i,S or V:iNa 
 
 ^i-m'6,M^'':^ 
 
 
OUTLINE STUDIES 
 
 IN THE 
 
 New Testament 
 
 CATHOLIC EPISTLES— JAMES, I AND II 
 PETER, I, II, III JOHN, AND JUDE 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM G. MOOREHEAD 
 
 Professor in the Xenia Theological Seminary 
 
 "Other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.' 
 
 New York Chicago Toronto 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 
 London and Edinburgh 
 
J 
 
 Copyrighted, 1908, 1910 
 
 BY 
 
 THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF 
 PUBLICATION 
 
 Pittsburgh, Pa. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PACB 
 
 Epistle of James 6 
 
 ^'Lord's Brother" 9 
 
 Address and Date 12 
 
 Analysis 16 
 
 Temptations 18 
 
 Prayer and Healing 21 
 
 The Tongue 24 
 
 Barren Orthodoxy 2.^ 
 
 First Peter 30 
 
 Peter's Primacy 32 
 
 Place of Composition — Babylon 36 
 
 Notable Features 38 
 
 Analysis 43 
 
 Prominent Topics 44 
 
 Prophets and their Study 48 
 
 Preaching to the Spirits in Prison 51 
 
 Second Peter 68 
 
 JuDE Quotes from 2 Peter "^2 
 
 Peter's Three Worlds 79 
 
 First Epistle of John 87 
 
 God is Light 94 
 
 God is Love 104 
 
 Design of i John 115 
 
 Second John 121 
 
 V 
 
 
vi CONTENTS 
 
 rxGK 
 
 Third John 123 
 
 JuDE 127 
 
 Description of Apostates 131 
 
 Seven Marks of Apostacy 134 
 
 Sons of God and Daughters of j\Ien 136 
 
 Enoch's Prediction 142 
 
EPISTLE OF JAMES 
 
 The seven epistles, commonly called Catholic or 
 General, are the subjects of the present study. With 
 the epistle of James we are first to deal. 
 
 Can the James whose name is attached to this 
 epistle be identified? Several persons bearing the 
 name are mentioned in the New Testament, e. g., 
 James the son of Zebedee John's brother, James the 
 son of Alphaeus, James the Less, and James the 
 Lord's brother. There is good reason to regard James 
 the son of Alphaeus and James the Less as one and 
 the same person (cf. Mark xv: 40; xvi: i ; John 
 xix: 25). Three of the name appear to be distin- 
 guished from each other, viz. : James the son of 
 Zebedee, James the son of Alphaeus, and James the 
 Lord's brother. 
 
 Which of these three was the writer of the epistle? 
 James the son of Zebedee is excluded by the fact that 
 it was written probably after his martyrdom by Herod, 
 A. D. 44. James the son of Alphaeus seems also to be 
 excluded because there is no evidence that he was 
 specially prominent as a teacher in Jerusalem, whereas 
 the contents of the epistle and the Acts attest the pres- 
 
 7 
 
8 EPISTLE OF JAMES. 
 
 ence of a James in the holy city who held a conspicu- 
 ous and influential place. Besides, the writer of the 
 epistle does not call himself an apostle; he speaks of 
 himself simply as "a servant of God and of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ" (i: i). Ordinarily, when a writer 
 of an epistle gives his name he affixes also his title. 
 Now James son of Alphaeus was an apostle, but James 
 the Lord's brother was not. In Gal. i : 19 he seems to 
 be included in the number, but the construction of the 
 sentence in that place does not warrant such a con- 
 clusion : "But other of the apostles saw I none, save 
 James the Lord's brother." The margin of the Re- 
 vised Version reads, "but only James the Lord's 
 brother," which sets him apart from the apostle Peter 
 whom Paul visited on this occasion. (Cf. Rom. xiv: 
 14; Luke iv: 26, 2y, for a like construction.) In 
 I Cor. XV : 7 — "then he appeared to James" — the order 
 of the words seems to imply that James is rather to 
 be distinguished from than included among the 
 apostles. Had James son of Alphaeus written this 
 letter he would in all probability have inserted his 
 title of apostle. Since this is absent, the inference 
 seems legitimate that the writer was not an apostle. 
 Besides, Jude describes himself as "a servant of Jesus 
 Christ, and brother of James" (ver. i) — language 
 which denotes that Jude anticipates a respectful hear- 
 ing of his message because of his relationship to the 
 influential James. In the family of Joseph and Mary 
 there were both a James and a Jude (Mark vi: 3), 
 and it is altogether likely that the two named in 
 Jude's epistle were precisely these two sons, and 
 
EPISTLE OF JAMES. 9 
 
 hence the "Lord's brothers." But neither of them 
 was an apostle, though bound to the Lord Jesus by 
 the closest ties, as we shall presently see. 
 
 On the whole, the evidence points unmistakably to 
 James "the Lord's brother" (Gal. i: 19) as the author 
 of our epistle. He was one of the most conspicuous 
 members of the apostolic church. He was the chief 
 pastor and principal teacher of the church of Jeru- 
 salem. It was he who with Peter and John gave the 
 right hand of fellowship to Paul and Barnabas 
 (Gal. ii: 9), to whom Peter sent the tidings of his de- 
 liverance from prison (Acts xii: 17), and who, to- 
 gether with the elders, received Paul and his com- 
 panions on their arrival in Jerusalem with the gifts 
 of Gentile churches for the needy saints (Acts xxi: 
 18). It was this James who took so prominent a part 
 in the Council of Jerusalem (Acts xv), and who 
 offered the resolution^ as we moderns would say, which 
 was unanimously adopted by that .assembly. Peter at 
 Antioch for a time held fellowship with Gentile Chris- 
 tians, but when certain came from James he drew back 
 and refused longer to eat with them, so great was 
 James' influence (Gal. ii : 11, 12). 
 
 But now what relationship is meant by the ex- 
 pression, "the Lord's brother?" Frequent mention is 
 made of the Lord's brethren (Matt, xii: 46; Mark vi: 
 3; John vii: 3, 5; I Cor. ix: 5; Gal. i: 19). In Mark 
 vi : 3 we read, "Is not this the carpenter, the son of 
 Mary, and brother of James, and Judas, and Simon? 
 And are not his sisters here with us?" This was said 
 by the people of Nazareth who were well acquainted 
 
lO EPISTLE OF JAMES. 
 
 with the family and with Jesus' relation to it. They 
 speak of His brothers, naming them, and of His sisters, 
 and of His mother. In Acts i : 14 "his brethren" are 
 distinguished from the apostles, from the disciples, 
 and from the mother Mary. What kinship did He 
 sustain to these ^'brothers" and "sisters ?" Cousins of 
 Jesus they could hardly be, for the term "brother" is 
 never used in this sense in the New Testament. If 
 they were the children of Cleopas (Alphaeus), whose 
 wife was Mary (John xix: 25), who was sister to 
 Mary the mother of Jesus, as Jerome and many after 
 him believe, then we have two sisters of the same 
 name, a most unlikely thing. But the text in John 
 xix: 25 does not necessarily mean that the mother's 
 sister was the wife of Cleopas ; rather, we understand 
 John to say this — "His mother and His mother's sister, 
 Mary of Cleopas and Mary Magdalene." Four 
 women are here mentioned, not three. Mark xv: 40 
 informs us that one of the women who beheld the 
 crucifixion was Salome, and John does not name her 
 because she was his own mother, and she was sister 
 to Jesus' mother. 
 
 The natural inference from the biblical statements 
 as to our Lord's brethren is this : His brothers and 
 sisters were the children of Joseph and Mary born to 
 them after the birth of Jesus. The intelligent reader 
 of the Bible, uninfluenced by preconceptions, would 
 certainly infer so much. It was superstitious rever- 
 ence for the mother of Jesus and for the dogma of her 
 perpetual virginity that led men to affix other meanings 
 to the terms "brother," "brethren" and "sisters" than 
 
EPISTLE OF JAMES. H 
 
 the natural one. Accordingly, the conjecture is that 
 Joseph was a widower when he and Mary were mar- 
 ried, and that he had sons and daughters by a former 
 wife, and these were His "brethren." There is no 
 hint in Scripture of this: it is pure conjecture. He 
 who holds that Psalm Ixix is Messianic, and that it in 
 point of fact expresses the feelings and experiences 
 of the Messiah, that in it Messiah does actually speak, 
 as the writer unhesitatingly does, has a scriptural 
 definition of the Lord's "brethren :" "I am become a 
 stranger unto my brethren, and an alien to my 
 mother's children," Psalms Ixix : 8 ; cf . Luke ii : 7 — 
 "her firstborn son." 
 
 The Lord's brethren did not receive Him as Mes- 
 siah. John says, "Even his brethren did not believe on 
 him" (John vii: 3-5). Mark informs us that at one 
 time they entertained serious doubts as to His sanity; 
 they thought He was "beside himself," and with the 
 mother Mary they sought to arrest Him and to take 
 Him home with them (Mark iii: 21, 31). It is note- 
 worthy that it was but a few months before His cruci- 
 fixion when John affirms the disbelief of Jesus' 
 brethren. Indeed, it seems that it was not until He 
 was risen from the dead these "brethren" cordially re- 
 ceived Him as Messiah and were identified with the 
 apostles and disciples (Acts i: 13-15). It is thought 
 by some, Lightfoot among the number, that James, the 
 Lord's brother, was converted when the risen Saviour 
 appeared to him (i Cor. xv: 7). If, therefore, James 
 the son of Alphaeus and James the Lord's brother are 
 identical and that it was he who wrote our epistle, it 
 
12 EPISTLE OF JAMES. 
 
 follows that he was both a disciple and apostle before 
 he was a believer in Christ during the whole period of 
 the public ministry, and even up to and beyond the 
 crucifixion — which appears to us quite an untenable 
 position. 
 
 Legends and traditions have gathered about the 
 name of James, most of which are fanciful and un- 
 historical. Some things have been preserved of him 
 that may have some foundation of truth. It is re- 
 lated that he was called by the people The Just, a 
 tribute to his uprightness and integrity. He was a 
 thorough Israelite, a strict observer of the Law, but 
 not a mere formalist. His course in the Jerusalem 
 Council proves he was tolerant and had a large and 
 wise view of Christian liberty. In all essentials he was 
 in complete accord with Paul (Acts xxi : 18-26). 
 
 There is a story connected with the Lord's appearing 
 to James after the resurrection which, however doubt- 
 ful, is worth relating: At Jesus^ death James vowed 
 he would eat no bread until he saw Him risen from the 
 dead. When the Saviour appeared to him He said, 
 "My brother, eat thy bread, for the Son of Man is 
 risen from among them that sleep." He died as a 
 martyr. 
 
 James addresses the Twelve Tribes of the Disper- 
 sion (i: i). The term Dispersion is very comprehen- 
 sive. Jews were found everywhere throughout the 
 vast Roman Empire, and even beyond its limits. We 
 know from Acts ii: 9-1 1 that devout Hebrews came 
 from Elam in the far east and from Rome in the west 
 to be present at the annual feast of the Passover held 
 
EPISTLE OF JAMES. 13 
 
 in Jerusalem. Christians were found among these 
 dispersed tribes, and these James addresses in much 
 of the spirit and temper of an Old Testament 
 prophet. 
 
 At first sight the epistle appears to be entirely legal. 
 It reminds us of portions of Deuteronomy and of 
 Proverbs. As is well known, Luther objected to it 
 mainly on this score, calling it "a right strawy 
 epistle." So did Erasmus, Cardinal Cajetan and 
 others. It must be remembered that James wrote to 
 believing Jews who still held fast to Moses and the 
 Law. They needed just such exhortations and warn- 
 ings as he so frequently and powerfully employs. 
 Faith, obedience, humility, patience and love were 
 graces they lacked and needed, and these he urges on 
 them with the authority and force of a teacher in 
 Israel. 
 
 Furthermore, the epistle is an echo of the Saviour's 
 teaching. It is closely connected with the Sermon on 
 the Mount. "There is scarcely a thought in it which 
 cannot be traced to Christ's personal teaching. If 
 John has lain on the Saviour's bosom, James has sat 
 at His feet" (Scott). There are more than fifteen 
 unmistakable references in it to the truths taught in 
 the Sermon, and in some instances the correspondence 
 is almost verbally exact. 
 
 It was written at Jerusalem. The date is not so 
 easily fixed. Some things, however, may help to 
 locate the time with proximate certainty. It is quite 
 probable that James the Lord's brother was martyred 
 about A. D. 62. The apostle Peter, in his first epistle, 
 
14 EPISTLE OF JAMES. 
 
 quotes largely from James (cf. I Peter i: 6, 7; James 
 i: 2; I Peter i: 24; James i: 10, 11; i Peter iv: 8; 
 James v: 20; i Peter v: 5, 6, 8; James iv: 6, 7). At 
 the time Peter wrote James' letter must have been 
 well known, and accredited as both genuine and au- 
 thoritative. Accordingly, it must have been written 
 some years before First Peter. 
 
 The epistle moves within the circle of Judaic Chris- 
 tianity, and it belongs to its first stage. Certain ex- 
 pressions in it could be used with great effect by the 
 Judaizers to impose their legalistic dogmas on Gen- 
 tile believers, e. g. (ii: 10), "For whosoever shall keep 
 the whole law, and yet oifend in one point, he is guilty 
 of all." This statement could be easily perverted into 
 the support of a rigorous observance of the Mosaic 
 rites. That the Judaizers did thus employ such pas- 
 sages appears evident from Acts xv: 24. It is there 
 asserted that some had gone from Jerusalem to Anti- 
 och and other places whose chief aim it was to im- 
 pose Judaism on Gentile Christians, and they claimed 
 that James and other influential disciples sanctioned 
 their teaching. But the claim is denied — "To whom 
 we gave no commandment." The inference seems 
 legitimate that the epistle was written before the 
 meeting of the Council held in Jerusalem, i. e., before 
 A. D. 51. This conclusion is strengthened by the fact 
 that James never once alludes to the controversy at 
 Antioch ; never once does he mention circumcision, the 
 heart of that bitter contention. What he vigorously 
 insists on are moral precepts and Christian duties com- 
 mon to all believers, Jew and Gentile alike, and not 
 
EPISTLE OF JAMES. 15 
 
 at all on ceremonial ordinances or Hebrew rites. 
 Hence the date probably precedes A. D. 51. Some- 
 where between A. D. 45-51 it probably lies: — (Mayor, 
 Huther, Neander, Plumtre, Purves). 
 
 The epistle of James is very likely the oldest docu- 
 ment in the New Testament canon. It is noteworthy 
 that within sixteen years of our Lord's resurrection 
 the Gospel had penetrated the widely scattered people 
 of Israel. James himself told Paul that there were 
 "many thousands" who believed, and he spoke only 
 of Jerusalem. How many more there must have been 
 within the Roman Empire we may readily infer. The 
 Lord's brother had good reason to address his letter 
 to the twelve tribes of the Dispersion. 
 
 Another thing worthy of note is, that James does 
 not controvert Paul's doctrine as to justification by 
 faith apart from works. The controversy between 
 Paul and the Judaizers is of later date than this 
 epistle. Both Romans and Galatians were written 
 some years after James. Hence the one did not write 
 against the other, nor is there antagonism in their 
 views of truth, as later on in this study we shall see. 
 
 The language of the epistle is strong and beautiful. 
 It abounds in vivid imagery, in short, sententious ut- 
 terances. With a single stroke of his pen James com- 
 mends a duty, scourges a fault, denounces wrong, ex- 
 alts virtue, and crowns patience and faith with tran- 
 scendant glory. James differs widely from Paul both 
 in style and thought. The imagery of Paul is drawn 
 almost exclusively from the employments of men, as, 
 e. g., military life, agriculture, architecture, and the 
 
16 EPISTLE OF JAMES. 
 
 contests of the stadium and of the gymnasium, while 
 the metaphors of James are taken almost entirely from 
 the phenomena of nature. There are more images of 
 this sort in this short epistle than in all the writings 
 of Paul put together. Note how graphic these are: 
 the waves of the sea driven by the wind and tossed; 
 the stately ship and the fierce winds ; the flower of the 
 grass ; the sun risen with a burning heat ; the bit and 
 bridle of the horse ; the small fire and the raging con- 
 flagration; beasts, birds, serpents; the fig, olive, vine; 
 the salt and fresh water; the early and latter rain, the 
 vanishing vapor, rust, and moth-eaten garments. Paul 
 was a keen observer of the habits and ways of men: 
 James was an eager student of nature, and saw in its 
 varied phenomena a picture of humanity. Both spoke 
 by the Spirit of God, but their inspiration did not 
 annul the characteristic features of their minds. 
 
 Analysis. 
 
 I. Contentment with our lot, chap. i. 
 
 1. Greeting, i: i, 
 
 2. Victory over temptation, i: 2-8. 
 
 3. The lowly and the lofty, i: 9-1 1. 
 
 4. Sin's genesis and issue — God's gift, i: 12-18. 
 
 5. Receiving the word, i: 19-21. 
 
 6. Hearers and doers of the word, i: 22-27. 
 
 II. Instructions and admonitions, ii-iv: 12. 
 
 1. As to respect of persons, ii: 1-13. 
 
 2. As to a barren orthodoxy, ii: 14-26. 
 
 3. As to the control of the tongue, iii: I-12. 
 
 4. As to jealousy and faction, iii: 13-18. 
 
 5. As to pnh, greed and censoriousness, iv: 1-12. 
 
EPISTLE OF JAMES. ly 
 
 III. Denunciations, chaps, iv: 13-v: 6. 
 
 1. Against overweaning confidence, iv: 13-17. 
 
 2. Against rich and oppressive sinners, v: 1-6. 
 
 IV. Concluding exhortations, chap, v: 7-20. 
 
 1. Patience, v: 7-11. 
 
 2. Rash assertions, v: 12. 
 
 3. Health and sickness, v: 13-20. 
 
 This analysis serves to show how practical and even 
 personal the epistle is. It is ethical, not doctrinal. Yet 
 doctrine, even the profoundest, underlies the personal 
 appeals and the stern denunciations. It deals with 
 actual conditions. It pours light into the professions 
 and the practices of Christian Jews, and Gentiles as 
 well. Living in the center of Judaism James saw the 
 vices to which his countrymen were addicted, and he 
 saw likewise that his flock was infected by the same 
 hurtful evils, and so he must rescue them. Accord- 
 ingly, he lifts up his voice, like one of Israel's 
 prophets, to exhort, to rebuke, and to warn. He some- 
 times speaks with indignation, sometimes with sorrow, 
 almost with tears, always with the deepest earnestness. 
 He pours out what is uppermost in his thoughts and 
 closest to his heart without waiting to connect his mat- 
 ter or to throw bridges across from one subject to 
 another. 
 
 Beneath the abrupt style and sententious form of the 
 epistle there is a paramount aim, a single purpose. 
 James' design is to vindicate the genuineness of the 
 Christian faith and life. He seeks to make Christians 
 sincere and true. He protests against the semblance 
 3 
 
l8 EPISTLE OF JAMES. 
 
 of religion, against the profession of godliness with- 
 out its possession. What he insists on is reality. He 
 has no patience with a mere show of piety, with a lorm 
 of godliness. He has a horror of cant. He heartily 
 repudiates what is not real and vital. This, it is con- 
 ceived, is the essence of James' teaching. He ex- 
 presses it thus: "li any man thinketh himself to be 
 religious, while he bridleth not his tongue but de- 
 ceiveth his heart, this man's religion is vain" (i: 26). 
 The key of the epistle is found in this sentence : "But 
 be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiv- 
 ing your own selves" (i: 22). "What doth it profit if 
 a man say he hath faith, and hath not works? Can 
 that faith save him ?" All this talk about faith — what 
 is it worth? Words, words — nay, let us have realities. 
 
 With this clue in our hands let us study some of 
 the prominent features of this Scripture. 
 
 I. Temptations and their uses, i : 2-4, 12-16. "Count 
 it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into manifold 
 temptations." What singular advice this is! Most 
 people count trials a calamity; they are commonly 
 dreaded, and always to be shunned. James thought 
 otherwise. He looked on them as a means of Chris- 
 tian culture, as a positive blessing; and hence they 
 should be welcomed with joy. Of course, suffering 
 in itself brings no joy, but the reverse. It is of what 
 the trials may through grace work out for the be- 
 liever that they are to be counted a joy when they 
 come. "Knowing this that the trying of your faith 
 worketh patience." A metal is tested in order to 
 know its worth. But the trial of a dead thing is only 
 
EPISTLE OF JAMES. 19 
 
 a test, whereas the trial of faith is the test of a living 
 principle, and it issues in spiritual strength and 
 energy. James calls it "patience," i. e., endurance or 
 steadfastness, the development of genuine character. 
 So Paul also conceives of it (Rom. v: 3-5), a passage 
 we may venture to paraphrase thus: We rejoice in 
 our tribulations, because tribulation works out patient 
 endurance, and patient endurance becomes a cause and 
 works out an approved experience, and this next be- 
 comes a cause and works out hope, a hope that cannot 
 shame nor disappoint us, for it is the fruit of grace 
 and of the Spirit's action. The aim of Christian dis- 
 cipline is perfection, "that ye may be perfect and en- 
 tire, in nothing lacking." Faith is the supreme condi- 
 tion of spiritual life and growth, and faith grows by 
 use, by exercise, hence it is tried, put often to the test 
 that it may become strong and vigorous. It is only 
 thus it becomes fruitful. Because of what tempta- 
 tions mean and what they do and why they are sent 
 the intelligent Christian ought to regard their approach 
 with joy (cf. I Peter iv: 12, 13). It is a singular 
 school we are sent to, and they are strange lessons 
 which we are sometimes made to learn. But it is the 
 best of all schools and the most profitable of all lessons. 
 Jacob in his anguish said, "All these things are against 
 me" (Gen. xlii: 36), but he was totally mistaken. 
 What seemed to him to be unmixed evil turned out to 
 be altogether good (cf. Rom. viii: 28; Heb. xii: 5-12). 
 But often our distrust of God and our unworthy sus- 
 picions of Him rob His dealings with us of much of 
 their value. Pain, loss, suffering, are not joyous 
 
20 EPISTLE OF JAMES. 
 
 things, but grievous, "nevertheless afterwards they 
 yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness unto them 
 that are exercised thereby." How many men and 
 women bless God for the loving but firm discipline of 
 the old home ! It then seemed hard to them, almost 
 cruel, but it bore its precious fruit in the after-life. 
 What they now are and all they are they owe in large 
 measure to the faithful home training. It is not 
 otherwise in God's household. A psalmist writes, 
 "Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now have 
 I kept thy word." And he gladly adds, "It is good for 
 me that I have been afflicted" (Psalms cxix: 67, 71). 
 Through eternity the saints will rejoice that God loved 
 them too well to let them have their own way. He 
 does not spare the rod, and His rod, like Aaron's, buds 
 and blossoms. So James bids us count our divers 
 temptations as "all joy," their multiplicity may be 
 made to yield "every joy," every sort of glad ex- 
 perience. 
 
 "Sweet are the uses of adversity, 
 Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, 
 Wears yet a precious jewel in his head." 
 
 "Temptation" is used in two opposite senses in 
 Scripture. In one it means triai, testing, as we have 
 just seen. In the other it denotes enticement to sin, 
 sftlicitation to evil. God never tempts in this sense. 
 The basest slander uttered against Him is, to charge 
 Him with being the author of the sin by which one is 
 overcome. Yet men do this. They seek to exculpate 
 
EPISTLE OF JAMES. 21 
 
 themselves for their evil doing by laying the blame on 
 circumstances, on temperament, on bad companions, 
 on the devil, or on the Creator who, they allege, have 
 made them with these fierce passions and desires. Not 
 thus does a true child of God blaspheme the holy 
 Lord. His language is that of the psalmist, "I ac- 
 knowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever be- 
 fore me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and 
 done this evil in thy sight" (Psalms li: 2-4). His 
 confession is, "my sin," **mine iniquity," "my trans- 
 gressions." The wrongdoing is one's own, all one's 
 own. God tempts no man to evil ; "but each man is 
 tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust, and 
 enticed." It is a sign of grace, a token of reality, 
 when one honestly confesses his sin, repents of it, 
 and comes to God with humble, trustful confidence. 
 It is a mark of total depravity when one blasphemously 
 charges God with his sin. 
 
 II. Prayer for wisdom and guidance, i: 5-7; v: 
 13-18. "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God 
 that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; 
 and it shall be given him." Wisdom is more than 
 knowledge and is better. A man may have extensive 
 and accurate knowledge, and at the same time be any- 
 thing but wise. The wisdom so often and so highly 
 commended in the Bible is a spiritual perception, a 
 right understanding of what is right and best, and 
 the application of it to the life. Its beginning is the 
 fear of the Lord, and its possession brings content- 
 ment and happiness. For wisdom discerns the will 
 of God concerning us, perceives His aim, acquiesces 
 
22 EPISTLE OF JAMES. 
 
 in His dealings, and draws thence comfort and 
 strength. Wisdom is the best knowledge used for the 
 highest ends. It comes from God, and is to be had 
 for the asking. When serious troubles arise, when 
 exigencies and perplexities beset us, when we know 
 not what to do or how to behave, when no way of 
 escape appears, God is more than equal to the emer- 
 gency, and may have a hundred ways to lead us out 
 into liberty and to set our feet in a large place. We 
 have only to ask ; He gives "liberally," absolutely, dis- 
 interestedly. Selfishness gives, but grudges, rebukes; 
 He gives with perfect love, nor reproaches our ignor- 
 ance nor mocks our fears. 
 
 Prayer is not real unless it 'is in faith. God honors 
 trust in Himself, never doubt or unbelief. Therefore, 
 "let him ask in faith nothing wavering." "Waver" is 
 fine, for while it does not positively deny, it hesitates 
 and trembles between belief and unbelief, as if it met 
 the question. Will God keep His promise? — now with 
 yes, and now with no. "Let not that man think that 
 he shall receive anything from the Lord," for he is a 
 "double-minded man, unstable in all his ways." 
 "Double-minded" is most expressive, as if the man 
 had two souls, one trusting the other doubting, one for, 
 the other against, hence inconstant, unsettled like the 
 surge of the sea. Stier well says, "A doubtful peti- 
 tioner offers not to God a steady hand or heart so that 
 God cannot deposit in it His gift." Twice only do the 
 Gospels speak of Jesus marvelling; once at the faith 
 of a Roman officer (Matt, viii : lo) ; and once at the 
 unbelief of the people of Nazareth, "And he could do 
 
EPISTLE OF JAMES. 23 
 
 no mighty work" there, for unbelief ties up the hand 
 of God while faith moves the hand that moves the 
 worlds (Mark vi: 5, 6). 
 
 True prayer is offered only by one who is at peace 
 with God and a child in the heavenly household. 
 James writes, "The supplication of a righteous man 
 availeth much in its working." The prayer of faith 
 is always heard, so is that of the righteous man, for 
 only the justified and saved man prays in absolute trust 
 and confidence. 
 
 It is the righteous man who is the genuine interces- 
 sor ; he can come with holy boldness to the throne of 
 grace in behalf of others. So James directs that one 
 sick call for the elders of the church who are to pray 
 over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the 
 Lord : "and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and 
 the Lord shall raise him up ; and if he have committed 
 sins they shall be forgiven him" (v: 14, 15). On this 
 passage mainly rests the "sacrament of extreme unc- 
 tion" held and practiced by the Roman church. The 
 contrast between what Jesus teaches and Rome prac- 
 tices is as sharp as it can well be. In James it is the 
 sick one who calls the elders ; in Rome it is others, the 
 sick being supposed to be in extremis. Here it is the 
 elders who are called, there it is the priest ; here united 
 prayer is offered for recovery; there no prayer for 
 healing is "said;" here the anointing is for healing; 
 there for absolution ; here all is done for healing ; there 
 for death. Extreme unction is only administered in 
 cases where life is despaired of and death is believed 
 to be certain. It is mildly hinted that the sickness may 
 
24 EPISTLE OF JAMES. 
 
 be the product of sins committed ; and the promise is 
 that if so these shall be forgiven, and the prayer of 
 faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him 
 up to life and health again. A faithless man, a dou- 
 ble-minded man, an unrighteous man, cannot offer 
 true prayer. Prayer without faith is fruitless. James 
 urges sincerity, honesty, genuineness on the part of 
 Christians. He is intolerant of mere profession. 
 
 in. Control of the Tongue, i: 26; iii : i-io. James' 
 indictment against the censorous, malignant, slander- 
 ous and lying tongue is one of the most severe, yet the 
 most just, to be found in the whole range of literature. 
 Three very pointed illustrations are introduced to set 
 forth adequately the fact of the smallness of the instru- 
 ment and the greatness of its work. The tongue is com- 
 pared to two familiar mechanical appliances, and then 
 to one of the forces of nature, in all three very simple 
 and insignificant means produce mighty results. 
 
 (i). The bit and bridle of the horse, iii: 3. "Be- 
 hold, we put bits in the horses' mouths, that they may 
 obey us." The horse is a powerful animal, useful 
 when domesticated, dangerous and useless when wild, 
 but he must be controlled in any case if he is to serve 
 man with his strength. And he is governed by the bit, 
 the part he bites, and the thing which keeps him under 
 command. How trivial the bit seems, yet how effec- 
 ti've ! So is the human tongue, small in itself, but so 
 powerful as to arouse the wildest passions, defile the 
 noblest mind and pollute the purest heart; or, it can 
 stimulate to high endeavor, instil the loftiest aspira- 
 tions, and fill the soul with the most steadfast courage 
 
EPISTLE OF JAMES. 25 
 
 and patience. Curbed, its worth is beyond compare; 
 unfettered, it is one of the deadHest enemies of God 
 and man. 
 
 (2). The ship's rudder (iii: 4): "Behold also the 
 ships, which though they are so great and are driven 
 of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very 
 small helm whithersoever the governor listeth." The 
 merchantmen of Paul's time were large vessels, as 
 those described in the Acts clearly indicate (chaps, 
 xxvii, xxviii) ; but in our day naval architecture builds 
 on a colossal scale. Yet both ancient and modern ships 
 are controlled by a little tongue, or rudder, at the 
 stern. The mammoth ships of the present are 
 guided by a small steering apparatus, but it is power- 
 ful enough to counteract the "fierce winds" and the 
 heaviest seas. **So the tongue is a little member, and 
 boasteth great things." "Death and life are in its 
 power" (Prov. xviii : 21). Speech is like a rudder; 
 it can guide into right ways, escape dangers, battle 
 successfully with storms, and conduct into restful 
 harbors. But it can also wreck and shatter lives, and 
 drown in bottomless floods. 
 
 (3). The little fire (iii: 5) : "Behold, how great a 
 mat'ter a little fire kindleth !" "Behold, how much 
 wood is kindled by how small a fire!" — R. V.). The 
 power of fire is terrific. A single spark may kindle a 
 conflagration which will consume a whole city. The 
 "Great Fire" of London in 1666 began in a little shop 
 near London Bridge, and by it most of the city was 
 laid in ashes. The fire which in 1871 burned over 
 some 2,100 acres of Chicago, which in a few hours 
 
26 EPISTLE OF JAMES. 
 
 left 100,000 people homeless, and which destroyed 
 some $200,000,000 of property, started in a cowshed 
 by the overturning of a lamp. At first a cliild's foot 
 might have extinguished the tiny spark, but "kindled," 
 it became a raging sea of flame which no fire depart- 
 ment could arrest. "And the tongue is a fire, a world 
 of iniquity," which "defiles the whole body and sets on 
 fire the wheel of nature, and is set on fire by hell." 
 These are fearful emblems of the tongue's malignant 
 and deadly work. But the figure is used sometimes to 
 denote the energy of the Spirit of God, as when the 
 tongues of fire rested on the heads of the disciples on 
 the day of Pentecost* Those tongues of flame signified 
 the power of speech, the irresistible words which the 
 disciples should utter. And, indeed, their words were 
 like glowing embers in their intense energy and force, 
 as the record in Acts shows. James' use of the figure 
 denotes the power of the tongue in evil. Speech is 
 often diabolical ; it scorches and consumes. The liar 
 scatters firebrands, the slanderer kindles a raging con- 
 flagration, the backbiter sets afire the "wheel of 
 nature," the whole circle of his neighborhood. 
 
 Furthermore, the unsanctified tongue is untamable 
 (iii: 7, 8). Every form of animal life submits to hu- 
 man authority, and every brute yields to man's patient 
 training. Even the wildest and most ferocious of 
 quadrupeds, as the elephant, the lion, the tiger; the 
 most solitary of birds, as the eagle, the ostrich, the 
 falcon ; the most poisonous and implacable of reptiles, 
 as the cobra, the viper, the crocodile, may be tamed, 
 and many of these have been tamed. But man's 
 
EPISTLE OF JAMES. 27 
 
 tongue is as lawless, as unbridled now as in the days 
 of Cain. Civilization refines and polishes the rough 
 and savage forces, it subdues the brutal passions and 
 curbs the wicked license of the tongue. So some ex- 
 ultantly tell us. As a matter of fact civilization seems 
 only to add to the cruelty of speech by supplying a 
 vocabulary of cultured terms and phrases that are 
 practically inexhaustible. Culture has not drawn a 
 single fang of this wild beast ; it has not lessened by a 
 single drop the poison-bag of this viper. 
 
 Besides, James notes its glaring inconsistencies 
 (Vers. 9-12). At one time the tongue worships God, 
 at another curses men. Now it sings a glad song of 
 praise, anon it blackens a noble character and blasts a 
 good name. "My brethren, these things ought not so 
 to be." They ought not, because contradictory and 
 unnatural. The forces of nature never exhibit such 
 flagrant inconsistencies. A spring never yields salt 
 water and fresh; it obeys the law of its nature, so 
 does a tree. So should the tongue; but alas, it does 
 not. Every Christian needs to pray, "Deliver my 
 soul, O Jehovah, from lying lips and a deceitful 
 tongue" (Psalm cxx: 2). 
 
 IV. Denunciation of a barren orthodoxy (ii: 14-26). 
 At first sight there appears to be real antagonism be- 
 tween the teaching of Paul and of James on the im- 
 portant subject of faith and works. Is there no dis- 
 crepancy between these two men of God as to the doc- 
 trine of justification? Apparently there is. Paul 
 writes (Rom. iii: 28), "Therefore we conclude that a 
 man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law." 
 
28 EPISTLE OF JAMES. 
 
 James writes (ii: 24, 26), "Ye see how that by works 
 a man is justified, and not by faith only;" "faith with- 
 out works is dead." Paul teaches (Rom. iv) that 
 Abraham was justified by faith; James, by works (ii: 
 21). But after all the antagonism disappears when 
 we come to understand the aim and the design of each 
 inspired writer. Paul treats exclusively of the ground 
 of our justification, and he affirms that works form no 
 part of it, that legal righteousness is absolutely and 
 forever excluded as the ground and cause of our rec- 
 onciliation and acceptance with God. James deals 
 with the evidence of the reality and energy of our 
 faith. Paul protests against human merit as being 
 part of our justification before God. James protests 
 against a barren orthodoxy which says^ but never does; 
 which pretends to be true and loyal, but which 
 haughtily refuses to feed the hungry and clothe the 
 naked; which recites weekly or daily even a perfectly 
 sound creed, but which does not work itself out in 
 devotion of life and whole-hearted service. Paul 
 speaks of the cause, James of the effect of that cause. 
 Paul's theme is the tree, James' its fruit. Suppose I 
 say, using another's illustration, a tree cannot be 
 struck by lightning without thunder, I state a fact 
 familar to all; there can be no destructive lightning 
 unaccompanied by thunder. But I further say, the 
 tree was struck by lightning without thunder, which is 
 also true, for it is the electric bolt that strikes, not the 
 report that accompanies it. So Paul says, "Faith justi- 
 fies without works, i. e., faith alone justifies us, not 
 works." James says, "But not a faith which is with- 
 
EPISTLE OF JAMES. 29 
 
 out works." Put it in a single sentence, thus: Faith 
 alone justifies, but not the faith which is alone. 
 Lightning alone strikes, but not the lightning which is 
 alone, without thunder, for that is summer lightning 
 and harmless. James teaches with equal truth as does 
 Paul, that the faith which makes loud profession but 
 which never manifests its energy and life in the activi- 
 ties of good works is dead, being alone, and it is 
 worthless. 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER 
 
 Simon Peter was a native of Galilee and by occu- 
 pation a fisherman. He was brought to the Saviour 
 early in His ministry by his brother Andrew (John i: 
 40, 41). Andrew and his friend John heard the Bap- 
 tist bear his very remarkable witness to Jesus as he 
 saw Him approaching, "Behold, the Lamb of God, 
 that taketh away the sin of the world" (John i: 29, 
 36). Their confidence in their teacher led the two 
 young men to follow Jesus to whom the double testi- 
 mony was borne, and at His invitation they spent the 
 day with Him. Andrew was won by the interview, 
 and he speedily acquainted his brother Simon with the 
 great discovery, "We have found the Messiah (which 
 is, being interpreted, Christ), He brought him unto 
 Jesus." Apparently this incident did not issue in a 
 definite call to become a disciple. At a somewhat later 
 period Peter received the call which made him a dis- 
 ciple and which predicted his future ministry for 
 Christ, "a fisher of men" (Matt, iv: 18-20; Mark i: 
 16-18; Luke v: 10, 11). His call to become an apostle 
 is recorded in Matt, x: 1-4; Mark iii: 13-16). 
 
 Peter occupies a distinguished place among the 
 Lord's disciples. In the four lists of the Apostles re- 
 corded in the New Testament his name stands first 
 (Matt, x: 2-4; Mark iii: 16-19; Luke vi: 14-16; Acts 
 i: 13). Matthew opens his list with the significant 
 
 30 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 31 
 
 words, "Now the names of the twelve apostles are 
 these: The first Simon, who is called Peter." It is 
 difficult to determine whether "first" denotes his call 
 or his rank, or whether both ideas may be embraced 
 in it. The fact, however, that his name heads all the 
 lists invests his position with some distinction, if not 
 priority. His position, however, was not so much 
 the result of his appointment by the Saviour as it was 
 that of his personal qualities, his intellectual gifts and 
 endowments. His natural talents were of a high 
 order, and these quickened by the Spirit fitted him to 
 be a leader among men. John had gifts superior even 
 to those of Peter, and they were more rare. But John 
 was not a leader like Peter. Paul in many of his great 
 qualities and talents surpassed both Peter and John. 
 No doubt others of the apostolic band had elements of 
 distinction peculiarly their own. But Peter held a 
 place not shared by others. He, James, and John be- 
 longed to the inner circle of the apostleship. The 
 three were present at the raising of Jairus' daughter, 
 at the magnificent scene of the Transfiguration, and at 
 Gethsemane during the awful Agony. 
 
 He was a leader in a sense more distinct and promi- 
 nent than the others. He is the chief figure in the 
 first twelve chapters of the Acts of the Apostles. It 
 is Peter that proposes a successor to the fallen Judas, 
 he that preaches the first Christian sermon on the day 
 of Pentecost and has the indescribable joy of seeing 
 three thousand turned to the Lord by that one dis- 
 course ; he that opens the door to the Gentile world in 
 the house of the Roman soldier, Cornelius, and that 
 
32 FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 again has the exquisite dehght of witnessing scenes 
 that closely approach those of Pentecost at Jerusalem. 
 Indeed, the supernatural gift of the Spirit to Cor- 
 nelius and his friends was a second Pentecost. It was 
 given him to pronounce sentence on the guilty pair, 
 Ananias and Sapphira, and to rebuke in the power of 
 the Spirit of God the profane and wicked Simon the 
 sorcerer. In these and the like instances Peter ex- 
 erted the authority given him by Christ Himself, viz. : 
 to bind and to loose (Matt, xvi : 19) — an authority be- 
 stowed by the Head of the new Organization, the 
 Church, upon all the disciples (John xx: 2.2, 23). 
 
 It was to him that Jesus said, "Thou art Peter and 
 on this rock I will build my church" (Matt, xvi: 18). 
 This great promise was made Peter in consequence of 
 his memorable confession, "Thou art the Christ, the 
 Son of the living God." It was the Father who had 
 revealed this mighty truth to him, as the Lord Jesus 
 assures him. He had not discovered it for himself, 
 he never could have done so, nor had it been disclosed 
 to him by any creature whatever. The knowledge of 
 the Person of Jesus Christ was a matter of revelation, 
 not of sense perception in any way. "Flesh and 
 blood" did not reveal it to him_, nor could. God alone 
 could. In consequence of this deep insight into Jesus' 
 true character, because of the divine revelation made 
 him, and because of his noble confession, Jesus pro- 
 nounced him blessed and gave him officially the new 
 name which He had said should be his (John i: 42), 
 viz. : Peter, the rock-man, the firm witness of the 
 Christ, the Son of the living God. It is common for 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 33 
 
 the Lord to change the name of favored servants 
 when some supreme crisis comes upon them, as Saul 
 receives the name of Paul when in Cyprus he showed 
 power such as he had never before displayed (Acts 
 xiii: 8-12) ; Abram becomes Abraham when the Cove- 
 nant of God is made with him (Gen. xvii : 5) ; and 
 Jacob becomes Israel, the Prince with God, when the 
 angel wrestled with him (Gen. xxxii: 2^, 28). The 
 words, "Thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build 
 my church," most certainly do not mean that by them 
 Peter was made the foundation of the Christian 
 Church, for Christ alone is the foundation, as Peter 
 himself affirms (i Peter ii: 3-8). The apostle here 
 declares that Christ is the "living Stone," that He is 
 the "chief corner-stone, elect, precious," that believers 
 are built up "a spiritual house," resthig as they do on 
 Him who is the Corner-stone. Peter himself is a 
 stone in this heavenly structure, and he is nothing 
 more. Paul likewise asserts that Christ alone is the 
 foundation of the whole Christian building (i Cor. 
 iii: 11), "For other foundation can no man lay than 
 that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." Also in 
 Eph. ii : 20-22 he teaches in exact accord with Peter 
 that Christ is the chief corner-stone, that upon Him 
 are built, first, the apostles and prophets, who are a 
 foundation as resting on Him, and then all the saincs 
 rise into a holy temple upon the same foundation and 
 corner-stone. Far less do these words denote that 
 thereby Peter was constituted the head of the Chris- 
 tian Body, that universal supremacy was conferred 
 upon him, and that he transmitted this stupendous 
 3 
 
34 FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 authority to his successors in office, the Bishops of the 
 Roman See. That great colossal structure known as 
 the Roman Hierarchy, with the infallible Pontiff at 
 its head, rests, not on the Apostle Simon Peter, but 
 mainly on the forged documents of the Isidorian 
 Decretals,* and the Donation of Constantine. 
 
 In spite of his many noble qualities and traits, and 
 notwithstanding the precious gifts bestowed upon him, 
 Peter nevertheless was too feeble and fallible a man 
 ever to become the rock on which Christ's Church 
 should rest. He was too readily defeated by tempta- 
 tion, too easily swayed by prejudice, too often con- 
 quered by fear, to be such a Rock. A few hours after 
 Jesus said, "Thou art Peter, and on this rock I will 
 build my church," the awful words of rebuke fell on 
 his startled ears, "Get thee behind me, Satan ; thou art 
 an offence unto me ; for thou mindest not the things 
 that be of God, but those that be of men" (Matt, xvi: 
 22, 23). The opening words of this reprimand are 
 the same Christ used to repel the adversary in the 
 Temptation (Matt, iv: 10). "Offence" is really a 
 stumbling-block over which Satan by poor Peter was 
 seeking to cast down the Son of God ! How quickly 
 and how unwittingly the Rock-man becomes a devil! 
 Honored servant of Christ as he was, he was too weak 
 
 * ** Upon these spurious decretals was built the great fabric 
 of papal supremacy over the dififerent national Churches: a 
 fabric which has stood after its foundation had crumbled be- 
 neath it; for no one has pretended to deny, for the last two 
 centuries, that the imposture is too palpable for any but the 
 most ignorant ages to credit." Hallam's Middle Ages, p. 274. 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 35 
 
 a man to be the foundation upon which a soul might 
 rest ; he was too often at f auh to be even the best pat- 
 tern for any devout and earnest believer. One alone 
 there is who is worthy of supreme confidence and imi- 
 tation, Christ, who never was at fault, never made a 
 mistake, who was absolutely without sin. He is our 
 Example. 
 
 But let us turn to Peter's Epistles. Two are 
 ascribed to him. Of the first the genuineness is with- 
 out suspicion. The second has been in doubt for cen- 
 turies. While the historical attestation of its integ- 
 rity is less and weaker than that of any other book of 
 the New Testament, yet it is retained in the canon, 
 and is held to be Scripture by multitudes of Christians. 
 But of its trustworthiness more will be said later on in 
 this Study. 
 
 Peter addresses the elect sojourners of the Disper- 
 sion, i. e., believing Jews who were scattered through 
 various provinces of Asia Minor. These Christian 
 Hebrews are mainly in the mind of the apostle as he 
 writes, but not exclusively so, for he writes to Gentile 
 believers as well, as i : 14; ii : lo; iv: 3, 4 clearly indi- 
 cates. The Asiatic Provinces Peter mentions appear 
 to have contained multitudes of Jews. Representatives 
 from three of them were present at Pentecost when 
 Peter preached the first Christian sermon. The three 
 Provinces are Pontus, Cappadocia and Asia (Acts ii : 
 9; I Peter i: i). Some, perhaps most of those, who 
 came to Jerusalem on that memorable occasion from 
 Asia Minor received the Gospel and returned home to 
 spread the good news among their co-religionists. It 
 
36 FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 is these "elect sojourners of the Dispersion'' he ad- 
 dresses, for Peter adhered rather strictly to the Jewish 
 side of his apostolic mission, though he does not shut 
 out the Gentiles from his instructions and his encour- 
 agements. 
 
 The First Epistle is dated from Babylon (v: 13). 
 What place is meant? Two bearing the name existed 
 in the apostolic age. There was a Babylon in Egypt 
 where a military fortress was found, and where a 
 small population was gathered. The persistent tradi- 
 tion of the Coptic Church dating from remote antiquity 
 alleges that it was from this Babylon Peter wrote the 
 epistle. The tradition further asserts that he with 
 Mark labored in Egypt, that after Peter's death Mark 
 continued the Christian testimony and founded the 
 church of Alexandria. Few besides the Copts of 
 Egypt entertain this view. 
 
 The other Babylon is the ancient capital of Chaldea 
 on the Euphrates. Jews in large numbers lived in 
 Babylon, and there is good reason to believe that the 
 Hebrew colony there was not destitute of influence 
 and importance. As the Apostle of the Circumcision 
 it is very probable Peter would visit such a center as 
 Babylon appears to have been in the apostolic age. 
 The words, "She that is in Babylon, elect together 
 with you," may point to a Christian woman and not 
 to a church (see Amer. Rev.), as what follows seems 
 to intimate — "and so doth Marcus my son." Both ex- 
 pressions denote an individual, the first probably 
 Peter's wife who accompanied her husband on his 
 missionery tours (cf. i Cor. ix: 5). The second was 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 37 
 
 John Mark, son of Mary (Acts xii: 12). The order 
 in which Peter mentions the Asiatic Provinces (i: i) 
 favors the view that the Babylon of Chaldea is meant. 
 He begins with the eastern part of Asia Minor, with 
 Pontus, and then passes westward and southward to 
 Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, then northward and west- 
 ward to Bithynia. It is exactly the order one would 
 mention if placed at Babylon on the Euphrates, and 
 certainly not if he were stationed in the extreme west, 
 say at Rome, or in the extreme south, as Egypt. The 
 weight of evidence appears to incline to the Chaldean 
 Babylon, though ancient tradition as to Peter's being 
 there is silent. 
 
 From an early period a mystic interpretation was 
 given the term — Babylon is Rome. Almost all of the 
 Roman Catholic writers so understand it, and some 
 Protestant interpreters as well. But this apocalyptic 
 disguise accords badly, indeed most discordantly, with 
 the plain matter of fact writing which the epistle dis' 
 plays. Such a symbolic meaning of the name is per- 
 fectly consistent with the book of Revelation; we 
 expect such veiled, enigmatic use of terms in that book. 
 It is altogether foreign to Peter. The wish to find 
 biblical support for the tradition of Peter's sojourn in 
 Rome may have led to this interpretation ; it is the 
 only apparent proof from Scripture that can be ad- 
 duced; but it has no weight with those who are not 
 ruled by uncertain tradition. 
 
 Peter's Epistles bear resemblance to other New 
 Testament writings, particularly to those of Paul, of 
 James, and to the words of our Lord in the Gospels. 
 
38 FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 But Peter was no copiest. He possessed much inde- 
 pendence of thought and originaHty. His fervid spirit 
 and vigorous thinking impress themselves deeply on 
 his letters. And yet he has characteristics that are 
 worthy of patient and earnest study. Let us point out 
 some of these. 
 
 I. A notable feature is the wonderful adaptation to 
 various classes, and to the manifold experiences of 
 life. President Henry G. Weston in a special study 
 of John xxi suggestively notes the connection between 
 the Saviour's threefold charge to Peter (John xxi: 
 15-17) and Peter's epistles. The charge is thus rep- 
 resented in the Revision : "Feed my lambs ; Tend my 
 sheep; Feed my sheep." Two classes are here indi- 
 cated, babes and the mature. And the two epistles 
 certify how faithfully the apostle obeyed the charge. 
 With loving and tender hand this under-shepherd 
 feeds the lambs, tends the whole flock, feeds the 
 strong, guards from danger, warns against foes, leads 
 into green pastures and beside still waters. How 
 mightily he ministers to those who suffer! He re- 
 minds them of the glorious inheritance they are to 
 possess (i: 3-9). He bids them remember the un- 
 complaining Christ when He was unjustly afflicted by 
 cruel men (ii: 20-25). He tells them of the noble 
 vindication they shall have when the Lord shall take 
 up their cause at His own judgment-seat (iv: 12-18). 
 Much of the First Epistle is designed to comfort the 
 suffering saints, to stimulate them to steadfastness, to 
 encourage them amid their fierce trials, and to assure 
 them of the glorious future that awaited th^nu 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 39 
 
 "Honor all men." "Love the brotherhood." "Fear 
 God." "Honor the king." And this was written when 
 persecution was raging, when that human monster, the 
 world's colossal criminal, Caesar Nero, was on the im- 
 perial throne, and when Christians were regarded as 
 the foes of humanity. The spirit of the world in the 
 like cases says, Resist, arm for defence and fight for 
 your rights and your lives. The Spirit of Christ says, 
 Arm for martyrdom (iv: i). "If ye suffer for right- 
 eousness' sake, happy are ye" (iii: 14). Keep before 
 you the Master's example, "who, when he was reviled, 
 reviled not again ; when he suffered he threatened not ; 
 but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously" 
 (ii: 23). The apostle calls this matchless behavior of 
 the Lord Jesus under unjust treatment a copy we are 
 to imitate. His walk and His ways we are to tran- 
 scribe into our own lives. "He wrote us a pure and 
 perfect copy of obedience, in clear and great letters, in 
 His own blood. He that aims high shoots the higher 
 for it, though he shoot not so high as he aims'* 
 (Leighton). 
 
 Such is the main teaching of the first epistle. That 
 of the second relates to the perils of false doctrine, 
 false brethren, unscrupulous corruptors of the church 
 and of the Gospel, and deniers of fundamental and 
 vital truth. What must Christians do in the presence 
 of these formidable adversaries? How shall they 
 keep themselves in the love and the holiness of God? 
 From the world they are patiently to suffer. But 
 from these more dangerous enemies how are they to 
 g^ard themselves? Second Peter answers these and 
 
40 FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 the like solemn queries. And thus Peter obeys the 
 Lord's injunctions to "feed my lambs; tend my sheep; 
 feed my sheep." 
 
 2. Hope. This is the epistle of Hope. How much 
 it makes of this prime grace! Peter seems never to 
 grow weary of defining hope, describing it, and in 
 turning it from side to side to exhibit its manifoldness, 
 its radiant beauty in every circumstance and condition 
 of life. He calls it a ''living hope" (i: 3). It is living 
 because to hope is one of the supreme functions of the 
 new nature; the believer is begotten "unto a living 
 hope." No sooner do we receive the Spirit of adop>- 
 tion and cry, Abba, Father, than is hope born, and 
 fills our whole horizon with its radiant splendors. It 
 is a hope that will never put to shame, for it rests on 
 the mighty fact and pledge of Christ's resurrection. 
 
