worse, and the good will get better. Both will ripen. Then the end. The angel will thrust in the Bickle becanse the harvest is ripe. · v. Wmnr THB LoBD COMBS, HB WILL APPEAR IN ms GLORY. (Matt. xxv. 31; 1 John ili.1-3; Col. iii. 4, "AB he is;" cf. also Heb. ix. 28, "Without Bin.") Not aa a "weary man &nd full of woes," but. in majesty and might, "with great power and glory." . VL TIIB ROOND (l()l[JNG WILL CLOSE TBB PROBATION OJ' THB BACE;l This present time is " the day or salvation" (Isa. xlix. 8; 2 Cor. vi. 2), during which " whosoever ehall call on the Name of the Lord shall be saved" (Acts iL 21). Ere it closes, we cannot doubt that, in some state of .being or other, every 1tnd will have been brought int.o direct contact with the Saviour for acceptance or rejection, so that when the Saviour comes men will give account t.o One who has all things in readiness for judging the living and the dead (1 Pet. iv. 5, 6). .And as has been the soul's attitude towards Christ, according theret.o will be the sentence from him. How can it be otherwise (cf. Matt. vii.)? VIL THB BBOOND OOllING WILL BE FOB JUDGMENT. This word "judgment" means very much: and the judgment-period may be as long as "the day of salvation ; " and we have long thought that in these two positions is the clue t.o the solution of the diffi- culties of the millenarian controv~rsy. For the righteous it will mean manifestation, vindication, glorification. E'or the wicked it will mean manifestation, condemnation, shame. Both are included in Paul's description in 2 Thess. i 7-10. Hence the earth will " wail because of him." VIII. Tim SECOND COIICING IS OONBEQUENTLY THE "BLEB11ED BOPE" 011' THE Cmmcu, .um THB DBBAD OF THE GUILTY. (Tit1l8 ii. 13.) This is emphatically "the hope" which is so repeatedly referred t.o in the New Testament; it is the.distinctive feature of the Christian's faith (1 'l'heBB. iv. 14-18). But guilt dreads it. lX. THIii BEOOND OOHING OF OUB Loan FOB AWA)!.D 08 PUNIBHM'.ENT casts a hue all its own on the meaning and outlook of our daily life (Matt. xxv. 1-30; 1 John ii. 28; 2 Pet. lit 14; 2 Cor. v. 10; Rom. xiv. 9-12; Matt. vii 21-27; 1 Cor. iii.13-15). This-this is the intensely practical end which the disclosures of our Lord's 1'81!,ppearing are intended to serve. Not that we may dispute with one ·another who has the most exact calculation as to the day, the hour, the how; but that our only rivalry may be, who shall be.most faithful in doing the work of the day in the day, and thereby best prove himself t.o be ready, ever ready, let the Lord come whenever he may I Of little worth will it be to any t.o know the moment, unless at the moment they are ready to go in unto the King. Only as we are ready can we say from the heart, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus ! ••
. Ver. 8.-71ie augtt11t Speaker declaring his Name from e}J,6 thr0'/1,e, One theme alone remains before we enter on the visions of this book. Ere we are told what is said, we have once more to be assured-Who says it? An all-important question, on the answer to which the value of what follows entirely depends, inasmuch as the Speaker declares himself, as if it were from him that the revelation proceeds, and as if it were from his lips that -the words went forth. This being the case, since, according to the first verse, the Lord Jesus Christ is he who receives the revelation, and who, as the Mediator between God and man, is the channel through which it reaches us, we seem shut up to the conclusion that the words in the eighth verse are those of the Almighty Father himself (see Alford, in loo.). As such we now propose t.o study them. They set hbn before us in four aspects. · I. IN BI1I SUBLIME BELF-EXISTENCL "' I am the Alpha and the Omega, saith the Lord God." The A and then. These letters, being the first and last of tb~ Greek alphabet, enclose, as it were, all the rest. These words should be compared with Isa. xli. 4; xliiL 10; xliv. 6. Note also the;-,,:, elµi, the pronoun declaring the ~rsonality -0f the Speaker ; and the verb being that which indicates being, not becoming. The precision of the Apostle John in ·the distinctive use of these two verbs is remarkable (see John i. 1-14). There is no "coming to be" in the Divine nature. H~ only "is." 'l'he I AH THAT I AH. Note: In these words is the standing and sufficient, 1 Of. eh. n. in the present writer'a work on •Theories of Future Panillhment.' (Snow
and Oo.). ea 1. 1-20.J THE REYEtATION OF ST. JOHN. THE DIVINE. I~