When all our fathers worsMpped stooks and stones, Forget not: in thy book reeord their groans . Who-we:re thy sheep, -and in their anoieut fold · Slain by the bloody Piedmont.ese that mll'd Mother with infant down the rooks. Their moan■ The vales redonbled to the hills. and they To heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow O'er all the Italian fields, where still doth sway _The triple tyrant; that from these.may grow A. hundredfold, who having learned thy way, · Early may tly the Babylonian woe." But this 'rislon. tells not alone of martyrdoms, but of the righteG11Sn88S of God in the avenging of their blood upon the earth.. We see it is just and wha.tought to be. Yet more are we shown that" the Lord is mindful of his own." See the condition ofthelle mairtyred ones. Not yet. perfect or complete, but nevertheless, oh, how bleseed.l At rest,·m victory, sanctity,joy.:...so their white robes tell, and, expecting some ,-even yet better thing iu. the triumph of Christ and his Church over all evil which irudue time shall surely ·co_me to ~ · What ootnfort there would be and i11 in all this,. ia regard to Uu>H. who. J,a,d aujfereil, death I Those who mourned them would know JlQW · that bl81!sed ,indeed are the dead which die in the Lord. .And in regard to lM f111Jlwt/ of s per1Uttted Okwrch, would it not teach them that though · · •Carel81!11 IIOOIDB the great Aven~r: Jlistory's pages bu.t record.. . . ' . One.death-grapple in the darkne11s'~wixt faae systems.and the Word;' ·Trnth for ever on the scaffold, wrong for ever on the'thtone. · · · . YeHhat scaffi•ld sways the future, and behind the dim. unknown Standeth God within the- shadow; 'keeping watch abo-ve bi.a own~! Aad. :wh~n they canie ,to face such death\hemseives:· oh, how would. this ,vi,ioh, h~l~ them, 11,a in faQt. it didj to be faithful unto ~th, e.nd• i(II face it unfilnohingly, unfalter,, ingly;, as Chri11t would have them do. . •· . V. Tu:Ol'ENING OF THE SIXTII 8E:\L. · (Vers. 12-17.) Nearlv -e.very. detail of this dread: event is given by our Lord (Matt. xxiv.).. And St. John's l & . ~ is modelled largely on that of the older prophe:L~ (Joel ii. 30, 31; Isa. I. a-; x:uiv._ 3, 4,; ii,. 12. 19; Hos. x. 8; Jer. iv. 23--.26), And in the great catastrophe by ;which Juciaiam was overthrown, and in the fall of. Rome, and in the events which uahedn the last great and terrible day of the Lord, have. been and shall be seen the £.ul-&lment of thi_1 awful. -risiOD,. The~ is .that which is called." the wrath of the Lamb.,"'1 rNot Scripture alow~, but historic fact alike ~lare this, And it will be poo:red out:on·,the ungodly :w~en the Lord ·shall come ag!'in. ·How will thflt day find u&? .Oonfideat, « ashawecland dismayed? The, iaD11wer may be known. How does Christ W wt now? Trustii)g !l,nd obeying him, or di~r.egardi,ng and disobeying? As now, so then. " Lord, in this thy mercy'11 day, Ere it pass for e'er away; On our knees we'll fall arid pray, . Have mercy, Lord I " ,.·s.c . .' Ven. 1, 2.-:-2Yie COfl,fJ.«mng Lord. The Revelation has its parts. A di".i!lion i, to be. n:mde here.' There arc many revelations in the one; And the triith: to be taught ill set forth' again and ·again in differing figures and. series of representat\on~: We look not for chronological continuity and sequence. The book has o.11e th'eme. one truth; l'lirldin~ into its seve.re.l st~eam11; that truth is, in t~e present 11ecU6D;, the triumph of the Church's Lord. With this aBBurance the Lord gives comfort to his strugglbig, suffering, persecuted Church. With the bre!l,king of the first seal. a vil!ion is revealed: ••and I 1!$W." The symbol is simple and comprehensive. It reaches to the end ftoll). the beghini~. It is a vision of the Redeemer as the conquering Lord: Bat it DI the Lord 'j>rapared for battle. Conquest is preceded by conflict. He goea forth to make war; Thi■ aspect prevails throughout the book. "The Lord is a Man of war." I. We think of THE FOES AGAINST WHOM TB1I A:NTAGONIRM OF THE LoRD Ill I i ~ 198 THE REVELA.TWN OF,;ST. JOB11l THE. DIVINE. [ou. VJ. 1-17.
Not here named, but implied. In one word sin. Sin lurking in the hearts of men; sin embodying itself in the lives of men. Hence sinners-aH who ally themselves with evil, who are the agents of evil, ~ servant• of sin," " children. oC the wicked one." Thought of as an army led forward by "the.pri!'.ice of the power of the air, the 1pirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience;" . ,fo the conquest of thi1 is the con- q1188t of the persecuting foes of the fii!it Churches, the form in which sin was then
"'ft~e think of THE Ol!ll!l CoNQU:EROR nr WHOM . ~ ~oLE mEA OF 'lBB ABllY IS REPRESBNTED. He only is in view, for an victory, is of him. }le oµly slays and con- quers. We see the Conquefot prepared to do battle, seated on the war-horse, carrying the war-weapon. · · · · .. ,i;Jli. :we think of 'l'RE NATURE OP THE 00:NFLIOT, In the eymbol this:apPeal'S only .foithe·personof the Conqueror, and .in the colour of the horse-it is in righteousness. White is the consecrated colour; it is the symbol of purity. . . ... •. · · · . IV. We think of THE INEVITABLE OONQUEST••. The crown-the" laurel crown 18 upen -the Oonqueror's brow. It is the symbol of aoticiJ>a:tcd Tic(oty :, '"'He shaWreign." ·· . · , , V• .TilB •A~R~G w:oa». "He ~m&. forth, eonq~ring;rand· to conquer;t, The 'Whole NVelation m this word.. Ag.in ·and agAin,th1s is repreeented,,:•Here the'ttue eornf~ He shalnring into subjection to himself 'whatever is'not 'in hlfflll{Jnf with 1,ia~ame, sad t,hat in the individual heart a.nd'in the universal spbere.~R. G. · . 1 ,.-,1 .. ' , '""
Vers. 3-11.-Scene~ <>f Buffering. No.sooner has the vision of the Conqueror passed before thp,eJ',,~~ ~he. ;~r~ ~Ii~~ a dark.etiing ·.11en . ·es s!Qw pr~es~-0n bn.·,;ig him from in.