tihvaxy of t:he ^theological ^tmimvy PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY •u^t- j-i. sp «p,f: -.j^^^j^ ^^- ^/;'^ f,wr /' -' \ : -^ , k^ LECTUEES ON THE APOCALYPSE THE BAIED LECTURE, 1886 ^■ M'u ri 1964 ON THE APOCALYPSE By WILLIAM MILLIGAN, D.D. PROFESSOR OK DIVINITY AND BIBLICAL CRITICISM IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN HotttiDn MACMILLAN AND CO. AND NEW YORK 1892 A II rights reserved Originally published in the volume " The Revelation of St. John" the First Edition o/zuhich luas printed 1886, and the Second Edition 1887. First printed in this form 1892. TO MY CHILDREN PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION In answering the call for a third edition of these Lectures the author has thought it desirable to make a change in the mode of their publication. In former editions the Lectures were followed by several Appendices, treating of such important subjects as the Authorship of the Apocalypse, its Eelation to the Fourth Gospel, its Date, and its Unity. These topics appeal to a narrower circle of readers than the Lectures themselves ; w^hile, at the same time, the growing rather than diminishing interest in the subjects discussed, together with the progress of inquiry, render it necessary that they should be treated anew, and the treatment brought down to the present hour. The author therefore now separates the Appendices from the Lectures ; and, after having reconsidered them in the light of the most recent literature on the subject, he hopes to publish them in a volume of Discussions similar, at least in part, to that which was spoken of in the Preface to the first edition of this work. This volume will be prepared with as little delay as possible. The University, Aberdeen, January 1892. PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION The demand for a second edition of this work has come upon the author so suddenly and unexpectedly that he has had time to do little more than revise the text, with the view of correcting any errata wdiich had crept into the first edition. No change has been made in the general views expressed throughout the work. Had it been possible the author would fain have enlarged the Appendix upon the Unity of the Apoca- lypse, and examined the theory recently proposed by Vischer, and published in Harnack's Texte und Unter- sucliungen} It has not been in his power to do so; but much of the argument used in reference to the theory of Volter will apply to that of Yischer. The view taken in this volume of the Structure and Plan of the Apocalypse is also, if correct, as fatal to the theory of the last as it is to that of the first-mentioned scholar. The author has to express his warm sense of obliga- ^ Vol. ii. part 3. h PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION tion to the many critics who have spoken of his book in the kind terms which they have employed, and in particular to his elaborate and very friendly Eeviewer in the Churcli of England Quarterly Ecvieiv. To the suggestions offered by this writer he has gladly paid all possible attention ; and, if he has not been able to introduce into his work a brigliter tone of hope for the future of the Church during her pilgrimage upon earth, he can only remind his critic that the present is the time of the Church's pilgrimage, and that it appears to be the lesson of Scripture that the glory of her hope shall be associated with that manifestation of her Lord for which she waits and longs. Amidst what scenes that glory shall be realised is a point of subordinate importance, and one which he has not attempted to discuss. The University, Aberdeen, Ap'il 1887. PKEFACE TO FIRST EDITION In giving to the Public the following Lectures on The Revelation of St. John, the author can do little more than refer to the opening sentences of the first Lecture for a statement of his deep sense of that responsibility which he has felt to be involved in undertaking such a task. It is an old conviction with him that, so long as that book is retained in the Canon of the New Testa- ment, the Church lies under an imperative obligation to endeavour to understand it, and that no difficulties met with in its interpretation can justify neglect of what she receives as a portion of the will of God revealed to her in Scripture. The present work is, therefore, simply an effort on the part of the writer to contribute what he can to the discharge of this responsibility ; and, in the circumstances, he can only hope that, whatever criticism his views may have to meet, he will not be charged with arrogance or self-sufficiency in expressing them. In publishing the Lectures the author labours under PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION one great disadvantage, which he has found it impossible to overcome. They ought to have been accompanied by a series of Discussions on important texts of the Apocalypse, and on the principles adopted in their interpretation. AVithout these too much may seem at times to have been taken for granted, and many may be of opinion that assumptions have been made without their correctness having first been proved. To have attempted this would, however, have swelled the volume to an unreasonable extent. Whether such a series of Discussions may be published at some future day will depend on the amount of interest taken in the inquiries here pursued. Meanwhile the author would venture to refer to his " Commentary on the Apocalypse," in the Commentary on the New Testament, edited by Professor Schaff, and published by the Messrs. Clark, Edinburgh. The views expressed in that commentary have not indeed in every case been now adhered to. In par- ticular, the exposition there offered of Eev. xix. 11 to xxii. 5 has been modified in several particulars, of which the meaning assigned to the words "a little time " in chap. xx. 3, and to the " loosing " of Satan in connexion with them, may perhaps be said to be the most important. In other respects there is no material change ; and if, in alluding to this perplexing passage, the author reminds his readers that his inter- pretation of the " thousand years " was published long PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION xiii before^ Kliefotli adopted a somewhat similar inter- pretation of the figure of time there used, he does this from no desire to claim originality, but that he may not be charged with not acknowledging obligations that have no existence. The list of books referred to at p. xix. is not to be regarded as a summary of the literature of the subject. It is no more than a list of those actually quoted in this work, and it is given where it is for a twofold purpose — that the references to these books may be afterwards shortened, and that the reader may see more clearly what particular editions it was in the writer's power to consult. In conclusion, the author has only to express his earnest hope, not that the view of the Apocalypse taken in this volume may be accepted as a whole, — that were too much to hope for, — but that his labours may help forward the study of one of the most in- structive, elevating, and consolatory portions of the sacred volume. The University, Aberdeen, March 1886. ^ In Contemporary Review, September 1871. CONTENTS LECTURE I Tntrodudory PAGES Introductory Remarks 1 — 2 Object of the Course 2 — 4 Rook too frequently neglected 4 Considerations calling to the Study of the Rook — 1. The book a part of Scripture ..... 4 — 5 2. The book enjoins study of itself ..... 5 — 6 3. Special blessing attached to study of it . . . 6 Difficulties leading to the Neglect of the Apoca- lypse— 1. Extravagance of many interpreters .... 7 — 8 2. Diversity of interpretations ..... 9 — 10 Nature of Figurative Language 10 — 11 Rook intended to be understood .... 11 — 13 Characteristics of the Apocalypse — 1. It is given by means of visions ..... 14 — 22 2. The visions are presented by means of symbols . . 22 — 25 (1) Suited to the writer and his readers . . . 25 — 27 (2) Drawn from familiar objects .... 27—30 (3) To be judged of with the feelings of a Jew . . 30—33 (4) Fitted to truths expressed by them . . . 33—35 (5) To be understood generally .... 35—37 (6) To be interpreted always in the same way . . 37—40 Care with which the Rook is composed ... 40 xvi CONTENTS LECTUEE II Infiucnces moulding the Conception of the A'pocalijiJse PAGES PllELIMINAEY OBSERVATIONS 41—42 The Apocalypse is moulded by — I. Our Lord's discourse in Matt. xxiv. . . . 42 — 59 Inquiry into division of Matt. xxiv. . . . 43 — 49 Corresponding division of Apocalypse . . . 49 — 59 II. St. John's recollections of the life of Jesus as con- tained in the fourth Gospel .... 59 — 70 III. The historical and prophetical hooks of the Old Testament ....... 70 — 77 lY. Relation to apocalyptic literature of the time . . 77 — 80 LECTURE III Paet I Structure and Plan of the Apocalypse General Remarks on Plan in Sacred AVritings . . 81—84 Special Structure of the Apocalypse — I. As moulded hy numhers . . . . ' . . 84 — 92 II. The symmetry of its parts ..... 92 — 95 III. The synchronism of its visions .... 95 — 101 IV. The climactic character of its visions . . . 102 — 110 Part II Minor Points of Structure I. The principle of contrast 110 — 114 II. The principle of anticipation 114 — 116 III. The principle of double representations of the same thing . 116—119 IV. The ideal and actual aspects of the object . . 119 — 125 CONTENTS LECTURE IV The Interpretation of the Apocalypse Systems of Apocalyptic Interpretation considered — I. The continuously historical. Objections to this System — 1. Irreconcilable with the leading features of the book ....... 2. Would have rendered it useless to those ad dressed by it ...... Further objections to this System — 1. Selection of events arbitrary 2. Selection of events often trifling 3. Inconsistent with the sublime language of the book ....... 4. Hopeless disagreement of interpretations . 5. Erroneous character of interpretations General Evils resulting from this System of Inter pretation II. The Futurist- Objections to this System .... III. The Praeterist— Objections to this System .... General Principles of Interpretation — I. Apocalypse embraces the whole Christian Age . II. It deals with the action of great principles III. It is to be interpreted in a spiritual sense 127- -128 129- -131 131- -133 133 133 133- -134 134 134- -135 135- -139 139- -146 146- -153 153- -156 156- -160 LECTURE V Design and Scope of the AjJocahjiise Character of the Time when it was -written Position of St. John 161—163 163—164 XVlll CONTENTS HisTOEY OF Chuist repeated in the History of His Church 164-165 1. The idea of conflict 165—169 2. The idea of preservation 169 — 173 3. The idea of triumph 173—176 The Believing Remnant in the Church . . . 176 Appearing in the Epistles to the Churches . . 177 Appearing in the Vision of Chap, xi 179—181 Appearing IN the Description given OF Babylon . . 181 — 185 Warning against Degeneracy of the Church . . 185 — 187 General Character of the Apocalypse . . . 187 — 188 Value of the Apocalypse 188 — 192 LECTURE VI Exposition of Chap. xix. 11 to xxii. 5 . 193 — 233 INDICES INDEX I. Texts more or less discussed in the Lectures IL 235 236—239 It may he well to give here the full titles of the piincipal books referred to in the folloiving woi'k, and to say that the texts of the New Testament quoted in English are, with little exception^ from the Revised Version. Alford, H The Greek Testament . . . LoncL, 1854. Andreas In Apocalypsin Commentaria, Bibl. Vet. Patrum. Ante-Nicene Cliristian Library Edin. Areth AS Explanationes in Apocalypsin Paris, 1631. AuBjg, B Histoire des Persecutions de VEglise Paris, 1875. AuBERLEN, C. A...TJie Proi^hecies of Daniel, and the Revelation of St. John . Edin., 1856. AuGUSTiNus De Civitate Dei . . . . Tauclmitz, 1825. Baur, F. C Kritische Untersuchungenuher die Kanonischen Evangelien Tubingen, 1847 Beck, G. T Erldarung dcr Offenharung Johannis, Cap. i.-xii. . Giiterslohe, 1884. Beyschlag Die Offenharung. Biblical Revieiv, and Congregational Magazine . . . . 1846. Bleek, F Lectures on the Apoccdyiise, edited by Davidson . . Lond., 1875. British and Foreign Evangelical Review. Bruston, C LeChiffreG66 Paris, 1880. Candlish, R. S The Fatherhood of God, 5tli edit. Edin., 1869. Charteris, a. U..Cano7iicity Edin., 1880. XX LIST OF BOOKS REFERRED TO Commentary on the New Testament, edited by Scliaff. Vol. ii., Tlie Gosjjel of St. John, by Drs. Milligan and Moulton, referred to as Gomm. Edin., 1 880. Vol. iv., The Revelation of St. John, by Dr. Milligan, referred to as Comm. . . . . . Edin., 1883. Daubuz, C A Perpetual Commentary on the Revelation of St. John Lond., 1720. Davidson, S Introduction to th e New Testament Lond., 1868. De Wette, W. M. L. Einleitung in das N. T, 4te Ausg Berlin, 1842. Dictionary of the Bible : Smitli Lond. Dictionary of Christian Biography : Smith and Wace Lond. DoLLiNGER The First Age of Christianity, translated by Oxenham, 2d edition Lond., 1867. DiJSTERDlECK, F Krit.-Exeget. Handbuch iiber die Offenbarung Johannis, 2te Ausg Gottingen, 1865. Elliott, E. H Rorm Apocalijptica% 3d edit. Lond., 1847. EusEBius Eccles. History, translated by Cruse, 4tli edit. . . . Lond., 1847. EwALD, H Die Johanneisclien Schriften Gottingen, 1861. Expositor, The. Fairbairn, P On Prophecy Edin., 1856. Farrar, F. W The Life of Christ, 5th edit. . . Lond. FoxLEY, J Hulsean Lectures for 1881. . . Lond. Frommann Der Johann, Lehrbegriff . . Leipzig, 1839. Fuller, T. L Die Offenbarung Johannis Nordlingen, 1874. Gebhardt, H The Doctrine of the Apiocahjpse Edin., 1878. GiESELER Eccles. History Edin. LIST OF BOOKS REFERRED TO XXI GoDET, F Studies on the Neiv Testament Loud., 1876. Harnack, a Texte mid Untersuchungen . Leipzig, 1886. Herder, J. G. VON. JFer^-e Carlsrulie, 1820. Herzog Real-EnctjldoiKidie . . . Hamburg, 1854. HiLGENFELD, A HistoHscli - KHtisclie Einleit- WfKj in das N. T. . . . Leipzig, 1875. Journal of Philology . ^ Loud. Keim, Theod The History of Jesus of Nazara, translated l)y Ransom Lond., 1876. „ Rom und das Christenthum . Berlin, 1881. KiTTO, J Journal of Sacred Literature . , Lond. Kliefoth, Th Die Offenbarung des Johannes Leipzig, 1874. LxVRDNER, N JForks Lond., 1838. Lee, "W Commentary on Revelation of St. John in Speaker's Com- mentary Lond., 1881. LiGHTFOOT, J. B On the Galatians .... Camb., 1865. ,, On the Colossians, 2d edit. . Lond., 1876. „ The Apostolic Fathers, part 2, „ S. Ignatius, S. Polycarp . Lond., 1885. LuCKE, Fr Versuch einer vollstdndigen Einleitung in die Offenbar- ung des Johannis, 2te Ai\^. Bonn, 1852. Macdonald, J. M.. . The Life and Writings of St. John . Lond., 1877. M'Lellan, J. B The Neio Testament, vol. i., The Four Gospels . . . Lond., 1875. Medd, P. G The One Mediator . . . . Lond., 1884. Neander, a General Church History, trans- lated by Torry Edin. LIST OF BOOKS REFERRED TO OvERBECK, F Stiulien znr Geschichteder alien Kirche, Heft . Schloss-Chemnitz, 1875. Rexan, E VAntcchrist, 3me ed. . . . Paris, 1873. Reuss, Ed History of Christian Theology in the Apostolic Age . . Loncl., 1874. ,, V Apohalypse Paris, 1878. „ History of the Sacred Scrip- tures of the Neiu Testament Edin., 1884. RiGGENBACH, C. J... Die Zeugnisse fur das Evaiig. Johannis Basel, 1866. Russell, J. Stuart. , r/ic Prtro?mrt Lond., 1887. ScHAFF, P Hist, of the Christian Church : Apostolic Age .... Edin., 1883. ScHENKEL, D Bihel-Lexikon Leipzig. „ Das Charakter-Bild Jesu . Wiesbaden, 1873. ScHWEGLER, x4. Dcis NacliapostoUsche Zeital- ter Tubingen, 1846. Stieren, a Sancti Irencei qucc supersunt omnia Leipzig, 1853. Stuart, Moses A Commentary on the Apoca- lypse^ 3d edit Lond,, 1854. Studicn und Kritiken Hamburg. Theologische Jahrhilcher Todd, J. H Sio: Discourses on the Ajjoca- lypse Dublin, 1846. Tregelles, S. P Canon Muratorianns . . . Oxford, 1867. Trench, R. C Commentary on the Epistles to the Seven Churches, 2d ed. Lond., 1861. VoLKMAR, G Commentar zur Offenharung Johannis Zurich, 1862. Volter, D Die Enstehung dcr Apoha- lypse Tubingen, 1882. LIST OF BOOKS REFERRED TO xxiii Westcott, B. F The Canon of the New Testa- ment Loud., 1855. „ The Eyistles of St. John . . Lond., 1883. Williams, Isaac The Apocalypse ivith Notes and Reflections .... Lond., 1873. Winer, G. B Grammar of New Testament Greek, edited by Moiilton . Edin., 1877. WiTTiCHEN, C Der Geschichtliche CharaJder cles Evang. Johannis . Elberfeld, 1868. Wordsworth, C Lectures on the Apocalypse . Lond,, 1852. ZiJLLiG, F. J Die Offenbarung Johannis Stuttgart, 1834-46. LECTUEE I INTRODUCTORY No one who has paid careful attention to the Eevela- tion of St. John will doubt the sincerity of the author of the following lectures when he says that he approaches the subject before him under a profound sense of its difficulties. These do not arise merely from the strange and mysterious nature of the book with which he has to deal. They spring even more from the thought of that amount of feeling which discussion of the topics connected with it seems always to provoke. The Christian community may be said to be divided upon this point into two great classes, — one seeing no meaning in the Apocalypse, tlie other attach- ing to it so definite a meaning that it regards as impiety every interpretation but its own. Nowhere is the tendency to dogmatise upon matters that least admit of dogmatism more observable than here. Nowlierc do inquirers show less toleration for conclusions differing from those to which they have themselves been led. On no questions of Biblical interpretation are opponents more frequently referred to in terms approaching to B 2 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. contempt. The fact is discouraging, but it is at the same time a striking testimony to the remarkable interest of the book, and to the power which it exerts over the student. Our effort must be to avoid the spirit thus frequently exhibited by others. In studying the Eevelation of St. John, humility, calmness, open- ness to conviction, singleness of desire to ascertain the truth, and charity, are even more than usually required. There are two important questions connected with the Apocalypse which it is necessary, in the meanwhile, to set aside as unsuitable for discussion in this place and way. They relate to the authorship of the book and to its date. Consideration of these questions must be reserved for the Discussions to be hereafter published. For the present it is assumed that the Apocalypse is an authentic and genuine production of its reputed author, and that it was written towards the close of his life, during the reign of the Eoman Emperor Domitian. Such has been the general belief of the Church from the beginning of her history down to very recent times ; and, although it cannot be denied that not a few distinguished scholars of all shades of opinion have been led of late to a different conclusion, an effort will be made to show in the Discussions that the belief so long and so universally entertained upon both points is right. No one, therefore, will complain that, as an hypothesis, it is now taken for granted, and its effect upon interpretation tried. Taking then the book of Eevelation as it lies before us in the Bible, the object of the following ITS IMPORTANCE AND VALUE lectures is to endeavour, in some degree at least, to dispel the perplexity which surrounds it ; to ascertain its meaning; and to claim for it that place in the estimation of Christian men to which it is entitled. It is not enough that every one who sees, or imagines that he sees, a meaning in it should at once acknow- ledge the singular fascination of the book; that, not- withstanding its difficulties, he should constantly return to it ; and that he should, without hesitation, pronounce it to be one of the most sublime, instructive, and con- solatory portions of the sacred volume. What it is to such persons it ought to be to all who acknowledge that it is Divine. Notwithstanding tliis, tliere is no exaggeration in saying that, to the great majority of Christians, the Eevelation of St. John has long been, and still is, an object of suspicion and distrust. In the earlier ages of the Church it was far less read than the other books of Scripture. St. Chrysostom and other eminent Greek Fathers abstain from making use of it;^ for many centuries we possess no commentary upon it from any writer of the first rank; wliile its very strangeness led not unfrequently to its being denied canonical authority. In later times Luther under- valued it. Calvin did not venture to comment upon it. Herder refers to those who in his day considered it the mark of a sound understanding to abstain from the study of it. The old Lectionary of the Church of England, replaced by a new one but a few years ^ Comp. Smith's Bible Dictionary, iii. 1035. 4 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. ago, contained only three lessons from it, while all the rest of the New Testament was read in order three times a year. Even in the new Lectionary portions of it are omitted. Nor is it otherwise with the general body of the Christian community. Multitudes think it wise to neglect it, and to occupy themselves with those other books of the Bible which, whether really more intelligible or not, appear at least at first sight to be so. To numbers it is not only absolutely sealed ; they imagine, and are content with imagining, that no loosing of the seals is possible. Sometimes deliberately, almost always practically, the book is laid aside. The effect is more than negative ; tlie result worse than loss. The symmetry and completeness of Scripture are marred. The idea of revelation is disturbed. If one portion of the Divine Word may be dispensed with, why not all ? Conclusions of this kind are so disastrous that it seems an imperative duty to attempt to counteract them. The attempt may be reproached or ridiculed ; or it may only lead to deepened confusion of thought upon the point. There is no helj) for it. The book is there, and it must either be excluded from the New Testa- ment, or the Church must continue her struggle to com- prehend it until she succeeds in doing so. Consider — 1. In the first place, that we start w^ith the supposi- tion— a supposition denied by none of those to whom these lectures are addressed — that the Eevelation of St. John is part of the Word of God. This considera- tion settles the whole question. The simple fact that a book has been given by the Almighty to man con- ITS IMPORTANCE AND VALUE stitntes man's obligation to make every effort to under- stand it. It may be hard to do so. We may be long defeated. Not less is the effort one that we are bound to make ; using all the appliances in our power, and watching, if we still feel that we are in darkness, for the first symptoms of light. Nothing is more certain than that, had it not been intended that we should use this book, the exalted Eedeemer would not have fdven it by revelation to His servant John. 2. In the second place, the language of the book itself confirms what, from the very nature of the case, is a matter of unquestionable inference. Its title is — " The BevelcUioii of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to sho^o unto His servants, even the things which must shortly come to pass."^ Some of the earliest words uttered to the Seer by the glorious person who appeared to him are — " What thou seest, ivritc in a hook, and send it to the seven churches^ ^ Almost the last instruction of the angel when he had brought to an end tlie visions of this prophecy are — ''Seal not up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand;"^ while, with still more explicit reference to the applica- tion to be made of it, the Saviour Himself declares — " I Jesus have sent mine angel to tcstifij unto yon these things for the clmrches!''^ The words of this revelation then, unlike the words of Daniel's prophecy of which it was said, " Shut thou up the vision, for it belougeth to many days to come,"^ were not to be shut up. They 1 Chap. i. 1. - Chap. i. 11. ^ Cliap. xxii. 10. 4 cijap. xxii. 16. ^ Dan. viii. 2G. LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE were to be spoken, to be testified, to man ; and, if so, can it be for a moment doubted that tliey were to be listened to, to be apprehended, to be taken home, by man ? The exhortation, so solemnly repeated in each of the seven epistles to the Churches of Asia, may be applied, if indeed it was not expressly intended to be applied, to the whole of that book with which these epistles are so intimately connected — "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches." 1 3. In the third place, there is even a special blessing promised to the student of the Apocalypse, and a special woe denounced upon him who tampers with it — "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things which are written there- in; for the time is at hand."'' Such is the preface, and not less striking is the conclusion — "I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book. If any man shall add unto them, God shall add unto him the plagues which are written in this book : and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this jprophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life, and out of the holy city, which are written in this book."^ Words like these are attached to no other book of the Bible ; and they constitute an impressive warning not to neglect the visions of the Seer, and a not less impressive call to study them. The prepossessions hitherto referred to are easily 1 Chaps, ii., iii. ^ chap. i. 3. '^ Cliap. xxii. 18, 19. ITS IMPORTANCE AND VALUE dispelled. There are, however, other and more serious difficulties not unfrequently leading to the same con- clusion. On the one hand, many are offended with the extravagance, the fanaticism, the sensuous and un- spiritual ideas of Divine things, so often associated with the gorgeous pictures of the Apocalypse, and the tend- ency of which is to destroy every intelligent conception of Christianity in the minds that entertain them. On the other hand, not a few appeal to the endless diversity of interpretations that have been given of the book, to the obviously mistaken conclusions arrived at in con- nexion with it by even the most distinguished expositors of other parts of the New Testament, or to the falsifica- tion by the event of every attempt made to fix from it the date of the Second Comino; of the Lord ; and then they ask, not unnaturally, Is it possible to understand it ? Is not rather the impossibility of doing so proved by the whole history of the Church ? Is not the book so unregulated not only in its style, but in its thouglits, as to be out of keeping with all ordinary writings, and to be subject to no rules of interpretation, liowever otherwise well established ? May not every inquirer make of it what he pleases ? The objections are im- portant and must be answered. Of the first of them indeed little need be said. If fanaticism has been fostered by false interpretation, it is only the more necessary to reach an interpretation that is true. If calm and rational believers hand the book over to ignorance and folly, what ground have we to expect a satisfactory result ? Besides wliicli it is LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. well to remember that the liability of the Apocalypse to be abused, and made an instrument of nourishing carnal expectations of Christ's kingdom, is neither peculiar to it, nor without analogy in the history of God's dealings with His Church. The prophecies of the Old Testament were not less abused before the First Coming of our Lord. But, because they were so, would it have been better for Israel to have wanted, or to have made no serious eftbrts to comprehend, them ? Surely not. There were always some who used their advan- tages aright, " searching what time, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ which was in them did point unto, when it testified beforehand the suffering's of Christ, and the glories that should follow them ; "^ and, although many took a false view of prophecy, by that very view, when the Kedeemer came, they were tried. The dreams, therefore, of enthusiasts who, whether carnally or spiritually minded, have found their strength in a one- sided and imperfect interpretation of the Apocalypse, cannot make us under-estimate the real value of that book, or persuade us that it does not attain its end. It is to us what Daniel and Isaiah and Ezekiel and others of the prophets were to the Jewish Church. Many may misapprehend its meaning. Many may gather from its pages those outward notions of Christ's kingdom which are so natural, and so difficult to eradicate. Yet with- out its prophets Israel could not have prepared itself for the coming of the Son of God in the flesh ; and without the revelation of the Apocalypse our know- 1 1 Peter i. 11. ITS mrORTANCE AND VALUE ledge of His coming in glory would be equally im- perfect. The second objection is more important than the first. It is equivalent to a denial of the inspiration of the book. To suppose that the Almighty has given us a sacred writing of which it is as easy to make one thing as another, is to put it out of analogy with what He has done in every other department both of His works and of His Word. That it should be obscure or mysterious would in no way startle us. Obscurity and mystery meet us everywhere. We have no reason to complain of such arrangements. It is an altogether different thing when we are told, not that a part of revela- tion is difficult, but that it is from its very nature unintelligible, and that it is constructed with so little reference to common processes of thought and rules of language as to place a distinct conception of its mean- ing beyond our reach. This is simply to deny the operation of the Divine Spirit in the construction of the book. Everything that has proceeded from the Almighty has a meaning distinct, definite, and one. Man may not immediately comprehend it, just as thousands of years passed l)efore he comprehended the structure of the earth, or the movements of the heavenly bodies. But the voice both of the earth and of the heavens was never in itself less fixed or certain than it is now. They were capable of being interpreted ; and at last they received their interpretation. It is the same with the book before us. He who regards it as Divine must believe that its meaning is as definite as that of sun or 10 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE moon or stars or rocks, and as likely to yield itself to carefully -conducted and patient investigation. Many mistakes may be made ; much disappointment may be experienced ; there may be long delay ; but the mean- ing is there. That is the point with which we are con- cerned, and it brings with it the pledge that we shall one day attain our end.^ The whole theory indeed as to the impossibility of understanding the Apocalypse proceeds upon a false notion of the nature of figurative language. It is supposed that figures are amenable to no rule, whereas ^ Herder, referring to tins sub- tliat a peculiar key l^elongs to it, or that the key is lost. Who ever writes a book without an adequate key ? Specially, who writes such an one for seven churches ? Did John attach a peculiar key to it when he sent it to them ? How did it look ? Who has seen it ? How came it to be lost ? Is it in the sea near Patmos, or in the Mseander ? John ^n-ites" a book for others, for many ; a book about whose contents he was so seriously anxious that he arrays curse upon curse against any one who detracts from it, and blessing upon blessing for him who reads, hears, and obeys it ; and yet this book is said to be an unintelligible enigma, a kind of raving wholly sealed Tip, which no one except its author can understand, and which even he himself perhaps did not under- stand. Can anything be more absurd ? " — Works, vol. xxxix. p. 371. ject, exclaims, "They (the pro- phets) have all one spirit, one design. One builds upon another ; one explains another ; and as gold have all been preserved. No ima- gery-language has remained purer or been better preserved. None is in any measure so deeply em- liedded in the genius of the people, its writings and its idiom. Heb- rew poetry is as it Avere all symbol, imagery, holy and lofty diction. Even the prose-writers and his- torians must needs speak in a tropical way because their lan- guage demands it ; still more must this be done by teachers and j)ro- pliets. No language loves and furnishes imagery like this. Here a fiery glance, there a breathing full of the Spirit of the Lord. Li this way speak the Old and New Testament ; and so speaks the Apocalypse which contains the sum of both. It is an anile fable I ITS IMPORTANCE AND VALUE 11 they are not less the expression of thought than the most ordinary terms of speech or writing ; and they are used with a not less definite intention by every one who deals honestly with his audience. We may not always have a right conception of their force, because our modes of thought may differ widely from those of the nation or the age in which the figures were employed. But, considered in themselves, they are not more am- biguous than many terms of the baldest philosophic or didactic treatise. Our commonest words are ambiguous, or even meaningless, to the man who is unable to put their meaning into them. Nothing more is necessary to make figurative language as clear as the plainest, simplest, and most unadorned statements than first, that a writer always use his figures in the same sense ; and secondly, that the reader know the ideas for which they stand. They then take their place along with all those other artificial signs of thought on which we depend for maintaining the daily intercourse of life. These considerations ought to go some way towards settling an important 'question which has been raised in connexion with the Apocalypse. St. John, it has been said, uses symbolical language in that book on purpose to conceal his meaning from the heathen, especially the Roman authorities ; and to his dread of drawing down fresh persecutions either upon himself or his fellow-believers we owe in no small degree the obscurity of the book.^ There is not the smallest 1 Beysclilag, Die Offenharunfj, p. to be perfectly satisfied liow far 23. Dr. Farrar does not appear the motive alluded to in the text 12 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. foundation for the statement. So far is it from being correct that we not only find the Apostle often telling us what his figures mean, as in the case of the stars and of the candlestick in cliap. i. 20, of the white-robed company in chap, vii., of the great dragon in chap, xii,, and of the New Jerusalem in chap, xxi., but that the very vision in which, according to these interpreters, he ought to have been most reserved, that relating to the beast and the harlot in chap, xvii., is precisely the vision of which he gives the fullest explanation. Be- sides which, such words as those of chap. xiii. 18, " He that hath miderstanding let him count the number of the beast," are obviously used not to favour conceal- ment of the mystery, but to provoke to the investigation of it, as one to be known, either then or in due season, by the spiritual mind. The figures of the Apocalypse flow from no effort at concealment, and from no dread of danger. They are the natural result of the Seer's own temperament, training, circumstances, and mood of mind at the time he writes ; and they are designed to lend a force and vigour to his style which would not have been gained by simpler speech. prevailed in the age of the New of Malehus) is not given in the Testament, In his Life of Christ Sjaioptists than this, that " it (vol. ii. p. 173) he accounts for the was purposely kept in the back- omission in the Synoptists of the ground in the earliest cycle of raising of Lazarus by their un- Christian records." Yet this last willingness to bring the family he thinks neither "absurd nor of Bethany into " dangerous pro- improbable." — Vol. ii. p. 323, minence. " But he prefers another note. Comp. also Early Days of explanation of the fact that the Christianity, vol. ii. p. 235. name of Peter (as the assailant I ITS VISIONS AND SYMBOLS 13 We must not, therefore, allow ourselves to be startled by the fact that in the case of no other book of Scripture has interpretation been marked by so much unsettled- ness and diversity of view as in the case of the Apoca- lypse, that the wildest theories have been connected with it, and that its predictions have been assigned with the utmost confidence to times and places separated from each other by many centuries or l)y half the circumference of the globe. These things prove no more than the weakness and blindness of men. We dare not allow them to lessen our estimate of the definiteness of the word of God. With these preliminary remarks we may now turn directly to the book before us. Our object is to under- stand it, and so to determine its place and meaning in the scheme of revelation that we may derive from it the instruction or encouragement, the warning or com- fort, which its Divine Author intended it to convey. We have to lay aside, as far as possible, all preconceived notions of its meaniug. The principles of historical criticism must be applied by us with the strictest faithfulness. We must judge of the book mainly by considering its own contents, by taking into account what we otherwise know of the writer, and by keeping in view the special circumstances amidst whicli he wrote.^ ^ "111 order to a right inter- to exercise the diligence of the pretation of the Apocalypse, the interpreter {De Civ. Dei, xx. 17), best help is to be found in the and that by comparison of one Apocalypse itself. St. Augustine passage with another the obscure has well observed that this book parts may be illustrated and made is composed in such a mannei- as clear. Indeed there is scarcely a 14 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. There can thus be no hesitation as to the course to be pursued in the present lectures. The internal characteristics of the Apocalypse first claim our notice. In proceeding to them it ought to be distinctly borne in mind that our aim is not the gratification of literary curiosity or interest. We desire simply to interpret, or to ascertain the meaning of the book. To this aim everything else must be subordinated. On this every- thing else must be brought to bear. 1. The first characteristic of the Apocalypse claiming our attention is that the revelation contained in it is given by means of visions. There are indeed one or two parts of the book which seem to be historical, — the first eleven verses of chap, i., in which the writer speaks of himself and relates the occasion of his writing; chaps, ii. and iii., describing the condition of the churches he was commissioned to address ; and the two closing verses of chap. xxii. With these exceptions the rest of the book is communicated in visions. St. John was " in spirit on the Lord's day,"^ in the small rocky island of Patmos in the JEgean Sea. Then the unseen world was opened to him ; and, as in a great drama, successive visions — though not, as we shall see, always represent- ing the events with which they deal in chronological order — passed before his view. Whether all the visions of the book were presented to the Seer without inter- phrase or sentence in the Apoca- other phrase or sentence in the lypse, however difficult it may same book." — Bp. Wordsworth, seem to he at first, which may not Introd. to A2)0C. he elucidated by means of some ^ Chap. i. 10. I ITS VISIONS AND SYMBOLS 15 ruptiou from the beginning to the end, or whether there were intervals of time between the different groups, is not easily determined ; and, for the purpose of interpre- tation, the inquiry is unnecessary. That all were con- nected with Patmos is unquestionable ; and, were we to understand "the Lord's day " spoken of in chap. i. 10 of the first day of the week, the words of the preceding verse, which warrant the conclusion that the visions belong to Patmos, would lead us also to infer that they were granted on the same day.^ But the expression, " the Lord's day," has in all probability another refer- ence ; and, besides this, one statement of the writer distinctly shows us that changes did take place in his condition. At chap. iv. 2 we read, " Straightway I was in the spirit," or rather, " I passed into tlic spirit," ^ although we know that he had been in that state before. There may also have been other points of transition, such as the moment of chap. xvii. 3, " And he carried me away in spirit into a wilderness," and of chap. xxi. 10, "And he carried me in spirit into a mountain great and high." It is unnecessary, however, to determine the ^ It does not seem necessary to meaning by that term not any enter upon any lengthened discus- particular day, but the whole of sion as to the meaning of the ex- that Christian dispensation which, pression "the Lord's day." The notwithstanding the sufferings of writer can only say that, in the Christians, was to him, in its absence of all proof that the first deepest characteristics, the day of day of the week was so designated the Lord — the time when the Lord ill early Christian times, and tak- was ruling in the earth and pre- ing into account the general tone paring to make His glory manifest of the Apocalypse, it seems more ^ iyevdfj.-qu. natural to understand the Seer as 16 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. question. Oil either supposition the meaning of the visions will be the same. For a like reason it is unnecessary to ask whether the visions passed before the Seer in the forms in which he relates them, or whether, having had only certain truths divinely impressed upon his mind, his poetic fancy led him to clothe these in the shapes before us. Even were the latter supposition correct, it would in no degree modify either the extent of his inspiration or the value of his teaching. The Spirit of God adapts Him- self to every method of expression suggested by the peculiarities either of a writer or his age. The human element can no more be excluded from the plainest than the most ornate sentence, from the simplest than the most complex figure. It is not the words but the man who is inspired. It is not with the words as such, but with the truth contained in them, that we have to do. That truth may be conveyed in figures of many kinds determined by the era, the country, or the immediate pur- pose of the author. If we can learn what the truth itself is, and if at the same time we have reason to believe that it conies from God, we need inquire no further. Yet there is every reason to think that these visions were granted to the Seer exactly as he records them. They do not stand alone in Scripture, and they probably come under the same law as others which it relates. The state of Abraham must have been similar when, before being warned of the fate that was to overtake his seed, " an horror of great darkness fell upon him." ^ So 1 Gen. XV. 12. ITS A' ISIONS AND SYiAIBOLS also must have been the state of Balaam when he " saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open," ^ while the prophecies of Ezekiel and Zechariah are mainly presented to us in visions of the same character. Nor are visions confined to the Old Testament. St. Paul was favoured with " visions and revelations of the Lord." " I knew a man in Christ," he says " (whether in the body I know not, or whether out of the body I know not, God knoweth), such a one caught up even to the third heaven. And I know such a man (whether in the body, or apart from the body, I know not, God knoweth), how that he was caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter ; " ^ and St. Peter is de- scribed as having^ fallen into a trance at the time when the vision which led to the extension of the Gospel to the Gentiles passed before him.^ In these and in all similar instances it would seem as if the Spirit of God had come upon the subject of His influence with sucli 1 Numb. xxiv. 4. istics are of too external a nature 2 2 Cor. xii. 2-4. Reuss lias to justify the distinction drawn ; endeavoured, but without success, and it may be fairly pled that the to draw a broad line of distinction spirit of both St. Paul and St. between the visions of the Apo- Peter was as active during the calypso and those of St. Paul ; visions vouchsafed to them as was looking upon the latter as more the spirit of St. John. St. Paul momentary in duration, more knew what he had seen and heard, limited in object, and marked though he felt that it was "un- rather by a suspension than by a lawful " for him to utter it. St. greater than ordinary action of Peter understood perfectly the the writer's freedom and spon- bearing of his vision at Jo]>i)a taneity of spirit {U Apocalypse, after it was over. p. 23). The first two character- ^ Acts x. 10. C 18 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. an overwhelming power that he was, as it were, lifted out of the body, and swept away into a higher world, where he beheld in sensible expression the realities which had previously only filled his thoughts. Then what are called visions presented themselves to the eye or reached the ear, sights and sounds of an exalted and transcendental nature, the imagination being quick- ened into a far greater than ordinary activity, though the powers of reflection and of reason remained un- shaken. The " Tongues " of the early Church may have been the utterances of a similar state ; and hence the words used by St. Paul to denote that gift, when he speaks of it as "spiritual things," or simply as "the spirit." 1 Visions of this kind were eminently adapted to the position in which St. John was placed, and to the peculiar nature of the task assigned to him. He was an Apocalyptist rather than a Prophet ; and the function of the one differed from that of the other, although both had so much in common that the former may not un- frequently be spoken of as prophetical, the latter as apocalyptic, in his work. There seems, however, to have been a real and essential difference between them. Yet that difference did not consist in this, that the Seer " stood upon a loftier altitude than the prophet, and had visions of things to come more explicit, more detailed and consecutive than were afforded to any of the other prophets." ^ Such a distinction touches only the more external characteristics of the work of each. Nor is it ^ 1 Cor, xiv. 1 ; 1 Thess. v. 19, - Fairbairn On Prophecy, p. 120. I ITS VISIONS AND SYMBOLS 19 to be found in this, that " the prophets of the Old Testa- ment, like the epistolary writers of the New, write primarily and specially for their own times, for the present emergencies of the kingdom of God," while an "apocalypse is not given primarily or specially for present but for future times, is not the immediate pro- duct of any particular present emergency, and has as its primary object to serve as a guiding lamp for the people of God during those dark periods when there is no revelation."^ The Last words of this extract may be accepted, but not tlie rest. No Prophet wrote more directly for his own time than the Apocalyptist did. The Apocalyptist was called forth by "present emer- gencies " not less than the Prophet. His utterances were emphatically "present truth." - The difference between ^ An anonymous writer in tlie was impossible. JMoreovcr, they Ecclesiastic and Theologian for had attractions of tlieir own which April 1857. Comp. Dr. Westcott might seduce men's hearts from in Smith's Bible Dictionary, vol. their true allegiance. They awed i. p. 391. the imagination by their magnifi- - Daniel {the Apocalyptist of the cence and pride ; they gave to the Old Testament) was, not less than nations peace, though at the ex- Isaiah, a prophet in the first place pense of liberty. Under them for his own age. Take, for ex- even faithful souls might be ample, his visions of the Four tempted, on the one hand, to World - Empires which were to despair of the Theocracy ; on the usher in the establishment of the other hand, to "wander after" kingdom of God. These giant them, and to worship their rulers powers began in Daniel's time, as earthly deities. Daniel's posi- They were not only something tion as a high minister of state new in the world's history ; their under the two first of those rise involved of necessity a groat World -Empires— the Babylonian change in the outward form of the and the Persian— gave him an in- Theocracy. With them in the timate personal knowledge of them, field such a monarchy as David's lie was just the man, therefore, for 20 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. the two would appear to have been of a deeper kind than is expressed in either of the above suppositions. It depended upon the fact that, in the times when the Apocalyptist spoke, prophecy had delivered its message and had little that was new to say. The Apocalyptist then came in as an interpreter rather than as a Prophet. He did not take his stand in the future rather than the present ; to him the future was the present, and the present embraced the future. He did not enjoy fuller communications of the Divine purpose than those previ- ously given ; he rather only beheld more clearly the contents of what had already been revealed. He be- longed to an era in which one Divine dispensation had either closed or was closing around him, and another was taking possession of the field. With this last as a present era he had to do ; and his charge was to set it his two-fold function, (1) to re- plietic college. Commentators veal tlie really brutal and earth- have estimated aright, or have born character of these imposing undervalued, his importance pre- powers (even the fairest of them — cisely as they have connected him Alexander's — he showed had the with, or disconnected him from, the insatiableness, if it had also the position and the needs of Israel at beauty, of the panther) ; and (2) the time when God raised him u]). to promise that under them all Li three respects the position of Jerusalem should be preserved till Daniel resembled that of St. John, the erection of an everlasting king- Both stood at the beginning of dom in the hands of a Son of man. long periods of anti - theocratic It is indeed much more as unveil- empire. Both had personal ex- ing the essential character of the perience of persecution under these world's kingdoms and of Christ's imperial foes of God's kingdom, respectively than merely as seem- Both had revealed to them the ing to fix beforehand the date of inmost character (and out of that Christ's appearing, that Daniel the fortunes) of the powers whose holds his high rank in the pro- conflict they beheld. I ITS A^ISIONS AND SY]\IBOLS 21 forth in its true character, so that the Church of God might face her inevitable trials in a strong and hopeful spirit. The " propliet " of the Old Testament was suc- ceeded not by the Apocalyptist but by the "teacher" of the New. The apocalyptic function passed from the one dispensation to the other unchanged in its essential features.^ St. John, tlierefore, had not, like the prophets of the Old Testament, to unfold " by the word of the Lord " successive steps in the evolution of a Divine plan which was to culminate in the appearance of the Hope of Israel. That plan had already culminated in the coming of Christ, although a part of His manifestation of Himself was still awantiug. Tlie Church was already in " the last days," and no further prophetic revelation was needed. Men of God were now to interpret the revela- tion given in the Son. They were to penetrate more deeply than had yet been done into the mystery of His person and work in its relation to the world, in order that thus unveiling its contents they might apply them, with sjrowinQ- insii^ht, for the warniuGj of the sinner and the encouragement of the saint. Their commission was therefore less to predict the future tlian to see the pre- sent, and to trace in what was happening around them- selves the working of those eternal principles whicli were about to be manifested in their full sweep of power. With events yet to take place, except in so far as these were the natural consequence and outcome of what Christ was known to be, of the contest He was to 1 2 Tcter ii. 1. Comp. Fairbaini On rrophccy, p. 131. 22 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. cany on, and of the victory He was to win, they had nothing to do. In Christ Himself and in His teaching was included everything of which they needed to be informed; and hence visions of what was took the place of prophecy of what was to be. In these con- siderations we seem to have an explanation of that extraordinary burst of apocalyptic literature wliicli marked the close of the first, and the first half of the second, century.^ While thus adapted to the position of the Seer, visions were not less appropriate to that of those for whom he wrote. They were more concrete and life- like than mere general description w^ould have been. There was a vividness and a graphic power about them far surpassing that of ordinary teaching. They presented pictures to the eye ; they appealed to the imagination ; they gave scope for boundless range of thought amidst the things which they expressed. Let us place ourselves in the circumstances of the early Christians, with burdens or trials like theirs to meet, and we shall be more alive to the value of the visions of a Seer as compared with the utterances of a Prophet.^ 2. A second characteristic of the Apocalypse is its use of symbols. Its visions are presented to the Apostle ^ Li connexion with what has revealed, the things that happen been said in the text it is of gi'eat when He Avho is to come begins in importance to notice the true tlie poAver of His Spirit the con- meaning of John xvi. 13. "The flict of the Church with the worhL things that are coming " there Comp. Comm. in loc. spoken of are not so much revela- ^ Comp. the interesting remarks tions wholly new as new applica- of Reuss, U Apocalypse, p. 11. tions of what had already been I ITS VISIONS AND SYMBOLS 23 in symbolic forms, — that is, in images drawn from material and earthly objects, or from combinations of impressions produced by them, for the purpose of teaching spiritual and heavenly truth. This method of instruction, more or less resorted to by all nations, is peculiarly appropriate to the religious spirit and the lively imagination of the East. There everything is full of a present Deity, and becomes the utterance of His will. It is equally prominent in the Old Testament, where the Jews, and therefore also the early Christians, had long been familiar with it. The prophecies of Daniel, Ezekiel, Hosea, Zechariah, and others abound in symbols. Numerous objects in nature — fire, winds, floods, lightning and thunder, earthquakes, eclipses of sun and moon and stars, cities, buildings, trees, gold, silver, jewels, garments, and colours — are constantly laid hold of in order to convey in a more visible and telling manner than belongs to abstract statement, the lessons to be proclaimed. Distinct traces of the same style of thought appear in other books of the New Testament as well as in the Apocalypse. To say nothing of symbolical action, which hardly belongs to our present subject,^ we find our Lord using symbolical language when lie speaks of sittincc down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, when He warns the sons of the kingdom that they shall be cast forth into the outer darkness, or when He exclaims, " I beheld Satan 1 Comp. on this remarks by the Evangelical licvicw for October writer in the British and Foreign 1871. 24 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. fallen as lightning from heaven."