r . , C? 6»^ ^ -3 THE APOCALYPSE I'llINI'ICIl HY srorriswooDK ami t-o., nk\v-siri;et SQCARtt LON UUS THE PEACTICAL TEACHING OP THE APOCALYPSE BY THE EEV. G. Y. GAELAND BECTOIi OF BINSTEAD, ISLK OF WIGHT LONDON LONGMANS, GEE EN, AND CO. AND NEW YORK : 15 EAST 16'" STREET 1891 All rinhti ri-.ierved CONTENTS INTRODUCTOKY CHAPTER The Septennary Arrangement 1 The Lamb or Arnion . . . 4 The Beast or Therion The Little Horn PAOK 19 22 The Beatitude The Inscription . CHAPTER I.—Bev.i. THE TITLE . 25 26 The Salutation The Divine Ratification 24 27 31 CHAPTER U.—Bev. i. 9 THE GREAT THEOPHANY Patmos ..... 38 The Seven Cities . . . 39 The Seven Golden Candle- sticks 41 Zechariah iv. . The Glorified Son of Man The Divine Person . 37 42 45 48 CHAPTER UI.—Bev. i. 17 THE APOCALYPTIC COMMISSION The Ages of the Ages . . 56 The Apocalyptic Mystery . 58 The Seven Stars . . . 60 The Church's Angels . . 63 The Seven Golden Candle- sticks The Seven Churches . . . 54 CHAPTER lY.—Bev. ii. lii. THE SEVEN EPISTLES . 73 VI CONTENTS CH/ irTJilK V. — ±iev. 11. PAGB THE EPHESIAN EPISTLE 75 PAGE Zechariah i. 8 75 The Trial of False Apostles . 81 The Ephesian Worship of The Nicolaitans 82 Diana 76 The Loss of First Love . . 85 The Right Hand . 79 Paradise and the Tree of Life . 86 CHAPTER \l.—Bev. ii. 8 THE SMYBNEAN EPISTLE The Smyrnean Worship . . 90 Judaic Opposition . . . 91 The Synagogue of Satan . 95 ytato Persecution . . . 96 The Crown of Life . The Second Death and Lake of Fire . the 90 98 99 CHAPTER VII.— i?c«. ii. 12 THE PEBGAMENAN EPISTLE The Niccphorium of Pergamos 102 Rationalistic Ojjposition . 104 The Nature of Heresy . . 107 The Doctrine of Balaam The Hidden Manna . The White Stone . 102 109 112 113 CHAPTER yill.—llev. ii. 18 THE THYATIKAN EPISTLE Ecclesiastical Corruption . 116 Jezebel 119 Roniisli Errors . . . 122 The Depths of Satan . . . 124 The Rod of Iron The Morning Star The Hearing Ear 116 127 129 132 CHAPTER \^.—Rev. iii. 1 THE SABDIAN EPISTLE , The Origin of Sun-worship . 134 Diaconal Ministration . . 136 The Doctrine of the Sacra- mental 140 134 Safeguards against Nominal- ism 142 The White Garments . . 145 Tlie Apostolic Names . . 146 Tlie Book of Life . . . 148 CHAPTER ^.~Bcv. iii. 7 THE PHILADELPHIAN EPISTLE The Rise of the Papacy . . 153 'l"he Second Woe . . . 155 The Key of Duvid . . .157 The Opened Door . . . The Conversion of Opponents The Pillar and the Names . . 152 158 161 165 CONTENTS Vll CHAPTER XI.— Rev. iii. 14 THE LAODICEAN EPISTLE The Half-Hour's Silence . The Eise of Antichrist . . The Danger of Lukewarm - nes3 PAGE 172 173 176 The Seat on the Throne The Third Woe The Seven Epistles . PAGH 171 ISl 183 185 CHAPTEE XIL—Bcv. iv, THE THEONE IN THE HEAVEN The Divine Personality . . 194 The Rainbow . . . . 201 The Sea of Glass . . . 203 The Twenty-four Elders . . 205 Church and State Governance. 207 188 211 National Apostasy The Heavenly Administra- tion 213 The Seven Lamps . . . 214 The Four Immortalities . . 215 CHAPTER XUl.~Bev. v. THE BOOK SEALED WITH SEVEN SEALS The Sealed Book of Daniel The Angelic Proclamation The Lion of Judah 227 229 The Root of David . . 235 233 The Lamb . . . 237 234 The Arnion . 239 CPIAPTER XlY.Sev. vi. THE OPENING OF THE SEALS Zechariah's Two ]\Iountains . The Church's Work in Hades 245 252 The Seven Seals 244 25G CHAPTER X\.--Bev. vii. THE SEALING OF THE ELECT The Four Restraining Angels . The Angel from the East 200 202 The Tribes of Israel . The White-robed Multitude 259 204 2(58 CHAPTER XYl.—Ecv. viii. ix. THE SEVEN TRUMPETS . The Angel with the Censer . 272 j The Three Woes CHAPTER XVIL— i?fv. x. THE SEVEN THUNDERS .... 284 The Angel with the Rainbow . 284 I The Three and a Half Times . 287 viii CONTENTS CHArTER XYIU.—Rev. xi. pa«b THE ADMEASUBEMENT OF THE TEMPLE . . 289 Tho Two Witnesses 290 CHAPTER XIX.— Eev. xii. THE APOCAT-YPTIC CONFLICT . . .294 The Sun-clothed Woman . 295 i War in Heaven . . . 300 The Great lied Dragon . . 297 | The Persecution of the Woman 302 CHAPTER XX.— Eev. xiii. THE TWO BEASTS . . . .306 The Image of the Beast . . 310 I The Number of the Elect . 315 The Number of the Beast . . 314 | CHAPTER XXI.— Bev. xiv. THE LAMB ON THE MOUNT ZION . . . Ull The Three Angels . . . 320 1 The Blessed Dead . . .327 CHAPTER XXII.— Eev. xiv. 14 THE HARVEST AND THE VINTAGE , . . 329 CHAPTER XXllI.-Eev. xv. xvi. THE SEVEN VIALS 335 The Ton Plagnes of Egypt . 335 1 The Outpouring of the Vials . 340 Tlie Hong of the Lamb . . 337 | CHAPTER XXIY.—Eev. xvii. THE ORE AT HARLOT . . . .351 The Origin of Jerusalem . 351 | Zechariah v. 6 . . . . 352 CHAPTER XXY.—Eev. xvii. 7 THE BEAST FROM THE ABYSS . . .355 35G The Ten Horns CONTENTS IX CHAPTER XXYI.—Bev. xviii. p^^^ THE FALL OF BABYLON . . . 360 CHAPTER XXVII. THE LOCALITY OF ANTICHRISTIAN BABYLON . . 3C.6 CHAPTER XXVIII.— i?ev. xix. THE MARBIAGE OF THE LAMB . . . 372 CHAPTER XXIX.— Bev. xix. 11 THE WOED OF GOD . . . .382 CHAPTER XXX.— Rev. xx. THE MILLENNIUM .... 388 PAGE The Binding of Satan . . 388 The Millennial Earth . . 390 The Eapture of the Elect . . 394 The Close of the Millennium. 398 The Peoples of Gog . . . 399 Everlasting Torment . . 402 CHAPTER XXXI.— Bev. sx. 11 THE GREAT WHITE THRONE . . .404 CHAPTER XXXII.— i^Pt;-. xxi. THE NEW HEAVEN AND THE NEW EARTH . .410 The Heaven and the Earth . 412 I The New Earth . . . . 420 The New Heaven . . . 416 | No more Sea .... 424 CHAPTER XXXllI.—Bev. xxi. 2 THE HOLY CITY .... 426 The New Jerusalem . . . 435 | The Dwellers in the City . 440 CHAPTER XXXIV.— i?eD. xxi. 3 THE TABERNACLE OF GOD . . . 443 The Happiness of the Saved . 445 | The Fate of the Lost . . 448 CONTENTS CHArTER XXXV.- iiVr. xxi. 9 PAfJE THE STRUCTURE OF THE HOLY JERUSALEM . .451 PAGE Tlio Wnll of the City . . 4r>3 I The Tree of Life . . .464 The lliver of the Water of Life 462 I The Kemoval of the Curse . 467 CHAPTER XXXVI.— i?ct'. xxii. 6 THE DIVINE RATIFICATION . . . 469 The Two Last ■\VarninRs 473 APPENDIX I. THE ETERNITY OF MATTER 487 II. THE SYMBOLICAL MEANINGS OF THE APOCALYPTIC NUM- BERS AND I'ERIODS OF TIME 4!i7 THE PEACTICAL TEACHING OF THE APOCALYPSE INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER The sacred Apocalyptic writings contain deep mysteries hidden under symbolic characters. Fulfilled prophecy affords the prin- cipal assistance in their interpretation. The emblems used are in some cases definitely explained, but in others their respec- tive qualities should be investigated, as well as the root meaning of the original words, the composition of all compound numbers, and the general history of the events in which they hold a prominent position. The apocalyptic visions of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Zechariah are among the most prominent in the Old Testament. But of all such writings the Revelation given to John is the most wonderful and mysterious. It commences with a prologue or title to which is united a Beatitude ex]Dressive of the happiness which will be granted to its sincere student. These are followed by the Inscription and Salutation addressed by John to the seven Churches, to which our Lord gives a Divine Ratification. John then describes the locality where and the spiritual condition under which he lay when these mysterious visions were revealed to him. They were preceded by a Theophany, in which the Glorified Son of Man appeared in the midst of Seven Golden Candlesticks, directing him to write what was about to be revealed to him to the seven Churches in Asia. The visions are capable of division into five groups of seven similar occurrences, accompanied by others intimately connected with the subject of these groups, an arrange- ment which symbolises the regular order of their succession and the 2 THE SEPTENNARY AREANGEMENT catholicity of their operation. The five groups are the circula- tion of seven Epistles of instruction, the opening of the seven Seals of the prophetic roll, the sounding of seven Trumpets of warning, the utterances of seven attesting Thunders, and the outpouring of seven judicial plagues from seven Vials full of the wrath of God. Each of the groups is preceded by a vision of the Glorified Son of Man under some mysterious form adapted to the subject-matter which it reveals, and is also followed by one or more other visions of events intimately connected with such revelation, the operation of which events is evidently continuous with the old period of the Church's earthly existence. From this sevenfold arrangement, together with the correlative intro- ductory and terminal visions, there is reason to believe that these groups represent a series of parallel events, and that each oTOup of Epistles, Seals, Thunders, Trumpets, and Vials conveys a symbolical history of the periods to which they relate, and that the respective groups succeed one another in regular order. The first group, that of the Epistles, is descriptive of the Priestly character of the Church. The Glorified Son of Man is seen in the midst of the Seven Golden Candlesticks, giving His directions for the sending forth of the seven Epistles of instruc- tion to the Angels or Evangelists of the Church, to enable her by her bright example to become an efiicient light of the world. The second group, that of the Seals, is descriptive of the special Work of the Church, revealed in the terminal visions of the election of the 144,000 sealed labourers, and the ingathering of the gi'eat multitude of the saved. It is preceded by the vision of the Throne in the heaven, symbolising the administration of the laws of the Eternal and the delegation of the dominion of the world to the Apocalyptic Lamb or the Mystic Body of the Church in immediate union with Christ, her Divine Head. The third group, that of the warning Trumpets, must be united to the fourth, or that of the I'hunders, giving attestation to the truth of the warnings and to the assurance of Divine help. The two groups are descriptive of the Church's conflict and the dangers with which she is confronted from the Satani- cally inspired world power. They are preceded by the vision of the Angel of Jehovah, as the priestly Intercessor before the golden Altar, whose prayers are answered by the fire from the THE CONCLUDING VISIONS 3 altar cast upon the earth, as the visible witness of the Divine intervention in the destruction of the Church's enemies by the mighty earthquake or revolution in which the world state will be overthrown by its misdirected peoples. The dangerous character of the Church's conflict is revealed under the visions of the persecuted sun-clothed Woman and of her two prophetic Witnesses, and the character of her foes, under those of the two Beasts, the emblems of perverted, imperial, and ecclesiastical government emanating from the people under the inspiration of the Satanic Spirit. The fifth group, that of the Vials, is descriptive of the Church's judicial action. It is preceded by the vision of the Son of Man, gathering in the results of the evangelistic labours, and vicarious sufferings of the mystic Lamb presiding over the Church's action from the Mount Sion or emjDire based on Divine law, and it closes with other visions announcing the approaching marriage of the Lamb and His restored Bride, symbolising the establish- ment of the Theocratic rule over the kingdoms of the world, whereby the victory over the worldly state is permanently secured by the destruction of the Antichristian seat of empire, the great city of Babylon, and the consignment of the Satanic energising Spirit to the confines of the abyss during the period of the Millennium. Another group of visions reveals the happy condition of the earth under the reign of the Elect raised at the first resurrection, the permitted escape of Satan from his confinement in the abyss, and his final attempt to excite the uncivilised peoples of Magog against the Divine rule of the Church, which terminates in their defeat and the casting of Satan into the lake of fire. These are succeeded by visions of the general resurrection, and the final judgment of mankind, prior to the destruction of the existing earth. The Apocalypse concludes with the visions of the new heavens and the new earth and of the descent of the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, out of heaven to become the Throne of God, from whence the laws of the Eternal are to be administered by the Elect for the governance of the blessed inhabitants of the regenerated earth. The Apocalypse is the revelation of the wondrous events which, since the time of the Incarnation, are being gradually developed, B 2 4 THE APOCALYPTIC LAMB whereby the kingdoms of the world, under the esoteric action of the Church, energised by the Spirit of her Divine head, become the kingdoms of God and of His Christ. This history of the in- teraction of the Church and the World in the devolution of these mvsterious events is recorded under highly symbolic expressions, of which the two most important are the Lamb and the Beast, on the approximate understanding of which its interpi'etation mainly depends. The generally accepted idea is that the Lamb represents Christ as the personal Lamb of God announced by John in the beginning of his gospel, an interpretation, however, very difficult of application in many passages in which the symbol is mentioned, and the question therefore arises whether it should not be regarded as the emblem of Christ in His con- federated character, acting in union with His mystic Body the Church, of which He is the Head, and her members, those of that same Body, defined by Paul as the members of His Body, of His flesh and of His bones. If the latter view is a correct one, the Apocalyptic Lamb or Arnion will represent the Church, as the organisation in union with and by which the Personal Christ energises in the mighty warfare which is raging between Himself and Satan, wliei'eby it becomes the contrast of the Beast or Therion, the State or World Power in and through which Satan opposes himself to the operations of the Son of God. This interjsretation tends to explain some passages, to which the action of the Personal Christ as the Lamb is apparently inapplicable, and affords a clue to a much clearer understanding of the whole prophecy. The Apocalypse is a prophetic revelation of a warfare waged between Michael and his angels and the Dragon and his angels. Michael, the great prince, who standeth over the people of God, is the emblem of perfected Humanity in the person of the Glorified Son of Man ; and the Dragon, that of debased Humanity, in the person of the degraded Serpent. These emblems sym- bolise the twofold nature of ]\Ian, the Spiritual and the Animal. The Archangel Michael, the Angel of Jehovah, who supports man in obeying the Will of the Eternal, is opposed by Satan, tlie adversary of God, inciting man to rebellion against God. The visibh' form under which this opposition was first excited , THE APOCALYPTIC BEAST 5 is tliat of the Serpent, who in Eden persuaded man to disobey the commands of God, communicated to man by the Logos or the Son of God under the visible form of Angel or Man in the Theophanies before the Incarnation, and subsequently to that event under the visible form of the j\Iau Jesus, who as the Divine Joshua, the high Priest, the Paraclete or Advocate with God, pleads for Man before God in reply to the accusations of the Devil, or the Accuser. — Zecli. iii. 1. The warfare is pursued through the confederated Angelic armies of these two leaders in the Heaven and their correlative Organisations on Earth. The Satanic Organisation consists of the Beast, the Harlot, and the False Prophet ; and the Divine Organisation consists of the Lamb, the Woman, and the two Witnesses, symbolising respectively the Political, the Eccle- siastical, and the Prophetical organisations, through which the two leaders conduct their warfare. There is little diversity of opinion as to the meaning of the two latter emblems. The persecuted Woman is generally admitted to symbolise the Church, and the Harlot her apostate condition ; while the two Witnesses are defined as her Prophetical institutions and the false Pi'ophet her Satanically inspired Opponents, or Antichris- tian Legislative Senate, or school of Materialistic Philosophy. The subject in dispute is the character of the Arnion or Lamb. The generally acce23ted interpretation of the Beast or Therion greatly helps to determine this. The Apocalypse itself draws a sharp distinction between the Dragon and the Beast. The Dragon is described as giving the Beast his power, his throne, and great authority. — xiii. 2. They are therefore dis- tinct. The Giver is not the same as the Recipient. The Beast is something derived from the Dragon. Their origin is also diverse. The great red Dragon ascends from the abyss and appears in the heaven. The Beast rises from the sea, or the peoples of the Earth. — xiii. 1 . The meaning of the Symbol is learnt from the vision of the four Beasts seen by Daniel. They are shewn to represent the political world powers which are successively brought into existence by winds or secular in- iluences acting on the sea or peoples of the earth. They are organisations for the World's Governance, which are evolved out of the minds of men for the promotion of social order. 