That there is, in both the earlier and later series of el"ents given In the above table, a remarkable correspondence between the symbolic pictures in the text and the recorded facts of history, no one who has studied the whole matter can queijtion. Nevertheless, we cannot but agree with a remark of Archd~acon Farrar himself,-who, 11:fter pviutinf! out the incidents given in the centrn column as a fulfilment of the Apocalyptic visions, AAys," These va.ticinations do not belong in tbe least to the essence or h1:11rt of the Apoca.lypi;e, They are b-ut passing illustrations of the great principles- . , VtIL 1,._1s.1 THE- RE\ELATION. Oll' ·ST. JOHN THE ntvmm. 241
ihe hopes and wS:rnings-which it was m'eant to inonlcate. 1 So, also, it is remarked ·by another Bingularly able $11d luminous -writer on thiir book,1 " The predictlona of tbti!M two chapters are manifold, not singlei in their fulfilment. Wherever war bas beei employed, under God'11 overruling providence, to humbla pride and,: to break :up over• grown and overbearing powel'1!, there have these chapters had>an. aooomplishment:agaio. and again,.and ea.oh separateAOOomplishment ha& been bi ita tum a prediction-Of tka prug- noaticaoon of the great.est aecompli11hmentand of- the last. Those,hcirdes of invading barbarians which broke up the monst.er empire of Rome, and out of whose-eonquesta modern"Europe eventually grew,were :one fulfilment-a.they were .not t.he only fiilfifment of the~e prophecies. .NeVllr were ,the figUres of.the looust-swl\rms. with t.11ek teetlt !'II· of lions end their hair aa of women, more atrikingly exemplified than iµ tboN irruptions. But they did not eichaust the prophecies before us. When· the-mighty power of ihe. French empire at the beginning of this century was broken up bf,. coa.lition. 1UI of God's hoets mustering for the .b11,ttle against hmnan pride and humim ambition,o.then was.therit:a new fulfilment, itself pr<>!Jhetic of another and another, till the last of all. The words of·God are, manifold in their•lpplioation, just because they deal, not with instances only, but with principles." It is•.alllo obvioue that sin.be. there are given in the-tabul~ form above et least two diatincti serwe of .vents, ill.strating and confirming the prophecy, a i& not po,Bible, ita tM faoe of 1UM veU-lmown. ·Aiatone faeta, to ,regard, tM prophecy as fulfilled oompletelg iD either. :We have·d~med 1, needful, at least. onoe, more fully than is .our woot, to draw this- out and setdt befor6 the eye, that the student may lle8 · that in the· fact of .several• ftllfilmenta being already accomplished, there is a distinct proof of. the main thesis -0n l\'hii:h our homiletic exposition of ili& Apocalyp_;e is based-that we have before us a serles or pictures and parables designed to set forth the principkls o.nd methods of the Divine govemmen~ and·thevo.ried fortunes througlvwhicb: God's Ohnrch,muat pass on her wayt.otlM eonsnmma.tion of all thinge.· · These principles are indieaifld in the chal!ters befoni,w,, and we:will now:endeavour ~set-them.forth. :j •
I. THE WORLD IS HEBE LOOKED AT AS BEARING A GBF.AT Bl7Bl>D 91' SIN. (Oh; tx.,2(\ iL) : Aud to. sueh a height is Bin seen ·to rise tha.t it is ae if. the-Most· High .\'fere practically excluded from· his own world. 'l'wo cla.ssell of evHs are specified h e ~ in which thst which ia no. god is worshipped; another in which the oorumari'ds of Goo. for, 'the regulation· of life are entirely ignored•. And these are precisely the two-fonna iu whida. in every ago the claims of God ba,ve been set at nought. '!'hat whleh: we call idolatry is tiuch whetbm- man worsltips idols of wood and stone, or whether.· he 'reg&rda matter and focce u pc:itentiaHy adequate to alt · things. Yea, if theta, be a· ditre~ the idolatry of the heathen is preferable to that of the •tuaterial:ist. · •F8l'·ia Plli!;an idolatries the worahip iti paid to that. which is faehioned by the harid of man-iOt 'Ml that which ·ia ,broµght into being by a Sapreme Power, llS repr<ltlcnting the Power w~ica is at. the baok of all. But in matorialism there is no Being of auy ·kind,·- Power, f.e which worship is paid. 'l'he Maker.of a.U ia ig110ro<L Paganism worships that whioh ean neither see, nor hear, nor walk, as representing that which can. But materialism knows no objeet -Oi worship at all, and is chargeable with the eupreme absurdity of attributing tae evolution.,-0f sight, hearing, thinking, Joving,. from that whicb:••aen. neither !i),re, · think, llear, nor see I It is not, however, the absurdity of this ·which ill noted in the text. but its si!L It is a robbery of God. "If I be a F-ather, where Ml my fear? If I be a Maater,,where is mine honour?" The.second form of evil it immorality-murders, ~roeries, fornication, thefta-ufliciently ~uggetitive of all the Tiol&tions of.th1daws of morale under which t.hia earth groans. And these two evils= irteligion or.false religion, and-immorality-1ue-the sum of all ill in tlie world. - Gould we but see the whole ma.ss -of :sin in ib! combination, it would be- t<', us most amazing thei the :Most High God did not sweep away at onoe all these abominations. God's patience is the moat wonderful of all his attributes. " I have nouriilhed end brought; up children, and they ha,re rebelled against. me." . IL THE PERIODS OF QUDITUDB WBIOH J!:ARTH HAY WITNESS WILL NO'J'.' ALWAY& 005., onmrs. (Ch. viii. 5, 6.) We had occasion to observe in a previous homily that· there · 1 • Early Days of Christi!Hlity,' vot ii. p. 270. (The italics are outs,) • Dee.n Vaughan.• Lectures on the Rovelatwo of St. John,' in loo. To tb.e ,ame ei1ecJt. Dr11. Lee, Milligan, and C&rpentel", ·· ' BEVELATIOJII, & am ,apparent lulls in the Divini, procedure. Gode "klll!pS silence." There may, for • wlule, Jie no '! taste of thunder in the air,." nor any threatening l!igu of gathering hqats. Jll,a may bJt reckoning~ as in llilol, that. a time of unusual peace is near. And to thia oonclu,ion they may oome ha!itily; through fcrgetting that universal peace never.can be a.wed till there ill uniV'eraa\ right.epuaneu.,· Following in rapid IIUOCe88ion on the t &u.guriea of peace in, 1851 were the Orimean, the American, and the Fra~
E . an ~arii. · • The tirae wUl come when war .&hall oeaae anto the· end.I of the eanh. 18 nGt.y!lt.. · . . · . . . .· , : ·1 Dl. TB11U, AU PJINT-tll' ~ V B FOIWB8 ONLY W A:ITING TO ·)Ill LB'l' UlOll:S. ., ·