^ In the fourth Gospel symbols meet us at every step. All the figures applied in that Gospel to the Saviour — the bride- groom, the vine, the bread of life, the door of the sheep, the shepherd, the temple — are symbolical. They do not simply compare Him to these persons or things, so that we have to search for the features of resemblance between Him and them : that is a simili- tude. They do not simply relate incidents of every- day experience in order to illustrate by what passes upon earth the Divine administration of heavenly things : that is a parable. Nor do they employ real or imaginary, though probable, events of this life in order to set forth the manner in which eternal issues are produced : that is an allegory. The symbol differs from these figures of speech in this, that when we hear it its deeper meaning alone starts to view. We con- cern ourselves about its essence in itself. The object which supplies it has in its own world a purpose, a meaning, a force, a mission, belonging to itself and to no other object. In the higher world, which rests upon the same principles and is ruled by the same laws, the object symbolised has a precisely similar purpose and meaning and force and mission. The symbol guides us straight to these. It is not introduced in a manner leading us to think of the pleasure always experienced when two things in which we did not at first suspect resemblance are shown to resemble one another. It at once suggests the thought which it embodies ; and its 1 Matt. viii. 11, 12 ; Luke x. 18. I ITS VISIONS AND SYMBOLS 25 value consists in its power to flash, by a single stroke, ideas into the mind which might lose much of their force throuoh the number or the weakness of the words o that would be otherwise needed to describe them. The basis of the representation is so familiar to us, is so intimately connected with our ordinary lives, that it cannot be mentioned without instantly awakening numerous associations. In spiritual things symbols are not less powerful if the world of spirit is as real to us as the world of nature. What has been said will be confirmed, and light will be at the same time thrown on the general character of the Apocalypse, if we note one or two particulars connected with its symbols. (1) They are for the most part suggested by the religious position, training, and habits both of the writer and his readers. The Apostle had been a Jew, in all the noblest elements of Judaism a Jew to the very core. We know it from what is told us of his history in the Gospels. We know it not less from numerous little marks which stamp the fourth Gospel, penned by him, as one of the most genuine productions of a Jewish mind. It is true that we do not meet in that Gospel figures exactly similar to those of the Apocalypse. The difference is easily explained. In the former St. John was writing narrative and describ- ing facts. In the latter he dwells upon the spiritual impression which the facts produce ; and it was natural that, in doing so, he should adopt the method and the style of those old prophets whose work had been the 26 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. glory of his nation, and whose words had fed the loftiest and brightest hopes of his own heart. We may expect that what is written from such a point of view will breathe the very essence 'of Old Testament prophecy, more especially in its apocalyptic parts, will be moulded by its spirit, be at home amidst its pictures, and be familiar with its words. Why consider this inexplicable ? Why deny to a Christian Apostle the right of clothing his ideas in forms of speech sanctified to him by all that was best in the bygone history of his people and (may we not hope) also sanctified to us ? We do not make it an objection to Isaiah or Ezekiel or Daniel or Zechariah that they adopted in their communications with men the style which they actually employed. Why should we complain that St, John adopts a similar style ? How indeed could he have done other- wise ? Having fired his soul amidst these pictures of his earlier days until he was " weary with forbearing and could not stay ; " knowing that God was the same, and man the same, in every age ; seeing in the future, by the light of the Incarnation, not a time entirely different from what had been, but only the fulness of a long preparatory course of ages, how could he avoid speaking in the tones most familiar to him, when he spoke upon the same subject ? Or how could he fail to behold the fortunes of the Church through the medium of figures that till then had completely pos- sessed his thoughts? These very figures of the Apo- calypse, the symbols that it employs, the language that it speaks, are a testimony to the thorough reality I ITS VISIONS AND SYMBOLS 27 of the writer, to the depth of his convictions, and to the profoundness of the emotions which stirred his soul. Then, again, we have to remember that he was addressing persons familiar with this style of thought. The Old Testament was the Bible of the Church. The books of the New Testament had not yet been gatliered into a volume. If the earlier date of the Apocalypse be correct, some of them had not been written. The Christian Church, even among the Gentiles, had been grafted upon the stem of David. She had an interest in Zion and Jerusalem ; she saw in Babylon the type of her enemies ; she felt herself to be the true Israel of God. She was well acquainted with the tabernacle and the temple, with their pillars and incense, with their different altars, with the high-priest's robes, with the seven-branched golden candlestick, with the ark of the testimony, with the hidden manna, and with the parchment rolls written both within and on the back. These symbols were therefore closely adapted to her condition, and must have gone home to her with peculiar power. (2) When the symbols of the Apocalypse are not closely connected with the Old Testament, they are drawn from the most familiar objects in nature. Tlie phenomena to which the writer has recourse are, in the forms of their manifestation employed by him, almost peculiar to the East. Lightnings, great thunder- ings, hail of the most destructive severity, earthquakes, burnings of trees and grass, seas appearing to be mino-led with flame, and meteoric stones play their 28 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. part. We read of the wilderness into which the woman with the man child was driven ; of the dens and rocks of the mountains in which the terrified inhabitants of earth shall hide themselves from the wrath of the Lamb; of the frightful locusts of the fifth trumpet -plague; of fowls that fill themselves with the flesh of men. In like manner we read of eagles, of the sound of the millstone, of olive trees and palm branches, of the vintage, and of the products of an Eastern clime — odours, ointments, frankincense, wine, and oil. All these are directly associated with the locality to which the first readers of the book belonged. Even objects well known in other lands are viewed in the lioht in which the East, herein differing from the West, regards them, as wdien horses are presented to us not so much in the magnificence as in the terror of their aspect, or as when the sea, instead of being the symbol of beneficence or eternal youth, is spoken of as the symbol of all that is dark or terrible to man. In this respect the symbols of the Apocalypse correspond to those of the Prophets and of our Lord. They are always taken from well- known things. Had it been otherwise the imagery would not have answered its purpose. Drawn from unfamiliar objects it might have been understood, but a much slighter impression would have been produced by it. Similar remarks may be made with regard to the historical events referred to in the Apocalypse. Such events often lie at the bottom of its symbols, but it I ITS VISION'S AND SYMBOLS 29 may be doubted if there be a single instance in which the incident taken advantage of by the Seer was not both well known and of the deepest interest to his readers. Nothing, in short, is more marked in the whole character of this book than the desire of the writer to give to the truths with which he deals the utmost possible degree alike of clearness and of fulness of effect. In connexion with this point, and even as in itself a matter of importance for the interpretation of the book, it is interesting to observe that there seems to be no symbol in the Apocalypse taken from heathenism. Such is not the case with the other writers of the New Testament, who do not hesitate to enforce their argu- ments by considerations drawn from the customs of the heathen lands around them. But the symbolism of the Revelation is wholly and exclusively Jewish. Even "the crown of life" in chap. ii. 10 is not the wreath of the victor in the Grecian games, but the Hebrew crown of royalty and joy — the crown of " King Solomon, wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart." ^ The " white stone," with the new name written in it, of chap. ii. 17, is not suggested by the white pebble which, cast in heathen courts of justice into the ballot box, expressed the judge's acquittal of the prisoner at the bar, but in all probability by the glistering plate borne by the high -priest upon his forehead. And all good commentators are agreed that the palms of 1 Song of Songs, iii. 11. 30 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. chap. vii. 9 are not the pahns of heathen victors either in the battle or the games, but the palms of the Feast of Tabernacles when, in the most joyful of all her national festivals, Israel celebrated that life of independence on wliich she entered when she marched from Eameses to Succoth, and exchanged her dwellings in the hot brick- fields of Egypt for the free air of the wilderness, and the " booths " which she erected in the open country.^ (3) The symbols of the Apocalypse are to be judged of with the feelings of a Jew, and not with those of our own country or age. No one will deny that in the symbols, both of the Old Testament prophets and of this book, there are many traits which, looked at in themselves, cannot fail to strike the reader as in a high degree exaggerated, extravagant, and out of all keeping with nature or probability. They are not conceived of according to the laws, as we should consider them, of good taste ; and they cannot, without seriously offending us, be transferred from the pages of the book to the canvas of the painter.^ Take even the sublime descrip- tion of One like unto a Son of man in the first chapter — " Clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt 1 Comp. Trench on the Epistles in any way interpret it. On the to the Seven Churches, p. 103. other hand, the Italian masters 2 To say nothing of others, Avho, in the frescoes of the Cathe- Albert Diirer attempted this in a dral of Orvieto— the preaching of series of etcliings " ilkistrative " of Antichrist, etc. — have endeav- the Apocalypse. But not even his oured not so mnch to represent genius could achieve the impos- the visions as to interpret them, sible. His drawings are only have at least succeeded in telling grotesque, and rather need to be very plainly Avhat they understood explained by the sacred text than to be St. John's meaning. I ITS VISIONS AND SYMBOLS 31 about at the breasts with a golden girdle. And his head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow ; and his eyes were as a flame of fire ; and his feet like unto burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace. . . . And he had in his right hand seven stars; and out of his mouth proceeded a sharp two- edged sword ; and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength ; " ^ or the description of the Lamb in the fifth chapter — " And I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing as though it had been slaughtered, having seven horns, and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth. And He came and He taketh the book out of the right hand of Him that sat on the throne ; " ^ or of the vintage of the earth in the fourteenth chapter — "And the angel cast his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vintage of the earth, and cast it into the winepress, the great winepress, of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and there came blood from the winepress, even unto the bridles of the horses, as far as a thousand and six hundred furlongs;"^ or of the New Jerusalem in the twenty-first chapter — "And the city lieth foursquare, and the length thereof is as great as the breadth ; and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs; the length and the breadth and the heiglit thereof are equal ; " ^ and w^e feel at once in all these 1 Chap. i. 13-16. ^ Chap. xiv. 10, 20. 2 Chap. V. 6, 7. * Chap. xxi. 16. 32 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. instances, as in many others of a similar kind, that nothing can be less in harmony with the realities of things. This incongruity of imagery with nature strikes us even more in the descriptions given of the composite animals in many of the symbols of the book, as in the case of the four living creatures of the fourth chapter, which were " full of eyes before and behind," and which had " each of them six wings ; " "^ or of the locusts of the ninth chapter, the shapes of which were "like unto horses prepared for war; and upon their heads as it were crowns like unto gold; and their faces were as men's faces. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron ; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses rushing to war. And they have tails like unto scorpions and stings ; " ^ or of the beast that rose up out of the sea in the thirteenth chapter, " having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns ten diadems, and upon his heads names of blasphemy. And the beast was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion."^ But the truth is, that in all such cases the congruity of the figure with nature, or with notions of propriety suggested by her, was altogether unthought of. It is possible that the style of some of these representations may have been brought by the Jews from Assyria, the wonder- ful sculptures of which exhibit the very same features — 1 Chap. iv. 6, 8. - Cliap. ix. 7-10. '^ Chap. xiii. 1, 2, I ITS VISIONS AND SYMBOLS 33 almost entire ignorance of beauty of form, but massive- ness, power, strength, greatness of conception in what was designed either to attract or overawe or terrify. The sculptor in Assyria, the prophet in the Old Testa- ment, and precisely in the same manner St. John in the Apocalypse, had an idea in his mind which he was desirous to express ; and, if the symbolism effected that end, he did not pause to inquire whether any such figure either existed in nature or could be represented by art. As he felt so did spectators and readers feel. In their eyes it was no objection to the symbol that the combination of details was altogether monstrous. Their sole con- sideration was whether these details lent a force to the idea which would not or could not have been given to it by other means. When, accordingly, we consider the symbols of the Apocalypse from this point of view, our sense of propriety is no longer shocked. A¥e rather recognise in them a vivacity, a spirit, and a power in the highest degree interesting and instructive. (4) There is a natural fitness and correspondence between them and the truths which they are intended to express. In his choice of symbols the Seer was not left to the wildness of unregulated fancy, or to the influence of mere caprice. Consciously or unconsciously he worked within certain limits of adaptation on the part of the sign to the thing signified.^ Just as in the ^ Notliing can thus be more many passages of the Apocalypse unfortunate or confusing to tlie translates the word i;'u)ov by our reader than the rendering of the English word "beast," making Authorised Version, which in so the object denoted the repre- D 34 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. parables of our Lord all the representations vised by Him rest on the deeper nature of things, — on the ever- lasting relations existing between the seen and the unseen, on that hidden unity between the different departments of truth which makes one object in nature a more suitable type or shadow of an eternal verity than another, — so is it here. " In the symbol," says Auberlen, " as well as in the parable the lower is used as a picture and sign of the higher, the natural as a means of representing the spiritual. All nature be- comes living: it is a revelation of God and of the divine mysteries and laws of life in a lower sphere, as much as the kingdom of heaven is in a higher. There is a deep fundamental harmony and parallelism between the two grand spheres of cosmic being, that of nature and that of spirit ; or, as the latter is two-fold, both psychical and spiritual, between the three king- doms of nature, history, and revelation. It is on this correspondence that symbolism and parabolism are grounded. The selection of symbols and parables in Scripture therefore is not arbitrary, but is based on an insight into the essence of things. The woman could never represent the kingdom of the world, nor the beast the church. ... To obtain an insight into the symbols and parables of Holy Scripture, nature, that second or ratlier first book of God, must be opened as sentative of brute force and un- Orjpia so often mentioned, and regulated passion instead of re- the word ^u>ov to be translated deemed creation. The term "living creature." Comp. Ezek. "beast," or "wild beast," ought i. 20, 21 ; x. 17. to be strictly confined to the I ITS VISIONS AND SYMBOLS 35 well as the Bible." ^ The principle thus expressed is one of great importance, and the correct interpretation of some of the symbols of St. John depends in no small degree upon its being kept steadily in view. (5) In the symbols of the Apocalypse it is not necessary to suppose that each minute particular has a definite meaning ; or, if it has, that that meaning must be understood by us before we can appreciate the force of the symbol as a whole. Many of its symbols indeed at once explain themselves. There can be no doubt that the judgments of the Almighty are expressed by thunder, and His mercy by the rainbow ; that mountains denote worldly kingdoms, and the roaring of the sea the tumult of the nations ; that white is the emblem of purity, red of the thirst for blood, and black of mourning and desolation. Other symbols of a much more elaborate character can also be easily and un- hesitatingly explained. But there are not a few every detail of which we do not understand, and when, there- fore, the objection may be made that we do not under- stand the symbol. Is it really so ? Let us look at the parables of our Lord. It is probable that even the smallest particulars mentioned in them had a meaning to Himself We cannot measure the mfinite extent of His wisdom or the amount of instruction which, at least to His own mind, lay in His simplest utterance. AVlien He explains some of His parables He includes much in the explanation of which without His guidance we ^ Auberlen, Dan. and the Rev., p. 87. 36 . LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. should hardly have thought. In the parable of the Sower He shows us that the field, the birds of the air, the heat of the sun, the thorns and brambles, the thirty, sixty, and an hundred fold have all a meaning. Nor is it otherwise in the parable of the Tares and the Wheat. How readily might we suppose that the reapers were only subordinate to the harvest, and that it was unnecessary to connect with them any j^articular idea. There cannot be a harvest without reapers. Yet " the reapers are the angels." On the other hand, where no explanations of this kind are given, it is often impossible for us to interpret particulars that meet us in a parable without the risk of our interpretation being either fanciful or erroneous ; as when, in the parable of the Prodigal Son, we infer that the robe, the ring, and the shoes given to the returned wanderer denote distinct blessinos of the Covenant ; or when we imagine that the equal division of the ten virgins into five wise and five foolish, points to an equality of numbers between the true and the false members of the Church. Incidents or notices like these may be introduced simply for the sake of preserving the verisimilitude and heightening the effect of the story. The abuses indeed, which have sprung from the supposed necessity of interpreting every minute particular in a Scripture narrative, will not unfrequently make calm in- terpreters cling to the belief that their main duty is to gather the general impression. Still it by no means follows that because, by their own confession, they cannot inter- pret everything, therefore they can interpret nothing. I ITS VISIONS AND SYMBOLS 37 It is the same with the symbols of the Apocalypse. We may not be able to explain every particular which they contain. But it may not have been intended that we should ; and it is quite possible that, without doing so, we may in each case reach the lesson of the symbol as a whole. (6) One remark more has to be made, but one so obvious that, forgotten as it too frequently is, it will not be necessary to dwell on it, — the symbols of the Apoca- lypse must always be interpreted in the same way. They are a form of speech, and therefore subject to the rules that regulate the interpretation of all speech. The most common words indeed may vary in their significa- tion, and the context may have often to determine their special shade of meaning at a particular time. But where there is nothing to demand the contrary, the same word must invariably be understood in the same sense, and that the sense fixed by usage. This general principle is applicable in all its strictness to symbolical language. There is no reason in the nature of the case why a symbol should be more uncertain in meaning than any other word. The power of that convention which links a certain sense to a certain sound in ordinary terms is not less binding in the presence than in the absence of metaphor of any kind whatever. Thus, where we read in the Apocalypse of the " sea "as an emblem of the troubled and sinful nations of the earth, we are bound, unless forbidden by the context, to carry that interpre- tation through, and to understand the " sea " spoken of in chap. xx. 13 — "And the sea gave up the dead which 38 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. are in it" — not of the ocean in which so many have found a "wandering " grave, but of the troubled and sin- ful world. In the same way, when we find the expres- sion, "they that dwell on the earth," unquestionably used on many occasions not of all the inhabitants of the world but of the wicked as distinguished from the good, we are bound to apply it always in this sense unless it can be shown that the writer would himself lead us by his other statements at the tune to a different conclusion.^ ' Still more important is the application of this rule to the numbers of the Apocalypse. That many of these numbers are without a doubt symbolical is admitted by every interpreter of the book. Instances might easily be produced in which no one would think of maintain- ing that the number 7 meant seven, or the number 3 three, or the number 10 ten. Notwithstanding this there has been a tendency on the part of even eminent interpreters to play fast and loose with the apocalyptic numbers. More particularly has this been the case, for example, with the number 7. It is admitted by all interpreters worthy of regard that, when applied to the seven churches of Asia, that number represents not seven in the numerical scale, but the idea of totality ; and ^ The difficulty of applying this means the least important. Yet rule is undoubtedly great. Prob- even he supposes the "great city" ably every commentary will sup- of chap. xvii. 18 to be a city situ- ply illustrations of it. No one ated on seven literal mountains, has seen the rule more clearly than because in verse 9 we read that Dr. Fairbairn, of whose valuable "there are seven mountains on work on Prophecy the portion de- which the woman sitteth " (p. voted to the Apocalypse is by no 372). ITS VISIONS AND SYMBOLS the same thing may be said of it in many other pass- ages of the book. When, accordingly, we read in chap, xvii. 9 that " the seven heads are seven mountains upon which the woman sitteth," it is impossible at once to draw the conclusion that the city spoken of was built literally upon seven hills ; and, in like manner, when we read in the same chapter of '' seven kings," it is not less at variance with strict rules of interpretation to maintain that by these can only be meant seven emperors of Eome, because a king is an emperor and seven is seven. The first and most legitimate inference in both cases is rather that we are dealing with a seven which must again in one way or another express a totality. Similar remarks may be made with regard to the two witnesses of chap. xL, the three and a half years of chap. xii.,i and the thousand years of chap, xx., figures which have been claimed as an exception to the ordinary practice of the Seer, and have been supposed to refer literally to wit- nesses in number two, or to years in number three and a half or a thousand. No wonder that a book is dark where the best-understood rules of interpretation are systematically neglected. The darkness is largely due, not to it, but to ourselves. We have only to adhere faithfully to the common and well-understood laws of language in order to see much at least of its obscurity disappear. ^ By what riglit can Renan be 433), or how can Volkmar be justi- allowecl to interpret the three and fied in making three and a halt a half years literally, and yet the years equal thirty - five years, "one hour" of chap. xvii. 12 as while a thousand years arc literal itn temps limite '( (L' Antechrist, p. years ?—Comm., pp. 9, 301. 40 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. i In conclusion, it may be remarked that the principle now spoken of, applicable to all books, is peculiarly applicable to the Apocalypse, for no one who has paid attention to that book can fail to have been struck with the singular care bestowed on its composition. Every- thing connected with it bears witness to the fact that in general structure, in selection of figures, and in the choice of particular constructions and words, there has been exercised an amount of deliberate thought and plan certainly never surpassed, perhaps hardly ever equalled, in either secular or sacred literature. So far from being wild and unregulated, never was a book written displaying on the part of the writer a clearer con- sciousness of the aim which he had in view, or showing even in minute particulars more pains to reach it. The result may be something to which we are wholly unaccus- tomed ; but it is needless to say that in proportion to the perfection of that result must have been the de- liberate and fixed nature of the steps by which it was attained. In the nature of things, therefore, a book so written ought to admit of a definite sense being assigned to it. It is not the careful but the careless, not the perfect but the imperfect, structure that at once baffles our efforts and excuses our failure to comprehend it. The more real the meaning of any work of art the more ought that meaning to disclose itself to the diligent and persevering student. LECTUKE II INFLUENCES MOULDING THE CONCEPTION OF THE APOCALYPSE We have considered the form — that of visions and symbols — in which the revelation contained in the Apocalypse is presented, and we may turn now to the influences moulding the conception of the book. jSTovel and strange as its contents appear at first sight to be, we shall find that they exhibit a singular amount of dependence upon what is otherwise well known to us, and must have been equally well known to the Seer and his immediate readers. In entering upon this inquiry no one surely will imagine for a moment that any doubt is thrown by it on the belief, always and reasonably entertained in the Church, that the visions of the Apocalypse are substan- tially due to that glorified Lord who alone knows the end from the beginning. But we are dealing with historical phenomena which must be investigated on the same principles as all other phenomena of a similar kind. Our sacred books claim to be received as historically authoritative, and we can only respond to their appeal 42 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. when we have examined them as we examine every historical document submitted to our judgment. No inquiry is more legitimate than that relating to the origin of any one of the four Gospels. Whence did the writer gather his materials ? Was it from general tradition, from the information of immediate eye- witnesses, or from personal recollection ? What motives prompted him to write ? What influences shaped his work ? Answers to these questions need not of them- selves disturb our conclusions as to the reality or extent of the Divine inspiration under which he wrote ; for no one will deny that the Spirit of God, in fitting His instruments for their task, avails Himself of the preparation afforded them by the ordinary course of Providence. Similar questions therefore cannot un- favourably affect our estimate of the Divine origin of the Apocalypse, but they may exert an important influ- ence on its interpretation. Let us look at the facts. I. In the first place, the Apocalypse is moulded by that great discourse of our Lord upon " the last things " which has been preserved for us in the first three Gospels.^ The parallelism between the two is to a 1 Matt. xxiv. 4-xxv. ; Mark The author of Farousia has ad- xiii. 5-37 ; Luke xxi. 8-36 ; comp. verted to this fact, and has sug- xvii. 20-37. It is remarkable gested that "the difficulty is that we find no account of this explained if it should be found discourse in the Gospel of St. that the A2wcalypse is nothing else John ; nor does it seem a sufficient than a transfigured form of the explanation of the omission that pi^ophccy on the Mount of Olives " the latter evangelist Avas satisfied (p. 374). The explanation seems with the records of the discourse by no means improbable, already given by his predecessors. II INFLUENCES MOULDING ITS CONCEPTION 43 certain extent acknowledged by all inquirers, and is indeed in many respects so obvious that it can hardly escape the notice of even the ordinary reader. Let any one compare, for example, the account of the opening of the sixth seal in Eev. vi. 12-17 with the description of the end in Matt. xxiv. 29, 30, and he will see that the one is almost a transcript of the other. Or let the three series of apocalyptic visions, — the Seals, the Trumpets, and the Bowls, be compared with the other parts of the discourse, and it will be found that, speaking generally, they are filled with the same thoughts, — witli wars, pestilences, famines, earthquakes, signs in sun and moon and stars, false teachers doing w^onders and trying to deceive the very elect, the elect preserved, angels sent forth to gather them with the great sound of a trumpet, the victorious progress of the Gospel, the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, the final deliverance of the good, and the just judgment of the wicked. These things reveal in a way not to be mistaken a very intimate relation between the last prophecy of Christ and the Eevelation of St. John. When we look still farther into the matter, the correspondence is much more marked. The main particulars only can be here adverted to. In the first place, we have to determine the manner in which we are to divide our Lord's discourse into its different parts. This question has exercised the thoughts and taxed the powers of every student of the Gospels ; but it is impossible to speak now of what has been done by others. The matter must be approached 44 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. directly. As given in its greatest fulness in the twenty- fourth chapter of the Gospel of St. Matthew, the dis- course before us is an answer to a question of the disciples contained in the third verse of the chapter, — " Tell us, when shall these things be ? and what shall be the sign of Thy coming and of the consummation of the age ? " The chief part of the answer to the questipn occupies the verses extending from the fourth to the thirty -first. The verses preceding these relate the circumstances under which the question was asked ; the verses following give the practical application of what had been said. We may confine ourselves at present to the central and most important part of the discourse — verse 4 to verse 31. This portion of the chapter ought to be divided into three, and not, as sometimes, into two ; or, as at other times, into many parts. The first of the three extends from verse 4 to verse 14, and contains in its most general form our Lord's reply to the question of the disciples in verse 3. That question had been apparently a double one — (1) " When shall these things be ? " When shall that overthrow of the temple take place of which Jesus had spoken in verse 2, and the thought of which had produced so pro- found an impression on His hearers ? (2) " What shall be the sign of Thy coming and of the consummation of the age ? " But, though apparently double, the question had been in reality a single one. The disciples had mixed up two things with one another. Our Lord distinctly separates the two, and in verses 4 to 6 He II INFLUENCES MOULDING ITS CONCEPTION 45 confines Himself to the first, warning the disciples that the signs by which the destruction of Jerusalem should be preceded were not intimations of " the end." " The end," He said at the close of verse 6, " is 7iot yet!' At this point, at verse 7, He turns to the second element in the disciples' question, — "the consummation of the age." He regards the present dispensation as a whole, and follows it to its " end." No longer occupied with the interests of the disciples as Jews, or with the events, however important, that were to happen in Judea, He looks at " all the nations," ^ and occupies Himself with the fortunes of His Church on her widest scale. A multitude of particulars are grouped together in brief and rapid outline upon the canvas — w^ars ; famines; and, as St. Luke adds,^ pestilences; earthquakes in divers places ; and, as St. Luke again adds, terrors and great signs from heaven.^ For the followers of Christ there shall be hatred and tribulation and death ; or, in the still more graphic language of St. Luke, they shall be delivered up to synagogues and prisons, and shall be brought before kings and governors for Christ's name's sake.* The effect of all this shall be, that many shall stumble and many be led astray by the false prophets who shall arise; and that, because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of the many shall w\ax cold. Yet, in the midst of calamity and defection, the true children of God, as we read especially in the second and third Gospels, shall be preserved ; the very malice of their 1 Verses 9-14. ^ Luke xxi. 11. 2 Luke xxi. 11. ^ Luke xxi. 12. 46 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. enemies shall turn unto them for a testimony ; not a hair of their head shall perish; and he that endureth to the end the same shall be saved.-^ Meanwhile the preaching of the Gospel of the kingdom shall be ex- tended to *'the whole inhabited earth for a testimony to all the nations/' and " then shall the end come " (verse 14). Such is the first picture of the discourse. It is particularly to be observed that it relates hoth to the Church and to the world; and it is obvious that it carries us down to the final judgment. Many traits of it are wholly inconsistent with the idea that it is limited to the time preceding the destruction of Jerusalem. The mention of " all the nations/' the preaching of the Gospel " in the whole inhabited earth/' and more especially the contrast between the words of verse 6, " but the end is not yet/' and those of verse 14, " and then shall the end come/' are conclusive upon the point. It is only, how- ever, in great and general outlines that the picture is drawn. The history of the Church, and of the world in its relation to her, are both set before us in their broadest features. The second great picture follows at verse 15 and ex- tends to verse 28. There is no chronological continua- tion of the first, and there could not be, for the first had already brought us to " the end." We return rather to the beginning, and we have again before us the whole history of the Christian Church from the moment when she was planted in the world to the moment when her 1 Comp. Mark xiii. 11, 13 ; Luke xxi. 14, 15, 18. II INFLUENCES MOULDING ITS CONCEPTION 47 Lord shall come again to introduce her to everlasting blessedness. We are not dealing with Jewish Christians alone. It is true that the fall of Jerusalem is especially mentioned in these verses, that we read of them that are " in Judea " fleeing to the mountains, and that the disciples are instructed to pray that their flight may not be on " a Sabbath." ^ But the w^ords of verses 17-19 were words used by our Lord, as we learn from the third Gospel, with a universal application.^ We cannot con- fine the words ''no flesh" of verse 22 to Jews ; and the remarkable omission by St. Mark, in his report of the discourse, of the words " on a Sabbath "^ is a clear proof that the exhortation of Jesus was understood by him to apply also to the Gentiles. St. Luke, as might be ex- pected from the object of his Gospel, is still more specific. He not only omits the words " on a Sabbath," but speaks of " the times of the Gentiles," — those times which were to prevail everywhere and to the end — of distress of nations "upon the earth!' and of the things that were coming upon " the w^orld " or " the inhabited earths * Throughout the second part of the discourse the whole world is before us ; and, as is distinctly show^n by the word "immediately" of verse 29, is before us to the end.^ ^ Verses 15, 16, 20. evdews of the original (verse 29) in - Comp. Luke xvii. 30-37. its natural and necessary sense. ■' Mark xiii. 18. The torture to which that word * Luke xxi. 24-26. has been exposed forms a curious ^ It is one of the subordinate chapter in the history of New testimonies to the correctness of Testament Exegesis. Comp. Mori- the arrangement here proposed son in loc. that we are able to understand the 48 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. Still more important, however, is it to observe, in connexion with these verses (15-28), that they really divide themselves into two parts dominated by entirely different thoughts, the first part extending from verse 15 to verse 22, the second from verse 23 to verse 28. In the former we have the external history of the Church in the world, and her preservation in the midst of all the trials that surround her there. The "great tribula- tion " spoken of bears less immediately upon her than upon those who are opposing and afflicting her. The woes that here come upon the earth are woes occasioned by its own sinfulness ; and they would be much greater than they are, were it not that for the elect's sake the days shall be shortened. These shortened days must thus, from the very circumstance that their " shortening" is referred to as it is, be the days that immediately pre- cede "the end." The latter half of the passage (verses 23-28) gives us the internal history of the Churcli. It begins with a direct address to " the elect," who had been spoken of at the close of the preceding paragraph, and its object is to warn them to resist apostasy and to flee from the judgments by which apostasy shall be overtaken. It exhorts to watchfulness against declen- sion ; and the dangers to which it alludes are not so much those of the world as of the Church. Finally, therefore, its threaten ings are not directed against unbelievers, but against professing Christians who deny their faith ; and the " carcase " spoken of in verse 28 is not that of the world but of all who in any age or in any land — " lolieresoever the carcase is " — act II INFLUENCES MOULDING ITS CONCEPTION 49 over again the part of degenerate Jerusalem and of the false theocracy. A "carcase" is something that has fallen from life, not something that was always dead.^ Once more, it may be observed, we are at " the end." The third great picture is easily understood. It is given in the verses extending from verse 29 to verse 31, and it presents us with a view of what is to happen when the present dispensation has run its course. It takes up " the end " mentioned in verse 4, and to the beginning of which we had been brought in verses 23 and 28, as come, and it describes the different fate in store for the foes and for the friends of Jesus, — the one wailing at His presence, the other (still styled His " elect ") " gathered together from the four winds, from the one end of heaven to the other." Such are the leading particulars of this great pro- phecy of Christ, and such is the manner in which it seems proper to arrange it. "When we turn to the Apocalypse and compare it, from the point at which the action opens, that is from chap, vi., with the discourse now spoken of, more espe- cially when we compare with that discourse the three great series of visions, the Seals, the Trumpets, and the Bowls, the parallelism between the two is of the closest and most remarkable kind. ^ It is ill this sense that the compel us to think of something word irrQi/jia is to be here under- wider. The main point is that stood, not as referring to a world the saying, whether proverbial or sunk in corruption (Morison, not, is here applied by our Lord Meyer, in loc.) It might thus be not to the world but to a degener- applied to Jerusalem, did not ate Church, everything else in the prophecy K 50 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. Let the following particulars be noted : — 1. As compared with the Trumpets and the Bowls the Seals are general.^ There is less minute specifica- tion of details ; and the subject with which they deal corresponds exactly to that dealt with in the first section of our Lord's discourse (Matt. xxiv. 7-14). There are the same wars and famines and pestilences ; there is the same wide preaching of the Gospel, and the same preservation of the elect. But the whole series is of a general and preparatory kind, although in the space of time which it embraces it reaches to " the end." 2. The two series of the Trumpets and the Bowls are in a certain sense to be taken together, in this respect exactly corresponding to the second section of our Lord's discourse — that section which, as we have already seen, presents a second picture of the whole history of the Church from two different points of view (verses 15-28). It has indeed been maintained by many inquirers that the three series of the Seals, the Trumpets, and the Bowls are entirely independent of one another ; by many that they are developed out of one another, — the Trumpets out of the Seals and the Bowls out of the Trumpets. A closer examination of the text will satisfy us that both alternatives are wrong. The opening verses of chap. viii. clearly show that there is an intimate con- nexion between tlie Trumpets and the Seals — " And when He opened the seventh Seal, there followed a silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. And ^ Comp. Lecture iii. p. 93. II INFLUENCES MOULDING ITS CONCEPTION 51 I saw the seven angels which stand before God ; and there were given unto them seven trumpets,"-^ after which comes the incident of the prayers of all saints ; and only at the sixth verse of the chapter do the angels prepare themselves to sound. We cannot, therefore, separate the Trumpets from the seventh Seal. The former are not independent of the latter, but are evidently developed out of it, although the succession is one of thought rather than time. When we turn to the seventh Trumpet at the close of chap. xi. there is no similar connexion with the immediately following series of the Bowls. There is no introduction, there is no mention, of the Bowls. An entirely new start, taking us back to the beginning, is made in chap, xii., and not until we reach chap. xv. 7 do we read of the seven angels to whom were given the seven Bowls full of the wrath of God. The contrast with the transition from the Seals to the Trumpets is striking, and it warrants the con- clusion that the Bowls do not stand to the Trumpets in the same relation as the Trumpets to the Seals. There is no development now of the one out of the other. The legitimate inference is that there is a sense in which the Trumpets and the Bowls taken together form one great section of the Apocalypse, that, however distinct from one another, there is some thought common to them both, that there is a point of view from which (like the verses in Matt. xxiv. 15-28) they constitute one great series, and that both are developed out of the Seals. They are a fuller, a more detailed, a more definite ex- 1 Chap. viii. 1, 2. 52 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. plication of what the Seals contain. In other words, the two later series taken together stand to the earlier series in precisely the same relation as that in which the second section of our Lord's discourse, with its two divisions, stands to the first. 3. This inference will be confirmed, and the parall- elism insisted on will be brought still more fully out, if we further attend to the contents of the Trumpets as distinguished from the contents of the Bowls. That both these series embrace the whole history of the Church will be afterwards more fully seen ; but they embrace it with a difference. The Trumpets refer peculiarly to judgments on the world and to the preservation of the elect in the midst of them. That the elect are affected by the judgments is true.-^ They live in the same world as the wicked, engage in the same occupations, discharge the same duties, are exposed to the same trials, are mingled with them in the same bonds of the family, the neighbour- hood, and the state. The time has not yet come for the separation which shall finally take place. Were the tares to be rooted up the wheat would be rooted up with them. But although the righteous suffer, ^ This had been the experience under the Trumpets in the Apoca- also of the Old Testament Church, lypse are called plagues (chap. No distinction was made between ix. 20), and that several of them Israel and the Egyptians till the just reproduce in an intenser form close of the third plague. The the plagues of Egyjit — the water waters were turned into blood turned into blood {ihid. viii. 8), for both alike ; the frogs and the the darkness {ihid. viii. 12), and lice were upon both alike. It the locusts {ibid. ix. 3). will be noted that the judgments II INFLUENCES MOULDING ITS CONCEPTION 53 the judgments of the Trumpets fall directly on the world alone. Numerous indications prove this. Thus it is of importance to notice the manner in which the Trumpet judgments are introduced. They are an answer to the prayers of "all saints," which were offered up by the angel of chap, viii., along with the incense which he presented upon the golden altar that is before the throne. But these prayers are directed against the world that has persecuted the Church, against those who are spoken of under the fifth seal as "they that dwell on the earth." ^ It is true that the degenerate Church is a persecutor, in this book even the great persecutor, of the people of God. But against her the saints cannot pray. To them she is still the Church. God alone can separate the true from the false within her pale. That against which the prayers of all saints are offered is the world. Again, in chap. viii. 13, the three woes of the three last Trumpets are denounced upon "them that dwell on the earth," an expression invariably applied in the Apocalypse to those who are partakers of the sinful spirit of the world. Now it is a principle of interpreta- tion, to be applied to all the three series of the Seals, the Trumpets, and the Bowls, that what is mentioned under any one member of each series belongs equally to its other members, and that the judgments, while in a certain sense seven, are in another one. The three woes therefore express the character of the whole group to which they belong. Again, in the account given of 1 Chap. vi. 10. 54 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. the fifth Trumpet at chap. ix. 4, the children of God are clearly separated from the ungodly, so that judgment shall not touch them. The locusts of that Trumpet are not to " hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree, but only such men as have not the seal of God in their foreheads" Finally, let us notice that the seventh Trumpet, in which the Trumpets cul- minate, and in which therefore the special character of the whole series is expressed, deals peculiarly with judgment on the world. " The nations were angry, and Thy wrath came, and the time of the dead to he judged . . . and to destroy them that destroy the earth." -^ When we put all these circumstances together, we shall be satisfied that the series of the Trumpet-plagues presents us with the same thought as the first half of the second section of our Lord's discourse. It deals not with the Church but with the world, or with the world in its relation to the Church. If from the Trumpets we turn to the Bowls the following particulars claim our notice : — (1) The very mention of Bowls at once connects us not with the world but with the Church. The vessels so designated were not vials but bowls or basins, broad and shallow rather than narrow and deep. They were gifts pre- sented by the princes of the twelve tribes of Israel for the service of the Tabernacle,^ and they were used for offering on the golden altar of the sanctuary the incense which had been kindled by coals from the altar in the court. They were thus instruments of religious ^ Chap. xi. 18. - Numb. vii. II INFLUENCES MOULDING ITS CONCEPTION 55 service, and were peculiarly fitted, according to the lex talionis, the law of recompense in kind pervading the whole Apocalypse, to contain those judgments of the Almighty which were designed not for the w^orld but for the faithless Church. It w^as thus that in Malachi the corrupt Jewish Church was threatened, " I will curse your blessings " (chap. ii. 2 ; comp. Psalm Ixix. 22, 23). (2) A similar remark applies to the fact that, as mentioned in chap. xv. 6, the angels which bear the seven last plagues come forth from the " temple " or innermost shrine of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven, dressed as priests in pure wdiite linen and with golden girdles. Nothing of this kind is said of the angels of the Trumpets in chap. viii. The thought of the lex talionis again leads us to the degenerate Church as the object of the judgments to be inflicted by these angels'. (3) By the time we reach the judgments of the Bowls in chap. xvii. the peculiar struggle of the children of God with their great adversaries has begun. The three enemies of them that " keep the command- ments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus " ^ have been described in chaps, xii. and xiii. The preserva- tion of the sealed has been set before us in chap. xiv. ; and in chap. xv. they that come victorious from the beast, and from his image, and from the number of his name, have been beheld upon the glassy sea, having harps of God and singing the song of Moses the servant of God and of the Lamb. Like the great leader of Israel of old, like the Lamb of God Himself in the days 1 Chap. xii. 17. 56 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect- of His flesh, they have conquered not merely the world in its coarser forms, but a degenerate theocracy, the world in the Church. (4) The contents of the third Bowl are discharged upon those who had " poured out the blood of saints and prophets," ^ and it has already been remarked that the object of judgment mentioned under any one member of a group throws light upon the object of judgment under its other members, although under them it may not be so distinctly noted. But this description of those who are judged under the third Bowl is elsewhere applied in almost the same terms to Babylon the faithless Church.^ (5) The seventh Bowl, like the seventh Trumpet, treats of the final judgment, yet with the obvious difference that, while the latter, as we have seen, deals with the " w^orld " and the " nations," the former deals with " the great city " and " Babylon " — " and the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell : and Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath." ^ This " great city," this Babylon, is the faithless Church.* (6) On the supposition now before us it becomes possible to give an easy and natural explanation of the words of chap. x. 11, "And they say unto me. Thou must prophesy, a second time, over many peoples and nations and tongues and kings." Why do these words come in at the point at which we meet them ? Because w^e are about to pass from the world considered in itself 1 Chap. xvi. 6. ^ Chap. xvi. 19. - Chap, xviii. 24. ■* Comp. p. 18L II INFLUENCES MOULDING ITS CONCEPTION 57 to the world as the theatre of the Church, as the stage upon which the Church's fortunes are the chief object of interest to angels and awakened men. There is a fit- ness, therefore, in calling our attention to that second proclamation of the Gospel by which the Church was constituted among the Gentiles.^ Let us again put these circumstances together, and we shall be led to the conclusion that the series of the Bowls has a special relation not to the Church in the world but to the Church considered in herself, and to her internal rather than her external history. In other words, the series of the Bowls gives expression through- out to the same thought as the second half of the second section of that discourse of Jesus with which we are now comparing the Apocalypse. On the correspondence between the third section of our Lord's discourse (verses 29-31) and the closing scenes of the Apocalypse it is unnecessary to dwell. Thus strikingly then do the leading visions of St. John correspond to that discourse of Jesus in which He pointed out in great lines to His disciples the nature of the events that were to happen between His own day and " the consummation of the age." The correspond- ence is not merely general, it is minute and special ; 1 It is not without interest to verse, has been pointed out in the compare the ^vords of chap. x. Comm. (m loc.) In Rev. x. 11 11 with those in the Gospel of we have again his TrdXti', and that St. John iv. 54. The import- in connexion with the very same ance which St. John attached to thought— the extension of the this latter statement, as shown in Gospel tidings to the Gentile the very peculiar structure of the world. 58 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. and it exists to such a degree as to admit of only one conclusion, that the Apocalypse is the enlargement of the discourse. This conclusion is more than interesting and curious : it is in the highest degree important. Two consequences in particular may be noticed. (1) The Eevelation of St. John is at once separated from all the other apocalyptic writings with which it is so often compared. The direct authority of the Saviour is lent to it, and we see at least how naturally it may have been the production of that disciple who knew so much of the mind of his Master. (2) The book being the enlargement of the discourse, it is not unreasonable to think that what the discourse contains is contained also in the book, and that what the discourse does not con- tain is not to be looked for in the book. It may be well, before passing on, to present the above analysis of Matt. xxiv. and of the Apocalypse in a tabular form, taking in only for the sake of complete- ness the whole discourse. I. The situation, Matt. xxiv. 1-3. II. The discourse, part i.. Matt. xxiv. 4-31. 1. Reply of Jesus to the first part of the question after He had separated it into its component elements, When shall these things be ? (verses 4-6). 2. Reply of Jesus to the second part of the ques- tion. What sliall be the sign of Thy coming and of the consummation of the age ? (verses 7-31) — in three parts. II INFLUENCES MOULDING ITS CONCEPTION 59 a. General outline of the history of the Church and of the world to the Second Coming (verses 7-14) ; corresponding to the seven Seals of the Apocalypse. h. Same subject resumed under two special aspects (verses 15-28). First Aspect. Second Aspect. The Church in her re- The Church in her rela- lation to the evil world tion to the evil in herself (verses 15-22); correspond- (verses 23-28); correspond- ing to the seven Trumpets ing to the seven Bowls of of the Apocalypse. the Apocalypse. c. The Second Coming (verses 29-31). III. The discourse, part ii., Matt. xxiv. 32-xxv. 46. Application of the truths stated in part i. 1. To question regarding the destruction of the temple (verses 32-35). 2. To question regarding the consummation of the age (chap. xxiv. 36-xxv. 46). II. In the second place, the conception of the Apoca- lypse is powerfully moulded by St. John's recollections of the life of Jesus. What these recollections were we know from that Gospel which is also the production of his pen ; and the strong individuality of which, stamped upon its every line, reveals not the influence of a general tradition as it appears in the three earlier Gospels, but the manner in which St. John himself recalled the life of his Divine Master upon earth. The remarkable fact, then, with which we have now to do is this, that the 60 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. parallelism just spoken of between the Apocalypse and our Lord's discourse to His disciples upon "the last things" is not more close or striking than is that between the same book and the delineation of the life of Christ contained in the fourth Gospel. When we compare the two we shall find that, alike in general scope and in particular details, the Gospel is the model of the Apocalypse ; that all the lines of the one are followed in the other ; and that, separated as the two books are in many of their outward features by what is often thought an impassable gulf, the later is yet, in the deeper conceptions which pervade it, a repetition of the earlier. One point of distinction must indeed be kept steadily in view. The two books are written from a different standpoint. The Gospel is the record of the Word made flesh, of the Life come down from heaven to give life unto the world, of the creation of the union between Christ and His people. In the Apocalypse this union has been formed and is seen subsisting. The Son of God in the glory of His Ascension-state is still the Son of man, and the latter aspect of His Person becomes prominent. In the very first vision He is spoken of as " like unto a son of man."-^ He is the great High- priest and King of His people, not so much the eternal Logos (although He is that also) as He who became dead, and behold. He is alive for evermore. He holds the seven stars in His right hand, walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, and is the constant and 1 Chap. i. 13. II INFLUENCES MOULDING ITS CONCEPTION 61 faithful Guardian of His flock. It is Christ in His Church, therefore, rather than in Himself ; or, in other words, it is the Church as she is in Christ, and is one with Him, whose fortunes we are here to follow. With this thought, however, another immediately connects itself, — that union with Christ not only in inward spirit but in outward fortune is the abiding mark of the Church, one of the deepest and most essential characteristics of her life; that the Church must tread the same path as that which her Eedeemer trod ; that she must drink the same cup and be baptized with the same baptism. Hence the life of Christ, re- membered as St. John remembered it, supplies the type to which the history of His people shall be conformed ; or, in other words, the Gospel of St. John moulds the conception of the Apocalypse. We see it in the general arrangement of the seven successive parts of the book, in every one of which a thought may be observed precisely parallel to that which appears in the corresponding stage of the life of Jesus. The prologue in chap. i. corresponds to the prologue of the Gospel, with the difference in the aspect of Jesus already noticed (comp. John i. 1-18). Then the pre- sentation of the Church as she occupies her position in the world, in chaps, ii. and iii., corresponds to the presentation of Jesus on the field of human history (comp. John i. 19-ii. 11). Chaps, iv. and v., which follow, contain pictures of coming victory in every respect analagous to those found in the third section 62 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. of the Gospel, so that before the conflict with the world begins the mind is filled with confident and joyful hope as to the issue (comp. John ii. 12-iv. 54). The con- flict itself, extending from chap. vi. to chap, xviii. 