6 THE AMNOS AND THE ARNION Their bestial form is typical of confederated Brute force, for all earthly rule is based upon Force, and Coercion is the principle of worldly dominion, as contrasted with Influence derived from the inspiration of the Divine Spirit. God rules by love, but man governs by force. The Beast or Therion is the Earthly Organisation of Political Government, by which Satan acts. With the Beast is contrasted the Lamb, of which it is the opponent, and which therefore represents the Divine Organisation for the political governance of the earth, through which the Christ rules man- kind. When John pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, he called him Amnos, not Arnion. The ti*ue meaning and derivation of the words are dis- tinct. The Arnion is the little Lamb ; a term expressive of in- feriority, an offshoot of the Amnos, the true Lamb. The word Amnos appears to be derived from the Hebrew, Amen, the Truth, illustrative of our Lord's word, ' I am the Truth.' It is expres- sive of the abstract principle of all Truth, which is alone the Rule of Liberty or perfected Government. ' The Truth shall make you free.' The word Arnion appears to be derived from the Greek aireen, or the male with the Hebrew terminal expressive of condition or system, whereby it becomes the emblem of the organisation which ' the man child ' (xii. 5), the Seed of the woman, energises and employs to bruise the Serpent's head. That Organisation is the Church, the body of Christ, of which He, the Head, is in the Heavens, her deceased members are in Hades, and her quick or living members are now resi- dent on earth. It is the totality of the Elect Members of the Church of God, in union with their Divine and Ascended Plead, from the period of their first election in the days of Abel, through the families of the Patriarchs, Seth and Abraham, the Nation of the Jews and the Church of Christ, They are the Elect in Christ, the Messiah, or the Collective Seed of the Woman, under whose feet Satan and his seed were to be bruised. By this interpretation the Title oftheLamb, or Arnion, slain from the foundation, or rather the fall of the world, is capable of intelligent apprehension. — xiii. 8. The expression is hardly THE LAMB 7 applicable to the death of the Personal Lamb, and the difliculty is ordinarily, though unsatisfactorily, met by referring it to the saving efficacy of His sacrifice for all men, even from the begin- ning. The personal Christ died at one moment on Calvary, and however true it may be that the merit of that sacrifice is capable of application to all time, past, present or future, yet as the act of a person it can hardly with correctness be said to be performed during all time from the foundation of the world. This difficulty vanishes if the Lamb is interpreted of the Great Mystery, the Body of Christ, the Church of God, of which Paul speaks. In its application to the Arnion or Apocalyptic Lamb, the words are true to the letter. That Lamb was slain even from the fall of man, and its slaughter has been continuous to the present moment. This is realised in the martyrdom of Abel, witnessing to faith in the blood of the Atonement, through the sin-offering of the Lamb. It was fulfilled in the Crucifixion of the Man Jesus, the Amnos or Personal Lamb of God. It is again realised in every act of sacrifice submitted to by every elect member of the Church of God, as a witness of his faith in the Crucified. The Apocalyptic Lamb, slain from the foundation of the World, is still shedding its blood, through its union with its Personal Head, by the merit of whose bloodshedding alone the atonement has been made, yet each individual Member of the mystic Body takes part in the sufferings of the Head, filling up that which is behind of the sufferings of Christ, as a witness to the fulfilled expiation on the Cross, but contrasted with the propitiation which could only be effected by the Personal Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Rev. V. — The Lamb is revealed as ' having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the Seven Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth.' The emblem is expressive of Catholicity of Aggressive Power, and of Catholicity of Spiritual Omniscience and Supervision. Primarily possessed by her Divine Head, the Church by Him has been endowed with like powers and func- tions. The Catholicity of her aggressive action is realised in the command given to the Apostles to baptise and teach all nations, and that of her spiritual supervision in the ratification of her decrees. ' Eeceive ye the Holy Ghost, whose soever sins ye 8 THE LAMB remit they are remitted, and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained.' ' Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.' The subjugation of the world and the overthrow of the Beast, or worldly State, by Christ is being effected through the agency of His Church, in whom He resides, and whose actions He, as Her Divine Head, directs and energises. ' Lo I am with you alway, even unto the consummation of the age.' The world powers of Assyria, Egypt, Babylon, Greece, and Imperial Eome have passed away. By the loss of the temporal power, Rome Papal can no longer lay claim to universal empire, which has passed into the hands of the ten horns arising out of the seventh head of the Beast, or the Continental nations, possessing independent legislative assem- blies, amongst whom the Roman world has been divided. Yet amidst all these changes the Church of God has survived, and by her Evangelistic aggression and Spiritual oversight has been their originating cause through the preaching of the Word of God, the purity of whose doctrines has undermined the false principles on which these successive governments had been established. The Arnion, or Lamb, is represented as receiving from the hands of Him that was sitting on the throne the Book with the seven seals. The occupant of the Heavenly Throne is the Divine Personality, under the emblemsof the jaspis (incorrectly rendered jasper) and the sardine stone, apparently the diamond and the ruby, symbolising the Divinity and Humanity of the Glorified Son of Man, through whom alone, as the effulgence of His glory and the express image of His substance, God is revealed to man. If the Lamb, or Arnion, be Christ or the Personal Lamb, a difficulty presents itself in the vision of Christ receiving the book from Himself. This difficulty, how- ever, vanishes by the interpretation that the Arnion is the Mystic Body or confederated organisation of Christ and the members of His Church. The Book with the seven seals is generally admitted to be the continuity and interpretation of the prophetic history of the Interaction of the Church and the World, which had been re- vealed to Daniel, and which was to be sealed or to remain THE SEALS 9 unexplained until the time of the end. The period for its unsealing or interpretation was reached when Jesus Christ sent and signified to John the things which must shortly come to pass. As each seal was opened a portion of the roll was un- folded, and revealed the successive events which marked the character of the contest which was being waged by Satan against Christ. The contest appears from history to have been carried on by means of earthly organisations respectively energised by spiritual and demoniacal influences. They are respectively the Church and the Political World Power or State, to which in the Apocalypse the two names of the Arnion and the Therion have been given. The Arnion or Lamb is the emblem of the Kingly or Governing Functions of the Church as the Light- bearer of the Word for the direction of the State, of which the commands issuing from the Urim and the Thummim through the instrumentality of the High Priest for the guidance of the Jewish Ruler in the administration of their details are types. In Theistic nations the State is more or less influenced or governed by principles emanating from Christ, as the Head, and imparted to the Ruling Authority through the teaching of the Church. This arrangement attains its highest earthly manifestation in the establishment according to Divine command of a national Sanctuary as the dwelling-place of Jehovah. — Ex. XXV. 8. As, therefore, the ascended Christ governs a nation through the visible organisation of a National Church, so the Personal Lamb energises the world through the Arnion or Catholic Church, of which He is the invisible Head. This is witnessed in the devolution of the world's progressive history, of which the unsealing of the book with the seven seals is the symbol, and its action is determined by the counsels of Christ acting through the instrumentality of the Church. The opening of the first seal reveals the proclamation of the Gospel by the rider on the white horse, or the missionary action of the Church, productive of conviction of sin, the noisome sore whereby the heathenism of the world has lost its attractive power and the character of national government has been leavened by Christian principles. The opening of the second seal reveals the opposition raised against the new doctrines, whereby the sword of the rider on the red horse, or the per- 10 THE LAMB sedition of tlie preachers of the Word, becomes another mis- sionary agency of the Church to remove the deadness of effete Theistic systems in promoting a wider education in spiritual things, by which the blessings of orderly government become more extended and barbarous nations become gradually civilised. The opening of the third seal reveals the spread of Heresy, originating in philosophic reasonings respecting the nature of the new doctrines, whereby the balances or criticisms of the rider on the black horse become another missionary agency of the Church to quicken into renewed life the intellectual powers of mankind, and to render the character of national government more in accordance with well-reasoned and intelligent principles of rule. The opening of the fourth seal reveals the deteriorating action of intellectual criticism unqualified by spirituality of mind, exposing mankind to the recurrence of Superstitious observances, whereby, through their resultant evils of moral and spiritual death, the rider on the pallid horse' becomes another missionary agency of the Church to elevate the thoughts of the profound thinkers of the age above the mere things of Matter and Mind, in leading them to investigations whereby they discover the importance of subordinating the Intellectual to the Spiritual, and of basing national govern- ment on pi'inciples in accordance with the doctrines of the Written Word, instead of the mistaken views of Ecclesiastical Tradition or Political Deductions. The four riders are em- blems of the agencies through which the Church, under the spiritual influence of her Divine Head, energises and becomes the motive power through which the world's history is evolved. The knowledge of the Gospel is indirectly yet certainly advanced by the persecution of the Church from imperfect Theistic systems, from the attacks of heresy, and from super- stitious ecclesiastical corruptions in Faith and Practice. This is corroborated by history, which bears witness to the action of the Church in humanising mankind, in civilising barbarous nations, in stimulating the intellect, and in deepening the spiritual life of the world. The opening of the fifth seal reveals the secret influence of the prayers of the Church's Martyrs or Witnesses to the Truth, exciting the fierce zeal of organised Fanaticism, before which thrones are overthrown and THE LAMB 11 powerful nations are subdued, of wliicli tlie dread result in anarchical revolution is revealed in the opening of the sixth seal, destructive of national prosperity, but Divinely directed to promote the removal of the obstacles which have hitherto impeded the way of the kings of the East, or the Church's priestly rulers, from imparting to the famine-struck dwellers upon earth, ignorant of the Word of Life, their newly acquired knowledge of the Heavenly Child, who came as the Bread of Life to impart to man the gift of Eternal Life. Anarchy is the natural precursor of Apostasy from perverted Ecclesiasticism, as revealed by the opening of the seventh seal, stimulated by the action of Antitheistic Government and Materialistic Philosophy, recognising their failure to control the mind of man, whilst the Parousia, or Coming of the Son of Man in the heavens, by its overthrow, reveals the impossibility of Government based on principles which are not in accordance with Divine Law. While the opening of the four first seals testifies to the evolution of the world's history by the visible agency of the Church through the preaching of the Gospel, the opening of the three last seals further reveals her unseen influence in becoming the indirect instrumentality through which Fanaticism vainly endeavours to alleviate the Social Miseries of Revolution, Anarchy, and Apostasy, which spring from Corrupt Eccle- siasticism, Antitheistic Government, and Materialistic Philo- sophy. This history is developed by Christ the Personal Lamb, acting through His Confederated Mystic Body, the Church of which He is the Unseen Head, symbolised by the Apocalyptic Lamb. The world's progress has ever been dependent upon the Preaching, the Direction and the Sacrificial Service of the Church of God, of which the opening of the Book with the Seven Seals is the sacred emblem. The Lamb is represented as receiving the homage of the four Immortalities or essential qualities of Animal Existence, of the Church's Kingly Elders, of the Angelic Myriads, and of all Earthly Creation. This prostration before the Lamb results from the abiding union of the members of the Church with her Divine Head, by virtue of which they are said in another place to sit with Christ in the Heavenlies. The throne is that of God 12 THE LAMB and of the Lamb ; yet the Lamb is nowhere revealed as sitting upon the throne. — xxii. 1, 3. The Lamb stands in the midst of the Throne, and of the Immortalities, and of the Elders. God alone in the Apocalypse is represented as sitting upon the Throne. The analogy is the same in Secular kingdoms. The Throne is that of the Sovereign and of the State, but the Sovereign alone sits on the throne. It may belong to, but it cannot be occupied by, the State. The Sovereign also is one with the State, as Christ is one with His Church ; for where the Body is, there is the Head. Reverence offered to the one is reverence offered to the other. But the centre of reverence is the Sovereign, to whom alone the highest form, as that of hand-kissing, is given. So in the Apocalypse, worship is alone offered to God, although prostration or homage is also offered to the Lamb, as the dele- gated organisation by which the Sovereign is represented and through which His laws are administered. — Compare iv. 10 ; V. 14; vii. 11; xi. 16; xiv. 7; xv. 4; xix. 4, 10; xxii. 9; with V. 8 ; vii. 9 ; xiv. 1-4. The Throne in Heaven is that of God, with whom, and on whose throne, has sat down the Personal Lamb, the Ascended Jesus. But this throne is not represented as being occupied by the Arnion, or the Apocalyptic Lamb, who stands in the Throne and its environment. A sharjD distinction is also recognised in the method in which the ascription of praise is revealed as being offered to Him that sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb, under which emblem the State-orga- nisation in the Heavenlies, for the government of the Earthly was revealed to John. — v. 13 ; vii. 10. In the new song sung by the Elders, the cause of the worthi- ness of the Lamb to open the seals is revealed ; ' for thou wast Blain and didst purchase us unto God in thy blood out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation, and didst make us unto God a kingdom and priests, and we are reigning upon the earth.' This ascription of praise, however, does not refer to Redemption in the sense of Atonement, but to Purchase or acquisition for the purpose of "Work for God. It symbolises the election by the Lamb, or the Church, of the Priestly Rulers by which the Mystic Body of Christ is governed in the Heavenlies, Peter draws the same distinction between Redemption and Purchase. In 1 Kp. i. 18 he reminds the strangers of the dispersion, that REDEMPTION AND PURCHASE 13 ' tliey were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from their vain manner of life handed down from their fathers, but with the precious blood, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot, even of Christ ; ' whilst in 2 Ep. ii. 1 he warns them against ' false teachers, who shall privily bring- in destructive heresies, denying even the Master, who had bought or acquired them ' for their work as teachers. Redemp- tion has the retrospective aspect of the expiation of sin by the shed- ding of blood ; but Purchase has the prospective object of acquisi- tion of servants for future Avork. The subject-matter of the new song is the worthiness of the Lamb on account of its sufferings in purchasing or procuring the services of the priestly kings, which acquisition or election was effected in the midst of sufferings and blood. In Redemption (lutrosis) from sin. Blood is the stipulated price, but in Purchase (agorasis) for work. Blood is only the accidental cost. The purchase, or acquisition, in the sealing of her Elect priestly kings for the spiritual governance and evangelising of the world, has from the beginning been the principal work of the Lamb or of Christ in union with His Church, and has always been attended with the slaughter and blood- shedding of her members, whence arises the worthiness of the entire Church to elect Her Legislative Elders. — vii. The pro- clamation of the worthiness of the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing, uttered by the myriads of Angels, should be understood in the same sense, as referring to the slaying and sufferings of the members of Christ and His Church in the execution of her earthly work, and not to the redemptive blood of the Personal Christ on Calvary. This New Song was accompanied by the praises rendered by all Created Nature, in which the distinction between the Occu- pant of the Heavenly Throne and the Lamb is clearly marked. The Lamb is not addressed as sitting upon the Throne, though he is associated in the blessing and honour and glory and power which is rendered to Him that sitteth upon the Throne, to whom alone the worship of the twenty-four Elders at the con- clusion of the Doxology is offered. It would therefore appear that no insuperable difficulties exist to the theory, that the Apocalyptic Lamb in the vision of 14 THE LAMB the Throne refers to Christ in union with His Church, and not to the Personal Christ. A brief consideration of the other passages in which the action of the Lamb is described appears to corroborate the view, that the Title is used as the emblem of the Mystic Body of Christ and His Church in their Confederated Character. Rev. vii. — In the vision of the white-robed multitudes before the Throne, they are described as having washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. The doctrine of Scri})ture ascribes the justification of the Saved to the alone merits of Christ Jesus. 'The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.' This passage, however, has no reference to the Atonement of Saved Souls, but it refers to the Condition or element in which they have been enabled to wash and make white their Garments. Garments symbolise actions, for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. The element or con- dition under which these have been cleansed has been the blood or sufferings of Christ and His Church, into which they have been plunged or with which they have been associated. Union with the Church of Christ in her sufferings and her blood- shedding, with those of her members, as well as those of her Divine Head, has promoted the Sanctification of all who have been brought under her influence. The white Garments or the Life purified by the self-sacrificing preaching of the Church and by the holy example of her members, is the evidence of the Justification of the Saved, by faith in the alone merits of the blood of Jesus Christ, but the subject-matter of the vision is the Sanctification, and not the Justification, of the victorious and purified multitudes. The identification of the Lamb with Christ and His Church, and not with the Personal Lamb, is corroborated by the con- cluding verses of the vision, in which the Lamb is revealed as shepherding or feeding these saved multitudes. This is the express function of the Church, to shepherd the flock of God on earth, as well as the reward promised to him that overcometli and keepeth His word unto the end. He is to have authority over the nations, and to shepherd them with a rod of iron. The Divine Shepherd acts with and through His Church, — vii. 17. So also the record of their names in the Lamb's Book of Life, THE LAMB ON MOUNT ZION 1-5 to enable His Apostles to supply them with their necessary provision, is equally applicable, whether the register be described as that of Christ or that of His Church. — xiii. 8 ; xxi. 27. The census of the king or the census of the kingdom is the same. The officers of the Sovereign are the same as the officers of the State. The Apostles of Christ are equally the Apostles of the Lamb or of Christ and His Church. — xxi. 14. Rev. xii. 10. — In the voice of triumph issuing from heaven on the expulsion of the accuser of the brethren, the Victors are praised for having overcome him because or for the sake of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death — (dia with an accusative). The subject-matter of the hymn is not the Instrumental Cause but the Object of the war, which termi- nated in victory. The victors are Michael and his angels, and not the accused brethren. The war in heaven appears to have originated in consequence of accusations made to God by Satan against the brethren, and the consequent sufferings to which they have been exposed by the word of their faithful testimony, even at the sacrifice of life. From the context, therefore, the blood of the Lamb in this passage is even more expressive of the sufferings of the Church than of the death of her Divine Head. The blood of Jesus, the Personal Lamb, is universally admitted to be the meritorious cause of Satan's defeat, but to this the hymn does not refer. The Object of the war which ended in Victory is that which is announced by the voice from heaven. The recognition of the sufferings of Christ in union with the Church on Earth or those of the Lamb, and the faithful Witness of her members, were the causes that excited the war in heaven, of which the result was the expulsion of Satan. Rev. xiv.