The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 234

them was given power/' etc. Oriental& dread an advent or locusts aa one of the most terrible Tisitations; grass, trees, plants of all description, fall before them. The locusts here sketched are of an order the most terrible. A modem writer 4escribes the locWlts here as "malicious 88 soorpions, ruling 88 kings, intelligent 88 men, wily 88 women, bold and fierce 88 lions, resistless a.s those clad in iron armour." These awful forces that go forth amongst men to inflict torture and ruin were: (a) All in connection with the "bottomless pit." They were, so to speak, bred in the depths of that moral pit, and became the servants of that pit. Whatever inflicts pa.in on humanity is forged in the depth of that bottomless pit. " Whence come wars?" etc. (b) They tended to make life intolerable to man. " In those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die." Death is universally regarded as the greatest evil, but suoh is the state of misery here that it is sought as a relief, How often is the life of a man rendered intolerable because of his sins, and he has recourse to the razor, the ropti, the river, or the poison I From the "bottomless pit" of our own sins rise those tormenting fiends that render life intolerable. (c) They were under the direction of a controlling agent. "And they had a king over them (they have over them a king], which is the angel of the bottomless pit (the angel of the abyss]," etc. 'l'he meaning of the words '' Abaddon " and "Apollyon," both in Hebrew aud Greek, is "destruction." All these locust&-in other words, all the/orces that torment humanity-are inspired and directed by one great spirit, the spirit of destruction, which goes to and fro through the earth like a lion, seeking whom it may devour. Greater and more terrible changes in the Bpirit-world seem to follow the sounding of the sixth trumpet. In this second "woe" the spirit of destruction takes a wider sweep. It goes forth from the four parts of the earth, it increases the number and the terror of its messengers. "Two hundred thou- sand thousand," a countless number, and they appeared as horses with heads of lions, panoplied with :fire, and breathing smoke and flame. By this greater destruction is wrought amongst men-it strikes down a third part of the race. Thus ever the agencies of torture and ruin that visit man, working in connection with the " bottomless pit" of sin, multiplying in numbers and magnifying their malignant proportions, The trial that gives pain to the sinner to-day, may be only as an insect compared with the trial that, like a lion, may torture him to-morrow. So long as the "bottomless pit" remains within, torturing fiends will increase in number, and augment in malignant paBBion and strength. More strange changes in the spirit-world we find following the sounding of the seventh trumpet. Before the blast of this seventh trumpet, however, there is the advent of another wonderful messenger from heaven, This messenger is robed in a mystic cloud, a rainbow encircling his brow, his face bright as the sun, his feet like pillars of fire, having in his hand a "little book." He seems to take possession of the whole world, plants one foot on the sea and the other on the earth, breaks forth with the voice of a lion, and his utterances were followed by seven thunders, from which a. voice out of heaven sounded, e&ying," Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not." Again this wonderful angel or messenger from heaven, surrounded with all this mystic grandeur, whilst standing on the earth, lifts up his hand to the heavens, and swears "that there should be time no longer." After this the aeventh trumpet sounds, proclaiming that the mystery of God was finished. In the tenth chapter three things are powerfully struck upon our attention. (1) .A pro- clamation of the end of time. "Time shall be no longer." Time is but limited duration. What ia time to man on earth becomes eternity to him when he quits it. It is but a motk of being. In truth, whenever a human spirit rises from the material to the spiritual, from the particular to the univereal, time with him is no longer; he is free from all its limitations. He moves no longer on a little river or creek; he is afloat on the immeasurable ocean. (2) The communication of a new ,-eook,,tion. What was contained in this "little book" that had not appeared before? Something vital to man's interest. Such Divine books or rolls are constantly coming to us. They come to man in every day's experience, in true thoughts, and in spiritual intuitions. (3) The pe'l'sona1 appropriation of truth. The angel said, " Take it, and eat it up." Divine trnth is not something for intellectual speculation; it is not something for memory, but diet for the life. It must be transmuted into the moral blood and sent through the heart into every ibra of our being. These "seven trumpets," then, suggest and illustrate those revolu- ~ which -are every,rhere going on, not only through the material, but through tho GIL \fllt, 1-18,] 1'BE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN 'l'HE DIVINE. 261 II!\ spiritual states of ~ng. In aooth, those that occur in the mat.erial are but the ruulta and symbols of those which are transpiring in the great world of mind. In the inner world of soul what revolutions are constantly going on in every man's experience I Big schemes like mountains burning with fire cast into the sea, bright stal'S of hope and promise falling from the firmament of the soul, fire and smoke issuing from the "bottomless pit" of evil within, smoke that obscures all tha.t is bright, terrible and tormenting foroes, like armies of locusts, devouring every budding leaf, and, with a soorpion's sting whose virl18 rankles in all the nerves of the heart, so that men some- times seek death a.nd cannot find it. "Voices and thunders." Stra.nge shapes with "thunderous voices" in the heavens. Ah me I these changes are no dreams, they are visions neither of the day nor the night ; they are the great realities