 It is a hope that perfectly awaits the grace to be re- 
 vealed at the advent of our Lord, a hope that will 
 find its full fruition then and not till then (i: 13). It 
 is a hope that is set on God, is in Him, therefore it is 
 sure, imperishable (i: 21). Moreover, it is one that 
 can give a reason for itself, that can assert itself and 
 defend itself victoriously against all gainsayers, be- 
 cause it is living, confident, imperishable, for it is set 
 on God (iii: 15). So, a Christian is one who can sing 
 with the psalmist, "Why art thou cast down, O my 
 soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? Hope in 
 God, for I shall yet praise him who is the help of my 
 countenance and my God" (Psalms xiii : 11). 
 
 With sickly, dying hope and with dead hopes we 
 are quite familiar. The best device a nobleman could 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 41 
 
 inscribe on his escutcheon was diim spiro spero (while 
 I Hve I hope). Beyond that it seems he could not 
 venture to go. "It is a fearful thing when a man and 
 all his hopes die together" (Leighton). But a Chris- 
 tian can write joyfully and confidently, dum expiro 
 spero (while I am dying I hope), for his hope is liv- 
 ing, has life in itself, and fills and thrills the future 
 with living reality. This is the hope Peter celebrates, 
 this he urges on his readers, this he prizes above all 
 else in the world. 
 
 3. A third characteristic of the epistle is this: 
 Peter's conception of the Christian brotherhood, the 
 Church of God. It is a very exalted one. He sets 
 the new Israel in the loftiest place, he describes it in 
 terms that were applied to the old Israel, but terms 
 which with the Apostle mean more and include more 
 than ancient Israel realized. It must not be forgotten 
 that this conception is by one who was a strict Jew, 
 who, after his call to discipleship and apostleship, still 
 ministered to the circumcision (Gal. ii : 7, 8), and who 
 held somewhat strictly to the laws and customs of 
 Moses to the close of his life. All the more striking 
 and significant on this account his remarkable testi- 
 mony is : — ii : 9, 10, "But ye are an elect race, a royal 
 priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own 
 possession, that ye may show forth the excellencies of 
 him who called you out of darkness into his marvel- 
 lous light: who in time past were no people but now 
 are the people of God : who had not obtained mercy, 
 but now have obtained mercy." This is his wondrous 
 description of God's new Israel. What a cluster of 
 
42 FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 illustrious titles are here! A distinguished man, a 
 general, or a nobleman, a statesman or an admiral, will 
 sometimes have his breast covered with glittering dec- 
 orations, which mark his rank, his service and his 
 achievements. But such distinctions sink into insig- 
 nificance alongside of this dazzling cluster. Each one 
 of them belonged to ancient Israel, but they were lost 
 through disobedience and forfeited by unfaithfulness 
 and sin. They pertain now to the spiritual, the new 
 Israel who are kept in God's power unto salvation. 
 This is the heavenly nobility, the royal family, deco- 
 rated with badges brighter than ever glittered on the 
 breast of king or emperor ! 
 
 4. A fourth characteristic is this : the epistle does 
 not observe a close logical sequence in its structure, 
 as those of Paul so prominently display. There is 
 truth in Alford's statement, though perhaps he pushes 
 it too far : "The link between one idea and another 
 is found, not in any progress of unfolding thought or 
 argument, but in the last word of the foregoing sen- 
 tence which is taken up and followed out in the new 
 one." (See i: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, etc.) This peculiarity, 
 however, does not interfere with the unity of the 
 epistle, it rather adds to it, and it gives it a vividness 
 and fulness of exposition which it otherwise would not 
 possess. All the chief doctrines of Christianity are 
 found in it. The vicarious suffering and death of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ (ii: 24); the new birth (i: 23); 
 redemption by the blood of Christ (i: 18, 19) ; faith, 
 hope, patient endurance under suffering and holiness 
 of life are all taught and enforced with great earnest- 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 43 
 
 ness and force by the apostle. It is noteworthy that 
 amid the trials coming on Christians at the time the 
 main ground of encouragement and exhortation is 
 the speedy coming of the Lord and the blessedness and 
 glory they shall then uninterruptedly enjoy. But this 
 is characteristic of the Bible. The Spirit uniformly 
 keeps before the minds of the suffering saints in every 
 book of Scripture the Blessed Hope of the Lord's re- 
 turn to the world and the glorious deliverance and ex- 
 altation of all who wait for Him. This is made their 
 comfort and their strength in the day of their trouble 
 and distress. May it be personally and consciously 
 ours. 
 
 ANALYSIS. 
 (General.) 
 I. Christian Privilege, chaps, i-ii: lo. 
 IL Christian Duties, chaps, ii: ii-v. 
 
 (Particular.) 
 
 1. Salutation, i: i, 2. 
 
 2. Blessedness of salvation, i: 3-12. 
 
 3. Exhortation, i: ;3-i6. 
 
 4. Redemption, i: 17-25. 
 
 5. Exhortation, ii: 1-3. 
 
 6. Calling and Standing of believers, ii: 4-10. 
 
 7. Exhortation, ii: 11-20. 
 
 8. Christ's Example — character and work ii: 21-25. 
 
 9. Various Exhortations, iii-v. 
 
 a. Behavior toward one another, iii: 1-12. 
 
 b. Fidelity under Trial, iii: 13-22. 
 
 c. Behavior under persecution, iv: 1-19. 
 
 d. Duties of Elders, v. 1-4. 
 
 c. Humility and Vigilance, v: 5-10. 
 f. Conclusion, v: 11-14. 
 
44 FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 The epistle is rich in the glorious doctrines that it 
 unfolds, and powerful in its appeals to Christians. 
 The inspired writer knows what these suffering saints 
 need and all they need, and he speaks to their very 
 heart. He views them as pilgrims and strangers 
 walking across the earth toward their true home, their 
 heavenly country. He urges them to do no harm to 
 any, to do what good they can to all, to bear patiently 
 the cruel wrongs they unjustly suffer, to copy their 
 Lord who **did no sin, neither was guile found in his 
 mouth," to remember the noble name they bear, and 
 the glory of the heritage which soon shall be theirs. 
 
 Some prominent things in First Peter may engage 
 our attention briefly. 
 
 r. The Christian's glorious inheritance (i: 3-5). 
 In this majestic sentence two things are made pre- 
 eminent; first, the nature of the inheritance; second, 
 the certainty of its attainment. The inheritance is de- 
 scribed by four significant epithets (ver. 4). It is de- 
 clared to be "incorruptible." This word points to its 
 substance. It is imperishable. In it there is no ele- 
 ment of decay. It holds in its heart no germ of death. 
 Like its great Author, the living God, it is unchange- 
 able and eternal in its being. Of no heritage of earth 
 can this magnificent term "incorruptible" be used. 
 Imperfection and corruption attach to all earthly pos- 
 sessions. Sooner or later they pass from their owners 
 or the owners pass from them. But this is subject to 
 no loss nor change nor surprise. In every way it is 
 inviolable. Violence is not heard in that land, wasting 
 nor destruction in her borders (Isa. Ix: 18). 
 
FIRST EriSTT.E OF PETER. 45 
 
 The inheritance is described as "undefiled." It is 
 not stained by sin nor defiled by any crime, either in 
 its acquisition or its possession. Human heritages are 
 all marred by human wrongs. There is hardly an 
 acre of soil on earth that is not polluted by iniquity; 
 there is not an estate the world over that is not stained 
 by fraud or violence. The very coin that passes from 
 hand to hand is in most cases soiled by guilt. But this 
 of Peter is free from every taint of evil. Into the 
 heavenly inheritance shall in no wise enter whatsoever 
 worketh abomination or maketh a lie (Rev. xxi: 2.^^. 
 
 It is one that **fadeth not away." That is, is un- 
 withering. Ages on ages do not impair its beauty nor 
 dim its lustre. Its bloom will remain fresh, its fra- 
 grance unimpaired, forever. The bliss of the saved 
 will never diminish, the pleasures at God's right hand 
 never cloy. After millions of years in heaven the 
 saved will know no weariness nor satiety, for their 
 inheritance is unfading and unfailing. Peter describes 
 it also as a '^'crown of life that fadeth not away" 
 (v: 4). "In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy 
 right hand there are pleasures forevermore" (Psalms 
 xvi: 11). "So that our inheritance is glorious in these 
 three respects: it is in substance, incorruptible: in 
 purity, undefiled: in beauty, unfading" (Alford). 
 
 "Reserved in heaven." This is the last and the 
 crowning feature. The saints' inheritance is heavenly, 
 and it is reserved in heaven. This marks its worth and 
 excellence, and likewise its security. It is surpassingly 
 rich and lovely because it is heavenly. Jesus Christ 
 is the central object of it, and His riches are unsearch- 
 
46 FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 able ; His glory infinite and eternal ; His love all- 
 sufficient and satisfying. The heritage is kept there- 
 fore safe from all foes, from all changes, from all 
 waste. It is free from all possibiHty of invasion from 
 enemies and from decay in itself. 
 
 What guarantees have believers that they shall come 
 into the enjoyment of this great heritage? The best 
 possible. Many an inheritance is jeopardized and lost 
 to the heirs through defective title or dishonest guar- 
 dians. We know that our inheritance is secure, for 
 it is in the keeping of the faithful Creator. But we 
 live in a world that is hostile to us and to our King; 
 we carry within ourselves a traitor heart. What cer- 
 tainty is there that we shall actually "possess our pos- 
 sessions? (i.) God's power is our pledge in this be- 
 half. We are kept by it. The term for kept is a mili- 
 tary one, meaning guarded, protected as in a fortress 
 or citidal. How secure must they be who have God's 
 power for their guard ? We can triumphantly exclaim 
 with the prophet, "We have a strong city; salvation 
 will God appoint for walls and bulwarks" (Isa. xxvi: 
 i). "The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the 
 righteous runneth into it and is safe" (Prov. 
 xviii: lo). The heritage is reserved in heaven for the 
 saints : the sainted are guarded for it by the power of 
 God. 
 
 (2.) "Through faith." This is the second element 
 in the security of the saints. It is God's power that 
 preserves them unto salvation; it is their faith that 
 lays hold on the power and makes it effective in them 
 to the final accomplishment of His grace in their be- 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 47 
 
 half. God's power is the efficient cause, faith the 
 effective means. The two, power and faith, join hands 
 for the behever's eternal safety. Let the force of the 
 two prepositions in and through, in this place, be well 
 marked : we are guarded in the power of God through 
 faith. Faith brings us within the circle of the divine 
 power, and the power keeps us within the circle of the 
 saved. The efficient cause becomes inherent in the 
 effective means. "For by grace have ye been saved 
 through faith: and that not of yourselves, it is the 
 gift of God" (Eph. ii:8, R. V.). 
 
 (3.) The Living Hope is still another pledge of our 
 security. The order of the words as Peter wrote them 
 IS this — "Begotten us again unto a hope living through 
 the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." His 
 resurrection is the very life of our hope. "If Christ 
 be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your 
 sins" (i Cor. xv: 17). A darkness more terrible than 
 that of the grave enshrouds eternity, if He is not 
 risen. It is remarkable that hope, as a Christian grace 
 and fruit of the Spirit, is not found in any of the four 
 Gospels. It comes into prominence, it flowers out 
 with magnificent exuberance, only after Christ's res- 
 urrection. It then becomes a living and mighty force 
 in the believer's spirit; it then serves to strengthen 
 his faith, keep him firm and steady amid trouble and 
 gloom, and to fill his present with light and joy, his 
 future with indescribable glory. 
 
 In this great passage we have four things: 
 
 (1) God's mercy, the primary cause in our salvation; 
 
 (2) Christ's death and resurrection, the procuring 
 
48 FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 cause; (3) regeneration, the formal cause; (4) bliss, 
 the final cause. 
 
 11. The prophets and their study, i: 10, 11 : — "Con- 
 cerning which salvation the prophets sought and 
 searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that 
 should come unto you: searching what time or what 
 manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them 
 did point unto, when it testified beforehand the suffer- 
 ings of Christ, and the glories that should follow 
 them" (R. V.). 
 
 (i) The testimony of the prophets. With Peter 
 and his fellow apostles their testimony is authoritative 
 and final. In his sermon at Pentecost he confirmed 
 his inspired teaching by an appeal to two of the 
 prophets, Joel and David. On a subsequent occasion 
 (Acts iii: 24) he cited Moses to r-atify what he was 
 saying, and added that "all the prophets from Samuel 
 and those that followed after, as many as have spoken, 
 have likewise foretold of these days." He was at no 
 loss to discover the Messiah in the words of the 
 prophets. He saw in them unmistakable predictions 
 of His advent, His sufferings, and His glories. 
 
 (2) The burden of the prophetic communications 
 was salvation. The prophets spoke on many subjects ; 
 they had to exhort, rebuke, and entreat their wayward 
 contemporaries ; to denounce sin, to announce judg- 
 ment upon their own people Israel and upon the Gen- 
 tile nations as well. But ever and anon their vision 
 would be filled with the future and its blessedness, 
 their voices would swell into rapture as they saw and 
 foretold the great salvation to be brought to the world 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 49 
 
 and the grace that would then so copiously go out to 
 men; for Messiah was to suffer the just for the un- 
 just that He might bring us to God, that in His suffer- 
 ing, His triumph and His finished work, redemption 
 full and free should be secured to all who trust in 
 Him. In its most comprehensive sense salvation was 
 the prophets' theme. 
 
 (3) The prophets' messages were in reality the 
 message of the Spirit of Christ. It was He who testi- 
 fied beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the 
 glories that should follow. The prophets always dis- 
 claim any part in the origination of their messages. 
 They afiirm in the most positive and solemn manner 
 that their predictions are not their own, but God's, 
 that even their words have been given them. Hence 
 they are called God's "spokesmen" and God's 
 "mouth" (Exodus iv: 15, 16; vii: i, 2). Peter him- 
 self writes of the source and the authority of prophecy 
 this majestic sentence: "For no prophecy ever came 
 by the will of man: but men spake from God, being 
 moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter i: 21). 
 
 (4) The Prophets' Study. They "inquired and 
 searched diligently." The terms are strong and em- 
 phatic. They pored over the predictions which the 
 Spirit had revealed through themselves; they scruti- 
 nized these and bent their minds to the study of them 
 with the most eager, prolonged and earnest purpose. 
 Two points, it seems, engaged their attention more 
 particularly, viz. : "What and what manner of time 
 the Spirit of Christ which was in them did point to." 
 The first "what" relates to the date when Messiah 
 
 4 
 
50 FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 would likely appear ; the second "what" to the events 
 and circumstances which would attend His advent. 
 It was a fruitful theme for investigation, one that not 
 only enlisted the whole strength of their minds, but 
 that engaged also the inquiry of nobler students, viz.: 
 the angels, ver. 12 — "Which things angels desire to 
 look into." 
 
 It is obvious from this language that the prophets 
 did not always understand their own communications ; 
 they wrote down the messages they received from the 
 Spirit, and afterwards they gave themselves to a dili- 
 gent search into the contents of them. Daniel fur- 
 nishes an example of such research. He studied deeply 
 the prophecies of Jeremiah, and from them learned 
 when the Babylonian exile should terminate (Dan. 
 ix: 2). Accordingly, he gave himself to importunate 
 prayer that Jehovah would forgive His people's trans- 
 gressions and restore them to their land, even as He 
 had promised. Moreover, it is quite clear from the 
 words of Daniel that he did not uniformly understand 
 the significance of the divine communications which he 
 received, and that he sought earnestly to do so. In 
 vii : 28, he says, "As for me, Daniel, my thoughts much 
 troubled me, and my countenance was changed in me ! 
 but I kept the matter in my heart.** "And I wondered 
 at the vision, but none understood it" (viii: 27). He 
 tells us that one heavenly messenger said to another, 
 "Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision" 
 (viii: 16). After some of the mighty visions he re- 
 mained without strength for some time, he even 
 fainted, and was "sick certain days" (viii: 2"]). Now, 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 51 
 
 no more cogent argument for the verbal inspiration of 
 the prophetic Scriptures could possibly be adduced 
 than this fact. For it is beyond question that if the 
 prophets did not grasp the meaning of their own mes- 
 sages, if after receiving them they searched them to 
 know what they meant, then the words must have been 
 given them, else they never could have accurately re- 
 corded what they saw and heard. It is utter folly, in 
 the presence of this telling fact, to talk of the 
 ''thoughts," or the "concepts," alone being given them, 
 and then they clothed these in such language as they 
 could command. If this was the method by which 
 God spoke through the prophets ( Heb. i : i ) , then we 
 can have no certainty that the communications are un- 
 erringly true. Mistakes would inevitably occur in the 
 recording of the messages. The prophets could no 
 more have faithfully written the messages than could 
 a child report a closely reasoned address by a compe- 
 tent man on an abstruse subject, of which the child 
 knew nothing. The very words were also given the 
 prophets. Besides, here is evidence of both revela- 
 tion and inspiration. God revealed to the prophets the 
 things concerning Christ which still lay in the distant 
 future; He inspired them to write the predictions ex- 
 actly as they had been revealed. The unaided prophet 
 could no more have foretold the future nor truthfully 
 described things to come than he could create a world. 
 
 III. Preaching to the spirits in prison. 
 
 "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the 
 just for the unjust that he might bring us to God, be- 
 ing put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the 
 
52 FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 Spirit: by which also he went and preached unto the 
 spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, 
 when once the longsuffering of God waited in the 
 days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein 
 few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water" 
 (i Peter iii: 18-20). 
 
 "Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the 
 righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us 
 to God ; being put to death in the flesh, but made alive 
 in the spirit ; in which also he went and preached unto 
 the spirits in prison, that aforetime were disobedient, 
 when the longsuffering of God waited in the days of 
 Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, 
 that is, eight souls, were saved through water" 
 
 (R.V.). 
 
 Some passages of Scripture are, as is well known, 
 obscure and difficult. A few baffle elucidation. Gal. 
 iii: 20 is one such text: — **Now a mediator is not 
 a mediator of one ; but God is one." Winer says there 
 are 250 explanations of this verse ; Evans, between two 
 and three hundred. The huge number serves to show 
 how puzzling it is. "Baptism for the dead," I Cor. 
 XV : 29 is another, and women to be veiled because of 
 the angels (i Cor. xi: 10) is a third. This of First 
 Peter, as also the kindred text in iv : 6, belongs to this 
 class. The interpretations and applications of it are 
 multitudinous, perplexing and contradictory to the last 
 degree. Some of these are ludicrous, and some are 
 almost shocking in their temerity. Many interpreters, 
 perhaps a majority of them, evangelical, sacramenta- 
 rian and rationalistic, insist that our Lord in the in- 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 53 
 
 terval between His death and His resurrection in His 
 human spirit actually visited the abode of imprisoned 
 spirits in Hades and proclaimed to them in some 
 fashion the Gospel of salvation. Some samples of 
 this view are here appended. "H language has any 
 meaning, this language means that Christ, when His 
 spirit descended into the lower world, proclaimed the 
 message of salvation to the once impenitent dead." 
 *'1{ the fate of those dead sinners was not irrevocably 
 fixed by death, then it must be clear and obvious to 
 the very meanest understanding that neither, of neces- 
 sity, is ours" (Farrar). *'The proof texts (i Peter 
 iii: 18-21 ; iv: 6) admit of no other interpretation than 
 that the historic Christ Himself, made alive after His 
 death for a higher spiritual existence, proclaimed the 
 Gospel to the unhappy contemporaries of Noah, who 
 perished in the flood" (Van Osterzee). "In i Peter 
 iii: 19 St. Peter teaches that God's way of salvation 
 does not end with life" (Lange). "To all who are 
 dead at the time of the last judgment, the Gospel has 
 been preached, be it before or after their death" 
 (Huther in Meyer). "We cannot see in the words 
 anything but an attestation of the truth which the 
 Church Catholic has received in the Apostles' Creed, 
 that Christ died and was buried and descended into 
 Hell" (Plumtre). "I understand these words to say 
 that our Lord, in His disembodied state, did go to the 
 place of detention of departed spirits, and did there 
 announce His work of redemption, preach salvation, in 
 fact, to the disembodied spirits of those who refused 
 to obey the voice of God when the judgment of the 
 
54 FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 flood was hanging over them" (Alford). There is no 
 mistaking the view of the passage held by these dis- 
 tinguished writers. The Hst of names on the same 
 side might be greatly lengthened. But weighty as 
 their authority is as interpreters of the word of God, 
 we cannot accept the view. The objections to it are, 
 we think, conclusive. 
 
 This is one of the very few texts commonly cited in 
 support of the statement in the so-called Apostles' 
 Creed of "our Lord's descent into Hell." Gloag is 
 authority for the remark that "this article was added 
 to the creed at a late period, about the beginning of 
 the fifth century," which seems to prove that such a 
 belief was no part of the church's primitive confession, 
 but a notion received long after the decline of evan- 
 gelical truth had set in. On it likewise is made to rest 
 the unscriptural doctrine of the deliverance of Old 
 Testament believers from Hades and their translation 
 to heavenly bliss by the Saviour's power. Upon it also 
 is founded the theory of a "second probation," that is, 
 that there will be the offer of salvation to the impeni- 
 tent after their death and before or at the time of the 
 Final Judgment. 
 
 The aim of this study is to discover if possible the 
 true meaning of this very obscure and difficult passage, 
 and not to attempt an exhaustive examination of it. 
 Two words seem to demand a brief definition. The 
 term "preached" in connection with Christ and the 
 Apostles denotes always the preaching of the gospel, 
 the offer of salvation to those who are destitute of it. 
 Rarely does it signify to publish or to proclaim, in 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 55 
 
 the general and indefinite sense; only some five times 
 is the word thus translated in the sixty times it occurs 
 in the New Testament. Here it must certainly be un- 
 derstood as meaning the preaching of the gospel, the 
 offer of salvation to sinners. 
 
 "Spirits" are beyond peradventure disembodied hu- 
 man spirits ; they are not fallen angels nor demons, as 
 some have strangely conjectured. 
 
 Two grave questions at once confront him who 
 seeks to understand Peter's language: i. Who are 
 the spirits in prison? 2. When did Christ preach to 
 them? But these questions are not here discussed 
 separately, but together. In fact, they are so intimately 
 connected that the treatment of the one involves also 
 that of the other. The real inquiry may be thus ex- 
 pressed: When and to whom did Christ preach? 
 The answers to this inquiry by the commentators are 
 various, conflicting, and in some cases unsatisfactory 
 and misleading. The mere mention of some will suf- 
 fice to secure their rejection. It has been conjectured 
 that Christ's preaching was directed against the devil 
 and his angels. The right understanding of the phrase 
 "spirits in prison" rules out this conjecture. Or, it 
 was a proclamation of judgment and condemnation to 
 the lost in perdition, which seems to be forbidden by 
 the true meaning of "preached," or, an offer of salva- 
 tion to all the unholy dead, which is negatived by 
 Peter's statement that these "spirits in prison" were 
 men who in the days of Noah were disobedient. The 
 Apostle expressly says the preaching was limited to 
 the antediluvians. Or, it was a proclamation to those 
 
56 FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 of Noah's time who repented after the rain 
 began and the flood was set in, but too late for 
 them to escape death. There is not the sHghtest 
 hint that any of the scoffers did repent even after 
 the rising dehige deprived them of all hope of deliv- 
 erance. Peter elsewhere declares that God did not 
 spare them, that He overwhelmed the world of the 
 ungodly (2 Peter ii: 5). Scripture furnishes no evi- 
 dence whatever that any of the apostate antediluvians 
 who were drowned repented and were saved at the 
 last moment. The whole description of them leads 
 to the belief that Noah and his household alone of 
 that entire generation were children of God and saved. 
 
 Some other interpretations of the passage deserve 
 more extended notice, and to these we now turn. 
 
 (i) The preaching was addressed to the spirits of 
 the Old Testament saints who, till the death of Christ, 
 were held in some sort of detention in the unseen 
 world. This was the general opinion of the Early 
 Fathers; it is that of some modern interpreters like- 
 wise. Eph. Iv: 8 is cited as proof: "When he 
 ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave 
 gifts unto men" (cf. Psalm Ixviii: 18). The captives 
 whom the triumphant Lord led were not imprisoned 
 saints, but enemies of Him and of His people. Colos- 
 sians ii: 15 explains who these were: "Having 
 despoiled the principalities and the powers, he made 
 a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it." 
 If "the spirits" mentioned were Old Testament saints 
 they could not be prisoners. They had believed and 
 obeyed God. But Peter declares these spirits afore- 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 57 
 
 time were disobedient, and that they lived on earth in 
 Noah's day. They had scornfully rejected the divine 
 testimony, were rebellious and apostate, and went to 
 prison in consequence. They were not saints at all, 
 but foes of God. 
 
 Moreover, the term prison, which occurs some forty 
 times in the New Testament as denoting a place of 
 forcible detention, is in every instance employed in a 
 bad sense, i. e., as denoting a place of punishment, as 
 the place in which those are confined who are charged 
 with felony or crime. God does not lock up as crimi- 
 nals the spirits of His own people who trust and obey 
 Him when they pass out of this life into that beyond. 
 We conclude, therefore, that "the spirits in prison" 
 were not and could not be saints of former dispensa- 
 tions. 
 
 (2) The passage holds out no hope for a "second 
 probation," that is, that after death there may be op- 
 portunity to be saved. There is not a hint in it that 
 any of "the spirits" preached to were set free from 
 prison, even allowing that the proclamation was made 
 to them by the Lord in the interval between His 
 death and resurrection. Some interpreters are sure 
 that "the spirits" were still in prison when Peter 
 wrote. It has even been proposed to insert the word 
 now in the text and to read thus : "Unto the spirits 
 now in prison." If this opinion be accepted, and there 
 is much to commend it, then thirty years and more 
 after Christ's death and resurrection these unhappy 
 disbelievers were still confined in prison waiting the 
 awful judgment which would pronounce their final 
 
58 FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 doom. They did not repent at the preaching of the 
 Lord Jesus, even supposing that He did preach to 
 them after His own death ; they remained and still re- 
 main disobedient, incorrigible. This tremendous fact 
 closes every door of hope for those who live and die 
 in sin and impenitence. For, if the sinners of Noah's 
 day rejected God's mercy and went into prison in 
 Hades in consequence, and if after all the centuries 
 ensuing down to the time of Christ's death and His 
 alleged preaching to them in the prison did not lead 
 to repentance and the release of so much as one of 
 them, what possible ground of hope can there be for 
 any others? 
 
 Besides, Scripture represents men's state, whether 
 saved or lost, as irreversible after their death. If the 
 narrative of the Rich Man and Lazarus of Luke xvi 
 teaches anything it teaches this. There are the two 
 states clearly defined — Abraham's bosom and torment. 
 Between the two the "great gulf" lies which for both 
 sides is forever impassable. The destiny of both Laza- 
 rus and Dives is unalterably fixed. From our passage 
 a second offer of salvation to the lost in Hades cannot 
 be legitimately inferred. 
 
 But I Peter iv : 6 is urged as evidence on the other 
 side, for it is believed by some that Peter here teaches 
 the Gospel was preached to those already dead and it 
 was received by them: "For unto this end was the 
 gospel preached even to the dead, that they might be 
 judged indeed according to men in the flesh, but live 
 according to God in the spirit" (R. V.). What dead? 
 Not to the spiritually dead who were still in the flesh 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 59 
 
 when the Apostle write, for ver. 5 forbids this inter- 
 pretation; nor yet to those who dwell in the unseen 
 world, disembodied spirits, but those who heard and 
 believed the Gospel when they were living but were 
 dead when Peter wrote — these are to be judged at 
 last in the same way as those living now. Peter evi- 
 dently has in mind Christians who had suffered for the 
 Name, perhaps had been even put to death because 
 of their faith, judged by men as wicked, but who will 
 be fully vindicated at Christ's bar. We return now to 
 the main theme of the passage. 
 
 (3) Did Christ personally proclaim the Gospel to 
 the "spirits in prison" in the interval between His 
 death and resurrection? Unhesitatingly we reply no. 
 The phrase, "put to death in the flesh," is co-ordinate 
 with the parallel phrase, "quickened by the spirit," 
 "made alive in the spirit" (Ver. 18, R. V.). "Flesh" 
 and "spirit" are antithetical, are in sharp contrast with 
 each other. It is insisted by those who advocate the 
 affirmative of the question above that "flesh" signifies 
 Christ's body, and that "spirit" must mean His human 
 spirit. The preposition in must be inserted before 
 each term — "in flesh," "in spirit." It is hence inferred 
 that the Lord in His human spirit which was made 
 alive to a higher and more active state of existence 
 after His death personally went and preached to the 
 spirits in prison in Hades ; therefore the preaching was 
 in the interval between His death and His resurrection. 
 Such is the argument urged in support of the theory 
 that the Lord preached to the dead. 
 
 We cannot accept this exegesis; we do not believe 
 
6o FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 that on just principles of interpretation the passage 
 teaches this. To begin with, the phrase "put to death 
 in the flesh," is uncommon ; it is a departure from the 
 ordinary way of speaking of death. As Barnes says, 
 **How singular it would be to say of Isaiah or of Paul 
 or of Peter that they were put to death in the flesh !" 
 The phrase seems to indicate that there was something 
 extraordinary in His death, that it was His humanity 
 that died, but that there was in Him a nature that did 
 not die, nor could — His divine nature. His eternal 
 Spirit as the Son of God. We must not limit the con- 
 trast to "flesh" and "spirit ;" both clauses must be em- 
 braced in it, "put to death in the flesh," and "made 
 alive in the Spirit." The Lord's human soul was 
 sundered from His body by death just as these are 
 sundered in all men when death overtakes them. But 
 He did not remain under the power of death; it was 
 "not possible that he should be holden of it" (Acts 
 ii : 24) . Accordingly, Peter adds, "but was quickened 
 in (by) the spirit" (Spirit). 
 
 The word quickened occurs in ten other places be- 
 sides this, and there is no mistaking its meaning. In 
 seven, viz. : John v : 21 (twice) ; Rom. iv : 17 ; viii : 1 1 ; 
 I Cor. XV : 22, 36, 45, it refers to the resurrection of 
 the dead. In three, viz. : John vi : 63 ; 2 Cor. iii : 6 ; 
 Gal. iii: 21, it denotes the giving of spiritual life. In 
 each case it signifies to give life where before it had 
 ceased to be, or where it had never been. The same 
 word is found in two other places, but with an aflix, 
 Eph. ii: 5; Col. ii: 13. But in these as everywhere 
 else it denotes the impartation of life where it was not 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 6l 
 
 found before. Graham (in Epheslans ii: 5) expresses 
 its precise meaning : "This quickening is the spiritual 
 resurrection of the soul from a state of sin and death 
 as the prelude and pledge of the literal resurrection at 
 the coming of Christ." Prof. Cremer defines it as the 
 action by which the dead are raised to life whether as 
 to the body or the soul, and he cites i Peter iii: 18 as 
 proof. 
 
 Those who hold that it was Christ's human soul that 
 was quickened must impose upon the word quickened 
 a meaning which the New Testament forbids. So we 
 are told that it means a more active life, a fuller life, 
 an increase of life, a life fitting Him to preach to 
 Hades sinners ! But everywhere else it means giving 
 life, bringing to life. This could not be said of His 
 human spirit, for assuredly it did not die. What then 
 was it which was made alive ? Exactly that which had 
 been put to death, His **flesh," His humanity. Quick- 
 ened signifies resurrection. The very body which lay 
 in Joseph's tomb was on the morning of the third day 
 made alive by the mighty power of God. This inter- 
 pretation balances exactly the antithetical clause, 
 "put to death in the flesh." What had been put to 
 death is made alive in resurrection. 
 
 Is it quite certain that "spirit" means Christ's human 
 spirit? The Revisions, both English and American, 
 print it with a small s instead of the capital S of King 
 James, thus taking it to denote His human spirit. But 
 if this be so, "quickened" must be given a meaning it 
 does not bear wherever else it occurs. "Spirit" 
 stands in sharp contrast with "flesh;" it is that which 
 
62 FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 did not die. Obviously, if it be taken as denoting the 
 Agent by whom He was quickened, then it certainly 
 denotes Christ's divine nature, His Godhead. Rom- 
 ans i: 3, 4 presents a similar contrast between His 
 natures, human and divine. He was of the seed of 
 David according to the flesh. He was declared to be 
 the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of 
 holiness by the resurrection from the dead. Here also 
 there is a sharp contrast, the seed of David stands in 
 contrast with the Son of God. Of course. His human 
 spirit was holy, but it was an essential part of His hu- 
 manity, and hence the expression, "Spirit of holiness" 
 cannot mean His human spirit. It must be His divine 
 nature that is meant. According to that nature He 
 was declared to be the Son of God by the resurrec- 
 tion from the dead. So in i Peter iii: i8 His being 
 quickened into resurrection life is by the same divine 
 nature, the Spirit of the living God. By His own in- 
 finite power, His Deity, He is raised from the dead 
 (John ii: 19). 
 
 It was in this Spirit, or by this Spirit, He went and 
 preached to the spirits in prison. It is contended that 
 "went" implies a personal going by Him to the realm 
 of the dead. Not necessarily. In Eph. ii: 17 we read, 
 "And (Christ) came and preached peace to you which 
 were afar off." The preaching was in this instance 
 by the Lord Jesus Himself, and yet it was not done by 
 Him in person, but by His Spirit in His servants, 
 Paul and companions. 
 
 We understand, therefore, the preaching to the 
 spirits in prison to have been done by the Spirit of 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 63 
 
 Christ through Noah, "the preacher of righteousness," 
 as Peter calls him elsewhere (2 Peter ii: 5), to the 
 antediluvians. But they refused the message, they 
 gave no heed to the solemn warning, they hardened 
 their hearts by their disobedience, and hence became 
 prisoners in Plades. Gen. vi: 3 reads, "And Jehovah 
 said. My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for 
 that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be a hundred 
 and twenty years." That is to say, His Spirit should 
 strive, in the testimony of Noah, during a hundred and 
 twenty years and no longer. Now it would be an ex- 
 traordinary thing that with those persons only (for 
 Peter speaks only of them) the Lord should strive in 
 testimony after their death. Is that at all likely? Is 
 there so much as a hint in all the rest of Scripture 
 that He offers salvation after their death to those who 
 in their lifetime heard the message and rejected it? 
 There is absolutely none. 
 
 It is not a description of all that died in unbelief, but 
 of a generation favored with a special testimony and 
 threatened with a particular stroke of judgment. They 
 were those who despised the testimony of Christ 
 through Noah. Just as His Spirit prophesied in the 
 prophets, so the Spirit of Christ preached by Noah. 
 Nor was the preaching to spirits when they were in 
 prison, but to the disobedient before they became pris- 
 oners in Hades. Multitudes of the ungodly perished 
 before the Flood ; for ages after it greater multitudes 
 died in their sins. Many of these, perhaps the ma- 
 jority of them, never had an offer of salvation made 
 to them. Why should these countless multitudes be 
 
64 FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 ignored by the Saviour, and those alone of Noah's day 
 have a second offer of mercy? For one hundred and 
 twenty years they had the testimony of Noah by the 
 Spirit of Christ warning, rebuking and entreating 
 them, but all in vain. They kept right on in their re- 
 bellion and apostasy till the tremendous judgment so 
 long impending broke down upon them in all its deso- 
 lating fury. Now, should these imprisoned spirits 
 have a second offer of pardon and of life in the unseen 
 world, while all others there, who never had a chance 
 at all, be passed by in merciless neglect and pitiless 
 silence? Would such partiality be fair or equitable? 
 Does God who is righteous and holy thus do? 
 
 On the contrary, there is proof that those who in 
 this life refuse His message in unbelief are at length 
 abandoned and left to their fate even in the present 
 world. When the shadow of the Cross was already 
 falling on the Lord's pathway, and when it was de- 
 termined by the rulers and the people that He must 
 die, Jesus uttered His lament over the guilty city — a 
 mournful dirge it is and a sentence of woe indescriba- 
 ble — **If thou hadst known in this thy day the things 
 which belong to thy peace ! but now they are hid from 
 thine eyes" (Luke xix: 41-44) ; "Behold, your house 
 is left unto you desolate" (Matt, xxiii: 37-39). Ere 
 long the awful verdict was executed ; the city was de- 
 stroyed, the temple burned, and Israel went into an 
 exile which endures to this day, and will till the Lord 
 shall come again. When scornful rejection of mercy 
 is complete, when disobedience has culminated in re- 
 bellion and apostasy, and the sentence of doom has 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 55 
 
 been pronounced, judgment, appalling and overwhelm- 
 ing, falls and probation ends. If this takes place even 
 in this life, how much more certainly does it in the 
 world beyond where destiny is forever fixed? 
 
 Did Christ's human spirit at His death go into 
 Hades, into the region of the lost? Did He "descend 
 into hell?" Believed by many, doubted by some, de- 
 nied by others. Christ's seventh and last saying on 
 the Cross was His calm and trustful prayer, "Father, 
 into thy hands I commend my spirit" (Luke xxiii : 46). 
 Was not that prayer heard and answered? Who 
 would be so bold as to deny that it was? If, then. His 
 human spirit at His death went to the Father, it did 
 not go to the realm of the spirits in prison. The 
 Father most certainly was not in that region. More- 
 over, to the penitent thief at His side he promised, 
 "Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me 
 in Paradise." Where was Paradise? In 2 Cor. xii: 
 2-4 Paul identifies Paradise with the "third heaven," 
 with the highest heaven, with God's own habitation. 
 The promise to the overcomer in Ephesus (Rev. ii: 7) 
 is, "to him will I give to eat of the tree of life which 
 is in the midst of the paradise of God" (cf. Rev. xxii : I, 
 2). Prof. Swete is exactly right. Paradise is the "final 
 joy of the saints in the presence of God and of Christ" 
 (Com. in loc). Taking His prayer and promise to- 
 gether the inference is indisputable that Jesus Christ 
 in the most solemn hour of all time, in the awful hour 
 of His death on the cross, confidently and assuredly 
 expected to go into the Father's presence, into Para^ 
 dise, God's heavenly abode. Is anyone so presump- 
 5 
 
6G FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 tuous as to affirm that He was disappointed? If 
 heaven was the place of His sojourn in the interval 
 between His death and resurrection, then it is mani- 
 fest He did not go to the place in Hades where wicked 
 spirits are confined. Therefore He did not at that 
 time preach to the spirits in prison, for He was not 
 there. 
 
 It may be asked, however, did He not go to Hades 
 according to Psalm xvi : lo, and Peter's exposition of 
 it in Acts ii : 25-32 ? Yes, but not necessarily to the 
 abode of the lost. Sheol and Hades alike designate 
 the unseen world, the world of departed spirits, not 
 necessarily a place of torment and of misery unless 
 expressly mentioned. Hades denotes the intermediate 
 state, the abode of the disembodied human spirit till 
 the resurrection at the coming of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. Jesus Himself went thither at His death, and 
 both the Psalm and Peter's explanation announce the 
 glorious truth that our Lord's spirit should not tarry 
 in the unseen world, nor should His body see corrup- 
 tion in the grave, for His resurrection should speedily 
 follow His death and burial. 
 
 For us the passage in First Peter iii : 18-20, with all 
 its difficulties of interpretation, teaches the following 
 truths : 
 
 1. Jesus Christ was put to death as a substitute for 
 sinners, the just for the unjust, that they might be 
 brought unto God. 
 
 2. He was made alive again by the resurrection from 
 the dead, and He now lives in the power of an endless 
 life. 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 67 
 
 3. His resurrection was efTected by the almighty 
 power of God. 
 
 4. By the same power, His own eternal Spirit, He 
 went by His servant Noah to the Antediluvians and 
 proclaimed to them His truth — truth that invited, 
 warned and threatened them with overwhelming 
 judgment. 
 
 5. Noah's contemporaries refused the message, re- 
 jected the messenger and persisted in their disobedi- 
 ence and unbelief. 
 
 6. The flood "destroyed them all," and their spirits 
 are now confined in the prison of the lost where they 
 await the final judgment (2 Peter ii: 9; Jude 6). 
 
 7. The passage holds out no hope for the impeni- 
 tent, it forbids the notion that those who during the 
 earthly life refuse the Gospel of God's grace may have 
 a second chance in the world beyond, and may be ulti- 
 mately saved. 
 
 No preaching to the dead is its lesson. 
 
SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 
 
 The Second Epistle of Peter comes to us with less 
 historical support of its genuineness than any other 
 book of the New Testament. Origen (c. A. D. 230) 
 is the first writer who mentions it by name, but he is 
 careful to say that its authority was questioned. 
 Eusebius and Jerome state the same general fact, 
 though Jerome included it in his Vulgate Version, 
 while Eusebius speaks of First Peter as generally ac- 
 cepted, but of the second as quite doubtful. It seems 
 certam that it was not formally admitted into the 
 Canon of Scripture until near the close of the fourth 
 century by the Councils of Laodicea (A. D. 372) and 
 Carthage (A. D. 397). The historical attestation to its 
 canonicity is thus seen to be meagre indeed. Accord- 
 ingly, many are even now in doubt as to its integrity. 
 
 It must be added that there was a strong tendency 
 in sub-apostolic times to use Peter's name to give 
 credit to apocryphal writings. There are such writ- 
 ings extant, as e. g., The Gospel of Peter, Apocalypse 
 of Peter, Acts of Peter, etc. These and the like spuri- 
 ous books belong to the second century of our era, or 
 even later, and hence are of no authority touching the 
 matters of which they treat. They exhibit, however, 
 the tendency of the age in which they were produced, 
 and the possibility that Second Peter might likewise 
 
 68 
 
SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. ^ 
 
 be spurious. But would they have come into exist- 
 ence had Peter never written anything? The fact of 
 abundant forgery is at once an evidence that some gen- 
 uine writings of the Apostle existed and were re- 
 ceived generally as his. 
 
 The internal evidence in the support of the genuine- 
 ness of Second Peter is clear and strong. It opens 
 with the positive statement of Peter's authorship — 
 **Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ" — • 
 The insertion of Simon, the old Hebrew name, in the 
 forefront of the document is significant. If a forger 
 had been writing in Peter's name at the opening of his 
 false letter he almost certainly would have followed 
 the First Epistle and simply written, **Peter, an apostla 
 of Jesus Christ." Note also that "servant" is intro- 
 duced in the Second Epistle, but is absent from the 
 First. He calls himself a servant and apostle of 
 Jesus Christ. "Although several pseudonymous writ- 
 ings appear in early Christian literature, there is no 
 Christian document of value written by a forger who 
 uses the name of an Apostle" (Dods). If this im- 
 portant statement is accepted at its full worth, it goes 
 far to settle the question of authorship, for the writer 
 inserts the name Apostle at the opening of his epistle — 
 "an Apostle of Jesus Christ." 
 
 Moreover, the writer is distinctively a Christian ; he 
 addresses those who "have obtained a like precious 
 faith with us in the righteousness of our God" (i: i). 
 His is the same precious faith which all the saints 
 enjoy; his also the exceeding great and precious prom- 
 ises of God, and he expects with all other believers to 
 
70 SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 be made a partaker of the divine nature (i: 3, 4). Is 
 it at all probable or likely that one with such a faith 
 and such expectations would deliberately falsify the 
 name of Simon Peter and turn liar? The writer is 
 unsparing in his denunciations of false teachers, cor- 
 ruptors of others, rebels against God, hypocrites and 
 apostates (ii). He instances the fall of the angels, 
 the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the rebuke 
 of Balaam, as examples of the doom of those who 
 know the truth and yet live in shameful sin and 
 crime. Would a Christian and servant of Jesus Christ 
 be at all likely to commit in the most flagrant manner 
 the things he so vehemently condemns? If the writer 
 was not the Apostle Peter, he was a false teacher, a 
 corruptor of others, and a hypocrite, which to us 
 seems incredible. 
 
 He associates himself with the other Apostles, is in 
 full sympathy with Paul, is acquainted with Paul's 
 epistles, and he holds and teaches the same funda- 
 mental truth. An apostolic spirit breathes through 
 this document such as is not found in a spurious writ- 
 ing, and such as a forger never exhibits. He is anx- 
 iously concerned for the purity of the faith, and for 
 the steadfastness and holiness of the saints. He 
 exhorts them to give "diligence that ye may be found 
 in peace, without spot and blameless in his sight," and 
 that they "grow in the grace and knowledge of our 
 Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." All this and very 
 much more of like devout teaching is apostolic in tone 
 and betokens genuineness and reality. 
 
 Furthermore, the writer appeals to certain facts in 
 
SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 713 
 
 the life of Peter which make his epistle almost auto- 
 biographical. For example, he speaks of "putting off 
 
 * of my tabernacle even as our Lord Jesus Christ 
 showed me" (i: 13, 14). The reference undoubtedly 
 is to John xiii: 36; xxi; 18, 19. In the latter passage 
 Jesus distinctly announced to Peter that his death was 
 to be one of violence, even crucifixion, and that it 
 would occur when the Apostle was an old man. He 
 
 - claims to have been a witness of the Transfiguration 
 (i: 16-18). We know from the record of the Gospels 
 that Peter was one of the three who were present 
 when the Lord's person glowed with an unearthly 
 brightness. He indirectly claims the inspiration with- 
 out which true prophecy is impossible (i: 19-21). He 
 asserts that this is his "second epistle" (iii: i). This 
 testimony on the part of the writer is personal, em- 
 phatic and direct. It reads exactly like Peter's man- 
 ner of speaking of himself at the Council of Jeru- 
 salem, "Ye know that a good while ago God made 
 choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles 
 should hear the word of the Gospel and believe." 
 
 Jude appears to quote from Second Peter. The 
 question as to the priority of these two epistles, viz. : 
 Second Peter and Jude, is by no means settled. 
 Writers are pretty evenly divided. Chase, Peake and 
 Plumtre hold that Jude is the older, while Zahn, 
 Lumby, and apparently Dods regard Second Peter as 
 the older. In favor of the latter view, which the present 
 writer accepts, it may be argued: i. That Jude, who 
 seems to quote from the Book of Enoch and to refer 
 indirectly at least to the apocryphal Assumption of 
 
^2 SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER 
 
 Moses, would more probably quote from Peter than 
 Peter from Jude. Indeed there is no evidence that Peter 
 cites from any writer. 2. Peter's description of the 
 false teachers and corruptors of truth points mainly 
 to the future. His prominent verbs are in the future 
 tense, e. g., ii: I, 2, 3, 12, etc. Certainly he uses the 
 present tense in his description of the evil character 
 and conduct of these hypocrites and apostates, but 
 their presence among the saints he puts in the future. 
 The deadly germs were already there, the rank growth 
 would speedily follow. Jude, on the contrary, 
 throughout his epistle speaks of them as already come ; 
 his objects are present, they are in the midst of the 
 children of God, these "filthy dreamers," these "mur- 
 murers." It seems to us certain that while Paul in 
 his address to the Ephesian Elders (Acts xx: 28-30), 
 and in his epistle to Timothy (2 Tim. iii : 1-9), and 
 Peter in his second letter, alike predict the coming of 
 the antinomians and the heretics, Jude describes them 
 as actually here, prosecuting their wicked work with 
 shameless effrontery. He writes, "But, beloved, re- 
 member ye the words which have been spoken before 
 by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ ; that they 
 said unto you. In the last time there shall be mockers, 
 walking after their own ungodly lusts" (vers. 17, 18). 
 One of the Apostles here mentioned seems certainly 
 to have been Peter, Paul perhaps was another. Peter 
 writes as follows: "That ye should remember the 
 words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, 
 and the commandment of the Lord and Saviour 
 through your apostles : knowing this first, that in the 
 
SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 73 
 
 last days mockers shall come with mockery, walking 
 after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the prom- 
 ise of his coming?" (2 Peter iii: 2-4). The close re- 
 semblance of these passages to each other extends to 
 the words and phrases. Both urge their readers to 
 '"remember," both date the fulfilment of the prediction 
 at the "last time," both use the term "mockers," and 
 both say that the prediction came through "the apos- 
 tles." But, note, that Peter affirms that the fulfilment 
 was still future when he wrote, but Jude declares that 
 it is already fulfilled in his day, for he goes on to say, 
 ''These are they who make separations, sensual, hav- 
 ing not the Spirit" (v. 19). It appears to us that be- 
 yond question Jude quotes from both Peter and Paul, 
 and that he has specially in mind the words of Peter. 
 Therefore Second Peter is older than Jude, and hence 
 beyond doubt canonical, if Jude is. 
 
 The keyword of First Peter is Hope; of Second 
 Peter Knowledge. 
 
 I. It has often been observed that the Apostle uses 
 the term knowledge with much frequency, and in such 
 connections and with such fulness of significance as to 
 disclose the great importance he attaches to it (i: 2, 
 3, 5, 6, 8; ii: 20, 21; iii: 18). The word he uses is 
 generally in the intensified form, viz. : full knowledge. 
 Christians should know the truth and the whole truth ; 
 they should be able to detect error, and recognize the 
 times in which they live; they should know the dan- 
 gerous world that surrounds them and that ever seeks 
 to poison their minds, debase their affections, neutral- 
 ize their testimony, and paralize their faith. Hence 
 
74 SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 Peter's final appeal is, "Grow in grace and in the 
 knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" 
 (iii: i8). 
 
 2. The basis of true knowledge (i: 1-4). It springs 
 from a living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and in 
 the "exceeding great and precious promises" which 
 Divine Power has given us. This knowledge leads us 
 into acquaintance with the righteousness of God, with 
 our calling as believers, and with the glorious destiny 
 that awaits them who know and trust God. 
 
 3. Growth in knowledge (i: 5-1 1). "And besides 
 iill this, giving all diligence, add to your faith," etc. 
 The term "add" scarcely expresses the apostle's 
 thought. It is a somewhat peculiar word originally 
 used of one who supplied all the equipments and fur- 
 nishings needed by the Greek Chorus. The idea of 
 supply should certainly be retained: "In your faith 
 supply virtue." He does not ask that faith be sup- 
 plied; that these believers already had. But starting 
 with faith as the foundation of all, let the other ex- 
 cellencies and virtues be richly and abundantly fur- 
 nished. Let there be no lack of equipment here, for 
 far more is it needed than was furnishing by the 
 Chorus of the old Greek tragedy. What a magnifi- 
 cent cluster the apostle here gives! Each springs out 
 of the other; each is strengthened by the other. "In 
 your faith supply virtue," or fortitude, manliness ; and 
 let virtue supply "knowledge." Knowledge by itself 
 alone tends to "puff up." But tempered by the 
 others, by self-control, by patience, by godliness, by 
 love, knowledge becomes one of the most essential and 
 
SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 75 
 
 powerful excellencies in the Christian character. Paul 
 begins his list of the "fruits of the Spirit" with love 
 (Gal. v: 22). Peter ends his with love. It is like a 
 chain, each link holds fast to its fellow, and is a part 
 of the whole. It matters little at which end of the 
 chain we begin the count, for the links form a unity, 
 and to touch one is to touch all. Each is strong by 
 the strength derived from the other. The apostle 
 urges diligence to furnish all these; "adding on your 
 part all diligence." God freely gives what we need 
 and all we need; let it be ours by conscious effort to 
 add to the supply. 
 
 The motive to such diligence lies in this, (a) that 
 no barrenness nor unfruitfulness in the full knowl- 
 edge of our Lord Jesus Christ may blight our lives; 
 (b) and that thereby may be richly supplied to us the 
 entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 4. The inerrancy of the sources of saving knowl- 
 edge (i: 16-21). 
 
 The apostle rests his truth on two trustworthy facts : 
 (a) the fact and meaning of the Saviour's Transfigu- 
 ration; (b) the fact of the inspiration of the Holy 
 Spirit. Taken together these two great facts invest 
 his teaching with infallible certainty and authority. 
 
 I. "For we have not followed cunningly devised 
 fables, when we made known unto you the power and 
 coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewit- 
 nesses of his majesty." Pagan mythology, so widely 
 prevailing at the time in Asia Minor, was composed 
 largely of myths (Peter's word) which were skilfully 
 
^6 SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 framed and poetically embellished. The cabalism of 
 the Jews, heathen myths, and the wild vagaries that 
 were springing up in the bosom of the Christian 
 Church itself, had no place whatever in the message 
 of the Gospel nor in the apostolic teaching and preach- 
 ing. What Peter and his fellow-apostles taught was 
 the very truth of God, and this, without admixture of 
 human wisdom or speculation, had been made known 
 to the "elect sojourners" for their instruction and 
 comfort. The teaching was with absolute fidelity and 
 certainty. For Peter and James and John were eye- 
 witnesses of the majestic scene on the mouth of Trans- 
 figuration. They saw with their own eyes the super- 
 human brightness and splendor with which the Lord's 
 person glowed, they saw the two heavenly visitants 
 who appeared in glory and who conversed with Jesus, 
 they heard the voice of God out of the cloud, and they 
 beheld that cloud which is always the symbol of the 
 Divine Presence. If any men ever were competent 
 and credible in their testimony surely these were the 
 men. This knowledge they had given out to their 
 fellow-believers. 
 
