aeriee of strife and civil war, as if to show on what .a frail foundation the virtue of the An.tonines bad reared the felicity of the empire. That period of strife was succeeded by famine, and that again by pestilence; then followed the dreadful era of the Diocle- tian martyrdom, and the break-up of the Roman empire, the subjection of paganism, and the establishment of Christianity in its place. Be it remembered, then, that.not once only can the student put his finger on the map of history, and sa.y, these six- triumph, war, famine, pestilence, martyrdom, convulsion-succeeded each other, and m this ordttr, but once and again. And let us not forget that our Saviour named these-,-just these--in nearly lhe same order, and said that they would ooour "in divers places." 1 War, famine, pestilence, martyrdom, convulsion, are to occur repeatedly. llence we are driven to the conclusion that the~e symbolic representations of the six sel!,ls do indicate the ,·aried features which should mark the progress of the age, ere the Church is brought in, in the fulness of her redemption. All the forces symbo- lized here have been at work for ages on different parts of the earth; each of them recurs age.in and again, and will do so through the whole stretch of this dispensation. Here our God seems to say to us, ••You see these terrible forces-war, famine, J>llSlilence, martyrdom, convulsion. l see them too. There is nothing but what is in the seven- sealed book. Fear not. All the sea.ls will be opened by the Lamb that was slain. All these terrors are but prepa,ratory agencies ck-aring the way for the 'day of the Lord'!" , III. THE PRESSURE ACCUMULATES AS THE END DRAWS NEARER. While we cannot pretend to draw a sharp line between one seal and another, it is manifest from the entire chapter that, as the end approaches, the pressure increases. The sixth seal is surely indicative of convwsions so great as to produce a consternation which will shake society to its foundations. One of these later phases will be the upheaving of nations, disorganization of visible Ohurches, and widespread unsettlement of faiths. "Every mountain and island were moved out of their places." Yet this is but the sixth aeal, not the seventh; a preparation for the end, not the end itself, although many may think it so. It is "the great tribulation "-a tribulation so great that many will cry out in agony, "The great day of his wrath is come!" Yet it will not be that. but only a preliminary to it.1 'l'hese words, "The great day of his wrath is come! " are not the sacred writer's own, but the cry of the terrified ones. God will yet shake, not earth only; but also heaven (cf. Luke xviii. 8; Hag. ii. 6, 7; Heb. xii. 26; Matt. 'D:iv; 29, 31). Let us beware of man's frequent and false alarms. Christ's word in :Matt. xxiv. 4-6 should be a perpetual guard against them. ' IV. 'l'HB ADVANCE 01!' THE .DAY 01!' THE LORD WILL BEEM TO THE WORLD All TUB APPROACH OF A DAY OJ' WRATH. (Vera. 16, 17.) "The great day of their wrath is come." Their wrath-even that of him that sitteth on the throne, and of the Lamb. Wrath? Why? Should not any signs of the appea.rii:g of the Son of God to .. judge in righteousness" be hailed with gladness? When our Lord himself actually described such terrors as being the" birth-pangs" (Apxli ,Ml""'"• Matt. xxiv. 8) of a new creation, should not his approach be welcomed with song? Why this concep¥on of wrath? Why connect "wrath" with the Lamb of God,. It is only on account of the sin in which men have lived; only because, by fighting against the Lord and his anointed, they have treasured up for themselves "wrath against the day of wrath." When their armour in which they trusted is stripped off, and when the playthings with which they toyed are snatched away, and the delusions with which 'they were spell-bound shall be dispersed like the mists of morn, they wm cower in terror before the God whom they defied.c '!'his "great tribulation" will be a wondrous leveller. They who sported with sin will be no longer in sportive mood. Let Ill note here the unna.tura.lness of sin. It is depicted as bringing about five perversions. 1 Matt. ~v. "The seals unfold the general aspects of the world's history after Obrist'■ ascension ..•• The visions of the book may have preliminary applioo.tions, becau88 the principles on which they a.re constructed are etemal ones" (Bishop Boyd Carpenter). &e a1ao W. P. Grant's' Exposition of the Revelation' (Hodder and Stoughton: 1889), pp. lM. et seq,, for some valuable remarks on the manifold interpretations oftois chapter. . 1 Agi1in and age.in, in periods of great tribulation, people have doolared th11 end of the world to be at hand. For some illustrations of this fa.et, see Elliott's • Horai Apocalypticie,' vol. i. pp. 386, et Beq,, 5th edit _ f(EVELA l' !Ls!{. , 0 194 THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN T.HE DIVINE. [CH. VL 1-17.
1. The unfoldings of God's plan in the varied workings of his p~vidence, which should be viewed,with holy awe and pea.cefal serenity, do, to a guilty man, bring terror and dread, oft· amounting· to despair~ Let a man be at peace with GQd, and he ·cali look on to see how Jesus rules the world, with joy and hope; but unbelief and sin preYeDt all this, and make every new opening full of ominous foreboding. 2. In their anguish and despair they call to the mountains and hills to help them! They dare not addr81!8 the God whom at their ease they despised? But "Nature," the god of the atheist; will be found to be' a god that cannot save. 3. They think to find refuge in being hidden from God. As if that were possible! As if, were it possible, it could bring them ease I Oh, how frightful are the perversions effected by sin_! The face of ~im w~o is_ t~! chief among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely, IS to the bad a d1Stressrng S1ght, arousing abhorrence arid deepening their woe. 4. 'l'he sinner who up to the last rejects the Son'of God, sees at last in him only wrath. That Being who is only perfect Love, will seem to the wicked to be fnll of anger indignation, and avenging power. 5. Tlie fifth and last perversion which we notice 1s that, instead of WPlcoming the perfect adjustments of a righteous J u~ge as that 'Yhich should br)ng the lon?-wished-f~r rest to a weary world; t,liey, knowmg they are m the wrong, view them with an affr1ghted horror for which 'there is no solace, and with an immeasurable distress for which nature has no balm. He who neglects grace in the "day of salvation" must receive equity when the day of grace is over. And when equity has to dee.l with w,rong, what course is open but entire and everlasting condemnation? The bulwark of right- eousness is the doom of sin.