1[ It is told of Eobert Burns that he could never read the closing verses of this chapter without tears. It is no wonder. The poet is a man of larger heart, of broader and keener sympathy than other men, and with a corresponding power of expression. What all men feel he feels more, and can express better. All of us feel that in this and like words of the Holy Book, something in our hearts is met ; a something which we may never have been able to define or utter — a faint vision of blessedness — a belief that at some time, we know not when, in some world or region we know not where, the brightest of those things which the soul can desire or conceive is possible to man.^
I.
The Tribulation.
1. Perhaps a more literal rendering of the original Greek would be "friction," the rubbing which goes to make the fine polish, or the exquisite edge. And so we might render the text : " These are they which come out of the refining processes of great friction." But the translator's word " tribulation " is both apt and
* J. C. Adams, The Leisure of God, 219. 2 J. Laidlaw, Studies in the Parahles, 271.
REVELATION vii. 14 189
striking. Its original meaning is full of interest. It is derived from the tribula or tribulum which was used to crush the straw and separate the grain from the chaff. In its spiritual application it means chastening, the purification of the desires, the removal, through discipline of the soul, of what mars its progress, and the power of assimilating fresh influences of good. There are different kinds of tribulation. It may be the crushing on the wheel, or the stake of fire, or the slow, patient application of daily trials. It may be sheer savagery, or it may be the mere wear and tear of common life, some crushing burden, some hidden struggle against temptation, or grinding care, or sad bereavement, such as may possibly come, or it may be some slight misunderstanding, or misrepresentation, or the weariness and painfulness of commonest details.
U I remember often, when a boy in my father's barn, turning round by the handle of the fanners the big wooden fan inside, which by its motion created an artificial wind, blowing away, from the confused mixed stuff' from the threshing-floor poured into its funnel, the chaff' and broken bits of straw, and passing through the clean, assorted grain in a heap by itself. This instrument is very ancient in its form and use. It is a legacy from the Eomans, and was called by them tribulum. It is from the Latin name of this instrument that our English word tribulation comes. The early Christians compared a trial or trouble to a passing through the tribulum or fanners, in order that by it their nature might be winnowed, that they might be sifted as wheat, and all their chaff blown away ; and therefore they called it a tribulation when it had that effect. They said that " we must through many tribula- tions enter into the Kingdom of God " ; and they were taught that this was not an evil but a good, that sanctified afiliction to the believer was gain and not loss. It was a tribulation that separated the precious from the vile, that purified the nature of the believer, but preserved himself unhurt for the heavenly garner.^
2. But the text. speaks of the great tribulation. So it is not the general sorrow and perplexity of human life that is referred to here; we must not compare this text with such passages as that in which Eliphaz, the Temanite, tells us that " man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward." It is the tribulation which Christ foretold as the immediate result of His coming, the 1 H. Macmillan, The Touch of God, 150.
190 THE NOBLE ARMY OF MARTYRS
prospect of which was before Him from the first, making Him speak of His mission as one not of peace but of a sword, and which, in almost His last discourse in Jerusalem, He declared would be wider and greater than the world had ever known before. To the early disciples it took the form of persecution ; and to this the text immediately refers, with this a great part of the Book of the Eevelation is concerned.
The writer had lived through a period, perhaps more than one period, of persecution and martyrdom. He had seen the powers of this world employing all their resources to quench the light of Christ, and exterminate the hated sect which bore His name. He had seen or heard of dear friends slaughtered, Paul beheaded, Peter crucified, all or nearly all his fellow-apostles done to death, and a host of less known believers sacrificed to Eome's fury and Kome's lust. He had lived through days which it is difficult for us to imagine, when every Christian, in a sense, died daily, and when nearly every Christian household, like Egypt of old, had at least one dead : and he had watched them calmly facing all these terrors, and holding fast the faith with courage and patience which never faltered, and dying with triumphant hope when their hour came. He had seen all this, and now he looks up, and for a moment the veil of the unseen is drawn aside, and he has a vision of these once suffering saints in their glory, wearing the white robes of spotless souls, and waving the palm branches of victory. They have conquered in the earthly fight and received their reward, and they now serve God day and night in the inner temple. St. John speaks of them as a multitude which no man can number, out of all nations, kindreds, peoples, and tongues, all of whom had come out of great tribulation and been perfected, like the Master Himself, by their sufferings.