The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 228

"Woo, ~,'woe!"' Now in villion, but often ia reality, he had doubtless se&n 1such hovering 'bil'd, and heard its bitter cry. And when we think of this vision, ·and remember-who they were on whom the judgments of God were coming, we· are reminded of our Lord's words, "Wheresoever' the carcase is, there· shall the· eagles be ' gathered together" (Matt. xxiv. 28). For he and his apostle bad the same scenes ta, viewtthe same sinful people, and the same· dread judgmente of God. Both llebeld both the body a,nd the bird-the eagle of judgment and the corruption that it. would" seb:e upon. When out Lord spoke, and yet more when his apostle wrote, the ill-• omened bird was clearly visible, and its \.\0eful cty could be dfatinctly-heard. · What. the Lord aaid St.'John saw. "For iti the lands of the Ea.st, when a wild beasi, .. falls in the desert, i;,r a horse or camel on the highway, there·is for a time no stir in hea'f>lln. · But far above ·hurrni.n ken the vulture is floating poised on his wings and looking downw~d. His eye soon distinguishes the motionless thing, for he hunts by an eyesight unequalltd' in power a·mong ··all living things, and like a .tone he drhps through miles of. air. Others floating in the -same upper region see their brotmw'e deeeent, arid know its meaning. ·One dark speck after another grows swiftly UpQn the · horizon/ and iri a few moments fifty vultures are around the carrion. Now, thus' inevitable, swift, unerring, as the vultures' descent on the carcase; is the· 3udgtnen, coming of the Son of man w corrupt communities and corrupt men" (Stopford Brooke).· Given th& body, the bird-will not be far off; where the carcase, there the vulture. In God's government it bas ever been so, is now, and will be in all ages, in all lands. and under all circumstances. I. 'l'ms EAGLE HAS OFTEN BEl!IN Jl]raN. • It has long hovered· over and at lawt d¥ceil.ded upon·: 1. ·Oormpt 00'111.mu'liitie8. As the inhabitants of the earth in Noah's diiy, on whom "the Flood came and swept them all away;" the cities of the plain ere. the lire-stormfeU; the Carni.anitish·nations whose judgment was long delayed ¥uatil· the 'iniquity of the Amorites was full." It hung over Jerusalem in the days of Jeraniah, over Babylon in the old age of Daniel, and over the Jewish nation when St.John beheld it" in mid heaven," And over Rome the· ceagles of judgment were indeed gatliering. For she had. beoome so corrupt and hateful >to God and man that there was nothing for it but to let the long-delayed sentence be executed, and in the pages of this Book· of the Revelation, and-fo those of the secular historian, he who will ·may read of. perhaps, the mmit tremendous fulfilment the world has as yet ever seen of the inexor- able law that "where.soever the carcase is, there:• ·eto. "Rome shall perish-writ,& tha.t wqrd In the blood that ahe bath apµt, Pe~ bopeleas and abhorred,. . Deep in ruin as in g!lilt.,. - Yet furlher illmtrationli. The Reformation, whicb was the judgment of the Oitholio Church; the French Revolution, etc; ~- Oorrupt men. "The mills of God," says the poet, " grind slowly;· bnt they grind emretding small." Many imagine that the great laws of God will be, no doubt, fulfilled amid nations ruid Churches and other bodies of men, but they will not t,ake note of i.ndividuals! That, however, is not true, though maµy think it is. Look over the lives of the many bad men and women of whom the Bible tells; but where amid them all can the sinner find any encouragement to go on in bill sin? ,Are they not all of them illustrations of God's law of judgment? And: so universally is this law recognized that no poorest nonlist will write his wretched.est story, and no tawdry theatre dare represent on its stage a drama which ignores-0r failil- to pay homage to ibis law. ',fhey all know and confess that over the vile and bad the yulture of judgment hovers, and will swoop down on them ere long. _ And to-day this law is at work. See that blear-eyed, ragged, shivering, and every way disreput.able- looking wretch who is reeling out of the gin-shop, and, as he staggers along, poisoning the air with his· foul breath and yet fouler words-wbii.t a wreck the man is! Health gone ; and character, and home, and friends, and livelihood, and all that made life worth having, gone; and life itself going likewise. 'l'he vultures of judgment have plucked l,im bare of all, and they are at their awful work still. Go into the wards of our ho~pitals, and amid many whom misfortunes and not sin have brought there, you will yet see not a fu,v- dying a miserable death, horrible to lo(k at, to listen to, toJlpEe.k or fU~ 'l'HE. REV~LA'l'ION OF ST•. JOHN 'J:HE l)IV!Nlll~ [ea. ·VIIJ. h-13.