The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 36

religious rapture and ecstasy, and then it w1111 that this glorious vi11ion burst upon him. Neither holy days nor holy places will avail us unless our hearts be in harmony with -both d&y and pi.ace, But if they be, then the Lord often "brings all heaven before our eyes." What might not our Sundays be to us if our hearts, in.stead or being 80 earth- bound, as they too often are, were in the mood for drawing near unto God? 5, Nes:t he tells how his attention was called to the vision. " I beard a great voice as of a trumpet" (ver. 10). The trumpet was an especially s&ered instrument, It was as11ociated with the giving of the Law (Exod. m. 6), with the inauguration of festivals(Numb. :r., 10), with the ascension of the ~rd: " God is gone up with a noise, the '.Lord with the sound or a trumpet" (Ps. :r.lvii. 5). And so shall it be at the coming or the Lord and the resurrection of the dead (1 Thess. iv.16; 1 Cor. xv. 52) .. The voice he heard 'WllS, therefore, not alone loud, clear, startling, like a trumpet, but also admonitory of the sacredness and importance of what he was about to hear and see. 6. W1iat the 110io, .aid. "I am Alpha.," etc. (ver. 11). Many manuscripts omit this sublime statement, but it seems in keeping with the trumpet-voice, and with what comes both before and after. The "great voice," simply commanding the apostle to write, in a book what be saw, appears incongruous, but not with the august announcement, "I am Alpha," etc. The Church had believed this of "the Almighty" (ver. 8). but now it was t.o be thrilled with the assurance that this was true of their Lord. He, too, was Alpha, etc. (cf. for meaning, homily on ver. 11). Then, as Moses (Exod. iii, 3), turning to see whence the voice came, he beheld- . IIL THE VISION ITSELF, He saw: 1. The whole OTi.urch of Ohrist represented by the seven lamps of gold. Seven, the specially sacred number, the number of complete- ness. These seven are mentioned because their names were fa1niliar to those to whom he was writing. 2. He beheld, the Lwd Jesus Ohrist. These verses tell: (1) The form of his appearance. "I saw One like unto the Son of man." He of whom Ezekiel and Daniel had told in those prophecies of theirs, which this s,) often and so much resembles. But it was a vision of awe and terror to any mortal eye. Like. 80 many Hebrew symbols, it is unrepresentable in art. The form is one which is almost incon- ceivable, and were any to seek, as some have done, to make a pictorial representation of it, the result would be grotesque, monstrous, and impossible. But the Hebrew mind cared nothing for art, only for spiritual truth; the. external form was nothing, the inward truth everything. Art is careful to portra_y only the external, and it has attained to wondrous perfection in this respect; but the Hebrew desired to represent the inner nature-the mind, the heart, the soul. Hence it fastened upon what;oever would best serve this purpose, and joined them together, utterly regardless ot' congruity; symmetry, or any other mere artistic law. 'l'herefore we must look beneath the often strange symbols which we have in this vision would we know what it meant and said to the beholder. The golden-girdled garment told of royal majesty and· authority; the hoary hair, of venerable age and profound wisdom; the eyes like fire-flame, of searching intelligence a.ad of fierce wrath; the feet like molten brass, of resistless strength, which should trample down and crush all that stood in its way ; the voice like the sound of the sonorous sea-w:,.ves, which are heard over all other tumults and noises whatsoever, subduing and stilling them, tell of that word of "all-commanding might" which once was heard bushing into silence the noise of many waters on the tempest-tossed lake or Galilee, and which, wherever heard, every tumult su,bsides and all at once obey. 'l'he seven stars grasped in the right hand told of power and purpose to defend them or 1 dispose of tbem as he willed ; the two-edged sword proceeding out of his mouth, of that awful soul-penetrating Word by which the secrets of all hearts should be m:ide known, and by which all adversaries of the Lord should be slain; the countenance radiant like the sun, of the Divine majesty, so dazzling, so confounding, SO•intolerable, to all unhallowed and unpermitted gaze of man. (2) Aud this awful form wa11 seen E,nrrounded by the seven lamps of gold, as the dwellings of the vassals of a chieftain are clustered round his castle and stronghold, which rises proudly in their midst as if proclaiming its lordship and its protectioµ over them. (3) And that this vision Wail designed to meet the manifold needs of those varied characters and conditions in the sev~ral Churches is evident from the fact that allusion to one or other part of it is made at the beginning of each of the letters which St. John was commanded to w,rite ancl send; and that part. is chosen which would most min.iater to the need of the Ch,u·cll BEVELATION, D . ·st THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE. [CH. r. 1-20,