 Peter intimates that the Transfiguration was at once 
 the pledge and a specimen of the Lord's Advent and 
 of the Kingdom of God. The Synoptic Gospels 
 which record it (Matt, xvii: i-8; Mark ix: 2-8; Luke 
 ix: 28-36), leave little room for doubt that the Lord 
 so intended it. He said, "There be some standing 
 here who shall not taste of death till they see," etc. 
 Lillie and others hold that this promise had its fulfil- 
 ment in the spectacle of the Transfiguration. The 
 
SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 77 
 
 view is supported by the variously expressed objects 
 they were to see before they died. In Matthew it is, 
 *'till they see the Son of Man coming in His king- 
 dom." In Mark, "till they see the Kingdom of God 
 come with power." In Luke, "till they see the King- 
 dom of God." Two chief things they should see — 
 the coming of Christ and the coming of the Kingdom. 
 Peter appears to have both in view when he mentions 
 the "power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 Mark's words, "Kingdom come with power," answers 
 to Peter's "power." And Matthew's "Son of Man 
 coming" answers to Peter's "coming." It seems cer- 
 tain that in some deep sense the apostle saw in the 
 Transfiguration a pledge and sample of the future ad- 
 vent of Christ and the establishment of God's King- 
 dom in power and glory over the whole earth. 
 
 The scene itself witnesses to the same general fact, 
 (i) The Lord's person suddenly shone with a majesty 
 and glory such as commonly was hid from mortal 
 gaze. "His face did shine as the sun, and His rai- 
 ment was white as the light." In heaven He is encir- 
 cled with the transcendant glories of the throne of 
 God. But when He shall come again to our world it 
 will be in His own glory, such as was displayed in its 
 dazzling beauty before the overwhelmed gaze of His 
 disciples. (2) Two men from the unseen world ap- 
 peared also in glory, Moses and Elijah. They repre- 
 sented the Law and the Prophets. They represented 
 much more. The one had died, and he of mortals alone 
 had the distinguished honor, the matchless dignity, of 
 being buried by the Lord Himself (Deut. xxxiv: 5, 6). 
 
78 SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 Moses stood for the sleeping saints who shall be raised 
 up in glory when Christ comes. Elijah for living be- 
 lievers who shall be "changed" (i Cor. xv: 51, 52), 
 and who like Elijah shall not pass through death 
 (i Cor. xvi; i Thess. iv). (3) Three men were pres- 
 ent, witnesses of the wondrous scene, who in some 
 measure shared in it, who were in the flesh and who 
 stand for mankind living when Christ shall return to 
 the world for its redemption. (4) There was the 
 Shekinah Cloud, symbol of the Divine Presence, and 
 the voice of God speaking from the cloud. Here was 
 nearness of the Father, two glorified saints from the 
 unseen world, Jesus shining with dazzling splendor 
 and beauty, and three mortal men participants of the 
 majestic display. 
 
 Peter adds, "And we have the word of prophecy 
 made more sure" (i: 19). This is the rendering of 
 the Revision, and there can be little doubt of its cor- 
 rectness. The Transfiguration has confirmed what 
 the prophets had said touching the future and God's 
 purposes to make this earth once more a Paradise and 
 thus restore it to the lost fellowship of heaven. Every 
 word He has spoken is to be made good to men, to 
 the globe, to the dead and to the living friends of God. 
 For Christ has suffered, His glories must follow ; the 
 august proof of it is Christ's Transfiguration, the 
 Cloud and Voice of God, the presence of Moses and 
 Elijah, the presence also of the disciples, and the shin- 
 ing person of the Lord. All this, the apostle affirms, 
 confirms in a most cogent fashion the prophetic Scrip- 
 ture, and pledges the fulfilment of every work spoken 
 
SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. ^^ 
 
 through the prophets. The historical fact of the 
 Transfiguration is a signal proof that Peter and his 
 fellow-apostles did not follow "cunningly devised fa- 
 bles when they made known to Christians the power 
 and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 2. The second fact is the inspiration of the men of 
 God, i: 20, 21. "No prophecy of Scripture is of pri- 
 vate interpretation. For no prophecy ever came by 
 the will of man: but men spake from God, being 
 moved by the Holy Spirit." "Knowing this first," i. e,, 
 we recognize this as primary truth, we settle definitely 
 in our minds when we sit down to the study of 
 prophecy. "Private interpretation," i. e., "private" in 
 the sense of "one's own ;" "interpretation," i, e., origin, 
 origination. Prophecy never comes by the exercise of 
 the prophef s own gifts and talents, nor by his shrewd 
 guessing, his wise calculation, his profound and pro- 
 longed thought. No; it is neither by man's unaided 
 talent, nor by man's application, it is wholly of God. 
 From Him it comes, by Him it is revealed. It was 
 brought to the prophet, as it is brought to us. It is not 
 to be tied up to the times of the prophet, nor is it to 
 be explained and unfolded by man's device. "Holy 
 men," Peter, John, Paul, and all the others, "spoke 
 from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit." 
 
 5. Peter's Three Worlds, iii: 5-13. Of course three 
 globes are not meant, but three vast epochs, three enor- 
 mous periods in the history of the earth. The apostle 
 divides its history into three clearly defined sections, 
 and treats each of these with some fulness of detail; 
 at least he mentions the characteristic features of each, 
 and to these we are now to attend. 
 
 f 
 
So SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 (i) "The world that then was" (iii: 6). This is 
 Peter's first world. It was the antediluvian world, the 
 world which the Flood destroyed (vs. 5, 6; Gen. vi, 
 vii). The commonly received chronology makes the 
 duration of that ancient world 1656 years. Its end 
 was distinguished by colossal wickedness and apostasy 
 from God, and the divine judgment which swept away 
 the entire race with the exception of eight souls, Noah 
 and his family. 
 
 Scoffers in Peter^s time asked no doubt with a sneer, 
 ''Where is the promise of His coming? for, from the 
 day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as 
 they were from the beginning of the creation." These 
 mockers appeal to the continuity of natural processes, 
 to the inviolability of nature's laws, and they assert 
 that on these grounds there never will be an Advent of 
 Christ and judgment of the world, as Christians be- 
 lieve and teach. Natural law goes on without inter- 
 ruption and without a break. Nature keeps her track 
 with unwavering precision. There is no sign of any 
 change; no catastrophe is likely, indeed is possible. 
 The promise of His coming fails. These skeptics wil- 
 fully forget that a mighty cataclism did once over- 
 whelm the world. The Flood drowned every living 
 thing save those within the sheltering Ark. God had 
 said, "The end of all flesh is come before me; for the 
 earth is filled with violence through them: and, be- 
 hold, I will destroy them with the earth" (Gen. vi: 
 13). "And every living thing was destroyed that was 
 upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and 
 creeping things, and birds of the heavens" (Gen. vii: 
 
SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. gl 
 
 2^). It was a worldwide disaster that happened to 
 that old antediluvian age, and its end was frightful 
 indeed. Since, then, this is a historical fact the infidel 
 question of the mockers is foolish and false. The 
 world that then was perished under God's fearful 
 judgment, and He has assured us that the Lord Jesus 
 shall come again from heaven with His mighty angels 
 in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not 
 God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ (2 Thess. i : 7, 8). 
 
 The Flood must have profoundly affected the con- 
 ditions of life on the earth. The physical changes in- 
 troduced by it seem to have been very great, greater 
 indeed than most students of the Bible ascribe to it. 
 If the conclusions derived from personal examination 
 by Prof. G. Frederick Wright be accepted as true, and 
 no geologist of the age is more worthy of credence 
 than he, that the Deluge prevailed over a very large 
 portion of the earth's surface, and that a submergence 
 of the land took place, then we can readily perceive 
 how deeply affected were the conditions of life. The 
 world appears to be different after the disaster ; it was 
 no longer fitted to be the home of men who before it 
 lived for centuries. Longevity almost immediately be- 
 gan to change; life began to shorten, and in a com- 
 paratively brief time it sank to the term of years that 
 now bounds it. Noah lived 950 years (Gen. ix: 29). 
 Shem, his son born before the Flood, died at the age 
 of 600, a reduction of 350 years in a single generation. 
 With Noah's grandson, Arphaxad, there is further re- 
 duction : he died at the age of 438 years. In five gen- 
 6 
 
82 SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 erations life was shortened to but little more than 200 
 years. Is it not possible, is it not probable that the 
 Deluge brought about such changes in climate, in soil, 
 and in the atmosphere as to make the long life of the 
 antediluvian age impossible? At any rate, we may 
 well conjecture that the conditions so favorable to a 
 prolonged period of existence in "the world that then 
 was" passed away under the awful judgment of God. 
 Floods of water are not purifiers, floods of fire are, as 
 we shall presently see. 
 
 (2) Peter's second world is, "the heavens and the 
 earth which are now" (iii : 7). It is the present order 
 of things in sky and earth that is meant. The world 
 that now is — it is a singular sort of expression, and 
 seems to indicate that it is neither permanent nor final. 
 Hence the apostle goes on to say that it is "stored up 
 for fire" (R. V.), or, better, as the margin reads, 
 "stored with fire," i. e., it contains within itself the 
 agency by which it may yet be consumed. The world 
 that now is, is held in strict custody, reserved, not for 
 a second deluge, but for fire. The advent of Christ 
 and the judgment which shall ensue upon His coming 
 are constantly associated in Scripture with fire, with 
 a mighty conflagration. "Our God shall come and 
 shall not keep silence ; a fire shall devour before him, 
 and it shall be very tempestuous round about him" 
 (Psalms 1:3). "For, behold, the Lord will come with 
 fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render 
 his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of 
 fire. For by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead 
 with all flesh" (Isa. Ixvi: 15, 16). Thus likewise in 
 
SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 83 
 
 the vision of Daniel : "A fiery stream issued and came 
 forth from before him. ... I beheld, even till the 
 beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to 
 the burning flame." Nor is the New Testament silent 
 on this point : "The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from 
 heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire" 
 (2 Thess. i: 7-9). 
 
 These passages of Scripture and others of like im- 
 port indicate that fire will be one of the physical at- 
 tendants on the Lord's coming. But fire is not the 
 only one. Voices, lightnings, thunders and earth- 
 quakes will also accompany that transcendent event. 
 Three times does the Apocalypse testify to this fact, 
 Rev. viii : 5 ; xi : 19 ; xvi : 18. These tremendous forces 
 of nature will be employed as agents for the punish- 
 ment of the ungodly and the apostates of that Day. 
 But the judgments at the Advent, dreadful as they 
 assuredly will be, appear to be inflicted mainly on 
 God's enemies, the Dragon, the Beast, the False 
 Prophet, and the vast multitudes that shall be deceived 
 by these extraordinary foes. (See Rev. xii, xiii, xix). 
 These are chief objects of the Divine wrath, and they 
 appear at the time of the end. These passages, how- 
 ever, fall far short of Peter's language. They say 
 nothing of the melting of the elements with fervent 
 heat, and the burning of the earth and its works, as 
 Peter does : "But the day of the Lord will come as a 
 thief; in the which the heavens shall pass away with 
 a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with 
 fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are 
 therein shall be burned up" (2 Peter iii: 10). The 
 
84 SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 Day of the Lord is not one of four and twenty hours, 
 but a prolonged period. The apostle intimates that it 
 will cover a thousand years, i. e., the whole time of the 
 Millennium (Rev. xx). It is of the close of this 
 period that Peter speaks, not of its beginning, as 
 John mainly does in the Revelation. 
 
 Ample materials are stored up in the earth itself for 
 its consumption by fire. The oils and the gases so 
 inflammable and destructive in their energy can, when 
 the time arrives, speedily reduce the order of thmgs 
 now existing to ashes. Peter's language does not sig- 
 nify the annihilation of the earth, nor the dissolution 
 of the atmosphere, nor the end of time. Fire does not 
 annihilate, it dissolves existing combinations which 
 may be recombined under new and different forms. 
 He speaks of the cosmical convulsions and physical 
 revolutions of both earth and sky, such as shall far 
 surpass those of the Flood. But at the close of the 
 Day of the Lord, when God shall have wrought His 
 whole work in the earth, something new and tran- 
 scendently glorious and beautiful shall supervene. 
 
 (3) The third world is this: *'But, according to 
 his promise we look for new heavens and a new 
 earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness" (2 Peter iii: 
 13). It is the new world of righteousness and blessed- 
 ness forever. It is Paradise restored. With the over- 
 throw of the antediluvian world there began the new 
 history of our race and the new order of things. 
 With the destruction by fire of the present order there 
 will follow the fulfilment of the majestic predictions 
 and promises contained in the last two chapters of the 
 
SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 85 
 
 book of Revelation. This will be the eternal state, it 
 will succeed the glories of the Millennial age, itself in- 
 finitely more glorious than that. The Spirit is care- 
 ful not to say that in the new heavens and new earth 
 righteousness shall reign, for that would mean the 
 millennial reign; but He says righteousness shall 
 dzuell therein ; it is the permanent, abiding state ; it is 
 eternity. 
 
 In Rev. xxi : 1-8 the New Testament seer, John the 
 Apostle, reveals somewhat of the grandeur and the 
 glory of that sorrowless state which is foretold. "And 
 I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first 
 heaven and the first earth were passed away; and 
 there was no more sea." The fulfilment of this sub- 
 lime prediction will involve a fundamental change in 
 the constitution of the world that now is. Life would 
 be impossible if the sea was no more. But He who 
 made the world and all it contains can surely recreate 
 it, clearing it of every vestige of sin and misery, of its 
 imperfections and its limitations, fitting it for the 
 dwelling of perfect beings and of God's supreme glory. 
 Immanuel will dwell with the holy inhabitants of the 
 new earth and in the new Jerusalem which is to de- 
 scend into the glorified earth. Then will pass away 
 forever death, mourning, crying and pain, and death- 
 less life and painless bliss will never more be inter- 
 rupted nor disturbed. John is bidden, Write, for these 
 things are true and faithful; they shall not fail to 
 come to pass. 
 
 "Earth, thou grain of sand on the shore of the Uni- 
 verse of God; thou Bethlehem, amongst the princely 
 
86 SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 cities of the heavens, thou art, and remainest, the 
 Loved One amongst ten thousand suns and vi^orlds, 
 the Chosen of God! On thee has the Lord a great 
 work to complete." 
 
THE FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN 
 
 Although no name is attached to this Scripture, it 
 IS very generally believed to be the production of the 
 Apostle John. Witnesses to its authorship may be 
 traced back almost to the end of the first century, and 
 they had the best opportunity to know and to weigh 
 the evidence. Its close connection with the Gospel 
 according to John in thought and style must lead the 
 reader to the conviction that both are the production 
 of the same pen. 
 
 It, with the other six of this group of epistles, is 
 well called Catholic, or General, for it is not addressed 
 to any body of Christians in particular, as are James 
 and Peter, but to all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 There is no age or people, no church, whether local or 
 national, that may not claim it for its own and to 
 which it may not unreservedly be applied. The two 
 short epistles which follow this bear the names or 
 designations to vv^hich they are addressed. But this 
 has no inscription. It begins without salutation, and 
 ends without benediction. The writer sometimes uses 
 the first person when speaking of himself, but never 
 mentions his own name. 
 
 The style is one of artless simplicity and of singular 
 beauty and purity. The sentences considered sepa- 
 rately are marvellously clear, concise and profound. 
 Each is perfect in itself and contains a distinct and 
 
 87 
 
88 FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 
 
 lucid thought. The style is sententious, at times al- 
 most aphoristic. On this account it is often difficult to 
 trace the connection between one sentence and 
 another, one paragraph and another. Nevertheless, its 
 unity is neither imperilled nor obscured by the style, 
 its structure is flawless. It is built on a very distinct 
 and noble plan, and the plan binds its parts into a 
 harmonious whole. 
 
 It abounds in repetitions. The same thought in 
 almost identical language is repeated; often the idea 
 being put in the positive, then immediately in the 
 negative form. A most extraordinary criticism has 
 been founded on this characteristic of the epistle, viz, : 
 that it indicates the writer's old age and the "rambling 
 prattle of an old man," who pours out pious senti- 
 ments and reflections without method or aim. It is 
 nothing of the sort. Instead of displaying weakness 
 or garrulity, First John is the profoundest of all the 
 Catholic epistles and the most difficult to expound. No 
 one who has really studied it, who has gone down 
 into its depths, or even tried to, could for a moment 
 accept such a callow criticism as this. The repetitions 
 spring from the nature of the writing and from the 
 structure of John's mind, for he is of all the New 
 Testament writers the most subtle, penetrating and an- 
 alytic. He does not reason as does Paul, nor argue; 
 he reveals ; he sets his truth in the clearest light and 
 lets it do its own work. For John is a Seer ; piercing 
 insight into things is his great gift. Two features 
 specially mark the epistle — the majesty of the 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 89 
 
 thoughts and the simpHcity of the language-features 
 which indicate the highest quahty of genius. 
 , Antithesis is of frequent use in First John. Over 
 against each thought is often placed its opposite in 
 sharp contrast. Thus light and darkness, truth and 
 falsehood, love and hate, life and death, children of 
 God and children of the devil, follow one another in 
 impressive alternation (cf. i: 8-10; iii : 8-10; iv: 4-6). 
 Owing to this structure of sentences there is a sort of 
 rythmical cadence sometimes observable, and one has 
 arranged a portion of the first chapter as if it were 
 verse : 
 
 If we say we have no sin, 
 We deceive ourselves, 
 And the truth is not in us. 
 
 If we confess our sins, 
 
 He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin». 
 
 And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 
 
 If we say that we have not sinned. 
 We make Him a liar; 
 And His word is not in us. 
 
 "In this instance it will be observed that we pass 
 from one opposite to another and back again : but that 
 to which we return covers more ground than the 
 original position, and is a distinct advance upon it." 
 
 Force and impressiveness lie in this method of in- 
 struction. Such sentences remain in one's memory. 
 The distinction between Christians and unbelievers is 
 more sharply brought out thus than perhaps it could 
 otherwise be. 
 
90 FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 
 
 Its authority is another mark of the epistle. While 
 throughout there is abundant evidence of John's 
 tender affection for those whom he addresses, yet there 
 is a tone of authority which is manifest everywhere. 
 There is a dignity, a magisterial gravity, that makes 
 the epistle both apostolic and commanding. There is 
 no claim of authority set up, no assertion that he pos- 
 sesses it, but a quiet word is spoken, a resistless 
 strength displayed, from which there is no appeal, and 
 a judgment passed that is felt to be infallible and 
 final. Thus, *Tf we say we have no sin, we deceive 
 ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Of him who 
 claims to know the Lord and keeps not His com- 
 mandments John says he is a liar (ii: 4) ; he that de- 
 nies that Jesus is the Christ is a liar (ii: 22) : love of 
 the brethren is the sure sign of being saved; hate of 
 the brother the sign of being a murderer (iii: 14, 15). 
 Like Paul in Corinthians and Galatians, like James and 
 Peter, John writes with an authority that cannot be 
 challenged, for we feel, we cannot but feel, that what 
 he says and on what he passes sentence is the very 
 truth of God. 
 
 Its finality is the last thing to be mentioned here. The 
 Gospel by John is the final Gospel, not only in point of 
 time, but also in contents and aim. It completes the 
 other three. The First Epistle of John is likewise 
 final. This is true in point of time. It was probably 
 written near the close of the apostle's life, i. e., the 
 close of the first century. Perhaps somewhere be- 
 tween A. D. 90-95 it was written. John speaks of 
 those who denied that Jesus Christ was come in the 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 91 
 
 flesh (iv: 3). He seems to refer to certain sects that 
 began to flourish about that time that held the Son of 
 Grod could not ally Himself with flesh, with matter, 
 for this is essentially evil, and the Divine Being could 
 not come into contact with it without being contami- 
 nated and degraded; hence Jesus was only a creature 
 who received special endowment at His baptism for 
 His great mission by the Spirit of God, but who died 
 as a mere man, the Spirit having left Him at the time 
 He cried, **Why hast thou forsaken me?" 
 
 The epistle speaks of Antichrist and of the spirit of 
 Antichrist, and of the many Antichrists, as if these 
 were already in the world (ii: 18, 22; iv: 3). Tlie 
 uniform teaching of the apostles is that this adver- 
 sary, Antichrist, is one of the very last foes of the 
 cause and people of God, that his time will be but 
 short, and that he will receive his doom at the hands 
 of the Saviour Himself. Hence John writes, "Little 
 children, it is the last hour." The final conflict is at 
 hand, the last terrible battle is soon to be fought and 
 won; therefore, be separate, vigilant, expectant. 
 
 ANALYSIS. 
 
 First John seems to fall into four parts, each of which will 
 repay careful and earnest study. 
 
 Part I. Introduction, chap, i: 1-4. 
 Part II. Fellowship, i: 5 — ii: 29. 
 Part III. Sonship, iii — v:i2. 
 Part IV. Conclusion, v: 13-21. 
 
92 FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 
 
 John's Message. 
 
 I. The Introduction, i: 1-4. Reading these four 
 verses somewhat casually one might suppose th^t 
 John's object is to tell what he and his fellow-apostles 
 knew personally of the Saviour, of their intimacy with 
 Him, and the blessed companionship they had with 
 Him. But the apostle is not dealing here with the 
 great fact of the "historical Christ," precious as that 
 truth is, nor with the opportunities he had of know- 
 ing Him, of entering into close acquaintance with 
 Him. All this may be hinted at in these verses, but 
 this is not John's subject nor the aim of his writing. 
 Rather, his purpose is to instruct Christians in the 
 doctrine of Eternal Life — its source, nature, posses- 
 sion, maintenance and blessedness. Law promised 
 life upon obedience; Eternal Life was brought by 
 Jesus Christ. It was with the Father, it has been man- 
 ifested in the person of the Lord Jesus, and by Him 
 is given to all who are in Him, so that they and He 
 have fellowship, actual partnership in the Life which 
 is from God and which unites with God. Mark some 
 of the main features of this Introduction: (i) The 
 Eternal Life which was with the Father is now mani- 
 fested in Jesus Christ, the Word of Life. He has 
 brought it near to dying men, He gives it to all who 
 receive Him. (2) John and his fellow-apostles were 
 eyewitnesses of this manifestation of the Life. Their 
 testimony is corroborated by three of the most trust- 
 worthy of our senses, viz.: hearing, sight, touch. 
 John and his fellows heard Him, saw Him, gazed 
 upon Him, handled Him. Note the climax; seeing is 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 93 
 
 more than hearing; prolonged looking is more than 
 mere seeing; handling is more than all. (3) Partici- 
 pation in the Life brings into fellowship with the 
 Father and the Son. (4) John writes that all believers 
 may have the same fellowship, and so have a full and 
 blessed joy. 
 
 God is Light. 
 
 II. Fellowship, i: 5 — ii: 28. This is the first great 
 theme John discusses, rather, that he opens to us. 
 Understand by fellowship communion, partnership, 
 and this with God and with one another. The passage 
 treating of this theme embaces these points — its na- 
 ture, its maintenance, its recovery when interrupted, 
 and its fruits. He does not fail to tell us how we may 
 know we have the fellowship, and what the signs arc 
 of its presence and of its absence. 
 
 I. Character of Him with Whom fellowship is en- 
 joyed, i: 5. "God is light." The apostle John gives 
 us three most remarkable statements about God; each 
 of them may be regarded as a definition of what God 
 is in Himself. These three declarations are, "God is 
 a Spirit" (John iv: 24) ; "God is light" (i John i: 5) ; 
 "God is love" (i John iv: 8). In all three the predicate 
 has no article, "either definite or indefinite" (Plum- 
 mer). "We are not told that God is the Spirit, or the 
 Light, or the Love; nor (in all probability) that He 
 is a Spirit, or a light." But God is Spirit, is Light, is 
 Love: spirit, hght, love are His very nature. "They 
 are not mere attributes, like mercy and justice: they 
 are Himself." They reveal to us in some measure 
 what God is in Himself, The first relates t(^ His 
 
94 FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 
 
 Being, His Essence : He is Spirit, therefore He is 
 without form, invisible, yet personal, individual, un- 
 changeable. The second, Light, relates to His spirit- 
 uality, His infinite purity and holiness. The third. 
 Love, to His disposition. United the three tell us 
 what God is. No philosophy, no religion, ever rose to 
 such a height as this. How infinitely removed is this 
 majestic revelation of God from the Zeus of the 
 Greeks, Jupiter of the Romans, and Odin of our 
 Saxon and Celtic ancestors. As Light God unites in 
 Himself purity and clearness, beauty and glory, holi- 
 ness and knowledge, and these in their perfections. 
 John adds, "And darkness in him there is none at all," 
 the emphatic order of his words. This intensifies the 
 preceding thought; as Light God is subject to no dark- 
 ness whatever ; no obscuring of Him, no clouding of 
 His purity is possible. As Light He is without ad- 
 mixture, abridgement, or change. This is the pure 
 and holy Being with whom fellowship is to be had. 
 
 2. How Fellowship with God is maintained, i: 6 — 
 ii : 2. In this section of the epistle the apostle exhibits 
 how fellowship with God is sustained, and how it is 
 recovered when it is interrupted or suspended.. The 
 teaching is exceedingly practical and searching. 
 
 (a) To have fellowship with God involves walking 
 in the light, i: 6, 7. One must be in sympathy with 
 His mind and will, must in some degree be like Him. 
 "Can two walk together except they be agreed?'* 
 (Amos iii: 3). Walking means the daily life. To 
 walk in the light signifies living in the element where 
 God dwells, for God is light. To dwell thus with Him 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 95 
 
 presupposes that one is at peace with Him, that he 
 loves His presence, and dehghts in communion with 
 Him. Harmony with Him in what He loves and what 
 He hates is indispensable to companionship with Him. 
 But one may claim fellowship, yet deceive himself 
 (ver. 6). (Note, the word "if" is repeated in each 
 verse of the chapter from the 6th to the end.) The 
 false claim is easily detected. If the one making it 
 lives in sin, walks according to his own will and not 
 God's, walks as he pleases, his claim is false, he lies 
 and does not speak the truth. John's language is 
 most emphatic and uncompromising. 
 
 (b) Application of Christ's blood, ver. 7: "The 
 blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all 
 sin." It alone keeps us in the fellowship, and restores 
 it when interrupted. Note the force of the present 
 tense, cleanseth: it makes us clean, it keeps us clean. 
 Christ's atonement effects two great results: it justi- 
 fies the sinner in God's presence, and it sanctifies his 
 life. Note the force of the singular number here "all 
 sin;" i. e., every sin, every kind and sort of sin. The 
 blood purifies completely and entirely; it includes the 
 whole person, the heart, the mind, the will and affec- 
 tions, in short, the life. 
 
 (c) Confession of sin and its pardon, i: 8, 10. 
 Let us not fail to see how radical the teaching is 
 touching sin in believers and its forgiveness as the 
 condition of fellowship. John does not blink mat- 
 ters; with all the authority of an inspired apostle he 
 writes, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive our- 
 selves, and the truth is not in us." One who walks 
 
96 FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 
 
 in the light — may he not become at length free from 
 sin? "If we say we do not have sin, we deceive our- 
 selves, and the truth is not in us." The sentence is 
 definite and precise: "If we say we do not have sin." 
 No Christian, however upright in character and blame- 
 less in conduct, is freed from inherent sin. Sin is 
 still in him, though he has the mastery over it. It 
 dwells in him, though he does not dwell in it. 
 One who says he does not have sin in him is 
 self-deceived. He does not deceive God, nor those 
 who Hve with him, he deceives only himself. He leads 
 himself astray. He ought to know better than to say 
 such a thing, and he might; but he shuts his eyes to 
 his actual state, and so "the truth is not in him." 
 
 "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to 
 forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all un- 
 righteousness." Unconfessed sin prevents fellowship. 
 The holy Lord cannot hold communion with a self- 
 righteous and self-satisfied sinner, nor can He with a 
 saint who cherishes such a temper. The next best 
 thing to not being a sinner at all is to confess one's 
 sins. God is faithful to His promise to forgive when 
 we honestly and truly confess, and righteous in doing 
 so. He is just when He justifies him who believes in 
 Jesus (Rom. iii: 26); He is just when He forgives 
 His child who confesses his wrongdoing and repents 
 of it. This gracious provision restores to fellowship 
 when sin has interrupted it, or suspended it altogether. 
 
 Fellowship with God is maintained by Christ's ad- 
 vocacy of our cause before the Father, ii: i, 2: "And 
 if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 97 
 
 Jesus Christ the righteous." "Advocate" is the same 
 term which is used to designate the Holy Spirit as the 
 Comforter (John xiv: 16, 26). It denotes the 
 Saviour's intercession on the behalf of His people. 
 He pleads their cause, He secures their pardon, 
 peace and joy; He obtains for them the mercy and 
 the grace they so constantly need. His plea always 
 avails because He is "righteous." In Himself, in His 
 ways and works here on earth, in His death and resur- 
 rection, He has fulfilled all righteousness, has obeyed 
 perfectly the Father's will, has glorified Him; and 
 therefore Him the Father heareth always. Moreover, 
 He is the propitiation for our sins, and on the ground 
 of His finished redemption God justifies, pardons 
 and saves all who trust in Him. It is thus that fellow- 
 ship with God is maintained and restored when once 
 it has been forfeited by disobedience and trespass. 
 
 3. Requirements of Fellowship with God, ii: 3-17. 
 How may we know that we are children of God ? The 
 inquiry is of vital moment to every Christian. All 
 want assurance, induitable evidence that we belong 
 to the heavenly family, and hence are in the light and 
 are walking with God. In this section are infallible 
 marks given by the Spirit Himself by which we may 
 determine our state and standing before Him. 
 
 (a) Obedience. "Hereby we do know that we know 
 him, if we keep his commandments" (ii: 3). As if 
 John said, "I give you an infallible sign of salvation 
 and of fellowship with the Lord, viz. : obedience to His 
 will." Every word in this short sentence is signifi- 
 cant and emphatic. Into "commandments" he pours a 
 7 
 
98 FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 
 
 wealth of meaning. He never uses the term lazu to 
 express the rule of Christian obedience. In John's 
 writings commandments generally denote the Saviour's 
 injunctions (cf. ver. 5). 
 
 A Christian is one who obeys his Lord always, not 
 to secure eternal life for this he already has, but be- 
 cause he is alive unto God, because he has come to 
 know savingly the Lord Jesus. Christ is Lord. He 
 has the right to command, we have the right only to 
 obey. Disobedience is lawlessness (iii: 4). A child 
 of God cannot be habitually disobedient to the Master's 
 will. He cannot be lawless. We come to know that 
 we do know Him when we habitually seek to keep His 
 commandments. "Keep" is a favorite word with the 
 apostle. More than a score of times he employs it 
 touching the Lord's word and will. To keep is to 
 guard and reguard, to observe and obey with stead- 
 fastness and zeal. Thus "we do know that we know 
 him." Our consciousness attests it; in the central 
 deeps of our being we know certain things; we can- 
 not be argued, nor ridiculed, nor frightened out of 
 our knowledge: "We know that we know him;" we 
 have personal acquaintance with Him as our Deliverer 
 and Friend, and we reach this sure knowledge by lov- 
 and keeping His commandments. 
 
 What is implied in such obedience? First, a filial 
 spirit. No formalist, no legalist, no self-righteous per- 
 son can by any possibility love and obey the command- 
 ments of the Lord Jesus. A child of God alone can 
 do so, and every child does it in greater or less de- 
 gree; he must, it is the essence of his new nature. It 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 99 
 
 implies faith. And this is his commandment, "That 
 we believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ" (iii: 
 23). "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ 
 is born of God" (v: i). It implies love. "For this 
 is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: 
 and his commandments are not grievous" (v: 2, 3). 
 We know His love when we cherish His words (John 
 xiv: 21 ; xv: 10, 12). These three principles, the fiHal 
 spirit, faith, and love, distinguish Christians. They 
 are not found in the ungodly, nor can they be simu- 
 lated, counterfeited, or put on like a dress; they are 
 of the heart and soul. By them we know that we 
 know Him. Every one who loves His will, is respon- 
 sive to His voice, and sensitive to His commands, may 
 press the glad truth to his heart that he is saved. 
 
 (b) Love to God: "Whoso keepeth his word, in 
 him verily is the love of God perfected; hereby we 
 know that we are in him" (ii: 5). "If a man love me, 
 he will keep my words : and my Father will love him, 
 and we will come unto him, and make our abode with 
 him" (John xiv: 23). "His word" is more compre- 
 hensive than "his commandments ;" it embraces all He 
 has revealed in the Scriptures ; it is the sum total of all 
 He has been pleased to communicate to us. Our 
 Lord kept the Father's word perfectly in all its parts, 
 and in Him indeed was the Father's love perfected. 
 Let any Christian perfectly keep it and his love to 
 God will likewise be perfect. But in the degree that 
 we love and obey Him we have the assurance that His 
 love is in us and abides. Such love fellowship with 
 Him requires. 
 
lOO FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 
 
 (c) Abiding in Him: "He that saith he abideth in 
 him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked" 
 (ii: 6). Abiding in Christ is another requirement of 
 fellowship. Abiding in Him is somewhat additional 
 to being in Him. It is possible to be in Him and yet 
 not consciously to abide in Him. The one state differs 
 from the other not in kind but in degree. Abiding in 
 Him expresses the idea of continuing in Him, being 
 actively alive to our nearness and the blessedness of 
 our relations with Him. He who keeps up close and 
 unbroken union with Christ is the most useful Chris- 
 tian. "He that abideth in me and I in him, the same 
 bringeth forth much fruit" (John xv: 5). He that 
 abides in Him has answers to his prayers. "If ye 
 abide in me and my words abide in you ye shall ask 
 what ye will, and it shall be done unto you" (John 
 XV : 7). There is a suggestive balance of terms in 
 the verses we have been considering. This diagram 
 may serve to show the balance: 
 
 Fellowship=Knowing God; 
 Knowing God= Loving Him; 
 Loving Him=Being in Him; 
 Being in Him=Abiding in Him. 
 
 The parallel presents a well-defined example of 
 biblical climax. If any one step in the parallel is ab- 
 sent, fellowship is not perfect, it is marred, perhaps 
 suspended altogether. For fellowship with God rests 
 on union with Christ and abiding in Him. This gra- 
 cious relation secures obedience, love and walk. The 
 same general doctrine is found in John xv: 1-18. 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. lot 
 
 (d) Loving the Brotherhood : "He that loveth his 
 brother abideth in the Hght, and there is no occasion 
 of stumbHng in him" (ii: lo). Love is an essential 
 principle in fellowship; love to God, to men, to the 
 household of faith particularly. The principle is both 
 old and new; old as Moses (Lev. xix: i8; Deut. vi: 
 5) : new, because taught and exemplified by the 
 Saviour. Love marks the difference between a be- 
 liever and an unbeliever : the one is in the light, the 
 other in darkness; the one is a light-center, the other 
 a stumbling-block. A lamppost lighted is a welcome 
 help; without a light, a menace. 
 
 (e) Separation from the world: "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" (ii: 15-17). By the world John means the 
 whole order of things which is estranged from God, 
 which is hostile to Him and to His cause and His 
 people. The world is God's enemy (Jas. iv: 4), and it 
 is soon to pass away under His righteous judgment. 
 The world consists of three things that are hateful to 
 God: 
 
 "Lust of the flesh" — the strong, passionate craving 
 of the unrenewed heart for things evil and forbidden ; 
 inordinate yearning for the gratification of one's own 
 desires, the accomplishment of one's own plans and 
 purpose, right or wrong: "Lust of the eyes" — the 
 fierce passion to see and enjoy the things the flesh 
 longs for, that restless, insatiable delight in what 
 pleases the flesh, what pampers and satisfies it, for 
 what feeds the basest appetites of our nature. The 
 
102 FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 
 
 lust of the flesh is fed by the lust of the eyes. These 
 two ''lusts" are acquisitive, they seize and hold all that 
 the sinful nature craves. But there is a third: "the 
 Pride of Life." The lust of the flesh and the lust of 
 the eyes are at bottom selfish and lawless. "Pride of 
 life" is the same spirit of utter selfishness expending 
 itself in vain show and pomp. It will lavishly squan- 
 der wealth in proud, ostentatious display. It will in- 
 trigue and fawn if thereby it may win the notice of the 
 illutrious and the great, and strut with haughty arro- 
 gance among its equals and inferiors. The first two 
 are egoism of the meanest sort; the third is egotism 
 pretentious and shallow to the last degree. All be- 
 long to a life that is false, hollow and bitterly disap- 
 pointing. A Christian is bidden stand aloof from this 
 "world." He must heed these solemn words of John, 
 the still more solemn words of James : "Know ye not 
 that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? 
 Whosoever therefore would be the friend of the world 
 maketh himself an enemy of God." A holy separa- 
 tion from this zvorld must be maintained if fellowship 
 with God is to be real and permanent. 
 
 (f) Anointing of the Spirit, ii: 20, 27. The anoint- 
 ing which believers receive is the Spirit Himself and 
 not a gift or gifts from Him. It is affirmed that they 
 who have this sacred chrism "know all things," that 
 it teaches them so that they may be independent of 
 mere human teachers, that by it they are able to de- 
 tect false teaching. By this is not meant that any new 
 faculty or organ of the soul is imparted so that be- 
 lievers may know universal truth; not this; rather, 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 103 
 
 it denotes divine truth as distinguished from error 
 which breaks fellowship and tends to stifle it alto- 
 gether. We may grieve the Spirit so as to hinder His 
 work in us and thus interrupt our fellowship with 
 God (Eph. iv: 30). 
 
 (g) Abiding in Christ, ii: 28: "And now, little 
 children, abide in him." This with the next verse con- 
 cludes the second main division of the epistle, and the 
 last thing the apostle has to say to the children is, 
 Abide in Christ. He has repeatedly urged them to do 
 this ; he does so again because Christ ere long is com- 
 ing to the earth, and our relation to Him and our re- 
 ward likewise will then be gloriously manifested. 
 John is anxious that we should maintain uninterrupted 
 fellowship that he and his fellow-workers should not 
 be ashamed in His presence as unfaithful shepherds, 
 as slothful servants. 
 
 God is Love. 
 
 III. Sonship, iii-v: 12. This section of the epistle 
 may be entitled, The Children of God and the Chil- 
 dren of the Devil contrasted. The antithesis in Sec- 
 tion n is Light and Darkness. The antithesis in Sec- 
 tion III is a double one : Righteousness and Sin ; or, 
 Love and Hate. 
 
 Chap, ii : 29 is the connecting link between the two 
 sections: "If ye know that he is righteous, ye know 
 that every one that doeth righteousness is born of 
 him." Here is evidence both of sonship and of fel- 
 lowship. He whose daily life is one of obedience and 
 
104 FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 
 
 uprightness gives proof that he is born of God. The 
 Hke nature is demonstrated by the hke fruits. Note 
 the use of the present tense, "doeth;" it is character- 
 istic of First John. It denotes a habit of Hfe, the pre- 
 vaiHng principle of one's hfe, not a single act, but a 
 succession of acts which make up the life. The apostle 
 sharply contrasts "doing righteousness" and "doing 
 sin" (iii: 7, 8, 9). The fundamental idea is the same 
 in both expressions, viz. : that it is not one act alone 
 that is meant, but habitual practice, the life-conduct 
 of a man. 
 
 We may now add other items to the parallelism of 
 the epistle: 
 
 Being in Him=Abiding in Him; 
 Abiding in Him=Anointed of Him; 
 Anointed of Him=Born of Him; 
 Born of Him=^Doing Righteousness, 
 
 I. The origin and the destiny of God's children, 
 iii: 1-3. On this great passage only brief notes can 
 be made, not an exposition. The authorized version 
 has "sons of God;" the English and American revis- 
 ions alike have "children;" and beyond question this 
 is preferable. Paul generally speaks of the "sons," 
 and of "adoption," for he has in mind the legal stand- 
 ing and the privileges of Christians. John scarcely 
 ever uses the term sons, but always children. (Rev. 
 xxi : 7 is perhaps an exception.) And this name which 
 he gives them includes two ideas, their birth into the 
 heavenly family, and the filial spirit by which they 
 are animated. John does not dwell on the adoption of 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 105 
 
 sons into God's household — this is Paul's theme — but 
 on their birth. His words {tekna, teknia) "little 
 children" is exactly expressed by the Scotch bairns, 
 born ones. According to Paul we receive the place 
 and the rights of children in God's family; according 
 to John, the nature and the name of children. The 
 revisions add the precious and assuring words, "and 
 we are." We are not only called the children of God, 
 but we are. 
 
 The origin of our sonship is here traced to the 
 Father's love: "Behold what manner of love the 
 Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be 
 called children of God : and such we are." It is not 
 so much the magnitude of the Father's love that is 
 here extolled ; it is its quality, its character. That He 
 should love us, exiles and outcasts, ragged and starv- 
 ing prodigals as we are, and that He should bring us 
 into His holy family as children, and give us not the 
 name only, but also the nature and the character of 
 children ! What a wonder of love this is, "all love sur- 
 passing." And yet this is what He has done for every 
 one who receives and believes His testimony about 
 His Son Jesus Christ. "Beloved, now are we the chil- 
 dren of God." Children we who trust in Christ are 
 called, and children we are. No doubt is felt or ex- 
 pressed. The epistle is full of assurances. "For this 
 cause the world knoweth us not because it knew him 
 not." Natural men knew not Jesus Christ when He 
 was here ; no more do they know His children. Really 
 to know a child of God is to be a child of God. I 
 know a man because I have a man's nature; a brute 
 
lo6 FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 
 
 cannot know me, for it has not my nature. If one 
 knows not God in Christ, how can he know them who 
 belong to God's family? "Beloved, now are we chil- 
 dren of God." We do not much look like it as to 
 outward appearance. The resemblance between what 
 we now are and what we shall be can hardly be traced. 
 We are pilgrims traveling in disguise at present, 
 weary often and travel-stained, but by and by the dis- 
 guise shall drop off, and we shall appear in His like- 
 ness, clothed with robes of unsullied light and beauty, 
 for "we shall be like him and see him as he is." 
 That will be the glorious day of His espousals and of 
 our crowning. The hope of seeing Him and of being 
 like Him prompts to holiness of life and sanctity of 
 spirit. Therefore it is added, "And every one that hath 
 this hope set on him purifieth himself, even as he is 
 pure." 
 
 2. iii : 4-24. These verses furnish two main proofs 
 of Sonship; rather, they point out the two main fea- 
 tures in Sonship, viz. : righteousness and love. 
 
 (i) Righteousness is evidence of Sonship (iii: 
 4-10). Negatively, doing sin is doing lawlessness, for 
 sin is lawlessness (ver. 4). Doing, as already noted, 
 means practice, habit, persistent conduct. Whoever 
 thus sins, lives in sin, habitually practices sin, has 
 neither seen Christ nor known Him. Positively, "he 
 that doeth righteousness is righteous." That is, one 
 who loves righteousness, who lives in that sphere, and 
 who makes righteousness the chief end of his being, 
 is of God and belongs to His household. Opposition 
 to sin is the controlling principle of one born of God. 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 107 
 
 Love of sin and the persistent doing of sin is the con- 
 trolHng principle of one belonging to the devil, who is 
 the habitual sinner from the beginning. 
 
 The child of God does not live in the practice of 
 sin, he lives in the practice of righteousness. Sin is 
 in him, but he does not live in it; holiness is the realm 
 where he seeks to dwell. John's doctrine on this mat- 
 ter is summed up in iii: 9. It is a difficult verse, but 
 its main idea is clear : "Whosoever is begotten of God 
 doeth no sin, because his seed abideth in him : and he 
 cannot sin because he is begotten of God" (R. V.). 
 Sinless perfection certainly is not meant, for that 
 would contradict i : 8: "If we say that we have no 
 sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." 
 Some hold that it is the new nature or life in the child 
 of God that does not sin and that cannot sin ; but that 
 the old nature which is still in the saint does sin. But 
 this view involves a sort of double consciousness and 
 a divided responsibility, which contradicts our experi- 
 ence. It is our whole self that seeks to do righteous- 
 ness, and it is our whole self that sins; otherwise, re- 
 sponsibility for evil conduct would largely disappear, 
 and the worst type of antinomianism would ensue. 
 The meaning of the verse appears to be chiefly this: 
 he who is begotten of God does not love sin nor live in 
 the practice of it; he hates it, and abhors himself 
 when he commits it; he devoutly seeks total deliver- 
 ance from it. He that is not born of God loves sin 
 and is its slave. The Seed that abides in him probably 
 is the new, the divine nature which he receives in re- 
 generation, and which is not extirpated when even 
 
lo3 FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 
 
 gross sin is committed. "He cannot sin" signifies that 
 it is impossible a believer should live in evil and make 
 it the habit of his life. He cannot live in it, it is 
 foreign to his new nature. 
 
 3. Love is evidence of Sonship, iii: 11-24. Love is 
 the keyword of this portion of the chapter and much 
 that follows. It runs through the rest of the epistle. 
 It occurs 16 times as a substantive, 25 times as a verb, 
 and 5 times as a verbal adjective. No wonder John 
 makes so much of it when he opens the chapter with 
 the note of supreme admiration and wonderment at 
 the display of the Father's love. Behold! He names 
 us children, and loves us as such. 
 
 Brotherly love is the chief content of the Gospel 
 message : "Love one another." Jerome relates that 
 when John was too old and feeble to preach he had 
 one little exhortation which he did not cease to re- 
 peat when carried into the assembly, "Little children, 
 love one another. It is the Lord's command, and it 
 is enough." 
 
 Hate is love's opposite and its enemy; it is Cain- 
 like and murderous. Hate, malignity is foreign to the 
 real Christian spirit. Hatred is deadly. Love is the 
 infallible mark of spiritual life. "We know that we 
 have passed out of death into life because we love the 
 brethren." Life is not the cause of love but its fruit. 
 If we have the fruit we may be sure we have the life. 
 
 Love gladly goes out in helpfulness of others. It 
 is practical, generous and self-sacrificing. If not, it 
 is not real. If we say we love God and yet refuse or 
 neglect to help those who are destitute, how dwells 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 109 
 
 the love of God in us? (cf. James ii: 15, 16). The 
 man who withholds aid from the needy may with his 
 tongue say he loves God, but with his hand and his 
 heart he denies it. 
 
 jii : 24 introduces for the first time in the epistle the 
 Holy Spirit, and we come to know our sonship by the 
 gift of the Spirit who bears witness with our spirits 
 that we are the children of God. 
 
 4. Spiritual Discernment an evidence of Sonship, 
 iv: 1-6. This passage treats of false spirits and of 
 their detection and repulsion. 
 
 The right to judge teachers and to test doctrine be- 
 longs to all Christians. Our Lord Himself imposed 
 this duty on His people (Matt, vii: 15-19). The 
 necessity of such trial is recognized : "Beloved, believe 
 not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are 
 of God ; because many false prophets are gone out into 
 the world." Christ foretold their advent (Matt, xxiv: 
 24). Paul encountered not a few of them. The 
 world is filled with them at the present time. Some 
 of them teach partial truth, that which is palatable, 
 while that which is distasteful and repugnant to the 
 natural heart is suppressed. Others teach error and 
 nothing else. In our day as not for ages past Satan 
 transforms himself into an angel of light, and de- 
 ceives even the most wary and the cautious. Never 
 perhaps has there been more need of trying the spirits 
 than now. 
 
 The apostle furnishes two infallible tests of both 
 teachers and teaching (vers. 2-6). The first relates 
 to Christ's person and work. What do they say of 
 
no FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 
 
 Him? What is their doctrine concerning Him? Do 
 they deny His mission ? His Deity ? His Virgin birth ? 
 His resurrection? H they do, then they are of the 
 spirit of Antichrist, they are enemies of the blessed 
 Lord Jesus, and therefore no beHever in Him can hold 
 fellowship with them. This is an infallible test in- 
 deed, for every false prophet, every heretical teacher 
 invariably bears false witness against the Son of God. 
 
 The second is their following: "They are of the 
 world; the world heareth them." God's children are 
 not of this company nor can be. "A stranger will they 
 not follow, but will flee from him ; for they know not 
 the voice of strangers." Whoever is born of God knows 
 the voice of the Son of God that speaks to him 
 through the ministry of the Gospel. That voice he 
 hears and heeds. "He that is not of God heareth not 
 us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit 
 of error." These are sure tests both of profession and 
 of character. 
 
 5. Love the supreme evidence of the new birth, 
 iv: 7-21. This is the third time the apostle adduces 
 love as the prime attestation of sonship and fellow- 
 ship. The first mention (ii: 7-1 1 ) marks the govern- 
 ing principle of Christian behavior. The second (iii: 
 11-24) presents the proofs of sonship in God's family. 
 The third (iv: 7-21) explains the origin, the energy 
 and the steadfast confidence of this divine force. Its 
 source is God Himself, "for God is love." This grace 
 so highly commended by John is not of earth ; it 
 springs not from any merely human fountain, it is not 
 native to the human heart. "We love him because he 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. m 
 
 first loved us." The parentage of our love to God is 
 His love to us. He loves us into loving Himself and 
 our fellowmen. "Herein is love, not that we loved 
 God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the 
 propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved 
 us, we ought also to love one another." 
 
 Love is the faculty by which we know Him. It 
 leads into an acquaintance with Him, for it has eyes 
 that see, ears that hear, a heart that feels and that 
 answers to His love. The natural man is both blind 
 and deaf as to the love of God ; he knows nothing of 
 it, it is foolishness to him. To the Lord's child it is a 
 precious reality. Love casts out fear, and fills us with 
 a bHssful confidence (iv: 16-18). For the Lord Jesus 
 and believers belong to the same family, have the same 
 tender Father, and are heirs to the same glorious heri- 
 tage. Therefore, they have no ground to dread even 
 the awful Day of Judgment; for the children have the 
 same standing with God as has the Elder Brother 
 Himself. 
 
 Can this love of God be defined? Not wholly. 
 Some things touching it, however, may be said. God's 
 love, in general, is that mighty principle which leads 
 Him to desire and seek the good of all His moral 
 creatures ; to impart benefits to them in every scale and 
 degree of blessing; to recover and restore them when 
 they have turned aside from their true end, and lost 
 themselves through sin ; to admit them to participation 
 in His own holy, blessed life, in which He and they 
 become one, as the Father and Son are one (Orr). 
 Love alone explains God's marvellous dealings with 
 
112 FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 
 
 our rebellious race. When we remember the world's 
 treatment of Him, its rejection of His authority, its 
 idolatries, its profanities, its calumnies and its slan- 
 ders against Him, we are amazed at His patience with 
 it, His long-suffering. "The forbearance of God" — 
 how wonderful it is! The secret of it is His love. 
 "God is love:" not only loving, but love. We know 
 He is righteous, but we are nowhere told He is righ- 
 teousness. We know He is almighty, but we nowhere 
 read God is power. Twice we are told, "God is love." 
 It is His nature. This is the key to His gracious ways 
 with the disobedient children of men. It should be 
 noted also that Christian love is not a mere feeling, 
 nor mood, nor sentiment, nor impulse. It is a vital 
 principle which controls the whole life, which trans- 
 forms one*s habits, guides one's ways, shapes one's 
 whole course, and leads one to rejoice in hope of the 
 coming glory. 
 
 6. Faith the evidence of sonship, v: 1-12. "Whoso- 
 ever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God" 
 (cf. iv: 4). It is a faith that is obedient to the Lord's 
 commands, and is victorious over the world (vers. 
 2-5). Love is a master-principle, is an all-conquering 
 principle. It is one that is assured that Jesus is the 
 Messiah, the promised Deliverer ; that is just as sure 
 that He is also the Son of God. In the one case it re- 
 ceives the testimony that He fills the Messianic ofiFxces 
 of Prophet, Priest and King. In the other it holds 
 Him to be God manifest in the flesh, Himself the true 
 God. The ground of this faith is the threefold testi- 
 mony of the Spirit, the water, and the blood (v: 8). 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 113 
 
 The Holy Spirit is the supreme witness. "The water" 
 probably signifies His baptism at the Jordan when the 
 Father bare His emphatic testimony that He was well 
 pleased in Him. "The blood" no doubt is that of the 
 cross. He is thus declared to be both Messiah and 
 Son of God on whom faith may confidently rest. 
 
 Prayer and the Certainty of Christian 
 Knowledge. 
 
