a kind of reflex in the mind of John of the political 
 agitations then going on in the Roman empire which had its 
 chief fulfillment in the Xeronian persecution will soon be 
 abandoned forever. The church at this time deeply feels the 
 imcertainty about the prophecies that relate to her present state 
 and what lies just before her. The prophecies have been tossed 
 about and constructed into fantastic systems and then demol- 
 ished till uncertainty and doubt have taken the field and lie 
 like the pall of death on the testimony of Jesus, which is the 
 spirit of prophecy. 
 
 We have at base the two great facts about Christ and Satan. 
 It would be strange if the deep and awful facts about Christ 
 were matched and united by a myth — a story with one half 
 greatest reality and the other half mythical. This age needs 
 to be roused from the poison of anti-christian rationalism. 
 
 If we take account of the two witnesses, or the fall and rise 
 of the church, or the rise of the beast, etc., which are 
 now matters of history, and try to find a day or even 
 a year and put our finger on it and say, here in this 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 367 
 
 year the two witnesses were clothed in sackcloth and 
 this year they came out^ or that in this year the church 
 went into the wilderness and this she came out, or that 
 in this year the beast began to reign and this other year he 
 was destroyed, we cannot do it. Besides, such treatment is 
 utterly foreign to the method and the genesis of the Apoca- 
 l3qDse, for its constant, unvarying method is to present every- 
 thing in its essence, its root, and in its unfoldings, related 
 always primarily to a great central power; and these events 
 which are antagonistic to each other and must by their nature 
 have been contemporaneous, are expressed by different meas- 
 ures of time, either taken literally or upon any day-for-year 
 theory. "We know that the pure ideal church gradually waned 
 and that it has been coming out of the wilderness in com- 
 panies, and we know that the Bible fell into the same disuse 
 and came gradually and still is coming gradually into use, and 
 that the beast that opened the pit was a growth, and his end 
 is a decay and will be completed and entirely finished. 
 
 Xow, when the great events of the sixth Trumpet are ushered 
 in it is said that the horsemen "were prepared for the day, and 
 the hour, and the month, and the year, to slay ' a third part 
 of men.'' The use of four words of time here seems only to 
 refer to this as a fullness of the world time — that is, world 
 time as opposed to heavenly time, as the first four Seals and 
 Trumpets represent world victory as against the three Seals 
 and three Trumpets which represent heavenly victory. The 
 devil "knoweth that he hath but a short time" and the beast 
 has forty-two months and his followers are greatly surprised, 
 "shall Avonder, when they behold the beast, how that he was 
 and is not and shall come.'' 
 
 Their materialistic doctrine that things go on as they did 
 from the beginning has collapsed, and John describes great 
 consternation as resulting. The manifest drift of all these 
 
368 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 allusions to time is to show the passing away of the old things 
 and the certainty of the coming in of the new, and as these 
 powers did cease to enslave Israel and as he did return from 
 bondage, so shall the children of faith. "Here is the patience 
 and the faith of the saints/' not their chronology of the mere 
 accidents that result from this great contest. 
 
 Christ does not tell us to watch and pray because we do 
 know the time of His coming, but because we do not know it. 
 It ought to be well considered whether a watchful study of the 
 changes going on in the world and a constant heed to our 
 calling is not more helpful to our faith than listening to 
 figures on schedules arranged by very ingenious methods which 
 have so often proved to be mistakes, and which are contrary 
 to our own experience of the changes our Lord has already 
 brought about in the world. 
 
 It is far better we should watch for the constant presence 
 of Christ within us and His great appearance in our own con- 
 duct nor forget there is the time of His great and final com- 
 ing and the end of the world and last judgment always immi- 
 nent, and at this moment more than at any other in eighteen 
 hundred years. Our interest in and looking for that blessed 
 time unites us closer to each other as well as to our Lord. 
 
 THE TIME ELEMENT. 
 
 In addition to what has been said in the body of this ^ork 
 about the time element, a page is added here. The burning 
 question, "When shall these things be?" has continued an ever- 
 present question in all ages, and its intensity in each believer 
 is measured by the degree of his fervency and spiritual activity. 
 The time of His final coming, upon which so much seems 
 to depend, is the supreme concern of all saints, not only of 
 the living and present, but of the absent also, as has fre- 
 quently come to view in this work, where the distinction of 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIU 369 
 
 the present and absent is unknown. Those who figure upon 
 a date which they think the prophets have pointed out for that 
 coming and those who, from seeing their mistakes, have ceased 
 to feel the imminence of His coming, have at base made one 
 and the same mistake, and may lose sight of that greatness and 
 power of His ever presence and of the momentary imminence 
 of His greater appearing. 
 