— In another vision the Lamb is revealed as stand- ing on the Mount Zion, and with Him 144,000, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads. Whilst the Lamb represents the Heavenly State in Union with its Sovereign Lord or Divine Head in respect of its connection with the Earthly, the 144,000 symbolise a special division or Department of the Realm, They are the Elect Administrative Members of the State, attendant upon the Heavenly Sovereign. These two emblems together, standing upon the Mount Zion, 16 THE LAMB symbolise the administration of the Empire of Divine Law by the State auJ the Executive. The 144,000 are distinguished by special signs. They are those whose virgin purity of faith has not been corrupted by false doctrine. In practice they per- form the functions of their holy calling in faithful following or imitation of the Lamb or of Christ in His Church. They have been purchased or acquired from the earth and from among men, as firstfruits or the first begotten for service for God and for the Lamb or Christ in His Church. Guileless in thought and pure in utterance, these 144,000 have been elected out of all the tribes of the Spiritual Israel, and objectively sealed with the twofold impression of the Seal of the Living God, as His servants for the evangelising of the world. — vii. ; Ezek. ix. ; 2 Tim. ii. 19. The symbolism will be realised by comparing the Secular Sovereign, the State, and the Administration inclusive of ever)/ official of the Eealm, with Christ, the Personal Lamb, or Sovereign Head of the Church, the Arnion or Lamb or the Confederated Body of Christ and His Members and the 144,000 Sealed and Elect Members of the Church, through whose in- strumentality the world is being ruled and evangelised. Rev. XV. — The Theory of the Identity of the Lamb with Christ and His Church obtains great support from the vision of the victorious multitudes on the sea of glass, who are repre- sented as singing the Song of Moses, the servant of God, and the Song of the Lamb. The Song of Moses was that of Moses and the Children of Israel on their deliverance from the Eed Sea ; and therefore the Song of the Lamb will represent that of Christ in His Church on her deliverance from the attack of Satan. By this interpretation the incongruity of the subject-matter of the Song, as uttered by the Personal Lamb, will disappear. "When He dwelt on earth, Christ Jesus is revealed as offering praise to God, but in heaven such praise is only offered by Him in union with His Church. Eev. xvii. 14. — The mighty Title, ' King of Kings, and Lord of Lords,' which in xix. 16 is revealed as the Special Title of the Divine Word or Logos, the Head and Leader of the Armies of the Heavens, is attributed to the Lamb, with whom tlie ten liorns of the Beast make war and by whom they will be overcome. These symbolise independent dynastic Kingdoms, CHE 1ST AND THE LAMB 17 originating with the Beast or World Power and arrayed against the Lamb. The Personal Lamb in Heaven is beyond their range of action. It is only against the Confederate Lamb or Christ in His Church that their attack can be made. The Title, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, primarily belonging to the Word, as the Head, is transferred to the Body of the Church, in the same way, that the title, the Supreme Ruler, is borne in Earthly Empires by the Personal Sovereign, as well as by the State. No individual member of the State, except the Sovereign, can appropriate this title, which, however, attaches to the State in the Concrete. So Christ alone of all the Children of Men is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, but by virtue of His Unity with the Church as her Divine Head the title equally attaches to her, as the Lamb, the concrete Body of His Church. As the Word, Christ is Lord of Lords in respect of Universal Dominion ; as the Arnion, or Lamb, the Church is Lord of Lords in respect of her prospective Dominion over all Kingdoms of the Earth, the woeful effects of rebellion against whom is realised in the terror-stricken prayer to be delivered from wrath of the Lamb, or the judicial punishments which are incurred by those who oppose the Church. — vi. 16. Rev. xix. — Immediately after the fall of Babylon the Mar- riage of the Lamb is announced from heaven. The ordinary interpretation, that this symbolises the future Union of Christ with His Church, is inconsistent with the doctrine that the Spiritual Presence of Christ has never been withdrawn from His Church, and the Emblem is generally interpreted as referring to a Personal appearance and visible Union of Christ with His Church. If, however, the Lamb is the Emblem of Christ in His Church, as one Confederated Body, the Woman or wife will be the Emblem of the living principle or Spirituality of the Church, whereby she becomes the Eve, or Mother of all living, the Parent of the Regenerate, and the Marriage of the Lamb with His Bride will represent under this mysterious Symbol the Union of Christ and His Church, or the Christian State Organisation, united with the Spirituality of the Church, as the Divine Instrumentality for the governance and conversion of the world. It symbolises the union of State Governance with Spiritual Influence. In her maternal character, the Church C 18 THE LAMB AND THE BRIDE had been revealed as the Woman, bringing forth the Man Child, who was caught up to God and to His throne. She symbolised the Church of God bearing the Christ, fleeing into the wilderness of the world from the persecution of Satan. But under the character of the Lamb's Bride, descending from God out of heaven, she symbolises the Spirituality of the Christian Development of the Church of God. Her name, the Bride, the Nymph (xxi. 9), ' one with a new appearance,' symbolises her changed and restored condition through the fulfilment of the Judaic types in the Holy City, the heavenly Jerusalem, the abiding-place of God, and of the Lamb. The forsaken wife has again become the Hephzibah, the delight of Jehovah, and the Jewish Church has been fulfilled under the New Creation of the Christian Church of which the Bride or Nymph is the Symbol, and the Holy City its material organisa- tion. Within the Holy City was seen no temple or shrine. — xxi. 22. At the death of the Son of Man, the veil of the Holy of Holies was rent in twain. In the tabernacle of God in heaven (xxi. 3), the Glory of God, or the Shekinah, by which His Presence is revealed, is no longer hidden from its blest inhabitants. By the unity of Christ with God, and by the unity of Christ with His Church, is realised the indwelling of God in the Lamb, whereby the Glory of God, the Shekinah of His Presence, and the Light or Lamp of the Lamb, the refulgent Glory with which the Church is endowed by her Union with her Divine Head, become the Shrine towards which all worship in heaven is rendered, and thereby enlighten the Holy City, surpassing the light of the Sun and of the Moon. The above appear to be all the passages in which reference is made to the action of the Apocalyptic Lamb. In some, such action considered as that of the Personal Christ appears to be inapplicable to the context in which the expression occurs. This difficulty, however, vanishes, if the title of the Lamb or Arnion be regarded as expressive of Christ acting in and through his Church, under which interpretation it is also suitable for all the other passages in which it is found. There seems, there- fore, reason to believe that this Mysterious Emblem is capable of being interpreted of the Mystic Body of which Christ the THE BEAST OR THERION 19 head in the heavenlies is united to its deceased members living in Hades and its remaining members still resident on earth. ^ The second symbol is that of the Beast, an approximate understanding of which is also of gi'eat importance in the interpretation of the Apocalypse. It symbolises empire based on worldly principles of rule (Dan. vii. 3), administered by a state organisation, which from its ascent out of the Abyss or a sphere of knowledge, intrusion into which is Divinely prohibited to man, is set in motion by the Dragon or the Satanic spirit, from whom it must be distinguished, as well as from the beast arising out of the sea, and the second one arising out of the earth, both of which are separate members of the concrete beast (xi. 7, xiii.). The continuity of its existence is revealed by its description as ' the beast that was, and is not, and is or will be near or present (xvii. 8). The catholicity of its dominion is perceived by its seven heads or mountains, or seats of empire administered by seven kings or dynastic kingdoms, which though successive belong to one confederated world power, whose sinful and lawless principles of government are denounced by the scarlet colour. The Beast is further distinguished by ten horns, symbolising aggressive action by means of coercive legislation. They apparently issue from the seventh head, and represent ten subsidiary cotemporaneous kingdoms, possessing legislative assemblies, receiving power as kings one hour with the beast, or a confederation of independent kingdoms, over which the central empire will for a time exercise a nominal sovereignty. Of these seven original empires in St. John's days ' five were fallen, and one was, and the other was not yet come.' After these seven, described as the beast ' which was and is not,' an ' Exceptions have been taken to this interpretation, on the plea of its being opposed to the doctrine o£ redemption, through the sole merits of the blood of Christ, It should, however, be remembered that redemption in its correct sense of expiation from sin is only once directly referred to in the Apocalypse, where in i, 5 John ascribes praise to Jesus Christ, who is loving us, and has loosed or washed us from our sins in His blood. The doctrine underlies the whole prophecy, as it does all scripture, which without it would be incapable of beino- understood, but it does not directly form the subject-matter of the revelation. Neither the Greek word for redemption (Jutrosis) nor its compounds occurs in the writing. The English word redeemed in v. 9, xiv. 3, 4, is an inaccurate rendering for the Greek word aywazt?, elsewhere translated to buij. — iii. 18; xiii. 17 ; xviii. 11. c 2 20 THE BEAST eighth is revealed, whose origin is out of the seven, yet whose nature, from the change of gender, is different from the other seven. The Beast, by the use of the neuter article, symbolises State Administration by means of a corporation or cabinet, while the eighth, by the use of the masculine article, symbolises State Administration invested in one man. History testifies to the existence of certain empires which have successively governed the world. They are those of Assyria, Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome under its two forms of the Empire and the Papacy. Ezekiel (xxxi.) testifies to the universal empire of the two first, Daniel to that of the next three, John to the twofold character of the latter; and Paul bears prophetic witness to the rise of the eighth, or of the enthronement of the Man of Sin, the incarnated Antichrist (2 Thess. ii.). The seven heads symbolise respectively different principles of government, ad- ministered by man. Assyria is the emblem of Absolute Despotism, Egypt of Hierarchical Idolatry, Babylon of Deified Royalty, Persia of Military Force, Greece of Diplomatic Wisdom, Rome of Coercive Law under its twofold action of popular and ecclesiastical legislation, symbolised by the False Prophet or Representative Senate emanating from the sea or the people, and by the Harlot, or corrupt Church, borne on the second Beast arising out of the earth or the established order. The origin of State Government dates from Babel, the site of the kingdom of Nimrod, who at the beginning of his reign was a mighty hunter before the Lord, or a faithful ruler and minister of Jehovah, but afterwards was prompted by some demoniacal inspiration ascending out of the abyss to build a city and a tower whose top should reach unto the heavens, or a political and ecclesias- tical organisation for the governance and eternal salvation of his people, whereby he afforded an entrance at Babel, the gate of Bel, to Beelzebub the Lord of the World, to intrude his influence into the counsels of State Government, On the con- fusion of tongues or of man's devices at Babel Nimrod migrated, and at Nineveh founded the Empire of Assyria, the first of the great world powers. In the interval which preceded the re- storation of the seat of Empire to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, Egypt, according to Ezekiel xxxi. 18, came into prominence as the presiding world power. It was succeeded by those of Babylon, THE IMAGE OF THE BEAST 21 Persia, Greece, Eome Imperial, and Rome Papal, the latter of which is recognised as a Christian ecclesiastical power by the horns of a lamb issuing from the second beast, whilst the voice of the Dragon witnesses to the Satanic influence which guided its temporal administration, and the two horns are prophetic of its subsequent disruption into the two Christian empires of the East and West. From the seventh empire of Rome Papal have sprung the ten subsidiary kingdoms, or the continental nations governed by independent legislative assemblies, sym- bolised by the number ten, the emblem of law, though still confederated in their nominal allegiance to the ecclesiastical empire of Rome Papal. Under the inspiration of the Dragon the second beast, or corrupt Ecclesiasticism, is revealed as making and giving life to an image of the Beast, a living State organisation, which by the possession of speech is recognised as being of a Human chai-acter. It symbolises the evolution, vitalisation, and enthronement of a man, invested by the State under the influence of Ecclesiasticism with personal infallibility. Although acceding for a time to the concentration of power in the hands of an imperial papal ruler, the ten subsidiary con- tinental nations are revealed as uniting in their hatred of a corrupt Church, developing by the pantheistic toleration of every form of Autichristian doctrine into an aggregated con- federation of antitheistic Churches. These will join in their requirements for its disendowment and disestablishment. Symptoms of this revolt against corrupt Ecclesiasticism are visible in the loss that the Papacy has sustainf'd in b&ing deprived of the temporal power, and in the growing indifference to her spiritual influence, which is veryobservable in Continental nations. The Apocalypse reveals that, before the end comes, it will be pre- ceded by the evolution of the mysterious Antichristian Babylon, the Great, the mother of the Harlots, or corrupt Churches, and of the idolatrous abominations of the earth, or an universal ecclesiastical organisation, in which every form of false religion will be openly authorised, attended with such evil results to social order, that the State will intervene and demand its dissolu- tion, whereby all outward trace of Theistic faith under Imperial recognition will be removed, and the future government of the world will be entrusted to the sole care of the Beast or an atheistic 22 THE LITTLE HORN State Administration, guided in its decisions by the counsels of the False Prophet or Materialistic Senate (xvii.). The failure of government on the principle of lawless disobedience to the will of the Creator, formerly witnessed in the fall in Eden, will be manifested by the earthquake or revolution excited by the three evil spirits of infidelity, lawlessness, and materialism issuing respectively from the mouths of the Dragon, the Beast and the False Prophet, whereby the Great Babylon, or the political system of the world, will be convulsed and social order will disappear (xvi.). To avert the danger of permanent anarchy the subsidiary kingdoms will become prepared to submit themselves to the will of one Imperial Ruler, who, through the energising of Satan, enabling him by scientific means to work false signs and wonders, will claim Divine power (xvii. 17). He appears to be the eighth or the human head of the Apocalyptic beast, the man of sin revealed to St. Paul, and the little horn seen in the vision of Daniel (vii, 8, 24), This little horn or king comes up after the other ten, and is diverse from the first, or Nimrod, the Imperial Despot of Assyria, from whom he will differ by the exaltation of himself above God, as contrasted with the origin of Nimrod's despotic authority, which owes itself to his being a mighty hunter before the Lord or a Kuler appointed by Jehovah. Before him will fall three kings, a symbolic number, typical of the Divine character of those kingdoms which will succumb to his power, for in accordance with the word of prophecy, that he shall wear away the saints of the Most High, and that they shall be given into his hand for a time, and times, and dividing of times, the desolating power of the fourth beast, or the Roman State, will prevail to the injury of the Church for three periods of history, together with another of an intermediate character. This last, or the dividing of time, appears to refer to the period which followed the death of Alexander, when Greece under his suc- cessors ceased to be the great world power, and during which the influence of Rome was making itself felt, before its Imperial authority became fully established under the CaBsars. Imperial Rome was succeeded by Rome Papal. Its third development as the Antichristian Babylon is yet future, with its enthroned and deified Ruler. The Satanically incarnated Man of Sin is yet to come. ' Then the end,' when the Lawless one shall be revealed, THE FOUK APOCALYPTIC BEASTS 23 whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His Spirit, and will destroy with the brightness of His Coming with all His holy Angels, at the first resurrection of the Elect. The Apocalyptic Beast appears therefore to represent the world Power, by influencing whose counsels Satan or the Dragon wars against the Lamb or Christ acting in His Church. In its concrete character it includes the seven empires which are capable of recognition as having held universal dominion, together with that of the Antichrist, which is foretold to pre- cede the consummation of the age. The two other beasts rising out of the sea and the earth are respectively Imperial and Papal Rome. The scarlet-coloured Beast bearing the Harlot appears to be the emblem of the Union of Atheistic State and Apostate Church Administration, which continues during the whole period of the world's history. 