-'M 
 
PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 % 
 
 Shelf 
 
 Diviiion 
 Section __. 
 Number 
 
 5 
 
 .■=>5 ?. 
 
^ 
 
THE REVELATION 
 
 GIVEN TO 
 
 ST. JOHN THE DIVINE. 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 Page 3, line 6 from bottom, /or ' rather than ' read ' not.' 
 
 Page 16, line 13, for 'applied ' read 'used.' 
 
 Page 17, lines i — 4, read, ' The Spirit of God in this address is distinct from 
 God, as the Church of God is presented in seven symbolic lamps, which 
 are distinct from each other ; and this is seen in the vision.' 
 
 Page 21, last line, /or 'failing' read 'falling.' 
 
 Page 45, line 7 from bottom, for 'in xi. 48 ' read ' in John xi. 48.' 
 
 Page 54, line 13 from bottom, a/er ' work ' insert, ' or be/iilfilled.' 
 
THE REVELATION 
 
 GIVEN TO 
 
 ST. JOHN THE DIVINE. 
 
 AN ORIGINAL TRANSLATION, WITH CRITICAL 
 AND EXPOSITORY COMMENTS. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN H . LATHAM, M . A 
 
 Late Fellow of Clare College, Cambkidge. 
 
 LONDON : 
 ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.G. 
 
 1896. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The Bishop of Durham (B. F. Westcott, D.D.), speak- 
 ing at Newcastle-on-Tyne, in March, 1895, said : The 
 first great master of BibHcal criticism has stated that in 
 every syllable of the Bible there is a mystery. The con- 
 stant work of fifty years had satisfied him that there was 
 no exaggeration even in that striking phrase. He never 
 compared the Authorized Version, the Revised Version, 
 and the Greek text together without feeling that he had 
 learned something fresh, when he went back to the primal 
 roots, and carefully weighed the differences of the terms. 
 
 The ' Original Translation ' which is given in this Com- 
 mentary is intended to preserve the precise English 
 equivalents of the Greek text. The author has purposely 
 avoided reshaping the sentences according to the laws of 
 English composition, in the hope that the comparison of 
 his literal renderings with those of the Authorized and 
 Revised Versions will be specially suggestive to his readers. 
 
 Another remark of the Bishop was that when they came 
 to render what they believed to be living words, they 
 should not be satisfied merely with solemn music. 
 
 H. L. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. THE VISION OF THE LIVING CHRIST " " " " 3 
 
 II. THE MESSAGES OF THE LIVING CHRIST - - - 3I 
 
 III. THE MESSAGES OF THE LIVING CHRIST {continued) - 54 
 
 IV. THE VISION OF THE HEAVENLY THRONE - - - 82 
 
 V. THE MYSTERY OF THE SEALED SCROLL " " " 95 
 
 VI. THE FIRST SIX SEALS ----... 104 
 
 VII. THE VISION OF THE FULLY REDEEMED - - - I20 
 
 VIII. THE UNFOLDING OF THE MISSION OF THE ANGELS - I34 
 
 IX. THE THREE GREAT WOES I46 
 
 X. THE MESSAGE OF THE STRONG ANGEL- - - - 159 
 
 XI. THE MISSION OF THE TWO WITNESSES - - - 167 
 
 XII. THE WOMAN AND THE DRAGON I92 
 
 XIII. THE VISION OF THE TWO BEASTS - - - " 215 
 
 XIV. THE MESSAGES OF THE ANGELS 23O 
 
 XV. THE SONG OF THE VICTORS ------ 252 
 
 XVI. THE WOES OF THE SEVEN BOWLS .... 261 
 
 XVri. THE JUDGMENT OF THE GREAT HARLOT - - - 284 
 
 XVIIl. THE DIVINE JUDGMENT ON BABYLON - - - - 302 
 
 XIX. THE WORD OF GOD 319 
 
 XX. THE OLD SERPENT ------- 333 
 
 ,XXI. THE NEW JERUSALEM 352 
 
 XXII. THE VISION OF THE REDEEMED 366 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 ORIGINAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION. 
 
 Jesus Christ's Revelation, which God gave to 
 him to show to his servants things which must 
 quickly occur : and he showed (it) by signs, sending 
 through his angel, to his servant John ; who testified 
 the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ — 
 whatsoever he saw. 
 
 Blessed (is) he who reads, and those who hear, the 
 words of the prophecy, and who keep what are 
 written in it : for the season is near. 
 
 John to the seven churches in Asia : — 
 
 Grace (be) to you, and peace, from The Existing, 
 The Was, and The Coming ; and from the seven 
 spirits in front of his throne ; and from Jesus Christ 
 — (he is) the faithful witness, the first-born of the 
 dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. 
 
 To him who loves us, and loosed us out of our 
 sins in his blood : — and he made us a kingdom — 
 priests to his God and Father : to him (belongs) the 
 glory and the force, for the ages of ages. Amen. 
 
 See ! he is coming in the midst of the clouds ; 
 and every eye, and whosoever pierced him, will see 
 him ; and all the tribes of the earth will beat them- 
 selves over him. Aye, amen, ' I am the A and the fl 
 (the A and the Z), says the Lord God, The Existing, 
 and The Was, and The Coming, The Almighty. 
 
 I 
 
2 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 9 I, John, your brother and fellow-sharer in the 
 oppression and kingdom and endurance in Jesus, 
 came to be in the island called Patmos, on account 
 
 10 of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I 
 came to be in spirit on the Lord's day, and heard 
 
 11 behind me a loud voice, as if of a trumpet saying, 
 ' Write into a scroll that which thou seest, and send 
 (the scroll) to the seven churches : unto Ephesus, and 
 unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamus, and Thyateira, 
 and unto Sardeis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto 
 
 12 Laodiceia.' And I turned round to see the voice, 
 what (voice it was that) was talking with me : and 
 
 13 when I turned round, I saw seven gold lampstands, 
 and in the midst of the lampstands (one) hke the 
 Son of man, clothed to the feet, and girded round 
 
 14 at the breast with a gold girdle : but his head and 
 hair (were) bright, as if bright wool, as if snow ; 
 
 15 and his eyes as if a flame of fire ; and his feet 
 like bronze (were) as if- fired in a furnace ; and 
 
 16 his voice as if a voice of many waters; and (he) 
 having in his right hand seven stars ; and a double- 
 edged sharp broadsword passing out from his mouth ; 
 
 17 and his face, as if the sun shines in its strength. 
 And when I saw him, I fell at his feet, as if a corpse ; 
 and he laid his right hand upon me, saying, ' Do not 
 
 18 fear: I am the first, and the last, and the living; 
 and I became dead, and, see, I am living for the 
 ages of ages ; and I have the keys of Death and 
 
 ig Hades. Write, then, what thou sawest, and what 
 20 the (things) represent, and what (things) are about 
 to occur after them ; — the secret of the seven stars 
 which thou sawest on my right hand ; and the seven 
 gold lampstands. The seven stars are angels of the 
 seven churches ; and the seven lampstands are seven 
 churches.' 
 
The Vision of the Living Christ 
 
 THE VISION OF THE LIVING CHRIST. 
 
 This book is spoken of as a ' Revelation,' which Hterally 
 means an ' uncovering,' as of a person unveiling a picture 
 or statue, or his own face ; but here apphed, without 
 reference to any veil, to the pictures and language by 
 which the future events are symbolically disclosed. 
 
 The principal manuscript authorities for the text are : 
 (i) The Sinaitic MS., found by Tischendorf, in 1859, in 
 St. Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai, probably 
 written in the fourth century; (2) the Alexandrian, once 
 possessed by Cyrillus Lucaris, Patriarch, first of Alex- 
 andria and then of Constantinople (died about 1638), who 
 ten years before his death gave it to our Charles I. ; 
 (3) the Ephraem MS., consisting of a life of Ephraem the 
 Syrian (died about 378), written over the greater part of a 
 MS. of the Old and New Testament ; probably a little 
 earlier than the Alexandrian MS. of the fifth century. 
 All are written in Greek capital letters. 
 
 The most important reference in the Fathers to the 
 Book of Revelation and its author is found in Justin 
 Martyr (between a.d. 139 and 161). 'A certain man 
 amongst us, named John, one of the Apostles of Christ, in 
 a revelation made to him, prophesied ' certain things 
 about a millennium, and a resurrection of all men. 
 
 Section I. Verses i to 3. The Call to Attention. 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 I. — Quickly. Literally, in quick {time) ; meaning 
 without delay, rather than soon. In its ordinary use the 
 adverb quickly is an exact translation of the Greek adverb, 
 and means swiftly or soon. 
 
 Showed by signs. The Greek term suggests * show- 
 ing boundaries by boundary-stones '; * foreshowing by 
 omens '; * showing anything by a sign or agreed signal, as 
 
4 TJie Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 at sea, or in war, or in trade by trade-marks. In the New 
 Testament St. John uses the word three times : John 
 xii. ^^, where Christ speaks of His being hfted up, as 
 a sign of the death He would die ; so xviii. 32 ; and 
 xxi. ig, where He speaks of Peter stretching forth his 
 hands, and being girded, etc., with a similar significance. 
 The only other place in which it is used is where Agabus 
 ' signified ' an approaching famine ; but we are not told 
 how he did so. Our Lord speaks of the sign of the Son 
 of man appearing in heaven (Matt. xxiv. 30), evidently 
 not the Son of man Himself; and of the signs, of the times 
 (Matt. xvi. 3), but this passage is omitted by a majority 
 of the best MSS. and ancient translations. In other 
 places miracles are called signs. It is of importance to 
 bear in mind that the whole succeeding prophecy is one 
 set forth by signs rather than by words. 
 
 2. — Testified. The word means, to hear witness to a 
 thing ; in this case to God's Word and to Christ's testi- 
 mony. 
 
 Whatsoever he {i.e., John) saw, St. John's care 
 (John XX. 30) in cautioning the readers of his Gospel, that 
 he had not put down all he knew, is of use in giving the 
 readers of this book confidence that here they have a 
 complete and perfected work. 
 
 3. — The season. The right point of time, or season of 
 action. The word is sometimes used, like our ii)ne, for the 
 state of affairs (Luke xii. 56). 
 
 Keep. The same word as is used for keeping God's 
 commands ; control their thoughts and actions by the know- 
 ledge given them in this work. See also xxii. 7. All 
 Divine revelations have distinctly practical ends in view. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 I. — The title, or preface, is somewhat indistinct, owing 
 to the pronouns being as obscure in the Greek original as 
 in the English translation. The writer seems to mean a 
 
The Vision of the Living Christ 5 
 
 revelation which God gave to Jesus Christ in order that 
 He might give to His (Christ's) servants some idea of 
 events which would soon transpire. Christ showed what 
 He did show through the medium of an angel, using 
 symbols and signs which John was commissioned to 
 record. It is from St. John's pen that wc have the reve- 
 lation, but he had it, through the angel, from Christ, and 
 Christ had it from God. 
 
 Quickly. That God will avenge His saints ' quickly ' 
 is stated by our Lord (Luke xviii. 7). He intimates that 
 God is bringing about the vengeance as speedily as possible 
 consistent with His long-suffering. It is obvious that the 
 vengeance which God, in His justice and benevolence, 
 must take, is not to be obtained by any sudden or direct 
 exercise of His overwhelming power — arbitrary though 
 just. His vengeance will not merely be just in itself, but 
 convincing to all in heaven and in earth, whether they are 
 acquitted or condemned. It will be the full and fair 
 consequence of the acts of the wicked, when tested judi- 
 cially by a system of reactions efficiently carried out ; 
 somewhat as the scientific teacher applies his tests, in 
 chemistry or in physics, before his audience, so that all 
 come to agree with him in the conclusion at which he 
 arrives. The wicked are tried under the long-suffering of 
 God, while He maintains the laws of their probationary 
 life. 
 
 The final judgment, or day of the Lord, is not the trial 
 which precedes a pronounced judgment, as in our courts 
 of law. It is rather the declaration of results from the 
 books (Dan. vii. 10; Rev. xx. 12), the separation of the 
 tares from the wheat at the harvest time (Matt. xiii. 39 
 to 43) ; or of the sheep and the goats (Matt. xxv. 32). It 
 is the carrying out of such measures as are necessary for 
 the just recompense and protection of the saints. This 
 final judgment must be postponed to the end of the world, 
 but it is repeatedly described as coming quickly. This would 
 
6 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 hardly be said if God were now standing aloof, and in no 
 sense bringing forward the trial. It rather implies that 
 He is now very actively conducting the trial, adjusting the 
 tests, and ordering the world so as to bring up the full 
 case complete for judgment as early as possible. 
 
 The only angels mentioned by St. John elsewhere are 
 zign^, seen in his vision. All are heavenly beings of some 
 sort, i.e., they are seen in God's heaven, or in earth's 
 heaven ; for none appear in the ' new heaven.' Even the 
 seven angels of the seven churches are seen as stars, in 
 symbolical representation. The preface expresses plainly 
 that the vv^hole vision is revealed to St. John by an angel, 
 and that all the characters in it are visionary signs. 
 
 3. — In no other inspired book is a blessing pronounced 
 on those who read it. St. John, in his Gospel, twice 
 approaches the subject very nearly (John xx. 30, 31 ; xxi. 
 24, 25). It is neither general custom nor personal habit 
 that causes him here to pronounce a blessing on the 
 readers. The blessing seems to picture a man reading 
 the book aloud to a school of hearers ; and it is given to 
 both the readers and the hearers on the assumption that 
 they follow up the reading and hearing with active obedi- 
 ence. 
 
 Keep what is written in it. The same word is 
 used for keeping God's commandments (Matt. xix. 17) — 
 control their thoughts, minds, and actions by it. So far, 
 then, from its being a revelation which is little more than 
 a curious speculation, it is of practical and pressing con- 
 cern to us. See the conclusion of the book (xxii. 16-21). 
 Though St. John's description of what he saw ma}^ be 
 unstudied and homely, yet no book of the Bible gives us 
 more directly an inspired revelation from Christ. St. 
 John allows himself no choice or selection of material 
 (i. 2), as he did when preparing his Gospel (John xxi. 25). 
 He does not exercise imagination in selecting his figures 
 or similes, as the psalmists and prophets do. He writes 
 
The Vision of the Living Christ 7 
 
 under an evident sense of responsibility for recording pre- 
 cisely every word of the messages and descriptions that 
 were given to him (xxi. 18, ig). 
 
 So when St. John writes (verse 3) that 'the season' 
 embraced by this prophecy ' is near,' i.e., close at hand, 
 he uses a term which represents this season not as coming 
 quickly, but as already begun ; as readers of Joel in the 
 LXX. would understand, where he says (ch. i. 15), ' The 
 day of the Lord is near ' — the same word — of the famine 
 then raging. Indeed, St. Peter says (2 Pet. iii. 9), 'The 
 Lord is not slack concerning His promise'; nor should we 
 expect it in the Creator of this world ; so marked as it is 
 by design, by continual exercise of skill, and by pleasure. 
 God has not for ages of ages conducted the evolution of 
 the earth and planets — required by His own choice of laws 
 in order to produce our present flora — as a task, but as 
 His pleasure. Why, then, should He be slack during the 
 age when these evolutions reach their highest interest in 
 the development of man, in man's redemption by Christ,, 
 and in the conflict of His servants amongst men with evil? 
 The Creator is not a labourer engaged to make and carry 
 on a world on laws which he did not fix, and under com- 
 pulsion which is irksome. 
 
 Section H. Verses 4 to 8. Address and 
 Benediction. 
 
 Exegetical and Critical Notes. 
 
 4, — Church. The Greek word is ecclesia, a summoned 
 assembly ; but it is often translated, as here, by the word 
 church, a corrupted form of curiacon, meaning the Lord's 
 (house). St. Paul uses the two ideas as of equivalent 
 meaning (i Tim. iii. 5). There is no precisely suitable 
 English term. 
 
 From (twice) : as their origin, or one might almost say 
 material. 
 
8 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 5. — Ruler : or prime rider. The title was most notably 
 applied to the first and chief of the nine magistrates who 
 ruled Athens, and all her tributary states, in the time of 
 her power. It was used generally for men in chief official 
 positions (Matt. xx. 25). 
 
 Sins : failure, fault, sin. See the New Testament use of 
 this word. It seems to apply to wrong acts ; and not to 
 such an impalpable essence as can be loosed or bound, 
 forsaken or let go, without any sensible result to anyone 
 concerned. That is an invention of false teachers. 
 
 In his blood. In vii. 14, the figure is washing clothes 
 in his blood : in both cases the meaning is spiritual, viz., 
 that the fact of the Lamb's death gave Him the position or 
 power to loose us out of sin, and gives us the position or 
 power to wash our clothes. What the latter position is — 
 its confidence, gratitude, and assurance — some have ex- 
 perienced. Of the former — Christ's — we can only know 
 what He has told us, and had better leave the preposition 
 as vague as St. John has left it. 
 
 6. — Priests — the glory — the force. We shall 
 meet with these ejaculatory reflections frequently, some- 
 times leading on to whole sentences. All are nominatives, 
 without any verb, and in apposition to nothing ; just as 
 above, in verse 5. 
 
 Ever and ever : the ages of ages ; see iv. 10. 
 
 7. — Beat themselves. Beating the breast had be- 
 come as instinctive an expression of grief to the Israelite 
 and other nations as shrugging the shoulders is of various 
 emotions to some modern peoples. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 4. — St. John, having first given the title of his book, 
 writes its address. He addresses it to the seven churches 
 which he had seen figured as seven lampstands in his 
 vision. He opens it with a benediction from three of the 
 symbols of God that were shown him in that vision, viz., 
 
The Vision of the Living Christ 9 
 
 from the Almighty, as seated on His throne in heaven and 
 worshipped there (xi. 17) ; from the seven spirits of God, 
 which he had seen figured as seven lamps burning in front 
 of the throne of the Almighty in heaven (iv. 5) ; and from 
 Jesus Christ, who, seen in the vision as standing amidst 
 the seven lampstands, had dictated a message to the 
 angel of each church. It is from Christ, especially, that 
 the revelation which he is about to write comes ; and he 
 pauses to give him three titles suggested to him by that 
 revelation. Christ is the ' faithful witness': St. John has 
 perfect confidence in what Christ had revealed to him ; 
 and he has vividly in recollection the final victory gained 
 by Him who is faithful and true (xix. 11). Again, Christ 
 is the ' firstborn of the dead,' and the dead He will raise to 
 share in His kingdom (xx. 4), and to reign with Him on 
 earth a thousand years, so soon as His Father shall give 
 Him the kingdom. Christ, too, is the prime ruler over all 
 the kings and kingdoms of the earth, which are about to be 
 described as St. John saw them symbolized in a succes- 
 sion of visions. 
 
 5. — St. John still cannot dismiss the theme of Christ 
 with mere titles ; he adds praise. Christ's death assures 
 us of His love to us while we are sinners, and of our being 
 loosed out of our sins. Were it not for the first, He would 
 never have cared to die ; were it not for the last, there 
 would have been no object in His dying. 
 
 6. — He has made us a ' kingdom,' but not such as these 
 earthly kingdoms of the vision ; so St. John adds another 
 figure — ' priests of God.' 
 
 Christ excels also, not only in glory (compare Eph. iii. 
 20, 21, for a fuller expression), but also in force; not once, 
 but for ever. Glory (the Greek word) is merely opinion, held 
 by others of a man, estimation, and so glory. It implies 
 approval and admiration. 
 
 Ages of ages, or tlie ages of the ages. As nearly a scientific 
 term as could be framed in human language. Our know- 
 
lo The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 ledge intensifies the meaning of such an expression. 
 We have some idea of the length of the geological eras 
 through which our earth has passed, under very different 
 conditions of flora, of structure, of heat and cold ; and we 
 have some idea of astronomical eras, since the time when 
 our earth and moon formed parts of the sun. And we 
 know of distant suns that have become cold and dark, 
 having passed through their eras; and of others that are 
 nebulous, and only beginning their series of eras. This 
 knowledge of ours, however, does not enable us to improve 
 upon the expression * for the ages of the ages,' as a symbolic 
 and suggestive expression for a never-ceasing, unlimited 
 duration. 
 
 7. — After this ascription of praise, St. John throws some 
 light on the character of Christ's appearance in the 
 visions which he is about to describe. The expression 
 See ! he comes, or is coming is ordinarily used to call atten- 
 tion to what will be seen coming directly. Compare 
 Zechariah, quoted by St. John (John xii. 15): 'See! 
 daughter of Zion, thy King comes (or is coming) seated 
 on a colt,' etc. The whole Book of Revelation consists of 
 a series of pictures, in which there is, again and again, 
 some illustration of Christ's presence as in the clouds (see 
 Matt. xxiv. 30; xxvi. 64); that is, as invisible to the un- 
 christian inhabitants of the earth. Our Lord's reply to 
 the high -priest (Mark xiv. 62), if we had only Mark's 
 account, would have left the time indefinite ; but Matthew 
 tells us that Christ said He would be seen from that time 
 forward, ' sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming 
 on the clouds ' (Matt. xxvi. 64). Luke gives only a part 
 of our Lord's reply (Luke xxii. 6g), that which refers to 
 our Lord's being at the right hand of God. 
 
 Our Lord's presence on earth was not recognised by all 
 (John viii. g); it was concealed, figuratively, 'shrouded 
 by clouds,' from those who had no will to do God's will. 
 Much more, then, is His presence likely to escape recog- 
 
IJie J ^i si 071 of the Livitig Christ ii 
 
 nition when He is withdrawn from sight, and sitting- on 
 high at the right hand of the Father. 
 
 But besides saying that the Son of man h now coming 
 in the clouds, St. John adds that all will see Him, even 
 those who before the time of their seeing Him had pierced 
 Him, and those to whom the sight of Him will be a grief. 
 This may refer to the time when the Son of man first 
 appears in the earthly heaven in connection with clouds, 
 in the scenes of this vision {viz., xiv. 14), when He has 
 ceased to sit at the right hand of God, and is Himself 
 crowned. It is evident that, however obscured to the 
 view of the inhabitants of the earth for awhile, the time 
 must come when the Son of man will be clearly seen by 
 all. 
 
 The expression ' He is coming in the clouds,' etc., is 
 concluded abruptly by a ratification suddenly given by 
 St. John, as the ambassador, and not simply as the 
 prophet, of Jesus Christ. In God's name he accepts and 
 ratifies both what the address contains, and the applica- 
 tion to Christ Himself of the symbols hereinafter follow- 
 ing. It is inimaterial whether the ' Aye, amen ' be St. 
 John's, and similar to the * Thus saith the Lord ' of the old 
 prophets, or is like our Lord's ' Verily, verily,' which intro- 
 duce the statement of a truth or instruction which could 
 only be known from God Himself. In either case the 
 ' Aye, amen,' are the words of ratification (2 Cor. i. 20) — 
 the former in Greek, the latter in Hebrew. Or, again, we 
 may take the ' Aye ' as Christ's, and the ' Amen ' as St. 
 John's (xxii. 20). In this ratification it seems as impos- 
 sible to separate God the Father from God the Son, as it 
 was for Moses when he was addressed out of the burning 
 bush. The name / am, then declared to Moses as the 
 name of the God about to deliver Israel, and to bring the 
 nation into the blessings promised to Abraham, is here 
 intensified by being carried into both the past and the 
 future, and is illustrated very remarkably by the reference 
 
1 2 The Revelation given to Si. John the Divine 
 
 to the alphabet. From St. John, the beloved disciple of 
 our Lord on earth, this strong assurance that the Son of 
 man is the same through all the scenes of this unfolding 
 \'ision as He had always been in times before, and that He 
 would never fail His servants, comes as a cheering en- 
 couragement to us. We are about to follow the lead of 
 these visions into the far future, and to see the hostility 
 of the world and its kingdoms to Christ and His servants, 
 as it can be pictured in a series of the most stirring inci- 
 dents and situations. Christ is in all that is coming to 
 pass, even as He has been in all the buried past. 
 
 Notes on this Section. 
 
 (i) The Word ' Ecclesia,' or Church. — St. John addresses 
 his message to certain symbols or signs that were shown 
 him in the vision when he was ' in the spirit.' They were 
 ' seven churches.' The Greek word ecclcsia is frequently 
 translated by the English word church. It is not properly 
 church, for church is an Anglicized term derived from a 
 different Greek word, curiacon, which means the Lord's 
 {place or house). Ecclesia means originally a summoned 
 assembly. An assembly, so called, was made up (if a 
 quorum attended), held, and dissolved. In the New 
 Testament, so far as affects this book, it seems to mean a 
 body of people who have been invited, by an ordained 
 apostle, presbyter, or householder, to worship God to- 
 gether in convenient places of meeting, and have accepted 
 and acted upon the invitation. Ecclesia, not church, has a 
 more spiritual meaning in Eph. i. 22, 23 ; Col. i. 18. In 
 these passages it includes all those who form the body of 
 which Christ is the head, such as are elsewhere described 
 as 'called by God' to various duties and graces. In the 
 Book of Revelation this latter sense oi ecclcsia is never used. 
 If referred to at all, it can only be symbolically, but the 
 more spiritual meaning need not be introduced. The 
 English word church means an ecclesiastical building, and, 
 
The Vision of the Living Christ 13 
 
 metaphorically, all its ' connection,' i.e., the baptized 
 members of the Christian body who use it for worship. 
 The word congregation means an assembly, and cannot 
 properly be used to mean the ' connection,' as a limita- 
 tion to the baptized, either metaphorically or otherwise. 
 
 (2) The Varied Uses of Numbers. — A number may be 
 used either strictly, as expressing a definite and recog- 
 nised quantity, or colloquially, or symbolically. 
 
 A number may be used in ordinary, or in official, and 
 even in poetical or historical language, in quite a vague 
 way. Even in our newspapers, in a price-list, a stranger 
 might be deceived if he gave the numbers their strict 
 value. A dozen, a hundred, a score, a thousand, are 
 terms often used of inexact quantities. Sometimes the 
 number is evidently not counted : we say three or four, a 
 dozen, one hundred, one thousand. Such vague numbers 
 are constantly used in ordinary talk, in histories of battles 
 or of losses of life, in groups of soldiers or of voters, and 
 in estimates of time. A division of a county is a hundred. 
 In some of the most intelligent Eastern nations tliree was 
 the largest number recognised without counting. If you 
 say you passed three men, it is understood to be three 
 strictly ; but if you say you passed four men, unless other- 
 wise intimated, the strict number would not be under- 
 stood, but the term would be similar to our half a dozen. 
 
 On the other hand, ten is in some districts used for a 
 number which includes all beyond itself An old farmer 
 in the East, being asked by me his age, answered, ' How 
 should I know ? I am ten years old ;' and there was not 
 the faintest approach to a smile on the faces of any of his 
 country people, young or old, male or female, who stood 
 around listening. The words meant, ' My years exceed 
 the number which lays hold on the mind and memory, 
 without careful counting. I have not counted them. I 
 have no register of them.' 
 
 The symbolical meaning of numbers is chiefly of 
 
14 The Revelation given to St. Jo Jin the Divine 
 
 interest as they are used in the Scriptures. Thus, three 
 is always a definite number of a sacred character. It is 
 often closely associated with God and His immediate 
 interference ; and also with great and portentous human 
 woes — compare the prophet Gad's offer to David (2 Sam. 
 xxiv. 12, etc.; i Chron. xxi. 10, etc.). Many later instances 
 occur up to, and including, our Lord's three days in the 
 tomb. Again a hcptad, or iccck, of things cr of seasons, 
 has a peculiar significance. What is the earliest use of 
 it can never, of course, be known ; but it pleased God to 
 reveal the account of the creation of the earth, as we know 
 it, out of a preceding chaos, as a series of acts arranged in 
 an order of six days, together with a seventh day of 
 ' rest.' 
 
 The number seven was accepted as a counted number, 
 indicating completeness and perfection. Ten and twelve 
 in some sense correspond to our 'do2en'; but ten indicates 
 incompleteness, twelve indicates completeness. We speak 
 of a bundle of samples as about ten — twelve makes a com- 
 plete package. The enlargement of numbers without loss 
 of their character is to be obtained by multiplication. 
 
 A heptad, or week of years, was an interval marked by 
 Jacob's service for Rachel (Gen. xxix. 18). At the close 
 of every week of years, every Israelite was freed from all 
 debts owed to a fellow -Israelite (Deut. xv. i). The 
 Mosaic ritual required on every seventh (or, as the Jews 
 would say, eighth) year a solemn rest of the land from all 
 cultivation and pruning (Lev. xxv. 4) ; but a week of 
 weeks of years — every seventh sabbath of years — was the 
 great jubilee, when all property that had been sold was to 
 return to its owner (Lev. xxv. 8, etc.). So twelve was the 
 original number of the sons of Israel ; but, to represent 
 the great extension of the chosen people, in this vision, 
 each patriarch is reckoned as forefather of twelve — not of 
 twelve tribes, for the word tribes is already appropriated 
 to the descendants of Jacob, but of twelve thousands, the 
 
The Vision of the Living Christ 15 
 
 term in ordinary use for the largest of the divisions 
 making up a tribe (Exod. xviii. 25; Num. i. 16, etc.). 
 
 Mathematical preciseness is not the rule of the world's 
 language. In any market in the world, if you offer to 
 purchase a dozen oranges for a shilling, and your offer be 
 accepted and the oranges tendered, and you ask ' Is this 
 my dozen ?' you are liable to receive the reply : ' That is 
 your dozen. I was one or two short of full-sized ones ; 
 but for each I was short I have put two smaller ones 
 instead.' Neither the twelve tribes, ten commandments, 
 nor twelve apostles can be counted with modern scientific 
 strictness. 
 
 (3) The Seven Churches. — In verse 4, St. John addresses 
 the seven churches of Asia. His opening salutation is 
 similar to those in St. Paul's epistles, except that St. John 
 mentions no title or authority of his own. During the 
 forty or fifty years which had elapsed since St. Paul wrote, 
 the names of the Apostles had, doubtless, become too 
 well known to need formal recital. St. John was at home 
 in Asia, and he takes, as usual, such informal title as he 
 loves best. In his Gospel he is the disciple lohoin Jesus 
 loved; in his Epistles he is, perhaps tacitty, the elder ; here 
 he is the servant of Jesus Christ, or plain John. 
 
 It can hardly be supposed that only seven churches 
 existed in Asia, the extensive Roman province. In 
 Col. iv. 13, St. Paul groups together Colossge, Laodicea, 
 and Hierapolis — all towns but a few miles apart. 
 Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, martyred a.d. 115, wrote to 
 ' the church of Magnesia, near the Maeander,' and to that 
 ' at Tralles, in Asia.' This gives four churches which were 
 existing at St. John's time, besides the seven which he 
 mentions by name. The letter is addressed, not to seven 
 particular churches of St. John's choosing, but, in strict 
 obedience to the command received by him in the vision, 
 to seven symbolical churches, as typifying the entire 
 Church. No doubt, as in. the case of all other proper 
 
1 6 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 names which occur in the vision, these names are used 
 symbohcally, and do not stand for the historical churches 
 themselves. 
 
 If we understand them to represent Christ's complete 
 visible Church of that age, and of all ages, we shall see 
 that attention is not directed to the particular members 
 of these churches, but to the mind, the tone, and the 
 temper of each church — ^the abilities and disabilities 
 which were illustrated in each. Were they not purely 
 symbolical, there would be no reason for the omission of 
 Antioch, Rome, Alexandria. We shall find, further on, 
 how names of real places, or even a group of them, are 
 applied to symbolize some spiritual group, as in many 
 psalms the words are applied to some current event, in 
 order to base on it ideas and promises only to be fulfilled 
 in some far wider and spiritual sense. 
 
 (4) The Name ' God the FaiJier.' — To return to this 
 address, or preface to the vision (verses 4 to 8) : the name 
 of God the Father is introduced under a threefold title, 
 an extension of the simple title of the God of Israel, given 
 to Moses from the burning bush. It extends the name 
 ' I am ' forward and backward without limit. We 
 might naturally wish, like Philip (John xiv. 8), to have a 
 little more of the Father told us, or shown us, directly, 
 and we must accept our Lord's answer : ' He that hath 
 seen Me hath seen the Father,' and St. John's title to this 
 whole book, ' Jesus Christ's Revelation.' So far as we 
 have Jesus Christ revealed to us, there is nothing more to 
 add about God the Father. If ' I am ' were a name to 
 impress on the Israelitish Church the omnipresence, 
 omniscience, and almightiness of God, then this name 
 presses on our notice His unchangeableness — the persis- 
 tence of His character, of His designs, and of His will — 
 and prepares us to grasp the immense lapse of time, and 
 apparent delay, required for the full execution of the 
 designs which such a God is working out. The Spirit of 
 
The Vision of the Living Christ 17 
 
 God is included in this address, as the Church of God is 
 inchided, in seven symbohc lamps, distinct from God, and 
 possibly from each other ; as seen in the vision hereinafter 
 (iv. 5), where no lampstand is mentioned for the lamps. 
 Jesus Christ has a threefold title, ascribing to Him those 
 qualities and acts which make Him loved and trusted by 
 us on earth in the highest conceivable degree. 
 
 (5) The Symbol of the Clouds. — In the seventh verse, 
 St. John seems to call his readers' attention to the clouds, 
 and in imagination to see them as they drift over the 
 earth, and as they have been associated with God's 
 presence at Sinai, and in the Psalmist's inspired allusions 
 to thunderstorms (Ps. xxix., etc.), and during the trans- . 
 figuration witnessed by St. John (Matt. xvii. 1-5). The 
 natural inference from his words is, that these clouds will 
 in time be dispersed, and that upon their dispersion 
 Christ will Himself be directly seen. That is in notable 
 contrast, both to the clouds of Sinai, and to the thunder- 
 storms which impressed upon the Psalmist the nearness 
 of a tremendous power : both of these were in time dis- 
 persed, but they left no trace behind them. Those who 
 will then see Him will include those who pierced Him, i.e., 
 who pierced Him at any time before His appearance then 
 — those who had during their life acted on the side of the 
 Jews who crucified Him, or of the Romans who carried 
 out the execution and pierced Him. It is clear that the 
 words ' tribes of the earth ' mean dwellers upon earth 
 who have their interest in earthly gains, rather than in 
 heavenly, and who regard the coming of Christ as a loss 
 and disaster to them. 
 
 (6) The Style of St. John's Composition. — Throughout 
 this preface and attestation, and throughout the whole 
 book also, it is especially interesting to follow the words 
 of our Lord's beloved disciple — of him who once mended 
 nets, and fished from his father's boats, on the Sea of 
 Galilee. It is as if the Lord Jesus delighted to leave His 
 
 2 
 
1 8 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 old friend to find his own words of description for the 
 
 visions, but chose to put His signature beforehand, imme- 
 diately at the end of the address. That confidence in 
 St. John we may share; though we find, in our oldest 
 known MSS. of this Book of Revelation, every rule of 
 grammar — orthography, etymology, syntax, and prosody 
 — violated again and again in the intensity of St. John's 
 feeling. We feel sure that we may trust him ; and we 
 are convinced, by the consistency and completeness of 
 what we do understand, that if we had known his col- 
 loquial Greek, and had seen his action, and heard his 
 accent, as he dictated the vision to his amanuensis, we 
 should have found his honest description clearer, more 
 exact in details, and more comprehensive and suggestive 
 than anything which a learned philosopher could have 
 drawn up in the best classic Greek. 
 
 Section III. Verses 9 to 20. The Vision of the 
 Living Christ. 
 
 Exegelical and Critical Notes. 
 
 g. — Came to be. We have no English for this. In 
 ordinary conversation we say happened to he : the literal 
 translation became is not used in English. 
 
 Of Jesus : giveji by Jesus. 
 
 10. — Voice, or sound of a voice, without necessarily 
 hearing the words. The term is used in Greek for in- 
 articulate sounds, as of the sea, water, thunder, wind ; 
 usually with a kind of metaphorical notion of the thing's 
 expressing itself in that way ; a distinctive sound : not a 
 mere noise. 
 
 II. — Saying : i.e., of the trumpet saying. 
 
 Seest : hast the power of seeing. The word is used when 
 sight is given to a blind man : in this case a sight to see 
 visions was about to be given. 
 
The Vision of the Living Christ 19 
 
 14. — Breast. Literally breasts ; but in English we use 
 the singular. So haiY in verse 15. 
 
 But : our colloquial now. 
 
 15. — Bronze. Here, and in ii. 18, only. Perhaps gun- 
 metal would be more correct ; but the similitude probably 
 extends to the appearance only, as of a clear Asiatic skin, 
 bright and glistening. 
 
 16. — Broadsword : not the usual short military sword, 
 of various metals ; but a keen, as well as pointed, and 
 double-edged sword of steel. It was the name of a 
 straight and heavy steel sword used by the Thracians ; 
 and probably such as we see in the earliest sketches of 
 Gothic and Danish warriors — not in the caricatures of 
 them current amongst their Roman enemies. Broadsword, 
 and voice, face, etc., are all nominatives without verbs, see 
 note on verse 6, thrown out in an ejaculatory way by the 
 prophet. 
 
 17. — Do NOT FEAR. The Greek verb translated ' fear ' 
 is a passive one, of which the most literal English would 
 be, Do not be scared, i.e., take fright, flee from fear. The 
 thing or person causing the alarm may be in the accusa- 
 tive (Matt. X. 26, and 28) ; and the word was used by the 
 heathen for their fear of the gods. Whether the Jews 
 had dropped into the heathen notion, or not, there 
 are few commands more frequently given by God's 
 messengers, and by Christ, than this ' Fear not' 
 
 ig. — The verb substantive is used by St. John in the 
 ■sense of are meant for, represent. So our Saviour uses it 
 (Matt. xiii. 20, etc.). St. John seems often to omit the 
 verb substantive, lest it should be mistaken to mean that 
 he is giving the interpretation of his symbols, when he is 
 merely describing the symbols themselves. Literally, this 
 passage is * what thou sawest, and what they are, and 
 what are about to become after them.' 
 
 20. — The Secret : the Greek word put into English 
 letters is mystery ; and suggests the formal ceremony of a 
 
20 The Revelation given to St. JoJui the Divine 
 
 guild or club held in order to give to a new member the 
 reason and rules upon which the guild or club was founded, 
 and the conditions of membership. The mystery was a 
 secret to those without, but it was known to those within. 
 It is in the former sense only that the Greek word has 
 been Anglicized, so that, in English, a mystery means some- 
 thing that nobody can fathom ; whereas a secret conveys 
 better the original Greek meaning of something simple, 
 and thoroughly well known to any number who know it, 
 and easily told, if it is desirable to do so. to any who do 
 not know it. 
 
 20. — Are : in both cases this verb is expressed, and it is 
 not put in parentheses in the translation. It means repre- 
 sent, stand for. 
 
 The construction is peculiar : the lampstands are in 
 apposition to the secret, not to the stars. St. John is told 
 to write the secret of the seven stars, and also to write the 
 seven gold lampstands. This seems to be one of the 
 many instances in which we shall find that the apostle, 
 intent upon what he is describing, fails in the grammatical 
 form of his description. It is only important to notice 
 this here, where it can cause no confusion, because other 
 instances occurring later on may cause some perplexity. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 g. — The title St. John gives himself when he introduces 
 his prophecy shows a mind similar to that of Daniel, to 
 whom revelations of the future of the world were also 
 given. Daniel had visions, in which he saw, and heard 
 described, symbols of the empires which were to rule the 
 world in the interval before Messiah came. He was 
 assured of the final cleansing of the sanctuary, and of the 
 establishment of God's kingdom in all the earth. The 
 state of Daniel's mind may be learnt from his prayer 
 (Dan. ix. 4 to ig), and from the verses which introduce it 
 in the early part of the chapter. We find that he, like: 
 
The Vision of the Living Chj-ist 21 
 
 St. John, shared in the oppression, but had full belief that 
 God's kingdom would prevail, and patiently sought to 
 know more certainly the time and completeness of the 
 coming deliverance. In many points the visions of 
 Daniel and St. John resemble each other. In both, 
 beasts are symbols of empire, or of earthly-organized 
 power. The same kingdom, or power, is presented under 
 different aspects or in different relations ; and the time of 
 the duration of some symbols is very much the same. 
 The positive and complete overthrow of earthly and 
 daimonic power, and the positive and effective establish- 
 ment on earth of God's kingdom, is common to them 
 both ; though it is given in far more detail to St. John. 
 These two notable servants of God, alike distinguished as 
 beloved (Dan. ix. 23 ; x. 11), alike proved in their love to 
 God, sought, and received directly from God visions of 
 future events, which were, both as to their manner and 
 matter, selected by God Himself. 
 
 10. — Whether it was on the first day of the week, that 
 day on which our Lord had first appeared to His crushed 
 and sorrowful disciples after He had overcome death, or 
 whether in this vision it only appeared to be the Lord's 
 day, is not quite clear. Daniel is more precise (Dan. viii. 
 2). Whether actual or visionary, the day represents a 
 time of rest and revelation : a time of elevation above all 
 the toil and turmoil with which St. John's life had been 
 filled, and of which the visions were to picture the con- 
 tinuance. The first revelation is addressed to the seven 
 angels of the seven churches. Further on we have seven 
 lamps (iv. 5) and seven eyes (v. 6), symbols of the seven 
 Spirits of God, representing every phase of the Spirit's 
 action on earth. Such phases exist, and are described by 
 our Lord (John xiv. 16, 26, etc.). 
 
 II. — So far as we know, the sins charged to the angels 
 of these churches are all such as have misled men into 
 impure motives and conduct, into failing from the faith 
 
2 2 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 and love of God, or into wilful jealousy or ignorance. We 
 must compare the ' seven spirits of God ' and the seven 
 churches with the use of seven in other groups, e.g.^ the 
 seven heads of a worldly kingdom (xiii. i), the seven hills of 
 the seven kings of the scarlet beast (xvii. 3, 9, 10). There 
 were probably seven churches at the seven places named ; 
 there w^ere seven empires, the names of which we can 
 guess; legend and poetry have named seven hills of Rome- 
 Each group of seven seals, seven trumpets, etc., gives 
 occasion to seven visions, each vision representing a group 
 of facts ; but in each case the reality represented by the 
 vision is not confined by the numerical seven. Even the 
 Roman empire was not always seated on the Roman hills ; 
 much less were the whole seven empires so seated. The 
 seven is, after all, a symbol only : not an exact repre- 
 sentation of facts. 
 
 We cannot but contrast the trumpet voice, used here 
 and elsewhere, with the still small voice of the revelation 
 made to Elijah (i Kings xix. 12) ; and we may note the 
 absence of any such trumpet-call to Daniel and to others. 
 We may compare it with the trumpet-call on Sinai 
 (Exod. xix. 16), which ushered in God's covenant with 
 Israel. Here, the call is appropriate to visions which 
 are to reveal the subjugation of all Christ's enemies on 
 earth, and the setting up (Dan. ii. 44) of the kingdom of 
 Christ and of His saints. The visions will show that God 
 is not aloof, nor indifferent ; but that all His forces are 
 marching on and working on towards the day when He 
 shall have subdued all His enemies, and placed them under 
 Christ's feet. 
 
 12. — St. John turned, and saw a symbol of Christ as 
 standing in the midst of the seven churches. The scene 
 of the symbol is laid, as it were, in the shrine, or ' Holy 
 Place ' of the Temple. There is no separate ' Most Holy 
 Place ' throughout this prophecy. There, in the ' Holy 
 Place ' under the old covenant, the one lampstand, which 
 
TJie Vision of the Living Christ 23 
 
 represented Israel, stood. Here there is no such limita- 
 tion. Seven similar lampstands represent the universal 
 church on earth. The original shrine in the tabernacle 
 was, on its first erection (Exod. xl. 34, 35), occupied by a 
 dazzling cloud of God's glory, so that not even Moses 
 could enter it. That glorious cloud did not remain in it 
 longer than was necessary to fulfil its typical purpose ; 
 but God remained there, and was always present. In the 
 scene described by St. John no place nor furniture is 
 mentioned. The figures stood simply on the earth; so 
 that St. John could fall at the feet of the Son of man. On 
 the earth also stood the seven lampstands, each one like 
 that in the Holy Place of the tabernacle, a representation 
 of which is given on the Arch of Titus. See also one 
 described in a vision of Zechariah (Zech. iv. 2). In the 
 present scene the dazzling glory is displayed, without any 
 cloud, as a living person, so dazzlingly glorified that every 
 feature of his appearance and dress is described as if it 
 were on fire. His face was as bright as the sun in its 
 strength ; and there were seven stars in His hand. This 
 glory lasted long enough for St. John to record — long 
 enough for its purpose, but how long St. John does not 
 say ; for he fell down before it like one dead. 
 
 13. — The Son of man is seen not as a king, but as a 
 priest : in priestly robes, but not in the exact dress of a 
 Mosaic high-priest. He had a brightness, or lustre, which 
 overpowered the colour and appearance which are natural 
 to an earthly body. His voice seems to be heard from 
 everywhere, from all around ; for the metaphor (verse 15) 
 appears to include the sound of the sea as heard in a wave- 
 tossed boat, or on a beach, or perhaps on such an island 
 as Patmos. Many waters, is used for many peoples and 
 nations, and the voice being lihe the sound of many waters 
 may represent the work of Christ upon all things, animate 
 and inanimate. 
 
 16. — In, or on, His right hand are seven stars ; just as 
 
24 The Revelatio7i given to St. John the Divine 
 
 the natural stars are seen, as was at that time thought, in, 
 or on, the interior of the heavenly vault. These represent 
 a guiding influence over each church (compare xvi. 5). 
 A star, if seen in the earthly heaven, as in some following 
 visions, might be one man, or one or more bodies or schools 
 of men. Stars seem never used as symbols of illumination, 
 but of guiding and influencing. They were used by 
 travellers and voyagers as guides ; and to the whole world 
 they were omens, and regarded as, in some mysterious 
 way, controlling even the grandest terrestrial events. In 
 this vision these stars are described as representing the 
 angels of the seven churches. Nothing, however, is seen 
 or heard of these angels as separate individuals : each 
 angel is addressed as a component part of his church. It 
 seems best to suppose that the stars are identified with 
 angels in our ordinary sense of the word (Isa. xiv. 12). 
 Even then, indeed, we learn but little ; for our knowledge 
 of the angels is much the same as St. John's knowledge of 
 the stars. Each of the seven churches has its existence 
 on earth symbolized by a lampstand ; but, as each child 
 on earth has its guardian angel always beholding the face 
 of the Father who is in heaven (Matt, xviii. 10), so here 
 each church has its angel representative symbolized by a 
 star held in the right hand of the Son of man. St. John 
 is told to write to the angels of the seven churches ; and, 
 in doing so, he identifies the angel with the church, and 
 even imputes fault in a personal way to the angel. 
 
 A commanding officer, addressing the English captains 
 of seven rather raw black companies after a review, could 
 perhaps address them something in the same way, without 
 actually blaming any captain. He might even threaten to 
 remove the standard, and to break up a company. The 
 angel is never warned that his lampstand will be abolished: 
 it is only liable to be removed. Christ addresses these 
 angels in language which applies to their church, and 
 which frequently is inapplicable to an angel, whether man 
 
The Vision of the Living Christ 25 
 
 or spirit. He describes them as being upon their proba- 
 tion, as losing their first love, incurring blame by being 
 neither cold nor hot, etc. This reference to angels will 
 help us in interpreting the angels that are seen or heard 
 elsewhere in these visions. Angel does not admit of our 
 political sense, representative, plenipotentiary : it is the 
 ordinary, simple, and commonplace term, messenger. 
 
 This kind of broadsword, as being the largest, best- 
 tempered, and most effectively used sword known, is 
 perhaps meant to represent the irresistible power of 
 Christ's deeds and words, and, possibly, their keenness 
 and perfect temper. 
 
 17. — The beloved disciple fell as a dead man. In the 
 presence of Jesus, who, though not appearing in the form 
 of a conqueror or judge, yet was strangely altered from 
 His previously well-known condition of humiliation, St. 
 John found himself prostrate in mingled reverence and 
 fear. This behaviour of the ' beloved disciple ' gave occa- 
 sion for Him who is first and last, who died for us, and is 
 living for ages of ages, to repeat for the last time words 
 which had been frequently used before to His servants 
 when they were awed by His presence, or when in His 
 presence they were struck with some misfortune : ' Fear 
 not' In the presence of the everlasting love of Him who 
 has the keys of death and Hades (verse 18), St. John is 
 assured that he has not the least cause to fear. We 
 have the same assurance ; there will be a time, either in 
 this world or the next, when we shall realize our need 
 of the assurance. There is suggestiveness in the argu- 
 ment by which the command, ' Fear not,' is supported. 
 It is not delicacy, as we should say, but love, that veils 
 the great sacrifice which the eternal Word of God in 
 heaven made in becoming a son of man ; yet by tacitly 
 assuming the security we may feel, owing to that sacrifice 
 made by Him for us. He makes the allusion amply 
 sufficient. St. John especially could not be unmindful of 
 
26 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 the expansion of the same argument, which he had heard 
 and recorded from his Lord's own lips (John xiv. i to 3). 
 \\e. have that record ; and we have the promise of His 
 perpetual presence with us, and there is no wisdom like 
 that of faithfully walking in ' the way ' (Acts xxiv. 14), 
 and so making it our personal experience that He is with 
 us, and that He is giving our hearts and minds a new 
 existence, working a change beyond the power of any but 
 our Creator to work, and making our new life grow as the 
 vine branch grows from the graft, or the mustard plant 
 springs up from the seed. 
 
 ig. — St. John is instructed to write down what he then 
 saw, and what the things represented, and what he was 
 about to see ; and, presumably, we have all this described 
 in the book. The instruction links all together as one 
 homogeneous revelation ; and yet this vision of the seven 
 churches is cut off from the rest, by the special mention 
 of it here as seen by St. John while on earth, and by the 
 removal of St. John to heaven (iv. i, 2), where he sees the 
 other visions. Indeed, the subjects of the two parts of the 
 vision are distinct. One shows the Son of man's presence 
 with His churches, while metaphorically sitting at the 
 right hand of God, till God shall subdue His enemies ; 
 the other shows these enemies being subdued by God. 
 We are aware that the tone of Christ's teaching while on 
 earth prepared His followers for humiliation, and perse- 
 cution, and the trampling of the unbelieving world — for a 
 condition very different from the glorious kingdom that 
 was taught and typified under the first covenant. But 
 that glorious kingdom is not a thing abandoned, as if it 
 were a wrong conception or impossible. As the age goes 
 on, it approaches its reahzation. Meanwhile, Christ's rules 
 still hold ; His way is still the right way ; it is neither 
 He nor His followers who are to make His enemies His 
 footstool (Ps. ex. I, quoted five times in the New Testa- 
 ment). It is a wonderful kingdom, in that it is conquered 
 
The Vision of the Living Ch^^ist 27 
 
 not hy, but for, the King ; in that God, by the forces of 
 which we have symbolical pictures from the fourth chapter 
 to the twentieth, will both give the subjects (John xvii. 6, 
 etc.) and destroy the enemies. We only need to be care- 
 ful not to push this type, or symbol, of a kingdom, and 
 enemies, and war, and judgments unduly. We cannot 
 but notice that, as the age goes on, the symbolization 
 mixes up the action of the Lamb, identifying it more and 
 more with that of God. He is prepared to accept the 
 kingdom as God may be pleased to give it to Him, and 
 His true servants will be equally ready. Meantime, all 
 the teaching and directions given us by Christ — His way 
 and His promises — stand lirm, and are our wisdom and 
 strength ; and on that account this part of the vision of 
 Christ and His churches on earth comes first in its im- 
 portance to us. God's dealings with the dwellers upon 
 earth may be more varied, and need longer descriptions. 
 But, after all, Christ's dealings with His Church, and 
 with His Church in the world, are of supreme interest 
 to us. 
 
 Note on Verse 20. 
 
 The Son of man explains to St. John the secret of the 
 seven stars and seven lampstands. The stars are angels, 
 or emissaries from God, of the seven churches, and the 
 lampstands are seven churches. We infer that the 
 church here represented is an organized body, accepted 
 as His congregation, enlightened and enabled to give 
 light by His grace; and forming a body whose temper, 
 mind, knowledge, trust, and pleasure do not profess to rest 
 on earthly things, and do not draw existence from earth, but 
 do draw existence and support from heaven. The symbol 
 (of this spiritual life of a church), then, is an angel, not a 
 beast. The angel never speaks, nor is spoken to. St. John 
 alone is addressed, and these angels are to be reached only 
 by his writings. The angel of any particular church may 
 die (iii. 2), and the lampstand may be removed (ii. 5). 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 ORIGINAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION. 
 
 1 To the angel of the Church in Ephesus write : — 
 
 He who holds the seven stars in his right hand ; 
 who walks about in the midst of the seven golden 
 lampstands, says as follows ; — 
 
 2 I know thy works, and thy trouble and endurance ; 
 and that thou canst not carry bad (men), and didst 
 test those who call themselves apostles — and are not 
 
 3 — and foundest them false ; and hast endurance, and 
 didst carry, on account of my name, and hast not 
 been tired. 
 
 4 But I have against thee that thou didst let go thy 
 
 5 first love. Remember, then, whence thou hast fallen, 
 and repent, and do the first works : and if not, I am 
 coming to thee, and shall move thy lampstand out of 
 
 6 its place, unless thou shouldest repent. But thou hast 
 this ; that thou hatest the works of the Nicolaitans, 
 which I also hate. 
 
 7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit 
 says to the churches : — To him who conquers, I shall 
 give him to eat out of (from) the tree of life, which is 
 in the paradise of God. 
 
 8 And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: — 
 The first and the last, who became dead, and lived, 
 
 says as follows : — 
 
 9 I know thy oppression, and poverty, but thou art 
 
Original English Translation 29 
 
 rich, and the blasphemy out of those who call them- 
 selves Jews — and they are not, but Satan's syna- 
 
 10 gogue. Do not thou fear what thou art about to 
 suffer : behold the Devil is about to throw some of 
 you into prison, that you should be tried ; and you 
 will have oppression of ten days. Become thou 
 faithful up to death ; and I shall give thee the crown 
 of life. 
 
 11 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit 
 says to the churches : — ' He who conquers will be by 
 no means injured out of (by) the second death.' 
 
 12 And to the angel of the church in Pergamus write: — 
 
 He who has the double-edged sharp broadsword 
 says as follows : — 
 
 13 I know where thou dwellest, viz., where (there is) 
 the throne of Satan : and thou boldest my name ; and 
 didst not deny faith in me, even in the days of 
 Antipas — my faithful martyr (he was) — who was 
 killed beside you, where Satan dwells. 
 
 14 But I have against thee a few things : that thou 
 hast there men holding the teaching of Balaam, who 
 taught Balak to throw a trap in front of the sons of 
 
 15 Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit 
 fornication. Thus, even thou hast men holding the 
 teaching of Nicolaitans in like manner. 
 
 16 Repent thou, then ; and if not, I am coming to 
 thee quickly, and shall make war with them with the 
 broadsword of my mouth. 
 
 17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit 
 says to the churches : — ' To him who conquers — I 
 shall give to him some of the hidden manna ; and 
 shall give him a bright pebble, and upon the pebble a 
 new name written, which no one knows, except he 
 who receives it.' 
 
 18 And to the angel of the church in Thyateira 
 write : — 
 
30 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 The son of God, who has his e3'es as if a flame of 
 
 fire — and his feet (are) like bronze, says as follows:— 
 
 ig I know thy works ; and thy love, and faith, and 
 
 20 ministration, and endurance : and thy last works 
 (are) more than the first. But I have against thee, 
 that thou didst let go the woman Jezebel : she, calling 
 herself a prophetess, also teaches and leads astray my 
 
 21 servants to commit fornication, and to eat things 
 sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time, that she 
 should repent ; and she does not wish to repent out 
 
 22 of her fornication : see ! I am throwing her into a 
 bed, and those who commit adultery with her into 
 
 23 great oppression, unless they shall repent out of her 
 works ; and 1 shall kill her children with death : and 
 all the churches will learn to know that I am (one) 
 
 24 who searches kidneys and hearts, and shall give you, 
 each, according to your works. But I say to you, the 
 rest in Thyateira, as many as have not this teaching, 
 they who did not learn to know the depths of Satan, 
 
 25 as they say, — I am not throwing upon you other 
 burden : only, what you have, hold until whenever I 
 shall come. 
 
 26 And he who conquers, and keeps my works up to 
 
 27 the end : — I shall give him authority over the nations; 
 and he will tend (rule) them with an iron staff; like 
 as vessels of pottery are (they) crushed ; like as also 
 
 28 I have received from my Father. And I shall give 
 
 29 him the star of the morning. He who has an ear, let 
 him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.' 
 
TJie Messages of tJie Living Christ 
 
 THE MESSAGES OF THE LIVING CHRIST. 
 
 Section I. Verses i to 7. The Message to 
 Ephesus, 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 2. — Thy works. Of these works the trouble, toil, and 
 endurance are noticed (see verse 19, note). 
 
 Test. ' Try,' ' put to trial ;' the word that is so fre- 
 quently translated ' tempt.' 
 
 Call themselves, or ' say of themselves '; it is a verb 
 continually used of names and interpretations {e.g., 
 John i. 39, 48 ; iv. 5 ; ix. 11 ; xix. 13, 17). 
 
 3. — Carry, ' lift up,' ' hold in one's hands,' also of 
 bearing things in mind. St. John records our Lord's use 
 of the word (John xvi. 12), and St. Matthew puts it into 
 Isaiah's mouth (Matt, viii. 17), but upon no known 
 authority. The construction is, ' and hast, and didst 
 carry, endurance on account of,' etc. This, however, is 
 not in St. John's style. 
 
 4. — Let go. A Greek verb often translated forgive, 
 and the only Greek verb that is translated forgive in our 
 New Testament versions. The Greek verb, like the 
 English give and forgive, may take two accusative cases. 
 In giving, or forgiving, the first essential, expressed or 
 understood, is that there be something to give ; and the 
 second, that there be some one to give it to ; but the 
 Greek verb does not require more than one essential, viz., 
 the thing let go, or 'forgiven.' For instance, to take 
 St. John's uses of the word, omitting none, from the 
 beginning of his Gospel : John iv. 3, ' He left (or let go) 
 Judea, and departed into Galilee;' iv. 28, 'The woman 
 left (or let go) her waterpot ;' iv. 52, ' The fever left him 
 (let him go) ;' viii. 29, ' He hath not left me (let me go) 
 alone ;' x. 12, ' And leaveth the sheep (lets the sheep go) ;' 
 
32 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 xi. 44, 'Loose him, and let him go to depart' (translated 
 merely ' let him go ') ; xi. 48, ' If we let Him thus alone (let 
 Him go thus), all men will believe in Him ;' xii. 7, ' Suffer 
 her (let her go) to keejj it ;' xiv. 18, ' I will not leave you 
 (let you go) desolate ;' xiv. 27, * I leave peace with you 
 (let it go to you) ;' xvi. 28, '' I leave (or let go) the world, and 
 go to the Father ;' xvi. 32, ' And shall leave me (let me go) 
 alone ;' xviii. 8, 'Let these go their way.' This is a case 
 in which the sense is almost identical with that of the 
 * forgiveness ' of sins — letting them go clear away : xx, 23, 
 'Whose soever sins ye forgive (let go), they are forgiven 
 (let go) to them.' It is interesting thus to review every 
 instance in which St. John uses the word in his Gospel, as 
 showing that there is no peculiar appropriation of the 
 word io forgiveness of sins. 
 
 5. — Repent : Change thy opinion and purpose. The 
 Greek word appears to have no meaning of doing so with 
 sorrow or regret, as the English word repent has ; but the 
 Israelites expressed repentance publicly by tokens of sorrow 
 (so Job xlii. 6), as a child often does. In the Old Testa- 
 ment the notion of repentance came to be associated with 
 the opinion or purpose changed from, and this of course 
 involves regret ; in the New Testament, with the opinion 
 or purpose changed to, and this of course involves joy in 
 heaven and earth. The change of heart or mind, which 
 is hidden to our fellow-men, and precedes the change of 
 purpose and action, is another thing. It is worthy of 
 notice that the Hebrew word translated repent in the Old 
 Testament is never translated in the LXX. by the Greek 
 word which is translated repent in the New Testament. 
 Indeed, they are totally different things, as is obvious 
 from the fact that, in the Old Testament, 'repentance ' is 
 freely applied to God. 
 
 7. — What is in the singular number, and therefore can 
 hardly refer to the preceding address to the angel of 
 Ephesus, which would require a plural pronoun. It quite 
 
The Messages of the Living Christ 33 
 
 naturally applies to the proclamation which here follows, 
 and declares the message to be addressed to every indi- 
 vidual in all the churches. 
 
 Tree. This is not the ordinary word for tree, but is 
 generally used for converted timber, as in spears or 
 staves (Matt. xxvi. 47), or for Christ's cross (Acts v. 30) ; 
 but it is used in the LXX. for all the fruit-trees in the 
 Garden of Eden (Gen. ii. g), and it is similarly used 
 by St. John in his Revelation. 
 
 Park, or garden, ox pleasure- ground, is merely the English 
 of paradise, as the word was found in use in Persia by 
 Xenophon (b.c. 400). The Persian word was adopted 
 into the Hebrew, and afterwards into the Greek, and 
 through the Greek and Hebrew into the English, gather- 
 ing ever new and fanciful meanings, which had better be 
 avoided. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 I. — We notice that ' holding the stars in His right 
 hand ' is figurative, and does not encumber the Son of 
 man in the use of His right hand (i. 17). Indeed, the 
 figures used are symbolic hieroglyphs, such as might be 
 drawn on a blackboard by a lecturer to an illiterate 
 audience, in order to keep before their minds the 
 characteristics attributed to the subject by the lecturer. 
 No further characteristics of the subject, so figured, 
 should be drawn from the figure, beyond those which the 
 lecturer attributed to it ; nor does any part of the figure 
 indicate any reality in the subject beyond that which the 
 part symbolizes. The symbolic sword proceeding out of 
 the mouth does not prevent the figure speaking; nor does 
 the form of the dragon, nor of the beasts, prevent actions 
 being attributed to them which are inconsistent with 
 the powers of a snake, or of a beast. The holding the 
 stars in His right hand represents secure and special pro- 
 tection (i Kings xviii. 46; and compare Is. xl. 12). 
 
 3 
 
;4 The Revelation given to St. Jo Jin the Divine 
 
 As to the precedence given to Ephesus, it may be said 
 that some one of the seven churches must be first, and 
 naturally the one which was the metropolitan church of 
 Asia, and the place of St. John's prolonged residence, 
 would come first. The title the Son of man assumes is 
 one which would be specially suitable to the church which 
 was first addressed. It is rather far-fetched to assume 
 that the detection of false prophets applies specially to 
 Ephesus because it selected the teachers for the other six 
 churches. In the plainest imagery possible the title 
 claims for the Son of man the living and active headship 
 of all the seven churches. 
 
 2. — Thy works. Repentance is almost always asso- 
 ciated with works, from the beginning of St. John the 
 Baptist to the end of St. John the Evangelist — works 
 mostly of bodily action, but often of mental action when 
 these are closely connected with bodily action in word or 
 work. As we are to be finally judged by our words and 
 works (Matt. xii. yj ; xx. 12, 13), it would be obviously 
 insincere to preach, as essential to salvation, or as securing 
 God's approval, anything which falls short of influencing 
 our words and works. The word works in the New 
 Testament includes, as in English, all actions and deeds, 
 but does not at all imply that what we call work, i.e., toil 
 or hard work, is used for their execution. We have no 
 word exactly corresponding to the Greek ; but work is 
 quite intelligible enough, and is often used in English in 
 exactly the New Testament sense, as in the phrase, ' Ah, 
 I see that \s your work !' applied either to a task or to an 
 accidental action. 
 
 3. — The carrying of a load or burden is applied to the 
 Ephesian church in a way which indicates that they were 
 unable to tolerate the teachers, or the brotherhood, 
 who assumed apostolic authority. It would have been 
 impossible, even at the close of St. John's life, for any 
 persons to have asserted that they were actuall}^ apostles,. 
 
The Messages of the Living Christ 35 
 
 appointed as such by the Lord Jesus Himself. This 
 church is approved for having tested the w^ords or deeds 
 of such claimants, and for throwing them over when 
 upon trial they found them false. In the cause of Christ, 
 however, this church did carry burdens, and did not tire 
 of the trouble. It is curious that in the Greek the words 
 here translated ' tire ' and ' trouble ' are the verb and 
 noun, as if we could say, ' I know that thou puttest thyself 
 to trouble on account of my name, but thou wast not 
 troubled.' That is hardly English ; but it is a common 
 thing for a person, when he is thanked for any trouble that 
 he has taken, to reply, ' Oh, it's no trouble at all.' That is 
 just the notion conveyed here. Christ is represented as 
 saying that the trouble which He approved — ' on account 
 of His name ' — and which had been incurred by this 
 church, was no real trouble, or toil, or weariness to them, 
 and it is this fact which secures supreme approval. 
 
 The huge, antichristian structure of penance, self- 
 torture, secret or ostentatious feats of toilsome, irksome, 
 and even crippling idleness, raised by false apostles, is 
 swept away by these two verses. 
 
 4. — The fault of this Ephesian church lies in their having 
 let go their first love. Letting go is the same Greek word 
 as is translated in the Authorized and Revised Versions 
 forgiving ; and its use here is an illustration of what should 
 be borne in mind whenever we ask God's forgiveness of 
 any sin. The full forgiveness of sin involves that we are 
 set completely free from the sin itself, and from the love 
 of it. Relapses are only too possible ; but a relapse does 
 not necessarily prove hypocrisy in the previous repen- 
 tance. 
 
 We see that the church is called not merely to act, to 
 work, as if it loved God, but to repent, so as really to love 
 Him, and to act accordingly. Unless this be done, the 
 Ephesians will be no longer acknowledged by Christ as 
 His church. That more is required by Christ than mere 
 
2,6 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 hatred of what is disgraceful and ungodly, is shown by 
 the notice which immediately follows (verse 6), of their 
 hating the Nicolaitans. 
 
 6. — From what is said by St. John concerning these 
 Nicolaitans, we may infer that, while professing to be 
 Christians, and accepted by Christ, they knew so little of 
 the life in Him that they could practise iniquity, and 
 openly teach that such practice was not inconsistent with 
 their profession. A generation or two later, Irenaeus 
 (who died about A.D. 20o) says that the founder of this 
 sect was Nicolas, one of the seven deacons (Acts vi. 5) ; 
 and another generation later Tertulhan (who died about 
 A.D. 240) confirms this explanation. 
 
 We may here notice that the schools of false teaching, 
 and of a degrading standard of morals, against which the 
 Son of man inveighs in these letters to the churches, do 
 not include Pharisees or Sadducees, of whom our Lord 
 taught His disciples to beware. It is as if those schools 
 had been cast out of the religious world, on the ruin of 
 Jerusalem. They took no place as sects within the 
 Christian Church, and if their hypocrisy and formal 
 practices remained, they did so under new names. The 
 types of evil teaching presented in these letters to the 
 churches are Nicolas, an Antiochene Christian ; Balaam, 
 a Syrian prophet ; and Jezebel, a Syrian princess. The 
 two first tried to use an acknowledgment of the true God, 
 a literal observance of His commands, and a profession 
 of His teaching, as a salve to their consciences ; while in 
 will and conduct they followed sensual indulgences. The 
 last, Jezebel, defied the true God and His servants, and 
 set up gods of her own choice, avowedly antagonistic to 
 them. 
 
 7- — The last clause is one of encouragement, and it is 
 given, not by Christ, but by one of the seven Spirits (i. 4), 
 and it is in exact harmony with the title of the Encotirager 
 or Comforter, which was first given by St. John as our 
 
The Messages of the Living Christ zl 
 
 Lord's title for the Holy Spirit (John xiv. i6, 26). The 
 clause is addressed, not to the Ephesians only, but to all 
 the churches, as is that at the close of each letter. It is 
 heralded by a call to every single person, in or out of the 
 churches, to attend to it. It is presented parabolically, 
 and it is similar to the counsels given by Christ to His 
 disciples when He spoke to them in symbols (Matt. xi. 15; 
 xiii. 43) or in parables (Mark iv. 9) ; though the actual 
 expression never occurs in any of St. John's own writings, 
 except in this book. Perhaps this call occurs nowhere 
 with more awful solemnity and force than after the warn- 
 ings, and before the promises, addressed to these churches; 
 and its abrupt address to every hearer, at the close of a 
 letter sent through its angel to the whole church, assures 
 to it no less authority than it would have if it were 
 addressed by Christ in person to each one of us. Such 
 tender soHcitude the Son of man shows, when addressing 
 the churches, to bring the encouragement and promise of 
 His Spirit, the Comforter, home to the heart and under- 
 standing of each one who hears, or reads these letters. 
 
 The promise is ' to him who conquers,' or overcomes. 
 What is to be conquered is left undefined ; but it must 
 include whatever would bar us from Christ, or from 
 heaven. The phrase follows close after Christ's threatened 
 withdrawal of the lampstand, and the mention of His 
 hatred of those Nicolaitans ; and, from Tertullian's 
 description, we may venture to say the Nicolaitans taught 
 that no conduct could deprive a man of ultimate pardon, 
 and reception into heaven. They held that evil conduct 
 might be indulged in by a true Christian as a permissible 
 pleasure. St. John uses the word ' conquer ' when our 
 Saviour says that He has conquered the world, and will 
 support in peace those who have to bear oppression in the 
 world (John xvi. 33). St. Paul uses it in reference to evil 
 of all kinds {e.g., Rom. xii. 21). The promise here made 
 to the conqueror is that he shall share the fruit of the tree 
 
38 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 of life that was in Eden (Gen. iii. 22, etc.)- AH we know 
 of this tree is found in Genesis iii. 22. He who should 
 eat of its fruit would 'live for ever,' which probably 
 means would live in some sense a higher life than that in 
 which fallen man unaided could live. 
 
 The punishments that are threatened deserve careful 
 notice. There is no active punishment : nothing like 
 revenge or torture. The threat is made by implication, 
 and it is just the punishment inflicted on Adam, viz., that 
 he should not be admitted into paradise, nor permitted to 
 eat of the tree of life. It seems a parable similar to that 
 spoken by our Lord, and recorded by St. Luke (Luke xiii. 
 25), of the Master of the house getting up and shutting-to 
 the door. But it omits mention of the false plea, or of the 
 terrible wretchedness of those who were shut out. We 
 are not here invited to analyze, or to attempt to judge, the 
 excuses or the sorrow which Adam might have made and 
 felt, or of those now who sin against greater light than 
 Adam had. 
 
 Again, if we turn to the punishment with which the 
 church was threatened (verse 5), viz., the removal of the 
 lampstand, it is clear that the lampstand, though repre- 
 senting the church (i. 20), represents not the persons 
 composing the church, but the visible temper and 
 ordinances which the church unites to maintain before 
 God. The forgiveness, repentance, grace, and power of 
 the church, all of which are from God, shine in the lamp- 
 stand. The Gospel light thrown abroad by an accepted 
 church is symbolized by seven lamps, as God's Spirit 
 afterwards is (iv. 5). The lampstand is not fixed by any 
 outward confession or Scripture phrase of man, but by 
 Christ's direct action. 
 
The Messages of the Living Christ 39 
 
 Section II. Verses 8 to it. The Message to 
 Smyrna. 
 
 Exegetical, or Critical Notes. 
 
 8. — And lived. St. John seems loth to use the term 
 rose af^ain, or re-lived, or similar term, when he describes 
 any being or organization as apparently perishing and 
 then reviving. Neither our Lord nor His apostles use the 
 word dead, except as a current colloquial term, to apply 
 to men, or organizations, whose physical, material bodies 
 are dead, but whose lives, the same word in Greek as souls, 
 remain. They may speak of these lives as being ' departed,' 
 or ' asleep,' or ' unclothed.' 
 
 g. — Blasphemy : originally a word of evil omen, as at a 
 sacrifice ; hence commonly used for speccli conveying mis- 
 representation or slander. Here, after blasphemy^ understand 
 against thee. 
 
 Out of : arising out of. These self-called Jews are the 
 Adversary's synagogue ; and out of them the slanderer 
 propagates blasphemies, and by them he acts, in order to 
 imprison. 
 
 10. — Devil : the Greek word Anglicized, meaning 
 the ' slanderer.' 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 8. — The title asserts never-failing continuance, like the 
 Mosaic ' I am ' — confirmed by the recently proved victory 
 of the Son of man over death, such as we understand it ; 
 shown by His having died and risen again, and by His 
 subsequent support of His servants by unprecedented gifts 
 and signs, exercised since His death. 
 
 9. — In what follows we cannot separate the sentences 
 in thou, and jyow, so as to apply the thou to the guardian 
 angel, and the you to the members of the church. We 
 are, therefore, here grammatically forced to the conclusion 
 
40 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 before indicated ; neither the star, angel, lauipstand, nor 
 church represents men and women, though the people, 
 guided by the one and united by the other, may be re- 
 ferred to under the name of either. Compare the use of 
 the word chivalry with that of church here. Chivalry was 
 not an assembly nor a club, but as it implies laws and 
 qualifications held and acted on by men, the word is often 
 used of the men. The leader or guide of a body of men is 
 also often used as a name to denote the body of men 
 under his influence. In this letter the church in Smyrna 
 is told that the oppression inflicted on them, their poverty 
 and the misrepresentation from which they suffer, are all 
 due to persons professing to be the chosen and accepted 
 people of God. They all are known to God, and they will 
 continue for a time, imprisonment and persecution being 
 added to them. Though unable to promise them release 
 and earthly reward in this life, yet the Son of man can 
 give a security and promise which none other is so well 
 qualified to give, since He Himself had gone, voluntarily, 
 through the greatest suffering from oppression, poverty, 
 slander, and persecution, in order that He might save 
 His servants who trust in Him. In this case His servants 
 are told that they will not be saved from passing through 
 these trials and this poverty and blasphemy in this world, 
 but they are assured that they need not fear them. They 
 are taught, what our Lord also taught (John xv. 20), that 
 His own disciples would follow Him in the experience of 
 suffering on earth, and be sharers of His life and glory in 
 heaven. The slanderer, the devil and his agents, will 
 imprison, torture and slay them, in what is called an 
 oppression of ten days — perhaps meaning a time long 
 enough for the complete trial, and as short as would con- 
 stitute a sufficient sample of all kinds of trial. In 
 Gen. xxiv. 55, Milcah and Laban try to persuade Abra- 
 ham's servant to stay a ' few days, at the least ten,' as if 
 ten days were enough, and barely enough, for a complete 
 
The Messages of the Living Christ 41 
 
 exhibition of hospitality. x\lso see Dan. i. 12, where ten 
 days is proposed and accepted as sufficient to make a 
 trial of a pulse diet. The crown doubtless refers to the 
 crowning of the victor after successful battle or com- 
 petition. 
 
 II. — The subscription by one of the Spirits to all the 
 churches assures each one who conquers that there is no 
 possibility of injury to him by the second death (xxi. 8, 
 etc.). It is the Greek form of the most absolute negative. 
 Indeed, this gives us an assurance having a double bearing ; 
 for if we have the assurance that the power of Christ will 
 save us from receiving an}^ injury from the ' second 
 death,' then we may surely trust the command to fear 
 nothing from the trials and sufferings of the first death. 
 
 Section III. Verses 12 to 17. The Message to 
 Pergamus. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 14. — Things sacrificed to idols. What is meant by 
 this maybe understood from i Cor. viii. i-g, and especially 
 X. 28. The term includes animal or vegetable food, burnt 
 by proxy — i.e., a pinch or saucerful of it — to some god, and 
 thus dedicated to be eaten in his worship, or under his 
 protection. 
 
 16. — With : armed with. The word is literally in, and 
 is frequently used of means or implements, more so by 
 the Greeks than by us, though we do talk of a man being 
 tip in arms. The same word was used by some of the 
 apostles (Luke xxii. 49), ' Shall we strike /;j (translated 
 with) the sword ?' See on ii, 27. 
 
 17. — Pebble. Almost exactly translated. The Greek 
 word means a small waterworn stone, technically applied 
 to set jewels and to stones in mosaic work ; but the 
 Greeks also called ' pebbles ' stones that were used for 
 
42 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 other purposes, such as counters for reckoning, or men in 
 games like draughts, and especially for voting by dropping 
 stones into an urn similar to our ballot-box. The stones 
 would be distinguished by colour, or by some inscription. 
 In voting such stones were used to decide criminal or 
 civil trials, but not for elections. The stone bore a mark 
 which showed whether it was for or against the defendant. 
 No engraved pebble with a name or design written on it 
 is known, except seals, seal-rings, and the pebbles that 
 were parts of the high priest's insignia in the Mosaic 
 ritual. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 12. — The title asserts that from the owner's mouth, i.e., 
 displayed and exercised through all His creation, works, 
 and words, comes a keen, irresistible discrimination of 
 right from wrong, truth from falsehood, sham from real, 
 justice from injustice. 
 
 13. — The word dwellest is that which is always used for 
 those who inhabit the earth, or the inhabitants of the earth. 
 This church inhabits a country which Satan also inhabits, 
 and in which he has set up his throne. Smyrna was tried 
 by false professors, who assumed religious authority. 
 Here we have a direct opposition by the prince of dark- 
 ness himself. But the angel of Pergamus held Christ's 
 name, and this includes holding to His character. His 
 claims. His promises, and His patience. Like the three 
 Babylonian exiles, the church had refused to bow to the 
 idol, even though that idol were Satan himself on his 
 throne, and they persisted in the refusal even though one 
 of their number was martyred at their side. 
 
 14. — But there were in the church some who sought to 
 draw away the church from this faithful constancy, even 
 so far as to get them to bow to the image, or at least to 
 join in the festivals and the abandonment connected with 
 idolatrous feast times. The ordinary routine of sacrifice, 
 
The Messages of the Living Christ 43 
 
 as at present in use, is as follows. Those who join in the 
 picnic, or community of revel, meet together, bringing 
 their contributions of cattle, sheep, and other things 
 needed for the festival. A portion of these, such as the 
 blood and offal of the slain, or a pinch or dash of each 
 kind of food, just as it is, cooked or raw, is offered up, 
 generally by fire — partly by the priests or leaders, and 
 partly by each individual — before the idol which repre- 
 sents the demon whose favour and aid they thus seek or 
 acknowledge. In heathen nations the majority of these 
 festivals are chaste and social, but apparently it was only 
 the riotous sort of revelry which was alluring, and it was 
 the riotous sort which gave rise to the common hatred of 
 the Christians, because they refused to join in them 
 (i Pet. iv. 3, 4). But what roused the indignation of the 
 Roman magistrate, when he sought in a quiet way to 
 overcome the difficulty created b}' the Christians, was 
 their persistent refusal to make any offering of any kind to 
 an idol, though he endeavoured to make the matter as 
 unobjectionable as it could possibly be. A mere pinch of 
 frankincense thrown on the idol's altar was accepted as 
 enough to acquit the accused, and to release him from a 
 sentence of torture and death. No doubt, in whatever 
 form the temptation may come to make God's worship 
 subordinate to the worship of other things, there may be 
 found Balaams who will support and aggravate the tempta- 
 tion. 
 