 His answer to His disciples upon the mount and the answer 
 He gave them just before His ascension and the time declared 
 for His coming in the tenth chapter of this book, import one 
 and the same general truth. The Father hath kept the time 
 within His own authority and w^e are to discern it as we would 
 the approach of summer, by looking upon the fig tree or 
 by knowing it by the conditions that indicate the sounding of 
 the seventh trumpet. 
 
 Iso interpretation is worthy our confidence that tries to 
 cause one set of passages to outweigh and destroy another. It 
 must contain them all: 
 
 First, then, by the dissolving of the name of the Almighty 
 into three words of time — past, present and future — we have 
 the race of man included from first to last. 
 
 Second, this is clearly expressed in the Alpha and Omega, 
 the first and last, the beginning and the end, whose revelation 
 this is; and, 
 
 Third, John was told to write "the things which are, the 
 things thou sawest, and the things which shall come to pass 
 hereafter." 
 
 This division of time into three parts is the most obvious 
 and the most general division, including the whole. But sub- 
 ordinate to this is the division of time then future by the 
 Seals and Trumpets. The trumpets by a solemn oath of the 
 angel who stands upon the earth and upon the sea and swears 
 
 24 
 
370 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTtt; 
 
 that when the seventh trumpet is abont to sonnd then is finished 
 the promise God made to the prophets, etc. 
 
 In harmony with these forms which recognize the divisions 
 of time there are several ways of speaking of tliem, as fntiire 
 and present and past. Twice we have "The things which 
 must come to pass hereafter." 
 
 Twice we have "The things which must shortly come to 
 pass" (i, 1; xxii, 6). 
 
 Twice we have "For the time is at hand" (i, 3; xxii, 10). 
 
 Twice we have "It is done/' or "They are finished" (xvi, 17; 
 xxi, 6). 
 
 The time had then begun and was at hand — that is, the 
 Eevelation time proper, when John was in Patmos. The seven 
 open letters, as we have shown, were a representation of the 
 then present state of things, and the fourth chapter formally 
 announced "the things which shall come to pass hereafter." 
 But to say they are done and accomplished is a declaration of 
 time as it is seen and known to God, with whom all times 
 are present. Then in the light of this treatment the things 
 past are the prophecy of things to come, as though they were 
 already accomplished facts. Time w^ears this double aspect. 
 
 The two-point view we have followed from the beginning 
 assists here again, for what can be knowledge to us as past, 
 present or future is to God, who foretells these things, as that 
 which is past? And when we are told they are past w^e see 
 the same double method we saw in giving the number of saints 
 as John heard them, 144,000, and again as he himself saw 
 them — a great multitude which no man can number — and also 
 in saying of the two witnesses that they were alive in sack- 
 cloth and at the same time dead at the hand of the beast. 
 These two-point views can be carried even further here, for 
 the relations of the absent saints to the times are closely allied 
 with their Master, for He spoke to the martyrs who cried from 
 
OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 371 
 
 under the altar to wait a little time till their brethren also 
 should fulfill their martyrdoms as they had done. The relations 
 of Christ and His saints, both living and dead, to the progress 
 and the end of the times must take into view all the conditions, 
 and that is what has really been done in the variant manner 
 in characterizing the times. The things of His coming and 
 kingdom concern more than any one living generation. Our 
 first and nearest and our chief individual concern is to know 
 at what hour in our own personal life our Lord may come. 
 This is our burning question till we hear a deeper heart-rend- 
 ing cry from beneath the altar saying, How , long, 0! Master, 
 Holy and True, till Thou avenge our blood on them that dwell 
 on the earth? then our own cry is hushed and our own sigh 
 is softened and we sense the infinite and live in the Lord. 
 The imminence of His great and final coming becomes our 
 present life and breath, for we always look to the distant and 
 far away for strength, as if conscious of and groaning under 
 these finite conditions. 
 
 Those who rise to these heights rise to the soul of the 
 infinite and of religion itself. Then in the personal experi- 
 ence of the life of every saint Christ is present, a living vital- 
 izing power; and the essential conditions of the life of each 
 person and each generation is an experience both of the pres- 
 ence of the Christ power in the heart and the greater pow^r and 
 glory to be revealed in the saints at His coming kingdom. 
 