24 CHAPTER I THE TITLE, THE SALUTATION, AND THE DIVINE RATIFICATION A REVELATION of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to shew unto His servants things which must quickly come to pass : and He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John, who testified of the Word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, of all things that he saw. This prophecy, which closes the Canon of the Scriptures, is called a Revelation about (1 Pet. i. 13) or from Jesus Christ (Gal. i. 12), to whom it was given by God, and who as man had been anointed with the Holy Spirit and power to preach the Gospel to the poor and to proclaiin the eternal jubilee, the year of acceptance as well as of vengeance. Its purport is to shew to His servants, whose election is witnessed by their sealing and by their endurance, faith and obedience (vii. 2 ; xiii. 10 ; xiv. 12), the things which were to precede the consummation of this event. Some of these things had already taken place, others were in progress, and the rest were to come to pass quickly. It was sent by Jesus Christ to his servant John by an angel, signified or accredited by some unrecorded sign. The angel appears to have remained with the Apostle during the manifes- tation of the visions, fulfilling the office of the interpreting angel of those of Zechariah. The statement that John bare witness of the Word of God appears to refer to his testimony of Jesus Christ, as the Word in his gospel, and to the witness of God concerning His son Jesus Christ contained in his first epistle ; whilst the things which he was now seeing are recorded in the present writing. These THE BEATITUDE 25 words shew the order of publication of his three writings — the Gospel, the Epistles, and the Revelation. The bearing witness of the Word of God subjectively appears from xii. 17, to consist in observing the commands of God, as re- flected in the life and example of Jesus, The testimony of Jesus is stated to be the spirit of prophecy — xix. 10 ; evidenced sub- jectively by the public confession of Christ through the Spirit out of faith in the promise of eternal life. By the union of these terms, expression is given to the doctrines of the identity of the personal Christ with the Word of God, and of the unity of the Word of Life with the one true God. A promise of blessedness, or rather happiness, is given to those who read, hear, and keep the words of the prophecy. ' Happy is he that is reading and they that are hearing the words of the prophecy, and are keeping the things which have been written in it, for the season is at hand.' The word ' happi- ness ' is generally used in reference to man. It describes the result of right observance of Divine law, in contrast to the word ' blessedness,' better used in reference to God. The promise applies primarily to the public reader, but also to all others whose object it is to learn and impart Divine knowledge. The subject of the reading, the words of this prophecy, may refer principally to the Revelation, but it includes all prophecy, for every Scripture is inspired of God. To reading and hearing is united the duty of keeping or observing the things that are written therein. Jesus had before promised that, if any one observed His word, he should never see death, and deprivation of happiness by the pain or tasting the agonies of death therefore appears to be in proportion to the observance of the Word of life. Our Lord tasted death for every man, as every man's sinbearer, so that the sin of the world caused not only the death of Jesus Christ, but also its bitterness. A reason is adjoined for the publication, reception and ob- servance of the Prophecy. ' The season or time is near ' for the realisation of the events about to be revealed, as well as for the deliverance of the elect from the hands and power of their enemies. The expression is similar to that used by the prophets in announcing approaching judgement. ' The day of the Lord is at hand,' 23 REVELATION I. 4 The Inscription of the Apocalypse ' Jolin, to the Seven Churches, which are in Asia.' John was too well known, as the last surviving Apostle, and the Metropolitan of the Churches in Proconsular Asia, to require any official description. His name is not mentioned in his Gospel or Epistles. He subscribes himself in his Gospel as the disciple whom Jesus loved, who leaned on His breast at supper, who wrote these things; atid in his 2nd and 3rd Epistles, as the Elder. He had already shewn that the Revelation was sent by Jesus Christ by an angel to his servant John, and he here de- scribes himself as the brother of those to whom he writes, and their companion in the tribulation and the kingdom and endur- ance in Jesus Christ. By this suppression of his name, he leads the readers to concentrate their attention on the writing, instead of on the writer. The seven Churches addressed are represented as belonging to the one Proconsular province of Asia. The name Asia is not met with in the Old Testament. The root meaning may be de- rived from the Greek ' mud or slime,' or the Sanscrit ' to breathe,' and in connection with its character as the locality in which the seven Churches were situated, it symbolises ' the earth,' or ' who- ever breathes,' out of whom the Catholic Church has been elected. The election of Seven Churches from one Roman Pro- vince is expressive of Catholicity in Unity, and is descriptive of Unity of Origin, united to Catholicity of Operation. The dedication of the Prophecy to the Seven Churches shews its applicability to every period, phase and condition, through which the universal Church is passing in her spiritual contest with the world. The Seven Epistles directed to be written in one book symbolise the collective body of Catholic instruction revealed for her guidance in her corporate character, as the seven Epistles written by Paul to Seven Churches in seven districts of the one Roman Empire represent the collective body of theolo- gical doctrine and special instruction adapted to every condition of the individual members of the Church Catholic, lifted or exalted into the higher regions of spiritual thought. (' Rome ' is derived from the Hebrew root ' to exalt.') All true doctrine is derived from one source, but in its operation it is intended for universal THE INVOCATION 27 application, tlirougli the instrumentality of the Catholic Church. Thus the seven horns and seven eyes on the one Lamb symbolise the Catholicity of power and oversight possessed by the Church of Christ, and the Seven-branched Candlestick in the Temple was an emblem of the Unity of the Church, springing from one pillar and pediment of truth, but in its sevenfold operation the one torch or light bearer of the Word to the whole world. The Salutation ' Grace unto you, and peace, from Him, which is, and which was, and which is to come ; and from the Seven Spirits which are before His throne ; and from Jesus Christ, the faithful wit- ness, the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth.' The union of the G reek and Jewish salutation of the Christian * grace ' and the Hebrew ' peace ' is emblematic of the univer- sality of blessing, which in Jesus Christ is offered to all men, as the union of the Greek and Hebrew words, Yea, Amen (verse 7), symbolises the universal affirmation of faith in the predicted coming and Parousia of the Son of God. The universality of the fatherhood of God is declared in the united words, ' Abba, Father,' and the universality of the atonement is realised in the title on the cross, written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin or Roman terms and appropriated through faith by the devotional Hebrew, the wise Greek, and the law-abiding Eoman. The united words ' Abaddon, Apollyon'of ix. 11, convey also the warning that the universality of the curse is equally denounced against apostates. The same salutation of grace and peace is ad- dressed by Paul to the seven churches, to which he sent Epistles. He, however, invokes these blessings from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, as distinguished from John, who invokes them from the Blessed Trinity, under attributes expressive of the eternity and infinity of the Deity, as well as of the redemp- tive and mediatorial work of Jesus Christ. The invocation of these blessings is divided under three heads declarative of the mysterious nature of the one God, energising through a Trinity of Coequal and Coeternal Personalities, and operating for the salvation of man through the hypostatic Union of God and Man in one Christ. 28 THE INVOCATION I. The first of these clauses, ' The existing one, He that was, and the coming one,' is the equivalent of the name revealed by God to Moses, ' / am that I am,' and claimed by our Lord to establish His unity with the Father, ' before Abraham was, I am.' Each of the three clauses may be regarded as descriptive of some special attribute of each person of the blessed Trinity. Self-existence is ascribed to the Father, ' the existing One,' ' I am Jehovah, and none else.' Immutability is ascribed to the Son, ' which was,' ' Jesus Christ the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever,' under whatever form He may hav^e been revealed as the ' I am the living one, and I became dead, and behold I am living for evermore.' Eternity of coming is ascribed to the Holy Spirit, the Comforter or Paraclete, to teach and testify of the Father, and to guide into all truth. The same attribute, ' the coming One,' was applied to our Lord by the Baptist (Luke vii. 19), and revealed to the High Priest by Himself. (Compare also Hab. ii. 3, ' The coming One will come ' in the Greek.) This threefold expression recurs in verse 8, wherein the glorified Christ affirms His Divine nature, and confirms the certainty of His future Advent. II. The second clause, ' The seven Spirits which are before His Throne ' is descriptive of the sevenfold Catholicity of the Holy Spirit's graces revealed by Isaiah as the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and might, of knowledge and the fear of Jehovah, and of right and equitable judgement. In iv. 5, under the emblem of seven lamps or torches of fire, are symbolised the visible operations of the Holy Spirit in His mani- fold gifts or charismata of governance, healing, miracles or mighty works, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues and their inter- pretation. In the vision seen by Daniel x. G, the Man clothed in linen, whose eyes were as lamps of fire, is thus identified as another manifestation of the Lamb seen in the midst of the thi'one with theseven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth, emblematic of the mission of the Holy Spirit by Christ from the Father, in the fulness of His penetrative oversight of the world. Another manifestation of the ener- gising operation of the Holy Spirit is learnt from the vision of Zechariah, who beheld seven eyes engraven or opened upon one stone, an emblem of the sevenfold fountain of grace, issuing THE INVOCATION 29 from the Spiritual Rock, which is Christ, opened by the Lord of Hosts for the removal of the iniquity of the earth in the one day of His all-sufficient cleansing by the blood which He shed on Calvary. (The Hebrew word is capable of the two meanings ' eye ' and ' fountain.') III. The third clause, ' Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth,' is descriptive of the human nature and official position assumed by the Son of God, as the anointed Prophet, Priest and King. His unity with God, as one Person of the Blessed Trinity, is revealed by His association with the other Two Divine Persons, as the source from whence the blessings of grace and peace are invoked. The work of His humanity as the Saviour of His people from their sins is testified by the use of the name ' Jesus,' and His Divine appointment as the Messiah by the unction of the Holy Spirit, visibly manifested at the baptism in Jordan, is also recognised by His official name ' Christ.' The threefold character of his sacred office is revealed in the three names by which he is described. 1. 'The faithful witness or martyr.' — iii. 14. The faith- fulness of Christ to His Prophetic office was evidenced in His life by the hatred He incurred from His true testimony to the evil of the world; in the good confession witnessed by Him in the trial before Pontius Pilate ; and in the death upon the cross, the punishment decreed by the Jewish Sanhedrim for His assumption of the title of the Son of God, but carried into execution by the Roman Governor on the false charge of treason. 2. 'The first begotten of the dead.'— Col. i. 18. This attribute describes the priority of His rising as ' Christ the first fruits.' It distinguishes His resurrection from those of the widow's son of Zarephath, the Shunammite's child, Jairus' daughter, the widow's son at Nain, and Lazarus. Christ was the first begotten of the dead, who, having yielded Himself to the death, permanently overcame its bands, and by His resurrec- tion and subsequent ascension entered upon the unchangeable Priesthood, to offer eternal intercession, in behalf of those whom He came to save. 3. ' The Prince of the Kings of the earth.' Christ's claim 30 THE INVOCATION to this title is witnessed in the gradual conversion of Christian nations, and it will be fully manifested after His final victory, when, as the Word of God, He will be seen at the head of the armies of heaven, crowned with many crowns, as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. John unites with his Salutation an Ascription of praise to our Lord for His redemptive work, and its future permanent object in the gift of the Kingdom to His faithful servants, and this he further accentuates by an Affirmation of faith in the future Coming of our Lord, with which the Salutation finishes. ' Unto him that is loving us, and has washed or loosed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us a kingdom, priests unto God and His Father ; to Him be the glory and the dominion for the ages of the ages. Amen.' ' Behold He cometli with the clouds ; and every eye shall see Him, and whosoever has pierced Him ; and all the tribes of the earth shall wail over Him. Yea, Amen.' The redemptive work of our Lord is described as proceeding from love, energising in the atonement and purification of man from sin through the efficacy of the blood-shedding on the cross, and operating in the formation of a kingdom, even priests, to be finally delivered on the destruction of death, the last enemy, into the hands of His Eternal Father. By this process the original promise, that the Seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpent's head, was fulfilled, and a fountain has been opened, whereby the scarlet sin may be made white as snow, white as wool, and the purpose of God in the call of Israel out of Egypt fulfilled in the election of a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, a peculiar people, to shew forth the never-ceasing praises of Him who has called them. In closing the Salutation with the prophetic Affirmation of our Lord's return at the Parousia, John marks the connection between the two advents, shewing the identity of Jesus in both. He also testifies to the Divinity of Him of whom, at His ascension, it was testified by the two angels, that he should again come in like manner as He was then seen to go into heaven ; whereby would be fulfilled the vision seen by Daniel (vii. 13), corroborated by our Lord's own prophetic intimation of His return as the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven, to THE DIVINE RATIFICATION 31 receive from the Ancient of Days the eternal dominion. The clouds are symbols of the glory wherewith the Deity was enshrouded, as seen by Ezekiel (i. 4), accompanying the Divine presence at Sinai, and residing over the mercy seat in the tabernacle. A bright cloud overshadowed Jesus Christ when He was transfigured on the Holy Mount. The identity of the crucified Jesus with the Glorified Son of Man, sending forth His angels to gather together His elect from the four winds, will be also recognised by the spear-stricken side, the visible sign of death by water and blood issuing from the broken heart, which will be seen by all who by wilful sin have pierced Him, and by the mourning which will then arise from all tribes of the earthly and carnal-minded enemies of God, emerging from their graves, at the voice of the Son of God (Ps. li. 17). This assured certainty of the return of the Lord Jesus in glory is confirmed by the united Gentile and Jewish symbols of affirmation, ' Even so : Amen.' The Divine Ratification ' I am, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the Ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.' — Rev. i. 8. A Divine Ratification from the lips of the Lord Jesus immediately follows the Salutation sent by John in the name of the Blessed Trinity, and the Ascription of praise espe- cially offered for the redemptive work of our Lord. With certain interchanges these wonderful attributes are repeated in xxi. 6, by the glorious Personality, who sat on the throne in the holy city revealing His mighty pur^Dose to renovate or make all things new ; and in xxii. 13, on announcing His quick return to give to every man according as his work shall be, and possibly once before, at the moment when John heard the greafc voice of the Son of Man from the midst of the golden candle- sticks, commanding him to write the vision in a book and to send it unto the Seven Churches. In its full developement the title is composed of six clauses, expressive of six Divine attributes. ' I am ; the Alpha and the Omega ; the beginning and the ending ; the first and the last ; the existing one, and the one which was, and the coming one ; B2 THE 'I AM' the Almighty.' By their union the Lord proclaims His Eternal Presence ; the Unity of the Humanity with the Divinity, in respect of His Eternity as the Word or Logos, of His Creative Power, and of His Eternal Existence ; His Unity in the Sacred Trinity, and His Infinite Omnipotence. To His Unity with the Father our Lord bore witness publicly in the Temple — ' I and my Father are one ' — and privately to His Apostles in the last great intercession in the Temple, ' that they may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee.' 1. ' I AM ; ' the Self Existent ; the Ever Present. This great name, the sole prerogative of the Eternal, was first heard in Horeb, when from the bash burning with the fire of the Divine Shekinah, the Angel of Jehovah was heard, proclaiming to Moses : ' I am, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. I am that I am.' The vision seen by Moses was a type of Jesus Christ appearing in the bush, the emblem of the house or Church of God, burning with the fire of the Holy Spirit of love, which radiates from His sacred presence, yet remaining unconsumed in the Horeb or desolate wastes of this world, and announcing to all willing hearers His eternal pre-existence, ' Before Abraham was I am.' It was the name of one witnessing of Himself, as coming from above, the full knowledge of whom, however, was to be realised in the attraction of the Cross, ' when ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am ; ' faith in which name is requisite to obtain remission of sins, for ' if ye believe not that I am, ye shall die in your sins.' By the use of this mysterious name, our Lord witnesses to the Eternity of His Presence with those whom He thus addresses. On the Galilean lake Jesus, when calming the waves, mani- fested Himself as the I am, ever present in trouble to speak the consoling words ' Fear not.' To the Samaritan woman He made Himself known as the I AM, the ever-present Messiah. The High Priest was warned of the character of Him, who had been arraigned before him, by our Lord's admission of His Divine nature, I am, the ever-present Christ, the Son of the Blessed. The doubts of Pilate as to the fallacy of his judgement in con- demning Jesus to the cross would have been solved if he had listened to the Divine claim advanced by the I AM ever present The ' r am * 33 as the King not only of the Jews but ulso of the invisible Kingdom. The true character of the Church's persecution is revealed by the reply given to Paul, as being the persecution of the 1 AM, the ever-present Jesus or Saviour. By the use of this great name, the Son of Man, before and since His Ascension, testifies to His eternal presence, as the I am, ever present in His Church, under all the characters to which it was by Him applied, and by its utterance at the moment of His appearance to John, it became the Divine assurance of the help of the great I AM, ever present, to enable His chosen Apostle to record the visions which were now revealed. A remarkable use by our Lord of this sacred name is observed in its connection with seven characters, under which He de- scribes His official position towards His hearers. They represent the Divine relationships which never cease to exist between Him as the ever-present I am and His people, whereby they are enabled to apprehend the blessings which, by His Life, Death, Resurrection and Ascension, He bestows upon them. Their number Seven, that of Catholicity, and the fact of their being recorded in only one Gospel, that of John, connects them with the sevenfold arrangement of the Apocalypse and the Seven Epistles of Paul to the Seven Churches. Our Lord say a of Himself : — I AM, the Door of the Sheep, I AM, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. I AM, the Light of the World. I AM, the Good Shepherd. I AM, the Bread of Life. I AM, the true Vine. I AM, the Resurrection and the Life. Under these seven characters the Divine I am reveals Himself as ever present to lead the chosen flock of His Church on her toilsome journey through the Wilderness of Life, what- ever be the events she may have to encounter. He promises His all-sufficient presence from the first moment, when her members enter the Door by the Baptismal lustration, leading them on the Way, as the Truth and the Life, guiding their steps by His never-failing Light, Shepherding them in every 34 THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA difficulty, supplying their wants with the Living Bread, and. the revigorating blood of the true Vine, and at the last Raising them from the stream of Death and placing them in the blessed pastures of Eternal Life, watered by the River of Life, flowing beside the Tree of Life, and proceeding from the Throne of God and of the Lamb. 2. ' The Alpha and the Omega.' This mysterious title, found only in the Apocalypse, appears to bear special reference to Jesus Christ as the Word, being composed of the first and last of those characters, of which in the Greek language words are formed. By it our Lord announces Himself as the origin and consummation not only of speech, but also of thought, which is communicated to man by words, whereby it becomes His authoritative ratification of the truth of John's definition of His Divine nature, ' in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,' and also of the doctrine taught in the book of Proverbs (viii. 22) of the unity of Wisdom with Jehovah. 