wicked for the-day of evil"? 3. Meanwhile, God is "long~suffering, ••• not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." V. AT THE APPOINTED HOUR THE "LONG-BUFFERING" WILL CEASE. By thia it is not meant that patience, 88 a Divine attribute, will be exhausted, but that there will come a time when the Divine Being will no longer refrain iivm inflicting his judgments on sin and sinners. Even now,•• because sentence age.inst an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." Soon will the Divine will be manifested, and the punishment of sin will be the vindication of thoJ right and the condemnation of the wrong. VI. THEN "BABYLON THE GREAT," WlTH ALL HEB BINS, SHALL COllE UP FOR FINAL RECKONING AND RECOMPENSE. God will "render unto her even 88 she rendered." •• Whatsoever a man soweth," etc.; "We must all be made manifest at th11 tribunal of Christ;" "God shall bring every work into judgment," etc.; "'fhere is nothing oovered, that shall not be revealed;" "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again;" "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." Vil. 'l'HE FACT THAT ALL IS IN THE HANDS OF GOD IS A GUARANTEB OF PERFECT EQUITY, "Re will render to every man according to his deeds." In the future retribution there will be no flaw in time or degree; no defect, no exoess. The J" udge of all the earth will do right ; it is " in the sight of God " that great Babylon will be remembered. VIII. WITH OUB Gou THE EXECUTION 18 AS CERTAIN AS TBB PURPOSB. The seer beard "a great voice from the temple, out of the throne, saying, It is done I" The fulfilment is perceived as well 88 decreed. Not a word shall fail of all that the Lord bat-h spoken, His plans can never be frustrated. Our Lord Jesus Christ has all authority in heaven and on e3!th. Note: 1. Amid the perplexity caused by the prevalence and power of evil, let us atay ourselves on God. We kn, ,w what he is, though we often fail to read what he doe& 2. Let us do right, and wait God's time. We are not to shape our course according to expediency, but according to right principle. 3, Revenge is never to .be any part of our policy. We are incompetent judges, and we ourselves are too often swayed by passion. God reserves vengeance to himself. Let us, therefore, not take the law into our own hands. but "leave room for the wrath of God." 1 4. Let us be glad and grateful that believers in God are not left in the dark 88 to the meaning, aimY, and issue of the Divine government of the world. 'l'his Book of the Apocalypse is written in parable, doubtless for the same reason that our Lord spake in parables when on earth (cf. Matt. xiii.), They are so couched that unbelief cannot read them, but that faith can. And is there not infinite wisdom in this? Who would entl'Ul!t bis secrets to one who was known neither to trust nor to be trusty? Jesus <lid not commit himself to men, because he knew all men, The faith was deliver~d "once for all to the saints." They only are exptcted to keep it who love it. Hence to them only is it committed. Those who trust God are trusted by him. His secret is with them. And the contents of that secret are twofold-grace in saving, and equity in ruling. 'I'hese are the pivots on which the Divine government turns. Grace reigns through righteousness; and where grace ill refused and heaven is defied, there will yet be pure and unswerving equity. 5. Hence it behoves the righteous to walk this earth with a sense of their dignity, as those who are entrusted with the mysteries of the Divine plans : not, indeed, so minutely as to be inconsistent with the calm and steadfast fulfilment of duty, but yet in broad outline so clearly that for them there is no such thing as ''. the bn rden and mystery of an unintelligible world." 'l'hat he! pless and hope-, le~s perplexity is removed from all those who know that "the Father loveth the Son, and bath given all things into his hand." 6. But, whether in the portentous imagery of the Apocalypse or in the cfoarer language of the Epistles, it is revealed Wlth an impre.<sive clearness that the man who is trifling with the Divine loving-kindness, not knowing that the goodness of Qod is drawing him with 11, view to repentance, is but treasuring up to himsell" wrath against the day of wrath, and of-the revelatit.m of the righteous judgment of God I All that is involved in tlie words, "He must reign till he hath put all enemies beneath his feet." 7. Is it "in the sight of God" that there will be remembrance of peoples hereafter? 'l'hen "in the sight of God" the 1 Bee Tyndale'a version of Rom. xii. 19 · 404 THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN TlIR DIVINE. [GIL xVI. 1-11.
people mn&t fulfil their obligations now. It has been asked if faith in God is 8811elltia1 to the discharge of moral obligation. We answer-Loyalty to God is the first of ail moral obligations, and none are rightly fnl6lled where this ui lacking. A strikin~ commentary on all this is that most painful life of George Eliot, who, though liviug in outrageous defiance of the first duties of social life after she had given up faith ln God, aneered at the words- ,. Talk they or morak P O thou blElf'()ing Lon I Thou Maker of new morals to mankind I The grand mOl'&lity is love of thee." Finally, that which la the law for the individual is the law for the nation and for lta rulers, viz. to learn the mind and will of the King of kings and Lord of lords, and then to carry that out irrespectively of human praise or blame. Woe to that nation which. applauds a policy that will come in remembrance before God only to be everlastingly disgraced I Woe to the people whose trust is in chariots and horses, in armies and in fleets, in guns and in swonlsl Ever are we surrounded by men who clamour for glory, for conquest, for annexation, for empire I And this cry must be resisted by ell who have learnt the Divine secret that "righteousness alone exalteth a nation," that" sin i■ a reproach to any people." Every great Babylon is doomed.