The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 204

the vast, the proximate and the remote, peopled and working, reaching: in regular gradation from my little being up to the ineffable throne, and all under God. IL THAT Go», IN EMPLOYING THESE AGENCIES, ENJOINS ON THEM: A SPECIAL BBGABD l'OB THE INTESESTS 01!' BEDEBM:ED M:EN IN THE WORLD. "And l saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God," etc. Why not" hurt the earth "? Why not reduce all nature to a wreck ? 'l'here is a grand, benevolent reason : " till we have sealed the servan ta of our God in their foreheads." "Of the tribe of Judah were sealed," eto. (vers. 5-8). The Jewish mind regarded Israel as especially the eleet of God, and all the tribes in their esteem were specially Divine. This, of course, waa ii. :fiction of national vanity. But take them here as a symbolical repre- aent.ation of all the truly good men upon the earth, and we have the idea that God requires all his intelligent ministries to regard the interests of such. The seal must be regarded as implying security. Here is an angel rising as it were from "the door of the dawn," from the east, with a seal in order to .effect the srourity of the good. Angels, we are taught, are "ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to those who shall be the heirs of sa.lvation." Numerous are the instances recorded in the Bible in which we see them render assistance to man. They rescued Lol. · from Sodom, and guarded Daniel in the lion's den; they directed Joseph and Mary into Egypt, and liberated the apostles from prison; they directed Cornelius to Peter, and wafted the spirit of Lazarus to the skies. They rejoice over the conversion of sinners; they have a charge over the righteous, they encamp round about them, they bear them up in their hands. '!'heir ministry implies : 1. That there i8 some method bg 1JJhw. they - a.id man. 2. That man's salvation i8 of paramount importanct1. 3. That seruice•;to CA. lo1oest i, C01180Tlant with the highest grem-. 4,. That ma•'• obligation i, to aeei 1M apiritwil, good of hisfe710'wa.-D. T. Vers. 9-12.--:The human population in. heaven (No. 1). "After this I beheld, •~ lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, -0f all nations," etc. .There is one book, and only one, that presents to us humanity in heaven, and that is the Bible. This paBBage gives us a vision of unnumbered multitudes of men who onoe traversed tb.ie earthly scene of sin and sorrow, now in the bright world of the good. Of thia human population in heaven four things are suggested. L ITS NUKBKBB ABE TOO GREAT FOB CALCULATION. "After this I beheld, and, lo. [those things I saw,and behold]a great multitude, which no man couli'I number." The vastness .of the population may be looked upon in four aspects. Here is: 1. .A ttproq/ to all sectarianism. Religious sects, which, alas I abound, even in Christendom, and which are a calumny on the gospel, nourish in the minds of their votaries the idea that heaven will be peopled mainly, if not entirely, by those within their own pale. Genuine religion knows nothing of sects. Men went to heaven by millions before churches or chapel& existed. 2•. .An cmcouragematt to all Ohristly work. The bee, men on earth are the men employed in a Christly spirit to make men Christly. 'l'hey find the opposition so litrong, the wicked so numerous, and their efforts-apparently so unBUCCeBsful, that they often lose heart. But let them realize that the human popula- tion of heaven, even in the days of John, was so vast that no arithmetic could calculate; that population has been increasing from that date to this, and will increase in future ages so that it may be that no human being will be found in the universe without a Ohristly heart. H.ill is only a little clond upon the azure of immensity, and that cloud Diay one day be blotted out; it is only one discordant note in the harmonies of God's great empire, and that note will ultimately be hushed in eternal silence. 8• .A respon,e to all philamhropic dmrea. In every human soul, I presume, there is an instinctive desire for the well-being of the race. True, this Divine instinct, like all others, is not only universally perverted, but dormant and submerged in depraved passions ; but it is there, and awaits a resurrection. Here is the response to such an instinct. 4. .Att attutatiori of beneoolent Oreawrsnip. There is atheology popular, even in England in these days, which propounds the belief that the millions of mankind are doomed to bOndage and blackness and Jarkness for ever. Such a damnable doctrine reveals the Crea.tor as malevolent, and spreads a gloom of ghastly horror over all created things. No; love is the fontal source of all things. IL ITS V.i.BIETY INCLUDES .a.LL THE JU.OEB OF JUNXIND. " Of all nations [ out of 228 THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE. [en. vn. 1-lT.