3. ' The Beginning and the Ending, or the Consummation. The third title is descriptive of Christ's relation to the material universe. It receives its full explanation in the attribute under which He addresses the Angel of the Church of the Laodiceans as the ' Beginning of the creation of God,' corroborating the inspired statement of John concerning His pre-existence to all creation, ' in the beginning was the Word.' It asserts His unity with Jehovah the Creator, ' who spake and it was done,' in accordance with the revelation transmitted by Moses : ' in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.' It is to be more specially referred to the beginning of the sensible universe, for the eternal nature of Christ has no beginning. As ' the Beginning ' our Lord describes Himself as the first origin of the Creation of God, the originating principle of all the ways of Jehovah, whereby actuality of existence is brought into being, as well as the author of the new creation, for ' in Him all things consist.' Our Lord also announces himself as the Ending or Consummation. The expression is explained by Paul, writing to the Corinthians (1 Ep. xv. 24-28), that at the end, when Christ shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God, even the Fatlier, the 8on also shall be subjected to Him, THE FIRST AND THE LAST 85 Who hath subjected all things unto Him, that God may be all in all. 4. ' The first and the last.' The fourth title is descriptive of Christ's relation to man, and receives its interpretation from the expression used by our Lord, ' Before Abraham was, I am.' It calls to remembrance the revelation of Jehovah made to Isaiah. ' I, Jehovah, the first and with the last, I am he ; ' declarative of the pre-existent relationship of Jehovah to Israel as their King and Redeemer, and witnessing to the pre-existent intercourse of the Logos, as the Angel of Jehovah with the Patriarchs. It shews how Adam was created in the image of God, being made in the image of Christ. It gives assurance of the immortality of the regenerate by bearing witness to the union of the humanity with the divinity in the person of the Second Adam, the Lord from heaven, by whom the last enemy will be de- stroyed, and death swallowed up in victory. 5. ' The existing one. He which was, and the coming one.' The fifth Title is the Attribute under which our Lord reveals His Unity with the Deity as one Person of the blessed Trinity, whereby it becomes descriptive of Christ's relation to the God- head. In verse 4, the attribute is more particularly used in its reference to the Father, though in its fullest signification it is expressive of the eternity of the Godhead. 6. ' The Almighty.' This last title appears to be the name under which the Lord proclaims His co-equality of power with God Almighty or El Shaddai, the name by which the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, was known to the patiiarchs before the revelation of His Name Jehovah to Moses. It was by the name of El Shaddai that Jehovah established His covenant with Abraham to be a God to him and to his seed after him, which covenant will receive its perfected consummation when in the renovated heaven and renovated earth the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb become the Temple of the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, the seat of the Empire of the Almighty. The use of the name reappears in the Song of Creation sung by the four Immortalities before the Throne, kindred with the Trisagion of the celestial Seraphim in Isaiah v. 3, Rev. iv. 8. It is used by the twenty-four Elders on the sounding of the Seventh Trumpet announcing the victory of the Lord and His Christ over tlie 36 THE DIVINE RATIFICATION kingdoms of the world — xv. 17. It is the lofty refrain with which the faithful opponents of the Satanic beast conclude the Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb when standing on the Sea of Glass — xv. 3 5 and it is again heard from the great multi- tude re-echoing the loud voice of the great multitude herald- ing the approaching marriage of the Lamb, for the Lord God Almighty reigneth ' — xix. 6. The Title in its entirety is expressive of the possession of universal dominion, the grant of which our Lord had before announced to His eleven apostles on the appointed mountain in Galilee, when to them, and apparently to them alone, He entrusted the future organisation of His Church, by delegating to them the commission to enrol members into her body by Holy Baptism and to instruct them in their future work of the preaching of the Word under their authority. This Divine Ratification, which our Lord commanded John to write at the commencement of the Revelation, becomes there- fore His affirmation to the truth of the Salutation, issuing from the ever-blessed Trinity, and it stamps the Prophetic Record of these mysteries with the seal of Divine Inspiration, corroboi-ared at the close of the Sacred Document with the affirmative assur- ance of the speedy return of the ascended Jesus. ' He which testifieth these things says : Yea, I am coming quickly : Amen.' — xxii. 20. 37 CHAPTER 11 THE GREAT THEOPHANY — Rev. i. 9 A Theophany stfincls at the head of the Apocalypse, which, like the ladder seen by Jacob, set upon the earth, with its top reaching unto heaven, and Jehovah standing over it, becomes the medium of communication between God and man, by means of His Divinely appointed Angels, or Evangelists. ' One like unto a son of man "was seen standing in the midst of seven golden candlesticks.' By this mysterious manifestation of Himself, the glorified Son of Man caused John to recognise the Divine source of the Revelation, which he was about to receive and to communicate in writing to the Evangelists of the Church for her guidance in all periods of her earthly existence. He commences the substance of the Revelation with an appeal to his well-known unique personal position and character, ' 1, John, who am also your brother and fellow-partaker in the affliction and in the kingdom and endurance of Christ Jesus, was in the isle called Patmos for tlie word of God and for tlio witness of Jesus.' He makes no allusian to his official position as Metropolitan of the Churches ; but he addresses their members as a brother, not as a Rabbi, in remembrance of his great Teacher's words, ' all ye are brethren.' He then refers to their joint-fellowship in the tribulation, foretold by Christ as the result of the con- fession of His name, already realised at the destructi£>n of Jerusalem.^ It was also a fellowship in that Kingdom of God which had been founded by Christ, inaugurated at Pente- cost by the visible outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and was subjectively realised by the righteousness and peace and joy which were enjoyed by its subjects. It was, moreover, a ' The theorj' that the Temi^le was standing .vhen the Aposalypse was written 38 PATMOS fellowship in the patient endurance of suffering in keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and in resistance to the attacks of Satan, which are the true marks of unity with Christ and of enrolment in the Lamb's Book of Life. The scene of the vision was in the ' Isle which is called Pat- mos,' an emblem of that isolation which results from protracted suffering, even in the midst of the waves of this world's tumult, whereby the mind is prepared to receive spiritual impressions. Thus for forty days our Lord on the mount of temptation pon- dered in solitude over His plans for the regeneration of man- kind, and the distant wilds of Arabia were the scene of the wonderful revelations and visions of the unseen world, which enabled Paul to bear infallible testimony to the doctrine of the future state. Forsaken on the banks of the Hiddekel through the fears of his companions, the exiled Daniel was separated from man to receive the prophetic history of the world. Seclu- sion is not only the frequent result, but often the necessary preparation for the faithful preaching of the Word of God, and the prophetic testimony or bearing witness to Jesus Christ. John proceeds to declare the spiritual condition under which he received the Divine communication. ' I became in Spirit.' By the indwelling of the Spirit of Christ, the body for a time becomes entranced or insensible to earthly objects. Paul was unable to realise whether he was in the body or out of the body, when taken to Paradise and the third heavens. Some approxi- mation to its objective character may be realised from the con- dition of the disciples, when they were overshadowed by the bright cloud, or Shekinah, on the Mount of the Transfiguration. The time of the manifestation is stated to have been on the Lord's Day, or the first day of the week — possibly an anniversary of the Resurrection — whereby the transference of the Sabbath observance from the seventh to the first day of the week appears in consequence of the reference made to its admeasurement in the xi. chapter appears to be confuted by the correlative visions of the restored Temple seen by Ezckiel, whilst the first Temple was in a state of ruin. Both these visions appear to have been revealed for the consolation of those who had witnessed their destruction under the trials and suflei"ings to which they were exposed fur their faith in the promises of God. I'HE SEVEN CITIES 39 to receive its Divine sanction. The name of tlie Lord's Supper appears also to have been given to the Holy Eucharist by Paul to denote its future substitution for the Paschal Supper. While John remained in this spiritual condition ' he heard a great voice, as of a trumpet,' symbolical of the warning nature of the message which it conveyed, as implied in the command given to the prophet Isaiah, ' Lift up thy voice as a trumpet and shew my people their transgression.' The purport of the words was to direct John to write what he was seeing in a book and to send it to the Seven Churches which were in Asia unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. These seven cities were situated in the one proconsular province of Asia Minor, and the sending a book containing a re- cord of what John was seeing to each of the Seven Churches situated within the one province appears to be an emblem of its application to the requirements of the Sevenfold or Catholic Church throughout the world. The names of these cities, in which the Churches had been founded, w^ere specified. They appear to be symbolical of all the conditions or phases throug-h which the Church is passing during her earthly existence. Their signifi- cation or character is approximately discovered by comparing the root meaning of the names with the contents of the Epistles, and the periods of the Church's history to which they refer, revealed under the description of the events attending the open- ing of the Seals, the sounding of the Trumpets, and the outpour- ing of the Vials. They are named in a succession, which appears to intimate the order in which these different conditions succeed one another. 1. ' Ephesus,' from the Greek, 'a throwing,' is an emblem of the Church Militant, in her first attack on heathenism, when the crowned rider on the white horse goes forth armed with the bow of the promise of salvation typical of the assured victory, which attends the Church's Evansrelistic attack. 2. ' Smyrna,' from the Greek ' Myrrh,' symbolical of death, is an emblem of the Church suffering from Persecution, especially excited by the jealousy of the Jews or Theistic professors, at the reception of the Gospel by idolatrous nations. As with our Lord, so with His Church, the bitterest opposition originated with His 40 THE SEVEN CITIES own nation, and His mightiest works were done in Galilee of the Gentiles, The established order in all ecclesiastical systems is ever the most hostile to reformation. 3. ' Pergamos,' probably from the Greek, ' a tower,' is an emblem of the Church watching against the evils of Heresy. This character is defined by the rider seen in the vision at the opening of the third seal with the balances of rationalistic criti- cal investigation, the destructive tendency of which was early manifested in the injury done to sound doctrine by the Gnostic and Arian heresies. 4. ' Thyatira,' from the Greek, ' to bruise the incense,' is an emblem of the danger which threatens the Spiritual worship and Eucharistic sacrifice of the Church by the admission of idolatrous practices through the erroneous teaching of self-appointed teachers. Under the emblem of the woman Jezebel, who in- troduced the worship of Baal into Israel, the union of idolatry with Christianity is foretold, of which instances are seen in many of the Romish additions to Primitive Church Ritual and Doctrine. 5. ' Sardis,' possibly from the Hebrew, ' to minister ' (Ex. xxxi. 10), is an emblem of ministerial or diaconal service, amidst Fanatical license and Agnostic materialism, which frequently follow corrupt forms of religious worship. The warning of the fifth trumpet, prophetically denunciative of the debased excesses of Mahometanism, appears to describe the state of the world, which requires to be met by the regular ministrations of the Church. G. ' Philadelphia,' from the Greek, ' brotherly kindness,' is an emblem of the operation of that Christian grace by which the Church is enabled to alleviate the miseries which attend Revolu- tion and Anarchy, prefigured by the vision of the earthquake on the opening of the sixth seal. 7. ' Laodicea,' from the Greek, ' the judgement of the people,' is an emblem of the Church's duty in sternly yet lovingly re- vealing the danger of the coming Apostasy, which is foretold before the sounding of the seventh trumpet, as being the pre- cursor of the close of the dispensation. These seven names symbolise the manifold characters under whicli the Church is enabled to perform the work entrusted to THE SEVEN GOLDEN CANDLESTICKS 41 lier by her Divine Founder. She is revealed as a holy organisa- tion to evangelise the world with the doctrines of the Word, and to contend against the sin which is promoted by the deceivings of Satan, whereby she becomes exposed to the sharpest persecu- tion at the hands of the established ecclesiastical systems. It is successively her function to watch against the mutilations of heretical teaching, to testify by self-sacrifice to the purity of her spiritual worship amid idolatrous corruptions, to steer a middle course of calm devotion between misguided zeal and cold secu- larism, to be a safe refuge in the midst of political strife, but also a faithful censor in view of approaching judgement. The Seven Epistles addressed to the Seven Churches in Asia, together with the Epistles of Paul to the Seven Churches situated in seven other districts of the Roman Empire, form the Church's Code of Instruc- tion for the guidance of her Evangelistic work in the world. The Seven Golden Candlesticks At the sound of the great voice, John turned and beheld Seven Golden Candlesticks. They symbolise the sharply defined outward organisation of the Catholic Church, as determined by her creeds, doctrine and discipline ; for the Candlestick or Lampstand is an emblem of the Church, as the pillar of the Truth and the bearer of the Word, to enlighten the world with the knowledge of Him who is the true Light. The symbol is interpreted by our Lord when He revealed to John that the Seven Candlesticks were the Seven Churches. Its application to the Catholic Church is shewn by the use of the number Seven, the emblem of Catholicity, whilst the golden material of which they were formed symbolises the precision which marks her external form, gold being the emblem of decision of character, resulting from tried experience. Under the Jewish dispensation, the Church of God was sym- bolised by the Seven-branched Golden Candlestick set in the Holy Place. Her unity of origin was denoted by the one shaft or stem from whence sprang the seven branches, an emblem of the catholicity of her operations as the light-bearer to diffuse the rays of the Divine Word, issuing from one locality, the Sanctuary of God, and also a type of Jesus Christ in the flesh, coming from the Divine presence into the world. In the Temple of Solomon 42 THE SEVEN GOLDEN CANDLESTICKS an expansion of her operations was symbolised by the ten goldeti candlesticks, which were placed in the Sanctuary in addition to the seven-branched Candlestick, being emblems of the Church's function as the interpreter of the principles of Divine law, em- bodied in the ten Words spoken from Mount Sinai. In the prophetic vision seen by Zechariah is symbolised the method by which the Church obtains Divine grace to enable her, by the preaching of the Word, to manifest the light of the wisdom of God. A Golden Candlestick is represented as receiving the Golden Oil that flows from two olive-trees into a bowl placed above it, from whence by a sevenfold arrangement of golden pipes it is conveyed to her seven lamps. The whole is an emblem of the Jewish and Christian developements of the Church of God, and represents the Divine Grace issuing from these two Churches or olive-trees typical of their sacramental character, and derived through their root systems from the one rock, Christ, on which they are planted. Through them it is con- veyed into the one bowl, or receptacle, over the candlestick, symbolical of the headship of Christ over His Church, receiving gifts for man, witnessed in the unction of the Holy Spirit at the Jordanic baptism. From Him, the Head, the Divine grace is again conveyed to every branch of the Catholic Church through the sevenfold agencies Divinely appointed for its trans- mission. The unity of the two Churches is symbolised by their union with the one bowl, and the intended Catholicity of their operations by the sevenfold organisation of pipes, with which they are connected with the seven Lamps of the seven-branched Candlestick. These two Jewish and Christian Churches were again revealed to John as sacramental channels to transmit Divine Grace, as light-bearers of the Word, and as sacrificial confessors of the Faith of Christ under the emblems of the two olive-trees, candlesticks, and witnesses. The catholicity of the Church of God becomes most promi- nent in the present vision of the Glorified Son of Man, seen in the midst of the Seven Golden Candlesticks, no longer locally restricted on one shaft to one chosen nation, but as having expanded into a sevenfold or universal system of separate candlesticks, formed