24, is next presented to our view, reminding us of the conflict of Jesus with His enemies, containing similar opposition, similar triumph over it, similar advance in judgment, and similar pictures, marked by ever-increasing bright- ness, of the security of the righteous. Yet, strange to say, it closes with the same sad tones ; for the Church of Christian, no less than of Jewish, times has become degenerate, and God's faithful ones can only be saved by listening to the cry, " Come forth, my people, out of her, that ye have no fellowship with her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues " (comp. John v. 1-xii. 50). The conflict is next followed by the pause of rest and accomplished victory, from chap. xix. 1 to chap, xix." 10 ; and it is impossible to mistake the resemblance to that blessed pause in the life of Jesus when, His conflict over, and every element of darkness driven away. He celebrated the Last Supper with His disciples, addressed to them His last words of peace, and poured forth His heart in that high-priestly prayer in which we breathe the very atmosphere of heaven (comp. John xiii.-xvii.) The resemblance is so close that, just as in chap. xiii. of the Gospel the Last Supper is celebrated, so even in the Apocalypse there is a supper. For the first time in the book we read of "the supper of the marriage of the Lamb,"^ for that "marriage is come ^ Chap. xix. 9. II INFLUENCES MOULDING ITS CONCEPTION 63 and the Lamb's wife hath made herself ready." ^ But the pause is not to last (chap. xix. 11 to cha^^. xxii. 5). The eternal rest has not yet come. There is a fresh out- break of war at chap. xix. 11. First, the Lord Himself appears in all the glory of His victorious might ; and the description is peculiarly interesting because it takes up again several of the most striking particulars con- tained in the description given of Him on His first appearance, and not since that time alluded to. He rides upon His white horse ; He is called Faithful and True ; in righteousness He judges and makes war ; His eyes are as a flame of fire ; out of His mouth pro- ceedeth a sharp sword; He ruleth the nations with a rod of iron ; He is King of kings and Lord of lords.^ Next " the beast " is seen with " the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against Him that sat upon the horse and against his army," and it is accompanied to the field by " the false prophet that wrought the signs in his sight" (think of Pilate and the Jews in John xviii.) Lastly the devil himself comes forth " to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war." ^ The outbreak thus spoken of corresponds to tliat renewed outburst of evil, occurring at chap, xviii. of the Gospel after the rest of Jesus, which is unsuccessful, and which, followed in the history of our Lord by the " lifting up on high " on the cross and the resurrection, is followed in the visions of the Seer by 1 Chap. xix. 7. vi. 2 ; i. 5 ; iii. 14 ; i. 14 ; i. 16 ; - Comp., with the particulars of ii. 27 ; i. 5. the description in the text, chaps. ^ Chap. xx. 8. 64 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. the casting of the Church's last enemies into the lake of fire, and the perfecting of the happiness of the saints amidst the glories of the New Jerusalem (comp. John xviii.-xx.) Of the epilogue (chap. xxii. 6-21) in the Apocalypse it is unnecessary to speak. It ends, as the Gospel does, with the Second Coming of the Lord (comp. John xxi.)^ In reviewing these particulars there is a risk that they may appear to many too artificial to be true. But the more they are reflected on the more will this impression disappear. Let us once satisfy ourselves, and no student of St. John can long be insensible to the fact, that union, that identification, of Christ's people with their Lord was one of the deepest con- victions of the beloved disciple ; let us learn from all his writings how strongly he felt that every member of Christ's Body must share the fortunes of its Head, and we shall not be surprised that his conception of the history of the suffering Church should shape itself in his mind according to the history of the suffering Lord. Not only, however, does the idea now spoken of appear in the general conception of the book, it appears also in individual passages. Let us turn, for example, to the history of the two witnesses in chap, xi., and we can hardly fail to see ^ The writer may be permitted view now expressed relates only to refer to liis paper in the Ex- to the point at which section vi. positm- (second series, v. p. 102) in of the Apocalypse should begin, which the above point is more there at chap, xx, 7, here at chap, fully dwelt on. Any difference of xix. 11. II INFLUENCES MOULDING ITS CONCEPTION 65 that the description of their death in the seventh and eighth verses of that chapter is suggested by the closing hours of the Eedeemer's life. The opening words, "And when they shall have finished their testimony," take us at once to the scene on Calvary as it is described in the fourth Gospel — "When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished : and He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost." ^ Other particulars of the correspondence are not so minute ; but few will doubt whence the general idea of them is drawn, — " And the beast that cometh up out of the abyss shall make war with them, and overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified." A similar remark is applicable to the vindication which the witnesses receive at the hands of God. Probably no commentator hesi- tates to recognise in it particulars furnished by the Eesurrection and Ascension of our Lord, — " And after the three days and a half the breath of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet ; and great fear fell upon them which beheld them. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they went up to heaven in the cloud ; and their enemies beheld them." Again, in chap. xii. 4, the attitude of the great red dragon towards the woman delivered of the man child is thus described, "And the dragon stood before the woman which was about to be delivered, that when she 1 John xix. 30. F 66 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. was delivered, he might devour her child." Whatever else may be implied in this, it surely reflects that fact in the history of Jesus with which St. John, though he does not mention it in his Gospel, must have been perfectly famihar, — that Herod sought the young child's life to destroy him, — a fact again repeated in the history of the Church. And when, at verse 5 of the same chapter, the child is caught up to God and to His throne, what is this but the catching up of the faithful (for they are included in the child) to the heavenly places, after the manner of Him who ascended to " His Father and our Father, to His God and our God " ? Again, the relation now spoken of between the fourth Gospel and the Apocalypse explains the representation given in the latter of the great enemies of the Church. In the Gospel the enemies of our Lord are three in number, the devil, the Eoman Government, and that degenerate Judaism which persuaded the Eoman Gov- ernment to become the tool of its guilty purposes. But three great enemies appear also in the Apocalypse, the dragon, the first beast, and the second beast. That the dragon of the Apocalypse is the same as the devil of the Gospel admits of no dispute. In chap. xii. 9 he is expressly said to be " the old serpent, he that is called the Devil and Satan." The second enemy, or the first beast of chap, xiii., is almost imiversally allowed to be the power of the world represented at the time by that of Eome ; and the more carefully the particulars men- tioned of the second beast of the same chapter are examined, the more will it appear that the description II INFLUENCES MOULDING ITS CONCEPTION 67 rests upon that fanatical spirit of "the Jews" which led them to incite Pilate to the condemnation of the Christ at the moment when he himself, saying " I find no fault in Him," sought to release Him.'^ There may be nothing surprising in the fact that a writer who delights as much as St. John in the use of the number 3 should see especially three enemies bringing about the death of Jesus ; but that, when he comes to the history of the Church, the same three should again appear, can- not fail to show us how closely the fortunes of the Church are moulded upon those of Christ. One other passage may be referred to in illustration of this point. At chap. xvii. 16 we read, ''And the ten horns which thou sawest, and the beast, these shall hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and shall burn her utterly with fire. For God did put it in their hearts to do His mind, and to come to one mind, and to give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God should be accomplished." The passage is one of the most startling in the book of Eevelation, and its statement comes upon us as a result totally unexpected and unaccounted for. The harlot had been sitting on the beast, and guiding the beast in perfect harmony with its designs. The two are friends and fellow- workers. All at once the scene is changed. Defeat has taken place, and what is its effect ? The bond which in prosperity had bound together the part- ners in wickedness is dissolved ; they who had co- operated in sin fall out ; the one turns round upon the 1 John xix. 6, 12. 68 LECTURES ON" THE APOCALYPSE lect. other ; and she who had found ready instruments in the beast and its horns for accomplishing the work to which she had spurred them on, now sees them, in the hour of their common despair, fall upon herself and mercilessly destroy her. "We need not ask whether events then future, or future still, are symbolised by this language. A great principle, one often exemplified in the world, is proceeded on, — that combinations of the wicked speedily break up, leaving the guilty associates to turn upon and destroy one another. The question that at present mainly concerns us is. What are the historical circum- stances lying at the bottom of the vision ? And, when we ask that question, it is difficult not to think that there was one great drama present to the mind of the Seer and suggestive of his picture of the harlot's ruin, that of the life and death of Jesus. The degenerate Jewish Church had then called in the assistance of the world-power of Eome, had stirred it up, and had per- suaded it to do its bidding against its true Bridegroom and King. An alliance had been formed between them ; and, as the result of it, they crucified the Lord of glory. But the alliance was soon broken ; and, in the fall of Jerusalem by the hands of her guilty paramour, the harlot was left desolate and naked, her flesh was eaten, and she was burned utterly with fire.-^ It is possible that other illustrations of the point now ^ The quarrel of the fallen as our Lord was delivered up. Jewish Church and the Eoman St. John notes it in the words ■power \v3iS consuimnated in the fall of Pilate in chap. xix. 22 — of Jerusalem. But the beginning "What I have written, I have of the quarrel took place as soon written." II INFLUENCES MOULDING ITS CONCEPTION 69 before us may be found ; or if the principle of contrasts which we have yet to see plays a large part in the struc- ture of the Apocalypse/ be resorted to, the conclusion arrived at may find support in it, for the binding of Satan and the sealing of the abyss in chap. xx. seem to be a mocking counterpart to the binding of Jesus and the sealing of the stone rolled against the mouth of His tomb. Enough, however, has been said to show that the Apoca- lypse is penetrated in a remarkable manner by the tend- ency to present the history of the Church as corresponding in every respect to the history of the Church's Lord. To such an extent is what has now been said the case, that the Apocalypse may without impropriety be spoken of as the complement of the fourth Gospel. It stands to it in a relation similar to that of the Acts of the Apostles to the Gospel of St. Luke, or of the Epistle to the Ephesians to that to the Colossians. We may divide into two parts the words of our Lord's high- priestly prayer, " As Thou didst send Me into the world, even so sent I them into the world ; " and, if we do so, they will severally describe the books before us. " As Thou didst send Me into the world," — that is the Gospel; — " Even so sent I them into the world," — that is the Apocalyse. But the one is history, the other is apocalyptic vision ; and, in giving the latter through the Seer, the Spirit of God simply availed Himself, as He always does, of the preparation found in the Almighty's providential arrangements, and of the mould made ready to His hand in the prophet's mind. 1 p. 110. 70 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. These considerations will afterwards help ns to under- stand the mysterious book with which we are dealing. In the meantime it is enough to say that the mistakes committed in its interpretation have flowed mainly from this, that men have not apprehended with sufficient clearness the singleness, the simplicity, and the purity of the ideas which it is its purpose to unfold. The fact now adduced draws again a wide line of demarcation between the Apocalypse and the general apocalyptic literature of the time. It connects it with the rest of the N'ew Testament in a manner and to an extent totally wanting in the other books of a similar character which have come down to us. It makes it the unfolding of a thoroughly Christian idea, and it even helps to give us a standard by which our interpretation of particular passages may be tried. Here, if anywhere, indeed it would seem that we are to find the key of apocalyptic interpretation ; for the whole Apocalypse is but a presenting over again, in the mould supplied by our Lord's own history, of the difficulties, the sorrows, the conflicts, and the triumphs of the members of His Body. III. In the third place, the Apocalypse is largely moulded by the historical and prophetical books of the Old Testament. No characteristic 'of it is more remark- able than the extent to which this is the case. That a great resemblance should exist between the two might have been expected. As He who is the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob is the God of His people now ; as He who guided Joseph like a flock is the ever-living II INFLUENCES MOULDING ITS CONCEPTION 71 Shepherd of Israel, it is natural that His dealings with the saints of old should be viewed by the Christian mind as typical pf His dealings with their children and their children's children to the end of time. The prophets too extended their glance not merely to the coming of Christ into the world, but to the final issues of the Christian dispensation. They testified not only the sufferings of Christ, but the glories that should follow them (1 Peter i. 11). They were enabled to be- hold afar off the coming of an age when all evil should be overthrown, and all good be for ever triumphant. Again, therefore, it was natural that the great apoca- lyptic book of the New Testament should adopt their forms of thought and their very words.. The Church of Christ is essentially one with that of the earlier covenant. Though in another and higher stage of pro- gress, she has the same God for her guide, the same Eedeemer for her life, the same Spirit to give her light and strength and comfort. She has the same pilgrimage to pursue, the same enemies to contend with, the same promises for her support, the same inheritance for her ultimate reward. With all, therefore, that is Divine in her the same, and all that is human the same in its fundamental principles, we need not wonder that lan- guage addressed to the Church at one period of her development should also, though with a wider meaning, be found suitable to her at another. Yet, even admitting this, such considerations alone would very imperfectly prepare us for the singular dependence of the Apocalypse upon Old Testament 72 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. history and prophecy. The book is absolutely steeped in the memories, the incidents, the thoughts, and the language of the Church's past. To such an extent is this the case that it may be doubted whether it contains a single figure not drawn from the Old Testament, or a single complete sentence not more or less built up of materials brought from the same source. Nothing can convey a full and adequate impression upon the point except the careful study of the book itself in this par- ticular aspect of its contents. But it may be well to give one or two illustrations of what has been said. Let us look at its references to persons. Is a par- ticular heresy predominant in Pergamum? It is not merely that of the Nicolaitans but of Balaam ; ^ or is Thyatira tolerant of evil ? the angel of the Church is charged with " suffering " his wife Jezebel instead of putting her down with a strong hand.^ Have the two witnesses, amidst all their trials, a might greater than that of their enemies ? the description takes us back to Moses and Elijah, and is rendered all the more graphic because we read of deeds similar to theirs without any mention of their names.^ When a leader of the angels of heaven against the dragon is introduced to us, it is that Michael whose prowess more than one passage of Daniel records ; '^ and, when the kincj of the friditful locusts of the abyss is spoken of, it is by a name familiar to the reader in the original of the books of Job and Psalms and Proverbs.^ If from persons we turn to 1 Chap. ii. 14. 2 chap ii. 20. ^ Chap. xi. 6. ^ Cliap. xii. 7 ^ Chap. ix. 11. II IXFLUEXCES MOULDING ITS CONCEPTION 73 places the same rule is observable. Jerusalem and Mount Zion and Babylon and the Euphrates and Sodom and Egypt, all familiar to us in the history of Israel, play their part in order to denote the holiness and happiness of the saints, or the coming in of judgment, or the transgressors from whom the righteous must separate themselves.^ The battle of Har-Magedon has undoubted reference to one or other, if not to both, of the two great slaughters connected in the Old Testament with the plain of Megiddo, — the one celebrated in the song of Deborah and Barak in the book of Judges (chap. v. 19), and again alluded to in the Psalms (Psalm Ixxxiii. 9) ; the other that in which, as related in the second book of Kings (chap, xxiii. 29), King Josiah fell.^ While nothing can explain the last attack upon the saints as a gathering of Gog and Magog from the four corners of the earth but the fact that these names had already been consecrated to a similar purpose in the prophecies of Ezekiel (chaps, xxxviii., xxxix.) ^ Again, how many are the objects of Old Testament history mentioned in this book in order to bring out the New Testament ideas which it breathes. The promises to the seven churches, instead of being clothed in purely Christian language, are given under the form of " the tree of life which is in the paradise of God," of " the hidden manna," of " the white (or glister- ing) stone, and upon the stone a new name written which no man knoweth but he that receiveth it," of ^ Chaps, xxi. 2 ; xiv. 1 ; xvi. 19 ; - Chap. xvi. 16. ix. U; xi. 8. ^ Chap. xx. 8. 74 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. "the sceptre of iron" breaking the nations to pieces like " the vessels of the potter/', of " the morning star," of " names that shall not be blotted out of the book of life/' of " the pillar in the temple of my God/' of the feast to which Jesus will come in, " supping " with the believer, and the believer with Him.^ Heaven itself is described under the image of the Tabernacle in the wilderness, with its outer court and its inner sanctuary, its altar of burnt offering, its golden altar of incense, its ark, and its cherubim in the midst of the throne and round about the throne;^ while the great Being who sits upon the throne shines like the precious stones mentioned by Ezekiel, is encompassed by the rainbow of the Covenant, and has perpetually sung to Him the holy Trisagion of Isaiah.^ The preservation of the people of God from the attacks of their enemies is represented under the figure of the crossing of the Eed Sea and of the river Jordan, mixed up with the fate of Korah and his companions in rebellion."^ The song of the redeemed, who have gotten the victory over the beast and his image and his name and the number of his name, is the song of Moses the servant of God as well as of the Lamb ; ^ while the redeemed themselves are marked out as high-priests consecrated to God by having their Father's name written on their foreheads.*^ The plagues of Egypt are continually appealed to — water changed into blood, hail and fire and thunder 1 Chaps, ii. 7, 17, 27, 28 ; iii. ^ cj^ap. iv. 3, 4, 8. 5, 12, 20. ^ Chap. xii. 15, 16. - Chaps, xi. 1, 19 ; vi. 9 ; viii. ^ Chap. xv. 3. 3; xi. 19 ; iv. 6. « Chap. xiv. ]. 11 INFLUEXCES MOULDING ITS CONCEPTION 75 and lightning and darkness and locusts.^ The terrible horses of the sixth trumpet-plague have their features gathered from different passages of the Old Testament ; ^ and the fall of Babylon is moulded upon the fall of Jericho and of Tyre.^ The great earthquake of chap, vi. is taken from Haggai ; the sun becoming black as sackcloth of hair and the moon becoming blood of the same chapter, from Joel ; the stars of heaven falling, the fig tree casting her untimely figs, the heavens departing as a scroll, in the same chapter, from Isaiah ; the locusts of chap. ix. from Joel ; the gathering of the vine of the earth in chap. xiv. from Joel ; and the treading of the winepress in the same chapter from Isaiah. The wings of the eagle upon which the woman is borne for pro- tection to the wilderness are those of Deuteronomy and Isaiah, and the whole description of the new Jerusalem in chap. xxi. is moulded upon Ezekiel. If we look at several of the larger visions we shall have the same lesson brought home to us — that of the o throne in heaven in chap. iv. having its prototype in Isaiah and Ezekiel ; that of the roll in chap. v. in Ezekiel ; that of the opening of the seals in chap. vi. in Zechariah ; that of the beast from the sea in chap. xiii. in Daniel ; that of the olive trees in chap. xi. in Zechariah ; that of the measuring of the temple in chap. xxi. in Ezekiel and Zechariah; that of the little book in chap. x. in Ezekiel. Or, once more, if we take any single vision and examine its details, we shall find that its various por- ^ Cliap. viii. - Chap. ix. 17, etc. ^ Chap, xviii. 76 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. tions are often gathered out of different prophets, or different parts of the same prophet. Thus, in the very first vision of the book, that of the glorified Eedeemer, in chap. i. 12-20, the golden candlesticks are taken from Exodus and Zechariah ; the garment down to the foot from Exodus and Daniel ; the golden girdle from Isaiah and Daniel ; the hairs like white wool from the same two prophets ; the feet like unto burnished brass from Ezekiel; the voice as the sound of many waters from Ezekiel ; the two-edged sword from Isaiah and the Psalms; the countenance as the sun shineth in his strength from Exodus ; the falling of the Seer as dead at the feet of the person who appears to him from Exodus, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel ; the laying of the right hand of Jesus upon the Seer from Daniel. It is impossible to enlarge without going over every chapter, verse, and clause of the book, which is a perfect mosaic of passages from the Old Testament, at one time quoted verbally, at another referred to by distinct allu- sion, now taken from one scene in Jewish history, and now again from two or three together. Not indeed that the writer binds himself to the Old Testament in a slavish spirit. He rather uses it with great freedom and independence, extending, intensifying, or transfiguring its descriptions at his pleasure. Yet the main source of his emblems cannot be mistaken. The sacred books of his people had been more than familiar to him. They liad penetrated his whole being. They had lived within him as a gernnnating seed capable of shooting up not only in the old forms but in new II INFLUENCES MOULDING ITS CONCEPTION 77 forms of life and beauty. In the whole extent of sacred or religious literature there is to be found nowhere else such a perfect fusion of the revelation given to Israel with the mind of one who would either express Israel's ideas, or give utterance, by means of the symbols sup- plied by Israel's history, to the purest and most elevated thoughts of the Christian faith. All this has to be studied as more than a remark- able phenomenon. It draws once more a wide line of distinction between the Apocalypse and the other apocalyptic literature of the early Christian age ; and it has the closest bearing on the interpretation of the book. IV. In the fourth place, there is still another influ- ence to be adverted to which is often supposed to have powerfully affected the conception of the Apocalypse, but which must be mentioned only to be, at least in some measure, set aside. It is urged by many recent interpreters that the book owes its contents to the religious opinions, especially as to the future, prevalent among the Jews of the first century. A comparison is made between it and the apocryphal book of Enoch, the fourth book of Esdras, the Ascension of Isaiah, the Sibyl- line books, and others of a similar kind ; and the result is declared to be that it in every respect resembles them, exhibiting the same wild speculation, the same narrow, intolerant, and Judaising spirit. The question raised is a fair one, and the expounder of the Apocalypse is bound to determine the relation in which he stands to it. In doing so it may be at once admitted that, as 78 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. it is impossible to separate the author from the other circumstances of his time, so it is equally impossible to separate him from its apocalyptic literature. That literature had begun in the book of Daniel, and it found expression, although it is difficult to determine the precise dates, from the Maccabean period to the second century of the Christian era, in the works that have been mentioned, and in others resembling them. But it does not follow that the Apocalypse of St. John is to be placed upon the same footing, and to be regarded in the same light as these. There were many apocry- phal gospels in the first century of the Christian era ; but our canonical gospels, though belonging to the same general class, were able to vindicate for themselves an entirely different position; and, under the Divine guidance which she enjoyed, the Church, with the approval of all subsequent generations, separated them from the mass of which they might have seemed to form a part. There were spurious epistles also in circulation at the same date, but again their existence did not pre- vent the Church from pronouncing a firm and consistent verdict both against them and in favour of our canonical epistles. Nor is it of any moment to determine whether the true or the apocryphal came first. We know that before St. Luke wrote his Gospel there were " many " others in circulation, and some of these at least the Church put unhesitatingly aside. Mere priority of date did not persuade her to accept them. The same may have been the case with the Epistles, for epistolary writing was in these days both understood and practised. II INFLUEXCES MOULDING ITS CONCEPTION 79 Apocalyptic literature, it is true, is more strange to us than that which is historical or epistolary ; and we are, therefore, under a greater temptation to throw all writ- ings of that kind into a common heap, and to suppose that they must have had the same origin. But if apocalyptic writing was then as common as either historical or epistolary, such a conclusion is obviously illegitimate. The fact that so many then wrote apoca- lypses forbids our placing them in a separate group in which no distinction may be drawn between one Apoca- lyptist and another. They come under the operation of the same general principles of judgment as the writers of histories and epistles. We must apply the same tests and judge by the same rules in order to distinguish between the spurious and the true. When, accordingly, we do so, it will be found that the Apocalypse of St. John differs so widely from these other works, and exhibits a spirit so entirely different from theirs, that we can only ratify that judgment of the Church by which it was at the very first, and more even at the first than afterwards, treated as standing by itself. That it possesses much in common with them is undoubted, but what is common ground is ground com- mon to humanity at large.^ The perplexing problem of ^ "From the beginning of its Divine aspiration became that of history," says Godet {B. S., p. the Church ; and the book of the 297), "humanity has lived in a Apocalypse is the precious vessel state of expectation, of disquieting in which this treasure of Christian fears, and of glorious hopes. This hope has been deposited for all expectation concentrated and puri- ages of the Church, but especi- lied itself in the heart of the people ally for the Church under the of Israel. . . . Through Jesus this Cross." 80 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. ii the existence of sin in the world, the weariness of the struggle with it, the longing to be free from it, the belief in a righteous Governor of the earth who will ulti- mately vindicate His ways, the expectation that good and evil will yet be recompensed according to their deserts, — these and such like truths have always had a strong hold of the human heart, and their existence in the Apocalypse is no more a proof that that book is merely human, than the longing for redemption before Jesus came is a proof that He was nothing more than the creation of natural desires and hopes. We may allow without hesitation, therefore, that in a general sense the Apocalypse was moulded by the spirit of its age ; but that is only to allow that it proceeded from a genuine teacher, true alike to the Divine fountain of his inspira- tion, to himself, and to those whom he would instruct.^ It is not necessary to say more. We have considered the main influences by which, under the guiding hand of God, the Apocalypse was moulded into the shape which it assumed. The considerations that have been adduced rest upon the facts of the case as they are pre- sented by the book itself, and ought always to be pre- sent to our minds when we endeavour to interpret it. 1 On tins point it may be Avell cryphal, even the apocalyptic, to remember the words of Liicke, literature stcht ihm, wie es scheint, who says of the author of the fern." — Versuch, p. 378. Apocalypse, that "the later apo- LECTUKE III PAET I STRUCTURE AND PLAN OF THE APOCALYPSE Having considered the influences moulding the concep- tion of the Apocalypse, the next point claiming our atten- tion is its structure and plan; and, as hefore, the object to be kept steadily in view is not mere literary inquiry or the gratification of curiosity, but the interpretation of the book. Upon this interpretation the subject now before us will be found to have an immediate and important bearing. There is indeed a fear on the part of many that the idea of plan is inconsistent with simplicity of pur- pose. Principles of arrangement, the existence of which earnest inquirers in examining the structure of our canonical books have been unable to deny, have not unfrequently seemed to these inquirers themselves too artificial to be correct. Even while accepting their own conclusions they have shrunk from them. They have been afraid of yielding to their convictions lest, by doing so, they should destroy the naturalness of the Word of God ; should introduce into the utterances of the sacred penmen too much of what in a modern writer G 82 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. would be conscious design; or should even disparage the work of the Spirit by ascribing to Him those con- trivances through whicli merely human authors endeav- our to lend force and attractiveness to their works. The fear is groundless. In the first place, the question, like every other, must be determined by the facts, and not by prepossessions of our own. In the second place, ad- mitting the facts, it is impossible to deny that the Spirit of God, in bestowing His inspiration upon men, has in innumerable instances made use of the very instru- mentality thus thought to be too human for His pur- pose. Metaphor, parable, allegory, the tropical sense of words, the use of paronomasia or pun, strophe and antistrophe in the Psalms, the poetic clothing of the most solemn prophecies, the arrangement even of didactic passages in Epistles upon what are incontestably the principles of Hebrew parallelism — such and similar phenomena are sufficient to show that in these, as we might call them, human devices, there is nothing incon- sistent with simplicity, or with the desire to produce a moral and religious result. If, in proportion to the degree in which we were constrained to acknowledge their presence in Scripture, we felt at the same time compelled to admit that the Divine element in it was giving way to the human, the effect would be that we should lose the former in exact proportion to the amount of sublunity or pathos, of power or tenderness, by which it was really indicating its presence. Lastly, it ought to be remembered that such artistic arrangements are improperly designated when spoken of as device or Ill ITS STRUCTURE AND PLAN 83 artifice. However strange to us, tliey were tlie very mould and fashion of Jewish thought. Precisely in proportion to the degree in which the prophet or poet of Israel was impassioned, did his language shape itself into its most perfect forms. The form had a meaning to him. It was part of his inspiration to adopt it. Not because he hoped to gain an adventitious influence over men did he so speak, but because he had no alternative. He was making his nearest approach to what he recog- nised as the Divine ideal. He was using the only mould adequate to the expression of the Divine conceptions with which his breast was filled. Consciousness, or rather self-consciousness, there was none. The artificial form was so natural to him, was so much a part of his whole habit of mind, that, when most true to his mes- sage and himself, he fell most naturally into it. So far, therefore, is artificial arrangement in a book of Scrip- ture from being an argument against the truth of the contents, that it may be the reverse. It may be a valu- able token of the inspiration of the writer. It may be a pledge to us of the exalted state of mind in which he wrote. It may be strictly a part of the Divine method. If we sink ourselves into the style of Hebrew thought, and no one will deny that in studying a Hebrew book we ought to do so, it may be full of valuable in- struction, and may commend the lessons of the book to us with double force. All that we have to beware of is the substitution of our own fancies for the objective phenomena. When we allow ourselves to be guided simply by the latter ; when our effort is only to pene- 84 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. trate into all parts of the Divine idea"; when we resign ourselves to Him who teaches, not only in Scripture but in nature, by form as well as substance ; when we see that the form is substance, inseparably connected with it, and adapted to it as its appropriate vehicle, we have no need to be afraid of form. Not only is the effort to discover it full of interest, but the form when discovered may be full of power. Numerous illustrations of these remarks might easily be given both from the Old and the New Testament,^ but it is unnecessary. Everywhere in both we encounter structures that may at first sight be deemed simply artificiaL But they are so in nothing but appearance. In reality all is natural, and the mind of the writer is only unfolding itself in artistic arrangements as plants shape themselves into their forms of symmetry and beauty. If, therefore, we meet artificial form in all parts of Scripture, even in prosaic passages, much more may we expect it in a book written like the Apocalypse in the noblest spirit of prophetic and poetic enthusiasm. Several particulars demand attention. I. The first particular to be noticed is the singular extent to which the structure of the Apocalypse is moulded by the use of numbers. Many numbers play a part in it, but we may confine ourselves to one or two which even the superficial observer cannot fail to notice. These are seven, four, and three. ^ Reference may be made in the verbs xxxi. 10-31; in the New Old Testament to such passages as Testament — John x. 14, 15; Ro- the following: — Psalm cxix. ; the mans iii. 7-10. Lamentations of Jeremiah ; Pro- Ill ITS STRUCTURE AND PLAN 85 Let us take in the first place the number seven, and that not merely as it is used to denote so many indi- vidual objects, but as, without being expressly named, it influences the structure of the book. With its use as a number every one is familiar. There are " seven spirits which are before the throne of God," " seven churches," " seven golden candlesticks," " seven stars " in the right hand of Him who is like unto a Son of man, "seven lamps of fire burning before the throne," " seven horns and seven eyes " of the Lamb, " seven seals " of the book in the right hand of Him who sat upon the throne, " seven angels " standing before God, " seven thunders " uttering their voices, "seven thousand" slain in the great earthquake which attends the ascent of the two wit- nesses into heaven, "seven heads" of the great dragon and " seven diadems " upon his heads, " seven heads " of the beast that came up out of the sea, " seven angels " with seven trumpets, and again with the seven last plagues, " seven mountains " upon which the mystic Babylon is seated, and "seven kings," of whom five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come. All this is in itself sufficiently remarkable, but the use of the number is still more worthy of notice when we find it moulding the structure of the narrative in many a passage where no direct mention of it is made.^ Thus in chap. v. 12 seven attributes of praise, 1 The principle of stracture here 13-15 divides itself naturally into noticed is to be found also in the seven parts, of which the fourth Old Testament. One interesting and central is the great covenant illustration may be given. The promise, " And in thee and in thy blessing on Jacob in Gen. xxviii. seed shall all the families of the 86 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. " power, and riches, and wisdom, and might, and honour, and glory, and blessing," are ascribed by the multitude about the throne to the Lamb that was slain. In chap, vii. 12 the white-robed company worship God with a similar number, saying, "Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever." And in chap. ix. 7-10 the terrible locusts of the fifth trumpet are described in seven particulars. They have on their heads as it were crowns like unto gold ; their faces are as faces of men ; they have hair as hair of women ; they have teeth as teeth of lions ; they have breastplates as it were breast- plates of iron ; the sound of their wings is as the sound of chariots of many horses rushing to war ; they have tails like unto scorpions and stings. Even longer and more varied passages are dominated by the number seven. The preparatory vision of chap. xiv. 6-20 con- sists of seven parts, each part except the fourth, which in a series of seven is always the central and most im- portant, being introduced by an angel,-^ while in the fourth part we have the leading figure of the movement, one like unto a Son of man sitting on a white cloud, on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle.^ Similar observations apply to a still more lengthened passage extending from chap. xvii. 1 to chap. xxii. 5, where it will be found that three angels introduced at earth be blessed." The three parts visers shows that they had failed preceding this are promises of a to notice the correct division of general character, the three follow- these parts. ing are special to Jacob. The ^ See verses 6, 8, 9, 15, 17, 18. punctuation adopted by the Re- - Terse 14. Ill ITS STRUCTURE AND PLAN 87 cliaps. xvii. 1, xviii. 1, and xviii. 21 precede the fourth part, the appearance of the conquering King of kings at chap. xix. 11, and are followed by other three angels at chaps, xix. 17, xx. 1, and xxi. 9, no angel appearing at any intermediate point, and these seven appearances embracing the whole closing drama of the book from the time of the judgment on Babylon to the establishment upon earth of the New Jerusalem. Nay, not only does the remark apply to both the shorter and the longer passages of the book, it applies also to the Apocalypse as a whole. There is no small reason for adopting the idea that it contains seven visions or sets of visions ; ^ and, whether we ai:jree with this or not, it naturally divides itself into the seven sections that have been already spoken of. The number four plays if not so important yet a similar part throughout the book. " Four living crea- tures full of eyes before and behind " are seen in the midst of and round about the throne ; ^ " four angels " stand at the " four corners of the earth," holding the " four winds of the earth " ; ^ " four angels " are bound at the great river Euphrates, prepared for a moment fixed in the counsels of the Almighty, and noted by the mention of four periods of time — an hour and day and month and year.^ The blood of the winepress extends to 1600 furlongs, that is to the square of 4 multiplied by 100 ; ^ and the New Jerusalem lieth foursquare.^ 1 Cora-p.ZilUig,vo[.i.;Parousia, '^ Chap. ix. 14, 15. p. 377 ; and many others. ^ Chap. xiv. 20. 2 Chap. iv. 6. e Chap. xxi. 16. ^ Chap. vii. 1 88 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. Again also, as in the case of the number seven, the thought of four often resjulates the structure without our attention being expressly called to it. In the visions of the Seals, the Trumpets, and the Bowls, the first four numbers of each series refer to objects different in character from those of the last three, and constitute separate groups of four. The inhabitants of the earth are summed up in "tribes and tongues and peoples and nations"; ^ prophecy is to be uttered over " peoples and nations and tongues and kings " ; ^ when authority is given to Death upon his pale horse to kill over the fourth part of the earth, he is to do so " with sword, and with famine, and with pestilence, and by the wild beasts of the earth " ; ^ when the judgments of God are about to be revealed, there are " thunders and voices and lightnings and an earthquake " ; ^ guilty Babylon solaces herself with four classes of musicians, " harpers and minstrels and flute- players and trumpeters " ; ^ and when kings of the earth turn round upon the harlot to destroy her, they " hate her, and make her desolate and naked, and eat her flesh, and burn her with fire " ; ^ the sins of which men repented not, even after the desolation caused by the horses of the sixth trumpet, are classified as " murders and sorceries and fornications and thefts " ; ^ and they that have their part in the burning lake are divided into two successive groups of four, or four successive groups of two.^ 1 Chap. V. 9. 5 Chap, xviii. 22. 2 Chap. X. 11. ^ Chap. xvii. 16. 3 Chap. vi. 8. 7 Chap. ix. 21. ■* Chaps, viii. 5 ; xvi. 18. ^ Chap. xxi. 8. ITS STRUCTURE AND PLAN More remarkable still is the use of the number three, so remarkable and continuous indeed that it would require an analysis of the whole book for its perfect illustration.-^ And again it is not simply the mention of the number that arrests us, as when we read of the " three " woes, of the " three " unclean spirits like frogs, of the "' three " parts into which Babylon is divided, or of the " three " gates on each side of the foursquare Jerusalem. It is the mode in which this number is mixed up with the entire structure of the book that is especially worthy of notice. A few illustrations only can be given. The first three epistles to the seven churches are evidently distinguished from the remain- ing four by the place assigned in them to the call, "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." The three last Seals are not less clearly separated from the first four, and the same remark applies to the Trumpets and the Bowls. In chap. iv. 5 three things, " lightnings and thunders and voices," proceed out of the throne. In the same chapter the four and twenty elders have three characteristics — they sit, they are arrayed in white garments, they have on their heads crowns of gold.^ When they pay homage to Him that sits upon the throne three acts of homage are ascribed to them, — falling down, worshipping, and ^ A very long and apparently same author inquires with a large exhaustive inquiry into the use amount of care into what he calls of the number three in the Apoca- the " numerosity " of the Apoca- lypse will be found in Stuart's lypse generally. Introduction to his Commentai^y - Chap. iv. 4. upon the Book, section 7a. The 90 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. casting their crowns before the throne ; and when they lift their song to their Lord and their God, they cele- brate Him as worthy to receive three things — the glory, the honour, and the power.^ In the same chapter we meet with the Trisagion " Holy, Holy, Holy," and that Trisagion is sung to Him w^ho, as " the Lord," has three attributes of glory, — God, the Almighty, He which "was" and which " is " and which " is to come," the last of the three again consisting of three parts.^ In chap. vii. 1 three tilings are mentioned on which the wind is not to blow. In chap. xi. 1 three things are to be measured, and in chap. xii. 16 the earth does three things for the w^oman's help. In chap, xviii. 8 three plagues come upon Babylon in one day ; and in the same chapter, verses 9-19, three classes of persons are introduced, one after another, lamenting over her fall. One other illus- tration of the point before ns must suffice. Let ns look at the first chapter of the book. That chapter consists of three parts : — 1. Description of the book, and its importance, verses 1-3. 2. Salutation of the writer to the persons addressed by him, verses 4-8. 1 Chap. iv. 10, 11. holy, Lord God Almighty," etc. , 2 Chap. iv. 8. This is one of in the Revised Version "Holy, those passages, and there are not holy, holy, is the Lord God, the a few of the same kind throughout Almighty," etc. But Westcott the book, in which attention to and Hort, in their Greek text, the structure of the Apocalypse punctuate otherwise and rightly, supplies an important rule of in- They place a comma after Ki'ptos terpretation. In the Authorised "Lord," thus yielding the trans- Version we read, ' ' Holy, holy, lation given above. Ill ITS STRUCTURE AND PLAN 91 3. Vision of the great Priest and King presiding over His Church, verses 9-20. Let ns take now the first of these parts — verses 1-3, and it again divides itself naturally into three. 1. The source of the revelation, verse 1 to the words " shortly come to pass." 2. The medium of the revelation, verse 1 at the words " and he sent " to the end of verse 3. 3. The importance of the revelation, verse 8. Once more let us take each of these three subordinate divisions, and it will be found that it also is distin- guished by triplicity of parts ; for in the first division we have mention of three persons, — Jesus Christ, God, and the servants of Jesus; in the second division we find a threefold description of that to which witness is borne by the Seer, — the Word of God, the testimony of Jesus Christ, and all things that he saw ; while in the third division the persons for whom a blessing in con- nexion with the book is reserved are portioned off into three groups, — "he that readeth," "they that hear the words of the prophecy," and " they that keep the things that are written therein." ^ Enough has been said to show to how great an ex- tent the structure of the Apocalypse is dominated by numbers. But they who would form an impression upon the point as strong as is warranted by the facts must examine for themselves. The more they do so the more will they be struck with the singular extent to which numbers rule the plan of the apocalyptic writer ^ ^ Comp. Biblical Heview, vol. i. p. 423. 92 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. and the more powerfully this conviction is brought home to them, the better will they be prepared for the interpretation of his book. II. The second particular to be noticed in connexion with the structure of the Apocalypse is the symmetrical arrangement of its parts. Even in smaller sections this symmetry forces itself upon our notice. The seven epistles contained in the second and third chapters are composed upon precisely the same plan. They consist of seven parts, following each other in the same order in each epistle — the superscription to the church addressed; a special aspect of the Saviour who ad- dresses it ; an account of the spiritual condition of the particular church; words of commendation or censure adapted to its state ; exhortations founded upon that state ; promises to him that overcometh ; and a call to every one to hear. One part of the arrangement may indeed seem to disturb the symmetry ; for in the first three epistles the general exhortation, "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear wliat the Spirit saith unto the churches," occurs in the middle of the epistle, immedi- ately before the promises ; whereas in the last four it is transferred to the close. This, however, is universally admitted to be part of that higher symmetry, meeting us in other portions of the book, by which the number seven is divided into its two parts three and four or four and three.^ When we turn to the body of tlie Apocalypse sym- ^ Tlie writer would refer for an than four and three in these attem])t to explain the division of epistles, to liis paper in the Ex- seven into three and four, rather positor, second series, vol. iv. p. 57. Ill ITS STRUCTURE AND PLAN metrical arrangement presents itself in a still more striking light. Comparing the first four numbers of each of the three groups of the Seals, the Trumpets, and the Bowls, we see at once that they all relate to the same objects taken in the same order ^ — Seals. Chap. vi. > Earth. 1 Trumpets. Cha]). viii. [ Land. „ , ) Sea. Earth. < j^-^g^.g^ g^^_ ( Sun, etc. Eartl Bowls. Chap. xvi. ( Land. Sea. Rivers, etc. Sun. At the introduction of the fifth number of each group the scene is changed, and in a similar direction, from the world of sense to that of spirit — Seals. Chap. vi. 9. Altar in heaven. Trumpets. Chap. ix. 1. Pit of the abyss. Bowls. Chap. xvi. 10. Throne of the beast. For reasons springing out of considerations adduced in the last lecture, the symmetry of the sixth and seventh numbers of the groups is to be expected only in the case of the Trumpets and the Bowls, and then it comes before us in a marked degree — Sixth Nunibcr. Trumpets. Chap. ix. 13. The river Euphrates. Bowas. Chap. xvi. 12. The river Euphrates. Seventh Niimher. Trumpets. Chap. xi. 15. The close of all. Bowls. Chap. xvi. 17. The close of all. ^ It is important, in confirnia- Seals as compared with the more tion and illustration of what is detailed statement of the Trumpets said in Lecture ii. p. 50, to notice and the Bowls, here the general character of the 94 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. Still further, it is to be observed that, except in the case of the Bowls, the several numbers of these groups do not run on in uninterrupted succession to the end of the group. Between the sixth and seventh Seals the two visions of the sealing of the 144,000 and of the great multitude standing before the Lamb are inter- posed ; ^ and, exactly in the same way, between the sixth and seventh Trumpets we meet the visions of the measuring of the temple, and of the two witnesses who were faithful unto death and triumphant over it.^ These are visions of comfort, episodes of consolation, intended to sustain our hope in the last great outburst of the wrath of the Most High ; and if, in the case of the Bowls, the similar visions of chap, xiv., instead of coming before the seventh Bowl, precede the series, the reason seems obvious — that the Lord is now rapidly wind- ing up the present dispensation, and, with the sudden- ness of a thief in the night, making a short work upon the earth.^ When the struggle is over, and the end come, that is our consolation, and we need no more. The element of climax, in short, here modifies that of perfect regularity ; but only in conformity with a higher principle, for visions of consolation are still afforded, though at an earlier point. Another illustration of the symmetrical structure of the Apocalypse lies upon its surface. Of the seven parts into which it naturally divides itself, the first, the prologue, corresponds to the seventh, the epilogue ; the second, the Church in her mixed earthly condition, to ^ Chap. vii. - Chap. xi. 1-14. ^ Chap. xvi. 15. Ill ITS STRUCTURE AND PLAN 95 the sixth, the true members of the Church in thek ideal repose ; the third, pictures of the Church's victory antici- pated, to the fifth, her victory realised ; while the fourth or main section of the whole occupies, as according to the structural efficacy of the number seven it ought, the central place. This symmetry of the Apocalypse, alike appearing in its smaller parts and marking it as a whole, more particularly this correspondence of each pair of its leading sections, when they are counted either from the centre to the circumference or from the circumference to the centre, deserves the most careful observation. III. A third particular to be noticed in the structure of the Apocalypse is the synchronism, rather than the chronological succession, of its visions. These visions are for the most part comprised in the groups of the Seals, the Trumpets, and the Bowls. Now it is no doubt true that the three groups follow one another. It was absolutely necessary that they should do so, both in the visions of St. John and for the apprehension of his readers. The one could not see, the other could not apprehend, them all at the same moment. But they do not on that account contain a definite succession of events extending from the opening of the first to the close of the third group. The first group, on the contrary, brings us to the end ; and the next two groups, so far at least begin at the beginning, that they present to us the evil world and the degenerate Church as exposed throughout all their history to the just judgments of God, although the heaviest judgments are reserved for the close. Let us look at the Seals. The first Seal introduces 96 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. the horseman upon a white horse, who "comes forth conquenng and to conquer."^ It is imdeniably the opening of the gospel age. The sixth Seal (the peculi- arity of the seventh will be noticed by and by), after a striking description of convulsions of nature and terrors of men, speaks of " the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and of the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath is come, and who is able to stand ?"^ These words can hardly refer to anything but the final judgment. They describe no partial manifestation of Christ made at some intermediate point of the Church's history, but the great day of the Lord itself. And this interpretation is confirmed, were more needed to convince us, by comparing the words of the Seer with those of Christ in Matt. xxiv. 29, 30, in which the phenomena are the same, are spoken of in almost the same language, and are followed by expressions that can be understood of nothing but the winding up of the world's history. Let us look at the second or Trumpet group of visions. When the seventh angel sounded, we read that "there followed great voices in heaven, and they said, The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ:" and again the four and twenty elders said, " Thy wrath came, and the time of the dead to be judged, and the time to give their reward to Thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear Thy name, the small and the great ; and to destroy them that destroy the earth." Whether we interpret these words in themselves, or in their relation 1 Chap. vi. 2. ^ d^^p^ yi i2-l7. =^ Chap. xi. 15, 18. Ill ITS STRUCTURE AND PLAN 97 to otlier and similar expressions in the same book, they lead directly to the final issues of the present dispensa- tion, so that we are thus anew conducted to a point previously reached, and are compelled to regard the two groups of the Seals and of the Trumpets as synchronous rather than as historically successive. This conclusion is greatly strengthened wlien we turn to the third group of visions (that of the Bowls) which, like those of the two groups going before, are also seven in number, giving evidence by this very fact of their completeness in themselves in that line of things of which they treat. At the pouring out of the seventh Bowl we are told that " there came forth a great voice out of the temple, from the throne, saying, It is done " ;^ while a little farther on it is said that " every island fled away, and the mountains were not found." In neither case can these words lead us to anything but the end, while in the latter they have the closest pos- sible resemblance to those words of chap. xx. 11, which are referred with the unanimous consent of interpreters to the final judgment, " and I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them." The succession of these three groups of visions cannot therefore be chronological. It must be one of ideas and not of time. The view thus taken is confirmed by the singular parall- elism running through the judgments of the Trumpets and the Bowls, and exhibited in the following table : — - 1 Cliai). xvi. 17. H 98 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. Trumpets Bowls Relating to Relating to First. The earth, chap. viii. 7. The earth, chap. xvi. 2. Second. The sea, chap. viii. 8. The sea, chap. xvi. 3. rp, . .1 j Rivers and fountains of the \ Rivers and fountains of the ^^^ ' \ waters, chap. viii. 10. j waters, chap. xvi. 4. -n ,1 r The sun and moon and 1 m ^ • o ^°^^-t^^- i stars, chap. viii. 12. | The sun, chap. xvi. 8. -p,.f 1 / The pit of the abyss, chap. \The throne of the beast, chap. ^ ^"^^- t ix. 2. j xvi. 10. Q- ,1 J The great river Euphrates, \ The gi-eat river Euphrates, ! Great voices in heaven, fol- \ A great voice from the throne, lowed by lightnings, and j followed by lightnings, and voices, and thunders, and > voices, andthunders, a great an earthquake, and great | earthquake, and great hail, hail, chap. xi. 15, 19. J chap. xvi. 17, 18, 21. A simple inspection of this table is of itself almost sufficient to convince us of the great improbability of the supposition that the two series in question embody a succession of time rather than of thought. " It is surely," says the late Principal Fairbairn in adverting to it, " against all reasonable probability to suppose that these two lines of symbolic representation, touching at so many points, alike in their commencement, their progress, and their termination, can relate to dispensa- tions of providence wholly unconnected, and to periods of time separated from one another by the lapse of ages. It is immeasurably more probable that they are but different aspects of substantially the same course of procedure, different merely from the parties subjected to it being contemplated in somewhat different relations. Nor would it be possible, if two entire series of sym- bolical delineations following so nearly in the same track were yet to point to events quite remote and Ill ITS STRUCTURE AND PLAN 99 diverse, to vindicate such delineations from the charge of arbitrariness and indetermination." ^ The conchision thus come to, and certainly supported by a comparison of the three leading series of visions in this book, may be confirmed by other illustrations. Thus at the beginning of chap. xii. we have the vision of the woman clothed with the sun, and the bearer of a man child who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron. This vision, in so far as it refers to a historical event, can refer only to the birth of Christ, and yet it comes in after the visions of the Seals and of the Trumpets have both been closed, a clear proof that the Seer is not guided by the thought of historical succession. We have another striking instance of the same kind in the same chapter, where the flight of the woman into the wilderness at verse 6 is not a different flight from that spoken of at verse 14, the two being only different aspects of the same event. In both we have a flight into the same wilderness, for the same purpose, and for the same space of time, — the one only bringing out the particulars in a way different from the other.