 IV. Conclusion, v: 13-21. 
 
 Intercessory prayer is most precious, but It is dis- 
 criminative (v: 16). For one at least no prayer is to 
 be offered, for one who has sinned "the sin unto death." 
 To determine with any positiveness what the "sin unto 
 death" is, is most difficult, if not impossible. It is not 
 an ordinary transgression into which professing Chris- 
 tians may fall, and often do; It must be one that is 
 extraordinary, heinous and mortal in the deepest sense. 
 It seems to be a single act that cuts the sinner off from 
 all intercession. Some regard it as identical with the 
 sin against the Holy Spirit, the "unpardonable sin." 
 Others think it Is not this, but something akin to it, 
 a sin that is peculiar and fatal. "Death," the punish- 
 ment of it, appears to be eternal death. If it were 
 physical death, as many believe, the passage would be 
 readily understood, and Instances of such transgres- 
 sion ending in the death of the transgressors are found 
 In Scripture, e. g., i Cor. v : i ; xl : 30 ; i Tim. 1 : 20. 
 No doubt there are even now cases of fatal sickness 
 brought on by sins for which no prayer is available 
 8 
 
114 FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 
 
 as respects recovery. But it is doubtful whether physi- 
 cal death is meant. "Life" all through the epistle 
 means eternal life; death, likewise, seems to mean in 
 each case eternal death. 
 
 Design of First John, Chap, v: 13. "These things 
 have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have 
 eternal life, even unto you that believe on the name of 
 the Son of God" (R. V.). 
 
 "These things" embraces the whole epistle. The 
 verse states the object of this epistle, namely, that 
 Christians may know they have eternal life. He 
 writes the Gospel that "ye may believe that Jesus is 
 the Christ, the Son of God ; and that believing ye may 
 have life in his name" (John xx: 31). He writes the 
 epistle "that ye may know ye have eternal life." The 
 Gospel is designed to put us in possession of eternal 
 life : the epistle is intended to lead us to know we have 
 it. The one aims to bring us to a saving faith ; the 
 other to make us know our faith is saving. To have 
 a thing and to know we have it are not always the 
 same. We may have a thing and yet be in doubt 
 whether we possess it. One's name may be in a will 
 as heir to a great inheritance, and he be ignorant of 
 the fact. We may think we have eternal life, yet de- 
 ceive ourselves, cherishing feeling for faith, mistaking 
 a wish for ownership. Many sincere Christians go 
 through life with little or no assurance that they are 
 saved. There are those who think it is even a kind of 
 virtue to doubt, who look on the full assurance of sal- 
 vation as a sort of presumption which genuine hu- 
 mility forbids one to claim. Now this epistle fur- 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 115 
 
 nishes us with infallible evidences of our state before 
 God. It provides marks and traits whereby the be- 
 liever may know assuredly that he is passed from 
 death into life, is now named and anointed for eternal 
 bliss. We note some of these tokens and sings of the 
 saved condition which John so plentifully gives us in 
 this Scripture. 
 
 I. Believing on the name of the Son of God, v: 13 
 (cf. John i: 12; i John iii: 23; v: i). His name 
 stands for Himself, for all He is and for all He prom- 
 ises. His great title, Son of God, at once pledges to 
 the believer His grace and love and power to do for 
 him up to the full measure of his need. Faith lays 
 hold on His pledges and comforts itself with the 
 assurance that it will all be made good to him even 
 as the Lord has said. There is an element in saving 
 faith of persuasion that salvation is guaranteed to the 
 believer. Here is the testimony of one of the evan- 
 gelical churches on the subject that is worthy of all 
 acceptation: "True and saving faith ... is a cordial 
 reception and appropriation of him (Christ) by the 
 sinner as his Saviour, with an accompanying persua- 
 sion or assurance corresponding to the degree or 
 strength of his faith, that he shall be saved by him.'* 
 Heb. xi: I confirms this testimony: "Now faith is 
 assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things 
 not seen" (R. V.). Whoever savingly believes on the 
 name of the Son of God has this witness in his per- 
 sonal consciousness. "God hath given us eternal life, 
 and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath 
 life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." 
 
Ii6 FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 
 
 The apostle gives us many marks whereby we may 
 know that we are children of God. These have been 
 already noticed in this study. There are mentioned 
 again as distinct marks of the saved state — 
 
 2. Walking in the light is proof of our state, i: 7. 
 He who walks with God must love the company of 
 the godly; he cannot habitually dwell with them who 
 are the Lord's foes. In what society do we delight? 
 Our tastes, desires, affections — what sort of company 
 attracts and holds them? When Peter and John were 
 released from arrest "they went to their own com- 
 pany." They could go to no other. They must seek 
 their own kind. This is characteristic of all the saints; 
 they love His family; they do not the family of the 
 ungodly. In our deepest and truest selves, where do 
 we live? 
 
 3. Confession of sin and pardon, 1: 8-10. What is 
 our attitude toward sin? Do we dread it? confess it? 
 forsake it? and seek after holiness? If so, we have 
 that much of evidence that we belong to God. 
 
 4. Obedience is a signal mark of Sonship, ii: 3. 
 "Hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep 
 his commandments." An obedient child in a house- 
 hold knows that he has the love of his father and his 
 mother when he gladly and habitually obeys. A dis- 
 obedient son is always in fear; genuine fellowship 
 with his parents he does not have nor can so long as 
 he seeks his own will and walks in his own ways. It 
 is an infallible sign this of obedience. 
 
 5. Separation from the world is another proof of 
 our Sonship, ii: 15-17. It is a marvellous, great 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 117 
 
 • 
 world we live in, and it has stupendous attractions. 
 Its riches, its splendors, its pleasures, its refinements 
 and its gratifications — how do these and the like aflfect 
 us? Do we love it or turn from it? 
 
 6. The hope of seeing Christ and being like Him 
 is another token of Sonship, iii: 1-4. Whoever waits 
 and longs for Christ's coming, whoever yearns to see 
 Him and to be like Him, whoever lives soberly and 
 righteously and godly in this evil world, looking for 
 that Blessed Hope, has the proof in himself that he is 
 a child of God. 
 
 7. A life of righteousness is another evidence of 
 Sonship, iii: 7-10. Whoever does righteousness as a 
 habit of his soul, whoever loves righteousness and 
 makes it the aim and the effort of his whole self, may 
 take comfort in the assurance that he is born of God, 
 for he that "doeth righteousness is born of him." 
 
 8. Love of the brethren is still another proof of 
 Sonship, iii: 14. "We know that we have passed out 
 of death into life, because we love the brethren." 
 Brotherly love is the supreme test of our standing be- 
 fore God. 
 
 9. Faith is yet another evidence of Sonship, v: 4, 5. 
 It is a victorious faith, for it overcomes the world ; it 
 is a faith that receives Jesus as the Christ and as the 
 Son of God, Deliverer and Divine, and therefore able 
 to redeem us from all iniquity and from all enemies, 
 even death itself. 
 
 10. Certainty of Christian knowledge, v: 18-20. In 
 this passage the term know occurs four times. It is 
 found three times in verses 13-15; seven times in this 
 
Ii8 FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 
 
 short section of the epistle; and more than a score of 
 times in the letter. The apostle attaches great value to 
 the word ; it is the hinge on which turns the certainty 
 of our salvation. It expresses the utmost assurance. 
 **0 taste and see that the Lord is gracious," sang the 
 Psalmist long ago. "Try for yourselves and you will 
 know, you cannot help but know." So John seems to 
 say to his readers. 
 
 V: i8, "We know that whosoever is born of God 
 sinneth not." We know it from the Lord's own testi- 
 mony, iii : 9. Does this mean that the Christian never 
 sins? Certainly not, for "if we say that we have no 
 sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." 
 He who is born of God does not practice sin, does not 
 live in sin, he cannot. The new life he has received 
 is holy and seeks holiness; the grace given him for- 
 bids his sinning. When he falls into sin he confesses 
 the wrongdoing, repents of it, turns away from it, 
 and seeks the Lord's pardon and is fully forgiven. 
 The knowledge of this comforting truth rests on 
 Christ's word, and on the believer's personal experi- 
 ence. 
 
 V: 19, "We know that we are of God." We know 
 it by all the marks, signs, tokens and proofs so plenti- 
 fully furnished in this epistle. Our state and stand- 
 ing, therefore, is totally different from that of the 
 world, for "the world" lies in the wicked one. The 
 figure is that of a child lying in the lap of its parent. 
 In v: 18 the evil one toucheth him not who is 
 born of God. That is, the devil cannot ever again 
 seize hold of and rule him that is a child of God. 
 
FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 119 
 
 Here we are told that the unbelieving world lies in his 
 embrace, rests in his lap! Nobody believes such a 
 radical and frightful statement but a genuine Chris- 
 tian. This inspired apostle, however, most solemnly 
 affirms it, and believe it we must if we are Christians. 
 V : 20, "And we know that the Son of God is come, 
 and hath given us an understanding, that we may 
 know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, 
 even in his Son Jesus Christ." We know it by His 
 Spirit, by His promise, and by the enlightened con- 
 sciousness within us. "This is the true God and 
 eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from 
 idols." 
 
SECOND EPISTLE OF JOHN 
 
 In this brief letter there are several words and 
 phrases that are identical with language found in 
 John's First Epistle. Indeed, it has been pointed out 
 that of the thirteen verses of Second John eight are 
 found in First John. This fact goes far to prove that 
 the author of the one writing is also the author of the 
 other. 
 
 The writer styles himself "the Elder." The term is 
 the same as Presbyter. This title describes age; no 
 doubt he was far advanced in life when he wrote, for 
 it is generally believed that John lived to be nearly if 
 not quite one hundred years old, and he probably died 
 about the close of the first Christian century. Toward 
 the end of the century the epistle was written. It de- 
 scribes also a fatherly relation between him and those 
 whom he so tenderly addresses, and his official posi- 
 tion. He was "the Elder," as was Peter likewise 
 (i Peter v: i). Hence John speaks both with paternal 
 affection and apostolic authority. 
 
 The epistle is addressed "unto the elect lady and 
 her children," which docs not mean the whole church, 
 nor any single congregation of Christians, but an in- 
 dividual woman in whose family were children. Who 
 she was can not be determined with any certainty. It 
 has been conjectured that her name was Electa, but 
 
 120 
 
SECOND EPISTLE OF JOHN. 121 
 
 the use of the same word in ver. 13 seems to forbid it. 
 "The elect sister" of that verse cannot be a proper 
 name. With more probabiUty it is thought that the 
 term for "lady" is to be understood as a proper name, 
 and that we should translate as follows : "To the elect 
 Kyria." Kyria was in use as the name of a woman 
 in those ancient times, and there is no impropriety in so 
 understanding it here. At any rate, she was a person 
 of note and of influence. She was training her house- 
 hold in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and 
 the aged apostle attests her faithfulness and her suc- 
 cess; he found her children walking in the truth, and 
 it rejoiced his heart. 
 
 He writes, (i) to exhort the Lady (Kyria) to 
 steadfastness in love and obedience (vers. 5, 6). The 
 phrase "love one another" is characteristic of John 
 (i John iii: 11), as is also love to God (i John iv: 
 21). This is no new commandment, but one had from 
 the beginning. He defines more exactly what he means 
 by love — "And this is love, that we should walk after 
 his commandments." Walk denotes the daily life. It 
 includes the temper of mind and the external deport- 
 ment which go to make up character. The Christian 
 walk is to be the constant exercise of love, obedience, 
 steadfastness and patience. 
 
 He writes (2), to warn her against false teachers 
 and false doctrine (vers. 7, 8). Many deceivers were 
 abroad, men who rejected the blessed hope of the 
 Lord's coming in visible glory and power. In i John 
 iv: 3 the apostle brands every "spirit" that rejects the 
 great truth of the incarnation ("Jesus Christ is come 
 
122 SECOND EPISTLE OF JOHN. 
 
 in the fiesh") as Antichrist. Here in 2 John the 
 solemn charge is that whoever does "not confess that 
 Christ cometh in the flesh is a deceiver and an anti- 
 christ." The great adversary, Antichrist, when he 
 shall appear, will be both — a false Christ, a mock Mes- 
 siah — but also a malignant and determined foe of 
 Christ. He who denies the coming of the Lord is a 
 deceiver of himself and of the people who heed his 
 teaching, but he is likewise a foe of Christ and him- 
 self a false Christ. 
 
 The false teachers are further described in ver. 9: 
 ''Whosoever goeth onward and abideth not in the 
 teaching of Christ, hath not God." They are those 
 who forsake the old paths, who go beyond what the 
 Lord has taught, who give up much of the Gospel, or 
 who declare that it is no longer adapted to "the 
 modern man." They are the advanced thinkers, the 
 inventors of novelties, the patrons of the spirits of 
 the age. There is a vast crop of them on earth now. 
 
 (3) Warning against a false charity, vers. 10, 1 1. 
 Some might be disposed to say, "Well, if love is so 
 noble and ennobling, let us love all and fellowship all 
 without distinction or discrimination." No, John re- 
 plies ; you cannot afford to fellowship those who pro- 
 pagate error that is destructive, for if you do you 
 thereby become sharers in their evil works. Separa- 
 tion from the ungodly and repudiation of all teachers 
 of bad doctrine is John's earnest counsel. 
 
THIRD EPISTLE OF JOHN 
 
 This letter is addressed to the "well-beloved Gaius/* 
 one of the most common names in the Roman Empire 
 in those ancient days. Four with this name of Gaius 
 are mentioned in the New Testament — Gaius of Mace- 
 donia (Acts xix: 29); Gaius of Corinth, with whom 
 Paul was lodging when he wrote the epistle to the 
 Romans (Rom. xvi: 23) ; Gaius of Derbe (Acts xx: 
 4) ; and this Gaius whom it so highly commends. 
 Whether he was the same as any one of the three 
 mentioned above is unknown. The following matters 
 in the epistle are worthy of careful study: 
 
 (i) The joy of apostles and ministers over the 
 fidelity and the steadfastness of their converts in walk- 
 ing in the truth (vers. 2-4). It hurts, it wounds us 
 deeply when those whom we have tried to lead into 
 the saving acquaintance with Christ go back and walk 
 no more with us. 
 
 (2) Hospitality praised (vers. 5-8). Gaius had 
 shown his love and generosity in the entertainment 
 which he extended to those who were laboring in the 
 cause of missions and in the noble help he gave them. 
 The missionaries were thoroughly unselfish and self- 
 sacrificing in their good work — "For the sake of the 
 Name they went forth, taking nothing of the Gen- 
 tiles." All the greater, therefore, was the need that 
 Christian brethren should support them. Gaius was 
 
 123 
 
\124 THIRD EPISTLE OF JOHN. 
 
 one of the most conspicuous of those who did so. It 
 was a ''faithful work toward them that are brethren 
 and strangers withal" which he did, and it was 
 prompted solely by love. The aged John commends 
 him in the highest terms and sets the seal of divine 
 approval on his loving hospitality. 
 
 (3) Denunciation of hierarchical arrogance and 
 ecclesiastical despotism (vers. 9, 10). Diotrephes 
 acted in a very different spirit. He loved pre-emi* 
 nence in the church, grasped after authority, set him- 
 self against the apostle himself and treated him with 
 insolence and indignity, refused to receive the mis- 
 sionaries, and prohibited others from doing so. His 
 conduct is denounced, his behavior held up as a warn- 
 ing to all, and John deals with him according to his 
 deserts. How hateful to the inspired writers is eccle- 
 siastical tyranny, the arrogant claim of lordship over 
 God's heritage! 
 
 (4) A good man cordially commended (vers. 11, 
 12). "Demetrius hath good report of all, and of the 
 truth itself." The witness borne to his goodness was 
 that of his fellow-Christians. "He that doeth good is 
 of God." Demetrius belongs to this select class. "He 
 that doeth evil hath not seen God." Diothephes must 
 be put into this unhappy class. "Imitate not that 
 which is evil," Diotrephes and his company, "but that 
 which is good," Demetrius and his fellow-saints. 
 
 These two short epistles give us some insight into 
 the membership and conditions of the primitive 
 church. Christians then had their weaknesses and 
 their imperfections even as we; they had also those 
 
THIRD EPISTLE OF JOHN. 125 
 
 who were noble and true, but likewise some ignoble 
 and unworthy members. Some were generous and 
 self-sacrificing in the highest degree, others were am- 
 bitious and self-seeking. But brotherly love was the 
 prevailing feature among the majority. It is note- 
 worthy that individual Christians are singled out and 
 commended or condemned, for ecclesiasticism had not 
 then hardened into an organism in which the individual 
 was swallowed up, the huge body being everything. 
 
EPISTLE OF JUDE 
 
 The writer of this short epistle calls himself Jude, 
 or Judas. His name was a very common one among 
 the Jews: there was hardly another of more frequent 
 use. Two among the apostles bore it, viz: Judas, 
 mentioned in John xiv : 22 ; cf . Luke vi : 16, and Judas 
 Iscariot. Jude describes himself as *'the servant of 
 Jesus Christ, and brother of James." The James here 
 mentioned is no doubt the same called "the Lord's 
 brother" (Gal. i: 19), the writer of the epistle which 
 bears his name. Neither was an apostle. Both be- 
 longed to the family of Joseph, and both are called 
 the Lord's brethren. In Mark vi : 3 the sons in 
 Joseph's family are James, Joses, Judas and Simon. 
 Sisters there were also, but they are not named nor 
 their number given. The appellation "servant of 
 Jesus Christ," Alford affirms, "is never thus barely 
 used in an address of an epistle to designate an apos- 
 tle." Phil, i : I has a similar expression, "Paul and 
 Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ," "but the designa- 
 tion common to two persons necessarily sinks to the 
 rank of the inferior one. In every other case servant 
 is associated with apostle." It is noteworthy that 
 neither James nor Jude hint at their relationship with 
 Jesus ; their unaffected humility will not suffer them to 
 do so. Jude speaks of his being the "brother of 
 James" perhaps to give authority and weight to his 
 
 126 
 
EPISTLE OF JUDE. I27 
 
 letter, for James was far more distinguished and in- 
 fluential than he. 
 
 Both Jude and James pertained to the family of 
 David. An early historian, Hegesippus (c. A. D. 175- 
 190), records that two of Jude's grandsons were 
 brought before the Roman Emperor Domitian toward 
 the close of the first century and were questioned by 
 him as to their connection with the house of David. 
 They told the Emperor that they were of David's 
 family, which obviously identifies the household of 
 Joseph and Mary with the royal house of Israel's 
 greatest king. Domitian asked them about their 
 wealth. They said they had some money — 9,000 de- 
 naries, some $1,500 — they had also 39 acres of land 
 which they tilled themselves, and as proof of their toil 
 they showed the august ruler their rough and hardened 
 hands. The Roman asked them about Christ and His 
 Kingdom, of what nature it would be and when it 
 would appear, and the two men replied that it would 
 not be of this world nor earthly, but heavenly and 
 angelic, and that it would appear at the end of the 
 age, at which time He will come in glory and judge 
 the living and the dead, and will give to each one ac- 
 cording to his works. The Emperor dismissed them, 
 despising them as poor men without influence and 
 without power. The two brothers afterward became 
 leaders in the church because they had stood before 
 the Emperor as witnesses, and because they were of 
 the family of the Lord. "This Hegesippus relates" 
 (Eusebius). 
 
 This interesting story takes us back into the first 
 
128 EPISTLE OF JUDE. 
 
 century, about the year A. D. 90, while the Apostle 
 John was still living, and Jude their grandfather had 
 passed away perhaps less than twenty-five years be- 
 fore. Two facts of great importance are established 
 by this narrative: First, that the family of Joseph 
 and Mary was identified with the royal house of 
 David ; no one raised a question touching the reality 
 of such relation. Second, that the Kingdom of Jesus 
 Christ was in the minds of Christians generally and in 
 the minds even of the rulers of the Empire closely 
 associated with the throne of David. 
 
 The address of the epistle is remarkable for the 
 affection Jude expresses for these saints. He speaks 
 of them as "called," "beloved in God the Father," 
 "kept for Jesus Christ" (R. V.). He wishes mercy, 
 peace and love may be multiplied to them — a prayer 
 without a parallel in any other epistle of the New 
 Testament. They must have been a worthy band, a 
 noble and trustworthy company of believers, to merit 
 such an address. 
 
 The design of the epistle is indicated very distinctly 
 in ver. 3 : "Beloved, while I was giving all diligence 
 to write unto you of our common salvation, I was 
 constrained to write unto you exhorting you to con- 
 tend earnestly for the faith which was once for all 
 delivered unto the saints." Jude in these words clearly 
 intimates that he had meditated writing at length on 
 the common salvation, perhaps an essay or a treatise; 
 but the solemn and urgent necessity pressed upon his 
 heart that he must warn Christians of the dangers that 
 threatened the truth, and to protest against the evils 
 
EPISTLE OF JUDE. 129 
 
 and the evildoers that had invaded the brotherhood. 
 The faith was in jeopardy, nay, Christianity itself. 
 Every loyal soul must bestir himself to the uttermost. 
 To falter in the presence of such tremendous perils as 
 Jude describes would be cowardly, would be treason 
 to Christ. And so Jude urges each believer to con- 
 tend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered unto 
 the saints. 
 
 Peter vigorously denounces the like evils, but he 
 speaks of them as undeveloped, not yet fullgrown, but 
 sure to reach a fatal maturity (2 Peter ii, iii). Jude 
 represents them as actually present and as doing in- 
 calculable injury. Peter sees them as an invading 
 army, the advanced guard as already on the ground 
 with the main body in sight. Jude speaks of them 
 as enemies who are already within the sacred camp 
 and doing their ruinous work in all parts of it. 
 Peter predicts the advent of these foes of truth in the 
 following terms: "Knowing this first, that in the 
 last days mockers shall come with mockery, walking 
 after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the prom- 
 ise of his coming? for from the day that the fathers 
 fell asleep all things continue as they were from the 
 beginning of the creation" (2 Peter iii: 3, 4). Jude 
 appears to quote this prediction and to affirm that it 
 has its fulfilment in his day: "But ye, beloved, re- 
 member ye the words which have been spoken before 
 by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: that they 
 said unto you. In the last times there shall be mockers, 
 walking after their own ungodly lusts" (vers. 17, 18). 
 There is an almost exact parallel between the two 
 9 
 
I30 EPISTLE OF JUDE. 
 
 writers, Peter and Jude, in the two passages. The 
 differences between them, slight as they are, may be 
 accounted for by Jude's use of the plural apostles, 
 thus glancing perhaps at the like words of Paul in 
 I Tim. iv: i; 2 Tim. iii: iff. There seems to be in- 
 dicated here that the predictions both of Peter and of 
 Paul are older than this epistle of Jude, and that Jude 
 was acquainted with both and had them in mind when 
 he wrote. If this be admitted, the inference is both 
 legitimate and conclusive that Second Peter was in 
 existence when Jude wrote, and that he received it as 
 the word of God, a true prophecy touching the Last 
 Times. It must be borne in mind, however, that the 
 prophecies of neither Peter nor Jude are to be tied 
 up to the times when they lived and wrote, nor are 
 their writings to be regarded as dealing exclusively 
 with the evils then existent. They do indeed apply to 
 prevailing conditions then, but both writings pertain 
 to the church in all its history. Whenever like condi- 
 tions prevail these two epistles bear their solemn and 
 urgent testimony with the same force as they did 
 when first written. They belong to the age in which 
 we now live; they will find their full accomplishment 
 in the Last Days when wickedness will be at the flood. 
 Jude begins with the statement that the saints are 
 "preserved in Jesus Christ." He ends with their 
 presentation as "faultless before the presence of his 
 glory with exceeding joy." The two statements dis- 
 close the theme of the epistle, viz.: the preservation 
 and presentation of the saints. They are "preserved," 
 and they shall be "presented without blemish" before 
 
EPISTLE OF JUDE. 131] 
 
 God's glorious presence. There can be no presenta- 
 tion of them in glory unless they are safely guarded 
 by God's grace and power. For, as already indicated, 
 the epistle contemplates a perilous situation; it deals 
 with a time when the professing body is filled with 
 men of the loosest morals, of the most flagrant life, 
 and when destructive doctrines are taught and the 
 wildest errors are disseminated. Against these cor- 
 ruptors and skeptics Jude writes with a vehemence 
 that in the New Testament is without parallel. His 
 denunciations are terrific. The character and doom 
 he assigns to them are appalling. Matters have come 
 to a dreadful pass when the Spirit of God is compelled 
 to use such stern and awful language. Let us note 
 what he says of them. The character given them is 
 as bad and black as it can well be. 
 
 Description of the Apostates. 
 
 I. They are surreptitious foes. "For there are cer- 
 tain men crept in unawares — ungodly men" (ver. 4). 
 The language points to their stealthy and insidious 
 entrance into the Christian Brotherhood. Like a ser- 
 pent, like a cunning beast of prey, these ungodly men 
 creep into the company of the godly. Peter represents 
 them as "false teachers who privily shall bring in 
 damnable (destructive) heresies" (2 Peter ii: i). 
 Paul also employs very similar terms as to the false 
 teachers among the Galatians — "false brethren un- 
 awares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our 
 liberty" (Gal. ii: 4). In every case they are men who 
 
132 EPISTLE OF JUDE. 
 
 are within the Christian church as enemies who feign 
 to be friends, therefore in reaHty spies and traitors. 
 
 2. They are perverters of grace and deniers of 
 Christ — "turning the grace of God into lasciviousness, 
 and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus 
 Christ" (ver. 4). They are those who by a vile per- 
 versity turn the liberty and the grace of the Gospel Into 
 a means of gratifying their base and unholy passions, 
 and who thereby, both in doctrine and life, deny their 
 Master and Lord. 
 
 3. They are censorious and arrogant detractors: 
 "Dreamers who despise dominion and speak evil of 
 dignities" (ver. 8). Destitute of true reverence, they 
 rail at the holiest and the best things, and pronounce 
 judgment on all authority and all rule. Defiant like 
 Pharaoh, they say, "Who Is the Lord that I should 
 hearken to his voice?" (Ex. v: 2). They have the 
 proud tongue of the lawless : "Our lips are our own : 
 who is lord over us?" (Psalms xil: 4). 
 
 4. Ignorant calumniators they are, and brutish sen- 
 sualists; "But these speak evil of those things which 
 they know not : but what they know naturally as brute 
 beasts, In those things they corrupt themselves" (ver. 
 10). What they do not know nor understand, as 
 something lofty and noble, they deride and denounce; 
 what they know is that which ministers to their dis- 
 ordered appetites and their debased tastes. 
 
 5. They are hypocrites and deceivers, whose lives 
 are fruitless, and whose presence among Christians is 
 contaminating (vers. 12, 13) : "These are they who 
 are hidden rocks in your love-feasts when they feast 
 
EPISTLE OF JUDE. 133 
 
 with you, shepherds that without fear feed themselves ; 
 clouds without water, carried along by winds ; autumn 
 trees without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the 
 roots; wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own 
 shame; wandering stars, for whom the blackness of 
 darkness hath been reserved forever" (R. V.). This 
 is terrific but most graphic language. The imagery is 
 most vivid ; one can see these insincere, depraved pro- 
 fessors as if they stood before him in flesh and blood. 
 Their character and their wicked behavior are made 
 visible; like sunken reefs they wreck the noblest and 
 purest lives; like clouds that promise much but for- 
 ever disappoint; like trees with withered fruit, leaf- 
 less, dead and unprotected ; like the raging sea, they 
 cast out only their acts of shame; like meteors that 
 stray through the sky at random and without law, and 
 go out at last into a night that knows no morning — 
 such their character and doom. 
 
 6. They are grumblers, faultfinders, pleasure-seek- 
 ers, boasters, parasites : "These are murmurers, com- 
 plainers, walking after their own lusts; and their 
 mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's 
 persons in admiration because of advantage" (ver. 16). 
 They find fault with the authority of every sort, hu- 
 man and divine; they are dissatisfied with their lot, 
 with circumstances, with Providence; they boast that 
 they could manage things better themselves; and yet 
 they can be servile, sycophantic when thereby advan- 
 tage is secured. 
 
 7. They are schismatics and sensualists : "These be 
 they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the 
 Spirit" (ver. 19). 
 
134 EPISTLE OF JUDE. 
 
 Such is the forbidding portrait which Jude draws of 
 the ungodly. But he adds other traits and features 
 which must be noted if we are to have a complete con- 
 ception of the situation. He furnishes a number of 
 examples of apostates and of apostasy which disclose 
 even more strikingly the spirit and end of them that 
 pervert and corrupt the truth, that deny the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and that mock at the things of God. 
 These are marks of a fatal degeneracy, tokens of the 
 "falling away" which prepares the way for the rev- 
 elation of the man of sin and son of perdition whose 
 destruction Christ Himself accomplishes at His com- 
 ing (2 Thess. ii). To these seven marks we now turn. 
 
 (i) Unbelief. "I will therefore put you in remem- 
 brance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, 
 having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, 
 afterward destroyed them that believed not" (ver. 5). 
 Unbelieving Israel, though redeemed from bondage by 
 almighty power, afterward fell beneath the judgment 
 of God. By their distrust and disobedience they pro- 
 'voked the Lord to anger, so that He sware in His 
 wrath, They shall not enter into my rest (Heb. iii: 11 ; 
 cf. Psalm xcv: 11). Unbelief is deadly. Luther 
 said strongly bui not too strongly, "Nothing damns 
 but unbelief." Let the saints remember the mournful 
 example of faithless Israel, and hold fast their trust 
 in the living God. "Take heed, brethren, lest haply 
 there shall be in any one of you an evil heart of unbe- 
 lief, in falling away from the living God" (Heb. 
 iii: 12). 
 
 (2) Pride. "And the angels which kept not their 
 
EPISTLE OF JUDE. 135 
 
 9 
 
 first estate (their own principality), but left their own 
 habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains un- 
 der darkness unto judgment of the great day" (ver. 6). 
 The fall of the angels is involved in profound mystery. 
 Peter seems to teach that they fell when they were still 
 dwelling in heaven: "For if God spared not the 
 angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell, 
 and committed them to pits of darkness" — .They were 
 cast down because they sinned even in His glorious 
 presence (2 Peter ii: 4). Jude alludes to the same 
 fact in the expression, ''Kept not their first estate, but 
 left their own habitation," i. e., they deliberately apos- 
 tated from the blessed state and place in which they 
 had been placed by creative power. They were once 
 innocent, but they sinned against God and were ex- 
 pelled from their habitation. Paul teaches that it was 
 through pride Satan fell under condemnation (i Tim. 
 iii: 6). Pride, ambition, rebellion, and then expul- 
 sion from the lofty habitation — this appears to be the 
 brief history of the angelic apostasy. They are now 
 felon outcasts with a doom far more terrible awaiting 
 them in the future. 
 
 Serious error is sometimes taught concerning the 
 fall of the angels. The cause of it, we are told, was 
 their sin with women, and Gen. vi: 2, 4 is cited in 
 proof — "The sons of God saw the daughters of men 
 that they were fair; and they took them wives of all 
 which they chose." Jude 7 is supposed to lend support 
 to this view: "Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and 
 the cities about them, in like manner giving them- 
 selves over to fornication, and going after strange 
 
136 EPISTLE OF JUDE. 
 
 flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the ven- 
 geance of eternal fire." Against this appHcation of the 
 two passages in Genesis and Jude very strong and 
 conclusive objections may be urged, (a) "Sons of 
 God" may mean angels; the expression probably does 
 in Job i : 6 ; xxxviii : 7. But in every instance where 
 it is thus used it designates good angels, unfallen be- 
 ings. Even in Job i : 6 Satan is carefully distin- 
 guished from the "sons of God;" he is not identified 
 with them, he only appears "among them." Not once 
 in all the Bible are Satan and his hosts called "sons of 
 God" (cf . 2 Cor. iv : 4 ; Eph. ii : 2 ; vi : 12 ; Rev. xii : 9 ; 
 XX : 2, etc.). The Devil is always the Devil, and so 
 are demons always demons ; they are not named "sons 
 of God." If therefore these "sons of God" represent 
 unfallen angels, they could not be guilty of such a 
 crime as is alleged; if demons are meant by the title, 
 they could not possibly be called God's sons, (b) If 
 the good angels are meant, they could not marry 
 women of our race and have offspring by them, for 
 these angels are sexless according to Jesus' teaching: 
 "But Jesus answered and said unto them (Sadducees), 
 Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power 
 of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry 
 nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels in 
 heaven" (Matt, xxii : 29, 30). Like the angels the 
 "sons of the resurrection" are immortal, they are for- 
 ever free from the limitations and passions of the 
 earthly life, and are like the angels, in that procreation 
 and family relationships have forever ended, (c) If 
 fallen angels are meant, then we are confronted with 
 
EPISTLE OF JUDE. I37 
 
 this immense difficulty: Demons are spirits; how 
 could such beings take women of our race as wives, 
 and how could they have offspring by them? It may 
 be alleged that they assumed human bodies and so 
 could become husbands of the daughters of men. But 
 there is no hint in Scripture that they have ever done 
 so. In fact, they are never represented as appearing 
 in human bodies. Demoniacal possession is a very dif- 
 ferent thing ; in it there is no assumption of a body at 
 all. Demons seek to enter bodies, even those of ani- 
 mals (Luke viii: 32), but they never become incarnate. 
 Besides, to do this would require a miracle such as 
 evil spirits could by no possibility work. God alone 
 could effect so mighty a transformation. But is it con- 
 ceivable that the Holy One who cannot connive at 
 sin would lend His power to effect so vile a deed? 
 (d) The children of these unholy alliances are called 
 men (Gen. vi: 4). They are likewise called Giants, 
 but the Giants in Scripture are kings, rulers, war- 
 riors (Num. xiii: 33; Deut. ii: 10, 1 1,21; iii: 11). If 
 they had been the offspring of demons and women, 
 they would have been neither the one nor the other, 
 but an unnatural grotesque mixture of the two — 
 monsters, like the fabled Centaur and Cecrops of 
 Greek Mythology, (e) The statement in Jude 6, 7 
 does not necessarily require that the sin of the angels 
 was the same as that of Sodom, but only that in both 
 cases, that of the angels and this of Sodom, there was 
 apostasy from God and deserved punishment on ac- 
 count of it. (f) "Sons of God" denotes, as a phrase, 
 not the angels at all, but the pious Sethites, while the 
 
138 EPISTLE OF JUDE. 
 
 "daughters of men" are the descendants of wicked 
 Cain. AlHance between these two distinct bodies, the 
 religious and the irrehgious, the people of God and the 
 people of the world, leads inevitably to degeneracy and 
 moral corruption, and ultimately to apostasy. This 
 is precisely Jude's theme, the peril against which he 
 so urgently warns. God's servants were called in the 
 Old Testament times "sons of God" (cf. Hos. i: 10). 
 
 (3) Lust, "Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the 
 cities about them, in like manner giving themselves 
 over to fornication and going after strange flesh, are 
 set forth as an example, suffering the punishment of 
 eternal fire" (ver. 7). These two infamous places 
 give the name to an infamous crime. So infectious 
 and so widespread was the moral taint of Sodom that 
 Lot's family, in spite of his righteous testimony 
 against it, was smitten with it and his daughters be- 
 came the authors of one of the blackest deeds re- 
 corded in the Old Testament. 
 
 (4) Vituperation, vers. 8-10. "Likewise also these 
 filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and 
 speak evil of dignities," etc. Michael the Archangel 
 is adduced as a witness against these caluminators. 
 In his contention with the devil Michael durst not 
 bring a railing accusation against him; he only said, 
 The Lord rebuke thee. By reason of his exalted dig- 
 nity he might have denounced the slanderer in the 
 sternest language. For he is "the archangel," a title 
 that denotes the highest angelic rank. Only in one 
 other place in the Bible is tliis great name, archangel, 
 found, I Thess. iv: 16. It occurs in the singular num- 
 
EPISTLE OF JUDE. 139 
 
 ber, never in the plural, whence the inference is drawn 
 that there is but one such angel. In Daniel x: 13 he 
 is called "one of the chief princes," and in ver. 21 of 
 the same chapter "Michael your prince," as if he 
 stood in some intimate and peculiar relation to Israel. 
 In Rev. xii: 7-9 he is described as the leader of the 
 heavenly host against the Dragon and his army. All 
 this indicates the illustrious station he holds. And 
 yet, great as Michael is, he durst not bring a railing of 
 judgment against the devil. Why "durst not?" Be- 
 cause even the loftiest angel cannot pass final judg- 
 ment on even such an accuser as the devil. What an 
 example he is to men in the proper use of speech and 
 in the government of the tongue! 
 
 The altercation was about the "body of Moses." 
 The reference is mysterious. Just what is meant, or 
 to what Jude alludes, it is by no means easy to de- 
 termine. It is unlikely that it is the same contention 
 mentioned in Zech. iii : if — the dispute as to Joshua 
 the high priest, for the differences between that and 
 this are quite marked. Nor was it about Moses' bury- 
 ing-place, for the Hebrews were never guilty of an- 
 cestral worship, nor of devotions at the tombs of their 
 illustrious dead. That idolatrous custom lies at the 
 door of Gentiles. Nor was it a dispute as to whether 
 Moses' body should have a burial at all. For the 
 record tells us that "he buried him in the valley in 
 the land of Moab over against Beth-peor : but no 
 man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day" (Deut. 
 xxxiv: 6). Neither angel nor demon could challenge 
 such authority as this. The Lord superintended the 
 sepulture of His servant. 
 
I40 EPISTLE OF JUDE. 
 
 We believe that Jude refers to Moses' resurrection 
 from the dead. Together with the prophet EHjah, 
 Moses appeared "in glory" at the Lord's Transfigura- 
 tion, and the two heavenly visitants talked with Jesus 
 of His decease He was shortly to accomplish at Jeru- 
 salem. The two were living men, visible, for they ap- 
 peared; audible, for they were speaking with Him; 
 recognisable, for they appeared in glory — language 
 which plainly indicates that the two had bodily forms. 
 Elijah certainly had his body, for he had never passed 
 through the gates of death. Moses had died, but God 
 closed his eyes and hid his body from mortal sight 
 and kept it safe till he should appear in the glorious 
 scene on the Mount. It is our belief that it was then 
 Moses was raised up from the grave. It may have 
 been that the devil resisted his resurrection, and that 
 he sought to prevent it, while Alichael, the prince who 
 stands for Israel, vindicated the Lord's dealing with 
 Moses and besought Him to rebuke the accuser. 
 "These dreamers" speak evil of those things which 
 they know not; Michael knows, yet tempers speech 
 with a wise caution. A notable example of self-con- 
 trol. 
 
 (5) Hatred. "Woe unto them! for they have gone 
 in the way of Cain." He was the first murderer, a 
 wretched fratricide. John says, Cain was of the evil 
 one, and slew his brother because his works were evil, 
 and his brother's righteousness (i John iii: 12). Hate 
 lies hard by railing, vituperation. Accordingly, a 
 malignancy that is murderous reigns in the hearts of 
 these apostates. If they offer sacrifice, it is that of 
 
EPISTLE OF JUDE. 141 
 
 Cain; if a saint nearby them is righteous and worships 
 acceptably, they are ready to murder him in their 
 deadly jealousy and hate. 
 
 (6) Greed. "And ran greedily after the error of 
 Balaam for reward." Three times in the New Testa- 
 ment is Balaam mentioned, and in each case with un- 
 sparing condemnation. Peter speaks of him as one 
 who ''loved the wages of unrighteousness" (2 Peter 
 ii: 15). John charges him with having "taught Balak 
 to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Is- 
 rael, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit 
 fornication" (Rev. ii: 14). And Jude says he "ran 
 greedily after reward," his chief error. Balak's gold 
 had an irresistible attraction for him, and have it he 
 would even if the angel of the Lord should bar his 
 way with drawn sword. He is an instance of light 
 resisted, conscience perverted, of crime added to 
 crime. What a picture all this furnishes of the temper 
 and the spirit of the apostates! 
 
 (7) Rebellion. "Perished in the gainsaying of 
 Korah" (vers. 11). The rebellion of Korah and his 
 company is recorded in Num. xvi. Llis gainsaying 
 was his denial and repudiation of the leadership of 
 Moses and Aaron and rebellion against their authority. 
 But this was rebellion against God who had appointed 
 these two men to their high office, and accordingly 
 the Lord Himself dealt directly with the rebels : earth, 
 like an enraged animal, swallowed them alive, a most 
 uncommon punishment. Likewise the apostates of 
 Jude's epistle despise dominions, scoff at constituted 
 authority, and would exalt themselves into the seats 
 of dignity and power. 
 
142 EPISTLE OF JUDE. 
 
 Such is the dreadful picture which the inspired pen 
 of Jude draws of the ungodly and the apostate. It is 
 not surprising that he employs the sternest words 
 about them, words that fairly burn in their intensity of 
 abhorrence : "These are they who are hidden rocks in 
 your lovefeasts" — rocks on which the church is in dan- 
 ger of shipwreck and destruction: "shepherds" who 
 devour the flock; waterless clouds, whirled about by 
 fierce winds; fruitless trees, uprooted trees; wild 
 waves of the sea which cast up only mire and dirt — 
 their own shame; lawless meteors that dart through 
 the sky, then go out into a darkness which shall never 
 know any light. 
 
 Jude pronounces their doom in the words of Enoch, 
 "the seventh from Adam" : "Behold, the Lord cometh 
 with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment 
 upon all ; and to convince all that are ungodly among 
 them of all their ungodly deeds which they have un- 
 godly committed, and of all their hard speeches which 
 ungodly sinners have spoken against him." It is gen- 
 erally believed by modern interpreters that this proph- 
 ecy of Enoch is quoted by Jude from the apocryphal 
 book of Enoch, part of which was written before the 
 Christian era and part of it after that time. Granting 
 such quotation, that fact does not warrant us to 
 affirm that Jude endorsed the book. Paul cites from 
 three Greek poets: from Aratus (Acts xvii: 28) ; from 
 Meander (i Cor. xv: 33); and from Epimenides 
 (Tit. i: 12). Does anyone imagine that Paul en- 
 dorses all these poets wrote? So Jude cites a passage 
 from a non-canonical book not because he accepts it as 
 
EPISTLE OF JUDE. 143 
 
 Scripture, but because this particular prediction found 
 in it is from God and therefore true. In Hke manner 
 Paul quotes a verse from Epimenedes and adds, **This 
 testimony is true (Tit. i: 13), but no one would be so 
 foolish as to conclude that Paul means the whole poem 
 is true. Whence the writer of the book of Enoch de- 
 rived the prediction is unknown. It may have been 
 preserved as a tradition and faithfully transmitted 
 from generation to generation, or in some other way 
 preserved. But no one who accepts the Bible as the 
 word of God doubts its genuineness and truthfulness 
 any more than he doubts Paul's quotation from the 
 Lord Jesus in Acts xx : 35, "It is more blessed to give 
 than to receive," though whence he derived the pre- 
 cious saying is utterly unknown. 
 
 The depraved men of whom Jude writes were 
 found in the professing body. They called themselves 
 Christians, no doubt, and they sought to be recognized 
 as such by the children of God. But in this short epis- 
 tle the Spirit God brands them as enemies and apos- 
 tates. "No prophecy is of private interpretation" 
 (2 Peter i: 20). That is to say, the prophecies of the 
 Bible do not originate with the prophets, nor are they 
 to be tied up to their times and conditions, nor are 
 they exhausted with themselves and their contempo- 
 raries. A prediction may be occasioned by conditions 
 existing at the time of the prophet, but it is not nec- 
 essarily limited to his day and his circumstances. 
 Often indeed it starts from a point near the prophet 
 himself, but its ultimate and complete fulfilment may 
 be in the distant future, the time of the End and the 
 
144 EPISTLE OF JUDE. 
 
 Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. It can scarcely be 
 doubted but that this is the characteristic phase of 
 Jude's prophecy. Enoch's prediction makes it certain. 
 No doubt the conditions of his day were as he so 
 graphically describes them. But his message must not 
 be confined to these. Jude deals with the final apos- 
 tasy from the faith of Christ, of which Paul likewise 
 speaks in 2 Thess. ii : 3 : "It will not be except the 
 falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, 
 the son of perdition." Peter also bears witness to the 
 same awful fact: "Knowing this first, that in the last 
 days mockers shall come with mockery, walking after 
 their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of 
 his coming? for from the day that the fathers fell 
 asleep, all things continue as they were from the be- 
 ginning of the creation." The "last days" obviously 
 point to the time of the End, the final consummation 
 when our Lord shall return in majesty and great glory 
 to judge the earth in righteousness. 
 
 The time of the "falling away" will be one of 
 dreadful wickedness, of unbridled lawlessness, of the 
 sway of the worst passions of our fallen humanity, and 
 of colossal crimes. So both Peter and Jude picture 
 it ; so does Paul, and so do John in the Revelation and 
 Daniel in his prophecies. Every thoughtful, believ- 
 ing man who sees with clear vision the evil principles 
 now at work in human society, and who reads pro- 
 phetic Scripture with the open eye and mind, must 
 feel profoundly that the "falling away" is near at 
 hand if indeed it has not already set in. The tenden- 
 cies of the times indicate a breaking away from the 
 
EPISTLE OF JUDE. 145 
 
 authority of the Bible and a change of attitude as to 
 truth for v/hich the Christian Church has stood dur- 
 ing the centuries of its witness-bearing. The outcome 
 of these tendencies Scripture leaves us in no doubt 
 about — revolt against the authority of God, the mani- 
 festation of the Man of Sin, and the Advent of Jesus 
 Christ for judgment and the establishment of His own 
 glorious Kingdom. It should be the supreme duty of 
 every believer in Christ to heed faithfully the exhorta- 
 tion of Jude to "contend earnestly for the faith which 
 
 was once for all delivered unto the saints." 
 10 
 
STUDIES 
 
 IN THE 
 
 Book of Revelation 
 
 " Other men laboured, and ye are entered into 
 their labours " 
 
 V BY 
 
 WILLIAM G. MOOREHEAD, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 Professor in Xenia Theological Seminary 
 
 New York Chicago Toronto 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 London and Edinburgh 
 
Copyrighted, 1908 
 
 BY 
 
 TH^ UNITED PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF 
 PUBI^ICATION 
 
 Pittsburgh, Pa. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This little book is not a commentary on the Rev- 
 elation; it does not aspire to such a dignity. It 
 is designed to be just what its title announces — 
 studies in the Revelation. For years the writer has 
 deeply felt the lack of a satisfactory analysis of this 
 book and a reasonable and helpful solution of its 
 mysterious and marvellous structure. Reading it, as 
 he has done, through a rather long life, he confesses 
 he saw little or no connection between the various 
 parts, he understood nothing scarcely of the articula- 
 tion of its Visions, nor saw any definite, far-reaching 
 plan running through it and binding its strange mem- 
 bers into a harmonious and majestic unity. The 
 studies of some months past, rather years, have served 
 to open much of what for long was almost sealed 
 and to pour light into many a dark place. The chief 
 aim of this Study is to help the reader and student of 
 the Apocalypse into an apprehension of the plan and 
 the design of this great Scripture. Whether the writer 
 
 iii 
 
iv PREFACE. 
 
 has acnieved this aim or not must be left to others to 
 judge. 
 
 All available books have been freely used, some of 
 which have proved very serviceable. Grateful acknow- 
 ledgment is here made of the clear suggestions and 
 wise criticisms of a personal friend, Dr. W. J. Erdman. 
 
 William G. Moorehead. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGB 
 
 Preface iii 
 
 I. Authorship and Date 7 
 
 II. Symbolism i5 
 
 III. Systems of Interpretation .... 20 
 
 IV. Plan and Structure 2.y 
 
 V. Analysis — Three Forms 41 
 
 VI. Epistles to the Seven Churches . . 46 
 
 VII. Vision of Heaven Opened .... 58 
 
 VIII. Opening of the Seven Seals ... 68 
 
 IX. The Seven Trumpets 7^ 
 
 X. The Intercalated Visions, chaps, xii, 
 
 xiii, xiv 89 
 
 XL The Seven Last Plagues . . . .110 
 XII. Interposed Explanatory Visions, 
 
 chaps, xvii — xix: 10 116 
 
 XIII. Advent of Jesus Christ, chaps, xix: 
 
 II — XX : 6 130 
 
 XIV. Last Revolt and Final Judgment . . 144 
 XV. Vision of the City of God . . . .148 
 
 V 
 
THE REVELATION 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Authorship and Date. 
 
 The study of this great prophecy is entered upon 
 with much diffidence; almost with hesitation. Many 
 regard it as so abstruse and obscure that any satis- 
 factory interpretation of it is extremely difficult, if not 
 hopeless. Only great scholars and lifelong students 
 of the Bible are competent, it is thought, to deal with 
 its profound mysteries, and even these are often baf- 
 fled by its symbolism, and defeated by its depths. 
 Others should not attempt its elucidation. Such is the 
 feeling of many. 
 
 Notwithstanding the difficulties, its study is imposed 
 on all Christians. It is a part of the word of God. It 
 bears the name and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 Its august title is, " The Revelation of Jesus Christ 
 which God gave to him to show unto his servants." 
 It is an Apocalypse, an unveiling of what could not 
 be otherwise known. It is for the instruction, guid- 
 ance, and comfort of God's people. 
 
 The prophet Daniel was bidden to " shut up the 
 vision," to " shut up the words, and seal the book, even 
 
 7 
 
8 THE REVELATION. 
 
 to the time of the end" (Dan. viii: 26; xii: 4, 9). 
 But our Lord's command to John is : " What thou 
 seest, write in a book, and send it to the seven 
 churches/' i: 11. The instruction of the revealing 
 angel to the Seer when he is bringing the mighty 
 visions of the prophecy to an end is, " Seal not up the 
 words of the prophecy of this book ; for the time is at 
 hand," xxii : 10. Explicitly the Saviour declares, " I 
 Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these 
 things for the churches," xxii: 16. The Revelation, 
 therefore, is for the whole people of God ; to them it is 
 an unsealed book, and it is intended to be their teacher 
 and their guide in things that very vitally concern 
 them. 
 
 Furthermore, a special blessing is promised to him 
 who reads and to them who " hear the words of the 
 prophecy, and keep the things that are written there- 
 in," i: 3. The public reading of the book in the 
 assemblies of Christians is here recognized, which 
 places it on the same plane with the other books of 
 Scripture. Its Divine Author is thus at pains to 
 exalt its importance, to commend its teachings, and 
 to promise a rich reward for its study. Among the 
 last words in the Bible is this gracious encourage- 
 ment to the diligent student of the Apocalypse : " Be- 
 hold, I come quickly; blessed is he that keepeth the 
 words of the prophecy of this book," xxii : 7. To 
 keep these words one must know them ; to know them 
 one must ponder them, and fill his mind with their deep 
 teachings. They make a grievous mistake who look 
 on the book as enigmatical, incomprehensible; or 
 
AUTHORSHIP AND DATE. 9 
 
 who, if granting it may be in measure understood, 
 stigmatize it as impractical and profitless; as hav- 
 ing little, if any, bearing on the believer's life. Let 
 us turn to the book. 
 
 I. Who was its penman? Four times he calls him- 
 self John, i: i, 4, 9; xxii : 8. There is no descrip- 
 tion of him beyond his name, no word is there to in- 
 dicate what John it was to whom the writing of the 
 Apocalypse was committed. But it is not difficult to 
 identify him. There is but one John to whom we 
 would naturally suppose the Lord would entrust such 
 a work, the John so intimately associated with Him 
 during His earthly ministry, the " Beloved Disciple," 
 the near friend of Jesus; John the apostle. There is 
 scarcely any doubt but that the writer was this John, 
 or one who sought to pass for him. We may at once 
 put aside the notion of fraud or imposture. The 
 spirit of holiness and truth which pervades every page 
 of the book is incompatable with the spirit of false- 
 hood. The internal evidence overwhelmingly sup- 
 ports this view. That a forger should write such a 
 book as this is simply incredible. 
 
 Moreover, the unanimous testimony of the Chris- 
 tian Church of the second century by its chief teachers 
 strengthens this conclusion. But few witnesses need here 
 be introduced. Justin Martyr (c. A. D. 150) expressly 
 affirms that John, " one of the apostles of Christ," was 
 the writer of the Revelation. Justin was probably born 
 within a few years of John's death, or even while John 
 was living, and he bore this witness within fifty years 
 of John's demise. It is not likely Justin could be mis- 
 
lO THE REVELATION. 
 
 taken touching so vital a matter, nor that the source 
 of his information was not thoroughly trustworthy. 
 Irenaeus (c. i8o) apparently never heard of any other 
 than John the apostle as the writer. Irenaeus' testi- 
 mony is of the utmost value, for he was " the grand- 
 pupil of John," as Dr. Whedon describes him ; he was 
 the disciple of Polycarp, and Polycarp was the disciple 
 of John, so that between John and Irenaeus there 
 stands but one, the sainted Polycarp, Bishop of 
 Smyrna and martyr of Christ, and intimate companion 
 of John himself. The Muratori Canon (c. A. D. 170), 
 Melito of Sardis (c. A. D. 180), Tertullian the great 
 Latin Father, and many others bear the like witness 
 to the genuineness of the Apocalypse. If credence is 
 to be put in the unanimous testimony of antiquity, if 
 historical evidence is worth anything in deciding a 
 historical date and the authorship of a book, it seems 
 to be decided by unimpeachable witnesses that the 
 apostle John was the writer of this book. 
 