after one pattern (Heb. viii. 5), arranged after one plan (1 Cor. xiv. 33), and organised for one and the CATHOLICITY IN UNITY 43 same object. It represents the confederated body of the Catholic Church, of which the several yet united members form one vast system, each member adapted to her special locality, instructed in her special work, yet owning allegiance to one Central Head, operating under one Central Direction, and energising under one Central Spiritual Influence. It is the emblem of Catholicity in Unity. This Divine arrangement was witnessed in the antient camp of Israel, each tribe encamping beside its tribal standard, organised for its special tribal work and order of march, whilst the whole encampment received its consolidated orders from one central authority, the lips of Moses, instructed by the Divine Voice from above the Mercy Seat. The ideal of the Catholic Church is seen in the Heavenly Throne of the Divine Per- sonality, revealing His Eternal purposes amidst the four Immortalities, through the agency of the twenty-four kingly and priestly Elders, transmitting them by the instrumentality of Angelic messengers to the Cosmic Spheres, and entrusting them to the care of the Apostolic College, from whence the heavenly directions are sent by human agents to the presiding Evangelists of each separate Church. The Candlestick as an accessory in Divine Worship is first referred to when Moses was commanded to make a sanctuary as the dwelling-place of Jehovah amongst His chosen people. The seven-branched Golden Candlestick was ordered to be placed in the Holy Place outside the vail. Its form suggests the idea of its being intended as a memorial of the Tree of Life, and its attendant lamps appear to be also a memorial of the Shekinah and to symbolise the spiritual enlightenment that shines forth from the knowledge of the Word of which its fruit is the Life. The Tree of Life becomes thus the Tree of Light, over which possibly the Shekinah permanently rested in the Garden of Eden, until at the Fall the Glory under the form of the flaming sword was borne on the Cherubim to its gate to become the antediluvian witness of the presence of Jehovah. When after the Deluge the Shekinah departed from the ruined Eden, in order to preserve the remembrance of the lost Tree of Life, Noah appears to have been divinely inspired to plant a vine, possibly also as a prophetic type of the True Vine. A correlative Theophany with that of the Son of the Man in the 44 THE CANDLESTICK AND THE TREE OF LIFE midst of Seven Golden Candlesticks was revealed when the Angel of Jehovah appeared to Moses in the bush or tree burning, possibly as in Eden, yet unconsumed by the fire of the Divine Shekinah. When, therefore, the tabernacle was erected in the same sacred spot, and the seven-branched Golden Candlestick with its seven lamps of Fire was placed before the closed vail of the Holy of Holies, the chosen people would be reminded of the Sacred Tree in Eden, the source of Light and Life to man before the Fall, and in its material form they would realise the functions of that organisation of the Church of God under the Judaic dispensation, in which it held so prominent a position, to be the bearer of the Word under its twofold sacramental character of Spiritual food and Spiritual enlightenment typical alike of Him who is the Bread of Life and the Light of Life. Possibly to inculcate the doctrine that access to the Tree of Life is dependent on orderly obedience to law, Solomon by Divine inspiration placed in the newly erected temple ten candlesticks of gold, five on either side, guarding the approach to the golden seven-branched Candlestick and the sacred Vail. The connection between the Candlestick and the Tree of Life attains great prominence in the vision seen by Zechariah of the two olive-trees, supplying the lamps with the golden oil ; an emblem of the fruit-producing energy for the support of eternal life, which was the special function of the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden, and which receives its greatest develope- ment in the renovated earth and heaven, when it will bear twelve manner of fruits and will yield its fruits every month, symbolising the perfected Ecclesiastical organisation of the Church of the Elect in the Heavenlies, to supply to each of the blessed inhabitants of the Holy City their monthly or allotted portion of spiritual nutrition. The germ of the doctrine of the Candlestick, as the emblem of the Christian Church, the Light- bearer of the Word, was realised in our Lord's words to His disciples: 'yo are the Light of the world ; a city set on a hill cannot be hid.' On the destruction of the Temple, when the sacred Candlestick was carried to Home, as seen on the sculp- ture of the Arch of Trajan, the material memorial of the Tree of Life was removed. Its place, however, was mysteriously supplied when, at the Pentecostal inauguration of the Christian THE GLORIFIED SON OF MAN 45 Church, the Divine Shekinah, issuing from one central source, distributed its lambent flames of heavenly fire upon the heads of the chosen Twelve, as the representatives of the Church, which was thereby manifested to be a new memoi'ial of the Tree of Life and to be the future source from which Spiritual enlightenment should be afforded to man, whereby she is enabled to continue the work entrusted to her by her ascended Founder under His twofold character as the Bread of Life and the Light of the World. The Glorified Son of Man, in inter- preting tbe mystery of the Seven Golden Candlesticks, expressly declares that they typify the Catholic Church. The Glorified Son of Man — Bev. i. 13 * In the midst of the seven candlesticks was one like unto a Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and hairs, white as wool, white as snow ; and his eyes as a flame of fire ; and his feet like unto chalcolibanus or fine brass, as if they were set on fire in a furnace ; and his voice as the sound of many waters ; and having in his right hand seven stars : and out of his mouth a sharp two-edged sword going forth : and his counte- nance as the sun shineth in his strength.' In the midst of the Seven Candlesticks, John saw an appearance like unto a Son of Man. It is an expression descriptive of the Human Form, similar to that used in refer- ence to the Divine Personality seen by Daniel, receiving the eternal dominion over the universe from the Antient of Days. Under the form of Man the Angel of the Lord, the Logos, appeared to Abraham at Mamre, to Jacob at Penuel, to Joshua as the Captain of the Host of the Lord before Jericho, to Stephen on his martyrdom, and to Paul on the road to Damascus, explanatory of the words, 'Man is the image and glory of God' (1 Cor. xi. 7), inasmuch as Christ is the image of God. — 2 Cor. iv. 4. The Human Form, in which the Glorified Son of Man ajjpeared to John, appears to have been that in which ' God created the Adam in His image.' The glory of this form man lost by the Fall. Its restoration is, however, promised through Christ, who ' at His return shall fashion anew tlie body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body 46 THE DIVINE FORM of His glory.' ' The Sons of God are to be like Him, when He shall appear,' and by this vision of the glorified Personality of the Son of Man, a higher degree of knowledge than that possessed by John when writing his Epistle was now commu- nicated, and the very form which glorified humanity will possess in the new heavens and new earth was revealed to him to be recorded in the Apocalypse, the last sacred writing of the Holy Scriptures. — 1 John iii. 2. The sharp distinction which exists between the two terms ' image ' and ' likeness,' as applied to the creation of man, is often lost sight of. The Divine Utterance calling man into existence, ' let us make man in our image, after our likeness,' appears to be expressive of material form as well as of moral similitude. The image or form is realised in that assumed by the Logos before and since the Incarnation, and reappears in the glorified form now seen by John. The likeness consists in the possession of Will, or the potentiality of free choice. This is the essential nature of God. ' God is Love.' But Love is only another term for Will exercising itself in its highest perfection. Form or Imao-e is necessary for the exercise of Will. This appears in the generation of the Son, who, as the Logos or Reason, is the expression of the Will of the Father, or that which displays, as far as God wills shall be known, this impression of the substance or person of the Father. To this our Lord testifies when he declared that ' no man knoweth who the Father is but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him,' illustrative of a subsequent utterance, ' he that hath seen me hath seen the Father.' This first vision witnessed by John appears, therefore, to be a revelation of the form of perfected Humanity, which in the person of Jesus he had already witnessed, and of the perfection of Humanity in its moral likeness to God by the display of infinite Love in the works of Christ. This Divine Form is represented as habited in a priestly ' robe down to the Feet, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle,' The vision is descriptive of the Glorified Son of Man, as the Great High Priest in the Heavenly Temple, watching over and perfecting the Catholic Church for the enlightenment of the world by the manifestation of the wisdom of God. The dress svmbolises His ofiicial position, and the various details of THE SACEED GARMENTS 47 His personal appearance symbolise the infinite perfection of His Divine character and disposition. The robe down to the feet is correlative with the blue robe of the High Priest, the azure colour of which symbolises the heavenly character of his ministrations, whilst its descending folds covering the whole body testify to the entire dedication of His life to His sacred office. Over this was worn the many coloured Ephod, from the golden ouches, with their two onyx stones, of whose shoulder-pieces, inscribed with the names of the children of Israel, descended the golden chains sustaining the sacred Pectoral or Breastplate of Judgement, symbolising the manifold graces of the Holy Spirit requisite to be possessed by Him to Whom has been entrusted the sacred yet arduous work of intercession on behalf of the people of God. In the Breastplate were placed the Urim and Thummim, that mysterious channel of communication between the Divine and the Human of which the High Priest was the Divinely appointed inter- preter. The Breastplate was fastened above the many coloured embroidered girdle, but in the case of the Glorified Son of Man it appears to be exchanged for the golden girdle of approved experience passing over the two breasts, the emblem of truth (Eph. vi. 14), symbolising the sharply defined fidelity with which the heavenly High Priest protects the two Covenants of the Jewish and Christian dispensations, by means of which the sincere Milk of the Word, through his Divine mediation and instruction, is given to all the Sons of God. This priestly character of the Son of Man was prefio-ured in various visions revealed to Ezekiel and Daniel. In that seen by Ezekiel (ix. 2) the Divine Man clothed in linen sets the mark of election on the faithful of the Jewish Church, as afterwards in that seen by John, the Angel, ascending from the east, seals with the baptismal seal of the living God the 144,000 elect of the Christian Church. A similar vision of the priestly Divine Man in the execution of His sacerdotal functions was vouchsafed to Daniel (x. 5), pro- phetically announcing the events that were to befall the Church of God until the final destruction of the Temple, correlative with that seen by John of the mighty Angel, clothed with the cloud proclaiming the final consummation of the mystery of God. 48 THE GREAT HIGH PRIEST In another vision, descriptive of His priestly functions, tlie Divine Man, clothed in linen, was seen by Ezekiel (x. 7) receiving from the wheels between the cherubim the coals of fire to cast upon the city, kindred with that seen by John of the priestly Angel casting upon the earth from the golden censer the fire taken from the altar, predictive of the Divine judgements which are to take place respectively during the periods of the Jewish and Christian dispensations by means of natural portents, as well as social and political disturbance. This same vision seen by John reveals the atoning intercession of the Great High Priest offering on the golden altar the sweet odours with the prayers of all Saints living or departed, long before prefigured by the type of the Jewish High Priest presenting the sacred incense that its smoke might intervene between the Divine Presence over the mercy seat and himself, when entering into the Holy of Holies on the day of the Atonement to sprinkle the blood of the sin-offering for the annual reconciling of the congregation of Israel. As her Great High Priest, the Glorified Son of Man was thus revealed to John in the performance of His official functions of eternal and infinite intercession and mediation in behalf of this elect and beloved body, the Catholic Church. The Divine Person John passes from the description of the Priestly Robes to the Personal appearance of the Glorified Son of Man, the details of which are emblems of His personal character and attributes. ' His Head and Hairlocks white as Wool, white as Snow,' describe the glorious purity of mind and of the imaginations of the Son of Man. In the vision seen by Daniel (vii. 9), this attribute is ascribed to the Antient of Days, suggestive of the Eternal Wisdom, the first Beginning of His way, possessed by Jehovah. — Prov. viii. 22. The head, as the seat of the Intellect, is the emblem of the Divine Will, and the hairlocks which proceed from it are typical of the eternal purposes of that Will. The inherent purity of the ideas that emanate from the Divine Wisdom is shewn under the emblem of white wool, that which grows from the body, in contrast to the white snow, which derives its whiteness from the crystallising process through which the aerial moisture is cleansed from all extraneous im- THE DIVINE PERSON 49 parity, symbolisms of the infinite power of the Divine Holiness to purify every idea which comes into contact with the Divine Reason. The two symbols are descriptive of the subjective and objective purity of the mind and purposes of the Glorified Son of Man. In the Song of Solomon (v. 11) the refulgent appearance of the head of the heavenly Bridegroom, as the most fine gold, symbolises the visible operations of the spiritual influence of the Divine Wisdom : while the bushy or hanging locks, black as the raven, may be an emblem of the Divine condescension in extending His thoughts to the dark places of the earth, seeking as with the keen-sighted ness of the raven to bring into captivity every thought to perfect obedience to Himself, when the full glory of His infinite Holiness will be eternally revealed. ' His Eyes as a Flame of Fire ' describe the penetrative character of the spiritual oversight of the Glorified Son of Man. The flame of fire was the manifestation of the Glory, by which the Angel of Jehovah was recognised as the God of Abraham by Moses in the burning bush at Horeb, by which also the assembled multitudes at Pentecost were convinced of the inspired nature of the words of Peter, and of the necessity of repentance and faith in the risen Christ, and by which the mind of Paul was penetrated by the conviction of the identity of Jesus of Nazareth with the promised Messiah. The eye, as the receptive organ of light, is the symbol of the eternal generation of the Son, begotten of the Father ; ' God is Light.' By His eternal unity with the Father, the Son is the effulgence of His glory, the source of all spiritual enlightenment, and, as He calls Himself, the light of the world. This illuminating attribute is typified by the eyes, as lamps or torches of fire in the vision seen by Daniel (x. C), emblems of the visible gifts and organisations, whereby His spiritual oversight energises through the universe. The infinite possession of the fulness of the Spirit, and His eternal procession from the Glorified Son of Man under His redemptive character as the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world, are also symbolised in the vision of the Lamb, standing as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth, typical of E 50 THE GREAT TIIEOniANY universal aggressive power and spiritual penetrative oversight. The horn is an emblem of aggressive agency. — Zech. i. 21. The derivation from the Glorified Son of Man of spiritual illumination, united with the idea of spiritual purification, is symbolised by the seven eyes or fountains gi-aven or opened on the one stone seen in the vision of Zechariah (iii. 9), for the Hebrew term carries both meanings, and therefore becomes symbolical of the one spiritual rock, the smitten Christ, from whose eyes or fountains of grace the streaming tears or rivers of living waters are ever flowing for the refreshment of His faithful followers. The attribute in its fulness symbolises the infinite and inherent perfection of the Glorified Son of Man, irradiating the universe with the rays of his spiritual oversight and guidance, penetrating into the most hidden recesses of darkened humanity with the fiery gleams of His redeeming love, before the final revelation of Himself as the King of Kings, at the head of His victorious Heavenly armies, coming in flaming fire to take vengeance on His enemies, who know not God, and who obey not His Gospel. ' His Feet were like unto burnished brass, as burnt or re- fined in a furnace,' or, as described by Daniel (x. 6), ' His arms and the place of His feet were like in color to polished brass.' These terms describe the infinite skill, produced by experience, tried in the fire of temptation, which is characteristic of the progressive movements and action of the Glorified Son of Man, for brass or copper appears to be the emblem of skill from the identity of the root in the Hebrew words for brass and serpent. The character of the latter was ' subtilty,' but the word is also used in a good sense for prudence or skill (Prov. xiv. 15, 18), and for craft or capacity for work (2 Cor. xii. 16). The chalcolibanus, the burnished or fine brass, is a Greek and Hebrew compound expressive of brass and white, possibly descriptive of a stream of molten brass at a white heat, sym- bolising infinite purity of action tested in the furnace of adversity and teuiptation. The same term is used to express the rapid- ity of movement which marked the progress of the Cherubic Immortalities, whose feet in the vision seen by Ezekiel (i. 7) * sparkled like the color of burnished brass,' and the spiritual source of their unsullied brilliancy and rapidity of movement is symboliped in the use of the Hebrew root expressive equally of THE DIVINE PERSON 51 colour and fountain. The legs of the mighty Angel seen by John (x. 1), clothed with a Cloud and the Rainbow or Shekinah over His head, are compared to pillars of fire, correlative with the appearance of the Divine Personality, seen in the vision of Kzekiel (i. 27) as the color of chasmal, amber or electron, from the loins upwards and downward as it were the appearance of fire ; the latter typical of His purifying action in the earthly sphere, whereby the Divine Logos proclaims His eternal unity with God as a consuming fire. The Greek term, ' electron,' a compound of gold and brass, possibly emblems of decision of character and skill, may symbolise the electrical or irresistible nature of the Divine operations in the celestial sphere, to the contemplation of which Paul exhorts his Colossian converts, ' set your mind on things above.' The full expression is an emblem of the infinite skill and rapidity which attends the opera- tions of the Glorified Christ in the governance of the universe. ' His voice was the sound of many waters,' or, as