 16. — The call to 'repent' is made in order to encourage 
 the faith of those who are tempted, or have fallen. The 
 punishment threatened on those who sin like Balaam or 
 the Nicolaitans may be that described in xix. 11, 15. It 
 is the business of the angel, to whom the call to repent is 
 addressed, and of those who are guided by him, to purify 
 the church from teaching such as Balaam's, and from 
 members who have been ensnared by such teaching ; but 
 it is clear that this will never be effectively and completely 
 
44 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 done until the Son of man comes Himself and makes war 
 with these sinners. This punishment is described as 
 coming quickly, and as even now on the road. All is 
 preparing for the separation of the bad from the good — for 
 a war with, and a victory over, the bad — not by any 
 catastrophe, but by regular and orderly approach, and by 
 the perfect effect of the Word of God — of His laws, by 
 which the nature of things is established and ruled ; and 
 of His inspired Word, revealed to His servants during this 
 age. It is not the mercy of the Son of man which is here 
 said to be coming, but His justice; and that, though its 
 nature is fixed, will be developed and unfolded in its 
 manifestation. Its action, and its -apprehension by those 
 in heaven and earth, will grow till it is ' quickly ' revealed 
 in its full glory. 
 
 17. — Thus quickly will arrive the condemnation of those 
 who are conquered by these wiles. But the conqueror 
 has not tc wait even so long for reward. To him who re- 
 mains true under these insidious and blasting temptations, 
 a secret, but apparently immediate, reward is promised. 
 Others may fail to see it. The bread sustaining him will 
 be the special gift of God ; like the manna in the wilder- 
 ness, always just enough, and never too much, to be freely 
 and unsparingly used. This divine sustenance is to be 
 hidden — known only to himself, and fed upon without 
 companionship (compare the parable of the virgins, 
 Matt. XXV. 9). So our Lord fed on the bread He had to 
 eat, of which His disciples had no knowledge (John iv. 
 32). While this utterly falsifies the assumed power of 
 some religious sects to discern who have, and who have 
 not, sustenance from this manna, we may remember how 
 our Lord had founded the sacrament of His supper, to 
 recall to our minds not only the promise of such manna, 
 but also the companionship we have and feel, through our 
 knowledge that all those around us who are conquering 
 are doing so on the same food. The glistening ballot- 
 
The Messages of the Living Christ 45 
 
 pebble, or voting stone, or stone of admission to heaven, 
 or whatever it be, has on it a new name, revealed to the 
 knowledge and experience of the owner only. This 
 possibly implies that conviction of the truth of Christ's 
 teaching (represented by a Name), which is promised to 
 each one who wishes to do God's will (John vii. 17). 
 This, as it can only be learnt direct from God, no one 
 can explain to another, or gain from the teachings of 
 another. 
 
 Section IV. Verses 18 to 29. The Message 
 TO Thyateira. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 18. — Thyateiri, and in verse 24 : literally, the Thya- 
 teirians. This doubtless stands for the Thyateira of i. 11. 
 
 ig. — Ministration : just the kind of work the seven 
 deacons, literally ministers, were appointed to do (Acts 
 
 vi. 5)- 
 
 Thy works : of these the four most noteworthy are 
 given. The strong characteristic of the whole Revelation 
 may be seen here. St. John's meaning of works we should 
 rather call the tone, mind, temper, or spirit which pro- 
 duces certain works. He calls these things 'works.' So, 
 what he means by beast, kingdom, harlot, etc., is the tone, 
 mind, temper, or spirit which makes such organizations ; 
 not the men who worship them, or the physical acts 
 which such men do under their influence. 
 
 20. — Didst let go : perhaps in the sense in which 
 St. John uses the word in xi. 48 (see note on ii. 4). There 
 is the same construction in Matt. viii. 15 and 22. 
 
 20. — Woman. The evidence of one of the three oldest 
 MSS. is in favour of wife, instead of woman. 
 
 23. — Learn to know, or perceive. The slang word 
 twig is in our dictionaries in this sense ; and no other 
 English word is quite equivalent to the Greek. The 
 
46 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 phrase learn to know, cautiously used, seems quite effec- 
 tive. 
 
 24. — But : on the other hand. 
 
 27. — Thou wilt tend them — not the flock, but the 
 nations — in (or with, see ii. 16, note) a staff of iron. Thou 
 wilt tend them (the nations and uttermost parts of the 
 earth) with a staff of iron : thou wilt crush them as potters' 
 vessels, is a hteral translation of Psalm ii. g in the 
 LXX., the Hebrew of which appears to be thou breakest 
 them, etc., perhaps meaning thou rulest them. Hence the 
 tending, breaking, or ruling has for its object the governed, 
 and not enemies, or others, outside the government's or 
 the shepherd's charge, but within it. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 18. — The title claims the rank of So)i of God as 
 accepted by Christ at His trial before the Sanhedrim 
 (Matt. xxvi. 63), and as given Him by a voice from 
 heaven at His baptism (Matt. iii. ly), and at His trans- 
 figuration (Matt. xvii. 5). The symbol of His power of 
 sight is likened to the brightest element, and of His 
 power of movement to the hardest and toughest metal 
 (gun-metal, as we call it) then recognised. 
 
 ig, — The special works of this angel seem all to be 
 simple virtues with a general application : the love will 
 include love to God, to His creation, and to His works ; 
 and love to man, to his calling, and to his honest work — 
 righteous works (i John. iii. 7) in contrast to Cain's 
 temper, as described by St. John a few verses on (i John, 
 iii. 12). The faith would be proved by sincere and respon- 
 sible behaviour towards God, His creation, and His 
 providence ; and towards man, whether superior or depen- 
 dent, whether brought into formal, and perhaps distant 
 acquaintance, or born into the closest and most familiar 
 kinship. So the ministration includes all the duties of 
 our clerical ministers, and all good offices to those around 
 
The Messages of the Living Christ 47 
 
 us, above us, or below us, to whom we have opportunity 
 to minister, and who even crave our ministration ; but it 
 especially includes the doing with our might whatever we 
 do, as God who has called us to do it, and has promised 
 us His grace in the doing of it, would have it done. The 
 endurance is in Greek, literally, remaining under, the 
 English of which, keeping it up, illustrates the different 
 genius of the two languages. The word is by no means 
 limited to passive virtue, but includes all manner of 
 endurance in, and holding on under, the exercise of active 
 virtue, within us or without us, at home or outside. Not 
 only did the temper of the church set up and act upon 
 these virtues, but it is described as having increased in 
 such spiritual activity. 
 
 Yet in this church the temptations and persecutions 
 previously mentioned, whether of those professing to be 
 in the covenant, or of those professedly hostile, is replaced 
 by a trial of another kind. The time of persecution in 
 the third church, Pergamus, naturally favoured the teach- 
 ing of Balaam, and the success of any plausible persuasion 
 to consider a formal compliance with the magisterial tests 
 to be no harm. Persecution would also favour the temp- 
 tation to comply with the social expectations (i Pet. iv. 4) 
 of those professedly hostile to Jesus. This (fourth) church 
 is warned against allurements, by God's enemies, to open 
 rebellion against Him — warned against the temptation 
 to profess a fanciful belief, along with unrestrained 
 conduct. 
 
 It scarcely seems likely that Jezebel represents a single 
 person on earth : if so, it would be the only case in the 
 book in which a city or person is represented by a sym- 
 bolic name. The description of her punishment is incon- 
 sistent with that of an individual, and agrees with the 
 symbolic description elsewhere given in this book, of the 
 punishment of a school of teaching and its adherents. The 
 time given Jezebel to repent, when it is foreseen that she 
 
48 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 will not, involves no more inconsistency than the time 
 given the whole world to repent, when it is foreseen that it 
 will not have done so before its end comes. The time to 
 repent will be taken advantage of by thousands of 
 Jezebel's votaries, or subjects, as of the world's inhabi- 
 tants. The teaching of Jezebel existed before that queen 
 lived ; and something very like it led astray Aaron and 
 the Israelites during Moses' absence on Mount Sinai 
 (Ex. xxxii.). It is here foretold that it will become a 
 special temptation to the church again, in some special 
 and organized form, as it once was in the time of that 
 queen. The particular form of the temptation offered by 
 Jezebel herself has, under the punishment of God, been 
 eradicated from the organized Mosaic church ; and it 
 seems that the new form of the teaching, which Jezebel 
 here represents, will be eradicated from the professing 
 church again, by as severe a punishment of those led 
 astray by her as was before effective when inflicted upon 
 the Israelites, through the instrumentality of the Assyrian 
 kings. 
 
 23. — Those who reject the temptations of Jezebel will 
 then have acquired a new knowledge of the heart-search- 
 ing God ; much as St. Peter (2 Pet. i. 5 to 8) describes 
 all our apprenticeship in virtue, endurance, and other 
 works of the Spirit, as culminating in the knowledge of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ. On those who escaped the 
 temptations, and never learnt to know the depths of 
 Satan, Christ places no new weight, either on account of 
 Jezebel's or of any other temptation. His yoke is easy : 
 it is that they should be the children of the Almighty, and 
 live under the privileges of his fatherly adoption, given us 
 by the Spirit of Him who raised up Christ from the dead 
 (Rom. viii. 11). The essential conditions of this He can- 
 not lessen, and will not increase. St. John seems to have 
 on his mind, and almost on his pen, the first decision of 
 the apostles and elders of the Jewish Christian Church in 
 
The Messages of the Living Christ 49 
 
 Jerusalem (Acts xv. 20) ; and the subsequent decree of the 
 church (verse 29), accepting the churches of the Gentiles 
 to their communion, and laying a burden on them, as 
 a condition of communion, which in strictness of letter 
 exceeded that of our Saviour, that of Moses, or even their 
 own customary conditions of communion, so far as we 
 know them. A human council is bound to take care to 
 be on the right side ; to be too restrictive rather than too 
 loose. The key to Christ's freedom (Gal. v. i) is the 
 being actuated by His Spirit (2 Cor. iii. 17) ; and they 
 who are so actuated can hardly be said to bear a burden 
 (Matt. xi. 30) at all that is laid upon them by Christ, since 
 their burden arises mainly from their own imperfection. 
 It seems very unlikely that the burden here represents any 
 particular burden, or decree of the church in Jerusalem, 
 or elsewhere ; it is not St. John's usual style to mix up 
 symbols with realities. 
 
 26. — The subscription assures to every conqueror who 
 keeps Christ's works to the end authority over the nations 
 — probably the idea is the same as that of the court 
 outside the temple (xi. 2). All ranks of Christendom are 
 referred to, all persons who were not saints — rulers, traders, 
 and workers ; literate and illiterate ; originally natives of 
 the soil within the old Roman empire, or recently brought 
 into the system and polity of civilized nations. 
 
 It seems indeed a grand extension of spiritual life that 
 is here seriously contemplated ; an extension from the 
 keeping of the ten, and other, literal commandments of 
 the Old Covenant, to the power of observing, studying, 
 and learning to know, and to act, the works of the Creator 
 and maintainer of the seen and unseen universe. That 
 the words mean this, there is no room to doubt. Miser- 
 ably poor as, in our present condition, seem to be our 
 attempts to keep the commands of the Son of God, we 
 are bound to keep them, as He kept those of His Father 
 (John ix. 4 ; x. 25 ; xiv. 12, etc.) ; and we shall find a long 
 
 4 
 
50 The Revelation given to SL Joi 
 
 ~ 2n the Divine 
 
 era foretold in this book, during which f- 
 
 crowned King of kings (xix. 12), anr/Christ will be the 
 
 saints who have conquered and died^ during which the 
 
 (xx. 4). As Christ's power, even in will reign with Him 
 
 earth, extended over spirit and maf-His humiliation on 
 
 the like), so must the power of those ^er (Matt. ix. 6, and 
 
 For us now, even were it barely pos'who reign with Him. 
 
 on to the first rung of the ladder, ye^ible for us to climb 
 
 knowledge and power in spiritual f;t a faithful pursuit of 
 
 a heavenly pursuit ; and to neglecl--H-ind material things is 
 
 applies, at least as bad as that of : is conduct, so far as it 
 
 hh lord's talent (Matt. xxv. 25). ,^^the servant who buried 
 
 ignorance, to obstruct, or confuse' For one of us, in our 
 
 others whom our Saviour is encoi^, or discourage wilfully 
 
 rebellion of the citizens (Luke xixy^iraging is as bad as the 
 
 have their Lord reign over them.g. 14, 27) who would not 
 
 the Devil, the slanderer of Chr^,.^. The father of such is 
 
 It is presumptuous to despise;ist and of His servants. 
 
 works in which God has dehght^t as beneath our attention, 
 
 for us to consider His creation, Led for countless ages ; or 
 
 ducting what He has created, as and His method of con- 
 
 servile drudgery, too low 
 
 To acquire and practice 
 
 :itate upon the laws of 
 
 omena of nature, and to 
 
 jj.-ks and statutes of His, 
 
 for our time and intelligence. 
 
 bodily skill, to study and med; 
 
 matter, and the wonderful phen 
 
 seek to know God by these wo; 
 
 occupied David and his fellow-jl 
 
 the carpenter, and St. John ; t'psalmists, Daniel, Christ 
 
 among the Pharisees who looked! t^ut there were persons 
 
 studies. \^j contemptuously on such 
 
 It is here promised that the autf j^ 
 who conquer will be effective— no rt'ority given to each of us 
 no mere show; no mere thinkir^fnere bundle of phrases; 
 The simile used— that He will teupiJ? m^ch of one's self, 
 inhabitants of Christendom), as a ].^M nations (that is, the 
 IS practical ; and the practical shepherd does a flock- 
 declared by the simplest possiblejgi force of this simile is 
 
 ^wis description of it : He 
 
The Messages of the Living Christ 5 1 
 
 will so tend them with an iron staff, like as earthenware 
 pots are shivered. The simile includes the power to keep 
 those in his charge from the presence of evil and danger, 
 and to lead them where they will have all the food and 
 comforts the}^ need ; that the power will be irresistible 
 against evil, to break it up and destroy evil-doers as easily 
 and completely as a potter, on drawing his kiln, smashes 
 up all the evil pots which come misshapen from the fire ; 
 and, lastly, the simile includes evidence that there will be 
 evil pots to be broken up ; and that he who conquers will 
 break them up. All this is thoroughly practical. It 
 shows that the nations will be so ruled while still in a 
 state of probation, liable to evil, as at present. All this, 
 too, agrees with the description, later on, of Christ's reign 
 for a thousand years. 
 
 The morning star, a term only used once elsewhere 
 (xxii. 16) in the New Testament, seems to be a poetical, 
 rather than a symbolical, figure. The morning star is the 
 herald of the immediate approach of the sun. The 
 promise does, at least, express that the rule of the 
 conqueror will be a sign of, and will immediately precede, 
 the complete glorification of the saints. We may incident- 
 ally notice that John Baptist is never called the morning 
 star. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 ORIGINAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION. 
 
 And to the angel of the Church in Sardeis write : — 
 
 He who has the seven spirits of God and the seven 
 stars says as follows: — 
 
 I know thy works ; that thou hast a name that 
 thou livest, and art dead. Become awake, and set 
 firm the things which are left which were about to 
 die : for I have not found thy works fulfilled in front 
 of my God. Remember then how thou didst receive, 
 and didst hear ; and keep, and repent. If ever, then, 
 thou shouldest not be awake, I shall come, as if a 
 thief; and thou wilt by no means learn to know what 
 kind of hour I shall come upon thee. But thou hast 
 a few names in Sardeis which did not stain their 
 garments ; and they will walk about with me in 
 bright (garments), because they are worthy. 
 
 He who conquers — he will so clothe himself in 
 bright garments ; and I shall by no means wipe off 
 his name out of the Book of Life, and shall confess 
 his name in front of my Father, and in front of His 
 angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the 
 Spirit says to the churches. 
 
 And to the angel of the Church in Philadelphia write: 
 The true, the Saint, he who has David's key, he 
 who opens and no one will shut, and shuts and no^ 
 one will open, says as follows : — 
 
Original English Translation 
 
 8 I know thy works. See ! I have given in front of thee 
 an opened door, which no one is able to shut; because 
 thou hast a Httle power, and didst keep my word, and 
 
 9 didst not deny my name. See ! I am giving (some) out 
 of the synagogue of Satan who say themselves to be 
 Jews — and they are not, but he — see ! I shall make 
 them that they will come and salaam in front of thy feet, 
 
 10 and should learn to know that I loved thee. Because 
 thou didst keep the word of my endurance, I also 
 shall keep thee out of the hour of the trial about to 
 come on the whole world, to try those who dwell on 
 
 11 the earth. I am coming quickly; hold what thou 
 hast, that no one should take thy crown. 
 
 12 He who conquers : I shall make him a pillar in the 
 temple of my God ; and he will by no means come 
 out outside any more ; and I shall write upon him 
 the name of my God, and the name of the city of my 
 God, the new Jerusalem which is descending out of 
 heaven from my God, and my name, the new (one). 
 
 13 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says 
 to the churches. 
 
 14 And to the angel of the Church in Laodicea write: 
 The Amen, the witness, the faithful and true, the 
 
 beginning of the creation of God, says as follows : — 
 
 15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. 
 
 16 I would that thou wert cold or hot, so, because thou 
 art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about 
 
 17 to vomit thee out of my mouth. Because thou 
 sayest ' I am rich, and have become rich, and have 
 need in nothing,' and dost not know that thou art the 
 wretched, and pitiable, and poor, and blind, and naked. 
 
 18 I counsel thee to buy from me fired gold-ware out of 
 the fire, that thou shouldst grow rich ; and bright 
 garments, that thou shouldst be clothed, and the 
 disgrace of thy nakedness should not be made visible; 
 and collyrium to anoint thine eyes, that thou shouldst 
 
54 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 19 see. I — how many so ever I love — I convince and 
 
 20 train ; be zealous then, and repent. See ! I stand 
 upon the door and knock : if ever any one should 
 hear my voice and open the door, I shall enter to 
 him, and shall sup with him, and he with me. 
 
 21 He who conquers : I shall give to 'him to sit with 
 me in my throne ; as I also conquered, and sat with 
 
 22 my Father in his throne. He who has an ear, let 
 him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. 
 
 THE MESSAGES OF THE LIVING CHRIST. 
 
 Section I. Verses i to 6. The Message to 
 Sardeis. 
 
 Exegetical and Critical Notes. 
 
 2. — What may mean what things generally ; but, as 
 works only have been mentioned, and their character 
 dwelt upon (ii. 2, ig, notes), it seems most reasonable to 
 take what here to mean what works. St. James 
 endeavours to explain something of this kind. He says 
 that faith under trial works endurance (Jas. i. 3), and 
 this St. John here (ii. 19) calls a work, and asks his readers 
 to let endurance have its perfect work. And St. James 
 further (Jas. ii. 18) explains how faith without works, 
 meaning outward action, is dead (though there is nearly 
 equal evidence for barren, the idea aimed at in either 
 reading being much the same). St. John applies the 
 word work to the faith and outward action both combined, 
 and calls the work dead, if lacking exercise, or active 
 expression. 
 
 Were : i.e., the things which at the time of your 
 becoming awake, you find were about to die. 
 
 In front of. The Greek preposition in the classics 
 means face to face with, in presence of, persons only. In 
 this book it is applied to material objects, such as to a 
 
The Messages of the Living Christ 55 
 
 throne (iv. 5). When the omnipresent God is its object, it 
 has an official sense (viii. 2), for which the two latter 
 renderings seem too definite and materialistic. 
 
 3. — Keep : apparently, keep what thou didst receive 
 and hear. 
 
 What kind of piour: or, as we should say, the sort of 
 outlook ; the indications which show that I am coming ; 
 just as farmers see that the season (which the Greeks called 
 hour) for any particular agricultural operation is arriving. 
 
 4. — Garments : those outer garments by which the 
 nature of a man's employment, or his social or official 
 positions, are ordinarily seen. 
 
 5. — By no means. We have no English for this frequent 
 and forcible expression ; our colloquial and emphatic 
 never, used without intentional reference to time, is the 
 nearest. As a professor, unable to identify a doubtful 
 shell, might perhaps be able to say : ' It's never a 
 nautilus.' 
 
 Book. St. John uses three words for books, which are 
 here translated book, scroll, and little scroll; perhaps roll, 
 scroll, ^.nd. paper would suit. Even in our times the names 
 of book, volume, tract, pamphlet, etc., change from 
 generation to generation. St. John only uses the word 
 translated hook of the ' Book of Life ' ; and as that term is 
 as old as Exodus xxxii. 32, it may be pictured as a 
 papyrus book, all the leaves of which might be stiff ; and, 
 like the leaves of a Hindoo book that has been written on 
 stiff palm-leaf, might turn horizontally round a peg or 
 string, standing threaded through a round hole punched 
 in the top left-hand corner of each leaf. 
 
 Confess : i.e., admit, or pass. 
 
 7. — The true. Throughout the Book of Revelation 
 the Greek word used by St. John means agreeable to truth, 
 and includes the two ideas, real and true. 
 
 8. — Saint, or holy. The meaning of the term to Jews 
 may perhaps best be gathered from our Authorized 
 
56 TJie Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 Version, or Revised Version, where saint and Ixoly are 
 almost always used to translate the same Greek word. 
 It seems originally meant for devoted to the gods ; and then, 
 of persons who lived pious, pure lives, in reference to the 
 will and sanctity of the gods. 
 
 9. — Some : omitted in a similar manner 2 John 4. 
 
 Synagogue of Satan. We must not suppose that 
 Satan existed only in the dragon, or beasts. Here he is 
 described as setting the tone, temper, etc., which collects, 
 and constitutes, a synagogue. 
 
 W^HO : i.e., the synagogue ; but including the idea of the 
 men out of it, that is, in part composing it. 
 
 Salaam : to prostrate and cower like a dog before a 
 potentate. As there is no word in our Gothic language 
 for this kind of homage, an Anglo-Indian term is adopted. 
 The ceremony is still observed in outlying Eastern states. 
 But salaam is far more frequently used, metaphoricall}', 
 for any kind of respectful salutation or homage, than for 
 the literal grovelling ceremony. 
 
 ID. — Keep the word of My endurance : see also 
 verse 8, and John viii. 51, 52, 55 ; i John ii. 5, etc. It 
 seems to mean always keeping Christ's word — His 
 commands and teaching — being holy to Him. It may 
 here mean His word as enjoining, and giving motive for, 
 such patience, or endurance, as He Himself showed. 
 
 Hour. Here again the word is used in its usual Greek 
 sense, and we should carefully dissociate it from the mere 
 indications of the clock. 
 
 The whole world : literally, the whole inhabited {earth) ; 
 the word earth is not expressed. The phrase is never used 
 afterwards for the symbolic earth, of the Roman empire, 
 or of Christendom, and it need never be confused with it. 
 
 Those who dwell on the earth is always used for 
 those outside the professing churches. So St. Paul uses 
 it ( Acts xvii. 26). It may be so used in harmony with 
 an expression in the LXX. (Lam. iv, 31): 'Rejoice and 
 
The Messages of the Living Christ 57 
 
 be glad, daughter of Edom, who dwellest upon earth : the 
 cup of the Lord will come through upon thee,' etc. 
 
 II. — Take : the same word is used by our Lord 
 (Matt. V. 40) : ' If any man wishes to go to law with thee, 
 and to take, or receive, thy coat {chiton)' etc. ; and has no 
 idea of violence. It simply pictures that the crown, which 
 might have been handed to you had you held what you 
 had, may be handed by the Judge to another. 
 
 12. — Temple : by this word the covered shrine — the 
 holy and most holy places, as united by Christ's death — 
 is always meant. 
 
 From : as the origin ; used of descent, not from imme- 
 diate parents, or by visible, present production, so much 
 as from an early origin. Somewhat as one would say, 
 that the London Thames comes from Seven Springs, 
 in Gloucestershire ; or that some Leicestershire farmer 
 descends from a Plantagenet King. On the other hand, 
 the previous preposition out of refers to the immediate 
 and visible origin. 
 
 17. — Need in nothing, or nothing {in the way of) need. 
 It is not need of nothing. 
 
 17. — Thou : the pronoun is emphatic. 
 
 Naked : usually stripped of armour, or of ' garment ' ; 
 undressed ; literally hare. 
 
 19. — Love here is not the usual word, but a more 
 affectionate one : am fond of. A man who loves wisdom 
 may love philosophers ; but a man/o^/rf o/it is a philosopher. 
 Another word is translated love in John iii. 16. 
 
 Convince. This Greek word seems originally to mean 
 put to shame, refute, convince ; and so, speaking of a person, 
 to convict. 
 
 Train, or instruct, as a teacher does a boy. 
 
 20. — Upon : meaning simply at, but implying that it is 
 not casual proximity, but necessary association for some 
 object. The same preposition is similarly used for tipon 
 the throne (iv. 2) ; upon the corners of the earth (vii. i), etc. 
 
58 The Revelation given to St. Joint the Divine 
 
 Sup : the Greek word is applicable to the chief meal of 
 the day, whether at noon or evening. As a fact, the Jews 
 generally took their chief meal after the day's work was 
 done, between the evenings, or thereabouts. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 I. — The first four churches are addressed on the subject 
 of danger coming through the external relations of each 
 member : (i) cessation of love to God ; (2) calumny and 
 imprisonment by people who profess to be God's peculiar 
 people; (3) persecution and martyrdom for confessing 
 their behef; (4) temptation to the luxury and self- 
 indulgence which are out of harmony with Christ's way. 
 But the fifth church is exposed to danger from the sleep 
 and death of its own members. They are apt to be 
 content with God's mercies ; with whatsoever they can 
 enjoy in this life, be it material, or intellectual, or spiritual; 
 and with whatsoever is promised for the future life. For 
 what besides need they care ? They will sleep, and 
 ultimately die, so. Death has less repulsiveness to them 
 than activity. Selfishness is their only motive-power — 
 the only thing that is alive in them, which may be almost 
 said of a corpse. 
 
 The title expresses the power which the presence of the 
 Son of man brings to a church through the perfect opera- 
 tion of His Spirit; and it refers also to the guardian 
 messengers of guidance and instruction, whom the Son of 
 man holds in His hand. Of the operations of the Spirit 
 upon matter, life, and spirit, we may learn from almost 
 every book of the Bible ; of the operations of a guardian 
 angel, we have a type in him who led the Israelites through 
 the wilderness into Canaan (Exod. xxiii. 20), as recorded 
 in the Old Testament. 
 
 There are still the embers of spiritual life, such as a 
 child could blow into flame ; there are still remnants of 
 bodily and spiritual powers which are capable of being 
 
The Messages of the Living Christ 59 
 
 set firm and secured ; but there needs the will to be 
 directed to them, and the understanding to be opened to 
 discern their true value. The way of escape to life is 
 shown ; the whole power of God is offered to effect the 
 rescue ; the argument most likely to reach such people is 
 touchingly enforced by a solemn assertion of their danger, 
 and an appeal to their sense of self-preservation ; if this 
 fail, their end will come unexpectedly. 
 
 4. — In this inactive church, too, are some who seek to 
 be innocent, and who perhaps fulfil the requirements of 
 Jehovah (Micah vi. 8), by doing justly, loving mercy, and 
 walking humbly in Christ's way. However such may 
 have come short of the spiritual life and gifts that were 
 open to them, they, like him who earned five pounds 
 (Luke xix. iK), will be made rulers in Christ's kingdom, 
 and clothed in bright garments, of perfect whiteness, 
 because they are worth}'. To stop here to explain how 
 far they are worthy in comparison to God, and whether 
 God can or cannot create a being with so much of His own 
 power in him as to be capable of independent action, and 
 therefore of worth, would be as unreasonable as to stop 
 an astronomer in his revelation of the mysteries and 
 glories of the heavenly bodies, until he should have first 
 explained whether infinite space be spherical or cubical. 
 
 5. — He who conquers ; who has kept the life in the 
 things that were left barely alive. There is here a dis- 
 connection, as if the speaker, having his mind filled with 
 some such feeling as that of the father of the returned 
 prodigal (Luke xv. 22), paused, in order to place fully on 
 record the sure reward which even the least gifted, the 
 merest spiritual infant, of these who were worthy, would 
 receive. However that may be, the reward will be the 
 full entry of his name in the Book of Life, and his full 
 recognition by the Son of man before the Father and His 
 angels at the final judgment. 
 
6o The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 Section II. Verses 7 to 13. The Message to 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 7. — The title of the sixth letter does not, like that of 
 the second, refer to the past ; but it expands the mere 
 statement of the writer's being alive into a vivid sketch of 
 his present character and powers. True, in Greek, is a 
 negative quality, originally meaning unconcealed ; so that 
 it requires several of our positive words to include its full 
 meaning, unless we can be satisfied with agreeable to truth. 
 It means real, genuine, honest, and open, and also truthful, 
 unerring. Saint, or holy, which represent the same Greek 
 word, seem to mean acting under religious awe and con- 
 sistency, except that awe originally means terror — and there 
 is none of that in Saint. He has the key (Isa. xxii. 22) of 
 the supreme monarch ; and, as his representative, can 
 open or shut every door in the sacred city or palaces. 
 As if he would say, that he will admit whomsoever he 
 may think fit to be admitted, notwithstanding the man's 
 precedents ; and will exclude whomsoever he thinks unfit 
 to be admitted, notwithstanding the man's professions. 
 This is not the key of heaven, nor hell ; but the key of 
 admission to the church of Christ's saints, and to their 
 privileges. 
 
 8. — This sixth letter describes the church to which it is 
 addressed as being granted an open door, which seems 
 clearly to mean an entrance into the church of the saints. 
 It implies many and vigorous attempts to shut it, while 
 the church had but small power — like a child, or like a 
 man recently recovered from disease — either to hold the 
 door open, or to walk through it. The word power, in the 
 Greek means bodily strength; and in the metaphor here 
 used the above seem to be the only objects requiring 
 the exercise of any sort of power. It is implied that the 
 
The Messages of the Living Christ 6i 
 
 church exercised all the power it had ; and that it kept, 
 and did its best to consider and follow, Christ's word ; 
 and that it did not shrink from Christ, or deny Christ's 
 name — His true existence and relations (as Exod. iii. 13-15) ; 
 did not shrink from conduct that was in accordance 
 with His spirit and instructions (i Tim. vi. i) ; nor from 
 full and undisguised confidence in His presence and help 
 (as I Sam. xvii. 45) ; nor from giving public instruction in 
 His glad tidings of salvation to those out of, as well as in, 
 the church, who do not refuse to hear (Matt. x. 14, 15). 
 
 It is a subject of great interest to us of the Anglo-Saxon 
 races ; for surely the door, through which our children 
 and our neighbours must be brought into Christ's church, 
 was never more open since St. John's time than it is 
 to-day. We have amongst us Christ's church divided, 
 indeed, into an infinity of sects, schools of thought or 
 phrase, and styles of manner and dress ; but all of them 
 bound to study their Bibles, if only to justify the points of 
 difference which exist amongst them, and therefore all of 
 them more fully in the way of knowing the essential 
 points on which all agree, than any village visited by two 
 disciples (Matt. x. 14, 15). However that may be, the 
 letter to this church must make every real Christian in 
 Great Britain, North America, or Australasia, reflect as to 
 whether the professing church of Christ in their country 
 is keeping His word towards all the growing generation, 
 young and old, lambs and sheep (John xxi. 15 - 17), 
 who are, if any are, to be the future church of Christ. If 
 they be not, the neglect may well cause grave anxiety ; 
 and even if, under adverse circumstances, the efforts made 
 anywhere by the elders in the church to keep the door 
 open to the younger are feeble and ineffective, neverthe- 
 less Christ's promise will hold: no one will be able to shut 
 the door, for it is Hh door. 
 
 9- — This church of Philadelphia had confessed Christ's 
 name under strong temptations to the denial of it. 
 
62 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 Further, Christ says that He is granting to certain of 
 those false Christians who profess to be under the 
 covenant, but are not — or, rather, He says that He will 
 cause them to come and worship in front of the feet of 
 this church ; an expression that is nowhere else used, 
 though elsewhere (xv. 4) the nations are described as all 
 worshipping in front of Almighty God — evidently meaning 
 that God is the object of their worship. Isaiah (Ix. 14) 
 seems to describe a similar worshipping, but merely uses 
 the language of ordinary salaaming of the most reverential 
 kind. Such we may understand to be meant here. Or it 
 would be a natural explanation of the metaphor to say, 
 that the false Christians are turned to God, and to His 
 worship, by seeing the walk of this church, as it enters the 
 city of David, the true Church. 
 
 10. — Then follows a new and remarkable promise, viz., 
 that as they had kept — preserved and followed — the word, 
 or tidings, of Christ's endurance. He also would keep the 
 church out of persecution. It is the angel of the church 
 to whom this is addressed, in the singular number, sym- 
 bolizing not the individual members of the church, but 
 the church as an organization. As we might sa}^ that 
 the Wesle}an Church holds such and such views or 
 practices ; and that the Baptist Church agrees or dis- 
 agrees with them. The words are, that He will keep — 
 will take care of, have an eye upon — the angel of the 
 church in Philadelphia, out of the hour of, or time 
 appointed for, the trial coming on the whole world. The 
 word trial is that usually translated temptation in the 
 Lord's prayer, and in the account of our Lord's temptations 
 by the Devil (Matt. iv. i, etc.), and, later on, in St. Peter 
 (i Pet. i. 6). It seems, therefore, that while Christ and 
 His disciples were (Luke xxii. 28) subjected to trials, this 
 church is to be spared such experiences. 
 
 This church will arrive at the time for the whole world 
 — not the Roman world, or Christendom, whose symbol is 
 
The Messages of the Living Christ 6'^ 
 
 the earth, but the whole world in our sense — to be under 
 trial; and will be themselves kept out of it— a. realization 
 of that for which we pray to God, ' Lead us not into 
 temptation.' Christ teaches us to pray not to be led into 
 trial ; the only fulfilment of which prayer would be to keep 
 us outside it, or out of it ; not, as often assumed, to let us 
 get in, and then lead us out. That some such safe and 
 glorious position is in prospect, in which Christ will keep 
 the Church in a spiritual safety exceeding all experience 
 hitherto, is hinted in various places in the Old and New 
 Testaments ; and very clearly in St. Paul's reflections on 
 the pruned olive-tree (Rom. xi. 21). 
 
 II. — This magnificent and honourable condition of the 
 church makes a caution necessary. Prosperity is morally 
 dangerous ; what the chief priests and Pharisees prided 
 themselves upon being, as they trod the now ruined 
 porches of Jerusalem, was altogether different from what 
 they really were (Matt. xxi. 23, 31). Unless a church 
 holds the word of Christ's endurance, not in the letter 
 only, nor as overlaid by human additions, like the 
 Pharisees, it may, when its Lord arrives in royal majesty, 
 lose its crown, even as they had done. More than the 
 material crown which those Jews looked for is intended. 
 The crown here spoken of is used merely as a symbol for 
 a state happier, and more secure, than any material 
 kingdom ; its loss represents a loss just touched upon by 
 our Lord in His lamentation over Jerusalem (Matt, xxiii. 
 
 37)- 
 
 12. — As the letter seems to include particular blessing, 
 
 and protection from trial, for this church upon earth, so 
 
 the subscription promises to every conqueror to make him 
 
 ' a pillar in the temple of m}^ God ' — a phrase only used 
 
 in reference to Christ's spiritual temple* on earth, and 
 
 never of any visionary or future temple in this prophecy. 
 
 There is nothing here said for or against the conqueror 
 
 being made a pillar during his earthly life. If we conclude 
 
64 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 that here, as in other subscriptions, the promise is to take 
 full effect after the conqueror's death, it will hold from 
 the time that death finds him a conqueror, and right 
 through the millennium and first resurrection, until the 
 old temple is swallowed up in the new Jerusalem (xxi. 22). 
 We cannot expect to conceive the scene of action or 
 worship, the happiness and glory, or the structure 
 supported ; but we are told that God's name will be 
 permanently written upon him. 
 
 Section III. Verses 14 to 22. The Message to 
 Laodicaea. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 14. — The seventh church is described as one in which, 
 owing to the neglect of Christ's call, Christianity is in a 
 low and pitiable state. The title asserts Christ to be the 
 Amen, apparently meaning the authorized teacher of the 
 things of God. The word amen is associated with ratifica- 
 tion, and with final determination of a purpose, or assent 
 to an engagement, in 2 Cor. i. 20, and perhaps in the 
 Hebrew of Isaiah Ixv. 16. St. John in his Gospel has 
 recorded Christ's use of the word amen (translated verily 
 in the Authorized Version), once or twice repeated when 
 he revealed Divine truths or purposes beyond the reach 
 of human knowledge. His cry ' Amen, amen,' asserted both 
 his own knowledge of what he was about to impart, 
 and his truthfulness in imparting it. The exclamation 
 informed his hearers that what followed was his formal 
 testimony as a fully competent and trustworthy witness. 
 Moreover, as the eleven apostles restricted their choice of 
 a successor of Judas to men who had companied with them 
 all the time that the Lord Jesus went inandout amongthem 
 (Acts i. 21), so the author of this letter asserts his wonder- 
 ful qualification as a witness, viz., that he is the beginning of 
 God's creation. The beginning we might suppose to be 
 
The Messages of the Living Christ 65 
 
 the first step taken in it, the first work done in execution of 
 it ; but fortunately the first of the things St. John himself 
 selected to record in his Gospel, is Christ's connection with 
 the creation (John i. i, 3, etc.). When St. John speaks 
 of Christ's existence ' in the beginning,' he means that 
 ' without Him there came about not one thing which has 
 come about ' ; but he is not including Christ as one of the 
 created things. We shall accordingly find hereafter that 
 the Lamb in this vision is in a similar sense the beginning 
 of all the dealings of God with earth, as these dealings are 
 revealed by visions in this book of Revelation. To rouse 
 an unwilling person from sleep to a perception of pressing 
 danger, or to active precautions for securing his safety — 
 and especially if the danger be out of sight — the essential 
 point is, that the person who rouses should be known to 
 the person who is to be roused as a trustworthy witness. 
 Hence the appropriateness of this title to the church in 
 Laodicaea. 
 
 15. — The works of the Laodicaean angel are such as to 
 show the church to be neither cold nor hot. Care has to 
 be taken in endeavouring to explain this metaphor. We 
 need not suppose the Spirit to be using irony on such a 
 subject. We observe that not only does the Spirit wish 
 that the angel were cold or hot, but he gives as the 
 reason for spueing him out of his mouth, that he is luke- 
 warm, and neither cold nor hot ; so we may safely infer 
 that had the angel been either cold or hot, the Son of man 
 would not spue him out. This may mean that the teaching, 
 temper, and spirit of the professing church, that which 
 held it together in one organization and community, had 
 not exhibited the positive qualities which could be divided, 
 or vanquished, or corrected, by the sword proceeding from 
 the mouth of the Son of man ; so, that metaphor faihng, 
 another metaphor indicating the total rejection and 
 abhorrence of such an angel, is adopted. 
 
 Our Lord Himself (Matt. xxiv. 12) uses the expression 
 
 5 
 
66 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 oilove growing cold, or cool, presumably meaning the love 
 He describes in His commandment (Mark xii. 30, 31) — 
 love to God and to man. But in this letter the cold and 
 heat are attached to the angel, and through him to the 
 persons, with reference to their works, and not to motives. 
 It would be difficult to consider coldness as meaning 
 aversion to God or man, or to God's worship ; or to sup- 
 pose the church voluntarily working, and yet doing things 
 from which it was averse ; nor could the Spirit wish the 
 Laodicaeans so to act. We can take ' heat ' to signify 
 conscientious zeal, and coldness to signify conscientious 
 inappreciation or blindness, and * lukewarmness ' to 
 signify a well-informed indifference. In St. Paul's case, 
 before his conversion, he had no love to Christ ; and in 
 that he was cold ; nor any love to man inconsistent with 
 imprisoning men, or stoning them (Actsxxvi. 10); perhaps 
 in that he was cool. He was a zealous hater of the ' Way ' 
 (Acts ix. 2) : the works he did, good or bad, he did 
 zealously {e.g., Phil. iii. 6 ; Acts xxii. 3) : in these he was 
 hot, though he acted ignorantly and in unbelief (i Tim. 
 i. 13). God did not spue him out, but chose him as an 
 Apostle. Hence we conclude that a lukewarm man 
 encourages his conscience to be easy, and to slumber ; 
 and does what his conscience tells him he should do, in a 
 careless, self-sufficient, or perhaps grudging, way ; for 
 instance, without earnest prayer to God ; or from unwilling 
 fear, not from love ; or from an obstinate temper, without 
 much love or fear ; or, generally, in a slack presumptuous 
 spirit. The lukewarmness is not the state of a man 
 eagerly in search of a pearl, nor that of a careless 
 wanderer over a field in which an unknown treasure is 
 hidden ; but it is that of a man who is apathetic and 
 indifferent after having found the pearl, or the treasure. 
 We know, even in our day, and especially where the 
 subsistence of the clergy depends on the favour either of 
 small or of great men, that the teaching and temper of the 
 
The Messages of the Living Christ 67 
 
 church is apt to avoid subjects either hot or cold, and to 
 degenerate into formulas that are easy, and soothing to 
 careless presumption. 
 
 17. — Further illustrations of this quality of lukewarmness 
 follow. The church of Laodicaea is described, in the 
 person of their angel, as not poor in spirit (Matt. v. 3), nor 
 as having the kingdom of heaven. The reference is not, of 
 course, to material wealth or comforts ; it is to those who 
 are satisfied with the promises, and the beautiful ideas of 
 the Word and works of God. They see, and admire, and 
 are content to stop there. They say " Lord, Lord," and do 
 not what He says. They have an intellectual knowledge, 
 and a mind to admire His promises, His incomparable 
 teaching, and His exceeding love ; they see the pearl and 
 the treasure, and admire; but they feel no zeal — they 
 avoid such zealous love as would arouse them from vain- 
 glorious self-satisfaction. Perhaps they are anxious to 
 have others share and uphold their confidence (i Cor. i. 12, 
 etc.), and so become hot professors of the virtues and 
 faith which they fail to show by their works. They do 
 not even know what it is they lack, so little have they 
 felt a desire, or made an endeavour, to learn what love to 
 God and man is, as defined in the Word and works of God. 
 No doubt such persons are to be tenderly treated ; they 
 have to give up all their trusted wisdom and righteous- 
 ness and sanctification for Christ, as St. Paul had done 
 (i Cor. i. 30, 31) ; and such a conversion is more 
 astonishing than that of one ignorant or thoughtless. It 
 is a great sacrifice to give up all our human conception 
 of God and of His promises of religious faith and virtues, 
 and to be content to perceive that He alone must be 
 our guide. The Pharisees, for instance, were the least 
 hopeful of the auditors of Jesus. In the first words of His 
 first recorded public sermon, Christ Himself reiterates, 
 in half a dozen different aspects, the blessedness and the 
 reward of such a sacrifice ; and in this letter He assures 
 
68 The Revelation given to St. JoJin the Divine 
 
 the church that those whom He loves — and He surely 
 loves those whom He has Himself blessed — may rely on 
 Him. H& will convince them, and will train or instruct 
 them, as a teacher does a boy. So He did St. Paul ; and 
 there is no safer training ; natural, and even unavoidable 
 as it is, that every man's first security is in his own 
 knowledge ; that his first dawn of light shows him only 
 his own conceptions. 
 
 20. — But Christ's appeal and promise go beyond the 
 blessed, of whom He is fond, to include the world 
 which He loves (John iii. i6). He stands at every man's 
 door, and is knocking ; and whosoever ventures to open 
 will find a friend to share His hopes and motives, and even 
 fears, and to make him in return a sharer of all His own 
 wisdom, and righteousness, and glory. 
 
 21. — This promise is repeated in the subscription. The 
 highest glory of its kind, for which Christ has been wait- 
 ing (Psa. ii. ; xlv. 6, 7 ; ex. i ; etc.), is represented by 
 His being seated on a throne at God's right hand, having 
 all His enemies subdued under His feet. He here 
 promises to everyone who conquers, in or out of the 
 churches, honour exactly similar to that so represented 
 as given to Himself by the Father. Language could not 
 be clearer or stronger ; it includes, as it were, a contract 
 and a muster, or pattern ; and it is such as the most 
 enthusiastic religious fanatic would not invent ; nor have 
 Pope or priests ever been able to promise the highest 
 celestial honours like this. 
 
 Note on the Group of Seven Messages. 
 
 These seven letters stand first in this revelation. The 
 letters are not revealed as a separate vision, but form a 
 preamble within the revelation which was given to St. 
 John by vision on behalf of all the servants of Christ ; 
 and they are dictated to him upon earth, before he is, in 
 
The Messages of the Living Christ 69 
 
 the same vision, summoned up to heaven. From heaven 
 he sees several other groups, of seven scenes each, repre- 
 senting things which occur upon earth, and form the body 
 of the said revelation. As has been pointed out in the 
 vision shown to John on earth, Christ is the great actor ; 
 in that shown to John from heaven God the Father is the 
 great actor, through His angels ; and Christ is the most 
 honoured character in the scenes, until the end when the 
 Father places Christ Himself in possession of the kingdom 
 and throne. 
 
 This arrangement reminds us of the ordinary composi- 
 tion of the Hebrew psalms. In them a short preamble 
 states the main subject and purpose of the psalm; and 
 the rest of the psalm repeats illustrations and arguments 
 in support of the one or other, or else reflections flowing 
 from them. Taking a few, almost at haphazard : Psa. 
 xviii. 1-3 heads a hymn of gratitude and reliance ; xix. i 
 of the Creator's glory ; xx. i is the burden of a blessing 
 on a war-party which was about to start, of which the 
 manner and character follow in more detail. Later, 
 Psa. civ. I, cv. 1-4, cvi. i are challenges of the 
 musician to his hearers, stating the main burden of 
 his song, and inviting them to notice how he supports 
 or proves it. In a similar way this group of letters states 
 the conditions and objects of God's deahngs with mankind 
 during this age, when the churches wifl be afflicted with 
 trials both from without and from within, in order to 
 develop their members by exercise and purification, to be 
 fit for an eternity of reward as conquerors. Immediately 
 after receiving these letters, St. John is ushered, in vision, 
 into heaven, to be shown details and illustrations of God's 
 dealings in successive groups of visions, each group 
 extending, of course, over the whole time ; the whole 
 concluding with a picture of the reward which wiU follow 
 to ' the conqueror.^ 
 
 Perhaps Psalm cvii. is as complete an illustration of 
 
JO The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 this kind of arrangement as can be quoted. Of the verses, 
 I gives the appeal in the heart of the writer; 2, 3 challenge 
 the hearers to listen, to judge if the writer supports the 
 ground of his appeal, and to obey it if the grounds be 
 proved just. Then 4-9, 10-16, 17-22, 23-32 are four groups 
 of illustration, each complete in itself: the first, from the 
 history of the obedient under deprivation ; the second, 
 from the history of rebellion and return ; the third, from 
 the observation of presumptuous fools brought to God by 
 sickness, and delivered ; the fourth, from the experience 
 of our impotency against the powers of nature, and of our 
 security in the midst of them. Each has a little episode 
 of application to the general appeal, and there follows at 
 the last a long and varied illustration of the reasonableness, 
 happiness, and security of those who obey the appeal; and 
 a touching and persuasive postscript is added in the last 
 verse. We shall find that St. John's revelation will bear 
 a very similar arrangement ; not followed as a canon, but 
 resulting from the treatment of a subject which is in some 
 respects similar, and can be treated in a similar spirit. 
 
 As in the preamble to the psalm, this group of letters 
 is addressed to all hearers, and to all visible churches 
 worshipping God on earth for the whole age ; and these 
 are symbolized by seven of the churches that were nearest 
 to Ephesus, the city in which it is probable that St. John 
 had exercised his apostleship for years. It is evident 
 that a single letter, addressed to all the existing churches, 
 could not have borne a comprehensive symbolic character; 
 nor could it have been in full harmony with the construc- 
 tion of the rest of the book. To make the symbolic 
 meaning clearer, the letters are nominally addressed, not 
 to the churches direct, but to the seven angels of the seven 
 churches. The angel, as symbolizing a church, is given 
 somewhat as Daniel and St. John give a beast, or a dragon, 
 to symbolize an empire, or a horn or a harlot to symbolize 
 a blasphemous false church. It is noteworthy that while 
 
The Messages of the Living Christ 71 
 
 the seven lampstands are {i.e., represent) seven churches — 
 not the seven churches, though the names of seven had 
 just been mentioned with the voice Hke a trumpet — they 
 are not attached to the places nor persons addressed in 
 such a way that they may not be separated from them 
 (ii. 5). The symboHc lampstand represents a privilege of 
 united worship, and of community of enlightenment and 
 grace before God, which may be taken away from any 
 unworthy church. 
 
 It seems, then, needless, as it is usually needless in the 
 Psalms, to attempt to ascertain whether there were in 
 any of the cities named local circumstances to suggest 
 the subject-matter of these letters. We may at once take 
 them as prophetical descriptions of the circumstances and 
 characters of churches that would be most notable during 
 the era covered by the subsequent visions. All churches 
 need such words of warning or encouragement addressed 
 to them by their good and faithful Shepherd. 
 
 It is interesting to notice that our Lord Himself while 
 on earth gave His apostles not only direct teaching by 
 the help of which they might guide themselves, and all 
 who through them would be led to seek Him, up to the 
 time of His second coming, but also added to this a 
 prophetic sketch (Matt. xxiv. 3-28) of the behaviour of 
 the outside world, first up to the close of the Jewish 
 ceremonial polity, and after that {ihid., 29-31) amongst the 
 Gentiles up to the time of His second coming. So, here, 
 the revelation made by Christ through St. John includes 
 a direct message to His churches, and a symbolic scroll 
 of the future of the outside world so far as it would affect 
 the churches ; and this ir ^iven in sevenfold pictures. 
 The latter, being the chiei object of the revelation, is the 
 more expanded ; but the former, as the most important 
 part of the subject, is given the first place. In each case 
 we seem to have the same method : direct instruction to 
 disciples, and a prophetic warning, sufficiently clear to 
 
72 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 help and secure them, though not clear enough to guide 
 them, like a chart, in the sea of political, and national, 
 and social commotions. 
 
 The lirst church is described as painstaking, vigilant, 
 and faithful to the orthodoxy of its profession. But, 
 in spite of this, or perhaps in the distraction and care 
 which troubles involve, the church has quitted its first 
 and essential love. It is a church of the disposition of 
 Martha, rather than of her sister Mary ; and, like Martha, 
 it will soon find itself left to serve alone. Christ will not 
 be forced to serve amid such anxieties and troubles, but 
 will withdraw and remove the lampstand from this 
 church. Thomas Scott, in his commentary on the fourth 
 verse, justifies the possibility of this as in accordance with 
 our experience. ' There is some difficulty in conceiving 
 how the persevering diligence and patience of this church 
 could consist with that abatement in love with which it 
 is charged. But observation and experience combine to 
 prove, that in many instances, while the affections are 
 lively and fervent, men engage zealously in services, and 
 form habits of exertion, self-denial, patience, and courageous 
 disregard to opposition and reproach, in which, as to 
 outward conduct at least, they persevere, from various 
 motives, and often conscientiously, though it is lamentably 
 true, and they know it, that their hearts are not so 
 thoroughly engaged in what they do, as they once were. 
 Many are well aware that this is their case : they have 
 zeal enough to retain them in their former course of active 
 service, which is become habitual, and in some cases 
 creditable ; but had they not been more " fervent in spirit, 
 serving the Lord," in former days, these habits would 
 never have been formed, those services would never have 
 been engaged in.' Scott goes on to urge a more general 
 warning : ' Perhaps most Christians are too apt to take 
 encouragement from such diligence, and to silence the 
 remonstrances of their consciences by it ; but it is plain 
 
The Messages of the Living Christ y^ 
 
 that our Saviour and Judge considers this as a very 
 criminal state of heart and conduct.' 
 
 As an instance of a state of the churches in England 
 which comes very near to that of Ephesus, their condition 
 in the reign of Queen Anne may be taken. So far as the 
 condition of the church was then revealed in its ministry, 
 its pamphleteers, and its political supporters, it is clear 
 enough that, whichever of the sects was most nearly right, 
 they were all most sadly wrong. But the danger of 
 losing the spirit of church doctrine and ministry in mere 
 vigilance for orthodoxy was a danger before St. John 
 wrote (Rom. x. 2 ; i Cor. i. 10). The disastrous result 
 of centuries of sectarian contest amongst the early 
 churches, during which the Western churches were gradu- 
 ally formed into the existing Papal system, justifies the 
 prominence that is given to this warning letter. 
 
 The second church is exposed to oppression, poverty, 
 and slander from those who, while professing orthodox}-, 
 are not really orthodox ; to the danger of being forced 
 from Christ, rather than, as with Ephesus, of being dis- 
 tracted away from the love of Him. Active persecution 
 by the worldly power will follow. This evil has been in 
 operation from St. John's time to the present ; it may 
 even be said from the foundation of the Christian church 
 at Antioch (see Acts xv. i, etc.). 
 
 The third church is exposed to debasing teachings. 
 Non-professors, like Balaam, and professors, like Nicolas, 
 will develop schemes to reconcile the Gospel with sin, to 
 relieve Christians from the sense of sin, and to induce 
 some to yield to the attractions of bodily self-indulgence. 
 The * Harlot,' in purple and scarlet (xvii. i, 2), may 
 remind us how the Papacy laid itself out to allure men 
 from the higher, the spiritual, aims to the lower ones of 
 power, ease, or luxury. And no other professing church 
 has been altogether free from the same charge. Indeed, 
 it requires a keen and deep-searching discrimination to 
 
74 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 separate between Gospel virtue and Gospel laxity in an 
 individual {e.g., i Cor. xiii. 3), or in a church. It seems 
 that this church, though it yielded to some phase of 
 idolatry, and to fornication, yet refused to do homage to 
 Satan, as representing pagan idols. Notwithstanding its 
 subtle debasements, it was orthodox ; it held Christ's 
 name, and did not deny its faith in Him. We must not 
 think that this applies only to the times of some early 
 ambitious bishop, or crusader, or Christian Court, nor 
 even only to tradesmen, farmers, and politicians of the 
 present day. Everyone is exposed to the temptation of 
 insincerity. 
 
 The description of the fourth church reminds us of Eli 
 and David. It has both love and faith, and careful 
 ministration and constancy ; but while these grow it 
 tolerates within it a teaching and a practice which are an 
 open revolting against God, and a violation of the pro- 
 fessed faith of the church. That such desertion of God's 
 truth, such straying from His ' way,' such avowed ac- 
 ceptance of fanciful laws of right and wrong, of honour 
 and crime, of morality and depravity, prevailed, both 
 before and after the feudal times, history and legend 
 bear witness. Many heartless villains of this type, and of 
 both sexes, exist at the present day, debauched and de- 
 bauching those whom they can ensnare or control, and 
 carelessly ruining souls and bodies. This depravity, 
 which human law cannot fully reach, nor its punishments 
 stamp out, will not escape the Son of God, whose eyes are 
 as a flame of fire. 
 
 Such as have been entangled in this adulterous set, but 
 have not accepted their teaching, nor followed it out to 
 the depths of Satan, will not be involved in the ruin that 
 is surely coming upon them. Free escape is offered ; 
 Christ still offers them His burden, with no additions. 
 
 So far, the characteristics of the churches given are 
 such as attend defence and attack — the rejection of 
 
The Messages of the Living Christ 75 
 
 threats and allurements, and the exercise of love, con- 
 fidence and patience in the rejection. The fifth church 
 is a dead church. Like the Apostles in the garden of 
 Gethsemane, they are failing to keep awake ; they are 
 not using the privileges — which they will in a few moments 
 lose for ever — to confirm their own graces, nor to build up 
 their neighbour's. Yet such as shall have faithfully kept 
 themselves holy will, like those eleven Apostles, be re- 
 habilitated ; whatever they may have lost, they will not be 
 left abject in heaven. 
 
 The innocence and sleepiness of this church suggest 
 very useful thoughts. It is only one example of the con- 
 dition of every church of the seven, and, indeed, of every 
 Christian man — a condition, viz., of mixed evil and good. 
 We note that the innocence does not excuse the sleepi- 
 ness ; the church will find itself robbed by Christ of all 
 over which it failed to watch. Again, as the sleepiness gets 
 its deserts, or, rather, loses all the treasure it failed to 
 deserve, so the innocence gets all its deserts, or, as it may 
 be better put, where there is perfect love, as between 
 father and child, and no limit of the will to give, gets all 
 Christ can give it, viz., everlasting innocence amongst His 
 redeemed. We have seen how active, loyal church work 
 and administration run the risk of losing love, or of exalt- 
 ing means into ends, or of justifying means by ends. 
 Here we have the danger of seeking innocence to the 
 deadening of all else. The anchorites, monks and nuns, 
 considering the times in which they lived, had strong 
 justification for deserting the ordinary duties of life. We 
 may infer this from the comparatively settled era of our 
 Henry I. He sought to marry Matilda, daughter of 
 Malcolm HI., King of Scotland, niece of Edgar the 
 Atheling, or Saxon heir-presumptive of the English crown. 
 She had taken the veil in the nunnery of Rumsey ; but at 
 a court held by Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, at 
 Lambeth, Matilda pleaded that she had taken the veil, 
 
76 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 not with a view to enter a religious life, but, by a custom 
 familiar to English ladies, to protect her chastity from the 
 brutal violence of the Normans. The council of prelates 
 and nobles, sensible that even a princess had otherwise 
 no security for her honour, admitted the reason as valid, 
 and pronounced Matilda free to marry, and married she 
 accordingly was (Hume, ed. 1830, vol. i., p. 273). Subse- 
 quently celibacy was enforced on the priesthood ; later on, 
 the Protestants flogged people into church ; Puritans 
 abstained from all recreation ; and, still later, abstinence 
 from wine, theatres, imaginative literature, and some of 
 the narcotics, have been preached. Both the Old and the 
 New Testaments encourage self-control, with occasional 
 abstinence. But mere abstinence, when carried beyond 
 the guidance of the Christian graces and the Christian 
 self-control, has deprived of spiritual wealth and jewels the 
 eternal life of many. 
 
 The danger of this inactive innocence is, that the 
 mortification of active desires may extend (except in the 
 case of the few, verse 4) to the extinction of innocence 
 itself, and may involve total loss. This is of such im- 
 portance that it occupies the whole letter, which stands 
 at the head of the three letters of warning against mis- 
 chiefs that are not provoked by the teaching of opponents 
 to the pure Word of God. The other two deal with open- 
 ings to activity, and encouragement to it. This sort of 
 quasi-innocent slumbering of the professing churches 
 seems to have grown more prevalent in the middle and 
 in recent centuries, and to have endangered churches 
 when they were relieved from persecution and disabilities. 
 It may have been fostered by theories of predestination 
 and election, or of political economy, and other things. 
 This sleep does not mean neglect of the letter and form 
 of active administrative duties ; it seems rather to refer 
 to the dying out of the Christian motive, temper, and 
 faithfulness. In order to have eternal treasure, the 
 
The Messages of the Living Christ yy 
 
 physical activities of the family, of neighbour, church- 
 member, citizen, and subject, must be practised in com- 
 munion with Christ. 
 
 The sixth church is described as having a door opened 
 before it ; doubtless not opened by human agency, as it 
 cannot be closed by human power. It would seem that a 
 great number of those who have worshipped Satan will 
 come and honour this church. We have elsewhere Satan 
 symbolized as an earthly dragon (xii. 3), and elsewhere as 
 giving his authority to earthly beasts or powers (xiii. 2, 12) 
 to worship — and this was, virtually, to w^orship him. 
 Here we have a synagogue of Satan's. This may per- 
 haps mean pagan idolaters outside Christendom ; but it 
 seems rather to be confined to schools of teaching and 
 practice, as in ii. g, which, though nominally within the 
 covenant, have given up all faith in God, and all Christian 
 practices. These will come and worship before this 
 church, presumably accepting its guidance, and will learn 
 to know that it is a church loved by Christ. No doubt 
 this ' church ' is already active in Christendom, and en- 
 trusted with these fruits of its action. To this church, 
 placed in so forward and influential a station, a promise 
 is given of a dignity and reward more glorious than any 
 earthly emperor could give his most favoured legion. 
 They, of whom this church is the symbol, are assured, 
 not of pre-eminence in danger and death, but of absolute 
 preservation, by the power of God, from the trial that is 
 about to come upon the whole world. So far as we can 
 judge from history, cases of this pre-eminence have been 
 granted to Christian churches from early times, notably 
 by the successive conversion to Christianity of Gothic 
 tribes and chiefs; but the church has always failed in so 
 grand a position to observe the caution added after the 
 promise in this letter : ' Hold what thou hast, that no 
 one take thy crown.' In the earher ages the Bishops 
 strove to usurp the place and worship due to God, and to 
 
78 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 claim the rights of earthly rulers. Later on they prosti- 
 tuted that claim for worldly power, showing more skill in 
 the clever appropriation of heathen festivals, and religious 
 beliefs, and even gods, to embellish so-called Christian 
 festivals and services, than in holding what the church 
 held from Christ and His Apostles. Hence the complete 
 fulfilment of this description of a church is deferred to 
 the latter days. That it will come (as it may come) is 
 still a worthy subject for pra3^er and hope ; and it never 
 will come until a church exists which fulfils the condition. 
 The promise can never be won by presumptuous plead- 
 ings, by a church seeking it in the spirit of the Jews who 
 defended Jerusalem against the army of Titus. 
 
 We have now arrived at the seventh letter, and find its 
 form, and the description which it contains of the church, 
 similar to the others. This is agreeable to the interpre- 
 tation that the seven churches, like the seven spirits of 
 God, etc., are not successive, but represent every church 
 worshipping and acknowledging Christ, and having the 
 light of His candlestick, throughout the whole age. Were 
 they symbols of successive eras of the churches, the 
 seventh, when reached, might perhaps be left nearly 
 blank, like the seventh day of creation, or the seventh 
 seal ; or it might contain indications of the breaking up 
 of existing conditions and the approach of new, like the 
 seventh trumpet, or seventh plague. As it is, the seventh 
 letter is but little distinguished from the others. 
 
 Still, there are several indications that the seventh 
 letter deals with a condition which, though never absent 
 from the churches, will be especially prevalent during 
 the latter days of their era. If we consider the words 
 in which the coming of our Lord is foretold by Himself, 
 we find (Matt. xxiv. 30) that after the overthrow and 
 downfall of all the ruling and guiding powers of earth, 
 the sign or signal of the Son of man will appear in 
 heaven ; and then all the tribes of the earth will see Him 
 coming in the clouds of (the terrestrial) heaven, with 
 
The Messages of the Living Christ 79 
 
 power and great glory. That indicates a specially obvious 
 appearance — one that all, believers or unbelievers, will see. 
 But (Matt. xxvi. 64) our Lord said to the High Priest and 
 council, that from that moment, from the very time of 
 His condemnation and crucifixion, they would see the 
 Son of man sitting at the right hand of power, and 
 coming in the clouds of heaven, much as he had, a few 
 hours before (John xiii. 31, 32), described Himself as 
 already glorified by the betrayal which was on foot, and 
 had affirmed that God would straightway glorify Him. 
 From all which we gather that, for practical help to His 
 servants, Christ has, since His ascension, been at God's 
 right hand, and can now be seen by His servants coming 
 in the clouds of heaven. We must remember how in 
 the East — the region of droughts and periodical rains — 
 the clouds hold a position as blessings to man, and as the 
 creators of everything that is necessary to feed him and 
 the whole animal world, which is more important even 
 than that of the sun, or moon, or stars ; and the clouds 
 are much more eagerly discussed, prayed for, and looked 
 for. This symbol of Christ's sitting (a figure too often 
 repeated in Scripture to be meaningless), visible only to 
 His servants and to believers, is dropped in describing 
 His appearance, also in clouds of heaven, but visible to 
 all inhabitants of the earth, after the complete breaking 
 up and subjugation of earthly kingdoms of the old type. 
 It seems as if the letter to Laodicaea brings us up to, or 
 close to, this tim.e of Christ's more manifest and glorious 
 appearing, after the kingdoms of the earth shall have been 
 subdued for Him, and given to Him, by the Father. 
 The attestation in the title — the Amen, under Christ's 
 own hand as witness (iii. 14) — is in harmony with this ; 
 and the latter half of the letter seems to be dictated as 
 though the brilliant clouds of the new era (Matt. xxiv. 30) 
 were already gathering before men's eyes. That, no 
 doubt, is the case now ; and to each of us the warning and 
 promises of this letter are of personal interest, whatever 
 
8o The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 final fulfilment may occur ten, a hundred, or a thousand 
 years hence. 
 
 The figure used in describing the state of the seventh 
 church is new, as if it were adapted to some new develop- 
 ment of spiritual disease. We are accustomed to the 
 figures of stiffneckedness, blindness, deafness, sleep, and 
 death. Here we have anew figure — that of lukewarmness; 
 one which gives to cold and hot equal mention as healthy 
 states, and in accordance with Christ's will, but makes 
 ' lukewarmness ' abominable. The figure seems to be 
 drawn from drinkable liquids. A cup of cold water is 
 proverbially grateful to a thirsty traveller. Something hot 
 is as grateful to one suffering from cold, want of food, or 
 illness. Between these two is to be found a lukewarm 
 temperature which none desire, and which the stomach is 
 likely enough to reject. This figure, after being once used, 
 is not alluded to in the remainder of the letter. It seems 
 to represent such a conviction of a creator as should lead 
 a man to seek after Him (Acts xvii. 27) ; such a longing for 
 redemption as should lead a man to seek escape from sin, 
 and reconciliation with God, coupled with an absence 
 of trust, faith, fear, or affection, of proving, or even 
 caring, what suggestions are right, and what wrong, and 
 so drifting as if God's mercies and honour were scarcely 
 worth a thought. The rest of the letter seems to refer to 
 an easy laxity, like that described by our Lord (Matt. 
 XXV. 3) as affecting the five foolish virgins, while they were 
 actually waiting, and expecting, the immediate approach 
 of the bridegroom. Lukewarmness in the church may 
 mean that temper which cares neither to shut out what 
 is bad, nor to develop what is good ; the hospitality of 
 such a church is practised in a spirit of self-indulgence 
 and ease, without selection of guests, or care for their 
 most beneficial entertainment : the works resulting from 
 such a temper would be lukewarm, and more distasteful 
 than those of a niggard or fanatic could be, if done with 
 real discrimination and with self-denial. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ORIGINAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION. 
 
 After these things I saw : and, behold, a door 
 (standing) open in the heaven ; and the first voice, 
 which I heard as if of a trumpet talking with me, 
 saying, ' Ascend hither, and I will show thee what 
 things must occur after these.' Immediately I came 
 to be in spirit : and, behold, a throne lay in heaven ; 
 and upon the throne (a person) seated ; and he who 
 was seated like in appearance jasper stone, and 
 cornelian ; and a bow round about the throne hke 
 in appearance emerald ; and round about the throne 
 twenty-four thrones; and (I saw) upon the twenty- 
 four thrones elders seated clothed in bright garments; 
 and upon their heads gold crowns — and lightnings, 
 and voices, and thunders are coming out of the 
 throne ; and (behold) seven lamps of fire burning in 
 front of the throne, which are the seven spirits of 
 God ; and in front of the throne as if a sea, glassy 
 like crystal ; and between (me and) the throne, and 
 in the circle of the throne, four animals, full of eyes 
 before and behind. And the first animal like a lion, 
 and the second animal like a steer, and the third animal 
 having the face as if of a man, and the fourth animal 
 like a flying eagle ; and the four animals, having six 
 wings apiece, round about and within are full of eyes, 
 and have no stop, day and night, saying, * Holy, holy, 
 
 6 
 
82 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 holy, Lord God Almight}', the was, the being, and 
 
 g the coming!' And whenever the animals shall give 
 
 glory, and honour, and thanks to him who is seated 
 
 10 on the throne, who lives for the ages of ages, the 
 twenty-four elders will fall in front of him who is 
 seated on the throne, and will make salaam to him 
 
 11 who lives for the ages of ages, and will throw their 
 crowns in front of the throne, saying *Thou art 
 worthy, our Lord and God, to have received the 
 glory, honour and power ; for thou createdst all 
 things, and on account of thy will they are, and were 
 created.' 
 
 Verses i to ii. The Vision of the Heavenly 
 Throne. 
 
 Exegetical and Critical Notes. 
 
 1. A door. This word is used, in Greek, for the door 
 of a house ; and the entrance to a palace would be through 
 a folding pair of doors of this kind. It does not apply to 
 the door, or gate, of a city. 
 
 After these (things). Seems to be used by St. John 
 as the exact equivalent of our old word thereafter, of any 
 sequence of order or time. 
 
 Ascend. Might apply to a few steps, as before a house 
 door ; or to an external flight of stairs, as if a voice 
 from an upper floor called St. John to ascend. 
 
 2. Lay : ready laid out for a court, or durbar ; usually 
 a chair, on an extended carpet, pavement, dais, or 
 platform. 
 
 3. Bow : as if a rainbow or halo, apparently always a 
 vertical one. 
 
 We should here notice the grammar that is peculiar to 
 St. John throughout this book. Take the first verse : St. 
 John saw : and behold, two things — a door, and a voice 
 (or sound), which (voice) ' I heard as if of a trumpet ' (a 
 
The Vision of the Heavenly Throne 8 
 
 J 
 
 trumpet) ' saying,' ' talking with me.' Here the sentence 
 ends; the subject is carried on as if St. John's amanuensis, 
 or writer, indicated that he had written so far; and as if St. 
 John were so intent on the scene that he does not exactly 
 remember how he had dictated the last clause. Saying is 
 a participle agreeing not with door, voice, or trumpet, but 
 with Son of man, the owner of the voice, who happens not 
 to have been mentioned. In the second verse the ex- 
 clamation behold applies to the throne set ; to (a person) 
 sitting on it ; to (the person) sitting having the appearance 
 described, and to the twenty-four thrones. The next 
 clause breaks the sequence ; the twenty-four elders, and 
 gold crowns, are in the accusative case, as if, in dictating, 
 St. John for the moment thought he had not said behold, 
 but his usual / saw. Then he gets right again ; the 
 lightnings, etc., are in the nominative, after behold. Such 
 deviations from classic grammar are frequent throughout 
 the book. The above conjecture about the dictating is 
 given simply to make the facts clear, not as an explana- 
 tion carrying any authority. There is reason to think 
 that St. John so earnestly avoided the use of the verb 
 substantive (except in the sense represent), as to risk some 
 confusing of the reader. 
 
 3, 4, 8. — Round about. The Greek word is an adverb, 
 and seems to mean i7i a circle outside. In the sixth verse 
 we have the noun ' in the circle, or ring, of the throne.' 
 Arrows aimed at a warrior, and said to arrive in the circle 
 of his shield, would be understood to hit his shield ; but if 
 said to pass, as here translated round about, they would be 
 understood to miss the shield, but not by a great distance. 
 5. — Which are. This is a case (referred to at the end 
 of note on verse 3) of St. John's using the verb substan- 
 tive to mean represent : the lamps represent, or are {the 
 symbols of) the spirits of God. 
 
 6. — Like crystal, or ice : not coloured, nor opaque. 
 Between me and the throne : literally, in the middle 
 
84 The Revelation given to St. Johi the Divine 
 
 of the throne. The usual sense of in the middle in Greek 
 was the same as ours ; we may adopt that sense, if we 
 take throne to include all that would be included in our 
 word court. This seems scarcely justified either by our 
 own idiom — for we never call a judge's court his throne- 
 ox by the Greek. We do not find the temple in the New 
 Testament used to include its courts or buildings. It is 
 obvious, therefore, that another ordinary sense must be 
 taken, between or betwixt. 
 
 In the circle of the throne. Apparently within 
 the ring, i.e., the area within it. It may be conjectured, 
 from the analogy of an open-air court, and from this 
 description, that the chief throne stood centrally under 
 the glow of a green overhead rainbow, and stood also at 
 the middle point of a similarly shaped invisible bow or 
 curve, in which the twenty-four thrones, twelve on each 
 side, were set. Within the area defined by this last bow, 
 or curve, were the animals. 
 
 8. — The four animals. The verb treats these as 
 masculine, although their name, animals, is, in Greek, 
 neuter. They do not, therefore, represent mere animals, 
 much less mere matter. 
 
 Animals. The Greek word, and the English, which is 
 derived from the Latin, both mean things or beings with 
 life, and all are usually applied to real animals, though 
 here to symbolical figures. 
 
 g. — Honour: originally ie'or//z / hence marks of worth 
 or posts of worth. 
 
 Glory: originally opinion; hence credit, glory. 
 
 10. Salaam. There is no English word for the Greek 
 word that is used here, which applies, like the Eastern 
 word salaam, to any act of greeting or reverence to a 
 person or image, from kissing the hand to falling prostrate 
 and tendering the sword. The word worship is obsolete 
 in this sense, except where used in the marriage service 
 at the putting on of the ring. 
 
The Vision of the Heavenly Throne 85 
 
 Ages of ages. So far as it admits of definition, the 
 age now current includes, in this book, all the time 
 occupied by the salvation of man, from the time of the 
 first man included in the scheme, to the end of Christ's 
 reign upon the earth as it now exists. The Greek word 
 for age means a lifetime, or generation ; but it was used 
 by the philosophic writers of St. John's time for any age 
 or dispensation. The Latin word Anglicized into eternity 
 has a derivation of a more general meaning — a long time ; 
 for instance, it could be used, in the phrase ' everlasting 
 eternity (Cicero), to mean vaguely, without mathematical 
 precision, what we now affect to mean by eternity — viz., 
 without beginning, pause, or end.' 
 
 Crowns : of victory, honour, and privilege, rather than 
 of official position, but apparently meant to include all. 
 Such heavy State crowns as we are accustomed to picture 
 would be carried during any ceremony by someone else, 
 not worn by the person to whom they belonged. The 
 triumphal crowns were merely natural leaves and twigs. 
 The golden crowns given, as medals often are in our day, 
 for individual prowess to soldiers or sailors of all ranks, 
 would probably be as light as any ornamental fillets worn 
 by ladies — a gold band round the head, having beaten 
 gold ornaments riveted to it at intervals so as to stand 
 up from the band all round. The band itself might be 
 so slight as to be concealed by the hair. See the crown 
 implying a deified hero worn by the Triumvir M. Antonius 
 as shown on his medal. No crowns but of leaves are to 
 be seen on the emperors' heads on the coins of St. John's 
 time — for instance, in those illustrated in Conybeare and 
 Howson's ' Life of St. Paul ' — any more than on our own 
 Queen's in her earlier days. 
 
 II. — Created : including forming, evolving, developing, 
 and all other scientific conceptions, so far as they are 
 correct, in addition to the original meaning, ' causing 
 to be.' 
 
86 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 I. — This voice like a trumpet seems to have come from 
 heaven, judging from its call to ascend or mount up 
 ' hither.' The figure like the Son of man was on earth, 
 for St. John (i. 17) fell at his feet. The voice like a 
 trumpet was the voice of God, and perhaps it is well to 
 speculate no further. The same voice at the first (i. 11) 
 had ordered St. John to write what he saw, and to send 
 it to the seven churches, an order repeated by the figure 
 like the Son of man, who dictated seven letters to the 
 seven churches (ii. i, etc.) in the name of the Spirit (ii. 7, 
 and elsewhere). In such a matter, as in the case of the 
 somewhat similar voice on Sinai (Ex. xix. 16, ig), we 
 know only what we are told, and cannot learn more. 
 
 2. — This change of scene in the vision seems a suitable 
 place for noting the three or four classes of vision shown 
 to St. John. The first resembles the visions of Ezekiel 
 or Daniel, in which the prophet seems, in spirit, to be on 
 earth, and to see a vision of things taking place on, or 
 above, the earth. In this way St. John sees the Son of 
 man amidst the seven lampstands, and receives the letters 
 to be addressed to the churches. There is a fresh 
 character in the next stage of his vision : the prophet 
 seems to be in heaven. He has advanced a stage into 
 dreamland, and the vast imagery — the throne of God, 
 surrounded by those of the elders, and with space for 
 millions of angels (v. 11) — seems to be constantly at hand, 
 and often present to his consciousness, while the prophet 
 is thence shown visions of a third sort, viz., visions which 
 he dreams that he is shown when in heaven. The Lamb 
 may be seen by the prophet to be present in heaven, in 
 the act of breaking the sixth seal, holding the scroll of 
 which, he will next break the seventh seal (vi. 12 ; vii. i), 
 while St. John is seeing out of heaven a vision of the 
 earth, with an angel at each corner, and hears that there 
 
The Vision of the Heavenly Throne 87 
 
 are in that earth one hundred and forty-four thousands 
 sealed. At another time the prophet, still in heaven, 
 sees the same Lamb standing with the same one hundred 
 and forty-four thousands on Mount Zion (xiv. i), while 
 he continues to hear the sounds, and to watch the living 
 creatures and elders, where he seems to himself to be 
 (xiv. 2, 3) in heaven, and he is aware (xiv. 3) that the one 
 hundred and forty-four thousands on earth are hearing 
 the same sounds which he is hearing in heaven. Again, 
 as in the case of the Old Testament prophets figures of 
 the vision would approach, touch, or address the prophet, 
 so it is here, figures, both of the heaven (v. 5) and of the 
 visions seen from heaven (xvii. i), seem to come and speak 
 to the prophet, and he sees communications between 
 heaven and these visions ; nay, the prophet himself seems 
 to himself to go off from heaven, and to be himself present 
 on the scene of his vision in a wilderness on earth (xvii. 3). 
 All this is fully consistent with the nature of dreams, and 
 with the natural language of a man when describing his 
 dreams ; but it is very useful as impressing upon his 
 readers the fact, that all things he sees are signs, all are 
 visions, and nothing is to be treated as reality. 
 
 St. John, then, in the course of his dream, knows that 
 he is in heaven, in the presence of an open-air court, or 
 durbar. Such courts St. John must have often seen, and 
 often read of {e.g., John xviii. 29). They might be civic — 
 in a forum, or gate, or on a pavement — or miltary, diplo- 
 matic, or judicial, such as were held by Alexander the 
 Great for rewarding his adherents, or for parading his 
 prisoners and selecting them for release, for slavery, or for 
 crucifixion. They might be for a special council, or for 
 the ordinary appearance of the commanding ruler in a 
 state. A court, as usually seen, would imply a reserved 
 space, such as a square of gravel, or grass, or pavement, 
 perhaps raised, perhaps in a hollow visible from all around, 
 or, if more space were needed, on a parade ground. The 
 
88 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 court seemed to St. John to be sitting; in the chief 
 central throne was God Himself. Over the throne was a 
 bow, like a rainbow, only of pure green, forming a vertical 
 arc of a circle. Twenty-four thrones were placed, for the 
 most prominent members of the council, in the circum- 
 ference of a circle having its centre at, or in front of, the 
 throne, not necessarily equidistant from each other, nor 
 forming a whole circle. It is out of the question that at 
 a durbar the»officers of state should sit round the presi- 
 dent, like the hours on a clock-face, nor is this consistent 
 with the description of the visionary appearance ; for the 
 thrones are not said to come between St. John and the 
 central throne, as he says the animals did. 
 
