The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 171

HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vets. 1'.'""""17.-ne opening qf the seals. The Book of Revelation may be said t,o consist-with the exception of eh. ii. and iii.-of a vast picture-gallery. Aud this not so much because of the number of the pictures, as their sublimity and extent. ·eh. L is the portraiture of "the Son of man." Then there is a vast canvas, stretching from eh. iv. to xi., and representing the judgment and fall of Jerusa.lem. Then from ell. xii. to x.ix. anoeher similar one, representing the judgment and fall of Rome. ,'l'hen yet an~ber, much smaller, represe.nting the final conflict and overthrow of the enemies of Ofirist; and then, the last and most .preciqus of all, in eh. xxi. and xxii., the glowing pictJli'e 9~ th9 n~w ,!erusalem, t~e f;aints' eternal home. Now, in looking at a grll&t picture we ~e/)d to, study it carefully, closely, continuously, and portion by portion. We have tried to do so in regard to the first of these, and also in regard to two most important ii/lotions of the iecond one. In this vast second scene we have viewed the high cour, ·of heaven, and the inauguration of Christ's mediatorial reign, which was the subj~ _of'ch. v. And now' we come to another most interesting but unqll8Stionably di ffic~l,t part. of tb,e same great subjec~the opening of the seals; Inde~ the interpretatiQn· of .this book, from the beginning of this chapter onwards, is one concerning which, the 'on,I,r certain thing is that .absolute certainty concerning auy given interpretatlo,n is :unjl.ttainable. It matters little, however, for the profitable reading of the book, that t~re is and must be this uncertainty as. to the actual meaning of the many myste- rious, symbols with which it abounds; for whether we reg;ird them as t1Jlling of the .history of the Church in its relation to the world continuously to the end of time ; or whether, as surely is the more.reasouable way, we take them as telling of those tre- µieµdous events which, \Vhen St. Johu wrote, had begun, and were shortly to co:iue to tiass, the time being !,(t hand, and by which the Church of Ohrit!t was so much affected, -whichever way we read these symbols, their main lessons for us and for the Church in ,all ages is one and the same; and these, by patient, prayerful atudy, we IJlll.Y· hopa to learn. As to this oh, vi., the sheet-anchor for its interpretation is our Lord's discourse in Matt. xxiv. and its parallel in Mark. No doubt that discourse, as this book; looks· on to the times of the end; but as surely it contemplated, as does this book also, events which many of them-not all--were nigh at hand. God's judgment on ..Judaism and the Jews is its near.subject, as the same is of tbii vision of which this ·chapter forms a part. And now let us look at- .. · L Tq m BEALS TOGETHER~ or fl\,ther, at what is disclosed by the opening of therp ~~i. vl 1~17.] THE BEVELATION OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE. 195