^ So also the assault of the beast upon the two witnesses in chap, xi. 7 is the same assault as that described in chap. xiii. 7. The war to which the kings of the whole world are gathered in the great day of God, the Almighty, at chap, xvi. 14, is the same war afterwards more fully described in chap. xix. , with all its disastrous consequences to the enemies of the Lamb. Finally, though more will need to be hereafter said upon the point, the description given 1 On Prophecy, p. 402. - Comp. p. 120. 100 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. of the binding of Satan in chap. xx. 1-3 is not essentially different from his being cast out of heaven into the earth in chap. xii. 9, while the reign of the saints in the same chapter (verses 4-6) is but a fuller expression of what we are told at chap. xii. 5 of the catching up of the man child unto God and unto His throne. These considerations establish the conclusion that one of tlie structural principles of the Apocalypse is to set before us different series of pictures relating not so much to successive events as to the same events under different aspects, each series complete in itself, and in- viting us to think less of its temporal relation to those which precede and follow it, than of the new and dif- ferent light in which it presents an idea common to itself and them. The principle was not a new one when St. John wrote. It had been familiar to the sacred writers, and especially when they wrote in a prophetic or poetic strain. The Song of Songs and the book of Daniel display a similar plan ; and the same principle is followed by our Lord, not only, as we have seen, in Matt, xxiv., but when, in the parable of the Wicked Husbandmen, He points to the doom of those who re- ject His messengers.-^ The dominating thought in the three messages of the owner of the vineyard, and in the threefold reception given to them, is not that of succes- sion of time, as if each later rejection involved certain historical events subsequent to those of the rejections preceding it. Our attention is called to the same picture of criminality throughout, although the guilt of the 1 Luke XX. 9-16. Ill ITS STRUCTURE AND PLAN 101 husbandmen is marked by special characteristics in each case. A certain succession of time there no doubt is, for the rejection of a second message must follow that of a first, and the rejection of a third that of a second ; but the main consideration is, that this succession of time is subordinate to that of the stages of an ever- deepening obstinacy and sinfulness, yet an obstinacy and a sinfulness which may belong, in different indi- viduals, to any part of the whole period embraced within the scope of the parable. Thus also with the visions of the Apocalypse. There may be in them succession, even in a certain sense suc- cession of time. But it is succession of another kind upon which we are asked to dwell ; and the point to be now mainly noticed is, that the different visions of the book do not follow one another in such a manner that each takes up the thread of a continuous history where the one before it ends. Each of the three groups, in particular, of the Seals, the Trumpets, and the Bowls, starts from the beginning of the Church's fortunes upon earth, and takes us by its own path to their close.'^ ^ This idea of synchronism, to the end of the last times, returns rather than of succession in the again to the same times, and fills visions of St. John, was enter- up Avhat He had (before) failed to tained at an early period in the say. Nor must we look for order history of the Church. Thus we in the Apocalypse ; but Ave must find Victorinus, Bishop of Pettau, follow the meaning of those things who flourished towards the end of which are prophesied " (Clark's the third century, in his comment Anten. Lihr. TcrtulUan, vol. iii. on Rev. vii. saying, " We must p. 414). The same view was taken not regard the order of what is by Augustine in the fourth, and said, l)ecause frerpiently the Holy by Berengaudus in the eighth cen- Spirit, when He has traversed even tury. The thought of chrono- 102 LECTUKES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. IV. A fourth particular marking the structure of the Apocalypse is the element of climax. This meets us everywhere throughout the book, and not unfrequently in the most unexpected ways. Let us look at the Epistles to the churches, and the theme so frequently referred to in them, the Second Coming of the Lord. In each of the Epistles, except that to Smyrna, the Second Coming has a place ; but, taking first the first group of three, it will be observed that to Ephesus it is said, " I come to thee ; " and to Pergamum, " I come to thee quickly." ■^ Proceeding to the second group of four a difference in the same direction is perceptible. To the first of the four, Thyatira, is said only " Till I come ; " to the second, Sardis, " I will come as a thief ; " to the third, Philadelphia, " I come quickly ; " to the fourth, Laodicea, " Behold I stand at the door and knock." ^ As logical succession appears to have terpreters. It is indeed cliarac- come in only in the fourteenth teristic 'of the Hebrew prophetic century, when it began to be sup- literature to set forth in each pro- posed that the Apocalypse con- phetic vision some new phase of tained a prediction of the main what had been already treated of. events in the history of the Chris- Either the whole delineation is tian Church, from the days of the resumed and lifted up to a higher apostles to the end of time (Todd, platform, or details noticed only Led., p. 50). The correctness of generally in an earlier part of the this method of interpreting was, prophecy are separated from their however, by no means universally former setting, and dwelt upon conceded, and it was again de- more at length. Comp. Renan, parted from by many. Daubuz i/'^?i^' Chap. xi. 17, R. V. Ill ITS STRUCTURE AND PLAN 113 the other case, when the beast comes in his final manifestation, a similar omission is made.^ In the hour of His judgment we read of the "wrath of the Lamb,"^ and when the devil, cast out of heaven, goes down unto the earth and the sea, we are told that he has "great wrath," knowing that his time is short. ^ Many other particulars meet us in which the same principle of contrast rules. Believers are sealed with the seal of the Living God ;* unbelievers are marked with the mark of the beast.^ The seal is imprinted upon the forehead f the mark upon the forehead or the hand.^ The contents of the seal are the name of the Lamb and of the Father.^ The contents of the mark are the name of the beast or the number of his name.^ The " tribes of the earth " are in contrast with the tribes of Israel ;^^ the false apostles of Ephesus with the true apostles of the Lord ; ^^ and the harlot Babylon ^^ with the Bride, the Lamb's wife, the holy city Jerusalem. ^^ Nay, the contrasts even go at times beyond the facts specifically mentioned in the book to facts only known to us through the Gospel history ; for, as already in part noticed, it is hardly possible not to feel that, in the binding of Satan at the beginning of the thousand years, in the casting him into the abyss, in shutting it, and sealing it over him,^^ we have a counterpart of the bind- 1 Chap. xvii. 11. '^ Chap. vii. 3. lo Chap. i. 7. 2 Chap. vi. 16. ^ Chaps, xiii. 16 ; ^^ Chap. ii. 2. ■■* Chap. xii. 12. xx. 4. i- Chap. xvii. 18. ^ Chap. vii. 2. » Chap. xiv. 1. i' Chap. xxi. 10. 5 Chap. xiii. 17. » Chap. xiii. 17. ^^ Chap. xx. 2, 3. I 114 LECTURES ON THE ArOCALYPSE lect. ing and burial of our Lord, and of the sealing of His tomb/ II. The principle of Prolepsis or Anticipation ; that is, the tendency of the writer to anticipate in earlier sec- tions, by mere allusion, what he is only to explain at a later point of his revelation. This principle is exem- plified in the promises made to "liim that overcometh" in each of the Epistles to the seven churches of Asia, for all these promises find their fuller explanation and appli- cation in subsequent chapters of the book. The tree of life of the first Epistle meets us again in the description of the New Jerusalem.^ The second death, spoken of in the second Epistle, is not explained till the final judgment is complete.^ The writing upon believers of the new name promised in the third Epistle is almost unintelligible until we behold the 144,000 upon Mount Zion.^ The dominion over the nations, and more especially the gift of the morning star, referred to in the fourth Epistle, cannot be comprehended until we are introduced to the vision of the thousand years and the last utterances of the glorified Eedeemer.^ The white garments of the fifth Epistle can hardly be rightly under- stood until we see the white-robed company standing before the throne and before the Lamb.^ The mention in the sixth Epistle of " the city of my God, the New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God," remains a mystery until we actually witness her 1 Corap. Matt, xxvii. GO, &Q ; ^ Cliaps. ii. 17 ; xiv. 1. John xviii. 12, 24. '^ Chaps, ii. 26, 28 ; xx. 4, 5 ; 2 Chaps, ii. 7 ; xxii. 2, 14, xxii, 16, ^ Chaps, ii, 11 ; xx. 14. ** Chaps, iii. 5 ; vii. 9, 14. Ill ITS STRUCTURE AND PLAN 115 descent.^ And, finally, the sitting in Christ's throne of the seventh Epistle is only elucidated by the reign of the thousand years loitli Him} Not a few other illustrations of the same principle are to be met with. Thus it is that we are told of the two witnesses that "they went up to heaven in the cloud, and their enemies beheld them,"^ but we only know what " the cloud " means when later in the book we read of " a white cloud, and on the cloud one sitting like unto a Son of man," ^ for " the cloud " is not a cloud to veil the witnesses from view ; it is that on which the Lord Himself, accompanied by His people, comes to judgment.^ Thus it is that, in the account given us of the fate of the same two witnesses upon earth, we find mention of " the beast that cometh up out of the abyss, who shall make war with them, and overcome them, and kill them," ^ while it is only after a considerable interval that we are made fully acquainted with this terrible enemy of the children of God.'^ Thus it is that an angel at one point of the visions of the Seer proclaims " Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great," ^ although a length- ened period has to pass before the guilty city is actu- ally overthrown.^ Thus it is that " the beloved city " in chap. XX. 9 is an anticipatory notice of the New Jeru- salem to be fully described in chap. xxi. ; and finally, it is thus that the Elders in their triumphant song under 1 Chaps, iii. 12 ; xxi. 2, 10. ■' Comp. chap. xiv. 14-16. 2 Chaps, iii. 21 ; xx. 4. Comp. ^' Chap. xi. 7. Trench, The Seven Einstles, p. 87. '' Chaps, xiii., xvii. 3 Chap. xi. 12. » Chap. xiv. 8. "* Chap. xiv. 14. " Chap, xviii. 116 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. the seventh Trumpet speak of a judgment of the dead as come/ while the judgment itself does not take place till we are near the close of the book, after the thousand years are finished.^ Other illustrations of the same principle abound, but those oriven are sufficient to show that we have often to pass from one part of this book to another, and to bring its later parts to supplement its earlier, some- times its earlier its later, if we would understand the Seer. III. The principle of double representations or pictures of the same thing. It is impossible to discuss this point at any length. But the principle, strange to us, was natural to a Jew. It seems to have been charac- teristic of the Hebrew mind that, in uttering its thoughts, it loved to express the same or nearly the same thing twice, the second expression rising higher than the first. The speaker or writer was not satisfied with one utterance. After he had spoken for the first time he brought the same point a second time before him, worked upon it, enlarged it, deepened it, and set it forth in stronger and more vivid colours. The whole system of Hebrew parallelism is an illustration of the principle, although there the element of climax may not be always present. Simple repetition gave the sentiment force, and brought it home to the mind with greater power than it would have possessed had it been stated only once. In a narrative belonging to the earliest times of the Old Testament we may find 1 Chap. xi. 18. - Chap. xx. 12. Ill ITS STRUCTURE AND PLAN 117 the explanation. When Joseph mterpreted Pharaoh's dreams of the fat and lean oxen and of the full and blasted ears of corn, he added, "And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice, it is that the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass." ^ The doubling of the dream lent it impressive- ness and certainty. A similar remark may without hesitation be applied to Joseph's own two dreams of the sheaves in the field and of the sun and moon and eleven stars doing him obeisance.^ The prospect of more sure and speedy execution was associated with the repetition of a thought ; and hence the words of the Psalmist, " God hath spoken once ; yea, hvice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God." ^ The principle finds its application in not a few passages of the Apocalypse. When we read in chap, xi. 18 of " the saints and of them that fear Thy name," we shall be mistaken if we suppose two different classes to be alluded to. The two are in reality one, though they are beheld by the Seer in two aspects, the first taken from the sphere of Jewish, the second from that of Gentile, thought. They who are to be rewarded in the great day spoken of are at once the true Israel of God and those whom God has redeemed out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation. Similar observations apply to what may at first sight seem to be descriptions of two different classes of heretics in the Church at Pergamum, " some that hold the teaching of Balaam," and " some that hold the teaching of the 1 Gen. xli. 32, - Gen. xxxvii. 7, 9. ^ Psalm Ixii. 11. 118 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. Nicolaitans." ^ Between these two there is in reality no difference, for the best (to say nothing of its seeming to be also the most generally accepted) explanation of the word Nicolaitan regards it as not derived from Nicolas, mentioned in Acts vi. 5, but as compounded of two Greek words equivalent in meaning to the two component parts of the Hebrew name Balaam. Thus the Balaamites and the Nicolaitans are the same, con- sidered in the one case from a Jewish, in the other from a more general, point of view. In like manner the "song" of chap. xv. 3 is not a double but a single song, its first appellative " of Moses, the servant of God," awakening the remembrance of all that God did for Israel throuerh Moses, the o^reat deliverer of the Old Testament dispensation ; its second pointing not less clearly to the sun and centre of the universal dispensa- tion of the New Testament, — " the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." ^ Even the two figures of the seven candlesticks and the seven stars in chap. i. seem to be best explained when we consider them as a double figure of the Church, which is a "golden candlestick" while she burns in the secret place of the Most High unnoticed by human eyes, but a "star" when, set in the firmament of heaven, she diffuses her lig-ht far and wide, and shines not for God only but for man. Finally, the same principle explains the essential sameness of tlie two consolatory visions of chap. vii. — those of the sealing of the 144,000 and of the white-robed multitude — the persons in both cases 1 Chap. ii. 14, 15. 2 jolm i. 29. Ill ITS STRUCTURE AND PLAN 119 being the same, thoiigli they are first contemplated as a Chm'ch gathered out of the tribes of Israel, and next as gathered out of the tribes of the earth.^ In all these cases we see a principle of structure not dependent upon facts, but deliberately adopted, and faithfully carried out by the writer because it expressed certain ideas of his own. A fourth point is closely connected with the last. IV. In double descriptions of the same thing the first seems to be not unfrequently occupied with the ideal, the second with the actual, aspect of the object spoken of The Apocalypse itself supplies us with the explana- tion of this characteristic of the writer's style. Part of the song of the four and twenty elders, when they celebrate in chap. iv. the glory of Him that sat upon the throne, is in the followino- words, — "Thou didst create all things, and because of Thy will they were (not, as in the Authorised Version, 'are'), and were created." ^ They " were," and they " were created." How could they be before they were created? One explanation alone is possible. God knew what He would make before He made it.^ There exists in the Divine mind an eternal type of everything that is called into existence. There is a pattern in the mount ' This interpretation of chap, to His knowledge comes from His vii, is no doubt much disputed, creatures to Him, nor did He For a full defence of it see Comvi. know them after He had created in loc. tliem in any other way than be- '^ Chap. iv. 11. fore ; but they existing when, and ^ "For He was not ignorant as, was meet, His knowledge re- of what He was about to create niained as it was. " — S. Augus- when He did create. No accession tine. 120 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. after wliicli each pin of the tabernacle is fashioned. There is an ideal before there is an actual. Let us apply this principle to the difficult task of grouping the paragraphs of chap, xii., and it will afford us help of which we shall be otherwise in want. The relation of the first paragraph of this chapter (verses 1- 6) to the third (verses 13-17) has long been a matter of dispute. In the one we read of the woman's flight into the wilderness and of her nourishment there for a thousand two hundred and threescore days (verse 6). In the other we read of what appears to be the same flight and the same nourishment (verse 14). The second passage is, in consequence, often regarded as a mere repetition of the first, or as a more specific detail of what had been mentioned in verse 6, after the natural course of events had been interrupted by verses 7-12. But, rightly regarded, the first and third scenes of the chapter are not the same, nor is the narrative interrupted at verse 7 in order that the war in heaven may be described, and again resumed at verse 13. There is a marked difference between the two scenes contained in verses 1-6 and verses 13-17, and the dif- ference consists in this, that the first is ideal, the second actual. Strictly speaking, the woman in verses 1-6 is neither the Jewish nor the Christian Clnirch. She is light from Him " who is light, and with whom is no darkness at all," light which had been always shining before it was partially embodied either in the Church of the old or the new covenant. The actual conflict of the Church with the darkness has not bec^un. We behold Ill ITS STRUCTURE AND PLAX 121 her in lier own glorious existence, and it is enough to dwell upon the potencies that are in her as " a light of men." In like manner the dragon is not yet to be identified with the devil or Satan. That identification does not take place till we reach verse 9. The former differs from the latter as the abstract and ideal power of evil differs from evil in the concrete. As the woman is at first ideal light, light before it appears in the Church upon earth, so the dragon is ideal darkness, the power of sin before it begins its deadly warfare against the children of God. Thus also we learn what is intended by the Son who is born to the woman. He is not the Son actually incarnate, but the ideally incarnate Son, " the true light, which lighteth every man coming into the world " (John i. 9). More difficulty may be felt in answering the question whether, along with the Son Himself, we are to see in this " Son, of man's sex," the true members of Christ's body. Ideally, it would seem that we are to do so. All commentators allow that in the Son's being "caught up unto God and unto His throne" there is a reference to the Ascension and Glorification of our Lord. But, if so, it is hardly possible to separate between the risen, ascended, and glorified Lord and those wdio are in Him risen, ascended, and glorified. We cannot part Him from them or them from Him. Every tiling tlierefore in these verses is ideal. We see light and darkness, their natural an- tagonism to each other, the fierce enmity of the dark- ness against the light, the apparent success but real defeat of the darkness, the apparent quenching but 122 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. real triumph of the light. All this, however, we see ideally. Tlie actual forces are not yet upon the field. In the third paragraph we have the actual Church before us in her conflict, her flight into the wilderness, her nourishment there, and her victory. We have a translation into the concrete of what we had previously witnessed in the abstract. The second paragraph of the chapter (verses 7-12) is thus no interruption to the narrative. It is a distinct advance upon the first, and an equally distinct prepara- tion for the third. We pass from the dragon, the ideal representative of evil, to the devil or Satan, known to us as the source of all the sin and misery from which earth suffers. Further, we learn why the Church on earth has to contend with this great adversary. He has been cast with his angels out of Heaven. It is God's decree that the main and last struggle between good and evil shall be fought out on earth. Among men, not angels, the issues of the plan of redemption shall be achieved. To impress these thoughts upon us — thoughts necessary to the comprehension of the conflict — is the reason why the second paragraph of this chapter has its place assigned to it in the grouping of the several parts. The whole chapter presents a most striking parallel to the opening paragraphs of chap. i. of the Gospel of St. John. If the principle now advocated be just, we venture to ask whether it may not be applicable to a still more important passage — the description of the first beast in chap, xiii., with the mention of which is associated the Ill ITS STRUCTURE AND PLAN 123 mysterious numbers six hundred, sixty, and six. The identity of this beast with that of chap. xvii. has been eagerly disputed;^ and it must be allowed that on ordinary methods of interpretation there is some diffi- culty in maintaining it. Yet if there be a difference between them the whole narrative is thrown into con- fusion. May the principle now advocated afford us light ? May the description in chap. xiii. be ideal rather than actual, the first beast of that chapter being thought of in its existence in itself, while only in chap, xvii. do we see it in its real manifestation ? Some points of the description favour this conjecture. Thus in chap. xiii. the beast is spoken of as if it were come, but in chap. xvii. its coming is rather a thing of the fittiire than the present. In chap. xiii. 1 it comes up out of the " sea," thus leading us to the thought of its original source ; but in chap. xvii. 8 it comes up out of the " abyss," into which it is only plunged when, in the course of history, it has been conquered by the Eedeemer (chap. XX. 1). In chap. xiii. 2 we are told what it was like, but no mention was made of its " scarlet " colour, that fact being reserved for chap. xvii. 3, when its bloody conflict with the saints is before the Seer's mind. In chaj). xiii. 3 we read of its head slaughtered and cured ; but in chap. xvii. this is not mentioned, apparently because it is now acting in its capacity as a beast risen from tlie dead, come up out of the abyss. In chap, xiii. 2 also the gift to it l»y the dragon of the dragon's power and throne and great authority has the appearance of an ^ As, c.(j. by Ziillig. 124 LECTURES OX THE APOCALYPSE lect. original investiture. The same remark applies to the gift in verse 5 of the mouth speaking blasphemies, and of authority to continue for a certain time ; as well as of the gift to make war in verse 7, the word " given ' in the language of St. John leading us back to the primal rather than the historical grant. In like manner, if the description of the second beast of chaj). xiii. be, not less than that of the first, ideal, we may better understand why we are not led to know it as " the false prophet " until we reach a later period of the book.^ This character may properly be attributed to it only when it speaks to men. If there be any ground for these remarks they will help to confirm, what indeed may be otherwise proved, that in the mysterious eighteenth verse of the chapter the ahstract thought of the name corresponding to the number, rather than the concrete name itself, is the point upon wdiich we are to dwell. "His number is six hundred and sixty and six." These ominous numbers describe primarily the character, and only subordinately the name, of the beast referred to. The words of the same verse, " for it is the number of a man," will then mean that, just as the name of a man is, or originally was, an expression of his character, and may be given in numbers which, when properly interpreted, afford the same expression of it, so tlie number of the beast will be found in due time to correspond to a name equally pregnant with the thought of wickedness and of woe to the saints of God. One more particular of structure luust be briefly noticed. 1 Chaps, xvi. 13 ; xix. 20 ; xx. 10. Ill ITS STRUCTURE AND PLAN 125 V. The use of Episode. Every student of the Apoca- lypse is familiar with this point, and it is not necessary to enlarge on it. The visions of consolation in chap, vii. are strictly episodical. They interrupt the narra- tive of the opening of the Seals. The words of chaps, viii. 13 ; ix. 12 ; and xi. 14 have a similar character. So have the consolatory visions of chap. xi. and chap, xiv. Episodical remarks also frequently occur, as in chaps, xiii. 18 ; xiv. 13 ; xix. 9. Finally, along with this may be noticed the tendency to go back upon a thought the moment it is uttered with the view of presenting it in that contrasted aspect by which it may be made fuller and more impressive, as in chap. ii. 9, " which say they are Jews, and they are not, but are a synagogue of Satan ; " and chap. iii. 9, " which say they are Jews, and they are not, but do lie." The use to be made of all these particulars will appear in the next lecture. LECTUEE IV THE INTERPRETATION OF THE APOCALYPSE Feom the structure and plan of the Apocalypse we have now to proceed to the principles to be applied in its interpretation. Upon this point, as upon every other connected with the book, the widest diversity of opinion has prevailed, or still prevails ; and some notice of these divergent views it is impossible to omit. They rather claim our first attention, because it would seem that, for the most part at least, they must be set aside ; and because, after setting them aside, the field wdll be cleared for the further prosecution of our task. I. The first system of interpretation to be noticed is that known as the historical, or the continuously historical. According to it the Apocalypse contains a brief sketch of the Church's progress from her first propagation to her consummation in glory.^ The most important crises in the history both of the Church and of the world find a place in it ; and the book establishes alike its Divine origin and its value by the minuteness of its manifold predictions, and by the ' Daubuz, Prcl. Disc, p. 16, LECT. IV ITS INTERPRETATION 127 wonderful accuracy with wliicli they have been ful- filled. No system of interpretation has exercised so powerful an influence over those who have concerned themselves with the study of this book. From the thirteenth century until recently it may be said to have had undisputed possession of the minds of men.^ It rallied to it, especially in the different branches of the Eeformed Church, the most distinguished expositors. It pervaded largely the writings even of many who did not accept it as a whole.^ It not only awakened the interest but secured the enthusiastic submission of thousands upon thousands of pious minds. To this day no belief is more commonly entertained than that in the visions of St. John we may read of the estab- lishment of Christianity under Constantine, of Moham- med, of the Papacy, of the Eeformation in the sixteenth century, of the French Eevolution, of not a few in short of the greatest movements by which, since the beginning of the Christian era, the Church and the woi'ld liave been stirred. The objections to this system are fatal to it. One alone might suffice. It is impossible to re- concile with it those particulars regarding the con- ception, the structure, and the plan of the book that ^ The Abbot Joachim, at Floris tion. — Llicke, Versuch, p. 1008. ill Calabria, is generally recog- Comp. also the history of the nised as the earliest authoritative school as given in Elliott, H. A., interpreter of this school, al- vol. iv. p. 415, etc. though he extended the history - Such as Alfonl, Auberlen, of the Kingdom of God given in Isaac Williams, the book as far back as the crea- 128 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. have been noticed in previous lectures. Either these are fanciful, or the Apocalypse is in no sense a con- tinuous history. History does not accommodate itself to such rules as those under the guidance of which it was composed. The dependence of the book upon our Lord's discourse on the last things ; its singular parall- elism to the fourth Gospel ; the selection of its figures to so OTeat an extent from the Old Testament, or their creation out of materials derived from that source ; the degree to which its structure is regulated by the num- bers of the arithmetical scale ; its symmetry ; its syn- chronism ; the climactic character of its successive parts ; its contrasts ; its use of ProUpsis or Anticipation ; its double pictures ; its presentation of subjects in their ideal before it introduces them in their actual form, and its episodes — all these things forbid our regarding it as a history of actual events. The course of human pro- gress from age to age is too free to admit of its steps being scheduled according to the peculiarities of any individual mind. For the sake of illustrating a par- ticular conception of a person or age a historian may select and group events that have already taken place. Predicted events, if the truth of the prediction is to be recognised, must be submitted to us in the order in which they are to occur, and not in that which an ideal view of them may suggest. Here accordingly the ex- ternal characteristics of the Apocalypse mentioned in the last two lectures find their most important applica- tion. If we are satisfied that they are to any consider- able extent, even if not wholly, correct, the continuously IV ITS INTERPRETATION 129 historical interpretation of the book must be abandoned, whatever form it may assume. Another conclusive objection to this system of in- terpretation is that, were it well founded, the Apoca- lypse would have been useless, alike to those for whom it was originally written and to the mass of humble Christians in after times. It would have had no con- nexion with its own age ; and nothing has been more conclusively established by recent Biblical inquiry than that even a prophetic, to say nothing of an apocalyptic, book must spring out of the circumstances, and must directly address itself to the necessities, of its original readers. Those into whose hands it is first put must feel that they are spoken to. It may be designed for others, but for them it must be designed, or the very idea of revelation is destroyed. Eevelation implies not merely an unfolding of the Almighty's will, but such an unfolding of it that those to whom the revelation is given shall be able, if willing, to apprehend it. God always deals with His people in the condition in which they are found at any particular stage of their progress. There is, accordingly, a marked growth of revelation throughout the Bible. The light afforded corresponded with the capacity of the eye to see, and the eye was thus gradually opened to receive the fuller revelations that were to follow. Had another method been adopted, men would have been blinded by the strength of the illuminating force ; and, instead of accepting the com- munication and storing it up for future use, would have been unable even to admit it into their minds. The K 130 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. whole history of prophecy establishes this truth. To the men of his own day the prophet spoke, and their responsibility to listen would have been removed had he spoken in terms which only future ages could under- stand. A principle thus applicable to all the other books of the Bible is not less applicable to the Apoca- lypse, for no book bears upon it stronger marks of having aimed at the immediate instruction and comfort of the then existing Church. We may indeed admit that the events found in it by the historical interpreter would have been in- structive or consolatory to the early Christian, if he could have thorouglily apprehended them. But the real difficulty lies in this, that such apprehension was then impossible. The first generation of Christians could have attached no proper meaning to the estab- lishment of Christianity under Constantine, to the rise of Mohammedanism, to the accoutrements of Turkish Pashas, to the varying fortunes of the Lutheran Eefor- mation, to the seven Dutch united provinces, or to the French Eevolution. These things were all to happen in an age so different from their own that details of them, revealed in prophecy, would have been un- intelligible. It needed a stage of the world's progress which had not yet come to give them meaning. No good effect therefore could have followed communica- tions of this kind. They would have possessed no present power. They would have failed to make the men of the day either wiser or better. They would have substituted a vain prying into the future for the IV ITS INTERPRETATIOX 131 study of those Divine principles which, belonging to all time, bring the weight of universal history to enforce the lessons of our own. While thus useless to the men first addressed by them, the visions of the Apocalypse would, upon this system, have been equally useless to the great body of the Christian Church, even after they had been fulfilled, and their fulfilment recognised by a few competent inquirers. The poor and the unlearned have always known, and will probably always know, little of the historical events supposed to be alluded to. Could it be a part of the Divine plan to make the understanding of a revelation so earnestly commended to us dependent on an acquaintance with the ecclesiastical and political history of the world for many hundred years ? The very supposition is absurd. It is inconsistent with the first promise of the book, " Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of the prophecy." -^ The two objections now taken to the historical method of interpreting the Apocalypse do not stand alone. Various others may be urged ; and, as no true progress can be made in the interpretation of the book until this system is finally abandoned, it may be proper to allude to them with as much brevity as possible. 1. The selection of historical events made by the system is in a high degree arbitrary, and cannot be said to correspond to the degree of importance which these events have vindicated for themselves in the course of history. Most historical interpreters, for ^ Chap. i. 3. Comp. Todd's Lectures, p. 44. 132 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. example, seem to cling with a curious pertinacity to the fortunes of Western Christendom. They concern them- selves but little with the Eastern Church as a whole, although the latter has in all probability numbered, through successive centuries, as many adherents as the former. Turning even to the West itself, we find no specific mention of the discovery of the Continent of America, or of the progress of that Christian Church there which has grown up to be so bright a jewel in the Eedeemer's crown, and so powerful an instrument for the world's good. Nothing is said of the Eeformation in Bohemia, or France, or Spain, or of its disastrous retrogression in these lands after having made in them a start so full of promise. The invention of the print- ing-press has no place in this scheme of interpretation, although it would be difficult to think of anything more intimately associated with the progress of Christ's Kingdom. Nor are we told of that breaking-up of the Church into many different and hostile sections, which has done so much to defeat the purpose of her exist- ence in the world. It may be replied that these things are not found in the Apocalypse by the historical interpreter simply because they are not there, and that it is his duty to elicit what is in the text, not to impose upon it in- cidents to which it does not refer. Yet, allowing it to be so, the fact that such things as those now spoken of are left unnoticed cannot but throw some measure of suspicion upon a system inviting us to look for them. A Divine book purposing to deal with the whole history IV ITS INTERPKETATION 133 of the Church both in herself and in her relation to the world ought not to pass some of the grandest events in that history without at least recognising them.^ 2. The events in which the historical system of interpretation finds predictions of the Apocalypse ful- filled are not unfrequently of the most puerile and trifling kind. One is pained to speak in this connexion of the red stockings of Eomish Cardinals, of the horse tails borne as symbols of authority by Turkish Pashas, or of Sir Eobert Peel's motion, in 1841, of want of con- fidence in the Whig ministers.^ It may be asserted with perfect confidence that the thought of such things would have been at once dismissed by the excellent men who have suo'o'ested them, had not attachment to a theory destroyed the soundness of their judgment, and blinded them to the correct proportions of historical fact. 3. Akin to this difficulty is that afforded by the manner in which the historical interpretation so often degrades the sublime language of the book, and brings down its figures to a level upon which they lose their power. 4. Even were these objections less weighty than they are, the continuously historical interpretation would be discredited by the hopeless disagreements of its advocates. In almost nothing are they at one ; and ^ Finding the French Revohi- been altogether inconsistent with tion in the earthqnake of chap, itself had it not noticed it. " — H. xi. 19, even Elliott says, " It was A.^ iii. p. 289. a political convulsion and revolu- - See mention of this last in tion of magnitude such that the Todd's Lectures^ p. 217, note. apocalyptic prophecy would have 134 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. there is hardly a single vision of the book in regard to which the greatest diversity of interpretation does not prevail among them. But prophecy thus interpreted long after its fulfilment must have taken place ceases to deserve the name of prophecy, and becomes no better than an uninstructive and disappointing riddle. 5. It has further to be observed that these results of the historical system of interpretation are in many instances only gained by mistaken translations of the original/ by forcing upon words meanings which they will not bear,^ by strained and unnatural inferences,^ and by an arbitrary mixing up of literal and figurative renderings in the case of objects that are clearly dependent upon one another.^ Finally, it may be added upon this point that it is difficult to estimate the amount of loss which has been sustained by the Church of Christ through the attempts of historical interpreters to limit the passages explained by them to particular events. Even the most plausible ^ Tims Elliott renders cliap. ix. iii. p. 288). The writer cannot 15, where we read of the angels make these references to the work prepared ' ' for the hour and day of Mr. Elliott without at the same and month and year, " " at the expi- time paying his tribute of admira- rationofthese periods of time aggre- tion to the labours of that excel- gated together." — iT. ^., i. p. 489. lent man. However one may ^ The same author applies differ from the system of interpre- " thousands" to provinces after tation which he adopted, it is im- the manner of the English term possible not to acknowledge his ''hundreds." — u. s., ii. p. 420. extensive scholarship, his rever- ^ Thus the "hail" of chap, ence of spirit, and his thorough con- xi. 19 is applied by Elliott first to scientiousness and love of truth, nations, and then in particular to ^ Comp. Fairbairn On Propltccy, the nations of the North («. s., p. 141. IV ITS INTERPRETATION 135 interpretation thus offered — that which finds in Baby- lon Papal Eome — has not only deprived Protestants of some of the most solemn warnings addressed to them in the Bible, but has taught them to use a book not less fitted to humble than to elevate the heart, as a store- house of weapons for every species of partisanship, recrimination, and strife. The system has, indeed, been supported by men whom in every other respect it is alike a duty and a delight to honour; but, however numerous or illustrious its defenders, it may be said without exaggeration that its tendency is to diminish the value and to discredit the general acceptance of the Eevelation of St. John. The taste, however, for such interpretation is rapidly passing away, probably never to return. II. A second system of interpretation is proposed. According to this view almost the whole, if not the whole, book belongs to a future which may be even yet distant. It relates exclusively to the Second Coming of the Lord, with its attendant signs and circumstances ; " and we are therefore to look for the fulfilment of its predictions neither in the early persecutions and heresies of the Church nor in the lonsr series of centuries from o the first preaching of the Gospel until now, but in the events which are immediately to precede, to accompany, and to follow the Second Advent of our Lord and Saviour." ^ This system of interpretation is no more defensible than the last. That it possesses an element of truth it ^ Todd's Lectures, p. 68. 136 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. is indeed impossible to deny. The Apocalypse does deal in a most distinct and emphatic manner with the Second Coming of the Lord ; and every description which it gives, whether of the destruction of the ungodly or of the protection and blessedness of the Saints, has reference to that event. From the beginning to the end of the book the Seer is continually in the presence of the great day, with all in it that is at once so majestic and terrible. The Lord comes : He comes quickly : He is knocking at the door. Such is the attitude in which He is always presenting Himself to the believing and the watchful heart. But it by no means follows from this, that St. John has passed over the events alike of his own time and of all succeeding centuries till the last moment conies, and that he mentions nothing but what is to occur in a few closing years of the Christian dis- pensation. "Were it really so, his prophecy would have been deprived of a large measure of its value for those to whom it was originally addressed. Nor could even the Church of any later age have seen it in the power of present and immediate reality, because it could never have been possible to recognise in their true character the events of which it speaks until Christ had come. Even the Church living on the very eve of the Lord's return would not know that it was the eve, until she looked back upon it from the full light of the following day. The meaning of the prophetic intimations of the book would be uncertain, and the issue could alone interpret them. The Church, therefore, could never, upon this system, apply the lessons of the Apocalypse IV ITS INTERPRETATION 137 directly to herself, because she could never know whether her lot had been cast in the days alluded to until the days were over. The main considerations, however, against this system spring, as in the case of the system already spoken of, from a just interpretation of the book. Let us look at one or two clauses particularly depended on, — "The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show unto His servants, even the things which must shortly come to pass ; " ^ " Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of the prophecy, for the time is at hand ; " ^ " He which testifieth these things saith. Yea : I come quickly." ^ Upon what principle of interpretation, we may well ask, is it possible to find in expressions such as these no more than an intimation that the events which are to precede and accompany the Second Advent of the Lord shall take place in a short and rapid space of time ? ^ On what principle can we imagine that, in thus speaking, the Seer intended to throw himself forward hundreds of years ; and to say only that, when the winding-up of the drama came, it would be brief ? "We must start from the circumstances amidst which he was placed when he wrote, and from that point measure the time that was to elapse to the end. AVhen he said " Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of the prophecy," he certainly had in view the readers and the hearers of his own age ; and when, therefore, he immediately added "for the time is at 1 Chap. i. 1. 3 Chap. xxii. 20. ^ Chap. i. 3. ^ Todd's Lectures, p. 65. 138 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. hand," he not less certainly intended that the course of " the time " thus spoken of was to take its beginning from their day. Throughout the whole book the Church is addressed as she was when the Apostle wrote, and is told what was to be done to her and for her at the instant when she first read the prophecy. Another exegetical difficulty in the way of this system of interpretation, and one hardly less fatal than that now spoken of, arises from the necessity involved in it of applying an extreme literalism to what is said both of the duration and of the events of the closing scenes. The three and a half years, for example, or forty-two months, or twelve hundred and sixty days, frequently mentioned in the latter half of the book, must be understood simply of the space of time which the words express in ordinary language. For otherwise they can only be interpreted according to the usual symbolism of numbers prevailing elsewhere in the Apocalypse; and this, in the light of history, would imply a length of time incompatible with that literal interpretation of the phrases " the time is short " and " I come quickly " upon which the system rests. The same consideration makes it necessary to refer each vision of the book, from the opening of the first Seal onward, to events which are either immediately to precede or to accompany the Second Advent. The coming forth of Christ under the first Seal, " conquering and to conquer ; " the wars and famines and pestilences of the next three Seals ; even the slaughter of Christian martyrs pointed at, upon the supposition with which IV ITS INTERPRETATION 139 we are now dealing, under the fifth Seal; the whole subsequent development of the Trumpets and the Bowls, and the fall of Babylon, — every one of these must belong to Christ's appearance the second time without sin unto salvation. Nay, it ought rather to be said that they folloiu that appearance, for the first Seal must be interpreted of the Second Advent,^ and no one will deny that, in point of time, it takes precedence of the remaining visions of the Seer. Such an idea, however, cannot be entertained for an instant. But this literalism is not confined to such things. It connects itself also with views as to the rebuilding of the temple, the restoration of the Jewish polity, the settlement of the Jews in the ancient inheritance of their fathers, and their predominance, alike in dignity and Christian work, among the other nations of the earth, of which it is not too much to say that they are out of keeping both with the general revelation of the New Testament, and with that method of interpreting the prophecies of the Old Testament which is suggested in the New. This second system can no more be accepted than the first. III. The two systems of interpretation now con- sidered have no longer the weight that they once had in the mind of the Church. Within recent years they may be said to have been in great measure superseded by another which asserts for itself an exclusive possession of the improved methods of modern re- ^ Todd's Lectures, p. 99. 140 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. search.^ It demands, therefore, and is entitled to, our attention. Upon this third system it is supposed that the Apocalypse is confined to events either surrounding the Seer or immediately to follow — in particular to the overthrow of Judaism and heathenism, of degenerate Jerusalem and of pagan Eome. These two great enemies of the Christian faith were face to face with the Apostle. His heart was torn by the sufferings which they inflicted upon the flock of Christ ; but he knew that the risen and glorified Eedeemer was against them; and, in the glowing pictures of a righteous indignation, he prophesied of their fall. The system possesses, like the last, an element of truth. It may be at once allowed that from what he beheld around him, either fully developed or in germ, the Seer did draw those lessons as to the dealings of God with the Church and with the world which he applies to all time. He starts from contemporary history, and it is quite possible that at the bottom of each judgment which he depicts, when he does not rely simply upon the Old Testament, there may be something which his own eyes have seen or his own ears heard. Nor can it be urged that to speak of events of his own day alone would have been unworthy of his inspiration, for the same reasoning would deprive of permanent value ^ There is something extra- Archdeacon Farrar describes the ordinary in the confidence with Nero - story as the key of the which this third system of inter- book {Expositor, May 1881, p. 335. pre tation is urged upon us. "If," Comp. also Early days of Chris- says Renan, " the Gospel is the tianity, ii. p. 231). Gebhardt, book of Jesus, the Apocalypse is Hausrath, Bleek, and others attach the book of Nero " {L'Ant., p. 477). equal importance to it. IV ITS INTERPRETATION 141 much of the teaching of the New Testament. Nay, it is not even a just argument against this method of interpretation that, if it be true, the contents of the book have been falsified in important particulars by the issue. Another conclusion might be unavoidable ; for the book might be apocryphal, and unworthy of its place in the Canon. The true objection to the proposal to limit the meaning of the Apocalypse by the events of the writer's own day rests upon exegetical grounds, partly of a general and partly of a more special kind. As to the former, the book bears distinctly on its face that it is not confined to what the Seer beheld immediately around him. It treats of much that was to happen down to the very end of time, down to the full accomplishment of the Church's struggle, the full winning of her victory, and the full attainment of her rest. The Coming of the Lord, so frequently referred to, was certainly not exhausted in that destruction of the Jewish polity which we now know was to precede by many centuries the close of the present dispensation ; and the enemies of God described continue their opposition to the truth not merely to a point near at hand, when they are checked, but to the last, when they are overthrown finally and for ever. There is a progress in the book which is only stopped by the final advent of the Judge of the whole earth ; and no just system of interpretation will permit us to regard the different plagues of the Seals, the Trumpets, and the Bowls as symbolic only of wars which the Seer had 142 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. beheld in their beginnings, and which he knew would end in the destruction of Jerusalem and Rome. Against the idea that St. John was limited to the events of his own day the tone and spirit of the book are a con- tinuous protest. Nor can it be pleaded that he com- bines these with those that were to happen at the last, leaving, for reasons unexplained by him, a long interval of time unnoticed. There is no trace of an interval. The lightnings flash and the thunders roll in close succession from the beginning to the end of the book. Judged even by its general character, the Apocalypse cannot be interpreted upon this modern system. The special interpretation of particular passages is not less fatal to the theory, for it is invariably, if not inseparably, bound up with two assumptions, — that the beast of chaps, xiii. and xvii. is the Emperor ISTero, and that the Babylon which plays so large a part in the later chapters of the book is Rome. The second of these assumptions will meet us in the next lecture for another purpose. We may, therefore, at present confine ourselves to the first, that the beast of chaps, xiii. and xvii. is Nero. The identification of the two is regarded by not a few leading scholars of the day as the great discovery of modern times in connexion with the Apocalypse,-^ and there is a disposition to accept it which may almost be spoken of as general. The main strength of the argument rests upon the words of chajD. xiii. 18 — " He 1 Corap. Reuss, Hist, of N. T., October 1863 and December 1873 ; p. 156 ; Reville, Ecv. d. d. Mondcs, Renan, UAnt., cliap. xvii. IV ITS INTERPRETATION 143 that hath understanding, let him count the number of the beast ; for it is the number of a man ; and his number is six hundred, sixty, and six." St. John, it is said, is dealing with that ancient and mystic system of numbers by which the letters of a man's name had their numerical value assigned to them, so that, when added together, they supplied a number instead of a name as his designation. The letters of the two words "Neron Caesar" make up the number 666; and St. John, by thus telling us that the beast is Nero, gives us the key to the principle upon which he wrote his book. One consideration alone ought to be enough to demonstrate the mistaken character of this interpreta- tion. It puts St. John in direct conflict with those particulars of his own day to which lie is supposed to be giving expression in his vision. Observe the words of chap. xiii. 3, " and I saw one of his heads as though it had been slaughtered unto death ; and his death-stroke was healed." This head, according to the theory, is ISTero ; and the symbolism rests, it is said, upon the fact that when that Emperor was reported to have put an end to his life, he had not really died, but had escaped to the distant land of Parthia, whence he would yet return to take vengeance upon Eome. The passage before us, however, speaks of something entirely different from flight and return from flight ; it speaks distinctly of death and of resurrection from the dead. The words of the original are unfortunately translated in our English version, " and I saw one of his heads as 144 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. it were wounded to death." ^ They are better, but not adequately, translated in the Ee vised Version, in which for " wounded to death " we read " smitten unto death," with the margin "slain" for ''smitten." The true translation is " slaughtered unto death," for the Greek word used occurs, in addition to the present instance, seven times in the Apocalypse, in every one of which it must be translated "slain," or "slaughtered," or "killed." How can it be otherwise translated here? Not only so ; the statement in the verse before us is the counterpart of that in chap. v. 6, where we read of the "Lamb as though it had been slaughtered." In both cases there is death, not flight. The head of the beast had died as really as the Lamb of God had died on Calvary, and the Seer saw that it had done so. Nay more, it had experienced a resurrection from the dead. As we read in chap. xiii. 3, its "death- stroke was healed " ; still more fully in chap. xvii. 8 it is spoken of as the beast that " was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss " ; and again, in the same verse, as the beast that " was, and is not and shall be present." But these words are the counterpart of those used by Jesus of Himself in chap. i. 18 — " I am the first and the last, and the living one ; and I became dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore." Hence, accordingly, we read in chap. xi. 7 of " the beast that Cometh up out of the abyss " as that by which the two witnesses are killed. The whole representation, in short, of the beast implies that it had not merely died 1 Chap. xiii. 3. IV ITS INTERPRETATION 145 as Christ had died, but that it had also risen as He had ; and it is not simply as the beast "slaughtered unto death," but as the beast with " its death-stroke healed," that in chap. xiii. 3 it receives the homage of the world. But all this was wholly different from what either took place in the history of Nero or was ascribed to him by popular rumour. Eumour did not say that he had died, but that he had fled. It did not say that he would rise from the grave, but that he would return from Parthia. We know that he did not rise, that he did not return, that he was not received with the acclamations of his adherents. If St. John means that Nero is the beast, he has founded his representation not upon contemporary occurrences, but upon a wild imagina- tion of his own. By the application of this single test the elaborate structure of the Nero-hypothesis crumbles into dust. Much more might be urged upon the point. In particular it might be shown that the theory is dis- credited by the mistake of confounding the heads of the beast with the beast itself; by its misunderstanding the force of the word " name " ; by its putting that em- phasis upon the word Nero which really belongs to the number 666 ; by its misapprehending the relation between numbers and names which the Seer has in his mind; by its unnatural spelling of Hebrew words in order to accomplish its end ; by its inability to secure that secrecy at which it is supposed to aim ; and by its suggesting a mere puzzle or play with numbers for a Divine mystery, the thought of which, when he alludes L 146 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. to it, fills the Seer's mind with awe. Enough, however, has been said to show that the beast cannot be Nero. If so, the whole system of interpretation so much relied on in recent times falls to the ground. No doubt the Seer did start from the events of his own day, and he likewise spoke to it. But it is impos- sible to limit his meaning to what was then happening around him. He beheld in that only one manifestation of the deeper principles which, always true, would never fail to exhibit themselves in action until the end came. The different systems of interpretation now considered must thus be set aside ; and it remains for us to mark one or two general principles that may help us both to understand aright the purpose of the Seer, and to appreciate the manner in which that purpose is accom- plished. 