The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 336

Ver. 3.-Man training for th6 SUP6f'881lSUOUB heaven. "No man could leam that aonl but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. The subject of these words· is man training for th6 supersensuous hetiven. N otioe-- L IIJu.VEN REQUIRES HIS TRAINING. "No man could learn that song." Man can- not blend in the happy harmony of the celestial state without previous training. Analogy would suggest thiii. In the physical system every being is fitted to his position, his organism is suited to his looality. These bodies of ours, as now constituted, could probably live in no other planet than this. In the social system the same principle of fitness is required. The stolid clown could not occupy the professor's chair, nor could he who is reckless concerning law, right, and order occupy the bench of justice. It is just eo in relation to heaven. To feel a.t home in the society of the holy, cheerfully to serve the Orea.tor and his universe, and to be in ·harmony with all the laws, operations, and beings in the holy empire, we must manifestly be invested with the same character. But what is the training necessary? 1. Not mechanical. Ceremonial religion enjoins this. 2. Not intellectual. Theological training may be conducive, but it is not suffi• cient. 3. It is moral-the training of the spiritual sympathies, the heart being brought to say," Thy will be done." No one can "sing the song," blend in the harmonious action of heaven, without thiii. A man with corrupt sympathies could never sing in heaven; he would shriek. In the midst of happy myriads he would be alone. His darkness would couceal from him the outward sun; his inner flashes of guilt would change for him the God of love into a "consuming fire." II. REDEMPTION IS THE CONDITION OF IDB TRAINING. .. Those who were redeemed from the earth." The redemption here referred to is evidently that procured by the love of Christ. The training requires something more than education; it needs emancipation, the deliverance of the soul from certain feelings and forces incompatible with holiness-a deliverance from the guilt and power of evil The grand characteristic of Christianity is that it is a power to redeem from all evil. No other system on earth can do this. III. THE EARTH IS THE BOENE OF me TRAINING. "Redeemed from the earth." The brightest fact in the history of the dark world is that it is a redemptive scene. Amidst a.II the clouds and storms of depravity and sorrow that sweep over our path, this fact rises up before us a bright orb that shall one day dispel all gloom and bush all tumult. Thank God, this is not a retributive, but a redemptive scene. But it should be remembered that it is not only a redemptive scene, but the only redemptive scene. There is no redemptive influence in heaven-it is not required. A wonderful world is this l True, it is but a spark amidst the suns of the universe-a tiny leaf in the mighty forests I Let the light be quenched and the leaf be destroyed, their absence would not be felt. Still it has a. moral history the most momentous. Here Christ lived, laboured, died. Here milllons of spirits are trained for heaven. What :Marathon was to Greece, and Waterloo to Europe, this little earth is to the creation. Here the great battles of the spiritual universe are fought. It is the Thermopyl,e of the creation.-D. T. Vers. 6-8.-The dissemination of good, and th6 cl&eruction of evil. "And I 11aw another angel fly in the midst of hen.ven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation," etc. In these verses two BUbjecta are suggested- L THE DISBEBINATION OF GOOD. The good here is called" the everlasting [eternal] g011pel" (ver. 6). 1. The gospel in itself u good. It is at once the mirror and the medium of eternal good. It contains and communicates to man that which reflects the Divine character and constitutes the heaven of souls. "Everlasting "-eternal. Good is eternal. Unlike evil, it never had a commencement, and will never have an end; i, is as old as God himself. 2, The gospel in its ministry u good. "And I saw another angel fly [flying] in the midst of [mid]-heaven" (ver. 6). It comes from heaven and is ooun.red b.J hea.veuly meBSengen1 to men. Angels are so interested in this gospel that 178 TllE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE. [CB. xiv. 1-20.