The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 273

life! If the Word torments, it is only that it may arouse you to listen; it is only that you may take it to you as your guide, your light, and your comforter. Trifle not with that Word which must one day judge you. May Christ give it entrance while it is still light and not fire-" a light to cheer and to enlighten, not a fire to bum 81111 to oon- 11t1me" ! (V...,ghan).-S. C. Ver. 19.-T/ie rent veil. In the foregoing part of this chapter, which tells of the two witne11Ses, we have seen how the path along which they were led resembled that of the Lord J~sllll Christ himself. 'l'hey had fellowship with him in ministry, in suffering, and in triumph. It is ever so with ·the servants of Christ. And now in this verse our thoughts are sent back to those miracles which were attendant upon his death. In Matt. xxvii 50, 51, etc., we are told of the veil that was rent from the top to the bottom, and of the.earthquake, and of the opened graves. And so in this chapter, which tells of the winding up of the Jewish dispensation, we see the inner- most recesses of the temple thrown open, and all that it contained laid bare to men's sight and approach, as it had never been before. So was it when on the cross Christ said, "It is finished I" so is it now in this vision in which the end of all that old order of things is portrayed. But what meant that rent veil there, and this opened temple and ark of the covenant disclosed to all eyes? They have a meaning. "To the few eyes that witne11Sed that rending of the temple veil it must have been a most mysteri- ous spectacle. Onr Lord died at the third hour after midday, the very hour when eager crowds of worshippers would be thronging into the courts of the temple, and all would be perparing for the evening sacrifice. Within the holy place, kindling, perhaps, the ma.ny lights of the golden candle,;tick, some priests would be busy before the inner veil which liung between them and the holy of holies-the dark secluded chamber within which once lay the ark of the covenant, with the cherubim above it shadowing the mercy~seat, which no mortal footstep was permitted to invade, save that of the high priest once only every year. How strange, how awful, to the ministering priests, standing before that veil, to feel the earth tremble beneath their feet, and to see the strong veil grasped, as if by two unseen hands of superhuman strength, and tom down in its centre from top to bottom ; the glaring light of day, that never for long centuries gone by hail entered there, flung into that sacred tenement, and all its mysteries laid open to vulgar gaze!" Now, that which this disclosure of the most holy place meant when our Lord was crucified, is meant also by what St. John tells us here in his vision. But more than this is meant. For when the veil of the temple was rent no ark of the covenant was seen. That had long ago disappeared, having been either burnt or carried off when Jerusalem -and the temple were ov-0rthrown by Nebuchadnezzar. Hence neither in the second temple, nor in that of Herod, in the days of our Lord, was there any ark of the covenant. It seems never to have been replaced (cf. Esdras, Josephus, Tacitus). But here, in St. John's vision, the ark of the covenant is seen again. Fuller meaning, there- fore, is to be found in the vision than in the rent veil. Much is common to both; something, however, belongs peculiarly to each. Let us, therefore, note- I. WHAT IS SPECIAL TO EACH. And : 1. As to the veil rent in twain. " It is not f;mciful," says one, "to regard it as a solemn act qf mourning 9n the part of the house of the Lord. In the East men exprt1ss their sorrow by rending their garments, and the temple, when it beheld its Master die, seemed struck with horror, and rent its veil. Shocked at the sin of man, indignant at the murder of its Lord, in its sympathy with him who is the true Temple of God, the outward symbol tore its holy vestment from the top to the bottom" (Spurgeon). But, with far more certainty, we may see in it the symbol of our Lo-rd's sacred humanity. The Epistle to the Hebrews expressly tells us this in x. 19, 20, where we read, "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he bath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh." "The weak, human, mortal flesh was the state through which he had to pass before he could enter into the holiest in the heavens for us, and when he put off that flesh the actual veil in the temple was rent in twain." That perfect human life, this life in our suffering humanity, opened to our sight and to our feet the way to God. Recall the ancient type. Ere e.ver the high priest could enter into the holiest of all,_he must push aside or lift up the 116pa1'ting veil which hung before it. Now, that veil symbolized Christ's flesh, that ill, M. n. 1-19,] THl!l REVELATION OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE. 803