 In front of the central throne were seven lamps. No 
 lampstand is mentioned, as in Zech. iv. 2, 10 ; and per- 
 haps these seven lamps, like those in Zechariah, whether 
 themselves fixed or not, run like God's eyes over every- 
 thing, and represent not only God's seeing everywhere, 
 but His action, and the display of all His attributes 
 wherever He sees. This ubiquity of God's Spirit is 
 further represented by the lightnings, voices, and thunders 
 which come directly from His throne, and represent that 
 His light gives light. His voices instruction, and His 
 thunders threatening everywhere. In front of the throne 
 was a crystal sea. Solomon (LXX., 2 Chron. iv. 2) made a 
 cast-metal * sea' (the same word) fifteen feet in diameter, 
 and set it on the southern side of the house. It was for 
 washing in, for purification. As it would naturally contain 
 clear water, the glassy, crystal-like appearance necessarily 
 applies to the sea, i.e., to the structure ; otherwise it 
 seems superfluous. It seems to represent a bath which 
 completely purifies. Virc (xiv. 10, 11) represents purifica- 
 tion of a destructive kind, and the lake of fire (xix. 20) a 
 total earthly destruction (of the beast and the harlot). 
 
 6. — Besides these permanent officers of state, to recur 
 to the symbol of a council or durbar, there were stationed 
 
The Vision of the Heavenly Throne 89 
 
 in their proper places, in front of the throne, in the centre 
 of the council, four living and moving officials of the 
 court, symbolized as animals with wings, full of eyes (like 
 a tree of fruit). Great prominence is given to these 
 animals ; they lead the ceremonial adoration and obeisance. 
 They are in complete harmony in the service and glory of 
 God, and are quite beyond any influence of, or control by, 
 any evil power. They represent Nature ; the invincible 
 forces, the constructive beneficence, the intelligence, and 
 the universal reach of the laws of Nature are indicated by 
 their several forms. Their number, that of the four 
 cardinal points of the compass, symbolically includes all 
 directions about, or, as St. John says, round about, the 
 throne. 
 
 The number four, the number of sides of an enclosed 
 square, is used to indicate the complete surrounding of a 
 place on the plane of the earth, or of a country. Thus the 
 four points of the compass may be used to mean things 
 going out or coming in on every side ; or the four winds 
 to indicate the scattering to, or collection from, every 
 side. Here the number four indicates that the natural 
 laws and forces operate universally on earth in all direc- 
 tions. To us, in the body, all approach to God, or know- 
 ledge of Him, seems to be through His physical creation, 
 except that which the Son reveals directly to each of us ; 
 but even that spiritual knowledge is only promised to those 
 who wish to do God's will (John vii. 17) ; and our doing 
 seems necessarily to involve our physical life. While the 
 four animals thus surround the throne, we are struck with 
 their each having six wings — the number of sides to a 
 cube — as if to denote that their rapid movement extends 
 through space — north, south, east, west, above and below. 
 Though these animals are stationed so close around 
 the throne of God, and there give voice themselves, and 
 lead others, in setting forth the praise of the attributes of 
 God, they are never used as messengers. As representing 
 
90 The Revelation giveti to St. John the Divine 
 
 the living agents of the fixed laws of the universe, they 
 abide in their fixed place, constantly declaring God's ever- 
 lasting holiness, power and duration. 
 
 The elders remain fixed. If they represent the living 
 agents of the fixed laws of mind, such as intelligence, 
 memory, consciousness, and the affections, love, hope, 
 regret, and so forth, we know of no power of expression 
 which they can have apart from the laws of the material 
 universe. Our Lord's teaching is that intellectual life is 
 of much more value in God's eyes than physical life 
 (Matt. vi. 25, 26) ; and if our attention to God's nearness 
 to us in the physical life around us is befitting, it is much 
 more befitting that we should observe His constant near- 
 ness to our intellectual life. But the elders seem to 
 represent more than the agents of intellectual life ; their 
 bright clothing and their crowns symbolize spiritual 
 action. Though they seem to have no agency in 
 the direct redemption of fallen men, but ascribe that 
 entirely to the Lamb (v. g), they may well represent the 
 living agents of the fixed and righteous laws of spirit, and 
 those on earth who are reconciled to those laws. 
 
 The animals having eyes, as if permeating their inner 
 being, may represent the knowledge, calculation, and 
 energy with which every part of the universe is incessantly 
 moved in praise of the Creator. The representatives of 
 Christ's accepted people on earth, past and present, are 
 wholly dependent on the animals for the occasion of their 
 obeisances. There appear no others, no heavenly host, 
 led on by the animals to praise God for His creation of the 
 universe, and to lay their crowns at His feet as owing 
 their existence to that creation. Yet the heavenly host 
 outside the court (v. 11) join in the praise of God and 
 of the Lamb for the scheme of salvation. All the glory 
 and homage given in this vision dates from the creation of 
 the first man, or, as regards the angels, from the first 
 making known of this scheme of salvation to them. We 
 
The Vision of the Heavenly Throne 91 
 
 may infer that the order of nature, which has been carried 
 on in all its minutiae millions of years without a man 
 to appreciate it, was so carried on as a pleasure both to 
 God and to His angels. In agreement with this, we 
 never find in Scripture any denunciation of innocent 
 pleasure received from the contemplation or enjoyment of 
 physical things. On the contrary, all such pleasures are 
 advocated by precept or example, and they frequently 
 supplied our Lord Himself with parallels to the heaven 
 He had left, and to the kingdom He was founding. 
 
 Recurring to the description of the durbar, we shall find 
 that there was, as was usual in St. John's time, a shrine 
 close by, with an altar. 
 
 As to the twenty-four elders, if we use the term order of 
 nature for the executive acts of God's power in physical 
 and intellectual things, as represenied by the animals, we 
 may use the term order of spirit for the executive acts of 
 God's power in spiritual life, as represented by the elders. 
 Their number may be the sum of the number of the sons 
 of Jacob, and that of the Apostles who were originally 
 appointed by our Lord. These are treated as the heads, 
 or founders, of the servants of God upon earth under the 
 two covenants, and they represent God's accepted servants 
 on earth during all time, both under those covenants and 
 outside them, whether patriarchs before the covenants, or 
 those gathered from all nations — all, in fact, to whom 
 God had given, or would give. His 'saving health' 
 (Psa. Ixvii. 2). 
 
 8. — The leading off of praise to God by the four animals 
 is beautifully paralleled in the nineteenth psalm, in which 
 the ascription of glor}' to God, as revealed in Nature, 
 leads to an ascription cf glory to God as revealed in 
 His Word. Yet no poet 01 prophet of the Old Testament 
 ever saw the unity of God's law, in Nature or in His 
 Word, as our Saviour saw it, and affirmed it in His 
 parables and teachings. 
 
92 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 Throughout the continuation of the vision we must 
 suppose persons and things to appear and disappear, hke 
 the angels, or men in shining lustre, who were seen in our 
 Lord's tomb, or like our Lord Himself after His resurrec- 
 tion. From the accounts preserved it would appear that 
 some of the women saw one (Mark xvi. 5) angel, some 
 saw two (Luke xxiv. 4) in the tomb ; and our Lord could 
 be seen, and conversed with, in a form which His most 
 intimate friends did not recognise, and could then sud- 
 denly become fully recognised. Physical inconsistencies, 
 too, are frequent in these visions. We may so call a 
 lamb taking a scroll, voices uttered by animals, or by 
 inanimate objects, and other things of this kind. This is 
 obvious enough when great convulsions are being de- 
 scribed — such as heaven being rolled up like a scroll ; but 
 we need to be on our guard in visions not indicating 
 extraordinary disturbance, lest we limit our interpretation 
 by conditions which do not really hold. And we need 
 also to remember that all the things seen in the visions 
 are theoglyphs — more analogous to the thing represented 
 than an Egyptian hieroglyph, but not at all more artistic 
 portraits or pictures of what they represent. 
 
 We are first introduced (chap, iv.) to a vision of the 
 action in heaven, the abode of God. The animals never 
 stop, day or night, in the song of praise by which they set 
 forth the holiness and truth, or the faithful continuance, 
 of God. The only thing which a scientific man, as such, 
 can see is the order of Nature. The Creator who is 
 carrying on this order must be conceived by him as 
 extending backwards and forwards the same order of 
 Nature indefinitely. There is no possibility of the order 
 of Nature occurring by chance ; none of its being invented 
 and carried on by self-calculating and self-moving points 
 or atoms. The only safe position an atheist can take up 
 is, that he made himself, and all the universe with which 
 he is acquainted. The first element of knowledge of God 
 
The Visio7i of the Heavenly Throne 93 
 
 is the belief that He made us, and not we ourselves ; the 
 doctrine of the Bible (see Rom. i. 20) is that to deny this 
 is inexcusable, and that to openly acknowledge it is the 
 first element of our praise of God (Psa. c. 3). It is 
 therefore quite appropriate that, in this vision of the 
 heavenly things, the animals, as emblems of God the 
 Creator, should lead the praise. The elders follow, laying 
 their crowns — emblems of all the graces, powers and 
 relations which they have experienced since their creation 
 — down before the throne, in acknowledgment that it is to 
 God alone they owe them. After they have done this, 
 they follow the lead given by the animals, and utter praise 
 of God as their spiritual Creator. It is the order of 
 thought suggested to the Psalmist by a consideration of 
 man's position on earth (Psa. viii. 3-9). 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 ORIGINAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION. 
 
 1 And I saw upon the right hand of him who was 
 seated on the throne a scroll, written inside and on 
 
 2 the back, sealed up with seven seals : and I saw a 
 strong angel proclaiming in a loud voice, ' Who is 
 worthy to open the scroll, and to loose its seals ?' 
 
 3 And no one was able, in heaven, or on earth, or under 
 
 4 the earth, to open the scroll, or to look at it. And I 
 was lamenting much that no one was found worthy 
 
 5 to open the scroll, or to look at it. And one out of 
 the elders says to me, ' Do not lament : see ! the 
 Lion out of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, 
 conquered to open the scroll, and its seven seals.' 
 
 6 And I saw between the throne and the four animals, 
 and between the elders, a lamb standing, as if slain, 
 having seven horns, and seven eyes, which are the 
 
 7 seven spirits of God sent away into all the earth : and 
 he came, and has received out of the right hand of 
 
 8 him seated on the throne — and when he received the 
 scroll, the four animals and the twenty-four elders fell 
 in front of the lamb, having each a harp, and gold 
 saucers full of incense, which are the prayers of the 
 
 g Saints ; and they sing, saying, ' Thou art worthy to 
 
 receive the scroll, and to open its seals, because thou 
 
 wast slain, and boughtest for God with thy blood out 
 
 10 of every tribe and language and people and nation. 
 
The Vision of the Heavenly Throne 95 
 
 and madest them a kingdom and priests : and they 
 reign on the earth.' 
 
 11 And I saw and heard the voice of many angels 
 round about the throne, and animals, and elders ; 
 and their number was ten thousands of ten thousands, 
 
 12 and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud 
 voice, 'The Lamb that was slain is worthy to receive 
 power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and 
 
 13 honour, and glory, and blessing.' And I heard every 
 created thing which is in heaven, and on earth, and 
 below the earth, and on the sea, and all things in 
 them, saying * Blessing, honour, glory, and force is his 
 who is seated on the throne, and the Lamb's, for the 
 
 14 ages of ages ': and the four animals said ' Amen '; and 
 the elders fell and salaamed. 
 
 THE MYSTERY OF THE SEALED SCROLL. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 1. — Scroll. The Greek word is a diminutive form of 
 roll, or book, and means a paper, or letter. St. John's 
 partiality for diminutive forms (e.g., v. 6) would not alone 
 account for his using one here, since he uses the full form 
 of roll, or book, for the book of life (xx. 15). 
 
 2. — A STRONG ANGEL here proclaims with a voice loud 
 enough to be heard through the whole earth and air. In 
 X. II, another carrying a small scroll cries out with a 
 voice like a lion. In xviii. 21 another takes up a great 
 millstone. There is no obvious meaning in the epithet 
 strong more than that St. John, by what the angel in each 
 case did, was impressed with the extraordinary strength 
 of the angel. 
 
 6. — A LAMB. The Greek word means lambkin, and, 
 except in this book, it only occurs in the New Testament in 
 St. John's Gospel (xxi. 15) — ' Feed My lambs.' In the LXX.. 
 
96 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 Exodus xii. 3, the paschal lamb is called (verse 3) by the 
 general name for small cattle — sheep or goats of any age 
 — as it is also in the first half of verse 5 ; but in the latter 
 half of the verse it is ordered to be a male a year old from 
 the lambs or kids. No doubt the lamb, as an emblem of 
 Christ, is the paschal lamb, and the reason why St. John 
 uses the word ' lambkin ' is not clear. It is quite possible 
 that it was the customary term used in Ephesus for the 
 paschal lamb in St. John's day. 
 
 7. — Which : the eyes, and, as likely as not, so far as 
 grammar goes, the horns also. 
 
 This verse ends without saying v/hat the Lamb appeared 
 in the vision to have received, but the continuation of 
 the narrative in verse 8 makes it clear that it was the 
 scroll. 
 
 8. — Having each a harp, etc. This is in construction 
 ambiguous, and might mean each of the animals as well 
 as each of the elders. It seems more in harmony with 
 Hebrew symbolism to understand that the elders only 
 suddenly appeared, in the vision, each possessed of a 
 harp and a sacrificial saucer of incense, and that all 
 joined in the song. It is in harmony with Old Testament 
 metaphor to represent the hills skipping, floods clapping 
 hands, corn laughing and singing. The saucers seem to 
 mean the ordinary small shallow bowls, or plates, in 
 which the priests took up a portion of an offering to wave 
 it, burn it, or pour it out on the ground, as an official 
 sanctification or acceptance of the whole. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 I. — St. John now observed a scroll put upon, or into, 
 the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. 
 This scroll may contain the promise, or judicial certificate, 
 of the blessing designed for man in the future ages, as the 
 seals symbolize his curse in the present age. Its contents 
 are never revealed ; but the dealing with men up to, and 
 
The Mystery of the Sealed Scroll 97 
 
 on the great day of judgment is revealed in several series 
 of visions — seals, trumpets, etc. 
 
 The fifth chapter opens with the first of several series 
 of visions, comprising the series of the seals, of the 
 trumpets, and of the saucers ; each series is in the charge 
 of, or is controlled by, heavenly beings. In this case of 
 the seals proclamation is made throughout heaven, earth, 
 and under the earth, for one able to open them ; and 
 only one is found, viz., a lamb, w^ho is unmistakably a 
 symbol of Christ, as he affects the material world (John i. 
 3). The seven horns and eyes symbolize a power, know- 
 ledge, and action, as complete as God's in its perfection 
 and extent. The lamb appears in the place of equality 
 with Him who is on the throne, standingwithout obeisance 
 within the inner circle of the officials of the court. He is 
 * as if slain,' a term equally applicable before, or after, His 
 actual crucifixion. The proclamation of the strong angel 
 was for someone to open the scroll, and loose its seals ; 
 but when the lamb appears, the whole scroll is given to 
 him ; He who is on the throne gives up the charge of it, 
 and delivers it entirely to the lamb. St. Matthew agrees 
 with St. John (Matt, xviii. 18) and others in recording, as 
 did David in foreshadowing (Psa. ii. 8; viii. 6, etc.), this 
 complete trust by God of all authority and glory into His 
 Son's hands. 
 
 8. — This commission is at once cordially accepted, and 
 ratified, by the representatives of the powers of nature and 
 of spirit ; and in doing so they bring as their offering, not 
 their crowns, but incense representing the prayers of the 
 holy on earth. They have no offering to make more 
 grateful or honourable than that which each of us can 
 offer to Him who has done so much for us. It impresses 
 on us that our present condition, compared with that of 
 prehistoric man, justifies not only our wonder, but our 
 gratitude ; not only our complacency, but our trust ; not 
 dread, but prayer — that is on our part ; and on God's 
 
 7 
 
98 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 part, that there is nothing which our Preserver and 
 Saviour esteems more gratifying and honourable before 
 heaven than the receipt of prayers and praises for pre- 
 servation, and support as we are, and for salvation, to what 
 He has offered us in our future. 
 
 II. — It would seem that the hosts of heaven are not 
 confined to expressing their assent and joy through their 
 works ; or, as it were, by their happy subservience to the 
 carrying out of the physical and spiritual processes of the 
 present age. The cry of sevenfold honour doubtless indi- 
 cates that a full appreciation of Christ's dealings with us, 
 and of the marvellous possibilities opened to us, gives a 
 direct pleasure to uncountable beings, represented by these 
 angelsround the court. 
 
 Round about. We do not know on what kind of ground 
 these heavenly objects seemed to stand. It might have 
 been a plain ; it might be more in resemblance of the open 
 ground outside a gate of Jerusalem, or of a forum like that 
 in which St. Paul spoke at Athens, or any level spot with 
 rising sides for the audience ; or it might be all cloudland. 
 Whatever it were, we must picture this heavenly host, 
 not in a sphere all round the central court, but in a ring 
 extending indefinitely around it; and we may suppose the 
 appearance somewhat as if all stood on ground sloping 
 down towards the court. It is not to be supposed that 
 angels appeared to St. John with wings. Wings attached 
 to deities in the Greek classic art were very rare, and were 
 mere symbolic appendages to their caps, shoes, etc., and 
 the wings adopted long after St. John's time are out of 
 the question, being violations of every code of symbolism, 
 art, or mechanics. No angel in the Bible is described as 
 having wings ; those sufficiently described had none. By 
 St. John a few angels are described as flying, the term in 
 ordinary use for a dart, arrow, stone, or bird during its flight ; 
 but that is necessary to describe the mode of its movement,. 
 as it seemed in the vision to pass across the heaven. 
 
The Mystery of the Sealed Scroll 99 
 
 Ten thousands, etc. St. John's, as it were, hopeless 
 attempt to give, by means of ordinary numerals, an idea 
 of the vast number of angels is perhaps as successful as 
 any that could be devised. Both angelic and material 
 existence are a mystery to us. The Bible seems to favour 
 the existence of a material world outside ourselves, such 
 as is popularly now supposed to consist of infinitesimal 
 atoms. The angels need not be so numerous as the atoms 
 they actuate, and yet might be an overwhelming number. 
 To anyone unaccustomed to consider such numbers, it may 
 be of assistance to reflect as follows : We all are aware 
 that a large number of atoms are required to form a wave 
 in a brisk storm in an uninterrupted sea ; there is no 
 reason to suppose that a wave of intense light has fewer 
 atoms to form it than an Atlantic roller : there are 50,000 
 such waves in every inch length ; so that some notion 
 may be formed of the process of calculating the number 
 of atoms requiring to be set in motion as we gaze on that 
 beautiful star Sirius, say 4,000,000,000,000 miles distant, 
 in order to enable his intense light to reach each one of 
 the eyes of even only one human spectator. Our experi- 
 ence therefore of matter is sufficient to allow us to admit 
 that St. John's figures are likely to be, not poetical exag- 
 gerations, but poetical under-estimates. 
 
 13. — Every created thing. We may as well suppose St. 
 John to include animate and inanimate creation as 
 uttering this praise. It is an ancient Hebrew metaphor 
 much used in the Psalms, and may not be scientifically 
 analyzed. It is useful to have this case of metaphor in 
 mind as a just caution when we are desirous to press 
 similar descriptions, elsewhere in these visions, to 
 furnish us with scientific truths. The expression seems 
 usually to mean only things having life, such as may be 
 eaten, for instance; it is only used in i Tim. iv. 4; 
 James i. 18; Rev. v. 13; viii. 9. 
 
lOO The Revelation giveti to St. John the Divine 
 
 Note on the Evolution of Man. 
 
 Whatever led to the development, or evolution, of man 
 up to Adam's time, we may compare the account of his 
 origin in the first book of the Bible with the revelation 
 of his condition in the last book. In the first chapter 
 of Genesis is an account of the gradual formation (or 
 creation, if we can keep the simple meaning of that term), 
 of the world, and ultimately of man. Man is not there 
 described as the highest animal. Though he is an animal, 
 he is also something more, much more — made in God's 
 image, and according to God's likeness. Whatever that 
 may mean, he has power over all other things, and 
 received God's commission to be ' fruitful and multiply,' 
 and to * fill and subdue the earth.' He had also God's 
 promise of continual sustenance through the things which 
 would grow out of the earth, largely in response to his 
 toil. 
 
 The ' generations,' or account of heaven and earth, 
 following Gen. ii. 4 are, like similar accounts further on 
 (vi. g; X. I ; xi. 10, etc.), the history of the life of Adam 
 and his successors from man's point of view, supplemented 
 by such additional description as is sufficient to explain 
 God's action so far as we are intended to know it. The 
 description of the country selected and prepared for 
 Adam (Gen. ii. 5, 6), as being without any grain or 
 vegetable grown on tilled land, or ' field,' and also without 
 rain, need not apply to the whole earth in a geological 
 sense. 
 
 But man, even when thus the established lord of 
 creation, had not reached his highest stage. God's 
 design for him, perhaps represented as being contained 
 in the sealed scroll, was that man should become fit for 
 heaven, and should be so adjudged before the hosts of 
 heaven and hell, after an unimpeachable trial. In order 
 to effect this trial the scheme of salvation was arranged. 
 
Tiie Mystery of the Sealed Scroll loi 
 
 A perfect representative man was formed, mature, yet 
 innocent, secured from all but one simple test of obedi- 
 ence, but subject to the same affections as other then 
 existing men, and (Gen. ii. 7) perhaps with a free will 
 beyond them, and also exposed, like other men, to 
 temptation, through his affections, by the devil. He 
 failed, and was sent out into the world condemned, 
 clearly and officially, to the condition in which men have 
 since lived, and presumably were living before. His 
 conduct justified God's treatment and discipline of all. 
 All were condemned in him. In the scheme of salvation 
 Adam and Christ are the two especially prominent 
 figures. As one is called the first, so the other is called 
 the last, Adam, or man (i Cor. xv. 45). Adam brought 
 us into the scheme of salvation ; he showed how many 
 barriers must be broken to make man fit for heaven, 
 and justified the discipline and severity of the scheme. 
 Christ saves out of the scheme all who accept salva- 
 tion. The account in Gen. ii. 4 begins human history 
 with Adam, i.e., it gives an account, divinely inspired 
 and supplemented, of man from man's point of view. It 
 is very brief, and in our present state of knowledge of 
 the force of the Hebrew tenses, is somewhat obscure. 
 Perhaps we should take every verb in Gen. ii. 4-21 as 
 historic present, except ' hath not rained ' (ver. 5), and 
 ' hath not been found ' (ver. 20) ; but one of the clearest 
 parts of it is the curse pronounced on Adam, under 
 which men have lived ever since, and, so far as we know, 
 may have lived before, and which runs wonderfully 
 parallel to the third and fourth seals (Gen. iii. 17-19). 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ORIGINAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION. 
 
 1 And I saw when the Lamb opened one out of the 
 seven seals ; and I heard one of the four animals 
 
 2 saying — as if a voice of thunder, ' Come !' And I 
 saw, and, see ! a bright horse ; and he seated on 
 him having a bow ! and a crown was given him : 
 and he came forth conquering, and in order that he 
 should conquer. 
 
 3 And when he opened the second seal, I heard the 
 
 4 second animal say, 'Come!' And another horse 
 came out, bay ; and it was given to him seated upon 
 him to take peace out of the earth ; and that they 
 will slay one another ; and a great sword was given 
 him. 
 
 5 And when he opened the third seal, I heard the 
 third animal saying, ' Come !' And I saw : and, see ! 
 a black horse ; and he seated on him having a pair 
 
 6 of scales in his hand ! and I heard as if a voice in 
 the middle of the four animals, saying * A day's 
 ration of wheat for a day's pay ; and three rations 
 of barley for a day's pay : and do not injure oil and 
 wine.' 
 
 7 And when he opened the fourth seal, I heard a voice 
 
 8 of the fourth animal saying, * Come !' And I saw : 
 and, see ! a pale-gray horse, and he seated on the 
 top of him ! he has a name — Death ; and Hades was 
 
Original English Translation 103 
 
 following after him : and authority was given them 
 over a quarter of the earth, to kill with broadsword, 
 and with famine, and with death, and by the wild 
 beasts of the earth. 
 9 And when he opened the fifth seal, I saw below 
 the altar the souls of those who had been slain on 
 account of the word of God, and on account of the 
 
 10 testimony which they had : and they cried out with 
 a loud voice, ' Till when, the Master holy and true, 
 dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on the 
 
 11 dwellers on the earth?' And there was given to 
 them to each a bright dress ; and it was said to 
 them that they should stop yet a little time, until 
 their fellow-servants also, and their brothers, who 
 are about to be killed as also they were, shall have 
 been completed. 
 
 12 And I saw when he opened the sixth seal ; and a 
 great earthquake occurred ; and the sun became 
 black as if a coarse cloth of hair ; and the whole 
 
 13 moon became as if blood; and the stars of heaven 
 fell into the earth, as a fig-tree casts its unripe figs 
 
 14 when shaken by a high wind ; and the heaven was 
 set apart as if a scroll rolled up; and every mountain 
 
 15 and island were moved out of their places; and the 
 kings of the earth, and the grandees, and the colonels, 
 and the rich, and the strong, and every servant and 
 free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the 
 
 16 rocks of the mountains, and say to the mountains 
 and to the rocks ' Fall upon us, and hide us from the 
 
 17 face of him who is seated on the throne, and from 
 the anger of the Lamb ; for the great day of his 
 anger is come, and who is able to stand ?' 
 
I04 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 THE FIRST SIX SEALS. 
 Section I. Verses i, 2. The White Horse. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 I. — Come! Half the MS. authorities add 'and see.' 
 The come alone may be used as an interjection, like lo ! 
 behold ! as it is in colloquial English, to call attention to 
 the symbol of a long procession of time or events. 
 
 2. — Bright, or brilliant, was a word in Greek used in 
 colour to describe several kinds of white ; such as snow, 
 or a dusty road, or a shade of gray horse. 
 
 Expository Notes, 
 
 I. — The first four seals* show the effects of the 
 physical and intellectual laws upon man. They indicate 
 the discipline due to his environment, under which his 
 intellectual aud social development will fluctuate or 
 advance ; and do not omit the spiritual experience which 
 this environment will secure him. The seals do not 
 represent real persons, nor real things; not princes, 
 states, angels, nor devils ; they are representative alle- 
 gorical figures of hfe, death, disease, and so forth. The 
 first four are not described as appearing in any particular 
 locality, but the horses seem to imply ground for them to 
 stand upon. The other two seals contain an appearance 
 of the altar, and of earth and its inhabitants ; but neither 
 are said to be seen occurring in either earth or heaven ; 
 and they have the characteristic of allegorical pictures, 
 rather than historical or dramatical scenes. 
 
 When the Lamb opened the first seal, St. John heard 
 one of the animals saying, with a sound like thunder, 
 
 * The expression " first seal '' is used in these notes often as an 
 abbreviation for " the vision showed to St. John when the first seal 
 was broken." And so mutatis mutaftdis for each seal, trumpet, 
 vial, etc. 
 
The First Six Seals 105 
 
 ' Come.' If this be the animal hke a Hon, it may express 
 nobility and conquering power. The thunder is always 
 associated with the direct voice of God. This voice 
 appeared to sound like thunder : it did not necessarily 
 appear to be thunder, any more than the eyes of the first 
 figure (i. 14) appeared to be actually flames, or his feet 
 brass ; still, it must show the voice of God Himself united 
 with that of the animal, to indicate that God had as close 
 a connection as the animal with this seal. The white 
 horse may mean purity, truth, innocence, and love. The 
 bow and arrows, as symbols, may characterize the figure 
 as slaying enemies or wild beasts, with an idea of protection 
 of those He defends from close attack. Perhaps the 
 notion of disabling w^hat is hostile is attached to the 
 symbol (Psa. Ixiv. 7, 8). The crown is a royal one, a 
 crown of conquest and supremacy. All the riders are 
 representative allegorical figures, not real persons. This 
 rider represents God's truth. His Spirit, with His con- 
 victings, knowledge, gifts, and powers, working amongst 
 men at the head of their physical environment. 
 
 Section II. Verses 3, 4. The Red Horse. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 4. — Bay : the colour of flame or carrot ; red or tawny. 
 Sword: this is the sword then usual; not that trans- 
 lated broadsword, but the regulation military sword. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 3. — When the Lamb opens the second seal there is no 
 sound like thunder. The second animal says, ' Come ' ; 
 and if this be the one like a steer, it may mean obstinate 
 and blind strife — hostility to the death towards any rival. 
 The flame-coloured horse may refer to the fire of God's 
 judgment. In the case of God's judgment, the trial is 
 always a just one ; and it decrees all that offends, and is 
 
1 o6 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 evil, either to destruction, or to destructive purification, 
 symboli2ed by fire. Setting apart spiritual matters — such 
 as justice, with which this vision, called up by the second 
 animal, has nothing directly to do — war and contest on 
 earth so far resemble the judgment of God, that the victor 
 wins by destroying or ousting the vanquished. The rider 
 is a symbol of that contest for the survival of the fittest, 
 which is common to all kinds of animal, and indeed to all 
 material life ; for war and killing one another is the chief 
 and most characteristic phase of this far-reaching contest, 
 which, so far as material laws go, is still a necessity of 
 material life. No connection with the first rider is 
 mentioned — such, for instance, as would indicate that the 
 seals follow the first rider as captives, or as allies, or as 
 rival competitors ; nor can they be successive, since the 
 first rider never ceases conquering. The first vision is a 
 symbol of a condition under which men will continue to 
 exist throughout the age, or dispensation, to which this 
 vision extends, and which allows physically unlimited 
 development amongst men ; and so must the others be 
 also. 
 
 Section III. Verses 5 and 6. The Black Horse. 
 
 Exegctical or Critical Notes. 
 
 6. — A day's ration, etc. This is a free translation, in 
 order to avoid importing irrelevant details or obscure 
 terms. The literal translation is : ' A choinix of wheat 
 for a denarius, and three choinices of barley for a denarius.' 
 A denarius was a frequent day's pay for a soldier, and for 
 others ; a choinix was one man's daily allowance. The 
 denarius, about St. John's time, was being altered from 
 84 to the pound, of about 11 5 oz. — an ounce more or 
 less — avoirdupois, to 96. It was of, so-called, silver. That 
 in which soldiers were paid was about f of the denarius 
 in general use. The choinix was a dry measure, holding 
 
The First Six Seals 107 
 
 as much as our ' beer-bottle,' viz., about one and a half 
 pints to two pints ; and there are traces of one — a sort of 
 magnum — which held four pints. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 5. — When the Lamb opened the third seal, the third 
 animal said, * Come.' If this be the animal with a face 
 like a man, it may mean intellectual activity and political 
 economy. The black colour of the horse probably indi- 
 cates the absence of other colours : of white — innocence, 
 joy, or mercy; of red — passion and violence; and so 
 forth ; for the colour was hardly appropriated in St. John's 
 time to the devil and evil spirits, or to indicate active evil. 
 In the second seal, that condition of our physical exist- 
 ence was implied under which, in a physical contest, the 
 victory of one means the worsting of the other ; so in 
 this seal the condition is prominent that if one person 
 has a thing, his fellow must do without it. The simplest 
 illustration of this condition is that of food. It is a 
 necessary condition of our material life that we cannot 
 give away our food for others to eat without starving our- 
 selves. This struggle for subsistence is a negative means 
 of promoting the evolution and improvement of all 
 material life by annihilating the weakest and least intelli- 
 gent of every species. Amongst men it involves a con- 
 tinual struggle to obtain possession of things to live upon, 
 or to sell or barter in order to obtain things to live upon. 
 It is specially ordered by the laws of creation that a man 
 can (as a rule) live by his work, and (as a rule) must work, 
 or will work, to live. Also, while the mass will live day 
 by day from hand to mouth, or, say, from New Year's 
 Day to New Year's Day on the excess of earnings over 
 outlay, yet a smaller number will save, or receive, the 
 means of using luxuries, and of having leisure. We say 
 as a rule because this seal ceases to be applicable in case 
 of death, and is also liable to be interfered with by the 
 
io8 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 action of kindness, or esteem, or gratitude, as well as by 
 war ; but the conditions symbolized by this seal have 
 held, and will hold, throughout this dispensation, or age, 
 as a rule. 
 
 The rider seems to represent man's consciousness, or 
 conscience, which we cannot but refer to a more intimate 
 and direct presence of God's Spirit than we do the laws 
 of inanimate matter. 
 
 Section IV. Verses 7 and 8. The Pale Horse. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 8. — A PALE GRAY, OX corpse-coloiircd, horse. 
 
 Hades seems always used for the place of the souls, or 
 lives, of those whose bodies are dead, and applies in- 
 differently to both good and bad. It is a convenient 
 term, borrowed from the heathen, for the Hebrew word 
 Sheol, a word which for the place of a departed soul 
 merely stands metaphorically for the place of a departed 
 body ; and jt is employed in its literal sense, though as a 
 poetical figure, in Deut. xxxii. 22: 'pit.' 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 7. — When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, the fourth 
 animal shouted, ' Come.' If this be the flying eagle, it 
 probably does not mean a vulture, but represents the way 
 disease and death strike here and there over the world, 
 without any visible terrestrial agent. The interpretation 
 of the seal is obvious. ' The last enemy that will be 
 abolished is Death,' says St. Paul (i Cor. xv. 26) ; and 
 this seal represents liability to casualty, and interruptions 
 of men's lives and plans — the uncertainty which will 
 attend the carrying out of any scheme or pursuit. Per- 
 haps a fourth part- is as near a proportion as we can 
 estimate of crossed or blighted plans, to those that can 
 be said to be worked to some result. We have to die 
 
The First Six Seals 109 
 
 voluntarily or involuntarily to many things in this life, as 
 well as to die to all at the end of it. Death itself, as the 
 chief and most effective interruption of our affairs in this 
 life, may represent them all. 
 
 Section V. Verses g to it. The Vision of the 
 Martyrs. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 g. — The soul, or life, of a man is that part of him 
 which, when the body is dead, remains alive. Various 
 attempts have been made, in mythology and legend, to 
 assign it an appearance and powers, always by trying to 
 resuscitate in some qualified form the dress, and the powers 
 of the bones, muscles, and brain, and especially of the 
 affections and spirit, of the deceased. 
 
 Testimony v^^hich they had. This, in a legal case, 
 would mean the evidence which, as witnesses in court, 
 the functionary in charge of their case assigned them to 
 bear, and which they did bear in court accordingly. 
 
 Below the altar. In xvii. i the harlot is described 
 as sitting on many waters. The Greeks spoke of a town 
 lying on a river, just as we do, meaning close on the shore 
 of the river. In viii. 3 an angel is described as standing 
 on the altar, meaning close up to it. We do not use on 
 in this sense, but should say at. Here we have the word 
 below, which is used by both Greeks and ourselves in 
 speaking of fields lying below other fields, or a line on a 
 page being below another line. 
 
 10. — Dwellers. The word originally applies to 
 settlers in a country or town, in our colonial sense. It 
 means more than casually dwelling or passing through. 
 The dwellers upon earth in this book always means those 
 who make their abode on earth and have their treasure 
 and hopes in it as distinct from Christian sojourners 
 (i Pet. ii. II, and elsewhere). The literal meaning of 
 
1 1 o The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 both terms is dwellers, the former being compounded 
 with another word so as to mean dwellers under (the con- 
 ditions and pursuits of), and the latter dwellers beside (as 
 travellers temporarily sojourning by the way). 
 II. — Dress : a complete suit of clothes. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 g. — So far we have seen symbols of what affect man 
 individually, as a self-interested moral and intellectual 
 unit. Whether it be the truth of God displayed in His 
 works, the rivalry of men, the impossibility of sharing the 
 use of material things between a man and his neighbour 
 for simultaneous use, or the liability to death, all primarily 
 and directly affect each man himself, apart from the 
 social effect upon Church, State, or any other social 
 grouping. 
 
 When the fifth seal, the first of the last three seals, 
 was opened, there appeared a group of souls, standing, 
 or prostrate, or both, such being the ordinary attitudes 
 during united prayer, below the altar, as worshippers 
 usually would pray before an offering which God had 
 appointed, for his acceptance, as a sweet savour. A soul 
 includes all the life and powers of a man which do not 
 perish with his body. These were the souls, of those who 
 had been, or should be, slain for delivering the testimony 
 which God had given them to deliver during their lives. 
 There must be caution in restricting the description of 
 these as having been slain, to represent only those 
 witnesses of God's truth upon earth who had actually 
 been slaughtered as martyrs. It would then follow that 
 the vengeance called for, and promised, was only for 
 actual slaughter. It would seem more suitable to the 
 vision, and to our Lord's words on the avenging all the 
 blood of the prophets (Matt, xxiii. 34, 35, and elsewhere) 
 upon such as should scourge or persecute any, as well 
 as upon such as should kill an}-, if we take slain in a 
 
The Fii'st Six Seals 1 1 1 
 
 figurative sense for all the hostile feeling prohibited by 
 the command ' Thou shalt not kill,' such as is sketched 
 by our Lord Himself (Matt. v. 21-24), and for all acts 
 springing from that feeling. 
 
 The visions of the seals exhibit man's natural and in- 
 tellectual environment ; they would therefore be incom- 
 plete without this exhibition of the concurrent justice of 
 God, which underlies all His works. God is here shown 
 accepting the obligation to make good all suffering and 
 loss, to which, under such a mechanical environment, 
 men may be subject, either owing to their obedience to 
 what they themselves believe to be the will of God, or 
 to the testimony and remonstrances with which they 
 proclaim to others what they believe to be the will of 
 God. 
 
 The testimony which they had almost exactly gives 
 the meaning and idea of St. Paul's (2 Cor. i. 12) : ' The 
 testimony of our conscience ; that in holiness and sincerity 
 of God ' — here, of His word — ' we behaved ourselves in 
 the world.' Different outward callings, and different 
 inward gifts, qualify for each individual the nature of the 
 ' testimony which he has ' to bear ; but these souls include 
 all kinds of men, and all kinds of testimony on account 
 of the Word of God, so long as it be genuine in God's 
 sight. 
 
 10. We have in the prayer of these souls reference to 
 the one great crux of the philosophers, who would seek 
 in intellectual advance the sufficient way to man's most 
 perfect social development. No reason has yet been 
 found for ' self-sacrifice ' being wise and pleasant. It 
 would be to prove a contradiction, for so soon as a man 
 sees that such and such a course is really the most self- 
 satisfying and alluring, there is no self-sacrifice in his 
 taking it. The only true self-sacrifice, consistent with 
 the mere reason of which the seals are illustrative, is 
 where a man either puts some obvious pleasure or hope 
 
112 The Revelation given to St. Johti the Divine 
 
 out of his own power into another's, in whom he has 
 reasonable trust that he will make it good, or more than 
 make it good, or where a man voluntarily incurs loss or 
 harm in reasonable trust that some other will ' avenge ' 
 or make it good. Compare our Lord's teaching 
 (Matt. X. 40-42 ; Luke vi. 32-35). A man may reasonably 
 go so far on entirely selfish grounds. Self-sacrifice for 
 another's good only is not a fruit of mere reason. These 
 souls appear to appeal to God to avenge their blood on 
 those who dwell on the earth, referring to the typical 
 Mosaic modes of purifying the land from blood guiltiness, 
 and no doubt expecting the banishment of both the crimes 
 and the criminals from the Kingdom of God, in which they 
 hope to be citizens. As the word slain is used in a 
 pregnant sense to include all lesser hostility, so the 
 word * avenge ' must be allowed the same latitude, and 
 must include all restitution and making good. As the 
 pra3^er of the souls shows that their trust is in God, so 
 the reply shows that God trusts them to have such a love 
 for their brethren as will ampl}' satisfy them for the 
 delay of their own cause. God appeals, not to their 
 reason or to their trust, but to their love for their fellow- 
 servants. 
 
 Just as the position of the priest officiating at the altar 
 is called above or on the altar (viii. 3), so the position of 
 the worshippers is here called helbw the altar. The altar 
 in heaven is either that of incense, or both the old altars 
 united in one. And, indeed, the incense offered in the 
 temple assumed a previous sacrifice ; and Christ having, 
 once for all, made that sacrifice, it is difficult to see that 
 an altar of sacrifice in the vision, implying continual 
 sacrifices being still made, would be a symbol with any 
 real meaning. The lamb standing as if slain seems a 
 simple symbol of Christ's completed sacrifice ; and He is 
 is in heaven, and not in the vision of things about to 
 happen on earth. 
 
The First Six Seals 1 1 3 
 
 We must bear in mind that ' true,' in the prayer of the 
 souls, always means literally agreeable to truth, including 
 both true and real. The title master exactly answers to 
 that of servant, and indicates that the souls recognise their 
 true Master in God, as completely as He recognises them 
 as His true servants. 
 
 This seal may well keep us alive to the fact that, besides 
 the natural existence we see around us, there is treasured 
 in the book of God an account of rewards and punish- 
 ments which He will in due time administer ; and this 
 account, though it arouse no cry of recognition in nature, 
 and is beyond the field of the universe, is as real as that 
 which we see and feel. This banking account is as good as 
 gold to debtor and creditor, and lies in safe custody. It 
 evidently refers to justice to be administered on earth, 
 but at the end of this age. 
 
 Section VI. Verses 12 to 17. The Great 
 Day of Wrath. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 12. — Occurred. We have no English word for the 
 very simple and common idea of the Greek word. The 
 nearest periphrasis, perhaps, is came, sinking the idea of 
 motion from anywhere ; or happened, sinking the idea of 
 chance. However, occurred is the nearest word in the 
 sense in which it is used of a thought, ' It occurred to 
 me that,' etc., and sinking all idea of interference or 
 obstructiveness. 
 
 Coarse cloth of hair, probably a thin coarse blanket 
 of black and brown goats' hair, used much in camp-life, 
 for sacks, bags, sieves, clothes, and, amongst others, by St. 
 Paul, for making tents. Its derivation is from packs for 
 beasts of burden. 
 
 13. — High wind. The Greek word great was used more 
 extensively than with us; our word chiefly applies to size; 
 
 8 
 
114 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 the Greek word does the same, but is more extended into 
 figurative meanings than our word. The same Greek 
 word great, which is here translated loud when appHed to 
 sound, is translated high when applied to wind. 
 
 14. — According to the scientific notion of the time, the 
 heaven of stars was considered to be a sort of ceiling, or, 
 in tent language, purdah, on which the fixed stars were 
 set equidistant from the earth, or on which each moved in 
 fixed array, according to its name. 
 
 Mountains were by some supposed to pin the earth 
 down to something below to keep it in its place. 
 
 Islands. As in early English, island means a land 
 with a great extent of water about it. The Peloponnesus 
 was so called by the Greeks, though it is no more an 
 island than the isle of Portland, and others. In a general 
 sense, we use the word continent to include any islands 
 in close connection with it ; and the Jews used the word 
 ■islands for the Mediterranean localities, reached by sea, 
 including ports actually on the continent. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 12. — As the fifth seal showed the state of those who 
 were slain to worldly schemes and success by the opposi- 
 tion of others who had no scruple about using to the 
 utmost all worldly means, regardless alike of their moral 
 aspect, and of their harmony with the Word of God, so 
 the sixth seal seems to symbolize the state of such as set 
 aside scruples, and make the best use of their intellect, of 
 their physical powers, and of all the confidence they can 
 obtain from others, to acquire and hold earthly success. 
 It is a dark picture ; for not only are the good worsted, 
 but the work they would do is lost ; for the winners have 
 no notion of doing it. Perhaps the most complete 
 illustration is the result that befell the Jews who prevented 
 the Messiah from setting up His kingdom, but fell foul of 
 the secular power of Rome in trying to set up their own.. 
 
The First Six Seals 115 
 
 Perhaps it was even best for them that they also were 
 prevented, as they were, from setting up their own 
 kingdom. 
 
 Those who are conscientiously acting under God's laws 
 have an ideal and aim so much above earthly schemes 
 that they are not symbolized as losing by any of these 
 commotions. Their earthly treasures are not their own, 
 and as stewards of them, they esteem it their gain to see 
 the pleasure of their Master worked out in them. Even 
 were the ten talents of their earthly trust taken away from 
 them, and not restored, they hardly feel it to be a loss 
 when they enter into possession of ten cities. Our 
 Saviour never mourns the loss of His earthly kingdom, 
 nor do His followers even mention it, on its own account. 
 
 The picture in the sixth seal makes the most striking of 
 a class of cases a symbol for all. The first occurrence, an 
 earthquake, fixes its scene to be earth, and earth's heaven, 
 symbols of society and states, organized under ruling 
 powers and guiding lights. In interpreting we follow the 
 lead of the vision, and point out only a conspicuous illus- 
 tration of its fulfilment. It applies to the present age, 
 applicable from prehistoric times, but specially from the 
 time of St. John up to our Saviour's taking the kingdom. 
 The earthquake symbolizes the shattering of states and 
 organizations of power, and is certainly not too strong a 
 figure for the condition of the people who inhabited what 
 is now France, Germany, Austria, and Britain, from 
 about 100 years after St. John up to WiUiam the Con- 
 queror. Taking a Roman emperor of St. John's time to 
 represent the sun, fostering prosperity and peace and 
 ordering the seasons of the Roman empire, the nearest 
 approach to such a power within the time above men- 
 tioned — say Charlemagne's — could barely represent such 
 a sun behind a blanket. Every subordinate power was 
 held by the continual use of the sword. The subordina- 
 tion of the princes, dukes, counts, knights, etc., to the 
 
ii6 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 emperor or king was purely personal, inasmuch as they 
 were each absolute over the lives, deaths and property of 
 all below them, and made their own laws for their own 
 best advantage, free from all interference. For the multi- 
 tudes there was no way out of it, no guiding star. The 
 whole moon (i.e., the moon throughout the whole month) 
 became like blood, and the stars of heaven fell like unripe 
 figs. Every few years the Western empire changed its 
 capital ; states were re-outlined ; races of men moved 
 bodily into fresh lands, enslaving or slaughtering all the 
 former owners. Each change, made by violence, held by 
 violence, and lost by violence and treachery, illustrated 
 the vanity of earthly pre-eminence, not only in these, 
 earth's noblest and best-armed clans, but in all who 
 made in lower walks of life more humble efforts to obtain 
 any success. 
 
 The struggle for existence, and for successive pre- 
 eminence, is a necessity of those laws of God under which 
 earth has its being and continuance for all who are not 
 redeemed from them, and written in the ' Lamb's book' of 
 another life. No earthly reason or law has yet been 
 found under which the struggle can be avoided. "Wherever 
 the struggle has ceased, degeneracy follows, and (apart 
 from very special interference from conscience, devotion, 
 and other non-earthly power) has been accompanied by 
 such misery as made death seem desirable. This seal 
 represents the condition of men acting under earth's laws, 
 and not controlling their actions by faith in any higher 
 aim. The seal is a view of human economy, as distinct 
 from natural existence. The earthquake, of which we 
 have lived to witness specimens, implies more than an 
 Indian dynastic change, or religious change of power, in 
 which one set of rulers merely oust and take the place of 
 another — very like a change of ministry in some South 
 American State ; it implies an upheaval of lower strata to 
 the surface, a complete transfer of the foundations of 
 
The First Six Seals 1 1 7 
 
 power from one class to another, as every mode of 
 organization of men proved, however successful it may 
 have been for a time, like the crest of a wave, which is 
 unable to stand as a permanent structure. The most 
 solid human erections have proved to be ' houses ' built 
 on sand ; the most conspicuous of man's works, even after 
 selection by historians for record, all prove unstable ; old 
 constitutions and aspirations perish, and new ones arise. 
 Thus we see empire first overthrown ; then follow govern- 
 ment under hordes of barbarians, feudal kings, nominal 
 kings under mayors, mixed kings and parliaments, 
 empires, states, democracies, powers over taxation, states, 
 and armies — all going on to a final ruin during the whole 
 age covered by the seal. These are but a conspicuous 
 sample of all the other worldly pursuits which touch every 
 man and woman, from king to slave ; worldly glory, 
 worldly interests, worldly happiness — all are real, but 
 imperfect, dearly bought, and perishable. 
 
 17. — It will be observed that the first four seals repre- 
 sent constant, and in their laws and nature unchanging, 
 appointments of God — unchanging, though acting under 
 changing circumstances, like the earth, rain and sun on 
 growing vegetation. The last three seals, so far as 
 described, seem to represent the changes, or growth, 
 going on in man throughout the action of the first four. 
 Those who bear true testimony to God's Word lose all 
 that can be got from the seals. St. Paul describes such, 
 more emphatically than St. John, as not slain, but crucified : 
 ' They who are Christ's crucified the flesh,' i.e., volun- 
 tarily, hke Christ, submit to crucifixion (Gal. v 24), as 
 he says, ' In the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through 
 whom ' (causal, as through bearing His testimony) ' the 
 world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.' It is 
 obvious that the career of such witnesses under the seals 
 ends in a state of prayerful rest and hope. On the close 
 of the seals there will remain this band of the dead still 
 
ii8 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 to be recompensed, and a sure record is being kept 
 of what will be given to those who have been slain 
 throughout the seven seals. On the other hand, they 
 who have lived to the world — as described by St. Paul in 
 Col. iii. 5 to 10, for instance — experience the natural ruin 
 of their schemes and hopes with fear and horror ; they are 
 left hiding in caves and rocks — seeking concealment, how- 
 ever forbidding and desolate — in dread of approaching 
 retribution. On the close of the seals there will remain 
 also a sure record of the retribution to be required of 
 them. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ORIGINAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION. 
 
 1 And, after this, I saw four angels standing upon the 
 four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of 
 the earth, that wind should not blow on the earth, or 
 on the sea, or upon any tree. 
 
 2 And I saw another angel ascending from the sun- 
 rising, having a seal of the living God : and he cried 
 out with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it 
 was given to injure the earth and the sea, saying, 
 
 3 * Do not injure the earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, 
 until we should have sealed the servants of our God 
 
 4 on their foreheads.' And I heard the number of the 
 sealed — one hundred and forty-four thousands (are) 
 
 5 sealed out of every tribe of the sons of Israel : out 
 of the tribe of Judah twelve thousands are sealed . . . 
 
 6-8 [and so on, for the tribes Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naph- 
 thali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zabulon, 
 Joseph, and Benjamin]. 
 
 9 After these (things) I saw, and see ! — a great 
 crowd, which no one could number, out of every 
 nation, and tribes, and peoples, and languages, 
 
 10 standing in front of the throne, clothed in bright 
 dresses, and palm-leaves in their hands, and (they) 
 cry out with a loud voice, saying, * Salvation to our 
 God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb !' 
 
 11 And all the angels were standing round about the 
 
I20 The Revelatio7i given to St. JoJin the Divine 
 
 throne and elders and four animals, and fell in front 
 of the throne upon their faces, and salaamed to God, 
 
 12 saying, ' Blessing and glory and skill and thanks- 
 giving and honour and power and strength to our God 
 
 13 for the ages of ages. Amen !' And one of the elders 
 answered, saying to me, ' These who are clothed in 
 the bright dresses, w^ho are they, and whence did 
 
 14 they come ?' And I said to him, ' M}' lord, thou 
 knowest.' And he said to me, ' These are they who 
 have come out of the great oppression, and washed 
 their dresses, and brightened them in the blood of 
 
 15 the Lamb. On that account they are in front of the 
 throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His 
 temple ; and He who is seated on the throne will 
 
 16 pitch a tent over them. They will not hunger any 
 more : neither will they thirst any more ; neither will 
 
 17 the sun ever fall upon them, nor any heat ; because 
 the Lamb between (them and) the throne will be 
 their shepherd and guide them to life's fountains of 
 waters ; and God will wipe off every tear from their 
 eyes.' 
 
 THE VISION OF THE FULLY REDEEMED. 
 
 Section L Verses i to 8. Sealing the Servants 
 
 OF God. 
 
 Exegeiical or Critical Notes. 
 
 I. — Four corners of the earth. The position 
 assigned to the angels seems merely to show their com- 
 plete control of every wind ; as we say, from every quarter. 
 So, symbolically, the touching every one of the four horns 
 of the altar was a complete hallowing, as of access to 
 God's acceptance from every side (Exod. xxix. 12). 
 
 3. — Trees. The word means fruit-trees, as opposed to 
 timber-trees ; but it is also used for trees in general. 
 
The Vision of the Fully Redeemed 1 2 i 
 
 4. — One hundred and forty-four thousand. In 
 the Greek the word thousand here is feminine, and is so 
 treated in xiv. i. This shows that in St. John's mind the 
 idea was not one hundred and forty-four thousand men, 
 but one hundred and forty-four thousand bodies of men, 
 each nominally a thousand, i.e., the largest civil division in 
 Israel, next in size to a tribe (Exod. xviii. 21). In this 
 verse the word sealed is masculine, attracted into that 
 gender by its immediate association with the ' sons of 
 Israel ' ; but it seems only necessary to have the feminine 
 attached to the word thousands once, to show that it is 
 used as the name of a civil division, or a component of a 
 tribe, wherever it is used for the number here sealed, or 
 for the like number signed on the forehead. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 I. — The words ' after this ' (compare xv. 5 ; xviii. i ; 
 xix. i) signify a change of vision, a disappearance of one 
 set of things and appearance of another, generally on the 
 same scene ; an exit and enter, rather than a change of 
 scene. If anything, the expression indicates a close con- 
 nection, rather than separation, of the visions between 
 which the expression is used. As to sequence of time, it 
 refers only to that of the visions, not to that of the events 
 which the visions represent. We notice that the first 
 four seals represent continued action of certain agents : of 
 God's Spirit, of the rule of the sword, and of trade, and 
 death. The fifth represents souls continually waiting for 
 something which is formally promised, but which they 
 have not yet received. This opens up a reference to 
 something further to happen ; and this something has 
 not happened up to the close of the sixth seal, which 
 represents a continual breaking up of earthly kingdoms, 
 and the fall and hiding of king and slave in dread of 
 something to come. So here, as in the fifth seal, the 
 final climax has still to come ; in the one case the reward 
 
122 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 of the righteous, in the other the anger of the Lamb on 
 the wicked. As we shall see, it is beyond the province of 
 the seals to show this climax : the old earth and heaven 
 will have passed away when that comes. 
 
 However, this climax is to be allotted to the seventh 
 seal ; and it is therefore clear that the events reserved to 
 be indicated (if only by silence) in the seventh seal are 
 consecutive to, and not contemporaneous with, the events 
 represented by the previous seals. The interval between 
 the appearance of the sixth and the seventh seals, seems, 
 therefore, appropriate for an episode to show what was 
 being done as regards the saints of God during all the 
 time of the sixth seals. The seals, from their nature, 
 almost leave these out ; the fifth seal merely shows them 
 as slain and waiting. We shall see that an episode is 
 also shown between the sixth and seventh trumpets ; 
 whereas the three series of the Woman, the Seven Last 
 Plagues, and the Harlot, are each separate and complete 
 visions ; not broken up to make way for each other. 
 They allude to one another, but are not structurally 
 interlaced. They form three opening chapters, of which 
 the vision of the White Horse and his Rider is the 
 fourth. 
 
 This episode, intervening between the sixth and seventh 
 seals, shows four angels standing at the four corners of 
 the earth in command of the four winds. We have 
 similar language used by our Saviour (Matt. xxiv. 31) in 
 prophetic conversation, in reference to the summoning of 
 His elect, by blast of trumpet, 'from the four winds', 
 which He explains by another customary metaphor — 
 ' from one end of heaven to the other.' These winds of 
 the vision are hurtful winds. They are winds ; not the 
 word translated in John iii. 8 alternately wind and spirit. 
 Such winds as these blow down houses (Matt. vii. 25), 
 shake the reeds (Matt. xi. 7), and raise the sea (John 
 vi. 18) ; indeed, the Greek word means just the same as 
 
The Vision of the Fully Redeemed 1 2 3 
 
 our word wind ; and in this vision will blow so as to cause 
 * hurt/ 
 
 In earlier prophecies the four winds blowing over a 
 country or sea seem to mean the continual or successive 
 attacks of surrounding hordes or nations, usually less 
 organized than the nation blown upon. Thus in Jer. xlix. 
 36, ■^j the Lord of hosts says, that the four winds from 
 the four quarters of heaven (St. John here says from the 
 four corners of earth) will scatter Elam in all directions ; 
 and He will cause Elam to be dismayed before her 
 enemies, etc. Judging both by the natural turn of this 
 passage, and from the Hebrew poetical habit of repeating 
 the same idea under different modes of expression, in 
 such poems as this of Jer. xlix. 35 to end, and also from 
 the historical knowledge we have of the way in which 
 Elam was consumed and her princes destroyed, we should 
 suppose the blasts of the four winds to mean hostile 
 attacks. So in Dan. vii. 2, the beasts representing empires 
 spring from the Great Sea, under the breaking forth upon 
 it of the four winds of heaven ; and no doubt these 
 organized empires sprung up owing to the continual 
 attacks of, and conflicts with, surrounding peoples. The 
 four angels of St. John must therefore represent an angelic 
 power restraining, for a time, the inroads and attacks of 
 hordes and peoples, already surrounding the land, and 
 destined to blow right over it. The land is the Roman 
 Empire (there was, indeed, no other organized empire in 
 St. John's time), subsequently split up into Christendom. 
 The sea here is not mentioned till after the land ; whereas 
 it comes first in Daniel's vision. In the phases through 
 which the territory and peoples of the old Roman Empire 
 have passed, up to our time, it may well be said that 
 it was often more sea than land — more disorganized than 
 organized. The sea, however, in prophecy seems to 
 represent not always barbarity, nor want of combination, 
 but also the separation of peoples and tribes by the 
 
124 ^/^^ Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 natural sea itself; for the name of the sea is given by 
 Daniel, whose proper names are real, not symbols ; and 
 we shall see that, as St. John's prophecy advances to later 
 times — e.g., to the downfall of Babylon — there are indica- 
 tions that the prophecy embraces a wider and wider area of 
 Christendom, and that phrases in it seem quite to apply 
 to the world, in our modern sense, and to the peoples 
 extended on all the shores and continents of the actual 
 ocean, just as Daniel's expressions applied to those of the 
 Great Sea or Mediterranean. 
 
 In the verse, then, with which this episode opens, the 
 angels of God are represented as restraining the inroads 
 of hostile peoples, which are destined to sweep from all 
 sides over the whole of the constituted governments and 
 states included in St. John's prophecy — the then Roman 
 Empire — and beyond it into what was then disorganized 
 sea ; and to strike against their dependencies, their 
 motives of production, and their productive population — 
 symbolized by trees. Here we must use the word pro- 
 duction, not in the modern sense as opposed to manufacture, 
 but as including all cultivation and manufacture, and 
 those engaged in the work or protection of either. It is 
 history — a succession of events — not allegory, that is being 
 represented, as afterwards history is represented in the 
 episode of the witnesses. Like the other episode, and 
 like the whole of the historical visions, it seems to begin 
 in St. John's time. It is very brief, and omits all preface 
 as to how the angels came to be thus standing with the 
 winds, and confines itself to one great event on earth— 
 the sealing, nothing before or after. 
 
 2. — The other angel ascends from the sun-rising, or 
 East, the source of the dawn and the sun, the direction 
 to which the tent and temple looked. In this prophecy 
 (xvi. 12) ' the kings from the sun-rising ' are mentioned, 
 whatever ^that may mean, but the expression does not 
 occur elsewhere in the New Testament. The song of 
 
The Vision of the Fully Redeemed 1 2 5 
 
 Zacharias (Luke i. 78, 79) (in the song of Zacharias 
 the word is merely ' rising,' a word translated Ea^t in 
 Matt. ii. 2, and in other places ; no sun nor day is men- 
 tioned) may probably be relied upon for giving us the 
 associations connected with a figurative use of the rhing — 
 sun-rising or East, in St. John's time. The light symbolized 
 was one which should guide us out of darkness and death 
 into life and peace. The sealing, like that sealing or 
 mark shown to Ezekiel (ix. 4), distinguished the servants 
 of God from those who were not His servants, and secured 
 their salvation — whether from or under the hurt caused 
 by the winds is not stated. This distinguishing mark 
 seems likely to be that described in other terms by St. 
 Paul (Rom. iii. 22), viz., the righteousness of God made 
 apparent by their conduct, tested by God's law, and 
 accepted by His grace. It does not refer only to the con- 
 sciousness of the receiver that he is accepting grace and 
 repentance from God ; but mainly, like the seal of circum- 
 cision (Rom. iv. 11), to the oirtward evidence he gives. In 
 this vision elsewhere (xiv. i) the seal is the name of the 
 Son, and that of the Father, a mark which our Lord 
 always describes as distinct enough to men (Matt. x. 22 ; 
 John XV. 21). The sealing is really that impressed by 
 the Holy Spirit (Eph. i. 13 ; iv, 30), and both these types 
 of public circumcision and baptism represent the outward 
 appearance in our conduct, which necessarily results, if we 
 do not wilfully grieve Him, from that Holy Spirit's work 
 when He is so given to us. Still, the sealing, and the 
 angel sealing, represent nothing physical. 
 
 After all is ready for loosing the winds so as to blow 
 upon the earth and sea and trees, and when the angels 
 are standing all ready to loose them, then the other angel 
 comes up from the East just in time. He cries out — the 
 literal meaning being about half-way between the English 
 cries out and screeches out — to them to hold till the sealing 
 shall be completed. The question now arises whether 
 
126 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 this sealing by the angel, or marking by the two-horned 
 beast (xiii. i6), be such that, when once put upon an 
 individual man, it marks him permanently and rixes his 
 eternal doom. There is no appearance of this, not even 
 so much as there is in favour of circumcision or baptism 
 doing this. It would seem assumed that all these marks 
 are alike of the nature they would have in Abraham's 
 time. The circumcision was a sign of God's unalterable 
 determination to support His part in the covenant, but it 
 was subject to the man being faithful on his part. So 
 long as man lives in a state of probation on earth, no man 
 can absolutely prove his neighbour's spiritual state on any 
 physical or scientific evidence. In a court of justice, 
 evidence given as to a man's character, if confined to 
 mere facts, without any expression of conviction, really 
 would not touch the question of what we ordinarily mean 
 by a man's character. To turn to scriptural usage, there 
 is no denial of the effective and eternal permanence of the 
 sealing and marking, such as there is of circumcision 
 (Phil. iii. 5-8), or of baptism (Acts viii. 13, 22, 23), 
 though the possibility of its inefficiency is assumed, at 
 least as a basis for argument (Heb. vi. 4-6). So long 
 as a man lives, the Gospel is an authorized message to 
 him (Mark xvi. 15 ; Col. i. 23), and, whether he be 
 heathen or excommunicated heretic, Christ's Apostles 
 and ministers are bound to seek to convert him. Again, 
 so long as a Christian lives, he is bound to avoid, and 
 Christ's Apostles and ministers are bound to protect him 
 from, stumbling-blocks, or temptations to transgress by 
 leaving the path of God's calling. Yes, verily, and by 
 God's help he will do it. The final doom of each indi- 
 vidual is fixed elsewhere, not while he is upon earth. It 
 may be said that the liability to his final sentence is 
 incurred on earth, but that is a different thing. 
 
 3. — The servants of God are sealed, as clay or soft wax 
 is sealed ; whereas the two-horned beast makes all to be 
 
The Vision of the Ftilly Redeemed 127 
 
 marked — literally engraved — with a chisel, but used for the 
 stamping of coin, for hand writing, and presumably for 
 printing. Our Saviour uses the figure of sealing (John vi. 
 27). It is a means of making apparent to others whose 
 servants they are. It is done in (or by, as the instrument) 
 Christ and the Holy Spirit (see also Eph. i. 13 ; iv. 30). 
 As a mark, it neither is destructive, like puncturing or 
 branding, nor do we read of any foreign substance added 
 and laid on. It seems to imply that the bearer of it has 
 some of the authority and commission of his master, 
 analogous to what is imparted to anything else by means 
 of a seal, such as a document, or will, or even a phial of 
 medicine. 
 
 The mark of the two-horned beast (xiii. 17) is the 
 number of his name. The marks alluded to by St. Paul 
 (Gal. vi. 17) are properly punctures, made by piercing 
 with a pointed instrument ; though that word is also 
 used for a mark burnt in with a hot brand. St. Paul, no 
 doubt, refers to our Saviour's wounds on the cross, but 
 by a figure which also implies that he is marked as re- 
 covered to be a servant of Christ, as distinctly as a run- 
 away slave on recovery is marked by his master's brand. 
 This seal is of a different character to either a brand on a 
 runaway slave, or a mark made on a purchased one. 
 Placed on the forehead, it cannot be like the name on the 
 pebble (ii. 17), unknown to all but the receiver ; but it 
 would rather seem that the sealing is a mark visible to 
 their fellow- men, and does not intrude into the hidden 
 relations between each soul and God, such as are hidden 
 to all but that soul and God. 
 
 It is stated that St. John heard the number sealed ; not 
 that he saw the sealing, nor the winds released, but the 
 one hundred and forty-four thousands seem spoken of 
 as the number, or as part of the number, sealed. The 
 passag^e runs thus : ' And I heard the number (ace.) of 
 the sealed (gen.) one hundred and forty-four thousands 
 
128 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 sealed (nom.) out of every tribe of the sons of Israel ; out of 
 the tribe of Judah twelve thousands sealed (nom.),' and 
 so on. We may contrast with this the construction of 
 xiii. i8, where the verb substantive is expressed, * Let 
 him who has understanding calculate the number (ace.) 
 of the beast (gen.), for it is a man's number (nom.), and 
 his number (nom.) 666.' But there is such a confusion 
 in the text of our oldest MSS. as to justify the argument 
 that the original text was very idiomatic, if not confused. 
 Of the three oldest MSS. one omits the words ' I heard 
 the number of those sealed,' and so leaves St. John's 
 words as a description of the sealing as he saw it done. 
 The seal seems to be called God's own name (xiv. i ; 
 compare Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7), and not any number of God, 
 nor of the woman clothed with the sun, nor does she 
 cause any mark to be given. 
 
 5. — In making up the number of one hundred and 
 forty-four thousands by twelve thousands from each of 
 twelve tribes named, the tribe of Dan is left out, a tribe 
 which, though possibly extinct in St. John's day, could 
 hardly have so failed that not one from it was sealed ; 
 but it is obviously needless to investigate the names of 
 the twelve tribes, or of the twelve apostles, since through- 
 out the whole vision all proper names are symbolical, not 
 real. We may pretty certainly infer that thousands is 
 used as the largest of the divisions, next to tribes, into 
 which Moses divided the nation (Exod. xviii. 25, 
 Num. i. 16), and this division is adopted in prophetical 
 writings (Micah v. 2, LXX.), much as we might use the 
 word houses or families as the largest subdivision next 
 to a tribe. In any case, a ' thousand ' means one of an 
 organized system of congregations or bodies of people, 
 into which, whatever the exact number in it may be, no 
 individual is received unless he fulfil certain qualifications. 
 Those admitted into the bodies described as thousands 
 are each marked in such a way as to carry on their 
 
The Vision of the Fully Redeemed 129 
 
 features (to preserve the figure of the symbol in the 
 vision), a character which distinguishes them from other 
 men. It may be meant that all of each tribe were sealed, 
 and that there were twelve thousands in each tribe, for 
 they are not mentioned as a portion of more. It seems 
 that the number one hundred and forty-four thousands 
 sealed continues a permanent number in the vision (xiv. i), 
 like the twenty-four elders or the seven churches. It 
 certainly represents a body of people existing as a body 
 on the earth at any time treated of, liable to be hurt by 
 the four winds, and presumably existing during the whole 
 time of the four winds blowing. They show before men 
 the graces and gifts of God, and it is not said that the 
 sealing will protect them from hurt by the four winds, 
 or from persecution, or from any earthly contingency ; 
 but it obviously makes them living witnesses before the 
 world of the name which they bear on their foreheads. 
 
 Section II. Verses 9 to 17. The Unnumbered 
 
 Host. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 10. — Palm-leaves : probably originally applied to a 
 stem of palm-fruit and leaves, used to ornament a door- 
 way or triumphal arch on festive occasions. This word 
 was afterwards applied to the more portable spray or leaf 
 carried by each person in a festive procession, whether 
 palm or not. 
 
 14. — Brighten. Only used in the New Testament at 
 the end of Mark ix. 3. The word is used for the dawn 
 brightening the eastern sky, and also for bleaching cloth. 
 
 15, — Serve, work for, or else perforin religious service. 
 
 Temple : always the covered temple, or shrine, in St. 
 John. 
 
 Pitch a tent. Though this word is much more 
 frequently applied to pitching tents than to anything else, 
 
 9 
 
130 The Revelation given to St. Johti the Divine 
 
 the word tent is not the original meaning so much as a 
 shelter, and came to be applied to temporary stages in a 
 market, and so to dwelling-houses and temples. 
 
 17. — Life's fountains of waters : called in xxi. 6 
 * the fountains of the water of life.' In xxii. 17 neither 
 fountains nor river is mentioned, but * water of life ' is 
 spoken of. It is Hkely that * life ' is here put first for 
 emphasis, to impress the contrast with the waters they 
 had drunk under oppression while on earth, and applies 
 to the waters, not to the fountains. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 g. — After this vision of the body of the sealed on earth, 
 St. John was shown a vision of a white-robed crowd in 
 heaven, representative, not on the model of the figures 
 in the seals, not of dispensations, but of real men. They 
 would include those whose lives were taken away, and 
 who were seen in the fifth seal crying out from below the 
 altar. 
 
 This vision is introduced and explained to St. John by 
 an elder, as if he in some way specially belonged to it, or 
 it to him. If the animals represent the material (what- 
 ever that be, for we only know it by the impressions on 
 our minds) and intellectual powers of nature, the elders 
 will represent some higher enthroned powers, actuating 
 the spirits of men on earth ; and, at all events, the elders 
 fulfil none of the usual conditions of visions of men 
 beatified. This crowd represents all the beatified saints 
 from the creation to the end of the world, though some 
 may be there before, and some after, the events shown 
 as going on upon the earth. Compare our Saviour's 
 words in John viii. 56 : ' Your father Abraham rejoiced 
 to see my day: and he saw it and was glad.' The 
 one hundred and forty-four thousands sealed, like the 
 twelve tribes of Israel, will include a long succession of 
 men living on earth during many years ; but this crowd, 
 
The Vision of the Fully Redeemed 1 3 1 
 
 gathered out of every nation, tribe, people, and language, 
 must be shown as independent of time, and must include 
 all who ever were amongst the one hundred and forty- 
 four thousands on earth. This crowd in the white robes 
 of righteousness, and with the palm branches of victory 
 and peace, ascribe to God, not creation (iv. 11), as did 
 the animals and elders, nor worth, as did these very 
 angels when the Lamb undertook the scheme of salvation 
 (v. 12) ; but they ascribe salvation itself, i.e., making safe 
 and sound. It is the same word as is used by the 
 Apostles in their appeal to our Lord in the boat 
 (Matt. viii. 25), and a favourite with our Lord Himself 
 when He healed the sick (Luke vii. 50 ; viii. 48 ; xvii. ig ; 
 xviii. 42), and, as if that raised God's glory to its highest 
 perfection, they fall before Him on their faces, and assign 
 to Him sevenfold praise for ever. This time their adora- 
 tion is not heard only, but seen, by St. John. 
 
 Yet these white-robed ones are not mixed with the 
 heavenly host ; they are on the same scene, theatrically 
 speaking, as the animals and elders. Before the seals 
 were opened the four animals and twenty-four elders 
 took harps and led the praise, and the heavenly host 
 joined in, and declared the Lamb worthy of sevenfold 
 praise ; but now, at the close of this episode, the white- 
 robed lead the praise, and the heavenly host join in and 
 declare sevenfold praise to God for His salvation. From 
 analogy we infer that the white-robed represent the re- 
 risen saints acting upon earth, though not on the footing 
 on which they acted during life upon earth, but on some 
 footing analogous to the cherubim or spirits represented 
 by the animals, and to the guardian angels or spirits 
 represented by the elders. 
 
 These white-robed, again, are distinguished, both for 
 what they have gone through as children of Adam, and 
 for what they have done, under that tribulation, as sons 
 of God, What they have all done is to wash and brighten 
 
132 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 their dresses in the blood of the Lamb. This washing, 
 of which baptism is a type, ' not putting away of the filth 
 of the flesh, but inquiry of a good conscience after God ' 
 (i Pet. iii. 21), represents the 'repentance,' or mingled 
 dissatisfaction and amendment, which our Lord preached 
 from the beginning of His ministry (Matt. iv. 17 ; 
 John iii. 3) to the end (Mark vi. 12). The brightening 
 their dresses represents the power, purity, wisdom, 
 happiness, love, and peace of their external conduct — the 
 light-giving fruit of the spirit. From oppression, which 
 represents the aggression of all evil, they will be protected, 
 as the chief of an Arab tribe protects his family by raising 
 a tent or shelter over them. Perhaps there is no safer 
 protection in the world of ordinary life. Even all their 
 necessities, and due safeguards of their health and com- 
 fort, will be thought of and provided for. They will not 
 have a pain or disappointment, or any liability to further 
 death. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ORIGINAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION. 
 
 1 And when he opened the seventh seal, silence 
 occurred in heaven for about half an hour. 
 
 2 And I saw the seven angels who stand in front of 
 
 3 God ; and seven trumpets were given them. And 
 another angel came, and stood at the altar, having a 
 gold censer; and much incense was given to him, 
 that he should give it to the prayers of all the saints 
 
 4 upon the gold altar in front of the throne ; and the 
 smoke of the incense ascended to the prayers of the 
 saints from the hand of the angel, in front of God. 
 
 5 And the angel has taken the censer, and he filled it 
 out of the fire of the altar, and threw it into the 
 earth ; and thunders and voices and lightnings and 
 
 6 earthquakes occurred; and the seven angels who had 
 the seven trumpets got themselves ready that they 
 should sound. 
 
 7 And the first sounded : and hail and fire occurred, 
 both mixed with blood, and were thrown into 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. 
 
 8 And the second angel sounded : and as if a great 
 mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea ; 
 
 g and the third (part) of the sea became blood ; and the 
 third (part) of the created things in the sea, those 
 
134 T^f^^ Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 which have lives, died ; and the third (part) of the 
 ships were destroyed. 
 
 10 And the third angel sounded: and a great burning 
 star, as if a lamp, fell out of heaven, and fell upon the 
 third (part) of the rivers, and upon the fountains of 
 
 11 the waters. And the name of the star is called 
 Wormwood ; and the third (part) of the waters were 
 turned into Wormwood ; and many of the men died 
 from the waters, because they were made harsh. 
 
 12 And the fourth angel sounded : and the third (part) 
 of the sun was struck, 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 appear the third (part) of it, and the night 
 in like manner. 
 
 13 And I saw one eagle flying in mid heaven, saying 
 with a loud voice, 'Woe ! woe ! woe ! the inhabitants 
 of the earth ! out of the voices of the trumpets of the 
 three angels who are about to sound.' 
 
 THE UNFOLDING OF THE MISSION OF THE ANGELS. 
 
 Section I. Verses i to 6. The Sight of the 
 Angels. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 I. — About, as St. John uses the word (John i. 39). 
 ' The hour was about the tenth.' 
 
 2. — Trumpets, war-trumpets, but used also for sacred 
 and other purposes. 
 
 3- — At the altar, as a money-changer stands at his table. 
 Literally, the preposition means on. 
 
 Censer. The word used means everywhere frankincense, 
 except here and in the fifth verse. It is found in other 
 parts of the New Testament. 
 
The Unfolding of the Mission of the Angels 135 
 
 5. — Earthquakes. The Greek word always used for 
 earthquakes is merely quakes. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 I. — We have now all the preliminaries for the opening 
 of the seventh seal, as it were, collected and marshalled 
 ready. Earthly governments, ranks, fortunes, and divi- 
 sions, have come to a dead lock, to a common ruin. The 
 four angels have appeared ; the sealing of the one hundred 
 and forty-four thousands on earth has been effected ; the 
 crowds of the white- robed have been added, after their 
 oppression, to the animals and elders ; all the angels are 
 seen collected round the whole company. 
 
 On the opening of the seventh seal, there was silence 
 in heaven about half an hour. Simply nothing came, and 
 St. John can tell us nothing. The pause was enough to 
 show that the next vision was a new one, and that the 
 vision of the seals was over. Such a space may be 
 necessary in order to show a blank ; but it is unnecessary 
 when one vision succeeds and replaces another. No such 
 silence is indicated anywhere else, nor can it be explained 
 as a vision (so to speak) of some time when there was 
 nothing being done, by God or man, upon earth. The 
 word silence occurs nowhere else but in Acts xxi. 40. 
 
 2. — St. John next saw the seven angels who stand before 
 God, and another presiding at the altar. No lampstand 
 is mentioned as standing in this temple ; the only lamp- 
 stands seen were in the first vision on earth. 
 
 In Joshua (vi. 4, etc.) we have seven priests ordered to 
 blow seven trumpets in front of the ark, which represented 
 God's presence. In that opening of the final war of 
 extermination, or expulsion, of the Canaanitish possessors 
 of the Holy Land, the ark and priests went out from the 
 camp, and made a circuit round the scene of contest ; but 
 no part in the actual contest was taken by the priests. 
 In this case the angels with the trumpets are those who 
 
136 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 stand before God as officiating priests in the heavenly 
 temple ; and apparently they blow the trumpets, one by 
 one, where they stand, and take no further part in what 
 follows. Another angel, typified on earth by the High 
 Priest, offers incense, symbolizing the acceptance and 
 furtherance of the prayers of the saints. No doubt the 
 scene is a heavenly symbol of the same truths of which 
 the earthly temple worship was a type ; so that the angel 
 at the altar represents Christ as Priest. The vision must 
 have occurred at the end of the half-hour, and is intro- 
 duced by the simple ' And I saw.' The series of these 
 trumpets, which must be under the regimen of the seals, 
 concerns the political and religious development of beings 
 possessed of intelligence and conscience, and endowed 
 with powers of responsible choice and free will. That 
 the siege of Jericho was a type of this, considering who 
 was the Author of both, we may accept more confidently 
 than any prophetic analogy David drew, in his Psalms, 
 between the kingdom of Israel and the perfect kingdom of 
 Christ. We may feel as secure that like forms will be 
 found in the early and developed conditions of Christ's 
 church and kingdom, as a ' scientist ' does of the perma- 
 nence of like forms in the organization of early and of 
 developed animals or vegetables. The ruin does not 
 occur, in either case, till the last trumpet sounds. During 
 six soundings the events of note in Christendom are the 
 workings within Christendom of the dwellers upon earth ; 
 and, as given in episodes, the condition of the saints 
 during these same events — during this suspension of the 
 final judgment. 
 
 The time of the events in the trumpets is clearly not 
 before St. John's life (iv. i), and it only remains to consider 
 how far they are contemporaneous, and how far con- 
 secutive. Actions of men must each occupy a definite 
 time, must each have a beginning and an end, and either 
 beginning or end will be clearly indicated in the vision. 
 
