The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 456

of the dead lived not again." .4c. They will be men roised for ever beyond the reach <d aJl future wil. " Blessed and holy is he. that hath pa.rt in the first resurrection : on such the second death bath no power" (ver. 6). Such men are deli\:'ered for eYer from all the influences and all the fears of Hades. What an age is this J Would it had · dawned! · IV. THE EXTENSIVE DURATION OF THE Wll:OLE. " And shall reign with him a thousand years" (ver. 6). If you suppose that this is literal, that ten centuries are meant, it is a long period for the continuation of one moral scene in map's history. How short was the scene of primeval innocence I The· scene of wickedn88B, too, is never long without being broken. Conscience is everlastingly breaking· in upon, and disturbing, wickedness here. Ten centuries of unbroken holiness and peace for the world are a long period I Bat I am disposed to regard the period referred to here as mucn longer than ten. centuries. A little ,interpretation would ·not agree either with too general structure of the book or with this passage.· Nor would it fully meet the nature of the case. I therefore regard the period either as meaning three hundred and sixty-five thousand years, or some vast indefinite period of time. The Jews and other nati'ons were in the habit of using the expression, "a thousand years," to denote 11, period of immense duration. 1. This long period of holiness is a glorious Bet-off against all the preceding ages of depravity and sin. When we think of the past ages of cor- ruption, the millions who, from period to period, have l)assed away without a knowledgo of the gospel, we are sometimes confounded. But all this may appear but as a few vibrations of a pendulum, when compared with the long ages of universal purity and peace. 'l'he lost, perhaps, will be a.s units to millions, compared with the saved. 2. This long period of huliness serves wonderfully to heighten our ideas of the [/Tandeur of C'hrist's work. Although the influence of Christianity as yet is confessedly limited compared with the widespread districts lying on all hands beyond its present reach, still no one who honestly looks at its past history will be disposed to deny that its conqtiests over the minds, systems, and institutions of humanity are unparalleled in the history of religions, snd far out-mea.,nre the appreciative faculty of the world's greatest intellects. But, in the vfow of the effulgent ages before us, its past most brilliant achievements pale their fires. Hitherto its rays have only fallen in twilight dimness upon the summit of an isolated mountain here and there; but in the glorious time coming it shall flood the world in warm; cloudless, and life-imparting light. Oh ! let me learn, then, to estimate the greatness of Christ's work, not by what be has done or is doing, but by those glorious achievements of his which prophecy has foretold. Let me not judge in this respect before the time. Shall I judge the husbandman just as be commences the cultivation of one of the· hundred acres committed to his care? or the architect just as the scaffolding is reared and a few stones are brought together? Still· less will I dare pronounce upon the work ·of Christ until in the great eternity I shall behold redemptionfinished.-D. T. Ver. 4:.-Ma,:tyrrlom a testimony. "I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the Word of God." Martyrdom is the subject of these words. The words suggest four facts. I. MARTYRS ABE SOMETIMES MURDERED MEN, John saw the souls of those who were ••beheaded." All murders are not martyrdoms; all martyrdoms are :murders. There has often been martyrdom, and still is, where there is no killing. There are sufferings inflicted on men on account of their conscientious convictions that are often as bad, if not worse, than death itself: There is slander, contumely, the loss of freedom, the destruc- iion of rights. For a man to spend bis life amidst social scorn, civil disabilities, and reli~ious intolerance .on account of his conscientious beliefs, is a martyrdom r his life is a protracted and painful dying. But thousands have been murdered, and that by every variety of method which Satanic cruelty could invent. Paul summarizes some of the tortures of ancient martyrdom. '' Some had trials ofcruel mocking," etc. · II. MARTYRS ARE ALWAYS WITNESSING MEN. "Beheaded for the witness." Indeed, a the word means witness. All witnesses are not martyrs, but all martyrs are wit- nesses. The man who dies on account of conscientious beliefs, whether they are right or wrong, bears witness to several things. 