1. The Apocalypse embraces the whole period from the First to the Second Coming of the Lord, but with- out positively determining whether it shall be long or short. That the beginning and the end of the Christian dispensation are before us in the visions of St. John cannot be doubted. It can only be a question whether the intermediate space of time is not omitted. That it is not is clear from this, that there is no pause in the action of the book. From first to last there is continual development and uninterrupted progress. The explana- tion is, that the Seer has separated the ideas to which he gives expression from all thought of the time needed to embody them in fact. It is true that in not a few passages he speaks as one who felt that the close was at IV ITS INTERPRETATION 147 hand ; but sucli language, we shall immediately see, admits of an easy explanation. In the meanwhile it is of more importance to remark that the renouncing on the part of the Apostle of any attempt to indicate the number of days or years or centuries which were to pass before the end is in strict accordance with the teaching of our Lord. When the disciples of Jesus asked their Master on one occasion regarding the " consummation of the age," He replied, " Of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only." ^ Again He said to the twelve, imme- diately before His Ascension into Heaven, " It is not for you to know times or seasons, which the Father hath set within His own authority." ^ In words like these our Lord distinctly eliminated from what He reveals to us of the end every trace of allusion to either its nearness or its distance. From the Divine point of view, " one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years are as one day ; " and it was from the Divine point of view that Jesus spoke. His words, therefore, contain a principle of the utmost importance to the interpretation of what is said by His Apostles either in the Apocalypse or in other books of the !N"ew Testament. If we introduce into their writings the thought of any definite length of time whatever, we are directly at variance with the principle laid down by Christ. It may indeed be urged that they speak in the language of men, and that by the ordinary laws of such language they must be understood. 1 Matt. xxiv. 36. 2 ^^^s i. 7. 148 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. The remark is just ; but these ordinary laws of language require that a Prophet or a Seer shall be understood according to the laws of prophetic or apocalyptic lan- guage. As he was filled with the prophetic or apoca- lyptic spirit, we can only comprehend him when we share that spirit, when we move in the same Divine region of thought as that out of which he speaks. Two errors, therefore, on the point now spoken of, have to be avoided in the interpretation of the Apocalypse. In the first place, it may be said that, had we not possessed the visions of that book, we could hardly have imagined that the interval between the beginning and the consummation of the Christian age would have been so great ; or that the waves of sin and judgment, of trial and victory, would have been so manifold.^ But it is precisely of the extent of this interval that the Apocalypse says not one single word. These successive waves of judgment are obviously suc- cessive in thought rather than in time. They may come at distant intervals, or they may be crowded wave upon wave. Nothing in the book entitles us to say which of these will be the case. Even such a word as " hereafter," in the statement, " The first woe is past : behold, there come yet two woes hereafter," " does not prove that lapse of time is 'the main consideration present to the Seer's mind. For anything told us the drama, with all its varied scenes, may be quickly closed. In the second place, it may be, as it often has been, said that the expressions, "the things which must ^ Fairbaini On Pro})hecij, p. 174. ^ chap. ix. 12. IV ITS INTERPRETATION 149 shortly come to pass," " the time is at hand," and " I come quickly," necessarily imply only the briefest pos- sible period between the time when they were uttered and the consummation of the age. But, again, we have no right to say so. The style of speech thus adopted arises out of a method of conception peculiar to early Christianity, and nearly if not altogether strange to the later history of the Church. Owing in all probability simply to the fact that Christian history has already embraced so many centuries of the world's progress, we look at the period between the First and Second Coming of the Lord as simply a part of a regular and continuous course which the world has been running since the creation of man. It is distinguished from the pre- Christian age by having brought with it clearer light, higher privileges, and greater responsibilities. Yet it is to us only a stage in a process that has been always going on, and that, like the morning light, has been shining more and more unto the perfect day. To the early Church, however, the time which began to run with the coming of Christ presented itself in an entirely different aspect. It was separated from the past by a more distinct line of demarcation, by a broader and deeper gulf It was not merely a more signal period of preparation for the end than any previously given ; in one sense it was the end itself. Not indeed that there might not be still much to happen before the Lord of glory actually appeared ; but, even though it were so, the age was His in an altogether peculiar sense. He was ruling in it in a way in which He could not be said to 150 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. have ruled before. He had not only died, but risen again, and ascended to the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens. There at that very moment He was carrying out, not the preparatory, but the final purposes of His wisdom and love. The earth was even now the stage upon which the last act of the world-drama was accomplishing. Hence, accordingly, that separation between two distinct ages which, appearing first in the Jewish, afterwards appears also in the Christian, Church, — the two ages being known as " this age (or world) " and " the age (or the world) to come." The former, before Christ came, w^as the age of preparation, when all things went on in their ordinary course, although in the midst of them God, by His special dealings with men, was bringing about an ever-increasing " fulness of the times." The latter, after Christ had come, was the age of con- summation, when everything which God intended to do for the execution of His covenant had been done, when the scheme of revelation had been completed, w^hen it was no longer needful to add dispensation to dispensa- tion, or age to age, in order to fill up the times, but when their "fulness" had been at length attained.^ Everything, it is true, of which prophecy had spoken, and which was included in the promises of tlie covenant, had not yet been realised. So far from this, it seemed ^ Nothing can show this more Si^rit," and "the good Word of clearly than the fact that in God," as things of which those Hebrews vi. 5 "the powers of the Hebrew Christians who were in age to come " are classed with danger of falling aAvay had already "the heavenly gift," "the Holy tasted. IV ITS INTERPRETATION 151 as if the state of matters for the Church of God were worse instead of better. She was more oppressed and persecuted than she had ever been, while the world was more godless and wicked. Still it was the Gospel age, the new dispensation, "the world to come." The Church could not abandon that conviction without abandoning her faith that Jesus was the Messiah, and, along with this, the very basis of her existence. She consoled herself therefore with the thought that the age had not yet been revealed in all its glory, that she had as yet seen only one side of it, that there was another and a brighter behind, and that what she had to wait for was not a new stage of time, but only a manifesta- tion, a revelation, an Apocali/jms, of what was really in existence.^ It will thus be observed that to the early Church glory darted its rays into the midst of shame, heavenly triumph into the midst of earthly defeat. It was not so much that the shame and the defeat were the only things known in this world, but were to be followed in a better world by the glory and the triumph. That is our way of looking at it. ' The early Church saw the latter already reached in the person of the Ee- deemer who made over to her all that He Himself possessed. They were not then to he won — they were won. Nothing more was needed than that Christ, now ^ The second chapter of the turns instantly to the Lord with- Epistle to the Hebrews is in this in the veil, and sees in the "glory- point of view especially instructive, and honour" with which He is The sacred writer there mourns crowned the pledge of the "glory" over the fact that, high as was to which God will immediately the destiny of man, it was yet by bring His "many sons." no means reached. But then he 152 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. hidden, should "appear," and should make the glory, already potentially His people's, shine out, so that they too might ''appear " with Him in glory, and enjoy their Epiphany as He had enjoyed His. The thought of the early Church was thus not, like ours, a double thought — suffering here, glory hereafter. It was a single thought, — glory shining now through suffering, and gradually swallowing that suffering up in perfect victory. The effect of all this was that the whole history of the Christian Church down to the Second Coming of the Lord in glory was embraced from one point of view and in one thought. It was a framework within which there was set the expression of one great idea. It was from its beginning to its end the final dispensation, the last time, the Lord's day, which was to close God's dealings with man in a present world, and to bring to full light the principles upon which the Church was guided to her eternal rest. Hence, accordingly, the course of time disappears from view. The one idea to be expressed fills up the scene, and it is not surprising that it should do so. In an ideal representation intended to set forth the inherent tendencies and the ultimate issues of a course of action, events which, in their evolution, will occupy a long time, may with perfect propriety be set forth in one picture from the writer's pen, because the same principle runs through them all. The first contains the last in germ. The last only develops what was implicitly in the first. Time is therefore unthought of. It comes in simply IV ITS INTERPRETATION 153 because we cannot think of the accomplishment of an idea except in time. But time so viewed is summary, rapid, short, with the end at hand. Even if the Seer had not believed, as he may have believed, that the Judge was standing at the door, he could hardly, in the circum- stances, have conceived of the matter in any other way. This alone he knew, that the long-expected King of Israel had come, and that God had begun to judge His people with righteousness and His poor with judgment. We have no right, therefore, in interpreting the Apocalypse, to interject into it the thought either of a long or a short development of events. It is a re- presentation in which an idea, not the time needed for the expression of the idea, plays the chief part. 2. While the Apocalypse thus embraces the whole period of the Christian dispensation, it sets before us within this period the action of great principles and not special incidents. In this respect it follows closely the lines of our Lord's last discourse in the three earlier Gospels. In both allusion is made to events of a general character, — to wars, pestilences, famines, false teachers, persecution, defection from the faith, preserva- tion of the faithful, and so on ; but this is not the prediction of particular events. Of such prediction there is almost none either in the last discourse of Jesus or in the visions of His disciple. If we except in the former a small portion which seems to refer to the destruction of Jerusalem, we learn from neither one single word of the special history of the future, of the impending revolutions of its kingdoms, of the changes 154 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. of its parties, of the rise or fall of its statesmen or conquerors or monarchs.^ Both, too, preserve a similar silence as to individual misfortunes or triumphs of the Church. No one would even attempt to detect par- ticular events of either kind in our Lord's discourse on the last things, and they are equally absent from the Apocalypse. When the disciples asked Jesus of the future, He uttered with His own lips all that He thought necessary for their encouragement. When He gave His revelation to the Seer in Patmos He gave no more. What distinguishes the revelation from the discourse is not the greater minuteness of its contents but the form in which its truths are clothed. The instant we lose sight of this we begin to look in the Apocalypse for what it does not contain, and we are in danger of becoming the prey of hasty and idle fancies. In the respect now mentioned the Apocalypse re- sembles all true prophecy which, whether in the Old Testament or the New, contains mainly the enunciation of great principles of God's government of men, and not the prediction of special events. Even when the latter are predicted it is generally less for their own sake than for the principles they illustrate. A minute corre- spondence between every minor particular of the predic- tion and the result is not required to convince us that we are dealing with the insight or the inspiration of a ^ Kliefoth (D. 0. J. Einl., had far greater and more re- p. 37, etc.) endeavours at great mote events in view than the length to prove that, even in destruction of that city by the speaking of Jerusalem, our Lord Romans. IV ITS INTERPRETATION 155 true prophet. It is enough if the prophet connected together, in a way generally conformable to the facts as they occurred, a course of conduct, whether good or evil, with the consequences which followed it. Thus, then, we are not to look in the Apocalypse for special events, but for an exhibition of the principles which govern the history both of the world and the Church. These principles may not even be new. They may be those which had appeared more or less clearly in the words of all former prophets, or which fell from the lips of our Lord Himself. They may pervade the whole Old Testament dispensation. Nay, we may even find yearnings after them, just as we find yearnings after a Messiah, in the poets of heathenism. No circum- stances of that kind detract in the slightest degree from either their value or their force. What distinguishes them here is that we are not merely told of them as coming ; we see them come. We behold an old and sinful world going down in order that a new and better world may take its place ; the hatefulness, the danger, and the punishment of sin contrasted with the beauty, the security, and the reward of righteousness ; and the ever-present though unseen Euler of the universe watching over His own, making the wrath of man to praise Him, and guiding all things to His own glorious ends. The book thus becomes to us not a history of either early or mediaeval or last events written of before they happened, but a spring of elevating encouragement and holy joy to Christians in every age. In this sense it was strictly applicable to St. John's own day : but it 156 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. has been not less applicable to after times, and it will continue to be equally so to the end. Hence also the easy possibility of the fact already dwelt on, and a clear recognition of which is of the utmost importance for the interpretation of the book, — that the period of history covered by it extends from the beginning to the close of the Church's pilgrimage upon earth. That possibility is easy because the book deals with principles, and these are always essentially the same. The laws of the Almighty's moral govern- ment are as unchangeable and eternal as those by which He regulates the course of nature. They are not less the expression of Him who is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. They may reveal themselves in new appli- cations because the phenomena to which they apply may assume new forms. Their action may be more intense as the ages run on, but they do not really change ; and even therefore in a book so short as the Apocalypse they may find, what all the important events of the Church's history could never find, a full and adequate expression. 3. A third principle of interpretation must still be noticed. We are both entitled and required to interpret in a spiritual and universal sense that language of the Apocalypse which appears at first sight to be material and local. The book is full of words and figures taken from Jewish history, and associated with the memories and the anticipations of the Jewish people. The ques- tion, therefore, naturally arises, May not the book be Jewish? May it not be occupied throughout with the fortunes of the Jews ? What risjht have we to IV ITS mTERPRETATION 157 interpret such words as Israel, Jerusalem, Zion, the temple, the altar, the key of David, the palms of the feast of Tabernacles, the "people" (claimed by Christ as His), and other similar words, in a wider and more spiritual sense than that which they naturally bear ? May we not, in doing so, put into them a mean- ing unthought of by the author ? The answer to these questions depends upon a prior question. What were the views of the author of the Apocalypse in regard to the Christian system as a whole ? If we have reason to believe that they were of the widest, most compre- hensive, and most spiritual kind, his local words and figures will not necessarily carry with them a local meaning. The spirituality and universality of St. Paul's views are admitted, yet he frequently employs similar language. In Gal. vi. 16 he speaks of the whole Christian community as "the Israel of God." In chap. iii. 7 of the same Epistle he is even more special in his designation of believers, "Know therefore that they which be of faith, the same are the sons of Abraham." In 2 Cor. vi. 16 he says to the Corinthian Christians, who were unquestionably for the most part Gentiles, "for we are a temple of the living God" (E. V.) In Eph. ii. 21 he describes the united Church as " a holy temple in the Lord" ; and in Gal. iv. 26 he declares that " the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is our mother." Expressions of the same kind occur in other writers of the ISTew Testament and in the mouth of Christ Himself; but these are chosen from St. Paul, because in that Apostle's case the spirituality and uni- 158 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. versalism of the sentiments conveyed by them are never questioned. What we know of his general views sheds light upon such language, and we should no more think of charging him witli Judaising than of laying that charge at the door of a Christian minister who should speak of Christians as wanderers in a wilderness, or as pilgrims to a land of promise. When, in like manner, we turn to the Apocalypse, it is undeniable that its leading ideas are as purely Chris- tian as any ideas of the New Testament. Nothing can be more strikingly so than its conception of Christ. Throughout the book He is the Lamb — the Lamb sacri- ficed, the Lamb risen and glorified. In other words, He is the Lamb who has passed through death to glory, and who now, at the right hand of the Father, reigns in His spiritual and universal kingdom. Again, there are the same spirituality and universality in St. John's conception of the Church. No language can be a clearer proof of this than the language of chap. vii. 9, where those standing before the throne and before the Lamb are described as " a great multitude, out of every nation, and of all tribes and peoples and tongues " ; or that of chap. V. 9, 10, where the four and twenty elders sing their new song, saying, " Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase unto God with Thy blood men of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation, and madest them to be unto our God a kingdom and priests; and they reign upon the earth." Once more, nothing can indicate more strongly the spirituality and univer- IV ITS INTERPRETATION 159 sality of the writer, or his complete elevation above the limited ideas of Judaism than the statement of chap. xxi. 22, when, speaking of the New Jerusalem, he says, " And I saw no temple therein." Passages like these reveal a width of view on the part of the author of the Apocalypse, whoever he be, which are wholly inconsistent with a narrow attachment to Judaism and Judaistic hope. It would in fact be far more reasonable to ask whether he recognises the Jewish, than whether he recognises the Gentile, branch of the Church. All the seven cities, the conojreofations of which represent the Church, belong to a Gentile land. When the Trumpet judgments, those upon the world, are nearly ended, and we are about to deal with judgments on the Church, it is intimated to the Seer that he must " prophesy again over many peoples and nations and tongues and kings " ; ^ and there can be no doubt that the struggle with the three great enemies, the devil, the first beast, and the false prophet, is the struggle of the Church after she has gone out into the whole world. We have much more need therefore to ask for traces of the Jewish than the Gentile Chris- tian Church. But the truth is that the Church in the Apocalypse is one. She has an aspect indeed both to Israel and the Gentiles. Twenty -four elders, twelve for each branch, represent her in her heavenly triumph ; and the redeemed sing the song described at once by an Old Testament and a New Testament designation — 1 Chap. X. 11. 160 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. iv " the song of Moses the servant of God, and of the Lamb." These are only her outward aspects; inter- nally, essentially, she is one. In such circumstances we cannot hesitate to acknowledge both the spirituality and the universalism of the author of this book ; and, that being so, we must apply to him the same rule that we apply both to the other writers of the New Testa- ment and to our Lord. His Jewish figures are the embodiment of Christian, not of Jewish, thought. For the three principles now spoken of we shall have immediate need in considering the special object which the author of the Apocalypse had in view. LECTUEE V DESIGN AND SCOPE OF THE APOCALYPSE The previous lectures ought to have prepared us for the next point to which our attention must be directed, the Design and Scope of the Apocalypse. But, in order to understand this better, it will be well to look for a moment at the circumstances in which the Seer was placed. The time was one of the deepest anxiety and suspense to the Christian Church in general, and more especially, we may well suppose, to the aged Apostle who for many years had been the solitary survivor of the apostolic band. Events of the most momentous character had happened, or were happening, to the Jews, among the Gentiles, and in the world. Israel, so long God's favoured people, and the literal glory of whose future seemed to be spoken of in so many passages of the Old Testament, had been extinguished as a nation. Jeru- salem had fallen amidst horrors as yet unequalled in the bloody list of sacks and massacres which had stained the history of man. The Jews had been driven from their homes; and the sanctuary, so long revered and M 162 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. loved with all the ardour of the Jewish heart, had been levelled with the dust. The Gentiles were hardly less involved in every calamity that can fill the breasts of nations with hopelessness and despair. The mighty fabric of the Eoman Empire had arisen, a new monster from the sea of the nations, and more terrible than the worst of previous tyrannies — its military despotism de- graded in itself and degrading all beneath its sway; its soldiers claiming the right to sell the crown to the highest bidder; its subject nations crushed under the exactions of selfish and greedy procurators; the old freedom of the Eepublic gone, and a grinding tyranny substituted for it ; the throne filled from time to time by profligates or villains, a Nero, a Caligula, a Domi- tian, men whose names have drawn down upon them the execration of every succeeding age ; no security for life or property ; no justice ; no mercy ; but crimes heaped on crimes till, at the very mention of them, the blood runs cold, and we wonder how the earth could longer bear the burden of its misery. Into this sweltering mass of dissoluteness and law- lessness and vice the Church of Christ had just been sent, like a lamb into the midst of wolves. It is diffi- cult for us to realise the thought as it must have pre- sented itself to St. John. He had been accustomed to think of the kingdom of God as protected within the Jewish fold. Where was that fold now ? Its waUs were broken down; its hireling shepherds had failed to fulfil their commission and were fled ; the timorous sheep were gathering into corners, or were looking round V ITS DESIGN AND SCOPE 163 with startled gaze to see from what quarter the next blow would come. Nor was it long of coming. The followers of Christ were everywhere the objects of the world's scorn. Persecution in all its forms of cruelty raged against them. They were imprisoned, tortured, burned, thrown to the lions in the amphitheatre, treated as if they were abandoned criminals whom no eye should pity and no hand should spare. They that killed them imagined that in doing so they were offering service to God.i Even nature appeared to feel for and to sympathise with the woes of man. The latter half of the first century was marked by an unusual amount of her more terrible phenomena.^ Earthquakes were numerous and destructive. Asia Minor in particular, the seat of the seven churches, was to such an extent a centre of their action that before the end of the century several of her cities had been overthrown. Famines followed the con- vulsions of nature, and plagues followed famine. The darkest language of ancient prophecy was hardly too strong to express the terrors with which the earth was visited. And amidst them all St. John was himself a sufferer, an exile "for the word of God and the testi- mony of Jesus," ^ torn from his flock, perhaps never to return to it. In these circumstances what was more natural than that, with his mind penetrated, filled, saturated, with the thought of his Master's life, and with the teaching ^ John xvi. 2. in Schenkel's Biheu LcxiJcon, i. 2 Comp. Renan, UAnt., p. p. 161. 325, and article "Apokalypse" ^ Chap. i. 9. 164 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. in which our Lord had so closely identified His people with Himself, that life should rise before him with re- newed vividness and power, and that he should behold it repeated in the fortunes of His Church. Now we know from the fourth Gospel how St. John thought of the life of Jesus. It was the life of One who, though "the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth," had been regarded as an alien by the very persons whom He came to save. " He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not : He came unto His own home, and they that were His own received Him not."^ What sadness and sorrow had encompassed Him ! What a struggle had that been in which love and tenderness and self-sacrifice were repaid with hatred and cruelty and death ! Yet there had been glory too. Ever and again Christ had manifested His glory. ^ He had permitted it to shine through the " flesh " which for the most part veiled it.^ It had appeared in the confounding of His enemies, in the increasing attachment of His friends, in the wonder- ful discourses of the upper room at Jerusalem, in the high-priestly prayer, in the rising from the grave. All this, then, St. John felt was repeated in the history of the Church. Once again, as before, to his eyes " the light shineth in the darkness, and the dark- ness overcame it not."* That is the thought of the Apocalypse. It is a vision of the Church as, encompassed by trials 1 Johni. 10, 11. '-^ Jolmi. 14. 2 John ii. 11. ^ John i. 5. V ITS DESIGN AND SCOPE 165 similar to those of her Eedeemer, she passes on under the same protecting care of a Father in heaven to a similar reward. To the eye of sense all may seem dark and hopeless. But the eye of faith beholds " the Eeve- lation of Jesus Christ," and the eternal principles of God's government working beneath apparent defeat, and coming more and more to victory. The Seer in his Divine inspiration penetrates the darkness. The clouds roll away ; and, as the glorious prospect spreads before him, he can only lift up his heart and proclaim, in the visions of this book, his message of encouragement and hope. The Apocalypse is, accordingly, the revelation, in the case of the members of Christ's body, of the three great ideas which St. John had already beheld exemplified in the history of Christ Himself, — those of conflict, pre- servation, and triumph. These ideas he does not de- scribe : he sees them ; and he tells us what he saw. Let us look at them a little more particularly. 1. In the first place, there is the idea of conflict. It could not be otherwise. From its very nature darkness must be opposed to light, error to truth, sin to holiness, Satan to Christ. These opposites can never be at peace with one another, and the dearest bonds of earth must be broken for the sake of the issues of the struggle between them.^ The Apocalypse, therefore, is full of the thought of war and suffering for the children of God. We misunderstand it if we think only of its pictures of judgment on the wicked. It contains a ^ Comp. Matt. x. 35. 166 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. thought prior, deeper, more intimately bound up with its whole structure, than even the punishment of sin ; and that thought is the cross, which every follower of Christ must bear when he listens to the words, " Follow thou Me." -^ It is the idealised expression of what the Christian feels more and more powerfully in proportion as he enters more fully into the spirit of his JMaster, — that the world, constituted as it is, whatever it may be to others, must be to him, not a place of rest and peace, but of struggle, of suffering, of discipline, of longing for a better. This stamp is impressed upon all its visions. Those to whom it is written are partakers with the writer "in the tribulation and kingdom and patience which are in Jesus." ^ The characteristics of the glorious Person described in the first vision, which are obviously enumerated with a view to the necessities of His people, tell us of victory not yet gained, and of enemies who are yet to be overwhelmed. In each of the Epistles to the seven churches the promises are made to him that " overcometh." ^ Upon the two faithful witnesses the beast makes war, and they are killed.^ The first great enemy of the Church is over- thrown by those " who loved not their lives unto the death." ^ The second " makes war with the saints," who are comforted with the assurance that " if any man leadeth into captivity, into captivity he goeth ; if any man shall kill with the sword, with the sword must he be killed." ^ The third is able to secure that " as many ^ Joliii xxi. 22. 2 Chaps, ii., iii. ^ Cliap. xii. 11. - Chap. i. 9. •* Chap. xi. 7. ** Chap. xiii. 7, 10. V ITS DESIGN AXD SCOPE 167 as sliould. not worship the image of the beast should be killed."^ We read of "the war of the great day of God, the Almighty,"^ of the battle of Har-Magedon,^ and of the " armies which are in heaven " following Him who is "arrayed in a garment sprinkled with blood," the blood of His enemies, and " out of whose mouth proceedeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations." ^ Before they are finally destroyed " the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gather together to make war against Him that sat upon the horse, and against His arniy;"^ while the very last vision, before the great white throne is set for judgment, tells us of the gathering together of the nations to the war, " the number of whom is as the sand of the sea." ^ Throughout the whole book in short we deal with con- flict, with armies, with battles, with the bow and the sword and the war-horse and blood, with a mighty struggle between good and evil, between light and darkness, between righteousness and unrighteousness, between Christ and the devil, between the Church of God and the synagogue of Satan. This is not all. It appears to be the idea of St. John that, in the case of every true follower of Christ, conflict leads to martyrdom. Inattention to this fact on the part of commentators has greatly marred the interpretation of the Apocalypse. That book does not speak of a select company of martyrs to be distinguished from the whole number of Christ's faithful people. It 1 Chap. xiii. 15. ^ Chap xvi. 16. ^ Cbap. xix. 19. 2 Chap. xvi. 14. ^ Chap, xix, 13-16. « Chap. xx. 8. 168 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYrSE lect. draws no distinction between ordinary believers and those to whom in our use of language the term '' martyr " is more properly applied.-^ The Seer of course knew well that many followers of Christ had fallen asleep, that many would still fall asleep, in their own beds, tended by family and friends in their departing hour. But it is another instance of his singular idealism that all such knowledge gives way to the deeper thought, that the essence of Christian life, and the true manner of Christian death, is martyrdom. It had been so under the Old Testament dispensation. The souls under the altar, described at the loosing of the fifth seal as " slain," ^ cannot be a select number of these saints ; they must be all of them ; and if, to the eye of St. John, they all were martyrs, much more may we expect the same style of language to be applied to the saints of the New Testa- ment. This, therefore, appears to be the case. " The great tribulation" mentioned in chap. vii. 14 is no special tribulation at the close of the world's history. It is that of Matt. xxiv. 21, and it refers to the trials experienced by the saints of God throughout the whole period of their pilgrimage, at one time greater than ^ Corap. Keble, Chi'istian Year, but not in deed ; the third in deed >S'^. Steiihen^s Day : — but not in will ; so the Church "So on the King of Martyrs wait, commemorates these martyrs in Three chosen bands in royal state, the same order ; St. Stephen first, And all earth mens of good and great ^yho suffered death both in will Are gathered in that choir.'' ^^^^^ j^^,^^ . g^_ j^j^^^ ^j^^ evangelist Keble quotes Wheatly on the next, who suffered- in will but not "Common Prayer" : — "As there in deed ; the Holy Innocents last, are three kinds of martyrdom, the who suffered in deed but not in first both in will and deed, which will." is the highest ; the second in will - Chap, vi. 9-11. V ITS DESIGN AN"D SCOPE 169 at another, but always great. It is also universal, in- cluding both Jewish and Gentile Christians ; while the peculiar expression " they that come " (not came ") leads us to think of the appellation " He that cometh" applied elsewhere to our Lord, and of that identification of believers with Him which is so characteristic of the writings of St. John.^ As, in one of its aspects, tlie fourth Gospel may be called the history of the martyr- dom of Jesus, so, in one of its aspects, the Apocalypse may in like manner be called the history of the martyr- dom of the members of His body. Christ Himself submitted to the inevitable law, "Except a corn of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone ; but if it die, it beareth much fruit." - How can His people escape submission to the same law ? St. John knew no Christianity that does not, in one way or another, conduct the believer through tears and blood, through suffering and the cross, to the heavenly reward. It is a part of the teaching that came from his inmost soul that an easy, prosperous Christian upon whom the world smiles, and who returns its smiles, is no real follower of Christ.^ 2. In the second place, this idea of the conflict is accompanied by that of the preservation of Christ's ^ Comp. Comm. in loc. culty by arguing that the descrip- 2 John xii. 24. tioii is to be understood of the ^ Fairbairn sees clearly to Avhat martyrs "symbolically, as repre- an absurd length it would lead us sentative of the cause and king- were we to think only of actual dom of Christ " {On Prophecy, p. martyrs in the passage above re- 461). This is virtually conceding ferred to. He gets over the difti- the view contended for in the text. 170 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. people. Whatever may be their trials they are pro- tected by Him who walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks ; and, even if at times apparently defeated or martyred, their defeat is instantly turned to victory. AVhile the judgments of the Seals rage around them they are " the oil and the wine " which the rider upon the black horse of famine is not permitted to hurt.^ Before the judgments of the Trumpets rush upon the world they are stamped with the seal of the living God, so that the mystic number of 144,000 is complete — not one is lost.^ The locusts of the fifth Trumpet are permitted to touch none that have the seal of God on their foreheads.^ All who worship in the sanctuary are measured.* The 144,000 appear a second time standing with the Lamb upon Mount Zion, as complete in number as before ; ^ the " book of life " obviously contains a definite number of names ; and, when we come to the reign of the thousand years, the glory of that reign is bestowed upon all such as " worshipped not the beast, neither his image, and received not the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand." ^ The redeemed, even when their blood is shed, are never permitted to forget that, though crushed beneath the world's power, it is only for a time. On the other hand, as if to bring out into still greater relief this preservation of the saints, there is for the enemies of the Eedeemer nothing but judgment. It has indeed been often thought that this is not the 1 Chap. vi. 6. '-^ Chap. ix. 4. ^ Chap. xiv. 1. 2 Chap. vii. 2, 3. ^ Chap, xi. 1. ^ Qiy^^^^ ^x. 4. V ITS DESIGN AND SCOPE 171 case, but that the Apocalypse anticipates the conversion of the world, and that its revelations of God's dealings with mankind are of a mixed character, presenting at one time His judgments upon the impenitent, at another His offers of mercy made to them, and the invitations addressed to them in the Gospel of His Grace. This view cannot be sustained. The Apocalypse says no- thing of conversion. Its point of view is different from that which would lead to conversion being thought of. It contemplates men as persons whose lot has already been decided, who are already ranged either with Christ or with His enemies. Its business is to reveal the true character and to foreshadow the certain fate of the two opposing ranks. By deliberately adopting the spirit of the devil, the ungodly have confessed the devil to be their father. In the very nature of the case, therefore, they must perish. They may not be saved against their will.^ Special passages confirm what has been said. It is only by mistaken interpretation that the prayers of chap. viii. 4 are regarded as prayers for the conversion rather than for the destruction of the world ; ^ that other passages are supposed to speak of an extended proclamation of God's grace ; and that the prospect set before us for the present dispensation is considered one of advancing progress towards a joyful time when the kingdoms of the world, by acceptance of the Gospel, ^ It is allowed by Godet {Bib- world. But in chap. xi. 13 he lical Studies, p. 312) that the sees the conversion of the Jews Apocalypse does not recognise (p. 314). any conversion of the pagan - Comm. in loc. 172 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.^ The prayers thus alluded to are no' prayers for mercy to the world. They are prayers that God will vindicate His own cause by avenging His people's blood upon their persecutors. The message proclaimed to a guilty world is everywhere one of judgment, not of salvation. Even when Christ is seen with a rainbow round His head, the meaning, so far as the ungodly are concerned, is only that the judgments inflicted upon them by the Lord shall be felt all the more terribly, because connuitted against One who would so fain have given them peace ; and, when the universal reign of Messiah is established, it is not by the submission of the world to His cross, but by the overthrow which, as King of kings and Lord of lords, as " a man of war," He brings upon it. Nothing, in fact, is more strikingly characteristic of the Apocalypse than the manner in which the two t]^reat divisions of mankind are from the very first viewed as separate and complete. There is no passing from the one to the other. There is only, here a rising to ever higher victory, there a sinking into ever heavier woe. In no vision of tlie book is either the extension or the diminution of the number of Christ's chosen people so much as hinted at. There is, indeed, as we proceed through the visions, that climax which has been already noticed, because mercy has been despised and sin has grown more ripe for its merited doom. But during all the time embraced by them, a time covering the whole history of the militant ^ Fairbaii-n, On Frophccy, p. 408. V ITS DESIGN AND SCOPE 173 and struggling Church, the field upon which the scourges of God are inflicted neither widens nor contracts its boundaries. There is no change of darkness into light, or of light into darkness. There is brightening light ; there is deepening darkness ; but the two lines are always distinct, antithetical, opposed.^ The preserva- tion of the saints amidst all their troubles is secure. 3. The idea of preservation is followed by that of the final triumph and the perfected happiness of Christ's people. Destruction overtakes all by whom they have been persecuted. On them are visited plague after plague, each more terrible than its precursor, and all of them together bringing with them such an intolerable weight of woe that the guilty desire to die, though death flees from them. Babylon drinks of the cup of the wine of the fierceness of God's wrath. The beast is taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought signs in his sight, and both are cast into the lake of fire. The flesh of kings, and of captains, and of mighty men, and of horses, and of them that sat on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, and small and great (who had been upon their side),^ is made a supper for the devouring birds. The devil that deceived the nations is cast into the lake that burnetii with fire and brimstone ; and death and Hades, together with all whose names were not found in the book of life, share a similar ^ This singular line of thought John, in which every one belongs is not less characteristic of the either to Christ or Antichrist, fourth Gospel than of the Apoca- ^ It should hardly be necessary lypse. The same thing may be to say that this is implied in the observed in the first Epistle of St. statement. 174 LECTURES OX THE APOCALYPSE lect. fate.^ ISTotbing is wanting to their overthrow. On the other hand the saints are rewarded with all that may compensate for their past wrongs and sufferings. They are made priests in the heavenly sanctuary. They obtain royal dignity and glory. They are set down upon the same throne with their exalted Lord. As yet, indeed, they lead the hidden life, but that life is in reality a life of glory like their Lord's. They are already essen- tially possessors of His glory, and they wait only for the time when no eyes shall rest upon them that regard that glory as their shame. Therefore may they be said even now to shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father; and, amidst the splendours of the new Jerusalem, having followed the Lamb whithersoever He goeth, they hunger no more, neither thirst any more ; neither does the sun strike upon them, nor any heat : for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne is their Shepherd, and He guides them unto fountains of waters of life : and God wipes away every tear from their eyes. Wrong is for ever ideally redressed : right is established in her sole and eternal triumph. More particularly, this triumph of the righteous is connected with that manifestation of the glorified Lord to which we commonly apply the term His "Second Coming." The expression indeed is hardly Biblical. What we read of in the New Testament is rather the " Coming," the " Manifestation," the " Eevelation" of the Lord, His " Parousia " or " Presence," His " Epiphany," and the "Epiphany of His presence.""' Such expres- 1 Chap. XX. 15. - Comp. Ziillig, i. 23. V ITS DESIGN AND SCOPE 175 sions point rather to a revelation of One who is come ; who is with us, though unseen ; who has said, " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the consummation of the age ;" and w^ho needs only to make manifest the glory with which He is even now clothed within the veil. How^ever this may he, there can he no douht that the Apocalypse, in speaking of the final triumph of the righteous, connects it with the coming of the Lord, and that in doing so its design corresponds most closely with that of the general teaching of the New Testament. There this coming is continually referred to for instruc- tion and encouragement and warning and comfort ; and there is not a single passage that justifies our substitut- ing for the thought of it the thought of our own death. With it then the Apocalypse, from its beginning to its end, is occupied. Twenty times, it is said, does St. John speak of it throughout his book ; and on many of these occasions with a force and vividness peculiarly his own. It is hardly necessary to say that there is nothing sensuous in the idea. The manifestation of Christ in glory is rather the appropriate and necessary complement of His appearance in the weakness of mortal flesh. We have no more right to resolve it into a mere progress of Christianity than modern Judaism, rejecting the Christ of history, has to resolve its yet unfulfilled hope of a Messiah into the thought of the general ad- vancement of the race. The departure of the King, after having given to His servants their various talents, is naturally followed by His return to see how they have used them. The Christian elevation of humanity is not 176 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. completed in the cross ; and, if the agency of the Spirit alone is snfficient to perfect us, it will not be easy to show that the same agency might not have been enough to start us upon the path of progress. In the manifestation, in the Epiphany of the Pre- sence, of Christ, accordingly, the Apocalypse sees the completion of all God's plans of mercy for His people. Their Lord will then "be manifested" in the glory that belongs to Him, and they also "shall be manifested with Him in glory." " If He goes and prepares a place for them. He comes again, and will receive them unto Himself; that where He is, there they may be also."