The Unfolding of the Mission of the Angels 137 
 
 if it be revealed at all. In the case of Daniel's vision it 
 is only revealed incidentally and imperfectly. The four 
 beasts (Dan. vii. 3, B.C. 539) were in existence in Daniel's 
 time, and, one would infer from the parallel vision 
 (Dan. ii. 44), exist now ; but they reached their climax, 
 and acted the part which assigns them their position in 
 the prophecy successively. The first four trumpets seem 
 to be contemporaneous also, all acting through the whole 
 time from the first breaking up of the pagan empire until 
 the complete breaking up of every form and principle of 
 its constitution as a power, or collection of powers. They 
 are not like Joseph's ears of corn and kine, merely re- 
 peated representations of the same events (see viii. 13) ; 
 for, unless the whole seven were repetitions, it would be 
 quite unprecedented that any two should be so. That 
 the chief developments of the four trumpets should all 
 occur at once, seems as unlikely as that the four beasts 
 of Daniel should culminate together, though there is 
 nothing in his vision (Dan. vii. 3-8) to show that they 
 did not. 
 
 Section II. Verse 7. The Sounding of the 
 First Angel. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 There seems to be some parallel between this and the 
 Egyptian plagues (Exod. ix, 22 ; x. 14) — enough to suggest 
 that so much of the earth and trees as was in a condition 
 to be destroyed was destroyed, and the rest would recover. 
 All green grass would be burnt up, and then all would 
 recover. There is no duration of the plague given. 
 Presumably the trumpet did not sound all through the 
 storm, but only gave the signal to begin, unless, indeed, 
 as in the siege of Jericho, all the trumpets, as they suc- 
 cessively began, were blown continuously (Josh. vi. 4 ; 
 but the point is not very clearly decided). Therefore 
 
138 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 the second trumpet might follow the first at once, and 
 bring on the second plague contemporaneously with the 
 first, or with part of it. The storm of the external 
 invasion of the Roman Empire, the earth, certainly 
 destroyed a third part of the organized government 
 and state processes, and also a third part of the nobility 
 and merchants, their property, power, stores, and manu- 
 factories ; and where these invading hordes swept with 
 their full force {e.g., over the Euphrates, Danube, North 
 Italy, and Africa) all the cultivation and all the country 
 people were swept away, so that even the sites of populous 
 cities were converted into waste ground, to provide a 
 run for horses. And after the incorporation of the outer 
 tribes into Christendom, this mode of warfare only sub- 
 sided to a degree as the feudal times came on. In 
 Edward III.'s reign it gave a character to the wars in 
 Guienne (about 1366 a.d.). In the earlier half of the seven- 
 teenth century the Thirty Years' War, and the French 
 inroads, were of similar temper. In our Queen Anne's 
 time (1710 A.D.) the bombardment of a town was con- 
 sidered a noble action. The earth would represent all 
 rulers, chiefs, and ruling assemblies or corporations in 
 Christendom, and the institutions on which they, and the 
 security of human affairs under them, rest. The trees 
 may be all industrial groups for useful and remunerative 
 manufacture or for beauty, and the property, customs, 
 and social security upon which their growth and fruitful- 
 ness depend. The grass or open pasture would include 
 all who get subsistence or remunerative employment 
 without much store of skill or capital. The fire would 
 imply a selection of the fittest by acute means beyond 
 mere business competition, by actual combat, and by 
 violent suppression. Hail would include impressment, 
 taxation, forced exactions by armed bodies, and restric- 
 tions, whether of movement of persons or goods, or of 
 markets. The blood always seems to mean slaughter, 
 
The Unfolding of the Mission of the Angels 139 
 
 and in this trumpet is mixed with the other two symbols, 
 fire and hail. It is clear that the trumpet must continue 
 to sound so long as, under some sanctioned laws of war 
 and honour, war remains the necessary and ultimate 
 appeal for adjusting and resettling the constitutions and 
 civilizations of Christendom. 
 
 Section III. Verses 8 and 9. The Sounding of 
 THE Second Angel. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 8. — The third part is exactly our English a third. 
 Part is not in the Greek. 
 
 9. — Have lives, that is, animal life. Life was not 
 recognised in vegetables in the age of St. John. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 8. — At the blast of the second angel a great mountain, 
 burning with fire, was thrown into the sea. Mountains 
 represent both means of protection in their fastnesses, 
 and means of destruction in their avalanches (vi. 15, 16). 
 But this is not a mountain, and is all on fire ; it is an 
 immense offshoot of war and violence from civilized 
 Christendom, its structure or basis is their codes of war 
 and honour, and it affects the whole sea. The sea, in 
 Daniel's prophecies, represents the mass of disunited, 
 unfixed states or tribes on the Mediterranean continually 
 in tumult and change. The sea, in his vision, produces 
 out of itself beasts which rule on land, which have a 
 living body, such as Christ's Church has, but are sprung 
 from a totally different stock, and they stand on earth, on 
 a solid basis of civilization. In this vision of St. John's 
 there are no beasts, and ships are mentioned. Except 
 that ships are substituted for trees, the effect of this 
 fiery landslip seems to be to reduce the sea to about the 
 same condition as the earth, as is described in the first 
 trumpet. We cannot take Daniel's figurative sense of 
 
140 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 sea, which he restricted to the Mediterranean ; but it will 
 here mean all the world outside Christendom, usually 
 reached by sea, and the nations and tribes, usually reached 
 by ships. On to these countries and tribes the armed 
 powers will throw themselves, not in a peaceful alliance, 
 but blazing together in a bloody struggle for survival, 
 no two being able to occupy a new country in peace 
 together. The ships will include shipping enterprise, 
 property, interests, facilities, and security, and all persons 
 thereon engaged. The created things in the sea would 
 mean, as in Daniel, the tribes reached by sea, such as 
 those on the Mediterranean who wonderfully produced 
 our present civilization. 
 
 Section IV. Verses 10 and ii. The Sounding of 
 THE Third Angel. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 II.- — Wormwood, absinthe ; here spelt with a capital, 
 because St. John gives the word, which is always neuter, 
 a masculine form ; whether because stars are masculine in 
 Greek, or because it is the symbol of a man, or men, the 
 translation leaves uncertain. 
 
 Were turned into. The Greek, as in John xvi. 20, 
 is literally became into. 
 
 Harsh. Bitter is too definite a quality. The Greek 
 word is applied to a javelin, or a man's tongue (speech) 
 — pointed ; to pungent, hitter or salt water ; to pungent 
 smells ; piercing pain ; cruel or severe punishment, torture. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 10. — Here again we find included the same character- 
 istic as in the two former trumpets — fire; the selection, 
 by the power and discrimination of man, of the fittest, 
 and the consumption of what he deems unfit. As the lajtd 
 and sea are parabolic — as much symbolical as literal — so 
 
The Unfolding of the Mission of the Angels 141 
 
 here. A star is a thing giving guidance, not only to men's 
 paths by sea and land, but (as was taken for granted) to 
 their destinies. It was thought that in the courses of the 
 stars man had the most immediate sight of God's direct 
 appointments. In prophecy a star is a thing giving 
 guidance, like a church, or teacher, or body of teachers. 
 It may include instruction, religious or civil ; in philo- 
 sophy, in law, in arts, and in politics. This particular 
 star gave light as well as guidance, like a lamp, or true 
 church. In the vision of the earth and its heaven it is 
 seen to fall out of its original position amongst the ruling 
 powers of earth. Though not a lamp, it appears, in its 
 likeness to a lamp, as giving light, religious and moral, of 
 a kind, like a real church. The waters and fountains on 
 earth are a similar metaphor to those divine waters pro- 
 mised, in each man who seeks them, by Christ in His 
 conversation with the Samaritan woman — knowledge, 
 motives, mind (likes and dislikes), strength, growth, life, 
 content, etc. As the star gives the earthly counterpart 
 of these as if a church, it here is possibly an antichristian 
 church ; but more probably a general bitterness, and, of 
 course, misunderstanding of religious matters, which 
 would embitter all religious teaching and preaching, and 
 which would convert to poison what would otherwise be 
 pure springs of earthly truth and happiness, acting and 
 reacting upon all, in and out of the church. The effect 
 was death to many ; and this, like the effects of the previous 
 trumpets, may not be spiritualized so as to remove it 
 from earth altogether ; nor materialized so as to mean 
 nothing but actual human death. It is both representa- 
 tive and poetical, as in iii. i, 2, and must be interpreted 
 accordingly of death of spiritual graces. It is likely to 
 produce deaths of all kinds ; although we must note that 
 blood is not seen mixed with it, to indicate any special 
 slaughter as characteristic of it. Final condemnation, 
 and the second death (xx. 14 ; xxi. 8), are necessarily 
 
142 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 absent from the series of visions, the express object of 
 which is to show God's deahng, during a certain * age,' 
 with souls, good and bad, upon earth ; and the very basis 
 of these visions is, that souls do not perish during that 
 age. Except in the phrase ' second death,' used in the 
 message to the churches (ii. 11), and in reference to the 
 Millennium (xx. 6), and final judgment (quoted above), the 
 word ' death ' seems to be always used either, literally, for 
 natural death, or, metaphorically, for the death in the 
 soul of spiritual grace and activity, which resembles 
 natural death. 
 
 It is well to notice that the fall of the star can hardly 
 refer to political bitterness. No marked change has 
 taken place in the bitterness of rival schools or parties 
 on economical or political questions. Whereas the total 
 fall of the pagan rehgious system, with its Imperial 
 Augurs, enticing and distracting shows, intimate blending 
 of religious ideas and observance with every domestic 
 relation and public service, seemed to leave the 
 heaven of Government half empty. From that time the 
 religious guides were outside the structure of executive 
 power in the Christian States : they had fallen to earth, 
 and erected their power upon the people by preaching a 
 poisoned religion. 
 
 Section V. Verses 12 and 13. The Sounding of 
 THE Fourth Angel. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 12. — No agent appears causing this blow, as one would 
 expect, judging from the previous trumpets ; but the afflic- 
 tion itself is the blow with which the luminaries are struck. 
 It is a curious affliction : a third part of the luminaries 
 were darkened, probably, in fluctuating, unsteady, and un- 
 equal degrees and intervals. The description covers both 
 contingencies ; the sun, moon, and stars may be bereft of 
 
The Unfolding of the Mission of the Angels 143 
 
 a third of their brightness, and the day and night Hke- 
 wise ; or the luminaries may be severally extinguished a 
 third part of their time, and the day and night be wholly 
 blackened a third of their time ; but neither of these 
 things need occur everywhere at once. The first mean- 
 ing seems to be the one prominent in the writer's mind. 
 As the third trumpet referred to a political guide of quasi- 
 religious principles, as if a lamp, like the Pharisees or 
 the Sadducees sitting in Moses' seat, and really being the 
 religious guides whose teaching our Saviour Himself will 
 justify, if in conscientious ignorance men follow them 
 (Matt, xxiii. 2, 3), so does this trumpet refer to political 
 guides in practice. The luminaries represent the powers 
 de facto by which civilization and material prosperity are 
 guided. This trumpet seems, like the last, to have been 
 in force from St. John's time. Luminaries and admini- 
 strators of all sorts have had their notions, powers, and 
 objects fluctuating — now the higher powers, now the 
 lower ; now one sort of light, now another — in a way to 
 contrast strongly with the great powers outside Chris- 
 tendom, ancient or modern, in which dynastic changes 
 mean not much more than a change of ministers does in 
 America or England. 
 
 13. — An eagle flying alone in the face of the sun at 
 noon represents a provision by which conspicuous warn- 
 ing is given to all the earth of three troubles not yet 
 begun, but immediately to begin. The choice of an 
 eagle as the bearer of the warning can hardly be taken 
 except as an omen of military activity. It is probably 
 associated with the Roman eagles, or military standards ; 
 possibly with vultures ; perhaps with that temper which 
 was in the future to cover the shields of knights and the 
 standards of nations in Christendom, so often, with the 
 emblem of an eagle. It may mean the unexpected and 
 sudden coming of widespread trouble (Deut. xxviii. 49 ; 
 Hab. i. 8). 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ORIGINAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION. 
 
 And the fifth angel sounded : and I saw a star fallen 
 out of heaven into earth ; and the key of the shaft 
 of the bottomless pit was given him : and he opened 
 the shaft of the bottomless pit, and smoke ascended 
 out of the shaft, as if smoke of a great kiln ; and the 
 sun and the air were darkened from the smoke of the 
 shaft ; and locusts came out of the smoke into the 
 earth ; and authority was given them, like the scor- 
 pions of the earth have authority, and it was bidden 
 them that they shall not injure the grass of the earth, 
 nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the men 
 whoever have not the seal of God on their foreheads. 
 And it was given them (the locusts) that they shall 
 not kill them (the unsealed), but that they will be 
 tried by torture live months ; and their (the sufferers') 
 torture is as if torture of a scorpion whenever it 
 strike a man. And in those days men will seek 
 death, and will by no means find it ; and will long to 
 die, and death flees away from them. And the like- 
 nesses of the locusts; like horses made ready for war; 
 and upon their heads, as if crowns like gold ; and 
 their faces, as if men's faces ; and they had hair, as 
 if women's hair ; and their teeth were as if lions' ; 
 and they had breast-plates, as if iron breast-plates ; 
 and the sound of their wings, as if a sound of chariot- 
 
Oidginal English Translation 145 
 
 10 teams of many horses running into war ; and they 
 have tails like scorpions, and stings ; and in their 
 tails (is) their authority to hurt mankind five 
 months. 
 
 11 They have a king over them, an angel of the bottom- 
 less pit ; his name in Hebrew (is) Abaddon (destruc- 
 tion), and in Greek he has the name of Apollyon 
 (destroyer). 
 
 12 The one woe has gone away : see ! there is coming 
 still two woes after these. 
 
 13 And the sixth angel sounded : and I heard one 
 voice from the horns of the gold altar in front of 
 
 14 God, saying to the sixth angel — he who had the 
 trumpet — Loose the four angels who have been bound 
 
 15 upon the great river, Euphrates. And the four 
 angels were loosed who had been made ready against 
 the hour and day and month and year, that they 
 
 16 should kill the third part of men : and the number 
 of the armies of cavalry two myriads of myriads ; I 
 
 17 heard the number of them. And thus I saw the 
 horses in the vision, and the riders on them, 
 having breast-plates, fire-coloured, dark purple, and 
 sulphur-like ; and the heads of the horses as if heads 
 of lions ; and out of their mouths passes out fire and 
 
 18 smoke and sulphur. The third (part) of men were 
 killed from those three strokes, out of the fire, and 
 the smoke, and the sulphur which passes forth out 
 
 ig of their mouth. For the authority of the horses is 
 in their mouth, and in their tails : for the tails are 
 like snakes, and have heads, and in them {i.e., 
 
 20 equipped or armed with these tails) they hurt. And 
 the rest of men, who were not killed in these strokes, 
 neither repented out of the works of their hands 
 that they should not salaam the demons, and the 
 gold, silver, brass, stone and wooden idols, which 
 are able neither to see, nor to hear, nor to walk 
 
 10 
 
146 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 21 about ; and did not repent out of their murders, nor 
 out of their drugs, nor out of their wickedness, nor 
 out of their thefts. 
 
 THE THREE GREAT WOES. 
 
 Section I. Verses i to 12. The Sounding of the 
 Fifth Angel. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 I. — Bottomless Pit. This translation is adopted 
 for the Greek word abyss, which hterally means unfathom- 
 able ; and metaphorically, from the idea of the unfathom- 
 able ocean, means * boundless,' ' exhaustless.' The 
 Anglicized word abyss means a bottomless pit, and there- 
 fore nothing is lost by adopting this meaning. The 
 notion in the mind of the writer, here and in Luke viii. 31, 
 seems to have been the space below the earth, considered 
 to be the exact contrast in itself and its spiritual inhabi- 
 tants to heaven, but supposed equally boundless. 
 
 Shaft. As the earth was considered a level kind of 
 floor, with heaven above and the abyss of bottomless pit 
 below, it only needed a shaft to be run right through the 
 earth to open a passage into the bottomless pit. 
 
 5. — Torture. This seems generally associated with 
 mourning and woe (xviii. 7, 10, 15), as if the mere pain 
 or punishment inflicted were the prominent idea. Yet 
 the usual meaning of the word is so connected (as in 
 English) with the cross-examination of prisoners under 
 torture, and, in the visions, also with fire and judgment, 
 as to point to remorse attending the punishment ; such 
 as must attend a punishment felt by the sufferers to be 
 the just and inevitable result of their own choice ; still, 
 not implying repentance. (Compare Heb. xii. 17.) 
 
 7. — Likenesses, just in our sense, but applied more to. 
 
The Three Great Woes 147 
 
 an image than to a picture. It would seem that the 
 objects seen in the vision were not hkenesses of actual 
 locusts, and that St. John outhnes in words a Hkeness of 
 them as seen. 
 
 9. — Sound. The Greek word is usually translated 
 voice, being commonly used for any distinctive sound. It 
 must be remembered, therefore, that in this translation, 
 when the voice of thunders, trumpets, waters, etc., is 
 spoken of, no more is implied than that the noise heard 
 was distinctively that of thunder, trumpets, etc. Of 
 course the voice, or sound, of a man or angel is his articu- 
 late voice in words. The English idiom, however, does 
 not permit the sound of horses galloping to be called a 
 voice, even metaphorically. 
 
 9. — Like scorpions : literally the tails themselves are 
 like scorpions ; idiomatically it may mean like the tails of 
 scorpions, or like scorpions have tails. It is a loose expres- 
 sion, as in xiii. 11. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 I. — As to the sequence of these woes, and their dura- 
 tion. They are clearly beyond or outside the ordinary 
 routine of rulers, teachers, and conflicts predominant 
 within Christendom during the fulfilment of the trumpets. 
 The origin of the first is in smoke from the bottomless 
 pit, of the second from the earth beyond Christendom ; 
 of the third from heaven. It is most simple to consider 
 the vision of the eagle as a mark of time in the history 
 represented. We have no precedent to be found in the 
 seals ; but, if we consider the first four trumpets, we 
 find in them a character quite different from the seals. 
 The first four seals each symbolize a condition of man's 
 environment, without beginning or end indicated during 
 the * age,' showing no origin, no climax, but simply 
 continuance. The first four trumpets have each an 
 origin : a storm of distress and slaughter ; an avalanche 
 
148 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 from the earth into the sea ; the fall of a star ; the 
 darkening of all heaven's luminaries. Whether these 
 trumpets represent things beginning successively or not, 
 the events represented could not possibly come about 
 suddenly. Christendom could not be considered to have 
 arrived at the condition represented in each case by a 
 trumpet, until events had gradual!}' unfolded and com- 
 pletely realized the condition symbolized in the vision. 
 That time is a very marked and distinct one : it forms 
 the start of a new environment. So soon as all the con- 
 ditions of the trumpet shall have been fulfilled, the world 
 goes on under the new conditions ; and the vision leaves 
 it to go on, and puts no limit, and describes no result. 
 Hence the only marked time in the events represented 
 at which to date the warning of the eagle is ^o soon as ever 
 the first four triiinpcts have developed their distinctive action, 
 and, of course, during the continuance of that action. 
 
 As regards the character of the three last trumpets, 
 though they affect, and have their action upon, the whole 
 of Christendom, there is no indication of their extinguish- 
 ing or upsetting any of the constituent order established 
 in it, with an important exception in the second woe, in 
 which a third part of men are killed. This killing may 
 perhaps imply a loss of territory to Christendom, by the 
 simple process adopted by the Israelites in Palestine, and 
 by the Anglo-Saxons in England and America, of kilhng 
 all the original inhabitants who did not quit or submit. 
 If the killing have that meaning, of course over the terri- 
 tory so alienated the constituent laws and institutions of 
 the old empire would be extinguished. 
 
 There is no termination of any of the woes, unless 
 XX. 15 be considered so. The verse ix. 12 seems to be 
 merely the prophet's description of what St. John saw. 
 It does not say, ' The scorpions, etc., are gone away : 
 see ! the sixth angel sounded.' It applies to the vision, 
 not to the events represented ; which, as before, are left 
 
The Three Great Woes 149 
 
 in full action, just at their climax; and so of xi. 14. So 
 far from any angel, or eagle, or character, in the vision 
 coming and proclaiming one plague over and another to 
 begin, an angel does appear who proclaims the plagues 
 going on unfinished, till they will come to a completion 
 during the seventh trumpet (x, 7). 
 
 The interpretation of the ' star fallen from heaven ' is 
 rendered very difficult, owing to the ambiguity about the 
 meaning of heaven. No reason appears why, if the star 
 fell from the earthly heaven, it should not be seen in the 
 vision to do so. If it fell from the heaven of God's throne, 
 the star could only be seen after its fall, since that heaven 
 was not contained in the vision. That it was a spiritual 
 being — an evil spirit — seems necessary, because through- 
 out the book we have no instance of any but an angel, 
 except this star, opening or shutting the pit. In xx. i, 
 an angel is seen going down from heaven to earth with a 
 key, and he shuts the pit. Here a star fallen from 
 heaven has a key given him, and opens the pit. Who 
 the angel and the star were it seems useless to guess. 
 
 The smoke, perhaps, represents the dense mass of 
 old Gothic religious notions and legends brought into 
 Christendom by Gothic invaders, and spread over it 
 wherever their conquering tribes settled down. Their 
 notions, indeed, necessarily included notions of personal 
 conduct and of tribal policy, and wherever the Gothic 
 inroads extended, darkened the sun and air, i.e., the 
 imperial reputation and policy, as well as the imperial 
 administration of the civil and military codes of Justinian 
 and others which were previously prevalent over the 
 empire. This somewhat chaotic smoke of Gothic religious 
 notions gave birth to the systems of feudalism and 
 chivalry. This Gothic code of spoliation and adventure, 
 under the restraint of military subordination, had already 
 reached its climax early in the eleventh century. It then 
 so darkened all military and religious authority, that even 
 
1 50 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 such leaders as it allowed invented the crusades in 
 order to get rid of it. Long before that time, the hordes, 
 issuing forth under the code of military co-operation, 
 had subdued every kingdom in Christendom, including 
 •our own ; but they then began to assume the more 
 fanciful code of chivalry, not to the exclusion, but to the 
 more plausible exercise of ruthless violence and murder. 
 Chivalry came to full flower about the time of Edward III., 
 after which it gradually went to seed, and its vigorous 
 progeny are still potent in the armies and peoples of 
 Europe, while the faded flowers of its old stock impart 
 a highly-prized fragrance to romances and songs. As 
 feudalism emerged from heathenism, Christianity became 
 its professed religion, and State endowment its support ; 
 but Christian pretext and loyalty to the State were chiefly 
 professed by the feudal leaders when useful to justify any 
 wars, for territory or for pride, for which their not very 
 stringent codes of honour could find no justification in 
 politics or patriotism. Christianity itself was almost 
 converted into a darkening smoke ; not a light and guide. 
 The feudal wars did not respect the labourer or the social 
 communities; but, while careless of injuring them if they 
 were troublesome, it wa^ no part of the religion, policy, 
 or honour of the warriors to exterminate them. These 
 feudal chiefs and retainers, amongst themselves, too, 
 never lost a chance of promoting the selection of the 
 fittest by challenging, plotting against, or robbing any- 
 one successful in winning this world's prizes — power, 
 glory, wealth, or influence. The campaigning season is, 
 perhaps, allusively referred to in the ' five months,' which 
 is the accepted duration, more or less, of course, of a 
 locust campaign. During that time the miseries inflicted 
 on non-combatants were excessive. St. John's minute- 
 ness in describing the characteristics of the locust in- 
 dicates that the interpretation must be that of a parable, 
 in which each characteristic does not fully apply, but 
 
The Three Great Woes 151 
 
 gives one important point of comparison. We notice, 
 then, how chivalry had the dash, and pre-eminently the 
 actual embodiment of cavalry, aimed at, and commonly 
 possessed, the despotic rights of crowned heads, and 
 cultivated the appearance, not only of men, but of 
 effeminate gentlemen, and the soft and polite manners 
 and conversation of ladies. In Henry I.'s time (a.d. 1107), 
 a synod held at Westminster under Archbishop Anselm 
 passed a vote prohibiting the laity from wearing long 
 hair (Hume's ' England,' p. 286, ed. 1830), so prevalent 
 and marked had the custom become. Their weapons 
 were like the teeth, and their hearts like the hearts of 
 lions. They were physically and morally cased in iron, 
 and delighted in heavy military charges. Following the 
 successes of the chiefs, whether small or great leaders, 
 there came exactions and confiscations, injury done by 
 their followers to labour, to commerce, to literature, and 
 to religion, which were all designedly crippled, kept 
 down, and insulted, for the good or whim of the con- 
 querors, yet they were not exterminated. As to the 
 tendency of these warriors to destroy, their self-chosen 
 crests of kites, eagles, vultures, lions, leopards, clubs, 
 swords, and so forth, are unimpeachable evidence, to 
 say nothing of their pictures, e.g., of Spanish royalty at 
 the head of huge brigades of steel-encased warriors on 
 steel-encased horses, charging over helpless masses of 
 comparatively naked Moslems in Africa. Even their 
 * Saints ' were said, and believed, to appear on the field, 
 and to join in such destructive carnage with rapture. 
 It was a grand, but diabolic code. 
 
 Section II. Verses 13 to 21. The Sounding of 
 THE Sixth Angel. 
 
 Exegelical or Critical Notes. 
 14. — Bound, i.e., put in bonds, imprisoned. 
 The great river, Euphrates, so-called first by God 
 
152 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 in His covenant made with Abram, when his tent was 
 pitched at Mamre, to the effect that his descendants, by 
 a son he should have, would possess from the great sea, 
 the Mediterranean, to the great river, the Euphrates. 
 The Euphrates is so called only in Deut. i. 7, and (except 
 here and in xvi. 12) never in any other connection. 
 
 16. — Armies. Not regular encamped armies. The 
 word army here means an expedition, and hence an army, 
 corps, or company of men engaged in a military or naval 
 expedition or campaign. 
 
 17. — Fire-coloured : a different word to flauie-coluured 
 or yellowish carrot; see note on vi. 4. 
 
 Dark purple, literally the colour of some hyacinth or 
 iris, seems from analogy to mean the dark dull purple of 
 thick smoke. 
 
 Sulphur-like : presumably in colour yellow, but pos- 
 sibly the blue colour of sulphurous flame, like the sulphur 
 breathed out of the horses' mouths, which could hardly 
 be anything but sulphur flame. Fire and smoke and 
 sulphur. Sulphur is particularly associated with the fire 
 and smoke of volcanoes, and it was, in St. John's day, 
 supposed to come direct from the bottomless pit or 
 infernal regions. But we must not press our scientific 
 idea of sulphur. The fumes of any kiln, or the 'choke 
 damp ' from an}' charcoal fire, are sulphurous enough for 
 practical purposes. 
 
 18. — Strokes. The Greek word has the full sense of 
 the English — strokes from beating, flogging, by fists, 
 fortune, or armies, by axe, sword, club, or lightning, and 
 metaphorically by God in calamity, plague, or defeat. 
 
 19. — Tails. In reference to armies, such as are here 
 pictured, the ' tail ' is a Greek military term for the rear- 
 guard, and would doubtless serve to describe the body 
 of followers. An echo is called the ' tail ' of a speech 
 which it follows. 
 
The Three Great Woes 153 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 13. — The sixth trumpet is ushered in by a herald-Hke 
 voice from the altar before the temple in heaven, ordering 
 the trumpeter to loose the four angels on the Euphrates. 
 An order of this kind is peculiar to this trumpet. The 
 seven angels are God's formal ministers ; they stand 
 before Him (viii. 2), and the seven trumpets are given to 
 them to sound, and, except, in this case, no further 
 authority or command is given them ; but they all get 
 ready and successively sound, and events on the earth (of 
 the old Roman empire) and sea and sky follow. It would 
 appear obvious that these four angels bound on the 
 Euphrates are not on the earth, of the old Roman empire, 
 and do not come within the nations of the Christendom 
 into which it was converted. The additional order given 
 in this case came from the horns of the gold altar of 
 incense (Exod. xxx, 1-3), and, whether uttered by the pre- 
 siding angel there (viii. 3), or — as is more probable, since 
 the angel is not mentioned here — by God, it at all events 
 came appropriately to the prayers of all the saints for 
 vengeance on oppressors. This association with ven- 
 geance gives the external invasions of Christendom an 
 additional colour to those of Palestine under the Judges. 
 The latter were chastisements, or discipline, of God's 
 people, inflicted by the hand of their external enemies. 
 This is both a chastisement of God's professing people, 
 and a punishment or just vengeance for their internal 
 oppressions, inflicted by the hand of external enemies. 
 
 If the Euphrates were literal, it would represent that 
 river as the most effective and conspicuous source of the 
 invasion ; but, inasmuch as all other names — Babylon, 
 Abaddon, Sodom, Gomorrha, Jerusalem — are not literal, 
 but only conspicuous types, so we must take Euphrates 
 as merely representative — as placing the rise of the woe 
 on the extreme outskirts of Christendom. The Euphrates 
 
1 54 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 was the land-boundary between the kingdom of Israel and 
 the kingdoms of the East which successively overran all 
 Palestine ; and, in sympathy with the old prophets of his 
 country, the Euphrates is taken by St. John, in Asia 
 Minor, as representing the exposed boundary of Christen- 
 dom in general — in every direction. The woe is com- 
 menced by loosing four bound angels — bound upon the 
 outskirts of Christendom. These angels can hardly be 
 either heavenly angels, or angels similar to those of winds, 
 or of waters, because such are never described as hound. 
 But the angels of the seven churches are described as 
 doing what their churches do, and as incurring blame or 
 praise, and threats of punishment or reward ; and so it is 
 consistent that the binding of these represents the binding 
 of the temper and activity of the hosts, and therefore of 
 the woes, with which they are entrusted. These hosts 
 were bound — as it were, imprisoned — in the deserts, 
 fettered by ignorance. 
 
 The Mahommedans first invaded Christendom, in 
 Palestine, a.d. 629. In seventy years they had per- 
 manently conquered Egypt, S37ria, and Africa. The Turks 
 took from the Arabs India, Persia, and Syria up to the 
 confines of Asia Minor, a.d. iooo to 1050, and in this last 
 year invaded the remaining empire. They took Constan- 
 tinople in 1453. The suddenness of their rise, without 
 any previous corporate existence, is fixed to an hour. The 
 Mahommedans have ever since dated their years from the 
 day of their origin, July 16, 582, on the day of Ma- 
 hommed's flight from Mecca, of which flight, it may be 
 said, the very hour is known. 
 
 The killing of a third part of men, i.e., the men of the 
 old empire, may be interpreted of the permanent conquest 
 of about a third of its inhabited territory, by the extermi- 
 nation of every man who would not become Mahommedan, 
 or would not submit to a most oppressive and contemptible 
 servitude. But the vision admits of a double interpreta- 
 
The Three Great Woes 155 
 
 tion, strictly in accordance with the literal interpretation 
 of the word kill. It is remarkable that the Mahommedans 
 killed a third or so of the fighting power of all Christen- 
 dom, besides permanently occupying and governing a 
 third of its territory. In the two-thirds remaining of 
 Christendom, something like a third met their death in 
 expeditions against Mahommedans, and, what is more 
 remarkable, almost entirely in carrying on frontier war- 
 fare. Most remarkable it is that it was not only the 
 people of Christendom on the frontiers for the time being 
 who fought, as would be natural enough ; but for various 
 crusades people collected from every part of the old 
 empire — from every county, town, and one might almost 
 say village — and perished in order to carry on the war on 
 the extreme outskirts of Christendom, at the east end of 
 the Mediterranean, and in a minor degree in Spain and 
 Africa ; so that the hosts of the four angels, even when 
 unbound, still fought and slew in the outskirts of 
 Christendom such as would be then represented by 
 ' Euphrates.' 
 
 The number of the armies was only heard by the 
 prophet, not seen, as if it included all from beginning to 
 end, not a muster made at any one time. This was also 
 the case with the one hundred and forty-four thousands 
 sealed (vii. 4). The ;/z_)'7'/arfs are, of course, round numbers; 
 but they can hardly be taken as loose, merely symbolical 
 numbers, because of the definiteness of the number two. 
 It includes all the armies in and out of Christendom. 
 Every town within the immense captured territory would 
 have its garrison, and every moderate village would be 
 ornamented by a sheaf of spears and flags, showing that 
 a corresponding number of Mahommedan horsemen was 
 quartered in the village. If the Mahommedans be con- 
 sidered as a standing army, every able man amongst 
 them whose means permitted of his keeping a horse being 
 ready for immediate action, the number of 200,000 is 
 
156 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 not excessive as a number they may have reached at the 
 time of their widest spread. 
 
 As in the fifth trumpet the characteristics of the 
 warriors were given by a metaphorical description of the 
 appearance and behaviour of the locust, so in the sixth 
 trumpet, here, the description of the warriors rapidly 
 slides into a fanciful one of the horses. It reminds one of 
 the poetical description of the drilled Roman companies 
 by the Northern bards as dragons, and of the non-com- 
 batants as gnomes, or dwarfs. The equipment seems to 
 indicate fire-coloured breastplates worn by men and 
 horses whose mouths emitted fire — smoke-coloured for 
 smoke, sulphur- coloured for sulphur. This clearly enough 
 refers to the use of Greek fire, and to more modern fire- 
 arms and explosives, and to the division of military forces 
 into portions severally trained to a particular arm. Guns 
 drawn by horses, whose riders are in a sense non-com- 
 batants, and merely guide the horses and transport the 
 guns, may be also indicated. 
 
 As an illustration, it may be mentioned that a military 
 friend told me that, as he was halting in an open non- 
 Mahommedan village in a peaceful Mahommedan country, 
 governed by a prince of Arab stock, he saw a military 
 officer of the prince's arrive on one of his non-periodical 
 visits to collect tribute and other dues. This Mahom- 
 medan officer was quite the gentleman, as much so as an 
 officer of our Guards, courteous, affable, and dignified. 
 His first act was to unlimber a couple of guns and fire 
 them down the main street, quite regardless of what 
 damage or slaughter resulted. He then sent fatigue 
 parties to view each house, and to collect the rents, and 
 any unprepared or demurring villagers. What this mili- 
 tary tax-gatherer did with the more substantial villagers 
 brought up to him for unwillingness to pay the toll 
 exacted, and him for his trouble, my friend did not learn ; 
 but it may certainly be said that he did what he liked with 
 
The Three Great Woes 157 
 
 them, subject only to his interpretation of what httle he 
 knew of the laws of the Koran. I suppose that some 
 English travellers and missionaries have learnt, by experi- 
 ence, what it is to dwell under Mahommedan rule of a 
 similar tone at the present day, within ten or fifteen 
 degrees of the Euphrates. Such a tax-collecting expedi- 
 tion would be part of the tail of the conquerors ; and the 
 seizing of women and forcible conversion of men and 
 education of children, and enslaving of all, would be parts 
 of the hurt done by such tails. 
 
 This woe did not result in Christendom deserting its 
 idols, nor its codes of ambition and acquisition, nor did 
 Christendom cease to honour, confer titles on, and build 
 tombs and statues to such amongst them as most dis- 
 tinguished themselves in following the old models, and 
 to comparatively slight the humble-minded and humbly- 
 employed servants of God. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 ORIGINAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION. 
 
 And I saw another strong angel descending from 
 heaven, clothed in a cloud ; and the bow upon his 
 head ; and his face as if the sun ; and his feet as if 
 pillars of fire ; and he having in his hand a little 
 scroll open. And he set his right foot on the sea 
 and the left on the earth, and cried out with a loud 
 voice, just as a lion roars. And when he cried out 
 the seven thunders talked their own voices : and 
 when the seven thunders talked, I was about to 
 write ; and I heard a voice from heaven saying, 
 ' Seal what the seven thunders talked ; and do not 
 write them.^ And the angel, whom I saw standing 
 on the sea and on the earth, raised his right hand 
 into heaven, and swore by him who lives for the 
 ages of ages, who created the heaven and the things 
 in it, and the earth and the things in it, and the sea 
 and the things in it, that there will no longer be 
 time, but in the days of the sound of the seventh 
 angel, whenever he be about to sound the trumpet ; 
 and the mystery of God was completed as he made 
 his servants the prophets bearers of glad tidings. 
 And the voice — which I heard from heaven, again, 
 talking with me and saying, * Go : take the scroll 
 open in the hand of the angel standing on the sea and 
 on the earth.' And I went off to the angel, telling 
 
The Message of the Strong Angel 159 
 
 him to give me the Httle scroll. And he says to me, 
 ' Take and eat it up : and it will embitter thy belly, 
 
 10 but in thy mouth will be sweet as if honey.' And I 
 took the little scroll out of the hand of the angel, and 
 ate it up ; and there was in my mouth as if sweet 
 honey ; and when I ate it, my belly was embittered. 
 
 11 And they say to me, 'Thou must again prophecy 
 about peoples and nations and tongues and kings — 
 many.' 
 
 THE MESSAGE OF THE STRONG ANGEL. 
 
 Exegeitcal or Critical Notes. 
 
 I. — Clothed in a cloud: not in a mist or fog; the 
 cloud may be anything from fleecy cirrus to dark nimbus. 
 But the English clothe, to cover with cloth, is an imperfect 
 translation of the Greek word, which means to throw 
 around, without bringing in positively the idea of clothes. 
 With a cloiul thrown around him would be a literal transla- 
 tion, and good enough if we bear in mind that the meta- 
 phor is drawn from clothing and robing. 
 
 The bow : mentioned here and in iv. 3 only — an 
 emerald-green ' rainbow.' 
 
 A LITTLE SCROLL. Whether St. John coins this word 
 (found here only) or not, it is a very small diminutive of a 
 scroll, itself a diminutive of a roll or book. It might mean 
 a mere ticket or warrant, about as much as the small 
 bits of bread ordinarily given at the Lord's Supper, and 
 with some similar meaning. 
 
 2. — On THE SEA. St. John, and the other evangelists, 
 used this expression only of our Lord walking on the sea 
 (John vi. 19), except in John xxi. i ; but Matthew (xxi. ig) 
 says our Lord saw a fig-tree on the road, or path ; and 
 Luke makes our Lord say (xxii. 30) that His disciples 
 will eat and drink ' upon My table.'' So the word on need 
 
i6o The Revelation giveu to St. John the Divine 
 
 not mean more than when we use it of a town on the 
 sea. 
 
 7. — But, or oihcr than : qualified by the * whenever,' etc., 
 following, so as to show that the time spoken of is over 
 at the beginning of the sounding, and does not extend 
 through it. 
 
 And the mystery. This and seems to be used like the 
 second and in vi. i ; xii. i, etc. Apparently the angel 
 speaks of the thing as if it were already done. 
 
 The mystery : thus entirely unfolded and make known. 
 The words complete and fxdfil ought to mean the same ; but 
 I use the Latin form, complete, because the Anglo-Saxon 
 form, fulfil, has become too inextricably associated with 
 the fulfilment of prophecies of future events. 
 
 As. St. John (and others) use according as (i. 23, John 
 Baptist speaking; xii. 50, Jesus speaking; so Markxiv. 21) 
 in such cases ; as is so used habitually in Greek for in 
 manner as. This might be paraphrased as, or like as, the 
 glad tidings which He gave His prophets to bring, and ichich 
 they brought, in old time. 
 
 g. — Embitter : the same word translated make harsh in 
 viii. II. Here there is no danger of misconception, for 
 the metaphor is too vague to follow the figure literally. 
 It may mean irritate. 
 
 II. — Many : may well apply to all the preceding nouns ; 
 but the grammar admits of its being applied to kings 
 only. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 I. — St. John then saw another strong angel, like that 
 herald angel of ch. v. 2, who called so as to be heard in 
 heaven, earth, and below the earth, for someone to open 
 the scroll, and break its seals ; and also like the herald 
 of the fall of Babylon (ch. xviii. 21), who cast a large 
 stone into the sea. Like the Lamb who broke the seals, 
 and the angels who blew the trumpets, and the angels 
 
The Message of the Strong Angel i6i 
 
 who poured the saucers, his place seems to be heaven, 
 where John was ; and his office is to give the time for the 
 occurrence of some events on earth. The events he 
 heralds are of surpassing importance, as compared with 
 those represented by the trumpets. Like the Lamb, 
 elders, and animals, he is symbolical, and may well 
 represent the Spirit of God. It may be here noticed 
 that, as in the earliest times, so in the latest, the dis- 
 tinction between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be- 
 comes less accentuated ; so that while kept distinct as 
 persons, they become almost undistinguishable to us in 
 the work which they do. 
 
 The singularity of this angel's proceeding, which dis- 
 tinguishes him from the Lamb, trumpets, etc., is that he 
 descends to earth, and there delivers his signal. He is 
 clothed in cloud ; and what this means in Scripture we 
 may perhaps gather from the expressions, ' coming in a 
 cloud ' (Exod. xix. 9), ' covered with a cloud ' (Exod. 
 xxiv. 15), 'clouds and darkness are round about him' 
 — almost the same idea as clothed or wrapt in clouds, here 
 — (Ps. xcvii. 2), and others, which always mean that the 
 cloud entirely conceals something from those on the earth. 
 St. John sees the angel and his divine characteristics; but 
 there is no indication that this angel represents anything 
 visible upon earth. Like the Almighty upon His throne 
 in heaven (v. i), this angel has a little scroll, not sealed, 
 however, but open, in his hand ; he takes his stand on 
 the sea and earth, so as to include both, as places to 
 which his message is about to be delivered, the sea, the 
 parts of the world outside the old empire, being especi- 
 ally selected by his right foot. The key to the imagery 
 is a thunderstorm, with such associations as we find in 
 Ps. Ixviii. j^^, or Ps. xxix. God is present, concealed by 
 clouds on which He rides, and makes His presence 
 known by the sensible utterance of His voice, and 
 lightnings. The clouds seem subordinate to the symbol- 
 
 n 
 
1 62 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 ism, and may not be pressed to represent more than the 
 cover of physical and spiritual order under which God 
 chooses to work unseen. 
 
 4. — These seven thunders indicate the complete address, 
 audible to all on earth, of a personal voice of God. No 
 one can say that God is absent from the conscience of 
 each ; and none can say that God is absent from the 
 customs and thoughts which bind nations together, and 
 which give them action. No one can suppose God to be 
 the living God, who created and upholds the physical 
 and intellectual movement of the world, and yet suppose 
 Him to be absent from the overruling movement of 
 conscience — the most divine of all existences. That 
 such a supreme power exists, and is directly exercised, 
 is illustrated in the Old Testament ; clearly typified as 
 regards God's own people ; decidedly exhibited in the 
 personal cases of Pharaoh, Balaam, Nebuchadnezzar, and 
 Cyrus. 
 
 This continuation of the sixth trumpet is analogous in 
 position to the sealing of one hundred and forty-four 
 thousands on earth in anticipation of the four winds, in the 
 sixth seal ; and its subject may likewise be some wonder- 
 ful action of God's Spirit in the believing Church on 
 earth. There may well be an analogy with the giving of 
 the Law from Sinai. On that occasion there were, pre- 
 sumably, ten voices of thunder, and the substance of 
 their voices was given to Moses, written on stone tablets. 
 Again, as the seals indicate the determining foreknow- 
 ledge and fixed engagement of God, and the trumpets 
 are notes of war, so the thunders indicate a publication 
 of God's law, or a proclamation of His voice. Whether 
 they be a series, like the seven seals, trumpets, etc., or 
 whether all be heard by the prophet at once, their action 
 would extend, more or less, throughout the age. In the 
 former case, which seems most likely, since the prophet 
 would hardly distinguish seven thunders all sounding at 
 
The Message of the Strong Angel 163 
 
 once, four of them may influence the whole age, and 
 three prevail during the latter part of it. It may well be 
 that a reference might occur to the Reformation which, 
 up to our day, is most associated with Luther and his 
 contemporaries. 
 
 6. — Then follows the oath of the strong angel. Its 
 solemnity and depth are very impressive in the mouth 
 of the angel representing that Spirit who, at the very 
 beginning of the world, before heaven was separated 
 from earth, was moving on the face of the chaos (Gen. 
 i. 2), and who was one of the divine council which de- 
 termined the formation of primaeval man (Gen. i. 26). 
 
 The angel now adds to the sworn promises of God, 
 which God had made to His servants the prophets — to 
 Adam, Abraham, and others, and now makes at last to 
 St. John ; to these he adds the one thing they all lacked 
 — an engagement as to the time. There is to be no 
 longer time, or interval. The mystery of God, the plan 
 on which He had based His promises so long before, was 
 one to be completed in the days of the seventh trumpet- 
 angel, whenever he should be at the point of sounding. 
 
 8. — The construction of the eighth verse is mixed, but 
 it is usually taken to mean that St. John now hears a 
 voice speaking to him — the voice, viz., which he had 
 before heard speaking to him from heaven — and some 
 have taken it to be the voice from the horns of the gold 
 altar in front of God (ix. 13), although that had never 
 spoken to him, but to the sixth angel. It is, no doubt, 
 the voice from heaven (x. 4) just before mentioned. 
 
 The only parallel to this eating of the little scroll 
 is (Ezek. iii. 3) where Ezekiel has an open label, or 
 descriptive heading, of a scroll (LXX.) given him by a 
 hand, open, and he is commanded by a figure, enthroned 
 above the firmament, and having all the symbols of 
 divinity, to eat the heading, and to cause his belly to 
 eat it. That little scroll was as honey for sweetness in 
 
164 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 EzekieFs mouth ; it is not said that it had any further 
 effect. It was written within and without with lamenta- 
 tions and mourning and woe, and was to be spoken to 
 the house of Israel. Ezekiel was then conducted to the 
 place where he was to speak ; and he went, in a start or 
 impetus (violent onset) of spirit. If, as we will suppose, 
 the parallel hold good, St. John was to take the open 
 little scroll, and so assimilate and digest its contents 
 that he should utter them, as he accordingly does in 
 the course of the succeeding prophecy. The contents of 
 the little scroll are lamentations and mourning and woe. 
 In the mouth they are to the speaker sweet — just in 
 punishment and redress ; reasonable, wise, and success- 
 ful ; faithful, merciful, and secure. In the belly they are 
 digested ; and the further effect of the contents is that 
 which they have on the readers of St. John's prophecy ; 
 but perhaps that which they have on the prophet's tone, 
 or heart, towards those against whom he prophesies. A 
 heart is said to be hardened when its courage and purpose 
 are maintained in opposition to threats or conscience ; 
 and it may be said to be embittered when its sense of 
 justice and faithfulness is maintained in spite of sorrow 
 and pity. Be that as it may, we may safely gather that 
 St. John has now another series of prophecies to make, 
 which do not partake of the nature of chastisement or 
 discipline, but rather of punishment and deprivation. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 ORIGINAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION. 
 
 And a reed like a rod was given me, saying, Rise 
 and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and 
 the worshippers in it : and the court outside the 
 temple throw out, outside, and do not measure it ; 
 because it was given to the nations (Gentiles), and 
 they will tread the holy city forty-two months. And 
 I shall give to my two witnesses, and they will 
 prophesy twelve hundred and sixty days clothed in 
 coarse cloth. These are the two olive-trees and the 
 two lampstands, standing in front of the Lord of 
 the earth : and if anyone wishes to hurt them, fire 
 passes forth out of their mouth and eats up their 
 enemies ; and if anyone should wish to hurt them, 
 he must be killed so. These have authority to shut 
 heaven, that no rain fall during the days of their 
 prophecy ; and they have authority over the waters, 
 to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with 
 every stroke as often as even they wish. And when- 
 ever they shall have finished their testimony, the 
 beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will 
 make war with them, and conquer them, and kill 
 them. 
 
 And their corpse is on the street of the great city ; 
 that which is called spiritually Sodom and Egypt, 
 where also their Lord was crucified. 
 
i66 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 9 And out of the peoples, tribes, tongues and nations 
 they are looking upon their corpse three and a half 
 days, and will not give up their corpses to be put 
 
 10 into a tomb. And the dwellers on the earth rejoice 
 over them, and are glad, and will send one another 
 gifts ; because those two prophets tortured the 
 
 11 dwellers on the earth. And after the three and a half 
 days, a spirit of life out of God entered into them ; 
 and they stood upon their feet ; and a great fear fell 
 
 12 upon those who were observing them. And they 
 heard a great voice from heaven, saying to them, 
 ' Ascend hither.' And they ascended into heaven in 
 
 13 the clouds ; and their enemies observed them. And 
 in that hour a great earthquake occurred ; and the 
 tenth part of the city fell ; and seven thousands, 
 names of men, were killed in the earthquake ; and 
 the rest became frightened, and gave glory to the 
 God of heaven. 
 
 14 The second woe is gone. See ! the third woe is 
 coming quickly. 
 
 15 And the seventh angel sounded : and there occurred 
 loud voices in heaven, saying, ' The kingdom of the 
 world is become our Lord's and his Christ's ; and 
 he will reign for the ages of ages.' 
 
 16 And the twenty-four elders, seated upon their 
 thrones before God, fell upon their faces, and 
 
 17 salaamed to God, saying, * We thank thee, O Lord, 
 the almighty God, the being, and the was, because 
 thou hast taken thy great power, and reignedst. 
 
 18 And the nations were angry ; and thine anger came, 
 and the due time of the dead to be judged ; and to 
 give the pay to thy servants, the prophets, and the 
 saints, and those who fear thy name — the small and 
 the great — and to destroy those who are destroying 
 the earth.' 
 
 19 And the temple of God in heaven was opened ; 
 
The Mission of the Two Witnesses 167 
 
 and the chest of his covenant in the temple was 
 seen ; and there occurred Hghtnings, voices, thunders, 
 earthquake, and hail great. 
 
 THE MISSION OF THE TWO WITNESSES. 
 Section I. Verses i to 14. The Second Woe. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 I. — Reed, just as in English ; but the reeds varied 
 from the size used for a pen to that used for a javelin, or 
 spear-shaft. The reed, or rod, used for measuring land 
 was ten feet ; very nearly our own length of ten feet. 
 
 Rod ; that is, lighter than the stout staff, or cudgel^ 
 used for walking and defence, or for cattle-driving. 
 
 2. — Tread, just as in English ; to walk a road or place 
 frequently, to tread grapes, or for simply walk on or in. 
 
 3. — Witnesses of me, may in Greek, as in English, mean 
 either my witnesses, or witnesses of, or ahont, me. In ii. 13, 
 where the majority of the oldest MSS. read ' my faithful 
 witness of me ' {of me occurring twice), it seems to be used 
 in each sense. In Acts iii. 15 St. Luke could hardly have 
 meant whose witnesses we are. In Acts xxii. 20 St. Paul might 
 mean that St. Stephen was either Christ's witness, or a 
 witness of, or about, Christ. Of this, at least, we may 
 be sure, that St. John would mean by my witness the same 
 (m. m.) as St. Paul means in the words given by St. Luke, 
 by thy witness — whether a witness put forward by, or a wit- 
 ness about, me or thee. 
 
 7 — The beast that ascends, etc. This description 
 of the beast is merely to distinguish him, without any 
 reference to the time when he ascended, or would ascend; 
 it gives the place he came from, or would have come from, 
 to take his part in the action. St. John uses a similar 
 construction in John iv. 36. 
 
1 68 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 8. — Corpse. In Greek the word is applicable to one 
 or more fallen men or things — much like our ruin, which 
 scientifically may be a closer translation. 
 
 Spiritually: only used here and in i Cor. ii. 14. It, 
 at all events, means not literally, and it would imply a 
 closer relation to actual reality than the word metaphori- 
 cally. Perhaps an instance of spiritual speaking is St. 
 Paul's, in i Cor. iii. 6 : * I planted, Apollos watered, but 
 God gave the increase.' Allegorically is another Greek 
 word, Anglicized in Gal. iv. 24 ; but its meaning implies 
 (as with metaphor) something other than the simple mean- 
 ing ; whereas spiritually means something spiritual, other 
 than the simple meaning. 
 
 9. — Give up : literally, let go, as an arrow from the 
 bow, or the spirit from a dying man, or a ship from her 
 moorings, or a culprit let off without trial. It is the word 
 so frequently translated forgive. 
 
 10. — Tortured : originally to rub (gold) upo7i the touch- 
 stone ; and so applied to scientific investigation, and then 
 to the torturing and racking of persons for evidence, or, 
 metaphorically, to distress of persons by illness (Matt, 
 viii. 6), or of a ship by a storm (Matt. xiv. 24). 
 
 12. — The clouds. The Greeks used the definite 
 article before heaven, earth, where we do not ; and, as 
 we do, before sea; and before cloud, as we do before 
 clouds. Thus St. Luke (xii. 54) says, ' Whenever you see 
 the cloud rising . . .' ; where we should say * the clouds.' 
 
 13. — Hour. The Greeks used, to express our hour, a 
 word which originally, and quite usually, means season, 
 especially the seasons of the year — i.e., a selected, or 
 regular, or appointed time. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 I. — St. John was left in his dream, after he had per- 
 sonally entered into the vision of earth and sea, whither 
 he had gone at the command of the voice from heaven, 
 
The Mission of the Two Witnesses 169 
 
 and had taken and eaten the Httle open scroll from the 
 hand of the strong angel there. He finds that a rod had 
 been given him, and he is told (again he does not say by 
 whom; compare vi. 11 ; viii. 2) to measure. So here is 
 St. John, in his dream, standing where he himself be- 
 comes a symbolic part of his own vision. As the rider 
 in the first seal was armed, and rode, conquering and to 
 conquer, and yet nothing appeared for him to conquer, 
 and he was never seen to conquer anyone, so here St. 
 John stands with a measuring reed, and with orders to 
 measure the (covered part of the) temple, the altar, and 
 the worshippers ; yet none appear to be measured, and 
 he never measures any. St. John goes on to record a 
 prophecy, perhaps from the book he has eaten ; but it 
 seems to begin as the undescribed voice speaking to him 
 in the future tense, as far as xi. 7 ; then it fades into the 
 historic present, with an occasional future, as if the pro- 
 phet were becoming himself the composer and the utterer 
 of the prophecy. Lastly, at the nth verse, it drops com- 
 pletely into the ordinary style in which St. John is accus- 
 tomed to describe what he sees shown him in a vision ; 
 and so continues to the end. 
 
 It will be well here to reconsider the general character 
 of the seals and trumpets, in order to judge the better of 
 the fitness of further interpretation. The first six seals 
 showed the conditions — for we must drop the word 
 'organization' here, where all the organization is the 
 Creator's, and no choice of man's — -under which the 
 highest evolution, or development, of mankind must be 
 controlled, owing to the physical laws of his existence 
 during the age. Within man's physical nature, as here 
 shown, we must include intellect and consciousness ; and, 
 indeed, the intellect and consciousness involved in the 
 incessant movement of each smallest particle of matter 
 and of animals far exceeds our conceptions. We must 
 also include, as a necessary characteristic of man, a 
 
1 JO The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 higher kind of consciousness — conscious free will and 
 conviction. Matter affects this consciousness ; but this 
 consciousness is not matter, nor subject to material law. 
 Hence at three points the seals indicate contact with 
 higher laws than their own. The first seal shows the 
 natural effect on mankind of the action on matter by the 
 Spirit of God to produce convictions, and this effect, 
 acknowledged by the animals representing the material 
 universe, ranks first. The symbol of God's Spirit, shown 
 in the first seal, seems confined to the proper effect on 
 the consciences and behaviour of mankind, of God's 
 action in the laws of nature (Acts xiv. 17 ; Rom. i. 20). 
 To the empire, if we may so say, of natural laws the 
 rest of the four first seals are confined, and each is 
 acknowledged by an heraldic call of an animal. These 
 second, third, and fourth seals seem to affect man, as they 
 would if he were merely a very highly developed animal ; 
 and it is of great significance that we have, preceding 
 them, the first seal to show that the material environ- 
 ment of man pierces his nature more deeply than it would 
 affect a mere animal, and produces convictions which 
 overcome all his mere animal instincts, and are of a kind 
 to bring him complete supremacy over them. 
 
 The rider in the first seal does not make war with the 
 sword of his mouth (as ii. 16) : he touches the higher con- 
 science of man's super-material nature by means of the 
 natural laws which God has appointed for the creation 
 and the continuance of the universe. But man is taught 
 also by the Word of God. There is a revelation of God 
 made to man both directly to his spirit and indirectly 
 through his senses. This fact is touched by the fifth 
 seal : the continued existence of souls of men after 
 death, their prayer for vengeance, and the instruction to 
 them to continue waiting. It shows the continual exist- 
 ence and protection of those who, during the age of the 
 seals, have been slain for the Word of God. Its scene is 
 
The Mission of the Two Witnesses \ 7 1 
 
 in heaven, and it carries its own proof of non-inter- 
 ference with the rest of the vision. 
 
 The third point, in which the vision comes in contact 
 with super-material things, we have called an episode ; it 
 occurs within the sixth seal. That seal shows the insta- 
 bility and ruin attached to earthly aims and careers ; then, 
 after that, distinct from it, comes an episode showing the 
 acknowledgement, and salvation, and adoption into some 
 divine corporation — we might perhaps say, metaphori- 
 cally, sonship — of a hundred and forty-four thousand 
 servants of our God upon earth. There immediately 
 follows (vii. g, etc.) an exhibition of the intense interest 
 displayed in heaven with regard to these hundred and 
 forty-four thousands sealed; and (verse 14, etc.), in a 
 further appendix, an angel declares the ultimate complete 
 salvation and reward of all who shall have ' washed their 
 robes and made them bright in the blood of the Lamb.' 
 
 We see, then, that up to the close of the sixth seal we 
 pass through an era during which all that is noticeable to 
 the inhabitants of the earth who are not servants of God, 
 besides the physical conditions of their existence and 
 intelligence, is the conduct of the sealed. The first six 
 trumpets are also, from their nature, secular ; and the 
 probability is suggested whether both seals and trumpets 
 do not carry us through some era especially secular in 
 its character, during which spiritual life and action exist 
 in a state of distress, and both end together at the close 
 of a dispensation which may perhaps be meant by ' the 
 times of the Gentiles ' (Luke xxi. 24). The seventh 
 trumpet ushers in the time when ' The kingdom of the 
 world is become the kingdom of our Lord ' ; and the 
 silence of the seventh seal indicates a change incom- 
 patible with the seals, since it cannot be represented 
 in a vision confined, as regards the world, to physical 
 effects and action. Such a change can be represented 
 in the trumpets, which deal not only with the physical 
 
172 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 actions of men, but (ix. 20) have reference to the spirit 
 which animates men, with the feehng which results from 
 their actions, and with poHcy, learning, temper, manners, 
 and religion. 
 
 The seventh trumpet is to bring in a time of God's 
 reign, and His execution of justice. The wicked will be 
 no longer allowed to grow on until their wickedness on 
 earth brings its own punishment under natural law. 
 Almighty God will take His great power, and reign ; and 
 the due time will have arrived for destroying those who 
 are destroying the earth (xi. 18, 19). But before the 
 vision of the trumpets turns from what we may call a 
 Gentile, or worldly, series of actions to one in which 
 Christ and His Church will become pre-eminent and 
 acknowledged, the little scroll is introduced, with as 
 strong indications of the importance of its contents, and 
 of the events related to it, as accompanied the giving of 
 the law and covenant from Mount Sinai. As the sealed 
 scroll seemed to contain God's covenant or intentions 
 towards the human race in heaven, after the dispensation 
 of the seals is ended, perhaps the little scroll contains, 
 in an open and public form, his intentions towards the' 
 wicked on earth — towards those who will never have 
 admittance to heaven. This primitive time begins before 
 the final judgment (xx. i), and presumably continues 
 through the time of the seventh seal and seventh trumpet, 
 and through the Millennium. The vision shows no im- 
 mediate effect resulting from the eating of the book ; but 
 it proceeds at once to give a vision showing, much more 
 fully than before, in vii. 2-g, the condition of the saints 
 on earth during the six trumpets just sounded. After the 
 vision of the seventh trumpet come a succession of his- 
 torical visions, more in the style of Daniel's, showing (as 
 in his case) successively different aspects of the religious 
 and secular world, in which the spiritual history is the 
 predominant object. 
 
The Mission of the Tivo Witnesses 173 
 
 The forty-two months begin at the treading of the 
 Holy City. St. John in his vision seems to himself to be 
 standing, at the call of the angel, and he has eaten the 
 book ; and the time seems in the vision to be that of 
 giving the outside Court to the nations. The tense was 
 given seems to suit that time best : it is the same as that 
 with which we are familiar in Greek epistles, e.g., in St. 
 Paul's (Gal. vi. 11), ' See in how large letters 1 wrote with 
 my own hand,' etc., being the very first words of the 
 paragraph so written by St. Paul with his own hand. 
 It seems that first in Constantine's time, about a.d. 300, 
 the Court was given to the nations, and Christianity and 
 Christian worship became the accepted religion of all 
 the nations. When that had occurred, a possibility was 
 open for the witnesses to prophesy, etc., in the Temple 
 Court, and to be recognised as the authorized witnesses 
 of Christ to the nations. This date of beginning would 
 bring the end of the treading the Holy City to a.d. 1560 — 
 Queen Elizabeth's reign. It was then that the national 
 authorities first ceased to claim and exercise complete 
 human control over the religious beliefs and worship of 
 the nations ; and religious freedom was first allowed by 
 the rulers of various foreign and British States, and the 
 right of States to control religious belief was conspicu- 
 ously challenged amongst the nations. 
 
 3. — Our Lord (Matt. xxiv. 14) says, * This gospel of 
 the kingdom will be preached in the whole world ' (not 
 simply in the earth) ' for evidence ' (the noun formed 
 from the same word as witness in St. John's vision) ' to 
 all the nations ; and then the end will come.' In this 
 passage the Gospel, its preaching, and the preachers, 
 constitute the witness. But our Lord speaks of the whole 
 world — the whole inhabited earth — which can hardly be 
 symbolized in St. John's time by the Court of the Temple, 
 open to the nations, nor by the Holy City, in which St. 
 John's two witnesses prophesied. These do not include 
 
1 74 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 the whole world, nor can they include the great city 
 Sodom. Our Lord's preachers, too, seem different from 
 these witnesses : they have an assigned office — to preach 
 — which the witnesses had not ; they travel, the witnesses 
 stand ; their field is the world, that of the witnesses Chris- 
 tendom. The witnesses stood in front of the Lord of the 
 whole earth (verse 4), i.e., were acknowledged as author- 
 ized religious teachers by Christendom, until they were 
 killed. On the whole, the witnesses seem to be corporate 
 bodies, acknowledged, at least nominally, by the whole of 
 Christendom to be divinely authorized religious bodies, 
 as much as all Jews in Zechariah's time acknowledged, 
 in profession at least, their own established religion, and 
 its authorized administrators. Such corporate bodies 
 were the churches above named, i.e., the Eastern and 
 Western Churches, pure, corrupt, or reformed. They 
 are conspicuous enough to be seen, and are (and have 
 been) accessible to be seen by anyone who seeks to see 
 or hear them. Their profession while witnesses must at 
 least be such that anyone candidly observing them must 
 be aware that they bear witness to the reality, the actions, 
 and the teaching of Christ ; for we cannot separate Christ 
 from what Christ came to do and to teach, in the evidence 
 of what the voice from heaven calls ' my two witnesses.' 
 At the same time, they might have been as bad as any of 
 the seven churches whose lamps and angels were in God's 
 presence (ii. 3), persecuting and impoverishing the true 
 servants of God, leaving their first love, full of men who 
 seized hold of the teaching of the seer Balaam, or of 
 the Nicolaitans, harbouring a Jezebel with the rank of a 
 prophetess, adopting idol worship and fornication, dead 
 or sleepy, leaving their work to die uncompleted before 
 God, lukewarm, self-righteous. Such faults in a church 
 would, if persevered in, result in the lampstand being 
 taken away. In the case of these two witnesses, their 
 fate is, not to have their character as lampstands and 
 
The Mission of the Two Witnesses 175 
 
 olive-trees removed by God, but to have their Hves taken 
 away by the scarlet beast — that of xvii. 3, 8 — which came, 
 or was to come, out of the bottomless pit, to be the sup- 
 port of the harlot ; their death is therefore something 
 which a secular persecuting power, as such, could effect, 
 and no more. 
 
 But before they are killed, these two witnesses will 
 prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, 
 clothed in coarse cloth, such as was worn — voluntarily, of 
 course — by anyone wishing to express deep, almost de- 
 spairing, grief, sorrow over ruin or bereavement, sense of 
 guilt and contrition, and so forth. It will be well to con- 
 sider the meaning of these measures of time. 
 
 The nations will tread the Holy City forty-two months, 
 and the witnesses will prophesy one thousand two hundred 
 and sixty days, and lie dead three and a half days. The 
 only meaning historically probable is found by con- 
 sidering each day to represent an astronomical year. 
 This at once suggests a search to learn whether this is 
 agreeable to the language used. The week, approximately 
 a quarter of a lunar month, consisted of as many days as 
 there were known planets, and these days were by the wise 
 men of Assyria and Chaldea named after the planetary 
 deities. This gave the number seven a sacredness or 
 completeness, in the learned as well as in the religious 
 world, which resulted in its frequently being adopted for 
 any marked or significant purpose, both in civil contracts 
 and in religious appointments. Especially the idea of 
 seven making a complete and convenient cycle was ex- 
 tended to time. Not to dwell upon Jacob's bowing before 
 Esau seven times (Gen. xxxiii. 3), and a host of similar 
 cases occurring under Moses, Elijah, Elisha, up to St. 
 John's time, we find a week of years in use in Syria as 
 early as Jacob's time, and that it was adopted into the 
 Mosaic law as a limit to contracts and servitude. The 
 Great Jubilee was ordered to come after a week of weeks 
 
176 The Revelation given to St. John the Divhie 
 
 of years, every fiftieth year inclusive ; so that in deahng 
 with servitude, or occupation of territory, or, in short, 
 with the prophetic outlook of whole nations, the week 
 of years, and the use of a day as a year, came almost 
 naturally to an Israelitish prophet. Indeed, God's original 
 week (Gen, ii. 3), from which the week of seven days 
 was adopted in Syria, at least, as early as the time of 
 Laban (Gen. xxix. 27) — this original week was one of 
 much longer eras than even a year. 
 
 The year of the Israelites certainly went by the moon, 
 so far as the festivals were concerned ; but a month was 
 always thirty days, not twenty-nine and a half, and, con- 
 sequently, a rectification by the omission of some six 
 days a year would be necessary to bring the great feasts 
 into harmony with the moon. That harmony established, 
 it would follow that the year would be three hundred and 
 fifty-four days, about eleven and a quarter days too short, 
 and would require an addition of a month of twenty-nine 
 and a half days ; but nominally thirt}' until correction, to 
 be made at intervals of two or three years. We do not 
 know how these adjustments were made, but that they 
 were made, and under some guidance from the Eastern 
 astronomers, is certain. As those astronomers seem to 
 have known the length of the year better than we do, we 
 may feel sure that Daniel or St. John had as definite an idea 
 of what one thousand two hundred and sixty years — true 
 astronomical years — would mean as we have. The week 
 was always seven days ; the month was always thirty 
 days ; the year was always three hundred and sixty days; 
 but the month was always so adjusted that Abib com- 
 menced with the first appearance of the new moon ; and 
 the year was so adjusted that the lunar festivals never 
 got astray from the seedtime, first-fruits, and harvest. 
 Thus confusion would have to be neutralized by custom. 
 From the ist Nizan one year to the ist Nizan next year 
 would be a * year,' whether it were of twelve or thirteen 
 
The Mission of the Two Witnesses 177 
 
 months, and whatever days had been added, subtracted, 
 or interpolated (that is, added without being appropriated 
 by any year or month). Custom would ordinarily make 
 it plain to what 'year' a speaker or writer alluded when 
 he used the term ; but a really educated man, like Daniel, 
 would no doubt use different terms {dJS,yeaY, time, etc.), 
 each with its mathematically definable meaning, unknown 
 to us. 
 
 3. — Meanwhile the witnesses begin their prophesying. 
 They represent the truths taught, by word and act, by 
 churches, under the tread of the nations, and liable to all 
 such errors, as churches acknowledged by God — as the 
 seven churches were — have been described by St. John as 
 committing. The actual scene of action of these witness- 
 ing churches seems to be undefined, and all reference to 
 the Court and to the Holy City ceases. If they begin at 
 the close of the forty-two months, the close of their pro- 
 phesjdng will be about a.d. 2820. Their attitude and 
 teaching is to have a special character of grief and con- 
 trition — as all the reformed churches may be admitted to 
 have, taking their tone, as they still do, from the self- 
 interested teaching of the Dark Ages, rather than from 
 that of the Bible ; hardly deeming the old Israelitish 
 liturgical thanksgiving (Ps. c.) to be Christian enough for 
 public use, without a doxology, and timid to go the 
 length of the Apostle Peter (i Pet. i. 1-12) without more 
 safeguards and quahfications than he has inserted. But 
 so far as can be judged, the prophesying of the witnesses 
 may better have begun at, or close upon, the giving of 
 the Court to the nations ; for never have the truths of 
 the glad tidings been more shrouded in a denser sack- 
 cloth of penance, purgatory, abject prostration, and self- 
 torture, than during the time we have assigned to the 
 occupation of the Court by the nations. This dense 
 sackcloth has now been so nearly removed by the re- 
 formed churches, that it is impossible to suppose it to 
 
 12 
 
1/8 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 be represented in the vision as distinguishing the re- 
 formed from the earher Greek and Roman churches. It 
 seems hkely, then, that about the time of Queen Ehzabeth 
 the one thousand two hundred and sixty days ended, and 
 the two witnesses — say the Greek and Roman Churches 
 — were made war upon by the secular powers of Chris- 
 tendom, robbed of all the supremacy that had been given 
 them by those powers, and as secular powers extinguished. 
 As was noticed before, the secular powers could not take 
 from the churches more than they gave. Again, killing a 
 church is quite another thing to killing members of a 
 church ; and the two are never confounded together in 
 prophecy. 
 
 5. — The symbolic word Enemies identifies the hostile 
 feeling and power of the enemies with the persons exer- 
 cising that hostility. Killing by word of mouth means 
 destroying all vitality in any such disposition and action 
 for the future. For instance, in 1555 a Lord Chancellor 
 of England could officially examine a respected and 
 much loved prebendary of St. Paul's as to the Blessed 
 Sacrament ; and when John Bradford said that Christ 
 was present to the believer by faith, but there was no 
 change in the bread, could hand him over to the Sheriff, 
 who, as a duty, burnt him alive at Smithfield before an 
 enormous crowd (Fox's 'Acts and Monuments'), who, 
 as Fuller says, saw that ' he endured the flame as a 
 fresh gale of wind on a hot summer day.' Such an 
 act of hostility to a witness of God's truth has been 
 rendered impossible; or, in figurative language, such 
 enemies have been slain by the teaching and word of 
 such witnesses — by the fire proceeding out of their mouth 
 (verse 5). 
 
 So far, then, the vision shows the Temple, or shrine, 
 with its worshippers, who are the true Church, or body 
 of Christ, at any time, whom Christ has * made priests 
 unto His God and Father ' (i. 6) ; who are amongst those 
 
The Mission of the Two Witnesses 1 79 
 
 symbolized by the hundred and forty-four thousands 
 sealed. These individually witness for God by their 
 lives and teaching, but are no corporate organization on 
 earth. They include all those known only to God, who 
 are received into His presence, accepted as His true 
 servants, and who are His priests, not by human ap- 
 pointment, but by the inward consecration of God Him- 
 self, to whom they have authorized access. That is one 
 part of the scene. 
 
 Besides the shrine, the vision shows the Court, in- 
 cluding all nominally, or by profession. Christians in the 
 world ; both those who also have access to the shrine 
 and those who have not ; open also in St. Paul's time, 
 at least under military pressure, to the uncircumcised 
 outer world. This Court, at all events, is thrown entirely 
 open — given up (verse 2) to the nations who like to come 
 in. This coming in would, presumably, represent a use 
 of Christian public worship, and a profession of Chris- 
 tianity — it can hardly represent anything less than a 
 profession of nominal Christianity. It is thrown open, 
 so that such as have free access to it will tread — it may 
 mean, offensively, trample on (like treading grapes), or it 
 may mean, indifferently, frequenting — they will tread the 
 Holy City forty-two months. No distinction is made in 
 the description of this Court of any Jewish or Gentile 
 part; it is all the Court outside the shrine. The nations 
 will now be to the worship of God what the Jewish 
 nation and others who had admission to any Court 
 used to be to the Mosaic worship of God. Amongst 
 these God gives two witnesses. As He showed Zechariah, 
 in the symbol of a seven-branched lampstand fed by 
 two olive-trees, right and left, so here two witnesses 
 ^tand for the equivalent symbol of two lampstands, and 
 •of the two olive-trees which feed them. The absence 
 from the vision of any lampstands, olive-trees, or stars, 
 is remarkable, and indicates that no anointed, nor author- 
 
i8o The Revelation given to St. John the Diviite 
 
 ized officers, neither priest, king, nor church system, 
 would be God's medium for supplying these churches 
 with light. The witnesses each represent both lamp- 
 stand and olive-tree. 
 
 Now, we must not look amongst private sects to find 
 the two churches which are analogous to Zechariah's 
 single lampstand, shown him at a time when there were 
 already sects, and differences of doctrine and of religious 
 observance, amongst the Jews ; we must look amongst 
 professed!}^ Christian churches set up, and acknowledged, 
 amongst the professedly Christian nations — such as in 
 the Middle Ages, the Greek and Latin, Trinitarian and 
 Arian, and in modern times, Calvinist, Lutheran, re- 
 formed English and Irish, and Presbyterian — sometimes 
 two, and generall}' more. Each of these has been a 
 national church, and, however disunited at times by 
 schism, each has been a visible witness before the world 
 of nations. We notice that the witnesses represent some- 
 thing not merely material : will is ascribed to them 
 (verse 6), as well as authority and prophec}^ in a way 
 which does not admit of their representing the Old and 
 New Testaments, or Covenants. 
 
 7. — The closest parallel to this symbolic killing of the 
 witnessing churches seems to be the slaying of one of the 
 heads of the beast from the sea (xiii. 3) ; but we must 
 not omit to notice a stronger resemblance to that death, 
 and recovery to a new life, which is so prominent a 
 doctrine throughout the Gospel history (John i. 13 to 
 2 Tim. ii. 11), viz., the death experienced by each ser- 
 vant of God, and the new life which has been given him. 
 This death is symbohzed in this vision for all His followers, 
 by the Lamb as if slain (v. 6). In the case of the old 
 empire, the death and revival of the head represented a 
 complete change in the empire — in its accepted ideas of 
 religion, of government, and of personal rights — so that 
 .Ave must expect some similar change in the witnesses.. 
 
The Mission of the Two Witnesses i8i 
 
 We must expect that their evidence for Christian truth 
 will be put on a new basis ; that it will not be founded, 
 as a visible and audible testimony before men, upon its 
 former foundations, nor delivered b}^ officers claiming and 
 exercising in the church the same powers as before ; that 
 the responsible standing assigned to each individual will 
 be quite changed. Some such change took place during 
 the Reformation of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries ; 
 but it is difficult to find a satisfactory interpretation of 
 the details of the prophecy, especially as respects the 
 three and a half days or years. It requires to be ascer- 
 tained when the established churches breathed out the 
 last gasp of the spirit of their earthly life as witnesses, 
 and when they ceased to be anything, in the opinion of 
 Christendom, but the mere corpses of witnesses. Pos- 
 sibly actual public suppression of the Bible, and official 
 slaying of those who witnessed to its truths, would be 
 quite enough test of the death of a church as a witness 
 of the Bible ; and the recognition by any State, or even 
 by a considerable number of its influential citizens, of a 
 resurrection of the witness as a reformed church, in the 
 true spirit of a witness for God's Gospel, would be such 
 a revival as is symbolized by the witnesses standing on 
 their feet; and the acceptance and support of their 
 teaching on Gospel fines by any States of Christendom, 
 is all the ascent into earth's heaven — into the position 
 of guides recognised and empowered by the constituted 
 authorities, which could be assigned in the vision to a true 
 witness. 
 
 8. — From verse 8, those peoples, tribes, etc., associated 
 with the Roman system of civifization and religion, seem 
 to be taken as representing Christendom; the Greek 
 Church does not seem to be identified with it, or even 
 distinctively alluded to. But the three and a half years 
 between the time of the old churches dying as witnesses 
 and new churches being revived as witnesses seems not 
 
1 82 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 yet ascertainable ; nor does the dropping out of the 
 Greek or any other church from its character as witness 
 synchronize with [any similar fall of the Papal Church. 
 A tenth part of the city falling would mean a great fall in 
 the bulwarks and protective resource surrounding those 
 who administered the States of Christendom : and the 
 earthquake a great upheaval of the basis of power and 
 government. 
 
 All this has occurred. If we compare the position of 
 Henry VIII. and his contemporary fellow-sovereigns with 
 their present successors, we find the bureaucratic des- 
 potism, which enabled such monarchs to override laws 
 and to murder a prince or province by merely signing (or 
 at least sanctioning) an official document, is completely 
 gone, or passed into the hands of the politicians who 
 may secure a majority of votes, artificiall}' created and 
 manipulated according to their own current arrangements 
 of law and influence. The seat of the Beast, the great 
 city, is indeed at best protected by the ruined remains of 
 her former bulwarks — here lying in open breaches, there 
 converted and restored in a way almost past recognition. 
 In the vision this change seems connected with the re- 
 ligious revival as its true commencement ; and perhaps no 
 other satisfactory origin has ever yet been assigned to 
 this great and unprecedented change in the constitutions 
 of States. 
 
 The killing of seven thousands, names of men, in the 
 earthquake deserves notice. As before, seven is a com- 
 plete or sacred number; a thousand is the largest division 
 in Israel next to a tribe, and is used in the plural, as we 
 use it to mean large numbers. Seven thousands is the 
 number given by God to Elijah (i Kings xix. i8 — I.XX ) 
 as the number of Israelites who had not bowed to Baal. 
 Names is used of men to represent actual men, enume- 
 rated for a good or beneficial distinction (iii. 4; Actsi. 15; 
 and similar to the old Hebrew Num. xxvi. 53). These 
 
The Mission of the Two Witnesses 183 
 
 seven thousands might represent the martyrs slain during 
 the earthquake which shook, and at last upset, the Popish 
 Church from its supreme secular power. 
 
 14. — St. John's warning, immediately after the conclu- 
 sion of the episode of the witnesses, seems to put them 
 into the second woe. But it may well be supposed that 
 the episode is set in its most suitable place, as an inter- 
 ruption of the second woe, so that the narrative of the 
 woes runs on consecutively, omitting the episode from 
 ix. 21 to xi. 13. For the episode is on a subject which, 
 though in harmony with woe, is not war nor woe. What 
 disturbances it describes are internal ; and it is therefore 
 not a part — the termination, for instance — of the second 
 woe. Nor is it synchronous with it, for it is not apparent 
 how the Mahommedan conquests, the throwing open of 
 the Court to the nations, and the two witnesses, can all 
 have begun and should all end together. 
 
 Notes on this Section. 
 
 THE VISION OF THE TWO WITNESSES. 
 
 The subject of this vision is one which pervades the 
 whole Bible, viz., the witnesses God has provided to bear 
 testimony to Him upon earth, and their treatment there ; 
 and we are not surprised to find the imagery collected 
 from all parts of the Old Testament revelation. It will 
 be well to consider at once what these images represent, 
 according to what seems to be the usual prophetic code. 
 