 Therefore, in speaking of the future times we must see in 
 them first, as these times relate to the martyrs underneath the 
 altar, the saints then living and the saints that were to follow 
 in successive generations to the end; also the sum of all time 
 as it relates to God as that which is ever present, as that 
 which is done. By the very genius of this book these condi- 
 tions are all to be considered and in them will be found a per- 
 fect harmony. The saints living and dead and unborn are 
 
373 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 closely identified with God, there being no seam or dividing 
 line such as we are accustomed in oiir thought to see between 
 the here and the hereafter. As already stated, each individual 
 saint experiences in a degree all the conflict and phenomena 
 of the great struggle between sin and righteousness. 
 
 When the number of saints was called off from the heavenly 
 view they were 144,000, but, when seen by John, were innumer- 
 able and no man could number them. So when the measures 
 of time are given, they are given both from a heavenly reckon- 
 ing and from a worldly. The measuring of the New Jerusalem 
 was 12,000 furlongs, "according to the measure of a man — 
 that is, of an angel.'' This explanation points to the distinction 
 we have made of the point of view taken. 
 
 Now, in addition to the divisions of time already noticed 
 by the very division of the name of the Almighty into present, 
 past and future, etc., and the command to John to write things 
 present, past and to come, and in addition to the Seals and 
 Trumpets, which are the proper measure of things then future, 
 there is yet another use made of Apocalyptic time which has 
 given rise to much agitation and has been made a stone of 
 stumbling and offense. This order of time is the shadowgraph 
 or the cryptic and is subordinate and of an order entirely dif- 
 ferent from those we have just noticed. 
 
 This order is not directly connected with the two major 
 series of Seals and Trumpets, but connected with collateral 
 divisions of the subject-matter and are used in entire subordina- 
 tion to the substance and meaning of the story, with no intent 
 of fixing periods or of corroborating the times given to Daniel. 
 
 In the case of the imprisonment of the two witnesses (chap- 
 ter xi), we have their confinement described as an absence like 
 that of Elijah and as in sackcloth for a period of 1,260 days, 
 conforming to his absence for three years and a half, and also 
 as dead, being, killed by the beast, and lying in the streets 
 
I 
 
 OR, THE RIVEN VEIL. 373 
 
 of the great city for three days and a half as trophies of war 
 to be viewed by the people, etc. These are but two phases of 
 the same fact, not two dates to be added or subtracted. But 
 from the heavenly view they are in sackcloth, and on the 
 earth view they are regarded as dead, killed by the beast, and 
 lie three days and a half in the street, while the nations, etc., 
 look upon their dead body. So that 1,260 days in sackcloth 
 is the same as three and one-half days dead, the difference 
 being the two points from which their condition is viewed, 
 as an absent prophet and as dead carcasses, but the dates have 
 no numeral value at all any more than the 144,000 saints has 
 to the innumerable host, etc. 
 
 The same fact occurs in chapter xii. The woman goes into 
 the wilderness for one thousand two hundred and three score 
 days when related on the heavenly or ideal side of it, and 
 she is said to remain in the wilderness for "a time times and 
 a half time" when it is related on the world side. 
 
 Xow, in xi, 2, when the church is under the symbol of the 
 Holy City, it is said to be trodden down forty-two months. 
 This is exactly the same fact as being in the wilderness, with 
 no change except the change of symbol, and that is changed for 
 the purpose of showing the relations which the word and spirit 
 were to have in her coming out of the wilderness. So we have 
 now three different periods, for her duration in the wilderness 
 1,260 days, "forty-two months," and a "time times and a half 
 time" — that is, no measure of actual time at all. Each cancels 
 the other upon any theory of numeral values, and the words 
 are taken in a deeper sense, which confines the mind to the 
 nature and relations and meanings of the event. 
 
 We have it said in chapter xiii that the Beast has forty- two 
 months. That is the same time the church as a city is trodden 
 down, or, like the apostate woman, is in the wilderness, and 
 this is the gist of 'the matter-^that iS; while the Beast reigns 
 
374 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH; 
 
 the clmrch of God and the word of God are trodden dowi 
 in prison in sackcloth^ in exile, in the wilderness, apostate, 
 dead, etc. But does it not tell us how long these things shall 
 be? The uses it makes of these days, months, years, etc., 
 are a part of the shadowgraph upon which it expresses 
 the fact only Ihat as fleshly Israel was in bondage for 
 a time known to God from the beginning and their delivery 
 gra.uted after the time, so there is to be a time of captivity to 
 the Spiritual Israel,, and that tinie; is coincident with the 
 reign, of the Beast. But is not the time of the reign of the 
 Beast given? No, it is not given only in the manner already 
 mentioned— that is, a limited time,, a world time, measured by 
 the first group of seals and the first group of trumpets. 
 
