The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 315

age for which it is intended. To the end of the age there will beno other. No advance in natural knowledge can ever put men beyond the need of it, and no philosophy of man can ever be any substitute for it. (4) For what purpose P To proclaim it. It is to be heralded far and wide. Not merely as a witness, to condemn the rejectors of it• but mainly as "the power of God unto salntion to every one that believeth." Thill gospel is the rod of God's strength. 2. He says BOmething. To this gospel (in itself a message) there is also attached a m888age: "Fear God ••• the hour of his judgment is come." Kp(o-is, not itp(110-the judging process ever going on; not the issue, or sentence, 'fhe way in which man receives the $ospel is in itselr a test or proof of what he is. " For judgment I am come into th18 worlu." This is not the hour of God's final sentence. That is in reserve. But it is a judging hour. Whenever and wherever the gospel is preached-and only there-is the actual trial going on, whether men will turn to the light or turn from it. Men are called on to give glory to him, acknowledging his majellty, confessing their sin, and receiving God's pardon. II. THE ilEOOND ANGEL. (Ver. 8.) He has to make the proclamation, "Babylon the great," etc. It seems as if this were inserted by anticipat10n. The fuller detail of this ls given later on. "Nothing," says Dr. Lee,1 "is more marked than the contrast which is mai11tained between Babylon as the type of the world, and Jerusalem as the type of the Church. '!'he one is introduced by the foundation of J3abel soon after the Deluge; the other by the establishment of the house of Dai,id in the city of Zion. Babylon is a scene of confusion. Jerusalem is as a city that is compact together." Babylon breaks up. Jerusalem is the city that emerges out of the ruins. '.!.'bus the second angel is a co-worker with the first. One i1.1 God's messenger to draw men out of the world. The second is one who proclaims the certain downfall of the great world• llgency which bas set up its false attractions and lured men by its hai lotry to forsake the Lord. And from the very first the 11entence bath gone forth agains~ this great Babylon. that she must falL The false in life, in religion, in commercll, must go. AU wickedness is decaying, and will utterly perish before the Lord. The heathen were wont to say, "The feet of the gods are shod with wool, but their hands are hands of lron.n · Ill THE THIRD ANGEL. (Vera, 9-11, "If any one," etc.) This is a proclamation to the individual. "if (Tls) any one." The judgment on great world-powers may be national ; that on the inctividual is personal. The former in this life only; the latter in the next also. "Worshippeth;" present tense," is worshipping." IC a.ny is so found when the Lord cometh to judgment, if he. ill then drinking of "the wine of the wrath of ~bylon's fornication," another cup shall be given him ("him" emphatic). "He also shall drink," etc. Of what? Of the wine of the unmixed wrath of God. Unmi.ud ioratA f What am that be? God grant that we may never know I But may we not say thus much? It will be pure and holy wrath, unmixed with any foreign ingredients. It will not be marred by weakness, nor by excess, nor by defect. lt will be a pure and perfect equity dealing with sin. The figurative expressions here- " :lire."" brimstone," "smoke "-are terrible ones, drawn from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah ; and only such figures will avail to set forth the destrucU ve and deYouring effect of holy wrath upon a guilty soul. What is the effect? "No rest; " " torment." There never can be any rest for a guilty conscience under the sway of Infinite Holiness. To those ill at ease wit.h God there must be torment. The structure of mind and conscience necessitates this. For bow long P "For ever and ever" (Authorized Version); in the margin of the Revised Version, "for ages of ages.'; This is the more nearly exact translation of the o:iginaL It does not affirm the absolute end18881l.ess of the punishment. Since the word " age" has a plnral, it plainly is not n8C88118rily infinite. For no such word cou_ld have a plural. Infinity cannot even be doubled, much less be multiplied indefinitely. Further, no finite multiple of a finite term can possibly reach infinity. So that to a,ffirm the absolute unendinmess of this punishmilt\ would be to go beyond th~ text. At the same time, it is eq~ally dear that the words are so terrible that they do not bring in sight any end of it. Nor la there the slighteiit gleam of light in the horizon for the finally impenitent. More at lenph, elsewhere, bas the present writer developed this dread theme.I The in I • Speaker's Commentary,' fua. ~-•Future Puni.,;hment,' puLlislwd by J. Snow and Oo. as. XIV, 1-20.J THE 'REVELATION OF ST. JOHN THE .DIVINE. &'ii