 The measuring of a building with the rod or line ascer- 
 tains definitely what is included in the building and what 
 is not, and the size of what is included. The Temple 
 (more literally the covered shrine) would especially in- 
 clude the Holy Places. The altar (of sacrifice) was out- 
 side it (Matt, xxiii. 35, where the Greek word for temple 
 or sanctuary is the same as for temple here). The altar of 
 incense was inside. In the temple none but consecrated 
 
1 84 The Revelatio7i given to St. John the Divine 
 
 priests worshipped. But if the term temple be used in a 
 more extended sense, to include the court of the Levites 
 and the great altar and sea, it then includes all that part 
 of the Temple and its courts in which any ceremonial 
 worship took place. This last seems to be sometimes a 
 colloquial meaning of this Greek word, Nads (Matt, 
 xxvii. 5). The temple in which the money-changers sat 
 (Matt. xxi. 12), and our Lord taught (Matt. xxvi. 55 ; 
 Mark xii. 35 ; John viii. 20, etc.), is quite another Greek 
 word, Hieron, which includes all the consecrated ground 
 and buildings and courts within it. In accordance with 
 St. Paul's words (i Cor. iii. 17), we may take the temple 
 in this vision to represent all true worshippers consecrated 
 by God's grace (Rom. v. 2) ; for of these the Priests of 
 the Mosaic ritual seem to have been ordained as a type. 
 Every one of them was specially consecrated, and cere- 
 monially holy, and had direct access to God for worship. 
 Whether the temple include the Levites' court or not, or 
 the altar include the great sacrificial altar or not, is no 
 doubt purposely left as undetermined as any divisions 
 between the courts outside the temple (naos). In St. 
 John's day, neither as a fact nor as a figure, did veil, 
 sacrificial altar, or separation of men from women, Jew 
 from Gentile, exist in the church on earth. St. John's 
 temple and altar and worshippers can hardly represent 
 other than what actually existed in his day — the true 
 worshippers, who worship God without any intervening 
 veil, and really and spiritually offer to Him their praise, 
 prayers, and vows. No doubt, too, the vision was enough 
 for this purpose, and showed no needless copy of Herod's 
 temple, of which not a stone remained in its place ; nor 
 of Mosaic machinery for conducting ceremonies, not one 
 of which had God's sanction for its continuance, and 
 which were done away by the facts which for so long they 
 had foreshadowed. 
 
 The Courts will, then, represent the visible church — all 
 
The Mission of the Two Witnesses 185 
 
 who profess Christianity, and who join in the authorized 
 manner of worship — all undistinguished, like the parts of 
 the temple as above, and named collectively the, Court. 
 It would include all, from true worshippers and seekers 
 after God to thieves (Matt. xxi. 13) — all who professed, 
 or were generally accepted, to be Christians. But the 
 Court is to be quite left out of the measurement, and 
 to be subject to the power, policy, and teaching of the 
 world outside, in common with the Holy City itself, in 
 which, while on earth, the true as well as professing wor- 
 shippers dwell. To this Holy City two witnesses are 
 given, who are (i.e., represent figuratively) the two olive- 
 trees and the two lampstands, which figuratively light 
 the visible, as the inner lampstand the spiritual, Church. 
 No angels are mentioned, as is the case with the seven 
 churches (i. 20) ; so that it is the form and fact of a 
 spiritual church, amid a nominally Christian people, 
 which is represented, without any divinely authorized 
 personification or angel, yet with the properties of a true 
 church, sufficient for unbelievers to see, and sufficient to 
 offer light and to bear testimony. The lampstands ex- 
 hibit certainly the profession, teaching, and moral code ; 
 yet there is no clue as to how far these were acted up to 
 Even the seven churches were not to be wholly relied on. 
 In order to interpret this, we first consider their number. 
 It is the number fixed by the Mosaic law (Deut. xvii. 6 ; 
 John viii. 17) as necessary and sufficient to give legal 
 evidence — ' true ' evidence — of a fact. If twenty men 
 came to testify to a fact, the affidavit of two would be 
 considered sufficient. Something like twenty men, more 
 or less (Matt. xxvi. 60 ; Mark xiv. 56), came to witness 
 against Christ at His last trial before the supreme Jewish 
 court ; and they only cared to find two that would agree, 
 and, those found, would apparently have sent the rest 
 away as useless one way or the other. Just as St. John 
 selects the names of seven local churches to be a perfect 
 
1 86 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 symbolic representation of all, indifferently leaving out 
 Jerusalem, Alexandria, Antioch, etc., as of no use to 
 strengthen the figure, so here he mentions two witnesses 
 — never less, but indifferently more. 
 
 The scene on which the two witnesses appear is not 
 'the earth,' but a separate vision of the temple and its 
 court. It is on our earth — in this world — accessible by 
 the beast (xi. 7), and frequented by peoples, tribes, 
 tongues and nations. In fact, the scene is not confined 
 to the Christendom of the old Roman Empire, but in- 
 cludes it. Presumably its heaven includes more than that 
 seen over the earth of former visions, whose sun, moon 
 and stars may signify the old earthly dignitaries or 
 notables, and in the clouds of which our Lord is to 
 appear. The description under which the witnesses are 
 introduced, ' These are the two olive-trees, etc., is similar 
 to our Lord's 'This h my body,' etc. (Matt. xxvi. 26), the 
 same verb being expressed in each case, without various 
 reading in any MS. This figure seems to be similar to 
 Zech. iv. 2, 14, where one sevenfold lampstand is fed by 
 two olive-trees, which are said by an angel to represent 
 * the two sons of oil ' that stand by the Lord of the ' whole 
 earth,' meaning the two anointed ones, apparently. 
 
 These witnesses shine before men (Matt. v. 16) as two 
 lampstands fed by two olive-trees, with a light continu- 
 ally maintained — as through all the wreck of the Mosaic 
 worship during the later kings — by the grace and strength 
 of God, and continually displayed by the consistent acts 
 or works of the witnesses. The strong angel, represent- 
 ing the Divine Spirit, adds that he will give to the wit- 
 nesses also to prophesy (i Sam. x. 5 ; xix. 20, etc.), i.e., to 
 exhibit public worship of prayer, praise, and teaching. 
 The exercise of their mission will give them marvellous 
 power, such as to bring on bloodshed in peaceful times 
 and amongst previously peaceful citizens, and to inter- 
 rupt the course of affairs by strokes, of which the meaning 
 
The Mission of the Two Witnesses 187 
 
 may be gathered from a study of the strokes of the seven 
 angels hereafter seen in the vision, and, above all, power 
 to pass 2i fire — a usual symbol of destructive execution by 
 judgment — out of their mouths, which will eat up, as fire 
 does, their enemies. As illustrations of this last power, 
 we need only reflect on the effect of the witness borne to 
 the name of God and Christ first upon the hostile idola- 
 trous world inside the Roman Empire, as it was in St. 
 John's time. In two centuries hostile idolatry and worship 
 entirely disappeared. Again, after the breaking up of the 
 empire, the hostile barbarian world — such as in England 
 nearly exterminated Christianity, and the marks of whose 
 sacrilegious fire we may still see in Lincolnshire upon 
 some of our oldest church buildings — was all swallowed 
 up into the professing church. Again, the fierce and 
 ignorant persecuting world of the time of the Reforma- 
 tion has been eaten up, unless where an exasperated and 
 savage quintessence of it may linger concealed in our 
 nunneries and monasteries. 
 
 Section II. Verses 15 to 19. The Sounding of the 
 Seventh Angel. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 18. — Pay. The Greek word used here (and in Matt. 
 v. 12, 46; XX. 8, etc.) is wages: but whether from its use 
 for paying soldiers (a proceeding which soldiers both in 
 those days and since often justly considered to be a great 
 favour), or from its figurative use as a reward, it acquired 
 just that sort of ambiguous sense which attaches to our 
 word pay, meaning to satisfy just expectation in a full, or 
 even liberal, manner, and in a good sense, where we 
 oftener use the verb repay than pay. 
 
 18. — The small and the great : is an interjacula- 
 tory reflection, or comment, of St. John. It agrees, in- 
 
1 88 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 deed, with those, destroying the earth ; but probably refers 
 to all, good and bad. 
 
 Destroy : as a cit}' reduced to ruins, and utterly 
 razed. Our word ruin is used so much in a partial sense 
 as to be inapplicable. Demolish the demolishers is a true 
 translation. 
 
 19. — Great, as with ma^iy in x. 11, may well apply to 
 all the preceding nouns, though the grammar admits of 
 its applying to hail only. It seems quite in accord with 
 St. John's colloquial or idiomatic style to add an epithet 
 intended to apply to all the nouns, though he takes the 
 gender and number of the adjective so as to agree with 
 the last of them. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 15. — At the Messiah's coming all the learned and de- 
 vout men so misunderstood the nature of the kingdom 
 He was to receive on earth, that when He came to His 
 own inheritance His own people did not apprehend or 
 recognise Him (John i. 11). In a parable our Lord gives 
 His own description of the treatment His prophets and 
 He received from the chief priests and religious teachers 
 of His own people (Luke xx. 9-19). Our religious guides, 
 too, have failed to picture hoiv our Lord and His saints 
 will rule the nations and all this world with a rod of iron, 
 and break them in pieces like a potter's vessel (Ps. ii. 9 ; 
 Rev. ii. 27; xii. 5, etc.). We must therefore be particu- 
 larly careful in approaching this, as yet unapprehended, 
 subject of Christ's reign on earth. It is quite as possible, 
 though not perhaps so likely, that our religious leaders 
 may shrink from the faithful discharge of their duties in 
 that kingdom, as the Jewish leaders of our Saviour's time 
 shrunk from the tender of their allegiance. The latter, 
 even the best of them, were staggered by their precon- 
 ceived notions of portions of prophecy, and by the simili- 
 tude they assumed between worldly notions of glory, 
 power, and clemency in an ideal king and God's notion. 
 
The Mission of the Two Witnesses 1 89 
 
 The seventh trumpet ushers in our Lord's personal 
 earthly kingdom, loudly acknowledged throughout earth's 
 heaven. 
 
 The breaking of the seventh seal w^as followed by 
 silence in the supreme heaven (viii. i). After the blast 
 of the seventh trumpet the animals are silent, as before ; 
 but not so the elders. In the case of the seventh seal no 
 vision appeared to complete the series of seals ; and at 
 the blast of the seventh trumpet no vision appears of any- 
 thing occurring on earth to complete the series of trum- 
 pets. Our interest is confined to a consideration of what 
 there could be to cause the elders to praise God here, 
 which was lacking at the breaking of the seventh seal. 
 
 The seals indicated man's state, as allowed full play, not 
 under the powers and freedom which prevail in heaven, 
 but under the more guarded laws of nature and intelligence 
 .which constitute our life on earth. The trumpets show 
 the most notable circumstances of his behaviour when, in 
 the above state, there is added his probation under such 
 contact with his fellow-men, with the devil and his agents, 
 and with God and His agents, as his allotted environment 
 permitted ; until at the completion of the sixth trumpet 
 it is declared (x. 7) that the full time is arrived for God's 
 practical fulfilment of the glad tidings which all His 
 prophets have received from Him. A mystery (x. 7) there 
 is at present awaiting explanation : during all this time 
 an Almighty God permits evil; a righteous God injustice; 
 an omniscient (to use a non-Biblical word, often ««scientifi- 
 cally used, as if to include a knowledge of what will, and 
 will not, happen) God permits free will. Mystery enough, 
 certainly. 
 
 At the beginning of the heavenly visions, before the 
 sealed scroll was noticed, the four animals and twenty-four 
 elders worshipped God as the Creator. Again, when the 
 Lamb appeared and undertook to open the seals, they all 
 worshipped the Lamb as Redeemer. In this case of the 
 seventh trumpet the animals are not mentioned, but the 
 
190 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 twenty-four elders worship God as judge, as taking His 
 kingdom (on earth), and as regarding the good, and 
 simply destroying those who destroy. The ruin of the bad 
 by God here spoken of is a retaliation of like for like, a 
 requital in kind, for the previous ruin of the good by the 
 bad, reminding us of Psa. vii. 16 : ' His mischief will 
 return upon his own head,' etc., and similar passages ; 
 and of the actual case (Isa. xl. 2) of Jerusalem receiving 
 double for all her sins, and of the Divine law of justice 
 given to the Israelites (Exod. xxi. 23, 24). The result 
 would presumably leave the world with the positions of 
 the bad and good at least reversed. The bad will not be 
 as completely exterminated as they had, at times, wished 
 and tried to exterminate the good. That would hardly be 
 justice, and it is inconsistent with the thunders, earthquake, 
 and hail which follow, implying the continued existence 
 of the bad during the dispensation included in the trumpet, 
 ig. — At the blast of the seventh trumpet the temple is 
 opened, the mystery made known, the seat of God's cove- 
 nant seen. All, however, that St. John can make out are 
 storms, noise, and earthquake, upon earth. He gives no 
 details. Like the rest of the trumpets, this deals especi- 
 ally with human evolution as affecting the living Church 
 on earth, and its living opponents there ; as the seals 
 referred to man's material environment under God ; and 
 the following vision, of the saucers, referred to man's 
 spiritual environment. The climax to which the seals 
 tended was extinction, as if the material laws under which 
 we exist in the present world will come to as complete an 
 ■end as our bodies do in death, before that consummation 
 whose place would be after the opening of the seventh 
 seal ; so that such earth as is to exist after that opening 
 will be as entirely new and spiritualized as our re-risen 
 bodies will be. The climax to which the trumpets tend 
 is restitution and judgment, and that to which the saucers 
 tend is the establishment on earth of the reign of Christ 
 and His saints. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ORIGINAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION. 
 
 And a great sign was seen in the heaven : a woman 
 clothed in the sun, and the moon under her feet, and 
 on her head a crown of twelve stars, and with child, 
 and cries out, in pangs and tortured to bring forth. 
 
 And another sign in the heaven was seen : and, 
 see ! a great flame-coloured dragon, having seven 
 heads and ten horns, and upon its heads seven fillets ; 
 and its tail drags the third part of the stars of heaven, 
 and threw them into the earth. And the dragon 
 stands in front of the woman who was about to bring 
 forth; that, whenever she should bring forth, it should 
 eat up her child : and she brought forth a male son, 
 who is about to tend all the nations (armed) with an 
 iron staff. And her son was caught away to God, and 
 to His [God's] throne : and the woman fled into the 
 wilderness, where she has there a place made ready, 
 from God, that they may nourish her there twelve 
 hundred and sixty days. And war came on in the 
 heaven — Michael and his angels to make war with the 
 dragon — and the dragon made war, and its angels; and 
 did not prevail ; nor was a place of theirs found any 
 longer in the heaven ; and it was thrown — the great 
 dragon, the ancient snake, who is called slanderer 
 (devil) and adversary (Satan), who leads the whole 
 inhabited (world) astray — was thrown into the earth ; 
 
192 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 10 and its angels were thrown along with it. And I 
 heard a great voice in the heaven, saying, ' Now 
 came about the salvation, power, and kingdom of our 
 God, and the authority of his Christ, because the 
 accuser of our brothers was thrown, who accuses 
 
 11 them in the front of our God, day and night. And 
 they conquered him because of the blood of the 
 Lamb, and because of the word of their (own) testi- 
 
 12 mony ; and did not love their life up to death. On that 
 account rejoice, ye heavens, and ye who encamp in 
 them. Woe, earth and sea ! because the Slanderer 
 descended to you, having great wrath, knowing that 
 he has a short season.' 
 
 13 And when the dragon saw that it was thrown into 
 the earth, it persecuted the woman, she who brought 
 
 14 forth the male. And two wings of the great eagle 
 were given to the woman, that she should fly into 
 the wilderness, into her place where she is nourished 
 there, a season and seasons and half a season from 
 
 15 the face of the snake. And the snake threw out 
 of its mouth after the woman water, as if a river, 
 
 16 that it might make her river-borne : and the earth 
 helped the woman ; and the earth opened its mouth 
 and drank down the river which the dragon threw 
 
 17 out of its mouth. And the dragon was angry at the 
 woman, and came away, to make war with the rest of 
 her seed, who keep the commands of God, and have 
 Jesus' testimony, and stopped upon the sand of the 
 sea. 
 
 THE WOMAN AND THE DRAGON. 
 
 Section I. Verses i to 6. The Woman and 
 HER Child. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 I. — A GREAT SIGN. The nearest approach we have in 
 English to a verb and noun which will translate the 
 
The Woman and the Dragon 193 
 
 Greek ones is signal. In chapter i. i, St. John says that this 
 revelation Christ ' signalled, sending b}' His angel, to His 
 servant John.' Here he says, ' A great signal was seen in 
 the heaven,' viz., one of these signals. In form the verb 
 signify, and the noun sign, make the most fitting pair; 
 but these have nearly lost the necessary meaning, and 
 would fail to give an English ear the right impression. 
 This sign is one of the great signals by which Christ 
 is signalling the future, throughout this revelation, to 
 St. John. 
 
 In the heaven : the earthly heaven. 
 
 3. — Dragon. Homer describes a red or purple dragon, 
 apparently founded on a mariner's exaggeration of a boa, 
 or python — a huge serpent with three heads, etc. Per- 
 haps it was the Gothic nations who first invented legs to 
 a dragon. There is no sign of any legs in St. John's 
 dragon. In the legends the meaning of a dragon is a 
 body of drilled foot-soldiers marching in step. 
 
 Flame, or carrot-coloured. The literal translation, 
 flame-coloured, is adopted, because there may be a sym- 
 bolic meaning in it, though in English flame-colour is 
 hardly a defined colour, and, if anything, seems borrowed 
 from smoky red theatrical flames. This is the colour of 
 yellow flame. 
 
 Fillets : used only in this book of the New Testa- 
 ment ; but the writers of the LXX. use it in their transla- 
 tion of Esther i. 11: 'To bring in the queen to him, to 
 make her queen, and to put on her the fillet, and to show 
 her to the rulers, and her beauty to the nations, that she 
 was beautiful ' — as if their Greek word * fillet ' would not 
 adequately translate croivn-royal, but required a para- 
 phrase. So in Isaiah Ixii. 3 royal diadem is translated 
 fillet of royalty in the LXX. Hence it seems safer to take 
 the ordinary Greek sense of the word, viz., a fillet, or 
 hand, round the head, tied behind in a bow, and with ends 
 hanging perhaps as low as the shoulders. The Persians 
 
 13 
 
1 94 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 used such a fillet as a mark of royalty ; and Alexander, by 
 borrowing it himself, set the fashion for its use as an 
 adornment in statuary. The Greek word diadem is angli- 
 cized to mean a tiara or crown, and that the Greek word 
 never meant. 
 
 5. — Armed with. There is no meaning of military 
 armour here. The Greek merely means with, in the sense 
 of using as an implement, invested with. Some English 
 poet speaks of ladies as being ' armed with smiles,' and 
 shows in this figure at once his skill and the poverty of 
 our language. The word armed is put in parenthesis, 
 although its meaning, as above, is in the Greek, as a 
 caution against misunderstanding its meaning by treating 
 it too literally. 
 
 6. — Wilderness. In many Eastern countries there 
 are special words for (i) the village, or town, site, within 
 which is every building or place in the village; (2) around 
 it lie lands cultivated as gardens, usually fenced, or as 
 fields, usually unfenced, but divided only by boundary 
 stones for separate cultivation, under any number of 
 holders of one or more of these divisions ; (3) wilderness, 
 or uncultivated grazing-ground. The derivation of this 
 word in the Greek is not from the things growing on it 
 being uncultivated and wild, but from the place being 
 lonely, desolate and ivild ; it would particularly apply to 
 tracts absolutely barren and waste. To a Jew there was 
 a special meaning in the word ivilderness, from its being 
 the general term, in the LXX., for the place of the 
 wanderings of the Israelites (from Exod. xv. 22) till they 
 entered Canaan. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 J. — A great sign — of things shortly to come to pass 
 (i. i) — now appears to St. John, as he stands in the 
 heaven of God's throne, and in presence of the court sur- 
 rounding that throne. No part of that court, or of the 
 
The IVonian and the Dragon 195 
 
 heaven under which it stands, can be included amongst 
 the signs of what was to occur on earth. This sign of 
 the woman, we must assume till otherwise informed, 
 appears to St. John, as did the seals and trumpets, as a 
 sign, a symbolic scene, of events on earth and in its 
 heaven. This sign surpasses all others of the kind in 
 importance, so much so as to be called great. Only the 
 S3'mbol of God in heaven could be called the great sign, 
 after the analogy of the great sea, the great river, the great 
 King; but we find, in 2 Sam. vii. g, a sufficient example of 
 the idea a Jew would have in speaking of a great sign of 
 what was to be in the earthly heaven. The description of 
 this woman fully bears out the greatness of her position in 
 heaven. Signs in heaven, such as those described by our 
 Lord (Luke xxi. 11, 25), represent something effectively 
 operating and existing on earth ; judged, indeed, by the 
 inhabitants of the earth from its observed effect and 
 appearance, being too far off for their personal knowledge. 
 In prophetic language a star represents a chief or leader 
 (Num. xxiv. 17 ; Dan. viii. 10), or a god (Amos v. 26). 
 We may safely say that, in current astrology, the star was 
 not considered to be the god, or ruler, whom it was either 
 literally or figuratively taken to personify, but was sup- 
 posed to exercise a most powerful controlling influence 
 from him. It is so identified with the people upon earth 
 •whom it influences, that in our second and third chapters 
 the errors, deeds, and punishments of the one are applied 
 to the other. As prophetic symbols, no doubt, signs 
 borrow a general character from the astrological notions 
 of a star. They are stars and more — ideal constellations, 
 :S0 developed in detail as to convey symbolic information 
 from every part and act ; and so intimately connected 
 with the people whom they influence, as to be in many 
 respects identified with them. 
 
 The four chief signs here intimately grouped, and acting 
 together, are the woman, her son, the dragon, and Michael. 
 
196 The Revelation given to St. John the Divitte 
 
 The dragon is distinctly called (verse g) the devil, Satan, 
 an invisible but real being. Michael also is an invisible 
 but real being (Jude 9 ; also see Dan. x. 13, etc.). It will 
 be consistent, therefore, if the woman and her son repre- 
 sent real but invisible beings ; for instance, the Hoi}'' 
 Spirit in the guise of the souls born of Him — the bride of 
 Christ — and Christ Himself. But as (in xvii. 7) we have 
 an angel's interpretation of a sign seen in the wilderness, 
 very similar to this dragon, it will be safest to begin 
 interpretation with the sign about which we have this 
 help. 
 
 Going back to interpret the other signs by the experi- 
 ence gained from the interpretation of the dragon, w^e 
 come iirst to the woman. Like the Son of man on earth, 
 in the first vision (i. 13), she has no rainbow ; that is only 
 seen round the throne (iv. 3), and strong angel (x. i), 
 which were both in the upper heaven. She is clothed 
 with the sun, a sign peculiar to this woman. Sunrise had 
 been a prophetic metaphor for the coming of the Messiah 
 in the LXX. (Isa. ix. 2 ; xlix. 6 ; Mai. iv. 2) ; adopted 
 in Hebrew poetry, and in the New Testament writers 
 (Matt. iv. 16 ; Luke i. 78 ; 2 Pet. i. 19), as a name for His 
 coming in St. John's time. In reference to God's people, 
 the sun, or at least his light, is figuratively used of Christ, 
 or of His teaching (John i. 9 ; Eph. v. 14). This woman, 
 clothed, not in bright garments to represent her own 
 righteousness before God, but in the sun itself, should 
 represent a person, or persons, who actually emit Christ's 
 light to enlighten the earth. Yet it is a quality no more 
 inherent than the righteousness with which the saints are 
 clothed before God (iii. 5 ; vii. 9, etc.). This clothing in 
 the sun is peculiar to this vision. The moon is under her 
 feet, an expression quoted by our Lord and others 
 (Matt. xxii. 44; Heb. ii. 8) from the Old Testament, 
 always to imply subjugation, or at least thorough subjec- 
 tion. The moon is the chief of all the lesser lights 
 
The Woman and the Dragon 197 
 
 (Gen. i. 16), and, while all others vanish before the sun, 
 the moon is sometimes seen in heaven with the sun, 
 but in a condition suggesting it as an illustration of 
 thorough subjection. In connection with the sun of 
 God's righteous sovereignty and light, the moon might 
 represent the highest human skill and wisdom, in or out 
 of the churches. 
 
 The twelve stars, in contrast to the moon, would mean 
 constant and trustworthy guides. Of course, there is no 
 distinction made between heavenly bodies as being lumi- 
 nous by reflected or by intrinsic light ; such distinction 
 was not known. The light of stars, as shown in words, 
 actions, feelings, or writings, was from heaven, and, how- 
 ever feeble compared to the sun and moon, was true. 
 They represent a set at the head of some complete 
 organization, or cycle, or both, as the twelve sons of 
 Jacob were the fathers of the twelve tribes, embracing the 
 whole of the promised seed of Abraham ; the twelve 
 months and twelve signs of the zodiac embraced all time 
 and all heaven in their recurring cycle; the twelve foun- 
 dations (xxi. ig), or twelve gates (xxi. 21), or twelve 
 Apostles' names (xxi. 14), are symbols of a similar order 
 in the heavenly Jerusalem. As with the ten command- 
 ments, the number, or individual identification, is kept 
 practically sound ; but how far it can be called scientifi- 
 cally accurate it is useless to argue. There are twelve 
 Apostles usually cited, but no one can name them ; one 
 we know was changed, and all the evidence is in favour of 
 more having been changed. We know of fourteen, 
 thirteen of whom were Apostles together just before 
 James's martyrdom. So there were practically thirteen 
 tribes. So the crown of twelve stars might very well 
 include the guidance given by the writers of the New 
 Testament, and by the acts and teaching of the Apostles, 
 and of those who have lived in union of spirit and teach- 
 ing with them. 
 
198 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 As the dragon is called Satan, because Satan inspires it 
 in the pursuit of earthly lusts, so the woman might be 
 called the Spirit of God, who inspires her, were it not 
 that the analogy would be imperfect. Satan finds men 
 flesh, that is, guided by fleshly instincts, and he main- 
 tains them in living to the flesh, and is shown as acting 
 directly on earth. God's Spirit finds men flesh, and 
 creates in them new life of the Spirit, and with His 
 guidance they act directly on earth. The woman seems to 
 represent the aggregate of these new spiritual lives, work- 
 ing on earth in the guise of all true servants of God, and 
 so free from any connection with the ceremonies and 
 organization of either the Mosaic or Apostolic churches, 
 that she cannot be identified with either, though her 
 symbolic equipment is in harmony with both. Of course, 
 the Spirit acts in other ways than that which it is the 
 office of this vision to show ; and so, alas ! does Satan. 
 The woman has on her head no fillet of any official secular 
 authority, but a circlet about her head of twelve shining 
 stars. 
 
 3. — The dragon is called the devil and Satan (verse g) ; 
 but though thus called, it appears in heaven as a symbolic 
 form of the physical guise, or existence, under which 
 Satan (for the purposes of this vision) acts on earth — 
 under which he develops his temper and purposes 
 amongst men and things in the organized nations then 
 known. 
 
 To interpret this symbolic form, we have the help of 
 the angel's interpretation of a similar form (xvii. 7, etc.). 
 First of all, it represents the mind or spirit which causes 
 men to group together into an organized kingdom or 
 empire. The flame-colour, only occurring elsewhere in 
 the horse of the second seal, indicates republican strife or 
 jealousy. The inevitable enforcement of submission — the 
 accepted recourse to force and numbers as the always 
 open court of final appeal, whose decisions always justify 
 
The Woman and the Dragon 199 
 
 the winner for the time being — gives a colour to the whole 
 dragon. The seven heads, a figure taken from the seven 
 hills of Rome, represent that its structure, as organizer of 
 empire, was founded upon every suitable form of State 
 religion — upon a complete unrestricted use of all that 
 could be made useful in all the forms of religious belief, 
 which research and invention could combine to root into 
 the earth of organized States. From the earliest times up 
 to Constantine the Great inclusive, the Roman State 
 (like its predecessors, but more systematically) embodied 
 in its religious worship gods, beliefs and rites, wherever it 
 found them, and only controlled or forbade them so far as 
 was thought wise for upholding secure government. Even 
 when Christians were persecuted, it was on the plea that 
 they were an obstinate and disloyal set, who insulted the 
 State religion ; and the test exacted by the most con- 
 sistent imperial magistrates, as sufficient to free the 
 Christian from further punishment, was, not abjuration, 
 but a mere act of homage to the Emperor as divine — 
 a pledge that they held their religion for the support and 
 defence of the State, and as vassals subject in religion to 
 its direction. The seven heads also represent seven 
 kings, or forms of State government. As with religion, so 
 with organization of State control ; the supreme power in 
 the empire of Rome, and of its predecessors, passed suc- 
 cessively, or in combination, through every possible form 
 of earthly government. All varieties of detail as to elec- 
 tion, succession, combination — chiefs, kings, senates, 
 consuls, or presidents, dictators, military emperors, in 
 succession in some places, or simultaneously — all have 
 been used as heads by the devil. The connection between 
 religion and empire seems to have been close enough to 
 justify the use of the same symbol, the heads, for both. 
 We have had in Australasia examples of races of men 
 almost destitute of both, and in America examples of 
 races somewhat advanced in combining both. The two, 
 
200 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 religion and empire, as they first appear in history on 
 stone or papyrus, appear as twins, and combine together 
 and develop each other. In our day a body of highly 
 intellectual writers, wishing to overturn the one, have 
 decided that they must advocate the overturning of both, 
 or must else give up any plausible hope of overturning 
 either. 
 
 Rome, as the city which in St. John's day had the pre- 
 eminence over all other kingdoms and religions (xvii. i8), 
 though not named in Revelation, is, like every proper 
 name in these symbolical visions, only a symbol of all 
 earthly empire, excepting theocratic Israel, from the 
 earliest history to the end of this age. We shall herein- 
 after see that religions subservient to the support of 
 earthly power, and every kind of government based on 
 force, will be overturned together. 
 
 The fillets on each head of the flame-coloured dragon 
 may show how every form, or combination of forms, of 
 any government at any place or time has always exercised, 
 so far as it has been competent — and if incompetent has 
 claimed — complete oflicial supremacy. Whether that 
 government be a despot or pope, a hereditary or elected 
 council, a bureaucracy elected by a majority of heads, a 
 guild, or trades-union — whoever be the captain of the ship 
 of state assumes the fillet. The ten horns show that the 
 supremacy would be simultaneously developed on earth, 
 i.e., on Christendom in its widest sense, in a considerable 
 number of independent powers. The number ten indi- 
 cating that ten are shown as samples — that it is not as if 
 that particular number were necessary to make a perfect 
 set, or to exhaust all the numberless existing minor powers 
 which might exist, all partaking of the same nature. 
 Consider, for instance, the ten commandments, or word.^ 
 (Exod. xxxiv. 28). Christendom has not yet settled even 
 what the ten are, and our Lord teaches how incomplete 
 they are in the letter, inasmuch as each is but a sample of 
 
The IVonian and the Dragon 201 
 
 numberless minor commands, which spring up and exist 
 with them. 
 
 4. — We are, then, to understand that the devil was 
 allowed to work in this guise upon earth, and that the 
 horrid and repellent structure of the greatest known 
 earthl}' civilizations was, and is, worked by him, and 
 actuated by his principles. The lust for power (next to 
 animal craving and recklessness) is the strongest tempta- 
 tion which the devil can work on a large scale ; it was one 
 of those selected to test our Saviour (Matt. iv. 8), and our 
 Lord draws attention to its dangerous power in several 
 discourses (Matt. xix. 23) and parables (Matt. xxi. 33). 
 The devil has worked it, and, however noble the natural 
 laws by which empire exists, yet the empire which Satan 
 has built up is hopelessly immoral and bad. Still, there is a 
 contest of good in this furnace of evil, whereby graces are 
 evolved and grow up in believers' hearts. 
 
 The dragon's tail — that is, wherever it had passed, or 
 come into contact with, others — dragged, like a drag-net, 
 a third part of the stars, and threw them into the earth. 
 What with being extinguished and weakened under these 
 imperial organizations, a third part of the guides and 
 lights of the civilized communities, both official or in 
 independent prominent positions, were drawn along by 
 the devil in the guise of this empire, and thrown down, 
 disestablished, and left to burn on the earth, or to be 
 extinguished, without support, and, as it were, trampled 
 under ill treatment by the State. 
 
 5. — The description of the male son cannot be intended 
 for any other than Christ (Ps. ii. 7-9) — the man (i Tim. ii. 
 5, 6^, the corner foundation-stone of His body, the Church, 
 on earth — and all the spiritual effect upon man of His 
 first visit to earth. It is very suggestive, and surely won- 
 derful, that in this vision we find the devil is seen as a 
 dragon, in touch with the earth, giving life to the empire ; 
 but the Spirit of God is not shown as in similar touch 
 
202 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 with the earth, nor as giving His power and authority to 
 any organized church nor empire on earth. As a Son of 
 man, He has been shown in the early chapters in even 
 closer touch with the new life of those who live in the 
 spirit ; His action is there surpassingly greater, for He 
 actually has created them anew, and will establish them 
 into a kingdom as much higher than the empire of the 
 earth as, we may almost say, heaven is from hell. Our 
 Lord was offered Satan's empire (Matt. iv. 8-11) on Satan's 
 terms, but He declined it for the service of God. His 
 refusal of it cannot be too clearly and willingly followed 
 by the wise, whether we consider only the promised end, 
 or only the path which leads to that end. On the one 
 hand, we, as servants of God, seek to enjoy the care, and 
 to follow the guidance, of the Good Shepherd who laid 
 down His life for the protection and happiness of His 
 sheep ; and, on the other hand, the worshippers of Satan 
 seek to grasp at an empire of force and fraud, out of the 
 hands of the prince of cruelty and craft, against many 
 human competitors. To that fanciful end the worshippers 
 of Satan surrender themselves — without God's help, and 
 with no reserve of their own — into the power of their 
 adversary, the father of lies and of evil, who can only 
 redeem his offers to one by breaking those he makes to 
 others. Now, though the special action of God's Spirit 
 on the sons He adopts to be heirs of eternal life is con- 
 fined to them, yet it gives to them, as an aggregation — as 
 the true invisible Church of the elect of God — an existence 
 and power superior to the, likewise invisible, devil in his 
 dragon. Though their power be not recognised as such 
 to the earthly eyes of the dwellers on the earth, they have 
 immense influence on earth nevertheless ; and they prefer 
 it, as our Lord did, to the condition of worshippers of the 
 devil ; and they are consistently shown here, as the woman 
 clothed in the sun, having a superior position in earth's 
 heaven, to that which Satan himself has as the gaudy and 
 
The Woman and the Dra^^on 20 
 
 crowned dragon. As the dragon is called Satan, and re- 
 presents his visible empire on earth, so the woman may be 
 called the true Church (in modern phrase), and represents 
 the visible churches on earth, so far as they are impelled, 
 consciously or incidentally, by true Christian motives. 
 
 We have said that the male son represents Christ, who 
 was born into the world, and lived a short time in touch 
 with it. He laid the foundation of His earthly kingdom, 
 indeed, but did not give a particle of life or authority 
 to any kingdom supported on earth, as those empowered 
 by the dragon were. He was caught away, and now lives 
 in the heaven of God and of the Spirit. He will again 
 return to rule a kingdom co-extensive with the whole 
 world, and will be (at least) as much in touch with it as 
 Satan is in touch with his empire. In it the dwellers 
 upon earth will be so completely organized and led, by 
 Him and by His servants, after the subjugation of His 
 enemies by God (i Cor. xv. 25), that He will tend all 
 nations with an iron staff. 
 
 6. — Michael and his angels seem grouped together, as 
 being all of a similar kind. They do not represent the 
 church, nor men at all, but all angels, and angelic action 
 and temper, in St. John's usual sense of the word. They 
 are, no doubt, figuratively used to include their followers 
 amongst men, so far as men are guided by them. Where 
 that is the case, all men, so far as they are actuated from 
 God by a conscientious choice of righteous and noble 
 motives, must be included as of Michael's host. 
 
 So the dragon and his angels symbolically represent 
 invisible beings, not included in the dragon's earthly 
 empire ; and, indeed, care seems to be taken to show 
 that, in the fight, the dragon represents, and is to be 
 called, Satan himself (verse g). Of course, Satan's angels 
 would be of the like kind, not men, but evil angels. Yet, 
 figuratively, men actuated by them might be included in 
 the name. We can only suppose that Michael, as in 
 
204 The Revelation given to St. Jo hi the Divine 
 
 Daniel's vision (Dan. x. 13), represents God's angelic host 
 contending in the affairs of men with the devil and all 
 other evil spirits — a chief prince of heaven contesting on 
 earth with the prince of this world (our Lord in John xii. 
 31) over the whole field offered by this planet. It is a war 
 of right and wrong, of God's honour and God's dishonour, 
 apart from the empire and from earth. And as to the 
 men who follow the one or the other host : the struggle is 
 not only between men, but is in each man, and pre- 
 sumably includes all that contest between good and evil 
 which we know as a fact is going on in the mind of every 
 man, and of which there has been no symbolization in any 
 of the visions previous to this one. 
 
 Having thus considered the nature of the leading 
 symbols, with the caution that, as in any ordinary civil 
 war — say, Israel against Judah, nobles against commons, 
 North against South — the title of the sides is figuratively 
 given to every follower, we come to the historic interpre- 
 tation. It is quite impossible for ourselves or other 
 dwellers upon earth to pronounce what particular indi- 
 viduals they are who are symbolized by the woman as 
 being true servants of God. But of the visible church, 
 which she also represents, we know that Adam was one ; 
 he was the first we know of; and in his time the coming 
 of the male child, Christ in His human form, was foretold 
 to Satan himself (Gen. iii. 15). Up to the time of our 
 Lord the church, figured in this woman, existed free 
 from organized religious persecution, taking a position of 
 external similarity to the families or nations of the civili- 
 zation around them ; and, whatever their national wars, 
 and however they were rallied to fight for their own God 
 (i Sam. xvii. 45-47), other nations simply saw God's 
 people acting as they themselves acted (i Sam. xvii. 43 ; 
 see the tone of the King of Assyria's letter to Hezekiah, 
 2 Kings xix. 10-13). But Christ's advent was the com- 
 mencement of persecutions of the members of the visible 
 
The Woman and the Dragon 205 
 
 church, for the testimony they bore to the glad tidings of 
 Christ, individually and as a body. From the time of the 
 ascension, the true church was in the wilderness, having no 
 honour given her in the policies, struggles, and corpora- 
 tions of civilization ; only accessible to all who go to seek 
 her. There, like Israel of old, she has a place prepared 
 for her for twelve hundred and sixty years. During 
 that time the servants of God, who profess, and by their 
 conduct testify, their belief in Christ's Gospel, are almost 
 lost to history ; they had no distinctive sphere of action in 
 making history, and no place in its records. The testimon}' 
 of professing Churchmen went off in side issues even in St. 
 Paul's day, and was soon as much a question of party and of 
 politics as the old Gentile religions of David's or Hezekiah's 
 time. Soon the professors of each new teaching were at 
 least as hot persecutors of each other. The contest between 
 all these political states and churches on the one side, 
 and the pure glad tidings of Christ on the other, may 
 be said to come into history twelve hundred and sixty 
 years after the taking of Jerusalem (a.d. 70), about the 
 time of Wiclif (died a.d. 1384) and of Huss (died a.d. 
 
 Again, to give the widest figurative interpretation to the 
 woman, as standing for the visible organization on earth, 
 which followed up spiritual truth by profession and con- 
 sistent general conduct — as the dragon stands for the 
 visible organization on earth of those who worshipped 
 empire, and consistently made acquisition and power 
 their ruling object — she vanished out of the fellowship of 
 states at the destruction of Jerusalem. The Jews, as a 
 church, were then cast off, as foretold by their own 
 prophets and by our Lord, and were definitely separated 
 from the believing Christians. And the recognised Chris- 
 tian churches, when they gradually raised themselves into 
 political power, did so by an organization and conduct 
 quite opposed to Christ's example and teaching. No 
 
2o6 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 simple Gospel-church appeared in history until it at- 
 tracted political notice in Switzerland, England and Hun- 
 gary, some twelve hundred and sixty years afterwards. 
 
 Section II. Verses 7 to 12. War in Heaven. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 8. — Did not prevail. The Greek word is literally icas 
 not strong. The adjective is used (v. 2 ; x. i ; xviii. 21) as 
 an epithet of angels, and (xviii. 10) of Babylon. The 
 original meaning applies to strength of body ; meta- 
 phorically it is used, like our strong, of any kind of strength. 
 The word prevail is too much in favour of the devil and 
 his angels ; had no strength, or could make nothing of it, give 
 the notion more nearly. 
 
 A PLACE of theirs : i.e., any place occupied by them. 
 In Dan. ii. 35 (LXX.) it is ' no place was found for them '; 
 but it is the same idea, and in the case of Daniel's ex- 
 pression history proves to us what Daniel (writing in 
 Aramaic) meant. 
 
 g. — Devil is Greek for slanderer, false accuser ; Satan is 
 Hebrew for adversary : as Christ is Greek, and Messiah 
 Hebrew, for anointed. 
 
 II, — Because of the Lamb's shedding His blood, and 
 their maintaining a faithful testimony. It is not by means 
 ■of, so much as by aid of ; i.e., without that they would not 
 have conquered, but have been conquered. St. John 
 uses the same preposition in his Gospel (vi. 57), * As . . . 
 I live because of the Father, . . . He will live because of 
 me.' 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 g. — Meanwhile the war between Michael and Satan, 
 good and evil, was already hot in St. Paul's time. St. 
 Paul himself was accused by Jews before the Gentile 
 -world as being no Apostle, but a self-seeking swindler. 
 
The Woman and the Dragon 207 
 
 By the purer and more philosophic of the pagan autho- 
 rities the servants of Christ were accused as a pestilent and 
 seditious sect, and their inflexible obstinacy was punished 
 by cruel and degrading death. The war gradually ex- 
 tended, amongst those authorized by Satan, to wielding 
 power and influence in the political heaven of the empire, 
 till, about two hundred years after the Revelation was 
 written, the worship of demons — paganism— was actually 
 upset, and vanished from the political heaven. In its 
 place was established a State profession of Christianity, 
 out of which the teaching of the simple Gospel at once 
 dropped from neglect. The recognised Christianity 
 became a political modification of Christian teaching, 
 adapted as much as possible to suit and invigorate the 
 old forms of worship, the old influence of priests, and the 
 old Satanic principles of governments. When once 
 established, this pseudo-, or harlot-, Christianity grew till 
 it surpassed paganism, not in its sublimer truths only, but 
 in more exalted blasphemy, bolder assumption, and more 
 hard-hearted persecution. 
 
 10. — The fall of paganism, when Satan as a visible 
 luminary was cast out of heaven, caused an immense 
 change in the tone of the ruling power — from that of 
 St. John's time to Constantine's. No future government 
 enlisted the arts, and spent money and influence in pro- 
 moting, professedly for their own sakes, bloodshed and 
 licentiousness. For public conduct, however evil, some 
 excuse consistent with Christianity was sought ; if pre- 
 texts were wanting, dispensations were sought from 
 teachers who claimed to be Christian. At the worst, 
 these teachers always preached a righteous and omni- 
 potent God. So that the faU of Satan from the time 
 of Constantine is the event of most importance to the 
 dwellers upon earth throughout the empire. It is not 
 possible for us thoroughly to realize the change from the 
 government of an emperor who believed in no God, and 
 
2o8 The Revelation giveji to St. John the Divine 
 
 at best professed the patronage of a set of demons, under 
 which he took whatever course he wished, to that of 
 rulers who believed in responsibility to the God of the 
 Christian creeds ; but we have in inspired words 
 (verses lo, ii) a sketch of its grandeur, coupled with a 
 warning as to the grievous mischief Satan would still do, 
 even on earth. We have to remember that, at the time 
 paganism was thrown down (a.d. 300), even the dignitaries 
 of the churches were very far from being so bad as they 
 afterwards became ; and the members of the church, its 
 elders and deacons, were still generally sincere, and for 
 generations exercised a great influence for good over all 
 the territory of the empire. They founded works and 
 spread practical ideas of religion and benevolence, which 
 continue amongst us now, in contrast to the remains of 
 pagan circuses, theatres and baths. 
 
 Section III. Verses 13 to 17. The Perils of 
 THE Woman. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 13. — Persecute : literally to chase, pursue in order to 
 catch, especially of pursuit of a flying enemy, 
 
 14. — Wings of the great eagle. In Exod. xix. 4 
 Moses is instructed by God on Sinai to tell the Israelites 
 that He bore them on eagles' wings out of Egypt, and 
 brought them (close to) Himself. In both cases the wings 
 seem a mere poetical expression, for of course God could 
 not, humanly speaking, be described as carrying anything 
 to Himself on His own wings, nor as bearing up the 
 Israelites on their own wings. 
 
 A season, and seasons, and half a season. This 
 expression, but with the word time for season, is found 
 in our translation of the Aramaic of Dan. vii. 25, and of 
 the Hebrew in Dan. xii. 7. The editors of the LXX. 
 translate the Aramaic into itntil a season and seasons and 
 
The Woman and the Dragon 209 
 
 half a seawn, agreeing in this with St. John ; but they trans- 
 late the Hebrew /or a season of seasons and half a season. 
 
 15. — River-borne : so the Greek ; but the term is 
 rather an awkward one in Enghsh. The notion conveyed 
 is, that after the woman flew up, the snake immediately 
 threw the water, with intent to get her adrift upon it, 
 should she not fly away in time to save herself, or should 
 she be unable to fly clear of it. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 13. — The time from the beginning to the end of this 
 war is only so far fixed that it was while the woman was 
 in the wilderness — suppose a.d. 70 to 1330, or a.d. 100 to 
 1360 — and early enough in that time to allow of the con- 
 tinued persecution of her while she was still in the wilder- 
 ness. Perhaps our Lord may refer, primarily, to this fall 
 of Satan out of overt dominion when He said, ' I beheld 
 Satan, as Hghtning, fall from heaven ' (Luke x. 18) ; and 
 we may suppose that Satan himself then also 'saw that he 
 was thrown into the earth ' — that his fall had then begun, 
 and would continue. Or Satan's apprehension of his fall 
 may date from our Lord's ascension, after the male child 
 had been caught up into heaven. However that may be, 
 we learn that for three and a half seasons Satan tried to 
 persecute the true Church of Christ and failed (verse 14). 
 The ' three and a half seasons ' seems to be a phrase used by 
 Daniel (Dan. vii. 25) for twelve hundred and sixty years, 
 during which time the woman was enabled to escape out of 
 his reach to the wilderness. This almost implies the cessa- 
 tion of miraculous powers in the church. Had the heads of 
 the church continued to be chosen, and sanctioned, by the 
 gift of wonderful miraculous powers, it is not clear how 
 they could have dropped out of the world's sight into 
 the wilderness. The expressions in verse 6, repeated in 
 verse 14, seem to refer to the same event. In that case 
 the season and seasons and a half means three and a half 
 
 14 
 
2IO The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 nominal years of three hundred and sixty days, or twelve 
 hundred and sixty days. For twelve hundred and sixty 
 years we know of no systematic persecution by the dragon, 
 in the guise of his empire directed against men for living 
 a pure and Christian life. There were persecutions for 
 active preaching, and for dogma, and for supporters, or 
 assumed supporters, of either ; but difficulties arose on 
 points beyond the inspired revelation — which was gene- 
 rally professedly accepted on both sides — on subtle meta- 
 physical questions, which were nearly always used as a 
 mere means of getting increased political power, and 
 stricter subordination under it. The authoritative litera- 
 ture was issued in floods — not aimed at true Christian 
 piety, but fatally effective in floating away men's thoughts 
 and faith from the 'way' of Christ. Pure ignorance of 
 any other facts and interpretations of the Gospel than 
 could reach mankind through the ceremonies of the 
 churches, and the teaching of the clerical orders, usually 
 left those who sought and believed in a Saviour out of 
 reach of persecution. Saints there were among both 
 clerics and their disciples, but in the wilderness of universal 
 ignorance they were left in peace. 
 
 15. — And the, snake threw out of his inouth after the woman 
 water, as if a river. We have no parallel to this figure in 
 Israelitish history, poetry, or prophecy ; and it is neces- 
 sary to dissever in our minds our Lord's use of water in 
 a figurative sense, and Israel's supply of water in atypical 
 sense, from this figure. This water is from the mouth, and 
 it is hostile ; it is to prevail by confusing, misleading, 
 hampering, chilling, and even drowning, the traveller 
 whom the flood overtakes. The figure contrasts with that 
 of the Son of man with a sharp broadsword proceeding 
 out of his mouth (i. 16). We have, in interpreting this 
 Hatter figure, to avoid all the usual meanings in cases 
 where a sword is used for actual war, slaughter, or pain 
 akin to slaughter. The sword here figured represents 
 
The Wo7nan and the Dragon 2 1 r 
 
 what really comes from the mouth — teaching and writing; 
 it is only figuratively a sword, rightly dividing entangled 
 things ; it is the reverse of confusing, choking, and hinder- 
 ing. Taking this figure as our guide, the water poured 
 out by the snake is the teaching and writing from the 
 mouth of those inspired by the devil. It will represent all 
 the false theories, false facts (so called), and all the floods 
 of contending babbling and quibbles, upon subjects on the 
 face of them insoluble — such as whether there are in the 
 Trinity three persons and one substance, or three sub- 
 stances and one person, both of which propositions are 
 orthodox, having been formally settled by counting heads 
 at an ' oecumenical ' council, though no one has success- 
 fully cleared up the meaning of either. Lastly, the repre- 
 sentation includes floods of cursing and anathemas, issued 
 in order to prevent any advance in the apprehension of 
 truth by an inquirer. 
 
 16. — It is singular how all this flood of babbling ' doc- 
 trines ' — miracles by bones, and false lives of saints, false 
 decretals, and so forth — are in our day passed away. One 
 may almost say that not a soul in Christendon would have 
 felt more secure, were it known that Napoleon had been 
 wilily entrapped into swearing the treaty of Amiens over 
 a box of bones; yet it was thought, by one of the best 
 statesmen and most fearless leaders in Europe, to be 
 worth while to entrap Prince Harold of England into so 
 swearing to a treaty, or at least to declare that Harold had 
 been so trapped. It cannot be said that this flood of 
 superstition has been rendered obsolete by the true con- 
 version of the rulers, statesmen, and people of Christendom 
 to the service of God and Christ. The flood has, indeed, 
 all been swallowed down, but, as often as not, by those 
 who still make war against the profession of Christianity, 
 and against those who, in keeping the commandments of 
 God, bear testimony to Christ and His teaching. Mean- 
 -while, the true believers had escaped the flood, as it were 
 
212 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 on wings, one escaping here and one there ; but not, as 
 Israel, borne on God's wings (Exod. xix. 4), to hve all 
 together in one community and fellowship in the wilder- 
 ness. 
 
 17. — The last remark made on the dragon, after the 
 description of his war with Michael in heaven, is that it, 
 the dragon, went away to make war with the seed of the 
 woman on earth. Such a war would, of course, be on 
 similar lines to that with Michael and his angels, not 
 physical war and persecution, which would directly touch 
 the regenerated lives of the saints, so much as a war 
 carried on by means of temptation, terror, false teaching, 
 concealment or perversion of revealed truth, and so forth. 
 We have this war of twelve hundred and sixty years, and 
 the way in which the dragon got the beast to wage it, further 
 mentioned in xiii. 7, in one of a set of seven visions which 
 are not shown as a series linked together under a common 
 name — as seals, thunders, etc. — but which symbolize each 
 a leading incident of this war. Satan is shown on one 
 side acting through two beasts in the first two visions 
 (xiii. I, 11). After an episode of the lamb on Mount 
 Zion, showing where the spiritual life of God's saints 
 had its maintenance and protection, there are successively 
 shown incidents in which five angels are the agents 
 (xiv. 6, 8, 9, 15, 17), each symbolizing the physical results, 
 on the inhabitants of the earth, of the spiritual lives of 
 the saints. 
 
 The series of seals, trumpets, etc., are not shown here 
 each as a separate vision, like Nebuchadnezzar's vision 
 of the image, and Daniel's vision of the same four empires 
 as beasts. These visions are preceded by an elaborate 
 introduction, placing the exhibition of all the series on 
 the same platform, and showing the introduction of each 
 series under the directions of the same Creator and His 
 heavenly court. We see indubitable evidence that different 
 series frequently embrace the same times, but it is contrary 
 
The Woman and the Dragon 213 
 
 to all the surroundings, and to frequent statements, to 
 take them as mere repetitions of the same events, like 
 Pharaoh's visions of the ears of wheat, and of the kine. 
 Each series also contains symbolic episodes giving views 
 of important facts contemporaneous with each series, and 
 important to the right understanding of them, but which 
 could not be included in it, being inconsistent with its 
 special purport and imagery. So here we have, in an epi- 
 sodal preface, three or four purely spiritual existences intro- 
 duced — the woman, Michael, the dragon — omitting Divine 
 beings and subordinate creatures as being necessary to 
 make intelligible the seven visions of the war between 
 Christ's spiritual saints, and the devil and His angels on 
 earth. On earth has been already defined : it means under 
 the conditions defined by the seals, and under the organized 
 strife and contention described by the trumpets. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 ORIGINAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION 
 
 1 And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having 
 ten horns and seven heads, and ten fillets on its 
 horns, and a name of blasphemy upon its heads. — 
 
 2 And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and 
 its feet as if a bear's, and its mouth as if a lion's 
 mouth : and the dragon gave it its power, and its 
 
 3 throne, and great authority. — And [I saw] one of its 
 heads as if slain to death : and the stroke of its 
 
 4 [the beast's] death was healed ; and the whole earth 
 wondered after the beast, and they salaamed to the 
 Dragon because it gave authority to the beast, and 
 salaamed to the beast, saying, ' Who is like the 
 
 5 beast? and who is able to fight with it?' And a 
 mouth talking great things and blasphemies was 
 given it ; and authority was given it to do forty-two 
 months. 
 
 6 And it opened its mouth into blasphemies against 
 God, to blaspheme his name and his tent, those who 
 
 7 are encamped in the heaven. And it was given it to 
 make war with the Saints, and to conquer them. 
 And authority was given it over every tribe, and 
 
 8 people, and tongue, and nation. And all who dwell 
 on the earth will salaam to it — whose name has not 
 been written in the scroll of life of the Lamb slain 
 
 9 from the foundation of the world. If any one has 
 10 an ear, let him hear : if any one [draws on] into 
 
 captivity, he draws on into captivity ; if any one 
 
Original English Translation 215 
 
 must be killed, he must be killed with the sword : 
 here is the endurance and the faith of the Saints. 
 
 11 And I saw another beast coming up out of the 
 earth : and it had two horns like a lamb, and was 
 
 12 talking as if a dragon ; and does all the authority of 
 the first beast in front of it, and makes the earth and 
 the dwellers in it that they will salaam the first beast 
 
 13 whose stroke of his death was healed, and does great 
 signs that even he makes fire out of the heaven 
 
 14 descend into the earth in front of men ; and leads 
 the dwellers on the earth astray, because of the signs 
 which were given it to do in front of the beast, 
 saying to the dwellers on the earth, to make a like- 
 ness to the beast which has the stroke of the sword 
 
 15 and lived. And it was given it to give spirit to the 
 likeness of the beast, that the likeness of the beast 
 should both speak and do, that whoever should not 
 salaam the likeness of the beast should be killed. 
 
 16 And it makes all the small and the great, and the 
 rich and the poor, and the free and the slaves, that 
 they should give them a mark on their right hand, 
 
 17 or upon their forehead, that no one may be able to 
 buy or sell except one who has the mark, the name 
 
 18 of the beast, or the number of its name. Here is 
 skill : let him who has sense total up the number of 
 the beast, for it is a man's number, and its number 
 is 666. 
 
 THE VISION OF THE TWO BEASTS. 
 
 Section I. Verses i to 10. The Ten-horned 
 Beast. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 3. — As IF SLAIN : exactly the same expression as is 
 used (v. 6) in describing the Lamb; but here * to death' 
 
2 1 6 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 is added, as we say to death ; meaning that actual death 
 was seen to occur ; or, more probably, to make clear 
 that the beast's death resulted from the slaying of its 
 head. 
 
 After THE Beast. St. John uses a similar expression 
 in the mouth of the Pharisees (John xii. 19). * See ! the 
 world went away after him.' So St. Paul (i Tim. v. 15). 
 In all such cases, as in verse 15 just above, the idea of a 
 following after seems included, as well as that of after in 
 time. The Greek word is, most literally, behind. 
 
 5. — To DO : meaning to do, or act, for forty-two months 
 (Dan. viii. 24) ; or, possibly, to spend forty-two months. 
 
 6. — Opened its mouth : a phrase customary to intro- 
 duce a series of discourses (Psa. Ixxviii. 2 ; Matt. v. 2). 
 
 Tent, etc., referring to the tent (so-called taber- 
 nacle) in which was God's name on earth ; and, indeed, 
 using it as the symbol for which it was meant (Heb. 
 viii. 2). 
 
 10. — Draws on : as of an army advancing slowly. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 I. — The dragon, having started this flood (xii. 15), is 
 now shown as organizing the secular persecuting powers 
 to make war with the woman's seed — all in whom the good 
 seed of the Gospel is germinating, and in the way to grow 
 to fruitfulness. We have had a vision of the action of 
 Satan, as a dragon, under the guise of earthly kingdoms, 
 warring with Michael, and persecuting the woman. We 
 now have him warring with the woman's seed, as prince 
 of the kingdoms of the earth. We enter on a vision of 
 the behaviour of the kingdoms under his guiding in- 
 fluence. 
 
 The vision takes the history up at the time of St. John, 
 after a short preface which identifies it with Daniel's 
 empires (Dan. viii.), and it passes rapidly over about four 
 
The Visio7t of the Tivo Beasts 2 1 7 
 
 hundred years which elapsed before the empire took its 
 divided form, into ten kingdoms. 
 
 St. John sees a beast coming up out of the sea — not the 
 Great Sea, as in Daniel — with ten horns, beside seven 
 heads. The ten horns aheady wear the fillets of 
 earthly supreme authority, i.e., the aspect of the beast is 
 that which it will take after the division of the empire 
 amongst ten independent governments. Its seven heads 
 imply that the beast has lived, or will have lived, by 
 means of a complete set of every kind of supreme earthly 
 government conceivable, based on every kind of available 
 blasphemous religion. The beast's structure partakes of 
 characteristics built into it out of the four empires of 
 Daniel : the Assyrian lion, the Medo-Persian bear, the 
 Greek leopard, and the Roman general form. One of the 
 heads is as if slain ; like the Lamb (v. 6), its religion and 
 kingship were put to death by human action, and pre- 
 sumably by a specious trial, by whatever arbitrament was 
 accepted as final within the territory of the empire at that 
 time, whether by wars, or by treaties, or by numbers. 
 The beast, however, after this deathstroke recovered life 
 under ten horns, still with the name of blasphemy upon 
 it. The whole earth accepted the Divine right of the 
 beast, blasphemous and cruel as it might be. They 
 worshipped the dragon, i.e., the practices and tenets of 
 those actuated by the devil and his angels in the previous 
 vision, because these gave the beast authority ; and they 
 worshipped the beast for the simple reason that they could 
 not resist it. The beast was not remiss in taking every 
 advantage of this homage, by making claims, and vaunt- 
 ing its rights, at the expense of any amount of blasphemy. 
 And these powers were given it for forty-two months, or 
 twelve hundred and sixty days, if we take nominal months 
 of thirty days, as we before took nominal years of three 
 hundred and sixty days. The time, reckoning a year for 
 a day, brings the termination of this kind of authority of 
 
2i8 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 the beast up to the close of the last century — say the time 
 of Voltaire. 
 
 The interpretation of the beast — the name of the reality 
 of which he is the symbol — has been sometimes given as 
 the secular persecuting power. This, in a sense, may be 
 true ; but it requires an unusual sense to be given to 
 secular, for the beast often persecuted on what are usually 
 called religious and clerical grounds. The beast rather 
 represents governments which take possession, so far as 
 they can, in a peremptory manner of the bodies and minds 
 of people, to convert them into organized material subject 
 to their will. The main principle of the beast is that it 
 acquires organized strength, and, wherever it has that 
 strength, uses it to force its will on the weaker. (See 
 Hon. Auberon Herbert's ' Ethics of Dynamite,' Contem- 
 porary Review, May, 1894.) This definition applies to the 
 second beast, which, with some lamblike characteristics, 
 talks like a dragon, and aids the first beast. 
 
 6. — The only mouth which could be considered authori- 
 tative enough, during these dark ages, to represent the 
 whole empire, and the only mouth whose talk of great 
 things and blasphemies, as described in the vision (xiii. 5), 
 received professed approval by all the kings, and were 
 freely used as authority Tor any war, spoliation, or tyranny, 
 to the support of which they could be interpreted, was 
 that of the professedly Christian churches. Of these the 
 chief were the African, Syrian, Greek, and Roman. The 
 axiom that the voice of the priest must be accepted as the 
 voice of God (' Apostolic Constitutions,' ii. 28) seems to 
 have been practically enforced in all, and taught in most. 
 For instance, the Apostolic Constitutions enforce what 
 must have been extensively taught even before the time of 
 Constantine ; and in them (ii. 31, 34) we find such teach- 
 ing as this : * He that casts reproach on his Bishop, 
 opposes God . . . who said concerning the priests and 
 the judges, "Ye are gods." ' 'After God, the Bishop is 
 
The Vision of the Two Beasts 219 
 
 become a father to thee.* ' These [Bishops] have obtained 
 from God the power of life and death, in their judging of 
 sinners and condemning them to the death of eternal fire; 
 as also of loosing returning sinners from their sins, and of 
 restoring them to a new life.' * Account these [Bishops] 
 worthy to be esteemed your rulers and kings, and bring 
 them tribute as to kings.' This compilation, the Apostolic 
 Constitutions, seems to have been made in Asia Minor, 
 being Oriental in origin and Greek in language. The 
 Bishops in the seditious factions, who already claimed to 
 be gods and kings, with greater powers than the devil, and 
 with similar falsity, had the hardihood to claim in our 
 Saviour's time (Luke iv. 6) powers over heaven and hell, 
 as well as over earth. 
 
 The blasphemies uttered by these Bishops and writers 
 were adopted into the State by Constantine, and the 
 creeds were modified, and the organization of the Church 
 imperialized, as the various exigencies of the ruling factions 
 in State and in Church required. This was done more 
 frequently for intensifying war than for consoHdating 
 peace, until the Papacy gradually got an influence suffi- 
 cient to procure toleration of its assumed infallibility. 
 This made further alteration (after the Athanasian 
 Creed) illogical and unnecessary. These blasphemies 
 (verse 5, etc.) are described by St. John in an idiom diffi- 
 cult not only to us, but, judging from the corrections and 
 mistakes of the MSS., to many transcribers. The three 
 oldest MSS. agree in stating that the blasphemy is against 
 God's name (neuter), and His tent (feminine), who are 
 encamped (mascuHne) in the heaven. It is possible that, 
 having written ' God's name and His tent '—a figure so 
 often used for God's encamping amongst His people on 
 earth, as in the wilderness, and as in (xxi. 3) — St. John 
 added the next words, thos,e. who are encamped in heaven, in 
 opposition to tent, to show that he did not here refer to the 
 tent in which God dwelt on earth, but to the tent which 
 
2 20 The Revelation given to St. JoJut the Divine 
 
 God stretches over all the glorified sainU in heaven 
 (vii. 15), and that it is they who, as well as God's own 
 name, will be the butt of these blasphemies. The deser- 
 tion of the cause of Christ by such a vast number of those 
 who chose for earthly objects to blaspheme His name, 
 seems to recall to St. John's mind the words of his 
 Saviour's solemn warning (John xv. 17-21); for, under the 
 inspiration of the Spirit, he takes the very words which 
 Christ used before solemn declarations, ' He that hath an 
 ear, let him hear,' as the prelude of a warning to all 
 Christians that they may expect no special protection, 
 but must, like their Master, go into captivity or death, 
 just as others might. 
 
 Section II. Verses ii to 18. The Two-Horned 
 
 Beast. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 II. — Horns like : its two horns were like a lamb, 
 i.e., either like a lamb has horns, or like a lamb's horns (as 
 in ix. 10). 
 
 12. — Does : as in the phrase to do his will. The full 
 force of this ' doing' may be well seen in St. John's own 
 words (John vii. 17 ; v. 30). 
 
 In front of it: as a High Priest of the worshippers, 
 or, more likely, as its own agent. Compare the seven 
 spirits of God in front of God's throne (iv. 5) ; or John 
 Baptist 'great in front of the Lord' (Luke i. 15); or, 
 perhaps, Zacharias and Elizabeth, * righteous in front of 
 God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of 
 the Lord ' (Luke i. 6) : but here with the wrong master — 
 with Satan instead of God. There can be no stronger 
 indication of the real Antichrist. 
 
 Dwellers : usually settlers in a country for a time, as 
 Abraham in Charran (Acts vii. 2). 
 
 14. — Image (A. V. and R. V.). In our Lord's question 
 
The Vision of the Two Beasts 2 2 1 
 
 about the representation upon a coin (Matt. xxii. 20) the 
 word is used. This is similar to the Latin imago ; but, as 
 it is not the use of the word image as ordinarily understood 
 in English, likeness is preferable. The meaning here may 
 perhaps be best realized from a consideration of the 
 meaning of the same word in Rom. viii. 29, where it 
 doubtless includes likeness both to Christ's moral code 
 and to His future glory. 
 
 Lived. St. John, as St. Paul (Conybeare and Howson, 
 1852, vol. ii., p. 178), seems always to connect the words 
 life, live with the thought of triumph over death, or of a 
 revival, as here. 
 
 15. — Spirit : i.e., breath and hfe. It is a capital error 
 to picture the spirit of our Bible as an ethereal essence 
 having no solid action. Our own spirits are infinitely 
 less connected with our own actions than God's Spirit in 
 the Bible is. 
 
 16. — That they should give. Who they are is not 
 said ; presumably they are the people represented by the 
 beast. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 II. — We now come to the other beast, the ecclesiastical 
 empire, or Christendom, which grew up, not out of the 
 sea, but out of the earth, clothed at once with the attri- 
 butes and powers of civilization, and with independent 
 imperial organization — a.niinperiuinin imperio. Its power 
 was split, more decidedly and continuously than any par- 
 tition or divisions of the empire, into two. Perhaps the 
 Eastern and Western Churches, each an independent 
 ecclesiastical power, are represented by the beast's two 
 lamblike horns ; but, more probably, what is meant is 
 the union of paganism with Christianity, like the Medo- 
 Persian kingdom. 
 
 Though it does not exercise its destructive powers in 
 war or warlike parade, nor does it have a lion's mouth, as 
 
22 2 The Revelatio7i given to St. John the Divine 
 
 the first beast does, yet it is not without horns, showing 
 two independent and distinct governments, and it talks 
 as a dragon, or snake, talks. This last refers to the 
 temptation of Eve, which is the only instance of the 
 dragon talking, and leaves the character of his talk to be 
 gathered from that instance, and from the description of 
 the dragon, his name and his acts, which begins at xii. 3. 
 Th2 ecclesiastical pretensions of the second beast meet 
 with all the support of the empire, both before and after 
 the division of the empire into kingdoms. The second 
 beast acts as the officiating priest or ecclesiastical support 
 in front of the secular government of the first beast, in 
 whose territory it acts. In return for its appointment to 
 this office, this ecclesiastical power, or church, does support 
 the secular government, and diverts people from the 
 service of God and His commands to the service of the 
 state and its policy. This is an illustration of the war 
 which the dragon is waging with the seed of the woman, 
 being embittered with great wrath because it knows that 
 its time is short (xii. 12). The bitterness of this wrath 
 may be somewhat understood from the decisive and un- 
 compromising promises, made by God to those servants 
 of His who conquer, that they should rule more completely 
 over the very territory contended for than the dragon has 
 •ever done (ii. 26). 
 
 14. — At the same time it must be noticed that, as this 
 vision has developed, the dragon ceases to be an acting 
 figure. It merely stands by, and gives authority and 
 power to the beast. The woman disappears from the 
 scene altogether, whether as being in the wilderness 
 absent from the scene of action, or because * her seed ' is 
 replaced by an equivalent term, ' the saints,' and as a 
 corporate earthly body has no existence. The vision now 
 relates to the action, not of heavenly beings, but of men, 
 -who carry out the war between the invisible powers of the 
 ■woman in the wilderness, representing the spiritual life of 
 
The Vision of the Two Beasts 223 
 
 God's servants, and of the invisible dragon on earth, repre- 
 senting Satan. 
 
 The likeness made of the first beast may refer to the 
 likenesses of the emperors which were set up and wor- 
 shipped in every town in St. John's day. It was usually 
 a statue. The refusal to worship one of these likenesses 
 by offering a handful of incense upon its altar was very 
 generally the test upon which, during pagan persecutions, 
 a Christian was tortured and executed. Subsequently 
 the whole array of Papal images, pictures, and relics, 
 which were invented not in the image of God, but in that 
 of secular policy, by the second beast, were so far sanc- 
 tioned by, and adopted into, the system of the secular 
 kingdoms of the first beast, that the worship of them was 
 taught by State endowment and laws, and enforced, as a 
 matter of State policy, by confiscation or death. 
 
 16. — In another figure this false outward worship is 
 called a mark, or stamp, distinguishing those with whom 
 the votaries of the image were allowed to trade and asso- 
 ciate freely. The number may be that of the word Latin, as 
 spelt in Greek, the letters of which, as used in ordinary 
 Greek notation of St. John's time, correctly total 666. 
 A Mark: see comment on vii. 3. 
 
 18. — A man's number : so xxi. 17, 'a man's cubit,' and 
 Is. viii. I, ' with a man's graving tool,' meaning the 
 number as in ordinary use for marking cattle or slaves. 
 For branding it was obviously convenient to have the 
 number obtained by adding up the numerical value of 
 every letter in a man's name, rather than the name in 
 full, it would be almost as short as initials, and would 
 stand as evidence of ownership at law far better, as it 
 would be better than any arbitrary mark where there was 
 no legal register of such marks. In Greek, every letter 
 of the alphabet had its numerical value, not so in Latin. 
 Sense : perception combined with intelligence, nous. 
 
2 24 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 Notes on Chapter XIII. 
 
 I. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FIRST BEAST. 
 
 The first beast comes, like Daniel's four beasts, out of 
 the sea, in a form already invested in the attributes of all 
 Daniel's beasts ; and its horns, the kingdoms who divide 
 its power, are seen already crowned with fillets. Probably 
 the description of it, as it stood in the vision, embraces its 
 characteristics — united or successive, merged and assimi- 
 lated, or still in embryo — during its whole existence, past 
 and future, including the killed and fallen heads. All the 
 men, embodied symbolically in this beast, sank their 
 religion before the power of the empire, or kingdoms ; 
 and those who promoted that power (xiii. 4, 5, 6, etc.) 
 joined in the blasphemous homage done to it. By de- 
 fining and enforcing a blasphemous and boastful religion 
 with a view to effect their own exaltation and their 
 exercise of Satan's power and authority, the wJioIe earth 
 attacked, or set aside, God. The result was that the first 
 beast conquered all whose names have not been written 
 in the Lamb's scroll of life ; none cared to stand out, and 
 to refuse homage to the power and influence around them, 
 except those to whom God was a living reality whose will 
 they wished to do. Of these, says St. John, few, if any, 
 will be able to escape slaughter or captivity, or treatment 
 tending that way ; and in meeting such unavoidable trials 
 their patience and faith as saints will produce conspicuous 
 occurrences, even a sufficient evidence to all who have 
 eyes and ears, and who allow their eyes and ears to see 
 and hear simply. 
 
 This first beast has this unquestioned authority from 
 the time of St. John, about the time of the overthrow of 
 Jerusalem, for twelve hundred and sixty years. This ends 
 about the time of the dawn of the Reformation, when the 
 seed of the woman acquired a name in politics (' Lollard,' 
 
The Vision of the Two Beasts 225 
 
 burnt at Cologne a.d. 1315), and the first honest translation 
 of the Bible into any vernacular idiom of modern Christen- 
 dom was published (a.d. 1380 ; Wickliff's translation of the 
 Vulgate Latin Bible into English). 
 
 If we take the commencement of the authority of the 
 first beast, as it appeared to St. John with its ten horns 
 crowned, we may perhaps place it at the death of Charle- 
 magne, 250 years after Belisarius, at the beginning of the 
 ninth century. The killing of the seventh head must have 
 taken place before the horns sprung up, and is a distinct 
 occurrence from the origin of the ten kingdoms. Perhaps 
 the change of the empire from pagan to Christian in the 
 first half of the fourth century is of sufficient importance 
 to be represented as the rise of the seventh head. We 
 may take the beginning of the existence of the crowned 
 horns, of the Pope, and of the authoritative and universal 
 neglect of the Bible, and the concealment of the Gospel, 
 at about a.d. 800, and the end of twelve hundred and sixty 
 years from that time at about a.d. 2060. 
 
 But, as in the case of the Lamb who was seen ' as if 
 slain,' so the symbols united in the beast merely give its 
 complete character. Some of the events directly repre- 
 sented by the symbols, like the ten horns in Daniel's 
 vision (Dan. vii. 7), may be anticipated, and some, like the 
 body, feet, and mouth of the first beast (ch. xiii. 2), may 
 refer to events long past. Hence, neither the existence of 
 the ten horns, nor the slaying of the head and revival of 
 the beast, can be taken with confidence to fix any date. 
 The inspired description of the action of the beast is the 
 safer guide. 
 
 2. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SECOND BEAST. 
 
 The second beast has two horns, uncrowned. Whether 
 this refers to its being divided into two independent 
 churches or powers, as all other horns in the visions of 
 Daniel and St. John do, or not, it seems clear that the 
 
 15 
 
2 26 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 aggressive fighting power of this beast is not of the kind 
 of the crowned kingdoms of Christendom ; and that, how- 
 ever exercised, it is exercised under an apparent identity 
 with the Lamb, like a lamb. Of division of power into 
 horns there are two classes in Daniel. In the case most 
 like this beast — the only one in which a beast appears (in 
 his vision) at its entry with more than one horn (Dan, viii. 3. 
 etc.) — a ram appears with two horns, which signify 
 (Dan. viii. 20) the united kingdom of Media and Persia. 
 It is said that the highest of these came up last, ap- 
 parently before the appearance of the ram. In analogy to 
 this vision of the Medo-Persian empire, we should inter- 
 pret the two horns of the second beast as the combined 
 powers of political paganism and political Christianity, 
 freed from all incumbrances of superstition on the one 
 hand, and of religion on the other, such as should hamper 
 the acquisition and exercise of political power, culling 
 from both paganism and Christianity all that could be 
 made effective for those purposes. The first beast merely 
 spoke against whatever in religion seemed dangerous to 
 its supreme authority (verse 7) or military power, and went 
 so far as to order torture and death to those who refused 
 even a slight act of homage to the gods as established by 
 law. This action of the first beast has continued, more 
 or less, through every phase of religion from St. John's 
 days to ours. 
 
 The second beast is more malign : he not only makes 
 war with those who seem dangerous, but unscrupulously 
 employs deception, falsehood, influence, and social ex- 
 communication to force or draw men from paying homage 
 to God, and into professing homage to the likeness of the 
 beast (verses 13, 14). While professing to be the infallible 
 channel for expressing God's will, and the infallible teacher 
 of what is in God's sight right or wrong, and while making 
 a show of miraculous signs in support of this profession, it 
 sins by leading men away from the simple record of God's 
 Word, and from an intelligent, child-like attention to 
 
The Vision of the Two Beasts 227 
 
 God's guidance ; it bends all its influence to induce sub- 
 mission to the likeness of Satan's empire. This two- 
 horned beast represents the Papacy as the most prominent 
 example of all similar cases of pretension and blasphemy. 
 Though these have been only too prevalent, in a less 
 striking degree, amongst religious churches, from the 
 largest organization of the Romish Church to the smallest 
 sect of recent times, wherever a trusted leader leads his 
 flock astray by some successful ' hit,' forsaking his simple 
 Gospel message to burn incense to a social or political 
 demon — to the prince of some wealth or influence he 
 hankers after, or as an invocation to heads at some election. 
 This conduct of the second beast, compared with the 
 paganism of the first, was downright devilry — talking like 
 the dragon — compared with mere blasphemy. This con- 
 duct, as well as the origin of the second beast, and the 
 following description, apply directly to the Papacy only, 
 and do not fit any other church, however much the Papacy 
 may be representative of similar conduct appearing in 
 other forms elsewhere. The second beast makes all 
 people worship the imperial kingdoms. The Papacy 
 accepted the patronage, and made use of the military and 
 civil powers of the rulers of Christendom. It set up or 
 supported emperors and kings with all the influence of its 
 creeds, anathemas and dignitaries, used in support of 
 policy or war, and especially by commanding all princes 
 to use violence and bloodshed in order to enforce religious 
 conformity. The Papacy endeavoured to make honour, 
 conscience, hospitality, and all fear of God yield to force. 
 History records instances of this in the Crusades against 
 the Mahommedans in Asia and Christians in Europe ; 
 also in numerous savage and treacherous murders, and 
 wholesale robbery and slaughter, promoted and blessed 
 by the Pope. In Christendom, so far as its own tribunals 
 could be extended, the Papacy delivered to the first beast 
 for torture and execution all who served God, or even 
 read His Word. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 ORIGINAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION. 
 
 And I saw ; and, See ! the Lamb standing upon the 
 hill Sion, and with him one hundred and forty-four 
 thousands having his name, and his Father's name, 
 written upon their foreheads : and I heard a voice 
 out of the heaven, as if a voice of many waters, and 
 as if a voice of great thunder. And the voice which 
 I heard was as if of harpers harping on their harps : 
 and they sing as if a new song in front of the throne, 
 and in front of the four animals, and of the elders ; 
 and no one could learn the song except the one 
 hundred and forty-four thousands who are purchased 
 from the earth. These are they who did not wallow 
 with women : for they are virgins. These they who 
 follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were 
 purchased from men, a first-fruit to God and to the 
 Lamb ; and no falsehood was found in their mouth : 
 they are blameless. 
 
 And I saw another angel flying in mid-heaven 
 having eternal glad tidings to announce upon those 
 who are seated on the earth, and upon every nation 
 and tongue and people : — saying in a loud voice, 
 * Fear God, and give him glory ; because the hour 
 of his judgment is come : and salaam to him who 
 made the heaven, and the earth, and sea, and 
 fountains of waters.' 
 
OiHginal English Translation 229 
 
 8 And another, second, angel followed, saying, ' Fallen 
 — great Babylon is fallen, who has made all the 
 nations drink out of the wine of the wrath of her 
 fornication.' 
 
