The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 314

something to inspire one in tlie thought of the race rising to any such greatness after evolution has had time enough to work out to such an issue. But when the deduction has to be made of the extinction of individuals in the race-process, the heart is taken :mt of us the moment our hope sets to work. The redeeming grace of God reacuel!I the in<lividual, and gives him a living hope. And one of the mos.t painful features of the clay ia to find many, trained and nurtured in, and even saturated with, ·the beautiful and consoling truths of the glorious gospel of the blessed God, C(lsting away from them the only props on which such a hope can rest. The hope survives a while, but oannot. long continue when ite support is gone.. The only alternative is supematuralism Of despair. "Blessed be the God and Father qf our Lord Jesus Christ., wQich according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." 2. W~ may well admire th.e pigh stanqard of goapel morality. Som,(_there are who accuse us of a low~toned morality in preachin~ "Believe, and be B&ved." One would think that we stopped with t~e word "believi;,, and went no further. But the fact is, no sinful man can start fairly for holines1 until be has a firm s~nding and a new power. Faith in a living Saviour ensures both these1 and faith in him alone. . 3. Let. us be filled with thankfulness tbat we. are permitte<1 such a fore-glance of those who once . · •Wlll8tled hard, aa we do now, . With siwi, lllld doubta. and.teen.• What they tiiere, we are. What they are, by the grace of God we too may be. 4-. Be it ours to imitate those who have gone before. The victory they now enjoy WS8 not. won without many a hard struggle. Supposing we bad before us now two men: orie, a model of faultless social propriety. yet steeped in self-complacency; the o1:her, the worst of publicans· and sinners. We would gather from the scenea reviewed ln this chapter a word of equal appropriateness to both. To the open sinner we would say, " You !MY be separated from your sins, if you will. Christ will kill them and save you 1• To the· other we would say, "Yon must be separated from yqur pride; for you ~n no more enter heaven in your spirit of self-righteousness than tM most ·openly abancloned, sinner." . Mercy is free to all. 'fhe best need it. The worst may have it. Without it, we must atl lfkewise perish. 5, Let no Christian struggler. de11pair. God is able to keep him from falling, and to present him faultless before the presence of his glo11 with exceeding joy. · ·. ·. Vers. 6-11.-The three angers. The varied soenes ln tht~ boo}; are, to 'us, not so much pictures of events which, when once occurring, exhaust th,e meanipg of the prophecy, but rather representations of what is continuously going on and repeatedly renewing itself-of present-day realities, and-not merely of passing incident. The passage before us, looked at in this light, is full of most stimulating teaching; fall of.comfoit to those whose faces are set in the right direction. and full of terrifie warning to other.: We can bear a great d~al lf we kuow what the worst will be, and that sooner, or· late, it will be over. To aee through a trouble is a great relief in it, and, o.fortiorl, if af'the end there is·gfory. In these sentences ~1 he found the key to a great deal in the book, and; in fact, an indication of its aim. · .The believer is shown· that th~re is. mtt.cJi tribulation awaiting the Church ere the end shall come; but there.will be an end'to iii, and brightness beyond it. It is otherwise with the scene set before the ungodly. In their horizonlthere la no discernible ray of light. And all the visions of this book thua alternate between the light and the shade. In the para~ph before us for preaent study we ha'fe a vision of three angels flying in the midst of heaven. Their mea,tsgea are precisely th0118 which are being given throughout the Christian age; they belong aa much to this century as to any other; to any other as much as to tbiil. They give three messages which are perpetlllilly true. We will study their messages malim. · I. Till!: l'IRST ANGEL. (V1irs. 6, 7.) 1: He haa aflfflething. (1) What is it.? "M g08p6l"-good tidinl(s.1 We know what these are. Free salvation for every penitent. (2) For whom is it? . For "nery nation," etc. No nation so civilized that it is not needed. No nation so degraded that it will not auffice. (3) For how long? "Au eternal go&pel." One that will be suitable, true, and adequate throughout the whole 1 ProfeBIIOl Milligan'• remarb on th- '\'91'888 ue very slngu]a,r, but deserve attentio.11,, BBVELATIOlr. , 2 A Mi THE REYELATION OF ST. JOHN TllE DIVINE. fen. xTV. 1-20,