 But why does John suppress his name in the Gospel 
 and in the epistles and record it here? Because the 
 Revelation is pre-eminently prophecy, and every pro- 
 phetic writing is authenticated by the name of the 
 prophet. The prophets of the Old Testament in- 
 variably attach their names to their books, because 
 their names are a guarantee of their predictions. John 
 opens the Apocalypse with the announcement of his 
 own name, and of the source and aim of his pro- 
 phecies, precisely as do the Old Testament prophets. 
 
 II. The date of the book is a matter of almost bit- 
 ter controversy. Two widely differing dates compete 
 
AUTHORSHIP AND DATE. n 
 
 for the mastery. Each characterizes a school of inter- 
 preters, and each is advocated and defended with great 
 zeal, and in some instances with violence. These dates 
 are, respectively, A. D. 68, and A. D. 95-6. The first 
 affirms that the book was written when Galba was 
 Emperor of Rome, the other when Domitian was 
 reigning. The adoption of either of these dates de- 
 termines almost exclusively one's interpretation of the 
 book. If the earlier is accepted as true, then one of 
 necessity must accept what is commonly known as the 
 preterist interpretation, namely, that the predictions 
 contained herein had, and were expected to have 
 their fulfilment in John's own time, that chaps i-xix, 
 particularly, relate to the persecutions of Nero, the 
 fall of Jerusalem, the dismemberment of the Jewish 
 nation and the dispersion of Israel among the nations 
 of the world. If the second date is assumed to be the 
 correct one, then the Revelation has little or nothing 
 to do with the events referred to, for it lies this side 
 of them by a quarter of a century. 
 
 A. D. 68 is advocated by many writers of great 
 learning and keen, critical acumen. Historical evi- 
 dence for it there is none till centuries after the book 
 was written. The first writer to mention an early 
 date is Epiphanius, about A. D. 365, but his statement 
 is of no value, for he says that John wrote the Apo- 
 calypse in the reign of the emperor Claudius, i. e., 
 about A. D. 50-54, and he makes the incredible asser- 
 tion that at the time John was ninety years old, 
 whereas, in point of fact he could hardly have been 
 above fifty. If Epiphanius had named Domitian as 
 
12 THE REVELATION. 
 
 the emperor, he would have been in exact accord with 
 Irenaeus, who affirms that it was written near the close 
 of Domitian's reign, i. e., A. D. 90-96, at which time 
 the apostle would be about ninety. Some even suppose 
 that Domitian and not Claudius is meant, but the 
 blunderer, as Epiphanius is known to be, twice wrote 
 the wrong name. He is the only witness for an early 
 date among the primitive writers, and his testimony is 
 a huge mistake. 
 
 A. D. 68 rests almost exclusively on internal evi- 
 dence. Language and style are pressed into its sup- 
 port. Dionysius of Alexandria (3d cent.), argued 
 from these, that he who wrote the Fourth Gospel and 
 I John did not write the Revelation, for the language 
 and style employed in the latter forbid the belief that 
 its author also wrote the other books ascribed to 
 John. Dionysius has been followed by multitudes 
 since, whose main argument is, John may have written 
 Revelation, but if he did it was early in his life, when 
 he did not know Greek as he came to know it when an 
 older man ; and so he may have written this book at 68 
 A. D., and the Gospel about A. D. 80-90. We may 
 dismiss the point without further remark. 
 
 Chap, xi: i, 2, 8, seems to affirm that Jerusalem 
 was standing and the Temple was still existing when 
 the book was written. But it may as conclusively 
 be affirmed that it is Jerusalem rebuilt and reinhabited 
 by Hebrews, as that the Beast and the two witnesses 
 of the same chapter have never yet appeared in his- 
 tory. Whedon well says, " The use of Jerusalem and 
 temple and tribes as apocalyptic symbols no more 
 
AUTHORSHIP AND DATE. 
 
 13 
 
 proves the literal existence of the city than the de- 
 scription of Babylon proves that that great capital 
 then existed in all its power and glory." The advocacy 
 of this early date mainly arises out of the interpreta- 
 tion of the book. All who hold it teach that these 
 prophecies relate to events near John's own time, 
 that they sprang from the conditions then existing, 
 and are addressed to his contemporaries. Accord- 
 ingly, the interpretation governs the date, and then 
 the date is made to rule the interpretation, a vicious 
 method which has no real worth. It is believed that 
 Nero was " The Beast," that he did not die by his 
 own hand, but that he was almost fatally wounded, but 
 was hidden by friends, that he concealed himself in 
 Parthia, his " deadly wound " being healed, and that 
 in due time he would reappear at the head of a great 
 army, destroy Rome, annihilate Christianity, deliver 
 Israel from all foes, glorify Jerusalem, and become the 
 Antichrist, the mock Messiah. Such was the vague 
 rumor floating about over the empire about A. D. 
 68, and John accepted it, and wrote the Apocalypse 
 with this hypothesis dominating him. The seven 
 heads on the Beast are explained to signify Roman 
 Emperors, viz.: Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, 
 Claudius, Nero, the "five fallen" (xvii: 10); the 
 sixth is Galba (" the one is "), and the seventh, Galba*s 
 successor, was to be Nero restored, the Man of Sin, 
 the Antichrist. Such is the rationalistic view of 
 Revelation, and it is supported by its advocates by 
 vast research and acute reasoning. 
 
 Now, if the Apocalypse was actually based on the 
 
14 THE REVELATION. 
 
 foundation just described, then, in less than ten years 
 historical events and facts proved the book to be totally 
 mistaken, false, and untrustworthy. For Nero did 
 not reappear, the seventh head of the Beast did not 
 become Antichrist, Rome did not fall ; instead, Jeru- 
 salem did, and Israel, instead of being delivered and 
 exalted, went into an exile that still endures. Could 
 any book, specially one claiming to be a revelation 
 from God, survive such an overwhelming defeat — 
 such utter bankruptcy of its essential contents? Yet 
 the book lived, and has continued to live to this day. 
 We may dismiss both the hypothesis and the date 
 from further consideration. Unhesitatingly we ac- 
 cept Irenaeus' date, viz. : near the close of Domitian's 
 reign, A. D. 90-96. Many whose judgment on this 
 point is of the highest worth accept, in part, or wholly, 
 this date, e. g., Ramsay, Orr, Harnack, Swete. *' Crit- 
 ical opinion appears to be steadily returning to the 
 traditional date," i. e., 90-96 (Purves). 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 Symbolism. 
 
 III. Symbolism. Every reader is impressed with 
 the extraordinary imagery of the book. Other pro- 
 phetic Scripture exhibits the same pecuHarity, as 
 Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah, even the Penta- 
 teuch has it in some degree. But this is a book of 
 symbols; a series of gorgeous pictures which begin 
 with the opening chapter and continue to the end. A 
 marvellous profusion of this pictorial representation 
 characterizes it. Some of the symbols are easily 
 understood, for their meaning shines through the 
 drapery that covers the great thought, but others are , 
 so complex, so unearthly, and portentous in their 
 vastness and mysteriousness as to daze, overwhelm us. 
 But let us be persuaded of this, that whether we can 
 read the enigma, the deep idea hidden in the symbol or 
 not, the idea is there all the same, and it is the supreme 
 duty of the expositor to toil on at it till he uncover 
 its meaning, at least partially. Let some features of 
 the symbolism be noted : 
 
 (a) The imagery is taken from the Old Testament. 
 In chap, i, the dress and posture of the glorified Son 
 of Man, the candlesticks amid which He walks, are 
 from the Temple, from Israel's high priest, and from 
 the candlestick of the sanctuary. The four living 
 creatures of chap, iv are taken from the Pentateuch 
 
 15 
 
l6 THE REVELATION. 
 
 and Ezekiel. The Beast of chap, xlii is already in 
 Daniel vii. The harvest of xiv: 14-16, and the vintage 
 of xiv: 17-20 are in Joel iii, and in Zech. xiv, while 
 the last worldwide conflict, xix, is described in Dan. 
 vii, xi, xii ; in Zeph., in Joel, Zech. and Matt. xxiv. We 
 might go on to see that the Revelation, as a whole, 
 is bound up with the earlier prophetic Scriptures by the 
 closest and most intimate ties. Indeed, as one studies 
 this relation of the two Testaments to each other in 
 type, symbol, language, thoughts and expressions, 
 he is profoundly struck with the unity of the Bible, 
 and particularly with the oneness of the great pro- 
 phetic themes of the holy word. 
 
 John lays all Scripture under tribute, and draws 
 from it much, if not all his material. Numbers fur- 
 nished by another may serve to make this plain. 
 Revelation consists of 404 verses, of which 265 verses 
 contain O. T. language, while there are 550 refer- 
 ences to it (Prof. Swete gives 278 verses). The 
 Greek texts of Wescott and Hort, and of Nestle, ex- 
 hibit its use of the O. T. by printing the borrowed 
 words and phrases in a different type. On a single 
 page of Nestle's small volume no less than twenty 
 such words and phrases have been counted. The 
 Revelation gathers into itself the imagery, language, 
 and objects of the older prophecies, and to know the 
 full mind of the Spirit the student must go back to the 
 source for light and guidance. 
 
 All this shows how intimately the prophetic parts 
 of the Bible are united, and how one must take his 
 principles of interpretation from the whole word of 
 
SYMBOLISM. 
 
 n 
 
 God. To attempt to interpret the book by heathen 
 customs and Gentil^ habits and history is fatal to the 
 right understanding of it. It is strictly Biblical; it 
 moves within the circle of the prophets of God; it is 
 saturated with Hebrew modes of thought, and is 
 filled and thrilled with Hebrew hopes and assurances. 
 John thinks in Hebrew, writes in the style of a He- 
 brew prophet, and speaks with the authority of a He- 
 brew Seer. 
 
 (b) Progress marks Biblical prophecy. Daniel's pre- 
 dictions advance beyond those of Isaiah, of Joel, and 
 even of Ezekiel. Zechariah adds features to the grow- 
 ing picture of the End-time, and of the mighty strug- 
 gle between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of 
 Satan, which none of the prophets who preceded him 
 have foretold. Jesus in the Olivet prophecy, Matt, xxiv, 
 XXV, Luke xxi, fills into it details, and features, and 
 lines, which make it far more specific, clear, intelligible, 
 and graphic; while Paul, in 2 Thess., with a few 
 strokes of the prophetic pencil, paints the Man of Sin 
 so vividly and so frightfully, as that the monster 
 when he comes will be recognized instantly by the 
 people of God. But the Apocalypse crowns the whole 
 prophetic word with its symbols and pictures, its ex- 
 planations and its solemn testimonies, its four great 
 series of sevens, all leading to the consummation, 
 to the Advent and the Victory, so that the man of 
 God is furnished an infallible guide for the perilous 
 times that are fast approaching 
 
 While the Apocalypse is the final and by far the 
 fullest revelation of the " Things to come," it is not 
 
l8 THE REVELATION. 
 
 an independent prophecy, nor is it disconnected with 
 the earHer disclosures of the future which God has 
 been pleased to give us. On the contrary, the book 
 gathers into itself all that precedes it in the same 
 great field, but adds thereto, and unfolds, and reveals 
 more and more, till the colossal portrait, in all its 
 awful features, stands complete. 
 
 With two great prophecies the Revelation is most 
 closely and indissolubly bound up, namely, Daniel's 
 and the Lord's Olivet Discourse. How intimately 
 the book of Daniel and the book of Revelation are 
 connected every careful reader of the Bible well 
 knows. The supreme subjects, the times, the opposing 
 forces, and the issue of the mighty conflict are in both 
 identical. In both the same theme is prominent, viz.: 
 the Kingdom of God in its deadly struggle with the 
 hostile world-power and its victory over it. Daniel 
 and John are companion books, at once complemental 
 and supplemental of each other. The Lord's Olivet 
 Discourse, as recorded in Matt, xxiv, and Luke xxi, 
 furnishes a sort of frame for much of the Apocalypse. 
 It is beyond dispute that Christ deals with two 
 supreme events, viz.: the Fall of Jerusalem and His 
 Second Advent. It is with the latter event He mainly 
 is concerned. He speaks with much fulness on the 
 closing scenes of the age, of the Tribulation, the 
 signs that announce the nearness of the Advent, and 
 of the Advent itself. It is with the same great crisis 
 of the world that our book deals. In Daniel it is the 
 Gentile World-power, become apostate and hostile to 
 God and His cause and people, that is crushed by the 
 
SYMBOLISM. 19 
 
 overwhelming judgment of the Lord. The same 
 monstrous Power, beastly and savage, reappears in 
 the Revelation, and meets there the same tremendous 
 doom. In the Olivet Prophecy of Christ the people 
 of Israel hold a pre-eminent place; and in the Revela- 
 tion the same chosen people are alike conspicuous. 
 It is not too much to say that the Apocalypse is the 
 expansion, with marvellous additions, of the Olivet 
 Prophecy and the book of Daniel. He who studies 
 both these until he comes to understand them will find 
 the study of our book greatly facilitated. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 Systems of Interpretation". 
 
 IV. Systems of Interpretation. Four methods of 
 interpreting the book are advocated, which we de- 
 scribe as briefly as possible. 
 
 The first is that commonly called Preterism, to 
 which reference has already been made. Its funda- 
 mental principle is this : the Revelation is a dramatic 
 representation of conditions and events existent in 
 John's own day, that its visions must be limited to his 
 horizon, that it has to do with the Roman State, with 
 Israel, Jerusalem, and the Christian Church of the 
 first century, the apostolic age, and with the conflicts 
 then raging. It holds that Nero was the Beast, that 
 the letters of his name written in Hebrew (Nero 
 Caesar) give the mystic number 666; that John adopted 
 the absurd fiction, that Nero did not die by his own 
 hand, that he was somewhere concealed till the hour 
 should arrive for his reappearance, when most extra- 
 ordinary things would take place. This, in short, is 
 the rationalistic interpretation which obviously de- 
 stroys the credibility of the book and reduces it to 
 the level of the wildest fable. 
 
 There are those, however, who are evangelical in 
 their belief, who accept the book as an authoritative 
 revelation, but who adopt the preterist explanation. 
 Among these may be mentioned the most recent 
 
 20 
 
SYSTEMS OF INTERPRETATION. 21 
 
 writers; as, e. g., Prof. Ramsay (Letters to the Seven 
 Churches, 1905), Dr. Swete (Apocalypse of St. John, 
 1907, 2d ed.), and Simcox (Cambridge Series of 
 Comm.). They hold that John did actually accept the 
 fiction about Nero, and that he used it to make his 
 teaching effective and illustrative. Both Ramsay and 
 Swete date the book in the reign of Domitian, A. D. 
 95-6, and they think that Nero's " deadly wound was 
 healed" when the fierce persecutor of the Christians, 
 Domitian, became Emperor. They hold that Domitian, 
 A. D. 81-96, was the Beast of xiii, and Babylon 
 the Harlot City of Rome, xvii. These writers have 
 poured a flood of light on the times and the conditions 
 of the apostolic age; in this respect, as in others also, 
 their books are genuinely helpful. But we believe 
 their exposition of the Revelation utterly breaks 
 down when confronted with the facts in the case. 
 John distinctly tells us that five of the heads of the 
 Beast had fallen (of course when he wrote), that one, 
 the sixth, was existing at the time, and that there was 
 to come the seventh head of the monster, when the 
 mighty events which he was foretelling would be 
 accomplished (xvii: 10). But Domitian was not the 
 seventh head of the Beast, nor the eighth, as this 
 view necessitates he should be. No less than five 
 Emperors ruled between Nero and Domitian, viz. : 
 Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, and Titus. Even if 
 the first three of these be thrown out because of their 
 short reigns, still two others remain, one of whom was 
 Emperor for ten years and the other for two. Be- 
 sides, none of the stupendous events predicted in the 
 
22 THE REVELATION. 
 
 book, as occurring when the Beast is here, took place 
 under any of these Emperors, nor have they to this day, 
 in the judgment of many scholars. The defect of these 
 preterist views is mainly this: a totally inadequate 
 recognition of the inspiration of the book. One who 
 really believes that Jesus Christ gave this revelation 
 to John in Patmos, as John solemnly affirms He did 
 (i: i-ii), cannot for a moment accept the notion that 
 John adopted the fiction about Nero, or that he 
 fancied the visions shown him were being fulfilled 
 in the conditions which surrounded him. Christ's 
 glorious Advent is the center and sum of this book, 
 not John's own times, and not till He comes will its 
 supreme predictions be realized. 
 
 The second system of interpretation is the Spiritual. 
 By this is meant that the book treats of the conflict 
 between good and evil, between Christ and Satan, the 
 conflict that began with man's sin and fall, that runs 
 through all history, and that will end only with the 
 end of time. The Revelation is a poetic and prophetic 
 picture of the struggle between righteousness and 
 sin, and that accordingly we are not to look for special 
 fulfilments of its predictions ; it deals with great prin- 
 ciples, with their action, and with their defeats and 
 victories. So the Seals are intended to show one 
 phase of the conflict, the Trumpets another, and the 
 Vials a third — all these are but vivid photographs of 
 the war between good and evil, not specific 
 transactions. 
 
 The objections to this interpretation are conclusive, 
 we think, (i.) There is its novelty, to begin with. 
 
SYSTEMS OF INTERPRETATION. 
 
 23 
 
 The ancient Church did not so regard the book; nor 
 did the Church of the Middle Ages; nor did that of 
 the Reformation; nor has it in later times. Few, 
 indeed, even in our own day accept it. It is advocated, 
 however, by some very able and devout men, as Prof. 
 Milligan, Archdeacon Lee, Prof. Randell, Prof. 
 Purves, and many others. The great teachers of the 
 church have believed that while the stupendous sym- 
 bolism is to be constantly recognized, the symbols 
 themselves describe real events and actors. With them 
 the Dragon is Satan, the Beast is the hostile power of 
 the state, the harlot the apostate ecclesiastical system, 
 and the heavenly Conqueror is Christ. 
 
 (2.) The book itself claims to be genuine prophecy. 
 It fills, or seems to fill, the future with actual beings, 
 some human, some extra-human, some Divine. But, 
 if the spiritual explanation be true, then the book is 
 an exaggeration and its pictures overdrawn and 
 unnatural. 
 
 (3.) This theory ignores the plain statements of 
 Revelation. Very distinctly and definitely the inspired 
 writer furnishes certain chronological data that fix 
 periods and events of the future which mark historical 
 sequence and exact time-limits. In chap, xx: 2-^^ 
 six times the period of one thousand years is men- 
 tioned. It is the number from which we derive the 
 idea of a Millennium. It is described as a period of 
 blessedness, of Satan's imprisonment, of evil sup- 
 pressed, of righteousness in the ascendency, of the 
 universal sway of the heavenly Kingdom. That time 
 is not put as ideal, as spiritual or figurative, but as 
 
24 THE REVELATION. 
 
 actual and real. Other numbers are given, as e, g., 
 forty-two months, xi : 2 ; xiii : 5 ; twelve hundred and 
 sixty days, xi : 3 ; xii : 6 ; time, times, and dividing of 
 time, xii: 14 — all which betoken history, reality. 
 
 (4.) Evil ever seeks to concentrate in a person or 
 a system; so does good. Revelation shows us evil 
 centralized in the Beast and in the False Prophet, and 
 in their followers. Faithfulness and loyalty to God is 
 also centralized in persons; in the two Witnesses, xi: 
 in the angels who fill so large a place in the action of 
 the book ; in the Sun-clothed Woman and her Son ; in 
 the Palm-bearers, vii; and the Conqueror and His 
 armies, xix. We cannot accept this method of ex- 
 plaining the book. For it empties it of much of its 
 significance, and impeaches it as guilty of inflation 
 and distortion. Whatever is true in it may be recog- 
 nized, but as an interpretation it is wholly inadequate. 
 
 The third is, the Historical Interpretation. Briefly, 
 it means this: the book is a prophetic history of the 
 church and the world from the time of John to the 
 final consummation at Christ's Advent. The predic- 
 tions deal only with the most prominent events of this 
 vast period, and not with details. The majority of 
 Protestant commentators adopt it. Its dominant idea 
 is this: the Seals, Trumpets and Vials are symbols of 
 successive stages in the world's history. Each set be- 
 longs to a distinct class of events. So, likewise the 
 explanatory visions, as chaps, x-xiv, mark epochs that 
 follow each other in temporal sequence. Some of the 
 ablest students of the book have sought to open these 
 prophecies according to this principle, as Bengel, 
 
SYSTEMS OF INTERPRETATION. 25 
 
 Mead, Newton, Elliott, Guinness, and the late A. J. 
 Gordon. That there is truth in this method of inter- 
 pretation cannot be doubted by those who have made 
 ecclesiastical and profane history a real study. 
 The correspondence between the prediction and its 
 historical fulfilment is too obvious and striking to 
 be accidental or fortuitous. The one matches the other 
 so marvellously that God is recognized as the author 
 of the prophecy. It may at once be admitted that the 
 prophecy is so constructed as to touch the salient 
 events of our dispensation. But as a system of inter- 
 pretation it is incomplete. It leaves huge gaps in the 
 history of the past 1,800 years. A period of 500 years, 
 from A. D. 1000 to 1500 inclusive, it leaves almost un- 
 touched. It rests chiefly on the year-day theory, i. e., 
 that a day in prophetic Scripture stands for a year. 
 This is extremely doubtful. Indeed, it does not now 
 commend itself to sober interpreters as once it did. In 
 the judgment of not a few, Tregelles has demon- 
 strated it to be fallacious and unbiblical. But even 
 assuming there is ground for it in the prophetic word, 
 the historical expounders of Revelation are wide apart 
 in its application. For instance, there is a number that 
 frequently occurs in the book, viz.: 1,260 days, 42 
 months, three years and a half — the three denote the 
 same period of time. A year for a day amounts to 
 1,260 years. The end of the 1,260 is the consumma- 
 tion of our age: it is the supreme crisis. But from 
 what point is it to be dated? What is its terminus 
 a quo? Here disagreement and divergence at once 
 arise. Unanimity as to the starting-point of the 1,260 
 
26 THE REVELATION. 
 
 years there is none. Joachim (c. 1200) begins with 
 A. D. I and ends with A. D. 1260; Melancthon, A. D. 
 660-2000; Bengel, 576-1836; Mede, 455-1715; Flem- 
 ing, 606-1848; Gill, 606-1866; Elliott, 608-1868; Cun- 
 ningham, 533-1792; Fysh, 727-1987; Guinness, 672- 
 1932. 
 
 The fourth is the Futurist, which holds that the 
 predictions, particularly from chap, iv to chap, xx: 
 6, have their fulfilment in a brief space of time at the 
 close of our dispensation — the whole being limited to 
 some seven years, which end with the Lord's Advent. 
 With much of this view the writer agrees, not with all 
 of it. This will appear as we proceed with the ex- 
 amination of the various parts of the book. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 Plan and Structure. 
 
 V. The Plan of the Revelation. Its structure is 
 most artistic, unequalled in this respect, perhaps, by 
 any other book of the Bible. To the superficial reader 
 it presents a different appearance. To him it appears 
 complex, confused, enigmatical, even unintelligible. It 
 was on account of this popular notion of the book 
 (in itself totally false) that Dr. South made his pro- 
 fane remark that has done no small injury — " that 
 mysterious, extraordinary . . . book called the Revela- 
 tion . . . which the more it is studied the less it is under- 
 stood, as generally finding a man cracked or making 
 him so." To the devout and patient student, who 
 seeks to know the Lord's mind in all His word, it .has 
 no such character as South ascribes to it. He may 
 not be able to grasp its full meaning, he may have 
 to leave great tracts in it wholly unexplored because 
 he cannot penetrate them, but he finds exquisite beauty 
 in its structure, divine wisdom and infinite skill in the 
 correlation and the combination of its various scenes 
 and visions. Throughout a mighty plan runs. Order 
 rules. God's purposes are disclosed. The book is an 
 Apocalypse, not an enigma nor a puzzle. 
 
 First, note its use of numbers. This is remarkable 
 both for frequency and peculiarity. We might truly 
 say that Revelation has a numerical structure. Its 
 
 2Z 
 
28 THE REVELATION. 
 
 form to some considerable extent is governed by 
 numbers. 
 
 (i.) Three. It is very prominent, nor is it confined 
 to the idea of Trinity. It embraces more than in- 
 dividual completeness; it moulds sentences and para- 
 graphs; it describes unseen and eternal realities. In 
 i : 4, 5, 6, are three sets of three : we have " him who 
 is, and who was, and who is to come;" Jesus Christ, 
 " the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, the 
 ruler of the kings of the earth ;" believers are " loved, 
 loosed from their sins, and made kings and priests 
 unto God." John himself seems to assign a threefold 
 division to this book, i : 19. " Write, therefore, the 
 things which thou sawest, and the things which are, 
 and the things which shall come to pass hereafter." 
 The prominence given the number three in the fourth 
 chapter is remarkable. In iv: i there is the door 
 opened, the voice that summons John on high, and 
 the promise. The nameless Occupant of the heavenly 
 throne is like a jasper, and a sardius gem, and the 
 emerald-like rainbow encircles the throne, iv: 2. 
 Three things distinguish the twenty- four elders; they 
 are enthroned, are arrayed in white raiment, and are 
 gold-crowned, iv: 4. Out of the throne proceed 
 lightnings, and voices, and thunder, iv: 5. Before 
 the throne, and round about it, and within it are three 
 objects, viz. : seven lamps, a glassy sea, and four living 
 creatures, iv: 5, 6. The four living creatures chant 
 the Trisagion, " Holy, Holy, Holy " — addressed to 
 " the Almighty who was and who is, and who is to 
 come ;" and they give Him " glory, and honor, and 
 
PLAN AND STRUCTURE. 29 
 
 thanks," iv: 8, 9. The gold-crowned Elders, like- 
 wise, in their magnificent chant give Him " glory, and 
 honor, and power," iv: 11. Moreover, there are three 
 Woe Trumpets, viii: 13; three frog-like spirits issue 
 from the mouth of the dragon, from the mouth of the 
 beast, and from the mouth of the false prophet, xvi: 
 13. In chap, xviii: 8, three plagues come upon 
 Babylon — death, mourning and famine; and in the 
 same chapter three classes of men wail over Babylon's 
 Fall, Kings, ver. 9 ; merchants, ver. 1 1 ; seamen, ver. 
 17. These are but specimens of the significant use of 
 this number three. 
 
 (2.) Four. By some this is supposed to be the 
 number of creation. It certainly is found often in 
 connection with earth and its forces. Chap, iv: 6-8 
 describes the four Living Creatures, which have four 
 faces, viz. : the ox, the lion, the eagle, and man. They 
 are the four great heads of creation, and they are most 
 intimately associated with the Throne, iv: 6 (cf. 
 Ezek. i: 5-28; x). Mention is made of the four 
 corners of the earth, of the four angels stationed 
 thereat, holding the four winds in their grasp, vii : I ; 
 four angels, likewise, are stationed at the river 
 Euphrates, their watch and their action are for a four- 
 fold division of time, an hour, and a day, and a month, 
 and a year, ix: 14, 15. In the awful carnage of the 
 trodden Winepress, the blood of the slain extends 
 for 1,600 furlongs, i. e., the square of four multiplied 
 by 100. In the first four Seals, four horses go forth 
 at the call of the four living creatures, vi : 1-7. More- 
 over, four often enters into the structure of sentences; 
 
30 
 
 THE REVELATION. 
 
 as, e. g.,\:g; viii: 5; x: 11; xvi: 18; xviii: 22, etc. 
 In xxi : 8 there are eight descriptive epithets employed 
 touching the wicked, two sets of four, or four sets of 
 two. 
 
 In the messages to the Seven Churches there is a 
 division of them into two groups of three and four 
 respectively. In the first three, viz. : Ephesus, Smyrna, 
 and Pergamos, the exhortation to hear what the Spirit 
 says precedes the promise to the over comer, ii: 7, 11, 
 17. But in the four that follow, viz. : Thyatira, Sar- 
 dis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, the exhortation to 
 hear what the Spirit says comes after the promise to 
 the overcomer, ii : 26-29 ; iii : 5, 6 ; iii : 12, 13 ; iii : 21, 22. 
 This is a remarkable combination of the numbers three 
 and four. Its significance is difficult to determine with 
 any satisfaction. These also are but specimens of the 
 use of four. 
 
 (3.) Seven. This number is not only employed to de- 
 note so many individual objects, but it enters very 
 largely into the whole plan of the book. Seven is the 
 number of completeness, of perfection, and of dispensa- 
 tional fulness. All readers know that there are four sets 
 of sevens that cover a very considerable section of the 
 book. These are the seven messages to the seven 
 churches, ii, iii. The vision of the seven seals, which 
 embraces v-viii: i (with an episode between the sixth 
 and the seventh of the series, viz.: vii). The vision 
 of the seven trumpets, viii: 2-xi: 16 (with an episode 
 between the sixth and the seventh, x-xi: 13). The 
 vision of the seven vails, xv : 5-xvi. Thus nearly one- 
 half of the book belongs to this fourfold series. 
 
PLAN AND STRUCTURE. 3! 
 
 There are fourteen (a double seven) Songs or 
 Choruses in the Revelation, which the American Re- 
 vision rightly indicates by printing them on the page 
 as if they were poetry or quotations; which in fact 
 they are. These Songs are found through the book in 
 the following chapters: iv: 8, 11 ; v: 9, 12, 13; vii: 10, 
 12; xi: 15, 17, 18; xii: 10-12; xv: 3, 4; xix: i, 2, 5, 6-8. 
 
 These Songs or rhythmical utterances are all spoken 
 by heavenly beings and in heaven, with one sole ex- 
 ception, i. e,, chap, v: 13, in which every created thing 
 in heaven, on earth, and under the earth breaks out in 
 tuneful ascription of praise and honor and blessing to 
 the Lamb, because He is now at length about to 
 redeem by power His vast inheritance, even as He has 
 once for all redeemed it by blood. It is gloriously 
 right and fitting that all creation should lift up its 
 voice in a majestic anthem of praise, since its time of 
 deliverance is finally come. 
 
 This, notable as it is, does not exhaust the use of 
 this number. It enters into passages where no direct 
 rqention of it is made. Thus, in v : 12, seven attributes 
 of praise are ascribed to the Lamb that was slain ; the 
 white-robed company in vii: 12 worship God with the 
 like number of ascriptions. Chap, xiv : 1-20 consists of 
 seven parts, viz. : the Lamb with His glorious com- 
 pany on mount Zion : the everlasting gospel : Babylon's 
 fall: the solemn threat against any fellowship with 
 the Beast: happy lot of those who die in the Lord 
 from henceforth: the harvest: the vintage. Besides, 
 the chapter mentions six angels, and One like the 
 Son of Man. The place of honor is given the Son of 
 
32 THE REVELATION. 
 
 man — three angels are on each side of Him, and He 
 is in the midst, presiding over the vast movements. The 
 cHmax of the series is in the number four, where He 
 sits on the white Cloud. 
 
 The "seven spirits before the throne " (i: 4) express 
 the infinite perfection of the Holy Spirit. The " seven 
 stars" in Christ's right hand (i: 16) denote the com- 
 plete authority He has over the churches. The Lamb 
 has "seven horns and se\en eyes" (v: 6), which 
 denote the almighty power, the supreme intelligence, 
 and the perfect omniscience with which He is 
 endowed. 
 
 This may suffice to indicate how deeply the number 
 seven is woven into the structure of Revelation, and 
 how it dominates it. It would hardly be going too far 
 to assert that the book is built on the principle of the 
 septinary. 
 
 (4.) Ten is the number of secular organization and 
 of power. The Beast has ten horns, and on his horns, 
 ten diadems (xiii: i). These are symbols of power. 
 Ten joined with seven signifies the perfection of 
 Satanic force and worldly dominion. The Beast with 
 seven heads and ten horns is the embodiment of 
 devilish energy, and of apostate, imperial supremacy. 
 
 (5.) Twelve is the number of final and eternal per- 
 fection and duration. The Celestial City, the New 
 Jerusalem (xxi, xxii: 5), has twelve foundations, 
 with twelve gates, with twelve angel sentinels and 
 guardians; the City is a majestic cube, twelve thou- 
 sand furlongs being the measure of its form. The tree 
 
PLAN AND STRUCTURE. 
 
 33 
 
 of life yields twelve manner of fruits, and yields them 
 through twelve months of a cycle. 
 
 Auberlin does not exaggerate this feature of the 
 Apocalypse when he says, " The history of salvation 
 is mysteriously governed by holy numbers. They are 
 the scaffolding of the organic edifice. They are not 
 merely outward indications of time, but indications 
 of nature and essence. Scripture and antiquity put 
 numbers as the fundamental forms of things where 
 we put ideas." 
 
 A second significant phase of the structure of Reve- 
 lation deserves careful scrutiny. It may be called the 
 plan of recapitulation, or better, perhaps, parallelism. 
 What is meant is this: the chief series of visions, 
 e. g., the Seals, Trumpets, and Vials, do not succeed 
 each other in historical and chronological sequence, 
 but move side by side. They do not all have the same 
 starting-point, but they all arrive at the same goal; 
 namely, the final consummation. They all lead up to 
 the transcendant event which is the central theme of 
 the book, the personal Advent of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. Victorinus, the earliest commentator on the 
 Apocalypse, wrote : " The order of the things said is 
 not to be regarded, since often the Holy Spirit when 
 He has run to the end of the last time again returns 
 to the same times and supplies what He has less fully 
 expressed." His view is that of many modern 
 expositors. 
 
 The same peculiarity of structure appears in the 
 book of Daniel. In chap, ii of that book we have 
 the four hostile World Monarchies represented by a 
 
34 THE REVELATION. 
 
 huge metallic Image and its destruction by the Stone. 
 In chap, vii, the same World-Power is symbolized by 
 four predatory beasts. Chap, viii gives the prophetic 
 history of two of these same Powers, and chaps, x, 
 xi, xii, trace the action and the overthrow of the same 
 great enemy. Like John, Daniel traces one line of 
 prediction down to the consummation ; then he returns 
 to follow a second, then a third, and finally a fourth — 
 all terminating at the End-time. It is prophetic re- 
 capitulation, apocalyptic parallelism. It is a style pecu- 
 liar to these two books of the Bible. To ignore it, or 
 to fail to recognize it as the fundamental phase of 
 the book's structure, is to deprive the student of the 
 true interpretation, and is sure to lead into all sorts 
 of vagaries and speculations. 
 
 Proof of such parallelism of the great Vision above 
 referred to is now to be submitted. James Smith calls 
 the process " folding back," i. e., each vision as it is 
 introduced and described folds back upon the vision 
 which precedes it. In other words, the process is 
 that of contemporaneousness, and not that of succes- 
 sion at all, as so many interpreters of the book have 
 thought. 
 
 It is very noteworthy that the Seals, Trumpets, and 
 Vials, all alike end in mysterious " voices," and in 
 cosmical convulsions and revolutions. (The introduc- 
 tion of the angel-trumpeters is before the effects of 
 the opening of the seventh Seal are described, viii : 2 ; 
 their beginning to sound is after the seventh SeaFs 
 effects are announced, viii: 3-5.) The opening of the 
 seventh Seal is followed by " voices, and thunderings. 
 
PLAN AND STRUCTURE. 35 
 
 and lightnings, and an earthquake," viii: 5. The 
 seventh Trumpet is succeeded by " Hghtnings, and 
 voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great 
 hail," xi: 19. The pouring out of the seventh Vial 
 is followed by " voices, and thunders, and lightnings ; 
 and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since 
 men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and 
 so great," xvi: 18. It will be noted that these Voices 
 and Cosmic Convulsions occur under the seventh of 
 each group, and that they are identical in character, 
 and almost entirely identical in language. Unmistak- 
 ably they point to the same event, they describe the 
 like tremendous phenomena, they belong to the same 
 world-wide catastrophe; namely, the final consumma- 
 tion, the End-time, when Jesus Christ shall again ap- 
 pear in majesty and glory in this our earth, and for- 
 ever terminate the deadly struggle between His rule 
 and Satan's. It seems perfectly clear from the facts 
 just stated that these Visions are contemporaneous, 
 that they follow the same general course, that they 
 pertain to the same period of time, and that, therefore, 
 they are parallel with each other. They are synchron- 
 ous ; not successive, with long intervals between. 
 
 Furthermore, the student of the Revelation cannot 
 fail to note the striking similarity, the almost exact 
 identity which subsists between the action of the 
 Trumpets and of the Vials. They belong to the same 
 sphere, they move in the same circle of events, and 
 cover the like field. The subjoined table confirms the 
 foregoing statement: 
 
36 THE REVELATION. 
 
 Trumpets. Vials. 
 
 First. The earth, chap, viii : 7. The earth, chap, xvi : 2. 
 
 Second. The sea, viii : 8. The sea, xvi : 3. 
 
 Third. Rivers, fountains, viii : Rivers and fountains, xvi : 4. 
 
 10. 
 
 Fourth. Sun, moon, stars, viii: The sun, xvi: 8. 
 
 12. 
 
 Fifth. The abyss, king Abad- Throne of the Beast, xvi : 10. 
 
 don, ix: 11. 
 
 Sixth. River Euphrates, ix. River Euphrates, xvi : 12. 
 
 Seventh. Voices, thunders, etc., Voices, thunders, etc., 17, 18. 
 
 xi: 15, 19. 
 
 A careful inspection of this table is enough to per- 
 suade us that these tw^o groups of visions move along 
 the same lines, although each has peculiarities that per- 
 tain to itself. They touch the same points, they begin, 
 they progress, and they end precisely alike. The main 
 difference between the two lies in the extent of their 
 respective action ; the Trumpets are restricted in their 
 action; the Vials are universal. The Trumpets smite 
 the third part of the earth, the third part of the sea, 
 the third part of the rivers and fountains, and the 
 third part of the sun. These four Trumpets are 
 limited thus to a definite and partial area. The four 
 Vials corresponding to these Trumpets are not so 
 restricted, they blast the whole of that which they 
 strike. In the first and second of the Woe Trumpets 
 there is exemption for the grass and the trees, but un- 
 utterable judgment for the men who had not the 
 seal of God in their foreheads, unutterable torment, 
 likewise, for the third part of men. The fifth and 
 sixth Vials are not confined to a particular sphere as 
 
PLAN AND STRUCTURE. 
 
 37 
 
 are the Woe Trumpets; they desolate the Beast's 
 throne, they strike his kingdom with judicial bHndness, 
 they marshal the whole apostate world for the final 
 and overwhelming conflict, the battle of the great day 
 of God the Almighty. The seventh Trumpet peals forth 
 the glad news, "The Kingdom of the world is to become 
 the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ: and he 
 shall reign for ever and ever." The pouring out of 
 the seventh Vial brings the " great voice out of the 
 temple, from the throne, saying, It is done." Fairbairn 
 is right when he says, " These two lines of symbolic 
 representation . . . are alike in their commencement, 
 their progress, and their termination." The Trumpets 
 start with a limited infliction of the wrath of God 
 upon the guilty rebels of the last days, but they 
 deepen in sevenfold energy as they move on to the 
 end. In like manner the Vials intensify in severity, 
 for they are the " seven last plagues," and in them 
 " the wrath of God is fulfilled." 
 
 Moreover, certain " catchwords," as Wordsworth 
 calls them, bind the visions together, thus demon- 
 strating the identity of the objects in view. Thus, the 
 fellow-servants and brethren of the martyrs who were 
 to be slain (vi: 9-1 1) connect with the blessed dead 
 who die in the Lord (xiv: 12, 13), and with those 
 who share in the first resurrection (xx: 6). The 
 earthquake under the sixth Seal connects with the 
 earthquake of the sixth Trumpet (vi: 12; xi: 13). 
 Under the fifth Trumpet the ungodly seek death, and 
 death flies from them (ix: 6). Under the fifth Vial 
 men gnaw their tongues for pain and blaspheme God 
 
38 THE REVELATION. 
 
 (xvi; 10, II ). The Beast which first appears between 
 the sixth and the seventh Trumpets (xi: 7) connects 
 with the Beast of xiii and the Red Dragon of xii. The 
 seaHng of 144,000 (vii: 1-8) connects with the same 
 number in chap, xiv: 1-5. The lamb-like Beast from 
 the earth speaks as a Dragon (xiii: 11). The word 
 Dragon occurs twelve times in the Revelation, and is 
 always applied to Satan. This earth-Beast, therefore, 
 that looks so lamb-like, is in reality satanic, for he is 
 the servant and tool of the Dragon (xii: 9). He is 
 the False Prophet. By such " catchwords " the vari- 
 ous visions and parts of the book are knit together 
 in closest unity. The same peculiarity of structure is 
 seen in the various " episodes " and intercalary visions. 
 Thus, the episode of the " Sealed and the Saved," 
 vii: I -1 7, is placed between the sixth and the seventh 
 Seals. The episode relating to the angel with the 
 little book and the two witnesses is inserted between 
 the sixth and seventh Trumpet, x, xi: 1-14. The 
 episode of the gathering of the world's army for the 
 final and decisive battle is placed between the sixth 
 and seventh Vial, xvi: 13-16. All this, and much 
 might be added to it, displays how the Seer has riveted 
 together his matchless book into a perfect unity of 
 parts and of contents. 
 
 John even ties up his predictions with those of 
 Daniel, as the four wild Beasts of Daniel (Dan. vii) 
 appear also in the Apocalypse (xiii: 2). 
 
 Once more: in addition to the episodes, there are 
 intercalated visions in the progress of the Revelation, 
 which are essential parts of its structure, and which ad- 
 
PLAN AND STRUCTURE, 39 
 
 vance its central idea, the coming of the Lord and the 
 establishment of His Kingdom in victory over the whole 
 earth. These are, the Sun-clothed Woman and the 
 Dragon (xii) ; the Beast and the False Prophet (xiii) ; 
 the mighty program of the End-time (xiv) ; Babylon, 
 the Beast, and Babylon's Doom (xvii, xviii, xix: 10). 
 It is to be noted that Chaps, xii-xiv are interposed 
 between the Trumpet and the Vial Visions ; that chaps, 
 xvii-xix: 10 are interposed between the Vial judg- 
 ments and the actual, visible Advent, judgment, and 
 first resurrection described in xix: ii-xx: 6. A large 
 part of the book is thus made up of the episodes and 
 intercalated visions, and they are all explanatory and 
 interpretative. Without them, how much more 
 enigmatical and difficult the book would be, and how 
 immense the chasm would be in it if these were 
 dropped out. 
 
 The Revelation encloses visions within visions, and 
 scenes within scenes. The query may arise, Can any 
 explanation be made of this peculiar plan of the book 
 — this involved and complex structure? None; save 
 that it pleased the Lord so to construct it; and this 
 should satisfy the believer. Two advantages to us, 
 however, seem to be derived from this divine method 
 of revelation. One is this: it serves to display in the 
 most graphic manner the vastness of the field which 
 the book covers. Beyond all doubt the Revealer deals 
 with the world's crisis, with the consummation of all 
 God's ways with the earth, with the time when the 
 "mystery of God shall be finished" (x: 7). Heaven, 
 earth, and hell will then engage in a struggle such as 
 
40 THE REVELATION. 
 
 our planet has never known before, and probably wili 
 never again know. The issue will be eternal victory. 
 So far as we in our profound ignorance may per- 
 ceive, the sublime symbolism of the book could alone 
 set forth adequately the magnitude of the " battle of 
 the great day of God, the Almighty." Another is: 
 the plan affords the introduction of circumstantial 
 details, and minute descriptions of the forces and 
 influences that will come into collision at the time of 
 the End. After the Seer has traced one line of predic- 
 tion down to the crisis and climax, he returns and 
 starts afresh with another, going over the same road, 
 but presenting other phases and aspects of the same 
 awful period. This he does again and again, for one 
 set of symbols cannot tell all he has to communicate; 
 he must add, expand, interject before he has done. 
 Other features more dreadful than any yet sketched 
 must be shown ; deeper and darker shades must be put 
 in, more lurid and appalling colors must be laid on, 
 before the stupendous picture is complete. Each 
 vision in turn contributes an essential part to the 
 whole, and the whole reveals the character and the 
 scenes of the last days with a fulness and distinctness 
 of outline and detail such as could not be presented by 
 any other plan. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 Analysis — Three Forms. 
 
 VI. Analysis. Three forms are submitted. The 
 first is the partition of the contents under heads and 
 particulars as these are marked in the book itself. 
 It rests on the plan and structure of Part V. 
 
 The second is a tabular exhibition of the contents, 
 following, mainly, the outlines constructed by Prin- 
 cipal Randell, and by the late Dr. Nathaniel West. 
 
 The third furnishes still another partition of the 
 contents, and this is copied from the very suggestive 
 "Analysis of the Apocalypse," by Dr. W. J. Erdman. 
 
 It is fondly hoped that the three will serve to open 
 to the reader this profound and difficult book, as, per- 
 haps, he may not have seen nor understood it hitherto. 
 Certain it is, the three studied together, as well as 
 separately, will tend to lead him into a larger knowl- 
 edge of the book, and a more distinct and definite 
 view of its contents, than perhaps he might not other- 
 wise receive. 
 
 First. 
 
 A. Prologue, chap, i: i-8 
 
 B. Vision of the Glorified Son of Man, i: 9-20. 
 
 C. Epistles to the Seven Churches, ii, iii. 
 
 41 
 
42 THE REVELATION. 
 
 D. Vision of Heaven, introductory, iv-v. 
 
 The Throne, The Elders, Living Beings, Sealed 
 Book and the Lamb. 
 
 E. Opening of the Seven Seals, vi-viii: i. 
 
 First Four Seals, vi: i-8, Fifth, Martyrs, vi: 9-1 1. 
 Sixth, supernatural signs, vi: 12-17; Seventh, 
 
 viii: I, 5. 
 Episode: (a) Sealing 144,000 of Israel, vii: 1-8. 
 (b) Innumerable company of Saved 
 Gentiles, vii: 9-17. 
 
 F. Sounding of Seven Trumpets, viii: 7-xi: 19. 
 First Four Trumpets, viii: 7-12; Three Woe 
 
 Trumpets, viii: 13-xi: 19. 
 Episode: (a) Angel and Little Book, x. 
 
 (b) Temple and Two Witnesses, xi: 
 1-14 
 
 G. Visions Interposed between Trumpets and Vials, 
 
 chaps, xii-xiv. 
 Sun-clothed Woman and Dragon, xii. 
 Beast from the Sea, xiii: i-io. 
 Beast from the Earth, xiii: 11-18. 
 Lamb and His Company on Mt. Zion, xiv: I-5. 
 Four Great Proclamations, xiv: 6-13. 
 The Harvest, xiv: 14-16. 
 The Vintage, xiv: 17-20. 
 
 H. Vision of the Seven Vials, xv, xvi. 
 Song of Victors at Glassy Sea, xv : 1-4. 
 Prelude to Judgments, xv: 5-8. 
 
ANALYSIS— THREE FORMS. 43 
 
 The Seven Judgments, xvi. 
 Episode, xvi: 13-16, armies afield. 
 
 I, Visions Interposed between Vials and Actual 
 Advent, xvii-xix: 10. 
 Harlot and Beast, xvii. 
 Doom, xviii. 
 Joyous Hallelujahs, xix: i-io. 
 
 J. Visible Advent of the Lord Jesus Christ, chaps. 
 xix: ii-xx: 6. 
 The Epiphany, xix: 11-18. 
 
 Doom of Beast and False Prophet, xix: 19-21. 
 Satan's Imprisonment, xx: 1-3. 
 Resurrection and Millennium, xx: 4-6. 
 
 K. Final Revolt and Final Judgment, xx: 7-15. 
 
 L. City of God, xxi-xxii: 5. 
 
 M. Epilogue, xxii: 6-21. 
 
44 
 
 THE REVELATION. 
 
 SECOND. 
 
 The Christophany : Vision of the glorified Son of 
 Man, chapter i: 1-20. 
 
 The Seven Churches, chaps, ii, iii. 
 
 (i) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) 
 
 Ephesus: Smyrna: Pergamos: Thyatira: Sardis: Philadelphia: Laodicea: 
 
 Chap, ii: 1-7. ii:8-Ti. ii: 12-17. ii: 18-29. iii: 1-6. iii: 7-13. iii: 14-22. 
 
 The Vision of Heaven, chaps, iv, v. 
 
 The Throne, Seven Lamps of Fire, 24 Elders, 4 Living Creatures, Angels, 
 
 Book, Lamb. 
 
 The Seven Seals, chaps, vi, vii, viii: 1-5. 
 
 I Seal. 2 Seal. 3 Seal. 4 Seal. 5 Seal. 6 Seal. 7 Seal. 
 
 White Red Black Pale Mar- Signs 
 
 Horse, Horse, Horse, Horse, tyrs, rEpisode"! 
 
 vi:i,2. vi:3,4. vi:5,6. vi:7,8. vi:9-ii. vi:i2-i7. [_ vii — J viii:i-5. 
 
 The Seven Trumpets, chaps. viii:6-xi. 
 
 ISt 
 
 2d 
 
 6th rEpisode"] 7th 
 viii:7. viii:8,9. viii: 10, 11. viii: 12,13. ix: 1-12. ix: 13-21. |_x,xi: 14 J xi:i5-i9. 
 
 Sd 
 
 4th 
 
 5th 
 
 Interposed Visions, explanatory and interpretive, 
 chaps, xii-xiv. 
 
 Sign in Heaven, xii 
 
 Sun-clothed Woman and 
 
 Great Red Dragon. 
 
 Beasts from Sea and 
 Earth, xiii. 
 
 Program of Events, xiv. 
 Harvest and Vintage. 
 
 The Seven Vials, chaps, xv, xvi. 
 
 Last Plagues. 
 
 ISt 2d 
 
 xvi: 2. xvi: 3. xvi 
 
 3d 4th 5th 6th r Episode "] 7th 
 
 'i:4-7. xvi:8,9. xvi:io,ii. xvi:i2. Lxvi:i3-i6.J xvi: 17-21. 
 
 Interposed Explanatory Visions, 
 chaps, xvii-xix: i-io. 
 
 Doom, 
 xviii, xix: 1-5. 
 
 The Harlot Babylon and Beast, 
 xvii. 
 
 Marriage of Lamb, 
 xix: 6-10. 
 
 Visions of Epiphany of Christ : Beasts and armies 
 overwhelmed — Resurrection of Saints, 
 chaps, xix : i i-xx : 6. 
 
 Vision of the Last Revolt and the Last Judgment, 
 chap. XX : 7-15. 
 
 Vision of the City of God — Paradise Restored, 
 chaps, xxi, xxii. 
 
 Consum- 
 mation:, 
 Advent 
 of Christ. 
 
 The End 
 of the 
 Age. 
 
 The End. 
 
 The End. 
 
 The End. 
 
 The End. 
 
 The End. 
 
 The End. 
 Millen- 
 nium. 
 
 Absolute 
 End. 
 
 Eternity. 
 
ANALYSIS— THREE FORMS. 
 
 45 
 
 THIRD. 
 
 An Analysis of the Apocalypse. 
 
 [W. J. ERDMAN. D.D.] 
 
