The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 132

ag~in, regard the book as including a symbolic representation of things occurring on earth at the time of the apostle; and in addition thereto, a symbolic representation. of events extending over twelTe hundred and sixty days, which will usher in the coming of our Lord. 5. A fifth and rapidly increasing school or expositors adopt what is called (and rightly) the spiritual interpretation or the book; i.e. instead of lllin~ this or that earthquake, pestilence, or famine as the one specially referred to. they hold 1 "that this book of sublimity contains a pictorial representation of events whioh commenced at the Christian era, and will run on to the end of the world.• So also God.et remaru, concerning the six seals; that they represent, each of them, not a particular event, but " the categories of the principal judgments by which God supports, throughout all time, the preaching of the gospel." 1 The spiritual interpretation is that to which f9r many years past we have felt ourselves shut up, and we are glad to find it adopt:Aid .by Dr. Lee in his exposition. He says, "The imagery of the book describes,in accordance with the whole spirit of prophecy, the various conditions of the kingdom of God on earth, during its successive struggles with the prince of this world ; " and again, "The' spiritual' application is never exhausted, but merely receives additional illus- trations as time rolls on, while the 'historical • system. assumes that single event.a, as they come to pass in succession, exhibit the f'ull accomplishment of the different predictions of the Apocalypse." 1 Hence, at this stage of our unfolding of the plan of the book, we would lay it down as the basis of our exposition that, without attempting (for reasons yet to be given) to indicate anything like an estimate of the time over which our dispensation has to run, we shall find in this book,from beginning to end, ,uch a disclosure of the principlu and methods of God', worhing, in 1Jringmg ab®I 1M second CQffling of the Lord, iu may well fill u., ulit'k:holy aWt!, while we are COt'l,U'mplali•g flu, character of the scenu thro'U[Jh which God's Ohurch must pan on her way to htJr destined glory 1 It will spare us much useless labour if we note what God baa not said. in this book, as well as what he has said; e.g. (1) We have few definite marks of time. We have, of course, the point of commencement, viz. the exile of John in Patmos in the reign of Domitiau, and we have also at the end the new Jerusalem in its glory; but for estimating the duration of the whole period, and for its division into periods of years, we have, practically, no data at all.' (2) We have few marks of place. We are not told whether the opening of this seru. or that is to find its sphere of fulfilment over the Roman empire, or within the Jewish state, or over the wide world, or, if over a portion of it, what that portion ia. (3) Nor have we any marks to lb.ow Ill whether the seven seals, vials, and trumpets represent seven distinct series of events, or, if·so. whether they are synchronous or consecutive, nor, in either case, over what time each one lasta, nor whether there is any space between one and the other; nor, if there be,_how much it ia. For aught :we know, they may even lap over, one on to anoth~. Now; when all these points are left open in the sacred Word, it seems to us to be going far beyond the limits of a proper reverence for God's Word, to assign definitely this or that figure to this or that special event, time, and place, when the figure alone is employed, and neither time nor place indicated at all. If, e.g., there is a series of symbols indica- tive of famine, if this book says nothing as to where or when the famine is to be; and if, moreover, in this the Apocalypse agrees exactly with our Lord's words, that there should be "famines ••• in divers places" ere the end shall come, we cannot venture to say that it refers to this or that famine, but simply that on this globe, which ia the Lord'-8, and whioh is being prepared for his second coming, famine is one among the many incidents which our God foresees and controls, and which he will make sub- servient to the bringing-in of the great and dreadflll day of the Lord. It may be urged 1 Robinson, p. 11. · • • E,asai sur l' Apocalypse : • ltude Bibliqne, deu:neme Rrie, pp. M9, 850. The whole paragraph is worthy of careful study, but is too long for the spaee at our diapoaal. • • Speaker's Commentary,' p. 491b, 492a. • Dr, Cumming 'WlOte, long ago, the signiftoe.nt words, " If I could tell r,,u when the twelve hundred and sixty years begin, I could tell you when they would end. ' The bi.teat and perhaps the most elaborate efforl to fix days and years ia the work of Hr. Grattan Guinneea, on • The Approaching End of the Age,' in whioh great ingenuity ia wuted on a bopelea attempt to know the timee and the _-.onli which the J'ather ha~ put in Im owa p>wer. · 150 THE REVELATION OF ST, JOHN TBE 'DIVINE. [ea. iv. 1-tL