^ The Apocalypse has been described in these lectures as a book which presents in a highly poetic and symbolic form the general principles that mark the Church's history in the world. But this remark has to be quali- fied by one most important consideration. We must distinguish in the book before us between the whole Church as an organised body and the faithful remnant within the body, the Church within the Church, the "elect" within the "called." The Church as a whole degenerates. She repeats the experience of the old Theocracy, becomes false to the trust reposed in her, yields to the influences of the world, and eventually falls beneath judgments as much greater than those which overtook Israel after the flesh as the position she had occupied was higher, and the privileges she had enjoyed more exalted. ^ Col. iii. 4 ; John xiv. 3. V ITS DESIGN AND SCOPE 177 Let US look at the facts of the case as they are pre- sented to us by the sacred writer. In doing so, we turn naturally in the first place to the Epistles to the seven churches in chaps, ii. and iii. All the elements of the future history of the Church are found in one part or another of these two chapters. If the world is ever to prevail within the Church, we may be sure that we shall find traces of such a state of matters there. Now it seems undeniable that we do so. When we consider the manner in which the Seven Epistles describe the Church in her relation to the world, there is a marked distinction between the first three and the last four. In the former the Church stands over against the world, listening to the voice of a present Lord as He speaks by His faithful Apostles, meeting the severest trials without shrinking, and holding fast her Lord's name and faith at a time when persecution rages even unto death. It is true that she is not perfect. Perfec- tion is not reached here below. There are symptoms of decay in the leaving of her first love, and in the exist- ence in her midst of positive sin. Yet, taken as a whole, she is true to her position and to the demands of her great Head. She can remember from whence she is fallen, can repent, and do the first works (chap. ii. 5) ; and, if transgressors of the Divine precepts of purity are among her members, they are not many in num- ber, they are only " some " (chap. ii. 14). When we pass to the second group of Epistles a striking dif- ference is at once perceptible. With the exception of Philadelphia, the churches in the three other cities N LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE named have yielded to the mfluences of the world, and those who remain loyal to Christ are but the smaller portion of their members. Thyatira is thus addressed : " But to you I say, to (not as in the Authorised Version ' and to ') the rest that are in Thyatira, as many as have not this teaching, which know not the deep things of Satan, as they say ; I cast upon you none other burden. Howbeit that which ye have, hold fast till I come" (chap. ii. 24, 25). It is simply " the rest," the remnant, that have here maintained their faith. The bulk of the Church tolerate those who seduce Christ's servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols ; nay, even when time has been given them to repent, they will not repent of their fornication (verses 20, 21). In Sardis a similar state of thinc^s is still more marked. " Thou hast a feio names in Sardis wdiich did not defile their garments : and they shall walk with me in white ; for they are worthy" (chap. iii. 4). Philadelphia, as we have stated, does not appear to be blamed, although even there it is not certain that failure is not gently inti- mated when it is said, " Thou hast a little power," and, again, "hold fast that which thou hast," i.e. thy little power (verses 8, 11). But there can be no doubt as to the condition of Laodicea. There the victory of the world is almost complete ; not indeed wholly so, for she is still able to receive warnings, and " any man " within her who will listen to the Judge standing at the door has addressed to him the most glorious promise made to any of the churches. Notwithstanding this the temptations of worldly wealth (verse 17) have proved V ITS DESIGN AND SCOPE 179 ill her case irresistible, and the last picture of the Church is the saddest of all. To these considerations let us further add the fact that the churches thus yielding to the world are four in number — four beinoj the number of the world, — and it will be impossible to resist the conclusion that the Lord of the Church sees that, in the course of her history, the Church will not be always faithful to Himself. There will come a time when, as a whole, she will be more carnal than spiritual, more worldly than heavenly. The true members of Christ's flock will be fewer in number than the false. Even within the Church the remnant only is expected to overcome. The world will penetrate into the very sanctuary of God, and will not be rooted out until the Judge of all takes to Himself His great power and reigns. From the Epistles to the seven churches we proceed to another passage which seems to contain a similar lesson. At the beginning of chap. xi. we read, " And there was given me a reed like unto a rod : and one said, Else, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. And the court which is without the temple cast out, and measure it not ; for it hath been given unto the nations: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months." In these words a distinction is drawn between the " temple," that is, not the whole building, but the news, the inner- most sanctuary, the Holy Place, and the outer court. Yet both of them were not only within the sacred pre- cincts ; they were parts into which Israelites alone 180 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. might enter, and which no Gentile foot might tread without profanation. They cannot, therefore, here repre- sent Israel, the Church of Christ, upon the one hand, and the world upon the other. They can only represent two portions of the Church of Christ, the one that portion which is always true to Him, and in which the light of His presence dwells; the other that portion which has fallen from truth and purity. The one of these is measured for preservation ; the other is to be cast out. The one continues to be the object of the Eedeemer's constant care and love; the other becomes the object of His righteous indignation. This conclusion is confirmed by the remarkable use of the word, " cast it out " (e/c/^aXe, not " leave it out," as in the Authorised Version). The use of the word is altoixether novel in such circumstances as these. No one would dream of saying to another " cast out " a certain large space of ground with all the buildings on it from thy measurement, if all he meant was that these things were not to be measured. He would certainly say, as our translators of A.D. 1611, true to the instinct of the English tongue, make the Seer say, " Leave them out." But another thought is in the mind of the speaker here. He is thinking of excommunication from the synagogue (compare John ix. 34, Kal e^e^oXov avrov), as when it is said of the blind man whom Jesus restored to sight, " they cast him out." This, however, distinctly implies that the persons thus cast out once belonged to the community of Israel, and that they must represent a portion, which can only be a degenerate and faithless V ITS DESIGN AND SCOPE 181 portion, of the Church. Not less clearly then than in the Epistles of chaps, ii. and iii. does it appear in the vision of the measuring that the world penetrates the Church, and that within the same outward framework there is the true salt destined for everlasting preserva- tion, and the salt which has lost its savour, and is destined to be trodden under foot of men. A third passage, the most interesting of all, must still be noticed in its bearing upon this point. It is the history of what in the Apocalypse is called Babylon. For Babylon is no pagan city of the past, no world metropolis of the future. It is only another name for a dec^enerate Church that has forsaken her Betrothed, and broken her covenant relation to Him. In the picture of Babylon one supreme aim of the Eevelation of St. John is reached. To the interpretation of this picture the efforts of every student of the book ought to be chiefly directed. Until we understand it, all our labours in other directions will prove vain. There is no scene in the Bible of more dark and terrible sublimity; and none upon which colouring of more inimitable power has been employed. At one moment we behold the city in her brightness, her gaiety, her rich and varied life. We hear the voice of her harpers and minstrels and flute players and trumpeters. Her crafts- men are busy at their work. Her merchants are the princes of the earth. Her lamps glitter in the darkness ; and the cheering voice of the millstone, together with the joyful voice of the bridegroom and the bride, falls upon our ear. The next moment the proud city is cast 182 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. down, " as it were a great millstone," into the sea, and the successive companies of chap, xviii. come forth with their pathetic lamentations, crying "Woe, woe, the great city, for in one hour is she made desolate." ^ What is the meaning of all this ? What does Babylon represent ? Only one answer can be given to this question. " The great city " is the emblem of the degenerate Church. As in chap. xii. we have, under the guise of a woman, that true Church of Christ which is the embodiment of all good ; as the same picture is repeated in chap. xxi. in which we meet " the bride, the wife of the Lamb," so in Babylon we have, under the guise of a harlot, that false Church which has sold her Lord for the sake of the honours, the riches, and the pleasures of this earth. Babylon is a second aspect of the Church. Just as there were two aspects of Jerusa- lem in the days of Christ, under the one of which that city was the centre of attraction both to God and Israel, under the other the metropolis of a degenerate Judaism, so there are two aspects of the Church of Christ, under the first of which we think of those who within her are faithful to the Lord, under the second of which we think mainly of the great body of merely nominal Christians who in words confess, but in deeds deny. Him. The Church in this latter aspect is before us under the term '" Babylon " ; and it would appear to be the teaching of ^ Burns, with liis keen poetic read at the family worship in the instinct, recognised the j)ower of " Cottar's Saturday Night, " "And this passage. It is one of the heard gi-eat Babylon's doom pro- Scripture passages referred to as nounced by heaven's command. " V ITS DESIGN AND SCOPE 183 St. John, as it is certainly that of both Jewish and Christian history, that the longer the Church lasts as a great outward institution in the world, the more does she naturally tend to realise this picture. As her first love fails she abandons the spirit for the letter, makes forms of one kind or another a substitute for love, fixes her affections upon the things of time, as if her portion were to be found in them, allies herself with the world, and by adapting herself to it, secures the ease and the wealth which the world will never bestow so heartily upon anything as upon a church in which the Divine oracles are dumb. One point of this interpretation requires to be care- fully guarded. There are many who will readily accept it if it be allowed that by the degenerate Church now spoken of is meant the Church of Eome. But Babylon is not the Church of Eome in particular. Deeply no doubt that Church has sinned. Not a few of the darkest traits of " Babylon " apply to her with a closeness of application which may not unnaturally lead us to think that the picture of these chapters has been drawn from nothing so much as her. Her idolatries, her outward carnal splendour, her oppression of God's saints, her merciless cruelties with torture, the dunsjeon, and the stake, the tears and agonies and blood with which she has filled so many centuries, — these and a thousand circumstances of a similar kind may well be our excuse if in "Babylon" we read Christian Eome. Yet the inter- pretation is false. The harlot is vjliolly what she seems. Christian Eome has never been wholly what on one side 184 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. of her character she was so largely. She has maintained the truth of Christ against idolatry and unchristian error, she has preferred poverty to splendour in a way that Protestantism has never done, she has nurtured the noblest types of devotion that the world has seen, and she has thrilled the waves of time as they passed over her with one constant litany of supplication and chant of praise. Above all, it has not been the chief effort of Eome to ally herself with kings. If at times she has done so, there have been other times still more charac- teristic of her, when she has rather trampled kings beneath her feet ; and when, in the interests of the poor and the oppressed, she has taught both proud barons and imperial tyrants to quail before her. For deeds like these her record is not with the beast, but with the J^ Lamb. Babylon cannot be Christian Eome ; and nothing ' has been more injurious to the Protestant churches than the impression that the two were identical, and that by withdrawing from communion with the Pope they wholly freed themselves from alliance with the spiritual harlot. Babylon embraces much more than Eome, and illustra- tions of what she is lie nearer our own door. Wherever professedly Christian men have thought the world's favour better than its reproach; wherever they have esteemed its honours a more desirable possession than its shame ; wherever they have courted ease rather than welcomed suffering, have loved self-indulgence rather than self-sacrifice, and have substituted covetousness in grasping for generosity in distributing what they had, — there the spirit of Babylon has been manifested. In ITS DESIGN AND SCOPE 185 short, we have in the great harlot- city neither the Christian Church as a whole, nor the Eomish Church in particular, but all who anywhere within the Church profess to be Christ's "little flock" and are not, — denying in their lives the main characteristic b}^ which they ought to be distinguished, — that they "follow" Christ.! The considerations now adduced lead us to the -thought of one great part of the Design of the Apo- calypse which is too frequently lost sight of. That book is written not simply to describe the conflict, the pre- servation, and the triumph of Christ's true people, but ^ 111 Note xi. p. 509, to liis work on The One Mediator, Canon Medd gives a valuable con- tribution to the proof that "the ' great city,' the ' Babylon ' of the Apocalypse, is Jerusalem." The argument is most forcible and conclusive, but is weakened, as appears to the author of this volume, by one fault. According to it Babylon is *' none other than the old, the earthly, the apostate, the doomed Jerusalem of a.d. 30 to 70," The argument of this lecture is not indeed thus invali- dated, for the old Jerusalem un- doubtedly lies at the bottom of the description given of Babylon. But Babylon is not primarily that city itself. There are features in the picture drawn from those of the old Jerusalem, but the portrait is not her portrait. It is that of her Gentile successor, of the Church when she has liecome in the midst of the Gentiles what old Jerusalem was in the midst of the Jews. This is a common manner of the prophets, particularly in the Psalms. When the Psalmist con- templates David's victories (Ps. ii. ) or Solomon's marriage (Ps. xlv.) or peaceful reign (Ps. Ixxii.), he has these in the foreground, though it is not them that he describes. His heart is bursting with a good- lier matter. He sings of a gi-eater king, a holier bride, a better sovereign. So St. John took some features of his description of Babylon from Rome, some from Tyre, some from the literal Baby- lon, some from Jerusalem, but his picture is not of the last-named city lite7'ally, but of the Gentile Church become, in the mass both of her rulers and members, a Baby- lon, not a Zion. 186 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. to warn against tlie coming degeneracy of His profess- ing Church. If in no book of Scripture do we find so striking a view of the glory of the Church both here and hereafter, there is also none that sets before us so melancholy a picture of the degree to which, in the course of her history, the world is to prevail in her. Yet, after all, the lesson is not different from that taught us by our Lord when, comparing Himself to the true vine. He adds, " Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit, He taketh it away. If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." ^ There are two sets of branches in the " true vine." If we think of it only as it bears the one, it shall be gathered unto life eternal ; if, as it bears the other, it is destined to be burned. The two sets of branches must be separated from one another, and the one only can be the " Bride " prepared for marriage to the heavenly Bridegroom. The truth is tliat, in this whole delineation of Babylon, we have a fresli illustration of what has been spoken of as the principle lying at the foundation of the structure of the Apocalypse. That principle is that St. John beholds the history of the future mirrored in the events of the life of Christ with which he had been himself familiar. Nothing, as we see in his Gospel, had struck him more than that a Divine theocracy intended to prepare for the First Coming of the Lord had degenerated into a carnal and worldly institution, out of which Christ ^ John XV. 2, 6. V ITS DESIGX AND SCOPE 187 was to be the door."^ He turns to the Church of Christ, intended to prepare the way for the second manifesta- tion of the Lord, and he beholds the same scenes re- enacted. The world again enters into the Church. Its riches and honours and ease are again welcomed instead of persecution and the cross. Tlie Church ceases to prepare for the future. She lives for the present ; she is satisfied with the world as it is, especially when viewed in the light of her efforts to amend it. She consoles herself with the thought, " I sit a queen, and am no widow." ^ The voice which says, " Yea, I come quickly," loses its attractive power, or is resolved into a shadowy amelioration of society. The Pharisee, the Sadducee, the Herodian, the Priest, the Scribe, sweep by upon her stage, all of them citizens of the Holy City, members of the new Divine theocracy. The hearts that sigh and cry for a pure and spiritual righteousness are few in number, and are not heard amidst the disputa- tions of the Sanhedrin or the clash of instruments in the Temple. What can happen but that the Lord of the poor and lowly and meek shall at length say, " Come forth, my people, out of her, that ye have no fellowship with her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues " ? ^ Such then are the Design and Scope of the Apo- calypse. It contains no continuous history of the Church from the beginning to the end of her historical course. It is not a mere revelation of events that are immediately to precede the Second Coming of our Lord. It is no mere prophecy of the early doom of those See Comm. on John ix. 35; x. 3, 4, - Rev. xviii. 7. '' Rev. xviii. 4. 188 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. enemies of Christian truth whom the Seer beheld around himself. The book is not predictive. It contains no prediction that is not found in the prophecies of Christ. It gives us no knowledge of the future that is not given first by our Lord, and then by others of His inspired Apostles. It is simply the highly idealised expression of the position and fortunes of that " little flock " which, against the world, and against the Church in the ordi- nary sense of that word, listens to the Good Shepherd's voice and follows Him. It is the utterance of one idea, but that the greatest of all ideas, "to assert eternal providence, and justify the ways of God to men." ^ Perhaps it may seem at first sight to many that, to look at the book as we have done, is in a great measure to destroy its value. They may miss its application to the special events, whether of the past, the present, or the future. Tliey may even urge that to find in it no predictions except those which are contained in the words of Christ is to reduce it to a monotonous repeti- tion of what we already know. Yet surely to think that the truths of the Apocalypse are monotonous, be- cause they are not absolutely new, is to think that the weaves of the sea must be monotonous because they have swelled up from the bosom of the same ocean under the force of every gale that has swept across its surface from the beginning until now. The waves of the sea are never monotonous; — nor the judgments of God. These are ^ Isaac Williams well says of it, and evil in tlieir influences and " It is an embodiment not so much i^-ogi-essive results." — The Apoea- of historic incidents as of divine lypse, p. 401. l^hilosophy ; descriptive of good V ITS DESIGN AND SCOrE 189 always new to the generation upon which they fall ; and the proclamation of them is always new, both to those who have sinned without seeming to suffer, and to those who have been the martyrs of truth and goodness with- out any Divine intervention to avenge their cause. But this is not all. A little reflection may show us that, viewed as we have viewed it, the Apocalypse pre- sents itself in a far worthier and nobler aspect than if it had told us of the revolutions of earthly empires, of the fall of earthly kingdoms, of the changes of political parties, of wars and famines and pestilences, of earth- quakes and cities overwhelmed by them. It will be time enough to know such things when they come. What the Church needs is to learn the true nature of her position in the world, to be directed to her true strength, and to fix her eyes more intently upon her true hope ; and these purposes the plain interpretation of the Apocalypse here contended for is best fitted to serve. 1. It teaches the Church that her true position in this world is that of her Lord, of Him who said, " Man, who made Me a judge or a divider over you ? " -^ and who lived among men only to labour, to suffer, and to die for them. The Apocalypse has been thought to foment spiritual pride. There is no book of Scripture which, rightly interpreted, is more full of the lessons of humility, self-denial, and self-sacrifice. It identifies, in a thousand ways, and to the most remarkable degree, the fortunes and the work of Christ's Church on earth with ^ Luke xii. 14. 190 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. those of Christ Hmiself. It makes that Church -life, the very name of which so many fear, a service. It makes the universal Christian priesthood a body whose commission in the world is to forget itself for the world's good. The ideas of the Church and of the priesthood are among the fundamental conceptions of the book; and it is because they are so that it teaches us, as no other book of the New Testament does, the wisdom, the power, and the glory of the Cross. 2. It directs the Church to her true source of strength. It has always done so. We should be wrong in thinking that the Church has in past times been strengthened by the Apocalypse as she has been, because she beheld in it predictions applicable to her own days. The general tone and spirit of the book, even when the details were not thoroughly comprehended, have been her strength. As it has pointed out to Christians the glory of their risen and exalted Head, shown them His constant and watch- ful care over His Church, exhibited to them the true nature of the conflict in which they were engaged, and described for them their final triumph, their souls have been stirred, as by the sound of a trumpet, to feel more powerfully than ever how noble was their calling, and how worthy a thing it was to hold fast " their boldness, and the glorying of their hope, firm unto the end."^ More especially in times of trouble, amidst surround- ing darkness, when every refuge seemed to fail, and when faith threatened to sink in stormy waters, this book, apart from all predictions supposed to be contained 1 Heb. iii. 6. V ITS DESIGN AIsTD SCOPE 191 in it, has been often like the hand of the Sa\dour to the Apostle Peter in his hour of need. It has lightened the Christian's gloom. It has presented to him, when per- plexed by the many apparent anomalies of God's deal- ings with His children, a magnificent panorama of the Divine purposes. It has sent forth a cheering voice, nerving him to patient action and persevering steadfast- ness. It has helped to sustain him when in the prison or at the stake for Christ's cause. It has supplied texts which, age after age, as in the Greyfriars' churchyard in Edinburgh, tell us from the martyrs' tomb that these victims of bloody persecution died in hope and rest in peace. If it is sometimes less than this to us it may be because, in easier days, we have so little experience of outward trials, because we are less acquainted than we ought to be with the outward as well as the inward cross. But let troubles come again ; let us realise more fully than we do what it is to follow in the footsteps of One whose whole life on earth was the bearing of a cross ; let the soul, let the Church, be in her Patmos " for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ," and then will the Apocalypse be once more as precious to us as it was to the beloved disciple whose lonely rock of the ^gean was lightened, as he beheld it, with the glory of the New Jeusalem. 3. It calls the Church to fix her eyes more intently upon her true hope. For what is that hope ? Is it not the hope of the revelation of her Lord in the glory that belongs to Him ? No hope springs so eternal in the Christian breast. It was that of the early Church, as 192 LECTURES OX THE APOCALYPSE lect. v she believed that He whom she had loved while He was on earth would return to perfect the happiness of His redeemed. It ought not less to be our hope now. " Watching for it, waiting for it, being patient unto it, groaning without it, looking for it, hasting unto it, loving it — these are the phrases which Scripture uses concerning the day of God." ^ And surely it may well use them: for what in comparison with the prospect of such a day is every other anticipation of the future ? Shall the fondest expectations of our hearts be then really fulfilled ? Little as the faith of Christ has yet prevailed among men, shall a bright day dawn for it, and the period of its full triumph come ? Shall sin be yet completely rooted out of our own hearts, be yet completely banished from the world ? And shall that earth, which even now retains so many traces of its primeval beauty, put on in expectation of its Lord " as a maid her jewels and as a bride her attire " ? Above all, are we in ignorance of the time when this blessed change shall happen ? IMay it be in a century, in a year, while we ourselves yet live ? At all events shall the delay, whatever it be, when looked at in the light of eternity, be brief? Then we may well ask whether the communication of such a prospect, and the stirring us up to dwell on it, does not make the Apocalypse infinitely more precious than if it contained those manifold details of the future progress of this earth which, if known, would be far more likely to overwhelm us with sadness than to elevate us with hope. ^ His ApiKciring ami Kingdom, p. 19. LECTUEE VI EXPOSITION OF CHAP. XIX. 11 TO XXII. 5 A FITTING close to these lectures might have been found in giving, had it been possible, a short summary of the teaching of the Apocalypse in its successive paragraphs. General principles and views have engaged so much of our attention, that even those who have listened to all that has been said may complain that the meaning of any particular passage is still dark to them. A rumiing commentary upon the whole book would therefore have been desirable.-^ But it is out of the question to at- tempt this now, and all that can be done in that way is to select some one part of the visions before us for such treatment. The portion of the book extending from chap. xix. 11 to chap. xxii. 5 may be appropriately chosen for this purpose ; partly, because it contains the most interesting and difficult visions recorded by the ^ The author may be permitted burgh. He may also state that, to refer his readers to his "Com- since these Lectures first appeared, mentary on the Apocalypse " in such a Commentary as that above the last volume of the (7o??imc?ito7'?/ referred to has been published on the Ncio Testament, edited by by him in the Expositor's Bible Prof. Schaff, D.D., etc., and pub- (Hodder and Stoughton), under lished by Messrs. Clark, Edin- the title of The Book of Hevelatmi, 194 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. Seer ; but especially, because the interpretation of these particular visions has a closer than ordinary bearing upon the principles to be applied in interpreting the others. It has been urged in these lectures that the Apocalypse contains nothing that is not found elsewhere in Scripture, and more particularly in the discourses of our Lord. Here, if anywhere, objection may be taken to the statement. Have we not, it may be said, in the part of the Apocalypse referred to, the Millennium and the New Jerusalem ? Is not the reign of the saints for a thousand years entirely new ? Is not the descent of the New Jerusalem from heaven, in like manner, if not wholly, yet almost wholly, new? By these passages, more than by any others of the book, may we test the theory that the Apocalypse is no more than the ex- pansion, in its own peculiar form, of ideas contained in other passages of the New Testament. At the point, then, where we stand, chap. xix. 10, Babylon, the degenerate and apostate Church, has fallen, and at verse 11 another vision follows. Heaven is opened, and the victorious Eedeemer comes forth upon a white horse, the armies of heaven following Him "upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean." It is the beginning of the picture of final triumph over every foe, when all Christ's enemies shall be made His footstool. Christ Himself is arrayed in a garment sprinkled with the blood of His enemies ; many diadems, symbols of the many kingdoms now owning His authority, are upon His head ; and He has on His garment and on His thigh a name written, VI EXPOSITION OF CHAP. XIX. 11 TO XXII. 5 195 King of kixgs, and Lord of lords. He is the suffer- ing and conquering Messiah, and all His enemies are now to be destroyed for ever. In the first place, there- fore, they are gathered together to meet their fate, — kings, and captains, and mighty men, and horses, and they that sit thereon, and all men (that is, obviously, all wicked men), both free and bond and small and great. In this the last moment of their career their old enmity is still unsubdued. Their opposition to the Lamb is not less fierce than formerly ; and, to bring this out, it is said in the nineteenth verse of the chapter that they " gathered together to make war against Him that sat upon the horse, and against His army." The battle is not to be thought of as literal It is but a figure to set forth the fixed, undying hatred of the world to God and His people. But no hatred is of avail against the over- whelming power of Him whom the world would oppose. The beast and the false prophet are taken and cast alive into the lake of fire that burnetii with brimstone ; and the rest, consisting of the kings of the earth and their armies, and of all who set themselves up against the Lord and His Anointed, are slain with the sword of Him that sat upon the horse, even the sword which came forth out of His mouth ; and all the fowls are filled with their flesh. Thus we reach the end of chap. xix. In now approaching chap, xx., with all its yet un- solved difficulties of interpretation, it is of essential importance to observe, in the first place, the relation of the chapter to what immediately precedes. It is not an entirely new subject on which the Seer is entering ; on 196 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. the contrary, he is distinctly continuing the prosecution of a theme he had before begun. In the previous portion of his book three great enemies of the saints of God had been introduced to us — the devil, the beast, and the false prophet. These were the main opponents of the Lamb, in one way or another stirring up all the efforts that had been made against Him by the kings of the earth, their armies, and their followers. I'or a time they had appeared to succeed. They had persecuted the saints, had compelled them to flee, had overcome them, and killed them. This, however, could not continue ; and it was to be shown that in the end complete victory shall rest with those who had suffered for the sake of righteousness. In chap. xix. we have the beginniug but not the close of this victory. Of the three great enemies only two, the beast and the false prophet, perish in that chapter. The destruction of the third is reserved for chap, xx., and is effected at the tenth verse of the chapter. The following verses, from verse 11, then describe the judgment of those who had listened to these enemies, but who, though defeated or even killed ^ or devoured by fire out of heaven when in their service," had not yet been consigned to their final doom. There-; after nothing remains, in order to complete the victory of Christ and His saints, but that death and Hades shall also be removed from the scene and cast into the lake of fire. These considerations are of themselves sufficient to show tliat the overtliroiu of Satan, and not the reign of a 1 Cliap. xix. 21. 2 Chap. xx. 9. VI EXPOSITION OF CHAP. XIX. 11 TO XXII. 5 197 thousand years, is the main theme of the first ten verses of the chapter. So far is the latter topic from being the culminating point of the whole book, that it is not even introduced as the beginning of any new and important section. It starts no fresh series of visions. It comes in indirectly, in the midst of a section devoted to an entirely different matter. But what is the meaning of this reign of the saints with Christ for a thousand years; of this binding of Satan, and casting him into the abyss, and shutting it, and sealing it over him, for the same period, so that " he should deceive the nations no more until the thousand years should be finished " ? And further, what is the meaning of Satan's being loosed out of his prison at the end of the thousand years, and going out to deceive the nations until he is at last defeated and destroyed ? Before giving a direct answer to these questions two interpretations of the passage must be noticed. I. The first of these is that a lengthened period of prosperity and ease for the Church of Christ on earth is to intervene between the close of the present dis- pensation and the general Judgment. Almost every- thing indeed connected with this period is a matter of dispute among those who accept the main idea — its length, the number and class of the believers who shall be partakers of its glory, the condition in which they are to live, the work in which they are to be engaged, the relation in which the exalted Eedeemer is to stand to them. These differences of detail it is impossible to discuss as if they were so many separate theories, but 198 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. the more important will be noticed as we proceed. The second explanation demanding notice is that which supposes the thousand years to be a figure for the whole Christian age, from the First to the Second Coming of the Lord. Turning to the first of these explanations, it would seem as if the difficulties surrounding it were nearly, if not wholly, insurmountable. 1. In the form in which it supposes a resurrection of the saints to be followed by their reign upon the earth in a body similar to that which they now possess, it is inconsistent with that sjnritual character of the resurrection body which is so important an element alike in the resurrection of our Lord and in that pro- mised to His people. The Christian looks forward not merely to a resurrection similar to that of Lazarus — a return to an earthly mode of life on this earthly scene, but to a glorification of his body as well as his spirit. From this point of view Scripture represents even the appearances of the risen Lord as manifestations specially vouchsafed for a special purpose. After His resurrection His proper home was heaven. He rose not to remain here, but to ascend. Only He showed Himself for our sakes ; and St. Peter says that we look, not for a reign on earth, but for " new heavens and a new earth " — New heaven and eartli Meet for our new immortal birth. From the first this feeling existed in the Christian Church. Any other view seemed, to some at least of the most eminent of the fathers, to be carnal, to be a VI EXPOSITION OF CHAP. XIX. 11 TO XXII. 5 199 forgetting of the glory of our hope. To entertain the idea, therefore, of a future Millennium during which believers shall, after resurrection, possess their present bodies, is to place ourselves at variance with one of the great truths of Scripture, and one upon which we have need, both in season and out of season, to insist. But difficulties do not disappear if we abandon this thought, and adopt the idea that during a Millennium upon earth the saints shall possess a glorified body. It is not less impossible, upon this view, to form any reasonable conception of their condition during the thousand years. Multitudes of them, it is allowed, have been raised from their graves through Him who is " the first fruits of them that sleep," while those who are alive at the beginning of the thousand years, and are to share the Millennial Glory, are " changed." Whether raised or changed they are thus "in glory"; and we have pre- sented to us the absolutely inconceivable spectacle of glorified saints living in a world which has not yet received its own glorification, and is in consequence completely unfitted for their residence. Nor is this difficulty obviated by either of two suppositions which have been suggested for the purpose : — first, that only Jerusalem and the Holy Land shall be transfigured, the " nations " occupying the remainder of the earth as it now is ; or secondly, that the saints shall reign not upon the earth but from heaven over it. For, as to the first of these suppositions, nothing can be more remote from all reasonable probability than the idea of an earth, one part of which shall be transfigured without the rest ; 200 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. while the part chosen for this purpose is far too small to accommodate those who are to occupy it. The second supposition, again, is not less difficult to appre- hend. Were it indeed meant that a certain class of the saints shall reign in glory with their glorified Lord for a thousand years before the general resurrection ; in other words, that their eternal and heavenly bliss shall simply begin a thousand years sooner than that of the other saints who shall afterwards share it with them, the idea would be intelligible. But, unless compelled by the special requirements of the passage, few surely will be prepared to adopt such a supposition. It is at once too trifling, and too much opposed to the general meaning of a vision which certainly draws a distinction, in one form or another, between millennial and eternal reward. The thought of a reign in relation to the earth must be accepted by all, and upon that point the second sup- position now before us throws no satisfactory light. The saints are with their Lord in heaven. How do they communicate with the inhabitants of earth ? Will they be visible or invisible ? Will their work be missionary or punitive ? At this point, indeed, we are brought face to face with some of the greatest difficulties attending the view now under consideration. What are to be the relations between the saints in their millennial glory and " the nations " so much spoken of throughout these verses ? Different answers are given to the question, and it is not easy to gather them together in a few sentences. But it may be enough to say that "the nations " are generally regarded as either subject to the VI EXPOSITION" OF CHAP. XIX. 11 TO XXII. 5 201 saints, and ruled by them in peace, or as the objects of their missionary enterprise. They are thus either harmless innocents, the absence of Satan preventing all combination and organised manifestation of evil, or they are peculiarly accessible to the grandeur of the spectacle which they behold in the glorified Saviour and His people. It is needless to reply that for all this, and much more of a similar kind, there is not the slightest foundation in the Apostle's words, the total absence of any mention of relations between the saints and " the nations " until we come to verse 7 being one of the most remarkable characteristics of the vision. Evidently the Seer has no thought of any complex state of matters such as would spring out of the long dwelling together of these different classes. Or, if there is to be a fresh duration of existence, is there also to be another proba- tion for " the nations," a Gospel preached under circum- stances very different from what we have known, and constituting a new dispensation ; while yet there is the same Judgment at the end, and the conditions for en- trance into happiness or woe continue as before ? The difficulties now mentioned are increased when we endeavour to conceive of the relations between the devil and " the nations " during the thousand years. Satan is bound, is cast into the abyss, is shut into it, and has it sealed over him for a thousand years, so that during all that period, by most interpreters of this class made in- definitely longer than a thousand years, " he should de- ceive the nations no more." ^ Yet these nations are " the ^ Chap. XX. 3. 202 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. nations," enemies of Christ, outside His kingdom, ready to obey the behests of the devil, and to war against the saints the moment the thousand years are finished. Whence comes the evil of this long period ? How is sin maintained and kept in vigour during the thousand years ? This continued state of sin marking the nations is not in the circumstances more conceivable than the state of grace and glory of the saints. The whole conception, in short, of the chiliastic view of the thousand years' reign is compassed about with so many difficulties and improbabilities, with so many notions of which we can form no clear conception, or which, when we think that we understand them, are so incredible in themselves, that, unless it be forced upon us by fairness of interpretation, there is no alternative except to abandon it. But fair interpretation, instead of demanding it, strengthens the argument for its rejection. For 2. If we interpret the thousand years literally it will be a solitary example of a literal use of numbers in the Apocalypse, and this objection alone is fatal. If, on the other hand, we regard the thousand years as denoting a period of indcfiiiitc length, such interpretation is not less opposed to the genius and spirit of the book. The num- bers of the Apocalypse are no doubt symbolical, but the symbolism has always a definite meaning. They express ideas, but the ideas are distinct. They may belong to a region of thouglit different from that with which arith- metical numbers are concerned, but within that region we cannot change the numerical value of the numbers VI EXPOSITION OF CHAP. XIX. 11 TO XXII. 5 203 used without at the same time changing the thought. Substitute the number eight for the number seven, or, in like manner, four for three or twelve for ten, and the idea which the writer intended to express by the number act- ually employed by him immediately disappears. We are not to imagine that numbers, in the allegorical or spiritual use made of them by the Jews, may be tossed about at our pleasure, or shuffled like a pack of cards. They are a language ; and the bond between them and the ideas that they involve is quite as close as it is between the words of ordinary speech and the thoughts of the mind which utters them. Thus 1000 years cannot mean 2000 or 10,000 or 20,000 or 365,000 years, as the necessities of the case may demand. If they are a measure of time the measure must be fixed, and we ought to be able to explain the principle leading us to attach to the number one thousand a value different from that which it naturally possesses. To all this it is no answer that, as three and a half years are described in chap. xii. 12 as "a short season," though extending over the already almost two thousand years of the present dispensation, so the thousand years may indicate a period of propor- tionally long duration, or, in other words, a long season without stating how long. The three and a half years do not primarily embrace the thought of a course of years, whether short or long. They express the thought of the brokenness, interruption, trouble belonging to the whole Christian age from its beginning to its close ; and they bring into view the character, not the length, of tlieir " short season." In contrast with three 204 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. and a half therefore, we are entitled to urge that char- acter, not length, is the idea of the number one thousand in the passage before us. Thus only do we gain the definiteness which must belong to the Apostle's language. No man can say how long the present dispensation may still last, but the number three and a half takes it all in, and conveys to us a distinct impression of the light in which it is regarded by the Seer. In like manner no one can say how long or how short a time the Millennial years may last. The number one thou- sand has nothing to do with such a question. In con- trast with three and a half it does not express length as distinouished from shortness of time, but rather the idea of what is unbroken, uninterrupted, free from trouble, and full of heavenly glory.^ 3. There are other particulars in the vision which forbid any such interpretation as that against which we contend. The mention of " souls," for example, in verse 4 is inconsistent with the idea that the Seer beholds risen and glorified saints, clothed with the bodies, of whatever kind they be, in which they are to pass the ages of eternity. The word occurs once before in the visions of the Seer, in a connexion somewhat similar to the pre-' sent. In chap. vi. 9 St. John sees underneath the altar the " souls " of them that had been slain for the Word ^ If it be urged that the three that sense of cowi^/e^cwcss for which and a half years, though they ex- we contend, also include a certain press the ideas spoken of in the flux of time, for in the idea of text, are still a period of time, completeness that of eternity is may not the reply be that in the involved. It will be observed, same sense the thousand years, in too, that this idea is quite definite. VI EXPOSITION OF CHAP. XIX. 11 TO XXII. 5 205 of God, and for the testimony which they held. These " souls " are obviously the spirits of saints, the spirits of the saints of the Old Testament Church, as they wait for their brethren of the New Testament. In the passage before us, therefore, St. John would certainly not have spoken of " souls " had he meant believers in their complete personality raised and glorified. The ideas, too, involved in the word " reign " are not those of a royal dignity during the continuance of which subject nations admire the splendour of saints seated on their thrones. It has been well pointed out that the conception of Christ's ^aaCKela or kingdom, instead of being that of a long reign of blessedness, is rather that of a powerful and prompt overthrow of His foes.-^ When the end comes no thousand years are needed to effect His purpose. He destroys His enemies with a sudden destruction, like a thief in the night, or like the light- ning's flash, 4 Another difficulty presented by this view of the Millennium arises from the teaching of Scripture else- where upon the points involved in it. The difference is not simply negative, as if the rest of the New Testament only failed to fill in certain details of events more largely described in the Apocalypse, but upon the whole sub- stantially the same. It is also positive, and in some of its features irreconcilable with what we are taught by others of the sacred writers. If we suppose that the saints who are made partakers of millennial glory are a selected company, we introduce a distinction between 1 Kliefoth, in loc. 206 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. different classes of believers at variance with the general tenor of the word of God, in which all believers enjoy the same privileges on earth, share the same hope, and are at length rewarded with the same inheritance, though, according to their capacity of receiving, in different degrees. Even if we reject such distinctions among believers themselves, and suppose that all of them share the millennial glory, we are not entitled, unless there be no alternative, to separate between them and unbelievers in such a way as to interpose a thousand years between their respective resurrections. It cannot be denied that the New Testament always brings the Parousia and the general Judgment into the closest possible connexion. When Christ comes again it is to perfect the happiness of all His saints and to make all His enemies His foot- stool.^ The teaching of the Apocalypse itself in other passages corresponds with this.^ The idea of masses of the " nations " continuing to be Christ's enemies, or, if His subjects, yet rebellious subjects, for years or ages after He has come again is not only entirely novel, but is inconsistent with the teachinej of the other sacred writers. Again, the New Testament elsewhere knows only of one, and that a general, resurrection (John v. 28, 29) ; and the passages usually quoted as containing partial indications of two resurrections, such as 1 Cor. XV. 23, 24 and 1 Thess. iv. 16, 17, fail to support the conclusion drawn from them. In the meantime it is 1 Matt. XXV. 31-46 ; Jolm v. 5-7 ; 2 Peter iii. 8-13. 28, 29 ; Acts xvii. 31 ; Rom. ii. 2 chaps, iii. 20, 21 ; xi. 17, 16 ; 1 Thess. iv. 17 ; 2 Thess. i. 18. VI EXPOSITION OF CHAP. XIX. 11 TO XXII. 5 207 sufficient to notice the fact that, while the " first resur- rection " is supposed to take place a thousand or even thousands of years before the end, it is distinctly said in our Lord's discourse in the sixth chapter of St. John that the resurrection of believers takes place " at the last day " (John vi. 40). 5. Once more, the idea that before the end the Church is to enjoy a long period of prosperity and rest on earth, with her Lord reigning in her midst, is in- consistent with that teaching of Scripture which seems distinctly to imply that her history down to the moment when she enters upon her final and eternal condition shall be one of trouble. That this is the meaning of the twenty-fourth chapter of St. Matthew can hardly be disputed, and the argument from that chapter is the stronger because, as we have seen, the discourse of Christ contained in it lies at the bottom of the Apocalypse, and the writer of the latter could not contradict the very authority upon which his delineation is founded. On the other hand, if it be said that Christ is to come again in person not at the beginning but at the end of the period of millennial bliss, it is not easy to under- stand how that bliss should be spoken of in the terms actually applied to it. Scripture leads us to believe that only in the immediate presence of their Lord shall the saints be perfected, that only as folloiving Him shall they attain the consummation of their happiness. The words also contained in verse 6 of this very passage lead to the same conclusion, — they " shall reign loith Him a thousand years," 208 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. On these grounds alone, without mentioning others, we seem called upon to reject the view which sees in the thousand years a period of prosperity and joy, either of definite or indefinite length, appointed to come be- tween the resurrection of the righteous and the general Judgment, and either with or without the immediate personal presence of the Lord. II. The second interpretation, of which it is necessary to say a few words, is that which understands by the thousand years the whole Christian age from the First to the Second Coming of Christ. That there is an element of truth in this view we shall see by and by ; but, look- ing at it in the form in which it is usually presented, it is not possible to accept it. The number one thousand is inappropriate to the purpose to which it is applied. The period in question has already been made known to us as three and a half years. To make it a thousand years now w^ould be to throw everything into confusion. Again, the "reign" of a thousand years is obviously granted not to the generation of believers only who are alive at the Coming of the Lord, but to all who in any age have been faithful unto death. And how can it be said of them that, in whatever era they departed, they " shall reign with Christ a thousand years," if by these years we are to understand the whole period of the Christian dispensation and that alone ? Once more, we cannot speak of Satan as having been bound and shut up in the abyss during all those ages in which the Church of Christ has carried on her conflict with the world. That there is a sense in which he is so as re- VI EXPOSITION OF CHAP. XIX. 11 TO XXII. 5 209 yards the righteous must be allowed, and we shall after- wards see what that sense is. But he is still permitted to act upon them. Our Lord Himself had to contend with His temptations. Can we suppose that His people shall be exempted from them when they are "made partakers of His sufierings " ? Not only so. In His high-priestly prayer our Lord prayed on behalf of His disciples, not that His Father should take them out of the world, but that He should keep them out of the evil one ; ^ and He taught them also to pray for them- selves "Deliver us from the evil one."^ Words like these undoubtedly presuppose such action on the part of Satan during the militant history of the Church as is absolutely inconsistent with the supposition that he has been bound and cast into the abyss, and the abyss shut and sealed over him during all that time. The same point is equally clear when we think of Satan's action upon "the nations." That action has never ceased. He has been their betrayer and destroyer in every age. When he was cast out of heaven in the twelfth chapter of this book he was "cast down into the earth," and there he persecutes the woman which brought forth the man child " for a time, and times, and half a time." "'^ So far from his being shut up and sealed into the abyss, the language of St. Peter is a more correct description of the case, when that Apostle speaks of him as "a roaring lion, walking about, seeking whom he may devour."^ This view too, not less than the one ^ John xvii, 15. ^ Chap. xii. 9, 14. " Matt. vi. 13. •* 1 Peter v. 8. 210 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE last considered, perplexes our ideas as to what is to happen when the Christian dispensation has run its course. At that point the thousand years expire ; and, as they have been understood of time, it becomes neces- sary to allow some additional space of time for the closing war. We are thus brought into fresh conflict with other statements of Scripture relating to the same subject. The second proposed solution is not more satisfactory than the first.-^ Having set aside these two views, let us turn directly to the explanation now to be offered of ^ It may be well to notice here a theory proposed by Canon Medd in his woi-k on The One Medi- ator, which, from its simplicity, seems at first sight to have much to commend it. Canon Medd (p. 353) understands "the things which must shortly come to pass " of Rev. i. 1 as a series of things closing Avith the destruction of Jerusalem, upon which "was to follow the millennial period, a long, but wholly indefinite period, to be closed by the general re- surrection and judgment." Such an interpretation assigns an im- portance to the destruction of Jerusalem inconsistent with the remarkable declaration of our Lord to the high priest in Matt, xxvi. 64, " Nevertheless I say unto you, from this time forth (not as the Authorised Version, "hereafter," or even as the Re- vised Version "henceforth") ye shall see the Son of man sittinr' at the right hand of pov\-er, and coming on the clouds of heaven." The events to which our Lord alludes were to begin, not thirty- five years afterwards, when Jerusa- lem fell, but air apri, immediately, with His crucifixion, resurrection, and glorification, — what St. John calls His being "lifted up on high." Canon Medd's view is equally inconsistent with the tenor of the Apocalypse generally, the first nineteen chapters of which must then precede the destruction of the holy city. The "age to come " does not begin with the. downfall of Jerusalem (p. 352), but with the completion of the work of Jesus upon earth, in His resurrection, ascension, and ses- sion at the right hand of the Father. Comp. the words of Jesus on the cross, "It is finished," and Daniel ix. 26, 27. VI EXPOSITION OF CHAP. XIX. 11 TO XXII. 5 211 this passage. Two preliminary points have to be noticed. I. The fundamental principle to be kept clearly and resolutely in view is this, that the thousand years ex- press no period of time. Like so many other expres- sions of the Apocalypse, their real is different from their apparent meaning. Tliey are not to be taken literally. They embody an idea ; and that idea, whether applied to the subjugation of Satan or to the triumph of the saints, is the idea of completeness. Satan is bound for a thousand years — i.e. he is completely bound. The saints reign for a thousand years — i.e. they are introduced into a state of perfect and glorious victory. That years may be understood in this sense there can be no doubt. In Ezek. xxxix. 9 it is said that the inhabitants of the cities of Israel shall prevail against the enemies described, and " shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the hand-staves and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years',' — i.e. they shall utterly destroy them, not a vestige shall be left. Again, at the twelfth verse of the same chapter, when the prophet speaks of the burying of " Gog and all his multitude," he says, " and se'ven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land." In these passages the seven years or seven months mark only the thoroughness with which the weapons should be burned, and the land cleansed from heathenish impurity. The use of " years " in the 212 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. passage before ns seems to be exactly similar ; and the probability that it is so rises almost to certainty when we remember that, as proved by the vision of Gog and Magog in the subsequent part of the chapter, this prophecy of Ezekiel is before the Seer's eyes, constituting the founda- tion upon which his whole delineation rests. Tlie only difficulty in connexion with this view is that afforded by verses 3 and 7, where we read of the "finishing" of the thousand years and of that "loosing" of Satan which is to follow " after this." But the difficulty is more specious than real. Let us familiarise ourselves with the thought that the thousand years, regarded simply as an expression, may denote completeness, thorough- ness, either of defeat or victory. Let us remember that the Seer has expressed the defeat of Satan by the state- ment that lie was bound for a thousand years. Finally, let us notice that, as we shall immediately see more fully, this defeat has reference only to the righteous, and that although bound, defeated, in regard to them, Satan is to go forth on his malign mission against the un- righteous, and we shall immediately see that in no way could this latter onset be more appropriately expressed than by saying that it took place when the thousand years were finished. The thousand years being a symbol not of time but of completeness, it belongs to the same symbolism to use the word "after," not in a chrono- logical sense, but rather with the force of subordinating the secondary to the primary effect. To revert for a moment to the image of Ezekiel, when he said that Israel should burn the weapons of its enemies "with VI EXPOSITION OF CHAP. XIX. 11 TO XXII. 5 213 fire seven years," ^ let us suppose that the prophet had next wished to describe some secondary effect of the great victory which preceded the burning, and what more suitable expression could he have used than either " after this " or " after the seven years were finished " ? The one expression is only the natural consequence of the other. II. A second preliminary point is the meaning of the last words of verse 3, " he (i.e. Satan) must be loosed for a little time." What is this " little time " ? Is it a little time following the thousand years which had, in their turn, followed the close of the present dispensation ? ISTo. It is something altogether different. The words take us directly to that conception of the Christian age which is so intimately interwoven with the structure of the Apocalypse, and even of the whole New Testament — that it is all a " little time." We see this in the appli- cation of the very same words to the souls under the altar in chap. vi. 11, " and it was said unto them, that they should yet rest for a little time, until their fellow- servants also and their brethren, which should be killed even as they were, should be fulfilled." The " little time " there is undeniably the whole Christian age. But, if it be so there, we are entitled to suppose that the very same expression, when used in the passage before us, will be used in the same sense, and that when it is said Satan shall be loosed " for a little time," the meaning is that he shall be loosed for the ivhole Christian age. Again, in chap. xii. 12, we read "the devil is gone 1 Chap. xxxix.i_9. 214 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. down unto you, having great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short time." The " short time " here referred to must include the whole period of Satan's action in this world, and the manner in which that period is designated corres^^onds closely with the description of the time during which he is to be loosed. Again, in chap. X. 6, the angel swears that there shall be " time " no longer, using the same word for '' time " that we meet with in the verse now under consideration, so that it would appear as if to the author of the Apocalypse the word " time " or " season " were a kind of technical term by which he was accustomed to denote the whole period of the Church's probation in this world. Lastly, this conclusion is powerfully confirmed by the many passages of the Apocalypse in which it is clear that the Christian dispensation from its beginning to its end is looked upon as a " little while," as hastening to its final issue, and as about to be closed by One who cometh quickly.^ The "little time," therefore, of chap. xx. 3, the " little time " during which Satan is loosed, and which, when more fully expanded, is the time of the war described in verses 7-9 of the chapter, is the his- torical period of the Christian dispensation, during which Satan is permitted to deceive the nations and to lead them to the war against the camp of the saints and the beloved city. It is, in short, the time between the First and Second Coming of our Lord. The 2JeTiod, so often sought in the thousand years of verse 2, is really to he found in the ''little time'' of verse 3. ^ Chaps, i. 3; ii. 16 ; iii. 20 ; xvii. 10 ; xxii, 20, etc. VI EXPOSITION OF CHAP. XIX. 11 TO XXII. 5 215 Keeping these two preliminary points distinctly before us, we may now apply to the whole passage the hypothesis which they suggest, and may ask whether we do not thus obtain for it a clear, appropriate, and Scriptural meaning. It has been already stated that the main object of the Seer in chap. xx. is to describe, in continuation of the preceding chapter, the overthrow of Satan, and not any Millennium of the saints. But before he proceeds to this, before as in the case of the beast and the false prophet he even mentions " war," he is invited to behold in vision the complete security of those over whom Satan has no power. Whatever influence the great adversary may exert over others, they are safe. They belong to Him who is King of kings and Lord of lords, who rules in the armies of heaven, and who will not suffer one of His faithful warriors to perish. How suitable was it that such a vision should be presented to St. John's view ! About to follow Satan to his final overthrow, he sees him gathering his hosts to the war in which he shall be signally defeated. But, before he describes that war, it is in harmony with his whole method of delineation that he shall find utterance for the preliminary truth which here fills his mind. Again and again throughout his book he has done the same thing; and, before speaking of the trials of the right- eous, has shown us that they shall be affected by no judgment, however terrible, by no hosts of evil, how- ever mighty. They have been purchased with the blood of Christ. They have died, yea rather, they have risen 216 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. again to glorious and endless life. They share the throne of their glorified Lord. His rule is their rule, His king- dom their kingdom. Satan cannot harm them : for them he has already been judged and cast out.