 When the beast is spoken of as "an eighth," it is said, "He 
 must continue a little while," and when the souls from beneath 
 the altar cry for vindication, which must come with Christ's 
 triumph over the world powers, it is also described as "A little 
 while." This indefiniteness destroys the possibility that our 
 Lord meant to reveal the time of His kingdom, etc., even if He 
 had not at His ascension declared these were things "the Father 
 had kept within His own authority." 
 
 It is out of reason to suppose He would send an angel to 
 swear by an oath that the end of time should be announced 
 by trumpet time and then undertake to indicate the time in 
 an occult use of irreconcilable measure of mathematical con- 
 tradictions. Just as He used the captivity and Babylon and the 
 rebuilding of Jerusalem and the famine in Israel as symbols 
 and patterns to express the higher spiritual truths, so He has 
 used these words of time to identify the essence and condition 
 and relation of opposing spiritual forces. 
 
 All these are designed to bring the main fact to view — that 
 is, that while the beast is in the ascendant the church must 
 be in tribulation and that her rising to the ascendant brings on 
 
 I 
 
OR, THE mVEN VEIL. Z1^ 
 
 the decline and fall of brute government. In the vain attempt 
 to raise these into mathematical measurements scarcely two 
 interpreters have come to an agreement. The different meas- 
 ures of time relate to the matter immediately in view and were 
 never intended to be covered up in a maze of conundriinis. 
 The same method is used when it speaks of the battle of 
 Harmageddon and of the war of Gog and Magog, and these 
 as we speak of a Waterloo or of a Yorktown. This is neither 
 loose nor elastic writing, but is amenable to proper laws of 
 literature. The Apocalypse can not be read at all except by 
 a discriminating difference of what is shadow and what is 
 substance. To miss this is to confound all manner of elements 
 into a vapid and incoherent agnosticism, fruitless and predju- 
 dicial to this great magazine of God's reserved wisdom. The 
 most important feature about the time element is that we 
 notice the progress and ongoing of the time within which these 
 things are said to have occurred. The first is the seven days 
 of creation and the sure succession of time which they imply 
 by their use. The second is the dreams of Nebuchadnezzar 
 and of Daniel, which were expressly explained to be successive 
 empires of world power. The third is the condition of the 
 souls under the altar crying to the Master and the promise 
 given to them and their later satisfaction when He pours out 
 his bowls of wrath; and with this, the change in the troubled 
 sea which Daniel saw and which was polluted with the car- 
 casses when the burning mountain went down into it, and later 
 it is all blent with fire, and, last of all, a crystal sea like glass. 
 Fifth, as the change of symbols in the church to candlesticks, 
 to the tabernacle, the temple, the bride, and the New Jeru- 
 salem; and so of the advancing symbols for the apostles and 
 for Christ by the use of signs which'show rising powers and 
 functions which belong to the acts of final judgment. Thus, 
 also, if we take the impersonal descriptions of Christ in those 
 
376 MYSTERY OP THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 
 
 seven letters, "I am He that hatli the stars/^ etc., and com- 
 pare them with His titles in the latter part we are simply com- 
 pelled to admit the vast change as belonging to changed con- 
 ditions of the world. Those descriptions are very different 
 from His using a sickle and reaping His harvest. It is He 
 that treads the wine-press and goes to war with His garments 
 sprinkled with blood; He that casts a great stone into the 
 sea to signal the downfall of Babylon; He that hath a great 
 chain and binds Satan and casts him into prison and casts 
 him into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and 
 false prophet are. He does not describe Himself by any of 
 these functions in His letters, showing a general and marked 
 change in His advancing steps to victory. 
 
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 
 
 Lemuel H. Martinis "A^oice of The Seven Thunders" more 
 strongly influenced me to a love for the Eevelation I had 
 cherished from my- boyhood, for he was able at places to see 
 men walk as trees. Prof ^William Mulligan, of Aberdeen, gave 
 me a valuable suggestion. I am especially in debt to the 
 goodness and sincerity of a kind friend and brother, who 
 sustained my courage and refreshed my spirit in a trying season 
 of sorrow three years and a half while studying this book, 
 Charles Eckhart — a name I hope to find written in the Lamb^s 
 Book of Life. 
 
 THE END. 
 
'(J ( -^ f 
 
 1898 
 
 ^