The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 73

'l'he fifth trumpet is followed by three successive woe.~, which are dcscrib1°d in rrrcat detail. The sixth and seventh trumpets declare, after numerous preparations ::mcl''con- Oicts, thnt the kingdom of the world has begun to be the eternal kinrrdom of God and his Christ, and that the time for judging the dead has come. Then the temple of God is seen, and numerous episodes follow, amongst them the visions of the <!rnrron and of the great 011pfov, with (R.T.) ten horns and seven bends, and ten crowns upon°the horns. '!'hen tho second great 611plov, ascending from the earth, has the horns of a" lamb," and is a fnlse prophet. 'fhe power of this" beast" and" false prophet" prevail for a while, when several consoling visions follow, benring on the blessedness of the dead and the harvest of the world. This is ngain followed by seven last plagues, which are to succee,l the outpouring of the seven vials full of the wrath of God ; the first four again a.re dis- criminated from the last three via.ls, a.r.d throughout, the pouring out of the ,ials corre- sponds with the sounding of the previous trumpets. The effects produced on Euphrates, and on the fortunes of the beast, are enlarged and associated with the great ,vhore Babylon, who sits upon the beast in gorgeous apparel. The fall of Babylon is described in awful and dramatic form. The war made by Babylon upon the Lamb leads to her doom; but, before this occurs, the people of God are commanded to go forth of her. After the disappearance of Babylon, the Logos of God, a Conqueror in heaven, with his glorious army of the saved, overthrows all his enemies, and he "lives and reigns a thousand years," duriog which "the souls of the martyrs live again." .After a while Satan is let loose for a season; then is revealed the world-power in its force, anc: the great bnttle takes place between the two powers, ending in the destruction and torment of the devil, the beast, and the false prophet, to all eternity. Meanwhile the new Jerusalem, ~he holy city, comes down out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, and all is made new. These sublime descriptions have been for eighteen hundred yenrs the symbolism and material to which the eye of the Church has turned for its anticipations of the final blessedness of the redeemed from among men. This elaborate structure; this subtle and complicated imagery; this repeated suspense of veritable crisis, the cyclical nature of visions, conflicts, and victories, the reappear- ance and reutterance of the ideas which have been first of all presented in less detail; this passing from heaven through earth to heaven again, with episodes of superlative magnificence and measured grandeur, which receive further exposition as the mighty drama unfolds itself;-all this suggests, at first perusal, a mode of treatment singularly unlike the structure, method, and style of the Fourth Gospel. Yet it must be at the same time granted that there are some resemblances of a very remarkable kind which may modify the impression of great dissimilarity. E.g. the structure of the Gospel is not a merely spontaneous unfolding of events taken at random. The numbers seven, tliree, and ten play almost as marvellous a part in the Gospel as in the Revelation. Seven great miracles are wrought by our Lord before his Passion; and after his resur- rection three specially recorded appearances to his apostles, the last accompanied by a si:;nificant miracle. 'l'hcse are related with ever-gathering suggestiveness. (i.) First of all he asserts his victory over the material of no.ture, and exhibits his prerogatives of creation. (ii.) This is followed by his healing of the nobleman's son, and his power over the widespread sorrow which comes from the poisonous alien force of fever taking possession of humanity. (iii.) 'l'hen in his miracle at the pool of Bethesda he indicates his power to restore lacking force and energy to the impotent. (iv.) This is followed by the miraculous supply of food to the starving multitude, or bis capacity to ~atisfy all the genuine desires of humanity. (v.) His superiority to the forces, as well as his mastery of the matter, of the universe, in walking upon and hushing the stormy sea. (vi.) In his healing of the man bom blind, he met the radical defect of human nature, and opened a new world to the unseeing eye. (vii.) And in the raising of LBZarus, he demonstrated his power to encounter and overcome the last great enemy of the human race. This comprehensive enumeration of the great power of Jesus, which, with augmenting interest, pursues its powerful argument through the mystical scptenary series, gives one point of structural relation with the Apocalypse. Furthermore, a suspense which throughout delays the crisis and postpones the victory of Christ, in the Apo- calypse, until the city of God comes down out of heaven, appears in the Gospel. Thus the "hour" of tho Lord's highest I!lo.nifostation, not of world-wide victory, but supreme 1mH-devotiou to the interestEt c-f 1he world, to humanity as rnch, perrncles the Go,pcl.  lxxx INTRODUCTION TO