1. To the invinciln1ity of the human will. The ablest metaphysical works cannot give you anything like the impression of the 504 THE RElVEtA.T!ON OF ST. jOtt:N" '.rHE D1VINEl. Celi. tt.1-15. freedom and the force of that power m man which we call will, as one martyrdom. The martyr riles up against the powers or the world, and dares it to do the utmost. 2. To the force of the religious element. When religious convictions get hold of a man's soul, whether the convictions be right or wrong, they invest him with an unconquerable power. The stake, the faggot, the fire, have no power to crush or to subdue him. 3. To the power of the soul over tl,e body. Men who have had their souls filled with reli;,:ious feeling become physically insensible to all the tortures and fires of martyrdom ; they have sung in the flames. I say that a martyr, whether his religious convictions are right or not, is a mighty witness to these things. III. MARTYRS ARE OFTEN CHRISTLY MEN. Those whom .Tohn saw were those who were "witnesses of .Tesus, and for the Word of God." I say often Christly men, for false religions as well as the true have had their martyrs. Who but God can tell the number of men that have been put to death on account of their fidelity to .Tesus and the Word of God? In the first ages under Nero, Domitian, and Trajan, Christians were slaii;i. by thousands, and who but God knows the number of those whose blood in Christian Europe has been shed on account of their attachment to Christianity? These Christian martyrs were witnesses of something more than the invincibility of the human will, the force of the religious element, and the power of the soul over the body. I. They bore witness to the wstaining grace of Christ. In the midst of their torturing agonies they gloried in their attachment to him. '!'heir grim persecutors, when endeavouring to extort from them recantation of their faith, were answered in the same spirit as that expressed by the ancient martyr," Sanctus Christianus snm." They .all "gloried in tribulation," etc. They endured" joyfully the spoiling of their goods," etc. 2. They bore witness against the lukewarmness of living Ohristians. The martyrs were earnest men. IV. MABTYBB WHO ABE CHRISTIANS ENTER HEAVEN. John now saw the souls of "those who were beheaded" raised to immortality, and invested with imperishable dignities. Men whom the world considered unworthy to live, but of whom the world is not worthy, are welcomed into the Paradise of God. 'l'his fact should act: 1. As an encouragement to the persecuted Christian. 2. As a warning to persecutors. How much greater was Stephen than all the members of the persecuting Sanhedrin ! How angelic his countanance, how calm his spirit, how peacefully he passed away into the serene heavens of love !-D. 'l'. Vers. 7-10.-The third scene in the history of redeemed humanity: the age of moral reaction. "And when the thousand years are' expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison," etc. The long ages of earth's millennial glory described are run out. The harmony which had reigned through indefinite centuries is broken into tum11lt; the sun of absolute truth and blessedness, under whose genial and unclouded beams unnum- bered generations had come and gone, getting new vigour and catching new inspiration in every successive step of their mortal life, is veiled in clouds again; the arch foe "f humanity has burst his moral chains-is " loosed out of his prison," and is once more ileceiving the nations "which are in the four quarters of the earth." There is a tremendous reaction. This age is here presented under a veil of imagery, if possible, more variously coloured and thickly folded than either of the preceding epochs already noticed. My work is not to descri'be the veil, but gently to draw it aside, in order to dis- cover the great facts which lie beneath. Disrobing this passage of its highly symbolic garb, 1 discover three facts which mark this age of moral reaction. I. THE REAOTIOl!T IS BROUGHT ABOUT IN Till'I MANNER IN WHICH MANKIND HAvr EVER DEGENERATED. Let us mark the process. 1. Her6 is deception. "The nations" are deceived (ver. 8). Certain ideas, directly opposed to the eternal principle of truth, the settled conditions of virtue, and means of true blessedness, but at the same time most plausible to the reason, prompting to the lugts, and gratifying to the self- hood of the human heart, are put into circulation; men receive, follow them, and fall. Sin came first into the world through deception, and it has been propagated and nourished by it ever since. Men fall by error, and rise by truth. Hence the seducer and the Saviour alike deal with the jndgments of men. Hell and heaven are acting on our world through thoughts; the one throup:h the false and the other through the true. 2. Here is deception employed by Satan. "Satan shall be loosed out uf his prison, and tm. n:. 1-15.] THE Rl!:VELATION OF ST. JOHN 'l'B.E blVINEl. 505