unle1111 they &eknowledge and worship the first. Now, when we thus carefully set in order the two descriptions, who ca.n help seeing symbolic sketches of precisely the two great adverse forces which have been the plague of the world and of the Church- even an ungodly world-power, and a false religions teaching in alliance with it, 1mpport- ing it and supported by it? And who that knows the general history of the world but must be aware that these two forces, leagued together, have been the foes of the Church of God? Not any one power only, nor any one form of false religion only, is indicated here; the description is broad enough to embrace them all, and Indeed demands that all be embraced, for their sway is alike over all nations and tongues. Well do we know how exactly the state of things corresponded, e.t the time of the founding of the Christian faith, to the descriptions in this chapter. ReUgwn had long been regarded as a piece of statecraft. "The rulers took .counsel together," etc. (Ps. ii.; Acts iv. 25, et 1eq.). During the early struggles of the Christians the force of a false religion in alliance with a heathen state strove to compel men to act in subser- vience to a heathen emperor, in spite of conscience and of God. Then, disorders, droughts, famines, pestilences, were ascribed to the Christians; men were debarred the ordinary rights of citizens except they acknowledged the supremacy of the state in religious affairs. Far later, in our own land, when the temporal sovereignty of this realm was in alliance with popery, what pains and penalties were endured for con- science' sake l And in many countries, what harrowing tales of worry, persecution, and suffering a.re left on record; and even e.t this day there is often furnished a new contingent of those who will not worship the beast nor his image, and who will risk their all for the truth and for God! For even now these two beasts are living; the first bewlt gets wounded now and then, but still survives, having wondrous tenacity of life. At divers times and places, with oft-recurring onsets, do these two foe& of the Church seek to ravage, to spoil, and to devour. And although at this moment, in our peaceful land, the wild savagery of their coalition is toned down, yet every one knows that the stigma of a social _inferiority is still set on many who will not acknowledge ata.te authority in religion, By the social ban referred to in ver. 17 Dean Alford under- stands "the commercial and spiritual interdicts which have, both by pagan and by papal persecutors, been laid on Nonconformity , •• down to the last remaining civil disabilities imposed on Nonconformity in modem papal or Protestant countries." 1 " Here is the patience and the faith of the saints." This chapter may serve two purposes. I. IT SHOULD YIELD us UNSPEAKABLE COMFORT, In four respects: 1. Here we find eketched for us beforehand the checkered course of truth and right in the world; sketched, too, in precise accordance with the facts of history. The great Lord has fore- seen the struggle. 2. He who foreseei, and has thus sketched for us the forms of evil, has also assigned a limit to their duration. 3. In the worst of times, a faithful few shall be preserved. 4. The people of God will overcome at ~ by the two weapons of faith and patience. IL IT SUGGESTS MANY A LESBON l'OR THE PRACTICAL RULING 01' LU'& It aaya to us: 1. Do not be caught by appearances. There may be more show in might than in right. God approves only the latter, 2. Do not expect the immediate triumph of God's work. The end is not yet. The twelve hundred and sixty days are not yet closed; perchance they are not even near to their end. 8. Do not let us be in a state of agitation and of perpetual fear, as if something might happen to undo God's work. Never I 4, Do not let us mistake our own proper work. N'ever let n1 swerve a hair's breadth from right to gain a momentary end. All the right is essentially-success. All the wrong is essentially-failure. 5. Let ua rest in the knowledge that one eye discerns all, and one hand infallibly overrules all, to bring about the right end at the right time. 6. However long the time may be ere the salvation is brought in, it cannot be very long that any of us will have to maintain an attitude of vigilance and of war. A few short years at most, and the struggle between us and this ooolition of evil will be over. We a.re nearing the river. We shall soon cease to hear the clang of arms and the rush of the troops; and shall exchange the noi11e of a militant for the harmonies of the triumphant Church. Then, brothers, on-even unto death I 1 Quoted m'Speaker'■ Comxnentary,' ,n loo. 340 THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN TilE DIVINE. [OH. xm. 1-18.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Ver. 1 . - ~ lu,ons. "I stood upon the sand of the sea." (See homily on Jer, xlix. 23: Tol. iL • Pulpit Commentary,' p. 261.)-S. O.