 1: 1-8 The Prologue 
 
 1: 9-20 The Son of Man 
 
 2: 1-3: 22 The Seven Churches 
 
 I THE SEVEN CHURCHES 
 
 4:1-5:14 
 6:1-17 
 7: 1-17 
 8;1 
 
 8:2-5 
 8: 6-9: 21 
 10:1-11:14 
 
 Introduction 
 Progression 
 Episode 
 Consummation 
 
 Introduction 
 
 Progression 
 
 Episode 
 
 11: 15-19 Consummation 
 
 12: 1-13: 1 a Introduction 
 
 13: 1 b-18 Progression 
 
 14:1-13 Episode 
 
 14: 14-20 Consummation 
 
 15: 1-8 
 16:1-12 
 16:13-16 
 16:17-21 
 
 Introduction 
 Progression 
 Episode 
 Consummation 
 
 17:1-18 Introduction 
 
 18: 1-24 Progression 
 
 19: 1-10 Episode 
 
 19: 11 20: 15 Consummation 
 
 II THE SEVEN SEALS 
 
 The Throne, the Lamb and the Book 
 
 The Six Seals 
 
 The Sealed and the Saved 
 
 The Seventh Seal 
 
 III THE SEVEN TRUMPETS 
 
 The Angel and the Incense 
 
 The Six Trumpets 
 
 The Angel, the little Book, the 
 
 Tvv^o Witnesses 
 The Seventh Trumpet 
 
 IV THE SEVEN PERSONAGES 
 
 The Two Signs in Heaven 
 
 The Great Tribulation 
 
 The First Fruits and the Three Angels 
 
 The Harvest and the Vintage 
 
 V THE SEVEN VIALS 
 
 The Overcomers and the Seven Angels 
 
 The Six Vials 
 
 The Gathering of the Kings 
 
 The Seventh Vial 
 
 VI THE SEVEN DOOMS 
 
 The Babylon and the Beast 
 The Doom of Babylon 
 The Four Hallels 
 The Six Final Dooms 
 
 VII THE SEVEN NEW THINGS 
 
 21: 1-8 Introduction New Heaven, Earth, Peoples 
 
 21: 9-22: 5 The New Jerusalem City, Temple 
 
 22: 6-21 The Epilogue Luminary, Paradise 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Epistles to the Seven Churches, chaps, ii, Hi. 
 
 They are inscribed thus : " John to the seven 
 churches which are in Asia (i: 4). Asia, of course, 
 does not mean the Continent^ nor even Asia Minor, 
 but the Province of Asia in Western Asia Minor. 
 The Seven Churches were contiguous to each other, 
 the greatest distance between any two of them being 
 some fifty miles, while in the case of some, e. g., Thy- 
 atira, Sardis and Philadelphia, hardly twenty miles lay 
 between. Other groups of Christians besides those 
 named were found in the same territory even in Paul's 
 time (A. D. 62-3), as at Colossae and Hierapolis (Col. 
 iv: 13). Ignatius (c. A. D. no, i. e., less than twenty 
 years after John wrote the book) addressed letters 
 to prosperous churches at Tralles and Magnesia in 
 the same region, and it is presumable they existed 
 when the Revelation was sent forth. Philip the Evan- 
 gelist and his daughters, who entertained Paul in their 
 home at C^sarea (Acts xxi : 8, 9), afterwards removed 
 to Hierapolis, where Polycarp, disciple of John and 
 pastor at Smyrna, saw the daughters, and no doubt 
 talked with them of the great Apostle (Prof. Greg- 
 ory). Near this same period (c. A. D. 120-30) 
 Papias, who perhaps saw and heard John himself, 
 became the chief pastor at Hierapolis. All these 
 
 46 
 
EPISTLES TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES. 47 
 
 various churches, Colossae, HIerapolis, Tralles, Mag- 
 nesia, and others far more widely known and influ- 
 ential flourished at the close of the first century. Now, 
 how happens it that these assemblies, so prominent 
 and important, are passed by in total silence in the 
 book, while those of which we know little or nothing, 
 except in the case of two, beyond what is told us in 
 chaps, ii, iii, hold so conspicuous a place in the Lord's 
 messages? Why are these seven singled out and ad- 
 dressed, and all the rest of the whole world ignored? 
 The only reasonable explanation is this: These seven 
 here addressed contained in themselves the character- 
 istic features of the entire church in John's day, while 
 the others did not. Accordingly, far more than local 
 and historical interest attaches to them. These Seven 
 embraced in their conditions, in their circumstances 
 and in their tendencies the prophetic history of the 
 entire Christian Body from John down to the final 
 consummation at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 That is, the seven churches and the messages ad- 
 dressed to them represent the whole church of John's 
 time, and they likewise sketch in broad outlines its 
 history to the end. 
 
 This conclusion is warranted by the following con- 
 siderations: (i) The divine command to the Seer 
 was to write out and send the whole Apocalypse to 
 these churches : " What thou seest, write in a book, 
 and send it to the seven churches," i: 11. Certainly 
 the Revelation was not intended for these Christian 
 assemblies alone, but for all the people of God 
 throughout the earth. (2) The book is one of sym- 
 
48 THE REVELATION. 
 
 bols from the first chapter to the last, and if chaps, 
 ii, iii, form an exception, they constitute an unac- 
 countable anomaly. (3) The term "mystery" — "the 
 mystery of the seven stars . . . and of the seven 
 golden candlesticks" (i: 20) — points to the hidden 
 meaning of the symbols, " the sacred secret signified 
 by them" (Lyra). (4) The mystic use of the num- 
 ber seven throughout the book that in every instance 
 denotes completeness, perfection, clearly indicates the 
 symbolic character of these chapters. (5) The con- 
 tents of the messages contemplate the whole church 
 and its entire history, as the repeated announcement 
 of Christ's coming proves, ii: 16, 25; iii: 3, ii. (6) 
 The appeal to " hear what the Spirit saith to the 
 churches " attests the same truth, the language in- 
 cludes the whole body (cf. i: 19, 20; iv: i; xxii: 6, 
 16). Not a single church is exhorted, but all "the 
 churches." 
 
 Each of the seven had marked peculiarities and 
 characteristic features that cannot be restricted to 
 one local assembly, for they foreshadow the like 
 state in the church universal to the close of the dis- 
 pensation. A study of their moral condition, how- 
 ever brief and cursory, will serve to show that their 
 excellencies and their defects so faithfully and un- 
 sparingly pointed out by the glorified Lord cannot 
 be applied exclusively to the close of the apostolic 
 age. They have reproduced themselves in the pro- 
 fessing body in all the subsequent centuries down to 
 the present day. 
 
 The " angel "of Ephesus (i. e., Christ's messenger 
 
EPISTLES TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES. 49 
 
 and representative, certainly not a heavenly being nor 
 a Diocesan Bishop who had no existence in the first 
 century, but the responsible pastor), is both praised 
 and censured. The praise is cordial, and the censure 
 tender but unsparing. Ephesus was the mother of 
 the Asian churches, and the titles our Lord here takes 
 describe His supreme authority and His abiding pres- 
 ence. This assembly was zealous in every good work, 
 steadfast in its testimony, patient under trial, intol- 
 erant of false teachers ; but she had declined from her 
 first love, she had " fallen." Will any deny that the 
 like condition is exhibited in evangelical bodies of the 
 present time? Zeal, activity in service and works of 
 all sorts predominate ; but is love for Christ, the long- 
 ing to see Him, to be with Him, to be filled with His 
 loving presence what it once was or should be ? 
 
 Smyrna (ii: 8-1 1) is the martyr church, and rep- 
 resents suffering. " Tribulation for ten days " may 
 foreshadow the persecutions under the Roman Em- 
 pire, but must not be confined to that period. Smyrna 
 prefigures the suffering the people of God endure 
 through their entire history. The Lord's titles here, 
 as in every message, are exactly adapted to the state 
 of the church. He is the first and the last, who was 
 dead and is alive again; and His servants who suffer 
 and die for His name shall also live again. 
 
 A serious condition is found at Pergamum, ii: 12- 
 17. She dwells where " Satan's throne is." At 
 Pergamum Satan was enthroned and held his court. 
 The reference is, probably, to the new Caesar-worship 
 which was fast spreading over the Roman world. It 
 4 
 
50 THE REVELATION. 
 
 was pre-eminent at Pergamum (Profs. Ramsay, 
 Swete). The fanatical and jealous Domitian ex- 
 erted his vast power to advance the absurd cult, and 
 he sought by wily schemes to have himself wor- 
 shipped as a god ! The insidious plea was : " What 
 evil is there in saying, * Lord Caesar,' or burning a few 
 grains of incense before his statue? " But this would 
 be idolatrous, would be to " commit fornication," and 
 to deny Christ! There were those there who taught 
 this vile doctrine — " the teaching of Balaam," who 
 taught Balak to allure Israel to their ruin when he could 
 not obtain the Lord's permission to curse them. Alli- 
 ance with the world is chiefly meant. The roaring lion 
 is exchanged for the serpent, the adversary for the 
 deceiver. Persecution, painful as it is, is not so per- 
 ilous as worldly alliance. When Constantine recog- 
 nized Christianity, when he sat in the Council of 
 Nicea as an adviser, the fatal way to union of church 
 and state began to be prepared. Pergamum thus 
 becomes a prophetic symbol of the Christian Body 
 in its lamentable connection with the godless World- 
 power. 
 
 A more subtle danger appears in Thyatira, ii: i8- 
 29. The virus in this church is the crafty teaching 
 of the Woman Jezebel. She calls herself a proph- 
 etess, she seduces and corrupts the new people of God 
 as Ahab's heathen wife did both her husband and Is- 
 rael. It is not necessary we should understand that 
 a veritable woman lived and wrought her evil in Thy- 
 atira, although the reading, " thy wife Jezebel," is 
 well supported, and is very suggestive. The language 
 
EPISTLES TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES. 511 
 
 is symbolical; the meaning of the symbol is unmis- 
 takable; it points to a wicked influence, seductive, 
 secret, powerful, that, if unchecked, would subvert 
 the whole testimony of the church and lead these con- 
 verted heathen straight back into idolatry with all its 
 impure practices. Thyatira typically with this proph- 
 etess teaching and debasing and corrupting is the 
 Lord's adumbration of the rise and reign of Popery, 
 a system idolatrous and persecuting, Jezebel-like, prac- 
 ticing its wickedness under a religious disguise. 
 
 A faithful remnant in Thyatira is recognized and 
 separated from the mass of the professing body — 
 " But to you I say, to the rest," ver. 24. They are 
 the historical types of those Christians who through 
 the centuries stood aloof from unfaithful Christendom 
 and who worshipped God in spirit and truth. 
 
 All this evinces the predictive character of the 
 Seven Messages and Churches. 
 
 But may not these Seven Churches mark off proph- 
 etically seven periods or stages in the church's history 
 from the Apostles to the end of the dispensation? 
 So many think, from Joseph Mede and Sir Isaac 
 Newton to the present time. There is harmony 
 among these writers as to the fact of such periods, 
 there is not as to the exact periods covered by them. 
 Perhaps the nearest to uniformity is found in the fol- 
 lowing temporal partition: Ephesus prefigures the 
 apostolic age closing with the first century: Smyrna, 
 the age of the persecutions, the martyr time from A. D. 
 100 to A. D. 325 : Pergamos, church and state united, 
 to the middle of the eighth century : Thyatira, the Mid- 
 
52 THE REVELATION. 
 
 die Ages : Sardis, the times succeeding the Reformation, 
 from the close of the sixteenth century to the latter half 
 of the eighteenth : Philadelphia, to about our own time : 
 Laodicea, the last period when rejection and judgment 
 take place and the End arrives. The Laodicean stage 
 is still future, though there are unmistakable symp- 
 toms and premonitions that it has almost arrived. 
 
 The above distribution is not altogether satisfac- 
 tory, for it is not historically accurate. For example, 
 Smyrna undoubtedly marks the period of martyrdom, 
 but two of the most virulent and frightful persecu- 
 tions which the Church has ever suffered occurred in 
 the first century, under Nero and Domitian. And 
 long after Constantine and the so-called conversion 
 of the Roman Empire to Christianity, uncounted mul- 
 titudes of the purest and the best of God's servants on 
 earth went to the stake or were slain by the sword 
 during the Middle Ages and every century since. 
 Smyrna cannot rightly be confined to the time be- 
 tween A. D. 100-325. 
 
 No more can Sardis (iii: 1-6) be restricted to 
 post-Reformation times, as some would fain have us 
 believe. For while a dead formalism pervaded 
 Christendom in the 17th and i8th centuries, it was 
 by no means universal, as the Pietists of Germany, 
 the Huguenots of France, and the Puritans of Britain 
 attest. " Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art 
 dead " describes far more closely the dark period 
 lying between the Pontifical savages and pagans, 
 Popes Innocent III and Leo X — a period of some 
 three centuries. In the hundred years preceding the 
 
EPISTLES TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES. 
 
 53 
 
 Reformation (A. D. 1410-1510) the Roman See sank 
 down to the lowest point in infamy that it has ever 
 reached. Four Popes, " each worse than the others " 
 (as ItaHans say), by their loathsome characters and 
 their foul deeds, stamped that century with eternal 
 disgrace. They were known as John XXIII, Sixtus 
 IV, Innocent VIII, and Alexander VI. It was the 
 deplorable state into which the church had fallen that 
 made the Reformation a necessity if Christianity were 
 to survive. No interpretation of the Seven Churches 
 which contradicts church history can be right. The 
 Sardis condition belongs to pre-Re formation times 
 rather than to any stage in the history of Protestant- 
 ism. The Seven Churches do mark stages of his- 
 tory, but often they overlap, two or more of them 
 covering the same period. Indeed, they are mirrors 
 in which the condition of the universal church may see 
 itself reflected at any stage of its existence. 
 
 The characteristics of the church of Philadelphia 
 distinguish our day — so some rashly assert. It is a 
 joy to know that there are multitudes of Christians 
 whose fidelity, devotion and hope for the Lord's 
 speedy coming entitle them to rank as saints of the 
 Philadelphian type. But side by side with these are 
 other multitudes, called Christians, who exhibit the 
 worst features found in Pergamum, in Thyatira, in 
 Sardis, and in Laodicea. Let us not be blinded either 
 by a false optimism or a stupid pessimism. We believe 
 that all the phases of these seven assemblies of Asia 
 co-exist in our day. The last two of the Seven, viz. : 
 Philadelphia and Laodicea, demand a more extended 
 
54 THE REVELATION. 
 
 study than can here be given them. Some remarks, 
 however, touching them are submitted, for it is be- 
 lieved that misapprehension of the Lord's messages 
 to them largely prevails. 
 
 Philadelphia. Christ promises to keep those who 
 keep the word of His patience (iii: lo). The prom- 
 ise is to keep them from the *' hour (season) of temp- 
 tation (trial), that hour which is to come upon the 
 whole world, to try (tempt) them that dwell upon 
 the earth," iii : lo. Noteworthy is the term " trial," 
 or " temptation." It is not named the tribulation so 
 often mentioned in prophetic Scripture (vii: 14; Matt, 
 xxiv: 21; Mark xiii: 19, etc.), but trial. No doubt 
 it is closely associated with the Great Tribulation, but 
 the word here used seems deliberately chosen, and 
 points to the frightful dangers and temptations to 
 which God's people will be exposed at the time of the 
 End. We know from Rev. xiii: 13-15, 2 Thess. ii: 
 9-12, that portentous " signs " and lying " wonders " 
 and the " deceit of unrighteousness," wrought by the 
 Beast and the False Prophet, will daze and fascinate 
 vast throngs of men, nay, we are told the world itself 
 will " wonder after the beast," and " worship " him. 
 There will be believers who must face that tremendous 
 peril. This will be their trial — deny God, or die. It is 
 the troublous time which immediately precedes the 
 Advent. Hence Christ adds, " I come quickly." It is 
 the End-time, the close of the Church period and of 
 the dispensation. 
 
 But how will he keep these saints from the hour of 
 trial? Many excellent students of the Revelation 
 
EPISTLES TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES. 55 
 
 answer, By taking them away from earth into heaven. 
 Accordingly, they find here in this promise the " rap- 
 ture " of I Thess. iv: 16, 17. In such case these saints 
 do not go into the trial at all, the rapture antedates 
 the trial by some short space of time, some say seven 
 years, others make it longer. It would be a blessed 
 thing if this view could be substantiated, but it can- 
 not. The language of the promise itself is fatal to 
 it : "I will keep thee from the hour of temptation 
 which Cometh," etc. The natural and obvious mean- 
 ing is, the safekeeping of them in the midst of world- 
 wide trial, not exemption from it by being caught up 
 to heaven. The preposition "out of" (ek) signifies 
 exactly this, and not rapture before the trial begins. 
 In all John's writings there is but one parallel passage 
 with this: Jno. xvii: 15, "I pray not that thou 
 shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou 
 shouldest keep them from the evil." " Keep them 
 from the evil " is identical in structure with " keep 
 them from the hour of trial." None can possibly 
 mistake what the Lord meant in His prayer: His dis- 
 ciples were to remain in the world, but He asks that 
 they be kept from its evil, or from the evil one who 
 is its god. So precisely in Rev. iii: 10, Philadel- 
 phian saints are to be in the trial, but safeguarded 
 therein. This explanation is confirmed by the words 
 that follow : " Behold I come quickly : hold fast that 
 which thou hast, that no one take thy crown." Christ 
 lays upon them the responsibility of vigilance, of con- 
 tinual effort. Each church, Philadelphia no less than 
 the others, is called to guard its own inheritance, lest 
 
^ THE REVELATION. 
 
 through unfaithfulness or apathy it lose its crown. 
 The solemn exhortation involves the fact of trial and 
 of danger. Philadelphia is to be in the trial, but kept 
 safely in it, not raptured away before the trial begins. 
 
 Laodicea. This is the last stage and the worst of 
 all, the most hopeless. Christ stands here without, 
 as if shut out of His own house, a stranger who 
 knocks at His own door for admittance. He inti- 
 mates that the condition now reached has become in- 
 tolerable, nauseating; rejection and judgment are held 
 back only so long as He waits and knocks. Obvi- 
 ously when this deplorable state is reached the " fall- 
 ing away " (apostasy) of 2 Thess. ii: 3 is at the flood; 
 the world is ripe for the parousia of the Man of Sin 
 and the day of Christ. 
 
 There is some resemblance between this Laodicea 
 condition and " Babylon," the great Harlot of chaps, 
 xvii, xviii. Laodicea boasts of her wealth and her 
 self-sufficiency, totally oblivious of her true state as 
 wretched, poor, blind and naked (iii: 17). The Har- 
 lot's proud boast is, " I sit a queen, and am no widow, 
 and shall see no sorrow." She is decked with gold, 
 precious stones, with purple and scarlet (xviii: 7, 16), 
 rich and contented as Laodicea. The Lord's call, 
 " Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers 
 of her sins^ and that ye receive not of her plagues " 
 (xviii: 4), is much like that to Laodicea, "Behold, 
 I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my 
 voice and open the door, I will come into him, and sup 
 with him, and he with me" (iii: 20). There are 
 saints in Babylon, and in Laodicea likewise. The 
 
EPISTLES TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES. 57 
 
 whole attitude of the Saviour before this Seventh 
 Church indicates that He has people in it, that these 
 His people must be separated from the corrupt and 
 apostate company before His judgment falls. And 
 the same thing happens precisely with those associ- 
 ated with Babylon. These, too, are called out before 
 the wrath falls on the guilty apostates. Further on 
 in this study we shall see that there are martyrs in the 
 Great Tribulation, and there are those who are kept 
 safely in it, as e. g., 144,000 sealed ones (Rev. vii: 
 ii-8), and the believers of Philadelphia (iii: 7-12). 
 They are in the trial, but are safely guarded in it. 
 
 The conclusion is: The Seven Churches and the 
 Messages addressed to them cover the whole church 
 period, from the writing of the Apocalypse down to 
 the final consummation, the Coming of the Lord. 
 The three great septinary visions of the Seals, Trum- 
 pets and Vials also terminate in the final consumma- 
 tion. Each of them ends with the signal event of the 
 book, the Coming of the Lord. But the difference 
 between these four sets of sevens is very marked, and 
 briefly is this: the Seven Churches embrace in their 
 typical characteristics the entire dispensation lying 
 between the apostolic age and the Second Advent. 
 The visions of the Seals, Trumpets and Vials relate, 
 in their full accomplishment, to the events which shall 
 signalize the closing scenes of the age. These latter 
 gather into a comparatively brief period of time just 
 before Christ comes. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 The Vision of Heaven Opened, chaps, iv, v. 
 
 "After these things I saw, and behold a door opened 
 in heaven," iv: i, R. V. The phrase, "after these 
 things," denotes apparently the transition from one 
 vision to another (vii: i, 9; xv: 5; xviii: i; xix: i). 
 Even i : 19, held by many to be the division of the book, 
 probably means the past, present and future as to 
 visions, not the past, present and future of history, 
 for much of chaps ii, iii relates to the future of the 
 churcbes, not to the present alone. The phrase marks 
 the succession of the visions and not of time. The last 
 clause of iv: i, "things which must be hereafter," is 
 explained by Dan. ii: 28, 45. The visions of chaps, 
 iv-vii: i appear to be denoted by it. (The Greek 
 text of W. & H. and the margins of Eng. and Amer. 
 revisions punctuate thus : " come to pass. After these 
 things straightway," etc., which yields excellent sense.) 
 
 Grouped round about the resplendent central 
 Throne, the Seer beheld four and twenty other thrones, 
 lower, no doubt, upon which were seated four and 
 twenty Elders clothed in white raiment, and on their 
 heads crowns of gold. It is by no means easy to de- 
 termine who, or what these Elders are. The majority 
 of writers think they represent the redeemed of the 
 Old and the New Testament epochs, twelve symboliz- 
 ing one section, twelve the other of our race. There 
 
 58 
 
ViSrON OF HEAVEN OPENED. 59 
 
 are some who believe they may be princely leaders of 
 the heavenly hosts of un fallen spirits in heavenly wor- 
 ship (Craven in Lange). The language employed 
 respecting them, the language they themselves em- 
 ploy is quite remarkable. The text of Revelation 
 agreed upon by the English and American Revisers, 
 and the latest critical Greek text of Westcott and 
 Hort, of Weymouth and Nestle (not to mention 
 others), presents a significant divergence from that of 
 King James. In the revised version of v: 9, we are 
 bidden read thus : *' Worthy art thou to take the book, 
 and to open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain, and 
 didst purchase unto God with thy blood men of every 
 tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation, and madest 
 them to be unto our God a kingdom and priests; and 
 they reign upon the earth." This was the " new song " 
 sung by the Elders and the four living beings to the 
 Lamb. They do not associate themselves with saved 
 men in this hymn of praise; they actually appear to 
 place themselves apart from the redeemed. In chap, 
 vii: 9, 10, the unnumbered throng of the redeemed 
 from among men sing their glad hossanah, " Salva- 
 tion unto our God which sitteth on the throne, and 
 unto the Lamb." But the Elders, and angels, and liv- 
 ing beings do not join in it, they sing a different song 
 from this of the saved. Moreover, one of the Elders 
 said to John, " These which are arrayed in the white 
 robes, who are they, and whence came they ? " He 
 himself explains, vii: 13-15; but this explanation seems 
 to set a wide distinction between himself and the white- 
 robed company. Indeed, in every passage where the 
 
6o THE REVELATION. 
 
 voice of the Elders and of the four living beings is 
 heard, they are not united with the redeemed (iv: ii; 
 v: 12, xi: 17; xix: 4). The Elders are enthroned and 
 crowned, but the souls of the martyrs — certainly the 
 noblest portion of the redeemed — are seen beneath the 
 altar, vi: 9-1 1, as if they were still in the state of 
 martyrdom, their blood being at the altar's bottom like 
 that of sacrificial victims. They are disembodied 
 spirits, they have had as yet no resurrection nor 
 reward. Accordingly, the Elders cannot be the totality 
 of the redeemed already raised up and glorified, for 
 here are saints still in the disembodied state, who 
 are distinct from the Elders^ and who are unglorified. 
 And other martyrs are to follow these, vi : ii. 
 
 The best explanation of the vision of the Elders 
 we have seen is by Dr. Swete, in his very recent com- 
 mentary on the Apocalypse (1906-7), and it is em- 
 bodied in this sentence : " The twenty- four Elders 
 are the Church in its totality, but the Church idealized 
 and, therefore, seen as already clad in white, crowned, 
 and enthroned in the Divine Presence — a state yet 
 future (must be hereafter), but already potentially 
 realized in the resurrection and ascension of the Head, 
 of. Eph. ii : 6." 
 
 The four living creatures, iv : 6-8. " Beasts " of 
 A. V. is most unfortunate as a translation, for these 
 beings are neither brutes nor wild beasts like the two 
 described in chap. xiii. These are distinguished for 
 their vitality, their intense livingness, as their name 
 (aoa) indicates, for their activity in the worship and 
 service of God, and for their composite appearance. 
 
VISION OF HEAVEN OPENED. "61' 
 
 They have the faces and forms of the lion, the calf, 
 man, and the eagle — the recognized heads of the 
 animal creation, " The four forms suggest what is 
 noblest, strongest, wisest and swiftest in animate 
 nature." Their appearance seems to denote that 
 they are the symbols, in some mysterious and pro- 
 found way^ of creation in its manifoldness and 
 greatness. They closely resemble the Cherubim of 
 Ezek. i; but there are marked differences. Those of 
 Ezekiel are seen in the midst of an " infolding fire," 
 which has no parallel in Rev. iv. Ezekiel's has each 
 four wings; these of Rev. have six each. In this 
 they approach the Seraphim of Isa. vi: 2. Both here 
 and in Ezekiel they are associated with the throne 
 of God. In chap, vi: 1-8, they are represented as in 
 some sense the executors of the Divine Will; they 
 summon the four riders with their authoritative Come. 
 They appear to be connected with the providential 
 judgments of God, are seen doing the behests of Him 
 who is enthroned^ about whom they stand as guards, 
 or like a military staff. They are full of eyes, symbol 
 of wondrous intelligence and sleepless vigilance. 
 
 What do they symbolize? Certainly not the Four 
 Gosples, as some suppose; nor four great Apostles; 
 as Peter, James, John, Paul ; nor redeemed humanity. 
 They may be symbols either of the Forces of Nature 
 through which God's will is accomplished, or hiero- 
 glyphs of certain chief attributes; as, righteousness, 
 truth, power and mercy. 
 
 The Sealed Book and the Lamb, v: 1-14. The book 
 which John saw was no ordinary roll. It rested on 
 
62 THE REVELATION. 
 
 the right hand of Him who sat on the Throne, as if 
 held forth to be taken and opened. It was written both 
 within and on the back; it was close sealed with seven 
 seals. The solemn challenge by a strong angel rang 
 out in heaven^ " Who is worthy to open the book, and 
 to loose the seals thereof ? " No created being in the 
 whole universe was able to look upon it, much less to 
 open it. One alone was — One with the significant 
 titles, " Lion of the tribe of Judah," " the Root of 
 David," " the Lamb that was slain." It is the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. He is able to take the book, and to loose 
 its seals. For His is the perfection of power ; His seven 
 horns denote it; His is the perfection of intelligence; 
 His seven eyes are the proof; His perfect right to 
 sovereignty and supremacy rests in this — He died and 
 rose again ; He is the Lamb that was slain. He " hath 
 overcome (Gk. achieved the victory) to open the book 
 and the seven seals thereof." 
 
 The meaning of this sublime vision is not far to 
 seek. This chapter, as also the succeeding visions, in- 
 dicates with unmistakable clearness the significance of 
 the heavenly transaction. There is no hint that the 
 book was read, that its contents were disclosed. We 
 are told of the events which succeed the opening of 
 the seals, but of the contents written within it nothing 
 is said. Did the book contain the events? Doubtful. 
 It would be unwarranted to affirm so much. The 
 august transaction should be studied as a whole, not 
 any particular feature of it. 
 
 Beyond all doubt the vision is of transcendent im- 
 port. Men differ as to what it means and all it means. 
 
VISION OF HEAVEN OPENED. 63 
 
 The view that commends itself to the writer as being 
 the most satisfactory is this: The Heavenly scene 
 here described represents Christ's investiture of sov- 
 ereign authority and rule as the rightful Governor of 
 the world, the King and Lord of every realm and of 
 every region. Supreme authority was conferred on 
 Him at His exaltation (Matt, xxviii: 18; Eph. i: 
 20-23 ; Phil, ii: 9-11), but He did not at that time take 
 full possession of all His rights and prerogatives ; some 
 He held in abeyance. He is now seated at the right 
 hand of the throne of God (Heb. i: 3; xii: 2; Rev. 
 iii. 21 etc.). He is there as Mediator, conducting the 
 vast and manifold interests of His redemptive work. 
 But He is there also " expecting till his enemies be 
 made the footstool of his feet," Heb. x: 12, 13. The 
 2d and the iioth Psalms expressly teach that a day 
 shall come when God will give to His Son the heathen 
 for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the 
 earth for His possession; when He will subdue them 
 all under His feet ; when He shall rule in the midst of 
 His enemies, and judge among the nations. Peter 
 affirms that the heavens must receive Christ until the 
 times of restoration of all things (Acts iii: 20, 21). 
 Scripture teaches that there comes a time in the prose- 
 cution of His work when Christ will take unto Him- 
 self His great power and will reign; when He will 
 put down all authority and rule; when He will 
 establish His glorious Kingdom in victorious power 
 over the entire planet, and He alone will be the King 
 of kings, and the Lord of lords. In this august 
 scene that time has arrived. Christ takes the sealed 
 
64 THE REVELATION. 
 
 book out of the right hand of the Father. It is the 
 " title-deed " to the inheritance which He has pur- 
 chased by His obedience unto death, as the Elders and 
 the Living Beings sing, v : 9 : " Worthy art thou to 
 take the book and to open the seals thereof: for thou 
 wast slaiUj and didst purchase unto God with thy 
 blood," etc. The angelic hosts chant the like song: 
 " Worthy is the Lamb that hath been slain to receive 
 the power, and riches, and wisdom, and might, and 
 honor, and glory, and blessing" (v: 12). Groaning 
 creation now at length feels the first thrill of the prom- 
 ised deliverance, and sings its glad song of hope and 
 expectation : " Unto Him that sitteth on the throne, 
 and unto the Lamb, be the blessing, and the honor, and 
 the glory, and the dominion, for ever and ever" (v: 
 13, 14). All created beings join in this glad song, 
 for the redemption of the purchased possession has 
 now at length come. 
 
 All these tuneful ascriptions of praise to the Lamb 
 of God attest the profound significance of the heavenly 
 transaction. A mighty change is here indicated in the 
 mediatorial work of our Lord. Christ now at length 
 in infinite majesty and power begins to recover the 
 alienated inheritance, to clear it of every incumbrance, 
 to put down every foe, to destroy all hostile forces, and 
 to rule unchallenged over all. Hitherto He hath been 
 seated at God's right hand, ''expecting," Heb. x: 12. 
 But in this vision He is seen standing before the 
 Throne as if the appointed time has come, and the 
 glorious Kingdom is now to be established, and the 
 millennium be brought in. Accordingly, it is from 
 
VISION OF HEAVEN OPENED. '65 
 
 this point that the supreme prophetic action of the 
 book begins its course, and it runs on to the final con- 
 summation. Chaps, iv, V, are thus introductory to 
 and explanatory of all that follows, they are essential 
 to any adequate understanding of the book. 
 
 Dan. vii: 9-14 points to the same great transaction 
 recorded in Rev. v. One who is named "Ancient of 
 Days" (God the Father) sits upon a Throne from 
 which stream fiery flames, and about which stand 
 thousands upon thousands of angelic hosts ministering 
 unto Him. A secret judgment is pronounced on the 
 Little Horn and the Beast, and the doom of both is 
 irrevocably pronounced, vii: 9-12. Verses 13, 14, 
 introduce a scene marvellously akin to that described 
 in Rev. v : " I saw in the night visions, and, behold, 
 there came with the clouds of heaven one like unto a 
 son of man, and he came even to the ancient of Days, 
 and they brought him near before him. And there 
 was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, 
 that all peoples, nations and languages should serve 
 him," cf. vers. 26, 27. The Son of Man, Jesus 
 Christ, is here represented as coming into the place of 
 judicature, and there receiving investiture of the ever- 
 lasting Kingdom. His investiture immediately pre- 
 cedes His coming forth to crush the Beast, to annihi- 
 late the Antichrist (the Little Horn), and His taking 
 the Kingdom for the saints of the Most High. This 
 vision in Daniel appears to be exactly parallel with that 
 of John. 
 
 The parable of the Nobleman (Luke xix: 11-27) 
 points to the same supreme event as the vision of Dan- 
 
56 THE REVELATION. 
 
 iel. "A certain nobleman went into a far country 
 to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return . . . 
 And it came to pass, when he was come back again, 
 having received the kingdom," etc. No one can 
 question that the Nobleman represents Christ Him- 
 self. The far country to which He went is heaven. 
 The kingdom He went to receive is the same glorious 
 kingdom predicted in Dan. vii, '* a kingdom that all 
 people, nations, and languages should serve him." 
 The parable teaches that this kingdom shall come to 
 victorious power over all the earth, when the King 
 Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, shall " return." The 
 words, " having received the kingdom," seem to de- 
 note His investiture of the kingdom. His right and 
 title to take it, and to establish His sovereign rule over 
 the world. 
 
 We conclude, therefore, that this majestic scene 
 so graphically portrayed in Rev. v, when the Lamb 
 that was slain, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, 
 receives investiture of the kingdom, has not yet taken 
 place. The proof of this statement is twofold: (a) 
 the successive opening of the seven Seals is connected 
 with the Coming of the Lord at the time of the End. 
 The sixth and the seventh Seals make this absolutely 
 certain. No time seems to elapse between taking the 
 book and opening the Seals. Upon taking the book 
 He at once proceeds to open its Seals. But the open- 
 ing of the Seals ushers in the " signs " which im- 
 mediately precede the Advent^ Rev. vi: 12-17; viii: 5; 
 Matt, xxiv: 29-31; Mar. xiii: 24-27; Lu. xxi: 25-28. 
 
VISION OF HEAVEN OPENED. '67 
 
 '(b) Both Daniel (vii) and the Lord (Lu. xix) con- 
 nect the triumphant estabhshment of the Kingdom 
 over all the world with Christ's Coming. Hence, the 
 investiture immediately precedes the Advent. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 The Opening of the Seven Seals, vi-viii: 1-5. 
 
 Mighty movements on earth follow the successive 
 breaking of the Seals. At the repeated cry of the 
 Living Creatures, Come, four horsemen in rapid suc- 
 cession set forth on their mission. Each is dis- 
 tinguished from the others by the color of his horse 
 and by what he carries. The first rider has a bow, 
 his horse is white, and to him as an unfailing con- 
 queror a crown is given. He is a victorious, military 
 chieftain. The second carries a great sword, his 
 horse is red, and it is given him to take peace from 
 the earth. He is the personification of war. The 
 third rides a black horse, and bears a pair of ballances. 
 He prefigures famine, scarcity, though it is not al- 
 together total. The fourth rider is Death, and Hades 
 as a devouring demon follows at his heels; his horse 
 is pale, and he has power to kill with the sword, and 
 with hunger, and with death (or pestilence), and with 
 the wild beasts. 
 
 What do these strange, mystic horsemen signify? 
 What do they represent? Of course they are sym- 
 bolic, and must be so understood, but they are intended 
 to picture a dread reality; they are to have their 
 realization in historical time. To interpret it as a 
 vision of the victorious Christ by His Gospel sub- 
 duing the world is totally inappropriate, for the whole 
 
 68 
 
OPENING OF THE SEVEN SEALS. 69 
 
 series of horsemen, as well as the other Seals, are 
 connected with war, bloodshed, famine, pestilence, 
 and death. This cannot be the image of the gracious 
 Prince of Peace sending forth by His messengers the 
 Gospel of His grace. Rather we have here a picture 
 of triumphant militarism. Matt, xxiv: 5-14 brings 
 no little aid to the understanding of this vision. Our 
 Lord tells us that there shall come false Christs (the 
 first rider amazingly resembles a mock Messiah), and 
 there shall be wars, and famines, and pestilence, and 
 earthquakes, nations shall be in commotion and rev- 
 olution, and God's people shall suffer tribulation and 
 martyrdom — an event connecting at once with the 
 opening of the fifth Seal (ver. 9). "But the end is 
 not yet ;" " these are the beginning of sorrows." 
 
 These verses of the Olivet Prophecy seem to be- 
 long to the time of Jerusalem's overthrow, A. D. 70, 
 as Luke reporting the same Discourse of the Lord 
 plainly says, Lu. xxi: 8-20. There can be no doubt 
 that the Lord Jesus had in mind the troublous times 
 that preceded and accompanied the capture of Jeru- 
 salem by the Romans under Titus, the horrible suffer- 
 ings then endured by uncounted multitudes of Jews, 
 and afflictions and slaughter of His own disciples, as 
 the book of the Acts, and the later Epistles of Paul, 
 and those of Peter, and Jude abundantly attest. But 
 do those events, can they exhaust His predictions? 
 Did wars, famines, pestilences, false prophets and 
 false Messiahs end with the destruction of the holy 
 city of Israel? No one would be so foolish as to 
 assert it. The like things, in a little less than seventy 
 
^O THE REVELATION. 
 
 years after, reappeared in the rebellion of the im- 
 poster, Bar-Cochba, who, with his following, was 
 overthrown by the Emperor Hadrian, Jerusalem was 
 laid in heaps, and its ruins sown with salt. In almost 
 every century since the like commotions, and dis- 
 turbances, and bloodshed have been repeated. It must 
 be borne in mind that two prime objects were 
 before our Lord's mind when He predicted the events 
 of Matt, xxiv, viz.: Jerusalem's ruin and His Sec- 
 ond Coming. The one object glides into the other, 
 both events have some things which precede them in 
 common. His prophecy is a double one, applying 
 both to Jerusalem and His Advent. Accordingly, we 
 believe that before He comes to earth again, and, 
 perhaps, not long before, the like things that presaged 
 Jerusalem's destruction will announce in the most 
 solemn fashion the nearness of His appearing. His- 
 tory repeates itself. Our age, the Gospel age, began 
 at Jerusalem; prophetic Scripture appears to testify 
 that it will terminate there. 
 
 If the right interpretation has been given to the 
 Lamb's taking the Book from the hand of Him who 
 sat on the throne and opening its Seals, then the 
 action of the four riders does not relate to Jerusalem's 
 desolation, nor to the suffering then endured. The 
 action of the horsemen belongs to the time of the 
 End, to the last mighty conflict between the Son of 
 Man and the hostile powers of the world. When these 
 riders start forth portentous movements are afield; 
 the forces are marching and massing for the final 
 struggle. We think they go forth before Daniel's 
 
OPENING OF THE SEVEN SEALS. 71' 
 
 Seventieth Week begins its course. They clear the 
 way for the monster Beast and his ten confederate 
 kings. A heavenly mandate seems to summon them, 
 and providence permits them to work their will, for 
 restraints will then be withdrawn and the forces of the 
 End-time will do as they list. The Living Beings that 
 call them out are intimately associated with the 
 Throne of God and its decrees, Rom. ix: 28. 
 
 The fifth Seal is the martyr Seal, vi: 9-1 1. The 
 Seer saw " under the altar the souls of them that were 
 slain for the word of God, and for the testimony 
 which they held." Their blood had been poured out 
 like that of sacrificial victims at the altar's bottom. 
 They were slain for the same cause that banished 
 John to the desolate Patmos, i : 9 ; " for the word of 
 God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ." They 
 were Christian martyrs no less than was John a 
 Christian sufferer. It is held that these martyrs do 
 not pertain to the Church, for their cry, *' How 
 long, O, Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge 
 and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth ?" 
 — indicates they are on other ground than Christian. 
 This view is maintained mainly to save the theory 
 that the Rapture of the Church occurs at the opening 
 of the fourth chapter of our book, and as this scene 
 is subsequent thereto, these martyrs are not of the 
 Body. But almost precisely the same language is 
 employed by our Lord in Luke xviii: 7, "And shall 
 not God avenge his own elect who cry day and night 
 unto him, though he bear long with them ? " It would 
 be presumptuous to deny the application of these words 
 
*J2 THE REVELATION. - 
 
 to Christians. The context settles that matter. The 
 method of interpretation which deftly puts an incon- 
 venient text out of the way so as to save the view 
 is perilously close to that of the rationalist who says 
 of Scripture that cuts across his theory, " It is spuri- 
 ous," " an interpolation," " it don't apply." Why try 
 to rob these martyrs of their heritage? If they are 
 not members of the Body, neither is John, for he and 
 they stand precisely on the same ground, suffer for the 
 same reason — " the word of God and the testimony 
 of Jesus Christ." All the Seals pertain to the time 
 just before Christ's Advent. 
 
 The martyrdom of these saints post-dates the sum- 
 mons to the four horsemen. For aught told us to the 
 contrary, they were slain by the order of these riders. 
 Persecution, no doubt, deepens and intensifies through 
 the sanguinary and cruel action of the horsemen. 
 Hence, other martyrs are to follow them. These must 
 wait till their brethren have been put to death before 
 God will execute judgment on their murderers. This 
 fact, as already intimated, obviously links these suf- 
 ferers with all who succeed them, including no doubt 
 those of the Great Tribulation itself. 
 
 These and all other martyrs of Christ will have a 
 triumphant vindication in due time, cf. xi: i8. They 
 will be raised up, and will live and reign with Christ 
 a thousand years, xx : 4, 5. ** This is the first resur- 
 rection." So the Spirit of God witnesses. No resur- 
 rection of saint or martyr takes place before this, else 
 it could not by any possibility be called " the first 
 resurrection." It occurs when Christ returns to eartK 
 
OPENING OF THE SEVEN SEALS. 
 
 73 
 
 in visible majesty and overwhelming power and glory, 
 as chap, xix: 11-21 so graphically reveals. As we 
 read it, the Apocalypse has no other resurrection, 
 knows no other resurrection than this " first." 
 
 The opening of the sixth Seal is succeeded by 
 extraordinary convulsions of nature and universal con- 
 sternation of men, vi: 12-17. These are the " signs" 
 which immediately precede the Advent of Christ. It 
 is " the Day of the Lord," the Day of most appalling 
 phenomena, as the prophets testify, cf. Isa. xiii: 9, 10; 
 Joel ii; 30, 31; iii: 14-16; Zeph. i: 14-18; Zech. xiv: 
 6, 7, etc. The signs are the precursor of the visible 
 appearing of Jesus Christ. They precede the actual 
 Coming by the briefest space of time, and they im- 
 mediately follow the Great Tribulation. Our Lord 
 foretells this " sign-time " in graphic terms, Matt, 
 xxiv: 29; Luke xxi: 25-28. Nothing in the world's 
 history has yet happened which on any fair principle 
 of interpretation even approaches the fulfilment of the 
 contents of this sixth Seal. The conversion of Con- 
 stantine, the fall of the Roman Empire, the irruption 
 of the Barbarians, the French Revolution — not one of 
 these events, nor all of them combined, are anywhere 
 near an accomplishment of the " signs," else, as one 
 tersely puts it, " the majesty of the prediction is lost 
 in the poverty of its fulfilment." 
 
 The opening of the seventh Seal is the consum- 
 mation, viii: I, 5. 
 
74 
 
 THE REVELATION. 
 
 The Episode of the Sealed and the Saved, chap. vii. 
 
 As already noted, this episode is introduced be- 
 tween the sixth and the seventh Seals. But the time 
 covered by it is certainly more than the brief space 
 which lies between the " sign-time " and the Advent. 
 It appears to us that it stretches over the period be- 
 tween the first and the last of the Seals. The world 
 movements and the activities of the great adversary 
 are shown us in the first five Seals; the episode dis- 
 closes to us God's activities and mercies in grace in 
 this same period. First, 144,000 of Israel's tribes are 
 sealed with the seal of God (cf. Ezek. ix). They are 
 Jews, the seed of Abraham, for they stand in sharp 
 contrast with the saved from among the Gentiles, 
 vs. 9-17. Two companies, quite distinct from one 
 another, are here brought to view, viz. : the 144,000 
 (122 X 1,000) sealed out of Israel, and the innumer- 
 able hosts gathered from among the nations, v: 9. 
 The purpose of the sealing is to secure these chosen 
 Hebrews against the wrath which is about to be 
 poured out on the ungodly. Hence, the four angels 
 standing on earth's " four corners " are bidden to 
 hold back the judgments until these are safe under the 
 seal of God. The same company appears under the 
 sounding of the fifth Trumpet, and they are preserved 
 from its desolation because they have as here in the 
 episode the seal of God in their foreheads (ix: 4). 
 It is difficult to locate the time of the sealing, but it 
 seems almost certain it belongs to a point before the 
 Tribulation begins, for these believing Jews are no 
 
OPENING OF THE SEVEN SEALS. 75 
 
 doubt the fruit of the testimony of the Two Wit- 
 nesses (xi), and if so, their sealing belongs to the time 
 of the four riders (vi:i-8). 
 
 Second, an innumerable host of saved Gentiles are 
 seen in glory, before the throne of God, clad in white 
 raiment, with palm branches in their hands. They 
 have come to their place of bliss through the " great 
 tribulation " (the Greek is most emphatic, " the tribu- 
 lation the great one"). It is one of unprecedented 
 trouble, of unparalleled suffering. Daniel speaks of it 
 as a "time of trouble, such as never was since there 
 was a nation even to that same time" (Dan. xii: i). 
 Jeremiah also, "Alas! for that day is great, so that 
 none is like it; it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; 
 but he shall be saved out of it" (Jer. xxx: 7). 
 Christ likewise, " For then shall be great tribulation, 
 such as hath not been from the beginning of the world 
 until now; no, nor ever shall be" (Matt, xxiv: 21). 
 Never yet has this tribulation, so unequalled in intensity 
 and aw fulness taken place. It is still future, but 
 as seen in this vision the saved have passed through it, 
 and are now in glory. The sealed 144,000 seem to 
 have been preserved through it, sheltered from its 
 dread fulness by the seal of God. 
 
 It is the judgment of trustworthy interpreters of 
 prophecy that the last or Seventieth Week of Daniel's 
 mystic Seventy has never yet run its course in human 
 history, Dan. ix : 24-27. It still belongs to the future. 
 The Week consists of seven years of literal time. The 
 prophets divide it into two equal parts of three and 
 one-half years each, Dan. vii: 25; xii: 7; Rev. xii: 14. 
 
^6 THE REVELATION. 
 
 Each half of the Week is also spoken of as forty-two 
 months, Rev. xi: 2; xiii: 5, and as 1,260 days, Rev. 
 xi : 3 ; xii : 6. The following diagram may serve to 
 illustrate the divided Week: 
 
 Daniel's Seventieth Week — Seven Years. 
 
 3^/^ years years, Dan. xii: 7. 
 42 months. Rev. xi: 2. 
 1,260 days, Rev. xi: 3. 
 
 3^/^ years. Rev. xii: 14. 
 42 months. Rev. xiii : 5. 
 1,260 days. Rev. xii: 6. 
 
 The numbers of each half of the Week, though 
 expressed in years, months, and days, designate the 
 same period — three and a half years twice over, seven 
 years in all. We believe this to be literal time. 
 
 The world's crisis, the culmination of evil, the 
 tremendous judgments of God, the First Resurrection 
 and the inauguration of the Millennium are all nar- 
 rowed into the compass of these seven years of time. 
 Israel's age-long exile and suffering will then termi- 
 nate in their restoration to God, and their reinstate- 
 ment in the divine favor, nevermore to be rejected 
 and cast off. But these seven years will mark mo- 
 mentous events, unexampled suffering, colossal wick- 
 edness, and the wrath of God poured out to the 
 uttermost. 
 
 It is difficult, if not impossible, accurately to say 
 just what events will take place in each part of this 
 divided Week, these seven years. It must be kept in 
 mind that the outburst of godlessness, which will then 
 reach its climax, has had a gradual development, has 
 
OPENING OF THE SEVEN SEALS. 
 
 77. 
 
 long been gathering force and ripening. As an 
 ancient writer expresses it, " The road is long in pre- 
 paring, but the end of it is sudden and swift." It is 
 quite possible that the first four Seals lie before the 
 Seven Years begin their course. The fifth Seal be- 
 longs in part to each half, for there will no doubt be 
 martyrs, both in the one and in the other. There is 
 little doubt but that the Two Witnesses (Rev. xi) 
 testify during the first half of the Week, and die 
 before the events of the second half begin their course. 
 The Tribulation is certainly in the second half. The 
 Beast appears in the first half when he slays the Wit- 
 nesses; he comes to the summit of his bad pre-emi- 
 nence in the second. Israel is in both halves, as also are 
 Gentile believers. There will be a martyred rem- 
 nant of Israel, and also a spared remnant. It is the 
 spared remnant that is sealed and kept during the 
 time of trouble. The unnumbered throng of Gentile 
 martyrs are in this episode seen in glory: resurrection 
 accordingly for them is here prospectively accom- 
 plished. There will also be a sheltered remnant of 
 Gentile saints, Rev. iii: lo. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 The Seven Trumpets, vlii : 6 — xi : i8. 
 
 Like the Vials, the Trumpets are judicial; they in- 
 flict judgment on the wicked and the ungodly of the 
 time of the end. The first four smite, not guilty man 
 directly, but certain objects of nature which are 
 essential to man's well-being. The first strikes vege- 
 tation; the second the sea; the third the rivers and 
 fountains of waters; the fourth the sun, moon, and 
 stars. These beneficent powers of nature, on which 
 man is so dependent for his well-being, are stripped of 
 one-third of their energy under the judgments of 
 God. Through nature God chastises the ungodly. If 
 they should bow to His rod and repent, no doubt the 
 judgments would be removed. But the two Woe 
 Trumpets which deal directly with men, and inflict 
 on them the heaviest punishments, prove they do not 
 repent, they grew worse and worse (ix: 20, 21). The 
 Trumpets do not begin to sound at the same 
 point where the Seals begin. The first Trumpet ap- 
 parently starts where the third Seal ends and the 
 fourth begins. They all, however, terminate at the 
 same point — the consummation. 
 
 The fifth Trumpet (ix: i-ii; ist Woe) brings a 
 fearful scourge upon the earth. It seems to involve 
 all men and nature in its sweep. There are two ex- 
 emptions, however, the "locusts" from the jrnoke of 
 
 ;^8 
 
THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. 79 
 
 the pit must not hurt vegetation, nor touch the men 
 who had the seal of God in their forehead, ver. 4. 
 On the others the blow falls with utmost violence, and 
 with crushing effect, so that the guilty sufferers seek 
 death and do not find it, death flies from them. The 
 torture lasts for five months. 
 
 The historical interpreters find the fulfilment of 
 this vision of the scorpion-like locusts in the Saracen 
 armies, the Fallen Star being their prophet, Mo- 
 hammed. Others regard these scourges as the armies 
 of heretics and infidels; others still, as swarms of 
 demons let loose on the guilty world, their king and 
 leader being no other than the devil himself. Not one 
 of these interpretations is satisfactory. That of the 
 historical school has historical ground for it. There 
 is a remarkable parallelism between the prediction 
 here and the rise and progress of Islam. Even Wil- 
 liam Kelly, a staunch futurist, does not shrink from 
 saying, " I do not doubt that the common application 
 of the locusts to the Saracens, and of the Euphratean 
 horsemen to the Turks is well founded." The dif- 
 ficulty lies in this, the Woe Trumpets sound at the time 
 of the end, in Daniel's Seventieth Week, and hence 
 events which occurred a thousand years ago cannot 
 possibly exhaust this mighty prophecy. They 
 adumbrate it, but are not its complete fulfilment. 
 
 The following explanation of this vision is def- 
 ferentially submitted. The key to its meaning is 
 found in the phrase of ver. 4, " men who have not 
 the seal of God in their foreheads." Those who have 
 that seal are exempt from the judgment which now 
 
8o THE REVELATION. 
 
 falls. The reference must be to the 144,000 sealed of 
 vii: 1-8. They are Hebrews, and the seal shields 
 them from the " torment "of the invading army here 
 foretold. At the time of the vision Israel in large 
 numbers is back in the Land ; most of them are un- 
 believing, some of them have become the true people 
 of God. These are protected, those are exposed to 
 the fury of the invading host. That host, it is be- 
 lieved, is identical with Ezekiel's Gog, prince of Rosh, 
 Meshech, and Tubal, Ezek. xxxviii: Ixxxix; Joel ii. 
 Ezekiel's prophecy locates the time " in that day," 
 xxxviii : 10, 14, " when my people Israel dwelleth 
 securely." In Joel it is the Day of the Lord, ii: i. In 
 Joel the army resembles locusts in the suddenness of 
 their appearance, their countless numbers, their irre- 
 sistible progress, and their insatiable rapacity. But 
 they do not prey on the sealed of God, they do not 
 touch earth's vegetation, they smite the unbelieving 
 among men. It is quite possible Russia will have the 
 chief part in this invasion, but she will not be alone 
 in it. Swarms of other peoples will also engage in it, 
 as Ezekiel clearly announces. All these invaders, 
 this huge host of Gog, will be animated by a satanic 
 spirit, and will be filled with the fury of demons. 
 They bring with them the smoke of the Pit. The 
 plague is of but short duration, it lasts but five 
 months, ix: 5. 
 
