The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 272

condlmlned, and crucified. ·And with contempt like to that of refusing burial WIii! our Lord treated. "He was despised and rejected of men." It was their " hour, and the power of darkness." And the Church, his co-witness, hu had fellowship in his sufferings, and been once and again "ma.de conformable unto his death/' The same fore, the same rage, the same suffering, the same seeming vanquil:lhment, the so.me scorn,- these have been her lot as well as her Lord's. And over both have been the like short-lived exultation. Herod and Pontius Pilate became friend, over the condemner! Christ. His enemies breathed more freely when they knew he was dead. How they mocked him as he hung on the cross I Their joy, as well as their hatred and BCOm, are clearly audible in those hideous insults which they heaped upon him. And again and again have the persecutors of the Church exulted in imagined success, Pagan and papal, Btill worse than pagan Rome, have alike fl.aUered themselves, once and again, that heresy-as they deemed it-was completely put down. They have been "drunk with the blood of saints," and in their wild orgies hBTe rejoiced and made merry as the manner of such is to do. Let us, whose lot has fallen in these quiet days, learn lessons of thankfulness that no such suffering as the Church has had to endure falls to· our sharer and that, when such suffering had to be borne, grace sufficient for the day was given. Wha.t an implied promise of ever-present help there is in that! And let us be a.shamed to shrink from any suffering allotted to us, seeing how incomparably less it is, which, in witnessing for God, we may be called upon to bear. And let us remember, and be comforted by the remembrance, whence· and when such sufferings come. Wnenc11 t From hell, and such as were the men of Sodom and Egypt, and the murderers of the Lord. If friendship with such would save us from suffering, would we be their friends? God forbid I And when 1 It was when the evil they could do could do no harm (see ver. 7). The witnesses had finished their testimony. What a shutting of the door after the horse bas been stolen! · God's witnesses had done their work; it did not matter now. what· their foes might do against or with them. God's servant• are immortal, yea more, are left unh_indered, until their work is don~. JII. .JN TRIUMPH.· (Ver. 11.) Our Lord's resurrection, the fear which fell on his flll'J', his ascension, Pentecost and its marvels, are all referred to here as patterns of the triumph of the witnesses. In these great events are found the archetype and model, and not merely the mere illustration, of what St. John tells of. It is easy to see what answers in the history of our Lord to what is here said. He was glorified, declared t.o be the Son of God with power, by means of them, And in his tdumph his people share,.so tba6, in a very real sense, what is said of him can be, and is, Sldd of them. Church revivals, of which there have been many, are instances of fellowship in Ohrist's triumph. Often have hell and Satan,:and all that are.theirs, though: t~at Chri~ianity and tlie Church were crushed. Voltaire vowed that it- should be his ecraaer l'infame, and he thought that by his writings it should surely be done, and in the awful duys of the revolutionary terror it seemed ·as if his vaunt were not vain, but valid. But revival came. In the bl68Sed Reformation times, what a resurrection unto life for the faith an<l the Church there was J In the Diocletian persecutions it seemed as if all were lost, but in brief while, Constantine avowed himself a Christian, and the faith which was once persecuted was now praised and preferred everywhere. .And to-day in'many quarters, it is feared that faith is dead. Perhaps some fear it for themselves. .But behold this parable of the witnesses. Over the grave of all such "Resurgamn may, should be, written. "Failure" is a word unknown in the vocabLtlary of God, but ultimate and complete triumph is absolutely sure. · " CoNCLUSION. Witnesses for Christ, does not this bid us be of good cbeer? · Enemies of Christ, does not the word of his witnesses "torment" you? Does it not rankle within y-0u, dtiting away your peace, refusing to let you alone in your sins, however much you might wish it would? It scorches and burns inwardly, as if the fire unquenchable were already kindled, Blessed be God that the witness of the Word doth torment, pricking you to the heart, and causing perpetual pain. Yield to it, as did Saul the persecutor, who, by yielding, became Paul the apostle. "The Word is quick and :powerful;" it goes straight to the conscience, making many a Felix "tremble". an'd many an Agrippa resolve "almost to be a Christian." But remember, it may do all~bis .and not san your soul. Oh for that one little step which yet remains to be takeu I that' actual "arising and going to yout Father" I that t831 coming to .Christ that you may have 804, THE REVELA'f10N OF ST, JOHN .THE DIVINE. [oa. u. 1-19.