The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 256

noonday, when the 1,ky is without a cloud, unseen and unhear11, the last binds the mass of anow and ice to the mountain-side is severed, and the avalan,che li* there shall be time no longer; the judgment of God shall fall. In a moment, iu bright ,that rushes down into the depths below. Do not the events of every day prove, now on--this sinner against God's laws, and now on that, that God hath sworn concerning them, " there should be. time no longer" ? III. ALL. TIMJ!l BBALL OEASE •.. Thus also our text may be understood. "Time" and "dnration" are not synonymous terms--the latter includes eternity as well as time; but time and eternity, notwithstanding their common quality of dnration, are contrasted iJl Scriptnre as being of essentially different natures. Time means the. pre&ent condition of thingt; eternity, that condition which belongs to the age to come. "The thu;iga thatru'e seen are_t~poral, but the things which are unseen are eternal/'. 'rime is o( the age that now is; eternity, of the age that is _to come. Thus underatood, it is not di~ult, tQ believe that time-this age-shall. cease. The Bible speaks of "ag~." The word is commonly rendered "w-0rld," but its tl"\le meaning is "age." Thus it speaks of "ages of ages," "this age," "the age to come.'' And .every branch of science teUs of dit.ferent "ages." Geology speaks of them and marks them off one from another by different names. History, biology, philology, all speak in similar way. All tell of ages,;when the condition of things was altogether different from what we see now, and hQw one ag11 bas ~ e d and prepared for another. 'l'herefore that there should be a passing away of the present age to which time belongs, and that it should be follow.ad by 9Jl8 in which time, as we understand it, should be no more, is affirmed, not only by tb,e Bible, but by manifold other evidence beside.· And not only shall there._be su~ sion, but advance. 'fhere have been ages in which we can trace no form of life. These have been suCQ88ded by others which have had life, but only in its lower forms. These again by others possessing higher forms, and at length the highest of all, that of man, And in harmony with all this the Bible bids us look on to an infinitely better eondition of things than now we, know. of, in .the age- or world to come, whereof the 1!3Cred writers spea!L Here." the whole creation groanet,h and travaileth together in pain even until now ; " but there "the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption," etc. (Rom. viii.). The inscrutable problem of this present life, "'the mystery of God," as it is termed in ver. 7, shall "be finished," and the:re shall be 'a new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." And the means whereby .all this shall be brought about, not only the Bible, but scientific research altlo, reveal with startling clearness. The Bible says that the angels of God "shall gather l)Ut of his kingdom all things that do offend, and them that work iniquity." Science says that in the. progress of the ages the fittest alone survive. All that are incapable of. the, higher life that is to be disappear and perish, and the fit and worthy alone remain. Such is the solemn " Amen" of science to the teachings of the Word of God. And are there not like facts visible even now amidst mankind? Growth and advanc;e- ment in races, tribes, nations, families, and individuals, the records and observatioll of human life, are full of such happy factl!; but, on the other hand, there are the mournful facts amid the same subjects, of degeneracy, decay, and death. Character determinet these things, and the Bible says the same. Oh, how, then, does all this appell:l to every 288 TH1t 'ItEVltLATlON 'OF S't. JOHN THE DMNE. [OIL x. ·1.....11.