 The sixth Trumpet, vision of the Euphratean Horse- 
 men, ix: 13-21. This is the second of the Woe 
 Trumpets, and, like the first, it must be one of calamity. 
 Such it assuredly is. By this countless army of 200,- 
 
THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. 8l 
 
 000,000, ver. 16, the third part of men are killed. No 
 exemption of the sealed of God is made, nor of 
 earth's productions, as in the case of the other Woe; 
 the terrific judgment here falls with merciless force. 
 The language of course is symbolical. The four 
 angels, *' bound " perhaps, mean the providential re- 
 straints of armed forces from the East. The Eu- 
 phrates connects the thought with Babylon, and 
 Babylon is directly associated with the Beast, chap, 
 xvii. It may, therefore, be that it is the imperial army 
 of the Antichrist, provoked by the coming into Pales- 
 time of the king of the North with his hordes, as the 
 prophets reveal (Ezek. xxxviii: 6, 15; Dan. xi: 40; 
 Joel ii: 20). Daniel, in chap, xi: 40-45, predicts the 
 invasion of Palestine by the wilful king (the Beast 
 or Antichrist), and the attack on him by the kings of 
 the north and the south, and apparently the king's 
 victory over those combined forces. Or it may be that 
 this vast army (we think the number 200,000,000 is 
 ideal, not literal, denoiing an extraordinary large 
 army) will consist mainly of Mohammedans, who in 
 that day will combine against the Wilful King, who 
 will then be seeking the subjugation of the whole 
 earth. Surely that dreadful scourge of the ages, 
 Mohammedanism, will hold a conspicuous place in 
 the scenes of the last days. Its dark record of 
 despotism, desolation, ravage and slaughter, will, pos- 
 sibly, end with one supreme effort to regain its vanish- 
 ing power and its lost territories. But certainty as 
 to the full significance of this vision of the Euphratean 
 ^my is at present unattainable. The historical in- 
 
82 THE REVELATION. 
 
 terpreters find its fulfilment in the invasion of west- 
 ern Asia by the Turks, which resulted in the capture of 
 Constantinople (A. D. 1453). There is a remarkable 
 parallelism between the prediction as thus viewed and 
 the historical facts. It can hardly be doubted but that 
 it then received a partial and anticipatory accomplish- 
 ment. But the vision belongs specifically to the time 
 of the end. It may be that then Islam will put forth 
 its last and most vigorous exertion to preserve its 
 existence, and thus fulfil this vision. 
 
 The locust-like army of the fifth Trumpet torment 
 men with their sting. The Euphratean horsemen 
 kill the third part of men. The scourge lasts for a 
 definite period ; namely, " the hour, and day, and 
 month, and year." Its beginning, duration, and end 
 are fixed by divine decree. That this great army is 
 human, and not a countless multitude of evil spirits 
 as some think, seems to us certain. It must be con- 
 stantly borne in mind that the movements of nations 
 and of men in the last times will be on a scale of vast- 
 ness almost beyond what we can now conceive. Pro- 
 phecy appears to involve the whole world in the 
 revolutions and convulsions of those days. 
 
 The third Woe Trumpet, xi: 15-19 — the seventh and 
 last. Heavenly voices announce, " The kingdom of 
 the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and 
 of His Christ ; and He shall reign for ever and ever,** 
 xi: 15, R. V. The world-kingdom has now become 
 the Lord's, so the words signify. Obviously, this 
 is the final consummation, the End. Accordingly, 
 the twenty- four Elders say, " Thou hast taken thy 
 
THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. 83 
 
 great power and didst reign. And the nations were 
 wroth, and thy wrath came, and the time of the dead 
 to be judged, and the time to give their reward to 
 thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to 
 them that fear thy name, the small and the great ; and 
 to destroy them that destroy the earth," vers. 16-18. 
 This language unmistakably denotes the time of the 
 End. It is very notable, (i) The rage of the nations, 
 (2) God's wrath visited upon them, (3) resurrection 
 and vindication of the saints, (4) distribution of re- 
 wards among God's people, (5) overthrow of earth's 
 destroyers. We do not think that the wicked share 
 in this resurrection. The term " Judged " means to 
 judge with the purpose of vindication, and the dead 
 thus judged are described as exclusively belonging 
 to God. There is no hint here of the presence of the 
 wicked dead. The righteous alone are here, to whom 
 the blessed Judge gives His gracious rewards. The 
 seventh Trumpet is the last and the resurrection 
 trumpet, i Cor. xv: 52. 
 
 The words of the Elders are noteworthy, " We 
 give thee thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who 
 art and who wast," xi: 17. The clause "and art to 
 come " is omitted in the Revisions, and in all the late 
 critical Greek texts (Alford, Wescott & Hort, Wey- 
 mouth, and Nestle). In i: 4, 8, ; iv: 8, the ascription 
 is, " Who was, and who is, and who is to come," or 
 "who cometh." But here in xi: 17 the final clause 
 is omitted, "who cometh." Why? Manifestly be- 
 cause the Lord actually comes when the seventh 
 
84 THE REVELATION. 
 
 Trumpet sounds. In iv: 8 He has not come, He is 
 still the coming One. 
 
 The Episode, chaps, x-xi: 14. 
 
 This episode, like that of the Seals, is interposed 
 between the sixth and the seventh Trumpet. Space 
 will allow but brief remarks on three subjects in these 
 chapters, (i.) The Oath of the Angel and his solemn 
 proclamation, x: 5-7. His imposing attitude, his up- 
 lifted right hand, and his appeal to Him who is the 
 Living One, attest the momentousness and truth of 
 his announcement, " There shall be no longer delay." 
 Not that time is then to end and eternity begin, but 
 that God will now at length interpose and put an end 
 to the lawlessness and the crimes of the world. The 
 angel asserts that this interposition will take place at 
 the sounding of the seventh Trumpet; then the mys- 
 tery of God will be finished — the secret of His let- 
 ting His foes have their own way and of letting the 
 bad triumph and the good be trodden underfoot. 
 All this will terminate with the 7th Trumpet, xi: 1-18. 
 
 (2.) The temple and the holy city, xi: i, 2. These 
 certainly cannot be the heavenly temple and city, nor 
 the Christian church. For " the court " is cast out 
 as unholy and polluted. No chronological scheme can 
 be devised for the past or the present that will give 
 42 months of desolation either for the church or the 
 earthly Jerusalem. The two Witnesses have never 
 yet appeared in connection with Jerusalem and the 
 Jews; but the temple, the city and the testimony of 
 
THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. 85 
 
 the witnesses are certainly connected with the land 
 of Palestine, and particularly with Jerusalem. Nor 
 has the Beast appeared, nor have the witnesses been 
 slain by him. Accordingly, it seems to us that be- 
 yond peradventure what is foretold in this episode 
 belongs to the future, and the scenes and events an- 
 nounced in it will take place in the days of the Seals, 
 the Trumpets and Vials, i. c, at the End. 
 
 (3.) The Two Witnesses, xi: 3-13. God will never 
 leave Himself without a witness even in the dreadful 
 times of the End. Before the final deliverance ar- 
 rives for Israel two Witnesses will testify for God in 
 the midst of Jerusalem, and miraculous powers will 
 once more be exhibited among the chosen people. 
 We are not told who these Witnesses are nor whence. 
 The account given of them is brief but rich in sug- 
 gestion. They are clothed in sackcloth, emblem of 
 humiliation and of affliction ; their ministry is one 
 of appeal and denunciation, hence calculated to arouse 
 antagonism. " These are the two olive trees and 
 the two candlesticks, standing before the Lord of the 
 earth" (cf. Zech. iv: 3, 11, 14). They are anointed 
 for an extraordinary work, and they are endued with 
 supernatural power to execute it. They can shut hea- 
 ven, and they can smite men. Their ministry lasts 
 for 1260 days, i. e., three and a half years, when they 
 are slain by the Beast, and their bodies are refused 
 burial. How bitter must be the hostility against 
 them! After three and a half days they are raised 
 up, and summoned to heaven by a " great voice," 
 " Come up hither 1" 
 
86 THE REVELATION. 
 
 Are these witnesses two individual men? So the 
 passage appears to teach. Many, however, think they 
 represent two companies of witnesses, at the head 
 of which two men stand as chief. Even some 
 staunch futurists, as James Smith and WilHam Kelly, 
 incline to this view. The majority believe that they 
 are in reality but two individual men. Some sup- 
 pose they are Enoch and Elijah; others, Moses and 
 Elijah. The only evidence in support of the opinion 
 is the miracles wrought by them are closely akin to 
 those of Moses and Elijah. Beyond this there is not 
 a hint that they are sent to earth from the unseen 
 world. It is extremely improbable that these saints, 
 after centuries of bliss in heaven, should be dispatched 
 to earth to bear witness to Jews and Gentiles. The 
 passage does not require such an interpretation. All 
 it demands is, that the witnesses be invested with 
 supernatural authority and with miraculous power. 
 John the Baptist is an analogous instance of such 
 witness-bearing. He came in the " spirit and power 
 of Elijah" (Lu. i: 17). Jesus said of him — "That 
 Elijah is indeed come, and they have done unto him 
 whatsoever they listed" (Matt, xvii: 12). But John 
 was not Elijah. He might have done all predicted 
 of Elijah had the Jews received him and his testimony 
 (Matt, xi : 14). H two men shall appear in the last 
 days, as these two assuredly will, and bear the wit- 
 ness of God to rebellious men in the spirit and power 
 of Moses and Elijah, the terms of this prophecy will 
 be met. 
 
 The historical interpretators cite a striking instance 
 
THE SEVEN TRUMPETS. 87 
 
 of the accomplishment of xi: 3-13, according to their 
 method of exposition. In A. D. 1512-17 the Fifth 
 Lateran Council was held in Rome. A papal bull was 
 issued in December, 151 3, which commanded all dis- 
 sidents from papal authority to appear in due time be- 
 fore the Council, and show cause for their refusal to 
 acknowledge the pope's supremacy. When the time 
 appointed arrived to hear such cause, no answer to 
 Leo's summons appeared. The orator of that session 
 (May, 1 5 14) uttered, amidst the applause of the 
 Council, the memorable exclamation, " There is an end 
 of resistance to the papal rule and religion; opposers 
 exist no more!" Evangelical testimony was hushed! 
 Three years and a half later, almost to a day (Octo- 
 ber, 1 5 17) Luther nailed his theses to the Wittenberg 
 church-door ! It looks much as if the witnesses were 
 indeed slain, but they gloriously revive in the power 
 of the great Reformation. We have no good reason to 
 reject this application of the prophecy as a partial 
 and proleptic fulfilment. But it does not meet all the 
 facts. The witnesses beyond question prosecute their 
 ministry in Jerusalem, and there they are slain, xi: 8. 
 Besides, the Beast, it seems to us, cannot be merely 
 a corrupt and apostate ecclesiastical system like Po- 
 pery ; he comes from the ** abyss ;" he is, or seems to 
 be, a man, not only an organization such as Roman- 
 ism is. Furthermore, the witnesses appear just before 
 the seventh Trumpet sounds when the consummation 
 is reached and the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, comes 
 and establishes His Kingdom over the world. 
 
 Apparently the ministry of the two witnesses ends 
 
8S THE REVELATION. 
 
 in total failure. But the failure is only apparent. 
 The most blessed results follow the testimony which 
 brought them to martyrdom. We have no doubt 
 that the conversion of Israel's remnant of sealed ones 
 (vii: 1-8) is the glorious issue of their work as the 
 following chapters appear to indicate. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 The Intercalated Visions, chaps, xii, xiii, xiv. 
 
 With this great section the student is confronted 
 by some of the most intricate and perplexing problems 
 of the Apocalypse. Help from books of a substan- 
 tial sort is painfully meagre. The more one reads 
 the less certainty he has as to its meaning. Happy 
 he who catches glimpses of the massive truth hidden 
 behind the stupendous imagery of this section of 
 Revelation! Let it be ours to cautiously thread our 
 way through the intricacies of these chapters, seek- 
 ing to grasp only the prominent things signified in 
 them and passing by details of exposition. 
 
 Chap, xii has two " signs " — a sun-clothed Woman 
 and a great, red dragon. Our first inquiry relates 
 to this " sign " of the Woman. Who is she ? What 
 does she represent? The conjectures of writers are 
 multitudinous and generally contradictory. We 
 need not burden the page with enumerating them. 
 We assume that she is not the Virgin Mary, for the 
 history of our Saviour's mother does not correspond 
 with what is told us of this sun-clothed woman. She 
 is not the Christian Church, for in no proper or ade- 
 quate sense can we affirm that she gives birth to the 
 Man-Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of 
 iron, and who was caught up to the throne of God. 
 It is by Messiah the Church is born, certainly not by 
 
 89 
 
90 THE REVELATION. 
 
 the Church Messiah becomes incarnate. The Church 
 in all ages and generations is composed of members 
 who are brought into it by the Spirit of God, and one 
 by one, individually. The Woman here gives birth 
 to one majestic and glorious Son ; the event is consum- 
 mated at once, not prolonged through ages, as is the 
 case with the Christian Church, and even with the 
 Jewish Church. 
 
 We believe that the key to the significance of this 
 great " sign " is found in the 19th verse of the pre- 
 ceding chapter. After the seventh Trumpet has 
 sounded and the consummation is at length come, the 
 Seer goes back and starts once more with a fresh vis- 
 ion, which leads him into the marvellous revelations 
 contained in these chapters. In xi : 19 we read : "And 
 the temple (sanctuary) of God was opened in heaven, 
 and there was seen in his temple the ark of the cove- 
 nant." This is strictly Jewish ground; the temple, 
 the ark, the covenant belong to Israel, represent He- 
 brew relations with God and Hebrew privileges. The 
 Spirit now takes up Jewish things, Jewish standing, 
 covenant, hopes, dangers, tribulations and triumph. 
 The verse connects with what follows, is introductory 
 to it — is explanatory also. The Man-Child Is cer- 
 tainly the Lord Jesus Christ. The woman is not a 
 literal female; she Is the symbol of the Messianic na- 
 tion, the Daughter of Zion; for through her, Israel, 
 Christ was given to the world (Rom. ix: 5). But 
 the prophet is not here tracing Israel's history, nor that 
 of Israel's Messiah; this is not his theme. In a mag- 
 nificent picture he sets forth Israel's connection with 
 
THE INTERCALATED VISIONS. 91 
 
 Messiah, first, in His incarnation, and second, the 
 conversion of the first instalment, the firstfruits of the 
 chosen people to God, vii: 1-8; xiv: 1-5. The chap- 
 ter touches the first Advent, then sketches the events 
 that pertain to the time of the second Advent. 
 
 The Dragon is the old Serpent^ the Devil and Satan, 
 xii: 9. Full of hatred against the Woman, Israel, 
 whom he has never ceased to persecute, whose Son he 
 sought to slay at Bethlehem, he now appears in his 
 last disguise. He is seen as a huge Dragon, half ser- 
 pent and half wild beast, with seven crowned heads 
 and ten horns. His outward form links him at once 
 with the revived World Empire, as chap, xiii unmis- 
 takably proves. Neither Rome pagan or papal ever 
 had such disguise; never yet has appeared a power 
 with seven heads and ten horns, or with what this 
 symbol portrays. Beyond question the apparition of 
 this monster, energized as he will be by the Devil, be- 
 longs to the future. An event of worldwide import 
 precedes or accompanies the appearing of the seven- 
 headed monster on earth. "And there was war in 
 heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the 
 dragon; and the dragon fought, and his angels, and 
 prevailed not; neither was their place found any more 
 in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out," xii: 
 7-9, Cf. Dan. xii: i, 2. Immediately upon the dejec- 
 tion of the great adversary from " heaven " to earth 
 a shout of gladness rings through heaven, " Now is 
 come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our 
 God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of 
 our brethren is cast down, which accuseth them be- 
 
92 THE REVELATION. 
 
 fore our God day and night," ver. lo. The ground of 
 Satan's accusation is human unfaithfulness, unbehef; 
 in Israel's case, apostasy. So long as the Jews re- 
 main obdurate and apostate from God and from His 
 Messiah, so long the enemy holds his vantage ground. 
 But what is it which brings about his dejection? In 
 Dan. xii : i it is Michael who " stands up, the great 
 prince which standeth for the children of thy people " 
 (Daniel's people). In Rev. xii: 7, 8 it is likewise 
 Michael fighting against the dragon and overcoming 
 him. But more is told us: "And they overcame him 
 by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their 
 testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the 
 death." These are saints on earth who have come to 
 faith in Jesus Christ, who receive Him as Saviour, 
 and who bear faithful witness to Him in the midst of 
 trial and affliction. They are Jewish believers, and 
 their conversion seems to synchronize with the " war 
 in heaven." 
 
 The words of other prophets confirm and explain 
 these symbolic pictures. Micah predicts the first ad- 
 vent of the Redeemer, then foretells Israel's rejection 
 and restoration: "Therefore will he give them up, 
 until the time that she which travaileth hath brought 
 forth: then the residue of his brethren shall return 
 unto the children of Israel " (v: 2, 3). Isaiah speaks 
 of the same event: " Before she travailed she brought 
 forth; before her pain came she was delivered of a 
 man-child. Shall a nation be born in one day? For 
 as soon as Zion travailed she brought forth her chil- 
 dren " (Ixvi: 7, 8). Israel's conversion, even as to 
 
THE INTERCALATED VISIONS. 
 
 93 
 
 the " firstfruits," the 144,000 of sealed ones, as we 
 think is here specially meant, precipitates the crisis. 
 Satan, cast down from his high place of accusation, 
 rages on earth, persecutes the Woman and goes to 
 make war with the remnant of her seed, who keep the 
 commandments of God, and hold the testimony of 
 Jesus, xii: 17. 
 
 According to Daniel, when Michael " stands up " 
 for Israel, the time of unprecedented trouble begins 
 (xii: I, 2). According to John, when saints over- 
 come the Dragon because of the blood of the Lamb 
 and of the word of their testimony, the seven-headed 
 and ten-horned Foe furiously assails the Woman and 
 the remnant of her seed who believe. It is the open- 
 ing of the Great Tribulation, the time of Jacob's 
 " trouble." But if the Dragon is busy God is even 
 busier. If the one determines the annihilation of the 
 Woman, the Other determines to save her. And so 
 she is given two wings of a great eagle whereby she 
 flies into the wilderness, where God has provided for 
 her a place of safety and of nourishment during the 
 whole period of the Tribulation, three and a half 
 years. The flight is from Jerusalem and Judea; it 
 is also from the deadly wrath of the Beast, the Anti- 
 christ, Satan's agent and tool. It is, we do not doubt, 
 the sealed company of believing Israelites, the 144,- 
 000 of chap, vii and chap, xiv, who flee for safety. 
 God provides for their safety. 
 
 John IS not alone in this prediction. Other proph- 
 ets refer to the same event. Thus Zechariah an- 
 nounces that the nations shall be gathered together 
 
94 THE REVELATION. 
 
 against Jerusalem, that the city shall be taken and 
 plundered, that half its population shall go into cap- 
 tivity, but '' the residue of the people shall not be cut 
 off from the city." God in a most marvellous manner 
 will interpose in behalf of His suffering remnant, and 
 will cleave out of the mountain of Olives a valley of 
 escape; and the prophet adds: "And ye shall flee by 
 the valley of my mountains; for the valley of the 
 mountains shall reach unto Azel : yea, ye shall flee, 
 like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days 
 of Uzziah king of Judah; and Jehovah my God shall 
 come, and all the holy ones with thee," Zech. xiv: 1-5. 
 Daniel (xi: 41) declares that "the King," the Anti- 
 christ, will be prevented from taking Edom, Moab, 
 and Ammon. All other lands will fall under his vic- 
 torious arms. These shall escape. May it be that 
 it is to this rocky, almost inaccessible territory the 
 saved remnant will flee? Cf. Psa. Ix: 9-1 1. 
 
 Foiled in the effort to destroy the Woman, the furi- 
 ous Dragon turns his rage against the rest of her seed 
 who "keep the commandments of God, and hold the 
 testimony of Jesus," xii: 17. These are believing 
 Jews, and seem to constitute the martyred remnant 
 of the Tribulation. Believing Gentiles will also suf- 
 fer ; perhaps the countless throng of vii : 9-14. 
 
 The sum of the teaching of this profound and diffi- 
 cult vision we conceive to be the following: 
 
 1. The Sun-clothed Woman is Israel, the Daughter 
 of Zion, seen mainly in the time of the End. She is 
 the Messianic Mother. 
 
 2. The Dragon is the Devil, disguised in his last. 
 
THE INTERCALATED VISIONS. 
 
 95 
 
 his most effective, and yet most hideous mask he has 
 ever worn. 
 
 3. " War in heaven " describes Satan's expulsion 
 from his place of eminence and power, and the crisis 
 of the world immediately ensues. 
 
 4. Security of the mystic Woman, Israel's sealed 
 company. 
 
 5. War against the Woman's seed, Israel's mar- 
 tyred remnant. 
 
 6. Martyrdom of the countless throng of Gentile 
 believers, vii: 9-14. 
 
 The conversion of Israel's " firstfruits," the sealed 
 company of 144,000, and the dejection of the old Ser- 
 pent from heaven synchronize. It is this conversion 
 of Israel's sealed and martyred remnants which de- 
 stroys the devil's ground of accusation against the 
 saints, and forshortens the period of his malignant 
 activity ; but it intensifies his rage. 
 
 The Two Wild Beasts, Chap. xiii. 
 
 "And he stood upon the sand of the sea" (xiii: i 
 R. v.). It is the Dragon that thus stands by the sea- 
 shore. Defeated in his efforts to " drown " the Wo- 
 man (xii: 15, 16), i. e,, Israel's newly converted " first- 
 fruits," Satan now calls into action his two agents 
 and allies, the Beast and the False Prophet. Out of 
 the sea the first wild beast rises (cf. Dan. vii: 2). 
 The sea torn by the winds is the lively image of na- 
 tions and peoples in commotion and revolution. It 
 is out of a disrupted condition of civil society this huge 
 
96 THE REVELATION. 
 
 Beast comes into being. It is out of such a state 
 imperialism always originates. By these two formid- 
 able agents, the reorganized imperial World-sove- 
 reignty and the False Prophet, the devil will make 
 war against the Woman's seed, seek to destroy Is- 
 rael, and so thwart the gracious purposes of the Son 
 of God. 
 
 The Beast from the sea is the heir and successor of 
 Daniel's four, which are symbols of successive empires 
 or kingdoms (Dan. vii: 17, 23) — the Babylonian, 
 Medo-Persian, Greco-Macedonian, and Roman. This 
 is evident from the composition of John's great symbol. 
 The lion, the bear, the leopard, and the ten-horned 
 monster, each distinct in Daniel, are all united in one 
 in John's, xiii : 2. He has seven heads and ten horns 
 with ten diadems on his horns. The great red dragon 
 of xii: 3 has the same number of heads and horns. 
 Are there, then, two separate powers, the Dragon and 
 the Beast, in the field of action at the same time? 
 Certainly not. When first seen by John in his vision, 
 the Dragon has the symbolic form of the Beast; he 
 has seven heads and ten horns; but he transfers his 
 " power, and his throne, and great authority " (xiii : 2) 
 to his ungodly agent. It is through this new force 
 the devil will exert all his energy and vent all his rage. 
 
 The seven heads represent seven kings or kingdoms 
 (Dan. vii: 17, 23; Rev. xvii: 10). Five of them had 
 fallen when John wrote, the sixth, the Roman Empire, 
 was then dominant over most of earth. A seventh 
 kingdom, universal in its sway and altogether satanic 
 in its origin and character, was to come and was to 
 
THE INTERCALATED VISIONS. 97 
 
 endure for a short space, Rev. xvii: 10. One of the 
 heads, presumably the sixth, the Roman, was seen 
 wounded unto death. It fell beneath the victorious 
 swords of the so-called Barbarians, the Goths, Van- 
 dals, Huns, and other foes, and it ceased to be. But 
 it is to be restored to life; the Seer adds, it "shall 
 come," or, as the Sinai MS. expressively reads, " it 
 shall be present again." A worldwide sovereignty, 
 energized by Satan and his most obedient tool, is yet 
 to arise. We hold that these seven heads or empires 
 of the Beast from the sea are not' seven forms of rule 
 of the Roman State, as many writers affirm; e. g., 
 kings, consuls, decemvirs, military tribunes, dictators, 
 emperors. They are successive empires ; they stand 
 for those world-powers that have been the oppressors 
 and persecutors of God's people. We believe they 
 symbolize the following kingdoms: Egypt, Assyria, 
 Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome. This view is 
 confirmed by the fact that in John's huge Beast all 
 the characteristic features of Daniel's four Brutes are 
 found (cf. Dan. vii: 1-7; Rev. xiii: 2). These six 
 Powers have long since disappeared. No world-sov- 
 ereignty has there been since the fall of the Roman 
 Empire. Ambitious soldiers like Charlemagne and 
 the first Napoleon have attempted the formation of 
 one universal government with himself at its head; 
 but they have utterly failed. Prophecy distinctly an- 
 nounces that one vast united kingdom shall yet arise. 
 It will come at the time of the end of the age. It will 
 consist of ten confederated kingdoms, each ruled over 
 by a king. So much the ten " horns " signify, xvii : 
 7 
 
98 THE REVELATION. 
 
 12. On the Dragon's heads John saw diadems. But 
 when the Beast from the sea shall appear the diadems 
 are transferred to the ten " horns," or ten kings, who 
 rule in unison with the imperial head. In chap, xvii: 
 
 13, 14 we are told " they receive authority, with the 
 beast, for one hour." " One hour " certainly does not 
 denote mere time, a space of sixty minutes, but one 
 and the same time. They enter into a close alliance with 
 the Beast at one and the same time, and he and they 
 thereby constitute in their united capacity the vast fede- 
 ration, the consolidated world-empire of the last days. 
 These ten kings " give their power and their strength 
 unto the Beast." On a worldwide scale there will 
 then be constituted the United States of the prophetic 
 earth. Such a form of government on so vast a scale 
 has never yet been seen. But God's word solemnly 
 predicts that there shall be. As a personal belief we 
 may add that it will have for its center and its seat 
 the nations of Europe, particularly those grouped 
 around the Mediterranean sea. Out of the present 
 European state system the coming federated Empire 
 will be formed, though it will not be confined to these. 
 That there are tendencies now discernible for such an 
 international union no thoughtful person can fail to 
 see. Our age is pre-eminently a federating age. For 
 years the " triple Alliance " of Germany, Austria and 
 Italy has existed. France, Spain and Great Britain 
 stand together in support of certain Continental issues. 
 Russia, the United States (for our country is tending 
 manifestly toward the place and the obligations of a 
 world-power), and even Japan of the far East, all 
 
THE INTERCALATED VISIONS. 
 
 99 
 
 seem to be gravitating toward a common cause and 
 common center. The formation of a confederate, 
 universal sovereignty, such as prophecy clearly indi- 
 cates, is not only possible, but it may be realized in 
 few years from now. 
 
 At the head of this huge organization will stand the 
 peerless man, the Satan-inspired man, the man in mil- 
 itary genius and executive capacity, in intellectual 
 brilliancy and savage ferocity, surpassing all other 
 men. He and the Empire over which he shall rule 
 are so thoroughly identified in the prophetic revela- 
 tion as that they receive the same descriptive title, 
 the awful name — The Beast! Three inspired proph- 
 ets, Daniel, Paul and John, furnish a full description 
 of the powers, action and end of this coming man. 
 In Daniel he has " eyes like the eyes of a man," " a 
 mouth speaking great things " " against the Most 
 High ;" he " does according to his will ;" " magnifies 
 himself above every god, nor regards the God of his 
 fathers ;" before him three of the horns " are plucked 
 up by the roots f " he wears out the saints ;" and he 
 practices and prospers for " a time, and times, and the 
 dividing of time" (three and a half years) (vii: 8, 
 24, 25 ; xi : 36, 37). 
 
 In Thess. ii he is the " Man of Sin ;" one whose in- 
 ner element and outer characteristic is sin, and 
 nothing but sin. He has a coming {paroiisia)2ind an 
 apocalypse, like the Son of God. He exalts himself 
 above all that is called God or that is worshipped. 
 His coming is according to the working of Satan with 
 all signs and lying wonders, and with all deceit of 
 
ICX) THE REVELATION. 
 
 unrighteousness. He takes his seat in the temple of 
 God and sets himself forth as God. Treason against 
 God is his uncommon crime. In First John, ii: 22, 
 he is the Antichrist who denieth the Father and the 
 Son." 
 
 In Revelation (xiii: 5-8) he blasphemes God, the 
 divine Name^ the heavenly Tabernacle, and all who 
 dwell in heaven; makes war against the saints and 
 overcomes them; and he continues forty-two months 
 (three and a half years). Such in brief is the por- 
 trait given by the Spirit of God of the coming Man, 
 the Antichrist, the mock Messiah. 
 
 His origin is mysterious, apparently supernatural. 
 Twice in the Apocalypse it is said he " ascends out 
 of the bottomless pit," xi : 7 ; xvii : 8. There is some- 
 thing darkly significant in these words — " he cometh 
 up out of the abyss." Some think he will be the devil 
 incarnate; others, that he will be an ancient foe like 
 Antiochus Epiphanes or Nero, who shall return to 
 earth from the nether world. Many think he will be 
 an apostate Jew. But whoever he will be or whence, 
 one thing is certain, when he comes Satan will give 
 him his power and his throne and great authority, 
 will fill him from head to heel with his infernal energy, 
 and dower him with more than human craft and cun- 
 ning. 
 
 The second Beast rises from the earth, xiii: 11-18. 
 His appearance, two-horned as a lamb, suggests harm- 
 lessness and even weakness, but his voice has in it the 
 roar of the Dragon. His character is diabolic, and he 
 acts in complete harmony with the other Beast, the 
 
THE INTERCALATED VISIONS. loi 
 
 ten-horned and seven-headed monster. This is the 
 False Prophet, xvi: 13; xix: 19; xx: 10. The true 
 prophet lives in God's presence and receives his mes- 
 sages from Him. This false prophet lives in the pres- 
 ence of the monster Beast, and derives all his power 
 and authority from him. It is his business to pro- 
 mote the worship of the Beast and to bring the whole 
 world into subjection to him, ver. 12. He is not an 
 independent actor in the scenes of the End-time, he 
 is subordinate to the first Beast, and is his servant and 
 minister. Hence he simulates or actually works mir- 
 acles, bringing fire from heaven as Elijah did at Car- 
 mel, and endowing the image of the Beast which he 
 constructs with apparent life and speech. But let it 
 be noted that he does not claim divine homage for him- 
 self. This the Antichrist emphatically does, as the 
 prophets Daniel, Paul (2 Thess. ii: 4), and John 
 (xiii: 3, 8), attest. Therefore the lamb-like beast is 
 not the Antichrist, though in spirit and action he re- 
 sembles him. He is Antichrist's " armour-bearer," 
 as Iren^us calls him ; he is his prime minister and ally. 
 Furthermore, he binds into a vast union or corpora- 
 tion all the followers of the Beast, and brands them 
 each with his mark and number in the forehead and in 
 the right hand, so that none may buy or sell unless 
 he belongs to the Federation and bears the Beast's 
 cipher — the most stupendous system of " boycott " 
 ever established ! The brand impressed on the Beast's 
 subjects is his own name, or the number of his name, 
 ver. 17. It seems very likely, therefore, that the name 
 has a numerical value which is found in the addition 
 
102 THE REVELATION. 
 
 of the letters forming the name, as most, if not all, 
 interpreters believe. The number of the name is 
 given as 666, a trinity of sixes, but one short of per- 
 fection. A perfect trinity of the number would be 
 'j'jy. Antichrist's enigmatical monagram falls short 
 of completeness by a trine set of digits. '' It is the 
 number of a man;" that is, so far as the arithmetic 
 goes, it is human, not that of a brute, nor of a spirit, 
 such as the devil is: Antichrist is human, a man. 
 What his name is or will be is absolutely unknown. 
 Guesses there are in plenty from Irenseus' Lateinos 
 down to Napoleon. It is useless to add others to the 
 conjectural list. When the Beast is actually here his 
 name with its enigmatical number will be well known ; 
 perhaps not sooner. 
 
 Here, then, are set before us sinister portraits of the 
 foes of God and of His people of the last days : the 
 Dragon, the Beast, and the False Prophet, a triad of 
 diabolism. Joined with these and their dupes are 
 countless multitudes of our poor race who shall have 
 deliberately rejected the Gospel of the grace of God, 
 and shall have chosen instead the strong delusion and 
 the lie, 2 Thess. ii: 9-1 1 ; Rev. xiii: 7, 8, 12, 14, 16. 
 
 The Program of the End, chap. xiv. 
 
 Chapter xiv contains seven visions which appear to 
 record the main events of the closing days of our age. 
 Chronological sequence is observed, save in the case 
 of the first, viz.: the 144,000 with the Lamb on Mt. 
 
THE INTERCALATED VISIONS. 103 
 
 Zion. This scene is anticipative and proleptic, it be- 
 longs to the consummation, and even beyond, to the 
 Millennium itself. If the Dragon is active in ordering 
 his forces for the final struggle, xiv: 1-5, encourages 
 us with the assurance that the Lamb is gathering, 
 guarding and fitting His own loyal company for the 
 part they have in the execution of His plans. The 
 number 144,000 no doubt is in a sense ideal, a round 
 number, not necessarily literal, and it is made up 
 largely, if not exclusively, of the seed of Abraham, 
 the new Israel. That these are to be identified with 
 the same number in (vii: 1-8) it seems certain. The 
 number is the same ; the seal of God in their foreheads 
 there corresponds with the name of God in their fore- 
 heads here. The change from seal to name may be 
 accounted for by the mark in the forehead and hand 
 imposed on the followers of the Beast. God will have 
 His ransomed ones to bear His own blessed name as 
 their distinguishing mark. They have been redeemed 
 from earth; they are holy and blameless; they follow 
 the Lamb as devoted and obedient servants; and they 
 stand with Him on Mount Zion, the earthly center for 
 blessing for the whole race, the point of departure for 
 the millennial kingdom and latter-day glory. They 
 also are the firstfruits unto God and the Lamb, which 
 means that all Israel shall be saved, for these redeemed 
 are the pledge and sample thereof; and they are be- 
 sides, as firstfruits, '* the Divine kernel," as Auberlen 
 names them, of the new humanity, the seed by which 
 the purified earth shall be peopled. 
 
 But must we confine the 144,000 to the redeemed of 
 
104 THE REVELATION. 
 
 Israel ? May there not be saved Gentiles among them ? 
 There is profound significance in the promise to the 
 overcomers of the church of Philadelphia: "Because 
 thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will 
 keep thee from the hour trial, which shall come upon 
 all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." 
 Safety in the hour of universal trial is here promised 
 these saints; they are sheltered by the power of the 
 Lord. There is no hint that a " rapture " of these 
 from the earth takes place; the Greek preposition 
 (ek) forbids the notion. The promise appears to sig- 
 nify that they shall be in the hour of trial, but they 
 shall be kept in safety, and shall come out of it un- 
 scathed and untouched. So also the 144,000 of vii : 1-8 ; 
 ix: 4; xiv: 1-5. These likewise are safe in the hour 
 of trial. In the latter vision the Beast and False 
 Prophet, the tribulation, and the suffering are all be- 
 hind them ; they are forever secure on Mount Zion 
 with the Lamb. Besides, the saints in Philadelphia 
 have Christ's name and the Father's written upon 
 them, as the 144,000 have (Rev. iii. 12). 
 
 Vision of World-wide Preaching, xiv: 6, 7. 
 
 In both the noun and verb forms of this proclama- 
 tion there is the idea of glad tidings, good news — the 
 Gospel. It is called " everlasting," both because of 
 what it is in itself and what it promises; it is eternal 
 as to the salvation it offers and as to the bliss it 
 pledges. The preaching is universal, to all that dwell 
 (Grk. sit, as if content with their lot) upon the earth. 
 
THE INTERCALATED VISIONS. 105 
 
 Hope this preaching holds out, but it is conditional, 
 brief. " Fear God, and give him glory ; for the hour 
 of his judgment is come." A strange Gospel surely! 
 Judgment is impending, it is at hand, but an hour off ! 
 Therefore " fear God " — reverence, honor, obey and 
 trust Him, for His terrific judgment is about to break 
 down upon the guilty. It is the time of the End ; the 
 Beast, the False Prophet, the Dragon are all on the 
 stage of action now, and the closing scenes are at 
 hand. This is God's last, merciful appeal — His final 
 call. It connects with our Lord's words in Matt, 
 xxiv: 14: "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be 
 preached in all the world as a witness to all nations; 
 and then shall the end come." 
 
 The Fall of Babylon Announced, xiv: 8. 
 
 This is the first mention of Babylon in the book, but 
 the seer will return to the grim topic and give us a 
 full-length portrait of it, xvii, xviii. Here Babylon 
 is spoken of as a corrupt and corrupting system by 
 which the nations of earth are debauched. Her doom 
 is announced in very striking terms : " Fallen, fallen is 
 Babylon the great, which hath made all the nations to 
 drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." 
 Babylon's overthrow is one of the first chief events 
 succeeding the proclamation that the hour of God's 
 judgment is come. 
 
 Solemn Warning against any Partnership with the 
 Beast, xiv: 9-12. The most appalling alternatives will 
 confront men in the days when the Beast comes to the 
 
I06 THE REVELATION. 
 
 climax of his wickedness and despotism. Either men 
 must worship him and receive his brand as being his 
 property, or they must die, xiii: 15. Either they must 
 utterly repudiate him and his worship and his rule, or 
 they must suffer the awful torment prepared for the 
 lost, xiv: 10, II. There will be saints who will resist 
 him to the death, xiii: 7; xiv: 12. Dreadful as will 
 be the judgments of heaven on the apostates of that 
 time, they will have no cause to complain, for here 
 God in His abundant mercy, when the very end itself 
 is in full view, appeals to men and warns them as He 
 alone can to flee for their lives from all contact and 
 commerce with the Beast. 
 
 Blessedness of Those Who Die from Henceforth, 
 
 xiv: 13. 
 
 The sweetness and depth of this gracious announce- 
 ment is, " henceforth," i. e., from this time on. The 
 Great Tribulation is now running its sanguinary 
 course; the Beast has control of the world itself, and 
 is doing his will with none to hinder, so it seems. 
 Saints fall beneath his cruel decrees. But they, not 
 he, are the conquerors; they die, but they rest from 
 their toils, from their anguish and their agony (cf. 
 vi: II ; 2 Thess. i: 7). The time of suffering is fore- 
 shortened (Matt, xxiv: 22). At the utmost it is but 
 three years and a half, xiii : 5. But the promise in 
 Matt, xxiv: 22 (cf. Mark xiii: 20) seems to limit even 
 this period, so that in the case of the saints it will not 
 run its full course ; they shall be taken out of it ere the 
 
THE INTERCALATED VISIONS. 107 
 
 whole of it has closed. Their resurrection and glori- 
 fication are near, hence they are " blessed." 
 
 The Ha vest, xiv: 14-16. 
 
 The Reaper is none other than the Son of Man, 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. The " white cloud " He sits 
 on denotes it, for it is the symbol of the Divine pres- 
 ence. In the Transfiguration a " bright cloud " is 
 seen. Again and again it is affirmed He will come 
 with Clouds, *' in the cloud" (Lu. xxi: 27). He 
 wears a Crown, the Victor's Crown (stephanos) , for 
 now He is to show Himself the Conqueror of death 
 and the grave. The harvest is unquestionably that 
 of the gathering of the righteous, living and dead. 
 Christ Himself declares that the harvest is " the con- 
 summation of the age," Matt, xiii: 39. And here the 
 harvest is actually come, the grain is "over-ripe;" it 
 must be gathered and garnered, for the number of 
 the redeemed is complete, is filled up. The Royal 
 Reaper here is the Son of God, but angels are associ- 
 ated with Him, as He Himself says, Matt, xiii: 39. 
 The same supreme event is thus described by the Lord 
 in His Olivet prediction: "And he shall send his an- 
 gels with a great sound of a trumpet; and they shall 
 gather together his select from the four winds, from 
 one end of heaven to the other" (Matt, xxv: 31). 
 Still another inspired account of this majestic scene is 
 I Thess. iv: 13-18. Here is described in symbol the 
 final and universal gathering of God's people into the 
 everlasting Kingdom by resurrection and translation. 
 
ao8 THE REVELATION. 
 
 It occurs before the wrath of God is poured out, but 
 not before the Tribulation, if this chapter does really 
 present the order of events at the time of the End, as 
 it certainly seems to do. But the harvest may be 
 reaped before the hour of the great trial has run its 
 course, as already intimated. Hence the comforting 
 assurance given the martyrs in ver. 13. 
 
 The Vintage, xiv: 17-20. 
 
 This is the seventh event of the chapter, the last and 
 the most terrible of all. It represents the wrath of 
 God poured out to the uttermost upon the ungodly, 
 the destroyers of the earth (xi: 18). It is the Day 
 of Judgment, the day of vengeance, the day of the 
 perdition of ungodly men. The figure of the vintage 
 for this awful day of wrath is common to the prophets. 
 Isaiah uses it of the avenging Messiah, " I have trod- 
 den the winepress alone; I will tread them in mine 
 anger, and trample them in my fury; their blood shall 
 be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all 
 my raiment" (Isa. Ixiii: 1-4). Joel in like manner, 
 ''Come, tread ye: for the winepress is full, the fats 
 overflow" (Joel, iii: 11, 12, 14; Rev. xix: 15); "and 
 he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the 
 wrath of Almighty God." It is the time of ven- 
 geance untempered with any mercy, wrath unmixed 
 with any compassion, for long He has been still and 
 refrained Himself, but now He will destroy and de- 
 vour at once, Isa. xlii: 13, 14. Parallel with this 
 judgment scene is the tremendous revelation of chap. 
 
THE INTERCALATED VISIONS. 
 
 109 
 
 xix: 1 1 -2 1. The event is the same in both places. 
 The vintage here is identical with the Advent there, 
 and with the hurling of the Beast and the False 
 Prophet alive into the Lake of Fire, and with the 
 slaughter of their armies. 
 
 No saints of God will be found in the winepr,ess 
 judgment. They are delivered from " the wrath to 
 come " (i Thess. i: 10) : "And to you who are trou- 
 bled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be re- 
 vealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flam- 
 ing fire taking vengeance on them that know not 
 God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ," 2 Thess. i : 7, 8. The prophets attest, how- 
 ever, that in those days of the divine judgments Is- 
 rael as the chosen people will be delivered and blessed 
 and be made a blessing, Joel iii: 17-21; Zech. xiv: 
 8-21. But the saints who have gone through the 
 Tribulation will be gathered in the blessed Harvest- 
 home safe from the devouring wrath and the con- 
 suming fire of God's vengeance. 
 
 With these closing scenes of our age as depicted in 
 our chapter are associated the Vials of Chap. xvi. 
 These are described as containing the seven last 
 plagues, i. e., the divine judgments which are consum- 
 mated in the End-time, " for in them is finished the 
 wrath of God." The Vials cover the last three years 
 and a half of the End^ and they terminate with the 
 vintage. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The Seven Last Plagues, xv, xvi. 
 
 Before describing the pouring out of the Vials the 
 Seer narrates a vision of the victors at the sea of 
 glass, XV : 2-4. The sea is of glass, not of water; it 
 is solid; for upon (epi) it the victorious band stands. 
 The figure of the glassy sea seems to be taken from 
 the "molten sea " of Solomon's Temple (i K. vii: 23), 
 though v^^ith changes. " The molten sea " was for 
 the purification of the hands and the feet of the 
 priests; but this glassy sea is immaculate and unde- 
 filable. Those who stand upon it likewise are holy 
 and pure, they need no washing, they have been for- 
 ever cleansed from all defilement. They have come 
 to this exalted position after trial and suffering. 
 They have gotten victory over the Beast and over his 
 image and over his name. Obviously they have been 
 through the Great Tribulation. But now the scene 
 of conflict is past. They standi like Israjel of old, on 
 the triumphant side of the Red Sea, and they lift up 
 their voices in exultant song. Their song is that of 
 Moses the servant of God and of the Lamb. This fact 
 intimates, perhaps, that they are of Jewish origin. 
 If so, they belong to the martyred remnant referred 
 to in xii: 11, 17. But we are not to exclude Gentile 
 martyrs from this company on the glassy sea; per- 
 haps we should not err greatly if we included the in- 
 
 IIO 
 
THE SEVEN LAST PLAGUES. [HE 
 
 numerable host of vii: 9-17 among them. They exalt 
 God's marvellous works in their song-works of right- 
 eous judgment which He has poured upon the wicked, 
 for they have been witnesses of their sins and crimes. 
 They celebrate Him as " King of the ages " (" King 
 of saints" of A. V. is no doubt wrong). 
 
 The vision is beyond question prospective, proleptic. 
 It relates to the time when the Tribulation is past, the 
 judgments have fallen, and God's justice has at length 
 been fully vindicated. 
 
 The Vials (xvi) are in reality bowls, as the Revisors 
 translate; they are like the cups of the Temple, broad 
 and deep, used for pouring out the drink-offering. 
 The Vials, of course, are figures of speech; they rep- 
 resent the concentrated, tremendous judgments which 
 God will visit upon the ungodly of the End-time. 
 Their action is amazingly swift and continuous. 
 There seems to be no pause between them. 
 
 The Seven Plagues have affinity with the judg- 
 ments inflicted on Egypt (Ex. vii: 20, 21; viii: 5, 6; 
 ix: 15-17, etc.), and particularly with the first four 
 Trumpets (viii: 7-12). God scourges the wicked 
 with nature's forces as once He did the Egyptians, 
 and as He often chastised Israel by like means. But 
 when these Plagues are poured out the whole world 
 will feel the fearful visitation. Earth, air, water and 
 sun — man's beneficent servants — will then become in- 
 struments of torture and of death, and the spirits of 
 the elements will justify God in His righteous deal- 
 ings with the ungodly. 
 
 The Plagues have features peculiar to themselves. 
 
(113 THE REVELATION. 
 
 The fourth is entirely new; the others are more in- 
 tense and violent in their action than the Trumpets. 
 The fifth deals directly with the Beast's seat of power; 
 judicial blindness smites his kingdom; madness and 
 defiance rule. But while men gnaw their tongues for 
 pain and writhe in agony amid dreadful suffering, 
 they grow more hardened and blaspheme their al- 
 mighty Judge. 
 
 The sixth Vial Is poured out on Euphrates. The 
 sixth Trumpet also deals with the same river; but it 
 sets loose the four angels bound there, who then slay 
 the third part of men (ix: 15). Here the river is 
 dried up so as to open the way for the coming of the 
 kings from the sunrising. The Euphrates was the 
 boundary and eastern limit of the old Roman Em- 
 pire. In the new and satanic empire which shall 
 arise every barrier is gone, and armies from the far 
 East may freely pass to the place of the final struggle. 
 The vast hordes of Asia will be involved in the deci- 
 sive and overwhelming battle of the great day of God 
 the Almighty, no less than those of other continents. 
 
 A marvellous thing happens in connection with the 
 action of this Vial, three frog-like spirits issue from 
 the mouth of the Dragon, of the Beast, and of the 
 False Prophet. They are demons, vile and loath- 
 some, yet possessed with immense power. They rep- 
 resent the malign influence which this devilish triad 
 will exert over the world; it is by them that earth's 
 armies will be organized and led into the field for the 
 great battle with God. It is plainly said they are 
 demons. By their persuasiveness of speech, by the 
 
THE SEVEN LAST PLAGUES. 
 
 113 
 
 signs and wonders they will work, and by their tire- 
 less energy, they will lead astray the unbelieving 
 world, and countless hosts will march to Har-Magedon 
 to their awful doom. " Kings of the whole world " 
 shows how complete the success of these frog-like 
 demons will be. The earth will then be in revolt 
 against God. The events of the End-time will be 
 world-wide. A prophetic word spoken by the Lord 
 Jesus Himself discloses how universal the delusions 
 of men will be in that day : " For there shall arise false 
 Christs and false prophets, and shall show signs and 
 wonders, that they may lead astray, if possible, the 
 elect" (Mark xiii: 22). 
 
 The seventh angel poured out his Vial upon the air, 
 and a great Voice from the Throne proclaimed, " It 
 is done." The judgments are exhausted, the wrath is 
 finished. 
 
 Babylon comes into remembrance before God. In 
 chap, xiv : 8 the fall of Babylon is noted as the third 
 event in the series of the time of the End. Here its 
 judgment seems to be placed under the seventh Vial. 
 There is no real discrepancy. In chap, xvi: 17-21 
 the closing scenes are summed up together, and tem- 
 poral sequence is not strictly observed. The great 
 city, and the cities of the nations, and islands, and 
 mountains, and Babylon, all share in the terrific judg- 
 ments. Besides, chaps, xvii and xviii make it evi- 
 dent that the corrupt ecclesiastical system (" The 
 Harlot ") and " Babylon " symbolize both a religious 
 apostasy and a city, so that it is possible that some 
 
 brief time may elapse between the overthrow of the 
 8 
 
ttI4 THE REVELATION. 
 
 one and of the other: the system may fall first, the 
 city next in the final order of the events. A precious 
 word in parenthesis is given us, xvi: 15: ("Behold, 
 I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and 
 keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see 
 his shame.") It is for His saints. The last blows 
 are about to fall, but He is speedily coming now, so 
 watch ! 
 
 Thus we come to the close of the three great sep- 
 tinaries. Seals, Trumpets and Vials. A kind of pro- 
 gression is marked by them. The opening of the 
 Seals reveals the events about to happen. The blasts 
 of the Trumpets announce the events as forthcoming. 
 The outpouring of the Vials execute them, and so 
 close the whole, God's righteous wrath being now 
 finished. 
 
 Once more the statement must be made that these 
 Visions are contemporaneous, not successive, with 
 long stretches of time lying between them, as the his- 
 torical interpreters affirm. All three end at the same 
 supreme event, the Consummation, although they do 
 not start at the same point. The first four Seals ap- 
 pear to be prior to the seven years of Daniel's last 
 great Week, within which so mighty events are 
 crowded. These Seals make ready the way for those 
 momentous years. The remaining three Seals be- 
 long to that Week in both its halves. 
 
 The Trumpets sound during the whole of the Week, 
 the Woe Trumpets no doubt belong to the second half. 
 
 The Vials pertain to the second half, the final three 
 years and a half^ the time when the Beast is doing his 
 
THE SEVEN LAST PLAGUES. 1115 
 
 worst, when the Great Tribulation is running its awful 
 course, and wickedness and crime are at the flood. 
 These Bowls are filled full with the wrath of God, 
 and in them the wrath is finished, xv: i, 7. Judg- 
 ment has completed its stern work with the outpour- 
 ing of the Vials. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Interposed Explanatory Visions, chaps, xvii-xix: 
 
 i-io. 
 
 The visions recorded in this great section of the 
 book are interposed between the Vials (xvi) and the 
 Advent of Christ, xix: ii. They are designed to 
 furnish us with more definite and comprehensive in- 
 formation touching the character and the doom of 
 Babylon the Great. Twice already has this evil sys- 
 tem named Babylon been mentioned, xiv: 8; xvi: 19; 
 but no explanation is there given of it. But now once 
 more the Seer, as is his wont, goes back to open a 
 new episode in his marvellous revelations, and he 
 does so that he may explain what Babylon is, what its 
 evil influence has been, and what its fate shall be. 
 This is the theme of these chapters — Babylon the 
 Great, the Harlot, the Mother of Abominations. Two 
 gigantic forms of evil are made very prominent in 
 the Apocalypse : the one is the revolt of the civil power 
 against God; the other is ecclesiastical apostasy. The 
 first is prefigured by the Beast; the second by the 
 lewd Woman, the Harlot. This latter we are now to 
 study. 
 
 I. Note the prominence of Babylon in the book, 
 xiv: 8; xvi: 19; xvii, xviii; xix: 1-3. One chapter 
 is devoted to the Beast, with reference to him in some 
 others; here two whole chapters are occupied with 
 
 n6 
 
INTERPOSE EXPLANATORY VISIONS. T.iy 
 
 Babylon and the Beast, while there are references to 
 it in three others. It is significant that it is one of 
 the angels of the seven vials that shows John the 
 judgment of the Harlot. As these spirits are the ex- 
 ecutors of God's wrath on the Beast, so will they be 
 in the destruction of Babylon. 
 