explained by Daniel (x. 6), ' the voice of a multitude.' It describes the vast missionary organisation of the Glorified Son of Man for the evangelisation of the world. ' Having in His right hand Seven Stars.' This expression describes the union of the Catholic Church under her Evangelistic aspect with the Glorified Son of Man, and by the association of the seven stars with the Seven Spirits of God, in the epistle to the Sardian Angel, her union also with the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. Christ is said to have them in His hand, to express possession and union, contrasted with the stronger term, ' holding,' expressive of the protection and guidance afforded to them in their attack on the heathenism of the world. The right hand is an emblem of acceptance, and also of association with and delegation of the highest power. Our Lord stated to the Jewish Sanhedrim that ' hereafter the Son of Man should sit on the right hand of the power of God,' to which station He had been appointed by Jehovah. ' Jehovah said to my Lord, sit thou on my right hand.' From the connection of the classic Hymen, the God of Marriage, with the Hebrew root ' yahmeen,' the right hand appears to symbolise the spiritual union between Christ and the Church, as His bride. ' Upon thy right hand did stand the queen in a vesture of gold.' The seven stars are K 'i 52 THE GREAT TIlEOrilANY interpreted by our Lord Himself as ' the angels or evangelists of the Seven Churches.' ' Out of His mouth was going forth a sharp two-edged sword.' This weapon- was the Thracian broadsword for battle contrasted with the civil sword of law and justice, and the attribute describes the convincing character of the aggressive and corrective effect of the spiritual doctrine of the Glorified Son of Man. The sword is an emblem of the Word of God, ever proceeding from His lips ; capable by the sharpness of its two edges, or twofold power, to convince the opponents and to correct the believer. ' His countenance was as the sun shineth in His strength,' or (according to Daniel x. 6) ' His face was as the appearance of lightning.' This describes the inherent righteousness and pene- trative brilliancy of the heavenly principle, which generates the outward manifestation of the Divine Word, rendered visible in the personal appearance of the Glorified Son of Man. At the transfiguration our Lord's face shone as the sun, irradiating all around by the rays which issued from the all-perfect nature of His personal holiness. The prophet Malachi foretold the second advent of the Lord of Hosts under a similar emblem, as the Sun of Righteousness. The effect produced by the reflected light of the Word upon man's character was symbolised by the refulgence produced by the glory of the Shekinah on the face of Moses. It was this perfected holiness and righteousness manifested respec- tively in His relation to God and Man that enabled our Lord to announce Himself as the Light of the world, and in the vision of His Glorified Humanity they are symbolised under the emblem of the Sun as the brightest of all light-bearing bodies yet revealed to man. Attention should be given to the absence of any description of the body of the Glorified Son of Man. This may possibly be due to the Divine intention to fix the thoughts of the Seer on the character of the Son of Man, as the Head of His Mystic Body, the Church, symbolised by the Seven Golden Candlesticks, through whose instrumentality He fulfils His Divine purposes ; for the head is the emblem of the directing mind, whilst the body with its several members is only the instrument by which the thoughts are carried out in the earthly sphere of the Church's action. The contrast is very marked in the correlative Tlieo- THE DIVINE PERSON 53 phany seen by Daniel (x. 6), in which prominence is given to the body of the Priestly Man like to the beryl, symbolising the unsullied brilliancy and permanence which attend the personal action of the Son of God in the earthly sphere, directing the Angelic Agencies in their regulation of the events which shall promote the well-being of the Elect. The vision of this great Theophaiiy, with which the Apo- calypse is opened, is a revelation of the Glorified Son of Man in His official character, as the Kingly High Priest, presiding over His Mystic Body, the Catholic Church, and supplying her with the nutrition of Divine Life to enable her to be the Bearer of the Word for the enlightenment of the world. The perfection of glorified Humanity is also symbolised under the wondrous form in which the union of the Divine and Human is revealed in the person of the Son of Man, mani- fc^sting the eternal capabilities and consummated adaptations of His never-ceasing operations through the Earthly sphere, irradi- ating the universe with the rays of love and mercy which proceed from His inherent truth and wisdom ; enlightening the sur- rounding Intelligencies by the bright shining of His perfected example, and energising with His vivifying graces the manifold organisations for the promulgation of His Divine will and the consummation of His infinite purposes. It is also the perfect pattern, presented for their imitation, of the character and attainments requisite to be found in those whom, by the mission of the energising Comforter or Paraclete, He elects to receive into the sacred Kingdom of Priestly Angels or Evangelists to carry the directions of the Almighty to the objects of His love. By priestly intercession and never-ceasing communion with the Divine Presence they are enabled to become the recipients of heavenly wisdom. The principle of the Word of Life manifest- ing itself in lofty aspirations, sacred utterances, and holy practices, under the spiritual protection of Divine acceptance, suffices them with unerring skill to become bright examples and prudent instructors in turning the disobedient into the path of wise compliance with fundamental law, by which alone eternal life was attained and sustained in Him, by whom alone, as man, the Will of God has been perfected, and by union with whom eternal life may be also attained by each individual man. 54 CHAPTER III THE APOCALYPTIC COMMISSION AND MYSTERY — Rev. 1. 17 A Divine command was given to John by the Glorified Son of Man ' to write the things which he had seen,' or the wonderful Theophany which he had witnessed ; ' the things which are,' or the state of the Church described in the Seven Epistles, and ' the things which shall be hereafter,' or the mystery of the Seven Stars and of the Seven Golden Candlesticks, revealed in the sub- sequent visions. This appears to be the interpretation of the command which was then given by Him, who under the form of Jesus Christ had been before revealed to John as the Word, testified of by him in his Gospel ; and as the Word of Life, testified of by him in his Epistle. This mystery is a Divine attestation to the truth of the last words of the Ascending Christ, ' All power has been given to me in heaven and earth.' It is a Divine corroboration of the command, ' Go ye, and disciple all nations, baptising them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things, whatsoever I have com- manded you.' It is a Divine witness to the fulfilment of the promise, ' Lo, I am with you always, even to the consummation of the age. Amen.' John proceeds to relate the condition of comparative inani- tion to which he was reduced by the sight of the Glorified Son of Man. ' When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead.' When Daniel was permitted to see the Divine Man clothed in linen on the banks of the Hiddekel, ' no force remained in him and his dignity was turned into corruption.' His sense of physical and intellectual superiority over other men was annihilated by comparison with the majesty of the Divine Personality. Ihe contrast between the condition of mortality and the nature of immortality was so vast, that it produced a feeling kindred to THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES 55 that realised on a similar occasion by Isaiah, ' Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips ; ' and similar to that sense of reverential awe which caused Peter at the Galilean Lake to utter the lowly words, ' Depart from me, for I am a sin- ful man, 0 Lord.' Happy are those by whom such feelings are experienced ; to these the comforting words will be addressed, ' Fear not.' The right hand of acceptance will be extended to place them on the sure standpoint of loving faith in Christ's power over Death and Hades, and the live coal burning with spiritual energy will touch their lips to render them sufficient for their sacred mission in making known to others the deep mysteries that have been revealed to them. To these the ascended Son of Man will reveal Himself under His Eternal Attributes. These attributes resolve themselves into five divisions : — 1. The I AM, the Self Existent, the Ever Present. 2. The First and the Last ; the Origin and the Consumma- tion of regenerate humanity. 3. The Living One, and I became dead, and lo, I am living to the ages of the ages. 4. The Amen. — iii. 14. This attestation of His Eternal Verity, which the Eternal Son of God can alone appropriate, is kindred with the Divine Attestation, whereby Jehovah con- firmed to Abraham the promise of the Seed, ' by myself have I sworn.' 5. I have the keys of Hades and of Death. Under these attributes the Sou of Man reveals His identity with the human, loving Jesus of Nazareth, capable of sympathis- ing with and succouring every child of man in every condition through which he has to pass in Life, in Death, in Hades, or in Eternity. The battle of life has been fought, the gates of Death and Hades have been burst asunder, the portals of Heaven have been opened to receive Him, and now on the right hand of God the Son of Man stands ready and willing to assist all who follow in His steps. The Third Attribute, ' the living one, and I became dead, and behold, I am living to the ages of the ages,' demands closer attention, as from its tr'partite character it is parallel in respect of the Humanity of the Son of Man to the other tj-ipartitc attri- 56 THE APOCALYPTIC MYSTERY bute claimed by himself in respect of His Divinity, ' The existing one, and He which was, and the coming one.' — Ver. 4. As ' the living one,' it expresses tliat eternal inherent Life which subsists in God, but by His eternal generation from the Father it becomes also the attribute of the Son of Man : ' As the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself.' Hence it forms one of the clauses of the first creed of the Christian Church, uttered through divine in- spiration by the lips of Peter : ' Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.' By the second division, ' I became dead,' the attribute wit- nesses to the true Humanity of the I AM, who emptied or made Himself of no reputation, aud was made sin for us, who knew no sin, whereby He became subject to Death, shewing that in all things He was made like unto His brethren. The sinless one was made the sin -bearer ; and, as the sin-bearer. He submitted to the penalty of Death, which, as the primeval curse of sin, ' dying, thou shalt die,' expressive of certain but gradual death, was witnessed in ovir Lord's life of restraint in childhood, of hardship in manhood, and of obstruction as a teacher, in His agony in death, in the consignment of His body to the grave, and in the sojourn of His human soul in Hades, to all of which He voluntarily submitted. By the third division, ' I am living to the ages of the ages,' the attribute witnesses to the Eternal Duration of the Risen and Ascended Son of Man. Prospective Eternity is as much an essential attribute of Deity as lletrospective Eternity. The Living One in the Eternal Past is the I am, the Living One in the Present and the ever Coming Living One in the Eternal Future ; the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. The charac- ter of this attribute of Eternity is beyond the present grasp of mortal man, but the terms used to convey its meaning, ' the ages of the ages,' testify to the error of the popular idea of its nature, as a continuous aud never-ending Duration uninterrupted by successive alternations. Scripture testifies to three ages, through which the existing mundane system has passed — the prehistoric, the antediluvian, aud present period ; and it further reveals that these are to be followed by the Hadean, the Millennial, and that of the New Heaven and the New Earth. Geology extends our ETERNITY 57 knowledge to other ages of far-reaching antiquity, each marked by its ypecial characteristic. That which Science propounds, Scripture corroborates in its brief description of the glorious condition of the pre-Adaraic earth under the rule of its Anointed covering or protecting Cherub, at whose fall the present earthly sphere was reduced to the Chaotic state which preceded the Creative week, when at the command of its Almighty Maker it was reorganised for the abode of Man. — Ezek. xxviii. 12-19. Science and Revelation therefore appear to agree in enunciating the doctrine that the true nature of Eternity is one of a never- ending succession of ages, sharply distinguished by transitional catastrophes. There appears reason to believe that the Sacred Record does not contravene the idea that, while the Resurrection state is the last revealed condition of the earth, it will probably be succeeded by other transmutations, in the same way that the majestic pre-Adamic earth was followed by that now inhabited by man. These and other passages appear to testify to the eternal succession of renewed dispensations, wherein the elect and the saved will, according to their continuously developing perfec- tions, attain higher degrees of honour and position around the throne of the Eternal. The period of the Millennial reign of the saints after the First Resurrection appears to support this view, when a fresh Dispensation commences with the loosing of Satan, closing with the Second Death, and the renovation of the Mundane System, the New Heaven and the New Earth. Thus the third attribute of Eternal Duration or Existence is the infinite fulfilment of the Promise given by the Ascending Son of Man, to be with His Church always until the consummation of the age. The last division of this Divine Attribute, ' I have the keys of Hades and of Death,' witnesses to the doctrine that the Eternal possession of self-existent Life is necessarily attended with the keys of Hades and of Death. These two conditions of mortality are also associated in vi. 8, where, on the opening of the fourth seal, Death appears as the rider on the pale horse, followed by Hades, tjie emblems of the fatal effects of idolatrous corruption in the Church, both to body and soul ; and in xx. 13, where, after the deliverance of the captives detained in them, their final destruction in the lake of fire is revealed. They 58 THE APOCALYPTIC MYSTERY represent respectively the conditions in which the souls and bodies of the departed await the summons to appear before the tribunal of God, to receive the things done in the body, according to that they have done, whether good or bad. The power of the Glorified Son of Man to afford egress from their embrace, typified by His possession of the keys, was witnessed by the resurrection of Himself, the first begotten from the dead, and foreshadowed by the Prophet Micah, under the type of the breaker, having passed through the gate, and their King and Jehovah at the head of Israel. His body saw no corruption in the grave, neither was His soul left in Hades, whither, after being put to death in the flesh, He went quickened in the Spirit, and preached to the spirits in prison. The potentiality of Christ's power to raise the dead is realised by the raising of Jairus's daughter, of the widow's son, and of Lazarus, whilst His control over the regions of the departed was witnessed by the visible presence of Moses and Elijah on the mount of the transfiguration. The Revelation of His Divine Nature and Almighty Power by the Glorified Son of Man becomes, therefore, the verification of the Prophetic Visions by which it is followed, and the Divine Attestation to the certainty of their Fulfilment. The Apocalyptic Mystery — Bev. i. 20 * The mystery of the Seven Stars, which thou sawest upon my right hand, and the Seven Golden Candlesticks.' — This forms the substance of the Revelation which John was commanded by the Glorified Son of Man to write in a book, and to send to the Seven Churches. Its interpretation is also added, ' The Seven Stars are the Angels of the Seven Churches, and the Seven Candlesticks which thou sawest are the Seven Churches.' Seven expresses Catholicity ; and the Seven Stars symbolise the collective body of the Angels or Evangelists of the Catholic Church, which is symbolised by the Seven Golden Candlesticks, in respect of her outward organisation for the manifestation of the Word, by means of her sharply defined creeds, ritual and discipline. Gold is the emblem of decision. The Apocalypse is a revelation of the mystery of the THE SEVEN STAINS 59 Kingdom, the mystery of the Will of God to gather together in one all things in Christ, hitherto kept secret since the world began ; but now to be made known by the Church according to the eternal purpose of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. It is the mystery of godliness whereby, in its contest with the mystery of iniquity, the latter will be annihilated by the destruction of the lawless one, at the manifestation of the presence of the Glorified Christ. The book, the words of which Daniel (xii. 4) had been commanded to shut and seal, was about to be gradually opened and its seals unloosed by the Prophetic Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Royal Sucker of the Root of David and the Sacrificial Lamb, standing as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the Seven Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth, revealing the mysterious unity which exists between the one man, Jesus Christ, the personal Lamb of God, and His Mystic Body, the concrete Lamb, of which He is the head, and His Elect, who are the members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. It reveals the object of the Church's Evangelistic organisa- tion. It is the election of a priestly order of prophetic rulers, signified or recognised by the internal witness of the spirit of holiness and the external seals of circumcision and baptism, for the future government of the saved in the regenerated world. It is the gathering together of all the associated peoples of the earth, who by resistance to evil and by the conscientious life, give evidence of faith in God, through the hearing of the Word preached to them by the elect Stars, or Angels, either in this age or in that to come ; in order that they may stand before the throne of Godj and serve Him eternally in His temple. The Apocalypse reveals the character of the Church's conflict with the power of Evil, energising through the Satanically inspired earthly political organisations and the idolatrous religions and false philosophical systems with which she is confronted ; until the period of the close of the contest at the advent of Christ, causing the Devil, their originating spirit, to be confined for a thousand years in the abyss, whereby these systems are dissolved, and the kingdoms of the world submit to the govern- ance of Christ. It further reveals the last victorious issue of the Church's 60 THE APOCALYPTIC MYSTERY conflict with the Satanic influence, when loosed after his millennial imprisonment, whereby he will inspire the barbarous nations of the world to a last revolt against the saintly dwellers in the Holy City, culminating in the final consignment of the apostate Spirit to the lake of fire. It closes with the revelation of the last judgment, and the restitution of all things in the new heaven and the new earth, governed from the Holy City by the Elect rulers, who will descend from the heavenly thrones in which, since their rapture at the first Resurrection, they have invisibly reigned with Christ over the earthly kingdoms during the Millennial Age. It reveals the permanent establishment of the throne of God and of the Lamb in the New Jerusalem, from whose sacred precincts issues the pure river of the water of Life, with its attendant forest of the Tree of Life for the eternal refreshment and sustentation of its blessed inhabitants, enlightened by the glory of God, with whom they are from henceforth to reign for the ages of the ages. The Apocalypse, moreover, reveals the method whereby this wonderful mystery is to be consummated through the agency of the Angelic Stars, and the Church's Golden Candlesticks. It contains the prophetic message to be delivered by the Presiding Rulers of the Church under their oflicial character, as Evan- gelists of the Gospel. — It is the prophetic history of the Catholic Church until the period of the Consummation of her Earthly Existence, and the renovation of all things in the New Heaven and the New Earth. The Seven Stars ' The Seven Stars are the Angels of the Seven Churches.' These words of the Glorified Son of Man define the office under which in this Prophecy He addresses the Presiding Elders or Rnlers of the Churches. They are Angels, Messengers, or Evan- gelists. This appears from the name given to the prophet Haggai, ' Jehovah's Angel or Messenger.' The Apocalyptic Angels are the chief ofiicials of the Churches, entrusted with a Divine Message. As Stars they bear witness by their bright example to its power upon their own lives. Personal Holiness is a necessary qualification in the Evangelists of the Church to THE SEVEN STARS 01 make them able overseers or bishops to feed her members. Stars are emblems of light or of the force of example. As the Light of the World, Jesus claims for Himself the Divine attribute, I am, the ever present, the shining and morning Star. He is the all perfect Man, by the unsullied rays of whose bright example the will of God has been revealed to man, the difficulties in the journey of this mortal life have been rendered more tolerable, and assurance of final victory has been afforded to all who entrust themselves to his guidance. The attribute of ' the Morning Star' is correlative with the words of Jesus in the parable of the Door of the sheep : ' all that ever came before me are thieves and robbers.' He is the Star before the dawn, when the mists of darkness, of sin and ignorance are dissipated by His life and words. Both j^assages describe the eternity and priority of the example and teaching of the Son of Man. All who advance claims to convey a message, different to that first sent by Him, originating from some source whence go forth words, which have not emanated from His lips, are destructive to the flock. He alone is ' the one bright and morning Star,' the perfect unsullied Example. From the whirl- wind Jehovah revealed to Job (xxxviii. 