The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 203

done. The 1181'Vants of God were to be "aealed in their foreheads." The image of the -1.ing is derived from the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel (ix. 2-6, 11). Its object was to mark out certain persons as belonging to GoJ, and thus to save them from the miseries of the impending judgment. The effect of the seal visible in the forehead would be like tlv.lt of the blood on the door-posts of the Israelites in the last terrible plague of the Egyptians. "When he aeeth it he will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you." Two thoughts are BUggested. 1. That tht1re are men. who are yet to receive the seal Qf God. Thousands in ages gone by have had his likeness impressed upon them, and thousands are being impressed in this age, but there are millions more to be sealed in future times. There are ,men from unborn generations who are to be sealed. 2. That the Judg,r,fflt ll dilayed until the number of the sealed onea is complete. " Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed," etc. 'l'hus our blessed Mediator is keeping up the world until all his disciples are gathered into his fold, and his purposes of mercy realized. In the majesty of infinite mercy he stands as it were iu the midst of the .universe. He sees the storm of jud;,rment brooding in the heavens. He sees the angels of justice quartered in every part of the firmament, ready to execute their lerrible commission. He waves his hand, and bide them halt. " Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the senants of our God in their fore• heads." Let not even such a breath of judgment pass from your hand as shall wake a ripple on the "sea,,. or stir a leaf-on the "trees." Let mercy reign supreme until my work is finished. Then, when all my redeemed ones are sealed with the seal of God ;..-w their foreheads " and made secure, then let loose your awful winds. Let them nub with their t.ornadoes of fire, and roar with their thunders of retrib11tion, and destroy this earth; for the mystery of God will be finished. • Aecuse not Heaven's delay; if Ioth to strike. Its judgments, like tile thunder-gather'd 1torm, Are but ihe great.er." (Webster.) D.T. Vera. 1-8.-The Divine management of the to0rla. "And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth,'tetc. 'l'he subject of these ·verses is the Divine management of the W<>'rld, and they suggest two facts concerniug it. I. 'l'HAT Gon EMl'LOYs THE HIGHEST ORDEB OF CELEBTIAL INTELLIGENCES IN THl!l OONDOCT OF BIS GOVER."<MENT. "After these things [arter this} I sa.w four angels standing on (at] the four corners of the earth." 'l'he existence of intelligences in the univeree, varying in capacity and degree, but all loyal to Heaven and transcending immeasurably man's attributes of wisdom, power, and speed, ie suggested by analogy and abundantly taught in the Scriptures, both the Old and the New. Now, these creatures are here represented as occupying all parts of nature, "standing on the four oorners of the earth," and thus controlling the winds of the world-the east, the we,;t, the south, and the north. They are endowed with power to turn the winds to any point of the compass, and to regulate them to any degree of power or temperature, raising them to a fury that will shake the earth, and reducing them to a calmness hushing the world to s!eep. Is there anything absurd in this ? Assuredly not. It is natural, rational, and consistent with every part of nature. Everywhere through the universe God acts by mediation. Nowhere throughout immensity does he appear to act directly, matter on matter, and mind on all. The principle is enunciated in the Old Testament. "It shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the Lord, I will ·hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel" (Hos. ii. 21, 22). 'l'he mere 1eienti.st accounts for the various objects and phenomena of the material world by what he calls blind forces or natural laws ; I prefer ascribing all under God to the '' angels standing on the four corners of the earth, and holding the four winds." A wondorful 'View of the universe, truly, we have here. True, a telescope opens to my vision world upon world and system upon system, until imagination reels at the prol!pect, and my apirit seems crushed with a sense of its own insignificance; but in th,•se words I have a telescope by which I sec the wide fields of the air, the rolling planets, the minute and OIi. m. 1-lT.] THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN THE DNINE. ~T