^ From this point of view let us trace, as briefly as possible, the course and meaning of the vision that is here presented to us. 1. In the first place, let us look at the condition of Satan. That head of all evil is bound for a thousand years, and is cast into the abyss, which is shut and sealed over him, so that he shall deceive the nations no more until the thousand years should be finished. The meaning of this is simply that, by the work of Christ, Satan in his character as the deceiver of the nations has been in principle, completely, and for ever, overcome. It was not at the end of a long series of ages that the Eedeemer was to conquer the great enemy of man. He did it once for all by that redemptive work which He accomplished. Satan's power was then wholly broken. He had no longer either right or authority to act in his proper character, — that of the deceiver of the nations. He met in reality the fate which he was able, in a shadowy and temporary form, to inflict on Jesus, — he was bound and shut up in the abyss, and the abyss was sealed over him. Such is always the teaclnng both of St. John elsewhere and of our Lord Himself. To both the judgment of Satan is not so much a future as a present thing: "For this eud Christ was manifested that," from His incarnation onward, " He might destroy 1 John xvi. 11 ; xii. 31. VI EXPOSITION OF CHAP. XIX. 11 TO XXII. 5 217 the works of the devil." ^ Jesus Himself, lulien He luas upon earth, exclaimed, " Noiv is the judgment of this world ; noio shall the prince of this world be cast out." ^ He declared that " the prince of this world (not is or shall be but) hath heen judged." ^ In conformity with these passages He elsewhere said, " I beheld Satan fallen as lightning from heaven." ^ He gave His dis- ciples reason to hope that they should ''bind the strong man." '' He told them that they had authority from Him " to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy ";*^ and He granted them a foretaste and experience of this authority when He enabled them to heal those that were possessed with demons. There is a sense, therefore, in which, for the followers of Jesus, from the very beginning of their Christian career, the devil is not a foe to be conquered, but one already bound, shut into an abyss, and the abyss sealed over him — the very lesson of this vision. " This is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith ; " " the victory before the war. 2. In the second place, before noticing the loosing of Satan, let us look at the condition of the rioliteous as it is here depicted. In doing so, a passage in the fifth chapter of St. John's Gospel ought to be distinctly in our minds. "Verily, verily," are there the words of Jesus, "I say unto you, the hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God ; and they that have heard shall live ; " ^ and again, a 1 1 John iii. 8. ^ joi^^^ ^^^-^^ n^ 5 j^j^tt. xii. 29. 2 John xii. 31. " Luke x. 18. « Lnke x. 19. ^ 1 John V. 4. 8 "Verse 25. 218 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. little later in the same discourse, "Marvel not at this : for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and shall come forth." ^ Compare these two verses with one another, and we dis- cover the source whence the idea of the " first resurrec- tion " comes. It is not an actual resurrection from the grave, although that resurrection is potentially involved in it. It is a spiritual resurrection in an hour " that now is." This is " the first resurrection " of the Apocalypse, and the fact that it is so is brought out still more clearly by the intimation that what St. John saw was " souls," whose resurrection bodies had not yet been given them. Nor is this all. The other features of their condition correspond with the ideal conception of the condition of the righteous even in a present world. They sit upon thrones : but we have been already told, at chap. v. 10, that they " reign upon (or rather ' over ') the earth," and the whole description is but another way of expressing what St. Paul has said when he speaks of believers as already blessed with every spiritual blessing "in the heavenly places in Christ." ^ " Judgment is given them," words which seem only capable of bearing that sense which is so peculiar to St. John — that for believers there is no judgment ; all the judgment through which they have to pass is over. They " live " with Christ ; but Christ Himself had said in the Gospel, " Because I live, and ye shall live." ^ They " reign " with Christ, but that is only another method of saying that they sit on thrones. 1 Verse 28. 2 gpi,^ i 3. ^ Chap. xiv. 19, R. V., margin. VI EXPOSITION OF CHAP. XIX. 11 TO XXII. 5 219 Over them the "second death hath no authority" — they have passed from that death with which judgment is connected into life.^ Nothing is said of them that does not find its parallel for the irrescnt life of believers either in St. John's other writings or in the later writings of St. Paul. Still further, it is to be observed that this picture of the blessedness of the saints during the thou- sand years is really the counterpart of that ascension of Jesus to His heavenly Father which had been described in chap. xii. before the troubles of the saints began. In that chapter it is said of the Son, the man child, who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron, that immediately after His birth " He was caught up unto God and unto His throne^' ^ and then the statement follows that " the woman fled into the wilderness." Two things have to be remembered here : first, that Christ and His people are (throughout the Apocalypse) so identified that it is impossible to separate them from one another ; and secondly, that it is the manner of St. John to give more fully in one place what he touches more lightly on in another. When we remember this, we can hardly fail to see that the two visions now spoken of are the counterpart of one another. Before Christ suffers in the members of His body He is safe within the throne of God : before the members suffer they are safe, sitting upon their thrones, and reigning in the glory of their Head and King. Putting all these circumstances together we can have no difficulty in understanding either the binding of ^ John V. 24 ; 1 John iii. 14. ^ Yerse 5. 220 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. Satan or the reign of the saints for a thousand years. The vision here presented to us describes no period of blessedness to be enjoyed by the Church at the close of the present dispensation, between the first resurrection of the saints and the general resurrection to follow, when a thousand years expire; nor is it a picture of the Church's history from the beginning to the end of the Christian age. Alike negatively and positively, alike in the binding of Satan and in the reign of the saints for a thousand years, we have simply an ideal picture of what was effected by the Redeemer for His people, when for them He lived and suffered and died and rose asjain. Then He bound Satan for them ; He cast him into the abyss ; He shut him in ; He sealed the abyss over him — so that against them he could effect nothing. He is a bruised and conquered foe. He may war against them, afflict them, persecute them, kill them, but their true life is beyond his reach. They live already a re- surrection life, an ascended life ; for it is a life hid with Christ in God, a life in that " heaven " from which the devil has been finally and for ever expelled. They rest upon, they live in, a risen and glorified Eedeemer ; and, in whatever age or country or circumstances their lot is cast, they sit with their Lord in the heavenly places and share His victory. He has been always triumphant. At the opening of the first Seal He had gone forth " conquering, and to conquer," ^ and in every song of praise which meets us in the book, sung by the lieavenly host the Church and redeemed creation, His 1 Chap. vi. 2. VI EXPOSITION OF CHAP. XIX. 11 TO XXII. 5 221 had been " the blessing, and the honour, and the glory, and the dominion, for ever and ever." ^ In this triumph of Christ the saints on earth not less than the saints in heaven have their share. The glory which the Father gave to the Son the Son has given them.'^ They can- not sin because they are begotten of God.^ He that was begotten of God keepeth them, and the evil one toucheth them not.'^ This is the reign of the thousand years, and it is the portion of every believer who in any age of the Church is a sharer in the life of his risen and exalted Lord. 3. In the third place, we may now easily compre- hend what is meant by the loosing of Satan when the thousand years are finished. No point in the future is there referred to. The point of tiiiie when Satan was loosed is in the past. He was loosed to exert his rage in the world immediately after he was completely con- quered. He was loosed as a great adversary who, how- ever he may persecute God's children, cannot touch their inner life, and who can only " deceive the nations," — the nations that have despised and rejected Christ. He has never been really absent from the earth. He has gone about continually, " having great wrath, knowing that his time is short." ^ But he has never been able to " hurt " those that have been kept in the hollow of the Lord's hand. No doubt he has tried it. That is the meaning of the description extending from verse 7 of this chapter to verse 9 — the meaning of the war 1 Chaps. V. 13 ; vii. 12 ; xi. 15 ; M Jolm iii. 9. XV. 3 ; xix. 7. ■* 1 John v. 18. - John xvii. 22. ^ Chap. xii. 12. 222 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. which Satan begins against the camp of the saints and the beloved city when the thousand years are finished. In other words, no sooner was Satan, as re- garded the saints, completely bound than, as regards the world, he was loosed; and from that hour, through the whole past history of Christianity, he has been stirring up the world against the Church. He has been sum- moning the nations that are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war. But all in vain. They war, but they do not conquer, until at last fire comes down out of heaven and devours them ; the devil that deceived them is cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where are also the beast and the false prophet ; and they shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. The whole picture of the thousand years thus pre- sented to us is, in all its main features, in the bind- ing of Satan, in the security and blessedness of the saints, and in the loosing of Satan for the war, a strik- ing parallel to the scenes in chap. xii. of this book. There Michael and his angels contend with the devil and his angels, and the latter prevailed not (comp. the very remarkable parallel in John i. 5, " and the darkness overcame it not "), but were cast out of heaven into the earth, so that the inhabitants of heaven are for ever safe from them. There the Child who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, and from the thought of whom it is impossible to separate the thought of those who are one with Him, is caught up unto God and unto His throne. Finally there also the dragon, though VI EXPOSITION OF CHAR XIX. 11 TO XXII. 5 223 unable really to hurt the samts, *' the rest of the woman's seed which keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus/' makes war upon them, but without result. This picture in chap. xx. is a re- petition, but at the same time a fuller development, of that in chap. xii. ; and, when we call to mind the peculiarities of apocalyptic structure formerly spoken of, we seem in this fact alone to have no small evidence of the correctness of the interpretation now proposed. Finally, it may be observed that the solution of the difficulties of chap. xx. here offered is not arbitrary, or framed to suit the exigencies of a theory. It rests upon a careful examination of the Seer's own words and a faithful application of well-known and universally re- cognised exegetical laws. That it is wholly free from difficulty would be too much to say ; but it is presented to the Church as being, first, a fair interpretation of the passage ; secondly, as avoiding the insuperable diffi- culties of other interpretations; and thirdly, as in harmony with the general teaching of Scripture, and especially of the Apocalypse itself, on the points with which it deals.-^ ^ It is impossible to defend at tation now offered, Avliatever may length the interpretation of this be the difficulties attending it, is difficult passage here proposed, in thorough harmony with all the One or two very brief remarks may other teaching of Scripture upon be permitted. The writer would the point. This applies in even a ask his readers to bear in mind special degree to the interpretation in considering it, (1) That no of the words of verse 3, "a little interpretation hitherto proposed time." Yet the interpretation is has succeeded in commending it- in no degree the result of any self to anything like general ac- effort to harmonise Scripture. It ceptance ; (2) That the interpre- suggested itself gradually to the 224 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE A description of judgment follows, in which it is too often supposed that both the righteous and the wicked writer's mind, and as tlie result of the combined interpretation of many passages, each considered in- dependently and on its OAvn merits. There are, however, two great difficulties connected with it that may be noticed, the one presented by a clause in verse 3, the other by a clause in verse 5. 1. In the first of these two verses we read that Satan was bound and shut up into the abyss, "that he should deceive the nations no more, until the thou- sand years should be finished." These words seem to mean that there must be a time during which Satan, because bound, does not "deceive the nations," while we have urged in the text that he was no sooner completely subjugated for the righteous than he was let loose to deceive the unrighteous. In reply to this difficulty we sug- gest that the words, "that he should deceive the nations no more," are not designed to indi- cate that action on Satan's part was for a time to cease, but rather to bring out and express that aspect of Satan by Avhich he is specially distinguished in the Apo- calypse. In chap. xii. 9 we have been taught to know him as " the deceiver of the whole world " — words which describe him as he is, and not simply in what lie does. The clause now under consideration. therefore, may mean that Satan was bound and shut up in the abyss in that character which best de- scribes him — the deceiver of the nations. The 'meaning of the passage will then be, that the mai7i result of our Lord's redemp- tive work was the securing His own people in their state of exalted and glorious privilege, or, in the language of the Apocalyptic writer, in their reign of a thousand years. Until this was done we can only think of Satan, the de- ceiver of the nations, as conquered and in the abyss. But as soon as victory over him was gained, and we see that it was gained, our thoughts are free to pass on to the fact that for the world, for the nations, for the ungodly, he is loosed. Thus may it be said that the abyss was sealed over Satan, that he should deceive the nations no more until the thousand years should be finished, i.e. that he should not be himself, or be per- mitted to act like himself, until the saints were ideally secured in all the privileges of their new estate. The interpretation of verse 3 now proposed will be rendered more probable should it be allovv^ed that it may not be necessary to understand the words to, ^Ovrj in that verse in the strict sense of the ungodly nations, but in the EXPOSITION OF CHAP. XIX. 11 TO XXII. 5 225 are included. Sucli, however, does not appear to be the case. For the righteous there is no judgment. Judg- wider sense of the nations gener- ally, without special regard to their spiritual condition. In that case the meaning above suggested will be still more obvious, and there will be little difficulty in taking the words, ' ' that he should deceive the nations no more un- til," etc., as simply meaning that Satan, the deceiver, was bound until, etc. But this interpretation has much to confirm it. More par- ticularly is the special definition of verse 8 worthy of notice, "the nations ivhichare in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog." AVhy this definition here ? Why this limitation of "the nations," unless it be to draw a distinction between the nations of verse 3 and those of verse 8 ? It may be further noticed that in chap. xxi. 3 we read of the redeemed as the Lord's "peoples" (Xaot not Xaos). If under the theocratic notion "peoples" many nations may be included, so in the worldly desig- nation "nations" peoples of God may have a place. It appears also from John xi. 50-52 that there is a sense in which the theocratic people are "a nation," and the heathen gathered into the flock of Christ a part of His "people" (comp. Comm. in loc.) Lastly, the distinction drawn in the fourth Gospel between "the Jews" and ' the multitude " may supply an important Joliannine parallel. These two classes in the Gospel are always to be carefully dis- tinguished from each other, the one being self-steeled against the truth, the other presenting a field open for its reception. It may be so here. The nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, may find their parallel in " the Jews," the nations generally in "the multitude." The object of the middle clause of verse 3 may then simply be to tell us that Satan, the deceiver, was no longer permitted to carry on his work of deception until, after having been first completely conquered, he was again let loose. If this view of these words be admitted, no difficulty need be felt with regard to those of verse 7, "and when the thousand years are finished," or rather, "when the thousand years should be finished," for the word reXeadrj ought certainly to be translated in the same way as in verses 3 and 5. We have here simply the second, because sub- ordinate, half of the thought of which we have already spoken, — when the saints are secured in their position Satan is permitted to resume his work of deceiving the nations. 2. The second difficulty demand- Q 226 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE ment, as we read in verse 4, had long before been "given them." They may, indeed, as the Shorter Catechism puts it, be " openly acknowledged and ac- quitted in the day of judgment," but there " remaineth " for them even now no condemnation or judgment tend- ing to it. They are " in " Christ, who sits upon the seat of judgment. They have long since passed out of death to take its liigh spiritual mean- ing out of the Johannine "lived." ing notice is presented by the clause in verse 5 in which we are told that "the rest of the dead lived not until the thousand years should be finished." This difficulty may perhaps be met in either of two ways. a. •' The rest of the dead " may be understood to mean the un- godly ; but there is a serious ob- stacle to this, in so far as we shall thus be compelled to lower the meaning of the word "lived" in the same clause, and to under- stand it simply in the sense of coming into the field of action. In other words, the meaning will be that at the moment of Christ's completing His victory there Avas a pause. After the victory Avas completed the ungodly again stirred, moved, acted, "lived." In this Ave should have a close parallel to John xviii. as compared Avith xvii. But even although at the close of verse 4 it may not be necessary to connect "lived" as Avell as "reigned" Avith the Avords "with Christ" (comp. verse 6, where aa'c read only "they shall reign "), it is not easy b. A second solution is sug- gested by a valued friend, Avho asks AA'hether these "rest of the dead " in verse 5 may not be the Old Testament saints of cjiap. vi. 9. These Old Testament saints Avere, by the completion of the Lord's redeeming Avork, brought up to the level of the Ncav Testa- ment Church (comp. Comm. on vi. 9, etc.) May not the meaning of chap. XX. 5 therefore be, The NcAv Testament Church had first bestoAved upon it a complete re- demption, and only aftei' that were the same Avhite robes given to the Old Testament Church, the suc- cession being again one of thought rather than time. The advantages of this rendering appear to be — first, that it marks out all the members of Christ's body as having been vcKpol before they "lived,'' thus identifying them Avith their Lord in chap. i. 18 ; secondly, that " the rest of tlie dead " then belong to the same class as that previously spoken of, and not to a different VI EXPOSITION OF CHAP. XIX. 11 TO XXII. 5 227 into life.^ The wicked alone are judged and cast into the lake of fire ; while death, the last enemy, and his follower Hades, are also judged, and are cast into the same lake of fire. One vision still remains, described in chap. xxi. and in the first five verses of chap. xxii. The new heavens and the new earth are beheld, wherein dwelleth right- eousness. The holy city, new Jerusalem, the true Church of God wholly separated from the false Church, is beheld coming down from God out of heaven, pre- pared as a bride adorned for her husband. Her eternal marriage with the Lamb takes place — a marriage in which there shall be no unfaithfulness on the one side and no reproaches on the other, but in which, as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, the Lord shall for ever rejoice in His people, and they in Him. The taber- nacle of the Lord is pitched among men, and He dwells among them. They are His people, unchangeably, eter- nally His, free from sin and free from sorrow. The tears are wiped away from their eyes ; and there is no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, nor pain, for the former things are passed away, and all things are made new. class ; thirdly, that it makes the offer a fair solution of the diffi- position of the words at the close culty. But, whether that difficulty of verse 5, " this is the first resur- is solved or still awaits solution, rection," more natural, when they the writer of these lectures trusts thus follow what is ivholly a de- that the explanation proposed in scription of the blessed ; and the text may be accepted as in the fourthly, that we preserve by this main correct, or as, at all events, rendering the fullJohannine mean- helping forward the interpretation ing of the Avord "lived." Upon of the passage by leading to further the whole the second rendering is investigation, to be preferred, and it appears to ^ Comp. John v. 24. 228 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. Then follows, still further to enhance the picture, a description of the true Church under the figure of the city which had just been spoken of. The treasures of language are exhausted that the thought of her beauty and her splendour may be suitably impressed upon our minds. In her foundations, in the courses of stones resting upon them, in her height and fair proportions, she is thought of as ideally perfect, and not according to the strict realities or possibilities of things. All the outward helps needed by men to aid them in leading the life of God in their present state of imper- fection are dispensed with. There is no temple in the city, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. It has no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God lightens it, and the Lamb is the lamp thereof. There is no sin there, and every positive element of happiness is pro- vided in abundance for its blest inhabitants. The river of the water of life, full and clear, flows there ; and on either side of the river is the tree of life, not bearing fruit once a year only but every month ; not yielding one only but twelve manner of fruits, so that all tastes may be gratified; having notliing about it useless or liable to decay. Its very leaves are for the healing of the nations, and it is evidently implied that they are always green. Finally, the curse is for ever removed. The servants of the Lord serve Ilim. Tliey see His face. His name is in their foreheads. They are priests unto God in the service of the heavenly sanctuary, and they reign for ever and ever. VI EXPOSITION OF CHAP. XIX. 11 TO XXII. 5 229 One question still remains. What as^Dect of the Church does the holy city Jerusalem, thus come down out of heaven from God, represent ? Is it the Church as she shall be in the supposed days of millennial bliss, the Lord Himself reigning in it among His people? Or have we before us an ideal representation of the true Church of Christ as she exists now, and before a final separation has been made between the righteous and the wicked ? After all that has been said there ought to be little difdculty in answering the question ; and hints in the passage appear to confirm the answer that must be given.^ The New Jerusalem is an ideal picture of the true Chureh now. Just as we saw that the Millennium is come, as it came with the finished work of Christ, as it comes in principle to every heart that rests upon its Lord in faith, so the New Jerusalem has come, has been in the midst of us for more than eighteen hundred years, is now in the midst of us, and shall continue to be in the midst of us wherever its King has those wdio love and serve Him, walk in His light, and share His peace and joy. Let us look at the words of chap. xx. 9, where we read of ''the beloved city." That city is none other than the New Jerusalem about to be described in the following chapter, and yet it is spoken of as in the uvrld, and as the object of attack by Satan and his hosts before the judgment. Let us look at chap. xxi. 24, where we read, " And the nations shall walk amidst the light thereof : and the kings of the earth do bring their glory into it." Who are these " nations " and these " kings 1 Conip. Foxley, Hulscan Lectures, Lect. i. 230 LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE lect. of the earth " ? The constant use of the same expres- sions in other parts of the hook, in which there can be no doubt about their meaning, compels us to under- stand them of nations and kings beyond the pale of the covenant, who must therefore be still existing in the w^orld after the descent of the New Jerusalem. Let us look at chap. xxi. 27, where we read, "and there shall in no wise enter into it anything unclean, or he that maketh an abomination and a lie : but only they which are written in the Lamb's book of life," and these words distinctly intimate that the time had not yet come for that separation of which we read in chap. xx. 15, "And if any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire." Finally, let us look at chap, xxii. 2, where we are told that " the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations," and we see that even after the city had descended to earth there were nations to be healed. Nor are even those parts of the description which it appears at first sight most difficult to reconcile with the idea that we have before us the true members of Christ's Body upon earth, and not the Church in heaven, out of keeping with other statements of the New Testament. The intimation of verses 8 and 27 that sin is banished from the city is not stronger than the words of St. John in his first Epistle, " Who- soever is begotten of God doeth no sin, because his seed remainetli in him : and he cannot sin, because he is begotten of God ; " ^ while the assurance of verse 4, that " the first things are passed away," has its per- 1 Chap. iii. 9. VI EXPOSITION OF CHAP. XIX. 11 TO XXIL 5 231 feet parallel in the language of St. Paul when, writing to the Corinthians and occupied with the very same thought of the risen Lord as that wliich is here promi- nent, he exclaims, " The old things are passed away ; behold, they are become new." ^ In addition to this it is well to remember that the most glowing descriptions of the Old Testament, when it speaks of the coming king- dom of Messiah, apply to the age now passing over us ; and these descriptions the Apocalypse adopts and seals.^ In the New Jerusalem, therefore, we have essentially a picture, not of the future but of the present, of the ideal, condition of Christ's true people, of His "little Hock " upon earth in every age. The picture may not yet be realised in fulness, but every blessing lined in upon its canvas is in principle the believer's now, and will be more and more his in actual experience as he opens his eye to see and his heart to receive. We have been wrong in transferring, as we have done, the thou- sand years' reign and the New Jerusalem to the future. ^ 2 Cor. V. 17. liere. In chap. i. 3 he introduces - It may be well to notice in a his Apocalypse with the words, note another consideration upon "for the time is at hand." In this point, which will be allowed chaj). xxii. 10 he returns to the to be of weight by those who admit thought, " Seal not up the words the existence of that principle of of the prophecy of this book ; structure in St, John's writings for the time is at hand." That upon which it rests. St. John is is, the whole intervening Apoca- often marked by a tendency to lypse is enclosed between these return at the close of a section of two statements ; all of it pre- his Aviitings to what he had said cedes the "time" spoken of; the at the beginning, and to shut New Jerusalem comes before the up, as it were, between these two end. statements all he had to say. So 232 LECTURES ON THE ArOCALYPSE lect. They belong to tlie past and to the present. They are the Church's lieritage at tlie very time that she wars and suffers ; and the thought of them ought to console her amidst her trials, and to make her burdens easy to be borne. Oh, if the Church, if believers, only felt this more, what a millcnnmm of happiness and glory would each enjoy ! With what triumph would each lift up his head as he paced the streets of that New Jerusalem of which he is a citizen ! And in what a light would he feel called upon to present himself to the eyes of men, not mingling in the strife of human tongues, or interested in worldly wealth and honour, but already radiant with the glory of his heavenly home ! The Church has mistaken her mission, and has misinterpreted the Scriptures of the possession of which she boasts. She has transferred all her blessedness to the future, and has asked men to accept for the realities of the present and the seen her dim and shadowy, too often her fantastic, pictures of the future and the unseen. That is not the method of our Lord or of His servant John in the Apocalypse. They do not try to convert men by hopes of heaven. They deal with realities now to be grasped, with visions of glory now to be realised. They invite us, indeed, to a glorious and eternal future ; but, as at once the evidence and the beginning of that future glory, they invite us, in the first place, to the possession here and now of " things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, and which entered not into the lieart of man." ^ They tell us that the brightness of the New 1 1 Cor. ii. 9. VI EXPOSITION OF CHAP. XIX. 11 TO XXII. 5 233 Jerusalem ought to be within us and around us, shining through every earthly sorrow, so that we may lighten the dark places of "the nations" with its purity and peace and joy. It is unnecessary to dwell upon the Epilogue which begins at chap. xxii. 6. With the previous verse the special visions of the Apocalypse had come to an end, and the book which had presented so many dark traits of Paradise lost had closed with the glorious picture of Paradise regained. Only one thing more w^as needed — that the Lord Himself, long waited for, should come, to transmute each promise into fulfilment and each ideal into its corresponding real. Even so. " Amen : come. Lord Jesus." Meanwhile we cannot doubt that to St. John the lone isle of Patinos was lightened with the glory of what he saw ; and, be it that we too are in our Patmos, the same glory will lighten us, if only we are among them which keep the sayings of this book. INDEX I TEXTS MORE OR LESS DISCUSSED IN THE LECTURES PAGE PAGE Genesis xxviii. 13-15 . 85 Revelation vi. 6 . . 170 Ezekiel xxxix. 9, 12 . 211 ,, 12-17 ,, viii. 1-5 . 43 . 50 Matthew xxiv. 4-xxv. 42, 58 ,, 4 . . 171 „ 4-14 . 44 ,, 6-xi. 19 . 50 „ 5-28 . 46 ix. 7-10 . 32 „ 29-31 . 49 X. 11 . . 56 Mark xiii. 5-37 . 42 xi. 1, 2 . 179 ,, ,, 3-12 . 65 Luke xxi. 8-36 . 42 ,, 15-18 . 96 Johu i, 5 . . 222 ,, xii. . 99 „ ix. 34 . . 180 ,, ^ ' . 65 „ xvi. 13 22 xiii. 1, 2 . 32 Hebrews ii. . vi. 5 . 151 . 150 „ 3 . „ 18 xiv. 19, 20 . 143 124, 143 . 31 Revelation i. . 61 ,, XV,, xvi. . 54 n 1, 3 . . 137, 149 ,, xvii. 9 . . 39 „ 4-8 . . 90 ,, 16 . 67 „ 10 . . 15 xix. 1-10 . 62 ,, 13 . . 60 ,, ,, 11-xxii. 3 63, 193 „ „ 13-16 . 31 XX. 2, 3 . 113 ,, ii., iii. . . 61 ,, 3 . . 213, 224 ,, iv., V. . . 61 ,, 3,7 212 „ 6, 8 . 32 ,, 5 . *. 226 „8 . . 90 „ 7 ■ . 225 v. 6, 7. . 31 „ „ 13 . 37 vi. 1-xviii. 2 4 . 62 ,, 1-16 . -31 5> J> . 50 xxii. 6-21 . 64 INDEX II Age, character of the age of St. John, 161 Anticipation or Prolcjms, principle and ilhistratious of,in Apocalypse, 114 Apocalypse, spirit of study of, 2 ; objects of these lectures on, 3 ; little use made of, in early times, 3 ; neglect of, 4 ; obligation to in- terpret, 5 ; promises to students of, 6 ; prejudice against, 7 ; care with which composed, 40 ; in- tiuence on, of discourse of Jesus in Matt, xxiv., 42 ; comi)ared Avith that discourse, 49 ; with Apocalyptic literature, 58, 70, 77 ; principles illustrated by, 80, 155 ; period of time embraced by, 146, 152, 156 ; fixes no definite moment for second coming of Christ, 147 ; its leading ideas purely Christian, 158 ; far above Judaism, 159 ; its view of a Marty r Church, 1 69 ;lessons of, 1 s 9 Apocalyptist, an interpreter, 20 ; thoroughly a Jew, 77 Artistic arrangements, in Old and New Testaments, 84 Auberlen, 35 Augustine, on interpretation of Apocalypse, 13, 101, 119 Babylox, 181 ; not an earthly metropolis, 181 ; not the Church of Rome, 183 ; whence traits of, drawn, 185 ; is the degenerate Church, 187 Beast, the first, QQ ; the second, 66 Berengaudus, 101 Beyschlag, 11 Bowls, time over which they extend, 97 ; parallelism with trumpets, 97 Burns, 182 Calvix, relation to Apocalypse, 3 Christ, spiritual and imiversal con- ception of, 158; second coming of, not the destruction of Jeru- salem, 141 Christ or Antichrist, all with whom Apocalypse deals belong to one or other, 173 Church, her history parallel to her Lord's, 60 ; her identification with Him, 64 ; His life repeated in her life, 64, 164 ; His enemies in her enemies, 66 ; spiritual and universal conception of, 158 ; has a double aspect, 159 ; her con- llict, 165 ; preservation, 169 ; triumph, 1 73 ; distinguished from faitliful remnant within her, 176; this distinction seen in Epistles to the Seven Churches, 177 ; degeneracy of, 187 Climax, in Apocalypse, 102 ; in sufl'e rings of sanits, 108 ; iu evil of the wicked, 109 : in Epistles to tlie Churches, 102 ; in episodes, 103 ; in Bowls, 104; in Trumpets, 104 ; in Seals, 104 ; in the INDEX 237 corresponding members of tlie groups, 106 Conflict, idea of Christ's, reappears in the Church, 165 Contrasts, in Apocalypse, 110 ; illustrated in persons, 111 ; in objects, 113 Daniel and St. John, 19 Daubuz, 102 Design of Apocalypse, 161 Dragon, 66 Diirer, Albert, 30 Eastern Christendom, little thought of, 132 Elliott, 127, 133, 134 Episodes of Apocalypse, 4, 125 Epistles to the Seven Churches,inter- relations of, 177 ; first three, 177 ; the following four, 178 Expositor, 64, 92 Fairbairn, 21, 38, 98, 102, 134, 148, 169, 172 Farrar, 11, 140 Figures, of Apocalj^pse interpreted by itself, 12 ; object of, 12 Four, influence of this number on structure of Apocalypse, 85 Foxlej^ 229 Futurist,interpretation indefensible, 135 GoDET, 79, 171 Gog and Magog, 225 Gospel, fourth, parallel between it and Apocalypse, 60 ; starting- point of each, 59 ; successive parts of each, 60 ; Apocalypse the complement of, 69 Heathen, Apocalypse does not deal with conversion of, 171 Herder, relation to Apocalypse, 3 ; quotations from, 10 His Appearing and Kingdom, 192 Historical interpretation, 126 ; ob- jections to, 127 ; often trifling, 133 ; marked by disagreements, 133 ; by mistaken translations and forced meanings, etc., 134 History, not intelligible before its events happen, 130 ; unknown to mass of men even afterwards, 131 Ideal, contrasted with actual, 119 ; applied to chap, xii., 120 ; and to chap. xvii. compared with chap, xiii., 123 Interpretation, of Apocalypse is possible, 7 ; subject to ordinary rules, 9 ; principles of, 13, 126 ; danger of limiting, 134 ; not to be confined to the events of the author's day, 142, 146 Jerusalem, the New, 227 ; is the ideal picture of the Church now, 229 ; Christians even now its citizens, 232 Jesus, influence on Apocalypse of St. John's recollections of, 59 Joachim, Abbot, 127 Judaism, Apocalypse rises far above, 159 Judgment, place of, in Apocalypse, 171 Keble, 168 Kliefoth, 154 Language, figurative, subject to ordinary rules, 10 ; local, may be si^iritually interpreted, 156 Laodicea, Epistle to, 178 Last things, analysis of discoui'se of Jesus on, 42 Lectionary, English, relation to Apocalypse, 3 Literalism, extreme danger of, 138 Lord's Day, meaning of, 15 ; "being in spirit on," meaning of, 15 Llicke, 80, 127 Luther, relation to Apocalypse, 3 Martyrdom, meaning of, in Apo- calypse, 167 Medd, 185, 210 Morison, 29 Nero, not the beast of chap, xiii., 18, 142 ; his story misread, 140 Numbers, in Apocalypse, 38 238 IXDEX Old Testament, dependence of Apocalypse on, 70 ; as to persons, 72 ; objects, 73 ; freedom with which used, 76 Parousia, 42 Philadelphia, Epistle to, 178 Pictures, double, of Apocalypse, 116; principle of, 117; illus- trated, 117 Plan, not inconsistent with sim- plicity, 81 ; may indicate power of the Divine presence, 82 ; natural to Jewish thought, 83 ; belongs to Divine method, 83 Prediction, none in Apocalypse not found elsewhere, 188 Preservation, idea of Christ's, re- appears in the Church, 169 Principles, action of, set forth in Apocalypse, 153 ; correspond to those of all prophecy, 154 Renan, 39, 140, 142 Reuss, 17, 22, 142 Revelation, must speak to its own age, 129 Review, British and Foreign Evan- gelical, 23 ; Biblical, 91 ; The Ecclesiastic, 19 Reville, 142 Sardis, Epistle to, 178 Satan, binding of, 69 ; loosing of, 221 Seals, visions of, 50 ; time over which they extend, 95 Second coming of Christ, His mani- festation in glory, 174 Seven, influence of this number on striicture of Apocalypse, 84 ; even when not directly men- tioned, 85 Structure, of A])Ocalypse, 81 ; in- fluence of, on interpretation, 90 Stuart, 89 Succession, of thought rather than time, 100 Symbols, use of, 22 ; in fourth Gospel, 24 ; distinguished from other forms of tropical language, 24 ; of Apocalypse, suggested by surrounding circumstances, 25 ; right to use them, 26 ; their power, 27 ; drawn from nature, 27 ; their local character, 28 ; how to be judged of, 30 ; cor- respondence with truths to be expressed, 33 ; compared with parables, 34 ; may be understood, 36 ; to be always interpreted in the same way, 37 ; none taken from heathenism, 29 Symbolical language reveals, not conceals, thought, 11 Symmetry of Apocalypse, 92 ; of epistles to the churches, 92 ; of the visions, 93 ; of episodes, 94 ; of the sections of the book, 94 Synchronism, of visions, 95 Temple, measuring of, 179 The "little time," 213 Thousand years, relation of, to pre- ceding visions, 195 ; special aim of section relating to, 196 ; reign of saints on earth for, discussed, 198 ; that they represent the whole Christian era, discussed, 208 ; no period of time, 211 ; embody idea of completeness, 211 ; an ideal picture of what Christ has eff'ected, 220 ; picture of the thousand years has its parallel in chap, xii., 222 Three influence, of tliis number on structure of Apocalypse, 89 Thyatira, Epistle to, 178 Time, course of, disappears, 152 ; gives place to an idea, 153 Todd, 102, 131, 133, 135, 137 Tongues, of early Church, 18 Trench, 30 Triumph, idea of Christ's, reappears in the Church, 173 Trumpets and bowls, visions of, 50 ; contents of, 52, 54 Trumpets, time over which they extend, 96 ; parallelism with bowls, 97 ViCTORINUS, 101 Visions of Apocalypse, nature of, 14 ; whether actually seen, 16 INDEX 239 Visions, of Old Testament, 16 ; of St. Paul and St. Peter, 17 ; of prophets and seers, 18 ; fitness of, for those addressed, 22 Westcott, 19 Williams, Isaac, 102, 188 Wordsworth, on interpretation of Apocalypse, 14, 102 World to come, the, 150 Years, may express other ideas than of time, 211 ZiJLLiG, 87, 174 THE END Printed by R. t^ R. Claric, Edinburgh Recently piiblislied, by the same Author. THE EESUERECTIOISr OF OUE LOED. Fourth Thousand. Cheaper Edition, Price 5s. MACMILLAN AND CO. OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. Professor Flint, D.D. Note in Sermon ijreachcd before the Lord High Commissioner at Edinburgh, May 1881. " Since this Discourse was delivered, the Croall Lecture of Professor Milligan — The Resurrection of our Lord — has come into my hands. It seems to me to be a most vahiable addition to the literature of our Scottish theology ; just the book which was needed on the great theme of which it treats." The Rev. Canon Liddon, D.D., D.C.L. Preface to Second Edition of " A Father in Christ," p. xli. " No Churchman can read Dr. Dale's book on the Atonement or his Commentary on the Ephesians, or Dr. Milligan's work on the Resur- rection of our Lord, without feelings of warm admiration and thank- fulness to Almighty God for such solid contributions to the cause of true religion." Spectator. ' ' The argument is put with brevity and force by Dr. Milligan, and every page of it bears witness that he has mastered the literature of the subject, and has made a special study of the more recent discussions on this aspect of the question. . . . The remaining lectures are more theological. They abound in striking views, in fresh and vigorous exegesis, and manifest a keen a])prehension of the bearing of the fact of the Resurrection on many important questions of theology. The notes are able and scholarly, and elucidate the teaching of the text. . . . Dr. Milligan has ^vritten on the subject which he has made his own, and these Lectures are the outcome of years of study on the part of an able and scholarly man." Scotsman. " It is written in pure and graceful English. It shows wide and accurate scholarship, extensive acquaintance with theological literature in general, and careful study of everything important that has been written on the particular question treated of. Dr. Milligan states con- cisely, but clearly, the main evidence for the Resurrection. He ex- amines acutely, but calmly and candidly, the objections that have been urged against that evidence ; and in the second half of his book he dis- cusses at considerable length, and in a very forcible and interesting way, the bearing of the Resurrection on Christian thought and life. " The English Churchman and Clerical Revie-w. " It is Avith very considerable satisfaction Ave welcome the singularly able and well-reasoned volume before us, in which Professor Milligan discusses from every conceivable standpoint the great and vital doctrine of the Resurrection of our Blessed Lord. . . . We have only to add that the volume is concluded with a series of notes of the highest critical and exegetical value ; and the work is further enhanced by the R OPINIOI^S OF THE PRESS clearness, force, and simplicity of the style of the Author, who was a member of the Revised New Testament Company. " The Church Times. "This volume, a solid contribution to apologetic and doctrinal theology, consists of six Lectures with an api»endix of critical notes, and is in some respects akin to Professor Westcott's Gospel of the Resurrection in its mode of presenting and handling its topics. But this likeness is confined for the most part to the Lectures on the external evidence for the fact of the Resurrection, and on its relation to the Christian Church ; and for the remainder Professor Milligan has followed a line of his own. . . . Lecture IV., on the bearing of the Resurrection upon the person and work of Christ, opens that which is the really distinctive part of Dr. Milligan's work. Hitherto he has been merely doing what several other apologists have done before him, though doing it very well ; but now he comes forward to press the importance of certain great Christian truths and doctrines Avhicli have been long and completely thrust out of sight in Presbyterian theology, leaving it, as a dogmatic system, markedly imperfect in one special direction. And it is the definitely Catholic tendency of what he has got to say which makes his words most noteworthy." Church Quarterly Review. "We most thankfully v\-elcome these lucid and vigorous Lectures by Professor Milligan. Not only have we learned much from them on the subject of which they profess to treat, but we see in them an al- most startling promise for the future of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. It is a hopeful sign, indeed, when a Scotch Divinity Pro- fessor, publicly lecturing on the Croall foundation to a general audience of Scotchmen, can boldly assert such truths as we find here stated, and reinforce his assertions in print by the help of such fearless notes. . . . We would gladly have extended our notice of this remarkable volume. We cordially liope that it may prove a real aid in promoting that re- union of the Church upon which the Author insists with such earnest- ness, as indisj)ensable to a belief in the Resurrection of our Lord." The Churchman (American Paper). "We wish to say here, at the outset, that this volume is, on the whole, the best and the most satisfactory treatise on the nature and meaning of Christ's Resurrection that we have ever seen. The Author shows a most thorough acquaintance with the deeper teachings of Scripture on this subject. . . . We have quoted enough to show that the Author has given to the world a remarkable book. Though it is not in every respect perfect, it comes very near to being entirely satis- factory. It certainly deserves to be read and studied by every Chris- tian. The Author may have failed to carry out the New Testament doctrine of the Resurrection in all its possible directions and in every detail, but he has given the root of the whole matter, and that is say- ing a great deal. We hope that this book will become a standard of Presbyterian belief, not only in Scotland, 1)ut throughout the world. So far as it goes its logic is unanswerable." LECTUEES ON THE APOCALYPSE. OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. Dr. Dodds in the Expositor for July 1886. ' ' Whatever satisfaction there may be in setting a book of Scrip- ture permanently higher in the regard of the Church, in disclosing its hidden magnificence, in making its inspiration palpable, and in bringing its ores to the surface for the common good, has been fairly earned by Professor Milligan. . . . All that is urged by Professor Milligan is presented with such sobriety of mind and reasonableness, is backed by arguments so convincing, and by scholarship so thorough, and brings to the mind so much of the sudden enlightenment and conviction which wait upon truth, that there can be no question his book deserves, and will receive, respectful consideration, and will permanently influence the Church's attitude towards the Apoca- Scotsman. "This volume is one of the most valuable of the series of Baird Lectures. Dr. Milligan has selected a subject with which he is j)ecu- liarly qualified to deal. He has long been known to have devoted special study to the writings of St. John. Many articles of his on points connected with these writings have appeared in the Contem- porary Revieiv, the Expositor, and other magazines. ... He possesses, moreover, a sound common sense, a sober and judicious reasonableness in which very learned critics, especially among the Germans, are sometimes strikingly deficient, and which is so indispensable to a satisfactory exegesis of an obscure book like the Apocalypse. And he is commendably free from controversial bias." The Scottish Wews. "Professor Milligan has performed a difficult task in a most thoroughly able, scholarly, and yet an admirably popular manner. The Revelation of St. John is undoubtedly one of the most difficult of all the books of Holy Scripture to understand, and the task of the expositor is not lightened to any great extent by the labours of those Avho have gone before him. . . . Taking this book as a Avliole, it will not only enhance Dr. Milligan's reputation as a scholar, but it will also add to the laurels which he and other Scottish theologians have already gained in England and over the world as earnest students and able expositors of Holy Scripture." Pall Mall Gazette. ' ' It would take us very much beyond our province to discuss this book at length. We may briefly express our admiration of the learn- ing, the acuteness, and, above all, the sobriety of judgment which have been brought to bear on its composition." OPINIONS OF THE PRESS The Literary World. " It is impossible to speak too liiglily of Dr. Milligan's treatise. In spiritual tone, force of reasoning, depth of insiglit, and literary gi-ace, it holds a unique place in the literature of the oljscure question with which it deals. Dr. ]\lilligan's aim is to rescue the Apocalypse from the grasj) of fanaticism and rationalism, and to reclaim it for practical uses. His method is the dismissal of all prejudice, and the frank application of historical criticism. . . . The value of this treatise is greatly increased by the critical and exegetical notes which form the Appendix. They are most scholarly and convincing : it is perhaps impossible to give them higlier praise than to state that they recall to us the familiar tone of Dr. Lightfoot, that brilliant master of critical exposition." The Church Times. " Those who have studied Professor Milligan's thoughtful work on the Resurrection will be glad to receive another Biblical volume from his pen, and will not be disappointed with the contents of his treatise on the Apocalypse. The volume consists of six lectures and four Appendices, and by no means confines itself to repeatiug what has been already said by other writers, nor even to reproducing Professor Milligan's own Commentary on the Revelation. It contains fresh matter, at any rate fresh views of difficult problems, stated in a scholarly and reverent fashion, which must command the respect even of those who decline to accept his conclusions. . . . Thus ends this able and valuable book, which will place Dr. Milligan even higher in the estimation of theological scholars than he stood previously." Oxford University Herald. "Here we have one of the most recent attempts — by a Avriter who has won a high reputation by his work on the Resurrection — at the interpretation of this most difficult portion of Holy Scripture. Many are the writers the study of the Apocalypse has attracted, and we doubt if any in our day has been more successful than Professor Milligan. ... In these great outlines we are quite at one with him. And Ave are disposed to "think that this work of his will go far to render the outlines of interpretation which are sketched out above very widely accepted." The Oxford Review. " It nmst be confessed that, though the writer's opinions on many points are open to adverse criticism, he has certainly succeeded in laying liis views before his readers with clearness and moderation. He shows undoubted originality of thought, and, better still, deep feeling and an enthusiasm for the subject." Perthshire Advertiser. "The criticism of these pages (on the relation of the Fourth Gospel to the Apocalypse) is of a very high order, and is a good specimen of OPINIONS OF THE PRESS that historical method which has asserted its hold so strongly on the best British criticism of the Bible during the last quarter of a century. They close a work which is a real addition to the literature of the sub- ject, and which Avill, we are confident, introduce many readers to a far higher aspect of it than is unfortunately current at the present day." Dundee Advertiser; "Professor Milligan's Lectures on the Revelation of St. John form one of the most valuable helps to the study of this difficult book that have appeared for a long time." Nonconformist. "All who know anything of Dr. Milligan as a Biblical critic and expositor will expect to find in this volume sound scliolarshij^, lucidity of thought and style, and reverent, though not unreasoning, loyalty to the Scriptures, and they will not be disappointed. . . . Whether, on reflection, the reader is able to accept the Professor's deliverances on this and other disputed points, such as the date of the Apocalypse, or not, he cannot but feel that Dr. Milligan's volume is a very important contribution to the literature of this subject. In four most excellent Appendices the authorship, the date, the unity, and the relation of the book to the Fourth Gospel are discussed with great candour and skill." Presbyterian Journal, Philadelphia. "We have read Professor Milligan's book yvith peculiar interest and delight. In judgment the volume is as balanced as, in style, it is clear and flowing. . . . We would advise not only ministers but thoughtful Sabbath -school teachers in connection with their studies in John's writings to give the volume a careful reading." The Presbyterian (Sydney Paper). '' Dr. Milligan's object has been to redeem this portion of the sacred record from the neglect to which it had been so largely con- signed, to unfold its hidden magnificence and exhibit its practical value. He has endeavoured to show what a rich mine it is of precious ore ; that it is, in short, one of the most sublime, instructive, and comforting portions of the sacred volume, deserving of a higher posi- tion in the Church's regard, and more prominent place in the minis- trations of the sanctuary, than it has been wont to occupy. . . . Dr. Milligan has conferred a great obligation on the Christian world by this valuable contribution to Apocalyptic literature, an obligation which has already in many quarters been cordially acknowledged." MESSRS. MACMILLAN & CO.'S THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 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TIMES. — "This book will be found by students to be a very useful supplement and companion to the learned Dr. Drummond's important work, Philo Judceus." The Pentateuch — AN HISTORICO-CRITICAL INQUIRY INTO THE ORIGIN AND COMPOSITION OF THE HEXATEUCH (PENTA- TEUCH AND BOOK OF JOSHUA). By Prof. A. Kuenen. Translated by Philip H. Wicksteed, M.A. 8vo. 14s. The Psalms — THE PSALMS CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED. An Amended Version, with Historical Introductions and Explanatory Notes. By Four Friends. New Edition. Crown Svo. 5s. net. SPECTATOR.— " Ox\G of the most instructive and valuable books that has been published for many years. It gives the Psalms a perfectly fresh setting, adds a new power of vision to the grandest poetry of nature ever produced, a new depth of lyrical pathos to the poetry of national joy, sorrow, and hope, and a new intensity of spiritual light to the divine subject of every ejaculation of praise and every invocation of want. We have given but imperfect illustrations of the new beauty and light which the trans- lators pour upon the most perfect devotional poetry of any day or nation, and which they pour on it in almost every page, by the scholarship and perfect taste with which they have executed their work. We can only say that their version deserves to live long and to pass through many editions." GOLDEN TREASURY PSALTER. The Student's Edition. Being an Edition with briefer Notes of " The Psalms Chrono- logically Arranged by Four Fi lends." Pott Svo, 2s. 6d. net. THE PSALMS. With Introductions and Critical Notes. By A. C. Jennings, M.A., and W. H. Lowe, M.A. In 2 vols. 2nd Edition. Crown Svo. I OS. 6d, each. Isaiah — ISAIAH XL.— LXVI. With the Shorter Prophecies allied to it. By Matthew Arnold. With Notes. Crown Svo. 5s. A BIBLE-READING FOR SCHOOLS. The Great Prophecy of Israel's Restoration (Isaiah xl.-lxvi.) Arranged and Edited for Young Learners. By the same. 4th Edition. Pott Svo. is. 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Svo. 14s. BIBLICAL ESSAYS. By Bishop Lightfoot. Svo. 12s. THE UNITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. By F. D. Maurice. 2nd Edition. 2 vols. Crown Svo. 12s. A GENERAL SURVEY OF THE HISTORY OF THE CANON OF THE NEW TESTAMENT DURING THE FIRST FOUR CENTURIES. By Right Rev. Bishop Westcott. 7th Edition. Crown Svo. los. 6d. THE STUDENT'S LIFE OF JESUS. By G. H. Gilbert, Ph.D. Crown Svo. 5s. net. THE STUDENT'S LIFE OF PAUL. By G. H. Gilbert, Ph.D. Crown Svo. 5s. net. THE REVELATION OF JESUS : A Study of the Primary Sources of Christianity. By G. H. Gilbert, Ph.D. Crown Svo. 5s.net. NEW TESTAMENT HANDBOOKS. Edited by Shailer Mathews, Professor of New Testament History at the Univer- sity of Chicago. A HISTORY OF NEW TESTAMENT TIMES IN PALES- TINE {175 B.C.-70 A.D,). By Shailer Mathews, A.M. Crown Svo, 3s. 6d. A HISTORY OF THE TEXTUAL CRITICISM OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. By Marvin R. Vincent, D.D. Crown Svo. 3s. 6d. THE BIBLICAL THEOLOGY OF THE NEW TESTA- MENT. By Ezra P. Gould, D.D. Crown Svo. 3s. 6d. THE NEW TESTAMENT IN THE ORIGINAL GREEK. The Text revised by Bishop Westcott, D.D., and Prof F. J. A. HoRT, D.D. 2 vols. Crown Svo. los. 6d. each, — Vol. I. Text ; II. Introduction and Appendix. Library Edition. Svo. los. net. [Tex^ in Macmillan Greek Type. School Edition. i2mo, cloth, 4s. 6d. ; roan, 5s. 6d. ; morocco, 6s. 6d. ; India Paper Edition, limp calf, 7s, 6d, net. 6 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S The New Testament — continued. GREEK-ENGLISH LEXICON TO THE NEW TESTAMENT. By W. J. HiCKiE, M.A. Pott 8vo. 3s. ACADEMY.— '■'y^^ can cordially recommend this as a very handy little volume compiled on sound principles." GRAMMAR OF NEW TESTAMENT GREEK. By Prof. F. Bl ASS, University of Halle. Authorised English Translation. 8vo. 14s. net. TIMES. — "Will probably become the standard book of reference for those students who enter upon minute grammatical study of the language of the New Testament." THE GOSPELS- PHILOLOGY OF THE GOSPELS. By Prof. F. Blass. Crown 8vo. 4s. 6d. net. GUARDIAN.