7) the existence of Morning Stars and Sons of God before the creation of the Mundane system ; they were two orders of celestial Intelligencies. The Stars act as examples to the Sons, as the Church's angels act as examples to her other members. The prophecy of Balaam, ' There shall come a Star out of Jacob,' revealed that one object of our Lord's incarnation was to enable him to be the Example or the Way, which those who believed should imitate and follow. The Star seen by the Magi, leading them possibly to the house at Nazareth, whither the child Jesus went after the presentation in the temple, is an emblem of the Church's Evangelists leading by their Example the Heathen to the knowledge of Christ. The crown of twelve stars on the head of the Woman, clothed with the sun, symbolises the apostolic college of the highest order of the Church's Ministers, directing by their example of self-denying study the intellectual pursuit of her members for the advance of her Founder's kingdom. The prophet Daniel writes that those that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars. The graduated 62 THE AroCALYPTIC MYSTERY glory of the Angelic guardians of tlie earth and its inhabitants is possibly due to the character of their work in ministering to the heirs of salvation. A forecast of the astral refulgence of God's Evangelists is witnessed in the shining of ]\Ioses's face on his return from the Divine presence, and in the angelic appear- ance of that of Stephen. Communion with Christ, symbolised by the Stars possibly placed as a signet upon His right hand, stamps His Evangelists with His reflected image and character. The influence which they exert, and the light of holiness emanating from their lives, bear witness to their mission from the Heavenly High Priest. They are the rays that are emitted from the jewels that He has chosen, the precious living stones, by whose instrumentality the spiritual house is to be built, and under whose guidance, directed by His hand. His chosen soldiers, preceded by their priestly trumpets of warning, advance to attack the Satanic stronghold. — xxi. 19. Union with the hand of the Son of Man is the only means whereby the Stars obtain the brightness which makes them safe guides to those to whom their light is sent. By his ex- pulsion from heaven, Satan, once the appointed Cherub, set upon the Mount of God, and protecting the pre-Adamic world with the covering of his glory, became a ruler of darkness. — Ezek. xxviii. 14. False teachers are also described as stars fallen from heaven, or Evangelists cast out of the Church, em- bittering the living waters, and obscuring the true light of the Word with their unrefreshing doctrines and fumid intellectual sophistries, rolling up from the corruption of earthly theories, instead of descending from the seat of heavenly wisdom. The wandering stars of Jude are Evangelists of error. The star of the idol god was possibly a priest of Moloch, the image per- sonification of king or hero worship, originating with Nimrod, and witnessed in the image of gold of Nebuchadnezzar. — Amos v. 26. The origin of Star worship, against which frequent warnings were given by Moses, may be traced to an overstrained reverence of Angels or of Morning Stars, sent with messages from Heaven to man, which was afterwards transferred to the material stars, possibly regarded as their thrones or seats of empire. The fiery stream issuing from the Divine presence in the vision of Daniel (vii. 10) appears to have been the starlike THE ciiur.cirs angels 63 rajs of the angelic messengers passing between the heavenly throne and the infinite spheres of the universe, similar to those seen by Jacob, and revealed by our Lord to Nathaniel, as being the intelligent agencies of communication between heaven and earth. The Star decoration of State Officials is apparently a survival of the intelligent Astral connection existing between God and man, for the powers that be are ordained of God to act as His Ministers. The Church's Angels The Angels and the Stars are shewn by the Son of Man to be identical. They express different characters and offices of the same persons. The Star is an emblem of influence and of the force of example, whilst the Angel is the Messenger, and the Word is expressive of the duties of his official position. He is the intelligent message-bearer between God and Man. The first recorded created Angel, under that name, appeared to Lot, announcing the destruction of Sodom. The Angel, who was seen by Hagar, apparently refers to ' Jehovah, who spake unto her.' The appearances of Angels, as bearers of messages on important occasions, are frequently recorded in the Old Testa- ment, of which the last appears to have been that seen by the prophet Zechariah. The Angel Gabriel, announcing the birth of the Baptist, is the first, and he by whom the Apocalypse was signified to John is the last recorded in the New Testa- ment. Neither in the Old nor New Testaments is the name Ansrel confined to the celestial messenger. — The prophet Haggai (i. 13) is called an Angel of Jehovah. The Babylonish Captivity is attributed to the sin of the Israelites in mocking the Messengers or Angels of God — unless, indeed, these are to be regarded as celestial beings. — 2 Chron. xxxvi. 16, The Baptist was named by Jehovah, His Angel. — Mai. iii. 1 ; Matt. xi. 10. The word is used once in the Gospels under its missionary aspect, when our Lord sent Messengers or Angels to Samaria before His face. Paul uses this term under its Apocalyptic character when writing to the Galatians (iv. 14) he says they received him as an Angel of God. The judgment of Angels by Christians may also be referred to these Church officials. But the direction as to the use of the 64 THE APOCALYPTIC MYSTERY veil on the women, as a symbol of delegated or subordinate authority, appears to be connected with the unseen presence of the celestial Angels in the public worship of the Church, and the doctrine of their being the witnesses of vows may be gathered from the words of the Preacher : ' say not before the Angel it was an error.' — Eccles. v. 6 ; 1 Cor. xi. 10 ; vi. 3. The use of the word in the New Testament appears to con- fine the title to those who act as message-bearers of God, and who are accredited as such by outward signs, whereby their Divine appointment admits of no misinterpretation. Except in passages where it is used for official or recognised messengers between kings and men, the same doctrine is supported by its use in the Old Testament. The word appears to be generally restricted to the celestial angels, or the human agent accredited by a miraculous sign, or some outward token of Divine appoint- ment, as in the case of the Aaronic priesthood, and of the Christian Ministry by the imposition of Apostolic hands. It is once used in a bad sense in Psalm Ixxviii. 49. ' He sent Angels or message-bearers of evil things among them,' suggestive of the withdrawal of the restraints by which the Angels of Satan or the Dragon are prevented from exercising the fulness of their powers to persuade mankind to Evil, either in person as in the case of the fallen angels before the Deluge, or by means of those of whose bodies they may have taken demoniacal posses- sion. The loosing of the four angels before bound in the great river Euphrates, the emblem of earthly prosperity, symbolises the setting free of the Evangelists of woe, or men governed solely by earthly considerations becoming demoniacally inspired to promote the upheaval of society by preaching resistance to all constituted authority, predicted by the earthquake or revolu- tion referred to under the sixth seal. The use of the word ' Angel ' as the designation of the highest officials in the Church, instead of those of Apostles, Kings or Priests, may possibly foreshadow the essential character which marks her conflict with the world. It is Evangelistic. The world is to be brought into captivity to Christ through the preaching of the Word. As the Word became flesh, in the person of the Man Jesus, and thereby Human Nature was redeemed from the power of Evil, so by the seed of the Word, THE CnURCH",S ANGELS 65 spoken by the Churcli's Evangelists and engrafted into the heart, each individual man is regenerated and restored to allegiance to God. The Apocalypse also appears to be intended to reveal that it is through the same evangelistic instrumentality that the Kingdoms of the World are to become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of His Christ, for the shewing forth of which doctrine the Son of Man has accorded the title Angel to those who hold the chief position in that organisation, which He has elected for the fulfilment of His Divine purposes. Tlte Seven Golden Candlesticks ' The Seven Candlesticks which thou sawest are the Seven Churches.' — By these words the Glorified Son of Man bears witness to the twofold character of the Church. The candle- stick or lampstand symbolises her outward organisation, or Ecclesiastical arrangements ; the Church herself is the con- federated body of her enrolled members. The first is represented by her Creeds, her Laws, her Constitution, her Discipline, and her Eitual ; the other is composed of those faithful believers by whom her confession of Faith is made, her Constitution and Laws obeyed, and her Discipline and Work fulfilled. The first appearance of the Christian Candlestick was witnessed in her orderly organisation and that of the Christian Church in her united congregation assembled with one accord in one place at Pentecost, when her elected Lamps, the chosen Twelve, were first lighted by the visible fire from heaven, the spiritual flame of the Shekinah of Glory, when an overpowering spiritual impulse, as of a rushing mighty wind, was sent from heaven to energise her members for the work to which they had been called, and at the same moment a Divine power of utterance, potential to counteract the evil caused by the confusion of the many tongues by the sin in Babel, was granted to each one of her consecrated Apostles to speak in hitherto unknown languages the wonderful works of God. The Candlestick then organised, the Church then inaugurated, was thus Divinely anointed to be the holy instrument, the elect confederation to convey the Light of the Word of God into the dark valley of the Shadow of Death, that by its Divine rays the lost silver miglit F G6 THE APOCALYPTIC MYSTERY be recovered, and the sacred image of God's likeness again restored to those who will commit themselves to the grasp of Christ's loving hand. The prophetic doctrine that apparently underlies their symbolism has already been alluded to in the passage which re- lates how John, on hearing the great voice, turned and beheld the Seven Golden Can-dlesticks. There seems reason to believe that each of these Candlesticks resembled in form that of the Seven-branched Golden Candlestick which under Divine direc- tion had been placed in the Tabernacle. For the fuller inter- pretation of these sacred emblems attention should be accorded to the minute details which are recorded of its shape and the material of which it was composed ; for though, for reasons be- fore alleged, the Catholicity of the Christian Church required that the symbol should no longer be restricted to the one Candlestick of the Jewish Church, yet the Unity of the Church demands that in her expansion the uniformity of the Church's organisation should not be lost sight of, and that each affiliated branch should possess the essential characteristics of the parent stock. These details are to be found in the directions given by God to Moses, and recorded by him in the Book of Exodus — xxv. 31 ; xxxvii. 17. The Golden Candlestick, which was set in the Holy Place, and formed after the Divine pattern seen by Moses in the Mount, was an emblem of the outward organisation of the Church, as the Light-bearer of the World. It was composed of a shaft and pediment (' pillar and ground ' — 1 Tim. iii. 15), from which arose the central branch or stem, and from each side sprang three branches. The branches were each composed of a system of three bowls or sockets or calyxes, made like almonds. In these were three knops (possibly chapiters or chaplets, re- sembling those in the pillars of Solomon's temple — 1 Kings vii. 41). Above these were three flowers, the highest of which sustained the lamps. The central branch or pillar had four bowls, knops and flowers. The candlestick was made of beaten work of pure or cleansed gold, in weight a talent. It appears to be an emblem of the organisation of the Church, whereby she is the instrument by which the Light of the Divine Word is made manifest to the world. Separated from the world within THE SEVEN GOLDEN CANDLESTICKS 67 the walls or curtains of the tabernacle, the fence of the Com- mandments of God, entered by the Baptismal gate, and brought into closer proximity with the Divine Presence, as yet hidden by the veil of the flesh, through consecration by the laying on of hands, each member of the Church confirmed or ordained has his allotted place for the utterance of the Word in the heavenly light-bearer. Planted on Christ, the Rock, she is built up on the pediment of the Apostles and Prophets, from whence the regular ascending sections of her several branches expand them- selves from the central pillar or the reed or canon of the Church's Creed or Confession of Jesus, as the Christ, the Son of the Living God. — Matt. xvi. 16. Each branch springs from the bowl, the watchful receiver of the Divine Grace, which, like the sap from the Vine root, flows through the pediment of Apostolic doctrine from the foundation, which is laid in Christ Jesus. From the sacramental bowls, the joints supplying the com- pacting grace (Eph, iv. 16), the knop or chaplet of protecting leaves, the outward mark of religious profession expands itself into the bursting bud or flower of spiritual graces, until the perfect stature is at length attained and the lamp itself, the re- flected image of the life of Christ, is placed upon its finished stand. The threefold articulation of the branches may symbolise the threefold order of the Divine ministry, while the central branch with the additional bowl, knop and flower, may be an emblem of the Divine sanction, given to the fourth or earthly addition of the Patriarchal or Metropolitan degree, foreshadowed in the presidency of James over the Apostolic College and Church in Jerusalem, and now receiving increased sanction from the recognised claim of the last surviving of the chosen Twelve to the Headship of the Seven Churches in Asia. Whatever doctrine is intended to be conveyed in respect of the Catholic Church under the symbolism of the Seven- branched Candlestick of the Jewish Temple, the same in pro- portionate degree becomes applicable to each of its localised branches. Planted upon one foundation, each expanding branch with its threefold growth of Diaconal service, Presbyterian watch- fulness, and Episcopal oversight, issues from the homogeneous central stock terminating in the higher manifestation of I- 2 68 THE APOCALYPTIC MYSTERY F^itriarchal direction, whereby the holy organisation, energised by the sa^ranigntal grace that flows from the root, is enabled to produce its fiery floweret of spiritual light for the guidance of the true Israel of God to their heavenly home. TJie Secen Churches The Seven Churches represent the Catholic Church in respect of her Confederated Body of Elect Members, as distin- guished from the Seven Golden Candlesticks, the emblem of her Ecclesiastical organisation. The Seven Churches symbolise their expansion out of the one Jewish Church for the fulfilment of the work hitherto restricted to the chosen people of Israel, which work is to be now extended to the whole world. But thouo-h the sphere of the Church's work has been enlarged, the principles on which she has been built up remain unchanged, and therefore each affiliated branch will be based on the same principles which are apparent in the Parent Church, for the principles of her work in the perpetuation of her Confederation of Elect Members and of her Evangelisation of the world continues the same, under whatever form her operations may be carried out. The essential principles of the Jewish Church are therefore those of each localised branch of the Catholic Church, and these are to be traced to their fountain-head in the primeval Patriarchal Church. They consist in the election of a body of men, recognised by objective signs of Divine Appointment indicative of faith in the Atonement realised in the sacrifice of the lamb by Abel, of faith in the omnipresence of God realised in the public invocation of the name of Jehovah by Seth, and of faith in Divine revelation realised in the inspired prophetical teaching of Enoch. These are the essential principles on which the Catholic Church is founded. On her expansion from the Patriarchal into the National Church of the Jews, these essential principles remained un- changed, though the signs of their recognition were Divinely rearranged for the enlarged sphere of the Church's action. I