 9 And another, third, angel followed them, saying 
 in a loud voice, ' If any one salaams the beast and 
 its likeness, and receives a mark on his forehead or 
 
 10 upon his hand, he also will himself drink out of the 
 wine of the wrath of God, mixed pure in the cup of 
 his anger, and will be tortured in fire and sulphur in 
 
 11 front of the angels, and in front of the Lamb : and 
 the smoke of their torture goes up for ages of ages ; 
 and they have no pause day and night, who salaam 
 the beast and his likeness, — and if any one receives 
 
 12 the mark of his name. Here is the endurance of 
 the saints : — those who keep the commands of God, 
 and the faith in Jesus.' 
 
 13 And I heard a voice out of the heaven, saying, 
 ' Write, " Blessed are the dead who are dying in 
 the Lord from this present moment " : " yes," says 
 the Spirit, "that they will cease from their labours, 
 for their works follow along with them." ' 
 
 14 And I saw : — and See ! a bright cloud, and seated 
 upon the cloud (one) like (the) Son of man, having 
 on his head a gold crown, and a sharp sickle in his 
 hand. 
 
 15 And another angel came out of the temple crying 
 out in a loud voice to him who was seated on the 
 cloud, ' Send thy sickle and reap ; because the hour 
 to reap is come, because the harvest of the earth 
 
 16 is ripened.' And he who was seated on the cloud 
 threw his sickle upon the earth ; and the earth was 
 reaped. 
 
 17 And another angel came out of the temple that 
 is in the heaven, having also himself a sharp sickle. 
 
 18 And another angel came out of the altar, who 
 
230 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 has authority over the fire, and called with a loud 
 voice to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, * Send 
 thy sharp sickle, and gather in the bunches of the 
 vine of the earth, because its grapes are exactly 
 
 19 ripe.' And the angel threw his sickle into the earth, 
 and gathered in the vine of the earth, and threw 
 
 20 into the great winepress of the wrath of God : and 
 the winepress was trodden outside the city ; and 
 blood came out of the winepress up to the bits of 
 the horses 1,600 stadia off (about 184 English miles). 
 
 THE MESSAGES OF THE ANGELS. 
 
 Section I. Verses i to 5. The Heavenly Music. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 I. — Having. This word is feminine, agreeing with 
 * thousands.' 
 
 Written. Though this word originally means graven, 
 or written with the sharp point of a style on a smooth 
 waxen tablet, it was used in St. John's time just as we 
 use the word write with style, pencil, chisel, or pen. 
 St. Paul {e.g., Gal. vi. 11), and others, freely use it of 
 writing with pen and ink : especially St. John uses the 
 word in this sense (2 John 12 ; 3 John 13). 
 
 2. — Voice : or sound. The Greeks spoke of the voice 
 of the instruments. Matt. xxiv. 31 ; Rev. i. 10 ; just as 
 they would of the voice of the singers, whether they could 
 hear the words or not. 
 
 4. — Purchased from men : in the exact sense in which 
 a man may be said to go to a market, and select, or pur- 
 chase, and lead off with him six horses /iro;» a mob in the 
 market, or from the market. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 I. — This vision of the Lamb standing upon the hill 
 Sion seems to continue the vision either as following the 
 
The Messages of the Angels 231 
 
 description of the two beasts, or as an episode, in either 
 case, representing what occurred during the twelve 
 hundred and sixty days of the operations of the two 
 beasts — things invisible and incredible to the inhabitants 
 of the earth. 
 
 The scene is on the hill Sion, representing something 
 on actual earth ; and the one hundred and forty-four 
 thousands, sealed on the symbolic earth of Christendom 
 (vii. 3, etc.), are there. We may not take Sioyi as being 
 literally Sion in Palestine, any more than we may take 
 Babylon, Rome, Sodom, Euphrates, etc., literally. It 
 seems to represent the religious foundation of the place of 
 meeting of God and His saints, while the woman was in 
 the wilderness. This foundation we may call Christ 
 (i Cor. iii. 11), or faith in His message. It is a symbolic 
 picture, in harmony with the other symbolism of these 
 visions, of exactly that truth of which the 'tabernacle' was 
 a typical construction, in harmony with matter-of-fact 
 human worship. The hill appears in the vision without 
 any expressed connection with either the earth, or its 
 heaven, so that it is not a locality in the world ; nor does 
 it represent any body of people recognised in Christendom 
 (the earth), nor any body of rulers and guides recognised by 
 the states of Christendom (the heaven). The Lamb, and 
 the one hundred and forty-four thousands alike, represent 
 those who have been, are, or will be in the world, but not 
 of the world, as the Lamb Himself, reported by St. John, 
 says (John xvii. 11, 14-17). These one hundred and 
 forty-four thousands were the Father's (John xvii. 6) — had 
 His name on their foreheads ; and have been given to the 
 Son, and have His name on their foreheads. Our con- 
 ceptions of earthly empires, in which power depends on 
 the enforced allegiance of subjects of a mere day, and in 
 which the enjoyment of power depends on the perpetual 
 struggle of the rulers to mislead and coerce their subjects 
 by excessive violence, fraud, and blasphemy, are com- 
 
232 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 pletely dwarfed by this short description of the select 
 body of one hundred and forty-four thousands of Christ's 
 eternal kingdom. All have been sealed by the spirit of 
 life, and have had the spirit's life in them while on earth ; 
 and that spiritual life is the only part of their life recog- 
 nised here. The message of the glad tidings is that even 
 while saints are in the flesh, subject to sin, Christ will 
 give them a life, the breath of the spirit ; and that is, of 
 course, blameless, as they are here shown in Christ's 
 presence. As for the sinful flesh, Christ answers for it. 
 He stands there in the character of the lamb slain, just 
 as in the typical Mosaic temple the lamb was slain as an 
 atonement, admitting the worshipper to approach God. 
 The one hundred and forty-four thousands learn a new 
 song. They hear its roar as wide as the dashing of the 
 sea, as loud as 'the roar of thunder — the song of the 
 glorified saints on their harps. The harp was the Jewish 
 instrument of praise, whether in private retreat or public 
 holiday. 
 
 We are apparently told by our Saviour (Matt. xxiv. 30) 
 that immediately after the destruction of Jerusalem, and 
 at the time during which earthly secular powers were 
 being obscured or cast down, the sign of the Son of man 
 would appear in heaven ; and He would be seen Himself 
 coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great 
 glory. The last words of St. John (Revelation, last verse 
 before the blessing) are his solemn affidavit that the Lord 
 Jesus is coming quickly. It must strike any reader that 
 in the three preceding visions we have missed Him 
 altogether ; no sign of Him on earth is shown. But in 
 this fourth scene the lamb is shown upon the hill Sion. 
 Christ's presence, as here represented by the lamb, is 
 not directly seen either in earth or in its heaven ; but He 
 is really present amongst His saints. The one hundred 
 and forty-four thousands represent the true servants of 
 God upon earth ; and, though on earth, they have their 
 
The Messages of the Angels 233 
 
 distinctive standing ground on Mount Sion, the ground of 
 God's covenant and presence. The permanent closeness 
 of the Lamb to His saints is more than is indicated by 
 our Lord's presence with His professing worshippers 
 (Matt, xviii. 20), and is described more clearly in His 
 promise as recorded by St. John (John xiv. 23) as His 
 abode in each saint, with which it has a specific connec- 
 tion in the names of both Father and Son written on the 
 foreheads of the one hundred and forty-four thousands. 
 His presence is a reality to His saints ; and so is the song 
 of their departed predecessors ; but neither the song of 
 the harpers, nor the sight of the Lamb, are perceptible to 
 any except to the purchased and sealed. These, however, 
 can learn it, and do join in singing it. These purchased 
 on earth are a firstfriut to God, perhaps as having the 
 firstfruit of His spirit (Rom. viii. 23), and not being the 
 ripe fruit they will become when their body shall have been 
 released and restored. These are not only free from the 
 harlotry of the gilt and scarlet woman, but are purely and 
 faithfully waiting until they shall be perfected in marriage 
 as brides of Christ. This very virginity of mind is a first- 
 fruit, to be consummated by marriage. We have still to 
 be shown in the vision what action and effects occur on 
 earth, concurrently with the Lamb and His band on the 
 hill, such as will show to all, from east to west, the 
 presence of Christ, as it were in a cloud. It is first im- 
 portant to remark, that no temple appears here on the 
 hill Sion. It would be very unlike St. John to omit it, 
 and leave it to be assumed as a matter of course by each 
 reader. 
 
 Section II. Verses 6 to 12. The Messages of the 
 First Three Angels. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 6. — Flying : there is no indication that he flew with 
 witis^s. 
 
234 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 Glad Tidings, or Gospel. What the word means we 
 shall best gather from studying our Lord's own version 
 of it. He, of all men, knew what were the glad tidings. 
 He Himself told John's disciples (Matt. xi. 5) that He 
 had been preaching it, and Matthew has given us a very 
 full record of what He had been preaching, which may 
 be supplemented from the Gospel of John himself and 
 others ; and our Lord's version of the glad tidings is in 
 harmony with that of this angel, here given in brief. 
 We must not confuse the term glad tidings, or Gospel, 
 in the New Testament with our modern meaning of it. 
 We use it, like Acts, as the name of a book, or of the 
 events and discourses contained in the book. 
 
 7. — Sea. There is not the usual article before sea, as 
 if, in this case, to throw both sea and fountains into the 
 class of waters. 
 
 10. — Mixed Pure. See viii. 7, note, designedly pre- 
 pared and offered, and prepared with perfect justice, and 
 impartially. 
 
 Tortured. See ix. 5, note. 
 
 II. — Ages of Ages. This is the only place in which 
 St. John omits the articles, everywhere else it is the ages 
 of the ages. Here one of the three oldest MSS. does read 
 ages of the ages, and another an age of an age. It is clear 
 that St. John did not apply to the vision of the mystic 
 Babylon exactly the same phrase which he uses for the 
 devil and his angels (xx. 10), and for the servants of God 
 and the Lamb (xxii. 5). 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 6. — We should expect that our Saviour's last command 
 (Matt, xxviii. 19 ; and to Peter, John xxi. 15-17) to make 
 disciples of all the nations, teaching them to keep all His 
 injunctions, and His last command to Peter to feed all 
 His sheep and lambs, whether in or out of Christ's fold 
 (our Lord in John x. 16 ; and John in John xi. 52), 
 
The Messages of the Angels 235 
 
 would be commands considered by Him of vast import- 
 ance — indeed, of primary importance to the nations. 
 Accordingly we are not surprised to find such teaching 
 of the Gospel put here, first of the signs of the Son of 
 man's presence, in a cloud, visible to all nations. This 
 angel's message is akin to St. Paul's to the nations, then 
 Gentile idolaters at Lystra (Acts xiv. 15): 'We bring 
 you good tidings, that you should turn from these vain 
 things unto the living God, who made the heaven, and 
 the earth, and the sea, and all that is in them . . . and 
 . . . left not Himself without witness, in that He did 
 good ; and gave you from heaven rains and fruitful 
 seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness ' ; and 
 to the Epicureans and Stoics at Athens : * What you 
 worship in ignorance, this I set forth unto you. The 
 God that made the world,' etc. The sign thus illustrated 
 in a vision to St. John must represent a far greater 
 publishing of the Gospel to all tribes, people, and lan- 
 guages of the world than St. John himself had witnessed ; 
 the vision would represent no sign at all of the hour of 
 judgment being come — it would not be a sign, unless it 
 were something marked and extraordinary, such as if 
 foretold, would seem miraculous. Such a spreading of 
 the Gospel has begun, in our time, by the aid of printing, 
 steam, and peace, through men whose hearts have been 
 touched — some to devote their lives to the immediate 
 work, and others to organize the machinery for carrying 
 the work out, and to contribute substantially towards the 
 necessary cost. 
 
 8. — The next declaration of the second angel is the 
 fall of Babylon. The Babylonian element of secular 
 government is recognised in the first beast by its lion's 
 mouth (Dan. vii. 4). It remains to consider what that 
 element is which is to fall, as described; and in the 
 search for this, the fuller description of Babylon's fall in 
 the eighteenth chapter helps us much. It is of importance, 
 
236 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 too, to bear in mind the notions of government, and of 
 public and private property, which prevailed in Greece 
 and Rome at the time of Nebuchadnezzar and the 
 Babylonian empire, in order to contrast them, and to 
 form some idea of what was specially characteristic of 
 Babylon. No doubt, afterwards, both Greece and Rome, 
 at the time of their conquering the Eastern countries, 
 and of including Palestine in their empire, appropriated 
 and acted upon these Babylonian notions. 
 
 It will be enough to confine the comparison to Rome 
 and Babylon. During the Babylonian empire, and long 
 after, the government of Rome and the enrolment of her 
 armies was popular, and the slightest approach to 
 despotism was fatal to the power of anyone who at- 
 tempted it. Even the possession of landed property was 
 not absolute, and was altered and revised at the wish of 
 the people. It was not till Rome was becoming the 
 mistress of the world that the head of the State assumed 
 despotic power. Since that time the head of the empire, 
 and of the kingdoms into which it has been divided — 
 whether coming into power by the management of his 
 (or its, if the head be a body of men) predecessors, or 
 by his own ruthless stratagems and daring, or by uni- 
 versal suffrage of the army, or by any other way — ■ 
 whether called emperor, king, president, prime minister, 
 or cabinet, or council, or house — has, from the first 
 accession to power, at once assumed all, or most, of that 
 despotic power which in the time of the Babylonian 
 empire distinguished it from Rome. 
 
 There is another trait distinctive of Babylon. Nebu- 
 chadnezzar, her most representative king, soon after 
 rebuilding the city, and the great temple of Bel in it, set 
 up a gold idol, ninety feet high and nine feet broad, close 
 by the city ; he used all the force and temptation in the 
 power of the State to make every Jew occupying a high 
 position in the public service worship this image in the 
 
The Messages of the Angels 237 
 
 most public manner. He used force to establish his 
 religion. 
 
 We cannot tell how deeply this fall of Babylon will affect 
 the first beast. It is true that, in past cases, Assyria, 
 Persia and Greece were successively overthrown ; and the 
 ruin of the first is predicted by Isaiah in very strong 
 language, and, so far as actual Babylon itself is concerned, 
 has been literally complete. Yet they were not so de- 
 stroyed but that St. John is inspired to include them all 
 as existing in the symbol of the empire of Rome (xiii. 2) 
 — a symbol which in his visions represents the Roman 
 empire of the then coming time. This angel proclaims the 
 fall of Babylon ; but the first beast still remains, in the 
 next verse, apparently much the same in temper and 
 action as before (verse g). 
 
 If we read St. John's prophecy in chap, xviii. in the light 
 of Isaiah's (xiii., especially verses 19-22), which has been 
 so completely fulfilled by the destruction of the actual city 
 of Babylon, we see that St. John foretells in that chapter as 
 complete a destruction of mystic Babylon as Isaiah does 
 of the actual city. Chapter xviii. introduces Babylon as a 
 symbol. 
 
 The kind of fall of Babylon declared by this second 
 angel must then be the fall actually begun v/hen the angel 
 spoke, and so begun that the completion of it was certain 
 and, as it were, within sight ; as when our Lord says 
 (Luke x, 18), ' I beheld Satan fallen as lightning from 
 heaven,' where the word beheld is an imperfect, implying 
 a continued watching, as if to mean, ' While you seventy 
 were on your mission, I was beholding Satan fallen from 
 heaven.' Neither the preaching of the Gospel to all tribes 
 nor the fall of Babylon would take place in a day. The 
 power of Babylon exhibited itself in destroying and trans- 
 planting nations, as if they were herds of cattle, without 
 any right or claim ; the working of them at enforced 
 labour, carrying bricks, etc., many miles to build the 
 
238 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 immense works at Nineveh or Babylon ; the enforced 
 service and mutilation of officers of state ; the control of 
 all wars, property, power, life, and freedom by the State. 
 All that remained of this in Christendom was fallen, or 
 ■doomed to fall. 
 
 There is no doubt that the decline and fall of this 
 Babylon, visible to all men, can be traced in history as 
 taking place during the whole time of the decline and fall 
 of the Roman Empire, and during the whole time of the 
 preaching of Christ's Gospel. Perhaps the first great fall, 
 due to the great spread of the Gospel in the first three 
 centuries, and to the continual decay of the pagan empire 
 during all that time, was when the empire under Constan- 
 tine renounced paganism. That emperor found that he 
 could not hold the empire together on the old footing, 
 with the idolatrous soldiers and government of the old 
 pattern, so he had to Christianize his army and State. 
 Lower and lower the power and grandeur of the empire 
 fell, until the different kingdoms were partitioned off, and 
 the remaining Greek emperors became a kind of tinsel 
 court, into which a French count did not hesitate to come 
 to pay a half-contemptuous call of honour, accompanied 
 by his wolf-hound. As to the old Roman citizens, their 
 evidence in the courts of lav/ of the more powerful king- 
 doms was excluded, as unworthy to occupy time or unable 
 to carry weight. 
 
 The fall of Babylon, in the mystic sense, was not like 
 that of the kingdoms of Assyria, Persia, and Greece, by 
 conquest, and by the absorption of their empire into the 
 empire of the conqueror. The mystic Babylon gradually 
 falls, without a successor, having become impossible under 
 the Hght and ideas derived from the Gospel, as preached 
 and expounded amongst every tongue and people. The 
 falsehoods mixed up with this preaching were intended to 
 act the other way, and to strengthen, and almost deify, 
 Church and State ; but so much of real truth was 
 
The Messages of the Angels 239 
 
 published as made political and religious despotism a 
 fallen power, believed in by none, hypocritically vaunted 
 by some, carelessly assented to as a cry for political and 
 social purposes occasionally. 
 
 Then, after the empire's dismemberment, the despotic 
 control of subjects, and of conquests by the chiefs, has, by 
 irregular degrees, declined. The control itself has been 
 vastly reduced ; slavery, enforced ignorance, control of 
 occupation, have dwindled away, and what control the 
 State now exercises is in some degree checked by the 
 number and conditions of those exercising it. The fall is 
 very far from perfect, as the knowledge of the Gospel by 
 all the world is very far from complete ; but both have 
 visibly advanced, and are advancing, and it may be 
 reasonably hoped will advance, something like pari passu. 
 A similar tense is used, therefore, for both the coming of 
 judgment (verse 7) and the falling of Babylon (verse 8). 
 The light is come to all, which determines those who love 
 light and those who hate it ; the despotism of State omni- 
 potence is fallen. This means that the one is on its way 
 to become universal, and the other to vanish totally. 
 
 g. — The best comment on the third angel's declaration 
 is found in the history of Christendom. So much has 
 State policy been stamped with the mark of the beast that 
 hardly any prominent statesman has had a European 
 reputation based on his having taken innocence and 
 righteousness as a sufficient guide. Perhaps it would be 
 right to say none ; for if some have striven for justice and 
 avoided guilt, it is not tliat on which their historical repu- 
 tation rests. The Popes, as well as others, have pro- 
 fessed to be guided by pure motives, while acting in a way 
 inconsistent with such professions. Indeed, the whole 
 history of the Middle Ages is a history of scheming for 
 control and of spoliation, and of the apprehension of war, 
 preparation for war, and execution of war necessary for 
 carrying out or resisting such schemes. The continual 
 
240 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 torture of the subordinate classes, produced by the re- 
 strictions and coercion and unrest needful in the prepara- 
 tion for war, and by the bereavement and suffering 
 inflicted on them in the execution of war, is visible to all 
 men ; but it is so much a matter of course that historians 
 avoid recording it wherever it has no direct bearing on 
 the all-absorbing struggles for or against aggrandizement. 
 This torture in fire and sulphur, i.e., by the just destruc- 
 tion of that on which they depend for support, and in 
 which they place their happiness and glory, is most 
 clearly recorded in the history, where it affects the 
 dominant classes. They have not often led easy and 
 happy lives. From St. John's days up to recent times 
 striking instances of this torture may be found; but 
 torture, and not the complete destruction of the service of 
 the beast, is here foretold. This fiery torture of those 
 who worship the beast will yet be made more strict and 
 perfect, administered in the cup of wrath unmixed with 
 mercy or hope. Whatever this torture will be, it will be 
 such as to satisfy the consciences of all the angels of 
 heaven and of the Lamb, as if the whole formed one 
 unanimous jury. The judgment is given, the case decided, 
 the sentence enforced, and the case is over for ever. 
 There will be no more delay, no remission, no appeal. 
 The smoke of this burning away of all the position, powers, 
 and anticipations, or what not, of their earthly life of 
 worship to the beast will go up, like the smoke of a burnt 
 offering, for ever, beyond this present age. There seems 
 to be in this vision of punitive torture some reference to 
 the Mosaic burnt offering, which was kept burning for 
 ever ; for the whole imagery of the burning requires com- 
 plete consumption — not like heated metal, but like the 
 burning of the impure parts of the sacrifice, the smoke of 
 which is repeatedly called a sweet savour unto the Lord 
 (Exod. xxix. 18) of a whole burnt offering. On the altar 
 of burnt offering the fire was never allowed to go out 
 
The Messages of the Ajigels 241 
 
 (Lev. vi. g, 12"). Of the sin offering and guilt offering, the 
 priests ate in the holy place all that was not burnt 
 (Lev. vi. 29 ; vii. 7). No doubt the offerings were chiefly 
 a type of Christ. The whole burnt offering might be 
 directly so ; the sin and guilt offerings could not be so, for 
 they were not all burnt, but only a part, which rendered 
 the rest holy — a condition which could not be a type 
 of Christ, but rather of the v/orshipper, whose sin is for- 
 given and himself justified when he offers himself wholly 
 to God. Both sacrifices may be alluded to in this descrip- 
 tion of fiery torture. The torture is not a sacrifice, of 
 course, but a judicial punishment; and the allusion may 
 mean that the suffering of Christ for the sin of others is a 
 measure of the suffering of persistent sinners for their own 
 sin, and that the whole self-sacrifice, in which the Chris- 
 tian submits all that is amiss in him to destruction in the 
 fire, assures to a sinner that he will not be favoured by 
 more lenient treatment. 
 
 Section IIL Verses 13, 14. The Voice and the 
 
 Speaker. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 13. — Works : or actions. We here gather clearly what 
 constitutes the essence of good work, or works, as fre- 
 quently used in the New Testament. Whatever it be, 
 it is such that it will follow us to heaven. To some who 
 •despise good work done on perishable solid material, as 
 being a low, and to those of proper spirit and wisdom, 
 degrading occupation, suited to grovelling earthworms, 
 to such not only old Abraham and Sarah's (Gen. xviii. 6, 7) 
 divinely honoured work, and our Lord's (Mark vi. 3 ; 
 Luke ii. 51), but St. Paul's positive advice (i Cor. vii. 20, 
 ■etc.), are all condemnatory. They still need to consider 
 and learn the truth of the old legend on Staffordshire 
 pots, applicable to all earthly work, and workers : 
 
 16 
 
242 The Revelatio7t given to St. John the Divhie 
 
 ' Erth I am, et es most trew ; 
 Disdain me not, for so be yew.' 
 
 14. — Upon the cloud : exactly the same preposition 
 is used for sitting upon a throne (iv. 2) ; sitting upon a 
 horse (vi. 2) ; standing at a door (iii. 20) ; standing at the 
 four corners of the earth (vii. i) ; and for an angel stand- 
 ing at the altar (viii. 3). The word, therefore, is used for 
 other meanings than upon, on the top of. As we speak of 
 coming upon a friend in the street, or of a man having 
 his shoes upon him, in English idiom, so, yet differently, 
 we find the Greek word used when it cannot mean on 
 the top of. If the clouds upon which the figure was seated 
 were of the sort in which God came on Sinai, or on the 
 Mount of Transfiguration — if those were (as we should 
 expect) typical of the same event as that here symbolized 
 — we should not say tipon, but in. We talk of coming 
 tipon a fog; and also of a fog coming upon us; this illus- 
 trates how cautious we need to be in putting too definite 
 a meaning to the Greek preposition. 
 
 Sickle. In Greek the name for any cutting tool having 
 one edge, and curved ; in war a scimitar, or sabre ; in 
 mowing, a scythe ; in reaping, a sickle ; in vine-dressing, 
 a pruning bill. The language used (verses 15-18) about 
 sending and throwing it is inapplicable to the literal instru- 
 ment, and indicates that some other agent, of which the 
 sickle is a symbol, is in the thought as well as the 
 language of the writer. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 13. — But a voice out of heaven declares a special 
 message from God ; it may be the voice of the Son of 
 man upon the cloud (in the next verse), and is attested 
 by the Spirit ; but it is more likely that of angels herald- 
 ing Him. 
 
 The scene of this episode is still on earth, and its 
 earthly heaven. The vision still, like Daniel's visions of 
 
The Messages of the Angels 243 
 
 the beasts, etc., is showing symbols of history, in special 
 connection with the war between Christ and His spiritual 
 Church, and Satan and his angels. The time seems to 
 be approaching when the kingdom of the world is to 
 become our Lord's, and His Christ's (seventh trumpet, 
 xi. 15) ; for already the Babylonian element in the nations 
 of Christendom is become as miserable and contemptible 
 as the kingdom of the Israelites after the fall of Jeru- 
 salem under Titus. The Holy City has ceased to be 
 trampled on by the nations. This voice out of heaven 
 seems to come just before the kingdom of the world is 
 to pass to our Lord and His saints, and is to reassure 
 those who have died in the Lord that their labours will 
 now be left behind, but their works will follow them. 
 Perhaps it is difficult after excessively hard labour, main- 
 tained to effect some much desired end, to determine 
 whether the greater immediate pleasure arises from the 
 rest, or from the accomplished work. The earthly lives 
 of Christians had been no more guaranteed (xiii. 10) than 
 was their fair and honourable treatment guaranteed 
 while they lived on earth ; but here a voice is heard 
 guaranteeing them both blessing and rest in their death, 
 and that their works will follow them. We have a 
 familiar example of what this means in the case of our 
 Saviour. Speaking metaphorically, our Lord says (Luke 
 vi. 40) : * A disciple is not above the teacher ; but every- 
 one fully instructed will be as his teacher ' ; or, as else- 
 where (Matt. x. 25) : ' It is enough for a disciple that 
 he should become as his teacher, and the slave as his 
 lord.' Our Saviour's words directly apply to the treat- 
 ment and resistance His disciples must expect on earth, 
 and we may be sure that the one half of the simile does 
 not hold, and the other fail. His saints, as they laboured 
 and endured like their Master in life, will rest, and be 
 followed by their works, like Him, after death. 
 
 It is true that even on earth His works followed Him 
 
244 ^^^^^ Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 in two ways. First, during His life, His twelve disciples, 
 and great multitudes besides (Matt. iv. 25), attached 
 themselves to Him. And, after His death. His Apostles 
 and His churches have carried on His work. Those 
 who will die in the Lord will cease from their labours, 
 but their works will not cease even on earth. Such 
 occupation and power as will bear fruit in good work 
 will not die with their death, but will still live to carry- 
 on the object and hopes of their lives on earth, as their 
 Master's did. 
 
 74. — As God the Father showed His presence, in a 
 shining cloud at the transfiguration (Matt. xvii. 5), by a 
 voice, so the Son of man appears in the vision seated on 
 a bright cloud, crowned as a king. The angels which 
 have appeared in the earthly heaven have been invisible 
 to earthly eyes: as we read of angels of revelation (i. 1), 
 angels of churches (i. 20), angels of waters (xvi. 5), so 
 we have angels of proclamations — all are God's invisible 
 agents. It is, therefore, in harmony with the symbolism 
 that the Son of man is invisible when He comes, on a 
 cloud, to take up His kingdom in the earthly heaven, 
 amongst the rulers and guides of men. But, of course, 
 the cloud represents something visible, which indicates 
 His presence. He has in His hand a sharp sickle, which 
 evidently means some earthly executive agency. Joel 
 (iii. 12, 13) uses similar symbolism, in which the nations 
 are gathered, as it were, to battle (as here they are 
 lighting the battle of the devil and his angels) against 
 God's people ; and they (or possibly God's people) are 
 challenged to put in the sickle, for the vintage is ripe, 
 and to tread the winepress. Moses, in his prophetic 
 song (Deut. xxxii. 41), describes God as using a sword 
 for national judgments; and God's use of His sword is 
 described by Isaiah (xxxiv. 1-6) to show that it represents 
 human war, which is human agency. 
 
 Il seems almost a matter of course that this appearance 
 
The Messages of the Angels 245 
 
 of the Son of man in full royal estate, crowned, and with 
 a sharp scimitar or scythe in His hand, with the means 
 and with the purpose to immediately gather out of the 
 confusion and scorn of the earth all the wheat — all who 
 have not received the mark of the beast — needs a pro- 
 clamation, such as was usually given by heralds before a 
 king. A metrical proclamation David sang before the 
 ark. A proclamation was shouted before the Son of man 
 Himself, on His entry as King into Jerusalem, by children 
 and by the multitudes. The preceding verse (13th) seems 
 to be this proclamation, spoken by angels, who might well 
 have been in the bright cloud, brightness being so much 
 an accompaniment of angels. This proclamation seems 
 to complete and supplement that of the multitudes who 
 heralded our Lord's entry into Jerusalem, and especially 
 that of Zechariah (ix. 9), ' Behold, thy King cometh,' etc. 
 It seems also to refer to the fearful event of our Lord's 
 crucifixion, which so soon followed His former entry; for 
 it proclaims a blessing to those who have died in Him, i.e., 
 trusting in Him ; and it affirms that the blessing is to be 
 realized from that moment. The Son of man is seated 
 on the cloud, as if in a state of rest, awaiting instructions 
 to act. 
 
 Section IV. Verses 15 to 20. The Messages of 
 
 THE OTHER ThREE AnGELS. 
 
 Exegeiical or Critical Notes. 
 
 15. — Temple. As before, this is the covered part of 
 the temple : the holy and most holy place, seen by St. 
 John standing in the immediate neighbourhood of the 
 durbar, or court, in heaven. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 15. — These instructions are sent him out of the temple. 
 No temple has been mentioned in this series of visions ; 
 
246 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 and the only one within sight of St. John is that in the 
 heaven of God's throne. The instructions are brought 
 expressly to the Son of man by an angel. Christ, while 
 on earth, implied that He waited for such, when He said 
 (Matt. xxiv. 36) : ' But of that day (when all the tribes of 
 the earth will mourn, and will see the Son of man coming 
 on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory ; and 
 He will send forth His angels with a great sound of a 
 trumpet ; and they will gather together His elect, from 
 the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other) — of 
 that day and hour knoweth no one, not even the angels 
 of heaven, neither the Son ' (see also Mark xiii. 32), ' but 
 the Father only.' We may add that the time at which 
 these instructions will be sent does not seem to have 
 been revealed to anyone since. 
 
 The instruction given the Son of man is to ' send His 
 sickle, and reap ' — an unusual expression as applied to a 
 sickle, but evidently hterally acted upon ; for the Son of 
 man does not leave His place on the cloud, to go and use 
 the sickle. It is like Jehovah's language as given by 
 Isaiah (x. 5, 6) speaking of the Assyrian as the rod of His 
 anger, and the stajf of indignation : ' I will send him 
 against a profane nation,' etc. Whether the imagery 
 makes the Assyrian the rod and staff, or makes him the 
 bearer of the rod and staff, is doubtful ; and so here it 
 seems enough to understand that by some agency, 
 •actuated by some impulse from heaven, the harvest will 
 be reaped. What it is that was reaped is not stated, but 
 is perhaps explained by the parable of the wheat and tares 
 (Matt. xiii. 24) : the wheat is the object ; but the false 
 wheat — those who profess and simulate Christianity in 
 'Christ's field — will be reaped together with the true ; and 
 the reaping implies all the processes of threshing, winnow- 
 ing, sifting, or whatever is needed for the complete result 
 — which is, to get the true wheat harvested. Thus might 
 come the condition of the world proclaimed by great 
 
The Messages of the Angels 247 
 
 voices from heaven, in the seventh trumpet, when 
 the kingdom of the world will become our Lord's, and His 
 Christ's. 
 
 So far as we know, prophetical reaping never requires, 
 though it may often involve, the passage of a soul through 
 death — the falling asleep, or going into the grave. Nor 
 can we take our Lord's parabolic description of the wheat 
 and tares growing together as intended to enlighten us on 
 what happens aftcv death, until some harvest to follow 
 thereafter ; we know that the growth of the wheat and 
 tares is a symbol explaining phenomena of this life, and 
 cannot be pressed to apply to the souls of the dead 
 awaiting judgment. The prophetic reaping, then, applies 
 only, as is said in verse 15, to the harvest of the earth. 
 The reaping comes as the closing scene of the war, not of 
 flesh and blood, but of the regenerate against Satan and 
 his empires. 
 
 It is in harmony with the prophecy of John the Baptist, 
 the forerunner of the Messiah (Matt. iii. 10), that 'already 
 the axe is laid to the root of the trees,' etc. At the close 
 of the Mosaic dispensation, and of the old covenant, there 
 occurred this hewing down on earth of the trees which 
 failed to bring forth good fruit. The prophecy was ful- 
 filled by the turning of the Apostles to the Gentiles ; by 
 the obliteration of Jerusalem ; and by the contemptible 
 burnt-up condition in which the descendants of the writers 
 of our saclred books have lain ever since. There is, of 
 course, no similarity in the purpose and result of the 
 cutting down, and reaping, in the two cases. 
 
 There is no mark of human war or bloodshed in the 
 description of the reaping ; yet the wheat will clearly cease 
 to grow on among tares, or to be trampled by the nations, 
 and further growth must be by a new culture and sowing, 
 either of all the wheat as a church collectively, or of each 
 grain singly, or both. In the grape vintage we have blood 
 (verse 20) ; but none in this wheat harvest. If it involve 
 
2^8 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 war, the war is so little an essential part of the harvest, 
 that it is not mentioned. We cannot tell how far the 
 order to reap is general, and how far it leaves the details 
 to the Son ; but, as the mind of the Father and Son are 
 at one, we may feel sure that the time is chosen with a 
 loving interest for the wheat, and is so executed as to 
 gather in each ear of wheat in the best condition. What- 
 ever be the interpretation, every true Christian is cut and 
 gathered in this world by his Saviour's hand, under his 
 Saviour's eye — the Saviour who quitted heaven, and lived 
 and died on earth, for him. The sorting of the tares from 
 the wheat does not come into this vision, which is, there- 
 fore, necessarily silent as to the destination of what is here 
 reaped. 
 
 17. — Another angel, making the fifth of the vision, and 
 the seventh appearance — if we include Satan's two beasts 
 — came out of the temple in heaven with a sickle. He is 
 the second angel from the temple, and has no place on 
 any cloud on earth. To him comes an angel from the 
 altar in heaven, under which, in the fifth seal, the souls of 
 those slain for the Word of God called for judgment and 
 the avengement of their blood. This third heavenly 
 angel, the sixth in the vision, has authority over fire 
 (verse 18), i.e., he is authorized to use that purifying 
 judgment which purges away dross, or consumes what is 
 temporary and unsound ; and at his bidding the second 
 heavenly angel ' sends ' his sickle, cuts and fathers the 
 grapes, and throws them into the winepress of God's 
 wrath. The angel does not tread the winepress, but it is 
 trodden outside the city — the city of xi. 2, the mystical 
 Jerusalem, which had been trodden by the nations forty- 
 two months ; not the great city of xi. 8, the mystical 
 Babylon. Wine is meant for men to drink; but from 
 this winepress blood runs so copiously that horses could 
 readily drink from it two hundred miles or so from its 
 source. This figure may be got from the aqueducts and 
 
The Messages of the Angels 249 
 
 artificial streams erected by the Romans at every consider- 
 able city, in which a copious supply for drinking purposes 
 flowed at convenient ' fountains ' by the roadside ; and 
 the waste, useful for cattle or land, flowed away in open 
 conduits. The sufficiency of a supply for all kinds of 
 roadside or domestic purposes might be described by 
 such a standard as this : there was plenty for a horse to 
 drink from it. However that may be, it is clear that 
 ample and reassuring proof of the vengeance taken 
 on the 'grapes ' would be spread over an ample countr3\ 
 
 Contrasting the two harvests, we notice that the first 
 is a harvest forgathering in the grain, and freeing it unin- 
 jured from dirt and husk, for its own benefit and security, 
 and for storing it in the best condition for living and 
 germinating. It is gathered from a desire to have it, and 
 to make it fit to perpetuate its highest and most extended 
 usefulness ; and this reaping the wheat leaves the grapes 
 unaffected. On the other hand, the second is a harvest 
 in which the grapes are gathered to be destroyed for the 
 sake of their juice ; but the juice of this vine of the earth 
 is not wine, but blood, i.e., its life, totally unfit for casking 
 and storing ; allowed to run to waste, not vatted. Its 
 value lies in its being the destruction of the grape, the 
 overthrow of those who have overthrown the world. 
 
 Note to Section IV. 
 
 THE SEVEN ANGELS (chaps, xin'., xiv.). 
 
 Before passing on to the last series of seven angels, it 
 is essential to notice the general character of the seven 
 angels described in chapters xiii. and xiv., which refer 
 to the war between Michael's angels and Satan's angels 
 upon earth. They are not numbered seven — Satan's 
 and Michael's — as if they belonged all to one set ; but 
 Satan's two are numbered ; then three angels follow in 
 mid-heaven, numbered ; then come two symbolic groups, 
 
250 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 in each of which is (i) a figure with a sickle; (2) a 
 messenger who declares when the time comes to use it ; 
 and (3) a sickle, which is thrown from heaven to earth, 
 and executes the reaping of harvest. 
 
 The explanatory visions show the dragon, Satan, who 
 is not an actor in the series of earthly scenes ; the woman, 
 who is also withdrawn, to the wilderness ; the Lamb also 
 withdrawn, on mount Sion. 
 
 The points which constitute an angel agreeably to the 
 scenery of these visions seem pretty clear. An angel in 
 charge of a movement seems to symbolize animus, or 
 temper and wit combined. For instance, Ahab, tempted 
 by evil spirits, fell into the temper and behaviour, which 
 resulted in his death by a chance arrow. Europe, just 
 now, is in such a temper or animus — one of Satan's, by- 
 the-bye — that, say, fourteen millions of people, working so 
 hard and under such conditions as to amount to distress, 
 and physically worse off than an Egyptian slave, help to 
 maintain fourteen milHons of their most able kindred in 
 unwilling idleness, merely drilling in the art of mutual 
 annoyance. That might be symbolized by an evil 
 angel. 
 
 Perhaps every one of the twenty-eight millions involved 
 objects to the habit, or arrangement, or organization, or 
 whatever we may call it, which goes on existing before 
 the man is born into it, and after he has died out of it ; 
 accordingly, the symbol used for it is not a man — except 
 only in the case of our Lord, the God-man, and the 
 Woman His bride — but a superhuman figure, if good, an 
 angel ; if bad, a monster. This is in harmony with the 
 artistic conceptions of all the highest artists of the Middle 
 Ages. We must not suppose that either beasts or angels 
 are real creatures ; they are symbols. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 ORIGINAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION. 
 
 And I saw another sign in the heaven, great and 
 wonderful, seven angels having seven plagues, the 
 last (plagues), because the wrath of God is com- 
 pleted in them. 
 
 And I saw as if a sea of glass mixed up with fire ; 
 and those who conquer out of the beast, and out of 
 his likeness, and out of the number of his name, 
 standing upon the sea of glass having harps of God. 
 And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of 
 God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, ' Thy works 
 are great and wonderful. Lord, the almighty God. 
 Thy ways are just and true, the King of the ages. 
 Who (is there who) will not fear. Lord ; and (who 
 will not) glorify thy name ? Because (thou) only 
 (art) hallowed ; because all the nations will come 
 and salaam in front of thee, because thy righteous 
 dealings appeared.' 
 
 And after these things I saw ; and the temple of 
 the tent of testimony in the heaven was opened ; 
 and the seven angels who have the seven plagues 
 came out of the temple, clothed in clean bright 
 linen, and girded round their breasts with gold 
 girdles. And one out of the four animals gave 
 the seven angels seven gold saucers, full of the 
 wrath of God who lives for the ages of ages. 
 And the temple was filled with smoke out of the 
 
252 T/ic Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 glory of God, and out of his power ; and no one 
 could enter into the temple until the seven plagues 
 of the seven angels should be finished. 
 
 THE SONG OF THE VICTORS. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 I- — Plagues: literally blows, or strokes, especially in 
 fighting or in castigation ; used in such phrases as to 
 strike the first blow, to strike blow upon blow. It is 
 used of a stroke of lightning, of an axe, of a sword, of a 
 boar's tusks, of clubs ; and metaphorically as a stroke of 
 God, or a heaven-sent plague. Such were the plagues of 
 Egypt. 
 
 2. — Mixed : that is, the sea ready mixed ; not in the act 
 of being mixed. 
 
 Out of: scarcely out of the struggle with, but a mixed 
 meaning, beginning with that of out of the men composing 
 the beast — those who go through the temptations of 
 Christendom conquerors ; and passing to mean those 
 who successfully avoid being stamped with the number. 
 
 Upon. This preposition is used alone in Greek, where 
 in English we should prefix the word close. Thus, stand- 
 ing upon the council chamber is said in Greek, where we 
 should say standing close upon, i.e., close to the door (see 
 note on xiv. 14). 
 
 3. — Song of Moses. As in the expression, Psalm of 
 David, this should mean song composed by, or under the 
 direct instruction of, Moses. It seems generally con- 
 sidered to mean a song in thorough practical sympathy 
 with Moses, as expressed by ' Moses' song ' (Exod. xv.), 
 danced and sung by Miriam ; and with the last touching 
 song, if it may be so called, in the minor key, but of 
 anticipatory triumph (John xiii. 31 ; xiv., etc.), spoken 
 by our Lord in His trouble (John xiii. 21) on the last 
 
The Song of the Victoj^s 253 
 
 evening of His last, advent. They are three metrical like- 
 nesses of the same subject, taken from three very different 
 points of view. 
 
 True. In the headings of this song, and throughout 
 this book, we must remember to give the full force of the 
 Greek to this word : consistent with truth, or real and true. 
 
 4. — Glorify : to credit, and to give practical expression of 
 support and honour. 
 
 Hallowed : holy in reference to God, as just is in 
 reference to human laws ; pure and reverent. It is a word 
 used of God (in Acts ii. 27), etc. ; of a Bishop (Tit. i. 8) ; 
 but not in the Lord's prayer (Matt. vi. g, etc.). In xvi. 5 
 God is praised as both just and hallowed. 
 
 5. — Temple : here applied to the tent in the wilder- 
 ness ; as apparently in i Sam. i. g ; iii. 3. 
 
 Testimony : a witnessing evidence. That in the ' ark ' 
 (Exod. XXV. 16) seems to have been the two tables of the 
 law, as they were given by God to Moses. Similar, but 
 never given that name, were the omer of manna (Exod. 
 xvi. ^^), and Aaron's rod (Numb. xvii. 10), which were 
 kept in the most holy place. 
 
 6. — Have. An interesting illustration of St. John's 
 style : they had not got them yet. 
 
 Their. The Greek here is about the breasts ; we should 
 say about the breast. In order to preserve the accuracy of 
 the Greek (since both the angels and girdles are in the 
 plural) without ambiguity, I have changed the into their. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 I. — These seven plagues are clearly stated by St. John 
 to be the last. This must mean the last to be shown of 
 some set of troubles and plagues, about which the vision 
 hitherto has treated. Any future plagues (such as 
 xix. 15, 16) will belong to another set, or another age. 
 There seems therefore no choice but to include, not only 
 these plagues, but the preceding vision of the war between 
 
2 54 ^/^^ Revelatio7i given to St. John the Divine 
 
 the angels of Michael and of Satan, within the set of 
 visions hitherto shown to St. John in heaven. God had 
 pledged Himself to His Son (for instance, in the inspired 
 poetical figures in the second Psalm, and especially of 
 Ps. ex. I, confirmed by our Lord's quoting it Himself, 
 Matt. xxii. 44) before He begot Him into the world that 
 He, God, would carry out a momentous contest, to com- 
 plete conquest ; while His Son should sit awaiting that 
 completion, and the time when the Father would place 
 all on earth under His feet to be ruled by a staff of iron. 
 That contest is the grandest and most eventful in its 
 results of any we know of, or can conceive. The first 
 coming of Christ was revealed to the prophets in many 
 aspects. It was described as the coming of a King of 
 Israel (Zech. ix. g), of God's servant (Is. Hi. 13), of a 
 sufferer (Is. liii. 3), of the angel of the covenant (Mai. 
 iii. 1), of a preacher to the poor or meek (Is. Ixi. i) ; and 
 the circumstances and results of the Messiah's advent 
 were shown in, one may say, numberless lights, by type 
 and metaphor. We cannot, then, be surprised — nay, we 
 might well be surprised, if it were not so — if St. John 
 describes this conflict, and final subjugation of the devil 
 and sin in the world, in at least as many aspects as we 
 find he has. We have already had his vision of (i) the 
 natural economy established during this conflict, with an 
 episode showing the number sealed, protected, and puri- 
 fied, throughout it ; (2) the evil passions and destructive 
 acts which would characterize the politics and aspirations 
 of nations, under the malign rule of Apollyon himself, with 
 an episode on the political state of the outer professed 
 Church, trampled on by the nations, and a remarkable 
 and carefully accurate exclusion from politics of the true 
 spiritual church — of the true worshippers — for twelve 
 hundred and sixty years ; (3) the seven thunders, indicat- 
 ing the existence of an immediate voice of God, and, if 
 we may so say, of His personal guidance, but not allowed 
 
The Song of the Victors 255 
 
 to be revealed to us; (4) the spiritual war carried on in 
 heaven, while the spiritual church is in the wilderness, re- 
 sulting in the dragon — Satan in the guise of earthly empire 
 — being cast down from heaven to earth, where he makes 
 war with the rest of the woman's seed; (5) then follows a 
 continuation of Daniel's vision of the four beasts, showing 
 the changes through which earthly empire would pass, in 
 its hostility to the Messiah, in its blasphemous usurpation 
 of a kingdom, in being universally worshipped in prefer- 
 ence to God, in its first accepting and then enforcing this 
 worship, and in its designedly counterfeiting the position 
 of a god. While this earthly empire is in force is shown 
 the war between the angels of Michael and those of Satan 
 on earth, with an episode symbolizing the spiritual life 
 maintained behind these scenes. So we may consider the 
 vision of the seven plagues as the sixth of the series, with 
 an episode on the fall of Babylon. In that fall — the fall 
 of empire — the Church takes no part ; ih history seems 
 sufficiently evident in that it stands while Babylon falls. 
 The Church never sought to take Babylon's place ; nor 
 is its earthly victory promoted by war, further than so far 
 as its protection requires violence to be met b}^ violence,, 
 and destruction by destruction, and iniquity by judgment 
 and punishment — as, in fact, is clearly shown in these 
 visions. 
 
 The nature of the seven plagues, or strokes, is indi- 
 cated more distinctly than that of the seals and trumpets. 
 No doubt the whole, from the first seal inclusive, tended 
 towards the final victory of God, and the final placing of 
 all the kingdoms of earth under the feet of His Son ; but 
 these plagues exercise a more immediate influence on the 
 supreme and complete rescue, with victory, of God's 
 Church on earth. Instead of souls of slain crying for 
 vengeance below the altar (vi. 9), or the prayers of saints 
 laid upon the golden altar (viii. 3), we have here the 
 triumphal songs and melodies (xv. 3), composed by 
 
256 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 Moses, and led off by Miriam, as of the rescued Israelites 
 on the Eastern shore of the Red Sea ; not merely is there 
 rescue, there is also victory (xv. 4). As the Israelites on 
 the Red Sea felt that rescue from Egypt ensured victory 
 over the nations of Canaan, and as, in fact, only forty 
 years in the wilderness separated them from victory, so 
 the seven angels are heralded by souls of victors, singing 
 the song of Moses and of the Lamb, and glorifying God 
 for that He only is acknowledged holy, and is worshipped 
 by all nations. The time of the woman's retreat into the 
 wilderness is, as it were, forgotten, and the song only 
 celebrates the salvation and the victory, the cross and 
 the crown. 
 
 St. John first describes the scene on which the seven 
 angels appeared. It is in heaven, where are the glorified 
 saints ; but the throne, and He who is seated on it, and 
 the seven lamps, are not mentioned. Instead of the 
 glassy sea, like crystal, is a glassy sea mixed with fire. 
 Howsoever the fire was there, whether flashing in the 
 glass, or in the water, or in both, the indication seems 
 to be that the whole of the members of the court in 
 chapter iv. were pure beings, who required no purging of 
 a destructive kind (Is. i. 25 ; Ezek. xliii. 25, 26 ; Mai. iii. 3), 
 such as is associated with fire, and of course involves 
 judicial discrimination, in order to be fit for their official 
 duties in heaven ; whereas, in this case, the assembly of 
 the conquerors of the beast on earth had need of purifi- 
 cation by fire, as well as water, before admission to 
 heaven. These conquerors have harps of gold, the symbol 
 of glorified saints ; and they alone sing the song of Moses 
 and of the Lamb, heralding the coming of God to the 
 kingdom of the world. No others join in it. 
 
 5. — The seven angels are seen coming out of the holy 
 place and the holy of holies, which are now united in the 
 tent, or tabernacle, in heaven. Presumably the temple 
 is now seen in the vision, in the shape in which it stood 
 
The Song of the Victors 257 
 
 in the wilderness : the spiritual life of the Church on earth 
 has already been represented as being in the wilderness 
 during the operation of these angels (xii. 6), or, at all 
 events, during a part of the time. They are seen coming 
 out, ' having ' the seven plagues ; but this seems to 
 describe them by anticipation, for the saucers full of the 
 wrath of God were given to them afterwards, not from the 
 temple, but byone of the animals. It was somewhat so 
 with the trumpets, which were seen to be given to the 
 seven angels standing before God (viii. 2). It may be in- 
 ferred that the plagues which the saucers contain will 
 operate solely by natural action — by things created, and by 
 the laws of their creation — as if the devils and men who 
 seek gratification by defiance of God, and by indulgence 
 in earthly fancies, would be shown by these plagues to 
 bring themselves to judgment, while merely supported, 
 under the natural laws, in their own aspirations and mis- 
 chief. 
 
 6. — The angels are in robes of priestly white, dazzling, 
 and girded with pure gold, ready for their priestly duties 
 of pouring libations. The saucers are such as were used 
 by priests to dip into larger vessels, to pour libations 
 from them, and so to hallow the whole. The temple 
 was filled with smoke, perhaps embodying a complete 
 remembrance of the prayers of the saints (viii. 4), and 
 evidence of the presence and approval of God in His 
 ruling Providence, not yet clearly unveiled and explicable. 
 During the plagues all the usual worship in the temple 
 was suspended, as it was at the opening of the tent (or 
 -temple) in the wilderness (Ex. xl. 34, 35), and of Solomon's 
 temple in Jerusalem (i Kings viii. 10, 11). It was from 
 this cloud of smoke that the great voice came, ordering 
 the seven angels to pour out the seven saucers. It was, 
 in the above cases, the consecration of the temple, which 
 God had taken into His own hands ; and in this case of 
 ihe seven plagues, it is the consecration of the spiritual 
 
 17 
 
258 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 temple of His saints, the execution of which He is Him- 
 self carrying forward, while the Church, like the Israelites 
 at Pi-hahiroth, is to stand still, and see the salvation of 
 the Lord (Ex. xiv. 13, 14). It was from the temple that 
 an angel had appeared (xiv. 15) ordering the Son of man 
 to reap the harvest of the earth. In each case we must 
 infer that it is God Himself who gives the time or season 
 for action. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 ORIGINAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION. 
 
 1 And I heard a loud voice out of the temple, saying 
 to the seven angels, * Go, and pour out the seven 
 saucers of the wrath of God into the earth.' 
 
 2 And the first went away, and poured out his 
 saucer into the earth : and a bad and painful sore 
 occurred upon the men who had the mark of the 
 beast, and who salaam to its likeness. 
 
 3 And the second poured out his saucer into the 
 sea : and blood, as if of a corpse, occurred ; and 
 every soul of life died — the things in the sea, 
 
 4 And the third poured out his saucer into the 
 rivers, and fountains of waters: and blood occurred. 
 
 5 And I heard the angel of the waters, saying, * Thou 
 art just — the Being and the Was, hallowed — because 
 
 6 thou didst judge thus ; because they poured out 
 blood of Saints and Prophets, and thou hast given 
 
 7 blood to them to drink. They are worthy (of it).' 
 And I heard the altar, saying, ' Yes, Lord, the 
 almighty God : thy decisions are true and just.' 
 
 8 And the fourth poured out his saucer upon the 
 sun : and it was given to it to scorch men with 
 
 9 fire ; and men were scorched with great heat, and 
 blasphemed the name of God who has authority 
 over these plagues, and did not repent to give him 
 glory. 
 
 10 And the fifth poured out his saucer upon the- 
 
2 6o The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 throne of the beast : and its kingdom became dark- 
 
 11 ened ; and they were chewing their tongues out of 
 the pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven out of 
 their pains and out of their sores ; and did not repent 
 out of their works. 
 
 12 And the sixth poured out his saucer upon the 
 great river, the Euphrates : and its water was dried 
 up, that the way of the kings (who are) from the 
 sun-rising might be made ready. 
 
 13 And I saw out of the mouth of the dragon, and 
 out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth 
 
 14 of the false-prophet, three unclean spirits, as if frogs 
 — for they are demons' spirits doing signs, which 
 pass out upon the kings of the whole inhabited 
 (^earth), to collect them into the war of the great 
 
 15 day of almighty God. 'See! I am coming; as if 
 a thief. (He is) blessed who is awake and keeps 
 his garments — that he may not walk naked, and 
 
 16 they look on his discomfiture.' And they (the un- 
 clean spirits) collected them into the place called in 
 Hebrew Harmagedon (Mount Magedon). 
 
 17 And the seventh poured out his saucer upon the 
 air : and a loud voice came out of the temple from 
 
 18 the throne, saying, ' It is done.' And there occurred 
 lightnings, and voices, and thunders ; and a great 
 earthquake occurred, such as never occurred since 
 a man occurred on the earth — so much earthquake, 
 
 19 so great (as this). And the great city came into 
 three parts ; and the cities of the nations fell. And 
 Babylon the great was remembered in front of God, 
 to give her the cup of the wine of the wrath of his 
 
 20 anger. And every island fled ; and no mountains 
 
 21 were found : and a great hail, as if of a talent (a 
 cwt. avoirdupois) weight, descends out of the heaven 
 upon men; and men blasphemed God violently out 
 x)f the plague of hail, because its plague is great. 
 
The Woes of the Seven Bowls 261 
 
 THE WOES OF THE SEVEN BOWLS. 
 
 Section I. Verses i to 7. The First Three 
 Bowls. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 I. — Saucers. The Greek word never mea.ns3i vial, nor 
 phial, but a. flat shallow bowl, used for drinking or for liba- 
 tions. As that is the common meaning of our word 
 saucer, it seems best to translate it so. 
 
 2. — Occurred : came, or happened, or came into existence. 
 Perhaps the nearest colloquial English is came to be. 
 Arrive is naturally nearer to the meaning than occiir, but 
 would read still more awkwardly. 
 
 Sore : a festering wound, especially a poisoned one, 
 or an abscess. Luke xvi. 21 is the only other place where 
 the word is used in the New Testament. It occurs in the 
 LXX., Exod. ix. 9, etc. 
 
 Painful : wicked. Of men this word means oppressed 
 by toil, sorry, bad, depraved, wicked ; of things, painful, 
 troublesome, good for nothing. 
 
 3. — Soul of life : used in the LXX., Gen. i. 30, to 
 apply to every living thing, including man, as * having in 
 itself a soul of life.' 
 
 4. — Rivers and fountains, etc. It is quite possible 
 to translate this ' into the rivers and fountains of water ' 
 {i.e., both rivers and fountains were of water), ' and it 
 (the water) became blood.' The ' it ' is not expressed, as 
 it would be in good Greek, but as likely as not would be 
 omitted in St. John's more colloquial style. It is not 
 possible so to translate either of the similar sentences in 
 verse 2 : ' it ' (the earth) * became a painful sore,' or 
 verse 3, ' it ' (the sea) ' became blood.' It is only the 
 accident of water being neuter in Greek that renders it 
 possible here (contrast viii. 8, where the noun sea is 
 
262 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 repeated ; while here there is not even a pronoun, as a 
 nominative to became). 
 
 5. — Judge thus : or, perhaps, didst judicially decide 
 these things. 
 
 7. — Decisions : or sentence ; but used also for a trial, 
 either at court or of skill. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 I. — The plagues of Egypt were sent in order to show 
 Pharaoh and the Egyptians and others that Jehovah was 
 the Lord (Exod. vii. 17; viii. 22; ix. 14, 16). The 
 object of these plagues is not stated ; but it seems to be 
 the convincing and converting of those on whom they 
 fell — to convince the inhabitants of the earth that their 
 own ways were evil, and so to clear their minds for that 
 change which would lead them to become grateful and 
 willing subjects of God and the Lamb. 
 
 2. — The first plague. The first saucer was poured upon 
 the earth — Christendom. It produced a sore, which 
 would cripple the free action of those on whom it fell, 
 and would render repose and action alike uneasy and 
 painful. We find that all governments, including the 
 Pope, have set themselves to do this, not only by taxing 
 and impressment, but by enforcing wars, controlling 
 customs and dress, and by arbitrary direction of trade, 
 religion, and writing. The sorer people are, too, with 
 the more arbitrary assumption, Governments habitually 
 worked upon the sore, and made it spread ; so that, 
 what with armies and navies, debt, retaliatory tariffs, and 
 precautions against desperate tumult, poverty has often 
 been driven into want, and want into crime ; capitalists 
 into inactivity, and inactivity into deception ; ignorance 
 into superstition or revolution, and superstition or revo- 
 lution into cruelty ; and so forth. 
 
 3. — The second plague. The second angel poured out 
 his saucer into the sea. If this refer to the unorganized 
 
The Woes of the Seven Bowls 263 
 
 nations or peoples brought into contact with the nations 
 of Christendom, it would apply especially to the time 
 since the Reformation. It would mean their disorgan- 
 ization, moral and physical deterioration, and final extinc- 
 tion ; or such an absorption by means of serfdom or 
 slavery, as to destroy their independence under com- 
 pulsory organization. The vision seems to give only too 
 true a symbolization of the actual effect of * civilizing 
 influences ' on unsettled tribes, in contrast with the effect 
 of our Lord's last mission to preach glad tidings to them 
 and baptize them. But the sea may also include schools 
 of learning, guilds, freemasonry, unions, and all such 
 embryo organization as would, in sacred prophecy, con- 
 stitute the storm-tossed sea out of which the great em- 
 pires rose (Dan. vii. 2, 3) ; all these have suffered some 
 severe crushing under every form of government in 
 Christendom ; and the complete extinction of all is an 
 eagerly desired goal, considered necessary to ideal perfec- 
 tion by the extreme advocates of State rights, of all 
 schools. 
 
 4. — The third plague. Taking the rivers to represent 
 that which feeds and supports the springs of each man's 
 will and mind, we follow the analogy of the stream from 
 the rock in the wilderness, which rock represented Christ ; 
 and of Jacob's well, which our Saviour paralleled with 
 the water which He gives, which springs up in each man 
 who has it unto eternal life. We gather that, under this 
 plague, the springs of men's life, the spirit which is act- 
 ing in each, gets fed wholly or partly on blood, instead of 
 pure water. The chief sources on which the spring of 
 men's lives and actions were fed for many centuries were 
 supplemented, or wholly supplied, by the Romish Church, 
 by the rules of war and chivalry, by the fancies of min- 
 strels and Troubadours, and by civil laws and customs ; 
 and these were not only bad at the best, but were 
 sanguinary in their codes of rules and in their final 
 
264 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 appeal. They also were lifeless, and of this world only. 
 Even personal worship of God was decried amongst great 
 and small, rich and poor. Personal religion, agreeably 
 to the teaching of all the then accepted authorities, was 
 left to the priest, and was purchased from him, to be put 
 in action after the purchaser's decease. Much of this 
 still continues. In public justification of conduct, the 
 expressed motives of statesmanship, of national war, of 
 religious instruction, and of civil law, are rarely based 
 upon the faithful love of God and man ; but distinctly 
 upon the final appeal to violence and blood. 
 
 This plague was poured upon the rivers and fountains 
 of waters. In xvii. i, after this vision of the plagues is 
 over, the harlot is described as seated on many waters ; 
 not described as being either river or sea, but appropriate 
 to the irrigated country about Babylon (Jer. li. 13), or 
 elsewhere (Numb. xxiv. 7 ; Ezek. xix. 10). However, 
 there the interpretation is given (xvii. 15) : ' the waters 
 where the harlot is seated are peoples and crowds, and 
 nations and tongues.' Again the phrase many, or great, 
 waters, not particularly applied to rivers nor fountains nor 
 sea, is used as a figure of either troubles (Psa. xviii. 16), 
 or enemies (Isa. xvii. 13). Also Ezekiel in a vision, when 
 brought to a city in a very high mountain in Israel, and 
 posted at the east gate, hears the voice of God coming 
 from the way of the east, as the sound of many waters 
 (Ezek. xliii. 2). This last might refer either to the sea, or 
 to land-floods ; if the latter they must be violent, since 
 irrigation from channels makes no sound to be heard from 
 a distance. It is clear, then, on the whole, that there is a 
 total separation between the figure of ' many waters,' con- 
 ceived as either sea, flood, land irrigation, or cloud, etc., 
 and the figure of ' rivers and fountains of water.' 
 
 5. — We may therefore treat the angel of these waters with 
 considerable confidence, as akin to the angel of xiv. 6, 
 who brought the everlasting Gospel to all on earth, to 
 
The Woes of the Seven Bozo Is 265 
 
 furnish, as it were, the springs of eternal life to all who 
 should receive it. He, too, spoke as this angel of the 
 waters does ; but his words were the Gospel call (Matt, 
 iii. 2, 10), such as had again and again been repeated by 
 our Lord, His forerunner, and Ilis followers. This angel 
 of the waters does not address the earth, but God ; and 
 it is not in praise of His treatment of the saved, but of 
 His treatment of the punished. He praises the justice of 
 God, who always was hallowed. He who was in His 
 divine existence spotless and holy has now exhibited the 
 justice of His laws by the way He has judicially decided 
 these things ; for that is the meaning, and, as likely as 
 not, the truer rendering of 'didst judge thus.' This 
 judgment varies from the letter of the Mosaic law, upon 
 which the prayer of the martyrs in the fifth seal (vi. 10) 
 seems based ; yet that it fulfilled that prayer fully in 
 effect is clear both here and in xix. 2. The punishment 
 is here described not as slaying them to avenge their 
 slaughter of the saints, but as giving them blood to 
 drink ; referring to our Lord's sacrament, but undoubtedly 
 including the actual shedding of blood. In our Lord's 
 sacrament His own blood is that actually shed ; in this 
 case they shed each others' blood. In admiration of the 
 justice of God displayed in this mode of vengeance, the 
 angel concludes, * They are worthy of it.' And so they 
 themselves thought, and so we think ? Fair fight — 
 whatever was settled to be, and accepted as, fair — by 
 sword or spear, truth or falsehood, torpedoes or bribery, 
 was, and is, considered to end the matter worthily to both 
 parties. There is no other worthy way of ending it at 
 present, as men's wills and minds have been fed. 
 
 7. — It is an awful and miserable punishment on civilized 
 Europe that it is so ; and the martyrs under the altar are 
 fully satisfied that the judgment is a true and real one, as 
 well as abstractly just (vi. 10). 
 
2 66 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 Section II. Verses 8 to ii. The Fourth and 
 Fifth Bowls. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 8, g. — Men : literally the men, i.e., mankind in general. 
 
 10. — Throne : none has been mentioned for the beast. 
 The word was used for any chair of state — of a king, a 
 school teacher, or a bishop. 
 
 II. — Out of. The same preposition, governing the 
 same case, is used three times in this verse. In the first 
 two cases it refers not to place or position, but to origin ; 
 as we say a thing was done out of friendship. In the third 
 case it is more doubtful. A man may repent owing to his 
 seeing the evil results of his works, or owing to the suffer- 
 ing they bring him. His works originate his repentance ; 
 and he may be said to repent out of (the experience he 
 has of) his works. St. John, in this book, is the only 
 author who uses repentance with this preposition ; and he 
 uses it, apparently, as a change of mental position, w'hich 
 no doubt includes change of mind and opinion, and of 
 consequent action, out of one class of things to another 
 (so ii. 21, probably; ii. 22, as here, doubtfully; ix. 20, 
 probably; ix. 21, probably). But, in all cases, what 
 seems looked for is, that the sinner should repent out of 
 experience of his evil works, from disapproval of their 
 results; and the two helps granted him are time (ii. 21), 
 and evil consequences (ix. 20). Special punishment, of 
 the nature of chastisement, seems reserved for those whom 
 God loves, with the object of checking their sins, or of 
 stimulating their virtues, and, in either case, of bringing 
 them to seek his ready assistance. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 8. — The fourth plague. In former visions we have seen 
 the darkening of the sun (vi. 12 ; viii. 12), so that the earth 
 
The Woes of the Seven Bowls 267 
 
 did not get above half the benefit which the sun should 
 have given, and would have given as God originally 
 appointed it. Instead of lack of benefit, there is here 
 infliction of evil, and this St. John sees symbolized : the 
 actual infliction of terrible evil due to abuse, and excess, 
 of power in the rulers of nations. So far as history 
 indicates, the kings or governments of the earth have 
 always scorched according to their power, and that power 
 has increased through the times of associated tribes, 
 feudal kingdoms, and representative democracies. Where- 
 ever religion, God, and righteousness have been most 
 set at nought, and the beast has been the authority most 
 unreservedly worshipped, there the greatest heat, and 
 the most violent and hopeless scorching, has naturally 
 followed, as opportunity, or selfish passions arose. And 
 as the supreme rulers have obtained their power, more 
 and more of it, directly from the people, hi (or they, if 
 more than one) has scorched the more ; and, in proof 
 of this, these people have the more cursed God, and His 
 ordinance of kings as by themselves perverted. This 
 scorching is not to be estimated by comparing the amount 
 of taxation per head, by comparing ordinances enforced 
 under one set of circumstances, and upon a people hold- 
 ing one set of ideas, with those enforced at other places 
 or times for which the conditions were different. The 
 degree of scorching must be measured by the degree in 
 which it was felt by the people to be directly inflicted by 
 government. 
 
 10. — The fifth plague. In xiii. 2 we learn that Satan 
 gave the earth that animus, that temper and mind, which 
 placed the first beast upon a throne in the exercise of 
 authority, and constituted kingdoms of which he could 
 say, and, it appears here, in a sense truly, ' To Thee will 
 I give all this authority, and the glory of them : for it 
 hath been delivered unto me ; and to whomsoever I will 
 I give it. If thou therefore wilt w'orship before me, 
 
268 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 shall all be thine ' (Luke iv. 5, 7). Our Lord could not 
 accept this offer, and His Church has remained in the 
 wilderness twelve hundred and sixty years, because 
 it could not accept such an offer; and the Church 
 of Christ is to share a kingdom with Him, not by ulti- 
 mately accepting this offer, but by waiting till God 
 renders helpless these Satanic kingdoms. Even now the 
 stone is growing and breaking them up (Dan. ii. 34), 
 Christ and His Church will together (ii. 26, 27) break 
 up the disunited and incoherent residue of these Satanic 
 kingdoms with a staff of iron. On this throne of the 
 beast, or, as we should say, on the governing and 
 governed in every power in Christendom in its widest 
 sense, the fifth angel pours out his saucer. They become 
 darkened. The glory and authority of the governors, 
 and the freedom and welfare of the governed, are alike 
 wrapped in darkness ; and, instead of seeing any way 
 out of their difficulties, such as do not repent chew their 
 tongues with pain, and the more they increase their own 
 distress the more they blaspheme God for maintaining 
 them in the power and hardihood to torment them- 
 selves. 
 
 Hence we see that in addition to the increased scorch- 
 ing heat given out by the sun — by the various govern- 
 ments (verse 8) — there is a simultaneous weakening of 
 its light and power of guidance for any good purpose. 
 The most striking effect is to increase the work, and the 
 taxes, and restraints, and all that causes the sores of the 
 first plague. This has, perhaps, never been worse than 
 in our own day, and before the population of the world 
 has doubled (say, in sixty years, at twelve per cent, 
 increase every ten years), it seems likely to be much 
 worse. For a century the cleverest statesmen have been 
 successfully considering how, without exciting ruinous 
 resistance, they may best tax everything which the very 
 poorest human being has to use, every fund from which 
 
The Woes of the Seven Bowls 269 
 
 spring remuneration, food, clothing, and all necessaries 
 or comforts, and how they may abduct a man, while 
 strongest and most urgently impelled to work for liveli- 
 hood, to employ him for unremunerative purposes of 
 State. This is not due to uncontrollable and scorching 
 power simply, for that could be checked, if any remedy 
 were apparent. The characteristic of this plague is the 
 utter inability of anyone to find a remedy. Hundreds 
 of remedies, perhaps, have been proposed ; but all theories 
 for improved constitutions of government only serve to 
 darken the air. Even their frequent trial and failure has 
 afforded no light by which the inhabitants of the earth 
 can escape to a government at once honest throughout, 
 under leaders of high practical skill, eager for economy 
 and peace, effectively promoting or carrying out all work 
 desirable for public convenience, judicially securing the 
 rights of rich and poor. It is even unsettled what a good 
 government is for, let alone what it should he. Yet, so 
 far from turning to a higher power, and obeying the laws 
 of God, the prevailing tone amongst the majority of 
 sufferers has been towards desperately endowing this 
 dark and scorching * state ' with their whole property 
 and lives, and with all teaching of the growing children 
 (under a prohibition of teaching any religion), all without 
 protection or appeal, each dreaming of it as carrying out 
 in the future his own views, instead of opening his eyes 
 to the views of a real and faithful God. 
 
 Section III. Verses 12 to 16. The Sixth Bowl. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 12. — Who are. The construction here is different 
 from that in Matt. ii. i. Those were magi, and the 
 only magi known were those from the East ; here, these 
 will be kings ; but, of all the kings known over the 
 
270 The Revelation given to St. [ohn the Divine 
 
 world, it is only those from the East who are referred to. 
 This seems a rather uncertain explanation. 
 
 13. — Unclean : perhaps rather wicleaned. As cloths 
 after other use require cleaning before use for wearing, 
 washing or cooking, etc. ; as a table, after other use, needs 
 cleaning before laying food on it ; and as meat before 
 cooking; so a man, or spirit, bent on doing anything, 
 must withdraw from doing what is incompatible, and 
 prevents the thing being done. Unclean spirits, like 
 'men of Belial,' seem to be loose, worthless beings, which 
 can only be relied on for untrustworthiness and mischief; 
 so much so, as not to carry out any particular scheme, 
 even of mischief. We may not safely take our ideal of 
 an unclean spirit from Milton. At all events, it is certain 
 that, in order to fulfil any law of God we know, whether 
 of art, of justice, or of morality, it is essential to give full 
 purpose to it, and to do it with our might, without di- 
 luting our purpose by mixing into it others, or wasting 
 our strength by transferring it to other work. We may 
 not safely take our ideal of unclean from the Pharisees ; 
 St. John does not do so. 
 
 Earth. A perhaps insoluble question arises here. As 
 to the form of expression : 'The inhabited,' agreeing with 
 earth understood, was a familiar term with the Greeks for 
 their portion of the world, excluding all nations outside 
 them — who were called ' barbarians,' i.e., not Greeks — 
 strange to Greek language and manners. Later, the 
 whole Roman empire was included in the term inhabited 
 earth (Acts xvii. 6) ; and, by analogy, the term ' the 
 inhabited ' should in our day have been extended to 
 all the world of Christendom, including colonies, tribu- 
 taries, and dependencies. It is (Heb. ii. 5) applied to the 
 next world, in the phrase ' the inhabited (earth) to come.' 
 The question arises. What does this phrase mean when 
 used prospectively in prophecy ? In our Lord's own 
 words, as given by Matthew (xxiv. 14), it includes all the 
 
The Woes of the Seven Boivls 271 
 
 world — at least all the nations, or ' Gentiles ' ; but there is 
 a slight doubt as to whether our Lord used the word 
 nations as His then hearers would understand it, as 
 Gentiles, or as it would be understood after the distinction 
 of Jew and Gentile had been done away by Him, at the 
 time of the fulfilment of the prophecy, simply as nations. 
 We may be sure that the name assumed by the (Ecumenical 
 Councils — in English, councils of the inhabited (earth) — is 
 no safe guide to the use of the term inhabited earth in the 
 prophecies of our Lord, and of St. John. And so there 
 is no certainty that our Lord did not use the word inha- 
 bited {earth) in the then ordinary sense (as in Acts xi. 28). 
 St. Paul, speaking at Athens (Acts xvii. 31), uses the word 
 in a sense which to his mind might include all mankind, 
 but in his hearers' apprehension might not. On the 
 whole it may be provisionally translated world (and it 
 would be so translated here if it were not that the unex- 
 pressed word is earth, and could not be world, which in 
 Greek is of another gender). The phrase ' all the world ' 
 is used in English in a restricted sense, frequently, to 
 express the small part of it interested in the speaker or 
 his subject ; so even that is ambiguous. 
 
 15. — Garments : or clothes, much in the sense in which 
 we say, * Put on your clothes and come out,' or, * Take 
 your clothes off, now you are come in ;' generally dress for 
 outdoor respectability, or robes for ceremonial distinction. 
 
 Naked, in ordinary language means in the tunic ; of 
 ordinary dress indoors, or for work. 
 
 Discomfiture. No doubt the literal meaning is, that 
 he may not walk stark-naked, and people see his naked- 
 ness ; but the words are used so habitually in Greek in a 
 • figurative sense — which is the main, indeed the sole,, 
 meaning here — and are so infrequently used in English 
 that a literal translation would hardly convey the true 
 idea. 
 
272 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 12. — The sixth plague. We have here, first described, 
 the effect of the stroke or plague, as the drying up of the 
 Euphrates ; and it is incidentally mentioned that this 
 drying up opens the way of the kings from the East — to 
 Jerusalem, we presume, though it is not here positively 
 stated. A second accompaniment, or effect, of the plague 
 is that the kings of all the earth are collected by three 
 unclean spirits to a war — it is not said with whom ; and 
 the reference to Harmagedon seems only to imply that 
 it is not war against one another, for at the waters of 
 Magedon Jabin was totally defeated by Israel, and at a 
 Mount (if it were Gilboa) Saul was entirely defeated by the 
 Philistines. Perhaps we must infer that the war will be 
 between the servants of God from beyond Euphrates and 
 the servants of the beast ; but, at least, that it will be of 
 such a nature, as regards both locality and the manner of 
 War and victory, as has no distinct prototype in the wars 
 of Israel, except so far as that it will be a war between a 
 full muster of all forces ; and that it will be a final, or at 
 least decisive, war. 
 
 The whole description seems specially rich in allusions 
 to Old Testament scenes. The Euphrates was the 
 extreme boundary from the east, of the territory which 
 God in a formal covenant (Gen. xv. 9, etc.) with Abram 
 gave to Abram's seed (Gen. xv. 18) ; a promise realized 
 under David (2 Sam. viii. 3) and Solomon. The 
 Euphrates was the boundary between God's covenanted 
 people, and the kingdoms of the East from which they had 
 been called in the person of their forefather Abraham ; 
 just as Jordan divided the six condemned nations of 
 Canaan from the invading Israelites under Joshua. The 
 effect of the saucer, then, is to annihilate all the old 
 separation between Abraham's seed and the East. It 
 annuls the old covenant, and places all on an even foot- 
 
The Woes of the Seven Bowls 273 
 
 ing. With the disappearance of the boundary, the hmit 
 to the promise disappears. That is the symbol ; and it 
 represents, in the most practical form possible, the dis- 
 appearance of all the old separation between the 
 Christendom of the old Roman empire, and the other 
 empires and peoples of the whole world. God's anointed 
 servant becomes light and salvation unto the end of the 
 earth (world) (Isa. xlix. 6) ; and this implies that His 
 enemies also are world-wide. 
 
 The action of this plague, as of the others, seems to ex- 
 tend over the whole time from St. John till now. If we 
 include in it the gradual drying up, we go back to the 
 time before Constantine, while Christendom was still in 
 embryo. The boundaries of the Roman world were being 
 dried up, till they already seemed lost as barriers against 
 barbarians. On the one hand Rome was approximating 
 to barbarism. For, during the civil wars, not only Rome 
 and Italy set up emperors elected by the senate, but 
 successively the large province of Africa, and the imperial 
 troops of Pretorian guards, who were chiefly barbarians, 
 had set up emperors. These, being defeated, were rebels, 
 while the provinces, such as Pannonia and Britain, were 
 only saved from rebellion by the success of the emperors 
 whom they set up. The Roman empire had lost 
 much that distinguished it from the barbarians — ' the 
 nation of soldiers, magistrates, and legislators, who com- 
 posed the thirty-five tribes of the Roman people, was 
 dissolved into the common mass of mankind ' (Gibbon, 
 chap, vii., end, writing concerning the year a.d, 250). 
 Then Persians and Goths (a.d. 269) passed and repassed 
 the old frontiers. The empire began the payment of 
 tribute, or blackmail, to keep them quiet ; but, before the 
 end of the fourth century, the Franks of Lower Germany 
 had invaded and ravaged France — then Gaul (a.d. 360). 
 Alaric was recognised as Master - General of Illyria 
 (a.d. 398), and reduced Italy (a.d. 410). The Suevi and 
 
 18 
 
274 The Revelation given to St. Jo Jin the Divine 
 
 Vandals reduced Spain (a.d. 416). Goths of the Baltic 
 occupied the Crimea, maintained a fleet in the Euxine, 
 and ravaged Asia Minor, Athens, and Greece. All this is 
 enough to indicate that the Roman Empire, when it 
 became Christendom, could hardly be said to have any 
 clear boundary. 
 
 But the confusion of territorial boundary, which 
 occurred in its most energetic form between the times of 
 the Emperors Constantine the Great (a.d. 337) and 
 Charles the Great (Charlemagne, a.d. 814), the son of a 
 French mayor, is hardly worth mention beside the com- 
 plete obliteration of every distinction between Romans 
 and barbarians, such as once existed in favour of the 
 former ; whether for offices of Government, for organized 
 force, or for wealth — in all these the Romans were com- 
 pletely overrun by the barbarians. This confusion of 
 races was, however, still of minor consideration to the 
 world, compared with that of which it was the pioneer ; 
 viz., the gradual inclusion of the whole world in the 
 Roman Empire — such as is now going on, and such as 
 Christianity has been always working for since the time of 
 St. John. By the comity of nations a favourable recep- 
 tion is given to any nation or colony of the world, so far 
 as it shows itself capable and trustworthy, to equal rights 
 and equal treatment with the nations of Christendom. 
 