 2. Descriptive names of Babylon. It is called a 
 harlot, ver. i. The meaning of the symbol is plain. 
 Scripture frequently charges Israel with the sin of 
 adultery, of playing the harlot (Ezek. xvi; Hos. i, 
 etc.). A city also is declared to be guilty of the like 
 sin, e. g., Jerusalem (Ezek. xvi: 2, 48). By this is 
 meant that a people or city in relation with God who 
 becomes unfaithful to Him, who breaks covenant 
 with Him, who seeks after other gods, and who serves 
 idols, is charged with the crime of spiritual adultery. 
 Such a body is like a wife who proves disloyal to her 
 husband and her vows, and gives her love to other 
 men. It is one of the strongest figures the Bible uses 
 to express God's abhorrence and reprobation of un- 
 faithfulness to Him. The epithet, harlot, describes an 
 apostate religious system or community. But it is 
 noteworthy that while Israel become idolatrous is 
 called adulteress because she is Jehovah's wife, Baby- 
 lon is a harlot charged with fornication. Not once in 
 these chapters is Babylon called adulteress, nor her 
 sin adultery, but uniformly she is the harlot and her 
 sin fornication. Obviously this Woman is unlike Is- 
 rael in her relation with God, and must not be con- 
 founded with that people. She is not a wife, she 
 may be " espoused." 
 
Il8 THE REVELATION. 
 
 Moreover, a most extraordinary name was seen 
 inscribed on her forehead : " Mystery, Babylon the 
 great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations 
 of the earth," ver. 5. Whether the term " mystery " 
 is to be regarded as a part of the inscription or an 
 explanation of the content of the inscription is not 
 easy to determine. Without attempting to settle 
 which it is, let it suffice now to say that the word cer- 
 tainly designates the essential nature of the repulsive 
 object on which the prophet is gazing. The fearful 
 picture represents Babylon, a mysterious system, se- 
 cret, fascinating and seductive in its amazing power 
 and influence. " Mystery " is closely akin to Paul's 
 "mystery of iniquity" (2 Thess. ii: 7); it stands in 
 sharpest antithesis with " the mystery of godliness " 
 (i Tim. iii: 16). Wordsworth defines the term as 
 " a secret spell bearing the semblance of sanctity." 
 
 The Scarlet Woman is also Babylon the Great. 
 Old Babylon on the Euphrates was idolatrous, intol- 
 erant, proud, despotic. This mystic Babylon is idol- 
 atrous and fosters idolatry. She is the prolific 
 mother of abominations. She is both corrupt and 
 corrupting, '' the Mother of Harlots." The virus of 
 the evil system is contagious, infectious, it spreads 
 over the earth. She is a fierce persecutor, is seen to 
 be drunken with the blood of the saints whom she has 
 ruthlessly slaughtered. Old Babylon was likewise in- 
 tolerant and a persecutor. One instance may suflice 
 as proof. Nebuchadnezzar, the great king of Baby- 
 lon, made proclamation that " all people, nations and 
 languages " should prostrate themselves before the 
 
INTERPOSED EXPLANATORY VISIONS. 119 
 
 golden image which he had set up. The edict was 
 enforced by the savage threat that all who refused 
 should be cast into a burning fiery furnace. Three 
 Hebrews refused to worship the royal idol, and were 
 cast into the furnace. The new mystic Babylon ex- 
 hibits the like persecuting spirit, and kills all who re- 
 fuse to obey her idolatrous mandates. The names 
 inscribed on her forehead witness to her character. 
 Israel's high priest bore a golden plate on his fore- 
 head with the ineffable name inscribed on it : " Holi- 
 ness to the Lord." The Scarlet Woman bears on 
 hers a cluster of names that brand her as most impure, 
 most loathsome. She is both a temptress and be- 
 trayer of peoples and nations, xvii : 2, 4 ; xviii : 3 ; 
 xix: 2. She intoxicates the world with the wine of 
 the fury of her seductions, she drugs them with her 
 deadly love-potions. She is presented to us as the 
 vilest of all vile systems. 
 
 3. The place and seat that this symbolic Woman oc- 
 cupies are very noteworthy. She sits upon many 
 waters, xvii: i. The waters are explained to be 
 " peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues." 
 The figure denotes the widespread influence which the 
 system exerts, and the vastness of its sway over man- 
 kind. She is described as a great City, xvii: 18; 
 xviii : 10. Babylon the Harlot, the corrupter of earth, 
 has its seat in a city with seven hills. Furthermore, 
 she has her seat upon the Beast, him she rules as her 
 obedient servant. Her seat gives her a proud pre- 
 eminence and insures her victorious sway. The 
 color of the Beast is scarlet, as is the clothing of the 
 
120 THE REVELATION. 
 
 Woman, indicative of the blood guiltiness and perse- 
 cutions which stain them both. The crimson-colored 
 Beast is the same as that seen rising from the sea 
 (xiii: i), the blasphemous and cruel World-power. 
 The hateful picture here given us indicates the close 
 association the Harlot has with the godless State and 
 her control of it. Her attire is very notable for its 
 brilliancy and its richness; scarlet, purple, precious 
 stones and rare gems adorn her. Her robes are im- 
 perial, her jewels queenly. In dress and in attitude 
 her meritricious character is displayed : " Mystery, 
 Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and of the 
 abominations of the earth. '^ 
 
 Such is the hideous portrait presented to us by the 
 pen of inspiration of a corrupt and corrupting system 
 that once had fellowship with God and labored faith- 
 fully to further His cause among men. Now alas! 
 it has become " the habitation of demons, and the hold 
 of every unclean spirit, and the hold of every unclean 
 and hateful bird'' (xviii: 2). John writes: "And 
 when I saw her, I wondered with a great wonder.'* 
 It is not surprising. Who does not feel profound 
 grief, a sense of sorrow and of awe, when looking 
 upon the dreadful spectacle of a fallen, impure or- 
 ganization which once was pure and true, but which 
 now has become unfaithful and vile? 
 
 Who or what is this Woman with her twin name of 
 Harlot and Babylon? What does the repulsive sym- 
 bol mean? Are the predictions about her sufficiently 
 explicit to enable us to identify her? Undoubtedly 
 they are. More than once in the course of these notes 
 
INTERPOSED EXPLANATORY VISIONS. 121 
 
 it has been intimated that the Harlot-Babylon is an 
 apostate religious system. But what system is meant? 
 
 1. The Woman is sharply distinguished from the 
 Beast. Beyond all denial, if the Beast be the World- 
 power, as we have all along set forth, the Woman 
 cannot be. She is in most intimate relations with 
 him, but from him she is distinct. She rides him, 
 therefore she is not the same as he. Before this fact 
 the historical interpretation of the Apocalypse com- 
 pletely breaks down. That view makes the Beast and 
 the Woman the same thing — a view negatived here. 
 
 2. The Woman cannot be the star-crowned, sun- 
 clothed Woman of chap, xii: i, 2. It is Israel, the 
 Messianic nation, that is there symbolized, not at all 
 the Christian Church. Many interpreters, however, 
 insist that the Woman of chap, xii and the Harlot of 
 chap, xvii are one and the same; that she, holy and 
 true at first, became at length degenerate and fell 
 from her lofty estate and became at last the unclean 
 temptress of nations and the assassin of the saints. 
 The only real argument for the identification of the 
 two Women we have seen is, both are found in the 
 "Wilderness." But the sun-clothed Woman is there 
 sheltered from the wrath of the Great Red Dragon, 
 and is nourished of God there for three and a half 
 3^ears, the period of the g-reat tribulation. Now, it 
 sev^ms to us incredible and impossible that she should 
 become the vile and guilty Harlot of the later vision 
 in so short a time. The Woman of xvii is not the 
 Woman of chap, xii become apostate. 
 
 3. The Harlot is Christendom estranged from God 
 
122 THE REVELATION. 
 
 and become thoroughly secularized and degenerate. 
 This is our most solemn conviction. Romanism, we 
 believe, is the chief subject of this frightful prophecy. 
 But the Greek Catholic organziation, mainly as ex- 
 isting in Russia and Eastern Europe, as also worldly 
 and unfaithful Protestantism are involved and in- 
 cluded therein. We begin with the identification of 
 Romanism with this symbol. It is official and hier- 
 archical Romanism we are dealing with, not the body 
 of adherents to that system who are generally both 
 ignorant and superstitious. The historical reality and 
 the prophetic portrait here drawn are too much alike, 
 match too exactly, to mistake the meaning. 
 
 Papal Rome claims to be a Mother, calls herself 
 the " mother of all churches," the mistress and teacher 
 of all Christians. The pope asserts his supremacy 
 over all of them, and indeed over all nations as well. 
 In 1825 Leo XII struck a medal bearing on the one 
 side his own image, and on the other that of the 
 church of Rome symbolized as a Woman, holding in 
 her left hand a cross, and in her right a Cup, with the 
 legend, " Sedet super universum," " The whole world 
 is her seat" (Hyslop, Two Babylons). She would 
 dominate all mankind, xvii: 15. 
 
 The Woman has her seat in a city of seven hills, 
 xvii: 9, 18. For more than a thousand years the 
 Papacy and Rome the City have been regarded prac- 
 tically as one and the same. Rome is the Papacy to 
 this day. No other is called "the city of seven hills;" 
 no other has ever ruled over the earth as Rome has. 
 Pagan Rome governed the world for centuries; papal 
 
INTERPOSED EXPLANATORY VISIONS 
 
 123 
 
 Rome has for ages held sway in our planet as no other 
 city has. It is Rome where the Woman " sitteth.'* 
 The city and the system coalesce, they are converti- 
 ble terms. 
 
 The name inscribed on the Harlot's forehead points 
 unmistakably to an apostate religious system, and pre- 
 eminently to Romanism. Everything in the worship 
 of that enormous organization is shrouded in mys- 
 tery, is designed to impress men with its hidden, se- 
 cret and supernatural authority and power. Its per- 
 sistent use of a dead language, its celebration of the 
 Mass, its confessional and priestly absolution, its 
 claims to fix the destinies of men even in the unseen 
 world, its mystic ceremonies and rites, the dress of its 
 officiating priests and their postures and actions when 
 observing " the mysteries " of the cult-all combine to 
 invest the system with an impressiveness and mysti- 
 cism nowhere else found save in some of the ancient 
 pagan rites. The Greek Church is characterized by 
 the like heathen features, though somewhat less fla- 
 grant. 
 
 The Harlot's connection with the World-power — 
 riding upon it — is realized in the universal domination 
 which the Papacy claims and asserts. The Pope ar- 
 rogates for the Roman See supremacy over peoples 
 and states and rulers. Not always has he been able 
 to enforce the proud claim, but when he can he does 
 to the fullest extent. " The pope can depose from 
 their offices magistrates and princes, and release sub- 
 jects from their oath of allegiance." " The pope is 
 king of kings, ruler of rulers, the prince of bishops, 
 
124 THE REVELATION. 
 
 the judge of all men" (Bellarmino). "The imperial 
 majesty is subjected to the pope as the Vicar of Christ 
 Jesus, and kings ought to lay down their crowns be- 
 fore him. The Pontiff is monarch, emperor, king and 
 bishop of the whole earth " (Decisioni delta Rota Ro- 
 mana). These quotations are taken from Roman 
 Catholic authorities; they could be multiplied indefi- 
 nitely. To this day the Roman See exalts its absolute 
 supremacy over all nations, sovereigns and peoples. 
 It is not union with the State that is asserted, but do- 
 minion over the State. Subjection to the civil author- 
 ity is the position of those ecclesiastical bodies named 
 " State Churches," whether Protestant or Greek Cath- 
 olic. Rome exalts her authority over all States and 
 Churches alike. She rides, or seeks to ride upon the 
 World-power, to subject to herself all authority and 
 all rule. 
 
 The Scarlet Woman is intolerant, persecuting: she 
 is seen to be drunken with the blood of the saints. 
 Here, again, the parallelism between the symbol and 
 the apostate religious system is startlingly close. 
 Count if you can the victims of Rome's bloody work 
 in the world, her murderous cruelties. It is even 
 doubted whether pagan Rome ever slew as many hu- 
 man beings as has Papal Rome. Nor is Rome the only 
 guilty one in this respect. The Greek Catholic and 
 some Protestant bodies likewise have stained their 
 hands in the blood of some of the noblest and purest 
 of God's children. Not without a dreadful meaning 
 is this Harlot arrayed in scarlet and crimson: bloody- 
 minded she is, and blood-stained also. 
 
INTERPOSED EXPLANATORY VISIONS. 125 
 
 The Harlot is the " mother of abominations," i. e., 
 idolatrous. Images, shrines, relics, human beings 
 ("the saints") and angels are objects of devotion in 
 all apostate Christendom. The Virgin Mary with 
 vast multitudes holds a higher place of veneration 
 than did ever Minerva in Greece, or Ceres in Rome, 
 or Diana in Ephesus. Her worship exceeds that even 
 of the Son of God Himself. Nothing will sooner 
 arouse the fanatical rage of her devotees than the 
 teaching that Mary, blessed as she was in being chosen 
 to give birth to the Son of Man, has no part in our 
 salvation, can do nothing to deliver us from sin and 
 reconcile us with God. Ever since Pius IX officially 
 proclaimed the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, 
 Mary has been lifted into a place of eminence and 
 authority never before held by her. Add to this the 
 Dogma of infallibility with which the Pope was 
 crowned in 1870 by the Vatican Council, and one will 
 perceive to what heights of arrogance and blasphemy 
 this Roman system is now exalted. 
 
 But departure from divine truth, false teaching, 
 unwarranted claims, arrogant assumptions, will wor- 
 ship and idolatry are not to be charged against papal 
 Rome exclusively. Babylon is " the mother of har- 
 lots." She has daughters like herself. The Greek 
 Catholic church, the Coptic, and others have as widely 
 departed from the simplicity of the Gospel as has 
 Rome. Who would venture to deny that there are 
 signs of a falling away in Protestantism? A scarcely 
 disguised infidelity in the great Schools of Germany; 
 advanced ritualism and Higher Criticism of a .most 
 
126 THE REVELATION. 
 
 pronounced type advocated in the Colleges and Uni- 
 versities of Great Britain; scientific skepticism and 
 rationalism taught in the Universities of our own 
 country ; " an open and organized movement toward 
 Rome, numbering thousands of clerical and lay ad- 
 herents;" in the Church of England; doctrines held 
 and taught in Evangelical Churches that " thirty years 
 ago would have ranked a man as an infidel ;" denial 
 of the supernatural, ridicule of miracles, denial of the 
 inspiration, integrity, and authority of the Scriptures; 
 hostility toward the divine claims of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ and His Gospel; denial of the Deity of Jesus 
 Christ, the persistent effort on the part of many to 
 sink Him to a level with men, born into the world as 
 other men are and having a human father and mother 
 as other men ; denial of His resurrection from the dead 
 and His Mediatorial action in heaven as a glorified 
 Man, and His Coming to judge the quick and the 
 dead; Paul charged with being the author of Chris- 
 tianity and not Christ — a Christianity which Christ did 
 not teach; a salvation now preached that is to be the 
 result and fruit of " works," culture, education, 
 " character-building," a reconstruction of society in 
 the Socialistic conception, the importance of the indi- 
 vidual being eliminated — all this and much more than 
 this betokens the working of " the mystery of lawless- 
 ness" in the heart of Christendom, the presence and the 
 corrupting influence of the Harlot's " daughters " in 
 the " religious world." The Laodicean age, with its 
 latitudinarianism, its proud boastings, and yet its spir- 
 
INTERPOSED EXPLANATORY VISIONS. 127 
 
 itual bankruptcy ignored, has set in, though not yet 
 full-grown. Worse things are fast approaching. 
 
 No influence for evil is so great, none so far-reaching 
 in its disastrous effects, as an apostate religious sys- 
 tem. There is no sphere it does not invade, none 
 that it does not befoul. The State, the family, edu- 
 cation, literature, the press — everything, in short, of 
 life and of civilization it touches and defiles. Chapter 
 xviii of Rev. discloses the vast results on mankind of 
 Babylon's overthrow. Kings, merchants, seamen, 
 wail over Babylon's fall, and recognize with profound- 
 est grief that all commerce, all the immense business 
 of the world, had hitherto been bound up with the 
 Babylonian system, and now by the just judgment 
 of God it has all crumbled into desolation and ruin. 
 We believe that the predictions recorded in chap xviii 
 involve a far wider field of influence than a single city; 
 they point to the world of commerce, of trade — in 
 short, to the complex, interdependent secular relations 
 of modern civilization. Christendom does control the 
 wealth and the commerce of the civilized nations, nay, 
 of the heathen nations also. Babylon, the Harlot, 
 means more than a single city, though it may have its 
 chief place of power there. It is Rome, but likewise 
 all that Rome stands for, all its worldwide influences. 
 As a city Rome never was a great commercial center, 
 nor is it ever likely to be anything like what Tyre or 
 Alexandria were, what London and New York now 
 are. But apostate Christendom will one day, if not 
 now, embrace the world and poison all its centers and 
 all its life. With Babylon's fall the complicated, rich, 
 spectacular and cultivated civilization of earth will be 
 
128 THE REVELATION. 
 
 utterly demolished, for in its essence and its spirit it 
 will be the foe of God, the corrupter of the truth of 
 God, and the righthand of the Antichrist. No won- 
 der all heaven rejoices when the enormous thing, 
 built up with so tremendous efforts, with such expen- 
 diture of intellectual energy, and by such unjust and 
 evil methods, dies at length beneath the stroke of 
 outraged justice! 
 
 The destruction of the Harlot Babylon will be by the 
 Beast and his ten-horn confederates, xvii: i6. 
 When the Beast has served himself of Babylon, wea- 
 ried at length by its arrogance and its claims, he will 
 turn with fury upon it, tear it to pieces, eat its flesh, 
 devour all its wealth and its power, and burn it with 
 fire. Two gigantic forms of full-grown Wickedness 
 is to distinguish the time of the End. The one is, 
 the revolt and hostility of federated Government, the 
 other an apostate religious system. The first is not 
 yet manifested; the second, in its incipient stage, i» 
 here. 
 
 We may summarize the intercalated Visions of 
 chaps, xvii, xviii, xix: i-io thus: 
 
 1. Five world-kingdoms had flourished and fallen 
 when John wrote. 
 
 2. The sixth Kingdom, the Roman Empire, was 
 then existing, but was to fall. 
 
 3. A seventh Kingdom shall arise and rule the 
 earth. Its form is to be that of a Confederation of 
 ten kingdoms, each ruled by its own sovereign, with 
 unity centering in its great Head, the Antichrist. 
 
INTERPOSED EXPLANATORY VISIONS. 
 
 129 
 
 4. The Harlot Babylon the symbol of an apostate 
 religious system. 
 
 5. Both the Beast and Babylon, as predicted in the 
 Apocalypse, belong to the time of the end, and are 
 prefigured as at their worsts most godless and most 
 blasphemous. 
 
 6. Babylon is destroyed by the Beast and his ten 
 kings. 
 
 7. The Beast and his False Prophet are destroyed 
 by the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 9 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Advent of the Heavenly Conqueror, the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, xix : 1 1 ; xx : 6. 
 
 I. This great section is the climax and the culmina- 
 tion of all the visions and predictions of the book. The 
 Consummation so often noted in former chapters; 
 the reiterated announcements of Christ's Coming in 
 the seventh Seal, in the seventh Trumpet, in the sev- 
 enth Vial, and elsewhere^ now at last are become a 
 reality in His personal return to our earth. The key- 
 note has been, " Behold, He cometh." But now the 
 diapason closes full on His Presence, " He is come." 
 " I saw heaven opened." In chap, iv : I "a door is 
 opened in heaven." Twice we are told the Temple 
 in heaven was "opened" (xi: 19; xv: 5). But xix: 
 II is on a wider scale; the heavens themselves open 
 to the descending Son of God. He now comes, not 
 as the Lamb, nor as the Bridegroom, but as the Lion 
 of the tribe of Judah, the almighty Conqueror. He 
 is followed by a dazzling retinue, the armies of hea- 
 ven. His mighty angels. The scene is one of trans- 
 cendant majesty. He is identified by His royal titles. 
 He is "faithful and true" (i: 5; iii: 7, 14): "The 
 Word of God " (Jno. i. i) : " King of kings " (xvii: 
 14). His personal appearance indicates who He is: 
 " His eyes are a flame of fire " (i: 14; ii: 18) ; He is 
 crowned with " many diadems," He is a King and 
 
 130 
 
ADVENT OF JESUS CHRIST. 131 
 
 more than a king, He is above all kings and sovereigns ; 
 He is the Lord of heaven and earth : " His garment 
 is sprinkled with blood" (Isa. Ixiii: 2, 3) : from His 
 mouth issues a sharp sword (i: 16; ii: 12, 16; cf. 2 
 Thess. ii: 8; Isa. xi: 4). He is mounted on " a white 
 horse," emblem of victory. This metaphor must not 
 be confounded with the white-horse rider of vi: 2. 
 That is a human warrior, this is the heavenly King; 
 that is an ambitious and despotic military chieftain; 
 this Rider judges and makes war " in righteousness." 
 The heavenly armies that follow Him are the angelic 
 hosts, Mar. viii: 38; i Thess. iii: 14; 2 Thess. i: 7-10; 
 Jude 14; Zech. xiv: 5; Dan. vii: 10. The most mo- 
 mentous events ensue upon His Advent. The Beast, 
 the False Prophet, the kings of earth and their armies 
 are gathered to fight against the heavenly King, xix: 
 19. Their place of assembly is Har-Magedon, a 
 noted battlefield (xvi: 16). Not a blow is struck by 
 the heavenly hosts ; the appearing of Christ, the great 
 God and our Saviour, suffices to overwhelm all His 
 foes, 2 Thess. ii: 8. The doom of the Beast and his 
 guilty accomplice, the False Prophet, is most appall- 
 ing. They were arrested, and " they twain were cast 
 alive into the lake of fire that burneth with brim- 
 stone," ver. 20. Two men were taken to glory with- 
 out passing through the gates of death, Enoch and 
 Elijah. Two men will be flung alive into the Lake 
 of Fire, Antichrist and his prime minister. The False 
 Prophet. The carnage of the Beast's army is fright- 
 fully great, vers. 17, 18, 21; cf. xiv: 20. The birds 
 of the sky are bidden to this " great supper of God," 
 
1132 THE REVELATION.; 
 
 and they " were filled with their flesh," cf. Ezek. 
 xxxix: 17-20. Ezekiel predicts that it will require 
 seven months to bury the slain, ver. 12, of that day of 
 God's wrath. 
 
 This is the awful Vintage of xiv: 19, 20; cf. xix: 
 15 — where a horseman riding over the battle-field 
 finds the blood of the slain bridle-deep for 1,600 fur- 
 longs! The time is, The Day of the Lord: when the 
 Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his 
 mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on 
 them that know not God (2 Thess. i: 7-10). It is the 
 time when the proud World-power in its last and dia- 
 bolical confederation is judged and destroyed, when 
 the kingdom of the world becomes the Kingdom of 
 our Lord and of his Christ : when " the kingdom, and 
 dominion, and greatness of the kingdom under the 
 whole heaven is given to the Son of Man and to the 
 people of the saints of the Most High (Dan. vii: 14, 
 2y). It is the End of our Age, the time fully come 
 for the redemption of the purchased possession. 
 
 2. Satan Bound, xx: 1-3. The language of these 
 verses, of course, is symbolical ; but back of the sym- 
 bols is a glorious reality. We have here, first, the clear 
 recognition of the Devil's personality. He is no 
 myth, nor a personification of the world's evil, nor of 
 the principle of sin; he is a strong, fierce spirit, the 
 enemy alike of God and of our race and its mur- 
 derer (Jno. viii: 44). The names John here gives him 
 denote that he is a person with thought, will, charac- 
 ter and disposition. More than twenty distinct titles 
 and names are given him in the New Testament, 
 
ADVENT OF JESUS CHRIST. 133 
 
 every one of which expresses the Idea of individuality 
 and conscious being. He is as certainly an active, liv- 
 ing spirit as is the angel Gabriel or the arch-angel 
 Michael. 
 
 Secondly, for ages he has been unrestrained, "walk- 
 ing up and down in the earth," deceiving, tempting, 
 leading captive and ruining as he listed, save as he was 
 limited by the will of God. But, thirdly, he is now 
 arrested and chained securely for a thousand years. 
 The energy of the Seer's language is remarkable. 
 Satan is " seized," next " chained ;" then " cast into 
 the abyss," after that " shut up," and finally " sealed." 
 It is imprisonment with close confinement! It lasts 
 for a thousand years. In chap, ix: i, 2, the "pit of 
 the abyss " Is opened, and out of Its yawning mouth 
 issue the swarms of locusts. In xi: 7, xvii: 8 the 
 Beast ascends from the abyss. Thrice Is this unde- 
 scribed Pit opened. But when the Dragon, the Old 
 Serpent which Is the Devil, and Satan, Is hurled into 
 it, securely bound with the angel's great chain, and 
 over him in that dismal prison the huge cover shuts 
 down, fast locked and sealed, opened no more will it 
 be till the thousand years are finished. This will be 
 earth's Jubilee, the longed-for Millennium. Not 
 until Satan is seized, chained and locked up will there 
 be, can there be, the blessed Millennium. Satan loose 
 and a Millennium of peace and happiness are incom- 
 patible. 
 
 3. The First Resurrection, xx: 4-6. 
 
 "And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and 
 judgment was given unto them: and (I saw) the souls 
 
iI34 THE REVELATION. 
 
 of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of 
 Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as wor- 
 shipped not the beast, neither his image, and received 
 not the mark upon their forehead and upon their 
 hand: and they Hved and reigned with Christ a thou- 
 sand years." 
 
 This is a much controverted portion of the Revela- 
 tion; it is a sort of exegetical battle-field between 
 those who are called respectively Pre-millennialists and 
 Post-millennialists. Into the controversy there is no 
 intention to enter, but what appears to us to be Its 
 meaning must be set down. We have the profound 
 conviction that a bodily resurrection is certainly af- 
 firmed by it. Three parties, we believe, are here dis- 
 tinguished from each other by the inspired prophet: 
 I, The throned assessors to whom judgment is given, 
 who represent all the redeemed; 2, martyrs who had 
 laid down their lives for their testimony to Jesus and 
 to the word of God ; 3, such as had refused to worship 
 the Beast, or his image, or to receive his mark. The 
 distinction between these classes is not one of time, 
 for they are all alike sharers in the blessedness of the 
 First Resurrection ; nor of character, for alike they are 
 saints of God, redeemed by the blood of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. Rather, the distinction is one of expe- 
 rience, of what had been endured and suffered by them 
 respectively. 
 
 John first mentions those who sit on thrones, to 
 whom judgment is given : " I saw thrones, and they 
 sat upon them." The plural they is indefinite, it may 
 denote any number. But other Scripture, it is be- 
 
ADVENT OF JEKDS UHRIST. 135 
 
 lieved, sheds light on the question who these are. 
 Christ Himself is certainly one here on His judgment- 
 throne. With Him certainly are the Apostles. "And 
 Jesus said unto them" (to Peter and the rest), 
 " Verily I say unto you, that ye who have followed 
 me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit 
 on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve 
 thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (Matt. 
 xix: 28). The "regeneration," or renewal, here 
 spoken of begins with the Advent of Christ and with 
 the resurrection and glorification of the saints, as 
 Paul teaches — " Creation itself shall be delivered from 
 the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory 
 of the children of God." It awaits the redemption of 
 our body, Rom. viii: 19-23. In that glorious age the 
 Apostles will be Christ's assessors in judging men. 
 But not these alone; all Christians are to be there 
 present and to share in judging. " Know ye not that 
 the saints shall judge the world ?" " Know ye not 
 that we shall judge angels?" i Cor. vi: 2, 3. Here 
 the inspired assertion is, that the saints of God shall 
 judge both the world and angels. Of course, their 
 judgment will be in strict unison with that of Christ 
 Himself; but however subordinate to His it may be, 
 these saved men and women shall participate with the 
 Apostles in judgment. Their judicial action is re- 
 markable as to extent; it includes the wicked of the 
 world and angels. Dan. vii: 21, 2.2 relates to the 
 same procedure — " Until the ancient of days came, 
 and judgment was given to the saints of the Most 
 High: and the time came that the saints possessed the 
 
136 THE REVELATION. 
 
 kingdom." The figure here as in the other cases cited 
 is of an assize. Judgment is had, the saints are vindi- 
 cated, and they come into possession of the kingdom 
 promised. Here are included all O. T. believers. 
 
 In all these instances the time of the judicial proced- 
 ure is the same ; it is at the coming of the Lord in great 
 glory and power. In union with Christ the saints 
 as a body, the whole company of the redeemed, as we 
 think, share with Him in judging the world and an- 
 gels. The sentence, " I saw thrones and they sat 
 upon them, and judgment was given unto them," is 
 interpreted by the Lord Jesus, by Paul, and by Daniel, 
 to mean the entire body of the saints, now raised up 
 and glorified with Christ. 
 
 A distinct class of saints among the enthroned is 
 brought to view; "and (I saw) the souls of them 
 that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, 
 and for the word of God." Martyrs of Christ are 
 these, believers who lay down their lives for His 
 name and His word. " Souls " may include those 
 "souls" seen under the altar (vi: 9), and who cried 
 to God for vindication, and who were bidden rest 
 and wait till their brethren and fellow-servants should 
 be killed as they had been. It was in the disembodied 
 state they were seen, as martyrs with the evidence 
 of their execution on them — slain with the axe, the 
 mode of capital punishment practiced by Rome before 
 the establishment of the Empire. The use of the 
 term beheaded seems to denote that all marytrs, 
 whether under the Republic or the Empire, whether 
 recent or remote, are to be included in these " wit- 
 
ADVENT OF JESUS CHRIST. 137 
 
 nesses of Jesus." Now they are seen as raised up and 
 enthroned. 
 
 Still another company of sufferers are introduced: 
 "And such as worshipped not the beast, neither his 
 image, and received not the mark upon their fore- 
 head and upon their hand." The triumph of Christ 
 is shared not by the martyrs only 'but by all who under 
 the sway of the Beast and the False Prophet suffered 
 reproach, imprisonment, loss of goods, maltreatment, 
 exile. The words "such as" (oitines) point to a 
 class distinct from the martyrs mentioned just before. 
 Cyprian (fourth Cen.) noted the distinction; so do 
 Swete, Edwards and others. John names particu- 
 larly these two classes, because of their loyalty to 
 Christ in suffering and death. Not all of them are 
 slain, but all have the martyr spirit. Some of the last 
 class may survive till the Advent, in which case they 
 will be of those who shall not sleep (i Cor. xv: 51). 
 
 Of all these disciples of the Lord Jesus, the en- 
 throned, the martyrs, and the confessors, John says 
 " they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." 
 By the words " lived and reigned " we understand 
 and must understand their resurrection from the dead 
 and their " change " if alive at the Lord's coming. 
 So John himself understood it, for he adds, " This is 
 the first resurrection." Some 42 times this term res- 
 urrection occurs in the New Testament, and once with 
 a prepositional affix (Phil, iii: 11), and in each in- 
 stance its application is confined to the raising up of 
 the dead. Hence John says, " The rest of the dead 
 lived not until the thousand years should be finished." 
 
138 THE REVELATION. 
 
 Many expositors, however, deny that the passage 
 teaches a bodily resurrection. They see in it no more 
 than a revival of the martyr spirit and of the princi- 
 ples of righteousness and truth for which the martyrs 
 suffered. With them here is announced a spiritual 
 resurrection, and not a physical one. Let such terms 
 be substituted for those of John, and the absurdity of 
 the view will be quite apparent : " I saw the * prin- 
 ciples ' of those who had been beheaded for the testi- 
 mony of Jesus ; and the ' principles ' of those who 
 repudiated the Beast ; and the * principles ' lived and 
 reigned with Christ a thousand years. This is the 
 first resurrection of the * martyr spirit.' On these 
 'principles' the second death hath no power. But 
 the rest of the ' principles ' lived not until the thou- 
 sand years were finished." Believe it who can that 
 John wrote such nonsense as this, we cannot. Never 
 once in the N. T. is the term resurrection used in this 
 sense. 
 
 It is sometimes said that Rev. xx: 4-6 is the only 
 passage of Scripture which teaches a distinct and sep- 
 arate resurrection for the righteous. If true, this 
 should not disturb anyone. One unmistakable state- 
 ment from God should convince and satisfy even the 
 most skeptical. Matthew alone tells us that many of 
 the dead saints arose at Jesus* death and resurrec- 
 tion and appeared to many in the city (Matt, xxvii: 
 52, 53), but does any Christian doubt it? But the 
 assertion is not true. Other Scripture teaches that 
 the righteous are raised up before the wicked — theirs 
 is an out-resurrection from the dead. Isa. xxv: 7-9 
 
ADVENT OF JESUS CHRIST. 139 
 
 and Hosea xiii: 14 point to such a resurrection. 
 Dan. xii: 2 clearly affirms it: "And many of them that 
 sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to 
 everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting 
 contempt." " Many of " does not mean all; the res- 
 urrection here is not total, it is selective, many from 
 among the whole number of the dead awake, the 
 prophet affirms. We think Bush and Tregelles are 
 right in translating thus : *' these to everlasting life ;" 
 " those to shame," etc., and Tragelles goes on to say, 
 " those " of the second part do not awake when 
 " these " of the first part awake. 
 
 In Jno. v: 29 Jesus speaks of a "resurrection of 
 life," and a " resurrection of judgment." But in ver. 
 24 He emphatically declares that believers " shall not 
 come into judgment." These two resurrections ap- 
 pear to be distinct both as to character and time. In 
 Lu. XX : 35 the Lord speaks of a resurrection which 
 shall be " from (ek) the dead," as if it were separate 
 from that of the wicked, the righteous being taken 
 out from among them. Paul in Phil, iii: 11 writes of 
 his intense longing to " attain unto the resurrection 
 from the dead." His language is very precise and 
 emphatic. Literally this he says: "If by any means 
 I may attain unto the out-resurrection from the dead." 
 Paul confidently expected a resurrection for the saved 
 as totally distinct in time from that of the unsaved ; it 
 is to be one " out from among " them. All this Scrip- 
 ture confirms the glorious revelation in chap, xx: 4, 5 
 of " the first resurrection," which is confined to the 
 saints of God, and in which the wicked do not share. 
 
!I40 THE REVELATION. 
 
 The resurrection of the holy dead takes place when 
 Christ comes, i Cor. xv: 20, 23; i Thess. iv: 14-17. 
 At His " Shout " they are awakened, and by His 
 Voice they are called forth from their graves. But 
 here in the Apocalypse the order of events seems to be 
 this: (i) destruction of Antichrist; (2) imprison- 
 ment of Satan; (3) resurrection of all the righteous 
 dead and change of believers still living at that time 
 and their enthronement. But other Scripture, even 
 the Revelation itself ^ gives a somewhat different order. 
 We learn from i Thess. iv: 13-17 that the first act of 
 the Lord at His coming will be to raise the sleeping 
 saints, change living believers, and then together both 
 shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord 
 in the air. They come with the Lord to the earth 
 as the term "to meet" imports (Lillie). Augustine 
 perceived this, " it is as He is coming, not abiding, 
 that we shall go to meet Him." As an ancient writer 
 expresses it, " We shall be caught away to meet Christ, 
 that all may come with the Lord to battle " (Am- 
 brosiaster). The rapture of the saints to meet the 
 advancing Saviour obviously is put by Paul before 
 the destruction of Antichrist and the binding of Satan. 
 In Rev. xi: 17, 18, the resurrection of the dead and 
 the distribution of rewards to them is placed before 
 the destroyers of the earth are themselves destroyed. 
 So, too, in the program chapter (xiv) the harvest of 
 the saints and their garnering precedes the awful judg- 
 ment of the Vintage, xiv: 14-21. Is there, therefore, 
 discrepancy between the various accounts of the events 
 at the time of the end? There seems to be at first 
 
ADVENT OF JESUS CHRIST. 141 
 
 sight, but it is only apparently so. In Rev. xix : 20-xx : 
 6 the Seer does not follow a strict chronological order. 
 He groups the events together as if they were sim- 
 ultaneous (as indeed they are) without noting their 
 succession. 
 
 Besides, prominence is here given to the doom of 
 the great foes, the Beast, the False Prophet, and the 
 Dragon. These have been filling the field of vision 
 from the twelfth chapter down to this point. These 
 horrible adversaries have been slaughtering the saints, 
 blaspheming God, filling earth with blood and tears, 
 with ruin and crimes, indescribable. It is fitting, it 
 almost seems necessary and right, that their judgment 
 and perdition should be described at once. The order 
 is one of rank, not of time. We see the like order in 
 Matt, xiii: 41-43, where the tares are first burned, 
 and then the righteous shine forth in the kingdom 
 of their Father. Yet, in point of fact, the righteous 
 are gathered before the tares are burned, cf. Rev. 
 xiv: 14-21. So, too, in chap, xix: 7, 8, the Marriage 
 of the Lamb appears to precede the judgment of the 
 Beast and the destruction of his hostile army. We 
 believe that the Scriptures present the order of events 
 at the Coming of Christ as follows: i. The appearing 
 of the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven; 2, the 
 resurrection of the sleeping saints and the change of 
 living believers; 3, the ascension of all the saved to 
 meet Him in the air; 4, the descent of the Lord with 
 His glorious retinue to earth; 5, Antichrist and his 
 False Prophet hurled into the Lake of Fire ; 6, the de- 
 struction of the hostile armies of the Beast; 7, impris- 
 
142 
 
 THE REVELATION. 
 
 onment of Satan; 8, judgment of the nations (Matt. 
 XXV : 31-46); 9, Millennial Kingdom and Glory. 
 
 " This is the first resurrection." The term " first " 
 is to be understood numerically, and not as to rank; 
 it marks the order of time. Is there to be a second? 
 Unquestionably. It is described in xx: 12, 13. It is 
 objected that it is not called the second resurrection. 
 Neither is there mention of the first death, although 
 the " second death " is named twice, vers. 6, 14. There 
 is no need. In the one case first is understood ; in the 
 other second is. Before this " first " there is no resur- 
 rection named or referred to in the book, if we read 
 it aright. For resurrection is the immediate result 
 of the coming and presence of Jesus Christ, and as He 
 comes in connection with this " first," and, hence, it is 
 called first, no other has taken place. Many excellent 
 and devout students of the Bible, however, believe that 
 a previous resurrection has occurred, that of the 
 Church, the Body of Christ, and they think it is set 
 forth in the persons of the four and twenty Elders 
 before the Throne^ chap. iv. We have dealt with that 
 passage already. Let it now be observed that if that 
 were so, then we can see neither meaning nor force 
 in this " first." It is a blunder. But no mistake is 
 found in the Apocalypse. This is absolutely the first, 
 no other in the record of the book has there been. 
 For it is now, in these two chapters, xix, xx: 6, that 
 Christ, " the resurrection and the life," actually ap- 
 pears in power and great glory. " Behold, he cometh 
 with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they 
 also which pierced him; and all kindreds of the e?irth 
 
ADVENT OF JESUS CHRIST. 1143 
 
 shall wail because of him. Even so. Amen." This 
 majestic sentence is the central theme of the Apoc- 
 alypse. Throughout the book the theme is repeated 
 again and again. But in xix : iiff., He visibly appears ; 
 and immediately the resurrection ensues. No resur- 
 rection precedes this of xx: 4-6. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Last Revolt and Final Judgment, xx: 7-15. 
 
 Two mysterious and extraordinary events are 
 recorded in this section. The first is, Satan's release 
 from prison^ and his last revolt and eternal doom, 
 XX : 7-10. A thousand years work no change in his 
 character or methods. As soon as he is set free from 
 the abyss he begins his old habit of deceit and rebel- 
 lion against the Most High, and hostility toward His 
 people. When he was ejected from his lofty place and 
 cast to earth (xii: 12) he had but a "short time." 
 Now he has but a " little time," but he uses it to the 
 uttermost in furtherance of his malignant aims. His 
 success is marvellous. A countless throng, described 
 as gathered from the " four corners of the earth," 
 Gog and Magog, march against " the camp of the 
 saints, and the beloved city." But the rebellion ends 
 most disastrously to the rebels. Before they strike 
 a blow the fire from heaven devours them. Their 
 crafty and hateful deceiver is hurled into the Lake of 
 Fire. There he encounters once more his old accom- 
 plices and dupes, the Beast and the False Prophet. 
 They are still alive after a 1,000 years have run their 
 course. Such is the eternal doom of Satan; we never 
 hear of him more. Gog and Magog here must not 
 be confounded with Gog of Ezekiel xxxviii, xxxix. 
 
 144 
 
LAST REVOLT AND FINAL JUDGMENT. 145 
 
 The two are quite distinct, for Gog of Ezekiel appears 
 before the thousand years, whereas the Gog of John 
 is after that period. Ezekiel's Gog comes from " the 
 north," whereas this people has no definite geograph- 
 ical associations. The attack by the Gog of Ezekiel 
 is connected with Antichrist, but here that great enemy 
 has no part; he had been cast into the Lake of Fire 
 long before this. 
 
 The second event is the Final Judgment, xx: I1-15. 
 This transcendently majestic scene occurs after the 
 thousand years, and after the final rebellion of Gog, 
 and after the Devil has been cast into the Lake of Fire, 
 " which is the second death " — how long after we are 
 not told, and no mortal knows. Before the judgment- 
 throne appear the dead, " the great and the small." 
 By " the dead " we understand all our race, with the 
 exception of those who are the blessed sharers in 
 " the first resurrection ;" all who died before the 
 thousand years, and all who die after that period, and 
 to the end of time, who are unsaved. 
 
 "And books were opened," i. e., the records of each 
 human life in the vast assembly were produced. That 
 such records are kept and will be opened in due time 
 seems evident from Psa. Ivi: 8; Mai. iii: 16; Dan. 
 xii: I. There will be present also the book of life 
 (iii: 5; xiii: 8; xxi: 27); for some who are saved 
 may die during the thousand years, and their resur- 
 rection and their judgment will at this time take place. 
 The first resurrection saints will have had theirs long 
 before. 
 
 The rule of judgment will be "works," cf. ii: 23; 
 10 
 
146 THE REVELATION. 
 
 Matt, xvi: 2^], Even in the case of Christians who 
 have their part in the first resurrection, their mani- 
 festation before the judgment-seat of Christ will bring 
 to light their deeds '' done in the body, according to 
 what they have done, whether good or bad " (2 
 Cor. v: 10). 
 
 The issue of the great trial will be, that whosoever 
 is not found written in the book of life will be cast 
 into the Lake of Fire. 
 
 Death and Hades will, likewise, be cast into that 
 fearful Lake. Death, it seems, is not abolished until 
 the Great White Throne is set up and human destiny 
 is forever settled. With this teaching of the Apoc- 
 alypse the apostle Paul agrees, for he assures us that 
 " the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death " 
 ( I Cor. XV : 26) . Death, therefore, is not abolished even 
 by the return of Christ, nor at the resurrection of those 
 that are Christ's. The Advent is not a single point of 
 time, but a period, beginning with His appearing and 
 ending with the delivering up of the kingdom to God 
 (i Cor. XV : 24-28). But during the Millennial reign 
 death will be the exception, not the rule as it now is. 
 The prophets declare that at that time human life will 
 be greatly prolonged, Isa. Ixv : 20-22 : '* There shall 
 be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man 
 that hath not filled his days : for the child shall die an 
 hundred years old, and the sinner being an hundred 
 years old shall be accursed." " Premature death, and 
 even death in a moderate old age, shall be unknown ; 
 he who dies a hundred years old shall be considered 
 either as dying in childhood, or as cut off by a special 
 
LAST REVOLT AND FINAL JUDGMENT. 147^ 
 
 malediction" (Alexander). "For as the days of a 
 tree shall be the days of my people." Some trees live 
 for centuries; so shall be the life of the righteous in 
 that day, saith Jehovah. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 Vision of the City of God, xxi-xxii: 7, 
 
 Only brief notes on this great section of the book 
 can we venture to offer. The revelation here is so 
 transcendently sublime, so totally beyond all earthly 
 knowledge and experience, that adequate interpreta- 
 tion is impossible; we must wait till we shall see its 
 accomplishment to form just conceptions of its sur- 
 passing grandeur and beauty. 
 
 I. It is announced there shall be a new heaven and 
 a new earth; and there shall be no more sea. The 
 fulfilment of this wonderful prediction will involve a 
 fundamental change in the physical constitution of 
 the world that now is and also of the visible heavens. 
 Life would be impossible if the sea was " no more." 
 Other Scripture gives assurance of the like trans- 
 formation of the physical universe with which we are 
 connected. *' For, behold, I create new heavens and 
 a new earth : and the former things shall not be 
 remembered, nor come into mind," Isa. Ixv: 17 (cf. 
 2 Pet. iii: 5-13). He who made the world and all it 
 contains can surely re-create it, clearing it of every 
 vestige of sin and misery, of its limitations and its 
 imperfections, and fitting it for the dwelling of per- 
 fect beings and of God's supreme glory. John is bid- 
 den. Write, for these things are true and faithful ; they 
 shall not fail to come to pass. 
 
 148 
 
VISION OF THE CTIY OF GOD. 149 
 
 2. Descent of the new Jerusalem into the glorified 
 earth, i: 2-4. The wicked and apostate system that 
 once flourished had its capital city, Babylon. The pure 
 and holy world is to have its bright and happy Capital, 
 the new Jerusalem which comes out of heaven from 
 God. In it will be the Shekinah, the Divine Presence, 
 of which the glory in the Tabernacle and in the Tem- 
 ple was but a faint shadow, a dim reflection. He 
 will dwell with the blessed inhabitants of the fair City 
 — the ultimate fulfilment of all that lies hidden in 
 the name, Immanuel. It will be in reality the sorrow- 
 less state, painless bliss, deathless life. Think how 
 great a chasm would be made in our English tongue 
 if all the words telling of grief and suffering, of 
 tears and sobs, of pain and death, were stricken from 
 it! No such terms will find a place in the language 
 of the new Jerusalem, for the miseries and woes which 
 give them birth will never be known there. " God 
 shall wipe away every tear from their eyes." He 
 will expunge the very fountain of tears. There will 
 be nothing in the surroundings to call forth tears, 
 there will be no capacity in the saved to weep. The 
 eighth verse describes those who shall have no share 
 in the bliss. The " fearful " means the cowardly, 
 those who like craven soldiers turn their backs and 
 flee when they encounter the enemy-apostates, in short. 
 To these are joined the faithless, the abominable, 
 murderers, fornicators, sorcerers and liars. Only " he 
 that overcometh " shall possess this infinite heritage. 
 
 3. Description of the Heavenly City, xxl : 9-xxii : 5. 
 This section gives us a nearer view of the Holy 
 
I50 THE REVELATION. 
 
 City. It is very noteworthy that the view was given 
 John through the ministry of one of the angels of the 
 Seven Vials. It was one of these same angels who 
 showed him the " judgment of the great harlot," 
 xvii: I. It was fitting that he who had furnished the 
 vision of the ungodly and apostate city, shorild present 
 the Seer with the vision of the Heavenly City. 
 
 (a.) Its Structure and Dimensions, xxi: 9-17. 
 John's point of view is that of " a mountain, great and 
 high," ver. 10. Ezekiel (xlii: 2ff) was also set upon 
 a mountain when he was shown " the frame of a city " 
 — a vision which corresponds in some degree with this 
 of John, and which probably refers to the same thing. 
 The descent here mentioned is identical with that of 
 ver. 2. He returns to the subject now to give a 
 fuller description. The first thing that arrests his 
 attention is the City's flashing light, " Her light was 
 like unto a stone most precious, as it were a jasper 
 stone, clear as crystal." The term ''light " is peculiar ; 
 not light in the abstract, but a body of light, as a 
 star, a blazing luminary. The whole great City glowed 
 with a light as a mighty sun. Crystaline and smoke- 
 less flame was the brilliant splendor with which it 
 shone. Gems of the rarest and purest quality, gold 
 that is transparent like the finest glass, are the only 
 symbols which even an inspired prophet can use to 
 set forth its majestic glory. 
 
 The Wall surrounding it had twelve foundations 
 containing the names of the twelve Apostles of the 
 Lamb, ver. 14, and these were garnished with " all 
 manner of precious stones." Twelve gems are men- 
 
VISION OF THE CTIY OF GOD. 151 
 
 tioned as adorning the foundations. Swcte writes 
 that the stones " in the main are of four colors, viz. : 
 blue (sapphire, Jacinth, amethyst), green (Jasper, 
 chalcedony, emerald, beryl, topaz, chrysoprasus), red 
 (sardonyx, sardius), yellow (chrysolite)." All this 
 tends to deepen and clarify the conception of the ex- 
 quisite beauty, the dazzling glory, the preciousness 
 and wealth of the Heavenly City. 
 
 The City lies four-square, is a perfect cube. Its 
 encompassing wall is pierced by twelve Tower-gates, 
 whereat twelve angels are stationed as royal guards or 
 keepers. The gates have the names of the twelve 
 tribes of Israel. Three gates are found in each side 
 of the squares, each is a pure pearl. The combination 
 of the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve Apostles 
 of the Lamb appears to signify the unity and the 
 totality of the redeemed, both of Israel and of the 
 Christian Body. All distinctions of race, creed and 
 age will be unknown in the Holy City. 
 
 The wall's height is given as 144 cubits, probably 
 equalling 216 feet. Its height is exactly the square of 
 twelve. The length, breadth and height are equal 
 (ver. 16), and they measure 12,000 stadia. A stadia 
 is given as 606% feet, and the whole would be the 
 stupendous sum of nearly 1,400 English miles. 
 
 (b.) Its Sanctuary, Light, Riches and Inhabitants, 
 xxi : 22-27. It ^^s ^^ Temple as had the earthly 
 Jerusalem; God and the Lamb are its Temple. Wor- 
 ship will not need any ceremony or rite, ritual or sacred 
 place, in order to be earnest and wholehearted. Noth- 
 
152 THE REVELATION. 
 
 ing will thrust itself between the soul and Him who 
 is loved; fellowship will be direct and unbroken. 
 
 The City's light will be the Lord's radiant presence. 
 It will need neither sun nor moon. The Lord's infinite 
 glory will be its light. It will be forever safe, its 
 gates will never be shut, its riches secure, its holiness 
 unstained and untarnished by any breath of impurity. 
 
 (c.) Its perfect bliss, xxii: 1-5. Paradise is finally 
 and forever restored. 
 
 The Epilogue, xxii: 6-21. 
 
 The Prologue is chap, i: 1-8, eight verses; the 
 Epilogue contains sixteen verses, twice as many. The 
 Coming of the Lord is the pre-eminent theme of both. 
 In the Prologue we have these majestic words: " Be- 
 hold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see 
 him, and they which pierced him; and all kindreds of 
 the earth shall wail because of him. Even so. Amen." 
 But this, sublime as it is, is surpassed by the threefold 
 testimony of the Advent in the Epilogue. " Behold, 
 I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings 
 of the prophecy of this book," xxii: 7. "And behold, 
 I come quickly; and my reward is with me to give to 
 every man as his work shall be," xxii : 12. " He that 
 testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly; 
 Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus," xxii : 20. 
 
 There are seven " blessings " pronounced on those 
 who do or suflPer certain things. They are : 
 
 I. 1: 3; blessing on him who reads and they who 
 hear the words of the prophecy of this book., 
 
VISION OF THE CTIY OF GOD. 153 
 
 2. xiv: 13; blessing on the dead who die in the Lord 
 from henceforth, for the Lord is speedily coming, they 
 shall be raised up in the power of an endless life. 
 
 3. xvi: 15; blessing on him who watches and keeps 
 his garments, for the Lord is coming as a thief, swiftly, 
 suddenly. 
 
 4. xix: 9; blessing on him who is called to the 
 marriage supper of the Lamb. 
 
 5. XX : 6; blessing on him who has part in the first 
 resurrection. 
 
 6. xxii: 7; blessing on him who keeps the sayings 
 of this book, the Lord is at hand. 
 
 7. xxii: 14; blessing on him who has washed his 
 robes that he may enter into the Holy City, R. V. 
 
 A special woe is denounced against him who shall 
 tamper with the book's contents, xxii: 18, 19. Words 
 such as these are not attached to any other book of 
 Scripture (cf. Deut. iv: 2; xii: 32), and they guard 
 with jealous urgency its integrity, and solemnly warn 
 against any mutilation of it; for the Apocalypse is 
 God's, divine, perfect, closed, certified and signed not 
 only by the apostolic name, " I John," but the far 
 greater name, " I Jesus." It is attested as no other is 
 in all the Bible. How reverently and honestly and 
 earnestly it should be read and studied. 
 
 *'!. 
 
 Printed in the United States of America. 
 
Date Due 
 
 jj^^WHBBBji 
 
 
 
 
 ^^*^ 
 
 
 
 
 r\a^ 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 on - 
 
 
 
 
 .....00^ 
 
 100^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 t 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
Ill;