The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 331

judgee when it is time to thrust in the sickle ? I will tell you. All the time the com waa growing, those hollow stems served as ducts that drew up nourishment from the soil. At length the proceBB of vegetation is fulfilled. The fibres of the plant become rigid; they cease their office; down below there has been a failure of the vital po-.er which is the precursor of death. Henceforth the heavenly powers work quick ~ marvellous changes: the sun paints his superscription on the ears of grain. They have reached the last stage; having fed on the riches of the soil long enough, they are now only influenced from above" (Spurgeon). And when it is thus with the people of God, when the golden light of the Sun of Righteousness shines on them and they are trans- formed thereby, then the evidence of ripeness is seen, and the season for the sickle has come. 7. God will Ct!'rlainlg gather in his people. "Harvest shall not fail "-such was the primeval promise, and it has never faiied; nor shall this harvest. either, "Look up, lift up your hesds; for your redemption draweth nigh." II. THE VINTAGB, Under the altar on which was "the fire," OTer which the angel told of in var. 18 "had power," were the souls of them that had been slain for the testimony of Jesus (eh. vi. 9). They had asked, "How long, 0 Lord, ••• dost thou not-judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" And now the answer is given. The vintage of vengeance has begun. For the " grapes,, of the "vine of the earth" are fully ripe. It is the judgment of the whole earth, when" all nations" shall be gathered (Matt. xxv.) before the Son of man. The square of four- four ever the symbol of the earth-amplified by hundreds, the "one thousand and six hundred furlonga" of ver. 20, likewise point to the universality of this awful judgment. Minor fulfilment.a-presages, predictions, and patterns of the final judgment-of these there have been many and will be many; but in this vintage of vengeance upon the world's sin all are summed up and fulfilled. But will there be any such event at all 1 Will Christ "come again to judge the quick and the dead," as the Creed declares? or ia it all a myth and imagination, a nightmare, which the sooner the world shakes olf and awakes from the better? Many affirm that it is this; many more would like to think IO. But what is the truth? 1. Men have ever felt that there aught to be mch Judgment. See in the Old Testament, 1n the Psalms, Joh, in the prophets, what distress of soul God's people were in, because they feared for the faith of a just God. So many wrongs were perpetrated, and no one called to account. Wicked men in great prosperity, "flourishing like a green bay tree;' and all the while godly, innocent men trampled in the very dust by these wicked, well-off ones. And .many saints of God were heart- broken under the pressure of indubitable facts like these, asking for, and not finding any, redress. Men who were not saints, as they could not find any law of judgment, took the law into their own hands. And hence they added torture to death. For merely to kill a man was no punishment at all Who would care for that? Death rids a man of all trouble. Make him suffer, therefore, whilst he is alive. So they thought and acted, and hence the whole system of tortures, from the imagery of which some of the most dread emblems of this book are drawn. But the tears of good men, in view of this problem of righteousness unrewarded and persecuted, whilst unrightoous- lless went not only unpunished, but held high festival; and the tortures inflicted by cruel men when they got a criminal into their bands ;-both are testimonies to the con- viction that a Divine and perfect judgment ought to be. 2• .And now U ia declared that such judgment shall be. Conscience assents to it. What endorsements of God's Word the guilty conscience gives. Read' Macbeth' for one illustration out of thousands more. 3. Human law and justiclJ strive after right iudgment. What COllllternation there is when some great criminal escapes and baffles all means of discovery, and what Joy when such are caught and tried and condemned l It is all confirmation of the truth taught by this " vintage." 4. .Ana the juagments tMt come now on ungodly nations, communities, and individuals are all in proof. History rightly read reveals the truth in luminons light: "Verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth." Thill harvest for God's holy oues, and this vintage of those for whom his holy vengeance awaits, are both to be. When the sharp sickles that gather the Olle and the other are put in, where shall t0e bejound1 'l'hat is the question of questions for us all to answer. God, of his mercy, give us no rest until we can answer it aright 1-S. 0, Vers.1-5.-The triumphant host. A.gam Rmidst the threatenings of danger and a uv. 1-00.] THE REVELATION OF ST, JOHN THE DIVINE. 8'/1