The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 347

Ven. 3, 4.-Tlui prelude of the plagues-the 'beginning of tJie end. It seemed as if all was ended with the harvest and the vintage, of which we are told in the close of the previous chapter. What can come after the ingathering of the saints and the final judgment? And, indeed, nothing can. Bnt what is here given in the chapters that follow is the more detailed setting forth of the Divine judgments upon the Church's three great enemies-the dragon and the two beasts; or, in other words, the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet. The overthrow of Satan is, however, related last of 11.U. Ere the Divine judgments on these en'}mies of the people of God begin, we have the song of the redeemed-the song, as it is termed, "of Moses the servant of God and of the Lamb.'' An objection may be felt by some that the saints of God should be represented, as they are here, as exulting over the awfnl woes which had come upon their enemies. Is such triumph over a fallen foe in harmony with the Spirit of Christ, .and with the perfectly sanctified nature of the inhabitants of heaven? In reply, we niay say that what is right anywhere is right everywhere; and if it were right for lemel to exult over the dead Egyptians and the utter destruction of Pharaoh and his hOBts-as surely it was-then like exultation over far worse foes cannot be wrong. We are scarcely able to comprehend either Israel's or St. John's condi_tion of miad. We have so long dwelt at ease, in the enjoyment of full liberty, none daring to make us afraid, that the intense feeling aroused by hideous murder, bloody cruelty, monstrous injustice, and relentless oppression, threatening, not one or two, but a whole people, and enacted under our own eyes, and felt in our own persons-what all this would arouse in men's minds we do not know, and can scarce imagine. One present amid the Sepoy massacres in the Indian Mutiny tells with what fresh understanding he and Ms fellow• worshippers listened in church to the· lessons which fell then to be read out of the Book of Joshua. Burning indignation against wrong can never be wrong. It was in Christ, and should he in us. Exultation, thETefore, over its downfall is not only natural, but right. The coupling t-0gether of the song of Moses and of the Lamb teaches that in the firet·we are to find the pattern of the second. Note, therefore- . L THE SCENB. Our thoughts are sent back to the thrilling story of farael in Egypt. The pouring out of the vials is called by the same name-" plagues "-as were God's judgments in Egypt. .And the scene of this song alludes plainly to Israel at the Red Bea. We are standing before a sea of glass, aa we read in eh. iv. But that sea now aeems "mingled with fire." On its margin stand the throngs of the redeemed. That sea so lustrous, so stilf, so smooth, so firm, like as the Red Sea seemed in comparison with the fearful storm of the night of the Exodus. But it had been a sea of judgment to their foea. In its depths lay horse and rider, chariot and horseman, Pharaoh and hie army. Fitly did the fire, mingled with this sea of glass, tell of that. .And tht1 rejoicing Israelites were the type of which the redeemed Church of Christ, llafe in glory, is the antitype. This scene is another reminder, out of many more, that in the story of Israel may he read, in symbol, the story of the Christian Church. The comfort, the counsel, and the warning-for all are t~ere--of the one are for. the other also. II. THE BONG, 1. It is a song, not a speech. Sung, not said. Music, the vehicle of song, is the language of thoughts that lie too deep for words. Words are not adequate to tell of the heart's feelings. The flush of shame; the flash of the angry eye-as his, whose " eyes were as a flame of fire; " the tears of sorrow; the sigh of distress. More lihau words is wanted, and music is one of the many means. more expressive far than  CR. xv. 1-8.] T'.HE REVELATION OF BT• .JOHN THE DIVINE. 887