 13. — The development of the use of steam, electricity, 
 and explosive arms, coupled with the spread of general 
 knowledge, has so nearly dried up Euphrates, and taken 
 away privileges of class or of race, that it only wants an 
 effective spirit to be added to make the union of all king- 
 doms complete. This spirit is supplied to the worshippers 
 of the beast by three spirits. The Greek word for spirit 
 and for breath, we should bear in mind, is the skme. The 
 devil in his form of the dragon, civilization under the 
 form of the beast, and false religion under the form of the 
 two-horned beast, supply the necessary spirits. Each 
 
The Woes of the Seven Bowls 275 
 
 supplies one, and each one is represented in the vision as 
 like a plague of frogs ; for, if there were only three frogs, 
 the vision could hardly show them spreading over the 
 whole earth. They are filthy — not only, like the scarlet 
 woman, filthy under a gorgeous outward dress, but out- 
 right, in appearance and by profession. This filthiness — 
 the farthest contrast to purity — may mean not only the 
 neglect of the ten commandments, and of all ordinances 
 of God, but an avowed intention to do the opposite to 
 them, to throw all possible contempt and defiance against 
 God, and to teach and allure and terrify men to desert 
 God's ways. The result is that all are gradually collected 
 into a universal war. 
 
 There is recorded in Jewish sacred history no great 
 battle in which the people of Israel failed to take part ; 
 and we may be sure that God's people will be engaged, 
 as well as others, in that war. The vision seems to show 
 an actual collection for battle at a certain place ; but the 
 name of that place appears to be a made-up one. It is 
 neither a real place, nor a combination of real names, such 
 as those in xi. 8. There is no result of the collection stated, 
 nor any bloodshed mentioned. St. John records a warn- 
 ing, apparently his own inspired message, or possibly a 
 direct proclamation of the Lamb. It occupies the place of 
 a battle-cry ; but it is not by any means a battle-cry. In 
 it the Lamb applies to His own coming the same figure 
 (but more curtly) which He had used to caution His 
 disciples, as they were discussing privately on the Mount 
 of Olives what would be the sign of His coming, and of 
 the end of the world (Matt. xxiv. 42-44). From that con- 
 versation, and from his way of using the same figure more 
 publicly (Luke xii. 37-43) in Galilee, we may be sure that 
 the warning is of a sudden deprivation of some kind, 
 which will attend His coming, and will take effect as 
 suddenly as a thief would snatch the effects of a sleeper. 
 The warning is, in other words, that the day of grace will 
 
276 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 be ended ; the bad will no longer be allowed to grow with 
 the good (Matt. xiii. 30), nor the barren fig-tree in the 
 garden (Luke xiii. 6, etc.) ; the mammon of unrighteous- 
 ness will fail (Luke xvi. 9). It is a warning to repent, or, 
 in other words, to be justified by faith, and to have peace 
 with God, and access to His favour, wherein to stand 
 (Rom. V. 2). It is worth notice that Christ is never 
 represented as armed with any sword but that of God's 
 Word ; and with that He is to conquer. This war against 
 the professors of evil spirits seems especially one likely to 
 be waged, by Christ or His servants, with His distinc- 
 tive weapon — with the Word of God against the word of 
 Satan. We notice, too, that the same powers which had 
 been distinguished by a blasphemous treatment of the 
 true God and His Word now give breath to a spirit of 
 demons ; as if blasphemy were become tame and worn 
 out, and to breathe rebellion against God carried more 
 inducement, and were found more in harmony with the 
 prevailing fashion of those who carried the mark of servi- 
 tude to the beast, than a blasphemous affectation to serve 
 him. 
 
 Still, it may not be supposed that the war will end in a 
 weak re-shuffling of the old pack. In the series of plagues 
 it is the temper and mind which are the subjects of the 
 visions, the feeling of soreness under the service of the 
 beast, the collapse or death of all the stir and ambition 
 necessary for the reconstruction of a renewed earthly 
 empire, the lifeless teaching of all schools of thought and 
 policy, worse and worse conduct of State affairs by the 
 governing powers, felt with a scorching heat which seeks 
 relief in despair and cursing ; such an acknowledged 
 ignorance and carelessness as to what is best to be done, 
 as is displayed by extreme torture, endured with fierce 
 delirium and blasphemy ; and then comes this sixth 
 plague, offering the last opportunity to these distressed 
 inhabitants of the earth. Those who are still hardened 
 
The Woes of the Seven Bow is 277 
 
 and blasphemous are shown, not singly blaspheming, but 
 collecting in avowed war against God and His people. 
 The vision seems to represent the deliberate and final 
 choice of sides for and against God — the separation of 
 goats from sheep. There the vision leaves it ; there is 
 no more to add ; the temper and mind of all this collec- 
 tion of men is fixed, and the machinery for dealing with 
 them is no part of this series of visions. But the style of 
 ending of the gathering is unmistakably given us by the 
 heavenly song introducing these plagues (xv. 3, 4). They 
 refer us to the song of Moses, and to the chorus of Miriam 
 (Ex. XV. 1-21). 
 
 Section IV. Verses 17 to 21. The Seventh 
 
 Bowl. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 17. — It is done. The same word is used by our Lord 
 (Luke xiv. 22), ' What thou didst command is done ' ; 
 literally, is become, has occurred, or has been born. 
 
 18. — Occurred. The same word as above. 
 
 19. — Came. Again the same word. 
 
 21. — No mountains were found. In this, and in 
 frequent similar cases, the literal Greek is mountains were 
 not found. This in English idiom leaves a wrong impres- 
 sion, viz., that there were, or might be, any number of 
 mountains, but that they were not found. The meaning 
 is that every mountain was gone, and looked for in vain. 
 
 Violently. Our colloquial tremendously ! 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 17. — The seventh plague. The air is a new element upon 
 which to draw for a representation. We must be as 
 careful here as in the case of the other elements — fire, 
 earth, and water — already employed, to keep free from all 
 scientific knowledge we now have of air, as a ponderable, 
 
278 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 gaseous substance occupying space. Air is the place of 
 action of thunder, lightning, and voices ; it is the pathway 
 of clouds and angels, as well as of birds, demons, etc. ; it 
 is the source of water, hail, and snow, and it is specially 
 in the air that God shows His grandeur and His presence, 
 and declares His will. His laws, and His promises. 
 
 After the breaking of the seventh seal (viii. i) there was 
 silence, as if there were still an action, which would find a 
 place were it possible by the imagery then being used, 
 but one not under the leadership or control of physical 
 laws, and therefore left blank in the series representing 
 the effect of those laws. On the sounding of the seventh 
 trumpet (xi. 15), voices and praise are described as occur- 
 ring in the heaven where the animals and elders surround 
 the throne ; and the latter thank God that the time is 
 come for destroying the destroyers of the earth. A few 
 words are added (xi. 19) which evidently apply to earth : 
 viz., ' there came on lightnings, voices, thunders, earth- 
 quake and hail — great ;' for there could not be an earth- 
 quake in the heaven of the throne, nor, indeed, hail. 
 These occurrences under the seventh trumpet follow the 
 opening of God's temple in heaven. Now, the typical 
 temple on earth, made on the pattern given to Moses by 
 God on Sinai — at a time when that mountain was itself 
 closed against intrusion, at the cost of paying the greatest 
 human penalty, death (Ex. xix. 12) — had two separate 
 vails ; one preserved the mercy-seat from the intrusion 
 of any but the high-priest, the other preserved the holy 
 place from the intrusion of any but priests. Christ re- 
 moved the former vail by His death, and admitted all His 
 servants to the priesthood, as in the prophetic language 
 of St. John (i. 6), It seems certain that the opening of 
 the temple entirely — the removal of the second vail, as" 
 well as the first — could only be done when all outside the 
 temple should be consecrated priests ; and all who were 
 not so consecrated should be exterminated, or driven so 
 
The Woes of the Seven Bowls 279 
 
 completely away as to leave no possibility of their, in any 
 sense, mixing with the worshippers, or approaching the 
 sacred precincts. Hence the lightnings, voices — mutter- 
 ings of thunder — uttered in thunder (Ps. xviii. 13, etc.; 
 also Ex. ix. 28, margin), thunders, earthquake, and hail 
 (xi. 19), must be taken as symbols of the machinery put in 
 force to protect the temple from intrusion, effective in 
 exterminating or driving off all unconsecrated persons. 
 
 18. — So, when we find the pouring out of the seventh 
 saucer described as resulting in lightnings, voices, thunders, 
 and an earthquake overturning Babylon, and a great hail, 
 all of which were described, almost in the same words, 
 as occurring under the seventh trumpet, we recognise that 
 the means described, and the result which will be ob- 
 tained, are identical in both cases. They represent 
 occurrences in the human political world and its govern- 
 ments ; and with that the symbolism of the trumpets 
 was exhausted, since it had no more to do directly with 
 spiritual matters than the seals. This series of plagues 
 goes further. It, as the last and highest of the different 
 series, has specially to do with the spirits or minds* of 
 men, both as affected by physical events, and as guided 
 by evil spirits. The evil spirits are themselves repre- 
 sented in the sixth plague ; and we may well expect good 
 ones to be represented also. 
 
 Accordingly, all the Old and New Testament imagery 
 indicating the presence of God himself is seen under the 
 seventh plague. From the cloud of smoke filling the 
 temple a great voice is heard ; and lightning and earth- 
 quake follow. It is an exact repetition of Sinai. At 
 Sinai, God visibly undertook the position of King, Law- 
 giver, and Mediator, of His people. His mercy was 
 
 * Mind is a word most wanted in the sense used here, which is 
 that in which it is used in the phrases : ' He had a inind to fight,' 
 ' He had half a mind to run away,' ' I have no mi7id either way,* 
 ' Make up your jnind.' 
 
28o The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 not represented there ; but that it existed, and was com- 
 patible with the claims of His justice, was shown at other 
 times and in other places by the deliverances which He 
 wrought, by the sacrifices which He accepted, and in the 
 writings of the prophets whom He inspired. The imagery 
 of Sinai was a type of the same facts or events as this 
 imagery of the seventh plague. 
 
 It is necessary to keep in mind that the earthquake 
 which St. John saw in the vision does not represent a 
 real earthquake on earth, nor the voices real voices, nor 
 the hail real hail. His vision represents real things, 
 nevertheless. No blood is mentioned : but it may be 
 said, that though hail does not shed blood, yet even in 
 some battles the hail has slain more than the sword 
 (Josh. X. ii); but, indeed, the vision seems concerned 
 with the real foundations of all kingdoms ; not the mere 
 outward symptoms of their existence, such as territory, 
 crowns, troops, lives, and so forth, but with the spirit or 
 temper in men which alone makes a kingdom possible. 
 Such are misery, dread, despair, greed, pride, habit, 
 luxury, superstition, ignorance ; and the fears or hopes 
 which arise in minds, driven onwards before such diabolic 
 influences as the above, acting on their neighbours ; or 
 beguiled and misguided by them, acting in their own 
 breasts. We, therefore, expect the fulfilment of the 
 earthquake^ in what are called men's opinions, including 
 absence of opinion. It has, indeed, already taken a great 
 many shocks to change public opinion from what it was 
 in St. John's day to what it is now. Men's minds have 
 been upset from the then theory and practice of empires 
 and commonwealths, and shaken down, and turned 
 about, on the theory and practice of temporal and 
 spiritual subjection. So that, at the present day, there 
 is in the sky abundant colour foretelling still greater 
 commotions in the atmosphere (verse 17) of opinion ; nor 
 can any expect, nor do any profess to expect, that the 
 
The Woes of the Seven Bowls 281 
 
 result will not fall in physical calamity, like a great hail- 
 storm, on many people. What Nihilists are said to 
 desire, others fear in some form or other — a tremendous 
 hailstorm of commotion, active with what would have 
 been till lately considered fabulous means of destruction ; 
 a storm which will entirely break up the old distinctions, 
 laws, financial credit, and religious establishments, of 
 Christendom. The servants of God who seek to do His 
 will may well bless Him, and St. John under Him, for 
 giving them the lead (xv. 3) in a hymn which may well, 
 under such sanction, drive both false fears and false 
 hopes from iheir minds. Whatever their call in life, high 
 or low, political or plodding, military or civil, they have 
 refused the mark of the beast : they worship the Lord 
 their God, and serve Him only (Luke iv. 8). 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 ORIGINAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION. 
 
 And one out of the seven angels who have the seven 
 saucers came, and talked with me, saying, ' Hither ! 
 I will show thee the judgment of the great harlot who 
 is seated on many waters, with whom (the harlot) the 
 kings of the earth committed fornication ; and the 
 inhabitants of the earth were drunk out of the wine 
 of her fornication.' And he carried me away into a 
 wilderness, in spirit. 
 
 And I saw a woman, seated on a scarlet beast full 
 of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten 
 horns. And the woman was clothed in purple and 
 scarlet, and gilt with gold, and precious stone, and 
 pearls, having a gold cup in her hand full of abomi- 
 nations and with the unclean things of her fornication, 
 and a name written upon her forehead, * A secret : 
 Babylon the great, the mother of the harlots and of 
 the abominations of the earth.' And I saw the 
 woman drunk out of the blood of the saints, and out 
 of the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. 
 
 And I wondered, seeing her, with great wonder : 
 and the angel said to me, ' Why didst thou wonder ? 
 I will tell thee the secret of the woman, and of the 
 beast which carries her, which has seven heads and 
 ten horns : The beast which thou sawest was, and is 
 not, and is about to ascend out of the bottomless pit, 
 and is going on into destruction : and the inhabitants 
 
Original English Translation 283 
 
 on the earth, whose name has not been written upon 
 the scroll of life from the foundation of the world, 
 will wonder, as they look on the beast, that it was, 
 9 and is not, and is present. Here is the understand- 
 ing that has skill : The seven heads are seven hills, 
 where the woman is seated upon them, and are seven 
 
 10 kings ; the five (kings) are fallen ; the one is ; the 
 other is not yet come, and whenever he should come, 
 
 11 he must abide a little (time). And the beast which 
 was, and is not — he also is the eighth, and is out of 
 the seven, and passes on into destruction.' 
 
 12 * And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten 
 kings — (kings who did not yet receive a kingdom, but 
 receive authority, as if kings for one season along 
 
 13 with the beast. These have one disposition (of mind), 
 
 14 and give the beast their power and authority. These 
 will make war with the Lamb ; and the Lamb will 
 conquer them, because he is lord of lords, and king 
 of kings ; and those along with him are called, and 
 chosen, and faithful.' 
 
 15 And he says to me, ' The waters which thou sawest, 
 where the harlot is seated, are peoples, and crowds, 
 
 16 and nations, and tongues : and the ten horns which 
 thou sawest, and the beast, these will hate the harlot , 
 and will make her desolated and naked, and will eat 
 
 17 her flesh, and will burn her up with fire ; for God 
 gave into their hearts to do his mind, and to do one 
 mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until 
 
 18 the words of God shall have been completed. And 
 the woman whom thou sawest is the great city, which 
 has a kingdom over the kingdoms of the earth.' 
 
284 The Revelation given to St. Joht the Divine 
 
 THE JUDGMENT OF THE GREAT HARLOT. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 I. — On : is used for close to ; as a town is situated on a 
 river. 
 
 2. — Were drunk. Only used elsewhere in the New 
 Testament by John (ii. 10) in a humorous sally of the ruler 
 of a feast. In neither case does it mean helplessly drunk ; 
 but in both it implies a loss of sense and discrimination. 
 
 3. — Full: as we say a tree vs, full of fruit. It is the 
 beast, not the woman, who is full. 
 
 4. — Purple : probably a dark rosy purple. 
 
 Full of — with. Here full takes the ordinary case of 
 abominations ; but the case of unclean things is that which 
 would follow the verb filled, as a ship is filled with cargo. 
 
 Abominations : applicable to any disgusting mixtures. 
 
 7. — Why : or at what. 
 
 8. — And is not ; or, and there is none. The angel is 
 apparently enumerating, in order, the different phases of 
 existence of the beast. 
 
 From the foundation of the world. Here, and 
 in xiii. 8, it is not meant that the thing referred to took 
 place at or during the foundation of the world ; but the 
 from marks the incident from and after which is the time 
 referred to. From is nearly equivalent to after : and the 
 same Greek preposition would be used of soldiers arming 
 * after dinner ' — in Greek, from dinner. 
 
 9. — Understanding. The Greek word is nous, which, 
 if it be reckoned English, is the best English translation 
 of the meaning. 
 
 10. — Abide : or continue. 
 
 12. — Season. The Greek word is that used for an 
 hour ; indeed, hour is derived from it, or from the similar 
 Latin word. It means any limited time, especially any of 
 the four seasons of the year, and is used for a whole year, 
 
The Judgment of the Great Harlot 285 
 
 as we say, last season. For the seasons means for future 
 time ; but for time of a much smaller dimension than /or 
 the ages, to express which another word is used. 
 
 16. — Desolated is used of land turned into wilderness, 
 and thrown out of cultivation ; naked, of land bare of 
 trees or of grass. 
 
 17. — To DO HIS MIND. It is very difficult to put faith- 
 fully into English the Greek words of broad meaning 
 which are used in prophecy. It does not do to suppose 
 one of the meanings to be right, and discard the rest. 
 The Greek word here is used for the mental disposal of 
 things by the exercise of understanding, sound judgment, 
 and will : it is the mind, when made up by a thorough de- 
 termination of what you think ought to be done, and wish 
 to have done. It seems that God supported their strength 
 and courage to do, as He determined they should do, their 
 own mind. 
 
 Expository Notes, 
 
 I. — The interpretation given by one of the seven angels 
 has one sign of reality about it. A parable, or symbolism, 
 must necessarily be partial. Light is thrown by pen and 
 ink on a group of real or possible actions of a natural 
 kind, or on a group of symbols ; and, assuming the Divine 
 origin of nature and of the symbols, this shows a picture 
 of some higher natural or spiritual action. It is only a 
 parallel or symbol ; the surroundings which would neces- 
 sarily accompany the parable in real life, or consequences 
 which would follow, were any part of the symbol a real 
 natural being, form no part of the parallel. The higher 
 truth, revealed, extends beyond the limit of the picture ; 
 and its immediate surroundings may be inconsistent with 
 the parable or symbol, as well as with the parable's sur- 
 roundings. We need only refer to the two parables spoken, 
 and interpreted, by our Lord Himself (Matt. xiii. 2, 19, 
 24, 37), which have received careful study, and will well 
 
286 The Revelation given to St. Jo hi the Divine 
 
 repay it. We find that this angel gives an interpretation 
 more free and extended than that which was given to Daniel ; 
 and, in doing so, he rather clouds over or obscures parts 
 of the symbolism. The seven heads of the beast do not 
 satisfy the full conditions of the event : he calls the beast 
 himself the eighth (xvii. ii), and puts the ten horns on 
 the beast (12), whom he leaves without a head. This 
 gives us valuable aid in clearing the interpretation. All 
 symbolism is properly treated paradoxically by prophets 
 and poets, sacred and profane. Thus our Lord Himself 
 is called a Saviour, and also a Judge — things which in 
 their entirety are inconsistent on earth. 
 
 This great harlot seems to represent the love of the 
 world, which St. John warned young men to avoid 
 (i John ii. 15, 16) : ' Love not the world, neither the 
 things that are in the world. If any man love the world, 
 the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in 
 the world — the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, 
 and the vainglory of life, is not of the Father, but is of 
 the world ; and the world passes away and its lust ; but he 
 who does the will of God abides for ever.' As the Woman, 
 under whatever covenant, represents the love of the one 
 God, and those born to feel it, so the harlot represents 
 the fitful love of the present moment, and the besottedness 
 of devotion to worldly purposes. She in heart accepts 
 the devil's offer (Luke iv. 6, 7), and worships the devil for 
 any glory and authority which his service will obtain, 
 but under false pretences, and assuming throughout the 
 closest relations to right, and God, that the ideas of the 
 time and her worldly interests require. She is seated on 
 the many waters, as the beasts rose out of the sea ; so 
 that the wealth of irrigation, such as was controlled by 
 Babylon, symbolizes' the foundation of her power, as the 
 surf of the great Mediterranean, and its immense coast- 
 lines, did the field from which empires sprang. It must 
 be kept in mind that the harlot is not a wife playing the 
 
The Judgment of the Great Harlot 287 
 
 harlot ; as, for instance, the Jewish Church in prophetic 
 language did (Jer. ii. 20, iii. i, etc.), and as a Christian 
 Church might (ii. 4, 20). She is a harlot, and nothing else, 
 from beginning to end. She is, in fact, nothing religious, 
 only anything-worship , world -worship. She is dressed as a 
 harlot, and her secret is mother of abominations of the 
 earth. The beast she rides, and presumably in some sort 
 guides, is a very suitable one — full of names of blasphemy. 
 
 Up to the time of the Papacy all false national religions 
 were idolatrous ; and, up to St. John's time, any union 
 with them by God's chosen people was called, in inspired 
 language, fornication. St. John here uses similar language 
 for all kingdoms who utilize, or have utilized, a national 
 religion for secular ends (xvii. 2). Prophetically the 
 metaphor seems to be applied to the anti-Christian 
 idolatrous Papacy — a church which is Christian in name, 
 but actually false and idolatrous. The Romish Papacy, 
 like previous false religions, is founded on many waters, 
 i.e., on her hold upon the law-abiding people, and is 
 adopted and used by all the kings of the earth for 
 upholding their power and luxury. 
 
 3. — The seven heads, like the seven mountains and 
 seven churches, lamps, etc., seem to be the taking of seven 
 actual instances to represent completely a whole class, in 
 every form of consistence and action ; and this seems not 
 the less likely, because the seventh head, clearly the last, 
 passes anomalously into the beast itself, which is said to 
 be an eighth. The scarlet colour is distinct from the red 
 of flame (vi. 4), or of fire (ix. 17), or of wine, such as is 
 seen sometimes in pimples or skin eruptions (Is. Ixiii. 2, 
 LXX.). The term scarlet is used as if for scarlet fabric 
 in connection with silk and linen, xviii. 12 ; and in 
 Matt, xxvii. 28). And there is a special use of scarlet when, 
 though applied to material for fabric, wool, it is used as a 
 symbol (Heb. ix. ig) ; so Lev. xiv. 4, LXX., etc.) in 
 cleansing ceremonials. A scarlet thread is used to tie the 
 
288 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 brush of hyssop for sprinkling blood. In the earliest 
 times the scarlet seems to have been much used as a royal 
 adornment of the ' tabernacle ' (Ex. xxv. 4, etc.), and for 
 its tablecloths (Numb. iv. 8) ; and it seems safest to take 
 it in this case, which is totally apart from any expiatory 
 ceremony, as the Jews and Romans of St. John's time 
 understood it, viz., as the imperial colour. The moun- 
 tains, or hills, are analogous to Mount Sion, and, indeed, 
 to Mount Sinai, and other mountains visited by God. 
 Mountains were freely recognised in poetry, prophecy, 
 and type, as the appropriate places for religious altars, or 
 temples, or when any specially public and impressive 
 religious ceremony was to be performed ; so that a 
 religion seated on a mountain would represent a religion 
 adopted and upheld by a people or state, supported and 
 exercised by an earthly establishment. The royally robed 
 harlot on the seven hills, in contrast to the woman 
 clothed with the sun, in heaven, seems to represent 
 religion set up by men in the name of God, and glorified 
 according to human notions of adornment ; and on that 
 support its religious teachers establish a quasi-empire and 
 imperial habit, and for the purpose of obtaining power 
 and dignity, and of indulging their own luxury and pride, 
 use their usurped influence to prevent their supporters 
 from the conscientious belief in God, and from sincere 
 desire to worship Him. The principles of this church 
 betray God, and lead their followers to betray Him ; its 
 overseers committed fornication, and led their supporters 
 to commit fornication with them. They violated their 
 own consciences, and induced men to profess to honour 
 God by doing what their consciences told them dis- 
 honoured Him. 
 
 We know of no empire which did not so use a religion. 
 Seven, perhaps, might be named, as the religions most 
 distinguished in Biblical history, and two or three of these 
 as most distinguished by hostile conflict with God's 
 
The Judgment of the Great Harlot 289 
 
 chosen people. But the harlot means more than seven 
 or eight particular false churches ; and her destruction 
 will represent the destruction of all false hypocritical 
 State religions. Like the Jews of our Lord's time 
 (Matt, xxiii. 34, 35), the harlot accepts the blasphemies 
 of all her false predecessors, and adds to the betrayal of 
 God the betrayal of Christ ; she is drunk with the blood 
 of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of 
 Jesus (verse 6). So, in her judgment, the harlotries of all 
 false religions will be requited ; and the idolatrous or 
 anti-Christian religion or religions — whether papal or 
 anti-papal — seated on the then beast, past and future, will 
 have no successor. But her fall will include the fall of all 
 blasphemous accepted religions so seated. 
 
 The character of the harlot applies to all such religions. 
 There is the assumption of superiority : she seats herself 
 upon all else. There is her impressive and splendid 
 show. She does little for the people, except to make 
 them drunk, stimulated and bewildered by the wine of 
 her fornication (verse 2) — we may suppose by the tempting 
 and exhilarating shows, the imposing penances and in- 
 dulgences, superstitious claims, and exhibitions, which 
 her unscrupulous pandering for power gives her the 
 means of originating and maintaining. When the people 
 are drunk with her wine, the object of her spurious 
 religion is att::ined. She is not guided by good faith, nor 
 attracted by righteousness. Her pursuit and enjoyment 
 is the acquisition of power and decorations, the display 
 of the stupid and half-senseless infatuation of her sup- 
 porters, and the blood of those who do not betray their 
 God. 
 
 It seems that both the harlot and her scarlet beast are 
 in the wilderness. This would imply that neither she nor 
 the imperial power she over-rode were such as to make 
 her empress over the earth, nor even to make her empress 
 over the portion of the beast she influenced. Her power 
 
 19 
 
290 The Revelation given to St. Jo Jin the Divine 
 
 was analogous neither to that of an emperor, nor to that 
 of one of the ten kings. In the wilderness she and her 
 dupes are to fall, as did all the Israelites who were grown 
 up when they left Egypt, but suddenly. She will not be 
 reproved, though it is always open to any number of 
 individuals, or churches, to come out of her, and not 
 share in her sins or punishment (xviii. 4). The harlot and 
 the beast are symbols of organizations, not of men. She 
 will end not by being gradually merged into a purified 
 church, but by a separation from the pure church, and a 
 distinctive fall into desolation and contempt, stripped 
 and devoured by her own quondam lovers. And these 
 lovers, too, strip and devour one another ; for the 
 destruction of the harlot and beast, under one name of 
 Babylon, seems all of a piece ; and the beast, by blasphe- 
 mously enthroning the harlot and drinking of her cup, was 
 partaker of her sins, and stands or falls into destruction 
 with her, and both will at last disappear from the earth, 
 without revival. 
 
 7. — The angel's explanation tells us much. Amongst 
 other things, it identifies the beasts of different dissolving 
 views of the prophet's vision. It tells us that the scarlet 
 harlot was an old existence in the prophet's time, and 
 was then seen seated upon heads (mountains), five of 
 which had long ago fallen. He also makes clear that the 
 seventh kingly head represents a phase of government 
 which fades away and dies, so as to leave the symbolic 
 beast with only horns, and no living head ; in fact, the 
 symbol comes to an end, its old form is being broken up ; 
 yet it will serve its turn, if we give up its heads, and, as a 
 symbol, accept it without a living head, but with seven 
 fallen heads, and with only living horns. 
 
 The furniture of the harlot is partly royal and partly 
 priestly ; she has, apparently, the colours of the emperor, 
 and the implements and ornaments of the priest. Out of 
 her priestly golden cup she gives to others what she has 
 
The J2idgnient of the Great Harlot 291 
 
 received from them — presumably after enduing it with- 
 her blasphemous incantations — and makes others drunk, 
 with what has made her drunk. As other religious 
 societies of the heathen world, in St. John's day, had 
 their mystery or secret — usually their ruling notion of 
 the nature of God, and of their particular worship of 
 Him — so she appears (verse 5), with her name or nature 
 written on her forehead as a mother of harlots. It was 
 a custom with harlots of St. John's time so to carry their 
 name, or rather some assumed name, on their foreheads. 
 It was as if the scarlet harlot's religion lay solely in 
 accumulating temporalities, whether wealth or credit, by 
 her ecclesiastical assumptions and conduct, no matter 
 how blasphemous or corrupt the means. 
 
 The angel's explanation also puts us in the best, 
 position for interpreting the beast. It is obvious that 
 it is the same symbol as that in xiii. i, etc.; or if there 
 still be any doubt, the identity can be seen by referring 
 to xix. 19, 20. The beast seems to represent temporal 
 empire, or government ; the moral organization and union 
 framed upon the rational use of temporal means. Alle- 
 giance to God and His laws is indifferently used, imposed 
 upon, or put down with a strong hand, as seems best to 
 secure temporal power. In Daniel's vision, a fresh form 
 of beast appears for each successive empire ; in St. John's, 
 one beast is seen with seven heads and ten horns, not on 
 any head ; but the heads represent successive states of 
 the beast — like the seven ears of wheat, etc., in Pharaoh's 
 vision — and include fallen heads, future heads, and even 
 non-existent heads, until, at last, all are fallen heads. 
 Elsewhere, the dragon, Satan himself, is shown visibly 
 acting under the same emblems of seven heads ; but on 
 his heads are fillets, or 'diadems' (xii. 3). He is so 
 shown when contrasted with the woman clothed in the 
 sun, and as warring with God and His angels. In the 
 present case, the harlot, as well as the beast, is of earthly 
 
292 The Revelation given to St. Jo/m the Divine 
 
 origin, however inspired by Satan ; and both represent, 
 first in the Gentile world and then in Christendom, 
 wickedness summed up under various short titles — 
 ' Worship of the devil ' (Luke iv. 8) ; ' Worshipping the 
 dragon,' i.e., Satan (xiii. 4); 'Worshipping the beast,' 
 idem, and xiii. 12) ; getting ' drunk with the wine of the 
 harlot's fornication ' (xvii. 2) — wickedness which, as in 
 the case of Jerusalem and the Jews, will receive its 
 judgment on earth. In this vision are indications of the 
 beast being, in some points of view, a different beast after 
 all : its heads are fallen ; for the death-stroke of its last 
 head (xiii. 3) is described as the death-stroke of the beast 
 (xiii. 12) ; and the revival of the beast is described, not as 
 Daniel describes his successive beasts coming out of the 
 %ea, but as a fresh beast coming out of the bottoinless pit 
 (xi. 7). This all suits a simple interpretation. What is 
 it that constitutes a kingdom ? It is an extraordinary 
 concert of designs and measures, force and fear, ambition 
 and ferocity, pride and hope, extinction and despair — a 
 devil's cauldron. It matters little whether each new 
 brew, or formation of the consistency of a new empire, 
 be symbolized as a new head giving life to the same 
 beast, or as a new beast rising out of the same sea, or as 
 a revived beast rising out of the devil's bottomless pit. 
 All empires here described are alike in blasphemy, 
 rebellion against God's service, and fornication against 
 conscience and God ; in detail they are successive ; and 
 yet even the fallen beasts, or heads, still exist enough to 
 impart some of their appearance and character to the 
 survivor. Only the ten horns have no head, or mountain 
 — no religion, except that they war with the Lamb 
 (xvii. 14). 
 
 If the beast under its successive heads represents seven 
 empires opposed to God's people (these seven empires 
 themselves being representatives of all worldly empire), 
 they then may be Egypt, Nineveh, Babylon, Persia, 
 
The Judgment of the Great Harlot 293 
 
 Greece, Rome, and Christendom. These are the highest 
 representatives of all kingdoms based on the unscrupulous 
 rational use of temporal means, of which Nimrod's, the 
 first distinctly recorded in sacred history (Gen. x. 10), 
 was perhaps the first. However that be, the Roman 
 empire existed when St. John wrote this revelation, and 
 the actions of the beast and of its heads are as definitely 
 symbols of the actual empire of Rome and its successors, 
 as the actions of Daniel's beasts were of the empires they 
 represented, beginning at each prophet's time, and ex- 
 tending into the future. What is past before St. John's 
 time seems to be never alluded to, except so far as to 
 explain the passing subject. 
 
 Neither the churches, woman, beasts, nor harlot repre- 
 sent men and women — neither here, nor in Daniel. They 
 may accidentally do so, as the single horn of the goat 
 represented Alexander the Great's kingdom, or as the 
 male child represents Christ ; but even these are a kind 
 of twofold representation ; the spiritual, intellectual 
 organization is the thing really represented, and, though 
 invisible, it is as real an existence in a kingdom or a 
 church, as the king is in the one, or the church edifice 
 may be in the other. 
 
 In chapter xiii. the beast came up out of the sea, like 
 Daniel's beasts ; one of its heads was slain, as it were, 
 and the death-stroke was healed (xiii. 3). It was not the 
 head only, but the whole beast which suffered from the 
 death-stroke, perhaps when Charlemagne perished (a.d. 
 814), and was healed (xiii. 12). It was after the beast 
 first came out of the sea that the dragon (Satan) gave it 
 his power, and his throne, and great authority (xiii. 4). 
 The interpreting angel (xvii. 8) gives a further detail : 
 taking the tenses to suit the time of the crisis of the event 
 he describes, which is not our English idiom, he says that 
 the beast is, or exists, up to the time when it will be, as 
 it were, slain, and that when it revives it will come up 
 
294 '^^^^ Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 not out of the sea, but out of the bottomless pit, as if 
 Satan, when he first gave it his power, had not done so 
 gratuitously, but had by doing so made the beast com- 
 pletely his own ; so that, during its sort of death, its soul, 
 as it were, had its place in the bottomless pit, the abode 
 of Satan and his angels. Whether the beast would be 
 more Satanic after its revival than before its death is 
 hardly doubtful. Before its death it was purchased by 
 Satan ; after its revival its very life and being were 
 Satanic. At all events, the revived beast would be far 
 more Satanic than it was when it originally came up out 
 of the sea. Now, we learn from Daniel that all the four 
 beasts he saw came from the sea (Dan. vii. 3), and, if we 
 add the earlier kingdoms of Egypt and Nineveh, we have 
 all the six heads which existed, up to the Roman empire 
 in St. John's time inclusive, all originating in the sea. 
 
 Presumably the seventh head has the same origin as 
 the others. We must therefore expect the beast, after 
 its resurrection from the bottomless pit, with ten horns, 
 after all its heads had fallen, to be distinctively Satanic 
 and Godless. 
 
 This last form of empire has another characteristic : 
 instead of being overthrown by a successor, it goes into 
 absolute perdition (xvii. 8). This agrees with the revela- 
 tion of the gathering at Harmageddon ; there is no actual 
 fighting shown there, nothing similar to the conflict by 
 which one earthly empire overthrows, and succeeds to, 
 another. The victory which will result in the beast's 
 going into perdition is to be like the victory of the 
 Israelites over Egypt, on the Red Sea, entirely God's 
 doing, and final. 
 
 The angel distinguishes the beast twice with the title 
 * which was, and is not, and is about to come (or will 
 come) ' (xvii. 8 his) ; and of its kings he says, ' Five are 
 fallen ; one is ; and one is not yet come, and will continue 
 a little time, and the beast that was, and is not ' (part of 
 
The Judgment of the Great Harlot 295 
 
 the beast's previous distinctive title), ' is itself an eighth 
 king, and is from the seven' (xvii. 10, 11). The distinctive 
 title of the beast, therefore, does not show under what head 
 the beast was slain. It might have been either under the 
 sixth, that of St. John's time, or under the seventh ; but 
 the angel's description of the heads as kings, or governing 
 powers, leaves no room for doubt. It is the seventh head 
 that is slain, before the horns would receive authority as 
 if kings, or heads — a description which implies that the 
 symbolic beast will at the time of the horns have no real 
 supreme king, or head. 
 
 From the time of Constantine, when the Christian 
 empire, or seventh head, arose, the empire was divided 
 into East and West ; and with some vicissitudes, and 
 occasionally almost union, after a short time received a 
 mortal wound in the discontinuance of every old form of 
 government — of empire, senate, and a fixed capital. Con- 
 stantine died A.D. -^^yj. Augustulus, the last Emperor of 
 the West, was extinguished, as a useless and expensive 
 functionary, by Odoacer, a Hun, of the tribe of Scyrri, 
 who had taken service in that Emperor's guards, and had 
 been elected by them their general and King of Italy, 
 A.D. 476. The empire might perhaps be considered slain 
 till Charlemagne's time ; but possibly not till his time, for 
 till his time the empire perhaps existed as the ideal 
 government of the old Roman territory. His attempt at 
 a nominal union never acquired any reality, but perhaps 
 Christendom may date from about his time. He died 
 A.D. 814 ; since which time Christendom can never even 
 be said to have had a kingly head. The independent 
 powers of Christendom have been bound together in one 
 disposition, which we call civilized government ; united, 
 as a headless beast, in codes of honour and war, laws of 
 property, and ideas of representation and freedom — all 
 accepting the pattern of the jurisprudence of the Roman 
 empire for their laws, civil, military, and criminal, and 
 
296 The Revelation given to St.Johii the Divine 
 
 accepting the Roman ideal of magnanimity, honour, 
 violence, deception, etc., which could often supersede or 
 direct laws. These ten kings therefore warred with the 
 Lamb (verse 14) ; and whatever their weapons might 
 be, we hear of none of His except His Word ; nor does 
 the Lamb seek a kingdom conquerable by any other 
 weapon. The all-important war going on — one of spirit 
 and mind, of opinion, knowledge, and judgment — gets 
 more and more disentangled from the old class of physical 
 contest, and gives its mark more and more to the era. 
 
 As the Roman empire lived again, though without a 
 royal head, under conditions to strike Christendom with 
 wonder (xvii. 8), not less striking was the survival of 
 beast and harlot without a mountain head. The ten 
 kings, one and all, renounced the control of a State 
 religion. They got a support, of a changeable kind, from 
 the papacy, with which they were always in conflict, and 
 frequently at war, and with which their relations were on 
 a similar footing of jealous ambassage to that of their 
 relations to other secular States. Yet the papacy was 
 not a head ; but State religion might be said to be revived 
 throughout the whole body of the beast in the form of 
 the papacy, much as the Roman empire survived in the 
 civil and military laws and notions. 
 
 16. — Meanwhile the harlot suffers both from the ten 
 horns and from the revived beast. Having now got free 
 from all heads, they begin to hate the harlot ; they first 
 rob her of temporalities, and credit, and dignity — they 
 even strip her of her royal and priestly attire and insignia 
 — they go on to appropriate, each into his own kingdom, 
 anything she possessed which was worth consumption ; 
 and, as for the rest of her license and extravagance, they 
 burn it up with fire of destructive condemnation. In all 
 this God supports their courage to bring about what was 
 in His mind — that, after judging and destroying their own 
 harlot, they should then have the kingdom to carry on in 
 
The Judginent of the Great Harlot 297 
 
 their own way, until the fulfilment of God's words should 
 be completed. The angel then explains to St. John 
 (xvii. 18) that the woman, whom he has just seen being 
 devoured, represents the great city, which, at the time of 
 the angel's speaking to the prophet, is ruling the kingdoms 
 of the earth. That is unquestionably, in St. John's time, 
 Rome, which is thus made, during the time of the ten 
 horns, a symbol representative, not of earthly empire, but 
 of all idolatry and blasphemy of false religions. She repre- 
 sents the city called Sodom, Egypt, and Jerusalem (xi. 8). 
 For the harlot represents organizations which under noble 
 professions of faith, secular and religious, really seek 
 earthly dignity and temporalities, and whose leaders have 
 a trust in earthly dignity and temporalities, and labour for 
 them, and are anxious about them, and are therefore anti- 
 Christian. The Church, which seeks the reign of God, 
 and does all the duties which the laws and providence of 
 God offer to its attention, having perfect trust in Him 
 and in the Lamb, is Christian. That is, however, the 
 diametrical opposite to the harlot's devotees. Wherever 
 a blasphemous kingdom can maintain itself better by 
 assuming the temper and prerogatives of a church, it is a 
 bad sign of the church. It eats her flesh, because her 
 flesh is like its own, and, in common with trade and manu- 
 factures, can furnish spoil such as it can enjoy. 
 
 These kingdoms of the ten horns, while they eat the 
 flesh of the harlot, and so support their place from the 
 same unscrupulous use of pretension, and force, and 
 allurement as she ; and while they at the same time 
 refuse, and burn with fire, what in her is not useful for the 
 support of their place (verse 16), are all the time — up to 
 the time when the Lamb conquers (verse 14) and God's 
 Word is fulfilled (verse 17) respectively — giving their power 
 and authority to the beast, and waging war with the Lamb. 
 How far the words of God, and the early Christian 
 standard of society, are from harmony with the present 
 
298 TJie Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 creeds and laws of the beast each of us may have his 
 own opinion. The beast of this day means existing notions 
 of the old Roman empire, about religion, rank, honour, 
 morality, power, luxury, duty to the destitute, and war. 
 While Christ's church, the stone cut out without hands, 
 the kingdom set up by God, is breaking up and pounding 
 to dust much of what is false in these old notions, yet the 
 framework and outline of the figure still seem to exist in a 
 more or less broken and fragmentary state in every part 
 of Christendom ; and there have been many unsuccessful 
 attempts to rebuild some secular organization of empire, 
 in whole or in part. The kingdom of God, or, if the term 
 be preferred, the church of Christ, cannot rebuild it. The 
 two standards of Christ's church, and of the beast, are as 
 different as their origin. 
 
 18. — We observe the definition of the symbols given by 
 the angel suits the times of the headless beast. The 
 harlot is, i.e., represents, the great city Babylon, the 
 empire city (xvii. 18), and represents all religious harlotry. 
 But it is nowhere said that the beast is Babylon. The 
 explanation seems to be that the Babylonian element 
 exists in both beast — as the head proves — and harlot, 
 as is stated in xvii. 18 ; and that we are coming to 
 the prophetic description of the complete fall and dis- 
 appearance of Babylon (xviii. 21), while both beast and 
 harlot will still continue alive, but with fallen heads. 
 
 Babylon seems representative of a very important 
 element in harlot and beast united, and its disappearance 
 will be like the disappearance of the mortar and cement 
 from the joints of a massive ruin. Such an element, 
 whatever it might be, was such as made the union of 
 harlot and beast more perfect in the time of Babylon 
 than ever since. Hence Babylon is chosen to represent 
 it. It made continuity of government, and its concentra- 
 tion under one head, more complete than it has ever been 
 since ; and it now seems on the point of disappearing 
 
The Judgment of the Great Harlot 299 
 
 altogether. The beast and harlot, after the disappearance 
 of Babylon, must very nearly realize Daniel's description 
 of the same era in human government, when the toes and 
 feet of the image (Dan. ii. 41) become a mixture of iron 
 and pot, without any mutual adhesion {idem, 43). The fall 
 of Babylon is likely to leave religious profession separated 
 from the State ; no two States alike in their form of 
 government or objects of expenditure ; no prevalent 
 school or class of men agreed on any theory, or versed in 
 the practice of union on any subject whatever, relating to 
 either re-planning, rebuilding or re-animating the old 
 imperial ideas and methods — or even agreed on what 
 new form of beast it would be possible to create, were the 
 old form entirely removed. The only really solid struc- 
 ture in the growth of which the earth will, happily, take 
 part is by Daniel described as a stone cut out without 
 hands (Dan. ii. 34), a kingdom which we know is already 
 set up by the God of heaven ; and all they who are 
 helping to build this are building what will never be 
 destroyed, nor succeeded by any other people or kingdom 
 (Dan. ii. 44). This fall of Babylon evidently takes place 
 after the ten kings have arisen, and run their course so 
 far as to have burnt up the harlot (xvii. 16). This fall of 
 Babylon seems to be another symbol for the breaking up 
 of all Nebuchadnezzar's image (Dan. ii. 45). 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 ORIGINAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION. 
 
 After these things I saw another angel descending 
 out of the heaven, having great authority ; and the 
 earth was Hghted up out of his glory : and he cried 
 out with a strong voice, saying, ' Is fallen — Babylon 
 the great is fallen, and is become a settlement of 
 demons, and a guard of every unclean spirit, and a 
 guard of every unclean and hated bird ; because from 
 the wrath of her fornication all the nations have 
 fallen, and the kings of the earth committed fornica- 
 tion with her, and the merchants of the earth were 
 enriched from the power of her insolence.' 
 
 And I heard another voice from the heaven, saying, 
 ' Come out of her, my people, that you should not 
 share in her sins, and that you should not receive out 
 of her plagues ; because her sins were stuck together 
 up to the heaven, and God bore in mind her 
 iniquities : — Pay her back, as she paid back ; and 
 double the double according to her works : — in the 
 cup which she mixed, mix to her double ; as much as 
 she glorified her, and was insolent, give her so much 
 torture and grief: because in her heart she says, " I 
 am seated a queen, and am no widow, and shall 
 never see grief," therefore her plagues will come in 
 one day — death, and mourning, and famine : and she 
 will be burnt up in fire, because the God who judged 
 her is strong. And they will lament and beat them- 
 
Original English Tra?islalion 301 
 
 selves over her — the kings of the earth who com- 
 mitted fornication, and were insolent, along with her 
 
 10 — whenever they look on the smoke of her kindling, 
 standing afar off on account of the fear of her torture, 
 saying, " Woe ! "Woe ! The great city ! Babylon, 
 the strong city ! that her judgment is come in one 
 hour." ' 
 
 11 And the merchants of the earth lament and mourn 
 over her, that no one buys their cargo any longer : — 
 
 12 cargo of gold and silver and precious stone and 
 pearls, and of linen and purple, and of silken and 
 scarlet stuff; and every cypress wood, and every 
 ivory article ; and every article out of very precious 
 
 13 wood and bronze and iron and marble ; and cinna- 
 mon, and amomon ointment, and incense, and myrrh- 
 oil, and frankincense, and wine, and olive-oil, and fine 
 flour, and wheat, and cattle, and sheep ; and (cargo) 
 of horses, and of carriages, and of (slave) bodies ; and 
 men's souls. 
 
 14 And thy harvest-time of the lust of the soul 
 departed from thee ; and all fair and bright things 
 perished from thee ; and they will never find them 
 any longer. 
 
 15 The merchants of these things, who grew rich from 
 her, will stand far off, on account of the fear of her 
 
 16 torture, lamenting and mourning, saying, * Woe ! 
 Woe ! The great city, which was clothed in fine 
 linen and purple and scarlet stuffs, and gilt in gold 
 and precious stone and pearl ! because so much 
 wealth is desolated in one hour.' 
 
 17 And every steersman, and every one who sails for 
 
 18 a place, and sailors, and whoever work the sea, stood 
 far off and cried out, looking on the smoke of her 
 
 ig kindling, saying, 'What is like the great city !' And 
 they threw earth on to their heads and cried out 
 lamenting and mourning, saying, ' Woe ! Woe ! 
 
302 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 The great city, in which all who have the ships in the 
 sea were enriched out of her costliness, that, she was 
 desolated in one hour 1' 
 
 20 Rejoice over her heaven, and the Saints, and 
 the Apostles, and Prophets, that God has judged 
 your judgment out of her. 
 
 21 And one strong angel lifted up a great stone, as if 
 a millstone, and threw into the sea, saying, ' So \Nall 
 the great city Babylon be thrown headlong, and will 
 
 22 never be found more ; and the voice of harpers, and 
 of musical singers, and of flutists, and of trumpeters, 
 will never be heard in thee more. And every work- 
 man of every craft will never be found in thee more : 
 
 23 and voice of mill will never be heard in thee more : 
 and light of lamp will never shine in thee more: and 
 voice of bridegroom and bride will never be heard 
 in thee more : — because thy merchants were the 
 magnates of the earth : because all the nations were 
 
 24 led astray in thy pharmacy. And in her was found 
 blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all who have 
 been slain on the earth.' 
 
 THE DIVINE JUDGMENT ON BABYLON. 
 
 Section I. Verses i to 3. The Cry, 'Fallen is 
 Babylon.' 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 2. — Is fallen : literally, fell. It speaks of her fall 
 occurring at the time of the other angel's speaking. 
 
 Settlement : in our Colonial sense, a place of abode. 
 
 3. — Have fallen : i.e., already, before the time of the 
 other angel speaking. 
 
 Insolence : the quality which makes a person feel 
 strong, act roughly and hardly, and be headstrong. 
 
The Divine Jiidginent on Babylon 303 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 I. — The next vision again introduces the name of 
 Babylon (see xvi. ig ; xvii. 5) into the vision of the harlot, 
 as if to caution readers against taking Rome to be the 
 city exclusively referred to as the great city in the previous 
 verse. Babylon is the earliest empire city freely described 
 in prophecy, and her name is taken as the head of the 
 empires shown in visions, as recorded by Daniel ; as the 
 queen of many waters, i.e., of peoples, nations, and lan- 
 guages of earth, organized into one empire for her own 
 luxury and glory; and as the proud earthly power whose 
 description by Isaiah shows a type of blasphemous in- 
 solence, and of its punishment. Lastly, Babylon is the 
 name of the harlot. The name seems introduced into the 
 vision as a type of something pervading all the empires, 
 from the earliest to the latest headless form. Under the 
 last headless form ten kings have just been described by 
 the angel of one of the seven plagues as making the harlot 
 desolate and naked, eating her flesh, and burning her up 
 with fire. The name this harlot had assumed, when 
 practising her harlotry, was Babylon, and the last words 
 of the angel are that she is, i.e., represents, the great city 
 — the title used for Babylon in this book. It would seem, 
 then, that the harlot represents an organization which 
 controls the organized peoples, nations, and languages of 
 Christendom for its own luxury and glory, with the 
 blasphemous insolence described by Isaiah. But an 
 anomaly which we have seen in the symbol of the beast, 
 viz., its revival after its last head is slain, and its continu- 
 ing to live with horns only, has its parallel in the case of 
 the harlot ; for she continues to live, as an organization, 
 after the kings have burnt her up, and after the Babylon 
 she represented has utterly perished. This organization 
 must be the papacy. It is not its creeds, but its acts and 
 temper as an organized body; not its pretensions, but its 
 
304 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 actual power, which seem to be the subject of these visions. 
 The fall of Babylon is the fall of this power. It occurs 
 slowly in successive stages; but the final catastrophe is its 
 sudden and complete extinction. 
 
 The fall of Babylon here described, preliminary to her 
 being forcibly cast down (verse 21), seems consistent with 
 a prolonged course of judgment, the primary and most 
 important stages of which are first mentioned. She has 
 become a colony for demons, and what notions St. John 
 would attach to the possession by demons, translated devils 
 in the authorized version, we can gather from the Gospels. 
 She has become a stronghold of every unclean spirit, 
 from which they could issue, as David did in Saul's time, 
 or as Arab robbers, or recently Malay pirates, do still. 
 Other evil characters find refuge, and a centre for their 
 operations, in her, symbolized by unclean and hated birds. 
 Lastly, all her own adherents and dupes — nations, govern- 
 ments, and merchants — have fallen also. 
 
 The angel who lights up the earth with his glory may 
 be the revival of the study of the original languages, in 
 which the sacred Scriptures were written. The first 
 Greek professor was appointed to teach Greek in Florence, 
 A.D. 1360. Wycliffe completed the translation of the 
 whole Bible from the Latin shortly before his death in 
 1384. And the general revival of learning, and study of 
 Latin and Greek authors, went on increasing. At the 
 same time the scandalous behaviour of the consecrated 
 Romish officials, from the Pope down to the meanest who 
 lived on the revenues of the Church, was such as to enforce 
 a conviction of the rottenness of the papal administration, 
 not only on the outside public, but on many churchmen 
 in high position. The Romish Pope and his council could 
 no longer stand before nations as queen of a sacred and 
 infallible Church. The diabolical temper, and unclean 
 acts, which Churchmen displayed, with the encouragement 
 and support of the]^papacy, and the foul and hateful char- 
 
The Divine Judg77tent on Babylon 305 
 
 acter of satellites harboured and protected by the papacy, 
 began to be criticised and exposed, even by many digni- 
 taries of the papal church. The harlot's treacherous 
 dealings with kings, and her extravagance with funds 
 raised professedly for the maintenance of priests in their 
 spiritual duties, and of the poor, but misapplied, were 
 proclaimed in songs, pamphlets, and sermons. This fall, 
 the vision indicates, is gradual and progressive ; for a 
 subsequent fall is particularly proclaimed as sudden (xviii. 
 21), so that this fall is not sudden, though it can be seen 
 to have irresistibly begun. Compare our Lord's expres- 
 sion in Luke x. 18. 
 
 Section IL Verses 4 to 20. The Humiliation of 
 
 Babylon. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 5. — Stuck together : or glued, or welded, or soldered, 
 until they grew to a mass for which there is no more 
 room under heaven's dome. 
 
 Bore in mind : may mean recorded in his own memory, 
 or called the attention of others to, her sins. There is no 
 idea of God recollecting anything He had forgotten. 
 
 8. — In one day : within, or during one day. 
 
 Who judged : of course, in this and similar cases 
 (such as bore in mind, above) the action is future to the 
 prophet when writing, but will be past at the time about 
 which he is writing : when she is burnt the judging will 
 be past. This idiom is especially strong in Hebrew : take 
 Gen. i. 2, * The earth has existed waste and void ' — taking 
 the tense from the time at which ' God said,' etc. 
 
 g. — Beat themselves : on the breast ; one of the 
 usual gestures of mourners. 
 
 Kindling: i.e., the kindhng of her; as we should say, 
 ' the man endured his flogging,' meaning the flogging of 
 him, not by him. 
 
 20 
 
3o6 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 10. — Hour. See note on xvii. 12. The meaning is in 
 the course of one hour, whatever season hour represent. 
 
 12. — And every cypress wood : in apposition to 
 cargo. For and every, here and below, the usual English 
 idiom is wor any. 
 
 Cypress : a sweet-scented wood, possibly 'some cypress.' 
 
 14. — Harvest-time : literally dog-days. 
 
 Fair : in a workman's sense of ' fully got up,' polished 
 and linished. 
 
 16. — Desolated : or made waste. See note xvii. 12. 
 
 17. — Work the sea : i.e., live by seafaring. 
 
 20. — Judged your judgment: i.e., executed on her 
 what she executed on you. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 4. — While this angel was filling up the earth of Chris- 
 tendom with light out of his glory, another voice from 
 the heaven of Christendom warns God's people to come 
 out of Babylon. The previous revelation of the sinful 
 and unsatisfactory administration of the then established 
 papal church by the first angel supplies the convincing 
 reason, viz., the inveteracy of her sins. While earthly 
 power, in the earlier empires, was supporting itself by a 
 worship of false gods, it might have been reasonably 
 thought that power would be maintained on a pure and 
 reformed basis, so soon as it turned for support to the 
 worship of the true God. But, in practice, no sooner did 
 the imperial and kingly governments seek to support 
 themselves on the worship of the true God, than they 
 found such a worship incompatible with the zealous pur- 
 suit and tight grasp of earthly power ; and they had to 
 support the harlot, who was willing to corrupt, debauch, 
 and falsify that true worship, until it became mere blas- 
 phemy. Under the angel of light this scheme of fornica- 
 tion and of insolence was exposed, and all the earth could 
 see the sinfulness of the harlot's worship. 
 
The Divine Jttdgment on Babylon 307 
 
 This second voice is not described as that of the pre- 
 ceding angel, nor as coming from the temple ; but, pre- 
 sumably, it is the voice of one or of many angels, 
 representing prophets or teachers. Its impersonality 
 perhaps indicates that it is the voice of the press; or, more 
 exactly, of the prophets and teachers who spoke through 
 the press. By this voice the earth is warned that the 
 double sinfulness of empire and church, of kingly and 
 ecclesiastical power, will result in the final judgment and 
 destruction of both. The worship, whether pagan as 
 seated on the seven heads (xvii. g), or Christian as it 
 arose from the abyss in alliance with the ten kingdoms, 
 equally developed the mind and arts of a harlot. She 
 could not seat herself thus without doing so. And the 
 kingdoms accepted her allurements, and committed forni- 
 cation with her, and opposed God, and killed His saints 
 (xvii. 4-6). 
 
 Of our Lord's three last commands to His disciples, 
 viz., to commemorate His death by bread and wine 
 (Luke xxii. ig, 20), to wear (and, of course, use on occa- 
 sion) purse, wallet, and sword, and to make disciples of 
 and to baptize all nations, the time seems now to especi- 
 ally call for obedience to the second. God's people 
 (verse 6) are called to execute judicial acts of punish- 
 ment, with death, mourning and famine (verse 8). God's 
 people are called to come out of Babylon, implying that 
 they cannot innocently remain in her, as hoping to reform 
 her, or to do God honour by submission to her. By stay- 
 ing longer, after the warning brought to their notice by 
 this voice, they will partake of, and share in, her sins 
 (verse 4), and will receive of her plagues (similar to the 
 phrase St. John uses in his first epistle, iv. 13). It seems 
 that such a warning would be meaningless if it only 
 meant that such of God's people as should remain in 
 Babylon would be, as before, liable to share her sins and 
 plagues, but safe if they faithfully trusted God's protection 
 
3o8 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 against both. The case of Lot is not similar; it is a con- 
 trast. He had not come out of Sodom ; nor were there any 
 warnings nor possibilities in the case. The angels were 
 come to destroy Sodom (Gen. xix. 13), and they forcibly 
 took Lot out of it (verse 16) and saved him from Sodom's 
 punishment. The warning which this voice gives God's 
 people is, that if they do not come out of Babylon they 
 must not expect God, after this warning, to save them, 
 as He did save Lot, who was not so warned. This call will 
 be one which all God's real people, unlike the later Israel 
 and unlike the Gentile empires, will obey. God's people 
 will absolutely avoid exposure to the temptation to forni- 
 cation and hypocrisy. The press and preachers of the 
 time of the Reformation (say a.d. 1500 to 1700) gave such 
 a warning, and we still hear it. 
 
 As to this visitation of Babylon, it is exhibited in 
 a continuance of strokes or plagues (verse 8), all occur- 
 ring in one day (Job i. 13), or perhaps we should say in 
 one course of events, or in one course of complete judg- 
 ment. They are such as will cause death, famine, and 
 mourning, and they will constitute a destructive purifica- 
 tion : she will be quite burned up. Yet the administration 
 of these strokes seems to be entirely by the hands of 
 God's people : they are called upon (verse 6, etc.) to do 
 their part in the judicial purification of God's name in the 
 sight of heaven, and of the saints, apostles, and prophets 
 (verse 20). God's people are called upon to do the right 
 with her ; and the full vigour of the typical Mosaic law is 
 quoted to represent this right. She is to be paid back, 
 as she had paid back, double repayment where she had 
 demanded double repayment ; where she prepared and 
 administered deadly wine, she is to be made herself to 
 drink double, for her own crime and for the crime she 
 caused. Then follows a prophecy taken very closely, some- 
 times verbally, from Isaiah's prophecies against Babylon 
 (Isa. xlvii. 8, etc.), which we know were fulfilled by human 
 
The Divine Judgment on Babylon 309 
 
 agency — by Cyrus (Isa. xlv. i, etc.) and by Alexander the 
 Great. 
 
 It is at the full development of Babylon that God 
 begins to control and punish this abode of wickedness 
 and injury by plagues, and calls upon His people to act 
 in righteous judgment against her. When the day of 
 this punishment shall have come, and she is utterly burnt 
 up with fire, her once mighty claims become mere tinder, 
 and her tons of once potent theology become mere waste- 
 paper; then the governments, the ten kings who com- 
 mitted fornication with her, occupy a singular position. 
 They neither made up their minds to come out of her, 
 as warned by the angel of light (verse 4), nor do they 
 stay in her to assist her. They judge her themselves 
 (verse 10), and seeing how her misery and hatefulness is 
 her own bringing about, and her punishment only what 
 she deserves, they can but bewail her fall. The smoke 
 of her burning, the moral, spiritual, and physical effects 
 of her judgment and punishment, will ascend before their 
 eyes, and they, like a decrepit libertine, with all the will 
 to maintain their old revelry with the harlot, will only be 
 fit to wail and wish, hopeless to rebuild what they see 
 so absolutely unstable, or to create a fresh opportunity 
 for wantonness and luxury. The ten kings and their 
 kingdoms and satellites, who made use of the lusts and 
 violence of the old modes of empire, and made use of 
 them to be insolent and wanton, basing their confidence 
 not on God, nor on His true people, but upon the ideals 
 ^nd practice of the old blasphemous empires — they form 
 the last set of the series of all the empires of this world. 
 Those empires all made men and gods, and in the latter 
 days the true God Himself, in their own view subservient 
 to themselves. These ten kings, or governments, who 
 assume indeed the old attitude of insolence — as if they 
 were superior to both men and God — thinly and often 
 carelessly disguised under a language of policy — and an 
 
310 TJie Revelation given to St. John the Divi7ie 
 
 affectation of preposterous humility — these are not even 
 said to ' fall.' They have fallen. It is as if they were 
 so low, all through, that it would be exaggeration to 
 speak of their further ' fall.' They come into the picture 
 (verse 9) at a distance, wailing and beating themselves, 
 and standing farther off at every fresh look at the smoke. 
 
 That earthly power, Babylon, falls, which could use 
 the language of ancient Babylon (Isa. xlvii. 8, etc.). The 
 kings, or kingdoms, feel no longer a false security of 
 perpetual power, and they wail and mourn, as seeing 
 that their ' good old times ' have for ever departed. They 
 keep aloof from any assumption of supreme power or of 
 Divine right, fearing to fall into her torture (verse 10). 
 The merchants also do not ' fall,' but they also mourn the 
 loss of all traffic in the fair and bright luxuries of ' the 
 good old times.' Amongst that lost traffic is included 
 flour, wheat, sheep, and cattle, things which we do not 
 associate with luxury. But it must be remembered, in 
 the first place, that the great trade in such things, as 
 well as in slaves and captives, was always luxury under 
 the empires, largely composed as it was of the forced 
 captures after a raid or war, or of the forced tributes 
 from subjugated provinces. In the second place, the 
 power of the State gave charters, granted restrictions on 
 markets, or latterly {e.g., in Queen Elizabeth's reign, 
 A.D. 1533-1603) sheltered combinations and rings, which 
 interfered with fair and open traffic. Wheat and meat, 
 when manipulated so as to become a close monopoly, or 
 a mere counter for gambling, or so dealt with that b^ 
 artificial quotations and prices the buyers and sellers do 
 not get fair value, support a traffic of luxury. Such 
 things are even now happening, in new governments 
 worshipping the old Satan. 
 
 In natural circumstances, under the guidance of God's 
 Spirit, each province, if not controlled by the violence of 
 a neighbour, nor seeking to practise injustice on a neigh- 
 
The Divine Jttdgment on Babylon 3 [ i 
 
 bour, would feed and supply itself, or, besides this, might 
 have a trade with a foreign province. As all such trade 
 would not have affected the kings or merchants of 
 Babylon, it cannot be the loss of that trade which is a 
 subject for the kings and merchants of Babylon to wail 
 over. There is no reason to apply the symbols of this 
 vision to fair and honest living and trading, but they 
 certainly represent that the worshippers of the beast will 
 no longer be able to appropriate the profits of honest 
 living and trade — to squeeze out of them wine for their 
 drunkenness, and to debauch and ruin trade for their 
 amusement and fornication. 
 
 But there must be a very large trade absolutely lost. 
 No doubt the trade in luxuries lamented over includes 
 the expenditure beyond what is fair and necessary, of 
 states, courts, corporations, and officials, and of all others 
 who, by force or deception, draw wealth from the real 
 producers. They use the strength of their position, and 
 they sell false professions of love and of assistance, like 
 a harlot, to spend the gain on themselves. They are not 
 united in real love to the people who support them, like 
 a wife to her husband. They trade on — as we say of a 
 harlot, or of any false friend — they trade on the enter- 
 prise, intelligence, noble ambitions, and even on the hard 
 enslaved toil, of the multitudes they lord it over, and 
 insolently despise.. Babylon is not worn out; the newest 
 and smallest governments follow her most closely. 
 
 ii-ig. — The lament of the merchants over the city, 
 whose grandees they had helped to clothe in scarlet and 
 gold — in imperial and priestly fashion — implies rather an 
 increase than a decrease in the humbler and rational trade 
 of mutual requirements and equal exchanges. The case 
 is not the overthrow of one empire by another, nor the 
 dissolution of empire into anarchical violence and robbery. 
 Some new state of things must arise, when we have the 
 kings of the earth actually wailing and lamenting. Some 
 
3 1 2 The Revelation given to St. JoJin tJie Divine 
 
 practical power, more solid than they are, must be there, 
 to render such a thing possible ; something like the stone 
 cut out without hands, and breaking up the kingdoms, 
 while itself growing till it became a great rock or hill, which 
 filled the earth (Dan. ii. 34). 
 
 Not only the page of history, but the ruins still standing 
 on her shores, mark the changes which have taken place 
 in the trade of the Mediterranean, the great sea. There 
 are relics still of the rig and build of the ships which under 
 the Roman empire brought the corn of Egypt into the port 
 of Puteoli, for gratuitous distribution to Roman citizens. 
 In those days such ships as carried St. Paul and two 
 hundred and seventy-five others, with a load of corn also, 
 carried about officials, or the spoils they levied in the 
 provinces, and brought the luxuries of the East into 
 Europe. The old captains and sailors would really and 
 justly lament when the power which created all this traffic, 
 and made the seas safe for those who carried it on, ex- 
 pired. The trade of the Mediterranean was repeatedly 
 revived under the patronage of empire cities. It does not 
 seem to matter whether the government of those cities 
 were, by name, under emperor, doge, president, or king ; 
 their principles were all alike selfish, and, however high 
 the Christian profession, the course pursued was the old 
 one — to coerce the weak, spoil the strong, part with the 
 least possible payment to the producer, or necessitous, 
 and obtain as much as fraud and temptation could pru- 
 dently get from the powerful. These cities have now lost 
 all that they possessed, including their liberties, and are 
 paying overwhelming taxes to others. 
 
 Babylon, thus figured, represents the indulgence of 
 that evil habit of mind which is faithless and insolent to 
 God and man — the temper and tone described by St. Paul 
 (Rom. i. 28-32). She represents that habit of choice and 
 will which gives up, with the rest of the body, the brain 
 power to contradiction and blasphemy ; not to seeking 
 
The Divine J7idg7nent on Babylon 
 
 6^0 
 
 after God, but to seeking plausible pretext for unsettling 
 good, and for doing evil. She represents the concen- 
 tration of example, sophistry, temptation, and every 
 excuse for self-indulgence, in which all who are evil- 
 disposed, rapacious, malicious, cruel, can find a secure 
 and complaisant refuge from their own consciences, and 
 from their fellow-men — where they can call right wrong, 
 cruel injustice humanity, shabby action honourable, with 
 general assent and applause. All this reduction of selfish 
 luxury, and this fall of usurped rights, human and Divine 
 — a fall from universal acknowledgment, and from crushing 
 power — occurred by the operation of just judgment, 
 exacted out of her (Babylon), by submitting her to fair 
 and just treatment by comparatively God-fearing and 
 law-abiding men. Her ruins lie overturned under heaven, 
 and can never be rebuilt. 
 
 20. — The angel concludes with an appeal to all around. 
 He calls on all heaven to rejoice that the equity and power of 
 God's judgment has been triumphantly indicated by this 
 fall of Babylon. In the first case the fall of Babylon, in 
 the course of a few hundred years, was followed by the 
 complete annihilation of itself, and of all the country and 
 population which supported it ; but so far from annihilating 
 the whole earth, all the rest of the earth flourished more 
 and more nobly and prosperously than before. In the 
 second case, the fall of Babylon leads, in process of time, 
 to the destruction of the beast and false prophet (xix. 20), 
 including, of course, their worshippers ; but it will leave 
 the rest of the world, who did not worship them, happier, 
 more noble, and more prosperous, and better organized, 
 than before. The two Babylons are, of course, type and 
 antitype. 
 
 Perhaps a more perspicuous type of the events still to 
 come may be found in Jerusalem. Its theocratic con- 
 stitution and worship, its wealth and honour amongst 
 nations, were all in contrast to the kingdoms of the world 
 
3 1 4 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 and the glory of them ; but they all had a Hkeness to 
 that .perfect, divine government which was associated in 
 the Psalms and prophets with Jerusalem. Jerusalem lost 
 her Babylon — that power of self-support, self-defence, and 
 victory, which was the counterpart of what Babylon 
 represents, six or seven hundred years before she was 
 destroyed. As an earthly state, she fell hundreds of years 
 before she was thrown down headlong into the sea. 
 
 Section III, Verses 21 to 24, The Silence of 
 Babylon. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 22. — Voice of mill : i.e., sound of the cornmills, 
 worked by hand or cattle. 
 
 23. — Pharmacy. Our doctors have accepted one of 
 their most important terms from their predecessors, who 
 practised enchantments, poisoning, and other quackery. 
 Pharmacy is here used of any artificial means for pro- 
 ducing physical effects. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 21. — A strong angel has been twice seen. One (v. 2), 
 in the upper heaven, calls for someone to break the 
 seven seals. Another strong angel seems to have 
 descended out of the earthly heaven, and while standing 
 on earth gave John a scroll to eat up — an abnormal 
 angel, seeing that his proclamation could only have come 
 from the upper heaven ; while he appears in the clouds of 
 earth, and stands on the earth and sea, whence he hands 
 the scroll to John in the upper heaven. This strong 
 angel, the third, is abnormal like the second. While he 
 is proclaiming the time, and giving the signal for the 
 destruction of Babylon, indicating his being from the 
 
The Divine Judgmejit on Babylon 3 1 5 
 
 upper heaven, he does both these on earth. His pro- 
 clamation includes a summary of the sentence or punish- 
 ment awarded Babylon, and the judgment on which it is 
 supported. The last words of this angel are addressed to 
 the crowd around (verse 24). 
 
 The sentence delivered by the angel is worded to suit 
 the symbolic Babylon, and speaks as of an actual city. 
 Her complete desolation probably refers to that of the 
 typical Babylon, as described by Isaiah (Is. xlvii. 8 to 
 end). Isaiah's prophecy does not include the overturn 
 and throwing down of the walls of the city. Our Lord 
 foretold of Jerusalem (Matt. xxiv. 2) that not one stone 
 should be left upon another that should not be thrown 
 down. That is an example of the greatest possible 
 destruction to any actual city ; the angel, therefore, in 
 this case of the symbolic Babylon, has to seek another 
 figure in order to show that the destruction which he is 
 about to describe symbolically will be more complete 
 than could happen to a city ; so sudden and complete, 
 indeed, as to resemble the fall of a great stone into the 
 sea, and its entire disappearance from the face of the 
 earth. The symbol seems chosen in accordance with 
 that which represents the beasts coming up out of the 
 sea. Such an organization and existence as that of 
 Babylon will be completely swallowed up by the same 
 sea of human aspirations and conflicts, out of which she 
 arose, and will entirely disappear from existence on 
 earth, beyond the possibility of recall or reconstruction. 
 So far as we can safely interpret, the angel's sentence 
 is a prophetical description of the complete desolation of 
 a city: much like Isaiah's (xlvii. 8); and if there be any 
 peculiar application, the event only can show it with 
 certainty. The last few words of the angel are abruptly 
 addressed : verses 22, 23 to Babylon, and the 24th verse to 
 the crowd in heaven around, as it would seem from their 
 immediately answering the cue, in the next verse (xix. i). 
 
3 1 6 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 Still a greater fall is to come. Before going on to 
 the final crash, it is well to reflect on the difference 
 between the fall of the actual Babylon and this symbolic 
 Babylon. The actual Babylon simply changed hands, 
 and passed from one empire into the possession of its 
 successor ; and, indeed, her characteristic temper did not 
 perish, but inspired all the empires following, up to, and 
 including, the ten kings now in power. This symbolic 
 Babylon falls while in the hands of the harlot and beast, 
 who have no successors, and are left to get on as they can 
 without her. The fall of the first Babylon was not the 
 fall of the beast, which merely changed heads, or was 
 replaced by a similar beast, according to the figure used. 
 The fall of this Babylon leaves the beast so exposed, and 
 in such a temper, as to choose to concentrate all his 
 power. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 ORIGINAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION. 
 
 After these things I heard as if a loud voice of a 
 large crowd in the heaven, saying, ' Halleluiah ! 
 The salvation, and the glory, and the power of our 
 God ! that his decisions are true and just : — that he 
 judged the great harlot, she who corrupted the earth 
 in her fornication ; and avenged the blood of his 
 servants out of her hand!' And they said a second 
 time 'Halleluiah!' and her smoke ascends for the 
 ages of ages. 
 
 And the twenty-four elders and the four animals 
 fell, and salaamed to God who was seated on the 
 throne, saying, ' Amen : Halleluiah !' And a voice 
 came out away from the throne, saying, ' Praise our 
 God, all his servants, — you who fear him, the small 
 and the great.' 
 
 And I heard as if a voice of a large crowd, and as 
 if a voice of many waters, and as if a voice of strong 
 thunders, — saying, ' Halleluiah ! that Lord God 
 almighty reigned. Let us rejoice, and be delighted, 
 and give glory to him, that the marriage of the Lamb 
 is come, and his bride made herself ready.' And it 
 was given her that she should be clothed in fine linen 
 cloth, bright and clean ; for the fine linen cloth is the 
 decreed righteousness of the saints. 
 
 And he says to me, 'Write : Blessed are those who 
 are called into the dinner of the marriage of the 
 
3i8 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 Lamb.' And he says to me, ' These are the true 
 
 10 words of God.' And I fell before his feet to salaam 
 to him : and he says to me, ' Look (thou dost it) not. 
 I am fellow-servant of thee and of thy brethren who 
 have the testimony of Jesus. Salaam to God : for 
 the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.' 
 
 11 And I saw the heaven opened: and See ! a white 
 horse, and he who is seated upon him faithful and 
 
 12 true ; and he judges and makes war in righteousness : 
 — his eyes, as if flame of fire ; and on his head many 
 
 13 fillets ; having a name written which no one knows 
 except himself, and clothed in a garment dipped in 
 blood : and his name is called * The Word of God.' 
 
 14 And the armies in the heaven were following him on 
 
 15 white horses, clothed in bright clean linen cloth : and 
 a sharp broadsword passes out from his mouth, that 
 with it he should strike the nations ; and he will tend 
 them himself with an iron staff; and himself treads 
 the winepress of the wine of the wrath of the anger 
 
 16 of almighty God ; and he has a name written upon 
 his garment and upon his thigh, — ' King of kings, 
 and Lord of lords.' 
 
 17 And I saw one angel standing in the sun ; and he 
 cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds 
 which fly in midheaven, ' Hither! Be gathered in to 
 
 18 the great dinner of God, that you should eat flesh of 
 kings, and flesh of colonels, and flesh of strong men, 
 and flesh of horses and of those seated upon them, 
 and flesh of all, both free and slaves, and small and 
 great.' 
 
 ig And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, 
 and their armies gathered to make war with him 
 
 20 seated on the horse, and with his army. And the 
 beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who 
 did the signs in front of it, with which he led astray 
 those who received the mark of the beast, and those 
 
The Word of God 3 1 9 
 
 salaaming to its likeness : — the two were thrown 
 21 living into the lake of fire which burns with sulphur ; 
 and the rest were killed by the broadsword of him 
 seated on the horse, which came out of his mouth : 
 and all the birds were fattened out of their flesh. 
 
 THE WORD OF GOD. 
 Section I. Verses i to 10. Halleluiah. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 I. — Halleluiah: Hebrew for Praise ye Jehovah. 
 
 Salvation : making sound, as well as safe. 
 
 5. — Away from : may mean away, at a distance from ; 
 alien to. It could hardly mean ' of one speaking from.' 
 
 6. — Of many w^aters. — So in i. 15, etc. ; a sound as 
 wide as the sea ; and as a surf is heard far inland. 
 
 Of strong thunder : as extensive and indeterminate. 
 
 Saying : is in the plural, and agreeing in gender with 
 the crowd — like saying in iv. i. But it is in the nomina- 
 tive case, as if the verse had begun with an interjection 
 ' A crowd !' or ' Lo, a crowd !' and then the words, ' I 
 heard as if . . . thunders/ were in a parenthesis. 
 
 7. — Reigned : i.e., has shown that he is, and always has 
 been, the real king. 
 
 8. — Decreed righteousness: literally, acquittals by 
 judgment. 
 
 10. — Testimony of Jesus : is the testimony given by 
 word and life, of what Jesus has revealed to a man ; 
 including the temper, strength and grace, as well as any 
 revelation of truths conveyed by writings, visions or 
 experience. (Compare i. 2, g.) 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 I. — This crowd in heaven seems to be the people ap- 
 pealed to by the previous angel (xviii. 20), viz., heaven, 
 
320 The Revelatio7i given to St. John the Divine 
 
 and the saints, and apostles. It seems (as in verse 6) to 
 include all those personally interested in the marriage of 
 the bride — Christ's sheep, gathered from inside and 
 outside His fold, or church, from all ages and places of 
 the world. From the burden of the praise put into their 
 mouth, it is clear that both the salvation of His people, 
 and the banishment or destruction of the devotees of the 
 harlot by the justice of God, will have an effect long 
 after the events by which it was exhibited shall be over. 
 The effect of the punishment — one of the great objects of 
 all punishment — will never be lost, but will ascend, like 
 a smoke, for ever. Whether the crowd in heaven be 
 angels, or glorified saints, or souls of the dead, is not 
 distinguished ; but, whoever they be, the praise they give 
 is too remarkable to be considered merely vicarious, as 
 if disinterested angels praised God for His boon to men. 
 It is the end of a struggle in which all have been 
 personally engaged — the Son of man, Michael and his 
 angels, the souls of the saints — and the victory won will 
 be a subject of praise to all for ever. 
 
 4. — Those who in the vision represent before God the 
 visible creation and the spiritual Church say ' Amen ' to 
 the praise of the crowd ; and so indicate a thorough 
 participation, on the part of what they represent, in that 
 praise — as above, as experiencing the glory, as well as 
 uniting in the expression of the praise. It is clearly 
 implied, however, by an answering voice, that some 
 inhabitants of the earth remain who do not fear God. 
 Whose voice this is, whether of many or few, is left 
 indeterminate, except that nowhere else does God or 
 Christ speak in the terms used by this voice of Himself 
 or of the other. 
 
 6. — The voice now heard seems to be the voice of those 
 of mankind who did not form part of the organized states 
 governing on the old imperial basis, nor worship its 
 power ; and it is united with the voice of God, and of 
 
The Word of God 321 
 
 His inspired prophets. It is the noise of the surf or 
 waves of the sea out of which the beasts came, and the 
 sound of thunders such as accompanied the revelation of 
 God through Moses, or of thunders such as were uttered 
 by the voice of God Himself. IL ushers in the personal 
 reign of God on earth, in the closest union with His 
 saints past and present. In preparation for that union 
 the saints are clothed, as glorified saints, in perfect 
 righteousness (comp. vii. 14), i.e., they are clothed in robes 
 which they have made clean and bright in the blood of 
 the Lamb, and which have been judicially tried, and 
 decreed to be clean and bright; they are saints justified 
 by God's decree, by a judgment which satisfies and con- 
 vinces earth and heaven. Yet these are not seen as 
 glorified saints in the ordinary meaning of the term ; 
 they have neither palm branches nor harps. 
 
 The burden of this voice is, to hail God as King, and 
 the Lamb as a bridegroom. No doubt our Lord's entry 
 into Jerusalem as King, meek, and riding upon an ass, 
 bore a typical reference to this coming, in the same body 
 (i\cts i. 11) in which He had left His disciples. St. John 
 now sees his Lord, not coming to judgment, but as King 
 and Bridegroom ; to receive the kingdom from His 
 Father, and to unite His bride to Himself in that 
 kingdom. 
 