— '■^ Qn the whole, Professor Blass's new book seems to us an im- portant contribution to criticism. ... It will stimulate inquiry, and will open up fresh lines of thought to any serious student." THE SYRO-LATIN TEXT OF THE GOSPELS. By the Rev. Frederic Henry Chase, D.D. Svo. 7s. 6d. net. The sequel of an essay by Dr. Chase on the old Syriac element in the text of Codex Bezae. TIMES.—" An important and scholarly contribution to New Testament criticism." THE COMMON TRADITION OF THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS, in the Text of the Revised Version. By Rev. E. A. Abbott and W. G. RusHBROOKE. Crown Svo. 3s. 6d. SYNOPTICON : An Exposition of the Common Matter of the Synop- tic Gospels. By W. G. Rushbrooke. Printed in Colours. 4to. 35s. net. Indispensable to a Theological Student. A SYNOPSIS OF THE GOSPELS IN GREEK AFTER THE WESTCOTT AND HORT TEXT. By Rev. Arthur Wright, M.A. Demy 4to. 6s. net. " Every such effort calls attention to facts which must not be overlooked, but yet to the scholar they are but as dust in the balance when weighed against such solid con- tributions as Rushbrooke's Synopticon or Wright's Synopsis, which provide instruments for investigation apart from theories."— Professor Armitage Robinson at Church Congress, Bradford, 1898. THE COMPOSITION OF THE FOUR GOSPELS. By Rev. Arthur Wright. Crown Svo. 5s. CAMBRIDGE REFIEIV.— "The wonderful force and freshness which we find on every page of the book. There is no sign of hastiness. All seems to be the outcome of years of reverent thought, now brought to light in the clearest, most telling way. . . . The book will hardly go unchallenged by the different schools of thought, but all will agree in gratitude at least for its vigour and reality." INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF THE FOUR GOSPELS.' By Right Rev. Bishop Westcott. Sth Ed. Cr. Svo. los. 6d. FOUR LECTURES ON THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE GOSPELS. By the Rev. J. H. Wilkinson, M.A., Rector of Stock Gaylard, Dorset. Crown Svo. 3s. net, THE LEADING IDEAS OF THE GOSPELS. By W. Alex- ander, D.D. Oxon., LL.D. Dublin, D.C.L. Oxon., Archbishop of Armagh, and Lord Primate of All Ireland. New Edition, Revised and Enlarged. Crown Svo. 6s. GU'ARDIAI\/'.—"ThQ originality of the general conception, _ the ingenious and poetical manner in which it is worked out, and the smallness of its size, give this volume special claims on the attention of non-theological readers." THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 7 The Gospels — continued. BRITISH JFEEICLV.—" Rea.\\y a new book. It sets before the reader with delicacy of thought and felicity of language the distinguishing characteristics of the several gospels. It is delightful reading. . . . Religious literature does not often furnish a book which may so confidently be recommended." Gospel of St. Matthew — THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. Greek Text as Revised by Bishop Westcott and Dr. HORT, With Intro- duction and Notes by Rev. A. Sloman, M. A. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. ^ MANCHESTER GUARDIAN.— " It is sound and helpful, and the brief introduc- tion on Hellenistic Greek is particularly good." Gospel of St. Mark— THE GREEK TEXT. With Introduction, Notes, and Indices. By Rev. H. B. Swete, D.D., Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge. 8vo. 1 5s. TIMES. — "A learned and scholarly performance, up to date with the most recent advances in New Testament criticism." SCHOOL READINGS IN THE GREEK TESTAMENT. Being the Outlines of the Life of our Lord as given by St. Mark, with additions from the Text of the other Evangelists. Edited, with Notes and Vocabulary, by Rev. A. Calvert, M. A. Fcap, 8vo. 2s. 6d. Gospel of St. Luke — THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. The Greek Text as Revised by Bishop Westcott and Dr. Hort. With Introduction and Notes by Rev. J. Bond, M.A. Fcap. Svo. 2s. 6d. GLASGOW HERALD. — "The notes are short and crisp — suggestive rather than exhaustive." THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. A Course of Lectures on the Gospel of St. Luke. By F. D. Maurice. Crown Svo. 3s. 6d. THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE IN GREEK, AFTER THE WESTCOTT AND HORT TEXT. Edited, with Parallels, Illustrations, Various Readings, and Notes, by the Rev. Arthur Wright, M.A. Demy 4to. 7s. 6d. net. Gospel of St. John — THE CENTRAL TEACHING OF CHRIST. Being a Study and Exposition of St. John, Chapters XIII. to XVII. By Rev. Canon Bernard, M.A. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. EXPOSITOR Y TIMES. — " Quite recently we have had an exposition by him whom many call the greatest expositor living. But Canon Bernard's work is still the work that will help the preacher most." THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. By F. D. Maurice. Cr.8vo. 3s. 6d. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. ADDRESSES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. By the late Archbishop Benson. 8vo. [In the Press. THE OLD SYRIAC ELEMENT IN THE TEXT OF THE CODEX BEZAE. By F. H. Chase, B.D. Svo. 7s. 6d. net- THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES IN GREEK AND ENGLISH. With Notes by Rev. F. Rendall, M.A. Cr. 8vo. 9s. 8 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S The Acts of the Apostles — co?iti?ttied. SATURDAY REVIEW.— "Mr. Rendall has given us a very useful as well as a very scholarly book. " BRITISH IVEEKLV.— "On the whole the book isa valuable addition to New Testament literature, being thoroughly up-to-date both in its scholarship and in its general information and critical judgment." MANCHESTER GUARDIAN.—'' Mr. Rendall is a careful scholar and a thought- ful writer, and the student may learn a good deal from his commentary." THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. By F. D. Maurice. Cr. 8vo. 3s. 6d. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. Being the Greek Text as Revised by Bishop Westcott and Dr. HoRT. With Explanatory Notes by T. E. Page, M.A. Fcap. 8vo. 3s. 6d. ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. The Authorised Version, with Intro- duction and Notes, by T. E. Page, M.A., and Rev. A. S. Walpole, M.A. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. BRITISH WEEKLY.—'' Mr. Page's Notes on the Greek Text of the Acts are very well known, and are decidedly scholarly and individual, . . . Mr. Page has written an introduction which is brief, scholarly, and suggestive." SCOTSMAN. — " It is a much more scholarly edition than is usually found prepared for use in schools, and yet keeps its learning well within the limits of the needs and the capacities of j'oung students of the Bible." THE CHURCH OF THE FIRST DAYS. The Church of Jerusalem. The Church of the Gentiles, The Church OF the World. Lectures on the Acts of the Apostles. By Very Rev. C. J. Vaughan. Crovi^n Bvo. los, 6d. THE EPISTLES of St. Paul— ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. The Greek Text, with English Notes. By Very Rev. C. J. Vaughan. 7th Edition. Crown Svo. 7s. 6d. ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. A New Transla- tion by Rev. W. G. Rutherford. Svo. 3s. 6d. net. PILOT. — "Small as the volume is, it has very much to say, not only to professed students of the New Testament, but also to the ordinary reader of the Bible. . . . The layman who buys the book will be grateful to one who helps him to realise that this per- plexing Epistle ' was once a plain letter concerned with a theme which plain men might understand.' " PROLEGOMENA TO ST. PAUL'S EPISTLES TO THE ROMANS AND THE EPHESIANS. By Rev. F. J. A. Hort. Crown Svo. 6s. Dr. Marcus Dods in the Bookman. — "Anything from the pen of Dr. Hort is sure to be informative and suggestive, and the present publication bears his mark. . . . There is an air of originality about the whole discussion ; the difficulties are candidly faced, and the explanations offered appeal to our sense of what is reasonable." TIMES. — " Will be welcomed by all theologians as ' an invaluable contribution to the study of those Epistles ' as the editor of the volume justly calls it." DAILY CHRONICLE.— " The lectures are an important contribution to the study of the famous Epistles of which they treat." THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. An Essay on its Destination and Date. By E. H. Askvvith, M.A. Crown Svo. 3s. 6d. net. ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. A Revised Text, with Introduction, Notes, and Dissertations. By Bishop Lightfoot. loth Edition. Svo. 12s. THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 9 The Epistles of St. Paul — co7timued. ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS. Greek Text, with Introduction and Notes. By Canon J. Armitage Robinson. 8vo. [In the Press. ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. A Revised Text, with Introduction, Notes, and Dissertations. By Bishop LiGHTFOOT. 9th Edition. 8vo. 12s. ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. With transla- tion, Paraphrase, and Notes for English Readers. By Very Rev. C. J. Vaughan. Crown 8vo. 5s. ST. PAUL'S EPISTLES TO THE COLOSSIANS AND TO PHILEMON. A Revised Text, with Introductions, etc. By Bishop LiGHTFOOT. 9th Edition. Svo. 12s. THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. Analysis and Ex- amination Notes. By Rev. G. W. Garrod. Crown Svo. 3s. net, THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. With Analysis and Notes by the Rev. G. W. Garrod, B.A. Crown Svo. 2s. 6d. net. THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL TO THE EPHESIANS, THE COLOSSIANS, AND PHILEMON. With Introductions and Notes. By Rev. J. Ll. Davies. 2nd Edition. Svo. 7s. 6d. THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. For English Readers. Part I. con- taining the First Epistle to the Thessalonians. By Very Rev. C. J. Vaughan. 2nd Edition. Svo. Sewed, is. 6d. NOTES ON EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL FROM UNPUBLISHED COMMENTARIES. By the late J. B. Lightfoot, D.D., D.C.L., LL.D., Lord Bishop of Durham. Svo. 12s. The Epistles of St. Peter— THE FIRST EPISTLE OF ST. PETER, L i to ILi;. The Greek Text, with Introductory Lecture, Commentary, and additional Notes. By the late F. J. A. Hort, D.D., D.C.L., LL.D. Svo. 6s. THE FIRST EPISTLE OF ST. PETER (Greek Text). By J. Howard B. Masterman, Principal of the Midland Clergy College, Edgbaston, Birmingham. [/« the Press. The Epistle of St, James — THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES. The Greek Text, with Intro- duction and Notes. By Rev. Joseph B. Mayor, M.A. 2nd Edition. Svo. 14s. net. EXPOSITORY TIMES.— "The most complete edition of St. James in the English language, and the most serviceable for the student of Greek." BOOKMA N. — " Professor Mayor's volume in every part of it gives proof that no time or labour has been grudged in mastering this mass of literature, and that in appraising it he has exercised the sound judgment of a thoroughly trained scholar and critic. . . . The notes are uniformly characterised by thorough scholarship and unfailing sense. The notes resemble rather those of Lightfoot than those of Ellicott. ... It is a pleasure to welcome a book which does credit to English learning, and which will take, and keep, a foremost place in Biblical literature." 10 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S The Epistles of St. John— SCOTSMAIV.—" It is a work which sums up many others, and to any one who wishes to make a thorough study of the Epistle of St. James, it will prove indispensable." EXPOSITOR (Dr. Marcus Dods).—" Will long remain the commentary on St. James, a storehouse to which all subsequent students of the epistle must be indebted." THE EPISTLES OF ST. JOHN. By F. D. Maurice. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. THE EPISTLES OF ST. JOHN. The Greek Text, with Notes. By Right Rev. Bishop Westcott. 3rd Edition. 8vo. 12s. 6d. GUARDIAN. — " It contains a new or rather revised text, with careful critical remarks and helps ; very copious footnotes on the text ; and after each of the chapters, longer and more elaborate notes in treatment of leading or difficult questions, whether in respect of reading or theology. . . . Dr. Westcott has accumulated round them so much matter that, if not new, was forgotten, or generally unobserved, and has thrown so much light upon their language, theology, and characteristics. . . . The notes, critical, illustrative, and exegetical, which are given beneath the text, are extraordinarily full and careful. . . . They exhibit the same minute analysis of every phrase and word, the same scrupulous weighing of every inflection and variation that characterised Dr. Westcott's commentary on the Gospel. . . . There is scarcely a syllable throughout the Epistles which is dismissed without having undergone the most anxious interrogation." SA TURD A Y REVIEW. — " The more we examine this precious volume the more its exceeding richness in spiritual as well as in literary material grows upon the mind." The Epistle to the Hebrews — THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS IN GREEK AND ENGLISH. With Notes. By Rev. F. Rendall. Cr. 8vo. 6s. THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. English Text, with Com- mentary. By the same. Crown Svo. 7s. 6d. THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. With Notes. By Very Rev. C. J. Vaughan. Crown Svo. 7s. 6d. TIMES. — "The name and reputation of the Dean of Llandaff are a better recom- mendation than we can give of the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Greek te.xt, with notes ; an edition which represents the results of more than thirty years' experience in the training of students for ordination." THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. The Greek Text, with Notes and Essays. By Right Rev. Bishop Westcott. Svo. 14s. GUARDIAN. — " In form this is a companion volume to that upon the Epistles of St. John. The type is excellent, the printing careful, the index thorough ; and the volume contains a full introduction, followed by the Greek text, with a running commentary, and a number of additional notes on verbal and doctrinal points which needed fuller discus- sion. . . . His conception of inspiration is further illustrated by the treatment of the Old Testament in the Epistle, and the additional notes that bear on this point deserve very careful study. The spirit in which the student should approach the perplexing questions of Old Testament criticism could not be better described than it is in the last essay." The Book of Revelations — THE APOCALYPSE. A Study. By the late Archbishop Ben- son. Svo. 8s. 6d. net. LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE. By Rev. Prof. W. Milligan. Crown Svo. 5s. DISCUSSIONS ON THE APOCALYPSE. By the same. Cr. Svo. 5s. SCOTSMAN. — "These discussions give an interesting and valuable account and criticism of the present state of theological opinion and research in connection with their subject." SCOTTISH GUARDIAN.—'' The great merit of the book is the patient and skilful way in which it has brought the whole discussion down to the present day. . . . The result is a volume which many will value highly, and which will not, we thmk, soon be superseded." THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE li LECTURES ON THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. By Very Rev. C. J. Vaughan, 5th Edition. Crown 8vo. los. 6d. THE CHRISTIAN PROPHETS AND THE PROPPIETIC APOCALYPSE. By Edward Carus Selwyn, D.D. {In the Press. THE BIBLE WORD-BOOK. By W. Alois Wright, Litt.D., LL.D. 2nd Edition. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. Cbri6tian Cburcb, Ibietor? of tbe Clieetham(Archdeacon).— A HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH DURING THE FIRST SIX CENTURIES. Cr. 8vo. I OS. 6d. TIMES. — " A brief but authoritative summary of early ecclesiastical history." GLASGOW HERALD. — " Particularly clear in its exposition, systematic in its dis- position and development, and as light and attractive in style as could reasonably be expected from the nature of the subject." Gwatkin(H.M.)— SELECTIONS FROM EARLY WRITERS Illustrative of Church History to the Time of Constantine. 2nd Edition. Revised and Enlarged. Cr. Svo. 4s. 6d. net. To this edition have been prefixed short accounts of the writers from whom the passages are selected. Hardwick (Archdeacon).— A HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Middle Age. Ed. by Bishop Stubbs. Cr. Svo. ios. 6d. A HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH DURING THE REFORMATION. Revised by Bishop Stubbs. Cr. Svo. los. 6d. Hort (Dr. F. J. A.)— TWO DISSERTATIONS. I. On MONOFENHS GEOS in Scripture and Tradition. II. On the "Constantinopolitan " Creed and other Eastern Creeds of the Fourth Century. Svo. 7s. 6d. JUDAISTIC CHRISTIANITY. Crown Svo. 6s. THE CHRISTIAN ECCLESIA. A Course of Lectures on the Early History and Early Conceptions of the Ecclesia, and Four Sermons. Crown Svo. 6s. Kriiger (Dr. G.)— HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN LITERATURE IN THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. Cr. Svo. 8s. 6d. net. Simpson (W.)— AN EPITOME OF THE HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Fcap. Svo. 3s. 6d. Sohm (Prof.) — OUTLINES OF CHURCH HISTORY. Translated by Miss May Sinclair. With a Preface by Prof. H. M. GvvATKiN, M.A. Crown Svo. 3s. 6d. MANCHESTER GUARDIAN.—'' It fully deserves the praise given to it by Pro- fessor Gwatkin (who contributes a preface to this translation) of being ' neither a meagre sketch nor a confused mass of facts, but a masterly outline,' and it really 'supplies a want,' as affording to the intelligent reader who has no time or interest in details, a con- nected general view of the whole vast field of ecclesiastical history." 12 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S Vaughan (Very Rev. C. J., Dean of Llandaflf).— THE CHURCH OF THE FIRST DAYS. The Church of Jerusalem. The Church of the Gentiles. The Church of the World. Crown 8vo. ids. 6d. ^be Cburcb of lenalanb Catechism of — CATECHISM AND CONFIRMATION. By Rev. J. C. P. Aldous. Pott 8vo. IS. net. THOSE HOLY MYSTERIES. By Rev. J. C. P. Aldous. Pott 8vo. IS. net. A CLASS-BOOK OF THE CATECHISM OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. By Rev. Canon Maclear. Pott Svo. is. 6d. A FIRST CLASS-BOOK OF THE CATECHISM OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, with Scripture Proofs for Junior Classes and Schools. By the same. Pott Svo. 6d. TPIE ORDER OF CONFIRMATION, with Prayers and Devo- tions. By the Rev. Canon Maclear. 32mo. 6d. NOTES FOR LECTURES ON CONFIRMATION. By the Rev. C. J. Vaughan, D.D. Pott Svo. is. 6d. Disestablishment — DISESTABLISHMENT AND DISENDOWMENT. What are they? By Prof. E. A. Freeman. 4th Edition. Crown Svo. is. A DEFENCE OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND AGAINST DISESTABLISHMENT. By Roundell, Earl of Selborne. Crown Svo. 2s. 6d. ANCIENT FACTS & FICTIONS CONCERNING CHURCHES AND TITHES. By the same. 2nd Edition. Crown Svo. 7s. 6d. A HANDBOOK ON WELSH CHURCH DEFENCE. By the Bishop of St. Asaph. 3rd Edition. Fcap. Svo. Sewed, 6d, Dissent in its Relation to — DISSENT IN ITS RELATION TO THE CHURCH OF ENG- LAND. By Rev. G. H. CURTEIS. Bampton Lectures for 187 1. Crown Svo. 7s. 6d, History of — HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. Edited by the Dean of Winchester. In Seven Volumes. Vol. I. HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND PRIOR TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST. By the Rev. W. Hunt, M.A. Cr. Svo, 7s. 6d. Vol. II. THE ENGLISH CHURCH FROM THE NOR- MAN CONQUEST TO THE CLOSE OF THE THIR- TEENTH CENTURY. By the Dean of Winchester. [Shortly. Vol. III. THE ENGLISH CHURCH IN THE FOUR- TEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES {1372-1486). By the Rev. Canon Capes, sometime Reader of Ancient History in the University of Oxford. 7s. 6d. [J^ead)'. Other Volumes to follow. THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 13 History of — continued. THE STATE AND THE CHURCH. By the Hon. Arthur Elliot. New Edition. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d. DOCUMENTS ILLUSTRATIVE OF ENGLISH CHURCH HISTORY. Compiled from Original Sources by Henry Gee, B.D., F.S.A., and W. J. Hardy, F.S.A. Cr. 8vo. los. 6d. ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW.—'' Will be welcomed alike by students and by a much wider circle of readers interested in the history of the Church of England. 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ATHEN.^UM. — "The most impartial, the most instructive, and the most interest- ing of histories." THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF THE VERY REV. WALTER FARQUHAR HOOK, D.D. By the Very Rev. W. R. W. Stephens, F.S.A., Dean of Winchester. Crown 8vo. 7th Edi- tion. With Portrait. 6s. LIFE AND LETTERS OF ARCHBISHOP BENSON. By his Son. Two Vols. 8vo. 36s. net. Abridged Edition. In one Vol. \In the Press. LIFE AND LETTERS OF AMBROSE PHILLIPPS DE LISLE. By E. S. Purcell. Two Vols. 8vo. 25s. net. THE OXFORD MOVEMENT. Twelve Years, 1833-45. By Dean Church. Globe 8vo. 5s. THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF R. W. CHURCH, late Dean of St. Paul's. Globe 8vo. 5s. JAMES ERASER, Second Bishop of Manchester. A Memoir. 18 1 8- 1885. By Thomas Hughes, Q.C. 2nd Ed. Crown 8vo. 6s. THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 15 Historical and Biographical — continued, LIFE AND LETTERS OF FENTON JOHN ANTHONY HORT, D.D., D.C.L., LL.D., sometime Hulsean Professor and Lady Margaret's Reader in Divinity in the University of Cambridge. 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MANCHESTER GUARDIAN.— '' K conspectus of these early and intensely in- teresting Christian ' Documents ' such as had not hitherto been attainable, and thereby renders a priceless service to all serious students of Christian theology, and even of Roman history." NATIONAL OBSERVER.—" From the account of its contents, the student may appreciate the value of this last work of a great scholar, and its helpfulness as an aid to an intelligent examination of the earliest post-Apostolic writers. The texts are con- structed on the most careful collation of all the existing sources. The introductions are brief, lucid, and thoroughly explanatory of the historical and critical questions related to the texts. The introduction to the Didache, and the translation of the ' Church Manual of Early Christianity,' are peculiarly interesting, as giving at once an admirable version of it, and the opinion of the first of English biblical critics on the latest discovery in patristic literature." Ib^mnologi? Bernard (T. D.)— THE SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY. Being Studies of the Benedictus, Magnificat, Gloria in Excelsis, and Nunc Dimittis. Crown Svo. 5s. i8 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S Brooke (S. A.)— CHRISTIAN HYMNS. Edited and arranged. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. net. Selborne (Roundell, Earl of) — THE BOOK OF PRAISE. From the best English Hymn Writers. Pott 8vo. 2s. 6d. net. A HYMNAL. Chiefly from The Book of Praise. In various sizes. B. Pott Svo, larger type. is. — C. Same Edition, fine paper, is. 6d. — An Edition with Music, Selected, Harmonised, and Composed by John Hullah. Pott Svo. 3s. 6d. Woods (M. A.) — HYMNS FOR SCHOOL WORSHIR Compiled by M. A. Woods. Pott Svo. is. 6d. 1RellQ(ou0 ^eacbing Bell (Rev. G. C.)— RELIGIOUS TEACHING IN SECOND- ARY SCHOOLS. For Teachers and Parents. Suggestions as to Lessons on the Bible, Early Church History, Christian Evidences, etc. By the Rev. G. C. Bell, M.A., Master of Marlborough College. 2nd Edition. With new chapter on Christian Ethic. Crown Svo. 3s. 6d. 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For the carrjang out of this, and also for his criticism of prevailing methods, all teachers owe Mr. Bell a debt of gratitude ; and_ if any are roused to a due sense of their responsibility in this matter, he will feel that his book has not been written in vain." Palmer (Florence U-)— ONE YEAR OF SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSONS FOR YOUNG CHILDREN. Adapted for use in the Youngest Classes. Pott 4to. 4s. 6d. Sermone, Xecturee, ab^re59e0, anb ^beoIoQical lEeea^a {See also ^ Bible ^^ ' Church of England ^ ^Fathers'') Abbott (Rev. E. A.)— CAMBRIDGE SERMONS. Svo. 6s. OXFORD SERMONS. Svo. 7s. 6d. PHILOMYTHUS. An Antidote against Credulity. A discussion of Cardinal Newman's Essay on Ecclesiastical Miracles. 2nd Edition. Crown Svo. 3s. 6d. THE SPIRIT ON THE WATERS, OR DIVINE EVOLU- TION AS THE BASIS OF CHRISTIAN BELIEF. Svo. I2S. 6d. net. THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 19 Abrahams (L)—Montefiore (C. G.)— ASPECTS OF JUDAISM. Being Sixteen Sermons. 2nd Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 3s. 6d. net. 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To use the words of its author, this book is offered "to readers of Scripture as expository of a distinct portion of the Holy Word ; to wor- shippers in the congregation as a devotional commentary on the hymns which they use ; to those keeping Christmas, as a contribution to the ever- welcome thoughts of that blessed season ; to all Christian people who, in the midst of the historical elaboration of Christianity, find it good to re- enter from time to time the clear atmosphere of its origin, and are fain in the heat of the day to recover some feeling of the freshness of dawn, " C 20 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S GLASGOW HERALD.— "He. conveys much useful information in a scholarly way." SCOTSMAN.—" Their meaning and their relationships, the reasons why the Church has adopted them, and many other kindred points, are touched upon in the book with so well-explained a learning and with so much insight that the book will be highly valued by those interested in its subject." Boutflower (C. 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Edited with an Introductory Narrative, by his Son, DoNALD CAMPBELL, M.A. Crown Svo. 7s. 6d. THOUGHTS ON REVELATION. 2nd Edition. Crown Svo. 5s. RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE GIFT OF ETERNAL LIFE. Compiled from Sermons preached at Row, in the years 1829-31. Crown Svo. 5 s. Canterbury (Frederick, Archbishop of) — SERMONS PREACHED IN THE CHAPEL OF RUGBY SCHOOL. Extra Fcap. Svo. 4s. 6d. SECOND SERIES. 3rd Ed. 6s. THIRD SERIES. 4th Edition. 6s. THE RELATIONS BETWEEN RELIGION AND SCIENCE. Bampton Lectures, 18S4. 7th and Cheaper Ed. Cr. Svo. 6s. CHARGE DELIVERED AT HIS FIRST VISITATION. Svo. Sewed, is. net. (i) The Doctrine of the Eucharist; (2) The Practice of Confession; (3) Uniformity in Ceremonial ; (4) The Power of the Bishops. THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 21 Carpenter (W. Boyd, Bishop of Ripon) — TRUTH IN TALE. Addresses, chiefly to Children. Crown 8vo. 4s. 6d. THE PERMANENT ELEMENTS OF RELIGION: Bampton Lectures, 1887. 2nd Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. TWILIGHT DREAMS. Crown 8vo. 4s. 6d. 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TIMES. — " In these sermons we see how a singularly gifted and cultivated mind was able to communicate its thoughts on the highest subjects to those with whom it might be supposed to have little in common. . . . His village sermons are not the by-work of one whose interests were elsewhere in higher matters. They are the outcome of his deepest interests and of the life of his choice. . . . These sermons are worth perusal, if only to shew what preaching, even to the humble and unlearned hearers, may be made in really competent hands." CATHEDRAL AND UNIVERSITY SERMONS. Crown 8vo. 6s. PASCAL AND OTHER SERMONS. Crown 8vo. 6s. TIMES. — " They are all eminently characteristic of one of the most saintly of modern divines, and one of the most scholarly of modern men of letters." SPECTATOR. — "Dean Church's seem to us the finest sermons published since Newman's, even Dr. Liddon's rich and eloquent discourses not excepted, — and they breathe more of the spirit of perfect peace than even Newman's. They cannot be called High Church or Broad Church, much less Low Church sermons ; they are simply the sermons of a good scholar, a great thinker, and a firm and serene Christian." 22 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S CLERGYMAN'S SELF-EXAMINATION CONCERNING THE APOSTLES' CREED. Extra fcap. 8vo. is. 6d. A CONFESSION OF FAITH. By an Unorthodox Believer. Fcap. 8vo. 3s. 6d. GRAPHIC. — "The book not only abounds with spiritual charm and metaphysical insight, but it is an excellent specimen of good hard thinking and close reasoning, in which the reader will find plenty of capital exercise for the intellectual muscles." Congreve (Rev. John).— HIGH HOPES AND PLEADINGS FOR A REASONABLE FAITH, NOBLER THOUGHTS, LARGER CHARITY. Crown 8vo. 5s. 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ORDER AND GROWTH AS INVOLVED IN THE SPIRITUAL CONSTITUTION OF HUMAN SOCIETY. Crown Svo. 3s. 6d. GLASGOW HERALD. — "This is a wise and suggestive book, touching upon many of the more interesting questions of the present day. ... A book as full of hope as it is of ability." MANCHESTER GUARDIAN.— ""Re says what he means, but never more than' he means ; and hence his words carry weight with many to whom the ordinary sermon would appeal in vain. . . . The whole book is well worth study." ABERDEEN DAIL Y FREE PRESS.—" An able discussion of the true basis and aim of social progress." 6"C<97'.S"7J/^i\^.— "Thoughtful and suggestive." SPIRITUAL APPREHENSION: Sermons and Papers. Crown Svo. 6s. Davies (W.) — THE PILGRIM OF THE INFINITE. A Discourse addressed to Advanced Religious Thinkers on Christian Lines. By Wm. Davies. Fcap. Svo. 3s. 6d. CHRISTIAN JVORLD.—"\Ve hail this work as one which in an age of much mental unrest sounds a note of faith which appeals confidently to the highest intellect, inasmuch as it springs out of the clearest intuitions of the human spirit." THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 23 Ellerton (Rev. John).— THE HOLIEST MANHOOD, AND ITS LESSONS FOR BUSY LIVES. Crown 8vo. 6s. English Theological Library. Edited by Rev. Frederic Relton. With General Introduction by the late Lord Bishop of London. A Series of Texts Annotated for the Use of Students, Candidates for Ordination, etc. 8vo. I. HOOKER'S ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY, Book V., Edited by Rev. Ronald E. Bayne. {In the Press, IL LAW'S SERIOUS CALL, Edited by Rev. Canon J. H. Overton. 8s. 6d. net. DAILY NEWS. — "A well-executed reprint. . . . Canon Overton's notes are not numerous, and are as a rule very interesting and useful." CAMBRIDGE REVIEW.— '' h. welcome reprint. ... All that it should be in paper and appearance, and the reputation of the editor is a guarantee for the accuracy and fairness of the notes." III. WILSON'S MAXIMS, Edited by Rev. F. Relton. 5s. 6d. net. _Gf/yii?i?/^7V.— "Many readers will feel grateful to Mr. Relton for this edition of Bishop Wilson's ' Maxims.' . . . Mr. Relton's edition will be found well worth posses- sing : it is pleasant to the eye, and bears legible marks of industry and study." EXPOSITORY TIMES. — " In an introduction of some twenty pages, he tells us all we need to know of Bishop Wilson and of his maxims. Then he gives us the maxims themselves in most perfect form, and schools himself to add at the bottom of the page such notes as are absolutely necessary to their understanding, and nothing more." IV. THE WORKS OF BISHOP BUTLER. Vol. I. Sermons. Vol. II. The Analogy of Religion, and two brief dissertations : I. Of Personal Identity. II. Of the Nature of Virtue. Edited by J. H. Bernard, D.D. \In the Press. {Other volumes are in preparation. '\ EVIL AND EVOLUTION. An attempt to turn the Light of Modern Science on to the Ancient Mystery of Evil. By the author of The Social Horizon. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. net. EXPOSITOR Y TIMES.—" The book is well worth the interest it is almost certain to excite." CHURCH TIMES. — "There can be no question about the courage or the keen logic and the lucid style of this fascinating treatment of a problem which is of pathetic interest to all of us. . . . It deserves to be studied by all, and no one who reads it can fail to be struck by it." FAITH AND CONDUCT : An Essay on Verifiable Religion. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. Farrar (Very Rev. F. W., Dean of Canterbury) — THE HISTORY OF INTERPRETATION. Being the Bampton Lectures, 1885. 8vo. i6s. Collected Edition of the Sermons, etc. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. each. SEEKERS AFTER GOD. ETERNAL HOPE. Sermons Preached in Westminster Abbey. THE FALL OF MAN, and other Sermons. THE WITNESS OF HISTORY TO CHRIST. Hulsean Lectures. THE SILENCE AND VOICES OF GOD. IN THE DAYS OF THY YOUTH. Sermons on Practical Subjects. SAINTLY WORKERS. Five Lenten Lectures. EPHPHATHA : or. The AmeHoration of the World. 24 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S Farrar (Very Rev. F. W., Dean of Canterbury) — continued. MERCY AND JUDGMENT. A few words on Christian Eschatology. SERMONS AND ADDRESSES delivered in America. Fiske (John).— MAN'S DESTINY VIEWED IN THE LIGHT OF HIS ORIGIN. Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d. Foxell (W. J.)— GOD'S GARDEN : Sunday Talks with Boys. With an Introduction by Dean Farrar. Globe 8vo. 3s. 6d. SPEAKER. — "Deals with obvious problems of faith and conduct in a strain^ of vigorous simplicity, and with an evident knowledge of the needs, the moods, the diffi- culties of boy-life. It is the kind of book which instils lessons of courage, trust, patience, and forbearance ; and does so quite as much by example as by precept." IN A PLAIN PATH. Addresses to Boys. Globe 8vo. 3s. 6d. SPEAKER. — " He handles with admirable vigour, and real discernment of a boy's difficulties, such high themes as the use of time, noble revenge, the true gentleman, the noblest victory, and progress through failure. There is nothing childish in the method of treatment, and yet we feel sure that a man who spoke to a congregation of lads in this fashion would not talk over the head of the youngest, and yet find his way to the hearts of those who are just passing from the restraints of school to the responsibilities of life." Fraser (Bishop). — UNIVERSITY SERMONS. Edited by Rev. John W. Diggle. Crown 8vo. 6s. Furse (Archdeacon).— A NATIONAL CHURCH. 8vo. 6d. Goodspeed(G. S.)— ISRAEL'S MESSIANIC HOPE TO THE TIME OF JESUS : A Study in the Historical Development of the Foreshadowings of the Christ in the Old Testament and beyond. Crown 8vo. 6s. Grane (W. L.)— THE WORD AND THE WAY: or, The Light of the Ages on the Path of To-Day. Crown Svo. 6s. HARD SAYINGS OF JESUS CHRIST. 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They carry us in the most wonderful way to the very centre of the Christian system ; no aspect of truth, no part of the world, seems to be left out of view ; while in every page we recog- nise the gathered fruits of a rare scholarship in the service of an unwearying thought." THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 25 Hort (F. J. A.) — continued. JUDAISTIC CHRISTIANITY. Crown 8vo. 6s. SCOTSMAN.— ^^^\v'^ great merit of Dr. Hort's lectures is that succinctly and yet fully, and in a clear and interesting and suggestive manner, they give us not only his own opinions, but whatever of worth has been advanced on the subject." GLASGOW HERALD.— "\N\\\ receive a respectful welcome at the hands of all biblical scholars. ... A model of exact and patient scholarship, controlled by robust English sagacity, and it is safe to say that it will take a high place in the literature of the subject." VILLAGE SERMONS. Crown 8vo. 6s. Selected from the Sermons preached by Professor Hort to his village congregation at St. Ippolyt's, and including a series of Sermons dealing in a broad and suggestive way with the successive books of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelations. VILLAGE SERMONS IN OUTLINE. Crown 8vo. 6s. Contents : I. The Prayer Book, 16 Sermons. II. Baptism, 5 Sermons. III. Mutual Subjection the Rule of Life (Eph. v. 21), 6 Sermons. IV. The Sermon on the Mount (St. Matt. v. i ; vii. 29), 1 1 Sermons. V. Advent, 4 Sermons. VI. The Armour of the Cross. VII. The Resurrection, 7 Sermons. CAMBRIDGE AND OTHER SERMONS. Crown Svo. 6s. Hughes (T.)— THE MANLINESS OF CHRIST. 2nd Ed. Fcap. 8vo. 3s. 6d. GLOBE.—" The Manliness of Christ is a species of lay sermon such as Judge Hughes is well qualified to deliver, seeing that manliness of thought and feeling has been the prevailing characteristic of all his literary products." BRITISH iVEEKLY.—'' An&wf edition of a strong book." Hutton (R. H.)— ESSAYS ON SOME OF THE MODERN GUIDES OF ENG- LISH THOUGHT IN MATTERS OF FAITH. Globe Svo. 5s. THEOLOGICAL ESSAYS. Globe 8vo. 5s. ASPECTS OF RELIGIOUS AND SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. Selected from the Spectator, and edited by E. M. ROSCOE. Globe 8vo. 5s. Hyde (W. De W.)— OUTLINES OF SOCIAL THEOLOGY. Crown 8vo. 6s. Dr. Hyde thus describes the object of his book : "This little book aims to point out the logical relations in which the doctrines of theology will stand to each other when the time shall come again for seeing Christian truth in the light of reason and Christian Hfe as the embodiment of love." PRACTICAL IDEALISM. Globe 8vo. 5s. net. lUingworth (Rev. J. R.)— SERMONS PREACHED IN A COLLEGE CHAPEL. Crown 8vo. 5s. UNIVERSITY AND CATHEDRAL SERMONS. Crown Svo. 5s. PERSONALITY, DIVINE AND HUMAN. Bampton Lectures, 1S94. Crown Svo. 6s. TIMES.—'' Will take high rank among the rare theological masterpieces produced by that celebrated foundation." EXPOSITOR.— '' It is difficult to convey an adequate impression of the_ freshness and strength of the whole argument. . . . It is a book which no one can be satisfied with reading once *, it is to be studied." 26 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S lUingwortli (Rev. J. R.) — continued. DIVINE IMMANENCE. An Essay on the Spiritual Significance of Matter. New Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s. CHURCH QUARTERLY REVIEW.—'' K very valuable book. . . _. Divine Itnmanejtce is likely to prove of great service to Christian truth. It combines, to a remarkable extent, profound thought and clear expression. It is [throughout written in an interesting style." Gi/^/?/)/^^^.— "Altogether, we have rarely read a book of such philosophical earnestness in construing the Christian view of existence in terms of the thought and knowledge of these days, nor one more likely to bring home the knowledge of a Saviour to the modern man." Jacob (Rev. J. A.) — BUILDING IN SILENCE, and other Sermons. Extra fcap. 8vo. 6s. James (Rev. Herbert).— THE COUNTRY CLERGYMAN AND HIS WORK. Crown 8vo. 6s. 7?£C6>/?Z>.— "The volume is one which should be in the hands of every candidate for Holy Orders and of every clergyman who is wishing to learn." Jayne (F. J., Bishopof Chester).— THE VISITATION OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. A Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese at his third Visitation, October 29, 1896. 6d. Jellett (Rev. Dr.)— THE ELDER SON, and other Sermons. Crown 8vo. 6s. Joceline (E.)— THE MOTHER'S LEGACIE TO HER UN- BORN CHILD. Cr. i6mo. 4s. 6d. Jones (Jenkin Lloyd).— JESS: BITS OF V^AYSIDE GOSPEL. Cr. 8vo. 6s. Kellogg (Rev. S. H.)— THE LIGHT OF ASIA AND THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. THE GENESIS AND GROWTH OF RELIGION. Cr. 8vo. 6s. SCOTSMAN. — " Full of matter of an important kind, set forth with praiseworthy conciseness, and at the same time with admirable lucidity. . . . Dr. Kellogg has done the work allotted to him with great ability, and everywhere manifests a competent ac- quaintance with the subject with which he deals." Kingsley (Charles) — VILLAGE AND TOWN AND COUNTRY SERMONS. Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d. THE WATER OF LIFE, and other Sermons. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. • SERMONS ON NATIONAL SUBJECTS, AND THE KING OF THE EARTH. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. SERMONS FOR THE TIMES. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. GOOD NEWS OF GOD. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. THE GOSPEL OF THE PENTATEUCH, AND DAVID. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. DISCIPLINE, and other Sermons. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. WESTMINSTER SERMONS. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. ALL SAINTS' DAY, and other Sermons. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. ACADEMY. — "We can imagine nothing more appropriate than this edition for a public, a school, or even a village library." THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 27 Eirkpatrick (Prof. A. F.)— THE DIVINE LIBRARY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. Its Origin, Preservation, Inspiration, and Permanent Value. Crown 8vo. 3s. net. THE DOCTRINE OF THE PROPHETS. Warburtonian Lectures 1886- 1 890. 2nd Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. Knight (W. A.)— ASPECTS OF THEISM. 8vo. 8s. 6d. LETTERS FROM HELL. Newly translated from the Danish. With an Introduction by Dr. George Macdonald. Twenty-eighth Thousand. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d. Lightfoot (Bishop) — LEADERS IN THE NORTHERN CHURCH : Sermons Preached in the Diocese of Durham. 2nd Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. ORDINATION ADDRESSES AND COUNSELS TO CLERGY. Crown 8vo. 6s. CAMBRIDGE SERMONS. Crown 8vo. 6s. SERMONS PREACHED IN ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL. Crown 8vo. 6s. SERMONS PREACHED ON SPECIAL OCCASIONS. Crown 8vo. 6s. A CHARGE DELIVERED TO THE CLERGY OF THE DIOCESE OF DURHAM, 25th Nov. 1886. Demy 8vo. 2s. ESSAYS ON THE WORK ENTITLED "Supernatural Reli- gion." 8vo. IDS. 6d. DISSERTATIONS ON THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 8vo. 14s. BIBLICAL ESSAYS. 8vo. 12s. TIMES. — " As representing all that is now available of the Bishop's profound learning and consummate scholarship for the illustration of his great subject, the present volume and its successor will be warmly welcomed by all students of theology." Macmillan (Rev. Hugh) — BIBLE TEACHINGS IN NATURE. 15th Ed. Globe 8vo. 6s. THE TRUE VINE ; OR, THE ANALOGIES OF OUR LORD'S ALLEGORY. 5th Edition. Globe 8vo. 6s. THE MINISTRY OF NAT^E. 8th Edition. Globe 8vo. 6s. THE SABBATH OF THE IWELDS. 6th Edition. Globe 8vo. 6s. THE MARRIAGE IN CANA. Globe 8vo. 6s. TWO WORLDS ARE OURS. 3rd Edition. Globe 8vo. 6s. THE OLIVE LEAF. Globe 8vo. 6s. THE GATE BEAUTIFUL AND OTHER BIBLE TEACHINGS FOR THE YOUNG. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. SPEA KER. — "These addresses are, in fact, models of their kind — wise, reverent, and not less imaginative than practical ; they abound in choice and apposite anecdotes and illustrations, and possess distinct literary merit." DAILY CHRONICLE.— '"Yh& poetic touch that beautifies all Dr. Macmillan's writing is fresh in every one of these charming addresses. The volume is sure to meet with cordial appreciation far beyond the sphere of its origin." GLEANINGS IN HOLY FIELDS. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. Mahaffy (Rev. Prof.)— THE DECAY OF MODERN PREACH- ING : AN ESSAY. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. 28 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S Marshall (H. Rutgers)— INSTINCT AND REASON: An Essay with some Special Study of the Nature of Religion. 8vo. I2S. 6d. net. Mathews (S.).— THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF JESUS. AN ESSAY IN CHRISTIAN SOCIOLOGY. Crown Svo. 6s. Maurice (Frederick Denison) — THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 3rd Ed. 2 Vols. Cr. Svo. 12s. THE CONSCIENCE. Lectures on Casuistry. 3rd Ed. Cr. Svo. 4s. 6d. DIALOGUES ON FAMILY WORSHIR Crown Svo. 4s. 6d. THE DOCTRINE OF SACRIFICE DEDUCED FROM THE SCRIPTURES. 2nd Edition. Crown Svo. 6s. THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 6th Edition. Cr. Svo. 4s. 6d. ON THE SABBATH DAY; THE CHARACTER OF THE WARRIOR; AND ON THE INTERPRETATION OF HISTORY. Fcap. Svo. 2s. 6d. LEARNING AND WORKING. Crown Svo. 4s. 6d. THE LORD'S PRAYER, THE CREED, AND THE COM- MANDMENTS. Pott Svo. IS. Collected Works. Crown Svo. 3s. 6d. each. SERMONS PREACHED IN LINCOLN'S INN CHAPEL. In Six Volumes. 3s. 6d. each. CHRISTMAS DAY AND OTHER SERMONS. THEOLOGICAL ESSAYS. PROPHETS AND KINGS. PATRIARCHS AND LAWGIVERS. THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. EPISTLE OF ST. JOHN. FRIENDSHIP OF BOOKS. PRAYER BOOK AND LORD'S PRAYER. THE DOCTRINE OF SACRIFICE. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. CHURCH TIMES. — "There is probably no writer of the present century to whom the English Church owes a deeper debt of gratitude. . . . Probably he did more to stop the stream of converts to Romanism which followed the secession of Newman than any other individual, by teaching English Churchmen to think out the reasonableness of their position." SPEAKER. — " These sermons are marked in a conspicuous degree by high thinking and plain statement." TIMES. — "A volume of sermons for which the memory of Maurice's unique personal influence ought to secure a cordial reception." SCOTSM AN. — "They appear in a volume uniform with the recent collective edition of Maurice's works, and will be welcome to the many readers to whom that edition has brought home the teaching of the most popular among modern English divines." Medley (Rev. W.) — CHRIST THE TRUTH. Being the Angus Lectures for the year 1900. Crown Svo. 6s. THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 29 Milligan (Rev. Prof. W.)— THE RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD. Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo. 5s. SPECTA TOR. — " The argument is put with brevity and force by Dr. Milligan, and every page bears witness that he has mastered the literature of the subject, and has made a special study of the more recent discussions on this aspect of the question. . . , The remaining lectures are more theological. They abound in striking views, in fresh and vigorous exegesis, and manifest a keen apprehension of the bearing of the fact of the Resurrection on rnany important questions of theology. The notes are able and scholarly, and elucidate the teaching of the text." THE ASCENSION AND HEAVENLY PRIESTHOOD OF OUR LORD. Baird Lectures, i2>gi. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. Moorhouse (J., Bishop of Manchester) — JACOB : Three Sermons. Extra fcap. 8vo. 3s. 6d. THE TEACHING OF CHRIST. Its Conditions, Secret, and Results. Crown Svo. 3s. net. CHURCH WORK: ITS MEANS AND METHODS. Crown Svo. 3s. net. CHURCH TIMES. — " It may almost be said to mark an epoch, and to inaugurate a new era in the history of Episcopal visitation." TIMES. — "A series of diocesan addresses, full of practical counsel, by one of the most active and sagacious of modern prelates." GLOBE. — "Throughout the volume we note the presence of the wisdom that comes from long and varied experience, from sympathy, and from the possession of a fair and tolerant mind." MANCHESTER GUARDIAN.—" Full of interest and instruction for all who take an interest in social and moral, to say nothing of ecclesiastical, reforms, and deserves to find careful students far beyond the limits of those to whom it was originally addressed." Myers (F. W. H.)— SCIENCE AND A FUTURE LIFE. Gl. Svo. 5s. Nasli(H. S.).— GENESIS OF THE SOCIAL CONSCIENCE. THE RELATION BETWEEN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY IN EUROPE AND THE SOCIAL QUESTION. Crown Svo. 6s. SCOTSMAN.— " T\i& book is eloquently, and at times brilliantly, written. . . . But few readers could go through it without being inspired by its clever and animated hand- ling of philosophical ideas." MANCHESTER GUARDIAN— " An interesting and suggestive little book." Pattison (Mark).— SERMONS. Crown Svo. 6s. PHILOCHRISTUS. Memoirs of a Disciple of the Lord. 3rd Ed. Svo. 12s. Pike (G. R.)— THE DIVINE DRAMA THE DIVINE MANIFESTATION OF GOD IN THE UNIVERSE. Crown Svo. 6s. Plumptre (Dean). — MOVEMENTS IN RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. Fcap. Svo. 3s. 6d. PRO CHRISTO ET ECCLESIA. Crown Svo. Gilt top. 4s. 6d. net. BOOKMAN. — "It is not only its anonymity which suggests comparison with Ecce Homo. The subject is the same in both books — the method and aim of Jesus — though treated from quite different points of view ; and the level of thought is much the same ; the easy originality that cuts a new section through the life of Christ and shows us strata before unthought of; the classic severity of the style, the penetrating knowledge of human nature, the catholicity of treatment, all remind us of Professor Seeley's captivating work." Reichel (Bishop). —SERMONS. With a Memoir. Crown Svo. 6s. 30 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S Kendall (Rev. F.)— THE THEOLOGY OF THE HEBREW CHRISTIANS. Crown 8vo. 5s. Ridding (George, Bishop of Southwell).— THE REVEL AND THE BATTLE. Crown 8vo. 6s. TIMES. — "Singularly well worth reading." MANCHESTER GUARDIAN.— ' Marked by dignity and force." Robinson (Prebendary H. G.)— MAN IN THE IMAGE OF GOD, and other Sermons. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. Seeley (Sir J. R.)— ECCE HOMO : A Survey of the Life and Work of Jesus Christ. Globe Svo. 5s. NATURAL RELIGION. Globe Svo. 5s. A THEN^EUM. — " If it be the function of a genius to interpret the age to itself, this is a work of genius. It gives articulate expression to the higher strivings of the time. It puts plainly the problem of these litter days, and so far contributes to its solution ; a positive solution it scarcely claims to supply. No such important contribution to the question of the time has been published in England since the appearance in 1866 oi Ecce Homo. . . . The author is a teacher whose words it is well to listen to ; his words are wise but sad ; it has not been given him to fire them with faith, but only to light them with reason. His readers may at least thank him for the intellectual illumination, if they cannot owe him gratitude for any added favour. ... A book which we assume will be read by most thinking Englishmen." MANCHESTER GUARDIAN.— ''The present issue is a compact, handy, well- printed edition of a thoughtful and remarkable book." Selborne (Roundell, Earl of).— LETTERS TO HIS SON ON RELIGION. Globe Svo. 3s. 6d. THE CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC CHURCH. Globe Svo. 3s. 6d. Service(Rev. John).— SERMONS. With Portrait. Crown Svo. 6s. Stanley (Dean) — THE NATIONAL THANKSGIVING. Sermons preached in Westminster Abbey. 2nd Edition. Crown Svo. 2s. 6d. Stewart (Prof. Balfour) and Tait (Prof. P. G.)— THE UNSEEN UNIVERSE; OR, PHYSICAL SPECULATIONS ON A FUTURE STATE. 15th Edition. Crown Svo. 6s. Stubbs (Dean)— CHRISTUS IMPERATOR. A Series of Lecture-Sermons on the Universal Empire of Christianity. Edited by Very Rev. C. W. Stubbs, D.D., Dean of Ely. Crown Svo. 6s. The discourses included in this volume were delivered in 1S93 i^^ the Chapel -of- Ease to the Parish Church of Wavertree — at that time the centre of much excellent social work done by Mr. Stubbs, who had not yet been promoted to the Deanery of Ely. The following are the subjects and the preachers : — The Supremacy of Christ in all Realms : by the Very THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 31 Rev. Charles Stubbs, D.D., Dean of Ely.— Christ in the Realm of History : by the Very Rev. G. W. Kitchin, D.D., Dean of Durham.— Christ in the Reahn of Philosophy: by the Rev. R. E. Bartlett, M.A., Bampton Lecturer in 1888.— Christ in the Realm of Law : by the Rev. J. B. Heard, M.A., Hulsean Lecturer in 1893.— Christ in the Realm of Art : by the Rev. Canon Rawnsley, M. A., Vicar of Crosthwaite. — Christ in the Realm of Ethics : by the Rev. J. Llewelyn Davies, D.D., Vicar of Kirkby Lonsdale, and Chaplain to the Queen. — Christ in the Realm of Politics : by the Rev. and Hon. W. H. Freemantle, M.A., Canon of Canterbury. — Christ in the Realm of Science: by the Rev. Brooke Lambert, B.C.L., Vicar of Greenwich. — Christ in the Realm of Sociology : by the Rev. S. A. Barnett, M.A., Warden of Toynbee Hall, and Canon of Bristol. — Christ in the Realm of Poetry: by the Very Rev. Charles Stubbs, D.D., Dean of Ely. SCOTSMAN. — " Their prelections will be found stimulating and instructive in a high degree. The volume deserves recognition as a courageous attempt to give to Christianity its rightful place and power in the lives of its professors." SURSUM CORDA: A DEFENCE OF IDEALISM. Fcap. Svo. 3s. 6d. Talbot (Bishop).— A CHARGE DELIVERED TO THE CLERGY OF THE DIOCESE OF ROCHESTER, October 24, 25, and 26, 1899. Svo. Sewed. 2s. net. Temple (Archbishop). See Canterbury. Thackeray (H. St. John).— ST. PAUL AND CONTEMPOR- ARY THOUGHT. [In the Press. Trench (Archbishop).— HULSEAN LECTURES. Svo. 7s. 6d. Van Dyke (Henry).— THE GOSPEL FOR AN AGE OF DOUBT. The Yale Lectures on Preaching, 1896. Cr. Svo. 8s. 6d. SCOTSMAN. — "While the lectures are in no danger of being challenged as hetero- dox, the last charge that will be made against the author will be that he fails to discern the spirit of the age or the attitude of mind, and the outstanding reasons of that attitude, of multitudes of thoughtful and reverent people towards the teaching of the Churches." Vaughan (C. J., Dean of Llandaff) — MEMORIALS OF HARROW SUNDAYS. 5th Edition. Crown Svo. los. 6d. HEROES OF FAITH. 2nd Edition. Crown Svo. 6s. LIFE'S WORK AND GOD'S DISCIPLINE. 3rd Edition. Extra fcap. Svo. 2s. 6d. THE WHOLESOME WORDS OF JESUS CHRIST. 2nd Edition. Fcap. Svo. 3s. 6d. FOES OF FAITH. 2nd Edition. Fcap. Svo. 3s. 6d. COUNSELS FOR YOUNG STUDENTS. Fcap. Svo. 2s. 6d. THE TWO GREAT TEMPTATIONS. 2nd Ed. Fcap. Svo. 3s. 6d. ADDRESSES FOR YOUNG CLERGYMEN. Extra fcap. Svo. 4s. 6d. 32 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S Vaughan (C. J., Dean of Llandaff ) — cojztinued. " MY SON, GIVE ME THINE HEART." Extra fcap. 8vo. 5s. TEMPLE SERMONS. Crown 8vo. los. 6d. AUTHORISED OR REVISED ? Sermons on some of the Texts in which the Revised Version differs from the Authorised. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. LESSONS OF THE CROSS AND PASSION. WORDS FROM THE CROSS. THE REIGN OF SIN. THE LORD'S PRAYER. Four Courses of Lent Lectures. Crown Svo. los. 6d. UNIVERSITY SERMONS. NEW AND OLD. Cr. Svo. los. 6d. NOTES FOR LECTURES ON CONFIRMATION. Fcap. Svo. IS. 6d. THE PRAYERS OF JESUS CHRIST : a closing volume of Lent Lectures dehvered in the Temple Church. Globe Svo. 3s. 6d. DONCASTER SERMONS. Lessons of Life and Godliness, and Words from the Gospels. Cr. Svo. los. 6d. ■ RESTFUL THOUGHTS IN RESTLESS TIMES. Cr. Svo. 5s. LAST WORDS IN THE TEMPLE CHURCH. Globe Svo. 5s. SATURDAY R E F/£ IV.— " These discourses in thought, in style, have so much that is permanent and fine about them that they will stand the ordeal of being read by any serious man, even though he never heard Dr. Vaughan speal..' UNIVERSITY AND OTHER SERMONS. Crown Svo. 6s. TIMES. — "As specimens of pure and rythmical English prose, rising here and there to flights of sober and chastened eloquence, yet withal breathing throughout an earnest and devotional spirit, these sermons would be hard to match." SCOTSMAIV".—^' AW are marked by the earnestness, scholarship, and strength of thought which invariably characterised the pulpit utterances of the preacher." Vaughan (Rev. D. J.)— THE PRESENT TRIAL OF FAITH. Crown Svo. 5s. QUESTIONS OF THE DAY, SOCIAL, NATIONAL, AND RELIGIOUS. Crown Svo. 55. NATIONAL OBSERVER.— "In discussing Questions of the Day Mr. D. J. Vaughan speaks with candour, ability, and common sense." SCOTSMAN. — "They form an altogether admirable collection of vigorous and thoughtful pronouncements on a variety of social, national, and religious topics." GLASGOW HERALD. — " A volume such as this is the best reply to those friends of the people who are for ever complaining that the clergy waste their time preaching antiquated dogma and personal salvation, and neglect the weightier matters of the law." MANCHESTER GUARDIAN.—'' He speaks boldly as well as thoughtfully, and what he has to say is always worthy of attention." EXPOS-ITOR Y TIMES.—'' Most of them are social, and these are the most interest- ing. And one feature of peculiar interest is that in those sermons which were preached twenty years ago Canon Vaughan saw the questions of to-day, and suggested the remedies we are beginning to apply." Vaughan (Rev. E. T.)— SOME REASONS OF OUR CHRIS- TIAN HOPE. Hulsean Lectures for 1S75. Crown Svo. 6s. 6d. Venn (Rev. John).— ON SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF BELIEF, SCIENTIFIC AND RELIGIOUS. 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LITER A TURE.—" A sermon of the national day of rest, and some attractive per- sonal reminiscences of schooldays under James Prince Lee, are among the choicest parts of the volume, if we are to single out any portions from a work of dignified and valuable utterance." DAILY NEWS.—"Taxo\x^ every page . . . runs the same enlightened sympathy with the living world. One forgets the Bishop in the Man, the Ecclesiastic in the Citizen the Churchman in the Christian. " 34 MACMILLAN & CO.'S THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE Westcott (Bishop) — continued. THE OBLIGATIONS OF EMPIRE. Cr. 8vo. Sewed. 3d. net. WMte (A. D.)— A HISTORY OF THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE WITH THEOLOGY IN CHRISTENDOM. In Two Vols. 8vo. 2 IS. net. TIMES. — " Is certainly one of the most comprehensive, and, in our judgment, one of the most valuable historical works that have appeared for many years. . . . He has chosen a large subject, but it is at least one which has clear and definite limits, and he has treated it very fully and comprehensively in two moderate volumes. . . . His book appears to us to be based on much original research, on an enormous amount of careful, accurate, and varied reading, and his habit of appending to each section a list of the chief books, both ancient and modern, relating to it will be very useful to serious students. He has decided opinions, but he always writes temperately, and with transparent truth- fulness of intention." DAILY CHRONICLE.— '"IhQ story of the struggle of searchers after truth with the organised forces of ignorance, bigotry, and superstition is the most inspiring chapter in the whole histoiy of mankind. That story has never been better told than by the ex-President of Cornell University in these two volumes." Wickham (Very Rev. Dean)— WELLINGTON COLLEGE SERMONS. Crown 8vo. 6s. Wilkins (Prof. A. 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