S--14) i "The smoke thereof shall go up for ever.'' The temporal judgments that came upon Edom are thus described. And so, in eh. xviii., we have word for word th, fulfilment on earth, not in Gehenna, of the threatenings we a.re now considering (cf, vers. 9, 15, 18). Why, then, may not temporal judgments be what are meant here p (3) Why, in the clo8ing vision of this book, are death, hell, and the lake of fire, pain, sorrow, death, and all such things, declared to have" passed away" and to be"" no more" (cf. eh. xxi.)? All these things have not been transferred to some other planet, to defile its surface and darken its heavens. They have" passed away," he alone abiding who" doeth the will of God." (4) Why is the language of the Bible BO constantly of such a kind as to lend the strongest colour to the belief that death, destruction, perish- ing-not a ne"er-ending existence in suffering-is the doom of t1e finally impenitent? That this is so can hardly be denied. The passage before us is,probably, the only one which seems to teach everlasting suffering. (5) And, if it were a Divine doctrine, would it not, like all other Divine doctrines, "commend itself to every man's COllllCienoo in the sight of God"? The truth that St. Paul preached did so commend itself. If this be part of it, why does it not also so commend itself? It is notorious that it does not. Conscience revolts against it, and insistence upon it has generated more unbelief and atheism than, perhaps, any other cause whatsoever. We, therefore, cannot believe that what this passage seems to many minds to mean, it actually does mean. But:· 2. We note thefollowi12gfacts. (1) The occasion of this threatening. Terrible persecu- tion, when it was absolutely necessary to fortify and strengthen the minds of Christians with every consideration that would help them to be faithful under the dreadful trial!!' that beset them. (2) And in this way this threatening, and others like it(cl. Matt. x.), were used, and were no small help to the steadying of the wavering will and the strengthening of the feelJle heart. "The ancient Cyprian often strengthened his exhortations to steadfastness under bloody persecutions with this word." (8) The fulfilment of this word (of. eh. xviii. and parallels). Therefore, whilst not limiting it to temporal punishments : 3. We regard it as telling qf that "everlasting destruction from the presence qf the Lord," which shall be the doom of all apostates and all who porsist in rebellion against the Lord. · II. WHAT DOES IT TEACH? Amongst other lessons these: 1. The retribution of God upon unfaithful and wicked Dien is an awful reality. 2. 'l'hat in the midst of tempta- tion the remembrance of this will be a great help. 3. That it is the love of God which tells us the truth. 4. That they a.re fools and self-destroyed who will not "come unto" Christ that they" might have life."-S. 0.
Ver. 13.-The blessed dead. "And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth." By such wofd aa this it is that Christ "bath abolished death.'' True, it is at the side of the open grave and over our dead that we read them, so that the stern, hard fact of death is inill with us, and often well-nigh crushing our hearts with its load of sorrow. Death yet reigns. But his sovereignty is ahom of its worst power, since words like these fell upon tha ears and hearts of men. The Vale, -vale, ln reternum vale/ of broken-hearted paganism iii gone, never to return. The broken pillar and the extinguished torch are no longer fit emblems to place over the grave of our loved ones. The pillar rears its fair shaft and lacks not its beautiful coronal, and on the eternal shore the torch burns more brightly than ever, and is by no means gone out, though our dim eyes for a while. see it not. And this unspeakably precious gospel, which brings us such glad tidings of great joy, it is which some men want to silence as effete and incredible, that they may substitute for it their own dismal speculations, the only outcome and clear utterance of which ~ that, in regard to religious faith, there is nothing solid under our feet, nor clear over our heads ; all is one great " perhaps ; " nothing certain-nothing; neither soul, nor God, nor eternal life. To all such we say, •• If we be dreaming, as you affirm, then for God's sake let us dream on, unless you have some better, surer belief to which we may awake." But let us now think awhile of the unspeakably precious truth our text contains. And we note- · I. W HOH IT CONCERNS. 1. ThoS6 " in the Lord." "It ls obviously of the utmos, moment that we rightly understand who are spoken of. Alas! the context baa warned u, that the i,lessing here pronounced is not for all. The blessed dead are placed in 868 THE REVELATION OF ST, JOHN THE DIVINE. [o!I. XIV, 1-20.