 9. — The instruction to St. John to write is given him in 
 chap. i. 19 by Christ ; in xiv. 13 by a voice from heaven ; 
 and here by an angel, a fellow-servant. In each case, the 
 object of the command to St. John is to impress a sure, 
 weighty, and encouraging message upon the true servants 
 of God who may read his prophecy. 
 
 The marriage of the Lamb with a bride clothed in 
 bright and clean linen, or with saints judged and ac- 
 quitted, takes place on earth, and is as visible in its effects 
 as the punishment of Babjdon. If the hride include all 
 saints, living as well as departed, then those called in to 
 
 21 
 
32 2 The RevelatioJi given to St. John the Divine 
 
 the dinner must be only those who are not saints ; and 
 this would also require that all saints, thereafter on earth, 
 shall have been already judged and acquitted and clothed ; 
 but this is not clearly expressed, and seems unlikely. 
 These saints do not have harps or palm branches, and 
 therefore are not seen in the full glory of heaven ; but it 
 is obvious that when Christ comes to reign personally on 
 earth the condition of saints past and living will be 
 modified from what it is now. The vision seems to 
 make it clear that the living saints will no longer be in 
 the wilderness, no longer be trodden under feet by the 
 nations, and no longer be exposed to the persecution of 
 any more beasts. They will be quite protected and 
 shepherded (verse 15), in presence of the unbelievers, b}' 
 Christ Himself, who will keep them with irresistible and 
 unyielding power under a strict and righteous rule. He 
 also will punish the unfaithful and, presumably, reward the 
 faithful, whenever the due time for so doing come. But 
 it does not please Him to be alone in this kingdom. He 
 endows with all the privileges of a bride saints — presum- 
 ably those not living who are purified from all sin (verse 8). 
 They participate in His acts, purposes, and glory, so 
 much as to make this an ample repayment of what they 
 suffered before their judicial acquittal. Presumably they 
 have been raised from the dead, with a similar glorified 
 body to that of their Master and Saviour. If the con- 
 demned were repaid double for what they had inflicted, 
 we may be sure that the acquitted will be repaid at least 
 double for what they suffered. In this view it will be 
 only the living saints who will be called in to the dinner — 
 received as guests, clothed also in wedding garments, fed 
 and trusted by the King ; but it seems unsafe, from what 
 is given us, to define exactly what living saints will be 
 called, and what admitted into the body of the bride. 
 Nor can it be safe to press the symbols and metaphors 
 into refinements of interpretation. 
 
The Word of God 323 
 
 If we turn to St. Paul's first extant epistle (i Thess. 
 iv. 15-18), we have his description of the return to earth 
 of those who sleep. So far as he gives it, he gives it 
 solemnly, ' by the authority of the Lord ' (i Thess. v. 15). 
 Of this description it is remarkable that the Thessalonians 
 took it to describe something then taking place, or imme- 
 diately to be expected (2 Thess. ii. 2, 3). It is likely that 
 St. Paul considered both his hearers and himself ought 
 to be prepared for it at any moment. In later times the 
 description has been taken to imply that the events in- 
 cluded in it would all take place at once, if not like a clap 
 of thunder, certainly within a few days. Disabusing our 
 minds of any of these prejudices, we find St. Paul asserts 
 that the dead in Christ will first arise to life (i Thess, iv. 16) 
 — a term always used of our Lord after His resurrection. 
 His disciples saw Him at intervals during forty days, 
 such as He now is, acting as He now does, but not fully 
 glorified by possession of His kingdom on earth. After that 
 resurrection, St. Paul continues, the living will be caught 
 up with them ; he does not say all at once ; he says 
 nothing to imply that the resurrection of those thereafter 
 living will be more sudden, or come to them in any differ- 
 ent way from that in which it came to those living before. 
 He only implies that those who die after this shout of 
 war, and first resurrection, will join the saints with the 
 Lord in the clouds at once, on their death, without any 
 delay in Paradise or elsewhere. 
 
 10. — The prophetical significance, if any, of St. John's 
 falling down to worship this angel (xvii. i) here, and after- 
 wards (xxii. 8), is not apparent, unless it be a warning 
 which the experience of human nature showed to be here 
 appropriate. So many of mankind had slavishly wor- 
 shipped the beast, and blasphemously insulted God, in 
 fear and wonder at the power of the beast, that a symbolic 
 warning seems here appropriate not to worship the bride, 
 nor angels, nor any, however grand and powerful in earth 
 
324 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 or heaven ; but to worship ever God alone. It also shows 
 us that, in the august assembly of heaven and kingdom 
 of God, there are none who wish to receive the worship 
 due to God, none who seek to have any worship paid 
 to themselves, none who will accept any such worship as 
 the beast did. 
 
 Section II. Verses ii to 16. The Faithful and 
 True Witness. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 II. — The very face of nature seems changed. A vision 
 is seen of a white horse and rider, like that of the first 
 seal, but as much more glorious as a principal is above his 
 agent, or a king above his ambassador. St. John's 
 description identifies the rider with Him who dictated the 
 letters to the seven churches — the Son of God. We are 
 invited to try to interpret the prophetic indications of 
 what the world will then be like. 
 
 In the first place, Christ Himself will judge and war in 
 righteousness, as decidedly and really as men in our day, 
 under the seven seals, have to purchase or work for their 
 daily bread, and are subject to war, disease, and death. 
 It is extraordinary to find St. John's prophecy (a.d. 100) 
 repeating in outline the type which Moses (b.c. 1500) 
 described as actual history. The theocracy in the wilder- 
 ness — lost so completely, lost so long ago — is revived in St. 
 John's dreams as a real and living type of what the world 
 is shortly to experience. The visible presence on earth of 
 Christ, or of the re-risen saints, is nowhere indicated. 
 Instead of seven heads, each with a fillet or diadem, this 
 symbol of Christ wears on his head many fillets ; surely 
 representing for each fillet, at least, as much kingdom and 
 power upon earth as the largest kingdom and greatest 
 power of any of the old empires. All the fillets are on 
 one head, while those of the dragon were each on a sepa- 
 rate head (xii. 3), and each of the horns of the beast had 
 
The Wora of God 325 
 
 a separate fillet (xiii. i). Daniel's fourth beast had ten 
 horns (Dan. vii. 7). We infer that the many fillets on one 
 head (xix. 12) represent not successive kingdoms, like 
 those of the dragon, but contemporaneous kingdoms, like 
 those of the horns. But while the horns represent diverse 
 kingdoms, which may pluck each other up by the roots 
 (Dan. vii. 8), so independent of the beast that it is men- 
 tioned that they give their kingdom to the beast for a time 
 only (xvii. 17), this rider of the white horse has all the 
 kingdoms united on his single head, indicating the union 
 in Christ's government of unnumbered states on earth, all 
 at one and the same time. His name is written for all to 
 see and learn ; but it is not known to any but himself. 
 While it will characterize his action as much as the names 
 of blasphemy (xvii. 3), or of mother of harlots (xvii. 5), it is ever 
 beyond the range of the faculties or knowledge of men, 
 or of any created beings ; but he is known upon earth as 
 The Word of God (as in John i. i, etc.). Of his harness, or 
 clothing, only two or three things are mentioned — the 
 bloody garment, the sword of his mouth, and the, perhaps 
 future, iron staff; he wears his garment dipped in blood> 
 to show that he comes in the character of Saviour, as 
 explained in Is. Ixiii. 3, etc. — of course, to a world which 
 needed salvation. He is armed with the sword of his 
 mouth, as one that speaks in righteousness — righteousness 
 is faithfulness of God to his principles of action, revealed 
 in his works and Word — mighty to save (Is. Ixiii. i). He 
 is followed by the armies of heaven, not as when he 
 fought the battle and gained the victory alone, and with- 
 out even a reserve in sight (Is. Ixiii. 3, 5). 
 
 It seems obvious that great caution is necessary in in- 
 terpreting the future action by which this rider will glorify 
 his inscrutable name. The utter failure of the devout 
 Jews, between the times of Isaiah and Christ's first 
 coming, to interpret the character of Christ's kingdom 
 may well warn us. At his first coming no attitude could 
 
326 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 be farther removed from that of a physical warrior and 
 slayer than that which Christ assumed ; yet it would be 
 hard to say, humanly speaking, whether the name of 
 Christ or of Mahommed has sent most men to slaughter 
 in battle (Matt. x. 34). Within this rider's kingdom we 
 may feel sure that there will be no armed rebellion against 
 him under his only proclaimed title, the Word of God, as 
 there is none against law in a well-governed country now. 
 This Word of God will not mean the printed words of his 
 prophets and apostles, but the Word which has spoken, 
 and will speak, through all his works from the beginning, 
 and which he has put, and will put, into the hearts and 
 mouths of all who seek it. As obviously, punishment for 
 wrong-doing will not cease on earth, but will be made as 
 effective and severe as is an iron staff; for we cannot 
 suppose all the slights, cruelties, affronts, ambition and 
 deceits which are now left out of law, and can only be 
 settled, if at all, by war or repentance, brought into a 
 code of nile, and that rule adequately supported against 
 infringement, without the addition of much celerity and 
 force to punishment. Smashing pottery with an iron 
 staff seems a figure only adequate for efficiency ; and that 
 is the figure given by the Son of God himself of the rule 
 which his faithful servants are actually to exercise (ii. 18, 
 27) over the nations. Whether these punishments will be 
 inflicted by men is not clearly seen in this particular 
 vision. As in Isaiah (Ixiii. 3) the rider is said to tread the 
 wine-vat himself — and certainly he alone has, and can 
 give the requisite authority (Matt, xxviii. 18) — but it seems 
 certain that, whatever be the way of the Lord of glory, 
 in that way will both his bride in heaven and his people on 
 earth be guided to imitate him, at a becoming distance. 
 
 16. — The third name, written upon the rider's garment 
 and thigh, seems analogous to a distinctive mark, token 
 or title, by which any executive officer, military or civil, is 
 usually made known to all beholders, and his position and 
 
The Word of God 327 
 
 authority declared. It may be a tabard, coat of arms, a 
 button, or a scarf. In this case the full inscription, and 
 its position, seem to be an allusion to some dedicatory 
 inscriptions on notable statues. Pausanias (quoted by 
 Alford) speaks of a statue having written on its thigh : 
 ' The Mendaeans placed me here as an offering to Jove, the 
 King of Gods,' or words to that effect. In this case the 
 rider bears an inscription of his office and authority — an 
 inscription which could have no other author than God 
 Himself — ' King of kings, and Lord of lords ' ; and this 
 was clear and legible to all. 
 
 Section III. Verses 17 to 21. The Woe of the 
 Beast and the False Prophet. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 17. — One. There is equal authority for another, instead 
 of one. Whichever reading be right, it seems to mean the 
 same thing, that the angel was not one of the crowd nor 
 army. 
 
 18. — Flesh. Literally fleshes — the plural of the word 
 used by our Lord of His own flesh, as recorded by St. 
 John (John vi. 51, 53, etc.) — meaning the whole flesh of 
 each king, horse, etc. The birds were called to eat them 
 entirely up, as such birds would do. 
 
 Strong. Used both physically and figuratively, like 
 our word powerful. 
 
 20. — Capture : the word St. John uses in his Gospel 
 (vii. 30) : ' They sought then to take Him.' 
 
 Which : i.e., the fire. 
 
 21. — Which : i.e., the broadsword. 
 
 Flesh. Still plural. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 17. — This angel stands in the sun, a figure evidently 
 disconnected with that of a figure in heaven clothed in the 
 sun (xii. i), or with a face like the sun (x. i). There is 
 
328 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 nothing to indicate a change of scene from earth and its 
 heaven. This angel, then, stands in the sun, or ruHng 
 authority over the earth, and represents the action of that 
 authority. Whether the sun have full consciousness of 
 the effect of its action, or whether there be in it conscious 
 intention at all, is not stated. One would rather suppose 
 that the action of the sun is attributed to the angel (comp. 
 ii. 4, etc.). He is said to make the proclamation, not the 
 sun. The burden of his cry reminds us of the ten kings 
 eating the flesh of the harlot (xvii. 16), and of our Lord's 
 repeated reference to the eating of His own flesh, without 
 which none can have eternal life (John vi. 53, 54). The 
 latter is spiritual (John vi. 63) ; the former is carnal, if we 
 include in the meaning of carnal carnal-mindedness and 
 intellect. In each case there is no blood. Neither is 
 literal, but they are both figurative. Birds in prophecy 
 seem not to represent particularly either good or bad. 
 Even flesh-eating birds, which one would expect to 
 represent something deserving aversion, or even dis- 
 gust, if any birds are to do so, are more often brought 
 into prophecy as proclaimers, or bearers, of what is good 
 or glorious, than of what is evil. They may here mean 
 that on earth universally men, corporations. States, high 
 and low, believers and unbelievers, while they destroy, 
 will live upon and use — in fact, 'will have free use of for 
 their general support — the wealth, sustenance, knowledge, 
 and, indeed, all the existence left, of the old governments 
 and society, after the evil in them shall have been slain, 
 and all the Babylonian and imperial element eliminated. 
 It seems clear that the distinctions, such as now exist, of 
 civil and military orders, servant and master, high and 
 low, will at the great dinner of God (verse 17) be entirely 
 absent ; but what is good in them will not be lost. There 
 will still be useful opportunity, experience, and temper, and 
 whatever else can be assimilated to what Christ taught on 
 earth, and requires in heaven. Nothing worth having will 
 
The Word of God 329 
 
 be lost. Distinctions, as they remain, being founded on true 
 and ample judgment, will be intensified (Luke xix. 17, ig, 24). 
 19. — The prophet Daniel, in his interpretation of 
 Nebuchadnezzar's dream, tells us that ' in the days of 
 those kings, etc' (Dan. ii. 44, 45). We notice that this 
 kingdom set up by God on earth — this mountain — grows 
 till it fills the whole earth, in the days of all four king- 
 doms represented by the image. Presumably these same 
 kingdoms, when represented as beasts by Daniel, or as 
 heads by John, would be all considered alive, in a certain 
 sense, during the whole time in which that mountain 
 grows, and while it fills the whole earth. But St. John 
 uses another figure to symbolize this same era. Instead 
 of an image and a mountain, he sees all the kingdoms of 
 the earth gathered together to war with the horseman 
 and his army. Again, Daniel (ii. 34) sees the stone, not 
 the mountain, break in pieces the feet of the image ; and 
 then all were broken in pieces, ' iron, clay, brass, silver, 
 and gold,' by the stone (verse 45), not by the mountain, 
 out of which the stone was cut ; and yet he identifies 
 the mountain and stone (verse 44) so closely that the 
 kingdom which the mountain represents is described as 
 breaking up the kingdoms which the image represents. 
 There seems to be only one possible explanation, viz., 
 that God's faithful people share, not only in the enjoy- 
 ment of Christ's kingdom, but in Christ's conquering of 
 it. This share St. John sees symbolized by their forming 
 Christ's army in the war with the kingdoms. Such an 
 army should, of course, fight with Christ's weapons, with 
 the sword of God's Word, not with the weapons of 
 ordinary human wars. In accordance with this, we notice 
 that in none of the symbols is blood mentioned. Daniel 
 says that the material of the old empires will be pounded 
 together, and be blown out of the earth like chaff before 
 the wind. St. John sees the two beasts of the dragons, 
 the beast and the false prophet, captured and thrown 
 
330 The Revelatio7i given to St. John the Divine 
 
 into the lake of fire alive. The time of the overthrow, as 
 in Daniel, midatis mutandis, is after the organization of 
 the army under the rider of the white horse. It is the 
 stone and the rider, but with some participation of the 
 mountain and army, that destroy the empires. If there 
 be any actual slaughter, as must be supposed likely, it is 
 by God's direct action, as typified by the destruction of 
 Pharaoh in the Red Sea, and as indicated by the prophecy, 
 reiterated by our Lord Himself, that Christ should sit 
 at God's right hand till God subdued His enemies. St. 
 John does not describe the fight seen in the vision, but 
 he makes it clear that the battle here represented is not 
 one of ordinary war, but is won by the preaching and 
 effect of Christ's Word. The army under the beast, 
 representing real people, is slain by the sword of the 
 mouth ; it may be in the sense of ceasing all allegiance 
 to the beast and false prophet, and, at all events out- 
 wardly, ceasing to present any coherent opposition to the 
 army of the rider of the white horse. Of course other 
 wars, and disciplinary smashing to pieces, may possibly 
 be going on, but not as part of this war. 
 
 The rest, i.e., the kings, or kingdoms of the earth, and 
 their armies, which were gathered to make war with the 
 rider of the horse, to oppose allegiance to Christ, and 
 righteous government according to His will, were killed 
 by Christ's words. This killing seems inconsistent with 
 reforming. The persecuting kingdoms and empire are 
 alike spoken of as done away. In fact, like the figures 
 of mammon, or of the world, they have no significance, 
 except so far as they are worshipped, and are effective 
 in diverting allegiance from Christ ; when they cease to 
 do that they are ipso facto slain. 
 
 Before considering the symbol of throwing the two — 
 the beast, representative of purely worldly empire (xiii. i, 
 etc.), and the Satanic mouthed beast (xiii. ii, etc.), called 
 the false prophet — into the lake of fire, it will not be amiss 
 
The Word of God 331 
 
 to consider Jeremiah's description of the hing, or kingdom, 
 of Judah, when it was become worldly, and so hostile to 
 God that its magnates were to be cast into the fire (Jer. 
 xvii.). Partly from direct description of what it was, and 
 partly from description of what it was not, we learn that 
 the king then sitting on the throne of David, and his 
 servants, his administrators, did not execute judgment and 
 righteousness, or deliver the spoiled from his oppressor : 
 but did wrong and violence to the stranger, to the father- 
 less, and to the widow, and shed innocent blood. On that 
 account the Lord swore that this house will be a desola- 
 tion (referring to the temple, Jer. vii. 13, 14, apparently, 
 and including the kingdom) ; the choice cedars will be cut 
 down and cast into the lire, by destroyers whom he will 
 prepare, or sanctify. Further on (Jer. xxii. 24, etc.) the 
 Lord swears that Jeconiah, or Coniah, should be plucked 
 thence, and he and his seed are thrown out, and he is 
 written childless, and none of his seed will prosper sitting 
 on the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah 
 (verse 30). Yet St. Matthew gives Jeconiah as an ancestor 
 of Christ, through Shealtiel his son (agreeing with 
 I Chron. iii. 17, 18). The explanation of this apparent in- 
 consistency seems to be that our Lord's kingdom was not a 
 successor to Jeconiah's, neither in tone, temper, mind, nor 
 object of worship. Coniah, or Jehoiachin (2 Kings xxiv. 
 8, etc.), had no successor in that. 
 
 Perhaps both St. John and Daniel imply that the old 
 kingdoms, as organizations, will be hopelessly and for ever 
 destroyed or burnt up, without any remains of the terrors 
 fascinations, or powers on earth, or of followers, being for 
 ever condemned and deserted by all living men. The 
 ruins of the empires of beast and false prophet, and the 
 remains of all other kingdoms, will lie desert, like the 
 wasted cities of old ; their constitutions, ideas, histories, 
 and customs being open to any who choose to examine, 
 and to use or leave. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 ORIGINAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION. 
 
 And I saw an angel descending out of the heaven, 
 having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great 
 chain upon his hand : and he seized the dragon — 
 that is, the ancient snake, who is devil and Satan — 
 and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him 
 into the bottomless pit, and locked and sealed on the 
 top of him ; that he should no longer lead the nations 
 astray, until the thousand years should be finished. 
 After that he must be loosed for a little time. 
 
 And I saw thrones — and (some) sat upon them ; 
 and judgment was given to them — and the souls of 
 those who had been beheaded on account of the 
 testimony of Jesus, and on account of the Word of 
 God, and of whoever did not salaam the beast nor his 
 likeness, and did not receive the mark upon their 
 forehead and upon their hand ; and they lived and 
 reigned with Christ a thousand years : the rest of the 
 dead did not live until the thousand years should be 
 finished. This is the first resurrection : blessed and 
 holy is he who has part in the first resurrection ; 
 upon them the second death has no authority ; but 
 they will be priests of God and of Christ, and will 
 reign with him the thousand years. 
 
 And whenever the thousand years should be 
 finished, Satan will be loosed out of his prison, and 
 will come out to lead astray the nations (who are) i 
 
Original English 7 raJislation T)2>2> 
 
 the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to 
 gather them into war — of whom, the number of them 
 9 — as if the sand of the sea : and they went up upon 
 the breadth of the earth, and encircled the array of 
 the saints, and the beloved city. And fire descended 
 
 10 out of the heaven, and ate them up. And the devil, 
 the leader of them astray, was thrown into the lake of 
 fire and sulphur, where also the beast and the false 
 prophet are ; and they will be tortured day and night 
 for the ages of ages. 
 
 11 And I saw a great bright throne, and him seated on 
 it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled, and no 
 place was found for them. 
 
 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing in 
 front of the throne. And scrolls were opened : and 
 another scroll was opened, which is (one) of life. And 
 the dead were judged out of what was written in the 
 
 13 scrolls according to their works : and the sea gave 
 the dead who were in it ; and death and Hades gave 
 the dead who were in them : and they were judged, 
 
 14 each, according to their works. And death and Hades 
 were thrown into the lake of fire : this (death) is the 
 
 15 second death — the lake of fire; and if anyone was 
 not found written in the book of life, he was thrown 
 into the lake of fire. 
 
 THE OLD SERPENT. 
 Section I. Verses i to 3. Satan Bound. 
 
 Excgetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 I. — Upon : the same word as in ch. v. i. 
 
 2. — Devil : i.e., slanderer. Satan, i.e., adversary (in 
 Hebrew). 
 
 3. — After that: or after them — the years — is quite as 
 literal. 
 
 A LITTLE TIME : SO in John vii. 33 ; xii. 35, of shorter 
 
334 1^^^ Revelation given to St.Jo/m the Divine 
 
 intervals; and in vi. ii of a longer interval, apparently 
 extending from St. John's time to the beginning of the 
 1,000 years. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 I. — As the great flame-coloured dragon, Satan, with his 
 seven heads and ten horns, was in heaven (xii. 3) before 
 the woman was driven into the wilderness, so now again 
 he is directly treated as if in heaven — the earthly heaven. 
 An angel — an agency carrying out the intentions of God — 
 descends from heaven, out of which the dragon had been 
 cast previous to the events of chap, xiv., with the key 
 of the bottomless pit — the means of closing it effectually 
 — and with a great chain hanging on his hand. This 
 chain is a quite different word to that used by St. Peter 
 (2 Pet. ii. 4). He there says how God treated the angels 
 who sinned : He ' brought them to Tartarus ' — the gulf 
 below the earth, as the heavens are above the earth — 
 'with scorching (things) of gloom, and delivered them 
 over in custody for judgment ;' but it seems to be a figure 
 to express the same idea. The bottomless pit is a Jewish 
 expression, the nearest Grecian one being Tartarus ; and 
 it has been seen before, under the fifth trumpet, unlocked 
 by a star from heaven, to emit smoke and locusts. We 
 are told by one of the seven angels with plagues that the 
 first, the scarlet, beast which carried the harlot would 
 ascend out of it (xvii. 8), with seven heads and ten horns. 
 Into this pit the angel is now seen to put the great fire- 
 coloured dragon with seven crowned heads and ten horns, 
 which was cast by Michael and his angels out of heaven, 
 and which, when on earth, went away to war with the 
 woman's seed who kept God's commandments. This 
 dragon was thrown from heaven to earth when the 
 powers of Christendom, then the Roman Empire, 
 abolished paganism and professed Christianity. That 
 false Christianity the devil corrupted, and then elevated 
 and supported it as a corrupt and blasphemous profession 
 
The Old Serpejit 335 
 
 — the veritable old harlot, drunk with the blood of saints 
 (xvii. 6). He effected this by his operations on earth. 
 The assumptions and government of the harlot were 
 rendered possible, and supported, only by the anti- 
 Christian temper of the people (xvii. 15) over whom she 
 established her power. By the angel now seen the dragon 
 is expelled from earth — the power of Christ's word (xix. 15) 
 has subdued and removed the beasts, and slain all other 
 kings and their forces ; so that henceforth men are not of 
 a temper to be controlled or misled by the dragon; and 
 he disappears from eartli for a thousand years, apparently 
 some 360,000 ordinary years. 
 
 From that time we may, perhaps, conceive man living 
 in the presence of God's laws, works, and guidance — as 
 beasts have done in their physical development — willingly 
 and naturally. With the conquest and removal of the 
 dragon it must be supposed that mankind, as a whole, 
 approach notably to that participation of the Divine 
 nature, and to that escape from the corruption that is in 
 the world by lust, which the best of us now can reach 
 (2 Pet. i. 4). The thousand years seems to mean an era 
 of great spiritual development, though men will continue 
 men, imperfect and sinful, and requiring to be shepherded 
 — and that with a staff of iron. The intellectual develop- 
 ment of man since his first formation (Gen. i. 27, Heb.), 
 or making into a man {idem, LXX.), and the physical 
 aptitudes and powers he has acquired during that 
 development, is likely to be quite dwarfed by the result 
 of his spiritual development in perhaps an equal geological 
 era. But as, in heaven, angels transgressed and fell, so 
 on earth, at its best, we should suppose such a liability. 
 And it might reasonably go so far as to make men wish 
 for, seek for, and at last submit to, the dragon again ; 
 when so long a time shall have elapsed, a time so long as 
 to bring our solar system into questionable continuance. 
 
 It is a matter of int&rest to determine what the dragon 
 
2);^6 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 and the bottomless pit, in earth, mean. The dragon is 
 called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole 
 inhabited (world) (xii. g) ; and so the great city is called 
 Sodom and Egypt, where the Lord w^as crucified (xi. 8). 
 This dragon here zs (represents) the devil and Satan. 
 Therefore, not only the symbolical form and colour of the 
 dragon, and his actions, but also analogy of the language 
 used, indicates that the mere personal Satan is not 
 represented, but a temper and mind existing in numbers 
 of men, causing them to act together in such a union as 
 is elsewhere represented by a beast or by a city. The 
 dragon is of the same symbolic kind as the woman, and 
 is shown opposed to her and her seed, which the beasts 
 are not. The beasts indicate no tone, temper, mind, or 
 object for persecuting the woman's seed, except where it 
 brings men in obvious, or suspected, opposition to their 
 authority ; the dragon, on the contrary, represents that 
 temper or mind which is hostile to all who love Christ and 
 His righteousness. Whatever power is given by God to 
 Satan, or to any other adversary, it is no power of 
 spiritual influence, but onl}- of outward circumj stance, or 
 of such ideas and fancies as outward circumstances 
 might bring to our consciousness by the agency of our 
 human faculties. Such power of Satan is undoubtedly 
 limited. We do not know the conditions of existence of 
 this adversary (Satan), but St. John records our Lord's 
 giving him the name of ruler, or magistrate, of this world 
 (John xii. 31 ; so xiv. 30, xvi. 11). In the last case, our 
 Lord cannot mean by the ruler of this "world an individual 
 Satan, having a judgment pronounced on him by God ; 
 but he includes a set of tenets and minds (or lusts), 
 actuating a group of men on earth, under the initiative of 
 the individual devil, Satan ; just such a set as, considered 
 as a human organization only, is symbolized by a beast. 
 And this in St. John's vision is symbolized by a dragon. 
 This, our Lord said, had been judged (meaning, perhaps. 
 
The Old Serpent ^^'^^ 
 
 that the judgment had begun) by the world ; as the pre- 
 ceding context and the natural meaning of the passage 
 show, he does not say, by God. 
 
 The hottomless pit seems to have been a phrase in use in 
 St. John's time to express the abode of devils when pro- 
 hibited an abode in men (Luke viii. 31). In that sense 
 it may be used by St. Paul (Rom. x. 7), where it seems to 
 be an expression of his own to give the sense of beyond 
 sea (in Deut. xxx. 13), or perhaps to intensify the sense 
 of Deuteronomy. At least, it is not used there in the 
 LXX. These two places are the only ones in the New 
 Testament — except in Revelation — in which the word 
 (abyss in Greek) is used ; but in the LXX. it is used to 
 express the deep (Gen i. 2). As has been before said, 
 all that seems certain is that in Revelation the bottomless 
 pit, perhaps pictured as a hole right through the flat earth 
 into the space below, represents a place of complete 
 removal from the earth, its sea, and its heaven : i.e., at 
 all events, from Christendom. 
 
 Section II. Verses 4 to 6. The First 
 Resurrection. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes, 
 
 6. — Holy : or saint. It is the same word. 
 
 Has part in. Used in the New Testament only in John 
 xiii. 8. It may mean has a share in; or it may mean has 
 a part of himself in (as in Luke xi. 35, where the phrase is 
 negative). 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 4. — Daniel (Dan. vii. 22) saw how the little horn made 
 war with the saints, and prevailed against them ; until 
 the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to 
 (Heb. and LXX.) the saints of the Most High, and the 
 time came that the sainis possessed the kingdom. From 
 
^T,S The Revelation given to St. Jo hi the Divine 
 
 the earliest times the ancient men, dead or living, seem to 
 be those referred to as the highest to whom to appeal for 
 judgment in difficult matters (Job xii. 12, where they are 
 compared with God ; i Sam. xxiv. 13 ; Ps. cxix. 100, etc.) ; 
 so we see there was a fitness and consistency in the 
 Ancient of days making the saints judges. The association 
 seems confirmed if Dan. vii. g bear the meaning (which it 
 has in LXX.) that thrones were set, and the Ancient of 
 days sat ; because the thrones can be for none others 
 than the saints to whom judgment was given. This 
 makes the interpretation of St. John's vision, here, simple, 
 viz., that the saints, as ancients — the dead saints of old — 
 were seen associated with Christ in His kingdom, as in 
 other things so in judgment. In fact, here St. John seems 
 to have Daniel's words so running in his mind, that he 
 loses his own grammatical consistency in following them. 
 He fails to say who sat on the thrones ; and he says that 
 judgment was given to the thrones ; yet it must have 
 been the saints, who are expressed in Daniel, whom he 
 has in mind in both cases. 
 
 We have seen Satan removed from earth ; so that 
 there is no evil power to deal with, more than that in the 
 nature of imperfect, and therefore sinful, man. Imme- 
 diately after Satan's removal, a certain judgment is 
 symbolized. Its nature is somewhat obscurely seen : it 
 is not said who judged; nor is the meaning of giving 
 judgment quite clear ; for the phrase is nowhere else used 
 in the New Testament. It agrees verbally with the LXX. 
 of Dan. vii. 22, where the symbol for the judgment is 
 a fiery stream issuing and coming forth before the Ancient 
 of days, resulting in the beast being slain, its body 
 destroyed, and itself burnt with fire. Assuming, then» 
 that this judgment is akin to that described by Daniel, 
 we ascertain that the thrones are occupied by ancient 
 saints, not living men ; that the judgment is exercised 
 upon things on earth amongst living men ; and that the 
 
The Old Serpent 339 
 
 condition of those seated on the thrones is symboHzed by 
 souls, or lives, such as were seen below the altar, in the 
 fifth seal (vi. g), praying for judgment ; and consequently 
 the condition of these ancient saints is such as Christ, in 
 common with His servants who are like Him in His 
 resurrection (Rom. vi. 5), had after His resurrection and 
 ascension, and will have till He comes again (Acts i. 11). 
 The description of these saints avoids (it cannot be 
 unintentionally) including all who are written in the 
 Lamb's Book of Life ; and yet it does not positively limit 
 them to those who have heard the Gospel. So we must 
 leave it. 
 
 Besides participating in Christ's life and judgment, 
 these ancients reign with Him for a thousand years. 
 Considering how the measures of time and number have 
 been used symbolically in St. John's vision — 7, 10, 1,000; 
 hour, day, year — it will be safe to take this thousand years 
 (it is not a thousand of years) as meaning an era next less 
 in length and importance to an age; just as in Israel 
 a thousand was the group of men or families next less in 
 number and importance to a trihe. During that time 
 there is no further resurrection of the dead ; and the 
 re-risen saints are saved as thoroughly from sin as they 
 have been from death, and will be from the lake of fire 
 (verse 14). The living saints who die will at once join 
 their re-risen predecessors in the clouds (i Thess. iv. 17). 
 The rest of the dead will not rise till after this era ; but 
 these who share in the first resurrection are blessed, and 
 saints {i.e., sacred and holy), and will be priests of God 
 and Christ, and will reign with Him. Here we see that 
 remarkable uniting of the ' persons ' of the Deity, the 
 Father and Son, God and Jehovah, in the last book of 
 the Bible, as in the Old Testament books. The ultimate 
 relations — to use a mathematical term — of God and 
 Christ, and those whom God has given to Christ, and 
 whom Christ has saved, have been forcibly given by 
 
340 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 St. John in our Lord's words (John xvii. 21, etc.), and 
 are now given as forcibly in our Lord's symbols, and in 
 St. John's inspired description of them. 
 
 Section IIL Verses 7 to 10. Satan Loosed. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 g. — Encircled : or moved round. 
 
 Array. Used for order, either of battle, of a camp, or 
 of quarters, of an army. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 7. — After this era, the thousand years, Satan will be 
 loosed. No form is here given to him in the vision, but 
 he will at this time be admitted into the hearts of many, 
 and accepted by them as a guide, forming some organ- 
 ization of evil passions in all the corners of the earth — 
 we may probably say the world, for Christendom seems 
 likely to have absorbed the whole world. This organiza- 
 tion, instead of appearing here as a beast or dragon, is 
 called Gog and Magog — probably turbulent hordes and 
 unions, not fixed sufficiently in their passions and minds 
 to be classed as beasts. The}^ will surround and threaten 
 all those whose minds and objects and methods are 
 righteous, and consecrated to God's service ; and will 
 experience judgments from God such as will entirel}' eat 
 them up. Then the devil, Satan, with the beast and 
 false prophet, will be thrown into some abyss or lake of 
 destructive judgment, where they will have no creatures 
 of God to work upon, and no laws of God subject to their 
 perversion or misuse. With every germ of possible 
 growth and mischief, as it were, singed off, their torture 
 will be obvious to others, as well as effective in destroying 
 them for ever. 
 
 It is an interesting search to endeavour, from the reve- 
 lations God has given us, to form a sufficient conception 
 of what will be the signs of the times, such as our Lord 
 
The Old Serpent 341 
 
 has told us to observe and discern, preparatory to the 
 great judgment of God, and to the final banishment of 
 evil. We know that the Jewish nation quite failed to 
 possess a true conception of our Lord's first coming as 
 the Messiah and Saviour ; yet as long ago as David, signs 
 of His coming were described in prophecy. However, 
 Christ at His second coming will come as a Judge, and 
 we shall do well to consider what are essential charac- 
 teristics of a well-ordered court of trial, and of the pre- 
 paratory measures for the open trial of any great case, 
 in a way to convince the whole court and spectators. 
 It seems from this chapter that the trial approaches 
 without any cataclysms or supernatural interruptions. 
 On the contrary, there is a long preparatory era, during 
 which the only judges are, not Christ, but re-risen 
 saints (verse 4) ; and they are described as ruling the 
 world with justice, and during the absence of the im- 
 prisoned dragon. For ' a thousand years ' the nations 
 are entirely protected from all deception by Satan, and 
 even their own follies and misdemeanours are crushed to 
 pieces, like misshapen pots broken up by an iron bar ; so 
 that their conduct under so just and paternal a discipline 
 will be a convincing proof of their disposition. It is at 
 the close of this probation that Satan, whom, we read of 
 as first admitted to tempt man in Eden, is a second time 
 admitted to tempt the nations ; and this trial is to be the 
 last and convincing one. God's final revealed judgment 
 follows, as, indeed, it did in Eden after the first trial, or 
 temptation, of the man God had created. 
 
 In the last three verses of the sixth psalm David, placed 
 by God in his throne over God's kingdom of Israel, pro- 
 phetically anticipates the realization of the government 
 of Christ's actual kingdom by judges, of which he him- 
 self was only a type, when they will receive the answer to 
 David's prayer — when workers of iniquity will be all 
 removed, and enemies all ashamed and turned backwards 
 
342 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 Section IV. Verses ii to 15. The Vision of the 
 Judgment. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 II. — From whose face. The same expression in 
 Acts iii. 19 is translated, ' so there rnay come seasons of 
 refreshing /ro;« the presence of the Lord,' or from His face. 
 Here, therefore, it is nearly equivalent to at whose pre- 
 sence; and has no meaning of the earth and heaven fleeing 
 away from His presence. The presence of Him on the 
 throne is described as giving the time of their fleeing, and 
 does not describe the agency causing them to flee. 
 
 Heaven : i.e., the earthly heaven ; of course not the 
 material earth or heaven, but the symbolic. 
 
 12. — What was written does not mean what was 
 being written at the time. It was already written ; just 
 as in the previous verse John does not mean that he saw 
 anyone in the act of being put upon the throne. 
 
 Works: i.e., actions and deeds, and the results of them. 
 So in verse 15, etc. 
 
 14. — Lake of fire : see note on xxi. 8. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 II. — The word judgment, or pronouncing sentence, is 
 sometimes coupled with Christ, as where He says, * I 
 judge no man. And if ever I judge, My judgment is 
 true ' (John viii. 16) ; or, ' As I hear, I judge ; and My 
 judgment is just.' Quoting from the LXX. (there being 
 no similar idiom in the Hebrew of Isa. liii. 8), St. Luke 
 seems to speak of the servant's judgment as meaning the 
 judging the servant ; but St. Paul (see 2 Thess. i. 5) never 
 uses it in this sense; and St. John, when he uses the 
 genitive with this word, always means the judgment of — 
 the decision and sentence made by — the person ; as of 
 God's judgment (John xiv. 7; xvi. 7; xix. 2). The dative 
 
The Old Serpent 343 
 
 is used for the judgment of a person judged by St. James 
 (Jas. ii. 13) ; and it is clear that the ambiguous meaning 
 which the genitive of after the word judgment has in Eng- 
 hsh, practically does not exist in Greek. The Greeks 
 would speak of the judgment 0/ a judge, or the judgment 
 o/a contest, or the judgment o/the bow at a trial of skill 
 in archery ; but a judgment ahout a prisoner. It seems 
 safe to conclude that the genitive, or possessive pronoun, 
 applied to this word judgment, always refers to the judge, 
 unless the context should prove that it could only refer to 
 the judged. 
 
 The verb to judge is never used in the three first Gospels 
 except of men judging men. St. John records our Lord's 
 saying, that God did not send Him into the world that He 
 might judge the world (John iii. 17) ; and His again say- 
 ing, 'The Father judges no one' (John v, 22), but has 
 given all judgment to the Son ; presently adding a very 
 interesting description of what kind of thing judgment 
 in His hands is. Not only the living, but all who are in 
 the tombs, will hear His voice (John v. 28), including both 
 re-risen saints, and * the rest ' of the dead. We who are 
 now living seem to be close to the border of that time, 
 when the rider on the white horse is slaying all kingdoms 
 and empires by the broadsword of his mouth. Our Lord 
 adds that all, when they so hear, will pass forth; they who 
 performed, i.e., did or made, what is good, to resurrection 
 of life, and they who practised what is good-for-nothing to 
 resurrection of judgment. He adds that He cannot do 
 anything of Himself — springing merely out of His own 
 will: ' I judge, as I hear ; and My judgment is just ; for 
 I am not seeking My own will, but the will of Him who 
 sent Me.' This seems to accord with His description of 
 how, when He shall come in His glory, and all the angels 
 with Him — as the armies in heaven accompanied the 
 rider, all on white horses (xix. 14) — before Him will be 
 gathered all the nations (or Gentiles), and He will separate 
 
344 ^-^^ Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 them one from another, as the shepherd — compare our 
 xix. 15, where the rider tends (Hterally shepherds, if there 
 were such a verb in Enghsh) the nations — as the shepherd 
 separates the sheep from the goats. The process is alto- 
 gether different from that in our courts of justice, which 
 would be full of the wrangling, and evidence, and cross- 
 examinations, to prove that a goat was a goat, and not a 
 sheep, and so forth. The process of the * last judgment ' 
 we must not look for in law courts invented by ' the 
 beast ' ; but, where we are told we shall find it, in the 
 method of the shepherd, carried out with unerring and 
 irresistible power. The proofs will all be completed before 
 the judgment begins. 
 
 In John viii. 15, 16, our Lord repeats that He judges 
 none ; and again in xii. 47. In all the other cases of using 
 the verb. He speaks of men judging other men and things. 
 And it would seem that the essence of His judgment will 
 be, that it will only confirm that which all His angels and 
 saints will have discerned to be right. The judgment will 
 not be sprung upon an audience who have no opinion 
 or conviction of their own ; but will be such as all in 
 heaven can glorify with praise, by the time its fulfilment 
 is come (xix. i-g). 
 
 To return to the vision, and to the position of things, 
 before the great bright throne is seen. During the 
 thousand years none but the saints who had not wor- 
 shipped the beast will live again. During that time, then, 
 the inhabitants of the world will be in a better position 
 than that which Christ (Luke xvi. 27, etc.) makes Dives 
 plead would ensure the conversion of his brethren. They 
 will have every help we can conceive : Satan will be ex- 
 cluded, and the saints will be raised from the dead and 
 sent to them, and open wickedness will be suppressed and 
 broken to pieces by a staff of iron. It seems intended 
 that Christ and His saints will live and reign with a more 
 intimate presence and action than the former has exer- 
 
The Old Serpent 345 
 
 cised since He finally ascended alone into heaven in the 
 presence of His first disciples. Meantime, these re-risen 
 saints will have the glory coveted by Satan and his beasts, 
 and assumed by the kings and emperors, or other govern- 
 ments, of the beast. They will be priests and kings of the 
 most high God, and will in both offices share, not under 
 only, but with His Son, in His holiness, power, and glory. 
 As no measure can be given of the glory of God, so no 
 measure is given of the glory He is willing to grant His 
 saints, except, as is stated by our Saviour in His teaching 
 and parables, the proved faithfulness and goodness of each 
 saint himself. 
 
 At, or about, the end of the thousand years Satan will 
 be allowed to return to earth, and will be free to lead 
 astray all the nations, or Gentiles, represented by Gog 
 and Magog. As the Euphrates represented the border 
 between Israel and the wise and organized Gentiles, or 
 nations of the world, so, under the names of Gog and 
 Magog, all the less organized and wilder tribes of the 
 north-east Gentile regions were included, such as, in 
 Ezekiel's time, parts of Persia, and such as, in St. John's 
 time, are called by Josephus Scythians — Gentiles, in the 
 sense of not being Israelites, not so organized as to be 
 ranked as nations, and more wild, needy, and ferocious. 
 Christendom had, under the sixth trumpet, suffered from 
 the four angels, who were up to that time bound at 
 the great river Euphrates — a phrase which might repre- 
 sent all the civilized, or at least organized, nations of 
 the four quarters of the globe outside Christendom. But, 
 at the time now described, Christendom no longer exists; 
 it is replaced by a kingdom of Christ extending over the 
 whole globe, and the attack is from wilder and more 
 anarchical people, not forming nations. It would be rash 
 to consider whether the violence threatened by this war 
 be physical or spiritual, or be moral temptation ; we 
 have no clue to the progress human knowledge will have 
 
346 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 made in both material and moral power and weapons ; 
 but of this we may be assured, that such an attack made 
 by men, of any genus we can suppose consistently with 
 our experience, will be made with the will to use every 
 means available to enforce success. Nor can we physically 
 locate either side. Jerusalem, then as now, represents 
 God's servants throughout the world, and Gog and 
 Magog, by analogy, represent a certain kind of associa- 
 tion of men throughout all the world, as the beasts, or 
 the harlot, represented such an association throughout 
 all Christendom. Satan makes his last appearance on 
 remand, not as a dragon, for, if so, he would surely have 
 had that name given him, at least, where it is said that 
 he is cast into the lake (verse 10), as it is where he is 
 cast into the bottomless pit (verse 3) ; and he receives, 
 so far as earth, — for its ages of ages will in any form last, — 
 his final judgment from heaven, from which he had, 
 from our Saviour's time, been thrown down. This is 
 his final earthly sentence and punishment. 
 
 Both judgment and court seem specially quiet, and free 
 from disturbing action. What effect upon the devil and 
 his angels this convincing and crushing judgment of him, 
 of his empires, and of those who worshipped his empires, 
 will have, we are not told. It can never be reversed, nor 
 its fiery sentence of deprivation and exclusion disallowed. 
 It may well be called a judgment and sentence scienti- 
 fically eternal, though the Greek language cannot express 
 such an idea with the same precision as our own. 
 
 The great bright throne, and God seated on it, are a 
 signal for the disappearance of the symbolical earth and 
 its heaven, and, presumably of its sea; not a sun, star, 
 nor beast remains, nor is there any place open for such 
 things to exist in. In the judgment we see two sets of 
 books used — one set containing each man's deserts, and 
 the other the names of those renewed in spirit, and 
 sealed, who have been able to take part in the service of 
 
The Old Serpent 347 
 
 God in the earth. All who are not written in the last book, 
 are condemned by the first set of books, and are abolished, 
 together with death, and the state of departed souls. 
 
 In this vision, then, the throne, or judgment- seat of 
 supreme and final judgment on earth is seen. The 
 judge is not described, but some of the details of the 
 process of this great symbolical trial and sentence are 
 given. After the judgment, St. John sees a new heaven 
 and earth (xxi. i). He is not describing anything actual ; 
 he is describing a vision in which the old earth, heaven, 
 and sea, flee and are gone, and a new heaven and earth 
 appear. 
 
 As in the case of our own hearts when renewed by God's 
 grace, so of our earth. The description of either as 
 become new or as changed, and so forth, does not indicate 
 that the old one ceases to exist, and that a new one takes 
 its place, but indicates that the same heart, or earth, is 
 changed, or renewed, to an important, and practically 
 essential, extent. 
 
 St. Peter (2 Pet. iii. 10) seems to describe the actual 
 destruction of our earth about this time. Such a destruc- 
 tion is bound to occur in the course of time, either by the 
 cooling down of the sun, and freezing of the earth, and of 
 its liquids and gases ; or by some stellar collision, which 
 would raise the heat of the sun. What St. Peter describes 
 might be the natural consequence of a fixed star, of a size 
 comparable to our sun, colliding with our sun, and heating 
 it up, say, so large as the orbit of Mercury or Venus. In 
 such a case this earth would become so heated as to 
 become new. 
 
 We cannot connect St. Peter's description with St. 
 John's. The two may refer to the same event from 
 different points of view, or it may be that St. Peter is 
 writing figuratively, as well as St. John. In favour of 
 this last view may be mentioned the frequency with which 
 fire is used figuratively as an associate of judgment. 
 
348 The Revelation given to St. JoJin the Divine 
 
 12. — To return to St. John. He saw the dead, not the 
 souls, but the re-risen bodies, appear to be judged, each 
 according to his works, as written in the scrolls. Death 
 and Hades are not said to appear or to be judged, but they 
 are thrown into the lake of fire. These were seen and 
 recognised by St. John in the fourth seal (vi. 8) ; but he 
 gives no description of them there. They seem here to 
 be symbolical figures, like the beasts, each in charge of a 
 group of the dead whom they have to give up, and distin- 
 guished from the sea, which also gives up its dead. We 
 can only conjecture that the symbols of the vision were 
 in harmony with some of the fancies of the time, and 
 were framed so as to leave no loophole for supposing that 
 any dead would escape the judgment. A prevailing fancy 
 was that those who died on earth went to Hades, while 
 some were excluded ; and amongst them those who died 
 at sea, who hovered about the sea in some ghostly way, 
 unable to recover their old bodily form, such as the shades 
 in Hades possessed. One thing deserves notice : the 
 vision could show no bodily form, made of material from 
 the heaven or earth, which had fled ; unless, as seems the 
 case, the fleeing did not leave a vacuity, but only involved 
 the disappearance of the old inhabitants, and their en- 
 vironment, and left a new class of inhabitants, with new 
 environment. Probably the symbols failed here, and the 
 position of the lake of fire must be considered indeter- 
 minate. We may be sure that the lake represents a 
 suitable existence for evil beings, embodied or bodiless, 
 men or beasts or death, whence they cannot come out to 
 molest the glorified saints ; and the figure weeping and 
 gnashing of teeth (Matt. viii. 12) is characteristic of their 
 condition together. 
 
 The name of a lake of fire burning with sulphur recalls 
 Daniel's vision of the great sea, stirred by the four winds 
 of heaven (Dan. vii. 2) ; representing the condition of the 
 people of the civilized heathen world living on earth in 
 
The Old Serpent 349 
 
 Daniel's time. Instead of a lake of fire and sulphur, the 
 condition of men is there represented as the Mediter- 
 ranean, with all winds blowing at once. The condition 
 of the damned is here represented as a lake of fire burn- 
 ing with sulphur. It seems perfectly idle for us to try to 
 construct Hell from such a representation, any more than 
 an uninformed man in Daniel's time could have con- 
 structed the Gentile nations, constitutions, and employ- 
 ments of our time, out of Daniel's Mediterranean. It need 
 only be said that no intelligible meaning can be assigned 
 to the dragon, beast, death and Hades being sent to 
 accompany the damned, unless the latter are still to be 
 conversant with their old dispositions, organizations, and 
 destruction, under new forms. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 ORIGINAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION. 
 
 And I saw a new heaven, and a new earth ; for the 
 first heaven, and the first earth were gone ; and the 
 sea is not any longer. 
 
 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, descend- 
 ing out of the heaven from God, made ready as a 
 bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud 
 voice out of the throne, saying ' See ! the tent of God 
 with men 1 And he will camp with them ; and they 
 will be his peoples ; and he will be God with them, 
 their God. And God will wipe away every tear from 
 their eyes ; and death will not be any longer ; nor 
 will mourning, nor crying out, nor toil be — no longer, 
 because the first things are gone.' And he who was 
 seated upon the throne said ' See ! I make all (things) 
 new ;' and he says, ' Write : — These words are faithful 
 and true.' And he said to me, * I am become the A 
 and the fl (the A and the Z), the beginning and the 
 end. 1 shall give to the thirsty out of the fountain 
 of the water of life, as a free gift. He who conquers 
 will inherit these things ; and I shall be to him God, 
 and he will be to me son. But to the cowardly, and 
 unfaithful, and disgusting, and slayers, and fornicators, 
 and those who drug, and idol-worshippers, and to all 
 liars — their allotment will be in the lake burning with 
 fire and sulphur, which is the second death. 
 
 And one of the seven angels, who have the seven 
 
Original Eriglish Translation 351 
 
 saucers, who are full of the seven last plagues, came 
 and talked with me, saying, * Hither ! I will show thee 
 
 10 the bride, the wife of the Lamb.' And he carried me 
 away in spirit on to a great and high mountain, and 
 showed me the holy city Jerusalem descending out of 
 
 11 the heaven from God, having the glory of God. 
 That which gives her light (is) like a very precious 
 
 12 stone, as if a jasper stone, clear as crystal. (A city) 
 having a great wall : having (also) twelve gateways, 
 and twelve angels upon the gateways, and names 
 written on, which are the names of the twelve tribes 
 
 13 of the sons of Israel : from east (are) three gateways, 
 and from north three gateways, and from south 
 
 14 three gateways, and from west three gateways ; and 
 the wall of the city has twelve foundation-stones, and 
 on them twelve names of the twelve apostles of the 
 Lamb. 
 
 15 And he who was talking with me had a measure, 
 a gold reed, that he might measure the city, and its 
 
 16 gateways, and its wall. And the city lies rectangular, 
 and its length as much as its breadth. And he 
 measured the city with the reed, up to stadii, of 
 
 17 twelve thousands ; its length and breadth and height 
 are equal. And he measured its wall of a hundred 
 and forty -four cubits, man's measure, which is 
 
 18 angel's. And the material of its wall is jasper ; and 
 
 19 the city pure gold- work like pure glass. The founda- 
 tion-stones of the wall of the city are adorned with 
 every precious stone • — the first foundation-stone 
 jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, 
 
 20 the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth 
 sardion, the seventh gold-stone, the eighth beryl, the 
 ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh 
 
 21 hyacinth, the twelfth amethyst; and the twelve 
 gateways twelve pearls throughout, each one of the 
 gateways was out of one pearl ; and the street of the 
 
352 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 22 city pure gold, as if transparent glass. And temple I 
 did not see in it, for the Lord, the almighty God, is 
 
 23 its temple, and the Lamb. And the city has no need 
 of sun or of moon, that they may shine in it ; for the 
 glory of God lighted it ; and its lamp is the Lamb : 
 
 24 and the nations will walk about by its light ; and the 
 
 25 kings of the earth bring their glory into it ; and its 
 gateways will never be closed by day — for there is no 
 
 26 night there — and will bring the glory and worth of 
 
 27 the nations into it. And there will never enter into 
 it any common thing, nor (any one) making disgust 
 and falsehood ; but only they who have been written 
 in the scroll of life of the Lamb. 
 
 THE NEW JERUSALEM. 
 
 Section L Verses i to 8. New Heaven and 
 New Earth. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 I. — The sea is not any longer. In all such phrases 
 the plain English is. There icas no sea any more, though the 
 literal translation is intelligible. The Greeks and English 
 use negatives intelligibly ; but in neither case is the use 
 scientific ; so that literal translations ma}^ be confusing, 
 as here ; or even conve}' opposite meanings. 
 
 2. — Adorned for her husband, or by her husband. 
 
 3. — God with them : in Hebrew, Euunanuel. 
 
 Their God : the evidence of MSS. for these words is 
 only equal to that for omitting them. 
 
 4. — God : the preponderance of evidence is for omitting 
 this. The words might then stand thus : ' and he will 
 be God with them, and will wipe away,' etc. 
 
 Death will not, etc. : in plain English, There will he 
 no death any more ; and so with mourning, etc. 
 
The New Jerusalem 353 
 
 6. — I AM BECOME. There is a confusion in the best 
 MSS. here, which makes it possible that St. John wrote 
 ' It is done. I am A and /2,' etc. 
 
 A and fl. Here and elsewhere, I suppose this should be 
 in English A and Z, to suit our alphabet. I have added 
 the latter in brackets. 
 
 8. — Who drug. Medicine was as actually mixed up 
 with, and with the majority of practitioners overborne by, 
 enchantments and misuse, as astronomy was by astrology 
 and necromancy. 
 
 Lake. The most usual lakes were salt-water back- 
 waters or lagoons, or fresh-water marshes and meres ; 
 but, as with us, the word seems quite capable of being 
 applied descriptively to volcanic lakes of glowing lava and 
 fire ; and these were usually described as coming up 
 direct from Tartarus, or the bottomless pit, and as 
 commonly believed so to come. This symbolical lake may 
 refer to the descriptions, current in St. John's time, of 
 some actual volcanic lake of fire ; but most likely to 
 poetical and mythological ideals, suggested by the sight, 
 or description, of actual eruptions. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 I. — St. John is now going to describe the new heaven 
 and earth. The seething sea of humanity, tossed about 
 under every wind of heaven, has no representative here. 
 Instead of the secular powers, and the tempers which 
 maintained them under Satan's influence and promotion, 
 there is seen God's tent, with God dwelling in it, and 
 His peoples, like an Eastern brotherhood, around. The 
 temper is love, not ambitious rivalry, nor violent contest 
 for the survival of the fittest ; the tone is peace and con- 
 fidence, not watchful distrust ; the mind is to exercise 
 love to God and one's neighbour, not to utilize Him. 
 The new city Jerusalem is a bride of God ; a total 
 contrast to Egypt, Sodom, Babylon, or Rome. We may 
 
 23 
 
354 ^^^^^ Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 now dismiss such comparisons ; there is no room for 
 them in the city which God inhabits as Emmanuel. 
 There will be no more empires, nor tears, nor death, nor 
 toil ; and the delightfulness is, not so much the personal 
 relief, as the feeling that all the security, honour, and 
 comfort arise from the nearness of our own God, and is, 
 and will continue, the fruit of His love, who sent His own 
 Son into the world to save it. And now, amongst His 
 own. His life is their life. His conquest their conquest ; 
 each citizen has no limit to his inheritance but his own 
 fitness ; to provide a place for himself, it is not necessary 
 to extinguish his neighbour. No scales and weights are 
 used : the most high, or necessary, benefits are a free gift. 
 What a happiness of mutual confidence, in all, this 
 implies ! The cowardly, unfaithful, disgusting loafer, the 
 murderous robber, the treacherous fornicator or poisoner, 
 do not exist : they are all absent, in the lake. 
 
 When the prophet says that he sees a new heaven and 
 earth, of course he does not mean a new abode of God ; 
 but a new earth and its heaven. There is no reason to 
 give a mere physical meaning to this part of the vision 
 alone ; so we must take it as a symbol to represent a new 
 state of life, on the new earth, corresponding to its present 
 civilized inhabitants and their rulers ; a new state of life, 
 indeed, but one of which God has already raised up 
 types, in various forms, in His government of His people 
 under Abraham, Moses, and David. The bride, the holy 
 Jerusalem, represents an organization of a nation, or 
 body of nations, a distinct class, ' marked ' men, but, 
 instead of being scattered over the world, it includes the 
 whole world. Of this the ancient Jerusalem was a type, 
 with fully sufficient promises, but under necessary con- 
 ditions which its people failed to fulfil. Even so far as 
 it obtained those promises, it was so unfit to be a real 
 type, that it was miserably destroyed. The only sun, 
 moon, or star in the new heaven, now become God's tent 
 
The New Jerusalem '^^^, 
 
 (comp. Ps. xix. 4; civ. 2), is God Himself; and the new 
 city, which came down from heaven. This last doubtless 
 represents that the tone, temper, mind, knowledge, 
 worship, and practice of all who are to form the city are 
 from God, in a perfection and harmony measured by His 
 own power and attributes. This new Jerusalem is decked 
 by her husband as a bride ; and the eavth is newly-adapted 
 to be her inhabitants and subjects. These saints, the 
 new earth, are called men and peoples ; not people (verse 3), 
 implying a grouping into distinct tribes or governments ; 
 but the name of kings or kingdoms is avoided, since all are 
 under the one King, Christ, the Lamb, much more con- 
 solidated than any human empire or kingdom ever was ; 
 forming altogether one body in Christ. 
 
 Section H. Verses g to 27. The Four Square 
 
 City. 
 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 9. — Who are full: i.e., the angels, not the saucers; 
 perhaps because in the vision the saucers were now empty, 
 and to the prophet the angels alone still stood repre- 
 senting the future plagues. 
 
 10. — In spirit : i.e., still in the vision. 
 
 Descending. St. John does not say descending on to 
 the mountain, either here, or in verse 2. 
 
 Heaven. The last-mentioned heaven is the new heaven 
 (verse i) ; and that is doubtless the one meant. 
 
 II. — That which gives her light : literally A^r light; 
 as we call a lamp, or a heavenly body, a light. So to 
 translate it, however, would be ambiguous ; since in 
 English we have not, like the Greeks, a separate word 
 for the light which gives the light, and the light given out 
 by it. 
 
 Is. In this description St. John seems purposely to 
 avoid expressing the verbs is, was ; so much so that in 
 
356 The Revelation given to St. Jo/m the Divine 
 
 many places the English, and in some the Greek, becomes 
 lame without them. It is possible that he expresses them 
 only where he means represent, represented : and therefore 
 where St. John does not express the verb substantive, it 
 is put in parenthesis. 
 
 Clear as crystal : literally like ice. 
 
 12. — Having. This (twice) is nominative in Greek, 
 the preceding one (verse 11) being accusative, governed 
 by showed me. 
 
 14. — Has : literally {is) having, in the masculine, like 
 the participle saying, in vi. i ; xi. 15. This is peculiar to 
 the ' Revelation '; possibly due to St. John's thoughts 
 being on the person or persons represented as vividly as 
 on the symbol he is describing. 
 
 16. — Lies rectangular : means simply is rectangular 
 in plan. 
 
 Up to stadii, of 12 thousands. We do not know 
 how the angel seemed to measure 12,000 stadii — say 1,380 
 English miles — with his reed ; nor would it make things 
 simple to suppose that in some way a measure of a 
 stadius length was exhibited. It is safe to suppose that 
 St. John expresses : — that the lengths now given him 
 were given in stadii ; and that the angel measured the 
 city and found it to be twelve lengths of a thousand. In 
 the original the word is not the adjective thousand, but 
 the substantive thousands (as Gen. xxiv. 60; Num. x. 36). 
 In the LXX. rulers of thousands (as in Ex. xviii. 21) is a 
 compound word, like centurion ; and when the thousands 
 were called up by Samuel (i Sam. x. ig) they are called 
 sceptres or batons, as if he called up each division in the 
 person only of its * ruler of a thousand,' carrying his 
 official staff. The LXX. offers us a very similar instance 
 to this expression of St. John, in Ps. cxix. 72, where the 
 substantive thousands is used, without saying thousands of 
 what, as here. There the subject is gold and silver, and 
 here it is stadii. There is no possibility of giving a 
 
The New Jerusalem 357 
 
 definite meaning to a thousand of gold and silver ; nor 
 can we here define either what was measured, nor the 
 length of the measurement. 
 
 Length, etc. Whether the length, breadth, and 
 height were each twelve thousands, or all equal and 
 each four thousands ; or whether the circumference of 
 the city in plan were twelve thousands, and therefore the 
 length, breadth, and height each three thousands, must 
 remain in dispute, as must the meaning of height ; whether 
 it refers to the height of the wall itself, or the height of 
 it above the valley, if it stood, like part of Jerusalem, on 
 a high cliff. It is important to observe that are is ex- 
 pressed in the original, and consequently refers not to the 
 symbol, but wholly to what the length, breadth, and 
 height of the city represent, in thus being equal. 
 
 17. — One hundred and forty-four cubits: appa- 
 rently the thickness of the wall, as he saw it from the 
 mountain, measured across the top. To suppose a wall 
 one thousand three hundred and eighty miles square in 
 the face, and only seventy-two yards thick, would make 
 its proportions similar to those of a sheet of steel an 
 eighth of an inch thick and above one hundred and ten 
 yards square. 
 
 Which is angel's. We cannot be too careful to take 
 the guidance so carefully provided by St. John. The 
 symbol, as a real figure or picture, is quite lost sight of; 
 the one hundred and forty -four cubits (is) a man's 
 measure, which is (or represents) an angel's. What cubits 
 were is not stated ; presumably it is unimportant. 
 
 18. — The names of the stones are, as nearly as may be, 
 the Greek names written in English letters ; most of these 
 names have been used, or misused, by lapidaries till they 
 have become difficult to identify. Even pure glass is vague : 
 few glasses were transparent, and St. John seems to men- 
 tion it, whenever he describes transparent glass, ' like 
 crystal.' Yet it could hardly be pure yellow that is 
 
358 The Revelation given to St. Jo Jin the Divine 
 
 described, whether transparent or not. At all events, we 
 may suppose that the yellow gold seemed to sparkle as 
 clearly and brightly as glass. 
 
 21. — Throughout : or possibly by itself, as some think. 
 The expression occurs nowhere else in the New Testa- 
 ment. 
 
 Street : literally the broad {way), as in xi. 8 ; xxii. 2 ; 
 Esther vi. g, 11 ; LXX. It probably means open places, 
 and, if so, the English plural streets would give the mean- 
 ing better than the singular street. A street in our sense, 
 as manifestly meant in Acts ix, 11 ; xii. 10, is quite a 
 different word in Greek. So xxii. 2. 
 
 24. — Its light : i.e., of the glory of God ; or it may, 
 so far as the grammar is concerned, mean the light of the 
 city ; but it is not exactly implied elsewhere that the city 
 itself shines by its own light. 
 
 26. — Will bring : i.e., the gateways will ; as in Isa. 
 Ix. II (Heb. and LXX.), from which it is perhaps quoted. 
 
 Worth : may mean either honour, referring to the 
 ' kings ' in the verse in Isaiah just referred to, or value of 
 all kinds, as in Isa. Ixvi. 12 ; or both. 
 
 27. — Common : in the Jewish sense, as made pretty 
 clear by Acts x. 14 ; and just so i Mace. i. 47. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 g. — Here one of the seven plague-angels again steps in 
 to give, so far as symbols may, a fuller idea of the glory 
 and stability of the new city. The description hitherto 
 seems to follow the analogy of Israel as organized under 
 God's laws, and removed from all human interference and 
 slavery, starting from Sinai under the personal conduct of 
 the God who had descended from heaven on that moun- 
 tain — freed from all oppression, fear, and struggle for 
 existence, and from all idol-worship, temptation from 
 without, and false religious teaching. God then had His 
 tent amongst their tents. Their clothes did not wear out. 
 
The New Jerusalem 359 
 
 nor was death known, except as punishment for wilful 
 rebellion. Manna is not alluded to by St. John ; but the 
 fountain of the water of life will freely supply the thirsty. 
 It is impossible to resist a conviction that the parallel 
 between Israel rescued from Egypt, borne as it were on 
 God's wings in the desert, and offered and promised a 
 great future, and the saints rescued from the present 
 world, and planted in the new world described by St. John, 
 will go farther. God's ways have a persistent character, 
 and it is His pleasure to exhibit that persistence ; to a belief 
 in it the patriarchs seem to have trusted as their only 
 assurance of a future life. The process God adopts with 
 a grain of mustard-seed is similar to that He adopts with 
 His own kingdom. But in this vision it is not possible 
 that the future career of the rebellious and stiffnecked 
 Israel would be fit to represent the development of God's 
 glorified kingdom of pure and faithful saints. Israel 
 failed as a type of unlimited evolution ; but that there 
 will be continued evolution of the white-clothed saints is 
 certain ; and this seems implied in the inspired phrases, 
 which are usually translated ' for ever ' and ' eternal, 
 which literally mean ' for the ages of the ages,' ' lasting an 
 age,' or ' lasting only an age '; in any case, implying succes- 
 sive eras, each of a higher order than the previous one. 
 
 We have no description of the state of the men and 
 devils in the lake of fire, in company with the old empires, 
 death, and Hades. It is excluded from the vision. We 
 must be content to know that their condition there is 
 described as a closed lake of fire, in the same vision of 
 St. John in which the original condition of the same men 
 and beasts in this present world is described as the sea 
 (xiii. i). Daniel describes it as the Mediterranean. The 
 expressions for the duration of that condition are similar 
 to those for the duration of the condition of the glorified 
 saints, and alike they imply an indefinite succession of 
 different ages or eras. 
 
360 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 Of the new Jerusalem we can only know what is shown 
 by the angel, and only a few references touching the 
 character of the symbolism can be added. The city is 
 as impossible a city as Ezekiel's cherubim were impos- 
 sible animals, or his wheels an impossible mode of travel- 
 ling ; it is, therefore, only from the points shown or noted 
 by the angel that we may draw any trustworthy symboHsm 
 or suggestions. The city is not the Church of Christ, 
 and is a different symbol to the temple built of living 
 stones, and supported by living pillars upon Christ 
 himself as corner foundation stone. It represents the 
 spiritual tone and mind, confidence and knowledge, union 
 of hearts, objects and pleasures, the entrance into which 
 by the glorified saints is anticipated in an imperfect 
 degree by the entrance of Christ's servants into His 
 Church on earth. 
 
 II. — The city is lighted by a pure and permanent light. 
 It is enclosed by an impregnable wall, perhaps represent- 
 ing safety, complete salvation. It faces all four points of 
 the compass, accessible on every side without obstruction. 
 In each face are three gateways, and this perhaps has no 
 meaning, except that the total of twelve is equally divided. 
 As the twelve tribes were so arranged in the camp in the 
 wilderness that three nominal tribes out of the thirteen 
 faced a cardinal point of the compass, it is open to ques- 
 tion whether the symbolic number twelve be derived 
 from the Divine number three, multiplied by four, to 
 symbolize every direction of the compass, or whether 
 twelve is a number chosen as a convenient symbol, being 
 neither large nor small, and being divisible by so many 
 factors, two, three, four, and six. It is observable how 
 many very important divisions are made by the number 
 twelve. There are about twelve and three-eighths lunar 
 months in the year, yet, in spite of this discrepancy, all 
 nations preferred to call the year twelve months. Twelve 
 was as universally chosen as the number of hours in the 
 
The New Jerusalem 361 
 
 day, whatever its length. In coins and measures twelve 
 has been successfully used, though it harmonizes neither 
 with the scale of notation, nor of repeated halving. The 
 Apostles are always grouped in three distinct sets of four, 
 unlike the tribes, which (as above) were in four sets of 
 three. This indifference in grouping indicates that twelve 
 is the symbolic number, and that its component parts are 
 used either for practical purposes, as with the Apostles, 
 or in conformity with some other symbol, so as to make 
 even the four sides of the tabernacle, or of the new 
 Jerusalem. We may, then, take twelve to symbolize a 
 definitely appointed group, wherewith God originates 
 and develops some plan He has predestined to be 
 carried out on earth, as by months he develops years, 
 by the sons of Jacob His chosen people, by the Apostles 
 His Church, and by these gateways access of all saints to 
 His face. 
 
 No corner foundation stone — that from which the whole 
 building is laid out, and which, when once laid, cannot be 
 altered without entirely altering the position of the build- 
 ing — is here mentioned. Therefore there is no symbolic 
 stress on such stones as happen to be at the corners ; but 
 it may be assumed that, the site having been determined, 
 a foundation-stone was set, one at each corner, and two 
 in the length of each wall, to guide the builders ; all in 
 idea only, for the city has no similarity to any human city 
 as actually built. 
 
 15. — All the conditions of the city are exactly measured 
 by God's golden rule. The city is a cube, equal in space 
 from all points of view. The length of the rod is not 
 given, nor the measurement, whether it be one stadium of 
 twelve thousands, or twelve of some measure called a 
 thousand stadia ; or whether it be a measure of one 
 stadium repeated twelve thousand times. It is not clear 
 whether each side of the city measured twelve thousands, 
 or three thousands, or four thousands ; but the length, 
 
362 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 breadth, and height, whether taken successively or col- 
 lectively, were equal. Historians about St. John's time 
 were fond of giving the top breadth of the walls of 
 great cities, and this may be the measurement of one 
 hundred and forty-four cubits given here. The general 
 shape of the city would be somewhat that of an altar 
 made of twelve stones set together on end in the earth, 
 square in plan, three on each side, and so long that, when 
 filled in with earth, the altar would be a cube. The 
 ancient altars thus made, of the mosaic pattern, were of 
 unhewn stones — a circumstance which, while necessary 
 to typify that no hand but God's could adequately frame 
 an altar fit for His worship, would necessarily interfere 
 with the symmetry of the structure, and is dropped out of 
 sight here. No such difficulty occurs in the New Jeru- 
 salem which God Himself has built. No perishable nor 
 earthy material is mentioned, but the supply of the most 
 precious known stones is ample, and the symmetry and 
 shape, even of the most refractory, is complete. Instead 
 of the twelve stones of an altar, to represent the twelve 
 sons of Israel, are twelve gateways inscribed with the 
 names of twelve of the tribes, as if to represent that all 
 the citizens are the chosen people of God, the true Israel, 
 and that there exist none to guard against. The gateways 
 are always open, as in a time of perfect peace, and as the 
 vision includes all nations and kings — whatever these 
 represent, where all are kings (xxii. 5) — in the whole 
 world, these gateways would be seen in constant use. It 
 seems useless to speculate on what the different stones 
 were, much less on what they represent, further than to 
 notice that they indicate the same absence of sameness, 
 which we now see in God's creation of everything, from a 
 mineral to a man's mind. 
 
 The kings bring in, for themselves and from their 
 peoples, tribute, the acknowledgment of imperial power. 
 St. John calls it glory. Tribute was delusively called 
 
The New Jerusalem 363 
 
 presents in the old earth, but in Christ's kingdom this 
 tribute is so naturally and freely brought — it is such a 
 happiness to bring it — that neither of the old names occur 
 to the prophets (Isaiah Ix. 3-8). As to the contribution 
 of worth and glory being any loss to the contributors, 
 St. John knew differently, even of such contributions as 
 were made under painful or humiliating difficulties in his 
 own time (Matt. xix. 29 ; Mark x. 29, 30; Luke xviii. 29). 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 ORIGINAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION. 
 
 And he showed me a river of water of Hfe, bright as 
 if crystal, passing out from the throne of God and 
 of the Lamb : between its street and the river, on 
 this side and that, timber of life, j'ielding twelve 
 fruits, bearing its fruit according to each month : and 
 the leaves of the timber (are) for nurture of the 
 nations. And there will be no cursed thing any 
 longer. And the throne of God and of the Lamb 
 will be in it ; and his servants will work for him, and 
 will see his face ; and his name (will be) on their 
 foreheads. And there will be no night any longer ; 
 and they will have no need of light of lamp and 
 light of sun, because the Lord God will give light 
 upon them and they will reign for the ages. 
 
 And he said to me, ' These words are faithful and 
 true ; and the Lord the God of the spirits of the 
 prophets sent his angel to show his servants what 
 must quickly occur. And, see ! I am coming quickly. 
 Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of 
 this scroll.' 
 
 And I, John (am the man), hearing and seeing 
 these things : and when I heard and saw, I fell to 
 salaam before the feet of the angel showing these 
 things to me ; and he says to me, ' Look (thou dost 
 it) not : I am fellow-servant of thee and of thy 
 
Original English Translation 365 
 
 brothers the prophets, and of those who are keeping 
 the words of this scroll : salaam to God.' 
 
 10 And he says to me, * Do not seal up the words of 
 the prophecy of this scroll ; for the season is near. 
 
 11 He who does wrong, let him do wrong still ; and the 
 foul, let him be befouled still ; and the upright, let 
 him do righteousness still ; and the holy, let him be 
 
 12 holy still. See ! I am coming quickly : and my re- 
 ward is with me, to pay back to each as his work is. 
 
 13 I (am) the A and the fl (the A and the Z), first and 
 
 14 last, the beginning and the end. Blessed are they 
 who wash their dresses, that they will have authority 
 over the tree of life, and (that they) should enter by 
 
 15 the gateways into the city: outside are the dogs, 
 and those who drug, and the fornicators, and the 
 murderers, and the idol-worshippers ; and every one 
 
 16 fond of, and doing, a lie. I, Jesus, sent my angel to 
 testify these things to you at the churches.' 
 
 * I am the root and stock of David, the bright star 
 
 17 of the morning. And the Spirit and the Bride say. 
 Come. And let him who hears sa}^ Come ; and let 
 him who is thirsty come : let him who will, take 
 water of life, as a free gift.' 
 
 18 I testify to everyone who hears the words of the 
 prophecy of this scroll : If anyone should add upon 
 them, God will add upon them the plagues written 
 
 19 in that scroll ; and if anyone should take away from 
 the words of the scroll of this prophecy, God will 
 take away his part of the tree of life, and out of the 
 holy city, which have been written in this scroll. 
 
 20 He who is testifying these things says, 'Aye ! I am 
 coming quickly.' Amen ! come, O Lord Jesus. 
 
 21 The grace of the Lord Jesus (be) with all the 
 saints. 
 
366 The Revelation given to St. John the Divme 
 
 THE VISION OF THE REDEEMED. 
 Exegetical or Critical Notes. 
 
 2. — Its : the city's streets. 
 
 Timber : the word used in the LXX. for tree, all 
 through Gen. ii. g. Except in the Revelation it is not 
 used for growing timber in the New Testament, but for 
 staves (Matt. xxvi. 47, etc.) ; stocks (Acts xvi. 24) ; building 
 timber (i Cor. iii. 12) ; and frequently (Acts v. 30 and 
 onwards) for the cross of our Lord. Perhaps there is 
 allusion to the last in St. John's use of the word. 
 
 12. — Fruits : that is, a crop ever)^ month (Ezek. 
 xlvii. 12), unfailing fruit. 
 
 Nurture: used of medical and surgical treatment; 
 also (Luke xii. 42) household management. 
 
 3. — Work for: or serve (St. Stephen in Acts vii. 7, 
 from Ex. iii. 12 ; LXX.). 
 
 4. — See His face : meaning probably will be admitted, 
 at their wish, to direct communication with Him ; as a 
 king's trusted ministers and nobility are to audience with 
 the monarch. 
 
 5. — They : the servants of the Lamb. 
 
 Give light. Give is inserted in English, because the 
 verb light is ambiguous, which it is not in the Greek. 
 
 6. — These : i.e., the above. 
 
 Quickly : literally, m quick (time) without delay, soon. 
 So in Acts xii. 7. 
 
 7. — Quickly : literally, quickly, swiftly. In English the 
 context is usually enough to make the meaning clear; 
 and this even a periphrasis would hardly do alone. The 
 slang word — what must occur — sharp is, perhaps, a strict 
 translation of ' quickly ' in the sixth verse ; but the word 
 sharp in that sense is only accepted as official English in 
 telegraphy. 
 
The Vision of the Redeemed 367 
 
 Keeps : or watch, observes, has an eye to. 
 
 This scroll : apparently referring to the scroll of this 
 Revelation, which St. John was finishing. 
 
 8. — These : i.e., the above. 
 
 II. — Does wrong : habitually, consciously commits 
 injuries. 
 
 Upright : or just. 
 
 12. — Reward : perhaps strictly wages. He does not, 
 like some generals, leave his soldiers to reward them- 
 selves, or go without reward. So Isa. xl. 10. 
 
 14. — That they will : is a mixed construction of that 
 they may, and a promise that they will. So xiv. 13. 
 
 16. — At the churches. The evidence of the MSS. is 
 about equal for in and for iipon the churches. You is 
 plural, of course. 
 
 ig. — Part : or share. 
 
 Part of the tree : literally, part away from the tree. 
 
 Expository Notes. 
 
 I. —From the description of the river, and its fountain 
 head, it seems to mean such a river as might be supplied 
 by an aqueduct in almost any city of importance in St. 
 John's time ; not wide enough, if open, to interfere with 
 foot traffic, and, we may assume, adequately bridged. 
 The fountains are numerous and copious in Rome, 
 playing through, or under, allegorical figures and deities, 
 and supplying every part of the city by channels. The 
 word street, as likely as not, means all the street-ways 
 open for general traffic, and for display of wares, or for 
 temporary camps. 
 
 2. — As the fruits of the trees give life to those who eat 
 them, so the leaves are for the orderly management, 
 medical attention, healing treatment, of nations — an 
 appropriate .symbolism, if we consider what numbers of 
 lives are lost by the only means known now of settling 
 national differences in the last resort. 
 
368 The Revelation given to St. John the Divine 
 
 15. — This verse, perhaps, indicates the symboHsm of 
 the city walls. In an ordinary case, the walls of a city 
 keep out wild dogs, jackals, hyenas, and all objectionable 
 animals ; and as these hide away, or, at least, are rarely 
 worth a thought, during the time the ordinary business 
 and occupation of the city and its visitors is going on, the 
 walls are felt as a security from annoyance by such 
 animals. Hence, the walls of the new Jerusalem may be 
 a symbol of security from all annoyances mentioned here, 
 and in xxi. 8, although these appear to be already safely 
 removed and imprisoned in the lake of fire. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Elliot Slock, Paternoster l\ow, London. 
 
BS2825 .L352 
 
 The Revelation given to St. John the 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 
 
 1 1012 00069 9555