of the apirit-world. II. THE SPmlTUAL PERS0:N'ALlTIEB BY WHICH, UNDER GoD, 'l'BESE RBVOLUTIONS ABB BPl'EOTED. Here are "seven angels" with their " seven trumpets." That there are, in the great universe of God, countless spiritual existences, varying endlessly in faculty, position, force, and occupation, admits of no question by those who believe in the Divinity of the Scriptures. It is here suggested that to these may be ascribed all the changes that take place in the history of our world. Is it not more rational to trace·au these changes to the agency of such spirittl,(1,1, perso-nalities than to what scientists call the laws and forces of nature? The "force of motion " is in the spirit, not in matter. Matter ie inert; it has no eelf-moving energy. Or, further, is there anything more unreasonable that a high order of spiritual existences should work all the changes we see in earth and sea and sky than the fact that all the products of civilization are the results of the agency of man 1 . Is it not the hwman spirit, acting through its physical organization, that has covered the earth with architectural buildings, not only piled up the huge cathedrals, castles, IJl'laces, and countless public edifices, but also innumerable residences of every size and shape? Was it not the spirit in man that constructed the bridges, that spanned broad rivers; tunnelled through huge mouniains a way for mighty oceans to meet and mingle; covered every sea with the fleets of nations; transformed wildernesses and deserts into fertilo meadows, vineyards, and gardens ; constructed engines to bear men over BAB and la.nd almost with lightning velocity? If the human spirit has worked and is working such wonders as these, i,s there any thing unreasonable in supposing that a higher class of spirits can direct the winds, kindle the lightnings, launch the thunders, roll the planeis, and heave the ocean ? Manifestly not. 'l'he univeree teems with ,piritual personalities, and matter everywhere is the creatUTt1, the ,ymbol, and servant of spirit. The dream suggests two things concerning the work of these spirits. 1. Their work is departmental. Each had bis own trumpet, and each produced his own results. The same trumpet was not used by all. This seems to be the Divine plan. Each living creatnre endowed with activity, from the tiniest to the greatest, has its own sphere and scope for action. One cannot do the work of another. It is so with men. In all temporal enterprises men themselves act upon this principle; the master mind in manufacture and commerce gives to each man his part; and this _is the plan of ..God with us all. To each man he has given a mission, and that mission none can rightly discharge but himself. The higher spiritual existences, it would seem, act in this way. In the material department, it may be, one has to do with the manage- ment of the winds and stars and all the inorga.nic spheres. 'fo another class is given the management of life, vegetable and animal. 'l.'hus, too, it me.y be in the moral realm. " He giveth his angels charge over us "-some to instruct the ignorant, some to console the sorrowful, some to strengthen the wavering, some to encourage the feeble and oppressed. 2. Their work is gradual. All the trumpets do not sound at the same time, 'and from the :first to the last numberleBs ages might intervene. The great Maker and. Manager of the universe works out his great plans by what appears to us slow degrees. He is in no baste ; he has plenty of time at command. How gradually this earth ~essed from chaos to its present condition I How gradually the human race advances m knowledge, in civilization, and in morality I How unlike our method I If we have a work on hand, the more important we deem it, the more impatient we are to realize its accomplishment. The sense of the brevity and uncertainty of life impels us to this h8.Rt,, But "one day with him is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." Doea DOt thil teach ua to be con.cena.e<l more toith Ike mmal character<( our wori I.ha& fDUh  262 THE, REVELATION OF BT. JOHll THB DIVIlOI. (en. i:x. 1-:-2l ____,-,..----------------------------- #,,'""",., Ou,r queetJ,on should be, "Is it right?" not, "What will be the. iaaue?. • •~ ~ulta will .not appear in our tup.e, not for ages on, i1; may be. · A good act is like Ill\ acorn dropped into good soil; it will require countless ages fully to develop itae~ In the motive is at once the virtue and the reward of all labour. Doea it not also teach to ,'II~ bs palient in welkloing, to be hoping ever 1 Our work, if right, is Divine, ,nd it ,I>;.vine, it cannot fail. "Be ye steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the wprk of the Lord." . . .,.llL.'THB GRAND PUR~ TO WHICH ALL THE BBVOLUTIO11s ABB Dm~l!- ,4.Jl ~e. nwQlutions h~ro referred to have a bearing on the minds of men, b~ing the ~otoily of the~ •h;iful condition, rousing their fears, so terrifying then:i,a.a to make iQeir exiatence so intol~ble t~t they sought death as a relief. And tbenJt is stated that a new revelation from heaven is given them-a '' little book" that was to, be appropciated. !r,{oreover, it is stated that the grand purpose was the fultshing of the ,"11\ystery 9f Go!J_." 4-nd what is that mystery but the moral restoration of mankind, lt)s !' glorjQUS ,bought that all the changes that take place in the universe are for",tJie. ~neij.t of souls-that all is moral discipline. Nature is a grand school in wh.ich the ~Bl!,t .father :ma~~_his children '·'-meet for the inheritance of the saints in· light.,; . "Lp, all~ things worketh God oftentimes with man, to bring back his soµl .J~om the pit, to be enlightened with ths light of the living." Evil is not an end. Good ill ths e11-d, and evil is ever rushing to it like streams and rive!'B to the ocean-world. The.evi].s:.~f this world, like the furious storm ihat spreads devastation over sea,lldld land, wilf o»e 61'-Y. die away in_ a clear sky and a. pure atmosphere, and leave the world aI1 be11,~ and .b.right. (See also the. three following homilies.)-D. T. . . , _